off of the living space and right off of the kitchen it's a lot more difficult to just
everybody what people want roof decks but the reality is they don't use them that much
so this is where he designed it that's what i was asking no no i'm just i'm just telling you
why why there's there's a need or desire to have this off of the third floor again there's already
a deck below at the second floor that's used for the for the business the deck that's utilized
off the third floor again there's there's decks up and down the block up and down like the backs
of buildings up and down the you know and everywhere in this neighborhood and again
when you take it when you take into account that you have the alley there any impact is
is eliminated you know i understand i just it was a one-story apartment with a lot of decks and i
was like it's not mardi gras here so i was trying to figure out what they were and and he's not
treating it as mardi gras either it's just it provides a little more outdoor space and this
is actually more functional more usable than actually the roof deck okay all right other
questions from the board questions from our attorney glory emerson not at this time mr
questions or comments from the virtual audience? Yes, Mr. Chair, I have a hand up from AJ Town.
Go ahead and throw them over to panelists right now. Okay.
Chase, do you have any other hands? No, that's the only answer. Okay, thank you.
Why could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
aj uh actually aj is my company name sir uh i own the uh company uh i didn't know my
my registration is with aj hold on hold on could you state your name as spell for this
yes sir bulent yavas b-u-l-e-n-t last name is y-a-v as in victor a-s right do you swear
or a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor
i am exactly the next door neighbor attached to their building sir yes please proceed uh well
mr orphanage mentioned 14 support signature for this project uh they got 14 signatures however i
did not know about this uh they did not reach out to me in the previous uh zoning hearing i supported
his music school you know project and stuff like that I did not oppose to it because I am the only
one directly be impacted by this project because noise and everything when I go to the building I
hear the noise music practices and things like that that's besides so initially before we had
two decks on the second floor both of us you know have decks and we are you know but now I'm decked
out everywhere is deck rooftop is deck third floor is deck and when i looked at the third floor deck
it is like looking at the it can see the windows of the bathroom bedroom or your kitchen in the
you know like it is and i reached out to the owner of this uh project earlier before this prior to
this uh zoning hearing and i left a message he finally returned my call and he called me i said
I expressed my concerns about the mailing that Mr. Orphanis mentioned.
I did not receive any mailing in that address or in my mailing address in regards to this hearing.
Previous hearing I did, but this one I did not.
But I happened to see the sign and I took a note and I'm here now.
but i happened to see the sign and i took a note and i'm i'm here now uh i had concerns about the
third uh like i said wall sign for music school we approved it sign i have no opposition uh roof
deck access structure it's fine but third floor residential deck is intruding our privacy in the
second floor deck and uh you know our windows and everything and i asked mr john what is his
proposal what can we do and another thing between our second floor decks joint there's a wall joint
wall in between us and two of his air conditioner condensers are attached onto the wall that's
causing noise and also vibration and i also mentioned that when we spoke with the second
floor deck or the third floor deck with the second floor deck so existing deck existing
You don't like the third floor deck, am I right?
Yes, I have a position to it, sir.
I don't want to be the only one opposing to it if he has some desire to have that.
However, he has to give me privacy and protect my, I don't know, it's going to devalue my property and also intrude our privacy by adding third floor deck.
However, he agreed that he's going to remove those two condensers up to the roof and he's going to try to put some privacy screening on the second and third floor decks.
And that way he will remedy the problem.
I mean, as long as the board is OK with that, I am OK.
I don't want to be the bad neighbor or somebody is just.
but my building is affected
enough with this project
with the noise and everything else
let me go back, in other words you're talking
to him yourself and he's promising you things
right? yes sir
alright
thank you
but I want this to be on the record so at least we have
common ground here
ok alright
so what you want to go on the record, you're not against
the project and he's promised you he's going to
take care of this? yes sir, that's what he said
He said he's a man of his word and he will take care of whatever is the issue to rectify, you know, our income is here.
Mr. Chairman, I had a discussion, my client had a discussion, and what I represented to you tonight is what, this is a little kind of went one way and then back the other, because there was an agreement that we would apply for the by right privacy screens following the hearing.
and is there anyone else in the and move the air conditioners that's fine yeah
um planning commission thank you chairman and good evening david fecto with the city planning
commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the cmx1 commercial mixed use zoning at this location there is no unique physical condition
or circumstance of this property to prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the
zoning code the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed variance for a rear
deck and the variances for accessory wall sign area location and height thank you um mi 2024
007 229 761 south a street i vote yes with proviso proviso her refusal dated 10 17 24.
