questions from the board yes I have a question so in the previous hearing it came up that one of the
neighbors in opposition asked about rear egress and it was said that it was going to be addressed
possibly in the plan was that ever changed was there any other changes to the plan regarding
rear egress so there is no change to rear egress that's going to have to be addressed at the
building permit stage from uh what you can see of these site photos uh again we only have 23 feet
deep there is no rear egress so we're going to have to work that out with the building permit
reviewer and possibly the board of building standards thank you thank you can we look at
these the plans again of course uh would you like the floor plans or the the floor plans please and
can you make them a little bigger of course thank you
i do have a fancy new screw in my hand and wire but i'm still not very good at using this uh all
right so i will start so this is the basement area as you can see it's just open there will
be a half bath down there but this will just be utility and storage and then on the first
floor what you see here chancellor street is to the bottom of the screen okay so what you see here
is again we're getting rid of most of the existing curb cut which was the entire length of the
property and those bollards that are out front we're seeking the one car garage here on the
left hand side this will be the main front door right here at the bottom right you walk in to the
kitchen and then uh you know you'll go upstairs to the primary second floor that's the one bedroom
here full bath in a living area and you'll have this balcony area where it is set back the second
floor and then the third floor has since been added these plans were original to 2021 when
mr rivers first bought the property so these floor plans don't show the third floor but the
third floor is just a single bedroom it'll just be stairs up to a single bedroom and so you're
not going to have windows in one of the uh living in the living area here uh so unfortunately what
we're going to have to do is you can see this balcony here we're going to have the
double door there where you'd be able to walk out unfortunately the based on the way the
the buildings are we're tight up against with uh party walls on all three sides both sides and the
rear so all of the light is going to have to come from the front of the house except for the third
Um, so all of the light is going to have to come from the front of the house, except for the third floor, which is part of why that was added. That bedroom will have a front and back.
I don't know how the windows are going to work there, except for maybe in the elevation plan. Okay. Um, so you're going to keep these party walls. There's not going to be a, um, there's like a porch on the, on the other side, right?
Right. So you're not. So what we're doing is now you can see where I have the second floor here.
The third floor, sorry, is going to have a walkout deck. OK. Balcony to try to give some outdoor space.
There's no no pilot house and no roof deck. So as we fully understand it, this is technically defined as another balcony on top of the second story roof.
and um again about you're going to keep those party walls and so
the the house on the other side that has a porch you're not going to try and do that you're just
gonna oh correct um yes i'm sorry i was misunderstanding which party wall you were
talking about yeah so in this picture right here on the right hand side is what you're talking about
that will not be taken down. The idea right now is, you know, we don't know what these old brick
walls do. Everyone is fully understanding in the city what happens with demolition.
Nobody wants that. And so the intention is to keep all of the existing party walls as you see them
in place. And therefore the next door neighbor and their porch will not be affected. And our
wall would just go up right on the inside of that party wall okay thank you yeah so so in case
you're curious what happens is you take uh steel or timber now go straight up and then you just
cap over because these party walls are almost invariably never actually straight anymore you
know they've been around for a hundred plus years and so you don't put any weight on them you just
build up right on the inside of them and then just cap them off so no debris or water can get in
other questions from the board yes mr whalen i have a question with the existing party wall
is the width of the lot 23 inside wall to wall or for the extent of the parcel itself
uh no i believe that's miss win i can't see you um yeah yeah that the lot dimensions actually go
to the center of the party wall so the the property where you're actually building a house
is even more reduced from that i believe i don't have the details but i believe it's about
four inches on each side so we're just shy of 20 uh 28 feet wide i think it's going to be about 27
six okay i don't have that exact detail and then on the on the depth side because that should be
the full brick course right yeah on the depth side it's even more i think we're actually down
to 22 feet buildable okay and then do you know if the garage had a subfloor since this was the
like this was the you know this was attached to the neighboring garage um because to go to
the basement do you know if there's an existing subfloor below grade
uh i do not i know it's it's completely paved over um if i could sure mr rivers are you aware
of anything below grade at the yeah why don't you get like 12 on the bike yeah no there wasn't
anything there no basement okay other questions questions from our attorney
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the current office or the current group or the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Andrea Johnson.
I'm going to promote her to panelists and she can speak.
miss johnson can you please unmute yourself yes can you hear me now yes miss johnson could you
please state your name and spell for the stenographer sure andrea johnson a-n-d-r-e-a-j-o-h-n-s-o-n
um i am the block captain for the 53 block of chancelor street all right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Ms. Johnson, if I remember
correctly, you testified the first time, am I correct? Yes. Right. So what I want you to do is
Um, your testimony today should be just on what he's presented today as an update. Okay.
your testimony today should be just on what he's presented today as an update. Okay.
Yes. Yes. Um, we, okay. We were never provided the new specs of how the property was going to go.
I don't think the RCO received it either. Um, but our concern has always just been the safety
of this, of this bill being as though it's never had a home on it and that there's no, uh, egress
towards the back, given the fact the way the build was. Just the prior history, as I said before in
my last statement, was before it was a, before it was a garage, it was like a stable. So the ground
on it in itself, you know, we're wanting to make sure that all that is good, but also to see how
the walls are. Is it going to, you know, block our neighbors? How safe is that going to be given
though it's, you know, come into contact with both of the houses in between? With the high,
well, not high rate, but with a lot of the rates of the houses and houses collapsing because of
negligence from the developers and these builders, we're just concerned that there's going to be
some issues. Although, you know, they say that there's a million dollar policy, but you're
on someone else's home in a small lot where there's never been a home before. So all we were
concerned on the 5,300 block of chancellors, how's that going to be built safely, not only for the
tenants that may occupy the home, but also for the neighboring houses, which one of the houses
is mine's as well. So we were just trying to figure out which we never really got an answer.
