Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is our board member, Sheila L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Taya Nguyen.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our zoning board director, Ian Haggerty,
and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
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number three
mi2024-004-330-437 north 52nd street that case has been continued
Mr. Trader, do we have a date for that?
Let's see here.
I do not see a date for that one.
All right.
Give us one second.
And we need a date for four, too.
We can announce the dates later, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
And number four, MI 2024, 004-331-1900 Hofnagel Street.
That case has also been continued.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
Good morning, Chair.
My name is Karima Quintana.
I'll be your co-host for today.
we have a participant by the name of Oleg Sokolov with his hand raised.
Mr. Sokolov, you're allowed to speak.
Thank you.
Good morning, Chair, members of the board.
Council, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Or Oleg, O-L-E-G, Sokolov, S-O-K-O-L-O-V.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, Mr. Chair.
What case are you interested in?
2821 West Lehigh Avenue.
We do not have that case listed for today, sir.
This was a continued matter.
We have zoning posters for that date.
I also saw that it wasn't on the ZBA calendar.
Regardless, we are asking for a continuance of that matter.
I'm not sure where that leaves us administratively.
Okay, so why don't you call the office and we'll try to get that straight, okay?
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Chair.
Have a good day, everyone.
Any other requests for continuance?
I don't see any hands at this time, Chair.
So number nine, MI 2024-007-119-1323 South Hancock Street.
Danielle Auerbach is the attorney.
Also, Leonard Reuter for the city is involved in this case.
Good morning, Mr. Reuter.
Good morning.
Please take a seat.
May it please the board, Leonard F. Reuter for the city of Philadelphia.
That's R-E-U-T-E-R.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do thank you mr auerbach
uh mr chair mr auerbach had texted me a few minutes ago saying he was having some difficulty
uh not clear what it was whether it was his computer or just trying to log in
let me see if he if you with the board's indulgence let me see if he sent me anything else
sure thank you
well i know he'd probably want to hear this if you want to roll it over and just do the next one
we can do that why don't we we'll wait till he we get in touch with him we'll call you as soon as
you as soon as you hear from let me know we'll start the cases okay that's all right thank you
all right sure number six
mi 2024 006 108 1827 north 22nd street alan knockamson is the attorney i see mr goldberg here
good morning good morning chair we have mr alan knockamson with his hand raised
yeah alice alice will be presenting the screen here and alan will be present
Yeah, Alex will be presenting the screen here, and Alan will be presenting the testimony remotely.
You're both going to do that? Say that again? You're both going to?
Okay, okay, great. Thank you.
Mr. Nockamson, please.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Alan Nockamson.
all right mr knockamson could you please state your name again and spell it for the stenographer
alan knockamson a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n right do you swear or firm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do okay so mr knockamson this is a
resumptive hearing what we're looking at here is you to give us an update and information about
revised plans the board will ask questions our attorney will have an opportunity for questions
there will be public testimony and then planning will will make their positions
uh yes uh thank you sure could you please start uh yes uh again good morning my name is alan
knockamson of knockamson pc along with me is uh my co-counsel alex goldberg who is in the hearing
room, we represent 1827 N22 LLC, the owner of the property at 1827 North 22nd Street.
Again, just to give a summarization of this project, originally we were seeking six units
on this RSA 5 property, which is 1,728 square feet of lot size. It is not out of character
to have multifamily structures on this block in the neighboring block.
There are properties at 1829, 39, 43, 45, 34, and 1800 North 22nd Street,
which are all multifamily in nature, as well as 1906, 1904, and 1914 are all multifamily in nature.
Again, so the request for the multifamily use is to minimus in nature.
There's also a coverage refusal as well, which is also de minimis in nature to provide adequate floor plans.
We met with the community for this project some time ago,
and the only member of the community who showed up to that meeting, who I believe lived on that block, was in support of this project.
We initially, again, applied for six units.
