Okay, good morning. Tanya, we'll wait for you to give us the green light to go forward.
Thank you.
okay chair we can try now thank you thank you very much tanya good morning everyone
My name is Frank DiCicco. 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 Tenere, board secretary, confessor
plaza, and board members, Mr. Thomas Holloman and Mr. James Snell. Board administrator,
Ms. Tanya Sunkit, and board attorney, Ms. Sharon Saleta, 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.
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'll repeat, 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'll 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.
Before our Vice Chair, Ms. Tenere calls our first case,
we'd like to ask if anyone is requesting a continuance
or withdrawal of an appeal for this morning's list if so please raise your hand and while
we're waiting for that I will read off a list of continuances that have already been requested
MI 2020-001307 1127 North Lee Street that's number one on our list for our board members
number seven on our list mi 2020 that's 001293 2154 north randolph street number eight on our list
sharon uh we have no exhibits i understand for 1300 east columbia avenue
that's true but if you could read the cases from the exhibit list first rather or the continuance
list first rather than those with no exhibits please okay all right so next continued case is
number page number 11 mi 2020-0007142544 west montgomery avenue
number 17 on our list mi 2020 that's 001310 6931 van dyke street continuance as request
attorney moving party and i believe those are all the continuance i have as of yet for this
morning's list. And there are one, two, two listed, no exhibits so far, 1300 East Columbia
I have two listed, no exhibits so far, 1300 East Columbia Avenue and 428 Monroe Street.
Um, excuse me, this is Sharon.
We actually do now have the exhibits for Monroe Street.
What about Columbia?
I don't have any record of receiving exhibits for that case.
That case will be continued.
and the case with no exhibits can we ask if anyone is here for it
okay is there anyone here for 1300 east columbia avenue
no new hands here okay um tanya has this case already been continued in the past
I looked through my prior case summaries and didn't have any record of it having been
listed in the past. What number is that? Number eight on our list. Okay, let me look at it.
um no i don't think so okay mi 2020 dash zero zero one two nine five i'm sorry can i just stop
you for one minute i do see sarah alderford with her hand up may i allow her to speak to this
continue? Yes, please. Yep. Hi, Sarah, you've been unmuted. Are you the attorney for this case?
Sarah Alderfer, you can unmute yourself.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I was not raising my hand for this particular
matter okay thank you all right so uh mi 2020 that's 001295 1300 east columbia avenue is continued
any other requests for continuances or withdrawals please raise your hand
we're going to open it back up to sarah who has her hand up for a continuous
thank you uh good morning sarah please please identify yourself with the record spell your last
name i'll swear you in sure sarah aldifer s-a-r-a-h-a-l-d-e-r-f-e-r 1500 jfk boulevard
suite 800 philadelphia you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
I do. I'm here today on 224751 North 53rd Street MI 2020-001308. I understand that there was some
confusion with the hearing lists and we may or may not be on the list. However, we are withdrawing
this appeal and i just wanted that to be noted what what what's the address again uh 2247
to 51 north 53rd street all right has anybody found that yet no no i looked twice i don't see
it on our list. Is it the 930 list? No, it's not on the list. Okay. Not on the 930 list, Sarah.
Excuse me. This is Sharon. Sarah, is this something that was a resumption hearing? Was
it previously? Was the hearing started on another date? No, the hearing was not started on another
date this would have been the first hearing on this matter okay thank you i'm looking and it's
not on the two o'clock list either if i'm not mistaken mr chair i believe that was yesterday's
case if i'm not mistaken it was continued yes i believe that's true i confess her i thought it
It sounded familiar, too.
It sounds somewhat familiar, yeah.
All right, Sarah.
I guess Tanya will work it out with you.
I think, as confessor said, we may have continued this yesterday.
All right.
Thank you so much.
I'll reach out to Tanya.
Thank you.
Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals?
We have a caller ending in 6894.
Caller, you can now unmute yourself and speak to a continuance.
Caller, you can now unmute yourself.
and speak to a continuance.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Please identify yourself for the record.
This is Reverend Louis Nash, Sr.
Miss you guys.
Please, Reverend, spell your last name.
N-A-S-H.
Thank you.
You're swearing to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
i do affirm thank you sir what uh what case are you here for 1407 and 09 north 15th street 1515
north 16th street i believe it's mr mattione three and five and five are you the applicant
no i'm the rco okay um and you're requesting a continuance
no i was i was uh about to say raise your hands to affirm
so we're asking if anyone is requesting a continuance or withdrawal i'm not i'm sorry
i'm sorry no problem we'll get to that case shortly thank you
no more hands at this time chair thank you
okay before we get started
we're going to have a vote on MI 2020-001458 7519 Ridge Avenue this case will be voted on
at December the 16th at 9 30 a.m and we will vote on this case is MI 2020-000826
6301 north broad street my vote is no my vote is no my vote is no
tom jim
well we got three votes okay we have three votes we may have technical problems with the other guys
all right um okay let me get my paperwork straightened out here again
so sharon uh 428 monroe we do have exhibits correct we do yes okay and one last time
anyone requesting a continuance or withdrawal for the 930 list
Excuse me, Chair, this is Pauline from IT.
