yes i do please proceed counsel yes aviad you heard everything i had to say today about your
zoning matter. Yes, correct. And is it true and correct what I stated? Yes. And do you adopt it
as your own testimony? Yes, I do. Thank you. We're going to have the board ask some questions.
How wide is that? How wide is that property? You know, it looks narrow. It's actually 15 feet,
10 inches it looks like like a skinny little thing but according to you know the drawings
is 15 feet 10 inches okay questions from the board uh yeah i do i guess similar comments as before
another unit that we looked at if you can go to the layout of the plans
sure to share my screen i'll try to be quick um one on the first floor the first floor unit and
base it's a bi-level unit i assume would you call it now for two living rooms so that kind of
is strange um so i'm assuming that basement is a den in a bedroom yeah i would say so i think when
I think it's his family room here.
So his family room, okay.
And then the other concern that I have
is on the second and third floor units
is there's no natural light
for the living room, kitchen area.
Because you've got bedroom and bedroom in front,
bedroom in the back, and there's no natural light.
So that's a pretty dismal living space.
But in terms of other zoning related issues, it's all two stories on that street. So are you setting back? That doesn't look like you're setting back the third floor. You are setting back the third floor. And is that it?
We are setting back the third floor. It's right. Well, of course, it's our porch, but here's the roof area here, which we do set back.
on a deck that looks like sliding doors is that a deck it just says roof area um i think there
may be i think these are windows just to give more like light in there but um i don't let me
see from the proposal i don't know if we let me see the site plans here i don't have this site
plan hold on a second sorry just trying to no i think it's like uh i don't i don't i think it's
It's just like an open window.
So there's no request for a deck then?
No, there is no.
Not that I see, at least on the description.
In the notice of refusal.
So that's my big issue is that there's no natural light in the living space.
So again, I'm not an architect.
I only see this, but I do see enough of these projects that I can say that
I think what you can do is you can inverse maybe where the kitchen living room area is and switch that with the with the with the bedroom and have a more interior bedroom.
and have a more interior bedroom if that's you know but again i'm not here to to design
That's, you know, but again, I'm not here to design.
but i could see that there's an opportunity to do that as well
questions yep i want to know about the hardship for not being an rsa5 unit are you just saying
just because he bought it and it was flipped over is that like what is the hardship for
not being a single family unit because exactly he bought the property spent money on this property
December of 2022. It wasn't even like an ordinance that was under consideration and then it changed
because that's the whole pending ordinance doctrine. He literally bought it in December
2022. The next month, the ordinance was proposed. If he knew that the zoning was going to change,
he would not have purchased the property. The hardship is he purchased it with the intention
of building multifamily.
And there's multiple instances.
I heard another presentation
where, okay, let's,
well, is there any multifamily around there?
The answer is yes.
There's multiple instances of triplexes
and there's multiple instances of this board
granting variances under similar circumstances.
I definitely think the hardship here
is literally less than a month
after he purchased the property,
the zoning changed on it.
Any other questions on the board?
I have a question because you cited many other triplexes in the neighborhood.
And I want to know, are there any actually fronting 43rd?
Because it looks like for about a four block radius, everything is two story.
So, well, again, there are multiple instances in those plans that I showed you that were similar.
There were, I think those weren't on 43rd Street.
So I'm asking.
They were.
They are.
Here, let me go back.
I remember you mentioning one on 43rd Street, but the other two I thought were on parallel streets.
No, the variances were granted on Westminster, but the ones that are improved as triplexes, 913 North 43rd Street, 917 North 43rd Street, 940 North 43rd Street.
and then a thousand four north 43rd street and all of those are new construction that's right
any other questions and i specifically also let me just stop sharing my screen
um i also specifically attach the the the l and i uh files to show you that they're equally set
back on the third story and I think there were either four or five instances I just referenced
four of the five had porches just like the porches of the existing construction there
and ours also respects that existing construction by also having a porch
and why three and not two because again if this was uh if this this we're asking for a buy right
option essentially like we my client expected to have three units when he purchased three units or
it said multifamily it said three units when he bought it oh yes no no i said multifamily but if
you just do the math it's 1266 square feet of lot size which which as an r1 property would allow it
for three units that's what he was expecting that's what he paid for that's the benefit of
bargain that bargain was taken from him the following month and the city has every right
to change the zoning but i think this there is definitely circumstances here to allow this
to besides the fact that we're mimicking other properties nearby questions from our attorney
hillary emerson not at this time mr sheriff questions or comments from the virtual audience
Yes, sir. I have a hand up by the name of Annette Madar.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon. My name is Annette Madar, A-N-A-T, Madar, M-A-D-A-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am.
Please proceed.
I'm an owner of a triplex myself on 42nd, and I understand the need of an owner, and I'm by right, didn't need any variance when I purchased.
