sloan state your name and spell it for the court reporter please
good afternoon chairman bergman zba board my name is sloan folks s-l-o-a-n-e f as in fire or l-k-s
office of councilwoman maria quinones sanchez room 508 city hall you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth sir i do thank you
sheet um after uh meeting with the coordinating rco frankfurt neighborhood advisory committee
and receiving a letter uh supporting the variance request the councilman supports this various request
thank you thank you any other comments from the virtual audience
chair we have a someone with their hand up if you're not speaking to this case please lower
your hand otherwise i'll allow you to speak to this case only there are no other hands chair
thank you planning commission
good afternoon chairman bergman this is greg waldman planning commission staff
While this refusal was issued correctly at the time of the permit's original application,
due to the code changes enacted later in the spring, it would only require a special exception
if it were applied for today.
As a consequence, and because there is no evidence that the proposed business would
have a greater impact than what one would normally expect from this use,
Planning Commission staff recommends that the board grant the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2021, 001682, 4520 Worth Street, I vote yes.
Professor Plaza, yes.
James Snell, yes.
Thomas Howellman, yes.
Thank you, members of the board. Have a nice afternoon.
am i am i 2020 001229 542 west rockland street leo mulvihill is the attorney
letter of opposition only support two stories
He's coming back in as a panelist.
Good, good, okay.
And good afternoon again, Chairman, members of the board.
How are you?
Leo, you've already been sworn, and we have your information, so proceed.
Certainly. One moment as I pull up this presentation packet, members of the board.
Mr. Mulvihill, you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copies of refusal, or referral photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
I had everything except for the tax compliance. I do have proof of payment sent by my client over this weekend, though.
Okay, and have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
We do, and we have revised plans, which comport with the requested two stories that the RCO had asked for with this matter.
that the RCO had asked for with this matter. Thank you. Please proceed.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Certainly. So let's make sure that my screen actually shares this time.
All right, members of the board, I believe you're now seeing my presentation packet for 542 West
Rockland Street. My client is Campos Enterprises LLC, owner of that is Billy Teixeira, who may or
may not be on the line today. He may have been able to make it, but I understand he does work
for himself and may be out on the site right now. This is an application for a commercial
office in the ground floor with two Wall Street parking spaces and now one residential unit above.
For purposes of my packet, I have refusal appeal and project information form at page 1, area zoning map at page 8, deed at 9, commercial activity license at 13. Tax clearance I have as a separate proof of payment via the Affinity Pay website for Philadelphia. Zoning notification letter and proof of mailing I have at 14. RCO letter at 17. Photos of the property at 18. Revised zoning plan at 31.
So moving to the zoning refusal, members of the board, we originally received several refusals for this parcel of the RSA 5 district. One, we weren't allowed to have professional office. Two, two, family living was prohibited. Three, setback, and four, rear yard depth.
Initially, we had proposed to have a small office on the ground floor with two off-street parking spaces, which were to be used for my client's business, first business vehicles.
There was to be two residential units above, but we've reduced that at the request of the RCO to only one residential unit, taking the height from three stories down to two.
As the members of the board can see, we're in the middle of this yellow RSA 5 district, although looking at the overhead map, one sees that along Rockland Street, it is a mix of commercial, industrial, and single-family use.
Our block has several single-family homes as well as some garages.
There's an industrial use across the street, a car lot, caddy corner, another car lot directly across the street from us as well.
So it's really a mixed-use area. There's precedent for other sorts of commercial use.
Page 9, this is my client's deed for the property.
