Conversely, we propose that this pergola will provide privacy for Mrs. Katz as well as adjoining
neighbors, eliminating the currently direct view in and out of the backyard of 109 Pine
Street.
We do offer that the variance will not substantially or permanently harm neighbors' use of their
properties or impair light and air, as this is an open structure.
further analysis is included in my memorandum of law submitted to the board at exhibit 11
we did also include letters of support from a variety of neighbors uh in our exhibit packet
as well and i will have mrs katz just briefly address that uh sally what do we do she's going
to testify again for one one minute all right um sally have you heard all the testimony that i
offered in front of the board today yes do you agree that testimony was true and accurate and
would you adopt it as if you had given it yourself i do and uh in the process of preparing for this
zoning hearing in the rco meetings did you engage with uh your neighbors on pine street of course
in addition to your neighbors on delancey but did you engage with your neighbors on pine street yes
and what was the um position that they expressed to you in terms of this request
i'm sorry this is the reporter i'm having it we're doing it we're doing all my neighbors
both sides and in front that um i'll enthusiastically approve this design and the
pergola and and just to reinforce your neighbors on either side of you were also in support of
this application yes it will add value to the neighborhood and it was a beautifully designed
it's a beautiful design thank you mr chairman i would like to reserve the right to bring
charlie or mrs katz back uh in in case of any rebuttal do you want to anybody want to cross
or cross no mr chair okay not at this time who would want to go first i i wouldn't mind going
first sure thank you and i'm not trying to rush you how long do you think it'll take
you know i didn't time it but five minutes oh i don't have well for not time that's a pretty
good estimate so be sure please proceed i'll get a five minutes okay uh could i share my screen you
most certainly can yeah oh sorry okay well let me know if it's too loud but that's fine okay okay
Thank you. Okay. I'm going to share this. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
My name is Paul Bonney. I'm an attorney representing the Society of Civic Association. We conducted
two community meetings in this matter, May 5 and July 28 of this year, with many people
in attendance. Our maximum attendance for those two meetings was 24 people for this
particular matter we are opposed to variances being requested in this matter this of course
is a beautiful home on the 100 block of pine a beautiful stable neighborhood a wide property
everything functions very well we are pleased it has new owners making substantial investment
in the property both interior and exterior we are not against pergolas
if it's of a size allowed by the zoning code and in a location allowed by the zoning code
And those are the two issues here. The size, the code allows, I think, 120 or 130. And this is 240. And the location is, it's within the nine foot rear yard setback.
and those are the two issues here the size
A lightning bolt hit me a few minutes ago. I was looking at what's on your screen, which is Exhibit 7 from the applicant. And if this plan was revised to reduce the size of the pergola almost in half, not completely in half, but almost in half, to just cut it off at that dotted line.
just cut it off at that dotted line that says setback you would then be in compliance with
the size of the structure and you'd be in compliance with the setback you wouldn't need
to move it to a different location in this very large backyard you could keep it in this location
and just pull it back to that dotted line, which is what, so, and we, we submitted only
a small number of exhibits, we have our RCO summary form, we have our letter that just
says we're opposed, and then we have some photographs, some of which you've seen, and
And I just want to review it with you.
The first is an MLS photo, real estate photo, I think from before the applicant purchasing the property.
As you can see, it's very wide.
It's beautiful.
And I would note for the record, it's not a double lot.
It's a wide lot.
It was two lots that were redrawn, and it's now one lot.
It's one lot under the law.
And we think, frankly, the possibilities are numerous, if you wanted to put this someplace else, and we hadn't heard any hardship.
The next photo is the work in progress.
This was provided to us by the applicant.
So you can see the extent of the work that was done in progress.
You could see that a lot of what you had seen in the previous photo was removed.
And now, yes, on that top right, that elevated portion is still going to be the elevated portion.
By the way, the tree that we hear so much about in the top right corner, it's really irrelevant because no one would think to move the pergola over there.
It would suffer from the same problem, size and rear yard setback.
So what we're talking about is the other areas of the backyard.
And so you can see the extensive work.
You can see, I think, the possibilities.
