that you're allowed to build up because you don't like your living room i would also like a bigger
house but that is simply ridiculous considering his house has 2 550 square feet and most of the
houses on our block from about 1730 to 1744 are all 1,942 square feet and are much shorter. We're
even shorter than the house as it is there. So another story up is completely out of context
with that house. The buildings at the other end of the block and across the street and the new
houses on the 1800 block don't have the same impact because they are not immediately adjacent
to our properties.
All right.
So thank you for calling in, and we appreciate your input.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
We have Jim Richardson.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Jim, J-I-M, Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I do. Proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, like Liz, am a neighbor just down the street
from this corner property. We live at 1728 Lombard Street. I have to concur wholeheartedly
with everything that the gentleman from CCRA said with respect to this project. And also,
So I think Elizabeth did a terrific job.
I am very much against this project.
One of the exhibits that was shown showed my address as a person who approved the project.
I did speak with Mr. Madonna.
I was in agreement with him before I saw the rendering.
And once I saw the rendering, the fourth floor stands out like a terrible sore thumb.
You know, number one, our block does not reach above his current rooftop.
So everybody down that block through the middle is the same height as what he's got now.
This represents a big change to the skyline of our area.
The TV on the so-called roof deck is not where he wants to put it.
It's down on the current roof deck.
He wants to put it on top of the new roof deck, which puts it way above everything else in the immediate neighborhood.
it um let's see if i had anything it was an addition um okay sir we appreciate your input we understand
Okay, sir, we appreciate your input. We understand where you stand on the project.
Okay, thank you, sir.
Thank you. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, we have James Schlatter.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Hello?
Sir, you have to unmute yourself. James, last name beginning with an S.
Yeah, my name is James Schlatter. I'm here with my wife, Amy Hodgson.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Spell your name for the court reporter.
J-A-M-E-S-S-C-H-L-A-T-T-E-R.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I do, absolutely.
I would appreciate if you could give us your opinion on it right away and try not to repeat anything that's been said already.
uh i well if you can is it possible to put the photograph up of the of the um the 18th street
side of the building um because we are right next door we live in i don't have i don't have the
photograph okay um i i concur absolutely with what my neighbors have said so far and i don't
to prolong the discussion. But I just wanted to say that even before, as the house was originally
built, it was absolutely out of context for the neighborhood. If you look at the building,
it looks more like an office building or administration building than a home.
And it dwarfs our house right next door. We have a trinity. The houses that Mr. Toner mentioned,
going up Lombard and further down 18th Street. Yes, they are above the height limit, but they
at least are in some character of the traditional houses in the neighborhood. Mr. Madonna's house
would only add in scale what is already there, which is this big blank anonymous building that
does take up two lots the uh the roof deck and the addition again I agree with Jim and and Beth
it just looks and if you can see our what we have a beautiful nice tall three-story house and next
to that building we are absolutely dwarfed all right Mr. Schlatter we appreciate we understand
where you stand with the project we really do may I add I am Jim no no no no listen me
Yes. I think your testimony we understand completely.
OK, is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair. Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning. While the lot is designated for commercial mixed use in the comprehensive plan,
it was rezoned to RSA 5 in 2017 to match community led remapping effort.
Whereas the requested request for variance for the setback may be justified by the dimensions of this corner property. There's no features unique to this lot that would present a hardship that would require the building 15 feet above the maximum height in this district. Consequently, the planning commission recommends denial of the variance.
Thank you. Mr. Fiscaldo, we're going to close the record on this case. We're going to look at this
in our executive session next week, and we will vote on it next Wednesday at two o'clock. We do
want to see you in your presentation, you talked about revising a plan. We want to see what that
plan looks like council i apologize i was muted there there is a there is a plan at tab at tab
no no no you talked about yeah doing away with decks or something something that i guess right
what you want to do is listen to me listen to me it's cases closed we don't need your client we
heard your client talk about the neighbor down the street we understand that what we want is
before we vote for executive session we would want to see what that plan is you talked about
okay and all you have to do is get a hold of our attorney and she'll straighten you out and figure
how to do it thank you very much and thank thank you to you and thank you to all the neighbors
who spent a lot of time thinking about this and we'll we'll bring this to a head next week thank
you okay number 17 mi 2022 003 580 8200 ridge avenue joseph consul is the attorney
letter of non-opposition from the upper roxburgh civic association
A letter of non-opposition from the Upper Roxburgh Civic Association.
Mr. Consul.
Good afternoon, evening.
There you go.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Yeah, it's Joseph, J-O-S-E-P-H, Consul, C-O-N-S-O-L-E.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Chair.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yeah, Mr. John Summers, and he's representative of Mr. Jack McDavid, who's the owner of the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Consul.
Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, Tal.
