thank you
good morning everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing the meeting
of the Philadelphia Zoning Board this morning.
With me is our Vice Chair, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Ryan McAdams.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our alternate Board Member, Emily Persico.
Present, Mr. Chair.
Also here is the Board Attorney, Hillary Emerson,
our Zoning Board Director, Ian Haggerty,
and the Board Administrator, Burstrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
Recording of the hearing will be posted on the ZBA website.
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it. This is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities. Whether remote or in-person,
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Let's look at our schedule for today.
number one mi 2024 001 941 53 15 to 17 chancellor street this case has been continued until 12 16 25
at 9 30 a.m number two mi 2025 000 476 1625 north marshall street this case has been continued to
12 16 25
at 9 30 at 9 30 a.m. thank you
number four mi 2025
004 233 5900
202 north 13th street this case is continued
to 3426 at 2 p.m.
Number 8, MI 2025, 005-235-700 South 2nd Street.
This case is continued to 113-26 at 9.30 a.m.
And number 9, MI 2025, 005-237-700 South 2nd Street.
This case is continued to 113.26 at 9.30 a.m.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
Good morning, Chair.
This is Jeff Benton.
I'll be your co-host for today.
I see no hands at this time.
Thank you very much.
Number three, MI 2025-003-689-3135 South Juniper Street.
Vincent DeFino is the attorney.
Chair Vincent Dufino is coming back in as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Good morning, Chairman, members of the panel.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, Vincent Anthony DeFino, and that's the last name spelled D-E-F as in Frank, I-N-O.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
So, as you know, counsel, this is a reconsideration hearing.
The evidence and testimony presented at the February 26, 2025 hearing in this matter are incorporated into the record for this hearing.
The evidence and testimony presented at the February 26, 2025 hearing.
The scope of today's reconsideration of hearing will be the presentation of supplemental written and photographic evidence that was not presented at the original hearing.
So this is how we'll do it.
You give us a presentation of supplemental evidence.
There'll be questions from the board.
will be public testimony only limited to the additional evidence you give today,
and then we'll have updates from the Planning Commission.
So, Counsel, why don't you start?
Basically, just a little background on this.
This is a rear deck in East Packer Park area, Stadium District,
Veterans Stadium District handled the hearing.
and um the uh refusal was basically for two reasons three foot setback is required one foot
is what we were looking for and a staircase leading to the deck which we would believe
would be okay a good thing because it's an egress in case god forbid there's a fire there's
something that happens so we presented this case uh back february 26 and there was some concern
about the adjoining neighbors and the councilman um so what i do have now is i have um letters from
the adjoining neighbors if you could uh allow me to okay i could share and um
I could go
into here.
Should be that green dot at the bottom
of the shared documents.
Yeah, I got the, I think, okay, share.
Yep, it's coming up now. It'll be up in a minute.
and here we have the request that was in right it was all submitted um to you
can you make it just a little bit larger just a little bit okay i'm going to try
i'm having a problem okay we'll we'll uh we'll find a way to see this here's a letter from the
councilman they were concerned about what the councilman thought so the could the council
president has sent a letter of support council president sent a letter of support they were
concerned also about the adjoining neighbors the adjoining neighbors both send a letter of support
okay and then there is also um a letter from my client but there's another letter from
veteran stadium neighbors civic association okay supporting the request for reconsideration
they supported the original zoning there was no opposition whatsoever from the neighborhood
so that's basically it i mean if you need some pictures okay so the only the only other thing
that i think you listed that i haven't you have a picture of other and another deck is that am i
correct yes i do have pictures just for the record why don't you put that on there there's one okay
right here with a staircase going down okay here's one that are actually a little bit larger this one
here is a little
this one here
and they're on the
alleyway so it's like
and there's another couple
there's another one
another one
why don't you bring your client on
and have your testimony adopted
yeah he's in the audience somewhere
so he can raise his hand
you will get him
Mr. DeFino what's your client's name
it's Phil
Philip Crenitti.
