thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
chair um if it's okay it would be okay to ask a clarifying question of the applicant
you most certainly can thank you very much um miss pruitt is you mentioned that um two of the
units i believe would be um designed to accommodate people with physical disabilities is that um
Is the proposed use for to include care given to people living in this home or is this are these just general dwelling units, just general dwelling units.
Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. Members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA three single family zoning at this location.
typically for use variances as you know we're looking for evidence of some kind of unique
physical circumstances of the property while nearby conforming buildings are a factor the
predominant use we believe on this block remains single family as required by the existing zoning
and so the city planning commission's recommendation is to deny the variance
thank you mi 2021 004516 5707 ashton avenue i vote yes harold tenary my vote is yes
thomas halliman my vote is no james snell my vote is yes
ishmael shahid my vote is yes thank you ma'am
thank you all good luck thank you good luck
MI 2021-004-513-6414 Rising Sun Avenue, Long Crest Community Association, letter of non-opposition, Justin Crick, attorney.
Mr. Crick is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
good morning Mr. Crick could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
yes Justin Crick j-u-s-t-i-n-k-r-i-k right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes uh our vice chair has a few questions
hi Mr. Crick do you read away the reading of refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
I do. Have you submitted all the required documents? Yes. Okay, you may proceed and share
your screen. Thank you. Mr. Chair and members of the board, the property in question is 6414
Rising Sun Avenue. The applicant is seeking, hold on, I don't, can you see the presentation?
we can okay thank you uh the property is located in the longcrest section of philadelphia
the applicant is the tenant of the property kgks doing
The applicant is the tenant of the property, KGKS, doing business as Crush Lounge.
They are seeking the ability to have assembly and entertainment in the form of a DJ in the bar and restaurant.
It is an existing sit-down restaurant, and the only refusal that we've received is that that use for assembly and entertainment is prohibited in CMX1.
Copy of the refusal for your reference.
The property is situated between Levick Street and Passmore on a very heavily populated commercial corridor of Rising Sun Avenue, where the entire corridor for several blocks is of a commercial nature with several restaurants and so forth.
The restaurant currently does have a liquor license. And again, this is solely for the approval of the music and entertainment. The property has been utilized as a bar and restaurant for approximately 20 years plus.
the current operator has been there for seven years and has had very little to no issue with
the neighborhood and has worked in coordination with the neighborhood. Just for a little bit more
of geographic information, here's a satellite view. Again, commercial establishments all along
at the very least, this block of Rising Sun Avenue. This is the location. We occupy the first
floor of the building. Do not occupy as tenants of any sort the upstairs. Current layouts.
This is the existing layout. It's the same on each of these diagrams. Just one is the emergency
exit plan, an occupancy plan, and a floor plan. But as you can see, the intent is to have and
keep the DJ in this area of the music, which is scheduled only on approximately three nights a
week, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. The hours of operation will continue to be roughly
5 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, seven days a week. So at the moment, there is no lunch crowd or intent for
the music at that time. Just some photographs of the interior of the property so that the board
can, let me back up a little bit, can understand what we're talking about. This is where the DJ
is to be situated and continue. So what we see is your front page. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Let me do
that. Is this better? Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. So let me go back to the geographic just to show
you a little bit. The commercial corridor between Passmore and Levick, the entire street of Rising
Sun Avenue is a commercial corridor, but at the very least, this block is heavily populated with
commercial establishments. And again, this bar has been in its existence as the first floor
for over 20 years, this applicant operating for at least the last seven.
um floor plans indicate again these are all the same plan just different purposes of the
of each drawing but this is the the best indication of what we have going on um for sit-down
restaurant primary use with the bar and the music to be located in this section of the of the
establishment the photos that I'm showing you just for can indicate to you where we're looking
to maintain the music. And as you can see, the property is well kept. We did have a meeting with
the Long Crest Community Association, which was very well attended, approximately 50 people. And
I will say this is a very involved community. And one of the first times that I have received
such a large motion carried 45 to zero in non-opposition of the project.
We believe we answered all their questions very, very truthfully and addressed any concerns they may have.
The only provisor that they have is that this be a temporary two-year granting so that they can revisit it.
And again, I believe that that is for the purposes of making sure that they can address any issues if some arise in the future.
Again, no changes to anything else in the building or in the operations of the business just to allow and permit the DJ on those three evenings at this time.
