for to get into the two apartments that you're creating is that correct right that's what the
architect drew i believe what you're creating is really a roof deck and that's on your application
so you're going to have to submit for an amended refusal because on the application
and refusal there's nothing about the roof deck so we're going to have to hold this then until we get
it's a little confusing is it actually a roof deck or is it just a deck
off the back yeah it's on the roof because it is on the it is on the it's on the current roof of
the current garage right oh it is on the roof okay it is on the roof okay that was confusing
until he actually testified i didn't yeah from looking at the plans okay yeah it gets yeah it
is a little confusing even on this elevation all right how long would that take
we would have to do it uh three weeks because we're going to be off so september okay i didn't
hear what you said i we're looking now september 16th henry we can have this for uh september 16th
right okay on september 16th at two o'clock so what what is the the issue i couldn't hear because
it the voices uh the issue is that you need to submit for an amended refusal because of the five
foot walkway that you talked about um that's on the roof it's considered a roof deck that is not
on your application and it's not part of the refusal okay all right now i understand does that
make sense okay great thank you i just didn't hear you that's all september 16th at 2 p.m we'll vote
Thank you.
Oh, yeah, I'm sure. But I got to go up here 1st. Wait a minute.
What is there anyone in the virtual audience?
I have a hand up by Craig.
Madison met adults. Yeah. Hi, Craig.
yes hi craig uh chair bergman good good evening good evening could you please just state your
name and spell for the stenographer craig c-r-a-i-g last name melidosian m-e-l-i-d-o-s-i-a-n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do um please proceed all right not not to belabor this and i tried to jump on king sessing
but it's been continued uh i i first wanted to say that mr fashini uh i'm gonna
I first wanted to say that Mr. Faschini, I'm going to say with the shepherding of Hank, has been extremely flexible and easy to work with.
I don't want to castigate other people that come before us, but we spoke, he listened, and they made changes.
The whole new set of plans, Z1 and Z2, before you were generated after our initial RCOs meeting.
uh the setback i'll take the blame for it i'm sorry nick uh was was my fault uh the idea was
because the original plan went to the edge of the west elevation we took a look at seeing how we
could introduce some air for the tenants so when they were out there they could step outside their
apartment and still be able to look west i did think about the deck but i didn't think about
the way council did we also did raise the issue of coverage over the steps
sometime in the future did not understand realize that it would be
mandatory though I regularly do see them in South Philly where this type of
entrance is quite common we spent a lot of time discussing the issue of the
trash believe there'll be a two and a half yard roll-off dumpster there there
is short dumping on the block uh so we don't want his uh other people's trash to end up now
aggravating both nick and the tenants upstairs uh they did agree to though i don't know how
it'd be provisoed that adequate polls will be made for the commercial trash as well as the
domestic trash so that there'll be no build-up uh there has been unfortunately in southwest philly
there are always fights and occasionally a few murders over parking in our driveways
so we were concerned about that the idea was that obviously nick needs to load and unload trucks
or could be getting shipments in that he would be cognizant of the needs of the people
on the driveway who may need ingress or egress so it'd be typical a 20-minute term if there was
blockage otherwise they always agreed agreed to keep the drive lane open there is significant
parking west of this because it is an open lot or actually two open lots going from the western
side of nick's wall up to the next street so there will be sufficient parking there'll be
really no competition the english house is for special uh for physically challenged people who
are driving in and out and the brady home is mostly senior citizens so they're not a lot of
people parking on the street uh we uh we defaulted to you to the post office to let them set what
would be uh what their expectation is for where the boxes should be mounted and uh been in
situations where the postal service could end up assigning a different address to this within their
system that does not match up to the water department address. So that's something that
we thought about and that Nick should anticipate. We really went over this with a very fine-toothed
comb, even though there was only one person from the community that came forth.
