It's just raw down there.
So, um, we would, and by the way, there's no direct access, I don't believe, or maybe there
is direct access, and I'll ask Torrin about that, but we would agree to provide some no living in
the basement. You go up a flight of steps. Again, you have an open floor plan of a living room,
kitchen, and dining room. There's a ventilated trash closet up there. There's one bedroom here
where there's a bathroom. You have two other bedrooms, and the bathrooms are nearby. Again,
he just wants to gut this place out it's been previously used as a two-bedroom he did
He just wants to gut this place out.
It's been previously used as a two-bedroom.
He did propose to have an extension,
which he has a separate zoning permit for.
Again, we met with the community.
We previously, sorry.
Hold on, screen's getting weird.
We met with the community on September 16th at 6 p.m.
Proof that we emailed the proof of mailing to the community
on September 4th.
We mailed it to 155 addresses.
These are the addresses we mailed it to.
Proof of mailing to those addresses on September 4th.
Our application for zoning variance along with the notice of refusal
and the project information form.
Our deed to the property showing that Focus Construction LLC is the property
and they purchased it in June of 2025.
And then their Certificate of Tax Clearance showing no taxes are owed.
I would ask that Torian be sworn in.
Sir, could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer?
Torian Conner.
Get close to the mic.
Torian Conner.
T-O-R-I-A-N-C-O-N-N-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Torian, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt this in your own testimony?
Yes. And this property was marketed to you as a two-family dwelling, right?
Yes. And your intention is to continue
hopefully using it as a two-family dwelling. Yes.
And you agree to proviso no living in the basement at all.
Absolutely. Is there a direct access for the first floor unit to the basement?
Yes, there is. Okay. Through the
through the what? Through the kitchen. Okay. Thank you.
Alan, I know you were surprised,
but tell me what you think happened at the meeting.
I mean, what happened?
I don't know.
Rolando Sanchez, again, good community representative.
I think a lot of the meeting
had more to do with the taxes weren't paid.
And he's like, we're in front of him a lot.
He's like, you know better.
You have to pay your taxes.
He said that to you?
He said it to me, and I stated, I know Rolando.
he's going to pay his taxes, but let's focus on this. And there really wasn't much of a discussion
and pushback about the two family dwelling. So, I mean, that was a harsher letter than the previous
letter that we saw. And so I was surprised. And I can't remember how many people were in the room.
We waited a little bit of time to get people in the room. But yeah, I can't speak to anything
else about that. Question is from the board. Yeah. I think what you presented as evidence of
all of the numerous duplexes on the property is what some folks were concerned of i think the
council person was concerned about the over saturation of the two family units on in the
area so do you feel as if you know like is there a hardship for for it being a single family is
that the well that was in their letter i heard i saw that in their letter um we just want to say
it wasn't out of character but it's a little bit different we're not trying to convert a single
family well what is configured as a single family into a duplex we had a duplex duplex previously
and he was just trying to he was it was advertised him as a duplex and he wanted to you know get the
right permitting and that's what he's trying to do okay other questions what what's the what's
the addition i mean you have my favorite thing going through a bedroom that goes to the back
I know.
But what is the, is that the addition?
Is that, you mentioned an addition.
Yeah, he has a zoning permit.
If you look on the L&L I website, Atlas,
I think there's a zoning permit dated like May of 2026
that he has an addition.
That's only increasing it by one bedroom for each floor.
Right, and that's the bedroom that goes to the backyard.
I understand.
And by the way, with this one, I actually, you know,
i'll talk to the architect there is an opportunity to put a wall up there if you we can go through
there i didn't want to but i didn't have it i didn't reach the architect i think there's an
opportunity where you can put a wall where they could it you don't have to go through the bedroom
and let me show you what is their rear yard refusal for no this no there wouldn't be any
refusals that's the whole point no i'm going to even even with the addition there's no rear yard
refusal are we no are these two different things no this we're just we we have a zoning permit if
you go on atlas as of may of 2026 for that addition we have not you know we're a single
family though well it says it on there yeah no i agree and i didn't handle the permitting of this
i'm just one yeah yeah no and and he has not executed on that so what happened is he bought
I'm just want to make sure. Yeah. Yeah. No. And he has not executed on that. So what happened is he bought the property as a two family dwelling. And it's the same story you hear a lot where he hired a contractor expecting that all the permitting was going to get done. Did not, you know, all of a sudden he gets violations as to the actual building itself. And so that's why there's a stop work order. He then, before we were hired, got a zoning permit for the addition, has not gotten the building permit yet.
I don't know.
that we're seeking to get legalized to use by way of these proceedings.
But let me just show you, and that's why I didn't want to, like,
I think there's an opportunity to put a door back there
without having to go through a bedroom.
