Sure. Hi, Mr. Moody, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Hi, Mr. Moody, could you state your name?
Good morning. Mitchell Moody, M-I-T-C-H-E-L-L-M-O-O-D-I-E.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
All right. So for a point, your case, this application is for new construction of an attached building with a roof deck and roof access structure. Size and location is shown in plans for use as a multifamily three-unit household.
There is a refusal. The proposed use multifamily household living is prohibited in the RSA 5
residential district, and there's two zoning refusals too. The proposed structure does not
comply with the maximum height requirement of RSA 5 zoning district, and two, if abutting lots on
both sides of an attached building contain only two stories of enclosed area, the stories above
the second floor of the attached house shall be set back an additional eight feet from the minimum
distance between the front facades and the front lot line, whereas there is no third floor setback
on this proposed structure. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, sir. Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits that are required
to move and proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes thank you please
Please proceed and share your screen.
I'm clicking it.
Can you see my screen?
i can sir why did you start all right this is the refusal letter we've received this is our
application of uphill yes this is the letter we sent out for the rco meeting and zba meeting
this is the letter of opposition received from the rco right uh vote 10 to 0 in the community
seven to zero from the actual board this is a copy of our D this is the
receipts for the mailing this is the postage on the building um this tell us
what you're gonna do okay so essentially um I lived on this block since 2014
when COVID hit, we moved to Maryland.
We kept the house because we want to stay in the city.
We've been there for, you know, I've been there since 06.
We have a lot of friends and family there.
The house has remained vacant.
We go back every now and then,
but with the addition of our daughter,
it's been a lot to carry the mortgage.
So we're looking for ways to keep the house and the family,
but kind of reduce that burden of having to pay two mortgages.
We're looking to expand, add two floors to the existing building and turn it into a triplex.
There will be a maximum of five bedrooms, two bedroom apartments and one bedroom apartment.
The plan is for us to occupy the top floor and that would remain vacant for our family.
and we would rent out the lower two levels
to offset the mortgage from the front.
We wanna keep that same look.
You cannot tell it's a single family from just looking at it.
We have a recessed entrance that hides the meters.
So it looks like other new construction on the block.
We asked for a 40 foot variance
so we could kind of avoid underpinning
to get the clearance in the basement.
That would also allow us to keep the steps in line with the other houses on the block, on our side.
This is my current property here.
This right here is new construction in the back.
There's 10 buildings that were approved for a 40-foot height previously.
This is two new construction buildings across the street from us.
um i believe they're 38 feet but they're also four story buildings with a fourth floor setback
um the block is a mix of two stories um three stories and four stories
There are no properties on the block that have a third floor setback, and 100% of properties on the block that have three floors or more are for full face.
there are no properties on the block that have a third floor setback and a hundred percent
This is my layout here, bedroom, kitchen, living room up on the first floor.
Second floor is an extra entertainment space or living space, another bedroom.
Second apartment is a one-bedroom, kitchen, dining room.
The top floor is a two-bedroom space.
I'm not looking to, you know, cram a whole bunch of apartments in there.
My lot's pretty big.
I've seen houses with five units.
I'm only here to, you know, keep my property and have access to it without having to pay the mortgage
and kind of generate some type of income to help offset costs of daycare and schooling for my children.
uh i set the fourth story back um 11 feet uh eight feet is the requirement but i'm pushing
it back just to kind of give extra clearance um there are other houses on the block this is an
example of a house that's on our block for sale it's a five bedroom uh five bath the density is
the same as the multi family that i'm proposing um just to show an example of you know what's on the
block you can see this is the eighth street side of our block there's three stories on each side
both of these buildings are multi-family buildings um as you move down the block on the seven street
side all houses are three family there's a cluster of two families in the middle of the block
um 57 of the houses on the block are three story or more
and this is that cluster here i'm two houses away from the three stories here and on the other side
i'm four stories away from the four-story buildings this is the new construction where it's the 40
foot houses that were approved you see more three families are three stories here all four face no
setbacks these are a list of multi-families in the neighborhood um note 736 latona street is my
neighbor they have a duplex um all confirmed by uh rental licenses and me living next to
for the seven years while I was in Philly. Here again, there are a total of 15
two-story buildings on our block. The rest are three and four for the 57%.
This is a map of all the multi-families in a one-block radius from my
This is my residence.
This is just another map showing you where they are.
The blue are ones that are zoned, CMX.
The reds are RSA5 zoning.
But there are multiple multi-families in the area.
This is the rental license for my neighbor.
He has two units. This is another multi-family 60 feet from my property at the top of the block.
There are rental licenses as well. This is a mechanic shop with seven units on top.
Just to show that there are multi-families in the area. This is the building at the top of the block.
This is also a commercial block.
You know, I live right next to Paso Young and Paso Geno.
So this whole strip has a whole bunch of commercial properties as well.
There's seven units for that one.
This is another commercial property west of or east of my block, next block over.
this is a three family here and this is a 12 unit building so as you can see I'm stuck between two
commercial spaces this is the rental license for that one and for the bigger one this is where my
property is you can see the zoning map it's a spread of commercial in RSA five over here you
will see three RSA 5 zone properties that have been approved for multi-family use and
family uh use and commercial use uh 1326 is a brewery with four units on top uh 1312 to 1316
commercial use 1326.
pass young is three properties that were approved for duplexes and 833 porton street is uh 25
or was approved for 25 units with a commercial space at the bottom uh they reduced to 21 but um
There has been RSA-5 lots that have been approved for multi-family and mixed use, close to my property here, two blocks away to be exact.
These are the three duplexes next to single-family homes on East Pass Yonk that were zoned RSA-5.
This is the application used for two family household living.
