Good morning, Mr. Chair. Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 508 City Hall.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Indeed, the councilwoman will support with whatever provisos are enforceable by the ZBA.
Thank you very much for calling in. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Good morning. This is Ian Hegarty with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Last name spelled H-E-G-A-R-T-Y.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Thank you. Good morning, board members.
Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family zoning at this location.
However, given the property's nonconforming use history and the physical configuration of the building,
the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2022, 004-549-341 East Haynes Street. I vote yes. Proviso. No sleeping accommodations in the
basement. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. We're Proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with Proviso. Thank you, counsel. Thank you very much, man.
I'm not sure. Number six, MI 2022-005-924-2014-16 East Clementine Street. Henry Clinton is the
attorney. Right now, we're waiting for a RCO letter. Mr. Clinton has one. Letter of support
from a near neighbor on the 1900 block of East Clementine Street. Mr. Clinton.
Morning, Mr. Chairman. I was coming in as you made your introductory comments about a letter.
I didn't hear what you said. I said, we do not have a letter yet from the RCA.
Why don't we do this? Why don't we state your name first and we'll be in.
Morning, Mr. Chairman. Henry Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I don't. Right. I guess what I was trying to say is you may have a letter. We do not have a letter yet.
Right. We are supposed to have a letter. The vote was 31 to 0 in our favor. So why we don't have a letter.
OK. Well, it was on the second, right? Of. Yes. March. Correct. OK.
Why do you identify your client?
My client is Mark Corpus, C-O-R-P-U-S, and he is participating by telephone.
Okay, and our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate towards accuracy?
I do, Mr. Shahid.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have, except for the letter from the community group.
Yes, Mr. Shahid.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Sheedy.
No problem.
Morning, Mr. Chairman. Can you see my screen?
We can, sir.
All right. Again, Henry Clayton on behalf of Clementine Street, LLC, the principal of which is Mark Corpus, C-O-R-P-U-S, who is on the call by telephone.
Just by way of background, this is an historic commercial use of a building that has been commercial since 1932.
And I have zoning records at the end of the presentation to show the board that it once was a high explosive facility making dynamite.
It was a storage area for printer's equipment, a cabinet maker, and also was used for welding fabrication.
For the last 15 years, the building has been used for woodworking as well as for motorcycle repairs.
And I'll walk through the presentation, which contains exhibits AA through A10, which I ask to be admitted.
which contains exhibits AA through A10, which I asked to be admitted into the record.
The refusal, you'll see from the aerial photographs, I'll show the board that this block is a blend of
commercial and residential. It is in an RSA 5 zoning district, and our two refusals have to do
with use. There are no issues with height, rear yard, or open space. It's all nothing dimensional.
everything is a use situation. The RCO letter is anticipated. These are photographs, aerials.
The large building is Mass Bound High School, which is directly across the street from the
subject property, which I am circling with my cursor. This is the front of the property. You
can see it is a commercial look. It has a pull-up door as well as another entrance to get to the
second floor. Just another photograph looking down the block to show you there's other commercial
uses, two or three on the block already. One is a woodworking shop down the far end. Also next
door was a commercial use. It had a fire within the last year or so. You can see the charring
above the second floor windows. And across the street is the high school that I mentioned.
this is the interior of the motorcycle shop there are no repairs are made outside the confines of
the building in fact the owner of the shop josh who may be on the call actually lives on the street
and several doors away from his motorcycle shop this is the second floor woodworking again both
gentlemen have been on site either working for themselves or for the prior owner for 15 years
these are our postings on the front door and these are just floor plans open floor plan on
the first floor with a repair shop and open floor plan on the second floor with a woodworking shop
remaining documents are the pro forma documents you would see in in the applications
indicating tax certification,
the submissions to the ZBA for the appeal.
Again, the zoning map does show it's RSA 5,
but as I said, it's a blend of commercial
and residential on the block.
And it's been historic use since 1932.
I just wanted to get to the zoning records
to show the board.
Again, this is from 1930,
high explosive license.
This is from 1976, indicating garage storage for painters.
1977, welding fabrication shop.
That was the last prior use until the two tenants in the building took over occupancy,
either themselves or their prior owners over 15 years ago.
So, Mr. Chairman, we have a unique situation of an historic use of a building for commercial purposes for almost 100 years.
We're not looking for any dimensional variances.
We have no issues with height, open space, rear yard.
There's no impact on the development of the adjacent properties because, as I said, this building has been in play and the use for well over 100 years.
We have no issues with light and air, and we're not impairing the development of any adjacent property.
And we're basically conforming, looking for a legalization of an illegal use, albeit a use that's been ongoing for many, many decades.
With that, I would close and ask my client to adopt my testimony by unmuting himself.
Mark, can you unmute yourself?
Mr. Clinton, did you attend the RCO meeting?
And what was the vote?
Vote was 31 to 0.
Thank you.
Mr. Clark, if you can unmute yourself.
Yes, I am. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Mark Corpus, N-A-R-K-C-O-R-P-U-S. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Corpus, were you on the call when I presented your project on Clementine Street?
Yes. And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as
true and correct. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Gorpus. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience? I see no hands, Chair. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA-5 single-family
zoning. However, given the physical configuration of this building, the City Planning Commission
of this building. The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance.
recommends that the board grant the variance. Thank you.
