Yeah, sure, sure.
Basically, you looked at the refusals, Mike, is that correct?
And the second refusal is the proposed non-accessory outdoor sign is prohibited within 660 feet of all ingress or egress ramps.
Yes, sir.
Is it your professional opinion?
In your professional opinion, what is the intent of that ordinance, 14905?
Yes. It's my professional opinion that that ordinance adopts the distance from PennDOT typically, which is 660 feet. It's the same distance and it prohibits signs from I-95 egress and ingress points.
Um, in, in, if I may refer to, uh, the aerial exhibit that I had here, uh, which is exhibit 16. Um, this is a little bit of a different case, uh, in that, that restriction, which is tied to PennDOT's restriction, which is also 660 feet, um, is really to accommodate transition of speeds from high
lanes of traffic to lower lanes and local roads. In this particular condition the drivers have
egressed from those higher speeds by 95 and are traveling along this ramp as I mentioned 3200 feet
or six tenths of a mile at 25 miles an hour all the while passing existing signs which are
at 25 miles an hour all the while passing existing signs which are most larger than the one that's
proposed they've had time to decelerate and they've already made up their decision six
tenths of a mile in advance of egressing off of packer avenue so as i showed those photos they
they go along and when they get off of that ramp from 25 miles an hour the posted speed limit on
Packer Avenue is 30 miles an hour. So they're already traveling at a comparable speed and have
an adequate amount of time in this ramp to transition over into the Packer Avenue traffic.
And I would contend that at this point, this ramp already is part of the local traffic. You can't
make any decisions to get off at different points. And you're traveling at like speeds of that local
road, and you have adequate time
to transition from that ramp
to the three lanes of traffic
that are heading west on Packer.
Mike, can you go back to 18 real quick?
Yes, sir.
All right. And picture
Mr. DeFino, tell me what
because we spent a lot of time looking at this.
So tell me what this thing is.
No, no. Tell me what it means.
He's saying where you turn, where he turns,
he's going to go to Packer Avenue
where it's only 30 miles an hour, so he's going
slower is that what he's saying in other words he's going six tenths of a mile down a ramp doing
25 miles an hour right and we're saying that this refusal applies to i-95 the main road where
if you look at two blow that up mike that's coming off i-95 south so that's a major deceleration
that's what we were just pointing out so this ramp goes on for another six tenths of a mile
So when you're coming off, you're doing about 25 miles an hour.
So it's not a major distraction.
That's all we were pointing at.
All right.
I'll rush down, I think.
And when you went past there, you're seeing different – you go over to have a sign there before you even –
There's many signs in the area.
All right.
Do you want to have your client come on and adopt your testimony?
Yeah, sure.
Joe, you out there
somewhere?
Joe Felici
out there?
Yes, he's been promoted to penalties. He'll be coming
back in shortly, Calvin.
Mr. DeFino, did you go to the RCO meeting?
Yes, I did.
And how did that?
Tell us how that went.
It went excellent.
There was no opposition whatsoever.
They were fine.
all right joe yes joe you heard my testimony joe please do me a favor yes i did you please
yes listen to me joe listen to me sorry i'm sorry state your name and spell for the sonographer
sure my name is joseph j-o-s-e-p-h middle initial a felici f-e-l-i-c-i right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Joe, you heard my testimony today, Mike's testimony today.
Do you believe it to be true?
Do you believe it to be true and accurate
and accept it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
All right, questions from the board.
Questions from the board.
I have no question.
I think you're pretty thorough.
questions or comments from our attorney
no not at this time Mr. Chair
for me okay questions or comments from the
do not see any hands Mr. Chair
questions from the district council persons representative
no hands sir
anyone else
i do not see any further answer planning commission amy boyd with the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning from the existing i2
medium industrial 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 their requested
variance for side location, height, and size. Thank you. MI 2025, 004-386-300 Packer Avenue.
MI 2025-004-386-300-Packer Avenue, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tannetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Iowyn, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Counselor, you have your votes.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
All right.
Thank you.
Number eight, MI 2025-004-388-421-North Preston Street.
Gabriel Fellas is the attorney.
There's unanimous support from West Palton Saunders Park RCO
and a letter from Councilmember Gauthier's office indicating, oh, we still have that.
applicant provided also a petition of support from 41 signatures from neighbors on the block
good afternoon chair good afternoon counsel could you please state your name and spell
My name is Gabriel Fellis, G-A-B-R-I-E-L.
My name is Fellis, F as in Frank, E-L-L-U-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
My client is Wes Palatin Exchange Group LLC, which is the owner of the property.
Shirley Eisen is the representative of the entity that's here today in the virtual audience.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents five days in advance of this hearing?
