ZBA Hearing - November 4, 2020

Can you at least hear me?

I can hear you now.

try that again all right um my client my my client advised me to stop my video he said that

might might help it so uh you'll have to go my headshot today um but you can hear me now

yes you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing about the truth

yes i do mr chairman good morning sean ward s-h-a-w-n-w-a-r-d on behalf of the applicant

Joseph McCaffrey. I believe Mr. McCaffrey is on the call. He should raise his hand at this time.

So do you agree to wait to read in a bit of his refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?

Yes, I do, confessor.

Yes, I do, confessor. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required

Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copied the refusal, folders, and plans five days prior to this hearing?

Yes, I did.

Have you met with the RCO and have a letter?

Yes.

Please proceed.

Yes, I do.

frank we're ready to go am i good yes please proceed okay great uh mr chairman i've included

in my exhibit my typical exhibit packet a1 through a5 are the housekeeping items a1 being the notice

of refusal this is a permit for the erection of a single family dwelling with two accessory

off-street parking spaces resulted in a refusal because the parking spaces are not accessed from

a shared driveway, alley, or rear street. Accordingly, we seek a variance today. A2 is the

A1, there's the refusal. A2 is the application of appeal. A3 would be the project information form

followed by the deed and of course our proof of tax compliance you can see taxes are paid through

2020. The next exhibit is the site plan

as you can see this is a corner property at the corner of

period this is at the corner of west oxford street and phillips street uh one block in

off of north american uh currently the site is the subject of an existing depressed curb cut

approved by streets and zoning back in 2001 the applicant proposes

and by the way it's a it's a vacant lot used for off street parking presently the applicant proposes

the erection of a single family dwelling and seeks to relocate the curb cut from oxford street

to the rear of the property on the phillips street side the original plans filed with

the department continued to use the Oxford Street curb cut upon discussions with the

streets department. And it just made more sense to move the curb cut to the side.

It does a couple of things for us. It eliminates this curb cut on Oxford Street,

thus eliminating a no parking zone on oxford street so it adds one more uh off on street

parking space and it adds to off street parking spaces that would be accessed through the rear

curb cut into the uh first floor garage so uh that being said um we again here's

You see the front of the structure is here.

You have your typical pedestrian entryway into the property with windows on the front of the property.

At the rear of the property, you would have the garage door for access to the garage.

It would be a tandem-spaced parking lot.

Did we lose him?

Frank?

Frank, I think we lost your volume.

Confessor?

Yes, Tonya?

It looks like we lost Frank's volume.

Sean Ward looked like he phased out.

Okay.

So it's up to you all if you wanted to move forward and resume his once he returns.

So it's up to you all if you wanted to move forward and resume his once he returns.

Yeah, that'll work.

Okay, so we're going to set this one aside.

And Frank, I'm sorry, you may have to go out and come back in because we can't hear you.

Thanks, confessor, unless you want to pause for a moment.

Okay, let's see if Frank gets, he usually gets back up quick.

Let's see.

He is fast.

Here we go.

Got you back, Frank.

We may have the results of the presidential election before we get done with this list.

I know.

So, Frank, Sean Ward phased out.

It looks like we have to wait from the return.

So, if it's okay with you, we'll move forward.

We'll go to the next case and we'll come back to Sean. Thank you. Number five.

Next one up. It's M.I. That's number six, right? M.I.

Number five.

Twenty seconds. 2204 North Second.

Number five was continued, wasn't it?

No, that was not continued.

we have and just to let you know we received a letter of non-opposition from councilwoman

sanchez that she said was based on the rco letter in support okay mi 2020-001-203-2204 north

2nd street anyone in attendance for 2204 north 2nd street uh yes chair i promoted theodore

zellers thank you good morning please identify yourself for the record spell your first and last

name. I think we're having technical difficulties with this one as well. All right, let's go

to number six. I'm sorry, number eight, right? Mr. Zellers, it might be a good idea for you

to log in again to see if it works. If not, then you could just use audio by phone.

Give me one second to clean up, let me get rid of him.

David Solomon are you here for the next case that we call I'm here can you hear me yes

I'm here with Ted for 22 North 2nd Street, 2204 North 2nd Street.

Are you the owner?

I am not the owner.

I'm the architect.

All right.

We still can't get, was it Mr. Zeller, I believe it was?

I'm going to try one more time to promote him and see if that works.

Mr. Zeller can you do a test

Of your audio

No it's not working

Okay let's go to

Number eight

I'm sorry

May I present on Ted's behalf

No

Unfortunately no

You can add to his testimony if he need you

But he has to make the presentation

Okay number eight

uh mi 2020-001213 3945 frankfurt avenue before we begin in case sean if you can hear us we'll

come back to you after this case thank you mr chairman i am back on all right we'll get back

to you. Thank you. Anyone here for 3945 Frankfurt Avenue? David, are you here for this case?

Yes, I am. Can you hear me? Yes. Are you the attorney? Yes, I am. Okay, I will promote you

the panelists thank you and good morning david uh please identify yourself with a record spell

your full name and i'll swear you in

And I'll swear you in.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, great.

