and Mr. Anastasia if I could ask that question now it has to do with the provisos stated in the
letter. The neighbors have included what they're calling provisos, which are support for two single
family dwellings, minimum 16 feet wide each, only with garage and no setback. Do the plans as you
are now presenting them meet all of those requirements? I believe they do. Ian Toner,
who's the architect on the project, is present. I would ask him to raise his hand so he could be
recognized please and i ask because if if the plans are as presented are consistent with those
requests then there would be no need for provisos thank you very good
is mr toner still with us
was anyone from the architect of toner architects still with us
mr toner if you're in the virtual audience please raise your hand
i know he was Daniel Kostenski with his hand up Daniel's my uh he's my client
I know he was here.
and Daniel could speak to the plants as well because uh Daniel actually resubmitted these on
on his own with Mr. Toner so if you would be kind enough to uh
acknowledge him and allow him to speak thank you Mr. Kostenski you can unmute yourself or wait for
the chair. Daniel, state your name and spell it for the court reporter. Sure. Good day. My name
is Daniel Kostensky. D as in David, A-N-I-E-L as in Larry. Kostensky, K as in Kilo, O, S as in
Samantha, T as in Tango, I, N as in November, S as in Sierra, K as in Kilo, Y as in Yankee.
Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Daniel, do the plans as we are presenting them accurately reflect the provisos that the RCO has asked for?
So actually, the architect here is Logan Dry.
I don't believe he's with us.
I'm sorry.
No problem.
I call that the wrong architect.
It's okay.
I don't think Logan's here today.
As far as I know, I don't think he has.
But anyways, yes, the plans, I oversaw all the plans throughout the process, and these plans do accurately reflect the, you know, the proposal here today.
These are two single-family homes.
They are over 16 feet wide, as requested.
The total lot width, I believe, is 35, so that would make these approximately 17 and a half each in width.
They are indeed four stories.
They do indeed have a front-loading garage, and they do not have a setback, although actually there is no refusal for a setback because L&I did not issue one, and they said that actually it is allowed per the code with no variance or anything needed.
That's right. Thank you. And my apologies. One of the, I guess, downsides to having so many cases is that you forget who your architect is on which property.
So my apologies, Mr. Chair. Okay, so questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
No, sir. Questions or concerns from the virtual audience?
Chair, there are no hands up at this time. Thank you very much. Planning Commission.
Good afternoon. David Fecto, City Planning Commission.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change in the
residential single-family zoning at this location. While the proposed front parking does match the
character of the block, there is no unique physical condition of the lot that would prevent it from
being used as one single-family home. The proposed two 900-square-foot house lots would be out of
character with the lots on the block of North Capitol Street, which range in size from 1,800
to 1,900 square feet, we recommend that the board deny the use in dimensional variances.
MI 2021-003-752-730 North Capitol Street, I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes.
Jake Snell, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is no.
thank you very much thank you okay so we're going to move right into the 3 30 meeting
tonda do i have to do the preamble again yes chair okay my name is bill bergen and i will be chairing
this this meeting of the zbo zba hearing board members with me our vice chair carol tennery
present thomas holliman board member
present james snell board members there's only board administrators here tanya sunkett board
Attorney Sharon Saleta. Our virtual format is first be advised the proceeding is being recorded
by participating. You acknowledge your agreement to be recorded. The video will be available by
by contacting our Board Administrator Tanya Sunkett at tanyasunkett at phil.gov. Second,
for the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify
to identify themselves prior to speaking or testifying.
themselves prior to speaking or testifying third if you're part
Third, if you're participating by phone and you wish to testify,
raise your hand by pressing star 9 and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and address of the property in question.
and fourth please take note that the question answer box is not for testimony or comments
any comments should be directed to tanya sunkett um our continuances for this part
portion of the hearings i have let's see here the number
let me see here i'm sorry
Does anyone have any
contingents here?
I see number one, Chair.
Number one, okay.
MI 2021
003109
1227 South 4th Street
applicant's attorney
request a continuance. Does anyone have a problem with that being continued?
I see no hands at this time, Chair. Any other continuances?
Chair, we have Henry Clinton with his hand up. Mr. Clinton,
you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Henry Clinton.
Mr. Clinton, just state your name. You already have been sworn.
Sure. I have a continuance. I think it's the last one in your list.
6147 Osceola Street.
Got it. Okay. All right.
Continue, but must be heard the next time.
Understood.
Number one also must be heard.
Excuse me, Mr. Clinton, would you like that to be continued attorney moving party
if you're contemplating filing an amended application?
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Soletto, for the suggestion. I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2021-00551-1618 North 54th Street.
RCO Haydensville Civic Association, letter of no agreement has been reached.
Mr. Consolet is the attorney.
Okay. Chair, Mr. Consul is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good afternoon, board. How are you? Please state your name and spell for the court reporter.
Joseph Consul. That's C-O-N-S-O-L-E. It's Consul Madison, LLP, 1 West 3rd Street, Suite 204,
media at Pennsylvania. Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth? I do. Our vice chair has a few questions for you. Hi, Mr. Consul. Do
you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. I'm assuming
you've submitted everything in the exhibit packet. That's correct, Carol. You may proceed. Thank you.
All right, let me bring my screen up here.
My packet. All right. Good afternoon. Good evening. Joe Consul here on 1618 North 54th Street.
