ZBA Hearing - June 3, 2026

yep I think that is that it is that it yes here's the first floor yep so this

is a two-bedroom unit with that kitchen and living room layout yes that's the

that's done it not enough room that's that's just not enough room for two

bedroom and so so so you're showing I don't know who did your plans but this

is horrible I don't know that you so you're entering your house through a

bedroom the end of the first floor through no you would you want to come in

and it's delivered oh so you exit to the rear yard through a bedroom yes which is

it just as bad for a two-bedroom unit there's not enough living space there so

what then what is the second floor look like same thing same this is the second

floor and so you have though two bedrooms on the second floor bedroom in

the front bathroom in the back across the kitchen all right thank you my

question is about trash um so where did that would you intend to store trash for both units

yes i was going to purchase and have installed one of these units in the front yes can i bring it up

okay now that are you trash going to be stored inside well they'll have both will have cans

with the lids but then they'll also have this on the outside it's on the front of your yes

okay is there any place that um besides there's a yard for the first floor so they could put theirs

okay is there any place um besides there's a yard for the first floor so they could put theirs in

the yard okay uh because do i mean the block seems like it's a well-kept block so do folks

normally store their trash uh in the front all all week um not wait some trash towards the corner

yes but they wait till trash day and bring it down so would you would you be amenable to have

an interior trash storage for the second level yeah i was going to get both of them the um

containers with the attached lid so that it could store it inside yes okay yeah and and my last

question is is there any particular like hardship or reason why you want to convert this single

families because most of the houses on the block are already single family yes um so this would

change the you know direction of the block if you have a duplex there so yeah particular hardship

that we have so my mom suffered an aneurysm two years ago and she currently i was born and raised

in south philly in this neighborhood she lives in the neighborhood she's in a two-story home right

now so i would like to put her on the front the first floor where everything is on one level and

so that's my so she would be on the first floor and then i will rent the second floor

any other questions but your first floor is a two bedroom not a one bedroom right yes yep and she

well my mom has uh like caregivers since her aneurysm she lost her short-term memory and so

the second bedroom could be for family who come you know and help her and who may stay with her

as well and she's in a three-bedroom house right now so she'll be moving from three-bedroom house

to the two-bedroom apartment all the questions second floor right i'm sorry what michael no i

was going to ask them the second floor is for who is that i will rent the second floor are you going

rent out the second floor and the first floor for my mom okay

other questions

so so wait a minute so so board member johns you were saying that the

first floor is not the livables the space wasn't adequate for

you know for it's not right i mean they don't you you know you don't show

for anytime you don't show furniture in these plans it's you have to kind of you know if you

don't read plans all the time you know you can't really put a sofa in there you can't put a chair

where's the where's the where's the table you sit at for it for to eat it to eat a meal right

it's just and for two bedrooms it's just it's just too small right for one bedroom it's probably

adequate but for two bedrooms you know it's just it's just could you respond i was going to say

when i spoke to the architect um who did the plans she explained to me that this was by code

and the that there is room in the living room to have a living room set in the area for a small

dinette in the in the kitchen area but he didn't show it right i understand i understand what he

said right or they said but they didn't show it then and then you have then you have to force

you know if your trash is in the backyard they have to come through the bed the bedroom

to get the trash out to the front or if there's anything happening in the backyard i just said

that was a possibility if they wanted to put it there but i was going to buy for both units a can

with a lid so they could keep the trash inside and then take it out on trash day from the second

floor and the first floor yeah but you don't show that a place in your plan for that unfortunately

a place for what a trash can where you where you just what you just described right it would just

be a trash can inside the house typically those are in a ventilated trash closet it's like a it's

a thing so typically there's a specialized closet that's ventilated yeah it is can you hear me all

right yeah all right there's typically a ventilated trash storage closet in like in in the house

somewhere sometimes it's you know but it's a separated closet that allows for that okay

because i live in the area right now i just have a can in my kitchen and my trash goes there and i

have a garbage disposal which these will have and if i have other trash i put it in the freezer

until a trash day and then i take my trash out front but typically that's what that's the sort

of the modern styling of how people handle these to deal with smell deal with pest control deal

with all sorts of other things to make it not unpleasant for the others that live in the

building and i think you know yes while it might be to code code is the bare minimum living standard

right so it's not necessarily like industry standard at any point so i think that's a lot

of the comments you're hearing are related to that all the questions not a question but a comment

and also since this is you're saying this is the space that's going to be for your mom

yes right so then I would think that you might want to make sure that your mom will

So then I would think that you might want to make sure that your mom will really be comfortable there, considering that she also has other, you know, like issues in terms of, you know.

So if she's going to be, in effect, downsizing, right, and she's going into another space, that space should be, I would think, something that she would be comfortable like being in.

Yeah. Right now, she's primarily on the first floor of the home that she's in now. She doesn't even use the second floor. So it would be, you know, storage for her stuff, her things in the basement. So she'd have that and then the first floor for a living space.

Okay.

Yeah.

Questions from our attorney?

Not at this time, Mr. Chair.

Questions or comments from the virtual audience?

I see no hands at this time, Chair.

Planning Commission.

thank you chair and good morning David Vecto with the city planning commission

chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 5 residential

single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood uh North the neighborhood

North of Moore Street sorry in 1985 and a council supported map change there are you there are no

unique physical conditions or circumstances of this property that would prevent it from being

used in conformance with the zoning code this is a primarily single family block face the city

planning commission recommends the board deny the requested use variants for two dwelling units

thank you we're going to hold the vote on this until next uh wednesday okay we're going to vote

at 9 30 a.m and we're going to weigh everything that's been raised okay do i need to be here you

don't have to be here you can listen in okay all right thank you very much thank you coming in all

worry. Have a good day. Number seven, MI 2025, 007184, 7350 to 52 Wissahickon Street. Isaac

isaac slepner is the attorney

isaac slepner will be coming in as a panelist

good morning chair and members of the board good morning council could you please state

your name and spell before the stenographer.

