Spell your first and last name and provide us with your address.
Donnell Ebron, D-O-N-N-E-L-L, last name E-B-R-O-N,
1001 North 46th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19131.
Do you swear in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And you are the owner of this property?
You're not an LLC?
No, okay.
Before we begin, I'm going to begin by asking you, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents?
Proof of ownership?
Proof of tax clearance?
compliance rather a copy of the refusal or referral and photos and or plans of the property
five days in advance of this hearing i did and you agree uh to stipulate yes thank you uh please
proceed um i'm sorry we didn't ask if he met with the community and i don't have any record of
um i'm sorry we didn't ask if he met with the community and i don't have any record of having
having received
received a letter from the rco i left that out i'm sorry have you met with the rco uh we said we
send them uh email they uh emailed us back stating that they're super swamped and they can't get us in
in time for a hearing but they i have their their email that they sent me back
but they didn't take a position right they just told you that they can't get to it yes
yeah i'm sorry if i do recall uh mr ebron have you been sending me emails saying yet you've
been trying and trying to get in touch yes i do recall this case and typically with cases like
this chair um sharon and i discuss and usually tell the applicant to be prepared to go forward
it's always your call but they've made a good faith effort to reach out to the rcos thank you
for that clarification we will proceed with this case thank you thank you mr abron yes just give
us a brief description as you can as to what you're requesting of the board well uh basically
it's it's uh a water ice stand for the uh for the neighborhood i'm always been involved with
the neighborhood and my wife and I we have a storefront in our home and we want to just put a
little mom-and-pop water ice there you know I'm sorry for interrupting I apologize do you happen
to have any photographs or any drawings uh yes I submitted that with the package are you able to
share them with us electronically uh give me my son is helping me I'm not yeah yeah so you're
like me boss I can't figure this out either okay can you see that yes okay yes that's the
interesting it's a it's a take out only it's it uh you'll serve the water ice through the
side have two side windows right there right there yes those two sides and this is the front door
where you would enter and it has it's designed for a bathroom and this would be our little storage
area and it has exit uh exit door and it's everything is on the first level okay do you
happen to have a photograph by any chance of the property uh if not it's not no problem if you have
one fine i think it's pretty no i don't okay no no worries no worries all right um any questions
from the board no okay um anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hands at this time thank you planning commission
hello this is mason austin speaking for the planning commission thank you
please spell your name for the record m a s o n a u s t i n you swear in the firm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed thank you mr chairman
uh this property is indicated for neighborhood commercial mixed use in the city plan
given the site's history and context we have no objection to the granting of the special exception
thank you my man's doing some fist pumps back there okay mi2020-000650 1001 north 46th street
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes i'll see you in the summer thank you thank you guys
all right good luck which one we're doing next number two number two mi 2020 dash
zero zero zero nine eight seven eighteen hundred dash eighteen north fourth street
here i'm promoting augusta o'neill attorney okay good evening can everyone hear me
good evening ms o'neill please identify yourself spell your first and last name
Augusta O'Neill.
My first name is A-U-G-U-S-T-A.
Last name is O-N-E-I-L-L.
And do you swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And do you swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to attack your seat?
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal, photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
I did.
Have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
I did, and one was sent in on Friday.
Thank you. If I could, I'm just going to pull up my exhibits.
Good evening, members of the board. I'm here with a proposal to subdivide and relocate
lot lines on the property located at 1800 to 18 North 4th Street to create 10 lots with
one residential dwelling on each lot. The property is bounded by Kedwalder Street to the west
and North 4th Street to the east. Presently, the property is an empty lot, as you can see from
these pictures. This project received a refusal on September 11th of this year on three separate
bases. The first refusal that this project was received was for the lot size for each
home, as this RSA 5 zoning district requires a minimum lot size area of 1,440 square feet.
