Mr. Mulvihill has been promoted to panelist.
Mr. Mulvihill, can you put your name and address on the record, and spell your last
Mr. Mulvihill, you're still muted.
Mr. Chair, can I move to number seven?
Calendar number 3161, 2201 Cater Street. The attorney is Vern Anastasio.
Mr. Anastasio has been promoted to panelists. Thank you. Mr. Anastasio, can you put your name
and address on the record and spell your last name? You're already under oath.
Sure. Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, 1315 Walnut, Suite 1006, Philadelphia, 19107.
Thank you. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, refusal referral, photos and or plans five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Yes to all that.
Thank you. You may proceed. Thank you. I'm going to share my screen. Okay, great.
Oh, that's not the wrong one. Sorry. Got to start over.
there it is okay it's 2201 cater street
here application is for a two-family dwelling in an existing structure
um but this property was purchased by my client uh as a two-family dwelling marketed as a two-family
dwelling priced as a two-family dwelling only to find out later that in fact it is not
we got a base basement unit that already exists it's like a junior studio i suppose
and then we have a first and second and third floor first floor's got a living room kitchen
room dining room garage second floor is the living and kitchen dining i'm sorry and two bedrooms
so that's basically one unit here and one unit there
this is the property question that's the side there's the garage there's the doors
we understand that the building code is going to require us to do a window well
which we discussed with the rco
there's more exterior photos here's some interiors
on the run through them rather quickly pretty standard
i'm going to go to
there's proof of two utilities
you have two separate water and sewer bills
of course we have our deed our tax cert our proof of mailing
and then we have the marketing of this property this is on compass
website right here msl type multifamily
I'm using my cursor to show you.
Here's Redfin.
Investors and homeowners.
Corner duplex with one car garage right there.
and that's basically it we met with the RCO they sent a letter of support there
were some minor provisos that were unrelated to zoning
minor provisos that were unrelated to zoning and that's it
thank you my client is in the audience if you wouldn't if you have no questions if you could
just be recognized jason
mr chude please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
okay can you hear me yes please identify yourself first and last name spell your last
name for the record jason chiu chiu we're confirmed to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes thank you mr anastasia thank you may i proceed
yes mr chairman yes okay thank you jason you heard my presentation to the board today
yes and is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes and what did you adopt it as
your own testimony if need be yes that's it that's all i have mr chairman thank you any
questions from the board no no no anyone else like to testify in this case if so please raise your
hand? I see no hands shared. You, Planning Commission? I'm sorry. We do have a call-in
user. Okay. We acknowledge that person. Okay. I'm not showing the hand raised. Would it
be call-in number one or number two, Ms. Dunkey? It looks like number one. Let's try and see.
Okay. Calling user, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Okay, we can continue. It just keeps popping up and I just wanted to make sure we address them.
Okay. Planning Commission. Good morning, David Fecto, City Planning Commission,
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends this property
for single-family use. However, this appears to be a pre-existing use. We recommend that the board
approve the requested variance. Thank you. MI 2020-003161-2201 Cater Street. My vote is yes.
My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes.
Harold, could we try to go back to number five?
Thank you. Have a nice day.
Thank you, you too, Vern.
Calendar number 1739-2110, North 2nd Street.
The attorney is Leo Mulvihill.
Mr. Mulvihill is promoted to panelists.
You may unmute yourself, sir.
I wait for the chair.
Okay, great.
Mr. Mulvihill, can you put your name and address on the record
and spell your last name?
Yes, good morning. Leo Mulvihill, M-U-L-V-I-H-I-L-L. Address is 20, pardon me, 1441 East Oxford Street, Philadelphia, 19125.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you swear or affirm, no, you already did that. Do you also have a great way to read the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet in with proof of ownership tax compliance, refusal or referral, photos and or plans, five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Thank you. You may proceed.
All right. Good morning, Chairman, members of the Board. My apologies for missing the previous call. My dogs picked the worst time to go crazy, and I had to attend to them.
We're here today for 2110 North 2nd Street.
It's LA88 Investment Incorporated.
My client Alex is on the line as well.
I'm showing right now my table of contents with the refusal appeal and project information form at 1,
area maps at 5, deed at 6, commercial activity license at 12,
the tax clearance at 13, zoning notification letter at 14,
a letter from Nara Square at 17, photos of property at 19, plans at 33.
Briefly, I'll address the refusal. So we're talking about the 2nd Street corridor. This
property is zoned CMX2. It's currently a vacant lot. We're located in the middle of a bunch of
three-story row homes. So what we're asking to do is to have a two-family dwelling in line with the
residential use that's on the block, but without the commercial ground floor space.
The reason for this is it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to squeeze a commercial space in
between residential properties and when we see the photographs of the property
you'll have a better sense as to what we're talking about there. What I'm
What I'm showing now is page five of my packet. I'm going to zoom in on the top. This is the area zoning map that was taken from Philadelphia Atlas. You can see that across the street, we have RSA 5 and I-2. I believe there's some sort of automobile shop across the street.
showing now is page five of my packet. I'm going to zoom in on the top this is
We're indicated in that blue parcel towards the center of the page.
Behind us is ICMX.
Directly behind us in the smaller block is all RSA 5.
This entire block, which is almost entirely residential, is all zone CMX 2.
Scrolling down to the bottom of page 5, the blue pin indicates our lot.
