Tanya Sunkit. Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2023-000-784-263 East Upland Street, Upsil Street. That case is continued.
Number three, MI 2023-000-839-2349 East Allegheny. That case is continued.
And number five, MI 2023-000781-6123 East Worcester Street, we have a request for continuance from the RCO and also the council person. Mr. Anastasio, if you're in the audience.
Mr. Anastasio has been unmuted, Chair.
Mr. Anastasio, just for the record, state your name.
You've been sworn.
Vern, V-E-R-N, Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
So the RCO has a request and also the council person.
Mr. Chair, can we bring on any representatives from the council office and the RCO who made the request?
Sure. Is there anyone from the council office or the RCO?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson. He's been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Mr. Richardson, state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 508 City Hall.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you speak, please, about the request for continuance?
The request for continuance came from the RCO, the coordinating RCO and the RCO, requesting that they have continuance until certain issues were resolved that they had asked for.
and the Councilwoman was supporting the request for continuance from the
and the councilwoman was supporting the request for continuance from the rcos so you know it's
really up to you i know that mr anastasio has uh proposed to do a resumption hearing
to hear from the rco because they have not offered no uh letter as yet another council member as well
So so, again, that falls to you guys as to make that.
Mr. Anastasio. Yes, Mr. Chair, I would prefer to to have a be allowed to put the case on as it is and then come back.
I'm more than willing to meet with the RCO for the third time.
I'll be happy to do it because immediate neighbors are not attending and they're reticent to have a position.
I was able to get, you know, 77 signatures myself from the block, but the RCO would like to have at least some folks attend.
So this will be our third meeting, but I have no problem doing that so long as we can resume.
So we're going to continue the case. Instead of doing it, we're going to continue the case.
Okay, we'll try to get it back in as quick as we can.
Chair, this is Tanya.
If I may suggest that once Mr. Anastasio has handled all business, he contacted me to immediately assist with rescheduling.
That's right.
Thank you, Tanya.
Thank you so much.
I do appreciate that.
Thanks, everyone.
Charles, thanks for getting involved in it, too.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
And number seven, MI-2022-007-620-1214, Rockland Street.
This case has been withdrawn.
We're going to go to our regular list.
Any other requests for continuance?
I see no hands, Chair.
We're going to go to our regular list.
We're going to start with number eight, MI-2023-0008.
817-608-WEST-FILLALINA-STREET.
Jacob Sitkin and Lorraine Feldman.
There's a letter of support from the West Mount Airy neighbors.
And also there's an email that came from the Condominium Association
approving this approval by their board here jacob sitkin is coming back in as a panelist thank you
good afternoon mr sit on mute please
thank you good afternoon hi could you state your name and spell please for the court
Yes, my name is Jacob, J-A-C-O-B, Sitkin, S-I-T-K-I-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
So this application is for the extension of an existing balcony at the rear of a second floor of an existing detached structure.
Size and location, as shown on the plans, application extended balcony accessory to existing multifamily household living or dwelling units.
The existing use multifamily household living was previously granted by the ZBA and is being expanded and therefore requires a variance from the ZBA.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Excuse me.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
There's one item that had been left out, which was our deed. I received a email from Hillary, and I sent that to her the next morning. So she has the deed as well.
Thank you. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
You're coming up, Mr. Sitkin. That's good. We're good.
Okay. What I would like to show you are some pictures.
First of all, I want to state that I did submit as part of my package approval from the RCO and also an email from my near neighbor, who is, I believe, the only one who would be able to see the balcony.
and also approval from our HOA.
The condo building is small.
Okay. So the pictures that I want to show you, the current walkway is what you're seeing right now.
So the pictures that I want to show you
are the current walkway.
And this is what it looks like.
What we propose to do is, this is the view from the walkway towards our parking spots behind us.
and this is the back of the building this is where the balcony will be
this is a current balcony of uh one of the other condos and you can see that instead of a walkway
it extends from the wall of the building to the wall of the fire tower yeah um near neighbor who
gave us approval, if you can see my cursor, it lives over here, and so he would be seeing it from
his side. And this is the back. This is right now is what our breezeway looks like currently from
behind. And this is what the balcony will look like when it's done. Essentially, I believe that
our structural engineer is attending today, and he can speak to any technical issues regarding
the engineering structure, but these are the views of what we intend to do right here, and
ours will be down here on the first floor on this side of the fire tower.
So someone in the development has already done this? Yes, that is correct. This one was built,
I believe in 2005. And then last fall when we submitted our paperwork to get our permits to
build, they said that it extended the allowable space by several square feet. And therefore we
needed, as this one did back in 2005, a variance. Okay. All right. All right. Questions from the
board? No, Chair. No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson. They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Mr. Richardson, just state your name for the record, please.
Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N, Councilwoman Bass's Office, Room 508, City Hall.