You can see certain – and you can see in this case the four posts for the pergola that had been installed that still exist.
Those are the four posts on the top of the top left corner of this property.
And, of course, we would mention that a pergola need not be installed at all.
A house is perfectly viable, usable, and lovely without a pergola.
Some people have them, most people don't.
If you don't have a pergola, it doesn't mean your house is suffering a hardship.
And as you can see, the applicant has put the pergola almost as far as possible to the neighbors to the rear, rather than closer to their own home.
I would add, and I'm looking, and now the next photo we have is, I'd say, the near-finished product.
And as you can see, the backyard is much more finished, maybe not completely finished, but, you know, all the paving is in, the decking and whatnot.
um i want to point out to the board that um if you look on the right hand side of this exhibit
you will see towards the right hand side of the right hand side photo
i don't know if that's qualified as an addition to the house or a pergola
But it is a pergola-like structure that has been added recently to the property.
to the property. You go to the next page, and you can see it now over the barbecue,
You go to the next page, and you can see it.
this pergola-like structure that is attached to the house. So again, I don't know if it qualifies
as an accessory structure or if it's merely in addition to the house that looks like a pergola,
but in a way, what we're talking about is a desire for a second pergola. No one is asking
let me make clear no one is asking for l and i to go out to check on this we don't maybe there
are permits we don't see it posted online but maybe there are permits that's not our point our
point is that this is a beautiful property that's going to it's going to be beautiful no matter what
happens at the board today um uh i guess i have you know a little bit of i don't have much argument
i can save it for later but there's just simply no hardship in this case right and uh we appreciate
the board's attention council i i'd like to ask my client to come up sure why don't you get closer
to the mic too sure sorry and your client lives on delancey street delancey street yeah okay thank you
i also would like to be able to share yeah sure um why don't we do this first um just for the
record state your name again sure it's ellen e-l-l-e-n o'donner o-d-o-n-e-r and could you
please state your name and spell for the stenographer. My name is Catherine Mollering.
It is spelled C-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E. Last name is M as in Mary, O-E-L-L-E-R-I-N-G. Do you swear or
for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Okay. Could we make sure
that she's on the system?
I believe so.
Is that yours?
Okay, it's coming up now.
okay okay um i'm an attorney and i'm representing katherine and in this matter
she lives at 108 delancy and my husband and i live next door to katherine at 10406 delancy
okay our two properties um uh but the rear of 109 11 pine street okay um our yards touch each other
and we all share the old historic brick wall that separates the property.
I have about four questions to ask Catherine,
and I hope at the end that I might have an opportunity
to make a very brief closing statement.
Okay, to start.
Catherine, when did you buy your house, and what attracted you to it?
I bought my home in November of 2016.
I fell in love with the historical nature of Society Hill, and then I fell in love with the house because it had such a great rear garden and beautiful open views.
Ed and I used to live in New York City, and we bought our house in 2020 as an escape during COVID for much the same reasons.
um catherine would you show the panel what we currently see and enjoy at the rear of our
properties absolutely i'm gonna turn everyone's attention to
Absolutely. I'm going to turn everyone's attention to the images on the screen.
It's just taking a minute to catch up. So one of the things that's special about I think your home
and my home is even though we live in a city, our homes are oriented to face our gardens. And that's
really you know the majority of what we look at and enjoy and you can see here
this is a picture of my home taken a few weeks ago and this next photo Ellen I
believe is of yours yes taking a minute I also have some photos showing the view
from our second floor showing again as you said all the shared walls we have in
common in the openness. And then this image is showing other properties on the 100 block of
Delancey, also sharing similarly low in nature brick party walls.
Catherine, did you know the neighbors who lived at 10911
Pine before Sally purchased the property? Yes, my husband and I, he's here, we knew the prior
owners, Nancy and Ivan, and actually were often guests in their home and enjoyed their outdoor
space. Did they express concerns about privacy? Did you feel concerns about privacy between your
two properties no that was never a concern so catherine i think if we could turn now to show
the board the impact of the proposed pergola if it is constructed in its proposed size and proposed
location sure so again just looking from um my property toward pine street um you can see
and here are the I think Sally's counsel shared this as well the red arrows show where you have
the current pergola posts and this is a photoshopped image of what those posts will
look like when the pergola is actually constructed what you have to speak in that I'm like that's
Okay. Okay. Sorry. How did you come up with the design and the dimensions for the photoshopping?
