Is he available, Mark?
Yeah, they'll be coming back in as a panel.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes. Mark, can you unmute yourself, please?
I do see him, but he shows he's muted.
Let's want Mr. DeCotesworth, please unmute.
Might to be sworn in.
He might be having some technical difficulties, Chair.
The only thing I would cover real quick, if you would, Mr. Mattione, the size.
Is the size appropriate?
I mean, one of the things you're, you're, you're knocked on is it's 18 feet, whereas you have 15. Is that correct? And that's the size. Well, it's also the size of the one at 2613 O'Dane Street. It's the same exact size lot. And that's the lot. It's, it's, it's 15 feet wide because that's how deep the lot is right here. I'm sorry. And that's, that's how deep the lot is. And he pulls the car right in and parked there. And he will not block the sidewalk or anything because they'll have a gate.
One of the things you're knocked on is it's 18 feet, whereas you have 15.
All right.
You want to bring, you got the architect here?
Frank Cuthbertson is, I believe he's here.
Why don't you bring him in and he can cover real quick and he can adopt your test.
Are you going to adopt your test?
Frank?
I'll be coming back in this panel.
All right.
Thank you.
I see him is being muted as well.
There he is.
Hello.
Hi, sir.
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer? My name is Francis Cuthbertson
Jr. It's misspelled on here, sorry. It's F-R-A-N-C-I-S, capital C-U-T-H-B as in brother,
E-R-T-S-O-N. There's no D in there. And the suffix is Jr. because I have a son with the
same name and he doesn't want to get my correspondence. So please add the Jr. in.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Deceint council. And Frank, did you hear my statements? Yes, I did. And are they true and
correct? Yes, they are. And do you adopt them as your testimony? I do. And did you design the plans
that were on the screen right now? I did. And again, you've designed a parking space and it's
adequate? Yes, it is. Okay. I have no further questions, Mr. Chair. Questions from the board.
question question can you explain to me you mentioned moving is it the stop sign
or moving this no parking sign no parking sign and i'll show you where it is i believe that's
mr johns yes yes okay that's where it is right now and we would move it right here
it's it's about what an eight foot move frank roughly yes
um okay let me just explain how does that comport with the requirement that you have to be
a certain distance from a stop sign or from um walkway or whatever i address this mr matty
yes yes okay i i received the letter from the streets department yesterday and there is a
requirement of around 60 feet from the edge of the curb on pine street to our curb cut and it's
the apron of the curb cut not the actual extension of the curb cut i just scale it is for somewhere
in the neighborhood between 56 to 58 feet i'm not 100 sure so i have to go out there with a tape
measure and just double check but it's very very close it's within a couple of feet of 60 feet
which is hard to do in this part of town when when these things happen we're very close
but all we're talking about mr johns is where where the cursor is now that's where the you know
parking sign is and on this side that's where we move to or just move that little distance that's
all we're talking about and if you do that then you have two cars that can park there instead of
one um and that's all we're trying to do but that's technically not part of the application
today okay and what's the what's the width of the the site it's 15 feet wide this way uh fronting
on pine street and i don't know how deep it is this way it's like 70 feet deep it's eight feet
parking spaces the parking space is 15 feet wide and 15 feet deep and how how wide is it frank
it it meets it it meets the 86 because there's already parking there but really eight feet but
But these conform to the compact spaces in the streets department.
We can, the streets department asks for a little bit bigger on some of the larger vehicles,
but we just don't get those types of vehicles that much anymore.
So typically when I do these, the compact spaces are plenty for the types of vehicles that we find here.
With the exception of the old van that he now has that he's going to get rid of and get a smaller one.
But that's another story.
But these are these are a little bit larger than the compact spaces the street support requires.
OK, so so that's kind of a little different than what the attorney said.
Well, it's not it's it's right now. It doesn't even have enough for two compacts.
