amerikanov um if you could raise your hand so that the board can promote you to panelists
I'm not sure if anyone sees her on there I can place a thank you okay she's been promoted
to panelists she can unmute herself hello hi marina would you state and spell your name
and your address for the board.
Marina, can you hear me?
Marina, can you hear me?
Marina, you need to unmute yourself.
It's still seeing that you're muted.
it. Hello, Justin? Yes. As an officer of the court, I think we could stipulate that
she would agree to your testimony. I appreciate that. I will stipulate that she would adopt my
testimony as her own as an officer of the
court. Thank you, confessor.
Does the board have any questions?
No. No.
Planning Commission? No.
Planning Commission?
Do you
swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and
nothing but the truth? Yes, I do.
Name and address.
Ian Litwin,
Planning Commission staff.
That's I-A-N-L-I-T-W-I-N.
We good?
Yeah, we'd like to know your recommendation
for 260 Geiger-Rude.
Oh, yeah, we have no objection.
Thank you.
Calendar, is there anyone else
who would like to weigh in on this?
madam chair i have two hands up one is
thank you madam chair members of the board alice yudovich from councilman brian o'neill's office
hi alice do you swear for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do okay the councilman has no objection to the granting of the variance at this location
okay great thank you and the next person thank you
i think there's another person who would like to speak
yes i'm sorry i was muting myself madam chair
today's an unusual day yes it is it's a caller phone number ending in 1080
well you just have to unmute yourself hello hello yes can you put your name and address on the
record please uh my name is marina americanova it's m-a-r-i-n-a americanova it's a-m-e-r-k-h-a-m-o-v-a
and the address is 2201 Threl Street, St. RAHLE Street, Unit C1, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19152.
Okay, do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Thank you, Marina, for coming on.
I did already represent to the board that you would have adopted my testimony, but since you are on and have been able to to to speak, have you heard my statements to the board today?
Yes, I did.
And would you adopt those statements as your own, as truthful as if you were to give that testimony yourself?
Thank you very much, Marina.
Thank you.
okay and um this case is ready to be voted calendar number 2702 260 geiger road my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes
thank you very much members of the board thank you thank you and i think that concludes the two
o'clock hearing hearings that correct confessor um wait one minute i think we got a couple more
yes i think there are others uh confessor is correct
that may not have exhibits
are they confessor do you want to read them out because i don't have them here
I don't have them right in front of me.
I had to step away from my office real quick.
step away from my office real quick let me give me a second let me look um actually there's only
Let me, give me a second.
Let me look.
one more and no i you it had no exhibits but you continued it earlier so you are done oh okay thank
you we will move right into the 3 30 hearings
good afternoon my name is carol tenery and today i'll be the chair of the zoning board of adjustment
i'll be participating along with board secretary confessor plaza and board members thomas holliman
and james snell along with sharon saletta who is our attorney for those of you who haven't yet
participated in one of our virtual hearings i'll go through some of the basics of what you can
expect. First, we will be administering oaths to individual participants prior to their testimony.
Second, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded and that by
participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded. Third, for anyone participating by
phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine, then star six to
unmute yourself. That's raise your hand by hitting star nine, then star six to unmute yourself.
Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address
and the address of the property at issue. The number again is 267-270-5548. And fourth,
the question and answer box is not for testimony any comments are to be or to be directed to miss
fatima are there wait one second those days
Sharon is there a continuance list with this um calendar number 0118 4715 Green Street
is being continued and that's the only continuance i have are there any requests for continuances
madam chair we have sloan folks with their hand up okay
you may unmute yourself Mr. Foulkes thank you ma'am hi Mr. Foulkes name and address for the
record please and you're sworn in good afternoon ma'am Sloan Foulkes S-L-O-A-N-E fire O-L-K-S
office of councilman Maria Quiñones Sanchez room 508 city hall um we're requesting a continuance
for case number one, calendar number MI-2020-000-985-1616 North 2nd Street, number one.
They have not met with the RCO and wish for the community to weigh in on the variance request.
Okay, thank you.
Is there anyone else who would like to voice an opinion on this, if you disagree with this?
I'm sorry, maybe I misheard the address, but I'm not seeing this on our 330 list.
It's number, oh wait, it's not number one.
Yes, it is number one, 1660 North 2nd Street.
That's right, and we have no exhibits for that either.
Right.
It's the first listing.
No hands are up.
I have one hand up, Tina Marie Russell.
You may unmute yourself, Ms. Russell.
Ms. Russell, you're still muted.
There are no more here.
Miss Russell, could you unmute?
i'm not getting a response madam chair okay so that case number one is continued
I'm not getting a response.
the next is calendar number zero eight five three two thirty one shares lean
i'm sorry did mr folks have another continuance request i thought that he said he had to
No, ma'am. Just that one.
Okay. Thank you.
Is anyone here for 231 Schurz Lane?
Yes. I just promoted Henry Clinton.
Madam Chairman, I am Henry Clinton.
Hi, Mr. Clinton. Name and address for the record and then I'll swear you in or you've already been sworn in.
Henry Clinton, Queen Memorial Building, 1313 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia PA, 19146.
Do you agree to waive and stip?
