Thank you.
Thank you.
We're ready to go when you are, Chair.
I'm ready.
thank you let's start recording the recordings in progress okay great thank you good afternoon
my name is bill bergman and i will be sharing this afternoon's 330 zba hearing
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
with me as our vice chair ismail shaheed present mr chairman
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holloman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And also, LeBaron Leonard Palmer from Development Services will be serving as our alternate Board Member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is our Attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit.
be advised the proceedings are being recorded a video will be available by contacting tanya
sunkett at phila.gov for the benefit of our court stenographer we ask attorneys and witnesses to
identify themselves before testifying if you're participating by phone you wish to testify press
star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute to enter an appearance statement call 267-270-5548
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And lastly, the question and answer box is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
You're right with you.
Number three, MI 2022-007-577-3935 Ogden, Pace's Continued Attorney Moving Party.
Number four, MI-2022-005-968-5524-Pulaski.
This case is continued.
And number six, MI-2023-001-537-10829 Academy Road.
This is also continued.
Is there anyone have any questions about the three cases that we've just continued?
Afternoon, Chair. This is Fatina. I'll be your co-host.
I see no hands at this time.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands at this time.
And I have one case that we do not have documents or exhibits, I'm sorry.
MI 2022-005-975, 2019 South 22nd Street.
Kimberly King is the owner applicant.
There are no exhibits.
This is the second listing, and no one appeared at the last listing.
I see no handshare.
All right, thank you.
So, number two, MI 2022-005-975, 2019 South 22nd Street.
This is the second listing. No one appeared at the first listing. We have no exhibits. I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, I vote to dismiss.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is to dismiss.
We're going to go to our first case.
MI 2023-001-549-1615 Brandywine Street.
Paul Enever is the owner applicant.
He's coming back in as a panelist, Chief.
Thank you.
Hello?
Sir, can you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Yes, this is Paul Ennever, P-A-U-L-E-N-E-V-E-R.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Okay. So this is for partial demolition to remove an existing roof deck for the erection of an addition above an existing attached structure, including new roof decks, solar connectors, sive and location as shown in plans for an existing single family household.
living. Proposed solar collectors exceed the maximum permitted height above the roof surface
9 feet allowed, 13.6 proposed. The proposed structure exceeds the maximum permitted height
of the in the RM1 zoning district 38 feet whereas this will be 4511 proposed.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you sir.
are you there yes can you hear me good afternoon sir have you emailed in all the required documents
and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance
of this hearing yes my architect frank cacos did so um with one exception uh
Yes, my architect, Frank Cacos, did so.
With one exception, Ms. Emerson asked for an updated plan reflecting the RCO feedback,
and we sent that in yesterday.
So I want to make sure you have that as well.
Hilary, did you receive that?
Yes, we did, Mr. Shahid.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Please proceed and share your screen, sir.
Great.
Thank you.
Can you see the screen?
We can.
Great.
So here's the index of summary of information submitted.
We obviously have the zoning refusal, an application, project information form, the deed.
I am not only the owner of the property, I'm actually the original owner of the property since it was constructed.
It was developed in 2006, even though we're in a historic district, it's not a historic property, provided the certificate of tax compliance, as well as the plans, some photos of the property, which I'll go through in a minute.
um we did have a meeting with the uh rco and spring garden uh back in uh june 5th and there's
a letter from them of support which i will talk about uh in a little bit as i mentioned there
were some minor changes to the plans which we have incorporated uh based upon their feedback and um
uh then there's a few other uh things and we have letters of support from uh both the uh
adjacent properties as well as some other near neighbors all right um let me just um perhaps the
easiest way to go about this is just to give you a couple uh to talk through the project um by look
referring to a couple of the photos um why don't you do that why don't you tell us what you want
to do and how are you going to do it so this is the front of the property on brandywine street
the one in the middle here is 1615 which is my uh property and if you see here uh if we go up to
the roof deck um so this is the the current pilot house of the roof deck and basically want to do
three things so first of all we want to extend this pilot house across the full width uh here
to create spent a spit uh basically a small um room or living space so this area where uh this
again, sort of small deck spaces, turn that into a small living space, which would be used as
basically a home office as the primary use. And then in addition to that, what you can see here
is this front deck would just be replaced as part of the work. And you can sort of see the views
here. And then what would happen is at the back, which is currently unused space, that would add
Add a deck at the back. And then the second piece of the work at the back would be to add solar panels.
And the way we would go about doing that is putting a solar support structure, a solar canopy that would allow us to elevate the solar panels up to the level of the same height as this pilot house,
which would now extend across, you know, the height of that roof would now extend across basically the full width of the house.
The goal here is really to take advantage, as I said, of this unused space.
This is the northern side of the house.
So it's the back. Because it's north facing, there is an issue with if we were just to have the solar panels laying on the roof here, at certain times of the day, there would be a lot of shading from the pilot house itself, even as it is currently structured.
So we do need to elevate them to some extent, which we could do, obviously, under the current code up to nine feet.
But in order to be able to take the full advantage and to get maximum solar generation, we want to be able to elevate them all the way to basically to the top height here.
