Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, Mr. Plaza, you can go forward.
It appears as though we have at least 52 people present.
Thank you.
Good morning, all.
My name is Confessor Plaza, and I'll be the acting chair for this morning's SONIN hearing,
along with board members Thomas Holloman and James Snell.
And we, at some point, might be joined by our chair, Frank DiCicco, and vice chair,
Ms. Carol Tenere.
Board Administrator Tanya Sunkit and board attorney Sharon Saleta also will be in attendance.
Before we begin, I'd like to note that the following changes related to the virtual format.
First, please be advised that this proceeding is being recorded and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
Second, for the benefit of anyone participating by phone, we ask that attorneys and witnesses identify themselves prior to speaking or testifying.
third anyone participating by phone if you wish to testify you must raise your hand by hitting star
nine then star six to unmute yourself before calling the first cases we will hear hear any
requests for continuance if you are asking that that a case listed for today be continued
Please raise your hand now.
There are no hands at this time, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Okay, first one up, it's MI 2021-000185-5820 Willows Avenue.
I would like Ms.
to panelists. Good morning, ma'am. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Thank you. Do you agree to waive the reading of its refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. And I'll just put my name on the record as well.
Clemente Amazon, C-L-E-M-E-N-T-A, last name A-M-A-Z-A-N-123, South Broad Street, Suite 1600.
Thank you. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required document, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans five days prior to this listing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you. You may proceed.
Thank you. May I share my screen?
Yes. Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes, we actually met with the RCO twice, and we have several letters.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Can everyone see my screen?
Perfect. So again, good morning. My name is Clemente Amazon. Today, I'll be presenting 5820 Willows Avenue.
This is a pretty straightforward project. What we are looking to do here is legalize a duplex.
We do not have a roof deck. There is no basement living. Trash will be stored in the basement.
It's very straightforward.
So, excuse me.
I'll go through the D, Certificate of Tax Clearance, our Notice of Refusal, the Application for...
I'll go through the deed, certificate of tax clearance, our notice of refusal, the application for appeal, maps of the area, photographs of the property, as well as plans and drawings, and the letters that we received from the community.
We did, in fact, meet with the community twice.
We have two letters of what I would consider to be non-opposition, as well as a letter of support from a nearby neighbor at 5814 Willis Avenue, which is just a few houses down from our project.
So here we have the deed indicating that my client does own the property, the tax information, the notice of refusal, as I mentioned prior, we're simply looking to legalize a duplex.
the property is zoned as RSA 5. There are no dimensional variances, there's no basement living,
no roof deck, so it's a very minimal use of the property. There's actually other properties in
the area that are multifamily and rental as well, so this is not uncharacteristic for the block.
Trash will be stored in the basement for this project. Our application for appeal,
our project information form map of the area again we're on willows and south 58th
or off of 58th rather this is a view of the front of the property from willows avenue
a view to the right on willows avenue view to the left on willows avenue and as i mentioned
there are other multi-family properties in the area as you can see just across the street 5827
willows avenue is a nearby triplex our plans and drawings are just looking to legalize two units
here so it's not an overuse in any way we did actually meet with the community twice for both
meetings there wasn't a large attendance so we were provided with a letter of non-opposition
from third ward executive committee third ward executive committee rco from our most recent
meeting as well as a letter of non-opposition from cobs creek neighbors and we did receive
a letter of support from a nearby neighbor at 5814 willows avenue the refusal and the notice
that we sent out for our most recent meeting on wednesday april 21st at 6 pm which included the
dba information meeting id and passcode the notice that we sent out to all the properties
and our certificate of mailing indicating that we did in fact send that notice out to all of
the properties as required by the planning commission so if i may have my client adopt
my testimony um sam feldman and i also would like to note that during our community meeting
um the rco did request that we have the property professionally inspected which we are more than
happy to do we embrace the process and we are also going to be having this property professionally
managed by real estate management advisors. They have over 150 properties in the area, so
the property will be well taken care of. Trash, how will trash be handled? Trash will be in the
basement. It's for all units that will have access? Yes, they will have access. Thank you. You say
you're going to bring your client up? Yes, Sam Feldman.
mr feldman has been allowed to speak sir can you please identify yourself for the record
yes hi please identify yourself for the record my name is sam feldman
Spell your last name.
F-E-L-D-M-A-N
Address for the record?
5910 15th Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, 11219.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, for nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
Mr. Feldman, did you hear my testimony today?
And was it true and accurate?
it yes correct and would you adopt it as your own testimony yes thank you mr feldman thank you
does the board have any questions no no no okay is there anyone else here in this matter that
would like to testify or speak?
Mr. Andrew Goodman has his hand raised.
I will allow him to speak, sir.
Thank you.
Mr. Goodman, please wait to be sworn in.
Mr. Goodman, can you please identify yourself for the record?
Yes, good morning.
Andrew Goodman, last name G-O-O-D-M-A-N
here representing the office of third district council member
Here representing the office of third district council member, Jamie Gaudier, room 586 City Hall.
