proposed use would not cause detrimental impacts beyond what would reasonably be expected
and off-street accessory parking is not a common condition in this block face
with only one two-car garage present so off-street accessory parking would be out of character with
so off-street accessory parking would be out of character with the helms on this block face the
the homes on this block
city planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested special exception for personal
care home use and their proposed use variants for not including the required parking spaces
MI 2025 005051 30 3523 North 24th Street I vote yes with proviso interior trash storage
um no household living in basement
can i can i add a proviso to that and for a limited three years or something go ahead for
like a limited three years or something like that okay okay temporary variance to expire um today's
date is uh 329 so would be 8 20 no
8 8 12 29 would be the proviso including also interior trash storage and no household living
in basement uh michael johns my vote is yes with proviso cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
tennetta graham my vote is yes with proviso hi mcadams my vote is yes with proviso tywin my vote
is yes with proviso layla bb my vote is yes with proviso mr council we're going to get back to you
shortly we're going to go back to number one see if we can take care of that because we have an
interpreter no problem thank you all also thank you good luck with your project um 1852 hart lane
Okay, Mr. Chair, we do have the Spanish interpreter available.
However, the expediter has indicated that the client may not be available.
So if we could just try to call up Mr. Martin Polanco, if you're in the virtual audience, Mr. Polanco, please raise your hand.
Señor Polanco, si usted está en la audiencia, por favor, levante la mano.
I'm the expediter.
He's having trouble with his phone, so we're just going to have to reschedule so he can just come by the office next time.
okay chair i'm going to recommend a continuing state of january 13th at 9 30 a.m um january
13th um at 9 a.m thank you very much okay mr council come back please
second never left we need the interpreter interpreter thank you very much
hey your honor i was told to be here as well for uh jennifer gargus at 5011 d street
that case was over right we already voted that yeah okay interpreters gonna go ahead
thank you for using our services hold on the interpreter should interpret what you said the
containment state too okay entonces la continuación va a ser para el 13 de enero a las nueve de la
mañana all right all right thank you you're welcome all right mr console is number eight right
number eight mi2026 000 858 1901 to 39 callow hill street mr consul uh good morning again
joseph consul for 1901 to 39 callow hill street uh with me on the call is howard nelson who is
the owner of doggy style pets doggy style pets has uh several locations in pennsylvania uh and
in new jersey uh it is a popular um dog and and cat and pet uh retail store um we're here today
for our vice chair has just a few questions okay i'm sorry i just started rocking and rolling
have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes i have and do you waive the reading of the refuse or stipulate to his accuracy
i do all right thank you now you can begin all right so uh howard howard nelson owner of doggy
style pets he's got several locations uh it's a popular retail pet store uh this property is owned
CMX4, 1901 Callahill Street. It's in the Granary building. It is.
1901 Callahill Street. It's in the Granary building. It is an open and operating retail
location that has been operating for several months now. However, we're here because we're
seeking approval for animal services, boarding, and other services, which is prohibited pretty
much everywhere in the city. And so, you know, we have to bring these requests in front of
the zoning board. We're not asking for a broad animal services approval. The request is limited
to allowing doggy style to have two dogs on site at any given time for adoption purposes.
They're not a kennel business or anything like that. This is a situation where my client can,
The store can show off two dogs that the general public can come in and meet and potentially adopt.
I'll note, and my client could testify, that this initiative has been extremely successful and is very popular for doggy-style pets.
It's not something that generates income and things like that.
It's something that they do because they believe in this as an additional piece of the puzzle for what they do.
So we met with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. We got 18 in favor of non-opposition and no opposed. Same thing from their development committee. Basically, they came up with the practical framework.
They want it, you know, they want the variance limited to adoption related animals.
No commercial boarding and no higher impact animal use with a maximum of two dogs on site
at any given time.
We fully accept those conditions.
This is, I'll go to the pictures.
Here's some of the interior shots.
Got on top, kind of looks like me if I had a beard.
Just a little bit of, we included in these packets a little bit of information about their store and their process.
I thought I had some exterior.
Showing the postings and showing the store as it looks now from the outside.
