reservoir off to the right of the property which you can see in an actual nice removing color so
right as i said at the intersection of belmont and city ave this is an overhead shot on page
seven taken from google maps uh showing the direct location of my property zooming in this
red pin is my client's location this is that common dry valley as you can see this parking
behind this is that gas station i mentioned this here is the uh pardon me hotel that i
mentioned as well this is my client's deed for the property
this is the letter of notification that was sent by my client dated 10 10 2022 with respect to
the property owner jordan anderson having sending this out to the affected community residents
that meeting was held on november 10 2022 at 6 30 p.m i was not part of that meeting but if
the board does have any questions about the circumstances behind that meeting my client
is on the line and is happy to answer those after that meeting my clients uh coordinating rco or
stand-in coordinating rco winfield residents association issued this letter of non-opposition
on page 17 of my zoning packet dated january 19 2023
this is my client's commercial activity license and what we do have now are the photos of the
property i'll go through those briefly count members of the board just so we have an idea
specifically as to what we're talking about so the property was posted these are the properties
that are directly the left of my clients this is my client's property itself as you can see
it's essentially a three-story structure because of the existing doctor's office here
this was used as a parking pad in the front during the doctor's office and this is that common draw
This is the dry vial as it continues to the back parking garage for the hotel is located to the rear of my client's parcel.
This is that common dry vial again, indicating the parking behind the units.
Some of these properties do have garages, my understanding is my client's does not.
so this is the interior of the ground story as you can see it does look very doctor's officey
to the best of my description as we go through this we can just kind of page through everything
so we get a sense as to the interior layout before we get to the floor plans themselves
this is the mechanicals room
and everything in here is going to be renovated members of the board this is just as the property
looks today. Prior examination rooms, storage area, prior examination room,
prior office space, prior bathroom with, of course, the classic vintage pink tile that we all know and love or hate, depending on your sense of taste.
prior office space,
prior bathroom
And this is the upstairs unit.
This is the site plan members of the board with the existing curb cut, the existing driveway easement that runs behind all the properties here.
what we're proposing then as i said is an adaptive reuse of that ground story doctor's office
unit one is about 1200 square feet it's a two-bedroom unit the bedroom pardon me into the
front of the property is a living room we have mechanicals for the property and this mechanical
which is accessed by an exterior door to the right of the parcel kitchen bath bedroom one and
bedroom two again adaptive reuses all the existing spaces that were in the doctor's office
going up the stairs and in the main entrance door to the property we get up to unit number two which
is about 750 square feet a two-bedroom unit with the bedrooms to the rear living room to the front
dining space in the middle with the kitchen bath and going up those stairs we get then to unit three
Again, about 750 square feet.
The layout is more or less identical to the second unit below.
This is just-
So was unit two and three there before?
My understanding is that unit two and three were already existing.
Jordan, my client, Mr. Anderson can confirm that,
but per my understanding of the community meeting
and per my understanding of feedback from neighbors at the community meeting,
those have always been there.
It's just a matter of converting this additional unit
it used to be a doctor's on the first floor yep okay and these are just larger layouts so we don't
have to do the zoom in but more or less precisely at pages 51 and 52 the same drawings that we saw
before okay now mr anderson if you are present if you would please raise your hand so you can
be sworn in and wait to be sworn in before testifying okay he's been allowed to speak
hi sir could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
hi jordan anderson j-o-r-d-a-n-a-n-d-e-r-s-o-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel thank you now mr anderson you've been on
the call the entire time during my testimony today yes and you've heard everything i've had
to say today yes is there anything you'd like to add to the testimony that i presented to the board
There is not.
Is everything that I said today true and accurate to the best of your knowledge and information and belief?
All right.
Thank you very much, Mr. Anderson.
The board may have more questions for you at this time.
