Thank you.
Okay, Chair, we have 34 attendees, and you can start when you'd like.
Good morning. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's EBA hearings.
With me is Ishmael Shaheed, 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, and our ZBA hearing supervisor, Lakeisha Dandy. Before we begin, here's a virtual
format. Be advised, 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 stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and 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 address and the address of the property in question.
And lastly, the question-answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
Any comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit.
Let's look at our continuances for today, for this morning's meetings.
Number 13, MI 2022-004-440-204 North 52nd Street.
that case is continued anyone have any comments relative to that case
are there any other requests for continuing good morning we do have a hand sure there was a hand
raised sir yes this is jason there was a hand raised but it has since gone down sir so okay
We have a hand up from Mr. Sherman Toppin right now.
Sure, put Sherman on, please.
Mr. Toppin?
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, my name is Sherman Toppin, S-H-E-R-M-A-N, T-O-P-P-I-N, address, 1800 JFK Boulevard, here in Philadelphia.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
You have two cases today. Am I correct, sir?
I do. I do. I do, sir.
Do you want to continue the cases?
Yes. I've been trying to. The cases are, as the court, as you guys may know, another attorney is experiencing somewhat of a personal emergency.
And I wanted to, I was contacted by the owners to continue to proceed with both.
And there's just one issue regarding posting that I'm unable to verify.
Either.
So, so the two cases would continue.
The first one is number four, MI 2022-001-062-49 West Susquehanna Avenue.
That case is continued.
Correct.
And number 19, MI-2022-001-061-2322 North 5th Street, that case is also continued.
Thank you, Mr. Toppin, for calling in. We appreciate it.
No problem. Thank you. That concludes my business today.
Thank you. Other requests for continuances?
Mr. Chair, I have Mr. Vernon Anastasia with his hand raised. I have allowed him to speak at this time.
Sure. Hi, Mr. Anastasio, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Sure. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Vern Anastasio, V-E-R-N, last name A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
You have case number six, MI-2022-004-431-1700 Reed Street. Is that a request for continuance?
Yes, it is, sir.
Okay, that case is continued.
Okay. That case is continued.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Other requests for
Other requests for continuances?
Do you know further hands for continuances?
I also have two cases, number 10, MI 2022-004-441-6133 Tacowana Street.
I have no exhibits.
This is the first listing.
Is Mr. Marshall here?
You're not saying any hands raised at this time.
Okay, so number 10, MI 2022, 004-441-6133 Tacowana Street.
That case is continued.
It was the first listing.
And also I have number 12.
MI 2022-004-446-626 Snyder Avenue. No exhibits. First listing.
Nicole Lex. Sir, Ms. Lex's hand is raised. I will allow her to speak at this time.
Sure. Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
hi yes my name is nicole lex n-i-c-o-l-e last name l-e-x right do you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes okay we we don't have the exhibits for this
case yes um i did send a couple emails um to the zbi i did not get a response um i'm having some
issues uh with this property i rented it um the landlord since has locked me out of the building
um he wouldn't give me some of the documentation that i needed to submit to you all right so so
here miss lex here's we're going to continue the case and you'll give you time to get this straight
okay okay all right so mi 2022 004 446 626 snyder abno that case is continued
okay we're going to go to our regular list
excuse me mr chair yes we have we have another hand raised by miss um vedita cadillo
okay i'm allowed her to speak
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
Beditza Cadillo
B-E-D-I-T-Z-A
C-A-D-I-L-L-O
Right. Do you swear
for them to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth? Yes, I do.
What case, ma'am?
3445 Team Street.
We have submitted a complete package,
but we are trying to
continue communication
with the RCO.
All right, so here's what we're going to do.
We're going to continue that case, right?
You can continue your conversation with them, right?
Thank you so much.
Number 15, MI 2022-004-443-3445 Keem Street.
That case is continued.
Thank you.
Any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands at this time, sir.
We're going to go to our regular list. MI 2022 004 445 1005 Lombard Street. Mr. Child Harry is the owner. There's a letter of non-opposition from council member Squilla. And there's a recommendation of non-opposition from Washington Square West Civic Association.
There's also four letters of support from nearby neighbors and the three adjacent properties.
Good morning, Mr. Chowdhury.
If you are in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
I promoted Mr. Chowdhury to the panelist, sir.
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter sure my name is rita joy
chowdhury r-i-t-u-j-o-y last name c-h-o-w-d-h-u-r-y right all right um proceed
I know. Go ahead. Good morning. My name is Sarah Nareka. Sarah is S-A-R-A-H. Last name Nareka is N as in Nancy, O-R-E-I-K-A.
Good morning. My name is Sarah.
Okay. Do you both swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay. So this is for the erection of an addition at the rear of an existing attack structure and roof deck access from the rear yard and first floor?
For no change of use from single family household living, for no change of height, size and location as shown in the application.
