same door into a foyer. And then the foyer splits into two separate units, which is better seen from
the photograph of the front. I'm going to go ahead and scroll down to that first. So right here is how
the doors are separated in the foyer area. One door goes into the first floor unit. The second
door, which is also pre-existing, goes up to the second floor unit. The entire property is otherwise
separated into the two. He has left the second floor unit vacant for the period during which
He wasn't permitted to use it as a duplex. He has not, since acquiring the property, in any way violated any of the requirements of the city. But after waiting two more years, the property has not been able to be used another way. The first floor has been rented. And he's, again, looking to legalize the property for the two units that are in existence there.
With the neighborhood feedback, generally, the neighbors are aware that this property has been set up this way for some time.
And most of the neighbors on the block, in fact, are in support of legalizing it because leaving the top floor vacant doesn't really accomplish anything for the property.
having additional tenant in there doesn't negatively impact the current neighbors in
any way. As you can see, most of the Ann Street, Martha Street, and these are all closed neighbors
are in fact in support of legalizing this as well. Again, my client acquired this.
are in fact in support of legalizing this as well.
Again, my client acquired this in this condition.
While it was not previously known to be a legalized condition,
it is a hardship that he kind of acquired when he purchased the property.
So we would ask the board's favorable review of this application.
I'm going to show the floor plans, which reflects the existing condition at the property.
This is very straightforward.
There is a rear accessible entry to the basement.
The first floor unit is limited to the first floor and the second floor unit limited to the second floor.
Both are two bedroom units and there's no basement living.
I'll be happy to answer any questions from the board or show any additional exhibits as requested. Thank you.
Do you have your client with you?
Yes, Mural, can you raise your hand virtually and be identified?
He's been allowed to speak.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, Mural Kovaci, M-I-R-A-L-K-O-V-A-C-I.
Chairman?
If I may?
Yeah, go ahead.
Thank you.
Mr. Kowachi, did you see my presentation and hear my testimony before the board?
Can you verify that what I've stated is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission. Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning
Commission. Members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA5
single-family zoning at this location. However, the proposed use conforms to the existing interior
configuration, and so the City Planning Commission would recommend that the board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2021-003823-2141 East Ann Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Right. Number eight, MI 2021-003-827-3435 H Street.
RCO, impact, letter of support.
Councilwoman Quinones, letter of non-opposition.
Isaac Slepner, attorney.
Mr. Slepner?
Good morning.
Good morning.
State your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Good morning, Chair.
Members of the board.
Isaac Slepner.
I, India.
S, Sam.
Double A, Alpha C, Charlie.
Last name Slepner.
S, Sam.
L, Larry.
E, Elvis.
P, Peter.
N. Norman E. Elvis R. Robert, counsel for the property owner, J. H. Philly Homes, LLC.
And I have with me today our architect, David MacArthur, and Jocelyn Grione, who is the
principal of J. H. Philly Homes, LLC.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Good morning, counselor.
Good morning.
Do you agree to the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
According to our records, you have submitted all the required documents.
Is that correct?
Correct.
Please proceed.
Okay. Thank you.
Good morning, Chair and members of the Board.
I'm going to just kind of jump in here and show you what we've got in brief, and I'm going to go into more detail.
In brief, it's actually very similar to what Mr. Jin just presented in that we are seeking
legalization of the existing use of a two-family in an RSA 5 property. So I'm just going to
get right into it.
Exhibit 1 is our notice of refusal, which we have already stipulated to.
Exhibit 2 is our original application for appeal, which was filed
application for appeal um which was filed by me on behalf of the property owner
um exhibit three is our project information form as filled out and submitted the day we
filed the application for appeal exhibit four is an affidavit of service of notice to neighbors
that on November 8th, we sent out and mailed the following letter with, I'm sorry, on November 3rd,
we sent out and mailed the following letter to the list of addresses that were presented to us
by planning with regard to both the RCO meeting of impact services, as well as this hearing.
This is a copy of our letter. We notified the RCOs as well as Sloan folks of Councilwoman Kenyana Sanchez's office.
We also included a copy of our notice of refusal at that time.
This is a list of the addresses who were noticed, and you'll see there are about 50 per page.
So you're looking at about over 100, almost 150.
It's a pretty dense neighborhood over there, about 160, 170 in total.
Exhibit 5 is a copy of our letter to the neighbors and the RCOs, again, with regard to both the RCO meeting as well as this hearing today.
Um, exhibit six is the letter of support from impact services dated 12, 2021, um, in which
we received full support of the RCO for our variance request exhibit seven are our site
plans and floor plan.
And I am actually going to call on our architect, David MacArthur, who should be out there on this call, to walk the board through the plan.
David, are you there?
David?
I can walk the board through the plans.
Okay, you do that. You're right.
Yeah. Okay. Can everybody see this?
Okay. Yep.
okay uh yeah it's a pretty simple structure it's a um wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute
sir state your name and spell for the court reporter please sorry uh david mcarthur d-a-v-i-d
m-c-a-r-t-h-u-r right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i affirm proceed okay uh the property is an existing uh two-story corner structure
It has a first floor dwelling unit and an existing second floor dwelling unit.