Questions from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, I have a cameraman camera that I thought I had.
get your head or hand up and now it's down again so okay i don't see any hands on okay planning
commission wait wait a second her oh see her hand was going up and down and it's back up again
i'm sorry i've allowed her to speak i could you state your name please and spell for the
court stenographer? My first name is Carolyn, C-A-R-O-L-Y-N. My last name is Kamara,
K-A-M-A-R-A. I am an owner and resident of the state. Okay. All right. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed. We sent in the
neighbors. I did a petition and we sent in a petition to the planning board and the zoning
Board. I'm sorry. And some of the hardships that we determined were there are 16 owner-occupied
properties in this block. Of the 16 properties, one-third are owned by seniors over the age of
60 years old. One of the properties is a duplex, which is owner-occupied and tenant vacant for at
least the past seven years. We are subject to constant unavailable parking spaces due to the
customers of the marijuana dispensary located on City Avenue parking on this block and walking to
the dispensary. Due to mobility issues and the fact that the basement stairs are too narrow
to install a chairlift, we need access to our vehicles at the curb. We have unsavory traffic
from the new Philly Suites Motel Slash Hotel located on City Avenue.
motel slash hotel located on City Avenue.
Litter is constantly thrown on the sidewalks and grass throughout their entire block.
Therefore, we are requesting that this variance be denied due to the above factors
and the fact that we are also homeowners and also Philadelphia voters.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
no sir i see no further hands council before planning comes on would you want to respond
yes uh chairman and members of the board so with respect to the parking issue i understand
parking is a problem throughout the city um mr anderson with respect to the parking issues
on the block specifically the loading zone that was in front of the property if you're still able
to speak or if we can get him unmuted would you mind commenting on to that fact since you were
president at the community meeting please raise your virtual hand again there we go my apologies
yes uh so with respect to the parking issues um there was one loading only a 20 minute loading
only zone that was directly in front of the property which was removed and given back to the
city. The doctor's office also had two parking spaces in front of the building which the community
asked that we not use with their proviso so then only parking in the rear which would be one spot
directly behind um and then as some neighbors have um been also parked um in the grass um area
behind that as well but um also um if you go i'm not sure if you can go back to the um picture of
behind the houses um a lot of the houses do have um garage parking with um been able to fit an
an additional car behind um so i think that that um does provide a lot of parking um for
residents um on the block um with respects to as far as i guess needing current parking um you know
there's um yeah i think just as far as the the spot that we gave up um with the the loading only
um then there's at least one spot behind the house um so really it would only be
if you have three families each have one car maybe the addition of one car on the block
that previously wasn't there so just for the record referring to page 27 uh showing the behind
the properties and the driveway easement so members of the board we unfortunately can't
control the other street parking due to the other businesses that are along city avenue
what we can do is control what we can namely removing that loading zone giving that parking
space back to the community allowing for the all street parking behind the property due to the
common driveway easement with respect to trash i believe there was a request for a
trash to be stored in the rear of the property we don't have any problem with that happening either
whether in some sort of enclosure or something different than that we understand that parking
is difficult and i understand the neighbor's plight with respect to everything else that's
going on along the commercial corridor that is city avenue we're one parcel we're doing the best
we can and we try to be considerate to neighbors concerns regarding parking thank you commission
one you please
sorry chair sure sure sure could you
spell for the courts and knocker for police will do chair uh peter bernard for the planning
commission peter spelled p-e-t-e-r barnard spelled b as in boy is an apple r as in roger
M as in Nancy, A as in Apple, R as in Roger, D as in Dog.
Right.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I do, Chair.
Proceed, sir.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family zoning at this location.
The applicant seeks to convert a former commercial space into a residential unit.
We feel the applicant has demonstrated sufficient hardship.
Accordingly, the Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the proposed variance.
M.I. 2022-004-808-2832, Belmont Avenue, I vote yes with proviso. Trash stored in rear, parking in rear only.
Thomas Holland, my vote is yes with proviso.
