All right.
Thank you. 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 vice chair, Ms. Carol Tenere, board secretary, confessor, plaza, and board members, Mr. Thomas Holloman and Mr. James Snell.
Board administrator, Ms. Yvette Benton, and our board attorney, Ms. Sharon Saleta, are also in attendance.
For those of you...
sir frank unmuted yes
can't hear can you unmute yourself frank
Did you get any of them? Just a little. If you could restart, that would be wonderful.
I'll start again. 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 Vice Chair,
Ms. Carol Tenere, Board Secretary, Confessor Plaza, and Board Members, Mr. Thomas Holloman
and Mr. James Snell. Board Administrator Yvette Benton and our Board Attorney Ms. 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, we'd like to advise everyone
that this proceeding is being recorded and that it's being recorded that by participating you
acknowledge your agreement to be recorded and the recording will be made available to the public on
the web or otherwise. Third 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 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 will
repeat that as well. Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548
and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue. And I'd also like to
remind everyone, please do not attempt to testify in the chat. Any comments should be directed to
Ms. Benton, our court administrator. With that, I will read off the list on the 3.30 list.
of a request for continuance number five on our list mi 2021-000401 7901 gilbert street
has been requested to be continued at this time i will ask if anyone objects to that continuance
and or if you are requesting a continuance or withdrawal to please raise your hand
there are no hands at this time chair thank you uh carol we'll go to the first case
calendar number 0185 1609 south 8th street the attorney is howard ford
mr ford is being promoted to a panelist thank you evette
mr ford can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name please
yes good afternoon my name is howard ford h-o-w-a-r-d last name f-o-r-d address 4256
Castor Avenue Philadelphia 19124. Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but
the truth? I do. Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance
a copy of the refusal photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing
and have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter? I have to all of that. I also have an
updated tax letter printout today as there was difficulty getting an updated compliance.
So you're good to go. You may proceed. Now, we did ask, my client speaks Chinese and there was
an issue about an interpreter. Do we have such interpreter today?
has to be no one requested a interpreter of me um i i believe the request was made but um
mr ford you've waited so long for this can we just assume that your client will adopt your
testimony or would you prefer i would stipulate to that i expected them to be on the call as well
I don't see on the view that that is the case.
They were instructed.
They were given the Zoom instructions as well.
But if we can stipulate, I can move forward today.
It's simply a variance on a multi-unit property that the license expired.
And if this is something that I should have looked into again, I apologize.
And if this is something that I should have looked into again, I apologize.
No worries. Let's proceed. All right. So I'm going to carry on your theme of technological challenges today.
And I'm going to try to share my screen with you. Let's see.
Hold control to select multiple. No, share. Can we see that?
Yes. Okay, great. So, for us is the notice of refusal for 1609 South 8th Street. This is the tax clearance that was issued back in 2019. This is showing a zero balance as of the 24th of May 2021.
21. This is the proof of ownership. So you'll see that my client is Zhang Ming Lu. This property
was purchased on August 15th of 2017. And it was previously owned by Mr. Lu and his wife,
Ju Ying Wu, J-U-Y-I-N-G-W-U. And scrolling down, you'll see that they had purchased this
property together in April of 2011, was recorded May 5th of 2011. So my client has owned the
property continuously since 2011. Again, the rest of the deed. So East Passione Crossing,
we had a meeting, they approved it, five to zero.
Letter from Councilman Squilla's office, not in opposition.
so this is a rental license for the subject property 1609 south a street and you'll see
that in 2012 that there was a license obtained and that that was obtained for three units
and again this is the prior 2011 was approved for three units my research has reflected that
It has been three units since 1977. Now, rotating might be a challenge for me.
I don't see how to do that. So if you'll bear with me, the mark right here is the subject property.
This is South 8th Street, ordered by Tasker and Mountain. Now, there are addresses that have been handwritten in by me because, again, my technology is not great.
So there's an 11, a 19, a 21, 25, 29 on that side, and then behind it, 22 and 30.
The reason I point these out to you is my research has reflected that each of those is a three-unit building on the same block, which is zoned RSA 5.
So variances have been sought in the past.
This board has granted those in the past, including for the subject property.
And because of the lapse in licensing, my client lost that right and is here asking that he be able to regain the right for three units.
This is a picture of the front of the building.
Again, I apologize for the quality.
It's the unit that's behind that tree.
This is a view of the street looking north.
This is a view of the street looking south.
Bodega on the corner on both sides. Parking on both sides. This is the front of the property
with the notice of the hearing. It's the front door of the property. Perhaps I can
make this smaller. I don't know if I can do that.
So this is a view entering the property, and again, the quality is not great, but what this does is it shows you how the property is set up for three units.
So this is the first floor with a kitchen in place, bedroom in the rear, another room in the front.
And then we'll go through these. This is still the first floor bathroom.
This is the door that leads to the second floor.
This is the door that leads to the second floor, all the way to the second floor, second kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and then these are the steps that lead to the third floor.
This is all interior. Leads up to another door, has another kitchen, another bedroom, and another bathroom. So it's our position that this would not be a hardship on anyone, would not be a hardship on the community.
There would be no construction. There would be no change to structure.