Page 14, this is my client's commercial activity license.
page 15 this was the letter that went out July 12 2021 to members of the community
this is my proof of mailing at page 16 59 pieces of mail went out and were delivered
at 18 this is our letter of opposition with the provisor that if we had a two-story dwelling
they would agree to that and then these are the photos of the property as it exists right now
beginning at page 18 19 20 we can see the two-story residential buildings on either side
there's an industrial building behind us which is that large wall
this is looking down rockland street you can see those two car lots that i discussed earlier when
we looked at the overhead shots and the zoning site this is that industrial use across the street
directly across rockland and you can see the other residential homes proceeding down the
other side of Rockland Street. So members of the board, as I stated, our front elevation,
we dropped it down from three stories to two. So we're actually going to be matching the
cornice line of the direct adjacent home, which is to the left. Just showing again for the record
at page 28 of my packet. We're going to be matching the height of this building with the
beige siding. Looking to the floor plan, and I'll zoom in on that, there's going to be no excavation
for the basement. It's just going to be slab on grade for this garage. There's going to be two
interior parking spaces, an office for my client's business, trash and refuse. It's going to be stored
in the rear yard, and there is an egress corridor along the side, so the trash can be removed.
The residential units are entered from Rockland Street by going up this set of stairs,
and in the second story what we have is a proposed two-bedroom unit with one bath
living dining and kitchen off to one side and those bedrooms off to the other side
there is a roof deck proposed for outdoor space for that residential unit that is set back with
requirements by the zoning code I have also included with my original email a copy of the
revised zoning plan and a proviso sheet to be entertained for use by this board should this
board be willing to grant my client's request for a variant. Mr. Melvihild, this is Sharon.
It is one page. The revised plans are one page. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you.
And that's the request that we have today to be granted the variance of the small commercial office for my client's own business on the ground story and one two bedroom residential unit above.
And that's the request that we have.
We've complied with requests of the RCO by taking the height of the building from three stories and two units down to two stories with only one unit.
With that, I would ask the board grant my clients request for a variance.
I'm happy to take any questions.
Mr. Melville, is your client here?
Billy, are you on the line right now?
I believe my client may not be on the line at this point, Chair.
We will accept.
Your officer of the court will accept your testimony.
Members of the board.
No, I'm okay.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Members from the virtual audience?
Comments?
chair we have charles richardson
mr richardson please state your name state your name and spell your last name for the court reporter
sir good afternoon again mr chair charles richardson from the office of councilwoman
cindy bass that's r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n room 312 city hall i do i remember i swore i swore you in
months before today sir yes proceed okay uh as the uh originally the coordinating rco was going
to be opposed unless they they uh had adjusted their plans to be two stories instead of three
as they have done that the councilwoman has no opposition to granting the variance at this point
thank you sir and members of the board just because i didn't introduce it previously i'm
now showing on the screen email i received monday december 6th 11 35 i am showing the aci payments
receipt in the amount of $167.98 for this property, which was the amount that was outstanding for
property taxes due. Any other comments from the audience? Planning Commission?
Good afternoon. My name is Greg Waldman, Planning Commission staff. This property is indicated for
single-family residential in the comprehensive plan. However, given the applicant's willingness
to work with the community and context and given the context within the surrounding block
the city planning commission recommends that the board support the variances thank you mi 2020
dash zero zero one two two nine five forty two west rockland street i vote yes excuse me
sure that is revised revised revised plan i'm sorry yep okay confessor plaza my vote is yes with uh
revised plans one page approved today James Snell my vote is yes with proviso
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes with proviso thank you members of the board thank you
where we are. MI 2021 001903 5728 Thomas Avenue. There was a community meeting coordinated by the
RCO resulting in a non-opposition for this reducing the unit count from eight to six
assuming the documentation is provided.
Mr. Nockamson?
Chair, we have now received the letter in support.
If you've already been swore,
confessor, would you ask the appropriate questions?
Yes, Mr. Nockamson,
can you identify yourself for the record?
Yes, good afternoon again.
Allen Nockmson, A-L-A-N, Nockmson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N, address 123, South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
Thank you. You agree to wait the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance,
a copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans five days prior to this, Aaron?
And have you met with RCO and have a letter?
Yes, we have actually a letter of support in our packet.
Thank you. Please proceed.
