the street that has no other real commercial activity and is sandwiched between two existing
residential properties. So you know I disagree with RCO's analysis of the hardship here I believe
given the current situation with small commercial spaces and also given the location of this
property being between two multifamily dwellings, to say that it would automatically be a very
viable commercial space, I think they're disregarding some of the reality of what is
there. So we again submit that this site being of the narrow width of your standard roll home size
with a conforming depth of the lot, we believe that it is not the best use to have a commercial
space on the first floor and we would ask for the board's consideration in granting this variance.
I'm happy to answer any questions from the board.
Do you have your client available?
Yes, I do.
Joe should be, Joseph should be here.
His last name is Matt Mazze.
I'm not very good at spelling it.
Joe, can you raise your hand so that...
Yes, I raised my hand.
Hi, good evening, sir. Please identify yourself with the record, first and last name and address.
Yes, how are you? My name is Joseph Gitterman. My address is 126 Gardner Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19116.
And I'm the owner of the lot and 522 West Berkshire.
Can you spell your last name?
G-I-T-S-O-T-O-M-E-R-M-A-M.
We're in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Mr. Jin, thank you.
Joseph, you heard my testimony and representation to the zoning board regarding this case.
Can you verify that they're true and correct and adopted as your own?
Yes I do. Thank you. Thank you. Questions from the board? No. Anyone like to testify in this case
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
please raise your hand. Chair, I have slow folks. Mr. Folks, good evening. Please identify yourself
for the record good evening chairman de chico and members of the zba my name is sloan fuchs s-l-o-a-n-e
f as a fire o-l-k-s office of councilman maria quinones sanchez room 508 city hall
19107 do you swear in the firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir i do please proceed thank you sir the applicants having met with the coordinating rco
and having garnered a letter of opposition, the councilman would also like to reaffirm her opposition of this various requests.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else who would like to testify, please raise your hand.
That's all, Chair.
Thank you.
Planning Commission?
This property is indicated for neighborhood commercial mixed use on the city plan.
The applicant has not demonstrated necessary hardship regarding requirements of the code.
Application represents an incompatible, non-conforming use, not consistent with our adopted district
Recommend request for variance not be granted.
I'm sorry.
If I could just interject a thought, Mr. Bettner, could you always announce your name and your
department please?
Got it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The plan, I just want to be clear. Is the Planning Commission suggesting that the first
floor be used as a commercial, for commercial use?
We are indicating that that commercial use be retained, as it is, and that the zoning
not be changed. There's no there's been no proposed remapping for this as of yet so that's
our position. Yeah I appreciate I'm not being argument I'm just curious because it's like in
the middle almost in the middle of a block and surrounded by residential I don't know how
commercial is going to work out there. That's just my opinion obviously. Anyone else? Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Chairman? Yes, sir. Yes. Is there other commercial spaces on the block?
So there's a lot of empty lots is what I can see. I'm just
And then these two existing structures are residential in nature. There is maybe on the
very end of the block, I think there's a daycare on the corner property, which actually does not
face Burke Street, it faces one of the intersecting streets. And that's towards the lower end
of the block. There's actually a longer lot towards this end that does have a daycare
on the bottom.
You mentioned that there's a grocery store a block away. I don't know. The grocery store
is actually, so this is our side of the block, as you can see from this photograph. I'm sorry,
it's a little blurry. But if you look across the street, this is a residential, but this
down there in that part this is straight across the block from my client's property that's the
grocery store and their parking lot so the grocery store is about a block away yes thank you across
perk street and then another uh distance away yes one other question 520 and 526 they're
residential correct yes they're fully residential are they multi-family or single they're multi-family
You can see the meters on this one.
I did look at a record of 526 in the city records.
I can try to pull that up now if the board would like.
That's okay.
I just wanted to make sure that what I saw earlier was correct.
It's multifamily.
That's correct.
Yeah, I just don't see how commercials are going to work in the middle of that block,
but that's just my opinion.
All right.
Any other questions?
Anybody else have anything off?
Seeing none, calendar number MI2020-001099, 522 West Berks Street.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Next one up, it's MI2020-001077, 3818 Aspen Street.
I have promoted attorney.
I have promoted attorney Mulvihill oh here we go and I can't wait to see what he looks
like Mr. Chairman drum roll please say the same thing I used to play the drums too when
I was a kid oh there he goes well now I'm taking guesses Mr. Mulvihill has an RCO meeting
after this hearing i'm wondering if he will be wearing the same hey it depends on what neighborhood
yes sir okay mr mobile hill i think you were on earlier today yes and you're already still
under oath so uh mr plaza you agree to wait to read in of its refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i do also have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents proof of
ownership proof of tax compliance copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans five days
prior to this hearing I have although this morning I sent to Ms. Zuleta a revised sheet with a
proviso sheet as well indicating the location of rear access center for the revised plan
okay have you met with the RCO and have a letter we had a meeting last night at 5 p.m. I do not
have a letter from the RCO yet thank you please proceed yes good evening chairman members of the
board it is I Skeletor from Eternia here to present the proposal for 3818 Aspen Street
what we're proposing today members of the board is relatively straightforward as I share my screen
we now have showing on the screen the zoning packet today the refusal appeal of project
information form are at page one area zoning maps at page seven the deed for the property at eight
my client's tax clearance is at 15 zoning notification that are at 16. we have no rco
letter yet but i can report back on the meeting we held last night voters the property are at 19 and
plans are at 29. so members of the board what we have done in this instance is propose a new two
family dwelling or an existing single family lot the lot itself is currently vacant located in the
mantua area i'm showing now page 7 of 30 of my packet to the top you can see the site picked
out in blue from the zoning map from the city and below you see the aerial map from the atlas website
as well indicating that we are building next to proposing to build next to one vacant lot
which is off to the west, pardon me, off to the east, and then an existing structure to the west.
