Okay, Chair, we have 37 attendees, and we can start when you're ready.
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning as EPA hearings.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holloman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
and our board member James Snell. Present Mr. Chairman. Also present is Hillary Emerson our
attorney and our executive director Tanya Sunkett. Here's our virtual format. Be advised
proceedings are being recorded. A video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves
before testify. 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 address of the property question. And finally, the question answer box on the screen
is not for testimony or comments. Any comment should be directed to our Executive Director,
Tanya Sumpkin. Let's look at our schedule today, what our continuance is for this morning.
Number eight, MI 2022-005-740-1115 West Lehigh Avenue. That case is continued.
you mr chair this is hillary um just to clarify the address that is one one five not 1115 okay
one one five west lee hi after thank you thank you number 11 mi 2022 005 736 1610 margaret street
That case is continued. And number 14, MI 2021-004-387-6809 Woodland Avenue. That case is
continued. Does there anyone have any comments relative to the three cases that have been
continued? I see no hands, Chair. Thank you. Are there any other requests for continuances?
This is Doreen Blake. Oh, yep. I see a hand with the phone number ending in 3552.
Okay. Bring them on, please.
Allow them to speak. Yes.
The person with the phone number ending in 3552, you've been allowed to speak.
Yes. I have a request for continuous. My name is Adrian Fernandez from Swampyro.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Oh, yes.
Adrienne Fernandez, Swamp Middle Neighborhood Processing Association, RCO.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
What case?
The address is 1514-1514 West Lehigh Avenue.
One, five, one, four.
Do we see that?
Mr. Chair, that is number five.
If we could call up the, see if anyone is here for the owner.
Thank you.
Mr. Brown, Herbert Brown, please.
1514 Wesley High Avenue.
Case number MI 2022-005738.
Mr. Brown, if you're in the audience, could you please raise your hand?
We see him? I don't see him. Okay, so 1514 Wesley High Avenue.
This is the first listing. We have documents that we don't have at this point. So this case will be continued. So it's MI-2022-005-738-1514, Wesley High Avenue. The case is continued. Thank you for calling in.
This is the first listing. We have documents that we don't have at this point.
You're welcome.
number four mi 2021 004 590 1331 north 30 street charles holiday is the listed owner
we have no exhibits no exhibits this is the third listening
charles holiday if you're in the audience raise your hand please
I don't see him there.
Okay. So MI 2021-004-590-1331 North 30th Street. This is the third listing. I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, I vote to dismiss.
James Snell, dismiss.
Ishmael Shaheed, dismiss.
Thank you.
Number nine, MI 2021-004-368-2967 Amber Street.
2967 Amber is the owner, applicant.
2967 owner if you're in the audience please raise your hand
and i do not see them either jim all right so mi 2021 004 368 2967 amber street this is the
third listing, but the original attorney has recently stepped off the case. This will be
continued. Mark must be tried. And number 13, MI 2021-004-526-110 South 10th Street.
110 realty associates it is listed owner this is no no exhibits third listing
we see any hands i see no hands chair thank you so mi 2021 004 526 110 south 20 street
no exhibits third listing I vote to dismiss Thomas Holloman my vote is to dismiss
James Snell my vote is to dismiss
Ishmael Shaheed my vote is to dismiss thank you
take number two first MI 2021 004 390 7120 Wissahickon Avenue
James McLeod is the owner pro se. There was a RCO meeting on 1-5-22. We do not have the letters of yet.
Mr. McLeod? Mr. McLeod, if you're in the audience, can you raise your hand please?
I don't see Mr. McLeod there.
Mr. James McLeod, if you're in the audience, raise your hand, please.
No hands, Chair.
I don't see him, Chair.
MI 2021-004-390-7120 Wissaken Avenue.
This case is continued. Mark must be tried.
Number seven, we're going to hear.
MI 2022-005-751-7631 Algon Street.
Stephen Collins is the owner applicant.
It's a pro se.
Mr. Collins is in the audience.
We have a recommendation of support from the Roanhurst Civic Association.
Mr. Collins has been promoted.
Mr. Collins has been promoted.
Thank you. Good morning, Mr.
Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Collins.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Mr. Chairman, do you hear me?
