I'm Brock. B-U-R-A-K. A-K-B-U-L-A-K.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you, Mr. Pritzker.
Brock have you heard my testimony today can you attest to it being true and accurate and do you adopt it as your own?
Yes Rachel, thank you.
Thank you. Any questions from the board?
Anyone else would like to testify in this case? If so, please raise your hand.
Yes Chair, we have Mr. Goodman. Mr. Goodman, you can unmute yourself.
Mr. Goodman, please identify yourself and I'll swear you in.
Good afternoon. Andrew Goodman, G-O-O-D-M-A-N, here representing the Office of Third District
Council Member Jamie Gaudier.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Our office has no opposition to the requested
variance at this address this afternoon.
Thank you. Anyone else to testify?
No more hands, Chair.
Thank you, Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Board.
This parcel was Greg Waldman,
City Planning Commission staff.
This parcel was rezoned from residential multifamily
to single family residential in 2017
in accordance with recommendations from the comprehensive plan
and with support from the community.
There are no unique physical circumstances
or conditions peculiar to the vacant lot that would require relief from the code.
Accordingly, we recommend that the requested variance not be granted.
Thank you. MI 2021-001-977-178 West Seymour Street. My vote is yes.
well i got the wrong my mistake my mistake i saw your name next to it i apologize okay
mi 2021-002-012-3921 mount vernon street my vote is yes
carol tenere my vote is yes professor plaza my vote is yes james now my vote is yes
thank you before i read the next case i just want to remind the court reporter if you need a break
let us know we have four or five more cases left in this call thank you chair thank you mi 2021
that's zero zero one nine seven five five three four six vine street the attorney is mr knockinson
hmc squared rco supports with provisos
good afternoon chairman hi good afternoon please well you uh you're on the oath from earlier
correct wait you know oh yeah okay sorry no worries just identify yourself and then carol
I ask you some questions. Of course. Clemente Amazon, C-L-E-M-E-N-T-A, 123 South Broad Street,
Suite 1600, 19109. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? Yes, I do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance,
refusal or referral photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing
and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes in all respects thank you you may
proceed. Of course, may I share my screen? Can everyone see my screen?
yes let me just put this in the screen mode so it's a bit better it's easier to see
so good afternoon board i am presenting 5436 fine street
and as you will see in my pack of materials i have vd certificate of tax clearance notice of
refusal application for appeal a map of the area as well as photographs of the property and the
application for appeal, a map of the area, as well as photographs of the property and the surrounding area, our proposed plans and drawings, and as was mentioned earlier, we do have a letter of support for HMC Squared Community Association.
surrounding area.
So here we have the de-cham that my client does in fact own the property.
You're stuck on the original screen.
Oh, let me just stop sharing and try this again then.
i apologize
no worries
okay can you see my screen now yes we have the tax clearance i believe perfect
so as you can see we have a clear tax balance nothing is called for this particular property
The notice of refusal, which is why we're here today. The property is currently zoned as single family, and we have a refusal for the use. We are requesting to have eight units, as well as the open area and the required side yard width, which I will go through for the proposed plans and drawings.
Here we have the application for appeal, project information form, zoning map of the area.
As you can see, we are right here and we are surrounded by multifamily use.
Here's a view of the front of the property on Vine Street, a view to the right of the property
on Vine Street, a view to the left of the property on Vine Street. And as I mentioned,
there is a history or there are multifamily properties along the street. So several other
properties in the area that are also multifamily so here we have our elevations and site plan
and as you can see here we do have a basement we wanted to make sure that we had a responsible
development and design here so we made sure to include storage for all of the units in the
basement including bicycle storage as well as a designated trash area we also have a rear yard
that also has an exterior trash area that is accessible to all units so you can walk in from
the front go down this hallway and there's a door in the rear to get access to that rear yard
and just the floor plans for each unit we are divvying this property up in half so four in
the front and then four in the rear as was mentioned earlier we do have a letter of support
from hmc squared community association
and we did meet with the community on may 13th at 6 30 pm this is the notice that
we did send out of that meeting and 78 properties were notified in total and we have these
certificates of mailing so with that if i could have my client frank kumas raise his hand so that
he can result my testimony excuse me this is sharon if i can interrupt for one minute mr
goodman had to leave but he asked me to relay that um councilman gothier is in non-opposition
thank you um before that uh you're asking your client to get on miss amazon yes i was um his
name is frank kumas and while we're waiting for him could you bring up the proviso list again
there are no provisos for this project oh i thought my notes say there were
sharon do you have provisos
the c letter excuse me i'll have to i'm sure i have it right here give me one moment
sure while we're waiting give miss amazon get your client his name frank humus
hey frank how you doing this is frank humus here please spell your last name k-u-m-a-s
you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Yes, I do.
Frank, did you hear my presentation today?
Yes, I have.
And is it true and correct?
Yes, true and correct.
And would you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Excuse me, Mr. Sharon.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
According to the letter, the HMC Squared wrote that the owner's representative agreed to
abide by the following provisos clearly visible signage to be posted with instructions to contact
kumos homes with any issues second trash will not be stored in the basement the owner will
ensure that there is an adequately sized area for trash in the rear of the building
i mean you identified two areas of one inside and one out so that's covered
All right. Anyone else have any questions?
No, sir.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Board.
This is Greg Baldwin, Planning Commission staff.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing single family residential zoning at this location.
