and we are live people can start joining oh there's tanya we see you
okay uh we are live and uh jason uh we'll give you a few minutes
sure no problem you'll let me know when you're ready
Okay, Mr. Chico. We can begin. Okay, then before we begin again in the event that we
Tanya we're not able to get Tanya. Who will be the person from staff who will give us
hearing dates if if we have a continuance uh or we have to do it oh tanya yep i'm here thanks
okay welcome home i know this stuff is crazy all right so you're ready yes i'm ready to go
all right thank you good morning everyone we apologize for the delay we were having some
technical problems on which i'm sure you all can understand my name is frank de chico and i'm the
Chair of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. I'll be participating in today's hearing along with
Board Secretary Confessor Plaza and Board Members Mr. Thomas Holloman and Mr. James Snell.
Board Administrator Tanya Sunkit and Board Attorney Sharon Saleta are also in attendance.
For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings, I'll go through some
of the basics of what you can expect. First, we will be administering oaths to individual
participants prior to their testimony. Second, for the benefit of anyone participating by phone,
we ask that attorneys and witnesses identify themselves prior to speaking or testifying.
Third, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded and that by
participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded. Fourth, for anyone participating by
phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to
unmute yourself. I repeat, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise
your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself. Finally, to enter an appearance
statement, call Google 267 -270 -5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property
at issue. I'll repeat that as well. To enter an appearance statement, call Google 267 -270 -5548
and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue. With that said, we can
begin but before we call the first case we'd like to ask if anyone is requesting a continuance
or withdrawal of an appeal listed to be heard this morning if so please raise your hand
so chair i have a few if i can call those first please do um number one on the list
Okay. MI -2020 -0007171330. Vernon Road is continued?
Correct. Request by the attorney of record.
The next one, number five on your list, was requested by the RCO only.
mi -2020 -000375 -2215 i'm sorry um yes so if there's an applicant here regarding this case
but it's just by the rco okay so 2215 west tayoga if there's anyone who disagrees with that
request for continuance please raise your hand
Hannah, are you here in behalf of
2215 West Tioga?
No, I heard you say Vernon Road was being continued.
That's the 1330 Vernon Road?
Correct.
Okay, thank you very much.
Alan, are you here for Tioga?
no hands you want to tell you
Mr. Nockamson?
Good morning, Alan Nockamson of Nockamson, PC.
I am not here for Tioga.
I was just raising my hand because I'm seeking a continuance for the matter I have this morning's list.
But let us go through our list and then we'll go from there.
So what I would ask if anyone, when we call that the case number, then raise your hand, please.
Otherwise, stay silent for a few minutes.
MI -2020 -000375 -2215 -West Tioga is continued.
I also have number 12 on your list.
MI -2020 -001165, 4249 Cotman Avenue.
Yes, requested by the attorney of record.
Case will be continued.
Then number 16 on your list.
MI -2020 -000296810, North 12th Street.
yes requested by the attorney of records engine that case will be continued
okay now we can go to others chair okay this is this is sharon can i say we um i received a
continuance request from swampoodle rco for number nine three two two three north 29th street
i checked and i don't have any record of having received exhibits for this either
okay mi -2020 -0009483223 north 29th street is continued at the request of the rco and that we
do not receive the proper documentation within the five days
are there any other requests for continuances or withdrawals if so we have um i'm sorry chair we
have Sloan Foulkes. Sloan you gonna meet yourself speak to a continuance. Good
morning Mr. Foulkes, please identify yourself for the record. Morning Chairman
DeChico and ZBA board. My name is Sloan Foulkes, S -L -O -A -N -E -F is a fire or L -K -S
Office of Councilwoman Maria Quinonez Sanchez, Room 508 City Hall. We would like
to request continuance on meeting number MI -2020 -000294 -1635 East Sheltonham Avenue.
We do not have a page number for that.
We do not have any documentation of the applicant meeting with the RCO.
We reached out to the RCO, the coordinating RCO, and they have not responded to us in
a week.
So that's case number two on our list.
So MI -2020 -0002941635 East Cheltenham Avenue is continued.
I would ask that we check to see if anyone was here for that case.
And Mrs. Sharon, I would add that I have not received exhibits either.
Anyone else seeking a continuance or withdrawal, please raise your hand.
Alan Nockmson, you're going to unmute yourself and speak to your continuance.
Good morning, Alan Nockmson, Nockmson, PC, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
I'm here today.
Mr. Nockms, do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
I'm here today for 909 North 26th Street.
Just as a matter of background, we were supposed to have a supplemental hearing
to gain additional community input to present to the board.
We are still trying to meet with the community,
and we ask for a two -week continuance of our supplemental hearing.
Okay, so it's MI -2020 -001055 -911 North 26th Street is continued.
We're asking for two weeks.
Hello, Tanya.
And this is Sharon.
This is Sharon.
Ms. Sunkit, this is a follow -up hearing.
Ms. Sunkit, this is a follow -up hearing.
it was one of
It was one of the follow -up hearings for today, for this morning.
Let me just see.
Two weeks from now, because we got a couple already scheduled.
We can do November 4th.
That sounds great.
November 4th at 930?
Great.
Let me read that back in.
MI -2020 -001055 -911 -North26th Street is continued to November 4th at 9 .30 a .m. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals?
I have Craig. Craig, you can unmute yourself and speak to a continuance.
good morning good morning craig please identify yourself spell your first and last name for your
record
c -r -a -i -g last name melidosian m -e -l -i -d -o -s -i -a -n ward 40 republican rco coordinating rco
P .O. Box
333 -55
Philadelphia
19142.
I'm speaking in regarding...
Thank you.
Do you swear in the frame to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing about the truth?
Please proceed.
This is in reference to
MI 2020
000292
Yoakam Street.
We're requesting a continuance.
we've had no communications with the applicant. However, on the face of it, we would probably be
supportive of what the applicant wants to do. Chairman, page 15. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.
Anyone out there have any issue with this case being continued? If not, item number MI -2020 -000292
Yoakum Street is continued.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Melodosian.
Okay, we're ready to go forward.
Hold on, please.
Let's see.
Get my notes.
All right.
MI -2020 -001694
694 -1800 Master Street.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
We'll go to number eight on our list.
Calendar number 39093 -2964 North 23rd Street.
My vote is yes.
Our vote is yes.
Excuse me, this is Sharon. Are these follow -ups or delayless?
Those were the three add -ons?
Yes, but they're not delayless.
The attorney was coming back, I believe, to present something.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, I'm sorry.
All right, so we have to, all right, so scratch whatever we just did, right?
Is Mr. Mulville available?
sorry about that
do you want me to call that one up
yeah I'll do it
he's not available
I don't see Leo or Sean
if Leo or Sean Ward is present
please raise your hands
i will contact them both if you want to skip those for now all right we'll skip those uh
how about the add -ons we can do those frank i believe those add -ons are on today's hearing
list if i'm not mistaken it's like number three that was part of the add -on um no the first ones
that you read were on today's hearing list. They were number 3, 8, and 17. So the others
that are add -ons. Yeah, they're not on our list. Yeah, it's got one that the ones we're going to
add on one. It is a Master Street, but it's a different one. The other one that we're waiting
for Leo to come on is 1800 Master. So the next.
Leo to come on is 1800 master.
So the next one, and we can do these, correct, Sharon?
The add -ons.
Yes, the first, the master street are just votes.
Right.
The other two, the attorney is returning to present something.
All right.
So MI -2020 -000313, 000311, 000304, 000306, and 000309.
They represent 1710 through 1718 Master Street.
My vote is no on one, two, three, four, and all five.
my vote is no to all
Jim and Tom
my vote is no to all
okay we may have lost Jim
the next one is
MI -2020 -000044
1925 North 4th Street
Is Mr. Matione available?
We're waiting for Mr. Matione to report back to us on obtaining a letter from the councilperson's office.
Mr. Matione, you've been promoted to a panelist.
You can share your screen and unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
Good morning, Mr. Maglioni.
Please identify yourself with the records.
Spell your name.
Excuse me.
Michael Maglioni, Federal Reserve Bank Building, 100 North Independence Mall,
street 5a northwest philadelphia 19106 and that's m -a -t -t -i -o -n -i i was not here
you're swearing a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do i was not here on 1925 north 4th mr chairman i think that was isaac slepner
um i was here on 1701 north 24th street
um well i maybe maybe the confusion was it's from your firm we're waiting for a letter from
the council person's office uh the case was heard last week i believe and we held off until this
morning i'm sorry 1701 south 24th we heard last week and the week before and we were waiting on
letter from Councilmember Johnson. Mr. Mattione I believe I had it down as you
were going to return and report on whether you were able to obtain the
letter and then the board would decide on whether to vote. Right I think that's
what what it was I have not oops with the wrong screen I'm sorry I did not
obtain a letter from them I did obtain a second letter from the RCO the Point
breeze community development coalition which is now in full support with provisos i believe
sharon you received that letter as well
it's not on our list today is it sharon um let's see no this was this was an add -on um i believe
it was announced that it would be that mr matigoni would come back this morning um this
the one for point breeze yes yes but on my my question it's not on my sheet for adding do we
we can add it on correct it is it's mi2020000044 it's number four on the list that i emailed you
this morning oh okay okay but that's okay i i'm sorry all right i got it now all right so
So, did you get the letter? You did get the letter of support, correct?
I got a revised letter of support from the Point Breeze Community Development Coalition.
All right. So, MI -...
I'm sorry. Mr. Maggioni, I don't have the letter in front of me.
Could you read the provisos that they are requesting into the record?
They said, as discussed, below are the commitments I hereby make you and the community,
make to you in the community with regards to the project that 1701 South
24th Street one the structure will be three stories with a height of 35 feet
One, the structure will be three stories with a height of 35 feet, plus or minus.
plus or minus
Two, there will be no power.
Wait a minute.
I'm sorry.
Excuse me.
That's a different address.
That's what I'm confused.
No, the one that I have is 1925 North 4th that you were returning today simply to report
on whether you were able to get a letter from the council person.
That one, though, but Isaac Slepner is handling that.
I am not handling that matter.
Ah, okay.
If you can reach Mr. Slepner and have him contact us, either for this morning or this afternoon, we'll hold off on that, Sharon, on 4th Street, okay?
And Leo Mulvihill was about to join in, if we could see if he's present.
Guarding 1800 Master? No.
1800 master which is number three on your list i believe the regular hearing list
regular hearing list okay uh before we go any further again mr manioni uh yes again so we're
if you can get a hold of mr slepner uh 1925 north fourth that's fine and then sharon do we have an
add -on for uh the the point breeze uh the one mr manione just spoke to
because i don't see it here no um mr manione could you call me on that one
certainly
okay all right so um mr mulverville regarding uh 1800 master street
and good morning chairman members of the board
Leo Mulvihill here on
1800 Master Street
identify yourself for the record please
sure Leo Mulvihill M -U -L
V as in Victor, I -H -I -L -L
Address is 2424 East York Street, Suite 111
Philadelphia, 19125
And are you going to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I think we held off, we were waiting for your letter from the RCO, which you're showing us
Yes, members of the board, just as a reminder, this was an application
for dwelling units in the existing structure on 1800 Master Street.
It had previously been approved for three units with vacant commercial,
then four units with vacant commercial.
Those permits had expired, and now my client was seeking not to have
the vacant commercial space and instead have only residential dwelling units
based on the makeup of the block, which is largely residential,
both single and multifamily mixed on that block.
What I'm showing on the screen now and what I emailed yesterday when I received it around
1130 in the morning is a letter dated October 5 from the RCO, which was Friends of the 47th
Overall, it appears that they voted nine, pardon me, three in opposition.
There were nine meeting attendees.
Nobody else is shown one way or another, and I'm not sure whether there was a letter of
explanation attached, but I'll see whether there was.
All right. And by the way, it's a black leather jacket today, correct?
Well, chairman, I actually had this in my calendar for two o 'clock today.
So I was about to head out and run some errands. So I'm glad you.
Okay. All right. So MI -2020 -001694, 1800 Master Street. My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Thank you, members of the board. In addition, just to go back to yesterday's list, the property was 1302 North 18th Street. I also sent over a letter for that project as well. Yesterday when I received it from the RCO. I understand it's being held till next week's executive session, but I just wanted to make the board aware of that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
okay uh we got the matione and sleptner we're waiting for i think everything else on the list
go to number five is it charon 39 uh 1501 north 33rd yes please i have someone um with their
hands up if you would allow um i'm not sure if it's matty only or remember
Caller on the phone and then in 420, are you requesting
on the phone and then in 420 are you requesting a continuance or speaking to a continuance
no i'm sorry i was did you guys do st raymond's yet no no okay you're going to do it today
okay we can continue
calendar number 37967 1501 north 33rd street
this case was reopened on the request of council president clark
and i believe there was some dialogue between
the rachel pritzker and mary jones from council president clark's office
um if i could ask um if everyone keeps their hands down until the chair requests someone
to come forward and raise their hand thank you kindly
Yeah, there's no need to have your hand up unless your case is called.
Thank you.
Okay, we do have Rachel here, Chair.
Morning.
Morning.
Morning, Rachel.
Please, you know, you know the drill.
Please identify yourself with a record by your name.
Rachel Pritzker, R -A -C -H -A -E -L -P -R -I -T -Z -K -E -R, 1635 Market Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19103.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
I'm just going to share my screen and kind of go through this again.
As the board may remember this is 1501 North 33rd Street. This is a property located in
Strawberry Mansion across from the park. It is an oddly shaped triangular lot at the corner
and we are requesting variances just for parking. This property can support
17 units by right it's zoned rm1 but given the odd shape and location of the property in addition
to the sewer line that runs under the property that cannot be moved and has to have a 30 foot
non -buildable easement on it locating the parking anywhere from that's not front loaded is not
possible we presented this so as you can see the two refusals are proposed off -street parking
access by a front street, which is prohibited in RM1, and then surface parking in the required
rear yard is prohibited. This project was originally applied for back in June of 2019
and was continued a few times in order to meet the community and address other concerns in addition
to COVID -related issues. So just to go through, again, the site zone RM1. So you're allowed to do
17 units by right. We also are providing two affordable units in addition. And as you can
see, this rail line and sort of this location makes it so that the property doesn't have an
ability to provide parking elsewhere on the lot. We, this is sort of what it looks like existing,
it's been a topic of conversation for many years and it's just kind of sat vacant
with really no movement for quite some time.
Just want to
bring up we went through all the outreach with the community last time we also have letters of
support from the near neighbors although members of the community I'm sure will voice their
sentiments about this project but we have support from your neighbors including 1401
North Coralized Street, 1444 North Myrtlewood Street, 1463 North Coralized
Street, 1510 North Hollywood Street, it's the same one, and 1519 North 33rd Street
in addition to the near neighbor who had to get off the call,
um where his is 1533 north 33rd street he had to run to a meeting um i want to have ian smith
come on to go through um some of the plans he's the architect for the project and to just again
reiterate sort of the difficulties of this site um as the board can see we're proposing 13 parking
spaces. Everything else is by right. There's no dimensional variances being requested. It's just
Everything else is bi -right. There's no dimensional variances being requested. It's just for parking.
There is an existing curb cut on the site.
And again, the thought was to provide accessory off -street parking in order to help with some of the congestion and the additional density that's being built in the area.
There's another project that I think we had mentioned last time that provides no parking further down.
And so this was to help mitigate, you know, the 17 units that are by right and add 13 parking spaces.
Again, there's no other location for these parking spaces, given the sewer line that runs through the property and this sort of unique location of this existing site.
So I just want to have Ian speak to some of the comments that I've made from a professional perspective and also talk through some of the analysis that we had done from two different traffic engineers in order to address the concerns that the community had, which these letters have been provided to the board as well.
Given sort of the low number of parking spaces, this is not something that PennDOT or the city typically get involved with as far as doing a traffic analysis or a traffic impact study.
As per the Philadelphia Streets Department requirements, the study is only done if it generates 3 ,000 trips a day, 1 ,500 vehicles a day, and 100 trips per peak hour.
this is only 13 parking spaces so if we said it was 17 parking spaces that would be a total of
34 trips however we wanted to at least get a engineer to to review to make sure that
based on the criteria that they look at for safety and site distance that it would not cause
additional concerns that we could figure out ways to address the community's concerns with
um the street so if ian can jump on uh ian smith and keith aliats is the owner um to kind of
corroborate what i'm saying and um i'm happy to go into more detail if it would be beneficial to
the board but i know that they've already heard this before and and don't want to belabor the
point i would appreciate that and uh we can get your witnesses on and summarize the best of their
ability, we'd appreciate that. Yeah, so I would ask that your client raise their hand if they need
to come forward. Yep. We have Ian Smith is unmuted, and you can wait to be sworn in.
Good morning. Please identify yourself with a record, name and address.
Good morning. My name is Ian Smith. I'm the architect working on this project on behalf
behalf of Keith Allianz. My address is 322 East Thompson Street, Philadelphia PA, 19125.
We're going to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
All right. In order to summarize this, the task at hand was to try to include parking on a
triangular lot. And based on the geometry, as you can see presented in front of you here,
It is triangular. The hypotenuse of this triangular, if I can give a brief geometry exercise, is the longest leg in the back that fronts the train line, which is the Amtrak train line.
That's the longest leg. It's the easiest way to provide drive aisles by standards of the zoning code and provide as many parking spaces as possible on this lot.
It does encroach upon the rear yard setback, but because there is an Amtrak train line behind it, we saw that that nonconformity wouldn't be as difficult because we don't have a residential neighbor behind the property.
It was once a warehouse building that serviced automobiles in its sort of earlier history, and then later on sort of like a warehouse space that had utility vehicles in it.
So vehicles were coming in and out of that property, perhaps not as much as 34 trips a day, but were navigating the current traffic patterns that are moving along North 33rd Street.
And that's how I would probably summarize that.
um ian did you look at other ways in which that we could locate the parking um and can you explain
sort of the exercise with the issues with the sewer line that make it hard to put the parking
anywhere else on this site and in addition to the um the issues with the building and the location
of the building as it results to the hardship of the size of the site the look the shape of the
site and also the sewer line yeah so I so with regard to the
Yeah, so with regard to the hardship, I would like to describe this as legitimate hardship because this is something I've never encountered before as far as land use is concerned.
So we have a utility line. It's a terracotta sewer. It's about 18 inches in diameter. It's 30 feet below grade and services three to four properties on Nutrona Street.
Because of that, the Philadelphia Water Department has restricted any construction with regard to footings or walls or floors above, you know, right on top of that.
You'd have to first climb 30 feet in the air before you could actually build over that easement.
That then, you know, in order to get the density under 38 feet on this property, we had to sort of put all of the massing of the building or the uses of the building towards the northwest corner of the triangle, which is in the lower left -hand corner.
The easement runs sort of north, well, southwest to northeast along the train line.
And it basically follows the, it's parallel to the hypotenuse of the triangle.
That means that the open space left over is available for trying to fit a two -way drive aisle access on the property,
as well as open air parking, which would be, you know, sort of contained by the remaining
existing masonry wall that was once the rear wall of the old warehouse building that occupied
the site. Thank you. I wanted to just jump into the community piece of this. So Ian and Keith,
the owners and another attorney before I was involved had met with a small group from the
community and most of the concerns I think we heard last time were about the density on the
site and other things in addition to some concerns about parking, which is why we had this
plan put together and why we had the engineer review it. We also discussed ways in which we
could have this signage and lighting um and sort of a coloration so that it can make it more safe
we also did do an exercise of looking to see where else we could put the curb cut and again
as ian explained there's really no other place to do parking given the hardship on this site
we also at the request of the council office set up another meeting with the rco which happened
last night in which we again discussed this um and you know they i'm sure they will express you
know their concerns but we did feel um from our perspective at least that we've tried to um you
know mitigate any issues with parking and do think that um it would be sort of short -sighted to have
17 units on a site on 33rd street with no parking given the concerns with parking in this area and
in general. So I'm happy to answer any additional questions. I just would like to have Keith on to
attest to the testimony that I provided and then happy to take questions and move this forward.
Thank you.
Please raise his hand.