Thank you. Hillary, we have testimony of an officer of the court that the vote was 31-0.
Okay, that is fine, Mr. Chair. Okay, good. So MI 2022-005-924-2014-16 East Clementine Street,
I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shaheed,
my vote is yes. Thank you, counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for that consideration and thank
you, Ms. Emerson also. Thank you. Number eight, MI 2022-005-831-517 South 45th Street. Matthew
Monro is the attorney. A letter of non-opposition from Spruce Hill Community Association. Letter
of support from Drexel Area Property Owners Association. Mr. Monro. Good morning, Mr. Chair,
members of the board. I'm happy and pleased to be here on behalf of my clients, Sozi Talanti.
Could you state your name, please, for the record and spell it? Yes. Matthew Monro, 30 South 15th
Street, 15th floor, 19102. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes. My clients are the owners of 517 South 45th Street, Sozie Tuwanti and Mariel Tuwanti.
And could, Counselor, just try to speak up a little bit. You're just a little bit low.
So our vice chair has a few questions for you.
That's better.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits in our offices to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we did, with the exception of their certificate of service, which we supplemented on Monday.
thank you please proceed and share your screen um all right chairman bergman um members of the board
uh as i mentioned i'm pleased to be here on behalf of uh sosie and muriel talanti uh the owners of
517 south 45th street uh this is a single family home in rsa3 zoning district um uh what i'm
sharing right now is just a context photo and rendering showing the existing rear porch and
an obsolete privy right here with a rendering to the right of a two-story addition that seeks to
replace that those existing structures and be used. The refusals that we received are just
related to a side yard refusal and open area as well. And as the context photos and site plans
will show you, these are minimal de minimis requests and simply seek to be able to put
the rear addition to good use. Chairman Bergman, I've included in the evidence package all of
these exhibits, one through nine, which I am going to request that the board move into evidence.
I'll just quickly go through these and we will get down to the meat of it. Effectively,
in certificate of service, the property was properly noticed, posted 21 days prior to the
hearing. And here we are with the rendering again. The existing conditions I have up on my screen
right now show the rear porch, stairs, and the privy. The Talanti's house was built in the 1800s,
as were most of the houses here on the row in West Philadelphia. And as you can see,
The footprint right here effectively seeks to replace the existing structures that are there.
And as noted, the house was built in sort of pre-code.
So the side yard refusal, dimensional refusal, and the open area dimensional refusal.
Just speak up just a little bit.
We're having a hard time here.
The side yard refusal and the rear yard, or I'm sorry, the open area refusals are really existing pre-code conditions, but there's no material impact on the adjacent structures.
And here you can see just the zoning context.
uh this is the block but um you can get a better sense of what it looks like at the rear um here
This is the block, but you can get a better sense of what it looks like.
from from uh it's a satellite image from um from atlas uh this is the telanti's home and as you can
see at the rear of their home and all of the adjoining uh homes on uh on south 45th street
baltimore south 44th street and largewood there's a large open area at the rear um gets plenty of sun
and light. And the rear yard addition is consistent with other new construction additions that have
been placed in this area in the past. I'm showing you kind of the existing conditions right now
of what we have. Here's the Talanti's next door neighbor, a porch right here. And in the next
photo, you can see a similar two-story addition that is just down a couple of blocks. And it's
important to note, and as is reflected in the letter from the Spruce Hill Civics Association,
both the adjacent next-door neighbors have supported this project. They have no opposition,
and the letter from the Spruce Hill Civics Association reflects that organization's
non-opposition and notes that the use and the addition is consistent with Spruce Hill's desire
to sort of maintain single-family homes in the area and with work-from-home conditions.
And Mr. and Ms. Talante are both professionals and do work at least out of the house some.
And so this would give them some expanded working space with their family.
They have kids in the house as well.
We also have a support letter from DAPA, another RCO in the area.
And we did. I was in contact with Councilmember Gauthier's office. Mr. Goodman represented that for a project like this.
They typically do not weigh in, but advised that I could represent as an officer of the court that the council member's office has no opposition to this this project.
Why don't we have your testimony adopted by your client?
OK, Mr. Toulante, are you on the are you on the call? If you could, please raise your virtual hand.
sir please unmute yourself uh can you hear me morning could you state your name please and
spell for the court reporter yes my name is sozi toante first name s-o-z-i last name t-u-l-a-n-t-e
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do proceed counsel good morning mr toante um did you hear the factual statements that i made
on the record i did and were they correct and accurate yes they were and do you would you adopt
them as your testimony i fully adopt them as my testimony before the questions from the board
no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia
City Planning Commission. Board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
existing RSA-3 single-family zoning at this location. The proposed dimensional variances,
we agree, are minimal and do not conflict with the purpose and spirit of the zoning code,
and so the City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the variances.
MI 2022-005-831-517 South 45th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes James Snell my vote is yes Ishmael Shahid my vote is yes
thank you counsel thank you chairman thank you members of the board let's go back to number 10
MI 2022 002 881 1550 Lardner Street counsel
He's coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, can you hear me?
Good morning.
Yes, we can.
Could you come back on the screen too, please?
Yes, I'm attempting to do that right now.
it says you can't start