And, you know, I think my client would agree with me that, you know, South Street is, you know, we need as much commercial activity there as possible.
And it's great that our business is looking to fill one of those spaces and contribute to the regrowth and the return of South Street.
So you see the four refusals on the screen there.
But again, the CMX two and a half zone property, there's two residential dwelling units above.
those are not related to the applicant and my understanding is they're currently occupied
the LLC has a lease term of three years that's to my understanding starts upon opening
and the last thing I'll mention on this screen is a couple months ago we were retained after
the community meeting but we added on the library and cultural exhibits use that you'll see
on the description which is allowed by right but we wanted to include the retail component which
will be sort of in the front and then uh basically an art gallery and photo gallery in the rear and
i think that that better falls under the library and cultural exhibits here's the letter of support
from south street head house i was not at this meeting so um you know once stevie is sworn in
feel free to ask her questions about that but sure we have the support there were 20 attendees um
people, you know, were receptive to the use. She's an involved member of the community and
has done murals on South Street and is involved with Philly Aids Thrift, which, you know, hence
the letter. So she's a known quantity and, you know, generally supportive. And we also have a
letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla, as well as a letter from Philly Aids
Thrift, sort of describing their commitment to sexual health education, which is going to be
a component of the business here. You know, a reference to Stevie's character and her involvement
in the neighborhood and on this block and how the Philadelphia Erotic Gallery will benefit South
Street. Here's an About Us, you know, basically this place will be a spotlight on the history of
sex, gender, and erotica in Philadelphia. There's going to be art classes here. Stevie's an artist.
There's going to be neurodivergent sex education classes here.
There will be exhibits, spotlight for local artists.
spotlight for local artists. Um, there was, uh, you know, you may have seen in the letter,
There was, you know, you may have seen in the letter.
but there was questions about what does this look like from the, from the street? You know,
obviously there's, there's all different types of people, including families on South street,
but there's no intention to do anything, um, inappropriate for lack of a better term. Um,
It'll be pretty vague, I guess you would say, no nudity or anything like that in the windows.
So that's that.
Here's the zoning map.
We are across from RM1.
My understanding is there were no indication from the neighbors at the community meeting that they had any issue with this.
But because we are across from a residential district, we are getting that refusal.
Here's some photographs.
This is the front of the property.
this is the commercial space we're talking about here's the posting photo to the right
of the property on south street and the left we're not proposing to do any real work to the
interior besides you know paint and movable items we're not doing any construction work it's a
pretty raw space right now um the history here was in 1990 there was a travel agency with the
two units above then there was a nail salon then there was a costume shop not sure what was here
just before but I think it's been vacant for some time so we're happy to put a use in there
it's a small rear yard or I would call it more of a breezeway in the back that you'll see
nothing going on back there I guess store trash cans although the use will not really be generating
trash significant amount of trash here's the plans and drawings this is the basement it's an
unfinished basement for storage that stevie will have access to here's the first floor you can see
the door to the left gives access to the residential component the door to the right
gives access to this commercial space it's about 940 square feet um we're not moving any walls
again just you know art um shelving i'm sure and and you know some some light furniture
the rco meeting notice went out in a timely fashion there's the bulk mailing certificate
application for appeal
here's the lease of the property philadelphia erotic gallery llc is the tenant
and then the last item is the tax clearance just a couple more things i'll note um tobias and stevie
are the only employees it's just them uh hours are 11 a.m to 6 p.m closed on tuesdays so very
reasonable hours there'll be a gallery gift shop in the front ticketed museum in the back um
and that's pretty much it so um if we could bring i could you uh state your name and spell
for the stenographer could you get a little closer is that one
yes stevie laney s-d-e-v-i-e-l-a-n-e-y right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel stevie did you hear my testimony
today yes was it true and correct yes and you adopted as your own yes questions from the board
yes i have a few questions so the plan is showed is that current and existing conditions
because it looked like you had a lot of
what's called them rooms for lack of
better term but there were no doors
on them
but when you showed the photographs
it did look like they were full
rooms in the photos
these look more like gallery
the intention is to be a gallery
but there are
three rooms
we took the doors off of
them or the two that had
doors one room did not have a door it was just like a kitchenette um but yes we took the door
and is that the first room or is like the one that's six feet by nine six nine um or is that
the five foot width room on this plan i think that which which one are you in well there's so
there's two rooms that kind of had it there's one in the back the second one that was the kitchen
yeah that's so that's the one i was asking about the kitchen that was the kitchenette
yeah it was just a sink and so of the places where there's gaps here because there's not gaps
in the photo right there the walls don't stop they're they're full walls you just took the
doors off which ones have full walls and just now our openings and which ones there were when we
moved into the building there were the first three walls that fourth one towards the middle of the
hole that was not there this is not here you're adding you're adding this we we didn't add any
this came right out this came out of the lease so this was how the space got it so you don't
actually have a plan that shows how you intend to use the space i mean we're not trying to
I mean, we're not trying to build another wall.
build another wall we we just want it
We just want it to...
We're using the space as is and just...
Understood, but this plan is neither as is
nor what is going to be used for.
Yeah, how would people flow in
if they wanted to go to the museum?
What would the flow be like if...
There's a hallway and then, yeah,
just three separate rooms.
So you just go...
