photographs of the property plans and drawings uh notice that went out to the community the
affected properties community or application for appeal or deed to the property showing that
framework philly acquisitions llc is the owner of the property and certificates of tax clearance
showing that we're in good standing i also have on the line joseph prince the managing member
of the corporate property owner all right so okay let me uh
of the corporate property owner all right so okay let me uh actually put this in full screen mode
action.
it makes it easier all right notice a refusal again we're here um only because now these
properties are deemed rsa5 we're looking to put a five unit building here we have no dimensional
variances um again well attended meeting we had 21 people who voted for this project
you have a letter of non-opposition from the district council member
and then we have screenshots of each of these properties that my client purchased he's looking
combined 25 46 48 50 and 52 north hope street into one lot but what's most importantly is right here
there is i'm going to just move this out of the way showing that these are rm1 properties
again rm1 property rm1 property up here
rm1 property so when my client purchased this property in july of 2021 he understood that he
can build exactly what he was planning to and he's proposing to it would be financially devastating
if he was not able to and he was forced to build single family homes which by the way each of these
lots are only 12 feet wide. One of the reasons why he purchased this property was he understood
that if he combined the lots, he would have a significant lot size to allow for these five
units. He actually is from the area that's where this is being built in Norris Square
area, not too far up at least. And he has the support of people who are nearby. And
here are the letters of support. You know, we specifically reached out to people who
be most directly impacted specifically the people on north hope street across the street and as you
can see we have letters we have a petition signed by 25 45 25 47 and 25 63 north hope street in
addition to others and then we have letters to support as well from nearby neighbors
in addition to people who showed up to the community meeting and support
and then there's maps of the area showing where we are on in the neighborhood we're between front
streets and howard we're not too far from public transportation there's the three and 39 buses
as well as the huntington station uh train uh line uh stop uh and we're between uh huntington
and cumberland so there's you know there's a lot of public transportation we anticipate that our
clientele or tenants would be using public transportation. And as you can see right here
is the public transportation here. Photographs of the property. Again, this has been a vacant
lot for a significant period of time. Google Earth only goes back as far as 2007. But yes,
you can see in July of 2007, these were vacant lots. And now today, they're still vacant lots.
North Hope to the right of the property. North Hope to the left of the property.
uh so my client you know again is in new construction just sampling interiors of the
work product that he does he takes great pride in his work product stainless steel appliances
beautiful kitchens granite countertops uh you see his bathrooms and this is exactly what he's
going to be putting hopefully into north hope street again what we're trying to do is a brick
facades again no dimensional variances combining four lots each of these lots are only 1200 square
feet so from just allowing it as single family would be really difficult for these 12 foot wide
lots that's why he's looking to combine these lots and then again you know there's five units here
three stories and then meeting of our community meeting we met on February 9th in 2022
22 at 5 30 p.m 161 addresses were notified here are the addresses and we have a separate notice
for each of these properties uh and then um our application for appeal for 2546 along with our
notice of refusal project information form our detailed property showing that framework philly
acquisitions llc is the owner of the property specifically showing that he purchased a property
on July 16th at 2021, which at the time was an RM1 property. So he's not looking to try to,
you know, gain a system where he's taking RSA5 property and trying to convert into multifamily
use. He actually thought it was multifamily use. And this has delayed his, this process
significantly for my client and their certificate of tax clearance. With that being said, I'm going
and their certificate of tax clearance with that being said i'm going to unshare my screen
to unshare my screen.
i would ask that mr prince virtually raise his hand so he can adopt my testimony
sir could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
mr prince please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
yes sorry about that i was muted state your name and spell for the court reporter mr prince
joseph prince j-o-s-e-p-h-p-r-i-n-c-e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes sir proceed sir all right thank you um mr prince you heard everything
i stated today yes correct is it true and what i stated is it is that true and correct
Yes, it is true and correct.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, I'll say no hands at this time.
Planning Commission?
Good afternoon, Chair Bergman, members of the board, David Vecto, City Planning Commission.
The Comprehensive Plan recommends this property for residential multiple-family zoning.
During a community-led map change in 2021, the community asked for a change on this block to residential single-family.
If this block had not been changed under that remapping, the current proposal would be as of right.
So the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the use variance.
Thank you, David.
mi 2021 005015 2546 hope street i vote yes thomas hollivan my vote is yes
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you thank you mr nackamson
MI 2021-005-031-617 North 10th Street, Attorney Jeffrey Young, 14th Ward Democratic
Executive Committee, Letter of Support with Proviso.
Mr. Young, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
Chair, he's coming back in as a panelist now.
Good afternoon, Mr. Young. State your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Good afternoon, Jeffrey Young, J-E-F-F-E-R-Y-Y-O-U-N-G, 3900 Ford Road, Suite B, Philadelphia, PA, 19131.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes. Mr. Holman has several questions for you. Good afternoon, counselor. Do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy? I can agree to waive the
reading. However, we can't stipulate to the accuracy as there's an issue with the address
that was pulled up through Illinois system without which I will get to during the presentation.
okay according to our records you have submitted all the required documents is that correct yes sir
please proceed thank you
again good afternoon members of the board jeffrey young here i'm sorry i have the here today to
present on 617, excuse me, 617, uh, Tim Street. Um, we have here, um, today, uh, before you
as a commercial lease for the property, um, with my clients, uh, Ms. Kalila Williams and her
daughter, uh, Celia Davis, um, with, uh, they operate a home healthcare business, um, Benel
home health care agency out of this property. Here is a copy of the refusal.
Again, we are asking for use of the property for a business and professional
office. However, the property is currently zoned RSA 5. The address of the
property that's listed on the L&I's site when this appeal was filed is 617 North 10th Street,
number 17A. However, because this building is a condo building, it gave us the first address
that's on their file. Our correct address, which I will show in a minute, is 617.
