Thank you.
here we have 45 attendees we can proceed as you wish thank you good morning everyone my name is
bill bergman and i will be chairing the meetings this morning with me is our vice chair ismail
shaheed president mr chairman our board member james snell present mr chairman our board member
Cheryl L. Gaston. Present. Mr. Chairman. Our board member Tanada Graham. Chairman. And our board
member Michael Johns. Present. Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and Kathleen Grady,
our deputy director for planning and zoning. Let's look at, hold on, here's our virtual format.
Proceedings are being recorded. With your participation, you agree to be recorded.
Video will be available by contacting Kathleen.Grady at phila.gov.
For our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating via phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To want an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question and answer box is not for testimony.
All comments should be directed to our executive director, Kathleen Grady.
Let's look at our today's schedule.
Number one, MI 2023, 000628, 1447 West Cayuga Street.
David Uptah is the attorney.
devin has been allowed to speak good morning chair attorney devin okay good morning devin
could you state your name and spell for the court sonographer yes devin d-e-v-i-n last name
uqdah do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Counsel, this is the third listing.
Could you give us an update?
Yes, Chair.
So I took this case over from my partner, who's now City Council.
We had a community meeting.
We just needed to work some stuff out with the community to get their support.
So we need additional time to go back to the community to get the letter of support from them.
Thank you very much, Counsel.
So MI 2023-000629-1447 West Cayuga Street.
That case is continued. Mark must be heard. Thank you, sir.
And number eight.
Eight. MI 2024, 0031451732 North Howard Street.
That case has been continued.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands at this time chair. Thank you. Number two, MI 2023-002-864-3130 North 24th Street. Leslie Powell is the listed applicant. We have no exhibits. This is the third listing.
i see no one by their name in the audience chair okay thank you so this is our third listing so
mi 2023 002 864 3130 north 24th street i vote to dismiss
michael johns my vote is to dismiss
cheryl gaston my vote is to dismiss
tennetta graham my vote is to dismiss
james snell my vote is to dismiss
ishmael shahi my vote is to dismiss
number three mi 2023 003 477 4231 to 61 north fish street walter tolliver is the attorney
We have no exhibits.
It's the third listing.
I see no one by their name in the audience here.
Okay. So this is the third listing. We still do not have exhibits. MI 2023-003-477-4231-61 North
So this is the third listing.
Street. I vote to dismiss. My vote is to dismiss. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is to dismiss.
Teneda Graham, my vote is to dismiss.
James Stelman, my vote is to dismiss.
James Stelman, my vote is to dismiss.
Thank you. Number six, MI 2024-001-188-4220, Holmesburg Avenue.
Franklin Castillo is the listed applicant. We also may have an interpreter on this case.
Is there an interpreter present?
i see no hands at this time chair chair i was able to this is patina excuse me
i was able to research it and i didn't find a request for an interpreter
all right thank you down to someone else okay franklin castillo
any more hands up not at this time chair so mi 2024 001 188 4220 holmesburg avenue
Cases continued. Mark must be hurt. And number five. MI 2023-006-842-11500 East Roosevelt Boulevard. That case has been withdrawn.
I'm going to go to case number four, MI-2023-005-625-912 South Front Street.
Vincent DeFino is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from Queen Village neighbors.
The applicant has put it in a petition signed by 27 neighbors,
and the council person has left the decision to the zoning board.
Mr. DeFino.
How are you, Mr. Chairman?
Good morning, Cal.
DeFino.
That's D-E-F-I-N-O is my last name.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Dufino, could you identify your client or relationship with your client?
Mr. Chairman, members of the board of my office has the honor of representing Carmen and Rita D'Amato,
lifelong residents and loyal citizens and contributors to this great city of Philadelphia.
Our architect is Vince Mancini, but I wanted to introduce my client, Carmen D'Amato.
So why don't we do this first?
Why don't I have a few questions from our vice chair?
So our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, that's correct.
Thank you, counsel.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Yes, I have Vince Mancini, my architect.
He's going to share his screen to do the presentation today because I was having some technical difficulties in my office.
So can we promote him as a panel member?
