Thank you.
Coming. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our board member, Shel L. Gaston. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, Tenetta Graham. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, Taya Nguyen. Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our alternate board member, Leonard LeBaron Palmer.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Also President, is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director of the zoning board, Ian Haggerty.
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to the zba executive director at phil.gov before we begin our executive director
Ian Haggerty has an important safety announcement. Ian?
Morning, Chair. Good morning, everyone. This is Ian Haggerty, Executive Director.
The safety of our meeting attendees is our highest priority. In the event of an emergency,
please pay attention to announcements on the loudspeaker, which will provide detailed
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Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Let's look at our schedule for today.
Number five, MI 2024-004-456-5300-18 Winfield Avenue.
Tameka McCoy is the attorney.
Is the counsel in the audience?
Good morning, Chair. This is Nadia and I'll be your co-
Good morning, Chair. This is Nadia, and I'll be your co-host today. I see nobody with their
hands raised by the name of Tamika McCoy. Mr. Chair, we may need to come back to her.
I know she was running a few minutes late. Okay. So we'll come back to that one. Thank
Thank you.
Number seven, MI 2024-006-055, 1832 North Van Pelt Street.
Mr. Nocklinson is the attorney in this case.
There's a request from the RCO for a continuance.
is a member of the RCO in the audience.
And this case is also connected to MI 2024-006-103-1846, North Van Pelt.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Alan Nockamson of Nockamson, PC.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Mr. Nockamson, let me see if I can get somebody from the RCA.
Is the RCO member present?
strawberry mansion and community center please accept your promotion as a panelist
uh yes we're here okay
good morning
good morning can you hear me yeah i can could you please state your name and spell for the
sonographer bonita cummings b as in baby o-n-i-t-a cummings c-u-m-m-i-n-g-s do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do you're requesting
continuance in this case. Could you give us your reason why? In the meeting, there were three
matters addressed, 1832, 1846 North Van Pelt Street, and we also heard 1826 North 24th Street,
which is scheduled for tomorrow, which they did ask for continuance. There was
concern from the community, and they were requesting that we ask for continuance for
all of these locations to be able to meet with the councilman's office as well as really
get their concerns around these locations addressed. So we appealed to the attorney
in that regard, and they did ask for 1826 North 24th Street, but we were not granted
an opportunity to support what the community is asking us
for 1832 and 1846 North Van Pelt Street.
Thank you.
Mr. Nockamson.
Yeah, Mr. Chair, we are always willing, ready, and able
to work with the community on continuance requests.
We did join their requests for tomorrow's hearing
for one of the matters.
The two matters that are today are rather straightforward.
One of them, there's already approval
for a five unit dwelling with building permits we're seeking reduction in the amount of units
to three units so we're actually asking for a lesser density and then the other property where
we were asking for four units originally after we heard the community input we reduced that to
three units to mimic what is you know what we're requesting across the street also there's like
five or six instances where there are three unit dwellings we believe based on those modifications
that we made and based on the what is of record right now with one of the properties we feel it's
appropriate to proceed forward okay we're going to proceed with that we're not going to do it
right now of course we're going still going through the list all right miss cummings we're
going to go on with that you will have an opportunity to express your concerns at the
meeting. Thank you. And number nine, MI 2024-007-402-1409 North 17th Street. That case is
continued attorney moving party. Number 10, MI 2024-007-403-1441 North 17th Street. That case
is continued attorney-moving party. And number 11, MI 2024-007-404-1624 Jefferson Street,
that case is continued attorney-moving party. Are there any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands in a virtual audience. Okay, we're going to go to number two to start.
MI 2024-004-4237-2826-28 Belgrade Street, Sean.
237-2826-28 Belgrade Street. Sean Ward is the attorney.
Sean Ward on behalf of the applicant S-H-A-W-N last name Ward W-A-R-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Our board member, Tannetta Graham, has several questions for you, sir.
Good morning. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal, and do you stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. You may receive.
Mr. Chair, I'm going to share my screen.
And so I want to thank you for your courtesy this morning.
I'm attending a conference, and they extended me a courtesy to proceed with this hearing.
Can we confirm that my screen is shared?
Your screen is up.
You might want to make it just a little bit bigger.
Will do.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, yeah, you're welcome.
Thank you.
This is my typical exhibit packet that I prepare and submit on every hearing.
The applicant is Michael French.
The property is 2826-28 Belgrade Street.
Calendar number ending in 4237, as mentioned by the chair.
A1 is the notice of refusal.