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Stephen Collins, S-T-E-V-E-N-C-O-L-L-I-N-S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
So this application is for a business and professional office at the first floor in the same building with a single-family household living.
There are no signs with this application.
Multiple principal uses on a lot is prohibited in the RSA 3 zoning district.
The proposed use business and professional office is prohibited in the RSA 3 zoning district.
Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
yes good morning sir have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with
this case five days in advance to this hearing yes thank you please proceed and share your screen
green button at the bottom share screen here you go thank you
okay thank you
why don't you why don't you start with some photos we see everything else
okay start your testimony sir
um i purchased the the building about three years ago and the building was set up like it is
currently the first floor was a tenant that has been an accountant there for about 10 years and
previous to that i was told that the dentist was there for about 20 years um i want to keep the
building the way that it is currently set up with no changes except for the zoning to be changed
from the residential to the current use of the community mixed license, the commercial mixed
license, mixed use license. And you went to the Roanhurst Civic Association? Yes. Yeah. Why don't
Why don't you flash a copy of their report, their letter?
That was it, just put it back up.
the brownhurst association do you want me to read that sir uh i see it work
um mr chair this is hillary i think they were a little confused about the yeah i agree there's
also there's also a meeting summary form um i think that was the next document why don't we
to indicate their support.
Is that what you need, Mr. Chairman?
Yeah, I just think the letter they sent was not,
they got a little confused with it.
Keep going.
Let me see what else is here.
all right so the first floor is going to remain as a business right yes and and what what's what's
the business that's good of there is there all right could could i see the front of the building
again and this is an end property am i right yes
okay questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
no mr chairman no mr chairman no chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes we have a miss alice yudovic with her hand up good morning
good morning
could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter alice
Good morning, Chairman, members of the board, Alice Udovich, U-D-O-V-I-C-H, from Councilman
Brian O'Neill's office.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
The Councilman has no objection to the granting of the variant since this use seems to be
in place for many years at that location.
Thank you very much for calling in.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
i see no hands here planning commission thank you chair bergman and good morning david fecto
f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir i do proceed thank you chair and i do have a question
before i start my testimony um i was under the same impression as the ron her civic association
the um refusal we we have available to us says this is for visitor accommodation yeah i we we've
come to the conclusion that ronhurst made a mistake with with the letter well and i i believed
what the council person's office saying that they're in favor of it i noticed the council
person was was copied on it too okay well that yeah i was gonna say because of the
but the refusal we have available to us
is visitor accommodation as well.
So that's, all right.
So this is actually for us.
David, sorry, this is Hillary.
What is the date on the refusal that you have?
Well, let's see.
Let me open this.
It's in Eclipse.
And we're loading.
It's okay.
Okay, so August 30th, 2022.
And Mr. Collins, can you please bring up the refusal that you have? Because I do see on Atlas, it does say visitor accommodations, but the refusal that was provided to the board.
Okay, this was later. Okay. So this is, there's, it looks like there is an amended refusal on this one. And let me just make sure it's the same application number.
Actually, it's a different application number.
huh it was correct okay okay so mr collins was there an application for visitor accommodations
for this address previously that was incorrect that was incorrect okay so then a new application
was filed yes and then a new refusal was issued okay all right so this is the later refusal so
we will go with this one and this is the one um i presume um lakeisha can you just make sure that
this was the one that was appealed this the um check eclipse and make sure this is the one that
was appealed yes thank you it was the accountant's office for 10 years yes yes we we understand mr
Collins. We're just making sure that the paperwork is all in order. It just was a mistake on the
paperwork. While Lakeisha is checking, I think we could go ahead, David, if you're ready to give
your recommendation. All right. Thank you, Hillary. I appreciate that. So, Mr. Chairman,
members of the board, David Fechter with the City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location. This is a
non-conforming property with a ground floor commercial space and one residential unit above.
The applicant has shown that there is a unique physical condition or circumstance that would
require the proposed variances, and so the City Planning Commission recommends the board to
grant the use variance. Thank you. How are we ready to vote?
just checking to make sure yeah it's a different zp number
so the wrong so the wrong case was a all right so this this one the zero zero nine six five seven
was not what was appealed no okay uh mr chair we're gonna need to hold the vote on this um
because the there was a paperwork issue okay so mr collins we're gonna hold the vote on this
Because there was a paperwork issue.
