Just turn up, you're okay?
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is our vice chair, Ismail Shahid. I believe he may be on the phone.
Well, he'll be calling a little bit later.
Our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our executive director, Ian Haggerty. Also president is our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy. A recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA website. By participating, you consent to be recorded. This is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities.
whether remote or in person if you're called to speak you must state and spell your name
and then wait to be sworn in once you've been sworn in please state your name each time before
beginning your testimony any person may enter their appearance to become an interested party
there are three ways you can identify the case property on your zoom webinar you can see a staff
member or you can call ZBA appearance line by the close of business call 267-270-5548 leave a
message that includes your email address and the address of the property of the appeal
the the following guidance is for our remote attendees when directed by the chair you must
raise your virtual hand in order to be recognized to speak if you're called to testify you'll be
be prompted to join as a panelist. Please accept the request and turn your camera. Third, the
webinar Q&A is for questions about the hearing. Do not comment on cases in the Q&A. Fourth, if you're
participating by phone, press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. For our in-person
attendees, please refrain from talking, eating, or drinking during the hearings. Verbal and physical
aggression will not be tolerated. Restrooms are across from the elevator. There is also a water
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emergency, please follow the directions given over the public address system or by the staff.
The main exit is through the double doors at the rear. The nearest stairwell is to the left
outside the doors in case of an evacuation the rally point is love park across from art street
please remain here so that we can account for you let's look at our schedule for this morning
number one mi2023002
hold on one minute
okay hold on one minute we'll be right with you
Check in a few dates, we'll be right with you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Case number one, MI 2023-002-047-2231 Green Street.
This case is continued to 12-17-25 at 9.30 a.m.
Number two, MI 2023-003-085-3550 North 6th Street.
This case is continued to 12-17-25 at 9.30 a.m.
Mark must be heard.
number four mi2024-005-353-4554 whore street this case is continued mark must be heard
will be heard on 12 17 25 at 9 30 a.m excuse me mr chair can we see if anyone is here for that case
Sure, I can.
Because we only received a request for continuance from the expediter, so we're not clear.
Who's actually requesting.
554 Whore Street.
Lucinda Amparo is the listed owner.
Good morning, Chair.
This is Jasmine, and I will be your co-host this morning.
I see no hands at this time.
Thank you.
So this case will be continued to 1217 at 930 a.m.
Number six, MI2025-00437-454 Delmar Street.
There's a request from Continuance from Ridge Park.
Is Sam Elias the listed owner in the audience?
I see no one but that name, Chair.
You're Sam?
Okay. So, Sam, turn on your microphone.
Could you get closer to the microphone?
Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
My name is Sam Elias, S-A-M-E-L-I-S.
How do you get? Pull that closer to you. Just pull it closer, right to you. The whole thing will move right to you, right?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
So, there's been a request by the RCO to continue this case. They have not met with you yet.
is that correct uh uh that's uh incorrect because i requested the meeting and i scheduled and i
said mails for all the uh all the neighbors and some of the neighbors and some of them are right
here they uh they were ready to go to the meeting but the uh uh uh i forgot her name
schaefer she canceled us so um excuse me mr lai sorry this is this is um board council
um so the rco did send us a letter and explain that they didn't receive confirmation from you
that you'd be attending the meeting until a few days before so that's why the meeting was canceled
so um it sounds like there was some miscommunication in there and unfortunately we
can't hear this case until we have that that meeting so go ahead so can i say something
Go ahead. Respond.
Yes, sir. I actually responded to that meeting about seven to ten days ahead of time.
But what I saw, she said she read it like a couple of days before the time.
But that was the time that I was given.
Okay. So I understand your concerns.
But we're going to have to continue this because you have to have this RCO meeting.
I also I also have like neighbors that are like two list of neighbors that already signed my lists or what for my project.
Yeah, there's two neighbors you're saying. I understand.
But no, no, two lists, like 20 neighbors already signed.
OK, I understand that. But we still have to have the RCO has to have their meeting.
I'm sorry it's going to be and we're going to continue this to December 17th at 930 a.m.
And what I would recommend you do is to see if, in fact, you can get this hearing done as soon as possible.
And then if you would, contact us and we'll see if we can't move your hearing up a little bit from that date, because I know it's a long distance.
uh if you allow me it's been almost a year and i've been waiting for that and i'm having a lot
If you allow me, it's been almost a year and I've been waiting for that and I'm having a lot of trouble.
of trouble uh excuse me mr elias the other the other issue that we have i'm sorry i'm on the
i'm on the computer um so the other issue we have is that we don't have any exhibits from you and
we have to receive your exhibits in advance and in order to review them and make sure they are
complete. So even if you had had your meeting, we don't have your exhibit. So that's the other
issue that we have today. I'm sorry. I submitted my exhibit last week on Friday. Okay. So we,
we don't, we don't have it and we have to receive them five days in advance. Okay. So
we're going to continue your case to 12, 17, 25 at 9 30 AM. If you have any problems about what
you need and things like that, contact the office and we'll see what we can do with you. Okay?
I just saw the email that she just viewed my exhibits.
We're done.
Okay. Thank you.
So what do I need to do now to go back?
She's going to tell you.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Okay. And number seven, MI 2025, 000438-4707-211 Edmond Street. Angela Perez Garcia is the listed owner.
Chair, I have a hand up by the name of Ida Estrada. I'm going to allow them to speak.
okay so i okay mr chair that was the person that uploaded the exhibit so maybe the applicant is
I'm aware. Thank you.
Hello?
Ida Estrada, please accept the panelists request.
Chair, they will be rejoining as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Hello.
Hi, is Angelica Garcia there?
Angelica is here.
Well, I need to talk to Angelica.
Okay, Angelica does not speak English, and Ida was supposed to be her, but Ida had breast surgery yesterday.
Listen to me.
We're going to have to continue your case so that we can have an interpreter.
And we can't use, and it only can use an official interpreter, okay?
I understand.
all right and then the other issue would be um i want you to review what was sent in because we
believe there were several things missing from your package we're also going to put those together
for you sir all right thank you so mi 2025 000 438 4707 to 11 edmond street this case is continued
to 12 17 at 9 30 a.m thank you very much and mr chair can i just ask what um language we need an
interpreter for in this case? Is the gentleman still on? I'm going to allow
Ida Estrada to speak. Okay. Ida Estrada, please unmute. Yes. Can you repeat the
continuance date? 12-17 at 9 30 a.m. And the question is, what language would you
need spanish spanish very much we appreciate it sir thank you thank you god bless but don't say
all right thank you and number 11 mi 2025 000 466 3826 lancaster avenue this case is has been
withdrawn we're going to go to our list we're going to start with
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, did you
call number five? We received
a request for continuance from that
this morning.
Number five, MI2025
000436
1216 South 2nd Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Mr. Anastasio.
burn Anastasia will
Vern Anastasio will be joining us as a penalist.
Morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
How are you?
I'm good.
Yourself?
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, sir.
It's Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, on behalf of Mr. Joseph Rudolph.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Council, I understand we need a continuance for this?
Although I did get a positive position letter from the RCO, there were some provisos that
we did not discuss in depth with the RCO.
It came in pretty late, the letter, about the day yesterday, I think.
So I just need some time to talk it out.
So MI 2025, 000436-1216, South 2nd Street.
cases continue till 1217 at 9 30 a.m thank you thank you sir
we're going to go to number eight mi 2025 000 459 1627 east ear street jeffrey and margaret
bladden are the owners this is a per se pro se
jeffrey bladen will be rejoining us as a panelist and just for the record there's a letter of
support from the fishtown neighbors association and a letter of non-opposition from council member
young i'm sorry i'm sorry i'll get right back you let me finish our adwords i'm sorry
just kicking it all right so mi 2024 004 330 437 north 52nd street i vote yes
with proviso child care center use approved for first floor and basement
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso
Number two, MI 2024-005-326-3421 North 22nd Street.
I vote yes, with proviso.
Maximum two units, no household living in basement, trash stored inside.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Tanada Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Number three, MI 2024-005-327-2801 Grant Avenue.
I vote yes with Proviso.
No sit-down restaurant.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Number four, MI 20...
Sorry, excuse me, Mr. Chair,
in that last one, I believe there was also a refusal
that needed to be added as a proviso.
I said no sit-down restaurant. Oh, but there's also per refusal
dated 12-27-20. Okay, you're right. I'm sorry. So
for that particular case, you're right.
MI 2024-005-327-2801
Grant Avenue. I vote yes with proviso. No sit-down restaurant. Her refusal dated 12-27-24.
Thank you. Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with
proviso. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso. Number four, MI-2025-000-390-83
Herman Street. I vote yes with proviso. Her refusal dated 6-3-25. Michael Johns, my vote is yes with
proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Number five, MI 2024-007-299-609-Adden Street, I vote yes with proviso.
Approved use visitor, visitors only, visitor accommodations only.
And temporary variance expires 6528.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with provisors.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with provisors.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with provisors.
Number six, MI 2024-005-345-1014 South 25th Street, I vote yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes to reconsideration, rehearing and reconsideration.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
All right, let's get there.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Tynetta Graham, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, on this one, we'll actually need to, sorry, hold on one second.
Oh, never mind.
It was a different one.
The Annan Street case, Mr. Chair, we're going to have to re-vote with one board member, when or board member Shahid joins us, because board member Graham wasn't present for that case.
So we'll just need to re-vote that one once one of them arrives.
Okay, thank you.
Number eight, MI 2025, 000459-1627 East Air Street, Jeffrey and Margaret Bladen.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and good morning to the rest of the board.
Thank you for hearing our case this morning.
My name is Jeffrey Bladen, spelled J-E-F-F-R-E-Y-B-L-A-D-E-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
So this application is for the erection of an addition to connect the existing principal structure and previously approved addition per ZP 2024-010868
six eight to an existing accessory private resting parking garage to create a single structure on the
lot no change to previously approved single family living use with accessory off street parking
structured parking whereas the minimum required rear yard depth for lots in the rsa 7 zoning
district shall be nine feet and the resulting structure here proposed addition has a rear yard
depth of zero. There's a letter of support from the Fishtown Neighbors Association, a letter of
non-opposition from Council Member Young, and there's a letter of support from the neighbor
who shares your party wall. Why don't you start your presentation, sir? Thank you very much, and
again, thank you for your time this morning. We submitted an extensive list of exhibits. I do not
intend to go through the entire list of exhibits, but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have
about anything we submitted.
I have a short presentation to hopefully maximize
the time this morning and minimize the required review.
Excuse me.
Searing my screen.
Hopefully this works.
Is everybody able to see my screen at this point?
It's loading.
It's loading right now.
So share screen, screen sharing is paused, resume.
So I think what has to happen, you have to open your documents, then hit the shared screen
button.
Oh, that's what I did.
try this again
time off sharing and then stop
my apologies
why don't you start over again
let's try this again
it wouldn't be a zoom call if there wasn't
some small glitch
there you go you're up
Okay. My apologies again for the delay. Thank you again for your time this morning. My wife, Margo, who's also on the call, and I are longtime Philadelphia residents, although we've been away from the city for just under 10 years, and we're excited to return.
We are working to renovate a neglected row home in Fishtown and connecting it to create a single, seamless, sustainable home in the neighborhood, trying as best we can to adhere to the character of the neighborhood using traditional red brick design and so on.
And so what we also are trying to do is adhere to the spirit of the RS5 zoning, which calls for buildings to be connected along the streetscape and to match the setbacks of one another.
Um, unfortunately, the, the only option we were given in order to create that kind of seamless structure and setback on Tulip Street, which is the main frontage, despite the address being on Ayer Street, um, was to actually tear down the existing row home on, uh, Ayer Street and build a new, uh, structure on Tulip Street.
Unfortunately, the only option we were given in order to...
We, of course, didn't want to do that. Our preference is to renovate all of the structures on the lot.
It's a unique situation where you have two separate structures on two neighboring streets on a corner property.
So our goal is to renovate and create a single sustainable home.
Our goal also is to maximize the green space.
We're actually, when considering the green roof that we'll be building, we're more than doubling the amount of green space on the lot.
And we are asking for what is the absolute minimum variance.
We've already got a building permit for the design.
The only thing that's missing is the building permit currently includes a six-inch gap between the new structure and the existing accessory garage structure.
I'll show you a picture of what that gap looks like in the approved building permit in a moment.
And as you noted, Mr. Chairman, the Fishtown Neighborhood Association not only submitted a letter of support, but I hope they shared that it was unanimously supported by every neighborhood in attendance at the meeting.
There were many that submitted letters of support as well.
We're taking a dilapidated property and renovating it into something that everybody has told us that feels like a real addition to the neighborhood, but still maintains the character.
You did have 35 votes in favor.
yep um i'm not gonna go through the appeal description you just read that a few minutes
ago just to give you a sense of what the property looks like so on the left you'll see an overhead
view with two different buildings facing two different streets uh and then on the right you
can see sort of a different view that shows sort of from the corner looking down on the property
where there's a whole bunch of pavement that we're going to be uh removing and and it'll be
largely replaced with a structure that has a green roof on it adding green space and then you
can see from from Tulip Street the dilapidated accessory garage that exists there today and
our goal is to create a seamless streetscape on Tulip that matches the neighboring residents that
you got a support letter from with red brick that would that would cover the the Tulip's streetscape
rather than having a gap between the garage that's shown here and the addition,
which would otherwise be required by the zoning interpretation.
In addition to having multiple green spaces on the lot,
what you can see here is an elevation that was created for us by Solar States,
who we have under contract to install solar energy on the rooftop of the addition and the garage.
They're also going to be installing battery storage that will help us get the house to nearly net zero energy consumption.
So in addition to substantial green space, we're going to be adding a fair amount of renewable energy, and we expect to mostly power the home with solar energy.
And as I mentioned, the section in the middle of this rendering that shows a one-story building that is a new building, that is going to be topped with a green roof.
And that is instead of what is currently there, which is essentially paved concrete parking lot.
Again, here's a layout view from the architectural drawings.
You can see on the left, we have two different buildings with a large concrete paved surface lot in between them.
The new addition is going to largely cover the space where you see that concrete paved parking lot.
And we're going to be renovating the space in the rear where there's a storage shed currently to have additional green space as well.
And we're going to be fully renovating the structurally sound portions of building one as shown that faces Ayer Street.
There were some not structurally sound portions at the rear of that building, but we're going to maintain the entire 1890s era row house section.
There was a 1950s era addition that wasn't structurally sound, isn't structurally sound.
And I'm going to keep moving.
So what you see here is on the far left is the current existing footprint of the lot with this unique setup where you have two different streets and buildings on two different streets.
unusual in Philadelphia to have something that looks like this and we inherited this and tried
Unusual in Philadelphia to have something that looks like this.
to come up with a design that was within the character of the neighborhood but also took
advantage of of the existing structures rather than tearing them down and building new which
unfortunately has been quite quite a lot of what's been done in Fishtown so by right we've got a
building permit for that center drawing which includes the addition in the center of the
property along tulip street and what you see circled in red is a small gap that was required
by the zoning interpretation that would prevent us from connecting the new structure to the existing
accessory garage structure the ask today is nothing more than to close that small gap
So when it says there's an ask for an addition, we're not asking for the major portions of the addition that are rendered in the middle there.
Those are all approved.
We have building permits for them.
We're only asking for the literally to close a six inch gap between the two structures to create that seamless streetscape with seamless red brick along Tulip Street.
And so, as you see on the right side of the screen, the only difference between what's already approved and building permits issued and what we're asking for today is six inches of connection between those two structures so we don't have this weird gap between the buildings that you would not normally expect to see in a row home city like Philadelphia.
So, the picture that you see now on your screen is the stamped building permit.
The upper portion, upper left portion of the image shows what the gap would look like if it were built that way.
Again, it's unusual to find buildings that have gaps like this in a neighborhood like Fishtown where the expectation under RS5 is that the buildings are seamless and connected.
That's our intent with this variance is to live up to the spirit of the RS-5.
And so that's all we're asking for is this minimal variance to allow us to connect the structures of what's already been approved.
You can see in the lower right a rendering of what it would look like without a gap.
and then last but not least um we uh we convened with the fishtown neighborhood association who
we've been uh we've been excited to get to know all of our future neighbors um there was quite a
lot of discussion and and uh all of our neighbors ultimately were very supportive of the of the
variants. They see the value of the property being renovated like this. They certainly see
the value in what we're trying to do, which is to renovate rather than tear down and to renovate in
a way that maintains the character of the neighborhood as best we can, while also adding
quite a lot of green space and using clean energy to power the home. As you see, it was unanimous,
the support uh we did have one abstention um but i'm told that was because somebody just
they had registered but didn't vote um and um uh we uh you could see the the the support letter from
the um from the fishtown neighborhood association covers a number of the items i just went through
that uh that they appreciated not the least of which is that we're also not uh building to the
maximum allowed under the zoning which is often the case in fishtown we're building well under
the maximum we're only building the the primary portion of the addition is only one story tall
instead of three we're adding green space rather than subtracting green space the totals lot
coverage when we're done by the letter of the law would be just under about 65 64 if you include
the green roof were well under 50% lot coverage. So the neighbors were all appreciative of that,
particularly the neighbors across the street in Memphis Flats, the seven-story condominium
building, which will look down on a nice green roof rather than a large structure that might
otherwise be built. And as was noted, we are now friends with and have the full support of
our neighbor that shared the party wall with the garage that is being described as having zero
setback when we're done it has zero setback today so there's no change in that situation
the six inches that we would be filling in with this variance are entirely in the property that
that is our will be our home it's not we're not reducing the setback from our neighbor terry
we're we're only maintaining what's already there in fact we're going to be renovating that building
we're only maintaining what's already there.
In fact, we're going to be renovating that building.
so it'll
So it'll be better when we're done than where it is currently.
So in the Salem, we're asking for the absolute minimum variance
that we could ask for to try and live up to the goals of RS5,
which is to create a seamless streetscape.
It was a unique condition that we inherited.
We did not set this out where you had these two different structures
on two different streets, but we're trying to make the most of the property within the character
of the neighborhood. We're trying to do it sustainably, adding clean energy and green
space to the lot. And we have the full support of all of our neighbors. And so while we know that
the letter of RS5 zoning is interpreted by L&I, didn't allow for attached buildings. We think that
the variance actually lives up to the spirit of the zoning, maybe more so than the interpretation.
So happy to take any questions and appreciate your consideration of this variance request.
Right. Questions from the board?
Yeah, I do have a question or two. So the lot was already consolidated when you acquired it?
Yes, sir. As far as we can tell, it's been consolidated as far back as records go.
We looked at the Sanborn fire maps going back to the 1950s.
It was consolidated.
In fact, the section of the lot that has the accessory garage on it and the surface parking back into the 1800s was apparently used for wagon and horse stable parking.
So there have been vehicles, so to speak, parked on that lot for a very, very long time.
It's a very unique project.
Unfortunate that your presentation didn't allow us to really sort of see what the plans look like because it's so small.
I guess it's part of a PowerPoint, so we can't really see the plans and how they look.
But you described it well.
It's just difficult to read these plans to kind of see really what's happening on the site.
But a very unique project.
sounds like it's going to be really nice. Thank you for that. We're excited to add something
to the neighborhood to move back. It's been too long since we've been in Philly. We're excited
about it. The questions from our board members? Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary
Emerson? Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have a hand up by the name of Robert Everett.
I will be promoting them to panelists.
Good morning, Mr. Everett.
Whoops, took me a second here. I'm sorry. Good morning.
Good morning, Mr. Everett. Please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Sure. First name is Robert. Last name Everett, E-V-E-R-E-T-T.
You swear we're firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, sir.
My usual. We're in full support of this project and happy to have Jeff and Margo back in Fishtown.
All right. Thank you very much for calling in. We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
i see no more hands at this time chair planning commission thank you chairman and good morning
david vecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir i do please proceed thank you sir chairman
and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2015 in accord with
recommendations in the comprehensive plan the appellant is building in addition connecting
their existing home to an existing garage the appellant has not shown they were suffer they
will suffer an economic detriment if required to comply with the rear yard depth provision
in the rsa 5 zoning district the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed
dimensional variance for rear yard depth. Thank you. So MI2025, 000459, 1627 East
Ear Street, I vote yes. Michael Johns, my vote is yes. Charles Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes. You have your vote, sir. Thank you very much for your presentation.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, it looks like board member Wynn is present. Okay. Yes. Hi, everyone. Good
Hi, everyone. Good morning.
morning hi good morning can we just revote that the one app
Hi, good morning.
Can we just re-vote that one add-on?
I believe it was number five, Annan Street,
now that board member is here.
Thank you.
Number five, MI 2024-007-299-609-Annan Street.
I vote yes, with proviso.
So, temporary variance expires 6-5-28, approved for the approved use visitor accommodation
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with provisals.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with provisals.
My vote is yes, with provisals.
Thank you.
And my 20, 25, 0, 0, 1, 8, 5, 0, 9, 1, 25 academy road.
Morning council.
Morning.
Morning.
Would you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Stephanie Magana, S-T-E-P-H-A-N-I-E.
Magana is M-A-G-A-G-N-A.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
My client is BSI Construction, Inc.
They are the authorized agent and designated contractor by the school district of Philadelphia.
The property is owned by the city on behalf of the school district.
Do you waive the reading of the refusal that you agree with, Zach, or see?
Yes, I do.
Will you start your presentation? Yes. I'm joined today by our landscape architect, Sarah Leaper. She's going to share her screen. So while she pulls that up, I also wanted to mention that Chuck Calvinise from BSI Construction is here to answer any questions as well as Kate Weiss. She's our project engineer from Dynamic.
um this application is in regards to 9125 academy road it is um the property itself
occupies most of the triangular block bounded by willits academy and home ev and the southern
portion of the site is the location of the thomas home elementary school it's um and the northern
portion is the the park area the school itself um is was approved for a redevelopment project
last year pursuant to a by right zoning project after the site was rezoned to the sp civic district
see the site here and this application specifically you can go to the next slide
seeks approval to remove certain heritage trees from the property
as i mentioned as i mentioned the school redevelopment project itself was designed by
right the zoning permit was issued last year after we met with the community
thankfully got their support and the project was presented to the civic design review committee
this is a rendering of the school that's it's currently under construction
and that was approved following that process last year as i mentioned this application
specifically seeks removal to remove certain heritage trees from the property and this
application was presented again to the upper holmesburg civic association on april 17th and
letter of support is included in exhibit two in our full exhibit packet these are just additional
renderings of the school project the application you know as we're presenting it despite the removal
the trees will remain mostly consistent with the renderings that are shown here so these are for
reference and the next slide sarah is the original landscaping rendering plan that was presented to
the community and again much of what's being proposed here is consistent with this plan
um so specifically um there were nine heritage trees that existed on this site prior to the
reconstruction of the school seven were identified as you know to remain based on our arborist report
at the time and prior to the beginning of construction we put proper tree you know
protection measures in place um before construction began despite those best efforts five of the trees
were compromised during excavation work and were identified by a new arborist in an updated report
that they were unsafe specifically three of those trees created immediately unsafe conditions so
they were removed and two of the trees remain on site go to the next slide next one
this is our letter of support from the rco here we go um so trees two three and four shown on
this plan were the ones that they created unsafe conditions in an immediate sense on site so
they've been removed and seven and eight are proposed to be removed based on the recommendations
of our arborist but in connection with those recommendations you know so we are seeking
approval to document the removal of the trees that have been removed to eliminate those unsafe
document the removal of the trees that have been removed to eliminate those unsafe conditions on
conditions on site and also
site and also get approval to take down trees number seven and eight shown on the right side
of the screen um we are proposing replacement trees in connection with this removal obviously
the replacement trees that are going to be planted here well exceed what is required
based on the zoning district um and then our updated landscaping exhibit which sarah can
speak to if anybody has any questions is relatively consistent with what was originally shown
at cdr as well and does provide for the extensive replacement trees so while we're removing trees
from the site we do feel that the replacement trees here are going to provide more and ultimately
exceed the benefits that were originally proposed and they'll also remove safety conditions
on the property okay do you want to have your testimony adopted by your client yes i do
chuck if you could come up here
i just get close to the mic if you could that's all right could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer okay my name is chuck calvinese last name spelled c-a-l-v-a-n-e-s-a
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
please proceed counsel thanks Chuck did you hear the statements I made to the board this morning
yes are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes would you adopt them as your own
yes thank you um before I give it to the board just for information Michael Johns one of our
board members recused himself because he was part of the the CDR process understood questions from
the board I have a question um so the replacement trees uh if you can go back to one of the the
The renderings had the numbers.
So all of the replacement trees are in and around that area.
I think they're spread out over the site,
but there are street trees that are proposed along Academy and Willett.
Sarah can better explain that.
Sarah, you're going to need to be sworn in.
Could you please state your name as Bill for the stenographer?
Sarah Lieber, S-A-R-A-H-L-E-E, P as in Paul, E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Yes. So the replacement trees are spread out throughout the property, but there are significant canopy trees that are being put in the places where those trees have been.
Okay. Thank you.
