one two three five oh that should be plenty of time then um to the people who are going to be
called next just uh take real long and uh speak very slowly please thanks okay i'll see everybody
in a few minutes welcome to welcome to the board
Calendar number 2412-503-05, South 6th Street.
calendar number 2412 503
The attorney is Isaac Slepner.
Mr. Slepner, you've been promoted to pay it on this.
And is that the next one, 14?
Calendar number 1961-503-05, South 6th Street as well.
Yes, good morning.
Good morning.
Name and address, please.
Yes, Isaac Slepner with Mattione Limited, 100 North Independence Mall, West Suite 5A, Northwest, Philadelphia, PA, 19106.
And I would just like to say I am here and I am not a cat.
Okay, and I would like to ask you if you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Absolutely.
Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, having met with the RCO?
And do you have a letter?
Yes, we do.
And do you have all the feline vaccinations with you?
Strike that from the record.
You may proceed.
Thank you.
I mean, what the heck was that?
it was very conveniently timed last night all over the internet was someone in some attorneys
in some state not pennsylvania i think were in a hearing and the judge was there and the opposing
counsel was there and then one of the other counsel was there and his daughter had set a
filter to be a cat so he was on there as a little cat and uh he said i'm here and i'm not a cat
i just thought it was very conveniently timed so i figured i would i would let the board know
i'm here and i'm not a cat um this this is sharon saletta mr isaac he posted this on facebook and
one of the responses was that if he came in as a cat i would adopt him oh my gosh and that's so true
you may proceed all right thank you um so these are actually two set first of all i'd like to
start with these are two separate properties they have a single opa number um but we've done some
deed research going back to 1974, and we've never found the deed of consolidation of these.
They've been conveyed to each successive owner by a single deed, but they are two separate
properties with two separate legal descriptions. So there's 503 and 505, but for the purposes of
expediency, we had asked that these both be heard together. In any event, I'm going to share my
screen and we can go through our exhibits. So without taking more time, exhibit one is the
tax clearance for the Equitable Owner Northeast Renovations, LLC. I guess I would also start with
my client, Mayor Badouche, is here on this call. I will have him adopt testimony and I have some
other individuals that I may call to testify. Our architect, Shimmy Zakin, is here and I have
um an expert witness if his testimony is needed and i'll qualify him and everything but in any
event uh this exhibit one is our tax clearance northeast renovations llc they are uh compliant
as of 2-21 um exhibit two is our notice of refusal and we had already stipulated to the
refusals so i'm not going to spend too much time on that exhibit three begins our photographs
actually our plans. So Exhibit 3A is a site plan of the area, and 503 is House A, 505 is House B.
503 is a little bit of a shallower lot. You can see the 505 goes a little bit deeper.
At the rear of both 503 and 505 is like a stone wall that comprises the rear sidewall of this property over here on Lombard and this property over here, well, of both of these properties over here on Lombard, respectively.
The proposals are for two single-family townhomes with garage, roof deck, and basement.
it. And we'll go through the entire layout of the block and everything, but I wanted to start off
with that. So these are my client's two proposed properties. I would also add my client owns 507
and 509 South 6th, which are a couple of other residential buildings. I believe either 507 or
509 is the current site of Dottie's Donuts. And I'm pretty sure this spot used to be the site of
Levis' Hot Dogs, but that was a while ago. Moving on, this is site plan with regard to the
Moving on, this is site plan with regard to the parking situation, and you'll notice these photos here on the side.
The top photo is a view down 6th Street.
Across 6th, at 6th and Lombard, is a large playground and park and rec center, and there's metered parking along the west side of South 6th.
On the east side of South 6th, which is where our properties are, the current conditions, there's a curb cut, and it doesn't even actually look like that.
it's fenced off currently. There's no parking, no street parking or anything and in fact on the
block are several other properties with garage fronts and we'll get to those momentarily. Exhibit
3B this is just a google map to show in the context of the neighborhood where our sites are.
