Thank you.
Chair, we have 46 attendees, and we can start when you wish.
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's EBA meeting.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ismail Shahid, our Board Secretary.
Present, Mr. Chair.
And Thomas Holliman, our Board Member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit, and our Board Attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Before we begin, here is our virtual format.
Be advised these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you knowledge agreements will be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phillip.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you'll participate by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
leave your email and the address of the property in question and finally please note the question
answer box is not for testimony or comments any comments should be directed to our executive
director tanya sumby so let's look at our continuances first for this morning's hearing
Number seven, MI 2021-001-001-2500 Wilmont Street.
Number eight, MI 2021-001-108-2500 Wilmont Street.
Number 10, MI 2021-002-889-2949-51 North Phillip Street.
Number 11, MI 2021-003-092-41 North Robinson Street.
And number 14, MI-2022-002-637-7248 Rising Sun Avenue.
All these cases are continued.
Is there anyone has any comments relative to the cases?
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
Number seven and number eight, the two 2,500 Wilmot Street cases,
those are attorney moving party requested for continuance.
Thank you.
Any other comments for the continuance?
I see no hands, Chair.
I also have a withdrawal.
MI 2021-003085-648-50-North 40th Street.
This case is withdrawn.
Any questions or comments relative to that?
Are there any other withdrawals?
chair we have joseph vaccaro okay
good morning can you hear me i can could you state your name and spell for the courtroom
floor to please certainly may please the board joseph vaccaro v-a-c-c-a-r-o attorney for the
applicant hermes orozco the property address is 4841 north 6th street and i'll give you the
mi number 2021-03057 this is the applicant's request for a continuance
first do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do okay and what was the what case number again mi 2021-003057 okay thank you
0 0 3 0 5 7. Okay. Thank you very much. The cases continue. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
Okay. Any other requests for continuous withdrawal?
I see no handshare. Thank you. We're going to go to our add-on list.
number one on our add-on list mi 2021 004041 1820 west fedango street the vote on this matter
will be held until wednesday july 13th at 9 30 a.m the record will be reopened only for receipt
of letters from council member bass and the new coordinating coordinating rco informing the board
of the outcome of the upcoming meeting. That case will be heard on July 13th. Number two.
MI 2022-001-067-2100 to 12 East Rush Street. I vote no.
was i present for this hearing you were uh carol tenery my vote is no
thomas holloman my vote is no
it's no shaheed my vote is no thank you
am i number three am i 2022-001-293-2100 the 20 west allegheny avenue
I vote yes with proviso uses as permitted in CMX 3 at first floor and basement levels in addition
to accessory storage and basement use permit is required prior to occupancy for CMX 3 uses
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thomas Howell, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ishma Shaheed, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you. We're going to go to our regular list and I want to start with number six.
MI 2021-003-139-2400 North Howard Street. Sean Ward is the attorney.
letter of support from nara square community alliance letter of non-opposition from council
member sanchez
mr ward good morning mr chairman sean ward on behalf of the applicant oh geez could you could
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Sean, S-H-A-W-N, last name Ward, W-A-R-D.
Address is 331 East Street Road, Trevos, PA-19053.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Ward.
Number one, they must have dramatically changed street road.
but my question is do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy yes i do have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance
a copy of the refusal or referral photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of
this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes to all the above okay you
may proceed. Thank you very much. Mr. Ward, if possible, could you identify your client and
relationship to the property? Yes, sir. On the screen now, if everybody can see it, is my exhibit
packet. I represent Ariane Kopani, that's A-R-J-A-N-K-O-T-A-N-I, and Aida Dautaj. They are
the owners and applicants for this property. IATA is also on the call. She can verify and adopt if
she doesn't have any technical difficulties under she's doing so by her phone. This is my exhibit
packet. It includes A1 through A13, I believe. Yes. A1 is the notice of refusal. This is an
application for a use permit for a prepared food shop. It's a coffee shop at the first floor of an
existing three-story structure with previously approved two apartments above. It resulted in
one referral to the board. Prepared food shops require special exception approval and accordingly
we seek that approval today. A2 is the application of appeal. A3 the project information form.
A2 is the application of appeal. A3 the project information form. A4 is proof of ownership. A5
tax clearance. A6 is a site map. A7 is a floor plan of the first floor. A8 are photographs. A9
is the letter of support from Norris Square. If submitted I would ask that the district council
letter be marked as A10 and we have the relevant zoning history. I did a survey. 2013 it was a
daycare at the first floor, 06 and 97, a restaurant at the first floor, 92, a social club at the first
floor. From 1970 through probably 1992, it was an ice cream parlor with two apartments, and in 1968
and 1953, permits were issued for grocery stores to apartments. A12 is the zoning map, A13 is the
aerial photo. So very quickly, we have our notice of refusal to CMX one property. And the only
referral says refusal, but it's referral is special exception approval for the use.
We have the application of appeal, the project information form, copy of the deed.
Proof of tax clearance, as you can see, they're a little overpaid. Here is the site location map
with the D map from the Atlas, the property is located at North Howard Street and West York
Street. With regard to the floor plan, as you can see the entry at the front corner as depicted in
the photos to follow, it depicts seating for approximately 24 patrons with your typical
service counter, no open flame cooking, all pre-packaged items heated in a microwave or
convection oven and an ADA accessible bathroom. Basement access that's used for storage and
utilities. As far as photographs, this is a Google angle shot. I've shown the property before any
renovations. Copy of our zoning poster posted on the subject property. Another Google shot prior
to renovations. Currently, the property is under renovations. The apartments are complete. The
upper floor exterior is complete the downstairs exterior we're waiting zoning approval to
continue with our permit process again another shot of the exterior
as you can see it's finally appointed all new windows siding etc general renovations
interior renovations to the first floor just basically flooring lighting and wall finishes
no other uh interior finishes have been completed copy of the letter of support from norris square
as you can see uh 12 in favor one opposed they did have a few uh provisos local residents be
prioritized for hiring at the shop hours of operation be decided and reported to
norris square we um we we have a general idea what the hours will be uh the outside areas be
kept clean of trash daily. So we did actually submit a proviso letter to them. With those three,
we did indicate that the hours of operation would probably be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday through
Saturday. Here's a copy of the zoning map. As you can see, again, it's on CMX. Well, it's a CMX2
here. It's a CMX1 on the refusal or referral. And then another aerial photo. That is the sum
and substance of the project, they look forward to completing their renovations and opening the
coffee shop for business. If the chair wishes, I can have Aida sworn in, and she can verify,
adopt, or as an officer of the court, I can stipulate that she would, in fact, verify my
representations as true and accurate, and adopt them as her own testimony.
Being she was having some technical issues, we'll take you as an officer of the court,
the testimony is fine. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the board? Thank you. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
See no hands, Chair. Planning Commission? Good morning, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the
Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Last name spelled H-E-G-A-R-T-Y. Do you swear or firm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir i do proceed thank you good
morning board members uh this proposed special exception we don't believe will cause detrimental
impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be expected for the use so the city
planning commission recommends that the board grant the special exception thank you mi 2021
003 139 2400 North Howard Street. I vote yes with provisos. Hours of operation Sunday through
Saturday 7A to 7P. Carl Tenere, my vote is yes with proviso.
7A to 7P.
Harold Teneri, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That concludes my business until 2 o'clock.
Can I be excused?
You can.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
number one on the regular list mi 2021 002 906 134 west loray street
we have no exhibits for this this case could the owner please identify themselves
i see no handshare okay this is the second listing we still have no exhibits
mi 2021 002 906 134 west laray street i vote no to this it is withdrawn
sir are we dismissing it yes okay carol tenere my vote is to dismiss
Thomas Holloman, my vote is to dismiss.
Yes, no, Shahid, my vote is to dismiss.
Thank you.
MI 2021-004-355-1627-South 20th Street.
Letter of support from Point Breeze Community Development Corporation.
um also concerned citizens of point breeze participated in the meeting but chose not to
vote applicant also has a petition from four near neighbors
roe roe kaskarti is the owner pro se
yeah he's coming back in as a panelist thank you
good morning good morning your honor good morning could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter please yes first name rohit r-o-h-i-t last name k-a-s-u-k-u-r-t-i right do you swear
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir our vice chair
has a few questions for you sure hi do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
this is a pro se case wait one second um i'm sorry oh thanks i i just recognized that um strike
whatever i just asked and i begin again have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required
documents consisting of proof of ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral
photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the
rco and do you have a letter yes okay you may proceed and please share your screen
i'm sorry madam vice chair this is tanya yes may i may i request that you read the beginning
into the records
the refusal information
everything in cap
wait a second
where is this
I have it here
Carol if you want
I don't know why
this is the regular
I have it sure I have it
for the creation of one
off street accessory surface
parking space on rear
of an existing attack structure
to continue
use as
for household single family
dwelling.
Thank you.
Sir, you may proceed.
Okay. Do you mind sharing
it with the other device I have?
I can't find this.
so are you using one device to talk and another device to share your screen that's correct so
did you raise your hand for the other i just did now i'm joining staff if you could promote that
device to panelists and if you could start make sure the one that you're using to share
it's on mute and then you may share your screen once you're ready okay thank you
miss socket the only one that's up uh the hand is up as a calling user
um it looks like it was promoted he's now ready to go okay thank you miss l you're welcome
uh right now i have the uh proposed plans up right now we're uh the house is located on the
The house is located on the corner of 20th and Mountain Street.
corner of 20th and Mountain Street and proposing for
I'm proposing for parking in the rear yard.
The entrance will be coming up Mountain Street heading west, and it will be reversed into the rear yard.
Also, site photos.
This is going down Mountain Street.
This is the parking in the rear.
This is another angle from Mountain Street.
I also attach the proof of ownership in the exhibit, the community notice, the street
approval, refusal letter, and I have signatures from nearby neighbors.
that is all
have the letter of support
from point breeze development
coalition
let me show that
I actually just received that yesterday. Let me pull that up. Sorry about that. One second.
This is the letter I have received.
I have two supporting from the RCOs, three supporting from the community.
and you also have a streets department document
the i've street approval that's what i'm saying you have approval from the streets
yes i do okay questions from the board no mr jim
no mr jim questions or comments from the virtual audience
Chair, we have a call-in user.
Call-in user, please unmute yourself.
Hi, could you state your name, please?
Call-in user who's ending in 2560, please unmute yourself.
calling user press star six this is the last opportunity to testify
okay any other questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no other hands chair
planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning
commission members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa 5
single family zoning at this location this zoning district generally prohibits access to parking
from a front and since this is on a corner there are two fronts the applicant's hardship claim
hasn't been supported with any evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the
property this existing access was created illegally and so that's a self-created hardship
and can't stand as a hardship so in this case the city planning commission has to recommend that the
board deny this variance thank you mi 2021 004 355 1627 south 20 street i vote yes
um carol tenery my vote is no thomas holliman my vote is yes
thank you sir thank you your honor
MI 2021 003062 230 West Wensley Street.
There's a continuance requested by the RCO for this case.
There's a continuance requested by the RCO for this case.
Mohamed Nagy is the tenant.
Excuse me, sir.
While we're waiting, can we just do a quick sound check for Mr. Shahid?
For Ishmael?
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can hear you now.
Thanks.
there we have a calling user with their hand up okay yeah hi um this is tiffany green i was
trying to comment on the last the last right tiffany that case is over
there are no thank you sorry there are no other hands here okay so the rco has requested
It continues on this case. This case is continued, must be tried.
Number four, MI 2022-002562-226 South Street, David Orphanides, letter of support from South
Street Head House District, letter of support from Queen Village neighbors.
Mr. Orfanides is coming back in as a panelist. Thank you.
Mr. Orfanides. Good morning. Good morning. Could you state your name,
please, and spell for the court reporter? Certainly. David Orphanides. The last name
is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S. I'm with the law firm of Orphanides and Toner LLP.
Right. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Could you identify your client in relationship to the property, please?
My client is 224-226 South Street Holdings LLC, and they are the current owner of the subject
premises. Our vice chair has a few questions. Certainly. Hi, Mr. Orphanides. Do you swear
or affirm to strike that? Do you agree to wait the reading? I can't remember who I am in this.
Okay, that's all right. Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I do. I just want to make sure you have the amended notice. Well, I have it in my exhibit
book, but there was an amendment of the original application with the authorization of the
Zoning Board, and there is an amended notice of refusal dated 5-27-2022, and that is correct.
I just want to make sure, though, that for your records you have that, but it is included
in my exhibit book.
We have it.
Okay, fantastic.
May I share my screen?
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the
refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing,
and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter? Met with the RCOs. We have two letters
from both of the RCOs, including coordinating RCO. We forwarded our exhibit package five days
in advance. We did not have a formal tax clearance as of the fifth day, and we were just able to
secure that today. I forwarded that to Hillary this morning. So the answer is yes to everything?
Yes, everything except for the tax payments was not provided five days in advance.
Okay, you may proceed and please share your screen.
Thank you.
Since you do have support, you'll probably be brief.
Yes, I will on your recommendation.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
So 224, well, it was known as 224 to 226 when we were before you back in September of 2021.
It was an application to utilize these two properties as retail sales of consumer goods on the ground floor, and then visitor accommodations on a portion of the ground floor, and then on the second and third story.
The variance was needed at that time for the visitor accommodation portion of the application, and that was granted by the zoning board, and you can see here was that decision back on 9-8.
um during we we subsequently pulled zoning permits and you can see those there at exhibit 9
and exhibit 10 of my exhibit book um during the course of uh working on construction drawings to
to fit out the building for the use of the property as as it was permitted
it was determined that we should have a a wider staircase uh in this
we should have a a wider staircase uh in this portion of the of the building um the original
plans that we had submitted to the zoning board had showed um what you can see here at the ground
floor which extends all the way to the rear property line on what was 226 there there's an
existing staircase and we were going to utilize that you can see that that runs straight up
During the course of preparing, as I said, for the construction of the project, it was determined that we should have a wider staircase back in this area.
And as a result, with that wider staircase filling in this area above the existing one story, that's our application.
It's for a second and third story addition above this existing one story.
As in its present iteration, it's to the full depth of the property as the ground floor is.
And because the visitor accommodations is not permitted use in the zoning district, expansion of that use requires a review by the zoning board and also the addition, given that it extends to the rear property line does not comply with the rear yard depth requirement for the underlying CMX2 zoning district.
Again, as referenced at the beginning by the chairman, we appeared before the RCOs, South Street Head Health District is a coordinating RCO, we presented at a meeting of the Queen Village Neighbors Association, but both groups have a letter of support, dated May 8th, which are included in my exhibit book, Exhibit 1 and 2.
um and essentially at this point you know you've already approved the board has already approved
the use uh this expansion as indicated is is required um in order where we determined that
we should have it here see it right here on the plans so the ground floor instead of having that
narrow staircase that was originally shown it's a wider staircase um back in the area of the
one story, and then here's the area of the addition. And we are adding, there's an existing
pilot house or penthouse in this area. We're adding a pilot house over here, and that's only
for mechanical purposes to access the roof. And that's our application. It's pretty straightforward.
As you indicated, we have full support. This board has previously granted this use.
This addition backs up to the side of a building that has no windows on it. It will actually
service some additional sound proofing between the use of our property and the abutting property at
the upper floors and so with that because of the need for this commercial staircase rather than the
narrow staircase that exists in the building we feel that there's a hardship here there won't be
an impact on the air in light of abutting properties there will be no adverse impact on
traffic or increasing traffic congestion than what was already approved by the zoning board
there's no increase in the number of rooms that were originally proposed and permitted it's just
really just to add this staircase here so with that um i'm hoping i've been brief and i would
rest and request that the board grant our requested relief uh questions from the board
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia
city planning commission members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the existing commercial mixed use zoning at this location as we've seen in the presentation
this proposed expansion is to facilitate a code compliant staircase the proposed dimensional
variance we feel is consistent with adjacent non-conforming structures and will not have a
negative impact on adjoining properties city planning commission recommends that the board
grant the variances thank you mi 2022 002 562 226 south street i vote yes proviso per amended refusal
dated 5-27-22.
Carol Tenere, my vote
is yes with Proviso.
Thomas Holland, my vote is yes with Proviso.
No, Shahid, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
May be excused.
You can.
Thank you. Have a great day.
You too.
MI 2021
002-917
Aspen Street
John and Jane
Cypress owners
letter of non-opposition
from the Fairmount Civic Association
10 letters
of support from neighbors
and there's an opposition from neighbors
on Bucknell Street
Mr. or Mrs. Cepis.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
My name is John Cepis, C-E-P-I-S.
Right.
Would you want to state your name, too?
We'll do both of you at the same time.
Jane Cepis, J-A-N-E-C-E-P-I-S.
Right. Do you both swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? Yes. Yes. Our vice chair has
a few questions for you. Hi. Good morning.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of
proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the
refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days
in advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes okay great
you may proceed and you can begin to share your screen i'm sorry i hate to interrupt again this
is sonia um if we could have a vice chair or chair read the refusal into the record please thank you
okay this is an application for the erection of a deck above the second floor
at the rear for the erection of a roof deck accessed by a stair for a single family
household living size and location as shown in the application there are two zoning refusals
the open area at the additional at the addition level 25 percent of lot requirement 13.4 percent
of luck proposed the second one is rear yard depth nine feet required seven feet proposed
proceed
thank you our first exhibit is the just our front 2327 aspen street our next exhibit is the plans
The current door opening to the smaller deck is currently a window, so we wouldn't be changing
anything structurally. The window is wide enough to accommodate a door. The next exhibit,
this is the rear of our home.
uh to the east or left is our adjoining neighbor and to the right to the west is our uh other
adjoining neighbor this is the window where we're supposed to put the door
this is uh shows our neighbor to the east has a zero setback so and that is his wall
all the way up so we will not uh affect him in in any way and then the next exhibit is the
backyard wall which is the vfw that is on um 24th street and this is back part of their property
next exhibit and this is just showing the neighbor to the east that's his wall with
zero setback and then once again our neighbor to the west
and that's uh our uh exhibit and we're asking for the two variances
questions from the board no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
here we have ken zebra okay excuse me zebra could you could you state your name please
and spell for the court reporter
mr zebra please unmute yourself oh my name is ken can you hear me yeah could you state your
name is spelled for the court reporter please yes i'm ken k-e-n zebra s-e-b-r-a right and i live uh
at 746 north bucknell street i'm just north of this property right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do proceed uh my concerns are i i did
send a letter and i just want to i think you had mentioned that you recognize that you received the
letter with my comments.
I'm just concerned that the VFW is a single-story building, and I will be able to see this deck from my back garden.
I'm just
concerned that the VFW
is a single story building.
That's my first concern.
My second concern is concern for the neighbor to the west.
You can see that they're building a walkway out into the light well, the shared light well, and this is going to block the light and air from the neighboring house.
um also i noticed that there's posts within 18 inches of the property line i understood that
that was not permitted that any deck support needs to be uh further than 18 inches away from
the property line um and i just think this deck is just elevated too far off the ground at the
third floor it's just you see how long those columns are and it's just going to be imposing
both on me and the neighbor to the west i know that the stoning provides you know how to access
a deck and on a roof and i think i don't really i don't know what the hardship is here but i don't
see it and i think that it can be easily accessed some other way without you know requiring variances
thank you thank you for calling are there any other comments or questions from the virtual
audience. I see no hands, Chair. Chair? Yes. You're breaking up, Chair. Can you hear me now?
Yes, I can. Okay. Mr. Seapus, do you want to respond to that? Yes. The concern with the
neighbor to the west hello yes concern with the neighbor to the west we if you saw the letters we
got from all our near neighbors uh our neighbor to the west supported the deck all right thank you
planning commission thank you chair bergman ean hegarty for the philadelphia city planning
commission members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the single family
zoning on this site it's our view that the proposed dimensional variances are minimal here
and they do not conflict with the purpose and spirit of the zoning code the city planning
commission recommends that the board grant these variances thank you mi 2021-002-917-2327
aspen street i vote yes carol scenario my vote is yes thomas holloman my vote is yes
yes my vote is yes thank you thank you sir thank you thank you good luck
mi 2021 004 692 2814 west style street
letter of support from brewery town sharpswood community civic association
christopher dean is the attorney
mr dean please unmute yourself
good morning mr chair and members
Hi. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes. Christopher Dean, last name D-E-A-N, and I represent Jake Washburn and Lydia Colina.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi. Good morning. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property, five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes to all.
Okay, great. You may proceed, and please share your screen.
Good morning. As I stated, I represent Jake Washburn, Lydia Colina.
Also present today, if needed to yield any questions, is Jay Washburn and the design professional Ben Estepani from Pace Architecture.
