paragraphs um of sections um so when you actually can you zoom into the blow up in the middle
mark yeah um yeah that's good so if you read through the deed that yellow part is one part
i'm sorry um yeah it goes from if you repeat on the left pob 2109 and it goes to pob 2111
And then there's another paragraph that says it also includes that P.O.B. 2111 to the next P.O.B. 2111, that orange section.
So that's. Is that the two feet six inches?
Yeah, the orange is the two foot six that for whatever reason, I don't know if it was meant to be like, you know, it was supposed to be open between the houses and they just built whatever they wanted and didn't, I don't know, maybe they didn't have codes or something back then when they built this.
I don't know. But you know how some properties have that walkway between their houses. Maybe that was I have asked around a lot of people. Nobody understands what that two foot six is. But the two foot six is also on 2113 through 15. Our neighbors did because I also purchased their deed and I read it and the exact same paragraph, exact same wording is in their deed.
so it's like we both owned it but our neighbor built over it so um was it meant to be open I
don't know but at this point he built over it and it's been there so long and the same thing
happened between our two residences if you read um the deed for 2109 and the little green
area there yeah it has that weird two foot six space as a separate paragraph and both of them
own it kind of it's kind of weird so i figure there nothing needs to be done we just need to
update our our written deeds which is the next step if we can move forward with this yeah and
i guess my only i'm just thinking that you you'd have to do it through some sort of process so
reforming the deeds in some way yeah and i do believe as we work through the lni process i
do believe that deeds of confirmation would need to be prepared and recorded correct okay
all right the surveyor is in that sense yeah he's already written uh the surveyor has already
written the legal description of the new properties and it's ready to be handed off if
if we move forward from here oh okay and you're doing that without doing a formal consolidation
because you don't really have to
because of the way the deeds of you.
All right.
Thank you.
Any other questions for the board?
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
I just want to note that a copy of the RCO letter
could be forwarded.
That would be great
because we have not received it.
Thank you.
Yeah, I'll send it after.
I think RCO ZBA,
Mr. Reeves did send it to a handful of people,
but i do have i'll and i didn't want to upload it because i i didn't want to upload another person's
And I didn't want to upload it because I didn't want to upload another person's document, but I can email it to the board council after this.
And I guess, I'm sorry, I did have another question, which is the houses, what are they being used for?
Are they just empty or are you using them in conjunction with the church or what's in there?
They were being rented. There was some water damage a couple of years ago. We've had the roofs redone, but the water damage inside, we're still working on. As Mr. Danik said, we're having some slight monetary issues.
So if we could sell maybe a piece of the land of this whole property, then we could have the money to fix them up and then re-rent them again.
Okay. Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no changing
zoning at this location from the existing residential multifamily RM1. The proposed
occupied area variance is de minimis, and the proposed lot area and side yard measurements
are consistent with the character of the neighborhood. Additionally, the proposed lot
line adjustments are attempted to correct inconsistencies in property records and align
with the existing buildings.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the requested variances
for occupied area, minimum lot area, and side yard setback.
MI 2024-002-539-2101-S 20A Street, I vote yes with proviso.
Her amended refusal dated 327-24.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Carol Gaston, my vote is yes with provisos.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with provisos.
Iowan, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you, counsel.
You have your votes.
Great.
Thank you.
All right.
And number 11, MI 2024-002-620-1126 South Front Street.
Jennifer Bazzillo is the attorney.
applicant provided email from pensport civic association indicating that the position would
be non-opposition a letter of non-opposition from council member squilla has been received
good morning council good morning hi could you please state your name is spelled for the court
stenographer sure jennifer bazitlo b-a-z-y-d-l-o you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do but you identify your client and the relationship to
the property sure um my client is cascade investments llc um who is the owner and
applicant for this project and today i have alec tran who's the principal member of that llc
with me. Stipulate to the reading of the refusal and agree
with its accuracy. I can stipulate to the reading or waive the reading
but I can't stipulate to the accuracy as the one refusal
for the fence gate on South Howard states that it is
100% opaque when it is not. Thank you. Why don't you proceed
and start your presentation. One second here.
Documents up.
okay all right so uh as we say we're here today to talk about 1126 south front street i'm just
going to run through the exhibits really quickly and then we'll come back to the ones that are
um of note um so this is the refusal and we have the deed showing cascade investments as the owner
uh we showed that the property tax balance is zero for this property uh the letter of non-opposition
from pensport civic this was my email when i didn't have that um this is the aerial view of
the property just to get you acquainted this is along south front street in pensport um you know
right across from the highway here um let's see here this is the zoning map of the area as you
see it's a mix of residential and commercial and industrial. This was the prior fence. We'll come
back to this. This is some photos of people jumping the prior fence. And here you can see
our postings. There are three sides to this property and it was posted on the front, side,
And it was posted on the front, side, and rear, and surrounding area.
and rear.
We'll come back to a lot of these as well.
And this is the plans for the fence and rear gate.
So let's just go back to here.
All right.
So 1126 South Front Street, it is zoned RSA 5.
It has an existing structure on it with a rear yard.
The parcel itself is a little over 1,900 square feet, and it is currently used by a variance that was obtained in 2020 as the owner's tax accounting office and a residential unit.
We are in South Philly here, and this property is bordered by three streets.
Front Street in the front, Titan on the side, and South Howard in the rear.
And this is kind of what generates some of the issues with the fencing and meeting the requirements of the code for the fencing.
So right now we have, I'm going to show you what the fence is right now.
