Yes. Good afternoon. I'm just here to support the RCO and just reiterate that the roof decks were explicitly banned in the overlay that was passed at the end of 2020.
And that, you know, that at this point in time, the community is not open to having or we would like to keep that keep that overlay in place for these these homes.
And I also had a question about the pilot houses. Are those necessary for just storing mechanicals on the roof?
for um for just storing mechanicals on the roof so if i may answer that question um the zoning code
describes a roof access um as a pilot house as a hatch um and a couple other um devices um if the
pilot house is an issue we are willing to stipulate um and have a proviso stating that we won't have
pilot houses move and in fact have a hatch on the roof uh to gain access to the roof gotcha
um well i'm not here to negotiate on behalf of the community um because they they probably want
to look at it more but i yeah i was just curious about that because the the pilot house can add
um height and encourage people to use the roof deck um in other ways but anyway just here to
express support for the community thank you anyone else from the virtual audience
yes chair we have a caller with a phone number ending at 6517 please unmute yourself and wait
for the chair yes good afternoon all right could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter please sure my name is judith robinson j-u-d-i-t-h-r-o-b-i-n-s-o-n and i'm here tonight
today hold on a minute do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth i affirm thank you proceed so good afternoon thank you all for the opportunity i'm here to
represent the 32nd ward rco and we were in all of the meetings of the overlay and we attended all
of the meetings that were held for this development and we provided a letter of support based on the
fact that this is a new development on a vacant formerly uh a church synagogue church and that
um it's a very sustainable development and the access to the roof for mechanicals which we were
aware of uh would not impact the overlay as it relates to a deck on top of a roof um so we support
this project with a proviso for access to the roof there was no time in our
discussion of the overlay that access overall to a roof would be denied I
think it was more so concern of what has happened closer to where we have student
housing. This is absolutely different. These are single family homes. There's a lot of
sustainability that we're really happy about. And we represent the committee people in the area
and we support the project. And thank you very much for the time. Thank you, Mrs. Robinson,
for calling it. Is there any other questions or comments? Yes, Chair, we have Celine Poindexter.
Please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, hi, my name is Salim Poindexter, spelled S-A-L-I-M-P-O-I-N-D-E-X-T-E-R.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Yes, my wife and I both support this project.
We live at 3113 West Montgomery Avenue.
Thank you very much for calling in.
Thank you.
Is there any other comments that are different than what we've already heard?
Chair, we have about five or six hands up.
The next is Ashley Scott.
hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
hi yes my name is ashley scott spelled a-s-h-l-e-y s-c-o-t-t right do you swear or firm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do proceed i had some some comments as well
as I'm Selene Poindexter's wife. I had trouble logging in, so I had him kind of call in and
make sure that we were heard, but I had comments about, you know, just the general RCO process,
general RCO process, the overlay, all that stuff. In the same recent hearing where we heard about
the overlay, all that stuff.
this lovely project, there were two other zoning presentations. The quote-unquote community of
Strawberry Mansion supported another project that also went against the precious overlay that
they claim they want to protect, but it seems like it's only an issue when it comes to roof
decks or rooftop access. Personally, living on this block, where this project that Mr. Jones
and Dr. Williams have talked to us about today, seeing it right now be a vacant lot,
seeing it previously be a vacant and decrepit building, it's just a blight. I don't understand
why there is so much contention over having rooftop access, especially on a block like the
one that we live on where rooftop access would be a great thing, even if it's not for solar panels,
if it was for leisurely activity. We personally don't have a rooftop deck, but I don't understand
why there's so much contention there. Also, it seems like a lot of the people that worked on
this don't actually live in the area of the overlay, which is frustrating as a resident who
actually didn't learn about the overlay until after purchasing their home here when we could
have actively participated. Again, voicing my support for this project, not only because I
live on this block, but because I am someone who supports forward thinking and futuristic
electrification, beneficial electrification of homes. I want to see this project go through for
sure thank you so much for calling for for calling it thank you any other hands show up
yes chair we have a serrano someone with the last name serrano please unmute yourself and
wait for the chair could you state your name and spell for the court reporter yes my name is
Thais, T-H-A-I-S, Serrano, S-E-R-R-A-N-O.
Right.
Do you swear, Fern, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Fasheed.
I am calling to support this project.
I was not able to attend the CDC meeting, so I was unable to vote, but I want to vote yes today.
I also want to state that this overlay was passed without enough community involvement and involved a huge area of the, you know, strawberry mansion and not specifically this section, which had a lot of opposition from residents, including myself.
I think it's ridiculous that there's so much opposition against roof decks.
That's clearly something that everyone enjoys, that people purchasing new construction homes enjoy and is a pleasure to have in neighborhoods.
There's really little negative sides to having a roof deck, and I support.
Thank you very much for calling in.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair. Peter Bernard for the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family residential
zoning at this location. The demolition of a church that had been listed on the National
Historic Register eliminated any hardship to developing the property in line with the
zoning code. Additionally, the neighborhood conservation overlay that prevents roof decks
was developed in partnership with and supported by a coalition of community organizations solar
panels and mechanicals do not need a stair access accordingly the planning commission recommends
the board deny the variances um mi 2021 excuse me mr chairman excuse me mr chairman can i recommend
that we hold the vote and we could we could do that Peter could you go over your comments one
more time yes Mr. Chairman once once also um as I've been hearing um from the applicant as well
as from the RCO some discussion loosely on both sides regarding a potential proviso that hasn't
been forwarded perhaps there could be some further discussion in that area we can we can do that
Peter, could you read, comment one more time?
