It may need to be stepped back.
And then on retaining walls, there are more retaining wall or higher retaining walls are required with the buildings pulled to the front of the property than with the buildings set back from the property. Correct? Yes. I have no further questions. Any questions? Yeah, just briefly. Mr. Dollar, you just gave some discussion of some difficulties and challenges of this project and dealing with two parking spaces rather than one.
um did you investigate doing this property with no parking spaces wouldn't that make it easier
no it would not make it easier um ultimately it makes it financially infeasible i didn't ask
financially i asked about building the property because you didn't discuss finances just now
uh we we spent very limited time looking into that because ultimately the owner said
it is financially infeasible to do this exercise is and and what is your professional quality
designation he's an engineer architect sorry it's no architect oh you're an architect
is there a reason as an architect that this project couldn't be done without parking
because it's financially infeasible just finance is that just the financial reason
well that i mean trying we excavating of the bedrock creating new retaining walls extending
the street all all of it forgive me for cutting out why do you have could you do this project
with no parking as an architect i i suppose there is always the design question thank you
I'm going to ask one follow-up question. I'm sorry. I'm just asking one question. Alex,
when you pull the property to the front versus having it set back where it is,
what happens to the first two levels as far as being under grade or above grade,
when you pull it to the front versus having to leave it where it is?
So the houses get deeper into the hill. So the rear of the properties,
um in when we pull it up in our section the entire garage level is underground um and then
the second story of the house is actually partially underground when it is pulled to the
front um whereas when we build it kind of up on top of the hill the living level is completely
under or above grade and we have less excavation for the parking level and the parking level
is ultimately more open so you have more parking level with the you know or a ground for level
could be a cellar right it doesn't have to be parking you have more cellar with it set back
than you do with it pulled in the front then plus the primary common living area is underground
with the when it's pulled to the front at least partially underground where it's not with a
setback option correct yes thank you okay um council any other questions all right your time's
out okay we're gonna have to give this a resumptive hearing and tell me now how many client how many
people do you have that i'm just gonna have my client come on to first adopt my status next time
right next time and then only is he just regarding the information he provided to these and how long
do you think that'll take? It literally could take five or 10 minutes. Okay, good. I'm going
to have to continue this to June 9th, 2026 at 9 30 a.m. And I want to apologize to people in
the audience. We tried to get more done and we just didn't do it. Not in an open audience. No,
no, not now. Oh, you know, you can get a hold of the, yeah, here you go. Here you go. There you go.
All right. Obviously it's not to my client's benefit that I keep this dragging on because
he's paying money on this property all right june 9 2026 at 9 38. okay this is not thank you both
we're not benefiting from dragging this hand david state thanks yes thanks i need to change my seat
i think thanks again yes thank you good job yeah yeah yeah yeah well no i figured everybody was
here so i needed to come show up i didn't we're gonna we're gonna have to get i realized that i'm
always i'm always looking for all right should i stay here do i need to move over there it doesn't
matter. Okay. All right. Um, am I 2026 00145
MI 2026-001-455, Leonard Reuter, Alan Nockamson, and David Orphanides.
yeah now my understanding today that this is strictly timing am i correct that is correct
mr share you understand david strictly time just timeliness yeah all right so
So, Mr. Orphanides, just state your name for the record.
Certainly.
My name is David Orphanides.
The last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
You already have sworn.
Mr. Nockamson, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And Mr. Reuter, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Thank you.
May it please the board, Leonard F. Reuter, R-E-U-T-E-R, Senior Attorney for the City of Philadelphia.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
All right.
Thank you.
So there'll be a presentation of the appellant on timeliness.
There will be, the city will go next after that.
And also, Mr. Nockamson will make a presentation by the permit.
Okay. All right. So just real quick housekeeping. Are we getting into actual notice as well as constructive or are we just getting into constructive notice?
So, I read Mr. Orfanini's email after business hours last night. This is my position. We admit that we did not properly post the property, not intentionally, but ultimately it's your client's burden to show when they knew about the zoning permit and their burden is to show then they filed the notice of appeal within that 30-day period.
