Oh, give me a minute. I know what happened. Hold on.
I know what I did.
Forgive me.
This will work. I promise.
There. Now, hold on.
Now you can see something, right?
Got it now.
Oh, good.
Yeah, that's the notice.
That's her car in the spot.
And you can see to the right, you can see front surface parking there.
this is showing that she does not impact the sidewalk if you hopefully you could see this
photo that's Melissa Buckley's car and her front and you could see the outline in red of the
property and you could see in the background a car parked illegally within the sidewalk we want
to be clear and Melissa will verify that she does not block the sidewalk and never would block the
sidewalk. Let me just briefly show you the refusal. So you can see the
dimensional variances. It's a minimal parking stall variance and, of course,
the there the refusal for RSA 5 single-family front space and I'll show
you this plan briefly here so you could see and here's the parking space as you
could see it fits again with a small width variance but it fits within the
property line you know I think that's about it mr. chairman we posted for this
hearing I'm gonna invite Melissa to verify my testimony there are photos of
the other parking spaces let me see if I can quickly get to them here this is
Del Mar Street. You can see a whole development doors away, which, and then we're in the background,
you can see front-loaded parking on that side of Del Mar Street. And again, there's a very
significant parking problem in this community. Here's another view of Del Mar. You can see how
there's no, it's a small street, but there's no displaced parking. Here's another car parked
illegally. This is my client's property right here. Okay. More front loaded garages,
front load, excuse me, front loaded surface parking in the area. And that's it. So let me
stop my screen. Are there any questions or do you want me to bring up any other exhibits?
No, just a question. There's no on-street parking on your client's side of the street, correct?
correct okay thank you she will not displace this spot will not oh there is also a depressed curb
at her location which led her to believe that when she purchased the property that the parking
space was legal okay thank you any other need to see any other exhibits and the board member
need to change in the exhibit?
But, Counselor, my concern
is that she can't
park vertically. She only can park
horizontal.
That's true.
What we did with that was
the neighbor
is one of her supporters
and appeared at
the RCO meeting and said she's got
the RCO meeting and said she's got no problem with the relief and that Melissa is able to
no problem with
the relief.
park in her space without driving across that person's property. The neighbor of the space
immediately next door went to the RCO meeting and publicly declared that and declared her support
for the application. So the person who would be impacted if we were being untruthful about her
ability to park in the space without impacting the neighbor, that neighbor has said otherwise
and agrees to this relief. And I'd say that on the record as an officer of the court,
I didn't require that neighbor to attend because she attended the RCO meeting and
was in support there. And that's this neighbor here, Mr. Holloman.
okay thank you any other questions from the board
no anyone do you have a witness mr demarco i do i'm going to stop my i hope i just stopped
my screen share i think i did uh melissa buckley is it looks to be in the in the in the zoom room
So if we could give her audio.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes, Ms. Buckley, please identify yourself with a record, name and address, spell your
name for the stenographer.
Yes, this is Melissa Buckley, M-E-L-I-S-S-A-B-U-C-K-L-E-Y.
I am the owner at 341 Delmar in Philadelphia, 19128.
and I do attest to everything Mr. DeMarco has said is accurate and truthful. Only thing I'd
like to add is there was a petition. We went around our immediate block, so the 300 block of
Del Mar, and had every available neighbor that signed the petition, which was in our support in
the neighborhood meeting, and we didn't have a single person who refused to sign. For the most
part, everyone is in full support, and if anything, we've had overwhelming responses and asking if we
were able to get this in before COVID. So I think from a neighborhood perspective, we have their
support and my family and I are really just hopeful that we can get this through so we can,
you know, live in the home that we thought we purchased and hopefully we have your support as
well. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'll add the petition is in our exhibits and you'll see
the signatures are actually the immediate neighbors on this property. There was very
little to no opposition actually on the block. The negative votes that you see in the RCO letter
were from the board members of the RCO rather than the neighbors nearby. That petition is in
the record. And I could, if you want me to share it, I can. Melissa, do you also adopt every
statement that I've made as your official testimony? Yes, yes, I do. Mr. Chairman, one
housekeeping item, I'm leaving the Laletta firm and moving over to Zorwin Baum next week, but I
do not have email there yet. So I put my personal email on my registration and would ask
tanya to forward the decision in this case to that email that i registered with
okay and that's all i have mr chairman um the the variance relief is consistent with the context of
the block there's full support my client uh will suffer from this in that he she was had the
expectation when purchasing the property that the space was legal and came with
the land to not have it would mean she paid a price for the property in
anticipation that the relief of that the spot was legal and that would be lost
and that would constitute when our belief of hardship she's not displacing
existing parking there are multiple spaces on the block that have this
condition um that may or may not have received relief but um it's a parking crisis in that
neighborhood and you'll be doing everybody a favor by um trying to get what parking you can get
from those existing conditions so with that uh that's all i have and thank you for your time
thank you uh again i'll ask one more time any questions from the members of the board okay
no okay planning commission this is uh we have another witness oh i'm sorry i thought i thought
melissa buckley was the only one is there another witness if there are please raise your hand
Is there another witness? If there are, please raise your hand.
there's a couple people with their hands
Yes, a couple of people with their hands up. You have Ashley Carroll. You can unmute yourself and speak.
Hi, Mr. DiCicco. My name is Ashley Carroll, spelled A-S-H-L-E-Y, last name C-A-R-R-O-L-L.
I live at 255 Delmar Street. I'm a neighbor. I also happen to be on the board of the RCO.
