We do have a finished basement in that regard.
and that's where you're planning to have that okay and uh i guess um how many
bathrooms two full bathrooms okay and how is this laid out i'm not i'm not seeing so where the
bedrooms what floors is that it should be in the plants here that are being shown there should be
The architect should have, they should be plans with you because she's the one who put this together. I don't know if I need to present this to you all. No, it should be part of your packet. Can we see the floor plans?
yes okay all right so so then um the bedrooms are all upstairs on all bedrooms on the second floor
okay the bathroom and we have a bathroom on the second floor and we have one bathroom for
on the first floor okay
all right well the questions from the board thank you
Other questions from the board. Thank you. I might have missed this. How many individuals are you hoping to have in the house? Three, maximum four. Three, maximum four. Okay. And then is the thought that this is going to be fully assisted living or that they're going to come and go as they please? Will they be handling their own cooking? Or will somebody from here?
I might have missed
be coming and going as they please, according to their health status. So our job would be to
assist them. We're offering assistance, not nursing care. Yes, ma'am. Yes, we're just coming
to help them learn different various skills, getting forth, back and forth to the different
areas that they need to go to. And then what's the typical tenure of a resident that would stay
in the house like are they here long term or is this sort of an interim well our hope is long
term yes okay and who who would do their meds who would do their medication well the the train staff
that would be uh certified to do it all right um what's the plan for storage of the medication
Bob cabinetry for each person individual okay
questions from our attorney Hillary Emerson
no it's this time Mr. Chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands at this time Chair
Planning Commission Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission AYBOID
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do please proceed the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location
to the existing rsa 5 residential single family the appellant has demonstrated that the proposed
use will not cause detrimental impacts beyond what would reasonably be expected the planning
commission recommends that the board grant that requested special exception for care home
Thank you.
We're going to hold this.
We're going to vote on this next Wednesday at 2 p.m.
So you don't have to come back.
You can just listen on the phone.
Or obviously, if you want to come back, you come back.
But we're going to vote next Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right.
Is there anything else that perhaps that we need to know that you believe that we?
No, I think you covered what?
Thank you.
All right.
We're going to go to number one.
Here we go. Um, am I 20, 25, 0, 0, 2, 8, 4, 4, 26, 19, North 29th Street. Vernon, Anastasio is the attorney.
They're being promoted from strawberry matching. Concerned. A letter of non opposition from
Councilmember Young and a letter of support from State Representative Keith Harris.
And, Mr. Chair, we also received a letter of support from Swampoodle Neighborhood
Parcels Association RCO with some provisos, including one requesting a reduction in units
from three to two. Okay. All right. Mr. Anastasio. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Anastasio, you've already been sworn just for the record.
State your name.
Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, on behalf of Mr. Martin Frazier, the owner of the property in question.
Our board secretary has a few questions for you, sir.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, county.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Then you can proceed with your case.
Thank you.
But as the Attorney Emerson and yourself mentioned, Mr. Chair, we have lots of letters of support and non-opposition.
All of them coalesced over to family dwelling.
Our initial application was for a triplex.
We had at least two meetings with the RCO.
First one was very productive.
We got a lot of input, a lot of feedback.
We went back, revised our plan, presented it again.
That second meeting had some major technical difficulties.
We had about 25 people in the queue to attend that RCO meeting while we were
to attend that RCO meeting. While we were waiting, we received an email that we would
be meeting via a new link. So while my client and I were, in fact, able to jump on that meeting with
the new link, most of the folks in support who attend in attendance could not, did not. However,
However, we also have signatures of folks in the immediate area that's included in my 90-page exhibit packet that I'm moving everything into evidence.
And the good news is we have an accord with respect to the duplex.
Again, it's 2619 North 29th.
It is zoned RSA 5.
My client did purchase it.
At the time, it was already kind of chopped up.
He fixed it up, believing that because what he had was a multifamily, he just needed to refurbish.
And then he found out when he tried to get a rental license that it was, in fact, not zoned for multifamily.
He then contacted me, and we proceeded to start the appeal process.
I'm going to go to photos first so you can see what he's done.
Yes, it is going to be a little bit of work to turn this into a duplex, but it's not necessarily cost prohibitive, so we've agreed to do it.
There's the notice of appeal.
Here's the interior layout.
Pictures.
Getting this to a duplex is going to require the second and third floors be a bi-level.
three bedroom one den apartment luckily just removing a small galley kitchen
and removing one door will in fact accomplish that goal
but as you can see it's very handsomely appointed it's the nicest house on the block
and by the way there's not many houses on the block this block has suffered major disinvestment
and a real lack of density. As you can see here, there's vacant lots just to the side of it
and several more on the block. And those properties that have not been torn down,
some of them are vacant as well. So you get a feel for the quality of the work,
both inside and out. As you can see, it's very well appointed, very well maintained.
There's the porch, really beautiful wood, real good attention to detail.
This is the letter that went out.
What's in the basement?
It's going to be just mechanicals.
And I'm going to show you a plan in a minute.
It's just not part of this particular packet because it was part of our negotiating and dealing with the community up until sort of the last minute.
but this is the community letter that went out to everyone we had a 203
individual households mailed the first time what the second time 196
individual households belt mailed the first time so everyone's been put on
adequate notice I'm going to stop sharing this I'm going to show you the
the plan as everyone has come to land it on okay so this is the front left to
right to the rear this is as you see the the basement mechanicals only and then
we have the first floor unit here is my cursor going up the stair this is that
beautiful porch with the wood ceiling that I showed you. You go in the front door to the left
you'll be in your first floor unit. It's a one bedroom unit. One bedroom right here. Full bath
right next to the bedroom. Nice size kitchen and living area and a home office so that folks can
work from home like many of us do. And then an entrance off of the office to a rear yard where
trash will be stored. Again, basement
is also available for trash storage. One of the RCOs
really is concerned about trash and asks that
all trash be stored inside as opposed to in the yard.
