Development Corporation that this strangely is another tattoo shop
Andrew Johnson Lolly in my client you may remember that was my other
application today um but similarly uh andrew johnson lally and his uh and his business partner
evan lovett are long time tattooers both are fine arts trained uh andrew johnson lally uh trained at
the span of school of arts in my home state of georgia and um has been tattooing up in uh in
philadelphia i believe close to 20 years and mr johnson lally uh you may want to correct me if i
if i missed that date but in any event we do have the max certificate of compliance of course and
um one of the things that the gallow hill neighborhood association really liked was
their professionalism the fact that they were going to be uh tattooing by appointment only
uh and uh similarly this is not going to be uh conducive to people walking in off the street
I can show you the floor plans. This would be on the second floor of a building that's been adaptively reused. It's been old.
of a building that's been uh adaptively reused it's an old uh industrial building uh that they've
converted to office it's in an irmx zoning district so it's an appropriate use um this was actually
one of those rare cases where uh we're almost close enough to have a buy right use for a tattoo
shop but not quite because under the new uh industrial residential mixed use district
It puts a tattoo shop squarely within a residential use, however, a residential zoning district.
But the reality is the impact that they would have on the neighborhood would probably have less of an impact than an insurance sales agency, for example, and probably less of a negative impact on society than an insurance agency.
But if we look here, it's a very large space on the second floor of 1022 Buttonwood.
They're going to have stations for six tattooers.
It is very rare that they would have all six tattooers working at the same time.
Typically, you would have people there from about noon until 8 or 9 o'clock at night,
depending on when their appointments are.
And at most, you'll have maybe three of these booths filled, but they would have a total of six.
This is a floor plan of how they intend to lay it out with hand-washing stations, which are required by the health department.
They would have sharps dispensers, and those would be taken away by a commercial company that deals with sharps,
and same thing like with a medical office.
Here are some photographs of the existing block.
You can see that it's an existing industrial-looking block.
there have been some nice touches from local artists who have been putting some stuff up on murals.
There are a few homes there. As we learned, they're primarily from recent immigrants from
China. And I think the one ask from the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation was
that my clients just be good neighbors and let them know that they're welcome and they most
certainly are to come in as long as they get an appointment and they're willing to pay the rates.
I went over this before. I know this has been kind of a long day, so I'll just try to
keep it short. There is a clear hardship argument here, and that is tattoo shops are unnecessarily
treated as regulated businesses despite the evolution of the business, the wide-ranging
acceptance of tattoos and tattooers. They're lumped in with adult-oriented shops,
head shops, vape shops, gun shops, payday lenders, and, you know, these are just highly
trained artists who are well paid, highly sought after, and difficult to book with.
They frequently book up months in advance because they have support of the neighborhood.
and uh in fact the owners of uh of uh one of the local breweries uh attended the rco meeting
specifically in support because uh they they know uh andrew johnson lally in his work and
they wanted to support it um uh so here and then uh and another notable point is evan lovett
who is also a tattooer is a very well renowned uh mural artist in philadelphia
known for doing the famous Fishtown sign, the squirrel with the stuff, the token, pigeons,
the raccoon, or trash panda, if you will, with the Philadelphia pretzel.
Evan also runs a non-profit mural organization called VRT that does a lot of education and
outreach, and you can see a lot of their work at the Franklin Institute, which you can see here.
These are not fly-by-night people.
Similarly, they have a 10-year lease.
They've been in business for a long time, and the reason why they're opening up this shop,
this is Andrew Johnson and Lolly's first venture into owning his own business.
He's partnering with Evan Lovett, who is currently a partner at one of my former clients,
the Philadelphia Tattoo Collective.
Their lease is running up.
They have a five-year lease, and the owner of the building is planning on turning it
into apartments over on Front Street.
So they need a new home, and they found an appropriate new home at 1022 Buttonwood,
and they're excited to get going with this.
With that, Mr. Johnson Lawley, can you raise your virtual hand?