THOMAS HOLLYWOOD, MY VOTE IS YES WITH PROVISO ISHMEL SHAHEED, MY VOTE IS YES WITH PROVISO
THANK YOU COUNCIL, GLAD TO SEE YOU'RE BACK THANK YOU MEMBERS OF THE BOARD AND THANK YOU CHAIR
GOOD TO SEE YOU AS WELL TAKE CARE ALL RIGHT THANK YOU UM NUMBER 6 MI 2023-000-635-415
QUEEN LANE DAVID ORPHANITES IS THE ATTORNEY UM
Letter of support from 12th Ward Democratic Committee with proviso that final renderings is presented to the community with changes, changes slash updates discussed by Queen Lane's side of the project, not enforceable, and also provisos about trash and mailboxes.
Mr. Orphanides, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court's sonographer?
Certainly, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon.
Mr. Sheriff, I just wanted to interject to clarify.
The provisos regarding trash storage and mailboxes, those were part of a letter of non-opposition from Solo Germantown.
Yep. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Members of the board, David Orphanides.
Last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Certainly. My client is 415 to 419 W Queen Lane. That's Q-U-E-E-N Lane LLC.
And that's the owner of the four properties in question.
All right. And our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I waive the reading. In terms of its accuracy, there was a refusal cited for the side yard for units A through F, and I believe that that refusal is not accurate, but other than that, everything else is.
Understood. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I submitted everything. We did not have a tax clearance, so I provided the showing that there's no outstanding taxes owed.
I think the reason that we believe the reason there may be a problem with that is that these four properties were formerly owned by my clients, father, son, either individually or together, and we transferred them into the name of the LLC and possibly because of the transfer into the LLC, it hasn't hit the city's fully hit the city system yet, since we recorded the deeds, and we're not able to pull the tax clearance certificates.
Also, based upon the continuing interaction with the community that was coming through straight through this past weekend when we got the letters from the 12th Ward Democratic Committee and Solo Germantown, I forwarded zoning drawings that I believe are the same ones I forwarded last week.
They may have had some additional tweaks to them to address some of the comments that we received in those letters and those were forwarded.
The revised proviso plan form stayed the same, though, that I forwarded last week.
Understood. All right. Please proceed and share your screen.
Certainly.
Everybody see my screen?
Okay, great.
Again, good afternoon.
my name is david orphanetes i'm with the law firm of orphanetes and toner llp here in philadelphia
and i'm representing 415 to 419w queen lane llc i have with me today nicholas holman from the owner
of the property 415 to 419w queen lane llc and steven maletto from cubed architecture they are
the architects or he was the architect on the project what i have up on my screen right now
is a photograph that i took of the subject premises uh there are four properties in question
here 415 417 419 and 419 are west queen lane what you're seeing in this photograph to the right with
the wood stockade fence behind the black acura i believe it is is is 415 which is a vacant lot
at the present time and then to the left of that the white building that you see says 417 on the
door is an existing two-story structure that's approved for a seven-unit rooming house with a
maximum of 10 occupants. To the left of that setback, you have a very interesting building
that is the 419, F or 419, that was approved for six rooming units.
That was approved for six rooming units, total max of eight occupants. And then behind that is 419R, which is a landlocked lot. You can see here in the survey plan that we have, and this is attached to tab 10, you can see those three properties, or four properties, I'm sorry, here.
Let me change this to a hand. It's always easier to see with that.
At the top of the existing property dimensions is 415.
It's when I say shorter, it's a relatively shorter property at 130, almost 131 square feet.
Then you have 417 and then 419 below that.
And then to the back of 419 is 419R.
The lot sizes of these lots are extremely large.
415 is, again, they're very deep.
417 is 171 feet deep.
You can see that.
I mean, actually, it's 230, almost 231 square feet deep.
I'm sorry.
419 is 171 feet deep.
But 415 is 2,187 square feet.
417 is 4,774 square feet.
419 is 4,275 square feet.
And 419Rs, even though it looks smaller by comparison, is still 1,500 square feet, 1,501 square feet.
As you can see from the zoning archives that I have at tab 5, if you were to scroll through them all, all these properties, well, at least three of the four, because they're only zoning archives for 415, 417, and 419.