ZBA Hearing - September 22, 2021

that's correct mr chairman i have no further um testimony uh happy to answer questions um

thank you questions from the board no no do anyone would anyone else like to testify in

this case please raise your hand there are no hands at this time chair thank you planning

commission thank you chairman de chico ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission

members of the board the comprehensive plan actually recommends a zoning map change to rsa

5 at this location owing to the narrow street council has cited the lot size as a hardship

however in this case the lot size is actually the reason for the refusal it's simply not large

enough to support two family use under the existing rm1 district according to the code dimensions

This isn't a dimensional variance,

it's a use variance for dwelling unit count.

And so the lot size is not a unique physical circumstance

that you would need to show

to demonstrate a hardship for this use variance.

RM1 doesn't entitle multifamily use,

it permits it on sufficiently sized pieces of property.

So the city planning commission recommends

that the board deny this variance.

Thank you.

Yeah, I don't want to belabor it, Mr. Chairman,

just to briefly respond.

The lot size is actually less than half

of the minimum lot size in the entire zoning code so clearly the lot size creates a physical hardship

to the property. Thank you. MI 2021-0020892128 North Darien my vote is yes. Professor Plaza my vote

is yes. James Snell my vote is yes. Thomas Holliman my vote is yes. Thank you. Number six on our list

mi 2021 mi 2021.002 098

MI 2021-002-098-3103 North 16th Street.

Mr. Consul is the attorney of record.

The RCO Upper North Neighborhood Association supports this application.

Mr. Consul is coming back in as a panelist, Chair.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

uh please spell your full name and i'll swear you in joseph console that's j-o-s-e-p-h-c-o-n-s-o-l-e

you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth

i do mr plaza has some questions for you yes uh you agree to wait the reading of its refusal

and stipulate your accuracy i do and have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required

documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral

voters and plans five days prior to this hearing? I have. And have you met with the RCO and have a

letter? Yes. Thank you. Please proceed. Hey, Joe Consul. It's 1 West 3rd Street, Suite 204,

Media PA 19063 here on 3103 North 16th Street. This property is on 16th between Allegheny Avenue

and Clearfield Street. Allegheny's up here, Clearfield's down here. The owner is 3103 North

16th LLC. With me on the call is the sole member of that LLC, Mr. Nathan Tolchinsky.

The property's footprint is 1,790 square feet, and it's zoned RSA 3.

Where it's zoned RSA 5 or RM 1, it would have sufficient room for the four units that it has in the property.

This entire side of the block, as you can see, is zoned RSA 3.

But this particular property, as well as most of the properties on this block, are attached on both sides.

And this property, on one side of it, has a permitted multifamily unit.

It has another property that had multifamily approval on it.

And this side of the block has at least four other that I found multi-unit properties,

which leads me to believe that this side of the street was previously approved for multifamily units before it got remapped as RSA-3.

Either way, as a fully attached property surrounded by multifamily properties, we do not believe the RSA-3 is appropriate here and RM-1 would be more appropriate.

The property is set up as a four-unit. We're seeking to legalize that use.

The previous owner died in 2019. I'm told this happened while he was in the process of trying to legalize this use himself. The loan he was under defaulted, and my client ended up with the property as a result of the default. I'll pull up some of the pictures from the outside here.

and so my client's stepping up to take care of the situation he acquired the property with

tenants in three of the units there's only two occupied units at the moment because my client's

waiting for today's approval his goal is to get the building fully approved by PHA as a veteran

and Section 8 approved units and to get it rented out ideally in October. The plans we included in

our packet show three one-bedroom units and one two-bedroom unit. There's no bedrooms in the

basement. It's just utility and storage, which is accessible by all four units. My client's

property management team goes out there every couple of weeks and cleans the property. That

was a request to the RCO. He set that up. Unfortunately, the trash enclosure is going

to be out front versus shared space in the rear, but my client has promised to make that

space nice as well. We went up in front of Upper North Neighbors Association on July

8th. 13 people showed up. We got a letter of support from them, and that's also included

in the packet that we supplied.

If I could call Mr. Tolchinsky,

you could raise your hand.

Nate.

Are you there, sir?

It seems like we're having technical issues, so, Mr. Consul, you being an officer of court will stipulate your client would have a copy of your test.

Oh, there he is now.

Sir, please spell your full name, and I'll swear you in.

Nathan Tolchinski, N-A-T-H-A-N, last name spelled T as in Tom, U-L-C-H-I-N-S-K-Y.

you swear to firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do thank you mr

council good afternoon mr tolchinski did you hear my uh presentation today regarding 3103 north 16th

i did yes do you agree with what i presented i do do you adopt it as your own i do is there

anything you'd like to add seems sufficient okay thank you questions from the board

no mr chairman no anyone else to testify in this case if so please raise your hand

there are no hands at this time chair thank you planning commission

thank you chairman to chico ian hegarty with the philadelphia city planning commission

comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa 3 zoning at this location

however the proposed use is consistent with comprehensive plan goals for transit-oriented

development and given the adjacent non-conformities multifamily use is appropriate city planning

commission recommends that the board grant the variance thank you mi 2021 that's zero zero two

zero nine eight three one oh three north 16th street my vote is yes confessor plaza my vote is

yes. James Snell, my

vote is yes. Thomas

Holloman, my vote is yes.

Thank you. Number seven on our list,

MI 2021-

002199

3222

North

15th Street.

Clementa, Amazon,

I believe is the attorney of record.

My notes indicate we have not

yet received a letter from the RCO.

That may be

that may have been corrected

before we call the case so is miss amazon or mr notkinson now chair okay mr notkinson

please identify yourself for the record and you've already been sworn in

you're muted sir sorry uh alan a-l-a-n uh last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n

123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia

PA, 19109. As I indicated, you're still under

oath. Mr. Plaza has some questions for you.