We need new apartments. It's going to be meeting the current standard building code. There'll be
high efficiency apartments we do anticipate that it'll be sprinklered uh so it'll be state of the
art on top of a a commercial structure and wanted to thank nick and and thank henry and and thank
the board craig thank you for hanging around so long i'm getting a little later but we appreciate
it and and we agree with you about henry um okay so planning
nina solomonic the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change in
zoning at this location from the existing rm1 residential multifamily to rsa5 residential
single family there is no reason why the property cannot be used in strict conformity with the
zoning code the planning commission recommends the board deny the variance thank you um we're
going to vote on this on the 16th of september at 2 p.m thank you okay and we'll have everything
hopefully we'll have everything by then and henry could you stay on too please sure um thank you
nick we appreciate it thank you guys have a good one mi 2026 002 191 4441 spruce street henry
clinton is the attorney henry just for the record could you please state your name sure henry clinton
h-e-n-r-y clinton c-l-i-n-t-o-n and henry could you identify your client their relationship to
this property sure my client is simone lee sobers s-i-m-o-n-e lee l-e-e sobers s-o-b-e-r-s and she is
Sobers and she is on the call. Okay. Thank you. Our vice chair has just a few questions. Henry.
on the call okay thank you our vice chair has just
Good evening. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 5 days in advance of this hearing?
We have and do you waive the reading of your refusal and stipulate to the accuracy? We do. Okay. Thank you. You can share your screen and begin.
is that visible mr chairman yes all right so this is a little bit of an unusual situation here uh
the property is in the heart of penn's campus 44th and spruce it's on a block that is predominantly
apartments a mexican restaurant and one single family house this house uh historically was used
as a five-unit rooming house um i have some plans back from the 70s i can show you but
the plan or the quest is to legalize this as four units not five when we went in front of spruce
hill we presented five units they uh voted six uh to two not to not to oppose it but since that
meeting we reduced the the units to four and we provided spruce hill with those plans but
if they were unopposed to five, I gather, they would be unopposed to four.
So these are the table of contents, refusal A1 through A10, and these are the backup zoning
documents. I have some aerial photographs to show you that, again, the majority of the block,
it is partly RM1 and RTA1, but it's all apartments, some extremely large apartment buildings.
here's a refusal rta1 uh but again the request was for five family multi uh unit structure all
within the same footprint we're not expanding the footprint or the height or the width or the rear
yard and we have two refusals multi-family is not permitted new rta1 despite the fact there's many
on the block. And then there was a request for parking
for five accessory off-street parking spaces, which basically is a
physical impossibility. And historically, there's been no
parking at all for this property. Here's the RCO letter
of non-opposition. As I said, it's six non-opposition, two
opposed. And their letter is pretty straightforward
that they don't want to set a precedent. And they recognize,
as I said at the beginning, this is an unusual circumstance since it's currently zoned as a
five-unit rooming house. Right now, it is being used as five units, but there are five apartments.
There's five individuals in the property. The owner occupies the first floor, and then the
other four units are on a month-to-month lease because we didn't want to assume that we were
going to get approval. And we wanted the tenants to know what was going on. And there may be a
tenant or two on this call. The tenants are not, there's one postdoctoral student, but there's two
employees of the University of Pennsylvania. One's a doctoral assistant, and the other is
statistics analysis. And there's also a freelance medical analyst in the apartments, which are
fully furnished from top to bottom. And when I show you some of the photographs, you'll see that
is very well appointed uh so this is the photos of the 4400 block of spruce street and you know
right to left or uh you know east to west 28 apartments 40 apartments 3 6 3 3 and this is
my client's property right here and next door is apartments on the second floor
mexican restaurant on the first floor across the street 57 apartments and 33 apartments
This is just a view looking west.
The property is at the end here,
but these are some of the larger apartment complexes
I wanted to show the board.
Again, looking westbound on Spruce.
I'm moving west now.
Again, multifamily, multifamily, single family here.
And then this is our property, my client's property,
excuse me, right here where the porch is
next to the end property.
So we're getting closer.
