completed CDR
we had preliminary approvals
from streets and from water
let me just bring on Dan McShane
to accept my testimony
he should still be on the call
we can promote him
You see Dan McShane should be on.
Stop, we'll just have an officer of the court.
Dan, he's still with us.
Raise your hand virtually.
Mr. DeMarco, you being an officer of the court,
we'll stipulate that your client would have adopted your testimony.
That's fine, Mr. Chairman.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Any questions from the board?
no mr chair no mr chair no would anyone else like to testify in this case please raise your hand
there wasn't a hand up but it's since gone down so there's
wait a minute uh mr chair we've got a mr daniel mcshane with his hand raised i won't
the speed at this time no we already adopted he already adopted you can keep going chair
yeah he's good tell him dan you're fine thank you uh planning commission
this is uh ron bednar from city planning operative plan recommends no change
um to the existing residential multifamily zoning at this location with regard to the
lot coverage the proposed variance is consistent with the adjacent non-conforming buildings
In regard to the off-street parking, the site location near the public transportation has access to broad street rendering parking provisions unnecessarily difficult.
City Planning Commission recommends the board grant of variance.
Thank you.
MI 2021-002-314-310-30, Girard Avenue.
my vote is yes with the proviso revised plan six pages approved today
harold tenere my vote is yes with proviso professor plaza yes with proviso james snell
yes with proviso thomas halliman yes proviso thank you uh we now go to number 13 on the
two o'clock list. MI 2021-0023163934 West Girard Avenue. Mr. Notkinson, I believe, is the attorney
of record. There is a letter of support from the Centennial Parkside RCO.
Mr. Nockamson has been promoted to panelists. Thank you, Mr. Nockamson. Just identify yourself,
you're still under oath. 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 PA 19109. Ms. Tenere has some questions for you. Sure.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Have you
emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, refusal referral,
photos under plans of the property five days in advance of today's hearing and have you met with
the RCO and do you have a letter? Yes, we do. Okay, you may proceed.
I'm going to share my screen.
And as the chair says, Centennial Parkside has a letter of support.
That's right. And I'm going to keep it brief. I know it's a late hour. And I would ask for a proviso maximum two units. Originally, we asked for three units at the request of the community. We agreed to two units.
That's right.
And I'm going to keep it brief.
I know it's a late hour.
It is.
And I would add.
we have a deed to the property
showing that Millennium Development
the owner with me is Brian Wise
who's going to adopt my testimony
we have a certificate of tax clearance
showing that we're in good standing with the city of Philadelphia
notice of refusal
again this is an RSA
excuse me a CMX2
property and
we're looking to eliminate
essentially eliminate the commercial component
you'll see from pictures from the
in my presentation materials
it's out of character to have commercial in this part of uh philadelphia we're across the street
from fairmont park uh and uh we have a permit that shows that this property has been previously
used as multi-family here are three units uh and uh we have the letter of support so let's go uh
first uh to the notice of refusal um we actually have uh three refusals uh again we're trying to
eliminate the commercial component. So that's a refusal. This is a CMX2 property. We did have
issues with the open area where we're proposing 15% and 25% is required and rear yard depth.
We're proposing eight feet of rear yard depth where nine is required. The issue is that we want
to put a front porch on our property to mimic what's in the rest of the neighborhood, even
though we're not required to because we have, you know, we wouldn't have to have a front porch
because we're in the middle of open lots.
But we want to mimic that.
By doing that, the occupied area for the front porch
is causing issues with the open area.
Secondarily, the rear yard theft,
because we're moving the property back
to accommodate that front porch,
that's why we have an issue with the rear yard theft.
So we're just trying to conform to the neighborhood as a whole,
and that's why we're having these refusals.
Architectural plans and drawings, let me just, again at the request of the neighborhood,
we are decreasing the proposed unit count from three residential units to two, but I
just want to show you the rendering, get to it, my computer is slow today.
I apologize for the tardiness, but as you can see here, we are trying to mimic what's
in the rest of the neighborhood with this front porch, and if my computer was going to
cooperate, I would show you pictures showing other properties on the next block over which
have front porches so we're just mimicking those and uh again most importantly um our letter of
support uh and i can give you know if you know if the board wants me to go through the floor
plans i can go through the floor plans i'm just trying to be brief because we appreciate that
yeah but again most importantly they are in support of a two-family dwelling so we would
ask for a proviso maximum two units with that being said um mr wise can you virtually raise
Raise your hand.
The wise has been allowed to speak.
Hello.
Hi, please spell your full name, sir, and I'll swear you in.
Yes, Brian, B-R-I-A-N, Wise, W-I-S-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Mr. Mackinson?
Mr. Wise, you heard everything I stated today.
Yes, I did.
And is it true and correct?
Yes, it is.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
All right, thank you.
Thank you.
