kitchen, bathroom. Cubbies, and what I'll show you in a sec, we do have security cameras on
premises. This is our floor plan page 75 of our presentation packet. So initially where we were
or here doing the photographs that I was showing, this is Washington Lane off to the right here,
this is Morton Street. So our primary entrance would be coming in through this way up the stairs,
arts and crafts area is immediately there with office, kitchen, closet storage,
decent sized daycare area with our sink, daycare slash office area and the changing area which is
off towards the Morton Street side of the property. Again, as discussed, here's the entrance from
Morton. Here's our ADA ramp. The building next door is a multi-family structure with apartments
in it. The concerns of the community were essentially based upon safety of the kids.
My client Ms. Selman has a history of working in child care. She has another location.
As I noted at the outset, she's a long-time resident of this neighborhood and frankly of
this very block so she's quite familiar and she's dedicated to performing pardon me to providing
rather a daycare that's safe for all the kids in the neighborhood that nobody else has to worry
about and will be an asset to the community neighbors concerns at our meeting which we held
on on monday night included um more or less concerns about parking namely there were concerns
that folks coming to this daycare might be parking in adjacent neighbors' driveways.
We came to an agreement with a community group that we will be placing signs
indicating not to park in other folks' driveways.
Generally speaking, drop-off and pickup hours are not during rush hour peak times,
and the drop-off and pickup system is relatively streamlined. Ms. Salmon can explain it further
if necessary. But the parents will come, they get their kid, and then they leave, and that's the
extent of it. So we try to be cognizant of community concerns. So overall, because this
will not enter the community, because there is a demand for daycares in the area, there's a lot
of kids, a lot of families, because Ms. Salland is a long-time resident and long-time daycare
provider and has the experience and training necessary to do so, we'd ask that the board
grant this variance as there's a hardship because frankly there's no way that this can really be
turned back into a single family home at this point considering the apartments above and the
fact that this used to be some sort of doctor's office so it makes sense if you would continue
the use of some sort of commercial use uh that's why we face a hardship and that's why i'd ask this
board to grant a variance uh we're happy to build a building you want to have your client come on
and you're going to adopt your testimony can be adopted sure miss salman if you're present would
I heard your testimony can be adopted.
Ms. Salmon, if you're present, would you please raise your hand and ask to be unmuted?
Would you please raise your hand?
Ma'am, please unmute yourself.
You're free to speak.
Great.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
My name is Bernisha Salmon.
That's B-E-R-N-I-S-H-A.
Last name Salmon, S-A-L-M-O-N-D.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
yes sir hi proceed council okay miss salmon you've heard my testimony today yes and uh is there
anything you'd like to add to my testimony um no okay no thank you and you're satisfied with my
testimony it would be uh your testimony if you were to testify today as well yes sir and you
fully adopt my testimony as your own correct yes correct great i don't have any other questions
for you all right questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman all right
questions mr chairman this is mr chairman this is hillary i just have a quick question for mr
mulvihill um with regards to the proviso that was suggested by the rco is the applicant
in agreement with that proviso if the board should decide to grant in this matter which which element
specifically i think oh i apologize there were two the one that was enforceable would be the
access point for the child care facility from the morton street entrance right so we we need
to keep the second entrance open because it is ada but the primary entrance is going to be here
along washington lane as there were concerns from neighborhood residents about using morton
street as the primary entrance due to the fact that there's a residence next door
and due to traffic concerns on morton street so this will be the primary entrance we don't have
a problem with that but we will have to use the secondary entrance for ada purposes from time to
time because the the rco asked for the to use primarily the morton street entrance
they must have typed that backwards because that is not what was suggested during the meeting by
Okay. Okay. Maybe there'll be somebody on when we get to the virtual audience. Okay?
Okay. Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson.
Good morning, Mr. Richardson.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room three.
Oh, I forgot we moved. 503 City Hall.
Okay. Do you swear for them to tell the truth, the whole truth? Nothing but the truth.
I do. Just with regard to that proviso, the RCOs after the fact did come up with that.
They looked at the entranceway on Washington Lane as being very problematic because that is a state highway
and very highly traveled. So, you know, if people are double parking things along those lines,
it will cause some confusion. That's why they said that they would prefer to have
the primary entrance on Morton Street where there is ADA and also that was the main entrance to the
doctor's office as well. And again, we have no position on it other than I just want to make
that clarification. Oh, Mr. Richardson, just so I'm clear. So during our meeting, we discussed
having the primary entrance be on washington that switched after we left yes sir okay cool
that's why the letter is different than what i remember thank you okay okay all right is there
anyone else in the virtual audience i see no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman
ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission board members the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the existing rsa3 single-family zoning at this location however
this property was converted to a medical office in 1952 and established as a legal non-conforming
non-residential use this proposed use we feel is consistent with the configuration of this
existing building and so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant
this variance thank you and um mr mobile are you comfortable with that morton street entrance
I am. If we could have my client unmute just to verify that. Ms. Salmon, would you please raise
your hand and unmute yourself just to clarify that since that is different than what we initially
discussed? Yes, that's perfectly fine. That's perfectly fine with me. Great. Thank you. Thank
you. MI 2022-000-908-6302 Morton Street. I vote yes. Proviso. Primary access to the child care
Primary access to the child care facility will be from buildings, Morton Street entrance.
facility will be from buildings more
Harold Tineri, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
So, number six, MI 2022-003386-2701 Oakford Street.
It's a pro se.
Jerry Janjigalino is the owner.
