This is an existing two-family dwelling, and I have a zoning record at the end of the presentation.
You can see the two mailboxes on the door.
These are deep lots.
The lots are about 75 feet deep, so it allows for a larger home on the property, which is ample for a two-family dwelling.
Notice of our posting.
Here are the plans.
So to the left, I'll just start on the left-hand side.
This is the site map.
Again, the lot's 75 feet deep.
The house is about 55 feet deep.
What's unique about this particular lot is in the rear.
We actually have a door.
You can see this in the third photograph where my cursor is.
A door leading from the basement up the steps and into the rear yard.
The front will be all brick with an egress well, and then stairs leading up to the first floor.
The back will be a metal siding vertical.
floor plan uh excuse me floor plan now my client the plans show a bedroom in the basement and a
bathroom but she told me that the architect made a mistake she does not want to have a bedroom in
the basement or a bathroom. So it does say preliminary. So if we have a proviso, if the
board looks kindly upon this, we would ask that proviso to reflect no bedroom or bathroom in the
basement. This is a relatively modest proposal in terms of a number of bedrooms. First floor
will have one bedroom, large kitchen, living area, one bathroom. The front door would then
lead you to the second floor where there would be two bedrooms and two baths. There's no rooftop
deck. There's no decks in the rear. Again, trying to fit in with the character of the neighborhood.
Application for appeal, project information form, tax clearance. This requires some explanation. So
if you look at the tax records, the only taxes that my client owes is for 2025 and they're not
yet do. When we tried to print out the tax clearance, this is the first time I've ever
seen this. It said unable to view certificate. So she doesn't know any real estate taxes and
She doesn't know any real estate taxes and no other taxes that we know of, but I don't have a certificate to show the board, only to say at the top, tax clearance check for zoning board passed.
no other taxes that we know of.
You can view the certificate now or review it later in your letters, but for whatever reason, it just would not print out.
Zoning map, again, RSA 5 zoning district.
The deed indicating ownership by Ms. Fonda.
This is a notice we sent out to everyone within 250 feet of the property.
This is our certification that everything was actually mailed, 100 pieces of mail.
All the addresses, Martha Street, Amber Street, Rush Street.
And these are the two family dwellings on the street.
One is 2114, immediately adjacent to our property.
and then 2135, which is across the street.
And again, this is two units
and it's an active rental property.
That is the presentation.
I just like to summarize it
that we have a long vacant lot.
I wasn't as able to establish how long,
but some members of the community
thought it was at least a decade
or perhaps longer.
we have other two family dwellings on the block single family homes in terms of construction
costs would be prohibitive to build my client only has three bedrooms if it were a single
family home it would also have three bedrooms so we're not really bringing more individuals
to the block or more congestion the two family dwelling is necessary for the viable economic
use of the property. It is in harmony with the code as it is residential. It's in harmony with
the community. We're not impacting any light or air or the development of any adjacent property.
In fact, the property to the right is vacant, and perhaps our project will spur on the development
of that particular lot. And with that, I'd ask my client to unmute herself. Ms. Fonda,
can you raise your hand? She may be participating in my telephone.
Valjeta Fonda has been allowed to speak.
How could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Valjeta Fonda, V-A-L-J-E-T-A, last name Fonda, F-O-N-D-A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, Mr. Clinton.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Fonda, were you on this call when I presented your two-story, two-family project to the board?
Yes, I was.
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
Yes, I do.
Thank you, Ms. Fonda.
Questions from the board.
Questions from the board.
A question.
You're not, the client doesn't want to do basement living, correct?
Correct.
And so are you still going to have a basement?
Are you still planning to have a basement or no?
Yes, Mr. Johns, there will still be a basement,
but that will just be for recreation or maybe a playroom.
She has it marked here as recreation.
So there's no living in the basement.
Even though there's a door and a walk out into the yard,
I asked her repeatedly, and she advised me,
She doesn't want to have a bedroom or a bathroom in the basement.
Can you tell me how tall the building would be in relation to the other houses that are adjacent to it?
Ms. Graham, it's going to be 29 feet.
And I don't have a rendering of what's next door.
Let me see something here.
I do know at the top of the building, there's a cornice line here, which I think was meant that the brick or turn like a row lock to carry over the cornice line from the adjacent buildings.
Let me pull them up.
So 29 feet, it's well below the 38 feet.
I can only guesstimate the height of the buildings on either side, and I don't want to guesstimate wrong to tell you the truth.
Thank you.
other questions from the board what's the width of the lot the width of the lot is 18 feet okay
thank you questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
at this time mr chair
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good evening, Chair Bergman and board members.
My name is Nina Solomonic, and I'm with the Planning Commission.
Nina, could you spell your name for the court stenographer?
