been done to the unit
since your client purchased it in 2021?
your client purchased it in 2021 no no and then have any test has any testing been done to any of
And then have...
the utilities and building systems since it was purchased in 2021 let me let me ask my client
that i saw pocket test qualche inspección de cualquier sistema dentro del edificio come
He says that about two years ago, the alarm system was inspected.
The alarm system, okay.
And I'm sure as part of obtaining the CO for the building, you know, there's going to be a lot more testing done.
Well, sure. I mean, the building has been not in residential use for some time because it had been zoned for not having apartments. So, yes, I would imagine.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Ryan McSherry?
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Planning Commission.
Yes, Chair. I have a hand up by the name of Tyrone Williams. They have been promoted to penalist.
Hi, Reverend, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good evening.
Good evening, Reverend.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Sure, Chair.
My name is Pastor Tyrone Williams, Tyrone, T-Y-R-O-N-E, Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, sir?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
I'm affected RCO with the Strawberry Mansion CDC, and I haven't heard of this case.
This is the first I'm hearing of it.
And, you know, I just want to bring that to the record that has affected RCO.
I didn't know nothing about this case, and this is not the first time this has happened.
And I don't know if we supposed to have been part of, you know, the decisions or the meetings or whatever, but I have not.
This is the first time I'm hearing of this case.
Mr. Vaccaro, was there anybody else there besides the other RCO?
There was another when we had our we did a walkthrough.
We did a walkthrough and there was a member of another affected RCO.
if i may look up the property on the city's atlas system and let's see if a name rings a bell one
moment please could it be swamp poodle yes all right uh pastor what uh what's your rco
strawberry mansion community development corporation okay
I did, because whenever I communicated by email, I circulated emails to all the affected RCOs.
Let me take a look.
Well, there's Strawberry Mansion Community Concern, Bonita County.
That's not me.
And then there's Swampoodle Neighborhood Parcels, Adrienne Fernandez.
So perhaps we weren't part of that because of the location. I just wanted to make that part of the record. As an infected RCO in Strawberry Mansion, we have not heard of this case.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us. We do appreciate it.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have two more hands up. Strawberry Mention Community Concern has been promoted to panelists.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Strawberry nature community?
Okay, there she goes.
I'm sorry.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, my name is Bonita Cummings, B-O-N-I-T-A-C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
please proceed um strawberry mansion um community concern um notified all appropriate persons
involved in what the uh planning commission records indicate should be uh notified as
as affected and or coordinate rcos so story mansion uh community development corporation uh to monitor
So Storway Mansion Community Development Corporation, to my knowledge, was not an affected RCO.
So I'm not sure whether Mr. Vaccaro has sent any communication to them or not, but we follow whatever is instructed of us based on the information, and they are not an affected RCO.
Thank you. Also, there was a site visit by two RCOs and committees and their committee members.
And, you know, into the building. And we did have we're not opposed.
The building's been there. I mean, people have been living in this building.
And, you know, I'm not sure who's aware of what, but, you know, it's fully habitated.
And what we did see, we did have a discussion about one of the concerns primarily was electrical because there was, which we showed in the exhibit that we sent with our communication, you know, a lot of plug in around water, you know, tub areas with heaters, electrical heaters, and particularly around this time.
So I'm assuming that the certificate of occupancy may address those concerns and also whatever egress concerns.
The building was built in 1915, and so it is a very old building.
And we just, in being responsible, want to make sure that all of, you know, all of those types of safety and or even structural concerns are just mentioned.
And you've already talked about the trash, which will be maintained indoors in a yard area. We did omit just any open fire. Those balconies are wood, so I'm not sure if they're permitted to do a lot of open fire out on those balconies, but that would be the only other thing. Thank you.
Thank you for calling. We appreciate it.
And my last name is spelled F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
For this address, Planning Commission did send us an RCO notice,
and there are two affected RCOs for this address with Strawberry Mansion Community Concern,
RCO serving as the RCO coordinator.
And we did, with others, have a site visit.
And the applicant party, Attorney Vaccaro was there, and the applicant party had a good number of members from their company, which owns the grocery store in the building.
And they were very cooperative with everything that we asked for because the building was pretty unique in how it's changed.
But we are asking for a certificate of occupancy, so any type of hazards would be checked before, you know, would be checked.
We also asked that the lease has all occupants for each unit listed on the lease because the building is fully occupied.
And I don't know if we can ask this or not, but we're asking for a limit of four occupants per apartment,
and that would be 16 persons, the maximum 16 persons living above the store because there are a lot of occupants.
And also, there was no national and racial diversity in the occupants.
They were all Hispanic, possibly white Hispanics.
So we would ask that the owners consider offering rentals to other people in the neighborhood because it's close by.
One thing we don't understand, so there was no discrepancy in terms of the RCOs that were contacted or the RCO notice that was sent by the Planning Commission.
Also, it would help if ZPA could clarify for everyone when there's a conflict and recusal is needed because the RCO that called, it matches one of the board members, the organization that one of the board members is, I believe, director of.
And that would be Starbrain Managing Community Development Corporation.
Adrian, we don't believe that has anything to do with this case, so we know what the provisos are, and we appreciate your call. Thank you very much.
We know what the provisos are, and we appreciate your call.
