property line. Okay, thank you. Mr. Sullivan, we have a letter from you to Mr. DiCicco,
the chair of the board here that we have on the screen, talking about your support.
If you could just summarize that in a couple sentences, could you explain to the board why
this is an important project for you? Yes, very quickly. I understand the timing.
I live in what was once the carriage house for 30 Pelham Road. Both the 30 Pelham and my house
are on the historic register. And as I said, we share essentially a backyard. I've been looking
at this deteriorating mansion for five years now. I used to know the prior owners, wonderful people,
but I've been watching this building fall apart over the last few years, and I know for a fact
from personal conversations that there were several attempts to sell it in its current
condition that were unsuccessful. I think this is the closest practical solution to renovating
a deteriorating property, and that preserves most, if not all, of the character of the
neighborhood. I think adding those four townhomes makes sense. They fit in with the rest of the
houses on that street, and they provide obviously some funding to help restore the mansion in an
appropriate way. And so you're preserving, in my opinion, a beautiful building. You're not having
minimum impact on the neighborhood, and you're actually adding a plus by creating four new
townhomes that look like they will be great. And I want to just mention, lastly, that the yard
that my house faces will be smaller as a result of these changes. But I have to say that even
with the changes, it's going to be a lovely property. I still have some good views from my
home. But my biggest interest is making a practical use of that building. Nobody will buy it as a one
family home and I would hate to see it carved up into six apartments or or even worse as a group
home or something else that really is not part of of the neighborhood. I think I've thought a lot
I've had a lot of time to think about this and I really think this is the best possible use of an
otherwise unusable space. Thank you Mr. Sullivan. Appreciate your time. Steve if you have others
Would you ask them if something new and different, please?
Jenna and John Conley, are you on the Zoom chat?
raise your hand
Raise your hand.
i don't see them anybody else okay let's try
huff and john gregory mcgan
hi this is megan huff hey megan um all right so the chair will swear you in good morning miss
megan i'm sorry your name again miss huff yes sir all right please uh spell your name identify
yourself with the record name and address sure my name is megan huff m-e-g-a-n-h-u-f-f and i live
at 6707 Cresham Road which is directly adjacent to the Pelham Road property. Thank you and do you
swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes sir. Thank you
please proceed. Megan we have a letter from you to the zoning board that's we're sharing the screen
can you see it? Yes sir. Okay great can you just in your own words in a few sentences tell the
board why you feel this property is so important and why you support it well i would say i agree
completely with no she's getting ready to say is that already in the letter
i think it is yes because you're having her you know there's no point if she's gonna
give a testimony read the letter you know we're trying to cut time i think we passed already the
hour and instead of continuing you want her affirm if that's everything that's stated on
the letters true and accurate i think we'll save some time you know that that's a helpful
recommendation miss huff it's not that we don't we don't uh respect your testimony it's just
we're limited on time you got it i am not offended but i'm definitely a full supporter
okay thank you thank you all right do we have uh let's see here um paris hall
Paris, you can unmute yourself and speak
Okay, next one, Steve
Raymond Tatlow
Let's see
Here I do have a few other people with a hand up
I don't know if you want to move forward
Yes. I'm looking at my text here. Jenna Conley and Chelsea Badeau.
Hi, this is Chelsea Badeau.
Good morning. Please identify yourself, name and address, by your name for the stenographer.
e-h-e-l-s-e-a last name badeau b-a-d-e-a-u address is 607 east mount airy avenue
19119 you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do you submitted a letter ma'am she did not uh mr chair okay okay she has a she was the
the last resident of the Fairlawn Manor. So I wanted her to testify as to why she supports this.
Yes, I'm the last resident. My family bought the home in 92 and lived there through January 2015.
We, my parents had 22 children and this was a wonderful home for our very large and, you know,
unusual sized family. But since that point, as several others have pointed out, this has not
been uh the sort of home that would work for many single families as they don't exist like ours but
i fully uh support what ken has laid out i drive by it since i only live a few minutes away
currently and i absolutely hate seeing the deteriorating state that it's in and i think
this would restore the house and also work nicely with the neighborhood so i'm in full support
thank you thank you thank you for your patience thank you for your time
and i think we have one more mr chair um jenna conley
i don't see her hand up however chair we do have um about five other people with their hand raised
it's your call um are these on your list are these folks on your list mr masters
i don't know who they are mr chair i don't know which ones are raising their hands i'm not able
to see that tanya could you give us a couple of names and we'll see if they're elaine peter amy
michael elizabeth they all have their right hands raised raised for testimony um well let's ask if
anyone is in support there could be some uh neighbors that are not in support so we could
put them in, they would be testifying at the end, I would imagine. If anyone is also is here for
supporting us, please unmute and announce yourself. They only get unmuted if I unmute them. Oh, okay.
Also, Chair, I have Elaine who has been here for a while, if I could allow her to speak.
Elaine you gonna meet yourself can you hear me yes please testify my name is
Elaine Hargrave E-L-A-I-N-E H-A-R-G-R-A-V-E and I reside at 36 Carpenter Lane
I'm a neighbor but not a near neighbor of 30 Pelham and I oppose this
development. The names on the petition that Mr. Weinstein just showed are not
necessarily neighbours of the project, they're scattered pretty far afield.
Between February 26th and March the 3rd,
some of the neighbours took the initiative
to circulate a brief survey around the neighbourhood
regarding the plans for the development of 30 Pelham.
Neighbours were contacted by email or surveys were hand delivered.
and the results were collated and presented to the We Man Zoning Committee, but unfortunately
they chose not to let us present the results at the Zoning Committee hearing.