And we also want to, as I said, take advantage of being able to sort of build the deck underneath to create sort of this additional open space, since we'll be losing some of this deck space here and extending the room across.
We think that we should be able to re-estimate that by including the solar panel canopy across this backspace, in addition to putting some solar panels on the small roof area around the pilot house, we should be able to offset about 50% to 60% of the total electricity need of the home, which should make the project worthwhile doing from an economic standpoint.
The two variances that we would need in order to complete this are, first of all, in extending this across the.
First of all, in extending this across the pilot house across to make this a room, we would need a height variance because we're exceeding the height limit for this zoning district.
um we're currently um and as you'll see in the um the actual uh
sorry if i go to the actual zoning uh refusal itself
is that 45 feet yeah it should be you would you would probably should be a 38 right yeah 38 exactly
you've got it you know better than i do um i just read and then the last piece uh with respect to
the solar collectors this gets into the discussion that we had with the rco so the original plans
that we had um proposed were to have this uh structure slanted to take advantage of um uh you
know an angle to get more of the sunlight because the sun obviously here would be in the southern
in the sky what we agreed with the rco um was to just make this flat um and we think that that will
still work would be sufficient energy generation it was their preference to have the uh to have
the solar panels flat basically across the top so that's what we've agreed with them and that was
essentially the key change that they requested so this is the revised plan i'm happy to answer
any questions but that's sort of it in a nutshell um no i i think we understand what you're trying
to do um questions from the board okay no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual
audience chair we have justino navarro okay
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer yes my name is justino
Navarro, J-U-S-C-I-N-O, N-A-V-A-R-R-O, representing the Spring Garden Civic Association
and the Sony Committee. All right, do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? I sure do. Please proceed, sir. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the
board. We've met with, in fact, with Paul and his architect, and we, subsequent to our meeting on
June 5th, we reached an agreement with the property owner. And in fact, a CBA was executed
yesterday afternoon, of which a hard copy has been provided to Mr. Enver. We also, the key
takeaway here is that the architect and the owner graciously agreed with recommendations
of the zoning committee that the height of the solar structure will not exceed 12 feet.
So we're grateful that the property owner has agreed with us.
And we would suggest and encourage the board and the chair, of course, to approve the plans
as presented.
And Mr. Edinburgh, if we can get a copy of the most recent plans reflecting the RCO's
recommendations, that would be terrific.
but that I will terminate my testimony.
Thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to call in.
We appreciate your input.
Is there anyone else in the first audience?
I see no handshare.
Any commission?
This is Ron Bednar, city planning.
First name Ron, R-O-N, last name Bednar, B-E-D-N-A-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
This property is indicated for residential use
on the city plan based on the revised plans we have no objection to the granting of the parents
thank you mi 2023 001 549 1615 brandywine street i vote yes with proviso revised plans
one-paged stamp izba september 27 2023
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, sir. You have your votes.
Ishmael, could you take over, please?
Sure. Number seven, MI2023-001539-2306,
North 21st Street
Vito Canuso
is the attorney
Mr. Canuso is coming back in
and is a panelist
please state your name and spell it for the record veto v-i-t-o can you so c-a-n-u-s-o
good afternoon members of the uh zoning board
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do what is the uh can you give us the
connection to your client and the project please i am the attorney for cmgt llc the owner of the
property located at 2306 north 21st street which currently is a vacant lot understood uh do you
do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do have you emailed
in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed and required to receive this case
five days in advance of this hearing. The required documents have been submitted. I believe that
there was a late submission of today of the tax clearance. Yes, we believe we have everything.
Please proceed and share your screen. If I may, I represent the property owners of this vacant lot,
which they are requesting approval for a two-family residential structure to be constructed.
Counsel, can you share your screen, please?
You can go ahead and share your screen.
These are the pictures of the...
And so you're not sharing your screen. You will just have to hit this green share screen button at the bottom of your screen.
Thank you. Make sure you have your documents open.
After you hit that button, it will ask you what screen you would like to share.
Just make sure your documents open and click on your documents and just hit share.
Can you see them now?
Nothing yet.
Do you see the green button at the bottom?
I thought I had to push that.
Let me make sure I get back to that, please.
Okay, we see it now.
Okay, thank you.
All right.
Unfortunately, my screen, it came out blue, but I appreciate your instructions.
As I started, this is a property vacant lot on the 2300 block of North 21st Street.
You can see various pictures of the vacant lot and the adjoining area, which on that block, only the next door, the one structure you see there is the only structure on the street.
on the street. And that's an abandoned building that is unoccupied and does not look like it's
in very great shape. But what we're proposing on the adjoining vacant lot is a three-story
structure with a lower level, which would be a living area for this structure.
There would be two units in the building. The lower unit would consist of the lower level having a living area, and to the rear of outside would be a courtyard patio to give the owners or the occupants access to the outside from both the front and the rear of the building.
The second level, and I can show you, go to the, there's.
I'll show you, go to the, there's the refusal. Next is the application for the, for the, and then this is the picture of the joining area.
If I can go to the drawings, you'll see that the first level will or basement level would consist of a bedroom and a bath and an adjoining room, which could be used either as a office or another bedroom.