identify themselves prior to speaking or testifying. Third, we'd like to advise everyone
that this proceeding is being recorded and that by participating you acknowledge your agreement
to be recorded. Fourth, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise
your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself. I repeat, for anyone participating
by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six
to unmute yourself. Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548
and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
I'll repeat that.
To enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548
and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
With that said, we can begin.
But before Vice Chair Tenere calls any cases,
we'd like to announce the following matters are being continued.
calendar number three
Calendar number 39303, 3734 North 8th Street.
Calendar number 39300, 4951 North 5th Street, number 5th Street.
If anyone believes that either of those cases has been called an error, please raise your hand at this time.
or should you wish to ask for a continuance or withdrawal,
please raise your hand at this time also.
No hands at this time.
Thank you.
Ms. Tenere, please begin calling the cases.
Calendar number 39584, 1528 North 25th Street.
The attorney is Leo Mulvihill.
good afternoon everyone good afternoon good afternoon mr mulvihill can you put your name
and address on the record certainly it's leo mulvihill m-u-l-v-i-h-i-l-l address is 2424
East New York Street, Suite 111, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19125.
And do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
You may proceed.
Thank you.
All right, members of the board, I'm trying to bring my screen share up.
Does everybody see that?
So good afternoon members of the board. Leo Mulvihill here today on behalf of 1528 North 25th Street LLC. What I'm showing you is my presentation packet here with my refusal appeal and project information form at page one.
area zoning map at page 6, D for the property at page 7, commercial activity license at page 12,
tax clearance at 13, zoning notification letters to the RCO at 14, the RCO letter of support
from Burrytown Sharswood at 17, photos of the property at 18, and then plans of the property
are attached to this presentation as the appendix. So members of the board, we're here today seeking
the variance to allow for a three-story new construction building that for a two-family
living. The height of the building itself is proposed at 33 feet. As I said, it's two units.
Unit one is 1,520 square feet, three bed, two bath. Unit two is about a little bit bigger,
1,674 square feet, three bedroom, two bath. It has a large rear yard and there's an existing
fire alley behind. And that's basically all we're looking for today. Just by way of background,
members of the board, I would appear in front of you back in December of 2018, which feels like
about 20 years ago at this point, at calendar number 33755 for a property at 1524 North 25th
Street, just a couple doors down, for a similar request for two-family dwelling, which this board
granted. As I said, the permit was granted a 118-19. What we have here currently is showing
the notice of refusal for the property. This is for two-family household living,
and we also seek to have a third story on the structure without the required setback
under the zoning code. I'm showing you now at page six, area zoning map, members of the board.
We're located on North 25th Street. You can see the particular parcel shaded in blue in the yellow
area marked RSA 5. You'll also note that there is significant RM1 zoning all throughout this area.
Looking to the aerial photograph at the bottom of the screen, you can also see that this is an area that is seeing a lot of development at the moment due to the number of completely vacant lots and many vacant structures that exist.
And we'll see more of those as we go to the photographs of the property itself.
One moment.
So, a little too far here.
So, members of the board, what I'm showing now is a letter from Brewery Town Sharswood, dated March 22nd, 2020.
So, we had our meeting before the shutdown.
We did present this project to the Brewery Town Sharswood RCO.
They supported this project altogether.
There were 18 votes in support.
a total of eight in opposition, one in non-opposition.
Total of eight in opposition, one in non-opposition.
the final position was
The final position was support from the RCO.
What I'm showing now members of the board is the lot
as it currently exists.
Just zooming out a little bit for purposes of the record.
This is page 19 or 23 of the packet.
This is the lot right now at the zoning sign
that was reposted.
Page 20, this is a more zoomed out photograph
showing the existing structure to the left
and existing structure to the right.
This is a photo looking southbound on 25th Street. As you can see, many of the blocks
are very vacant, if not completely vacant. There are some new homes a little bit further behind us,
which I'll show in a few seconds. And you can see some new homes that have been built, I believe,
along Oxford Street, which I'm indicating now with my cursor. Moving to page 22,
we see a new construction home, vacant lots, vacant properties across the street. 1526 does
currently have somebody living in it. This is a shot taken directly across the street from the
property. These are all three-story homes, all of which appear to be abandoned as of the date
that I took these photographs several weeks ago. Moving in now to the zoning plans members of the
board, Appendix 1. We can see the photographs of the property that were taken back when these
drawings were originally prepared. Zooming into the property's site plan. The property itself
is a standard width, 15 feet wide. The massing of the building isn't too terribly high. The
roof deck is set back five feet as required by code. Pilot house, pretty standard. You have a
relatively large rear yard, as well, behind it is the existing alley.
Scrolling down to the bottom of that page, showing the longitudinal section,
it's a three-story building with cellar at the front of the building, the rear of the building,
the existing alley, and that relatively large rear yard for use by unit number one. Both units are
by level. Unit one goes in the cellar on the first floor, unit two on the second and third
Lord. The property itself is about 35 feet, 3 inches in total height, so we're not even at
what we're allowed to be max under the zoning code.
These are some additional photos that were taken by the architect on Appendix 2.
Appendix 3 is an additional zoning plan, kind of expanded from what I showed earlier,
but again showing that this is a mixed area with RSA 5, RM 1 uses, and our block on which we're
wishing to build this block of North 25th Street is a mix of both. It's our argument that in this
area, considering the previously granted variances, that this proposed use is not out of character
with this specific proportion of the neighborhood, despite the fact that about half the block is
zoned RSA 5. Moving to page appendix 4 members of the board, these are the floor plans.
I'll review those quickly with you.