And as you can see, we were just about under 100 square feet off on each lot. The other
two refusals that this project received were for the height of each of the homes and also
for the parking garages that we had been proposing under each of the houses. We met with the
coordinating RCO for this project, South Kensington Community Partners, on four separate occasions.
The first time that we met with the RCO's committee members, we had renderings which
showed the parking garages under each of the houses, as you can see from this rendering.
The feedback that we received from the RCO's committee was that they typically don't support
projects that have those front-loading garages. So in response to the comments, our project architect
Ryan Donahue went back and removed those garages and also lowered the heights of each homes.
So as a result of those changes, we are now only seeking one dimensional variance for
the lot size of each of the homes, and we were able to eliminate the other two refusals
that we received.
So we went back before the RCO for a final meeting on October 28th, with the renderings
that you can see at this page, my exhibit packet, just zoom out a bit.
The feedback that we received from the RCO and from neighbors was that they like this
project and they want to see it come into their neighborhood.
Marco Guarini of South Kensington Community Partners did provide a letter of support to
the board, which was emailed in on October 30th.
In the letter, he explained what the RCO's initial concerns had been and what we had
done to change our project in response to their concerns.
So, as I said before, we're now only seeking approval for the de minimis dimensional variances
for the lot size for each home, a copy of our proviso plans and the proviso plan forms
were included with our application materials.
If the board has any questions, both my client and his in-house architects are on today's
call and available to answer any questions.
And with that being said, I would just like to call Joseph Burnup so that he can adopt
my testimony.
I'm sorry, did someone raise their hand?
Joe, could you raise your hand?
Okay, Chair, he can be sworn in.
please provide us with your name spell your first and last name yes joseph byrne uh j-o-s-e-p-h
b-y-r-n-e you're swearing to firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do and your interest in this uh application uh i am the owner of record thank you please
proceed joe did you hear my testimony this evening i did was it true and accurate
it? It was. And would you adopt it as your own? I would. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. O'Neill,
do you have revised plans? I do, and I sent a link with some revised plans to Sharon.
I do and I sent a link with some revised plans to share in this afternoon.
How many pages? Yes I have those three pages. Pages okay. Questions from the board? No.
No. Anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand.
chair we have sloan folks good evening again mr folks please identify yourself for the record
you're still on the roof good evening chairman chico zba board sloan folks office of councilwoman
maria quinona sanchez room 508 city hall the applicant having met with the coordinating rco
and receiving a letter of support the councilwoman offers her non-opposition to this request thank
thank you thank you anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
that's all chair you can proceed thank you planning commission uh this is mason austin
from the planning commission the property is indicated for residential use in the city plan
given the existing character of the block and the support of the rco staff has no objection to the
variance for minimum lot size provided that the project plans are amended such that parking is
not accessed from 4th street and that no variance is required for height. Thank you. MI 2020-000987
1800-18 North 4th street. My vote is yes with the proviso revised plan. Three pages approved today.
yes proviso yes with proviso yes with proviso okay that we're in mr ward's case number five
thank you so much thank you the number five yeah uh am i what i'm sorry confessor um mr ward did
send me a letter of a copy of the rco letter and is that letter and uh what what's the result of
letter. I'm sorry, it's a letter in opposition. Opposition? Okay, thank you. Mr. Ward, please proceed.
MI 2020-000221-3510, K Street. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Sean Ward, on behalf
of the applicant my address is 331 east street road trevos pennsylvania 19053 i believe you're
under oath already thank you mr you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy yes i do also have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents proof of
ownership proof of tax compliance photos and plans uh five days prior to this hearing yes i
I did.
Have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
I believe so.
You may proceed.
Yeah, as previously discussed, I just emailed a copy of that letter to Sharon Suleta.
It is a letter of opposition, which I will address.
But in the meantime, can everybody see my screen share?
I just refreshed my memory.