Philip Crenitti is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good morning, Mr. Crenitti.
hi everyone good morning sir could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
yes my name is philip criniti that's p-h-i-l-l-i-p last name is criniti c-r-i-n-i-t-i
do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes, Mr. Crenitti, you heard my testimony here today.
Is that correct?
I did.
You didn't hear my testimony?
I did.
Yes, he did.
Oh, you did.
And do you find it to be true and accurate?
And would you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I am.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, questions from the board.
i have a question how many of the other properties
on your block already have stairs coming from the rear decks
um there is a the pictures that we have here is just a one of them i believe there is two or three
that's in the immediate neighborhood where i live not not specifically maybe on my block but within
within the East Packer Bark area.
Other questions?
Questions from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Comments from the virtual audience?
I've seen no hands, Chair.
Planny, do you want to change your testimony or update?
Do you want to swear me in first?
Oh, sure.
Hey, why not?
Go ahead.
state your name oh thank you chairman good morning david effecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the
city planning commission do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth yes sir i do please proceed all right thank you sir uh chairman we would uh um request to be
able to stand on our prior recommendation thank you very much um mr if you know what we're going
to do with this is um a couple of board members have not seen the original um uh hearing and we
have it on video so we're going to hold this and we're going to vote on this on the 29th of february
of uh october at 9 30 a.m okay okay thank you thank you thank you for your presentation and
thank you for coming in mr kennedy you got it thank you appreciate your time have a great day
And Mr. Chair, I just want to note for the record, board member Wynne has now.
Yeah, well, we have her and I guess our other board member can leave.
And Emily, as usual, we thank you for your always quick response when we call.
Thank you, Emily.
A meeting that ran over.
I appreciate you.
All right. So number five, MI-2025-004-486-3935 Ogna Street.
Myrda Felderker is the attorney. This is a remained hearing.
It's coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Good morning.
Good morning, counsel.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
So this is a case that's been remanded from the courts.
Correct.
The evidence and testimony presented at the July 24th, 2024 hearing in this matter are incorporated into the record for this hearing.
The scope of today's remand hearing will be limited to the presentation of supplemental evidence that was not presented at the original hearing.
So you'll have a chance to present supplemental evidence.
There'll be questions from the board.
There'll be public testimony only limited to the supplemental evidence, and we'll see if planning has to change their update.
So, counsel, could you please proceed?
Sure thing.
Give me one moment to get my exhibits up.
All right. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. By way of reminder, my client
is Haverford Square by Metropolitan 7, represented today by German Yakubov.
As Mr. Chairman mentioned, the case is before the board on remand from the Court of Common
Pleas. What I'd like to do is just give the board a brief progression in terms of procedure,
What I'd like to do is just give the board a brief progression in terms of procedure just to refresh your memory as to how this case is back before you today, and then I can once again refresh your memory as to some of the changed circumstances that have occurred since you heard this case quite some time ago at this point.
So as you might recall, the case was first heard by the board on July 24, 2024.
That hearing followed two rounds of civic design review meetings, where, in a fairly rare move, the project was entirely redesigned in response to the committee's feedback.
Unfortunately, at the time of the July 2024 hearing, there were some outstanding concerns which prevented the project from receiving support from the council office.
This board denied the requested relief.
An appeal to the Court of Common Pleas followed.
Even though the council office was not a direct party to the appeal, for over half a year until February 2025, my client continued to work directly with the councilwoman's office, seeking to address any outstanding concerns.
On February 19, 2025, and I will bring this up here, my client recorded a voluntary declaration of affordable housing covenants with the recorder of deeds that is of the same format of the declarations used by the law department.
My client voluntarily agreed to restrict 20% of the units, or 18 units, at 40% AMI, which would mimic the obligations imposed under the MIN overlay that became effective in this area just slightly too late to bind this particular project.
I did, as you can see, include a copy of that recorded declaration at new exhibit 21.