the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I'm Muslim, sir, so I will affirm.
Thank you. Please proceed. Something new and different, if it's possible. Thank you.
Yes. My concern is, number one, the number of people that will be allowed to occupy each unit.
What's the intention? What's the number of people that they intend to have occupy each unit?
My other concern is, will pets be allowed in these units?
My next concern is trash removal. Who's going to be responsible for proper trash removal?
Where's the trash going to be stored? We already have rodents in our neighborhood,
so what's going to be the process in which a healthy environment continues for us to exist in?
The other question is, well they talked about parking, so I won't bring that up,
But that's that's those are some of my main concerns. And in a situation where we now have COVID and it's appearing to come up through all of the testimony from the government that is coming up in multifamily dwellings.
and should we have another outbreak as a situation such as COVID? What is the intention on the owners
or the buyers to make certain that this does not come a hotbed for us? We have seniors living in
the neighborhood. We have people on disability. So these are some of my major concerns. Some of my
other concerns are what are the hours and what are the days that construction is going to be
scheduled to take place is it going to take place at six o'clock in the morning and not in until
there are there are city there are guidelines to interrupt you man there are city guidelines as to
when construction be uh could uh when they when construction is allowed i think it's not before
7 a.m but in any event i i do appreciate your testimony if you can summarize we'd appreciate it
so those are those are my major concerns when i moved when i moved into this property it was
because of single-family dwelling understood I've been here over three
decades and talked to new neighbors and the new neighbors that are family
single-family dwellings that's why they told me that they moved into this
neighborhood as well not for multifamily units thank you understood thank you we
We have Anthony Brutiniti. You have been allowed to speak. You can unmute yourself and give testimony.
have Anthony Rutanetti you have been allowed to speak you can
Please identify yourself with a record. Spell your name and address. Spell your name and give us your address, please.
Anthony Brutiniti, B-R-U-T-T-A-N-I-T-I. Address is 1432 South Broad Street. I'm the zoning chairman for South Broad Street Neighborhood Association.
Thank you, Anthony. Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing about the truth?
yes I do thank you please proceed yes we had a zoom meeting regarding this
property we had numerous neighbors that attended the meeting you have heard
their opposition and it was unanimous that none of the neighbors wanted to
have a multifamily dwelling or have this turned into a multifamily dwelling this
property has been used as a single-family for many years decades from
and I understand. And they wanted to keep it as such. The attorney for the owner presented no
hardship of why this property could not remain as a single family and developed as such. And
honestly, we get a lot of cases or several cases from time to time where applicants or developers
purchase a single-family property and want to make it into three-family
dwellings. That's not the spirit of the zoning code. That's not why the zoning
code is the way it is and also the remapping that was done by the Planning
Commission. If a developer wants to make a multi-family dwelling or built
structure, they should be buying RM1 properties, not single-family dwellings
that are RSA-5 and try to turn them into three dwelling units.
That is not what zoning is about.
Zoning is about a hardship and about a hardship of developing the property in the spirit of the code.
So we feel as though they have not presented any hardship of keeping it as a single family.
And they never made any attempt of why they couldn't develop it as such.
So with the resistance from the neighbors in the surrounding houses on the block
and not having a good enough reason of why they purchased the property a year ago
and now want to make it into a multifamily, we're just in opposition of this development.
Anthony, thank you.
What's your title again?
Personally, I'm an architect, but I'm also the zoning chairman for South Broad Street.
A what?
Zoning chairman for South Broad Street.
I have a question.
Were you the zoning chair when 1317 was being considered?
I was.
I've been the zoning chairman for South Broad Street now for about 20 years.
Right.
I'm somewhat familiar with you from my days there.
But I'm just curious, what did the South Broad Street neighbors take on that matter?
I'm not sure about that matter.
I also have to say that our boundaries overlap with Newbold.
Well, now they're with these neighbors.
So they may have heard that case instead of us.
So I don't have a clear recollection of 1317.
Yeah, I just find it unusual that they would have supported that at that time.
