on the block right so there's all kind of those those kind of issues and i just
prayer out that god would do what needs to be done okay okay thank you thank you very much for
coming in we appreciate your comments hi could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
eva moral samuels eva m-o-r-r-e-l dash s-a-m-u-e-l-s do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth told truth nothing but the truth um are you a neighbor yes i'm a near neighbor i'm right at the
edge of it are you in favor of this or against in favor okay could you just give us real quick why
i think it's a good faith offer and i think i'd prefer to buy the lot as a community and make it
park but that's not an option i think this is a good faith offer that uh i don't know that we're
going to see something as measured as this again thank you very much for spending the time we
appreciate your comments yes right hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Yeah, Ashley Van Riper.
I'm kidding.
Sorry.
A-S-H-L-E-Y-P-A-N space R-I-P-E-R.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Yeah, I'm a near neighbor.
Are you in favor or against?
Opposed, yeah.
Is there anything that you can add that we haven't heard?
We've heard a lot.
Yeah, you have.
Yeah, I just want to kind of speak to the one person's point that it's a dump.
Well, I can't hear what you're saying.
sorry i have a very soft voice um i just wanted to say that it's not a dump like the first person
said it's just grass and a lot of animals live there nothing needs to be done with a lot and i
realize that like you use the argument that it can't be developed as a reason that it should be
developed but i just wanted to point out that so your point you don't want anything there yeah all
that's fine to say okay yeah that's all ma'am
how could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer kate devlin k-a-t-e-d-e-v-m-i-n
right do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes are
you a neighbor yes are you in favor of this or against against okay is there anything you can
offer that we haven't heard i don't want to take up any more of your time i just wanted to register
Oh, well, thank you. You register your name. We have your name. Thank you very much, sir.
Why could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Pastor J-J-A-Y, Broadnax, B-R-O-A-D-N-A-X.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
My church is down the street.
Yeah. Are you in favor of this project or against?
In favor.
Thank you very much.
could you give us any comments why um most of the comments uh have been have been made already other
than the fact that uh this this uh developer has really been over backwards to try to make this
something that is reverend thank you very much for coming we appreciate you spending a little
time here yes ma'am hi how are you i could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Good afternoon. My name is Pamela Andrews, P-A-M-E-L-A, Andrews, A-M-D-R-E-W-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you in favor or against?
I am in favor of the project.
Thank you. Is there anything you can offer?
I do. I am the chair of the RCO, and you have my...
I have, I have.
okay i don't really have too much um in addition to add to that because you have everything but
what i basically wanted to say is that i am here to represent the community who was at our zoning
meeting when we took the boat on march the 12th there was a total of 58 people 38 of those people
wanted to move the project forward 27 were in opposition i also just want to make another note
about the issues around the parking and fire.
In addition to being the chair of the RCO,
I live a half a block away from there,
right off of a little Filbert Street,
which is a cul-de-sac, okay?
My street is tiny.
When they talk about there's no other traffic,
that's not true.
We're a half a block away,
and the only way you get access
to Filbert Street from 42nd Street,
it's a one-way cul-de-sac.
they actually have to drive in and back out okay um i have lived there for 25 years now
we have never had an accident with anyone coming in and out of that block okay okay um so i wanted
to bring that up because i really felt as if that was unfair i will say that and i'm aware that 42nd
street is a major major major thoroughfare and just they have been accidents but when you say
when you say that there's it's out of character and there's no other block in that area
that there's it's out of character and there's no other block in that area
i'm exactly a half a block away so i wanted to bring that to your attention i thank you
thank you thank you no thank you thank you do we have any hands up in the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair okay um planning commission
amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location from the current rsa5 residential single family the appellant has not
demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of the property
that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code
the planning commission recommends that the board deny the requested variance for multi-family
do you have any comment why don't you give me yes again mr chairman i would just like to point out
working backwards in response to the planning commission's testimony that this is not a
proposal for multi-family that this is a proposal for single-family homes that unfortunately our
zoning code has no mechanism to recognize whether it be a condominium development or a pud development
there is no mechanism to recognize that and that this is not a multi-family development uh based on
our zoning code um just in response to a couple quick things uh just so that the board understands
this proposal did have to go through a prerequisite review with the streets department
they did not raise any concern with the proposed driveway uh it is in accordance with their
regulations and they would of course also have to review it during the technical review phase
and that's where the things that uh one of the community members mentioned in terms of
any form of gating or lights that would come up during that review um
And then just the last thing I wanted to respond to is in response to one of the community members who made some commentary about the fact that there's no economics to support for single family homes.
But I would just like to remind the board here that this is not a case where that type of analysis is necessary.
This represents a development of a quarter of this lot that if it were not irregularly shaped and were oriented differently could support the development of 12 single family homes.
So this is akin to a dimensional variance. It is not, although the zoning code would treat it that way, is not technically a use variance. It is simply a variance requesting for single family homes that cannot otherwise be subdivided due to the extraordinarily unique conditions. Thank you.
All right, thank you. So, first, I want to thank everyone who on both sides is who testified. We heard a lot. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take this to our executive session next Wednesday.
We will vote at 2 PM next Wednesday and thank everyone for spending so much time down here. Thank you for bearing with me today.
All right, number number 7.