There's no one.
all right um okay i'm sorry is this calvin williams you waiting for no okay people just
raising their hands just because that's from the community all right any questions from the board
no no no anyone else wish to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
chair i have mary jones from the council's office mary you can unmute and wait to be sworn in
good morning ms jones please identify yourself for the record
good morning um mary jones from council president daryl clark's office room 494 uh city hall
we're in a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do thank you please proceed um yes last last night we did um have a community meeting
where uh many of the community uh expressed uh concern about the safety uh of pedestrian
concern about the safety of pedestrians and of the traffic and the traffic
street.
concerns around having a parking garage with people able to drive in and out.
We support them and their concerns and and just hope that you will listen to
them and that and what they um what they think should be uh how the situation should be handled
thank you anyone else wish to who would like to testify in this case please raise your hand
here we have tanetta tanetta you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
Chair, Tonnetta is available for you to swear her in.
Okay, ma 'am, please identify yourself for the record, first and last name.
Spell your first and last name and give us your address.
Good morning.
My name is Tonnetta Graham.
We spell my first name T -O -N -N -E -T -T -A.
Last name, G -R -A -H -A -M.
My address is 2234 North 30th Street, and I am one of the coordinated RCOs for the project,
Strawberry Mansion CDC.
Thank you.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Good morning, panel, and thank you so much for allowing the RCO process to move forward.
There wasn't the proper RCO meeting was held on this project last night.
so this has definitely been a quick turnaround um it was um this is a contentious issue as we
all put out there and as you may have you will hear today but our issues and concerns are for
the safety of not only the potential pedestrian traffic but the location of this uh parking
accessory accessory parking um we do appreciate the fact that there's parking provided however
this location um in our viewpoint is not ideal um this is uh the entry and exit us from this
driveway is located on a Pennsylvania highway on north 33rd street so it is a highway and this
proposed driveway not only um is on a highway but it is at the landing of a vertical crust of a
bridge and as you move up that bridge it has ebbs and flows as well as curves so there is a south of
the bridge is a horizontal curve the vision and site is limited and uh you're limited to be able
to see in this proposed driveway there is no signage that uh uh even talked was even talked
about or discussed about putting um a driveway there so that drivers can see what's what's coming
this highway is heavily used by bikers vehicles septa buses and is frequently congested during
rush hours and special events in center city on and on kelly and mlk drives this is also a gateway
to Sherbury Mansion it's a gateway also for our park entryway so in order this is a way we our
community uses Fairmont Park I don't know if I have the ability to share but we do have several
videos and we have a couple pictures that we'd like to show that to give you an idea a visual
of how dangerous this intersection this this parking would be if it was allowed to take place
Thank you. Please, if you can share that, that'd be helpful. Thank you.
No, she doesn't have the authority. Do you want her to be promoted?
Yes, please.
okay lots going on okay all right I think I have the ability to share my screen now
thank you
okay this is a video
that we'd like to share
so first video
this is the point where they would like to put this park and entry exit way as
As you can see, they're coming off the crest of that hill, so there's no time to stop or whatever for these drivers.
you can see they're coming off the crest of that hill so there's no time to stop
We do know that the attendance traffic speed limit is 25, but as you can see, some folks out there, mostly they don't.
So this is one of the videos we're going to show.
The edge of that bridge is right there.
This is our primary concern.
Traffic is a steady flow of traffic.
this is all day every day okay and I will show you video number two of actual the
actual drive along this road so this is highway 33 33rd Street Pennsylvania PA
highway as you can see it's an incline with a lot of curves there's two sharp
curves happening on this um lane and at when this vehicle stops that this is
where they would like to put parking you have no time to stop for anybody trying
to enter and exit this parking garage and as you can notice on the left cars
are continuing to zoom by as this car stop this again is the situation there
all day every day then I'd like to end with a couple of photos that we can
share this is what we see every day again this is a highway on you can see
the cursor this is where they want to have they're proposing their parking
entry and exit way this road is always bottleneck again whenever things are
happening in center city or on the drive um this is a major bus route this is our primary concern
yes we do appreciate the thoughtfulness of having parking there but we feel as though in this
particular case uh buy right what works best because we do not want to hear about anybody
dying or a variety of traffic incidents along this route which we know will happen if this
parking is allowed to be there thank you okay thank you miss graham is there i'm sorry have
you concluded miss graham have you finished oh i'm sorry yeah i have others but i can go on for days
but no no we don't have many days thank you thank you good job thank you uh anyone else who wish
would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
and it would be helpful if you offer something new and different
francis you've been unmuted you can wait to be sworn in
please identify yourself with the record spell your first and last name and
in your address please give us your address yes my name is francis
Mangobot. And the property I own in the neighborhood is 1442 North Myrtlewood Street.
And your last name is spelled?
Mangobot. That's M -A -N -G -U -B -A -T.
We're in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
So I purchased 1442 North Myrtlewood in April of 2018. There's 17 new construction houses on the
block. Funny, I was in the neighborhood with my brother yesterday and he has his car. And just
from having the 17 new houses on the block, he got two more bumps on his car just from having
it parked on the sidewalk. And then on 33rd Street, I think what's crazy is just from two
buildings, just from this one, 1501 North 33rd with 17 units and 1519 North 33rd has 32 units
with no parking. And, um, during our last meeting, there was another gentleman who swore in and that
lives on the block stating that, uh, it's basically like bumper cars being on the block.
So I can't even imagine having, you know, 70 people living on the block with no parking.
Um, so, so parking would definitely be great. I think the neighborhood is, uh, over congested
as it is. And I think, you know, if you have another 70 cars that are on the sidewalk,
you know in traffic's going that fast people are trying to get out of their cars there's a
likelihood of them opening their door and having you know a fast moving car you know running by
their door i just think it really makes sense to have parking and can't have 50 new units and 50
new people moving in potentially having you know two cars each another 100 cars there and having
no parking. Thank you. Anyone else? Something new and different, please. Raise your hand.
Do you see Keith? I'm sorry. Do you see Keith?
Do you see Keith, Tanya?
I'm sorry?
Do you see Keith?
He said he was the owner.
Yes, I do.
Okay, thank you.
Chair, we have Calvin.
Calvin, you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
Calvin, please identify yourself, your name and address.
My name is Calvin Williams, 1814 North Nutrona Street.
That's Calvin, C -A -L -V -I -N, Williams, W -I -L -L -I -A -M -S.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you, sir.
Please proceed.
I wanted to say, it was mentioned earlier about the curb cut that's originally there.
the building has always been a commercial building prior to a warehouse and a garage in the future
in the past the the previous officials of the city somehow knew that that is not a good spot
for residential because you notice uh along the street there there may be three or four more
houses everything else is commercial so uh it was able to provide in and out traffic here and there
for taking care of regular business.
As an M1 location, I'm still not understanding
how it's meant to be a residential space.
I'm saying that it was never originally meant to be there
because there's good sound reasons for Fairmount Park
and the activities that goes on there
and all of the traffic that happens there.
Originally, the garage was there with horse and buggy
at a time to come in and out of there.
So certainly traffic was not a problem for them.
So I totally oppose this project
and hoping that you and the board
will find a way to refuse it.
Thank you.
Chairman, anyone else?
We just addressed the zoning really quick.
It's zoned RM1, so it's zoned for residential,
not zoned for commercial.
And arguably commercial would probably be worse
with no parking or just more congested in general with loading and people trying to drive in and out
if it was commercial before and there was a curb cut then obviously there was some parking on this
site or the ability for parking on this site at some point. Anyone else? Keith? Rachel? Yes please.
He can unmute himself and wait to be sworn in.
Keith, are you there?
I see his name, but he's mute.
There you go.
Ms. Sauer, please identify yourself with the record.
Spell your first and last name.
Is there audio issues or something?
um rachel is that he's your client yes as an officer of court we'll we'll agree that he
would adopt your testimony unless you have he has something different that
um no i think i think all right uh anyone else would like to testify please raise your hands
something new and different i have tyrone tyrone you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
mr williams please identify yourself for the record spell your first spell your first and
last name give us your address sure my name is tyrone williams tyrone t -y -r -o -n -e williams w -i -l -l -i -a
illness as a long -time resident of north mr williams mr williams your address 25 i'm so sorry
Neutrona Street, Philadelphia, PA
19132.
Can you swear in the family to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, Mr. Chair.
Please proceed.
Thank you. As a long -time resident
of Strawberry Mansion, of North Philadelphia
and the current resident of Mansion,
and have played in Fairmont Park
for many years as a child,
being able to safely
across 33rd Street
with assistance.
The location in which
is being proposed is
a dangerous location for pedestrians.
One, there's not
only the traffic,
congested traffic, that also
comes from the new development that
just happened,
32nd and
Girard, going all the way
down towards Jefferson.
towards Jefferson. There's new development there. New Aldi's market. There's the wine spirit.
This new development there,
New Old East market is...
There's Lemon Hill, the park, where people get in and out going to city city. We have the zoo,
where people going back and forth to zoo. So it's a heavily congested traffic area with new
congestion added just in a matter of five or six years ago. This development will make it very
hard for the pedestrians. When they walk around that curb, if one of those cars speed out of that
location, they will not be able to see the pedestrian in time because they have to watch
the zooming traffic in front of them. You have two bus lines, the 32 and the 49. It could be a danger
to those waiting on the bus because if one of those cars skip the payment because they do try
to cut around each other uh you have in that curve where they're trying to come off for 33rd and
popular to get on 33rd there's a little delay that has to happen there it's already kind of dangerous
at that area but those who know the area know about the delay and knows how the area is so it's
just a matter of safety for pedestrians that concerns me with this project and i don't see
with it a lot for parking thank you for allowing me thank you uh i the last couple witnesses with
no disrespect i hear a lot of repeating of what already miss graham uh did a really good job on
explaining uh the safety issue so uh i'm gonna go back to the board again is any any questions from
the board no I have a question Frank yeah I'm wondering what did the traffic
engineer report on the curve cut and a slowing of traffic to get into the curve
cut can I share my screen to just show the report to that specific section yes
Okay. So as you can see on the screen, it says for the driveway design, the geometric design of the proposed driveway also reviewed with regard to the appropriate layout for safe and efficient accommodations of vehicles. The proposed driveway is 21 feet in width for two -way traffic flow and intersects on North 33th Street at a 90 -degree angle.
The total curb width opening is proposed for 24 feet in width, which provides for approximately 1 .5 feet radii on both sides.
The driveway width and orientation is appropriate for a low -volume driveway under which this access is classified.
It's recommended that the driveway be widened to 10 feet to facilitate entering and accident, which we did.
And the presence of a driveway in this location will not present any safety issues for drivers using the driveway or traveling through on North 33rd.
The driveway will not impact, nor will it be impacted by increased traffic conditions that can occur in proximity to the site.
such as seasonal event detours or typical operations in Fairmount Park programs.
Excuse me, this is Sharon Saleta.
I have Ms. Pritzker's client on speakerphone, if he could testify.
Okay, just to hold off, because Tom asked a question, and I don't know if he has any questions.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Thank you.
I don't see anything in that what you just read, Ms. Pritzker, that addresses the issue of pedestrians.
Well, it was a study, it was an analysis done based on the traffic pattern.
We have also talked to the council office that we would be more than happy to be supportive of helping to get a crosswalk or some signs.
But again, this is a state highway, so we can't in and of ourselves go do all that.
And we did say, despite what Tanetta had mentioned, we did say yesterday that we would be willing to do that.
And I've talked to Mary about that.
But again, it's not something we can do unilaterally without the city's support and was something that should be discussed with the councilman and the streets department.
I've done that on many other projects where we've worked with the streets department to get either like additional traffic signs or lighting or things of that nature.
I had tried to explain that this doesn't trigger like a traffic light.
we've done that on other projects cost about a quarter million dollars and just given that this
is 17 units it it doesn't really call for that but we'd be happy to and I can have Keith on the
record say that he would be happy to work with the city the council office and the streets department
to try and obtain lighting or crosswalks or whatever is appropriate to help with the
progesterone side of this and we included in our design bollards and things of that nature to help
in addition to lighting um and painting to help uh and you know in addition to science to help
make it so that it's very apparent where the pedestrian um side of this would be um so
where the pedestrian um side of this would be um so we're happy to do all of that we just i just
can't imagine putting 17 units by right with no parking in philadelphia given all the concerns
that we're seeing in this neighborhood and other neighborhoods understood thank you uh
do you have your client yes yes sir please uh identify yourself spell your first and last name
Keith Allianz, K -E -I -T -H, last name A -L -L -I -O -T -T -S.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Without belaboring, you know, all the points that have already been addressed, as Rachel said, we did get a traffic study done.
And I know that there's a 32 -unit project going up a couple doors down right on 33rd.
And I think there's another one or two projects that are going to be developed within the next 12 to 18 months.
As far as the community's concerns, obviously, I hear all of them.
Certainly, safety is our main priority.
As Rachel said, we can only do so much.
We're limited as to what we can do based on.
It's a state road.
I feel like we've done everything we can do.
We sent the community the traffic study back last March.
A tremendous amount of time has been, I don't want to say wasted, but spent rather on this project,
trying to figure out redesigns and every which way we can do things to work with the community.
Obviously, with the sewer easement, we are extraordinarily limited as to what we can do
to the point that basically the site plan where it sits now and the parking only works the way
it stands now we i've offered to pay the city to move the sewer line myself it took me four to six
months to meet with the water department and and go over all that they don't even have the records
of that sewer that sewer was never even supposed to be put there they don't have a record on it
it's over 100 years old um and they couldn't answer as to me answer me as to tell me as to
why it was put there that being said with the development that's coming on the block
when the the one thing i'm having a tough time understanding when the community and i do want
to say there are concerns about pedestrians but just with the 32 units in my property on 33rd
49 units roughly 50 cars or more forgetting the fact that there's nowhere for those cars to park
now on the street if they were all to be on the street because i'm on that block all the time
there's cars on the sidewalk i see car i see i know there's been some stolen cars in the area
that have crashed into parked cars on the sidewalk at night i have a gentleman on the phone who's
who's willing to testify andrew who lives on 33rd but that being said if if all of the 17 cars went
on the street to me that would be much more of a hazard concern than if they were entering and
exiting out of my property if these cars are lined up on the street and those videos that
the community Tanetta had put um had shown us all today um exist on a daily basis how are all these
cars and people getting in and out of these cars with 50 to 70 more cars and i'm like how is that
even going to work to me at least all 17 cars you want to get them off the street and as long as we
light the area correctly and do the things we need to do to to to you know with safety is our biggest
concern as far as the ingress and ingress of the property to me that's by far a better scenario
You know, then having all these cars parking, double parking, parallel parking, coming in and out of spots with those cars coming over that bridge.
It's a much more safe. It's much more safer, as far as I'm concerned, to have the cars entering and exiting out of my project on 33rd Street.
And as Rachel said, and I'll finish up now, we'd be happy to talk to the streets department and anyone else that we need to in order to figure out the best way to make it the safest way for cars to enter and exit the property, as well as for pedestrians to walk up and down that street and cross over into Fairmount Park.
I appreciate that. And I was just thinking, based on your testimony and Rachel's, that it seems that there's obviously a willingness on your part to work with the council president's office, who represents that neighborhood, to see if there are any other ways of mitigating some of the traffic concerns, both for vehicles and pedestrians.
I don't want to belabor this case and continue to keep holding it, but unless I'm misreading it, it sounds like there might be some solution or some way of mitigating some of those issues that have been raised.
uh miss graham i believe i don't know if she's still on the line obviously took a lot of time
Ms. Graham, I believe, I don't know if she's still on the line, obviously took a lot of time.
to do the video and we appreciate that so uh if miss if uh if mary's still on from the council
president's office um could we uh again uh rachel i mean you have a client i'm i'm just again it's
Just maybe my instincts tell me that further conversation may, may, may lead to some resolution in this, on this case.
This is Sharon. Can I interrupt? I believe the Planning Commission may also want to weigh in again.
Yeah, I'm going to get to them next. Thank you, Sharon.
I just want to put that out there for the record.
rather than vote this case today i would suggest that maybe all parties go back
and give it one more shot to see if there's an opportunity again based on uh with what
miss pritzker and her client said that they'd be willing to work with the council president's
office and streets department to see if there's other ways in which we can mitigate the concerns
of and their real concerns of the community so having said that i'll ask the planning commission
good morning this is paula brumblow burns with the city planning commission
do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do thank you last week we gave a recommendation of no objection to residential
but we would ask for a proviso that the parking lot be designed that there be no reversal of
movements into the street. Okay. I'm sorry. Can I ask you to spell your name, please, Paula?
Paula, spell your last name. Paula, P -A -U -L -A, Burns, B -U -R -N -S. Thank you.
Just the FYI, Chair, if we could get everybody to kind of spell their name. We don't, we're not
working with the court reporter currently. Oh, I forgot you had to check out. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. I didn't realize that. All right. Is Mary Jones on? Ms. Jones?
Yes, I'm here.
Yeah, I don't want to, you know, I know what you guys go through. I lived the life of a district council person for a number of years.
Again, maybe the way I'm hearing it, it seems like there's some potential to have further conversation about the issues.
I think you heard what I said about the issues regarding pedestrian safety issues.
So I'd like to see this case continue.
Rachel, if that works for you, I don't know when the next RCO meeting would be.
I think Ms. Graham is on the line as well.
Yes, Ms. Graham is still on the line.
Ms. Graham, would you be opposed to having further conversations?
No, we would not be opposed.
So, Ms. Graham, when is your next RCO meeting?
We normally have them at the end of the month, so it would fall in October.
Or with this one, but we'd be willing to make a special acceptance,
as this is a very important issue that needs to be addressed.
So, I mean, at worst, and I'm going to go to Tanya now.
Maybe we can do something right after election.
sometime in november early november um i don't have anything early november um
no i don't think i'm thinking is
we can do the 17th of november
uh rachel does your client have any uh financial deadlines or anything to meet
um besides the fact that this has been a year and a half i know i know but um i i hear a willingness
yeah my only concern and i've talked to mary about this is that um you know
we can say we'll be supportive of anything but we have the city has to play ball with us as far as
moving that forward so i don't know that we can get anywhere with the streets department with a
solid commitment in a week or two weeks or a month well i think the council president's office may be
able to uh expedite that uh those issues with the streets department a lot quicker okay i mean that
would be really helpful and like we said we're open to um addressing you know pedestrian concerns
anything is better than people parking on the sidewalk which is what goes on there now
i understand that and it's what one of the reasons why i think that maybe further conversation might
hopefully maybe come to some resolution uh for both sides so again tanya what is that date
um for both sides uh so again tanya what is their date we can do november the 17th at 9 30.
and will you let me know tanya if there's an opportunity to
do it sooner than that if it the opportunity arises
um we really don't i'm with bulk salad and we're off the week before so
okay and then we off i'm trying to squeeze you in actually
okay um okay thank you tanya calendar number three nine i'm sorry start again calendar number
three seven hi i'm gonna hang up now okay yes thank you thank you calendar number three seven
nine six seven one five oh one dash oh five north 33rd this hearing will be resumed on
November the 17th at 9 30 a .m. at which time we will uh we will uh consider any feedback
related to the RCO and the council president's office. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all.
Ms. Graham thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um this is Sharon Saleta. I have um
Mr. Ward is now available. He has signed on. If you can go back to the case that was called this
morning it is number eight on your hearing list um north 23rd yes and following that um mr matione
i i also have the information on the case that he discussed this morning okay thank you all right
so let's go to calendar number three nine zero nine three two nine six four north 23rd street
mr ward i'm sorry confessor are you back
yes i'm back i'm having issues it cuts off no it was me i'm sorry i've sent you to
as an attendee but i brought you back as a parent okay i'm back now i'm going to promote sean ward
good morning mr ward please identify yourself with the record and i'll swear you in
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Sean Ward, 331 East Street Road, Trevos, PA, 19053, attorney for the applicant.
We're going to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Thank you. I think we were waiting for you to come back to us about your attempts to meet with the RCO, correct?
That is correct.
I'm attempting to share my screen.
i don't know if everybody sees it not yet
oh sorry
how's that not now yeah yeah you got it yes okay uh mr chairman uh following the hearing
on october 1st uh we we agreed to hold the case for two weeks uh pursuant to an agreement with
the councilwoman's office and
Charles Richardson.
I did notify the RCO by
email that the
case was held for two weeks
pending a meeting
and the response I got on
October 1st was that they would
schedule it ASAP
and I have heard
nothing since.
I would ask that this case be
voted.
