excuse me, zoning records at the end of the presentation.
This is a letter of support as the chairman referenced
from the neighborhood group in support of the project.
It's been unanimous support.
These are photographs of North 8th Street.
So these are all residential properties
that my cursor's going back and forth over.
Across the street is a factory.
i believe this is emerald windows they make uh replacement windows and storm windows and this
is the the lot here that has been vacant as i said since late 1977 at least or prior this is looking
north on a street there's the existing factory which is zoned in the zoning district i2 and cmx2
district is across the street again another photograph just showing the rest of the
residential structures on North A Street. The plans are for a triplex on this property,
three families. So instead of having a commercial on the first floor and two residential above,
we're asking to swap out the commercial on the first floor because it obviously will not work
on this block as there are other residential structures on the 2200 block of North A Street.
We'll have a unit, first floor and basement,
unit on the second floor,
and then a unit on the third floor.
So basically, one three-bedroom unit with three baths,
one two-bedroom unit with one and a half baths,
and the third unit on the third floor
will be two bedrooms and two baths.
We have a tax certification,
but I wanted to get to the zoning map,
I'll show the board. This is the subject property. As you can see, the east side of A Street is all CMX2, although in reality, they're all residential.
And it does adjoin an R&M1 zoning district. And across the street is the factory I was telling you about, which is I2.
Again, these are the zoning records. Let me blow these up a little bit.
this is a vacant lot this is 1977 and then the next photograph we're playing i just went back
a little bit further this is 1941 we're really going back far back then it was a commercial
area this was the monroe black company and they had some offices and showroom there but over time
properties were demolished and that whole side of the street ended up being residential so i think
we have some unique circumstances here where the zoning district does not match what is existing
on the block the proposed development of three family does not impair the weight or air of any
adjacent property it's not detrimental to the public welfare it's in harmony with the code
It's in harmony with the code,
in harmony with what the neighborhood wants because they gave us
in harmony with what the neighborhood wants
because they gave us a letter of support.
And we're not asking for any relief
with regard to height, open space, or rear yard.
And with that, I would rest, open the questions,
open up for questionings for the board
or virtual audience.
And my client is on the call also.
Mr. Clinton, do you want to have your testimony
adopted by your client?
Sure. Mr. Ball, can you unmute yourself?
Mr. Balk, can you please raise your virtual hand?
Mr. Balk, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Yes, my name is Ruslan Balk, R-U-S-L-A-N, last name Balk, B-A-L-K.
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes proceed uh good afternoon mr ball did you hear my testimony uh on this zoom call before
the zba yes if you had the opportunity to testify would you adopt my testimony as your own and as
true and correct. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Volk. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chair. No, Mr.
Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience? I see no heads at this time, Chair.
Aye. Planning Commission. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the board. This is
Greg Wallachman, Planning Commission staff. The comprehensive plan recommends a change to
RM1, residential multifamily
at this location. The use
variance conforms to the proposed
RM1 zoning district in the
comprehensive plan, which would permit up to
three units by right. The city planning
commissioner recommends that the zoning board
recommend or grant the
variance. Thank you.
MI 2022
001-238-2247
North A Street. I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
MI 2021-003851, 5328 Wakefield Street.
Attorney is Stephen Pollack.
Letter of support, non-opposition from the RCO 12th Ward Democratic Committee.
Mr. Pollack is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
I think I clicked the unmute and part of the video.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court report?
Steven Pollock, S-T-E-P-H-E-N, Pollock, P-O-L-L-O-C-K.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth?
nothing but the truth. I do, Mr. Chairman. Hi, could you identify your client in relationship
to the property, please? Yes, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I represent the Smith Group
Elite Properties LLC, which is the corporate entity for a husband and wife team, Leroy and
Kim Smith. They are on the call with me today so that we will be able to have them affirm our
testimony at the end of the presentation and we also have Mr. Andy Barrios with us who is our
project designer and as always I at some point will to share the screen I need to allow Nicholas
Realbuto my associate to have privileges also as a panelist so he could put up our screen for you
and all our exhibits. All right our vice chair has a few questions. Hi Mr. Pollack do you swear
You already did that, Mr. Chairman.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do, Madam Vice Chair.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, we have, and yes, we do.