And if you're on and you can hear me, just indicate because
And if you're on and you can hear me, just indicate because you just need to be sworn in.
Hello.
Please spell your first and last name and give us your address.
My first name is Andrew, A-N-D-R-E-W.
Last name is Johnson-Lally, J-O-H-N-S-O-N-L-A-L-L-Y.
and my address is 1004 church road orland pennsylvania do you swear and affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed mr monroe
and uh mr johnson lally uh did you hear the factual statements that i made on the record
yes uh were they accurate yes what about how long you've been practicing uh i think i said
20 years is that about right it is it is it'll it'll be 21 in january but 20 years is good okay
i just wanted to clear that up uh do you adopt my state my factual statements as your testimony
i do with that uh that concludes our presentation chairman de chico and if uh the board has any
questions we're happy to entertain thank you any questions from the board no no
anyone else uh who would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hand thank you planning commission uh good afternoon chairman members of the board
ian litwin planning commission staff this property is indicated for industrial residential mixed use
on the comprehensive plan the proposed use body art services will not have an adverse impact on
the block which is largely largely commercial and industrial with some residential apartments on the
second floor and above or accordingly we have no objection to granting the variance thank you
frank you i think you're muted
that better yes okay uh mi-2020-0008271022 buttonwood street my vote is yes
My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
I believe Green Street, right? Yes. Green Lane. MI 2020-001188109 Green Lane.
Mr. Reisman you can share your screen
unmute yourself
can you hear me
yes we can
you swear in a firm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes I do
and you agree to waive the reading of its refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy
yes okay and have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents proof
of ownership proof of tax compliance copy of the refusal or referral photos
and plans five days prior to this year yes also have you met with the RCO and
have a letter yes thank you you may proceed okay thank you
good afternoon chairman to Chico members of the board my name is Daniel
Reisman, R-E-I-S-M-A-N. My address is Eckert Siemens, that's 2 Liberty Place, 22nd
floor, Philadelphia PA 19102. As mentioned I submitted exhibits to the
board. They include photos, Google Maps, zoning map, and a key plan of the
property, tax clearance certificate, a deed, and also a letter in support is
Exhibit A4 from the manual. Mr. Reisman, sorry for the interruption. Are you able to share any of those documents or exhibits? Yes. Can you see that?
can you see that mr chairman yeah i'm sorry you said yes no nothing no no no all right let me try
again okay what about now uh yes okay very good thank you thank you all right
Yes. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So the property, I'm showing first the
zoning map. The property is the outline right here where my cursor is showing. So it's basically
a backwards L shape. One side of it is on Green Lane. And then the second side and entrance is
this is Crescent Street. This is Main Street just for perspective. The property, I'll show you some
photos in a minute, but I think the zoning outline is useful. It's currently used as a, it was
approved about 10 years ago by the board for assembly and entertainment. It's basically an
event venue that holds among other things weddings and it's won numerous awards including the best
wedding venue in the city. Really the proposal is pretty simple and I'm going to get to the floor
plan but again I'll focus on this for a second. The total floor area of the venue is about 7,000
this floor 7640 square feet it's just to take a small portion right here on the
Green Lane side 1320 square feet and basically that would become a cafe and
technically under the code it would be a sit-down restaurant so looking at some
of the photos. Here's the property. That's Green Lane. This is Main Street. This is a
closer view. So right here is where the cafe will be. And then this is the
outside i'm sorry the indoor portion of the cafe there's also going to be an outdoor seating area
which is right over here and i'll show you some photos of that now this is a photo of the event
venue as it currently exists so i just wanted to give you an idea of what that looks like
that will remain so the event venue will remain obviously it's been closed down because of covid
But when hopefully things reopen in the near future, the event venue will again resume
its operations.
Here's another photo of the event venue.
Here is the site, the key plan, let me just reduce that for you.
