Thank you. Azuka, did you hear all the testimony that I offered before the board today?
Yes, I do.
And you are the authorized representative of the property owner, correct?
Yes, I am.
And would you agree that the testimony that I offered today was true and accurate?
And would you adopt that as if it were your own?
Yes, I will.
Thank you.
Happy to answer any questions.
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.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Board.
This is Greg Baldwin from Planning Commission staff.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning.
The proposed use is consistent with documented use of the property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
Thank you.
Thank you. MI 2023, 004-374-5392 West Montgomery Avenue. I vote yes.
MI 2023-004-374.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ismail Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
All right. Number 14, MI 2023, 003-558-2334 North 30 Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from Strawberry Mansion community concerned with the accompanying photo.
Applicant provided a petition of support from approximately 11 neighbors, along with nine form letters of support from neighbors.
Mr. Nockamson, you've already been sworn.
Just state your name, please, for the record.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
could you identify your client in relationship to the property yes castello ventures llc uh
and in the virtual audience is its representative chris grimes our vice chair has just a few
questions good afternoon council do you agree the way the reason ever refused us to believe
to his agency? I do. Have you emailed in all of the required
documents that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of his hearing?
Yes, we have. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Bye. Let me show my screen.
All right. So I'm here to present 2334 North 30th Street. This is in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia. In my presentation, we'll review the notice of refusal we just received, I believe, this afternoon, the correspondence from Strawberry Mansion Community Concern, which was the coordinating RCO.
So we did receive letters of support, as well as we circulated a petition with, I believe, 11 signatures as well.
And that's in your packet of materials.
We have a user registration permit showing a permit issued in the 90s, excuse me, in the 80s,
which shows that this was a five-unit dwelling at one point as a rooming house.
So that's the last known use of the property.
So even though this property is RSA 5, given the size of the property of 1,120 square feet of the lot size, we think it's appropriate to allow for the proposed multifamily use.
We have maps of the area, photographs of the property, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice, our application for appeal that we filed on behalf of Costello Ventures, LLC.
The deed showing that Castello Ventures LLC is the owner of the property and a certificate of tax clearance.
Again, in the virtual audience is Chris Grimes, a representative of the company.
And at the conclusion of my presentation, I would just ask that he virtually raise his hand and be sworn in.
And then I will ask him a few questions about my presentation.
So notice of refusal, this is an RSA 5 property.
We are proposing an erection of a rear and top addition with roof deck and roof deck access structure and rear second floor deck to make it a three-family dwelling.
If this board is so inclined to grant our variance request, we would ask for a proviso, no roof deck and roof deck access structure.
this is the strawberry man this is strawberry mansion and they're very protective about their
overlay which is one of the refusals which prohibits roof deck and roof deck access
structures again i was involved with the initial submission that's one of the things that as soon
as we present in front of strawberry mansion we we we provide you know a proviso in that respect
you know that was the will of the people in strawberry mansion the second refusal has to
do with the multifamily use. And that's where we have a disagreement with the, you know,
Strawberry Mansion community concern. They believe that the property should be a single-family
use as an RSA-5 property. And we disagree with that assessment. This property since the 1980s
has had a multifamily living in it. And it's not out of character, not only for the property,
but the surrounding area we did an inventory of that block there is a 21 unit apartment building
across the street uh gordon apartments and then there are one two three four
Gordon Apartments. And then there are one, two, three, four, five instances of properties
nearby on 30th Street, which are also RSA5 properties, which are also multifamily in
nature, which have active rental licenses. So it's not out of character for the property itself,
given its long history of multifamily use, along with the surrounding area.
So we did meet with Strawberry Mansion Community Concern.
There were only three people who showed up on the meeting.
Mr. Goldberg from my office did the presentation in front of the community.
According to Mr. Goldberg, it was Bonita Cummings who is the representative for Strawberry Mansion Community Concern.
And there was a representative from Strawberry Mansion CDC.
