Right.
Hillary, do you have the comments that we read?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
This application is for multifamily household living, three dwelling units, and an existing structure.
There are two use refusals.
The proposed multifamily household living is prohibited in the RSA 3 zoning district,
um whereas four parking spaces i'm sorry that should be three parking spaces are required and
zero are proposed we have received a letter of support from southwest philadelphia district
services thank you um our vice chair has just a few questions for you sir ish yes good morning
sir have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits into our offices
five days in advance to this hearing yes sir thank you please proceed uh share your screen
you have a green button at the bottom of your computer oh okay
what what would you like me to do so i said he he has to ask the questions okay
Okay, so what we need now is all your documents, bring them up on the screen, and we'll walk you through this.
It would be helpful to start with the photos of the building.
I don't know how to work with the, to bring it up into this screen, sir.
So. Excuse me. Yes. How are you doing? This is Miss Dandy, the supervisor of the hearing.
The documents that you sent us, do you have that on your computer?
Yes. Would you be able to bring it up on your computer? Let me download it.
Chair, I'm sorry. This is the reporter. Could I ask who is speaking?
We're going to stop her speaking. Mr. Kong, you're the one who has to speak. So what we want you to do is direct your associate there to bring the documents up on the screen.
So could you?
And she will not be able to speak. You're the one that's going to speak. Okay. We'll walk you through this as soon as the documents come up.
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Now, you might be able to do it two ways.
If you can go to the email that you sent us, then your documents will be right there, and then you can just share it that way.
Or if you saved it on your computer, you could just go to the files, and whatever you named it as, just type it in, and then you can open it that way also.
I'm not very good with...
We're going to see if we can get you through this, okay?
Yes, sir.
I just would want to see some photos of the property.
Maybe go to file at the top.
The file button all the way at the top of the screen.
near your apple sign.
Well, top.
This file right there.
You see.
Oh, okay.
You find the email.
That is the one you sent this morning.
The photo.
It's from the first time that I.
So are you seeing your photos on your computer screen right now?
Okay, so what we're going to do is stop sharing, and then you're going to just click that green button again, share screen.
And when you click share screen, just click on that document that you have up.
because right now we're just still seeing a blank screen.
Because right now we're just still seeing a blank screen.
So what I want you to do is just click that share screen button
and then it will give you an option of what do you want to share.
Yes, the same thing.
do you maybe have uh two monitors uh no ma'am
okay yes chair i'm not sure what's um
all right here's what i want you to do we're we're going to move on i'll call you again before the
end of the morning and see if i can't get on see if you can't figure out where the documents are
Okay. Thank you, sir. But stay online. I mean, get off the screen and, but I'll call you probably
in about 25 minutes. All right. All right. Let's go to number two. MI 2022, 004-549-341 East Hain
Street. Steve Bertil is the attorney for the owner. Letter of support from FACE CDC
with proviso that we'll talk about. Mr. Bertil.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning, counsel. How are you? Could you state your name,
please, and spell for the court reporter? Absolutely. Excuse me. Steve Bertil,
B-E-R-T-I-L, Troutman, Pepper, Hamilton, Sanders, 3002 Logan Square, Philadelphia, PA, 19103.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Dwight Anderson.
He's the principal of the ownership entity of the property.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
You're going to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy.
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. Excuse me. Yes.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Just give me a second.
We see your screen, sir.
Okay, great.
Thank you.
Let me apologize in advance.
I have a hoarse throat.
so it may be a little scratchy. As was stated, my name is Steve Bertil. I'm counsel to the
applicant and owner to this property, 314 East Haines Street. We're seeking a variance to
rehabilitate a property that has been historically a mixed-use property with commercial ground floor
unit and residential units above it back into a two-unit duplex. Despite the historic documented
use of the property, a variance is required because we have a use refusal for the multifamily
use of the property that's currently zoned as RSA 5. As you can see from the aerial
photo here, the property sits on the corner of East Haynes Street and Morton Street.
here's a uh a photographic aerial so you have a sense of the the area and now going to uh
excuse me the existing structure as you can see here the property is a three-story corner property
um currently vacant a vacant blighted structure uh the property's most recent use as i'll go
through in a second um was a commercial ground floor unit and residential units above it
here's a shot of the property standing on the corner of morton and haynes
or more in the middle of the street and here's the side view of the property
along morton street as you can see um the property is not necessarily very wide along
hanes but it is it goes uh pretty deep uh the death of the property is pretty deep on morning
As you can see from the side view here, there were previously multiple entrances for the commercial ground floor unit.
as you can see from the side view here there's there were previous
Here's just a photo on standing on looking down East Haynes Street to get a sense of the area context of the property.
As you can see, the property is attached to other three-story structures.
We are not proposing any change to the height of the property.
We're maintaining a three-story height. As you can see, across from the property, there is a private elementary school or institution.
And so in terms of, you know, the density and parking on the block, that's not an issue for this particular property because that site takes up, I would say, about 80% of across the street on that block face.
