fields f-i-e-l-d-s do you swear a firm do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes the whole truth please proceed i've been on this block for over 52 years
left here came back uh when i came back we had a guard the garden like you said this this garden
was this this lot was never vacant it was a garden for the community for the young and the old
but it's not a city owned parcel it's privately owned and i understand the garden but you have
no right no one has a right to claim that as their own unless you own it so the garden i understand
It's a part of the community. The community should have made a decision at some point, and I mean this respectfully, to purchase it and maintain it as a garden or work with the district council person to get the city to take the property and allow people to use it as a garden.
as you spoke as you spoke of that we try to uh purchase the property but it was denied by the
next door neighbor miss uh iris um she she she tried to purchase it and the city said no
let's let's move on tell us what it is that we already haven't heard at least
a half a dozen times as to why you're opposed to this application
something because it will uh ruin the flow of the ruin the fabric of the neighborhood
basically it would all right understood all right uh with the rentals and stuff like that we have
homes on this block that been rented that been in and out in and out in and out and this this
would be no different. With all due respect, Chairman, I'm going to object. That sounds
like speculation. It is total speculation. Sorry for speaking over here. It is total
speculation your objection is sustained uh the the asking price
hello robert you have to unmute yourself there's another one please next witness
thomas ball you can unmute yourself
i'm not able to allow him to speak because he's using an older version of zoom yeah i see that
how about elizabeth denise
unmute yourself miss denise hello yes hi this is elizabeth delise
please spell your full name ma'am yes e-l-i-z as in zebra a-b-e-t-h elizabeth my last name is
DeLise, D as in dog, E-L-I-S as in Sam E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, ma'am.
Absolutely.
So I wanted to share that over the course of the last month or so, we've been soliciting
and obtaining signatures from near neighbors, people living within 250 feet.
We've gathered 92 signatures.
We have also gathered 231 signatures in the broader area that are against changing this zoning.
I also wanted to share that one of our main concerns is, people have mentioned this, I want to elaborate, is affordability of these units.
at the initial meeting we were told that they would be estimated at 200 to 250k each for each
unit i wanted to share i'm sorry here this is on this block i'm sorry again if i could reiterate
that we're only sure entertaining zoning testimony thank you chair okay okay absolutely
Absolutely. Thank you so much for reminding me. So, what we are saying is that the applicant
is not offering evidence that a single family dwelling would be economically viable.
Thank you. Anyone else?
i'm con i'm sorry i'm confused was the statement that were
i'm i'm sorry i'm confused was the statement that we're not offering evidence that a single
family is economically viable i think she meant to say the other opposite okay okay i just didn't
know if i yeah i i heard it the same way but okay the chair and settles with her hand raised
i have a lot or mr thomas ball rather he's been allowed to speak mr ball please
please proceed spell your full name thank you my name is thomas ball t-h-o-m-a-s last name ball
b as in boy a l-l you swear i can tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do please proceed hopefully it's something new and different i mean that respectfully
I truly understand. I just think it was great to note that it was brought up about the zoning
on Upland and 50th. That zoning is different because it is only considered for schooling.
Everything else on that block and around that block is zoned the same as an RA5. That was all.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Ms. Settles, you can unmute.
That was already testified, didn't she?
Yes, she did.
I think she did.
Testified early on.
Anyone else who has not yet testified?
Okay, we have Louis.
Hello, can you hear me?
Mr. Baum, please spell your full name.
L-E-W-I-S
B-A-U-M
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
I would like to talk briefly about the unnecessary hardship aspect of this case.
A use permit,
But the code that describes what the zoning board needs to look at for a use permit talks about physical hardship only.
So the person that raised the idea of economic hardship was not speaking exactly about the code.
But as a side interest, let's talk about economic hardship for a moment.
i'm just gonna object chairman if we could speak to zoning speak to zoning sir i mean
if you've been listening a couple of other people have attempted to do the same thing
okay well let me speak to the zoning okay let me say that um if if it's not possible to build a
single family house on this plot on this lot why is the city have rsa six which allows an even
smaller lot for single family is there's nobody ever going to be able to build an rsa six lot
i think that's a question for it's a rhetorical question of our city
you should you should speak to your district council person
and i would just add mr baum that we were more than happy to talk about the financial
considerations of the project but we were not asked to do that in the meeting and we
could have done that in a second meeting and would have been happy to provide pro formas and any
additional issues that was not requested of us um to be fair okay if i may i would like to just
talk about two more items um actually three uh just as a point which i'm sure you agree with
that the zoning for this this lot does not allow a multi-family dwelling of any height
that the variance is seeking they're seeking a variance for multi-family yeah the board's aware
of that mr bong that's the purpose of this year my second point is that the uh the concept of the
least difference the solution is supposed to have the uh the least difference from the current
zoning. So if the solution you're going to present is supposed to be least different,
then why do you have three floors? It could be two. And why do you have a roof deck,
a roof which causes all kinds of problems in neighborhoods? Finally, I would like to mention
And the concept of self-imposed hardship, as was mentioned, the property is probably
The, as was mentioned, the property is probably worth around $5,000 now.
worth around $5,000 now.
I'm going to object to the assessment of the property.
I don't think that's just something somebody else said.
I will, the city's records say it's the value at the time it was purchased was about $3,400.
They paid $20,500.
I'm sorry, Chair.
Where are we going?
