variance. Thank you. MI 2022-001-808-1718 South Chadwick Street, I vote yes.
yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you. Number six on our list, MI-2022-001-929-2252 South Hick Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney. A letter of non-opposition from Broad Street Civic Association.
Chair, Mr. Jin is coming back in now as a panelist. Thank you.
good morning hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter sir
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter, sir?
yes my name is zen jin
My name is Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N, last name J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kendi Boulevard, Suite 1838, Philadelphia PA 19103.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your clients and the relationship to the property, please?
My clients are husband and wife, Mitu and Rima.
They're the owner of the property.
Thank you.
And our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good morning, Councilman.
Do you agree to wave the reading or the refusal to stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed all the exhibits and documents into our offices five days in advance of this
hearing? Yes. Please proceed to share your screen. Thank you.
I'm sharing the information we submitted to the board. Can the board see my exhibits on the
screen? We can, sir. Thank you. We sent in copies of the refusal, the letter from the RCO,
photos, plans, and related documentation. This property is refused for the current use because
it is zoned RSA 5. We're asking for a multifamily household living of three dwelling units.
What I want to point out initially to the board is that this property actually received non-opposition
from the community because it is what is essentially a pre-existing non-conforming
condition. The property at one time was legal for multifamily five units. It is in the historical
records of the property itself. And the community is aware as well that this property has been
multifamily as far as they remember. The property, this is not a new construction. We're not tearing
apart the entire interior. We're not redoing the entire property. I'll jump to the photos now
so the board can see better the site itself.
This is a corner property as well.
So it's a larger corner property
that actually is abutted on other corners by CMX1 uses.
The area is in fact rezoned RSA 5.
This property was vacant at one point,
which is probably why it was down-zoned to RSA 5
along with the others.
My client purchased the property
and is looking to essentially fix it up
to make it usable again.
However, the layout of the property is the five units,
even with some pretty,
I wouldn't call substantial changes,
but by taking away some of the kitchens,
walls and other things and refurbishing the layout,
a three family unit is probably the least costly way
to make this property usable again.
Again, my clients want to fix the property,
but to convert it completely back to a single family would actually require them to throw out
a lot more and actually spend a lot more money to try to make it conforming. And because it is
pre-existing in this form, in an even more non-conforming manner, we are reducing the overall
density of the use. And again, the community is in support partly because of the history of the
property. The property will be laid out very simply. There's a side entrance that leads to
a stairwell, which turns and goes to all three floors. Each floor will ultimately be one unit,
and that is essentially how it's laid out in a way now. The only difference is that
the front of the floor units actually are self-contained as their own unit, which we're
re-adopting to basically linking it to the entire back, making them each a one single unit with a
total of three units. So because of the pre-existing non-conforming condition and because of the
hardship of converting it back, we're asking the board's favorable review of this request for
use of this corner property as a three-family dwelling. My client is here to answer my
to verify my testimony and we're happy to answer any further questions from the board.
We have documented, you said it was five at one time, Mr. Jin?
Yes, I can actually share that information. Let me pull that back up.
i'm going to share that information with the board now so this is the atlas history of the
property as you can see in 55 it was five family and then in 60 60s
In 55, it was five-family. And then in 60s, later on, it was again certified as five-family dwelling. So it was historically a multifamily. There are no more recent records except for the fact that it was abandoned for some time.
Thank you.
And the city usually forces you to get a vacant property license, which automatically rezoned the property back to the most recent zoning.
But structurally, this property was set up as a multifamily as far as people can remember.
Thank you very much. Why don't we have your testimony adopted?
Sure. Ms. Rima Kanzari, is she available?
Ms. Kanzari, can you please unmute yourself and wait for the chair?
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, it's R-E-E-M-A-K-A-N-Z-A-R-I-A, Rima Kanzaria.
All right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Rima, I apologize for mispronouncing your last name.
can you verify that what I've represented to the zoning board and my testimony before the board is
true and correct and adopted as your own testimony yes thank you thank you questions from the board
no Mr. Chair no Mr. Chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
here i see no hands at this time hi planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty
for the philadelphia city planning commission board members the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the existing rsa 5 single family zoning at this property however the proposed
use conforms to the prior legal documented use and to the physical configuration of the building
the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance.
MI 2022-001-929-2252 South Hick Street, I vote yes.
Tom, my vote is yes.
James Ishmael, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you. All right. Number eight, MI 2022-001-774-4872 East Roosevelt Boulevard.
Joseph Vaccaro is the attorney. Letter of non-opposition from the 35th Ward Democratic
Executive Committee. Chair, Mr. Vaccaro is coming back in as a panelist now.
And there's also two letters of support from adjacent neighbors.
Good morning. How are you?
Hi. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Certainly. May it please the board. My name is Joseph Vaccaro, V-A-C-C-A-R-O, and I represent the owners of the property, Telmo and Brenda Santos.