This is an application for a permit for vacant commercial space at the first floor front.
equipment and material storage garage at the rear, and a three dwelling units, first and second floor, in an existing structure.
This involves interior renovations only. There are no additions to the subject property.
Resulted in two refusals, one for the vacant commercial space and for the three dwelling units.
Accordingly, we seek use variances today. With regard to the vacant commercial space, I spoke with Board Counsel Hillary Emerson yesterday, and we have agreed that the commercial space will be used as a business and professional office.
Mr. French is a contractor. He will use the rear space for equipment and material storage, and the first floor front will be basically his business office.
So I know the board does not grant blanket variances for commercial space, so we did have that discussion, but I'll defer to Hillary to advise the board with regard to that.
um a2 is the zba application of appeal a3 is the uh project information form a4 is proof of
ownership copy of the deed a5 is tax clearance a6 is the zoning site plan a7 typical floor plans
uh a8 are photos of the posting subject property to street views and an area of view
A-9 is the RCO meeting notice and certificate of mailing.
A-10 is the letter of support from Southport Richmond Civic, which is referred to as SOPO.
That is attached.
I believe that was unanimous.
A-11, if submitted, would be district council person's letter.
I believe Jen from Councilman Squall's office did submit a letter.
We have the letter.
Yeah, I would ask that that be marked as A-11.
A-12 is the relevant zoning history.
Going back to 1951, there was a permit for direction of a one-story garage and a two-story addition for a one-family dwelling.
In 1957 and forward, it was one family and a bakery, and the rear garage was used for storage for the bakery.
1981, 2826 was a two-family dwelling.
2828 was a one-family and an electrical contractor and storage garage, which fronts on Miller Street.
and in 1985 there was another permit confirming the the two apartment use and the storage garage
and the storage garage a 13 is the zoning map a 14 is the aerial photograph so very quickly um
A13 is the zoning map.
let me vote i don't know again mike french uh who is a long life a lifelong resident of fort
richmond is the owner of the property this property is located located on belgrade street
just above Somerset, around the corner from, you know,
which most people in Port Richmond know, Teccanelli's Pizza.
It's RSA5, but it has the existing mixed uses.
The existing conditions, it's a newly fully interior renovated
and front facade restored structure.
It was configured as a three-family with an office and a garage
at the time of purchase um one second my cursor's freezing up here um
okay so he he purchased the property and he renovated interior and he restored the facade
uh it consists of a commercial storefront commercial garage and warehouse in the rear
Three one-bedroom apartments.
Apartment number two is a bi-level apartment.
All are separately metered.
All units have new heating systems, washers and dryers in each unit.
There's a new roof and the second floor roof decks not visible from the street.
There's new electrical, new plumbing, new appliances.
All the concrete sidewalks have been replaced.
And it was actually renovated. He actually renovated the adjacent garage, believing he purchased that, too, much to his dismay.
So the seller of that of the property did receive a huge benefit by Mr. French renovating the adjacent garage as well.
um uh as far as the commercial tenant uh at at the time of the meeting uh we didn't have anybody
identified but mr french has uh indicated that he will occupy the office uh for his current business
um the the the rear garage has existed for decades and um uh again when we met with
SOPO, it was
clearly indicated and
acknowledged that he was the
long-time Port Richmond
resident.
So, briefly,
we have the notice of refusal
from May of 2024,
the application
of appeal, project
information form,
my transmittal letter, copy of the
deed from October of
two. There is a tax balance due, but it's not payable until March 31 of this year.
All other taxes are clear and paid for. This is the site plan and elevation plan.
Again, properties loaded on Belgrade Street, just above Somerset.
As you can see in the rear, there's a garage in the rear towards the front of the first floor would be the office space with one dwelling unit, separate entrance for the dwellings, separate entrance for the office space.
It was raised by Councilman Scuola's office that we install an access door, a man door, right where my cursor is indicating, connecting the office to the garage area.
Yeah. And I think a lot of the concern was that was dealt with the fact that a lot of times and the board sees them where first floor commercial space is converted into a residential dwelling.
That that would not be the case here because the space in and of itself is so small and it only has a powder room so that that could never be used as a dwelling unit.
and on the plane you can see there's a window right you know on this wall so it'd be easy
enough to put a man door in so that the office space can be directly connected to the commercial
space in the rear.
um uh again it's a uh there is a a third floor section uh which is part of uh unit two so it's
Again, it's a
a bi-level unit uh we're we're not making any additions to the structure and um and between
the two of them 28 and 26 they've been used as a three-family dwelling historically so we're not
We're not creating anything new.