So, Mr. Collins, we're going to hold the vote on this, but the record will be closed other than the new paperwork, Hillary.
Thank you.
Am I right?
The record will be closed except to the extent that we need corrected paperwork.
Can we look to have this corrected by next Wednesday, or do we need more time?
We will do our best to have it corrected by next week, but we may need more time than that.
Mr. Collins, we'll make sure we get to this, okay?
thank you very much for the patience um when will i know if um i just i just said well i'm
we're shooting for next wednesday at uh we would vote at the 9 30 meeting okay so you'll email me
again and then we'll have another zoom session we will next one mr collins you will you will not
need to appear again um you can come on the zoom and listen to the board's vote if you would like
but you do not need to appear again your hearing is complete okay thank you very much thank you
mr collins thank you okay number one mi 2022 005 222 1604 spruce street
Oleg Sokoloff is the attorney for the owner. There's a letter of opposition from the Center
City Residents Association. The applicant has also provided three letters of support.
Mr. Sokoloff has been promoted. Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Sokolov.
Good morning, Chair Bergman.
Good morning, members of the board.
Everyone, can you hear me okay?
Yes, we can.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Oleg Sokolov, O-L-E-G-S-O-K-O-L-O-V, from Rabinovich Sokolov Law Group.
Do you still need my address?
Please.
It's 1700 Market Street, Suite 1005, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Could you identify your client in the relationship to the property?
The named client is 1604 Spruce Multi LLC. However, the owners of the entity are on the line,
Mr. Stephen and Beth Wheeler. Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Sure. Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to his accuracy? I do, Mr. Shade. Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing? I have, Mr. Shade. Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen. Thank you very much.
is everybody able to see that we can't sir okay um this is for a visitor accommodation request for
one unit out of five within a five unit multi-family building located at 1604 that is
currently zoned as CMX2. I just want to point out that CMX3 would allow for a buy right of this kind
of use, but obviously we're not there. So here's our refusal. I'll take everyone through the exhibit
packet. Some pictures of the property. This is a two-bedroom, two-bath buy-level unit. This would
be unit A, which is the first floor unit. Something I'd like to point out that is not
depicted here. However, this building has a separate internal trash storage room. And my
clients also contract to a private trash service company, which comes and picks up the trash there.
so it's not run by the city.
Here's a look at the zoning surrounding the property.
I'd like the board just to notice that there are numerous CMX3
and other commercial mixed-use properties.
This is within a commercial corridor.
There are some convenience stores and dry cleaners along this block.
So a little floor plan of the unit.
chair would you like me to hold on this screen a little bit no i think we're fine okay
Our project information form, our application, just a breakdown of the other types of units
our project information
within the property. And while I'm taking everyone through the exhibit, my clients have
own these properties for about 10 years have used this unit as an Airbnb, but primarily have used
this unit for family to come stay when they're in town, or they themselves who live in the suburbs
often use this unit to come on into town and stay. Their child lives in another unit, and
sometimes their children that don't live in Philadelphia come to visit and stay in this unit.
So the request for it to be Airbnb is not just a commercial enterprise.
It is because they don't rent the unit all year round so they can have it free for family and for themselves.
You want your testimony adopted, sir?
I will ask for my clients to adopt it and then add a little bit if that's okay with the board.
Thank you.
Here's the letter from Center City Residents Association.
We had our meeting on November 22nd.
And then here are some signatures from nearby neighbors of the property.
that have supported our request.
Deed to the property
and tax clearance.
At this time, I would like to ask my clients
to come on and adopt my testimony
and add a little bit of their own, please.
Ms. Beth Wheeler, can you raise your hand, please?
Okay, Ms. Wheeler.
Yep, there she is.
Ms. Wheeler, you're allowed to speak.
Can you unmute yourself, please?
I did.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Elizabeth Weiler, W-E-I-L-E-R.
I go by Beth Weiler.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Ms. Weiler, did you hear my testimony here today?
And do you adopt it as your own?
