ZBA Hearing - July 12, 2023

if i could just like throw in one more thing just or whatever i mean

if you go forward right and you still need to get your client still needs a variance regardless of

whether it's one or four refusals if you want to go forward you can go forward and just preserve

the argument that the additional refusals were issued in error but so i mean in that sense i

don't know that we it is since you've already got two refusals that you're not disputing you still

need the variance anyway the board can grant a variance for one or all of these if they grant

to variance from these additional refusals then isn't that kind of a non-issue like why do we need

so i mean again i'm just saying like i don't think you necessarily have to i can figure this

out later they can just preserve it's a legal argument that would be appealable on a de novo

basis and at court so you know it's mr chair whatever you want to do yeah this is this is

hillary i just um for um from our perspective and board's perspective i have no issue with

this proceeding today um but i do want to ask mr shirmer have there been any changes to the plans

since they were submitted to l and i in the original application no no plan okay okay then i i think

that that we can proceed and mr reuter can um address this this legal issue at a later time we

will just not vote on it today because we don't know which refusal we're voting on but i believe

the refusals are essentially the same plus a couple of additional refusals for parking right

could i could i request because it's now four o'clock we were two o'clock can i

could i request because it's now four o'clock we were two o'clock can i i request that i get in

touch with my client and find out whether what they think about moving forward today versus

kicking this back and put us towards the end of the hearing list so i can you have we only have

two more cases left okay well uh then give me oh wait a minute hillary is that okay hillary

um yeah we need to we need to go back to mr scleros um and then i believe we have one uh

two others after that right right right all right i will we'll put him at the end thank you very

much yeah mr jim will bring him back on okay thank you thank you

mr shirmer could you take your screen down please

Number 12, MI-2023-00913, 2435 South 21st Street.

Henry Clinton is the attorney.

Letter of opposition from the Drada State Neighbors Association

and a letter of non-opposition from the Drada State Area Residence.

Letter of non-opposition from Councilman Johnson.

Henry Clinton is coming back in as a panelist.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

Mr. Clinton, I've already sworn you once today.

Could you just state your name for the record, please?

Sure, Mr. Chairman, Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.

Right.

Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?

Sure.

my client is Eric DiPerturo. He is the owner of the property. And our vice chair has a few

questions for you. Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal

and stipulate to its accuracy? I do, Mr. Shahid. Have you emailed then all the required documents

and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?

Yes. Thank you. Please proceed to share your screen. Thank you.

Is that visible, Mr. Chairman? It is, sir. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman,

members of the board, Henry Clinton, on behalf of Eric DiPerturo, who is the owner of the subject

property. This is my table of contents, which contains exhibits AA through A10, which I asked

to be admitted into the record. The DiPertoro family, longtime residents of the Girard estate

area, as you know, located in South Philadelphia. And Eric DiPertoro purchased this property last

year. I wanted to be in this neighborhood, be near his family. And request today is for a parking

space in the rear of his property at the corner of 21st and Porter. As you'll see from the

presentation, let me go to the refusal first, Mr. Chairman. So the refusal is pretty simple.

It's a rear yard depth issue. This is a large lot. It's 120 feet deep by 21 wide, one of the

largest lots in Gerard estate. And even with a parking space, there's still going to be a 20 foot

rear yard. So we do have a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Kenyatta Johnson,

and we have a letter of support from, as the chairman said, the Gerard estate area residents.

So, as you'll see as I walk through this presentation, it is fairly typical for properties located on the corner, especially properties located on wider streets like Porter Street, to have a parking space in the rear yard.

GEAR, again, Gerard Estate Area Residence, recognizes this common usage in the neighborhood,

references that we have streets department approval, which I will show the panel,

and mentions that there are at least 16 similar driveways in the Gerard Estate.

We actually did a very comprehensive survey of the neighborhood, and we found 19 areas,

corner lots where there are parking spaces in the rear of the property. And I'm going to walk

through them just to show the board that, again, this is a fairly typical arrangement in Girard

typical arrangement in Girard Estate. And Gere also mentions as I did that the rear yard is of

state and gear off.

ample length and the driveway again is on a very wide street.

There is a letter from Gina, the Girard Estate Neighbors Association, and as I read this letter

their opposition is really based on two issues. One is that my client will have a

a curb cut and they'll park in front of it. I guess on occasion there are other individuals

in Georgia State who do that, but suggesting that my client is going to follow the lead of others

who may park in front of their parking space, I don't think warrants sufficient opposition to

deny the request. The second point of opposition in this letter is of a safety concern, and we

agree that this is a very walkable neighborhood and there are many families with children. That's

why my client has gone to the length of having a mechanized gate that will open out onto the

sidewalk so that as any vehicles are getting in or out of the spot, that there will be a barrier

for anyone who would have them to walk by to prevent any type of an incident as suggested by

the Girard Estate Neighbors Association.

And when I walk you through the photographs

of the other corner properties

that have rear parking spaces,

you'll see that my client's proposal

is probably the most extensive proposal

for a parking space in the neighborhood right now.

And perhaps maybe this will become the example

for others who want to do likewise

and have a parking space in the rear of their property

that they'll have a similar arrangement

as my client is suggesting.

We also have 21 letters of support from nearby neighbors, both on this block as well as other blocks in the neighborhood.

And I don't want to go through each one, Mr. Chairman, but they are basically the same letter indicating a support to install the parking or driveway spot in the rear of the property.

Again, they're all on South 21st Street, on Lambert Street, on Woodcock Street, and on 20th Street. So with the chairman's permission, I will just move on beyond these letters of support. Put acid to the board. Please note it.

Granted, and please move on.

I want to get to the right photographs, Mr. Chairman, bear with me here.