I did so in two ways. One was using the actual plans provided by Sally's counsel at our
recent hearings, and then also used, let's see if my cursor works. It doesn't. Oh, yeah, it does.
I also based it off of their first pergola-like structure and matched the height and also matched the beams and crossbeams as well.
Why don't you go on and show some of the other images?
So again, this is a Photoshop image of the completed pergola.
Unfortunately, we don't live in temperate conditions and so I also had a Photoshop image
of what it will look like unfortunately 50% of the year when things are dead.
This is an image showing from a higher view and again unfortunately in the cooler months
when we don't have the benefit of foliage what that would look like.
Catherine, were there other neighbors on the 100 block who have expressed their opposition to the pergola?
Yes, and in this photo, you can see the red dots denote where we have letters or signed petitions of neighbors who are also opposing the requested variances.
Oh, and I actually should say that we have some of those neighbors here.
One neighbor, unfortunately, had to leave early.
I just would like to close by saying that my husband and I adopt Catherine's presentation as ours,
and I have no questions for her at this time.
Thank you. Do you have any cross?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
um miss mullering or miss o'donner if you could go back in your exhibit exhibits please where you
show the view of mrs katz's yard uh from from your backyard mrs o'donner it was a little bit earlier
From your backyard, Mrs. O'Donner, it was a little bit earlier in your presentation.
Keep going. All the way back up.
Keep going. Keep going.
Oh, okay.
More. Yeah, it was towards the beginning.
maybe one or um and one one or two more maybe
okay uh actually yep sorry go back to that next one
uh okay so um miss miss mullering this this is the view uh if miss o'donner were not representing
you i would be asking her these questions uh directly but since she is your counsel i'm going
to pose them to you so these are the views uh from 104 delancey street is that correct
from the garden yes i'm sorry this is a little bit of an awkward situation because you are her
counsel so you can't i can't cross-examine you i'm happy to answer the question no but i
your counsel she should answer okay are you also representing yourself though as a protestant
okay then all right then then then i'll direct this to you uh so mrs o'donner is this a view
from uh your patio level of your backyard correct and was this photograph taken uh at a time when
the pergola posts were in place yes can you see the pergola posts from this image not not in not
in summer but i can see it from my second floor my third floor and my fourth floor okay we just
didn't have i just don't have those photos okay it's quite visible okay my question was about
from from your property at grade uh if you can then go to the next photograph then please
um maybe one more
i'm looking for one that's from your second level mrs mullering
Keep going.
No, from your second level.
This will work.
Okay, Mrs. Mullering.
so this this shows a portion of the view that you have from your second floor is that right
um this actually was taken but yes this is a this is a view from a second floor elevation
and do you acknowledge that if the pergola were shifted closer to mrs cats's house that you would
have equally if not a greater view of the pergola from the middle of her yard as from the back
i i i need you to restate that can you acknowledge that if this pergola were shifted closer to mrs
katz's house and away from the wall that your view of the pergola would be exactly the same
as it is as proposed from your second and third floor i don't think i can answer that okay
um okay if you can go to the um the the sheet where you have provided opposition from other
neighbors
okay uh thank you mrs mullering are are you able to estimate uh whether the neighbors at 128 124
one and 114 delancey street would have any view of mrs katz's backyard from their properties on
delancey street um i actually think the owner of 114 delancey street is here
oh she left just if if you can let her husband did his ill when she needed to go
if you can you use your best guess can can they reasonably see mrs katz's backyard yes they can
see her backyard they've sent us photos of the pergola from from their back how about 124 and
128 no they cannot reasonably see it okay um i i do want to bring mr kelly back at some point
um i i do want to bring mr kelly back at some point now listen to me you got to tell me how
much longer you're going to need because we're running out of time we we have another eight
lawyers waiting ready to go understood mr chairman then if you if you're going to take more time