There was some concern by the board that that was in the RCO for this project, Strawberry Managing Community Concerns.
Six units was a little bit too much for this property.
While we respectfully disagree and believe that six units would be adequate given the lot size of the property and other approvals this board has given on this block and the neighboring block,
We did agree to come back to provide revised floor plans for four units, which Mr. Goldberg will show you as part of our presentation.
But now we have on our floor plans unit number one, which is the first floor and lower level, which if you look at the first floor, it also includes interior trash room.
unit number two is on its own which is on the second floor and units three and
four are on the third floor as well so those are four units which would match
the character of that block and because of the support we had previously for the
six units and we would request that this board grant the zoning variance with
the following provisos revised plans um that we provided um also commercial trash pickups
and then trash stored indoors by way of that trash room on the first floor thank you
questions from the board
can you go back to your um i'll say i'll say this what you're talking about to the staff
what's the what's the depth there of the the basement i believe again this is based on memory
i believe that's eight feet so we're a year eight low grade that that is correct um i would ask that
Mr. Goldberg, if I'm mistaken in
any way, please correct it for record
keeping purposes.
He's correct.
It's correct.
Do we know the width between
the window and the facade
front and the wall
and the wall of the window well like the actual width i can see the ladder but the width is not
of the window well?
Like the actual width?
notated i don't know the architect may be in the virtual meeting mr goldberg could you uh sure
state your name and we're going to swear you all right alex goldberg alex g-o-l-d-b-e-r-g
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed
i do um olal couldsy of sgra may be in the virtual audience project architect who could
be able to assist you know with the answer to that question i don't know the the widths of the
window is he is he in the audience i don't see anybody with that name they they they'd have to
comply if you know but that's correct okay how to comply they look a little i don't know
my concern is the depth below grade um particularly for new construction or even rehab
yeah and and um board member johns if you know the board feels so inclined to prove a proviso
So regarding, you know, basement living, you know, we defer to the board on that in that respect.
But four units, you know, given the surrounding neighborhood is the appropriate amount of units for this project.
Thank you. Was the RCO okay with the four units that you know of?
We have not received any correspondence other than, you know, you know, asking us to resend the floor plans that we sent to the board five days before the hearing.
And again, just want to make sure for record keeping purposes, I'm correct.
But I believe at that initial hearing, I indicated that we would go down to four units and then the board asked us to provide revised drawings floor plans for this hearing.
But there was no communication that we received from the community group regarding this matter between the original hearing and this hearing, other than to re-provide those floor plans for today.
Other questions from the board?
Alan, I know you mentioned that this was appropriate for this block.
I think the comments that we got at the original hearing was that most of the buildings around were only duplexes or triplexes.
And so I want to know what's the hardship that sort of requires this one to be for.
Well, 1800 North 22nd Street, which is a four unit, is 1347 square feet and lot size.
1843 north 22nd street is a six unit which is 1636 square feet in lot size and then you have
two properties on the 1900 block 1904 which is a quad north 22nd street which is a quad plexus
1162 square feet in lot size in 1906 north 22nd street which is a five unit which is 1372 square
feet in lot size. So again, four units is not out of character. Yes. Are there other triplexes on
that block, which are slightly smaller than us? Yes, there are. But again, they're slightly
smaller than us by at least 100 square feet in lot size. In terms of the hardship, it's, you know,
again, this is a different time than when those properties were built. The interest rates are
much higher. The construction costs are much higher. And I know this does not go into the
equation, but the owner of the property is an affordable housing developer, which will provide
affordable housing to these properties. That's his business model. That's, you know, again,
not enforceable, I understand, but that's what he does for a living.
No, that I understand. I guess I was trying to understand what hardship necessitated for units.
The amount, because it would be impractical and almost impossible to develop this property for, you know, less than four units, given those factors I stated before.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Other questions from the board?
Questions from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Strawberry Mansion community concerned with their hand raised.
Thank you.