Other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no hands at the sound chair planning commission thank you chair and good morning
david vecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the prior recommended no change to the prior rsa2 residential single
family zoning at this location however in a subsequent zoning change the city rezoned this
parcel to sp civ civic educational and medical which is designed for schools and other public
facilities the appellant has shown that this project cannot be practically redesigned to
protect the heritage trees for this critical public infrastructure the city planning commission
recommends the board grant a requested special exception for heritage tree removal thank you
mi2025 001 850 9125 academy road i vote yes
Oh, Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tana Graham, my vote is yes.
Thank you very much.
Have a good morning.
Thank you, Counselor.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2024-001-169-10914, Nadina Court.
Morning again, Mr. Chair.
Just for the record, please state your name.
My name is Vern Anastasio on behalf of Sherzad Alamov, the owner of the subject property.
And I see a letter of opposition from the Somerton Civic Association. So why don't you start your presentation, sir?
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, the initial application was for a three-family dwelling with at least the refusal came back noting a rear addition. We have removed the extra dwelling. We've had several.
So, Chair, the initial application was for a three-family dwelling.
Vern, we can't hear you. Vern.
he knows he's got a problem
can you hear me now we can sir very good i was saying that the initial application was for a
three-family dwelling and legalizing the uh what they was considered an addition in the back
we had several meetings with the rco and as a result we've reduced it to the by right two-family
household living, bringing, making us just here for the de minimis, what is ostensibly a shed
in the back. It is not necessarily, it's really not an addition. And we'll explain how that
happened. Alex, the architect is here. We're going to have him testify as well. So as you'll
see, it's relatively de minimis at this point.
here's the property in question.
You can say here is the,
what is ostensibly a shed in the back now.
There'll be no access to this shed
from interior of the house
and it will be used solely for the storage of,
here it is here,
solely for the storage of yard equipment,
You know, a leaf blower.
Here's the property here in question.
A lawnmower, trash, leaf bags.
Because the shed is attached to the structure, however,
it is deemed an addition, a rear addition,
when in fact it is not.
This is the basement garage.
It's a walkout.
Here's the first floor of living space
and the second floor of living space.
Here's a cross section.
Here's the storage shed.
And again, there will be no access
from the interior of the house to the shed.
So there'll be no living space
or anything like that this is a picture of the cul-de-sac these are primarily twins
with ample side and rear space as you can see here the the addition of the shed is
not adversely impacting anyone's lighter air there it is
and ostensibly we are here for this shed at this point there is no other reason
for a refusal the opposition letter was based on a much larger scale
and with that i'd like to call alex the architect
if you could raise his virtual hand
will be rejoining us as a panelist sorry that's okay i'd like to move the 52 page documents uh
52 pages of exhibits into evidence okay that includes the uh letter to the rco the proof of
mailing we uh on separate separately we sent over proof of all taxes paid and the deed
and if alex is here we could i guess swear him in thank you alex could you please state your
name and spell for the sonographer good morning my name is alex duller a-l-e-x d as in david
u-l-l-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Alex, before we get into the actual structure, you have been with the client at the RCO meetings
and throughout this process from when it was a much larger scale until now.
Can you please, in your words, explain that journey?
So originally, I was brought in after this shed was built.
We I was brought in after this shed was built to help the client legalize the shed.
We realized we would have to go through the full zoning process due to the way it was built.
And we we then basically we initially had it applied for a third unit after speaking with the RCO.
We were told there was no way that would be approved, so we removed that and reworked the space to be, as Vern has explained, now a rear storage area for all of the equipment for maintaining the lot, and then a common area to the rest of the building,
um which is essentially what the space was prior to him taking taking you know kind of going and
doing these updates um and and we went to the neighborhood um met with the neighborhood uh
definitely had mixed results with that hearing and now we are here today thank you
and the uh do you want to talk about the plan the diminished de minimis nature of the of the
addition um the basically the this is the way it was built um we it is essentially the minimus
um the lot itself is extremely large um we aren't even close to you know overall coverage
essentially if it wasn't built so close to the rear yard this could have been approved
so if it was positioned in a uh you know in a different spot along that property
it would have been a buy right is that correct yes thank you yes thank you i have nothing further
for this uh unless you have anything else to add alex i don't think so thank you i'd like to call
my client, Mr. Shehzad Alamov.
Shehzad Alamov has been promoted
to penalist.
Sir, could you please state your name as spelled for the
stenographer?
hello hi sir could you please state your name and then spell for the sonographer
we can hear you please s-h-e-r-z-o-d my first name our last name olimov o-l-i-m-o-v
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir please proceed counsel thank you uh mr alamov did you hear my presentation to the board
this morning yes true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes you adopt it as your own
testimony yes were you aware at the time that this built this this uh shed was built without
the benefit of the proper uh permits yes i don't think you understood my question
did you believe that there were permits pulled and this was legal when you did it
no i'm sorry i didn't get the question say it again no okay i have nothing further thank you
questions from the board uh yeah in the shed does it have any uh plumbing or drainage
that you had to put in there i don't i know it vernic currently does because it it was
that it was designed to be a kitchen for the third apartment but sure surezad
agreed to remove everything from it um when we and we told the neighborhood this when we met with
them. So do you have any images of what the shed looks like
now with that removed? None of the work
has been done as of yet because obviously
we will need permits to make
the changes. So zoning is the first step of legalizing
all of this. So you don't have any
interior pictures of what's in the shed
you don't have interior pictures
of what's in the shed now.
Now we'll continue.
Is that what you're saying?
Vern, do you have those?
There they are.
This is in the shed now?
The upper left-hand picture
is what is currently in there.
this is what was built because remember this was gonna this was gonna be a third unit right
so that's a that's a full is that a kitchen in there yes ma'am yes that's all in the shed that's
all in the shed this is in the shed currently right but because again the initial application
was for a three-family dwelling and so this and so the the applicant is going to remove
this all this okay that's correct we're going to gut this close it off to the interior of the house
based on the input from the rco and it will be used solely for storage uh and accessible only
from the outside and so the request is that this be that i'm just i'm trying to but what's the
request here just to for this to be a just to legalize we're over storage shed yeah that's
those request is to legalize this as a storage shed that's correct right and initially michael
they wanted three units they wanted three units so they they they don't they're not doing that
now they just want a storage shed right we are short about nine feet with respect to it being
where it's positioned in relation to the rear yard gotcha yeah and that's why we're here just
to legalize the the nine foot shortage um i have a question what was the foundational system
and how is drainage around the now shed plans and has the architect's team surveyed any of that
to make sure that it's going to meet
any applicable
codes.
Alex, do you want to take that?
Yes, I mean,
the shed was
built on
a slab
type foundation.
It has a
foundation.
The way everything was
built seems correct, except that
the contractor essentially went out there and built it telling shirzad that he had pulled permits
and he had not um and then l and i obviously came and you know issued the violations and that
that was ultimately when i was brought in um so things have been sloped uh i believe you can see
the downspout
there at the rear. There is a drain
below that.
Everything, the rest of the yard is
essentially sloped
away from. And there is
a drain that's below this
downspout? Doesn't look like it.
Looks like it's just
splashing onto the
grade. That's actually why I asked, Mike.
Right, I know.
I'm trying to see if I have any other photographs
I guess my concern is that this now is like
rerouting water and this was an additional slab
that was built separate from the house and because it's a twin
if any of the soil gets compromised that house is going to have
an impact on the other houses in that subdivision or on that cul-de-sac um we can we we can tie
all of the we can tie the roof drainage and additional drainage into the existing lines
so the there is an existing line there if uh you move burn move a little bit to the right
in between the two neighboring properties we we we can reroute the gutter to tie in with that
and then my second question is about the original rear wall to the property that would have had to
be removed to create access into the shed do you know if the brick wall was just cut through or
removed uh nothing was actually removed there was a rear door and that rear door was basically used
as the access to the new edition so when it gets closed off it's not gonna have any
issues now with that back wall and shit no it should not but alex let me ask you this there's
issues now with that back wall and shit no it should not
no exit to the back now um you're going to close the door up right and yes this is just a shed so
if you're in the house you can't get out the back now you can get out the back so uh in that picture
on the left where you can see ricky from my office standing but i'm saying before there's also the
other houses have exits in the rear right they they did yes so now there'll be no exit in the
rear no but that the the room in the basement is not an occupied like it it is not an occupied
space right and now it's not so now you're saying you got the well you got a shed but you the shed
closed off the exit to the rear previously behind the garage it was an unfinished like
cellar space and what i'm saying there was an exit there but there was a door at the back right and
now you've you've closed the door yes okay okay but there's still two exits the front and the side
the one that one on the side right yep and the and the front right through the garage through the
garage all right i'm gonna make a comment and you know you can tell me that you know if if we
if we're not going to be using this as anything other than a shed there is a provision in the
administrative code that allows you to have a shed that is a certain size and it's not attached to
the house it doesn't mean that you you know have to deal with drainage or anything like that it's
just the regular little shed it's a certain size and those are approved under the administrative
So why, if we're not going to be using this as anything other than a shed and there's no access from the rest of the property, then why can't we tear down this whole thing here and just put in the little shed that you're allowed to have and let that be the end of this?
I guess my concern is you put in something now and now we're trying to make, you know, we're trying to make lemonade out of a lemon that maybe we shouldn't have had in the first place.
so can't we has any thought been given to just um getting rid of this um and uh getting the
little shed that you can buy like at a home depot or lowe's or whatever that you're allowed to have
without all of this well yeah but that would further uh burden my client who no fault of
his own ended up with this back this back structure right it's it's it's it's not his fault okay it's
not his fault i mean as alex it clearly said that when the when the architect when the uh when the
client hired the contractor it was believed that all everything was properly purchased you know
permitted so and that money is gone that contractor is long gone it took the money and ran
And because it's a dimensional variance, we're not looking for any use variance.
Those sorts of financial impacts is part of the analysis.
So, yeah, in a perfect world, this would have never happened.
But because it did, we're trying to make it usable without it being living space.
And we thought we came up with a pretty reasonable accommodation to address the RCO concerns, because we're literally looking at nine feet on a very large lot, which is all the difference between it being by right or needing this relief.
yeah essentially if this was built where you see the trash cans right now this would not
this would be a by right addition it just shirzad hired the incorrect people and was told the
incorrect things and it wasn't until everything was complete that he learned the proper way of
doing things and and ultimately it's been a very expensive learning experience for shirzad
and what did the um civic association say as part of their opposition
they were against the three-family dwelling that was the that was the um the vibe that you know
that that was the message we got there was also some other issues that are very unique to
this particular area of the city
that we're not going to really get into today.
But one of the rooms in the plans
And one of the rooms in the plans was earmarked for a prayer room.
was earmarked for a prayer room.
Mr. Shahzad is practicing Islam, and some of the folks there had some issues with that.
But we're not litigating that today.
Right, and I'm not sure why he would need to have permission to have a room in his house where he prays, regardless of his religion.
but okay yeah it was just it was marked it was marked on the plan they caught it and they made
an issue of that ah all right okay uh but i guess uh so did you go back to the civic association
with this new proposal here to uh uh use this addition just they aren't a shit yeah or not
I think we
attend
did you go back to the civic
association and ask them
burn your volume again burn your
volume yeah
we can't hear burn
yeah we can't hear
can't hear
can you hear
me now we can
great yeah I don't know what's going
on today I could hardly hear
one of the
board members just now as well.
But Alex, if you could
speak on the last...
I just wanted to, you know, did you take
this plan back to
since you had gotten the opposition
before, if you came back,
did you go back and say,
hey, now we're just going to use this first shed.
We're not going to have this third
unit. We're going to
separate this.
That was
how we
that was how we presented the the project to the neighborhood and the neighborhood was
completely against any additions any use of the basement any use of anything any anything to do
with islam anything it was a very it was a very negative hearing alex listen one minute so when
you have you been at the site alex i have right is there anyone else that has a shed
attached to their property on that block um not that i can see maybe from the aerial aerial photo
i mean the immediate neighbors did not yeah that uh there are sheds there are actually sheds that
are larger than this little addition but they're not attached but they're not necessarily attached
to the house that's correct right right because of the i mean honestly this was not built as a
shed this was built as an addition to the house that's correct right and now you can't have the
addition because you can't have the third unit right we're not having it right we're removing
the third unit yeah what i'm saying the purpose of this was you wanted to put a third edition there
a third unit initially right right okay all right any other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair i should check comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission thank you chairman and good morning
david fechto with the city planning commission chairman and board member the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the rta1 residential two-family zoning at this location
the appellant appears to have built a rear addition without the benefit of permits
there is no unique physical circumstance or condition of this property that would prevent
it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code the appellant has not shown that they
will suffer an economic detriment if they were forced to comply with the rear yard depth provision
in the rta1 zoning district the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed
dimensional variance for rear yard depth thank you mr chair just for the for the record my client
spent tens of thousands of dollars on this and it now to have to just throw it all away because
he was taken advantage of would be difficult thank you thank you mi 2024 001 169 10914
nadina court i vote no michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is no
Tenetta Graham, my vote is no.
Thank you, Council.
Thank you.
My vote is yes.
Sorry.
Thank you, Taya.
For me?
Number nine.
She was, yes, I've got it.
Great.
three yeah i started with it now yeah all right number nine mi 2025 000 463 2015 south fish
street henry clinton is the attorney there's an amount unanimous support from the dickinson square
west association and a letter of non-opposition from council member squill the applicant has also
provided 29 signatures from from neighbors seven from the immediate block
morning mr chairman good morning mr clinton could you please state your name as bell for the
stenographer sure henry clinton h-e-n-r-y clinton c-l-i-n-t-o-n you swear or affirm to tell the
truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Do you waive the reading of the refusal
and do you agree with its accuracy? I do. Could you identify
your client in a relationship to the property? Sure, I have two clients who are on the
call, Christina Sam, S-A-N, and Michael Kahn,
C-H-A-N. Would you please proceed, sir, with your presentation?
is that visible mr chairman
you might want to make it just a little bit bigger henry
just a little bit better
better yes all right thank you i got again good morning mr chairman members of the board
of Henry Clinton on behalf of the homeowners of 2015 South 5th Street.
This is a request for a single open-air parking spot at the rear of the property on 5th Street,
5th and Emily in South Philadelphia.
And the corner of 5th and Emily has three other parking spaces,
two at the rear of the homes on the corner, which I'll show you, and one in front.
So it's consistent with what's been happening on 5th Street.
And I also have some other examples to show the board of parking spaces and or garages in the rear of properties in that general vicinity.
Table of contents A1 through A10, which I ask to be admitted into evidence as I walk through the project.
This is the refusal.
It is an RSA 5 single-family zoning district.
And as the board knows, in this type of district,
accessory parking for any single family use has to be from a shared driveway
or a rear street abutting the lot.
We do have an RCO letter.
This is the way it came to me.
It's not that legible, but the chairman summarized it at the outset
that we do have unanimous support from Dickinson Square West.
And these are just emails where Mr. Disley sent the letter to me.
Here's the letters of, excuse me, the petition from those nearby.
And I highlighted the individuals who were on the block and closest to this parking spot,
basically at the west end of the block on the 400 block of Emily Street.
So let's get to the photographs.
So we're looking at Fifth Street here. My cursor is McKean Street is here. To my left, to my right, again, highlighted in yellow is Snyder Avenue. And this is Fifth and Emily. The highlighted roof is my client's project.
And as I walk through this, I'll show you that there's a rear parking space on this property, on this property directly across the street, and there's a front loaded curb cut parking on this property, as well as several others, which I'll show you.
So now we're looking east on Emily Street.
This is my client's property at the corner.
the closer view this is a property directly across the street with a garage the proposal
is to have an open-air parking space with a curb cut at the rear of this property
again looking in the other direction now we're looking west i'll show you this photograph here
there's a it's really not that relevant only due to the fact that there is parking on this corner
but it's a front-loaded garage single-story from 5th Street.
So it's really not apples to apples other than it is a parking space.
This property in blue also has a garage at the rear.
The new review of closer view of the neighborhood.
So there's a parking space here, parking space here,
and also a parking space at 2001 South 5th Street.
And I'll show you closer photographs of each one of those.
So this is 2001 South 5th Street. Now granted, this is McCain Street. It's a wider street than Emily Street, but I show it to the board just to show that there is some use of rear.
I show it to the board just to show that there is some use of rear yards for parking.
The one on the right, which would be the south side of McKean, has a garage, as does the one on the north side.
Now, this is 2012 South 5th Street.
Just a few houses, excuse me, just catacorner to our lot.
So now we're looking west, and our property is in yellow.
This is 2012 South 5th.
This is a closer view of that.
that's the property that was painted in blue and again there's a parking garage at the rear of this
property next is 2024 south 4th street which is the same 100 block but on 4th street there's
two garages in the rear yard on both sides of 4th street and that's the close-up view of 2024 south
4th Street with the rear yards eaten up with the garage. 1925 South 5th Street. Again, our property
is to the right closer to Snyder. The block further, 1900 block South 5th Street. There's
also a garage at the rear of that property. This is a close-up view of the property indicating the
posting of the notices for the ZBA meeting with the community as well as
with the ZBA. Again, some more photographs.
This is a closer view to give the board a perspective. The idea is to have a gate
that rolls from the rear to the front and then it's going to be used for a
compact car you know just to give you the board an idea of the the length of various cars you know
a highland excuse me a honda pilot is about 16 and a half feet long a prius would be 15 feet
and we're right in the middle like a toyota camry would be 16 feet in length
here are the plans i have to shrink these a little bit so they're
I went too far on that.
So here is 5th Street.
Emily Street goes west to east.
So the turning radius is adequate.
We have signed off by the streets department as well as a letter from the streets department.
And then this will really just be for a compact car.
I'll blow it up a little bit to show you what the corner dimensions are.
so at the corner from the corner to the curb cut is 60 feet there is a fire hydrant here and as we
know you can't park within 15 feet of a fire hydrant so you have 45 feet to be a legal spot
even though you can see from some of the earlier photographs people are parking closer to the
hydrant, but 15 feet is the regulation, as Chairman well knows. And so we have 45 feet
between the area where you can't park until the curb cut. And then the car would basically
have to maneuver, frankly, to get into the space and do a K-turn to be able to adequately
fit inside the parking space.
I just wanted to show the board the streets department approval, if I can get this up
a little bit.
This is the approval letter from the streets department for the space.
And the rest of the documents are the typical documents you would see in a presentation
like this. The application
for appeal.
Project
information form. Tax
clearance. The zoning map.
Again, it is an RSA 5 zoning district.
We're right here on the
southeast corner.
The deed of ownership.
A notice letter to
everyone in the surrounding area.
And these are the corner lots that I showed earlier today.
And in full disclosure to the board, my clients currently are renting this property.
The lease ends in August.
Their intent is to move to this property with a parking space in the rear.
That is my presentation, and I will certainly ask my client to unmute herself
and adopt a testimony
and entertain any questions
that the board
or the members of the public have.
They're doing it,
then they're going to sell?
Is that what you're saying?
no no they're going to do it then move there okay good thank you yep i got it miss miss
No, no, they're going to do it,
then move there.
Okay, good.
Thank you.
Yep, I got it.
sam can you unmute yourself
miss sam christina sam has been promoted to panelists hi thank you good morning christina
miss sam are you on the call now yes okay were you on the call when i presented the project for
henry hold on one minute i christina could you state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes it's christina sam c-h-r-i-s-t-i-n-a last name is s-a-m right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel thank you mr
chairman uh miss sam were you on the call when i presented your project for an open
air parking space at the rear of your property yes and if you had the opportunity to testify
would you adopt my testimony as your own and as shown correct yes thank you very much
questions from the board yeah i'm i'm kind of can you go back to that parking plan
i'm trying to figure out how how in the world uh someone is going to park essentially parallel
in the yard when i look at the google map everybody's parking on the street i'm on a
pavement number one correct across the street have bollards i didn't even if you have a compact car
You're going to take out three parking spaces to try to get into this this spot.
It just seems it seems extreme to impose this on the rest of the neighborhood when there's very little parking on the neighborhood in the block already.
I mean, just look at the turning radius that the streets department approved and why they approved this parking space.
I don't know. But clearly, you're going to take out two parking spaces just to get into the to the place.
So this is just it's just not a good situation for the rest of the neighborhood, in my opinion.
Right. And Mr. Johns, I hear. Yeah. And that.
Can we go back to the picture of the current situation?
There's a shed there, too.
Yeah, I know, but
No, you had a picture where it had all these
different, I don't know what they call them, but
No, no, no, no, no
What do you call it? I don't know what you call them, but they
basically are little
poles. They're half-like poles that
across the street
right here's one of them
and I'll get a better shot
there was another one where
it really showed
there were two right here
there's some and then you had
one where it
showed people parking
and then there was more of those
kind of poles
I think it was in the beginning there
I was back earlier, I think, in the previous.
Let me find that.
Here it is right here.
This is what Mr. Johns was referring to.
Yes, yes, yes.
So, yeah, I mean, how is this going to work in terms of, you know, and then you've got this poll here.
It's how I understand that the streets department may have approved this, but as a practical matter, how is it going to work in terms of turning radius with these?
I don't know what you call them, but we had one on my street and we only had parking on one side and it made it incredibly difficult for anybody to try and park near this house because you can't, you know, you can't back up or get up enough on the sidewalk to be able to, you know, back up and do this.
I just think, as a practical matter, the turning radius that was approved, maybe on paper works, but I don't see how it works in practice.
Look, I recognize what you say.
Yeah, those two, the two cars right there, which are basically, they would be, you couldn't do that anymore, right?
You couldn't do that anymore, right? Because this is where this fencing is. That's where we're talking about, correct?
Because this is where this fencing.
Correct. And I agree with you and partly with Mr. Johns. I guess the only thing I could say is I think you're going to lose one spot for the curb cut and one spot for the turn.
and again not that past uses make make this right or correct but you know the garage on the left
hand side is used all the garages that i showed you on the smaller streets but but mckean street
i mean it works and people are pulling in now granted this is a garage and this is an open
space so it is different but you know with the compact car uh the turns are not going to be as
significant as as we're making them out to be and i think that's probably right henry i think when
you look at the other side of the street the garage too i you know if cars are parked on this
side how do they get out of that garage right well i mean you know i mean unless it's a garage
you don't use but i mean i don't know how you you get out of that garage right and i hate to say
this but it is south philadelphia and people no i i totally understand that i understand that
henry i i mean you know that i lived on a block like that but i just i just don't know how you
could turn well yeah and the other thing is even if even if even if somebody could get in there
which which is highly you know doubtful that they can without somebody without with people
parked across the street it's still a straight-end pull this site you've got a pull in you've got a
back end you got and you didn't show in your plans the turning radiuses that you would need to do
to get to back into that space right so all we have is the streets department um approval of
the turning radius um into the space but it doesn't show you how you actually park
what what are the what is the k k turns that you have to do to get into the space
and you got and there's a shed there too that shed's coming out it has to
and i don't and i don't recall seeing the the uh the the uh poll on the plan
that you showed but maybe it is the poll is not shown right the poll is right i mean
Unfortunately, you're coming in this way. So I agree with you. It doesn't show the K-turn, but it would come in like that and you'd have to you'd have to back out to get out.
But but you've got to go like this. You understand what I'm saying?
No, you're right. You'd have to go up and then back.
You've got to go this way. You've got to back in. You've got to do that. That means this is probably tight. You've got a light pole somewhere around here. This is insanity, right, to try to force that on your neighbors so that people can only park probably this far back, just judging from your turning radius.
And they can't be parked on the street. They've got to be parked on the curb like they are. So I just think it's a bad situation for the rest of them.
Just in terms of the neighbors, Mr. Johns, I hear what you're saying.
I mean, that's why I urged the client and they did to get signatures at this end of the block because those were the folks that were going to be impacted.
Now, granted, there are signatures from Dudley Street, which is not on this block, but there's five or six of neighbors at the West End.
But I hear what you're saying.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman.
Good morning.
David Vecto with the City Planning Commission,
Chairman and Board Members.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the RSA-5 residential single-family zoning
at this location.
the addition of a curb cut will remove 12 linear feet of parking from this block base
and the ability to park in front of that curb cut while the appellant states that they will
have a smaller car the city cannot require this so there is a risk that a larger car
would block access to the sidewalk there is no unique physical condition or circumstance
of this property that will prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code
the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed variance for accessory off-street
parking and a parking space in the rear yard thank you um mi 2025 000 463 2015 south 5th street i
vote no michael johns my vote is no gaster my vote is no
Michael Jones, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is no.
Aya Wynn, my vote is no.
Henry, please stay on.
So MI 2025-000465-2035-37 Abigail Street.
Mr. Clinton, could you just state your name for the record?
Mr. Clinton. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Oh, yeah. Could you just state your name for the record?
Sure. Henry Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N. And Mr. Clinton, could you identify your client,
a relationship to this property? Sure. My client is Amid, E-H-M-E-D,
Fuzan, F-O-Z-A-N, and he's on the call, as I understand it. And I would say there's a
recommendation of non-opposition from the East Kensington Neighborhood Association.
