Thank you. Good morning. And Tanya, again, I'm going to give you a couple of minutes.
Sure. Yes. Let us know when you're ready.
Bill, quick question for you. Yes. Is in the webinar, can you do breakout rooms?
Is that a capability? I'll have to look it up.
okay if you could it's no rush but it's something we may want to do in the future
have our executive sessions there so i appreciate it thank you so not for today but oh no in the
future because we might be doing this for a minute so we're looking at how we do things
i appreciate that okay no problem yeah i'll look that up
Chair, we're at 96. I think that's good enough for us to start.
Very good. Thank you. Good morning again, everyone. My name is Frank DiCicco. I'm the
Chair of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. I'll be participating in today's hearing along
with our board secretary Mr. Confessa Plaza and board members Mr. Thomas Holloman and Mr. James
Snell. Board Administrator Ms. Tanya Sunkit and our board attorney Ms. Sharon Suleta are also in
attendance. For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings,
I'll go through some of the basics of what you can expect. First, we will be administering oaths
to individual participants prior to their testimony. Second, for the benefit of anyone
participating by phone, we ask that attorneys and witnesses identify themselves prior to speaking
or testifying. Third, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded
and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded. Fourth, for anyone
participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine
and then star six to unmute yourself. I'll repeat, for anyone participating by phone,
if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute
yourself. Finally, to make an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email
address and the address of the property at issue. I'll repeat that. To enter an appearance statement,
call google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue
with that we can begin but before we call our first case we'd like to ask if anyone is requesting
a continuance or withdrawal of an appeal listed for this morning's hearing list if so please raise
your hand chair we have sloan folks good morning mr folks please identify yourself for the record
spell your name and i will swear you in good morning chairman de chico and zba board my name
is Sloan Folks, S-L-O-A-N-E, F-S-A-F-I-R-O-L-K-S, the Office of Counsel in Maria Quinonez Sanchez,
Room 508, City Hall. We're in front of the tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, sir. Thank you. Please proceed. I would like to request a continuance for meeting number
MI-2020-0007393857 North Fairhill Streets.
We do not have a record of the meeting with the RCL.
Okay, just give us a second.
3961 North Fairhill?
No, sorry.
3857 North Fairhill Street.
Oh, I'm sorry.
It's the next one over.
Sharon?
No, I'm sorry.
I was about to ask about the other case 3961 North Fairhill.
Okay, there's a request for a continuance from Councilwoman Sanchez's office MI 2020-000739
3857 North Fairhill. Is there anyone who objects to that request?
And what page is that?
Number nine. If we could ask if anyone representing the applicant is in attendance.
Number nine, if we could ask-
Excuse me, it's number 10.
Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, number 10.
All right. Is there anyone present, the applicant and or an attorney?
Are you in agreement with this request for continuance?
I have Alberto Perez.
you're going to mute yourself and wait to be sworn in speak to this case only good morning
mr perez please identify yourself spell your first and last name and provide us with your
address and then i'll swear you in hi um good morning my name is alberto perez a-l-b-e-r-t-o
p-e-r-e-z um my home address or or the job address i'm sorry home address my home address
is 1233 East Cheltenham Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19124.
You swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Please proceed.
You would like to comment on this request for continuance?
I'm sorry, but I'm honestly not sure what that means.
That means that at the request of the councilwoman, she is asking us not to have a hearing today and to continue it to a later date.
Mr. Folks, is that request based on what is the purpose of the request?
Because there was no meeting with the RCO?
Yes, sir. That's exactly right.
All right. Mr. Perez, did you meet with the RCO?
We did meet with the RCO.
So the problem was that in order for them to send us the approval letter, we have to have a license of renter for the property, which we haven't received.
When we had the meeting, we spoke to them about it.
They told us, I have an email confirming that they approved the change of address, I mean, the change of property, but we needed to have a license of renter for the owner, which we haven't received, but the application was submitted to the city.
Mr. Folks, is that consistent with what you know or not?
Excuse me, Chairman Chico, I want to be sure that he's not speaking about 3961 North Bayer Hill Street.
You have to speak up?
We're talking about 3857 North Fairhill, correct?
Yes, we are, but I also have 3961 in my, and they did meet with the RCO.
I want to be sure that Mr. Perez is not talking about 3961 because there was some issues, not issues, but there were some provisals that the RCO submitted in regards to that.
So I just want to be sure that we're talking about three, not talking about 3961, but 3857 North Fairhill.
And Mr. Perez did submit exhibits for 3961 North Fairhill.
So, Mr. Perez.
Yes, I'm sorry. I am speaking for 3961 North Fairhill Street.
That's not the one that request is on. It's 3857. All right.
MI 2020-000739 3857 North Fairhill is continued.
This is Sharon. If I could also add that we did not receive exhibits for 3857 North Fairhill.
Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals?
Yes, sir. I have one more. I'm sorry. No problem.
Just identify yourself again. Once again, Sloan Folks,
Office of Counsel in Maria Quinones-Fanchez,
room 5A City Hall.
Thank you, sir.
MI-2020-001211, 2546 North 2nd Street.
We haven't heard anything from the RCO.
If the RCO did submit a letter, we'd be happy for them,
for the case to proceed.
But we just haven't heard anything from the RCO.
Byron, do we have any information from the RCO?
on this is 2546 North 2nd. We receive any exhibits.
The attorney is Leo Mulvihill if we could please call him up.
Good morning, Chairman, members of the board.
What was this property address?
Was it Fairhill?
2546 North 2nd Street.
This is my request for a continuance.
