christian street we did receive a letter of support for the proposal from sasna
now as you can see in the aerial photos i have up on the screen at tab eight
This is a corner property located right at the corner of Christian Street and South 26th Street.
To the west is a utility power facility.
All other sides of the property are surrounded by residential uses.
The property itself is zoned RM1 and is adjacent to areas of industrial zoning,
multi-family zoning, single-family zoning, and some mixed CMX2 zoning a little farther up Christian
Street. Now if you'll refer to the photographs I've included at tab 14, you'll see that the
property currently exists with a one-story garage-like building. There is an existing
garage door along Christian Street similar to the condition of the two adjacent homes.
Currently, the structure houses storage for the owner's plumbing business. Now, the owners of this building and my clients here today are Thomas and Patricia Ull.
Now, as you can see, as I'll scroll through some of the interior photos, this is not a retail facility.
Tom, who runs his plumbing supply business, generally will visit the building once in the
morning to gather his supplies, and then he'll return later in the evening to return those
supplies back to the building. Otherwise, the building largely sits unused the vast majority
of the day. There is no parking in this building that is permitted or used. The curb cut that you
see in front of the building and the garage are used so that Tom can access his large air compressor
that he rolls out and loads into his trunk. Now you'll also notice in the photographs of the side
of this building what look like seven garage doors. In fact, these are actually white brick.
From the history that we've been able to gather, which is included in the exhibits at Tab 10,
this building was actually a garage for about seven cars back in the 30s.
It appears that the 26th Street garages were bricked over sometime in the 60s,
although it did continue to be used for parking from the 70s until Tom purchased the building in 1998.
Since 1998, it's been used for its current equipment and material storage for his plumbing business.
Now, turning to the request before the board, Tom is looking to erect a two-story addition on top of the building for two new apartments.
The plans are shown at tabs four through six.
Now, if you'll refer to the floor plans that I have up on the screen, each unit will have two bedrooms, two bathrooms.
The units are roughly 1,100 square feet each. There will be a common use roof deck.
Tom intends to have his daughter live in one of these units and will rent the other at market rate.
The first floor will also include two parking spaces.
The first floor will also include two parking spaces that are accessed from South 26th Street,
which you can see in the rear here. Garbage will be stored in this garage area.
Now, with respect to the application, we did receive three refusals that we can address
relatively quickly. First, although this is a long-standing non-conforming use,
the instant application did result in a refusal for the over 20-year use of the ground floor
as equipment materials and storage yards, which is prohibited in the RM1 zoning district.
Of course, it would be an extreme hardship to cease use of this ground floor of its current use.
TOM has operated here for decades and no change is proposed to this ground floor use.
Now, jumping ahead to the technical refusal that we received for the parking space.
Let me zoom in here so you can get a good understanding of this one.
The parking spaces would be required to be 18 feet long from one end to the other.
They are only 17 feet.
Now, let me show you why.
If you look at the zoning plan, you'll see that the lot itself is 18 feet wide.
Tom is proposing to maintain the full existing ground floor structure.
So you can see that the walls here are about a foot wide, are about an inch wide.
Sorry, the walls are about a foot wide.
So it would be impractical to comply with the code without demolishing the existing walls.
So it's just a de minimis one foot variance there.
Now, finally, we have a refusal because the parking itself would be prohibited unless accessed by a shared driveway or rear alley.
Now, in this case, the parking is proposed to be accessed from South 26th Street, not Christian Street.
So we submit that the intent of the code is met.
Furthermore, the property itself has a nearly 80-year history
of some form of parking being accessed from South 26th Street.
Now to the west, it's strictly an industrial use and no parking is allowed on South 26th Street.
Let me just show you what you have there as a result of that condition.
All right, I have a question. I'm wondering if there's anybody in the virtual audience who has
any questions because we do have or you do have a letter of support from SOSNA.
Sure, we would be happy to hear if there are any questions.
We did submit a memorandum of law that fully outlines our arguments here,
so I'll reserve the rest unless there are any additional questions or testimony.
Are there any questions in the virtual audience?
i see no hands madam chair does the board have any questions no no no no may i have my client
adopt my testimony real quick absolutely thank you uh tom and patricia if you're on here
if you would raise your hand so you can be unmuted
Thomas last name is okay I have him he's been unmuted please wait for the chair and you may
unmute yourselves all ready for you Carol okay sir can you um put your name and address on the
record please and then i'll swear you in uh my name is thomas yule my address is 3516 south 20th
street okay do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do meredith you can have your client adopt your testimony thank you i'm sorry
before you do that meredith if i could just ask your client to spell his last name for the court
reporter. I am so sorry, Tanya. UHL. Thank you, Merida. No problem. Tom, you've heard all my
testimony given before the board today. Yes. And would you agree that testimony was true and
accurate? Yes. And would you adopt that testimony as if it were your own? Yes, I would. Thank you.
Thank you. Planning Commission.
Ron Bednar, City Planning.
While this property is indicated for residential use on the city plan, given the documented
use history, we recommend that the question of variance be granted, provided no parking
granted, provided no parking permitted, off-street parking permitted.
permitted.
I'm sorry, I'm not clear.
Sharon, can you explain that?
No off-street parking?
That's correct.
That's one of our refusals that we're asking for a variance for.