Yes, Vince, can you raise your virtual hand, please?
i have a hand raised by the name of erica yes that would be uh that would be a a
a guy a guy right yeah thank you they have been promoted to the analyst
okay mr defino at this point they're just going to operate the screen and you'll testify
correct yes okay he will testify at some point vince mancini as to the as to the plans but um
basically 912 south front street then if you mr mancini if you could put that the property up
they could get an idea of the property i think um can you hear me uh everyone yeah
sir why don't you state your name and spell for the court stenographer
My name is Vincent Mancini, M-A-N-C-I-N-I. My company is Landmark Architectural Design.
My company is Landmark Architectural Design.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
So, Mr. Tofino, he'll be able to testify later.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
The property is 912 South Front Street.
The lot size is approximately 5104 square feet.
So, it's 5,104 square feet.
Council, we still need to get it up on the screen.
Vince, if you could put the property up
Alright, we're good
Okay, there's the property there
So you can see it
This is Front Street
So it's 912 South Front Street
It comes in at what? Front and Christian?
Front and Christian Streets
In South Philadelphia
The lot size is
32.7 times
139 and a half
So, it's basically 5,104 square feet.
Currently, there exists, you could say it, a 7,600 square foot single family home, which
Carmen and Rita, the motto, they built it about 25 years ago.
There also exists five off-street parking spots.
Hold on, someone's got a mute.
um so okay so my my client's original zoning application was for a department units
after an initial meeting with queen village um neighbors association or the application was
amended to six units ranging from 500 square feet to approximately 1100 square feet per unit
The bigger units would be owned and occupied by the owner, his daughter, and a nephew.
So three to six units would be occupied by family.
These six units will fit comfortably within the framework of the current building.
So there would be no outside construction.
The envelope of the building would take on the construction and there would be nothing outside.
so no additions and there's no open area issue the rear yard is 34 deep and 37 wide
it's 1200 square feet it's 38 open area as as you you well know it's 25 required
so this is a use variance only the building remaining the same not taking away from the
open area. Also, there
exists five parking spots
and ample parking
under I-95. The neighborhood
group has parking there. Of course,
you would have to pay for that parking, but
it's available across the street.
said, the owner met with
Queen Village RCO
two times.
I would ask now
Vince that their letter of non-support
be put up on the screen.
hold on one second i'm on it
no problem
i think that's the council
that's not it
No, hold on.
Sorry.
There it is.
So, so basically, first, it should be noted that if you're sending notifications twice to the entire nearby residents, both meetings were sparsely attended, as you can see.
in paragraph two it stated that both
of these meetings were sparsely attended
the rco letter states that neighbors
reacted negatively to increased dead city and additional
demand for off street parking that's uh
towards the end in the third paragraph now i was
at the May 8th meeting after we reduced it from eight to six units. And I heard from two neighbors.
One was concerned that my client would make it a bed and breakfast or Airbnb, actually an Airbnb.
And the other was concerned that Mr. and Mrs. D'Amato would not occupy the property. It wouldn't
be owner-occupied. They were just basically stating that. So we agreed that we would put that into
they were just basically stating that so we agreed that we would put that into a proviso
also there was concern about short-term rentals we said we would put that in a proviso that there
wouldn't be any short term or we would make a neighborhood agreement so we didn't hear any
neighbor neighbors complaining about density or parking but of course it's a concern of the board
because it's in their letter that there there was a density issue and there was a parking issue
so for the density issue we reduced it from eight to six units and i wanted to vince has an overview
aerial um of the surroundings and i wanted mr mancini to be able to testify to what the aerial
aerial view represents.
Vince, why don't you explain what's the surrounding area there?
Yeah, the blue dot is the actual home itself. Across the street is I-95 with landscape buffer
as well as under highway parking. Adjacent to the home, directly adjacent to the home,
is a large shot tower park, which I certainly have images of if requested. And I think what
this exhibit is trying to show is the actual lack of density in this particular block and
as well as a few of the additional adjacent blocks. So it's the testimony here today to
basically account for the fact that the density in this particular block and the adjacent blocks
from our perspective is certainly not an issue, nor would parking be.
let me ask you a question in that block is there other multiple family homes
there are a few i couldn't identify them i could defer to the owner to who's lived there for 25
years to to identify mostly every property adjacent to all right all right thank you
yes can you describe the current parking conditions there
Well, on the actual premises itself, there are three.
I could start showing some of the other exhibits which indicate the plans and the sites and square footages and certainly the layouts of the individual units.
But if you can see the proposed first floor plan, which is very similar to what currently exists, I'll zoom it a little bit and move it over.