I'd like to quickly ask you, could you tell the board a little bit about your rental practices
and what you do to ensure that you get the highest level of short-term stay renter at
the property and just a brief description of how you've used the property and also just
what kind of tenants you've had in the past.
It doesn't need to be too much.
Hey, my husband and I decided to invest in this property, this apartment building.
It's a great location.
And we had the five units rented out and the one unit became available.
And we were using it a lot for family and thought maybe it would be a good idea to do short-term rental with it.
And I can tell you about a few guests in the beginning of the pandemic, when everything shut down, we had a young woman come in.
She was having a baby.
And then as soon as the baby was born, the baby had to go to CHOP.
So her husband needed a place to stay.
So they booked for three months.
I only do two weeks or more there because I like more professional type things.
It's not for entertainment necessarily.
People come in either.
They're working at the Kimmel Center.
We had the producer from Les Miserables stay for a couple weeks.
So we get professionals.
I like doing the longer stay.
I get parents in visiting their children, you know, whether they had newborn grandchildren.
And it's just kind of nice to have the living space, you know, the couch and the kitchen and washer and dryer.
It's like it's a home for people.
It would be accurate to say that you're very picky about who you.
Yeah. Yeah. Five star Airbnb plus.
um yeah we have strict criteria and we never had a problem never ever have you ever had any
complaints from any neighbors about this unit or the airbnbers there never ever no all right
All right. Thank you, Ms. Myler.
thank you miss myler okay thank you questions from the board
Okay. Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have a Mr. Wade Albert with his hand up.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Good morning. My name is Wade Albert, W-A-D-E,
His last name is A-L-B-E-R-T.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Proceed, sir.
Thank you so much.
So I am with the law firm of Stephen Zinley, and I'm counsel for the-
Mr. Albert, do me a favor.
Could you speak up a little bit?
We're having a hard time hearing this.
I apologize.
This is my computer.
No, I'm sure.
Hopefully you hear me a little bit better.
I'm pretty close to the microphone now.
We'll hear you a little bit better there, right?
Okay, thank you, and I'll try to speak up.
Um, so, uh, I was saying I, uh, I'm with the law firm of Stevenson Lee and I'm counsel for the, the coordinating RCO, the Center City Residents Association. Just wanted to provide some context for why we oppose this application.
For while it does appear that the applicant is a conscientious rider of an Airbnb, the organization was hesitant to not oppose or support this particular application because it would run with the land.
And in the event that the property may be transferred to a third party who may not be as reputable as a priori, we did not want to support the application under those circumstances.
And also, we believe that there was no hardship that was shown at all in this application.
So that was our position. Thank you.
Well, thank you for your comments. We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, sir. Good morning, Chair Bergman. David
Vecto, City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed
use zoning at this location. There is no unique physical characteristic or circumstance of this
property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code. The City
Planning Commission recommends the board deny the proposed use variance for visitor accommodation.
Thank you. MI 2022-005-222. Hello? Chair, my apologies. May I quickly just respond to Mr. Albert?
Sure, you can. My clients, and we would be open if the board would approve provisos either requiring
this to use under this current ownership and further for a limited period of time, certainly.
Thank you. Thank you for your comments. So MI 2022-005-222-1604, Spruce Street. I vote yes
with Proviso. Temporary variance that will expire 3-1-26. Visit or accommodation limited to Unit A.
Thomas. Mr. Chair, sorry. Hold on, Mr. Chair. I believe this is Unit 1.
I thought it was, too, until Council referred to it as Unit A.
my my yes is it unit a or unit one okay
sorry comments temporary variance expires hold on mr chair i'm still not clear is it unit one
or unit a you know what just for the sake of certainty um may i have miss weiler just just
confirm it for us sure
miss weiler
i'm sorry i just quickly texted
oh here's miss weiler
unit a unit okay so thank you so hillary that's okay right
Yeah, so if that is what is officially used for mailing and identifying the units, then that is fine.
All right, so temporary variance expires 3-1-26, visitor accommodation use limited to Unit A.
