All right. Again, good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Henry Clinton for Kevin Wise, who is with me today to my right-hand side.
This is my presentation binder, including table of contents AA through A10,
which I ask to be admitted into evidence.
The request is a subdivision of an existing single family property into two lots, lot B and lot C.
Lot B will remain a single family home.
Lot C is a small garden area, flower area for use by my client.
And when I show you the aerial photographs and also the zoning map, as well as the photographs I have,
it'll become clearer as to what we're trying to do.
We do have three refusals and refusals.
Two of them concern lot C, which is the flower slash garden area.
And lot B is a single family parcel.
But that single family parcel, as I will show you,
is the exact same size of all the other parcels on the street.
We do have an RCO letter of support, as Mr.
Chairman, you mentioned at the outset.
All right. So this is an aerial photograph. This is my client's property, 5745 Y. Losing Avenue.
This is 58th Street where my cursor is. 5745 wraps around the back end of the corner property.
It's more visible here. So my client's property is here where I have the arrow. Corner property
is here. His property literally goes to the back of the other property on 58th Street and then
turns into 58th Street. This is another aerial photograph. Again, my client's property before
it was subdivided goes from wire loosing to the back wall of this property or sidewall of this
property on 58th Street and then continues on to 58th Street. And the request today is simply to
continues on to 50 A Street. And the request today is simply to make the rear property line
Thank you.
equal to the property on the corner so that both rear yards are the same size, but to slice off
this 423 square foot parcel for use by my client, not for development, not for parking, but simply
for an area for gathering, to have flowers, to have a little bit of a garden, and to have playtime
with his grandchildren. These are just some grade level shots of the area that we're talking about.
So this is the area that we're asking to be subdivided to 423 square feet.
Again, you can see he has a table of chairs there. Sometimes he has a barbecue
with friends and family from the block.
Again, he's not going to use it for any development.
There's no intent for that.
It's simply, as he said in his application,
for use by members of his family and the community.
And there's an exit here onto 58th Street.
This would be, again, the subdivided parcel.
When I get to the plan,
it'll be even more discernible
as to what we're trying to do.
These are the zoning posters that we placed on the front of the house and also on the side to give passersby notice of today's hearing.
So this is the plan, and I'll start with existing conditions.
So as I said with the aerial photograph, the property now is on wire loosing, goes down and turns somewhat of a flag lot, although the flag portion is not that big.
The idea is to take the rear property line of the property on the corner and continue with that so that both of these yards, rear yards, will be the same after the subdivision and the 423 square foot piece will be a separate parcel for separate use by my client.
this is after the subdivision by the survey district here's the new lot will be parcel
b equal to the lot next door and parcel c will be the small slice in the rear
these are the legal descriptions of both parcels which we need on a subdivision plan
The remaining documents are the appeal for application, which my client filed on his own.
We also have the tax clearance, tax certification, as well as proof that there are no real estate taxes owed, according to the Philadelphia Tax Center, as part of the EOPA.
Here's a clear view of what we have now.
This is existing.
Again, the back portion where the flag is, is going to be divided from the existing lot, and then we'll have two separate parcels.
This is the deed indicating ownership.
My clients own the property since 2017.
Notice letter to the community and all the addresses of all the surrounding communities,
and proof of mailing with a stamp from the USPS
indicating all the addresses
that did in fact get the letters.
So Mr. Chairman, we're asking for a subdivision
of existing property,
which my client has owned since 2017.
We're not impacting any adjacent property later air.
We're not impacting development of any adjacent property.
We're generally in harmony with the code.
The parcel is not meant to be for construction
or for parking.
We're not going to come back another day and ask for a parking space.
It's simply for use by my client, who's a long-term resident of the neighborhood, for continued enjoyment, a flowery area, a small garden area, and a gathering space for him and his family.
And with that, I would like to rest and not ask my client if it's okay with you, Mr. Chairman.
Not my testimony.
Can he hear?
Can he speak there, Henry?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Kevin Wise, K-E-V-I-N, W-I-N-C.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, Mr. Clinton.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wise, you were here when I presented your project, correct?
And if you had the opportunity to testify, we do adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Wise.
Questions from the board?
Yeah, I do. I do if I could.
I don't see any reason why the owner can't do what he wants to do without subdividing the land.
Right. Mr. Johns, what he wanted to do, he subdivided, not for only the use, as I described, but also that in.
He said about it, not for only the use, as I described, but also that in the event that he wants to sell his existing property at 5745, he would still maintain ownership of the parcel in the rear, and he could sell his property unencumbered.
Gotcha. Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you, Michael.
Other questions from the board?
Of course.
Questions from our attorney.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands, Chair.
Any commission?
Amy Boyd for the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family zoning at this location.
The Appellant has not shown that the property cannot possibly be used in strict conformity
with the zoning code and that the variance is therefore necessary to enable viable economic
use of the property.
