And there are plans and drawings.
So as you can see from the left, the cornice line matches to those single family homes that the board approved by way of variance in 2023.
You can also see the curved bay windows.
And you can see just, again, we have a pronounced cornice line, and we have a lot of windows that lead to lots of light in there for the property, our property.
And then as you can see here, this is a better angle, but you can see our cornice line matches the property still left of us.
And again, the Palumbo school already overpowers us from a height perspective.
And then this is just our site plan. And you can see from here, this is the curb cut we're repurposing. And then you can see from a side elevation point of view, our height for the building is 45 feet high.
You can also see the two cars that would be parked in the garage on the first floor.
There's also no basement use.
We're building on grade.
First floor, you would see like the two cars parked, you know, through the garage.
There's storage in the back where presumably the garbage would be stored, you know, until trash day.
Not that it's a big issue, but it's a single family home.
You walk up the front steps, you know, the steps in the front.
You go up a flight of steps. It's an open floor plan of a living room, dining room, kitchen.
There's a half bath. You go up a flight of steps. There's two bedrooms and two baths.
And then there's a master suite on the fourth floor. And then there's a roof deck as well.
RCO meeting notice we met on October 22nd at 7 p.m. It was a very well attended meeting.
We emailed that notice to the coordinating RCO and relevant parties showing proof of mailing of that notice.
That notice was mailed to 93 addresses.
These are the addresses we mailed it to.
Proof of mailing to those addresses or application for appeal we filed on Eric's behalf.
Again, not a developer, someone who's lived in this community for over 20 years and wants to remain in this community.
He figured based on what the board approved in 2023, he wanted to upgrade his house, not move.
And he's hoping the board will equally grant this zoning request or variance request.
His deed to the property showing that he's owned this for some time in 2023, 2003, sorry, over 20 years.
in the certificate of tax clearance showing that he owes no real estate taxes
with respect to the property. I would ask that Eric virtually raise his hand
and be sworn in. Eric?
Eric Stern has been allowed to speak. Eric, could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer. My name is Eric Stern, E-R-I-C-S-T-E-R-N. You swear or affirm to tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Yes, Eric, you heard everything I had to state
today about Jorzoni matter. Yes. And is it true and correct? Yes. And do you adopt it as your own
testimony yes um and and members of the board the other thing i did overlook is that he's making a
significant investment in this property i believe he's even putting an elevator in there so this is
the place that he wants to live you know through retirement years and he's trying to make this huge
investment in here and they he hopes the board uh grants this zoning variance request thank you
did you say something about a shared deck before yeah it's strange um yeah i mean i you didn't
Yeah, it's strange. Yeah, I mean, you didn't mention it in your presentation, but what's the shared decade?
mention it in your presentation.
Yeah, let me show you this here. It's very strange. I've not seen anything like this before. Let's see. It's not on our client's property. It's on the site plan.
it's right here so this is our property right here right oops and this is the property on
christian street on christian street there's a deck right here leading on to the second floor
it connects to our current building structure that we have shared access to and we're hoping
to actually continue that access you know by way of this building structure that's why we're asking
for zero that's the rear that's the rear yard issue no so the rear yard issue is this this is
christian street right think about it this is christian street this is webster in order for
us to connect to this deck we have to our current building structure goes all the ways to the rear
of our property and connects to this deck right now all we're trying to do is recreate the situation
with zero rear yard setback and zero open area.
So that's part of our hardship too.
All right, questions from the board.
Yes, I have a question.
Out of the RCO folks that supported it,
how does the neighbor at 1110 weigh in?
How did they weigh in as being as though
you're talking about demolishing the home right next to it?
Yeah, so I'll let Eric speak,
but my understanding is that there were members of that block. I'm not 100% sure if the neighbor
next door was there. I'll let Eric answer that. But he lives there. So, Eric, you want to answer
that? Yeah. The next door neighbor was not in attendance in that meeting. It's a rental
property. And neither the owner nor the tenant was present. Other people from the block were
present and voiced, they're okay.
And not that this goes from a zoning perspective, but he's building
it on slabs, so there's no underpinning either. So from a
construction point of view, it's going to be a lighter issue
in terms of construction. I mean, I say that because it's a small
block. The block is very, very small. And you said
you didn't know of any other neighbors that were at the zoning hearing?
or there were some?
Not the 1110 neighborhood.
Not 1110, but other members
of that block attended the community
meeting and voiced their support for
the project.
Any other 45 feet
residences besides
the ones to the left?
Any other ones to the right?
On that same block, that's
that height and on other blocks
of Webster Street as well.
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
Okay, the refusal of what are we granting you variances from there's height.
Let me share my screen again. I'll go through the refusals again.
Okay, thank you.
so three out of the four um
so the first one has to do with the front facade has to match the front facades to left and right
of us so our front so we're not changing the depth of our front facade from the current building
structure to the proposed new building structure and the front facade to the our proposed front
facade matches and mimics the front facade to the right of us to the left of us and i think it'll
be better to look at the foot the aerial view um this is an older photo of of the of the uh
neighborhood but there is no facade here it's actually i guess there's a building structure
that was set back that building structure has been demolished and what the board approved and
I think it's more from an illustration would be helpful is they approve this.
This is just an illustration of a 10 unit plan community.
These are 10 single family homes.
Five of the single family homes will face West Webster at 45 feet high and five of the
single family homes.
I would presume face Christian street at 45.