I was just wondering, Mr. Holloman just logged off, if he was going to, told him to log back
in so that he could see if his sound returns.
Okay, thank you.
um can you hear us oh noise can you hear me yes we can yeah we're good now thank you
all right um let's see before we go any further i just want to remind everybody do not attempt
to testify in the chat.
Any comments should be directed
to our board administrator,
Ms. Tanya Sunkit.
Sorry, Chair, can I just do one housekeeping?
Yes, ma'am.
Court reporter, may I make sure that you're there?
I'm here, Tanya.
Thank you, Lori.
You're welcome.
All right, Chair, you can continue.
That would have been something.
All right.
Sharon, do we go, or Tanya,
do we go to the resumption hearings first or we just take them we take them in the order that
they're listed correct um you should this is sharon you would generally do the resumption
hearings the add-ons first okay we'll do that then so um i'll call it carol then you can do the rest
That's MI2020-000970-6164 Walnut Street.
We were waiting for feedback from the RCO and
feedback from Councilwoman Gaultier's office.
THE ATTORNEY'S VERN ANASTASIO.
you may now speak good morning mr chairman members of the board can everyone hear me
yes yes okay i'm sorry you can't see me i don't know what that's about but
nevertheless i'm sorry was he promoted i mean i dressed up for this all right we're going to
promote you i want to see it there you go there you go i mean i dressed up purposely so i figured
you know mu thai okay we'll let you go fire away thanks um yeah we already put our case in chief
on uh it was held for rco input we had not heard from anybody until recently uh apparently there
was an rco issue where cobs creek was the coordinating rco identified to us when we
filed this application in january my office emailed uh cops creek and the other rco uh
that were identified asking for to be put on the agenda. That email goes back March 12th of this
year. And after a few attempts, a secondary RCO did reply, but the primary RCO, coordinating RCO,
did not reply to us. In fact, we hadn't heard from the coordinating RCO until 11th of November,
which was after our achievability meeting. And of course, after the hearing and that email
was not even directed to us. It was directed to the owner, the owner's daughter. It was forwarded
to us subsequently. So nevertheless, it's a little convoluted, but at the end of the day,
we did in fact meet with uh an rco we mailed to you know a couple hundred folks uh we had a meeting
and uh that's where we are excuse me this is sharon saletta i believe that andrew goodman
of councilwoman gauthier's office is um is signed on and has his hand raised he
i believe wants to speak to this issue um and perhaps request a continuance but
if you could thank you good morning mr goodman please identify yourself with the record
andrew goodman g-o-o-d-m-a-n office of council member jamie r gaudier where or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes absolutely thank you andrew please
proceed? Yes, so our office would request that the board not proceed with a vote today on the
grounds that the kind of outreach and notification requirements per the code were not satisfied,
were not followed in this case. A meeting was indeed held, but it was with the wrong RCO.
There is a process for officially getting a case reassigned should, you know, should a case
actually require that, but that was not followed in this in this particular instance. And in fact,
if we had known in advance, which is also a notification requirement outlined in the code
of the applicant, we could have intercepted this and ensured that the meeting with the correct RCO
actually happened, again, as per the code requirement. This sets what we believe to be
a dangerous precedent that community engagement and notification outlined in the code be kind of,
you know picked and chosen at will by the applicant and so we must object to that
that is not typically the way it works as far as my experience and it's it's if i may mr chairman
again we were notified of the coordinating rco we emailed as recently as early as march of 2020
i've already sent that email to attorney saletta as evidence we did not receive any reply from the
coordinating RCO. We did, however, get a gracious reply from a secondary RCO offering to hold a
meeting since there was no reply from the, you know, it was a group email. No one ever heard
from Cobbs Creek. So this secondary RCO stepped up and said that they would host the meeting,
which then we took all the addresses and we did a certified mailing, which I've already put into
the evidence of the record over the since the last meeting last hearing uh we held an rco meeting
and it only after the fact did we find out that uh they needed another rco um and here's here's
the kicker um we just found out that this coordinating rco they're not meeting again
until next year uh and you know we put an application great i'm sorry
uh and you know we put an application great i'm sorry i said that sounds great next year
yeah well i mean we've we've you know we went through the process i understand with covid i
certainly don't blame anybody for not reaching out back to us uh you know things happen especially
during these difficult times but i don't think my client should be prejudiced further remember we
You already had a hearing.
Vern, you froze just there.
I'm not sure.
I mean, some point of clarification to respond.
Hold on, Mr. Goodman, please.
He's muted.
You can continue.
You, Vern, you froze up there for a minute.
Okay, am I okay now?
Okay, I just, I think I wrapped up by saying,
I just think this would be very, you know,
This penalizes my client for, and they didn't do anything that would warrant such a thing.
We did exactly what we were supposed to do.
Again, I don't blame the RCO for not replying, but be it one RCO or the other, the same number
of addresses and the same individuals would have been mailed.
Nothing would have changed.
So we went through that process.
We posted the property.