Hearing delay irks
Somerton residents

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

About 30 Somerton residents traveled to Center City on Dec. 28 expecting an opportunity to argue before the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment against a controversial home-construction project in their neighborhood.
Instead, the throng of neighbors, most of whom rode a bus chartered for the hearing by the Somerton Civic Association, spent about one minute in the boardroom before ZBA chairman David Auspitz dismissed them until seven days later.
They didn’t have to go back to the Far Northeast right away, however. They might as well grab lunch and take in a museum while downtown, Auspitz kidded.
But many of those who had taken time out of their schedules to attend the hearing weren’t in a jovial mood. They were there to back the SCA, which has filed an appeal of permits granted to real estate developer Rocco Cavallo to build three houses at the corner of Proctor Road and Edison Avenue — a site where only one house once stood.
Neighbors think the proposed buildings don’t fit in with surrounding properties and are a threat to the environment. They claim the houses would violate traditional interpretation of the city’s zoning code for minimal yard sizes, and that they could cause flooding because of the slope of the ground and the structures’ infringement on the area’s natural drainage system.
But they didn’t get to say any of that — the hearing was postponed because Cavallo’s attorney, Michael Mattioni, was out of town on vacation. John Mattioni, the attorney’s father and a partner in their Old City-based law firm, appeared on behalf of Cavallo, who was not present.
"(It was) because my son’s on vacation and (Cavallo) wanted to be represented by his attorney," John Mattioni told a reporter outside the board session.
John Mattioni said he hasn’t worked directly on the case and his personal knowledge of it is limited.
The postponement dismayed some of the Somerton residents who arranged their schedules to be at the hearing.
"I took time off from work to be here," said Lucia Manes, a Poquessing Circle Lane resident who vowed to return. "I’ll take all the time (off) I have to."
Some wondered if the fact that the SCA had previously announced its intention to pack the hearing audience influenced the request for a postponement.
"There’s definitely some gamesmanship going on," said Mary Walchak of Trevose Road. "There’s been gamesmanship from the beginning.
"The deceitfulness is bothersome," she said. "When they realize people will come, they cancel."
According to SCA president Mary Jane Hazell, the zoning board had set the hearing date about a month earlier. Yet, the civic leader found out about the postponement, which Auspitz described as "an arrangement between (the SCA) and the people with the permit," only a week ahead of time. The civic group’s counsel, attorney Stanley R. Krakower, notified Hazell that the board had granted Mattioni’s request on Dec. 21.
By then, she didn’t have the time or means to call off the bus trip. Interested neighbors had been told at the Dec. 13 SCA meeting when and where to catch the bus. The group’s next meeting isn’t until Jan. 10.
"It was four o’clock last Wednesday (Dec. 21) when Stanley called," Hazell said. "Friday, Saturday and Sunday was my holiday. Plus, I just (told residents) the bus was going to be available. I didn’t take phone numbers of who was going to be on it.
"The zoning board did what they have to do," she said. "The problem is, (Mattioni) didn’t just find out last Wednesday that he was going to be away this Wednesday. If they had (postponed) before our last meeting, we could have announced it."
The hearing was rescheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 4, at 12:30 p.m. (The Times went to press before the planned session.)
Jim and Brenda Ryan, of Edison Avenue, plan to return to have their say. "I’m used to (delays)," Jim Ryan said. "If you’re determined and feel strongly on something, you must follow up. This separates the criers from the people who are really interested in it. I’m very concerned with the neighborhood. It’s a beautiful neighborhood and, hopefully, this is the last (single) home this can happen to."
The board briefly addressed one other point in the arrangement between the civic group and developer Cavallo. According to Auspitz, the developer had agreed not to work on the one of the three homes that the civic association believes is most nonconforming with zoning requirements.
Excavation and foundation work had earlier been performed on all three planned homes. Neighbors complained that workers had violated the agreement. A backhoe was in operation near the third home when the Northeast Times passed the site at 11 a.m. on Dec. 28, prior to the zoning board session.
Krakower said later that the apparent construction may have been remediation work to stabilize the ground pending adjudication of the civic group’s appeal. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com