as just this garage right here
yes the basement
has two doors garage it's still empty
everything is clear at the bottom
of the basement everything is
And it's a two-door.
I just wanted to legalize the regular duplex two plus two.
It's nothing going to be done on the basement.
It's nothing going to be there because I'm even having a problem with the zoning
because when I purchase the house, I repeat again,
I'm not doing nothing with the basement.
It's going to be two-door garage for each apartment for each first floor,
second floor, and that's basically the basement is going to stay empty
because there's nothing else I can do there.
So it's nothing on the basement and nothing's going to be done on the basement either.
Well, Mr. Torres, I mean, how did we get the plans that you submitted?
Whose idea was that?
Because at the beginning, I thought it was going to be legalized as a duplex.
And I was like, okay, let me try to get an engineer and do a plan to see if I get approved for the basement to also have another unit.
but since I couldn't do anything
because it wasn't one single family
then I can't do nothing else so I just
stopped everything
Other questions from the board please
Questions or comments from people
in the audience
and questions or comments from the
virtual audience
Yes Chair we have Alex Udovic
with their hand raised and they have them
promoted to panelists
Good morning, Ms. Udovich. Please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Alice?
Is Alice's head still up?
chair alice is a part of the can you hear me chairman alice could you please state your name
and spell for this photographer sure good afternoon count uh chairman uh alice udovich
on behalf of councilman brian o'neill last name is u-d-o-v-i-c-h you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed uh chairman i did uh look
up the lni archives and clearly this property as well as the neighboring property were built
in the 1950s as duplexes there was never a conversion but we are concerned about that
third unit on the garage level because the neighbors are reporting that that work was
already done and that someone is living in that third unit basically treating this as a as a triplex
thank you so the councilman has no objection to it being a duplex
but only a duplex thank you um anyone else in the virtual audience
yes chair we have richard s with their hand raised they have been promoted to panelist
hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
hello hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
hi my name is richard shea r-i-c-h r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-h-e-i
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do could you turn your video on possible
I believe my video is on.
Oh, I see.
Please proceed with your testimony.
I'm here to protest this.
Just to reiterate what Alice said, we don't know that it's not more than two units.
And at the RCO meeting, we weren't presented with these photos.
We were presented with old photos.
And I'm also questioning the names on that petition.
Thank you very much, and we appreciate your time.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, we have
Yes, Chair, we have
the master of our
with their hand raised and they have been promoted
to panelists. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
can we see the hand here they are part of the panelists okay could you please yes name and
spell i was the stenographer hello yeah please state your name and speak for the stenographer
okay my name is damaso last name rodriguez it's spelled d-a-m-a-s-o
so i'm the contractor and the advocate wait a minute sir sir you swear or affirm to tell the
truth nothing but the truth yes sir please proceed okay um i was in the meeting for the
community and i also on the applicant and the contractor on the project so to clarify
that the client didn't have no knowledge about the process on philadelphia so he hired us
to provide that information.
That's when he found out that the property
was a single-family home.
And the property is only occupied for a duplex
after he had purchased the property.
And the basement is no apartment on the basement.
He went and had that as a storage for himself,
but it's not an apartment.
I can confirm that myself.
All right, thank you for taking the time to call us.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Planning Commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning from the existing
residential single-family RSA 3 the proposed use is consistent with documented prior use
and appears to have been constructed as a two-family dwelling the planning commission
recommends the board grant the requested variance for two-family household living
with the required two parking spaces to remain thank you
mi 2024 002 165 1328 fawn street i vote yes proviso
two family living only parking places parking garages to remain can i request an additional
proviso can i request revised plan stamps okay no we cannot because it's a change of use application
Can we require a certificate of occupancy?
We can require that, yes.
Thank you.
So we'll go back.
Duplex, I vote yes to this.
Duplex, two units only.
Parking garages to remain.
Certificate of occupancy to be obtained.
So Johns, my vote is yes with provisos.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with provisos.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with provisos.
Tywin, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, may be excused.
