information for him. Just a matter of background, and he'll be testifying today as well. The head
of the ownership group, his name is Besmir Kripa, who has over a generation of experience in the
restaurant industry. That's the reason why they purchased the property was because he was going
to, their plan is to open up a restaurant, a more neighborhood type of restaurant on this block,
which is right next to a pizza shop. But as you can see from the zoning map, it's all CMX2 across
the street. Here's CMX2, and you'll see from the pictures, this is a pizza shop. Here's a CMX2,
which you'll see is off-street parking. And this CMX2 is us, and this is RSA5, which is also us,
is two units. And in its past, it's been one unit residential plus a barbershop. So the RSA5
portion of this property has actually does actually even have a commercial uh background
or history as well and you can see we're on east york street uh between uh east gordon and boston
and uh memphis and cedar and you can see like east york street is typically a commercial corridor
across the street you'll see a bank uh you know there is some obviously a decent amount of
residential components in here, but there's a lot of commercial as well. And then photographs of the
property. So this is the pizza shop, which is at 2329 East York Street. 2331 East York Street is
this roll-up garage. And 2333 East York Street is this multi-unit property. At one point during
its history, again, was a barbershop or residential. It looks like it's now too residential. My client
hasn't done anything to the property since owning it because they were looking.
because they were looking uh
hello this is the reporter i'm not hearing anything i'm not hearing anything either mr notkinson
He's speaking but
Lost your audio
We need to
write to him because he doesn't seem to be hearing us either
Alan if you hear us
can you go out and come back in
can you hear yeah we lost you shortly after you made the you identified the 2333 as having
been a barbershop at one time and another sentence and then we lost you okay sorry about that
um as i was stating i upgraded my phone system to include the zoom platform so i i first time i've
had to give a video presentation where people are calling in so i'll have to figure that out so i
apologize for that um so hold on a second let me see okay so um photographs yeah so is it this this
As you can see, this is 2331, and that is a roll-up of off-street parking.
2333 is the multi-unit property.
At one point, this was a barbershop.
Now it's too residential.
My client hasn't done anything with this because when they purchased the property,
they expected to use the zoning approval that was approved by the ZBA in 2016.
The consolidation was done.
but the demolition and the use of the property was never done to have a restaurant on the first floor
and residential above then you'll see properties uh to you know east york street to the right of
the property east york street to the left of the property and then here are architectural plans
so here's a rendering of our front facade we have tried to keep as much within the roof lines as
possible. We allow 38 feet height as of right. We're not taking full advantage of that. We're
only having 36 feet height as of right. And you'll see from the rendering here, there's actually
an alley breezeway that we purposefully put here in order to accommodate garbage storage
and then removal responsibly. There's two entrances, this one to the right of the property,
is where the residential is a residential front door.
And then to the left, the leftmost part of the property
is for the commercial component.
And then what was important to us
and what we heard from the community too
is to make sure that we properly vented.
This building right here that I'm pointing to
is where the pizza shop is.
So we purposefully put our venting system through the roof
And it's close, you know, as far away from the residential component, because here's more residential, of the neighboring property.
And then you'll see our architectural plans and drawings.
And then we'll just go to the floor plans.
Let me just make this a little smaller.
So, again, the first floor to the right, far right, you go up the flight of steps, that's residential.
You go here through these double glass doors is the commercial component.
It's a 41-seat restaurant, all on the first floor.
And on the lower level is where the kitchen will be, as well as storage as well.
And I just want to go back one second.
This is where the garbage is going to be stored in the far left portion of the property.
And, you know, again, commercial pickup. And it will be for the residences as well as the commercial restaurant. And there'll be pickup where the garbage can be removed from the side of the building because there's a breezeway of three.
removed from the side of the building because there's a breezeway of three feet.
And then here's the residential component. So after coming up a flight of steps,
each floor has two units, a front unit or back unit and a front unit, one on the second floor,
one on the third floor, and each unit will be two bedrooms, one bath, approximately 950 square feet.