The variance is only to get it back to the use that it already was, which is in conformity with those properties around it.
it would be more of a hardship to deny the request insofar as the work that would need
to be done by the owner to retrofit this back to conforming use rather than continue with the use
that it was since the 70s this would be in in spirit and purpose with the zoning code it would
not substantially interfere with anyone's anything it's not an extra drain on resources
it wouldn't be adverse to the neighborhood and it would have no impact that that I can
think of to share with you at this point so with that I would suggest that if my client were here
he would adopt that as his testimony and I will ask if there are any questions well simply you
being an officer to court your client would have adopted your testimony any questions from the board
no anyone else like to testify in this case please raise your hand
there are no hands at this time chair thank you planning commission
uh ron bednar city planning that's r-o-n first name last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r
Do you swear if I'm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you, sir. Please proceed.
While this property is currently indicated for a single-family residential on the city plan,
given the documented pre-existing use history, we recommend the request of parents begin.
Okay, thank you. That horse left the barn 30 years ago.
MI 2020-000185
1609 South 8th Street
My vote is yes
My vote is yes
My vote is yes
My vote is yes
Calendar number 0469
437 West Houston Street
Matt Monroe is the attorney
what about number two you skipped i i did so i strike what i said okay and i'll go to calendar
number 05112042 east ontario street the owner is reginald nozel nozel nozel there are no
exhibits it's the first listing and councilman squilla has submitted a letter in opposition
is there anyone here for 2042 east ontario mr nozell has been promoted to panelists
mr nozell can you hear me
hello can you put your name and address on the record please mr nozell and spell your last name
We can't hear you, sir.
We can't hear you.
We can't hear you.
sir do you have your headphones connected so that the audio comes and goes from the headphone
or are you using your computer audio are you using a computer give me a thumbs up
It said yes.
Do you have speakers on your computer?
Because it could be that your audio is on Zoom, but you're not, you have it, your headphones connected, but you didn't change your audio.
Your headphones connected, but you didn't change your audio.
Hello?
Okay, there we go.
We got you.
We can hear you.
Sir, can you put...
Sorry, Tanya.
No, we can go ahead.
Can you put your name and address on the record, and can you spell your last name?
Reginald?
Can you hear me?
can i schedule a continuous or something like that because i can't
we can't hear you say again well we excuse me before we go any further tanya yeah hold on
tanya sharon did we ever get we never got exhibits no we're gonna have to continue it
anyway mr nozzle we did not receive any exhibits this case will have to be continued
So MI 2021-000511-2042 East Ontario is continued.
Calendar number 0469-437 West Houston Street.
The attorney is Matt Monroe.
Mr. Monroe has been promoted to a panelist.
Hi, Mr. Monroe. Can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name?
Sure. Matt Monroe, M-O-N-R-O-E, 30 South 15th Street, 15th floor, Philadelphia, 19102.
Hold it, Carol. He's still under oath from this morning.
Oh, he is from this morning.
Different glasses.
Different outfit.
I'd have a costume change with a different case.
Very confusing. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal, photos and plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Okay, you may proceed.
Okay, I'm going to share my screen.
Okay, great.
all right uh chairman de chico members of the board i'm pleased to be here today
and my client uh kenny grono who is a member of the llc that owns a property is uh on the line
as well um this is simply an application to legalize a use uh that has been in existence
since my, pardon me, since my client purchased the property before the property was remapped
from a C2 property under the prior code to an RSA5 property under the existing code.
As you can see from the screenshot that I have right up here, we have a pre-existing
uh one-story industrial building uh this is what uh what was there when my client purchased it
um uh Mr. Garno has a uh a home renovation business a contracting business called uh
Buckminster Green uh they have um purchased this property for use there uh they they use uh this
area for assembly of uh cabinetry some furniture that type of thing and then uh storage of
accessories materials there that they use on job sites. This is simply to maintain the status quo
because this property is one story pre-existing industrial building. There is a hardship here
and the hardship is really a classic Hertzberg hardship. In order to bring the property into
compliance with the zoning code, the only thing that changed was the map. It didn't magically
you know, change the buildings that were there in order to bring the property into compliance with
the zoning code, they would have to demolish the whole thing and start over. So this is a classic
Hertzberg style hardship. And I just want to go through some of the documents that we have.
We have the deed, the refusal here. There are actually two adjacent properties. We're seeking
to have a unity of use uh they're under a common ownership uh assuming that the board or if the
board uh grants the variances today we'll be recording a um a deed uh to reflect the the
common uh unity of use between the two properties but effectively we're just trying to get the um
legalize the uses as artisan industrial and artist studios uh with associated uh and uh
storage of materials that they have there. We did meet with the RCO, the RCO, and we received a
and we received a um a support letter uh the community support letter and here's some of the
support letter, the community support letter.
the posted notices the community support letter came with uh some requests i i don't think they're
necessarily zoning related requests um if the board wished to enter a proviso uh we would
certainly agree to it but i i believe that based on the on the code they're not really related to
the zoning request, but my client would be happy to agree in any way. They had requested that he
hire locally. Mr. Gronos hired locally in the past from the neighborhood, but what he agreed
to do was in the future work with Councilwoman Quinones Sanchez to appear at a job fair in the