This is an application for a one off-street open-air parking spot in the front yard where the mouse is pictured at 2814 West Stile Street.
I'll briefly just go through the packet.
This is my client's deed.
This is the copy of the refusal, project information form, our letter of
project information form uh our letter of support we did meet with the brewery town
sharswood community civic association uh we had 28 in favor 12 opposed and here is the attached
letter we do my client's tax clearance we can supplement with a um this was submitted in may
so we can supplement if the board requires the june clearance as well
this was our notice of the of today's zoom um zoom hearing and these are the accompanying proof of
mailings okay here's a picture uh this is so 2014 is the white house my client's property uh this
is the south side of the street there is no parking on the south side of the street um my
My client's proposed proposed the curb cut will not interfere with the sidewalk.
It will not even interfere with the stairs pictured at all.
My client has a compact car.
It'll all fit right here.
The reason behind this application, my client's mother-in-law is partially disabled.
They are expecting a child.
They will need help with the child care.
This will also create one less parking spot to have competition with in the neighborhood.
I do have the design professionals here to discuss if anyone has a question about the turning radius.
There is a provided, this is how it would look driving down the street.
So there's no parking on the south side.
Here's where we park.
And just up the street at 2844 West Stiles is a similar, same turning radius.
There is a driveway and a parking garage, so it would be the same exact turning radius at 2844.
And there's another picture of the property.
So it would all here, it would not even extend, the car would not even extend to where these stairs are.
It'll be where the fence is.
And here's a copy of the notices posted on the property.
And we also have the streets pre-approval back in October.
so with that i'd be happy to um take any questions thank you do you want to have your
testimony adopted by the owner yes i would
could you have them raise their hand
jake if you're
yeah hi this is jake watchburn hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
Jake, J-A-K-E, Washburn, W-A-S-H-B-U-R-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
My wife and I are applying for the open-air parking space in front of our house for a compact car,
parking in Brewery Town, given all of the multifamily development,
as well as us being directly behind Gerard Avenue
has created just a terrible parking situation.
We have one car.
We would like to take that one car
out of competition of everybody else trying to park
and put it into the front of the driveway.
Our baby is due September 15th.
My mother-in-law is partially disabled.
It would help a great deal
if she'd be able to come into the driveway
for our child
and just to improve just by incrementally
the parking situation on our particular streets
because it is often the overflow of people on Troy Avenue
and other people in the area that want free parking
tend to come to our street for that.
Okay, thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands here planning commission thank you chair bergman ean hegarty for the philadelphia
city planning commission chair bergman uh if it's okay can we have the applicant state
the uh distance between the front of the property of sorry the front of the structure
and the property line you can it's 16
say it again i believe it's 16 feet 16 feet again okay thank you very much i appreciate that
members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa 5
single family zoning at this location um for use variances such as this we expect to see
evidence of unique physical conditions or uh um of the property we haven't seen that here
We also are instructed to find that a variance would be necessary.
We also are instructed to find that a variance would be necessary to enable viable economic use
of the property. We also feel that this has not been demonstrated. The applicant's particular
circumstances including ownership of a compact car and the particular family members are not
germane to the hardship here because they granted the variance would of course far outlast
this applicant's occupancy of this particular property. This proposed driveway increases the
danger to public safety by creating a conflict with pedestrians. We believe that any car other
than a compact car would protrude into the footway of this street and create a danger by forcing
pedestrians into the cartway. And finally, the proposed driveway we feel conflicts with the
characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood. For all these reasons, the City Planning Commission
recommends that the board deny this variance. MI 2021-004-692-2814 West Style Street, I vote no.
Carol Tenere, my vote is no. Thomas Holloman, my vote is no. Mr. Mayor Shahid, my vote is no.
I think
I think we're done
for the morning list
is there anyone in the virtual audience
whose case has not been called
Chair we have Rachel Pritzker
good morning
did I miss your case
you did chairman but that's okay which one is it uh 46 28 wayne avenue
okay where is that this is hillary rachel that's on the 2 p.m list
oh i have it on nine i have it at 9 30 but tanya had emailed me a while back but that's okay i'll
be back at two if that works thank you thank you rachel i got a little nervous
no worries no worries i'll see you guys at two is there anyone else in the audience whose case has
not been called okay here thank you excuse me chair we have one calling user no uh that's the
calling user from before we don't have to unmute her okay what about dante leonard as the chair
wish sure mr leonard please unmute yourself
yes could you guys hear me now we can could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
dante leonard d-a-n-t-e leonard o-n-a-r-d right you swear for him to tell the truth the whole
truth to nothing but the truth oh yes sir what case are you talking about sir 648 to 50 north
40th street i know i stepped away that that's when the case has been withdrawn i announced
that in the morning oh it was withdrawn okay i didn't withdraw the case is gone right okay
All right, thank you. Anyone else?
I see no other hands, Chair.
All right, thank you, everyone. See you at 2 o'clock.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this afternoon's ZBA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere, our Vice Chair.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ismail Shahid, our board secretary.
He should be on very shortly.
Thomas Holloman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also with us is our executive director, Tanya Sunkit, and our board attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
Devise these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phillit.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
if you are participating by phone if you wish to testify press star nine to raise your hand
and star six on mute under an appearance statement call
and star six on mute. In an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548. Leave your email and the
address of the property in question. And finally, please note the question answer box on the screen
is not for testimony or comments. Any comments have to be directed to our executive director,
Tanya Sunkin. Let's look at this afternoon's continuations. Number three,
MI 2022-002963-1701 South 25th Street. This case is continued. Is there anyone in the virtual
audience have a comment about this case? Chair, we have a calling user. I'll allow them to speak.
Okay. Hi, Tiffany Green.
All right. State your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Tiffany Green, T-I-F-F-A-N-Y, G-R-E-E-N, Concerned Citizens of Point Three.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
This case 1701 South 25th is a request for a continuance.
Yes, I will agree with that, but I want the next time to be a must-heard,
because uh the board had already uh made a decision on this case and this is a reconsideration
and okay all right okay and commissioner commissioner i just want to say that the
phone feature was not working this morning and and and i i wanted to try to tell you that
okay i'm sorry about that but we did try to get you in several times
Thank you. MI 2022-002-963-1701-South 25th. Must be heard next time.
Number four, MI 2022-001288-1940 Wharton Street, Sean Whalen. Mr. Whalen, could you come on, please?
Thank you.
Chair, he's coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Chair.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Sean Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Whalen, as you know, we've received the exhibits late. We're going to continue this. What I want you to do is contact Tanya for a future date.
yes i was actually just wondering um i understand it was due to uh inadvertence that the uh memorial
holiday weekend that's okay intervened um this is actually a time sensitive matter so
if we can get either a date specific or um i i fear that this matter is going to go away and
something less desirable is going to be brought forward that's what i'm saying as soon as these
hearings are over today or tomorrow, get a hold of Tanya. Okay. I have already talked about that.
Okay. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. So that case is continued. In case number 10,
MI 2021 003 712 4628 Wayne Avenue. Could Rachel Pritzker please come on?
good afternoon hi would you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
for rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r 1521 locust street suite 605 philadelphia pa 19102
you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes so we we there was no exhibits that we could find on this so we're going to continue this
please call tanya she will arrange for a future hearing for you chairman um so we didn't get the
rco meeting until the 25th and the first was scheduled because this is now the third this
would not be i guess the third or fourth continuance so we would have never the third so
we would have never been able to get it within the five days because our rco meeting was last
minute similar to what mr whalen said we have a loan that cannot be extended so that's why tanya
was able to accommodate us on the 1st. So what I want you to do is call Tanya. We'll move this
So what I want you to do is call Tanya. We'll move this as quick as she can.
as quick as she can.
Okay. Thanks, Chair.
Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else requesting a continuance?
I see no hands, Chair.
Okay. So let's go to our add-ons first.
Sorry, Chair. Augusta O'Neill just put their hand up.
Okay. Sure.
All right.
Hello.
So. Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Sure. Augusta O'Neill, A-U-G-U-S-T-A. My last name is spelled O-apostrophe-N-E-I-L-L.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. What case? I'm here. Just wanted to confirm that my
continuance requests have been received. It's for 3900 Main Street. I have the VP number,
but I don't have an MI number to give you. Wait a minute.
does anyone see that that mr chair this is hillary that is not on the list any of the
lists for today okay great okay then um because we previously someone and i just wanted to make
sure that it was received so okay thank you thank you for calling it thanks again okay so
So, or add one, M-I-21, hello?
No, I'm sorry.
Go ahead, Chair.
Do we have anyone else?
Yes, we have Joseph Consul.
Oh, sure, sure.
Hello.
Mr. Consul, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Joseph Consul, that's J-O-S-E-P-H, space Consul, C-O-N-S-O-L-A.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do chair. And what's your case? Well, I'm here on, I have three today, but we submitted
a withdrawal request for 3628 North Sydenham street. Okay. Thank you. I was just wanted to
confirm that that was in fact withdrawn. Okay. So MI 2022 zero, you want to withdraw in this case,
right? Yes, sir. Okay. MI 2022-001-333-3628 North Sydenham Street. That case is withdrawn.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Counsel.
No other hands? No other hands, sir. Okay. We're going to go to our add-on. MI 2022-00398-1504
south sixth street um this case planning commission recommended that this be the great
it be granted we were holding on for an updated lease we have received the lease my vote on this
is yes thomas howlin my vote is yes carl tenary my vote is yes james now my vote is yes ishmael
Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you. For the first case, I want to move to number eight.
MI 2022-001-568-4538-42 Edgemont Street. Sean Ward is the attorney.
Letter of support from Bridesboro Community Action Alliance.
Mr. Ward is coming back in as a panelist.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Sean Ward, on behalf of the applicant.
Mr. Ward, you've already been sworn.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
My client is Paul Ventresca, doing business as City Lights Development.
which is the owner of the property. I also represent Jeff Hodznowski, who is the recent
purchaser of 4542. However, Mr. Hodznowski, it's H-O-J-N-A-N-O-W-S-K-I, Hodznowski. He is an
employee. He's an assistant district attorney and obviously unavailable for today's proceeding as
he is in court but I am authorized to present on his behalf as well. Our Vice Chair Carol Tenere
has a few questions. Hi Mr. Ward do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? Yes I do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax
compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos and or plans for property five days in
advance of this hearing and have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter? Yes to all the
above. Thank you so much. You may proceed and begin to share your screen. Thank you very much
and Mr. Chair I want to thank the board for its courtesies today despite the fact that I'm on
Chair, I want to thank the board for its courtesies today.
Despite the fact that I'm on vacation, I did not want to continue these cases as continuances are troublesome for the board or problematic.
vacation.
And these are ready cases, ready to go.
And it just made more sense to me and my clients and the board to dispose of them in a prompt fashion.
So can we confirm that my screen is shared?
it is it is thank you very much uh mr chair i've submitted my typical exhibit packet again i
represent city lights development llc and jeff and andrea podjanowski uh h-a-j-n-o-s-k-i
the property 45 38-42 edgemont street attached at a1 is the notice of refusal this is the
application to permit a permit for the creation of off-street parking space with a curb cut
there was one refusal front loaded parking requires a zoning board approval in this district
accordingly we seek a variance today a2 is the application of appeal a3 is the project
information form a4 is proof of ownership a5 is proof of tax clearance a6 is the subdivision
yes a9 is the rco letter of support from bcaa which is bridesburg community action alliance
a10 is if submitted the district council person's letter of support a11 i have the relevant zoning
history with regard to this project on 922 of 2021 a permit was granted for the relocation of
lot lines to create two lots from one lot. No variance was required for that subdivision. They
are two legal conforming lots. And on 10-6-2021, there was a permit for the demolition of existing
detached garage at 45-38 to make way for the erection of a new single-family dwelling
on that lot. A-12 is an aerial photo of similar curb cuts with all street parking on the block.
A13 is the zoning map and A14 is my standard aerial photograph. So moving on, just to get
through the exhibits real quick. Here is the notice of refusal. Again, the proposed accessory
parking from the front is refused, but, pardon me, and requires a variance from the board.
We have our application of appeal, our project information form, my transmittal letter to the board.
This is a copy of the deed.
As you can see, the parcel was subdivided into two, parcels A and parcel B.
Pardon me, moving on.
This shows that the property taxes are current.
actually were overpaid due to the settlement on the new lot. It resulted in a positive balance
for the property owner, which will be adjusted accordingly. Let me blow this out. This is the
approved subdivision plan. As you can see, the upper lot is what is referred to as 4542 and
the lower parcel is 4538. As you can see, 4542 is 40 feet wide, 4538 is 20 feet wide. They have
since been reconfigured so that 4542 is 33 feet wide and 4538 is 27 feet wide as they
front on Edgemont Street. I would point out that 4538 has an existing curb cut and parking pad in
the front, and we are here today to do something similar for 4542. With regard to the proposed plan,
as you can see, this has been reviewed and approved by the streets department. The stamp
is included on the plan for turning radius and whatnot, but the gist of the plan is to install
a curb cut on Edgemont Street, whereas the owner of 4538, the Hoshnowskis, would then have a parking
pad. Depending on the size of the vehicle, it could be for one car or possibly two if they are
compacts or subcompacts. Here is just an aerial view of the property itself.
As you can see, here is the existing parking pad. Here is the garage in the rear which
will be dismantled or demolished and a new single-family home will be erected here.
dismantled or demolished and a new single-family home will be erected here. 45-42 is the existing
three-story single-family home and in this area roughly right here would be the area for the
new off-street parking pad with a curb cut. Here is just a front view.
Again, the existing parking pad and the existing structure. I note our zoning poster is on the
fence up front. Again, here's another photo of the existing single-family dwelling.
To the left of our property, you will see they have a double-wide curb cut with a double-wide
driveway. And I will show you the aerial photograph shows numerous off-street parking
spots and curb cuts on this block. This is approximately two doors to the right.
Not only do you have a curb cut here with an off-street parking space,
they also have an existing detached garage with a curb cut and parking space.
We did meet with BCAA. Attached to the packet is their letter of support.
Also attached to the packet the zoning permit for the lot line adjustments for two parcels from one.
and for the demolition of the existing detached garage. Again, here is the aerial photograph
depicting, I have plugged in these red dots showing the numerous off-street parking spaces
with curb cuts on this particular block of Edgemont Street in Bridesburg. So it is not
uncommon on this block. I believe my count is 14 or 15 off-street parking spaces with curb cuts.
Again, just for the record,
here's the zoning map that is zoned RSA 5.
Here is another aerial view of the street.
And if I go back to my page two of my summary
to try and bring it all home.
So again, the applicant and the owner
of City Lights Development and Jeff Hodznowski,
the property is on Edgemont Street
just below Buccius in Bridesburg. It's RSA 5. 4538 Edgemont is an existing vacant residential lot.
4542 is a single-family dwelling. I already went through the permit history. Just a few comments.
4538 is a legal residential building lot that has an existing curb cut and off-street parking bed.
Number two, a single 538.
We have not yet filed that application and no plans have been filed.
However, we did discuss with Bridesburg CAA that the proposed structure would blend in with the nature and character of the existing structures.
They did have a concern about the new types of dwellings that are being built in other areas of the city, such as East Kensington, Northern Liberty, East Fishtown.
they were concerned about how that would look and we assured them that that is not the desired
architectural look that we're looking for on this block. So we will share those plans with
them before we file permit applications. So we're just seeking a permit for the curb cut
and the off-street parking. And at number five, I have the other properties or driveways on the
4,500 block. I stand corrected 16 total. And I list them for the record, all the various curb
cuts and off street parking spaces. Based upon that, the BCAA coordinating RTO agreed to support
the application, there was limited opposition. And then we would ask that the board grant this
requested variance. It's similar in character in nature with what is existing on the block.
Mr. Ventresca is, I believe, on the call, but not being very tech savvy. Again, I would defer
to the board as an officer of the court. I did discuss this and he's reviewed this packet and
he would, if called to testify, agree that my representations are true and correct and he
would adopt them as his own we will accept that mr board questions from the board thank you no
mr chairman no no mr chairman no mr chairman questions from the virtual audience or comments
see no handshare planning commission good afternoon david facto f e c t e a u with the
E-A-U with the City Planning Commission. David, do you swear a firm to tell the truth,
city planning commission david do you swear a firm to tell the
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir, I do. Please proceed. Thank you, sir. Mr.
Chairman, members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential
single-family zoning at this location. The applicant has not shown that a hardship exists
that would prevent their property from being used as a single-family home if the variance is denied.
Although there are other driveways accessed from a primary street on this block, their presence
does not constitute a hardship and so the city planning commission recommends that the board
deny the off-street parking space. Thank you. MI 2022 001 568 45 to 38 45 38 to 42 Edgemont Street
I vote yes. Harold Tenere my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman my vote is yes. James Snell my vote is
yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you thank you we're gonna go we're gonna go back
to our regular list number one mi 2022 001 287 1439 west venango street letter of support
from Nicetown Tioga Improvement Association.
Mr. Bertil is coming in.
Steve Bertil.
He's coming in as a panelist, Chair.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Steve Bertil, B-E-R-T-I-L.
Council for Applicant, Troutman Pepper, Hamilton Sanders, 3002 Logan Square, Philadelphia PA, 19103.
Thank you. Do you swear, Fern, to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Yes, I represent the owners to the property.
uh the client um the ownership entity is 1439 west of venango street llc thank you our vice
chair has a few questions i'm mr bertill do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and
stipulate to its accuracy yes i do have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership
tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos under plans of the property five days in
advance of this hearing and have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter? Yes to all of the
above. Okay great you may proceed and begin sharing your screen. Thank you very much Vice
Chair. Thank you. Mr. Chair could you confirm if my screen is sharing? We can see it yep. Thank
you. As I stated, my name is Steve Bertil. I am a counsel to the applicant of the Brotherly Love
Investments, who are a small real estate investment company here in Philadelphia that
specialize in mixed income multifamily properties in Philadelphia. We're seeking a variant
approval to convert a property that has historically been a four-unit building into
a two-unit duplex. The applicant is certified as a landlord in Philadelphia through the
PHA, Low Income Housing Voucher Program, and as a participant, the applicant has gone
through extensive training on how to come and maintain being a responsible landlord
and good neighbor. A variance is required here due to a refusal that we have for the
multifamily use. Avoid the refusal. I'll go more into the refusal in a second. Just to orient the
board into the property that we're discussing today, as you can see from this area, the property
itself, as I stated, is 1439 West Fenango Street. It's on the 1400 block of Fenango Street between
Broad Street to the east and 15th Street to the west. As I stated, the property itself,
another aerial shot, the property itself was a four-unit building since the 50s,
but it's currently vacant and blighted due to a fire that took place prior to the applicant's
ownership. This is a front, a shot of the frontage of the
property that fronts on Venango. And this is just a street
view, looking towards broad on Venango. And this is looking
towards the opposite end and looking towards 50. Now, the
Now, the prior owner did start rehabilitating this property. So once the applicant obtained it, the interior was already framed out for a multifamily use. And I just wanted to show some boards and pictures of the framing.
prior owner did start rehabilitating this property.
So what's all?
In addition to wanting to do family size units, this is part of the hardship that, you know, the applicant did not create as the property is already framed as a multifamily.
Now, as I stated, the property is zoned as RSA-5, but there's no record of this property
actually being utilized as a single-family home. It seems like it's only been a multifamily
home in all of its existence. Furthermore, the comprehensive plan, which I've shown in
the second proposes a zoning change to entire block to RM1. I obviously can't speak for planning,
but I assume part of the reason of that is because of the current existing use of not only this
property, but the properties on this block and across the street. And so just to speak to the
The historic use of this property, as you can see here, this is a zoning permit dating back to 1955, that has the property in use as a four-unit multifamily structure.
And going back even further, back into 1947, the property was utilized as, again, a multifamily structure. It looks like three units.
now as for the exist as for the neighborhood neighborhood context and how this proposed use
fits within the contextual environment you will see that essentially all the all occupied
properties on this block are multifamily they even the adjacent um properties itself
for the sake of time i won't go through every one but just to touch on a few
1426 is a two-unit building. 1425 is a five-unit building, as you can see. 1427 to 1435 ranges from three-unit buildings to two-unit buildings up and down the property.
In fact, 1435 West Venango was recently approved by this board as a triplex, as recently as last year.
And in this case, they had to demolish the structure and rebuilt it.
So in terms of the level of how de minimis it is, our case here is more de minimis because we don't need to demolish the structure.
We just need to do an interior rehab of the property to bring it back to a non-blighted condition.
As I stated earlier, the proposed use is actually in line with the 2035 comprehensive plan.