In this space.
Yeah, that's it for me.
i'm going to call howard to adopt my testimony and answer any questions that the board might
have about the process thank you
share that person is being promoted thank you
what's your client's name howard nelson
Mr. Nelson
can you guys hear me okay
we can
oh let me turn on my video
okay could you please state your name
and spell it for the stenographer
sure it's Howard Nelson
H-O-W-A-R-D
N-E-L-S-O-N
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do counsel uh good morning howard did you hear my testimony just now regarding your location at
19 the callow hill i did do you adopt it as your own i do okay um that's all right i'll leave it
at that unless there's any questions from the board yes where will the dogs stay are they going
to stay in the window overnight? No, thank you. But that's a good question. But they don't stay
in the windows overnight because they sleep in special cages in the back of the store. And in
this particular store, we had the space to build a special room behind our grooming facility where
the dogs sleep. And it's video monitored. And because the dogs are in the store all day long,
They get a lot of activity. They're awake all day and they go in the back and they sleep at night.
And the store is video and motion monitored as well.
And then is the store open seven days a week?
It is open seven days a week. And the staff arrives, staff and volunteers arrive one hour before we open and stay one hour after we close to exercise.
The dogs feed them and put them to bed or wake them up and get them ready in the morning.
okay and then what's the typical uh length of time that a dog is with you all before it's adopted so
uh length of time that a dog is with you all before it's adopted so so we've been doing this
at almost all of our locations for 15 years and we're just crossing 15 000 dogs adopted without
incident but uh we currently partner with animal care and control uh in the city and all the funds
go back to to act so act selects the dogs for us and brings them to to us we have dogs that are
adopted in an hour and dogs that take uh three three months four months but the average is
running around 10 days right now okay i have no further questions any other questions questions
more attorney no questions at this time mr questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands at this time chair planning commission
thank you chairman and good morning david vecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the CMX for commercial
mixed use zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2011 and a council supported
map change the proposed use is in harmony with the mixed use character of the surrounding area
and will have minimal impact on surrounding properties City Planning Commission recommends
of the board grant or proposed use variants for animal services thank you so mi 2026 000
858 1901 to 39 cal hill street i vote yes with proviso use limited to retail space number two
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
tenetta graham mode is yes with proviso brian mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
hi and when my vote is yes with proviso layla bb my vote is yes with proviso
and mr consul thank you sir mr council you have one more am i correct uh you're correct until
zero zero one one zero two one forty four shares lane mr consul just for the record state your name
joseph consul and mr consul could you identify your client a relationship to their property
yeah i have heather and eric exley and they're the owners of 144 scherz lane right and they're
obvious there is a letter of uh opposition from the rco um our vice chair has a few questions
good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do all right thank
you you can share your screen and proceed with the case all right my screen should be up uh we're
here with heather and eric exley the owners of 144 sure's lane we're here on one use refusal
property is zoned rsa 5 and we have a request for a visitor accommodations variance which as you all
know is prohibited in the RSA 5 district. We're asking here for a narrow property specific
use variance potentially with the temporary proviso should the board deem that appropriate
for this particular house and for these particular operators who we believe present a good case
floor approval. Get an exterior shot. This is a very small Manionk property. City records
show a parcel of roughly 608 to 617 square feet. The building itself, we believe, is
about the floor space. We're getting up to around 660 square feet for how the building
sits on the on the lot it's an end of row manny young house uh built we believe around 1900
um on on sure's lane um the hardship here is tied to the property itself it's a very small lot
small improvement area the age and the condition at purchase this was not a large building being
converted this was a small property that was purchased at an estate sale that needed renovation
My clients bought it with the specific intent to rehab it, furnish it, and maintain it and operate it professionally as a short-term rental in Maniunk.
Which brings me to Heather and Eric.
I'll flip through a few more pictures here.
Heather and Eric are not new to this process.
They have a history and a strategy in Maniunk and parts of Roxborough of taking smaller, unloved homes, investing in them, rehabbing them back into beautiful condition, and then operating them responsibly as short-term rentals.
