Good afternoon. Can you put your name and address on the record, please, and spell your last name?
Sure. First name is Ming Ling. Last name is Ling, L-I-A-N-G, and my address is 11101 Grano Road.
and that's philadelphia philadelphia philadelphia 19116 do you swear or affirm to tell the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes i do have you emailed the exhibit packet within five days
in advance of this hearing including proof of ownership tax compliance refusal referral
photos and or plans of the property and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter
Yes, I do.
Thank you. You may proceed.
Ma'am, you are mute. Can you unmute yourself?
Miss, you're still on mute.
I'm so sorry.
I do hire a company to help me to present. I didn't see him here. It's Yateng Chen.
Is he an expediter?
I'm sorry, I'm not very good in English.
Okay, well is he an expediter?
yeah okay the expediter can't present the owner has to
so i have to present you mean yeah and i'm sure you'll do well
i'm sorry this is sharing he can help you with the um bringing up the documents and that kind
of thing but yes you have to present. Okay um I bought the house the garage was removed
and I got the violation that I need to rezone it.
you have any pictures do you have any pictures can you show the pictures sure
Can you see, sir?
this is only from on the front door and here's a garage
the garage door was really moved maybe what the house
you have floor plans
Can you see the first picture?
Can you blow it up?
I have to step back for a minute.
The area where the garage once existed, what is it being used for?
It's a storage room.
storage okay
tom i don't know i had to step out so i don't know if you got your
question answered tom yes okay are there any other questions from the board
no no anyone else would like to testify in this case please raise your hand
no hands chair thank you planning commission good afternoon mr chairman members of the board
david fecto city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends this property
for single family use we believe allowing the existing condition to continue will have no
impact on surrounding properties we have no objection to granting this variance
thank you mi 2020 somebody's going to say something yeah i was somerton civic supports
this yes thank you mi 2020 that's zero zero zero three five four one one one zero one
greener road my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes
well i have to step out for a minute i'll get back in all right okay calendar number
one two zero zero eleven twenty seven west winga hawking street
attorneys verne anastasio
verne you can unmute yourself thank you
good afternoon can you put your name and address on the record verne yes of course
verne anastasio 1315 walnut street suite 1006 philadelphia 19107 and it's verne v-e-r-n
anastasio is a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but
the truth? I do. Do you also agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I do. Have you emailed an exhibit packet five days in advance of this hearing
five days in advance of this hearing consisting of proof of ownership tax compliance
consisting of proof of ownership, tax compliance,
refusal referral photo and plans and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter
uh yes of everything but i don't have a letter i don't know if they submitted one
because uh they did not send me one okay you still may proceed thank you thank you
okay can you see my exhibit here yes good all right great 1127 west winga hocking
i represent shelly johnson who's here today and sherry will be speaking after my presentation
the application is for three family dwelling in an existing structure it is zoned rsa3
this is the row of homes it's right across from fairmount park
i'm going to show you this is a a property that has a complete 100 above grade basement
and a side door my client would like to use this as a a nice size apartment and then of course the
second of the first floor would be an apartment it's already an apartment and the second floor
the top floor is also already an existing apartment this was the history of this property
is very much like the history of all the properties on this block. It's always been
multifamily. All but two properties on this block have received variances throughout the years
for two and three family dwellings. As you can see, they're ample in size. There's no overcrowding.
um the smallest one is 570 square feet the property has been in general disarray for quite
a long time my client has spoken to the immediate neighbors they're just excited that they're
actually going to be doing something with it as you can see the windows are sort of shot out
uh it's uh been in major disrepair so it's it's that corner property where the signs are in the
window? It's this property right here. Okay. We also move those signs, but just for the record,
we move those signs to the front lawn. Here's the side entrance. As you can see, it's, again,
already two, you know, broken up down to two, and we would like to have the third. Here's the
entrance to the apartment, to the proposed apartment in the above ground basement.
there's a driveway there's a garage in the back that would be used rehabilitated and used for
trash storage each unit would get a 42 gallon plastic rolling bin where folks could put their
trash because nobody parks in that it's in fact as you can see how narrow it is it looks like it's
it hasn't been used in probably 40, 50 years. There's a front step. We have some interior
photos. Again, the property has been vacant for as long as anyone on the block can remember.
And it's in major need of some help. So my client, it's been vandalized. There's been a fire.
it's it's been pretty much a blight on the community as you can see there's a full full
entrance to the basement that would be uh completely rehabbed and what are the homes
like on the block they're all multi-family except for two um throughout the last since the 60s that
little by little each and every property has gotten a variance for either two family or
there's a couple three families as well and with that i'm going to show you my
well you already yeah proof of posting is and here's somewhere sorry there's like 114 documents
here well here's the tax clearance the tax clearance you've met with the rco we have met
with the RCO, and I do not have a letter from them, but we just recently met with them.
Who is the RCO?
One second, please.
It should be in my packet here, but I don't happen to see it.
That's a 42nd Democratic Ward.
um and that's who we met with i thought i had the proof of posting here i can send that over
And that's who we met with.
uh separately uh madam vice chair has the rcos is there a letter from an rco in in the file
did they send anything over or should that be a question for miss dandy
oh this is sharon i just checked if they did send one they did not copy me on it
they did send one no i have no record of having received it if it only went to the rco mailbox
um i wouldn't know that i see okay yeah i wasn't copied on any letter either
we have um mr richardson and um logan community i don't know if that's the rco
I need to introduce my client first, please.
Their hand not raised. You want to tell them to raise your hand?
Sherry? Sherry Johnson?