You can see single-family row homes and some commercial properties, frankly,
across the street with commercial ground floor and apartments above uh but our lot is here
indicated in that blue pin as i noted earlier with single family or multi-family residential
properties on either side towards the end of the block there is an empty lot believe it used to be
an automobile uh sales location i believe it's no longer in use at this point going to page six
in my packet, this is our deed. Page 12, this is our commercial activity license. 13 is our tax
clearance. It's our notification letter that went out back in November. We held a meeting with NARA
Square. It was over Zoom for the attached information at page 15. Certificate of mailing
is at page 16. At page 17, we now have the letter that we received from NARA Square.
Overall, Nara Square took an opposition to this.
In sum, the neighbors' objections were not so much to not having commercial space on the ground floor,
but frankly that nobody wanted anything built there at all.
Just to go over this as well, we discussed the prices of the units, as you can see in the first bullet point.
We're looking at around $1,250 to $1,500, so not horrifically expensive for new construction.
Neighbors on both sides of the lot expressed their concerns about construction.
So they wanted nothing built there at all.
We tried to explain exactly what we were trying to do, agreed to put some sort of agreement in writing with the neighbors, add them as additional insurance to our policy, but they didn't want to discuss that really any further with us.
And unfortunately, what's been happening is that based on the last bullet point, there's been a number of unscrupulous developers, according to Nara Square in the area.
And as a result, all of that baggage was kind of thrust upon to my client, Alex.
And ultimately, that's my understanding why the project was voted against.
It had nothing to do with a variance request whatsoever, which is de minimis.
Rather, it's simply nobody wanted anything built there whatsoever.
This is the actual lot itself.
As you can see, we have a residential properties, both to the north and south.
We do have what appears to be an illegal or not up to code downspout to the property of the north,
which is the darker red brick front.
Alex at our community meeting spoke with that neighbor who was present, offered to help relocate that,
ensure that all the flashing on the roof was complete, etc.
But the neighbor was not interested.
Just more photographs of the properties.
This is zoomed out at page 21.
We now see that there are both adjacent three-story single-family homes.
They might be multifamily further down the block, but they're not registered as such in Philadelphia Atlas.
this is just proceeding northbound up second street
and now at page 24 i've stopped to pause and we can all see that across the
street which is also in commercial mixed use
we have residential properties without commercial use for the majority of this
block likewise with us commercial mixed use
but residential properties up and down the block
directly across the street this is that larger parcel that i indicated earlier
which i believe is an auto shop they do sound systems rims and things like that
this is now looking southbound along second street
if we look behind this toyota or honda pilot rather as best we can we can see an existing
structure here on this corner lot which i discussed uh was at some point an automobile
sales store but i believe it's no longer in use all right gonna zoom out so members of the board
here's our rendering. This is at page 33. We're not proposing any particularly crazy materials,
red brick or brick veneer, perhaps some metal paddling at the top to allow for a little bit
more additional space. There's some open space in the second story to allow for that for the
second story tenant. Zooming in now on the next page, page 34. I just want to note for the record
I just want to note for the record the height. The proposed height of these structures is 32 feet 9 inches.
the height the height proposed height of these structures is 32 feet 9 inches we did not
We did not go up to the full 38 because we're not trying to tower over the existing homes.
And now what I'm showing members of the board are the floor plans at page 35, which is the final page of the packet.
To the left is the cellar plan. We have a half bath, living, open area, storage, something along those lines for the first unit.
first floor plan now towards the middle of the screen unit one is about 1100 square feet
give a bedroom to the rear of that unit bath in the middle dining and kitchen space to the front
of the property going up the stairs you get into unit b 1292 square feet again we have the bedroom
to the rear bath and kitchen to the center if you go up to the third floor we have two bedrooms
one of which could be used as a home office, as so much of us do these days.
There is a roof deck. It's set back. That's for use of the upstairs unit.
There's a substantial rear yard that's proposed.
That's going to be for the use of the downstairs unit.
In some members of the board, the hardship is thus.
This really shouldn't be a commercial block.
I understand it's zoned as such, but the uses up and down the block, as you all can see,
based on the photographs that I presented, it's not commercial. It's residential.
Putting a commercial space here presents a hardship for my client in terms of,
One, it doesn't fit the character and nature of the block.
Two, the increased traffic could harm existing neighbors who are present, assuming that this
project gets built even with commercial space against the objections of the neighbors.
And frankly, this is a residential block and ought not be zoned commercial mixed use based
on the existing characteristics of the block itself.
Alex, if you're on the line, I'd just like to ask you to raise your hand.
so you can be sworn in
Alex hasn't risen his hand yet
and we have several Alex's on the line
what's his last name
not sure whether Alex would have
put his last name or called in
LA88 Investments, Alex
in any case
If he's not on the line any longer, then what I would just ask is the board accept my testimony as my client on behalf of LA88 Investments.
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have at this time.
Hello? Did we lose anyone?
No, I'm here.
I'm here, Chairman.
Did you get your client on?
I will text him momentarily and see whether he can raise his hand.
If not, I will stipulate you being an officer of court that your client would adopt your testimony.
In the meantime, are there any questions from the board?
Is there anyone else who would like to testify in this case?
Please raise your hand.
Chair, we have Sloan Foulkes. Mr. Foulkes, you've been unmuted. Please wait for the chair.
Good morning, Mr. Foulkes. Please identify yourself for the record.