support from um somerton uh there was a close vote of 25 to 1. yes um our vice chair has a few
questions okay good evening um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance
of this hearing yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy
i do all right thank you you can share your screen and proceed with the case great let's
get going here all right all right so i'm here today representing the property owners of 428
larkspur street um the property is currently occupied by some of their relatives but they
are planning to move in in November of this year just as a little background
here with their multi-generational family so
with their multi-generational family.
So we've submitted all the exhibits, deeds,
proof of tax payment, the RCO letter of support.
We also had two letters of support from
near neighbors within a block of this property as well.
Notably, both of these people also had a very,
very similar project approved last year,
almost identical.
So let's just go, you've probably seen the exhibits, let me just start off my presentation
So this is the property on the right hand side here, 4K8 Larkspur Street, it's an existing
three-story twin home, and it is located in the subdivision of nearly identical homes.
As you can see from these twins, and I can also show you on the, you can see when you
look down the street, they're basically all identical. There is a front garage on these
on the lower level with an entrance door in the front and then an entrance door on the
side as well of these buildings. And interior, when there is not a conversion, there is a
garage in the front and a family room in the back. So my client purchased this home in
2022. And at the time, it did have the existing garage. These garages are extremely small.
As you can kind of see from this very normal size sedan lined up next to this garage,
they don't really fit modern cars. And most families in the neighborhood don't use them
anyway. My client did convert the garage into a bedroom. And he did, you know, and
And there hasn't been any complaints, there weren't any violations issued.
He realized that this was an issue and that we would need to get a zoning variance when
he actually wanted to expand his driveway to have two cars parked in his driveway.
And so that's where we are now.
We submitted the plan, I'll get to the plan, that shows the widening of the driveway and
the conversion of the garage into living space as you can see here this is going to be a bedroom
the bathroom and then that's the existing living space that was there prior so um
the only refusal for this project is um parking essentially parking in the driveway
um because in this zoning district you are required to have an off-street parking spot
that is not the driveway and because it needs excuse me yeah you're required to
not have an off-street parking spot not located in the first 15 space first
first excuse me sorry let me start again stumbling over my words the parking
spot can't be located within the first 15 feet of the front yard that is
physically impossible without that garage because the first 15 feet of space
here is basically right there. You can't fit a car between the building in that
four feet of space. And so when you close that garage, you are creating a
situation where the dedicated parking spot is now that front driveway. As we
do, as I noted before, these garages are small anyway, and most of the
neighborhood doesn't use them. And they de facto use their driveway as their
parking spot anyway we are also have an expansion of this driveway so that there
could be two cars so in theory our proposal of closing the garage and
having to expanding the driveway creates two dedicated parking spaces where
before we only had one permanent spark parking space the reality is is that it
that's the same if you said that someone was parking inside and someone was
parking outside two for two two for two legally you're actually creating an
additional parking space. The expansion of the driveway is by right. There's no variances
needed for that. It is the parking on the driveway that requires the variance. This
kind of conversion is extremely common in this neighborhood. This is within the notification
location area. So like within the properties that the city considers near neighbors, there
are 31 other homes that have this conversion done that have turned the former small garage
into living spaces. And as I said before, even the ones that haven't formally converted
these spaces, they use their garage for storage and their cars are parked in the driveway.
way. The house is a single family home and will continue to be used as a single family
home. The reason for the additional space, as I mentioned before, is that this is a multi-generational
this is a multi-generational home. And trying to create a little bit of privacy on that lower level
home and trying to create a little bit of privacy on that lower level.
for the eldest generation. Have a place for them to sleep, watch TV, go to the bathroom, etc.
