And Tanya, I forgot to ask who's the administrator today.
We have the smooth sounds of Jason Hand.
And are we ready to go?
No, Chair, if we can wait for one moment.
No, let me know.
Yes, Lakeisha will step in and let you know.
chair we have 47 attendees you may start when you wish again my apologies i had some technical
problems that's why we're beginning a little bit late this morning good morning again everyone my
name is Frankie Chico. I'm the chair of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. I'll be participating
in today's hearing along with our vice chair, Ms. Carol Denary, board secretary, confessor
plaza, and board member.
Present.
Present.
Present.
Mr. Thomas Holliman. I know. It's one of those days. I apologize. All right. Also,
our Board Administrator, Mr. Jason Hand, and our Board Attorney, Ms. Sharon Saleta, are also in
attendance, as is our Zoning Board Administrator, Ms. Tanya Saleta. For those of you who haven't
yet participated in one of our virtual hearings, I'll go through some of the basics of what you
can expect. First, we will be administering oaths to individual participants prior to their
testimony. Second, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded and that
by participating you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded and that the recording will be
made available to the public by contacting Ms. Tanya Sunkit at tanya.sunkit at phila.gov.
Third, for anyone participating by phone if you wish to testify you must raise your hand
by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself. I'll repeat for anyone participating by
phone if you wish to testify you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to
unmute yourself. Finally to enter an appearance statement call google 267-270-5548 and leave
your email address and the address of the property at issue i'll repeat that as well
to enter an appearance statement call google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address
and the address of the property at issue and i'd like to remind everyone please do not attempt
to testify in the chat any comments questions or concerns should be directed to mr hand
today's board administrator having said that
i will now read off a request for continuance on the 9 30 list case number five mi 2021
2031-003395, 2031-35 South 60th Street, that's 6-0 Street.
Continuous request was requested by Councilman Johnson, and I believe the RCO also requested the continuance.
Anyone object to that case being continued, please raise your hand.
only if you object to that particular case being continued.
No hands, Chair.
Chair, I will now ask if anyone would like to request a continuance or withdrawal.
Chair, you can now call number six.
Chair, you can now call number six as continued. Mr.
Nockamson confirms that he has no objection.
Yes, that's Jared Klein.
Jared Klein.
Sorry.
Number five, I just, I read that into the record, was Alan Nockamson.
60th Street, yes, that's right. I'm sorry, I was signed off for a moment.
No worries, no worries. All right, anyone, would anyone else like to request a continuance or
withdrawal for the 930 list if so please raise your hand raise your hand if you're requesting
Raise your hand if you're requesting a continuance or withdrawal.
a continuance or withdrawal
Mr. Chair, Mr. Sloan Foulkes had his hand raised. I have allowed him to speak.
Thank you, Mr. Foulkes. Please identify yourself and I'll swear you in. Spell your name.
Good morning, Chairman DiCicco, ZBA Board. My name is Sloan Foulkes, S-L-O-A-N-E-F-S in Fire, O-L-K-S,
representing the Office of Counseling Maria Caglione Sanchez, Room 508 City Hall.
I swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
I do, sir. Thank you. Our office would like to request a continuance for case number MI2021-003642001 Orthodox Street. The applicant has not met with the coordinating RCO. They will intend to meet the second week of December. So we're requesting the case be continued until after they have their meeting.
what street was that what's the street address number four uh mr chair orthodox okay thank you
carol all right mi 2021-003-664-2001 orthodox street is continued must be heard anyone else
requesting a continuance or withdrawal please raise your hand
no further answers this time Mr. Chair thank you having said that we will now proceed with
our regular list 930 list case number one MI 2021-003387 1200 South Carlisle Street
Attorneys of record, it looks like it's Dawn Tancredi and Alex Goldberg.
East Point Breeze neighbors sent a letter of opposition.
Good morning, Ms. Tancredi.
Please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
Good morning.
Dawn Tancredi.
It's D-A-W-N.
my last name is t-a-n-c-r-e-d-i do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes thank you ms tenere has a few questions for you hi good morning do you swear
oh you just got sworn in to also agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i do and i would ask that agada reister be added as a panelist she's the architect
in this matter. And my client is also on the phone. That's Michael Carosella. And there will
be a phone number. The last four digits are 7396. I'm sorry. Can I just interject a question?
Ms. Tancredi, would Agata have to share her screen at all? Is she presenting or are you presenting?
i'm going to present okay so she only needs audio thank you only audio she may want to share her
screen separately okay have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax
compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos and or 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 okay you may
proceed. Well, before we begin, Dawn, the other two witnesses you spoke of, if they can raise
their hand, we can get them, I can swear them in. That way, in case they do testify, we'll already
have sworn, they already will have been sworn in. Do we have their names again? Oh, sorry.
One was Michael Carosello, and who was the other one?
Agata Reister.
Sorry, I was trying to share my screen at the same time.
I was distracted.
It's okay.
Don't worry.
Mr. Chair, excuse me.
We have a person with their hand raised with the number ending in 7396.
That's Michael Carosello.
We'll get him on.
Allowed to speak or be promoted?
Speak only.
Audio.
Ms. Reister's hand was up a moment ago, but it all went down.
Okay, I got her now.
They've both been allowed to speak.
Okay, ladies first.
Good morning, board.
Good morning, Dawn.
Good morning.
Good morning, ma'am.
Please spell your first and last name.
Agatha Reister.
A-G-A-T-A, last name, R-E-I-S-T-E-R.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do okay now we'll go to the gentleman spell your full name and i'll swear you in
i do okay now we'll go to the gentleman spell your full name and i'll swear you in
hello my name is michael carosella my first name is m-i-c-h-a-e-l last name's carosella c-a-r-o-s-e-l-l-a
good morning good morning and do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes i do thank you and miss tancredi please proceed okay thank you so good morning
Again, my name is Dawn Tancredi. I'm here on behalf of 1200 South Carlisle Street, LLC, the owner of 1200 South Carlisle Street.
