I'm here all right. Thank you, Emily.
And Chair, we have 34 attendees, we can start as you wish.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning a hearing.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismael Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also, Emily Persico from Development Services will serve as our alternate Board Member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Present also is our Attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our Executive Director, Tanya Sumkin.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised the proceedings are being recorded.
a video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phil.gov. For the benefit of
our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testify.
If you're participating in my phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and
star 6 to unmute. To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548. Leave your email
and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question-to-answer box on the screen
is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed
to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkett.
Let's look at our schedule for this morning.
Number one, MI 2023-003-085,
3550 North 6th Street, that case is continued.
Number five, MI 2023-003-142, 3111 West Montgomery Avenue, that case is continued.
Number 14, MI 2023-003-087, 5429 North 2nd Street, that case is continued.
And number 16, MI 2023, 003-036-336 Dickinson Street, that case is continued.
Are there any comments relative to the cases that have been continued?
Good morning, Chair.
This is Nadia, and I will be your co-host today.
I see no hands.
Are there any other additional requests for continuance?
No hands.
We have several cases and we do not have exhibits.
Number six, MI 2022 006702 1003 South 51st Street.
We have no exhibits.
This is the third listing.
um the last listing no one appeared this must is marked must be heard
jared louder back and carrie and lower the listed owners
no hands chair so mi 2022 006 702 1003 south 51st street third listing uh
No exhibits. I vote to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is to dismiss. Thank you.
Number seven, MI 2023-003-136-3134
Willits Road. No exhibits. First listing.
Christina Williams is the applicant. Berardo Salvatore
is the listed owner.
no hands chair okay so mi 2023 003 136 3114 willach road this is the first listing
this case is continued mark must be heard number eight
This case is continued. Mark must be heard.
Number 18, MI 2023, 003-395-5317 Wayne Avenue, listed onerous Kinsman Corporation, no exhibits, first listing.
no hands okay so MI 2023-003-395-5317 Wayne Avenue this is the first listing
no exhibits cases continued mark must be heard and number 19 MI 2022-006-332-6142
Tulip Street. This is the third listing. No exhibits.
The listed applicant is Bezitta
Cadillo of the Frankfurt Business Center.
That's the listed owner.
We have Allison Wise with their hand raised. I will allow them to
speak.
Yes, hello. Good morning. Thank you.
Allison, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court sonographer?
Allison, A-double-L-I-S-O-N, Weiss, W-E-I-S-S, Solo Germantown Civic Association.
We're an affected...
Okay, hold on.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And you're involved in 6142 Tulip Street?
No, I wanted to comment on 5317 Wayne Avenue.
Okay, so that case has been continued.
Yes, we did not have an RCO meeting.
And we don't have exhibits, but it's the first listing.
So we continue.
Thank you.
All right.
Is there anyone for 19?
6142 Tulip Street, Manuel Achevita, Nixda del Karma, Soto Martinez.
We have a price with their hand raised.
I've allowed them to speak.
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
rashida price please unmute yourself
i'm sorry i had my hand raised uh for south 53rd street earlier but i took it down okay thank you
Thank you. Anyone for 6442 Tulip Street, third listing, no exhibits.
No hands.
MI 2022-006-332-6142 Tulip Street, no exhibits, third listing. I vote to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is to dismiss.
Thank you.
And number 11, MI 2023, 003089-501-05 Locust Street.
This case is withdrawn.
We're going to go to our regular list.
We're going to go to number four first.
First, MI 2023-002-341-741 South 20th Street, David Orfanides is the attorney.
There's a letter of deferral from South of South Davers.
Good morning, Mr. Orfanides.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
David, you seem to be freezing up.
David Orphanides, O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
Certainly.
My client is 1711 Carpenter Properties, LLC, and they are the owner of the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Certainly.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I've emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed to share your screen.
Can everybody see my screen?
We can, sir.
So, again, my name is David Orphanides.
I'm with the law firm of Orphanides & Toner and here representing 1711 Carpenter Properties, LLC.
As you would see from the deed that we have at tab 14 of our exhibit book, my clients
have owned the property since May of 2022.
Let's see right here.
The property has been a rental property dating back at least to 2007.
I've pulled from Atlas the rental licenses showing from 2007 to 2020 and then up to my
current client.
As you can see from the photograph here, which is the cover of our exhibit book, the property is a single-family dwelling, again, that's been utilized as a residential rental property.
It does have a one-car garage, and as you can see from the photograph, there is a bus stop located directly right in front of our property, right on the doorstep.