David Schutte here on behalf of the applicant, Lyft, Inc.

please spell your name for the record please uh first name david d-a-v-i-d last name

shuddy t-s-h-u-d-y with the law firm of troutman pepper hamilton sanders llp my my office is at 100

market street suite 200 harrisburg pennsylvania 17108

you sign a firm to tell the truth the whole truth for nothing but the truth

I do.

Do you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?

Yes.

Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,

proof of tax compliance, copied the refusal, photos and planes five days prior to this

hearing?

Yes.

Last Wednesday, I submitted the entire package to the ZBA.

Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?

Yes, we met with the Harrow Gate Civic Organization and the letters within our exhibit booklet at Exhibit 13, I believe.

And what is the result of that meeting with the RCO?

The RCO supported the application.

Okay, so I'm asking that, of course, in the interest of time, if you could give us a brief overview of your application.

excuse me this is sharon saletta we also have a letter in non-opposition from councilman squilla

thank you please proceed sir sure thank you uh lyft inc is a ride-sharing service who uh

leases the property at 3945 frankfort avenue the property is about 1.8 acres

and is improved at the 7500 square foot building that has historically been used for automobile

service, as well as automobile sales and other automobile uses over the last 30, 40 years.

However, the property is located in the CMX 2 zoning district.

Lyft desires to use the property for automobile sales and rental as part of its rental program

and wishes to use the property for automobile repair and maintenance as part of its car maintenance program.

We received a refusal because the property was no longer legally non-conforming as an automobile use.

As indicated already, we met with the Harrogate Civic Association on October 15th of this year,

and the RCO voted nearly unanimously to approve the application.

And as was indicated also, Council Member Sequilla has, as I indicated, his non-opposition.

And that letter was sent to the Zoning Hearing Board, I believe, yesterday.

And we also supplemented our application with that information as well.

The variance is warranted because the property really cannot be used for any other use other than an automobile use, given the shape, size, and existing improvements on the property.

And the use of the property for the proposed uses does not in any way harm the health, safety, and welfare of the community.

If I could now ask Lily Lim of Lyft to raise her hand so she can jump in here quickly.

Lily?

She or she can unmute herself and be sworn in.

Morning, Ms. Lim.

Please identify yourself, spell your first and last name.

yes my name is lily lim l-i-l-y-l-i-m uh you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth

nothing but the truth yes thank you david and lily are you the planning and development manager

for lifting yes and did everything i just say to the uh board was that true and correct

Board, was that true and correct?

Yes.

yes and would you adopt that as your own

And would you adopt that as your own testimony?

Yes.

Okay.

We have nothing further, Chairman, and we're open for questions.

Thank you.

Any questions from the Board?

No.

No.

Planning Commission?

Chairman and members of the Board, this is Paula Brumblow-Burns with the City Planning Commission.

we have no objection to the granting of the variance at this location.

Thank you. MI 2020-001213 3945 Frankfurt Avenue. My vote is yes.

My vote is yes. My vote is yes.

Excuse me. This is Sharon Saletter. Mr. Chesutti, can we request that you merge your exhibits and

resubmit them so that we have them as a single record please certainly I believe my assistant

I tried to do that uh last week but we can make sure that that happens thank you very much sure

confessor my vote is yes okay good let's go back to number four I believe Mr. Ward might be able

to communicate with us okay we'll give it a try Mr. Ward I am back can you hear me can hear you

now confessor okay i i don't i don't know what happened there i was listening to every other case

all morning and then of course the russian when it's when it's my turn when it's my turn to go to

bat uh we lost uh all communications that's crazy i am let me just read that in again mi 2020

dash zero zero one one nine three two one four west oxford street

I believe we did this on the record prior to but yes I do I did submit my exhibits five days in

advance and I do have an RCO letter of support for this application and so with with that if

you can be summarized give us all the key points that you need we'd appreciate that

Mr. Chairman, I'm going to be as brief as possible at this point.

Basically, we have an existing curb cut on Oxford Street.

My client wants to develop a single-family dwelling on the site.

We look to relocate the parking curb cut from the front to the side of the property

for access to a two-car garage with the South Kensington Community Partners

on two separate occasions, one before their zoning committee review meeting.

and then once at a publicly advertised and held community meeting, whereby they supported the application.

The letter of support is attest and submitted to the board.

I would point out that there is no parking on Phillips Street, either side of the street.

So we are not taking any parking off of Phillips Street, but yet we are adding one space back to Oxford

by eliminating the existing curb cut that was approved by zoning and streets department back in 2001

if if the board needs any additional information i'm here to give it

my client is on the line and he can verify and adopt if the board is you want to get your client

to adopt your testimony yes uh mr mccaffrey are you on the line if not could you please

raise your hand so tanya can unmute you good morning yes i'm on the line good morning sir

joe please please identify yourself with the record spell your last name and i'll swear you in

yes my name is joseph mccaffrey j-o-s-e-p-h-m-c-c-a-f-f-e-r-y and i'm the owner and applicant

thank you swearing a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth

yes i do please proceed joe you've heard my representations to the board are they true

correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief? Yes, they are. And would you adopt

them as your own testimony? Yes, I do. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Do you have