Thank you. Jason, we'll give you a few minutes before I open the session up.
Okay, just looking over the list right now.
Okay, Chair, you may proceed.
Thank you.
Before I begin, let me get my phone up here.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Frank DiCicco.
I'm the Chair of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
I'll be participating in this morning's hearing along with our board secretary,
Confessor Plaza, and our board member, Mr. James Snell.
Board administrator, Mr. Jason Hand, and our board attorney, Sharon Saleta, are also in
attendance.
For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings, I'll go through
some of the basics of what you can expect.
First, we will be administering oaths to individual participants prior to their testimony.
Second, for the benefit of anyone participating by phone, we ask that attorneys and witnesses identify themselves prior to speaking or testifying.
Third, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
Fourth, anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
I'll repeat. For anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
I'll repeat that as well.
To enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
With that said, but before we begin, before we call our first case, I would like to ask if there's anyone out there who's requesting a continuance or withdrawal, so please raise your hand at this time.
And I will now go over a list of what we understand our continuance request.
Number three on our page, Confessor, is MI2020-000916, 2616 South 18th.
Number four on our list, MI2020-000437, 2901 McKinley Street.
Number five on our list, MI 2020-000119-3442 North 18th Street.
number six on our list, MI 2020-001120, 348 Green Lane, MI 2020-001123, 5201 Germantown Avenue
is being continued because we do not have any exhibits. MI 2020-000203-53862 Avenue.
Number 10 on our list, MI 2020-000970-6164 Walnut Street.
as a request i'm sorry um i just wanted to say that the um attorney did submit the exhibits
so um the request is from the councilwoman right but i on i understand there may not be
any letters from the rco on this case um we would have to call up both the questioning and
on this case yes okay so all right so i'll put that aside for the time being
yeah you could read it and let him come up and explain if he got it
okay so mi 2020-000970 6164 walnut street there's a request for a continuance from count
6164 Walnut Street, there's a request for continuance from Councilwoman Gauthier and number 11 on our list, MI 2020-0007549509, Wheel Pump Lane is withdrawn.
If there's an attorney and or an applicant who represents any of the cases that I read into the record as being continued or withdrawn, if there's any disagreement with that, please raise your hand.
Excuse me. We would have to call up before making a decision on the continuance for Walnut Street, if you could call up attorney Vern Anastasio, who represents the applicant.
I was asking generally
okay is Mr. Anastasio
available
Mr. Chairman real quick do we have a court reporter
on today
I don't see her but she was
yes I'm here
great thank you
Mr. Anastasio
I'm going to look for him and I'll promote him
to panelists
he has been promoted to panelists thank you mr anastasio if you're out there you may unmute
yourself and make your case sir thank you very much anastasio please identify yourself with the
record spell your name for the stenographer good morning mr chairman members of the board verne
anastasio the attorney for the owner of the subject property of walnut street 6164 1315 walnut
street is my address suite 1006 philadelphia 19107 mr chairman uh this is your name last name
please verne for this oh i'm sorry a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o and i swear and affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed thank you uh we did in fact meet with the
rco achieve achievability uh they have not issued we have asked over the last several days
we have asked for a letter we know one way or the other we have yet to get that i'm not
i'm not necessarily opposed to the continuance if it came from the council person's office
so long as it's a short one if if that's uh doable uh let me ask this uh is there
anyone from the councilwoman's office mr goodman i'm wondering if the request was
only being made by the councilwoman because there was no letter i don't know that to be true i'm
just curious if that's the reason why yeah i i don't know like i said this is a news to me that
there was going to be a request to continue um this is sharon slid i can read you the um email
from andrew goodman that we received late yesterday afternoon let's see we expect the following case
to be continued because we have no record of rco letters if they proceed without fulfilling the rco
requirement our office opposes that was for 6164 walnut well we could still hear it and hold
correct it sounds to me the way it sounds to me uh so that's the only reason there's a request
because there was no letter yes and if mr anastasio confirms that there has been a meeting um yes there
has been a meeting. We'll go forward with the case and just hold for a week or so a letter from the
RCO. I appreciate that. For them to resume the hearing and present the letter. Yes. Okay. Thank
you. Thank you. Anyone else out there have any objection to the cases that were called
as being continued or withdrawn? Mr. Chair, at this time, I believe we have a
Lee Slamowicz, whose hand is raised.
I will promote him to the panelists right now.
Thank you.
Could you please unpromote me?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Mr. Slamowicz?
Mr. Slamowicz, you may unmute and begin to speak.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, sir.
Please identify yourselves by your first and last name
for the record and give us your address good morning Mr. Chairman Lee Shlomowitz that's L-E-E-S-H-L-A
M as in Mary O-W-I-T-Z my address is 196 West Ashland Street in Doylestown Pennsylvania
1-8-9-0-1 do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
What case are you representing?