Yes, number 16, MI 2024-005-351-4242 Cotman Avenue.
Joseph Consul is the attorney.
Unanimous opposition from the Taconi Civic Association.
Letter of opposition from Council Member Driscoll.
letter of opposition to state representative
Patrick Gallagher and letter of opposition
from the state senator Joe
Pacozzi
Mr. Consul
good morning Mr. Consul did I swear you in
earlier when you came on? I don't
think you did I think I just
state your name just for the record Mr. Consul
yeah it's Joseph Consul
it's J-O-I-C-P-H last name Consul
C-O-N-S-O-L-E
you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth
Would you identify your client in a relationship to the property?
My client is Bing Jing and Ping Jing, and they should be on here, I believe, under a Zoom for DaFung Chen.
And we should have an interpreter, Mr. Wang, hopefully still on the line.
No, we don't.
Hold it.
Mr. Consul, if you if your clients needed an interpreter, you need to make the request
to the zoning board so we can provide one with the name of the interpreter and they've
been participating in the Q&A.
That was an error.
We didn't realize they were not an interpreter that had been requested by the CBA.
I got an email from you saying that there was one that was assigned to us.
I got an email from you saying that there was one that was assigned to us.
There was, I got an email with two.
It said, it mentioned the one that was here earlier, the Mandarin interpreter, and it
mentioned my interpreter as well.
Did you put in a request for an interpreter with the ZBA?
Here, I got the email from fatigua.l at phila.gov.
yes an interpreter by the name of kate wang is assigned for bing jang at 4242 cotman avenue
okay all right thank you i did not realize there was two interpreters thank you
i'm not certain if please come on
chair we have boone wang with their hand raised not mike wang
would you like them to speak let's let's see who they are
you have been allowed to speak hi is this the interpreter yeah this is um kate's yeah i'll be
your interpreter today yes okay um could you state your name please and spell for the stenographer
dare they are coming in as a panelist thank you very much
yeah um my name is yeah bun wang w-a-n-g is my last name okay um do you solemnly swear
or affirm that you will interpret accurately completely and impartially from english to
is this mandarin yes english to mandarin and from mandarin to english to the best of your ability
Okay, would you please call your client?
Our client, please come on forward.
Bing Jin, BJ, Jen, 你在吗?
你好,你是讲国语吗?
你在这里吗?你在场,你要出现哦?
okay i don't hear anyone responding mr council is your client do you believe your clients in the
audience they've been texting me saying that they're that they're here um it's difficult
because we have to use google translate to go back and forth with it um but could you try
One more time, please.
I heard a noise.
对,你听得见吗?你在现场吗?
你好,你在吗?
Has been promoted to panelists.
Please accept the promotion to panelists.
请你接受,按可以那里哈。
Interpreter, could you have them state their name and spell it for the stenographer?
你可以把你的名字讲出来,然后把你的姓拼出来吗?
Okay, I don't hear anyone responding.
Excuse me.
请你可以把你的名字讲,然后把你的姓拼出来吗?
Okay,我的名字叫兵,我的姓叫J-I-A-N-J
你在这里宣誓所知的所有东西都是真实物所知的全部
Okay, everything will be true.
Thank you.
Mr. Consul, start your case, please.
Good afternoon, Board.
Joseph Consul here for the applicants.
The property in question is 4242 Cotman Avenue.
I'll preface this by saying we have immense opposition.
we believe, spearheaded by one neighbor who is not ever going to like my clients owning this
property. I don't know how to get around that. I'm going to present my case, which to me seems
like a fairly straightforward case. And then there's going to be immense opposition, which
I don't believe is warranted based on the facts of this case. 4242 Cotman Avenue.
Sorry, excuse me, Mr. Consul. Mr. Chair, Sean Ward did just enter his appearance in four.
um mr chair um sean ward did just enter his appearance in for neighbors for um i believe
for council member uh driscoll and as well as a neighbor so we should bring him on as a
panelist as well and swear him in thank you mr ward thank you
and mr consul does your client wish to have your presentation interpreted as you go