The proposed eight dwelling units on this vacant lot is adjacent to existing multifamily on a block with a mix of existing single and multifamily units.
accordingly we recommend that the robust variance be granted thank you MI 2021-001-975-5346
Vine Street my vote is yes Carol Tenere my vote is yes Professor Plaza my vote is yes
james smell my vote is yes you number 10 on my our list mi 2021-002-014-5338 lena lea excuse me
lena street rachel pritzker is the attorney of record faith cdc rco is the coordinating rco they
sent a letter of opposition as did solo germantown and bayton b-a-y-n-t-o-n hill
neighbors association all three rcos oppose this project
ms pritzker identify yourself and you're still under
listen i don't know what we mr comas mr comas you're slow have your your you've got a hot mic
miss pritzker yes please identify yourself you're still on the roof yep rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l
pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r 1635 market street street 1600 philadelphia pa 19103
hi rachel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance
refusal referral photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing
and have you met with the rco and do you have letters yes okay you may proceed i'm going to
share my screen. This is 5338 Lena Street. This application is just for the legalization of an
existing duplex. There's currently a tenant in the top unit and that is a PHA Section 8 tenant
and then there is no tenant on the ground floor. I will go through the photos. Essentially this
property has been built out as a duplex since well before my client owned the property.
We inherited the tenant as well with the property and are just working through the process in order
to get new rental licenses. And we're not able to because we don't have a CO, which we realized,
and we need to go through the zoning process in order to get a CO and we need to have the
property zoned correctly. As the board can see, it's a pretty large size lot, zoned for single
family. However, it's an existing duplex, and there's many other duplexes on the street. This
is the front of the property. A lot of concerns that were raised in the community meeting related
to putting mailboxes inside the building, having trash located in the rear yard, affordability,
which obviously we have, and had concerns about just the general neighborhood,
putting planter boxes in the front, street trees, things of that nature.
I'm going to show the inside of the building as well.
So this is unit one.
You walk in.
As you can see, it's already built out as a duplex.
This is not new construction.
We're not doing any renovations to it.
And it's being lived in currently now by a Section 8 runner.
This is unit two.
is the top unit
just a bunch of things kitchen and there's obviously two kitchens multiple bathrooms
separate stairways or one stairway for access
um we met with um faith community development corporation which was the coordinating rco
I'm just going to bring up their letter. I think that there were like two people at the meeting.
Most of the opposition came from solo Germantown and the three.
um solo germantown um and the three near neighbors voted no but i don't have any information as to
where they lived and one abstained so basically um we would be making a decision based on two people
um and i'm not sure as far as near neighbors where exactly they live it's not provided in the letter
um as you can see a lot of the concerns were based around um they said the community voted
no on this but there are many provisos discussed so most of the meeting was discussing front facade
improvements handrails in the front step maintaining flower planters in the front
mailboxes moved off the front porch to inside the building directional motion detecting security
lights recycle storage removed from the front be placed outside on trash day and taken in the same
day clean and clear the backyard making it accessible to both tenants authorizing a planning
street trees through the city, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, routine exterior maintenance
every two weeks. And the owner, Odin Properties, did agree to have their management company
look into putting garbage disposals in the units and washer and dryers, as that was sort of more
the conversation than the actual existing conditions and the hardship. Although they'll
say we didn't present a hardship. I think Bainton Hills said that. Clearly, the hardship is that
it's been built out as a duplex for a significant amount of years, as you can see from the photos.
In order to comply with the zoning code, we'd have to evict the tenant during a pandemic in
an affordable unit, remove them, renovate the entire building, and put it on the market for
somebody who is not that tenant and perhaps may not be at an affordable price point as well.
I had, because there was such limited attendance and I didn't think it was fair to have RCO members who don't live there vote in opposition of a case, I had the client go out and doorknock and I had submitted to the board letters of support from people who actually live on that block.
5320 Lena Street, 5313 Lena Street, 5332 Lena Street, and 5336. And we ran out of papers. So
there were some additional signatures, Robin Davis or Rollins Davis, 5339. I don't even want
to try to botch that name, Mr. or Ms. Minchin, Minchury, 5353 Lena Street, and the board can
see and it's in the packet the rest of these so uh maybe about 10 people seven to 10 people
that actually live on the block were were in support of the project i just want to make
mention also that although solo germantown and banton hills uh sent letters they were not
according rco um they were affected rcos and again a lot of the concerns did not have to do
uh with the um actual duplex and we had agreed to most of them we were happy to have
trash on the property we were happy to put flower boxes and a street tree if approved by the city
and we said we would look into some of the other considerations like garbage disposals
security lighting and cleaning the backyard so again if the board votes no on this we would
have to kick the tenant out and redo the entire building are all of those homes section eight
um both units would be for section eight only the top one is rented currently um because we
don't have legal we can't legally rent out the bottom one at the moment
client to adopt your testimony yeah i believe phil balderston should be on the call
yes he can unmute herself good afternoon sir please identify yourself spell your full name
Philip Balderston, P-H-I-L-I-P, Balderston, B-A-L-D-E-R-S-T-O-N.
Do you swear, affirm, to tell the truth, the whole truth?
Do you swear, affirm, to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you, Ms. Pritzker.
Thanks, Phil.
Have you heard my testimony today?
Do you believe it to be true and accurate, and would you adopt it as your own?
Yes, I would.
Thank you.
And can you just confirm that we did agree to certain provisos, like the trash, planter boxes, but that since you were also at the meeting, that most of the conversation was not related to the duplex, but were things sort of outside of zoning?
Confirmed. Yes, I was at the meeting and the majority of the discussion was about various aspects of the property, including the landscaping and how to deal with the tenant's trash as it currently exists.
And so that's why we entered those provisos and certainly we will apply those if they're adopted.