There is on-site security with cameras, commercial trash pickup, and we don't believe that this granting would cause any detriment to the neighbors.
We have not had any complaints from neighbors in the past when there had been music in the building.
we've communicated with them about the noise levels that are intended and um uh are participating
this applicant participates regularly with the community and is available to them we don't
We don't believe that this would increase any congestion in the public corridor because the hours of operations are after regular business hours.
believe that this would increase any congestion in the public uh corridor because the hours of
And again, this is a commercial corridor, so we anticipate no congestion.
And since there's no change to the use of the business itself, we don't anticipate any additional congestion to the public utilities or burden on that.
At this time, if and I do have the applicant as a tenant, I have the initial page of the lease.
for for the board's view and we also have tax clearance certificate for the entity operating the crush lounge, as well as photos of the posting of the premises.
And at this time, I'd like to bring call upon Alfred Fields, Jr. to adopt my testimony.
Mr. Fields you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair
Mr. Fields could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
yes my name is Alfred Fields a l f r e d f i e l d s right do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes I do proceed thank you Mr. Fields have you
had an opportunity to hear my testimony to the board today? Yes. And were the statements that
I made to the board true and correct to the best of your knowledge? Yes, they were. And if you had
the opportunity to participate further, would you adopt my testimony as if it was your own?
Yes, I would. Thank you. Thank you. Members of the board. Questions from the board? No,
mr chairman no mr chairman chairman can we do two years um yes the use can be temporary
um it seems that that is the provisor requested there the if the only the only question i would
ask is during that time period is there anything is is is there anything that would cause this to
come back into review before the board um so well i guess mr quick will have to bring his client
back to extend this use at the end of that two years at the end of two years you're saying yes
yes mr top and that is my understanding um i have in the past seen um uses uh on a temporary basis
typically for economic purposes for the applicant to be extended something along the lines of a
a little bit longer of a period so that the applicant is not considered consistently burdened
with the expense of counsel and so forth. Um, we do though, however, recognize the intent
of the temporary proviso, but we leave it to the board's discretion.
And Mr. Craig, there's no construction needed for the, I guess, the DJ music area that would
require additional time for permits. Is that correct? That's correct.
yeah mr chair it would seem that a two-year temporary proviso
would be enforceable and appropriate thank you questions from the virtual audience
we have hillary emerson miss emerson you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair
good morning good morning miss emerson could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
yes hillary emerson on behalf of councilwoman parker hillary is h-i-l-a-r-y emerson is e-m-e-r-s-o-n
all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do proceed thank you mr chair um the councilwoman is not opposed um to the requested assembly and
entertainment use at this establishment um she does support the committee's request for a two-year
proviso for a temporary variance. This business is located in a commercial corridor, but it is
surrounded by residential properties. And so there was concern certainly about, you know, noise,
congestion, that sort of thing with the assembly entertainment use, but the community,
you know, wanted to be supportive of the business. So they are supportive of the use,
but wanted to have it on a trial basis initially for the two years.
thank you thank you very much any other comments from the virtual audience
chair there are no other hands at this time planning commission thank you chair bergman
ian hegarty for the philadelphia study planning commission members of the board the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the existing cmx1 zoning at this location this proposed use is
accessory to the existing conforming eating and drinking establishment and we don't feel
and we don't feel that it significantly changes the effect of the principal use on the surrounding
that it significantly changes the effect of the principal use on the surrounding properties.
properties. So the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance
with the condition that the use permit be subject to expiration after an appropriate
amount of time at the discretion of the board. Thank you, Ann. MI 2021-004513-6414-Rising Sun
add to I vote yes with a temporary two-year variance as a proviso. 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. Chair, this is Tanya. Sorry to interrupt. Could
Could you put a date of the end of the temporary plea?
We can.
So today is the 9th, March 10th of 24.
Is that right?
That is perfect here.
Thank you kindly.
I don't know if it's perfect, but thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Tanya, I'm going to go back to number 10.
Yes, he's ready for you.
Thank you. MI 2021-002194-2621 West Allegheny Avenue, Leo Mulvihill. Letter of Opposition from the Community Action Group.
