lehigh avenue that case has been continued and number 13 mi 2022 007 603 139 east
lehigh avenue that case has been continued does anyone have any comments relative to
the four cases i just continued
i see no hands chair are there any other requests for continuances
no hands chair okay thank you you're welcome we're going to go to our add-on list
number one MI 2022 007036 5616 Woodland Avenue I vote yes to temporary variance expires 5-11-26
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you.
Number two, MI2022-006902-3223 Holyoke Road, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
We're going to go to our now our regular list.
Number one, MI 2022 007573 4053 Boone Street.
Joseph Consul is the attorney.
letter of non-opposition from the manioc neighborhood
Letter of non-opposition from the Manioc neighborhood council, and also the applicant
has four letters in support from neighbors.
Mr. Consul has been promoted to panelists.
Good afternoon, Mr. Consul.
Good afternoon, Chair.
Would you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, the name is Joseph Consul.
That's J-O-S-E-P-H-C-O-N-S-O-L-E.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Do you identify your client in a relationship to the property?
Yeah, my client is Mr. Joseph Fea, and he is the owner of the property.
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Did my packet come up?
Yes, you're up. You're up.
All right. Good afternoon, Board. Joe Consul here on 4053 Boone Street.
4053 Boone Street is a property that is a duplex. We have evidence that it's been set up as a duplex
as far back as 1997. My client purchased the property in 2008. At that time, several pieces
of his documentation stated that the property was a duplex. Throughout the years, he rented out one
of the units and lived in the other and therefore wasn't aware that he needed two rental licenses.
When he eventually went to try to get those, he realized that it was never actually a permitted
duplex or at least nothing was able to be found in the archive. So briefly, here's the property.
it's this three-story building here lot next door the property is 1800 square feet just a little
bit above 1800 square feet uh compared to the other properties on the block which are all
two stories this is a larger property an alley uh next door to it like i said he purchased it
But in 2008, we filed for approval for the second unit, and we got a refusal based on the fact that it's owned RSA 5.
We met with the neighbors.
Several neighbors wrote letters in support and came to the meeting in support, just stating that as far as back as they've known, this has been a duplex.
And, you know, there was 20 people there.
and we got the non-opposition from the community itself.
Let's go through the photos and plans.
Showing the outside. Mr. Joseph Fea, I hear some of the meters.
Let's see two meters, two meters. It's the gas meters.
If you see these, and we have an email confirmation from PICO, these are stamped as being installed in 1997 and in 1998.
So to us, that's at least some evidence that it's been operating that way for, you know, a good long while, 20, you know, 25 years, more than that, 26 years.
two doors um mr fay his father who i believe is also on this call is a bit of a handyman's
and so the the interior uh looks nice although
that was just work that he's done you can see some work he did on the basement
some other photos
tax documents there's the deed showing you bought it in 2008
tax certificate we have some petitions in support from the near neighbors
which we included in our packet we were trying to get proof as far back as possible that this
was a functioning duplex here's an email from pico saying that the second floor meter was
installed in 1998. The first floor was installed in 1997. And those have been occupied or being
been used ever since. We put in our packet the inspection report from when he bought the property.
We put in our packet the inspection report from when he bought the property, which clearly states that the property is a duplex.
So that goes back to 2008.
I'd like to call my client, Joseph Fea, to just discuss briefly his tenure in owning the property.
And I believe his dad is going to speak a little bit, too, because he also had had lived there.
So, Mr. Fay, if you could raise your hand and speak to the board, please.
Good afternoon, Mr. Fay.
Hello. Am I?
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Joseph Faya, J-O-S-E-P-H-F-A-I-A.
Thank you.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Receive counsel.
Good afternoon, Mr. Faya.
Will you briefly give a timeline to the board of your purchase and occupation of the property?
Again, be as brief as you can.
uh march 28th of um 2008 was when i bought the home um and it was already set up as a duplex
as you saw from that previous home inspection which was done earlier that month um the inspector
even was uh uh inspecting it as a duplex uh as well as uh yes i have lived in a home uh for
multiple years and i had friends living friends and family living either in the upstairs um and
And then 2015 is when my actually my dad came in and lived in a downstairs unit.
And again, we would rent the upstairs unit to friends and family.
So we've been trying to be we're trying to be great neighbors.
We consistently are involved in the neighborhoods with help shoveling snow.
