to commercial use after 70 years of the structure existing as a duplex.
We submit this as the least minimum variance as we're not requesting any dimensional variances
here. The request is to confirm a long-standing use as a duplex, which is a permissible use,
without the never-existent commercial on the ground floor. We submit this will not increase
local congestion or endanger the public. The proposal will not impair light and air or negatively
impact surrounding properties. It's already set up as a duplex for the last 70 years, and that will
remain the neighboring properties are also solely residential uses with no commercial
and this will ensure the use of the property remains in harmony with the use of surrounding
properties we submit the variance complies in full with the provisions of section 143038 of the code
as is further detailed in my memo of law submitted at tab 10. we did meet with the community we met
with chew and belfield neighbors club association and their letter of support i'll put up on the
screen is attached at tab two. Brad, have you heard all of my testimony offered before the board today?
I have. And would you agree that testimony was true and accurate and would you adopt that
testimony as if it were your own? I do, yes. And we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Questions from the board? No. No. Anyone else would like to testify in this case? If so,
please raise your hand here i have charles richardson mr richardson you can unmute yourself
and wait to be sworn in morning mr richardson please identify yourself with the record not
swearing good morning mr chair charles richardson from the office of councilwoman cindy bass
room 312 city hall are you firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do uh just uh calling in to let the board know that councilwoman has no objection
to the granting of this variance you did you wish your boss happy birthday today
i did there you go letter all right uh planning commission i'm sorry chair i did have someone
else oh i'm sorry that's okay thank you i'm miss illisane barton you can unmute yourself and wait
to be sworn in good morning ma'am please identify yourself with the record spell your first and
last name and provide us with your address oh i'm sorry i had a question for something else i
not didn't reference this probably no problem thank you here we can move on no thank you
no problem thank you here we can move on no thank you thank you planning commission
thank you planning commission
chairman members of the board this is paula brumblow burns with the city planning commission
just lost it uh this property is indicated for commercial use on the comprehensive plan
this property was built as a residential structure without first floor commercial
accordingly we have no objection to the commercial not being included this location thank you
MI 2020-000770-1226 East, Chelten Avenue. My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Next one up is MI 2020-001209-1519 West Benangelo Street.
this is Sharon I have no record of having received exhibits in this case
thank you is there anyone here for 1519 West Venango street
uh chair I have uh Lijan are you the applicant or hi good morning hi Lijan Liu I am the applicant
and the owner. Okay, if you wait one minute, I will promote you to panelists. Thank you.
Chair, he's promoted for the swearing name. Thank you, sir. Please identify yourself. Spell your
first and last name. Hi, yes. First name Lijion, L-I-J-I-O-N. Last name is Lou, L-I-U.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
According to our council, we did not receive any exhibits.
I believe my architect emailed it, all the information and exhibits to the zoning board.
When he emailed it, sir.
If I, let me just go back to my email, maybe.
This is Sharon.
Could we, Tanya, would it be possible to check if the RCO mailbox received exhibits for this case?
Not totally at the moment, but Mr. Lijon, did you, did your architect send it to the required email boxes, which is the attorney Sharon Saleta and the RCO?
That's the requirement.
If not, we will continue the case.
uh can you please give me uh just a few seconds let me look she did
i'm sorry chair my suggestion is we push this aside and move forward and mr lijan you can um
contact me in the q a and let us know if that was done sure you can move on yep okay thank you
Next one up is MI 2020-001-205-209 Delmar Street.
Chair, I'm promoting Sean Welling to panelists.
Welling, please identify yourself for the record, spell your first and last name.
yeah sean whalen here i'll start my video sean whalen s-e-a-n last name w-h-a-l-e-n
i'm sorry you can finish i'm sorry no go go ahead we're in a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing about the truth yes i do thank you please proceed all right thank you chairman and members
of the board uh i am here on behalf of the world and you agreed to waive the reading of its refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet
with the required documents,
proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance,
copy of the refusal,
referral, photos and plans
five days prior to this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Also, have you met with the RCO
and have a letter?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you, Chairman and members of the Board.
