be put in place in front of their house such that there would be less likely that a car would jump
the curb. We would be more than happy to do that, to put bollards in place, which is not uncommon
because if you saw that picture at the beginning of Waverly Street, there are bollards on the other
side of the street so not uncommon to have bollards there but you know the individuals who live
across the street now from us on waverly don't want bollards and you know and they're against
this project even though they have off street parking themselves from a non-accessory point
of view which again i don't know if that's legal or not um but anyway the society health civic
association supported this project and i do believe that they supported it partly um because
of the support of the people across the street from us and then council member Frank DiCicco
who was the council member at this time and who was the former chairman of this board as well
who is very was very sophisticated in terms of zoning requests like this also was in support of
it did reference the fact about like the fact that that the neighbor across the street was
supportive of this as well. But his office wrote a letter of support for the support that got us
the variance approval in 2004. Now, to look at the surrounding neighborhoods, we want to say,
okay, are we asking for something that's out of character, just conceptually off-street parking?
And I looked at properties in close proximity here. So 601 Pine Street is an RSA5 property with off-street parking. 604 Addison Street has off-street parking. 406-10 South 6th Street has off-street parking.
And again, the way they access their parking, it's a sidewalk.
And they have people, they have to drive their cars through a sidewalk or parallel their cars, parallel park their cars on the sidewalk, which, again, is a much dangerous, more dangerous situation than anything we're off.
Just going down the street, make your right-hand turn.
We're going to show you the turning radius that, you know, we want to do things the right way.
606-10 Addison Street is off-street parking.
609 Addison Street is off-street parking.
1613-19 Addison Street is off-street parking.
612-14 and 616-18 Addison Street is off-street parking.
628 Pine Street is off-street parking.
629-31 Addison Street is off-street parking.
634 Pine Street is off-street parking.
And then finally, there's a parking lot off of Addison that we saw as well. Again, not uncommon. It's kind of tight down there in Society Hill, especially from a parking situation. So what we're trying to do is leverage a situation where this board, first of all, has approved and reviewed this and accepted that this is a reasonable use of the property, but we're not taking any parking spots off of the street. We're actually taking one car off of the street, by the way we're proposing this.
off of the street.
We're actually taking one car off of the street,
by the way we're proposing this.
And then the maps of the area,
again, we're on Sixth Street and Waverly is right here.
We're between Addison and Pine.
And then just a Google map of the neighborhood as well.
And then photographs of the property,
this is 606 Pine Street from the front of the property,
606 Pine Street from the rear of the property on Waverly.
606 Pine Street, the zoning hearing notice poster. And then, you know, zoning hearing notice poster on the Waverly Street side. And then it's Pine Street to the right of the property, Pine Street to the left of the property. And then this is just Waverly Street as well.
And then I just got a photo offline. This is the only one I could find or actually I didn't find this.
I found this not on Google Earth. I found this on the city's website.
When the last time this was presented, this was the picture, I guess, where they had proof of orange notice posting.
So nothing has really changed. You can also see the bollards that were there across the street.
So it's not uncommon to have bollards, but the street hasn't changed in any respects in the past 20 years.
in a material fashion. And then this is just our site plan. As you can see, this is up from Pine
Street. We're not changing the building structure from an exterior standpoint. We propose a compact
parking space. We're not trying to put a Ford 150 pickup truck down the street, although my
understanding is that there are service vehicles that do drive down the street. We just want to
do a compact car. My clients own a Volkswagen Golf. I think that's a reasonable use of that
property where we're not going to damage like, you know, the sidewalk where service vehicles
drive down there. And this is just, again, more of drawings showing from a site plan perspective
how we're going to fit in there. A particular note, my client's trying to really restore the
back of that property too right now it's a stucco uh facade in the rear which is out of character
to this what you would consider in the historic society hill neighborhood you know they're going
to put a brick facade uh wood door uh for the uh garage that's going to slide back and forth
much more handsome than anything that's that currently exists and then this is just the
turning radius you know if you go down waverly street you're going to turn and you're going to
make it right into there it's pop it's it's not just possible it's doable and then when you come
out you just back up and then you go forward it's you know again this is not meant for a humongous
car to go through we know that and someone who buys this house after my clients buy this house
So it's not going to try to do this because it wouldn't make sense, but you couldn't fit in it.