I'm going to proceed now, members of the board, to the photographs.
So I'm showing now, for the purposes of the record, members of the board, page 19 of my package,
showing the zoning signs that were posted on the property.
Going to page 20, we now see the adjacent structures that are existing.
Although it appears to be one large vacant lot in this photograph, this is actually two
separate lots, and our lot is to the right of this photograph, next to this two-story
home that I'm indicating.
I'm just going to show sort of a panoramic shot of photos of the surrounding block.
scrolling out at 27 page 28. Zooming out now what I'm showing is the original site plan
and the reason I'm going to this is because it shows our proposed structure looking to
the upper left hand side our proposed structure next to the existing home my architect Michelle
is on the line today. I'll have her raise her hand in a minute. But you can see that
although we are building three stories tall for which we did not receive a refusal, we're
doing our best to match both the porch line of the existing homes because these homes
are set back with small front yards and small porches. We include that in this proposal.
We try to keep the facade the same. We're using red brick. And we try to keep the second
story windows the same as well within an inch or two. The height of the property as proposed
is 36 feet tall so we're not even going to the full 38 as required by code
just moving to the next page members of the board i'm showing now the entire site plan here
you can see to the front there's a small front yard about 14 of the lot with an uncovered porch
that is matching the adjacent setbacks and adjacent porches of the existing home
home to the right of the property. To the left, as I said before, it's a vacant lot. I'm assuming
somebody will wish to build there in the future. Pilot House is set back from the front towards
pilot house is set back from the front towards the middle of the structure so it won't be visible
the middle of the structure so it won't be visible from the street.
from the street and then we have rear exit basement stairs in the rear yard the rear yard
itself is slightly smaller than what's allowed by code so we did receive a refusal for that although
we have all the required open area as required by code between the front and rear yard what i'm
showing now members of the board it was the bottom left hand side of this sheet which is just a side
view showing the front yard, steps, porch, three stories up. The five-foot setback is
required by code for the roof deck. A pilot house for access to the roof deck and the rear yard.
Moving on to the next page, members of the board, which is the final page of our presentation.
These are the floor plans. I'm going to start from the left, which is the basement. So we do
have bedrooms in the basement, members of the board, which is why we have egress stairs coming
out to the rear, leading to the rear common fire alley.
Bedroom 1 is to the front, closet space in the middle, along with the bathroom.
Bedroom 2 is to the rear, could also be used as an office, rec room, anything along those
lines.
But for the purpose of these plans, we are showing those bedrooms, again, including the
stairs in the back.
This is to the right of that on the first story, members of the board.
the second part of unit number one which is three beds three baths about 1500 square feet
give or take as you proceed up the front steps on the porch you go into a front door and hang
a right down that common hallway kitchen to the front dining to the middle living room behind that
bath and then a bedroom to the rear which again could be a den office anything along those lines
that has access to the rear yard for trash storage.
Proceeding up the common stairs, you'll get to unit number two.
Again, three bed, three bath.
It's slightly larger than the other unit
because we don't have to worry about the basement walls.
And the floor plan is basically the same.
Living and dining to the front, kitchen in the middle, bedroom to the rear.
Proceeding up the stairs then to the third floor of the structure,
bedroom to the front, bedding to the rear,
restrooms and closets in the interior.
to the staircase leading up to the pilot house roof deck for access to the exterior space for
that second-story unit. As stated before, the roof deck is set back from the front as required by code.
Trash will be stored in the kitchen and in the trash storage closet. Feedback from the community
meeting members of the board, and I had my notes in front of me from that, after this presentation
of this very same packet, there were nine, pardon me, ten people altogether in attendance, including
myself my architect and the representative from the council's office there was a total of six
votes three yes three no uh the questions asked had to do with whether we had spoken to the
immediately next door neighbor and at this point we hadn't yet but we intend to do so before
continuing construction um that's really all the questions that we had other than general questions
The plan is to rent out each of these units at around $1,300 per unit.
We did receive a copy of a letter from a council person's office indicating that they don't object to the multifamily, but they object to the height.
Members of the board, I understand that where you build a three-story home next to a two-story home, sometimes there are objections about that.
But in this instance, we did not receive a refusal for the height or for having a third story.
That would be permitted by right no matter what.
So I'd ask that if that is the only community concern
as expressed in that letter that we received,
that you take that into consideration
as not being an issue at zoning for this particular case.
As if we were-
Excuse me, this is Sharon Stiletto.
We did receive an email from Andrew Goodman
of the councilwoman's office this afternoon.
I don't know whether you were copied on that.
I did send it just now to the board members
if you're able to view it in your text messages.
Yes, that's the letter to which I was referring.