she said to the people that they had to give their addresses
on the voting paper before
and I'm saying that did they give their addresses
did you follow up to see where they lived in connection to
where this program was being proposed
where the project was being proposed and I can say that for them to have
12 days, they didn't because we don't have 12 homeowners
on the block. You understand? We have
apartment buildings. At one end of the block, we may have
about two apartments on the buildings
on the block and a rooming house, and they do not
live in any of those buildings. A lot of them that were there
and voted. So I'd just like to say the ROC vote
that came in their favor at the beginning of this meeting was not valid.
Thank you very much for your testimony.
We have four other people waiting to tell us,
but thank you for taking the time to call in.
All right, thank you so much.
Next hand, please.
Yes, next to be promoted will be Charles Richardson.
Charles Richardson, please accept the promotion to panelists.
good morning mr good morning mr richardson
charles yeah please state your name miss bell certainly charles richardson r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n
office of councilwoman cindy bass room 508 city hall you waived the rating of the i'm sorry do
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth sir i i do please
proceed uh wondering if devon will uh and his client re uh rethink this because of the fact
that at this point if the project is too dense uh it is not in keeping with the neighborhood
and or anything close to the neighborhood um i think that that they would likely need to
you need need to redesign the building and come back and speak to the community again
i'm wondering if devon would would consider that rather than go through with this vote because if
that's the case then the councilwoman will not be approving this all right so what what what i'm
going to do is uh mr retcherson i have maybe three other people on the line what what i think i need
to do is get them all in here one record to testify and then um devon can figure out where
he is okay thank you thank you very much next hand please yes we have a phone number ending
in three five five two they have been allowed to speak please unmute yourself
good morning
hello good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes adrian fernandez swap little rco right adrian just for the record spell your name
my last name is spelled f-e-r-n-e-n-d-e-z
all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do uh adrian um could you give us your position on this case we've we've heard a great
deal of testimony we let's are you in favor or against this project um yes we are against this
project, this project has dragged on for years because the owner, Rafi, I forgot his last name,
and also starting out with attorney Jeffrey Young, who's now a DC 5 council person,
they made numerous attempts to deceive the neighbors and to hide what they were trying
to build. We turned in detailed information. For example, this property was never posted,
never posted. The next-door neighbor took pictures of that, and I did submit all those
pictures except for the lack of posting for today's hearing. So if there are pictures or
postings, they are misstatements and lies, and I think that needs to be considered as part of the
dishonesty with this project. So we also had asked for this to be dismissed, and we are asking that
We also have asked for this to be dismissed, and we are asking that this be denied.
this be denied.
And with respect to what Charles Richardson of DCA is saying, we're asking that if the project is redesigned, we're asking for a new refusal and also complete drawings.
The current attorney and his partner, Jeffrey Young, have never, never given us drawings that were legible, including fonts that were as small as one point.
There's no way.
I have very good vision.
I'm not going to try to read that, and I don't think anybody else should have to.
We have never had, if you have illegible drawings, you have no drawings.
Also, the changes he's making, the changes to dimensions and also units.
We've never seen any of the documentation at all.
Revisions, never seen any of it.
A number of units, even at eight units,
you're talking about at least being allowed
to have 32 occupants next door to single-family homes
at a single-family address and a single-family district,
and we're opposed to that.
So what they're asking to do is overuse of the variance,
And as I submitted earlier, there was falsified voting that was explained in detail by the neighbor, Tracy, and other neighbors complained about this payment problem with the voters that come to Allegheny West Foundation meetings.
I believe the planning commission accused us of abusing Regina Smith. No, Regina Smith is abusing the community over and over again with falsified votes, allowing payment for votes.
I'm proposing violence when we don't agree.
Adrian, let's go back.
So you're definitely opposed to this project.
Yes, but I want all my testimony to be considered
because this is abuse with Allegheny West Foundation
is doing in a case where you have multiple affected RCOs
who all must be recognized.
We are all equal and must be recognized.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Next hand, please.
Yes, we have a hand.
For the phone number ending in 7B12, you have been allowed to speak.
Please unmute yourself.
Good morning.
Guy, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Harold, H-A-R-O-L-D, Hawkins, H-A-W-K-I-N-S.
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth?
I'm opposed.
The whole truth is nothing but the truth.
All right.
Are you a neighbor?
I'm opposed to this. Yes, I'm a neighbor. Two properties away from the proposed project.
Okay, and you're absolutely opposed to this?
Absolutely opposed. Mainly for congestion reasons. Parking down is extremely difficult.
and a few other things
and I might want to add
because I'm on the same side
of the building
and there's a private sewer
in the back of that property
that runs through
and covers all the properties
on that side
that with this building
that might have something to do
with them not wanting
or pushing the building back
because a private sewer
this and which will cause undue stress to some of my neighbors financial stress all right mr
hawkins thank you so much for staying on the phone and we appreciate your testimony okay next hand
please there are no more hands thank you um devon yes uh do you want to comment yeah so i guess um
So what you mentioned is, what was mentioned was that, in summary, based on a letter of support and the voting that was sent in from Allegheny West, there were 36 people in attendance.
