have, you know, not only support within the neighborhood through the RCO with the letter
of support, but also council member Mark Squilla with the letter of NOLA position. So during our
presentation, in addition to that, which is exhibit two, we'll also go over the notice of
refusal. The MLS listing showing that it was advertised as a triplex or multifamily in nature.
Maps of the area, photographs of the property, our plans and drawings, our RCO media notice,
our application for appeal, our deeds of property, and our certificate of tax clearance. Again,
virtual audience are the property owners, and I would ask that one of them to virtually raise
their hands, get sworn in, and then answer three questions so they can adopt my
testimony as their own. All right, so notice of refusal. So this is an RSA-5 property,
and, you know, again, all we're trying to do is essentially legalize the use of this property as
a multifamily structure. When they purchased it with three units, they thought it was more
appropriate to make it into two units. There is also a request to put a roof deck at the rear of
the property, but that doesn't create any other type of variance request or refusals. The only
refusal we're dealing here with is the use because this is another safe liability so we met with the
east kensington neighbors association at a well-attended meeting and you can see overwhelmingly
uh 18 people voted in support of this project
um then we also reached out to council member mark squilla's office uh and uh they uh you know
So they were also in non-opposition to this project, given the overwhelming community support.
And then the MLS listing here, where does this say?
Oh, right here.
If you look right here, it says it's multifamily property that's being sold or advertised as being sold.
So it was advertised as multifamily.
And the clients thought it was multifamily.
It was only when they started going to do the permitting that they understand it was not the case.
You can see here where we are in the neighborhood, there is a mix of RSA 5, CMX 1, IRMX, and RM1 in this portion of the neighborhood.
We're right off of Trenton Avenue, which is one that is not commercial in nature, but somewhat.
But you can see that where we are, we're a block and a half away from the commercial corridor, which is Frankfurt Avenue.
And then photographs of the properties, the properties in desperate need of rehabilitation and restoration, and that's what my clients hopefully plan to do, to make this into a duplex.
Proof of posting for the hearing today.
And then you can see here, this was in the basement, but you can see there were four meters here, one for the common area and one for each of the units.
They only want to make this into a duplex, not a triplex.
And also you can see multiple gas lines here in the basement.
So again, this was configured as a multifamily structure.
They thought that they can simply reduce the unit count from three to two.
And when they were going through the permits and approvals with the city,
they discovered this was an RSA-5 property and they had to go through this process.
Martha Street to the right of the property, Martha Street to the left of the property.
Martha Street to the left of the property. And then our plans and drawings, pretty straightforward.
And then our plans and drawings, pretty straightforward.
You can see there's a bi-level unit on the first floor and the lower level. Unit number two
is on the second and third floors, and there's a loft area. So the third floor is an extra high
ceiling, which has a loft area where there's a laundry facility for unit number two. The laundry
facility for unit number one uh is in the lower level
and then this was a well-attended meeting we met on february 8th
at 7 pm 131 addresses were notified of the meeting
these are listed the addresses
proof of mailing to those addresses or applications for appeal that they filed
with the ZBA, our deed to the property, showing that Joseph and Samara own the property.
And our certificate of tax planning, showing they owe no money to the City of Philadelphia
with respect to real estate taxes.
So with that being said, I would ask that either Joseph or Samara virtually raise their
hands.
Alan, is there other multifamilies in the area?
Yeah, I mean, we're right off of Frankfort Avenue.
So we're blocking the half away.
And you can see like from the zoning map,
there is a mix between CMX1 and RM1 and IRMX.
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Joseph Troiani has his hand raised.
I have allowed him to speak at this time, sir.
Hi, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Joseph Troiani, J-O-S-E-P-H, last name T-R-O-I-A-N-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Mr. Troiani, you heard everything I had to state about your zoning amendment.
And is it true and correct?
Yes, it is.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
See no further answer, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission?
Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The property is indicated for residential use on the city plan.
Given its documented use history, we have no objection to the granting of the requested variances.
Minimum two units only.
Thank you.
MI 2022-006-196-2214 Martha Street.
I vote yes.
Proviso.
Minimum two units.
Or maximum two units.
I'm sorry.
Thomas.
You're breaking up, Tom.
James Thomas Thomas Holloman my vote is yes with proviso thank you
James Snell yes with proviso thank you Ishmael Shaheed yes with proviso thank you sir
number six mi 2022 006 231 2644 braddock street steve masters is the attorney
we do not we do not see a letter yet from east kensington neighborhood association maybe council
has it councilman squall sent a letter leaving this decision to the board since he did not have
the rco letter applicant has a provided a petition and support signed by 24 neighbors
most many of them in the 2600 block of brodock street mr masters a good afternoon mr chair and
members of the board steve masters s-t-e-v-e m-a-s-t-e-r-s from the law firm of just laws
i represent the property owner david vega okay you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do our vice chair has a few questions
good afternoon counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his
accuracy yes i do have you emailed all the required documents in
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. And we apparently there was a typographical error on an RCO letter that was for the case.
it's it indicated it was for the case that we just heard with Mr. Nachamson but it is for our case
so we're in the process of of getting that um added to our exhibits but I'm going to share
screen and show you what I have so far. Okay. So this case is a trip down memory lane, so to speak.
