We have met with the RCO and received support from the RCO. They understand that there is
what we believe to be a hardship in the ability or the inability for this applicant to relocate
essentially the same type of business on the same block that is also zoned CMX 2.5, but is allowed
down a few doors. I will keep it brief because essentially this is a pretty straightforward
application in my opinion. We addressed parking with the neighborhood and they understand and
agree that there is meter parking on the street. Trash is handled very specifically. There is a
separate cardboard disposal system because of the nature of the business. The cardboard is bailed
and removed by private haulers. There is no food waste and no intent to serve any food in the
property. So then the other trash would just be items other than cardboard in terms of material
packaging and so forth. We did attach a copy of the deed that shows that the applicant purchased
this property in December of 2021 and has then since decided to make this application.
We have attached the tax clearance certificate and posting of the photos along the front of the
property, as well as the notice of meeting sent to the RCO neighbors and proof of mailing to all of
the required individuals. I have Mr. Talon on the Zoom to adopt my testimony, if that would be okay
with the board. It is. Thank you. Mr. Talon, if you could raise your hand. Mr. Talon, please unmute
yourself and wait for the chair. Sir, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter,
please? My name is Subhash Dailan. Please spell that. Spell for the court reporter, please.
S-U-B-H-A-S-H-T-E-H-L-A-N. Great. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth. Yes, I do. Proceed, counsel. Thank you. Mr. Talon, have you had an opportunity
to hear my statements to the board today? Yes. And would you say that those statements are true
and correct to the best of your knowledge? Yes. And would you adopt those statements as your own
testimony? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. Questions or
comments from the virtual audience i see no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission board members in 20
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Board members, in 2014, the zoning map was amended in this area to CMX 2.5
in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan.
This proposed use is consistent with the physical configuration of the existing building, however,
so the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2022-002-894-2527 West Rod.
I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Bell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much.
Our number 14, MI 2022, 002-345-6832, New State Road.
Sean Ward is the attorney.
Letter of support from the Taconi Civic Association.
Chair, Mr. Ward is coming back in now as a panelist.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
Good morning, Mr. Ward. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Sean Ward, S-H-A-W-N, last name Ward, W-A-R-D, applicant's attorney.
My address is 331 East Street Road, Trivos, PA, 19053.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I certainly do.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
I represent both Greg Argentina, who is the owner of the property, as well as Mohamed Lacheb.
Forgive me if I'm pronouncing or mispronouncing that wrong.
It's spelled L-A-C-H-H-A-B, who is the tenant operating the auto repair business at the location.
Thank you. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning, Mr. Ward. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do, Mrs. Tenere.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of the above.
thank you and i see that your screen is up so you may proceed thank you very much uh mr chair
members of the board uh again i represent greg argentina that's greg with two g's g-r-e-g-t
argentina uh and mohammed lachab l-a-c-h-h-a-b for the property at 6832 new state road
back in the day known as Wissan Oming Street. This is an application, as you can see on the
screen, for personal vehicle repair maintenance with storage of parts in an enclosed structure
and vehicles being served as parked on the lot. It resulted in a referral to the board.
That's why we heard it today, because it requires a special exception approval. So according to
we are here requesting that approval. So A1 is the Notice of Refusal. A2 is the ZBA Application
of Appeal. A3 is the Project Information Form. A4, Proof of Ownership. A5, Proof of Tax
Clearance. A6 is a plot plan pulled from the Zoning Archive. A7 is a deed map pulled from
atlas at philadelphia.gov. A8 are photographs of the subject property, some street views,
some aerial views. A9, separate from the packet because the packet was submitted prior to receipt
of SANE, but it would be the RCO letter of support, which was in fact emailed to Hillary
and the zoning board following the submission of the packet. If Councilman Driscoll submitted
the letter. I would ask that that be marked as A-10. As far as A-11, that's the relevant zoning
history. From about 1962 up to, I would say, about 2009, this was an ironworks-type facility.
They manufactured ornamental iron there. A-11 is the zoning map. A-13 is the aerial photograph.
I would point out to the board that this tenant used to be located directly next door at 6836 New State Road.
I would point out to the board that this tenant used to be.
The adjoining uses, 6836 is now vacant, and I see no current permits for use registration on file, so I believe that confirms that this property is still vacant.
6840 New State Road is Brennan Auto Body, which has been a fixture in the Tachoni community for
many years. I believe they've been there since 1954. And then 6800 New State Road is currently
used for the manufacturing of plastic products. My client's days and hours of operation are
generally Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for customer hours. The employees do,
however, arrive somewhat earlier at 8 a.m., and they do sometimes work into the evening.
However, there is no coming and going of customers at that point in time. So again,
as you can see on the screen, it resulted in a referral. It is on ICMX, and it is 6832 New
State Road. Again, for the use as personal vehicle repair, we have our project information form.
We have our deed. My client purchased this property in 2015.
As you can see, taxes are current through 2022 for the property. The property is approximately
30 feet wide and stretches back about 177 feet. The deed map also confirms that. Let me
shrink that a little bit. So here is a copy of our zoning poster.
