Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
no mr chair okay questions or comments from the virtual audience
i have a miss monica waits with her hand raised i have allowed her to speak at this time
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
Yes, my name is Monica Waits, M-O-N-I-C-A, last name W-A-I-T-S, and I am the owner of
the property at 3927 Fairmount.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed with your testimony, and thank you for calling.
wanted to give support to this to this variance for the properties next to me and that I think
it would blend in with the neighborhood in with with having a mix of homeownership renters and
with them having a two unit versus some are three and some are one so I think that would be
helpful for the zoning and the mix of making this block a varied block and not homogenous
Thank you very much for calling in. We appreciate your input. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
thank you very much for calling in we appreciate your input
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair. Planning?
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
City Planning Commission will recommend on 3929, 3931, and 3941 Fairmount Avenue collectively.
In 2017, the zoning map was amended on this block face from RM1 to RSA 5, and this was done in accord with a community-led neighborhood remapping.
This change was enacted intentionally with the support of the Neighborhood Association and City Council to encourage single-family infill on vacant lots in this neighborhood.
We acknowledge the presence of legal non-conforming multifamily dwellings on this block.
however, given the clear intent of the 2017 neighborhood remapping, we argue that these
buildings cannot be the only grounds for establishing hardship in this case. We further
argue that the appellant's hardship claim is not supported with evidence of unique physical
circumstances or conditions of these properties. The prior uses are not valid bases for establishing
hardship since all three lots have been cleared of all structures. The appellant is instead relying
on economic hardship owing to the conditions of the adjacent buildings and the estimated return
on investment the city planning commission recommends that the board deny the variances
for all three properties may i respond briefly mr chairman you you can thank you um just two
two quick things um this board knows that i am often in front of this board for for cases in
mantua and what mantua has explained to me and i certainly don't want to speak for them
is that they supported rezoning this area to allow the community to have more of a say in
what goes on in their community. And by rezoning everything to RSA 5, that allows Mantua and the
community to really have a participation in new proposals that go on in their community.
And the intent was not so much to encourage single family as much as it was to ensure that
where proposals like this came in front of them, that they would have the opportunity
to determine, does this fit within that community, within that block?
The other thing that I'll point out is that since 2017, the board should note that the
only new single families in this area, generally speaking, have been tax credit deals for
developers that are able to secure, you know, tax benefits for building single family.
Otherwise, generally speaking, there has been no single family development. And that is especially
true on this block, where a three family was just built by variance. So I just want to point
those two things out. Thank you for your input. Thank you. MI 2022-003-190-3929 fair amount
and MI 2022-003-186-3941 fair amount and MI 2022-003-188-3931 fair amount.
I vote yes for all three.
Carol Teneri, I vote yes for all three.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes for all three.
James Snell, my vote is yes to all three.
James Snell, my vote is yes for all three.
Thank you, Councilor.
Thank you.
Have a wonderful day.
All right.
Number 10 on my list, MI-2022-003-150, 1301 North 27th Street.
Letter of support from Brewery Town, Sharswood Community Civic Association.
Joseph Consol is the attorney.
Consol will be rejoining as a panelist, sir.
Thank you.
Hey, Joe Consul. Hi, Mr. Consul. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, it's Joseph, J-O-S-E-P-H, Consul, C-O-N-S-O-L-E. Right. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yeah. Both of my clients, I believe, are on one Zoom, Ronald Cornwall and Sarah Fine, husband and wife.
Okay. And our, our vice chair has a few questions.
I'm Mr. Consul. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
i do have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance?
refusal or referral photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing
and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes to all okay great you may proceed
and begin with sharing your screen that work that worked all right so just to orient you all to the
property it's the corner of thompson and 27th that's the view from 27th street it's the view
from thompson street uh this property uh its last approved use was a restaurant on the first floor
with a single family home above in 2018 when it was renovated it was zoned cmx2 and uh then
And so the builder put a commercial space on the first floor.
There's the one window and a single family home above.
So they mimicked the previously approved use on that property.
However, between 2018 and when the property sold, it got rezoned as RSA 5, which is why we're here.
And so the owners of the property now, Ron and Sarah, moved their family, their two children, into the single-family home above and wished to run a combination of a retail space centered around skateboard and skateboard accessories, as well as a coffee shop that's – there's no kitchen involved.
they'll just be doing takeaway prepared foods. So I've got my packet, the refusal. The refusal
is basically saying, hey, this can't be a CMX2 consumer foods and prepared food shop prohibited
in RSA 5 and multiple principal uses also prohibited, which is the single family home
and the retail space on the ground floor. We met with the RCO. We have full support,
both from the zoning committee and from the community everyone seemed to think it was a
great idea and also recognized the previous uses of the property as well as the fact that when it
was renovated it was uh a it had to be renovated that way or else i i don't believe that it would
have been but here we are we've got someone that wants to fill the space and live above
there's the letter with mailing we got our plans we submitted them just to
show everyone what the interior layout of the property would be it's gonna be a
retail space like we said and they already live above it's their house you
need those some more photos photos of our signs another photo from the street
proof of ownership and proof of taxes being cleared we sent over the tax cleanup certificate
earlier this morning we got it yesterday um there's not a whole heck of a lot to it
um i call ron and or sarah whoever is at the button to raise their hand and adopt my
testimony. Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
My name is Ronald Cornwall, R-O-N-A-L-D-C-O-R-N-W-A-L-L. Right. Do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Proceed, counsel.