That they don't have to walk up the stairs, have a little bit of separation from
the kids and the rest of the family. They do maintain access to all parts of the home. There's
nothing that separates these two to be separate units. There's a central staircase that leads
up the middle. Let me show you that. So you can see the bathroom. There's the staircase that goes
up the middle. There's a small bedroom and a bathroom. And this is the rear living space
as like a living room with access to the backyard as well. So it is one coherent building. We will
be going back and getting permits, getting a CO for the building. So anything that wasn't in
compliance that was done not to code would be brought up to code and it really is just so that
we have there's no additional changes really proposed to the outside of the building other
than expanding that driveway to allow for two parking and yeah so we went to the Somerton
civic on april 14th let me just show you that um and oops sorry that's the wrong
wrong exhibit uh and there was it was a well-attended meeting uh i know the vote was 25
to 1 there was even more people there um and really what the the general impression we got was
just, hey, this is what we think it is. It's not anything else. They acknowledge it's a very
common thing to be done in the neighborhood. And so the vote was in support. And again,
I personally represented two other neighbors within a block of this property last year who
were granted the same variance. So it's very common. Just in summary, the hardship here is
that uh really there's no other place to put cars um the garages are pretty unusable um so and
there's not a place to park them that's not in the first 15 feet it's very much um in character
with the neighborhood it's not going to harm anyone because it's in character with the neighborhood
um it's not going to increase congestion it's probably actually going to take another car off
the street um and uh it'll allow this family to comfortably live in this home um and enjoy it
and provide two off-treat parking spots so so jen just one question for yeah did you put a kitchen in
there uh there is a sink and a refrigerator in there um and if that is not allowed when they go
through code review they will be removed okay thank you uh questions from the board yeah i have
a real quick question so i know it's common as you mentioned to enclose the garage is it common
to have the two parking spaces that people extended their driveway to have parking spaces
is that a common it is it is so this let me go to the photos um it's common when they can
um so let me just get back to the main photos this is on a curve so there's a little more
space here than there are with some other um properties so let me just get to here so if you
can see here let's actually go to the side photo you can see here that there is a large area between
this twin set and the next twin set and so it's pretty common when on these homes
um when there's more area here just to add a little bit extra space to allow for that second
hard to park um so it's not going let's go to the plan here hold on one second
so let's keep it right here on this this first this photo you see what the uh i think it's like
a brick interface right there on the front yeah so you're saying they're going to move that over
it the the the um there's a little wall here that's going to move over along with the side
of the house and that's going to steps will be moved too right steps are going to be moved too
yeah all right that's about okay thank you any other questions
questions from our attorney he'll how about he'll ring on there lynn
no questions at this time um questions or comments from the virtual audience
yeah I do not see any hands raised um
Planning Commission you know Nina Solomon with the Planning Commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the RSA to residential single-family attached zoning at this location
there is no unique condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent it from being
used in conformance with the zoning code therefore the city planning commission recommends that the
board deny the proposed variance for surface parking in the required front yard setback so mi 2025
for surface parking in the required front yard setback so mi 2025 zero zero oh wait um we didn't
actually have her uh client come on yeah he's he's working on logging in right now i think he might
be in now all right let's see if he's there yeah she's there do you think he's not we can have the
lawyer but i don't think we did that yet it's a mot um rahimov rahimov
do we see him
jared there's no one by that name in the virtual audience thank you uh jennifer you are an officer
the court your testimony is fine with us okay thank you very much i i know he's trying to get
on so i apologize 20 25 004 129 428 larks per street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
sonetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes thank you jennifer thank you so much have
a good night. Alan? Oh, come on, Alan. So the next case, it'll be MI 2025-004-134-3813 Folsom
street alan knockamson is the attorney
all right close this out they literally keep kicking me off i'm going in the loop are you
seeing that have you seen that before yeah like i got kicked off for your one now no i like it
keeps going in a loop can i if someone has my presentation materials i just go through it that
way um in you know pop through here yeah have you i've never seen that before
let me try one more time
Let me try.
Oh, my God.
Could you help Mr. Nockam's at ease?
He seems to be having a...
No, it keeps going a loop.
Well, I'll do this.
And then, hold on, let me just make sure it has all my information.
How far are we at?
You can see how...
632 is the last one.
Yeah, it just keeps going in a loop.
yeah I have a packet yeah all right so he'll yeah he'll take care of that um so why don't we
finish what we've done up here um you've been here forever today but you still state your name
for the case Alan Ockamson and could you identify your client the relationship to this property
Yeah, my client is Heaven for All Mankind, LLC, and my client's member is Heaven Thomas.
Heaven Thomas, okay.
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
All right, thank you.
And we'll be ready to go.
All right, thank you.
All right, good evening.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to this accuracy?
Okay, all right, thank you.
All right.