As you can see for this proposed zoning of the area, our property, I don't know if you can see my little mouse here,
but our property falls in this section a and it's actually uh it's actually right here this
is finagle street and you can see by the orange squares on both sides of the street
that actually let me zoom in so this is easier to see there you go you can see by the orange
squares on both sides of the street that the proposed change in zoning as i said is residential
multifamily, ranging between one to four. I assume it's supposed to be one. Under this proposed
zoning, the proposed variance that we're asking for today would be by right.
So what we're proposing, as I stated, is a two-family structure. We did meet with the RCO,
as you referenced earlier, Mr. Chair, and we obtained a letter of support that we actually
had for this property. We've had three meetings with RCO. Initially, we were seeking a use of
higher density and in response to the desires of the community group, and we reduced our density
to two units. BLI prized themselves on making positive community impacts and thought it was
is also important to talk to neighbors on the block.
So I'm pleased to report that we not only have this letter of support from the community
group, but we were able to obtain signatures of support from neighbors that live on the
block, I believe about 20 or so, and in immediate adjacent area, some of whom may be on the
Some of whom may be on the call today. So in conclusion, the proposed variance is a reduction of the historic density of the property. It squarely fits within the character and context of the area of this entire block being multifamily for longer than frankly I've been alive.
call today.
So in conclusion,
It supports the comprehensive plan of the city and the planning department and the most immediate neighbors and the coordinating RCO support this project.
Um, lastly, due to the physical conditions of the property, when they acquire, it does
create a hardship that they didn't create, um, that would essentially require a complete
interior teardown, um, if they had to, uh, use this property as single family.
For all these reasons, um, we are respectfully requesting that the board grants our variance
request.
Um, and if the boards have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.
Um, but I also have a representative from ownership, Mr.
Alex Robles here who can be recognized to adopt and affirm my testimony if the board doesn't have
any questions. Why don't you do that have your testimony adopted first. Okay Mr. Robles could
you please raise your hand. Please unmute yourself sir.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Sir, you will have to unmute yourself, please.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Thank you.
Yes, my name is Alex Robles, A-L-E-X-R-O-B-L-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Robles, did you hear the testimony that I just provided to the board this afternoon?
Do you confirm the truth from my testimony and adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman mr chair this is hillary i i do have
one question um you mentioned that you reduced the the density after meeting with the neighbors
um the refusal says two units which is what you're asking for today is it a revised refusal
or did you go back for a new application uh so it was a revised refusal um well i guess the answer
is both so it was intended to be a revised refusal and then uh i think because of the top the the gap
for how long it took to that was that took to be done the um l and i just prompted to do it under
a new application number. In effect, it has the same effect, but this proposal has been before
the RCO a few times at a higher density, and in an attempt to revise it, it ended up having to be
done on a new application, but it's the same proposal, and we don't have, and maybe this is
why you're asking, but we don't have any plans that need to be stamped. Yeah, no, I just wanted
to make sure we didn't need to add a proviso if the board grants um for an amended refusal so but
you said there's a new application and the application was just for the two units so
i think we're fine okay all right thank you no problem questions or comments from the virtual
audience this is tanya may i ask a quick question also sure um mr bertel do you still have the
original ap number that you started with ap number uh i have a zp or zp number is the same exact one
no this is under a new zp number they had to be wondering right that's correct it had to be under
a new zp number yeah so hillary that would be necessary if we don't have if we have a different
number well sorry what would be necessary tanya on the proviso if it was under the same number
but an amended refusal um yes it would be um the new zp number would be necessary to mention if
it's different than what we have in the system now no i'm sorry let me sorry um what i'm saying
is that the the new zp number is the number that you have in the system it's it's one in the same
we don't we don't need a uh proviso or uh amended plans all righty
questions from the virtual audience chair we have charles richardson
Questions from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson.
Good afternoon, Mr. Richardson.
State your name for us, please, and spell for the court reporter.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall.
Do you swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
We got confirmation from the RCO yesterday with regard to the two units, so Councilwoman is not opposed to granting the variance.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I've seen all the hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and Board Members.
David Fecto, City Planning Commission.
the comprehensive plan recommends this property for residential multi-family zoning the recommended
zoning would allow two residential units in the existing home so the city planning commission
recommends the board grant these variants for two dwelling units thank you MI 2022 001 287
1439 West Benanga Street I vote yes Harold Tenere my vote is yes Thomas Holloman my vote is yes
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Number two, MI 2021-004-663-1513 North 6th Street.
Vernon Anastasio is the attorney.
No RCO letter here.
um we'll let verne talk about that
he's coming back in as a panelist thank you
good afternoon mr chairman i could you state your name and spell for the core reporter please
of course it's verne v-e-r-n anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o it's 939 montrose street
Philadelphia 19147. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth? I certainly do. Could you identify your client and relationship to the property? I
represent the owner, Neely Glenn, who is present. Okay, our Vice Chair, Carl Tenere, has a few
questions. Thank you. I'm Mr. Anastasio. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and
stipulate to its accuracy? I certainly do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of
ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos under plans of the property
five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter
yes to everything but the letter i was my understanding that they were sending one to you
directly we met with the rco more than once
do we have an rca letter mr chairman no we don't we don't have it i think what we're going to do
carol we'll hear the case and we'll wait a week or so before we vote on well do you know do we
notice the set three meetings wow yeah we had three meetings mr chairman so long as we could
put a date certain on that vote um because it's been so very long and we have met three times
Yes, we will. Thank you. May I proceed, please? Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. 1513 North 6th Street is an application for a two-family dwelling in an existing structure.
I am submitting an exhibit packet of just about 60 pages. Let me take you to
the plans. This is a shell in an otherwise
difficult block. As you can see here, we've got a basement here,
and we've got the first floor with a bedroom, a bath, and then we have the second floor
with the third floor being a two-bedroom unit.
Going to go to page 29 of my exhibits. This is the property. Again, it's in a rather bad shape.
this is photo from just behind
my client's property where you can see new multi-family going up directly behind it
I also want to take a little bit of time to show you, even though you have it, the interior as it exists.
I also want to take a little bit of time to show you even though you have it
Condition is a pretty poor condition, as you can see.
in addition to the multi-family that's going up by a larger development company
behind us there it goes exceeds height of the existing properties on 6th as well
my clients are just a young couple uh purchased this property um not not a developer and would
just like to be able to get this property in good shape, breathe new life. The few people that are
on the block, they did sign in support. We did present this petition to the Registered Community
Organization. As you can see, here is the property where my cursor is. Across the street is all
multifamily. Most of the side of our block completely depopulized. More than a half of
this block is zoned RM1 multifamily. And everything behind here that says vacant,
where my cursor is now crossing, all of that has been approved for multifamily new construction.
Here is the property on the zoning map. As you can see across the street, down the block,
and now behind us here, all multifamily. The residential single-family is a rarity.
And now let's look at the history. Since the 50s, this property has been three-family dwelling,
And prior to the 50s and the 40s, it was a two-family dwelling in 1946.
In 1959, it became a three-family dwelling based on any of the recorded history of the property.
It's never been a single-family home.
I do submit to you three certified documents of three separate mailings.
We also have our deed and our flyer that went out to all households within 300 some odd feet of the property.
With that, because of the property history of always being at least two and or three family dwelling, because the block is overwhelmingly multifamily, because new construction just behind it has been a large development built as multifamily.
and because of the mass depopulation problems on our side of the block, I do respectfully request
that this appeal be granted for two-family dwelling in this existing structure. If you have
no other questions of me right now, I would like to ask my client to be identified.
Nealey Glenn, could you please raise your virtual hand?
i have a laura glenn should i allow her to speak
yes sure
hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
at laura neely glenn and it's l-a-u-r-a neely n-e-a-l-y glenn g-l-e-n-n right do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed thank you mr
chairman miss glenn did you hear my presentation to the board today yes is it true and accurate
to the best of your knowledge yes and would you adopt it as your own testimony if need be
yes thank you miss glenn any questions mr chair questions from the board no no mr chairman
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
David Fecto, City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends this property for residential multifamily zoning.
This is an 1,199-square-foot lot.
Under the recommended zoning, the applicant would be allowed three dwelling units.
The applicant is only proposing two.
So the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the use
variants for those two dwelling units.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
We're going to hold this to next Wednesday.
thank you we'll see if we can't have the letter if not we're going to vote on this next wednesday
Thank you.
We'll see if we can't have the letter.
If not, we're going to vote on this next Wednesday.
i appreciate that i will be present thank you mr chairman for the two o'clock meeting
thank you very much i'll be there thank you sir thank you
mi 2022 001 388 2414 east boston street
for the erection of a deck at rear second floor of an existing attached building
for the use as a single-family household living,
side of the location as shown on plans.
Jeremy Lott is the owner.
Letter of support from the Old Richmond Civic Association.
Mr. Lott is coming back in as a panelist.
uh good afternoon mr chairman my name is jeremy lott l-o-t-t
um do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes sir our vice chair has a few questions yes sir hi mr lott have you emailed the exhibit packet
with the required documents consisting of proof of ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal
or referral photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have
you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes ma'am okay and i'd like to read something else
this is an application for the erection of a deck at the rear second floor of an existing
attached building for the use of single family household living the zoning refusal is the minimum
rear yard depth requirement is nine feet three feet is proposed you do have a letter of support
from old richmond so you may proceed and share your screen yes ma'am thank you thank you
uh one second please having a little bit of a technical difficulties
uh well ma'am i'm actually having a problem with my computer it's not loading that
uh i did however send a copy of the presentation to the board uh i can give you a rundown if you'd
like ma'am wait wait a minute i think wait a minute yeah so are you hitting share screen at
the bottom? Yes, sir. I'm having some challenges with my computer. Well, here it is. Oh, here we
go. Sweet. Yes, sir. So here's my presentation. Okay. Wow. So I'm requesting an exemption from
the zoning board to build a deck off the second floor of my home. So to get into it, here's the
refusal notice I received from LNI when I submitted my zoning permit here about six months ago.
And so for the pictures, here's the front of my home.
Here's the rear of my house where my proposed deck is going to be built off the second floor of my home.
This is an excerpt from the plans that I submitted to L&I, and I included a copy of the full plans that I had from the architect in my submission to the zoning board.
Standing in for my proposed project is my neighbor's house who gave me the plans.
This is what my project is going to look like when it's finished.
So the plans that I have were originally given to me by my neighbor.
This is his house here, and his deck was constructed using a three-foot setback from the communal driveway here, as you can see in these pictures.
And then also my neighbor is one of 11 other homeowners in our development who has built a deck with this same setback criteria, as you can see here.
For your reference, this is a Google screenshot of overhead of what the back of it looks like.
As you can see, the 11 of my neighbors who have also built decks off the second floors of their homes.
And then here's a list that I pulled from the L&I Atlas of all my neighbors who completed these projects in the past.
Finally, I'd like to say that I have a letter of support from the Old Richmond Civic Association and my local homeowners association.
And if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare planning commission good afternoon mr chairman and members of the board
david effecto city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the residential single family zoning this location uh so we're going to uh review this uh saying
Although the applicant has not shown a hardship exists that we would require a debt to enable a continued use of this property as a single family home, the intention of the code is
continued use of this property as a single-family home, the intention of the code is to enable
usable open space in the rear of the property. Now the rear yards on this block are all used
for parking so it's not really usable open space. So for that reason this deck is not going to
to frustrate the intentions of the code. So the City Planning Commission recommends that the
board grant the variance for reducing the depth of the of the rear yard by by building a deck.
Thank you. MI-2022-001-398-2414 East Boston Street, I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Hallamann, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Number six, MI 2022-002995-2628 North Broad Street, a reconsideration hearing.
Brandon Saverin is the attorney.
Brandon?
Brandon Saverin and Rachel Krister is coming back in as panelists. Okay. Mr. Chair, I am going to present a later case today, 4,700 Stanton Avenue. So in a way of that, Rachel will handle this. Okay, fine. Thank you. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Chairman of the Board. Rachel, you've already been sworn. Can we identify your client here and the relationship with the property?
Sure. I represent Philadelphia Suburban Development Corporation, who is the applicant and owner of both of the properties, 2628 North Broad and 1412 through 24 West Lehigh.
I also represent Starbucks Coffee Company, who is a tenant and developer of one of the properties specifically of 2628 North Broad.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Ms. Prisker. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Okay, you may proceed, and please share your screen.
So, as the board may remember-
Excuse me one moment.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
I just want to note for the record, since this is a reconsideration, hearing that the testimony and record from the prior hearing is incorporated as we move forward.
Thank you.
We're good.
Thank you, Hillary.
So as Hillary mentioned, this is a reconsideration.
As the board may remember, we discussed this case before.
and essentially I'm just going to go through the reasons for reconsideration and then happy to go
into like more specifics about the case. This is the property here. I'm going to bring up the
zoning plans just a little bit easier to see. So this is the property specifically 2628 North
Broad Street, as you can see, it is this parcel here fronting on Broad, comes back towards 15th
Street, kind of has this weird leg out here, and then kind of comes over and up. Essentially,
this was two properties side by side, 1412 to 22 West Lehigh Avenue. As you can see,
the property is the corner of Lehigh and Broad with 15th Street in the rear, and 2628 North
Broad Street, which is this property here where the Starbucks is actually going to be built.
Essentially, we proposed a lot line relocation to make the Broad Street property larger to be
able to accommodate parking in addition to the new structure that will house the Starbucks,
which is approximately a 2,500 square foot structure that's going to be the first
Starbucks community store in Philadelphia. It will provide a lot of benefits to the surrounding
community including training and things of that nature um we do have a representative of starbucks
as well on the call who can go into detail if the board wishes uh essentially we're going to be
demolishing this uh small small strip mall structure on the broad street property and create
a new building for starbucks um the lot line relocation is by right but the use of the property
requires two special exceptions um it's this is not a variance they are special exceptions so i'm
not going to spend time on hardship. The Broad Street property will have the Starbucks with a
drive-thru and accessory parking and a takeout restaurant, which is the use that requires a
and a takeout restaurant, which is the use that requires a special exception.
special exception.
The Lehigh Avenue property will have non-accessory parking, which is going to be used
for overflow or rented out for other purposes. The owner of the property, PSDC, may use it for
other things as they desire, but it's not part of the Starbucks facility. Again, the non-accessory
parking use requires a special exception here. In this new configuration, both of the properties
will be partially zoned cmx3 and cmx2 um given the city's rules and the code related to split
zoning districts the cmx2 is what controls and that's essentially what has triggered the need
for the special exceptions um we attended two community meetings for this project um back when
this was originally heard i'm just going to pull up date of that here's all the tax clearance
Again, aerial photos of the property, this thing structured, I think we have included
a lot of photos.
So we had a community meeting back in February 8th, and we met with the coordinating RCO along
with the affected RCOs as well.
um both the coordinating rco again the second meeting was held on we've won on march 8th
and as you can see we had unanimous support for the project um one vote of non-opposition but
both the um 16th street democratic ward and swan poodle neighborhood parcels association attended
the meetings um and uh basically provided non-opposition to this uh uptown entertainment
and Development Corp, UEDC was the coordinating RCO that provided support for the project.
And again, provided this back at our first hearing that we had unanimously supporting
the project. Again, so did the Swampoodle Neighborhood Parcels Association as well.
And as you can see in your packet, there's a detailed explanation of their satisfaction
with the matter. We also had mentioned that we have a letter of support from city council
president Clark, who's also the fifth district council person. When we had originally gone
through this project, the board, I don't know that it was mentioned that Starbucks is going
to be using union labor for this project. To quote their director of store development for
the Mid-Atlantic, we submitted a letter from them basically stating, be sure that the Philadelphia
city officials are aware that for all new store construction and renovation projects within the
city of Philadelphia, Starbucks receives bids and awards for construction contracts only to full
union general contractors that also require full union subcontractors. In fact, Starbucks has done
a couple other projects where they've only used full union construction, 2401 Aramingo, 10th and
mark at 12th and one and 18th and spruce that wasn't something that was mentioned in detail at
the last meeting but it's important that we mention that on the record for this motion for
reconciliation we also as you're seeing on the screen went through a pretty detailed traffic
study and have included the details of that in the applicant or in the packet in the event that
that's interesting to the board happy to bring up uh anybody from starbucks to discuss that but
again, it's, as you can see, included in quite detail in your packet. I'm trying to just get to
the other support letters that we have. This is quite a long appendix. Hold on.
Also, I believe talked about trash management. There's a litter cleanup plan as well, which was
important, especially given this site is fronting on Broad Street and Lehigh, which is important.
And again, just so the board is acclimated with the site, the site really doesn't have any residential uses nearby.
The use of the site as a Starbucks with the corresponding drive-through takeout restaurant and the non-accessory parking on the Lehigh Avenue side will not propose any risk to the life, safety, welfare of anybody as there's nothing but mostly industrial buildings.
It is located on Broad Street and is sort of in kind and accompanying uses for a site like this.
Again, happy to go through anything in bigger detail.
I just, again, want to emphasize that we will be using union labor, that we have support from the coordinating RCO, the affected RCOs, and the council president as well, which was included in the motion for reconsideration.
Why don't we do this? Why don't you have somebody from Starbucks adopt your testimony?
Sure. And then move forward. Do you see Sam?
And then we move forward.
Do you see Sam?
Sam, are you able to raise your hand?
I don't know if I can see it.
You're an officer of the court.
We'll take your testimony.
Her hand is up.
Sam DeLiberty.
Thank you.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Samantha, you can speak.
Hello?
She may be having technical difficulties.
All right.
So you're an officer of the court.
We will take your testimony.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair we have mark nicoletti no mr chair
mr sure mr uh nicoletti let let me let me swear you in state your name for the court i know he is
spell okay state your name is spelled for the court reporter please mark nicoletti n-i-c-o-l-e-t-t-i
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Chairman, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board, I want to personally apologize.
Despite the fact that I'll suggest this application checks every box.
And it's a great job working with the community, get calls from the RCOs.
we have the support of the councilman but here's where we fail and I'll take full responsibility
I think we failed in giving you a broader context of the importance of this project
I don't know how many Starbucks are in the country I should know that I guess but I don't
I could tell you though when they came out of the court case that held them accountable for a lot of
mistakes they were making. They made a commitment to open up stores exactly like this one,
going deep into the poorest neighborhoods in the country. This is one of the first ones. We got one
in Philadelphia. And the commitment that they made to the RCOs goes beyond hiring. Oh, by the way,
they're building the building from the ground up. Every single job on that construction job they
pledged to be Philadelphia building trades, number one. But more than that, there's a community
center built into the store that the RCOs and other community groups are going to have the
benefit of using. It goes beyond that. They're going to provide accommodations and food and
beverage to really bring together the neighborhood on a regular basis. But if you give me two more
minutes because every day
we're all burdened by these stories
about how bad things are in Philly
can you give me two more minutes
to tell you about something that's really good
that this project
is a part of in a bigger picture
a man named Ken Frazier
that might ring a bell
born and raised in North
Philadelphia walking distance
from this project
went on to become the CEO
of Merck
Hmm. He just retired last year, and he wrote a $5 million check, and he's dedicating a better part of the rest of his life to create the Fraser Family Coalition. Where? Across the street from this project.
I'm the chairman of his board. I'm all in. My family has made a huge financial commitment to his project and this project. And what's he doing? What is this a piece of in the bigger picture? Guess what?
taking on poverty, health equity, food deserts, housing issues, incarceration issues. He's got
a list like this. He hired McKenzie out of his pocket, top team out of McKenzie to put the plans
together for this. So this is not just another generic Starbucks. And that's where I failed you
because i'm italian i'm 100 italian guys and i'm great at telling stories and i failed you because
this is a story that you should be excited about you're going to run point on this story you're
the first point to make it happen and that's where i owe you an apology you didn't have the benefit
and that's where I owe you an apology.
You didn't have the benefit of knowing all that
for them knowing
the last time we came in front of you.
Mr. Nicoletti, that's fine.
We appreciate your conversation,
and we all agree that the former head of Merck
is doing just a fabulous job.
So is there anyone else in the virtual audience
that would like to say anything?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
David Fecto, City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the commercial mixed-use zoning at this location. The applicant has proven that the proposed
takeout restaurant and non-accessory parking lot will have no more of an impact than those
activities would be expected to have, and so the City Planning Commission recommends the board
grant the special exceptions. Thank you. MI 2022-002-995-2628, North Broad Street. I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, as an Italian, my vote is yes.
I had to, Mr. Chair.
I'm sorry.
That's okay.
Thomas Holloman, as an Afro-American, my vote is yes.
That was awesome.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Mr. Nicoletti, we thank you for the additional information that you shared with the board.
was very helpful and easy to digest definitely because we didn't have that before thank you
thank you everybody thank you okay um rachel are you doing uh 4700 stenton chairman brennan
Saverin will be handling that. Thank you. Okay. MI 2022-001-548-4700 Stanton Avenue.