Again, here's my client's property.
it at the almost at the end of the street uh you can get a better view it's it's really nice on the
outside nice detailing nice windows kept the old bays kept the old copula roof on the top
and all the existing stone and brickwork is there
straight ahead view this is my client's property in green
with bordered on a darker green and the restaurant at the corner
some interior photographs of the five
apartments that are there now
I think the photographs speak for themselves
uh photographs of our postings and close up to show you that the
photographs of our postings
trash receptacles are stored in front of the building as are the recyclables
so these are old time plans this is when it was a rooming house i don't want to dwell on these uh
but uh basically the first floor is is similarly now set up as an apartment there's a porch a
living room a kitchen back in the kitchen is here but back in the day there was a
community kitchen here then I'll go to the second floor again there were
bedrooms on the second floor really difficult to see and on the third floor
a utility room and some bathrooms these were the plans that we presented to the
The RCO, really rudimentary plans.
That's why my client went out and hired Harman Deutsch-Oller to come in and show the board some professional plans, which I'll move to now.
And we do have Rustin Ohlers on the call in case there are any questions that I can't answer about the floor plan or the layout.
So, again, this is the zoning map RTA1.
here's the lot very long as long as and deep as all the other lots on the block
except for the apartment buildings and here are the floor plans
so this is you know 44 41 spruce street the site plan the first plant first floor
will have has a porch let me see if i can blow it up so people can see a little bit better
so you walk in the front steps there's a lobby here trash receptacles and recycling in the front
walk in down toward the living room area the porch a study your sunroom on the front
the kitchen in the middle bathroom here bedroom here and there's a set of steps that go up to
the rear of the second floor and the rear of the second floor and the entire first floor
is going to be one unit.
So again, that redundant a little bit.
Here's the first unit, first floor, and second.
Go up the stairs, second unit, kitchen, living, bedroom.
Continue up to the third floor.
Third unit is in the rear.
Again, kitchen, bathroom, one bedroom.
These are all occupied by one individual.
We have a professional management company that manages the property,
makes sure that things are handled fine, well, that leases are by-to-buy.
Tenants put out the trash.
We do have a trash closet here on the third floor.
We do not have a trash closet on the second floor because, frankly, again,
this is an existing building.
It is difficult to fit in a trash closet.
I mean, Unit 2 has to go down one flight of stairs,
and he or she is already
at the front of the building
so they use the trash receptacles
we haven't had any complaints or issues
thus far
and we even let the one family
on the block that owns the
only single family house
we invited them to walk through the house
I walked through with them so they could see
what was going on and
what this was intended to be
that is four units
application
notification, tax center notification or documentation that no taxes are owed, zoning
map, again, RTA closer to where our client's property is, RM1, down at the end of the block,
as well as across the street, deed indicating ownership since 2013, notice letter to all
the occupants of properties within 250 feet. We've mailed out 80 pieces of mail. And then here are
the zoning records. I don't want to belabor it, Mr. Chairman, but I'll go through it to prove that
what I've said in this chart is accurate. 28 units, 40 units, vacant, six persons, three persons,
3, 3, 57, and 33, 40, 01, 28, 40 units, 3 units, 27, 44, 31, 6 units, 3 units, that was 37, 44, 39, 3 units, and subject unit, 44, 41, again, shows 5 units,
And I do have, actually, I have a zoning permit indicating that it was a rooming house.
And the other side of the street, on the even side of the street, 33 units.
Excuse me, this is the even side of the street, 57 units.
57 units and this is our management contract that we have with property management services
And this is our management contract that we have with proper.
Helen Gill I've met her at the property she's on top of it the tenants there from what I
understand like it would like to stay there but again they're only on month-to-month leases right
now and this is the property certificate five rooming units to accommodate five people so
We have five units. There happen to be apartments, and there are five people. Even though it is not a rooming house anymore, it's compliant with what the property certificate indicates.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to conclude the testimony by just saying that we're not impacting any lighter air. We're in harmony with the block. We're in harmony with the RCO.
um and with that i'd ask my client to unmute herself simone if you could unmute yourself
and uh field any questions that the board or why don't we bring her on a moment we'll take