When we started to hear this case, was there concern about requesting a continuance?
or no there was a request for a continuance by the councilwoman's office uh allegedly as we had
not met with the rco okay however we did in fact meet with the rco harrogate civic association
and i just sent that letter to sharon and i have a copy uh for screen share uh for the board's
information thank you all right mr chairman members of the board i include my exhibit
packet, my customary exhibit packet. Housekeeping A1 is the notice of refusal. It's a permit for
a non-accessory surface parking lot. Resulting one refusal, non-accessory surface parking is
not permitted in RM1. Therefore, we seek a use variance today. A2 is the ZBA application. A3
is the project information form. A4, proof of ownership. And A5 is proof of tax clearance.
very quickly. I'll show you those. There's the refusal, application for appeal, project information
form, and a copy of the deed. The deed is dated September 30, 2016, and the property is owned by
1352 Wagner Avenue, LLC, a Pennsylvania LLC. It is my recurring client, George Menosis, who is
It is my recurring client, George Minosis, who is generally represented by George Groves.
general
However, George had, I believe, a hip surgery or knee replacement, something to that effect.
So he is unavailable at this point.
I do have on the line today our project engineer, Ian Smith, who the board is well familiar with, as he appears before you quite often.
And he will verify and adopt my my representations to the board today.
Here is the tax compliance proof showing that taxes are paid through 2020.
Basically, what you have here is.
I can get it up. There you go. Basically, this property is situate.
K Street runs north south to the east of the property.
It does front out onto Tioga, and it is located at basically the intersection of K Street, Tioga, and Kensington Avenue, directly across the street or attached to abutting the Tioga-Market-Frankford elevated line station.
The applicant seeks approval today for a variance to provide surface parking on this lot.
As you can see in the photographs, let me blow this up.
Again, here is the Tioga train station.
The parking lot comes in from Tioga, I mean from K Street.
It's a one-way circulation coming in through K Street out towards Tioga.
These are dated photos from Google Earth showing that this was a rubble-strewn lot that was, at one point or another, used as garages of some sort.
Again, looking at the lot coming in from K Street, you can see that it comes in and turns left out the Tioga.
My client also owns, through another entity, what is now a renovated triplex.
Those individual tenants in that triplex utilize the off-street parking, as well as, if you look, again, this is the renovated triplex adjacent to 3510.
This is known as 3512-14 K Street, again, renovated, permitted as a triplex, as a matter of right, because the property is owned RM1, as you can see by the permit.
They also are the owners of 3500 Kensington Avenue, which is located around the corner.
That is a permitted personal services.
It's a nail salon on the first floor with two residential dwellings above.
It's an odd-shaped triangular piece, which is typical in the Kensington-Harrogate area,
especially properties abutting on Kensington Avenue.
You've got many of those triangular properties.
But as you can see, Mr. Minosis made some painstaking renovations and restorations of that property,
And it is now currently occupied. Those folks, again, utilize the parking at 3510 K Street in conjunction with those uses.
As far as the property itself, again, you'll see this here is 3500 Kensington Avenue, and this property here is 3510 K Street.
When you look at the photographs of the before and after, you can see that it was a surface, you know, concrete surfaced a lot at one point in time.
And then this is looking in from the Tioga Street side.
Again, you can see the hard surface with the fenced in lot.
My client took painstaking efforts to replace all the concrete along Tioga Street.
You have nice detailed ornamental fencing with you'll notice the the lighting on top of the posts provides a security lighting for not only for the sidewalk, but for inside and the parking area as well.
As far as zoning history, the only thing we could find on this was an old zoning card.
And the last registered use in that file was from 1954.
It was a processing and distribution of frozen foods, so there was some sort of commercial use on this property dating well back.
So there was some sort of commercial use on this property dating well back before our times.
With regard to the Harrogate Civic letter, I would point out to the board that their position, I believe, is retributory in that the only reason they're opposing it is because he paved it without prior approval from the city of Philadelphia.
However, my client, believing that it was a hard surface lot and he improved it, was permitted to do so by Wright.