Mr. Savage, did you hear my presentation to the board this afternoon?
Yes, I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, sir.
Do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, sir.
Mr. Chair, because of the very long history of disinvestment in this property,
Because of Beach Interplex's long history of community engagement and investment in the neighborhood, and because the RCO strongly supports this proposal, we respectfully request the granting of this variance.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from Hillary Emerson, our attorney?
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any further answer mr chair planning commission
good afternoon chair members of the board this is greg waldman planning commission staff
the copper hazard plan recommends no change to the existing commercial mixed-use zoning
the variance requests for four dwelling units and maximum occupied area are necessary to enable the
adaptive reuse of the appellant's historic property however the appellant has not shown
that the dimensional requirement that prohibits a non-residential roof deck would cause significant
financial burden the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the
variances with the following condition no non-residential roof deck
mr chair there's no outdoor space for the for the uh residents of this property and we do believe
that the having the roof deck will make it more marketable and livable uh and the community
obviously as a result of the rco meeting that we've reached uh the immediate neighbors feel
the same way mr anastasio this is this is hillary so it says non-residential roof deck
but you were just talking about the residents i'm sorry my what i meant was that the the deck
would be purely for um staff and management my my apologies i'm just looking at my notes now
the roof deck is not for anyone but for staff and management no one will be allowed to access that
roof deck uh you know except for utilities on the roof utilities and storage of uh rubbish which
beach would manage and only beach could get up there thank you thank you for the clarification
thank you miss emerson m i 2023 003 559 2340 cecil b more avenue i vote yes
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
my vote is yes thank you thank you thank you counsel yep thank you is there anyone from the
two o'clock list that their case has not been called in the virtual audience
i do not see your hands mr chair okay thank you so we're going to take a five minute break
and we'll come back and we'll finish up the 3.30 list, okay?
Thanks, everyone.
Thank you, Chair.
Thanks, Chief.
Yes, Chief.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
My name is Bill Bergman,
and I will be chairing this afternoon's 3.30 ZBA hearing.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Here, Mr. Chair.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holloman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And also, Emily Persico from Development Service will serve as our alternate board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Thank you. Also here is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunket.
Also here is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tonya.
Here's our virtual format. Be advised the proceedings are being recorded.
Video will be available by contacting tanyasunket at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address to the property in question.
And finally, question and answer box on the screen is now for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon's meeting.
Number four, MI 2022-007-383-1440 Hellerman Street.
That case is continued.
Number six, MI 2023-002-105-5627-41 Hegerman Street.
That case is continued, attorney moving party.
And number seven, okay, let me go back. Number six, MI 2023-002-106-7401 Edmond Street. That's
attorney moving party. And then number seven, MI 2023-002-105-5627-41 Hagerman Street. Request
for continuance is also attorney moving party those are the three continuances we have do i
have any comments from the virtual audience ralph to those continuances good afternoon once again
mr chair if this is chase in hand i will be your your co-host for this afternoon i have a hand up
from a number ending in zero nine four six i will allow them to speak at this time
could you state your name please and spell for the court sonographer
it is star six you're on mute
yes i'm not sure if this is the right case that i'm calling for
i'm looking for 3301 princeton avenue
hello that's number five on the list mr chair we'll be calling that later
yeah we'll be calling that shortly okay yes okay when we call that shortly okay
any other issues about continuances
i do do not see any wait a minute sir a hand has gone up from strawberry mentioned
community concerns i have allowed them to speak
hi i just was inquiring um hi i'm sorry one minute you've already been swore and just state
your name for the record please it's bonita cummings yep yep what i was just i didn't know
if you were finished with continuances, but I was just inquiring about 29, 43, 45 Ridge Avenue.
I'm going to get to that shortly. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. No more
continuances. I'm going to go to number two. We have no exhibits. This is a second listing.
MI 2023-000-966-2943-45 Ridge Avenue. Akbar Brown is the listed owner.
Ambrose Chikawana is the listed applicant professional.
This is no exhibits, second listing.
Case was marked, must be heard.
Yes, Mr. Chair, there are no hands and I do not see anyone in the audience answering to those names.
Okay, thank you.
MI-2023-000-966-2943-45 Ridge Avenue.
Second listing, no exhibits, must be heard.
I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is to dismiss.
Thank you.
We're going to go to our regular list now.
Number one, MI 2023, 002-189, 910 North 41st Street, Gregory Bell is the listed.