13-12, the deed shows the two deeds for the two units.
They have one rental license that they applied for recently.
So one unit is, I'm assuming, being lived in and one is being rented.
And that's for 13-12, 14, and 16.
This is the brewery that was approved, that was the RSA 5 lot.
They also got approved for four units on top.
You can see that it's right along the lines of other single family properties, less than
two blocks away from my property, shown here, 900 feet.
this is the permit for the four-family dwelling
this is the approval from the zoning board
this is for the brewery this is the approval from the zoning board
this is 833 Warren this lot was RSA 5 that got approved for the 21 units with
Stores at the bottom roughly a block away from my property show here
This is the zoning use 25 approved, but they like I said they reduced it to 21
21 units license here to lay out
that pretty much covers it um this is just showing you my property that auto mechanic shop at the top
of the block brings you up here and just taking you down that sector um nothing but commercial
spaces along that corridor leading up to passing genos you can see the 40-foot structures from here
okay I think that is it all right um questions from the board
no Mr. Chairman no chairman no Mr. Chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair we have Tammy Johnson okay hi could you state your name please and spell for the court
reporter. Ms. Johnson, please unmute yourself.
Okay. Hello? Hi. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Okay. My name is Tammy Johnson, but probably I was trying to talk about what the 2352,
which you already approved. I forgot to take my hand down. Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone
else in the virtual audience yes chair we have charles richardson for 734 latona
his hand it's not me it's not me i'm sorry i was going to say not 734 latona
that's definitely wrong okay moving along we have deborah warring okay
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Good afternoon. My name is Debra, D-E-B-R-A, last name Waring, W-A-R-R-I-N-G.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am. I live at 723 Latona Street.
Okay, proceed.
I'd like to, first of all, thank you to the board for allowing me to speak today.
I'd like to address a couple of the issues that Mr. Moody has raised.
and state my opposition to the proposed variances.
and state my opposition to the proposed variances. First, with regard to the variance for multifamily
use, I've lived on Latona Street since 2015. And, you know, Latona is, it's a small side street in
South Philly. We can't even get a full-size trash truck down, right? The little one has to come do
our collections. And it is a block that is predominantly, you know, two and three-story
homes. Now, there has been, as Mr. Moody has pointed out, some new construction happening on
Latona over the past three years. There's been two projects that this board has approved that
have greatly increased the density of the street. Indeed, there's been 12 new single-family homes
that either have been constructed or are currently under construction on Latona. On this one, the
700 block. This has really built up our block to the point that I'm very concerned about adding
additional units due to the density of population on such a small street. Parking here is already
a problem, but just beyond parking, the amount of increased street traffic and things like that
from having all these additional residents, I think certainly is a concern. I also think I'd
like to preserve the character of our small South Philly Street. Mr. Mooney has pointed out some
multifamily units that have been approved in the neighborhood. And I would point out that those
are a lot on major commercial corridors. He pointed out things on Pass Young. You know,
Latona is not a commercial street. There's not a single commercial property on Latona.
It is a residential, you know, single family street. And I would also point out that I believe
Mr. Mooney identified one or two properties on the street that he claims are multifamily. I don't
believe that any of those actually have zoning improved to be multifamily. I mean, it may be a
situation where they're not in accordance with the zoning regulations, but, you know, just because
somebody else is not doing what they're supposed to be doing, I don't know that that justifies a
variance here. And we're also concerned about the height. You know, Mr. Mooney's project sits in the
middle of a string of, you know, seven or eight two-story homes. I think it's really going to stick
out um on the block and um i think it's really going to deteriorate from the character of our
small side street um so that's why i'm standing in opposition thank you thank you thank you for
calling in we appreciate it is there anyone else in the virtual audience yes chair we have ian
last name ending with n as in nancy could you state your name and spell please for the court reporter
sir please unmute yourself there we go sorry i couldn't find the box
all right could you could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
ian note i-a-n-n-o-t-g-e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but
the truth. I do. Are you a neighbor? Yes, I live at 707. Proceed, sir.
I was really sad when Kayla and Mitchell moved to Maryland. They were great neighbors,
and I wish I could support their venture, but the variances that they seek will hurt our community.
Last week, I circulated a petition to neighbors living within one block of 734, and 39 neighbors
signed asking the ZDA to deny the variances sought. Only one of the 40i approach declined to sign
because he said he was unfamiliar with the specifics of the situation. First, we believe
that the proposed variances will have a negative impact on the community character and atmosphere
that we've worked so hard to achieve, allowing this single-family row home in the middle of a
strip of row homes to be converted into three apartment units, or worse still, possibly three
airbnb units runs counter to maintaining our cohesive community additionally density issues
such as parking and trash are already problems on our block increasing density without the
accompanying proper city planning for the needs of different kinds of use degrades functional
neighborhoods the applied for variance in height is also strongly opposed by the neighbors
We live here because we want to live on a small block of row houses. Putting in a structure that
dwarfs the surrounding homes is not the new aesthetic as the architect for the project said
to the Neighborhoods Association meeting last month. It is an assault on our historic character.
Although allowing these variances will erode the character of the block and our neighborhood.
Allowing these variances will erode the character of the block and our neighborhood.
Our neighbors fought very hard and virtually unanimously against two developments on our block within the past five years.
These developments and all the problems that we predicted that would occur with them were forced on us anyway.
Allowing a third development with multiple variances will just make a joke of zoning regulations that apply to our block.
A precedent will be set for developers to have carte blanche to do what they want, with no regard to how it will impact the people who live here.
What is the point of having city planning and zoning regulations at all if we allow every proposed construction to ignore the rules that make our neighborhoods livable?
Thank you for noting the strong and united opposition to the neighbors.
For your call. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?