okay all right questions for me go ahead no no no and that's that that's all that's all that you
would like to uh say to the board correct yes yes okay questions from the board no chair no mr
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, Chairman, and good morning, David Fecta with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from residential single family to residential multifamily.
The appellant appears to have built a roof deck without the benefit of permits.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board deny the proposed dimensional variance for a roof deck setback.
Thank you.
MI 2023-005-983-4501 Whittaker Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you.
You have your votes, counsel.
Thank you.
May I be excused?
All right.
See you.
Number six, MI 2023-005-991-427-Moore Street.
Vito Canuso is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from Council Member Squilla.
There's no RCO letter, but there was a meeting held 11-13-23 by East Passion Crossing Civic Association.
Mr. Canuso.
Vito is coming in as a panelist.
Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with this property.
Would you repeat that address?
So, 427 Moistre.
Yes, okay. I'm sorry.
I refer to a RCO, which was not the I said I said there's no RCO letter at this point, but we know there wasn't me.
I said, I said, there's no RCO letter at this point, but we know there was a meeting 1123.
Right.
Why don't we do this?
Why don't we, for the record, state your name and let me swear you in first.
You know, B-I-T-O, Canuso, C-A-N-U-S-O, attorney for the owners of the property, Anthony Mulgarry and Hugo Pellella.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits?
Yes, sir.
Excuse me.
Please continue and share your screen.
May I share the screen, please?
Please.
Please.
I have presented a PowerPoint for 427 Moore Street, which consists of various items, and I will hopefully expedite this proceeding by going down.
The first picture is a picture of the vacant lot, which is the subject property today.
My clients were negotiating with the former owners of the property when there was an existing property, an existing building on this property.
And if we go down to the first set of pictures, you will see the lot in the center after the city demolition of the existing property and on either side and to the right is property 425 Moore Street and to the left is the property 429 Moore Street.
Both are which typical row home residential properties.
Now, the picture to the left, you will see is a picture of the then existing building on that slot, which was, again, another typical looking residential building,
which, to the best of our knowledge, was always occupied as a residential building.
To the right, you'll see other pictures of the building when it existed prior to the purchase by my client during the negotiations.
During negotiations to purchase the building, the city demolished the property and then resulted in the vacant lot.
We are proposing a single-family residence, and I have submitted the renderings prepared by the architect, Toner, along with, you'll see later in the presentation, the plans for the individual floors and the layout for what I consider a typical
three-story residential property building, which would be consistent with RSA 5 zoning.
I'm sorry, RSA 5 zoning is the plans as presented by the architect.
You will see that we sent notices of the hearing that was held in December before the RCO. We mailed the necessary documents.
You'll see, like I said, here's the architectural plans for the proposed single-family residence, which I believe are all consistent with the zoning requirements for a property in a RSA-5 zoning classification.
Unfortunately, this property is zoned as a CXM2, which would not permit only residential property use on this property.
And this would be totally new construction we're proposing, which would be consistent with the majority of the properties, buildings on that block of 400 block of.
properties, buildings on that block of 400 block of Moore Street. I have presented the copy of the
deed as required. Here's a copy of the application for the original plans, the tax certification that
is required, and here is the application for appeal before this board. And there's the zoning
notice, the notice of the hearing, and here is the picture of the posting at the property
of this scheduled hearing. This is my entry of appearance. Now, I'm presenting pictures of the
various properties, various buildings on that 400 block of Moore Street, and the vast majority
of those buildings on that block are used for residential purposes. Now, the property,
as you saw at 425 and the property at 429, are zoned commercial as this lot, though obviously
they're only being utilized as residential, and there is no commercial use of either of those
two adjoining properties. We have determined as a result of a survey of all the uses along
the south side of Moore Street, which would be the even number side of the block, that all of
those properties are zoned for residential use, are occupied as residents. And I have various
pictures of the properties on the south side of the street attached. And the one property located
at 416, and that's a double lot, I believe it's 416 and 418 on the south side, is an open patio
utilized by the property owner of 412 Moor Street.
As we indicated, we had attended a meeting with the Dickinson Square residents.
At that meeting, there were no immediate area residents,
But the residents from that community group that were present did have various questions of myself and the owner who was present at the meeting.
And those questions were primarily directed in the area of how the construction would take place.
They were concerned that the construction would be done in a safe and proper manner and that they were concerned about the fact that none of the construction process would in any way damage or in any way conflict with the neighbors.
And we made representations to them that we had. My client has been involved in construction for numerous time period, is capable and has never had any problem with the construction process of his previous endeavors to construct property, residential property in the city of Philadelphia.
Council, just for the record, you mentioned Dickinson Square, but our records show that East Pachonk's Crossing Civic Association is the RCO. Is that correct?
No, we were notified, and Dickinson Square, I think geographically, has control over this.
That's the meeting we attended on, I believe the date was December 19th.