Is Mr. Richardson on the line?
it appears so i am uh mr richardson please identify yourself for the record
charles richardson from the office of councilwoman cindy basts
for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do uh i spoke with the president of the rco this morning and they indicated that they had
had some issues with trying to get the Zoom RCO meeting scheduled.
As such, we are going to say we have no opposition to the granting of the variance and allow
you to go ahead and vote for it.
Very much.
Charles, thank you.
Thank you very much.
And I thank the Councilwoman for her courtesies.
No problem.
Anybody have any questions?
No, no, no, we got the planning commission last time, but just in the play it safe planning.
The lead, we got the planning commission last time, but just in the play it safe planning commission.
Probably don't have anything on it.
We have no additional.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
No, you can go ahead, Paula.
Paula Brumbo -Burns, planning commission.
We have no additional position.
Thank you.
Calendar number 39093 -2964 North 23rd Street.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, thank you very much.
I believe that concludes my business, but I will be ready at the call of the board if I'm needed.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Sharon, I think we have Mr. Mattione, you said?
Next is it's calendar 39865, 1701 South 24th Street.
And can I say that we, Mr. Mattione submitted revised plans. I reviewed the letter from the RCO. The only, the only provisos that could be added are included in the revised plans.
So that will, there's no need to add additional provisos.
Okay, so just be revised plan, one page?
And what's the street address again?
It is 1701 South 24th Street.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Calendar number 39865.
1701 South 24th Street.
My vote is yes with the proviso.
Revised plan, one page approved today.
Yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
Howard, did I leave something out?
I believe Mr. Mattione was going to report on...
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. This was a follow -up, not just a vote.
I apologize. I made it as an add -on. Okay. Mr. Mattione?
Are you here, Mr. Mattione? Please raise your hand.
while we're waiting were you able to get anything from mr mr slepner regarding 1925 north fourth
i did talk with him um mr slepner also has a case scheduled for the same block for two o 'clock this
afternoon he was going to make one last attempt to get a letter from the council person so if
we could instead call him at two we'll hold that off until two o 'clock okay thank you
Mr. Mattione, you're still under oath?
Yes, I am, Mr. Chairman.
Everything to report?
My client met with Albert Littlepage, the director of the Point Breeze Community Development Coalition, on Monday night.
And as a result of that, the Point Breeze Community Development Coalition sent over a revised support letter,
which had both the zoning committee in support and the nearby neighbors in a two -block radius in support
with the provisos that Ms. Saleta discussed.
Thank you.
I read the case in, but I'll do it again.
Calendar number 39865, 1701 South 24th Street.
My vote is yes with the proviso.
Revised plan, one page approved today.
Yes, for proviso.
Yes, for proviso.
Yes, for proviso.
Thank you all.
uh thank you uh sharon tanya i believe we can now go to our regular list and i think page four
2148 north 20th street would be the first case yes that's what i have okay okay all right am i
2020 -000 -949 -2148, North 20th Street.
Applicant, you have been promoted to a panelist.
You can
Unmute your mic
Yes can you hear me
Yes are you an attorney sir
No I'm the property owner
Okay you swear on the firm to tell the truth
The whole truth for nothing but the truth
Have you emailed an exhibit packet
emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax
With the required documents
Proof of ownership
Proof of tax
compliance, copy of the refusal, or referrals, photos, and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Yes. Have you met with the RCO and have a letter? Yes. Okay. This application is for a multi -family
household living, three family dwelling units, and an existing structure. The permit for the
above location cannot be issued because the proposal does not comply with the
following provisions of the Philadelphia zoning code. Can you please put your
name and address for the record? My name is Hamza H -A -M -Z -A. Last name is B -I -S -H -A -R -A -T.
The address is 2148 North 20th Street Philadelphia PA 19121.
You may proceed.
Okay, can I share my screen?
Yes, please.
Okay, so what I have is a simple floor plan that I did myself. It's going to be three units.
The property is about 2 ,800 square feet. It's going to have three units of two bedrooms each
with a small living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom.
This is the simple floor plan that I made myself.
And I also have...
This is the no opposition letter from the community.
Do you have any photographs, sir, of the property and any surrounding properties?
Yeah, I have, I just have a couple of pictures, let me see.
this is the front and this is the side of the property
so it's a rehab right not okay yeah
that letter again from the uh rco
thank you i'm sorry you got it i'm sorry technical problem the recording was paused
and it's it's necessary absolutely um okay i'm sorry carrie you can go forward wait to be sworn
in carrie good morning you swear a friend to tell the truth the whole truth for nothing but the
truth? Yes, good morning. I do. Good morning. Do you agree to waive the reading of its refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the
required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral,
photos and plans five days prior to this hearing? Yes, I have. Also, have you met with the RCO and
have a letter? Yes, we do. Thank you. You may proceed. Thank you. Good morning. Carrie
Nase Paust, C -A -R -R -I -E -N -A -S -E hyphen P -O -U -S -T, attorney with the law firm of Fox Rothschild,
here this morning on behalf of the owner of the property. Also on the line, I have the owner of
the property, Peter Silo, as well as the architect on the project, Agata Reister. I would ask that
they raise their hand so that they can be admitted into the hearing.
Ms. Paus, why don't we go forward with your presentation and we can swear them in at the end of your presentation.
no problem so this property is located at 2315
catherine street i have an aerial up here on the screen
you can see it's mid -block it uh the property fronts on catherine
street and has rear access on fulton street
located between 23rd and 24th streets the property is zoned rm1 and is subject
to the center city overlay residential parking
control area. The owner of the property is proposing to convert an existing patio area at the rear of the
The owner of the property is proposing to convert an existing patio area at the rear of the dwelling into an off -street parking area.
Here are photographs. This is a photograph of the front of the property.
Here's a photograph looking down Fulton Street to the rear of the property.
this photograph shows the existing conditions of the rear of the property with the fence
patio area is back in this location
this is the area that would be converted or is being proposed to be converted into a parking
space pursuant to the requirements of the center city overlay residential parking control area
single -family homes are prohibited from having off -street parking spaces
unless it's accessed by a shared driveway or a rear alley.
We did receive a notice of refusal due to the fact that the property
is not accessed by a shared driveway or rear alley.
In addition, our initial plans that were submitted,
we were proposing to install an eight -foot high fence
that would have a roll -up gate to provide security.
We have revised the plans which we will review with you this morning
and therefore we are withdrawing the request for a variance with respect to the height of the fence.
So as you can see here's again is an aerial of the property Fulton Street although it is
identified as a street and as you saw on the on the photographs here the characteristic of it
really is similar to an alley. All of the properties on Catherine Street do have rear
access through Fulton Street. As you can see here on a copy of this aerial, the property highlighted
in red is the subject property. The properties with the orange circles, those are other properties
along this block of homes that currently do have parking spaces to the rear of their homes.
The space that's being proposed is measures. I'm going to zoom this in for you.
Here's Fulton Street. Again, here's the area where the proposed parking space would be. As you can
see, the parking space measure is 9 feet by 18 feet. The standard size of a parking space in a
shopping center or even in a garage for a single -family home is typically about eight and a
half feet by 18 feet. A standard SUV, you know, would measure about six and a half feet to 15
feet. My client has a compact car that actually measures much smaller than that, therefore leaving
ample space to provide ingress and egress to and from the dwelling with the car parked in this
location. Move down here, you can see it better. We did meet with the RCO, which is SASNA. We
actually met with them twice. During the initial discussions, as I had mentioned, we were proposing
that security be provided with a roll -up gate. However, SOSNA approved and supported the parking
space but did not approve the gate. They had some concerns primarily due with respect to the noise
of the rolling up. Therefore, we did revise the plan and we are now proposing a bifold gate. I'm
going to bring this down for you. You can see on the bottom right hand corner, this is a photograph
of the proposed bifold doors. Again, the primary concern is just to provide security of the parking
space. But by providing the bifold doors, we were able to reduce the height of the fence and the
gate down to six feet, therefore bringing it into compliance with the zoning ordinance. We met with
SASNA again to review this plan with them.
They did issue a letter of support for the project,
including the bifold gate, which has been submitted
to the board.
Therefore, we are asking for a variance
to allow the parking space in the rear.
We believe that providing this off -street parking space
would be a benefit to the surrounding area
because it will alleviate some of the on -street parking
congestion and reduce some traffic
by eliminating the need to circle the block looking
for a space.
As I indicated, I do have my client on the line, Peter Silo, if he has been admitted, if he could unmute himself.
I am here.
Silo, please identify yourself first and last name and spell your last name.
Sure. Peter Silo, S -I -L -O -W, address is 2315 Catherine Street.
Fair to firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Powell.
Sure. Mr. Silo, were you here this morning during my presentation?
And are the statements that I have made true and correct?
And are the statements that I have made true and correct?
Correct.
Correct, yes.
And would you agree to adopt the statements as though they were made as your own testimony?
I would.
Great.
I also have the architect on the line who drew the plans, Agata Reister.
Let me ask if the board has any questions that may need, if we need any questions for the architect.
Is there anyone else who would like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
No hands.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Chairman and members of the board, this property is indicated for residential use on the
comprehensive plan.
We have no objection to the granting of the plan per the revised plan.
Ms. Powell, is that one -page revised plan?
It's two pages.
Two pages?
Thank you.
MI -2020 -000080 -2315 Catherine Street.
My vote is yes with the proviso revised plan.
Two pages approved today.
Yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
So, good luck.
Thank you very much.
MI 2020 -001169, 2628 Martha Street.
We have Matthew Monroe.
Matthew, you can share your screen and unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
Mr. Monroe, you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, for nothing but the truth?
I do, Mr. Plaza.
Thank you. You agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Yes, we did.
Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
We met with the RCO. We have an email confirming the results of the vote, which was in support.
We did not get a letter that we requested it, but we did have an email confirming both.
Thank you.
Please identify yourself for the record.
You may proceed.
Good afternoon, Chairman DiCicco, members of the board.
I'm Maddie Monroe with Monroe Law, 2030 Pemberton, Philadelphia, 19146.
Pleased to be here today with my client, Crystal Lurito.
This should be a relatively simple application, I believe, to legalize a tattoo shop at an industrial building,
former industrial building that's now an IRMX building at 2628 Martha Street.
I've submitted, and what I'm sharing with you is the documents we submitted in support of our application.
At Exhibit 1 is Ms. Arito's lease.
At Exhibit 2 is the refusal.
Exhibit 3 is the application for the appeal.
Exhibit 4, we have the notices that went out along with the certificate of mailing,
bulk mailing pursuant to the Planning Commission and ZVA regs.
We properly posted the notices within 21 days of the hearing.
And here is the vote in support that was confirmed by the RCO, ECNA.
19 in favor, three against, and five abstentions. And here we have the zoning context plan.
So in this case, as I was saying earlier, this is an IRMX zoning district.
Tattoo shops have been, you know, they have come into, they've come into popularity, but not just popularity into much wider acceptance than they were when the zoning code came into effect and probably should have been changed when the zoning code came into effect.
when the zoning code came into effect and probably should have been changed when the zoning code was
updated in 2012 but wasn't. Unfortunately, they're sort of treated as a regulated use
along with adult -oriented merchandise, you have porn stores, we have drug paraphernalia stores,
gun shops, detention and correctional facilities, personal credit establishments like payday lenders,
arcades pool halls etc and then you have tattoo shops for all intents and purposes
Miss Arito she's been a long time she's been a tattoo artist for over 20 years she has a big
national following Miss Arito has her clients primarily are women oftentimes she specializes
in cover -up tattoos, cover -up art. She makes herself vulnerable on the internet. It shares
a lot of personal experiences, and because of what she's been through in her personal life,
and you can read about that in some of her press, a lot of her clients come because they've been
abused by men, sometimes been forced to get their men's names tattooed on their body, or they just
had a bad prior experience with a tattoo artist who left a bunch of junk on them, didn't take
care of them, or just made them get got creepy, really, and really uncomfortable. She makes
them comfortable. She has her a very unique style that people have sought after and has been written
about in a lot of trade publications. But she's also been published in Philadelphia Magazine and
the New York Post all over, really. She's very high profile. And this is her first time of
starting her own business. So she's been working for folks for years. And this is just going to
be a shop that she's going to have on the third story of 2628 Martha Street. It's going to be
an interior space. You know, this will have virtually absolutely zero impact. It's going to
be Miserito, who's an artist herself and her client. So she's not going to, there is an
existing tattoo shop that's already in the building on the ground floor, but there's dozens and
dozens of graphic design firms, light industrial offices, some professional offices, a few
apartments in the building, but really there's going to have no material impact. And the hardship
here is of course imposed by the code because there's very few viable um by right spaces that
a tattoo shop can open in um the uh the provisions in the code that prevent uh tattoo shops um from
opening as of right uh truly is a hardship because it's it's very limited to um you know
some itunes and other industrial districts that are kind of far flung and away from people and
And really, they need access to public transportation, to Uber, to parking, and any other access that's there.
Ms. Arrito lives in the Fishtown area.
She's been there for a long time.
She's going to be working in the area.
She's somebody who is of the neighborhood.
She has a really large following.
And when we were at the RCO meeting, one of the members of the board recognized her and he said, oh, I didn't realize we had a famous artist here today and came out in strong support.
We had no negative comments from the community.
Everybody was there in favor.
And I think with that, you know, given that we did have the support vote and given that the ZBA has already had a lengthy warning before getting to its regular calendar, I would just ask that Ms. Arito raise her virtual hand and introduce herself to be sworn in, because I'll have a few questions for her, and then, of course, we'll open ourselves to questions by the board.
Miserito, can you raise your versatile hand?
She's ready to be sworn in.
If Chairman DiCicco is saying something, I can't hear anything.
Professor?
Yes, you swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, you swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, for nothing but the truth?
Tanya, can you hear me?
Yes, I can. I don't know if she's available or...
Did you raise her hand?
Actually, she's not speaking. She's unmuted, and she's been...
Available. I don't know what's the problem.
Well, I guess while Ms. Arito is, I guess, trying to
get on or the
technical issues are worked out.
Does anybody
hear that?
Can anyone hear me now?
Okay, I had to leave and come back in.
I think we're having technical
problems with your client.
As an officer of the court, we'll
stipulate to the accuracy of your
testimony and that your client
would adopt it.
Thank you, Chairman DeChico.
That was it.
and uh miserito will confirm that she does adopt the factual statements as
her testimony uh questions from the board no no
anyone else anyone like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hands at this time thank you planning commission
this is paula bernble burns with the city planning commission
we have no objection to the granting of the variance thank you mi -2020 -001169
2628 martha street my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes
thank you uh chairman nichico and hello paula it's good to see you again it's been a while
i was looking for soda pop
Next one up is
MI2020 -000320
2964 North 23rd Street
What number is that?
Number 8
shon war 2964 north 23rd street i believe that's the one you've already heard it was
yeah continued from an earlier we just decided it okay next one up is mi 2020 -000 293 340 south 21st
Lindsay Glasgow you've been promoted to panelists are you the attorney for this case or applicant
Lindsay?
I'm sorry?
This is Lindsay's husband.
Lindsay's next to me.
This is Lindsay's husband, Chuck Peruto.
I'm the owner of the property and the attorney for it.
Okay. Confessor, you can go ahead.
Okay. Do you swear on the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, for nothing but the truth?
Do you agree to wait the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copied the refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record. You may proceed.
Charles Peruto, owner of the property and attorney for the property.
Please spell your name for the record.
Please spell your name for the record.
P -E -R -U -T -O.
You can go forward.
You can share your screen as you need to.
All right.
I'm here with my wife, who is the project manager, Lindsey Glasgow.
we're seeking to convert my office building to an apartment building one
small unit 400 square feet all the way up to two units at a thousand square
feet or large units it's a large building we have complied we met with
Senator City Civic Association changed it a few times to their liking and this
as we proposed.
Frank, we can't hear you.
Frank, you're muted.
Can you hear me now?
I can't hear you.
All right.
Uh, Ms. Peruto, do you have a copy of the, uh, you said you submitted a copy of the letter
from the RCO?
Are you able to share that with us?
You just, that was a bad connection for a second.
The letter is dated June 24th, 2020.
This is Sharon Saleta.
I can confirm that we received a letter of support from the Center City Residents Association.
I see it now.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Would anyone like to testify in this matter?
if so please raise your hand and we'll swear you in i have wade albert wait you can unmute yourself
and wait to be sworn in good morning uh mr chairman and members of the board can you hear me
yes please uh you know spell your name identify yourself for the record sure uh my name is wade
last name is albert a -l -b -e -r -t uh i am counsel for center city residents association the coordinating
rco in this matter uh with civil law i'm sorry i'm 1845 walnut street yeah okay uh go ahead i'm
sorry yeah you finish okay yeah 1845 walnut street uh 23rd floor uh philadelphia pa10103
and you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do thank you please proceed thank you so i just wanted to um echo that um ccra met with
the applicant um uh first on may 26th and then june 23rd um and ultimately they they changed
their plans uh to our satisfaction and as a result um we issued a letter following the second rco
meeting to not oppose with the proviso that all trash from the property be stored indoors and
removed by a commercial trash hauler and it's my understanding that the applicant agrees with that
proviso so i would respectfully request that that proviso be included in the license thank you very
much. Mr. Peruta, was there a revised plan? Yes, there was a revised plan that was
submitted. And how many pages? For the sake of agreement, we certainly are going to
store the trash. I'm sorry, you're breaking up. I'm having a hard time hearing you.
try that again
sharon maybe you can help us is there a revised plan
yes there is i um i just saw the revised plans form on the screen and that those changes are
acceptable i don't know how many pages and mr peruto a revised plan how many pages
can you hear me now yes yes okay we have a designated trash room inside and because i am
the neighbor of this property we will make sure that the trash is taken out immediately before
its collection and then we understand that my question was it's a revised plan how many pages
one page one page okay good enough all right questions from the board no no no and i'll
And I'll ask anyone else wish to testify in this case.
ask anyone else wish to testify in this case if so please raise your
If so, please raise your hand.
No hand.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Chairman and members of the board, this property is indicated for residential use on the comprehensive plan.
The applicant is proposing six units where only three would be allowed by code.
We feel this represents an overuse of the property.
And accordingly, we recommend the requested variance for six units not be granted.
can everyone hear me yes because i've lost my screen okay thank you uh mi -2020 -000293
340 south 21st street my vote is yes with the following proviso revised plan one page
approved today commercial trash pickup all trash will be stored inside until pickup day
yes or proviso yes with proviso yes with proviso
good luck next one up thank you mi 2020 -000950 4027 creston street
No hands up for this.
Michael Lambert, his hands is up.
Michael, you've been promoted to panelists.
You can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
michael you swear a friend or tell the truth the whole truth for nothing but the truth
yes sir do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
absolutely sir also have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents
proof of ownership proof of tax compliance copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans
five days prior to this hearing absolutely sir and have you met with the rco and have a letter
Absolutely, sir. And that's included in the packet.
Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record.
Yes, sir. Good morning, Chairman DeChico and members of the board.
My name is Michael Lambert. I represent 4037 Creston Street.
And my client is here with me, Harim Brown.
Thank you, sir.
We are sharing the screen, but while that is going on, to avoid any kind of complications,
sir, Mr. Chairman, briefly, my client owns the property at 4027 Creston Street.
Essentially, we're asking the panel to allow him to, he currently resides on the second floor.
And it's a two -story house.
The second floor is the apartment.
And the first floor, he'd like to put a grocery store and prepare hot and cold foods to serve to the public.
There are quite a few other mixed -use properties in that community.
He has received a letter of no objection from the community RCO.
It's my understanding from reviewing the history, and I could be wrong, but in 1952, this property was previously approved for a candy store on the first floor and a family donor on the second floor.
Now, we have submitted, and I'm hoping that you're able to see as we scroll down if we're sharing the screen properly, the tax clearance and the letter from the RCO, photographs, as well as the deeds.
And I just wanted to make my presentation as quickly and succinct as possible.
Is there any questions?
Are there any questions or is there anything else the panel would like for me to go over
at this particular moment?
Do you have any floor plans, photographs?
Yes, sir.
The floor plans, we're going to scroll down to that.
I'm assuming that.
Go ahead.
Yeah, the floor plans.
Let me slowly.
Are you able to see the floor plans as we go through, sir?
And ladies and gentlemen of the panel?