Our correct address, which I will show in a minute, is 617 North 10th Street, number C.
And that number C has its own separate OPA address, OPA number as well.
We're located in the West Poplar section of the city.
We are on the corner of North 10th Street and Mount Vernon.
Again, the property is currently zoned RSA 5, as you can see by the yellow.
And 617 North 10th Street is outlined here in blue, which all these structures are considered to be one condominium for the purposes of OPA.
Okay. This is the northeast corner of North 10th Street at Mount Vernon. And here is where our proposed office is located.
As you can see, this property, again, is not featured as an RSC-5 single-family use, which I will get to a little bit more in the presentation.
Again, here's a side view looking north on Mount Vernon Street.
Again, looking north on 10th Street and looking south toward Mount Vernon.
um here's a more up-to-date picture of our um office space
showing the front door um here does not have any type of residential uh features whatsoever um
again the building was designed as a commercial uh building by right under the cmx2 zoning
classification. Here is a picture of our zoning notice that was presented 21 days before our
hearing. Inside, as you can see, is designed as an office space. Again, this building was built,
I believe in 2017. And this floor and space was designed for a commercial office use.
I'm just showing a different view of the interior of the space.
and a little kitchenette area again designed before my client's prior use. My client is also
using the basement. These are steps leading to the basement, and this is a view of the basement
office space. As I mentioned here in 2017, there was a zoning permit for the erection of a three
story structure with two dwelling units and a vacant commercial space. This vacant commercial
space is the space that we are occupying today and as you can see from the separate the address
here is 617 north 10th street unit c with a separate opa account here is a historical zoning
permit stating that the structure was designed as a two-unit building with a vacant commercial
space on the first floor. This is our letter from the RCO, the 14th Ward RCO. We met with them
on two separate occasions and received support from the RCO.
These are copies of our notifications sent out to the community.
These are proof of mailing to the community. And here's our tax clearance from the City
Department of Revenue. Regarding the hardship, again, this building was designed as a multifamily
building. In order for us to use this space as a residential single family, which is currently
zoned, we'll take extensive reconstruction. And as you can see, the property has two separate
units, residential units above. So the building itself is not configured for a single family
residential use. With that, I'll ask my client, Ms. Khalilah Reed-Williams, to get on the call.
Ms. Williams, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Sure. Kalila Reed Williams, K-H-A-L-E-E-L-A-H, Reed R-E-E-D-Williams, W-I-L-I-A-M-S.
w-i-l-l-i-a-m-s right do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth?
the truth yes proceed counselor thank you uh miss reed williams have you uh heard my testimony
yes and is do you believe my testimony to be true and accurate
yes and do you adopt my testimony as if it were your own yes thank you thank you questions from
the board? No, Mr. Chairman. Questions from the virtual audience? Chair, we have a Salima Davis
with her hand up. Ms. Davis, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair. I think that
was a mistake. I'm sorry. Okay. Planning Commission. Good afternoon, Chair Bergman,
members of the board, David Fecto, City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends this
property for residential multifamily use. Given that the space for the proposed business and
professional office appears to have been built to accommodate an office use, the City Planning
Commission recommends that the board grant the use variance. Thank you, David. MI 2021-005031-1617
north 10th condo c i vote yes thomas halliman my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
thank you thank you mi 2021 004970 625 vernon road no rco letter is it at this point dawn tangrady
Chair, Ms. Tancredi is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good afternoon.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
It's Dawn Tancredi.
T-A-N-C-R-E-D-I.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Holloman has a few questions.
Good afternoon, Counselor.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Good afternoon.
I agree to waive the reading.
However, the refusal is not accurate.
We are here seeking approval for one dwelling unit.
21 units are already approved and have been since 1955.
According to our records, there are some required documents not submitted, such as the RCO letter.
Can you respond to that? Sure. We did meet with the community group.
They sent a letter maybe after we submitted our packet. I did receive the letter
and um there is a mixed it's a mixed um vote there were people in support and people opposed
to this project um i can forward a copy to you why don't you forward a copy to uh our executive
director and also to sharon okay all right okay please proceed okay sure so today i'm here on
behalf of 625 vernon llc the owner of the property at 625 east vernon road joel wartner is here on
behalf of the llc they acquired the property back in may of 2021 also on this call is agata reister
the architect that prepared the floor plans i would ask that the submission packet be incorporated
it into the record. May I share my screen? Yes.
Whoops.
Okay, so included in the packet are the refusal, the tax clearance, existing basement floor
plans, photos. We have the witness list, the RCO notice letter, a copy of the deed, and
a copy of the deed, and certificates of mailing.
certificates of mailing.
So we're here today seeking approval for one dwelling unit.
There's an existing multifamily building dating as far back as 1955.
The property is zoned for 21 units, when in fact there are 22 units in the building.
And we had spoken to the Department of Licenses and Inspections about this property, about the history of the property, and they believe that one of the units was a caretaker's unit, which explains why there were 22 units in the building.
We're here seeking to legalize that unit so it may be used properly for a rental unit.
And in addition to the unit use, our application does create a refusal for one parking space.
Accessory parking, however, has never been included on this property.
So we're really here seeking to maintain the status quo.
No new tenants will be added to the building and there will be no new construction to the building.
there's already existing gas and electric meters and mailboxes and we have photos
showing here are the mailboxes and all of the meters
so as for the two use of for the as for the two refusals the first refusal is for multi-family
And as I mentioned, this building already has multifamily in it.
There's other multifamily dwellings in the area.
There's two properties nearby that have multifamily.
One is at 615 Vernon Road and another at 740 Vernon Road.