Name and address for the record, please, and spell your last name.
Yes, Alan Ockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Ockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Address, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
philadelphia pa 19109 do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing about the truth
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole...
i do do you also agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance photos and or
plans of the property copy of the refusal um and referral have you met with the rco and
do you have a letter? Yes, in all respects. And you've done all of this five days in advance of
this hearing? Yes. Okay, you may proceed. I may share my screen? You sure may.
All right. So I'm here to present 2500-02 Masher Street. This is a property that's almost 4,000
square feet. It's at the corner of Masher, Cumberland, and Mudder in the North Square
area or section of Philadelphia. And what I'm going to be presenting, I'm going to increase
the size a little bit. I will show you the deed to the property, showing that NHA Development
LLC owns the property at 2500-02 Masher Street. I'll show you a Certificate of Tax Clearance,
showing that they're in good standing with the city with respect to their real estate
taxes as to this property. I will then show you the notice of refusal for this RM1 property.
Then I'll show you the application for appeal that we filed with the Zoning Board of Adjustment,
then maps of the area showing the zoning map as well as Google Maps. I will show you photographs
of the property as well as the surrounding area, then architectural plans and drawings,
and then a letter of support not only from the Norris Square Community Alliance,
But this has overwhelming support on that particular block as well. The property owner next door to us at 2504 Master Street is supporting it by way of a letter, as well as several neighbors across the street.
NHA Development has been in business for almost 10 years. It is known for developing properties in the North Square area as well as in other areas.
And that is why, as a known quantity, the community was in support of this project, as well as members of the community on that block, where NHA Development actually is developing a property across the street.
And that's why some of those same neighbors are supporting this one.
Here's a deed to the property showing that NHA Development owns 2500-02 Master Street.
After that, it's a certificate of tax clearance showing that they're in good standing.
There's a minor balance of $100.72, which we took care of in terms of payment.
For both properties, there's a minor balance that we took care of payment recently.
The notice of refusal, 2500 Master Street. This is an RM1 property. We are looking to put a 14-unit building in there with a roof deck. Our refusal is twofold. The first, again, because it's an RM1 property, we are allowed to build multifamily use. We are allowed to build eight units, but we're requesting to build 14 units.
Again, we face three public streets, and given the configuration in the building, this property fits comfortably within this building structure, and we're not seeking any variances other than our pilot house is located on the side of the building such that we don't have a five-foot setback, and that's the way the building is constructed because of the three public-sided streets.
But, you know, technically we have a height variance because they're counting the pilot
house.
But if you just count the roof line, we are under the 38-foot limit for RM1.
Here's our application for appeal to the zoning board of adjustment.
And then a zoning map showing, again, here we are in the neighborhood.
This is a multifamily portion of the neighborhood.
we are in the corner of Masher, West Cumberland, and Mudder.
And you see photographs of the property. Here's a picture of the property
for the front of the property from Masher, front of the property from West Cumberland,
and then the front of the property from Mudder Street. And then here's Masher Street to the
left of the property and to the right of the property, West Cumberland Street to the left
of the property to the right of the property. Mudder Street to left of the property to the
right of the property. And then here's our plans and drawings. Again, we want to keep
the traditional brick facade, but have some stonework on the base level. Because of the
uh because of the fact that we are facing three public streets we were able to have the many of
fact that we are facing three public streets, we were able to have
the first floor units open directly onto the first uh onto from the street which was a thing
that the community felt was a good idea to keep as many eyes on the street as possible
and let's see let me just reduce the size
so this is our site plan
show you where we are in the neighborhood and then here's our elevations again you know from
the roof line we are only 37 feet high and then here is our floor plans
paying particular attention to the uh the the room down here this is our where we will store our
garbage and then here's our letter of support
from the norah square community alliance again it's not non-opposition they actually support
our project and here's letters of support as well from the owner 2246 north howard street
which is not too far from the property uh 25 i can't read that it's 07 or or 17 north master
which would be across the street from our property
2509 north master which is across the street again these are properties where my client is
building next door to show his good faith in terms of respecting the community during the
construction phase and doing the right thing. 2240 North Howard Street, which is not far from
the property. And then most importantly, Jose Ortiz, who lives next door at 2504 North Master
Street, who's in support of this project. Here's our community notice for the community meeting
that took place on February 10th, 2021. Here are the addresses that we sent the notice to.
And then the last page is the proof of mailing. So with that, I would ask that Mr. Chabon
virtually raise his hand so he can adopt my testimony.
Could it be under NHA development? That's exactly right.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Hi, good afternoon, sir.
Please, I spell your first and last name for the record.
My name is Tony Shaban, T-O-N-Y-S-H-A-B, as in boy, A-N, as in mercy.
Sorry, can you repeat that again?
You've kind of faded away.
Tony Shaban, T-O-N-Y-S-H-A-B-A-N.
You're only firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Mr. Notkinson?
Yes, Mr. Chabon, you heard everything I stated today.
And is it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Anyone else would like to testify in this case, please raise your hand.
Chair, we have Sloan Foulkes.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Foulkes.
You're still under oath from this morning, but please identify yourself on the record.
Good afternoon, Chairman Chico. Sloan Foulkes, SLOANE, EPSON FIRE, OLKS, Office of Councilwoman Maria Keyona Sanchez, Room 508 City Hall.
The applicant, having received a letter of support from the coordinating RCO, Councilwoman does support this being a request. Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone else would like to testify in this case? Please raise your hand.
No more hands, Chair.
Thank you. Planning Commission?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
David Effecto, F-E-C-T-E-A-U, with the City Planning Commission.
And I have two questions.
