Now, you see here, pre-code use, okay?
State monocupacy is not required.
It's a pre-code use.
So, Mr. Chairman, in fact, this use predated the zoning code itself, but I'll show you why that's the case.
So, here we go.
you see here the date on this permit uh is 53 undertaker and looks like there were two families
above uh at that point um this is 1953 okay and i want to go to the original 1940 oh and of course
look at the zoning here a commercial which is like the cmx the predecessor of cmx2 a commercial so
So this is really a classic nonconforming use that should be allowed to continue at the site.
I don't see any evidence from anybody that there was what we call a legal abandonment.
I certainly agree that there was a vacancy of some period, but that is not abandonment.
My client has attempted to bring back the use immediately upon purchase.
There's the commercial again, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
And here's 1945. You see Undertaker establishment. OK, so that's the argument as to the legal aspects.
Let me go ahead and get right to Molly Mendenhall, who is the owner. Have her raise her hand virtually and I'll present.
Sure. Thank you for your patience. So, Molly, go ahead and raise your hand, please.
do we see molly yeah she's been allowed to speak sorry about good morning good morning
could you please state your name is spelled for the courts the knocker molly mendenhall m-o-l-l-y
m-e-n-d-e-n-h-a-l-l right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth please proceed counsel i do she does all right um so
So, Ms. Mendenhall, did you, first of all, did you hear my opening presentation and the facts that I stated, and are they true?
miss mendenhall did you first of all did you hear my
Yes, they are.
To your knowledge.
And forgive me, before I go on, Mr. Chairman, I said, I believe I said it was an LLC.
It's an LP.
Forgive me for that.
It's not an LLC.
So, Ms. Mendenhall, do you adopt my opening presentation and factual statements as your formal testimony in this matter?
I do. Okay. Now, I had described how you purchased the property at Sheriff's Sale. Is that correct?
That is correct. Okay. And I'm showing the deed, Mr. Chairman. And you purchased the property from
the foreigner through the Sheriff's Sale, and the prior owner was Kimball, right? Correct.
And you are not associated in any way with Mr. or Mrs. Kimball or any of the prior owners of
this property, correct? Correct. All right. So tell the board what happened after you purchased
the property? What did you have to do to get control over the property? So since the property
was purchased at a sheriff's tax sale and it was occupied at purchase, we needed to wait through
the redemption period, which is nine months from when the deed is recorded, to see if the prior
owners were going to redeem the property, pay back all the past taxes and so on and so forth,
in order to regain ownership at the end of the nine month redemption period they did not
redeem the property so then we went through the process of hiring legal counsel in order to start
the period of or the process of ejectment so that we could obtain possession of the funeral home
and that was a long process as well and also costs a lot of money okay and that was about
nine, 10 months to litigate to get out the people who stayed within the property?
Correct. And then we had to hire someone to come and change the locks, the locksmiths. We had to
hire a moving company to remove the possessions of the previous owner. And before you get to that,
Molly, did the sheriff have to come and actually physically evict the individuals that were
remaining within the property? Yes. At the end of the ejectment process was the actual lockout,
sheriff lockout. So that is when we had to be on site, change the locks, remove all the belongings
of the person who was living there at the time. So at this point, Ms. Mendenhall, you're into the
property as far as how much money would you say, give or take, estimate? It's about
I think for the lawyer and the fees, about $10,000. Then we had to pay for
the storage of these person's items and the removal of the items. So that was another
around $10,000. All right. I'm going to put the photos back up on the screen, Ms. Mendenhall.
Did you commission to have these photos taken? Yes. Have you been inside the property yourself?
I have. Are these photos true and accurate as to the conditions of the property that you
found upon ownership and continue. Yes, they are. Okay. So tell the board what you had to do in
order to actually get properties into the condition that's shown on the photos. You
mentioned that you had to get a clean out done. Can you explain that to the board briefly? Yes.
Not only was there multiple possessions that we had to remove from the interior of their home,
There was also illegal dumping that was allowed by the previous owner onto the property.
