ZBA Hearing - October 20, 2020

nice all right all right i feel that way sometimes oh yeah we're just dead inside

yeah you swear i found to tell the truth the whole truth for nothing but the truth

i do and do you agree to wait the reading of its refusal and stipulate to attack your scene

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. Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter? Yes. Thank you. Please

identify yourself for the record. Good morning, members of the board. Leo Mulvihill, M-U-L,

G.S. and Victor, I-H-I-L-L, 2424 East York Street, Suite 111, Philadelphia, 19125.

I'm here today on a follow-up to a hearing that was held last week for 1302 North 18th Street.

So members of the board, just to review briefly,

we are here today for purposes of requesting a variance to allow for a new

two-family dwelling on a vacant lot. What I'm showing now is the area that we were discussing,

indicating here this hatched area, is what we were proposing, two dwelling units, 1302 North

18th Street. As you can see, the other areas that are shaded either dark gray indicate that those

are multifamily or two-family units. The light gray are single-family homes. This proposal was

supported by the City Planning Commission based on our presentation at the prior session.

What I finally received the other day and previously forward to the Zoning Board,

which I will share and mark as applicants additional exhibit B.

let's see

maybe

there we go

members of the board what I'm showing now on the screen

is a letter from the friends of 47th Ward dated October 8th 2019

and as previously discussed this was a socially distanced meeting that was held

on the 1600 block of Cecil B. Moore outside

I was requested to join by telephone for the hearing. So at that meeting I received this

letter indicating that three members who attended opposed the application as presented and nine

meeting attendees opposed the application. Although the total number of attendees was

nine so I'm not quite sure how that vote works out because the math doesn't really work out for me.

Basically, in the letter of explanation, which I'm now showing on the screen, Ms. Louise Bundy of the RCO Friends of 47th Ward indicated that the community's preference is to maintain single-family homes in the area.

As previously discussed during our presentation in chief, there's a prevalence of multifamily in this area.

new single-family homes would significantly raise the cost for new potential tenants

for new potential tenants or homeowners on the property and that was the request based on the

or homeowners on the property, and that was the request.

precedent in the area based on the fact that these would be more affordable based on the support

of the city planning commission for our two family development that we were proposing that

irrespective of the position of the rco friends of 47th board that i asked the zoning board to

vote in favor of this variance request thank you is there anyone else who wishes to testify

I would like to testify in this case.

If so, please raise your hand.

Chair, we have Mary Jones from the council's office.

Thank you.

Good morning, Ms. Jones.

Please identify yourself for the record and I'll swear you in.

good morning um mary jones council president daryl clark's office room 494 city hall uh 19107

you swear to firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth

uh yes i do thank you mary please proceed yeah um yes our office would just like to adopt the

position of the rco they do request they would prefer to have single family housing and not more

multifamily um in their neighborhood thank you thank you questions from the board no no planning

commission good morning uh david effectos city planning commission i believe we had put it on

record before but we'll do it again. This property is indicated for residential single-family use

in the city's comprehensive plan. We do not believe that two units will have a negative

impact on the block. Accordingly, we have no objection to granting this variance.

Thank you. MI 2020-0006881302 North 18th Street. My vote is no.

My vote is no.

My vote is no.

Thank you members of the board.

Thank you.

Next one is

I'm not sure but somebody's mic is open

And it's

Too much noise

Thank you

Is that better?

Yes

Okay

I think 51st readers are next case

yes okay um mi2020-000073 1726 north 51st street

the applicant is not represented by council i don't believe that she is it's janine avery

Ms. Avery, please identify yourself with a record, spell your first and last name and

your address.

Ms. Avery, you can unmute your mic and wait to be sworn in.

avery must you need to mute your mic unmute your mic

thank you again please spell your first and last name and identify yourself as

first and last name and give us your address

Yes, Janine, J-E-A-N-I-N-E, last name Avery, A-V-E-R-Y. My address is 811 North 15th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19130.

You swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Yes, I did.

Thank you. Please proceed.

um ma'am 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 did email the packet and i received a confirmation of receipt as well awesome uh have

you also met with the rco and have a letter so i i did meet with the rco um in late february

So, I did meet with the RCO in late February, but now, after listening, I think I may need a continuance because I do not have a letter.

If this is simply a matter of getting the letter and the meeting has already been held, maybe we could schedule this for a follow-up hearing to present the letter.

I'm sorry, what was that, Sharon?

If the meeting was already held and it's simply waiting for the letter, maybe we could follow up and ask Ms. Avery to make an attempt in the meantime to get the letter, but she could go forward today.

She did submit all of her other documents.

