So we are within Woodbridge Road is sort of a little curve off here, kind of a standard model built duplex, semi-attached or fully attached building.
they're essentially all identical this is the existing look at the right-of-way plus front yard
setback in front of the building this is the rear of the building I'll jump back to the first one so
they are essentially a semi-detached unit so this fence line that stretches along here is the border
of the property they are set back from it we're not changing anything about the building we're
just converting a garage to a living space to be used by the existing first floor, kind of first
floor, first two floors, I guess, bi-level unit. Within the structure, there's already two meters,
there's three, two gas meters, there's three electrical meters, one for the common area,
one for the upper unit one for the lower unit. Now the part where this gets a little bit
complicated is there's a the entrance shares a common fire rated stairwell that takes you up
to the second floor to enter into the lower unit and the third floor to enter into the upper unit.
Now, because there's no direct passageway between the garage conversion and the second floor, which is the lowest of the previously permitting existing units, L&I will not issue us a by-right transfer without adding in an interior stair, which we're proposing to do in order to resolve this violation.
So here is the existing lowest unit.
This was previously a garage space,
which has been converted to additional living space
for the lower unit.
Here is the lower unit on the second floor.
It's got its own laundry.
It's got full kitchen, full bathroom.
Here is an aerial kind of close up on the street.
Now we've got a few sections within that little carve out.
one of the things that came up in the community meeting in which we had neighbors come out to
support as well as sign a petition of support is that most everybody sort of parks two cars
in front of the building in these front yards. You'll see a lot of houses with one car as well
as some with two car. Now, we kind of scroll down a little bit. This blue dot designates
our subject property. You can see all through this, we've got the same sort of configuration
A fair number of these have converted garage spaces to interior space.
I'm not sure how many of those were done legally, but it is not an uncommon practice here.
And the parking in front is not particularly a concern that any of the neighbors had.
Now, the hardship we're seeking here has to do with this physical configuration where,
although these spaces in front of this are used for parking,
and we believe always have been used for parking.
They don't match the current definitions within the zoning board,
sorry, within the zoning code that requires a front yard
and does not allow parking within that front yard.
Here are our zoning posters.
All photographs on this page are timestamped on February 20th
by the owner, Mr. Jonathan O.
Here's a copy of the deed from July 2020.
Here is the zoning plan which shows our, sorry, I'm going to zoom in here a little bit, essentially
just calls out for an existing three-story duplex.
We're extending household living for the lower unit throughout the first floor and we're
converting this garage into household living.
and here's our sort of designation of where those two parking spots
And here's our sort of designation of where those two parking spots fit within the right-of-way.
Although, as you've seen from the picture, it's a little difficult to distinguish between where this right-of-way is and the curb.
It's sort of all sort of paved as the same thing, somewhat uniformly through that neighborhood.
Here's the refusal again.
Can I ask a question? Can you actually fit two cars in front of there?
Well, it's a little bit tight, but like a lot of areas in Philadelphia, it's what the tenants or the residents have done and always sort of have done.
There were no real concerns about parking from the community. And I think with a little bit of consideration for other tenants, I think it's perfectly possible to fit two cars there without issue.
Now, we are showing the width of these is the actual width required for a parking spot.
So it's eight foot six and a half of two spots fit between the property line and this stair.
And the actual required spot depth, sorry, width is eight foot six.
Now, the depth is a little bit tight, but as seen, the way these are configured, there's plenty of room to sort of walk past.
And that was not a concern of the neighbor, especially as we're considering these spaces is somewhat existing, not as newly converted.
Here's a plan of the units as proposed.
Now, the first floor is three bed. Sorry, the lower unit, which consists of the first and second floor is three bed, three bedroom, two bathroom, roughly two thousand three hundred square feet.
You can see we're following up this zoning plan, assuming the variance is granted with a building permit to extend an interior stair, which is something that L&I is sort of requiring in this type of situation.
And the second floor, sorry, bungling that, the third floor upper unit is a two-bedroom, one-bath, 1,100 square foot unit, which will not undergo any alteration within this process.
Now, here's a zoning section. Now, there is one additional alteration, which is the addition of an egress well in the back so that this lower area, which there's a sort of change in grade from the front to the rear, becomes a viable bedroom with the legally required egress.
Now, we are missing a letter from the RCO. We did have a meeting on December 20th of 2023. I followed up with Mr. Thomas Neville on January 25th, March 5th, and March 12th.
Now, after the meeting, they did have a voting in private. They did follow up with us and express kind of in the parking lot after the vote that they they did support the meeting.
We don't know exactly how the vote went, but based on the discussions, we had neighbors in support.
And, you know, there were concerns about potential illegal use of the building, but nothing concerning our proposed duplex with parking in the front.
And there was an expression, generally, that they didn't realize that they weren't allowed to park in the front.
Everyone parks in the front as is.
Here is the notification that was mailed on November 21st.
Here is our certification that 111 letters were mailed out.
Uh, we, the owner did go sort of door to door also with a petition to direct neighbors. We have one from, uh, 9442 Woodbridge, one from 9487 Woodbridge, uh, one from 9467 Woodbridge, I think one from 9489 Woodbridge, uh, 9446 Woodbridge as well.
Now, this is not a neighborhood that has seen a whole lot of zoning activity.
When we did look for zoning precedents, this is our subject.
We did have one up here, I think 9487, in which a variance was granted actually for a triplex,
but it looks like they actually got it permitted as a duplex.
got it permitted as a duplex.
So essentially, we're seeking this.
