Hello.
Please identify yourself and I'll spell your name and I'll swear you in.
May Tang, M-E-I, last name T-A-N-G.
We're affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed.
Thank you, Chair.
Ms. Tang, did you hear my testimony to the board and see the presentation I just made before the zoning board?
yes thank you can you verify that what i've said is true and correct and adopt my testimony as
your own yes thank you thank you any uh questions uh of the board no mr chairman no sir anyone else
to testify in this case please raise your hand there is a letter that was submitted by miss
Monroe in support
of this application.
Sir, Ms.
Diane Monroe, as our hand
brings, I will allow her to speak at this time.
Good morning, Ms. Monroe.
Please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
Okay, good morning.
Diane,
D-I-A-N-E
Monroe,
M-O-N-R-O-E.
Where or for
I'm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
Please proceed, Diane.
Okay. Thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity. The community do support this project as per the provisos. I understand that you may not be able to incorporate those provisos, but we do have a CBA outlining those provisos.
Thank you very much.
Very good. Thank you.
Anyone else to testify in this case?
Excuse me, Chair, this is Sharon.
I just wanted to note that one of the provisos, in differently worded, would be allowable, and that would be trash stored on premises and out of public view.
Planning Commission.
thank you chair to chico ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
members of the board in 2017 the zoning map was amended in this area but this parcel was not
changed the narrowness of the lot presents a physical hardship for providing access to parking
and the side yard dimensional variance is supported by the president of the adjacent
alley cited and described by council the city planning commission recommends that the board
grant the variance my 2021-001 726 1384 ridge avenue my vote is yes with the proviso the trash
to be stored out of view inside the property confessor plaza yes with proviso jane snell yes
for proviso thomas holliman yes we provide so thank you case number three mi 2021-001-684
4, I'm sorry, 1446 South 52nd Street.
four i'm sorry one four four six south 52nd street
Mr. Slepner, you're still under oath, but please identify yourself with the record.
sure uh good morning again chair and members of the board isaac please just spell your name and
But remember, you're still under oath.
Once more, Isaac, I, India, S, Sam, A, Alpha, A, Alpha, C,
Charlie, last name, Slepner, S, Sam, L, Larry, E, Elvis,
P, Peter, N, Norman, E, Elvis, R, Robert.
Still under oath, sir.
Please proceed.
Hey, Mr. Slepner, real quick.
Do you agree to wait to read in a right's refusal
and stipulate to attack, or see?
Yes. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Yes. And have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes. Please proceed. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. With that out of the way, I would like to just begin sharing my documentary exhibits and then call for a little bit of testimony and answer any questions.
I'm going to go ahead and share my screen at this point.
And we are talking about 1446 South 52nd.
So, again, I am Isaac Slepman with Mattione Limited.
I represent Philly Homebuyer, Inc., which is the owner of 1446 South 52nd.
And my client, LeVar Clark, is the principal of that entity.
And he is here today, as well as our architect, Logan Dry.
So I'm going to just start on our exhibits. Here we go. So first is our certificate of tax clearance, junk property, LLC, owner of 1446 South 52nd. I think that may have been a typo on our cover sheet, but they are compliant.
And this was sent to the board along with our materials about a week or so ago when we forwarded the materials.
Second is our notice of refusal, which we already stipulated to.
Exhibit three is our letter from 51st Ward Democratic Committee.
And as I had mentioned previously, we met with the RCO in July on the three of the properties that I'm here on today, including 1446 South 52nd.
And we did have, there were people in the room with us. I presented all of our plans and had conversations with them. But there was, the RCO says they did not reach an agreement on the application because there were not enough near neighbors. However, that is defined by their bylaws.
We did have a meeting with them. I thought it was pretty productive, but they did not seem to take a position.
Exhibit four is our zoning site plan, and I will rotate that so everyone can see that a little bit better.
This is going to be a standard three story with basement and roof deck, and it is planned as a three unit multifamily.
multi-family this is the site plan this is 52nd front door this is the footprint of the building
egress well from the basement and rear yard space exhibit five is our floor plans and i
would well i'll go through them and i'll have my architect uh offer a bit of testimony the floor
plans are similar similar to ones you've seen previously from me today but they're not exactly
the same and i'll walk the board through them so the uh the first unit is fairly large it's
1715 square feet and that encompasses the first floor and the basement so this is the front door
if you look at the bottom of your screen the bottom of the plan is the front of the house
at 52nd street uh right here at the first floor that's the front door that goes to a hallway
common space and that goes those are your steps going up and then to the left is your entrance
to unit A. And unit A does encompass both the first floor, which includes access to
the rear yard from a door off the kitchen, as well as the basement space. And as our
architect Logan Dry, well this bed, this does have a bedroom here with egress well, window
and egress well, and there's a bedroom here with also a window and egress. As you go up,
you get to the second floor unit. The second floor unit is on the second floor. That's a
on the second floor. That's a planned two-bedroom as well, both of which have a window. The rear
planned two-bedroom as well.
bedroom and the side bedroom has a window here, which has some open space down that way. You go up
and you're at the third floor, which is a planned two-bedroom as well. Again, both bedrooms with
windows. Bedroom at the rear here with a window and kind of side rear with a breezeway or an air
shaft and then steps up to the roof deck. The roof deck is just for use for the third floor unit.
