that are three one-bedroom units uh the basement itself is accessible only by the first unit
However, the backyard is accessible by all three units to allow for trash storage prior to trash day.
Let's see.
I believe that's it.
We've got a first floor one unit, second floor one unit, third floor one unit.
They're all going to be below market rate units starting at 850.
And with that, I'll call German.
If he's here, I believe that he is.
You can raise his hand.
German, you can unmute yourself and speak.
Can you hear me?
Yes, so hello, everyone.
So we met with the community back in January.
We need your full name and address, please.
Spell your name for the stenographer.
German Yakubov, last name's Y-A-K-U-B-O-V, at 4028 Westminster Avenue is the property.
So we met with the community. Okay, we're going to get sworn in, okay?
You swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I do, so affirm. Thank you, please proceed. Thank you, Tanya.
So we met with the community back in January with our grand plan of expanding the rear addition to as far as we could to conform to RM1 standards because that's what we thought that the rest of the area around it was zoned.
So we wanted to conform to that after meeting with the community and the next door neighbors.
They were opposed to it.
So we came back to the drawing board, reduced the footprint of the building to match the one next to it and the one on the other side, as well as reduced the number of units from six to three.
We met with the community again late last week and presented the new plans to them.
They were supportive of the plan, and I believe the councilwoman's office is supportive of the plan as well, the newly revised plan.
We've been in the neighborhood for a while, so our reputation of staying in the neighborhood and keeping our word after meeting with the community went a long way here.
Thank you, Jared.
That concludes our presentation, unless there's any questions.
Your client, if he adopts your testimony.
Oh, yes.
Chairman, do you adopt everything that I said regarding the project as true and accurate to the best of your outcome?
Thank you.
Mr. Consul, this is Sharon Solita.
Did you say that you're submitting revised plans?
Did you submit the revised plans form?
Yes, you did.
That's right.
Yes, we did.
It's only one page of revised plans.
The other, the one that shows the blueprint is just purely for plan purposes.
thank you thank you uh questions from the board no
anyone else who wishes to testify in this matter please raise your hand
i have cordy you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
please identify yourselves by your name for the stenographer and then i'll swear you in
Cordy, you can unmute yourself.
Moving on, I have Betty Ferguson.
Betty, you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
thank thank you can i am i being heard yes just please identify yourself name and address spell
your name for the stenographer well good afternoon um distinguished board zba board i'm betty
ferguson i am the chair of the belmont alliance civic association rco i just
of the Belmont Alliance Civic Association RCO.
I just wanted to reaffirm that.
Ms. Merkerson, do you swear and affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
And if I fail to mention the address,
did you need that?
871 North Holly Street, second floor, Philadelphia, 19104.
I just wanted to reaffirm that we met for the second time around with SFIG, with Jeremy Yacobo,
and we're in favor of the new plans. As long as he does, you know, be mindful of the facade,
this is a historic neighborhood it is old and we have unique buildings and as long as he stays
within compliance of that and just being a good neighbor we're definitely in favor of the new plan
thank you and the plans that he's submitting will be reflective of that
thank you thank you anyone else wish to testify on this matter
cordy you can speak now
i don't know what the problem is he's unmuted at this time anyone else beside cordy
no chair that's all okay uh planning commission
this property is indicated for residential use on the city plan based on the changes made to
the plans and the reduction of units we have no objection to the granting of the revised variances
thank you uh chair could i just interject for a moment please yes please uh in the efforts of
assisting uh cordy um he is not able to speak i gather and in the q a he mentions that the
applicant needs to mention that the approval was made with contingencies
what is there anything other than that was mentioned in your presentation mr
council when you talked about no the plans will reflect that it can't exceed
the property line at the rear of the property next door i think i heard you
say that you're going to restore the facade to its original uh or to keep it according to the
provisors from the rco yes the facade is included it'll be maximum of three units as opposed to six
so hopefully that answers mr cordy's question so i also have a david pickett david you can
unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in. Hello. Yes, please identify yourself, spell your name
for the record. My name is David Pickett, P-I-C-K-E-T-T. I'm president of the West Belmont
Civic Association and RCO in that area. You're swearing a firm to tell the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. I do. Thank you. Please proceed. I think I can speak a little bit
on cordy because i was also at that meeting she's the next door neighbor um and some of the provisos
that they've yet stated at the meeting which didn't make it into the letter were uh security
cameras at the rear of the house uh not enforceable by uh by the okay i had finished and he also
stated that he would put up security lighting around the back of the house and outside of the
house yeah that's not enforceable but i think in his best interest he would probably agree to do
that anyway that's correct and i believe that's what cordy was calling in about i appreciate that
thank you thank you that's all i have thank you very much anyone else that's all i have chair
thank you calendar number mi2020-000287 4028 westminster avenue my vote is yes with a proviso
revised plan one page approved today my vote is yes with proviso yes with proviso yes with proviso
yes with proviso thank you everyone thank you thank you calendar number three nine nine six
two thirty seven twenty seven baring street and that's on the northeast corner of north 38th
The attorney is David Orfanides.
can everybody see he's still on their oath so you don't have to see him
yes do you agree to do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I do want to make sure that I will waive the reading, and I do want to make sure
that I have a corrected notice of refusal. There was an initial notice of refusal, which is a tabby
of my exhibit package. Then there was a revised notice of refusal to further elaborate the
description of what was being applied for and to add some refusals that I thought were missed
the first time around. Excuse me. This is Sharon Saletti. Yes, we do have the second refusal.