Yes, Nina, N-I-N-A, last name Solomonic, S-O-L-O-M-O-N-I-C.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
This property is indicated for residential single-family on the city plan, and our adopted district plan recommended no change to the existed zoning at this location.
There is no unique physical condition of this property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
Therefore, the Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the requested variance.
number seven what mr clinton if you want me to address that mr chairman i will sure you sure you
can yeah just as i mentioned in the presentation uh this is a large lot 18 by 75 it's been
undeveloped for a minimum of a decade and potentially longer uh the market values of
the properties on the street exceed the cost of construction for a single family home but it makes
more economic sense for a two-family home and there are other existing two-family homes on the
on the block including the one adjacent to our proposal. Thank you. MI 2204-004-857-2112 East
Somerset Street. I vote yes with no basement living. Michael Johns. My vote is yes with
proviso. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Irwin, my vote is yes, with proviso. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes, with proviso. Thank you,
Council. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Number eight, MI 2024-006-660-8301 Tarsdale Avenue,
Darwin Bovee is the attorney.
There's recommendation of unanimous support from the Upper Holmesburg Civic Association.
24 votes in support.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Council, I think I already sworn you at one point today, somewhere along the line.
Yes, she did, and I swore never to lie to this board.
Could you please state your name just for the record?
Darwin Bovee, B-E-A-U-V-A-I-S, attorney for the applicant, the Rockefeller Group.
If I can...
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate towards accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, I have. Thank you,
Counselor. Please proceed and you can share your screen. Okay.
Let me try this again.
I'm not the most tech-savvy
person.
I believe it's here.
can you see that we can make it just a little bit bigger okay there
all right Mr. Chairman members of the board right can we also identify for later on Jacqueline
Schwartz and Heath Abramson, they are with the Rockefeller Group, and also Keith Tindall from
Sabre Industries, who will be my very quick witness. Before you is an application on behalf
of the Rockefeller Group, a New York metropolitan area development company, which has entered the
Philadelphia market with a transformative project at 8301 Toursdale Avenue, which is in the
northeast section of philadelphia the project includes the construction of 190 000 plus square
foot warehouse which is permitted as of right and the relocation of an existing wireless facility
a cell phone tower from the center of the lot to now the rear of the lot which is the essence of
to now the rear of the lot which is the essence of this application now by way of background
this application now by way
we did submit uh our exhibits which includes our refusal all the way down to uh aerials
our memorandum of law and photos of the of the property as well as the posting
i would like to bring your attention to exhibit five just start there
this is this is a rendering or a render site plan of our warehouse over and on the right
hand corner is the subject of our application which is the cell phone tower just want to give
you a aerial along here where the cursor is towards dell avenue and in the rear are railroad tracks
directly behind us n95 and if you remember how we how the our lot is configured it's surrounded by
the red line and this is where our cell phone tower is along the right of the screen is the infamous
upper homesburg prison and you don't see it here because this is a rendering but currently our
cell phone tower is somewhere around here so the and and i just want to correct the record it's i
believe the applicant all those rockefeller group it's rg or rg torsdale llc that's the actual
applicant. So just by way of background, the cell phone tower is here. So this is a photo,
the prison sitting on property. So you see that emblem right here. And it is this tower that
we're seeking our variants from. Now we're proposing a new tower, which will be more
modern structure. And the difference between this tower that you see on your screen and the tower
that we're proposing is that it can accommodate a much smaller fall zone radius. Our refusal
basically stands that if your tower is whatever height it is, it's assuming that the tower is
going to fall. It's going to fall and that it needs that entire radius for it to fall.
That was then. This is now. We don't need two hundred and fifty three feet for a fall zone.
And the fact that and couple that with we're taking this tower and we're putting it in the rear of the property.
I think that makes better use and better efficiency for the property overall.
So with that, I just I'm looking for the board to grant our application basically for four reasons.
One, the physical layout of the property. Our unique physical constraints makes compliance infeasible. Like I mentioned before, you can look again. This is a much better location for a cell phone tower as opposed to here in the middle of the lot.
um by by by doing anything else i think this will slow this will make it a more inefficient
site to the point that we cannot cannot develop what we're developing what we already are
permitted for two the next the the next reason why we believe the board should grant our
Variant is that relocating the tower makes sense right here, but also the tower, modern-day technology has the tower collapsing.
And with that, I just want to show this is an elevation of the proposed tower.
And if we can identify Keith Tindall, he is the engineer that can speak to how the tower collapsed.
Keith Tindall has been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name spelled for the stenographer?
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Could you please spell your name for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Keith Tyndall, J-E-I-T-H.
Keith, I think you have to turn off your…
You've got two devices on, Keith.
Try now, Keith.
Try now, Keith.
I'm still getting my phone back.
Maybe walk away from the computer.
Keith?
How about now?
Better.
Okay, good.
Tell your name, please.