And we also know that means it's going to be required to have a sprinkler system.
We understand all of that and we're willing to do it.
Planning Commission.
good afternoon chairman and uh david vector with the city planning commission chairman and board
members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential multi-family zoning
at this location the appellant purchased the property with a ground floor dwelling unit that
had been built without the benefit of permits the city planning commission recommends the board deny
either proposed use variants for third dwelling unit?
She reasonably relied on, you know,
the fact that it was a three-family.
Again, she's not responsible for that conversion.
MI 2023-006-844.
Excuse me, Mr. Chairman.
Can we take this case on the advisory
or executive session?
Sure, we can.
Thank you.
So what we'll do is we'll vote on this next Wednesday at 930 a.m.
Thank you.
Number 16.
MI 2023-006-599-1150 Stevens Road.
Isaac Slepner is the attorney.
and there's a letter of support from the somerton civic association
mr chair i can confirm that we have received the exhibit packet um and that it is now complete
thank you okay thank you
good morning again mr schlepner
oh yeah you're right it's afternoon now thank you good afternoon chair you were already sworn
just for the record state your name yes isaac i-s-a-a-c last name slepner s-l-e-p-n-e-r
council for the property owners greg and karen olenski and i have my clients here on the call
as well. All right. Mr. Hellman has a few questions. Sure. Good afternoon, counsel. Do you
agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy? Yes. Did you email
all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
I did, and I did receive a follow-up email earlier this morning after the bit of confusion from
the board staff regarding the deed, but board staff and counsel have all the documents at this
point. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. All right, thank you. Will do. Bear with
me, please. Oh, wait. Here we go. All right, here we go. Can everybody see that? Yes. All right,
wonderful. So, we are here today about my client's home at 1150 Stevens Road.
scrolling through exhibit one this is our notice of refusal the refusal was for multiple principal
structures the issue of course is that what is proposed to be built at the rear yard of
my client's house is not a principal structure it is a decorative gazebo for lack of a better term
It is a decorative gazebo, for lack of a better term, but I would say it's even less so than a gazebo.
It doesn't have walls.
It's a roof, a pavilion with legs that's going to be built there standing on concrete supports.
And I'll show you all the plans.
But we are appealing only one refusal, and that would be for multiple principal structures.
The property is in an RSD-1 zone.
it. Exhibit two here is our application for appeal from November 20th of last year
with all of the questions answered. The only variance, as I mentioned previously, is for use.
Exhibit three is our project information form with all of the requested information about
my clients, their property, their proposed project, my information is in there, etc.
That's from 11-15-23. Exhibit 4 is the letter that I sent on behalf of my clients to the
prescribed list that was sent to me by planning, describing, again, the property itself, my
clients the project proposed, the refusal and notifying them of the public meeting
of Somerton Civic Association. CC council planning, Somerton Civic and the
zoning board on that letter. This is the cert of mailing and it was sent out on
12 11 of 23 I don't know if you can see the date stamp exactly to this list of it's a pretty um
it's not a very dense neighborhood in the northeast where my clients live so there were
only about 25 addresses to be sent out to but they were all sent on 12 11 of 23.
um this is a map giving you kind of the general location of my client's property which is right
here 1150 Stevens which is roughly by South Hampton and the Boulevard very far
part of the Northeast there their block and their neighborhood are all single
family homes on fairly large parcels of land and this is from Philadelphia's
property website showing you their property in particular which is on I
it's a cul-de-sac so there's really no traffic at all there and they are catty
corner from a country club and just inside Philadelphia from County Line
Road over here. Exhibit 7 are the project plans. So as you can see this is simply
a roof to be made of wood and legs made of wood to stand on concrete plinths
so that ultimately my clients can entertain in their backyard, have people over.
They may hook up a TV.
There may be electrical service out there, but that is for their general contractor and master electrician to deal with.
But as you can see, this is not a thing that's in any way a principal structure.
It's not habitable.
It's simply a roof on legs.
And these are the stamped engineer's plans.