Please start your presentation.
Good morning again, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
This is 2035 to 37 Abigail Street on behalf of Hazan Ahmadi, E-H-M-E-D-I.
table of contents A1 through A10, as well as some zoning records, which I asked to be admitted
into evidence. This is a relocation of lot lines from five lots to four, and then the construction
of four single-family homes with parking in the rear, which basically mirrors a similar project
at the end of the block, and I'll show you photographs of that. The refusal is just one
refusal for a minimum lot depth because the rear yard is a driveway easement. Again, it's relocation
of lot lines from five existing deeded lots to four. We're basically talking about a frontage
of 72 feet, and we could have made five homes roughly in the width of 14 and a half feet.
It didn't make sense. So it was increased to 18 feet frontages with just four lots.
the reference to the RCO letter
from East Kensington Neighborhood Association,
non-opposition, and here are the photographs.
So this is a current lot.
I could not establish how long it's been vacant,
but neighbors tell me in excess of at least a decade.
So our project is going to be at this corner of Abigail
at the far end.
I'll show you photographs at the very end.
It's a very similar project.
albeit with five single-family homes and a dry vial at the rear just another view of the vacant
lot the idea is the homes will front as the other homes do on the block on abigail and then you'll
have a curb cut on amber to enter the rear of the properties again just perspective photographs
Yes, here's a similar project at the east end.
This is looking down, Abigail.
Our project is at the very end on the left,
but again, I'm just showing you this
so you can get the idea of other elevations
of brick on the block.
A closer view as we approach our lot on the left-hand side.
And here it is again.
is evidence of the posting of this notices for the ZBA hearing as well as the community meeting
right now neighbors are just parking on the lot obviously we're going to be doing away
with that if we if the project gets approved here are the plans so again Amber Street is here
frontage on Abigail. The idea would be
go down Amber Street, take a left, and this would be a driveway
easement, shared driveway, and it would be parking the rear of each of the
homes. You have no issues with the height. It's simply
a rear yard issue because of the shared driveway.
This is a side view of the property. Again,
the garage will be on the first floor. There is a half cellar or basement
in every one of the units.
The floor plans are very similar except for the end unit.
And I will show you all the floor plans
for each of the four homes.
Well, three are the same
and then one on the corner is different.
The other unique thing about this,
the access to the rooftop deck
will be through a fourth floor or third floor balcony
that you could walk up the outside
to get to the rooftop deck.
to get to the rooftop deck, and I'll show you a rear view of that.
And I'll show you a rear view of that.
Thank you.
So this is the elevation on Abigail Street for the four homes.
There's a slight little entryway to provide some protection from the elements as you enter the property.
And here's the corner unit.
Amber Street would be on the far right of where my cursor is.
Another view of the project.
And here's the drive aisle at the rear.
this is a photograph or rendering from the rear again each floor or three of the four floors
really have open space access the drive aisle in the rear off the first floor will be a small
balcony and then off the third floor is a balcony as well as access to get to the steps
to get up to the rooftop deck we still have the five foot setback you know on the front as well
is on the side on the corner unit, but we've basically eliminated the pilot houses on the
roof to give more open space, and so it's not the block of use of anyone else.
This would be the corner unit. Again, this is slightly different than the floor plans for the
other three units, but basement will be basically storage, hide the mechanicals. First floor plan,
Floor plan, foyer, mudroom, garage in the rear, bike storage, trash storage.
Second floor plan, living room, kitchen area, countertop space, and dining area.
And this switchback stairs or angle stairs are going to have an open area so you can see through the first floor to give it a more airy feeling.
The second floor has access to a rear deck,
and there is a bay that protrudes on the corner unit on Amber Street.
Then I'll move on to the third floor.
The third floor has two bedrooms and two baths with a laundry area.
Then you go up the steps to the fourth floor,
where there would be a primary bedroom,
a large bath with double vanity,
as well as a fourth floor deck, and then you'd be able to access those steps to get to the roof.
This is the typical floor plan for the other three units, very similar to what you see on
the corner unit, basement mechanical, storage, first floor, and these do have switchback steps,
unlike the corner. First floor would have a foyer entrance from the front with a mudroom.
The rear wrenches is a garage, bike storage, as well as trash storage.
Then you go to the second floor, and this is a repeat of the floor plan that I showed you previously.
Open area to the first floor, kitchen, dining area, a large countertop area, and living in the rear, access to the deck on the second floor.
And then you move up to the third floor, again, a repeat of what I showed you earlier.
But these units are a little bit bigger because there's two bedrooms on the second floor with two baths, just slightly bigger, but not very much.
And then up to the fourth floor, again, one bedroom, and then access to the rear deck and to the rooftop deck.
Some more renderings.
This is a side rendering on Amber Street.
just wanted to take note of the fact that it's going to be continuous brick that wraps the
corner just like the front. And then the rear will have a hardy siding or metal siding on the rear
garage doors, solid, then with the rear door to get into the lower level.
Again, another cutaway is basically a repeat of what I showed you at the outset.
on the turning radius and the parking area in the rear where you have streets approval
then this is a lot consolidation plan to shrink this a little bit
so basically it was five lots this was a large lot here as i said in the beginning
the frontage is 72 feet and we divided that by four to get four lots with 18 feet front as well
as rear these are legal descriptions of the properties as well as legal description of
the driveway easement in the rear would be a shared driveway. Application for appeal.
Application for appeal, project information form, proof from the Philadelphia Tax Center.
Taxes are up to date and paid.
Zoning map, bottom right corner, Amber Street, Abigail Street.
Deed indicating ownership.
There's a lot of deeds because it was a deed of confirmation and also a subdivision.
So I'm going to breeze through the deeds.
I just want to show you the other project that I mentioned at the outset that's at the other end of the block.
So this is 2001-2013, Abigail, five single-family homes with shared driveway pursuant to a zoning permit previously issued.
Again, some more aerial views.
Here we are now at the other end of the block.
Our project is at the top of this rendering or photograph.
So 201 Abigail, I highlighted in yellow the drive aisle that comes behind the five houses that front on Abigail.
And this is the zoning permit.
There were five zoning permits.
I only pulled one of the five zoning permits to indicate single-family home.
They have pilot houses and a rear deck as well as a rooftop deck accessed by a shared driveway easement.
So it's basically duplicative of what was approved in 2020.
and I understand simply because something was approved in the past
doesn't mean that's going to happen today,
but I wanted the board to have all the facts in front of them.
So with that, that's the end of my presentation.
I ask my client, Shaq, can you unmute yourself
and adopt my testimony, please?
If you want, please raise your virtual hand.
What's his name, Henry?
What's his name?
Shaq, E-H-M-E-D-I, Fozan, F-O-Z-A-N.
Fozan, as you're in a virtual audience, please raise your virtual hand.
I see no hand.
Mr. Clinton, you're an officer of the court and we appreciate it and we will admit it. Quick question. So your only refusal is the rear yard, right? Correct. Okay. Questions from the board.
okay i have two um one i'm always concerned when i see these garages like this in the property about
uh car fumes and things like that which could migrate into the living space what are we doing
about that. That's a great question, Ms. Gaston. Is Michael Armstrong, the architect, on the call?
Ms. Gaston, I don't have an answer for you. I can get you an answer, but
typically it's busted out
but I don't want to make
a representation that I'm not sure of
but that's what this architect
has done in the past
and then my second
question is
I see where we're doing
these stairs that are going from
what is that the fourth
this would be the top of the third floor uh third floor to this roof correct back here
so i guess i'm just again safety issue okay so you've got these stairs how are we
uh what are we doing to uh make sure that people uh
uh, are these stairs enclosed in some way? I mean, I see a railing, but how, how are we making sure
that somebody, uh, yeah, can get up there? Yeah. When it's, you know, when the weather's bad or,
uh, it's raining and it's slippery. I mean, how, how, I guess I'm just a little concerned about
the safety of you know exterior stairs like that uh to the deck right i mean the stairs
have railings that are you know compliant with code uh and i don't mean to be curt but if it's
compliant with code uh and i don't mean to be curt but if it's if it's raining uh we're snowing
i i don't know that people are going to be walking up them i can't guarantee that but we certainly
would meet all building codes we just thought not having a pilot house would just make it more
attractive and uh provide sight lines for everybody that's that's up there on the floor
her house was. And the fence height, like around that, is still like the four and a half feet?
Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Caston.
Okay. Questions or comments from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission thank you chairman and good morning
david effecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the rsa 5 residential single family zoning at this location the city
rezoned this neighborhood in 2015 in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan
the appellant could build co-compliant single family homes without the benefit without including
a rear drive aisle the city planning commission recommends that the board deny the proposed
dimensional variance for rear yard depth okay um so henry what what i want to do with this i'm
going to case is closed um if you would um could you answer cheryl's question by next week and
we'll vote on next wednesday certainly but everything else is closed thank you mr chairman
Thank you, members of the board.
All right.
All right.
Thank you.
Hillary, that's okay, right?
Hillary, we're good with that?
Yes, that's fine, Mr. Chair.
We'll close except for additional information from the applicant about the venting of the
car fumes.
Could I provide that via a letter, Mr. Chairman?
Whatever you think is appropriate, Senator Hillary.
Got it.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone in the first audience whose case has not been called?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
okay um this is the first time that we've seen the other side of noon in a long time
so i'm i will see everyone at 2 p.m all right
good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this meeting of the
philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our board member shell l gaston present
Mr. Chairman. Board member Tanetta Graham. Present, Mr. Chairman. Board member Michael Johns.
Mike will be on shortly, the first few cases he's not involved with. And board member Ty Nguyen.
Present, Mr. Chairman. Our alternate board member Emily Persico from Development Services.
Present, Mr. Chairman. Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, our zoning board
Executive Director, Ian Haggerty, and our Board Administrator, Restraitor, Lakeisha Dandy.
Recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA website. By participating, you consent to
be recorded. This is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities. Whether remote or in-person,
if you're called to speak, you must state and spell your name and then wait to be sworn in.
Once you've been sworn in, please state your name each time before beginning your testimony.
Any person may enter their appearance to become an interested party.
There are three ways.
You can identify the case property address on your Zoom webinar.
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Call 267-270-5548.
Leave a message that includes your email address and address the property in question.
The following guidance is for remote attendees.
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Third, the webinar Q&A is for questions about the hearing.
Do not comment on cases.
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When speaking on the record, you must speak directly into the microphone in order to be heard by all attendees and a court reporter.
In the event of an emergency, please follow the directions over the public address system or by staff.
The main exit is through the double doors at the rear.
The main exit is through the double doors at the rear.
The nearest stairwell is to the left outside the doors.
The nearest stairwell is to the left.
In case of an evacuation, the rally point is Love Park, directly across Art Street.
Please remain here so we can account for you.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
I'm here
Mr. Chairman Mike Johns
Thank you Mike
Number 26
MI 2025-009-55-60-1-05-Wallon Street.
This case is continued attorney moving party.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
We're going to go to our add-on list.
MI 2024-004-944-2823 West Somerset Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Takeout restaurant use limited to area indicated on the site plan stamped by ZBA June 4th, 2025.
Hours of operation 8A to, I'm sorry, 11A to AP daily.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisals.
Panetta Graham, my vote is yes with provisals.
Iowa, my vote is yes with provisals.
um mr chair uh is a board member shaheed on because we need him to vote on this case
he's not here i don't believe right now okay all right we'll see if we can get him on see
if we can get a hold of him later okay yes we'll have to re-vote yeah we'll have to vote this with
him thank you so number two mi 2024 006 816 826 north 21st street i vote yes with proviso
Maximum two units.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tynetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Iowan, my vote is yes with proviso.
Chair, I just wanted to correct the record on the address of that last property.
It was 1826 North 24th Street.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2025, 000627, 1911 Walnut Street.
This is a re-vote.
I vote yes with proviso.
Revised plans, three pages, stamped by ZBA on June 4th, 2025.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanada Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Iowa 1, my vote is yes with provisos.
Number four, MI 2025-000-397-1835-37 South Bancroft Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Visitor accommodation use limited to second floor.
Temporary variance to expire 6-2-27.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with provisos.
My vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you.
So for the next three cases,
Tanetta Graham will recuse herself
and Michael Johns has also recused himself.
Chair, I'm here.
Oh, good.
Thank you, Ish.
Mr. Chair, maybe we can vote before Tanetta leaves.
Yes, we can vote that other case.
thank you that was number um two uh number one number one um you board member shaheed board
member graham and board member win okay number one mi 2024 004 944 2823 to 25 west somerset street
I vote yes with proviso.
Takeout restaurant use limited to area indicated on the site plan.
Stamp by ZBA on June 4th, 2025.
Hours of operation 11A to AP daily.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisos.
I own my vote is yes with provisos.
I own my vote is yes with provisos.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you.
Okay, so the next three cases that we have, we're going to hear them one at a time.
The next three cases that we have, we're going to hear them one at a time.
But for the, well, Mr. Nackamson and Steve, please come up.
Leonard, you're not involved in this, are you?
All right, Leonard, thank you.
just for the record state your name spelled for the court stenographer alan knockamson a-l-a-n
last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do mr masters good afternoon mr chair members of the board steve
masters s-t-e-v-e-m-a-s-t-e-r-s you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do okay um mr knockamson could you identify your client in relationship to
the property uh yes um generally my client is penrose development mr goldberg's going to give
the presentation in terms of the three properties okay um and uh mr masters could you identify your
client sure my client is strawberry mansion community concern the coordinating rco okay
and as we have three cases that we're going to hear right now bro that's right um
what we would uh one is that when witnesses testify if they would cover all three cases
so in other words if you're going to give you know remarks on the first case if you have interest in
the other two, do all your remarks right then. And that way we'll be able to move this process
on a little bit better. Okay. And Mr. Chair, I do have a legal argument that I wanted to present
that applies to all three cases. You want to do that before we start? I would, yeah. Sure.
And just to be clear, any arguments that apply to all three cases can be just given once and then
just explicitly incorporated into the record for the other cases. Thank you. How about if I read
all three into the record. So the number one is MI 2024-005-135-2401-North 32nd Street.
number two no i'll be writing this year
too many pieces of paper up here today it is number two mr chair i know i'm wearing
So, number two is MI 2024, 007551, 2338 North 31st Street, and the last one is number 27th, thank you.
sure if i can just approach to give copies to you um sure hold on one minute and the last one 20
is our number 27 mi 2025 001 305 2500 north 31st street
okay you give one to everybody
we we've just received the documents
from Mr. Masters.
All right, I'm going to share my screen.
I'd say, Mr. Masters, were these previously submitted with your exhibit packet?
I know there were some legal arguments in there.
These are, what I've submitted just now are excerpts from two opinions,
federal court opinions, that I'm going to be projecting onto the screen.
Let's see if I have...
Sorry, I thought I had totally logged in.
Thank you.
It logged me out, I apologize.
Thank you.
Do you have Wi-Fi?
So what we have in front of us now are two cases.
The first is called resident advisory board versus Frank Rizzo.
this is at the time that Mr. Rizzo was the mayor of Philadelphia. The second case that we're going
to be looking at is Thompson versus the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The reason I
wanted to present these in detail to you is because our primary argument here is not that
affordable housing is wrong or should not be done in the city of Philadelphia. It's that it should
not be done in violation of the federal laws of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which
says that you cannot continue to put, pump, subsidize public housing in areas that are
already overwhelmingly racially segregated into Black or White areas.
We're going to look at the court.
I just gave you, these are very long court cases, but I gave you about six or seven pages
of each one that we're going to look at.
So you understand that every agency involved here, HUD, PHA, the City of Philadelphia, the Land Bank and the Redevelopment Authority, they all have affirmative duties to desegregate our communities.
And when they put affordable housing into communities, they cannot put them into communities that are oversaturated with low income people from one race.
In this case, Strawberry Mansion is overwhelmingly a low-income community with almost 100% Black residents.
That has been clear.
And what happened in, I'll just give you a brief overview.
So what happened in the Frank Rizzo case was that the housing agency, HUD, told the city that they needed to develop housing in a white neighborhood.
So they were going to be developing it in this neighborhood called Whitman.
Yeah, you probably remember this back in the day.
So there was a project to develop affordable housing in Whitman, and then the city basically was culpable in preventing it through thuggery, through violence, through all kinds of things.
So this case is going to show us a couple of important points, which is what are the affirmative mandates that this zoning board has and that other agencies like PHA and other entities that are funded by federal money, which is Penrose.
So in this case, it's not the same fact pattern. We're not talking about here trying to put housing in a white community and then them revolting against it.
What we're talking about here is what does the federal laws require of the city, of this zoning board, and can the zoning board actually approve a project that's in violation of federal fair housing and federal anti-discrimination?
And it's clear from these cases that you don't have that power to do that, nor would I think you would want to do that. But in case you did want to do it, you don't have that power to do that.
So we're now on page 23. Well, it's the second page of this thing. So the court says we are course guided in our determination of the standards required by governmental agencies under section, the Third Circuit's decision in Shannon versus HUD from 19.
uh section um the third circuit's decision in shannon versus hud from 1970. the third circuit
and shannon the third circuit is our circuit in um that that over that goes over the the uh the
commonwealth of pennsylvania the third circuit and shannon described the progression in the civil
rights acts from the commands of the 1964 act of non-discrimination to the affirmative requirements
in the 1968 act that government agencies promote fair housing as follows read together the housing
Act of 1949, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, just popped up, sorry, show a progression as to what
factors significantly contributed to urban blight and what steps must be taken to reverse the trend
or to prevent the recurrence of such blight. In 1949, the Secretary, in examining whether a plan
presented by an LPA included a workable program for community improvement, could not act
unconstitutionally, but possibly could act neutrally on the issue of racial segregation.
Back in 49, they could basically finesse it and still engage in racial discrimination.
In 1964, he was directed when considering whether a program of community development was workable
to look at the effects of local planning action and to prevent discrimination in housing resulting
from such action. In 1968, he was directed to act affirmatively to achieve fair housing, whichever
Whichever were the most significant features of a workable program for community improvement
in 1949. By 1964, such a program had to be non-discriminatory in effect, and by 1968,
the Secretary had to affirmatively promote fair housing. This is the Secretary of Housing and
Human Development. In the Shannon case, the court found that HUD had failed to consider
the racial composition of the area in which low to moderate income housing was to be constructed
before its issuance of a contract of insurance and approval of the project for rent supplement
contract. Rather, HUD had only examined the land use factors involved in approving the project,
which is what this board is doing. They're looking at the land use factors.
But HUD was supposed to do more. The court stated that the discretion of HUD to choose the methods
of achieving the national housing objectives must be exercised within the framework of the
national policy against discrimination in federally assisted housing, and they say it to some federal
statutes. When a decision is made without consideration of relevant factors, it must be
set aside. That's the court speaking. The court in Shannon held that HUD could not be colorblind
in connection with the very real effect that racial concentration has had on urban blight,
and noted that the increase or maintenance of racial concentration is a prima facie likely to
lead to urban blight and is thus prima facie at variance with the national housing policy.
Other courts have agreed with our Third Circuit, and they have held that there is an affirmative
duty required under Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. It applies not only to HUD,
but applies as well to other governmental agencies that administer federally financed
housing programs and then there's a there's a string site of cases uh from various circuits
um they they then go specifically into arterio versus new york city housing which is the case
from 1973 could you do me a favor instead of reading eight pages could you get what you think
right now are the key points sure i mean i heard your beginning so give us the key points then
what what i want to do is if you do this first case i'm going to have alan comment and then we'll
go to your second case okay but in please i i don't want you to say like eight pages no i'm not
okay sure all right in the orange here the court in ontario pointed out that an authority may not
for instance select sites for projects which will be occupied by non-whites only in areas already
heavily concentrated with a high proportion of non-whites an authority is barred from using
assignment methods which seek to exclude or have the evident effect of excluding persons
of minority races from residing in predominantly white areas or restricting non-whites to areas
already concentrated by non-white residents. So that's like totally on point here. I'll skip
I'll skip through the second circuit in Ontario around the issue with affirmative obligations.
through the second circuit in Ontario.
Then they talk about the specific agencies here in this Philadelphia that are responsible for this affirmative action.
One is the city of Philadelphia.
We find that in view of the pattern of racial segregation, which-
Why don't you list what they are?
Just tell me.
You don't have to give me the background.
Okay. So the city of Philadelphia has an affirmative duty to implement national policy of fair housing. You are an arm of the city of Philadelphia. We also have the, obviously, Mayor Rizzo did not agree to do this, and we obviously have a different administration.
I'm not I'm not claiming that things are the same necessarily in terms of his racism, but things are the same in terms of the concentration of affordable housing in not just majority, but overwhelmingly black neighborhoods, which is completely illegal under the federal civil rights acts.
So the second one I wanted to focus on is the Philadelphia Housing Authority. It says that it is clear that the Philadelphia Housing Authority has an affirmative duty to integrate its housing projects and be instrumental in dispersing urban housing patterns. And it cites a case that held that.
but I understand that. Okay. And who else is listed? We have, it's very wonky, this,
this internet, sorry. Who else is listed is?
we want to try to move this ahead uh then we're going to go to the next case
in thompson versus is this all still on the rizzo case no the next is a new case okay so
all right before we go on mr knockamson do you have any so so i can clarify do you have any
response to this first case? Yes, I actually have a threefold response. So first, I believe
that Strawberry Mansion Community Concern has no standing in these proceedings. While I have no
objection that Ms. Cummings would have taxpayers standing, it's my understanding that she is a
citizen of the city of Philadelphia. I believe that Strawberry Mansion Community Concern has
no standing. They have not availed themselves appropriately under this process. This is just
indicative of what we're dealing with today. We did not receive the presentation materials of
Strawberry Mansion Community Concern as well as Mr. Masters until I believe it was yesterday.
Not with you know so outside the five-day window and I know that only applies to applicants but
you know professionally I would expect that we would have those materials. These arguments are
being made on the fly by Mr. Masters where we had no opportunity to actually you know
prepare for this but i would say that they have not availed themselves of this process by
continually ignoring the rules of this board no but but that's in terms of the presentation
materials and in terms of mr master's presentation you know you the board poly received um you know
what was from strawberry mansion community concern with their letter and i'm going to just put this
up here and again if mr goldberg can share his screen while i'm doing this it's a piece of paper
that says save our pocket park 2500-06 north 31st street 57 57 unit rental only housing plans within
a one to two block radius of each other and 11 units proposed for pocket park site harmful violates
our civil rights title six and other housing protection acts and the city's lower north plan
removal of our tree canopy cover heats us up by 10 to 15 degrees come out and learn what is
happening to you in strawberry mansion community meeting monday june 2nd 2025 at 5 30 p.m right in
front of the pocket park 2500-06 north 31st street bring a chair as the board knows we've
been trying for some time to schedule a community meeting with the coordinating RCO.
They've completely ignored us.
That's why we're here today.
It's been multiple continuances of not having a community meeting.
And this board knows that under the regulations that pertain to RCOs, they're supposed to
give us a community meeting within a certain period of time.
They have not.
they have not they have ignored us they're represented by council so i'm sure they're
They have ignored us.
They're represented by council, so I'm sure they're well aware.
well aware of of those requirements they have not availed themselves of this process and worse
they're violating the rco regulations in the philadelphia zoning code regulations by by not
using the forms necessary to schedule such a community meeting and not even inviting us to
the community meeting so again while miss cummings may have taxpayer standing for the next level
She shouldn't have any standing whatsoever. So I would say that, you know, that this board
recognized that she, that, that she is, that Strawberry Managing Community Concern is not the
recognized party here. In addition, we don't even know who Strawberry Managing Community Concern is.
Colin Crossley, who's in the, in the audience here in the, during the last hearing stated that
he's never spoken to anyone from Strawberry Managing Community Concern. He's only correspondent via
email so i have no idea if miss cummings miss cummings is an actual representative we have a
right to know request so that's the first thing is is the standing argument i don't believe that
they have standing here um because they have not availed themselves of the process i have two other
arguments all right second argument arguments about his presentation about his presentation
Yes, sure. Yes. There is no Mr. Masters makes many allegations which have no factual basis. He has no factual basis about the fact that HUD in these circumstances is doing anything in violation of these acts.
He would, you know, again, there's there's no one from HUD that he's he's asked to present in having questions about this project.
But the fact that we're providing affordable housing, like in a part of Philadelphia Strawberry Mansion, doesn't mean that that's in violation of any federal, state or local laws.
If we take that to its most extreme, we would never be able to have affordable housing.
There's no allegation that Penrose or PHA and Strawberry Mansion CDC are making any type of representations about who's going to be in the property, whether it's going to be African Americans, Caucasians, or whomever.
There's no allegations to that fact.
So these arguments in a vacuum are, again, something that's just to throw something up against a wall.
third yes and that i guess that would be one and two like the fact is there's no factual
allocations you have a third no that was that was it good all right so why don't you do the next
case and then we'll figure out what we're going to do sure okay and if you would try to do this
next case the same way absolutely okay thank you so this next case is a more modern case as they
say it's from 2005 it's about baltimore and it's more analogous to what's happening here where the
city of Baltimore and their housing agency decided to put in affordable housing only
in the inner city of Baltimore, where it was almost exclusively African-American residents
and not in the suburbs where there was white people living and people of many different
diversities.