Cheryl Gaston
I vote is
yes with proviso
Tanetta Graham
my vote is yes with proviso
my vote is yes with proviso
thank you counsel
thank you have a good evening
hope you get home at a decent time
so we're going to
move right in
is there anyone in the audience
whose 2 o'clock case was not called
I do not say anything else Mr. Chair
Thank you. We're going to move right into this. 3.30. Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board. With me is our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Taya Nguyen.
Present.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, Ian Haggerty, our executive director, and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
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Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon.
safety is our highest priority if there's an emergency there will be directions over the
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there's a water fountain just outside the doors to the right okay thank you and let's look at
our schedule. So MI 2023-003-524-5618-222 Avenue. That case is continued to 82725 at 330. Also,
case number six, MI 2024-006-477-1800 South 4th Street. That case has been withdrawn.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
We're going to move to number three, MI 2024-006-468-1824 South 5th Street.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
Mr. Whalen, could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Certainly.
Good night.
Sean, S-E-A-N, Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I certainly do.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, I represent the owner, 1824, that's 1824 Philly, LLC.
Right. Do you waive the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Why don't you proceed and share your screen?
Thank you very much.
and I will also note that Dickinson Square
Civic West Civic Association has a letter of support and the council member school has a
non-opposition letter.
Sorry, it just kicked me out of the Zoom.
I had it on the entire time back there, and of course, when I come up here, it kicks me
My apologies.
So it looks like it's only allowing me to come back in on the 12th.
Thank you.
I pulled up the old email.
Let me see if this lets me back in.
Thank you.
Are you in, Sean?
Turn off my video.
All right.
You've been here, what, since 2.30?
Yes, about.
Although I can't really complain, right?
You guys have been here a lot longer than me.
All right.
Now we're up.
all right so without joking or being facetious i will be extremely quick
given how it doesn't matter at this point
it no longer matters
all right
in that case uh 1824 south fifth street uh you see in front of
view a zoomed out atlas map this is an 1143 square foot corner lot in an rsa5 zoning district
it is about halfway between moore and mifflin street to sort of give you an idea of where we're
at by this is zoomed in so you can see it's a 100 lot coverage existing two-story building
it has historically for decades been a duplex and actually most recently going back to the
early 2000s was approved as a church on the first floor with a unit in the in the rear and a unit
on the upstairs so i'll skip over that so you can see this is it right on the corner here
it is in a dilapidated state so as soon as we get these approvals we'll be moving forward to fix
that that was one of the things the community was looking forward to here's the zoning map you can
see, like a lot of neighborhoods, we have CMX-1 on a lot of adjacent corners, and we have RM-1
right across the street with RSA-5 on our side of the street. By way of context, this block is
about 50-50 single-family homes and multiple units, mostly threes and fours in multifamily.
So we have one refusal. We originally applied to turn this into a three-family dwelling.
we then you do have a proviso plan we were going to include a third unit as an affordable housing
unit much to our surprise the rco said no thank you so they unanimously supported us as legalizing
the existing duplex but did not want that third unit if we agreed to make it affordable so that's
why our original application was for a triplex and now what you have before you is it's reduced to a
duplex because that's what we agreed with the community to have so that's what you can see
right in front of you now again we have a rco letter of unanimous support
they very much appreciated us working with them and my understanding is all of this the letter
was turned in so happy to go into it but again trying to keep this brief so here are some of
the site photos you can see it's the front it's the main one right here it has an existing bump
out this is seeing it from the rear it is 100 built out on the first floor and it has a rear
deck on the second floor the iron fence that you see there is a deeded alleyway
and then you can see you just the subject street views now as I scroll down you're seeing this is
the existing state inside I will represent my client is on and can adopt my testimony
the inside is in a dilapidated state as well and will be completely not gutted but completely
repainted you know what you'll see as I scroll down here is this this has not been in great shape
So, you know, the kitchens will be replaced and all that kind of stuff.
We're not we're not seeking to rent out what you see in front of you now.