910 North 41st Street, Gregory Bell is the listed owner.
It's pro se.
The Belmont Civic Association did not reach agreement on the application.
No explanation provided.
The vote was four to four, and two in support, four in opposition, two in non-opposition.
Mr. Bell?
Yes, can you hear me?
Hi, Mr. Bell, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Gregory Bell, G-R-E-G-O-R-Y, Bell, B-E-L-L.
Right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Okay, so I'm going to read your case one minute here.
the applications for the erection of a front one-story addition to an existing attached
structure. Size of location is per plan for use as an existing multiple family household living
for dwelling units. In the RM1 zoning district, on any given street, the distance between the
front facade and the front lot shall be no greater than and no less than the distance between the
front facade, and the front lot of the principal buildings on the immediate adjacent lot.
In this instance, a front setback of 18 feet, one inch is required.
Only six feet was proposed.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, Mr. Bell.
Good afternoon, Mr. Bell.
Have you emailed in all the required documents that are needed to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Let's see here how to share from this point.
Should be a green share button at the bottom of the screen.
I apologize, but I don't see a green button at the bottom of the screen.
Let me just check here.
I'm sorry.
I see it now.
Okay, I'm with you.
I apologize. Share. Okay, are you able to see the screen? We see it, sir. Okay, very good. So this is regarding 910 North 41st Street. It's a four-unit apartment building on 41st Street.
And the proposal here is to have the basement apartment enclosure extending out five feet from the original frontage of the front porch.
So just to give a little background of this, the original plans that were submitted to do the renovation of the building did include the basement entrance.
However, the enclosure for that entrance wasn't flagged for a zoning variance process, so it was not discovered by myself that that was necessary until I had the inspection by L&I for the construction work, which at that time it was identified that I needed to go through a zoning process.
So that's why I'm here before you now. And I'm showing, first of all, the way the property looked before any of the construction was done.
And to the right here is the plans that were submitted with the original construction, the renovation.
With this, just to blow it up a little bit, I'm also showing this is the entrance to the basement apartment, indicating that this here being the original frontage line here is where the extension comes out for the stairway to go down into the basement apartment.
So as a result of that, I applied for the zoning permit, and that included the plans for doing the enclosure, which I had already done, but then had to submit all the plans for that with the zoning permit request.
I also applied for this special exception, which was submitted, and then the application
for the appeal because it was denied.
in this we're showing the refusal letter and just
In this, we're showing the refusal letter and just a confirmation of the project information form that I did also submit online.
Here is the confirmation of the email that I sent to the RSOs and also this hard copy of the letter.
I'm sorry, forgive me. This is the hard copy letter that is sent to 61 residents and the RSOs that are listed here in this letter for the residents in the community.
And the confirmation of the email for the actual RSO virtual meeting that took place.
To the right here is the meeting summary, which, as you have stated, Mr. Chair, that no decision, yea or nay, was determined at that time.
This is a copy of the zoning notice that was also posted.
This is one of the pictures on the frontage of the property, the second and third picture.
And this gives you a picture of what has been done.
Indicating that there's no outstanding balances here.
This is the certification of tax clearance.
There were no real estate taxes.
Now, this commercial trash fee is showing a balance of 500, but that's for the upcoming, let me get past that, for the 2024 year.
So all the trash fees have been paid for 2023.
And that's all I have to present to you, Mr. Chair and zoning board members.
What questions do you have for me?
Well, could you go back and show us photos of what you had put up?
As far as the zoning notice?
Show us the photos now, the photo of the entrance.
Okay, very good.
okay and that steps down into the basement yes correct as state shown in the plans here
that were submitted with the
uh zoning
permit 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 hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission?
Yes, this is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The property is indicated for the resident.
Ron, let me swear you in first.
uh do you swear firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed
sir thank you the property is indicated for residential use on the city plan given the
physical conditions of the site we have no objection to granting the variance thank you
MI 2023-002-189-910-North-41st Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, sir.
You have your votes.
Thank you very much, everyone.
Have a great day.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2023-002-107-2100 Robbins Avenue, Henry Rojas and Glanice Silva are the owner applicants.
There will be rejoining us panelists.
There was a meeting on the Community on the Rise on 9-21.
We do not have an RCO letter as of yet.
there was a petition in support signed by approximately 41 neighbors.
Mr. Rojas, could you unmute, sir?
Unmute?