One, do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
And I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself.
On that 810 North 12th, I didn't ask for the Planning Commission's recommendation.
Oh, our recommendation for that originally was that we were not opposed in our recommendation stance.
Okay, thank you.
Let's move on to 2500 Masher.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this is a residential multifamily lot whose zoning dates back to 2017.
Eight units would be allowed by right. The applicant could, however, use the city
8 units would be allowed by right. The applicant could, however, use the city's mixed income housing bonus to build 12 units by right by including units for low income residents or paying into the affordable housing trust fund.
Therefore, 14 units is not the minimum variance required to use this lot.
We have no issue with the height variance, but we recommend that the board deny the requested variance for additional units.
thank you um am i 2021 that's zero zero zero one eight six two five zero zero master street my vote
is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is no
thank you yeah calendar number zero one eight four two forty nine rochelle avenue
the attorney is rachel pritzker good afternoon i name and address for the record
for rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r 1635 market street suite 1600
philadelphia pa 19103 you're still under oath um i don't yes okay do you agree to wave the reading
of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof
of ownership tax compliance refusal 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
you may proceed thank you it's one of those days yeah it's all good
okay um in the interest of time too there's a few witnesses i'm gonna um bring up um
uh joe beller is on the line um last one that's exciting
and um our civil engineer greg is on the line as well um so i think it'd be helpful to bring
them up so that i can kind of go through this as smoothly as possible would they be presenting
or just speaking just speaking lakisha thank you joe joe beller yeah joe beller joe beller
It's exciting.
It's exciting for me, believe it or not.
Where are you?
I want to see your face.
Can you see me?
I don't know how to get on.
I'm worried about it.
He's coming back in as a panelist now.
You have a unique voice.
Hey, Rachel.
So this is, is our civil engineer on as well?
can you see me now hi joe good to see you may you ask them to raise their hand he's the only
one that raised her yes um i will text him um if he'd be called in the last uh for 9239
and you said it was greg hucklebridge yep he's on thank you so much
Okay, Chairman, members of the Board, this is 249 Rochelle Avenue.
I'm going to go through the refusal, which is for the proposed parking that is accessed by a front street on an RSA 5 property.
As you'll see, this is a longstanding matter, a longstanding parking space.
And I am appreciative to Joe for being here as he originally handled this matter back in 2001.
I hope we'll get into that in a minute, but just first to kind of explain the property,
I'm going to go down. This is all the other documentation that the board requires.
So this is Rochelle and the zoning maps. As you can see, it's a large intermediate lot on Rochelle
Avenue. It's an RSA 5, currently has a single family home. And as you can see from the aerial,
there is an existing curb cut and parking pad that's been there long-standing since at least
1996, if not longer than that. This is another aerial view of the site, and as you can also see
from the aerial, and I'll go into more detail, there are a bunch of other properties on this block
that also have the parking pad and accessory parking. These are sort of the site photos.
as well. Blurry. Here's sort of our site plan. Just important to point out there's about 13 feet
between where this property ends in the sidewalk, very large sidewalk, eight foot walking zone.
um so there's really no issues as far as you know pedestrian safety and traffic is concerned
So there's really no issues as far as pedestrian safety and traffic is concerned.
obviously this has been there since 1996 so i don't think that anybody is unfamiliar with it
on this site and like i said there's also other properties on this block that also provide the
same sort of concrete parking pad i'm just going to go down again as the board's well aware you
can't do front-loaded parking in rsa5 so that's sort of what we're here for this has been a single
family since at least 01. This was Mr. Beller's original application, as you can see, as to why
we brought him in to shed some light on this. And he, back in 2001, had applied for the legalization
of this existing spot as the prior owner had been using it and did not know it was not legalized
correctly. So they went through that process. I'm going to bring Joe on just to kind of
give his testimony as sort of the additional facts here, just to make it short and sweet
as far as what we're asking for. We're looking to finally legalize a longstanding existing
parking pad. It's in character with the neighborhood. It's been on this property since at least
96. There's city records that I provided to the board that show that in addition to Mr. Beller
here who spent time working through this back in 2001. So Joe if you could say your name spell your
last name and put your address on the record please. Joseph Beller B-E-L-L-E-R 1701 Market
Street Philadelphia PA 19103 suite 2300. You swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do thank you thank you so joe could you just explain um to the board
um your relationship with this project and how you were you know originally involved um and also um
if you've been out to the site uh if you could state that um and what you saw when you were
actually out at the site when you took on this case yes uh well when i first went into the matter
i did what i always do i went and checked the property and their pad was there and as you
showed on photos that was true of a number of other properties in and around the area
and we were merely trying to legalize that which had been used by the prior owners
the the main thing that i thought was of importance was that it's a tremendously
deep front so that this pad would in no way adversely affect people walking up and down
the street it it sits well in but under the law as everybody listening knows because it's parking
it's not considered open area um of course nothing was built on it and it was just a pad and as i
said that existed for many years as did many other pads up and down the block thank you and joe um
could you also uh kind of share with us so um when you met the prior owner the property you said the
site was existing like this you went and checked it out and then um kind of sort of the the history
of you guys applying for um a parking space and kind of uh where where we left off with that
well we applied we went to the board uh i don't remember the exact vote but we ended up
taking an appeal to the common police court i met with uh judge sylvester i believe somebody was
there from the city i'm not sure whether they were there from the board or not but
i wasn't the only one there she felt that the board should uh ask some questions and go over
it again and she sent it back to them uh the board never relisted it uh and i obviously
didn't reconsider it without our involvement in any way uh so we just left it alone my
impression was that post hearing the neighbors apparently made peace with the client and I had