So we do oppose this for several reasons. As you'll notice that the actual home, the realty listing for the property notated that there was no parking included with the purchase of the home.
it said street parking only um the house had several violations against it while it was being
remodeled um and according to zoning it also shows that no parking was permitted at this property
the other houses shown in the um images um by Mr. DeMarco um were built prior to the NCO overlay
put in place they were built I believe prior to 2014 they had their permits in place
and 341 Delmar Street's redo was done in 2017 and as far as I know any parking front-loaded
parking since I've been on the board of the RCO no front-loaded parking has required variances
on that block of the street I've been here for about eight years it there have been multiple
times where this particular homeowner has parked perpendicular to the street or perpendicular in
lieu of parallel to the street which does block the sidewalk and various guests have been over
in the meantime blocking the sidewalk as well and we do not agree with this parking on the property.
It also the water department sent in a letter in opposition as well because the property is
not reinforced to have parking on top of any of the plumbing and water features offered by the
city. May I respond, Mr. Chairman? Yes. So, you know, this is an example of the RCO failing to
fulfill their duty and their responsibility. With all due respect, this matter was considered by
their group was voted on, was supported by the immediate neighbors, and here you have an example
of the RCO taking a position contrary to their own vote in their own process in their own meeting.
It's frankly insulting and a disgrace. Are you going to respect your neighbors and the people
on your block for their support, or are you going to take a position contrary to what the people
decide. This is why this process becomes so convoluted and it's very upsetting to go through
and do the notices and prepare the notices, ask your client to obtain signatures and go up and
down the block and get signatures, and have a board member try to tell the near neighbors what's best
for them. And that's wrong because the overwhelming 80 to 90 percent individuals on this block voted
to support this because of the conditions in the neighborhood. I'm going to ask my client to
respond in a minute, but forgive me for being a little bit upset by this because this RCO
has to respect the neighbors next to the property and within several doors of the property and not
take a position that they think they should take and impose their will upon the people who actually
have to live with it. Because the people on this block understand that they have a parking crisis
and that they need to have parking spaces where it's available.
And my client's going to respond in a minute,
but I can bring up the – if you'll allow me to share my screen,
I'll show you the RCO letter.
Mr. DeMarco.
Sorry. Yes.
I want to clarify, I am not here representing the RCO. I just happen to be a board member. I am representing my property as a neighbor. I personally oppose this. The RCO letter does stand. So I just want to make that clear to everyone that's here.
Well, I appreciate that.
So noted. Okay, let's get to the letter.
Yeah, I'm getting it up now. Excuse me.
can you see my screen now Mr. Chairman with the RCO letter yeah if you can make that a little bit
Can you see my screen now?
larger that would be helpful if not that's good thank you how's that better so you see here
I mean there were a few people who attended the meeting that were not on the board that voted no
But the entire RCO board voted no.
But you had the other neighbors, 17 people, voted yes.
I saw that.
I was a little confused myself when I first saw that, but okay.
Right.
Now, I want to be clear, and Melissa will respond in a minute and verify what I'm saying,
but Melissa took her petition up and down her block, and no one refused to sign her petition.
and everybody signed in favor so the people who live there and with the exception of this
individual the people who live there want her to receive this variance because they have either
similar conditions or maybe they want to uh it's it's consistent with the rest of the block and
there's no parking on that side if you do not allow her to park and she parks on street you're
taking up another space so this actually provides another on-street parking space i get that right
and we're not displacing any any park on the petition i'll just see if i can bring up the
petition and then i'll i'll let melissa speak because melissa is telling me that um it's not
true that the um that the listing uh hold on that for a minute did i did someone want to speak to
of here tom yes can can he bring up the picture again yeah let me just uh can you see um my
petition yes all right you look at you can look at the look at the on the petition it's all her
immediate neighbors okay okay and yes i can bring up the uh photo oh this is the second group of
exhibits let me get to the other group because there were pictures i couldn't send the uh
that's the neighbor's property
is that the picture yes that one let me ask you this question on the passenger
side, when they open the door, would it block the sidewalk?
I can answer that.
On the passenger side?
No, it doesn't have to.
I mean, if I were to swing the door fully open, it might overlap a very little bit,
but we park relatively close to the stairwell.
is the red line is the red line within the parking uh yes tom you're breaking up tom
is the red line in the parking area yes when i open the passenger door will it block any part
of the sidewalk no you can open that door and walk right on my property and walk right into
the home. You do not have to displace the sidewalk in any way. And I can go ahead and respond.
Melissa, go ahead and respond. Respond to the other items. Just to clarify, the listing of the
home said parking right out front. And every time we visited the property, there was someone parked
in the driveway. And that's that was our assumption. Yes, if you dive into the MLS and you have a real
estate agent pull, it does not show that there was parking in the real estate listing, but in the
description there was. The second point noted about parking perpendicular, I can verify we have not
parked perpendicular since we've received that notice. Ever since the notice, if and if you are
a neighbor, then you would notice we park on the street almost every single day. Our car is currently
on the street because of this issue that we're having. We didn't want to park illegally because
we weren't zoned properly. Only time we park there is in emergency situations. And when I've had to
take pictures for Mr. DeMarco himself, we plan to park in this matter parallel. Parking
perpendicular, the edge of our car does go over the sidewalk very slightly. And just as anyone
else who parks on the sidewalk, we would receive a ticket for doing so. So if I do choose to park
perpendicular then I'm at the risk of getting tickets through PPA or through
the Philadelphia police just like anyone else's so I would not choose to
park that way we can very easily park in this manner and not disrupt the
sidewalk not disrupt our neighbor and to the third point regarding the the water
And to the third point, regarding the water department, we've never received a notice from the water department regarding we cannot park on that area.
department we've never received a note
That's full news to me.
So I will look into that.
If something breaks underneath that pavement, it's your responsibility.
Right.
It's my property.
It's my responsibility.
And the last point regarding all those homes that were parked there, I can guarantee they were built after I moved in.
They were in the middle of construction.