our our vice chair carolton area has a few questions hi do you agree to waive the reading
of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do have you emailed the exhibit 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
The exhibits have been mailed. The RCO declined to meet with us, but they did send a letter of no opposition, and I will explain the circumstances of that.
Okay. There's always something new. You may proceed and please share your screen.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. So as I stated, my name is Matthew Liley and I represent the property owner, Penrose Park Associates.
Our project, 2406 Colley Drive, is within a subdivision that's been created in South Philadelphia of over 300 houses.
I have my exhibits before you. I have the real estate tax clearance, the notice of refusal, the RCO letter from the Packer Park Civic Association, which I will go ahead and explain now, I suppose.
So the Packer Park Civic Association referred the application to the Siena Place, which is the name of the subdivision, to the Siena Place Homeowners Association for review.
The Siena Place Homeowners Association reviewed our application, reviewed our project, and decided that they have no opposition to it, that they were in favor of it.
they reported back to the Packer Park Civic Association. And due to the very minor nature of
the variants being requested, which again, I'll explain, they decided that they didn't want to
expend the resources and the time. They had a very busy meeting schedule and that they
declined to hear a presentation from us um like i said we did receive a letter from
Like I said, we did receive a letter from the president of the Packer Park Civic Association indicating that they have no opposition to this project.
the president of the packer park civic
Additionally, after consulting with Ms. Emerson, we mailed out notices to the community informing them that they can provide our firm with any feedback that they have, as well as attend this CBA hearing.
I will go to that in the exhibit list now. This is the affidavit of service, as well as the letter, which was sent to 50 of the nearby property owners, again, presenting them with a chance to offer their opinions.
I have not received any feedback from any neighbors, and I'm not sure if there are any in attendance today.
as I said, the refusal is for a very minor variance to include a balcony. The zoning code
requires the balcony to not intrude into the required rear yard space. We do have the required
rear yard space of nine feet for this project, a little over nine feet. The balcony, however,
over extends four feet into that rear yard space,
which necessitates a variance.
Our, this is just our site plan.
You can see there's a three-story semi-detached residence.
2406 Kali Drive is on the end of this.
it's on the right section, I believe, and we can see on the second floor here that the balcony
extends into the rear yard. Again, the balcony extends four feet into the nine-foot rear yard.
Essentially, we would need a 13-foot rear yard to comply with the zoning code.
um this map here demonstrates the lot's location within the subdivision the subdivision itself is
very insular it's very self-contained it's bounded by crx railroad tracks on the west portion
it's bounded by i-76 on the north portion and by penrose avenue on the south and the east
portions. So it's a very cohesive, very uniform neighborhood. In fact, I will go now to
these are photographs of the site. Construction hasn't started on this property or on the nearby
properties yet. They're currently vacant with just earth being moved. This is photographs of
nearby properties. You can see again it's very uniform in nature. There's two or three floor
plans that residents that homeowners can choose from that are built to order.
This picture shows a couple of the floor plan with a roof deck option. This picture shows
the model with the rear balcony and this is the same model that
is going to be built at 2406 Cawley Drive. This is the balcony that we're proposing
that extends into the rear yard. This property did not require a variance because they have
nine feet at least nine feet at the rear behind the balcony and our project does not.
Every property, all 300, and I believe it's 13, houses that are constructed have either this roof deck or balcony.
The balcony is in uniformity with the neighboring properties.
Excuse me, council.
The balconies, the deck, they're open?
Yes, sir.
to the okay thank you
sure just to make sure i understand uh you there's no roof structure is that your question
no the deck floor is uh open to below oh yes yes um you know i don't think you can so they open to
the to the rear yard there's no no there's no stairways or anything okay thank you yeah the
yeah the only point of entrance is from the rear doors here on the second floor
The only point of entrance is from the rear doors.
is this sienna place it is yes okay okay sure so as i stated um the need for the variance is just
that this one proper there's actually four properties that require a variance they're all
in this little corner of the property here that abut the rail tracks to the west um there simply
isn't enough room in the in the subdivision to configure it so that we can have the required
13 feet in the rear yard area with the four foot balcony um matthew matthew do you have an owner's
rep with you i do all right david want to have him come in and sure uh david bartinski um if you
could raise your hand i see no hands up at this time matthew well what you're an officer of the
court we will take your testimony okay thank you questions from the board no mr chairman
No, Mr. Chairman.
