ZBA Hearing - January 24, 2024

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okay chair we have 34 attendees you can proceed as you wish thank you good morning everyone my

name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's eba hearings with me is our

vice chair ismail shaheed present mr chairman thank you our board member thomas hallman

Present, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you.

And our board member, James Snell.

Present, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Jim.

Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.

Here's our virtual format.

Be advised the proceedings are being recorded.

The video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phil .gov.

For the benefit of our court sonographer, 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 address the property 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 Sunken.

Let's look at our schedule.

or this morning. Number one, MI 2023 -004 -396 -1807 East Boston Street. That case is continued.

And number 14, MI 2023 -004 -014 -150 East Champlose Avenue. That case is continued.

Is there anyone who has comments relative to the two cases we continued, or is there any other requests for continuances?

Good morning, Chair. This is Fatina. I'll be your co -host for today.

Thank you.

You're welcome. I see no hands.

All right. Thank you.

And we have a few cases that we do not have exhibits.

Number two, MI 2023, 003 -851, 1615 -17, Haworth Street.

Janelle Solomon is the listed applicant.

We have no exhibits.

This is the first listing.

I see no hands, Chair.

MI 2023 -003 -851 -1615 -17 Hallworth Street.

That case is continued.

Mark must be heard.

Number seven.

MI 2023 -004 -084 -2337 North 30th Street.

Warren Hamilton is the attorney listed.

There are no exhibits.

This is the first listing.

chair we have reverend tyrone williams with their hand up okay

good morning mr chair good morning reverend uh state your name for the record and spell

for the court sonographer yes my name is tyrone williams tyrone t -y -r -o -n -e williams w -i -l -l -i -a -m -s

Right. You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.

Yes, I do, sir.

Are you involved in the case at 2337 North 30th Street?

We have received the information from ZBA in July 2023 concerning this address.

They have not reached out to us to schedule a meeting with the community.

I sent a letter in opposition as to give the community a chance to weigh in and vote on this project.

All right. Thank you, Reverend, for calling in. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Is Mr. Hamilton in the audience?

No, Chair. There's no one by that name.

Thank you.

MI 2023 -004 -084 -2337 North 30th Street.

Cases continue. Mark must be heard.

And number 10.

MI 2023 -003 -929 -175

MI 2023 -003 -929 -174 Levering Street.

Mark Cratchville is the owner applicant.

There are no exhibits.

This is the first listing.

The owner is available with their hand up, Sheriff.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?

Yes, sir.

My name is Mark Cratchville.

M -A -R -K, last name spelled K -R -A -T, as in Tom, O -C -H -V, as in Victor, I -L.

Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Sir, this is the first listing. We do not have your exhibits at this point.

Oh, I'm very sorry for that.

I know I had gone through the Maniunk Council and had submitted everything,

But maybe I should have also submitted that to the greater Philadelphia and maybe or maybe they didn't they didn't get to you.

I'd be happy to send those documents over.

So why don't you do this? We do not have the documents now.

Why don't you call the office and they will make sure they work with you to have the appropriate documents and we will hear it the next time.

OK. OK, that's that's great. And I'm sorry, sir.

Who should I get a hold of for that?

can he just send us a message in the in the I'll put it in the chat chair

okay thank you you're going to you're going to see the information in the chat down on below okay

okay thank you sir appreciate it so MI 2023 003 929 174 Levering Street this case is continued

must be heard okay we're going to go to our add -on list

So, three cases I'm going to call out here.

Number one is MI -2023.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, I'll tell you, the first three, you don't have to call.

We took them off the add -on list.

You can just go right to number four.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Mm -hmm.

Number four, MI -2023 -003 -645 -3029 Ridge Avenue.

This is a resumptive hearing.

The purpose of the hearing is to respond to the revised plans that were put in by the applicant.

We're going to immediately go to the virtual audience.

Anyone in the virtual audience who has comments relative to the plans that were resubmitted?

Mr. Chair, I just want to note two things.