The four units, if you apply the CMX2 zoning restrictions, would be allowed as of right.
So, again, this board has heard this matter under similar circumstances,
but we did present it to the old Richmond Civic Association.
Now, while the neighborhood was, you know, the vote, if you look at it, was against it, the actual RCO, the Old Richmond Civic Association, was in non-opposition to have four residential units.
Um, now the opposition from the neighborhood was that, uh, they were concerned about the
construction issues, but, you know, again, the, the RCO stated whether it was by right
or by variance, these construction issues would be the same.
So they were concerned about demolition, excavation, construction activities.
And then these are all matters.
As I explained to the neighborhood group would be dealt with at the building permit stage
where we would have to have duly licensed and insured real estate professionals.
We would have to have a structural engineer.
We would have to provide assurances in terms of the party wall to neighboring property owners.
The other issue that they had was about the eating establishment.
Now, if you look at the letter, and I'll just zoom in a little bit more,
uh they had the the actual neighborhood group had no issue with this being a vacant commercial space
but they were concerned with it being uh a restaurant and these were the reasons they
were concerned about deliveries you know they they were like well it's in the middle of the
block which it's not it's like one block is one store off or one property off but for deliveries
As I showed before, there is a curb cut currently in front of the property at 2331 East York Street.
We indicated to them that we would remove that curb cut and we would put a loading zone there for limited hours.
So basically, we're going to give a parking spot back to the community.
Trash removal.
Again, we purposefully created a breezeway on the left portion of our property so we can responsibly not only store trash, but remove trash, and we would have commercial pickup.
The kitchen exhaust for this particular ZBA peering, we did create a specific rendering so then the ZBA could see exactly where the exhaust would be, but it's closest to where the pizza shop is, not where the residential portion of that block is.
uh in terms of noise our hours of operation are limited uh to 11 a.m to 10 p.m tuesday through
sunday uh again this is not going to be a restaurant that we're or even turn into a bar
where they're late hours we're respecting the fact that we are on east york street where there
is a residential component uh so that's dealing with the noise issue and then the access the same
thing. There's no basement living. We have a breezeway for people to go from the front of
the property to the rear of the property. And we're not trying to overuse the property because
this is essentially a CMX2 property for all intents and purposes. And we're only asking for
four residential units. So I think, you know, in all respects, we dealt with a lot of those issues.
um but if you look at the letter that they issued in 2016 for this essentially the same project
which we were not a part of where there was uh a request to put a restaurant on the first floor
it was a letter of support and this and that board supported that endeavor so uh councilman
squilla did send a letter as well uh he stated that he was in non-opposition to the four dwelling
units um but that he was uh in opposition to the variance to allow for the eating establishment
simply because the community group was against it but under those same circumstances in 2016
councilman squiller was actually in non-opposition to the same request for an eating establishment
So with that, I have Besmir Kripa.
So with that, I have Basmeer Kripa. Can you virtually raise your hand, Basmeer?
Chair, there's no one with their name with their hand up at this time.
Alan, we'll stipulate that your client would adopt your testimony.
I have a question.
You said hours of operation would be 11 a.m.
To 10 p.m.
10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
That is correct.
And you did, I think I heard you say that the community was not in opposition to the multifamily, correct, for you?
That's right.
Well, the community group was not in opposition.
to the four residential units and if you look at their letter and i'll state it
uh we feel the site is better suited either by right proposals or proposal for vacant commercial
space in lieu of the restaurant bar uh use currently proposed so they have no yeah
vacant commercial space i'm i don't get that one yeah so i don't i don't to to be honest again this
board already approved a similar project in 2016 i think it's just because time passed by that we
couldn't get our building permits um so there was no rhyme or reason as to that i think we really
did try to address all their issues in terms of the venting in terms of commercial i mean commercial
pickup of garbage in terms of the hours of operation and the only reason why i would ask
for Besmir Kripit to testify, and I can, as an officer of the court, I can indicate what he
would state. He's been in the restaurant business for almost 20 years. He's owned restaurants. He's
managed restaurants. The whole purpose of buying this property was to put a neighborhood restaurant
in there. So it would be really devastating if this board would not grant that endeavor.
