you're now live thank you um okay there's melissa i see
uh tanya and fatina we'll give you a few minutes yes thank you thank you
Thank you.
Okay, Chair, we have about 21 participants.
You can go forward as you wish.
Frank, you're muted.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Frank DiCicco.
I'm the chair of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
I'll be participating in today's hearing along with our board secretary,
Confessor Plaza, and board members, Mr. Thomas Holloman and Mr. James Snell.
Board Administrator Fatina L. and our Board Attorney, Ms. Melissa Freeman, are also in
attendance, as is our Zoning Board Administrator, Ms. Tanya Sunke. For those of you who haven't
yet participated in one of our virtual hearings, I'll go through some of the basics of what you
can expect. First, we will be administering oaths to individual participants prior to their
testimony. Second, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded and that
by participating you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded and that the recording will be
made available to the public on the web or otherwise. Third, 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 and i would also like to remind everyone
please do not attempt to testify in the chat any comments or questions you have please speak with
our board administrator, Ms. Fatina L. Having said that, I will read off on the 930 list.
Case number five, MI 2020-002439, 2401 North 33rd Street is withdrawn.
Number nine on the 930 list, MI 2021-001-618, 710-20 Montrose Street is being withdrawn.
Number 10 on the 930 list, MI 2021-001-575, 7248 Rising Sun Avenue.
is being requested at the request for continuance is made by the attorney for the applicant and
agreed to by the 35th Ward Democratic Club. Anyone objects to those cases being withdrawn
or continued, please raise your hand at this time.
i see no handshare you at this time i will ask if anyone would like to request a continuance
Thank you. At this time, I will ask if anyone would like to request a continuance or withdrawal on the 930 list. If so, please raise your hand.
If you're requesting a continuance or withdrawal on the 930 list, please raise your hand.
Chair, we have Leo Mulvihill. Please unmute yourself and please wait for the chair.
Good morning, Mr. Mulvihill. Please identify yourself and I'll square you in.
good morning chair leo mulvihill 315 green street first floor philadelphia 19123
your last name m-u-l-v as in victor i-h-i-l-l you swear for him to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed uh this is for the property of 614 north 64th
street i'm not sure of the number requesting that's our request for a continuance please
Okay. Number eight on our list, MI 2021, that's 001-675-614-North-64th Street is continued.
And Chair, as well, one more, it's 5928 Walnut Street.
Okay, MI 2021, that's 001-633-5928 Walnut Street is also continued.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any objection to those cases being continued?
If not, is anyone else requesting a continuance or withdrawal for the 930 list?
Please raise your hand.
Chair, we have Petrina McFarling.
please unmute yourself and please wait for the
good morning ma'am please spell your full name for the record and i'll swear you in
good morning um p-e-t-r-i-n-a um last name mcfarlane m-c-f as in frank a-r-l-a-n-e
or for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes purpose of yes ma'am i just i just had a question i just wanted to make sure i understood
what a continuance meant in regards to the property at 614 north 64th street new date will
be issued for for a hearing i don't have that date it will be met you will be notified
the community will be notified a posting will occur and you'll be notified of the new date
okay thank you very much anyone requesting a continuance or withdrawal for the 9 30 list
chair we have laureen brown please unmute yourself and please wait for the chair
good morning ma'am please identify yourself for the record spell your name and i'll swear you in
Good morning. My name is
Maureen Brown
L-O-R-E-E-N
We're going to affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth
Please proceed
I just
wanted to know
when the new date
will be
the continuance
well that that'll be made known we don't have a date yet in front of us staff will will put out
a notice of that new date okay okay thank you anyone would like to request a continuance or
withdrawal i see no handshake thank you we'll now go to the add-on list
MI 2021-001485, 5212 Beaumont Avenue, and MI 2021-001484, 5307 Chester Avenue.