There was a third member at the time we did not know of the community.
We did not know who that was.
It seems like it was another representative of another community organization.
They asked us to postpone today's hearing.
We, you know, we declined in the sense of this.
We've been reaching out to Strawberry Mansion Community Concern for months to just get the community meeting.
And, you know, at the last second, we finally got a community meeting.
The only reason why there was a request for a continuance was they wanted paperwork submitted to L&I, eliminating the roof deck and roof deck access structure.
We said we can do that by way of proviso.
And as a man, as someone who believes in giving their word to things, that's what we're doing today.
And that would be enforceable to remove the roof deck and the roof deck access structure by way of proviso.
So the second reason why they wanted us to have a continuance is they wanted us to redo the plans to make it single family, a single family dwelling.
Mr. Goldberg tried to explain that if we were to change our request to single family dwelling, then we wouldn't need to be part of this process.
We're not asking for any dimensional variances.
There is a huge lot.
It's, you know, we're only asking for three units given a history of five units at one point.
So I just addressed that because in the in the first paragraph, I believe they stated that we refused to continue the hearing.
And they stated that all attendees of the community meeting were opposed.
Again, there were three members of the community.
Two of them we knew of Miss Cummings and and and another member of the Sherbury Mansion Community Development Corporation.
I guess the third member was also a member of another RCO, but it doesn't seem like any actual members of people who live nearby stated a position to this project.
But again, this project is not unique to the property and to the neighborhood as a whole.
And again, we tried to reach out to people who are close by.
So on that block, we got a letter of support for 2330, 2314, 2345, 2355, and 2335 North 30th Street.
Again, because no one really showed up to the community meeting, and honestly, we were surprised people were against, the community groups were against it because given the history of the property and the surrounding area,
And given there's many vacant lots around there, we thought that this was a pretty straightforward project.
But after the community meeting, we made it.
My client himself physically canvassed the neighborhood and obtained these signatures from nearby neighbors.
And then here's our petition as well.
And then the use registration permit shows in 1986 that this was converted into a five-unit dwelling, you know, rooming dwelling, but still five units.
And then the maps of the area, again, the use that we're requesting on 30th Street is not out of character.
I mentioned five instances of properties that are RSA 5 just on 30th Street, but there's other RM1 use on 30th Street down the block on 29th Street.
There's CMX 2. So there is a diversity of zoning classifications in this part of the neighborhood.
And as you can see here, too, there is, you know, there's some commercial use here.
This added density will help support that commercial use.
And as you can see here too, this is our property. There is a decent amount of open space here because of the lack of development. We're hoping that this project will encourage others to build in this part of the neighborhood as well.
and as you can see here too this is our property
there is a decent
And photographs of the property is an existing three-story structure. We're just doing an addition in the rear and a little bit on top. This is our hearing notice poster and proof of it.
And then this is North 30th Street to the right of the property, to the left of the property, our plans and drawings.
Oh, two provisos we would agree to is not only one of which, as I mentioned before, is the no roof deck or no roof deck access structure.
We would also agree to no living in the basement.
My client has no intentions to have, you know, anyone living in the basement.
So while the first floor unit has access to it, my client intends to lock that access and just to have, you know, it unfinished with no residential use allowed.
And then this is our meeting notice.
Again, you know, we met on October 16, 2023.
23. Here's our proof of email of that notice to not only the community groups, but also the
council member zoning aide, Mary Jones. 163 addresses were notified of the meeting.
List of those addresses, proof of mailing of those addresses, or an application for appeal
that we filed on behalf of Costello Ventures LLC. Our deed showing that Costello Ventures LLC is the
owner and showing that no money is due to the city of philadelphia with regards to his property
i would ask that mr grimes virtually raise his hand now
grimes he's been out to speak hi sir could you state your name and spell please for the court
sonographer? Chris Grimes,
G-R-I,
or C-H-R-I-S,
G-R-I-M-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth? No.
