it'll be a little bit of an overhang so they're not losing that that space in their backyard and
mr kerner can testify to it in a little bit more greater detail the existing look of the property
is on the top level here looking northeast as well as northwest and then again you can see the
proposal looking both from northeast and northwest we do have as the chairman said a letter of support
from the fairmount civic association it was unanimous there was about 40 individuals that
were there we also have letters of support from the following neighbors 24 28 aspen street 24 30
aspen street 24 29 aspen street 24 32 aspen street 24 34 aspen street and 24 36 aspen street
of those both of them uh of those um was that six letters uh two of them are from either neighbors
on both sides of the property so we do have letters of support from both the adjacent neighbors
and that is shown. Here's the RCO summary. And then these are just the letters of support that
have been admitted as part of the exhibit packet. Again, what we're seeking with regards to zoning
relief, it's very simple. In the RSA 5 zoning district, the maximum allowable occupied area
is 75% or 633 square feet. What we're proposing is 81% or 683 square feet. So only seeking a
variance for roughly 50 square feet to allow them for this addition. Again, it's a very modest
increase on what is otherwise allowed. It's consistent. By and large, there are other
properties that have done an addition on the back, both in the first and the second floor,
and it won't really have any major changes to the character of the neighborhood at all.
That's it with regards to the presentation. I would like to have Mr. Kerner sworn in,
and I'll have him adopt my testimony. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Timothy Kerner. I'm an
architect uh the firm spell your name for the stenographer please t-i-m-o-t-h-y-k-e-r-n-e-r
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do please
proceed mr kerner you were present when i gave this presentation yes i was and is everything
true and accurate to the best of your knowledge information and belief accurately and entertaining
thank you very much make sure that entertaining part is noted in the record we've noticed that
yeah i don't know how he did it after you sat there the whole time and you would uh you would
adopt this testimony as your own yes i would and just for the record you do you're the architect
director for this application is that correct that is correct and so you design and have familiarity
with these plans yes perfect you want to bring your client on to adopt your testimony i would
mr chairman how could you please state your name and spell them for the stenographer patrick murphy
patrick p-a-t-r-i-c-k murphy m-u-r-p-h-y you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel mr murphy were you present when i gave the
presentation yes and is everything accurate to the best of your knowledge information and belief
yes and would you adopt that testimony as your own yes and just for the record you are the
and just for the record you are the owner of the subject property is that correct yes so
owner of the subject property is that correct yes jointly with my
jointly with my wife perfect questions from the board uh yes i just wanted to know is there a
basement yes there is is there is it usable yes it's used mainly as storage and laundry
well that that that'll be your new place
that's the next phase of the plan
what questions from our attorney hillary emerson oh wait a minute all right um so we're legalizing
what's already been built correct no nothing's been built nothing's been built that's correct
okay all right thank you questions from our attorney i'm not at this time mr chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands at this time mr chair you know this is a mistake
planning commission nina solomonic with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change the existing residential single family rsa 5 zoning the applicant has
not shown that there is a unique physical circumstance to prevent it from being used
in conformity with the zoning code the city planning commission recommends that the zoning
board deny the variance thank you um mi2025-006-891-2438 aspen street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
i am mcadams my vote is yes tywin my vote is yes um mrs murphy congratulations uh this is a big
win for you i know what it's like i i had two daughters and a wife so i yeah i understand
thank you thank you very much everyone thank you
um let's take a five minute break then we just have a few more all right
thank you everyone thank you what you're doing right you want to go right through
Thank you.
we're ready okay good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing the meeting
of the philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our board vice chair tenetta graham
president mr chairman our board secretary shell l gaston present mr chairman board member michael
johns president mr chairman board member tya winn board member ryan mcadams president mr chairman
also here is our board attorney hillary emerson our zoning board director in haggerty and our
Board Administrator, Lakeisha Dandy. A recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA website.
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let's look at our schedule for this afternoon
number one 2617 north bankrop which is mi 2025 001 576 that case is continued to 520
at 3 30 p.m number three 2136 north 27th street which is mi 2025 005 855 that case is continued
to 4 15 26 at 9 30 a.m number five 22 53 north 33rd street mi 2025 005 975 that case is continued
until 5 20 26 at 3 30 p.m and number six 3409 goodman street which is mi 2025 005 980
That case is continued to 5-20-26 at 3.30 p.m.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
Good afternoon, Chair.
This is Jason Handel.
I will be your calls for the session.
I do not see any further hands right.
So we're going to go with MI 2025-001-791, which is 714 North 24th Street,
karen lindenbaum that's at you um so there's a letter of support from the fairmount
civic association the vote was 27 in support three of which were near neighbors four were in
opposition and five in non-opposition also a letter of non-opposition from council member
young could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
close as you can
see the one in the middle yeah push
all right could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is karen lindenbaum
K-A-R-E-N L-I-N D-E-N B-A-U-M. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I did. Okay. And did you read the refusal for her? Do you waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy? I'm sorry. Let me read it for you.
