like. Again I'd like to highlight that this is simply an auxiliary structure that's built to
accommodate access to the primary structure on the third floor. This is the meat and potatoes of our
request for the variance. Essentially, in our design, there's a hardship and overcoming it
would be very, very difficult. Right now, the hardship is that our property is sandwiched
between Climber Street and St. Albans Street. I'd like to say a majority of homes in Philadelphia,
the rear of the property abuts to an adjacent home, and that setback is normally not required
for the rear of the house. In our case, it is required by a city and because we do open up to
St. Albans Street. I'd also like to indicate, again, highlighting that there's a six-foot,
four-inch ground level patio that separates the rear facade from the street, which helps to
mitigate the problems of potentially dropping debris from a roof deck onto pedestrians below.
So the structure does not affect air and light to adjacent properties.
And lastly, the design is very similar to four of the roof decks on the even side of Climber 700 Climber Street.
And then our design is very consistent with the neighborhood as well.
This is a picture of the exterior of the house.
Please notice the patio, the first and second story bump out.
And then on top of the bump out where the second floor structure would be.
And then this is a bird's eye view of the property.
farmer street to the north st alvin street to the south um although not relevant um this is
a zoning board so i indicated that rsa 5 is our current zoning requirement
um mr chair i'd like to present you the complete plans so i've indicated the relevant portions of
the plans but if there's any portion of the next two pages that you would like me to zoom in on or
scan more completely, please let me know.
Yeah. Why don't you talk about when, did you go to the Bella Vista Neighbors Association?
Yeah, absolutely.
Why don't you talk about that and how did the vote go?
Okay, yeah. So we voted, it was unanimous support from the neighborhood,
including seven neighbors and one non-relevant neighbor.
And then the board voted five non-opposition unanimously.
And you also have a letter from the council member?
This is the letter from the RCO board, Mr. Chair.
But you have another letter from council member Squill, right?
I'm not sure that I do.
So we have a copy of a letter that's, am I correct, Hillary?
There's a letter of non-opposition of the council member Squill.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
We do have a letter, Mr. Peterson, that the council member is non-opposition.
All right.
Would you like me to continue, Mr. Chair?
sure go ahead okay um this is so the rest of this is all documents that you already have in hand so
i'll go ahead and scroll through them please let me know if there's anything you're looking to stop
on this is the application for appeal presented by the applicant mr david posterneck who is my
builder he's on um the call if you would like to talk to him this is the project information form
downloaded from the city of philadelphia website this is the deed of the house the house was
purchased in 2013 from Mr. Gregory Ferrara. This is the tax clearance. It's good through December
2nd, 2023. This is the RCN notification that I made. This is the proof that I sent out that
notification and these are the relevant neighbors that I sent the notification to. Here are some
zoning notice photos. This is the front of the house. This is the rear house. Please note that
I did post it both in the front and rear of the house since we opened up to Climber Street and
St. Almond Street. Mr. Chair,
this concludes my testimony, notwithstanding
any questions from the board.
So, questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our
Attorney Hillary Ramson?
Not at this time, Mr.
Chair. Questions or comments
from the virtual audience?
I see no hands,
Chair. Planning Commission?
this is uh ron bednar city planning first name ron r-o-n last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r
you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
please proceed uh the property is indicated for residential use on a city plan given the
physical circumstances of the site we recommend the request for a variance be granted thank you
mi 2023 002 360 742 climber street i vote yes thomas holloman my vote is yes
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Mr. Peterson, you have your votes. Thank you.
How do I do, Mr. Chair?
You have your votes. You have your votes.
All right. Thank you very much.
All right. Thank you.
All right.
Number, we're going to go to number 13.
MI-2022-007-248-2241
Montrose Street. Sarah Marino and Sean Levin
are the owners.
There's a letter of support from the South of South
Neighborhood Association.
I'd love to come back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Hello.
Good morning, sir. How are you?
Hey, good. Thank you. How are you?
Can you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Shaw Levin, S-H-A-W-L-E-V-I-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
This application is for the erection of an addition above an existing two-story portion for continued use as a single-family household living.
Size and location is shown in plan.
One zoning refusal.
If abutting lots of both sides of an attached building contain only two stories of an enclosed area, the stories above the second of the attached shall be set back an additional eight feet from the minimum distance between the front facades and the front lot, whereas no setback is proposed.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
you. Can you hear me, sir? Unmute. You're muted. You're good. Proceed.
Was that a question for me? Yes, sir. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes.
Have you emailed in all the required documents that is needed to proceed with this case?