this is a property that received a variance from the zoning board way back in the 1940s,
and it has always been consistently used as a triplex. But during COVID, when our client bought
the property and then was in the process of renovating it just to just to update it because
it was in quite bad shape um the there was a lag um you know his ability to get contractors and to
have the work done so because of the of the challenges of covid three years elapsed where
the property was not being used there were no tenants because it was in the process of getting
renovated. And for that reason, the 1940s zoning variants expired. And so we're here
to, it's not really fair to say that we're here to legalize a triplex. We're here to basically
restore the historic variants that has never left the property up until COVID. Many things over the
years probably were challenges to that block um and to all life in in the united states and we
were talking world war ii all kinds of things happened in all these intervening decades but
covid was the one that was that dealt the blow against this variance so the refusal here uh
because the property is zoned single family is is just one variance for uh for the multi-family
um in um exhibit two we have the petitions um in support from the near neighbors um and you see
that they're all literally all up and down um the this block of braddock street so there's 12
on this page and there's another 12 on this page and and they're they are almost exclusively
the very very closest neighbors uh to this property in exhibit three um we have the site plans
um and um there over covetous as i said um there there was um the the the the property was was
updated just in terms of of um more of just improvements you know for renovations there
were no changes to the floor plans or to the configuration um but it it was a need it wasn't
badly in need of a renovation and that's what Mr. Vega did. So here we have the elevation drawings
and I believe the only new features were some siding that was put on one of the sides of the
building and here we have the floor plans. So in the basement there is no dwelling units it's just
for storage and utilities on the first floor we have oh there's one bedroom and on uh the second
floor we also have uh we have two bedroom unit and then on the third floor uh we also have two bedrooms
i'm sorry the the drawings that i just showed you were the
were the demolition plan drawings and now these are the the uh the the drawings um after the
renovation so again uh the basement just the mechanicals the first floor we have uh two
bedrooms um and all the proper fixtures and and kitchen area the second floor also two bedrooms
And the third floor, we have another two-bedroom apartment.
uh and the third floor we have another
Finally, this is another view of the elevation drawings.
And then the photos.
So here's the building when it was under the renovations.
we have um this is the entrance into the building with the first floor common area
this is the second floor apartment facing the front room to the right
second floor with the stairs going up to the third floor
third floor living area and front bedroom
same floor and apartment but this is facing the back of the apartment
third floor living area behind um bathroom in the third bedroom
first floor apartment entrance to the right and the front bedroom
there is um a large multi-family building on the on the corner of braddock street um
Candidly, most of the homes on Braddock Street are single family, but this building, as we
said, was historically and consistently a triplex from the 1940s.
Here we have our zoning posters.
So, the zoning in this area here, this is where the large group of multifamilies is
an RM1 zoning.
This block is single family and we're right in the middle of the block.
This was a variance granted in 2018 for 2618 Braddock, which was the other single-family
zone structure that was permitted to be multifamily. This was granted a variance for a duplex
in 2018 and then here we have um the historic uh variance for for the property we're here for today
um you can see um the timestamp here is march 10th of 1942 and uh the zoning board at the time
granted um a change from one family to three family and uh it it has remained that way for 80
years, except for the intervention of COVID.
In Exhibit 5 is our tax clearance.
Exhibit 6 is the deed for the property.
Exhibit 7 is our application for an appeal.
And our basis for hardship is that the Zoning Board granted the variance in March of 1942 for a conversion from a one-family to a triplex.
Eighty years later, the variance recently expired because the last tenants moved out and the property became vacant.
The property cannot be converted into a permitted use of single-family without extensive reconstruction.
And it also is it is supported strongly from the neighbors, so there's no negative impact on the public interest or or on the character of the surrounding properties.
is. Exhibit eight is our project information form. Exhibit nine was our RCO letter in which
we explained the historic variance to the neighbors and we included a copy. And this
is our proof of mailing to 164 households. These are the addresses that the mailing went
to, we, um, going to, so this meeting summary, um, we just received, uh, a corrected copy
We just received a corrected copy that instead of 2214 Martha Street, it should say 2644 Braddock Street.
that instead of
The vote, let me go to the email first.
So we had an email from the day after the RCO meeting from the leader of the RCO, Mr. John Theobald.
We inquired of Mr. Theobald what the vote was and when we would receive an RCO letter.
And this is what he wrote to us on February 9th. He said the vote was 15 in favor, 12 in opposition. EKNA's position letter will reflect the community vote.
And the letter that we now have shows you that there were 15 in support and 12 in opposition. And the position of the RCO is in support.
uh right as we were as you were calling my case i apparently received the more corrected version
of the letter um and so i will attempt to to uh bring that up on my screen but i don't want to
to delay or to pause you know the proceedings just for me to do that okay
um at this time i would like to call um our client david vega to um to adopt our testimony
sir could you raise your hand and state your name and spell for the court reporter please
uh hello can you hear me yes okay uh my name is david vega uh last name is spelled v-e-g-a
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do proceed counsel um good afternoon mr um did you hear my testimony this afternoon
um do you agree with it and do you adopt it as your own yes is there anything else that you
wanted to tell the board about um the situation of of how the variance got uh got got to be
delayed and abandoned uh yeah it actually well the the property actually got um vacant i chose
to make it vacant a couple years before COVID. And at that point, that's when I tried to fix
the place. I ran into some roadblocks. And when COVID came around, I wasn't able to get the
financing I needed to complete the project because I want to do it right. And that's what
delayed the process. And then I didn't realize once the use gets discontinued for a certain