so we're very particular how we vet the guests uh from from neighbors where in early on uh as we
were just getting this thing started we had to learn the hard way about how to do that properly
thank you um questions from the board
no mr chairman no mr chair
no mr chairman thank you tom questions or comments from the virtual audience
mr chair i have a miss megan greiser with her hand raised i have allowed
her to speak at this time thank you hi could you state your name please state your name and spell
for the court reporter? Yes, my name is Megan Greiser, M-E-G-H-A-N, last name G-R-I-E-S-S-E-R.
I live across the street from this property. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Proceed. I just wanted to share that we've,
we're, as in general, supportive of Airbnbs in our neighborhood at the right place and time,
and when they're well managed. We've unfortunately not experienced this property being well managed
as cited in the neighborhood letter. There have been several parties that have gotten quite out
of control, guests that I wouldn't say necessarily represent the characteristics Mr. Reeder was
describing, not really well caring for the property. In general, there are issues with
trash removal. I believe nearby neighbors have had also issues with egress and their ability
to access the alley next to the home, which is supposed to be accessible by multiple properties.
When I attended the FNA meeting in the fall, I was very open to hearing their proposal about
how they plan to better manage this property. And when I asked the other co-owner, you know,
how we could get in touch with them with ongoing issues, they said, oh, we make ourselves very
available but wouldn't provide any methods by which we could contact them. And that's frustrating
as a neighbor that I have no ability to reach out to the owners directly or the property managers
who they wouldn't name or give a phone number for in the event of ongoing security issues,
trash issues, parties, et cetera. Okay. All right. Thank you for your input
and thank you for calling in. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands. Good morning, Planning Commission. Good morning, Chair Bergman. Ian Eggerty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Last name is spelled H-E-G-A-R-T-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, sir, I do. Proceed.
Thank you. Good morning, Board members. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family zoning at this location.
for these visitor accommodation cases as you know we're looking for evidence that the proposed use
is necessary to enable viable economic use of the property we don't think the applicant has
met the burden of demonstrating such in this case and so the city planning commission
recommends that the board deny the variance so mi 2022 005 483 1304 cressy street i vote no
Thomas Solomon my vote is no
James Snell my vote is no
Ishmael Shaheen my vote is no
Thank you sir
Number two
MI 2022
004-886
617 East Durham Street
Demetrius Parrish is the attorney
letter of support from the East Mount Airy neighbors.
Mr. Parrish? Good morning, as a panelist, sir. Okay, thank you.
Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Parrish. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the
court reporter. Good morning. My name is Demetrius Paris, D-E-M-E-T-R-I-U-S. Last name is P-A-R-R-I-S-H.
I am the attorney for the applicant. Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Could you identify the applicant
in a relationship to the property? The applicant is Robert C. Hill. He is the owner.
Okay. Thank you. And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Sure. Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes. Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to proceed?
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I believe so. The only item that was missing was the tax clearance certificate. However, I think Miss, I think her first name is Hillary, looked at the tax information online and the taxes are paid up through 22 and they're not due until March 31st of 23.
Understood. Please proceed and share your screen.
Excuse me, this is Hillary.
Sorry, I did just look at this.
When I pulled up the report, there's actually a little bit of taxes due from 2011.
I don't know if that's correct or an error, but we will need to just hold this case to get that addressed.
Mr. Parrish, I'll send you the report over so that you can see that.
Thank you.
We're going to hold the vote. We'll hold the vote.
Yes, we'll hear the case, yes.
Sure. Panel members, this property was built in or about 1953 as a twin property.
I'm sorry.
Share your screen, please.
Yes, sir.
Oh, hold on.
This property was built in 1953 as a twin property, and each side had two apartments, one on each floor. This is the original housing approval for the property as two family residences.
I was able to locate this application from the neighbor's application for
variance a few years ago. In any event,
they were originally intended to be listed as a 619 and 621 Durham street,
but the actual addresses are 615 and 617 Durham street.
At some point, the, the zoning changed to a single family homes in that area,
which made out of line with respect to the zoning.
We are applying for variance to allow it to continue to exist as a duplex.
With respect to the property, when I reviewed the refusal application,
it indicated that A, it was zoned single family,
and b we did not uh make a provision for parking uh there is parking available um on the on the
street and and in the uh rear of the property i have i've sent pictures and uh i have to locate
the picture of the back but i did provide those as exhibits if you give me a second i can show them
uh the picture of the back uh to you one second one he shows the whole property if you have photos
Oh, sure. I'll share my screen. I'll just have to locate the pictures and then I'll share my screen. Hold on one second.
Take your time.
this is the rear of the property. The property that we're talking about today is on the left
of the picture. As you notice, there are two garages and as well as a driveway in the back.
So that would satisfy, in my opinion, the requirement for parking.
and I'll show you the other pictures of the property.
This is the front of the property.
And as you see in this picture, it's the property on the right.
And as you will notice that both sides are mirror images of each other.
On the left is 615, the right is 617, which is the property that we are here for today.