Okay, great.
You may proceed, and please begin sharing your screen.
Okay, if we can have Nicholas Rialbuto be able to share the screen, that would be great.
Here we go.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this is a request to restore the status of the, that's a twins semi-detached building.
We're trying to restore the status of the left side to a three-family dwelling.
The right, I mean the right side, I'm sorry, 5328, the one on the right.
The one on the left side, and could you raise that picture just a little bit, Nico?
Um, go down, you know, go back down, show the yellow. Okay. When my client, uh, the, the left
Go back down, show the yellow.
side is already a three family dwelling. It has, uh, they have a rental license for it in our
packet of exhibits, which are, uh, a one through a 17, which I will request that, uh, they, since
they've been submitted already, that they all be included in, uh, and introduced into the record
and accepted into the record, but that has been documented as a three-family dwelling.
What happened is Roy and Kim bought this property on October the 5th, 2020, as you can see from
the deed that's part of our exhibit package at A1, and this is what the building looked like.
It needed a lot of renovation, so since buying it, they have done and transformed it into
this building modernized the front, modernized the mailboxes, cleaned up the front look,
changed the whole color to make it so it doesn't look discolored and out of place.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, we have in our exhibit package, especially at A14 and A15,
And Nico, maybe you can get to the A14, A15, that what happened here is the left-hand side was granted a variance in 1951 for a three-family dwelling.
And let's go down.
And this is the variance that was granted.
Keep going because we'll see that the zoning board granted a variance for this as a three family dwelling. Go back, go down. Yeah. And here, go there. That, you know, three family dwelling, the condition each apartment will have its own bathroom. That was the condition. And that was what has happened with that property.
They are connected. They are separated out because they're a semi-detached building.
And then if you go to our next project, next paper, you will see that in 1955,
a property across the street, 5325 Wakefield, went in the same thing for a variance to establish
that they wanted to be a triplex as part of their representation to the to the zoning board at the
time they listed all the properties at that time that had that were three family dwellings as you
can see highlighted in yellow are different properties but the the ones to the very bottom
5326 and then the subject property 5328 Wakefield have the notation all these properties have
three family apartments. So this, now if you look at the site plan or floor plan, if we can get to
the floor plan, this is, I don't know if we can turn that around so it can be seen rather than
be on its side. Is there a way to twist it? Yeah. This is the existing structure. So our hardship,
Matt, Mr. Chairman and members of the board is that the physical characteristics of this property,
both the left hand side and the right hand side that are before you today, lays out as a three
family dwelling. It wasn't the creation of my clients when they bought it on October the 5th
of 2020. It was represented to them as a three family dwelling. It looked like, smelled like,
and looked like a three family dwelling. And as you can see, if you go, if you lower that a little
bit, you'll see that the first floor is about a thousand two square feet, but that includes this
laundry in the front patio or porch is that we can go back to the physical photo for you.
The second floor is 857 square feet. Third floor is 804 square feet. So they're not after,
the third floor is not an afterthought in terms of being a lot smaller. Somebody's trying to,
as one former chair used to say, David Auschwitz squeezing 10 pounds of sugar in a five pound bag.
It's been existing for all these years. But as I said, the documentation has gone missing. So Kim and Roy have renovated this. If you want to go to the pictures and show us, before you go to that, though, one of the other things is, although this is zoned RSA3, RSA3 says you need to be 25 feet wide, and you have to have 2,250 square feet of lot area.
So it's a zoning character. Zoning district does not fit to the current use of this property on either half because either half really is only about 1900 square feet.
