the duplexes and then that's that's the view uh looking some some of these uh empty warehouses
and i think the board has actually had cases recently for these to be multi-family um here
you go again that's the duplexes that's our zoning poster that's the federal street side
going back to manton that's the manton going looking to federal street um we we work closely
with the community council here, and we had a, I think it was almost a unanimous letter of support
from them for both properties. They understood that in this situation that the two units really
made sense. The applications for both, again, seeking the relief. These were the refusals,
the two family in the industrial district appeal. And then I'll get right to the plans itself.
here is here the floor plans there's two units and then the renderings this is
what it looks like on Federal Street they've been designed to really fit in
with the other residential that's on the block 31 feet two story three stories a
unit at the first floor and then a unit at the second and third floors that's
what it looks like with materials that are sympathetic to the neighborhood
these are the industrial district provisions this was the meeting notices and again we you know we
had worked pre-pandemic with city planning on this and then with the community to come up with what
to come up with what makes the most sense on these now vacant lots.
makes the most sense on these now vacant lots and the
And the two family, I think it was agreed by all parties,
seemed like to be the right transition in this location.
I guess at this point now, I have my client, USC Abraham,
who is also available, our project architect, Logan Dry,
who can get into any of the other details
and open it up to any questions that the board might have.
But it was a real good process with the community group to work through what was appropriate in this location.
Let's get your client on, and then we'll see if there are any questions.
Ms. Sunke, can you add Yossi Abraham to the discussion?
Good morning, everybody. It's Yossi Abraham.
Good morning, sir. Please spell your name for the stenographer.
It's a Y-O-S-E-F, last name Avraham, A-V-R-A-H-A-M.
We're in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed, Mr. Feldman.
And Yossi, you've heard my testimony?
And is it true and accurate?
And you adopt it as your own?
Okay. And just as another sideline, you've done a significant amount of work in this neighborhood, including the zoning board cases we had last week, and I think developed a lot of rapport with the community on doing right by them and developing it in the proper manner, correct?
i have a question looking at the photograph uh to the left
uh the front view first floor well no you go back to that you just had a
those are the duplexes no the the rendition you had of the prop of the proposed property
you know you had it up and when i asked the rendering yes okay i'm sorry i thought you're
looking for pictures here no no the rent i'm sorry give me one second here
okay looking at the the the rendering on the left you got a doorway entrance to the left of the
property what's that gray area next to to the right of the windows is that just that's a breezeway
does that go all the way back yes so that will be where trash gets stored in the back
yes yes okay that's that makes it accessible to the rear yard is that exactly yes okay thank you
yes uh we went through all those issues with the community group okay uh questions any questions
from the board no no no anyone else out there who wishes to testify in this matter if you haven't
already done so please raise your hand no hands up at this time thank you planning commission
the south district plan recommends residential zoning for this block accordingly we have no
objection to granting of the variance thank you calendar numbers 39890 2702 federal street
and calendar number 39891 2703 manton street my vote is yes on both my vote is yes on both
yes yes yes on both and as always thank you for your time and consideration and uh
be well likewise thank you calendar number 39640
dash 4832 longshore avenue the property is owned by an llc and they were trying to confirm
that the applicant will be represented by an attorney? Has that been confirmed?
And if so, that's good because I don't have the refusal on that one. I can send
you the refusal. The applicant is more MOR levy. So there's an individual
I'm an individual.
Thank you.
More Levy, I'm promoting you to a panelist.
More, do you have, are you an attorney or do you have someone else?
Hey, how are you?
Yeah, I have Mr. Levy, excuse me, would you please identify yourself, name and address,
spell your name for the stenographer sure my name is moore m-o-r levy l-e-v-y and the address of the
property is 4832 longshore avenue 19135 and sorry do you swear to the firm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir thank you and i have authority uh where yet
good morning panel this is lionel artem ginsburg l-i-o-n-e-l last name a-r-t-o-m as in mary
hyphen g-i-n-z-b-u-r-g 1628 jfk boulevard suite 2200 philadelphia pa 19103 for more
me and levy's properties llc levy's come do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing about the truth. I do. Thank you. Please proceed. Good morning panel. This
property is on Longshore Avenue. It is approximately one block from I-95. It is the first set of CMX
zonings after I-95. However, looking at the neighborhood, the only property that is in use
as a commercial space is the property next door, which is a daycare center.