Thank you very much.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing commercial mixed-use zoning.
The proposed use is consistent with documented prior use of this property.
the city planning commission recommends that the zoning ward grant the variance for multi-family
household living thank you mi 2024 002 349 28 37 39 whistley high avenue i vote yes with provisos
interior trash storage no household living in the basement certificate of occupancy must be obtained
michael johns my vote is a yes with provisors
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with provisors
tennetta graham my vote is yes with provisors
tyoan my vote is yes with provisors
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with provisors
thank you counsel
thank you
and number nine mi2024-005-635-412 bainbridge street number one
anthony chastic and dylan lamorte letter of non-opposition from queen the village
letter of non-opposition from council member squilla
and there is a letter of opposition from a near neighbor
counsel
oh apologies uh sure hi counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
uh yes uh my name is anthony schwastik c-h-w-a-s-t-y-k do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
the relationship to this property yes uh and i will start sharing my screen
okay so you're going to identify your clients right yes my uh client is carlos rogers
who is the oh you know what sorry let me stop share apologies
please. There we go. All right. Can you see the? We can. Okay, great. So our vice chair has a few
questions for you, sir. Yes. That's correct. Yes. Have you emailed in all the required documents
and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing? Yes,
they were emailed five days in advance thank you counsel please proceed uh yes so um i represent
carlos rogers who with his wife adrian rogers are the fee owner of uh the property uh the property
being 412 bainbridge street philadelphia pa uh this is a copy of the deed that should be shared
the um apologies okay so uh the uh timeline here is basically uh currently uh mr rogers and his
wife operate the premises for visitor accommodations particularly uh short-term rentals uh through
airbnb and vrbo the property is subject to a variance um which was granted on january 18th
2023 it's set to expire on february 1st 2025 so we filed uh a uh a zoning permit application
It was refused on July 30th, 2024.
We filed our application for appeal on August 5th, 2024.
This is the project information form.
And we have duly received our tax clearance certificate.
go. So basically the application before the board today is a permit for use visitor accommodation,
specifically short-term rentals. We would like to have a longer period for the variance,
particularly we think after the two years that we've operated, and as the evidence will show,
operated without incident that the variants be indefinite.
incident that the variants be indefinite, subject to, you know, any, you know, provisos the board
may see fit. This was presented to the Queen Village Neighbors Association. As you can see,
there were two folks in opposition. In discussions with my client, those were of a general nature.
There were no specific safety or privacy concerns that were brought up.
Specifically, there were no, and more importantly, I suppose, there were no incidents that were referenced.
So these neighbors were speaking more from a theoretical perspective.
You know, certainly well taken by my client and understood.
But, you know, again, there was no, there's been no incident since this is operated as an Airbnb under my client's control.
We had one neighbor in support.
The zoning, the QVNA has decided not to oppose our request.
So as you can see, we have on or about September 20th issued our letter and notice to the neighborhood.
And this is our proof of mailing, which has been submitted to the board.
And I'll get into the, uh, property. Oh, sorry. Uh, this is the, uh, notice that was posted to
the front of the, uh, courtyard so that anyone entering the property would be able to see that
a, uh, zoning hearing was, uh, was scheduled. And then finally, here are the pictures of the
property. Um, here's a bird's eye view. Um, certain landmarks you'll be able to see are,
uh, famous for famous 4th street deli, uh, to the left. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
to the right. There's the PNC Bank to the left. This is the street view on Bainburg Street right
outside the premises. Similar street view. This is the front door of the unit. This is a security
camera utilized by the applicant. This is a photo from the outside looking into the living room of
unit this is one of the bedrooms of the unit that's another bedroom this is the
rooftop lounge area the kitchen the bathroom the living room as you can see
this is a Trinity style house and this is a the next few pictures are going to
be of the courtyard and areas surrounding the unit.
And that's, those are, those are the photographs.
So since Mr. Rogers has operated his Airbnb, his visitor accommodations, there have been
And no incidents, no calls to the police that we're aware of, at least.
He's had clear lines of communication with his neighbors.
In fact, he created a text chain so that he can get information real time about anything going on or any disturbances occurring.
That text chain, he's never had any complaints, certainly no serious complaints.
As for his involvement, he is not an absent – he lives about 20 minutes away in Riverton.
He has a salon that he owns on 3rd Street called Hushalon, and he's had a little over 100 bookings since the grant of the variants.
He has a near-perfect score on Airbnb, about 4.97 stars.
He's listed as a super host.
He visits the property once or twice a week to make sure that everything's in order.
And in general, it seems that this has been a positive and certainly not a negative property
with respect to the neighbors.
So, you know, as such, we request a extension of the variants or if it's more appropriate, a new variants, but we would like that variants to be indefinite if possible.
And when is your – did you say February 1st?
That's correct.
Is up.
Yeah, February 1st.
You want to bring your client on?
Carlos, do you – are you on?
I believe so.
I believe so.
Oh, excellent.
Oh, excellent. Great.
Great.
Hi, Carlos, could you please state your name?
Hi, Carlos, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Sure. Carlos Rogers, C-A-R-L-O-S-R-O-G-E-R-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Carlos, I want to confirm that there have been no incidents such as, you know, police being called to the premises