family household living there are two use refusals in the case of attached buildings
stairs from the ground level to the deck are prohibited and two the vertical where whereas
the vertical supports of a deck must be 18 inches from the lot lines but three of the vertical
supports are not compliant they are each 13 inches 10 inches four and a half inches respectively from
10 inches, 4 1⁄2 inches, respectively, from the side lot line.
on the sideline.
So you may proceed and begin sharing your screen.
Thank you.
So first, I'd just like to explain that my husband and I helped our daughter buy this
house um last year in june june 21 and um it's uh located about 10 houses down from henry avenue
at the top of the hill this is the reservoir in east falls um this uh zoning uh image from the
zoning from the assessor's uh rather um web page shows uh it has a front yard it's a row house
and it has a a backyard that is on a private alley and um when uh we bought this house we
knew we wanted to renovate the kitchen so that's what spurred this project we wanted to help our
daughter renovate this kitchen so here's a front yard view of the house um here's the view from
the alley um showing the existing deck with the non-conforming columns a parking space under the
deck and the garage door and then there's a back door here and I have some better photos are these
all um can you see the whole screen we're good we're fine okay um so here's a plan of what um
we're proposing to do the yellow is the renovation of the kitchen and then we wanted to add a small
addition here which is basically under the bedroom bay and over the garage so it's within the
footprint of the existing building and then on the existing deck we wanted to cut out a portion
and add a stair down to grade. This shows the stair footprint at the grade, shows the driveway,
the back door and the garage so here's a better photo of of the um where the parking space would
be this is the neighbor's car uh and the deck existing deck could you could you show them that
where the stairs would be um it would be cut out of the floor of the deck here oh i see okay would
start lined up with the edge of the deck and go up okay all right later I have a rendering that
shows this okay thank you and so when we applied for the permit we found out that the deck probably
wasn't applied but didn't have a permit when it was built um and the so the previous owner built
it without a permit and the columns were too close to the property line but we think they've
been there since the 1990s. We don't know for sure. So here's a view under the deck where the
stair would be and showing one of the other columns. So this is up at the deck level and
this area is the part we want to fill in. We want to break out through this wall, line it up with
this wall and so here you can see the bedroom bay above and the garage falls under this wall.
Interior view of the kitchen. This is the basement stair up to the kitchen which is
very steep and we consider it dangerous. Me and Zoe's father really are very uncomfortable using
this stair. Here's a floor plan of what the project will look like when it's done with the
new stair and landing. This part is the addition. This is the existing vestibule, but it's going to
be essentially rebuilt with a door and a window. And this is the existing brick wall that has to
be modified to open it up. Here's a rendering showing the new stair in this turquoise blue
color and the three columns that are non-conforming. Here's another view showing that you will be
able to walk under the stair to the to the parking space. In this diagram I've numbered
the columns so you know which is which in the following photographs. So number three and four
and five are the steel columns that we're asking for a variance for. And so starting with number
three, it's 10 inches from the property line. And you can see this is the neighbor's property.
um it's 10 inches from the property line and you can see this is the neighbor's property and they
have a column and a deck there too and then uh column number four is 13 inches from the property
line and then column number five is four and a half inches and this one is the most inboard one
you know and is least you know susceptible to being hit by anything like a car
um so again here's another view column number five and i just want to point out column number
one and two are wooden columns that we are replacing with new footings um and adding a
beam to support um before um we assume that before the seller put this house on the market
She added those columns and we want to properly, you know, have them supported.
This is a view from the alley, from the deck looking east up towards the reservoir.
So this is our deck. This is the neighbor's deck.
And this is the view in the other direction.