I submitted all the documents, but last night or earlier this morning, I submitted a few more interior photos requested by Ms. Jeffries.
Okay, thank you. And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you. You can proceed with your case on your screen.
let's see the table contents yes we do sir great thank you chair uh so we're here seeking today
approve uh approval for the use of the subject property as a multi-family dwelling uh with four
residential units in the existing structure uh the property is zoned uh rsa5 which expressly
prohibits multi-family living uh the property was purchased by the the applicant in may of this year
Before the current owner took possession, the most recent use of the property was as a church.
So here we have our proposed floor plans.
The property in its current condition is a three-story property with a basement.
The proposed layout would have two one-bedroom, one-bathroom units on the first floor and then a two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit on both the second and third floors.
Each unit has their own entrance and there will be no basement living.
The architect who prepared these plans, Otani Green, is also on this call. He'll be able to
walk you through these plans in more detail if the board has any questions at the end of the
presentation. So here we have some interior photos of the property. Get a little closer for you.
So, as you can see here, it's essentially in shell condition right now, so extensive
renovations are going to be required, but the other plans do not propose any material
external or exterior alterations so here we have some street views of the property on Preston
street this is our zoning map again the property is zoned rsa5 but as we'll see in just a bit
use as a multi-family property is actually in character with the surrounding neighborhood
it's actually very common on the immediate blocks as well
this is the new deed to the property showing the applicant taking title to the property in may
So now turning to our community outreach efforts, this is the community notice letter that was sent on September 22nd.
We then met with the West Powhatan Saunders Park RCO on October 9th on Zoom, where we received their unanimous letter of support.
This is that letter here.
The owner also, as the chair explained, the owner also spoke with nearby neighbors who
were not present at the virtual RCO and gathered 41 signatures of support from them.
and gathered 41 signatures of support from them so as i mentioned previously even though the block
is primarily zoned rsa5 uses of multi-family is actually quite common on the block and is very
much in character with the surrounding area we included here a list of nearby properties
that have previously been issued use variances and rental licenses for multi-family properties
with the same RSA 5 zoning designation that you can see here the majority of the properties on
the immediate block and on Bering Street having granted variances for multifamily use in the past
here we have our application for appeal
and our project information form
and here we have our certificates of mailing for the RCO meeting notification letters that we sent
out to the neighbors on september 22nd lastly this is our statement showing real estate tax
compliance and zba posters notifying the community of this hearing here today
so with that i'd like to bring on both shirley eisen and otani green to adopt my testimony
and otani can answer any more specific questions about the floor plans you might have and this
eisen can answer any questions about um her proposed plans for the property so that's the
architect you're bringing on gabriel so um i'll bring on uh mrs shirley eisen she's the owner
and then he's gonna walk us through the plans no no so the the attorney i'm sorry why don't you do
this why don't you bring the architect first walk through the plans and then have the great
so the architect is otani green he should be in the virtual audience
what's the architect's name again
Otani Green
Otani Green coming back in
as a panelist not sure
sure thank you very much Ian
you're going to need to accept the promotion to panelists and then come back in serious
screen thank you he hasn't mentioned it out here okay hello hi hello tony please could you please
state could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer sure it's otaney green
o-t-a-n-i-e-g-r-e-e-n you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do could you turn your video on sure
proceed counsel hey tony so i have your uh floor plans up on my screen can you see that now
uh yes great um so i just wanted to open up to any questions that the board might have and if
you want to walk through a little more uh in detail let him walk through the plans now okay
I'll let you have at it
and let me know if you need me to zoom in on any specific parts, okay?
Sure. It's perfect right where you have it, actually.
Can everyone hear me? Yes.
The basement space will be used for laundromats.
We had a request by the neighbors
that they wanted to store trash on the inside, so it'll be a vented trash room
and utilities in the basement on the first floor we have two bedroom two one bedroom apartments
one entering from the side entrance in the in the rear of the building which is already an
existing door and the first one and the second one entering from the front of the building
second floor will have a two-bedroom apartment and the third floor will also have a two-bedroom
apartment we'll be taking out the existing staircase because they we had to make them
wider to accommodate the uh the new use we'll be fire rating two-hour fire rating two-hour
firing fire rating between each apartment and each floor the building will be sprinkled
well well mr green you want to want to talk about that first floor you have two units there
is that what you're saying yes sir two one bedrooms why don't you try to explain that to
to us i mean it looks it looks like it'll be a little tight but why don't you give us a sense
us i mean it looks it looks like it'll be a little tight but one of you give us a sense sure
sure uh okay sure uh so let's focus on our rear apartment it will be bedroom the bedroom will be