My apologies, members of the board.
I'm still reading documents from my client.
i'm still reading documents from my uh okay from my client very good mi 2020-001211
Very good.
2546 north second street is continued thank you sir thank you any other requests
no other hand that's a lot of cases here um okay uh sharon i believe uh we go into the uh
we vote on those cases that were either on the delay list or ask for reconsideration, correct?
Sure, I can read the reconsideration. We have four reconsideration requests.
I think I have those. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think I have them, all right?
Okay. Calendar number 399781720 Master Street and calendar number
4-0-0-0-0-1-7-2-2 master street uh no to reconsideration and no i'm sorry yes to
reconsideration and rehearing and we also are waiting for a letter from council president
clark's office i believe we had a date for the rehearing that was going in the rehearing was
going to be limited to um input from the council's hearing date will be december the second
at 2 p.m? Correct, Chair. Yes to reconsideration and rehearing. Yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Yes to reconsideration and rehearing. Thank you. MI 2020-000013-2321 North Broad Street.
My vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing. No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
UMI 2020, that's 000688-1302 North 28th Street.
My vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No, excuse me, Chair.
I think that that was the one I mistakenly wrote, 28th, when it was 18th Street.
Oh, that's right.
I made the correction on another sheet.
I messed up.
All right.
Let's go over that again.
Sorry.
MI 2020-000688-1302 North 18th Street.
My vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
Okay, MI 2020-000849-5655 Carpenter Street.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
No to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thank you.
MI 2020-001305 530-32 Reed Street. My vote is yes with the proviso revised plan two pages
approved today. Yes with proviso. Yes with proviso. Yes with proviso. Okay Sharon I believe now we have
the follow-up we call we'll call up the follow-up hearings that's right thank you okay mi 2020
that's zero zero one zero five five nine one one north 26th street mr notkinson and this i believe
is we're waiting for a report on the results of a follow-up rco meeting
good morning mr chair members of the board good morning mr knockamson please identify yourself
for the record and then i'll swear you in yes alan knockamson of knockamson pc 123 south broad
street 1600 philadelphia pa 19109 and you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth I do please proceed so we did meet with the community at the assistance
of the councilman's office just a little bit of background originally this was a 49 unit building
that we proposed as you can see in our oh wait let me share my screen that would be helpful
let's see full screen mode okay so let's just go to the notice of refusal
Okay, so let's just go to the notice of refusal.
All right, so what we're doing is we're proposing to consolidate a number of lots, which are both CMX2 and RSA5, in the Fairmont section of Philadelphia on North 26th Street.
And as part of that project, we were proposing to put 49 units, dwelling units, as well as 20
parking spaces, as well as additional bicycle spaces in the property. So when we presented to
the Zoning Board at the conclusion of our hearing, the Planning Commission actually recommended the
granting and the variances with the exception of they did indicate that they didn't know where
they stood with regards to the amount of units so that was a concern for the community right as well
as the height of the property so we did meet with the community um and as part of that process we
have um we have agreed to reduce the amount of units from 49 units to 40 units and you know we
did have a height variance so what we're what we're proposing is to um and i'll show you in the
pictures. Probably easier to see. Let's see. So this was what their property originally looked
like, you know, rendering, right? So it was on the same roof line as the church that's on North 26th
Street. So we purposefully try to recreate that roof line. Now we go from North 26th to Banbury
Street. So what we proposed is to set back on North 26th Street. So we're actually, from a
pedestrian point of view, you will only see four stories. And that's where we eliminate on the
fifth story some of the units. And then on the Bainbury Street side, which is more residential
in nature and more RSA 5, we propose to set back so that it's only three, you would see three
stories from the point of view of a pedestrian and we would be set back significantly. So that's
what our proviso plan has. We did note that I have, and I gave this to Ms. Saleta earlier this
morning. I did get an email just from the architect. There is a small typo in one of the
plans. I think here it says still 49 units. So if this board does grant it, I would, you know,
obviously amend, you know, that one drawing that Ms. Saleta would stamp on behalf of the ZBA or
the ZBA would stamp. But ultimately, we're setting back significantly on North 26th Street, as well
as on Bainbury Street, where to an outsider, they wouldn't even know that there is actually a fifth
story. And we decreased the amount of units by 20%. And that's, you know, basically it. I mean,
we did have a certified RCO meeting. And, you know, in the certified RCO meeting, there were,
you know we did receive support from the community uh so there were you know 16 people for it nine
against and four abstained and the nearby neighbors it was one four two against one abstained
so during the certified rco meeting we did have community support i also provided um
as part of my presentation last time as well like my client distributed a petition to uh neighbors
And you can see there's a decent amount of people who are in support of this project.
And then I also provided to the board, there's an online platform, a community platform called Nextdoor, where a thread was started with regards to this project.
And of the 75 people that actually responded in this thread at the time, 60 people were either in non-opposition or in support of this project.
Now, full disclosure, we recently received input from the nearby neighbors who stated that, you know, they're not for this project.
But I would just say they had two options to vote.
They had an option to vote, let them build as of right, or let them build something, which I can read it literally, but basically the vote option was let them build something that makes no sense for us.
So I think it was kind of skewed, and I can read of record what the actual options were, but it wasn't a sterile like either you're for it or you're for this or against this new proposal.
And the reason where we got to 40 units and the way we got to setting things back was we heard from some of the nearby neighbors that were at the meeting, especially the ones on Bainbridge Street.
I remember in particular one who was like, yeah, that makes sense.
Like if you set that back, you know, and you reduce the height so that it looks like from the outside that it's.