and exhibit 18 is the uh certificate of mailing we mailed to a lot of neighbors there's a lot
of near neighbors um that goes on and on i'm sure you don't need to read every address if
you're more than welcome to. And finally, Exhibit 19 is the tax clearance for Dominus Holdings dated
7-14-20. I would point out that this property is zoned or RSA-5, but the changed circumstances
of the immediate neighborhood under the holding in Valley View Civic Association would basically
remove this property's viability as a single-family house in this instance and would really present
a hardship if the variance were not granted. I would ask my client, Roman Guzva. Roman, are you
there? Yes, can you hear me? I can hear you. You got the right case. You're back. Okay.
Roman was very eager to get in front of you
I know
So Roman, please spell your name
Give us your address
My name is
R-O-M-A-N
As Roman
Last name is G-U-Z
V as a Victor
A as an Apple
2015 North 5th Street
Philadelphia
APA. Thank you. Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth? Yes, sir. Thank you. Roman, did you hear all of my testimony to the board today? Yes,
sir, I have. And would you adopt this testimony as your own? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Do you have
any other witnesses we don't need them but yeah i have about 17 people gathered from from the
community in support of the project these people could not participate in an rco meeting because
of their work they work very late and they could not attend six o'clock meeting let me ask this
question of the 17 or so folks who are uh online uh is there anyone who is opposed to it
i don't we don't need any of the supporters we just need anyone if anyone is opposed
to this project please raise raise your hand
and if there is no opposition well the record will note there are 17 or so 17 plus members of
the community who are in support of this project the only other hand that we had
up was Logan dry if Isaac one attempt to testify and then we also have the
council person's office representative Sloan folks so we'll hear from both
those. Logan, you're there? Logan? Yeah, you know what, he's on, but for some reason, he can't.
So, Mr. Slepner, just give us his name and address, and we'll make that
Uh, his name is Logan, L-O-G-A-N, last name Dry, D-R-Y, um, I think it's, you're testifying
that he is in support.
Well, he is our, he is our, our project architect.
Oh, our architect, I'm sorry.
Okay, so obviously he's in support.
So let's hear from the council, uh, council person's office.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the ZBA.
Can you hear me?
Hey, you want to swing me in first?
Name and address, and we'll swear you in.
Yes, sir.
Sloan Fuchs, F as in Fire, O-L-K-S, Office of Councilwoman Maria Quinonez Sanchez, Room 508 City Hall.
Thank you.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
The applicant has met with the RCO and has garnered a letter of opposition.
The applicant is met with the RCO and has garnered a letter of opposition. Therefore,
the councilman's office is submitting and has submitted a letter of opposition. That's our
testimony for today. That took me by surprise, to be honest with you.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I add something, this is Roman Guzman calling, I realize there
was an opposition at the RCO meeting, but unfortunately all the votes, the people who
voted, they are not, they don't live in the vicinity of this street.
The people who are living in the vicinity of the street were not, they know what's going
on on the block they they realize how bad it is and how trash keeps piling up and nothing really
being done and they can individually speak as they're on the phone right now just to attest to
that there were those people were not present at the vote just because there were either some of
them lost the letter or they didn't receive it or they were just working most of them were actually
working until late hours all right let me let me ask you a question mr folks is the councilwoman
if you know is the councilwoman uh raising an objection because of what she heard back from
the rco or does the councilwoman have any specific reasons not to support it other than any issues
with the rco uh i personally was at the rco meeting i can attest that the councilman doesn't
have any specific re any specific issues with the project other than the community vote uh at the
end of the meeting okay that that's that's good i hear you all right any questions from the board
no planning commission
based on the um
zoning of this particular district we have no objection
thank you calendar number three nine two eight nine four four nine west norris street my vote
is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes and for those folks who
are on the line we thank you for your participation today appreciate your time thank you mr chairman
members of the board good to see everybody and uh stay well safe take care thank you
Frank, are we going to Rachel Pritzker? I can't remember. Do we handle that?
That was the one earlier, right?
That was with Councilwoman Gauthier?
Oh, yes. Yeah, on the continuance. Right. We'll hear the testimony.
So we are calling that case.
Calendar number 39828, 5230 Walnut Street.
tanya the attorneys rachel pritzker
thank you rachel you have been promoted to a panelist so you can share your screen as you
wish and if you have any witnesses please let me know okay rachel do you agree to waive the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes name and address for the record
and please spell your name for the stenographer uh rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r
pritzker law group 1635 market street uh suite 1600 philadelphia pa 19103 um it won't let me
share my screen it just doesn't give me that as an option
well do you swear to tell the truth and nothing that's the truth thank you
frank she's all yours all right rachel maybe it's your work now okay
yep all right cool okay so we also have um my client who is travis seal um who's the owner
of the property here as well so um i don't know if you want to swear him in now or after my testimony
Okay, Travis is available to speak as you wish.
Yes, this is Travis.
Frank, can you unmute yourself, please?
I'm sorry.
Mr. Seale, please identify yourself with the record, name and address, spell your name
for the sonographer.
Yes, my name is Travis Seal, and that's T-R-A-V-I-S, last name S, as in Sam, E-A-L.
Yes, my name is Travis Seal, and that's T-R-A-V-I-S.
And I'm the managing member of SR Walnut Street, JVLLC, which is the owner of 5230 and 5232 Walnut Street.