Any questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
miss barbara carroll has her hand raised i have allowed her to speak sir
you good afternoon chairman good afternoon ma'am please i'm sorry ma'am please spell your full
it is b-a-r-b-a-r-a last name carol c-a-r-r-o-l-l you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
truth nothing but the truth yes
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
I know you've been waiting long, so please proceed.
Okay, so we have an interest at 3940 West Girard, which is just one property over.
3936 belongs to the church, as well as 3938 through 40.
3932 we're in um belongs to someone else this particular property being built in the middle
of two vacant structures and we're not sure because we have not seen the plan
how much of it going back is going to be extended onto the property of 3936 which we owned
so and we have not had any more communication since the first meeting that we had
stating that we were in opposition to this there has been no notices sent out to the community
there was one zoning notice posted on the board in front of the property and unless you were
looking for it you would not see it the the current block captain of the 3900 block of
west gerard was not in receipt of any notice and her address is only 3926 which is right across
the street that's one issue the second issue if you go east of the 3934 those have porch houses
if you go to the west all of those do not have porch fronts so that becomes an issue
but the total the biggest issue is how much of his property when he extends it back is going to cut
into ours on 39 36 and mind you that that is a church a very lively church thank you
So, Mr. Notkinson, could you briefly address the issue of the depth of your property versus the property next door?
So, Mr. Chair and Mrs. Carroll, we cannot build on someone else's land.
So we're not going to our building structures cannot extend to someone else's land.
And Mrs. Carroll, we did have a certified RCO meeting.
um if and i believe i said stated at the meeting to anyone who attended um i'm more than happy to
talk about construction related issues you can email me at the spelling my name alan a-l-a-n
dot knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n at knockamson.com so first name dot last name at last name.com and
I'll put you in touch with the owner of the property because we want to and we're required
to work with any adjacent neighbors and property owners as part of the building permit process.
I think the question probably was how far beyond 39, 36 would your project extend, but
I could be wrong.
Anyway, thank you for reaching out and letting the lady know you'll reach out to her.
Anyone else to testify?
Ms. Lorraine Logan, with her hand raised, I have allowed her to speak, sir.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Hi, please spell your full name, ma'am.
L-O-R-R-A-I-N-E, Logan is the last name, L-O-G-A-N as in Nancy.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I affirm.
Please proceed.
Yes. My name is Lorraine Logan. I am the pastor of the Revival Center Church located at 3938-40
West Gerrard Avenue. We also own the property at 3936 West Gerrard Avenue. And I want to go
back to the first mention of the RCO certified meeting that was planned. We are still
having issues with not getting notification of the initial meeting. The neighborhood was not
informed properly. I actually got a call at my home to say that there's some people in the yard
and I think you need to get here. And that's how myself as well as some other neighbors that were
just grabbed at the last minute to find out what was going on with that particular property.
and we we still have not gotten answers to why the neighborhood wasn't uh notified as well as
I got a text today from the block captain after I asked her was she going to get on the zoom today
After I asked her was she going to get on the Zoom today, she said no one knows of the Zoom
she said no one knows
meeting on today. So I was able to forward her the information and she was able to get as many
people at the last minute to get on this Zoom today. So we have concerns about things not
properly being done. I believe that the information is supposed to go out to the residents in a
certain circumference of area and they have not in my opinion have done things truthfully uh i know
he said a certified rco meeting i was at that meeting um the second issue was that um i i
believe that they have done their due diligence to notice that there are there are four lots
can i interrupt you for i need to interrupt you you just said you what you did attend the meeting
I was at the meeting because at while the meeting was going on, someone from my church congregation saw that a meeting was going on in the lot and they had concerns as to what was going on there.
So I left my home to come see. And that's when I actually found out about the meeting when it was actually going on.
but there were other neighbors from the community that that did not know about the meeting until the
actual meeting like they didn't receive the notification the letter so this is the second
time this has happened concerning this property um there are four lots that we are sharing where
one address is 3936, 3934, 3932, and 1144 Union Street. So the lots are different in size. 1172
is my lot. 1172 square feet is 3944. 1360 is square feet, and then 711 is square feet of the
the side parcel so we do have concerns about making sure that if something is built there
that they have done their homework to find out what is really their dimensions of the four
properties that are owned by that um with that lot that's there that corner we're only talking
about one property 39 34 right okay so there are four properties on four four uh ownerships of that
land so we're saying that we're only we're only your questions and concerns have should be related
to 39 34 west okay all right so we want to make sure that they whatever's built there if something
is built that they do stay within their property guidelines is that is that's the best way to say
it. The other thing is there are no porches on our particular block. All the buildings are
commercial, but the exception of two, and those are enclosed porches. They may be on the other
side of the street. That's a separation where Union Street is. So they're not conforming with
what's on the block. I know at the meeting that we had two months ago, it was a discussion that
the community would have wanted to still have commercial residency or commercial building
there versus housing because we are overwhelmed with housing in the unit which leads to parking
issues um vandalism which we've had our church let me interrupt again the meeting just you just
referenced the meeting of a couple of months ago was that a meeting as it related in regards to