Hello, my name is Megan Steven.
Could you spell your name, please, for the court reporter?
Sure. It's M-E-G-H-A-N-S-T-E-P-H-E-N-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I will.
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I agree.
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay, so I'm representing myself as the homeowner.
I bought the home in 2014.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
Did you read the refusal into the record?
I read the first part of it.
I'll read the refusals too.
One, it exceeds the occupied lot area in the RSA 5 zoning, 80% allowed, and you have 89%.
Two, on any given street, the distance between the front facade and the front lot line should be no greater than the distance between the front facade and the front lot line of the principal building on the immediately adjacent lot on such street with greater distance between its front facade and its front lot line.
and shall be no less than the distance between the front facade and the front lot line
of the principal building of the immediate adjacent lot on such a street with the lesser
distance between its front facade and its front lot line. The proposed enclosed supports violates
this code section. Proceed. Thank you. And can you all see my screen? We can. Okay, so the notice of
refusal that you just read was up on the screen. So what I am looking to do is to rebuild an
existing enclosed port structure. So what is on the screen right now are the mock-up plans that
my architect came up with. As you said, I did receive the support of the RCO that's also on
the screen and my architect is available if there are any questions. So to go through my documents,
this is the notice of refusal. In my appeal, I will show that there is some precedence on the
block. I apologize. The quality is not the best. So between the 2800 block and then North Newkirk
Street, there are five homes and I am one of those five homes. And of the three of those five homes
currently have an enclosed porch, which is what violates the zoning. It's the facade of the house.
um which is what violates the um the zoning um it's the facade of the house where the front door
then is and then as well as the existing square footage that is added and there's also on this
side on the right side of the screen that is another enclosed porch that is in the next section
of five homes between north newkirk and north dover on west styles um in addition to um
So this is proof that I own a home in case there are any questions.
So here are the concept plans.
They are not the most clear.
I can also share them in another form if needed.
So when the plan to rebuild the porch is to not change any of the existing foundation or the square footage of the current porch.
um so in terms of like the the basement foundation or even the support beams that are along the
porch roof there are no changes to the height or how far that sticks out and so that creates no um
like impediment or it doesn't block any of the other homes that are next to mine because all
of our porches and all of our foundations line up um let me flip this again sorry so in terms of
what the property looks like currently. I've slowly over the past nine years worked to improve
the outside of the home. The siding work was redone over the past five or six years. And so
right now, as you can see, this is the enclosed porch. It came this way when I purchased the home.
I didn't realize there were issues with it when I bought the home. It's also not in good shape. So
not only are we looking to improve the aesthetic and have it be uniform with the rest of the house,
the porch is also not in great shape and this was inherited with the purchase of the house
so those are proof that I put the notices up so this is the existing structure from the inside
as you can see there's two different types of wood there was significant water damage so the
newer wood was to replace the significant water damage that occurred prior to my purchasing the
house. You can't see this the most clearly, but none of these windows fully close. So I have to
have white duct tape up at the top to keep, you know, bugs and for temperature and rain to be
kept under control, I guess. So it's harder to see, but here are windows or closer up of the
windows that do not fully close. Here is the wall that connects me to my neighbor's adjoining house.
So these windows are actually plexiglass. They are not glass, but they are cracked and pieces have been missing.
And this has been this way since I purchased the home in 2014.
So I just have cardboard taped up in the meantime to keep animals as well as, you know, insects out.
In addition, this you can see this panel on the roof of the enclosed porch.
there have been animal issues based on animals getting in from adjoining homes and working
their way over. And so part of the proposed plan is to put up a barrier between my enclosed porch
as well as the neighbors from the roof. And then this is a side view as well. You can't really see,
but along this wall, the siding does not fully attach to the house. And so there's a gap right
here between, yeah, just a tiny little gap right there, which provides really poor insulation
and temperature control. And lastly, if you can see right here, at some point early on in
purchasing the home, there was another leak in the roof that caused some water damage right here.
So this support beam that looks relatively nice was put up over the existing porch beam because
the existing one was not in great shape so that was used to reinforce and support that
but so with this and given the state that the porch is currently in our plans are to like I
showed here to rebuild it to take it down entirely and to rebuild it but without changing any of the
current dimensions as they are and I attended my committee meeting my neighborhood association
meeting so these are the letters that I sent and distributed as well as some signatures so the
there are three pages of signatures the ones with stars on it are my neighbors who live on my street
in support the others are surrounding neighbors on other streets but as you can see many neighbors
on the 2800 block of west styles do approve and bless this project to be done
um so there are three pages of that um so yes my request is for the board to approve the
variance to allow this structure to be rebuilt questions from the board
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
It's around Bednar City Planning.
The property is indicated for residential in the city plan.