Yes, if you can make them a little bit larger, that would be helpful.
um unfortunately we we're doing it now is that large enough
we can make it even larger yeah a little bit larger
because i'm having a hard time identifying what those rooms are
second floor
okay so so the second floor there are actually two bedrooms but actually
in all actuality, one of the rooms
he's using as a living room.
So if you could see
in the front to the left
would be
the living room.
The stairs are in the middle.
In the back is
a bedroom. And in that middle
room would be the kitchen and everything
else that's in that center area.
Actually, I apologize. The kitchen and living room
is in the front room.
And the back room on the second floor is the bedroom.
Are you able to see that, Mr. Chairperson, on the panel, board?
Yes, it's a little foggy, but yes.
I apologize, sir.
So that will be the second floor.
The first floor is...
The first floor will essentially be a grocery store and food service preparation.
As you'll see, there's a stove in the second room, there are stairs leading to the basement,
there's a bathroom in the back.
and essentially at the end of the day he'll be selling groceries and making like cold
sandwiches um if he can get the approval it'll be hot sandwiches also um but that is basically
the first floor um due to the covid situation we don't know how long that's going to last so
More than likely, most of his orders will be probably delivered, or there'll be a limited amount of people that are able to enter the facility based on the rules of the city.
Will there be a ventilating system, a hood installed?
It will be installed without a doubt, sir.
um i don't he'll be in order for him to serve the hot food as a as a panel knows um l and i
will have to go through and approve the hood and do everything that's necessary but you're proposing
a hood uh yes sir because uh at this particular moment he doesn't want to spend the money
um on the hood on without until or unless the board has approved it but once if the board has
approving and we're in that position, he will immediately get with L &I, file the proper
requirements and get that process going so that he can put up the hood and be able to
serve the hot foods.
But until the board is...
My apologies, say it again.
Will the hood go to the roof or outside?
Will the hood go to the roof or be outside?
It'll be on the roof, sir.
It will be on the roof.
Thank you.
Yes, sir.
He's very mindful of his neighbors, so he's been there for quite some time.
He's definitely put it on the roof.
Thank you.
Mr. Lambert, do you want to ask your client if he adopts your testimony?
Absolutely, sir.
Mr. Brown?
You've heard everything that I've said.
far today um have you heard everything i've testified to yes sir do you adopt everything i've
Have you heard everything I've testified to?
Yes, sir.
Do you adopt everything I've said in this testimony?
Yes, sir.
Could anyone hear me?
Can anyone hear me?
All right.
I've somehow lost the screen again.
Mr. Brown, would you please spell your first name for the record?
Yes, I'm Hiram Brown, H -I -R -A -M, Brown, B -R -O -W -N.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
yes sir thank you uh any other questions from the board no no
uh anyone else who would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hands at this time thank you planning commission
Chairman and members of the board, this property is indicated for residential use on the
comprehensive plan. We, because of the prior commercial use, have no objection to the granting
of the variance. And by the way, this is Paula Brumbler -Burn. I don't know if I lost you. I'm
sorry, Paula, would you repeat that? We have no objection based on the fact that it was a prior
commercial frontage. Thank you. MI -2020 -000950 -4207 Creston Street. My vote is yes with the Proviso
roof -mounted exhaust system. Yes with Proviso. Yes with Proviso. Yes with Proviso. All right, good luck.
I'm sorry, Chair, if I could make a correction, it's 4027 Creston. I'm sorry, I misread that.
4027 Creston
MI -2020 -000950
my vote is yes
with the proviso roof mounted
exhaust system
yes with proviso
yes with proviso
thank you so much
thank you so much and have a great day everyone
thank you
next one up is MI -2020 -0006269
43 29 East Thompson Street. This is Sharon Saleta. I have no record of having received exhibits for
this case. Thank you. Is there anyone out there regarding 43 29 East Thompson Street?
Anyone
I have
I have
Henry Clinton
Let's see
Hi Mr. Chairman
is that mr clinton no uh mr chico my name is carol uh i represent
mr clinton represents the applicant um the applicant is the buyer under an agreement of
sale under that agreement i represent can we just have the attorney first
Mr. Clinton here. Yes I'm promoting him now. Oh just be patient Mr. Carroll will be with you.
Good afternoon Mr. Chairman members of the board Henry Clinton for the applicant
and we did send our package in on Friday morning at 11. I apologize I do have it it went to the
alternative email address
not to the one that I usually receive
exhibit packets in but I do
have it now
so Confessor
you'll get Mr. Clinton
Mr. Clinton you swear on the firm to tell
the truth the whole truth for nothing but the truth
do you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy I do
also have you emailed an exhibit
packet with the required document
proof of ownership proof of tax
comes on copy of uh the refusal of referral photos and plans five days prior to this hearing
i have mr confession also have you met with the rco and have a letter yes i do thank you please
proceed ms sunken can i share my screen yes mr clinton um can i also add that we received a
letter of non -opposition from i'm sorry i apologize it's the wrong case i am not
getting things straight today again i'm sorry i think it's a problem everybody's got issues today
I think everybody's got issues today. Can you see my screen Mr. Chairman? Yes. This is our
presentation binder which includes exhibits AA through A11 and with me behind me is my client
Mr. Vantruska, Don Vantruska and he's a representative of the applicant. My appearance
statement. The agreement of sale indicating that Mr.
Vantruska's group is the equitable owner of this property.
Here's our zoning notice we sent to everyone in Bridesburg
in the surrounding 250 feet of the property, advising
them of the community group meeting as well as today's hearing.
This is the refusal, and I'll touch briefly on this.
The request is to relocate lot lines from
three lots into five separate lots, each for use as a single family home with accessory parking
in the front of each home. The refusals concern parking and also the front yard setback, which we
actually have exceeded. So that's really not a variance. I don't know why that's on there,
but we didn't really contest it. Here's my certificate of mailing indicating that we
mailed 96 pieces to the surrounding neighborhoods. Here's a list of the
addresses in Bridesburg. Here's our tax certifications. Notice of refusal again,
application for appeal, project information sheet, the zoning map. It's
just a little bit unusual. The zoning map indicates this is an RSA 5 zone, but the
refusal indicates it's an ICMX zone. I think the refusal is correct and I think the map is wrong.
We have our letters of support from the 45th Ward Democratic Executive Committee indicating that
we met on September 3rd and received the vote of support from the Bridesburg Civic Association
as well as a 45th Democratic Ward.
Here's the letter and the reasons.
You can see it's one of support.
Now, we also met with
Bridesburg Community Action Alliance,
and they realized they are not the coordinating RCO.
Bridesburg Civic was,
but the alliance also supported this project
and supports this project.
Witnessed today with me is Don Vantruska.
I do not think the architect will need to testify.
And here are the, let me go to the aerial shots first to give you a perspective.
So this is in the heart of Bridesburg, surrounded by hundreds of single -family homes.
As the chairman and the board knows, this is a single -family area, Bridesburg.
And the property is right here.
It's located adjacent to Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery.
And this particular structure was a business where the family, since 1907, made memorials, i .e. headstones, for the adjoining cemetery.
They've trailed off on their business the last couple years, and Mr. Vantruska entered into an agreement of sale for this property.
and the proposal is to put five single -family homes like the rest of the community with front
parking like the adjacent property right next door. This is another view of the existing parcel
with the parking of next -door neighbor cars in the front. So I'll go back to the plans
and I'll look at the site plan first so this is a site plan the idea is to have the home set back
30 feet as you saw in the refusal the requirement is only 15 but we thought it'd be best to push
the homes back a little bit further we have no issues with regard to rear yard space there's
ample rear yard space or height or open air requirements the refusals really address the
fact is that this property is in an ICMX zone and residential is not permitted. We think that we're
going to conform with the remainder of the neighborhood by making single -family homes here.
There's ample width in the front for parking for five single -family homes. As I said, there's ample
rear yard space. This is the rear of the property, going to be three -story properties. There's a
little bit of the deck on the third floor so you can look out over the vast rear yard. I can go
through the floor plans if the board so desires. Pretty straightforward. Basement, first floor, second.
uh pretty straightforward basement first floor second third floor uh one bedroom on the third
floor uh two bedrooms on the second floor living dining and then there's a basement area
let me interrupt board members any board member have any questions regarding the floor plan
no no thank you mr chairman can i move to have my client sworn in and ask that he will adopt
my testimony yes please he's with me he's with me to my back to my rear yeah so uh get it get his
name full name on the record don vantruska spell that please yes good morning spell your last name
V -E -N -T -R -E -S -C -A
Thank you.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Mr. Kreska, have you just heard my testimony?
If you had the opportunity to testify,
would you adopt my testimony as your own
and as true and correct?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Karen, with that, I rest,
and I just ask that the board will kindly
upon this application.
It's a unique situation.
commercial industrial in the midst of a residential setting it's the community
group believes that our proposal is in harmony with the neighborhood we believe
this is in harmony with the code there's no adverse impact upon the neighborhood
and it will not alter the essential character of Bridesburg and with that I
rest thank you very much questions from the board no no anyone would like to
testify in this case if so please raise your hand no hands at this time thank
you planning commission chairman and members of the board I want to clarify
on the record that I've checked the atlas maps and the open maps from
Philadelphia for the zoning layers and they are both a hundred percent solidly
RSA -5. I'm not quite sure how the applicant feels. It's ICMX. It's been RSA -5 from what I believe
as the 1980s, the last time we remapped the area. He's moving his pages as we talk.
Huh. You are correct. I mean, I'm looking at both maps and I had another planner double check me and
it is solidly RSA 5, which means I don't know if the lot sizes are correct on the refusal.
What are your lot sizes, Hank? Lot sizes are 16 by, let me go down. You're going to make me do
math. So anyway, a question is on the lot sizes to make sure if the refusal is correct. But while
we don't object to five houses here, we do object to the front loaded parking because it is not
common for the block. Nobody else other than one person has it. So we don't object to the five
lots. We do object to the front parking. Right. And Ms. Brumbelow, that topic did come up at the
Bridesburg, both Bridesburg meetings, and the neighborhood is very sensitive to
parking, meaning they don't want cars on the street. If you look at this street,
there's only parking on one side, and you can see where people are actually jumping the curb. So
they were actually encouraged that we were offering parking on the front.
I understand your position, but that was the feel of the community. I just wanted to let you know
that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay. MI -2020 -000626, 4329 East Thompson Street. My vote is yes.
My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. Thank you very much. Thank you.
The next one up is MI 2020 -001068, 518 West Pike Street.
This is Sharon Saleta again.
I do have, we do have a letter of non -opposition from Councilwoman Sanchez on this one, and I have no record of having received exhibits.
Is there anyone to testify on this case?
518 West Pike Street I have no hands up okay MI -2020 -00106
Okay, MI -2020 -001068 -518 -West Pike Street is continued.
Okay, next one up is MI -2020 -000295.
No address on this one.
The address on this one is 622 North.
622 North Pike Street.
622 North Front Street. And again I have no record of having received exhibits. Any
hands up Tanya? I have Raymond or Ramon Rosario. You can unmute yourself. I can
you hear me? Yeah, Mr. Rosario, please identify yourself, spell your first and last name for the
record. First name is Ramon, that's R -A -M -O -N, last name Rosario, R -O -S -A -R -I -O. My address is
currently 6715 Torresdale Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19135. Do you swear to the firm to tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Ramon, real quick before we proceed, have you
emailed an exhibit packet with the required document, proof of ownership, proof of tax
compliance copy of the refusal or referral photos yes i'm sorry i'm so sorry confessor but if i
could just ask the question mr rosario um who are you in relationship to the case i'm the applicant
okay but are you the owner do you have an interest no i'm not the owner no i'm just the applicant
uh in regards to uh my client is on the line as well here i'm basically an expediter yes so you
cannot present that's what i assumed thank you time you're at the the applicant has to testify
is is the applicant with you mr yes he's here we need to get him on sure
if the applicant is not prepared to present at this time i can always do a short continuance
but it's always your call.
Before we start, you guys
emailed the required
documents five days prior to this hearing?
No, that's what I was going to
give you a heads up on it.
This needs to be continued.
Mr. Rosario, this case will have to be continued.
Can I know
when's the next hearing date for this?
You can
discuss that with
Ms. Sunkit. You can reach out to
the RCO box that's on your documentation
and we'll reply.
but at the next hearing your client will have to present or will have to have representation
by legal counsel. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. MI -2020 -000295. 622 North Front Street is
continued. I believe that concludes the 930 session. Okay. Any unfinished business?
no I have nothing chair nothing Tanya's Sharon we good and we're good yep
thank you all see you later I'll be a little bit late okay no problem take
care take care Tanya are you still on yes I am 1149 North 12th Street uh -huh
what happened with that case was it on for the this morning it was on the arc map stuff and stuff
that we get our agenda from because that's where we're getting the planning commission's getting
their agenda i thought you were getting you're not getting it from karima no okay i thought i
apologize we will go back i thought you had the list we would have no beginning uh this week she
we'll go back to submitting. Now you know why I'm so confused all the time. Paula, please always ask
me. We'll figure it out. I didn't know that you guys were not getting it, okay? All right, thank
you. We can always talk offline, but as of this week, she's in the office today, but I'll confirm
with her she'll be sending the list to you all. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted
make sure our our information was up to date so right and that you guys
okay you are recording again thank you and uh before we begin uh we'll
let miss sunkett uh let us know when we're ready to start
hearing cases okay
Tom can I do an audio check with you I'm here perfect thank you can you hear me okay
yeah very well thank you I just wanted to ensure we have the three
remember tanya you're breaking up very staticky
how about now anyway all righty
let me go out and come back in that's good now that's not bad okay all right
okay we're live and we'll wait for you you're ready i'm all ready chair thank you very much
good afternoon everyone my name is frank de chico i'm the chair of the zoning board of adjustment
i'll be participating in today's hearing along with our board members mr thomas holloman and
mr james snell board administrator tanya sunkett and board attorney sharon saletta are also in
attendance. For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings,
I'll go through some of the basics of what you can expect. First, we will be administering oaths
to individual participants prior to their testimony. Second, for the benefit of anyone
participating by phone, we ask that attorneys and witnesses identify themselves prior to speaking
or testifying. Third, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded
and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
Fourth, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify,
you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
I'll repeat, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify,
You must raise your hand by hitting star 9 and then star 6 to unmute yourself.
Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267 -270 -5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
I'll repeat that as well.
To enter an appearance statement, call Google 267 -270 -5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
With that being said, but before we begin calling our first case, I will ask if anyone would like to have, excuse me, if anyone is requesting a continuance or withdrawal, please raise your hand at this time.
a continuance or withdrawal for the two o 'clock session the appeals that are
being heard at two o 'clock today please raise your hand
here if I could put on record that we have a request for withdrawal of number
five oh I'm sorry that's 3 30. I digress okay we do have attendees who have their hand up
and I have Vern Anastasio you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
and speak to a continuance. Mr. Anastasio please identify yourself for the record spell your name
good afternoon Mr. Chairman members of the board Vern Anastasio that's a v like Victor e r n like
Nathan, last name A -N -A -S, like Sam, T -A -S -I -O, 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 1006, Philadelphia,
19107.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
7956 Castor Avenue is on your list?
Correct.
And I am asking for continuance.
I've been in contact with Councilman O 'Neill's office, particularly Alice.
I explained to her that we were going to request this continuance.
They were pleased with that in order for us to re -engage the RCO.
We're trying to come up with a design that everybody could live with, and we're working on it.
Thank you.
MI2020 -000021, 7956 Caster Avenue is being continued.
Anyone else requesting a continuance or withdrawal?
Chair, this is Sharon Saleta.
We also received a request for a continuance of 4602 Frankfurt Avenue,
4602 Frankfort Avenue, number two on your hearing list.
number two on your hearing list.
The request came from Council.
The request came from Councilwoman Sanchez.
Okay, is there anyone out there who objects to the issuance of the continuance?
If not, MI -2020 -000440, 4602 Frankfort Avenue is continued.
have uh beretta beretta you have been unmuted you can open your mic wait to be sworn in to
speak to a continuance beretta fuller i believe uh if that's correct please identify yourself
please spell your name first and last name and give us your address
who who who name are you on right now beretta fuller oh yes my name is beretta fuller uh my
address is uh 1347 south hick street uh philadelphia pa 19146 which is embossed with
1513 reed street all right hold on one second uh your first name is spell it please uh b as a boy
E -R -R -E -T -T -A
Last name
F -S -F -R -E -N -K
U -L -L -E -R
Okay, and you swear and affirm to tell the truth
The whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I affirm, yes
Thank you, and what case are you here on?
I had such a problem
Getting through
Let me see if I could
What would I give you?
Did you say 1347 Hicks?
Yes, sir
And you are the owner applicant?
Yes, I am.
You're requesting a continuance?
I was on the last time, and there was no refusals in doing this.
However, the zoning board, we have some papers that a gentleman, Mark Bennett, who would be joining in by phone if he's not on right now,
has the information to send to you all information that would be very helpful uh you're asking for
you're asking for a continuance today correct i guess so yes sir okay all right so mi -2020 -001136
1347 south hick street is continued
um chair this is sharon seleta can we confirm that the um the property owner understands what
you mean by continuance because she did have someone named mark zwick submitted an exhibit
packet for presentation today yes so yes sir so that's probably why i may not need a continuous
i'm so confused i apologize okay relax relax take it easy are you prepared to go forward with the
case yes okay i'm sorry if i could interject uh mark zwick i have here i'm going to open his mic
and allow him to speak however the understanding is that there either be the owner or an attorney
who would handle the case mark zwick can you unmute your mic
i'm sorry for the confusion she's ready to go ahead she has all her paperwork
you are yes she is my name is mark i'm just helped i'm a real estate agent helping her
with the process okay she's ready to go okay thank you thank you all right we'll call your
case in order that is okay thank you anyone else requesting a continuance or withdrawal
Oh, Vern, I see your hand up. Are you asking for an additional continuance?
I think I should have lowered it. I'm sorry about that.
No worries. Thank you.
Here I have Sean Whalen.
sean you can unmute your mic and wait to be sworn in and speak to a continuance
yes hello this is sean whalen from vintage law um i am calling or i guess mr whalen mr whalen
would you please spell your first and last name s -e -a -n w -h -a -l -e -n and you swear and affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed what case
you'll be speaking of? I'm calling with regard to 2031 Washington Avenue. It's MI 2020 -00 -0065.
I'll look it up one second, please. Yep.
Look it up one second, please. Yep.
That's number 13.
Karen Saleta, I believe this is a case that was originally continued attorney moving party and that was accidentally placed on the list for today. Tanya, Ms. Sunken, am I correct on that?
Yesterday or last week?
that miss saletta is stating exactly what my understanding was with uh david orphanetes who
represented the uh the owner here was simply that this was attorney moving party and he hadn't asked
for it to be relisted so i'm just making sure that it does indeed get continued or withdrawn
yes sharing that's correct all right do i read it in as a continuance or we just ignore that
Yes. It's number 13 on your list.
Yeah, I have it. Again, I'm sorry I didn't hear you.
Tanya, do we put that in as a continuance?
Yes, Chair. Attorney moving party. Attorney moving party.
All right. So MI -2020 -000065
2031 Washington Avenue, Attorney moving party.
All right. Thank you very much, Chair. That's all I have with you today.
Thank you. Anyone else?
Chair, we have William O 'Brien.
You can unmute your mic and wait to be sworn in.
Good afternoon, Mr. O 'Brien. Please identify yourself with a record.
Good afternoon, Chairman. Members of the board, William O 'Brien, O -B -R -I -E -N.
on behalf of Baker Street Partners.
I don't know what number it is on your list.
The address is 5001 Humbria Street, MI 2020 -001236.
Right.
I'm not requesting continuance, but there is an issue.
Excuse me, this is Sharon Saleta.
Could we also, for this discussion, have Leonard Reuter
from the law department is is also here to speak on this just before we do that is there anyone
else request i could understand there's some legal issues on this case so before we get into
it are there any other folks requesting a continuance or withdrawal let's complete that
list before we go any further
no additional hands thank you okay um mr o 'brien uh i understand from speaking to miss uh saletta
that there's some concern we were going to request a continuance um but you tell us what your your
concerns are and then we'll go from there is mr reuter yes i see leonard's here as well okay yes
leonard leonard why don't we do this let's get you on the record full name and uh and i'll swear
you in sure uh leonard reuter l -e -o -n -a -r -d last name is r -e -u -t -e -r senior attorney with the city
of philadelphia law department we're going to firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
about the truth i do all right so uh mr o 'brien yes mr chairman could you swear me in as well
please okay do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do thank you please proceed uh this project 5001 umbria street is subject to cdr uh review
and um we made a timely application to be included in yesterday's meeting but
because of workloads and demand, we were pushed to an agenda on October 22nd.