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes. Mr. Grimes,
you heard everything I had to state
today about your zoning matter.
Yes. And is it true
and correct? Yes.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
and specifically you attended that community meeting that i referenced in my presentation
right yes okay and and and you're in agreement that there were only three individuals at that
community meeting yes okay and then after the and after that community meeting you personally
canvassed the neighborhood specifically close by properties to get these letters of support and
the petition that I showed in my presentation. Yes, I did. Okay. And did you have conversations
with individuals during the time you were canvassing and getting that support? Yes. I
talked to quite a few neighbors and they were all in support of rehabbing the building,
making the community stronger. Gotcha. And then my understanding is that a couple of them even
stated, and I don't know if they're online, that they may even show up in support at this here.
yes they were asking me when the hearing was and that they would show up and support it
yeah and based on that our office sent the emails to those to the individuals who
provided us with their email addresses for today's hearing yes okay thank you
is from the board 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
yes sir i have a handout from strawberry mansion community concerns i have allowed
them to speak at this time i could you state your name and spell it for the court stenographer
Yes. Can you hear me? I can. Hi, my name is Bonita Cummings. That's B-O-N-I-T-A, Cummings, C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S. I am the coordinating RCO. Okay.
Ms. Cummings, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Please proceed.
I first wanted to state that there was no petitions or letters of support presented at the meeting.
There were more than three people present, and many of the people present at the meeting were
There were more than three people present, and many of the people present at the meeting were major community organizations within that footprint.
So the petition also, the letters of support and the petition are the same thing.
They're the same people.
So it's not like you have additional letters of support to the petition.
And also the petition has several people who live outside of the affected areas.
You have 5,500 block of Jefferson Street and a whole other part of the city, and you have something from 2,200 block of 28th Street, which is also from a whole other part of the city.
There is no demonstrated hardship for the applicant.
Our community, as Sherbury mentioned, is now getting the appraisal values for single-family homes.
We're also getting the rents, so there is no hardship to the applicant to keep this property as a single-family property.
Further, you are asking the community to accept an extreme modification of this property to force three units into it, which piles residents up on top of each other.
But that brings a hardship to our community because it brings great congestion to that particular location in that that block is a short block.
It's cut off by Arizona Street. So it's not even a block that's the full length of a normal block that could be impacted by many residents living in three separate units.
Also, Ernest Hobbs, the previous owner of that property, was a member of our community who lived in that property as a single man.
And he never used that property in any capacity other than his self living there.
And there were no rooming units ever used, although it may have been applied for.
Our community is in need of single family properties because of the number of family members in many of the families that apply and look for housing in our community.
We would also want as a community to reserve the right of some of our single family properties.
Every developer that has come to our community over the last several years has turned everything into multifamily units.
We would be forcing a three, we would be forcing a single family property to hold three units where even the space basically is only 613 square feet, a little over for each unit, which is for small families or for one person.
So we would like to preserve the right to have some of our single family properties because the market is there for that.
So there is no hardship to this applicant to get to sell that property for what he would want to get, to rent it for what he would want to get.
And it would lessen the impact to our community of the type of crowding that you would place in that footprint right at that intersection there at Arizona and 30th Street.
So we would ask this board to know that that property has never been used for more than one owner, one person who lived there for many, many years, Mr. Ernest Hobbs, and our community would not want to have to be burdened with the congestion that three units would bring.
And why would we pile people on top of each other by forcing an extensive modification of a property just for profits to the applicant?
So we ask you not to force us as a community to have to live with that congestion and to have to have our families crowded up in a building that was designed to only be a single family property.
It's not like this new construction coming out of the ground being fitted to really have that kind of use.
It's a small property, actually, unless you force an extension and it's not unreasonable in size to a single family.
So thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Cummings. Thanks for your comments.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Yes, Mary Jones with their hand raised.
I've allowed them to speak at this time.
Mary, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?