of councilman maria canyona sanchez room 508 city hall um i would we would like to request
a continuance for case number mi20200007102843 north water street um this is their third listing
and they have yet to meet with the uh coordinating rcl thank you sharon do we have any exhibits
we do not and it is the third listing yeah so okay mr folks what we're going to do is dismiss
this case so mi 2020 that's 000 710 2843 north water street is dismissed
thank you sir have a good day you too dismissed dismissed dismissed dismissed
miss anyone else requesting a continuance or withdrawal please raise your hand
there are no hands at this time chair thank you um i have a clarification for mi 2020-002561
100-02 West Ashdale Street. The Board voted this, voted last week to approve this case
with provisos, including a proviso limiting the variance to a two-year period. We'd like
to now clarify that the temporary variance will expire April 1st, 2023.
And we now also have a resumption hearing for MI 2020-002-459-3445 Division Street.
And I want to apologize personally to Ms. Alderfer.
I mistakenly closed down the hearing.
I think I wouldn't see her hand or whatever, but I apologize for any inconvenience to you.
and the folks who may have been waiting on the call.
Carol?
Chair, if we could confirm that the vote taken last week is vacated.
The record is reopened for this resumption hearing.
Noted, thank you.
Is this the resumption hearing now?
Calendar number 2459-3445 Division Street.
Madam Vice Chair, we have a mic.
Looks like Whittier with his hand up.
I don't know if he's the attorney or the owner.
I just saw Sarah.
No, it's Sarah Alderweire.
Oh, Sarah.
Can you put your name and address on the record, please?
Yes, Sarah Alderfer, S-A-R-E-H-A-L-D-E-R-F-E-R, 1500 JFK Boulevard, Suite 800, Philadelphia.
I'll swear you in again.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
i do have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents?
yes you may proceed before you begin sarah is the sonographer able to hear
are you able to hear mr otherford yes so far so good thank you thank you great
Thank you, Mr. Chair and the Board. I appreciate the Board's working with us on this issue and
getting us rescheduled for today's hearing as soon as possible so that we can continue.
By way of summary review, since this is a resumption hearing, I won't go through
everything from the beginning in deference of time, but just so that the Board
to remind the board as to where we are in this matter
we are the developers of 3445 division street which is in the east falls neighborhood of the
city we are coming here today with the proposal of one page of revised plans and our revised plans
were done in order to accommodate comments made by the community at the first meeting on this matter
and then there was a second meeting where we presented these revised plans to the community
and just to give a rundown as to the main changes we revised the plan down from the proposed three
units down to two units we increased the size of the proposed rear yard from zero to seven feet
we changed the we brought down the overall height of the building and is now below a by right height
we we moved the pilot houses to eliminate the pilot house refusal so where we have originally
had four refusals on this application we are now proceeding with only two refusals one for the
front access parking which is not which is prohibited in the rsa5 zoning district and one
for the size of the proposed parcels. The minimum lot area in the zoning district is 1,440 square
feet. Our original proposed lot area was 603 square feet, and we have increased our proposed
lot area from 603.5 square feet to 905.25 square feet. In terms of the size and characteristics
of this lot. Scrolling down to the photos, let me just zoom in a bit. The property presently exists
as a non-conforming one-story garage, and we are proposing to demolish the existing
non-conforming use and structure, which encompasses 100% of the lot area, and replace it with these
two houses. The lot is unique in that it is the only lot on that side of Division
Street which is not a through lot to Sunnydale Avenue back here. So to scroll
in on the zoning maps. Our lot is here and the remaining lots on this portion of
Dividend Street which is not a through street it's a dead-end street are go
through to Sunnyside Avenue whereas our lot does not. In addition our lot is
49 feet and 8.5 inches wide but only 35 feet six inches deep which creates limitations in terms of
developing uh what would be one single family home here we met with the community as i said earlier
on multiple occasions um since the last hearing to update the board we uh we attempted to reach
out to the community because we made committed to compromise. However, we were not able to reach a
compromise, and the RCO, East Falls Community Council, informed us that what they originally
supported a two-unit plan, but they stepped back third floor. They were now unwilling to support
two units and would only support one unit, and I have submitted to the board, which I'm showing now,
on supplemental exhibits. The first exhibit is posting photos for today's hearing to provide notice which were posted on
photos for today's hearing to provide notice which were posted on March 5th at the request of
