Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning.
Good morning, Mr. Stern.
could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Douglas Stern, D-O-U-G-L-A-S Stern, S-T-E-R-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
It's Francisco Rojas, owner.
Thank you.
And our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its adequacy?
Yes. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and
required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing? Yes. Thank you. Please
proceed and you have already shared your screen. Yes. So good morning. 525 West Roosevelt.
Yes. So, good morning. 525 West Roosevelt Boulevard, we're applying to have it zoned for a duplex or multifamily. It's currently zoned single-family, and I'm just going to go down my exhibit. So, that's the permit, the refusal, stating that it's RS5 single, appeal documents,
The deed showing it's in Mr. Rojas' name since 2018.
Tax clearance, picture of the zoning notice, 525.
Notice of the meeting for the RCO, meeting summary form for the RCO that they're in support.
Proof of mailing to everybody before the meeting.
Floor plans.
So basically, you're going to see it's basically two units.
You have a first floor.
This is sort of upside down.
You have a, well, that would be basement, first floor, second floor.
And the second floor also has another, let's say, second floor to that.
So it's two rooms or units in the second floor.
These are two bedrooms in the first floor.
They're all in the back, and you'll see the pictures in a second.
That's the OPA information printout on the property.
And before I get to the pictures, just wanted to show you that there are other duplexes or multi-units on the same block.
I just printed those out.
We have a pen that there's at least four all in the 500 block of West Roosevelt.
So here it is, typical row home, that's the front of the property, and this is what would happen if you came in, it's sort of a porch area, and then you'd have one of the units, doors goes upstairs to the second floor, one to the first, you come in, it's the hallway in the first, it's the open room, living room, kitchen.
Mr. Stern, this is already set up as a duplex?
He did renovations.
He had – just having the two doors is basically what happened.
He did renovate it.
He had family living there, so it would be occupied.
He could get insurance.
But now it's sort of just vacant, waiting to see if we can have it approved for it.
But there is nobody – it's not being used as a duplex.
All right, thank you.
Used as the single, but sort of just –
And then utilities are separated?
Yeah, they now have two separate utilities.
They have gas.
I mean, if you have water heaters and electric are separate, but the water is still goes like duplexes, but that can be split, you know, or the first floor, just typical bedrooms.
And the second floor is sort of the same, same sort of setups with the kitchen and everything they would have there.
And this is like the little second floor and the third.
When you go to the second floor, you come up, and then there's another little apartment with another little small bathroom upstairs.
And that's basically it.
Why don't we have your client adopt your testimony?
Okay, so they're sitting next to me.
I'm going to move over.
Mr. Rojas, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court stenographer?
Francisco Taveras Rojas is F-R-A-N-C-I-S-C-O-T-A-D-E-R-A-S.
Rojas is R-O-G-A-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
please proceed counsel okay Mr. Rojas you just heard my presentation
for the facts that I just cited true and correct yes
okay and if you were to testify today would you adopt everything I just
said is true and correct okay thank you
and Mr. Stern my remembrance
that was a unanimous vote in favor of this from
yes it was all right thank you questions from the board
no mr chairman no chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
there are no hands chair planning commission
jonathan goins philadelphia city planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
The property, though, is currently configured as a two-family dwelling,
and the City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the use of the variance.
Thank you. MI 2023-002-587-525 West Roseville Boulevard, I vote yes.
Thank you. MI 2023-002-587-525.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number 12, MI 2023-002-622, 238 North 53rd Street, Richard DeMarco is the attorney.
We have no RCO letter at this point, but there was a meeting held April 11th, 2024, by the 44th Ward Democratic.
Council Member Gauthier is not taking a position on this at this time.
Richard DeMarco has been promoted.
Good morning, Mr. DeMarco.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Richard DeMarco, last name spelled D-E-M-A-R-C-O.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
My client is the owner, D-H-I Holdings, LLC.
Client is Molly Mendenhall, who is a member of the LLC.
say. Okay, and our vice chair has just a few questions, sir. Sure. Good morning,
counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
I can waive the reading. I can't stipulate, and I'll explain during our presentation.
That's fair. Have you emailed then all the required documents and exhibits that
is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I did email the exhibits five days in advance. The tax clearance issue was resolved yesterday.
okay all right please proceed and share your screen thank you Mr. Chairman um there is an
RCO letter Mr. Chairman I um I don't know if that made it to your files uh there there was
opposition I I want to be clear that we um we did expect that we would at least come to some
sort of an agreement. I'll get into that as we go. So I'm putting up on my screen the property.
The property is on the left here. I did want to get the board an idea of what we're dealing with.
The reason why, let me just why I can't stipulate. So this property, as you can see, it's laid out
as a funeral parlor. We're here today for a variance for a funeral parlor. And there's a
residential use above on the second and third floor. Let me go to the refusal. So the
property is now zoned RSA 3, but the permits for the funeral parlor date back to the 1940s. We're
actually talking about a 70 to 80 year history of the operation of a funeral home at this structure,
at this site. The refusal doesn't mention the long history. It probably should have.
And before I forget, I do want to defer to Hillary on one point. One of the objections by the RCO
was the residential use above the business on the second and third story. I did not think that I
needed to do a proviso form, but I'm happy to provide that if Hillary thinks it's required.
The reason being, we are fine with not having residential use above the business.
That was, the RCO was very adamant about that. We're fine with either a proviso
of no residential use above the business from the zoning board, or I could submit a proviso form if
that's required. The site plan actually doesn't, it's late, there's no change to the layout of the
structure. We are merely rehabbing the existing building, and I'll get to why the rehab is
required in a moment. But the reason why I can't stipulate, Mr. Chairman and members of the board
and Hillary, this is clearly a pre-existing non-conforming use. The use was legal when it
began in the 1940s. Later in the presentation, I'll show you the zoning folder documents that
show that this was a commercially zoned property. The zoning was changed to RSA 3. Why that was done
at this location, I don't know. The property has always been a funeral parlor business.