I'm trying to make this a little bit bigger. The property is owned by 54th Street Holdings, LLC.
see i'm here with uh two of the members of the company mr roman of rutski and uh tyler willis
they're both on the call and will speak to my presentation at at the end um this property
at 1618 north 54th street is on 54th street uh between um lancaster and lansdowne avenue
It is a vacant lot, as you can see looking down the road, on a stretch of 54th Street that has many vacant lots.
At the end of the block is the Redemption Baptist Church.
Across the street is the Edward Heston Public School.
The property, as I'll show you on Atlas, is zoned RSA 5. It is a 3,960.
It is a 3,962 square foot lot.
The block itself has significant RM1 properties on it, as well as the properties across the street are zoned RM1.
uh the other properties on this block um there are no single family homes 1612 and 1614
uh both have multi-family variances although they're empty lots um 1616 which is the property
to the one side of us i'll bring up my my packet here to show you that is a property that is owned
by my clients, as well as the property to the other side of it, which is 1620. And this
is just showing you that that work's being done. So 1616 was approved by the ZBA for
12 units, and 1620 was approved by the ZBA for 11 units. And my client was recently able
to acquire the property in the middle, which is the property we're here for today, 16-16.
Bringing up the plans, the developer is seeking, here are the floor plans, seeking 12 units.
That's four, I'll zoom in a little bit here.
it's four bi-level units on the lower level and on the first floor and those are all two bedroom
units and then on the second floor would be four one-bedroom one-bath units and on the fourth floor
would be four one-bedroom one-bath units identical to the other properties on this block 1616 and
1620 the height will be less than 38 feet and um we believe that uh we have we have a good case for
for granting this variance simply um for the idea that um it's it's putting a single family on this
block does not make a lot of sense considering it's it's a block of approved multi-families
and also we have the benefit of owning the properties on either side which will allow for
uh bi-weekly or whatever is needed trash pickup um off of hunter street because they're they're
um they're building in the construction of 1620 on the corner they're creating access to the back
of that property as well as to this property 1618 and the property they own past it 1616 to be able
to pick up all of the um all the trash for trash day and there will also be uh accessible uh backyard
for all the tenants there to store trash
in locked dumpsters for trash day.
We, let me pull my packet back up.
The client's plan here is to make eight units
of this property affordable housing for senior citizens.
The remaining four units, the bi-level units,
in, as you can see in the support letter
from Councilman Curtis Jones' office,
as well as in the support letter
from the pastor of Resurrection Baptist Church,
Robert McFadden,
they are seeking to have some input
in the folks that would be applying
to be tenants for the four bi-level units.
We did meet with the RCO.
Let me get down to their level,
up to their letter. So we did meet with the RCO, as I mentioned, and they basically submitted
a letter which states that they wanted more clarity from us. We have reached out to them.
We met in June. We reached out to them three times since then, seeking a follow-up meeting.
I have the email correspondence here from Sheila, from the RCO, seeking follow-up meetings three times.
This was our second attempt and a third attempt.
The only response we got was a great thank you and a received from the RCO.
We couldn't get another meeting on the calendar.
At the meeting that we were at, we found support for development generally, but they wanted what they described as more clarity.
And in a letter that they sent to the ZBA yesterday at 11 o'clock at night.
to uh the zba yesterday at 11 o'clock at night um they uh state that they were seeking uh six
things the first meeting with the owner for clarification um i mean they they have our
zoning plans and our architectural plans um so we're not sure what for the clarification
uh that they were seeking um request for renderings for review they have our plans
uh next they asked for approved plot plans and approved site plans we're here seeking approval
uh so we we weren't able to provide them with that um they request a surveyor for construction
ongoing i was unsure as to what they meant by that and um they they stayed in here that they
haven't met with us after that initial meeting, which is true, but we have the proofs to show
that the developer and his team reached out several times to try to schedule a follow-up
meeting. And we had been unsuccessful with that. And then also yesterday, as I had mentioned,
we, if I can find it real quick, here it is, we got the letter of support from
Curtis Jones, the councilman's office. He met with the developer. We had been in contact with
his office off and on, but last week they spoke about the property, and the councilman was in
support, wanted us to work with the Civic and the Baptist Church to recruit possible tenants,
um but ultimately we got their support and that letter should have been sent over directly
uh if it wasn't i can include it and here it is and then we also have a letter of support
from the pastor of the church on the block um which that's that's what we have um i discussed
the trash we've got plenty of space for that out back um we don't believe parking is going to be
an issue um both because we're uh seeking seniors to provide affordable housing for seniors and also
um just uh driving around we we don't believe that there'll be an issue for potential tenants
to find parking um and so in conclusion the this side of 54th street is mostly vacant except for
the work that my client's doing on the block the RCO the council person and ZBA have approved 1616
and 1620 which are similar sized lots for a similar number of units putting a single family
home on a 3900 square foot lot between two apartment buildings we don't believe makes sense
especially when you consider that a large portion of this side of the block and across the street
is zoned RM1. It would be the only single family property on the block. We have councilman's
support. We have support from the local community leaders. And with that, I'll call my client,
Tyler Willis, to adopt my testimony. Mr. Willis, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Tyler Willis, T-Y-L-E-R-W-I-L-L-I-S.
Do you swear, firm, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Good afternoon, Mr. Willis.