The RCO has approved our plans, which are to convert the first floor to residential,
to put a deck on the roof, and to permit the accessory garage to be used as an office.
The RCO approved this with some provisos, and if I can share my screen, I will give you the letter from the RCOs. Hold on one second.
This is Sharon Saleta. I've gone through the provisos, and none of them actually can be added to if the case is approved. They are not enforceable.
all right thank you thank you miss aletta the uh the property as i'm bringing it up on the screen
now as you can see is a is a corner property on the we don't have your exhibits up yet
hold on a second let me thought i had my share screen on
here we go
uh it's a corner property it has a in the middle it has a small parking area and then in the back
it has what was originally a garage that was built in the 1950s that is part of the property
uh the previous uses as i can tell as i've been able to tell there was a chinese restaurant there
for a number of years and prior to that there was originally was a tailor shop uh this would be a
conversion to the first floor which would be residential as i understand it the property
across the street there which i'm bringing up the uh the the fancy red brick building is in
process of being converted also to residential. The only CMX use that I can
find on this block, you can see a little corner of it there, is this daycare
center which is right next door. Mord, do you agree with what I've said so far?
yes yes everything is correct uh we just uh it was empty for many many years the first floor
and nobody was interested in it or nothing like that because all the businesses like lined up
like next block on torsdale avenue and so we we basically just clean it up and like paint the
building and make it look better and we prefer to do it like a residential because i live in
actually on the second floor apartment and it's that it is very quiet right now
It's that it is very quiet right now
you don't have a lot of trafficking for like a
You don't have a lot of traffic in for like a corner store on all that and I know like the neighbors prefer that way
so it's not
Powering like this why like them want us to put the cameras and stuff like that because this corner
Taking a lot of attraction of stuff. You don't want it. So like that is don't bring all those kind of traffic
Into the into the neighborhood
Like you don't want it like as a corner store or food traffic in bringing in to those
a small corner store in those type of places so and on the roof deck is existing roof is actually
was there a deck we just want to provide it better make it better and uh we want to get a
permit for it too so it's like you see on the second floor if like you leno you can show us
the middle picture please the other picture with the middle with the gate yes so we can see what
we're talking about like just add a deck on the roof so it's not on the top roof or something
like that it's not like we're going out of the structure of the building or out of our lines so
we staying in our lines it's five away from the from the property lines from around the building
so we cover all that i just uh if lan i'm gonna switch the camera to the different picture there
so we can see what I talking about and the other back what it was a garage many
many years ago it was a garage it was a make safe on it we fix it we fix the
roof we fix the collapsed wall over there with a permit you can see it in a
history there we had permits and everything got done properly and just we
want to add is never done a bathroom there like a toilet and is actually
going to be my workshop slash office so I wanted to have like a toilet so I
don't have to come upstairs every time I want to use the restroom and that would
be this bit small building here on the left beyond the spirit we're not seeing
anything but the first view of the property hold on a second
zoom is giving me trouble i'm sorry here we go
back into zoom back into share and that would be this one you can see here the uh the the place
where the deck would be placed in is is the back of the uh of the longshore avenue facing building
there's the little garage space and then the portion here to the left is the uh it was the
garage that was built in the 50s that he wants to install the bathroom into
do you have a plan that shows where the deck uh that shows the deck that you're proposing
we do hold on one second because on the refusal i think that was one of the refusals not being a
being five foot setback oh no no we send it with the file i don't know why you didn't get it
but leonel gonna provide it right okay green so you address that issue yes yes yes yes that's
the thing what i want to do address the issues get a like how everything's solved
here here are the plans as i have them right here so as you see on the plans you can see like in
the middle you see like the where is darker like the middle picture you see where the darker spots
right above above where it was lionel so right there is a darker spot is like actually where
is the deck going to be is showing up up up up up up lionel up on the right on the right
