Our application for appeal, again, IRA development, LLC is the owner of their property.
I have a representative, but this is a Kumas Homes development.
Our notice of refusal that we filed with our application for appeal, along with our project information form, our deed to the property, showing that IRA development is the owner of the property, and our certificate of tax clearance.
That being said, I am going to share my screen. I would like Mr. Eze to virtually raise his hand and adopt my testimony. And then I'd be more than happy to take any questions from the board.
I don't know how to speak.
Thank you very much.
Hi, state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter.
yep sure thing it's you find chukweza it's spelled i-f-e-a-n-y-i-c-h-u-k-w-u last name e-z-e
hello yeah can you hear me i we didn't hear the last name oh last name e-z-e okay thank you
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Counsel?
Yeah, Mr. Eze, you heard everything I stated today.
And is it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
see no hands mr chair planning commission thank you mr chairman members of the board
david effecto city planning commission in 2017 the zoning maps were changed during a community
requested zoning change the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single
family zoning that resulted from this process there is no unique physical condition of this
1,780 square foot lot that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
So the city planning commission recommends that
So the City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the use variants for three dwelling units.
Thank you.
MI 2021-003233, 622 North Shedwick Street, I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Heidelman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you thank you thank you have a great night day is there
anyone in the virtual audience that case has not been heard in the two o'clock listings since the
two o'clock listings i see no hands mr okay so we're going to take a five minute break so that
our court reporter can stretch a little bit and, you know, fix any supplies he needs. Okay. So in
five minutes, we'll be back and we'll, we'll get the afternoon, the last one done. Okay. Thank you
everybody. Yes, sir. We're reporting now. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman
and I will be chairing this afternoon's meeting
of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is Carol Tenere, our Vice Chair.
Present.
Ismael Shahid, our Board Secretary.
Present, Mr. Chair.
Thomas Holliman, our Board Member.
James Snell, our Board Member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our executive director, Tanya Sunkett, is here, and also our attorney, Sherman Toppin.
Our virtual format, be advised these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting our executive director, Tanya Sunkett, at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we asked attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and also the address of the property in question.
Please note the question and answer box on the screen is not for testimony or comments.
Any comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkett.
Now, let's look at continuances for this afternoon.
I have listed one continuance, number four, MI 2021-003-955-407 West Cayuga Street.
Anyone with comments relative to that, please, in the virtual audience, please let us know.
Mr. Chair, I've got Mr. Harry Cook with his hand raised. I can allow him to speak at this time if you wish.
Mr. Chair, Harry Cook, I apologize. I have two additional continuances, but you hadn't requested that yet. I prematurely raised my hand.
okay um what are the what are your contingencies sir 2030 carlisle street
we have to take revised plans back to the rco
and uh 425 wildy street um that is vernon astasio's case he had a family medical emergency
and will not be able to present it today. Okay, so I've already talked number four,
MI 2021-004-664-2030 North Carlisle Street will be continued, and MI 2021-003963-425-31 East
while the street will be continued does anyone have any comments or statements relative to those
um mr joseph oh okay never mind i don't see any further hands for those
mr chair do we have any other requests for continuances
okay no number one number one mi 2021 003 906 1008 addison street rco letter in support with
proviso councilman squill in support with proviso
Councilman Squillet in support with Proviso.
Reed Boynton and Marjorie Miller.
I promoted Mr. Boynton to the panelist, sir.
Hi, Reed.
Hi, Mr. Boynton, could you state your name
and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Sure, this is Reed Boyden, R-E-E-D-B-O-Y-D-E-N.
Right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, have you emailed the exhibit packet
with the required documents consisting of proof of ownership,
tax compliance, refusal or referral,
photos under plans of the property
and have you met with your RCO?
and do you have a letter?
Yes, for the first two.
And for the third, what letter do you mean?
A letter from the RCO that you should have met with.
Okay, you may proceed.
Thank you.
Sure, let me share my screen.
okay are you able to see my screen yes and we really like what we're looking
definitely not filled up i wish i was there now
all right it keeps asking me to share my video here we go
okay so i haven't done this before so i'm not sure exactly what you're looking for should i
just run through what the project is what do you run through what run for what you have okay sure
so the project is at 1008 addison street um to give you an idea of where this is we're located
between 10th and 11th street between lombard and waverly so it's a kind of a side alley off
the side alley and we're at the dead end of that said side alley recently we added a third story
addition to the house with an external deck. You can actually see it out the window here.
And I'll show you some photos to give you an idea.
This is the front of the house. You can see the new parapet wall that we added towards the top
of the picture, which is encasing the new rooftop deck. And if you jump up to the addition that we
this is the inside of third-story addition and a couple photos.