Good morning, Ron. Did you hear my testimony right now regarding your property? I did.
was it accurate and do you uh do you adopt it as your own i do okay is there anything you'd like to
add to the board uh not particularly just that um i guess that uh we want to run a little mom and pop
being pop and mom up top where we want to just have a little store below and um and contribute
to the brewery town neighborhood thanks ron all right questions further questions from the board
No, Mr. Chair.
No, Mr. Chair.
No, Mr. Chair.
All right.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good morning, Chair.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
S-A-R-A-H, B as in boy, A-N-H.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family zoning at this location.
However, the proposed use is consistent with documented previous uses on this property.
However, the proposed use is consistent with documented previous uses on this property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2022-003-150-1301-North 27th Street, I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you, and thank you, Council.
My number 11 is MI-2021-004-961-1802 Harlan Street.
Jack Hubbard is the attorney.
A letter of opposition from the RCO, which met in the 5th Council District's office.
Mr. Hubbard will be coming back in as a panelist, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Hubbard.
Mr. Hubbard?
Sorry, can you unmute yourself?
I apologize. Sure. Good morning, Mr. Hubbard. Could you state your name as spelled for the
court reporter? My name is Jack Hubbard, H-U-B-B-E-R-T. I'm the attorney for Creative Home
Renovations, which is the owner of 1802 Harlan Street. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Our vice chair has a few
questions okay good morning do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy yes i do have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance
a copy of the refusal or referral photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of
this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes to all great you may
proceed and begin with sharing your screen. Okay. Can you see my screen right now? I have a
map up of the neighborhood. Yes. Okay. So the property at issue is a vacant lot, 1802 Harlan.
And the plan is, it formerly was two separate smaller lots, one 12 foot wide, one 14 foot wide.
They were consolidated last year in order to build something that would be consistent with the neighborhood.
After the couple of vacant lots next door, there are five three-unit multifamily developments.
The units both behind and sort of catty corner on Master Street are all multi-unit developments, apartment buildings.
so our proposal would be to make a two-unit multi-family house on this combined lot
we have three um variance issues and i want to uh i want to change my screen right now
are there any questions about this particular screen before i switch
what's again out of curiosity what's across the street across the street uh maybe my client can
tell us exactly what's across the street. I don't actually know what's across the street.
All right, so we'll get to him when he testifies, but thank you. Okay.
Okay. So these are the variances that we need. We have one use variance. We have
requesting a two-family use in an RSA 5 zone. We have the minimum rear yard depth. We're looking
at four foot proposed there's also the nine foot is the requirement and we're looking at a maximum
coverage of 85.2 versus the 75 that's required.
Both of these parcels as I said before both parcels were undersized they were combined
into one so that we could build this project instead of two really skinny small houses
we would build just this one bigger property for the two units that would go there.
Just to look at this size, this over here on the right side is the shape of 1802 Harlan and there's a few vacant lots in between similar shapes and then we get into the larger lots down the street where there's all three family developments.
developments. I have a couple pictures just if anybody's asking about the posting. That was the posting of our
I have a couple pictures, just if anybody's asking about the posting, that was the posting of our original and our continuance. These are all the postings.
This is a current picture of the lot.
Just a few other neighborhood pictures.
This is a rendering of the architect's drawing of what we would propose to put on 1802 Harlan.
These are the neighboring multi-family houses a couple of doors down after the vacant lots.
1814, 16, 1820, and 22 are all three family apartment buildings.
this is across the street the neighborhood contains a lot of multi-family not just on
harland street so when we met with the uh the rco uh their only concern that they raised with us
was uh density and we went back and looked at our plans again and there's really not anything
we could figure out to do. I mean, it used to be two lots, so it would have been the same kind
of density, whether we built two small single family homes or this one multifamily project on
the lot, which is why we continued the case in the first place to re-examine to see what we could do
to address their concern, but we just weren't able to come up with anything practical.
At this time, unless there are specific questions for me, I would ask Mr. Perlstein or Mr.
Yaskov to raise their hand so they could adopt my testimony.
All right.
I have one of the owners raise his hand, please.
Mr. Perlstein has been allowed to speak, sir.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
It's Michael Perlstein.
It's Michael, M-I-C-H-A-E-L-P-E-R-E-L-S-H-T-E-Y-N.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Michael, have you heard my testimony to the ZBA just now?
I did.
Do you agree with it and adopt my testimony as if it was your own?
Is there anything you want to add that I forgot?
not really when we did uh have the the one thing i want to mention when we did have the the meeting
with the local community they did not really raise question of condensity uh they did have
uh uh some issues with some other builders that cracked the payment uh pavement around and i
assured the the local community that if we would have done anything like that we would have fixed
it and i i thought we uh had a good meeting i didn't um i think uh we would get a post but
that's what happened okay all right um questions from the board no mr chair no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience mr chair miss mary uh jones has her hand raised
I have a letter to speak at this time. Good morning, Ms. Jones. Could you state your name