Good morning everyone. My name is Frank DiCicco. I'm the chair of the Zoni Board of Adjustment.
I'll be participating in today's hearing along with our Vice Chair Ms. Carol Tenere,
Board Secretary Confessor Plaza, and Board Members Mr. Thomas Holloman and Mr. James Snell.
Board Administrator Lakeisha Dandy and Board Attorney Sharon Saleta are also in attendance.
For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings,
I'll go through some of the basics 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. 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 will repeat, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email
address and the address of the property at issue. I would also like to advise everyone,
please do not attempt to testify in the chat. Any comments should be directed to the board
administrator. In this case, it's Ms. LaKeisha Dandy. Before I begin, just give me a second to
get my notes together here. All right. With that being said, the following cases have been a
request for continuance number seven I believe is the first one on our list
uh two two one seven west tayoga
uh number eight on our list two three two six north park attorney moving party
number nine on our list two four oh eight north 31st street number 10 on our list
2646 North 17th Street
number 11 on our list
2709 West Allegheny Avenue
number 1
I assume that's apartment number 1 or whatever
3400 North 19th Street
4036 Spring Garden
and i believe that is all the requests for continuance that we have as of now does anyone
object to any of those to the request for continuances i just read into the record
if so please raise your hand
chair we have a jason learner with his hand up mr learner you can speak after you unmute yourself
good morning i'm sorry i just raised my hand for that uh the swearing in thing i didn't know
i have to lower it okay sorry individually thank you
anyone object to any of the cases that we've put into the record as being continued please
raise your hand there are no hands up at this time chair thank you at this time i'd like to
ask if anyone is requesting a continuance or withdrawal please raise your hand at this time
there are no hands up at this time chair thank you we'll first go through our add-on list
case number 2020 that's 001127 1614 latona street my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you uh originally i don't know
if mr knockinson is on originally we said we would vote on 12 22 annon street uh we're going
We're going to do that at 2 o'clock.
to do that at two o'clock we're still reviewing some of the materials that
We're still reviewing some of the materials that were submitted.
So calendar number 2020-002499.
1222 Annan Street.
The board will make a decision at the 2 o'clock, beginning of the 2 o'clock hearing this afternoon.
Sharon, there's a request for reconsideration.
we hear is that for today or
um that you're going to consider at two o'clock
all right i think with that again any hands up for requests for continuance or withdrawals
there's no hands up at this time chair thank you with that we can proceed okay calendar number
Number 0830, 1344 North 5th Street.
I have a Steve Masters with his hand up.
He's been promoted to panelists.
Mr. Masters, you can unmute yourself and begin speaking.
mr masters can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name please
sure good morning mr chair members of the board my name is steve masters m-a-s-t-e-r-s
my law firm is just laws i represent the applicant in this case do you swear or affirm
to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do do you also agree to wave and step
uh not in this case um madam vice chair because we have a revised uh refusal that i want to make
sure it's the correct one in the record uh for this appeal it is okay okay so this is the december
17 2020 revised uh uh refusal with two variances yes it's the one that you submitted with your
exhibit packet including the revised plans that went with it okay then i waive the reading okay
so you have emailed the exhibit packet with all the required documents including proof of ownership
tax compliance refusal or referral photos and or plans of the property five days before this
hearing and you've also met with the rco and have a letter yes that all is correct okay you may begin
Thank you, let me try to share my screen.
Members of the board, we're here on 1344 North 5th Street.
This is a vacant lot on a corner that is zoned for CMX1.
uh the the commercial use was really not compatible uh for the surrounding neighborhood
and so we uh proposed um a residential use um initially uh we were proposing four uh dwelling
units in a in a new construction uh but after meeting with the community we made a number of
different uh changes to the design and we'll walk through those but now our proposal is for
three dwelling units at this corner property. So the refusal is two. One of them is
use refusal because multifamily is not allowed when the surrounding residential zoning is an RSA5.
And we now have a dimensional refusal because the community asked us to set the house back from the front street and that impinged two feet into the rear yard.
So we have a seven foot rear yard setback as opposed to the nine foot that's required by the code.
when we met with the community several times we had good meetings and we
which resulted in a unanimous vote of support by nine attendees at the community meeting
and their letter you know reflects the concerns that they had and how
we have addressed all of their concerns we went down from four to three dwelling units
we addressed the concern about living space in the basement, we changed the setback to
uh address the concern about living space in the basement we changed the setback to
harmonize with the setbacks of the houses in the surrounding lots
uh let's do the drawings here so um
is this a good size for for members of the board to to take a look at
yes yes yes it is all right good um so uh
that's a these are two different views um of the um of the the elevation of the of the drawings we
also um i believe have our architect uh available to answer questions if that's uh uh necessary this
So these are the revised plans that we submitted to LNI in the last few months.