But again, I defer to the architects who are on the board.
But I couldn't get a hold of the architects.
And what's left of the backyard with this addition?
I have not looked at that.
I mean, we can look at the drawings that this,
there's probably a site plan on Atlas in that respect.
So let me just take a look at the,
just trying to get the floor plans.
All right, let me stop staring at my screen for a second.
Let's see what we got here.
Come on, my computer's really slow.
All right, here we go.
Okay, let me share my screen again.
So if you look back here, actually, I think it's the other,
the other floor plan if you look here i think this is it i think that's where the door is right
where's the door i'm trying to see where the door is i think the door is here
alex is telling me it's a 20 foot rear yard
so that's how yeah yeah so it's good that you have that's why he didn't have to get come the
zoning no yeah everything's by right in terms of dimensions but right here is an opportunity instead
of having a door right here you can make it that you have a wall here and you have a door here
which will lead to a door out in the back by itself i just didn't want to say anything because
i haven't talked to the architect yet to make sure that can work but i do think that would work okay
Other questions?
What sizes are these bedrooms?
I actually have the dimensions here.
They're by 10 feet by a little over 7 feet on the first floor,
and then 10 1⁄2 feet by a little over 7 feet on the second floor.
And you've got three bedrooms per floor.
We do have three bedrooms per floor.
It's a deep lot.
The lot itself is 1,472 square feet.
It's a rather large lot.
These are really small bedrooms.
I mean, I think we can't dictate how many beds and how many baths you put in something.
But I think for this to be a two-story row house, this is really dense.
It's a lot of people, and it's not that much space.
And usually the square footage, I mean, the average square footage for these houses is about 1,440 square feet.
So what are you talking about?
I'm sorry, so if I can just add something.
You've got to get closer to it.
I'm sorry, if I could just add something.
That's not including the closet space in there.
That's just the bedroom dimensions.
I know how to read a floor plan.
It's about 70 square feet, which is the code.
You can't live in a closet.
No, I know you can't live in a closet,
but the closet is part of the bedroom.
It is, but it's not part of the square footage
that you have to have per code in a room.
You're literally at the minimum.
That's tight.
In most instances,
you're not going to fit a queen-size bed
into bedside tables in a room like that.
Understood, but you see there's additional bathrooms,
so potentially we could take a bathroom out, right,
which would create the additional square footage
in each bedroom, right?
So there's some room to play with here, right?
We're not here for floor plans,
but if I had to make a suggestion,
that would have been my suggestion to you.
But then having one bedroom and three bedrooms
and one bathroom is also,
so I just think it's a lot,
you got a lot happening in there.
Yeah, well, I think there's opportunities,
you know because it's not a nowhere near finished product because you so you know in the sense of
maybe a two-bedroom too bad i guess a question i have is it seems like most of the opposition
wasn't to you having a property and renting it out it was to it being a duplex specifically do
you have any like response to sort of because it's both a council person and the rco and the
neighbors yeah so again i was a bit surprised by that rco letter as well i think the only
letter as well i think the only questions really were about the trash ventilation closet on the
questions really were about the trash
second floor and parking but again as long as i've been on that block and i've gone to the block in
the morning during the day at night on my specific block where i purchased the property there is
parking available so again i was a bit surprised by that by the rco because again the only questions
we really got were around the trash on the second floor and how that would be managed
lighting right so ensuring they also say that the duplex is working against the community
no they didn't mention that well not during the rco to us yeah i mean yeah we we use as examples
but but again again i i don't even know if how those nine people you know played out have you
considered having it as a single family home and as a as a rental property that way um
it really doesn't make sense economically
yeah and again it was advertised it's not like we're trying to convert a single family to a
duplex it is built as a duplex right now and he paid for a duplex and has a history of that
so that's the unfortunate part and then again he relies on the contractor expecting to get the
right permits and then he gets blindsided by you know all of this and this is your first
this is my first property in the city of philadelphia and honestly i'm trying to do
things the right way right so when we identified that there was a problem we stopped we went
through the zoning committee to get the addition approved because in all honesty when i purchased
the property that addition was already there as well what we wanted to do was it was already there
for the first floor so what we wanted to do was just extend it up right so that was already there
and so when they came well when l and i came and they inspected they really put the stop work order
because of how it was zoned right and it's saying it was a one family but in all actuality they
didn't put the stop order for the work they put the stop order in because they seen that there
were like multi-family uh water and water heaters and different things like that but that is
literally how we purchased the property and how it was advertised all right i think we've been
through that council or council no questions at this time questions or comments from the virtual
audience not at this time chair planning commission good afternoon liz usually on behalf of the
philadelphia planning commission comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location