They're right there 503 and 505 south 6th corner 6th and Lombard. Mother Bethel Church is here.
um i i'm embarrassed that i'm blanking on the name of the show right now but it's right there
i've been there many benay abraham benay abraham is right there so you have a two large um houses
of worship here you have a single family over here on lombard you have some multi-family going
down six and then of course you got the corner of six and south federal donuts is there i've made
many a site visit to my client's site and may have stopped at federal donuts a couple times
And across the whole block from 6th to 7th on Lombard is the park, playground, and rec between 6th, 7th, Lombard, and Rodman.
So that's just for some context of where this all is.
The properties are zoned RM1.
So the single-family use is by right.
The refusals were for rear yard and deck encroachment and the parking situations.
So this is just an analysis of the code requirements and the variances that we're seeking from the code.
So Exhibit 4 is the floor plans of the houses.
So House A, again, is 503.
House B is 505.
And you can see there will be a basement with a powder room, wet bar, egress at the rears of both, stairs up to the ground level.
Ground level would be a garage with an office or additional bedroom at the rear, full bath.
That's on both of the houses.
uh the second floor if you can see over here to the right again would be your open open floor plan
main living space of the house and kitchen uh and then you go up to you've got your third floor
uh plan over here two uh bedrooms full bath laundry storage space and it's uh house b is
It goes back a little deeper, so it would be two full baths on floor three,
floor four would be the – Realtors used to call it the master bedroom.
I'm going to defer to them to what they want to call it now,
but primary bedroom, you could say, with all the attendant bathroom accoutrements,
And then your roof deck on both houses, which would be there for both houses, set back from the street at the proper depth.
Exhibit 5 is our cross sections, just so everybody can see what those look like.
Here's House A is the shorter one, 503, and then 505 is the deeper lot.
Those are our cross sections.
exhibit six is this is an open space diagram because one of our refusals was for um minimum
open space at 503 the the properties are are completely landlocked there's no um there's
they end up at a brick wall at their neighbors um and there's a bit of yard space and a rear deck
that's planned which is one of the refusals to overhang some of the rear yard space uh 505
has the 25 open space because the lot has the space 503 it just physically does not have
enough space to have a nine yard deep uh rear yard or to have a um to have 25 be open space
uh exhibit seven is again as prepared by our architect um this is kind of a context so
So this is a good aerial shot.
You can see right here these red cubes is where the proposed houses will be built.
As you can see, they're parallel with the height of the neighboring properties going down 6th Street.
They would fit in with the size and shape of the neighborhood.
Here's a little bit more context.
Here's an aerial map of South 6th.
Aerial map of South 6, these are our properties. That's the park and the playground, Rodman Street.
These are our properties.
That's the park and the playground, Rodman Street.
Down this way is the firehouse. I'll show you some photos of that.
And then here you've got a view down Lombard Street from the corner of 6th and Lombard.
Those are our two proposed. These are our two proposed here.
A little closer to the site on 6th, and this is from closer to 6th and South, looking north up 6th Street.
Exhibit 8 is some renderings of the property.
This is what we anticipate, what the architect anticipates that it will look like when it's finished.
As you can see, it's not too much taller than the neighbors in line with the character of the rest of the block.
Over here, you have some elevations.
These are just really to show you the outside of the property's front and rear.
Here you have another rendering in the context of an overhead view.
And another rendering down here.
Here's another rendering, rendering looking north.
Exhibit 9 is our letter from Queen Village.
10 is our photographs.
So this is a photograph of the site as it looks more recently.
As you can see, it's fenced over here.
This is a mixed-use Lombard Cafe coffee shop and some multifamily.
507 is also owned by my client, Northeast Renovations.
This is our site in between the two neighboring properties.
I got more of the coffee shop in the corner there than I did of our site,
but our site is right there to the right.
This is our site.
I might have done a wide angle on that one.
That looks like it could be the next hot rap album cover.
Exhibit 10B.
10B, we're going to look around the neighborhood.