I mean, the petition speaks for itself, but I'm just, I don't know if I was around the vote on that or not.
I'm not throwing anybody under the bus.
I just don't recall.
It's kind of out of character.
So, all right.
Appreciate your testimony.
Thank you.
Anyone else who wishes to speak?
We have a caller.
With the last three digits of 051, you can unmute yourself and speak.
And before you begin, please identify yourself, name and address.
and if you can give us something new and different we would appreciate that
caller 051 last three digits do you wish to testify
okay chair that's all okay okay thank you tanya uh mr
lockum sim do any closing remarks yes i do so a couple different things this was actually a
poorly attended community meeting if you look at their uh the coordinating rcos letter summarizing
it, only four nearby neighbors attended. The majority of the people that voted and attended
the meeting were actually part of the RCO boarding committee. So it was not reflective
of the community where if you look at 1317 South 15th Street, which I handled, and if you look at
And if you look at the petition, you know, which clearly states that we're seeking to get a variance for three-family triplex residential dwelling, you saw a year ago, if you look at the notice of decision, the notice of decision, just trying to get it back up here, was 5-8-2019.
the petition, you know, which clearly states that we're seeking to get a variant.
So, Mr. Chair, this board in its current composition, I believe, did vote in support of granting the variance.
And the other thing that I would point out at the last page, too fast, the last page is that Ms. Pyatt actually supported the granting of the variance as well.
If you see her and someone who lives also with Ms. Pyatt.
Yeah, I saw that.
I saw that.
I made reference to that when she testified.
Well, but that was Ms. Mitchell and Ms. Pyatt, so there were two individuals.
Yeah, I understood.
Ms. Mitchell, yeah.
So if you look at a lot of the things they're talking about, they're talking about non-zoning related matters.
They're talking about a tax abatement and how that's going to affect the values of their properties.
But they are talking about other issues, about density.
They're talking about the character of the neighborhood.
it well but again and i agree with you and and as i tell all my clients if you're going to propose
something whether dimensional variance or use variance my test is this if you walk by the
property as proposed like being built or being used a certain way um if it doesn't stick out
like a sore thumb then it makes sense right so that's why i talked about 1317 south 15th street
That's why, you know, we talked about, like, you know, all the other variances that have been granted over the course of time in this area.
This is two blocks away from South Broad Street.
If you look at the numbers, and I'm very into, like, you know, data analytics, you know, we're bigger than what you granted last year for the same use.
And it was, we did propose a condominium.
i do you know uh acknowledge that the owner stated that he was going to live on the first floor or
the the first floor unit i don't put any weight on this comment no i know that but by this one
but he did say that decide to pick up and move anytime they want i know no but i want to
acknowledge that mr chair so i don't know if that changed their uh you know being argumentative
towards you i just i'd never put any weight towards that yeah but but what i do put weight
to is the fact that we have one, two, three, four, five, six structures within a close vicinity of
our property, which are RSA 5, which are now multifamily. So we, I embrace the burden of
proof here. You know, when you look at the neighborhood and the transitional nature of
the neighborhood, that's part of the analysis for undue hardship. Now, I hear that people are
against it. I believe some of it's non-zoning related, but I hear about the density. I grant
that. If the board feels that three units is not appropriate, although it felt it was appropriate
under similar circumstances last year, but if they don't believe it's appropriate under these
circumstances, I ask the board to consider a potential compromise with a proviso not to exceed
two units what what was the purchase price and i couldn't see it was it was purchased
mr chair for 223 000 so especially when you consider covid 19 i know in some people think
the market's great but you know it's a hard market i don't and again i know this doesn't
go into your analysis, Mr. Chair, but like in the board's analysis, but it's going to, it's not
feasible to, you know, it's a different market a year ago from, you know, today. It's not feasible
to sell a five, a five bedroom, you know, single family house there. You know, we're trying to,
we're trying to keep, you know, people active in terms of jobs too. You know, we want to keep the
construction industry going and we think it's a reasonable use you know especially the fact that
we're two blocks away from broad street yeah i hear what you're saying now and i don't i don't
want to get into to a debate with you but i'm familiar with some of the what's going on in the
city currently uh the number of units uh that people are looking to sell far outweighs the
number of units that people are moving into so we got we have a problem as a city not just from
this case we have a problem with the city right now uh in any event anything else before i uh
no uh let me just have my clients uh verify my uh the testimony uh mr
All right, let me just have my client verify the testimony.