Those are our floor plans. This is an elevation front and rear. So as you can see, it's built up
a little bit raised. The ground level is a little bit raised up and here's the rear with the rear
egress window, front egress window. Exhibit 6 is a rendering and I'll turn that around so that
everyone can see that. It's a pretty standard new construction rendering using metal and brick and
I'll have my architect offer a little bit more on that. As you can see there's egress at the front
and then our front steps, large windows for good eyes on the street.
Submit 7 are our photographs, and I will walk everybody through the photographs.
Submit 7A, so this vacant that you see here are actually two properties.
Ours is 1446 South 52nd, which is the left half of this vacant,
so kind of basically splitting this car down the middle.
To the left of that is 1446. You'll actually notice immediately next door to us is 1448 South 52nd,
which is a new construction build three unit property as well.
I'll scroll down. I'll show you some more photographs.
This is just a view from across the street. You see ours again is 1446, which is the left half
for this vacant. There's 1448, which is new construction. This is 1444. And then there are
some single family. And then there are also actually a number of multifamily also on this
1400 block. Other multifamily on this 1400 block, you've got 1438, which is a duplex, or at least
appears to be a duplex 1436 is another new build three family 1432 also is a two family 1414 is a
three family and 1410 is used as the two family 7b are photos of our orange notice of hearing
for this hearing today posted at our site at least 21 days ago
um there's one close-up photo of it here's a little bit of a wider shot of it and okay and
there's another wider shot and you can also see 1448 is also still a new build um three unit
property exhibit eight and i'll rotate this back exhibit eight is our initial application for
appeal, which was filed timely on 4-7-21. Exhibit 9 is our project information form, which is mandated
by the code and answered all those questions. Exhibit 10 is an affidavit of service.
We served the neighbors on July 15th with a notice of the meeting, the RCO meeting,
which took place on July 26th. That notice, that letter included copies to all of these listed
people, including the coordinating RCO, 51st Democratic Ward, Andrew Goodman of Councilmember
Gauthier's office, as well as the several other RCOs that overlap in that area of Southwest Philly.
They've all been CC'd on that letter. It also included our notice of refusal
and included our long laundry list of neighbors who were mailed on that notice.
Finally, it was a long list of neighbors who were noticed.
Finally, this is a deed in favor of my client, Philly Home Buyer LLC,
recorded on 5-24-19, and it was another one that was purchased at Sheriff's Sale.
I'd like to call my client, LeVar Clark, to offer some testimony.
LeVar, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
LeVar Clark, just identify yourself and you're still on the roof.
My name is LeVar Clark, spelled L as in Larry, E as in Edward, V as in Victor, A as in Apple, R as in Robert.
Name is LeVar Clark, spelled L as in Larry, E as in Edward.
Last name Clark, spelled C as in Cat, L as in Larry, A as in Apple, R as in Robert, K as in Kite.
Mr. Clark, Philly Homebuyer Inc. is the owner of 1446 South 52nd, correct?
And you're the principal member of Philly Homebuyer Inc.?
And you've heard all the testimony that I've offered to the board today, correct?
And do you adopt that testimony?
Was that testimony true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt that testimony as though you offered it yourself?
And I have nothing further for my client.
Thank you.
Any questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
anyone else to testify in this case please raise your hand
no further hands at this time sir any commission thank you chairman de chico
and hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission uh so this property was part of the
same remapping in 2019 where the zoning map was amended um on many blocks in this area
from rm1 to rsa5 and that was done in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan and
with the support of the community again we feel the applicant's hardship claim is not supported
with evidence of unique physical conditions of the property itself this is a vacant lot
so the city planning commission recommends that the board deny the variance thank you
MI 2021-001-684, 1446 South 52nd Street.
My vote is yes with the following proviso, no bedrooms and basement.
Professor Plaza, yes with proviso.
James Snell, yes with proviso.
Thomas Holloman, yes with proviso.
So, MI 2021, that's 001-684-1420 South 52nd Street.
Mr. Slepner.
Yes, thank you.
So long as you're still under oath, just identify yourself, and Mr. Plaza has questions for you.
Thank you, Chair.
Once again, Isaac Slepner, I India S Sam, double A Alpha C Charlie, last name Slepner, S Sam, L Larry, E Elvis, P Peter N Norman, E Elvis, R Robert of Matione Limited for the app.
Mr. Slepner, you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I guess I do.
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Thank you. Please proceed.
All right. Thank you.
This is 1420 South 52nd, and I am going to share my screen in just a moment.
um the owner of uh of this property is easy house cash llc um my client levar clark is here with us
he's the primary uh member of easy house cash llc and i will uh take the board through my materials
at this time all right 1420 south 52nd 1420 south 52nd is in that same block of 52nd street as you
just heard 1446. But I'll just take everybody through this briefly. First up is our tax
clearance cert. Easy House Cash LLC is the owner of 1420 South 52nd. And this clearance was valid
through the point at which we sent it to the board about a week or week and a half ago.
Exhibit two is our notice of refusal, which we have stipulated to. Exhibit three is the letter
from the 51st War Democratic Committee, which was the coordinating RCO. And again, the RCO did not
reach an agreement on the application. We did, once again, we did meet with them. There were
people at the meeting. We had lively conversations and discussions, but the RCO ultimately did not
take a vote and did not reach an agreement. Subit 4 is our zoning site plan, and I will
to show this to everybody briefly. This is also proposed as a three-unit multifamily,
three-story with basement and roof deck. The front elevation here, the rear elevation here,
you can see the front elevation is slightly raised. There's the basement egress at the front,