hi there hi good afternoon mr buckley do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed thank you mr buckley uh have you had the
opportunity to hear the full presentation that i've offered this afternoon i did and would you
adopted a permit as your own i do thank you um questions from the board no no no anyone who
would like to testify in this case please raise your hand at this time sure i have john geating
john you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in please identify yourselves by your
first and last name and your address for the uh stenographer sure yeah so sorry i have my baby son
here who may no problem this is like a family affair anymore the zoning here
i'm john i'm a neighbor here in fishtown and uh i'm speaking here in my personal capacity i am
a board member of both fishtown neighbors association in the fishtown bid uh here but
i'm today i'm speaking in my in just my personal capacity all right i just want to swear you in
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yeah, I do.
Thank you.
So I think, you know, this case is a no-brainer.
It, you know, it's a brand-new building that it's in,
and the building itself was not required to have parking.
It's in CMX 2.5, and, you know, but now the restaurant is triggering the use.
And, you know, I don't know, this stuff doesn't come up so often that, like, you get a chance to talk to city council about it.
And I know that they're kind of the relevant decision makers here.
But I would just like to register that I think it's ridiculous that something like this would still be triggering the zoning variance in 2020.
You know, all over the rest of the corridor, restaurants are just able to open.
Parking is not required.
That was a big part of the 2012 zoning code overhaul that I know you, Chairman Chico, had a lot of involvement in.
And the whole point was, you know, to make it easier to kind of reuse buildings, you know, just like this.
And I don't know. I wish that city council would get rid of this overlay that triggered the variance in the first place.
because it's just a really big waste of time for you know boards like ours they're all volunteer
uh to have to be able to hear uh no-brainer cases like this and have like you know i went
to two different meetings about this it's just ridiculous they should they should get rid of the
overlay um thank you i i can agree to you with you to a certain point i think it's something
obviously you need to discuss with the district council person and when we did that when i did the
the legislation for the commission it was designed hopefully to streamline things as we figured out
we're going to have some bumps in the road uh it things will change as time goes on but thank you
for your testimony anyone else wish to testify in this case no more chair thank you planning commission
uh good afternoon chairman members of the board ian litwin planning commission staff
this use supports the continued redevelopment of the commercial corridor and a lack of parking
will not have a negative impact on the neighborhood accordingly uh we do not oppose granting the
variance thank you very much mi-2020-000876 965 frankfort avenue my vote is yes my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes good luck thank you mr chairman members of the board
stay safe have a good afternoon when's your grand opening as soon as possible
you sound like a politician okay have a good day
MI 2020-000255.
I don't have an address for this one.
Did we skip over Torsdale Avenue?
So this one was continued probably.
I don't got no address.
Okay, I apologize.
MI2020-000831-6910, Charlesdale Avenue.
no hands up on this one okay all right so mi-2020-000831
yeah it's popped up i don't know okay robert paladino are you the applicant
Hi, can you hear me?
Oh, hi. Sorry about that. I was a little unclear with the hand raising. My apologies. I am the applicant, yes.
And the owner is also here.
Excuse me. This is Sharon Saleta. I believe Mr. Palladino is the architect.
The applicant is always considered to be the owner.
Oh, I'm sorry. My apologies.
Thank you. Thank you.
The owner's there?
Yes, I'm promoting both to panelists.
Can you still hear me?
I logged out there for a second.
Yes, the applicant is...
And the applicant is prepared to present, correct?
Yes, yes.
Nyambi is the owner, Ms. Fuller, and she said she can't be her.
Can you hear her voice?
I can hear her now.
I'm here now.
Okay, Ms. Fuller.
Yes, hi.
Do you work in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, yes.
Okay, this application is for an assembly and entertainment of 250 people at first floor in the same building with an existing single-family household living.
At the second floor, no signs on this application.
Ma'am, 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 hearing yes sir have you
met with the rco and have a letter yes thank you you may proceed please identify yourself for the
record hello everyone my name is niambi fuller i'm here 6910 torsdale um my plan for the space
is to create, I'm sorry? Did we swear her in? Yes. Yes, she was sworn in. Yes. Just spell your full name, please.
Sure. It's N as in Nathan, I, A, M as in Mary, B as in Barney, I. Last name is Fuller, F as in Frank, U-L-L-E-R.
Thank you. No problem.
please proceed okay so my plan for this space is to make it a um an event space for up to 50 people
um just to host uh baby showers bridal showers birthday dinners um and so forth um i did meet
with the um rca on september the first and they there's a non-opposition 100 non-opposition for
on me to proceed with this space.
Okay. What is the RCO? Go ahead, I'm sorry. The RCO, which RCO was it? It's Tocconi Civic Association.
Do we have a letter? Yes. We have a letter, right? Yes.
uh do you have any floor plans any diagrams um yes i have an exhibit i can try to share
my screen if that would be helpful if i can somebody walk me okay i see the little check
one second let me see share screen
Do you have your exhibit package open?
I'm just trying to...
Can you guys see that now?
Are you able to give Rob Polidian from Landmark access to put up the plans?
Yes, he has authority.