Okay, you may proceed and share your screen.
I believe I already shared. Is it up?
It's up.
All right. 8200 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA. This is a 143,808 square foot property, zoned RSD3, which is for a single family home.
Obviously, this is not a single-family home.
This property is huge.
It goes all the way back and encompasses the large tower you see in the distance there.
This is on Ridge Avenue next to the Roxborough Church in Upper Roxborough.
uh in 1973 the we believe the building that you see in the foreground here was built uh and we
have a certificate of occupancy in our project in our packet which shows the city approved that
building for one office use and two uh residential units uh in addition to the office
they were not um the licensing was not properly kept up for those uses so the co expired and
we're here trying to re-establish those uses um the antenna itself has uh a bunch of different
leases attached to it the that that is properly licensed and approved by zoning um just by virtue
of the fact that so many different um uh tenants have been involved with that with that building
forever but i mean the tower forever but the the building that we're here today the one on the
foreground here um has not had its co or anything um re-approved so i'm going to show you some
photos of the outside of the building this is the office space i included a floor plan
just to show you both an old floor plan from the original construction and also the just kind of a
mock-up it's two two-bedroom units that have existed here since 1973 these units are on top
of the office space on in this building here they have a private entrance which despite there being
a large tower as you saw in the photo is actually feels pretty secluded um and
it's kind of it there's a parking spot on the right there also part of this property
uh there you can see it's another angle that's the building here's the water heaters that have
been around for the first floor there's the two electrical meters there's the common space meter
here's another shot from across the street we also included all of our necessary deeds and
tax clearances and then finally this is the 1973 co approving for the offices and two um
two single family units our refusal is uh which i actually didn't put up on the screen but um our
refusal is for both the office use and for the two-family uses. Because it's zoned residential
single-family, neither the office is approved by right nor is the two-family living approved
by right. We went in front of the Upper Roxborough Civic Association. They did not oppose what we
were trying to do. There was lots of old folks from the neighborhood who said that this has
been operating as far back as they can remember and we would submit that that was 1973 when this
And we would submit that that was 1973 when this was originally approved for the use that we're seeking today.
Obviously, residential single-family detached is not appropriate for this humongous lot.
And so we're hoping the board can approve the variance to re-legalize the use as it's been operating.
And there's a functioning business in the office space, and there are tenants in the units.
And I will call Mr. John Summers to adopt my testimony.
Mr. Summers, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
John Summers?
Spell your name for the court reporter, please.
j-o-h-n-s-u-m-m-e-r-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel good evening john uh did you hear my testimony today
regarding 8200 ridge avenue yes i did do you adopt it as your own and on behalf of uh on behalf of
Mr. Jack McDavid. Yes, I do. Is there anything you'd like to add to my presentation?
No. Okay. Thank you, John. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Andrea, last name ending in the F. Okay.
hi sir hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
sure it's andrea a-n-d-r-e-a last name is formosa f as in frank o-r m as in mary o-s-a
i think i swore swore you in earlier didn't i yes sir you did it was a long time ago
so yeah i think you're right it was a long time ago please proceed um i'm actually one of the
tenants that live above that commercial building um with my two kids so we were trying to get this
zone for a while now so i'm just hoping you guys can all come to an agreement on it okay well well
thank you for uh calling in and and thank you for hanging in here as long as you did thank you thank
you is there anyone is there anyone else in the virtual audience yes chair we have tina last name
in the NW.
Hi, Tina. Could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, Tina T-I-N-A
Waddell W-E-D-U-L.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Proceed.
Okay, hi. I'm a tenant in
Unit B, where my daughter resides
with my two grandkids. And like she
said, we're trying to get this in
the green too.
Thank you very much for calling
in and we appreciate your input anyone else in the first audience i see no more hands here
planning commission this is ron bednar city planning comprehensive plan recommended a
zoning map change to industrial commercial mixed use at this location proposed use is consistent
with the documented previous uses on this property and would conform with the zoning proposal and
the comprehensive plan. Therefore, the City Planning Commission recommends the granting
of the variance. Thank you, Ron. MI-2022-003-588-8200 Ridge Avenue, I vote yes.
Harold Tenneri, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
That's three votes. That's enough. Thank you.
Thank you.
All right. We're going to move right into the 330 list.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this 330 ZBA hearing list.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Present, Mr. Chair.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, our board member.
Mr. Snell should be back shortly.
Also is our board attorney, Hillary Emerson.
and Lakeisha Dandy is our ZBA hearing supervisor. Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
Be advised the proceedings are being recorded. By participating, you acknowledge your agreement
to be recorded. The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phil.gov. For the
benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before
testifying. If you're participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star nine to raise your
If you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
hand and star six to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and the property in question.
And lastly, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
Any comments have to be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sumpit.