Now, in terms of the historic use of the property, as I said, the property currently is vacant and blighted. I'll get into the efforts that the applicant made to shore up the property in a second, but I just wanted to give the board the proper context of the historic use.
we we did go through the records to see the property as recently as to the 2000s the property
was a barbershop on the ground floor with the residential units above it prior to that there
was a small restaurant with again with residential apartments above it and prior to that it was a
prior to the restaurant in the 1970s it was a retail grocery store again with apartments above
And then as far back as the records we could obtain prior to the grocery store, the property was just completely residential multifamily at two units.
So as you can see here, there's no record of this property ever being single family in any sense of the word.
and the property itself, once it was acquired by the applicant, was still configured, despite
its dilapidated condition, as a multi-unit structure. And so the intention here is to
utilize the ground floor unit as a residential unit, as opposed to a commercial unit, and
and maintain a second unit above that for a total of two.
Just so the board can see the refusal, as you can see,
here's the refusal here for the proposed use
as a two-family household living because the property is currently
zoned as a RSA 5 district.
Sorry, let me zoom out here. And so, as I stated, what's being proposed here, as you can see from this zoning plan, is maintaining the ground floor building envelope of the property, converting the ground floor use into residential, and putting a small addition on the second floor to extend it back out to the death of the ground floor.
creating a third floor rear deck for the above unit, as you'll see in the floor plans in a second.
I should mention that the property itself, upon acquisition, was in quite a bad state, as you can see from the photos.
It was designated as unsafe and imminently dangerous by L&I, and so the applicant, prior to submitting the zoning permit application,
did obtain make-safe permits to shore up the property. We initially had a hearing scheduled
in January, and we continued that hearing to allow for another community meeting due to the lack
of attendance of the first one, and we appreciate the board's consideration to be placed on this
list due to the exposed condition of the property. And so, as part of that make-safe permit,
The third floor story of the property had to be secured to maintain the structural integrity, and so that portion of the property has been built out, as you'll see in the design in the second, and that will speak to one of the provisals that we could not agree to.
But again, maintaining the building envelope, maintaining the height, a rear addition on the second floor, conversion of the use, and the rehabilitation of the existing garage.
Let's see here.
Let's see here. Here you can see the layout of the two proposed units. As you can see, these are split-level, or excuse me, bi-level units.
On the ground floor in the unit one, we have a one-bedroom, two-bathroom unit between the ground floor and the basement.
And on the second and third floor, we have a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit with a rear deck with the master suite, as you'll see in our renderings.
And the second main entrance for Unit 2 is fronting on Haines Street, and the main entrance for Unit 1 is along Morton Street.
So they each have their individual entrances for the units and maintain everything in terms of egress and being to code shall be as it should be.
get to the rendering so are you aware of the proviso no sleeping accommodations in the basement
that's correct so we agreed to uh we agreed to initially we had a proposed
a bedroom in the basement um hearing the concerns of the uh three rcos that attended we removed
that and now just has a general flex space, but we will
not be advertising that as
a bedroom as a response
to that request. We agreed to a few of the other
provisals as well. There are two that we could not
agree to. One, we don't believe is enforceable by the
zoning board and it would be hard to agree to. The other one we physically cannot do to the
make safe, which I'll get to in a second. So we did, actually, before I get to that,
here is a rendering, as you can see, of the exterior of the property. As I stated,
maintaining the height, rehabilitating the property, multiple entrances for the two units,
And having the required safety egresses, the property will be fully sprinkled, excuse me, with fire sprinklers and have maintained everything that it needs to have the code to be safe and compliant with the building code.
So this is a shot standing on the corner of the renderings, as you can see, you know, placing the windows, having a lot of natural light.
We have agreed to also put exterior lighting on the property per the request of the community RCOs, and we believe this is something that will be a rehabilitation of an existing blight on the property.
Here is another shot from the Morton Street side of the project.
As you can see, this is the rear third floor deck that we're referring to.
this configuration of the roof has already been constructed as was necessarily required
by the city to maintain the structural integrity of the property. And so any change to that would
essentially be scrapping the application. And so that was one of the provisos. It was requested
to possibly extend this back out, just like we're extending the second floor. And the reason we
cannot do that because this is already constructed per the make-safe permit.
Is your client here?
And so, I'm sorry.
Is your client here?
Why don't we have your testimony adopted?
What do you do?
My client is Mr. Dwight Anderson.
If he could raise his hand to be recognized.
Yes, I'm unmuted.
Can you hear me?
We can.
Mr. Anderson, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Should I be on camera? I'm not sure.
You're fine. You're fine.
Okay. My name is Dwight Anderson, D-W-I-G-H-T, Anderson, A-N-D-E-R-S-O-N.
All right. Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And let me just say briefly, just so this is part of his adoption,
We did have a community meeting on February 28th where the RCOs did vote to support with the provisals that we discussed, and we would ask the board to approve the project with the specific provisals of not having the basement bedroom advertised, having rear trash storage, and also maintaining, having exterior lighting.
um oh i would also like to state for the record that the property
was posted and proper notices were sent out so mr anderson did you hear
was posted and proper notices were sent out.
So Mr. Anderson, did you hear the testimony
that I provided to the board this morning?
Yes, counsel.
Thank you.
Would you adopt and affirm the testimony is true in your own?
Yes, I do.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, we have Charles Richardson.
Good morning, Mr. Richardson. Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?