we're broadcasting okay thank you good morning everyone my name is frank di chico i'm the chair
of the zoning board of adjustment i'll be participating in today's hearing along with
vice chair miss carol tenere our board secretary mr confessor plaza and our board members mr thomas
hollowman and mr james snell also will in attendance will be our board administrator
Ms. Tanya Sunket and Board Attorney Sharon Saleta. For those of you who haven't yet participated in
one of our virtual hearings, I'll go through some of the basics of what you can expect. First,
we'll begin this morning's session by reading a list of cases to be continued. If you believe
that any case is being continued in error, we will give you an opportunity to respond.
after reading the continuance list and receiving any feedback we will take any additional
continuance request then once we've confirmed which hearings are being continued vice chair
tenere will begin calling the remaining cases listed for this session when a case is called
we ask attorneys representing clients or other interested parties in the matter identify
themselves for the record. We will then hear the applicant's presentation, followed by any
presentation by attorneys representing other parties. Interested parties and members of the
public, not represented by counsel, will then be given an opportunity to testify. We will finally
hear the recommendation of the Planning Commission. At the hearing's conclusion, we will either vote
the excuse me we'll either vote the matter immediately or hold it for
discussion in executive session any case held for discussion will be
voted at the next scheduled Wednesday morning session please note the
following changes related to the format the virtual format first we will be
administering oaths to individual participants prior to their testimony
Second, for the benefit of anyone participating by phone,
we ask that attorneys and witnesses identify themselves prior to speaking or testifying.
Third, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded
and that by participating you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
Fourth, anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify,
you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
I'll repeat, if you wish to testify by phone,
you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google pound 267-270-5548.
that's google pound 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property
at issue with that said we will begin but before Ms. Vice Chair Tenere calls our first case
we'd like to announce that the following cases are being continued
calendar number 40062 1304 West Allegheny, calendar number 39978 1720 Master Street,
calendar number 39557 2444 North 30th Street
calendar number 39558 3029 West Dauphin
meeting item meaning M as in Michael I as in interest
2-0-2-0-0-0-8-2-6-6-3-0-1 North Broad Street. Calendar number 4-0-0-4-8-9-2-0
French Street and meeting item 2-0-2-0-0-0-0-7-5-7-7-3-9 North Capitol Street.
and with that let me check my notes if anyone believes that any of those cases
that I just called out as being continued was done in error please raise
your hand now no hands at this moment
No hands at this moment.
Thank you.
Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals?
Please raise your hand now.
Chair, we have Sheila Dickens-Moseley.
Sheila, you can unmute yourself and speak to the continuance.
Good morning, Ms. Mosley. Please spell your full name for the record.
Good morning. My name is Sheila Dickens Mosley, S-H-E-I-L-A, Dickens, D-I-C-K-E-N-S, Mosley, M-O-S-L-E-Y.
Ms. Mosley, you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
My understanding is that MI-2020-000115, which is 2444 North 30th Street, will be continued.
And do you have a continuous date? Ms. Sunkett will provide a date to you.
And, okay, she will provide a date to me, and is there, what is the explanation for
continuance?
Can I explain that there were no exhibits submitted?
You're required to submit, this is Sharon Saleta, the board's attorney, you're required
to submit exhibits at least five days prior to the hearing.
We did not receive those exhibits.
I did forward the exhibits to Jason Hand as I was instructed seven days in advance,
so do I need to resubmit the exhibits again? Yes, I think the requirement is that you send
them to the RCO mailbacks and that you copy me. Okay, because he gave you different instructions
as you will see in the documentation so um i need to send them to you sheriff yes i'll um
i will send you my email address and i apologize for the confusion so they're supposed to go to
both the rco box and to sharon saletta not an individual in the zba okay because he gave that's
the structure he gave me was the only supposed to go to him well did you receive the documents
from the email? I did, and that's what I have in the documentation. That's what's documented by
Jason Hand, exactly. So maybe I was a little confused because it was unclear, but I don't
have a problem with resending them again. No problem. Ms. Mosley, we apologize. These are,
as you know, challenging times for everyone. So just resubmit it, and then Ms. Sunkard will do
our best to get you a hearing okay thank you very much thank you thanks for understanding thank you
you too thank you any other requests for continuance or does anyone believe we may
have called a continuance in error please raise your hand
sean livecy yes you can unmute yourself and speak mr livecy will you spell your name for
the stenographer for the record yes this is sean livesy s-e-a-n-l-i-v-e-s-e-y from zarwin bomb
on behalf of the applicant for calendar number HA2020-000088,
which is for 6301 North Broad Street.
You swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
Now, this was a case that's listed for continuance,
and I'm just seeking to confirm that the continuance date will be September 22nd of this year.
That's something you would have to
confirm with
Ms. Sunkit, Mr. Lipsy
Yes, we do have email confirmation
from Ms. Sunkit
to the September 22nd date
Well, that's the date you have
and that's the date
you'll have your hearing
Very good, thank you
Anyone else?
continuance withdrawals or believe we read a continuance in error
that's all the hands i have up thank you ms tenary please proceed calling the first case
calendar number 39521 1217-19 east columbia avenue the attorney is alan knockerson
the attorney is alan knockamson
good morning mr knockamson carol you'll just do the rest of it i know i'm
waiting to see do you see him i don't see i see him
there he is okay mr knockamson can you please put your name and address
on the record and spell your last name. Yes, Alan Ockamson of Ockamson, PC, 123 South Broad
Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109. I apologize. Like, I don't know why my camera's
not working, so you'll just have a still photo of me for this hearing. That's okay. Do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth and nothing about the truth? Yes, I do. And do you also agree to
waive the reading of the refusal, and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
You may begin.
