hour uh individual participants who call in will be limited to two minutes worth of test
two minutes to testify i believe i covered everything tanya miss sunkett
So if anyone who calls in by phone and you wish to testify, you would have to press star
nine on your phone to raise your hand. And then once you're recognized by the last three digits
of your phone number, you will have to push star six to unmute yourself. And then all parties who
would like to register an official appearance statement, you can call into a Google voice phone
number and answer the questions on the prompts and leave your information. The phone number is
267-270-5548. Again, that's 267-270-5548, and that's where you can leave an appearance statement.
thank you frank thank you tanya at this time i'll entertain any requests for continuances
or withdrawals okay if you're asking for continuance please raise your hand yes i
have here a request for continuance from councilwoman sanchez for calendar number 39313 4737
Leaper Street. Any other requests? Sloan folks here who wish to speak to that. Sloan, you can
unmute yourself and speak. Can I unmute it? Yes. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. And we also have
Sloan, I'm sorry, in addition to Sloan folks, there's Ryan Boland who will want to speak on
this request okay mr folks please uh identify yourself for the record name and address spell
your name good afternoon uh councilman i'm sorry uh chairman de chico and zba board my name is
sloan folks sloan a folks f as in fire olks office of councilwoman maria quinones sanchez
7th district room 508 city hall and do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes i do thank you please proceed yes um our office is submitting a uh or
was requesting a continuance uh for this case uh for 4733 leopold street um the uh applicant has
not met with the rco as to our knowledge and um given that fact we are requesting continuance
until such a time where the RCO can meet with the variant sequester.
Thank you. Anyone else on this?
Mr. Boland? Ryan, you have been muted. Yes, can you hear me?
Ryan, you have been muted.
Yes, can you hear me, Mr. Chairman?
I'm not sure the video is on, but I just want to respond briefly.
Please identify yourself with the record.
Yes, Ryan Boland.
My address is 1801 Market Street, Suite 2300, and I represent the applicant, Hope Properties, LLC.
see. I, in fact, personally attended a meeting with the RCO, who's the Frankfurt CDC, back way
before COVID, back on February 13th of this year. I had extensive communications back and forth with
Christine DeJesus regarding this. There haven't been any requests for a continued RCO meeting.
In fact, no members of the community showed up at this. It was only the board members. We had
extensive discussions which really centered on issues that they were concerned that to legalize
this unit again, there was a two-year period where it went from a five-plex to a four-plex
that there might be more fire code issues that would need to be addressed. They wanted us to
go ahead and get an advisory opinion from L&I about fire code issues before they would discuss
these other issues, and we thought that put the cart before the horse. We offered to come back
again, but I haven't heard anything, Mr. Chico. I've sent approximately three emails during the
COVID and two emails since this was rescheduled two weeks ago, and I haven't heard a word.
sent the emails to who they were sent to the contact we have for the rco who's christine
and i believe that mr folks might have also been on that um email as well but they were sent to
our rco contact if i may rebut uh chairman please uh i have an email dated uh july 24th from christine
de jesus uh stating that um and let me digress i was at the uh generally scheduled meeting
february 22nd i'm a resident of this community i live around the corner from the property
so i was very interested in uh the proceedings um at that time on february 22nd where uh a
The variance is coming before the board today. 4739 was also discussed. We did not hear anything from 4733 Leopold Street. Those are regularly scheduled meetings. I have emails back and forth from the RCO, specifically Christine DeJesus, the last one dated July 24th, saying that there was no official meeting between the RCO and the property owner or the representatives for the request variance.
with the community.
Bowen?
Mr. Chairman, that is not accurate.
I personally attended the meeting,
and I believe from recognizing his voice
that Mr. Folks was there, and I spoke with him.
That was the formally noticed meeting.
We mailed off all the notices,
and we offered immediately,
if you want to come back,
we don't think we have to, but we'll come back.
We disagree.
We're happy to come back.
We've heard nothing.
Mr. Folks, would you have any knowledge as to when the next community meeting would be held?
I mean, I understand they're not being regularly held because of COVID. I get that.
Their community meetings are regularly scheduled the third Thursday of every month at 6.30 p.m.
Even at this time?
I'm sorry, sir?
Even at this time with COVID?
even at this time, we are facilitating a meeting for them this month. I suggest if they are going
to reach out to the RCO, and Christine has been responsive to me, that they reach out now so they
can get on their agenda or their calendar ASAP. All right. Any other comments?
I do have a caller with their hand up, ending three digits of the phone number 162.
You are able to speak if you wish to speak regarding a continuance request.
Caller.
Okay, Chair, I guess you can go forward.
Mr. Chairman, just one briefly. We're happy to go back if they want us back again. We haven't
heard anything and we don't think it would be fruitful, but we're happy to engage with the
community again. I appreciate that. Me and Mr. Folks, maybe we can have an exchange after you
guys hang up to work that out. Okay. Okay. What's that calendar number again? I don't have it.
to work that out okay okay what's that calendar number again i don't have it
39 313 okay calendar number 39 313 4733 liper street is continued
good luck work that out with mr mr falks and speak to tanya about a date all right all right
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Thank you both.
Connie, anybody else with their hand up?
No, no one knew.
So calendar number 39402, 173 East Allen Street, and calendar number 39403, 950 Shackamaxim Street.
Those are related appeals.
Frank that's the one from earlier remember it was at two o'clock when it was for the 430.