Sure.

Isaac Slepner, first name I as in India, S as in Sam, AA as in Alpha, C as in Charlie,

last name Slepner, S as in Sam, L as in Larry, E as in Elvis, P as in Peter, N as in Norman,

E as in Elvis, R as in Robert.

I am counsel to 7000 Wissanoming, LLC, which is the owner of the property and for the record

The property is 7350-52, Wissan-Oming.

Right, right.

So do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?

Yes, I do.

And I see there's a letter of non-opposition from Holmesburg Civic Association.

Is that right?

There is, correct.

Right, thank you.

Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.

Good morning.

Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?

I have, except for two single-page things that I actually just sent through about two hours ago

that were just recently handed to me. But otherwise, yes.

Okay. Thank you. And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?

Yes, I do.

All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with the case.

All right. Share. All right. Let's just get my PDFs up here. Okay.

All right. Is everybody able to see that?

It's coming up right now. It should be up any minute.

Yeah, it's up now.

All right, great.

So this initial one here is...

Sorry, bear with me.

What's happening?

Sorry.

The initial one here is our application for appeal,

And this is actually our application today is for a special exception, not for a variance.

The property, 7350 to 52, Wissan Oming, is zone I2.

And my client owns and operates an auto body and auto repair shop.

he's a he's a mechanic and he operates a mechanic shop in there and is now

seeking the special exception for an additional use as a body shop but

for an additional use as a body shop, body shop, repair shop with a paint booth.

So this is our initial application for appeal from the notice of referral.

The project information, notice of referral, which we just stipulated to tax clearance,

which was generated on 526.

And it says that the owner is 537 Market Associates.

The owner is not 537 Market Associates.

The owner is my client, 7000 Wissan-Oming Street, LLC, and this deed that was recorded on 2-4-22 indicates my client's ownership.

We held the RCO meeting on April 14th of this year.

This was the letter to all the near neighbors that I sent out from my office on 4-3 of this year.

This is the letter of non-opposition, which the board has already read from the

Homsburg Civic Association.

And this is the cert of mailing to all the near neighbors.

There are not a whole lot of near neighbors because I will show you the maps,

but also the photos, you can see the orange posters, which were not printed in

orange, they were printed in white, on both doors.

This is 7350 right here, 7352.

This is a close-up on 7350, close-up of 7352. These are a couple of maps that will help

understand the context. This is Wissenoming Street right here, this long diagonal, and this

highlighted blue, these are our properties right here. As you can see, it's blocks and blocks and

blocks of I2, ICM exit over here, and the nearest residence is up here at Cotman and Keystone,

which is a good half mile away then down here this is kind of giving a little bit

more context this is our property here O'Hara and Sons auto body and towing

down here and this is literally a half block kind of below the berm of I-95

there's really no residences in the immediate area these are some photos of

the properties this is you can see both garage bays here 50 and 52 this is

standing at our property looking across the street up this grassy berm here this

I downloaded from Google Maps and it looks a bit different these days

there's more of a wall a sound wall here but this berm and up on top of this

berm is I 95 this is a photo of part of the interior you can see that's a

mechanic shop. He's got a couple lifts in there. Another photo of the interior with some cars

undergoing various states of mechanical repair. That's the paint booth back here that has not

been used since they were sited and have gone on to seek the board's approval for use of the paint

booth, but the paint booth has not been in use since that time. This is yet another photo of

the interior. They are already permitted for by right for storage and mechanical work. This is

another close-up of the garage bay, another close-up of the other garage bay. This is looking

I believe this is northbound over here. This is northbound on Wissenoming and this is southbound

As you can see, it's all industrial use on this portion of Wissan-Oming Street.

This is a close-up of the paint booth, and this is a copy of the approval, the

license that my client obtained from the City Department of Public Health for the

use of the paint booth. I would call my client Elon Levy, who's a principal of

7 000 was an omic street llc

and elon if you're out there go ahead and raise your hand and you'll be uh called

elon has been promoted to penis okay all right good morning good morning elon could you please

state your name and spell for the stenographer yep it's elon e-l-a-n levy l-e-v as in victor

why do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel

uh sure elon uh you are a member of 7000 wisdom street llc correct that's correct and did you hear

all of my testimony and see all of the exhibits that i just presented to the board yes and was

And was all of that testimony and all of those exhibits correct to the best of your knowledge?

all of that testimony and all of those exhibits correct to the best of your knowledge

Yes.

And would you adopt my testimony as though you had given it yourself?

Yes.

Thank you.

Counsel, was the license obtained after the shutdown?

That would be a question for my client, Elon.

Was the license obtained after the shutdown?

No.

So the license has been in place for years.

So we bought the building with the booth in place, and we assumed that the licenses were all up to date.

But when we spoke to the previous owner, when we got the violation, he had sent me the license for the air pollution.

And then I asked where the other documents were for the paint booth.

And again, he had retired, so he really didn't have anything.

And he didn't have anything in place.

so he had the air pollution license which we took over and switched into our name

but he didn't have a permit for the booth from what okay yeah okay all right all right um

questions from the board

okay questions and comments um i don't know what this is but i mean you need um

the licensing from their state agencies that deal with this, not just the city. So, you're

going to have to have hazardous waste disposal. And with respect to a paint booth, there are

fire readings that you have to meet. So, there's a whole process for applying for use of a paint