Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
This concerns 2006 Pemberton Street.
On the call with me is Stanton Kuklik, who is the owner as well as the architect, Julie
This is my table of contents containing exhibits AA through A10, and I'll walk through these.
appearance statement.
This is the refusal. It's a pretty straightforward matter, basically. My client is the owner of a
two-story home on the 200 block of Pemberton Street. He's going to put a third floor on his
home, and the second and third floor are going to impinge a little bit on the rear yard so that the
required 75% open lot area is going to be reduced to actually 80% because we actually
expanded the building beyond the 78%. So we still have the same size rear yard and I'll show you in
the photographs that the rear yard has not changed, simply the building above it, cantilevers over the
yard and we did that so we could match the depth of the newly constructed house next door.
We have a letter of support from Sazna.
They explain what we presented, which I will explain to the board.
And the vote was nine, support, and no opposition whatsoever.
This is an existing property under construction, which I was before the board.
This is an existing property under construction, which I was before the board on about a year and a half ago.
We got approvals for this.
This is my client's property to the right.
Right here, we're going to keep the first two floors and add a third floor.
This is the rear of the property.
So the second floor will come out beyond the first floor wall by about two feet.
And then the third floor will match the depth of the second floor.
This is probably the best picture to give you a feel of what's going to happen.
So again, the second floor will come out and meet the depth of the house next door, as will the third floor.
Again, some more perspective shots.
The rear yard depth will not change whatsoever.
But because of the cantilever, you can see the house next door is about two feet deeper than our house or my client's house.
And so just to make for construction ease, we ended up matching the depth of that just on the second and third floor.
And because of the overhang, the L&I examiner, rightly so, identifies that as a shrinkage of the rear yard when in actuality, the footprint of the rear yard will not change at all.
Again, just some more perspective photographs to give the board an idea.
Not that you don't know where Pemberton Street is, but it's in the Graduate Hospital area.
And these are the plans.
First of all, we did have some revisions.
So we have a proviso plan as well as one page.
And these are numerous plan changes that we made.
And we've tried to outline them as much as possible.
And I stand corrected.
There's two pages of revised plans, A1 and A2.
Yeah, that's what I have on my notes, two pages.
So basically, we changed the mansert roof in the front.
We didn't get a refusal for that, but since the plans have changed, we did point that out in our proviso form.
But here's a real key change, Mr. Chairman, is we have cantilevered the rear second and third floor.
I said two feet by, it's more like three and a half to four feet.
And again, that will match the depth of the house next door.
This is the final product of the home.
We'll have new Manser roof, simulated shingles on the top.
And the only thing I wanted to point out is we have a tax printout from the City of Philadelphia
indicating that there are no real estate taxes paid.
We could not get a certification, but there are no real estate taxes due in any way.
So that's really it in a nutshell.
We're increasing the open space.
It should be 75%.
We're increasing it by 5% to 80%, and we see that as a de minimis variance request,
and that is really the only refusal before the board today.
We have the support of SASNA
as well as the neighbors on both sides.
And with that, I rest.
Do you have a client to adopt your testimony?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Kukla, can you raise your hand?
He was on the call.
We'll stipulate you being an officer of court,
your client would have his top.
sir i'm on can you guys hear me okay good thank you spell your first and last name sir uh first
name stanton s is in sam t-a-n-t-o-n last name k is in kangaroo u-k-l-i-c-k cookbook you swear
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes thank you mr clinton good
afternoon mr cookbook how are you today i'm well thank you for uh everything great uh were you on
the call and did you hear my testimony yes i did and if you had the opportunity to testify would
you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct absolutely all right thanks a lot
thank you questions from the board no no anyone else would like to testify in this case please
raise your hand there are no hints at this time sir thank you planning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa 5 single family residential at this
location we feel the reduction in open space is de minimis accordingly the planning commission
recommends the board grant the variance thank you thank you peter mi 2021-003-337-2006
pemberton street my vote is yes with the proviso revised plans two pages approved today
carol tenere my vote is yes with proviso professor plaza yes with proviso james snell yes with proviso
Confessor Plaza, yes, with proviso.
James Snell, yes, with proviso.
Thank you.
To the court reporter, we have three, I'm sorry, four cases left.
And I know Carol is going to be leaving shortly.
Do you need a break?
Chair, it's really up to you.
I can keep going or I can take a break as you wish.
I don't think there's any, doesn't look anything controversial.
If it is, we'll stop and give you a break.
All right.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
So case number six, MI 2021-003-341-2217 Aspen Street.
Mr. Clinton, you are the attorney of record again.
There's a letter of non-opposition from Fairmont Civic Association.
Just identify yourself, Henry, for the record.
You've already been sworn in, and Ms. Denary will have some questions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Henry Clinton, Queen Memorial Building, 1313 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia PA, 19146.