We will also present evidence to challenge that actual notice, but also we'll present evidence when they should have known.
That's the constructive notice portion of the analysis.
And I understand, Leonard, you'll take a position.
Yes, thank you.
The city isn't taking a position.
Well, at this point, we don't have to take any position on posting because they're admitting that it wasn't posted.
With respect to constructive notice, the city will reserve the right to ask questions to examine or cross-examine,
but that's it right right now now listen yeah 45 minutes and i'm going to cut it we have l and i
review coming in here and and we got to get this done certainly and when i say 45 minutes david i
don't mean you take 45 minutes no no i understand i mean well that's what happened the last time
you know you know so i got through two why don't we go please okay thanks all right um i'm going
to start with my uh with christina chris do what's that i can start right i'm just i'm just going to
get into it i'm gonna call my client i called my call my one of my clients christina i'm calling
christina christie okay would she be under richard kramer a creamer they're probably together yeah
okay all right we live together which again all right so we'll promote he had he had raised his
hand so we'll promote him
good morning good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes christina last name christy spelled c-h-r-i-s-t-i-n-a last name is christy spelled c-h-r-i-s-t-o-u
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Yes. Please proceed, counsel, Kim. Christina, you filed the appeal in this instant matter,
correct? Yes. Okay. And did you file it with anybody's assistance? Yes. Whose assistance
did you file? My husband, Richard. Okay. And Richard lives with you? Yes. And you both live
at what address? 7015 Ardley Street, Philadelphia. Okay. And how long have you lived at that
property about 16 years okay and do you own the property together yes we do okay all right and
have you owned the property together that whole time yes okay and i pulled up on the screen um
an aerial photograph that uh does that depict the um the proximity of your property 715
ardley street to uh the property at 69 30 ardley yes okay and um do you
yes okay and um do you do you pass by 6930 ardley street um on a regular basis yes i do
all right and uh how do you do that how do you pass by on foot in the car mostly by car but also
on foot okay and how often do you would you say from september of 2025 through to the present
did you do you pass through the property i would say by not through the property by the property
sorry yeah i mean depending on the time of year um but definitely from september to december at
least once a week um i would pass by um by car and um probably by foot i would say a few times
a week and then after like december time probably you know like once every other day by car okay
and then do you pass by on the sedgwick street and the ardley street side one or the other both
both both about the same amount on both or it differs yep okay about the same all right so
So just real quickly, and I wasn't sure if it was what Mr. Nackamson was fully saying
what I'm going to ask, but have you ever seen a zoning permit posted at this property?
No, until last week on Thursday, April 2nd.
And what happened last Thursday?
um coincidentally i was driving down the street and i saw a notice being erected on the corner
of the property now i have a photo up on my screen right now this is exhibit g1d um is that what
you're talking about that is yes okay and was it and so some permits or some pieces of paper
were on the board in this pictures is that what you're referencing on that board that the gentleman
with the maroon shirt standing behind yes and was there more than one of those or just one of those
just one just one okay and is it located on which side of the property is it located on
well it's on the corner so it it's like on the corner of ardley and sedgwick okay and at that
so you what did you last week did you go over and take a look i took a peek yeah okay and what and
what's on the board um i mean it's just zoning notice building just i i didn't fully read it i
was um just just kind of skimmed through it but yeah it was like a zoning notice okay now
Now, so my next question is, I'm going to cut to the chase.
When was the first time that you learned that a zoning permit,
so if you didn't see it at the property until something maybe last week,
when did you learn about a zoning permit that you then filed an appeal
at the end of December regarding?
When did you learn about that zoning permit?
