oh please proceed
um so i will make it brief i am presenting 4335 lancaster avenue as you can see this is the front
of the property we are proposing a event space for small gatherings the property is currently
zoned at CMX2, so we do have a notice of referral. My presentation, you will see the lease, certificate
of tax clearance, notice of referral, application for special exception, maps of the area, photographs
of the property, as well as our proposed plans and drawings, and the letter of support that we
received from nearby neighbors, as well as the RCO West Belmont Civic Association. Here we have the lease.
The certificate tax clearance, the notice of referral, as I mentioned before, the property is under CMX 2, so we are here only for a special exception.
so we are here only for a special exception application for the special exception again
this is a small event space we have a map of the area of entire blocks of cmx2 we are right along
lancaster avenue a large commercial corridor here we have a view of the front of the property
view of the rear of the property a view to the right of the property on lancaster avenue
view to the left of the property on lancaster avenue ogden street to the right of the property
5th Street to the left of the property. Here we have a view of the interior. This is the first floor
and our proposed plans and drawings. So the basement will not be used for the event spaces
purely for storage. And the first floor, as you saw in the picture earlier, is the primary event
space, the only event space really. And we do have a letter of support from West Belmont Civic
Association and nearby neighbors also wanted to provide support for the project as well.
Our notice that we sent to the community for the meeting on August 9th at 530, a list of properties that were notified, and our certificate of mailing.
So if I may have my client, Angel Green, adopt my testimony.
If not, I understand that it's getting late, so as an officer of court, I would submit it to its accuracy.
and he's available he could have noted questions from the board no no questions no
lakisha i apologize i spoke over you did did you have something to say i was saying mr green was
he's unmuted now all right mr green please identify yourself and i'll swear you in
my name is ronald green i am the operator of the event space you swear from to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth i do thank you miss uh miss amazon mr green did you hear my
my presentation today yes is it true and correct yes it is and would you adopt as your own testimony
yes i would thank you thank you uh chair this is sharing um councilwoman gauthier is in non-opposition
thank you uh planning commission
good afternoon chair members of the board my name is great waldman for planning commission staff
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to existing commercial mixed use zoning at this
location. The applicant has demonstrated that the proposed assembly and entertainment use
will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond that which normally
might be expected from the proposed use. Accordingly, we recommend that the requested
special exception be granted. Thank you. MI 2021, that's 002-174-4335 Lancaster Avenue. My vote is
yes. Carol Tenere,
my vote is yes.
Confessor Plaza, my vote is yes.
James Bell,
my vote is yes. Thank you.
And again, Ms. Amazon and your client,
I apologize for
skipping over you guys. Apologize.
Thank you.
Thank you. That concludes the two o'clock list.
Is there anyone who
believes that they have not been identified
for any of the
cases that are on the two o'clock list?
no hands chair all right it is now what 4 40 4 43 4 45 we'll take a 10 minute break we'll be back
at five of five five of five
carol you're smiling is that a yes okay thank you yes
and we're ready when you are chair thank you very much good afternoon again everyone my name
is frank de chico i'm the chair of the zoning board of adjustment i'll be participating in
today's hearing along with our vice chair ms carol tennari board secretary confessor plaza
and board member mr james snow board administrator lakeisha dandy and board attorney ms sharon
Soletta are also in attendance. For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual
hearings, I'll go through some of the basics of what you can expect. First, we will be administering
oaths to individual participants prior to their testimony. Second, we'd like to advise everyone
that this proceeding is being recorded, and that by participating you acknowledge your agreement
to be recorded, and that the recording will be made available to the public on the web or otherwise.
Third, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
I repeat, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must...
For anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
I will repeat that. To enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue. I'd also like to remind everyone, please do not attempt to testify in the chat.
Any comments, questions, or issues, please address them to our Board Administrator, Ms. Lakeisha Dandy.
Having said that, I will read off a list of continuance requests on the 330 list.
Case number one, MI 2020, excuse me, MI 2021-000128, 1737 Bergen Street.
And I believe as of now, that is the only request for a continuance.