Our deck is this corner. There's one house that doesn't have a deck.
and then this is the the next property has a deck here's a view straight on you can see
these um three houses have a deck this is ours in the middle and um oh and so um my daughter's
here she's the occupant of this house and i wondered whether she could also speak
um i i think you've made a you you presented the case i i you know i'm not sure what was
she could she could add right now okay well she took this these following photographs i just want
that i just wanted to finish the presentation where's this steps there this is um these these
are photographs of neighbors with death showing that it's common neighborhood and so we added
those just to show you that you know other people have these stairs and then this is my letter from
the um the rco um hillary langer just uh no op no non-opposition and then both of our immediately
adjacent neighbors wrote letters of support for this project and i um added that to the presentation
and okay that's what i wanted to present and i have all the other documents i i noticed that
the attorneys you know presented the refusal and the letter we're fine we we have copies of all
that okay all right questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
mr chair we have a miss joey mender baptie with her hand raised i have allowed her to speak at
this time sure hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please good morning
my name is zoe linder bapty first name z-o-e last name is hyphenated the first part is l-i-n-d-e-r
second part is bapty b-a-p-t-i-e um i'm the hold on one minute do you swear for him to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do proceed thank you um i'm the owner occupant of
house my parents are my mother is presenting the appeal and um thank you for the opportunity to
go through what we're asking for obviously i uh support the request for variants okay thank you
um and i just wanted to say it's the project is really a kitchen renovation project and we're
just trying to make everything else in the house legal and conforming with the request for variant
all right well well thank you very much for calling in we appreciate that yeah anyone else
from the virtual audience?
Mr. Hillary Langer
has her hand raised.
I have allowed her to speak at the time.
Could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter, please?
Hillary Langer.
H-I-L-A-R-Y
L-A-N-G-E-R.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Proceed, Mr. Langer.
I'm chair of the East Falls
Community Council Zoning Committee. We had our meeting and I would like to state that
absolutely as an RCO we are in support of legalization and improvements to properties
such as this deck but as to the specific nature of the refusals such as the proximity of foundation
uh to a property line that we don't feel that's our purview uh so we are uh this is why in our
non-opposition we're referring the refusals to your decision okay thank you very much
referring the refusals to your decision okay thank you very much for calling in mr langer
okay planning commission
thank you chair sarah bond for the philadelphia city planning commission
the proposed dimensional variance for the columns is minimal and does not conflict with the purpose
and spirit of the zoning code the proposed variance for the stairs from the deck to the
ground floor although prohibited with attached buildings is consistent with nearby properties
the city planning commission recommends the board grant the variance thank you very much
mi 2022 003 142 33 18 bowman street i vote yes harold tenary my vote is yes thomas holliman
my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes
thank you thank you thank you thank you for okay um my let's see here 18 is a continuance
Right. So, My19, MI2022-001-994-2547 South Broad Street. Victoria Scarpato is the owner. Leonard Ruger will be on for the city.
This is an L&I appeal.
Ms. Scarpato has joined in as a panelist.
Mr. Rorder will be joining in shortly.
Ms. Scarpato?
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Victoria Scarpato.
it's v-i-c-t-o-r-i-a s-c-a-r-p-a-t-o right um and you're the owner of the property
yes okay and i have my brother here he's the one that maintains the property for me
right so you're the only one can testify so do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes and mr reuter could you state your name and spell for the
court reporter please sure of course uh may it please the board leonard freuder that's r-e-u-t-e-r
senior attorney for the city of philadelphia right do you swear a firm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do thank you sir so this is an appeal for an l&i
decision uh this is an appeal from a uh a zoning violation that was issued to the property there
There was a single notice of violation that included several violations were indicated.
One of them was a zoning violation that was appealed here.
The other violations are still pending at the Board of L&I Review.
So we'll have Ms. Scarpetta speak first.
Is that okay?
It's, you know, it's up to you.
I think with the violation appeal, unlike an appeal against L&I, you know, involving
the issuance of a permit uh this is a straightforward violation i think i can just
simply represent okay what the issue is so um upon inspection of the and i do apologize an inspector
was unable to appear this morning however i as attorney for the city i can represent um what
happened here sure and also i proposed a resolution um so upon inspection of the property uh back in
i think february uh the it was determined that the use had changed the use of the property had
changed so that this is a cmx2 property that's located at the intersection of south broad street
and chunk and as a cmx2 property it's required to have first floor commercial use or non-residential
use which it does in this case i think there's a medical office on the first floor and they are
permitted to have residential units on the upper floors. I believe it's a three-story building.