Mr. Clinton, do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Can I get away with this? Have you emailed the exhibit packet with everything in it that you
know has to be in it? And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of you, Bob.
Thank you. You may proceed.
Thank you.
This is 2217 Aspen Street.
The issue before the board today
concerned two-dimensional variances.
Table of contents exhibits AA through A10,
which I will walk through as necessary.
Appearance statement.
Here's a refusal.
So there's two refusals, both as I say, dimensional.
one is for open space. Again, this is the de minimis issue. The requirement is 80%.
We're going to occupy 82.5%. Then the other refusal concerns a rear yard depth.
And as I will show the board as we walk through the presentation,
we are simply moving the rear yard from the ground grade level to the first floor level,
and I'll explain why. This is a letter of non-opposition from the Fairmount Civic Association.
We presented to them, explained the situation, and I'll explain it to the board,
but they go through pretty meticulously the background, the site, the proposed development,
and one thing I'd just like to point out to the board, in the letter it says,
although the majority of the community voted in support of the variance,
the option of non-opposition was not presented. So this is a letter of non-opposition, but
the vote was about 80% in favor of this project. We also have an email from Bill Greenlee,
the Democratic leader in the 15th Ward, supporting the project. So this is an existing project. What
happened was the builder decided to get a buy-write project on this corner of Kroski and
Aspen Street. It formerly was six one-story garages. So during the course of constructing
this building, one of the neighbors who lives in the neighborhood and has several children
attending the local schools, who is my client, Matt Gorman and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Gorman,
walked by the project and said they really liked it and they wanted to buy it. But they wanted to
buy it and have a another garage door opening at the rear of the property where the yard was
and instead they're going to move the yard to the second floor living area right off their living
room because it really doesn't make sense to have a rear yard with children if you're going to have
a garage here you have to walk through the garage to get to the yard so they're going to put the
yard outside their living area and I can show you that on the floor plans but one of the concerns
was at the community group was that the garage was already partially built and that really was
on the builder he took full responsibility for that and it's really not an issue before the
board right now but it was a concern and we understand it with the community group
so i took this picture myself just to show the board that this would would be the yard my client
had nothing to do obviously with the construction of it and the builder left the existing walls that
were there he did not put a roof on the garage he was not so presumptuous as to to feel that he
would get a zoning board approval simply what he did was build i think he put about 22 blocks
on the front wall of the garage in the hope that this request would be granted
we also added a pilot house but again that's not before the board it's not part of the refusal
Again, there's some more pictures of the rear yard, and this is Croskey Street looking north.
Again, there's some more pictures of the rear yard.
And this is across.
Again, picture of the side of the property.
More pictures showing the zoning notices.
Here are the plans for the property.
So basically, this is a buy-write project here.
Before the board today is we are eliminating the yard, open space, moving it to the first floor, and putting a deck there.
that's simply the only issue before the board as well as the open space issue but i think that i
have addressed that by arguing that it's a de minimis 2.5 variance so this is what the property
used to look like for 20 or 30 years three garage openings each two bay garages so this is 100
coverage of the corner of krosky and aspen and our building also will cover 100 of the corner
this was the original by right project where there was an open space in the rear yard
this is our proposal we're going to have a garage another garage bay with the yard area above the
garage this would be the second floor and as i said to the board in the very beginning the idea
of putting um and i'm calling it the yard it may be a stretch but it's a deck above the first floor
is that the living area and the dining area in the kitchen are right here on the second floor
and it makes sense to have your open space here rather than on the first floor
where you would have to go you know through the property through the property to get to the rear
yard and and you'd have to go through the garage to get to it it really doesn't doesn't make sense
from a construction point of view.
So these are the floor plans.
I certainly can go through them,
but it's a four-story project under 38 feet
with a rooftop deck.
You can summarize, Mr. Clinton, that would be helpful.
So this is basically a pictorial view
of what's going on here.
This is going to be the final product of the project.
And it's really not affecting any light and air.
it's in harmony with what the neighbors are okay with
and it's in harmony with the code
and I think based on the presentation
and all the photographs
I think I can basically ask the board
if they have any questions
and this is probably the best view
of what we're trying to do here
just add another bay with a rooftop
excuse me, with a deck above that third bay
Do you have a client to adopt your testimony?
Yes, Mr. Gorman, can you raise your hand so you can be unmuted?
Mr. Gorman has been allowed to speak.
Thank you. Mr. Gorman, please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
Matthew Gorman, M-A-T-T-H-E-W-G-O-R-M-A-N.
We're firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Mr. Clinton?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Gorman, have you heard my testimony?
i have okay and if you had the opportunity to testify would you adopt my testimony as
your own and that's true and correct i would thank you very much mr gorman questions from
the board no sir anyone else to testify in this case please raise your hand