issues with the exhibits okay sure sir um yep sir okay no problem sir we'll get back to you
We're going to have a couple other cases
So confessor let's go to 16
Geyer Avenue
MI 2020
Dead 0-0-0
6-7-5-6
Geyer Avenue
I have no hands
Okay, MI 2020-000634-6756, Geyer Avenue is continued.
Chair, I'm sorry, if I could just again with this one.
This here application was made on August 2019.
If I could request that this be a term.
Must be heard.
Must be heard.
Yes, thank you.
Okay, Geyer Avenue, correct?
Correct.
Let me go back. MI 2020-000634-6756 Geyer Avenue is continued, must be heard.
Okay, next one up. MI 2020-002193714-20 Montreal St.
here i'm promoting attorney carrie nice post thank you good morning ms post uh please identify
Here, I'm promoting a
yourself for the record spell your first and last name and i'll swear you in um excuse me before
miss nace starts can i say that this is the um hearing that i emailed the board about this
morning okay there have been some uh adjustments too for right number of units and garages and
whatever correct that's correct the original hearing was held before the shutdown um the
community requested changes that the applicant made and had reviewed by lni so thank you thank
you uh good morning ms paus good morning chair chico uh carrie nace paust attorney with the law
firma fox rothschild address 2700 kelly road suite 300 warrington pa 18976 here this morning on
behalf of the applicant montrose views lp i also have with me the architect rich villa as well as
the owner mark ginsburg if they can both raise their hand would you please spell your first and
last name yes carrie c-a-r-r-i-e last name nase n-a-s-e hyphen paust p-o-u-s-t swearing
a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed
pulling up my screen you can see my screen here yes okay great thank you uh as attorney
Saleta has indicated this is an application that was previously before the board. The property is
located at 714 to 720 Montrose Street. It is along the corner of Montrose Street and Beulah Street,
as you can see here on the plan in front of you. A hearing was before this board back in May 1st,
2019. The applicant is proposing, you can see here on this plan, the overall property
is bounded here by Montrose, Beulah goes across. It was owned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The proposal was to subdivide this parcel here, which the Archdiocese would retain as a church,
and then subdivide the remainder of the property into six single-family residential lots where a
house would be constructed on each lot. At that time of the prior hearing, opposition was raised
with regard to the proposed project. Since that time, my client has met with the Bella Vista
Neighbors Association. They were able to reach an agreement on the proposed development of this
property, which resulted in reducing the number of units from six to five. And I'm also going to
pull up here. Here's the other plan. And also removing the garages that were being proposed.
The Bella Vista Neighbors Association did submit a letter back to the board back of January 2024,
which was submitted to the board. I believe you have a copy of it, which did support the proposed
project as revised based on the five dwellings. We did receive, we resubmitted the plans back to
L&I based on the revised layout. We did receive a new refusal from L&I, which was to create six new
parcels, one being the church parcel, the remaining five being the single family units. However, the
five dwelling or lots do not comply with the minimum lot size. So we are asking for a variance
to provide less than the required number of lot size, as well as the open-air area requirement
for the church parcel, as well as the side-dured setback for the church parcel,
given the close proximity of the church building to the side lot line.
So that is what we are requesting.
We did, as I said, we revised the plan to address the concerns by Bella Vista Neighbors Association.
we received their support and we are here this morning asking uh for the variances requested
you have uh your clients anyone that you wish to have to adopt your testimony yes i do uh mark
ginsburg if you're on the line if you could raise your hand and uh miss thunkett if you could allow
him? I don't have him. If not, Ms. Paus, as an officer of the court, we will stipulate that your
client would have adopted your testimony. Thank you. Any questions from the board? No. No.
Now, anyone else like to testify in this case, if so, please raise your hand.
Anyone else like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
I have a Dina.
Dina, you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
Dina, please identify yourself with a record.
First and spell your first and last name and give us your address.
And I'll swear.
My name is Dina Zimbardi, D-I-N-A-Z-I-M-B-A-R-D-I.
i live at 708 montrose street you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do please proceed um when we approved the zoning variances as requested
from the last bella vista board meeting we approved them based on the understanding that
only one of the properties was shy of the proposed required um square footage and it appears that in
new plans that all of them are short of the square footage and your objection my objection
is that we approved plans that proposed that the square the lot size square footage was per law
and the only one was short of the law plus the there's one house lot that was short of the
square required square footage and the church yard was or the church alley was short of the
is your testimony that the plan that is being presented to the board today
differs from the plan that was presented to the board and adopted uh the number of units going
from five to six is not accurate the number of units is indeed accurate what i'm confused about
is that the lot size where the lot size is and if i may did you shed any light on that
yes and i apologize i was not in attendance my client was represented by a separate council at
that time however i do have the architect on the line also which is rich villa uh miss sunkett could
you do you see if mr villa is on if he could raise his hand so you could identify him and unmute him
can you hear me yes mr villa please identify yourself for the record first and last names
by your name please uh richard villa richard r-i-c-h-a-r-d and villa is v-s-n-victor-i-l-l-a
i'm the architect you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth i do thank you please proceed yes i'm sorry in front of you is a is a plan um it's the five
new single family townhouse plan with a revision date of september 25th 2019 are you familiar with
this plan i am and did you prepare this plan i did and is this the plan that was presented to
the Bella Vista Neighbors Association? Yes, it is. And were you present at the meeting with the
Bella Vista Association? Yes, I was. And could you please just clarify, I'm sorry, to the neighbor
that is on the line as well as to the board, what is shown on the plan and what was presented to
the community group at that time? The plan that is shown is what was presented. I believe that
the issue is that the original refusal listed the incorrect minimum lot size as being 1080 and so
when we went back to the neighborhood we showed them that you know these are the lot sizes did
not change size but it's just that the refusal should have said 1440. that in that inconsistency
was corrected for the second refusal so the second refusal is correct saying that they're all
undersized, but it would have been correct had the incorrect refusal continued to be
incorrect in the second refusal.