Further, the proposed Lot C is grossly undersized, a reminder that variance is run with the land,
not the owner's.
There is no guarantee as to the intent of any future owner's use of the proposed parcel.
Therefore, the Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the requested variance
for lot adjustment on the basis of minimum lot area.
So, number 16, MI 2024, 000821, 5745, Wyalusing, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, I vote yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Sonata Graham, my vote is yes.
Ty and Warren, I vote.
Go ahead, Tyler.
Iowen, my vote is yes.
H. Miller Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Councilor.
Mr. Chairman, may I say a fond farewell to Tanya Sunkit, a very, very professional and classy individual.
We will miss her.
Thank you very much.
Number 18, MI 2024, 003409, 401 Martin Street.
William O'Brien is the attorney. We also have Kim L. Langer, the attorney for the owner, and Leonard Reuter, the attorney for L&I.
Leonard Reuter has been promoted, and I'm about to promote William O'Brien.
He has been promoted, Chair.
Okay. Mr. O'Brien?
leonard could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
uh sure uh good afternoon may it please the board leonard f reuter r-e-u-t-e-r senior attorney for
the city of philadelphia do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do mr o'brien uh good afternoon mr chairman members of the board william o'brien
w-i-l-l-i-a-m-o-b-r-i-e-n for baker street partners you swear or firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do um mr o'brien we have another attorney kim l langert
yes kim represents the property owner okay is is kim here she has been here okay kim
do we see her hand
oh sorry chair yes kim will be allowed should i promote her please okay she's been promoted
good morning could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer
I don't see her yet
she should be coming in
there she is
Doreen, do we hear?
Yes, I'm here.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Could you please state your name?
Can you hear?
Hi, Ken, sir. I'm sorry.
Hi, Ken, sir. I'm sorry.
All right, sure. Hi, could you please state your name and spell?
All right, sure. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
Yes, sir. It's Kim Lengert, K-I-M, first name, last name, L-E-N-G-E-R-T.
Do you swear, Fern, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Counsel, could you please state who your client is and who you represent?
I represent the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Thank you.
This is an appeal against L&I, and I think we're going to start with Mr. O'Brien. Am I correct?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As I said, I represent Baker Street Partners, and to my right is Andy Molson and Steve Oshefsky, the two managing members of Baker Street Partners.
As you know, you just heard who Kim represents.
401 Martin Street is also known as the Bethany Lutheran Church.
It's been there since 1873.
um as just as a way of setting the table just briefly um baker street partners has had a
tremendous amount of success with converting uh former religious uh houses of worship and
religious uses in roxborough to multi-family uh saint lucy's church was successfully completed
several years ago it's now 27 apartments or 29 apartments rather um 492 roxborough avenue
It was a parsonage for a church that was converted to 27 units, and the parish house, individually listed historic property, the parish house of St. David's Church at 150 DuPont Street was converted to 12 apartments, and all of those developments have one-to-one parking.
um in uh february of this year baker street partners uh was introduced to uh 401 martin
street as being available for sale uh they were given uh and if i can share my screen please
they were given uh
a zoning permit, which is page two of the exhibit package.
And you can see on the second page, the indicated use is multifamily household living 14 dwelling
units. They also were given, and that was issued June 1 of 2023. They were also given a property
certificate issued in August of 2023, again, confirming the 14 dwelling units.
They signed the agreement of sale based on these representations. And then, of course,
we had some due diligence. And we then found out that, in fact, the permit was properly posted.
Page three of the exhibit, or sorry, page five of the exhibit now on the screen
is an affidavit from Tom Bond, who is the listing agent for the church. And he
this is his affidavit that it was posted on June 7, 2023. The following exhibit is an affidavit
that it remained posted until June 12 of this year. We did a little homework at that time,
and we found out that the neighborhood was very well aware of this proposed conversion from
a former church to multifamily. On the page now, on the screen now at page seven is an Instagram
post from Naked Philly. It has 74, I'm sorry, 79 likes right here. And it refers to the fact that
14 residents is coming to the former Bethany Lutheran Church in Roxborough.
And there are three comments, 79 likes and three comments that are highlighted on the screen. Fascinating. Who's the architect? Maniok-Roxborough going to be the new Chestnut Hill in 15 to 20 years. Exciting project. Can't wait to see the details unfold.
It was also posted by a real estate company, OCF Realty, on their blog.
And I won't go through the whole thing.
I will just point out that they go through some of the history and the history of the church.
And there was only one comment to this, and it was a favorable comment from James Goodwin.
If the Historical Commission lets them build according to plan without interference, then the result will be a beautiful building to be enjoyed by all.
And again, these are posted back in June and July of 2023.
The next page is just the information of Dennis Carlyle, the vice president of that real estate company, who is the one who posted this.
Based upon the community's awareness, the permits, the property certification, on March 27th, my client filed a building permit.
property certification on march 27th my client filed a building permit application