ZBA Hearing - July 13, 2022

something different to offer put their hand up chair we have someone by the name of ang sun

mr or miss sun please unmute yourself and wait for the chair

Hi. Hi. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?

My first name is Aung, A-N-G. Last name is Sun, S-U-N.

Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?

Yes. Proceed.

I'm the president of RCO, West Afili United Neighbors.

A few people contacted our RCO last week, and they expressed their concerns about this development.

And I looked into this case, and we had a group meeting on Saturday, and discussed with the neighbors.

I looked at this case, I don't think any hardship.

They are asking for this basement living.

I don't think there is a hardship for this basement living.

I don't think there is a hardship for these two units in this block.

Basically, most of the properties are single-family use.

So, of course, the prop post is not having this roof deck anymore,

but they are still asking for this basement living.

And there is definitely no hardship for this basement living.

There is no hardship for these two-family units.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Anyone else have a hand up?

There are no other hands at this time here.

Thank you. Planning Commission.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the board, David Fecto, City Planning Commission.

We heard testimony regarding rentals versus homeownership, so I'd like to start by noting

the zoning code makes no distinction between renters and owner occupants.

So for this property, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single

family zoning at this location. There is no unique physical condition of this 1500

square foot lot to prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.

City Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the use of variance.

MI 2022 001 824 50 North St. Bernard Street I vote no.

my vote is yes

James Snell my vote is no

thank you

let's take a five minute break

give our

court reporter a chance to regroup there

and we'll come right back

we'll go right through the rest of the cases

when we come back

Tanya are we ready?

yes chair as you wish okay we're going to go back to number 10 mi 2022 001 828 34

MI-2022-001-828-3045 West Susquehanna Avenue.

Mr. Nockamson is the attorney.

Letter of support from Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation.

Mr. Nockamson.

he's coming in as a panelist down here sure

good afternoon alan nockmson nockmson appreciate it

mr nockmson could you identify your client at 30 45 west s grand avenue

yes it is sjc real estate llc and the member is shati cooks okay uh our vice chair has a few

questions i do 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 and we actually have a letter of

support unanimously supporting this project okay great you may proceed and begin sharing your

screened thank you i i smile because we see you always on that screen i know okay i'm hoping one

day we can see each other in person as a board and as attorneys and it's i know it'll be fun

all right let's see what we got here full screen loads pretty straightforward project 3045

tusquilhanna avenue this is uh an existing building structure um on the block which has

many multi-family units um it's in like i said strawberry mansion uh and uh the community met

with us and they're in support of it so we're going to go through the noise refusal the

correspondence from the strawberry mansion cdc a permit of the property i believe which shows that

uh this was a 1.3 unit building my client just wants to make it into a two unit building

and uh showing also you know in our exhibit packet other properties on that block which

have a multi-family history the lower north district plan for philadelphia 2035 uh which

is conformance with our proposed use of the property maps of the area photographs of the

property surrounding area, our plans and joins, our RCO meeting notice, our application for

appeal, our deed to the property, and our certificate of tax clearance. So first things

first, just to get out some housekeeping items, if this board is inclined to grant this variance,

we did agree to remove the roof deck as part of our project. So we would ask for a proviso,

no roof deck uh again you know when i saw this project before i got involved uh they submitted

a zoning permanent application for a roof deck i know that the residents of strawberry mansion

have fought hard to not allow for roof decks and there's no really specific to that effect so in

gecko we stated that we're not going to provide a roof deck as part of this project and i would

want to make sure that that's included within a zoning permit and ultimately any building permit

so it provides a no-loop deck. The only other refusal is the two-family dwelling in this size

of a lot of almost 1,200 square feet. Again, this property has a history of multifamily use,

three units. And when my client purchased it, we have copies of photos of the meters that were

there at the time. So we're actually downgrading to two units or two units. We met with the

shawberry mansion cdc uh it was unanimous support at a very well attended meeting

there was a total of 19 votes all in support and no opposition again stressing the fact that we

would not have a new deck as part of you know our uh as our as our project and then this is our uh

zoning permit uh for this property showing that this was a three-family dwelling at one point

and then here's a picture of showing from the interior of this property he did remove the

meters but there are four meters you know one for the common area and three for each unit

and um you know he's hoping to have it as a two unit uh building instead of that three

and then the 3000 block of west usquahana so we did a detailed search of public records and you

can see from our uh review there are 24 properties that have a multi-unit history on this block

that's pretty significant and then the lower uh north district plan 24

that's pretty significant. And then the Lower North District Plan 2014 talks about prioritizing

commercial residential development on and adjacent to the corridor which consists in restoring street

life and customers as well as raising perceptions of safety. So we're not that far from the commercial

corridor on Ridge Avenue and this will help support that commercial corridor through that

additional density. And then maps of the area you can see here is Ridge. Here we are not that far

off from there. There's an industrial zone property as well. There's some CMX2 and on as well.

And then you can see we're on Bridge Avenue where we are. There's some of the commercial components

and what we're trying to do is support that as per Philadelphia 2035. Photographs of the property,

again we're not changing the building facade. We're just you know cleaning things up on the inside.

You can see 3030 West Susquehanna Avenue as an example,

is also a triplex.

So we're only just trying to do a duplex.

And then West Susquehanna to the right of the property,

West Susquehanna to the left of the property.