Letter of non-opposition solo Germantown Civic Association.
And also the coordinating RCO was Wakefield 49ers who convened and participated in the meeting.
There are also four form letters of support from tenants at the property.
Good afternoon.
Could you state your name? I didn't swear you last time, did I?
No, you did not, Mr. Chair.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Sure. It's Brandon Saverin of Pritzker Law Group. That's B-R-A-N-D-O-N, S as in Sam, A, V as in Victor, R-A-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client in a relationship to the property, please?
Sure. So I represent 4700 Stenton Avenue, LLC. I believe they closed on this property in December
of 2021. So they are the landowner. Our vice chair has a few questions.
oh madam vice chair you're muted you're muted carol
and and again and again hi mr saverin do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy yes i do have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership
tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos under plans of the property five days in
advance of this hearing and have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter? Yes to all of the
above. Okay great you may proceed and please share your screen. Thank you. Thank you.
So if you can see my screen members of the board this is a very sort of zoomed out
zoning map featuring the property. It's actually right where my hand is highlighted in blue which
you can barely see because the underlying zoning is ICMX. So it's sort of blue on purple there.
But anyway, that's where the property is, where my cursor is. We are in Germantown, a few blocks
north of Wayne Junction, which is down here, just to give you some context. The building I'm here to
speak about is shown here. This is a structure that was converted to residential use in 2013.
I'm going to go through the zoning history of the property in a moment, but it is now a multi-family
apartment building that features some on-site indoor parking that has a door here and here
for pedestrians and a vehicular access door here. Here's the refusal to, I'm going to read
through the refusal very quickly, and then I'll go back and sort of give you the backstory of
how this was generated. So we are here, as the refusal states, for you.
So we are here, as the refusal states, for use as multifamily household living, 26 dwelling units in an existing structure.
The zoning code requires 13 parking spaces for that many units.
We are proposing nine, and we are zoned ICMX.
So most types of residential use, whether single family, multifamily, are all prohibited, hence the refusal.
So, this is a zoning permit that was granted pursuant to a ZBA variance in 2013 that was obtained by a prior owner. As I believe I mentioned, my client, 4700 Stanton Avenue LLC, just purchased this property at the end of last year.
In 2013, the ZBA granted variances that enabled the use of this structure as multifamily, and it's a little, there it is, actually, you can see it right where my cursor is for 23 dwelling units across three floors.
This variance also permitted daycare use on the first floor and storage on the first floor.
so the property was already zoned ICMX at that time certainly one of the variances was to enable
residential use that permit was amended through the administrative review process the following
year in 2014 and that basically took the status of the permits closer to what's actually on the
property today. The daycare use was dropped from the scope. Instead, what you had was storage and
parking on that ground floor instead of storage and daycare. And as this administrative review
permit says, there are nine indoor accessory parking spaces. That's exactly how many there
are to this day. So that's already permitted and 23 dwelling units are already permitted.
But lo and behold, when my client was sort of going through the diligence process to purchase this building, discovered that there are 26 dwelling units in the building, not 23.
We don't have the full story of how there came to be 26 units, but there are not zoning permits that enable 26 units.
And for better or worse, all 26 of them are presently occupied and were occupied, I believe, upon the sale of the building.
So the choice here was to either pursue a zoning variance to enable those three extra units
or to evict three people, three families potentially, from their apartments.
So we chose to try to legalize this building, get those three extra units permitted.
Now, I want to thank the couple RCOs that sent letters in.
These are featured in our exhibit packet.
One of those letters is a letter of non-opposition from an affected RCO, Solo Germantown.
Here's their meeting summary.
Four of their board members voted in non-opposition.
They also wrote a letter detailing their thoughts on the matter.
Here is the meeting summary by a different RCO.
This is the coordinating RCO, the Wakefield 49ers Community Improvement Association.
and they actually in their letter sort of accounted for the other groups so this is a
little more complicated but they came out in support as you can see here they also wrote a
letter what these letters detail is that the prior owner of the building did not conduct
property maintenance here in a professional manner creating trash surrounding the building
folks parking on the sidewalk, which I think you saw in the Google Street View image I showed.
So we came into this meeting. My client uses a property manager that is physically based within
the neighborhood. That manager is going to take proper care of this building. And we discussed
that with the community extensively. I want to thank those that attended the meeting for sort
of coming with an open mind and hearing us out, given the poor performance of the prior owner.
And also want to thank them for getting these letters on very short notice as the meeting was
only a few days ago. So in any event, that's the summary of where we are. The building is the
building. It has 26 units. It has the nine parking spaces. We are trying to legalize it. We will get
a new co after we get a new zoning permit that reflects 26 units so this building is operating
fully above board going forward um i believe that um the client's representative um
I believe that the client's representative, Yehuda Angster, he also goes by Judah, should be on to adopt my testimony.
Thank you very much for having me.
Would you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, my name is Yehuda Angster, spelled Y-E-H-U-D-A, last name Angster, A-M-G-S-T-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Hey, Judith, were you able to hear the full extent of my testimony today?
Yes, I was.
And was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is.
And would you therefore adopt it as your own?
Yes, I would.
Okay, and are you authorized to represent 4700 Stanton Avenue, LLC?
Yes, I'm the managing member of the limited liability company that owns title and deed to the property.
Okay, thank you very much.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson.
Hi, Mr. Richardson. You've already been sworn.
Yes, sir. Good afternoon again, Mr. Chair.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall.
Councilwoman has no objection to granting the variance for this legalization.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Rosalind McKelvey.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
R-O-S-A-L-I-N-D.
Last name McKelvey
M is in Mary
C-K-E-L-V is in Victor E-Y
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
The whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir
Proceed
We had a very good meeting with Brandon
And in our neighborhood
There's been so many changes
I am actually the one that hosted the meeting in 2013
and the previous owner did not follow through with what they said and after the presentation
we were in a little fog what the variance was for after the explanation we found out that there's 26
families and if we did not approve that three families would have to go the neighbors did
complain about the trash that's around outside. And due to COVID and the aging residents,
they found it hard to keep up with passersby's and some tenants and some people that aren't.
The parking isn't all officially theirs. And we came to an agreement that they would try to
do diligence and recompense to the neighborhood. They said they will help clean up lots
that are surrounding not just their own property,
which was commendable,
and also put back the sidewalk
that I don't know why the previous owner blacktopped
the entire sidewalk where handicapped people
and people with strollers
could not even go down the sidewalk.
So we thank them.
Well, thank you very much.
Thank you for calling in, ma'am.
We appreciate your information.
Chair, we have a calling user.
Phone number ending in 5555.
Please unmute yourself.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Allison, A-double-L-I-S-O-N, Weiss, W-E-I-S-S, Solo Germantown Civic Association.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Yes. You've heard the previous RCO speak and mention the asphalting of the sidewalk.
We want to know if there is any way to ensure through the process that the sidewalk and curb will be replaced.
Say that again.
and is there a way to enforce that the sidewalk and curb are replaced
uh i i will bring that up with our attorney i'm not sure about that
hi chair oh go ahead hillary oh yeah sorry sorry no um yes mr chair this is this is hillary um
Yes, things related to the sidewalk are typically the purview of the streets department and not L&I, so I don't believe that this could be something we could do under a proviso.
That's not to say it couldn't be done under a private agreement, but it couldn't be something we could provide, though.
couldn't be done under a private agreement um but it couldn't be something we could provide though
thank you very much also this is tanya chair if i could just note um that they could also reach
out to 311 and streets department will do an inspection and write violations accordingly
and that way you'll have your enforcement miss weiss thank you tanya
okay anyone else in the virtual audience i see no other hands here planning commission
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. David Fecto, City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan
recommends this property for industrial and residential mixed use. The proposal is consistent
with the recommended district, which has the intent of encouraging residential conversion
of industrial buildings. The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the
use variance. Thank you. MI 2022-001-548-4700 Stanton Avenue. I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We're going to hear one more case, then we're going to take a break.
So I'm going to go to case number 11.
MI-2022-001-401-669 East Lippincott Street. Joseph Consol is the attorney.
Letter of non-opposition from Councilperson Sanchez. Letter of support from Impact Services.
mr consul good afternoon again yeah mr consul i believe you've been sworn right yes okay um
have you have are you uh thomas could you ask a few questions carl just got off the phone a minute
yes mr chairman do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate his accuracy i do
did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required such as proof of ownership tax
clearance copy of the refusal or referral pictures or drawings of the property five days in defense
of this hearing did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter yes sir debbie thank you
please proceed and share your screen can i pack it up it's coming up yes all right good afternoon
board joe consul here on 669 east lippincott owner of the property is good homes 215 llc
with me is their representative jamie moffett this property i'll just jump ahead to a couple
the external picture is real quick if my computer is frozen. Mr. Consul we're still waiting for it
to come up. Yeah it's saying it's loading but let me try it on sharing see if that does it.
So you can also try turning off your video and just sharing your screen.
can you see if it's trying to live never had this problem before
yeah it's frozen
maybe you could hear me right after the break and i can make sure that's fixed
why don't we do that we'll take a five minute break
okay mr consul thank you all right that's five minute break and we'll be back
mr consul this is from it is your whole computer froze or just the screen sharing
Thank you.
it seems to be moving again now let's see if the share works okay great
that come up yep you're good to go all right
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Tanya, how do we look?
We are ready to proceed, Chair.
Mr. Consul, you've been sworn, right?
Yes, sir.
On do we go?
All right.
And technical difficulties are solved.
669 East Lippincott Street, Good Homes, LLC, with its representative, Jamie Moffitt, who is on this call.
The property, I'll skip ahead to the picture real quick to give you an idea of what it looks like.
Here's the one side view.
It's East Lippincott and F Street.
Here's the corner of East Lippincott and F Street.
This property has only ever, as far as I can tell in the archive, been used as one residential unit on the second floor and a commercial space on the first floor.
It's got probably the longest list of different uses of any property I've dealt with.
It's been a radio repair, steak shop, shoe repair, candy store, ice cream parlor, a tailor, a pizza place.
and most recently in 2012 it was approved for the retail sales baked goods and one residential unit
My client bought the property in 2017. He pulled the rental license and is just now
my client bought the property in 2017 he pulled the rental
trying to match up a tenant with the commercial space on the first floor. He did so and quickly
realized that because it had been remapped as RSA 5 that this would require a variance.
So here we are. There's our refusal. It's multiple principal uses, that being the apartment above
and the commercial space below, and retail consumer goods being prohibited in this district.
We put our case on in front of the RCO and got their unanimous support.
This was impact.
Basically, their proviso is closing time shall be 10 p.m., but they supported filling this property up.
there was testimony that this is a corner that needs to be activated as it has nefarious activity
and we believe based on the extensive history of the property as a commercial space the fact
that it's never been used as anything else on the first floor we believe that that makes this
appropriate to grant the variance also included in our packet is our proof of mailings all of our
RCO materials. And here's some photos of the outside of the property, a little closer up showing our items.
Again, there's that. And also, we sent to the RCO at Ms. Emerson's request just a copy of the most recent floor plan that's on file just showing the layouts of the property, and she had asked that I present it.
So I'm showing it now. This is what it looks like. This is what it looked like back when this was approved in 2012. I'd like to call my client, Mr. Jamie Moffitt, to adopt my testimony.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
hi my name is jamie moffett j-a-m-i-e last name is m-o-f-f-e-t-t do you swear firm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed good afternoon mr moffett did you hear
my testimony regarding 669 east lippincott yes do you adopt it as your own yes would you briefly
just uh tell the board uh a little bit about the tenant that you're putting into this property
and then we can we can rest our case yeah sure it's a shop owner um they have another
unit with us they've been wonderful tenants so far and i'm excited to activate the space um i
i've always been i have also been a member of impact services of the rco the kna business
Association RCO for quite some time. I'm happy to be a part of helping the neighborhood. I've
spent a lot of time and everything. Thank you all for the time. Thank you. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair. Planning Commission. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board,
David Vecto, City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the residential single-family zoning at this location. The property has a documented history
as a business on the first floor and a residential unit on the second floor. The City Planning
Commission recommends that the board grant the use variance. Thank you. MI 2022-001-401-669
East Lippincott Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Commercial space closes at 10 p.m.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, yes with proviso.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, board.
Number 12.
am i is carol on
hold on one minute
Thank you.
345-6995
Pichon Street.
Mr. Richard DeMarco and Paul
Toner.
This is a remanded
hearing.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon. How are you, sir?
Could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter? Yes.
Richard DeMarco, D-E-M
A-R-C-O.
Here for the applicant.
Mr. Toner.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Paul Toner with Orphanese and Toner.
I'm here for the Ridge Park Civic Association.
Could you spell your name just for the court reporter, please?
Absolutely.
Paul Toner, T-O-N-E-R.
Right.
Do you both swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
We do.
Okay. Number one, we're going to incorporate the record and testimony from the 516-18 ZBA hearing.
We are going to concentrate on the whole nine-unit issue and whether or not this is the minimum amount of units.
If you have witnesses, I'm going to ensure before the witnesses testify that that testimony is aimed at nine units and nothing more.
So, Mr. DeMarco, we're going to start with you and you can proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can you hear me? OK, my mic just we can.
OK, great. Mr. Chairman, thank you. We're here, as you said, on the remand.
I do want to just do a quick opening to explain that this zoning board, of which three of you were were present at the original case in 2018.
this board voted unanimously to approve this project at nine proposed units we went through
a series of appeals filed by the neighborhood group and the commonwealth court's decision
found that that the board's decision on the presence of unnecessary hardship
at this property was properly proven and fully supported however uh the board did the commonwealth
Court did remand because they wanted additional testimony on the least minimum variance issue.
But I did want to remind the board that this board voted unanimously in favor of the project
and actually did find that nine units were the minimum necessary. But the Commonwealth Court
has found that the testimony needs to be added. And that's, I think, why we're here. And I think
Hillary Emerson's statement was, we are dutifully going to file that for you.
Dave Henderson is going to be my first witness and will testify as to why the nine units are necessary to overcome the hardship presented by this property,
which is, you know, specifically a lack of a very substandard soil situation, which was not disputed by any party at the earlier proceedings.
So I'm not going to belabor that. That is in the record. It's been decided.
I'm not going to waste your time and mine and the applicants and the protesters by rehashing the actual hardship issue, and we'll get right to the testimony as laid out by your attorney, okay?
So I'll call Dave Henderson, and I'll ask him to raise his hand virtually and unmute so he can be identified.
Mr. Henderson, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
yes sir can you hear me okay yes we can name is david henderson d-a-v-i-d-h-e-n-d-e-r-s-o-n
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do sir proceed mr henderson can you hear me okay i can hear you okay uh tell the board are
you the owner of this property i am sir and have you been the uh the developer of this property
since the original case heard by the Zoning Board in 2018?
Yes, sir.
And are you the guy that writes all the checks
and pays all the consultants and the engineers, et cetera?
Yes, sir.
Okay. And so you are the one with knowledge on what you spent so far and what it will take to bring this project to bear, correct?
And so you are the one with knowledge on what you spent so far
and what it will take to...
That's correct, sir.
All right. And you did an analysis, which was part of our exhibit packet.
And I'll share my screen in a moment and put it up on the board.
But you prepared that analysis, right, Mr. Henderson?
I did, yes, sir.
All right, and you did some research in order to prepare that document, and that included speaking to your financial people, your realtor, and construction experts, et cetera, correct?
Correct, yep.
All right, Mr. DeMarco, if I could just get that up for a second.
Mr. Chairman, can we just have Mr. Henderson put his video on?
Oh, sure.
Dave, can you operate your camera with your?
I can.
Let me see.
This is an Army computer.
Sometimes it doesn't allow video to come through.
Give me a second, Richie.
Hi, this is Tanya.
He only has authority for audio.
There you go.
Oh, okay.
So, Dave, the issue's not on your end.
I'm happy to go to video if the board wants it, you know, whatever's best.
I'll leave it up to the chairman and Tanya.
Mr. Turner, why do you want to do that?
I've just asked the witnesses testifying just to be able to see if he's looking at any documents, if there's anyone in the room with him.
Just to testify a witness, I'd just like to be able to see him.
Okay, okay.
Tanya, could you put him on the screen?
He's being promoted to panelist now.
I don't object to it.
i can't see if it happened though because i'm sharing my screen are you there is he now visible
you have to give it one second okay
okay mr henderson just hit your video button
and we're there. Thank you.
Can I go ahead?
Go ahead.
Dave, can you see the summary on your screen?
I can, sir.
Okay. Let's go through as efficiently as you can, but don't rush.
but can you explain how you analyzed the feasibility of developing this project for
either nine units or less? And you can start with your paragraphs on the screen right there.
Absolutely. If I can, first, I'd like to say thank you to the board. It's not lost on me that
there's hundreds of these cases going through the ZBA every week and our case going through
four years ago. I certainly appreciate the board taking time here to evaluate more data.
So, look, none of the data here is really a secret sauce. I'll run through it. I cited all my references. These were pulled from online news sources, you know, from various, all sides, and then government agencies.
Probably the most prescient data point is number one. So, it's important to note that we're local. Like, I've lived in this community. I've had four generations of my family in the same zip code living here.
I grew up two blocks down the street. And so these are local construction companies that are providing these estimates that have done work in this area for decades.
And so the first is a there was one there's one estimate that was already submitted from Mr.
Dan Pellicciotti. And then I got two more that was deemed like, hey, we need more data.
So I got two more estimates, one from a local and Philadelphia contractor who works in this community.
and then one of those. Sorry to interrupt you, Dave. You forwarded those to me and those are
included in our packet, Mr. Chairman. Go ahead, Dave. Thank you. Yes, sir. And so that's all this
is, is an estimate per square foot. And then I start taking sub data points. Hey, what is what's
driving this cost? Where are we seeing this from? Inflation recorded eight and a half percent last
quarter. This past quarter was not was not necessarily captured yet. It'll be published
any day or week now. The housing market is cooling off. Fed Reserve raising interest rates,
driving interest rates to be nearly double what they were four years ago, the first time that we
were in front of the ZBA. And that's helping to decrease demand for housing. Supply chain
volatility and raw material costs are still at all time highs. What they were four years ago is
certainly not what they are now. The holding cost for capital. So if you're going to go out and get
a construction loan, if you're super fast and you think you can knock out the job, if you're done,
start to finish in 12 months um or 15 months and so i put the holding cost in there that's
or 15 months. And so I put the holding cost in there. That's a very conservative estimate. I
a very conservative estimate
didn't choose a high number. And then the base cost to clear the land and get it usable and to
eliminate the unique and unusual circumstances surrounding the substandard soil that's there.
And, you know, and Richie and members of the board, that's it in a nutshell. I tried to,
you know, this isn't secret data. It's all publicly available.
And why don't you just explain to the board what you did with those three construction. Let me
just go back to those construction estimates you took the median or the most conservative of those
is that right explain that to the board yeah that's so that's correct so uh instead of using
240 dollars per square foot we used 220 dollars per square foot um i you know and just simply
broke it out into a price per square foot per house and added that the little you can scroll
down a little bit richie i mean all and then all we did was price for square foot per home plus
capital holding costs plus price to clear the land. I, you know, it's, it's just basic math,
I guess. And let's quickly, we'll get in a little bit more detail in a minute, but explain
where you got the price point, the sale price estimate of 462 and how it will increase.
And this was based on conditions when you were first at the board, correct?
Yes. Yeah. If you're looking, you're at number two there. So if you're looking at the price
per square foot being $462,000 to build the homes and inflation last quarter was eight
and a half percent, I put there, it's likely to increase to $500,000 in the current market.
Certainly could go back to normal over time too. Data is never perfect and data without
context is useless. All right. So here's your overall summary here in the numbers that you
came up with. And let me look at where you highlighted. You highlighted here result,
the project loses money even if nine homes are built. Let's explain that to the board,
what you mean by that. So one of the GCs outside of Philadelphia said, look, you'll break even,
you're just going to lose a little bit of money. The other GC said you're going to lose money if
you build the nine homes and they recommend a different course of action. Um, that's,
that's the, so explain to the board why, why are we bothering with this? I think, well,
I mean, you know, it's, it's been four years. We're not in any rush. I'm a member of this
community. Uh, I want to do something that makes sense and is appropriate. Um, but it's okay to
be patient and it's okay to, you know, to see if the market stabilizes the factors that I list
above there and the factors that i cite in my references uh those could stabilize over time
you know i i don't know but then but the the loss on the nine homes would be when with your most
conservative estimates right if things break out better you will be able to turn a profit with the
ninth home right absolutely correct yes all right excuse me council excuse me counselor yeah if you
eliminate the basement would that not help with the price can you um answer that dave you still
excavate right yeah you'd still so you still have the issue of an excavation but the issue
but the issue of excavation is not as serious you could use slab on grade you're correct sir
you could do you could do slab on grade you'd still have to do helical piers there'd be a
question of will the inventory move if there's not a basement you know most new home buyers are
looking for basements these are families typically buying these homes and they don't having kids um
but uh but your points your point's correct sir and so i would also add that we um we are
proposing a uh single car garage and we are not asked we did not ask for height variances
on the original case. So if we were to forego a basement, there would be significantly less
buildable area and probably a significantly less sale price. Is that right, Mr. Henderson?