No, no, no. So with the with the what I thought I heard the attorney say was that he was going to park the van in this new his new van, his new one, new van, not the existing van, not the existing van.
i'm sorry a new compact van yes this is this small parking space yeah correct
okay and so what was what's the opposition
But I was not there at that meeting. That was before I was retained, so I don't know.
i was i was not there at that meeting that was before i was retained so i don't know i was there
I was there. I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I was there, so I can speak if that's okay.
The opposition, Mr. Mattione did touch upon it because Mark and I talked to him earlier. It
just seemed like we don't want this. There was one person who said it was fine and who understood
our concept, but everyone else just said, no, we don't want any more. We're done. We don't want
any more of this stuff and it was just um i mean they were polite but not very uh descriptive of
of why it's just something they just didn't want and they they asked him where his office was and
or not his office his his business and how far could why couldn't he just park it over there
and walk back which is over on market street and it's really far those kind of questions and they
just wanted to find another lot for him to park it on and you know this is his van it has equipment
in it it's it's got expensive equipment in it it's been broken into multitudes of times
and he he just you know he doesn't want to go outside and see broken glass and missing
stuff and there's all kinds of reasons so but they were not very receptive or sympathetic
that's all i can remember it was just my understanding they have a general policy to
oppose? It's seen that way, yeah. I didn't say it, but it sure seemed that way, yeah.
Is there any plant use for the top surface of the balcony, of the cover?
He's got a little deck out there, right, Frank? Yeah, there's an existing deck that we're just
going to... it's already existing, yeah. But that's going to have to be reframed, that's not...
Yeah, we're going to reframe it so that it's just actually
be supported from the top instead of the bottom
so we can park the van underneath of it.
We'll deal with that during the
construction documents. Do you have a photo of that?
Of what the existing
deck looks like? I'm assuming that
it's going to go underneath, right?
Yeah, I don't know if I have a photo.
I don't have one handy. I don't think we ever
gave you one.
I don't know if I have a good photo of that.
It's there now.
It's just
checking to see all the photos I have.
I mean, it's there.
I just don't know that I have a good photo.
Yeah, I apologize.
I don't really have a good photo.
Yeah, I'm looking at Google Earth, and you can see.
I mean, it's kind of like you're going to, and I'm assuming that on Google Earth is probably the van.
It has a white van.
That's sitting in front of the tree.
It's kind of tight where the curb cut is going to be with the tree, and then the balcony or deck that would have to be reframed because you got to, you know.
Yeah, that's where the deck is right there.
It's just not easy to see it, but that's a little deck.
it looks like a tight squeeze to get between the tree and the
it's i don't think it's as tight as you i just don't have a good picture i apologize for that
but we have the room we i went out and measured it john we have the room yeah
any other questions there's the tree i mean it's not and there's the tree and there's a tree they're
not that's not on our property but this is the the tree i mean it's not that it's not that close
yeah i'm talking about the tree at the bottom where you have the curb cut
at the bottom understood yeah all right so so the idea is you would have to uh is the balcony uh
this current balcony doesn't have to be is it going to be extended or just the the covering
for the car underneath of it will be extended like is it going to end at the same space as
the balcony i guess that's my question there is no real formal covering for the car the balcony
is going to be supported from above instead of below so we have clearance for the right yeah
i've done that before it's it's not that difficult to do and um it's basically the same size though
right yeah it's the same size okay that's what i wanted to know thank you you're welcome other
questions questions from our attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the
virtual audience? Sure. I have Wade Albert with her hand raised. I will promote them to panelists.
They'll be back in shortly. Okay.
Can you see me? Good afternoon. Hi, Wade. How are you, sir? Could you please state your name and
spell for the court stenographer? Sure. My name is Wade Albert, W-A-D-E, last name is A-L-B-E-R-T.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. And if I remember your counsel for the RCO, am I correct? That's correct. Okay. Please proceed,
sir. Sure. So I just wanted to provide some context about why the organization voted to
oppose this. For one thing, that this project is, although there is evidence that
That this project is, although there's evidence that was presented that there are a number of properties in the nearby area where the homeowners have garages, this is not a request for a garage.