So this case is on point to what we're talking about here.
and it goes into detail about the zoning board and other agencies and what your affirmative
duties are. This case is called Carmen Thompson versus the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development. It's January 2005. Okay, the first excerpt is, it has been judicially recognized
that section 3608, this is from the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prescribes an affirmative duty as
stated by Judge and later Justice Breyer from the U.S. Supreme Court, Title VIII imposes upon HUD
an obligation to do something more than simply refrain from discriminating and from purposefully
aiding discrimination by others. The case goes on to say, the affirmative statutory obligation,
and this is important because back in the 70s, there's a lot of cases in the Supreme Court that
have been happening since the 1970s, but these civil rights acts have never been changed or
overturned. This is the law of our country. This affirmative statutory obligation to provide
housing free from discrimination accords with the vision of the law's supporters who considered
ending discrimination as a means toward truly opening the nation's housing stock to persons
of every race and creed thus action must be taken by hud to fulfill as much as possible the goal of
open integrated residential housing patterns and to prevent the increase of segregation
then it talks about uh at the um section
Then it talks about the section of the Fair Housing Act. A reviewing court shall hold unlawful and set aside agency action found to be arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law. It's well established that a court may not substitute its own policies.
OK, we can go on from there. The agency is required to articulate a satisfactory explanation for its action.
So up till now, we've heard many cases at the earlier hearing, there was never any explanation from Mr. Nocklinson, from any of his clients, from Penrose or from PHA, as to why they chose to put these affordable housing units in an almost 100% low-income Black neighborhood when they could have chosen neighborhoods to meet their affirmative obligation to promote desegregation and integration.
as opposed to doing the opposite. It says that HUD, while HUD has broad discretionary powers,
and HUD also means PHA because PHA is acting obviously under HUD, while HUD has broad
discretionary powers to administer its grants as it sees fit, it is not immune from review for the
abuse of discretion in exercising those powers. When a court analyzes HUD's public housing,
inciting decisions and the manner in which it has used its resources in Baltimore under the
standards articulated in this legislation, HUD is required to offer a satisfactory explanation for
its actions. The court's examination of the agency's explanation must focus on whether HUD,
and this is your examination also, because you're acting before it goes to court, as to why
Why did they choose to put more affordable housing in the area with a large overwhelming section of Black, low-income people when they could have chosen it in many other places?
So it says that they have to offer a satisfactory explanation, and the examination must focus on whether their actions have, quote, furthered the statutory goals.
The statutory goals they're talking about are the goals of integration and eliminating racial discrimination.
So I think there's a bit more.
So but I mean, I understand your point.
But did you have much more?
Yeah. So then I wanted to talk about the Mr. Chair.
He's just reading off of the case.
I think he can introduce the case into the record and we can all read it afterwards.
Well, I would I would prefer that you would you would know what it says so that you could you could ask Mr.
Nockamston to show us. Listen to me. I think your presentation so far, I understand exactly what you're trying to say.
And Mr. Nockamston, could you make remarks as to where he is now?
Yeah. So, again, if as this board knows, knows is a board of limited jurisdiction.
They hear a case by case analysis, whether or not we've met our burden under the Philadelphia zoning code for variants. This is not a comprehensive, let's look at PHA holistically. If that was the case, we would be here all day, every day, 24 seven.
So again, he's making it seem like that this is the only project that PHA has across the city of Philadelphia. That's not the case. The PHA has a comprehensive plan for affordable housing.
There is no allegations that he has factually that shows that for this project, that PHA has specifically discriminated in their selection of Penrose and Strawberry Mansion CDC as partners on this project.
There's no factual allegations that should we get the zoning approval we believe we should get, that we would actually discriminate in the operation of the housing itself.
Again, time and time again, Strawberry Mansion, Community Concern, buying through their agents, are acting in bad faith throughout this process.
Can I just respond to that briefly?
Steve, it's got to be brief.
We've got to get a lot of cases done, right?
Mr. Nachamson is not describing the correct burden that he has and that his clients have.
It is not that we're saying that there's going to be overt discrimination on the part of PHA or Penrose or or that it is that they are not allowed to cite any housing, any of their housing projects in Strawberry Mansion until they go into enough of the areas in the white suburbs and in other areas to show that they are actually doing their affirmative desegregation.
so it is yes they have other projects in other places but this is this is
So it is, yes, they have other projects in other places, but this is off limits, according to federal law.
Thank you very much. Alan, thank you for your comments. Both your comments are part of the record. I have nothing yet that tells me to stop this proceeding. We're moving forward. Please start the first case.
All right. Thank you. I'll defer to Mr. Goldberg. All right. And that first case, again, is MI2024-005-135-2401 North 32nd Street.
Mr. Goldberg, could you please state your name? Alex Goldberg, A-L-E-X-G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do.
Could you please start your presentation? Yes, I can.
mr goldberg as we stated before um what you say here in this first presentation unless there's
something dramatically different and the next two will become part of the record for the other cases
okay understood and the same thing with any witnesses you call i'd appreciate if they want
to comment all three cases please let them do that one question for you if there's a specific
architectural related question that doesn't have to for example do to have anything to do with the
first one sure wait till that comes up and then call she could do that okay okay why don't we start
okay um so this first one is for 2401 north 32nd street um you know many of the the materials that
we included in our previous presentations are the exact same here um including letters of support
um first i should start with the notice of refusal which was issued in july of last year
this one specifically is for the relocation of lot lines to create two lots from a single lot
essentially what's happening here is we're preserving a playground on one half of the
parcel which you'll see in the plans and we're proposing the development of five dwelling units
on the other half all of these dwelling units are built sort of in the form of single family
homes with their own front doors that are contextually and massing wise in line with the
other attached single family row homes that are in close proximity here um the refusals that you
see on your screen i'd actually object to the first one which says that we're proposing uh
four dwelling units there's there's five dwelling units that are proposed as a part of this
application um four of them face york street and one of them faces 32nd street perpendicular and
you'll see because this is a corner property there's a second refusal for multiple principal
buildings because those four that face york street are all attached and the one that faces 32nd street
is standalone separate building we're receiving a refusal for rear yard depth the code is determining
or rather the lni examiner is determining that we have no rear yard depth you'll see on the plans
you know i think that's a technicality of how the the architecture was drawn up we are proposing
only 58 percent occupied area obviously the remaining 42 percent is open space it's a little
bit funky shape back there you basically have between four and a half feet at the minimum
and about 21 feet at the maximum of rear yard depth the side yard width you'll see again you
know i would object to that refusal um we're preserving or rather extending an alley that
did not exist when this was one large parcel now you could put this start putting some things up
sure yes i apologize no no no we have the letters of support um i see all the letters of support we
have every the petitions will go forward we have posting photos as well um there are three
frontages here so there are uh you know three postings two on the corner here and one by the
playground. Oh, I'm sorry. Posting photos to there and one there. Here are the architectural plans
and drawings. And I have Vera Kisilev from WRT, the architect's representative in the virtual
audience if there are any questions for her okay so what you see on the top of the screen
is the existing conditions of the site there's a playground there and what you see down here
and i'll zoom in so it's a little bit easier to see is the proposed residential development on
the site there's a three foot eight inch alley or rather three foot seven inch alley that we
are extending which exists currently further up the block on 32nd street uh you know obviously
for egress purposes but also creates a buffer between the playground and the the home that's
proposed to go there there are four single family homes that are notated as multi-family because
this is one parcel that face york street they're between 15.6 and 16.2 feet wide and then there's
They're between 15.6 and 16.2 feet wide.
And then there's another single-family home, again, part of this quote-unquote five-unit
development facing 32nd Street, which is 16 feet wide.
You can see there's a large amount of open space here in the rear.
We would agree to a proviso for trash stored in the rear.
There are two means of egress through the backs of these properties.
Obviously, this three-foot, seven-inch alley.
there's also a four foot five inch sort of opening that that goes directly out onto 32nd street
the next slide here is again just sort of an illustrative site plan you can see
kind of how that playground sits on the existing site
these are two-bedroom townhomes similar what you've seen in our previous presentations this
is our our sort of form two-bedroom townhome you walk in on the first floor which is on the left
side of the screen zooming in a little bit for you there's an open concept kitchen living and
dining area with a half bathroom and then upstairs you have two bedrooms a bathroom and laundry
facilities here is that lot line relocation plan where you can see that the existing condition is
one large parcel and the proposed condition is is two parcels parcel a and parcel b
and then the remaining documents are application for appeal and then
i'll just show you the certificate of tax clearance at the conclusion of the presentation
um with that i'd like to call my client lindsay samsi to adopt my testimony
i could you please state your name is spelled for the court stenographer yes thank you chairman
lindsey samsey l-i-n-d-s-e-y samsey s-a-m-s-i right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do and mr goldberg as as she testifies i'd appreciate if she
handle all three and that way i won't have to keep calling her back sure okay lindsey did you
hear my testimony today and was it true and correct yes and you adopted as your own yeah
and not specifically relating to this presentation the board will see
a zoning application that includes essentially the combination of two lots into one lot
for the construction of a two-family dwelling when otherwise two single-family homes could
have been built on that parcel. I know that's similar to something that the board saw in the
previous presentations. We're getting ahead of ourselves here, but can you explain for the board
again your reasoning for doing that? I'm going to object because we have specific questions about
the dimensions and the configurations of all of them that are separate parcels.
Well, I'm going to let her continue, and then you're going to have a chance to answer questions.
But I can't ask her questions about things that haven't been presented yet.
Well, Steve, we're trying to save time.
Yeah, I understand.
But I'm going to do this, and then you could do it.
I'm going to ask her to come back then for the other ones.
Please proceed.
Yeah, so similar to the other applications and the cases that you've seen, all of the buildings intentionally are designed to read as single-family townhomes due to constructability and cost issues.
They are technically considered multifamily buildings, however, they all have their own entrances and street frontages to align with the context of the neighborhood.
and specifically and that was regarding 2338-40 north 31st street which you'll see coming up
specifically relating to the other one that the board has not seen yet which is 2500 north 31st
street can you explain to the board in terms of and maybe this is a better question for vera and
you can say that regarding your need for accessibility requirements and having ground
floor, ground floor apartments, and sort of how that ties into sort of the overall project goals
and requirements. Right, thank you. So, so Penrose has a desire to provide as many accessible units
as possible, as well as our funding sources. So this project has 10% accessible units across all
of the units. And in order to achieve that, we do need flats that are accessible on the first floor,
which allows us to put a townhome on the top of it again all separate entrances and all read as
single-family townhomes thank you is that your case yes do you have any questions mr um i do
ministers sure i'm sorry i don't remember your last name
Sure. I'm sorry I don't remember your last name. Sam C. Sam C. Okay, Sam C. You work for Penrose,
is that correct? Yes. Are you aware that the project that we're talking about today has
federal money that is part of the funding? Yes. Okay. Did you participate or did anyone else
at Penrose participate in the decisions of where to site this project, whether to site it in
Strawberry Mansion or in some other neighborhoods? Penrose responded to an RFP that was released by
the Philadelphia Housing Authority through a competitive bid process. So is it fair to say
that the Philadelphia Housing Authority made the siting plan before they did the RFP for you?
I can't answer for the Housing Authority. We just responded to the RFP.
Well, did the RFP have the site that was identified already?
It had sites listed in the RFP, yes.
And all those sites are in Strawberry Mansion?
So someone before you got onto the team decided that it was going to be cited in Strawberry
Mansion.
That's your testimony?
Someone not at Penrose as we responded to an RFP.
so you don't have any information or knowledge as to why they chose to cite this project and
it's armory mansion is that is that correct correct and um as part of your winning the the um
the rfp for this were there conversations um or requirements that were that were given to penrose
from pha dealing with their affirmative obligations to to um eliminate racial discrimination and to
promote racial integration I'm not sure what the question is did anyone talk to
you about your the need to eliminate racial discrimination in this project
and to promote racial integration object to that she if she knows how to answer
if she did if she knows how to answer it I mean in order to respond to an RFP
that is given by the Philadelphia Housing Authority the respondent is
required to comply with all HUD regulations
That wasn't my question. My question isn't whether Penrose discriminates against people. I hope that you don't. My question is, was at any time Penrose given instructions or directed to ensure that this project, when it was built, would not contribute to racial discrimination and would in fact contribute to racial integration?
Penrose follows all fair housing laws.
Did anyone tell you anything about racial integration and racial and racial discrimination?
I'm not sure. Did anyone? Did anyone from from HUD or from PHA or anyone else that's outside of Penrose that's connected to this project instruct you that there was supposed to be standards met for racial integration and racial segregation?
Of course, that falls under the fair housing laws.
So what were you instructed to do under her house?
Steve, listen, you've asked that question three times.
She's answered it the way she thinks is the appropriate answer.
You don't agree, we're going to move on to the next question.
Okay. Can we go back to, Alex, can you bring up the drawings of the floor plans?
Because I'd like to understand the dimensions of the units.
I think it might be helpful, Steve and Mr. Chairman, if at this point I call Vera Kisilev to be sworn in because, you know, she's the architect.
Vera, are you out there?
She's got her hand raised.
Yes, good afternoon, Chair and Counsel.
This is Jason Hand.
I have the calls for the session.
They have been promoted to panelists.
They should be rejoining shortly.
Thank you very much.
Do you hear me?
I think she's on, Mr. Chairman.
Could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
My name is Vera Kisilev.
You're going to have to get closer to wherever your mic is because we're having a hard time hearing you.
My name is Vera Kisilev, V-E-R-A-K-I-S-E-L-E-V.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, sir.
Sure. Are you able to see the drawings that we're looking at on the screen for these units?
Yeah, I can see the drawings, and I also can see drawings on my computer with the precise dimensions.
Yeah, I can see the drawings and I also can see the drawings on my computer.
Okay. Can you tell me what the dimensions of each of the units are?
So each unit's gross area is between 900 and 1,000 square feet, between two stories. It's gross area.
And can you tell me the dimensions of the bedrooms?
each bedroom uh located on the second floor and hold on let me open the second floor plan
do you have a copy of this okay so it's listed on there oh it is all the dimensions right
yeah i can tell you so there are two bedrooms on the second floor each bedroom uh has uh
So the larger bedroom is, hold on, as it says here, it's almost 12 feet, 11 foot 9 by almost 15 feet, 14 foot 9.
There is also six feet, the closet, and the smaller bedroom is, actually, it's larger than it's shown.
It's nine foot four by, again, 14 foot nine, and it has a five foot closet.
so the sizes of the bedroom are actually much larger than would be allowed in the market rate
apartment it's just my comment as an architect okay explain you said that these units are larger
than market rate unit apartments in the sizes of the bedrooms that provided to satisfy the
requirements of the Philadelphia Housing Financial Agency are in general larger than would have been
allowed by the Philadelphia Building Code. Okay. In your opinion as an architect, is there any
reason that these units could could um could these units have been built in another neighborhood or
another suburb outside of philadelphia i'm going to object to that she's the architect i think she
was directed by someone to to design the properties for her right right but the question is in in
terms of the argument we're making on the fair housing and the yeah i understand that but what
i'm saying they asked the architect about well could she do it somewhere else i mean she was
working for someone right but is it possible is there something unique about this property in
this neighborhood to to require that these units have been built just there and no other place
that's my question i don't i don't really understand the question so i'd appreciate
if you can move on i really don't i'm serious i well the what at issue here is the siting of
this project in strawberry mansion if strawberry mansion was the only place that we could cite
affordable housing project, that would be one thing to know. But if it was possible for PHA
to cite this project in other communities, then that... But I mean, I think we're going to move
on simply because she is only working at the direction of the client. Okay. Excuse me, Mr.
Chair, this is Hillary. I just wanted to be clear here that I understand what Mr. Masters is saying
about the siting of the project, but the zoning board is not responsible for the siting of the
project. The siting of the project was determined by other parties, and if Mr. Masters wishes to
challenge the siting of the project by those other parties, that needs to be in a different forum,
not before the zoning board of adjustment. Okay, what is your next question, please?
Steve. The next question is, can we have someone from PHA testify? Because I have questions for
them. Well, I mean, if you had questions for that, why didn't you subpoena them?
You had a chance beforehand to subpoena the PHA. They were here last time, so I assumed that
they were going to be here again. I'm not planning to call them to testify. We're moving forward
today steve so i'm going to ask you then to to allow me to call um the the witness from pha
because that's that is um they they have an affirmative duty to describe while how they're
in compliance with the fair housing act no we're going to move on all right then i'm
All right, then I'm just I'm going to have an objection to that.
just i'm going to have an objection to that what army i have an objection
What do you mean?
I have an objection.
I understand.
Do you have any other more questions for?
No, we just have our own case to do.
Well, we're going to like there's more to this case, right?
Okay, sure.
So is there any questions from the board?
Any questions for our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Are there questions or comments from the virtual audience or from this audience here?
Come on up.
We have.
You'll get a chance to put your story.
I'll make sure we do that for you.
I promise you.
Got it.
Good afternoon, sir.
Could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
It's Keith Harris, K-E-I-T-H-H-A-R-R-I-S.
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Harris, please proceed.
Yeah. Good afternoon, Mr. Bergman and the board. I'm the war leader in the area and also a state rep. I support the project and also the state rep from the area, the one named Ronnie Green, she supports this project.
Just in reference to what Mr. Master was saying about the discrimination part of the Civil Rights Act, Title IV, dating back to the original eras, that's why that legislation was put in place.
Actually, to oppose this is why that legislation was put in place in the first place.
Because to not do this is really to put in place the haves and the have-nots.
okay rental properties we don't have the same manufacturing base in this country anymore
um when those houses originally built right so the employment structure has changed to give
young families a chance to stay in the communities that they grew up in they were born in to give
them a starter home right that what mr masters is testifying on opposes that so actually it's
reverse what he's saying. Maybe he don't even
understand oil mischief is coming. Don't
understand based on the letter that was
sent to our governor Shapiro
and other parties in this, including myself.
But I don't think
they're looking at the whole picture here
that also on the
$2,400 block of Dover
Newcourt, that was a turnkey project.
40 something
units, ownership, and
it was still a post. So you can't
have it both ways here.
like you know so so you don't want any units for rent no units for even for sale for ownership
so what's the so what are you arguing like it's just going around in circles
thank you very much do you have any questions go for i do not master you have any questions
all right thank you and mr sharp just to clarify uh mr harris was with your testimony for all
three matters that are before the board this afternoon regarding related to this project
Mr. Harris, the question is, do you feel the same way about all three cases?
Yes, all three cases.
Thank you very much.
All right. Thank you. Saving you the time from testifying three times.
Hello, Reverend. Could you please state your name as Bell for the stenographer?
Yes. Good afternoon, Chairman and Board.
Reverend Tyrone Williams, Tyrone, T-Y-R-O-N-E Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
So we're almost at the finish line of a process that took almost five, six years that should.
It's because other processes wasn't followed.
As a CDC and program manager trying to inform the community exactly what is coming with this project,
it was hard to message it under mis-messaging.
prime example the meeting that was held on Monday
so I just want to say Strawberry Mansion
CDC is looking to put affordable housing for all
people. Strawberry Mansion does have
not just black people in it, it does have white people and other races
in it too. Although black people may dominate
there are other races. I think it's against the law to
even start a project with thinking what particular race you're going to have come in these projects.
So I just think that the testimony we heard today and contacting those that really had
nothing to do with this matter at all is just, it's not professional, number one, but number two,
I'm hoping that we can bring this to fruition because the project is needed. That's the reason
that the project is on the table
because it is needed
in the area that is definitely blighted.
thank you and that's for all three cases do you have any questions to him no i don't okay
Thank you.
And that's for all three cases.
Do you have any questions to him?
No, I don't.
anyone else in the current office one over there yeah you can sit down sure
good afternoon hi could you bring the mic real close to you sure could you please state your
name and spell it my name is wendolin fields g-w-e-n-d-o-l-y-n f-i-e-l-d-s right and i am
hold on hold on do you swear or affirm that's okay the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do are you and are you a neighbor i am a resident a long time i'm a third generation
resident of of the 2500 block of north 31st please proceed and um i i feel like
when it comes to making certain that we spread around affordable housing throughout the city
the community, and the suburban areas, I don't think that that's done equitably. I feel like
it's concentrated in our neighborhood. They make us feel like we should be happy that we're getting
affordable housing and don't be concerned with anything else. We're not supposed to be concerned
with the number of people that's being funneled into the same area. It's already a heavily dense
area of people that doesn't allow for people to actually live and breathe comfortably without
worrying about am I going to get in an argument because there's no parking in the area am I going
to get into uh an argument because it's just simply too many people in one space yep and for
me personally I'm concerned about the whole neighborhood but my chief concern is about the
the uh 25 um 25 oh what is it the the lot right there where the canopy is and so I was told not
just based off of this, but a long time ago by my parents. I was told that those houses were
single-family homes. That lot that we're talking about in particular was a single-family home.
Those lots were taken due to eminent domain to create this green space to help with the community
to have better opportunities to enjoy their locations, to breathe easier, to have visually
have some green space close to them now this area has a lot of older people now so sure the park is
a couple blocks away but i can't walk to the park i'm oxygen dependent you know so that's not
something that i'm going to do on a regular basis i'm not saying i can't ever go there but it's but
it's more imperative to me to be able to come out to my front door and say oh it's nice and green
over here look there's some trees over here with all the extra people in the area that's going to
bring extra cars that's going to bring extra pollutants so that means when you start taking
away those green spaces in these little pocket areas it's nothing to absorb all those pollutants
it's nothing to help us be able to breathe easy so that we can live as long as we can live we
already lit the life expectancy in that area is already very low so when you start cramming more
people into this area, I don't understand how that's going to get better. I don't think that's
going to help us as a whole. And it's many places throughout that whole section that they're talking
about where all of these properties are. If you walk up and down most of those streets, you'll find
quite a few empty properties that single family homes. So why can't those affordable properties
be in there so now you're just you're not expanding the footprint of that area you're just
filling in where it's blank spaces as opposed to just pouring all these people into one space and
it's fine to put apartment yeah we you you were nice enough to lead a playground but now you're
blocking out all the sun you're blocking all the air you're bringing in more people is a greater
chance if my kid is playing in the not my kid but children in the community if they're playing in
that playground and you're trying to keep an eye on them now you have an apartment right here next
to them it's a lot simpler for somebody to snatch that kid and take them in the apartment than it is
for somebody if it's just a single family home there it's less people in the area that you had
to contend with when we already have just an unimaginable amount of people living in these
communities and sure I want everybody to have a safe affordable home but I think we got enough
in this city enough spaces in this city that we could spread it out enough so that everybody can
get their opportunity all right thank you very much mr goldberg you have any questions yeah i
have one question um so specifically to to the the playground that you were referencing at 2401
no the the playground that you were referencing at 2401 30 30 seconds yeah sorry 23 yes correct
30 seconds yeah sorry 23 yes correct the one that we just went over so um that space that's next to
The one that we just went over.
the playground that you were referencing you know was previously easier to see people that were over
there what what is that space being used for currently it's being useful i don't know what
it's being used for personally okay but but what i do know is that i don't know what it's using for
personally. But what I do know is if you're putting a multiple amount of people in this
smaller space, why can't you just, if that's the case, then why don't you just sell each
individual property? So now you're putting a family instead of multiple families in a smaller
amount of space. Yeah. So, so my question was about the big open unused space that.
But this is the thing, and this is what y'all do all around the whole city. And I'm saying in
general I'm not saying your company but what you do for us is you make us feel like we should be
so grateful because now you're doing something on this empty spot when it's a myriad of things that
could be done on that empty spot for that matter that place right there could use a green space
so why not have that green space so that those kids is over there at the playground they can be
breathing a little easier as opposed to putting in more housing when you have if you walk up the
street in any direction you got
multiple places that empty
that's the blight that we need to
contend with prior before we go
to the next step of creating
new properties it's great to have
nice shiny new properties
I think you've made your point
do you have any other questions
Steve do you have any questions
none of her now okay is there anyone else in the virtual
audience here
come on up councilman
please
so councilman this is the first case it's uh 2500 north 31st street it's 24 to 1 north 32nd
for what yeah okay all right um well what you could do is you give all three cases on the record
right now okay um steve you want to start your case and what i'm going to do is go to the virtual
audience when i'm done okay um i was gonna say mr jared there you may want to go to the virtual
audience next there's three people with their hands raised they've been waiting all right
first hand please yes i have a handout from a number ending in 6517 i will allow them to speak
Good afternoon.
Hi, good afternoon.
Could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
Judith Robinson, J-U-D-I-T-H-R-O-B-I-N-S-O-N.
Can I say receivership?
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I affirm.
Please, please proceed.
PHA has blighted our whole community over many years.
We have many vacant properties that are left vacant and vacant land in this neighborhood and throughout the city of Philadelphia.
We are very concerned about this land use using PHA.
They are increasing density.
