no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and board members good
afternoon david effect of city planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning in this location
this property has a documented history as two dwelling units
and so the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed
use variance for two dwelling units thank you
mi2023 is 001 770 1022 dickerson street i vote yes
thomas holloman my vote is yes
if you know shaheed my vote is yes thank you you have your votes thank you
is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called
yes chair joseph consul has a hand raised okay
yes chair joseph council has a hand raised
good morning mr consul excuse me that's not joseph consul that's joseph caffon he is the
owner oh i'm sorry i yeah i pronounced that wrong joseph caffon
hi mr caffon your case is over and you have your votes oh okay thank you thank you sure
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
No hands, Chair.
Okay, Sierra, you want to two o'clock.
Thank you.
We can start now, right?
Yes, we already have 51 attendees.
Good afternoon.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the ZBA hearings this afternoon.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
I'm present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Thomas Holliman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, James Snell.
Present, Chair.
Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised if proceedings are being recorded.
The 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 and 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 address for the property in question.
And finally, the question and answer box on the screen is now for comments or testimony.
Well, comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sumpkin.
Let's look at our schedule this afternoon.
Number four, MI 2023-003-487-90 Rochelle Avenue.
This case is continued attorney moving party.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
Good afternoon, Chair.
I see no hands.
All right.
Thank you.
And then number 13.
Number 13.
MI 2023.
004-266-1458 North 30th Street.
This is the first listing.
Listing.
No exhibits.
The applicant is Herman Herman.
Kevin Bryan is the listed owner.
no hands chair okay thank you so mi 2023 004 266 1453 north 30 street this case is continued
mark must be tried let's look at our add-on list
with you
MI 2023-003-246-2990 Southampton Road. This case is continued until next Wednesday.
We will vote on this at 2 p.m.
MI 2023-003-182-2832-34 East Pacific Avenue.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
If you know Shaheen, I'll vote as yes.
Number three.
Hold on one minute.
Three is.
Number three, MI 2022-004-487-6016, Bingham.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
James Snell Shaheed, my vote is yes.
We're going to go to our regular list.
Number one.
MI 2023-002-336-251 Granaugh Street.
This is a resumptive hearing.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. Proceed.
Alan Nockamson has been promoted.
Alan, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court sonographer?
Good afternoon, Chair. Members of the Board, Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay, so this is a resumptive hearing. It's going to be limited to the discussion of the steep slope criteria in the zoning code.
and for the Planning Commission to provide their recommendation on the application with
response from the applicant. The record is otherwise closed. Thank you. Again, good
afternoon, members of the board. Alan Nockmson of Nockmson PC. May I share my screen? You most
certainly can, sir. Just to give a quick background because it's been a few months,
So we're looking to put a single family structure on this RSA 5 property.
And just as a matter of background, let me just go to the last refusal.
We have four refusals for this matter.
Three of them, or actually I think five.
Yeah, we have five.
Three of them deal with off-street parking.
We're seeking to have a front-loading garage in its structure.
and the reason why we're asking for front-loading parking is that there is no parking allowed on
that side of the street and this is one of the few occasions where there's no street in front
of our property we're actually creating a portion of the street from scratch so even if there was
parking allowed on this side of the street which there's not there is no street where we're in
front of. We're actually creating two parking spots across the street from where we're creating
this street that don't exist. And we're asking for a curb cut where we're not taking an off-street
parking spot off of to create one curb cut for that front-loading garage. The other two refusals
have to do with the earth-moving plan and the steep slope. And because our steep slope
is between 15 and 25 percent steep slope. We're required to do an earth moving plan. At the time
of the original hearing, we did not have one. We have since provided an erosion control plan
that has been also reviewed by the Philadelphia Water Department, and that's part of your package.
And we received conceptual approval from the Philadelphia Water Department.
And then the fifth refusal has to do with the fact that we're over 25% steep slope in certain areas, and we have earth disturbance of over 1,400 square feet.
So in the virtual audience, I have first the architect in the project, Zamir Garcia.
I would ask that he be allowed in and be sworn in, and I have some questions regarding the steep slope.
Okay, thank you.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Hi, yes, my name is Zamir Garcia, Z-A-M-I-R.
That's my thing.
