005122
7511 to 19 Stanton Avenue.
Okay, Ms. Lynn Nichols has her hand raised, I will promote it to panelists.
And I also have a Ms. Kiyasha Tyson, do I promote her as well?
Kiyosha Tyson, do I promote her as well?
Let's stay with her.
Let's stay with the attorney first.
Okay, you got it.
Good morning.
Could you state your name and spell for the court report?
Good morning.
Lynn Nichols, L-Y-N-N, last name N-I-C-H-O-L-S.
You swear firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Would you identify your client in relationship to the property they have?
Yes. The client that we have today is Gilbert Ovidi.
He is the owner rep for the property at 7511 to 19 Stinton Avenue, which is owned by Rock Shield LLC.
Thank you. Mr. Holman has a few questions for you.
Good morning, Counselor. Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal?
and stipulate to its accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits as required?
Proof of ownership, tax clearance,
copy of refusal or referral,
pictures or drawings of the property?
Five days in advance of this hearing,
did you meet with the RCO
and do you have a RCO letter?
Thank you.
We emailed the packet.
It does not include the tax clearance.
I did indicate in an email that the applicant is working on getting the tax clearance, so other than that, we have emailed all the other documents.
Thank you. Please proceed. Show your screen.
Thank you.
Is everyone able to see my screen now?
May I proceed?
Proceed.
thank you this project is a request for the applicant to legalize two wall animated signs
that were approved without a permit we have the zoning use application the application
for appeal the project information form the deed indicating that the property is owned by roxford
LLC. Here we have a photograph of the property looking to the left on Stenton Avenue.
Another photograph of the property. This is the rear of 7511 Stenton Avenue.
This is a photograph looking across the street at a near neighbor on Stenton Avenue.
here we have a photograph looking to the right of the property
this is a photograph from across the street looking directly towards the property
this is a list of the affected neighbors
purchase of the proof of mailing this is the rco letter we met with the 10th ward
this is the posted note notice of zoning the notice of refusal these are the renderings that
would show how the signs would look as they are posted on the building this is another rendering
of the sign on the rear side of the building this is a site plan of the drawings the size and
location where they would be on the building the rco the 10th ward met with the community as well
as members from our organization and they support the project however there are some stipulations
that the applicant does agree to and we submitted a proviso that there will be no blinking lighting
no flashing colors lightning or letters and the sign will only operate during the hours of the
medical center's operation from 9 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday from 8
to 1 p.m. The applicant has agreed to these stipulations.
In addition, the applicant will work on getting the tax clearance as stated, and with that,
I would like to call a witness, Gilbert Ovidi, O-V-I-D-E.
is he in the audience he should be in the audience yes yes mr orvidi please raise your
virtual hand could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
he still hasn't raised his hand sir mr orvidi
if he's not able he i know he signed in would you like me to just continue to proceed
what what you're an officer of the court why don't you just proceed well
you're an officer of the corp why don't you just proceed well the the purpose of the signs is for
the medical center to be able to allow their clients to accurately identify them on one side
of stinton avenue the addresses don't run uh consecutively one side is 6400 6500 so they just
want to be able to make sure that their clients are able to know where they are accurately located
with that I would close my testimony and offer it to the board as well as the packet that was
submitted with the proviso and ask that you grant the variance for the permits questions from the
board no Mr. Chairman no Mr. Chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair I have a Ms. Kiyosha Tyson with her hand raised I can allow her to speak
Ms. Tyson, please wait to be sworn in.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, Kiyasha Tyson, K-Y-A-S-H-A.
Last name is Tyson, T-Y-S-O-N.