This is actually a complex matter,
but I will do my best to truncate it for everyone.
This is a proposed project for 209 and 211 Delmar Street.
These are both exceptionally large, deep lots
in the Roxborough neighborhood.
I'm trying to share my screen right now.
So, here's a copy of the refusal, which we can walk through.
So here's a copy of the refusal, which we can walk.
Here's a copy of the letter from the Ridge Park Civic Association.
I will explain, but not try to get away from the fact that we got quite literally slaughtered
at the Ridge Park Civic Association meeting that we attended and continued only under
the belief that we thought there was an extremely viable option here.
So here's a picture of the original zoning plan.
The original project was for 23 townhouse units.
This had a solid rear wall of units, a small green space, there was supposed to be traffic
circulation around that way and then two packs of three with uh density on the front um we are
presenting today and what i will focus on is a dramatically revised uh package um so we've you
know we sent in a proviso form and proviso uh plans we have reduced the number of units by more than
a third and this was in short we met with early on we presented the original plan to a few members
of the RCO head we had good and productive long conversations with them about what would be the
the difficulties that we would face and some of the issues that they would you know we would hear
about our project, but they asked specifically if we would be willing to work with them because
that's how they did things, that they worked with, you know, project owners and tried, you know,
informally and then formally in front of the RCO to try to reach a resolution. We agreed that we
could certainly meet with them in an ongoing basis because we had actually a solid two months
before, you know, from basically when our RCO meeting was to today's date, so we thought we
had the plan, and we thought we had a good plan. Unfortunately, at the time that we went to the
RCO meeting, as I said, we quite literally got slaughtered. The ultimate vote basically came down
to density and traffic. I'm sure the RCO will expound upon that, but those were essentially
the concerns and it was 70 to 6. So again no way to sugarcoat that but more
surprisingly we you know the RCO voted despite what had been told to us and
what we anticipated up front the RCO voted you know to oppose our project but
also to disallow the RCO from communicating with us in any way shape
or form going forward.
We have reached out time and again to the RCO, including through the CDR process and
even through their council last week with regard to the revised plans to try to keep
them in the loop as to what our revisions would be.
And we have been flatly told that they would not speak with us and not communicate with
us about any revisions, nor would there be any more informal or formal meetings with
the RCO.
again we were we believed in this project and so we pushed forward we met i spoke with
mr josh cohen from the councilman's office to keep him up to date as to what our revision
our proposed revisions were we went through the cdr process and i had several meetings with
members of the planning commission staff here in the neighborhood planner to try to get to where
we could go. What I'm showing right now is the CDR letter. CDR actually, to my surprise,
we only went once. I thought we would end up going twice. They came up with a slew of
comments. You can see here, I won't walk through each one individually, but I will represent
and you will hear my experts opine. We adopted every single, adopted and incorporated every
single item of advice and comment that we received from CDR. We told them that's actually
in the letter that we would. We worked through, we said at that time that we would continue
to meet with the RCO. The RCO again said at CDR that it was not interested in meeting
with us. So unfortunately, we've not been able to work with the RCO, even though they
have seen the revised plans through their attorney and told us that they would no longer
be meeting with us. So to provide some context, this is the Schuylkill River down here. Here's
This is the Schuylkill River down here. Here's the Ivy Ridge train station where there's been
the Ivy Ridge train station.
a huge new development going in here. Our properties are right up here at 209 and 211 Delmar Street.
