And so I would ask that the case be continued and marked as attorney moving party.
Right. 2225 Master Street is continued attorney-moving parties. Thank you, Mr. Orphanides.
Thank you. May be excused.
Yes. Is there any other one requesting and continuance for this afternoon's hearing?
Chair, we have Harry Cook with his hand up. Mr. Cook, can you please unmute yourself and wait for the chair?
Mr. Chair, I'm present. Carol Tenneri.
Very good. Thank you, Carol.
hi hi mr cook could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
hi harry cook h-a-r-r-y c-o-o-k right um do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth i do sir are you for case number eight um yes uh yes yes mr chairman
7248 right and i just wanted to make sure that both of those uh consolidated appeals were
continued not just uh not just ours no i i continue both wonderful thank you both into the
record thank you so much sir for sure anyone else would request for a continuance
i see no more hands at this time sheriff on case number four we have no exhibits
3137 Willits Road. Mark Wagner is the owner appellant. It's an appeal against LNI and we
Okay. Mr. Wagner?
Mr. Wagner, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
Hillary, this is the first listing for this. All right. Thank you. Hillary.
I would have to check. I am not sure. I don't know off the top of my head if it is.
um miss costello is this the first listing for this uh i am not sure about that they're just
appealing a zoning violation for expanding i know so so so what we're going to do is i'm going to
um i'm going to continue this mark must be tried
okay no so 3137 wilch road case is continued mark must be tried
okay thank you all right are there any requests for withdrawals
i see no hands chair so we're going to go to our first add-on case
mi 2022 003 148 15 13 to 17 pine street i vote no
Thomas Holloman. Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
Ishmael? Ishmael Shahid, my vote is no.
Thank you. Number two for Adelance. MI 2022-001-494-2507 Amon Street,
A resumptive hearing will be held for this appeal on Wednesday, September 28th at Tube Hymn for the purpose of supplementing the record with information about revised plans that the applicant has requested to present to the Board.
Testimony from the public will be permitted, but it will be limited to a discussion of the revised plans.
Now we're going to go to our regular list.
Number two, MI-2022, 003-183-820-North 40th Street, Alan Nockamson is the attorney,
letter of support from the Belmont Alliance Civic Association CDC with two enforceable provisos.
Chair, Mr. Nockamson is coming back in as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Alan Nockamson of Nockamson, PC, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
California 1910. Just for the record, Mr. Nockamson, could you spell your name for the
court reporter? Yes, Alan, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N. Thank you. Do you
swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you. Could
Mr. Nockamson, could you identify your client in relationship to the property? Yes, my client is
the property owner, Mantua Holdings, LLC. And in the virtual audience, I have Isaac Katz,
its member. Thank you. Our Vice Chair, Carol Tuderi, has a few questions.
I'm Mr. Nockmson. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I do. 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, in all respects. Okay,
great. You may proceed and share your screen. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Hi, so I'm here to present 820 North 40th Street. In my presentation packet, I have the notice
refusal, a letter of support from the Belmont Alliance Civic Association to coordinating the
rco for this matter uh maps of the area uh photographs uh excuse me i have actually the
west district plan uh philadelphia 2035 which shows that uh city planning commission recommends
that this zoning this property uh change from cmx2 to rm1 so if this was a rm1 property this
project would be allowed as a right and we'll discuss that in the review of our notice of
rapusel, photographs of the property, plans and drawings,
Photographs of the property, plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice, our deeds of the property showing that Mantua Holdings LLC is the owner of the property, our application for appeal that we filed to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, and our certificate of tax clearance showing that the property owner is a good standing with respect to this property.
Again, in the virtual audience is Isaac Katz, a member of Mantua Holdings LLC, the applicant, as well as his architect, Tony Masso.
So this is a CMX2 property, and we're proposing to erect a five-dwelling unit building.
And we have two refusals, the first of which is that we're allowed four units, residential units and one commercial.
What we want to do is merely swap out the commercial unit for residential. We don't think it's appropriate under the circumstances. And the city planning commission believes the same by way of the 2035 plan, which we'll show you.
And the second refusal is the fact that we're proposing to eliminate the commercial components by swapping it out with residential. And then that's our second refusal.
So we met with the Belmont Alliance Civic Association some time ago in the summertime, and we received, well, overwhelming support.
And, you know, what they asked us is to make sure that we had a proper trash plan.
So we reconfigured where the trash would be and that everyone would have full access to it.
And that was very important for the group. And we'll show you on the site plan how we did that.
Here's their letter explaining that as well.
And then they have more detailed analysis of how they voted.
And then this is just maps of the area. Again, we're on 40th Street.
We're between Parrish and Reno in West Philadelphia.
here you can see where we are on the map as well as you can see it's very limited commercial use
even though this is all cmx2 there is some commercial use on the corners which is not
unexpected because typically if you have commercial units and residential nature
neighborhood like this is typically on the corners not mid-block and that's why i think
you know you know in the west district plan philadelphia 2035 uh they recommended that this
be there's only be changed from cmx to rm1 and you know we just highlighted it here but we looked at
it and according to the plan uh 820 north 40th street should be an rm1 property um we did reach
out to the andrew goodman i don't know if he's in a virtual audience he said he may but i talked to
him earlier today and as an officer of the court i will indicate that he stated that the district
council member is in non-opposition to this project first of course because the community is
in non-opposition but also because of the fact that this is not a commercial corner in any way
and according to the 2035 plan this should be an rm1 property and they're still trying to work
through the zoning change as we speak.