And that's where we're saying no.
okay i understand that i i don't know if i can do that well no that's that's one of the variances
that we're requesting i understand that to permit that off street parking and and i'd be happy to
elaborate a little further on why we submit that that parking is not only no impact um
if you'd like i can continue where i was headed on my on my testimony on that point
I mean, if you see up on the screen, just real quickly, you'll see as a result of the fact
that there is no parking allowed on South 26th Street, the cars are actually parked up on the
curb. So there's a good number of multifamily uses around here. And because there is such
limited parking in this area, the cars park up on the curb here. So that is why Tom is proposing
to add these two parking spaces here given that they're not going to impact any on-street parking
since there's none permitted anyway and it will serve to alleviate the serious parking problems
that occur in South Philadelphia. The community was more than happy to see this parking especially
since it's going to be accessed from South 26th Street so you know across the street there's an
industrial use here it's it's not creating any impact for anybody um and the the community's
only request was that there was no parking from christian street which we're perfectly fine with
because you can't access this parking from christian street okay is the board ready to vote
i have a question uh i'm ready i'm ready i have a question matter chair chair okay
26th street
is there
existing curb cuts
is there an existing curb cut
on 26th street
correct
I don't believe
that there is any
remaining curb cut as I mentioned
there have been
about 80 years worth of
parking uses from 26th street
I suspect that
the curb cuts probably were filled in at some point um tom i don't know if you know
the answer to that question is there any curb cut currently on south 26th street
there is no curb cuts on 2060.
okay calendar number 0454 2538 christian street my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes vote is yes thank you very much thank you calendar number 0381
3610 Haverford Avenue Joseph Consul he's our resident attorney now
all right okay name and address on the record please and spell your last name Joseph
Hello, everyone. Joseph Consul, again, 4 for 4, C-O-N-S-O-L-E, Consul-Madison, LLP, 1 West 3rd Street, Suite 204, Media, Pennsylvania, 19063.
You're still under oath. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal, or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Caveat being the RCO letter came yesterday evening at approximately 5.30.
And that's from Mantua Civic?
That's correct.
Are you guys in receipt?
And they're in approval?
They are in approval, yes.
Yeah, here's their, the email that was sent to everyone. Oh, pardon me, it was 8-17 last night.
And then attached to that letter, the ZBA was copied on it, it looks like, at the RCO ZBA letter.
And then the letter was attached to that with 17 in support.
So briefly tell us, because I know that they overwhelmingly supported this.
Okay, hello everyone. Joseph Consul, 3610 Haverford Street.
Haverford Street. I'm here with Eugene Nadiovich, Haverford Avenue, pardon me,
I'm here with Eugene Nadiovich.
representative for the owner of Westgerard LLC. We are here to seek the approval to
change the first floor unit of a CMX2 property from an approved commercial space to a residential
space. This property was originally approved and began to be being built as a two unit with a
commercial space. We've had no luck renting that and it's a small space as the RCO indicates in
their letter. So my client requested that we come back before the board to seek to use that space
as a residential unit as you can see this side of Haverford Avenue there's a multi-family
building there's a multi-family building there's a multi-family building we are this is before this
property was constructed but ours would have been in this dirt lot here we still have this empty
space here this empty space this lot here there's a church and then more residential buildings
further down the block um so uh this isn't a block that has commercial spaces uh being used
on it um and so uh we met with the rco and it went super smoothly uh here's the email from mantua
vote overwhelmingly overwhelmingly voted to support it um because lack of first floor
commercial space lack of parking and potential street congestion from a commercial use
uh they the uh both the board uh their board and the residents voted to approve the project
so that's three family units that's yes here's the refusal it'd be a total of three family units
and you know while it's neither here nor there um it's a um 1440 and um because it's not an rm1
obviously we need more than what you would need for an rm1 but if it were you know we'd have the
space okay does the board have any questions no no is there anyone in the virtual audience
with questions please raise your hand i see no hands madam chair planning commission
uh ron bednar city planning property is indicated for commercial mixed use on the city plan
We believe the applicant has not sufficiently demonstrated unnecessary hardship regarding requirements of the code.
Application is not consistent with our adopted district plan.
Located in the core of the Haverford Area Commercial Corridor, as remapped to match the community vision,
it's an inappropriate, non-conforming use.
We recommend the request for variance not be granted.
Could I call on you?
Not necessary.
Sorry. Yeah, please. You need to have your client adopt your testimony. Thank you, Chair. Is Eugene
available? Yes, I'm here. Hello. Hi. Can you ask him to adopt your testimony? Yeah. Could you state
your name for the record? A little late. I understand. Swear yourself in, Eugene.
Eugene Nidovich, that's E-U-G-E-N-E, last name N-A-Y-D-O-V-I-C-H.
And sir, do you agree to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Good evening, Eugene.
Did you hear my testimony?
I did.
Do you adopt it as your own?
Is there anything you would care to add to my testimony?
Yeah, so one of the things is the building immediately to the left of it is a multifamily residential building.
It's a pretty narrow lot.
The lot is only 16 feet wide.
There's also no alley in the back or the front.
So having trash in the back for any commercial space would not be feasible.
So, you know, we met with the community.
We're not asking for any additional units beyond what would have been allowed on an RM1.
we're not asking for any additional units beyond that at all we just want to be able to convert
the commercial space which was virtually unusable for commercial purposes on a block that does not
have other commercial buildings into one residential unit. Thank you Eugene.
Okay calendar number of course I'm trying to find
calendar number 0381 3610 Haverford Avenue my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you board thank you calendar number 0378
905 west indiana avenue the owner is daniel sachensky there are no exhibits with this
and this is the first listing
Daniel's been promoted to panelists. Please unmute yourself, sir, and wait for the chair.
Daniel, can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name, please?
Sure. My name is Daniel Sahansky, D-A-N-I-E-L, last name S-U-C-H-E-N-S-K-I, and this is in regards to 905