You can see a large park is Germany Hill. It is my understanding that this portion of Germany Hill,
the northern portion, is actually about 12 acres that is owned by a private developer.
we have no there's been some concerns raised by the RCO in the beginning of this process
that we like many other developers are attempting to try to open up that parcel for development
we have no combination or association with that parcel we're not trying to be we're not trying
to open it up in any way rather this section of Germany Hill is a very nice large wooded area as
can see it has some trails in here we have reached out to some local members of the neighborhood and
the councilman's office to find out we fully intend to help which CDR strongly recommended
to help revitalize some of these walking trails you know some of them are especially at this end
are a little overgrown and we would also like to assist in making a walking path and only a walking
path not a not a driving or vehicular path from mansion street here down through germany hill
to the ivy ridge train station that would obviously be a huge benefit to our own homeowners
that we are providing for but also to the community at large
this is the existing house i'm actually cribbing from some of the photos the rco provided in their
opposition package. Unfortunately, a few of my photos got corrupted and I was unable to use
them. So this is one of the two houses. We currently have two single family houses listed
on our project. This is the, you know, the properties as they are looking directly at
them. So the zoning, here's an aerial view that I think is quite telling. These are our two
properties right here. This is Delmar Street going up this way. As you can see, the entire block on
both sides are lined with row houses, twins, but extensive and dense development.
Everything this way on Delmar Street is zoned RSA 5.
Just this corner and our houses right here are zoned RSD 3.
So RSD3 is single-family detached houses with 5,000 square foot lots, basically large single-family houses with detached lots, sort of not indicative of obviously anything that you would find in this neighborhood, but there has been a dramatic increase that you will hear about today.
Most of these houses that you see up and down Delmar Street have been erected in the last 8 to 10 years and did not previously exist.
And so the neighborhood got together and downzoned this to RSD3 to try to stop all development.
Obviously, that change in the neighborhood creates a hardship for us.
Also, what you will see is these properties have no rear yard. Essentially, all through here is extremely steep slope, much greater than 25%. These houses have no rear yards. The rear yards go from these houses down here up to, you can see actually the line right about there.
um we because of where we sit we have property that goes all the way back uh our two properties
together will be approximately uh 200 feet linear feet along delmar street with 220 foot depth
that huge size which also cuts out here um is you know creates a hardship for us
because we have this gigantic lot which requires you know massive single-family
homes similar to what you would find in like a chestnut hill not you know Delmar
Street in Roxborough these projects down here as you can see are currently under
construction this photo was just taken less than a week ago these are all brand
new row homes that are being put in on Fountain Street just below where we are
just below where we are. So again, here's an aerial view. This is what Del Mar Street looks
So again, here's an aerial.
like. Our house is just outside. Basically, we're standing in front of our house looking down the
street. You can see the setback, the front-loading parking, all row homes, twins. As the RCO states
in its letter most of these houses again did not exist eight to ten years ago especially on this
side of the street the northern side these were all rear yards for uh lamont street houses that
go this way and then they would back up with their rear yards to delmar street that has been a
significant change in the neighborhood and here are some of the photos of the brand new housing
stock that's literally on Del Mar right up the block from us. So again, our house is right down
here to the left. You can just see time and again, brand new development, row home style.
There are narrow driveways, narrow sidewalks here. Our sidewalk, so one of the major complaints of
neighborhood of the RCO rather not the adjacent immediately adjacent neighbors is just the
increased traffic in the neighborhood and density over the last eight to ten years.
While we understand that Delmar Street is a standard 16-foot cartway with right-of-way on
either side so it's not a uniquely narrow street by any means we've all dealt with much more narrow
streets throughout the city and especially south philly and areas even in maniunk
so again i'll just finish off through these houses now at our end um you know the property
does open up significantly so there's the first house of ours obviously dilapidated um in very
extreme disrepair uh you go down this block this is the turn around mansion street that delmar
street into. This is also a 16 foot wide cartway and this is actually one of the adjacent houses.
So this is our property and this is one of the adjacent houses right next to us.
And then just a final site. So I think most telling again you can see
from the aerial zoning view, how dramatically we changed this plan, reducing from 23 units down to
15 units. We also pulled back the frontage. Again, essentially everything we did was