The minimum yard in the RSA zoning district is nine feet.
This shows five feet, six inches, whereas the maximum occupied area in the RSA zoning district is 75 percent.
And this shows 89 percent.
um our uh board secretary just has a few questions for you okay and then you can start your
presentation ish yes good morning uh did you all so they're not lawyers uh so did you all
send all the required documents in within five days of this hearing yes i believe we did our
architects are also um on this call as well they were the actual submitters of the paperwork
I'm not sure if they should join us at this time. We're fine. I think we'll go with you guys first
and we'll see. Great. All right. Why don't you start sharing your screen?
And excuse me, Chair, did we read the refusal into the record? I did. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry.
So our architects have planned to do the entire presentation. We don't have
okay all right so we're here's what we have to do right we're going to have to bring your
architect on but you have to do the testimony okay okay sure sure right so why don't we see
if the architects in the audience what's the architect's name um let's see mr richard tom
and lauren mark with the hands raised are those architects okay i'll allow them to uh i'll promote
The panelists.
We're joining as panelists shortly.
Hello, this is Laura Mark, and I'm here.
okay so here's what i would want you to do if you could um share your screen and they'll test
the fire off what you have up there okay okay all right and i and i i mean i've read into the record
i know what the issues are so why don't we just show the screen and then we'll we'll get moving
okay okay um would you like me to share the um the zoning drawings first or would you like to
go through photos. Well, I think photos would be easier for the, for the group. Okay. That's fine.
You show the photos and they'll do the testimony. All right. Okay. Can you guys see it once it gets
up? Yeah. Okay. We're good. All right. You see it? Seeing that. No, no. I'm talking to the,
the owners. Can you guys see it? Oh yes. Yes. All right. Good. So why don't you start your
testimony okay so um no no no no not the architect the owners have to testify i'm sorry
sure sorry about that no no no so my wife and i have resided at 1005 lombard for almost 14 years
yep um the house has been great uh neighborhood's even better um and we're we're just hoping with
the changes in work from home and some of our neighbor porches to expand a little bit
our working space in the basement and kind of double use, use our current outdoor space
elevated slightly so that it's a bit easier access to enjoy the outdoor space that we
have um so we had hired uh mr tom and ms mark to help us plan that and and make sure that it was
um amenable to the neighborhood okay can i can i see the rear of the property
and i'd love to provide a little more our context um so you can't you go ahead residents of
philadelphia for um over 20 years now but at this property for almost 14 weeks right in may 2009
2009. We've been thinking about, you know, maybe if we just had one more space for several years
now, but in the last few years with the pandemic, et cetera, the change from work from home and now
few years with the pandemic, et cetera, the change from work from home. And now I work full time from
I work full-time from home.
home. He works most days from home. So the office space that we're in now, he uses and I now use
our dining room table. We have a very open concept house. His work is mainly on the phone and
meetings all day. My work as a book editor is much quieter. So in our ideal world, we have a small
office space and really just an office space that has a door to close um and then this room um one
of the other changes that happened in our lives in the last so many years is we have an eight-year-old
daughter in this room we'd always intended to be her space for work and study and of course play as
well um and as she's growing older we're feeling a little bit of that pinch to have that extra space
okay more so our house is a split level and we love our house but there are disadvantages to
the split level. An advantage of this addition is that it would give us a deck right off the dining
room. So of course it won't be an all-year space, but it will be a space that we can use many months
of the year to just walk out, you know, enjoy a meal, etc. Right now our sunken garden, and as much
as I love the garden that I've managed to put in this north-facing space, you know, there's kind
of that mental barrier of walking down the stairs, etc. to access it. We also lose a lot of space
with the stairs and the platform. And then more so, I mean, we have thought about, you know,
is this the time to think about moving? Is this the time to find another house? We love this
neighborhood. Our daughter is in school. Her two best friends are within a couple blocks of us.
We don't want to leave. We love being from Seeger Park. But also, after my daughter was born,
my parents moved three doors down. Of course, that was partly to be with her, but also partly
as they're aging to be closer to family they move from ohio where they have no family so we're very
motivated to stay in the space um and hoping we can make it work you know with that one edition
can work okay much longer all right show me the edition show me what you want to do sure
okay why don't you explain that
Sure. So can I? I don't know if I can.
Okay. So the the darker areas is our property. Yep. And the way it is right now, those two sliding doors lead to stairs that go down.
Right. And in the in the planned or proposed version, there would be a built up area that would essentially make the deck or the outdoor space level with those sliding doors.
In order to do that, I suspect we'll be digging down a little bit and pushing northward the basement area that we have now and leaving a gap between there and the brick wall that is existing.
Okay. And from an outside perspective, our neighbors have a deck going off there with no room underneath. But from a visual perspective, it should look very similar to what they have.
So it wouldn't be congruent.
All right. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i don't see any hands mr chair yes chair we had that richard um thorn sure