My understanding is that there has been a procedure or policy for the zoning board not to hear
the zoning appeal subject to CDR review if that CDR review is incomplete. I had contacted the
law department and ask that that policy not apply in this circumstance because it's really a
hardship. We did satisfy the schedule. I would ask the board to hear this case, which has
overwhelming community support, and hold its decision until the CDR process is complete.
Mr. Reuter?
Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mr. O 'Brien. We're certainly sympathetic to the position
that Mr. O 'Brien's client is in here. The problem is that what he's referring to is
The problem is that what he's referring to is not a policy.
not a policy, it's an act of
It's actually a fairly clear directive in the Philadelphia Code itself.
And I'll just quote it.
It's 14 -304 -5 -B .1 .B.
so it's one of those provisions that's got a lot of the sub parts to it and it expressly says that
where lni issues a refusal or a referral on an application for development that meets the
criteria and table 14 -304 -2 and just an aside that's the table that tells you whether or not
a project has to go to cdr so where where it meets the criteria for cdr and the applicant files an
appeal to the zoning board pursuant to 303 sub 15 that's the regular um you know seeking a variance
or special exception it especially says the zoning board shall not commence a hearing on the
application until reviewed by the civic design review committee has been completed pursuant to
the procedures of this subsection and um this particular provision uh is actually the subject
of an appeal that the city itself has an appeal from a decision of this zoning board that granted
a variance in another matter at 1314 spring garden and that particular this particular provision is
one of the points that's an issue in that case where the board did proceed to have it hold a
hearing prior to it prior to a decision by the civic design review committee so that's one of the
the points of the appeal so again it's the city's position and the law department's position that
the board does not have the authority to commence a hearing now that being said we can treat uh the
mr o 'brien's request to hold the hearing today right um as a kind of motion and if he wants to
make statements in in the context of the motion and i understand that there may be a council person
here who would like to speak on the issue they can certainly speak i think it's fair that they
could speak to the motion but the board uh it's our position that the board cannot proceed to the
merits of the actual uh case itself so when you say the when you say the merits does that suggest
you're saying are you saying to us we can't rule on it you can't have the here i mean again if if
the code had said you can't make a decision that would be one thing you could hold the hearing and
then just hold your decision unfortunately it specifically says you cannot commence a hearing
so again if we if mr o 'brien wants to say you know again consider this a pre -hearing discussion
about whether you could proceed then i think it would be okay for him to have the council person
speak to uh to that issue um and but i don't again it's our position that you can't actually
you can't hear the variance case the whole variance case is what I'm saying you can
you can only hear arguments about whether or not you can proceed so what and again I think I hear
I'm going to make sure I'm clear on this and what we've been doing since we've been doing
these virtual hearings when we still have some outstanding issues maybe as it relates to the RCO
we keep the the record open and basically we say this hearing will be resumed we give it a specific
date and time at which time we will consider any feedback related to the rco position could we not
also put in feedback or a decision from cdr i think the problem here is that the code provision
at issue is so clear that you cannot even commence a hearing um and again with respect to cases where
the rco was unable to meet within 40 days the code does allow you to proceed and you can certainly
choose to hold the record open to hear from an RCO later. Because again, they're supposed to
meet within 40 days. And if they don't meet that deadline, technically you can proceed. And again,
we've done some emergency regulations that you may recall that also address that particular issue
of RCO meetings. This is a little bit different though. It doesn't say like if CDR doesn't meet
within 40 days you can proceed it says you can't have the hearing until they're completed um i i
you know i would note that i believe that the and mr o 'brien i think said that the hearing
the cdr committee would be able it would uh hear uh their matter uh on the 22nd which is next
thursday um and certainly you know the board could um reschedule this case to as soon as possible
after that um now again that of course assumes that the cdr makes a decision uh by that uh on
by that, on that date. But, you know, but I just don't think that this is a provision that's way
that date um but
Okay, I understand. And no disrespect to you, Leonard, I respect you immensely. And I do
respect your opinion. But when you read off what the rules and regulations are,
those are ignoring normal times. As we all know, these are not normal times,
are very unusual times. And boards, like our board and other boards, are struggling with
trying to get as many cases heard and to move the process along. So I'm just wondering, and
you may not have the answer. I'm always looking to find some solution, I guess, because of the
circumstances, which were never addressed when the rules and the codes were written. No one
anticipated a pandemic. And for us to have to be delayed, we have over a thousand cases in
backlog as we speak so just again trying to well there's a way in which we can do exactly the way
i said you know and you you spoke to it i i don't i mean mr chairman if i may i mean
obviously i i don't control what the board does you're you're essentially an independent board
um i don't believe uh that um you know at let me i don't know that the city this we're not
going to take a position necessarily in appeal this on that basis but i would say again the
failure to have cdr does open the door um to somebody else taking an appeal um and again it
does seem if you were planning on which i think you know would make sense if you could proceed
to keep the record open to a later date you're still essentially scheduling it then the decision
wouldn't be made to that later date so i'm not sure that it makes that much difference to um
to the overall outcome here if if the decision is going to be held anyway uh so but again like
i said i'm okay with making an accommodation to allow the council person to speak if he's here
um and again allowing mr bryant to speak as it goes to this issue um but again i mean it's you're
the board it's it's ultimately up to you um but that's our position in the three or four years
I forget how long I've been here. I don't think we've ever had a case like this. At least I don't
recall. And I think if it weren't for the situation we're in with the pandemic, we probably still
wouldn't have one of these cases. So again, I appreciate Leonard, I appreciate and I respect
your position. I just don't know what harm would be done if we hear the case and hold
and see what happens as a result of the CDR. And at that time, we can vote on it, which would be
the following week. I guess the earliest we can vote on it would be the week of 28th, I think.
Chair, this is Sharon Soledic. Can I mention that they will not only have to come back for a vote,
they will have to come back, they will have to present to you any changes made as a result of
CDR. We will have to allow testimony on that from any member of the public who wishes to testify.
so they will essentially end up in the same position as they would be if we tried to give
them if we can if we continue okay all right i understand there's a council person that may be
on this call or mr o 'brien do you have anything that you want to add to the conversation we've
been having uh yes briefly um the unique circumstance here is that um the cdr published
rules, provides a schedule. And to qualify for yesterday's CDR meeting, the schedule
specifically requires that the necessary materials be submitted before 4 p .m. on September 22nd.
The materials were submitted, in this case, five days before that.
This is not the only board or commission or process that has deadlines to qualify for inclusion on an agenda.
Mr. Reuter also represents the historical commission, and they have a similar process with published meeting dates, and to qualify for that specific hearing agenda, materials have to be submitted by a certain date.
In my experience, I've never been excluded from an agenda if I made a timely submission.
I've also had the pleasure of being before the Historic Commission for meetings that have lasted six hours or more because of the length of the agenda.
In this case, the Planning Commission CDR meetings don't start till one o 'clock.
In this case, the Planning Commission CDR meetings don't start until 1 o 'clock.
For that reason, I imagine they have to limit the agendas.
If pandemic conditions applied and meetings started at a sooner time, then perhaps we wouldn't be having this conversation because the CDR would have heard more cases yesterday.
It's an unusual circumstance.
uh chair
i was going to ask you about that uh what time their meeting was because i
thought maybe we can do a special um frank if i could
short time yeah we have eleanor sharp who's at the
um would like to speak on this here miss sharp
your mic has been unmuted you can wait to be sworn in and speak to this case
good afternoon miss sharp uh please spell your name identify yourself spell your name for the
stenographer please can you hear me yes eleanor sharp e -l -e -a -n -o -r -s -h -a -r -p -e executive director
of the philadelphia city planning commission we're a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing about the truth i do thank you please proceed so i just wanted to clarify that because
of the tax abatement issue that we have a lot of applicants for CDR so this is not a typical case
outside of the pandemic and despite our typical determination of who makes our agenda
we have an onslaught of cases that we have doubled up our CDR meetings so we have more cases
we have less time than we have cases to hear and we make decisions based on the times that we get
from L &I of what's been notified. And despite our regulations, there's a piece that's missing
that has not been mentioned that despite meeting all the requirements to be put on an agenda is
not a guarantee that one will appear on an agenda because there are other factors that we have to
consider. And that's part and parcel of why we're so backed up because we have multiple cases
waiting to be heard. This is not an unusual case. There's multiple applicants who are clamoring to
be heard to meet the deadline before the tax abatement expires. I just wanted to be sure that
that was stated in the record that we didn't deliberately not include them on CDR. And they
have been put on our October 22nd CDR and also to advise that that meeting may
require a second appearance by this team which will further not delay the
appearance to ZBA because the code does require one to complete CDR prior to
appearing to the ZBA. Thank you for that explanation. If I may briefly respond.
Please.
Ms. Sharp mentioned the agenda and the fact that there's no guarantee.
That is certainly not clear in the CDR publications.
And I did carefully look at the agenda.
There were six items on yesterday's agenda.
Three of them were by right, meaning they don't have to worry about zoning board schedules.
One of those, by right, took testimony for well over an hour from residents who were so opposed to the project.
So I'm just confused as to the decision making when this matter was well known to be scheduled for a zoning hearing on the 14th, why it didn't make the agenda for the 13th.
It's a rhetorical question. I'm not expecting a response.
but just wanted to respond to Ms. Sharpe briefly.
Can you hear me?
I'm sorry.
I think you heard what I was asking Mr. Reuter.
I was trying to figure out if there's a way in which we can move forward with your case today.
But in any event, if we held it, we'd have to come back.
I'll have a full -blown hearing anyway.
So, I mean, unless – I don't see how we can do it based on what testimony of the law department and Ms. Sharp.
So, Tanya, the 22nd is a week from tomorrow, correct?
So Chair, if I could, which is typical for me, if a project goes to CDR, I have to get notification of its completion to schedule.
I have to get notification of its completion to schedule.
Once I get notification from BAGE,
I will work with the applicant to immediately schedule
so that they can be heard.
So hypothetically, if the case gets heard at CDR on the 22nd
and they give a ruling and you get notification,
i'm not putting words in your mouth i'm asking could we potentially uh have the hearing on
tuesday the is that the 20th potentially or is that too well no they're scheduled for
20 seconds second so thereafter we still have i meant to say the following week
we still have a posting requirement
but again i can work with the applicant so that we can get it scheduled honoring the posting
requirement so that they can come before the board as soon as possible i'm speaking i meant
to say the 27th not the 20th i apologize tanya what is the posting requirement under the virtual
rules? Is it three weeks or two weeks? This would be a continued case, so two
weeks would be appropriate. Can we take a chance and pick a date two weeks from
today and post it so that we can satisfy that requirement if for some reason the
CDR process is not
complete, we understand we'd have to
repost.
Sharon, that's your call.
Any legal barriers to doing
that? I think it's a
reasonable question. I believe you could do that as long
as the posting requirement
is met and the hearing
does not commence until completion
of the RCO, or rather the
CDR process.
okay my only final request would be that uh the uh planning commission issue its
uh decision as soon as possible once that process is complete
um i again i don't is is councilman jones on
i have no hands up currently okay all right so we're all in agreement here uh mi 2020
that's 001236 5001 umbria street is being continued but we're not going to have a date
certain is that correct i thought we're going to select two weeks from today and i understand
we're taking a risk because we don't have 28th the 28th tanya yes chair at two o 'clock yes chair
okay 28th and that and this is sharon slid it with the understanding that it would be
further continued should the CDR process not be completed as of that date.
Okay, thank you. Okay. Thank you very much for your patience. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone. Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals?
I have no hands up at this time. Thank you, Tanya. Okay, all set.
Am I number 2020 -000092, 1000 South Broad Street?
The attorney's Jared Klein.
Mr. Klein you've been promoted to a panelist you can share your screen as you need to
and please wait to be sworn in good afternoon Mr. Chair members of the board
hey jared i'm sorry go ahead yeah i'm mixing it up i apologize i'll swear him in and then we'll go
okay mr klein yes please identify yourself for the record absolutely uh jared klein it's k -l -e -i -n
from blank rome 130 north 18th street philadelphia we're in firm to tell the truth the whole truth
We're in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
nothing but the truth yes i do thank you okay
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Okay, Mr. Snell.
Thank you.
All righty.
Jared, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, which are proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, and photos and plans five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Okay, great.
Also, have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter from them?
Great. Okay. You may continue.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Again, Jared Klein on behalf of the applicant. I do have with me my client on the line, Dana Valenti. If the board could promote her to the ability to speak as I move through my presentation, that would be helpful.
uh so this application is for 1000 south broad street as the board may know that is
also known as lincoln square um this is an overhead view of where the property is
um the board's well aware it's at the corner of broad and washington and it runs through to
carpenter street and it's the site of a large mixed use development that i'm sure the board
is well aware of. This application is for signage. It's a collection of signs for the tenant spaces
and parking that are around the project site. The signs, the refusals that we were issued,
and I'll put those up on the screen for you, primarily dealt with the overall square footage
of the signage. The zoning code was not designed for a project or lot of this size. So the signage
minimums and maximums, while they make sense for less intense commercial areas, with a project of
this site, we need some additional signage, both for parking and identification of our tenants.
the collection of signs are going to be installed at four areas around the property
we're calling them a b c and d you can see on the site plan sign a is going to be a pylon sign
that's a freestanding sign i'm circling with my mouse here that's going to be for tenant
identification sign b is a blade sign sign c are directional signs for parking
and there are several sign C's so the board is aware. There are two here, one at this corner
and one at this corner, and sign D is another tenant blade sign. Taking you through
briefly through some of the photos of the site, this is a rendering of what sign A,
which is our freestanding pylon sign, would look like. Here are some additional architectural
detail. The parking blade signs will look substantially similar to these and will be
installed at the four locations around the property that I referenced. This is the additional
blade sign, again, showing both the location of parking and existing tenants.
And this is an example of what the parking blade signs will look like.
um we had a couple of meetings as we ramped up for the zoning hearing here um we met both with
a preliminary conversation with the art commission and a couple conversations with sasna uh out of
those conversations came some suggested tweaks which we've made and we do have revised plans
that I sent to Ms. Saleta prior to today's hearing, those revised plans have nine pages
because of the amount of signs. But here are the key changes that are identified in those
revised plans. For sign A, which is the pylon sign, we've angled the base of the sign to make
it less inviting for people to sit on it or use it as a recreation spot. That was something that
came out of the SASNA conversation. For sign B, we revised the plan to show that as a non -illuminated
sign. Some of the other signs will be statically, not internally illuminated. But sign B, we removed
the illumination. And two of the signs, the sign C signs and the C signs have been increased in
height slightly at the request of both the Civic Association and the Art Commission to make those
signs fit in a little bit more contextually against the building. So there have been some
So there have been some slight adjustments to the height, less than a foot for both.
slight adjustments to the height less than a foot for both
And sign D has been reduced slightly in height and centered to make it a more attractive installation.
All of those revisions were presented to SOSNA at our meeting, and their letter of support is before you on the screen here.
and before I ask my client to come on just to sort of recap the issue for the amount of signage here
this is a large site with both pedestrians and vehicular traffic coming from multiple directions
so we need multiple tenant identification and parking signs not only so potential customers
can locate the stores within the site, but also to make sure that there's no traffic backups on
Washington Avenue, Broad Street, or Carpenter that surround the site. The multiple parking
directional signs will make it easy for vehicles traveling to the site to more efficiently find an
entrance to the parking as they drive around it. So we're trying to reduce circling, double parking,
things of that nature that, you know, cause a traffic backup.
Dana, are you on the line and unmuted?
And if you're not, could you raise your hand?
Virtually.
Good afternoon, Jared. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Good afternoon.
Please identify yourself, spell your first and last name for the record.
Dana Valenti, D -A -N -A, V as in Victor, A -L -E -N -T -I.
Thank you.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Dana, did you have a chance to listen to my presentation this afternoon?
I did, Jared.
And do you adopt my statements as true, correct, and your own?
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, we can certainly answer any questions the board may have, but that concludes our presentation for now.
Questions from the board?
Anyone else wish to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
No hands at this time.
Thank you. Planning Commission?
Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the Board.
Ian Litwin with Planning Commission staff.
I believe I need to be sworn in still.
You want to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Lincoln Square was an important step towards redeveloping Washington Avenue as a mixed -use corridor.
These signs will support the two floors of commercial uses included in the development.
In addition, these signs will require art commission review prior to permit issuance.
Therefore, we do not have opposition to granting the variances required.
Very much.
Mr. Klein, did you say nine pages?
Thank you.
MI 2020 -000092, 1000 Broad Street.
My vote is yes with the proviso.
nine page revised plan nine pages adopted to the approved today um this is sharon saletta can
you put this vote back until the end of the session so that i can review these plans
more closely i don't believe we've ever stamped nine pages can i check them to be sure that all
of those are necessary all right then we'll be in touch mr klein so this case will be a whole
final vote at the end of the session thank you thank you very much mr chair
Okay. MI -2020 -000062 -712 North 34th Street.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Can everybody hear me?
Yes, we can.
All right.
Excellent.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Isaac Slepner with Mattione Limited, 100 North Independence Mall, West Suite 5A, Northwest,
Philadelphia PA 19106. Here on behalf of the property owner of 712 North 35
Here on behalf of the property owner of 712 North 34th Street, and with me.
Mr. Slepner, please spell your last name for this.
Sure, that's Slepner. S is in Sam, L is in Larry, E is in Elvis, P is in Peter, N is in Norman, E is in Elvis, R is in Robert. Slepner.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Before we begin on this case, this morning we had some confusion about a case at 1925 North 4th Street.
Michael Maddione says it may have been your case.
It was my case, and I reviewed that.
What had happened was that case was heard and a vote was taken of the board,
but I believe you had left the record open for me to get in touch with
council member Sanchez for a letter of approval or at least a voice vote of
approval. And I do have that letter today. I can,
it was emailed to the board and to Sharon Saleta earlier this morning,
but I can display it if you want.
Just hold on one second, Sharon, can we can, we can vote that now?
Okay. Let's do that.
and then we'll go on to your 712 North 34th.
So MI -2020 -000044, 1925 North 4th Street.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Sorry, Jim.
Mr. Slepman, proceed.
Thank you.
Thank you.
In any event, I represent the owner and developer
of 712 North 34th Street, and I would like to share our materials with the board at this moment in
time. Isaac, can I ask you a quick question here? Sure, go ahead. Have you emailed an exhibit packet
with the required documents, which are proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of their
refusal or referral, and photos and plans five days in advance of the hearing? Yes, we have.
Okay. And also, have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter from them?
Yes, we have, and yes, we do.
Great. You may continue. Thanks.
Okay. Thank you. All right. Let me get back into the technology here. So, I am actually now going
to share my screen, and I'll walk through with everybody what we have.
I'm sorry, Jim. Can you check and see if he waves and steps?
Most certainly. Sorry about that. Isaac, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. And yes, I do.
Thank you very much. All right. You're welcome. So going through here, we've got
the following. Well, first, we have the notice of refusal, which we just stipulated to.
Second, we've got Exhibit 2 is our site plan and I will turn that so everybody can see it.
It's a proposed three -story multi -family dwelling and at the top is our site plan. You can see this
is 712 north 34th. Going here towards this corner of 34th and Mantua, this kind of curved corner,
that's 714. That's an empty lot. And 710 is also an empty lot. This is a cross -section elevation.
This is kind of on the map, which I can enlarge a little bit, but it's basically there at the
at the, excuse me, the intersection of where 34th, Mantua, and Fairmount all intersect.
This is a photo of the intersection. This is a photo of our property, and I have further photos
of our property. I'm actually going to also bring up on my screen the, excuse me, the 712 North 34th
floor plans so the board can see what's um proposed to be built here and i have with me um
my client eugene natovich uh who will probably be able to charge the floor plans please sure
is that better i can i'll scroll through them
yes all right so well we'll start from the bottom of the page and work our way across so
So it's a proposed three -story, and I believe it's six -unit proposed, but my client will
be able to elaborate on that.