Good afternoon.
Hi, Sherry. Could you please state your name and address for the record?
Sherry Johnson, 224 West Penn, Philadelphia, 19144.
okay and did you hear my presentation to the board today yes excuse me one second miss carol
you want to swear around yes i do do you agree to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes thank you miss johnson did you hear my presentation before the board today
yes okay and was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes all right and would
you adopt it as your own testimony if need be? Yes. Thank you. I'm going to close my
case, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you. And is there anyone else who's going to testify?
Not on our behalf. I understand that Logan RCO is here, as says somebody from
the council office. And it was the Logan RCO that we, in fact, met with. Okay.
you cannot mute yourself okay hi this is um tina marie russell but before we talk we are
we have um some little neighbors who would like to present as well
mr richardson uh you cannot mute yourself
Good afternoon. This is Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall.
Thank you. And I think you've already been sworn in from this morning.
Yes, Madam Vice Chair.
I was going to let Ms. Russell and the other folks go first because of the fact that they were not able to submit a letter,
but they can give some idea of what it is that they are looking for
or what they will accept with regard to this property.
So I'm going to cede to them first,
and then I'll come back and give the councilwoman's opinion.
Okay, great.
So that would be Tina.
Ms. Russell, yes.
Ms. Russell.
Yes, okay.
Can you hear me?
I'm going to hear you, right?
I can hear you. Can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last
name? We lost her. Can you hear me?
hello hi can you hear me is this tina russell yes it is i hear you okay can you put your name
and address on the record and spell your last name please
wow i'm sorry you have to um mute yourself again
tina marie russell r-u-s-s-e-l-l
and your address please
right now we're working out of 1631 west susquehanna avenue
okay do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do okay you may proceed okay so um first i was looking for the rest of the community to be on
board they are on the line um they're pretty much unclear about how to use zoom so if you see
anyone's hands raised please let them in um so we did have a community meeting on the 22nd
and um and in attendance um there was about four people on that line before
And in attendance, there was about four people on that line.
For myself is five, and the applicant and the attorney was six.
So we had a total of six people.
One was for a, so the question on the table is do we want to have a triplex or a duplex or a single family?
So with those questions being answered, three people said, including the person immediately next door to the applicant, agreed that they would have, they would do not want a triplex.
One person said they do not mind a triplex, but they were not immediately affected.
So two of three people said they're immediately affected, said, yes, they would like to have no triplex.
They would like, but they would concede and work with the applicant and have a duplex.
So to the direct question of whether or not the community agreed to have a triplex, the answer would be no.
That includes the RCO as a consensus with the community.
But they would like to concede and work with the applicant and would like her to reduce the capacity to a duplex.
And if you want, I could read the letter, and I'm sorry if you couldn't get it.
There's just so much complications going on with the computer system today.
but I stipulate uh Ms. Russell's so there's no reason to read the letter I stipulate to your
position I'm sorry who's speaking that's Mr. Anastasio the attorney I understand that but
I would rather just still read the letter very well because I'm going to commit it to record
okay okay thank you okay so um I'm gonna read a short version of it um so the appeal number
002766 calendar 002766 for a petition for a three dwelling multi-family household living
was the denial approval for a two-story multi-family single double duplex was something
that the community would consider and would provide those the proviso would be the trash
containers be kept in the back for all units and the reason why they said that is because there was
some some question about a organization of business taking out the trash rather than the
tenants the owner works with the rco to secure at least two contractors and employees from the
community owners provides that the owner would provide the name phone number and email the owner
of the property as well as the property manager that was talked about from the applicant to the
RCO to ensure communication access and the owner participates in the community cleanup programs
that are held within the community. The reasons why they felt that because they felt that when
they searched the deed versus another document that was presented there were two different names
on those documents so we wanted to make sure that they had a direct line of communication
to the applicant. The applicant provided no hardship for use change as for a triplex as
opposed to a duplex. The area in question is oversaturated with both legal and multifamily
homes. As the attorney indicated, over time, there has been a saturation of duplexes into the
community, and there's few triplexes, but they are on the other side of Winger Hocking, but not on
this side of Winger Hocking. In the community, especially those two poor, lonely, single-family
homeowners would like to who are now seniors would like to remain um um threat free of having so many
um too much saturation if possible um the local community has had a steady increase in properties
that are both legally and illegal change into single family multifamily homes through my search
of records i found that a lot of people used to have um access to rental um that was the compliance
but over time their rental agreements have lapsed and so we wanted an air for those areas have been
having issues with trash and there's very much a concern for them as well as there was a motorcycle
club that was up the street and that was a big nuisance they couldn't the community especially
the seniors could not handle how to deal with that situation um the granting of this overuse
is a request uh will set a terrible precedent for additional applicants to and we just the
community decided, I'm trying to make this real fast. So that precedent of creating a third
triplex on this side of Winger Hocking is what they are protesting as opposed to what's happening
on the other side of Winger Hocking. Because once it was single families, then they turned to duplexes
and now they turned into triplexes. They're trying to reduce that. That is a detriment to the
community. So it's against code number 14506. And we ask them to, in summary, the mission of the
The ZBA board is to protect the community from failing to the consistent assault from property owners who want to buy, recharacterized as the single family Logan character and structure.
This is being done by the negative impact of restructuring and overpopulating, increased trash output and consistent and existing social is an existing.
increased trash output and consistent and existing social is an existing negative social impact to the communities.
So with that being said, we would like to have the zoning board support the community and their their village and their desire to work with the applicant and have this be a duplex and not a triplace.