Yes that was Mulvihill right? Yes. Leo you have been promoted to panelists you can speak and share
your screen as you wish. Leo good afternoon you agree to waive the reading of his refusal and
stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Thank you. Name Leo Mulvihill, M-U-L-V-I-H-I-L-L. The address is
2424 East York Street, Suite 111, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19125. Good afternoon, members of
the board. I'm here today on behalf of the homeowners of the two properties as Pradeep
Sandi Gamani and
Harsha Josti
These two gentlemen own houses
that essentially abut one each other
What I'm going to be
Yes? I need to swear you in, please
Thank you too
Oh, certainly
Mr. Mobile, do you swear and affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed
Everything that I just said was true too
so I don't have to repeat it
so let's just incorporate that
So, members of the board, what we're here to do today in the neighborhood of Fishtown.
I'm going to share my screen so we can get an idea as to what the parcels that we're
talking about look like here.
Chairman, are you able to see this shared screen at this point?
yes we all see it yes okay we can see it yes okay so we're located at the intersection of
shack and axon street and east allen street in fishtown directly south of this would be
delaware avenue these homes are located right by a 7-eleven and uh then across delaware avenue
from these properties would be the casino i can move to a google streets view later if everybody
would like a little bit more context, but that's kind of what we're looking at right now.
So members of the board, when my clients bought these properties, as you can see, we have 950
Shack and Maxon located on the corner. It is new construction. And 173 East Allen located the
first house in directly behind 950 Shack and Maxon. Each of them have nine foot rear yards
that are simply used as their yards at this point.
What they're seeking to do, because of the increasing developments in the neighborhood,
including the rope building that is directly to the east, which I believe is being done
by Streamline Construction, recently proposed development that's happening in the old George
Wells Meat Building along Delaware Avenue, and the increasing commercial development
that has made it hard for my clients
to find parking spaces for their vehicles
day or night at this point, COVID accepted.
They're seeking to take one 10-foot curb cut
that I'm indicating here behind the two properties.
Let me see if I can annotate that here.
And that will be this right here.
and use that via a gate, a common driveway, to access one parking spot in each of their rear yards.
You'll note on the plans that I have right here currently
that there are a set of stairs that are marked in each of their rear yards.
Those each member of the, pardon me, each household owner intends to remove those
and create a Juliet balcony for their rear sliding glass door.
sliding glass doors. The common gate here is ideal for a circumstance like this where each car
The common gate here is ideal for...
will be, each property rather, will be hoping to have a vehicle because we're only taking 10 feet
off the street, which is essentially half of a legal on-street spot. And via that access,
via these turning radiuses, allow two cars to be taken off the street. I've spoken with my clients
and because they're only a few blocks away from frankfurt avenue they're seeing a lot of problems
with parking on their own street day or night at this point what i'm going to do members of
the board is stop the sharing of this and then show you all the street view of the property so
you all have a better idea as precisely what they are dealing with here and i think that'll work
even better than the photos that I've previously submitted to the board so
members of the board for purposes of today's hearing I've now maximized the
street view of the properties this is the property at the corner of East
talent and jack and maxim nothing's come up yet okay i'll wait for i'll wait for a second and
see whether something pops up here
there you go all right so it just seems like we have a little bit of a delay then
First, I'm just gonna direct everybody's attention
to the bottom left side of the screen,
which shows a miniature map of the area.
As I stated, we're just one block off of Delaware Avenue.
I'm going to rotate the street view
so we have a better idea as to what we're looking at.
And I'm just gonna check in with everybody
to make sure that everybody can see exactly
down East Allen Street at this point.
Can everybody see that updated view?
so members of the board have now rotated the map so that we should be able to see down East Allen
Street you'll notice that there is parking on only one side of the street that is the side of
the street where my clients homes are located directly across the street is that 7-eleven
that I indicated in this building as well. I believe it's a daycare on the top floor.
Philadelphia Ritz Service is in this building. Golf and Social is in this building as well as
a number of other office and commercial uses. Here we have off-street parking, which is directly
across the street from my client, but each of these spaces are reserved specifically for
Philadelphia Writ Service or other members who have tenants in the building that's directly here.
We also have trash storage, unfortunately, directly across the street from my clients.
And now looking eastbound on East Allen Street, members of the board,
you'll see the old rope factory, which is currently being rehabilitated into a number
of residential units and we see some other new construction on the street so members of the
board as you know parking's at a premium here in the neighborhood so ultimately all we're asking
for is one curb cut about 10 feet wide via that common curb cut access into each of my clients
rear yards we'll be taking two cars off the street effectively increasing the ultimate capacity for
parking in the neighborhood. Just as the members of the board are aware as well, in addition to
the new construction where my client's homes are located, if we proceed down Allen Street,
about half the block, you'll notice that we do have precedent for all street parking on the block.
I'm unsure whether this is updated yet in your view, but I'll continue to narrate and hopefully
at some point that I'll catch up so we have a better idea. What we have here now is another
new development that was built at around the time that my client's homes were built. Each of these
units have off-street parking that are accessed via a common drive, via a curb cut that already
exists here now on Allen Street. And that curb cut and common drive extend all the way from Allen
Street up through until Richmond Street, which is directly to the north. It's not as if there is
not a precedent on the street for off-street parking especially on this
side of the street it's not as though we're trying to privatize multiple
parking spaces and keep multiple cars off the street essentially we're asking
and keep multiple cars off the street. Essentially, we're asking to take
to take half
half of one spot to take two cars off the street. I'm going to stop sharing the Google Street View
right now. I'm going to go specifically to the presentation packet that I prepared
and submitted previously to the board.