The board has seen them three times before.
There are other properties in the immediate vicinity include 4421 St. David Street, 4423 St. David Street, and 367 Schur's Lane.
There are other properties in the immediate vicinity include 4-4.
These were equally historical and sort of similarly sized properties, all being very small.
And to note, in those prior cases, the RCO also opposed the board granted temporary relief.
And, you know, since that time, there have been no complaints or anything like that, and tons of positive reviews of my client's operation of the properties.
So we're sort of asking for a practical approach.
We understand that there's opposition, but as in the past with this RCO, the opposition, we believe, is not, well, not what we believe, but it's not based on any specific complaints about my clients or this property.
There's nothing on record that would suggest otherwise.
And they note in their letter, it's a philosophical opposition to the use of a single-family home as a short-term rental.
And of course, I respect that position, but it's more of a general policy objection and not specific to my clients who we believe and they can speak in a moment, have proven to be good operators in this space.
Let me get to the end here. We have a couple of pages of neighborhood petitions very close to the property.
so we're hoping direct neighbor support helps influence a decision that this morning these
people live on shares lane and tower street uh we believe this has a broader manioc benefit
there's lots of things in manioc and i don't believe that there are hotels and things like
that that you can walk to and from those things and part of what my clients hope to do is be able
to provide a way for you to visit manioc in the way that you might visit other other parts of the
city and in addition to that there's lots of colleges in the surrounding area and being
able to have parents and things like that stay close by in um these well-loved uh homes is
we believe beneficial so for those reasons we're requesting an approval of the variance
and are open to any temporary structures provisos the boards wish wish to put on it with that i'll
So call the Axleys to raise their virtual hand.
They're being promoted to panelists here.
Thank you very much.
Are you there, Heather?
Good morning, sir.
that was me sorry eric exley president i could you please state your name as bell for this
stenographer eric exley e-r-i-c-e-x-l-e-y you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing about the truth i do mr consul uh good morning eric did you hear my testimony just now
regarding your property at 144 shurs lane i did thank you joe uh do you adopt what i said as your
own quite clearly stated thank you thanks i know you're passionate about this but but briefly would
you just give the board um your thoughts on on this property and your you know sort of um how
think of these properties in manioc we um live nearby and uh found this house for sale just like
anybody else would just driving down the street and toured it and said this is a nice little place
we like houses with particular interests that in manioc neighborhood need to be uh maintained and
loved not torn down and replaced which is also a common practice so uh we have uh recently redone
the finishes inside the house as the pictures will show um and uh parent for a wonderful rental
i know at one point i had the pre-photos but i can't find them right now to show the kind
of love you put into it but the photos speak for themselves i i believe uh regarding your
other properties um eric have you had any ever had any issues with with those any complaints or
anything of that nature um the short-term rentals that we also own in the neighborhood
represent a fantastic opportunity as you mentioned for people to
represent a fantastic opportunity as you mentioned for people to visit this fantastic section of the
city and a nice place to say as opposed to kind of a common hotel room there are no hotels in
manioc so again this is a fabulous way to appreciate the wonderful things that happen
in and around maniunk by the river on main street and the golf course and it's been a great model
heather has the highest ratings from uh the renters that uh that anyone would uh appreciate
thank york questions from the board yes how many bedrooms are in the house
there are three bedrooms in this little house believe it or not
and and bathrooms there are one it's one bathroom okay and the the the folks who
rented out will have access to all three floors all rooms
yes they have access to the entire house okay
all right any other questions
Sorry, I have a question. I realize my mic wasn't on. I realize that you've been targeting
fixer upper properties in the Maniunk area, and could you walk us through the decision
to not rent them out as single-family homes and just get long-term tenants in them versus doing
visitor accommodations? So Heather, I think you need to state your name and spell for this
stenography because we've switched from your husband to you okay my name is heather exley
h-e-a-t-h-e-r-e-x-l-e-y do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but
the truth yes i do please answer the question so that is i think the question is why are we
using these houses as short-term rental versus a long-term rental is that correct okay um we just
like this model. We like to meet people from other places, you know, in the world, really,