last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth i do um do you identify your client your relationship
to the property my client is riley denise llc the owner of the property and in the virtual
audience should be kevin matheson its member and um we now have a letter of support that came in a
little while ago from um the hestonville civic association that's correct okay all right um
And our vice chair, not vice chair, our board secretary has a few questions for you.
All right. Thank you.
Okay. Good afternoon, counsel. Did you submit your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
Okay. Then you can share your screen while I'm looking at your presentation.
All right. Thank you.
Hi, so, oops.
So here to present 1678 North 54th street.
So this is the structure that we're looking to build here.
It's a four-unit structure.
Actually, to the right of it, this board approved a similar type of structure, and that's the only structure on this 100 block of North 54th Street, and that was also a four-unit dwelling.
So, we mimicked, basically, what this board approved previously.
So, let me just stop.
Let me stop sharing my screens for a second.
I just want to get out of full-screen mode.
I have any problems here.
Let's try that again. Share screen.
All right. Good. Now better.
All right. So we have 11 exhibits here. We'll review those, which includes a letter of support from from the Hestonville Civic Association.
And again, at the conclusion of my presentation, I'll ask Kevin to virtually raise his hand
and be sworn in.
Refusal is twofold.
We're an RSA 5 property, pretty significant loss size of 1,564 square feet.
We have one refusal for the use of four unit dwelling, which is not out of character based
on surrounding area and previous approvals from this board.
And then the occupied area is a little bit larger than what's allowed where 75% is required
where we're at 90.7.
We want to put sizable units there.
You'll see they're all bi-level units.
We had a well-attended meeting of both the board of five board members or six board members
and three members of the community.
The community voted unanimously in support of this project.
Not out of character to have multifamily use here.
Again, 1614 North 54th Street is four units.
We have a couple other properties which are a little bit larger.
1620-22 North 54th Street is 11.
1616 North 54th Street is 12 units.
And 1618 North 54th Street is 12 units.
1612 North 54th Street is also five units.
And then from an aerial point of view,
this is the one building structure that's on this block here.
This is the one that the board previously granted as four units here.
We're catty corner from Lancaster Avenue.
And you can see there's a school across the street.
You can see while we're RSA 5,
we do have a mix of zoning classifications nearby.
by crush the streets are on one, not that we are on one, but if we were, this would be a project that could be built as a bright. We also have CMX 2 and I too. So there's definitely a mix of zoning classifications here.
And we're right off of Lancaster Avenue as well.
uh photographs of the property this in the front of the property you can see it's a vacant lot
you can see our orange notice posters and you know showing proof that we posted uh at least
21 days before the hearing date uh this is the block um in our property as of 2007 that's as
far as google street view goes you can see this has been a vacant lot for some time almost 20
years at least documented probably even more this is north 54th street to the right of the property
till left of the property. Our plans and drawings, and again, this is the building structure we're
looking to erect. This is the one that has been erected. You can see here, it's a three-story
structure. We're height of 30 feet, seven inches. How you get through this property is you walk
through the front door. There's unit number one, which is you have a kitchen area, a little dining
area a bathroom next to the bedroom you go down the flight of steps it's an open floor plan
and that's unit number one you go down this common hallway this is unit number two again kitchen
dining room area a little living room bathroom bedroom next to the bathroom you go down the
internal flight of steps again an open floor plan where the washer and dryers would be stored for
that unit and then this unit. Instead of these two units, you go up another flight of steps to
the second floor and you go into unit number three. You have an open floor plan. You have a
living room and open living room area. You go up a flight of steps. You have
an open living room area, you go up a flight of steps, you have a bathroom for each bedroom,
and you have a roof deck access as well. And you also notice, by the way, for the unit number two
that's on the first floor, the exit to the back is not through a bedroom. It's separate from that
to make it more functional. And then same thing for unit four here as unit number three. It's a
bi-level you know living room kitchen two bedrooms two baths the bathrooms are near the bedrooms and
they have a roof deck the upper floors have I believe ventilated trash closets but yes they do
and then and then the first floor also has front unit has a ventilated trash closet and then the
the back one in the rear on the first floor has access to the rear yard for trash storage.
We met with the community on September 30th at 6 p.m. We emailed that notice that we sent out
a week beforehand. We sent it to 69 addresses. These are the addresses, proof of mailing to
those addresses, our application for zoning variants, along with the notice refusal and
project information form the deed to the property showing that denise riley llc is the owner of the
property and then filing certificate of tax clearance i'm going to stop sharing my screen
temporarily i'm sure there may be some follow-up questions regarding the presentation materials
But I would ask that Mr. Matheson virtually raise his hand and be sworn in.
Chair counsel, you should be back in as a panel shortly.
Sure. Thank you.
Understood.
can you hear me we can please state your name is bell for the stenographer
kevin matheson m-a-t-h-i-s-e-n do you swear we're firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes counsel uh mr matherson you heard everything i had to state today about
your zoning matter yes is it true and correct yes and do you adopt as your own testimony yes thank
you questions from the board what did you say that the basement was being used for storage
it's just and yeah there's storage and there's also a washer and dryer down there okay because
I didn't I didn't notice any egress wells so yeah the intention is like so there's no not on your
plan so so it's just for storage and that's it that's correct all the questions questions from
attorney no questions oh actually uh did you provide tax compliance in your yeah it's the
last exhibit okay i just was looking at down at zero because i checked zero yeah i just want to
make sure it's on your exhibits okay thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands mr chair planning commission amy will be the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change in zoning at this location to the current rsa 5 residential single family
every residential property on the 1600 block of north 54th street is multi-family the proposed
density is consistent with other properties on the block however the appellant has not
demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of the property
that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the occupied area requirements of the zoning
code the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variance for four family
but deny the requested variance
for occupied area.