And there is an apartment on the top, a two-bedroom apartment on the top, two-bedroom apartment on the bottom.
it's being operated as a duplex right now uh you mean in terms of occupied yes i think that
it's being operated as a duplex right now
the the apartment up top is occupied the one on the bottom is vacant and the separate utilities
that's correct all right thank you all right um questions from the board no mr chairman no mr
chairman no mr chairman questions are calm oh i'm sorry is your uh is your client here
he is um we bring him on to adopt your testimony i'm sorry okay
robert hill
he may be uh present by phone uh i know mr hill could you raise your hand please
please raise your virtual hand mr hill if you're still in the audience
Councilor, you're an officer of the court. We will take your testimony.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands, sir.
Planning?
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change in the residential single-family zoning in this location.
However, this application does legalize a duplex built in 1953 or 1954.
The proposed legalized use is consistent with the existing physical configuration of the building
and is clearly substantiated by the record of due family use associated with both the adjoining twin home and this home.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2022-004-886-617 East Durham Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Mr. Chair, I'm sorry.
We need to hold this one for the tax clearance.
You're right.
I'm sorry.
So, Mr. Parrish, we'll get the tax clearance.
We'll bring you back as quick as we can.
So we'll get another date?
We'll just take the vote.
We'll vote.
And I will follow up and work on getting the tax clearance certificate.
it it when I tried to get it yesterday for some reason they wouldn't allow me to get it okay all
right all right so once you get it get a hold of Hillary and we'll put it back on okay thank you
so much all right thank you bye-bye MI 2020 number four MI 2022 005 573 123 East Gorgas
Jennifer Bazzillo is the attorney.
Councilwoman Vass has no objection to granting the variance.
Letters import from East Mount Airy neighbors.
Neighbors would like to see permutable pavement utilized for the parking spot.
Good morning.
Give me one second here.
Take your time.
Yes, sorry. There I am.
Can you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Sure. Jennifer Bizzidlow. My last name is B as in boy, A as in apple, Z as in zebra, Y, D as in David, L as in Larry, O as in Oscar.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Sure. So my client is Stacy Harley, and he is the property owner.
Okay, thank you.
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in to our offices all the required documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing to proceed with this case?
Yes, and I just want to let Ms. Emerson know that I put in all required documents.
I realized I was missing one photo.
I just emailed it to her for the record. Okay, thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
One second.
Okay, so like I said, my name is Jennifer. I'm here with the homeowner and homeowner and occupant
Stacy Harley. I'm going to just scroll through my documents here to show you everything.
We have, let me just move this so I can scroll easier. Sorry, one second.
Technical glitch. All right, there's the refusal. We'll get back to that.
Our application, project information form, the deed that shows Mr. Harley's ownership.
We have property taxes are paid, zero balance even this year.
Zero balance even this year.
The letter of support.
The letter of support from East Mount Airy.
We met with them twice, by the way.
Aerial views of the property.
This is a parking survey
because this involves a parking space that the RCO did.
I'll come back to this to talk about parking.
This is the variance for the neighboring property
which is pretty similar to what we're asking for.
Photographs, there's the required postings.
This is the property in question. One, two, three is Gorgas. Rear yard, side yard.
There's another shot of the rear through to the front. This is the street. This is Gorgas Lane,
100 block of Gorgas Lane. That's the property next door. And these are some other properties.
We'll come back to these and the plans. So let me just tell you a little bit about
this property and what we propose to do. So 123 East Gorgas Lane is a little over almost 4,100
square feet. It's zoned RSA 3 and has an existing single family home on it. This property has been
in Mr. Harley's family for generations. He is in fact in his 60s and he was brought home by his
mother from the hospital to this property. And he currently lives there with his elderly mother,
which is why we're proposing what we're proposing.
The proposal is a one-story addition in the rear of the property.
You can see here kind of the sloped roof, and this is the footprint,
as well as an accessory off-street parking space.
Both the parking space and this addition and how it's configured is really to allow for the aging in place of both Mr. Harley and, more importantly, his mother.
At this point, the addition is going to be used for a first an additional first floor living space and a full handicap accessible bathroom, which will allow this family to continue living in this home as they might have limited continue to have limited accessibility to the bathrooms and the living spaces on the upper floors of the home.
So really just to continue maintaining living in this this home that they've they've had for generations at this point.
So I wanted to. And the parking will also allow just to have that easy access into the home for for this family and not have to walk further as, again, mobility issues continue to increase and mobility declines.
And so this created two refusals. I'm going to go to refusals and I'll go through each one of them.
The first is for the minimum side yard. The required is eight feet and we are proposing five feet.
So I just want to go back to this side. And the second is for parking in the required front yard.
So let's just go to the photos of, one second.
All right. So the addition that we're proposing in the back is not going to be any, it's actually less, it's no further out than this existing front porch.
So when you look at the back here, you can see where the front porch comes and the addition is going to be in this rear area where there was a prior addition that had to be taken down.
And to rebuild that addition with a similar footprint in terms of side yard to this front porch.
There's actually going to be a little bit bigger side yard with the addition than where that front porch is.
um there's still going to be over eight feet of separation in between these two homes
um so there's going to be like no safety issues about being able to access this rear yard