The results showed that a resounding majority of neighbours, 80% of the 40 who had completed
the survey, disagreed or strongly disagreed with the question, I support the construction
of four new homes on Pelham Road in the rear yard of Fairlawn.
I've filed a graphic of that result and I've also filed additional comments
that were made by the 40 neighbours when they completed the survey.
A common theme running through their comments is that the proposals for two twin homes on the lot
are far too dense for the space. This viewpoint was vigorously echoed at the Weeman Zoning
Committee meeting by neighbors. The developer is touting the project as a restoration project.
However, the 1 to 1.5 million restoration costs that he has quoted are far outweighed by the
over 4 million that he stands to net from marketing six new homes on the land.
I also wanted to address the voting at the Weeman Zoning Committee meeting.
I attended the whole meeting. It was allowed to ramble on for hours. There was no set agenda
and the developer was given an extended period to speak, largely off topic.
The voting was shambolic. Raised hands at the end of the meeting were randomly counted in the
packed room without any thorough checks on whether households were voting singly,
whether voters were near neighbours, non-near neighbours or indeed neighbours at all.
The developer was allowed to vote twice. He voted once as a near neighbour, although he does not reside in the property.
Three committee members voted twice, despite protests from the audience.
They voted as neighbours and then they voted again within the committee.
And as it's already been mentioned, several neighbours left the meeting early because it was allowed to overrun substantially.
So many opinions were not captured at all.
the votes reported by Ralph Pincus who was not present at the meeting are unreliable and should
be discounted that's my submission okay we have um thank you thank you
Peter you can unmute yourself and testify hello hello can you hear me
yes okay so um I'm pretty much going to back which uh your name and address sir I'm sorry
My name is Peter Sioum, P-E-T-E-R, last name S-Y-O-U-M.
I live at 22 Westview, which is right around the corner from the property.
thank you do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Thank you.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
i do thank you oh chair we also have a amy amy you have been allowed to speak you may testify
Thank you.
oh wait should i go yes i'm here should i speak yeah i think we got ahead of ourselves yes peter
please okay uh i'll be very quick um i i've um am against uh the the the the building the moving on
with the uh uh what the developers um of the property want i um totally agree with uh the
previous speaker um i do not believe that the neighborhood is um as the developer is saying
is in support um i was at that meeting um which occurred in march and as she said it um it was
it was a shamble of a voting process the um many people spoke against it the people who spoke for
it were um primarily connected financially um the developers voted um it was a it was a sham in a
lot of ways i um ultimately um at the very least and i've been not in on the whole meeting at the
very least there should be another vote a lot of the property um the plans that have been redone
the none of the the neighbors who are who are at the meeting have seen any of those things
um as far as uh like the democratic idea of whether the zoning board should help the developers make
a profit with these four other homes um i don't believe that's the that that is the goal and the
point of the zoning board um it should not be that we're here to make developers money
um absolutely correct uh i i that's all i needed to say thank you very much
uh chair um i would like to mention as a few others but we at the 1203 mark
uh so it is your call that's been over an hour yeah um maybe we can ask those who have not yet
spoke given their opinion to put something in writing and address it to
you to Tonya yes sure why don't you give them there the information yeah provide
them with the information so they can mail you or email you whatever yes but
you put emails on the chat for the RCO box please thank you
any more questions from the board no planning commission
hold on for just one second
i lost my recommendation this property is indicated for residential use on the comprehensive plan
the applicant is proposing new lots that need an excessive amount of variances including most
setbacks and open space additionally they do not without showing showing a signed plan they do not
meet the requirements of the whishikin watershed or steep slope and we ask the applicant in a
meeting to reduce to three new homes to reduce the variances during the plan review process
and they have not considered that today accordingly we feel that the application is proposing an
overuse of the property. Sharon, we're going to hold this case for 30 days until August the 26th,
but Sharon, I need some help from you. Is there anything else I needed to put on the record?
no just that the um hearing on august 26th will be a limited hearing only to give
any community member who feels they were not given an opportunity to voice their position
to testify
mr masters yes all right so we're going to hold this until august the 26th at 9 30 a.m
calendar number 39887
30 Pelham Road
being held
until August 26th
at 9.30 a.m.
In between, I would suggest
that you and on behalf of your clients
reach out to the Councilwoman's office
and whomever
else you need at the Mount Airy
Civic Association
so that
hopefully
we'll be able to resolve this issue
of the count and who was at the meeting who shouldn't have been there whatever we got some
work cut out for you yes we did thank you so much calendar number
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
Calendar number 39889-423.
Hold on, Professor.
Professor, can we call up?
I'm going to burn a little bit out of order.
I believe it's calendar number 38167, 307 Friendship Street.
And this is the appeal that was mistakenly identified as continued.
It was not.
thank you so will the participants in the 307 friendship street please uh sign on
the um the appellant here is pro se she's not represented by an attorney
wow wasn't too happy with that hello hello good morning or good afternoon i should
say sorry name and address ma'am and please spell your name for the stenographer yes it's diane d-i-a-n-e
rodriguez r-o-d-r-i-g-u-e-z your address 307 friendship street philadelphia pennsylvania
19111 do you swear to firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes thank you please proceed um i don't know how to share my screen because i don't have that option
okay well walk us through it hopefully we'll be able to figure out what it is okay so the
first attachment that i sent is the closing document with my name on it diane j rodriguez
with my address uh the second attachment is the picture of my home and the problem is that i don't
i can't park my cars on the side lawn and i have my cars parked there so there's a picture of that
Diane, if you can hold one minute, I'm going to promote you to panelists.
And once you return, you can share your screen.
Now you should be capable of sharing your screens.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, all right.
Okay, can everyone see my screen?