Their management is horrible right nearby, 30th and Gordon.
That's why we oppose this property whole transaction.
It's concentrated.
It's bad management over many, many years.
And then we're very concerned.
This is where I grew up.
My family home is still there.
And we always had a peaceful life near the park.
But since PHA has concentrated their tenants at 30th and Gordon,
It changed the whole feeling in our community.
It's just been horrible management.
Nothing can stop them after they come into your community.
It's bad, bad management.
We're concerned about sanitation.
We're concerned about the management of these lands after the fact.
We've always been a stable community, working-class community over many years.
We have some of every type of property in our community.
We have scattered sites, which are badly managed.
They should be sold to the tenants, long-term tenants, who are our neighbors over many years.
But that hasn't happened with PHA.
The only thing that could stop this bad management is they were in receivership when Mr. Jeremiah came to town.
And since then, they've been allowed to do many unsavory things.
Unprecedented eminent domain has been used.
And now land management is being used to usurp our community for the next 100 years.
We're very opposed to this.
I want to be put down as an opposition, and I would like to speak about the other properties as they are different.
opposite in opposition and i would like to speak about the other properties as they are different
in every location thank you steve do you want to next hand please i would like to ask miss
robinson one quick question sure um mr robinson if you're still there um are you aware that
pha is not managing these properties and that penrose will be managing these properties
yes yes um uh we want certain we know this is a pha deal and we know whether pha is the direct
manager or not their tenants need to be better managed so if the tenants are coming from various
relocated uh tenants from bloomberg from barterman village they never lived uh in this particular
the area and we see from the 30th and gordon hell if i could be so frank uh it's been bad for us
the trash the just a mismanagement of the tenant so no matter who's managing them we find it to be
unsavory and blight on our community from pha over many years all right miss provinson thank you steve
next hand please
um yes i have a hand up from lisa monique jenkins hayden i have allowed them to speak
why could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is lisa monique
Q-U-E, Jenkins, J-E-N-K-I-N-S, hyphen, Hayden, H-A-Y-E-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
I am a neighbor.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
I am a neighbor and also a business owner.
I own a well-being agency that does psychotherapy, education support, and coaching.
My concerns are the dense cluttering, the overburdened corridor, the sanitation, the social adjustment, the educational focus, and the emotional well-being of the current residents, as well as the proposed residents to come.
These properties are also taking up green space, which is concerning for all the reasons that have already been stated,
but also because it's towards children's ability to have Montessori learning,
to have learning inside of a green space with green community.
I also have concerns about the management of Pembro's and the collaboration of PHA.
I am a three, I have existed in this community under the offices of two generations on my
maternal side and three generations on my paternal side. Home ownership and the ability to have
generational home ownership has been greatly compromised because of the projects that
continue to be ushered here without any outreach to the community. I have specifically asked the
community, the CDC, and others about the pocket parks more than one time, and no one has presented
an opportunity to have a community discussion about said matters before.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us. Is that the last hand?
No, so there's three more, there's three more hands, Mr. Chair, or four more hands just to say, all right.
Okay, Hillary, we're going to stay with all four of them before Steve does his presentation.
Mr. Masters, how long is your presentation?
um we're gonna i'm gonna go through the the exhibits that we have um i'm gonna read the
answer the question i mean you have an idea how long i would say 30 minutes okay um i think we
should let steve do his presentation hillary then go back again to the the audience okay i just want
to note that i believe a representative from pha has their hand raised in the audience okay um
Steve, please proceed.
I'm going to briefly walk through our exhibit binder,
Then I'm going to read the letter from the professor who is providing expert testimony on this matter.
It's part of our exhibit binder.
So, we have...
So, Mr. Chair, I would object to the introduction of this alleged expert witness.
of the this alleged expert witness so first of all they have to be qualified as an expert well
So, first of all, they have to be qualified as an...
look give me a chance to see what they are first okay okay and we'll go from there i appreciate
mr dockham's enthusiasm yeah steve do me a favor don't go over i mean we have everything you've
turned in so you don't have to cover each thing cover what you think is it pertinent to your case
Sure. My client from Strawberry Mansion Community Concern will be addressing her community's
concerns. They're going to focus on a number of areas, the concentration of affordable housing
in a profoundly Black, low-income community, specifically the violations of Title VI and
Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act. But I mean, you've covered that already,
right? Am I correct? Yes. And she's going to repeat what you said?
She has her own take on it, Mr. Chair. Okay.
The lack of an authentic
planning process, one of the things that's happened in this community is that
the Planning Commission, the city, has abandoned this community and not done
an actual comprehensive plan so that what we
have is everyone thinks, oh, let's just throw a lot of affordable
housing into an area with with saturated with with everyone who's low income as opposed to
coming up with ways of planning to create a viability and a thriving community like all
the middle neighborhoods that our mayor is so proud of why can't strawberry mansion become a
middle neighborhood it's not going to become a middle neighborhood if we continue to to throw
them to throw them only uh only affordable housing that that doesn't allow for even a home ownership
the size of the units are a concern to the community they're they're not big enough to
actually have families and for that reason they're not even big enough to have a comfortable
living space for one person the the community benefits agreement is for a different project
there is no community benefits agreement that that actually is valid here and so that's a
concern to the community that there is that there's potentially no community benefits that are possible
from from this project and then there's going to be specific information uh and critiques that
that our client is going to give you on the pocket park um because it's it's um it is uniquely part
of the model cities uh redevelopment plan from the 60s and it was specifically uh restricted
only for park use um so we believe that uh this has not actually been done correctly
I'm going to testify today, so why don't you let her do that?
Yeah, sure.
So I'm going to, and also there's petitions that were done.
I saw the petitions.
They're very specific.
They have dates.
They're contemporary as opposed to the petitions that our opposing counsel puts forward, which
have no dates and not even any information about what it is they're doing.
All right.
I'm going to look at now Professor Hyde.
So Professor Cheryl Hyde is a PhD in MSW.
I'm going to object to the introduction of this evidence, unless Ms. Hyde is in the virtual audience where I can cross-examine her.
And I do have questions.
Excuse me.
I mean, Ms. Hyde is out of town, and I had hoped that she could come in on the virtual audience, but we could see if she is available.
She's traveling, is what I've heard.
um so you this is this is um this is a letter that was written to the zoning board and there's
no precedent we're not if she's not available we're not going to read this in steve you you
can't do that i mean it she's not here and she's not on the virtual audience either
i respectfully disagree with you mr chair we we tend to disagree once in a while so i i totally
agree with you but i i don't i don't think we can allow this please well the there is there is no
requirement there's actually no basis for the zoning board to turn down any written um submissions
well we took it but i i i'm not gonna i'm not gonna you don't want me to read it and i don't
want you to read it into the record i mean it's just and mr chair he's making an allegation that
she's an expert witness which is different than i understand whether she's an expert she's well
available. She states that she's a professor of
software and her practice and research
focuses. Steve, listen to me.
We're not going to have this today.
What's your next?
The next thing will be the petitions.
We have the petitions.
Right, but I would like Ms. Cummings
to... Sure, part of her testimony.
Sure, okay. Ms. Cummings?
Could you give her the mic?
Sure. Ms. Cummings, could you
please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Bonita Cummings, B-O-N-I-T-A, C-U-M.
My name is Bonita Cummings, B-O-N-I-T-A-C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Ms. Cummings, please proceed with your testimony.
I just want to say, Mr. Bergman, that you make us feel very uncomfortable in our own skin in this process,
because you're not allowing us to even speak, like you're rushing people along.
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, it's hard to listen to me. I'm not, I'm not trying to rush anybody.
I'm trying to do what's well. That's, that may be your feelings, but I'm sorry about that.
So why don't, why don't you start your testimony? Well, in reference to,
um, there's a lot of misconception about this process and this, this plan because it started
years ago. But just for a point of reference, Penrose and PHA walked away, abandoned our
community with a 69-unit project that has now become this 57-unit project. So this project
was withdrawn because of the opposition to it from the community. And particularly as we
came together as Strawberry Mansion
Development Coalition.
We worked together as a community and opposed, and they
decided that what our community felt were our needs was not
acceptable to them, and they walked away. We have correspondence
that's Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA's president,
sent to Tonetta Brown. I'm going to object to the testimony.
the testimony. If she's going to cite any correspondence, we should have a copy of that
correspondence. Thank you. That's not required. The zoning board doesn't have strict rules of
evidence. And Mr. Nachamson knows that. And that is, he's trying to intimidate the witness and
he's trying to harass her. I would hope he's not trying to intimidate the witness. I don't see
that so continue with your testing so we can't really get a proper reference here because this
is being treated the way many of the housing program programs go as business as usual and
it's like you know this idea that uh we should be overwhelmed i'm not overwhelmed but overjoyed
with being able to get affordable housing is this is not a fight or argument about affordable
housing it's actually about our rights our rights are being violated we research this information
to see that we are 90 it says oversaturated this is information that people can look up about
our community of store baby mansion and see that that that this is a neighborhood where you would
not even want to move into if you were just moving into it based on looking for housing because it's
oversaturated with the same socioeconomic group. There's no upward ability. There's no opportunity
to purchase homes. So this program is continuing to enforce onto our community conditions that
does not allow our young people to have a quality of life that they can go to college.
They're coming up in conditions that are not conducive to normal conditions based on being in these small properties, being in these dense community conditions.
And because we can't tell our story, we can't talk here, you're being rushed.
So we're just trying to help people understand that this is we're not saying we don't we don't want to do affordable housing.
We're saying the type of affordable housing you're trying to do, we are saturated with it.
There's no need for it, and particularly to remove a green space.
Why would we remove?
Our neighbor here is from that 100 block.
Nobody went in that block and asked her how her oxygen saturation is and how she would be heated up if we remove the green space from the corner of her block.
Nobody's talked to her about that.
We have the neighbor right next door, and they're all on the petition for evidence of this situation, that these people have actual medical long conditions.
I'm going to object.
Wait a minute.
So the point is, you're against all three of these projects.
Am I right?
I have my own testimony, but because you're rushing us.
I'm not rushing anybody.
I don't know if I can take the time to read from what I have as my notes.
Listen to me, then if you can't take the time to do that, then what you should do is, do we have copies of that, Steve?
Then give us a copy of that.
If you can't get through it, that's fine.
If you can't get through it, that's fine.
We'll make it part of the record.
We'll make it part of the record.
She just said she can't get through it, Steve.
No, I can get through it, but are you going to give me time to get through it is the question.
You're not giving us time.
I am giving you time.
Now, please stop it.
Go ahead.
It's just not fair.
It's just not.
It's good afternoon.
Today's proceeding represents more than just a zoning matter. It is a moral, legal, and historical inflection point. When zoning board member William Bergman and others already granted the majority of this 57-unit rental-only development across multiple parcels, it felt like a disregard for our rights and community voice.
we are reminded and this is just a quote so I want people to see it as what it is it's something
that's quoted in our history we are reminded of the shameful 1857 supreme court decision
and dress Scott versus Sanford where it was declared that black people had no rights which
the white man was bound to respect while that decision has long been overturned the actions
was bound, the actions, I'm sorry, while the decision has long been overturned, the actions
today, if this development moves forward, echoes that same disregard for the rights, voices, and
dignity of Black communities. And yet today, Taya Nguyen, Cheryl Gaston, Michael Johns, Ishmael
Shahid, Toneta Graham, Hillary Emerson, and the Philadelphia City Planning Commission are being
asked whether they will discredit their own lower north district plan, violate public trust,
and move forward a plan that clearly contradicts civil rights and fair housing principles.
To do so would make June 4, 2025 a betrayal of public duty and the legacy of leaders such as
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Reverend Leon Sullivan, and countless principled union
leaders who fought for justice and dignity. If this development is approved today, it will
represent a throwback to segregation era policy. It will kill the progress achieved by civil rights
giants and community champions. Furthermore, we raise grave concern about the legal representation
supporting this development, which stands to benefit from public dollars while engaging in
tactics that dismiss ethical obligation to the community and sidestep both zoning integrity and
civil rights law. This development removes open space. It disregards public health. It disrespects
the community and violates legal protections. Even members of the press have failed to uphold
their role. When headlines trivialize our cause with comments like how many meetings does it take
to build a house. They perpetuate the falsehood that our resistance is excessive. But when it's
not their park being destroyed or their home being boxed into poverty, their privilege shields them
from the harm they helped justify. And to labor organization backing this project, we must say
your great predecessor stood for dignity. To support or stay silent on this harmful project,
is to betray those values. This is not labor. It's exploitation, and history will remember it
as such. Let the City of Philadelphia, the Zoning Board, and its agencies remember you are not just
approving a housing plan. You are determining whether civil rights still matter in this city.
We urge you to pause this development, investigate Title VI, and planning violations. Respect the
Lower North Plan and respect the community and respect the law. The legal policy and planning
violation summary. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race,
color, or national origin by any agency receiving federal funds.
Can I mention something? Steve, you've already covered this. So could we move on a little bit,
please well i needed to make context but i mean he made the context for you i mean he spent a
great deal of time earlier on discovering that so why don't you move on from that one point
well that's not a rush that's just trying to not repeat things over and over yeah but if it's
in the record then we have evidence of it being it's it's it's what he did put it in the record
Okay, thank you.
See, I don't know if everything I'm saying, he's saying.
See, I don't know if everything I'm saying, he's saying.
Well, I mean, if I hear...
Well, I mean, if I hear something that's, he covered the Civil Rights Act several times.
So, Mr. Chair, we have no objection that whatever her prepared remarks are entered into the record, I have objection to the factual accuracy of it, but I have no objection so the board can read it afterwards at their leisure.
Right. Mr. Chair, while I gave you the legal basis, I didn't speak to the facts about what the actual concentration of minority residents are in Strawberry Mansion versus white and other people.
She started this Civil Rights Act, is what I'm saying. You saw that. I said you've covered that pretty well. All right.
On the legal part of it, but not the actual, not the facts as to whether.
Steve, how much longer are you going to take, Steve? And I don't mean to rush, but Steve, there's a lot that has to be done today.
Sure, I understand. I'm giving the mic back to my client, but I think she needs to talk about the data of whether Starbury Mansion is a majority Black neighborhood.
I think she said that already, but go ahead. Go ahead.
Now I don't even know where to...
Well, then I think what we're going to do is we're going to submit that document and it'll become part of the record.
Well, I do want to.
to, well, in terms of what I have here,
because the focus is also on housing and structures,
in terms of 11 units,
particularly being presented for 2,506 North 31st Street, the proposed developments at the Kermit
Pocket Park features extremely small substandard units. Units fall below health and livability
guidelines. The site lacks setback buffers and amenities for families. It replaces healthy green
space with cramped inferior housing. The removal of this park places children and families
in direct sight of and proximity to a stop-and-go located at 2601 North 31st Street,
normalizing alcohol consumption and exposing residents to environmental harm and public nuisance.
Governmental oversight and responsibility summary.
Mayor and city council have a duty to uphold Title VI, the Fair Housing Act, and the city's own planning policy.
Council members representing Strawberry Mansion must not permit the misuse of zoning to reinforce segregation.
State representatives and state senators must ensure that state-funded and state-approved developments comply with civil rights laws and do not exacerbate racial disparities.
Congressmen and U.S. senators have an obligation to investigate and intervene in federally funded projects that demonstrate clear signs of Title VI or AFFH violations.
Governor Josh Shapiro must direct the appropriate state agencies to pause this project and ensure that Pennsylvania is not complicit in federal civil rights violations.
So, Steve, the issues about the governor have nothing to do with the zoning board and the three people we're talking about.
But I mean, that's something that you can do, but it's not part of the record to read in about the governor.
well it's important because robin weissman in terms of the low income housing tax credits
and the point is being made because this project again came to our community where it already has
had uh contracts paid out already so this is really like a double dip with the low income
housing tax credit process with this program, which is why we're calling for an investigation.
Okay, we'll call for investigation, but today we're here to whether to decide whether the
three units get the zoning they need. Well, evidence, evidentiary support included in our
opposition letter. The following evidence was submitted with our formal opposition letter to
the zoning board statement of facts and legal framework outlining legal and ethical violations
by attorneys and organizations involved in the project community petitions opposing the
development signed by over 100 near and impacted neighbors letters of opposition from academics
elected committee people rcos lifelong residents and community advocates well documented scientific
I'm going to object to, again, factional witnesses I have no issue with.
Steve, let's try to finish this.
We're going to try to finish this.
Confirming the negative health and social effects.
Confirming the negative health and social effects of concentrated poverty and displacement
leads to poorer health outcomes, higher crime, and reduced upward mobility.
Expert source is Harvard.
I'm going to object.
Housing studies.
Steve, concentrate on these three here today.
That's what we're talking about.
The removal of tree cover and green space increases urban heart island effects.
i'm gonna object because she doesn't have the aptitude to make those statements actually
these are these are based on the criteria that the zoning board has to has to vote on i understand
but we're not she's not an expert in this field steve so really let's concentrate on the three
properties i mean i right but you're talking about removing a park removing green space and putting
and putting infill with you know you just said that i understand that yeah yeah so that that's
going to increase gun violence, it's going to increase a little lower, I'm going to object to
that statement. Do we have anything more? We're able to identify through research. If somebody
says something to you, you can go and try and define how that violates you. And to not be able
to have a conversation in this body around what we have, what we live every day, to not be able
to identify what we actually are experiencing, it's really, it's harmful, actually. So the
project, as we have found, it violates Title VI by imposing unjust burdens on a protected class.
I'm going to object because she's also not a lawyer.
This is her conclusion. So she's just concluding.
It undermines the Fair Housing Act by reinforcing segregation.
I'm going to object.
AFF rule by ignoring fair housing duties.
I'm going to object.
Steve, I think you've covered this pretty well in the beginning, really.
Well, we call on Mayor Sherrell Parker, Council President Kenyatta Johnson, and all other Philadelphia City Council members, and all of the parties involved in state HUD funding, whether through state to
um pause this program we respectfully request these entities launch a formal review of this
development process the outdated memorandum of understanding dated may 2020 22 and the pattern
of conduct suggest the title six violations planning irregularities and civil rights harm
to the strawberry man thank you very much steve do you have anything else i i would like to cross
examine the witness sure go ahead all right uh try to keep it yeah we got we got at least 25 more
cases i know i want you to concentrate yeah okay miss cummings um i i'm holding um up here in my
right hand a document that's entitled save our pocket park 2500-06 north 31st street
is is this something that you prepared it's not okay all right are you the one who created a
community meeting for this for this that was scheduled for june 2nd 2025 okay all right okay
thank you steve do you have anything else i do not think so wait actually we don't we have some
people in the in the audience here well yeah yeah is there any other people in the audience here
yeah so so we have some um community mr chair i would like ask the board to redact anything
related to that community meeting including anything regarding the petition as well because
that was not even conducted by miss i don't know who conducted i've not been i don't i i
learned about that community meeting what you're telling me so i mean i i don't think that the
zoning board has the power to suspend the first amendment okay is there anyone in the virtual
one that has comments, not the
first one, it's here. Come on up, ma'am.
Could somebody please let her
use the mic?
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer? Mary Felder.
M-A-R-Y
Felder.
f-e-l-d-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yeah are you a neighbor i am okay and just just so you know we've had a great deal testimony today
are you in favor of these three properties or against i'm against thank you very much for
taking the time to come here we appreciate i would like all of these witnesses have specifically
um specific things that they wanted to say that are unique to them from their experience in the
specific things that they wanted to say that are unique to them from their experience in the
neighborhood.
neighborhood so i would like her to have an opportunity to say that and not to be and not
to be pushed away after two words well well steve now first of all i don't push people away we've
been going over this for a while yeah everything you do you're trying to prolong this and i'm just
trying to find a way that what's fair for everybody for both sides so if she has something she wants
to say then say yeah she i mean she came out i don't push people away steve you're just ridiculous
i i apologize you you can you can do you have something that you wanted to say something you
want to say ma'am what's what's important for you about this important for me is home ownership
okay a bunch of stacked up houses or people creating more drama in north philly than we
already had i cleaned the whole community i cleaned i've gotten shot one time by you know
people i don't even know or had nothing to do with it some gray-haired lady out there cleaning
the streets and i just think that this is a bad impact it's not a good one i need i need
homeownership i don't need a bunch of apartments okay because if that's the case we just build
projects, and we all
have fair housing. Thank you
very much for your comments. Anyone else?
Hi, could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer? Yes, my name is
Joetta Johnson. My
first name is J-O-E-T-T-A,
last name Johnson,
J-O-H-N-S-O-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm that
tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir. Are you a neighbor? Yes.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
Against.
Is there anything that you can tell us that we haven't heard?
No, they basically stated everything that was.
Thank you very much, ma'am.
I appreciate it.
Is there anyone else?
Do we have anyone in the virtual audience?
I have an Aisha Richardson with their hand raised.
I have allowed them to speak.
Right.
Good afternoon. My name is Aisha Richardson. I'm here from the Office of State Senator Shreve Street.
Aisha, could you spell your name for the courts?
It's A-I-S-S-I-A. Last name is Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth, the whole truth is nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
now? So housing is healthcare. As we saw during the pandemic, the ability to shelter in place
became an imperative. And historically, those who are poor or of color are often disenfranchised
regarding access to affordable and quality housing. It's interesting that the Whitman Park
project was mentioned because that project, Senator Representative Milton T Street or T-Milton
Street was one of the counter demonstrators regarding that Whitman site. And it took 27
years for that housing to come online and unfortunately 75 of the families were 40 percent
black those families lost their homes when that project was being developed in the 1950s and none
of those families came back and 27 years is too long to wait for affordable housing and strawberry
mansion senator street is in support of the project thank you so anyone have any questions
thank you ayesha for calling we appreciate it is there anyone else in the audience
Mr. Greg Hampson with the hand raised I have allowed him to speak Mr. Chair
I'm Mr. Hanson could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
uh can you hear me sir I can okay uh Gregory Hampson I'm the uh senior executive vice president
of uh capital projects here at the Philadelphia Housing Authority right could you spell your name
for the stenographer, please. H-A-M-P-S-O-N. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed, sir. Okay. Since 2019,
PHA is met with the former council president and the community with Penrose and formed a
community benefits agreement with the Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation.
PHA has worked tirelessly to ensure that what the community wanted was done, and that includes the pocket parks.
There's 11 pocket parks in that neighborhood.
The changes that we made, we reduced the density from 77 to 57.
We transformed the duplexes into townhouses.
We avoided construction on a playground lot.
All these things caused delays to the project, but we were willing to work with the community.
We accommodate the community's request to not build on 28th and York.
We accommodate the community's request to not build on 28th and York.
We offered additional community room space.
We established an on-site management office.
We targeted a one-bedroom multifamily building to make it seniors now, so seniors will get
to spend their days facing the park right along 33rd Street.
We lowered the height of the buildings from three stories to two stories.
And we also did, we're under contract now for 30 homeownership units in the neighborhood.
Um, what's, what's, and, and really one of the goals here is to preserve affordable housing.
You can just drive down 33rd street and see what's going on that the neighborhood is changing.
And we think this gives the opportunity for young folks to be able to afford a place in
Strawberry Manson because it will be soon.
They won't be able to, and seniors to have affordable living in really a pleasant area
right next to one of the most beautiful parks, I think in the country, Fairmont park.
And additionally, you know, we've worked and they switched the RCO and Bonita came along and it feels like it's just been delay after delay.
And these delays have cost an additional five million dollars to the project, which we've already been one point five million dollars spent working with everyone.
But what is sad is if we delay this much more, there's thirty four million dollars in grants, including the tax credits.
they're going to be lost. That's directly 100 jobs, good paying jobs, and indirectly 200 jobs
that'll help every community in Philadelphia. So we implore the board to please, you know,
help this project go through. PHA's purpose is to preserve affordable housing, and especially
neighborhoods. Our recent record has shown we're buying affordable housing and placing it in
in affluent areas all throughout the city. And we feel like this, this area here is an area that
will soon not have opportunities for affordable. We want the folks that live and grew up in this
neighborhood to be able to afford to live there when they, when they start their careers and jobs.
Mr. Hampson, thank you very much. Steve, do you have any questions?
Sure. Mr. Hampson, are you familiar with the decision by your agency to cite this project
in Strawberry Mansion? Yes. Are you aware of the requirements and the obligations that your
agency has under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1968 to eradicate segregation and racial
discrimination? Yes. Did you prepare any kind of a document that outlines why you believe that
putting 57 units of affordable housing in a almost 100% Black, low-income neighborhood
contributes to, in your view, eliminates racial segregation?
Mr. Masters, I disagree with that statement. I think if you drive down Third Street and use your
eyes, you will see what's going on in that neighborhood. And we are preserving affordable
housing in specific areas that were bladed.