I couldn't be mistaken.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillier. I just verified that Dickinson Square is the assigned RCO. And we just got from the council office the meeting summary form. And their vote was in opposition. There was not an explanation. And the vote was, I'm sorry, I'm going to give you the vote, 12 in opposition and two in non-opposition.
Okay, thank you.
And Mr. Canuso, I can forward that to you if you have not received it.
And like I said, none of the discussion that evening involved any questions about the fact that we were proposing this residential use of this lot, though it had a commercial zoning classification.
The questions were, and justifiably,
And justifiably, they were concerned about the construction process and how it would affect the neighborhood.
they were concerned about the construction process
and how it would affect the construction process.
And I think we properly addressed all their concerns.
We were asked to excuse ourselves and were not invited to return.
They said that the executive board would take a vote and then, well, that's the result of the executive board, I believe, voting on our application.
Well, we have also submitted and I can share with you, we sought the support of the immediate neighbors and we have presented signatures and there's a copy of the three petitions that were circulated.
And I would ask them to be included in this record today, which consists of 14 signatures in favor of this proposed residential use of the property, and they were all occupants of that block.
There are also on the two corners, one on the southwest corner of 4th and Moore Street, that is a bistro, cafe, and a residential on the second level.
And there's a signature from the occupant of the second floor on our petition.
Also, there is a signature from a resident on Pierce Street, which is the
street which is just north of this Moore Street and runs parallel east-west to Moore Street
in support of our application.
And there is one signature from a resident on Dudley Street,
which is a residential street.
Mr. Canoes, so why don't you want to make sure
that we have copies of those?
And if you would, would you forward that to our council?
They were sent on March 7th to council and to the board.
I have a copy of them here.
Can you see this?
And then this is the one where I'm addressing right now.
There are signatures from residents on the 1,800 block of South 4th Street and from the 600 block of Moore Street in favor.
I think I can get
there's two other documents
I'm not sure how
I transfer them but they have
all been submitted and as I
said they are the
residents of the immediate
area most of them are
signatures of people that live on the
400 block of
Moor Street
I can't explain why this property that has obviously been utilized as residents in the past and has adjoining properties, both of which are residential, is classified other than as a RSA 5, which is consistent with all of the properties located on the south side of Moore Street.
And as a result of that, we believe that our request to utilize this lot for continued residential use is consistent with the other zoning in the neighborhood.
It does not seem practical that you would put a commercial in the middle of two existing residential on a lot that of this size, which is a typical row home lot, which would permit the construction of a single family residence, which is consistent with the other majority uses of the lots on this block.
Okay, and just for the record, I noticed that Council Member Squilla wrote,
we do not typically oppose single-family proposals, but will support the community and their opposition.
Why don't you bring your client on?
There's a Mr. Mulgari, I believe, is present.
I'm not sure Mr. Palello is available.
Mr. Mulgari, would you make yourself available, please?
Mr. Mulgarry, would you make yourself available, please?
Anthony Mulgarry has been allowed to speak.
Good morning, sir. Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court's stenography?
Certainly. Anthony Mulgarry, A-N-T-H-O-N-Y-M-A-U-G-E-R-I.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
So, Mr. Mulgarry, you are the owner of the property located at 427 Moore Street.
That is correct.
And you began negotiations for the purchase of this property prior to any demolition and a building existing at that location.
Am I correct, sir?
That is correct also.
so. And what was the building or structure that was at that building during those negotiations?
It was a residential building. And that is shown in the pictures that we previously presented to
the board and addressed at my initial presentation to the board. Am I correct, sir? That is correct.
Now, Mr. Mogheri, did you hear the other representations I made to the board today
and describe the various exhibits that have been presented?
Yes, I do.
And do you adopt those representations and those documents
as those that should be considered by the board
in considering this application favorably?
Thank you.
Counsel, I don't have the board ask questions,
but just for point of information,
the only reason we have one refusal,
that's the cmx2 zoning district am i correct correct okay thank you questions from the board
no mr chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
mr canuso did you receive a copy of the meeting summary form from the rco
no okay i will forward it to you thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands planning commission thank you chair bergman and good morning david fechta with
the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends a change
in zoning at this location from commercial mixed use to residential multifamily the zoning on this
block dates to 1979 under the proposed zoning the use would be allowed by right the city planning
commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variants for not providing a commercial
Thank you. MI 2023-005-991-427 Moore Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, man. We be excused.
You can.
Thank you, sir.
Number 11, MI 2023, 005-928-1238 Bucknell Street. Lee Esley is the attorney for the owner. There's a letter of support from Point Breeze Community Development Coalition and a letter of support from Council President Johnson.
Good morning, Mr. Esley. You were already sworn once today. Could you just state your name for
the record? Yes. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Lee Elsie. Right. And could you also identify your
client and the relationship to this property? Yes, my client for the property is Miss Trin
Nguyen. She's actually not able to attend, but her spouse, Mr. Hugh Duong, who is her husband,
but is not on the deed, I believe is in attendance. Our vice chair has a few questions.
good morning council do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy
i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed
and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
yes we have thank you please proceed and share your screen