And the zoning classification, it really itself presents a hardship. So the reason I can't
stipulate, Mr. Chairman, is, as you'll see from our testimony, there was a period of vacancy,
but we are certainly not agreeable that there's been an abandonment of the non-conforming use.
As a matter of fact, when my client took over this property, took over ownership a few years
When my client took over this property, took over ownership a few years ago, she immediately
began the process of rehabbing the structure.
We had to evict squatters from the structure.
The prior owner was a very bad actor.
And I understand the RCO's frustration with the prior operation of this business.
There were some terrible issues that went on there.
But that is not us.
That conduct is not attributable to my client. My client wants to clean this up, make it nice again, make it operate. You're going to hear from Erica Hall, who is a local business person, very successful, very motivated, has a plan for redoing this. We have a mortician lined up, and I'll get into that as we go.
So let me show you some photos. So that's why I can't stipulate, Mr. Chairman. We are in the alternative. If you don't agree that it's a pre-existing non-conforming use, we're clearly entitled to the variance. When I show you these photos and the history of this property, you'll understand why there is a clear and unnecessary hardship entitling us to the variances.
All right, so photos. You can see, this is the current state of the structure. I have to keep the sidebar up on the left so I can easily show you. There's a lot of stuff to show you today. So as you can see, it's a funeral parlor.
um we did post the property there's some deterioration that's going on but when you
see the inside you'll see where the real real deterioration is uh there is rear a space in the
rear for the hearses and for um you know handicapped accessibility there's a an existing
handicap ramp that will need to be updated uh there were concerns raised about that at the
meeting. We are happy to rehab, rehabilitate that handicapped accessibility ramp, make it code
compliant. This is the structure. Oh, and let me show you. So parking was a concern. Let me go back
to this. There are on-street parking. Vine Street runs this way, as I'm indicating with the cursor.
There is on-street parking. There's not a ton of room for parking on the property for the funeral
services and whatnot. But there is some on-street parking available. And like I said, this property
has always operated as a funeral parlor. When I get into the testimony, we're going to present
our plan for trying to keep, we'll do our best to keep people out of the residential neighborhoods.
There are some residential neighborhoods nearby, but Vine Street is a predominantly commercial
area. It's a mix. There are some residential homes as well, but it's a mix.
You know, that's the property in the rear. So here's the layout. Again, Mr. Chairman, no change to the layout other than rehabilitating it and renovating it.
There was a concern from the RCO about an increase in in the services. That's where there's no change to the structure. It's going to be laid out exactly as it was in the past.
This is the floor plan. There's an embalming room here. And this is the services area. It looks large. We're not increasing seating. I mean, it's just exactly what it was in the past.
The proposal, because the RCO was upset about having the residential unit above, we are agreeable to having the upstairs being accessory to the business.
Offices, storage, security room, we're going to have state-of-the-art security here, offices, and there's a lounge for the employees, and there's a kitchen for the employees.
But we are fine with whatever Hillary wants to do as far as a proviso, or we can do a revised site plan. These are the floor plans. I'll show you the site plan in a moment. Happy to do it in whatever way procedurally is necessary, should the board require it.
This is the site plan. This is the handicap ramp. Hopefully you can see that. I'm circling it. It may need to be updated. We will do that during the building phase of the project.
um that's existing conditions now let me show you some photos mr chairman i need you to see how
the prior owner absolutely trashed this structure uh and again we are uh we are sorry that the
neighbors had to deal with a very uh bad actor prior to us but this my client is looking to
completely renovate this. You can see rotted out walls, holes in walls, holes in ceilings,
debris everywhere. My client is already into this property in the tens of thousands.
Debris everywhere. My client is already into this property in the tens of thousands of dollars.
You can see how catastrophic the treatment of this building was in the past.
We had to do cleanups. We had to do an eviction process to get squatters out of the structure.
There were drugs. Drug power familiar was left in the building.
Needs to be completely gutted to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.
There's old electrical that's not in very good shape, has to be all redone and renovated.
And that's the intent, to make it beautiful again, to make it operate as a nice funeral parlor.
You'll hear Erica Hall, who's our funeral, who will be the CEO of the new business, will be sensitive to Muslim burial practices and will serve the Muslim community in addition to other religions.
There is a high demand.
You'll hear her testify for Muslim-sensitive services, and we will provide that.
All right, so let me just quickly show you the – you can see what we're dealing with here.
Holes in the ceilings, water damage, water running in throughout the property.
The property itself presents a hardship along with the single-family zoning classification as well.
I'll present testimony.
You can see a hole in the bathroom here.
Anyway, let me show you the prior zoning permits.
So you can see that this is a pre-existing non-conforming.
Oh, I'm in the wrong scan.
Sorry.
Oh, this is just a concept.
We're going to put new awnings on the windows and a new main awning over the main entrance.
This is just a concept.
the neighbors wanted to see something. We're going to update the landscaping, et cetera.
We did have two meetings on Zoom. We did the mailings for both.
And let me, here's one of the certificates. Now let me show you the old zoning folder. So here
you see, Mr. Chairman, up, sorry, let me get this right here. Upping this up. So this is, okay,
Okay. This is the 77. It says R5 here, which is actually a multifamily designation.
That's also been changed. It's no longer multifamily. This was some work that was
needed, a deck, it looks like. But as we go back in time, oh, and Kimball, this is the prior owner
that was a real problem. My client will testify that we purchased this property at sheriff's sale.
They stopped paying the taxes, and eventually my clients were willing to take on this project.
There's the layout.
I want to get to the 1940s.