Yeah, that's correct. And it's important to note too, we did make several modifications
in the first meetings we had with the RCO Ridge Park Civic. We made several modifications to the
home to at their request. And yeah, I you know, for the basement, a mechanical room was brought
into question of is it safer to have the mechanical room downstairs if you're planning on having a
family and kids, and that was certainly raised. Excuse me, councilor, if the site
is causing such a difficult problem, why do you stick with the site?
so why bother at all you mean yes well i think he answered that the answer is clearly
Well, I think he answered that. The answer is clearly that that means the property does have a hardship and that we'll win this case easily if that is, in fact, true.
that that means the property
If the hardship is so extreme that it's almost impossible to pull off a development, and clearly the developer is entitled to the original variance that this board, and that, in fact, you and the other members of the board voted for in 2018.
There was no dispute as to how challenging and how unique and how difficult this property was to develop.
This was something that was uncontested.
So if it's that impossible, then clearly we have an extreme hardship, which justifies the greatest relief possible.
That's the question that we're asking, that is, is it almost impossible?
And clearly the site suffers from an extreme hardship that allows the variance.
or counsel your approach your architectural and engineering approach is not correct to solve the
issues of the site well you know look you're gonna i'm just gonna suggest mr holliman that
that we consult with your attorney on that that is an issue that has already been decided in favor
of the applicant with the commonwealth court the actual hardship posed by the site was never in
doubt the commonwealth court agreed and actually made commentary in its initial opinion that you
were absolutely correct in finding that this property suffered from an extreme hardship.
The only issue was the number of units to overcome that. If in fact the property is so difficult to
develop that you must have the ninth unit, then that proves the case. And that's why we're here.
We can all go home and these guys can try to develop. So I don't know how we're going to
revisit an issue that's not before the board and start talking about whether there isn't a hardship.
There clearly is. That's already been decided. Mr. DeMarco, where are you going next? I think we understand his numbers.
Go ahead, Mr. Henderson. Explain that first chart there and your sale prices, how you came to those numbers.
So 6907 is adjacent. So it's, I think, two houses down from our proposed development.
uh that's a comparable that's a comparable sale that that dates to the time when we were first at
the zoning board right uh correct correct that's next door i just uh next door or two doors down
it's it's a very insane block yeah correct uh and so we uh and you could two blocks down the street
uh there's i think 40 homes that were you know that were uh built in the 2010s at some point
and developed. So all we did was we took the closest home that's of similar size and scope,
and we took the 2018 out price and just used inflation to show what it could sell for now.
That's really it. And then I cited the references there on what that home could sell for.
And tell the board where you got these numbers and how you came to a sale price of 516. And
And is that a conservative estimate? Is it an aggressive estimate? Tell the board what you feel about that.
Yeah, in any in any market, it's certainly possible. Like the market we're experiencing now, there's a lot of demand and not a lot of inventory on the market.
So a home that home could sell for more than five hundred and sixteen thousand or if or if the Fed keeps raising interest rates and mortgage rates, maybe the demand goes away.
You know, it's there's a million variables to go into selling a home or maybe there's some sort of structural problem with the home and it's not found until there's a home inspection.
Maybe it sells for less than five hundred sixteen thousand. You know, everyone, everyone in this audience here is a homeowner, I'm sure.
So why did you arrive at five sixteen number? Is it an aggressive number? Is it the median? How did you get there?
Yeah, it's just it's just taking the exact sale price and adding inflation to it from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two.
I would say that's a conservative. It's a conservative outsell number.
It should be a very comfortable number that it could sell for. Absolutely.
Excuse me, Mr. Chairman. Is this board qualified to understand these numbers
that the developer is presenting? Yeah, I think the developer is going to
have numbers. I would assume that the opposing group will have numbers. And I think what we
have to do is we have to come to what we think is is where we want to be and we're not going to vote
today we know that and we're going to take a couple weeks to look at this and then we'll come
we'll get back to it thank you mr chairman i mean that is uh you know that is why we we didn't
expect the remand because it's very hard uh to do this uh to do this i mean the commonwealth court
unfortunately has told us that we need to do it i prefer not to get into numbers like this you know
I prefer not to get into numbers like this, you know, but unfortunately we were remanded from the Commonwealth Court and most of us who practice in this area are always scratching our head with, you know, with that, but here, here we are.
But unfortunately, we were remand.
So anyway, where are we going next, Mr.
We'll try to do as best we can.
So go ahead, Mr. Henderson, and let's explain these costs that you laid out in your summary.
Go ahead and explain what those numbers are for the board.
Yeah, so I think the board can read all of this and everybody else that's in the committee here. These are just the actual costs that we've gone through and the costs that we will need to go through to be able to build on the land. We just expanded upon already existing testimony.
So these are the baseline costs even before you start to dig a shovel, right?
That's correct.
Okay. Let's go to the main event here. So you did two breakdowns, right? You did, because we weren't sure whether the Commonwealth Court wanted conditions back when the board first heard the case or now, you did two analyses, right?
correct so 2022 breakout and 2019 breakout no secret sauces in there we just used inflationary
numbers from published by the government to show what that project construction cost would be then
and what it is now correct and you also did I'm going to scroll down to 2019 you also analyzed
the cost of bringing the project to bear if you assumed the project would have gone forward from
the original ZBA case, right? That's correct, sir. And if I can, I think the important thing
to highlight for the board here is you see in the 2019 breakout, we used $273,780. That's the
2019 estimate cost per home using a local construction company registered and licensed
in Philadelphia using Philadelphia labor. Folks that have been doing this for decades, they know
what they're doing that's a very conservative number from 2019 the board is the board understands
excuse me excuse me sir is that union wages or prevailing wages that would be using union wages
sir thank you yes sir go ahead dave uh and that that's really it and that's a very conservative
number since 2019 obviously the whole market uh has been thrown into flux supply chain volatility
There's issues with importing raw material, issues with labor being booked out for a year.
I know the board is aware of that, but I just used a very conservative number to show,
even with the soil problems and the unique and unusual circumstances there,
when you get to the ninth home, that's when the project is worthwhile. That's all.
So in other words, from these analyses that you did, the project turns a profit with the sale of the ninth home?
Yes, sir.
for each analysis. And that's because of the amount of money you must spend
to bring the project to bear. Correct. Correct. Okay. So what if, what would happen if you were
to develop an eight homes and not nine or seven homes and not nine? You lose money on the project.
And since 2019 conditions have even worsened as far as construction, right? Absolutely. And we've,
we've spent a lot more money on maintaining the site. We cut down 11 trees. We eliminated a lot
of bamboo that was on the property. We maintained the property. We knocked down a home. We've been
good stewards in that sense and tried to make sure that it's a, you know, a place that's, you
know, maintained. So we've not, we've been patient. We haven't stopped anything on the, on the project.
And you spoke to, to prepare these numbers, you spoke to the following people, right? You're a
realtor, right? Two realtors, yes. Two realtors you spoke with. I haven't done it here, sir.
I think at this stage, I hear your point. He said he spoke to two realtors. I'm going to allow that
right now. Okay. And did you speak with a capital investment advisor? Yes. You'll need a construction
loan and the resultant interest that comes along with that in order to bring this project to bear,
right? Correct, sir. And those are additional costs involved with that, right? That's right.
And you also spoke to three GCs, right? Correct. And you took the least conservative of the GC
numbers as far as construction costs, right? Absolutely correct. Okay. And if you were to
not get permission today to develop nine homes on this property, are you going to be able to
develop this property? It's a question of how much hemorrhaging. I mean, that's really what's at stake.
it's a it's a question of how much hemorrhaging i mean that's that's really what's at stake here
i mean you're already operating at a loss right because you have the holding costs
correct a significant loss okay that's all i have mr chairman
does posing counsel have any issues questions about the numbers i i do your honor sure um mr
mr henderson hey mr johnner thank you for your concise presentation i know everyone's looking
forward to getting through this in a rather quick manner um try not to believe your things too much
but first of all you prepared exhibit six the updated summary date of may 26 2002 right
if it's uh can you share your screen sir so i can see what you're looking at stuff to reference
things with all the documents he's talking about this document oh i did yes yes okay
Matt. Do you have a background in finance? When you say a background, do you mean have
I received business loans? Do you have a degree? Do you have a license? Have you received any
certifications in finance? I haven't, no. Do you have a background? Well, I have my master's in
business administration. I don't know if that counts. Do you have a background in construction
construction estimation? I wouldn't say that I'm an expert in it, but I mean, I've done
some construction projects, certainly. And when did you exactly type up this updated summary?
What's the question, Mr. Toner? When did I type it up? Yeah, the approximate date. How long ago
has it been since you typed up the summary? Oh, it was very recent, two weeks ago. I mean,
you can go to my references and see the last article that was cited, so probably two weeks
ago. Two weeks ago. And did you consult with a professional appraiser when you drafted this
cost summary? The two real estate agents, yes. So the real estate agent, one of them is Dan
McIntosh, is that correct? Correct, yeah. And he's based out in Westchester, right?
He is, but he sells homes in Philadelphia too and owns homes in Philadelphia.
you. Mr. Henderson, do you have a letter from Mr. McIntosh on his letterhead, whatever company
he's affiliated with? I can get that. There was a letter that was submitted, yeah. Okay, so I'm
looking in your packet at Exhibit 12. I just see a letter drafted to whom it may concern, not on
letterhead, and it actually doesn't confirm that $516,000 is a good and fair estimation of the
market value of these nine homes. Do you have any professional who has put on their letterhead or
other formal documentation that $516,000 is the actual market value of the nine homes when they're
completed? I think a way maybe to think about it is, do you know, Mr. Toner, exactly what the homes
will sell for in a year? Do you know the exact number? Mr. Henderson, I don't want to go back
and forth. If you could just listen to my question carefully. Has any professional realtor submitted
a document that's in your packet that says that $516,000, $516,000, $222,000 is a good and fair
estimation of the market value of each of the nine homes when they're completed? Well, I'm going to
pose an objection. That's exactly what this document says of paragraph three, but if he can
answer, I mean, clearly the answer is yes, but if he can answer, go ahead. I'll actually read
paragraph three, the pricing methodology used to estimate the sale price for these homes
at 6995 Pension Street can be viewed as accurate. But as with any home, there are hundreds of market
and product variables to contend with when estimating the sale price. Do you have any
document that says $516,222 is a professional estimation of the market value each of the nine
units when they're completed? I don't, no. And there's a lot of reasons for that, Mr. Toner.
There's a lot of variables that go into what the home will look like, the market conditions at the
time, what's the inventory on the market. There's a lot of variables that go into that.
And you use the consumer price index to estimate the increase in market value from 2018 to 2022.
too. That's correct, right? Yeah, just the inflationary look at money from 2018 to 2022,
correct? You didn't use a sales comparison approach, correct? Objection.
You didn't use a sales comparison approach, correct?
Objection. It's not an appraisal. Objection.
Mr. Turner, continue.
You didn't use a sales comparison approach, did you?
I didn't use a sales comparison approach, no.
are you aware that single family homes in the 19128 and 19127 area code sell in excess of
$800,000 on similarly sized lots objection that's an incorrect statement just ask if he's aware
objection it's not accurate he could answer the question if he doesn't know that he doesn't know
I mean, there's also homes that sell for less than $516,000, Mr. Toner.
There's a lot of variables that go into how a home is sold, and you know that.
Did you ever run cost numbers for the construction and sale of one single-family home on the two lots in question?
We have, and I've gone, as I've submitted, we've gone to three different GC firms.
We've had a PE firm do a geotechnical analysis that was not contested in 2018 and was deemed
to be accurate that there are unusual and unique soil circumstances that have to be
alleviated and fixed before you start any construction.
So we did do analysis on one home or two homes or four homes, absolutely.
And how much money would you lose by constructing a home with an outsell price of $800,000 on either of these two lots?
Objection. Total speculation.
This goes to the core of the minimum variance. Either he has or he has not done a calculation of the profitability of less than nine homes.
And if he has, he should be easily able to tell us in court or at the zoning board today.
Yeah, but there's no way to guarantee that the home is going to sell for a certain price, Mr.
Toner.
I'm just asking if you went through the exercise.
Those who can do, those who can't speculate, that's a speculation.
You believe that a home could sell for a certain price without understanding the market variables
that go into it.
Mr. Hunter, I'm just asking, yes or no, did you go through the exercise of calculating
the profitability of constructing one single home on each of the two lots?
Objection, he answered.
It's a yes or no question, Mr. Henderson.
It's not a yes.
He already answered objection.
Mr. Bergman, I just asked that.
I think Mr. Henderson has answered.
He didn't do that.
I mean, simple as that.
I think his presentation was very clear on what he did.
And so I think he has answered that.
He has not.
No, he has not.
Going back to the consumer price index.
Has any professional told you that the consumer price index is appropriate to use in calculating the appreciation market value of real estate?
I don't understand your question.
Are you saying that that's not an accurate way to view how money values over time?
No, no. I'm asking if the Consumer Price Index, has a professional told you that the Consumer Price Index is an appropriate index to use when estimating the appreciation and value of real estate over time?
Not consumer goods, not cars, not household products, not clothing or energy or oil supplies.
We're talking about real estate here.
Has any professional told you that the CPI is what you should apply when trying to estimate the appreciation of value in real estate?
Do you use money to buy a home?
Mr. Henderson, it's a yes or no question.
has a professional told you to use the cpi yes or no it's an accurate way to view how money
changes over time so if you buy a house with money it's an easy way to say my house sold for
468 000 in 2018 and using the cpi and now on a conservative estimate could outsell for 516 000 in
2022 again i just we're trying to get out of here at a reasonable time
so let me let me interrupt i think i think i think he he described how he did this
and you're saying did someone expert tell him to do it i think he he's he's he's a developer he
does this every day he did it on his own and i think he's fine with that if you want mr henderson
you you didn't go to an expert for that you did this because you thought it was the right way to
do it. I mean, it's as simple as that. So just to answer the question, yes or no.
so just answer the question yes or no so so i did that myself mr toner okay uh mr chairman can i
So I did that myself, Mr. Toner.
share my screen sure there's another participant uh mr demarca can you stop here i did screen share
i did i think you might have to promote him
Okay. Mr. Henderson, let the record reflect that I have now shared my screen with a printout from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publication fact sheet on rent and rental equivalents measuring price change in the CPI.
I'll object. I didn't see this in any exhibits. Mr. Henderson is seeing this for the first time, and it's not going to be able to answer questions about it, seeing it for the first time on a computer screen in a Zoom context.
This is cross-examination, and I'm going to ask Mr. Henderson if he's aware that real estate is specifically excluded from use in the CPI calculation.
I don't know if that's true from a from a hearsay evidence. It's not. That's not. That's not an evidence.
This is an official publication from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
I'm going to object, Mr. Chairman, for those reasons. It's not an evidence. It was not provided in advance, not provided within five days.
He's seeing it for the first time. Those conclusions aren't accepted. And we don't know that that's true.
This is cross-examination, Mr. Byrne.
Well, then you can ask him a question.
So wait a minute. So wait a minute. I agree that he should have seen the documents beforehand.
So I think you should continue your cross-examination without using the document.
And I think, Mr. Tony, you've made some points that he's a guy that's a developer.
This is his project, and he's developed numbers he thinks is the right way to do it.
So I think it's going to be hard to keep the labor in that point with him.
okay mr henderson uh i represent to you that the consumer price index has been
defined as not including increase in value in real estate have you ever heard that from another
uh real estate professional objection we don't know if that's true he mr bergman he prepared
So, wait a minute, Mr. Henderson, you could just answer no.
There's nothing wrong with saying no.
I mean, I think we go back, if you did, you did, if not, just say no.
No, sir.
Okay. So in your initial presentation, you indicated that it's now your opinion that
this project is likely to lose money, correct? Two GCs have said that it will lose money given
current market conditions, correct? So you've been told this is not a feasible project?
I've been told that you need to, I mean, there's a lot of variables, Mr. Toner, that go into how a project is done.
And I have two GCs, one local inside of Philadelphia, saying that the project, if the project's going to lose money, correct?
Have you been provided with any information to lead you to believe that this can be made into a profitable project?
Say the question again, have I been provided information?
provided with any information that would lead you to believe that this can be made into a
profitable project at this point? Well, look, certainly since the first CBA hearing four years
ago, Mr. Toner, we've looked at this multiple angles and multiple ways. We've talked to dozens
of specialists and experts to try to skin the cat a different way. I mean, we've been very patient.
We're not in any rush here, but we've been told multiple times in multiple different ways
this this site has a lot of problems it has a lot of hardship going back to the helical piers
that were at issue in the first hearing um have you done a uh uh calculation on the number of
helical piers that would be needed for one single family home so the uh yes and that's in the
original report from 2018 i don't off the top of my head mr toner i don't i don't know that number
I know that they've certainly gotten more expensive in four years.
And at the last hearing, when Mr. Chairman DiCicco questioned you about how much of a cost savings would be seen if you use less helical piers on less units, have you run those cost calculations on using less helical piers?
As we sit here, take you, tell us if you run those calculations.
I'm sure that I have that data somewhere.
If that question was presented earlier, I could have given you data and given you another.
If that question was, I mean, presented earlier, I could have given you data and give you another
exhibit. I don't know it off the top of my head, Mr. Toner. So you don't know it off the top ahead
and it's not in your exhibit packet, correct? It might be. It might be in there from the
initial 2018. You know, there was 100 pages of documents and exhibits, you know, submitted.
and you don't have any comparable sales that you're looking to for years 2019 2020 2021 or
2022 correct uh like where so where the homes could sell for speculative out sales
a comparable sale analysis yeah objection there is that's the one he started with i mean you know
my question was for years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, you haven't run any comparable sales
analysis for those years, correct? I mean, I can tell you 19128, 19127, kind of off the back of my
off the back of my hand. I mean, two blocks away from where we live, there's 40 units that were
built. A quarter mile down the road, there were requirements built. So yeah, Mr. Toner, if you
want me to go, I can run you through the neighborhood, take you block by block and show
you units that sold for less than 515,000 units sold for more than 515,000. There's a lot of
variables that go into how those units sell and comparables. It's part art, part science. Data
without context is kind of useless. Let me take you through the neighborhood.
Oh, listen, I would appreciate the tour of the neighborhood, but really what my question is
today. Do you have any empirical evidence today of a comparable sale analysis for years 2019,
2020, 2021, and 2022? Not readily available, Mr. Toner. If you'd like me to put a packet
together, I'm happy to do that. And do you have a professional appraiser here to testify today?
No, we don't. We'll stipulate. Do you have a professional realtor here to testify today?
I don't, sir, no.
I have no further questions.
Just one redirect.
Just one redirect.
I'll just go back to that one exhibit.
Mr. Henderson, can you hear me?
I got you, sir.
Yeah, the letter from Dan McIntosh.
Did you speak to him about whether the price point that you were using for your analysis was accurate or not?
Objection, this is hearsay.
I did speak to him, yes.
Mr. Bergman, this is your second.
Well, I would say this.
It informs.
I can't testify about what a professional said outside.
So I think his testimony and the letter's fine.
I agree.
We're not going to get into it.
Something that's not in the letter.
Let me ask it this way without asking for what he said.
Did you speak to Mr. McIntosh about whether your methodology was accurate or not without telling me whether it was or not?
i did speak to him yes all right that's all mr demarco do you have other witness i just have
dan pelichotti if he's uh can be i think he's with dave is that right dave he's here he's ready
make sure he sits where you are so we can hear him clearly okay yeah i'm just gonna scoot the
computer maybe one second i'll be very brief with uh mr pelichotti i'm mr pelichotti could
you state your name and spell for the court reporter please yes daniel pelichotti p-e-l-l-i-c-c-i-o-t-t-i
right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth sir
yes i do i'm sorry there is one additional witness mr chairman i misspoke we also have
mr manganese to testify but i'll we'll be very brief both will be very brief
mr pelichotti i'm going to share my screen here with me
are you a uh in the business of construction mr pelchat mr pelchatty yes sir what do you do
for a living tell the board construction company i'm an owner and did you uh did you speak to dave
henderson uh when you prepared an analysis of whether this property would be uh feasible with
nine units or less yes okay and you provided a an estimate for mr henderson right yes can you
see my screen what i have on my on my screen yes is this your estimate for the construction for
the property yes and have you uh engaged in the same analysis that mr henderson engaged in in
order to determine whether you could develop this property with nine homes or less yes well i'm the
I brought the engineer in right and what we found out was it was a dump site back in the 50s
it was a dump site back in the 50s and it was dumped with ash and um so we would have to remove
and it was dumped with ash
the ash and bring in fresh soil along with doing the hill go pierce so it actually would actually
be better for the neighborhood all the way around because there's a lot of problems
in that area where they have a lot of moisture in the base and this would actually take care of it
And as far as the analysis on the construction costs for this project, can you develop this project for less than nine homes, feasibly?
