so mr um albridge we're gonna um reach out to you i mean brendage we're gonna reach out to you
for those pictures because we don't want to hold this up we have another session
And once you submit those pictures to us, I will personally give them to the board to
assure they see them and can render a decision on this long-awaited project to begin, okay?
Thank you so kindly.
Thank you, sir.
How should I contact you?
I'm going to contact you.
Special contact.
Don't even worry about it.
I will have me or the staff reach out to you and give you the decision and explain the
next steps in your process, okay?
okay thank you so much thank you all so much it was my pleasure sir you can now walk off okay
okay is there anyone in the virtual audience who's two o'clock hearing
that it hasn't been pulled or you're still waiting
okay we're going to take a five minute break and then we're going to come back and we're going to
get through the 3.30 meeting. There's a couple of continuances. So we'll get through it very
quickly. Okay. So five minutes and we'll be back. Thank you, Chair. Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I am back, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Sure. Thank you.
You never complain, ever.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Tanya?
Yes, Chair?
Are we almost ready?
We are ready when you are, sir.
Okay, let's go live.
Sir, we're ready to go when you are.
Right now.
Thank you, Pauline.
You're welcome.
so you can proceed good afternoon my name is bill bergman
so you can proceed. Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman. I will be chairing this ZBA hearing
which was listed for 330. With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair. Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ismail Shahid, our board secretary. Here, Mr. Chair. Thomas Holliman, our board member. Present,
Mr. Chairman. And James Snell, our board member. Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit, and our Board Attorney, Sherman Toppin.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
We advise these proceedings are being recorded by participating in the Knowledge Agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit, at phillip.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone and if 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 of the property in question.
And lastly, note the question and answer box on your screen.
It's not for testimony or comments.
Any comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Let's look at continuances for this afternoon.
So continuances I have, number five.
Wait a minute.
Number five.
Oh, I'm sorry.
There's a number difference here we changed.
So it should be number six, MI-2021-4501 Belgrade, continuance requested.
And number eight, MI-2021-78 East Penn Street.
Both these cases are continued.
Does anyone have a comment relative to the cases?
All hands, Mr. Chair.
Both cases are continuing. Number four, MI 2021-004-456-204 Spruce Street. That case is withdrawn.
So we're going to go to the first case. MI 2021-004-
I'm sorry, Chair.
Yes, go ahead. Go ahead, Tom.
We could request if anyone else has a continuance.
Does anyone else have a continuance?
Chair, we have Natasha Bass.
Ms. Bass, state your name and spell for the court reporter.
Hi, yes. Can you hear me?
Uh, my number is MI2021-002463.
What location?
Uh, 630 North 55th Street.
Do you want a continuance?
No, I don't want a continuance. I am a continuance from a previous date.
Oh, okay. We'll get to your case. We'll get to your case.
anyone else have a continuance or withdrawal i see no other hands chair okay case number one
mi 2021 004 367 150 west dauphin street rco letter of non-opposition from nara square
council member sanchez letter of non-opposition sean ward
good afternoon again mr chairman sean ward on behalf of the applicant name is spelled s-h-a-w-n
w-a-r-d right mr ward you've already been sworn our vice chair has a few questions
hi mr ward do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
Yes, I do.
And it appears based on my notes that you have submitted all the required documents.
Is that correct?
That is correct.
Okay, you may proceed.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Again, Mr. Chairman, I've submitted my typical exhibit packet.
Can everybody confirm that it's visible on your screens?
It is.
Thank you very much.
I represent Kazim Kupa.
Unfortunately, Mr. Koopa is on vacation today, so I am going solo.
Unfortunately, Mr. Kupa is on vacation today, so I am going solo.
The property is 150 West Dauphin Street.
The application at the notice of refusal at A1, the application is a permit for the erection of an attached structure for use as a three-family dwelling with an accessory roof deck.
It resulted in three refusals.
The property is on CMX, so commercial use is required on the first floor.
None is proposed.
The maximum occupied area, 80% is permitted, 85.7 is proposed, and the rear yard, 9 feet is required, whereas 7 feet is proposed, according to what we see use and dimensional variances today.
A2 is the ZBA application, A3, project information form, A4, proof of ownership, A5, tax clearance, A6 is the site and elevation plans, A7 are floor plans.
A8 are photographs of the subject property, aerial views, and street views.
A9 is the RCO packet. It's the RCO meeting notice, the ad address list, a certificate of mailing, and
the RCO's letter. A10, if a district council letter was submitted, I would ask that that be
marked as A10 for the record. I performed a zoning history search for the subject, found none, and I
did a Raul Benzoning Block, a history for the block. I'll discuss that at A15. A13 is the
zoning map. A14 is an aerial photograph. And then A15 is the applicant's reasoning for residential
use on the first floor, which was requested by the RCO as part of their meeting. So very quickly,
We have the notice of refusal, the application of appeal, project information form, my transmittal
letter to the CBA, copy of the deed, proof of tax clearance, as you can see.