Okay. Any questions from the board? No. No. No. Anyone else like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
Chair, we have a Michael Manfrani.
Mr. Manfrani, you can unmute yourself and speak now.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, sir.
Please identify yourself.
Spell your full name.
Michael Manfrani, M-A-N-F-R-O-N-I.
I am the zoning chair for the Old Richmond Civic Association.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
As I stated, I'm the zoning chair for the Old Richmond Civic Association, which is the coordinating RCO for this project.
I appreciate having the chance to testify today.
As Mr. Notkinson stated, our organization took no opposition to the proposed four-unit dwellings, as well as the commercial use on the first floor.
However, we are opposed to the proposed restaurant bar use.
We feel that this site being a mid-block site is unsuitable for a restaurant and bar, especially in context with the rest of the neighborhood.
Outside of the Aramingo Avenue corridor, which is an auto-oriented commercial, there are about two dozen food and beverage establishments within the neighborhood,
all of which are located on corner lots.
We feel that the location on a corner lot provides better access for deliveries, also provides a spot on the sidewalk to store trash, rather than having to store trash within the establishment and cart it out as had been described.
And we feel that this property being abutted on both sides by buildings would make that
an issue.
I appreciate, as Mr. Nockms has said, that the owner has a great track record of running
restaurants.
But as we know, restaurants are a fickle business.
And our concern is that while this restaurant may stay open for a few years or may last
for a long time, this variance may outlast that restaurant and a future operator may
not be as considerate, especially with cleanliness, with the trash removal, and with the hours
of operation.
You know, we feel that the site could absolutely be used for commercial use.
I think any other buy-right commercial use on the first floor would be appropriate.
I think any other buy-right commercial use on the first floor would be appropriate.
However, as we are in the North Delaware Overlay District, any restaurant use does require a special exemption.
I heard you use the phrase a bar.
Is it concerned that there would be liquor?
I mean, that would be a separate application that's filed with the state.
if they wanted to put a liquor license in this property our concern would be the same whether
it's a restaurant serving alcohol or not specifically related to the storage disposal
of the food trash any grease laden trash what is the what is the opposition to that
the trash being stored in the rear of the building I believe sure so as as I stated every other
restaurant within the neighborhood is located on a corner property. They typically keep their
dumpsters either on the sidewalk adjacent to their property or accessed through a back gate
directly to the street. We feel since this property both abuts and backs up to single
family residential households that storing trash in the backyard of this property could create a
nuisance i hear what you're saying but i think that my experience and i'm actually looking out
my window at a restaurant across the street where they have four maybe 40 gallon three i'm sorry
three 40 gallon trash containers because there's nowhere else to put it and i think it's unsightly
but you know what could i do i i don't think you really want to have trash containers on the
sidewalk five six seven days a week but but that's that's just me talking all right uh
uh anyone else would like to testify in this case
anyone else i think his client it has his hand up mr cripple
if he if it's him fine i think we've already established that
we would accept his uh mr notkinson as his attorneys
stipulate to his client adopting his testimony okay well no one no one else has their hand
besides mr crippers here so let's go to uh planning commission
Good afternoon. This is Greg Waldman, planning commission staff.
Shall I go ahead? We weren't sworn in yet, were you? Yeah, I was sworn in.
This location was part of a remapping in 2017 supported by the comprehensive plan that changed
the zoning from commercial mixed use to commercially mixed use for one lot and single
family residential for the other equally sized lot before they were consolidated.
As Mr. Nockamson testified, the proposed four units with ground floor commercial, the restaurant
would be a special exception if 81% of the site were zoned commercial fixed use as opposed
to 50% which is existing.
The proposed variance would not alter the essential character of the block adjacent to a
building of similar scale and use and along a transit corridor with buildings of varying