I'm the Director of Economic and Community Development for Councilwoman Sherelle Parker.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
I just wanted to report the councilwoman's position. We are not opposed to this request
as long as the provisos are implemented. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments from the virtual
audience? Planning Commission? Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City
Planning Commission. Last name is spelled H-E-G-A-R-T-Y. Right. Do you swear for him to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir thank you proceed good morning
everyone uh ian hegarty for the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a zoning map
change here from rsa3 to cmx2 these signs are proposed to be legalized and i would just note
that this is a legal non-conforming commercial building in this residence district however the
zoning code does prohibit animated signs near intersections and across from residential
districts we don't believe an animated sign is necessary to accurately identify the building
so we believe the variance as originally applied for exceeds the minimum variance necessary in this
case however we would recommend that the board grant with proviso for non-illuminated sign of
the same size as the existing non-conforming sign and so i think our recommendation concurs with the
proviso stipulated by the community. Thank you, Ian. Ms. Nichols, we will hold the vote on this
until we have the tax cert, the tax information is cleared up. Thank you. Thank you. May I be excused?
yes thank you okay here we go down
number one number two mi 2022 005 121 1228 east palmer street
alexis miraz pro se letter of support from the fishtown neighbors association
five letters of support from Fishtown residents as well also a letter of support from council
Ms. Mraz if you are present please raise your virtual hand and wait okay
I will promote her to panelists at this time sir thank you
welcome
hi could could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
alexis mraz a-l-e-x-i-s my last name is m-r-a-z and he's my husband david it's d-a-v-a-z
you swear okay so you're going to alexis you'll do the testimony right yeah okay do you swear
firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do okay um we have a few questions
from thomas holliman our board member and good morning madam did you email all of the exhibits
as required such as proof of ownership tax clearance copy of refusal or referral pictures
or drawings of the property five days in advance of this hearing did you meet with the rco and do
have rco letter yes we did please proceed and show your screen
the green button on the bottom sorry i was trying to
what kind of device are you using ma'am
um computer i'm sorry i think i a regular computer yeah yeah i'm sorry i think i have it now here it
is you're you're up you're up thank you um can you still see it if i go into presentation mode
we should okay um so we are presenting for 1228 east palmer street we're asking for the addition
of two accessory parking spots. This is a calendar meeting MI 2021-005-121, zoning permit 2021-01-0949.
And we're Alexis and David Mraz, we're the owners of the property. To give you an idea of
what we're trying to do while you're looking at our property, this is our home,
we are trying to make this side lot into the accessory parking spots which would require
moving this fire hydrant to in front of our home we are working with the water department on that
moving the hydrant is won't be won't be an issue with them or with the fire department we've had
the measurings from the fire department as well this side of the street is no parking so we are
not affecting any of our neighbor's parkings but we'll get our two cars off the road so we're
proposing the curb cut here where you can see that raised curb is give you a brief history on the
property our home was obviously a duplex or twin at one point in time that structure on what was
1230 east palmer street was torn down in the mid 80s after that moyer street was widened so what
was 1230 was is now a 10 foot wide lot the owner stopped paying taxes on that in the 90s
as you can see it kind of became an overgrown mess we purchased our home in october of 2014 we've
been living in it um since we plan to live on it until uh we can't anymore um we
We purchased 1230 East Palmer Street in July 2019. In May of 2020, we combined the properties into 1228 East Palmer Street. So that side lot is now part of 1228 where our home is.
our proposed plan the left is the existing conditions the right is the proposed change
so the proposed change is the curb cut and moving the fire hydrant you can zoom in on
that proposed change the curb cut would be directly in front of 12 30. we have the turning
plan so we have enough radius to turn in or ideally to back into the property
And then we have the same plans with the utilities, which it makes it a little more challenging to see, but this is just what it looks like with the utilities.
We the community meeting had some concern about visibility.
These are the pictures. If you were to be backing out of the driveway, this is the height and distance from the driver's seat.
As you can see in the first picture, you can see all the way up Palmer Street.
In the last picture, you can see all the way down Palmer Street.
The middle picture is Moyer Street.
So you can see all the way down Moyer Street in case a pedestrian was jogging around a scooter moving quickly.
