Thank you.
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Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board
of Adjustment.
With me is our Board Vice Chair, Tenetta Graham.
Tenetta Graham.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Secretary, Sheila L. Gaston.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Board member Michael Johns.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Board member Ty O'Wynn.
She should be on any minute.
And our board member, Ryan McAdams.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is our board attorney, Hillary Emerson,
our zoning board executive director, Ian Haggerty,
and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
A recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA website.
By participating, you consent to be recorded.
This is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities.
Whether remote or in-person, if you're called to testify, you must state and spell your name and then wait to be sworn in.
Once you've been sworn in, please state your name each time before beginning your testimony.
Any person may enter an appearance.
You can identify the case property address on your Zoom webinar.
You can see a staff member or you can call the ZBA appearance line by the close of business tomorrow.
call 267-270-5548. Leave a message that includes your email address.
270-5548 leave a message that includes your email address and the address for the property of the
appeal case the following guidance is for remote attendees when directed you must raise your
virtual hand in order to be recognized to speak if you're called to testify you'll be prompted
to join as a panelist please accept the request and turn on your camera the webinar q a is for
questions about the hearing do not comment on cases in the q a and if you're participating
by phone press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute for in-person attendees
please refrain from talking eating or drinking during the hearings verbal and physical aggression
will not be tolerated restrooms are across from the elevators a water fountain is just outside
the room to the right restrooms are across from the elevators a water fountain is just outside
the room to the right when speaking on the record you must speak directly into the microphone in
order to be heard by all attendees in the court reporter in the event of an emergency please
follow the directions given over the public address system or by the staff the main exit is
through the double doors at the rear of the room the nearest stairwell is to the left outside the
doors in case of an evacuation at rally point is love park directly across from archery please
remain there so we can account for you let's look at our schedule for today
number two
number two mi 2025 001 462 2245 north 17th street that case is continued until june 9th 2026
at 9 30 a.m. number three MI 2025 004 101 59 44 Cala Hill Street that case is
continued until June 9th 2026 at 9 30 a.m. number six
number six mi 2025 006 729 4255 main street that case is continued to 9 30 20 26 at 9 30 a.m
And number eight, MI-2026-001-452-114 North Beachwood Street.
That case is continued until June 9th, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.
Any other requests for continuance?
We're going to start with number five.
Chair, I'm sorry, we have one hand raised from Vern Anastasio.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Good morning, Vern.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing about the truth?
I certainly do.
And could you spell your name for the stenographer?
It's Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, on behalf of Mr. Rudy Tafani.
Okay, sure.
That's number two.
I already continued that.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I didn't hear it.
No, that's good.
I knew that you wanted to continue, so I continue that until June 9, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.
Thank you very much.
Have a good day.
All right.
Any other requests for continuance?
No hands at the sign, Chair.
Number five, MI2025-005-345-6040 Edmond Street, Savivian Rodriguez is the owner applicant.
This is a resumptive hearing.
could that person please raise their hand
no hands at this time chair
Wait a minute, our council just gave me a...
So, Mr. Chair, Mr. Rodriguez is trying, is having problems getting on the Zoom, so we're working.
Mr. Chair, Mr. Rodriguez is trying, is having problems getting on the Zoom, so we're working
with him on that. You could call the next case and we'll come back to him. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay.
Number, number seven, MI 2026-000-483-6302 Gerrard Avenue. Joseph Consol is the attorney.
they're being promoted to panels he's here good morning
mr counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yeah it's uh joseph console j-o-s-e-p-h last name console c-o-n-s-o-l-e do you swear or firm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
their relationship to the property yes it's uh donald votopecia and he is the owner of the
property and sitting right next to me and um uh we have a recommendation of support from h
hmc squared rco our vice chair has a few questions sure good morning have you submitted
your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes and do you waive the read
another refusal to stipulate to its accuracy okay thank you you can show your screen proceed with
your case we're up uh 6203 west gerard avenue i've got the owner of the property mr donald
votapia with me um in the room and um we're here because this property is located in rsa
5 residential district we're seeking approval to permit uh a multi-family three residential
unit use in this space. This is a fairly straightforward revitalization project.
This property, as far as my client knows and as far as the RCO knows, has been vacant and
dilapidated for over a decade. And my client's goal is to rehabilitate the property into three
units. Now, that's not to say that it previously was not a multifamily property. The previous
approvals for the property going back to the 1960s were two families, a two-family dwelling
on the second floor and a large plumbing office storage of equipment space on the first floor.
No one at the RCO really knew exactly what all went on there, but the use registration,
that's that's what it states uh the two-unit rental license that existed on the property
became an active in december 22nd of 2012 and that's kind of when we peg uh the property for
having gone um derelict proof of mailing
uh just a message from my client give you some photos so the first floor
you'll see is the old plumbing space. The property takes up both the, you know, sort of building
you're looking at here, but also the one on the left on the screen too. So it's a double wide
property, which I'll show you the full scope in a minute. These are just my posters.