Yeah, walk in and out of the room, yeah.
And the rear and the back,
what's that larger place in the back?
Is that where the kitchen was back here?
No, no.
That was, it wasn't even a full kitchen.
That was just an empty room when we moved in.
And what will you use it for?
That's a museum room.
So the last three rooms will be a museum, and the front is just a store.
And is the museum room also, like, where are you going to be holding sort of your education
courses in any of your sort of public programming?
That would be in the main floor or the entrance.
The retail space.
I will say it would be really helpful, even if it was just diagrammatic, to see how you
all plans into the space from like a programming standpoint just to understand what activities you
plan to happen in each room and even just like basic furniture you intend to have in the room
that would be really helpful and just trying to better understand the overall plan for the project
my second question is about i know it's not part of this permit but signage and use of the retail
window um i think you know yes there are certainly similar uses on south street um but i know from
like just other similar museums and other cities i think the one thing about this museum and its
location is like of all the uses on south street most of those uses tend to be closer to third and
fourth and south this is at seventh and south which is a lot closer to the residential side of
the neighborhood i know right across from you is a big apartment building that has a lot of
families like there's always kids and strollers and stuff and there's even a playground um that
that that part kind of a complex frequency is about a block away and so just kind of understanding
the context of putting this use now so much closer to the more family side oriented side of the
neighborhood and like one not trying to like still how you could advertise your things because i
think you know we can have but all the other ones are on commercial corridors where they're facing
other businesses and not necessarily facing just like a street level residential community so
what's your plan for the for that um window and how do you plan to either like deal with
any concerns that might come up from neighbors i know i've heard complaints from that um complex
before for things that weren't even quite as i think uh you know controversial as yours and so
So I'm just like, how do you plan to handle neighbor relations and signage and things like that at the street level?
We want to be very respectful to our neighbors and comply with them.
We have a, on the glass door, those blocker sort of things, kind of that shimmer, whatever that you put on the window.
The big it open.
Yeah, yeah, thank you.
um adhesive stuff that we put high up enough that one you can see in if you're tall and if
not you can't um the window has a sheer glittery curtain at the moment that we kind of want to
keep you can if you really squint hard you might be able to make out what's going on but we do like
to have that little subtlety and mystique to it.
We want to definitely lean into the art culture
and education side of this
so we're not trying to be shocking to anybody
or put it out there.
Again, we want to be respectful to the neighbors.
Do you have any plans for signage
or it would just be in the window signage?
Just be a logo window in the signage.
A vinyl or a sign?
yeah yeah so so you're saying the retail merchandise that you're selling will not
be visible from that window no okay and then what what type of merchandise are you hoping to sell
um well i have a lot of um a collection of artists it's going to be consignment based so
some of them are little zines magazines pins artwork gallery work um all your classic gift
shop museum stuff keychains and all that uh maps the city and
what about hours of operation 11 a.m to 6 p.m every day except tuesday
and again i just want to kind of piggyback in a way it would be more helpful to know
how you're going to actually use this space sure um i i really can't
use this space sure um i i really can't tell and um again i i'm
just um yeah i mean tmi that's that's fine i mean again i guess i had this swingers globe at
seven oh it's one of my museums yeah yes yes yes yes so i was in about every court system with that
one it's going to be shelving so i i guess the question the question would be is the individual
rooms what are they going to look like are they're going to shelves are they're going to be chairs
and i and i think so that we're not keep going back and forth i think what we need to do is
um maybe uh get us a copy of what that would look like yeah and um and that way we'll uh
we're going to hold the vote on this um i don't know that we could get it done in a week and then
we're closed two weeks so i think what we'll do is we'll go to that third week that you just heard
me talk about i'm happy to get this is a business that's trying to no no i know i i could get you
the plans today if we could get this voted on if you want us to put it on the schedule next week
we'll put it on the schedule next week what we'll need is exactly what was said i think what it would
be is showing what the rooms are and and what's going to be there are you going to have chairs
in the room or is it all open and just things on the wall and like he talks about shelving so i
think that's what you should try to put on a drawing and i think everybody then would understand
exactly what it is and maybe just a little bit of two of what what your logo would be right that
you're going to put out right so that people have an idea what it's going to look like in front too
okay um you can do that just a recommendation i think based on like the museum and the sort of
class use you're going to have people that are like sitting and staying for a longer time
than most retail sales and you only have a single stall bathroom and so you do you might want to
also check code provisions because i do think you might end up having to need additional restroom
facility okay yeah she said they have to okay okay um hillary
yes mr chair you heard me right so we're gonna i did this it's it's basically closed other than
received from them um i'm going to open it up to the to the virtual audience also planning
beforehand so questions or comments from virtual i just had one comment too i just noticed on the
refusal it didn't specify the location of the uses in the structure mr goldberg would would
you object if the board grants to proviso indicating that the uses are limited to the
first floor and basement no objection okay okay thank you questions or comments from the virtual
audience or anything good morning chair this is jason hand i will be uh stepping in as calls
temporarily we've got two hands up the first one is by alex andrea gerber i will promote them
and they should be back in shortly.
Hello.
Sorry about that.
Hi, good morning.
Good morning.
State your name and spell for the stenographer.
It's Alexandra, A-L-E-X-A-N-D-R-A, Gerber, G-E-R-B-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,