All right, questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Mr. Chair and members of the board, this is Mason Austin representing the Planning Commission.
This lot is designated for single-family residential use in the comprehensive plan,
and its RSA 5 zoning matches that designation.
While there are no features unique to this lot that present a hardship,
given the minimal impact in the support of the RCO staff of the planning commission have no
objection to the granting of this variance thank you Mason MI 2022 001 803 2406 Cawley Drive I vote
yes Carol Tenere my vote is yes Thomas Allen my vote is yes James Snapp my vote is yes
Ishmael Shahid my vote is yes thank you counselor number 13
MI 2022-001-779-2564 North 31st Street.
Mr. Nocklinson is the attorney.
Letter of support from Strawberry Mansion Community.
Yes, Mr. Chair, Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
Thank you. Mr. Nockamson, could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, the property is owned by BW Construction Villa, LLC.
Okay. Our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Nockamson. Welcome back.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. 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, in all respects.
Okay, great. You may proceed and please begin to share your screen. Thank you.
hi so i'm here to present uh 24 excuse me 2564 north 31st street uh first thing that we're going
to show uh is the notice refusal and letter of support from the strawberry mansion community
concern the coordinating rco for this project a certificate of district classification and legality
of use just showing that this has had this property has a long history of multi-unit use
maps maps of the area photographs of the property in this around the area
our floor plans are rco meeting notice showing that we did meet with the community and proof that
notice did go out to the community as well as the affected properties
our applications for appeal to the zba are deeds of property showing that bw construction villa
but LLC is the owner of the property, and our Certificate of Tax Clearance as well.
Notice refusal. This is an RSA 5 property.
You will see that originally we asked to put commercial on the ground floor and two units above.
This property has been used for three units across this history,
most recently as a church on the ground floor and two residential units above.
after communications and conversations with community members they prefer to have
three residential units here so if this board should be inclined to grant our variance request
So if this board should be inclined to grant our variance request, we would ask for a proviso use as three residential family dwelling units.
And the reason why we're being refused, whether it's a commercial and two residential or three residential, is this is an RSA 5 property and multi-unit use is not allowed in this zoning classification.
But, you know, again, the community is in support of this project.
with provisos. I believe that there are only two provisos that would be applicable to notice
a decision which would be granted by the ZVA. The first is the trash to be stored outdoors.
We have no objection to that. So along with our request to have three family dwelling here in
In terms of a proviso, we would also request that they forward, if they were to grant this zoning appeal, to have a proviso trash to be stored in rare property outside.
And again, just to go to the certificate of district classification of legality abuse, you can see at one point many, many, many years ago, this was a two-family dwelling in a vacant store and most recently used as
a church and two residential units above so you can see where we are we're in the corner of 31st
and west huntington we're in the strawberry mansion section of philadelphia again from a
google maps perspective and just wanted to show an outline of the building because the pictures
we showed aren't great but there's more than sufficient room to store the trash in the rear
Again, corner property, the great thing about corner property is that, you know, each of the units can have access to the rear yard for trash storage and maintenance.
And that's what we would request by way of proviso, and that's what the community requested as well.
And for the graphs of the property, this is the property in 2018 where it was most active, as you can see from the crosses and the double front doors, that it was a church.
I think even if you go onto the state's website, I think one of the maps actually shows this still being a church.
But this is a map we got from Google in 2018.
This is Huntington. This is a property from West Huntington Street.
This is the property from North 31st Street to the right of the property, North 31st Street to the left of the property,
West Huntington Street to the right of the property, West Huntington Street to the left of the property.
And then my client is a general contractor.
So just examples of some of his work product.
He puts a lot of pride into his work product.
He is actually from the Strawberry Mansion area too.
You know, that was helpful in terms of with the community because he's a known quantity
and he has deep roots in Strawberry Mansion.
So just examples of sample interiors.
And then our plans and drawings.