I've been dealing with Mr. Sicken for a minute with this, and we're very happy to support his request for variance.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate your input.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, I see the other hands at this time.
Hi, Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar City Planning.
Property is indicated for residential use on the city plan.
Given the history and physical conditions of the site, we recommend the request of variance be granted.
Thank you.
So MI 2023-000817-608 West Philomena Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ismail Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Sir, you have your votes.
Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Sure.
And number four.
A quick question.
Will I get an official notification?
You will. You will.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Number four, MI 2023, 000775, 2917 Walkle Street.
Sean Ward is the attorney.
The Southport Richmond Civic Association has a recommendation of support
and non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Hi, Mr. Ward.
How are you?
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. I'm hanging in there. Sean Ward, S-H-A-W-N-W-A-R-D, attorney for owner and applicant.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Do you identify your client in relationship to the property?
I represent Elizabetta, that's E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-A, Domi, D-O-M-I, who is the owner of the property,
and her daughter, who is the applicant on behalf of her mother, Ava Domi, that's E-V-A
capital D-O-M-I. All right. And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, can we confirm my screen is shared?
We're fine. We're good.
Awesome. Thank you. Thank you very much.
I've submitted my typical exhibit packet, which includes, wait a minute, hold on.
A1 is the notice of refusal.
This was an application for a permit for a two-family dwelling in an existing structure, resulted in one refusal.
A two-family dwelling is not permitted in the CMX1 district.
Accordingly, we seek a use variance today.
A2 is the application of appeal.
A4, the project information form.
A4 is proof of ownership.
A5, tax clearance.
A6 is a site location map.
A7 are our photographs.
A8 is the petition of support.
A9 is the RCO letter of support from South Port Richmond Civic Association.
A10, it's my understanding that Councilman School's letter has been submitted.
I do have a copy today just in case. We have it too. Okay, excellent. So I would ask that that
be marked as A-10. A-11, the only relevant zoning history, in fact, the only zoning history
is a permit from 1955 for a grocery store in one family. A-12 is the relevant deed history.
A-13 is the zoning map and A-14 is the aerial photograph. So very quickly, we have our notice
of refusal. Again, it results in one refusal, two family, not permitted in a CMX-1.
We have our application of appeal, our project information form, my transmittal letter to
the board with the appeal, the deed, the DOMIS having purchased this property in March of
2021. Tax clearance, as you can see, taxes are paid through 2023. It would have balanced due
at zero. As far as the site location map goes, this is a Google map showing this property is
located just off of Aramingo Avenue at Munneth Street or just north of Somerset.
copy of our poster. This is a Google Street View. You can see the property as of 2018 was in quite
a state of disrepair and obviously a blight on a neighborhood. That's a corner shot. This is a
shot from a side street. Mr. Domi, being an Albanian immigrant to the United States, brought
his tradecraft with him and performed the renovations to the property. And as the board
can see, quite an improvement over what was previously existing and much to the splendor
of the neighborhood. I would point out that the property located directly behind us is also CMX1
and does in fact have a convenience store. Discussions with the neighbors indicated that
They are happy that it's not going to be another corner store, given the baggage, for lack of a better term, that comes with those.
The interior of the property, as you can see, it's all new fit and finish, new flooring, paint, new kitchens, upgraded kitchens, appliances, countertops, backsplash, cabinetry, et cetera.
we circulated a petition of support amongst the neighbors we have a two-page petition
with many neighbors you know not only on michael street but the surrounding streets as well
we met with sopo on january july 12th the meeting was well attended i would point out that the rco
notice did go out you know identifying the meeting as july 12th at seven o'clock
It did go to 156 different neighbors on the list provided by the Planning Commission.
Despite that letter going out, only about 20 people that attended or 22 people that attended were eligible to vote given the proximity to the property.
That vote resulted in 16 in support with six opposed.
No reason was given for the opposition.
However, you know, we submit the letter in support.
Again, the second, you know, the only permit on file that we could find was a grocery store, delicatessen and a single family.
Again, the...
Again, that was in nineteen fifty five.
Other than that, there's no permit history whatsoever on the property.
no licenses, no anything. We would submit that this property has been vacant for quite some
period of time over possibly several owners. As you can see, the property is located predominantly
in an RSA 5 district. However, this property and the property directly behind us, as aforementioned,
are zoned at CMX1. And then we have the aerial photograph again showing this is Cambria.
Somerset is down a little bit further, and then Aramingo Avenue.
You can see a corner down here is located to the south, the southeast.
Given that, you know, we believe that the two family use is more appropriate given the neighborhood as opposed to adding another corner store, which is certainly not necessary in this area.
Again, Councilman Squilla has submitted his letter in non-opposition, given the support by SOPO.
I do have in the audience today Ava Domi.
I would ask Ava to raise her hand so she can verify and adopt.