Office address is 614 South 4th Street, Suite 146, Philadelphia, PA, 19147.
thank you mr seal do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth I do Rachel please proceed okay so this is for the
property located 5230 and 32 walnut Street for you today is a proposal for
a lot line relocation to consolidate two existing parcels at 52 30 and 32 to one
parcel and for the erection of an attached structure for uses 10
multi-family dwelling units with a roof deck accessed by three individual roof deck access
structures. The property is zoned CMX4 and is currently vacant. The block is adjacent to RM1,
CMX2, CMX3, and CMX4 zoning districts. The proposal is permitted as of right except for
the refusal we generated as a result of our inability to provide accessory off-street parking.
the requirement by the code is a little bit in sort of contradiction to what's currently there
so the code requires and I can share my screen based on the refusal that for every 10 dwelling
units you're required to provide three off-street accessory parking spaces however on this block of
Walnut Street and Walnut Street in general it's a state highway so you would need approval by
PennDOT. We spoke to the streets department and submitted our email correspondence in the packet
with the streets department who basically said that we cannot give you authorization for a curb
cut on Walnut Street without you going through PennDOT. There are no, if I can show you the
Google Maps of this area, this is the property right here. There are no curb cuts on the south
side of the 5200 block of Walnut Street, which is where our property is located. It's mostly
residential homes, some commercial mixed use, and as you can see, all this on-street parking.
Our property is also located in the center of the block, so if you look on the other side of the
block, there is a curb cut here for this shopping center, although the rest of the block is in
conformity with no parking, and again, with it being in the center of the block, we feel like
if we were required to provide accessory off-street parking, we'd be taking more cars off the street,
And again, the city has no authority right now to actually even approve a curb cut.
So we'd have to go through PennDOT's process.
When we met with the RCO, again, we met with them Monday night.
Someone from the council office was there and there were 40 participants.
If you can see in my packet that we submitted, we have a proof of mailing.
We mailed out 169 letters.
I took phone calls for the majority of yesterday with neighbors submitting plans.
We did a recording of everything.
and the only refusal again is for the curb cut. So we also did in terms of establishing a hardship
Travis went and spoke with a bunch of neighbors as far as trying to see if we could figure out
a property within a thousand feet that we could do accessory off-street parking but we were
unsuccessful. You actually have to find a parking lot that is zoned for non-accessory
parking for it to qualify within a thousand feet. I'm just trying to find,
here's the zoning posters. Again this is the property as you can see there's no
other curb cuts. That was our only refusal. I know that the council office
was aware that most of the questions that were asked at the here at the RCO
meeting had to do with affordability. We're providing between 60 to 80% AMI for this project
voluntarily. We are not requesting any city, state, or federal subsidies, and we are not
requesting any bonuses. And so a lot of the conversation was around affordability. They
felt that that wasn't low enough. Again, that really doesn't pertain to our refusal, which is
just for accessory off-street parking. Just want to make sure I covered everything, make sure I
show the proof of mailing with 160. This is the correspondence with the streets department.
Just let them know you represent the owner and that we wanted to get written documentation to
see if they would provide support for a curb cut. They needed to speak with streets department and
they said they won't be able to get approval because it's a state highway. We would require
a highway occupancy permit through PennDOT. Again, our hardship is that if we are refused this
variants, we would have to work with PennDOT, they could also refuse it, and then we would
we would have to work with PennDOT. They could also refuse it. And then we would have a project
have a project that can't move forward.
that can't move forward with 10 affordable housing units because of a curb cut in the center of a
block that is out of character with the existing landscape and the existing infrastructure that's
already there. So we are in front of the board asking for relief. I believe we've met all those
requirements. Thank you. Do you have any witnesses you want to call up? I have the owner. I don't,
Travis who already spoke just he's more than welcome to put any sentiments I would like him
to share kind of his experience as far as hardship just speaking and trying to find
alternatives to this as far as trying to get additional parking from a nearby site I think
that would be beneficial for the record and other than that I think the board gets has a gist of
the issue with this case. Yeah I think that Rachel pretty much covered everything there
I would say to her point, I did make an extended and concerted effort to find some non-accessory
parking to lease in the area within the 1,000-foot requirement.
I was unable to do that.
There's just not a lot out there.
So that kind of leaves us here.
And I think that also just to add from a design and kind of aesthetic and quality of life
standpoint a curb cut on that mid-block site just does not make a lot of sense removing street
parking from that block and having vehicular traffic crossing the pedestrian walkway it
doesn't make a lot of sense either from uh from my perspective as a developer so that's that's
what brought us here but i think rachel touched on everything else that's relevant here yeah and
there's there's no other refusals that were generated from this price so everything else
dimensionally and otherwise is conforming with cmx4 requirements thank you um is the councilwoman's
representative still here uh yes let's pick up where we left off earlier there was going to be
request for a continuance yeah this is this is max weiss again uh on behalf of councilmember
gaudier um we did request um a continuance earlier and um you know we we we still think
that the notice was deficient here um you know as evidence uh by the rco letter which states that
no near neighbors participated in the meeting and and you know what Rachel was saying that she's
been getting calls from folks who received notice after the RCO meeting I think further shows that
you know those those people did not have the opportunity to participate in the meeting because
they didn't get notice in time so just kind of restating what I said earlier. Just to comment
on that I had let Max know yesterday that people had reached out saying they got the notice but
they didn't um they tried to do the zoom and didn't know how to do zoom but that's you know
besides the point it wasn't that they didn't get the notices they were sent a week before i've done
projects where they've been sent three days before and 40 people showed up and there's nothing to say
that if we did this again that we would get any better of a turnout i've done that on many cases
before and that doesn't necessarily happen again and i said to max given the de minimis uh reason
for this variance and the lack of the city's ability to even approve a variance, we would
really be stuck between a rock and a hard place going back to an RCO meeting to talk
about affordability and diversity and inclusion.
Not that that's not important.
It is.
And we're open to that discussion as the developer clearly stated and provided his contact information.