That was what I asked you. Of all of the locations in the city of Philadelphia and in the surrounding counties, is it your testimony that the only place that you could put this housing project was right in Strawberry Mansion?
all over the city and this this location is a beautiful location right next to a park and we
think that affordable housing and folks that are in affordable housing deserve to be in this location
before there is no affordable housing in that neighborhood can you can you share with the
with the board how many projects that you've put in the last 15 years in a white community
how many um how many portable housing projects have you done in a white community in philadelphia
in the last i don't look at community and what the color the people are that may be your thing
but i don't really i'm not going to go i don't i don't have the demographics of every area that
we put housing in i i know recently we've probably purchased 1500 units in the that are in you know
affluent neighborhoods i can't attest to the race of the folks but uh based on the housing prices
in those neighborhoods i can say they're affluent um wait one second
So, um, Mr. Hampson is, um, you said earlier.
Mr. Hampson, you said earlier that you understood that your agency has a mandate to provide for desegregation and racial diversity in your projects, correct?
I'm going to object to the form.
Yeah, I don't think he said that.
I don't appreciate it.
I thought you said you understood your obligations under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1968.
I understand. You changed the words that I said. I said, yes, I understand that.
Right. So how is Strawberry Mansion under your stewardship going to turn into a middle neighborhood if all you're doing there is putting low-income housing units and having no housing for people who are being able to create home ownership?
Strawberry Mansion is already turning into a middle neighborhood. You need to drive down 33rd Street.
So, yeah, I think his comments, and I've heard it several times now, he sees 33rd Street changing a great deal is what he said.
And I'm not talking to the attorney, but I don't mean it.
I understand, but we're not talking about 33rd Street.
I understand.
All right, do you have any other questions for him, Steve?
I don't.
All right, thank you very much.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, I have a hand up from a number ending in 6303.
I have allowed them to speak, Mr. Chair.
How many more hands do you have?
Three more.
Mr. Chair, I just want to note for the record in the virtual audience that if you have already spoken on this matter, we ask that you please put your hand down because we have a lot of other people who are waiting to speak and we are not able to accommodate multiple testimonies from the same person.
Thank you.
All right.
Next hand, please.
Hello. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Minnie Brown, Minnie spelled like the mouth, M-I-N-N-I-E, Brown, B-R-O-W-A.
And I oppose. Hold on, hold on. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. And I think I understand where you are opposed to this project. Are you a neighbor?
yes thank you very much next hand please
yes sir joyce washington has their hand raised i have a lot of them
sure i've promoted them i could you please state your name as bell for the stenographer
they should be coming back in shortly
hello could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes my name is
delores washington d-e-o-o-r-i-s last name washington i'm just using my mother's zoom
account that's why it's okay could you spell washington just for the record i a w a s h i n
g t o n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes are you a neighbor yes are you in favor of this project or against against all right thank
you very much for taking the time she has something personal that we know that we've
heard of you have something personally you want to add there's something that we haven't heard
already? Yes. So I'm a third generation neighbor. My grandmother was raised on this block. My mother
was raised and I'm being raised. And just as far as safety measures, I drive right now. There's
literally nowhere to park on my block without the units being there. So I can only imagine placing
units at the corner and I'm having to park down the street or around the corner. Also, I love that
we have new playgrounds and with the pocket park, we're able to sit in a pocket park and watch our
kids nieces nephews play across the street if you put the units there where then we are allowed to
sit to watch our kids um the neighborhood is up and coming but it's still dangerous
so my me personally i'm not saying that affordable housing is bad it's just so many other problems in
our neighborhood that we need to address right now crime rate super high i'm not allowed to walk my
dog in the neighborhood out of fear of getting robbed or getting shot.
The ollies, trash, potholes. Everywhere you go around the neighborhood
I'm driving over, potholes have to get wheel alignments. It's just many other
issues that we can focus on right now rather than putting
affordable housing in. Alright, thank you very much for taking the time to call. We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the audience? Yes, Mr. Chair, I have
Adrian Fernandez. How many more hands do you have?
One more, Mr. Chair.
Adrian.
Good afternoon, Adrienne.
Good afternoon, Adrian.
Hello?
Hello.
Hi, Adrian.
Hi, Adrienne. Could you, just for the record,
state your name and spell for the sonographer?
Yes, Adrienne Fernandez. My last name is
spelled F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Yes. Please proceed.
I am testifying
as a swamp little RCO.
For this project, there are
at least three affected RCOs.
However, somehow PHA held private meetings for a CBA,
which we knew nothing about,
and that's definitely against the violations
and the latest FILED ethics code changes
for CBA participation by RCOs.
So we are opposed to this project.
I'm only commenting on 2500 North 31st Street
because we are only an affected RCO for that address.
So the opposition is based on overall, just from us listening to neighbors within the neighborhood, the pocket part continues to want that to be preserved as existing green, open, and recreational space.
Also, there was absolutely no required meeting that was held for this project at all.
The pocket part, to remove it, would conflict with the Strawberry Mansion overlay and other overlays in the area.
Also, the pocket park is a remedy against the negative impacts of urban congestion that contribute to increased shootings, mass shootings, as we had recently at Lemon Hill, which is very close to this location, rioting, and other violent crimes within that vicinity.
There's no evidence of any legal basis that allows the pocket park to be removed.
And also, this project is overuse of the multifamily variants in the area in the RSA zoning district.
Conflicts with really safe streets as far as increasing traffic congestion, parking stresses, and proposing curb cuts, possibly.
Because we haven't had a meeting, I'm not really sure what exactly the project is, how it would be finalized.
And there's specific negative impacts that are introduced for, you know, removing public open space, removing sidewalk trees and other greening that the mayor claims is a priority.
And lastly, the neighborhood, the neighbor corporation, the neighbor is based on this park department to stay there.
And we're opposed to the CBA that we have no knowledge of, which is against the regulations.
That just shouldn't happen.
Thank you.
Adrian, thank you for your time.
One more person, am I correct?
Yes, sir.
One more person.
number and again 6681
hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
hello hello hi could you please state your name it's hi could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer yes my name is trina singleton t r i n a last name singleton
s-i-n-g-l-e-t-o-n i'm um opposed hold on hold on hold on hold on do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes are you are you in favor or opposed
i'm opposed okay and are you a neighbor i'm actually a neighbor to 2400 block which is
in between both of the blocks that we're actually talking about lived on this block since the 50s
my grandparents we have three homes on this block and i just think hello oh yeah i'm here
oh yes i'm just i don't see it working here at all okay so i'm not going to hold you long because
i listened to this and i just want you to know that i i just don't see it happening here and
i'm really opposed to this all right thank you very much uh colin could somebody please put
colin on the mic please
colin could you do this for all three please or your position of all three
okay colin just for the record state your name and spell for the
excuse me mr chairman i'm only testifying on behalf of one case this one here uh
i've got 2500 north 31st i just gonna get to that but you i'll take your no i'll take your
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir i do please proceed um the fifth councilmatic district takes a position of opposition
The 5th Councilmatic District takes a position of opposition for 2500 North 31st Street. This project does not fit the character of the neighborhood and places of hardship on the community and will cause the community to lose a valuable pocket park.
for uh 2500 north 30
Colin, thank you very much. Anybody have a question?
Thank you.
No questions. Okay, thank you very much.
Before I go to the, no one else in there virtual audience, am I correct?
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
Everyone who has asked to speak has gotten an opportunity to speak. As I mentioned, we unfortunately cannot accommodate requests to testify multiple times. And I just also wanted to reiterate for the record that all testimony is being incorporated into the record for all three cases, unless it is specifically indicated for a particular case. Thank you.
for the first case well well mr chair there's been some allegations regarding the ability of
penrose to properly manage the property and i do believe that's a zoning related matter
so i i would request that miss samsi just briefly discuss her but just so you know she's coming up
that she can come the next or you want to do it right now yeah just do it for all three okay just
for all three right okay you've already been sworn just for the record state your name lindsey
Okay, please proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to be clear that these, this development and these homes will be managed and owned by Penrose, which is a private company, not by the Philadelphia Housing Authority. And we have a very good track record of managing affordable housing throughout the city. We currently have 700 units under construction all over the city of Philadelphia, not just in Strawberry Mansion.
So I want to put that on the record that we look forward to managing these and we do a good job of managing.
All right. Thank you.
Can I say one more thing?
What? Go ahead.
I'm sorry. I also want to emphasize that, you know, we've had six years of community engagement regarding this project.
I know there has been a lot of back and forth.
I know there has been opposition from Ms. Cummings, but we are now at a point where we will lose our funding if we do not close on the financing by June 30th.
And this is federal funding that is coming through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
Sure. Steve, do you have any questions?
Yes. Sam C., does your company do the property management along Diamond Street?
The Brownstones, yes.
Are you aware that there is a lot of trash and complaints about a lot of trash along the properties?
so how would you characterize your company as a as a good property manager if you're
not in control of the trash i we are in control of the trash and we are talking with our residents
well you just acknowledge that there's a lot of trash that gets blown around i did not
acknowledge that i said we're in control of the trash i i thought you acknowledged that there's
an issue with trash and people are complaining about trash we address all complaints by our
residents all across the city of Philadelphia and 18 states across the country.
So what is it that you're working on right now about the trash on Diamond Street?
This is not about Diamond Street or about trash. These are about zoning variances that we are
seeking. You're asserting that your company is going to be a good steward and a good property
manager and that you're better than PHA. I did not say that. I said we are a different
management company than pha management so do you feel like you're the same as pha you're not you're
not different than them can you object i'm not a lawyer so so i i think you know what miss sampsy
understands what you're saying about the trash on diamond street she's her company's addressing it
um you know they're not babysitting the tenants that live there and they're responding to
issues like landlord and property managers do all across the city
okay steve um i i think that was that was all that was a very good ambiguous statement um
so okay so but but apparently there are just for the i heard your point there are significant trash
issues and um they need to step up and yeah all right thank you very much thank you thank you
mr chairman um planning commission just one more point just so it's a matter of context
Our understanding is that the decision makers and strawberry management are working with the mayor's office to increase public trash pickup.
So right now it's once a day, I mean once a week, and it will be coming twice a week.
So I just want to let you know in terms of the alleviation of any issues with trash.
Thank you very much. We appreciate your input.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission, AMYBOID.
Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Please proceed.
Chair, did you want all of the testimony or just for this case?
Just for this case.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 5 residential single-family zoning at this location.
The city rezoned the section of Strawberry Mansion in 2014 in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan.
At the time, the single-family zoning at this site was left unchanged from prior to 1967.
The proposal is part of a 55-unit low-income tax credit project to be built on scattered sites.
It supports the comprehensive plan, including its Lower North District Plan's recommendation to support affordable housing developments.
The site currently contains a parking lot and playground.
The appellant proposes to split the lot to allow them to build on the parking lot where the playground will remain unchanged.
The proposed Parcel A will have 4,298 square feet, which would allow two dwelling units by right in the RSA-5 in the 5th Councilmanic District if subdivided.
The appellant also proposes no rear and side yard.
There are no homes on the 3100 block of West York Street, which the building will front, to which the character of the proposal can be compared.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the proposed variance for multifamily household living, multiple principal buildings, minimum rear yard depth, and minimum side yard depth.
Thank you. MI 2024-005-135-2401 North 32nd Street, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Iowyn, my vote is yes.
Emily Brasico, my vote is yes.
Thank you very much.
We're going to go to number two.
So number two is MI 2024-007-551-2338 North 31st Street.
um just for the record mr goldberg could you please state your name alex goldberg could you
start your presentation please sure i'm going to start just by going straight to the notice of
refusal here go full screen mode okay um so i referenced this uh specific application during
my initial testimony with miss samsi but this is the relocation of lot lines to create
one lot from two lots and to put two dwellings on it we're getting one refusal which you can
see on your screen for two family household living but these are uh you know in essence
single family homes that are built side by side they both have their own front doors
and from a massing and size uh standpoint they're contextual with lot widths and lot sizes in close
proximity i'll skip ahead to the architectural materials all of the other sort of exhibits in
between are already incorporated into the record posting photo is here let the screen catch up
there we go
here is the site plan proposing to consolidate uh this you know these these two parcels into
one parcel measuring um 1653 square feet and towards the bottom of my screen you can see that
um on that one parcel we are proposing two two-story single-family uh townhouses the floor
plans that you'll see in a moment are the same floor plans that that you just saw from the
previous presentation um this is form over substance two single-family homes could be
built here but um you know due to economies of scale and efficiency for construction's sake to
make this project work um we're proposing to sort of do it as one building um on its face but in you
know in function it is two single family homes here's the site plan from an aerial view
the building is proposed at 26 feet uh feet high the floor plans are coming up on your screen now
of them a little bit of a lag behind but as you can see um same floor plans which miss kisilev
who's still available if you need her um walked through in terms of bedroom sizes and um you know
the first floor is is that open concept kitchen living and dining room two bed one and a half
baths i believe miss kisilev said uh between 900 and 1000 square feet each and then just going to
this the tax clearance for both parcels 2338 and 2340 so um your client testified before um
So, your client testified before, and then she testified for all three, but what I would do is leave her available in case Mr. Masters has another question, okay?
But, Mr. Carey, can we just have her adopt this particular testimony that Mr. Goldberg gave for the record?
We understand that her other statements apply to the other properties as well.
Well, please, would she?
Lindsay, did you hear my testimony today?
And was it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own?
Do you have any questions for her?
Sam C., has your company done any environmental or crime studies about this area where you're developing these two buildings?
I'm not sure of the relevance.
Well, so.
You're saying that they can't be developed at all?
if those studies, whether those studies are done or not?
Oh, I mean, I'm asking if there was studies done.
Why don't we, Mr. Goldberg, why don't we do this?
Why don't we let her, if she knows the answer to that,
answer that question?
Yeah, as part of the financing for the project,
there is a lot of due diligence that is done,
including environmental reports and crime studies.
And do those environmental reports and crime studies,
are they written down?
Are they in documents?
Yes. Were they submitted to PHFA? Yes. Were they shared with the community?
They were not. And have they been shared with the zoning board? No.
You're consolidating two parcels, is that correct? Yes. And if you kept the two parcels
unconsolidated would this be by right my understanding is it would be and can you
can you articulate what your hardship is as to why you are not going with a by right for
configuration so in addition to cost effectiveness and constructability issues the existing lots
the width do not allow for the properly sized homes to meet the square footage requirements
that a PHFA requires.
So we were actually able to build
and accommodate larger
and more high quality units
and townhomes by consolidating them
and not having those lot line constrictions.
So if you had chosen another source of funding,
would that still be the case?
Or could you have found a funding source
that allowed you to build it by right?
We utilize the low income housing tax credit program,
which is deed-restricted affordable housing.
Aren't there multiple programs that PHFA has?
No, not for affordable rental deed-restricted housing.
So if you had chosen a home ownership model,
then you could have had a different...
Kenrose generally does not develop home ownership.
So it's a choice that you made to only develop tenants
and not home ownership.
We responded to PHA's RFP,
which is a request for a low-income housing tax credit development.
Right, but you're saying that your company doesn't do homeownership?
Not generally.
So I think we went over this before.
What her company did is respond to what PHA asked.
And I think whether it's homeownership or not, I don't know if that has a point here.
It's relevant to hardship issues.
I think she's tried to answer every question she has.
Do you have anything else for her?
I don't.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Steve, do you want to, at your start, present a case for this one?
One moment.
we we see the site plan again because um it appears that that the the plots
don't appear to be contiguous.
You want any part of it blown up, Steve?
Yeah, can you expand the photos on the bottom?
Oops, sorry.
yeah so
is that fenced an area is that both parcels or just one parcel
my understanding is that that's both parcels
Can you have the architect
Confirm that? Sure, she's here
Architect, just for the record, state your name
Vera Kisilev
Did you hear the question?
This is for both parcels
Steve, do you have any questions for her?
One moment
We are, we're looking up the on Atlas, I noticed, and it's in
it appears to be a different view like we we don't know that that is actually the correct view
council architect please we have a state we have a consolidation plan stamped by the survey
district would you like me to scroll to that slide do you want to see that sure
well the survey would show that
Arizona's on top.
There it is.
Arizona's on top and then the two
parcels are below.
Is that okay, Steve?
One more. Okay, sure.
Thank you.
Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Yes. Questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney? Chairman, I have a question. Go ahead.
um so i have a question with the two with the four units um do all four units have
shared access to the combined backyards once the parcels are combined
yeah yeah regarding the one that was voted uh the one i'm looking at right now which i think oh
no this is about the one we're looking at now it's only two it's only two side by side they're
Side-by-sides. Side-by-side house tie-in.
Got it.
Yeah, it's okay. I just wanted to check.
All right.
Is there anyone in the audience who has not spoken, has anything particular for this case?
No hands raised in the virtual audience, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa 5 residential single-family zoning at this
location the city rezoned the section of strawberry mansion in 2014 in accord with recommendations
from the comprehensive time the plan at the at this time the single-family zoning and the site
was left unchanged prior to the rezoning in 1967 this proposal is part 55 low-income housing tax
credit project which will be built on scattered sites the appellant is combining two lots into
the appellant is combining two lots into one the proposed density is in keeping with what would be
one. The proposed density is in keeping with
allowed on the lots had not been combined planning commission recommends that the board grant their
proposed use for two dwelling units so mi2024 007 551 23 38 north 31st street i vote yes
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes
Iowen, my vote is yes
Emily Presico, my vote is yes
Thank you
So we're going to go with our last one
MI 2025 001 305
2500 North 31st Street
Mr. Goldberg is the attorney
Mr. Goldberg, just for the record, state your name
Alex Goldberg
And you still have the same client. Am I correct? I do. All right. Okay. Why don't you proceed? Okay. This application includes the erection of an attached structure on a 6,325 square foot, very large lot. We're proposing 11 dwelling units here.
um importantly and as you'll see on the elevation every unit has its own front door
um so we're trying to preserve um as much of a a single family um dwelling unit you know sort
of function as possible um we are massing matching the massing and height on the block
and most importantly um what is being proposed here and which um you know i would ask my client
why don't you show it sure it would make it easier one sure sure sure sure there's the posting photo
from both corners um what i was mentioning was that this uh this development is helping us meet
our 10 affordability requirement that's getting this project off the ground um also very importantly
um this project includes a three-bedroom type a flat unit which i think is probably a very unique
type of unit in this neighborhood that gives the opportunity for a family to live in a completely
type A ADA compliant unit. You can see the elevation on your screen there. There are 10
front doors facing 31st Street, and there's an additional front door right around the corner.
We are receiving a refusal for those 11 dwelling units. The other refusal that we're receiving
is relating to utility meter screening.
When we were getting the refusal
for this permit application,
we had a conversation with planning
about this specifically.
It's a refusal I don't know if I've seen before,
but we understood that we were getting this refusal.
There would be some sort of oversight by PICO
on where these meters would go
and we would fulfill our obligation
to screen those meters the best we could.
Here is a site plan that you can see here.
The project includes five one-bed, one-bath units on the first floor.
Those are all ADA compliant.
There are, in addition to that, there are two-bed, one-and-a-half-bath units, five of those, plus the three-bedroom, two-bath flat, which is type A.
Floor plans are here, but we have four different types of floor plans in this proposal, the three bedroom flat that type a unit is all the way to the left.
The one bedroom flat is in the middle, and then the two bedroom townhome which you've seen in the previous presentations is all the way to the right.
We would agree to trash stored in the rear for the units which have access to the rear yards and trash stored in the unit for the units that do not that are above.
and we would also agree to commercial trash pickup at this location there is a small basement here
but we would all we would agree to proviso for no basement living it's it's unfinished i believe
just for utilities um with with that oh here's your three-bedroom townhouse
this is the largest sort of bi-level townhouse in the in the project
this is above above the three-bedroom flat i believe
the application for appeal and just getting to that tax clearance certificate at the end of
my packet and then i'll ask my client to adopt my testimony
why don't we do that okay why could you please state your name again you've already been sworn
please proceed counsel lindsey did you hear my testimony today yes and was it true and correct
yes and you adopted as your own i do and can you just uh elaborate on my reference to the
the affordability requirement and why um it was important for this site to be designed
It was important for this site to be designed this way to help you meet that affordability requirement and why that meeting that makes this whole, you know, site scattered site project why meeting that percentage is necessary to make this whole thing happen.
this way to help you meet that affordability
Yes. So in addition to Penrose supporting promoting universal design across all of our developments, there is an accessibility requirement by PHFA to have 10% of the units accessible in a neighborhood context where we are trying to restore the history and the design history of this neighborhood.
it is challenging to do when historically townhomes and brownstones in Philadelphia
have stoops and stairs. So in an effort to meet our accessibility requirement,
provide housing for all people, including people who require universal design,
we are able to provide the accessible units within the flats on this site.
Okay. Steve, do you have any questions?
um there was a pocket park at this location is that correct
i believe that's what the neighbor refers to it as yes right and you are removing it you are you
are taking that park and making it into housing we are building housing on this site so there
will no longer be an open space correct and are you creating an open space somewhere else in the
neighborhood for that penrose is not as part of this project but the housing authority is
throughout the neighborhood creating pocket different pocket parks which i can't speak to but
i believe a representative can but you're not suggesting that it's in the in the immediate
vicinity of this location are you penrose is does not have a pocket park within the development of
this project or within a few like square feet no okay um did you as part of the planning for this
project can confer with the community about the pocket park i'm gonna object we didn't have the
opportunity to confer with the community about any well she could just let her answer that if
she didn't she didn't i mean or she did she did whatever you know we we heard the community's
concerns about the pocket park um but as as mr hampson from pha expressed we've made several
iterations um to accommodate community feedback to the to the overall development can you can
you summarize for us what the concerns were from the community about the lack of the part the
pocket park um i believe as miss cummings has stated they would like to have see the packet
park remain do you understand why i have heard there are reasons yes could you state those what
reasons i feel like miss cummings has put her reasons on the record i'm not sure why they've
been stated several times yeah uh this is coming to taste that but if you know what they were just
just say yeah yeah i i believe miss cummings would like to maintain green space within the community
Are you aware of the benefits of green space to communities?
And in other projects that Penrose has, do you incorporate green space into your residential projects?
We have.
And is that an amenity that you like to use to attract tenants into your projects?
When we are able to incorporate it, we do.
so did you did you anything to try to reconfigure this project so that you could maintain the open
space again we responded to an rfp where the sites were outlined and we responded to that
and developed a project around the criteria of the rfp okay i have no question thank you very much
is the um do you have do you want to present anything for this this particular one yes i
I believe my client does.
I just know that that pocket park that's been there for many, many years is providing a very cooling and oxygenated space for people who live in that hundred.
Several of our neighbors, one who is actually here, can speak for herself, has health challenges with breathing.
and the non-consideration of that is causing harm to her health.
There are several people that removing that park
will cause harm to their health, and why is that okay?
There's a lot of other locations in and around that boundary
that you could put 11 units.
That's a full tree canopy pocket point.
It was done and is a part of the Model Cities Urban Renewal
It's probably even protected, but there doesn't seem to be anyone willing to.
It's probably even protected, but there doesn't seem to be anyone willing to protect the law here
or abide by the law here to even just investigate whether or not they can even take the farm.
It's already been through eminent domain to create the recreation space that it presently is.
And our families need it to survive.
They need it to live.
But that doesn't seem to be anyone's concern here, especially with all of the other like you could so many open spaces that they could put 11 units on this within that same proximity.
And I also just want to say that people go back and forth about this affordability that it's okay to put the health, welfare, and safety of our elders at jeopardy just so that we can have 11 density concrete units over allowing them to have open space, play space, which it was created for.
and many of the what mr hampson or hampton whatever whoever was speaking what they're
talking about is is not the neighborhood that they want to drop these 57 units in
the neighborhood that they want to drop these 57 units in is not 33rd street and it's not
anything compared to the outcome that this type of housing is going to bring for their community
It's very different. This is this is same socioeconomic group of people that cannot lift each other up.
The only outcome that you're going to get from it is the outcome that we presently have, which all of the studies and research that you could go on any Google.
I'm going to object. All right. All right. So. Well, I, I, I believe that what she's stating is I hear what she said.
So it's not right that the presentation process for this, for all of those units, was opposed by that community.
And it was not that...
I'm going to object as well.
It was not that Strawberry Mansion...
She's saying that there was some decision made by the community that would be hearsay, and it's actually factually incorrect anyway.
It can't be hearsay because she's a community leader and she's at the meetings.
So, so, um, Mr. Nocklipson disagrees with her perception of it, but continue your testimony.
I was in attendance. I'm not, it's not hearsay. It's not hearsay. But we need to be able to save
at the minimum of this many units and putting that many people onto a corridor, at the minimum,
these people should be able to save an open space area that was created for them to do so.
And I don't think that the senator who wants to support this program would say that we should
have a hardship of health created for the residents of that hundred block. There's several
members of that hundred block who are on oxygen, who use the pocket park, who appreciate the
cooling that comes from the pocket park. Sometimes that's the only wall they can stand on. When they
have to go from one square block of a space to another, they can hold onto the wall. They can
stand under the tree. That's a full canopy. It's not like any other thing you're going to create
would be comparing to what they already have. You can't because those would be new trees.
they will be smaller and they wouldn't provide the full canopy shading and or oxygen i think we
understand your position yeah but but you're pushing everything through and a lot of people
are going to push things through i'm trying to make decisions on what i think is good for everyone
so uh well it's not easy to take oxygen um steve do you have anything else i think we have someone
here who wants to testify about about her health issues did she already testify no okay yeah she
already okay oh sorry but no no no you don't have to be sorry is there anyone in the audience
who has any input is there anyone in the first audience who um has comments that has not uh
been made yet yes sir i have greg kemsen with the hand raised all right greg
Greg? Yes, sir.