So this is the picture of the corner property, 2435 South 21st Street.

There's a little bit of delay when I click for the next photograph and then it comes

up.

So bear with me on that.

So this is the rear yard.

The tree that you see, Mr. Chairman, is not in this position anymore.

It's a buttonwood tree.

It was damaged per the tree surgeon and it was removed about nine months to 12 months

to go. So there's a very deep rear yard, and you can see the yards on the adjacent street are very

narrow. But even with the parking space, we're going to have an ample 20-feet area to still

enjoy the rear yard and the ambiance of this backyard. Right now in Girard Estate, these are

the properties that we were able to locate that have rear parking spaces in the rear yard.

I said 19, but we actually were able to find 20.

And this is an aerial photograph.

Let me just shrink that a little bit.

Where we went through the neighborhood and the green dot is my client's property.

The red dots are the corner properties that have rear parking spaces.

So you could see that on the larger streets like, you know, Rittner Porter is a little bit larger.

as well as Shunk Street, that the properties on those corners, let me just shrink this

a little bit more so you get a full picture.

So this is Porter Street, where my cursor is, Shunk Street, further south.

This is Porter Street, where my cursor is, Shunk Street, further south, and then Rittner Street.

So you can see on the larger streets, that is fairly typical, as Geer has pointed out, that there are rear parking spaces on these large corner lots.

Now I'm going to just walk through the 20 or so rear yard spaces that you can see.

There's a variety of types of gates.

Some don't have gates.

Some have two parking spots.

This is 2310 South 21st Street, 2336 South 21st Street is the picture above.

Pass Yonk Avenue, South Lambert Street, 20th Street, South Garnett Street,

South 19th Street. Again, just trying to give you a flavor of what some of the lots are like.

I mean, they're narrower lots.

They don't have the rear big yards, typically, that my client does.

Some do, some do not.

I don't mean to generalize.

This is Colorado Street on South 20th Street.

Here's a rather narrow parking space without any gates.

Again, South Lambert Street, you can see a parking space without gates, without any

barriers like my client is proposing.

SOUTH EIGHTEEN STREET, SOUTH GARNETT STREET, AND AGAIN, HERE'S THE SITUATION WHERE WE HAVE

GATES THAT OPEN INWARD, AGAIN, MY CLIENTS' GATES WILL OPEN OUTWARD, THEY'RE MECHANIZED,

AND THEY'RE GOING TO MATCH, AND I'LL SHOW YOU THE PLANS, MR. CHAIRMAN, THEY'RE GOING TO MATCH

THE EXISTING GATE THAT'S ALREADY THERE. HERE'S THE NOTICE OF OUR POSTING.

we do have a proviso sheet because we did make a change to have the gates

open outward as a protective barrier and here's the plan so we have approvals from streets which

I will show you because there's ample turning radius here because as I mentioned several times

Porter Street is a rather large wide street we're going to have permeable pavers

basically installed on sand and stone. No concrete or cement will be used. We still have,

as I said, an ample rear yard. I said 20 feet from the rear of the property to the beginning

of the space is 26 feet, but I accounted for an existing rear porch to approximate the

the depth of the rear yard.

This is a photograph of the fence.

It's a hairpin fence.

It's gonna be sandblasted where necessary

and new fence painted to match existing.

So the ambiance of the rear yard

and the historical nature of Girard estate

estate will be kept intact.

Here's our streets department approval, as I mentioned.

The rest of the documents are the pro forma documents you would see in a presentation such as this, tax certification, our application for appeal.

zony map again i i did reference again i don't hate to be redundant here but

uh these lots that front on 21st street are extremely large in depth

this is the deed indicating ownership of the property by my client

and finally this is our certificate of mailing indicating that we

We mailed out 125 pieces of mail to all of the surrounding areas.

So in conclusion, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this request for variance doesn't impact any lighter air of adjoining neighbors.

It doesn't impede the development of any adjacent properties.

It's a one for one parking switch.

We're not taking any cars, any parking spaces, rather, from any of the adjoining neighbors because we are having an off-street spot that basically will replace an on-street park.

We have designed this with swing gates mechanized, so they swing outward, not inward.

We're not altering the essential character of the neighborhood.

In fact, I would argue that, and I'll stop sharing my screen, I would argue that the rear parking space is a common occurrence in Girard Estate, as noted by GEAR.

We're now out of character with the neighborhood, and we're going to maintain still a large rear yard.

And that tree that we removed because we had to about nine months ago, we're going to plant new trees in the rear yard so the greenery will be maintained in Girard Estate.

So with that, Mr. Chairman, I rest and ask that my client be unmuted and to adopt my testimony.

So with that, Mr. Chairman, I rest and ask that my client be

Henry, just a quick summary. The coordinating RCO is in favor, has non-opposition.

An affected RCO has opposition and the council person has non-opposition. Is that right?

Correct, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, thank you. Bring your client on.

As well as the support of the 21 neighbors.

yep yep uh all right can you unmute yourself

hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter good afternoon my name

is eric di pretoro e-r-i-c di pretoro d-i-p-r-e-t-o-r-o do you swear or affirm to tell

the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel

Mr. DiPretorio, were you on the Zoom call when I presented your application for your property at 2435?

Yes.

And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?

Yes, I would.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Questions from the board.

Hello, Chair.

No, Chair.

Questions or comments from the virtual audience?

Here we have someone, Frank's iPhone, too.

Okay.

Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?

My name is Frank, F-R-A-N-K, Marciano, M-A-R-C-H-I-A-N-O.

Right.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Proceed.

You're a neighbor.

Excuse me?

You're a neighbor.

My name is Frank Marchionne.

No, I said you're a neighbor.

Am I right?

Oh, yes, sir.