A letter of support from the coordinating RCO,
as well as my understanding is that there was an email sent to Ms. Saleta earlier today
from Andrew Goodman from the District Council Member's Office,
also indicating that if coordinating the RCO was in favor of this project, their office would be in non-opposition as well.
was in favor of this project their office would be in non-opposition as well may i share my screen
yes thank you all right so i'm here to present 5728 thomas avenue this is a property that's
located in southwest philadelphia it's a rather large lot it's over 5 000 square feet in our
presentation materials uh we will show you the notice of refusal the letter of support from the
51st ward democratic executive committee i did not include the email uh from mr goodman but um you
know i would miss a letter could affirm that that did occur that their that her office that uh the
district council member's office is also in non-opposition i can confirm that and if the
board members check the latest revisions that I sent them.
I quote Mr. Goodman's email.
Thank you.
We have, we'll show you maps of the area,
photographs of the properties around the area,
plans and drawings.
We did update our floor plans.
If this board should grant this zoning appeal,
we would ask that they grant it with their proviso
maximum six units.
We have our meeting notice that showing proof
that we met with the coordinating RCO in the community.
We actually met with them last night.
Our application for appeal we have in our packet
is Exhibit 7.
Our deed to property is Exhibit 8.
And our Certificate of Tax Clearance
showing that the property owner is in good standing
as Exhibit 9.
With me, I also have Ghazi Ida7
who will dot my testimony
and is able to answer any questions the board may have.
First, our notice of refusal.
This is an RSA 3 property. Originally, we were looking to put eight units with three off-street parking spaces, including one car accessible space of the three.
After several meetings with the community, we agreed to have a maximum of six units.
So the first refusal is the amount of household living.
This is an RSA 3 district, so multifamily household living is technically prohibited.
The second refusal is the surface parking space is generally prohibited in the rear yard. Again, we are providing parking. Not all of the residences on this block have parking, so that's something that we're providing that many of the other properties in that neighborhood do not have.
The next refusal is the amount of parking spaces. Eight and three is proposed. Again, because we're reducing the amount of units, the amount of parking spaces required is also being reduced to six.
And then finally, about the accessibility parking or the accessible parking space, we are providing accessible parking space. We're just not providing one for a van. We're only providing one for a car.
Our letter of support, again, we met with the community on several occasions as late as last night. After having negotiations with the community, we do now not only have them not opposed, but actually in support.
The executive board of the 51st Democratic Ward actually voted in support of the project unanimously, and then the community unanimously voted in non-opposition.
maps of the area uh we're between 57th and 58th on thomas thomas is between brew mall
and ashland again this is a very significant lot over 5300 square feet photographs of property
vacant lot properties uh to the right of our property if you look at the architecture
you see like the the roof lines and things like that you'll see from our rendering we try to
interrupt mr knockinson is the board can't the board see anything up on his screen or is it just
me i can see i can see okay maybe how about this i'm going to stop sharing no no go ahead continue
oh no i was just going to reshare maybe your screen will refresh then
yep i can see now thank you all right you're welcome uh again if you look at the roof lines
and just the architecture and you'll compare it to the rendering we have we really try to
mimic uh the architecture in the neighborhood uh properties to the left on thomas then it's not
uncommon again to have a multi-family on this block we just gave one example 5732 thomas avenue
and then if you look at our rendering again we really did try to mimic through the roof lines
and such with a modern twist uh you know red brick facade um you know we have a wide aisle
for parking to the rear again to, oops, sorry.
again uh to oops sorry let me just reduce this a little bit
yeah to you know to provide parking uh for residences uh in the property and then just
our site plan as you can see just going through here we have a drive aisle we have three parking
spaces responsible garbage uh removal we are storing trash outside in the rear there's no
basement living at all in this property uh there's a diversity of housing one of the things that we
did by reducing the unit count is and you'll see from here uh we made we kept the same amount of
floors which is as of right the height is 38 feet uh we made two of the units that are in green