this was being used as a two-unit dwelling as far back as 10 years ago
and beyond here's to the right of the property on harrison street and to the left
Interior photograph. So, as I said, the first floor is occupied and that tenant has remained there. So, that's why there's stuff in that unit. Unit two is where John lives himself.
It has not done any and doesn't plan to do any, you know, significant construction work. Basement, you can see multiple electric meters, multiple hot water heaters.
basic floor plan there is no living in the basement it is just utilities and storage
both units are one bed one baths with small home offices the first floor has access directly to
the rear and john stores his unit his trash in the unit has a good relationship with good
relationship with the downstairs tenant has no interest in removing them there are no violations
on the property my client you know availed himself of this pro of this process to get
the rental licenses to make sure that he was complying with with the code and and paying all
of his proper taxes here's the rco meeting notice we met with northwood civic association on march
17th that notice was mailed out to 103 neighbors application for appeal
deed to the property he owns it in his own name again not a developer he lives there
and his certificate of tax clearance so with that i'd like to call
jonathan to adopt my testimony okay
what's your client name jonathan torres if you're in the audience please raise a virtual hand
and he's coming back in as panelists
and he's coming back in his panelists
why don't you write yours can you turn your screen john yeah you're like that's that's better
you're i thought you're standing on your head there for a minute but that's because
do you swear you guys state your name please and spell for this photographer
for jonathan torres j-o-n-a-t-h-a-n t-o-r-r-e-s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes counsel jonathan did you hear my testimony today yes was it true
and correct yes and you adopted as your own yes thank you questions from the board
questions from our attorney hillary emerson um so quick question there's um no parking at this
property correct jonathan private parking no okay all right so i just want to note because this is
um rsa3 that that wasn't noted on the refusal that there's the parking requirements on that
so just putting that on the record thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
for the present audience here yeah exactly i want that fish wow um all right um questions or comments
from the uh planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends the change in zoning from the existing rsa3 residential single family to r1 residential
multifamily when the central northeast district plan was adopted the zoning was cmx2 commercial
mixed use it was remapped to rm1 in 2014 in accord with recommendation however in 2017 the property
was remapped to rsa3 the property has a documented history of mixed use and two unit use since at
least the 1940s the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variance for
two family mi 2025 007 531 1026 harrison street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
All right, I win. My vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Number nine, MI 2025-007-585-2129 Cybert Street.
Alan Notchamson is the attorney.
I mean, you know.
What's that?
but you you you you you do come a great deal um could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer alan knockamson a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify
your client in a relationship to the property yeah my client is sov investments llc the owner
of the property and then the virtual audience is is one of its representatives dan hershout all
right there's a letter of support from brewery town shardswood um community association um and
our vice chair has a few questions for you good evening have you submitted your documents and
exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes we have yes thank you and do you waive the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy yes we do okay thank you you can share
your screen and proceed with your case all right so this uh the zba heard this matter i believe in
2019 um so 2129 uh seabird street uh is in the brewery town section of philadelphia um during
our presentation you'll see 11 exhibits and again uh dan at the conclusion my presentation
should raise his virtual hand and be sworn in uh this is an rm1 property we're looking to put seven
units here by code we're allowed 6.8 units and as the board nodes knows we have to round downward
not upwards so that's why we need a refute uh permission to get that additional unit on as a
matter of variance. The second refusal has to do with the roof deck access structures. So this is
the same exact plans the ZBA saw in 2019. So there is now an overlay regarding roof deck access
There is now an overlay regarding roof deck access structures, but it's not out of character to have roof deck access structures, well, approved by the ZBA here, but also nearby properties.
structures, but it's
So, again, what we're proposing is not out of character.
So, as you can see from the letter, we have overwhelming support.
We had 80% support by the zoning committee, and this is a very sophisticated community group, the Brewery Townshardswood Civic Association.
And then in addition to that, out of the seven community members that were allowed to vote, six of them voted in support of the project.