So we've got an already zoning characteristic, which we feel or zoning district we feel, which does.
uh a zoning characteristic which we feel or zoning district we feel which does not capture
what the prior uses were in the neighborhood so if we go and show you maybe show us that map
um that is the um atlas city atlas map because we want to show you that adjacent to this property
especially the left hand side the 5326 property there are uh and maybe nico can show it on this
one if you can show where we are on little wakefield uh right over up a little bit up up up
up you're almost there over see this vacant space and go to your left a little bit go to the left
and down no go go back i wish i was in control here but uh keep going to the left and up it's up
no go to the right one more house all right that's our house that's where we are the next
things are the vacant lots they are lots 53 24 22 53 20 and and they are all owned by the city of
philadelphia they remain vacant since the 1970s according to the uh what i we were able to find
in lni's files so it's there's a vague there's a big tooth or big hole in this area as you can see
from that prior application back from 5325 back in the day in 1955, this area was replete with
three family dwellings. So we believe that, and they have commercial trash pickup.
They've been able to, as I say, renovate this so that, and we could go show the photos now of the
property very quickly to give the board a sense of what we're dealing with.
so that's it from looking uh up the block there's our property uh there it is again with 28 on one
side uh that's across the street and that shows does show a vacant property keep going that's
across the street still across the street here's on our right hand side this is our side where our
5328 the side of the property that's uh up before this honorable board for review uh that's the
side yard that we maintain with the fence. That's looking from the rear yard back towards Wakefield
Street along that same corridor, and again, getting a little bit closer to the rear, and that's the
fence that's maintained. That's again from the rear. Here's the rear lot of our property, so that
maintains the rear look of the property. We're not destroying it. Now, that is looking on the right
hand side, which is the side closest, or really the left hand side. That's the 5326 side, but the
foliage that you see on the right-hand side along the fence is where we start having those vacant
properties that I advise the board about at 54, 24, 22, 20, and 18. So go to the next photo.
And there's a, we're coming along the 26 side again, keep going. Another shot of the 26 side
coming towards Wakefield. And all this maintained, as you can see, there are four meters on that side,
And that's a three family dwelling. This is our rear yard, the rear of the property. Again, keep going. Nico, show the rear. Here's our front. That's the front of our side of 5328. Here's an interior shot of 5328 as you go. And we'll show you going up.
5326 is to the left, 5328 is to the right, and you can see there's smoke alarms and internal
pull stations and a fire extinguisher to start the fire protection. This is that common laundry
room that you saw on the drawing site plan done by Mr. Barrios that is part of our proposal here.
Next is there's the tighter view of the pole station. Now we're going to go up the interior stairs and that's up to the second unit that's been there and go ahead.
And now we go up to that third floor unit to show you that from the way the landing and staircases are and everything like that, you can see that this is not something that was just put in willy nilly.
it dates back as we say and we believe to at least 1951 probably at least 1951 and I was in
amazement to see something that goes back to 51 because I was born in 51 so this building is
probably as old as I am and then this is the third floor apartment that they did do some
you know interior renovations to but they have not rented it it remains vacant because they got
stopped on um that they didn't have uh proof that uh ellen i was not willing to give them a
three-family license go ahead show the next photo so um that's looking towards
Wakefield Street going back into the building. And they're all two bedroom, one bathroom apartments
wakefield street going back into the building and they're all two bedroom one one bathroom
that Kim and Roy have created here. And so that's what the interior looks like. As I said,
they have not rented it. And if you go to our exhibits A16 and A17, you will see that right
now we do currently have a three-family rental unit license for, that's our letters to the
owners and occupants. We do have a three-family rental license for the 26 side, and Roy and Kim
were able to get a two-family rental unit license for the right-hand side, the 28 side that's in
front of you. So we believe that the only way we could ever comply to make this a single-family
home, which is what RSA 3 would be, would be either extensive interior renovations and demolition
that would, as you saw from the way the staircase is, would destroy a lot of the
architectural context of this property on the inside. And also, if we were to not be able to