Thank you.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Hillary, can we have the young gentleman that just said yes, please get on the record and
say who he is since we've taken testimony from him, saying yes, the apartment B.
that that was the that was the property owner who previously testified and came back okay all right
so so council stay on stay on council thank you mi 2022 number six mi 2022 005 204 1721 lumbart
Street. Same counsel. A letter of opposition from Center City Residents Association.
Applicant provided four form letters of support from neighbors in the 1700 block and 1800 block
of Lombard Street. Counsel, you've already been sworn. Just state your name for the record.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Oleg Sokoloff on behalf of the applicant, 1721 Lombard LLC.
And our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good morning, Counselor.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, Mr. Trayton.
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to our offices five days in advance to this hearing?
I have, sir.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Thank you.
all right is everybody able to see that we can sir thank you um members of the board this is
also a request for a variance to use the one unit within a two unit property as a excuse me
visitor accommodation for the purposes of short-term stay um i will try to go through this
one fast since it is a similar request. This property is zoned RM1. We are requesting that
the upstairs unit be granted this variance for use as visitor accommodation. As in the last one,
we are once again totally understanding and would be accepting of the provisors for both
the amount of time that this variance can be in existence and even under this ownership only.
I'll just take you through some pictures of the properties. A few things that I just want to let you know. This property, the upstairs unit, actually has a separate entrance. Trash at this building is stored in cans in the courtyard and then brought out front, so there's no trash stored at the residence.
You can once again see that this is certainly an upscale unit. I'm sorry, my computer has been a little.
This unit, much like the other one, is also used by Mr. and Mrs. Weiler when they have more family in town than can support.
once again you'll see that this property is certainly not in as much of a commercial area
as 1604 spruce but similarly in an area that has some commercial buildings certainly surrounding it
our project information form
our application
mailers
why don't you bring your client on and have your testimony adopted please
sure any clients already been sworn just have her state her name
miss weiler if you could just come on the line again
hello i just state your name you've already been sworn
uh elizabeth weiler i go by beth weiler proceed counsel thank you miss weiler you you heard my
testimony regarding 1721 lombard street just now yes and you adopt it as your own yes and just
quickly uh would you say that you run this property exactly the same as the one we previously
discussed with as much discretion as uh regarding who you rented to yes okay questions from the board
no mr no chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, we have Mr. Wade Albert with his hand up, Chair.
Counsel, just state your name, please. You've already been sworn.
Thank you. This is Wade Albert again.
Proceed, sir.
Thank you. So, just like the prior case, CCRA took the position of opposition here for the exact same reasons that we believe that, well,
the applicant appears to be a good proprietor, that we're not comfortable with a variance that
run with the land, and again, that we believe that there has been no showing of hardship.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, sir. David Fecto with the City Planning
Commission. Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
multifamily zoning at this location. There is no unique physical characteristic or circumstance of
this property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code. We also
note that a variance adheres to the property and not to the owner of the property. The City Planning
Commission recommends the board deny the proposed use variance. Thank you. MI 2022-005-204-1721
Lombard Street. I vote yes with proviso. Temporary variance expires 3-1-26. Only visitor accommodation
is used is limited to unit number two. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you.
number 10. Thank you, members of the board. Thank you. Number 10, MI 2022-005-742-127
Queen Street. William Mafuchi is the attorney for the owner. Letter of support from Queen
Village Neighbors Association. Letter of non-opposition for council member Squilla.
Mr. Mofaci has been promoted here.
Thank you.
Counsel, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
It's Mofaci.
I've been called worse than Mofaci, though, so you can call me Mofaci.
Thank you.
It's M as in Michael, A, F, F as in Frank, Frank, U, C, C, I.
I'm at the law firm of Semenoff Ormsby at Greenberg and Torsha at 2617 Huntington Pike
in Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania.
You swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client in the relationship to the property?
My client who's here is Kazimir M. Toslosky, is the owner of the property.
He's owned it with his mother, first with his mother, and then in his own name since 1969.
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits into our offices five days in advance to this hearing?
I have.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay, the first one. Yes, thank you, Chair. We are here to ask that the board legalize a use
that has been continuous for 53 years on a small vacant lot, the northeast corner of Queen Street
and South Hancock Street. The lot used to have a residence upon it in the late 1960s.
The city directed that the residents be removed.
It was removed.