The number I came up with, you start making a profit halfway through the eighth home.
so in other words so if you were to develop eight homes or less could you feasibly develop
this property no and is that based on your professional experience as a construction
industry yes and have you developed other other homes have you constructed other homes in the
area yes hundreds i would say about 130 total and what has happened as far as construction costs
since you initially proposed this project to the board back in 2018 well i'll make i'll make it
i'll make it simple uh a sheet of plywood which was three quarter was about 38 a sheet it's now
97 dollars a sheet average home uses about 130 sheets
you do your calculations right there excuse me sir excuse me sir are you quoting retail wholesale
so when we buy material we buy in bulk so we usually get a better price
that we'll buy
50 sheets at a time
that's our price
for CD
plywood
CDX plywood
so you're quoting
wholesale
that's bulk sir
when you buy plywood sir
there's all different types of plywood
if you
bought a three quarter
three quarter
um i'm i'm familiar i'm familiar with plywood i'm an architect so they know the different
standards of the plywood correct i'm just getting the cost from you
i'm telling you the prices for three quarter inch plywood are going anywhere from 80 87 to
to close close on it. I was a sheep. Thank you. And Mr. DeMarco. Yeah, last question. It has says
the supply chain issues that we've all heard so much about. Has that also impacted your ability
to to feasibly pull off this project? Yes. How so? Well, most of the interior
fit out. There are products that are being held up. Not so much
the framing, but HVAC
equipment, electrical equipment, cabinetry,
countertops, flooring, drywall.
All them prices are up at least
Mr. Turner, do you have any questions? I do.
Mr. Appelajati, do you agree with Mr. Henderson that the nine-init proposal is no longer feasible?
I already made that statement.
So you agree with him this is not a feasible proposal being presented to the board today?
I said halfway through the eighth one is when you start making money.
okay um have you done a cost analysis for a uh detached single family home on each of the two
lots in question i don't i'm gonna explain something to you this way you understand
you ever build a home before i'm the attorney i asked the question i'm asking you did you ever
build a home before no i don't think it's hold on hold on hold on mr pelshadi do me a favor
just answer his questions well i'm trying to could i'm not okay so just answer his questions
yeah answer it without asking if you didn't that's fine yeah now it's when you take them on a site
okay like this site you have if we put just say we put a 4 000 square foot home on there
we would still have to have to do 90 of the work that we would have to do for nine homes
So it's not feasible.
so it's not feasible
Do you agree with me that there are 4,000 square foot homes that sell in excess of $850,000 in the immediate neighborhood?
you agree with me that there are four
They don't have these soil problems, though.
And so if you did a detached single-family home, how many helical piers would you need?
Objection.
You're aware of this.
Once you disturb the soil, we have to take it all out.
So if you were to construct a 4,000 square foot detached single family home on either
of the two lots in question, what would the cost be for the helical piers and what would
the cost be to remove the soil you're referencing?
The soil itself and the helical piers, we have to stabilize the ground, the whole ground.
okay that's the problem with when some half-assed builders come in like they did years ago that's
why all that on us1 where all them homes collapsed because they built there but around it the ground
shifted and settled this is why we have to put piers in all the way around backfill it with
clean fill i removed it the ash that's in there so the price is the same no matter if you build
The one home, as far as the structure of infrastructure, will be built nine.
So, Mr. Palachati, what would the price be for stabilizing the ground,
installing the helical piers on either of the two lots?
You're probably talking about 1.1, 1.2.
A million.
Yes, sir.
Right. And that's for both lots or one lot? It's all, well, I'm considering one lot.
How many less? What's the reduction in number of helical piers if you're just doing a detached
4,000 square foot? I answered that to you already. The piers still have to go in there for
stabilization of the ground. So if you build a shed that you need to do the same number of
and the same site clearing as if you build a 20,000-square-foot home?
The soil is all the way around.
We would have to put a sleeve.
It's almost like when they build down the shore,
when they sleeve an area for a home,
we have to put steel sleeves all the way around,
almost like a box.
Fill it with clean fill and dirt.
And then for a 4,000-square-foot home,
you're probably looking at uh 66 probably 66 peers
and is that included in some sort of written calculation or is that just your off the cuff
analysis here today that's that's off my cuff right now just like you're okay yeah but before
today did you go through the exercise of running the numbers for one four thousand square foot
home or eight 2100 square foot home i i i heard you before i want you to answer my question
wait a minute wait a minute guys wait a minute mr pelciotti listen to me if you didn't do it
that's fine just say you didn't do it no no sir i brought an engineer in and we discussed it
together and he's the one that came up this i did not come up with this that we have to
stabilize the ground he said dan we have to stabilize the whole the whole area in order
for you to build one big home yeah so mr palachati the commonwealth court took this case and brought
it back to this tribunal and they asked for us to assemble record factual testimony on what is
the minimum variance like at what point does the project break even and so what i'm asking you i
know you've done you know i'm gonna object to ask an answer but i'm sorry wait a minute every tanya
everybody listen. First of all, you got to stop arguing. Mr. Toner, I think he hasn't done those
kind of exercises that he said. He had to talk to the engineer. We got to move on here. Do me a
favor, Mr. Pellicciotti, just answer yes or no. You don't have to debate this. Just answer yes or
no. Yes, sir. Mr. Toner. Mr. Pellicciotti, did you go through the exercise of working with an
engineer coming up with calculations for one single family home on each of the two lots in
question? Yes. I'm going to object. It's one lot. Why do we keep asking a question about two lots?
It's one lot. I'm sorry, Chair. This is Tanya again. Objection. I would respectfully ask that
we consider doing a resumption for this hearing. We have one more that might be
We consider doing a resumption for this hearing.
We have one more that might be lengthy and then the 3.30 list.
Let's go.
I agree.
Thank you, Chair.
Let's finish with this witness, at least.
Mr. Toner.
Is there any written document that includes the details of the off-the-cuff analysis you gave here to the—
I think he's answered that.
I mean, that's what he said.
He answered that was off-the-cuff, so there's not a written document.
all right i have no further questions okay so we're going to have to resume this hearing at
another time um tanya i'll have them get in touch and we'll figure out when it is okay
thank you sir mr pelchotti thanks for your testimony thank you sir okay thank you mr
chairman members of the board thank you get here okay okay number 13 mi 2022 001 290 8230
to 38 frankfort avenue
letter of non-opposition from holmesburg civic association
Joseph Consul.
Mr. Consul, you've already been sworn.
Yes, Joseph.
Could you identify your client relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is Melody Emmerin.
She is the owner representative of Legacy Enrichment Center, LLC.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Certainly.
Hi, Mr. Consul.
Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
It's a referral, but besides that, yes.
Sorry about that.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the referral,
photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing,
and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes to all.
Thank you.
You may proceed, and please share your screen.
I attempted to share. Is my packet up?
There it is.
All right. We're good. Okay.
Joseph Consul here for Legacy Enrichment Center, LLC.
Melody Emmerin is with me and will adopt my testimony in a moment.
We are here on 8230 to 38 Frankfurt Avenue.
That is a small shopping center near Penny Park Creek.
I can give you, here's what the outside of the building looks like. The previous approval, though it was never used, was for a daycare center. Here's a photo of the inside of the space.
My client is here seeking a special exception to use the property as a daytime community class center for things like personal finance, real estate classes, that sort of thing.
And then at night or on the afternoons and the weekends, bridal showers and baby showers and those kinds of special events.
um we included in our packet the referral it's cmx 2.5 so it's an assembly and entertainment
um referral um we have the non-opposition letter from holmesburg civic association we had a nice
meeting with them and there was no opposition expressed at that time for us to use this space
and the packet contains the rest of the items I mentioned, including the plans and the photos.
Here's the floor plans showing what the setup will be like inside
and our other tax documentation, all included, as well as the three-year lease and the letter
from the landlord approving my client's use of this space as assembly and entertainment.
with that i'll call miss melody emeryn to adopt my testimony
yes hello can i can you hear me yes yes could you do me a favor state your name and spell for
the court reporter yes it's melody m-e-l-o-d-i-e emeryn e-m-e-r-a-n right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes good afternoon melody how are you
i'm doing well how are you i'm well did you hear my testimony just now regarding uh your leased
property on frankfurt avenue do you adopt it as your own yes is there anything you'd like to add
Yes. Is there anything you'd like to add today to the testimony? What's that?
today to the testimony what's that
Oh, did you say yes or no? No, I don't need to add anything else. Okay. Thank you.
We'll rest with that. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
planning commission good afternoon mr chairman david vecto city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at this location
the applicant has shown that the proposed use will have no more in no more of an impact than
it would be expected to have so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the
special exceptions. MI 2022-001-290-8230-38
Frankfurt Avenue, I vote yes.
Harold Teneri, my vote is yes.
Thomas Sullivan, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Board.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you. Have a nice day.
MI-2022-001-308-8330 Millman Street. Call for Maverro for the applicant. Call Boney for the protesters.
Letter of support from the Chestnut Hill Community Association.
Letter of support for revised plans from the Chestnut Hill Conservancy.
mr primavera uh yes mr chairman members of the board carl primavera uh can you see me
and hear me we can hear you but we can't see you see you that may be a break
how's that now we can we're back we're good could you could you spell your name for the court
reporter yes p as in peter r-i-m-a-v-e-r-a and with me is my colleague uh melanie
lacy who is going to be working the uh computer exhibits for me sure do you swear for him to tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Paul, could you state your name,
please, sir, and spell for a court reporter? Yes, good afternoon. My name is Paul Boni,
P-A-U-L-B-O-N-I, 325 Chestnut, Suite 1109-19106. Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. And I'm here on behalf of Joan and Brooke Lau,
L-A-U. Right. For the record, Mr. Primavera, could you identify your client and their relationship
to the property? Yes. My client is David Lockhart. He's a member of the bar and he is the owner as
well as the applicant in this request for a variance. All right. Our vice chair has a few
questions. Hi, Mr. Primavera. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? Yes, we do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax
compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in
advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter? Yes, to all of the
above. Okay, great. You may proceed and share your screen, which is already up. Good. Hi, this is
Tanya, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Chair Bergman, if I could make a special request to those that
are before us today. The court reporter had a problem with the previous case. If we could not
talk over each other, that would be wonderful. Speak one at a time so she can get a full record.
I thank you all very kindly. Thank you, and I will do my honest best, especially with respect
for my colleague, Mr. Bonnie. So again, may it please the board, Carl Primavera with Melanie
Lacey. We represent the owner of the property, David Lockhart, who's also the applicant. This
is a request for variance relief. And what we're trying to do, as you'll hear, is to create a small
detached structure, which will functionally serve as an addition to a very small, iconic home
The problem is because it's the Venturi House, the Historic Commission will not allow us to do an addition for reasons which we'll get into.
to do an addition for reasons which we'll get into. So the only way that Historic Commission
would approve expanding this 1,800 square foot home on a 37,000 square foot lot would be by way
of this little structure. In the old days, they would call them in-law suites, or they would call
dependencies, I guess, back in the really old days. So with that, you'll see the exhibits.
They include the letters of support from several neighbors. We do have one neighbor who is a
protestant represented by Mr. Bonney, but we have our regular exhibits plus some that are B,
which will be very interesting. We're not going to go through them all because they'll be in the
record, but there's a substantial amount of information regarding this Venturi House,
and that really is the nub of the issue. The hardship presented by our inability
to put on any type of addition means that we need a separate structure, and that's why the
Community Association, the Chestnut Hill Conservancy, the Historic Commission, and others
are supporting this. I'm going to present two witnesses. The first, after my introduction,
will be Donna Lyle, who's an architect who worked on this project along with Juliet Fajardo. But I'm
not going to present Juliet unless there's a question that she needs to answer. And I'm going
to present my client, one, to authenticate a letter which is in the exhibit package that he
prepared for people who were interested in why he needs this addition. So I'm hoping to keep this
very focused and get to the heart of the issue quickly. Now, an ADU, it's an accessory dwelling
unit, which is in the code. And as you'll hear, it was developed in the new code at the request
of historic preservation people and people who are interested in creating housing opportunities
for aging in place and adults. We do not meet the ADU requirement in the code, but as you will hear,
if anyone had thought about this, it would have been in a code, and we are conceptually
right on point with why the ADU is appropriate and why it's the least minimum variance for use
and dimensions and creates no adverse impact to the neighbors. It's a de minimis relief that
we're seeking. Now, this property was the first commission by Robert Venturi, Philadelphia's
most famous architect, and it was for his mother. He was trying to find a way to develop his
reputation so he created this vision in 1960 and today after my client bought it quite frankly
it was designated and it's considered the most important house in the city even more than the
betsy ross house and you can wonder why but that's why our exhibit package is so venomous
People come from all over the world.
Mr. Chairman, may I make a brief objection to bring to your attention?
Mr. Primavera has an architect and his client, who I think we'll learn is quite a student of this house.
And I don't think it's appropriate for the lawyer to give the evidence in this case.
I would not stipulate that that would be appropriate.
I think he should put his witnesses on to put the evidence into the record so that we can cross-examine effectively.
I don't mind the brief opening statement.
So I would say that on a regular basis, we let attorneys put the information on the record, and we're going to continue that, and he will put the people on.
You'll have a chance to cross-examine them.
Go on, Mr. from there.
Sure. So it was put on the historic register after my client purchased it. And that's important, as you'll hear from his testimony. And our argument will be that this is a piece of art. It's a piece of architecture.
It was the first postmodern building, and it's unique because, as we all know, it is very common to go to the Historic Commission with historic properties in Society Hill, Rittenhouse Square, and have the right to do an addition as long as it's not intrusive.
But here, as you'll hear, and as you'll see in the exhibit package, because this is the most important structure in the city of Philadelphia from an architectural perspective, the historic...
In the city of Philadelphia, from an architectural perspective, the Historic Commission said no alteration or addition to the house will be permitted.
So we have no luxury in that regard or flexibility.
Our lot, again, is 37,000 square feet.
It's a flag lot.
And the house is 18,000 or 1,875 square feet.
The district allows 30% coverage. Well, even with our proposed ADU, we're like 6.5%. So we have this huge lot and a tiny house.
And normally we could go and do any number of additions, but because of the zero tolerance by the Historic Commission, the reality is we have nothing to do except come to this board for variance relief.
Why does my client need more space? Well, as you'll hear, this was done really as a academic project by Venturi to express his desire for a new style of doing business.
At the 25 and 50 year celebration of the property, the statement has been made that almost all high rise buildings have reflected his postmodernism.
So from this tiny little house for his mother, it influenced the shape of high rise buildings and architecture all over the world.
So that is why, again, we are being so harshly limited by the by the commission.
So the issue that you'll see is that we have the front of the property on Millman and the back of the property on Navajo.
And the commission and the secretary of the interior standards say, on an important building, you're not allowed to be visible from those street frontages.
So the commission, working with the design team, found the only spot where it's not visible to the public. And listen to this. We were not allowed to be visible from inside the Venturi house.
So when people come from China and all over the world and they come into the house, as my client lets them do, they won't look out and see this little addition structure.
That's how sensitive the commission was.
So here we are with a list of meetings, which is extremely long, subcommittees, the historic review.
review. The Chestnut Hill process started with the Development Review Committee. It then goes to the
Zoning and Land Use Committee. You go to the Conservancy, which is a historic review. You go
back to the Development Review Committee and on to the full Board of Directors. In addition,
in our exhibit package, you'll see a variety of workshops, subcommittees, hours and hours of time
spent to try to figure out exactly how we can make this as palatable to Mr. Bonney's client
as possible. And as you'll hear from him, the only thing that they're willing to talk about
is moving it to Navajo Street. But the commission has told us repeatedly, that's a non-starter.
So we look at this as the same as a garage, and you'll see that in the exhibits, where some people
have other outbuildings. This rendering shows you how small the dependency building is. We're
going to get into that with the architects. So that pretty much is why we believe we have
hardship to the property, why this is the least minimum variance both is to use because it's a
residential use. And really what it is, it's if you could just connect the two, we have enough
open area and space to do it, but the Historic Commission said instead of doing an attached
addition, it has to be on a separate structure, and it has to be in a place where it won't
impact the view. And you'll see in this view of 8336, Mr. Bonney's clients are
85 feet from the rear of their home to where we intend to put this adu building also as you'll
hear the 8336 was a small farmhouse before his clients purchase it they uh the prior owner
uh built additions now they didn't need variances at the time but they built very significant
But they built very significant additions on a much smaller lot.
editions on a much smaller lot.
So here we are with a small house on a huge lot, but we need variance relief.
They were able to buy a house that was a tiny farmhouse from the 1850s, which before they bought it had been expanded.
And in the Redfin information, which you'll see, it says that the additions to this house are expansive.
and I'll just read it because it says here.
Let's get back to the first page.
It says, this five-bedroom farmhouse
with jaw-dropping timber frame edition
has to be seen.
Where is this place?
This is in the exhibit package.
No, I'm just saying.
Oh, this is your client's property.
This was the red thin listing.
i'm saying i don't see what you're reading on the page here it's the little uh marker that
melanie has there it is okay okay five bedroom farmhouse with jaw-dropping timber frame edition
so the the point is the context that in this area there are uh buildings and structures which have
been added since the old days because they're historic well here the bizarre thing is this
building was 1960, but it's been put on the historic register. So we can't do anything
without both historic relief and zoning relief. So that's a long way of me saying I'd now like
to introduce the architect, Ms. Donna Lyle. Could you state your name, sir, and spell for
the court reporter? Hi, my name is Donna Lyle. It's spelled L-I-S-L-E. All right. Do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Proceed. Carl? Okay.
Yes. Can you just briefly tell us your connection to the project? Obviously, you were involved in
the design and the approval process through the SOAR commission? Sure. Both Juliet actually
had met David and he retained Juliet. Juliet and I worked together for a number of years
at a large center city firm. And Juliet asked me to work with her on this project.
And as daunting as it was, it's also extremely exciting to think about it.
um so we um initially started working on this um i would say late june early july about a year ago
and um came up with a couple of different proposals we um they were all on the
west elevation which is the one with the open porch that you see the second slide on the top
to the right. They were all sort of on that side because it was the only side of the lot
that you could put something that wouldn't be seen. And we met with several very renowned people
on the history of Venturi and on the history of this house, coming to the conclusion of the
siding where it is so we proceeded to work out the design for this very small adu and um started we
we went ahead and decided because of because of the iconic nature of this house and knowing that
we likely that the issues with adding on to it and what have you that even adding anything on
the property there may be zero tolerance for that as well so we decided that we need to go to the
Historic Commission just to see if there was some there was that we could that we could even add
a small. Now, Donna, you heard my presentation with regard to all the information. Are you able
to adopt that as your own testimony as being true and correct? Yes, all of it. All right. Now,
you went to the Historic Commission and in our record of exhibits is the approval process from
the Architectural Review Committee as well as from the full commission. So can you just briefly
tell us what the commission approved and what they didn't allow? Sure. So, Melanie, if we could
look at the plan, the site plan showing the location. I think if you look at slide number 14,
you'll see the plan okay yeah yeah you can go back to that slide showing the plan
I think it's slide number 14.
I apologize.
Are you asking for the revised plan?
Okay, let's sort of zero in on this.
This is what the Historic Commission saw, this is what we presented to them.
After meeting with the Architectural Committee the first time, they asked for tons of photographs
from all sides, from Navajo Street, from Millman Street, up the driveway, everywhere.
They were convinced that it was next to invisible where it was.
And they also asked if we could move it two feet further away, diagonally, the corners,
just as far as we could, which is one of the reasons why this eight-foot setback is requested
on the right property line that you see.
Now, on that eight-foot setback, can you tell us, are you aware of the position of Mr. Balangie, the adjoining neighbor, with regard to the two-foot shortage from the 10-foot setback required?
Yes. They were asked about that immediately, and they agreed to it before we went back to the second round of the Historic Commission.
All right. And I think he's actually attending this session.