Mr. Zach, Mr. Zach, you heard everything I stated today.
Mr. Zach, maybe he's muted.
We'll take it as though he would accept your testimony.
Mr. Zach, you heard everything I stated today?
Yes, I did.
Okay, is it true and correct?
Yes, it is.
And would you adopt it as your own?
i do okay i have two questions questions for the board yes i have two questions uh 13 17
was an addition put on to that one uh no no it was not but we're but at the same time i'm sorry
can i i'm sorry okay the three units do all three units have access to the rear yard uh no but they
did not have that for 1317 either okay thank you any other questions from the board planning
commission uh this property is indicated for a single family residential use on the city plan
believe the applicant has not demonstrated necessary hardship regarding density requirements
of the code it's not consistent with our adopted district plan recommend the request for variance
not be granted. Thank you. Calendar number 39447, 1325 South 15th Street. My vote is no.
My vote is no. My vote is no. Yeah. Thank you very much. Calendar number 39874, 3001 Robbins Street.
I've heard yes good afternoon sir you agree to waive the reason of its refusal and stipulate
on its accuracy yes i do thank you i got cut out there am i still there yes you've been
hold on we're getting a lot of feedback somebody uh
i'd like to share my screen right that's why i had to promote you to a panel
Neil? Yes. Please identify yourself with a record. Spell your name.
Neil Sklaroff, N-E-I-L-S-K-L-A-R-O-F-F. The address is 1500 Market Street, Suite 3500E,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19102. Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Thank you, Neil. Please proceed.
seem to have difficulty getting on the screen are you seeing my screen no I'm
not sure why, would you hold on please? Can you, am I being, I'm being heard but
not being? That's correct, well we see you now. We do, okay, then let me see if I
can get to please excuse the delay mr. chairman members of the board I have the
pleasure of representing the school district of Philadelphia this afternoon
And with me should be Gamil Hall, the project manager from the school district for this project, and Carlos Tovar, the project architect, and likely Nicole Ward is also available during this conference.
we are here to talk about a significant renovation in addition to the Ethan Allen Elementary School
at 3001 Robbins Street we have submitted two sets of exhibits the one we're looking at and
and the one we're looking at and uh there's an additional one with three pages that are uh
there's an additional one with three pages
copies of what was submitted with the original application we're not seeing that we're not
seeing them if you can share we don't see the plan no the plans i haven't put up yet oh i'm
sorry i can put up the plans whenever we need to but um i think our presentation here will be
significant enough we of course have our tax clearance certificate we have our D
the property was purchased in 1923 it's approximately six acres we have posted
the property twice and the following will be pictures of the posting and our
building and the surrounding community you notice that there's the original and
the second poster. You'll notice there's some trailers in this view, and those trailers
will be removed. Again, posting.
I'm sorry, Mrs. Clareff, are you trying to share your screen?
I thought I was sharing my screen.
No, that's what the chair is saying. He hasn't seen it yet.
All right. Can we, what am I missing?
Go into your click on share screen at the bottom.
I don't have that, but give me a second. I'll have to change the view.
And I do not have anything at the bottom.
You know what, to make this a little bit easier, and I don't know about the rest of the folks,
I have some knowledge of what you're talking about on another matter in
South Philadelphia. So maybe you can summarize it,
basically get to the heart of what this is all about.
I think it's going to be about creating more classroom for the school and
stuff like that.
Absolutely. And I apologize. I thought I was sharing and, uh,
no worries.
I don't have to share.