Have you met Lynn?
no i i wanted to introduce myself he's he's uh he's here a lot but lynn lynn as you know he's
here a lot she's been sitting in the audience for the yes i've been watching to the left over there
that's right that's right she well she watches a lot she learned a lot yes there you go here you go
look at this okay so this is 3813 Folsom Street this board has heard this appeal before in 2021
the unfortunately the zoning permit expired on its own terms because the building permit was not
obtained my client had some issues in terms of getting financing during the pandemic and all so
now she's prepared to move forward it's the same exact project this board has heard before
If you go to the next page, we have 11 exhibits. We'll go through those. Again, at the conclusion of my presentation, I'll have Ms. Thomas, you know, I'll have a few questions for her. Next page.
so this is an rsa uh five property uh if you know it's a rather large lot of 1120 square feet we
only have one refusal we're proposing to have a triplex here and as you can see in the notes this
board has granted a similar use on february 17th of 2021 continue
HAS GRANTED A SIMILAR USE ON FEBRUARY 17TH OF 2021. CONTINUE.
SO WE RECEIVED A LETTER OF SUPPORT, OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FROM HOPE PHL. KEVIN BROWN IS THE NAC MANAGER FOR THAT GROUP.
WELL ESTABLISHED GROUP IN WEST PHILLY. CONTINUE.
AND THE CITY COUNCIL MEMBER ALSO SUPPORTS OR IN NON OPPOSITION TO THIS PROJECT. CONTINUE.
I also want to show you, like, you know, previous support when there was a different RCO, Manituary Civic Association, they were also in support of the previous time that we were in front of the board.
Property history, I wanted to show you that, you know, we did get that support from the board in granting the variance back in 2021, continue, along with the zoning permit that was issued.
And unfortunately, time ran out of my client, or she would be building this right now. Same refusal.
Next. This is just the site plan of the property. Again, we have no dimensional variances. And these are three units. Oh, particular attention on the site plan. If you look at the left hand side, there's an exterior staircase that leads directly out from the lower level. So it's an exterior staircase.
So, because we're very mindful, these are exact same plans as previously approved, but there is living down the basement, but my client put an exterior staircase in there.
Now, I will say this, while I did not object to the refusal, I do think there may be an issue with the refusal, because given the exterior staircase, there could be an issue in terms of the rear yard setback or the occupied area, given how the staircase is located.
I just want to put that on the record. Next.
SO THIS IS AN RSA 5 PROPERTY, FOLSOM STREET IS IN YELLOW ON THE PLAN, THERE ARE OTHER MULTIFAMILY STRUCTURES NEARBY, 759 NORTH 38TH IS FOUR UNITS, 755 NORTH 38TH STREET IS FOUR, 3750 BROWN STREET IS, IT SAYS 32, 3801 BROWN STREET IS SIX.
next and you know we're very close to manchua avenue uh commercial quarter next
photographs of the property so the residents here according to mr goldberg were very enthusiastic
to have this property developed this was the last property on this block and it's just been
an eyesore to the community and they're very excited that it's going to be developed they
were excited the first time in 2021 now my client's prepared ready willing and able financially
to move forward with this project next
then again just showing the property hasn't really changed too much in the last few years next
and this is Folsom Street to the right of the property there are porches here we try to have
a porch with a more modern flair and you'll see next and this is to the left of the property
next and then this is a proof of posting for today's hearing
Architectural plans and drawings.
So again, if you can see the front top in the middle, we do have a porch area, a more modern interpretation of the porch, but a porch nonetheless.
The community really appreciated that we tried to respect the porch nature of the neighborhood.
And then just showing that, you know, a site plan and how we are, I guess, specifically, if you look, that's the staircase that is exterior.
Next. You know, actually, I apologize. Go to back. I just want to show the elevations. You can see this the top left. You can see how the elevation where it's like you were fully out of the ground on the rear where the steps are.
So we're not dug into the ground. So basically there's light in there. There's a door and there's also a window there. So again, from a safety perspective and a light and air perspective, while they are underground and I don't have how deep they are underground because like it's not in front of me.
um they want to respect the fact that obviously from a safety perspective someone was able to get
out next and then we we saw that and then just the floor plans so if you just walk in uh i would say