Mr. Slepner is the attorney of record.
and i believe mr slepner are you there
good morning uh chair members of the board
good morning chair members of the board isaac slepner uh s-l-e-p-n-e-r with matione limited
100 North Independence Mall
West Suite 5A
Northwest, Philadelphia
PA 19106
here on behalf of the
applicant
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? Yes, I do.
Yes, I do. Please proceed. And then I have a statement from Councilwoman Gauthier's office, which I will read into the record.
Please proceed
and then I have a statement from
County
Okay. As the chair may recall, the board had held this for a board vote because although we have a letter of support from the RCO, the coordinating RCO, for both of these properties, the meeting summary did not bear a vote total.
I would point out that we do have support from the RCO for both of these properties for 5212 Beaumont, as well as 5307 Chester.
And we did submit those letters to the board, as did the RCO.
And, you know, I would point out that the code doesn't require that the vote totals be printed.
Each RCO has its own bylaws and its own way of doing things.
I'm not entirely, I'm not an expert, shall I say, on the procedures and bylaws of the 51st Ward Democratic Committee. But, you know, I will take them at their written word if they support our variances, that we have their support.
It was my recollection that Mr. Goodman had objected, and that was what held the vote. But I did a bunch of due diligence. I attempted to get in contact with these RCO chairs. Our last hearing on this was August 4th, and as of the morning of August 5th, I began trying to get in touch with them, myself and my paralegal, Sarah McAvoy.
I sent to Ms. Saleta a stack of correspondents, and I can present that to the board now if you would like, stack of correspondents between August 5th and yesterday, August 17th, to both Greg Benjamin, who I believe is the ward leader, and Mark Harrell, who I'm pretty sure is the zoning chair of the 51st Ward Democratic Committee.
Neither of them responded to me over the past 14 days. So we have been diligently attempting to obtain vote totals, sign-in sheets, further evidence of that in attempting to cooperate with Mr. Goodman and find out the vote totals.
I can understand why he might have wanted to see that. I would have been interested in myself.
But regardless, the RCO supported us. And as I recall, I had presented the specifics of our
projects at our initial hearing, and today was just held for the board's vote. But if I am
in error in any of that, by all means, Chair, please correct me.
but there uh i'm still a little confused myself uh you said that the rco supported which one are
we talking about beaumont or chester uh both both beaumont and chester yes all right why don't i
why don't i do this let me read into the record uh what was given to us by mr goodman of council
and gaultier's office all right then then we'll have a discussion so as it relates to 5212 beaumont
Avenue. This is from the Councilwoman's office. Our office opposes the granting of this variance
as we have others of its kind to preserve the single-family zoning of these especially
small streets in southwest Philadelphia. As it relates to MI 2021-001484-5307 Chester Avenue,
our office opposes the granting of this variance and asks that the applicant meet with the
coordinating RCO again to discuss revisions to the building design to be more consistent
with the context of the block so on one of them it's obvious that they're the councilwoman is
opposed but she's asking that you go back to the rco uh the 31st ward rco and have further
conversation as it relates to chester avenue my my i'm sorry you have a comment because i have a
suggestion i'm going to make um yes chair i would just point out that we actually had uh we had an
initial meeting with the RCO um with regard to 5307 Chester at that time they hadn't uh voted
on us or otherwise given us indication of support or non-support we actually went back to them with
revised plans uh that because we had had that conversation and I think Mr. Goodman had and
that's why he's saying what he's saying in this email Mr. Goodman had been there for that and
Mr. Goodman had been there for that and had suggested that at that time, we had actually gone back to the, literally to the drawing board, our architect redesigned the plans to have an outdoor porch, you know, a front porch that is, would line up with the adjoining neighbor 5309, which is an existing row with a porch, front porch on that portion of Chester Avenue.