The yard will be enclosed, of course, but that is going to be up to the board
to decide, I suppose. But we have no qualms with that.
Second floor unit, when you come up the stairs,
if you go all the way up so you're coming up the stairs here up to the third floor is the living
space for the second floor third floor by level the third floor is a walk up as you can see here
it's third floor by level the third floor is a walk up as you can see here living dining
kitchen area we have bedrooms on either side of the living space with a full bath
second floor also will have a washer dryer a trash closet two additional rooms that could
be used either for bedrooms or for home office gym and on either side with another full bath
So you have one, one bedroom apartment with an office and the second unit will be a bi-level, either three bedrooms and a den or four bedrooms, depending on the size of the family with two baths.
It does come with a vented trash closet and a washer dryer.
This is the plan and the proposal that all the RCOs and I worked on for close to a year.
We were able to get and enjoy the support of our state representative as well.
And I also move into evidence page 89 and 90 of the original exhibit packet that showed lots of signatures from immediate neighbors, all supporting the appeal to the board.
With that said, I respectfully request, given the conditions of this property, given the conditions of the block, respectfully request the granting of the variance.
With that, I'd like to call my client, Martin Frazier, to adopt my presentation.
Could that person please raise their hand?
All right.
They're being promoted to panelists.
Thank you.
Thank you.
hello hi sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes good afternoon
my name is martin frazier it's m-a-r-t-i-n f-r-a-z-i-e-r last name you swear or affirm to
tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth yes sir thank you mr chair mr frazier did you hear
my presentation to the board today yes sir you went accurate to the best of your knowledge
yes and you adopted as your own testimony yes sir thank you i have nothing further mr chair
Questions from the board.
Go ahead.
Go ahead, Mike.
No, I just I don't I don't see how you square the four bedroom unit with the one bedroom unit that has a living and dining room kitchen area that's adequate and a four bedroom unit that's really just a kitchen.
So I don't know how you square that together.
Well, this this room right here can easily be used as flex based family room.
I mean, someone just drew in that bed, but, I mean, that's necessarily, it's right off the kitchen here, and that's what we were thinking, that they would use it for, you know, either a family room, a TV room, something like that.
I think that's fine and dandy, but as long as it's a legal bedroom, it's going to get counted as a bedroom.
So I do think for both of the units, that's continuing to be something I'm struggling with because the first floor unit is a two-bedroom by definition.
We can call it an office all we want, but as long as it's 70 square feet, it meets the legal requirements of a bedroom under the Philadelphia Code, it's going to be a two-bedroom.
Well, we can remove the closet and then it can't be a bedroom, right?
We could remove the closet, that is true, but that wasn't proposed.
So I think I also have a question about how you get to the third floor.
Is the door going to remain where it was for the 2nd floor apartment, or is the door going to move so that the 2nd and the 3rd floor in the same unit?
The door is going to move. So the 2nd and the 3rd floor in the same unit. Okay.
And we have no problem. We're moving the floor unit is going to have access to the rear yard and the basement. That's correct. Only the 1st floor unit.
i didn't mean to talk on top of you ms winn we are totally okay with removing those closets
okay yeah i mean because then it would need to happen in the whatever family room happens
on for as the living room as well yep we can remove the closet in the office here we can
remove a closet off this tv room which is what we were imagining the the person who drew these are
no longer with the team so we really it's hard for me to doctor them all right other questions
it's hard for me to doctor them all right other questions
questions from our attorney um no um questions i just um wanted to note that the board may wish
to add venom proviso to specify the number of dwelling units now requested since the original
what's the provisors so that provide so mr chair may i ms emerson may i ask that you speak up i
can't i'm sorry is that better yeah much better no i was just mentioning to the board that um since
two units is now being requested that would be a subject of a proviso for this case so correct
questions or comments from the virtual audience chair we have a hand up from strawberry mansion
community concern okay
good afternoon can you hear me good afternoon how are you could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer my name is bonita cummings b-o-n-i-t-a c-u-m-m-i-n-g-s
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth miss cummings
Please proceed.
Story Mansion Community Concern was the coordinating RCO, and I want to correct some things for the record.
There were two meetings.
One was held March the 30th, which as Swampoodle, along with one other resident, and then the attorney, his applicant did not appear on a call where we agreed that we would
want to have uh not three units but two units um to that to that uh location and then a
second meeting was requested because several changes have been discussed the link um went
out for a separate meeting which had nothing to do with any technical difficulty so if there were
25 people on and in a queue they were in a queue that either the attorney sent the wrong link to
which was from the march the 30th meeting and there had been a new link based on that meeting
sent to the attorney which he may later have realized he had so i just want to correct that
because it's as if some technical difficulty happened that made 25 people not be able to be
on that call that is absolutely not correct the only technical difficulty was that we could not
give the attorney um the ability to share okay also there was no measurements of what we received
um we received on that same meeting uh monday the uh you know some arrows and things drawn up
on a schematic that was indicating what would be done and there's no way of really measuring
anything in that property you know to specification as to what people will be living in
um because it's just not there further um those those documents that you have it was saved as um
2619 south 29th street and one of the and the schematic itself says 2619 north 19th street
so we really don't know what we're talking about i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm speaking so so i just