Dungan Road up in the heart of the greater northeast just down from the northeast high school
and this is a twin property the Ambrosini's own both properties the property that's attached to
and if we could we're asking for a to convert the property of 1325 into a two-family dwelling where
it had been a one family dwelling and we have a story to tell about that but maybe we could do
is um swear in our witnesses and go with our exhibits and we can we could probably get started
madam vice chair okay um first witness if if i could if i could have uh mr uh anthony ambrosini
or tony ambrosini uh duly sworn that would be great okay we could if you could allow mr tantella
the ability to share his screen because he's, as I said, I've always depended on the kindness
of others to handle the screen instead of my great technological prowess, which is about
That's a great line, Mr. Pollack.
Mr. Tantella has been promoted to panelists.
Mr. Tantella, can you hear me?
Yes, can you hear me?
Yes, can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Yes, I can.
Can you put your name and address on the record, please?
Can you put your name and address on the record, please?
Yes, Albert Tantella, Jr., architect, principal of Tantella Associates, 6200 Frankfurt Avenue, 19135.
You swear for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Tantella, let me start with Mr. Tantella.
could you put your screen up and then go to our photographs? As I said, Madam Chair,
Vice Chair, members of the Board, we have introduced or put into the record
exhibits A1 through A16. Our exhibit A08A has 42 photographs as part of the packet. So Al,
if you're able to share your screen, that would be great.
here we go so there's the the exhibit list and then if um you want to scroll down to the photo
so we'll at least show the board yeah that would be exhibit uh 8a and b all right so so madam
al the madam chair members of vice chair members of the board the property that is in question is
on the right hand side of the twin that's 1325 the attached uh twin is 1327 uh the ambrosini's
and the applicants and the owners own both sides um now what is happening here is as you go down
you'll see the next photo two shows the posting here's the interesting thing go to the next photo
which is uh photo number three and four we are a building that's caught between two driveways
to the right on the right hand side that little gray gray building is the rectory for the uh holy
flock of christ church the holy flock of christ church uh has a permission for a two-family
dwelling for that use. As part of our petition of support, which we'll show you at A16, the Holy
Flock Church has signed their support for this application. So as you go to the left-hand side,
our twin that we're attached to, there is also a driveway that leads at 1327, because we're 1325,
and that leads to a parking area. Maybe go to the next photo for the board.
scroll down to the next one um that well this is showing you as you go up the driveway of the
church that's the driveway the church that has parking in its back our house that's up for uh
your review today has that little gray additional um addition to the building it's a two-story
brick home here's the back of the the home at photo number six which shows the shared
rear yard with our partner 1327, and it's an open area with no fencing. Is that correct, Al?
Correct. Okay, go to the next photo.
This shows, again, our gray area, the patio in the back, and also the rear yard. There's plenty
of rear yard space from Al's site plan, which is at our exhibit six. We have more than enough
rear yard area. Go ahead to the next photo.
9 and 10. Again, this gives you a juxtaposition.
The photo 9 shows the church in the upper right, the Holy Flock Church,
the two buildings, and then there's the corner property that is at
13, 17, and 19. Again, the Ambrosini's own that
also. So what we want to convey to you is that the Ambrosini's
new mrs gibbs mrs geraldine gibbs uh she's on the deed at a11 geraldine gibbs and her husband
uh her late husband bought this property at 1325 in 1982 uh i know this you know they took there
was a case of course at temple law school called status and process and they used to say the teacher
used to say depending on your status you might win so he always said widows always win now i don't
know if that's true, but Mrs. Gibbs was a widow, and her husband died in 2008. She hung in there
in the building for about another 11 years, and you can see she sold to Anthony and his brother,
John, in 2019. Why? It was a private sale. She knew them from the neighborhood. She had moved
out about a year and a half before June of 2019 because she could no longer maintain the building
the built her house became in pretty disrepair and she was a hoarder of a lot of things and so
of a lot of things. And so Tony and his brother decided that it would probably be, since she made
Tony and his
the offer, it would be good to protect their investment of their property that's attached
if they could improve that property next door and try and use it. So as you can see at the
photo below on number 10, you see the driveway that's for the church rectory. And then you see
a car a little gray a gray car that's the area where cars could have off-street parking then
just above that gray car is the driveway to the parking lot that is part of 1327
um i'm sorry yeah 1327 and 1331 so go to the next photo
and the next go up uh go up to uh 13 there you go uh go up go up to 13 photo 13
and 14. So that shows you the front yard setback. Go to the next photo.