One, Mr. Shahid has recused himself from this matter.

and two we can we can i think bring um mr harris on as a panelist from the outset

yeah yeah and then we can go right to the audience mr harris come on please

mr harris has been promoted to panel good morning mr harris

good morning mr harris good morning just state your name for the record please

Jermaine Harris, counsel for the applicant, Amina Perez, owner, JLK Investments, 3029.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

All right.

So the purpose of this hearing is going to respond to the changes that were submitted by you.

And what we're going to do is immediately go to the virtual audience to see who has comments relative to those plans.

OK. OK. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?

I have Strawberry Mansion. OK. Good morning.

Hello. Good morning, Miss Cummings. Yes. All right. Could you state your name,

please and spell for the court stenographer it's bonita cummings d -o -n -i -t -a c -u -n -m -i -n -g -s

miss cummings could you get closer to the machine we're having a hard time hearing you

can you hear me now i can yep thank you do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth

and nothing but the truth i do okay so miss cummings so you know the purpose of this

is to respond to the changes that they had submitted in the plans.

So please start your testimony.

Right.

In response to that, the community has not seen those changes.

And to play it out in this process.

Excuse me, Chair.

Excuse me, Chair. Pardon me. This is the court reporter. I apologize for the interruption, but I'm having difficulty.

Pardon me.

This is the court reporter.

I apologize for the interruption.

but I

Yeah, so am I. Ms. Cummings, we're having a hard time hearing it this morning. Try to get closer to the machine.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah.

I can.

Can this, can I go for hear me now?

Yes. Thank you.

Okay. I was saying that this process is playing out at the board without really having had been vetted through the community's process. So the changes were made and stated here at last week's meeting.

It is the community's position that the property design is still too high with 43 feet for the Stanley Street, 2100 block Stanley Street residents.

So it's a 25 -feet property being towered over by 43 feet.

Ms. Cummings, there's someone talking behind you, and then we're having a hard time again hearing you.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Okay, I'm saying that the 43 feet in height is still too high for the 24.

Okay, please.

I know, Mr. Kelly, I understand.

Mr. Kelly, I understand.

Can I call back in on another device?

Why don't you do that?

Okay, thank you.

chair we do have another hand from okay please mr williams you are allowed to speak

thank you very much hi reverend reverend you've already been sworn just state your name for the

record sure reverend tyrone williams right right and you've already been sworn so so reverend so

you know this purpose of this hearing is to respond to the changes that they made so i'm

just going to pick i want to please start your testimony okay i want to pick up when this

comes left off yeah that's fine i want to first off ask did the board get my information on

yesterday afternoon i sent you a urgent email concerning the petition and i need well so so

mr william so we we have the information about the petition but the purpose of this hearing is

not the petition the purpose of this hearing is to respond to the changes that have been made okay

well let me respond to that please thank you mr bergman we have a process in this community in

which we are transparent to the residents of this community.

It will be very egregious and unfair to decide on these changes without the community's input, nor have they had a vote.

This is. Well, Reverend, I understand what you're saying, but I guess the purpose is you understand the changes.

And we're curious as to your stance. I don't understand the changes because I have not had time to review.

them. I have not had time to discuss them with the applicants. I have not had time to even inform

the community of the changes. And I think this is, I mean, I'm not going to give my opinion.

I'm just stating the community has no input on these changes. All right. Thank you.

Could I briefly respond if I could? No, Mr. Harris, wait a minute until I'm done with him.

Mr. Harris, you're going to get a chance to respond to everybody who calls, okay?

Sure.

All right.

Is Ms. Cummings back in the audience?

Hello?

Yes, Chair.

Just a moment.

Yes, Chair.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, Ms. Cummings, we can hear you.

You've already been sworn.

As you know, the purpose is to respond to these changes, and you were in the process

of talking about the hype.

Okay.

Right. The height is 43 feet over, towering over and casting a shadow onto the residence of the 2100 block of Stanley Street.

The property is situated in a way where it's a corner property.

So it's two areas that, you know, Ridge Avenue and Stanley Street is not just affecting Ridge Avenue.

And and that is really.

And that is really a hardship to that block to have to be put in the dark or have something protruding out from their block from that corner.

The height is too high. And again, we haven't had the opportunity as a community, you know, we looked at what we did see and we determined that that was too high.