Okay, I'll do that.
i'm sorry should i repeat why don't you repeat that please sir uh my name is zamir garcia um
c-a-m-i-r last name garcia g-a-r-c-i-a do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed counsel i will let me just uh change the size of
my exhibit so I can, the board can see it much better.
Okay, let's get to share it this way.
So in terms of, again, going back to the earth disturbance refusal, and that's the second of
the two refusals that have to deal with earth disturbance. We're providing over 1,400 square
feet of earth disturbance on this steep slope property. Samir, is there a possibility
uh property um zamir um is there a possibility for us to conform with this deep with this
requirement uh given the conditions of this property can we do less than 1400 square foot
of earth disturbance under these circumstances no and why is that the case um the big significant
contributing earth disturbance to the overage is the creation of the street, which currently
does not exist. As you can see on this exhibit, that area that's highlighted in red includes
the developed new cartway that connects to the existing street, the sidewalk up along the curb
there and then there's the extension of the red part into the property line which includes an area
to allow the building to connect to the sidewalk so that area that you're talking about in terms
of earth disturbance where the street is going to be essentially created anew by our client
is 1,231 square feet. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So in essence, then we would only have 169
square feet of earth disturbance allowing our client to build a building structure.
Correct. Okay. So in essence, it's almost impossible for us to comply with that section
of the code. Yes, it is impossible. Thank you, Zamir. Oh, and then the other thing is one more
thing. In terms of the protections that you have built in to your design regarding the steep slope,
can you explain what protective measures you have placed to make sure that this is a responsibly
built property uh yes so the majority of the home um actually the whole portion of the mass
of the building footprint is supported above this the steep slope on um clusters that go
into the ground so everything's the whole home is floating above the steep slope so that it can
it doesn't sit on the grade because the grade is sloped such that the street part is the highest
portion you you're actually coming in to the home on the third floor and then the rest of the home
there's one floor above that and then the rest of the home is below the street level
RESTING ON THE FILLERS.
GOTCHA. AND I THINK WE HAVE ANOTHER EXHIBIT WHICH KIND OF GOES
TO SHOWING THE STEEP SLOPES. SO LET ME JUST TRY TO GET TO THAT ONE.
I THOUGHT THAT WAS HERE.
LET ME STOP SHARING MY SCREEN FOR A SECOND.
I'm going to take a little bit.
All right.
This is a plan that was prepared by Rogerio Plant as part of our steep slope presentation.
You indicated that our building structure is, if you look in the screen, essentially right in this section of the property, right?
Yes, that's correct.
And the steepness of over 25% is more towards the front and the rear portions of the property. Is that correct?
Yes, that's correct.
So you purposefully focus situating the building structure in the least steep part of the property.
that is correct and you also then put footers in that portion of the property to make it
structurally stable yes um i have no further questions for for samir and um i i also have the
um individual who prepared the erosion plan if the board feels so inclined to ask any questions
about the erosion plan why don't you bring them along we'll hear his testimony we can okay
Thank you.
Would that be Kyle Dowdy?
He's been allowed to speak.
Good afternoon. My name is Kyle Dowdy.
Kyle, could you spell your name for the court reporter?
Certainly. First name is Kyle, K-Y-L-E, last name Dowdy, D-O-W-D-Y.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Kyle, I'm going to reshare my screen here, if you don't mind, Mr. Chair.
This is a document that you prepared in connection with the soil erosion plan.
Is that correct?
That is correct.
Okay. And what does the pink portion of this plan indicate?
This indicates any slopes steeper than 25%.
Gotcha. And that is in the front portion of the property where it's a majority of the front
portion of the property and then the rear portion of the property. Is that right?
That is correct.
um i have no questions um for okay uh for kyle if the board has no further questions
any questions from the board no chair no we're fine now
um so hillary my understanding where we'll go next is uh planning right and then alan
will have a chance to respond to that yes mr chair okay planning commission this is uh ron bednar
city planning first name ron r-o-n last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r do you swear a firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed right so the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to existing industrial zone mixed use zoning at this location uh recent
zoning remapping has sought to limit the expansion of residential uses adjacent to i-95 for the
purpose ron ron i it's this is not the case you excuse me this case is uh
uh 251 green all street it's you know that's okay got it
hold on one second right