okay chair we can move on okay is there anyone else in the virtual audience has comments
chair we have tina marie russell miss russell you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair
good afternoon
tina just state your name you've already been sworn to that i believe
tina marie russell north central philadelphia um cdc
right go ahead um we're going to support the um coordinator rco in this case um
we did not get notification so we really can't um
um we would like to see we can we um have this committee this this contest uh applicant come
back to the community so that we can do our due diligence as well um and that's what we'd like to
do if we if not then we would like to support the um coordinator thank you tina thank you
anyone else in the virtual audience
chair miss taytan is up well it was up now it's disappeared
there's no other hands chair planning commission uh ron bednar city planning this property is
indicated for residential use on a city plan or adopted district plan recommends no change
to the existing residential zoning at this location the applicant's hardship is not
supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property
that was prevented from being used in conformity with the code. This is a solidly single-family
neighborhood and block. Therefore, we recommend the request for variance to be granted. Not
carol you broke off carol scenario is no thomas holliman my vote is yes
james snell my vote is no ishmael shaheed my vote is no okay okay um chair this is tanya the
administrator may i make a request that miss tate you turn off your mute mute yourself turn off your
video and take your stuff off the screen and hold on to the last case. You can continue, Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. MI 2021-003-764-4231 Lancaster Avenue. RCO Letter in Support, People's Emergency Center,
Community Development Corporation, Henry Clinton.
Chair, Mr. Clinton will be rejoining as a panelist.
Mr. Clinton, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Sure, Mr. Chairman. Henry Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N, 1313 South 33rd Street, Queen Memorial Building,
19146. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Clinton. Do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. Based on our notes, it seems that you have sent the required documents in. Is that correct?
Yes, ma'am. Okay, you may proceed. Why are you in the dark?
You're in the total dark, isn't he? It's a story of my life.
Yes, he is. I don't think so. Okay, go to the crunch in.
uh can i i'll share my screen then sure
I'll share my screen then.
Is that visible?
Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Henry Clinton, on behalf of Asita Silla, who is also on the call with me, this is my presentation package containing table of contents AA through A11, and I'll walk through these briefly.
Appearance statement, refusal.
Just so the board knows, this is a referral and not a refusal.
And as the board is familiar, there's a different standard of proof required for a referral.
We're basically seeking a special exception, as this is a CMX2 zoning district.
The property is a commercial on the first floor, and there are two apartments above.
And the proposal is basically to use the ground floor as an event space for neighborhood meetings, birthday parties, and showers.
This is our letter of support from the People's Emergency Center.
Seven in favor, zero against.
I have photographs to show you of the block.
This is the 4200 block of Lancaster Avenue.
There's a lot of vacant buildings on this half of the block right now.
but gradually we see more businesses moving to the area and right now it's a laundromat next door
but you can see there's some vacant buildings and the community group as well as my client
is hoping that with her space I'll show you some pictures of the inside with her space and the
the level of detail that she has gone to to improve it that we're going to bring more
businesses to the block and hopefully many of those businesses will want to use this event space
to conduct some of their meetings
as well as their family members.
Hopefully we'll want to conduct
some family gatherings in this space.
These are the posting of our zoning notices.
And this is the plan of the facility.
I'll blow it up a little bit more.
We're not changing the footprint of the building.
We're not increasing the depth of the building
or the height of the building.
We're simply re-designating the interior of this space, which was vacant for many, many moons.
At the end of the presentation, I'll show you that this was once used as a furniture store, but again, we're going to change the use.
So pretty straightforward, enter through the front door.
The whole open space that I showed you in the photograph will be used for meetings and any other events.
There will be no food preparation here.
Anyone who wants to use the space will bring their own food and their own balloons and
anything else that they want to use to decorate the space.
There's ample bathrooms in the back.
There's a rear door that leads to the yard.
And in the yard, there's going to be a dumpster.
There's a rear alley that takes you out to 43rd Street.
And that's where the trash will be handled.
There'll be no dumpsters in the front of the property and no trash receptacles in the front
of the property. The rest of the documents are the pro forma documents that Ms. Tenere referred to
as I agree that yes, we submitted all the documents that were necessary to appear before the board.
Again, just to show the board, this is a zoning map of the 4200 block of Lancaster Avenue.
We are CMX2 and I wanted to show you that there is an alley on the back of that property leading
toward 43rd Street where the trash will be brought. So there's no detrimental impact to light
or air of any adjoining property. There's no impact on the development of adjacent properties.
The standard here for referral is not a hardship level. It's basically that we're not going to have
any detrimental impact on the public facilities in the neighborhood, no impact on light and
air, no additional congestion, and no contrary use to the spirit or the intent of the zoning
So with that, I would rest and ask that my exhibits be admitted into evidence and yield
to the board to see if there's any questions or comments.
Is your client here?
Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman.
Why don't you have your testimony?
Mr. Sita, can you unmute yourself?
Mr. Sita, can you raise your hand, please?
