David Garcia is the attorney for the applicant.
He had a dental emergency and was having some surgery at about 1.30 this afternoon.
Everything's happening at 1 o'clock today.
And this is Sharon Solita again.
We did get an email requesting this continuance as well.
Calendar number 39377-4861 North Howard Street.
This case will be continued.
Thank you very much.
no more hands vice chair thank you miss sunken next case is calendar number 39532
2801 winton street the attorney is eric carroll um vice chair i believe we were going to call
I know. Strike the calendar number 39532. Calendar number 39420, 718 South 18th Street.
The attorney is Lionel Ginsberg.
Lionel, you've been promoted to a panelist. You can now speak and share your screen if necessary.
Mr. Ginsburg?
Sorry, I was having trouble unmuting. I'm here.
Okay, can you please put your name and address on the record and spell your name for the stenographer?
Of course. L-I-O-N-E-L. Last name is A-R-T-O-M as in Mary, hyphen G-I-N-Z-B-U-R-G.
I'm at the law offices of Lionel Artem Ginsberg, 1628 JFK Boulevard, Suite 2200, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103.
Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?
And do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Okay, you may proceed.
Good afternoon, panel.
This matter relates to 718 South 18th Street. I'm going to shift to a picture of the lot.
We are, you can see in the upper right corner where the little teardrop shape is. This is an
where the little teardrop shape is.
This is an oddly shaped lot.
oddly shaped wall.
It is a single family home, an RSA 5.
And the denial relates to the lack of open space
as to the plans,
which essentially would be moving the wall of the kitchen forward
into what is now the yard by approximately four feet
and closing up the little gap, which is the diagonal space over on the right, for the purposes of insulation.
You can see that the portion, the gap, the diagonal portion, really does not add anything at all to useful outdoor square footage.
In fact, an adult human being cannot fit into the space.
It's not even a crawl space.
There's some conduit there, and that's it.
The purpose is to extend the wall forward about four or five feet, which unfortunately, because of the unusually shaped lot, would take us below the mandatory square footage for outside space.
which it probably given that it was built in 1868 does not it does not meet already
uh i have the plans before me i have the uh i have the architect and i have the owners
if anyone would like to speak to them does anyone have any questions
Tom no no no okay and you've met with the RCO we did back in February and
saw has not proved it okay um calendar number three nine four two zero can we get planning
yes that's right we do need planning commission
will the planning commission representative please identify themselves on record
no we can't hear you
Tanya I'm available it's Paula Burns Paula if you want to give a recommendation
to this case that wasn't on the 2 p.m. list you can go ahead Paula unmute
yourself I muted you this is Paula Burns from the Planning Commission this
property is indicated for residential use on the comprehensive plan we have no objection to the
granting of the variance for filling in the existing property for insulation improvements
thank you calendar number 39420 718 south 18th street my vote is yes my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes
good luck and thank you thank you very much sure the next case is calendar number 39532
2801 winton street the attorney is eric carroll
eric you have been promoted to a panelist you can unmute yourself to speak and share your screen as
necessary okay thank you sir mr carroll can you please identify yourself for the record name and
address? Yes, good afternoon. Eric Carroll on behalf of applicant T. Chris LLC, 150 North
Radnor Chester Road, Suite F200, Radnor, PA. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing
but the truth? I do. And you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I do. Thank you. You may proceed. Okay, thank you. My client is the owner of 2801
Winton Street. That is a corner vacant lot in the southwest corner of Gray's Ferry. It's zoned
CMX2, so by right, we could build three units. One would have to be commercial, and then two would
have to be residential. What we would like to do is just make all three residential. We don't think
a store or anything like that makes sense for this area. There's a commercial corridor a block
and a half north. There's already a bunch of corner stores on it. We don't think it would
work we don't think the neighbors neighborhood really wants it in
In addition, we would like to bump out the rear yard so that it aligns with the rest of that block.
addition we would like to bump out that the the rear yard
Now, if we did that, that would increase the maximum occupied area and shorten the required rear yard depth.
But I think that variance we're seeking would actually make it a lot more uniform with the rest of the block.
So we're seeking a variance on that and then looking to build all three residential as opposed to one commercial, two residential.
We met with the RCO on August 5th. We won the support of that group. There was a letter attached to my materials.
Yes, my clients are going to start building. Right now it's a vacant lot.
We're having some issues keeping it clean with the dumping that goes on down there.
And we think that the sooner we can get building, the better it would be for that block in that neighborhood.
Thank you. Does the board have any questions?
i'm sorry can you say that again there was some there was some audio feedback
do you have floor plans yes the plans are on page five to six of the materials that i submitted to
the um the emails that that were given to me last week tom i stopped your video so you could be
clear thank you can you show the floor plans um i'm not actually sure how to upload that
uh hold on one second actually no at home i can share screen
I don't want seconds there
there we go
can everyone see them yes yes
okay thank you
are there any other questions no no no
planning commission can the representative please identify yourself
hi this is Andrew Maloney with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission that's a n d r e w m e
Hello, N-E-Y.