And then the history of the property, I just wanted to show you the previous notice of refusal.
So we weren't involved in this project, but when it was originally proposed, it was proposed for nine units.
There was a negotiation to go down to seven units, and that's what the ZBA approved.
They also reduced the size of, well, yeah, they just reduced the amount of units, and then they reduced the height of the building, too, to the allowable 38 feet, you know, which, actually, 35 feet, 9 inches, which is exactly what we're proposing today.
And then I just wanted to show you all the roof decks that are nearby in this neighborhood.
So we're here at 2131-33 Cybert Street, but you can see there's a whole string of properties with roof decks on Cybert, as well as Master, as well as North 22nd Street.
And those are the few properties that are actually developed on that street.
In the maps of the area, we're not taking an RSA-5 property to convert it, at least proposed to convert it to multifamily.
We're taking an RM-1 property, which allows 6.8 units, and we're asking for 7 units.
So that's a de minimis request under the circumstances.
And then photographs of the property.
This is the front of the property.
These are proof of posting for today's hearing in front of the property.
This is Siebert to the street to the right of the property.
By the way, there's a 64-unit apartment building across the street from us.
And this is Ciber Street to the left of the property.
Architectural plans and drawings.
And I actually have Mike Armstrong from KJO Architects who can answer any technical questions you have.
But you can see it's a nice flat building.
Front facade, brick, cornice line, has a nice little stone trim to it.
there is you'll see from the pictures direct access from this five foot wide alley you'll see
that one of the provisos we would ask for is outdoor trash storage in the rear and commercial
trash pickup but you can see this direct access and then you can see from the from the plants
itself to get to the front of the building you go through this common vegetable area this is unit
A, and unit A is a one-bedroom, one-bath. Then unit B is coming from the side alley, which
has its own entryway, and I believe that's also a one-bedroom, one-bath. And then unit
C, which is a bi-level, and then unit C, you come from that common vegetable area, and
you have direct access here. There's also a mail room here. In terms of the bi-levels,
you'll see here, there's a separate set of staircases that go from the rear, from the
basement level, up, exterior steps. So in terms of safety, there is safety there because
these are not egress wells. These are separate steps that lead outside from the basement
level up to the first level. Then if you want to go up a flight of steps, you have units
D and E, and then another flight of steps, F and G. Each of the units have ventilated
trash closets or compactors in here, just as an example is unit E, and they all have
washer and dryers as a separate closet, just giving an example, a unit E. And then there's
two roof deck access structures and that's specifically for the two upper units um you can
see here and we can go back to the site plan we're set back 10 feet from the front rather than the
required five feet in order not to have the building look any taller than it should and then
how we directed the roof uh access structure here we have it so it's not going to be like you know
facing or intruding on the on the on the on the property to the right of us here so how we
oriented it and then this is just uh uh what's it called an uh a side
And then this is just a, what's it called? A side elevation of the property. I did not ask how far we're into the ground. Actually, we're at, we're at level. We're level. So actually the first unit in the front is a type B unit, accessible unit.
um this is our notice uh that we sent to the community we sent it to 71 addresses you saw
it was a pretty well attended meeting proof of mailing to those addresses our applications for
appeal that we filed on sob investments LLC's behalf along with the notice of refusal and the
project information form our deed to the property showing us sob investments LLC is the owner of the
property and our certificate of tax clearance uh with that being said i would ask that dan
virtually raise his hand helen could you go back one minute you said this was approved once before
yes and then it just then wasn't oh yeah what happened is they took forever to get
because of the market conditions it was it took a while to to like get financing by the time they
got fine and they got building they got a building permit too by the time they got to build you know
by the time they got the financing if the building permit ran out on them so that's why we're here
again can you say your client's name again they did not raise it dan her shout okay he's being
and promote an answer, panelists.
Yes, hello?
Hi, sir.