Does anyone object to that case being continued? If so, please raise your hand.
No hands at this time, Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to now ask you.
Chair, excuse me. This is the court reporter. I pardon the interruption.
May I have one minute in place? I need to change the batteries in my backup.
Certainly. Let us know when you're ready. Take your time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
thank you very much chair I'm ready to proceed thank you did you get the first case I called
I did get I got all of that I just I noticed the battery indicator dropping so I just needed to
change no no worries no worries so I'll ask now is anyone would anyone like to continue a case
or withdraw a case please raise your hand if you would like to request a continuance or withdrawal
please raise your hand no hands sure thank you uh so we'll go to case number two uh mi 2021 that's
zero zero one eight zero one four five two seven styles street
represented by the owner i believe jessica roman
no hands at this time chair no hands and this is a first listing no exhibits so mi 2021-001
801 4527 style street is continued go to case number three am i chairman excuse me you want to
make that a must-be-heard thank you confessor you welcome that case mi mi 2021-001-801
4527 styles is continued must be heard thank you case number three mi 2021-001-855
4540 sansom street this is a pro se the owners are timothy and jessica mccullum
excuse me chair this is sharing the owners are pro se they will be representing themselves but
if you could also um promote their architect brian adams in case there are questions for him
or if he has exhibits to present okay we'll have mr adams and also the walnut hill community
association rco supports this application and i'm not seeing a mr adams in the audience
but we'll go with thank you we'll go with timothy and jessica mccullum
hi this is timothy mccullum
mccullum hi this is timothy mccullum hi timothy please spell your full name for the record
each of you sure t-i-m-o-t-h-y m as in michael c-c-o-l-l-u-m and jessica mccullum j-e-s-s-i-c-a
m-c-c-o-l-l-u-m do you both swear and affirm to testify the truth do you both swear or affirm
to testify to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes yes okay okay uh please
proceed with uh your presentation sure and as we were adding ourselves as panelists i think you
were talking about uh our architect brian he was not able to stay on um but we don't expect to we
weren't going to call him okay that's fine he's not necessary but since he had communicated with
me. I wanted to be sure you had an opportunity. I'm trying to share my screen here. Just take me
a second. But we are requesting, so we had submitted plans to add a third story to our
two-story row home, and we're requesting a variant so that we can build up and construct a
mansard roof you have any exhibits you can share with us yeah i'm i'm sorry i'm um i'm signing
into the google drive yeah no worries no worries take your time about that no worries okay and we
did um our architect did submit a packet um and that's what i'm going to pull up here
i'll just give it a second but yeah we're requesting a variance so that we can build
up to the front of the property and not not do the eight foot variance setback that's right sorry
um so here are can everybody see that yes we can yes we can so we did meet with the walnut pill
rco in august and received a letter of them unanimous approval
um so there were no concerns um and the the reason for the requested variance is just that we're uh
we have three children we're trying to maximize the space um available to us uh and i work from
home now and will continue to do so for this foreseeable future um the uh you know building
up to the front of the property will allow us to include an office in our plans um and then i guess
my wife will uh show some additional um you know neighbor surrounding yes so here's the letter from
our walnut hill community association showing the um in favor of our project and then i'm gonna go
straight down to our presentation. So this has the yellow area is our where our home is. It's
kind of that orange. We're part of a block that mostly has three stories. However, there is a
group of us to either side of us that are two story homes. There's about six of them, six or
seven of them on the block. The rest of them are three-story homes. This next page kind of shows
neighboring blocks that also have mansard roofs all the way up to the front of their buildings.
Just examples of that. This shows our existing house here on the left and an elevation on the
right side that shows what our proposed third story
mansard roof with a window looks like.
And then here is our plans with a rendering.
So you'll see that the office is in the front.
We have a master bath, master bedroom,
and what would happen to it if we were not able
to um to build to the front of our building of our house
okay i think that's it yeah we get it we get it thank you yeah we get thank you and thank you for
making the decision to invest and stay in philadelphia exactly yes any questions from the
board i have one are all the kids in school yes they are in the same school this year for
first our first year all in the same school yes good and i ask that because the your husband is
working from home so that's really good yes okay thank you any questions from the board no no
thank you uh anyone else like to testify in this case please raise your hand
Thank you. Anyone else like to testify in this case, please raise your hand.