counsel for the zoning board and then I've included the second supplemental exhibit is the
correspondence with the RCO in which they indicate that they are now no longer willing to support
any sort of two-unit plan but only looking for a one-unit plan here. So I'm happy to answer any
questions or go into detail further but you know in deference to everyone's time um my understanding
that the assumption hearing was that we were going to you know hear more from your comments
and listed anywhere in the meantime when we try to work out whether or not we can have a compromise
here um so that's my understanding of the broad strokes of where we were the purpose of today's
hearing. However, I would like, with me today is the developer, Jason Kater, but also on the phone
is the principal of Newbrook Group, LLC, who is the owner. So I'm going to ask him to raise his
hand and unmute himself so that he can adopt any statements that I've made. So Rich, if you could
raise your hand on the Zoom or if you're on the phone by pressing star nine and then star six to
unmute yourself. What is the person's last name? Bauman, B-A-U-M-A-N. Okay. Mr. Bauman, you can
unmute yourself and speak now. Hello, can you hear me now? Yes. Good afternoon, sir. Please identify
yourself for the record spell your full name and i'll swear you in thank you it's richard bowman
r-i-c-h-a-r-d b-a-u-m-a-n do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do thank you miss uh albert fair thank you um mr bowman um have you heard my
statements today i have um and did you hear my statements in this matter at the prior hearing
on February 10th? I did. Were they true and correct? Yes. Do you adopt the measure? I do.
Thank you. I'll defer. Did I hear you correctly? Originally, you had three units. You're down to
two. That is correct. Was that testified at the first hearing? It was. Okay. I'm just trying to
refresh my memory uh 38 foot height you're removing the pilot house correct correct originally there
were um three pilot houses one for each of the units now the pilot houses have are the half
pilot house style which are which don't extend past the top of the route the parapet so if they're
not visible from the street so they're technically there but they're set back from the let me just
find let me just go to the floor plans where you can more easily see the elevation or the elevation
but like you can see here on the elevation that you cannot see the pilot houses beyond the parapet
line because the pilot houses are set back five feet from their rear but also um set down from
front so that the top of the pilot house is even with the top of the parapet um and our total group
height is 33 sets and with the three foot six inch parapet that brings the overall parapet height to
uh 38 feet am i correct in understanding that these revisions that were proposed uh the
community is still opposed to the project uh that's correct there's a letter of opposition
at Exhibit 2 from East Falls Community Council, and I would imagine that there are neighbors
here who wanted to speak in opposition as well. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that
I had my facts straight. Any questions from the board? No. No.
Okay, we'll now open it up. Anyone that would like to testify in this case,
please raise your hand and give us your full name and address and then I'll swear you in.
chair we have a mike whiter mr whiter you can unmute yourself and speak now
uh hi please identify yourself full name my name is mike whiter m-i-k-e whiter w-h-i-t-e-r
your address 3468 division street thank you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes sir please proceed so i live directly across the street from um from this
property uh i don't know if i can share my screen here or not but i have a video um i have a couple
um I have a couple of concerns um yeah I'm not I don't see any button to share my screen but my
of concerns um
main concern here uh is the garages um Division Street as has been mentioned is an 11 foot wide
street um I have a video of a truck pulling out of the existing garages where he has to
um actually back up twice in order to turn out of the garage uh had my trash cans not been on
the curb that day he would have driven over my curb onto my sidewalk which is already broken
and cracked from people driving on it because it's an 11 foot wide street and people park on
the side of the street i don't personally park in front of my house because of the condition of my
sidewalk. I have a driveway, but my sidewalk is demolished from cars pulling up on the sidewalk,
pulling up on the curb. And it's going to cost me money at the end of the day. The other concern I
have with the garages is that when you're pulling out of these garages, people are going to have to
pull in forward. It's an 11-foot wide street, like I said. And when you're pulling out of the garage,
you're pulling out blind backwards into this street dead-end street that people do fly down
like you're talking it's a short dead-end street people still fly down 25 miles an hour
okay so you're backing up into the street it's dangerous uh and two of those garages it's
dangerous and and it's ruining my property sir i saw you just put your hands up in the air
i know you don't necessarily care i do i paid a lot of money hey wait a minute back off
Excuse me. I got it, Carol. Sir, do you know why I put my hand up?