Well, thank you.
Fantastic.
Thank you.
So then you agree to wave and step.
Yes, I do.
You may proceed.
Again, my name is David Orfanides with Orfanides & Toner,
2 Penn Center, 1500 John F. Kennedy Boulevard,
Suite 400, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19102.
I'm here this afternoon on behalf of 3727 Bering ST, LLC,
who owns the property.
They recently purchased the property, and we'll go through that.
I have with me today, on behalf of 3727 Bering Street, Nagesh Ravakanti, Amraju Gupta,
and then for the architects who prepared the drawings, I have Kevin Korejko and Mark Wallace.
So just to, if you, Ms. Sunkit, if you identify them ahead of time,
I'll be having them adopt my statements and then also add possible testimony.
all witnesses would need to raise their hand for me to identify them okay so nagesh raju mark
kevin and actually roman sosolsky who's the project manager is also so roman if you can
raise your hand as well okay i'm gonna just proceed um tab one is the posting uh both
the property is located on the northeast corner of bering and north 38th street
we did post both sides we posted with the original notice of refusal which you can see
here and then the revised notice of refusal we don't see any plans yet
oh i'm sorry did i not share the screen i beg your pardon hold on one second
can you see now yes great okay apologize for that skip the step so um again exhibit one is the
posting at the property of the hearing notice for today's hearing um but with both the original
notice of refusal. They're both dated the same date, but then the revised notice of refusal
and the revised notice upon that revised notice of refusal. Exhibit two is our tax clearance,
showing why clients own the property and that property and they are clear.
As I indicated, my clients recently purchased the property February 12th of this year.
and there's the deed at tab three showing them. Tab four is our aerial. The first page is zoomed in
showing our property here in the bottom left-hand corner of the image, again on the northeast corner
as you can see, as you'll see as we proceed. The second page, we're right off the Lancaster
Avenue to the south of us, not far off of Drexel's campus. We're in the Palatin Village section of
the city and it is an existing church you'll see photographs later on it's in pretty bad state of
disrepair both on the inside and out the property as you'll see in a minute is owned rsa3 which
does not allow for multi-family use if we were to demolish the church we would build i think three
single family dwellings here of basically any style that we'd like the goal of my clients all
along from the very beginning was to do everything that they could do to save the church and i think
we've accomplished that here so here in a couple minutes so here's a view from the south showing
the bering street facade of the church there used to be a bell tower on top which uh had to be
removed but stained glass windows at the upper floor those stained glass windows we will be able
to maintain. You'll see later on in the renderings. The next page is a view from the east.
in the renderings the next page is a view from the east it's showing the east wall
and the roof from the north next page my clients do own also at the same time purchase the abutting
property to the north and here's a view from the west in 3d image again to the left see this cream
colored three-story building my property my clients acquired that north 38th street below
bering street to the right hamilton street to the left or to the north so he indicated the property
is i mean but i said rca3 i mean rta1 which does not allow for multi-family it's single family use
one-to-one parking requirement and you'll see that in a second
tab six is our zoning permit application tab seven is our original zoning drawings what you'll see
in these drawings is essentially what the plan to do is is to create two shed dormers right now
it's two stories with the cellar we're going to create five floors within this extremely tall
structure creating two shed dormers to either side of the roof of the either side of the ridge
on the west and east side to create some more livable space at the upper floors and then at
the rear that you can see here back at the site plan and this is the northeast corner of the
property uh we're putting in a four-story structure which is actually basically to serve as the
second means of egress stairway and elevator access it's where ada their ada access will be
provided originally we had an ada ramp on north 38th street leading up to this rear entrance and
ada access to the units on the um on all but i think just a couple of the units which are not
ada access i think two or four um and the architects can specify that um through the
meeting with the community groups meetings with the community groups we eliminated
that ada ramp to get it off of the footway and we ended up as you'll see in the revised drawings
doing a lift along the stairs to the rear which then provides ada access into the building up
here in the left-hand corner of the property which is the southeast corner we're providing
a an enclosed bicycle storage shed that's located within the required distance of the primary
entrance which is and shall remain at bering street street trees there are existing street
trees. We'll be providing as many street trees along Bering Street and North 38th Street as
Fairmount Park Commission and Streets Department will allow us. As you can see, the property is
actually set back, or the building is actually set back from all property lines. So when you
look at it in the photographs, you can't tell because it's paved right up on the south and
west side but it's a detached structure with the front yards side yards rear yards
again these were the drawings that were originally submitted to lni the original notice of refusal
included a refusal for the multi-family originally we proposed 25 units residential dwelling units
Through the RCO process, we were able to reduce that to 22 units.
So you still have the multifamily use because we have more than one.
The parking space requirement was originally 25.
It's one-to-one in RTA1.
We now are required to have 22, but none are provided.
You'll see further down in my exhibits, my clients prepared a nice exhibit showing the proximity of the property to public transportation, car shares, bike shares.
we have an open area refusal the existing structure does not comply with the open area
requirements for the zoning district which is 50 percent the occupied area that we are adding again
is simply the enclosed bicycle structure which i'm now going back to the zoning drawings at tab
seven which again is in the over towards the southeast corner and then again the four-story
addition to the north of the building, on the north side of the building, that's providing
additional stair access or ingress and egress, mainly egress and then the elevator access.