MI 2026-003-456-1678 North 54th Street.
I vote yes.
Uncle Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Excuse me.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Tyler White, my vote is yes.
Mr. Nockms, are you doing Cambridge Street?
I am, Mr. Chair.
I guess this morning we have several letters that have come in requesting a continuance for this case.
In conversations, what we're going to do is we're going to go on with the case, but then have a hearing hold.
And then, you know, you do what you have to do or a conversation with.
And then, you know, you do what you have to do or a conversation with.
I appreciate that.
And obviously I told the group too, that we would not ask for a vote.
Oh, that, that's, I appreciate that.
So there's two different letters.
So, so it's MI 2026 003 460 3807 Cambridge street.
Knackleson, just for the record, state your name.
Alan Knackleson.
Could you identify your client or relationship to the property?
uh same one as the one before riley denise llc and mr matheson is the uh representative
board secretary has a few questions uh good afternoon council um did you submit your
documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing yes we have and do you waive the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy i do then you can begin your presentation thank you
And I appreciate the opportunity to present this as and with the presumption as I told the community it's it's tough because, you know, if we have a continuance we're into 2027 so that helps.
um all right so i'm here to present 3807 cambria street so what's important is to keep it
contextual right forget about the variance this is a porch block that's three stories on this side
my client want to respect that architectural integrity of the block by mimicking this
architecture uh to respect you know that you know architecture within the community so we have 13
exhibits here uh which again one of them is a placeholder for because we don't have a letter
yet from the east parkside residential association we will obviously meet with them afterwards
answer any other questions or concerns they may have how many times have you met already
just once okay thank you uh we met with them last week so this is an rsa5 property we're asking for
two-family dwelling uh it has a significant loss size of 1235 square feet you'll see it was
previously used as a three family dwelling and there's many examples of surrounding properties
which have at least two family dwelling on it so property history again it's last known use
before the property the building structure was demolished was a three family dwelling
we are choosing the least modification possible in the philadelphia zoning code as an rsa5 property
we're not trying to mimic the history of this property as a three family dwelling we're seeking
as a two-family dwelling and we think it's appropriate under the circumstances the 2035
plan also states that this property should be deemed rm1 so we're almost also in conformance
with what the city planning commission believes the property should be from a zoning classification
standpoint and then we looked at other properties nearby and again these are illegal you know
Multi-family properties, 3805, which is next door to us, is a two-family dwelling.
3828 Cambridge Street is a two-family dwelling.
3827 Cambridge Street is a two-family dwelling.
3837 Cambridge Street is a two-family dwelling.
And then we're just off of Girard Avenue.
And, you know, there's a mix of zoning classification, whether it's RM1, that's on Girard Avenue, or RM1 and CMX2 on 38th Street.
So, again, not out of character, not only with the properties on Cambridge Street, which are all RSA5 properties that are multifamily, we're near multifamily as well, or mixed use zoning classifications.
And you can see it from here as well, not far from the zoo.
Photographs of the property.
Again, you can see, at least from these photographs, that this is a porch block and how we're mimicking the roof line here that will connect it.
And you'll see that from the rendering.
And it's three-story flat facade.
this is our proof of posting for today's hearing which was posted 21 days before today's hearing
date cambridge street to the right of the property again you can see here on our side
of the street these are three family three story structures roof with uh porches same thing here
these are two story structures with porches cambridge street to the left of the property
uh sample work product so mr matheson typically does he does both complete new construction and
adaptive reuse. But I wanted to show what he's done just generally in terms of trying to
revitalize properties that just need a little TLC here. So this is 1042 North 46th Street,
and then how he's very good about adaptive reuse of or cleaning up older properties. So these are
example interior photographs of properties. He really cares about his work product, as you can
city. And then our plans and drawings. Again, what's really important here is the roof lines
match. There's a cornice line, there's lentils, there's a porch that mimics the porch to the right
There's a cornice line. There's lintels. There's a porch that mimics the porch to the right of us.
of us.
In particular, even the architecture, you can see the roof lines are mimicking to 100%.
We are height-wise 36 feet, 7 inches, and we have a 10-foot rear yard.
Here is our floor plans. So you come in through the covered porch, come through the common
vestibule area. Unit number one, you make a left. You have an open floor plan of a living room
and a kitchen. As you can see, the outdoor area has a separate door. We're not going through a
bedroom. The bedroom on the first floor is right next to the bathroom. You go down. There's flex
space over here while there's a half bath and there's the common laundry room. Instead of unit
number one you go to unit number two up the flight of steps you have again same as the first floor
plan you have a living room kitchen you have a bathroom next to a bedroom you go up in an
internal staircase you have two bedrooms here both bedrooms are next to bathrooms and you have a
laundry room there's a ventilated trash closet right here for the second unit and then there
is a roof deck access structure we met with the community i believe it was last week october 1st
the only comment we had was you know afterwards i talked to the community leader mr brian harris
and he stated there was some concerns about lighting in the back and we said we'll deal
with that and but they you know they stated they still wanted to meet and what was in the back
lighting in the back okay yeah like there's like it's it's dark back there at common alley and we
said we would you know meet you know obviously with them if they want further you know comment
so we we mailed the community notice on September 18th 216 addresses these are the addresses we
sent to including proof of mailing to those addresses or application for zoning variance
notice of refusal project information form deed showing that Riley Denise LLC is the owner of the