This is essentially a request for surface parking, and that is out of context with the character of the neighborhood.
There's no testimony that there's any other surface parking or surface accessory parking in this area.
Number two, that the members of the CCRA Zoning Committee, just as the members of this board had noted, the size of the parking space.
We believe it appears to be probably too small, but that's, you know, it may fit a compact car, but there are some concerns.
Um, another issue was that, um, the particular owner, as we heard, um, was looking for this
space due to a concern that was unique to him, that he apparently had some problems
with people breaking into his vehicle.
Um, and with regard to that issue, it's an accommodation that he's essentially requesting
for himself that is unique to him.
Um, but to grant this as a variance, it would certainly run with the land.
and impact future property owners who do not have those same unique concerns.
So as a result, CCRA did not believe that there was any hardship here.
And finally, several neighbors came out to speak against this project.
So the organization wanted to support those near neighbors who had a view largely negative
and asked us to oppose this.
So that was why we opposed.
Mr. Chair, do you have any questions? I have no questions for him, for Mr. Albert, but I do have a
2613 Aldane Street has the same exact setup that we have. It's got parking. It's a space. It's not
front loaded garage. It's the same layout, same width of the house. I can show you the picture of
it. It is the same exact layout. And so to say that, you know, it's out of character. It's not,
it's there it is. You can see they have the same exact layout. It's the house that fronts on
on Ainge Street, and it's got its parking area right there. So it's the same exact thing. It's
the same exact width of the house. I think I have another photo. There it is again,
showing the width of the house. It's the same exact house almost and same exact setup. It just
happens to be that it's the only other house that fronts on a east to west street rather than the
north to south street. It's at the other end of the next block, and they have their same exact
parking space that we are proposing to add to ours. So to say that we're out of character with
the neighborhood I don't think is quite correct. It just so happens that the other house is all
a front load of garages. We will have the same kind of fence blocking it so you won't see the
car there or the vehicle there, just like this house. And it's the same exact setup. So I think
that we are in character with everything else that is there on the block. Mr. Albert, thank
you very much for calling in. We appreciate it. Any other questions from the virtual audience?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
May I speak to, I'm sorry to interrupt, but may I address somebody?
Well, why don't we, you got a council there, right?
So let's figure out what, Michael, do you want them to testify?
You know, I don't know that really necessarily that there's anything else to add.
And I believe that there's a, you know, there is, like I said, houses that are very similar to this.
You know, again, like 2613 Aldane Street, it's the same exact setup, the same with house.
And unless there's something else to add, Frank, I don't necessarily.
I do have two things to add. I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, let him add two points.
All right. To address some of the points from the RCO, it is surface parking, but it's hidden by a fence.
And the owner has gone to great expense to or will go to great expense to make sure that when he parks that vehicle, you won't see it.
Number two, the size, we've already sized the van that's going to go in there.
And it's a very small van. It's smaller than what he's got, but we've already done all that.
So your concerns with the size are fine. It's just we've already addressed that.
And number three, I think it's disingenuous. And I said this, you know, at the first RCO meeting, whatever that was two years ago, to say these are unique to him. These are not unique to him. It's just the fact that he has a business van is is the other folks do have problems in that neighborhood for years with theft. It's Center City and it's higher than most other neighborhoods.
and the fact that he has a business isn't unique it just happens to him more often but it happens
business isn't unique it just happens to him more often but it happens to everyone in there
to everyone in there and if someone
and if someone can get their car off the street and it is a great neighborhood to live in but
that is one of the negatives that's what they do that's why all new construction typically has that
as an architect i'm always running into this in center city when i do these projects people love
living there but they don't want their cars exposed to theft so this is not unique to him
i have to take issue with that one and that's all i have to say thank you um