Mr. Mulvihill is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
morning Mr. Mulvihill please state your name and spell for the court reporter please
certainly good morning members of the board Leo Mulvihill L-E-O last name M as in Michael U-L
D as in Victor I-H-I-L-L right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth I do okay our vice chair has a few questions yes I'm Mr. Mulvihill do you
agree to wave the reading of refusal and stipulate to its accuracy I do it appears that you've
submitted all the required documents is that correct yes okay you may proceed all right so
good morning members of the board leo mulvihill today for community construction partners for
the property of 2621 west allegheny avenue i have now on the screen being shared my presentation
packet including the refusal and project information form at page one area zoning maps at five my
client's lease at seven commercial activity license at 13 tax clearance at 14 zoning notification
letter at 15, RCO letter at 18, photos of the property at 18, and then plans at 26.
So members of the board going now to our refusal. Essentially what we're seeking is to have a two
family dwelling in this zoning district. This particular property is zoned RSA 5, but it is
along Allegheny Avenue, which the members of the board know is a relatively commercial corridor
spanning basically the entire city. This is directly across the street from Acepta
Depot and there's a number of other businesses on the street as well, as
well as several mixed-use properties that have commercial dwelling units or
pardon me, residential dwelling units in them. More or less what we're looking to
do is rather than have this be treated as a CMX2 property, which we argue it ought
to be, just not have any commercial space and keep the residential aspects of
that property intact. By doing so, what we're going to do is allow for greater affordability
in this specific neighborhood. The community letter itself does notice that it's their
belief that this is a strictly single family neighborhood, but I think you'll see members
of the board that the evidence simply doesn't bear that out.
Here's the project information form. Here's the property in question. As I noticed, it
is zoned, RSA5, we are indicated in the blue. We have CMX properties directly to the west
of us. And although RSA5 continuing eastbound as well, when we get to the next map, which
I pulled from Google, we'll see that there's a significant number of commercial properties
with residential units above that are apartments, and there's a significant number of residential
multifamily buildings on this block already. You can see directly across the street as
well that this is the SEPTA Depot outlined in red, as that is a commercial mixed-use
property. Here we go. Now getting into this map itself, I'm just going to zoom in a little bit.
We can see that despite the community's suggestion that this is strictly residential,
that's just not the case. We have a mosque, supermarket, pharmacy, additional corner store,
another corner store down the block. We have a church, we have a UPS store, we have a hair salon,
We have a hair salon, another grocery store down the block as well as rather the Allegheny
another grocery store down the block as well as rather the Allegheny Depot.
Depot as I mentioned earlier in my presentation.
This is a copy of the lease that my client has.
Essentially the client is leasing the property from another company and is seeking to do
so to have two family dwelling in the property as well.
I'll note that we originally were going for a three family dwelling but after further consideration
we believe that that's simply an overuse of the property which is why we rethought this
down to a two-unit dwelling. At page 13, this is our commercial activity license. 15 is our tax
certificate. At page 15, here we go, is a property, is the, pardon me, the letter that went out
to members of the community from my client. 16 is this meeting summary form. Ultimately,
as I said, there was a number of folks that opposed this project. Seven were in support,
18 were in opposition. And the reasons, again, being were several.
More or less parking is one. However, Allegheny Avenue, as a relatively large commercial corridor,
or is relatively well-serviced by public transit, and frankly, most of the new folks that are
moving in, irrespective per-city planning data, don't tend to have vehicles, so we're hoping
that these folks will be relying on public transit.
The other issue would be that the neighborhood would prefer to add invested homeowners as
opposed to apartment renters. That's not really a zoning issue, members of the board. And frankly,
as a longtime renter myself, before I was finally able to purchase a property, there are a lot of
people who can rent in a neighborhood and still be very invested in the neighborhood itself.
Frankly, I ran the Old Richmond Civic Association zoning committee when I rented in that neighborhood
for many years. So I understand the neighbor's concerns, but frankly, I don't think they
necessarily relate to the zoning here in this instance, rather ancillary concerns of zoning
matter itself.
So at page 18, we have a photograph of the property.
It's indicated with a yellow arrow, does have a built-in porch.
Another picture of the property, page 19, and another at 20.
This is directly across the street, that is at Septa Depot.
A number of other properties down the block, and you can see that there's commercial uses
on the ground floor of those properties, along with multifamily above.
Same thing down the block, again, more commercial properties, ground floor, residential above.
This is a picture of the posting of the zoning sign on the property.
Another picture of the posting.