Sir, can you, Mr. Bergman, can you hear me?
I can hear you.
I can hear you.
Can everyone hear me?
But I can't get my camera to work.
Here's the question.
can you share your screen to get the documents up? So my client, Michelle Cruz, who is
applying for the variants, she has her documents. Can she come in as a panelist?
She has her documents ready to share. Well, why don't we do this? Why don't we
we can bring her on let her work the documents right and then you'll you'll testify to the
documents is that okay yes she will test and then at the end then at the end we'll bring her back
on to adopt your testimony all right yes okay jason we okay with that chair if you would just
let me i know what's wrong with his uh his camera he has he has like a a strip over his camera a
protective strip he should slide that over no there's no protective strip okay it looks that
way to us but thank you can you see me we just see the the strip that's covering your camera
so now we see the documents right can you see the documents Mr. Funk
i am no i cannot i wait bear with me yes there thank you okay okay so you've already been sworn
am i correct yes sir yes okay so why don't you start your presentation the uh the property in
question is uh owned by michelle cruz it's 26 33 oxford street she's applying for a variance
or a um for a permit for visitor accommodation
what she's uh seeking is your documents are nailed down we don't see the documents anymore
bear with me michelle can you hear me
i think my docu i think the documents are coming up right now
one moment we're going to promote her as a panelist please
And we start the documents over.
Mr. Funk, do you see the documents?
Yes. Okay. So let's start the documents over, go back to the beginning of the documents.
So Michelle, since she's now a panelist, she is the owner of the property. She's going to give
the testimony and the documents on this. Bear with me. Excuse me, Mr. Funk, this is Hillary.
um so ms cruz owns the property as an llc that's why she's required to have an attorney and you
need to present the case on her behalf before the board you can call her as a witness and ask
her questions but you need to give the presentation what we're going to do is i'm going to request a
continuance on this okay all right so okay all right MI 2022 004 477 2633 Oxford Street
this case is continued but must be tried next time must be tried okay yes all right
um is there anyone from the 930 list in the virtual audience whose case has not been called
as of yet i'm sorry i have a lucille markowski with the hand raised okay
they've been allowed to speak good morning could you state your name please and spell
for the court stenographer. Hi, good morning. It's Lucille, L-U-C-I-L-L-E.
Hi, good morning. It's Lucille, L-U-C-I-L-L-E, Mokarski, M-O-C-A-R-S-K-I.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
What case, ma'am?
I just wanted to clarify, it's 2633 Orthodox Street. I know that that keeps getting mixed up with Oxford.
no so 2633 orthodox street yes you had to continue it the attorney could not get
correct the attorney's technology wasn't working properly so that case is continued i know that
this address keeps getting mixed up because the last zoning notice that the owners of this llc
put up on their front door was posted for the Oxford Street location, although they know that
they were the Orthodox Street location. So I just wanted to make sure that that mistake doesn't
happen again. Okay. We will take that into consideration, but 2633 Orthodox Street is
continued and its mark must be tried the next time. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for calling
in and taking the interest. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience
whose case has not been heard? Mr. Chair, Ray D'Rizzo has his hand raised again. Do I allow
him to speak briefly? Sure. Looks like he's put his hand down again now. Sorry. Okay. Is there
anyone else whose case has not been called? No further answer, Mr. Chair. Thanks, sir.
See everyone at 2 p.m.
Thank you all.
Good afternoon, my name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing this afternoon ZBA hearings.
With me is our Vice Chair Ismail Shahid, our Board Member Thomas Holliman.
President, Mr. Chairman
And our board member, James Snell
Present, Chair
Thank you
Also present is Hilary Emerson, our attorney
And our executive director, Tanya Sunkett
Here's our virtual format
Be advised, proceedings are being recorded
Video will be available by contacting
tanyasunkett at phil.gov. For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and
witnesses to identify themselves before testifying. If you're participating by phone, you wish to
testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute. To enter an appearance statement,
call 267-270-5548. Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
Finally, the question answer box is not for testimony or comments.
All comments should be directed to our executive director on an assignment.
Let's look at this afternoon's schedule.
Number 11, MI 2023-003-241-1607-09 Ridge Avenue.
This case is being continued by the board.
Are there any other requests for continuances in the audience?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. This is Jason Hand. I am once more co-hosting today.
Thank you.
I do not see your hands at this time, sir.
Okay. So we're going to go right to our list. We're going to start with number 12.
MI 2023-002-342-1716-18 Addison Street. Robert Day is the appellant.
this is appeal against lni leonard reuter is also going to be on the case
mr day
okay mr chair both parties have been promoted to panelists
mr day could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
Hello, this is Rob Day.
hi could you spell your name please for the court reporter sure robert day r-o-b-e-r-t
Hi, could you spell your name, please, for the court reporter?
Sure, Robert Day, R-O-B-E.
is my first name last name d-a-y right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes okay and also uh leonard reuter please
Leonard. Hi, Leonard. Hi, there you are. Can you state your name, please, and spell for the
court stenographer? Sure. May it please the board, Leonard F. Reuter for the City of Philadelphia.
I'm also joined today by Willow Jessup, who is the plans examiner. Okay. If I could ask that
Willow be promoted. Let me swear you first. Do you swear for him to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you.
Jason, do we see the planet of Tamner?
I see her.
Will it be said?
Okay, she's already put vote.
Good afternoon.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
willow jessup w-i-l-l-o-w-g-e-s-s-o-p right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes mr day you you have a case this is your appeal gets l and i
um you want to would you want to start please for me and give us what your issues are sure absolutely
let me start by saying I thank the board for its time. I've never done one of these before.