Hi, Mr. Maloney.
Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
This property was in the South District Plan.
It's recommended to be rezoned as RSA 5.
With that in mind, the Planning Commission recommends opposition to this
for an overuse of a number of units.
Thank you very much.
Are there any other questions?
No other questions?
I don't have hands up here either.
What about reducing the number of units?
um this is the first i'm hearing about this uh we haven't discussed this it's always been
cmx2 we talk to the neighbors we talk to the rco about this uh we don't think our plans would
really work for reducing the number of units given the economics down there we think that
three units would be able to provide a little bit more affordable housing in that in that area i
I think a large house at this point wouldn't work.
This is in a neighborhood that needs some work, to be honest.
Calendar number 39532, 2801 Winton Street.
And before I vote on this case, is there any way that you can go back and rethink this?
I don't think at this point we really can.
I mean, this is, you know, with everything, I'm sure a lot of people on this list, my client's been paying the note on this throughout this COVID situation.
And at this point, to restart the process with the neighbors and the RCO who approved it and who voiced their support, I don't think that that's a realistic plan financially.
Planning Commission doesn't think it's realistic.
Calendar number 39532, 2801 Wynton Street.
My vote is no.
my vote is yes my vote is no my vote is no
my vote is now my vote is now good luck
frank do you want me to continue yeah please if you don't mind okay no not at all
it took me 10 minutes to get this computer up thank you welcome to today yes tanya
Before going on, could you clarify what that vote was?
Okay, I voted no.
Three no's and one yes.
Okay, thank you.
Calendar number 40049-232 East Johnson Street.
The attorney is Alan Nockamson.
Mr. Nockmson, you've been promoted to a panelist, and you can unmute yourself to speak.
Mr. Nockmson, can you please place your name and address on the record?
Yes. Good afternoon, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board. My name is Alan Nockmson, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
Alan, I was going to spell my name.
Okay, go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Oh, no worries.
Alan, A-L-A-N, last name is Nochumson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing about the truth?
And do you also agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Okay, you may proceed.
Okay, I'm going to share my screen.
Okay, so what is in front of you is a packet of exhibits, which are eight of them.
We had one addition last second when, you know, I submitted my exhibits last week.
We met actually with the coordinating RCO this Saturday.
So in my original packet of exhibits in exhibit eight, I stated that we were going to meet
and that we would supplement our exhibit packet.
So the good news is we met with the community,
and both Councilwoman Cindy Bass as well as the coordinator of the NRCO
have no opposition to this project.
So this project is regarding 232 East Johnson Street.
I have eight exhibits.
The first is a deed to the property showing that my client, V2 Properties, owns the property.
Just a little background about V2 Properties.
v2 properties is one of the largest residential developers in the city of philadelphia last year
and the year before they were recognized by the philadelphia inquirer as developer of the year
their business model and their focus are on first-time home buyers and you know for this
project you know here's the tax clearance certificate for this project it's we're looking
to put a single-family home on a RSA 3 property. And the only variance that we're seeking or
refusal we have, the lot size is 20 feet wide. Because this is an RSA 3 property, we're required
to have a side yard of 8 feet, which essentially would be a 12-foot wide house, while we're
proposing a 4-foot side yard, which would be more appropriate, a 16-foot house. I hand it to you
also the appeal package that I filed with the ZBA. As you can see, our property is of similar
width to the properties on Johnson Street to the left and the right of us. If you look at the
pictures that are attached, this is the lot that we are looking to build. If you look to the right
of us on 230 East Johnson Street, they have the same width in terms of their side yard,
which is four feet.
So we're only asking to see what everyone else has on that side of East Johnson Street.
If you look on the left side of East Johnson Street, there are limited or no side yards.
So again, we met with the community group and I received an email from Charles Richardson,
who's the zoning aide for Councilwoman Sydney Bass,
who stated that, you know, based on their discussion
with the coordinating RCO's representative, Reverend Williams,
that the RCO and the Councilwoman would be taking a position
of non-opposition to the granting of the variance.
Thank you. Does the Board have any questions?
Planning Commission, can the representative please identify
themselves I'm sorry madam chair I know I'm sorry miss Sunkett I do have mr.
I do have Mr. Richardson from the council office, if he could be allowed to speak.
Richardson from the council office if he could be allowed to speak
Mr. Richardson, you can unmute yourself and testify.
Thank you.
Madam Chair, I am Charles Richardson, Councilwoman Cindy Bass's office.
Just wanted to confirm that Councilwoman has no opposition to the granting of the variants.
And you do swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
I do. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Anything else, Ms. Sunkit? No more hands, Madam Chair. Okay. And there are no questions from the
board? No. Calendar number. Thank you. Calendar 40049. I'm sorry. Once again, I hate to interrupt.
could we just get the planning commission oh my gosh what is wrong with me today thank you
planning commission representative can you please identify yourself hi this is andrew maloney from
the phil w city planning commission that is a n d r e w m e l o n e y and mr maloney do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth and nothing but the truth yes i do okay this property was part of a