First floor units, approximately 600 square feet, 592 exact.
Second floor is 870 square foot unit.
First floor units entered on the side street of the building and the entrance for the second floor units on the front.
It does have an unoccupied basement just for utility purposes.
And, yes, the basement has access from the first floor, also has access from Bilko doors on the sidewalk.
I can show, I'm going to continue and show some photos next, but it's, they're fairly, yeah.
I'll show some photos to the board next, Eric.
So you saw our plan, all right.
Sorry, technology issue, bear with me.
Oh, everything's gone. Hold on. That's not great. Oh, there they are. Okay, they're not gone. We're good. We're good. All right, 3435H. So 3435H, as we mentioned, is an existing two-story, two-family structure, one first-floor unit, one second-floor unit.
This is the H Street side, and that is the front door, which leads to the foyer going up the steps to the second floor.
This is the Shiller Street side, which has a separate entrance for the first floor unit.
And you can also see back there, that's the backyard of the property with an alley gate, with a gate that leads right out to this Shiller Street side.
This is another a little bit of a wider view of the Schiller Street side with the door leading
to the first floor unit. You can also see the Bilko doors that lead down directly down to the basement.
This is just a corner view. You can see both of the doors. That's the door that leads up to the
second floor unit. That's the door that leads into the first floor unit. This is another
that's the door that leads into the first floor unit this is another side view of the door to the
first floor unit and you can see the alley uh and backyard access over there
another side wide view this is part of the first floor apartment right now it's uh there's only
one occupant there's one occupant in the second floor unit um because my client uh is seeking to
get the use legalized in order to get to rental licenses. This is a view of the bedroom into
the kitchen of the first floor. This is a view of the front bedroom corner windows of the first
floor. This is a view on the second floor. This is a kitchen window. This is the bathroom on the
second floor, one of the bedrooms on the second floor, the second bedroom on the second floor,
that's the hallway leading from rear to front of the second floor apartment,
kitchen of the second floor, and living area of the second floor. And then this is a picture of
that gate that I previously shown you from the exterior view. This is on the inside of the
backyard. That gate leads out to Schiller Street. This is a picture of the basement. As you can see,
it's just storage and some mechanicals. Those steps lead up to the first floor. This is a
shot of the basement where you can see the Bilko doors out to the street are open. You can see the
light coming in, and it's just a bit of storage and some mechanicals. Exhibit nine are photos of
our orange poster which were posted 21 days ago that's on the side door to the first floor unit
this is on the side door to the first floor unit on the front door to the second floor unit
and again on the front door to the second floor unit exhibit 10 i just wanted would want to point
out to the board that the property directly across the street, 3434 H Street, also received
variances from this board in 2012 for two-family use in a similar RSA 5 property. So there are
other, there's a precedent and a history there in the neighborhood of two-family uses. This is,
as I said, a permit for the neighbor across the street, 3434 H, for uses of two-family
with the original notice of decision original notice of refusal from that permit application
exhibit 11 is the deed in favor of jh philly homes recorded in october of 2019
my client again jocelyn grione is here on the call and i'll call her in a moment to testify
she is the principal of jh philly homes this is the deed in favor of the owner
and with all attendant documents.
And Exhibit 12 is a tax clearance cert for J.H. Philly Homes,
which was issued on 124 and shows compliance
and is valid through 223 of 22.
I would just further submit that my client purchased this property
and when she did purchase it, it was being used as a two-family.
It was marketed to her as a two-family and to her knowledge
until she went and attempted to get rental licenses
and was held up,
was really not aware that it hadn't been zoned.
So we're just, again, seeking legalization
of the zoning of this property.
I would like to call Jocelyn Grillon,
who is the principal of JH Philly Homes
to adopt my testimony.
Jocelyn, are you there?
Please raise your hand if you're in the audience.
jocelyn are you out there um jones
no hand is raised okay um your officer of the court will take your testimony
thank you mr chairman um questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
Yes, Mr. Chairman. So when you say that when Jocelyn or J.H. Philly Homes purchased the property, you're saying within the closing documents, there was no information that was stipulated of the zoning of the property outside of the condition the property may have been in?
i i don't recall that there were um i've looked through them and it did not seem to address that
um she was aware that it was a two-family or she was aware that it was being used as a two-family
two-family or if she was aware that it was being used as a two-family I should say she didn't she
i should say she didn't
wasn't surprised to find the two units okay as part of your testimony was that you were
it was surprising to to the owner that the property was not zoned correctly although it
was used a different way no further questions okay questions from the virtual audience
no more handshare planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia
city planning commission members of the board uh the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the existing rsa 5 zoning at this location this proposed use however is appropriate given
the structure's existing configuration as one dwelling unit and one commercial unit which is
reflected in the historic zoning documents for this property the city planning commission
recommends that the board grant this variance in my 2021 003827 3435 8th street i vote yes
thomas holliman my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes
it's no shahi my vote is no thank you all right thank you members of the board i have nothing
further today. MI 2021-001-785-4601 Old York Road. Logan Civic Association, letter of support, Cynthia Bailey.