So we have a Volkswagen Golf.
That's our intention.
My clients have lived there over 20 years.
They know this neighborhood very well, and they respect this neighborhood.
And then our hearing, our RCO meeting notice, we met with the community April 24th at 3 p.m.
115 addresses were notified of that meeting.
the list of the addresses
we're here
I feel like you guys froze for a second
no we're here
proof of mailing to those addresses
our application for appeal
our notice of refusal or project information form our deeds of property showing that dale
frank and elizabeth hexner are the owners and they've owned it since july 23rd of 2004
and our certificate of tax clearance with that being said i would ask that elizabeth or dale
virtually raise their hands they can adopt my testimony as their own and then i'm sure
We'll have an opportunity to respond to any questions from this board, and we would ask for an opportunity to respond to Mr. Bonney's presentation.
Do we see a hand in the audience?
Yes, Ms. Hexner, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
hi there can you hear me hi good morning could you state your name and spell please for the
hi there can you hear me hi good morning could you
court reporter it's elizabeth e-l-i-z-a-b-e-t-h last name hexner h-e-x like x-ray and like nancy
e-r right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do proceed counsel oh yes elizabeth you heard everything i had to state today about
your zoning matter yes and is uh was it true and correct yes and do you adopt as your own testimony
yes thank you um is council going to have cross
no okay all right are there any questions for the board from for uh no chair
no mr chairman okay all right why don't we let mr uh a council also put on his case all right
okay sir proceed thank you uh mr chair and members of the board um i'm happy to be here
representing the societal civic association we also have a few neighbors that i'll call as
witnesses to chime in. I would just make some general comments up front. We as a civic association
are not dead set against off-street parking in the neighborhood. Of course there's houses
and other things in the neighborhood with off-street parking on other streets and each
situation is unique and we do our best to accommodate people when we can, if there's
no harm to others. And, you know, I think that pointing to examples on other streets
is not really relevant, nor do I think it's relevant to talk about the neighbors who are
here in opposition today or who have signed the petition and to look at whether they have parking
or not. They certainly all do not have parking. The ones that do have parking, they have them for
their own, because of their own unique reasons. I'm guessing that almost all of them, that's the
way their house was when they bought it. They were not original owners to these houses. So we do try
and accommodate people as much as possible and support them with their vision of how they
want to have their house and if they can have a parking spot. And in fact, 19 years ago, when this
case came first before us and also the board, we looked at the situation here on this little dead
end block of Waverly Street at that time the conditions were different than they were today
and you'll hear evidence of that today it was really a sort of more of a sort of run down
dingy little little alley street and the neighbors who showed up at that time two neighbors showed
up, one of whom was in a house that you'll see is a Trinity called 604 Waverly. That person did not
reach an agreement with the applicant. And when the parties are, when the neighbors are in
agreement with each other, we try and support that. That agreement was that bollards would be
put up in front of this person's Trinity at 604 Waverly. So we supported it with
that proviso. The councilman De Chico supported it with that proviso. And in fact, the board's
decision granting the variance included that proviso, that it be done in accordance with the
agreement. Well, over the past, you know, that variance was never followed through with,
and it expired and the law has variances that are unused. They expire for a reason
and the reason that variances expire if they're unused is because they're based on the conditions
that existed at the time the board reviewed the situation and now 19 years later the situation
is different then the street is much more improved and beautiful and all the property owners
but many of the property owners that the ones you'll hear from today
have changed over and it's it's a new neighbors with new investment
have changed over and it's it's a new neighbors with new investment in their properties and there
is no agreement in fact there's strong opposition to this there's strong opposition to the parking
spot there's strong opposition from the from the current owner at 604 Waverly who under no
circumstances wants bollards in front of their house and you'll see photos of their house
And so that's why in this case now, 20 years later, we've reached a different result.
And it's because of the changed circumstances.
I'm going to show you a few things.
If I can share my screen.
Let's see here.
Here it is. Sorry for the delay. Okay. So I think just to finish my opening remarks,
there's a lot that's been discussed, which I think is really a distraction from the issue.
The issue is, is there a hardship? No, there's clearly no hardship. The subject property 606
fine can be used extremely well as a single family house without a parking spot. We have
hundreds of properties in the neighborhood that use successfully without a parking spot.