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family residential zoning at this location.
at this location. The demolition of a church that had been listed on the National Historic Register
The demolition of a church that had been listed on the National Historic...
eliminated any hardship to developing the property in line with the zoning code.
Additionally, the neighborhood conservation overlay that prevents roof decks was developed
in partnership with and supported by a coalition of community civic organizations. Solar panels
and mechanicals do not need an access stair. Accordingly, the Planning Commission recommends
the board deny the variances okay okay so we will take this under consideration um next wednesday
in our executive session and and look to uh take action at next wednesday at 9 30.
thank you mr chairman
okay mr young uh yes that concludes my business sure thank you thank you
Mr. Chair, I think you're on mute.
Mr. Chairman, can you unmute yourself?
Nope, go back.
Chair, you're still muted.
Chair?
Chair?
um we're going to pause for one minute all so that the chair can go out and come back in
as he's having technical difficulties thank you
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, if we can continue
you waiting for the chair to return. We're going to have Secretary Ismail Shaheed continue the
hearings. Thank you very kindly. Good afternoon, everyone. We're going to continue on with the
two o'clock cases. Next case up is going to be MI 2021-004967. 3625 North 22nd Street.
Allen Ockamson. Use of refusal. We have the RCO letter from the 13th Democratic Ward.
Letter of support with provisions. Mr. Ockamson.
he's coming back in as a panelist
please let him in
mr notgerson are you there i am uh good afternoon mr chair
please state your name and spell it for the record please
Alan, A-L-A-N, last name
Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N
123, South Broad Street
Suite 1600, Philadelphia
PA, 19109
Mr. Nockamson, do you swear to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Good afternoon, Counselor
Good afternoon, Counselor
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
According to our records, you have submitted all of the required documents. Is that correct?
We have.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
May I share my screen?
All right, thank you.
ALL RIGHT, SO LET ME GET INTO FULL SCREEN MODE HERE.
ALL RIGHT, CAN EVERYONE SEE MY SCREEN? YES.
YES, YES. ALL RIGHT, SO WE'RE HERE TO PRESENT 3625 NORTH 22nd STREET.
IN OUR PRESENTATION PACKET, WE HAVE OUR NOTICE OF REFUSAL.
This is an RSA-5 property on the corner of Pacific and 22nd Street.
It has a history of multi-unit use.
It was most previously used as a rooming house of six units.
This board heard this appeal last year to legalize that rooming.
last year to legalize that rooming portion of the property and deny that, but we reached out to the 13th Democratic Ward, and they are supportive unanimously in creating a multi-unit structure, but with three units instead of a rooming house.
We have Exhibit 3 is our permit to show that this was a rooming house at one point.
The license lapsed, and that's why we're here today.
Maps of the area, again, we're a corner property.
Again, not uncommon to have multi-unit use for a corner property.
Photographs of the property that surround the area are plans and drawings of particular note.
There is no basement use.
We are storing our trash in the storage units that are connected to our property, which I believe is one of the provisos that we would embrace.
We had a meeting with the 13th Democratic Ward, which is our Exhibit 7 hearing meeting notice, along with proof of mailing of that notice to the affected properties.
Exhibit 8 is our deed to the property.
Exhibit 9 is our application for appeal.
and Exhibit 10 is her Certificate of Tax Clearance.
I have on the line Diane Williams, the owner's representative, who will dot my testimony.
First things first, and I apologize, this is actually an RSA 3 property, but it's the same refusal.
We're asking for three dwelling units, and three dwelling units are not allowed as a right
because of the zoning classification.
But we did meet with the 13th Democratic Ward, and we're glad to say that they're fully supportive of this project, unanimous support by both their board members and the community.
Again, we've presented many, many projects in front of the 13th Democratic Ward.
I don't know if Mr. Karn, who's a representative for the 13th Democratic Ward, is on here, but I don't want to misstate what he said in the past.
But, you know, these properties tend to be rather large in nature.
uh the lot size for this property is over 2800 square feet so this is a pretty substantial lot
um they embrace the fact of the multi-unit nature uh they just don't want too many units and three
is is what they are agreeable to and they just want illegal and they want a proper way of storing
the trash and maintaining the trash and they're disinclined to have basement use and that's why
we presented the project the way we did. And, you know, we're holding ourselves accountable
accordingly. So we would agree to, you know, trash storage, storage outside and not in the
units themselves. And that's what that letter for unanimous support states.
Excuse me, counsel.
Do you have a site plan or pictures or something?
Yeah, I do. I do. And here's our, here's our, and I know this has been a rather long
calendar list. I'll go quickly through this. This is our zoning permit showing that this was
a rooming house at one point. Maps of the area, again, just showing that this is a corner property
in the corner of Pacific and 22nd Street. Photographs of the property. This property
needs some TLC, which we're prepared to do from the outside. 22nd Street from the front end of
the property, then the side of the property in Pacific, and again, these are formerly
garages which are no longer being used as garages, but that's where each of the units
are going to have access to each of them for their own storage, but also to store their
trash, and then pictures to the right of the property on 22nd Street, pictures to the left
of the property on 22nd Street, pictures to the right of the property in Pacific, pictures