Given the site's physical condition,
and we recommend the question for us to be granted.
Thank you.
MI 2022-006-889-2817 West Style Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, I vote yes.
Jane Snell, I vote yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
You have your votes.
Thank you.
Okay. Number four, MI-2022-006-335-3848 Frankfurt Avenue.
Juana Rosa is the owner applicant, pro se.
There was a meeting held for 223 at Harrogate Civic.
We do not have an RCO, letters of yet.
This application is for relocation of lot lines to create two lots from two existing lots, 3848 and 3850 Frankfurt Avenue, sizes and locations as shown in plan.
For the erection of a rear addition to an existing structure, no change in the use of existing structure as a single family dwelling.
two refusals, whereas a minimum of 20% of open areas required for corner lots located
in the RSA zoning district, and two, whereas a minimum of nine feet of rear yard depth
is required for new development locations in the RSA district. I also have
there are two owners listed.
Luz Filaciano,
Bonella is also,
could they come forward too?
So I have
Juana Rosa
and Luz Bonella.
Chair, Ms. Rosa should be coming back in as a panelist now.
The other party that you called,
I do not see their name in the audience.
Excuse me. Can you hear us?
Yeah, one minute, one minute.
Juana Rosa?
Okay. Could you state your name and spell it for us, please?
Sure. My name is Juana Rosa, J-U-A-N-A. Rosa is R-O-S-A.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Hillary, can we go on without the other owner being called?
is that the other owner next to her or is that someone else this is the other owner yes okay
can she give her yep her name to sell it and then we'll swear her in thank you i could
miss bonela state your name and then spell for the court reporter please
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes sir our vice chair has just a few questions okay okay yes good afternoon have have you emailed
all the exhibits and documents that were required to proceed with this case five days in advance
of this hearing? Yes, we have. Okay. Can you proceed?
Could you share your screen? The green button down at the bottom.
that's good
oh that's the paperwork
I'm not going to say anything
she's going to
Ms. Rosa go ahead Ms. Rosa
tell us what you want to do
My name is Juana Rosa, resident and owner of 3848 Frankfurt Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19134.
I've been there since 2010.
Please allow my further. Wait a minute. Hold on. I've been there for many years, although now I've been there since 2010. But before that, I was renting there since 1993 as a renter.
Please allow my further...
Wait a minute, hold on, hold on.
But I wasn't aware that the property lines were not mine.
There was a problem with the property line until last year when I went to submit for changes to find out whether we can build this garage.
much. But if if you see Google view, okay, we have always used this black line for this
for a long long time lifetime binding and for this reason I secure my permit premises
and storage because drug addictions and everything that was going on with sex and stealing and
all that, not only for my place, but for my neighbor's place also. I submitted the application
last year to change the relocation of the lot lines. And for that, the whole lifeline
I've used as a legalization of the metal garage for personal use. At TASH, you will find the
application, refusal, the special exception form, project information, flyers, letters,
support from Harrogate Civic Association, certificates of mailing, pictures, survey,
and floor plans on the building views and the elevations. No change to existing property
since family dues also with me as support the property owner of 3850 is here with me
to give it okay to relocate property lines and to correct everything on the lot lines to reflect
what's there i'm unable to get a tax compliance in the system but my property taxes are all up to
date. And you can see that
with the tax revenue
department. And for
that reason, that's why I'm here.
Thank you.
I wanted to go back.
Show me what you're building here. I want to
see what that looked like again.
Hold on.
Hold on. Let me turn
this already, it's already up?
Yes, it is.
legalizing that so that's a large metal garage you built next to the house would
would have pulled down behind it's behind the property behind it behind the property
yes i'm gonna show you the plans now
yes this is what the um it was built and this is where it was built and this is what it looked like
before and it's changed now so you you you put a large metal garage behind your house is what
you're saying yes yes for my storages you know because i've been being robbed in that place and
there's too many uh drug addiction and stuff in that area okay and uh stealing people stealing
from us and this is partly on your owner's property your your neighbor's property too
yes according to the to the line no no no do me a favor let's try it is it on your neighbor's
property yes part of it is on the neighbors which we didn't know because your neighbor's okay with
that yes we've been using this for many years i mean both of you together i did yes she she has
no option. How long has this garage been there? For a year, almost two years. The garage, but
not the property line. The property line. When I bought the place back in 99.
When I bought the place back in 99, nobody from the city came and told me, you know, this is your line.
This is what you bought.
So since that place was like gated with fence, you know, I never thought anything about it because it was there.
It's not like he built it after I bought the place.
So it was always there.
Excuse me. I'm a resident also in the area. Can I
testify something that might help also the case? I'm a resident
at 3675. Are you the expediter? Yeah, and I'm