ZBA Hearing - January 8, 2025

The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the proposed dimensional variance from the third-story setback provision in the zoning code.

MI 2024-005-318-1608-South 12th Street, I vote yes.

Johns, my vote is yes.

Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.

Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.

Hayward, my vote is no.

Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.

Thank you, sir. You have your votes.

Number 18, MI 2024-005-320-1227 Heighton Street.

Devin Phillip and Maureen Braun are the owners.

It's just a pro se.

It's for the erection of addition above the attached structure with a roof deck and roof deck access structure for use as a single family household living.

The minimum front setback for the stories above the second floor when abutting lots on both sides of the attached building contain only two stories of an enclosed area is eight feet, whereas zero feet is proposed.

There's a letter of opposition from Pashong Square Civic and a letter of opposition from Council Member Squiller.

devin devin philip has been promoted to panelists good morning devin

devin hi good morning philip hi good morning hi good morning could you please state your name

and spell it for the stenographer.

Devin Phillip, D-E-V-O-N-P-H-I-L-I-P.

You swear or affirm to tell the truth,

the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Do.

Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.

Good morning, Mr. Phillip.

Have you emailed in all the required documents

and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case

five days in advance of this hearing?

Yes, we have.

Thank you.

Please proceed and share your screen.

Okay, starting with the first document, here is our notice of refusal, and let me know

our notice of refusal and let me know if you'd rather me go to a single single page view um

if you'd rather me go to single.

okay we're fine with that we see that we have that uh the application for appeal we also have that

sir yep project information form they have that sir

so did we get a tax clearance

sure

we have your deed

and

yep

letter that we sent out to the community

as well as

a copy of our poster

This is a picture of this document includes plans as well as some overhead

at views that show sort of like our proposed

additional structure.

And you'll notice around the surrounding neighborhood,

there are different, there's variability in structures.

There's some third stories.

There's third stories with eight foot setbacks

in our block on the JSON block.

There's third story structures.

So, we're applying, as you know, to have a variance to that setback on our block.

So this is, on the left here, this is the existing structure, which is what it would

look like with the addition of the third story, as well as the roof deck, another 3DV over

here. Some planned drawings. So this is the existing first floor and basement. This is

second floor. This will be an additional third floor as well as a roof deck.

Some additional views.

We also have some renderings.

What it might look like.

this is what it looks like

structure yep

this was all the prepared materials i had all right sure mr mr phillips could you tell us what

happened at the uh um the rco meeting yeah so actually is it okay if um i request that maureen

braun be unmuted as well to support this that that's my wife my co-applicant uh i actually did

not attend that meeting okay sure why don't we why don't we bring her on and i'll swear her in

maureen braun is allowed to speak morning hi good morning can you hear me i could yeah i can

could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer yes it's more give me one second

can we promote miss braun to um panelists please since she will be testifying and she's a co-applicant

thank you yes i will promote maureen braun now thank you you're welcome um sorry i'm gonna make

sure i don't know in my video here we see you now okay could you please state your name and

spell for the stenographer sure it's maureen braun m as in mary a u r e e n as in nancy braun

b-r-a-u-n swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i just

asked your husband relative to the rco meeting could you explain what happened at the rco meeting

sure um yeah so we presented the project and they did the straw poll and it was i guess i

I guess I we've never done this before, so we weren't really sure what all it entailed.

we've never done this before so we weren't really sure what all it entailed

and

And there were three households in who opposed it and three households that supported it.

I had asked a couple of of neighbors to come, but I really didn't think I needed to ask a lot.

I did ask a few people to join today's meetings. I know they've been hanging on the line for a while.

But so although it was four to three in the straw poll, it was really only three households.

It was a couple on one side of us and two other people on the block.

And the concerns that they raised had understandably had to do with having construction adjacent to their home.

They really didn't actually have any opposition to the variance for which we applied, which was to not have to have a setback.

It was just that they were worried about construction and compromise to their roof and things that, of course, I understand and said we were we would be committed to doing things the right way, being good neighbors, of course, you know, not damaging their home, being held accountable for anything.

um the only concern i think that was raised about the variance was um about you know not having a

setback was that it would cast a shadow on the street but um after the meeting people who were

there were like what you guys are on the north side of the street the sun comes from the south

and it wouldn't cast a shadow um otherwise the concerns didn't have to do with the setback which

really was the only thing that we were um applying for and is it okay if i get into some of the

reasons for us wanting to do this third story and why we apply for the variance now is that

appropriate um so the back of our house is narrower than the front of our house and so to

have the most usable space it would make sense for us to add directly on top from the front of the

house and also one of the drawings showed that by by not doing a setback and adding in the front of

the home. It saves the rear part of the home from being changed, including the backyard outdoor

spaces that our neighbors and we have. And the thought was that less disturbance to the backyard

outdoor area for everyone would be better, given that that's where we spend our time outside of

our home, not so much in the front. And we would also be able to preserve the original cornice and

sort of make sure that the aesthetic was um acceptable to the to the neighbors on the block

we very similar to the last applicant um we we would like more space we have two growing kids

we have a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old um our seven-year-old's autistic so she has some

different sensory needs right now our girls share a room um but that we're like on borrowed time

right now for that their bedtimes and morning routines are pretty stressful with them in one

small room. My husband works from home part-time. Um, so more space would allow our family to stay

in the city, which we really want to do. And we don't want to just stay in the city. We want to

stay in this neighborhood. We love, love, love this neighborhood. We love our block. We love

our neighbors, even the neighbors that have, that came and opposed the thing I've had friendly

conversations with since I'm like, at the end of the day, we're neighbors. Like I'm not, there's

like no ill will. I feel like everyone needs to be able to voice their concerns so we can work

through it and so it's not a problem um we send our kids to the neighborhood school which is around

the corner one of the reasons we love being on this block we volunteer at the school we fundraise

for the school um and our daughter who's autistic has an iep she gets special ed we love the special

ed instructor like we're you know we're very invested in that school and they meet some

very specific needs that our children have um i work in the community i'm a pediatrician in south