Mr. Sita, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Asta Silla, A-S-I-T-A, last name S-Y-L-L-A.
last name
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mrs. Sita, were you on the Zoom call when I made the presentation concerning your property at 4231 Lancaster Avenue?
and if you had the opportunity to testify would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true
and correct yes thank you mr cita questions from the board no what's the capacity the capacity is
going to be 50 people okay and the hours of operation hours of operation will be 8 a.m till
10 pm. Thank you. Questions from the virtual audience? I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission. This property is currently indicated for commercial mixed use on the city
plan, we recommend that the special exception be granted.
MI 2021 003764 4231 Lancaster Avenue, I vote yes.
Carol Tannery, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ismail Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
MI-2021-003-765-5319 Chester Avenue.
No RCO letter at this point.
Darlene Threat.
Ms. Threat, can you raise your hand, please?
She's already here. Darlene, you can unmute.
Can you unmute?
Good afternoon, Commissioners. Can you hear me?
Yeah. Could you just state your name? We already have sworn you in once before.
My name is Darlene Threat. Commissioners, we did meet with the Civic Association.
Okay, wait a minute. We'll get to that.
Hi, Jorlene, do you have some questions and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
And you have submitted everything that was required?
Yes, I did.
You may proceed.
Proceed.
Good afternoon, commissioners.
I'm going to share my screen.
Can you see it?
Thank you.
Oh, that's the wrong one. I'm sorry.
Commissioner, I submitted a presentation package today that contains the refusal, the appeal, the project information form, tax information, deed, zoning history, plans, pictures, a community letter, and a certificate of mailing.
I'm going to start by indicating that this is a vacant lot currently.
It's zoned as a RSA 5, and we're requesting to put three dwelling units inside of this new structure.
I'm going to scroll down now to what I call the zoning history to just give you a background.
on this structure here.
I'd like you to look at this first document, page number 15.
This is 5319, it was in the zoning archive, and I'd like to show you that 5319 was used
previously for a three-family dwelling before it was knocked down.
So it had used as a three-family dwelling since about 72.
to, the uses had changed, but I just wanted to show you that it had a history of being
a multifamily dwelling. I also like to show you some of the near properties that just
received zoning very recently. We can see here that 5303 Chester has just been approved
for a lot of units, which is a nine-family dwelling. I also like to show you the zoning
history of other properties on a block 5317 was used as a three family dwelling.
was used as a three-family dwelling.
And then we have here 5307 is currently approved just recently for a four-family dwelling.
And lastly, there are other multi-families on the block, a two-family dwelling at 5303, I believe.
Here I'll show you the pictures of the property and the lot now. As you can see, these houses
on Chester Avenue are huge. It's a very big lot. It's a 16 by 74, which is a pretty big lot.
These structures and the other houses on the block I tried to give you, there are a lot of
missing houses on this block also but as you can see these are very very very old large houses and
they haven't been any new constructed single families in a while although they made new
renovations. I just took some additional pictures of the block to show you how large these properties
are and how far they go back here. I'm just going to scroll through some additional pictures here
and as you can see, there is a parking on the block. Parking, I went there in the daytime as
well as the evening time and it didn't seem to be an issue. There are many other vacancies on this
block. As you can see across the street is a old, like an adult care home. They have a huge
a parking lot inside of that home and the times that I went to the neighborhood there was actually
no cars parked on the other side of the street there and I would indicate to you that parking
currently is okay. Now I'd like to go through the plans with you and I do have the architect on the
line Mr. Meena if there are any specific questions that I'm not able to answer but here is the site
plan. This is the location where our parcel sits on this block, and this is a site plan just of
the parcel. I'm going to scroll down now and show you the floor plan that we intend to build with.
We have the basement for utilities only. On the first floor we have one single two-bedroom,
two-bathroom apartment. The second floor contains two bi-level units, two two-bedroom bi-level
units. On the actual second floor is the kitchen, a bathroom, and a living area for both apartments.
kitchen, bathroom, and living area for both apartments. On the third floor are the two
bedroom areas and the two bathrooms. And then we have a full roof, a full roof plan so we
can meet the cornice lines of the rest of the properties on the block. There is just
an elevation of what the property would look like this is the front of the property we tried to
match the exterior to how the other properties on the block look and this is our full roof here
to make the property match the existing properties on the block and we did give
the two bi-level departments the benefit of a back re-alcony. Commissioners, we did meet with
the Civic Association. We had a meeting there, and I did send out the notices. Now, I did not get a
letter from the Civic Association, but it was my understanding that they were inclined to support
the application. And with that, I have Mr. Stanley Nenna, the architect for the project, and the
owner, Mr. Simon Kiyoko, the co-owner with Mr. Nenna. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Do you want to ask one of your owners? Mr. Kiyoko, are you on the line?
Mr. Kiyoko, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Sir, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Simon Kiyoko, S-I-M-O-N, Kiyoko, K-I-O-K-O.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Mr. Kiyoko, are you the co-owner of this plot of land?
Mr. Kiyoko, are you the-