I represent the owner on 1924 East Oakdale. That's D.I.Z. Holdings, LLC.
Got you. Okay.
I also am here on a matter for which the RCO meeting summary has not been received,
despite otherwise written support following the RCO meeting that was duly noticed and organized.
There's an additional issue, which is that there's an issue with the tax clearance website.
My client, their CPA, and myself have been attempting in various ways to obtain the
appropriate clearance. And I think we've come pretty close, but I'm sorry.
Excuse me. Excuse me. This is Sharon Saleta. We did receive a letter from Councilman Squilla indicating that the RCO supports the project and that he is in non-opposition. As for the tax clearance, I can check that for you while you proceed.
okay uh so my thinking is as long as we're willing to proceed so if there's an issue with
the tax clearance um perhaps the the panel can hold the matter under advisement until we can
resolve that issue unless what i've presented is acceptable okay so noted we'll do that
okay we'll go forward with the case and if sharon can't get the tax clearance up we'll just hold
until we get it. All right, we'll have the, we'll hear the case. Thank you. Anyone else have any
objection to the continuance or withdrawals that have been read into the record?
Or does anyone else wish to request a continuance or withdrawal?
The chair, there is a Joseph McCarthy who is waiting to be promoted. I shall do so right now.
Thank you.
Mr. McCarthy, you have been promoted to panelists.
You may unmute your microphone and begin to make a case.
Good morning, Mr. McCarthy.
Please identify yourself with a record, spell your name, give us your address,
and then I'll swear you in.
Mr. McCarthy, you need to unmute yourself.
Mr. McCarthy, are you there?
His name is muted.
I guess we can move on forward.
What's that, confessor?
I guess we can move forward, right?
Oh, there he is.
I think he's going to be on now.
Mr. McCarthy?
I just don't know what case, confessor.
It's where I'm...
Mr. McCarthy.
um i'm sorry mr chair yeah while we're waiting we're waiting to see if mr mccarthy comes in i
just i just received a message from mr michael micklehenney i saw something come up what
he's talking
asking about
case number MI 2020
000719
Diamond Street
he said it was held
for revised plans
to be presented today
he wanted to know if it could be
if he could have the case heard in today's session
Sharon I don't have anything on that
if he can
wait until the end of the session
I can get you the information
all right just ask him
to stand by
thank you and Mr. McCarthy one more time
all right
Confessor.
chair excuse me if i can add one more thing um the last case read when we're announcing
continuances was um 509 wheel pump lane just to confirm we should probably at this point read
this as a continuance because the app the applicant's architect submitted a request
that it be withdrawn we've requested though um a letter directly from the property owner
confirming that so in the meantime if we could announce this thank you okay okay so mi 2020 dash
zero zero zero seven five four nine five oh nine wheel pump lane is continued that's the last one
confess it was number 11 we originally had it as withdrawn so we're changing the status to continue
We can now proceed with 1740
Wolf Street. MI-2020-000240
Mr. Sabatini
I'll turn and I'll promote him to
panelists right now
Mr. Sabatini, where are you?
Mr. Sabatini
Wait a minute
I have a Mr. Bernie
Varallo. I'm going to get ready to promote him to
panelists right now
Mr. Varallo, you have been promoted to
panelists. You may unmute your mic and
make your case
Good morning, Mr. Varallo. Please identify
yourself with the records
excuse me, spell your first and last name
give us your address and I'll swear you
Mr. Varello, there you go.
Yes, Bernardino Varello, 2307 South 18th Street.
Please spell your first and last name.
E-E-R-A-R-D-I-N-O, last name Varello, V-A-R-A-L-L-O.
We're going to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
confessor yes 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 this is donald sabatini attorney for the uh appellant and yes i did uh email that all more
than five business days before today also have you confessor just give me a second mr sabatini
would you please identify yourself name and address spell your name donald s sabatini s-a-b-a-t-i-n-i
7710 orpheus place o-r-p-h-e-u-s philadelphia pennsylvania 19153 attorney for the appellant
bmlv llc for 1740 welcome thank you and you're swearing for him to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes thank you professor also have you met with the rco and have a letter
uh yes we have i believe that was sent in thank you
do we have the letter yes it's a letter in non-opposition from gear g-e-a-r yeah yeah
gerard gerard gerard estate okay thank you uh miss mr sabatini or mr varallo please proceed
this is a application to legalize a duplex a long-standing a building that's been used as a
duplex for a long-standing time i don't believe there's any uh physical alterations planned to
the uh property it's just uh it's been used as a duplex since approximately 1978 uh without
incident uh the principal of the current owner bmlb llc mr bart mr varallo uh lives adjacent
into the property so he has firsthand information regarding you know the use and uh that's pretty