I'm going to share the board.
what else is there so this is the corner of six and lombard uh looking north and west these are
some single families and single families continue down the north side of of lombard as you head
west um this is the other corner of six and lombard which is the playground and rec center
it seems to have been brightly painted which is is nice it's very festive uh this is the other
corner of six and lombard that's mother bethel church over there is uh ben abraham whose name
you might now remember. And this is the other corner of 6th and Lombard, which is the Lombard
Cafe, the coffee shop. Now here's a view looking down southward, down 6th Street. On the west side
is the playground and the curb with metered parking. And over here, if you can see, no parking
anytime, all along the curbside going all the way down to South Street, the whole block. Here's a
wider view of it just for, you know, for more context. This is 517 and 519 South 6th. Each of
these, as you can see, have garage fronts. These are multifamily. This is Philly Fire Department
Engine 11, which is based at the corner of 6th and South, and their garages for their fire
vehicles are on the side of 6th Street. They're on the west side of 6th Street, just north of South.
This property is, let me, 50, sorry, I'm just consulting my research here.
This is, oh boy, I'm sorry, if you can bear with me for just a moment.
That is 528 Lombard Street, and that's literally around the corner from our property.
This house is the neighbor, 528 Lombard, and then next to it, just out of the frame, is Lombard Cafe.
This is, I believe, 409 South 6th, which is just south of 6th and Pine.
This appears to be either a historic or historically renovated property, again, with a garage front, single family.
This is 609 Lombard. This is not a garage technically, but it is a curb cut driveway space and has the requisite Lublum towing sign in front of it.
This is 518C Lombard, which is an active garage curb cut, and that is, the address is Lombard Street, but that's actually on Randolph Court is where that backs onto.
This is 502, 04, 06, and 08 Lombard, which are just there, just west of the corner of 5th and Lombard.
Each of these is a single-family home with a garage front.
This is the 500 block of Randolph Court, which has, as I...
This is the 500 block of Randolph Court, which has, as the front doors, you would say, are on a private walkway.
And then these are street-fronting garages with curb cuts.
Those are directly across from 518C Lombard.
These are, I didn't even get all of them in the picture, 702 through 718 Lombard, just west of 7th Street on Lombard, on the south side of Lombard.
These are all single families with garages.
Exhibit 10C are the photos of our orange zoning posters posted at the site.
I've got, and these were taken at least 21 days ago.
Got two close up here, a little bit of a mid-range shot, a little bit of a mid-range shot, and there they are from across the street.
Exhibit 11 is research on several of those properties I just mentioned with garage fronts, and all of them had applied and were approved for permits, including single-family with garages.
It was 404 South 6th, which is just north of our property on 6th Street, obtained a zoning permit in October of 18 for a three-story house with a garage.
This is the application for 404 South 6th for use as a single family with a garage.
This is 500 South 7th, which ended up being the development at 704 through 718 Lombard, all single families with garages.
And again, that's the same stretch of properties there, 704 through 18 Lombard, and as well as 702 Lombard for a single family with a garage.
And even back then, they had appealed the board's decision.
They had appealed the L&I's decision to the board.
And I assume they prevailed because there's a house with a garage there now.
This is our application for appeal as we had filed it on October 13th of 2020.
Exhibit 13 is our project information form, which we filled out for both 503 and 05,
because that's the way it is listed in the OPA's records that's our project
information. Exhibit 14 our affidavit of service of notice to all the neighbors
we sent those out on November 16th. Exhibit A is our letter to the neighbors
dated November 16th describing the project the refusals and the variances
is sought. We did, as I said, we did hold a meeting with the RCO, Queen Village Neighbors.
This is, these are exhibits that were included with the letter to the neighbors was our notices
of refusal. Our certificate of service included all of these addresses. There were many addresses.
I'm not going to fathom a guess at how many, and I'm not going to sit here and count them for the
board but we noticed all the neighbors exhibit 15 is a deed in favor of northeast renovations llc
it has not yet been recorded but it is in the hands of my client and i'm not sure why
and i believe that um that is for my client's title company to address but uh there is a deed
in favor of northeast renovations in his hand and uh in front of the board for your review
and these are the legal descriptions just so we're clear premises a describes 503
and I'll go back up to the deed because just so that it's not 503 to 505 it's just it's stated
as one parcel ID number but it is two lots if you go down to the legal descriptions
Premises A describes 503, and then Premises B describes 505.
So they are two separate parcels.
And that's all the attendant documents with the deed.
I would open to questions at this point.
That concludes my presentation in chief.
I may ask questions for witnesses.
Is client available?