The foundations have been poured for the homes, but they haven't been completed.
So I would presume, given that there's no CO yet, LNI doesn't recognize this building facade yet.
So that's the technical refusal as the first one.
The second refusal has to do with the open space, where we're providing no...
It has to do with the open space where we're providing no open space for our property.
Again, the current building structure has no open space because what we're doing is attaching the rear of our building structure to that deck on the second floor that's on the Christian Street side.
And then the third refusal has to do with the rear air setback.
We have no rear air setback currently, and we're proposing no rear air setback.
So we can connect to the second floor deck that attaches, you know, to our building and hopefully the new building.
And then the fourth refusal has to do with the height.
We're proposing 45 feet in height, but the buildings that those five buildings to the left of us and behind us are 45 feet high.
And there's the Palumbo High School, which is across the street, which is 80 feet high.
All right.
Thank you.
any other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney
Hillary Emerson
just one comment
I think there may be a refusal
missing for the front loaded
parking unless that was previously
approved so I just wanted to note
that because I was a little confused at
first but I think Webster Street it's considered
the front street for this case
and not a rear street
or shared driveway so i just wanted to make that that note well i will say this is that the current
use of the property has a front loading garage so i would have thought that we would have received
a refusal because we're demolishing that current building right we're proposing to demolish the
current building right new one so but you know there is a front loading garage right now with
a curb existing curb cut yep all right thank you i should have your comments from the virtual audience
I see Mohin's at this time, Teer.
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The property is indicated for residential use on the city plan.
Given the current site circumstances, we recommend that the requested garage variance be granted,
provided that the final height be fully code compliant.
um so can i just comment so what what i heard maybe is that the the planning commission is in
agreement to the variance requests other than the height but maybe i misheard that and if that's the
case all i would say is that the height to the left of us is 45 feet high the board previously
granted height variances for that, plus across the street, you know, it's an 80-foot structure.
Well, my 2020, Ron, go ahead, Ron. Yeah, again, the, we believe that the height, you know,
should actually be consistent with the code. There's no need for the 45 foot.
thank you ron mi 2024-005-501-1108 webster street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes
tennetta graham my vote is yes
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
thank you counsel thank you have a great day
Number 14, MI 2024-005-505, 700 East Hunting Park Avenue.
Joseph Vaccaro is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the 7th Ward RCO.
Mr. Vaccaro.
Joseph Vaccaro will be joining us as a panelist.
good afternoon how are you today good mr vaccaro you've already been sworn just for the record
state your name my name is joseph vaccaro v-a-c-c-a-r-o on behalf of d-t-l-r inc the
applicant our vice chair has a few questions for you sir good afternoon council do you agree to
way the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy? Yes. Have you emailed in all the
required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of
this hearing? Yes. Thank you counsel. Please proceed and share your screen. Thank you very
much. If I may start by sharing the screen.
Can you see what seems to be a storefront with a TD bank, right?
We can.
So this is an application for DTLR Inc. to use this site to operate a store for selling
shoes and clothing and other items.
The proposed site of the store would be between the TD Bank that you see on the photo and the area to the left, which I believe is going to be opened as a chicken restaurant.
So DTLR plans to occupy space number nine, which is in between the bank and the future chicken restaurant.
DTLR is a very large chain of stores that sells shoes and clothing.
They have two stores on Chestnut Street.
They have another store at 3600 Germantown.
They have another store at 1231 North Broad, as well as 5747 North Broad, 2881 Mount Efrm Avenue in Camden, among many other locations in the tri-state area.
uh so they would hope to open up uh this store at this site the reason for the refusal is that
this location is zoned as i2 industrial but there is no industry anywhere on this block
rather this is an entire plaza consisting of uh retail stores such as ross dressed for less
D.D.'s Discount, Dollar Tree, Rainbow, Renna Center, Little Caesars, Wingstop, T-Mobile,
Dunkin' Donuts. There's a wash and fold laundromat as well as Wendy's. The block is bound by East
Hunting Park Avenue to the north, East Luzerne to the south, Whitaker to the west, and G Street
to the east. On East Hunting Park Avenue, this location in question is on the south side of
East Hunting Park. On the north side of East Hunting Park, there are storage units as well
as fuel storage tanks for gasoline, diesel, those sorts of items. On Luzerne, on the far south side
of the block, that's Pico. Pico was occupying that spot for its trucks as well as other material
and equipment. On the Whitaker Street side, there's a Shell gas station as well as a McDonald's,
as well as other retail and auto repair spots. And on G Street are some of the other stores that I
had mentioned. So again, this is all commercial retail as opposed to the I-2 zoning. I'm going
to show you some additional photographs of the property, the poster. In the back, there's
another structure in the back where the trash would be stored, and that's what I'm showing
you here. This is the back of the building, and the property in question would have one door where
my cursor is. There's another door behind the dumpster, and a third door, and a fourth door.
So there would be four doors on the back for bringing in the merchandise and bringing out
the trash. Some of the fire alarm equipment on the inside of the store.
A view of the outside from the inside of the store. It's still being fitted out.
I mentioned the storage units on the north side of Hunting Park Avenue. You see them through the glass.
Some views of the inside of the store, the ceiling.
and I'm going to show you a similar store that's already fitted out
showing their products, women's shoes, men's shoes, hats, shirts, etc.
etc. And there's the tax clearance certificate. I've also attached a copy of the letter of support