had suggested that at that time uh we had actually gone back to
precisely because the initial design
was more in line
with the front porches
and the design of that section of Westville
yeah I mean I just
this was just forwarded to me by Sharon
about 15 minutes ago
is Mr. Goodman on the line
by any chance
I don't think he is
that's why he sent this over and no chair I don't see you thank you I don't want to keep belaboring
this on the point and continuing this case but in all fairness to everybody I think it might be
helpful Mr. Schleppner if you reach out to Mr. Goodman and have this conversation he may or may
not be aware i think you said he was at one of the meetings he was at the meeting on chester avenue
chester avenue yes yeah but i understand that but he's also saying that he's basically asking that
you go back and have further conversation now i don't know if that was this was written prior to
that meeting so here's subsequent to the meeting so i'm i'm at a loss i mean we we can certainly
attempt to do that, but you may have seen, I don't know if Ms. Zaleta forwarded to you the stack of
emails that I had forwarded to her yesterday. Maybe she did this morning prior to opening the
session. Like I said, we've been attempting to get in touch with these RCO chairs for the past
two weeks. And even before these past two weeks, it was not easy getting in touch with them or
getting a meeting scheduled with them so i understand what you're asking chair and and
i understand why you're you're requesting it um but i feel like we've done plenty of our due
diligence and plenty of of reaching out to the community and it's it seems to me like it may be
we may be chasing our tail here if we're attempting to um go back to these uh this rco
why don't we do why don't you do this just just a suggestion yes i mean because the councilwoman's
opposing both of them but on one of them as it reads you know she's willing to asking suggestion
to go back to the rco you're having a hard problem reaching the rco um i think that might be helpful
if you have a conversation with the councilwoman and or mr goodman and we we can hold this uh as
make this an add-on if we can tanya for next week hopefully you'll have that discussion
over the next several days i don't want to vote something up or down when the councilwoman is
suggesting that you go back and you have gone back you've done your due diligence but obviously
maybe she's not aware that you're not getting any response from the rco well i mean we have
we have letters we have letters of support from the rco um the rco has has met with us it's not
that they haven't met with us it's just that it's you know and you understand these rcos are all
volunteer people so it's it's sometimes it's difficult to get get everybody together in one
spot or behind one zoom screen you know um i mean it's not we can vote on them today i just
it's it's it's unusual um
they have the councilwoman saying she's opposing it but off offering you to go back and meet with
the rco which you've already done you got letters of support i am more confused today than i was
a week ago um i was wondering would we be able to hear from uh the planning commission yeah yeah
i'll get the planning commission on so all right uh i know the board's been listening to this and
if you have any questions please ask mr slepner if not we'll move on no
i'm okay with it no question anyone else is there anyone else who would like to testify
in this case in these cases i should say
i see no hands thank you planning commission
morning chair to chico ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
h-e-g-a-r-t-y we're a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Yes, sir, I do.
All right, members of the board, I'll start with 5212 Beaumont Street.
Comprehensive plan recommends the property for residential single-family use.
This is a 1,000-square-foot lot.
There are no unique circumstances of the lot, though, that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
And so with regard to 5212 Beaumont Street, we recommend the board deny the variance.
With regard to 5307 Chester Avenue, comprehensive plan recommends this property for residential single-family use.
The map was amended here in 2019, according to the comprehensive plan recommendations.
However, L&I's zoning archive indicates that there are several adjacent nonconformities.
Two houses on the block have two units, two have three units, and two have rooming houses.
So given the adjacent non-conformities and the revisions to the plan that changed the exterior appearance,
we recommend that the board grant the variances for 5307 Chester Avenue.
Mr. Slepner, on the 5307 Chester revised plan, how many pages?
um i think our revised plan the revisions were only one page uh and i we had submitted those
prior to our hearing on the fourth with a revised plan sheet okay i don't have that in front of me
that's why i asked okay okay yeah all right uh mi 2021-001485 5212 beaumont avenue my vote is no
my vote is no confess my vote is no thomas holloman my vote is no
mi 2021-001484-5307 chester avenue my vote is yes with the proviso
revised plan one page approved today professor plaza yes with proviso
james snell yes with proviso thomas holloman yes with proviso
Thank you. We will now go to our regular list. Item number one, MI 2021-001-626, 1412 South 23rd Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney of record. Point Breeze Community Development Corporation sent a letter of support.