We have clear visibility, but backing into the drive by and pulling out would be ideal.
We have very similar projects on our block.
the first two pictures are on our side of the street very similar almost exactly the same to
what we proposed the other one is on the right side of the street so it does affect parking
but these are fairly commonplace around us and have not presented issues
we are asking for this variance because of the uptick in carjackings in philadelphia my husband
When Dave works for DOD and travels, I work nights, so when he is traveling, I have to pick up our son from the babysitter and am walking him home at night.
Because of the lack of parking, I'm typically parked about a half mile away.
um when I'm walking back with him I am very concerned for our safety um our some of these
When I'm walking back with him, I am very concerned for our safety.
carjackings have involved children um and I'm I'm just I'm very concerned about coming back
at that distance with him at night um our community liaison suggested calling neighbors to let them
know that we're walking home at night which I do it's just hard if you're a half mile away I don't
have someone, you know, throughout that course going back. I also asked her, our community
liaison is the police officer in our community, what to do if we get carjacked with my son
in the backseat, and she told me to fight, which I'm worried if that happens, I won't
win. In addition to the lack of parking, and because of the lack of parking, we consistently
We definitely have cars and trucks parked on our sidewalk. As you can tell, our sidewalk is double wide, so trucks and cars pull up quite easily on it.
This presents an issue for pedestrians, particularly those of us with strollers or people in wheelchairs.
um we the project we are presenting would move the fire hydrant down the block a little bit we
are also going to put in a bullard which would prevent cars and trucks from parking on our
section of the sidewalk we have been told by again our community liaison that police officers are not
enforcing this type of sidewalk parking because of the lack of parking in the neighborhood
so while our project would not solve this problem completely it would get two cars off the road
which would be slightly beneficial and it would prevent parking on the sidewalk in this area of
the neighborhood which is near the school and near the recreation center so our neighbors are
in strong support of that we do have overwhelming support from the community our community meeting
had a 94% vote in our favor. Our zoning board, our neighborhood zoning board, our committee
voted in our favor. We have letters of support from our neighborhood committee zoning, as
well as councilperson Clark, six of our neighbors, including two unsolicited letters. And we
did a petition of our nearby neighbors that we had over 80 signatures for. So we, we,
HAVE THE SUPPORT OF OUR DIRECT NEIGHBORHOOD. AND THAT IS OUR PRESENTATION.
THOUGH I'D BE HAPPY TO. QUESTIONS FROM THE BOARD.
YES, MR. CHAIRMAN. MADAM, DID YOU TAKE YOUR DRAWINGS TO THE STREET DEPARTMENT FOR A REVIEW?
YES, SIR. AND WHAT DID THEY SAY?
THEY APPROVED IT IN OCTOBER AND THEN WE HAD A HOLD AND WE'VE BEEN TALKING TO THEM
through that we have a special exemption from granted from mr kasam ali and i believe it's
still on hold in the eclipse system but he has granted a special exemption for this curb cut
i have that in an email and we're just waiting for the approval through eclipse
mr chairman my concern is the curb cut so near close to the corner corner property
it's difficult for people to see someone backing out so i just have a concern mr chairman okay
do you want to comment could alexis you want to respond to that yes please um we address that
concern with the streets department um because it is a one-way street approaching a one-way street
we are not downstream of any intersection. So we do not have the issue of a car turning
towards where our car would be coming out of the driveway. We also agree that we would want to be
pulling backing into the driveway. So you're pulling out straight forward. But the streets
department has granted the exception for it being that near to the corner based on the one-way street
going onto a one-way street and it being a T-intersection,
Mr. Ali felt that the curb was appropriate in that location.
Thank you.
More questions from the board?
Yes, Mr. Chair, if we were to move forward with this,
I would recommend to add a proviso with the mirror walkers,
which would sit on the side of the driveway
for the walk-in traffic as well.
because it's so close to the corner lexus do you hear that yes we would be happy to provide that okay