And just floor plan, no basement use, everyone has access to a rear yard, but first floor is a two-bedroom, one-bath, second floor is a two-bedroom, one-bath, and then the third floor is a one-bedroom, one-bath.
And then our meeting notice, we met earlier this month at 6 p.m. on June 13th.
There were 208 people that were notified of this community meeting, listed the addresses, proof of mailing, application for appeal that we filed with the ZBA, along with the notice of refusal, the project information form, deeds of property showing that BW Construction Villa, LLC is the owner of the property, and their certificate of tax clearance and showing payment of an average that was due.
So with that being said, I do apologize.
Mr. Thomas, who's the owner's representative, is not available today.
But as an officer of the court, I would ask that you take my testimony as true.
That's fine. Your testimony is fine.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
chair we had a strawberry mint excuse me strawberry mansion community yep
hi could you state your name as spelled please for the court reporter
hi good evening everyone afternoon my name is bonita cummings director strawberry mansion
community concern rvco my name is spelled your name please good b as in boy o-n-i-t-a
cummings c-u-m-m-i-n-g-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
Cummings, C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you. Proceed. Right. We just wanted to note that the community's
decision was based on this property being configured in this manner for over 40 years.
Also, it was felt it would be safer at this present time for the community to have the
first floor more defined than just an event space or open space. So the meeting with the
community felt that because of also how the property is configured, a unit on the first
floor is not like compounding people all over top. It really has a separate entrance. It's
separate from how the residents will go in on the side to the second and third floor.
it's a very large space and we wanted to make sure that this building wouldn't just sit and
continue to deteriorate without being able to define at least what the first floor use could
be so there was support for the three units along with our understanding of of course trash
there was an external conversation and making sure that the maintenance because it's such a large
corner there, that that building takes up that whole corner. It goes off of 31st all the way
around to Huntington, and that those grounds will be kept on maintenance.
Thank you very much, and thank you for calling in. We appreciate it.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, we have a calling user. Please unmute yourself.
hi could you state your name please and spell it for the court reporter
yes it's adrian fernandez h-e-n-a-d-r-i-e-n-n-e fernandez f-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-e-z
do you swear a firm association okay do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth? Yes. Proceed, please. Okay. We just address some of the RCOs as no
opposition, and we just ask that the applicants provide all restricted RCOs with, I believe,
there's an amended notice of refusal and also with the amended drawing, which will convert
to vacant space into a third unit thank you very much we appreciate you calling is there any one
else in the virtual audience i see no handshare planning commission thank you mr chair and members
of the board this is mason austin representing the planning commission the lot was designated
for residential use in the comprehensive plan and was in free zoned and to in uh to rsa5
in 2014 to match that designation. Due to the historic records of dwelling units on the site,
the proposed reuse of the structure, and the lack of opposition from the RCO, PCPC staff have no
objection to the granting of the request variance. Thank you very much. MI 2022-01779-2564 North 31st
street i vote yes with the following provisos trash stored outside inside yard maximum three
residential units no vacant space carol on mute carol tennery my vote is just proviso
thomas holland my vote is yes with proviso james snell yes with proviso
ishmael shahi yes we're proviso thank you mr nackamson here one thing though
you said no vacant space did you mean no commercial space um
i will mr yeah mr mr nackamson i just said no vacant space because that what was was what was
on the refusal it didn't specify commercial space so i wanted to use the same language
to clarify that that space was being substituted out for residential unit okay that's fine i just
don't have a situation where you're like oh the space is vacant you can't use it no no no no just
just i was matching the language on the refusal all right thank you thank you okay number 14
M-I-2022-002-15E, 3031-49 North 21st Street, and 2044 West Clearfield Street.
Eileen Quigley is the attorney.
Letter of support from Allegheny West Civic Association.
mr chair this is hillary i just want to note that we also have a letter of support from
councilwoman bath as well very good thank you yes good afternoon
very good thank you yes good afternoon chairman bergman members of the board eileen quigley e-i-l-e-e-n
q-u-i-g-l-e-y on behalf on behalf of the applicant do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you tell tell us who your client is
in the relationship to the property yes our client is 3031 north 21st street senior dash
michaels llc and they have entered into a lease option agreement with the ownership which is