Do you want to go out and come back in?
Why don't you do that?
Go out and come back in.
Hi, my name is Julie Weeks.
I'm going out with you because I'm still in search of an attorney who's looking for more...
Thank you.
can can the board hear me now we can okay is that better is it clear yes thank you yes yeah this is
the reporter that's very much better thank you okay I apologize for that so I'll just jump back
here so we've gone through the refusals we did receive a letter of support from the RCO they
met with us on May 14th at 7 p.m. as you will see here in this letter they did highlight that there
are several properties along the block that have similar decks that are in place. It was a well
attended meeting with 65 neighbors being present. Again, they did highlight that the enclosures
were common for the area and similar properties have decks of this sort and that this deck was
in place by prior ownership. My client simply redesigned it and received a violation from L&I.
That's covered in this final paragraph that you see here.
that's covered in this final paragraph that you see here
and again this was a full letter of support and they highlighted that the renovation of the deck
highlighted their investment in the home and in the neighborhood so why don't you bring the letter
up when do you bring the letter up so i can see i believe i'm sharing my screen apparently no it's
We only see you.
Oh, well, let's try and share the screen again.
Thank you.
You're up now.
Great.
So now tech issues are resolved.
Screen issues are resolved.
We have a letter of support from the RCO.
It's three pages long.
And as I summarized, they highlighted that there are similar uses and decks within the neighborhood.
The renovation of the deck was just a showing of investment within the community as well as in the property.
We also received a letter from the council person.
Unfortunately, it does have a typo as to the address.
I believe the council person's zoning aid is on the line to testify that the council person is in opposition to the project.
Here we have a map of the area. Okay. And we are along Endicott Street. Again, the property is owned single-family. The only change that we have here was the replacement of the deck. It is the same size and design here.
and here we have the site plan that was also submitted with the presentation
we have the property's front yard it is full coverage from endicott street to a common alleyway
the single family home and this is the existing deck at the rear of the property it is adjacent to
the driveway of the property as well and here we have just the design showing the lattice work as
well as the fencing above that. This is a photo of the property that we were able to pull from
Google Maps prior to the structure being added. Again, my client simply renovated the deck. She
did not initially put the deck in herself. The prior owner did that work. And as I mentioned,
this is very common for the area. We have the deck on 1515-151 Endicott Street, 15167 Endicott
Street here, 15165 Endicott, 15140 Milford Street, 15137 Endicott Street, 15133 and 15127 Endicott,
15128, 15122 Milford Street, and Milford Street is simply to the street adjacent to Endicott Street.
We have 15123 Endicott Street as well, similar in design to the deck that we have here.
And in the interest of brevity, I'll just breeze through the remaining properties that have a similar deck.
Could you show us your deck?
Just show.
I don't remember seeing your deck.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Of course.
So here we have the photo of the posting of the property that also shows the rear deck itself.
and we have our application for appeal that was filed the project information form
the notice that was sent out regarding the may 14th community meeting which was held at 7 pm
there were 65 attendees we did receive the letter of support that reviewed previously
proof showing that we did in fact send out that mailing a list of the properties that were notified
of the community meeting, the deeds to the property showing that my client does, in fact, own it,
and our Certificate of Tax Clearance.
So with that, if I could have my client adopt my testimony.
Please.
If you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
It should be Joelle.
they have been allowed to speak good morning could you please state your name and spell for
the court stenographer good morning chairman are you able to hear me i we can joelle
acovino my first name is j-o-e-l-l last name a-c-a-v as in victor i n as in nancy o
my husband jonathan sanders is also present all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth is nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed counsel
did you hear my presentation today i did john did you hear my presentation today yes i did
i didn't swear him just could we just go with
I didn't swear him. Just could we just go with her, please?
Of course we can. Sure, sure.
Was it true and correct?
It was. The only correction I would have is the Google Maps photo shown was actually of the neighbor's yard, not ours. But yes, everything else is true.
Okay. And would you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I would.
thank you with that i'd be happy to answer any questions questions from the board
i just have a comment i think it's understandable these these houses in this
area really don't have usable rear yards so and and and you don't really want to use the front
so it kind of makes sense that people do this thank you michael uh questions or comments from
our attorney, Hillary Emerson. Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual
audience? Yes, Chair. We have Alex Udovich with their hand raised and they have been allowed to
speak. Good morning, Alice. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning, Chair and members of the board. Alice Udovich, A-L-I-C-E-U-D-O-V-I-C-H,
on behalf of councilman brian o'neill you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do please proceed the councilman has no objection to the grounding of the variance
at this location thank you very much for calling in is there anyone else in the virtual audience
i see no hands any commission
thank you chair sarah bond with the philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning
the proposed dimensional variance is minimal and does not conflict with the purpose and spirit of
the zoning code the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the
variance thank you mi 2024 001 412 15141 endicott street i vote yes
my vote is yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tya winn my vote is yes thank you counsel now my vote is yes i'm
sorry jim thank you all right thank you number 13 mi 2024 001 413 139 south 24 street zen jin
is the attorney. There's a letter of non-opposition from the Center City Residents Association.
