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.
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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.