And in the last hearing that there was the specs for the garage and all from your attorney there had said that what was presented to be approved was not actually what was being what was being shown at the at the last meeting was not was previously prevented presented to be approved.
moved so again all of our our concern is just how we just want to make sure that this is going to be
built safely like i said because if there's a fire and there's only one egress through the kitchen
and the fire happens in the kitchen um how are these persons going to get out um and how are
how are our neighbors going to be able to like help i mean we just we just didn't get answers
answered okay um given that fact my apologies all right thank you very much for taking the time to
calls is there anyone else in the audience yes chair we have a Kyle Sampson
he's going to be promoted now
how can you unmute yourself
hello yes good morning good morning sir could you please state your name as bell for the
sonographer pyle sampson k-y-l-e-s-a-m-p-s-o-n i'm president of the west philadelphia
rco westphiladelphia economic development counselor do you swear or firm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do uh mr sampson um please keep your testimony
consistent with what you heard today thank you very much i adopt the uh testimony and everything
that's being factual with the block captain just stated okay we have we have never received any
amendments or any amendments to even discuss the community never never received it i have personally
sent many emails to counsel. He has not
responded to one.
So we have some concerns about the safety
as the block captain has expressed. Thank you very kindly.
Mr. Shampson, thank you for taking time to call. So is there anyone
else in the audience? I see no more hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Addison Matera, Planning Commission
staff, M-A-D-I-S-O-N-M-A-T-E-R-A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from RM1, residential multifamily, to RSA 5, residential single family.
The city rezoned this neighborhood in 2019 and 2022 in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan.
The appellant's property is unusually shallow compared to other lots on this block face stretching back from the street approximately 24 feet.
The appellant has shown that the lot would be unusable without the proposed variances.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the request of variances for rear yard depth and accessory parking.
All right. Thank you very much.
Council, I'm going to hold a vote on this and just have a conversation with the board.
Council, I'm going to hold a vote on this and just have a conversation with the board.
What's the difference?
What's the date that we'll be back?
That's a couple weeks, right?
I feel like it's the 7th.
December 7th?
We'll be back January 7th, Mr. Chair.
January 7th at 9.30 a.m.?
We will vote, and we're going to just take this into consideration while we have executive session.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
number five
mi2025 000475 1625 north marshall street rachel pritzker is the attorney
and she'll be rejoining us as a panelist okay
good morning
good morning counsel could you please state your name
it's spelled for the stenographer
yes Rachel R-A-C-H-A-E-L
Pritzker P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
this is a resumptive hearing
my understanding is where we are today
you will give us an update will be questions from the board public testimony limited to what you say
today an update from planning and then we will vote so why don't you if you would just give us
maybe a few minutes of how you got to this point and then start your resumptive hearing okay
Sure. So we had a prior hearing and the request from the board was to realign the front of the structure, specifically the porch and the roof line for the porch to match the directly adjacent structure in addition to the entry stairs in the front.
So we spent some time with our architect redesigning the front of the structure so that it matches the directly adjacent structure.
And that is really all that we're here to show is just those revised plans that bring this property in more of an aesthetic alignment with the existing adjacent structure.
um so i can go through i think what would be helpful is to go through the um
plans but just to since it's been a minute just to refresh the board this is a proposed
three unit on a block with mostly three unit structures um the whole block is zoned rsa5
but most of these structures are three-unit buildings. We did have support from the community
as well. They didn't have any issue with the exterior design. However, the board,
in my opinion, quite correctly noted that it didn't really match exactly the directly adjacent
structure. And so we went back and made revisions. Just on the screen is just the additional two and
three units on this block. So the property is in character with the adjacent structures
from a use perspective as well.
And now from an aesthetic perspective.
So I'm going to try to pull up plans.
This is the exterior.
We sort of have two different aesthetics,
but we're matching the one at 1623.
This is a lot.
It's been a longstanding vacant lot.
Zoning code. Again, we had a community meeting back last spring. We sent out mailers, and we had
eight in support or six in support and two with no opinion from the coordinating RCO.
So here are the revised plans.
As you can see, our building is the one on the left, and we so now have the stairs matching,
the stairwell matching, the railing matching, and then the roof line of the porch matching
with the adjacent structure.
This was the floor plans that we went through, no changes really, except we eliminated an additional door, again, to just match the aesthetic, but nothing changed from.
Again, to just match the aesthetic, but nothing changed from the presentation related to the floor plans.
And then we have the proviso plan form that just sets out the changes that we made.
So just the front porch and we reduced the open space a little bit since we had set the building back with a different sort of front porch line.
And now, again, it's adjacent and identical to the neighboring structure.
I'm happy to bring my client on.
Why don't you bring your client on, adopt your testimony.
Is there a Chaz Coupa in the audience?
And he's have been allowed to speak, chair.
Good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Chazim Kupa, Q-A-Z-I-M-K-U-P-A.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Chaz, have you heard my testimony today?
Do you believe it to be true and accurate, and do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?