Philly so I love living in the community that I serve I like understanding it um like the prior

applicant said just you know being able to stay in the city raise a family um we don't want a

monstrosity we just want a little extra space um we also have our like some family and support

system um four blocks south on 12th street my brother lives with his two kids and his wife and

um so it's really important for us to stay where we are um and like I said yeah that just more

usable space if we add on to if we do the addition from front and it doesn't compromise the backyard

area for everybody um and like Devin noted we have mixed type homes all around us right across

the street from us are two three-story homes um and we do have support I didn't I didn't do a good

job of getting all the signatures and stuff i spoke to the neighbors and i'm happy to submit

that after i actually tried like half an hour before the meeting but i couldn't get the exhibit

linked to work um but we have a bunch of people on the meeting now who are in support both like

on latona on yeah right around us so so okay great so thank you is there questions from the board

uh there was there a refusal for height what was the refusals for there's just a setback

uh there was there a refusal for height what was the refusal

just a setback yeah yeah setback and you're under the 38 feet or just below the 38 feet for the uh

building height correct thank you are there any other three-story properties on your block

not on not that's connected on our north side of the street just on the south side of the street

but are those additions or were they built as three stories they i i'm not 100 sure because

they were built before we moved in but i think they were um like homes that were renovated and

so i don't know what that counts as

other questions on the board

questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair

questions or comments from the virtual audience

yes chair i have audrey bloomer and they will be allowed to speak

orney could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yeah hi can you hear me

i can uh this is audrey bloomer a-u-d-r-e-y b-l-o-e-m-e-r you swear or affirm to tell

the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor yes i live across the street

from devon and marine and i'm actually in one of the homes that has a third story so two streets

across uh two houses across the street have a third story and they um were additions so we

moved into our house in 2016 and it was newly renovated with the third story edition

very much and you were in favor of this project and i'm in favor of this project i'd love to keep

them in the neighborhood and on the street and i definitely think having a third story would allow

them to grow into their home speaking from experience so i would big fan of keeping them

and in fan of this proposal thank you for taking the time to close we appreciate it is there anyone

else in the audience yes look excuse me lauren out ouch will be allowed to speak

lauren could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer

chair lauren has disappeared from the screen and there are anyone else yes there are three hands

up margo margo seaford is will be allowed to speak morning could you please state your

name and spell for the stenographer. Okay, that name has disappeared also, and we have four hands

up. The next one is Megan Panacchio, allowed to speak. Morning, Megan. Could you please state

your name and spell for the stenographer? Megan? Megan, you are allowed to speak.

she's unmuted maybe having um technical difficulties oh there it goes sorry about

that uh megan panacchio m-e-g-a-n-p-a-n-a-c-c-i-o i refer to tell the truth the whole truth and

nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor i am a neighbor a few blocks away not directly

on their block are you in favor of this project i am i am in favor uh is there anything you can

no offer other than what we've heard. Sure. Similar to the others, want to keep them in the

community. And I, on my block, have had two similar, not identical projects in the last

two or three years. And there has been absolutely no issue. And that's on both the north and south

side of the streets where there's third story decks. I think even fourth. So we've had no

issues in our block. Everyone seemed to accept this. And it's been allowed us to keep, again,

more of those families in the community and going to the school near us and contributing as good

members thank you very much for taking time to call us next hand please michael martirano will

be allowed to speak morning sir could you please state your name is bell for the sonographer

hey could you hear me

can

hey yes so my name is Michael Martirano

M-I-C-H-A-E-L

M-A-R-T-O-R-A-N-O

you swear or affirm to tell the truth

the whole truth and nothing but the truth

yes

so are you a neighbor

yes

are you in favor of this project or against

in favor

is there anything you can offer other than what we've heard

yes

so i'm a local builder in the area i've been around here um my whole life

And the house right next door, actually across the street, there's another one that's been built as a setback.

the house right next door actually across the street

So there's actually two on the block.

And then I had actually did the commercial space area on the corner.

I had put a third story addition right on the corner at 12th and Titan.

And then also right behind them on 12th and Latona, I had did a project recently, added the third story as well.

But as for them, same as all the other neighbors, they're really nice and we would love to see them stay.

Thank you very much for taking the time to call us. Next hand, please.

Next hand is Julie Barber Rotenberg will be allowed to speak.

Could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?

yes it's julie barbara rotenberg j-u-l-i-e b-a-r-b-e-r hyphen r-o-t-e-n-b-e-r-g

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

yes are you a neighbor i am i live two blocks away are you in favor this are you in favor of

this project or against yes i am we have had similar construction on our block as well

and i support this project thank you very much for taking the time next hand please christian

will be allowed to speak i could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer

yeah hey everybody this is christian auk c-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n-a-u-c-h you swear or affirm

to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor i am okay are