On the exterior of the home, there is a gated fence along the exterior of the property.
And the previous owner was allowing contractors and other individuals to dump construction trash, all kinds of garbage.
and so we had to have over 20 huge dumpsters come and remove all of the trash just so that we could
get to actually seeing the exterior of the home and then once the trash and all the garbage had
been removed then we had to go through a series of landscaping to remove all of the vines from
and all the excess overgrowth of the landscaping around the property.
So it was extensive.
And that was at a cost to you for that?
Yes, uh-huh.
And are these – I'm putting a photo back up on the screen showing two dumpsters.
Are those dumpsters that you had to use to clear out the debris from the prior owners?
Yeah, so thankfully we hired a company that would just continually –
Yeah, so thankfully, we hired a company that would just continually revolve the dumpsters. There was over 20 that were filled and removed from the home.
I'm sorry, I didn't even know that. You said 20 dumpsters worth of trash had to be moved out?
Okay. All right. How's the property physically laid out? You're familiar with the interior, right?
Correct.
How's the property physically laid out on the first floor?
It is laid out as a normal funeral home would be. There are two external doors to the street that can be accessed. And then once inside, you have access to the first floor office, there's a restroom, and then there is a large, I guess, open hall where services would be provided.
um and then towards the back on the first floor um kind of from that view you could see yeah so
this is one of the first this is the exterior door commercial door to um the inside of the home
that's there's like a little entryway as you walk in these doors and then after that there's a
hallway and you can proceed into the large meeting space um if you go to the left of that door there
is the place of the office.
It's essentially just like you see the plans here.
Is the property laid out in any way on the first floor conducive to any type of single
family usage?
It is not.
It's a business, right?
Correct.
That's a funeral parlor business?
Correct.
And this is the embalming room here?
Is that?
Yeah. And to your knowledge, was the property being operated as a funeral home prior to you
getting involved with this property? Yes. As far as we knew, I mean, you can tell from the
pictures, it is labeled a funeral home. It was understanding that it was used in that way. And
And from, you know, everything that we could tell during the whole process, yes, it was a funeral.
And there's a residential unit above the funeral home, correct?
And so you're willing, as since we've had two, you were at both RCO meetings, correct?
Correct.
And you're willing to do what you need to do to make, to, you're willing not to propose any residential use on the second and third floor, right?
Yes, to accommodate the preference of the community.
All right. So if you were to have to comply with the underlying zoning, which is RSA 3 single family, what would be necessary?
First of all, are you in the business of renovating and rehabbing properties in the city of Philadelphia?
Yes, I'm familiar with the process.
Have you, has your company, you and your company's been involved with the renovation of vacant properties throughout the history of your development career?
If you were to have to convert this property to a single family dwelling, would that be feasible?
And if not, why?
i mean anything's possible but it would it would take a complete demolition of all interior
structures at that are currently there um and all new framing all new mechanical roughing
would have to be completed all new insulation drywall um there would have to be
you know a change of the layout in order to accommodate a larger kitchen on the first
floor a full bathroom maybe more than one um multiple bedrooms and or living spaces would
have to be created and and so it would be a complete renovation of kitchen bathrooms
um you know obviously any kind of cabinetry windows possibly if they if they need to be
different sizes to accommodate kitchens i mean on and on and there's no uh there's no kitchen
on the first floor at all, right? Correct. All right. And there's a smaller, a small kitchen
upstairs. So you'd have to redo the kitchens if you were to convert this to single family. Is
that correct? Yes. Okay. And the cost would be what? You've been involved in renovating
properties for a long time. What are you looking at as far as renovation? This size, I think you're
looking at at least a half a million dollars if not more okay um uh so let's do this um miss
mendenhall um oh and you're you there's a handicapped ramp on site correct there is um
if you if you can scroll and there's a like where the stairs are it's right next to that
it's here right i'm circling with my cursor members of the board all right not you're willing to run
It's here, right? I'm circling with my cursor, members of the board. All right. And you're willing to renovate that to meet code during the building code process, correct?