The prior owner, Mr. Kramer, began using it to park individual lots, his cars on the lots.
My client, Casimir, lives about 150 yards away down South Hancock, up South Hancock Street.
He lived there then.
He lived there now.
It's the home he's been in all his life.
He purchased the lot in 1969.
Casimir was at that time in boot camp with the Marines.
He was serving in the Vietnam War.
So originally the deed took title in his mother's name, and then she conveyed title to him in 1976.
But Casimir has used the property for on-light parking of his cars continuously throughout that time, throughout the rest of the 70s, all of the 80s, all of the 90s, throughout the 2000s, and almost all of 2010s.
Casimir has used the property for online parking of his life.
And the city has known about this use. The city has not objected during the first several decades. To the contrary, the city asked Casimir to maintain the lot, to remove conditions that might attract criminal activity, bushes and whatnot.
He's done that. He's paid taxes, countless thousands of dollars in taxes and maintenance over the years. Late in, I guess, just before the pandemic, Casimir received notice that he had converted the lot into a non-accessory parking, which is not permitted in an RSA-5 district.
um that's the you know we you know we first appeared before the we the ellen i appeal board
and they directed us to come to the zoning board um we believe uh that's for the reasons outlined
by the supreme court uh pennsylvania in marshall uh versus city of philadelphia uh the hardship
exists here because of the circumstances the fact that this was a residential this was a residential
structure. It was removed at the city's request. It's very small. We'll go through the size in a
moment. The parking in this neighborhood is at a premium, and there's never been any opposition
to Casimir's use of the lot to park his two cars. We've asked a local contractor licensed
in Philadelphia, Matt McMahon of Aaron Construction, to prepare an estimate of what it would cost
to construct a residence, to basically reconstruct the residence that the city took down
in the late 1960s. His estimate, which we'll show shortly, is that the base cost would be about
$400,000 to $450,000. There's only about 50 feet of floor space. So literally, you know,
The cost to put a residence on this lot would be about $1,000 a square foot.
And we think that using the phrase or the logic or the law in Marshall v. City of Philadelphia, that would be a prohibitive expense that constitutes hardship.
And for that reason, coupled with the fact that Casimir has complied with all the city's requests, paid taxes on this property for 53 years, we are asking for a variance for the continued use for private parking by Casimir.
Casimir has permitted has recently permitted a neighbor who is actually just two lots away at
120 at 131 Queen Street one of the cars shown is Casimir's one is owned by Casimir and his neighbor
Diane Crowell Diane has multiple severe problems that affect her mobility and
And it would truly be some old school hardship for her not to be able to park on this lot.
So I'd like to share the second step, Brittany.
First, we have the deed by which actually Casimir's mother, well, this is the deed in 1976 by which Casimir's mother conveyed the property to him.
The conveyance to the mother is recited at the end.
Move it on, move it on. This is just my layperson's attempt to graph the space.
Again, there's just two small spaces, one nine foot, each by nine foot by nine inches.
You know, the sidewalk space and then a row of bushes.
Photographs of the posting. We had, we checked the posting every three days. Everything is, everything is there.
A letter from the Queen Village Babers Association, a letter of support, and finally, a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Mark Epsquilla.
Finally, here's the letter from DMAT McMahon, and I believe that he is participating today.
If you have any questions for him, you can certainly ask them of him.
His estimate, again, is that to restore our residence, you know, we're talking a base cost of between $400,000 and $450,000.
Go to the next.
uh then just to flip through the rest of our rest of our packet
Then just to flip through the rest of our packet.
uh first is uh it was the app the application that we made for the
for the zoning permit uh the oni refusal is next again the non-accessory parking is not permitted
in RSA 5. Our appeal packet. The project information form. This was actually the original
tax clearance certificate that we got. It is expired. I will show you we have obtained a new
confirmation that CAS has complied with its tax requirements.
And then finally, there's the proviso plan, which is just a statement that we're not doing
anything to the property.
We're just continuing to use it.
We understand that the city would likely require a curb cut.
We would certainly put in the curb cut approved by the Department of Straits.
Is there anything else on this page?
Okay, then go to the last one. It's just the tax clearance confirmation that we obtained yesterday. We couldn't get the certificates. Both Casimir and I got confirmation, so I just took a screenshot of the approval.