Eugene, are you on?
Can you unmute yourself?
Eugene.
Eugene you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in yep please identify yourself
uh full first name second first and last name and your address
Eugene Nidovich, 601 North 39, Philadelphia PA, 19104.
Your last name, please.
And as a Nancy, A -Y -D -O -V -I -C -H.
We're in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
Eugene, if you would, just describe to the board the layout of these apartments.
and how they're going to work in the space based on these plans.
So it's a three -story building with one unit on each side of the staircase.
The budget is going to be slightly raised.
It's going to be about five feet out of the ground,
but it's still a three -story building.
It's six units.
We are planning on having three to four low -income units
based on what we can get for the two to three market rate units.
that's pretty much it so Eugene when you say on either side of the staircase it
would they would be to right or left of the staircase or front and rear of the
staircase front and rear of the staircase gotcha what is the trash
removal plan so what we normally have we actually have our own private trash
pickup in addition to the city trash pickup so in addition to the once a week
from the city we have our own uh own maintenance guys going through all of our properties in the
entire area two additional times per week making sure that everything is clean so we essentially
get three trash pickups per week for each one of our buildings so where's it stored in the unit
um i guess it'll be in the back
well there's everyone all units have access
uh not through the building but given the fact that we literally have three trash pickups per
week we never have any trash issues with any of our units or any of our buildings in the entire
area what what are you showing in the basement i keep seeing offices go back to the basement i'm
sorry okay is there a bit a bit is that a apartment unit no it's a bi -level unit with the first floor
so the basement
well one of the things actually so we started playing around with the um
layout a little bit so since covid we actually had a huge number of people asking for uh units
with a separate office in them because a lot more people are working from home.
So we started trying to plan it out more in a way to be able to accommodate that
without charging a two -bedroom price.
You have pickup once a week for trash?
Three times a week.
Once a week is a city, two times through your company, correct?
But it's not just for this building.
We do that for every single building that we have in Mantua.
And anybody that knows any of our buildings in Mantua will attest that all of our buildings are always, without exception, very clean in the front.
Because we have so many properties in Mantua, we manage to have somebody driving around almost daily, making sure that everything is clean.
There's no debris.
There's no trash.
And it's always very well taken care of.
and so eugene back to these these plans you were saying so it's two each apartments on first second
and third floors correct yep yes okay and so are they they're multiple level apartments or they're
just they're each flat on each level uh second floor has two flat apartments third floor has
two flat apartments, and the first floor with a partial basement has two bi -level apartments.
I got you. Okay, thank you. All right, and you can see these are plans for the six apartments.
Were there any other questions about the plans?
The building is not at ground level. The building is raised five feet. So essentially, it's more of a half basement or a walkout basement than a full basement.
okay and there are no four apartments in the basement they'll bi -level with the
And there are no full apartments in the basement. They're bi -level with the first floor, which is five feet above.
first floor which is five feet above ground okay thank you
that letter you said from the RCO we do have a letter from the RCO chair and I
will be displaying that momentarily we're gonna go back over here to our
exhibit three which are our site photographs so this is a picture of
current situation at 712 North 34th. It's vacant. That tree is kind of overhanging
from either one side or the other. You can see there's a Philly bike share and Indigo station
right next to the site of this proposed building. Those posts are actually for a proposed bicycle
lane, or I'm sorry, for protected bicycle lane. It's not proposed. It exists. And you can see
To the right of our property is also another vacant lot, and to the left as well.
This is a little bit of a wider shot of 712 is roughly between these two white posts.
714 is where the bicycles are, and 710 is that vacant to the right of the white post there.
And this is, again, kind of the same wide shot.
This is a wider shot of the block.
Again, you can see between the two posts is where our property is, 710 over here with the bicycles, 714, and then around there on Mantua Avenue.
And that's the mural of Patti LaBelle right there, which will still be totally visible because this is a proposed project.
It's not attached to anything. It's got vacancies on both sides, empty lots on both sides.
Exhibit 3B is this is the rear alley of the houses on Fairmount Avenue heading east on Fairmount Avenue from, I'm sorry, heading west on Fairmount Avenue from 34th and the fence of the lot next door and the bicycle share.
This is 710 North 34th, again with the bicycles in front of it and again a wide shot of the block.
Bicycle share. There's our property again. There's the next door property with the bicycle
share in front of it. 3C are photos of our orange posters, which were posted at least
21 days ago. There's a first picture of one chained to the chain link fence. There's a
second one. It's a little bit wider shot of it chained to the chain link fence. There
is on the chain link fence. Exhibit four is our project information form, which was actually
produced and submitted back when we first filed this appeal in January of this year,
way before COVID started. But this was filed on January 22nd of 2020. Exhibit number five
is our service of mailed notices to the neighbors per the Philadelphia Zoning Code.
We originally served notice on March 10th, and this is a signed affidavit of service,
and it exhibits of that, which are our letter to the neighbors, and then our copy of our notice
of refusal, and then our copy of all the addresses that we noticed by mail. And as you can see,
there are many of them. It's a pretty dense neighborhood, so there are about 100. Submit 5B
is after COVID, we did it again, and we noticed everyone, all the neighbors, on September 25th.
So this is an affidavit of service attesting to that. And again, our letter dated September 24th,
same letter, notifying the neighbors, our notice of refusal, and our about 100 or so
addresses that were mass mailed with regard to that. Exhibit 6 is a letter from Mantua Civic
Association dated October 6th to you, Mr. Chair, and I guess by extension the rest of the board,
noting the RCO's position of support and the final vote of the meeting was actually 21 in
favor, four against. So it was an overwhelming support of my client and his project at this site.
Exhibit seven is a copy of the deed recorded April 5th, 18 in favor of Lena Holdings, LLC.
and my client Eugene Nadevich is the principal of Lena Holdings LLC again recorded in 2018
that's your deed and your real estate transfer tax certs that go along with the deed exhibit eight
real estate transfer tax certs that go along with the deed. Exhibit eight is we ran the tax records
for Lena Holdings LLC for this property. We were having some sort of trouble with the Department
of Revenue website certificate generator. We've been working on that and we can probably get our
hands on that. But as you can see, there's been zero tax balance going all the way back to 1988
on this property. And that's, those are my materials. I'll open it to questions.
Thank you. Any questions from the board? No. No. Anyone who would like to testify in this case,
if so, please raise your hand. No hands at this time. Thank you. Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the board, Ian Litwin with Planning Commission staff.
The Mantua neighborhood was remapped in 2017 according to the recommendations of the comprehensive plan and after significant community input.
This was mapped from RM1, family 5, single family in order to encourage development of single family homes.
This proposal is an overbill that is out of character with the goals of the comprehensive plan.
accordingly we are opposed to granting advance thank you I'm sorry mr. chair if
I may just one more moment if I may call my client to have him adopt the
testimony thank you Eugene you're there yep and Eugene you heard on all of the
testimony that I offered to the board today yes and was it true and correct
to the best of your knowledge yes it was and would you adopt that testimony as though you
had given it yourself yes thank you and i have nothing further for my client i just want to say
one more thing in terms of um the area being zoned for single family um yes it's zoned for single
family that's the one for variants and we had overwhelming community support i believe 20
19 or 20 votes for and only three or four against um we're one of the only low -income
housing builders in the area we don't use any funds we don't use any city tax dollars nothing
so in order for us to achieve having such a high number of low -income units we need that kind of
density and as rco shows we have overwhelming support from the community to do that we're not
asking for extra height. The only thing we're asking
for is just density of the
building.
MI -2020 -000062
North 34th Street. My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Thank you.
This is Sharon
Saleta. If you would like to call Mr.
Klein back, you can vote 1 ,000
And South Broad, he believes all nine pages are necessary, so I'll stamp them.
Okay, Mr. Klein?
We don't need him to be on, do we?
No, not necessary.
MI 2020 -000092, 1000 Broad Street, my vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Excuse me, with proviso, revised plans, nine pages.
With proviso, revised plan, nine pages approved today.
Thank you.
Yes, with proviso.
Yes, with proviso.
You got it.
All right, here we go.
MI 2020 -001 -281 -2731 Federal Street.
Mr. Clinton, are you here?
No hands at this time.
Okay here we go Mr. Clinton I'm promoting you to panelists.
Thank you very much Ms. Sunkit. Good afternoon members of the board. Henry
Good afternoon, members of the board. Henry Clinton on behalf of the applicant for 2731
Clinton on behalf of the applicant.
Federal Street. I believe you're still on their oath. Correct from this morning. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman. Also on the call is Colin Lahren, who is the principal of the applicant,
as well as the architect, Derek Spencer. Mr. Clinton, can I ask you a quick question here?
Certainly.
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, which are proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and planes five days in
advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have, Mr. Snell.
And have you also met with the RCO, and do you have a letter provided from them?
Yes, I do.
Great.
You may continue.
Thanks.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Sunke, can I share my screen?
Yes, you can share your screen. And Mr. Snell, can we ask if you wave and snip? I just need to put everything on a record because we don't have a court reporter today.
Okay. Henry, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Great. Thank you. Continue.
Can you see my screen now?
uh this is concerns 2731 federal street i'm here on behalf of cal grace ferry llc the principal
of which is colin lauren is also on the call this is my exhibit package to present to the board
including notifications to the neighbors aerial photographs
community notifications
refusal I'll dwell on the refusal a little bit when you see this parcel of ground
it's very very unique it's actually shaped a little bit like a baseball bat it's very very
unusual and it's in an I2 zone in Grace Ferry off a major artery Grace Ferry Avenue which leads to
Washington Avenue and Grace Ferry also continues down to Carpenter which then you can get into
center city but it's in an i2 zone in the whole neighborhood is zoned i2 in this particular area
we're proposing residential units six residential units with commercial in the basement in the
first floor as a consequence because we're proposing residential we receive refusals
indicating that multi -family is not permitted in i2 zone and that if you're going to use
multi -family in an I -2 zone, there's a certain parking requirement, in this case, three spaces.
Next are the certificates of mailing that we mailed out, 102 pieces of mail to the surrounding
neighbors. These are all the addresses that are affected and received notice. These are photographs
of our postings of the orange placard. This is a photograph of the parcel. It fronts on Grace
Ferry Avenue. For as long as I can remember there's been an ugly three -story
billboard here which Mr. Larn is going to do away with and we're going to
supplant that with a beautiful building. You can see the views in the Center City
Comcast Building Liberty 1 Liberty 2. Again the notice of refusal and again
just for some perspective some aerial photographs this is Grace Ferry Avenue
headed toward the city. This is the piece. As I said, it looks kind of like a baseball bat.
The front of it curves a little bit more than what this depicts. There's the billboard,
and this is all garages and some commercial space. But increasingly, this corridor is becoming
more and more residential. If the board recalls, I was in front of the board last month
on the project right here again by Mr. Larn and it was approved for residential units in this I2
zone. Here's a ground view again we're looking east toward the city the center city is that way
and this is the parcel and this is the apex of the parcel.
So I'm going to have to move to another.
Here are the plans.
Again, this is the apex that I just discussed earlier.
and this is the four -story building that is being proposed you can see there's some greenery
in the front and the back because of the layout of a lot the sidewalks are
in the front and the back because of the layout of the lot.
The sidewalks are huge and vast for people to walk by.
As I said, this is a heavily traveled road,
and to have wide sidewalks is a big plus.
Here's a zoning map, and you can see from Ellsworth Street
down to Ingram Street, Federal Street, and Anning Street,
excuse me, is all I2.
it's all industrial but you know industrial is not moving back into the area and it's not moving
back into areas that are in proximity of of center city which this particular project is
some more photographs to give you perspective this is a side view of the of the property
and here is the zoning map the property actually goes from here on the west to a point excuse me
here on the east to a point here on the west the building starts here and again it's a very very
unique configuration i think the architects did a fantastic job of laying this building out
This is the basement or cellar, commercial space of about 1 ,700 square feet.
And on the first floor, there's additional commercial space with a common hallway and two sets of stairs to get up into the upper levels.
This is the floor plan, which repeats itself, second, third, and fourth floor plan.
There's going to be two dwelling units.
Can you enlarge the floor plan?
Is that good, Mr. Holloman?
So on each floor, second, third, and floor, as I said, it repeats.
You have two bedrooms in Unit B, two bedrooms, one bath, and then in Unit A, one bedroom,
one bath.
The views are pretty significant because you have unobstructed views basically to Center
City and also to Penn's campus.
Let me shrink this back down.
so now we're looking at the building from the north to the south the entrance is here
there's another entrance in the back here's some open space and this is if you're driving
towards center city you're coming to that apex this is the front of the this is the part of the
building facing due west. So we had a community meeting last night actually with
ROAD which is residents organized for advocacy and direction and as a result of that meeting
we did get a letter of support from that group. Grace Ferry Community Council also participated
in that meeting. The vote was five in favor to against, and we just got that letter today,
which we then sent to Ms. Saleta. So, Ms. Saleta, are you in receipt of that letter of support?
So, Mr. Lauren, are you on the call? Ms. Sunkit, can you unmute him, the client?
They would have to raise their hands.
Mr. Lahren, can you raise your hand?
Okay, he can open his mic and wait to be sworn in.
Hey, Hank.
Hey, Colin, how are you today?
All right, Mr. DeChico will square you in.
Good afternoon, sir. Please identify yourself with a record. Spell your first and last name.
Collin Lahren, C -O -L -I -N -L -A -R -E -N.
Graduous.
1601 Ridge Avenue, Philly, PA -19130.
Thank you.
Swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Mr. Lahren, have you listened to my presentation and testimony?
If you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, just in summation, this property has been a long, vacant lot, but for the billboard.
The billboard is going to be eradicated and, frankly, removing an eyesore from the neighborhood.
We're taking a vacant piece of ground, which is zoned industrial.
a very unlikely industrial is coming back to this area,
especially on a piece of ground
that's so unusually shaped.
So in light of the unique circumstances of the lot,
the long vacancy of the lot
and the fact that this is in harmony
And the fact that this is in harmony with what the neighbors want and will bring additional residents to the neighborhood, I request that the board look kindly upon this application and certainly will take any questions.
with what the neighbors want
and will bring...
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Anyone else who would like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
No hands at this time, Chair.
Thank you. Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the Board.
Ian Litwin, Planning Commission staff.
The comprehensive plan recommends this parcel be remapped to IRMX,
Industrial Residential Mixed Use,
in recognition that modern industrial development is not appropriate in this location.
This is an oddly shaped parcel, and the proposal generally adheres to the requirements of IRMX zoning.
Therefore, we have no opposition to granting the variances.
Thank you.
mi 2020 dash 001281 2731 federal street my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes
thank you very much mr chairman members of the board have a great day
likewise thank you thank you okay mi 2020 dash 001238 2453 ingersault street
Chair, of this case, I have a request from the Attorney of Record, Meredith Ferlinger,
for continuance. Okay, thank you. MI -2020 -001238
2453 Ingersoll Street is continued. Okay. MI -2020 -001280
262 Geiger Road.
This is Sharon Saleta.
The attorney in this case, Natalie Clydisterney, has requested that she be permitted to present
today and that the hearing be bifurcated and that she return following an RCO meeting.
I'm sorry, I have Alan Knackerson.
It's not.
Oh, I'm sorry.
and natalie is is adam is alan's partner she is the one i've been communicating with
okay all righty alan notkinson you've been promoted to panelists please unmute yourself
and wait to be sworn in uh mr notkinson i believe you were sworn in earlier today
so you're still on the roof uh yes i am
alan have you oh i'm sorry have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents
which are proof of ownership proof of tax compliance copy of the refusal or referral
photos and plans five days in advance of this hearing i have also have you met with the rco
and have a letter from them uh that's the only thing we haven't done we're scheduled to meet
with them October 28th. So we would like to present this matter to the board, have the board
hold it for advisement, meet with the community organization, and then come back for a supplemental
hearing to alert the board of any community input. Not noted, so please, and please proceed
with your case. All right, I'm going to share my screen. One second, Alan, can I ask you, do you
agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Okay, thank you.
proceed uh yes again um full screen
uh again my name is alan occam sim knockam sim pc 123 south broad street uh suite 1600 philadelphia
pa 19109 i'm here to present to you 260 -62 geiger road which is located in the northeast section
of Philadelphia. Along with me today is the proposed owners of the property,
Ross and Marta Pillop. They are looking to purchase this property
pursuant to this agreement of sale, which is subject to zoning approval by this board.
the owner of the property did pay real estate taxes recently for 2019 they're in a payment
plan for 2020 I'm trying to get that documentation I figured I would just present that to the board
during the supplemental hearing to confirm same exhibit 3 is the notice of refusal this is an
to confirm same. Exhibit three is the notice of refusal. This is an I2 property. What we're
looking to do here is put an application for commercial vehicle repair and maintenance,
as well as sales and rental of vehicles in a pre -existing structure. This lot is over 125 ,000
square feet. The building structure is 20 ,000 square feet. Because we're in the far northeast
overlay district, we're here today merely for the use of the property for repair and maintenance.
We're allowed to sell and rent vehicles, but we're here because of the repair and maintenance of
vehicles. A little bit about the owners. They own, and you'll see in the packet of materials,
Pillops Custom Inc. They sell and rent and repair and maintain first responder vehicles,
essentially. Ambulances, handicap vans, things of that nature. They're currently located in
in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Both Marta and Ross grew up partly during their childhoods in the
northeast section of Philadelphia. My understanding is that Marta's family still lives in this part of
Philadelphia, and they're looking to move their operations to Philadelphia.
I will also point out that if you look at license number 285641, there was a license almost 20 years ago for automotive products.
So the type of use that we're asking for in terms of repair and maintenance is not uncommon to this property.
Again, this is an I -2 property. In addition, I am providing you the application for appeal
along with the project information form. And again, as you can see, this is a massive property
in the northeast section of Philadelphia, 125 ,000 square feet, 20 ,000 square foot
building structure. As you can see, there's off -street parking. There's approximately
30 spaces here. And what they intend to do is display their vehicles that are either for sale
or for rent in these parking spaces and to perform all of the automotive repairs and
maintenance inside. Again, this is the pre -existing building. They don't plan to do anything to this
this structure. You can see this is a massive parking lot from both the aerial view as well as
the view from the ground. And as you can see, this is an industrial part of town.
Here's a copy of the proof of posting in the front of the property as well as a closer view
of the zoning poster, as well as the notice of refusal that's on the notice on the zoning
poster. And again, just a little bit about Pillops Custom Inc. They've been around for over a decade.
They have, you know, three or four employees at all time who are on site. You know, it's a light
use. Their hours of operation would be 8 to 3 p .m. Most of their sales and rentals are actually done
online. They don't have a lot of people who actually visit the site very often. And usually
the vehicles, they'll have one example of each for people who would like to see it, but most of
their sales are online. For the most part, they maybe have one or two individuals visit the site
once a week, but this is a really light use. Obviously, they have been busy during this
pandemic, and this would be an asset to Philadelphia to have a company like this to
move into Philadelphia. And this is their current location. You can see it's kept very clean
and organized. And like I said, you know, October 28th, we plan to meet with the Greater
Busselton Civic League. That would be my presentation at this moment. I would, you know,
take questions. I can also have the owners of the property substantiate my presentation as well as
taking any further questions. Why don't we get your clients on and I'll square them in and then
and I'll ask for questions.
Okay, Ross and Marta, can you virtually raise your hand?
They can abuse themselves and be sworn in.
They can abuse themselves and be sworn in.
Can you hear us?
Please identify yourself first and last name for the record.
My name is Rostik Pillip, R -O -S -T -I -K Pillip, P -I -L -I -P.
We're going to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, Mr. Narkinsen.
Mr. Pillip, you heard everything I stated today.
I did, yes.
and is it true and correct everything is true yes and do you adopt as your own testimony
i do yes okay thank you um questions from the board no no anyone who would like to
testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hands at this time chair thank you planning commission
Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the board.
Ian Litwin, Planning Commission staff.
This parcel is zoned I -2, medium industrial,
and is indicated for industrial uses in the comprehensive plan.
Therefore, we have no opposition to granting the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2020 -001280 -260 -62.
Geiger and Road, my vote is yes.
Oh, Mr. Chairman.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I remembered. I remembered. I'm sorry. I apologize.
Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, the other thing is, can we have a date,
when's the date and the time for this supplemental hearing?