Letter of support from resident organized for advocacy and direction.
he's been promoted to a panelist hi sir could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
oh um i apologize can you hear me that's fine just just state your name and spell for the
court reporter please uh jeffrey jan julio uh g-i-a-n-g-i-u-l-i-o it's a mouthful all right
do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do and
you're the owner of the property sir i am our vice chair has a few questions okay hi good morning do
you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes have you emailed
Zip a packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing.
And have you met with the RCO?
And do you have a letter?
Yes, I do.
Okay, great.
You may proceed and begin sharing your screen.
Carol, do me a favor.
Carol, read the request.
The capitals, capital letters.
Wait a second.
which capital letters where we're on number so i'll do i i have it this application is for the
visitor's accommodation in existing structure the proposed visitor's accommodation is prohibited
in the zoning district rm1
i saw that i apologize no no no get out of here not to apologize
let's proceed sir okay yeah let me share my screen
all right can you see my screen we can awesome thank you so much so um yes my wife and i bought
this property back in 2018 and um we do short-term rent the property uh most of the people we try to
rent to are from CHOP and Penn is really the tribe that we go for. So I know there's a lot
of mixed emotions about this. A lot of people don't want it. A lot of people do. All I can do
is basically give you all the issues that I see. And over the years, what we learned to
fix these issues. So again, it's really to provide a safe place for guests to go who are going to
hopefully chop and pen, bring local revenue to the local businesses. Our cleaner is actually
local in Grace Ferry. We also, so is our maintenance man. And we call out a lot of the
stores, like the corner store with people to our future guests. So I know, again, our goal is to
respect the community by avoiding parking, XX noise, parties, and trash. The issues that come
with short-term rentals. So how do we do that? And I'll tell you, it was a learning process.
In the beginning, it was a little rough, but we've learned. And so we screen people very thoroughly. There's certain things, if they book the maximum amount of people, if they book zero in a house that fits eight people, then it's immediately going to draw the flag.
And if that flag is raised, we actually, well, we do make everybody put in writing.
I understand if outside cameras, neighbors, or hosts detect more than X amount of people, they're going to be kicked off the property.
And also, I wanted to explain parking.
Hold on.
So with parking, if we don't continue short-term renting this, odds are we're going to rent it to college kids probably because it's furnished over 30 days, probably three months at a time.
Most of our guests bring one to two cars.
This is what I explained to the community.
With the college kids, they're probably going to bring four or five cars, most likely.
So as far as the party avoidance, we put in a noise device.
When it's over a certain threshold, it alerts us.
When it's over a certain threshold, it alerts us, and we immediately tell the people to turn it down.
And we immediately...
If they won't, we're going to have to call the cops.
So as far as safety, you can tell this is in our first rodeo.
We really worked on making sure everything's in place.
But we have door codes that are only good for the person when they check in to when they check out, and then the code changes.
We have cameras. We don't want random people going back in there and doing anything unlawful.
For trash, we ask our guests to take out the trash. We also have the cleaners take out the
trash. Should that not happen, we partner with a company called Raging Raccoon to handle the trash.
And again, here's our target audience and why we love doing this. This is, I don't know if I can
move this over here. This is from one of our guests recently, and she heard that they were
shutting down short-term rentals um she says it really puts a damper on where people can stay
her granddaughter's in isolation uh will be for the next one to two months she can't stay in big
buildings or hotels and that's that's kind of the situation we run into a lot um so again we're
trying to do this safely properly and not just you know run run rampant and uh and that's about
it so and we're been doing this since 2018 so questions from the board no mr german i've been
doing this in your license to do it what's that are you licensed are you licensed to do this since
2018 so we have a rental license um they have not actually yeah we have a rental license basically
Now, this whole visitor accommodation is new.
Mark Squaila put it in and it's supposed to go in the place January 1st.
Anyone else from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Let me do that one more time because there was someone there.
here we go we have mary jameson okay
ma'am please unmute yourself hi could you state your name and spell the please for the court
reporter my name is mary jameson j-a-m-i-s-o-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do proceed
i don't like the idea of having this um
this station put here on bring her street this is a residential block
ma'am ma'am hold on hold on i think i think you have the wrong case
this is oakford street
oh i guess i have the wrong case that's fine thank you ma'am thank you is there anyone in
audience who has any comments for 2701 oakford street i see no hands chair planning commission
thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
uh board members the comprehensive plan recommends a zoning map amendment from rm1
to rsa5 at this location uh we do appreciate the steps this appellant has taken to minimize
impact but at the end of the day we don't believe this appellant has shown a hardship
to establish a hardship the code requires the appellant to show that the building cannot
reasonably be used as required by zoning the appellant has not shown that anything's preventing
them from using this unit as a dwelling unit rather than as a hotel room so the city planning
commission recommends that the board deny the variance if the board's inclined to grant we
recommend a proviso limiting the term of the variance to two years. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, we do have the other individual who called in previously with their hands up now.
Okay, good. Good. Okay. Mr. Chair, may I ask a question real quick before you go over?
Wait, wait, wait, wait. I have one more person to testify. Am I able to rebut this person?
Because I have... Just wait a second. Okay. Ma'am, you're free to speak.
hi state your name again my name is shola all right and i already swore you in but
state you spell your name one more time for the court reporter s-h-o-l-a last name is o-l-u-n
l-o-y-o all right proceed testify for the last three years i am the person most directly affected
by this property as i am next door i've had a recurring problem of various kinds with the
owners who have been basically operating in an extremely bad place.
Issues from sanitation, trash,