Here is the photo of the subject property. It's a one-story masonry garage.
They're trading as Eurotech auto experts. To the right is the former location of Eurotech.
They moved from this property over to this property. It's a typical auto repair place.
As you can see, they do specialize in European vehicles, specifically BMW, which is, you know, I guess the ultimate driving machine.
This is the photograph of State Road facing south.
And then we have State Road facing north.
On the opposite side of the street, you will see this is the former Diston property, which basically Diston's owned the entire section of Tacconi back in the day.
And then attached to the exhibits, we have the zoning permits evidencing the industrial use at this property as a manufacturing of ironworks.
So we also have a copy of the zoning map. It is zoned ICMX, and the property lies just east of I-95 between Unruh, and this would be McGee.
um north street here is a dead end street that does not go underneath i-95 so uh that is the
sum and substance of my application we did mail out the rco meeting notice to the 24 required
uh properties here is a copy of the actual meeting notice
These are the addresses. And then Taccone Civic Association did, in fact, submit a letter.
And quite frankly, the chair of Taccone Civic was the only attendee.
Nobody, you know, nobody, nobody else responded to our meeting requests.
But he did issue a letter in support of the application.
Mr. Argentina is in the roofing business. He is currently on the roof of a building in
West Philadelphia right now. And the tenant Muhammad is running the shop right now. But
as an officer of the court, I would submit that I have reviewed with both of those,
my exhibit packet and my representations made to the board today. If they were called to testify,
If they were called to testify, they would certainly certify that my representations are true and correct, and they would adopt them as their own testimony.
they would certainly certify.
Thank you, Mr. Ward. We accept your testimony.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Good afternoon. Sorry, good morning, Board members. The proposed special exception, the State Planning Commission believes the proposed special exception will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be expected for this use. We recommend that the Board grant the special exception.
Thank you. MI 2022-002-345-6832, New State Road. I vote yes.
Harold Tanari, my vote is yes.
Thomas Hallowin, my state.
My vote is yes.
James Snow, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I will see you at 3.30.
All right, great.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called yet this morning?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Thank you, everybody. See everybody at 2 p.m.
All right. Okay. Everybody have a good one.
Thank you.
Hold on, Mr. Chair. We have a hand.
Mr. Chair, we do have a hand.
I'm here.
Chair, we have a Tayson DeVore with his hand up. He just put his hand up.
Mr. DeVore, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair, please.
Hi. Could you state your name, please?
Good morning, Mr. Chair. My name is Tyson DeVore, T-A-I-S-O-N.
last name before d-e-v-o-r-e right we're affirmed to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth yes i do what case do you want to talk about sir uh we were just basically trying to
get clarification on the voting for 5901 latona i know when we had the meeting last week they said
that you will reconvene once all the other board members will look at the exhibits and make a um
ruling on the vote for what case was that 5901 latona case number m1 2 0 2 1 0 0 4 5 9 2.
it was a hearing that was it was a hearing that was uh is that the ice cream place do i remember
that that was the takeout restaurant yes right okay yeah mr chair that um we have one or two
members of the board that need to review the video from that and then vote and that vote will occur
on the record at a later date. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for your interest,
sir. Is there anyone else? Chair, I see no other hands at this time. Okay. Thanks,
everybody. I appreciate it. See everybody too.
good afternoon my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this afternoon's eba hearings
with me is carol tenary our vice chair
she should be on very shortly ismail shaheed our like our board secretary
president mr chairman thomas hallman our board member president mr chairman and james snell
our other board member will be on in a little bit also here is our executive director tanya sunkett
and our Board Attorney Hillary Emerson. Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
Be advised the proceedings are being recorded. By participating, you have a knowledge agreement
to be recorded. The video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves
before testifying. If you are participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star nine
to raise your hand and star six 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,
the box on the screen for comments and testimony should not be used for comments or test should not
be used for making comments. Any issues relative to anything you have for this directed to our
executive director, Tanya Sunken. Now let's take a look at our continuances. Number three, MI 2021
Number three, MI 2021, 005318649 North 11th Street. That case is continued.
Number eight and number nine, MI 2022-002-637-7248 Rising Sun Avenue and MI 2022-008-77-7248
Rising Sun Avenue. Those cases are continued. Case number 12, MI 2021-00-5319-610-North 11th
Street. That case is continued. And number 13, MI 2021-00-4545-636-North 11th Street. That case
continue. Does anyone have
any comments relative to those
cases that have been continued?
No hands,
Chair. All right. In case number
one, MI
003179
2225 Master Street,
I believe David Orphanides
is going to request to continue.
Mr. Orphanides?
Mr. Orphanides, can you please unmute yourself and wait for the chair?
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Mr. Orphanides, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Certainly.
My name is David Orphanides.
The last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Orfanides, do you need a continuance for that case?
We do.
We've met with the community group.
We've met with them twice.
And based upon the comments we received, we're working on a redesign of the project to hopefully provide for their requests and recommendations.