coordinating rco you know charles karn who i don't know if he's online but basically you know
his question was what we're going to make him tear down this this this you know structure um
and that was basically the gist of the conversation there were some people who were against it they
were like well it was illegal you got to tear it down but it's different when someone's being
defrauded versus when someone's defrauding the system and you know mr kushner you know
We'll tell you what he does for a living, but he's not a developer.
He does good for his job.
He does good for people, and he's just hoping that the board understands that, and he understands
that this is only the first step of the process, that he needs to get a CO, which he embraces.
Whatever that takes in terms of modifications inside, structurally, whatever he needs to
do, which he'll deal with, he'll deal with it.
so why don't you show us what yeah so um and again i think solo and the sound swamp pool said the
same thing of course we're going to get a ceo we have to um in terms of like something to the effect
of like no mailboxes in the front like solo said that i was like we're not dealing with a multi-family
structure and i don't know i think everyone deserves to have a mailbox in their front of
their house yeah well yeah and then and then in terms of storage or trash forcing my client to
store trash inside. I don't know. Like I have a single family house. Like I've stored my trash
in the breezeway outside. I don't think you should force someone to have to store their trash inside
if they have the ability to store it outside. So we would object to that. And then we, you know,
we met with the, you know, Paul was like, you know, he's debating whether he's going to live
there now, right now he's renting because he's in this unfortunate situation. And he said to the
community, depending on when his lease ends and, and depending on how long it's going to take him
to get through the CO process. He has a good shot of living there, but you'll see from the pictures,
he really did try to do a good job, you know, on, well, he hired someone he thought was going to do
a good job, but you can see how this contractor lost his license, and he was licensed when my
client hired him and expected to get permits, and this was a shock to him. You'll see that this is
our property right here. You'll see everyone else has what we're asking for in the rear.
right and we also set back because there's a park behind us so we're not taking anyone's
light in there anyway this is the people who are adjacent to us has basically the same thing we're
seeking um and then properties across the street other people enclose their porches
i'll be honest no one does the addition on the second floor like that um again he did that for
the extra room he he wanted to get and you'll see from the show second floor yeah uh yeah this is
just other pictures. Let me go to the, maybe I don't care about that. Let's see. That's,
this is our structure, right? And by the way, the, the property to left of us is completely
faking lot. It has steps leading to nowhere. He completely redid all of this. He thought he was
doing this all by right. And then this is the rear of the property as well. Again,
And then this is the rear of the property as well again, not out of character to have those that rear bump out millen street to the right of the property to left their property interior photos ground floor.
not out of character to have those that.
He did everything new. He thought he was doing everything the right way.
and we did in the floor plans highlight where the addition is that was asked of us
at the community meeting so i want to make sure we got that again this is not to scale but this
is where he has the bump out on the first floor so a little entryway to bump out in the rear on
the first floor which allows him to have a functional kitchen in the living room in the
dining room and then um again no again this single family but like he has above ground entryway um
but here's this the you know the second floor which has that additional space it just provided
him additional space and again he wasn't trying to the game the system most importantly it was a
well-attended meeting um and i think people voted mostly in favor of it i think just people were
upset because of the legal use but even during the community meeting someone who voted for it said
i've i've had the same situation where i hired someone and i thought
i was getting permits and the same thing happened to me
so that's just a you know our notice our application for appeal he put in his own name
he wasn't intending to make this so much of his investment as a home the deed to property
and then finally the tax clearance certificate while there shows a balance due it's not until
march 31st um so i would ask that the board uh swear uh paul in i'm sure could you please state
your name and get closer to the mic if you want thank you could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes counsel paul you heard everything i don't think the microphone's on is
the microphone on is his microphone try it again yeah okay paul kushner k-u-s-h-n-e-r okay paul
you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning matter yes sir is it true and correct
yes sir and do you adopt as your own testimony yes sir uh what's your occupation paul i'm a
registered behavioral health therapist i work with autistic kids okay and and when you heard
my testimony about the contractor your understanding is that he was a licensed
contractor at the time yes sir i found him on the internet yeah and your understanding was that
he was going to pull whatever permits were necessary to complete the work yes that was
our agreement sir all right and then you you know when you when you found out that that wasn't the
case that he that he did not pull the permits you received violations from lni right yes i turned
a violation over him he told me he would handle it and then he completed the job and told me that
things was being handled and then he just disappeared and um so when i like i got a
permit expedite a person to try to help me figure it out and they couldn't find him and uh his
google number uh like disconnected i still can't find him and you paid him in full yes sir and
and half and half okay but half we started half when he was completed okay and then ultimately
you hired my firm once you discovered that you were defrauded to try to legalize this situation
yes sir all right thank you all right questions from the board yeah do you uh can you like show
which pictures are in the actual edition um the photos you showed because you showed the whole
house yeah so let me do you have a picture of the rear yeah we do backyard in the back door
yeah yeah i maybe i went too quickly through it let me show you you center we've requested it
you sent it in the picture over here well i'm looking specifically for the the basement door
exit all right let me see i saw like the parking like i saw those so this is the second floor
paul is this area here the addition part yes sir that's the mass available no but is this the
addition part where the bump out is well yeah that's right in front of the windows yes sir
and that's where the rear is that's the no that's the front that's the front okay that's where's the
kitchen well we're talking about the second floor the second floor oh there's the rear on the second
i didn't do anything to the second floor it's just bedrooms back there oh you have the addition over
the porch okay let me see what that's the addition over the let me see that's the addition over the
porch okay okay the back it off this is the back of the house there's nothing that's exactly two
Two side-by-side bedrooms.
And then, what's this?
That's the staircase leading up to the second floor.