We're going to get that right now. I apologize.
So, Chair, we're pretty much swamped.
I think we had, Alan, were you coming back in November?
I come back. I'm here every day.
um so i thought we just did one for you for resumption harry oh you did november 4th
yes can we do the same day yeah november 4th at 9 30. yep both worked for me okay thank you tanya
thank you all right let me go through that again i got ahead of myself mi -2020 -001280
260 -62 Geiger
Road. This hearing will
be resumed on November
the 4th at 9 .30
a .m., at which
time we will consider any feedback
related to the RCO's
position. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
MI number 2020
000013
2321 North Broad Street
Attorneys Vern Anastasia
Mr. Anastasia, you've been promoted to panelist
Thank you, Ms. Sunken
good afternoon mr chairman members of the board i believe i'm still sworn in from earlier
that is correct thank you thank you verne anastasio 1315 walnut street suite 1006
philadelphia pennsylvania 19107 representing mr shy argaman the developer for the subject
property site 2321 north broad and with that i asked if i could share the screen
Vern, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, which are proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and planes five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Also, have you met with the RCO, and do you happen to have a letter from them?
Several times, and yes, we do.
Okay, great. One last thing here. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? Yes, I do. Great. Thanks. You may proceed. Thank you, sir. Folks, we're looking at
2321 North Broad Street. It is a one large open space right now that is part of a larger campus.
This is the former Dropsy University campus on North Broad.
It has several buildings, as you can see, that were all once on the same parcel.
We have a building here in the back that is of some historic significance.
We have two other buildings here.
This front one used to be a retail store, and this section here is one large courtyard.
is one large courtyard. These are the two modestly sized prop buildings that we are
These are the two modestly sized.
proposing to build, one on either side of the courtyard.
I'm going to show you. The application was initially for 56 units. When we talked with
the community on several occasions. We brought that down to 48 units, 24 units per building.
First floor would have commercial as is required. We also dropped the height of the property.
It was initially going to be 55 feet, which we could do as a matter of right. We've reduced
it to 49 so that it's more consistent with the other properties that surround it on the campus.
Now we're here not for any refusal that's significant. It's one minor refusal of a side
yard and the architect will discuss why that is. But we're only here for a special exception,
which obviously means that it is assumed that what we propose to do here is compliant by code.
We just need to show you that we're not going to be a detriment to the community.
The special exception referral was triggered only because of one reason, two buildings on one lot.
We could have, in fact, built one giant building and avoid this altogether.
However, the Historic Commission wanted us to come up with a design that would respect the sightline of this historically significant building in the rear, so that when people drive or walk by, they can still appreciate the beauty of that building.
As such, we've decided to put the two buildings either on both sides of the courtyard, which can be enjoyed.
you. The architect is going to go over interior layouts with you and design, but I do want
to show you what it would look like. As you can see, there's that historically significant
building in the center. Folks driving by can still enjoy the site. First floor of each
Each of our buildings will be commercial and then residential above.
This is a rendering of what it would look like in relation to the surrounding buildings.
As you can see, it's completely consistent with North Broad Street.
what's you know unusual is what what's there now which is
obviously just one large open space that's not enjoyed by anybody
there's the interior courtyard with the proposed north building
and then this is the significant building that we want to preserve the site
We have proof of posting, proof of mailing, the deed, and the tax certification.
I'm going to unshare this for a minute in order to share with you one of the RCO letters.
If I can find it.
do you see this one
do you see the rco letter folks yes could you enlarge it sure this is from the 30 world 37th
Ward RCO. As the letter states, this project has been going on for several years, and they support
the project. Now, I do need to put on the record my legal argument because the question, does the
construction of two buildings on one lot trigger one of the following, beyond that which would
normally be expected. Does it cause extraordinary congestion for the public streets or public
transportation? Obviously not. Broad Street is a very active street. This is a very empty space.
So, adding these two modestly sized buildings are not going to add congestion to the streets or the broad street line.
So adding these two modestly sized buildings are
Would it be overcrowding of the land? Again, that's pretty apparent that it won't be because of that large space of shared courtyard that we will continue to maintain as part of the former Dropson University campus.
Will it impair light and air to any adjacent property? And the answer to that is absolutely
none. As you saw, there was one large commercial property on the corner, and then there's empty
space on the south of the South Tower. Would it endanger the public health? Again, there's
absolutely no reason to believe that it would endanger the public health any more than any
other building on that block. In fact, it'll be brand new quality construction, and one could
argue that it would actually be safer than many of the properties up and down North Broad.
Finally, is it in line and compatible with the city comprehensive plan? The answer to that is
obvious. Yes, it is, of course. That's why we're here asking for a referral and not a refusal.
with that i'd like my client to raise his hand so that he could take my presentation as his own
testimony shy or any of the partners yes this is shy hey how you doing hello shy could you put
could you put your name and spell it uh on the record for the for the board yeah shy argument
It's S -H -A -I, last name A -R -G -A -M -A -N.
I reside at 1267 Serota Place.
It's S -C -R -O -T -A place, Philadelphia PA 19115, and I'm the owner of the lot.
Very good.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I affirm, yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Shai, did you hear my presentation to the board today?
Yes, I am.
okay and was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes it was and would you accept
it and adopt it as your own testimony if need be yes i am thank you very much shy thank you
mr chairman if you'd like we could uh ask rich to raise his hand and he can go through the plans
with you if you'd like hold off a minute let me see if there are any questions yet from the board
no no okay um is there anyone who would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
chair we have mary jones from the council person's office
thank you good afternoon ms jones please identify yourself and you're still under
oath from this morning good afternoon my name is Mary Jones from council
president Darrell Clark's office after a review of this project the council
president does not support it unless there is an inclusion of affordable
units uh also like a provisal that it will be market rate and that some of them will be set
aside um for uh low or yeah set aside for um affordable uh to be made affordable for low
income tenants
sir anastasio during your uh time involved with this case has that issue ever come up and has
have been addressed or could you give us some background on it has not um up until you know
i think it's fair to say 15 or 20 minutes prior to today's hearing starting um it had not written
been brought up in the past um i had not discussed this with my client i would like to say as a
matter not to get into it too much but as a matter of course the units are all studios so
they certainly would be more affordable than you know one and two bedrooms uh and i'm not sure
that the board can attach a condition on the use uh because we're not here for the use
and we're here because there's two buildings on one lot so i'm not quite sure and maybe attorney
soletta could weigh in on that this is sharon soletta um no those are not conditions that you
the board would be authorized to impose right i mean if it were if we were here because we were
refused for the multi -family uh then i then i might then i would think maybe otherwise but since
But since the actual underlying use is already permitted, I'm not quite sure you can do that.
the actual underlying use is already permitted.
Well, I guess Ms. Saleta confirmed that.
And finally, I've met my burden in listing each and every criteria and offering a presentation that showed pretty clearly that we did not fall into any of the detrimental categories.
and as such unless or until someone provides evidence or testimony that we
would be detrimental in any of those categories I think respectfully the
board has to approve it but that's that's all I have what else would like
to testify in this matter please raise your hand no hands at this time
I'd like to suggest that we close the record on this
and the board will render a decision
at our next Wednesday's executive session.
So with that, it would be MI -2020 -0000132321NorthBroad.
The record is closed.
The board will render a decision
at our next executive session on Wednesday.
Wednesday is the 21st of October at 9 .30 a .m.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That concludes my business.
May I be excused?
Thank you.
okay mi -2020 -000540 -2209 south 63rd street
this is sharon slid i don't believe i have received any exhibits for this
case is there anyone out there on this case if so please raise your hand
2209 South 63rd Street
there's no applicant it appears but we do have Craig
good afternoon Mr. Maldosi and good afternoon apparently this case is going to be continued
Do you have any objections to that?
No, I don't, but I wanted to clarify for the record.
Originally, this was sent out.
Hold on, Craig.
Craig, I got ahead of myself a little bit.
Just spell your full name for the record, and you are still on the road from this morning.
Craig, C -R -A -I -G, last name Melidosian, M -E -L -I -D -O -S -I -A -N, Ward 40, Republican RCO, coordinating
address P .O. Box
3 -3 -3 -5 -5
Philadelphia
1 -9 -1 -4 -2
Okay, please proceed.
There are several issues
with this case. It was originally
given to the
Democrats
were 40 Democrats
and there was a
and I believe that's actually
what would have been heard today
And then it was reassigned to the Republicans, which is scheduled for next week, same time, two o 'clock.
There has not been a community meeting and the applicant has not hung up, whether it's an orange sign or a current white sign in front of the property advertising a ZBA hearing.
We'd be happy to work with them.
We probably would approve this.
It's inconsistent with the commercial corridor.
our one caveat is that apparently they they renovated the building and pulled no no permits
so our approval would be a with a proviso that they have to uh okay we're going a little too
far i think yeah uh lon we did we're going to continue this craig all right what okay but can
is is there any way to consolidate this because it's showing up as two different cases it's showing
up as uh this one today mi 2020 000540 and it's also showing up as mi 2020 000724
what address is that what's what they are both they are both 2209 south 63rd street
with the exact same source should come to the board by email
get that craig
okay so all right where i would think normally the applicant
Okay, so where I would think normally the applicant would do that, you'd like us to do that.
Request the consolidation or the removal of it from the Democrats.
And then consolidate it under Republicans because there was that change.
Here's the thing, Craig. The board only has certain jurisdiction.
Anything that's an administrative issue, if you can send it to us and then we can look into it to resolve.
but the board does not have jurisdiction of that.
Absolutely, Tanya.
Thank you so kindly.
And if we need to, we'll reach out to the applicant ourselves, okay?
Thank you very much to the board and staff.
We appreciate your help.
Thank you, Craig, and thank you for your time.
MI -2020 -000540 -2209 -South 63rd Street is continued.
okay mi -2020 -000043 1915 north 4th street and this is sharon saleta i just wanted to let you
know that we've received a letter of non -opposition from councilwoman sanchez thank you the attorney's
Isaac Slepner. Good afternoon, Mr. Slepner again. You're still on their oath from earlier today.
All right. Good afternoon again, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Isaac Slepner with Mattione Limited, 100 North Independence Mall West, Suite 5A Northwest,
Philadelphia PA 19106. And I am going to, if the board can bear with me just a moment,
I'm going to get my client to log in here. I told him I would let him know when we were on.
Isaac, if you have a quick second here, let me ask you a question. Have you emailed an exhibit
packet with the required documents, which are proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance,
copy of the refusal or referral, photos and plans five days in advance of this hearing?
I have. Also, have you met with the RCO and have you gotten a letter from them?
Yes, we have. Okay. And do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal stipulates what's
accuracy? Yes, I do. Okay, great. Thank you. You may proceed. Thank you. As I mentioned,
I'm Isaac Slepner. I represent the owner of 1915 North Forth Chain Brother Inc. And my client,
Simon Shane is either on here or will be on here momentarily and he is the principal of Shane
Brother Inc. I will walk actually if I could ask for the board to indulge me for a moment so that
I can round up my client. Is that all right? I probably need less than a minute here.
okay thank you thank you i'm not leaving i'm just muting and going off video
uh hi thank you uh thanks for your patience my client is logging in right now um i can let's
go ahead with do your presentation and we can get your client towards at the end okay thank you um
so as as i mentioned this is 1915 north 4th and i'll go through my materials here uh exhibit one
is our notice of refusal which was issued on january 29th 2020 um we've already read and
we've already waived and stipulated to that exhibit two is our date stamped application
of Appeal, which was filed on February 13th of 2020. Exhibit 3 is our plans, and I will turn
these around and I'll enlarge them and just go through the whole set of plans here. So at the
top here is the front elevation. It's a planned three -story, two -unit building. So as you can see,
the front and rear elevation. It's three stories with a basement and roof deck. Over here is the
proposed site plan. 1915 North Forth borders, two existing vacant lots.
1915 North 4th borders two existing vacant lots. So it would be a freestanding house at this point. And 1915 North 4th is just north of 4th and Norris, basically between Norris and Berks.
North of Berks, south of Norris. I'm sorry. It's been a long day. Scrolling down, we can see the floor plans. So the unit one would be the basement and ground level.
And the basement contains living room space with, this is the egress window right, these are actually, I'm sorry, the front steps right here, the egress window at rear with access to the rear space.
The first floor contains, I believe, is a one -bedroom with a living room, bathroom, kitchen.
And there's the stairs.
And the first floor, first slash basement unit has access to the rear yard space.
And then the second and third floor is a two -bedroom and contains the stairs to the roof deck.
So both units have outdoor space.
and those are our floor plans. I'll continue with Exhibit 4 is a set of photographs of the site.
4A are photographs of the site and if you notice this is 1915 from the edge of that chain link
to about the middle of this wood fence is 1915. The chain link area there is 1917 north 4th and
that house is 1919 North Forth. You can see it a little bit better here. 1915 North Forth
is from the end of this chain link where this large green plant is growing to about the
middle of that wood fence. Again, that's 1915 North Forth. 1917 again is this chain link
and 1919 is this house. There's a little bit closer up shot of it. Again, the end of the
fence to the middle of the wood fence. That green stuff in this lot, that's 1915 North Forth.
Exhibit 4B are some properties in the immediate vicinity. So this is, I forget the exact address,
I want to say 1912 or 1910 North Forth is this gray new construction, and that is
I believe a triplex. Next to it, these red brick are, I believe they are low -income, possibly PHA
duplexes again let me flip this picture yep there's 1912 so that's 1910 is the
gray one 1912 is the red brick and again duplex triplex this is again a shot from
across the street you can see our site 1915 1917 15 is right there in the
middle 13 11 all the way down to nine exhibit 4c is the orange poster which
was posted at least 21 days ago. There you see it's stapled to a pole or a
board at the sidewalk edge of the property. Here it is again. I'll turn this
photo again. Yep, there it is stapled to a board right at the front of the
sidewalk line of the property and again there it is stapled to a board right at
the sidewalk line of the property. Exhibit 5 is our project information form
that was filed. I think this was also a project that got interrupted by the whole COVID situation,
but this was our project information form that was filed in February, February 6th of 2020.
Exhibit 6 is in August when we noticed the neighbors again, an affidavit of service of
our mailing notice to the neighbors that it was mailed on August 20th, was notarized on September
10th, including our letter to the neighbors of August 20th regarding the four properties
that my client owns on that stretch of North 4th, and our notice of refusal that we sent
to the neighbors.
Exhibit B are the, I would say, about 100 or so neighbors in that area of Norris Square
that we noticed by mail, and it's a long list.
It might even be more than 100.
Exhibit 7 is a letter from Norris Square Community Alliance, the coordinating RCO, that they issued on August 28th with regard to 1915 North 4th, and the RCO took a position of support.
They had a vote of 3 in favor and 0 against, 1 non -opposition.
Exhibit 8 is the deed, which was recorded on 4 -24 -18 in favor of Shane Brother, Inc.
And again, my client, Simon Shane, who is logged on at this point, is a principal of
is a principal of Shane Brother, Inc.
Shane Brother, Inc. So that's the deed to the property.
So that's the deed to the property, again, recorded in 2018.
All the attendant documents that go along with the deed.
And Exhibit 9 is the tax clearance certification for Shane Brother, Inc.
We ran that on October 2nd, so that is still valid.
I also have a letter, and as Ms. Saleta referred to,
I have a letter from Councilmember Quinona Sanchez's office
uh in favor of the project thank you can you get your uh your client on yes and i'd like to call
my client simon shane at this time simon are you there hello hi good afternoon mr shane would you
please identify yourself for the record spell your first and last name simon shane s -h -i -m -o -n
S -H -A -I -N
Swear and affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
You do
Thank you Mr. Schleppner
Yes Simon
did you hear all the testimony that I offered to the board today
And is that testimony
true and correct to the best of your knowledge
And would you adopt that testimony
as though you gave it yourself today
And I have nothing further for Mr. Shane
thank you any questions from the board no no anyone who would like to testify in this case
please raise your hand no hands at this time thank you planning commission
good afternoon chairman members of the board consistent with recommendations we have given
for two. Ian, just put your name on the record again. Sorry, Ian Litwin, Planning Commission
staff. Thank you. Consistent with recommendations we have given for two -unit buildings on similar
RSA five -lots in this neighborhood, we are not opposed to granting the variance and is
a reasonable increase in density. Thank you very much. MI 2020 -0000431915 North 4th Street.
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes all right thank you again thank you members of
the board i have no further business today thank you mi -2020 -000019 2100 south opal street opal
opal street opal opal depends where you live
it's kind of like pass yonk or pass yonk yeah
i have no one raising their hands for this
okay mi -2020 -000019 2100 south opal street is continued
Okay, this is the one right on the number 14. MI -2020 -001136, 1347 South Hick Street.
Good afternoon, Ms. Fuller. I believe I swore you in earlier today.
and Sharon and or Tanya I don't have any notes on this sheet what is it they're requesting
you can give me a moment to pull it up sure sure take your time is there someone here for this case
was here earlier
yeah they
they have to raise their hand though
Ms. Fuller if you're listening
please raise your hand
virtually raise your hand
there's also a Mark Zwick who is
here I believe to assist her with
the presentation
right but
there she is
yeah hi this is Mark I'm calling her to get
her back on the phone I know she was babysitting
at her house today so okay we can move on um mark i'm you can work on that and then let me know but
do the chat okay we'll go to the next case okay uh mi -2020 -000310 1542 north 8th street
1542 North 8th Street.
The attorney is Leo Mulvihill.
Not sure what he'll be wearing.
He left earlier with a black leather jacket.
He looked like Marlon Brando.
I wish I looked like him.
Oh, there you go.
You know what?
Now you got three guesses as to who I am right now.
Asian is that an Asian outfit I get a little bit dark there
think Disney movie animated oh okay
I was thinking a wicked
so chairman members of the board good afternoon I am of course
Mickey Mouse from Fantasia Leo Mulvihill
that's M -U -L -V -I -H -I -L -L address 2424
East York Street Suite 111 Philadelphia
19125 I agree to
the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy. Leo, just give me a second. I see Ms. Fuller from the
prior case. Ms. Fuller, just hang in there. Once we're through with this case, we'll get back to
you. Leo, I'm sorry for interrupting. That's quite all right. So members of the board. Leo, let me
ask you a question or two here real quick. Yes. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the
required documents, which are proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or
referral photos and plans uh five days in advance of this hearing yes i have also have you met with
the rco and do you have a letter from them yes okay and uh you already uh agreed to wave and step
correct yes great you may continue all right members of the board we're here today for 1542
north 8th street filmed by my client 1700 reed llc principal of that company is hayden h -a -y -d -n
Cutler, C -U -T -L -E -R. What we're proposing today is to put in a former PHA property,
which was multifamily previously, which is now vacant, boarded up, and unfortunately it had
some squatters in it before. My client has it under agreement and wishes to make it a three
family dwelling unit, two units of about 750 square feet, one unit of about 1 ,500 square feet,
and ultimately sell these off as condos.
For purposes of the record, I have here my title screen for the materials.
We have the refusal, appeal, and project information form at page one, area zoning maps at page six,
the agreement of sale at seven, my client's commercial activity license at 17, tax clearance at 18,
the zoning notification letter, proof of mailing at 19, RCO letter showing support or non -opposition,
rather from APM is at 27, voters of the property are at 30, and plans are at 48.
What's showing now on your screen, page three, is the refusal in this instance.
Again, this is an RSA 5 property. Although it's historically been multifamily,
we received the refusal for a multifamily. It's currently owned by PHA, as you can see
indicated here. My client has it under agreement. Page six of my packet members of the board,
we can see the area here. Oh, that's not the right map. It has the incorrect map numbers of the board
for some reason. In any case, this property is located at the corner essentially of 8th Street
and Oxford. Here's our agreement of sale. There's a zoning notification letter which went out
September 23rd. We had a meeting on October 6th with APM over Zoom. Nobody attended either my
meeting or the meeting for the other applicant that presented that day. So as a result, APM ended
up writing a letter of support or a letter rather of non -opposition for the project.