I understand what happened over here to this owner.
I perfectly understand that hardship of building single family versus a triplex, it's a big challenge, and to buy a lot in a price.
It's a big, challenging, and to buy a lot in a price of a multi-unit and not a single family, it's a loss if he's not going to be able to receive it.
And I do vote yes for the triplex, knowing that it's plenty of triplex in 42nd and 43rd Street.
I think it's fair to allow him the opportunity.
Thank you. Thank you for taking the time, Nicole. We appreciate it. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, sir. I have one more hand up by the name of Idan Shlomo.
They have been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Idan Shlomo. Idan, E-D-O-N, Shlomo, S-H-L-O-M-O.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I'm a near neighbor.
Please proceed.
I participate in the community meeting as well.
I appreciate that the builder took a lot of our thoughts and concerns into design.
I think, especially as a triplex, that this is really going to help develop our community, build, make it safety.
New construction is better than lots for our safety and bringing potential families and community members together in here.
And I fully support this project.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call.
Anyone else?
Yes, Chair.
I have a hand up by the name of Natasha G.
They have been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hi, good afternoon.
My name is Natasha, N-A-T-A-S-H-A, last name G-A-L-A-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am.
Please proceed.
So I do agree and support the new and upcoming project. I live in a triplex and I'm only a block away. We have several triplexes in this neighborhood. I really don't understand why the city would change the zoning on a land. But lastly, I say yes, and I do support it.
All right. Thank you very much for taking the time to call. Anyone left?
No, Chair. There are no more hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
thank you chair bergman and good afternoon david effecta with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city changed the zoning map from rm1 residential
multi-family to rsa5 residential single-family in 2023 in a community requested map change
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance that would prevent this property from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
This is a primarily single-family block face.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the proposed use variants for three dwelling units.
Thank you.
MI 2024, 002072, 927 North 43rd Street, I vote yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
michael johns my vote is no tana graham my vote is no i am when my vote is no
cheryl you're cheryl
i'm sorry cheryl gaston my vote is no sorry thank you number eight mi
July 2024, 002-321-1252 South 15th Street.
Al Nockamson is the attorney.
The coordinating RCO, East Point Breeze, did not reach an agreement on this.
Mr. Nockamson.
Mr. Nockamson?
Yeah, I was booted out as a panelist, and now I'm coming back in.
Okay, all right.
Just state your name for the record.
Yes, Alan Nockamson.
And could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is 1252KILLC, and in the virtual audience is Mark Lahajani.
Mr. Nockamson, did you receive the photos that were sent to the board?
I did.
I'm glad that we have that updated system. So now we get to see notice of if anyone else submits it. So, yes, we did. And I'm prepared to, you know, to at least discuss it now.
All right. Do you agree to the waiving of the refusal and its accuracy?
All your documents were sent within five days prior.
That's right. I mean, we supplemented based on getting that. But yes.
Why don't you share your screen and start your project?
Thank you.
Okay. So this is 1252 South 15th Street. This is in the East Point Breeze section of Philadelphia. We're right off on Broad Street here.
We are between, let me try and say,
Battle and Wharton Street.
So during our presentation,
we're going to review the notice of refusal
and then the correspondence
from the East Point Spree's neighbors.
As the chairman stated,
there was a split vote here.
We did reach out to the community
and we do have like form letters
to support of 21 individuals,
15 of them are near neighbors based on the addresses that the City Planning Commission gave us as affected properties, and we'll go through that.
This was a compromised property when my client purchased it in June of 2023.
Soon or around the time that he purchased this property, there was a make-safe violation or an unsafe violation against the property.
He had nothing to do with that.
You know, we'll see from the Redfin listing that there was work done on the property even before he handled it.
But again, he didn't do that work.
So he inherited a lot of the issues with the property.
So when he purchased the property in June of 2023, soon thereafter, in September of 2023,
he did get a make-safe permit to do some limited work on trying to make the property safe, structural standpoint and such.
and he did the facade work and there was a question of, well, he did some stuff in the
backyard to clean up the concrete or put a new concrete down. He got a violation in February
2024. At that point, he contacted our office and I said, stop all work. Let's just get the use
approved, right? Because the intention was always to have two family household living here.
And then at that point, you can get an alteration permit, and we can go on from that.
So you'll see in my presentation materials the make-safe permit.
Again, it's not out of character to have multifamily, and you'll see that from the materials that I've given.
And a lot of that multifamily is more than two units, but we think it's appropriate to only have two units, to give a nice size units.
Each of these units are going to be 1,100 square feet, and so we thought that that was a good size for it.
We did get community letters of support.
Those are form letters of support, and I marked them in red if they are considered nearby neighbors.
That means affected properties within the 250 square foot radius.
Those are the addresses that are noted by the City Planning Commission, which are affected by way of this property.