areas as possible to remedy our issue of not having sufficient natural light in this home.
So as you can see over here, we're trying to get as many windows as possible. Just the rest of the
drawings. As you indicated, we did go in front of the CCRA at the end of August. Here's our
non-opposition letter. We've not received any opposition from any neighbors, and anyone who
spoke spoke in favor of our proposal. As you further mentioned, we also have approval from
the Historic Commission. We met with them in mid-May, and they reviewed and signed off on the
plans that we've presented to you. Letters of support. Application for appeal in the project
information form. Evidence of mailing to 104 neighbors. Our tax clearance certificate. Copy
of our deed. And a bonus picture from the inside of the pilot house showing where we would open up
to a four-story. And with that, I thank you and I'll take any questions. Questions from the board.
no mr chairman no chair why should your comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair why should your comments from the virtual audience
i see the heads chair planning commission uh ron bednar city planning the property
is indicated for residential use on the city plan given the physical circumstances of the
site. We recommend their question. Thank you. MI 2023, 002156, 2120 Pine Street. I vote yes with
proviso. Revised plans, two pages, stamped by ZBA, November 8, 2023. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes
with proviso. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso. You have your votes. Thank you.
thank you all right so now we're going to go to let's see here one two three
number four mi 2022 006 742 725 bybury road david orphanetes is the attorney
letter of support from the Somerton Civic Association.
Chair, David Orphanides is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good morning, Mr. Orphanides.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Certainly. My name is David Orphanides, O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D.
Certainly. My name is David Orphanides, O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, a relationship to this property?
Certainly. My client is the Lubavitch Center for Russian Jewry, and they are the owner of the subject property.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
good morning counselor do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i do 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 it did thank you please proceed
and share your screen i certainly will thank you uh can you see my screen yet not not yet uh mr
Mr. Chair, I just want to note that board member Snell has joined us.
Good morning, Jim.
Good morning.
I was just waiting for my time to chime in there.
Yes, I'm here.
Welcome, Snells.
Welcome.
All right.
Can you see my screen now?
We can, yes.
Great.
Fantastic.
Again, my name is David Orphanides.
I'm with the law firm of Orphanides & Toner here in Philadelphia.
And once again, I'm representing the owner of the property, 725 Byberry Road, and that's the Lubavitch Center for Russian Jewelry.
What you see up here on the screen right now is a photograph that I took from Byberry Road that shows the existing structure at the subject property, which is to the right where the arrow is.
the structure that exists there is composed of two buildings, an older building that has been
very nicely maintained through the years, definitely since my clients purchased the
property, acquired the property in 2013. And then in the area where the arrow is, there's a newer
addition that wraps around the back or the north side of the existing structure. The Byberry Road
runs to the south of the property. In this photograph, you can see a banner that's up on
the wall, and that is the area of the sign that we're looking to have a variance granted for in
this case. It's only a sign application. There's no proposed change to the height or area of the
existing building, no change to the parking that exists. As you can see, there's an existing parking
lot um to the west to the left or to the west of the property with access from bybury road
so it's a simple sign application um the sign that we're proposing and i will uh go right here
to the rendering is uh very uh understated it's a non-illuminated wall sign um it is just a series
of letters uh words uh name um and a symbol that are directly mounted to the wall with one inch
thick pvc it is going to be a non-illuminated sign um the this wall uh this portion of the
of the building at the property the the newer edition as you can see here in the site plan
that was submitted with the application uh it is it is located 78 feet seven inches away from the
front property line on Byberry Road. So here you can see the property fronts on one side on Byberry
and on the other side on Proctor Road. Here you can see the existing building, the older building,
and then the newer addition. By right in RSD3, a building can be located as close as 25 feet
from the front property line. So, you know, we've mounted, this sign is going to be mounted
over 50 feet further than realistically it could be if a building, if it was mounted where it could
be closer to Byberry Road on a structure that was right at the front setback. And right here,
you can see the front setback line is shown on the plan. So we're substantially further away.
Byberry Road is an extremely wide road. I think as most of us know, it's 70 feet wide,
Wide sidewalks, wide cartway.
It's a fairly busy road.
And our position is that this sign, because of the distance that it is from the street, from the front property line, even though it is slightly larger than what is permitted in the zoning district, as you can see here from the notice of refusal, 15 square feet is permitted in the underlying RSD 3 zoning, RSD 1 zoning district.
and 49 square feet is what's proposed.
The sign is 49 inches overall.
Again, there's a lot of open space in the middle
and throughout the letters and the symbols,
but you can see right here when you measure for a sign,
but you can see right here when you measure for a sign it's to the outer edges of whatever it is
it's to the outer edges of whatever it is.
and we're at 49 inches by 144 inches and so putting us slightly over what is permitted in
the zoning district again as you mentioned at the beginning there is a letter of support from
the somerton civic association we did my clients met with the civic association themselves in a
smaller breakout meeting with their zoning committee and then we met with the full community
you can see here the notice of the meeting from september 12th
and the certificate of the mailing that went out along with the listed addresses at tab 17.
the letter from somerton civic is extremely detailed i think as you can see it highlights
A lot of the points that you would see if you review the photos that we have of the property, again, mentioning that, you know, it's a Byberry Road, busy street.
There are other properties that are fairly densely used, including businesses down to the west, an apartment building across the street.
All of these have signage either up at the front property line or near to the front property line, residential properties across the street from us on Proctor.
There is a school located further to the north of us on the opposite side of Proctor that actually has something fairly similar to what we are proposing in this case.