There is a minor balance of $40 due for 2021, so that will be paid when the 2022 taxes are paid at the end of the month.
Otherwise, he's compliant.
With regard to the plans, the applicant proposes an attached structure, three stories high.
It complies with the height regulations.
There would be two entrances.
The side entrance would be entry for the first floor unit, and then the front entry would lead to steps which would take you up to the second and third floors, as well as the roof access for the roof deck.
As far as the floor plans, unit A would occupy the first floor and the basement.
There are code-compliant egress wells for emergency egress.
That would be a two-bedroom unit at unit A.
Unit B and C would each be a one-bedroom unit with a full bath and a kitchen living area.
All three units, again, would have access to the roof deck.
With regard to trash storage, trash storage would be stored in the rear yard,
which is accessible from the sidewalk for all three unit occupants.
Moving on, here's an aerial photograph.
This property is at the corner of Mutter Street, M-U-T-T-E-R, and West Dauphin.
As you can see, there's only one other structure on the block.
There's a vacant lot next to us.
And these lots here indicating are four lots together that are used as some sort of a community park.
In addition, the property across the street is fenced off and appears to be open space or some kind of a community park as well.
so looking at the property from the street level as you can see in the past uh you know apparently
someone was using the property as an outdoor auto repair uh based upon the photographs they
specialize in honda civics um so you can see additional cars here uh so again this is a
appears to be a single family residence next to us here is that outdoor community garden or park
uh no no commercial uses other than what is probably an illegal auto repair under a tent
on the block across the street again no commercial uses on this side of the block either
uh the next block down there's something on the corner um across the street again this is the
fenced-in uh yard or you know community park as well there is one corner grocery at the uh
at the next corner, but these are not commercial units attached. And diagonally across the
intersection, moving down the block, all residential uses but for this corner, which is a church.
So, yeah, we sent out the Registered Community Organization meeting notice.
So we sent out the Registered Community Organization meeting.
The meeting was held on February 9th.
It went to the addresses as provided by City Planning.
Here's a map of the affected area.
In all, 218 notices were sent out for this project.
They went out on January 28th.
I would point out to the board, I highlighted these areas.
This is the block and the pictures that I just discussed with the board.
Obviously, the oval is our subject property.
These two sides of the block are all zone CMX.
But again, the only current commercial use is the corner grocery store at Hancock and Dauphin.
Despite the fact that these two properties are zone CMX2, they are not used for commercial purposes.
The larger square here is the true commercial hub of the neighborhood.
and this is at that front and Dauphin and the the York Dauphin elevated train station is here
so you have a lot of commercial uses along Front Street and that is the true commercial hub.
Again we provided a you know an aerial photograph again you can see the the elevated line
over Front Street so that that is the true commercial hub. With regard to the reasoning
for the commercial use. Again, the RCO requested that we submit this to them.
Again, commercial use is required on the first floor, none proposed, but the existing uses on
the block tell a story. It is owned CMX2, but 138-44 is that community garden or park. 146 is
a single-family dwelling. 148 is a vacant lot, as well as 150, our subject property. Again,
across the street from us 152 to 56 is a vacant lot or being used as some sort of community park
158 and 160 variances are granted for three family dwellings in those units again evidencing
uh the lack of need for any kind of commercial use on these blocks 162 is the aforementioned
corner grocery store and three family dwelling 165 is the church and then 175 is a three family
dwelling so we submit that there are no commercial uses on the two blocks from 138 to 175 west
often which are zoned cmx2 with the exception of the corner grocery most commercial uses are
located at front street four blocks to the east there's no demand for commercial use at this
location commercial space would remain vacant everybody knows vacant spaces become an attractive
nuisance occupied spaces make communities safer so with regard to the proposed residential use
Again, the first floor and basement would be a two-bedroom, two-bath dwelling.
Second and third floors each would be a one-bedroom, one-bath dwelling.
The community wanted to know what the suggested rental rates, so we estimated that the two-bedroom would be $1,100 a month, and the one-bedroom would be $900 a month.
And again, we would just submit that vacant commercial equals zero rental income for that unit, and therefore, to pay for the construction mortgage, the project would probably be financially unfeasible.
So based upon that, as an officer of the court, I would submit that if Kazim Kupa were present today, he's reviewed this packet with me.
He does have a copy of it. He would verify that my representations to the board are true and correct.
And he would adopt them as his own testimony. Here is the RCO letter from APM.
They voted to support the application. It was a vote of 20 to 1 in support. I mean, actually, 16 in support, 1 in support were conditions, and 4 opposed. I stand corrected. But it was overwhelmingly in favor.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions in the virtual audience or comments?
I see no handshare.