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, sir.
Thank you.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed all the documents and exhibits into our offices five days in advance of this hearing today?
Yes, I did.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you very much.
Where's the share screen?
Essentially, members of the board, this is an application to legalize a two-story shed in the back of my client's property.
uh as as the board had indicated here there is a letter of non-opposition uh with various
provisos that we're not going to that my clients are not going to hook up this uh structure to
uh water and sewerage um and and obviously not rent it out here's a poster of the house
Here's a photo of the poster on the house, which I put up timely, photo of the front of the house, another photo of the front of the house, zooming in on the zoning hearing poster.
Here's the back of the house.
This is a single-family house on Roosevelt Boulevard with a back alley, and here is the structure that is the subject of this petition.
It's a two-story structure.
It was built by a construction firm, albeit illegally without my client's knowledge.
albeit illegally without my client's knowledge that it was illegal and that there were no
permits. A former neighbor, here's the swing set right next to the property, my clients, they have
two young children. One is age two, another is age 10. And the purpose of this structure is
to use it for storage and as a playroom and other activities for the family. There's no kitchen,
no dining room, nobody plans on living there and they certainly are not going to be renting it out.
It's strictly for storage and recreation. Scrolling down to additional photos of the
inside of the structure. What happened was, back in 2019, Mr. Santos's mother-in-law
had the idea of putting in this shed, and things just kind of grew out of control.
And the construction company that they hired to build the structure, unbeknownst to the Santoses,
had no permits, no licenses. And when a former neighbor called the city to complain about the
structure being built the city came in issued the violations and and it brings us to this point
the neighbor that had complained had moved out so we have letters of support from the two immediate
neighbors in support of of of this project of this structure we have the letter of non-opposition
And we'd like to ask the board to legalize what has has already been going on at this property.
You do on this photograph, I'm focusing on the on the electrical box. Yes, the structure does have electrical service so they could use it when it's dark.
Let's see here some other photographs. Again, storage since the since the house has no garage.
they're storing items and that's about it for the photographs um if I could share letters
from the two immediate neighbors we have a letter from you see this oh I'm sorry I pushed
the wrong button I apologize uh we have a letter from
the neighbor Vulan Pham at 4870
And then we have another letter of support from Marcus Harvey.
I'll show you that letter in a second.
If I could find it.
Here's Mr. Harvey's letter of support.
He lives at 4874.
And I submitted that prior to this hearing with the packet.
Here's a, I'm sorry, I keep pushing the wrong button as I could share the screen over here.
This one.
Here are the architectural plans that were created when the structure was being built.
So they did use an architect to verify and to confirm the safety of the structure.
However, unfortunately, the construction people were less than honorable in their dealings
with the city as well as with Mr. and Mrs. Santos.
With respect to the tax balance, they're current on their tax agreement with the city.
Do you see that?
I believe I'm showing you the tax balance, showing that they're current, and we do have the letter of non-opposition with provisos, all of which we would agree to.
Let me point out, let me pull up the letter of non-opposition from the community.
it's not to be used for living quarters no gas or water service to be added
and we would certainly agree to those it was never Mr. and Mrs. Santos's intention
to add gas or water service to that property so what so based on that presentation we would ask
the support of the zoning board so they so that they can proceed and finish up this project
I do have Telmo Santos. I'm sorry. Is your client present? Yes. Telmo Santos. Could we have your testimony adopted, please? Mr. Santos, did you hear my presentation? Mr. Santos, please.
Mr. Santos, did you hear my presentation?
Mr. Santos, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, Mr. Santos, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Telmo, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
my name is state your state your name please and spell for the court reporter sure my name is
telmo santos t-e-l-m-o-s-a-n-t-o-s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do sir um proceed counsel thank you mr santos did you hear and see my presentation
to the zoning board yes i did is there anything that you'd like to add or subtract to my uh to
my presentation no sir you were accurate in everything that happened and what we're trying
to finish the project and uh all the evidence that you showed is correct okay thank you and
you would adopt it as your own testimony if you were to testify in my place yes thank you
all right questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
here we have dylan mahoney mr mahoney please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
good morning mr mahoney could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
dylan mahoney d-i-l-l-o-n last name m-a-h-o-n-e-y do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth i do proceed sir uh thank you mr chair members of the board
Dylan Mahoney from the Office of Councilmember Anthony Phillips, the Councilman has received the letter of non-opposition from the 35th Ward, and the Councilmember is also not opposed to the granting of the variance. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Mahoney. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no hands at this time.
Hi, Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing single-family rsa3
zoning at this location uh the shed proposed to be legalized is significantly over height
oversized and encroaches upon the required rear yards however given the expense of making the
structure compliant for the property owner and given the minimal impact the illegal structure
will have upon neighboring property city planning commission has no objection to the granting of
variants. Thank you. MI 2022-001-774-4872 East Roosevelt Boulevard. I vote yes with proviso.