confirm that there was a letter of support that you might be able to vote it today so if you could
just um hear the next case and then i will let you know um if i'm able to get a response
so we'll move to the next case correct yes that sounds good chair
thank you so if miss avery if you can stand by until we get that um verification and i'm
and I'm going to close your video. Thank you kindly. Thank you.
going to close your video thank you kindly thank you
So our next case would be MI 2020-000076. 1911 West George Street.
West George Street, I believe, Mr. Orfanides.
please raise your hand
good morning david please identify yourself for the record spell your name
Sure. David Orphanides. Last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
I'm sorry, finish.
Orphanides and Toner, LLP, 2 Penn Center, 1500 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 800, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19102.
I'm here this morning on behalf of TGT Properties, LLC, the owner of the subject premises, 1911 West George Street.
Thank you.
I swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Mr. Fennini, do you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I waive the reading.
I have had email exchanges with the examiner regarding the notice of refusal.
So I can't stipulate to its accuracy.
I think there's a refusal that should be.
Okay. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal of referral, photos, and plans five days prior to this hearing?
I did.
Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
I have, and I do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
So I am going to share my screen.
Give me one minute.
Can everybody see my screen?
Great.
right so again uh david orphanese on behalf of tgt properties llc uh on the call with me this
morning i have sean frankel from tgt properties llc and rustin oler from harman deutsch oler
architecture they prepared the plans for this matter the some administrative matters to get
out of the way at tab one you have the posting of the photographs of the photographs of the
posting at the subject property 1911 west gerard or west george the posting of the notice and the
notice of refusal that was done in accordance with the code and the current regulations our
tax compliance is at exhibit two and then the deed for the subject property showing tgt properties
llc as the owner at exhibit three exhibit four we have aerial images of the subject property
you can see uh west george street uh runs to the south between south of cambridge the north of
poplar uh we're obviously between 19th and 20th street so you can see in the aerial image here
the property is currently a paved lot from the deed you can see that the lot is only 16 feet
wide and 35 feet deep it's only 560 square feet in area very small lot it's our position it's
basically too small to build on as you can see from the aerial and you'll see from the photographs
that I'm going to show you later on that there are there's a lot of off-street parking on this
block and a lot of it is used not as a garage but as just a either the backyard of a property that
fronts on Cambridge we are on the north side of West George and Cambridge again is to the north
bus or um is in and of itself a just a parking lot ours would be in the application is for a
non-accessory parking for two vehicles my client owns other properties around the corner
over on 19th street and it's utilized by the residents.
over on 19th street and it's utilized by the residents of those units here's additional
aerial images this image is from 19th street again you can see our our parking our property
down to the right about 20 percent of the way down the lot on the north side the view from the west
the property zoned rsa5 as i think everybody on the board knows rsa5 does not permit non-accessory
parking by right so the fact that this parking is not does not have a another use on the property
that to which it would be accessory particularly a residential use in the rsa5 zoning district
requires relief from the zoning board photographs show the subject premises
that has been used as parking for some time the lots to either side are used for parking
that front on george street you can see in the existing photographs there's a garage to the west
where there's parking there's surface parking to the right
and here are other images of showing all of west george street is the set even though there are
some properties you'll see in the photographs that do front in terms of a residence on west
george street the lion's share of it it's a very fairly narrow street it basically serves as a back
alley for the properties on cambridge or poplar on the south side of cambridge and the north side of
poplar or in this case on the west side of as you can see in the bottom photograph at page three
uh of exhibit six properties on the west side of north 19th street again parking parking uh this
post office we back up to the post office at 19th and poplar this bottom of page six of views the
backs of properties on the north side of poplar street more parking more parking page nine more
parking page 10 more parking page 11 parking page 12 parking page 13 parking page 14 swinging back
around to the property abutting our property to the west uh parking as well uh exhibit seven is
our application again the creation of two parking spots one is compact one is standard size given
the lot size the original application included a plan which you can see at page eight that had the
spaces stacked or shotgunned one behind the other uh you'll see and i forwarded these the revised
plans to sharon just this morning i'm not sure if it requires the board to stamp them but to improve
the functionality of the parking you'll see in revised plans we actually staggered them or offset
them that's the only change that we have to the plans that were originally submitted
the notice of refusal originally as referenced i did have a bit of a question with the
examiner the non-accessory parking as i already stated uh is the refusal in terms of the minimum
stall depth um as i indicated one of our spaces is a compact space which is less than the required
18 feet deep i do have some emails as recent as last week with the examiner where my position is
that since this is not required parking that you could and it's not accessory it's non-accessory
that you could effectively have a substandard space and not receive a refusal but i mean it
is what it is you still would be left with the one refusal for having non-accessing non-accessory
parking in the rsa zoning district but those emails are included in my exhibit book going
back and forth and citing the provisions of the code regarding the same our appeal is included
at exhibit 10 which is timely filed our project information form also submitted in a timely manner
an appropriate manner 19 this 1900 block we pulled the city plan the 1900 block of west
george street is on the city plan it is on the city plan and open so it is a city street it is
not a back alley and you can see here
at exhibit 12 an area plan that harman deutsch put together harman deutsch and older excuse me
rustin sorry no offense um the uh that shows our property right here uh that i've uh boxed in red
and then all the other parking that there is on the block which again was shown in the uh photographs
which again was shown in the uh photographs i do i did we did go through and we pulled the
I do, I did, we did go through.