No hands, Chair.
Thank you. Planning Commission, Ron, please identify yourself and I'll swear you in.
Yes. First name, Ron. Last name, Bednar. I'm with the City Planning Commission. That's spelled R-O-N. Last name, Bednar, B-E-D-N-A-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
This property is indicated for residential use on the city plan.
Given the physical circumstances, we recommend the request for Vance Prevent.
Thank you.
MI 2021-0018554540 Sanson Street, my vote is yes.
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes.
confessor plaza yes james snell my vote is yes thank you and good luck to you congratulations
good luck thank you thank you case number four mi 2021-002275
730-32 west moyamensing avenue the attorney is raymond dorizio lower moyamensing civic association
as well as near neighbors and councilman marks will all sent a letter of either support or non
opposition mr dorizio please identify yourself i swear you in
is mr dorizio out in cyberland or wherever it is i'm sorry here i am okay please no no no no
apologies spell your full name and i'll swear you win thank you raymond dorizio d-o-r-i-z-i-o
address 2 pence center suite 521-9102 you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
about the truth i do thank you please proceed okay so this is 7 30 7 32 west momenting avenue
um the application is for three units in the existing structure um it's a rsa 5 neighborhood
This property is, I guess, double wide. It takes up two addresses, 730 to 732. It's on the corner of Franklin Street and Moimensing Avenue. Moimensing Avenue intersects right with Wolf Street over there at that intersection.
um so we did meet with lower moymencing um rco they gave us a letter of support here's an aerial
shot we're kind of right uh off to the right there it's a google map and at the bottom there
is the property that's the moymencing avenue side of the property so it is a rather large
structure. Sorry about that. My page is turned, but I'm doing this from my iPad, so I'm not sure
if I could turn that, but that is the Franklin Street side of the property. There's a zoning
map here. There are some CMX2, but mostly RSA5. Directly across the street from this property on
Franklin Street is a synagogue. There is a store that's on the corner of Moyman-Singham-Wolf. I
don't even know if that's operational. It's kind of never been anything. And then there is another
business that is on the corner of Apen-Wolf and then the school on Apen-Wolf Key School.
This is a deed. This property has been in my client's family for decades. Here are the plans.
the first floor and second floor in the front is the living unit of Joseph and Mary DeChristopher
who are the owners and the applicants here and then there would be one unit each on the first
and second floor in the rear there is a garage at the rear of the building
on Franklin Street here are some of the pictures of the utilities it's always had kind of multi
utilities there. Zoning notice posted. My client went around and did get signatures from neighbors
in this position for support. He's got about three pages. I know they're hard to see, but they
are better seen in the packet that was sent. Here's some leases that were from the 40s. My
Here's some leases that were from the 40s. My clients had this property, at least their family did since the 40s, back in like 1945, where it was rented to some folks. This is from 1945, a couple leases here. And it's kind of always been this way. I think it was a fish store way back when, when his grandfather had it.
clients had this property.
I mean, these are just these these leases are back from World War II, basically.
And here is a copy of the meeting summary with the RCO, a tax clearance that my client has.
And that's essentially what he's looking to do is legalize, so to speak, an already existing multi-unit, no changes to the out to the exterior of the property.
my client should be on Joseph and Mary to Christopher and I would ask if they
could testify and adopt what I've testified to so far. Thank you. Are the Christophers available?
Yes he can unmute himself.
Hello. Please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
Joseph DeChristopher, J-O-S-E-P-H-D-E, capital C-H-R-I-S-T-O-P-H-E-R.
Do you swear if I'm going to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Mr. Dorizio?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So, Mr. DeChristopher, you heard my testimony.
Is it truthful and accurate, and would you adopt it as your own?
Yes, it is.
okay and you're the owner of this property yes okay and mary de christopher is your wife
yes okay thank you questions from the board no no and just just to add real quick i i believe