And with me here today, as I mentioned, is Michael Carosella on behalf of the LLC and Agata Reister from Landmark Architectural Design, the architects that prepared the plans.
I do ask that the submission materials we turned in be incorporated into the record.
So what we have here is a property that was recently acquired by my client.
The property is situated at the corner of Carlisle and Federal Street, a small street between Broad and 15th Street.
The property sits adjacent to a string of single-family homes on Carlisle Street.
which can be seen in the photos before you.
As for Federal Street, it's transitioning away from commercial uses such as auto repair and becoming more residential.
For example, 42 dwelling units were approved to be built across the street just last year.
The property is currently used for four private parking spaces and one handicapped parking space.
The site has been known for a long-standing and undesirable loitering, repeated graffiti, and dumping of trash.
Prior to the property being used as a parking lot, it was used as a duplex.
And all of this information can be found in the archives which have been submitted to this board.
The goal is to clean up the site and construct a single-family home.
There's no off-street parking, which means eyes will be added to the street level.
In fact, if you take a look at this block, this would be the only eyes on the street
at street level on federal. In addition, the existing curb cuts will be eliminated
and two to three parking spaces will be added to the street. The proposal keeps the density low.
We did meet with the RCO, East Point Breeze neighbors. There was a handful of people at the meeting, mostly board members. The only near neighbor who attended the meeting supported the proposal.
In addition, my client spoke to the immediate adjacent neighbor on Federal Street who supports the project.
We submitted a petition showing other near neighbors on South Carlisle and Federal Street support the project.
Other members of the RCO board opposed the application because they want commercial included on the ground floor,
even though commercial space has not existed at this property for over 25 years.
There was no opposition to the minor dimensional variances.
So as for a commercial space here, it's not viable at this location.
There would be approximately 400 to 600 square feet of usable space.
It's not enough room for a viable business here.
There's not enough foot traffic to support a business, even a coffee shop.
It's difficult to be a destination spot since Federal Street is often jammed up with medical vehicles letting people out at the DeVita Dialysis Center down the street.
There's a nearby restaurant on Federal Street, Boom Cachacho.
They have empty tables inside and they rely on their large kitchen to support online orders.
In fact, a commercial space at this location could cause more burdens to the community than advantages.
For example, a loading space would be needed, which would mean no parking spaces would be added to the street.
Odors from nearby odors would permeate the adjacent neighbors' homes.
and then in addition my client built and owns commercial space right around the corner at 1221
south broad street and he also has other commercial spaces in the neighborhood so he knows firsthand
about the struggle to obtain commercial tenants and the inability to find a tenant for such a
to obtain commercial tenants and the inability to find a tenant for such a small space that does not
face a major thoroughfare such as Broad or Washington Avenue. With that I would ask Agata
Agata, you're muted.
Can the board hear me?
Yes, we can.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Dawn, could you please pull up the zoning map or if I can have the ability to share?
Yeah, you can share your own screen if that's easier.
No, she doesn't have the authority.
Jason, can you promote her, please?
Right away, ma'am.
Ms. Reister has been promoted to panelist.
In case you are not sure, you are muted still.
Can everybody see my screen with the zone map?
What I would like to point out, what I would like to point out is
The exhibit that Donna has shared, we are adjacent to, it's a pocket of single-family homes that are only two stories tall.
As you can see, this is the location.
It's a small wing that actually contains our lot and this property, the small two-story single-family home that also falls in the CMX2.
These lots comparably are very small to other pockets of CMX1 or CMX2.
and actually most of them are CMX1, which would only allow a single family on the upper floors.
And as you travel further down Federal Street, you can see that the corners are not primarily
commercial. There is a lot of residential corners all along Federal Street, and our lot is actually
comparably quite smaller than other commercially designated lots that we are proposing.
The reason why our client asks for single family is simply the context.
We are adjacent to very small homes, providing a three to four story parcel with a four story building with commercial at ground would force basically this portion to become quite out of scale and dwarf the little homes that you see in here.
We felt that proposing single-family was way less invasive than a duplex with commercial space at grade.
Also, a four-story building with commercial space would force the client to place the commercial at complete grade for accessible entrance.
and also we would have to provide a full basement which would force us to underpin the adjacent
building. Underpinning, as you know, is very unstable. These homes are over 100 years old.
They're a rubble foundation. That was another reason why our client chose to build a single
family with an elevated first floor without the need to underpin and endanger potentially the
occupant of the adjacent structure. We also wanted to bring to your attention that providing
the commercial space would allow us for a space for about 600 square feet, a coffee shop. Most of
the coffee shops privately owned, they close about 2.30, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The rest of the
time, the building, the ground floor is completely empty. And as you can see, the street portion in
here. All of these businesses are businesses that leave about five o'clock, right adjacent to us.
This portion in here, the dialysis center, this closes up, it's trash behind. There's no eyes
really on the street. So you're walking basically the entire block all the way down without any
connection um it's it's we felt that this was another reason why it was
We felt that this was another reason why it was the right thing to do to propose a single
family with living room and kitchen and dining room right on the first floor.
That was our first really reaction to the context of the property.
As Odon mentioned, adding the parking back to the street was also a beneficiary and providing
quality materials providing a home that is more in scale with the adjacent homes that
is not proposing a use there's different that's already been there we felt that it was all very
appropriate and also not to mention that providing a single family home that our client is looking
to keep as a rental property brings a tenant that stays there a whole lot longer than maybe a small