And in fact, this applicant whom we respect has used this house fine for the past 20 years
without a parking spot. So there's certainly no hardship. Let me just jump really quickly to the
uh this is the petition of eight uh property owners eight different households opposed to
the project and here is the map showing so you're going to hear today from the owner of this
property who immediately has access to waverly through a door you're going to hear 604 who
fronts on Waverly. You're going to hear from 606A who fronts on Waverly, and you're going to hear
from 606B whose front door leads out to Waverly. That's their only path is to the front doors on
the side, and they walk this way to get out into the world through Waverly. These other people
above Waverly have signed the petition in opposition. There's really only two or three
other properties here. And I think one person is in favor of it. Someone who's somewhat similarly
situated to the applicant. Here's the applicant with the blue thumbtack. And let me show you,
So I'm going to, so this is 6th Street on the right.
The top is north, the bottom of south is south.
And I'm going to show you photos coming down 6th Street and taking a walking right into Waverly and sort of giving you a turnaround in Waverly with my camera.
So here we are coming down 6th Street, and there is Waverly on the right-hand side.
This is our first witness has this house with this beautiful ivy wall, which is somewhat of an attraction in our neighborhood.
People stop and take photos of it.
Now you turn the corner, and now we're looking straight down this little dead-end stretch of Waverly.
you'll see that this corner house has a backyard door right here where my cursor is,
and then you get to the two trinities. There's the end of the dead end, and then you'll see a
fire plug, and this is the stretch of Waverly that we're talking about. You'll also see that
the city has installed no parking signs on it says no parking in this street and I think there's
at least two signs that we can see so going down Waverly we're getting closer to this
backyard of the first house with their door directly accessing Waverly and then you see
the two trinities um later on in the photo and now um we're looking straight on at these two
trinities um the one on the left is the owner well the owner of 20 years ago of the one on the left
20 years ago of the one on the left is the one that reached an agreement because they're pretty much
is the one that reached an agreement because
opposite where the parking spot would be. The one on the right is the condo and there's actually
two units here. The first unit accesses right here through this black door. The second unit,
you have to, he walks down this little path on the right hand side which I'm going to show you.
this is the path you can see his welcome mat um right here so i we think they you know these are
all folks that are directly affected uh then you get to the end of the alley and then you have um
the north side of the street you can see the subject property on the right with the zoning
poster i believe one of the supporters is this house on the left um behind the uh behind the
hydrant and then going further up the street you see this house was beautifully renovated
recently and they also have a door here they've signed in opposition um so uh i'd like to um
uh call the witnesses in very brief order and i'd like to um you know go through them as quickly as
possible so uh with the board's permission um if lisa millhauser can be recognized
we see a hand yes miss millhauser has been allowed to speak hi good morning could you
state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter. Sure. My name is Lisa Millhauser,
L-I-S-A-M-I-L-L-H-A-U-S-E-R. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth? Yes. Proceed, counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Millhauser, did you hear
everything that I said earlier, and do you agree that it's accurate, and would you adopt it as
your own testimony. Yes. And you live, for the board's information, Ms. Millhauser and her family
live here at 406 South 6th Street, which I'm showing on the screen, and they are the ones
with this backyard that has the door that opens directly onto Waverly Street. Is that correct?
Is that correct? Yes. Thank you. And isn't it also correct that over the past 15 years or so,
your house has changed hands twice and most recently in 2015 was sold to you and your
husband. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. And you're there with not just your husband,
two children aged four and six. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Thank you. So now I'm just going to
give you an open question and ask you to explain briefly to the board why you are opposed to this
variance. Okay. The floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Bonney. So putting a parking spot on Waverly
would be detrimental to both my households as well as I think many of the neighbors in Society
Hill. I think the first point is that Waverly is a beautiful street with, you know, especially this
time of year, the ivy wall, the multiple, you know, mature trees, the two trinities that have
been so beautifully restored in the last decade. It almost harkens back to another era. I think the
photos that have been shown are good, but I would also say that anyone who walks over there would
immediately conclude that this is no place for a car. It is a tiny, tiny street. It also happens
to be one of the few car-free streets in the area, and I'm very aware of this because I have young
children. And my children play on Waverly Street because there are no cars. As mentioned, our
backyard has a door that opens on to Waverly. And over time, you know, other kids in the neighborhood