This application is for the legalization of accessory roof deck access from rear second
floor of an existing structure for use as a two-family household living. The property is
zoned CMX1 BWRSA5, whereas the minimum required roof deck setback is five feet and one and a half
feet is proposed. So you accept that as accurate? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. You can start
your presentation okay um there should be something that says share screen yeah there's
supposed to be a green button at the bottom there do you see that
here comes in here comes Ian's coming out he he heard this already look at him
The next one.
I'm going to share this.
I think that's what you want to share, right?
She should do it.
No, this is showing you.
People keep their houses nice.
We are before you to to request a variance for the roof deck.
The required distance setback is five feet and we are asking for one and a half feet.
A little bit of background. I bought the house in 1984.
I bought the house in 1985, and it had a deck, and that deck has been in place for all of these years.
Over the years, we mended it.
We replaced some boards.
We did some work, but here's the picture of how it was last year.
It needed to be replaced.
Some weed trees had grown up.
I removed the weed trees and I dismantled the deck, redid the roof underneath it, and I had redone the roof several times by picking up parts of it and doing it, but I redid the roof and built a new deck and I did not realize that I needed a permit.
So when we built the deck, this is what it looked like.
We made it smaller than it had been.
Previously, do you see the stack that is going up the slide from the right picture?
Previously, it was on the other side of the stack.
This is closer in on all sides.
And this is what it looks like, a whole lot sturdier than it had been.
If I can just bring your attention to one of the things is that many, many of the decks in the neighborhood are not set back five feet.
And part of the reason that it's difficult to do it for our particular house is because we are an end-of-row house.
So any end of row homes have two streets.
So we are way far from 24th Street.
But Perot Street is is this is the part that we are that we're looking at.
And right across from our deck, you can see another property that has the same thing.
Here is a picture of our new deck along with one that is now this this property
that you can see with the deck very close to the edge is
it's a row home so i'm not really sure actually no it's i apologize it's not a row home it's the
next block over um i have provided several pictures i just went around the neighborhood
and there were many many decks that were also right up to the edge so what we're proposing is
is an extra three and a half feet. The house is 14 feet. If we subtract five, then we would have
less than nine feet, I guess, less than seven feet. So that's what we're proposing.
Here is my certificate. We sent to the neighbors. We met in the middle of winter with the Fairmount
civics association they are amazing people i was certain that nobody would come there were about 40
people there um and uh um i think that's basically it i posted i did everything that i can uh that i
was asked to do but i'm i'm hoping that you will grant me the variance so the the past deck that
was on it was actually a little bigger yes you replaced it yes and you picked all that stuff
off and then you had a new deck did you have to do it yourself or somebody do it for you
oh no i didn't do it myself no those those years were over when i was younger i did stuff like
that for myself all right um questions from the board not question but comment i live in the
neighborhood i understand thank you is this a two family um it is and access to that deck is for
like it is for the so there's um there's two apartments one that's the first floor and the
other is the second and third the first floor has an entrance on 24th street and the the other
apartment has a an entrance from corrupt street so it's the deck for the only for the people
upstairs the second floor and this is is this on occupied or just two rentals no they're two rentals
we did live there then we had our son live there then our daughter lived there we hope to come back
when we retire um but yes it's rented now all the questions
questions for our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from
the virtual audience sorry mr try i did have sorry i did one one comment about this one so
i'm part of the refusal it mentions two family i think that's an error so if we just if the
board approves this i just recommend a proviso confirming that the approved use is single
family household living she says two things wait wait there's two fans oh there's two fans um okay
um okay so in that case um sorry i'm also getting this mixed up there was another one that had
so in that case
similar um so do you have do you have an existing because your rental license is expired so i'm a
little i'm a little concerned um if they're if you go back and try to renew your rental license
I just want to make sure that let me explain yeah when okay so so I was issued a there was a
complaint from the city and that's when I started trying to get permission to build this deck that
was already built at that point six months later was time to renew the license and I wasn't allowed
to do that okay because of this so i have made many phone calls and i was told that as long as
there's an open issue you they won't let you renew they won't let me renew it but i have always had
a no i've seen it for i've seen it for years so i just wanted to make sure that it wasn't lapsing
and then this would go back to lni and they'd be like oh wait you need proof for yeah okay so if
you've been in contact with them and that and they haven't allowed you to renew because of this then
you should what they said you should be fine okay thank you no proviso no i think we'll yeah no
proviso i think we'll be good be okay thank you all right questions or comments from the virtual
audience i do not see any hands raised planning commission
nina solomonic the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
cmx1 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location the appellant has shown that the proposed use
will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be
expected the planning commission recommends that the board grant the permit for the legalization
of the accessory roof deck mi 2025 001791 714 north 24th street i vote yes michael johns my vote is
yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes i win
my vote is yes thank you you've been here a long time i noticed today too so thank you very much
we appreciate it and thank you very much i really appreciate it number four mi 2025
005-889-834 avon road eugene or danuta collect are the owners it's a pro se
i'll be coming back in as a panel shortly mr chair