from the existing commercial mixed use cmx1 the proposed commercial use is consistent with
documented power use therefore the planning commission recommends that the board grant
the requested variance for sit-down restaurant
By 2024-003-849-899 Marcella Street, I vote yes with proviso. One-year temporary variance that expires 11-1-25, hours of operation 8A to 11P, closed on Tuesday, commercial trash pickup, and used oil stored in basement until commercial pickup.
Mr. Chair, would you also like to specify the location of the use of the property to the first floor for the first floor and basement only?
So the other listed condition was the no liquor license and no BYOB.
Is that something that we can add to that or is that?
No, we cannot.
that is enforced at the state level okay okay they would be required to come back well they
would have they would be required to go to the state and go through a hearing process with the
community if they wanted to do if they want to sell liquor yes so what about byop that's
how does that work it it you don't need a license to do that people can just bring their
their own beverages so there's nothing that we can do about that okay what about what about the
community if they don't want that how does that work is there anything that they can do unfortunately
no wow well it's one it's one year temporary variance not like it was in here for takeout
for the whole thing.
My vote is yes
with proviso,
with the provisors.
Cheryl Gaston,
my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed,
my vote is yes
with proviso.
Thank you, Mr. Vaccaro.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
Is there anyone
in the virtual audience
whose case has not been called?
I see no hands, Jerry.
Thanks, everyone. See everyone at 2 p.m.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this afternoon's meetings.
With me is our Vice Chair Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney.
Here's our virtual format.
Proceedings are being recorded.
With your participation, you agree to be recorded.
Recording will be available by contacting ZBA Executive Director at phil.gov.
For our court sonography, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To end an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for testimony.
All questions should be directed to our executive director at zbaexecutivedirector.philly.com.
Here's our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2022-007-291-430 West Burke Street.
Cases continued, attorney moving party.
Number three, MI 2024-000056.
20, 24, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 6, 13, 29 Levick Street.
Case has been continued until Wednesday, November 6th at 9.30 a.m.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, do we have a, I just wanted to ask if we had a Spanish interpreter for that one,
just so we could put that on the record in Spanish.
Is the interpreter present?
good afternoon chair this is jibet benton i'll be your co-host for this afternoon
if there's a spanish interpreter in the audience please raise your hand
i see no hands chair okay well we'll make sure that we communicate with the applicant um as well
as here on the record. Thank you. Thank you very much. Number four, MI 2024, 000502, 1936 North
Front Street, continued attorney moving party. Are there any other requests for continuance?
I see no hands at this time, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I did see, there it goes. I knew
there was another request and the hand was up previously but then her hand was not up when i
said there were no hands pamela laughlin has been unmuted and allowed to speak
uh yes thank you very much good afternoon counsel could you please state your name and spell for the
yes sir my name is pamela lockman it is spelled l-o-u-g-h-m-a-n i represent dorothy french yep
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Is Catherine Mismar in the audience, too?
Catherine Mismar.
Chair, Catherine Mismar has been allowed to speak.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the courts?
Catherine Mismar.
It's M as in Mary, I, S as in Sam, S as in Sam, I, M as in Mary, E-R.
For him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Counsel Lachman, would you state your position?
Yes, we are requesting a continuance because my client has retained a traffic engineer to issue a traffic and parking study for this revised plan.
He had previously done one for the original plan.
The situation is that since we received the notice of refusal on October 16th, he has been unavailable.
His mother was diagnosed with a serious health condition.
She entered hospice last week and was not expected to live through the weekend.
He was just unable to turn around a revised parking study for us.
Under these exigent circumstances, we respectfully request a continuance so that we may get a revised parking study and traffic study.
Councilor Mesmer, please.
Respectfully, the applicant opposes the request for continuance.
While we do feel terribly about the illness of the traffic engineer's mother,
this hearing was already rescheduled once to allow for further discussion with the community
and conversations with the councilman's office and two co-coordinating RCOs date back to February of 2023.
Both those RCOs have issued letters of non-opposition and support respectively,
and the councilman has also issued a letter of non-opposition.
One of those RCOs is present today, as well as all of our experts who are prepared to proceed.
During a call with Protestants' council late Friday, which was the first we spoke, we learned she was actually engaged back in July.
The revised plans that she referenced were provided to her client and were the subject of a community meeting called by her client in mid-September.
They've now had over two and a half months to review the revised plans, as we're at the end of October.
The protestant has had ample time to discuss the project with its traffic engineer.