What I'm showing on your screen now, members of the board, page 27, which is the letter of
non -opposition from APM. They also provided a letter kind of pontificating on additional issues
with respect to the property itself, indicating the use of the property, the fact that it's three
units, the fact that it's right off of Oxford at 8th Street, the fact that mailboxes will be
mounted internally in the building and the fact that the units which are smaller will sell between
125 and 135 and the larger unit will sell for between 255 and 265 give or take. Beginning at
page 30 now I have copies of the zoning notices that I posted on the property included the orange
zoning sign as well as the bilingual signs provided to us by APM. This is the front of
the property. Looking directly at it from 8th Street. A little bit further away to the left
A little bit further away to the left, you see new construction multifamily three units.
you see new construction multifamily three units.
This is looking northbound on 8th, again looking across the street from new construction four
story three unit building.
This is on Oxford Street.
This is a shot of the building from across Oxford Street.
As you can see, it's currently vacant.
I'm just going to go through the additional photos showing single -family homes in the area,
parking lot across the street.
This is looking westbound on Oxford Street at page 42, southbound on 8th Street at page 43,
just to give you all some context of the neighborhood as I page through the rest of the
photos. So what I'm showing now, members of the board, it's going to take a second to load only
because the files are a little larger. This is page 48 of my packet. This is the proposed
rendering of the property. To the left, you can see a view from Oxford Street with the tree and
a fence. To the right, you see the view from the front on 8th Street, where it's just an adaptive
reuse. We're essentially going to be rehabilitating the building. We're not going to be really
changing anything to the exterior other than shoring it up, maybe redoing some stucco,
putting new windows in. What you can see right here now, members of the board,
is the, behind this fence area, you can note one, two, three gated areas. Behind these gated areas
will be exterior dumpsters for the condos. So that's going to take care of trash storage for
each of the three units. All right, I'm going to do my best to zoom in on this in a moment.
Like I said, the files are a little larger, so it might be a bit laggy.
There we go. So here's the structure as it exists right now. We're going to put a new entrance portico new windows, try to keep the brick front. If not, we're going to try to replace it.
Building itself is 36 feet 11 inches tall will be repairing the corners line.
This is the view from Oxford Street again.
with yard gates and trash storage located here, which we'll see in a second when I get
to the floor plans. This is the site plan members of the board. I'll start at the front of the
property. One moment as my computer's not cooperating.
all right there we go so again this is what the property looks like front stairs four feet seven
existing as you come into the property there's going to be a vestibule as i discussed earlier
you'd hang on the right to go to unit one get a straight up to get into unit two right now the
storage for trash back here we're going to have use of the side yard for the first unit
use of a rear yard for unit three. I'll get to the floor plan now at this point.
The floor plan itself is color coded. Unit one is in light green. It's a bi -level unit.
On the first floor as you go in, you have an area that's open to be low, sort of like a balcony and
stairs that lead down to the basement living area, which has a kitchen, dining, living room. Bedrooms
on the ground floor here's the bathroom we have additional closets here as well and one can come
out through this area downstairs to be in a patio and have its area for trash storage in the exterior
downstairs unit of one as it is a bi -level unit washer dryer kitchen dining living space
unit two
is indicated here in this light pink color four bedroom unit bathroom in the middle
got some closets and laundry another bathroom off of the large bedroom to the front of the
building and that's on the third floor
unit three oh there we go unit three is bi -level as well two bedrooms one and a half baths
it's actually a tri -level unit as you come in off of the street pardon me as you come in
from the rear to get into unit three you then enter from the rear patio living and dining area
with the kitchen pantry and you have stairs to go either down or up to go downstairs you have
rec room storage and laundry as well as a powder room and let me just get to the third sword plan
there we go and then for unit three we have additional bedrooms upstairs and our bathroom
um for unit two again as that was a larger unit we have the kitchen living and dining area up on
the third floor as well as i stated earlier we're not making any changes to the exterior
of the building this is just going to be a rehab purchased by pha or purchased from pha rather by
purchased by PHA, or purchased from PHA rather by my client. That's an adaptive reuse and we're
just hoping to use it for three families. There's precedent for this already, as there's already a
three -family dwelling immediately next door. And we believe that allowing three units in this
location at the price points that we discussed will be affordable to the residents in the area,
which was a concern that was raised by APM at our community meeting, versus rehabbing this into a single family home when it had never previously been a single family home, where the sales price would be significantly higher for a brand new rehabilitated unit of this size.
Unit one, again, is about 750 square feet.
The larger unit, unit two, is 1 ,500.
Unit three is about 750 square feet.
The hardship simply is, members of the board, this always has been a multifamily unit.
My client purchased it with the understanding or went under agreement with the understanding
it was multifamily based on its interior layout.
We learned that it was not multifamily, and that's why we're here today seeking to rehabilitate
this structure rather than knock it down and build something new.
We're happy to take any other questions at this time, members of the board.
Thank you.
Do you want to get your client on?
Mr. Cutler, if you're on the line, please raise your hand.
i believe mr cutler may have been on the line earlier but may have had to leave
just because it's been a little bit since the 2 p .m hearing started stipulate that he would agree to
your testimony uh questions from the board no no anyone else anyone else who would like to
testify in this case if so please raise your hand no hands thank you Planning
Commission good afternoon chairman members of the board Ian Litwin Planning
Commission staff this block has a mix of single -family homes and multi -family
homes and vacant lots as a larger corner property that has historically been used
as a multi -family building we have no opposition to granting the variance thank
you. MI -2020 -000310, 1542 North 8th Street, my vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes.
What? I can't wait till next time. Now I'm excited. I think we get a little crazy today, huh?
Thank you, members. You got to join the crowd. All right. Thank you. A little levity for sure.
Have a good afternoon, everyone.
Bye -bye.
All right.
I think this might be the last case for 2 p .m.
It's MI -2020 -001136, 1347 South Hick Street.
Mr. Fuller?
And Mr. Zwick?
Yes, can you hear me?
Yes, I believe I swore you in earlier this afternoon, but do me a favor, just spell your first and last name again for the record.
B as in boy, E -R -R -E -T -T -A, last name Fuller, F -U -L -L -E -R.
Thank you, resident, your address.
Yes, 1347 South Hicks Street.
So, please proceed.
with 1513 reed street which is right next door to me um the last time yes for could i ask you
a question or two real quick uh yes have you have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required
documents which are proof of ownership proof of tax compliance copy of the refusal or referral
photos and plans five days in advance of this hearing well we we i was on the last uh board
meeting and what they they didn't ask me to do that however uh the reason for this onset of the
call is for a plot plan which um mark bender was a calling in on the phone i don't know where he
he he went to uh or what happened um so i guess i would have to step represent myself at this time
um um excuse me this is sharon saletta we did receive an exhibit packet from uh mark zwicker
is it um wait yes yes that's that's correct and and mark uh bennett is my real estate agent uh he
had spoken to me earlier about a plot plan uh and also have a deed of 1990 uh which i hope he uh
also put that in there because in 1990 uh they was going to split it up to two parcels uh then
Uh, then something happened with that deed and they opened up, uh, the one in 2005, which, which they wanted to landlock. However, when they found out that I had two doors, an entrance and an exit to my property 1347, they stated that it would not be, uh, a problem.
something happened with that deed and they open up uh the one in 2000
and all the neighbors uh i got all um acceptances uh eight uh on that day that the last uh appointment
that i had i believe it was september 16th i'm not sure miss fuller did you did you meet with
the rco and did you uh get a letter from them yes i i met with them sometime back uh that that's the
reason why I didn't have to do that however is in regards to the tax appliance the 2018
was paid today I have the receipt and the confirmation number if so I don't want that
to install stall anything from moving forward then I plan to call in a Monday because I was
on a repayment plan but for some reason I didn't get any mail and when I called they stated that
that nobody, you know, there was nobody that I could speak to or something of that
source. I don't know if it's due to the pandemic or what caused that problem, but I hope to
straighten that out. And because the 2019 and the 2020, spoken to Mr. DeWick, he stated all that
would be taken out, if it's all right with you at the zoning board, that would be taken out of
the closing costs so all of the taxes will be taken care of so you don't have a you have a
certificate you said does it show a zero balance or does it show a balance for 2018 it should show
a zero balance but i don't think that it works that fast because i just did it uh uh today
because i really did because this is this is what started the problem the last time i opened up it
said I was compliant. So on the day that I have to talk to you, I see not compliant. So I got
confused. And I also have in my notes somewhere where I paid it. So this will be the second time
I'm paying it. But I will try to get all this straightened out in the upcoming day. So that's
the least of my worries right now. Unless you have a certificate that shows that you have a zero
of balance we can't we can't approve your case until you provide that information to us
um mr chair perhaps we could this is sharon saletta perhaps we could hold it for one week
for um the applicant to submit and can i mention that sure sorry i just wanted to say i mean we
can hear the case but we can't decide on it until we have a tax clearance correct correct um i will
also wanted to tell you that we have a letter of support from the East Point
Breeze RCO yes so why don't we in the interest of time miss miss Fuller unless
the board has any questions no no questions
hi everybody this is this is Mark Zwick if you can hear me can I add some
clarity to the situation or if you guys don't need it i'll be quiet but i i think i think well
you know what yeah normally i'd say no but yeah maybe it can be helpful yeah okay if i could
interject this is tanya sunk it if i could interject i have looked up the real estate
tax balance of the applicant and there is um no balance currently okay so that's good
And if you wish, I can share the screen for all involved so that we can confer that there is no tax balance for 1347 South Hex.
Got it. Thank you.
All righty. Thank you.
Thank you.
That matter is taken care of.
Mr. Swick, what is your involvement in this?
i'm actually at the time at this time i'm representing the buyer
who would be if assuming that the board is okay
with the uh change of lot lines that i'm representing the buyer um
i'd like to see if it's possible if miss fuller do you happen to have
any exhibits that you can share with us yeah i can
share my screen and this is what we emailed earlier
if that's okay yeah yeah okay yeah it'll I think it'll really help and it'd be
very easy for everybody to understand
so he's had to go out and come back
so he had to go out and come back as a panelist and that we were him I think we
did earlier but I'll just make sure well I'll squirm it
Mr. Swick are you back
crazy day
I'm here I'm sorry I didn't realize I got muted everybody
are you guys able to see my screen yeah I don't know if I swore you in earlier
so please give us your full name for the record okay I apologize everybody
It's Mark Zwick, M -A -R -K -Z -W -I -C -K.
Z as in zebra, W -I -C -K.
I live in 749 South 20th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19146.
You're swearing a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do, sir.
Okay, so very quickly, if we go to Atlas right quick, the issue is this.
And let me just pull my Atlas.
I'm trying to find it here.
Okay, if you look in Atlas, which you guys hopefully can all see here, this is Ms. Hicks.
This is Ms. Hicks.
I mean, Ms. Hicks.
This is Beretta's property, Ms. Fuller.
This is 1513 Reed right here, and it's actually landlocked.
So I'm going to show you photos, but right now you cannot get to 1513 Reed unless you
cross over the backyard of 1347 Hicks, okay?
okay so when you go to the panel to the letter first off there's her deed this is the deed for
1513 which you can see in 2005 phdc gave her that lot for um a thousand dollars
and if we go down to the refusal refusal zero backyard and 1347 will have zero backyard
and it'll have a minimum, you know, the square footage of 550 square feet. Here's the application
that we submitted for the appeal, Point Breeze approval letter, which you all have. And then
what I want to show you is this is the current lot situation right here. This is Ms. Hicks. This
is on 1347 Hicks and White. This is the lot right here, which is her backyard and 1513 Reed is his
alleyway. Well, not alleyway. It's this lot that you can't get into. If we scroll down one more
page, you can see it from the side looking down towards 16th Street. And then if we go down one
more page, that's towards the other street. But if you go down the aerial photo, this is the aerial
photo. And this is Hicks Street right here. This is 1347 Hicks. This is her backyard, which is
concrete and then you have 1513 reeds starting right about here so you can't get you can't
access 1513 reed without you know from the street so i showed you the atlas this is the plot line
from 1990 if you go down the lower corner you'll see 12 20 12 20 1990 from the redevelopment
authority. So at some point, this lot went from going out to the street to them cutting off the
first about 15 feet and then taking it away from Hicks Street. I mean, adding it to Hicks and
taking it away from Reed, we're asking you to bring the lot line back to the 1513 Reed Street
1990 edition. And we've done it. We have our survey, which I can get a bigger copy of,
but we submitted the survey to go along with this.
We've done all of our neighborhood meeting, the mailings, the printing, the postal, et cetera.
So that's all we wanted to share with you is we're just asking permission to go back to this lot line
versus the lot line, which is currently right here, as you can see.
And that's all we have to present.
I have questions from the Board. Chair, can I, this is Tanya, can I just ask the question,
do we have, or would the applicant have the refusal? Yes, the refusal is page. If you go
onto the packet I sent, the refusal is on page. Sharon actually has it, she sent it to us, Tanya.
Yeah, it's on page seven of the packet.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anything else, Tanya?
Anything else, Tanya?
Tanya?
Sorry, no, we don't.
It's just that I didn't have it here.
Thank you.
Yeah, we didn't have it either, but Sharon sent it over.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Anyone else would like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
no hands at this time thank you planning commission
oh yeah good afternoon chair members of the board is it possible to
to um take some more time on this as we haven't seen any of these uh items until today
yeah we can uh vote on it next week's executive session
um is that i think we're a little confused with the lot lines and how they relate to the zoning
refusal here it doesn't it doesn't entirely make sense uh sure i i'm also happy to get if we go
back to the photo um if i could chair i'm sorry to keep interrupting but if we could um hold this
because in fairness to planning commission and others involved there was some um technical
problems and the information was not provided on the website so it might not have been a full
review for a recommendation so if we can hold this for a week I would be appreciative as well
so we think it'll be okay if we just hold it for executive session next week yes thank you
actually no the planning commission will have to come back and make a recommendation on the record
but it would be held strictly for that all right so we'll do the uh specific date
yep next week the 21st is fine all right at uh two o 'clock or 9 30 or what um it whatever works
for you chair all right well then uh so we'll resume the hearing and correct me before i put it
on uh at which time we'll get any feedback from the planning commission correct okay all right so
mi -2020 -001136 1347 south hick street uh this hearing will be resumed well actually no yeah
this hearing will be resumed on uh october 28th no 21st 21st at uh 9 30 a .m at which time
we will consider any feedback from the planning commission
that work yes thank you okay mr swick thank you thank you chair this is sharon saleta before you
decide on whether to take a break. I just sent everyone an email. It appears that there may be
only one case that will go forward and even that it's there's a question involved. So if that makes
difference to you thank you muted sorry unless someone needs a break if not we'll
go ahead with the cases because apparently we might not have any cases
to be heard maybe one or maybe you can determine if any of them are ready to go
forward and then decide um whatever why don't we do it that way all right um so do i need to read
the statement in if we're just going to find out if anybody uh just call each case and find out if
anyone or anyone's uh anyone's here to testify yes i'm still here you are yes i'm still here
veretta fuller no no we're done miss miss fuller oh mr mr mr swick swick will explain what we're
doing okay yes sir thank you have a good night you too thank you all right so i'll read these
off individually um yes or you can read let's see why don't i read the statement then i ask if
anybody's here and then we'll go. If I could interject, if we could read the statement since
this is a recording, I would appreciate that. Yep, it's going to do that. Okay, good afternoon
everyone. My name is Frank DiCicco. I'm the chair of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. I'll be
participating in today's hearing along with our board members, Mr. Thomas Holloman and Mr. James
Snell. Board Administrator Tanya Sunkett and Board Attorney Sharon Saleta are also in attendance.
For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings, I'll go through some
For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings, I'll go through some of the
of the basics of what you can expect. First, we will be administering oaths to individual
participants prior to their testimony. Second, for the benefit of anyone participating by phone,
we ask that attorneys and witnesses identify themselves prior to speaking or testifying.
Third, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded,
and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
Fourth, anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
I'll repeat, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself.
To enter an appearance statement, call Google 267 -270 -5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
Again, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267 -270 -5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
before we begin calling any cases we'd like to ask if anyone is requesting a continuance
and or a withdrawal for an appeal listed for this afternoon's session if you are we did
i'm sorry chair we did receive a request for a continuance of case number four that came from
the appellant's attorney and on case number five we had a request for withdrawal also submitted by
the appellance attorney okay so mi -2020 -000200 what is the address on that the address is 180
west gerrard avenue 180 west gerrard avenue this case is continued and mi -2020 -000181431 south
Street is withdrawn. Any other requests? Chair, I have a request. This is Tanya. A request for
continuance from the attorney of record for number three on your list.
Number three.
Hold on one minute. I'm sorry. Okay. MI -2020 -000239, 2349 North 20th Street is continued.
Any other requests?
We have Sloan Foulkes, Sloan Foulkes, you can unmute yourself.
Good afternoon, Mr. Foulkes, you're still under oath.
Please identify yourself.
Good afternoon, Chairman DiCicco, members of the ZBA.
Name is Sloan Foulkes, S -L -O -A -N -E, FSF Fire, O -L -K -S, Office of Counseling Maria Quinones Sanchez, Room 508 City Hall.
we are requesting a continuance on um on account or meeting number mi -2020 -000985
1616 north second street uh they have yet to meet with the uh the coordinating rco um and we and uh
and we're waiting that our meeting. Thank you. MI -2020 -000985 -1616
North 2nd Street is continued. Any other requests? I just wanted to make sure
there was nobody here for that case. We also had no exhibits submitted on that
case. I do see a hand up for Jehan. Jehan, you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
Yes, good afternoon. I'm here.
Please identify yourself with a record, spell your first and last name.
yes jehan kutab j -e -h -a -n last name k -u -t -t -a -b uh the address is uh 3001 kensington avenue
philadelphia pennsylvania you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
about the truth yes this is number seven on your list yeah i have it thank you we request continue
We request continue if it's possible, please.
if it's possible please yes ma 'am
Yes, ma 'am.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Jeff.
MI -2020 -000022 -3001 Kensington Avenues continued.
Any other requests?
We have Charles Richardson.
Mr. Richardson.
I'm here.
Good afternoon.
Please identify yourself in your under oath since this morning.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall.
Asking for either a continuance or dismissal for MI 2020 -000246, the address being 3401 North 16th Street.
We've received no communication from this applicant, and I don't know that they've been in contact with the RCO as well.
So we're thinking that this needs to just go away.
Typically, we would do that.
But under these circumstances, we've been giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, and we will continue it.
If there is no activity.
Yes, Shari?
Can I say that we did receive an exhibit packet for this one?
there was a question though
whether there was an attorney which
they would need
and then I do have a hand up here
and it appears to be regarding
this case
is it Miguel
you can unmute yourself
wait to be sworn in
please identify yourself
spell your first and last name
yes my name is Miguel Torralta
it's a
Philadelphia PA 1940
And the correct spelling of your name?
Miguel, M -I -G -U -E -L, Peralta, P -E -R -A -L -T -A.
Your address?
It's 341 North 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 1914.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
are you requesting a continuance no no no you're withdrawing no no we would like to present we
said everything excuse me this is sharon saleta again the proof of um a property interest that
was submitted was a lease in which both the tenant and the owner were corporations
so an attorney would be required you will need an attorney oh we need an attorney yes ma 'am
so we'll continue the case uh you need an attorney and i would suggest you can
contact councilwoman bass's office as well
okay thank you
anyone else 1729 north lambert
That would be Jeffrey Young, and I believe he requested a continuance.
I don't think I could get to everything. Let me just make sure.
I don't see him on there, is he? No.
He didn't submit exhibits, and I emailed him about a half hour ago, but haven't heard back.
Okay. So meeting number 2020 -000381, 1729 North Lambert Street is continued. Is there anyone who has objection to that? Case being continued? If so, raise your hand.
No hands.
That concludes the 330 list.
and is there any unfinished business tanya i'm not that i have chair karen no nothing for me
okay board members anyone no sir good job all right crazy day but we made it through
i know it's crazy when i know it's crazy when the chairman's wearing a mask
thanks everybody thank you i'm losing it i'm losing it i'll admit that all right thank you
everyone stay well stay safe appreciate it thank you for everything see you later take care good
night i have a quick question before you get off sure um for that case we held our recommendation
on would you mind sending me the packet i don't have it in our planning zba email box
no of course I'll send it to you right now Paula
no of course i'll send it to you right now paula thank you i honestly i walk my dog past that
thank you I honestly
I walk my
property every single day and i couldn't quite figure out what was going on well then your
recommendation thank you especially useful thank you okay thank you i'm gonna go look at it tonight
thanks paul have a good night