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