Now, please describe the dimensions, the size, the shape, and the height of this accessory dwelling unit and compare it to.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
I just wanted to jump in because I did receive the revised proviso plans form for this project,
and it indicates that there had been an increase in the setback, I believe, from 8 to 12 or 10 to 12,
because there's two kind of setbacks next to where the EDU is placed.
But, okay, yeah, so 10 to 12,
but I did not see that reflected in either version of the plan that was submitted.
And maybe I was looking at the wrong setback,
but I did not see that increased setback reflected on the plan.
All right, let's clarify that right now.
And if Melody can go back to what she just had. So the revised plan did two things in the cover sheet, you'll see. One is the building of the ADU has been set back a little bit from 8336, which is the Protestant neighbor.
um the other thing is the adu uh shrunk by about a foot so it was pushed further away from
uh mr bonnie's client and it was made a tad smaller um and i think uh donna you can just
you know confirm that and also i think the confusion is the setback we're talking about
is from the rear of 8336. I think the Balangie eight-foot setback, which is two feet less than
code, hasn't changed. Am I correct? That is correct. As a result of the subcommittee meetings
and the process that we went through with the RCO, part of the increase is the 10-foot to the 12-foot,
And that is to provide more extra space for a more generous, beautiful landscape buffer, rather than something, it was felt that if it's 10 feet, that maybe you would end up with something that's more like a green screen, rather than a continuation of landscaping with mixed deciduous and bushes and evergreens.
So the 12 feet.
With that clarification, can we go back to the size, shape, and height of the ADU?
i was gonna say i'm not i'm still seeing a 10-foot setback on this plan i'm not seeing a 12-foot setback
this is hillary it's it's on the proviso plan well it's on the form but it's not actually on
the plan from what i can see it has to be on the plan
because with the proviso form i have to stamp plans
if this is granted
that match what's on the proviso form.
Donna, is it on the plan, or is that something we'll submit at the end of the hearing?
Donna, is it on the plan
or is that something we'll submit at the end of the year?
That is something we can submit. We would have to, absolutely.
All right, then let's do that.
We can update that zoning plan for that.
All right, but just show us where it takes place so that we can at least see it now,
and then we'll update the plan so it's consistent with the proviso form for the zoning port.
right okay um so it takes place right here up against this is the
protestant's um rear property line this is the concerning property line here um and
okay go to go to the next one the next slide
So this is increased now to 12 feet.
This shows suggested mix of plantings and ground covers
and shrubbery to effectively shield
what was already not shielded by the shed
and other shrubbery on the protestant's property.
All right, we'll show those photos.
So how long is the ADU in feet?
So it is, well, exact in inches. It was about 48 feet long. We reduced it by one foot, so it was 47 feet long.
And what about the depth? I see 18 feet. Am I reading it properly?
Yes, the depth is 18.
Tell me about the program briefly. What's included in this freestanding structure, which is really an addition, but it's freestanding?
Right. So there are there's two small bedrooms which are in blue. There are two bathrooms. It's seen that this would be, you know, likely the owners and potentially maybe a second person or caretaker would have this one.
Is it accessible and something that would allow for aging in place?
The intent is for aging in place.
And what about the original Venturi house?
The original Venturi House is definitely not accessible.
All right.
And we have a lot of material on the record, but can you tell us about the steps that lead to nowhere and some of the other complexities as the architectural critics describe it?
So the plan of the Venturi House was, I mean, it has had books written about it.
And the complexities of it are really the upper level, which where things kind of pop up and out and all over and resolve into a very symmetrical ground floor plan that they say was fashioned after Palladio, which Venturi sort of was able to make happen with the use of diagonal walls that actually Lucan had come up with. Venturi worked for Lucan.
And how wide is that staircase to Doher?
It's 24 inches.
All right. And it's pretty steep and doesn't look like it would be good for aging in place.
Well, it's not. It's it's it is not good for aging in place.
Now, let's just go a little bit down where it says parking and shed 188336.
Can you tell us what that is meant to show or indicate?
Yeah. And I want to point out just one more thing about the stair, if I could, if I may.
that stair cannot be modified. It is jammed between the masonry chimney on the left
and the front facade of the house. There is not a way to make that stair wider and modify it.
Right. All right. So we're concerned about 8336 and what impact, if any, will this ADU structure
have. So I'm looking at what appears to be in yellow dotted lines, which are 8336,
which is Paul Bonney's client. And then I see in blue must be the original Venturi house. And then
in red looks to be a square that would be the proposed accessory dwelling unit.
Correct.
Now, what level of detail have you gone into to try to mitigate any adverse impact or any inconvenience or annoyance to adjoining property owner at 8336?
Well, annoyance, first of all, I think if we could show that, you know, this slide here and maybe the next slide, it shows where it's not very visible at all.
Even a year ago in the summer, we staked out the property with pink tape on the property line,
and all the neighbors were kind of apprised of it, the Louse as well.
And can we see a photo of the shed, a better photo? I know that Ms. Lau has a shed. So you're looking from the rear of her house. That's her car in the parking lot. She has a shed. We have a shed which we'll remove and it will be replaced by that dotted pink line.
And can we see a photo of the shed?
A better photo.
Correct. And the shrubbery and the green shed are on the Lau property line, and the gray shed behind the green shed is the shed that will come down. So you're left with seeing maybe, let's say, a third of the ADU.
All right. We have an elevation of that in some type of draft form, so you can see what that would look like.
I apologize to interrupt. Can you promote Juliet Farahado to the panel to take over the exhibit presentation?
What was that?
Can you please promote someone by the name of Juliet Farahado to the panel?
She'll more easily be able to manipulate the photos so we can move more quickly.
Although we're rounding the bases right now.
I can manipulate the photos if you want me to share.
Great. Thank you.
Let me see how to share here.
And Juliet has been promoted.
Oh, OK. OK, that's fine.
So we're looking for the image where you can see or not see what this ADU will look like after the landscaping has been done.
And the idea is a lot of work has been done to make it as minimalistic as possible.
Right.
So if you go down to slide five, it shows the hatched area.
Melanie, can you guys see me and hear me?
Juliette, I think that we need to do the slides.
So you want me to share the screen?
It says you cannot share screen while another participant.
Miss Lacey, you have to stop sharing.
and juliette you're going to just show slides no conversation okay so i still see lacy's
or melanie's screening okay there we go okay then i'll share my screen
okay so donna while we're doing this how much time was spent through the approval process with
the chestnut hill community association and as a subsection how many hours would you say was spent
with Ms. Lau? Well, the community association, we started meeting with them in February and
I haven't counted the meetings. I think there have been like six official meetings. And then
during the subcommittee meetings and with Mrs. Lau, I'd say there's been probably eight hours
of just pure meeting. And meeting with architects and plans and requested information to move it
and show it and photograph it.
I mean, you've worked tirelessly, am I correct?
Juliet and I have both worked very many hours extensively.
We've met with landscape people.
We've looked at this every which way that you can.
Do you believe there's anything more you can do
to minimize this proposed accessory dwelling unit,
Or is this the least minimum variance in size and shape and use to accommodate what we're trying to establish here?
This is the least this is the least amount of space that's really needed for the program.
All right. So there's no extra space for partying.
I mean, this is designed to be mean and lean, both architecturally as well as programmatically.
Am I correct? Absolutely.
And it's all of the activity center is on the other side.
It's very, it's a very quiet building.
It, you know, it originally we thought we'll have one small window that'll be kind of shielded.
But, you know, it doesn't really need to even have that if that's an issue.
So it won't influence anything on this side of the property line on the Lao side.
Am I correct?
It should not influence anything at all.
Oh, and as Juliet's looking for that image that shows the shaded in area so we can see the height.
I think she had it up, Carl. She had it up a little while ago.
I didn't see what I was looking for.
Are you looking for the pink shaded area?
I'm looking for, somebody did a rendering.
Oh, I did. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, I know you did.
All right, so while we're doing that, let me get to the other point.
So you're familiar with the Venturi house. You studied it like everybody else in architecture school. You studied it with regard to this process. Do you believe as an architect that the size.
Do you believe, as an architect, that the size, shape, design, interior, exterior of the Venturi House presents a hardship for a single family dwelling?
I would object to that. That's a legal question. That's the ultimate question that the board has to answer. It's not for an architect to say.
Well, she has an opinion.
I will have to say, I have looked at trying to modify the first floor to make it compliant, and it is not possible without changing significantly written about walls and explanations on the history of Venturi's polemic that is internationally famous.
it's not possible it's not possible to to add space as we know from the phc to me it's a
hardship it's a very very small house it's smaller than typical houses of modern living
it was designed for a widow it's now we're now moving into we've had a 20 percent increase in
multi-generational and blended families in the last 10 years, this is not going to go away.
The house to remain viable and to stay open to the public and maintained
needs to be able to be a house. It needs to be a lived-in house that someone can afford to keep
and maintain. All right, and thank you. Did you see in the materials reference to Venturi saying
that the house is small in size,
but the design is to make it look bigger on the exterior?
That's, yes, that's part of the,
that's one of the points in Complexity and Contradiction,
the famous sort of textbook of architects.
All right, I have nothing further unless the board does,
and I know Mr. Bonney will have some questions.
Mr. Bonney, you have a few questions.
Yes, I have numerous questions.
Well, then, let's have a conversation here, because tell me how long you're going to cross, and Carl, give me an idea how much longer you have to go.
I have probably 10 minutes with the owner, and that's it.
Mr. Bonny, how long do you think you'll be on cross, and how many witnesses do you have?
well i have one witness um i i don't i'm going to be at least
10 or 15 minutes um cross-examination uh on both witnesses um of carl's
and 15 on 15 on each and your own witness mr bonnie my own witness i think will be
fairly short maybe 10 minutes from me i don't know if carl has cross very very limited well
one of the things i wanted to say mr chairman is that i'm sure really begging the members of
the board to allow us to have some closing statements at the end some closing argument
at the end just a few minutes for me so here here's we're getting late today yet and we still
have the whole 330 list to go through so what what i think we're going to do is we're going to
we're going to have to bring you back and you know that's fine and i want to say that we would
be happy to come back for a special i mean we're i'm not sure what we can do we'll figure out how
we're going to do that but what we do is when we know when we come back we know what time we're
dealing with and we know what you'll both get closing so is that okay thank you so what what
i'd like to do is break now carl when we come back he can cross you can put your next witness
on the next time we come back he can cross again and then his witness will go on you can cross
and then you'll do your closing is that okay that's fine mr chairman i i don't think even
if i get to be labored as i sometimes do it'll be more than 45 minutes to do what needs to be done
I just think we, yeah, we, we just can't do it now.
No, I, no, I understand that.
Mr. Boney makes a point, you know, make sure then you'll do your witnesses.
You'll both have a chance to close. Okay.
That's fine. Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it.
And thank you for working with us and thank you to the witnesses and we'll,
we'll be back with a, with a date for you to come back. Okay.
Thank you. All right. Thank you very much.
All right. 3.30 list. Go over there or instructions, everybody. Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman. I'll be doing the afternoon schedule here, 3.30 schedule. With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
With me is Carlton Airy, our vice chair.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ismail Shahid, our board secretary.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our executive director, Tanya Sunkett, is here, and our board attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Be advised these proceedings are being recorded by participating in the knowledge agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548. Leave your email address
and the property and questions address. And lastly, please note the question and answer box
is not for testimony or comments. Any comments should be directed to Tanya Sunkett, our executive
director. We'll start with continuances. Number three.
Number three. MI 2021-002-920-3245 North 27th Street.
received continuance from Ms. Talley. She just had surging and has to continue this.
So this case is being continued. Is there any questions from the virtual audience about this case?
I see no hands, Chair.
Are there any other continuances?
I see no hands, Chair.
Our first case, MI-2022-002-619-1629 Porter Street. Raymond Derizio is the attorney. Letter of support for the Broad Street West RCO.
Mr. Derizio.
good afternoon mr chairman and members of the board
mr dorizio good afternoon could you state your name and spell for the court report
yes raymond dorizio d-o-r-i-z-i-o and i represent go ahead and i represent uh 1629 porter street
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
And who is your client and the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is BVC Rentals.
Brian Vile is the owner and member of that LLC and the operator of the property.
Our vice chair, Carol Tenere, has a few questions.
Mr. Dorisio, do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
yes have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance a copy of
the refusal or referral photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing
and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes you may proceed and begin to share
your screen thank you thank you so i'm gonna go to my screen just give me one second as i'm going
from an iPad here. Okay. So here's our packet. This is 1629 Porter Street. My client received
the refusal back in January. He is seeking a business and professional office on the basement
first floor with a single family unit on the second floor. It's a two-story house.
It's on the corner of Chadwick and Porter. He did post notice of the hearing.
This was, we didn't have the deed right at the time when I brought this in, but we did attach
a copy of the deed. Property was formerly owned by the American Academy of the Sacred Heart for
many years. My client purchased it in October of 2021.
BVC Realty, my client does computer repairs and technology work. He currently has a property
already on the street on that block where he operates computer repairs. There's no
clients that walk in. He basically serves business clients mainly.
Clients that walk in, he basically serves business clients, mainly some residential where he has techs working in the building and they do service calls and such.
He's looking to expand the property at 1629 is a larger property and he's basically seeking to have offices on the first floor.
The basement is going to be for some storage space.
And here's a photo.
So this is the property. It's a corner property. Sorry about that. Some photos of the interior.
It is gutted. He's going to have to do some work to bring it up to speed, obviously, but
that will be subject to the approval. This is Porter Street looking east. St. Monica's School
is on the right side across the street. There are other multifamily properties. This is a property
photo is 1629. It's other multifamily and businesses on the street. This is looking
directly across the street. This is looking west on Porter Street, residential and some commercial.
Another building, which is at a quarter block away, Bancroft Street, which is actually right
across where my client currently operates, which is the photo to the right. That's his current
business, now a little smaller building. We did meet with the RCO. There was no opposition
that we were aware of. They sent in the votes of support. There was some non-opposition as well.
And like we are proposing, my client just wants to have the same business,
move it down the street into a larger unit so he can hire some more workers. His hours are
office hours they're um nine to five um there's going to be no traffic coming in as far as foot
traffic and businesses i'm sorry customers coming into the business and that is essentially what
he's looking to do is just move and expand his business and uh the community was in support of
that. I believe my client is on the call, and if I can call him to certify my testimony.
Did you have your client please raise their hand?
Yes, Mr. Vile, can you please raise your hand on the Zoom call, please?
I'm sure you're an officer. You're an officer of the court. We can take your testimony.
Yes. Okay. Thank you. He would adopt mine. He wasn't. He wasn't a call. I was texting back.
I think I just unmuted me if you can hear me. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter, please? Sure. Brian, B-R-I-A-N, last name Vile, V-I-L-E.
Right. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. Proceed. Okay so Mr. Vile did you hear the testimony that I presented to the board this
afternoon? I did yes. Okay and is it true and correct? It is. And you wish to adopt it as your
own? I do. Okay thank you. I have nothing further. Questions from the board? No Mr. Chairman. No Mr. Chairman.
No Mr. Chairman. No. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no handshare planning commission this is uh ron bednar city planning first name ron r-o-n
last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do proceed sir while this property is currently indicated for residential on the city
plan given the physical conditions of the site recommend the request for advantage be granted
Thank you. MI 2022-002-619-1629-Porter Street, I vote yes.
Carol Tineri, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
MI 2022-
Thank you.
Thank you.
1733 to 37
North Front Street
Devin Beverly is the attorney
letter of support from Fishtown
Kensington Business Association
letter of support from Fishtown Neighbors
Association
Jason Business is also
submitted letters
Devin Beverly
hi mr chairman can you hear me yes could you state your name and spell please for the court
reporter hi devon beverly d-e-v-o-n beverly b-e-b-e-r-l-y do you swear for him to tell the truth
Beverly. B-E-B-E-R-L-Y. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth? Yes. Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property? Yes. My client
is Callahan Ward Companies. They are a partner of the property owner entity. We have Mr. Pritcher
Fellow here on behalf of my client. Our vice chair, Carol Tenere, has a few questions.
Hi, Devin. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Hi, yes.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Okay, you may proceed and begin with sharing your screen.
Great, thank you.
Thank you.
can everyone see the screen yes great all right so as i stated my name is devin beverly i am here
on behalf of my client as the attorney we also have a full team here today so we have my client
mr future fellow on behalf of callahan war companies we have mr kevin o'neill on behalf
of KJ architecture, and we have Mr. Dave Horner, a traffic engineer with Horner and Cantor Associates.
As you mentioned, we received letters of support from the coordinating RCO, the Fishtown Neighbors
Association. We also received a letter of support from the Fishtown and Kensington area business
improvement district. Both of these letters of support cited how this proposed project would
make this section of North Front Street more pedestrian friendly, more walkable, more attractive,
and bring in light and air to this area and increase foot traffic.
We also received a letter of support from LMNO, who is the adjacent property owner right here.
And so I will dive more into this presentation.
So here's some context for you all.
So this is the site right here where this blue arrow is.
Here's this blue site.
It is a CMX3 zoning district.
It is close to a number of public transportation hubs.
So we have the market Frankfurt line here.
We have Burke Street Station right here.
It's about 900 feet away from our property.
It is about like a four minute walk maximum.
And then you also have a zip car drop off right here.
You have numerous bus stops along Frankfurt Avenue.
This service is like Route 5, Route 25, Route 3, also along North Front Street.
We also have another L-stop a little further south right down there.
I do note that there is recent proposed legislation to add Burke Street Station, Burke Station, to the TOD overlay.
So if our property was slightly closer to the station, about 400 feet, no parking would be required for this site.
We also note that the TOD is intended to encourage, to grow the urban, to encourage urban growth, reduce reliance on cars and like create a safe pedestrian environment, which we believe our client is doing here today at this site.
Here is the existing structure. It is a vacant building in poor condition. Here is LMNO, the restaurant right here. Here is Evil Genius. It is a brewery. It's also, both businesses are pretty heavily trafficked, and it's a growing area.
our client is proposing to construct a six-story building with 25 dwelling units nine bicycle
spaces ground floor retail space and commercial trash pickup given that this isn't a cmx three
zoning district eight off street parking spaces are required for the site however providing that
would be a hardship here, given the fact that it's an extremely tight site, one. Two, we have
the unfortunate location of an L pole directly in front of our site. And as we're providing these
residential units, you need back-of-house space and just general residential spaces on the ground
floor, which includes an elevator, stairwells for entry and exit. You also need a mail room.
You need a trash room. You need just a residential lobby space, along with other accessory spaces.
So fitting all of that on this site, including the unfortunate location of this L-Pol, makes providing ground floor parking extremely difficult.
In its place, we have proposed to provide ground floor commercial retail space to make this area more engaging,
to connect these two commercial businesses along the street and to create a safe pedestrian
thoroughfare. We're also eliminating the need for any curb cuts to avoid any
We're also eliminating the need for any curb cuts to avoid any conflicts between pedestrians and moving vehicles between this heavily trafficked area.
If the board is amenable, I would like to call Mr. O'Neill to briefly discuss the building, the design of the building, and the efforts they've thought about the pedestrian experience and the resident experience and safety.
Mr. O'Neill, can you understand?
i'm here mr neal could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter please
kevin j o'neal uh o-post free n-e-i-l-l all right do you swear for him to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes all right ken do you have a screen that you can
go off of or are you going to work it for i can uh i can share my screen sure go ahead
So here you go, Mr. O'Neill. I'll defer to you.
Thanks, Devin. So just briefly, I'll give you a quick run through of what our design thought was with this project.
The objective was really to prioritize the importance of the streetscape at eye level on this very busy commercial corridor.
As Devin mentioned, we did a couple of things to accommodate that.
So the footprint of the building was rotated and recessed away from the property line to effectively add additional space to the public right of way.
So because of that unfortunate SEPTA L column placement right in front of our building, we actually carved a way into the property a little bit and set that commercial ground floor wall back a little bit.
So effectively, the pedestrian experience there still gets that full right of way that they would have had if that if that column wasn't in the way.
So in addition to doing that, it also allows for additional clearance to get around that column,
and then we're also providing well-lit and secure entry points for both the residential portion
and the commercial space. This view that we're showing here, this is actually our interior
residential entry on the south side, which is sort of tucked away back from the front street side.
and then briefly we'll show you this is our ground floor here so the red indicates the
commercial space that we're proposing and again as uh as devon mentioned we think this is a better
use of this of this ground floor um rather than having a potentially dangerous and cumbersome
curb cut which doesn't really have a natural place where it could go um we we thought that
would be a better use of that ground floor space thank you so much mr honio thank you
members of the board. I would also like to note that in our exhibit packet as exhibit 13, we included a report prepared by Mr. Horner.