Helping assist the other some of the older older neighbors, especially across the street.
she couldn't make the call today because she has to take care of her granddaughter um and then we
had some support from uh other neighbors as stated um she's not on the call that i don't believe she
is as um 143 kingsley street was in the meeting for the maniac meeting and uh gave some great
points of um it's been it's been this way and that you know i think if it wasn't if it doesn't
get completed as a duplex it would be troublesome for parking and things so she was at four
keeping as a duplex. This was Teresa K. Mark. At what point during your ownership did you become
aware that it didn't have a use permit for a duplex? Just as recent, I think I contacted you
in December, so as early as last year is when I realized. As you stated earlier, I just had the
assumption since Philadelphia Gas Company put the meters in as well as the electric company put
thermometers in that it was already kind of a situation where it was already a duplex um i even
got a tax appraisal in 20 2009 right after i purchased it and then it was my taxes were
changed to have it as a multifamily so i've been taxed since 09 or 2010 as a duplex um
okay uh i i have i have nothing further for mr council why don't you have your testimony adopted
Mr. Fayah, would you adopt my testimony for the record, please?
I'm sorry, what?
Would you adopt my testimony as if it was your own?
Correct.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
There is also a Frank Fayah with his hand up.
Who is it, ma'am?
Frank Fayah.
he's affiliated with this case i i think we're i i think we're okay at this point
mr council do you agree uh i uh yes if you believe that i i agree it's mr fay's father
all right uh there are no more hands to you all right thank you uh planning commission
thank you chair bergman david facto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes, sir, I do. Proceed. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location. This property has a history of use as two dwelling units, so the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the requested use variance for two dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2022-007-573-4053 Boone Street, I vote yes.
4053 Boone Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holland, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Consul.
Thank you, Board. Have a good afternoon.
Number two, MI 2022, 007-565-472-74 Roxburgh Avenue.
William O'Brien is the attorney.
We do have a letter of opposition from the Central Roxburgh Civic Association and a few, two other letters from neighbors.
And Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. I just want to let you know we received just prior to the hearings today, a third letter of opposition from a resident in the area.
Okay, thank you. That's three letters of opposition.
Mr. O'Brien has been promoted to panelists.
Good afternoon, Mr. O'Brien. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
William O'Brien, W-I-L-L-I-A-M, O'Brien, O-B-R-I-E-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yes. Sitting to my right, who's just out of view of the camera, is Steve Kishevsky,
who is the management member of Nizio Baker Partners, which is the owner of 47274 Roxborough
Avenue. Okay. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir. Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Have you
emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five
these in advance of this hearing? Yes, I did. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I've had my screen up. That's the index. You're good. We'll see. Let me go to the
refusal. There are
six refusal items included in the package
presented to the zoning board. Our proviso plans, which
addresses all but one of these items. And
I'll get to that in just a minute.
I'll come back to the RCO's position
in a minute as well. First, let me describe the property. This is an image of the block.
This is Roxborough Avenue at the bottom, Mitchell Street to the left, Gerhard Street at the top,
and Ridge Avenue up here to the right. The green space is 472-74 Roxborough Avenue. It is a lot
uh that is uh 22,336 square feet um about 10 times the size of the required minimum lot size
in this district uh i'm going to go through a few photographs um so that you can get a feeling for
the property this is the existing structure on the property it has been the zoning archives are
in volume two which i submitted just so as part of the record but this has been a two-family
dwelling for the last 60 years. It is not historically certified. However, it was
constructed at the same period that the homes on the Ridge Avenue thematic historic district was
built. This is a view from the front yard with the house at the back looking across
at the Kendrick Recreation Fields.
And here's a view with the back of the house
looking down the driveway.
This is with the house behind the photograph,
behind the photographer.
There is this stone retaining wall,
19th century stone retaining wall
that extends along this property line
and all along the rear.
The homes back here are the rear of the homes
on Gerhard Street.
Again, these homes are on Gerhardt Street. They are large, semi-detached, single-family homes and apartments.
This is a four-car garage at the rear of the property.
This is with my back towards the Gerhardt, sorry, towards Mitchell Street, looking towards Ridge Avenue.
The building in the foreground, this White's building is 492 Roxburgh Avenue, a few doors away.
A few doors away, that was a single-family zoned property and is now 29 apartments.
That was a single family zone property.
That was permitted by variance four years ago.
Again, with my back towards Mitchell Street looking out towards Ridge Avenue, this is more of the rear area of the lot.
This is looking towards Roxborough Avenue. This is back of one of the neighboring properties. It's a large barn structure.
And again, this is the retaining wall separating the property from the rear of the Gerhardt Street properties. And you can see this brick wall is the part of the garage.
The zoning plan. So this is the Proviso plan. This shows the changes that have occurred as a result of the RCO meeting.
This is a trash area that's being introduced. That's a trash storage area that will be fenced off.
The bicycle storage has moved from this area where the trash is now going to be to the other side of the vestibule.
Introduced perimeter landscaping here along both sides of the proposed addition.
Two parking spaces were eliminated here in the rear and more landscaping introduced.
And again, perimeter landscaping between the proposed parking area and the rear of the Roxborough Homes here.