Then for the outside of the addition there's a rooftop deck. This is the accessible end of the
rooftop deck and you can see a white railing towards the far end which is blocking off the
five foot setback which is what our exemption request is about. So let me just jump through a
a couple photos, give you an idea of what it looks like.
Again, this is probably a better vantage point
of the five foot setback.
The railing is blocking it off currently.
We are requesting the railing to be removed
and we can use the first five feet.
okay and that's probably all the pictures that matter
for the refusal here's the refusal we are asking for the actually I guess I gotta read through
this our actual application was for the erection of a roof deck above the previously approved
addition and for the increase in size of the previously approved roof deck so that's the
five foot setback that we would like exception from that code and we would also like to build
if possible build a staircase up to the second level that was also built into the same zoning
permit that we applied for but the exception is just for the five foot setback
here's the application for appeal i don't know if i have to scroll through this or not or just
show you that i have it we also have the project information form filled out and shared
the deed
and i needed a notarization letter because there's a co-owner for the house my girlfriend
was not able to join us today, so she had a notarized letter sent over for me.
Certificate of Tax Compliance.
And I don't know if I have to show you this either, but the postings that we had out front
And I don't know if I have to show you this either, but...
of the house, on the front of the house, took photos of that for the past three weeks, just
once every week.
Property photos I just showed.
This might actually be helpful too.
So to give you an idea of the second level roof deck that we would like to add in addition to the five foot setback variance that we're requesting, you can see up at the top here, the third story addition is what we already built.
What we would like to add is also a roof access staircase within the five foot setback and then add a railing around the top of the addition to make it a roof deck.
and to show that from the other side
again this part with the windows and the door is already there we're just adding the staircase
off to the right side and the roof deck railing around the top
Mr. Boyd and why Mr. Boyd put that back up please sure so while you have that up
explain the proviso that the community group and the councilman want relative to the top tell me
what explain on the map what that is sure so uh is that the letter that they sent out yesterday
yep so what they were saying is the so the this five foot setback is to the right which is the
north side of the building and they were saying that they would they they approve that area to
be used, but they don't want it to be used for a staircase to access the rooftop. In their
proviso, I think they misspoke. They said the southern end of the building, but really it's
the north end of the building. So the five foot setback and some of the neighbors brought up on
the call that they didn't like the addition that I added and didn't want me to be adding anything
else which turned into them not wanting a staircase to be built in the five-foot setback
so the proviso is you can't their their proviso the community and councilman is you can't build
the staircase the yes within the five-foot setback but i i it's my understanding that
i could build the staircase on another portion of the deck to access the roof which i'm not sure my
neighbors understood i think they were just trying to shut everything down but if if i'm able to add
a staircase i don't think that they would have an issue in the placement of the stairs and i think
i think they were real clear it was the five foot area they didn't want it right i think that's what
the people organizing the call understood it to be but we didn't have time to explore it in the
call because we were way over and they kind of cut my time short so we didn't actually get to
discuss that point but they said that the organizers said that they would reach out to
legal counsel to see if they would be able to to do that say say that i can use it for
accessing their five feet but not for a staircase right but there was no follow-up at least with me
on that point okay
okay chairman have you seen this proviso
yes yes mr chair i have seen the proviso and and i think that explanation does provide
some understanding especially the southern and northern aspect of it the question would be they
won't they don't want to stares on that northern part right yes and i'm i'm thinking that's and i
don't want to read into what could have been the reasoning. Perhaps there are safety concerns
with that staircase as it moves upward. I don't see in the plans exactly what the exterior or
the northernmost protections would be accessing the top portion, but the applicant has mentioned
that he feels that there would be no objection to that staircase being placed within other
places on the roof deck um and that hasn't been really we've got no information from the council
or from the councilman's office so i may want to reiterate that just to make it more clear
so the my neighbors that spoke up on the neighborhood call didn't want me to add
another level at all and they thought that this was a way to get that shut down um and i think
the people organizing meant or thought that they meant that they didn't want a staircase in the
five-foot setback but the neighbors that were speaking didn't they don't want a staircase put
But the neighbors that were speaking, they don't want a staircase put up at all, and they don't want a fourth story roof deck added.
up at all and they don't want a fourth
I don't think the placement of the stairs was of concern to them.
Did that help or confuse you more?
Hi, Chair, this is Tanya.
Yep, Tanya.
I was just thinking if you would like, as your call, to hold the vote for discussion and then vote next Wednesday.
Totally. So we could let, let, let, you know what we'll do time.
Let's go through first. Does any other board members have a question?
No, Mr. Chair. No, Mr. Chair.
No, Mr. Chair. Is there anyone in the virtual audience has a question?
I see no answer, Mr. Chair. Okay.
So Tom, here's what we'll do is we'll,