And then photographs of the property,
it's a vacant lot, well-kept.
It's been a vacant lot for some time.
According to Google, we took a picture.
We found the picture that goes as far back as it can.
And that's in 2007.
So for 15 years, this has been a vacant lot.
And then if you look in North 40th Street
to the right of the property,
you can see there's really no commercial components here.
North 40th Street to the left of the property,
a little commercial components, but more towards the corners. And then just an example of the work
that our property owner does. They've been in the real estate industry for well over a generation,
so they believe in high-quality work. They not only own the properties, they help with the
construction as well as the management of them. I always try to give examples of kitchens,
living rooms, bathrooms, just so you can see their quality of work. There's another bedroom.
you know, showing ample closet space, nice light in the air for the units.
And then here is our just, you know, the site plan.
Just want to pay particular attention to where they created the storage area.
So you can see the trash storage area is, I'll just reduce this a little bit, is right here.
This is something that their architect did, did not change any of the building dimensions.
So there's no reason for proviso
in terms of what's the change in the site plan.
But what we could do is proviso trash stored outside.
And that's what the community wanted as well
for all residents.
Oops, let me just move this to the side.
So, and then just the floor plans, oops.
You know, basic floor plan. There are five units here. There's a unit on the front and back, and they all have access to this alley walkway. Again, all the units will have access to the exterior trash room.
You know, basic floor plan, there are five units here.
And there's a unit in the front and back on floors one and two.
And then there's a full bedroom on the third floor.
I mean, full unit on the third floor.
And then our RCL meeting notice.
We went with the community on June 23rd at 6.45 p.m. regarding this property.
There were 158 addresses that were notified of this meeting.
You know, here are the list of the addresses.
Now, proof of mailing to those addresses.
Our deeds of property showing that Mantua Holdings LLC is the owner of the property.
Our application for appeal filed in the name of Mantua Holdings LLC,
along with the notice of refusal and our project information form and our certificate of tax
claims showing that the entity is in good standing with the city of philadelphia as this property
pretty straightforward project project again if this was um you know properly zoned according
to the 2035 plan we wouldn't be here the community was um receptive and in support of this project
the district council member is also a non-opposition uh and with that being said i would
ask that uh mr katz virtually raise his hands to adopt my testimony and then we'd be more than happy
to take any questions from the board
mr katz can you please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
i could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Isaac Katz, I-S-A-A-C-K-A-T-Z.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Oh, yeah, Mr. Katz, you heard everything I stated today.
And is it true, correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
All right, thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
For a point of information, Mr. Nockmson, I have a note from Mr. Goodman saying he is busy.
Yeah, no, that's why I asked him beforehand.
He told me the same, but I just wanted to make sure that I had him verbally state to me.
And I told him as an officer of the court, I would explain.
MI 2020-000841-1041-South 53rd Street, and number 11 on our list, MI 2020-000802-1109-South 53rd Street.
So try to do these three cases together.
Is that okay?
Oh, yes, Mr. Chair.
Right.
And then the other thing I, when it comes time for going to the audience, I have a letter that the councilwoman once read into the record.
Again, my name is Alan Ockermson, A-L-A-N, last name Ockermson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N of Ockermson, PC, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
Right.
You've already been sworn.
Could you identify your client and their relationship to these three properties?
Yes, my client is essentially the parent company is B2 Properties.
They may be owned under separate companies, but it's B2 Properties.
And then virtual audience is Robert Dewey, the owner's representative.
And our vice chair, Carl Tenere, has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Nockmson.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. 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, I do.
Okay, you may proceed.
I'm sorry, I don't actually have the letter. Sorry, I usually go in autopilot on that. I don't have the letter, but I can tell you what I know about.
But, you know, we have support.
I just don't have the letter in my possession.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I think I'm going to read a letter from Mr. Goodman in a little bit.
And there's issues in there relative to the RCO.
It's easy to jump right in and say yes, I know.
So you may proceed and begin with sharing your screen.
Okay, do you mind?
I haven't seen the letter.
So I talked to Mr. Goodman earlier in the day.
So hopefully I'm not jumping into a fire.
no you're not you're not okay you're fine you're fine okay i was like this and honestly this is the
longest zoning matter i've ever handled in my professional career um and we worked diligently
and hard for this and i am actually very proud it's not a huge project in any way um relative
to some of the projects i do i think it's always impactful the zoning that we do for the community
and it's good that when it's it's you know we we do something good for the community
and then we were able to build at the same time so and we have worked diligently um over
over two we started this project before the pandemic so this is one of a really old project
um but we didn't give up because i thought that this made sense and i you know pushed my client
for community benefit which i think makes sense for the community as well so this is 1041 1109
1111 south 53rd street it's a pretty big packet we did submit it separately as well we were asked
to but for purposes of this presentation i combined into one so we have the notices of refusal
we always put as a placeholder the correspondence from the coordinating rco i have not received that
correspondence. I did talk to Gregory Benjamin of the 51st Democratic Board Executive Committee,