Okay, so again, this is Crescent, this is Green Lane over here, enlarge it a
little more okay and the event venue will remain in this area and what we're
talking about is this will become the small cafe sit-down restaurant this is
the indoor portion and this is the open area that will be the outdoor seating
And now these are the photos of where the cafe will actually go. This is the
inside area, there's from the other side, and then here you'll see the door
leading to the outdoor area, and this is the nice little outdoor portion of the
cafe. Now the reason we're here, the use is permitted as of right, but the code
technically requires 10 spaces, parking spaces, one parking space for every four
seats and there will be a total of 40 seats. Now under the general parking
provisions of the code, this would typically be allowed as of right because
is it's any change of uses within an existing building, any parking is grandfathered in.
However, the manual overlay, the L&I, the four-to-one parking requirement is in the overlay,
and L&I technically reads that as meaning that supersedes the general provision of the code
that otherwise grandfather's is parking as basically a you know parking in an
existing building with a change of use. What this photo shows is we have a very
What this photo shows is we have a very large parking lot literally across Green
large parking lot
Lane that has I believe 157 spaces so here you'll see the this is the looking
now down from Crescent there's the where the cafe will be and right across the
street is the parking lot. This is looking right into the very large parking
lot. Here's another photo of the parking lot. Now this is from the inside of the
parking lot and right across the street right here you'll see property and
that's the cafe. So literally there's parking right across the street. So we
think this is a you know very appropriate use. It's a permitted use. We think the
parking is not an issue both because it's already an existing event venue where the parking is
permitted as of right number one and number two we have a large parking right across the street
as i mentioned there's a letter of support from the manioc neighborhood council um and they
supported that there was i believe it was nine votes in support one in non-opposition and zero
opposed so effectively it was unanimous and that's the end of the presentation my client
um Jaime Kaplan who's a principal of the owner and Yvonne Roa are here along with our architect
if there are any questions on the plans and if I may I would like to have Mr Kaplan adopt my
testimony my statements please do so and Mr Kaplan when you get on please uh identify yourself spell
your first and last name and give us your address. Good afternoon. My name is Jaime Kaplan.
Just spell it like J-A-I-M-E. Last name Kaplan, K-A-P-L-A-N. The address is 109 Green Lane,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19127. You swear and affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you. Please proceed.
Hello, Mr. Kaplan.
Hi, Mr. Reisman.
You heard my testimony, my statements today, is that correct?
And are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
Okay, and do you adopt those statements as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any questions from the board?
anyone else who would like to testify in this case please raise your hand
no hands thank you planning commission good afternoon chairman members of the board uh this
use sorry ian litwin planning commission staff this use supports the commercial corridor and
not have a negative impact on parking accordingly we support granting the variance thank you mi-2020-00
1188 109 green lane my vote is yes my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes okay thank you just one minute sharon and i have been going back and
forth um yes it's i just um emailed you the language it's it's case number one on the two
o'clock list the attorney mike malloy has signed back on you're simply revoting it to clarify the
proviso language which i thought might be a bit confusing to ellen this is the one uh to the other
board members that had to do with the signage on ridge avenue okay we're trying to get the right
verbiage for uh dusk and dawn and all the other stuff so we're gonna call i'm gonna call it back
up it's mi-2020-001212 9165 ridge avenue my vote is yes with the following provisos
sign message will change no more than once every 30 minutes sign must contain photosensitive
technology that will respond to sunlight levels and signed to remain off from 10 p.m to 6 a.m
yes with proviso yes with proviso thank you and thank you sharon thank you all right that
concludes the two o'clock list is there any unfinished business on the two o'clock list
not for me okay are we ready um i'll mention this is to the other board members are we
ready to go with the 3 30 list yes yes okay yeah let me
yes yes okay yeah let me go grab my uh yeah i'm ready
we're ready confessor yeah okay all right good afternoon everyone my name is frank de chico i'm
the chair of the zoning board of adjustment i'll be participating in today's hearing along with our
board secretary mr confessor plaza and board members mr thomas hollowman and mr james snell