This cannot continue.
all right we're gonna we're gonna in in just finish up sir and then we're gonna move on please
sir you can unmute yourself and speak to the zoning only okay thank you
so in summary there is no unnecessary hardship according to the code thank you
good thank you okay at the risk of getting myself I'm not talking about the rest of the board
criticized for cutting off the testimony in this case I'm going to move on and ask the
planning commission for its recommendation
thank you Mr. Chair Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission
I wanted to not belabor anything here I just wanted to offer a counterpoint to
the council's position that this proposal is consistent with the comprehensive plan it's not
the plan adopted by the commission was very purposeful and intentional about recommending
that this block remain rsa5 because of the low height small lot size and predominant single
family use of the block and the surrounding blocks there's no change recommended to the zoning
in the comprehensive plan and the applicant has not demonstrated any evidence of unique physical
conditions of the lot to support a claim of hardship adjacent buildings at 1222 1228 and
1230 south 50th they're all two-story single family structures and so there's not a lot of
evidence of adjacent non-conformities either the city planning commission is going to recommend
that the board deny this variance thank you very much mi 2021-002 281 1226 south 50th street my
vote is no. Harold Tenere, my vote is no. Confessor Plaza, my vote is no. James Snell,
my vote is no. Thomas Holloman, my vote is no. Thank you. We'll now go to case number
three, MI 2021. That's 002-209. 1423 South Phillip Street. Mr. Mockimson is the attorney
for the applicant I believe Mr. Paul Toner is the applicant is the attorney for the protestant
protestant is Jacqueline Heffron there's a letter of opposition from Councilman Squilla
and I believe we were awaiting a letter from Pennsport Civic which we may have
received a letter in opposition from Pennsport Civic I was told by Ms. Saleta about a half hour
or so ago there's been a revised plan so Mr. Nockamson you're still under oath please identify
yourself and proceed. Yes good afternoon Mr. Chair members of the board Alan Nockamson A-L-A-N
last name Nockamson N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N 123 South Broad Street Suite 1600 Philadelphia Pennsylvania
1 9 1 0 9.
Alan, Ms. Tenere has questions for you.
Mr. Nogamson, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance,
copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO?
And do you have a letter?
Yes, we do.
And the letter is actually in our packet.
mr chair members of the board great you may proceed all right thank you may i share my uh
screen please yes you may we like screens uh i apologize we have another contentious
potential contentious matter but um my name is alan occamson i represent v2 properties
and i'm presenting 1423-25 south phillip street excuse me chair pardon the interruption this is
court reporter i apologize but i just noticed that if this is going to be of some length i'd
like to take a minute to change the batteries in my backup if that's okay yes please just
one moment let us know when you're not pardon the interruption no worries
Thank you.
Thank you.
thank you chair thank you mr notkinson please proceed yes again we represent v2 properties
in this proposed erection of a single-family home in the pensport area of philadelphia we're here
solely because of our request to put a front-loading garage here everything else is as of right this
a single-family home on an RSA 5 property. There are no dimensional refusals. The only refusal that
you're going to see is for the front-loading garage. Most importantly, we're not taking a car
off of the public street. We're actually helping a situation in terms of taking a car off of a
public street by way of the front-loading garage. You'll see in our packing materials the deeds of
property, certificate of tax clearance showing that B2 properties in good standing with the
city with respect to this property. The notice of refusal showing the one refusal, as well as
the street review approval. The streets department reviewed this. They have standards with regards
to front-loading garages, which pertain to standard vehicles. They found that there was
no issue in terms of the tourney radius, and they put no conditions on our request for a
loading garage conceptually it's up to the board obviously to grant this variance under the
Philadelphia zoning code you'll see our application for appeal maps of the area photographs of the
property in the surrounding area a particular note across the street it's another off street
parking spot so it's not out of character to have off street parking on this street
then you'll see our plans and drawings which we'll go through we do have revised plans
In order to accommodate and to alleviate any issues in terms of the turning radius, which there aren't, but in order to do it even more, we've increased the width of the opening of the garage from 9 feet to 12 feet to match the actual curb cut of 12 feet.
We believe that goes above and beyond.
We took 3 feet of interior space to alleviate any potential concerns that there would be.
And then finally, we do have correspondence from the Penn Sports Civic Association.
there are two nearby neighbors that spoke to this the first ironically is the person who has off
street parking who was against the project do as I say not as I do sometimes what we see in
community meetings and second second was the person who was to the left of us who Mr. Toner
represents who's against this project but again from what we heard they were against this project
because she doesn't want any single family or construction onto the right of her.
She would prefer it to remain a vacant lot and mainly dealt with construction issues,
which are non-zoning related and which we were willing to address.
Deeds of property showing the V2O is the owner of the property.
Certificate of tax clearance showing that we're in good standing with respect to our obligations to the city.
Our notice of refusal, we actually are combining two lots, 1423 and 1425 South Phillips Street
as part of this application, putting a single family structure, trying to put a front loading
garage, and the one refusal that we do have is because obviously that's not allowed as a fright
and we're asking for a variance. The streets review of our zoning plan, which shows most
Most importantly, no conditions, again, I have the architect for this project who will
testify if necessary regarding the returning radius or application for appeal.
Where we are from a zoning perspective, you know, we're between Reed and Dickinson and
and second pneumonia menzing where we are from a google map perspective and photographs of the
second emoyementing where we are from a google
property uh as you can see this is the property is current stead uh this is a vacant lot uh at the at
the dead end oh oh might pass all those pictures sorry i'm just having technical issues here
That's a picture, here we go. I don't know why my computer is slow. This is a picture
across the street 1420-22 South Phillip Street of nearby off street parking, which is literally
across the street from us. And then this is if the board should grant our variance request
by way of proviso, we would ask that we increase the size or the width of the garage opening
to 12 feet. We provided these plans both to Mr. Toner as the attorney for the individual in
opposition to this project, as well as to Ms. Saletta, who stated that there were no issues in
terms of the proviso plan form. Mr. Notkinson, could you go back to the photograph that shows
the property across the street? Yeah, sure.
I'm sorry. Is that a carport?