I first learned about the zoning permit back in December of 2025.
and and when do you know the date and what was the occasion how you came to learn about it
december 15th and both me and richard were on a call with the iman which is a east mount airy
community meeting and that was a meeting that um was discussing a initially what we thought a
proposal for the the planning but we came to find out about an actual zoning permit had been issued
so so just to be clear so you you attended this meet why did you how did you find out about this
meeting um we found out about this meeting through one of the neighbors because a neighbor had
brought up that there was a proposal being a proposal for the duplex to be transformed into
multiple units okay and that's why you then attended this meeting yes we wanted to find
out more about the proposal and the plans and and what you using the word proposal so the person
that told you about the meeting didn't say anything that a zoning permit was issued correct
that's correct all right and so you attended the meeting i'm sorry do you tend to meeting
in person or remotely it was remote okay it was all remote yes okay and you attend who was
who was with you with you was richard was with me okay now um did you have um
now um did you have um do you have any reason to believe did you have any reason to believe
before december 15th at the iman meeting when you learned that a zoning permit had been issued
that a zoning permit had been approved and had been issued by the department of licenses
inspections any reason before december 15th to believe that to be the case no okay um
can you how how did it come up at the meeting that it was that a zoning permit do you recall
um there was a lot of chatter about the um the actual proposal and the proposed there was some
drawings that were like displayed and then it just came about on the call that there they had been
issued a permit zoning permit so like i said we were really surprised that it had got to this
level because initially when we joined the call we thought thought we were going to be on the call
with the developer as well just to kind of talk through the actual proposal so there was a lot
of chatter about the the the actual proposal and then uh the plans and then the the zoning
came up on that call.
Were there other people on the meeting
that were also surprised to learn
that it wasn't just a proposal
that the permit had already been issued?
Yes, it was.
Okay, that's fine.
And after the December 15th meeting,
when you learned that a permit
had actually been issued,
what action did you take
and when did you take it
regarding the filing of the appeal?
Well, me and Richard discussed
um the the the the issue with um the zoning and not being aware of the the zoning so um
me and michael sat down and we we we filed the appeal okay and there was nothing in there and
you filed that appeal before the end of december correct that's correct yep and um you use the
you use the language in in your appeal of nunc pro-tunc that's a pretty technical term where did
where did you come to to use that phrase because that has a pretty specific meaning yeah richard
um richard primarily like put put the language together i'm not an attorney um and i'm i'm i'm
not fully um literate in in this kind of um field but yeah i had support from my husband
Okay. And when you would, there were communications between you and the zoning board's executive director, I have the email up, in reference to it being a non-pro-tunk appeal, being late. When you say the appeal was late, why did you use that phrase?
um in the
i'm not i'm not really clear where because it was late because oh we because we had heard
that the permits were initially um were initially made uh back in september okay so we knew we were
we were late in filing so you you took it as it was more than 30 days after the permit yes yes
okay yeah that's correct and that and what richard told you correct is why you use the non-protect
yes okay yeah um and there was no other activity at the property you didn't see any posting was
there any other unusual activity at the property between september and december 15th that might
have led you to believe that there was a zoning permit uh that was issued for this property
there was definitely some activity going on at the property and it was sporadic but the property
has had activity going on over the last few years so it was it just kind of seemed normal nothing
sort of like like something new was happening it just kind of seemed like yeah the the building was
in a state it had some um some like scaffolding attached to it some wooden scaffolding so it was
just kind of there was stuff going on like sporadically like i said so it it didn't seem
like anything major was was happening i have no further questions i just reserve the right to
rebut counsel uh yes uh good morning uh miss uh cristo uh yeah never been at this table it's a
little different um all right they did that on purpose they did this seat is higher right this
um all right they did that on purpose they did this seat is higher right this the chair is higher
taller than me so i need to sit on some books or something but i'm shrinking so uh miss cristo um
are you stating that the first time you learned of this development project uh was in early december
of 2025. no the first time i heard of the project was back in november um
Richard had heard about it and he had told me about a proposal going on a proposed project
and when he told me about it I was like wanting to know more because because of the nature of
the proposal and it just kind of seemed off so anyway he had told me about the project and sent
me a a a link to a petition regarding the property uh regarding the proposal where i kind of you
know also learned a lot more about the actual proposed plans um so i learned about it back
in november 9th just as the proposal um may i share my screen yeah
uh i need to be promoted to a panelist please yep someone please promote mr knockamson
he's being promoted to panel thank you very much
while i'm being promoted as a panelist i thought and maybe i misheard i thought the first time