Here you can see the view of the St. Christopher School from Proctor Road, and then as you get nearer, you can see similar type of lettering, similar type of size as what we're proposing in this case, and in a similar way, it's going to be, you know, it's not going to be highly noticeable from the street.
uh there were plans approved for this project um i'm showing you now tab 11 construction drawings
that were approved by lni on august 4th 2016 and you can see here that there was actually
a larger sign that was approved at that time by lni and here you can see it on the left
where i'm circling with my cursor and so you it's i think it's pretty clear that the sign that and
there are reasons why that sign wasn't built, some constructability concerns based upon my
conversations with the rabbi. But you can see the difference between that sign and then the sign
that we're proposing. Much smaller, much more understated. So for these reasons, we feel that
the variance here is the minimum variance required given the existing location of the
structure, the size of the property. It's a 35,537 square foot property. The fact that my clients
have maintained this property in terrific condition throughout the years. I've included
street view photos that go back through the years that show how the property has been maintained.
There's no other signage at the property.
You can see going back through the years and also in the exterior photographs that I have provided at tab six.
So it's not as if there's a ton of signage here already.
Obviously, my clients would be limited in adding any additional wall signs at the property because we're already over the limit.
So if any additional wall signs were proposed, they'd have to come back both to the community and to the zoning board for further relief.
In my exhibit book, I've included at tab 12 the appeal and project information form that was originally submitted. I was not the original attorney. One of the members was an attorney and submitted it. I took over the case over the summer. Copy of the deed at tab 13 showing my client owns the property. Copy of our tax compliance is at tab 13.
There you go. Or 14. I'm sorry. Showing no balance due. We had a little bit of issue running the tax clearance certificate, but we've provided this to Hillary, and she said it was acceptable.
Copy of the hearing notice for today's hearing. Posting photographs at tab 16 on both frontages that you can see here in accordance with the requirements of the zoning code.
And again, a copy of the 14-303 notices at tab 17 for the community group meeting with
Somerton Civic Association and then also providing notice of today's zoning board hearing.
of today's zoning board hearing um with that i would ask uh to have my client um promoted to
With that, I would ask to have my
panelists and um rabbi goldschmidt and and have him adopt my statements okay
whereby goldsmith if you're in the virtual audience please raise your virtual hand
Rabbi Goldsmith has been unmuted
and allowed to speak, Chair.
Good morning, Rabbi.
Could you please state your name
and spell for the course stenographer?
Shalom Goldschmidt.
Shalom, it's S-H-A-L-O-M.
Goldschmidt, last name G-O-L-D-S-H-M-I-D.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Rabbi Goldschmidt, did you hear the statements that I made to the zoning board this morning?
Yes, everything is clear. Thank you.
And they're true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own?
And just to be clear, you are authorized, obviously, on behalf of the Lubavitch Center for Russian Jewry.
Yes, I'm the rabbi and the president of the Lubavitch Center for Russian Jewelry, correct.
Okay, thank you very much, rabbi.
Mr. Chairman, I was in touch with Alice Udovich from Councilman O'Neill's office.
Yesterday, obviously, was an election and a successful one for the councilman.
I believe she may be on this morning's call to state the councilman's position as well.
Thank you.
So let's start with questions from the board.
No, Chair.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Good morning, Chairman, members of the board.
Alice Udovich on behalf of Councilman Brian O'Neill.
Alice, everybody probably knows, but just for the record, could you spell your name?
Alice, A-L-I-C-E, Udovich.
u-d-o-v-i-c-h right do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth i do please proceed uh chairman the councilman supports the granting of the
variance at this location thank you for taking the time to call us house we appreciate it is
there anyone is there anyone else in the virtual audience i see no hands at this time commission
Yeah, this is Ron Bednar. The property is indicated for residential use on the city plan. The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the signage dimensional requirements of the code.
Therefore, we recommend the request to finish the opportunity.
MI 2022-006-742-725, Bybury Road, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Number five, MI-2022-006-736-2129 Pine Street.
Alan Notkinson is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from the Center City Residence Association.
The applicant did supply a petition in support signed by eight neighbors along with four form letters.
Alan Nockamson is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Mr. Nockamson, you've already been sworn. Just state your name for the record, please.
Yes, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Mr. Nockamson, could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Oh, yes. My client is 2129 Pine LLC. And then the virtual audience is Kay Keeley. I do. This is a first for me. My notes actually had me asking for a continuance of this matter. We wanted to do a little more community outreach before we presented this matter to the board.
That's fine. So MI 2022-006-736-2129 Pine Street, this case will be continued. Thank you, Mr.
Nockamson. We appreciate it. Thank you. And Mr. Nockamson, I just had a quick question. This is Hillary.
And, Mr. Nockmson, I just had a quick question. This is Hillary. The refusal didn't specify. Was the change of use to visitor accommodations for all six units in the entire structure?
The refusal didn't...
Is that what the proposal is?
Yeah, I did not file the original application. So, if, you know, if the board's so inclined to grant this zoning matter, I was going to ask for a proviso visitor accommodations for six units.
okay all right i just wanted to clarify thank you thank you let's see here number 10
mi 2023 000 487 2351 south bonsall street
Counsel?
Who's the counselor you're looking for, Chair?
Well, it was Helen Bach is listed as the lead attorney, but it was one of her male associates was on the air, on the before.
Okay, we have a Charles Goodwin with his hand up?
Yep, yep, yep.
Actually, it's David Chandler.
Charles Goodwin I think is here
for the case that was just continued