These are not building plans. They're just, for example.
Correct. But the question posed is you're willing to comply with the code and make sure that's compliant when you get to the building code phase.
Okay. Molly, was your husband able to join us today?
I believe he is on, yes.
And his name is Dory. So I believe I'm finished with Ms. Mendenhall, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mendenhall is a realtor. I'd like to just ask him two questions or so for the record, please. If he could raise his hand. Hopefully he's with us. He was traveling. Hopefully he's with us and can raise his hand.
He has been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the course stenographer?
Dory, D-O-R-Y, Mendenhall, M-E-N-D-E-N-H-A-L-L.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
I'll be brief, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mr. Mendenhall, thank you for joining us.
Are you a licensed realtor in Pennsylvania?
Are you a realtor and familiar with the Philadelphia market, especially in this area?
I'm very familiar with the Philadelphia market.
Okay. Did you hear, Molly, your wife's testimony about the cost to convert this property to a single family dwelling? Do you agree with that testimony?
I do agree with the testimony.
Okay. And as a realtor, is this property, should the money be spent to convert the property to a single family dwelling? Is it marketable at this location?
It is not marketable.
There aren't, I mean, it's a 6,600 square foot property.
I actually, I didn't know if I could share my screen.
I don't think you can.
Yeah, that's fine.
The MLS, I mean, if you pull up the MLS for the last two years and you pull up the entirety of this part of Philadelphia and you look at homes, let's just say over 5,000 square feet, there's not a single single family home above 5,000 square feet that has been listed or sold in the last two years.
It's just not what this area of Philadelphia is.
And so it would just be a completely unmarketable property.
Not only that, you know, the value would be immensely diminished versus a 6,600 square
foot commercial active property versus a single family home.
It would just devastate the value of the property.
And my last question is, is it feasible to spend the money, the extreme cost to convert
the property is a single family dwelling. Is it feasible to do that in light of what you've just
told us? No. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Mendenhall. My last witness would
be Erica Hall. I'd ask her to raise her hand virtually. She's the CEO of the funeral parlor.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
erica hall e-r-i-c-k-a-h-a-l-l all right do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do yes please proceed counsel uh miss hall uh are you a businesswoman
in this area of the city yes uh can you briefly just give the zoning board an idea of what
experience you have as a business owner and operator? Yes, I currently have three home care
agencies in the state of Pennsylvania, which are also LLC'd in five other states, and two trucking
companies that I've been running since 2017. And are you from Philadelphia? Yes, born and raised in
the area okay um and you'll be the ceo of the funeral parlor operation is that right yes can
you give the board an idea of what kind of employees you'll have um at this site i'll have
uh i'll have a director uh wendy palmer which i believe is on the call also she's the mortician
also um and somewhere between six and twelve employees okay and did you hear my statement
about you're going to be serving the Muslim community
in addition to other religious communities?
Is that correct?
And there's different burial procedures and treatment
involved with the Muslim community, is that right?
And do you foresee, have you looked into the demand
for this type of an operation in the city of Philadelphia?
And can you tell the board what you determined,
what you were able to find to your knowledge?
Is there a demand for this type of services in the area?
Yes, I found that current, I'm going off the top of my head, but I believe somewhere between 50% of the community now are Muslim.
Yes, I felt that current, I'm going off the top.
Of the African-American community?
Okay. And do you have an opinion or to your knowledge, scratch that, to your knowledge, is there a demand for Muslim burial services in this area?
Okay. So tell the board what you have planned for as far as a parking, dealing with the parking that might be associated. First of all, let's start with this. How often do you foresee services that will require people to come to the property? Will that be something that occur all the time or periodically? Please explain that to the board.
Most likely during normal business hours for services.
how often it would be it would be a 24 7 business right and why is that necessary
it would be a 24 7 business because people passes any time of the day so we will constantly
probably have deceased people coming in and out right you'll have you'll have deliveries uh for