Here we go.
people are friendly to each other too at least
all right number seven mi2025-007-330-7756 ditman street rachel pritzker is the attorney
it'll be coming back in shortly mr chair
good afternoon i guess good evening hi um hi council could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer yeah rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r right do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes could you identify
your client the relationship to the property yeah so my client is joe gagne from big joe's roofing
um inc and he is the um equitable owner of the property um it's uh under contract uh so he's
equitable owner okay and i have a letter of non-opposition from homesburg civic and a letter
non-opposition from council member driscoll and our vice chair has a few questions okay good
afternoon um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the read and other refusals and stipulate to their accuracy
yes i think you can share your screen proceed with your case thank you
can you see my screen we can okay so this is 7756 ditman street
So this is 7756 Dittman Street.
Just to quickly go through the refusal, the property is owned RSA 3, but it's a longstanding, it's Holmesburg Boys and Girls Club that is going to be concluding their service in the neighborhood.
And this will be hopefully the home of Big Joe's Roofing.
And most of the refusals relate to the fact that the lot is zone RSA 3, despite it being a longstanding warehouse building, which I'll show you, that was previously the home to Homesburg Boys and Girls Club.
We're basically proposing a partial demolition of the existing structure.
You'll see from the plans just to allow for a garage door so that the trucks can go inside
of the warehouse space for loading, and the improvements to the site for landscaping and
screening, basically creation of nine parking spaces in the back, and some cleaning up of
the spaces in the front, and again, as mentioned, the interior loading space inside.
that the refusals relate to surface parking spaces not being allowed in the rear of the
property although there's existing asphalt in the back so you'll see that we're just
improving that space and obviously building services for this roofing company is not permitted
an RSA3. So just to show you the site, tax clearance, the agreement of sale.
quite long this is an aerial view of the site
um a bit better on this screen here it's a corner lot quite large corner lot
it's another aerial view where you can see the site and the existing property on the site
Zoning posters on the property.
Here's a view of the building as well.
The side of the building.
There's a gate here and some of the rear parking will be behind here.
This is on the side street.
some of the inside of the building
you can see kind of a large
empty space that used to have the boys and girls club
that large existing structure on the site
another view of it as well
again just to orient on the street
some exterior photos you can see some of the existing parking that was here all
this will get cleaned up we're gonna remove some spaces in the front to allow
for the garage door and also going to be adding the required landscape buffers
obviously clean up the curbs and improve the site in the exterior this is the
rear of the site where additional parking will be underneath this snow is
an asphalt lot that I think was probably used for basketball and things like that.
So repurposing this to add additional off-street parking.
Don't comply with the code because you can't have any parking in the rear yard,
although it's sort of an existing condition that we're going to be improving.
And same with business building services is not permitted in RSA 3.
We met with the Holmesburg Civic Association in person back in February.
We sent out mailers to all the near neighbors and received a letter of non-opposition from the community.
We also, as mentioned, really received a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Driscoll.
If we can promote Rustin Uller to go through the architectural plans, I think it's just also worth noting that Big Joe's Roofing is a union roofing company.
They have a location not far from this and are looking to expand their business, add a little bit more value to the neighborhood and additional employees.
And they've been successful to kind of grow their sort of homegrown companies.
So the community knew Joe and his team and so was really welcoming, especially.
The community knew Joe and his team and so was really welcoming, especially, you know, obviously it's kind of a sad situation to see a Boys and Girls Club not be able to continue to provide services to kids and youth in the area.
But it was time for them to kind of close their doors and they spent significant time vetting different potential buyers for this.
They wanted to make sure it was somebody who was going to be mindful of the community they felt comfortable with and also really didn't want to see the building be torn down.
The RSA 3 zoning really allows for one single-family house on this quite large lot, as you can see, and so keeping the building as much as possible, again, just a small demolition to do just for a garage door and leaving the building as is, you know, allows for the building to stay in place and obviously is less detrimental as far as, like, construction and impacts to the neighborhood.
um the alternative would be demolishing the building subdividing the lots and trying to build
new homes there um but this was just what some you know what was comfortable for the seller as
well as obviously being a long-standing warehouse that had a commercial-ish use um is the architect
on yes sir all right could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yeah rustin oler r-u-s-t-i-n last name where we're a firm to tell the truth told truth nothing but
the truth i do counsel um rustin can you just briefly go through the plans on the my screen
yeah sure uh so rachel has the site plan up uh as she mentioned um previously the entire front
of the lot was was paved um people kind of park there a little haphazardly and over the sidewalk
we're going to be cleaning that up legalizing the parking adding a dedicated ada space in adding
landscaping and landscape buffers to both sides of the parking reducing the overall curb cut
reporting the sidewalk all that's been approved by the streets department
with our preliminary application to them as part of our zoning app maintaining the gate and curb
cut in the rear of the building which you see at the top left corner and accessing additional
parking behind the building with additional landscape buffers and fencing to the neighbors
building stays as is there's a small one-story portion in the rear that's going to come down
it was a shed that was added later on not part of the primary structure of the building
but from a zoning standpoint that comes down interior trash storage interior loading
reach out if you want to flip through so just some existing aerial views of the site just so
you can orient yourselves existing building we do have a rendering so we plan to paint the building
um at a garage door add the landscaping we have that down further here's a color site plan
just so you can see what's happening also has a layout inside the building
A building has existing bathrooms, kitchenette, office space, all that will remain.
So no real alterations in the building other than the rink that was there comes out and, you know, storage racks go in, essentially.
So a huge improvement to the site and exterior of the building, though, as far as paving, sidewalks, landscaping, fencing.
No changes to the original overall structure.
So there's photos of the existing inside,
and then just the rendering of what's proposed.
Essentially, it's a roofing company,
so we'll put a new roof on the building,
paint the existing structure,
keep the existing entrance where it is,
and then add one new garage door.