Andrea Solomon is the attorney
i can't we're sorry we uh kept you here as long as we have and um could you please state your
name and spell it for the stenographer that's okay chairman it's even though it's dark it's
still the afternoon andrea solomon a-n-d-r-e-a s-a-l-o-m-o-n right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client in
relationship to the property yes my client is the owner of the property philadelphia suburban
development corporation with me today is john peruto the vice president and our we have a
letter of support from swamp poodle neighborhood parcels association and also a letter non-opposition
from council member young our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted
your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes with the exception of the
letters of support. We received the letter of support from Swampoodle today, and the coordinating
RCO actually submitted their letter to us, also a letter of support, on Monday, late Monday night.
I didn't hear that as part of the, what Chairman Bergman stated you received, but I have it as part
of our exhibit package. Okay, okay, and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? Yes. Okay, thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
okay um this application is for the establishment of a unity of use of two abutting lots uh 1412
to 22 west lehigh ave and 1424 to 40 west lehigh ave and a special exception approval for the use
the proposed use is non-accessory parking for 70 spaces as we discussed we received a letter of
support from the swamp poodle neighborhood parcels association it is in support they requested three
provisos which i can go through quickly but there won't be any trash and recycling stored within
the property there will be maintenance done periodically but nothing will be stored there
there's also no bicycle parking as part of this proposal
and the landscaping is already provided for and in conformance with the code
we also received a letter of support
from the all in the family group they also had a proviso that we did discuss security
from the all in the family group um they also had
issues at the community meeting they requested we implement security cameras those are not part of
what is planned they're not part of the zoning nor we think enforceable but the property owners
also own the parking lot across the street there have not been any security concerns and
as we'll testify this parking is only daytime parking it'll be um operated and if the security
concerns come up uh it will be reassessed but at this time no security cameras will be part of it
uh the lot is split zoned most primarily cmx2 that's why we require the special exception
approval for the non-accessory parking this is an aerial image of the site the two lots are
currently vacant and so we'll just be bringing them to a better higher use with the proposed
parking which is also a critical concern and parking availability was something that
the RCO agreed is needed in this neighborhood existing photos of the of the two lots
this is from lehigh avenue and this one is from 15th street
this is the proposed plans i'll try to zoom in here
70 spaces including the required ada spaces
this is the circulation plan
and the landscaping plan which has been approved by planning
as i mentioned the referral letter we're seeking the special exception for the parking
and we have as part of the exhibit package the application for appeal the project information
form, the RCO notice and certificate of mailing, the notice and the posting photos on all street
frontages of the two lots the ownership documentation
and proof of no outstanding taxes these are the ones that are due for 2026 which
haven't come due yet um with that i'll ask that john b sworn in come on up when they come up
could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
john peruto j-o-h-n-p-e-r-u-t-o do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do counsel john you saw my presentation in its entirety
and it's true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes it is
and do you adopt it as your own testimony yes i do thank you questions from the board
yes is this utilizing an existing curb cut to allow cars to turn in and park that let me
move to the plans but it did go through streets already and i do believe it's existing curb cuts
is that correct it is i don't think we changed anything yeah yeah there's the existing curb cut
on 15th street and
can we do something for you a couple years ago it's a gas coffee shop it was a starbucks
starbucks right is that there now no starbucks unfortunately yeah i remember doing that you
starbucks right there is that right okay and then i think my follow-up question is i know
you said that it's no overnight parking is the intent that this is going to be like a parking
ride. Cause I know that you do have the regional rail and you have the Amtrak stations, not too
far from there or. No, this is actually private parking for our commercial office and social
service tenants in our existing buildings nearby. Okay. The building across the street
yours too, right? Correct. Well, um, the one catty corner, catty corner. Yes. Yes. The
the plan it doesn't look like there's
anything barring people
from parking here when your office is closed
well the gates will be locked
gates will be locked at night
all my questions
is there any landscaping
okay is there any uh landscaping uh any kind of beautification plan for the area
or any kind of beautification plan for the area
yes those are part of the exhibit package and uh they were approved by the by planning already
so that includes the dry vials and the correct okay and what did you say this was supposed to be
this parking was for again for commercial office and social service tenants that we
have in our office building caddy corner to the property okay all right and 70 spaces correct
okay thank you questions from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions from the virtual audience
see no hands share planning commission sorry i did have one comment um if your exhibit packet
that you showed was updated from what we
have most recently in the upload tool so if you could
please upload
what you showed the board today by close
business tomorrow that would be greatly sure to include
the letters of support right yes
thank you very much
planning commission
Amy Boyd with the
planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends
a change in zoning at this location
from the current CMX2 commercial
mixed use to CMX3
the proposed use is allowed under special
exception in the current and recommended zoning districts. The appellant has shown that the
proposed use will not cause detrimental impacts beyond what would reasonably be expected.
The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the requested special exception for
non-accessory parking. Thank you. MI-2025-004-696-1412-22 West Lehigh Avenue. I vote yes.
Michael Johns. My vote is yes. Cheryl Gaston. My vote is yes. Tanetta Graham. My vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Ellen, my vote is yes.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, everyone.
All right.
All right.