Sample interior.

So Shanti not only is the owner of the property,

he does his own general contracting work

with a childhood friend of his,

and he also helps manage these properties as well.

so he really care and he's from philadelphia born and raised in the north philly section of philadelphia

um and he cares a lot about like how things look as you can see from here uh example bathrooms

sample interior of the bedrooms and then our plans and drawings again when we you know we're

eliminating the commercial excuse me the roof deck from this project we would ask for proviso

but it's just two uh five levels first floor in the basement level and the second floor and the

third floor and then just uh we met with the community on june 23rd again a well attended

meeting of 19 votes uh 122 people were notified of that meeting these are the addresses proof of

mailing our application for appeal to the zvi along with our notice of refusal and project

information form. Our deed to the property is shown that SJC real estate LLC is the owner of

the property and our certificate of tax funds. With that being said, I would ask that Mr. Cooks

raise his hand and he can be sworn in and then without my testimony. Mr. Cook, please unmute

yourself and wait for the chair. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court

reporter yes my name is shati cooks s-h-a-t-e-e last name cooks c-o-o-k-s do you swear firm to

tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i swear proceed uh mr cook you heard

everything i stated today yes is it true and correct yes accurate yes and do you adopt as

your own testimony yes i do yes i do thank you very much questions from the board

no mr chairman mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience

i see no hands at this time chair thank you planning commission please thank you mr chairman

david facto city planning commission mr chairman members of the board the comprehensive plan

recommends no change to the residential single family zoning for this property there is no unique

physical condition or circumstance that would prevent this 1178 square foot lot from being

used in conformance with the zoning code. However, with this property's history of multifamily use,

the City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the use variance for a duplex.

Thank you. MI 2022-001-828-3045 West Susquehanna. I vote yes with proviso. No roof deck or roof deck

access structure. Harold Tineri, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, yes with proviso.

Ish?

All right, we have three votes.

Thank you, Mr. Nockamson.

I'm a yes, Chairman.

Okay, good. All right, thank you, Mr. Nockamson.

All right. 13. MI 2022-000-642-5312-18 Ridge Avenue. Richard DeMarco is the attorney.

Letter of support from the Roxburgh Development Corporation, which is the affected RCO.

Mr. DeMarco is coming back in now as the panelist chair.

Sure.

Sure.

Yeah.

Good afternoon.

Hi. Mr. DeMarco, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.

Richard DeMarco, last name D-E-M-A-R-C-O.

Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Yes, I do.

Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?

Yeah, sure.

The building owner is, I represent the building owner of 5312 to 18 Ridge Associates LLP.

or I'll say excuse me and I also represent the tenant as well all right our vice chair

Charlton area has a few questions sure hi Mr. DeMarco do you agree to waive the reading of

the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes have you emailed the exhibit packet with required

documents proof of ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos under

plans of the property five days in this hearing and have you met with the RCO and do you have

the letter. Yes, yes to all the above, although the tax clearance came in on Monday. We cleared

all that. Okay, great. You may proceed and begin with sharing your screen. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. This is a request for a use variance for a sit

down and take out restaurant within an existing commercial space. The building was constructed a

few years ago um with a fresh food market uh bonus and there's the fresh food market space

on the first floor uh there has been an inability to obtain a tenant that fits that use perfectly

so the request is for uh to actually sell fresh fruits and vegetables you hear me okay

Okay. Along with a cafe, an independent cafe, no Ansel system, no grilling, no cooking, just prepackaged food and reheating, coffee, that sort of a thing.

Something like a Starbucks, but an independent user. That proprietor is on the Zoom and available to answer questions.

It's a smaller cafe that really fits the neighborhood, five to eight employees.

We did meet with the Wissahick and neighbors.

We had a great discussion.

We had two meetings.

We banged out a list of provisos.

While Hillary had some issues with some of the provisos, which I certainly understand,

I have told Joe Bergen.

We've been talking consistently through the process.

We absolutely will work with him.

We stand by those agreements and will continue to work with Joe and his neighbors.

The actual proprietor, the proposed user, his name is Robert Ashford.

He owns Unity Taco down the block, and it's very well received.

The neighbors like it, and that, I think, is what helped us reach this agreement.

So I do just want to say, if you will, be quick.

I know we waited a long time on this list,

So I'll be very brief in light of the support from the neighbors.

But I just want to just mention that there's a CMX1 zoning for this property, which is unusual.

That's usually a mom and pop type zoning.

The property is extremely large.

It's 13,000 square feet.

Let me run through some of the exhibits.

I'll show you what I mean.

So, you know, that creates an issue.

We have my client, who's the building owner, J.B. Rebstein, they have attempted to market this for the fresh fruit market and have been unable to obtain a tenant that fits that use.

So there have been some hardship issues caused by the zoning and property.

Let me just show you.

That's our floor plan.

It's going to be a relatively small space.

we're going to have a community refrigerated display with fruits and vegetables so that we

continue to meet the approved use for fresh food and then of course the unity concept with coffee

drinks and preheated you know pre-packaged and heated items. Let me just show you how the

the neighbors actually asked for us to lay the floor plan on top of the

on top of the first floor. I'm sorry for the quality, but it gives you an idea of where

I'm using my course here to show you where the fresh food market and that's the floor plan.