responsible to provide emergency information during, you know,
events where the public could be impacted,
And this will allow us to do that under circumstances that are beyond our control.
And this generally will not change the nature of the one employee.
This won't increase traffic in the area.
It won't put a burden on the property or any utilities.
No, it will not.
All right. Thank you, Mark.
Thank you.
Is Phil Ruggieri on?
Sir, please unmute yourself.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Give me one second.
Phil Ruggieri, P-H-I-L-I-P-R-U-G-G-I-E-R-I.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
I do proceed thank you Phil I would just like to add that we have the bio as I said at exhibit H
if you could just give a brief background and establish your credentials for the zoning
Give a brief background and establish your credentials for the zoning board, Phil, so we can have you recognized as an expert in architecture and planning.
Yeah, sure. First, let me apologize. Steve will not be in attendance at this point.
He had to leave early to go pick his children up. So y'all are stuck with me.
i am a licensed architect in the state of pennsylvania i've been in the business of
architecture for well over 45 years uh my company is well established and uh we've testified
at zoning boards of this nature uh a multitude of times
that's fine eileen thank you thank you chairman um so mr ruggier you have uh been at this site
correct yes ma'am and in your opinion is there any viable location on this site where you could
make this path and build this garage for this van uh we've studied it pretty closely when we
first got involved and where the building is located is the only practical spot that it can
be located. The majority of it is on pretty level ground, except for the area outside of the drive-in
door that cuts into the man-made bank is required for us to get enough turning radius, if you will,
to get the van into the garage.
And that was handled, I thought, quite nicely
from the civil engineers with the kind of V-shaped wall
that you'll see in this exhibit right here
to try to minimize the impact on the man-made berm,
if you will, to the worst-case scenario
is right at the point where you see that dark,
Dark, that's it. Thank you. That's the worst impact on the slope. And quite frankly,
I wish we could cut into the slope even more because it's still tight getting the van in
and out of that door. But we figured that this is the best we're going to be able to do.
and our client is is accepting this this is a as a as an okay solution
Mr. Ruggieri do you believe this this is the you did mention it so this is really a de minimis
very very de minimis impact on the high on the slope of the on the adjacent slope
in my in my opinion also the other rationale for the location of the garage is that there's a
need to get into the existing building
and that we have some existing double doors
that are accessible to us
adjacent through that little connecting link there, if you will.
And that's kind of a must to be able to get back
and forth between the parking garage and the existing building.
Thank you. Now, Phil, there are other structures
on this site as well correct and equipment satellite dishes yes lots of other equipment
and and other buildings is there an opportunity or could you join these two buildings so we
wouldn't have multiple buildings or what was the issue with that yeah no we could certainly join
them uh by by putting uh connecting them with a roof uh i think that might be considered uh one
building then if they're connected with a roof. But like any project, we were on a budget and
connecting with a roof is just more dollars. And, you know, we didn't see necessarily the need to
do that. And this is a more secure location for the van with the garage located back here to the
rear the property yes and um phil in your opinion um will this have any impact on any traffic or
utilities any congestion in the streets none whatsoever and in your opinion with this garage
back here to house this van and cutting into uh slightly cutting into this slope and having an
additional structure on the lot. Will it injure any of the adjacent properties?
Not at all. I think it's very well tucked back there and concealed to not be visually harmful in
to, you know, not be visually harmful in any other way.
any other way.
Thank you, Mr. Ruggieri.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no handshake.
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar city planning. While this property is currently indicated for residential
on the city plan given the long-standing surrounding site context ancillary to existing
legal non-conforming use recommend we have no objection to the granting of the variance.
Mr. Chair may I also note that we did receive an email from the RCO today. Her aunt passed away so
she was not able to um submit a letter but i forwarded both her email i saw it hillary showed
it to me yep we're good and the councilman's office is in support mi 2022-002-947-340 domino
lane i vote yes tom solomon my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes yes
thank you chairman bergman that concludes my business may we please be excused you you most
certainly can thank you thank you have a wonderful day all right number four mi 2022
zero zero four six one six thirty nine oh seven to eleven north three street john taylor is the
attorney the meeting was held on 117 23 at esperanza we're waiting for an rco letter
mr taylor mr taylor is coming back in as a panelist okay
mr taylor
Good afternoon, Commissioner. John Taylor, J-O-N-T-A-Y-L-O-R. I'm fixing my camera.
Okay. Do you swear in front to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
I represent the tenant and the owner of the property located at 3907 Reese Street.
Okay, and our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed all of the required documents five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes, but with exception to the tax certificates, which we received yesterday, we also did have an RCO meeting yesterday.