Unit one is the cellar and the first floor.
In the cellar, we have a bedroom to the front of the property with an egress well,
mechanical room and walk-in closet, another walk-in closet to the rear with a large bath,
and a bedroom with a large egress well, which leads out to the fire alley to the rear.
Going up the stairs, you then get onto the first floor of unit one, living room, dining,
kitchen in the middle, bedroom or spare room, workroom to the rear of the property.
steps then go down for access to the rear yard for this unit. One would then
go up the stairs if they want to get it into unit two. Unit two has a pretty
similar layout. You have living, dining, kitchen in the middle, bedroom one to the
rear. Third floor we have a bedroom in the front, bedroom in the back, bath in the
middle along with some storage. On the roof we have the roof deck access for
use by unit two only. So unit one has use of the rear yard, unit two has use of
roof deck for outdoor space. It's just another larger blown-up building section showing the
overall height of the structure. And finally moving to Appendix 6, we're just showing the
elevations of the property at the front and the rear. On the front we plan to use a mix of brick
and perhaps siding or some other material. The parapet wall itself and the railing are going
to be relatively clear to kind of take away from that massing. So we're not going to be towering
over the street itself. As you saw from the photos earlier, there's precedent for three-story
structures without setbacks already on this block, a couple doors up from us. The property that I
had approved back in December of 2018 had a similar design and the houses across the street
were also all three-story. So even this height, this three-story is within character of the block
this three-story is within character of the block, despite the fact that some of the existing homes
despite the fact that they exist, some of the existing homes.
that are on the block are two-story as well. That's our presentation members of the board.
Farazi, are you currently on the line? If so, would you please raise your hand and wait to be sworn in?
you can unmute yourself
yes hello this is faraz please state your name spell your name and wait to be sworn in by the
zoning chair please sure my name is faraz afdab first name is faraz f as in frank a r a
A, Z as in zero, last name is Afdab, A as in apple, F as in Frank, T as in Tom, A as in apple, B as in boy.
And Faraz, what's your mailing address, please?
My mailing address is 1022 Mount Pleasant Avenue.
That's Wayne, PA, 19087.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed, Leo.
Yes. Now, Faraz, you're the principal of 1528 North 25th Street, LLC?
Correct.
You've heard my presentation today?
Is there anything you'd like to add or let the zoning board know about this project or this property?
Leo, you covered everything.
So that said, do you adopt my testimony as your own today?
And we're happy to take any questions from members of the board at this point.
Leo, I do have a question. Do you have any, show us some photographs of North 25th Street, the 1500 block on your side, the even side. What's there?
One moment.
There's a lot of vacant lots there, correct?
Yes, there's a number of vacant lots. So this gray building that I'm now indicating to the left of photo on page 20, that's an existing structure, residential use.
there's another two uh story structure i believe two lots down to the north of us
you can see to the right of this photograph i'm uncertain whether anyone's living there
at this point okay because when you show when you showed us the map it shows the whole block
as being rsa5 but basically there aren't that many houses there to begin with okay correct
our side of the block is rsa5 behind us is rm1 across the street is rm1 very good all right
thank you uh any questions from the board no no no anyone else wish to testify on this matter
please raise your hand if you do
no hands chair thank you planning commission hi this is mason austin representing the planning
commission um mason mason i'm sorry uh you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
about the truth i do thank you please proceed sure thank you um a lot is designated for single
family residential in the comprehensive plan and was remapped to conform to that recommendation
in 2014. therefore staff recommends against the approval of the requested use variance
however given the context uh staff has no opposition to the dimensional variance
Calendar number 39584. 1528 North 25th Street. My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Thank you, members of the group.
Now, I'm convinced.
Carol?
okay all right i'll uh i'll call the next case uh calendar number three nine five eight five
one eight one nine waterloo street leo you're up again all right well members of the board
again this is leo mulvihill 2424 east york street suite 111 philadelphia pennsylvania
one nine one two five i'm here today on the applicant of on behalf of the applicant rather
Let me just get my right packet up here. 1819 Waterloo LLC. Members of the board, there are
revised plans which have changes done at the request of the RCO. I'll go through both the
original and revised plans with the board here today. The only difference between the original
plan as presented when submitted and the revised plan is that the RCO asked us to change the
is that the RCO asked us to change the material of our parapet wall into something translucent,
material of our parapet wall into something translucent.
so we switched it from hardy board to a rail, and then to set back a roof deck to the five-foot
setback requirement as required under the zoning code. But I'll review those changes with you,
and they are picked out. So today, members of the board, we're here for 18-19.
Mr. Mulvihill, can I interrupt you for one minute? Yes. We did receive a letter from the RCO this
afternoon requesting supporting the project with two provisos which are exactly those that you
just stated thank you so members of the board for the record these are my materials the refusal
appeal and project information form at page one area zoning map at six deed at seven commercial
activity license at 12 tax clearance at 13 zoning letters at 16 we did not have an rco letter but i
understand that you have received it. Photos of the property at page 19. Plans and revised plans
are now attached as the appendix. So members of the board, we're here today because we are seeking
to build a new single-family dwelling on Waterloo Street, which is a tiny block in the South
Kensington catchment of the city, basically right off of Front Street. We're looking to go three
stories up rather than two stories because of the depth of the lot. After some discussions with the
RCO, prior to my involvement, the RCO indicated that my clients were okay with proceeding with
a three-story structure so long as there was at least a three-foot setback for the third story
to help maintain the cornice line. In this case, the design of the property maintains the cornice
line, and we've done basically everything the RCO has asked with respect to helping this property