So if you go to the refusal, Kerry, you would see that at 1080, which was the original incorrect
refusal, all of them but one are correctly sized.
Thank you.
So it was not, and I, you know, I would say to Dina that we, you know,
this was definitely what was presented at that meeting at these sizes.
Is there anyone else who would like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
No other hands.
Questions from the board?
uh planning commission good morning david effecto city planning commission mr chairman
and members of the board this property is indicated for residential single
this property is indicated for residential single-family use in the city's comprehensive plan
family use in the city's comprehensive plan accordingly
accordingly we have no objection to granting this variance thank you uh ms paus did you have
revised plan um it is a revised plan however the lni issued a notice of refusal so what is before
you today i don't believe in uh miss saletta you can confirm but i don't believe that we need
the revised plans approved since this the plans that are being presented what was is what was
shown to lni that's correct there's no need to add a revised plans proviso the the proviso would
be the number of units maximum five and no garages no you don't need to know because it's
reflected in the plans right okay just want to double check all right thank you mi 2020-002193
714-20 montrose street my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes
okay thank you all thank you very much have a nice day
Next one up is MI 2020-000325-944 Belmont Avenue.
Chair, I have a promoted attorney, Johnson.
Mr. Johnson, you're going to mute and wait to be sworn in.
Good morning, Mr. Johnson.
Please identify yourself for the record, first and last name.
And then I'll swear you in.
My name is Kenneth Johnson.
I'm not the attorney.
I'm the architect and advocate.
I'm not the attorney.
Are you the owner?
No, the owner is on the phone.
The owner needs to be the one to testify.
Okay, that's what I informed him.
But I could go through the exhibits and everything.
Let's get him on and I'll swear him in and then we'll figure it out.
Mr. Kenneth, he has to go through the exhibits.
Okay, no problem.
You're there to back him up if he needs help.
Oh, you want me to say my name and get on the record?
Yeah, let's get you on the record, and then we'll wait for your client.
Thank you.
Kenneth Johnson, Architecture, Urban Design, and Policy, LLC,
3401 Grace Ferry Avenue, Suite 234, Building 200.
We're in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Now, your client's name is?
He would have to raise his hand if you're here on behalf of Belmont, please raise your hand.
Okay, let me tell him.
He's on a smartphone, so you should see the hand.
Okay, Chair, I have promoted the applicant.
good morning sir please identify thank you please identify yourself for the record spell your first
and last name my first name is saeed s-a-i-d my last name is a-r-h-r-o-u-d you do you swear and
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do okay please
proceed with your testimony i assume mr johnson that you're going to be able well hold on one
second, confessor. We have some other questions for the applicant. Get ahead, confessor, and then
I'll ask him about presentation. Sir, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required
documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal, or referral,
photos and plans five days prior to this hearing? Yes, I did. And have you met with the RCO and
have a letter yes i did okay the letter the rco said they sent the letter directly to the zba
they didn't send us a copy sir i think uh the owner of the property has to speak okay thank you
all right and to the owner of the property um i mean mr johnson i believe that you're probably
going to be the one that's going to have to show the exhibits yes unless you're because i think
mr arad is on just on a phone not on computer did i hear that correct no i promoted him oh okay i'm
sorry all right so let's go through the plan please all right i have the plans on my computer
i can share him he can talk but i can share whoever you're gonna have to be continued mr chairman
no it's okay confessor he can he can promote the plans or the or the exhibits and then mr saeed
can discuss the exhibits and as necessary we can have Mr. Johnson jump in as the architect
okay works all right thank you but Mr. Johnson I'm just going to take you off screen okay okay
all right thank you but mr johnson i'm just going to take you off screen okay okay thank you
mr arad yes please present your case
um share your documents on the screen
yeah i purchased this is the house it's 944 billman's avenue i purchased the house
which one is the house to the left or right the one the two-story house is the two-story house yes
okay and um when i purchased it it was looking as uh it was two families it was two like i mean
two apartments but the zoning i didn't know that the zoning was not multi-family
so when i purchased the house i was trying to make it like two three apartments and live in one
because for right now i just um i'm renting i don't have a house yet and i'm trying to rent
the other one to uh to a couple of my uh family members is it currently set up as a two family
When I purchased the house, I think Mr. Johnson has the pictures.
It was two apartments.
Two apartments.
You want to add an extra apartment.
Then I want to add another third store, yeah.
As you can see, I can, if I'm not exaggerating,
almost 80% of Belmont Avenue from Lancaster all the way to,
after Girard, it's all three stories.
and most of them is multi-families and I was trying to do the same thing. Mr. Johnson if
you can give us some of the architectural rent there you go and you can make that a