and the discrimination yeah I know this where is the deck gonna be here yeah
this is what you're talking about yes and and then like right there you have
the yard in between so we're not counseling the yard or taking any spots
from the arts or or let and then we have the this texture the real texture is
already there and then we have our house in there and you can see the roof deck
is actually in there i can show you actually on the camera i'm home i can show you the place
and uh it's just like his existing roof and we just want to do like a deck there on top of the
roof and we have the door already like it was in this section of the building so people use it as
a deck them just don't have it uh finished you know nice okay so you addressed the issue of the
five-foot setback for the deck correct? Correct. Frank Sherman? Yes. Maybe we
make proviso for a five-foot setback for the deck as proviso. You can see that on
the guidelines on the plans like where is the plan like the property line and
the property line and how far sitting back the deck is like a more than four
how far sitting back the deck is like a
five feet actually so the revision you made is did that revise did that revise
the plan is in the plans yes it's in the plan showing the five foot the
guideline showing the guard line of the property and then what is the deck
seeking all right so it may not be necessary to do a proviso if it's in the
plan. Is that correct, Sharon? I believe it was refused on the basis of the setback. Is that the
same plan that was reviewed by L&I, or has it changed since then? More? Is this the original
plan that you gave me, or is it the revised plan? No, it's the advised plan. We never gave them on
the first plans we just advise them the plans later on for the plans we didn't
have this one again oh yes show us please the the plans again we can see on
the plan where is the property line and where is the deck actually so as you can
see the property line on the right hand side going across on the left on the
left on the left all the way on the left yeah you can see the property line going
all the way back and you can see the deck actually sitting far back you can
see it's like living six foot away from the property line okay all right so it's
in the plan and with that we don't need it as a proviso exactly that's accurate
i believe in both in both sides also okay all right all right any questions from the board
anyone else who wishes to testify in this matter if so please raise your hand
chris you can unmute yourself and speak regarding this case yes hello my name is chris labovitz
chris l-a-b-o-v-i-p-z i represent the tacconi civic association um the reason there was concern
excuse me mr labovitz yes we swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
enough about the truth i do thank you please proceed uh we did not oppose the construction
that i guess the variance the main concern was you know the potential use of the uh the garage
in the back um i had gotten calls from various neighbors i had seen it myself a lot of the work
was being done on the sidewalk and without permits so the concern was that things were being done
that weren't being stated in the plans. There were sidewalks being dug up,
plumbing being ran, and the concern was that the rear garage was not going to be an office,
that it was going to be another apartment, and that was the concern of the neighbors. That's
why in the one proviso we just had that the back garage would remain a garage, you know,
an office, not a living quarter. And the reason that, this is Sharon Soledig, and that can't be
because that is what is applied for uh was applied for so any deviation from that would already be
a violation of the zoning permit if one is granted perfect
does that answer your question mr love absolutely that's the and that's my uh you know some of my
ignorance in this but i'm just no no no no problem no problem so learning process for everyone thank
oh it certainly is yes but thank you very much thank you thank you anyone else who wishes to
testify in this matter please raise your hand if you haven't already done so
no hands raised chair you can proceed thank you planning commission
uh the north delaware district plan recommends remapping to rm1 for this parcel as part of a
larger neighborhood remapping to reflect the existing multi-family and a formerly commercial
block accordingly we have no objection to the granting of the variance thank you again uh
calendar number 39640 4832 longshore avenue my vote is yes my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes okay uh that completes the list carol that does complete
the list karen earlier you said you'd like to speak with us offline so does the board is the
board okay we she did the sharon said she needs about 10 minutes we could do that now can i ask
we could do that now can i ask can we instead do it before the afternoon sessions because i'm
can we instead do it before the afternoon sessions
still in the lurk hearing oh okay sure so we'll figure around that 145. yes that would be perfect
thank you i'll send out an invitation to do it on zoom all right thank you so the board 145