I did receive today the RCO letter of support, which I will show in today's presentation.
and we also sent the proof of the mailing as a supplemental exhibit, along with the tax
certificates as well, which were sent yesterday upon receipt. Okay, great. Please proceed and
share your screen. Excuse me, Chair. Lynn Nichols has her hand up. Is she relevant to this case?
linda wolf she may or may not i don't know why she would be but if she raised her hand she could
have a reason um mr chair this is hillary lynn nichols is an attorney in another case on the
330 list i don't know if she has a question or i guess that we can address it's lynn nichols
you're saying? Yes. Yeah, let her in, please. Ms. Nichols, please unmute yourself.
Ms. Nichols, state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter.
Lynn Nichols. L-Y-N-N-N-I-C-H-O-L-S. I'm so tired, Chair. I heard 2022-004 or some number,
and I thought it was my case. Okay, that's okay. We're going to get to you. I promise.
I know. I know. We'll be to you soon. Go ahead, Mr. Taylor.
thank you sure not a problem um may i share the screen please
whoops excuse me
whoops excuse me
um let me apologize i think um i was moving my exhibits around
okay this is the zba presentate um we don't have we don't have anything up you have to share your
screen here it's coming it's coming now it's up yeah this is the zba presentation for
3907-11 north reese street included with this package are the exhibit the application for
repeal, the poster, the exhibit for the deed and lease, photos, area photographs, plans.
We also have supplemental exhibits, which were submitted later, which we would like
to show to the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
I'm going to, this is a copy of the refusal.
We don't see it.
We're not seeing anything now.
Oh, that's because I.
You got to, you got to have it put up on the screen.
All right.
It's coming up now.
Make it.
That's it. You're good. All right. So this is the refusal.
I represent a car dealership. There is a garage connected to the car dealership.
As is often the case when cars are sold, they must have certain repairs in order to be sold.
And it's a necessity that the garage, they'd be allowed to have a garage.
It was an existing use for many years. Only recently has the owner, I believe, only recently cited for a violation.
So what they would like to do is make the proposed use for a personal vehicle repair and maintenance, which is prohibited in the district.
This is a copy of the application.
as it shows the car business was already established
the copy of the poster
this is the deed to the property there's the owner
how long has the garage been in business there you know it's i believe it's been over 10 years
i'll ask my client that question in testimony all right thank you here's the lease
What I'm going to do is I want to skip to the aerial photo.
I figured out in the RCO meeting that was actually a better way of showing this presentation.
It was a better idea.
Aerial map.
Okay, so this red dot is the structure.
It is the garage right here.
Now, the whole parcel, the whole dealership, is really this portion of the block.
It's actually multiple properties.
You can kind of see that in the numbering of the parcels.
My client, the tenant, owns this property as well.
He owns this property, but Mr. Colon owns these properties.
And this is the property we're trying to make into a personal, you know, a garage.
So if the car is here, it can be fixed here.
I'm just going to show really quick, briefly, there's other garages in that neighborhood.
There's a garage there.
There's a garage there.
it's kind of a commercial industrial site there list of garages in the area
i'm gonna go if if i may i like to go back to the um uh pictures of the building itself okay here it
is so here is the reese street this is the portion of the property that faces reese street
Okay, and this is the garage. If you notice, there's polls in the street during the RCO meeting last night. There was expressed concerns about if my client parks vehicles on the sidewalk of his customers. And my client testified during the RCO, and he can testify tonight that no, he doesn't park his customers' cars on the sidewalks.
okay and this is the garage if you notice there's poles
With that said, other people do, and my client will work with the neighborhood to try to keep people from parking on the sidewalk.
So here's another picture on the Reese Street portion of the lot.
Again, here's the side lot.
Cars are parked.
Another picture.
Another picture.
All right, so this is across the street from the garage we saw.
This property is not owned by my client, but it shows that a garage and car dealership does fit within the character of the neighborhood and the existing uses.
This is the inside of the garage.
It's a very clean facility.
I don't see any, you know, gas or oil spills.
Very clean facility.
There's another picture of the garage.
Garage.
This is the inside.
This is where customers can come and talk about the cars they want to buy.
This is the lavatory for the facility.
So, Mr. Taylor, I think where we should be is I think you should bring your client on and have your testimony adopted.
I mean, what you're basically saying, he's been in business for 10 years and he recently was cited.
Correct.
You're trying to get a variance.
So why don't you bring him on?
All right.
I like Mr. Nefertil Leonardo.
Could you please introduce yourself to the Zoning Board of Adjustment?
Could you state your name, sir, and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
there are no hands raised at this time chair okay i'll let me make a quick well mr taylor mr
taylor you're an officer of the court and we will accept your testimony thank you okay um
and we still don't have a phone number from we don't have a letter yet from the rco
we do if i may i'd like to show the letter that came this afternoon
please are they in support yes they are this is the letter it came this afternoon okay
I will just make sure we receive a copy of that please yes sir yes chairman okay
all right questions from the board no Mr. Chairman no Mr. Chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare high planning commission i run bednar city planning this property is
indicated for commercial mixed use on the city plan given the physical circumstances of the site
it's documented use history we recommend the aggressive variance be ready thank you mi2022