I'd like, may I have Casimir testify himself, adopt my testimony?
Please.
please. Mr. Casimir, if you're in the audience, can you raise your hand? Yes, ma'am.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, sir. Kazimir Toslowski. Kazimir, C-A-S-I-M-I-R, Toslowski, T as in tango, O-C-Z-Y-L-O-W-S-K-I.
You swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, sir.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Chair. Kazimir, you were here when I testified. Do you adopt my testimony?
Can you tell the board a little bit more about why you and your mother purchased this property in 1969?
Yes, the owners of the property lived around the corner from me.
I live on 2nd Street, and the rear of our property exits onto Hancock Street, which is the street in which the bulk of this property exists.
And the owners lived on Catherine Street, and they approached me one day and expressed an interest in selling it to me to be used as a parking facility because it was currently being used as parking.
And I purchased it because my mother, who is, although at the time was an excellent driver, she was a little challenged with the city of Philadelphia parallel parking.
So I purchased it to enable her to have easy access to going forward and reverse to park her car without having the obstacles and the challenges of parallel parking.
And she continued to park there until she determined that she shouldn't be driving anymore.
And in about that time, my friend Diane Cronell became disabled, and she and I subsequently purchased a car and joined owners of a car.
And she is the one who lives at 131 Queen.
And, for example, last week she had three, each week she has various medical appointments.
and so there would be a real hardship for her
if she were denied the ability to park her car there.
And then, Kazmier, in all the years that you, your mother,
Ms. Crowell, have been using the property,
have any neighbors ever expressed any opposition to your use of the property?
No, sir.
Thank you. Those are all the questions.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
David Fechter with the City Planning Commission.
Chair Bergman and members of the board,
the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
This appears to be a legalization
of a longstanding undocumented condition.
The City Planning Commission recommends
the board grant the variance
for two non-accessory parking spaces.
Thank you.
Thank you. MI 2022-005-742-127 Queen Street. I vote yes. Proviso. Streets Department review of curb cut required prior to issuing of zoning permit.
MI 2022-005-742.
Thomas Holloman. My vote is yes with Proviso.
James Snell. My vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed. My vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, Council.
Thank you, Chair. Thank you, members.
Number 12, MI 2022-002-559-2238 North 4th Street, Zen Jin, letter of opposition from Nara Square Community Alliance.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
We've also received a letter of opposition from Council Member Lozada.
Thank you very much.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N, last name J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1838, Philadelphia PA 19103, here on behalf of the applicant.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is 4th Street LLC. Mr. Gitterman is here as representative for the company.
Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Thank you.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Good morning, and I do. Thank you.
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days in advance to this hearing?
I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
I'm going to share with the board the information we previously submitted relating to this case.
Can everyone see my exhibit?
We can, sir.
Great. Thank you.
So I will go ahead and move to the refusal at this point.
this is an application that is for a construction of a new structure at this lot to be used as a
duplex. It is zoned RSA 5 in this district, and therefore it was refused. We have met with the
RCO, North Squared, and the primary objection that comes from the community, it's essentially
the same for almost any application that goes before the community. If they're concerned with
local hiring, displacement of residents, and cost of rental. With two units, we were giving them
approximate cost of $1,400 to $1,700 a unit, and that was considered too high for the area,
and therefore they were essentially against the idea of a construction at the site due to that
particular cost and due to the value of the property once completed. I do want to point out
however that this property is located on a site location that has a very mixed use in the area.
This is actually a commercial auto shop. We have another garage slash commercial unit across.
you have some multi-family zoning surrounding this and then these are almost all vacant and
therefore zoned RSA 5. This one here is zoned RSA 5 even though it's essentially a parking lot for
one of the commercial uses. Again our lot is right here next to an existing building
and the proposal here is to build a new building here and as you can see there's again another
commercial garage not far from the property, and they're more on this side. So while we understand
that the preference is always to build single family in all the new development, this property,
in addition to being in an area that is underdeveloped, it also actually has a history
of being a duplex, which was previously in existence at this site. What I'm going to do
I'm going to share that information real quick with the board of the prior use of the property, which is actually a duplex use.