Jamie Gaudier, room 580
Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, for nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Thank you. Members of the board, our office has no opposition to the variants proposed at this address.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
no further hint at this time sir thank you planning commission chairman and members of
the board this property is indicated for residential use on the city plan and given
rsa5 zoning in 2019 this parcel was located near cobs creek and is not very transit oriented
the g bus does not or does run by but that's it the applicant has not shown us how the property
was previously existing as a two-family there is no hardship here forcing them to have multi-family
we recommend that the requested variances be granted not be granted i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm
paula brumbalo burns from the planning commission and have not been sworn in
sorry about that and do you swear from to tell the truth the whole truth for nothing but the truth
i do thank you apology and i apologize for that no problem thank you paula okay um board has any
questions no no right calendar number mi 2021 dash 000 185 5820 willows avenue my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes good luck thank you you're welcome
So next one up is MI 2020-002709, 3410 North 17th Street.
Mr. Masters has been promoted to panelist, sir.
Morning, Mr. Master.
You swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, for nothing but the truth?
Good morning, members of the firm.
You please identify yourself for the record.
My name is Steve Masters with the law firm of JustLaws, 621 West Monterey Avenue in Philadelphia.
I'm here on behalf of the applicant, PB Properties, Phil Borthwick.
Thank you.
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents?
I'm sorry, Chair.
Could we just swear him in first?
I'm sorry.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, for nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal, or referral, folders, and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
We have met several times with, there's several RCOs.
There was no letter that was submitted until 20 minutes ago.
We have submitted an email showing that the RCO supported the letters that were just received literally 20 minutes ago.
We have certain things to say about them in the hearing.
Okay, you may proceed.
Can I share my screen?
All right.
Good morning, members of the board.
We're here on 3410 North 17th Street.
This is a project for a triplex on a block, as we'll see in the photos that literally has hardly any structures at all.
there's been almost complete demolition of this block, and it's filled with empty lots overgrown
by weeds and unfortunately some short dumping and other illegal debris. Our refusal is simply
one-use refusal. This is an RSA 5 designated district, and we are proposing multifamily,
so there's no other refusals besides the use.
We have a large number of petitions in support of the project from the surrounding neighbors,
and as I said, there are really no surrounding neighbors specifically to our property. It's
adjacent to a large number of vacant lots, but as you'll see when we show you the walking list,
Mr. Borthwick was able to go around and meet many neighbors on the surrounding
Mr. Borthwick was able to go around and meet many neighbors on the surrounding streets and get their strong support for the project.
This is his walking list in which he described all the properties that he knocked on and what the results were.
In exhibit three is our plans.
In terms of the elevations, we, when we met with the RCOs the first time, they expressed
a desire to have us change our design so that the front of the property would have a covered
porch that would be similar to many of the other existing residential buildings. Many of them are
multifamily in the surrounding area. So we agreed and we changed our plans to include
a covered porch with the columns that are similar to the area. We also created, as we'll see in the
next part here. We created an area for trash for all three of the units. There's going to be an
attractive cabinet that will be located in the front yard. It'll be screened from the street by
vegetation. It'll be just off the porch and it's a covered cabinet where the trash bins are easy to
move in and out inside so we have no living space in the basement it's just
for the mechanicals we have each apartment is on a single floor so on
the first floor we have two bedrooms on towards the rear of the kitchen and the
living room and on the second floor one of the bedrooms is towards the front
then we have the kitchen living room in the middle second bedroom is to the rear
on the third floor similar floor plan one bedroom in the front kitchen and
living room towards the middle, second bedroom in the rear.
You see the site plan with vacant lots
on each side of our property.
There is a multifamily dwelling a few doors down
that we'll take a look at in terms of a photo.
This is our setbacks for our property. The trash container is here to accommodate all
three units. The covered porch that was requested and a large rear yard in the rear.
for photos. This is an aerial view of our property, which is, as I said, nestled among
a lot of vacant lots. This is our property from the side.
Across the street are those covered porch homes that we now are mimicking with our facade.
This is the closest building to our project and it's a multifamily dwelling.
Across the street there is a some kind of a personal care home or rooming house
And in addition, all of these are multi-family dwellings.
This is our zoning posterings for this second hearing.
A site plan showing the zoning and the conformance with the dimensional requirements.
Steve, who was the, what was the name of the RCO again that you guys met with?
So we met with a combination of Tioga United and North Central.
North Central Philadelphia CDC on April 21st, the head of North Central Philadelphia CDC
wrote us to say that the project has our support and we're anticipating a community benefits
agreement uh we then received 20 minutes before the start of this hearing a summary from north
central philadelphia cdc dated april 5th but as i said received 20 minutes ago um stating
position of support and showing that virtually everyone at the meeting was in support.
There was one vote in opposition and
the RCO also included what they said was a support letter for 3410 North 17th Street,
but this was the file that they sent and this has nothing to do with um with our location
okay uh they did send an email uh in in that um with with these files in which they stated
that rco tayoga united and the community is in favor um therefore they must vote with the