So, Greg, I'm going to I'm going to tell you that I've told everybody else if you have something new to offer, please do it.
But if not, I don't want you to read anything.
Gotcha. Will do. So I just wanted to address the one comment that is PHA building parks.
PHA is funding and working with all the family CDC to do a park at the full block.
and working with all the family CDC to do a park at the full block at 27th and York that is a vacant
lot and we are saving most of the mature trees on that lot but that will be an open space. PHA is
also building an open space and top lot at 28th and York as a part of another development that
we're doing there. All right thank you Brian. Do you have a question? I do Mr Hampson. Aren't you
talking about locations that are three four blocks away from from this location uh the question was
is pha putting any parks in the neighborhood and i addressed it right are they creating parks
right next to this this parcel or is it three or four blocks away i don't know the exact distance
which if it's at 25th street one's at 27th street we don't have parks at every block in this in this
city anywhere, Mr.
Mattress.
Yeah, this is 31st Street.
Mr. Hampson, are you aware
that this
pocket park was created as part of the
model cities program and it was created
via eminent domain reserved
to be a pocket
park for the future? I'm not
aware of that, but I do see how it looks now
and it's in disrepair.
I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I do see how it
looks now and it's in disrepair.
You're
saying that if something is in
disappear you'd rather destroy it than fix it no sir we're trying to give it a blank
and we are adding uh parks to the area and he's adding parks to the area he said steve
right and you're saying they're three four blocks away they seem to be quite a quite a ways away
yeah okay all right anything else steve is there anyone else in the audience
i do not see any further answer in the virtual audience
let's come to the microphone okay all right so so do me a favor no no you don't have to be sorry
about anything state your name name's wendelin fields and miss fields you've already been sworn
in so if you want to you can respond to what mr hampton just said mr hampton is not understanding
that the majority of the people that live in that uh uh that hundredth of of 31st street
have been there a long time a lot of them are elderly I'm not elderly but I am disabled yeah
and for me to have to walk multiple blocks just to get to just to have a little cooling station
just to be able to say hey let me go out here and just sit out here and see what my neighbors are
doing that that's that's a hardship okay and and also he keeps talking about what's going on on
33rd street 33rd street has a full park across the street so whatever goes on 33rd street does
not affect the interior of where we live okay and i really would wish that he would maybe if he
hasn't take the opportunity to come and look at this space this space has been cleaned up this
space has been taken care of and it's not in disrepair it's not in disrepair as he's trying
the south and it's clear on that picture you can see right no no no thank you thank you um
um there's reverend do you want to do the reverend but i want your listen man i want come up to the
come up no come up to the mic come up to the mic um i want your testimony to be something different
and new and not repeated right yeah so just state your name for the record we've been to pass the
time on right right i just want to say none of these parking parks really get cleaned up and
still Mary Parker came into office
and you start to see the future
track people taking care
of these parking parks. Even
when they had the meeting on Monday
outside of the parking park,
they couldn't have it
inside of the parking park because
splinter benches,
overgrown trees, trash,
weeds, and it's a hangout
for a guy in the neighborhood
who solicited money for beer.
That's the only thing the place is being used for.
Thank you. Do you have any questions
for him, Steve? I don't.
All right. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else
in the audience?
Planning commission.
Reverend, I mean,
representative. I called you
Reverend. I'm sorry. Representative.
Just to me
a favor, just state your name.
Keith Harris. Please proceed.
We're witnessing a return.
This is white flight in reverse.
We're witnessing. They call it gentrification.
Right? So
in order to make sure people that look like me stay in the community that is not heavily gentrified
but market rate to be conducive for people that has a marginal uh incomes and let them grow from
there this project is conducive for the community and i just like just
this project is conducive for the community.
And I'd just like just to put that on the record
because anything that opposes this,
and I understand, look,
I commend Attorney Masters and Bonita,
their community involvement.
I get that, right?
But when you look at the whole picture,
if construction isn't done now,
we can't, we're not going to stop
the onslaught of market rate.
Now, 33rd Street, that Mr. Hampson, which I'm very familiar with, Mr. Hampson, from, I own the Triplex on 33rd and Oxford, right?
The new construction from 1609, which is my property, to 33rd and Oxford, all black people bought those properties.
It's by levels, they $207,000, by level, right?
So there, I got a shared space, and they had to pay almost $207,000.
So if we're talking about ownership, and I would love to have ownership there, but can the people that live in the community buy those properties without it being turnkey, without it being subsidized, without PHDC giving a $75,000 stipend for that?
If we don't have that, then people that don't look like me probably the only people that can buy the properties.
Hold it. Do you have any questions, Steve?
I do. Representative Harris, you're talking about homeownership now, the properties you were just talking about that you were praising that give people the ability to have generational wealth and homeownership, right?
That's correct.
Yeah. So we're supporting that too. But why are you supporting projects that are just bringing in tenants without any possibility of generational wealth?
Well, the reason I'm supporting this is because the people that's most likely to rent those properties from Penrose, they're the people that live in the community.
They probably want to leave their parents' home, you know, have a starter home, and then they can grow from there and buy a house.
And we still have a lot of stock in the community.
You know, the baby boomers are aging out, and they're going to have an opportunity to possibly buy those houses.
Like, you know, that people maybe, like, expire or they want to move into senior houses.
There's plenty of housing there.
But for them to have starter homes, to be able to stay in the community, that's why I support this.
Do you, it sounds like you were just kind of making suppositions about that.
Do you know for a fact that there's people who are actually moving into homes as tenants from their family homes?
Yeah, yeah, they do it all the time.
People that live in the community want to stay in the community.
They want to move to Southwest Philly.
They don't want to move in West Philly.
If they can stay in the community that they grew up in,
that's where they want to stay.
They know everybody.
They know the neighbors.
Sure, we have crime in the community.
You know, we have to do something about that as a collective,
as us as committee people and community stakeholders
have to extend their arm, organize better to bring down some of that crime.
Yeah, it's a challenge.
It is a challenge, you know, but but renters, you can't exclude renters from a community.
And then and this is new construction, you know, so they'll get a chance to have a new apartment, new house.
Actually, it's townhouses. Right. Two story townhouses. That's a lot of space.
You know what I mean? And they can go in there and reasonable rent and they can live in there and as long as they want and move out at their leisure.
i have no further okay okay thank you planning commission
amy wood with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the rsa 5 residential single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned the section of
strawberry mansion in 2014 in accord with recommendation from the comprehensive plan
at that time the single-family zoning at the site was left unchanged prior to rezoning in 1967.
The proposal is part of a 55-unit low-income tax credit project and built on a scattered
It proposes the comprehensive plan recommendations to promote affordable housing development.
The proposed variance for not screening the utility meters is not strictly necessary and
inconformance could be accomplished with minor adjustment on the project's design.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the proposed use variance
for multifamily dwelling units,
but deny the proposed variance
for utility screening requirement.
Thank you.
Karen, do we get questions on this one as the board?
For me?
Do we get questions on this one as the board?
I thought we had questions.
I don't think we...
No, go ahead.
You want a question? Go ahead.
I have a few questions, yes.
So a question that I have, and it's probably for Penrose, is for the three flats that are
So a question that I have,
and it's probably for Penelope,
stacked, the upstairs unit, is that accommodating any other type of accessibility?
I'd call on Vera to answer that one for us.
Or the architect, I guess, sure.
I don't know that I needed the architect specifically, but...
Yeah, Ty, the townhomes that are above the accessible flats are not accessible.
I know they're not ADA accessible, but are they at all being considered for hearing or sound impairment?
So there is a 10% requirement for hearing and vision impaired across the development, yes.
And as many units as we were able to are visitable and adaptable.
I understand that for the first-floor units that have to deal with wheelchair accommodation, but I'm asking specifically about hearing and vision impaired because it would require specific treading on the stairwells and it would require specific electric accommodations in the rooms.
And since we only saw sample plans for the second floor, it did not include anything.
Right.
So I was just wondering.
Yeah, we can provide exact floor plans where the hearing and visually impaired units are designated on the site plan, if that would be helpful.
I just wanted you to answer an affirmative, like, yes, there are some in the upstairs units. Okay. And then my second question is about the overall design. So this is a space that typically would have held, let's say, I'll argue five to six single family homes. We're putting back townhome units, but with the double doors, we've sort of eliminated and broken up the porch context of the rest of the street.
and i just wanted to know from a contextual standpoint what was the driving decision to do
that so i would point out that the i don't believe this block you know has a porch on like there's a
property on the corner or at least there was with the i'm looking at the properties contiguously
next to it in atlas on 31st street i mean sorry google maps um have sort of typical porch structure
if you go down 31st street i'm looking at like 250 what is it so six like 25 14 like everything
else down that street so 12 and 12 14 16 those all have the typical porch design for the rest of
that side of the street in fact until you get to the basketball court down the street
yeah i'd ask vera to chime in there
so i can respond this question if you want to yeah please okay so uh we actually made a conscious
effort to provide porches and elevated entrances to maintain the urban fabric of the development
so on everywhere on every side especially when we have the insert buildings into the
abandoned property between buildings
it was
so we did provide
porches and PHA
PHA agreed
to minimize requirements
for the visitability from the front
just because we had to
provide these porches
as you know visitability is required
when it's financed by the federal agencies
so that was
attempt
we have the
Whenever we can, we have visible entrances from here,
whatever is accessible from the street.
That particular lot was the only lot
that pretty much occupies its own place,
but it's not adjacent to other buildings
that has these porches.
So it will not violate the nature of the urban fabric.
So you understand what I'm trying to say?
that is the only opportunity because it's the only one load and I also wanted to add about the
pocket park trust me we all love green spaces I didn't ask about the pocket park to be clear
so yeah there is another pocket park right on the 32nd street that originally was part of this
project and as a response to all these you know comments that uh uh what was removed yes
And then I had a third question. So my third question is, if visibility is going to mainly be focused on having wheelchair access coming through the rear and trash is going to be stored at the rear, and that is also the rear yards, what's the property management plan to sort of, I guess, manage all of that at the rear?
Is that going to be on the Penrose property managers?
Is that going to be on the responsibility of the tenant living in those one-bedroom first-floor units?
It's going to be Penrose property management managing the commercial trash pickup.
But I also wanted to say that the trash collection on that site, it will be actually fenced.
That's right.
it will not be open to the backyard it will defense them to pick up from the opposite side
of the backyards okay i had a question of the architect architect
good steve thought we were on board questions what's that and i thought we were on board
questions steve wants to come back in as a result of apparently uh something the architect said
but um miss kislev um was did you testify that that the that the property that the
pocket park doesn't doesn't abut the the um porches
architect could you hear the question no can you repeat please oh sure was it your testimony that
the that the the parcel that you're developing does not um abut right up to the to the porches
next door i'm talking about specifically that site on 31st street yes it's it's because it's
actually it has open uh open uh opened on the street on three sides well it doesn't impact
any adjacent buildings can you see the the um on the video screen can you see uh this is the google
maps view this is the pocket part here to the oops the buildings our buildings that doesn't
they they do not touch these buildings they're facing the other street that's correct they don't
face the streets that's separating and mr chairman i'd point out that the photos we're looking at are
from july of 2022 okay okay uh i just lost oh this is the back here so you're talking about
the backyard area that there's no so that's a vacant lot that doesn't belong to penrose that
is right in front of you okay um but isn't there an overlay that that requires you to
maintain porches aligned with the porches on the block
i believe that's the case but there's no other properties on our block
you're you're saying that these are not properties anymore those we're not matching the front
of those properties where we have a cumberland street frontage that's the side of the property
of the furthest to the right oh so you're saying that you are that your official address is on a
different portion are are the property frontages 10 of the 11 face cumberland street
which is here correct correct okay because this is where the the longest
portion is that's correct and therefore you're saying you're you do not have to comply with the
based on lni's interpretation we've complied with the overlay so is there a reason why you wouldn't
want to provide a harmonious um streetscape i mean that there's there's nothing else on this
block so we're trying to preserve you know as much space in the rear and and i don't want to
step on various toes but um you know i think that designing them in the way they did maximize the
interior space and maximize the space in the rear are you saying that that the properties
have been torn down that are right next to it?
I'm sorry, I don't know. Are you saying that these properties
have been torn down? I'm not
saying that. I don't know anything about
those properties.
I thought you said that there's no longer properties
that are contingent. On our block face,
on Cumberland Street, from
31st Street to Napa Street, there are no
other properties. Right, but on 31st
Street, there are properties.
Correct. Okay.
okay all right all right any questions more questions from the board
Any more questions
from the board?
planning commission you already taken your position right so number one i want to thank
everybody for staying so long and to thank both sides of this um mi 2025 001305 2500 north 31st
street, I vote yes. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Anyone, my vote is yes. Emily Briscoe, my vote is yes.
Thank you to everyone. We're going to take a five minute break, please.
Would you
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh, the water's good.
Andrew, you can take a seat.
um we're back in the room here um
i'm going to read the first case and then ian haggarty's volunteered to read all the cases
in the record because he's such a nice person i don't think it's a volunteer job
so m m i 2025 000 738 1631 south 29th street andrea um could you state your name and spell
for the sonographer it's andrea solomon clear harrison a-n-d-r-e-a-s-a-l-o-m-o-n do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do okay so why don't
we're going to do this we're going to read all your cases into the record uh he agreed to do
that and and then we'll start okay sounds great all right thank you chair uh good afternoon ladies
and gentlemen we will be hearing a number of cases collectively next um they are as follows
mi 2025 000 738 1631 south 29th street mi 2025 000 739 1612 south dover street
MI 2025-000-741-1624 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000-744-1600 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000-752-1637 South 29th Street. MI 2025-000-755-1630 South Dover Street.
MI 2025-000762-1622 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000764-1606 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000770-1608 South Dover Street.
MI 2025-000-771-1632 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000-772-1620 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000-773-1626 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000-774-1618 South Dover Street.
MI 2025-000775-1602 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000776-1610 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000777-1634 South Dover Street. MI 2025-000778-1604 South Dover Street.
MI 2025 000 779 1616 South Dover Street MI 2025 000 780 1614 South Dover Street MI 2025 000 781 1628 South Dover Street MI 2025 000 782 1635 South 29th Street MI 2025 000 785
1633 south 29th street andrea do you um you waive the reading of the refusals and agree with their
accuracy i do okay um start your case okay uh may please share my screen together
yeah i swore you went already didn't i yes yeah yeah well no it's okay
yes thank you
i'm just rejoining as panelists okay sure take your time
Thank you.
i'm not coming up yeah i'm not i've i've joined i'm not sure i'm getting an error from zoom
phil you have any idea here comes our it great and two it people come running to your aid
that's only because we've held you have the captive the whole day
i'm not sure
oh it's coming back to life
there we go
so obviously we're going to hear all these together okay yes
share here it comes it's coming up
double click
it shows as i am screen sharing
okay here we go
so thank you again for reading those into the record these are 22 parcels that were formerly
2844 tasker street they may look familiar to the board the board had already actually approved
these variances for the single lot to be subdivided into these 22 parcels
um the the building permit was applied for but since then the zoning permit lapsed so after the
subdivision was completed we're coming back so that you can grant the variances for the 22 single
family homes to be developed on the subdivided lot that's why there are now 22 parcels that we
have to read into the record um and file separate appeals and applications for uh the project
received the support of the grace ferry community coalition back in 2020 when we first applied
and it received the support of the grace ferry community coalition again um we were with them
and at the beginning of may to have an rco meeting and they issued their letter of support
this is the prior notice of decision and the prior issued permit
uh here's the deed of subdivision as i mentioned the parcels have now been subdivided and there
there are 22 individual parcels um there are three stories 22 single family three-story homes
four bedrooms 38 foot height they all have a roof deck and a cellar about 2 000 square feet each
these were the plans the zoning plans that were previously approved
the deed of subdivision that was recorded
the reason we're here is because the block is zoned auto commercial um even though the
surrounding blocks are really residential and we're across the street from linear park
they've they're zoned auto commercial and have although they've been vacant for a very long time
um a lot of the other uh properties on the block have also been granted variances for development
of single family homes this is a sample of the notice of refusal each of the lots received
three refusals one for the proposed use as a single family home since it's auto
commercial auto oriented the second is for the maximum allowable occupied area
in the commercial auto it is 60 percent but they are all in compliance with what
if they were zoned rsa 5 the intermediate interior blocks the 75 percent
um the intermediate interior blocks the 75 percent and there's one corner block that
meets the maximum occupied area which is 80 percent this is what the lot looks like it's a
vacant lot uh are the owners maintain it and you know it's it's been sitting vacant for quite some
time. And I also have all of the refusals, if you'd like to take a look at them. And all of the
sorry, the computer is being quite slow.
So all of the individual zoning plans, they're all single family row homes, three stories.
I'm happy to, I, I, Raymond Rola is a project architect.
I think he may still be here.
He may have had to go, but with us should also be the property owner, Stephen Fred Vicario.
and so uh with that i respectfully request that the board grant any and all necessary variants
so what really inside of them look like what he just shows the inside yeah the inside of the
um what i have is the zoning the prior zoning
are they all the same bedrooms and things like that they vary a little bit because of the lot
sizes and dimensions but they're all four bedrooms yes i'm sorry chair i'm having difficulty hearing
you pardon me four bedrooms okay so uh it's the living and dining on the first floor two bedrooms
on the second floor two bedrooms on the third floor and if i remember this is down this is
like a block away from tasker homes the pha project right yes it's close by yeah questions
from the board question for you so these are um they so there's they're they you're utilizing
on-street parking no no off-street parking correct yeah yes they're utilizing and that
is one of the refusals because the auto uh commercial district requires it but if they
were RSA 5 they would have and what are the lot widths it's hard to read this drawing so what are
the lot widths they're 15 feet wide okay and what there's there's a few exceptions the corner lots
are a little bit bigger gotcha what about the rear yard depths are they are typically what
uh let me I don't know off the top of my head let me take a look
and the building heights uh comply with uh rsa 5 30 yeah they're 38 but they're they're 30 are
they and they're roof decks or no with a roof deck yes with a roof deck and pilot house yes
correct is the basement finished the basement is finished there's no bedrooms in the basement
okay what's the height of the building above grade
uh if my computer cooperates i will show you the elevations okay
i'm i mean i'm noticing like i understand this is a mostly full block development but um
It does appear that your client owns the rest of the parcels except for the two on the corner.
And so, I guess, what's the intention for the infill that's shown currently in that site plan as white?
My client does not own those.
They're owned by a different entity.
but my understanding is that they are all have also been subdivided for development as single
family and they all be they'll all be sold as fee simple yes okay i think the only other question
i have is that the it seems like it's mostly two-story buildings on both that block face
and the next blackface, these are, you know, three story plus the pilot.
um these are you know three story plus the pilot and the parapet and so um wondering what drove
the decision to sort of go up a whole story above the rest of the context of the neighborhood
yeah are my clients still here i think this would be a question that they can speak to i know
it's steve and fred vicario sure but my understanding is that they wanted to provide
generous homes and um we did meet with the rco and they were in support
perfect cario has um just been promoted to pandas you'll be back in shortly sure thank you
Mr. Vicario
Maybe I was one they didn't get promoted yet. I'm sorry.
She's coming on Jason. And while we wait for him, I have a question. Is there any landscaping
or streetscaping with this project? I believe they go right to the property
line there's some stairs up but no no trees are being planted that i'm aware of sorry about that
mr vicario could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
fred vicario v like victor ic a r i o right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes i do counsel fred uh did you see my presentation
yes and was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge absolutely and do you adopt it as
your own yes i do and i believe there are a few questions uh did you did you hear the question
about the street trees and landscaping no i did not i did not um are there any plans for
landscaping to be done as part of the development i i don't have the plan right in front of me but
whatever we were going to do last time we're going to do this time so if that required putting trees
then we will um and right there was a question why did you go three floors well that that's
what's allowable in the in the on the in the result in the residential zone so we figured
we utilize the space that we can
because a lot of places
in Philadelphia are putting
third stories even if they are
existing two story homes
they're adding a third story
and a roof deck so we figured that's
what people want
Any other
questions? Yep and did the
RCOX for anything in particular
provide anything in particular regarding
the project?
no i didn't know i'm sorry i didn't know if that was for me or not
that's okay okay any other questions
questions or comments from the audience come on up
sit at the mic get the mic real close to you turn it on first sir
and you can you don't have to bend over it'll come to you right hello my name is jeff burger
and I live at 1607 South Dover Street.
Hi, Mr. Berger.
Could you spell your name, please?
J-F-F-B-U-R-G-E-R.
Can you speak up a little bit more?
Can't hear you.
Jeff Berger.
B-U-R-G-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm
that tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
I swear.
Could you say where you live again?
1607 South Dover Street.
Please proceed.
your presentation okay why don't you pull that you can pull it right like this right you can
sit back and it'll come to you pull the whole thing near you is that better there you go that's
good get stay close to it okay i remember that there were trees in the last plan in the front
of all those buildings okay and the buildings they are now building in grace ferry that's the
neighborhood are all the new buildings are third floor buildings right and they built new lower
housing on the block next to me 1500 i've lived in my house i've owned my house since 2006 and
that lot's been empty when i bought my house and i wanted them to build and it's now maybe gonna
when I bought my house and I wanted them to build and it's now maybe going to happen.
So, and people on my block, we had a meeting and we voted on it the last Zoom meeting and there
were like 15, four, yes. And I think it was five against that. So there is a park and people were
concerned about parking, but the houses that they built, the affordable houses, the key
entry houses a block away from us 1500 right there's no parking for those people either
right right i don't have a problem parking on my block we have a park a block away
it's not linear is that linear playground linear right a beautiful park that they renovate
and on both sides there's parking available and that's never full so um
that was one of the are you in favor of this project yes i am all right thank you very much
for coming in we appreciate it so he raised a question so just for clarity there you guys
presented a plan with some landscaping and you're going to follow through with that correct
okay yes and here's the rendering so whatever was presented and trees planted what we planted
any other questions from the audience the virtual audience or the audience here
i do not see any hands mr chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission this
testimony is for all the above mentioned cases the comprehensive plan recommends a change in
zoning at this location from the existing ca1 commercial auto oriented to rsa 5 residential
single-family. The proposed use is consistent with the recommended zoning and with the surrounding
neighborhood. The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the requested variances for
a single-family dwelling and occupied area. Hillary, is that good enough or that we want to
put each address in again? I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, if you wouldn't mind, just please read them all
to the record and then vote on all of them. Ian just jumped up and said he wants to do it.
OK, so thank you, Mr. Chair. You're the best, Anne.
The board will now vote on these collective cases. I'll read them into the record and then the board can vote, starting with MI 2025, 000738, 1631 South 29th Street, MI 2025, 000739, 1612 South Dover Street, MI 2025, 000741, 1624 South Dover Street.
MI 2025, 000744, 1600 South Dover Street. MI 2025, 000752, 1637 South 29th Street. MI 2025, 000755, 1630 South Dover Street. MI 2025, 000762, 1622 South Dover Street.
MI 2025 000 764 1606 South Dover Street. MI 2025 000 770 1608 South Dover Street. MI 2025 000 771 1632 South Dover Street. MI 2025 000 772 1620 South Dover Street.
MI 2025 000 773 1626 South Dover Street. MI 2025 000 774 1618 South Dover Street. MI 2025 000 775 1602 South Dover Street.
MI 2025-000-776-1610, South Dover Street. MI 2025-000-777-1634, South Dover Street. MI 2025-000-778-1604, South Dover Street.
MI 2025 000 779 1616 South Dover Street. MI 2025 000 780 1614 South Dover Street. MI 2025 000 781 1628 South Dover Street. MI 2025 000 782 1635 South 29th Street.
and MI2025, 000785, 1633 South 29th Street.
I vote yes to all properties.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes to all properties.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes to all properties.
My vote is yes to all properties.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes to all properties.
My vote is yes to all properties.
Iowyn, my vote is yes to all properties.
Thank you, counsel.
And sir, thank you for coming down and staying the whole day.
We appreciate it.
Thank you.
All right.
Mr. Nackamson, please.
000384
5052 to 56
City Avenue.