Essentially, we're seeking the same configuration they have.
Duplexes are by right here again, so we're not increasing.
And it is an existing duplex.
We're not increasing the density.
We're merely seeking to legalize the configuration with exterior parking.
This is from that.
This is the zoning file from that precedent.
Here's our application.
Here's our project information.
And here is our tax clearance.
Thank you.
Is your client here?
Mr. O, are you present?
I believe he is on the meeting.
Jonathan O has been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Jonathan O.
First name spelled J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N.
Last name spelled O-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Good morning, Mr. O.
Do you hear my testimony, and are you willing to adopt it?
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair, and good morning, David Fecto.
With the City Planning Commission Board and Chairman, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential two-family zoning at this location.
The previous owner appears to have converted the garage into living space without the benefit of permits.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board deny the proposed variance for a parking space in the required front yard.
Hillary, I want to hold the vote on this and see if we can't see where the RCO stands.
So let's hold this for two weeks.
And I have an attempt for the council to hear what I'm saying, an attempt to have a letter produced from the RCO.
I understand.
everything else is closed other than what we have from the rco and when we receive that we
will vote okay so that will be voted then on the 27th of march at 9 30 a.m yep okay thank you mr
counsel you okay yes we will continue to follow up and make additional attempts we will document them
And all right. Thank you very much. We're going to go to number five. MI 2023-005-983-4501
Whitaker Avenue. Jermaine Harris is the attorney. There is a letter of support from the 42nd Ward
and also a letter of non-opposition from Councilperson Lozada.
mr harris yes good morning mr harris good morning good morning say your name please
and spell for the court stenographer uh sure my name is jermaine harris i am counsel i am counsel
for the applicant. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth? I do. Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property? Sure. My client
is Juan Gonzalez, and he is the owner of this particular parcel, 4501 Whitaker Avenue. Okay,
and our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir. Yes. Good morning, council. Do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate by
yes i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is
needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
i have thank you please proceed and share your screen
Okay, this is for the legalization of a fence along the, on a property.
And let me pull up the exhibits with a roof deck, with a deck as well.
Okay. So, this is a picture of the actual posting of the notice, the hearing notice.
Okay, so...
So, this is what, this is, again, this is for legalization of this particular, of this particular deck.
Let me see if I can get clearer pictures so you guys can see, get a better sense.
So this is a rear of it.
Get a frontal image.
this is a frontal image and this is the subject property and
And. Side view. All right. I think this is the best side view that we have.
But essentially, again, what my client seeks to do is legalize this deck that was constructed.
When he constructed it, he didn't know that permits was needed and zoning was needed.
The reason why he did this is because this is a corner property, as you can see.
And there was a lot of loitering, a lot of drug sales that was happening in the area in front of, on the side of this particular building.
And so he wanted to put that structure there to deter the loitering that was happening.
so let me these are the plans of the particular property of this particular
fencing it's eight foot tall and it's the length of the building so it's 99 feet
It's 99 feet long.
And let's see here.
We have the letter of support.
This was presented in front of the 42nd Democratic Board.
This was presented on January the 18th.
It was a total of 10 participants, 10 participants from the community.
And they took no issue with this particular deck that was, and they commented that they thought that it was aesthetically pleasing to the area.
So they didn't have any issues with the particular, with this particular deck.
We also have here the summary of vote.
then we have the license uh the tax clearance as well as uh the refusal
of this this is an rsa5 yes it's an rsa5 zoning district
and this is evidence of the uh ownership by mr gonzalez but essentially
Actually, again, the reason why my client erected this is because he was just concerned about the loitering.
And since that has been erected, there has been no issues regarding that.
So I also have my client here, Mr. Gonzalez, that would be prepared to testify and offer any insight that this board may have or any questions that the board may have about the reasons why this was erected.
But with that, I would just rest.
I would ask that in light of the community support of this, we would ask that this that this be granted.
So why don't you bring your client on and have your testimony adopted?
OK. OK, sure. Mr. Gonzalez, could you please raise your hand?
Press the raise your hand so you can be promoted.
press the raise your hand so you can be promoted
Thank you.
we have a joshua horvitz with their hand raised do you think that may be your client
it may be on someone else's it may be him i mean he did call me before the hearing
so it may be it may be him on someone else's
on someone else's name it says i was saying mr horvitz is an attorney on another case
sorry so i don't know if it would be i hit the button inadvertently my apologies
okay so he did say he was on yeah he said gonzalez mr gonzalez
yeah he's calling me now and so i don't know if he's having trouble
all right so mr gonzalez has been allowed to speak hi mr gonzalez could you state your name
please and spell for the court stenographer hello hi mr gonzalez state your name and spell
for the court stenographer yes my name is juan g-o-n-z-e-a-l-e-z right do you swear or firm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel
Yes, Mr. Gonzalez, were you able to hear the testimony that I provided to this board?
Yes, yes, I'm here.
And do you agree with the testimony that I provided concerning this particular property, 4501 River to Kerr Avenue?
Yeah, I do.
do you have anything that you wish to add uh do you have anything that you wish to add it's not
necessary but do you have anything you wish to add yes uh the reason that i built this because uh
i didn't want to have my kids saved with all these things was going on next to that because i have a
corner house so everything was going around the property and stuff like that so i try to keep them
safe above it like uh my baby mom every time she goes to the deck with the kids that they
so i make you feel safe and everything and without them to be out there she should be out there with
them at the same time and whatever's going on they go back inside i mean everything is
back to normal it's not that whatever it used to be