All right.
What do you do, Ellen?
Are you okay?
Do one more.
I know we'll take a break.
All right.
Ellen?
We'll do one more.
Thank you.
so mi 2025 004 427 9231 convent street alan knockamson is the attorney there's a letter of
non-opposition no position from northeast community civic alliance also the applicant
has three forms of letters, two from neighbors to the block.
Could you, just for the record, state
your name, because you've already been sworn. You were here a long time this morning.
Oh, no, it was the afternoon. I'm sorry. It feels like it was the morning. Okay.
Alan Ockamson. Mr. Ockamson, could
you identify your client, their relationship to this property? My left is
Eberton Garcia. Okay. Our
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon.
Have you mailed your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I've downloaded them.
I was like, I'm going to go old school.
And do you waive the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
All right, thank you.
You can proceed with your case.
Thank you.
All right, let's do this.
Let's see.
I will try to make it as brief as possible.
oh okay look at that we're staring at alan there i know that i i jumped i hit the wrong button
all right um here we go uh so this is my client uh everton uh he's not a developer
this is his home he uh got building permits you know for this he got a co he um and we'll
go through the presentation he put like basically a trellis on the top here I'll just go show you
the picture let's see here's a picture where's the trellis picture I feel like oh here is what
he did or what he wanted to do and when he was getting his co the inspector was like well I'm
going to give you the seal for all your permits you really need to go back and supplement this
because this is going to require an additional permit so that's how we got here today let me
just go now starting forward let me backwards to just our you know the refusal so the refusal is
this because it's considered a roof like there's a setback requirement and the setback requirement
is 25 feet we propose four feet we have updated our drawing since then uh to kind of set back
or give more depth to uh you know that trellis where it's now i believe 17.
to that trellis, where it's now, I believe, 17 feet of a setback.
So much closer to our house, further away to neighbors.
My understanding is that the people behind me are the neighbors to left and right
who are supportive of this project.
There are some issues with the people in the back,
but again, I think they have more issues in terms of the deck itself,
which is legal as of right.
So we met with the community.
they originally my office said there was a letter of non-opposition when i read it was a letter of
no position so i just wanted to be accurate but it was so i would say to mr goldberg i asked him
so how how the meeting go and he said well pretty much it was good people rose to raise their hands
in support i think the letter does not accurately state that there were more people that raised
their hands in support than they were not in uh support um again really the people who were not
in support with the people in the back and i think they had more concerns with just the deck in
general which is legal under the code and the code provision here and actually probably should he i
printed it out i don't actually have the code provision like the actual citation but i i printed
out the page it should have the whole section but it is legal at least according to what we reviewed
So, again, in response to what the people behind us, not behind me, those people in support, but behind us physically had issues with just the trellis essentially going too close to their property line, we agreed that we were going to make the setback even further, which, again, we didn't have to, but we want to show that at least we're trying to make a compromise here.
So if the board feels so inclined to grant the variance request, the setback would go from 4 feet from the rear to 17 feet from the rear, which, again, goes closer to the conformity of the code.
Let's see.
Another thing to note is that we have letters of support from these two neighbors physically behind me right now.
um i did provide the zoning permit showing that what we did this renovation was all legal and i
also took a screenshot this morning to show like and i assume the word complete means that they're
closed out and complete you know so you have a zoning permit a building permit a plumbing permit
of some mechanical fuel gas permit and electrical permit all closed out legally again it was a
surprise you know to um everton you know that he needed a permit for the trellis and that's what
we're trying to do here today and then aerial views of the property so again we're required
to have a setback of 25 feet the people that behind us i was like well they look a little
bit close to us so i know the code is constantly changing it's organic they're they're this is
their setback 16.3 feet 22.41 21.8 so they're non-conforming properties too you know we are
conforming in in this uh in this you know right now our building structure in our deck we're just
adding that trellis which is considered a roof according to the philadelphia zoning code and
then maps of the area we're single family house he's living there and then photographs of the
property proof of posting uh cup convent which i get from google street view to the right of
the property to the left of the property and then um i i'll ask uh everton if this is current photos
or not so we'll find out um but again this deck is legal because it's the same height as the first
floor that makes it legal because i had a question i was like wow that's pretty close you know to the
the fence now the other thing about the fence is that everton actually put the fence within his
property line he didn't put it at the property line so this fence is five feet closer to his
property line. So he conceded five feet away. So just put that in perspective. And this is the
revised drawings, which shows, again, we're going to be seven, we're going to have a rear yard setback
of 17 feet. And I don't know if there's anything that's worthwhile here. Oh, this is basically
showing that how we put our fence five feet into our property so just you know again it was
important to kind of give some breathing room also for us in a way
now rco meeting notice proof of mailing of that notice our application for appeal
deeds of property showing that everton owns it and certificate of tax clearance with that being
said i would just ask that everton be sworn in i am could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer it's everton garcia e is an echo w is whiskey is an echo r is romeo t is a
E is an echo, W is whiskey, E is an echo, R is Romeo, T is a tangle, O is an Oscar, N is November, G is golf, A is an alpha, R is Romeo, C is a Charlie, I is India, A is an alpha.
Tango was an awesome.