And frankly, the proposal of revised plans is a reduction in density.
So if anything, it would improve the traffic condition.
And frankly, it would be unfair to the other community organizations who have invested over a year and a half in this project to continue to delay it to allow for further review.
So here's what we're going to do.
Council Lachman, I'm going to have Catherine Vinsmer present her case today.
we will reschedule a resumptive hearing for you to present your case.
Thank you.
So, and when I look at the list, you're, Counsel Mismer,
you'll be about two or three down and we'll be to you shortly.
Great.
Thank you.
And then what, just so both, you know,
what I'm going to do is hold public comment on this and also hold the,
the views of the planning commission till we have to have that resumptive
So we have to have that resumptive hearing, but we will hear Catherine Bismar's case today.
hearing, but we will hear Catherine Mismer's case today.
Just a quick question, Mr. Chair.
Council Emerson, is it possible to hold the resumptive hearing prior to, you know, a typical ordinary course continuance?
The staff will work on a resumption date with you, but it's not generally set in the ordinary course of continuances.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, so number 11, number 11, MI 2024-005-359-6450-Averford Avenue, Makamba Kulaibali is the listed owner pro se, no exhibits, this is the first listing.
Akamba Koulibaly, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Chair, we have a hand up, but it is not the name you said.
Let's see who they are.
Make sure he's got a name of somebody else.
They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Makamba Koulibaly, M as in Mary, A as in Apple, K as in Kite, A as in Apple, M as in Mary, B as in Boy, A as in Apple.
could you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes all right this is the first listing in this case we do not have your exhibits
um i had you send your paperwork in yes and when was that um my husband is going to
um answer that question for me uh good good afternoon sir what's your what could you state
your name, please. I am Moussa Sidibe, M-O-U-S-S-A, S-I-D-I-B-E. You swear or affirm to tell the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Yes. Sir, did you send the paperwork in for this
project? Yes. We sent out everything attached to when we was doing our RCO. We sent the same
things to both parties. And also five days ago, I sent it. Three days ago, I sent it again.
Let me confirm the email that I sent you to.
We do not have the exhibits.
What you're going to have to do is contact the office, give them a call,
and then we'll tell you the proper way of making sure we get it on time
and we will hear it the next time we have the case, okay?
I have a question.
The exhibit, you mean the floor plan?
Is that what you call the exhibit?
No, there's a whole series of things you need to send in.
And so what I'm going to do is you call the office. The office will make sure that you know every piece of material you need. Okay?
Okay. Can I ask one last question, please?
Okay. So the instruction that was sent out to us was that we're supposed to email everything, all these documents, the denial letter, the zoning appeal, the project information, the blueprint.
Right. Did you send everything?
I sent everything to rcozba at phila.gov.
and excuse me chair um did you also um send it to board council at philadelphia no i only send it
to the rco uh here's what we're going to do do what i tell you the office will help you make
sure you have everything you need and also where to send it okay okay all right thank you very much
So MI 2024-005-359-6450 Haverford Avenue, case is continued, Mark must be heard.
And also number two, MI 2023-006-415-1701 Germantown Avenue, that case has been withdrawn.
And number six, MI 2024-002-479-1222-24 Walnut Street.
That case has been withdrawn.
We're going to go to our add-ons.
Number one, MI 2024-004-954, the case has been rescheduled to 11-6-24 at 2 p.m.
Number two, MI202400476.
MI 2024-004-763-3412 North 19th Street. I vote yes with proviso. Per refusal, dated 10-29-24,
maximum three dwelling units, no household living in the basement.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisos.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Number three, MI 2024-004-290-21-Wolf Street. The vote in this matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, November 6th at 2 p.m.
Start with number eight.
MI 2024-003-236-5145-47 Delancey Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the West Philadelphia Economic Development Council.
The applicant also provided a petition of support from 26 people.
Alan Nockamson is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Alan Nockamson.
good afternoon uh mr chair members of the board alan knockamson knockamson pc
not just for the record you spell your name for this stenographer knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n
you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yeah, my client is 5145 Delancey LLC, and in the virtual audience should be either of his members, Irfan Hassan or Saeed Hassani.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to wait to read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you, Counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
So what we have here is 5147 Delancey Street.
As you can see, it's a former church building.
It's also had a history as a daycare more recently.
And we're trying to do an adaptive reuse of this split zoning of RSA 5 and RSA 6 into a six-unit apartment building.
So during our presentation, I will first review the notice of refusal with you.