Could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
Dan Hirschout, that's H-I-R-S-H-O-U-T.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Counsel. Yeah, Dan, you heard everything I had
to state about your zoning matter. Yes. Is it true, correct? Yes. And do you adopt this your
own testimony? Yes. Specifically, you would agree to the provisos of trash stored outside in the
rear? Yes. As well as commercial trash pickup? Yes. And specifically, my testimony regarding
in the previous approval from the zba the this this body approved the same exact plans that
we're submitting today in 2019 yes thank you thank you questions from the board yeah i have a quick
question so um the rco uh decided to forego their own overlay in this case uh for the roof decks i
I mean, that's what the vote has.
I mean, you know, the rationale,
I think they realized that this was previously approved pre-overlay.
And I don't want to speak for them,
but if you look at the surrounding neighborhood,
it's not out of character to have roof deck access structures
on buildings of this sort in a predominantly RM1 portion
of the Brewery Townshardswood neighborhood.
Thank you.
what's going to be the plan for trash and for uh packages so there's a mail room in the front
let me go back and show show you the mail room that was on the first floor yeah it was on the
first floor yeah it's not the biggest mail room how about it's mail slots okay
it's like did i miss a room yeah it's not a room how about it's an open room
i'm not used to being here this late
all right let's see we can arrange that for you no no i think i had all the early ones last week
so uh if you look at right here uh here's the mail slots um and was there another question
yeah i'm gonna put it like this
can you see that it says mail it says mail so it must be mail is there anything was there
another question yeah the trash is stored in the rear
and we have access two ways we can go from here right and everyone has access to it to the front
door I think the more appropriate way would probably be there's a common alleyway of five
feet that everyone has access to and we just come out that way so we have two ways to get in and out
in terms of trash other questions yes my question is where's the hardship here i'm
you're allowed to have six units um what's the what's the hardship that you can't build this
building with six students well i i think the hardship here is the fact about to be the the
Well, I think the hardship here is the fact about the practical realities of being able to finance this.
My client, even with having a variance back in 2019, getting a zoning permit and getting a building permit struggled because of market conditions.
Luckily, those market conditions have improved where they're able now to get financing, even though they're going to have the lesser tax abatement.
you know back in 2019 there was 100 tax abatement on this on the value of the building structure
over 10 years now the effective rate is 55 so it's made it even more difficult but they're not
going to be able to build it with six units we're at 6.8 units that's a de minimis request under the
circumstances so i mean we we want we want property when you when you okay
reasons you've given me so far are about finances well that goes into market realities yes but
that's that's not hardship it is it is about the economic feasibility no i'm talking about this is
you know um a building you you have uh by right you could do six units so
what is it that makes it so and you're telling me if i'm hearing you correctly you're saying
that somehow another if uh there's no financing for this if there's no seven units that's not
a hardship well i would respectfully disagree with that economic feasibility is a factor to
consider with the undue hardship analysis under what hardship analysis this is this is about use
this is not about you know this isn't a a a a a hertzberg analysis where you can take financial
hardship into account um what you're talking about is that somehow another that the difference
between doing this or not is this extra one unit and i'm not seeing how that works
and whatever may have been the conditions in 2019 I mean we're not we're not there
and is this the same person who was trying to do this yes it is yes yes Mr. Hirsch out
I had some testimony or at least I made a presentation regarding the difficulties
you had to get financing
with 100% tax abatement.
And you were prepared to,
you know, you're prepared to do this,
the same exact plans
that the DBA approved in 2019.
With the 55% tax abatement.
Would you be able to get financing
if there were only six units versus seven?
Honestly, I'm not sure.
It's still very tight,
you know, with the bank guidelines right now.
Well, we would have to revisit everything with the bank again.
We have been working on this for quite a while, based on the seven units.
And a few years ago, we were hit with elevated interest rates, very strict bank guidelines
coming out of the whole COVID situation.
And now we've built up some momentum, but I'm not exactly sure that it would work with
even though it's really just one less unit it does make a significant impact to the you know
to the bank thank you so what's the square footage we're talking about here well we're talking about