And then, this is the addition in the back, right? That's where the kitchen is?
Yes, sir.
And then, is this the door that's leading to the back?
This is just, is this the door that's leading to the back?
To the back of the basement.
To the back of the basement.
To the basement.
The basement, yeah.
So it is a walkout basement?
Oh, yeah, it is.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, let me show you a picture of, here it is.
This is our rear.
I couldn't see the, that's the first floor, right?
No, that's the basement there.
That's the basement.
Yeah, it's how it's sloped.
Got it, okay.
There's no houses behind it.
It's like the highway is right there.
alan is that an addition on the right though it's a different property it's not yours this
is different but this one is again mimics kind of like i got it yeah
all the questions from the board and you're still utilizing the garage
no one's living there no it's not a garage i'm not no i'm saying oh it's not no oh it looked
like it was a garage no he doesn't have access just the one door in the back oh that's the
neighbors made a garage back there so okay what's beside so are you going to close that area
i'm trying to figure because you got the door i look at i see the door in the back and then
what's next go back to that picture yeah i'm gonna do that is that just stuff in front of the wall
or something it's kind of it's a little confusing because it's a driveway so i imagine at one time
they were garages it sounds like or it seems like they're all driveways sir there was never a garage
so when you purchased this property this was this was not a garage
everyone has the same pull-in basement uh okay okay so they're not garages okay
all right it's just kind of hard to tell from that picture all right thanks yep so uh like from
the rco notations and stuff it seems like there's um some apprehension that it's going to turn this
into something that's multi-family so is your intention is to keep it a single family even if
servanetal yes i hope i hope to get it done and move in there i mean it's uh that was my intention
to buy a home to live in and uh you know that's why i made the bastard bastard bay room a little
bigger and um you know i just didn't want to be a renter anymore i'm not like a contractor or you
know you know so i don't never plan to make it a multi-unit or anything like that yeah and i
explained to paul if there's any intention to make it multi-family we have to come back here
yeah okay uh questions or comments from our attorney
not at this time mr chair the comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission
nina solomonic the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change the
existing residential single family rsa 5 zoning the proposed front yard step back conflicts with
the characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood the appellant has not shown that the rear yard
dimensional setback was the minimum necessary the city planning commission recommends that
the zoning board deny the dimensional variances for the depth of front and rear yards
chair i'm sorry to interrupt but um hands hands went up sure it went up it's probably uh first
one is three five five two please unmute and wait to be sworn sure
hello hi adrian how are you could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes adrian fernandez my last name is spelled f-e-r-n-a-n-g-e-swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed okay um i have your list
okay um so overall um swamp little rco is opposed to this variance um i'm not sure it
is to be kept as a single family home and the owner seems to have a lot of problems with you
know following instructions in the law as far as um going to work with permits that will be inside
and outside um we were told there were additions of bathroom and possibly other changes to rooms
on the inside that i'm not sure i heard the board address i'm not sure if you had pictures of that
it was very difficult to tell what was existing and what the owner added inside and outside because
the drawings also are not dimensioned um there were things that didn't make sense like two very
small bedrooms in the back i didn't see where a master bedroom was i asked for the uses of the
the front enclosed areas on two occasions and I never only received drawing back with a yellow
highlight but no labeling as to what those rooms are I never saw a master bedroom so overall the
opposition is based on no permits at all for the interior and exterior and the building is
for the interior and exterior.
And the building is completely out of character
with the other houses on the block.
Older pictures show that that house was originally
possibly smaller than the other houses on the block.
Currently, the roof line is changed
and it may not even be the same from the front to the back.
The windows are completely different than the other houses.
the building as it is now looks like a commercial building like a commercial small office building
it doesn't look like a single family home um see we also didn't see pictures from the back especially
so you can tell is the roof the top roof at two different heights or how many roofs there are in
the building and that leads into the fact that the building um is changing the storm runoff
is increasing it a lot because the the permeable surfaces of grass in the front were removed
and replaced with a lot of concrete and also the roof surface area is increased which would
just make for more a lot a lot more storm water runoff which is not desired by the city or
neighbors even. So as we are opposed to this variance, if the board decides to grant it,
we're asking that there be five provisos because the owner cannot be trusted to
file instructions based on the Philadelphia zoning code. So we're asking there be provisos
for no multifamily living. We don't want to wait until the owner comes and fills out an application
because it doesn't seem to be his tendency um also we're asking for no group living no
boarding house no drug rehabilitation no mental health facility um no personal care or personal
services nor behavioral health because that's the business the owner is in um no um temporary or
visitor accommodations and um no other commercial uses we're also we're asking it to be um licensed
if it's if it's rented out that it be single family rental use only and that there'd be
certificate of occupancy required to make sure the codes are followed and lastly that all trash
and recycling be stored indoors except their collection times thank you thank you where did
we did did Planning Maker yeah you did okay so I think everybody involved agrees there needs to
be a certificate of occupancy or every person including yeah so m i 2020 right mr mr share
there there is one other hand it's from uh yes uh from allison weiss they've been about to speak
yes hi allison hi allison how are you could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer a double l i s o n w e i s s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed yes uh as a member of solo just wanted to clarify
that we in fact are opposed and uh additionally we uh support the provisos as uh stipulated uh
from swan poodle in addition to those that we had um indicated uh we agree with many of the
points that swan poodle made and those are our same concerns okay thank you very much for taking
of time to call us we appreciate it ms not gonna have anything to say um not really okay all right
so mi 2025 i started out saying before every person involved believes we need a certificate
of occupancy all right so mi 2025 006 778 322 milane milane street i vote yes proviso
So, certificate of box B2P obtained.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Teneda Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
All right.