So, because I might have to bounce out.
Here we go.
Chair, we have 25 attendees.
You can start when you wish.
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning the ZBA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ismail Shahid, our board secretary.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also, here is our board attorney, Hillary Emerson.
before we start let's look at our virtual format be advised these proceedings are being recorded
by participating you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded the video will be available by
contacting tonyasunkett at phila.gov for the benefit of our court sonographer we ask attorneys
and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying if you're participating by phone
If you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And last, please note the question and answer box on the screen is not for testimony or comments.
Any comments should be directed to Tanya Sunkett, our Executive Director.
Now, let's look at the contingencies that we have for this morning's meeting.
Number six, MI 2021-001-573-2783 Roberts Avenue.
Number eight, MI 2021-003715-414 East Roosevelt Boulevard, and number 13, MI 2022-000908-6302
Morton Street. These three cases will be continued. Is there anyone in the audience,
the virtual audience who has a comment relative to these three cases.
I see no handshare. Are there any other requests for continuance?
I see no handshare. And we also have number 11
MI-2021-001-752-5136 Wayne Avenue. That case has been withdrawn.
We're going to go to our regular list. I'm going to start with number 14,
MI 2022-001-010-6800-North 16th Street.
Leo Moblehill is listed as the attorney.
Anyone with their hands up?
no chair I don't even see Mr. Mulvihill listed as that case is continued that was the first
listing we do not have exhibits yet case number 15 MI 2021-003-596-961 Marcella Street
Marion Roach is the attorney Hillary Emerson is recusing herself for that case
Sam Scabuzzo will be filling in for her.
Letter of opposition from the 35th Democratic Ward Executive Committee.
Marsha Rose Roach.
marcia rose roach hi good morning board hi could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter please yes board my name is mary rose roach i am counsel for james whalen he's the owner
of 96 961 marcella street do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth yeah yes i do can i could you mention your name sir let me swear you in separately
it's spelled for the court reporter
james whale w-h-a-l-e-n right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing
but the truth yes i do counsel our vice chair carol tenere has a few questions for you
Hi, Ms. Roach, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, Madam Chair.
Thank you.
Have you emailed the use of the packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under 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, Madam Chair.
Okay, you may proceed and begin to share your screen.
Please.
Thanks.
do you see my screen yes we do okay great and you could see the um the exhibits here
yes okay great just wanted to make sure um so uh the submission that i uh provided to the board of
adjustment provided the refusal um the appeal application and please stop me if i'm going
too fast if you have any questions uh the project information sheet
this is the deed to the property that shows that mr whalen is the owner of the property that was
filed with the philadelphia quarter deeds he's on the property since 2019 he did buy the property
as a triplex um which is uh the reason we're here today um to get this zoned as a triplex
three-unit property. Certificate of clearance, which was issued on June 9th, 2022.
Let's excuse me. I'm not sure how these pictures are going to come out. Okay. Maybe I can
make it a little smaller.
So these are pictures of the notice of the zoning hearing that were posted in front of the property.
and these are pictures of the exterior
this is the first floor entrance
um that's the rear this is the rear of the property and as you can see here um there are
three um utility meters set up it's always been that way like i said he purchased the property
and that's the back that's the back door and he actually replaced the um utility boxes when he
purchased the property the electric um wasn't up the code so he um he bought new electric for the
property and that's how it would i mean that's i don't make council why don't you we'll let him
come on there why don't you just go okay all right that's the uh proof no no no let let let
council talk yeah okay um second uh second um entryway to the second unit
this is the front of the property here
and this is proof of mailing so he did have some issues with mailing um but the letter that he sent
out he has a receipt for the mailing um and there were discussions back and forth with um
the uh councilwoman's office um in order to establish that he did send out the
uh, mailing to the appropriate addresses, but, um, he had an issue getting the printout that the,
the printout that the um that the post office gets so he did follow up with the council person's
um, that the post office gets. So we did follow.
office did show proof that he mailed through the receipt um and you know we're asking that the
board consider that as um sufficient today um and he also got a a few letters from his neighbors in
support of um his zoning appeal these are folks that have lived in the neighborhood
they're aware that it was a triplex when he bought it and you know just stating that they
don't have an issue with it being a triplex I know one of the issues that you'll see in the
RCO letter is that parking would be an issue but you know these are folks that live in the
neighborhood and that can attest to the fact that you know it hasn't been an issue and it wouldn't
be an issue since he's again he's not changing anything that wasn't already in existence
so those letters are here and this is another letter from um uh someone else that's involved
in the neighborhood um and that was first yeah and um in addition we also have the
improvements that he made to the property this um zoning application doesn't include any type
of changes to the structure of the property there will no there will be no renovations that will
change the actual um layout of the property but just things that he did to upgrade the property
and make sure that it was um um there weren't any issues excuse me counselor excuse me do you have
any interior pictures i do and i'm sorry i sent those in a separate email so i'm going to pull
those up right now okay uh thank you council council can i ask the question is the first
floor have two units in it it's one unit so there's the first floor is one unit the second
floor has a unit in the basement has a unit the second floor has two units sorry uh two bedrooms
oh yeah but it's yeah so the unit is where there's a separate living um space is the first floor is
one the second floor is one and there's one in the basement as well are there windows in the basement
there are okay i guess we'll see that when we see the pictures thank you and maybe i might be able
to show you the window from the exterior photos too let me just go back up
that's the back yeah i just want to see if you can see it so here's the window here and there's
also one in the back i can probably all right now that could be on one window okay
okay so the window's in the front okay so just from the inside uh from the front here's the
window here are you able to see that yes i can rotate it sorry it's pictures
there. That's probably better. There we go. All right, let me get to the interior pictures.