This is some interior shots of what the building looks like right now.
Go to the next photos just to show they had to brace it up. That's the basement.
And go through. Next. That's still more interior shots. Here's a frontal view.
again as you can see on the top photo number 23 you can see the parking there's parking on the
side of um the next the adjacent twin that the that we're contiguous to uh however since that
zoned rsa3 uh if i were to say to you i could provide some off-street parking spaces i would
need to come back with a separate case because that would make that a private parking lot so
that's why we hesitate to say that. If you can go to the next photo after that, again, you'll see
we're caught between these two driveways. Go to the next pack. That's 25 and 26. Just to show you,
and we'll have a map that shows that this is a mixed bag neighborhood. Across the street
in 27, you'll see Smeggy's Pub right across the street, and we've got the auto repair shop
just above that
where the hand is right now.
Go to the next shot
below. That's across the street.
There's a doctor's office
and another doctor's office up at the corner
to the left or just
to our east. Go up. Next photo.
And there's
Holy Flock Church down at the bottom.
This is a
shot. The pillars in
29 are the rectory's
columns from the front. Go down
to the next one. We're almost there.
Again, this is the driveway up to the rectory, the driveway looking from the directory, the rectory's backyard in the Cotman.
And there's our building on the right that's in question.
Go ahead.
Next one.
Backyard you've seen.
Go ahead.
There is this parking lot that is adjacent to our twin that allows for numerous off-street spaces that currently are utilized by the person, the tenant who's in 1320.
27. Go to the next photos. This is the commercial unit at the corner. It's 13, 17, 13, 19, but up above, and we'll have an exhibit that will show that up above is three apartments. This is also owned by the Ambrosini's.
as we said this is an area that the ambrosinis are sort of like getting vent near park place and
and atlantic avenue as you come around the corner of the dungan road they they they so it's not like
these are guys that are coming in to flip a property they have a real investment uh and
they've had it for years in this neighborhood go to the next they own the two-story and the one
story they own the two-story and the one story and then they own the twin that they're attached
that is attached to the building that we're asking for they've and i'll have tony talk to
that they've owned those buildings for many years uh as i said mrs gibbs mrs gibbs when
time came gave them the opportunity through a private sale to buy the the property that's
before you so it was not something that even went out on the marketplace it was really through the
neighborhood go ahead next photos that's maggie's pub across the way uh right across the street on
the other side of if dungan road crashed in it would crash into the cnc auto repair shop i can
tell you on the a little bit to our west just in the next block face of dungan road to the west
is a caliber collision which at the way back when was called uh collision car care and councilman
o'neill and i somehow entered into a restrictive covenant that has worked for years and years
that allowed this that property to be turned into an auto body shop so there's an auto body shop a
half block down on the same block face as where we are one last photo that's the property from
the rear up at the top on 41 that shows you where that little one-story building and two-story
up at the top on 41 that shows you where that little one-story building and two-story building
is. That's a three-family dwelling with that commercial space. And just up the road, above
this car on the right-hand side where the hand is, move your hand to just above that is where
the caliber collision is, just the next block. So I believe that's our photos. So Al, you took
some of these photos and you're familiar with the neighborhood. Does this accurately depict what
the kind of neighborhood we're in yes it does okay do you want to go to your a15 which is your
drawing area plan of multiple uses okay all right um i'll put this together and basically
if you want to just tell the board briefly our big point is it's a mixed bag area madam chair
members of the board it has multi-family dwellings it has a church it has commercial
units. It has a bar across the street, has auto repair, has auto body repair, and commercial
spaces, so that it's not a totally single-family home area. And Al, you want to just briefly say
what your code says? Sure. The Exhibit 15, which is in front of us, is an area plan of multifamily
uses, our site sketch SK-1. What you see is a plan of the entire block and the surrounding
blocks. The block we're speaking of is between Cotman Avenue, Aldine, Dungan, and Whitaker.