zoning archives for the other properties and those zoning archives which support the legality
of those parking spaces uh through the zoning process with the department licenses inspections
are included at tab 13. there's a summary at the beginning and then a lot of pages uh that follow
which we i don't think we have a desire to go through but you can see them all listed in the
index on the left uh a through r all the different properties uh and their zoning archives uh we did
receive uh back on december 31st wow we received the email from the planning commission almost a
year ago this appeal was about a year ago uh designated united designating united francisville
civic association as coordinating rco list of addresses uh to which we forwarded the 14 303
notice of uh the community group meeting that we did have with united francisville on february 12
2020. again that was uh was distributed in accordance with 14 303 include the notices of
refusal notice of refusal and the instructions were appealing or interacting with the zoning
board and here's our certificate of service showing the certified first class mailing or
documenting the certified first class mailing at the notice as i mentioned we did submit revised
plans or present revised plans that have been signed off or stamped off by the streets department
that shows the change in the configuration still two parking spaces still non-accessory
doesn't change any refusals, doesn't change the description of the project, but we thought that
it functioned better to stagger the two spaces rather than have them stacked. So those revised
drawings are included at exhibit 15. And then at exhibit 16, you can see we have our letter
of support from the coordinating RFCO, United Francisville Civic Association,
showing a pretty overwhelming support for what we were proposing.
just summarize and maybe uh break your witnesses what your witness i'm sorry what was that
instead of you could summarize and call your witness on up sure sure so in summary you have
a very small lot 560 square feet which it's zoned rsa5 which we would put to the board is
uh uniquely configured or a unique lot and that it is too small to build a single family dwelling
So given what you have there on the block, you have where you do have smaller locks like these, they've either been incorporated into the properties that front on Cambridge or front on Poplar and utilized as accessory parking or they're being used as non-accessory parking.
Given what West George Street is, it's basically an alley.
This use is appropriate, won't create any overcrowding in the streets, will not create traffic congestion.
There is a hardship given the size of the lot, given where it's located, given all the off-street parking that's on this lot to try to utilize it as a permitted single-family use.
And as such, we feel, in addition to meeting and satisfying the other criteria for the granting of the variance is set forth in the zoning code,
we feel that everything and taken in its totality warrants the granting of the variance in this case.
And with that, I'd like to call Sean Frankel.
Sean, I don't know.
Tanya, do you ask him to unmute himself or if he's already unmuted?
Is it a name or is it the device?
It should be under Sean Frankel.
But, Sean, if you're on, there's a little bottom left-hand corner of your screen.
There should be a mute or unmute button, hopefully.
I have a Pixel 3, is that?
Sean, raise your hand if that's you.
David?
Yep, great.
Hey, guys.
Good morning, sir.
Please identify yourself with a record.
Spell your first and last name.
It's Sean Frankl.
That's spelled S-E-A-N-F-R-A-N-K-E-L.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
David, please proceed.
Mr. Frankel, you've been in front of this board on many occasions, correct?
Correct.
correct and uh what is your position with tgt um with the owner of the property i am
David, excuse me
for interrupting. David, he's breaking
up terribly. Can't hear him. So
in the interest of time,
you're an officer of the court and we'll
stipulate that his testimony,
that he adopts your testimony.
Adopts my statements. Okay. Sean,
do you... Adopts your statements. I'm sorry.
All right. Thank you. Yes.
Okay. Thank you, Sean. Thank you.
And then Rustin Oller. Rustin,
I don't even think, no disrespect, I don't think we need Rustin.
I mean, we got so many cases.
Okay, I understand.
You explained it thoroughly, so I don't think there's any questions.
Any questions from the board?
There's no opposition.
There's no real.
All right.
Is there anyone who else wishes to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
no hands at this time thank you planning commission good morning david fecto city
planning commission mr chairman and members of the board this property is indicated for
residential use on the comprehensive plan the application matches the pattern of existing use
and development on the block we believe that this use does not pose any negative impacts
to the surrounding area accordingly we have no objection to granting the variance at this location
Thank you. Was there a proviso, David?
I'm sorry, revised plans.
Is it one page?
Yes, it's one page.
Okay, thank you. MI 2020-0000761911 West George Street. My vote is yes with the proviso. Revised plan, one page, approved today.
Yes, with proviso.
Yes, with proviso.
Thank you. I think Tasker Street was already done. Am I correct? That was continued. I'd rather number five.
This is Sharon Saleta. I don't know whether you want to go back to Ms. Avery's case.
You ready?
But I did speak with Lucinda Hudson, the contact person for the Parkside RCO, and she confirmed that a meeting was held and that the community supports the project. She will send a follow-up letter.
Okay, appreciate that. Thank you. So let's go back to number three on our list, I believe it was MI2020-000073, 1726 North 51st Street. Do we have any questions from the board?
anyone else who would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hands raised thank you planning commission good morning david effecto city planning commission
mr chairman and members of the board this property is indicated for residential single
family use in the city's comprehensive plan we do not believe that the addition of one unit