And also, have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents, including proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal referral, photos and plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
Have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter?
yes to all of the above thank you you may proceed
thank you may i share my screen sure you may
is that visible everyone that's great okay uh so today is
two properties, 231 and 233 Schurz Lane. It's in Maniunk, right adjacent to the Ovalcans for
Maniunk Avenue. My presentation includes a table of contents, which are the following exhibits, AA
through A10. My appearance statement and refusal. I'll touch on this first. So this is an RSA 5 zone
and our proposal is for a single family house. We're not asking for any relief with regard to
height, rear yard, open space, it's simply dimensional variances, as well as a steep slope
requirement, which prohibits, excuse me, let me backtrack, these are all use variance requests.
So the first two issues concern parking, and I'll address that with aerial photographs,
indicating that in this particular area, within 100 feet of this property, there are 14 other
garages. And we're asking for an open air space, parking space, which is similar, which is exactly
like the home next door. The steep slopes, when you see the aerial photographs, you'll see that
these two lots, and we're consolidating two lots into one, these two lots are adjacent to
the Mattyonk overpass. And I looked on historical records, and it appears to me that these lots
have been vacant for well over 50 years. If there are other people from Mattyonk on the call,
they can correct me, but that's what my research has indicated thus far. And the idea behind steep
slopes, not to talk down to the board, but it's because usually steep slopes are involved in a
wider area than what we have. Our steep slopes are only 17 feet wide. And in a wider area,
the reason that regulations usually prohibit you when building on slopes that are in excess of 25%
is because that raises stormwater issues. It raises sedimentation, erosion issues. And
Rustin Knoller, who is on the call and is the architect of record, will touch on those issues
later as we get through the presentation. So this is the letter from the Wissahick and Neighbors
Civic Association. We met with them twice. The first time I met with them, I think the vote was
against us five to three. We went back and met again. And even though the letter says
the vote was to oppose, when you really look at the tally here, you have five from the board
opposing and five from the community opposing. That's 10. Well, if you look at the other side,
you have non-opposition is nine and support is 11. So in my mind, this is not a letter of opposition.
this is a letter of non-opposition because the tally is 11 to 10 granted there's a split between
the board and the attendees but when you do the aggregate of adding the non-opposition with
But when you do the aggregate of adding the non-opposition with the support, that comes to 11 versus 10.
So even though on paper this appears to be a letter of opposition, I believe it's a letter of non-opposition.
And the board can take basically judicial review of this document to indicate it's a vote of 11 to 10.
Okay, and we will proceed.
So here's an aerial view, and I'm going to show you quite a few.
this is the two lots. It's a consolidation of two lots that are 17 feet wide by about 90 deep.
The Schur's Lane goes underneath Manioc Avenue which is right here. So there's a front parking
space on this house. There's a garage here. One, two, three, four. All four of these have garages
and I'll show you closer photographs so you're not thinking I'm doctoring the photos. So this
these are the two lots right adjacent to the Manionk Avenue overpass and here are one two
three four five garages here the other four garages that I saw you just showed you which
you could not see from my aerial photograph are on this side of the bridge
the this is now further down Schur's Lane as you as you go down toward the river
these are four garages right before our property and our property is right here
now this is the photograph looking down toward the river traffic goes toward the river on the
right side which is the west side and traffic comes up stream as you're on this side of Shurs
Lane but here are the four garages that are on the other side of the Maniunk Avenue overpass
Again, just some more perspective photographs as you can see.
The house, and I'll show you the plans, and Rustin may work through them.
The house will be the same depth of the house next door.
And between the rear of our house and this house here, that is on Mount Yoke Avenue, is about 22 feet.
Again, just some more perspective photographs.
This is a photograph looking over the overpass, which is here, down into where our lots are, which you can partially see.
Here are the plans. We did make some changes as a result of our first meeting with the RCO.
We have some architectural embellishments on the front.
We actually changed the color of the brick and the bay on the front to make it more in line with the color of the brick on the block.
We put an anointing above the fourth floor balcony, and we also put an anointing above the front porch.
So this is a cutaway of the property.
As you can see, the grade starts here and works down towards Shurer's Lane.
And so the slope is also going from the house up to the bridge, and I'll show you that with some contour shots.
this is the parking again reflecting that there are garages here there are garages here
there are garages here there's an open air parking spot for the house next door and we
would ask for the same thing which is has a turning radius that is compatible with moving
into the space this is the contour map just to give you a brief overview your elevation here
is about 156 feet and you can see the contour lines going up under 67 171 you end up with about
an elevation only up here of 182. so the property basically slopes this way and Rustin's going to
talk about how they're going to cope with this from a construction viewpoint how the retaining
walls and the concrete walls that will be built as part of the home will buttress up against any
dirt and any earth disturbance here. The other thing that's unique about this lot,
and I'm going to argue this at the end, why this is a hardship, is even though this lot is 17 wide,
these are the abutments on the bridge that actually hold up the overpass. So this lot is
really non-buildable because of the intrusions of these abutments, and it takes up quite a few
space square footage on this particular lot. And it also ties in with our argument that the steep
slopes here, yes there are, but they can be addressed with erosion, sedimentation, and storm
water control. These are the floor plans. This is the elevation, trying to keep in line with the
house next door. This is Maniolk Avenue. This is the view from the back of the house. This is the
view looking from south to north. And this is the view of the top of the home if you happen to be
traveling along Maniolk Avenue. So Rustin, if at this point
Manuel Cavanaugh. So Rustin, if at this point, can Rustin Ohler be unmuted so I can just ask
him a few questions?
Good afternoon. Hi, Mr. Ohler, can you put your name and address on the record,