So that kind of gives you the full scope of what the property looks like. It's both of those,
You know, for lack of a better term buildings on the right is the entrance to what would get you upstairs to the two units.
There's an entrance to the first floor there.
There's also an entrance around the side through what is kind of like a drive aisle underneath the bump out on lookers left where that gate is now.
it probably looks like on the side
the other side of the building if you're looking um from the inside to where that gate is
uh you can see that there is an entrance to the units on the left there uh the one of the units
above bumps out above and you know as far as we can tell that was a way for them to deliver things
at one point during its career as a plumbing whatever it was meters in the basement
showing what the interior of the property looks like now
plan I'll get to the plans in a second as mentioned we went in front of the RCO last week
they were very receptive to rehabilitating this property uh this part of west gerard avenue is
sort of uh mismatched there's a little bit of this uh a little bit of that it's not by any means
um i don't think there's any single family homes anywhere nearby it's a lot of different uses
uses, multifamily, automotive, things like that. In addition to the support of the RCO, my client
multifamily, automotive, things like that.
has gotten the support by going door to door and meeting a lot of the local neighbors,
property owners, business owners, and has provided petitions of support for the rehab of this
property here's our plans start with the first floor it's going to be three one-bedroom units
so there's one on the first floor as mentioned and then on the right you can see the
second floor which mimics the previously approved units sorry i can't get a great shot
uh and incidentally it's my client's goal to um live in this property along with a member
of his family and then a third renter as well I'm sorry yes can we make this a little bigger
yeah thank you tell me where you want it my zoom was kind of like put me all over the place
that works okay
We can go slowly go down.
That's sort of the bulk of my presentation.
We believe rehabilitating the space into a space that was three units, albeit one of them commercial, makes sense. And my client is going to live there and make the property nice.
Could you bring your client on, please?
Yes. With that, I'll call Donald Vodepia to adopt my testimony.
Good morning, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good morning. My name is Don Vodopilla, full name spelled D-O-N-A-L-D, last name V-O-D-O-P-I-J-H.
Is fair or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Counsel?
Good morning, Don. Did you hear my testimony just now regarding your property at 6203 West
Gerard Avenue?
Do you agree with what I said, and do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, everything is true.
Questions from the board.
Yeah, I have a couple questions.
So what's what's the use for of the what was, I guess, the vehicular access out aisle.
So so so it's going to be a garage in the back.
Yes, the plan is to just keep it as a garage.
We don't have permitting for parking at the current moment.
We explained to the RCO that we plan to have our trash there as well to avoid it from being on the street side and, you know, overflowing with trash.
So as of now, we'll just use it as a space, use the garage and have the trash and everything on the side of the aisle.
OK, so so will the will the garage be used for the tenants or is that just for your use or how does that work?
It's my uncle's going to be living there. I plan to live there as well.
So probably just storage for myself. And if a tenant wants to store something there.
Is that first floor unit still going to retain some access to that side from the unit or no?
Oh, yes, sir.
So right there you'll see is a back door.
You can both go in.
You have access and egress for the first floor as well as the second floor from that back door exit there.
Okay, because I'm looking at the plan, but the plan, I see it on the picture, but I don't see it on your floor plan.
where is that door on your floor plan so if you look on the left hand side you see where the
the stairs yeah uh there leads to that door to go out isn't that the first floor though yes
there's no door there i mean it's not on your plan or is that the door is that the access to
the basement that yeah so that's the access to the basement my mistake my mistake i'm
looking at it the wrong way. Is there a side entrance through? The side entrance goes up
and then there's a door that can lead you in. So there's a two-way door when you go through
that side there. Yeah, I think the plan is just off because- Yeah, the plan may be off a little
bit. Yeah, because your second floor plan shows that where it says unit three, it shows a stairwell
that I'm assuming is going down to that door.
that i'm assuming is going down to that door correct it's just something something's just
Correct.
It's just something.
off okay so so the first floor will have access to that side correct that is correct all right
and okay all right there's two means of egress yeah egress and access so from the first floor
you can get in through the front entrance and then you can also get through that back door so that
back door has a two-way door one to go up and then one to go to the side i think the architect might
have missed that. Something something's a little off because there's a bedroom there and then it's
a bathroom. So, so, okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? So the tenants will have
all tenants that have access to the trash receptacles and stuff like you said you're
going to put it all in the back. Yes, right there on that side path through we're going to have our
trash lined up there to avoid being on the street because that's one of the complaints we got from
the community um the overloading of trash and stuff like that in the air thank you
questions from our attorney hillary emerson um just one note mr consul the the zoning history
that you showed i didn't see that submitted anywhere so if you could just um submit that
if you'd like it included for the record oh bye tomorrow the atlas history the yes the atlas
history that the um the permit application that you showed with the plumbing office and the two
um the the permit for two units yes the rental license yes thank you
questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience no hands at this time
planning commission