So we originally had our setback up to the curb and we've moved it back.
So now we have a dimensional variance of two feet in this open area.
our changes that we made as i said was the front setback we increased it we decreased the dwelling
units we reduced the rear setback we slightly increased the building height but it's still
inside the the limits of the code we added landscaping we made sure that every unit
had access to outside access through various extra doors.
We located the find where the utility trench was going to be and just added some more landscaping.
Photos. So these are our photos for the zoning poster for today's hearing.
with the refusal
Masters if you can summarize
that would be helpful
I would
I would
submit that they that this use is the best use for this lot. It's the one that the community
felt completely in support of. And we are asking the board to approve the use variants
and the dimensional variants in this case.
Do you have a client?
Yes, it's Mr. Mello. Can he raise his hand?
Mr. Mello you've been you can speak now after you unmute yourself okay good morning Mr. Mello
please identify yourself with a record spell your name uh Stephen Mello M-E-L-L-O thank you
Mr. Mello, do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Mr. Masters?
Good morning, Mr. Mello.
You've heard my testimony this morning.
Do you agree with it, and do you adopt it as your own?
With that, Mr. Chair and members of the board, we rest.
Thank you.
Any questions from the board?
Would anyone else like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
There are no hands up at this time, Chair.
Thank you. Planning Commission?
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Ian Hegarty, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Thank you. Please proceed.
mr chair members of the board this property is indicated for commercial mixed use in the
comprehensive plan the proposed variance is consistent with the recommendation in the lower
north district plan to encourage housing near parks and recreation facilities so accordingly
the planning commission has no objection to the granting of this variance thank you very much
MI 2020-0008301344 North 5th Street, my vote is yes.
1344 North 5th Street my vote is yes my vote is yes before I go is there a revised plan
um it is not um Mr. Chair because we went we wrote it to L&I and okay we just want to make
sure yeah thank you Steve thank you sure my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you Carol before you
begin i i failed to mention earlier when i did the continuance list leticia were any of the cases
that i called in to be continued have they already been continued prior to today
here this is sharon saleta i didn't um indicate it for those cases because in many of them it was
also by agreement with the rco that they were okay all right very good thank you uh thank you
uh members of the board um maybe be excused at this point you may have a good day thank you
Thank you, bye-bye.
Calendar number 0373-15018, Teresa Drive.
Anyone here for 15018, Teresa Drive?
please raise your hand. This is Sharon Saleta. This is also a case for which I have no exhibits
and that was previously listed on October 7th. Okay. MI 2020-000373
Teresa Drive
My vote is to dismiss
My vote is to dismiss
Dismiss
Dismiss
Thank you
Count your number 0
1913 West Lehigh Avenue
We have a Jeffrey Young who I'm promoting to panelists.
Thank you.
Mr. Young, you can unmute yourself and speak.
Mr. Young.
mr young
mr mr young i'm sorry yes i was muted uh good morning members of the board uh jeffrey young
can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name please
yes jeffrey young y-o-u-n-g 3900 fort road suite b philadelphia pa 19131 i am the attorney for
the property owner. Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but
the truth? Yes. You also agree to wave and stip? Yes. And have you emailed an exhibit packet with
the required documents, including 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. So we emailed the exhibit packet. Our packet
that was emailed did not contain a tax clearance. We were not able to obtain one prior to sending
the documents, but we do have a tax clearance now that I can show and will send to the board
after the hearing is over. We have met with the RCO, and we do have a letter of support from the
RCO. Okay, you may proceed. Thank you. Sure.
Good morning, Mr. Board, again, Jeffrey Young here for the representative applicant, DRS
and King Richard Enterprises, LLC, the owner of the property located at 1913 on Wesley
High Avenue.
Here is a copy of our deed to show proof of ownership.
here's a tax clearance i briefly uh mentioned uh we were able to get that tax clearance as
you see it was issued uh today
here is the a copy of the refusal um so we were refused uh for having a proposed use of a child
here is the
care center um on the first floor of the property located at 1913 west lehigh avenue um the current
zoning is rsa5 um so we were refused for that use for not being a residential use um on on the
property. And as you can see here, this is a zoning map of the property. You'll see most of the
properties are this yellow class, which is RSA 5. However, when I get to the pictures, you'll see
that this property does not fit the typical RSA 5 characteristics for properties in this
particular neighborhood. Here are plans for the property. I'll zoom in.
So folks can see a little easier. Essentially, we are proposing to use the basement and first floor as a child care center. And the second floor has two previously approved uses for apartments. So we will just be reconverting the second floor to that apartment use.
uh here so there will be two studios apartments essentially about 500 square feet apiece
here this is a map of the property we'll see we're located on the uh northwest corner of
garnett and sedgley and also across the street is uh lehigh avenue which is a major uh thorough