That's okay. I am an attorney, but I'm a somewhat green attorney. So please let me know if I can
clarify things or if I'm not speaking the language. I think it's helpful to just give a
bit of background to what we're trying to do at my house. I live in Philadelphia with my wife and
two children they're both young two daughters one's four one is about to be one years old
and what we're what I'm ultimately trying to do here is provide for their safety
we live in a beautiful block we love our house we love living in Philadelphia I work in Philadelphia
from Montgomery McCracken and we want to stay there but there's no secret that you know crime
is up throughout the city. At this point, Mr. Chair, I'm going to object. It's an appeal against
L&I, which is essentially a strictly legal issue. This isn't a variance case. So, Mr. Day, why don't
we do this? I hear your issues you're trying to put forward, but I think I want you to do is to
concentrate on what the appeal against L&I is. Sure. Okay. So, okay, great. So, yeah, okay. So
So essentially what we applied for is a parking permit.
My house, I have, I think I submitted to the board the plans.
I can share my screen, I think, and show it if we need to.
But essentially, we have two properties, 1716 and 1718.
The 1718 side is open on the first floor.
It basically has, there is an entrance, it used to be two houses. So there is a door on the 1718 side, but it basically is, it's on the side of the property and it is about the size, the entryway is about the size of a coat closet and basically just gives you, originally just had steps to the second floor.
So what you're left with on the 1718 side is a completely open space that's over nine feet wide that can fit a car.
And we know that because we did a lot of work to figure out whether we could.
But it has an open space that is big enough for a car.
And it goes completely through.
There's no sort of back wall or front wall.
It's just an open area, the second floor above it.
And it leads straight through to the back of my property. And then there's what's basically an alleyway that's parallel to Addison Street. And from that alleyway, you can access the properties of basically a bunch of the Lombard Street houses in the back and also other Addison Street properties adjacent to my own.
And so and that through way is.
And so, and that thruway is, has an easement attached to it. That easement gives my neighbors a right-of-way to use the passageway to transport for various usage. It's a right-of-way easement.
Mr. Day, it would be helpful. Do you have a picture or a drawing?
Yeah, sure. I'll share it.
Why don't you put it up? I think it'd be easier if we looked at it.
Yeah, sure. Let me just see if I can. Okay, let me see if I can do this.
Share your screen on the bottom, the green dot.
Yeah, I know. I should be Zoom competent, and yet I'm failing right now. Okay, here we are.
this is the design that was actually originally approved by the lni is it is it showing
yes we should okay and so the shaded area is the through way it is this is this was a originally
the plan that we submitted to lni that was approved after back and forth um and
And so essentially, what I believe the legal issue here is and why it was rejected, it was because it was viewed as an improper parking space given our zoning.
And I don't know the technical details of our zoning, but it forbids certain kinds of parking spaces with certain exceptions.
And I'd like to just pull up that language real very quickly.
I think I should be able to do it by just clicking right here, Accessory Parking, and
what was cited is C1 here.
Is that showing?
A C1 says that you can't have parking unless it can be accessed from a shared driveway
or alley.
So parking is prohibited unless it can be accessed from a shared driveway or alley.
And the key question here legally is whether my somewhat odd application property situation satisfies the requirements of either a shared driveway or an alley.
And I think it does.
I'm no zoning expert, but when I look at the language of what an alley is and what a shared driveway is, it seems to straightforwardly apply.
Here's the definition of a shared driveway.
It's a common right-of-way shared by three or more budding landowners or building owners that provides vehicular access to one or more lots of vehicles.
Now, vehicular isn't further defined in the code, but it is under Merriam-Webster's dictionary definition.
It's an object that carries goods or persons.
And my neighbors have used the easement for precisely that purpose, to provide vehicular access.
They use it to carry their bikes through our space.
They use it to have their repairmen carry appliances through our space.
And so, in my view, by the letter of this code, it has been used for vehicular access.
And in fact, it would continue to do so because it has plenty of space to do that.
And so that, in my view, because there's an easement here and because it's an open space that leads to, I think it's about 10 properties in the back.
So, Mr. Day, here's the issue.
So you received a zoning permit on 11-1-22.
Is that right?
Correct.
Something like that, yeah.
Then on March 13, 2023, Ellen and I said they were going to revoke the permit.
Is that right?
Correct.
Okay. All right. Now, one other thing. Do you have a picture of this?
A picture?
Or just a drawing?
I just have the drawing with me.
Okay. That's fine. Okay. And you disagree that it was, shouldn't have been revoked. Is that what you're saying?
Correct. Yeah. And it was revoked on the basis of this code. So that's why, that's the legal question.
okay and so you you you think you had the right to do with where you are right the permit as the
lni board originally said okay all right um uh leonard do you want to uh sure yeah um let me just uh
Sure, yeah. Let me just, if I can, I just have a couple questions for Mr. Day. I'm just going to try to share my screen here.
mr day can you please stop sharing your screen so that mr reuter can share thank you we can
only have one share at a time sure so i was just trying to show the definition of alley but
that was completing my legal argument i think it qualifies as a legal as an alley or a shared
driveway. Thank you. So, Mr. Day, I'm just going to share my screen, hopefully.
Can you all see that? It's coming up. We see it now. Sweet. All right. Mr. Day, would you agree
that this is your property here 1716 has the green door and the 1718 has the
opening that you see there are these are these two your properties correct okay uh and those are
now have that that was consolidated right i mean there's no that's not in dispute so what do you
mean by consolidated well you're treating it as a single address now right
So it's your intention that this opening here would provide access to a vehicle to go in there and park.
Is that right?
That's correct.