It's a parking study, and it essentially asserts that there is adequate parking capacity and public transit capacity in the neighborhood to support this development.
I would like to introduce Mr. Horner as the author of that report and as an expert in traffic engineering, if you would allow.
Go ahead, sir.
Mr. Horner, can you unmute yourself?
Yes, I believe I am. Can you hear me?
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is David Horner, H-O-R-N-E-R.
All right, do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Horner, could you give us a brief overview of your findings?
Yes, I can.
So when we looked at the fact that this area is served well by public transportation, I think that's the most notable aspect of the parking needs for this site or reducing the parking needs.
As you know, there's a, the Burke station of the market, Frankfort L is about less than two tenths of a mile north of the site, down Front Street.
There's also bus service as close as about 0.1 miles from the site over on Frankfort Avenue.
So that's number one. Number two, we did look at the parking availability in the area. And even though there is parking demand that goes on currently,
We did note that during the daytime, there's about nine available on-street parking spaces in about the two-block area proximal to the site.
And in the evening, there's about five we identified in the evening.
So in our opinion, this site, from a parking perspective, is served by the public transportation well.
There is some available on-site park, on-street parking, I should say.
and it is consistent with the other
and it is consistent with the other parking provisions in the area.
Thank you, Michelle.
Thank you.
So in wrapping this up, the denial of this variance would result in an unnecessary hardship for a client.
This variance represents the least modification possible to provide relief under the zoning code.
This variance would not increase congestion in the public streets or endanger the public by not providing a drive aisle across in the middle of a block between two heavily trafficked commercial spaces.
We're avoiding those conflicts.
We're also, this variance will also not harm neighbors and impair their light and air.
As Mr. O'Neill described, we're setting it back to increase light and air on this area and make a more lively pedestrian thoroughfare.
And lastly, this variance is in accordance with the comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan notes that this site should be for commercial mixed use. It also notes that along the market Frankfurt Line corridor, there is a need for like setbacks and more light and air in the area.
At the end of the day, our client believes that this would be a benefit to the community because it's revitalizing a vacant building, it's enhancing the pedestrian experience, and it's supporting the development of this commercial corridor.
It is clear from the letters of support that we received that the neighbors and the immediate neighbors, in fact, are in support with this as well.
So I leave this for questions, if you have any.
Is your client here?
Do you want to have your testimony adopted by your client?
Yes, please.
Mr. Kutrafele, can you unmute yourself?
Did you have your client raise their virtual hand, please?
Hi, can you hear me?
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
sure antonio cutrefello last name is c-u-t-r-u-f as in frank e-l-o-o right do you swear for him to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do proceed hi mr cutrefello um did
you hear my testimony i did do you um say that is accurate and confirmed i do thank you questions
from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair we have flown folks
mr folks state your name and spell for the court reporter please good afternoon chairman bergman
members of the zba board my name is sloan folks s-l-o-a-n-e f as in fire o-l-k-s
office of council member maria quinones sanchez 7th district room 508 city hall
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
I do so, sir.
Proceed. Proceed.
Prior to first, the councilman has sent a written copy of her statement to the ZBA, their solicitor, as well as the applicants for the variance.
Prior to me reading her statement on the record, she wanted me to say that not only is the 7th district, you know, the area, this is the area in the 7th district which she represents, this is also the community in which she lives and raised her family.
The applicant has met with the RCO and has garnered a letter of support.
This office has worked for the past two years with six RCOs in this community to address, correct, and update zoning and non-zoning related issues.
We are seeing a trend of developers that are requesting changes that violate the spirits of this planning.
We have requested mandatory affordability in specific OZ and American Street Zones and have obtained voluntary 10% affordability with almost all new housing developments.
Here again, this project did not include and refused to include affordability.
After reaching out to the development team, they did not try to accommodate our request for affordable residential spaces for residents.
Our office will officially oppose this various requests as we try to maintain a consistent policy that affordability is needed.
Diverse mixed income neighborhoods are created with intentional policies, not a project by project development.
Our office has worked for 14 years with residents and will continue to advocate on their behalf as we navigate this public process.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Anyone else in the virtual?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
Property is currently split zone for both commercial and residential.
The city plan, close proximity to transit service and the applicant's intent to substitute bicycle spaces for required parking, we support.
therefore we recommend the request of grants be granted
uh i want to we're going to take this back to next week we're going to go over as an executive
session and have a conversation and we'll next wednesday we'll give our our results
mr chair can i respond to the one public comment from the council can i respond to that
sure sure go ahead um so our client respects and completely understands council members
efforts to encourage affordability in this area. We do note that her opposition is purely targeted
at affordability, and our variance here today is about parking. And so while we respect her
thoughts, we have received support from the Fishtown Neighbors Association, the Fishtown Bid,
and LMNO, the neighboring property owner. Thank you very much for your comments,
and we'll come with our decision next Wednesday morning. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, here, let's see here.
Number four, MI 2021, 002919, 3532 North 22nd Street.
Letter of support from Upper North Neighbors Association.
Nicole Montiero is the owner pro se.
She's coming in as a panelist.
Yes, hello.
hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please yes my name is nicole
montero m-o-n-t-e-i-r-o right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth yes i do our vice chair has a few questions for you sure hi how are you do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes carol sorry this is hillary
Yes, we need to read it. Thank you. Sorry, I forgot to put this one in caps.
I didn't even look. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of those questions.
okay this is this application is for use as a two-family dwelling unit in an existing structure
and the one use refusal is two-family household living is prohibited in the rsa5
zoning district so you can proceed and please share your screen okay i am sharing my screen
Give me one second. I'm sorry.
Do you see a green button when you hover your mouse along the bottom of the screen?
Oh, yes. Okay.
Okay. So I would like to first thank the board for allowing this case to come forward. Actually,
my husband and I went through this process in 2019 to request a variance for this property
that we purchased that had already been converted into a duplex. And the variance application,
we were approved. However, we had to get the certificate of occupancy, the CO, and we had
nine months to get it. By the time we went to LNI to submit that, we were about 30 days late.
So we had to start the whole process all over. We are just a couple. We're not developers. So we were feeling our way around how to get the correct plans for that application.
We did finally do it. And so we're back at square one. But we did go through the process again to submit the application, meet with the RCO.
to submit the application, meet with the RCO. We did get a letter of support. And we stated the
case that we purchased this property. As I said, it was already converted into a duplex. And we
purchased it so that we could have access to a downstairs apartment later on in case we wanted
my mom, my husband's mother-in-law to live there. We do not see this as a hardship to the community
and we actually see it as a positive because if we are to rent out the top part, it would be
one source of affordable living for people in the community. We're also residents of the
community, so we're not outsiders. We live in walking distance from that property, which is
partially why we purchased it to reinvest in that. So I can show you just the pictures
of what we submitted. This is the upstairs and the downstairs, outside. This is our
proof of ownership and the refusal. We stated here that we were, the project information,
the application, and this is the letter from the RCO,
indicating that we did meet with them and they indicated that they stand together in support
of this variance that we were considerate and we desired to be a community partner not just
coming from the outside to be a landlord or an outside developer and they were happy with our
plan for property management particularly they gave us instructions about trash
which is a concern in the neighborhood so about how to dispose of trash um and this is their
this is what was submitted these are the plans that we we finally got but we were
late turning it in to lni which is why we're back here but we did get them
from like real architectural plans.
And so this is how it's set up.
The upstairs is two bedrooms
and the downstairs is one bedroom and a living room,
bathroom, kitchen and access to the backyard.
And I believe that's the last.
document questions from the board no mr chairman mr chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience chair we have robert excuse me we have robert
everett hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Mr. Everett, please unmute yourself
Yeah, I'm here
I was raising a hand for the last
applicant session
you can continue on, I'm okay
Okay, thank you
Chair, we have one calling user
phone number ending in
Please unmute yourself
Could you state your name and spell for the
court reporter, please?
Yes, Adrienne Fernandez, Swampoodle Neighborhood Parcels Association, RCO.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Okay, we submitted a letter of support with two provisos requested.
If I can just read those into record because our letter was not acknowledged.
Okay, so the first provisional request is no basement living, and the second is that all trash and recycling be stored indoors except for collection days.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, Chair, this is Tanya.
We do have a different reporter. Could we have her name spelled in, please?
Sure, sure. Could you spell your name, please?
Hello?
we should have a copy of her letter somewhere
okay planning commission oh i'm sorry i can the letter was i'm looking through my
okay planning commission oh i'm sorry i can the letter
it was sent could you spell your name for the court reporter oh yes my first name is spelled
a-d-r-i-e-n-n-e my last name is spelled f-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z swampoodle s-w-a-m-p-o-o-d-l-e
neighborhood parcels plural association rco thank you thank you planning commission
yes this is uh ron bednar city planning this property is currently indicated for single
family residential on the city plan or adopted district plan proposed to convert this site for
multi-family uh dwellings use which could which would allow the proposal by right we recommend
that the requested variance be granted provided no basement living. MI 2021-002-919-3532 North
22nd Street I vote yes no basement living trash stored inside. Harold Tenere my vote is yes with
provisors. Thomas Harlem my vote is yes with provisors. James Snell my vote is yes with provisor.
Thank you.
MI 2022-000450-5100 Chester Avenue.
Darlene Treat is the attorney.
Letter of support, Southwest Philadelphia District Services.
Ms. Treat is coming back as a panelist.
Hi, Ms. Treat.
Good morning, Commissioner.
Darlene Treat on behalf of the applicants.
We're sorry we lost you the last time.
I apologize about that.
We tried to get you back, but could you spell your name for the court reporter, please?
Arlene, D-A-R-L-E-N-E, last name Freight, T-H-R-E-A-T-T, 45 East City Avenue, number 496, Ballakinwood, Pennsylvania, 19004.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
My client who should be present today is the owner of the property, Ms. Fusia Moussi.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Darlene.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the
refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this
hearing? And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Yes, to all.
Okay, great. You may proceed and share your screen. Welcome back.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Commissioners, I have submitted a package today which has about 10 exhibits and 31 pages.
I'm not going to go through each and every exhibit.
I will go through a number of them.
First, the refusal here, I'm just going to enlarge it just a bit.
We were refused because this is an RSA 5 zoning district, and we are proposing to have a grocery store with food and beverages on the first floor in an existing building, which is currently a legal triplex.
Commissioners, I want to just give you some quick history about this building.
First, I'll show you some pictures.
So this is the picture of the building. You can see it is a larger corner property. It's
about four stories. The first floor is currently vacant and the additional three stores have
three dwellings in them. Here's a picture of the street that the building is on 51st Street,
the street that the building is on 51st street looking across the street all the buildings are
looking across the street, all the building.
basically the same they are large single and multi-family dwellings
here's an additional picture of the property you can see it's currently has a commercial front a
commercial setting it's the same size of the rest of the buildings of on the property excuse me on
the block. It is a large building with a commercial arrear. That's another picture of the building
there. This is a picture of the street looking north down 51st Street. All the buildings
are pretty much similar. They all are very, very large buildings here. That's another
picture looking down Chester Avenue. And that's another picture directly across from our structure.
That's the park for the community. And that's another picture actually looking down 51st
Street towards the west, just showing you the character of the neighborhood.
and there's a picture looking west down Chester Avenue just giving you an idea of the size of the
premises on the block the size of the houses and the park on the corner down the street of course
from our structure. Commissioners we are proposing to have a grocery store here
which sells fruit, vegetables, produce, no tobacco items, no cigarette items, no cigarellos.
We will be selling coffee, vegetables, and produce. I'm going to start here by showing you
a copy of the plan. Let me reduce it a little bit so you can see it a little better.
This is actually the site plan here. It just shows the length and the site of the building.
It's a corner property. I'm going to scroll down a little bit further so I can show you
the actual layout of the property. And here is the structures and here are the floors as
they are laid out. Again, these three apartments on floor two, excuse me, two, three, and four
are legal, and what we propose to rent out here is the bottom floor. This is the commercial space
that we plan to use for a grocery store. We would like to be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to
8 p.m. We have lighting on the side of the building, lighting in the front of the building,
and lighting in the rear. We have an inside area if necessary to store trash or we can also store
trash in the basement here which is just used for utilities. Basically that is the space here.
You can see it has a little bathroom. We have a little exit out the side here as well as an exit
in the front that you can enter on the store for. From we did this is a side elevation of the
building and this is a front elevation of the building you can see is a very large structure
here besides having the commercial window in the front is a commercial window on the side
and you also have additional exits out the side of the building there.
Commissioners, we did have the opportunity to meet with the Southwest Philadelphia District
Services. We did send out the zoning notice and the meeting was attended. We did also
submit the proof of service here. And we did receive a letter from the Southwest Philadelphia
District Services of support. Just also I'd like to show you a little bit of the zoning history for
this particular building.
This building has pretty much, or has always been used in a commercial capacity. You can see in 1985 here, it was actually legal for a variety store with a three-family dwelling on top. It lost its zoning at some point in time, and we're really just trying to
It lost its zoning at some point in time, and we're really just trying to rezone it for it to be used as it has always been used.
You can see here from this zoning document in 1973, it was also three families, and it was a luncheonette on the first floor at some point in time.
Additionally you can see back in 1958 as well in 51 I believe that it was also a three-family
dwelling and a store on the bottom. A commissioner is in that the community was in full support of
our application and they sent in a letter of support and we're asking for this property to
be used as it has always been used and the community supports it, we would ask that you
grant our request for a variance today. Is your client here that you would want to have your
testimony adopted? Yes, she is. Ms. Moosey, can you raise your hand, please?
Ms. Moussey? Can you hear me? Oh, I can hear you. Thank you, Ms. Moussey.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter? My name is Fouzia, F-O-U-Z-I-A.
The last name is Moussa, M-U-S-S-E.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Proceed.
Ms. Moussa, are you the owner of 5100 Chester Avenue?
And have you heard the representations that I've made to the board today?
And if you were to testify, would you adopt those representations?
Thank you, Ms. Moussa.
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission this is uh ron bednar city planning while this property
is currently indicated for residential use on the city plan given the physical condition of the site
and its documented use history,
we recommend the request for Vanish for Granted.
Thank you.
MI 2022-000-5450-5100 Chester Avenue.
I vote yes.
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you very much, Commissioner.
Thank you.
Thank you.
number six is mi 2020 000 175 59 65 chester avenue that case has been withdrawn number seven
mi 2021 00 3108 6147 asala street henry clinton is the attorney
letter of support from chew and bellfield neighbors club incorporated
mr clinton good evening mr chairman members of the board
all right could you state your name and spell please mr clinton for the court reporter
clinton clinton right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth? I do. Could you identify your client, your relationship to the property? Sure. The owner
of the property is DD Investments, LLC. And the principal of that LLC is Anat, A-N-A-T, Madar,
M-A-D-A-R, who is on the call. All right. Our vice chair has a few questions. Hi, Mr. Clinton.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Have you
email the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral
photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the
rco and do you have a letter yes to all the above okay great you may proceed and share your screen
is that visible enough it is okay good evening mr chairman members of the board henry clinton
for DED Investments. Anat Madar is the principal. She is on the call. This is my presentation this
evening, and my presentation package contains a table of contents with exhibits AA to A10,
which I ask to be admitted into evidence this evening. This is the appearance statement,
and this is the refusal, the key document we're dealing with. So just a little bit of background.
I actually have two refusals. There was an original refusal from June of 2021. We only had one
We only had one refusal, which was we were proposing a two-family dwelling in this RSA-5
refusal, which was we were proposing a two-family dwelling in the
lot. The lot is huge. It's 25 by 120, and that's why we requested a two-family dwelling.
When we went before the community group, they had a number of issues with the project,
not necessarily the way it looked, but the layout of it, and asked us, well, why don't you have
parking because a lot is so big. So in response to the community's concerns, we amended the refusal
and went back and asked for the things that the community group asked for. And when we did that,
it resulted in a second notice of refusal, which then contained three refusals. One refusal was
what we got originally, was the two-family dwelling is not permitted in an RSA 5 zone.
And then the second refusal and third refusal are the results of what the community group
asks us to do. We install parking and the refusal indicates you cannot have family,
excuse me, parking in an attached or semi-attached building unless it can be accessed from a shared
driveway, alley, or rear street. And as you'll see from the photographs, our parking is accessed
from the front of the building because it's an extremely wide lot 25 feet wide and the second
the third refusal was that the parking spaces should be 20 feet in depth and ours are 18 feet
respectively so that's the background that we come to the uh before the board with
uh we do have a letter of support from the rco and you'll see that that's dated way back in
November, because again, our first refusal was in 2021. And at that meeting, there was support
for the project, but only if we provide off-street parking for two cars and a rear exit and a ladder
for safety on the second floor deck for emergency exits. And we have complied with all these
request. This is a photo of the lot. The lot is, as I say, 25 wide and it runs all the way back
actually along the rear of six homes adjacent on this main street here. And then there's an
alleyway at the back that then runs to the rear street. Another aerial view just showing the
overgrown nature of the lot. Based on my look at the historical records, the lot has been vacant
since it sits at least somewhere between 2004 and 2008.
This is looking west, excuse me, east of Osceola Street.
And you can see the overgrown nature of this lot
before my client bought it.
And she now has cleaned it up.
The plans are attached.
We mark them as revised plans.
We don't need a proviso form where we don't have any plans to be stamped because when we apply for the second application and got that revised refusal, it's based on these plans, even though I'm calling them revised.
So what we did from the original plan is the building used to be somewhat centered.
We've now moved the building over closer to the property line and have a drive aisle through to the back of the property to accommodate two parking spaces in the rear.
This is the layout of the property.
The community group also asked for a rear exit, and we provided that.
There's a rear exit from the basement to get out into the rear yard.
And then the community group also asked that on the second floor deck here that we install a ladder.
This proposal came in shortly after the fire in Fairmount,
and it was real concern about getting access from the property onto the street below.
And our plans do reference that ladder.
first floor basement is family room master in the back again a set of walkout steps to the rear
first floor living room dining room and a bedroom and then the third excuse me second and third
floor we have three bedrooms and two baths there's no rooftop deck there's no issue with regard to
open space rear yard or height and I just point out to the board here's a reference to
emergency escape ladder to be provided as part of the building plans for this particular property.
So in conclusion, we have no impact on adjacent properties with regard to light and air.
We have no impact on adjacent properties with regard to light and air.
I believe we have a unique circumstance with an oversized lot.
I believe we have
The project is in harmony with the code.
It's in harmony with the wants of the community.
As I said, we did not ask for parking when we approached the community.
At their bequest, we reinvented the project and resubmitted a new plan with two parking spots,
which then resulted in the two refusals beyond the use refusal.
Also for the board, just wanted to show we do have streets approval for the curb cut.
And then the remainder of the documents, these are the original plans.
I don't know if the board wants to see those plans,
but you can see we don't have any walkout from the basement,
nor do we have any parking spaces on the property.
The rest of the documents are pro forma tax, excuse me, are pro forma documents you can typically see in an application, our tax certification, our notice to the community, the BIP form, the zoning map.
And again, not to belabor the point, but you can see this is an extremely wide lot, wider than any lot on Topohockin Street or Osceola Street, and deeper than most other than the two narrow lots to the east.
And this is the deed and all the other pro forma documents, as I said, that one typically would see in a ZBA presentation.
so in conclusion because i think it's a unique circumstance and we're trying to
actually please what the community wants and desires
we ask that the board look kindly upon this application
mr clinton is your client here yes miss madar can you raise your hand and unmute yourself
good evening i could you could you state your name please and spell it for the court reporter
anax madal a-n-a-t madal m-a-d-a-r do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes sir proceed uh be you miss madora were you on the call when i presented
this project yes and if you had the opportunity to testify would you testify as if i did and would
you adopt my testimony as true yes sir thank you questions from the board no mr chairman
no mr chairman questions from the virtual audience or comments
i see no hands chair planning commission ron bednar city planning property is indicated for
residential use on the city plan given the physical circumstances of the site
recommended the quest for parents be granted provided no accessory parking spaces
mi 2021-003-108-6147 oselai street i vote yes proviso per amended refusal dated 3-2-23
carol cenary my vote is yes proviso thomas holloman my vote is yes with proviso
James Snell, my vote is yes with provisor.
Mr. Snell, my vote is yes with provisor.
Thank you, Mr. Clinton.
Thank you, Mr. Burbank. Good evening, everyone.
Is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called?
I see no handshare.
Thanks, everybody. Sorry it went so late today,
but sometimes these cases are just a little more complicated.
although I guess
compared to the old days, this might be an early
you're doing good
you're doing good Bill
we're ready to get breakfast
stop it Carol
see you guys
goodnight all
bye everybody
thanks Pauline