No, sir, I don't.
Well, I'm sitting at a table in my house conducting these Zoom hearings, and I just want to kind of balance myself on my table.
All right, sir.
I'm glad you didn't follow.
We do care. You don't know. I don't care. You don't know me.
You don't know me either.
All right, then talk about the case.
Hey, sir, talk about the case. Let's go.
my my problem as i said is with the garages my other problem as i've stated in the past
is with you know with this being such a uh a narrow street a 35 foot building is going to
block the light out from the front and the back i'm not going to have any light coming in the
front windows of my house granted the sun does not shine directly through the front windows of
my house, but any light is going to be blocked by those homes. And I know that my neighbors feel
similarly, so I'll let them talk now. When you bought the house, you had no light shining in?
Ma'am, when I bought the house, there was no building across the street from it, aside from
this garage. And there was plenty of light shining in because it's not being blocked.
The entire front of my house is going to be blocked by this now.
That and the garages. Okay, gotcha. Thank you.
Would you be opposed to one house?
I would not be opposed to one house with a potential for a setback garage
because I think a garage directly on the street is ruining my property and is dangerous.
Anyone else would like to testify in this case, please raise your hand.
And I'm about to kind of balance myself again, so please.
Chair, we have a Mark Wildstein.
Mr. Wildstein you can unmute yourself and speak. Hello can you hear me? Yes sir good afternoon
please identify yourself for the record spell your full name and your address. My name is Mark
Wildstein. M-A-R-K-W-I-L-D-S-T-E-I-N. Hold on one second sir. Sure. We're getting feedback someone
has an open mic and I hear a bunch of kids in the background you can mute yourself that would be
helpful. Mr. Wildstein, please start again, please. Yeah, my name is Mark Wildstein, W-I-L-D-S-T-E-I-N,
first name Mark, M-A-R-K. I am- You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth. Yes, sir, I do. Thank you. Please proceed. I am the owner of the property
directly behind these garages. I own three properties on Sunnyside Avenue, 3454, 56, and
1958. The garages, to the best of my knowledge, were at one time part of the properties that I
own, but were subdivided prior to my purchasing them. This is the only property on Division Street
that is a buildable lot. I'm not sure how it became a buildable lot, but that's neither here
are there this has got to be 30 it's over 30 years ago um my concern is uh one the fact that
So one, the fact that Division Street, again, is an 11-foot wide one-way street, and it is near impossible to get in and out of that street.
division street again is an 11 foot wide
I don't know how... Mike, who lives across the street from the garages, I mean, suppose he put bollards up on his sidewalk, which I suppose would be his right, since he owns the sidewalk and is responsible for taking care of them.
um now he's got to replace his sidewalks but if there were bollards there there's no way that
they could turn a car into or out of the garage that is proposed for two homes it's just it's
not possible the the the people that live on the street it's a dead-end street i don't know how
people i don't even know how people turn around in the street other than to pull onto the empty lots
that are part of the Sunnyside properties at the top.
So, I mean, this is, it's not a hardship.
It's a travesty to think that this thing
could possibly be two houses.
I mean, not to mention the fact that my properties
will be impacted by the height, of course.
But the truth of the matter is, you know,
if it's done by right and you can do one house,
there's nothing, I guess, you can do about it.
but the fact is that lot is not big enough to build two houses by right and you know i i'm just
a concerned i've been there 30 years do you reside in any of those three houses i do not
they're rental units and my tenants have all called me and said all right and i know that
has nothing to do with it right i appreciate i just want to know and uh yeah i'm very familiar
with dead-end streets. I live in South
Philadelphia. Right. And people
literally back, and it's almost
an entire block to get
parked on those streets. They back in
and they pull out. So, it's not
unusual. I'm not suggesting
that you accept