Yes, you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?

I do. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with

the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance,

copies of the refusal or referral of photos and plans five days prior to this

hearing? I have. And have you met with the RCO and have a letter? Yes, we do. We have a letter

of support. Thank you. Please proceed. Okay, may I share my screen? Yes, please. All right, so I'm

here to present 322 North 15th Street. This is an RSA 5 property which has a history of multifamily

use as you'll see. It has a history of multifamily use as far back as 1960 as a triplex. Somewhere

along the way the property lost its zoning authorization and we're here merely to

revitalize the multifamily use of this property. What you'll see in my presentation pack is the

deed to the property, certificate of tax clearance, the notice of refusal, the housing approval dated

uh march 15th in 1960 that shows that this was a triplex application for appeal maps of the area

photographs of the property that surround the area plans and drawings and a letter of support

from the upper north neighbors association as you can see kk two kings llc is the owner of the

property and i have their representative miss cornish on the line and she'll adopt my testimony

along that the next thing is a certificate of tax clearance showing that the property owners

have been standing with the city of philadelphia with respect to this property notice refusal this

is merely a use variant for triplex because this is an rsa5 property the lot size of this property

the lot size of this property is 1552 square feet it's a rather large property and as you can see

is 1552 square feet it's a rather large property

if you look sideways sorry about that but like um you'll see that the use has been a triplex

as far back as 1960 so it's not out of character for us to ask for this to be a triplex again

our application appeal with the zba along with the notice of refusal and the project information form

maps of the area uh we are just uh half a block away from west allegheny avenue which is you know

a large street which is not out of character to increase density near such a street like that

there is also an alley in the rear just so for egress of individuals but there is no basement

living the basement is solely used for laundry facilities as well as trash removal

showing where we are in the neighborhood again not that far up for broad street either which

is a commercial quarter again not out of character to add density in such a situation like this

photographs of the property probably not the best picture here but there is a door a separate

an entrance that goes down to the basement level. Not that we have any living, not that we have any

bedrooms down there, but that's where we store our garbage and that's where our laundry facility is.

Every floor has its own unit. We're not increasing the dimensions in this property or doing anything

to the physical structure of the property other than interior renovations. Properties on North

15th to the right. To the right again. Nearby triplex. Again, not out of character to have

multifamily in this area. So 3223 North 15th Street. So triplex. And then just simple floor

plans here. You walk up to the front porch. You go into a basketball area. You go on the first

floor, you have two bedrooms, one bath, common living area. Go up a flight of steps, same floor

plan, two bedrooms, one bath, kitchen, living room, dining room, and the same thing for the third floor.

Most importantly, the basement area, which has separate egress. There is no living in the

basement. There's a trash room, a dedicated trash room, and a laundry room, and tenant storage as

well where support as you can see this is a highly attended meeting where we had 16 individuals 14

people were in support one was opposed and one was a non-opposition they did have discussion about

like you know making sure that we responsibly had trash removal and storage which i think

we accomplish by way of the basement which has its own trash facility and then just here's

our like you know proof of mailing of the community notice i'm going to unshare right

now so then i can ask miss cornish to virtually raise her hand to adopt my testimony and i

can take any questions from the board from there

I see no one by that name, Mr.

Notchamson, Mr.

Chair, I just asked as an officer of the court that you know, you take everything that was

truly factual.

Let's stipulate you being officer court that your client would have adopted your testimony.

Any questions from the board?

No, Mr. Chairman.

No, no.

would anyone else like to testify in this case please raise your hand

i see no hands at this time chair thank you planning commission thank you chairman de chico

ian hegarty for the city planning commission comprehensive plan recommends no change to the

rsa 5 zoning at this location however the proposed use is consistent as you've seen with previously

approved uses of the property city planning commission recommends that the board grant the

variance. Thank you. MI 2021-002199-3222, North 15th Street. My vote is yes.

Confessor Plaza, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.

thank you you number eight on our list mi 2021-002-195-3401 aramingo avenue

parcel b as in boy mr patterson is the record of attorney

Parcel B as in boy, Mr. Patterson is the record of attorney, the attorney of record, excuse me, and there's a letter of support from Pro-PAC.

Mr. Patterson is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.

Mr. Patterson, please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.

Hi, good afternoon. Ronald Patterson, P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N, Claire Harrison Law Firm, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA-19103.

Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?

I do.

I do. Thank you, Mr. Plaza has some questions for you.

Mr. Patterson, you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?

Yes.

And have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tech compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and planes five days prior to this hearing?

Yes.

And have you met with the RCO and have a letter?

Yes, to all of you about.

Thank you. Please proceed.

Okay. Can you see my screen I'm sharing?

Yes.

Yes.

Thanks. So this application regards 31, I'm sorry, 3401 Aramingo Avenue. With me, when I'm speaking, you can promote him as John Cogan, C-O-G-A-N.

This is a shopping center property over here and there on Aramingo Avenue, fronting also on Ontario Street, slightly south of Castor Avenue, Benango, and Tioga.

It formerly contained a Payless Shoe store.

There's a kind of a shot up to the left of the Castor Avenue.

here's the site that's currently under construction.

So the building is under construction for a by-right CVS store and this appeal regards

signage particularly the total area of wall signs on our supposed CVS.

Here's typical CVS frontage. As I mentioned the property fronts on Aramingo Avenue and Ontario

streets um it's located in a icmx zoning district there's a site plan which is important because

you'll see the icmx uh district allows sign area based upon a formula of two square feet

per linear foot of a building with fronting on a street on the long side which would be aromingo

avenue in this case and three square feet per one square foot on the shorter side

actually that's our mango the other one's ontario and so that totals allowable 288