So per the code, CMX2 property can have one residential unit per 480 square feet of lot size.
Their current zoning permit is for first floor for the doctor's office or medical office and
for two units upstairs so the inspector determined that there were now three units upstairs they
didn't have permits for that that was uh in addition to that um zoning being a violation
of their existing zoning permit that triggered other violations and ultimately and again this
would be dealt with by the board of l and i review but ultimately those uh if they want to keep the
third unit they will be required to get a new certificate of occupancy and go through a lot of
be required to get a new certificate of occupancy and go through a lot of other things, such as
other things such
probably having to sprinklerize the building and so on and so forth. Those are not zoning issues
at this time. So the only issue before this board is they went from two residential units to three
residential units. But the fact is, this is a 1600 square foot lot. So they can get, they should be
able again i'm not a plans examiner it would have to go through l and i but they should be able to
apply for and obtain uh a third unit uh a third residential unit for the upstairs by right so i'm
not really sure why i mean we would be willing to uh we would ask the board to have this this
appeal mark city affirmed and we'd be happy to give them an additional 90 days to obtain the
zoning permit now again i just want to let ms scarpato know that the mere fact that she gets
she can get the zoning permit probably by right again there may be some other factors i can't but
they certainly should apply for it um because i don't think there's any dispute uh that there
were some alterations made to add a third unit um and again they could decide to get rid of that
unit which would require probably new building permits to remove uh the work that was done
but that's that but but anyway so she can either remove the third unit uh again which would require
Some wouldn't require a new zoning permit, but it would require building permits to, you know, remove the kitchen or bathroom or whatever else was added for the third unit.
Or she can try to legalize the third unit, which she should be able to at least start that process by getting a buy.
I believe she should be able to get a buy right new use permit to add the third unit.
So, so Miss Carpenter, did you hear that?
yes but that that has been three apartments every since the last 50 years it's never changed
it's always been like that yeah but i think what he's saying is you got to go down and get it you
get a permit right leonard i mean that's yeah the the only the the last zoning permits that we have
on file just show that it was two unit two there was one again the first floor commercial um and
then uh the two units upstairs so again it's it's i mean i know you'd have to pay the 125 bucks or
whatever it is for a resident for actually because it's a rental probably you need this would be a
200 permit but again it should be uh considered by right um the only thing i think is that you
may have to submit uh the floor plan which would demonstrate you know um to make sure that there's
enough space for the third unit and everything like that but again the the use for the third
permit again for 1600 square foot property she should be able to get three residential units by
right is that okay mrs scarpata yeah i guess so that that originally was two buildings though
made into one okay so but i think what we have to deal with what we have now okay so
So what do I have to do exactly? Could you tell me?
Leonard?
Yeah. I mean, again, I think, again, we have to be careful.
I can't give her legal advice, but I know.
I know. But I think what he's saying is you've got to go to L&I.
Why for a use for the third apartment?
You're just applying for a new zoning permit for, you know,
existing unit existing uses to remain addition you know and adding one additional uh residential
unit now again i'm not absolutely saying that this would be by right but no i understand they're
pretty sure it is and then if that's denied or refused then you can come back to the zoning board
for that so uh but again and it doesn't address the other violations which is which will still
have to be addressed so hillary most of them are done hillary yes yes our move today is to appeal
granted yes we're if we are affirming um the the city's issuance of the violation it is um it is
appeal granted yeah i'm sorry i i'm not sure i it should be so it's an appeal from a violation so
like at the board of l and i review it would be marked city of city oh i'm sorry you're right
city affirmed uh with right 90 day stay of enforcement okay yeah i'm sorry i did have it
backwards it actually would be it actually would be appeal denied if we're if we're affirming i'm
sorry thank you leonard all right good but but again with the with the 90 day stay of enforcement
okay we can we can do that that's fine so we'll just say appeal denied with 90 day stay of
enforcement right to give her time to make the application mi 2022 001 994 2547 south broad
Street. Appeal denied, 90-day stay of enforcement. Carol Tenere, city affirmed, 90-day stay of