Give me one second.
So my client bought this property in 2019.
So we're here just today to legalize what is already there.
namely this wall along this wall slash fence along Titan Street and this gate in the rear
prior so when my client bought the property in 2019 there was already a fully opaque
masonry wall slash fence there and the property in general was kind of in rough shape so as he
was using it for his business he began to fix up the property and had a contractor come out
and look at this wall um and it was determined that basically the wall was not in good shape
was leaning over was falling was cracking that sort of stuff and the contractor meant uh recommended
to replace it which is what my client did um at the time he didn't fully understand that this
should have that he should have obtained permits before doing this as he was replacing an existing
wall with a substantially similar wall. Specifically, if we look at what the difference
between what was there and what is there now, this wall right here along Titan Street is
10 cinder blocks high, which gives it a height of about 6 feet 10 inches. And when we look
at what is there now, we have a wall that is a little over 7 feet tall because one additional
cinder block was added to the top. And as far as the rear fence goes, that is a little over nine
feet. However, and I just want to show also, this is where the fully opaque, you can see that there's
light coming through this fence. It is not 100% opaque. You can definitely, as you look at the
different angles, see into the rear yard at that, in that top portion, the non-compliant portion of
the fencing is in fact able to see through it. And what I would note here is that, well, first
let me talk about another reason was the fence was built a little bit higher. And that was the
owner was having problems with people jumping over the fence. Let me just get back to those photos
here um so this is again right across from where the um 95 runs with the parking underneath um it
is a mix of residential and industrial area um and there are significant issues that can arise
with people uh maybe in the area not looking to do such great things like steal from people
break into people's homes and that sort of thing and this is kind of an ideal area because you had
a main street with this quiet private back area that's kind of the rear of everyone's property
and so this is just an example of people coming into the property jumping over into the neighbor's
yards it's been an issue so the extra brick was just to kind of put it above the reach of most
people that they can't come over and climb over quite as easily while not significantly altering
what was there. So really, and this, this sort of security issue stems from the fact of how this
property is situated, that it is, it's not just a rear yard. It is a corner. And it is a corner.
The property has three, three faces. And so we're in the rear. And it's not out of character for
neighborhood either to have a higher wall here. Let me get back to the existing conditions. As you can see the adjacent
let me get back to the existing conditions. As you can see the adjacent parcel has a garage
or what used to be a garage maybe now is storage immediately adjacent which with a significantly
higher structure immediately adjacent to where we have this roll gate. When you look let me get
to these other photos uh and then if you look here um going on the photo with north howard
this is what's directly across from where the seven foot five uh wall is on titan street i have
a little bit better photo of it too hold on one second there we go uh and this is an industrial
zone building with 100 lot occupancy that hosts an emergency a 24-hour emergency vet um
um there are no windows on the first floor there's nothing that a difference of three feet three and a
half feet really impacts that neighbor at all um and this park is what is across the street from
the roll gate um so you really don't have any impacted you know light or air impacts on any
of the neighbors especially since that rear um has you know is not fully opaque um hold on one
second. Let me just get back to where I was here. So, and also of note, if you look at the other
corners here around here, they're occupied. These are the two other corners across from
our property going north on North Howard. And at these corners, we have full story buildings. This
is two stories. This is three stories. And when you look at what we have, we're over 30 feet under
where these buildings were allowed to be built. So it's not like you have four corners where
everyone's yards meet up and everyone's unique. The consistency would actually be to have a higher
building here rather than just a wall to protect for security reasons. I also wanted to note,
let me get to this other picture here. If you can see Caddy Corner here, this is a building
that's on Wharton Street. It's 111 Wharton Street. As you can see, they have a fully opaque fence,
and I measured this fence, and it's a little over six feet here as well. So it's not between the
property next door and across, and the buildings on the corner, we have a fairly unique property
with three sides, and we have it surrounding by other things that are taller, denser than what
we're proposing here. So, and I would just say again that it really is the way that this lot
is configured and its location that necessitates having a higher wall and for increased security
purposes. There should be no, and in terms of impact on the neighbors too, I could argue that
having a secure property and not something that obviously looks like a property to attract
people to break into, to jump into, to hang out in, is better for the neighbors than to have
a property that people know they can break into because there's not adequate protection of the
property. The proposed variant shouldn't increase traffic or congestion. It wouldn't endanger the
public health or safety. And this has no impact on light or air access or use of the surrounding
properties. And as I said, the surrounding properties are similar or higher than what
we are proposing. I notified 132 addresses for the Pennsport Civic meeting, which we
had on September 9th, as stated in the letter. Let me show you here. There was no community
opposition at the meeting and they also had received no opposition um from community members
outside of the meeting i would also note that uh i received a couple of phone calls from neighbors
i explained what was going on and they had no problem as well if you want to take that for what
that is um so there was no issues with the neighbors um and so really we're looking to
to legalize what is there, which is the existing wall here and fence.
And obviously, if the variance is granted, we will be going through the process of making
sure that the appropriate building permits are retroactively obtained and that all of
the structures are safe and secure and built to come.
Counsel, you want to bring your client on?
Mr. Tran, can you raise your hands, please?
I have been about to speak, sir.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the court's sonographer?
My name is Alec Tran.
It's A-L-E-C-T-R-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, to hold truth, and nothing but the truth?
Swear or affirm to tell the truth, to hold truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Yes, I do.
Please.
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Tran, did you hear my testimony here today and believe it to be truthful and accurate?
And would you adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No questions.