Um, the, uh, this is an application for visitor accommodations, uh, which is what, uh, LNI,
the city of Philadelphia and LNI has determined that Airbnbs, um, should be designated.
And given that the property is a single, is a CMX one zone property, as you can see here
on the zoning map, um, it requires a variance, uh, even though the property is zoned commercial,
in CMX1 visitor accommodations are not permitted. But as you can see from the zoning map that I
have here, and is also included at tab four of the exhibit book, we are in between two CMX1
properties with two further to the south, and then RM1s extending further to the south of that.
There is a CMX1 property on the opposite corner, the southwest corner of the property.
There are CMX1 properties on the northwest corner, including a bagel shop.
And then there are single-family dwellings with off-street parking on the northeast corner.
There is, as you can see here on the zoning map, and you'll also see in the photographs,
we have an alley behind our property.
and there's walls of existing structures and rear yards that back up to our property.
The property is located, you mentioned earlier, there's a letter deferral similar to the case I
had with the zoning board last week from SOSNA. You can see here the property is located just
south, and you saw that on the zoning map, just south of the intersection of Fitzwater and South
20th Street. Here's a closer up aerial. Again, Philly Bagels here in the far corner,
commercial property across the street. The block consists of largely a lot of
multifamilies given the zoning classification. But again, you can see here, here's the single
family homes with a common drive and other aerial images. We have exterior photographs at tab five.
You can see we have a three-family unit right next to us, a three-family unit to the south of that.
A lot of this was set forth in the appeal that we filed, a copy of which is included at tab 11.
the zoning uses the permitted uses of other properties on the block it is a northwest
street numbered street as again there's a bus stop right in front so there is commercial
or there's public transportation multi-family then next to us at the southeast corner of
south 20th and fence water oops just trying to scroll through there actually have a picture of
the bus, the 17, right in front of the property. So there are often people waiting out front of
this property to get the bus or to when they get off the bus. Actually, I'm going to go back here.
And then here's the rear, the alley that I mentioned, that's to the rear of our property,
the rear yards of the abutting property. I mentioned the wall of the property that's
to the east or northeast of us here at the bottom of page 10.
And you can see the alley heading further down the property to the
south of us. That three family has decks off the back of it. Interior photos.
has decks off the back of it interior photos um similar to the one last week beautifully appointed
interior well maintained again as i mentioned it does have an interior off street parking space
that's been permitted the zoning archives for the property are included at tab eight
but you know well maintained um not not impacting uh causing not impacting traffic on the street
uh or causing congestion causing parking issues um i would have to rotate this but you can see
the floor plans right here um that i just the images which i just scrolled through um and that's
at uh tab seven again the zoning archives for the property um it is a single family dwelling with
one-car accessory off-street parking. I included the exhibits that I used last week that, again,
show the nearest visitor accommodations, places where visitors, people can stay
to the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. You see that they're pretty far away,
not until you get up to Rittenhouse Square or get well onto the other side of Broad Street.
um historically we had mentioned that there have been uh hotels or places for people to stay
at least from the one record that we were able to secure um documentation regarding and we overlaid
those here in blue with the existing the hotels that exist today so you can see um that there
were accommodations in this neighborhood historically those don't exist anymore
and that there is a benefit, there's a hardship for not having these types of accommodations
in the neighborhood and that there's a need for it and this need is being satisfied
with the present use of the property. Copy of our appeal is included at tab 11.
Again, as I mentioned, I made reference to in that appeal in great detail, if you would like
to read it. Just the history of this property before it was a single family with the off-street
parking rental for the last 15 years. It was a four-family dwelling. The commercial use and
multifamily use of other properties on the block. Project information form at 11B. Tab 12 is a copy
the notice for today's hearing which was and you can see at tab 13 was posted at the property
in compliance with the requirements of the zoning code
i had already referenced the deed my client owning the property the rental licenses are tab 14
tax clearance at tab 15 i then is referenced in sasna's letter which was designated by the
Planning Commission as a coordinating RCO for this project. You can see here at tab 16A,
we had three meetings similar to the case last week. Actually, they were presented or heard at
the same meetings or scheduled for the same meetings. There were three, and the 14303 notices
for each of those in the certificates of mailing are included at tab 16CENG. And so for the same
reasons that the variance was granted last week for a similar type of property, actually without
off-street parking for the use of the guests. We feel that there is a reason to grant the variance
here. We understand that the variance last week was granted temporarily, as other ones have been
granted and my clients are willing to accept that. They run a great operation and they have