Okay, we'll do that, and then at the end we'll give a specific date, correct?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Proceed, Ms. Avery.

okay so please forgive me that i am a novice at this um but don't worry we're all we all are

we're it's a learning it's a it's a lesson that we're learning as we go thank you um so should i

be uh sharing my screen i i didn't that would be helpful okay it would be helpful

so uh basically this is um my my house or I guess I inherited this house from my father

miss Avery pardon the interruption but could you hit the share screen at the bottom of the screen

yep I'm pulling the documents up now um

And apologies also for third grade in the background.

Okay, let me know when you can see what I'm sharing.

okay nothing yet

now we got it all right

okay so i have here the it's coming up so we're now looking at your email

yeah all right all right all right okay all right

so what might work better if you come out of share screen

then open up your document.

All right.

I'm out of share screen.

Here, I'll close it.

Okay, now go and open up the documents you want to present.

Have them open on your screen, then hit share screen.

All right.

All right, I have, all right, let's see.

okay so now you have your documents open

or they're not opening no they're just not so i had them open and

and then did you hit the green share button at the bottom because once you have them open then

you hit the green share and then your document should come forward on the screen all right

All right, I'm going to share a button again.

Okay, how about now?

It's coming up.

Okay.

There we go.

We got you.

Okay.

Go forward.

All right, so this is the refusal.

This is a refusal.

um it's zoned a single family um it's a two-story house single family um so my plan was to

convert it to a duplex so to zone it as multi-family um I have

this is evidence of the notice or the meeting with the RCO, which I did have on February 20th.

Ms. Avery, could you, I couldn't tell from your exhibits which RCO you met with. Do you remember

the name? Lucinda Hudson, Parkside. Parkside RCO? Yes. Thank you.

um that was february 20th and i did meet with them and it was my understanding that it was

um you know the the vote was in my favor but i do not have evidence of that

um shortly after that it's kind of when things kind of shut down

um and i guess so pictures of the property itself i guess i can go through those next this is the

the outside of the property um to the left is still a single family home to the right there

are plans for it's a vacant lot right now to the right there are plans for a community garden

there um that has been approved and everything through zoning already um through a different

organization um so this is the property i there's a bunch of pictures of the property

i'm not sure what i should throw in on i guess um i also submitted uh plans

let me open those i don't know they're open

here

Okay, one second.

I'm going to stop share again and try to open the plant.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm going to start to share again.

Okay here they are. So basically the plans are the work is minimal to the outside of the house

other than creating a second entry in the front.

so thinking or deciding what it wants to do here but um again the the work is minimal to

the outside of the property the majority of the work is interior to um to make it

suitable for a two-family home where the second story would be one flat apartment and then the

flat apartment and then the first floor and part of the basement would be

the first floor and

the other apartment.

Okay and please let me know how I should present these other than just showing the difference.

um this first drawing here is showing you know the neighbor on the left and then the vacant lot

that's on the right that I mentioned is set for a a community garden um

let's see

okay so on the left here is the the basement of the property

The last here is the basement. This is the front of the basement. The majority of the basement

would just be utility space because of the height of the basement. The back portion of the basement

the plan is to open up the first floor to make the back portion of the basement a usable space

which would increase the height of the ceiling to make it a livable space and include a bedroom

space, a bathroom, and a closet. And then the first floor of the property, as I mentioned,

the back space would be open. And then there would be the kitchen area and a half bath and

And then living space, and this is the existing front porch.

I mentioned that the change to the outside, the only thing would be to create an additional entryway, which would be included on the right.

The existing entry is already right here on the, I'm sorry, on the left.

Existing entry is already on the right.

Ms. Avery, excuse me, could you go back to the basement drawing?

Yes.

What is the means of ingress, egress from the bedroom?

So it's here. Here existing already is, there's three windows in the basement and these, my

understanding from the designer, the architect, is that these would be, would have to be made

into the egress window. These two right here.

You can summarize. Have you completed your testimony?

I guess I can just show the second floor living space, which would be one flat apartment.

the rear would be the living space and then the kitchen space here there's already an existing

bedroom right here which would remain and then the front bedroom is already existing and that

would remain as well you may have mentioned this i may have missed it uh do you have a letter from

the rco i do i do not um i met with the rco but i did not receive a letter okay that's what we

I thought, yeah, you're right.

We said we'd adhere to case and hold.

Okay.

And let's answer this.

Any questions from the board?

No.

No.

Oh, sure.

No, please do.

Absolutely.

Excuse me.

This is Sharon Saleta.

I actually have the head of the RCO on the phone right now.

If we could put this back, perhaps she would be able to confirm by phone

whether there was a letter of support i'm sorry if we could what if you could um hold the vote

for a few minutes i'm yeah sure okay all right i'm just going to ask if anyone else had anything

to uh sorry no problem should we go to the next case or you just wait a couple minutes

yes i'm actually i'm on the i'm on hold for the head of the rco i thought perhaps if she could