This is a site plan where you can see where it will be set back. The lot area is over 27,000 square feet. The house itself is 2,790 square feet. And then back here, this pavilion itself is going to be a total of 726 square feet.
next I have many photos to give you a better illustration so this is the front of my client's
property you can see this is the house front yard and you can see a little bit around the side here
that's a fence and beyond that fence is their backyard second photo is just kind of a good
front on view of the house this is a house view of the backyard looking towards their neighbor here
that's 1200 but as and this is the project site these four covered things
are going to be where the concrete plinths end up standing to support the
structure. This is another view looking from the top of their backyard you can
see it's a bit terraced and here are the spots where the plinths are going to be
this is the rear of their house and this is a detached storage building that
stands there currently. This is another view of the project site and again a
view of their neighbor's house here at 1200. They are 1150 and this is the back
of my client's house right here. And then this is another side view again of the
And then this is another side view again of the project site and again their neighbor's house here at 1200. This is my client's property at 1150. All this grassy area is theirs and this paved over area is where the project is going to be situated.
project site.
uh this is the letter of support of february 6 24 from somerton civic association um as the
letter recites the vote was 25 in favor zero opposed it was a unanimous vote in favor
um all of uh um councilman o'neill's office was cc'd as was planning and board council and the
board. Exhibit 11 is photos, five photos taken on 3-20-24, which was 21 days ago, of the orange
poster posted at the front of my client's house, and my client actually posted it twice because
it's rather wide property, so he did one over here, as you can see, and a second one closer to
the mailbox and garage, about as far forward towards the sidewalk as you can put it. He
doesn't necessarily want people tromping all over his property to look at it, but he does want them
to be informed. So those are the photos of the orange notice. Exhibit 12, not sure why the system
isn't giving me a tax cert per se, but this I ran by my client's social security number and
the OPA number for his house. It said it will pass the clearance and this is also my investigation
from the Philadelphia Tax Center showing a zero property tax balance. An additional exhibit is
this letter from Councilman O'Neill's office dated 4-1-24 in support of the granting of the variance.
This is a copy of the deed to my client's home.
As you can see, Gregory J. and Karen L. Olenski purchased the house in December of 86, which
at that time was known as 15141 Worthington, but it is the same property that we're here
on today, which is 1150 Stevens, and that is evidenced by this mortgage, which was recorded
on the same or almost the same date in 1986.
Hang on, the deed was recorded on December 15th of 86, and this mortgage was given on April of 96, and this mortgage recites the address as being 15141 Worthington, a.k.a. 1150 Stevens.
So those are evidence that my clients are the owners of the property.
And with that, I would call my client, Gregory Olenski, to adopt my testimony.
And I believe that Alice Udovich from the Councilman's Office is also here to offer the Councilman's support.
Mr. Olenski, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Gregory Olenski, G-R-E-G-O-R-Y-O-L-E-N-S-K-I.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mr. Olenski, did you hear all of the testimony that I offered to the board?
I did.
And did you see all of the documents that I was presenting to the board?
I did.
And would you adopt that testimony as though you had given it yourself?
Yes, I would.
And was all of that testimony true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
Thank you.
I don't have anything further.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
We have Alex Udovich.
They haven't allowed to speak.
Good morning, Alice. Alice, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the board. Alice Udovich, A-L-I-C-E-U-D-O-V-I-C-H, on behalf of Councilman Brian O'Neill.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
The councilman is happy to support the granting of the variance at this location.
And I also want to put on the record that I'm a near neighbor.
The Alenskis keep a beautiful property.
And as a neighbor, I'm happy to support the granting of the variance as well.
Thank you for calling.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman.
And good afternoon.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the residential single-family detached zoning at this location.
To the residential single-family detached zoning at this location, the proposal for more than one principal structure on the lot matches the character of the other homes on this block face, and it will not injure the use of adjacent properties.
The proposal for more.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant a proposed use variance for multiple principal structures on the lot.
Thank you. MI 2023-006-599-1150 Stevens Road, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, chair.
Thank you, board.
Have a good rest of the day.
I have nothing further.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called from the 930 a.m. list?
I see no hands.
Thanks, everyone.
See everyone at 2 o'clock.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the ZBA hearings this afternoon.
With me is our board member, Thomas Holloman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And also, LeBaron Leonard Palmer from the Division of Development Services will be serving as our alternate board member this afternoon.
Good afternoon.
Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
The advice of proceedings are being recorded.
Video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2022, 005-549-1500 Winsome Street.
That case is continued.
Number nine, MI 2024-000-424-4301 Byberry Road. That case is continued.
Number 10, MI 2024-000-425-1675 South Christopher Columbus Boulevard. That case is continued.
And number 16, MI 2024, 000502, 1936 North Front Street, Cases Continued, Attorney Moving Party.
Are there any comments or additional cases to be continued?
I see no hands.
Okay, thank you.