Yes. Thank you. Please proceed.
okay i can present now yes okay all right great thank you uh let me just share
okay and you see the document that i'm presenting yep we do okay great um so as was mentioned uh
we have a refusal because of the uh design that we have proposed doesn't account for the eight
foot variance setback. So we would like a variance to not have the setback. The reason is if I go over
to one of these other docks, let me make sure I find the right one. Yeah, so we want to add a third
floor right here. But the way that the house is designed right now, the third, the second floor
doesn't go all the way to the back of the house. So, if we were to have a setback in addition to
the shortened length of the second floor, there wouldn't actually be enough space to add on
the extra floor. So, we're hoping to get that variance approved. We presented over at the
Sassana board meeting, got a couple questions from residents, but had a lot of our neighbors
show up and show support uh so thank you to them and then uh they approved it um and
we have our architect on the phone with us as well but i think that's that's most of the
information that i thought would be relevant but i'm happy to answer any questions or bring
up any other documents um i also have the the ownership and the tax records um and the agreement
of sale uh available if anyone wants to see any of that um over some of these photos where you're
you're trying to show that other places have third floor without a setback right why don't you just
oh yes yeah thank you thank you there's a number of other uh houses on our block not exactly our
near neighbors but you can see uh two houses down on the the right and then three uh houses
to the left are a series of third floor buildings, and they all have the third floor
without the setbacks. And then farther down... The white one that's like one down from your
look like one down from your house does the second floor only go partially back with that one too
house, does the second floor only go partially back?
uh you're talking about this picture the white house with the black top yeah yeah that one goes
the full length so they they completely tore down and redid that house okay thank you
all right questions from the board no mr chairman no chair questions or comments from our attorney
hillary emerson not at this time mr chair why should your comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time share my planning commission
so run bednar city planning the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential
single-family zoning at this location uh we believe that the lot uh size 750 feet and the
The required front setback of the proposed third floor would render the third floor unusable.
This presents a clear hardship for the applicant to continue to derive value from the property.
And so the Planning Commission has no objection to the granting of the dimensional variance.
MI 2022-007-248-2441 Montrose Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes Ishmael Shahi my vote is yes thank you sir you have your votes
oh thank you all very much appreciate it thank you we're going to go to number 18
MI 2023 002 156 2120 pine street elena laskins and jane
Walt Coxon are the owners pro se. There is a letter of non-opposition from the Center City
Residents Association. This application is for a four-floor addition to an existing single-family
structure. Size and location is shown in plans. The maximum allowable building height in the
The RM1 zoning district is 38 feet, whereas a building height of 48 feet, two inches is proposed.
Do we see the honors?
Hello, Mr. Chairman. Can you hear me?
Hi. Good morning. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court's sonographer?
Elena Laskin, E-L-E-N-A-L-A-S-K-I-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you put your video on, please?
Yes, I see that I do not have my video on.
That's okay.
That's all right.
Thank you.
There we go.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, okay?
Good morning, ma'am.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
and before you start i should also mention that center city resident association and non-opposition
out you also have four emails of support from your neighbors and the project has received
approval from the historical commission that's right you can start now please thank you thank
you sir um so i'm here to talk about 2120 pine street which is my primary residence
I have here my notice of refusal. We're zoned RM1 with a maximum height of 38 feet. We are
seeking to add a four-story to our existing three-story property of a post-building height
of 48 feet, two inches, and we received a refusal based on height. So just for some context,
we have some pictures here. We are this three-story building between these two four-story properties.
and for further context it's kind of hard to see because of the trees I have some aerial photos
that make it a little bit clearer we're this three-story property with the red arrow in this
row of four-story properties we also have a picture of directly across the street from us
these properties are also all four stories and the reason we are pursuing this addition
is because our house has a lack of natural light, which creates a hardship.
As you can see from the ZBA map here in the corner,
our building is connected on three sides to three other buildings,
which means that we do not have sufficient natural light in our property.
And you can see it from this picture in the left-hand corner.
We are fully connected to this property on the right.
Other than this small side yard, we are connected to this property right here on the left.
Other than this small side yard, we are connected to this property right here on the left.
And we have no backyard.
We are connected to this property here to the south.
And so what we're seeking to do is to build a four-story addition to come up to the level
of the properties around us and to be able to capture natural light both by raising our
property to meet the other properties, as well as to utilize the existing setbacks for
windows.
And while I have this picture, just so you have a visualization of what we're looking to do,
right here, this uncovered area of the deck, we are seeking to preserve a deck,
and then replace the pilot house and the existing pergola with a fourth story.
Here are some pictures of our zoning posters and our drawings. So everything in this drawing
that's shaded is existing deck. And like I said, we're looking to work in the existing footprint
of the deck, maintaining the deck in the front and adding an addition to the back where there's
currently a pergola and a pilot house, while maintaining all of the existing setbacks from
the other properties. Another drawing, here's our existing third story wall. We would just extend
to four stories. We've taken efforts to reduce our massing, such as including this pitched roof here,
and it's such that you can see from this little guy here that someone walking down the Pine
Street would experience the same thing as they have today. It would appear as a three-story
building, so we've just made efforts to make ourselves as discreet as possible.
As you can see from this drawing we're planning on using, over here on the right, you can see
we're planning on using this addition as living space, and we've added as many windows and light