I'm going to share the screen.
Before you begin, just notice that the court reporter is here.
He's already with us.
Oh, great.
So we do have a stenographer right now.
Thank you.
All right.
So you should have in front of you a table of contents, which include eight exhibits.
The first is the deed to the property, showing that 1217-19 East Columbia Avenue LLC owns the property.
After that, you will see a certificate of tax clearance, showing that 1217-19 East Columbia Avenue LLC is tax-compliant with the city.
The third exhibit are multiple sub-exhibits in there.
The first is the notice of refusal dated 12-11-2019.
And then there's an authorization letter from the CBA allowing me to amend the zoning appeal, and we'll talk about that as well.
And then there's the notice of refusal dated 8-5 of 2020, and that's the operative notice of refusal for purposes of this hearing and the appeal.
So if you look at the notice of refusal dated 12-11-2019, we're proposing to put a second and third story addition on a pre-existing building structure of 3,200 square feet and use that building structure to have six dwelling units and six off-street parking spots.
We met with the Fishtown Neighbors Association, and we received feedback from them,
and we'll talk about that as well.
And, you know, from the feedback that we received, you know,
we amended with the permission of the ZBA to change our project to eliminate it
to four dwelling units and four interior parking spots.
So you'll see the application for appeal that we filed with the ZBA
with the original notice of refusal, which that appeal has been amended by way of the new notice
of refusal. So you'll see from the zoning map that we're on East Columbia Avenue and that we back up
into Moyer Street in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia. Now you'll see from the photographs
of the property, 1217-19 East Columbia Avenue, even though it's an RSA 5 structure, it's never
been used as a single family structure ever right this is a 3200 square foot lot and the building
structure has full lot coverage of 3200 square feet as you can see from its configuration it has
a curb cut and a garage and based on my review or at least you know background because there's not
much going on in the zoning file of his pre-existing uses our understanding is that this has been like
as a storage facility or different type of more quasi-industrial commercial uses in the past.
So you'll see the pictures to the right of us, the pictures to the left of us,
you'll see the zoning poster showing an orange sign, and then you'll see the fact that there's a lot,
even though this is, you know, a RSA 5, you know, neighborhood, there's a lot of multifamily use
around here. There's a 35-unit building down the street at 1247 East Columbia Avenue with 32
parking spaces. The building structure that butts against us in the rear, 412-24 Moyer Street,
is a 12-unit condominium building with off-street parking. And across the street at 1220 East
Columbia Avenue, there's a triplex, right? So one of the things that we wanted to do,
even though we're adding two or three stories, we wanted to, like, honor the significance of
that building structure. It has, like, a unique roof line. So when we added a second and third
story we try to keep the roof line uh that is there in terms of shape and configuration we
also wanted to have you know got rid of the or proposed to get rid of that stucco uh facade
and put a brook facade as you can see from this site plan we're also looking to
We're also looking to do four parking, well, from here, we're looking to do four parking spaces from six.
do uh four parkings well here from here
The other thing that I'll note is that in the rear of the first floor, there's a trash room, right?
There's no basement use.
And then there was something else that we changed up to.
We eliminated any type of roof deck because that was the commentary we received from the community.
So as you'll see, there are four units in this building, two on each floor.
They're each two-bedroom, two-bath.
And that was something else that the community felt very adamantly about, especially in the past,
that this property has been proposed for multifamily use over the last decade on several occasions.
So previously, when other projects were presented, the community was adamant against it.
I think that given what we're offering and comparing it to what the community was against in the past and showing the support of the nearby neighbors, this is more an appropriate use for this particular building structure.
But one of the things that I received from Fishtown Neighbors Association were two previous letters sent by them for previous projects.
And one of the things I noticed was that for the units themselves, two things.
They were concerned that they were going to be rental units, you know, for the previous projects, while this one's a condominium.
The second thing is, was not just the amount of units, where previously it was upwards of eight units for these other projects, while ours is four.
But they were also concerned about the amount of bedrooms, you know, for this project, for the project.
The previous one had three bedrooms.
these are more modest as two bedrooms. And as you can see here, there's elevations, front and rear
elevation of the property. Oh, and then the other thing that the community was really concerned
about in the past, and they had opposition by nearby neighbors, was the setback or lack thereof
in the rear. As you can see, as I stated before, this is a 32-foot structure, one-story structure
with full lot coverage. On the second and third floors, we purposefully set back 21 feet on the
second and third floors to respect the people that are on Moyer Street in the rear with that
condominium building. So we did meet with the Fishtown Neighbors Association. So more people
voted not in favor than in favor of this project, but it was a close vote. If you look at the
commentary, though, this is where we took it upon ourselves to, like, you know, make this a more
productive project for the community. So if you look at here, it says some neighbors feel four
units down from the previous proposal of six is a good compromise for a property that's owned for
two single families. I'm going to put you on speakerphone now. So that was a compromise. So
So previously, in two previous instances, other developers have proposed eight units
and six units, and then we had no idea about the history of this property.
So when we met with Fishtown neighbors and they provided those other letters, and we
heard what the community was saying during the community meeting, that's why we went
down to four units, right?
You know, and even here, if you look at the commentary, a nearby neighbor made the point
that if two single-family homes were constructed,
the community would criticize the construction of expensive housing,
implying the developer can't win.
So that was the other thing that we're focusing on,
is to keep it a mix of affordable housing in Fishtown.
You know, because, again, we're not that far from Frankfurt Avenue.
And, you know, we want to create density, obviously, for Frankfurt Avenue
to help, you know, continue to support the commercial corridor,
but also give it diversity in terms of the type of housing
that is within this part of Fishtown.