Were you able to see this page that I pulled up?
we're showing the other page here we see it now okay great so um here are the interior pictures
this is the rear apartment bathroom
when you say rear apartment what do you mean the basement yes yes sorry if that was unclear so the
basement bathroom, basement living room, kitchen, and bedroom. This is all here in the basement,
and that window right there is the window that you saw at the front of the house.
Is that a window and exit?
that will be made in enlarging and made into an egress window but now there's no exit no thank you
all right this is the first floor bedroom slash or bedroom
kitchen and bathroom
This is the front door on the first floor.
Only pictures of the second floor.
So, you don't have any longer info on me.
So those are the pictures and then I also have the letter
from the RCO that we can go, I can pull up here.
And this is the RCO letter.
So we did want to address the issues that or the concerns that the neighborhood did bring up, the conversion and all work done without required permits.
Well, today I can assure you that no permits were needed.
He didn't make any changes to the property as far as the work that he got done with the electric that was done by an insured contractor.
To the extent there were permits required, they were obtained.
As Mr. Whelan stated today, he plans on putting an egress entry, exit area in the basement and replacing the window there.
As far as three units constituting an overuse of the property, again, he purchased the property this way.
It was an existing use.
And we're just asking that he can maintain that use as it's been, you know, these units have been occupied.
uh and as far as he knows even with the neighbor uh neighbors that wrote him letters of support
there's never been any issues with congestion or parking or anything of that nature so the
perspective concerns um you know historically haven't been an issue and he doesn't see them
being an issue in the future um do you guys have any questions of me or um council is there any
history of it being used as a triplex like for instance are there rental licenses for three
apartments so so that was the issue when he purchased the property it was with the understanding
that it was a triplex and it was mistaken and now he's going through the process i understand that
but what i'm saying is was it actually being used as a triplex like you know you sometimes you'll
see in the lni files it'll tell you three licenses and things of that nature it was a thing made
property no no we don't we don't have any record of that okay the rest of the the rest of the
street is it multi-family so it's predominantly single-family homes um i don't know if there's
any other other there are yes okay okay questions questions from the board
no mr chairman
no mr chairman
sorry go ahead i said no mr chairman okay thank you thank you uh questions or comments from the
virtual audience chair we have dylan mahoney okay uh thank you mr chairman of the board
dylan mahoney uh d-i-l-l-o-n last name m-a-h-o-n-e-y representing the office of
councilwoman parker um do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth yes sir proceed um so the councilman is opposed to the project as well as a triplex
The only records that the city has on file is for a previously approved duplex in, I believe, 2009.
That approval has since lapsed. There were some rental licenses on file for the property for two units from 2016.
Also no longer appear active. So just by way of answering some of the questions that you had about the history of the property.
It's our opinion that there's no compelling hardship for a three unit building.
and that ultimately three units would be in overuse given the block is predominantly single
family and the majority of multifamily properties in the area are located on corners. This is a
very small lot and a very small building at just over a thousand square feet and there were also
some safety concerns that the community addressed related to egress from the basement and so again
the councilman as opposed to the project thank you thank you very much is there any other comments
from the virtual audience and excuse me board um we did have someone that one wait one minute let
me let me see if there's any more comments i'll give you a chance to respond any other more
comments from the virtual audience i see no other handshare council yes so just in response to
I see no other handshare.
Counsel?
Yeah, so just in response to Attorney Mahoney's comments, the fact that we do, you know, agree that this was a property that wasn't formally zoned as a triplex.
However, the use was there.
It was an existing triplex that was purchased by my client with tenants.
And to date, there hasn't been any concerns about past overuse or past congestion that have been voiced by any of the neighbors.
So the extent that there's a concern there, the change, there's not going to be a change in how the property will be used.
It just wasn't zoned. It didn't have the permission that way.
and we also have we also have um uh one of the witnesses or you know one of the people that
provided a statement is here um to say something if that's okay for it i think we have their
statement right that you do have their statement we have both statements i've read both statements
already it was the three statements yep okay all right um planning commission it's uh ron bednar
City Planning, first name Ron, R-O-N, last name Bednar, B-E-D-N-A-R. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed, Ron. This property is indicated for
residential use on the city plan or adopted district plan recommends no changes to the
existing single-family zoning at this location. In 2006, a variance for two-family use at this
property was approved, the additional dwelling unit is clearly not required to overcome any
physical limitations of the property that is inappropriately overused of the existing
structure. Therefore, we recommend the request for variance not be granted. Thank you. MI 2021
003-596-961 Marcello Street. I vote yes. Proviso two units.
um carol tanari my vote is yes with the same proviso thomas haliband my vote is no
james snell yes with provisos ishmael shaheed my word is yes with proviso thank you thank you board
number one mi 2022 001 005 1230 south third street justin crick is the attorney
um penn sport civic association letter of non-opposition
mr crick is coming back in as a panelist thank you morning mr chair members of the board
hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please yes justin j-u-s-t-i-n
crick k-r-i-k do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Yes. Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes. My clients are Colleen McAllister and Francis Farrington. They are the record owners of 1230 South 3rd Street.
Thank you. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Morning, Mr. Crick. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?