Rob could you help me out because I don't know what I'm doing here now we
have it now okay great thank you okay thank you Rob so that here that there
explains pretty much the space with you know tables and chairs for tables and
chairs around the table and it looks like the next one is just a clean
slate with nothing. Rob could you go down to some of the photos now so what you know what it currently
some of the photos now so what you know what it currently looks like that's the
apartment upstairs and this is the space here with the gray and white floor and
white walls and the black area there is the bathroom can everyone see that yeah
Okay. Again that's the upstairs apartment, front room, living room, kitchen, washer and dryer area
in the back. What you're showing us exists now? Yes sir. Yes.
You already made the improvements, right?
In the photograph B, to the left?
Is that a swing?
Yeah, so it's a stationary swing.
It's just, yeah, it doesn't move.
It's just, it's stuck.
All right, I was just, okay.
that's pretty much any questions from the board no no no anyone else who would like
to testify in this case please raise your hand now
no hands chair thank you planning commission good afternoon chairman members of the board
ian litwin planning commission staff this property is indicated for commercial mixed
use on the comprehensive plan uh assembly and entertainment use of this nature is not uh is a
perfectly appropriate use on this section of the commercial corridor accordingly we have no
objection to request the requested variance thank you mi-2020-000831 6910 toursdale avenue my vote
is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. Good luck. Next one up. MI 2020-000-261-736-Churchland.
i have jennifer jennifer bazillo
hello hey jennifer you saw the old from this morning you saw an affirm i'm sorry do you agree
to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do thank you 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 hearing yes great and uh have
you met with the rco and have a letter i do thank you you may proceed great let me just share my
screen quickly. Let me get the right screen to share. Okay, so, um, so, um, Jennifer Bezidlow,
45, excuse me, 4500 Worth Street Suite, D202, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19124. I'm here on
behalf of the owners of 736 church lane uh levi alone and then uh i'm also joined with trina
clark who is the property manager for this property through tcs management she should also
be on the call um i've submitted a packet with the refusal project information form deed tax
compliance letter of support from the penn area neighborhood association a copy of the community
notification letter, aerial views of the property, zoning
archive of New Roy properties, photos, and plans which I would like
to incorporate into the record. Let me just get a photo up of this
property, one second.
All right, so 736 Church Lane is a larger parcel at over
2 000 square feet um with an existing um it should be a semi-detached structure but uh
It should be a semi-detached structure but its other half of the twin had been demolished.
its other half of the twin had been demolished
The existing structure also has over 2,000 square feet of space on the inside. This property is
located at the intersection of Church and Crowson which is about a half a block off of Chew Avenue
in the East Oak Wayne neighborhood. My clients purchased this property in May of 2019 and it
was in very rough condition but already divided into the two units and they have
made improvements to restore the building to make it habitable again and
prevent it from being demolished as it's the other half of its twin was. I'm
going to take you to the floor plans. The building is currently divided into two
units. The first floor is a one-bedroom one-bath unit and then the second and
third floors are a bi-level unit which can either be used as a three or four bedroom unit depending
on how you use this front room you might use this as a playroom living room that sort of thing
my client buys these buildings that are maybe in a little rough shape renovates them to a nice
standard but rents them out to the community at affordable rates for the people that live there
I know it's not really a zoning matter, but these units are affordable for
people. The first floor units rented at 825 and the second floor will be 1150
which puts them at affordable for people making under $40,000 a year, families
making under 40. Let me just go to the photos again. Let me just make them a
little bit bigger hold on one second okay so that's the front this is either side of the
property this side we do not own which is why there's bushes there this is up and down church
Schleen. This is the intersection of Crowson Street. And as I'll get to in a moment, these
are also multifamily buildings with or mixed use commercial. I'll come back to this photo.
And then the interior, and these are some other, come back to these ones as well. These are the
interior photos. As you can see, they're nicely renovated modern apartments, not luxury apartments,
but modern and well kept units. Let me just go, I'm sorry the dimensions. Okay so as I mentioned
this use as a two-family dwelling was pre-existing but also not out of character with the community.
So we take a look at the zoning map and this is the property right here
and this is church lane and there is large multi-family dwellings on this block as well as
other multi-family zoning nearby and most of what's labeled as residential single family
residential here this is a plain field for LaSalle and this is a large commercial development that I
show you in the aerial photos. So you can see this is our property, this is all
commercial, this is a playing field for LaSalle. In fact if you go to the zoning
archive for the six and seven hundred block of Church Lane, I don't need to
show you necessarily all of these, but in the six and hundred block of Church
Lane there's actually only two properties which are currently zoned for single
family use and all the other properties that face or on the 600 or 700 block of
Church Lane which is between Musgraves and Chew Avenue are either multi-family
some some up to 44 units personal care homes rooming houses commercial uses or
commercial mixed use. So while this property is zoned for single family use, the actual character
of the neighborhood is for multi-family and commercial mixed use property. I just want to
address parking for one second because it is a refusal because this is an RSA 3 zone property.
And go back to this other photo.
So this is our property right here and as you can see these are pretty much all the same houses.
They are over a hundred years old, and when they were constructed, off-street parking
was never considered.
um we could not add off-street parking to this property without demolishing the building
We could not add off-street parking to this property.
and when we talked to the neighbors one of the things they liked best about our proposal was
that we were maintaining the building and upgrading it and making sure we're preserving the structure
so off-street parking really isn't an option i'd also like to point out that while we are only
proposing two units in this building 740 which is the same which is the same exact size and structure
is actually a permitted tripartist. And then 732, which is right here, is a five-person rooming
house, neither of which have off-street parking. So we did meet with the Penn Area Neighborhood