Good morning, counsel. Would you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
Yes, my name is Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N, last name J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard,
Suite 1838, Philadelphia PA 19103, here on behalf of the applicant.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Counsel, could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
My client is 139 South 24th Street, LLC.
They're the owner of the property.
All right.
Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reason of the refusal or stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board the documentation we previously submitted in support of the application.
Can the board and everyone see my screen?
We see, sir.
Thank you. We have submitted a copy of the refusal, the letter from CCRA in non-opposition, photos, plans, tax clearance proof, deed, the copy of the appeal project information sheet, as well as the hearing notice.
This is an application for use of a property which is currently a vacant lot in a CMX4 zone district.
Due to the size and location of the lot, after much consideration, my clients made an application through their architect to use this property as a single family household living property with a built-in front entrance garage.
There are a few reasons why they ultimately went with this, and I will explain to the board as we go along.
But the refusal items are for the parking, as well as due to the CMX Ford zoning nature of the property, the occupied area as well as the commercial zoning requires more than single family.
I want to point out we did meet with CCRA, who issued a letter of non-opposition, partly based on the same reasoning that I will...
who issued a letter of non-opposition, partly based on the same reasoning that I will be
explaining to the board in one second. The property is a smaller lot located at 139 South 24th Street.
On this portion of the street, particularly this side of the street, even though it's all zoned,
the entire area is zoned CMX4, these are smaller lots with existing properties that are generally
much smaller use than typically what you see in CMX4. In fact, right around the corner,
we have a development right here that came together before the board, but are actually
also single family dwellings. There are other single family style dwellings and mixed use
properties along this block. And another point why we're asking for a front loaded garage at
this location as well is because on our side of the street, you're not allowed to park on the
street. Because they expect that there's parking lots and everything nearby and parking on the
other side, this side of the street was not permitted to park. And as a result, in the past,
many of the properties here had built-in front-loaded garages already. Because of the
width of the street, pulling into the space and out of the space would not pose an issue for
turning radius or really have a meaningful impact on the street itself. With the location,
there's another point why we decided to use the first floor as a garage rather than
building a living space there. This is part of a floodplain and by requirement, we're actually not
allowed to build the living space there. When I discussed it with the architect, part of the
reason a garage was designed is so that first floor will be elevated so that if there is a flood it
would only flood to the garage. There are actually breakaway panels designed into the first floor
for that purpose. For all these reasons and also due to the fact that existing buildings on this
block generally are built straight back plus there's a pretty extensive wall on the back here
already in existence. With the setback of the other buildings behind us, CCRA did not feel
that our coverage would be an issue. And first floor would have to be 100% coverage due to the
flood issue as well. Leaving permeable space in the back actually would cause more problems
than it would solve in the case of any kind of actual flooding. The architect actually is here
with us today, Mr. Gabriel Deck, and he can answer specific questions if needed relating to this.
Now, across the street, we have a large building and a parking lot,
but around the corner and further up and down the street, we have other single-family
developments much similar to what we're proposing. It's because of all these reasons that
the community actually voted in non-opposition to our proposal. The design is pretty straightforward.
What we are able to do due to the size of the lot and the way the first floor has to be used is
we're able to extend the first floor only. I want to point out to the board that second and third
floors and upper floors are in fact set back. It's only the first floor that extends 100%
triggering the lot coverage we're able to potentially fit three vehicles in there
as well as storage but as you can see there's no living use of this space and everything starts
essentially on the second floor and up so due to the location size and unique nature of the property
we would ask for the board's favorable review of our request for variances in this case
I have the architect available as well as I believe Mr. Barry Hoffman.
My client should be here to verify my testimony.
And I can certainly redirect to any part of the plans if the board wish to have a closer look.
Thank you.
So what we're going to do is we're going to bring your client on.
If there's questions relative, we'll bring the architect on later, right?
So why don't you bring your client on first?
Mr. Hoffman, can you raise your hand to be identified?
Barry Hoffman has been allowed to speak.
Morning, Mr. Hoffman.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Morning, Chair.
My name is Barry Hoffman, B-A-R-R-Y-H-O-F-F-M-A-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Hoffman, did you see my presentation as well as hear my testimony before the zoning board?
Can you verify what I have represented is true and correct and adopt my testimony as your own?
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
Questions from the board?
Go ahead.
Go ahead, Michael.
Okay. Can you go back to the site plan again?
I'll move it up to the site plan here.
This is the part you're looking for?
yeah and then there was a you show the turning radius out of the
garage yes okay and then there was another
plan i believe where you showed the this is the entire street no i think there was a plan that