This is a resumptive hearing.
uh mr knockamson just for the record you've been sworn today could you state your name
alan knockamson a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n um and this is a resumptive
hearing um could you give us an update of where we stand with this case yeah this is the beer
distributor am i correct yeah that's right the beer store and and to my left in the in the audience
is uh alex pugman one of his representatives i am glad to say that we have community support
you should have received a letter i think we do yeah so again after much discussion and and we
entered into a community benefits agreement they feel very comfortable i don't want to speak for
them i think the letter speaks for itself um but is the political leadership there too because you
had two council people against this right i i can't speak as to that i just know that we've
been working directly with the Winfield Community Neighborhood Association Inc. I can't say whether
or not they spoke to them, but we diligently worked with this community group. We entered
into a RIN community benefit agreement that's binding on our client, and we feel good about it,
and I think the community feels good about this. Just as a reminder, we're on City Avenue. We're on
the commercial corridor. I think some of their concerns was about how responsible my client was
as an operator serving beer and other related beverages. He sat down with them. He showed them
his aptitude. He also put written commitments as well in terms of security and lighting and hours
of operation. And based on that, we got this letter on June 2nd, 2025. I remember there's
a state liquor store across the street am i correct there is so it's not out of character
that's on the montgomery avenue side i understand so um again that was one of their concerns was
like well why is it always on our side and it's not the case it's not out of character to have
liquor um nearby and i think one of their issues too was in terms of just the beer distributor
they're all created unequally right so this is not the one where you would see where there'd be
glass where the cashier is. This is a higher-end beer store. My client's opening up a different
operation in Chestnut Hill. He's been in business for well over 10 years in the suburbs, and he's
shown through his history that he's been a responsible operator.
Any questions from the board?
i guess i'm trying to remember which one this is so is this the one that had the
fancy beer display and that's right it was like a counter and yeah so it's more for like a craft
beer store we're not like you know our focus is not to like the traditional beer stores that you
as you would see like um you know how i equate it because i um board member gas and i know you
live in fairmont too um i would equate it to like what you're seeing now on the corner was a 19th
in fairmont there's like a stone stones stones so i would equate it to more like that you know how
it used to be it used to be a real distributor now it's more of like a boutique type of thing
several rental apartments too that's right above there so um that's how i would have since it
opened i haven't either i drive by it every day all i can tell you is i see from the window when
I'm traveling east on Fairmont and it I would equate it to that it's a little bit more finished
a little more refined what about the hours did that come up at the community when you were talking
with the community again or here let me again I haven't had those communications Mr. Pugman can
you and and they took my my my prep materials with them my team so I don't have my brain materials
that I'm flying blind here.
You ever hear it before?
A little bit.
I was like, where's my written materials for this?
They took you with me.
Sir, could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
Alex Pugman.
Spell it, please.
A-L-E-X, last name Pugman, P-U-G-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, Alex.
Mr. Pugman, hours of operation.
What are they again?
9 to 9 Monday through Saturday
10 to 7 on Sundays
10 to 7
on Sundays.
Any other questions?
Hillary?
One other thing. There is a revised
plans because...
Hillary, I want to mention something.
Hillary?
Yeah, so
and I believe
Amy, if she, Amy, you're still there.
There was
a question or an issue about
um like an amended refusal for this one or a corrected refusal for this one
i've received an email from the planning commission right yes there's a revised
plan or a corrected refusal submitted plan showed additional parking but worker descriptions said
no change to existing accessory yeah that was the that was the parking issue but there was i think
there was another issue that i i don't know exactly what it was but i understand there was
a planning kind of concern about the current refusal yeah so um amy war by the planning
commission there's been a new amended refusal but our plan examiner ben emailed you alan on monday
to state that we need some additional plans and to work out some landscaping obligations so
planning is going to hold our testimony for the form of letter in order to get that straightened
out with you okay i don't remember receiving that email it was monday around 4 30. okay um
i mean is this something that we can because this is he's purchasing the property so this is
you know we've delayed closing based on our hope that we would have a vote today so um hillary
feel free to jump in of course um but last time something like this occurred um we rescheduled
for our
for our testimony
in a letter and rescheduled
just a couple weeks out if Hillary
wants to do that again or if Ian wants to do that again
was I was going to ask if we could do
if we could do two weeks
which would be
the 18th
which I believe we only have 930 hearings
that day so we have to schedule it for
930 vote on that day
okay um can someone send me the email i so is it is it extensive work that we have to do i
i can't speak to that specifically is that is not my work product that's not my area but i can
re-forward you the email to make sure that you have it at the top of your inbox all right thank
you i appreciate it okay all right so the 18th at 9 30 a.m we'll vote all right thank you and
Mr. Nockamson. Is that going to be another resumptive or we'll just vote? No, no, because
planning is going to submit a letter with their testimony and we can read that into the record. So
that can just be a vote. It'll be at 930. But I just want to note, too, depending on
the corrections that are made, we may or may not need those revised plans, Mr. Nockamson. So
I just want to let you, I'll get clarity on that once we have everything sorted out. So
um but if we do need them i do have them so um is there a way that if we if
if we don't need revised plans or can we do this close the record and as soon as we get it you guys
can vote do i do we need to like wait to the 18th hillary well i think i think there needs to i mean
i mean what we could do is schedule it for next week and then be prepared to reschedule the vote
for the following week if if everything hasn't been worked out by then yeah we would appreciate
that because it really is holding up a closing okay all right so we'll reschedule for next week
then at 2 p.m the july 11th at 2 p.m and if it's not ready then we'll schedule for the following
week all right um and mr chair i do i do see it hand raised from um a representative of the rco
D. Dukes. Thank you.
Hi, could you please state your name?
The panelist should be coming back in shortly, Mr. Chairman.
Sure, thank you.
E. Dukes, are you still available?
Please unmute and wait to be sworn in.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for a stenographer?
i'm mute i am i apologize can you all hear me we can we hear you perfectly could you please
I'm mute.
state your name and spell for the stenographer sure it's d dukes d-e-e last name d-u-k-e-s
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do miss dukes could you turn your video on my video okay hold on video
Oh, that's great. You got a nice logo there.
Thank you.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for this opportunity.
I just want to concur with Mr. Nockamson that after many months and weeks of discussions,
they have satisfactorily satisfied all of our questions all of our concerns and so as the
community leader for Winfield Community Neighborhood Association we are in support of this of this
variance but the question I do have is I just want to make sure that I'm clear on why we're coming
back and and so I'm not really clear on on the yeah I think yeah if you can explain that it has
nothing to do. Hilary, you want to explain? Mr. Chair, I didn't get the details directly
from planning, but I believe it has something to do with the refusal has landscaping refusals on
it. So I think it has something to do with the landscaping because that's typically
planning's purview in these cases that involve parking lots. Okay. So that would have nothing
to do with our part and
our community and all that.
Nope. Okay.
It would just try to make it look a little better.
How does that sound? Okay.
That sounds good.
It's a code compliance issue in terms
of I'm pretty sure it would be the landscaping.
All right. Very
good. Thank you so much. Thank you for taking
the time to calls. Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. All right. Bye-bye.
Moving on to the 3.30 list, everyone.
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, I just I realized I jumped in there and you didn't ask if there was anyone else to speak on this case.
I don't believe there is, but we should just ask the audience who wants to say something about the case.
You're not seeing the hands, Mr. Chair.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 2 p.m. case has not been called?
Once again, I do not see any hands. We're going on to three thirty.
Mr. Chair, I just want to note for the last case that the record is closed, except for any, if there's a corrected refusal or revised plans related to discussions with the Planning Commission, as well as the letter from the Planning Commission and applicant response.
Otherwise, the record is closed.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon.
My name is Bill Bergman.
I will be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board.
With me is our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board member Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board member Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board member Taya Nguyen.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
So here is Hillary Emerson, our lawyer,
also our executive director, Ian Haggerty,
and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
Recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA website.
By participating, you consent to be recorded.
This is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities.
Whether remote or in-person, if you're called to speak,
You must state and spell your name and wait to be sworn in.
Once you've been sworn in, please state your name each time before beginning your testimony.
Any person may enter their appearance to become an interested party.
There are three ways.
You can identify the case property address on your Zoom webinar.
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You can call the ZBA appearance line by the close of business tomorrow.
Call 267-270-5548.
Leave a message that includes your email address and the address of the property of the appeal case.
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Let's go to our schedule for this afternoon.
with you
number one mi2023 004 084 2337 north 30th street um
this is the fifth listing we still do not have any exhibits
Warren Hamilton is the listed applicant
and SBW Real Estate
LLC is the listed owner
Mr. Warren Hamilton
Yes, good afternoon Mr. Chair
this is Jason Handel will be your calls for the session
I do not see the hand of either in the audience raised
and I do not see the individuals themselves in the virtual audience
Thank you very much. So MI-2023-004-084-2337 North 30th Street, I vote to dismiss.
Michael John, my vote is to dismiss.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is to dismiss.
And my vote is to dismiss.
To another gram, I'm recusing myself from the vote.
Okay. Oh, that's right. Okay.
Okay. Number two, MI 2023-004-384-1196 Adams Avenue. David Chandler is one of the attorneys. This was Mark Must Be Heard. Mr. Chandler should be in the audience to give us an update of where we stand.
Mr. Chandler.
More than that should be coming.
Yes, we can make it.
I've got them to talk instead.
Okay, can you hear me now?
I can hear you, Mr. Chandler.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is David Chandler, C-H-A-N-D-L-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Oh, wow.
Thank you very much.
Could you turn on your video if you have a video there?
Oh, let's see.
Let me promote them first.
Sorry about that.
The video, yes.
You'll be coming back in shortly, sir.
A video?
Oh, okay.
Let me do the video.
Okay. Now, okay. I'm here. Okay. Mr. Chandler, this is the fifth listing, right? Could you give
us an update of where this case stands? Yes. Mr. Chairman, I would respectfully request
one more continuance of this hearing. Okay. Okay. This has to be heard the next time.
So number two, MI 2023, 004384, 1196 Adams Avenue, this case is continued until 12, 10, 25, at 3.30.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
and thank you number three um mi 2024 001 812 201 east westmoreland jose garcia is the listed
owner annavala squeeze is the listed applicant no exhibits third listing i say has requested
a continuance for the owners here mr chair i do not see any one with those names in the virtual
audience okay um so so we have no uh we have not any exhibits in third listing no one's appeared
So MI 2024-001-812-201 East Westmoreland Street, I vote to dismiss.
Michael Johns, my vote is to dismiss.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is to dismiss.
Danetta Graham, my vote is to dismiss.
Tywin, my vote is to dismiss.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
I see no further hands, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
So number four, MI 2025, 000467, 12425 Tyrone Road, Samantha and Matthew Malinowski are the applicants.
Matthew Malinowski are the applicants.
This is a pro se.
They'll be coming back in as a panel shortly, Mr. Chair.
there's unanimous support from parkwood and non-opposition from the council member
should say odiel
mr malinowski this is samantha hi samantha how are you could you please state your name
and spell it for the court stenographer samantha s-a-m-a-n-t-h-a last name malinowski
m-a-l-i-n-o-w-s-k-i do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth? Yes. Could you please turn your video on? Yes. Okay. Could you start to share your screen
and present your case? You have all your documents, right? I do. I have them all in a
folder. I wasn't really sure how this process went, but I have it all in a folder. Could you
open the folder? Is the folder there? Yeah, this right now, this is all the different things that
i put it in your folder and we'll take a look at it okay oh yeah i have the the plans i have the
refusal letter that's right yeah show why don't you do that all right yeah the first thing is the
refusal that we got we were going for a building permit for a deck with steps ma'am and you need
to share your screen in order for us to see the documents we can't we can't see them so you open
In your document saying you should push the green button at the bottom that says share screen.
Oh, okay. Share.
This one?
There you go. You're coming up.
Is that, that's working?
Yeah, now you just got to go to the file you want.
Okay, this is our refusal for steps from the ground to the deck are prohibited.
So we were.
You have your refusal.
can you open the document it's just in preview so it's very small we can't see it
i think it's just in preview is that better no no you may have to stop sharing and open it
on a bigger screen and then and then reshare your screen okay i'll stop sharing yes and then when
hit the green share button just um share your your windows and not the actual document so that way
when it opens up we can just see everything um is that working yep okay we have that
I'm not sure which other documents that I need to
I think what I would do is if you have plans, show your plans, show your photos
yeah, so here are our deck plans from the architect
is that showing on your screen?
turn it a little bit, you know how to turn the document, it's sideways
oh wrong way well keep turning to keep there you go okay yeah so this is the
back of our home this is the deck with the steps leading down to our yard and
Then this is the side view, and this is the foundations and structural plan.
That's the end of the deck plans.
Could you give us, show us a photo in the back?
The photo, yes.
Is this deck already built?
Did that come up?
Do your neighbors approve this?
Do your neighbor have the same thing over there?
The one on the right does not have steps.
The majority of the other decks that are not pictured do, but.
and how many decks are in the rear of the property up there um on my side or the like
And how many decks are in the rear of the property up there?
On my...
what we see either one either one a lot of decks yeah i mean i'd say most houses do have decks
versus don't okay questions from the board yeah how big is the yard like how much space is it
from the bottom step to the end of your yard the um well from the like the back door that you can
see all the way to the back of our yard is I believe 35 feet and and the yard is fenced in
yeah fenced in and there's no rear access all the backyards back up together there's no like
public access access other questions the purpose of the steps primarily to just give you more
flexibility to not have to go downstairs to get to the backyard yeah that letting our dog out and
just another like five safety reasons another fire escape if god forbid but if you go out through
those steps there's no outlet at the rear of your yard correct don't you correct yeah it's yard back
up right to the other yards okay um i'm gonna make my comment and then um with decks um there
are only two prohibitions when it comes to decks yeah can you speak up a little bit cheryl can i
can barely hear you all right i said there are only two prohibitions when it comes to decks
You can have them in your backyard.
You can have different sizes.
It's, you know, basically decks are a yes
ever since deck legislation was adopted back in the 90s, okay?
And there are two prohibitions.
One is you cannot have a permanently affixed roof on a deck,
and the other one is that you cannot have stairs.
um the reason is because um uh once you have roofs and stairs and the next thing you know
things become an addition there's all kinds of other issues so um the the deck is not an issue
but the stairs and that's what the refusal is for that's that's an issue and the the
the deck in and of itself is not a problem the stairs are a problem and it's one of the few
things that you cannot have with a deck and i don't see i mean you're saying that you know
your other neighbors have stairs did they get zoning permission do you know or
Unfortunately, I do not know.
I believe they're all like on the decks themselves or before I was here.
So that's my.
How did you wind up here?
Did Dale and I come out and send you here?
Yeah, and they told us that we needed to go through and follow the right process for permits and everything.
So that's what we were doing and found out that steps were against the code or whatever you say.
I'm sorry.
But I guess the second question I have is it looks like you did go and have a licensed contractor put together a complete set of construction documents to construct the deck.
But it doesn't look like a permit was pulled, even like take the stairs out of it.
You could have just built a deck, but it doesn't look like permits were pulled to build that portion of the deck either.
Could you walk me through sort of the process?
because it looks like lni came out and gave you a warning and then issued you a restriction um
when what happened between july 1st and july 26th and was your contractor involved in that process
or was the deck already complete by the time the lni process started oh sorry sorry the deck was
already complete okay that with that process and then you got the you had your contractor
to draw up your paperwork yeah we are we hired an architect to draw the plans because it didn't fit
the easy deck permit requirements so who built the deck if the architect came after it was built and
just documented what was existing what was your process to get the deck built initially
just a local person that we found on like our neighborhood facebook page
got it okay and would you all be opposed to us requiring a certificate of occupancy
i'm not sure what that is it's just an lni inspection
oh to comment like i don't know if you would need that for a deck though
i don't know if you would need that for a deck though i don't know if they require those for
i don't know if they require those for decks
decks well you're supposed to have a building permit so it would be whatever the typical
permit closeout process right right probably there's some i'm sure there's a final inspection
i don't know it's a call the final whatever but like just yeah yeah yeah i don't think there's
i think the i think a co is just for like enclosed i think it is i just don't i just don't know what
yeah no they have to they have to get a building yeah they need to go back and
pile yeah anyway okay yeah we still have to get a building permit okay yeah all right other
questions questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time
mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience no hands chair
planning commission amy boyb with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no
change in zoning at this location to the rsa4 residential single family the appellant has not
demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of their property
that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code the planning commission
recommends that the board deny the requested variance for deck steps thank you mi 2025
0 0 0 4 6 7 1 2 4 2 5 tyrone road i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is no tana graham my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you
you have your votes okay okay thank you all right thank you so much all right and number five
MI 2025 000468
1327 North Front Street.
Myrith Ferliger is the attorney.
Support from Fishtown Neighbors Association,
support from Fishtown Kensington
area business, and a
letter of non-opposition from Council
Member Young.
He's coming back in as a
panelist now, Chair.
Is Meredith coming in? Okay, thank you.
Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I sure do.
could you identify your client the relationship to the property my client is 1327-29 north front
llc do you waive the reading of the refusal and agree with his accuracy yes i do why don't you
start your presentation yeah starting to get a complex here being last on the 330 list you know
every couple of weeks going on yeah i don't know who did that i mean i gotta i gotta see who did
that oh my gosh well good evening mr chair members of the board i have a short presentation for you
this evening uh the request before you today concerns 1327 north front street and represents
a minor request for a single family home use you as usual have an exhibit packet that includes 14
exhibits to summarize the basis for today's request this application requests the conversion
from a former design for an owner-occupied triplex into just a single-family home in
Fishtown. The structure itself was previously approved and constructed, so the structure
itself is not at issue before the board today. Because the property is located in the CMX
3 district, single-family use is not permitted. I'll first orient you to the location of the
property and as always the deed and tax clearance are included at exhibit two and three i do have
with me a representative from the llc uh and the resident of the property lorraine shaw who is here
as well as you can see here on the uh aerial exhibits this property sits roughly mid-block
on North Front Street between Master Street and West Thompson Street. This is a highly diverse area.
and West Thompson Street. This is a highly diverse area that has a mix of residential
and commercial uses, including bars, restaurants, and cafes. The existing structure before the board
today is shown with the arrow. A view in the opposing direction on North Front Street is
shown in the next image, which again clearly reflects the relative melting pot of this
particular area showing the diversity of uses interestingly even the city's own maps recognize
the assorted use profile of this block as you can see here on the current use map available through
the city's open map system and what you can see here is just the variety of different color
profiles on this particular block showing the low density residential industrial commercial
and multifamily uses that all exist just on this one block here.
As I mentioned earlier and as shown at Exhibit 7, this block is Zone CMX 3,
similar to much of Front Street that runs parallel to the L.
As you can see on the exterior photographs shown here at Exhibit 14,
this is a stunning new construction brick building with large windows overlooking front street
a private parking garage is accessed from the rear on north lee street i have also included
a few of these photographs in a closer up uh format just so you can get a better sense of
this block shown here immediately to the left of the property is another single family home
which is flanked on the other side by an artist studio facility shown in this next photograph
immediately to the right here was recently approved for some form of a residential development
but immediately prior to that was used as a warehouse the opposing side of north front street
is shown in this next image which is more dominantly residential and commercial except
for the public parking lot that is directly across the street here. I did also include pictures of
the zoning posters which were timely posted on both the rear as well as on the front. I'll come
back momentarily to the interior photographs. I did for reference in case there's any questions
include zoning plans and floor plans at exhibit six from the original approval for this particular
structure. The structure was approved back in 2020 as a triplex, but was intended at the time
to be an owner-occupied development with one large unit for the developer owner and two smaller
efficiency units. Nothing is proposed to change about the exterior of the structure that was
previously approved and built. As you can see here on the original floor plans that were approved by
L&I, two efficiency studio units were originally contemplated on the first floor. However,
once the structure was built, the owner ultimately reassessed and desires to occupy the entirety of
the structure for herself and her family. I did include the full floor plans for the
proposed interior layout, which effectively is the same as the current layout, and I'm happy to walk
you through any of this if you need any additional information. You can see here that these two
efficiency units are just proposed to be converted into two larger bedrooms. I have also included a
few interior photos at Exhibit 14, just so you can get a taste of this amazing space that this owner
built. And just so you can kind of get a sense here, the library, guest room,
the living room, this is that beautiful front window that overlooks front street,
living space, bar, dining room, kitchen, foyer, primary bathroom, primary bedroom,
and then some of the additional bedrooms in the house.
So regarding the refusal, this application was, of course, refused for the proposed single-family home,
as single-family living is oddly, in my opinion, prohibited in the CMX 3 zoning district.
Anecdotally, it is slightly unusual, given the number of single-family homes in area zones CMX 3, 4, and 5,
that they are still considered prohibited uses in the code.
that they are still considered prohibited uses in the code.
However, as I illustrated earlier, this block is a cornucopia of uses,
However, as I...
including other single-family homes, including one immediately next door,
and other multifamily residential uses that are predominantly condominium for sale,
not rentals, which are more akin to single-family living.
Furthermore, the current property that is known as 1327 North Front Street was historically two separate properties.
This lot was consolidated, and each of those lots historically contained a single-family home dating back at least, if not before, to the 1970s.
This property is uniquely situated to accommodate single-family living, given the diversity of surrounding uses and the historical single-family use that existed on the lot.
We do submit this is the least minimum variance, as single-family use typically doesn't even require a zoning permit unless it's not permitted by right,
evidencing the code's interpretation that single-family use is innocuous enough to limit oversight.
Administrative Code Section A301.1.5 clearly states that a use registration permit is required for every new use except for use as a single-family dwelling.
This directly conflicts with the zoning code use table that would then prohibit single-family use in several zoning districts.
This request retains a residential use of the property, just a less dense one than the code would dictate.
This proposal will not increase congestion, harm neighbors' properties, or impair light and air.
Structure was previously permitted and built by Wright with ample parking to avoid any impact to the surrounding area.
And as always, I've included a memorandum of law at Exhibit 10.
As Mr. Chairman mentioned, this proposal did also receive full support from Fishtown and the Business District,
who were very happy to see somebody making this kind of investment into their own home in Fishtown.
So at this time, I would ask Lorraine Shaw if you can hit the raise hand button and unmute yourself.
And she's coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
miss shaw yes hi hi how are you could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes lorraine shaw l-o-r-r-a-i-n-e last name shaw s-h-a-w do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel thank you uh lorraine
can you just confirm that you're authorized to speak on behalf of 1327-29 north front llc
yes i am and have you heard all of the testimony and evidence that was offered in front of the
board this evening yes uh do you agree that that testimony was true and accurate and would you
adopt it as if you had given it yourself yes definitely thank you happy to answer any questions
questions from the board yes um what what is this in the uh picture to the uh far right at the top
is that an l or a train or what is that that is the l yes so this is you can see it a little bit
in this overhead aerial so this is north front street the l runs along north front street so
that is the L. Oh, okay. And so that big picture window is looking at the L. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay.
Thank you. And Meredith, as you go down the street, there's tons of restaurants
that are too, right? Am I correct? Oh, tons. I mean, like both sides of that property, right?
Absolutely. I mean, a couple of years ago, I was in front of this board for the L bar, which is just at the corner up here. So this, this block really is, is quite an unbelievable block. So I can understand why, why they would want to, you know, make their home here.
Other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emberson?
um i just said that just quick clarification on this earlier um so the property was originally
proposed with it looks like three parking spaces one of the plans it kind of looked like four but
It looks like three parking spaces. One of the plans, it kind of looked like four, but I think it was three and one of them was accessible. Is the number of parking spaces decreasing? Because the floor plans for the single family home looked like there were only two.
i think it was three and one of them
um no i mean the the there is no proposal to change the number of parking spaces i i suspect
they simply did not match the floor plans to what was approved on the zoning plans but there is there
is no proposal to change what was approved on the original zoning plans okay thank you no problem
questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair we have a robert ever oh sure he's coming back in now as a panelist
wow he's a trooper for hanging out this long um mr everett
i'm here it took a while i remember correctly we started our day with you
and now we're ending our day with you mr everett yeah you are you just
Could you just state your name for the court stenographer?
First name is Robert.
Last name Everett, E-V-E-R-E-T-T.
And I still swear to tell the truth and only the truth.
Well, you know, I already swore you once.
I mean, you were already sworn in this morning, early this morning.
I know, but I've been sitting here for hours swearing to myself.
So what the heck?
Well, we do appreciate your work.
And you are one of the steadfast people in the RCOs.
So please give us your comments.
I'm just here to confirm everything Meredith has said,
and we're happy to see what they're doing with that home and welcome to
Fishtown.
Oh, thank you very much.
Planning commission.
Amy Wood with the planning commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from
the existing CMX3 commercial mixed use.
The construction of the one family dwelling was done without the benefit of
proper and accurate permits. The appellant has not demonstrated that there are unique physical
conditions or circumstances of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformance
with the zoning code. The Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the request of
variance for single family. Thank you. With all due respect to the Planning Commission, that is not
accurate. This was built with all of the proper permits and was built as an owner-occupied triplex
as was reflected on the plans okay all right thank you very much so am i 2025 000 468 1327
north front street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes
tanetta graham my vote is yes thank you my vote is yes thank you and good night once again
is there anyone is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 330 case has not been called
so so uh hillary we want to thank you you were sick the whole day and uh you uh you hung in
there like a trooper and it's probably somehow you took care of your kids when they came in
you're sick too so we do appreciate all your hard work thank you thank you all right thank you and
And planning, again, you're really working you a lot here.
But thank you, everybody.
Take care.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, board members.
Have a great day.