16 supported it, I mean, 12 supported it, and seven opposed it.
One was an RCO board member, which was one of the RCO members who speak.
Kind of what you witnessed is there seems to be some infighting between the RCOs.
The head RCO who I had to deal with directly is Regina Smith, who was able to count the votes and check the names of the voters who were affected neighbors and verified their addresses.
a separate RCO did not want the property to go forward but did not the affected neighbors were
not actually there to actually vote to oppose it so I think some of what's unfolding is a little
outside of my client's peer view with infighting between RCOs okay so just just want to clarify
okay um so just just want to clarify that um additionally uh one thing that was mentioned
about it.
Additionally,
from the beginning was uh storage uh so the storage that are in our drawings are actually
in the basement so that wouldn't affect any neighbor um and then secondly the dumpster
was something that the rco told us they wanted us to do so the affected neighbors who were there
who would actually take part in actual voting because their address made them
effective, that RCO said that they wanted the dumpster. That's
how we got to that. So basically, we said, well, how would we help
solve the trash issue that the block in general has? And the RCO said, we want the dumpster
in the back of the house. We said, do you want it in the front or do you want it in the back?
And they said, we don't want it in the front because we don't want it just exposed to neighbor
in general. And they said, we want it in the back. That's how we came to it. So some of this stuff
it's because we were told that this is what they were actually the people actually wanted who would
be affected okay thank you very much planning commission
thank you chair and good morning david fecto with the city planning commission
chairman of board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa3 residential
single family zoning at this location the appellant has not shown that complying with
dimensional standards of rsa3 would be an economic detriment to the property's reuse
the appellant could divide the property into two code compliant lots and build two single family
buildings a multi-family dwelling with two units would match that density the absence of off-street
parking is characteristic of this block face the city planning commission recommends that the board
grant the proposed variance for not providing off-street parking deny the proposed dimensional
variances for occupied area and rear depth, and grant the proposed use variance for multifamily
dwellings, but with a maximum of two dwelling units. MI 2022 001-943-3113 North 16th Street, I vote no.
Michael Johns, my vote is no. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no. Teneda Graham, my vote is no.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is no.
Aylin, my vote is no.
Thank you, counsel.
The votes are no.
All right.
Number two, MI 2024-00502, 1936 North Front Street.
Ryan Bolin is the attorney.
good morning good morning mr boland could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer yes ryan boland r-y-a-n-b-o-l-a-n-d do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client their relationship to the
property yes my client is the applicant and the legal owner of property north front street
properties llc uh board member uh tenetta graham has a few questions for you hi good morning um
have you submitted your documents five days in advance of this hearing yes i have and and so
this is a special reception referral so does he need to he don't need to stipulate right
Still does.
All right.
So do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you.
You may share your screen and proceed.
Count, are you representing both the owner and the tenant?
It's one and the same.
Terrific.
So. So I represent Star Bowl. They're the restaurant that's been operating there for about two years.
So this is at 1936 North Front Street. We are here today with the support of the RCO, Norris Square Community Action Network.
We had two meetings. After the first meeting, we did some more due diligence in order to locate a parking lot nearby so that any parking wouldn't affect existing parking.
So we're here today. We're seeking a special exception.
This is an existing family restaurant and bar, and we're seeking a special assembly use.
We're not seeking to expand the footprint of the restaurant.
it's really just so they can do things such as baby showers weddings stuff like
that without running afoul of the law this is in a CMX 2.5 zoning district
it's a it's a pretty big lot and I'll um this is showing you
It's a it's a pretty big lot. And I'll. This is showing you here.
So it's right up against the L here. This is. It's right up against the L.
And my clients aren't new to the business. It's a part of the vintage syndicate.
They have six different restaurants with about eight locations, vintage time, the Goat Rittenhouse garage.
So these are very experienced folks. And we have entered into a contract.
just to the northwest about a block and a half with a community group, a nonprofit named Ziente,
in order to rent a parking lot, which was one of the requests. We had originally proposed
that the RCO, that we just simply use Platinum Valet, who is a well-known, reputable valet company
in the city. But the concern was where are the cars going to go? So we were able to enter into
a contract for this nearby lot and then we went back to the RCO in June and we were able to get
their support. So I'm just going to briefly walk you through some of the photos just because I
think the the location here is important to understand the use. So right here is the building
in blue. It's right up against the L. You can see there's a courtyard right here on the northeast
corner. This is just this is just the general layout. We have just a as you can see it's mostly
seating I'll show you the interior photos just quickly this is the courtyard this