Superimposed onto the plan are the building footprints and also the parcel lines of
properties the exhibit in itself it's color-coded there's blue yellow and pink the blue the one
property is the subject property 1325 copman avenue the properties that are in yellow are properties
that maintain multi-family uses and they maintain multi-family uses in accordance with
our review of the zoning records or zoning archives available.
So Al, just to be clear, everything that you have on this that are in yellow on your legend,
where you say calendar number or permit number, you looked at each individual property's record
of L&I that was available on the Zoning Atlas site of the City of Philadelphia,
and this is what you've been able to document. Is that correct?
Correct. And if I could add that the graphic works in conjunction with this chart where the address is numerical and then the address is what the zoning of each lot is.
And then we have what we have L&I zoning documentation where we list where that documentation of the multifamily use is via certification or permit number, as well as the application number at that time.
And the dates are there of those application numbers.
The majority of these properties are two-family dwellings.
The standout is the corner property, which is also the Ambrosini property, which is a three-family dwelling, which is number four with a commercial unit as well.
okay al um number two is the rectory which is two family
correct correct number the the purplish color next to the two family is the church
right and then at the corner of cottman and whitaker is a freestanding uh building that i
can say board way back when and probably in the 19 late 1970s early 1980s when i was working for
uh mike stack jr the the um uh we got a variance granted to allow that building way back when to
become a standalone doctor's office um and then so and then across the street um or the next block
face of dungan is commercial uh and then the second building in we have a who has signed our petition
of support is mr andrilli who is the owner and operates a preparatory school and then where that
that's where Mr. Tantel's hand is. Now that next property, next door to that, just in the corner
that you can see right near where it says three family on your scale, that's where the famous
caliber collision pair place is. That is the auto body shop that's been there for, I'd say,
about 20 years now that I also years ago got a variance for. This just happens to be one of my
favorite neighborhoods, Burrell Home. And so that's basically what's going on. Al, is there
The condition of the building that we're attached to, that they bought at 1325, that's the subject.
Is there something to be said for being willing to protect your property from...
uh being willing to protect uh your property from if the building that you're tied into is
decaying and bad shape well the the building is a uh semi-detached uh building uh brick masonry
building and it does share uh the party wall which is a brick masonry party wall between the
two properties uh yes uh to answer your question yes steve uh uh joists which uh are on the each
level of the building bear into the barren wall um so uh dividing the two properties uh so that
is just go ahead all right so um and you're you're a registered licensed architect in the
commonwealth of pennsylvania right al correct al yes okay um al do you want to let's direct the
board to our uh zoning plan uh seven which is your conceptual floor plan uh there will be no living
space in in the basement at all is that correct correct and then can you we're going to have the
first floor will be converted into a uh about a two-bedroom uh unit with uh the kitchen up front
near cotman avenue and then uses the board can see it flows back and you have a separate stairs
and foyer entrance to go upstairs to the second unit isn't that correct correct and but you're
also creating a foyer in the in the rear isn't that correct correct so that um if you're coming
in from the back you will be able to go down to the basement and store uh items in the basement
and then in fact i'll have anthony just confirm this but there will be storage area for both
units down below isn't that correct correct okay and now the second floor is going to be a one
bedroom apartment correct and you're not you're utilizing the existing footprint not building any
additions out on the building, isn't that correct? Yes, no building additions are proposed.
Building dimensions are the same. The bulk remain exactly the same. How many square feet are each
unit, Al? The dwelling unit number one, which is on the first story floor, is 905 square feet
proposed. The second story, which is dwelling unit number two, is 680 square feet. Okay. Al,
Now, for access for the second unit, there is, on the side near the church rectory, there is a side alley.
Isn't that correct?
Correct.
Do you want to show that site plan that you have at A6?
That is Exhibit 6.
And that shows the existing property with the rear yard.
How big is the rear yard again?
looks the rear yard uh is setback is 36 feet from okay so there's a lot of space and and but