I'm going to put that up now.
So this property, before it was taken down, was actually a legal duplex at this site.
And it's part of the reason why the owner thought that in purchasing the land, he would be able to, again, build a duplex.
in purchasing the land, he would be able to, again, build a duplex. As far as we know from
talking to the community, they're aware of this history, but the building's been taken down for
some time because the vacancy in the area. So while I understand that that does not in and
itself present necessarily a hardship to the land under the code, we do ask the board's
consideration in that situation. So this is the plan for the property. It is a straightforward
plan, three-story structure, two units. The first floor basement would be one unit. Second and third
floor would be one unit. Again, it's a new construction on an existing lot with the history
of use as a duplex. And here's, if you want to zoom in on any part of this plan, I'll be happy
to do so. But I would conclude my testimony at this point and entertain any questions from the
board. So the property next door, what is that? That one seems to be a single family structure.
I did look that up on the atlas. The other side is all vacant. Behind is vacant. If I may,
Chairman, I'm going to share with the board the zoning map of this particular
property as well, which also can show a little bit of what is here. So we are here. These are
vacant and zoned RSA 5. But as you can see, they're a mix of RM1 in the area. And even though
these are, in fact, zoned RSA 5, including those, they're not really single family, all of them.
This property happened to have one existing property next door. And then this is of a
commercial nature, that's a commercial nature, and these are all vacant, and across the street,
it looks like it's a mix of different uses as well. Would you want to have your testimony
adopted? Yes. Mr. Gitterman, can you raise your hand, please, to be identified?
Mr. Gitterman, you're allowed to speak?
yes good morning everybody hi could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
my name is joseph j-o-s-e-p-h and last name is gitterman g-i-t-e-r-m-i-m you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do proceed counsel thank you
mr gitterman did you see my presentation and hear my testimony to the zoning board
Yes, I did.
Can you verify that what I have represented is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
And good morning, David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends residential multifamily zoning at this location.
However, in 2021, the zoning map was changed to single-family on this block in an RCO-requested map change.
The intent of single-family zoning designation is to encourage single-family infill development on narrow blocks.
The applicant has shown that the dimensional variance is minimal and does not conflict with the purpose and spirit of the code.
however there is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this lot that would prevent it
from being used as a single family home so the city planning commission recommends the board
deny the use variance thank you um mi 2022 002 559 2238 north 4th street i vote no
Thomas Hallowin
my vote is no
James Snell
my vote is no
Ishmael Shaheed my vote is no
thank you
number 15
MI 2022
5607 to 13
Germantown Avenue
counsel brickland is the attorney for the tenant uh no letter from coordinating rco 12th democratic
ward letter of non-opposition from from solo germantown
mr brickland has been promoted
good morning could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter
good morning good morning board my name is
Good morning. Good morning. My name is Shoshana Ricklin, S-H-O-S-H-A-N-A, Ricklin, B-R-I-C-K-L-I-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. Mr. Chairman, I would like to request that Patrick Jones, who will be running the video.
before we get to one minute before we get to that could you identify your client and their
relationship to the property his name is robert wheeler he is also here today and he is the tenant
that is applying for this special exception and so your your person's going to come on and just
run your uh yes and then we will also have the tenant is present yeah sure sure all right so
So bring your person on just to run your electronics.
I see him on the Zoom box there, Patrick Jones.
It's up.
Very good.
Thank you.
And one minute more.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, okay?
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed all the required documents that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance for this hearing?
Yes, with the exception of the clearance certificate, which we believe has not been issued for a technical reason, but Hillary has ascertained that there is compliance, and perhaps she can amplify that if necessary.
So we don't have an actual certificate.
Thank you, Hillary.
Yes, yes, Mr. Chair, that is correct. I know there's been some issues with the issuance of the tax clearances, but the taxes for this property are in compliance through 2022.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This is a request for a special exception for the property for the second floor of 5607 Germantown Avenue will be for a catering hall for the for the neighboring area and I'd like to go through the
the exhibit package, if possible. So the first one is the referral. Can we just go quickly
through this? And then after that is the special exception application. And then the project
information form. Please note, there will be no construction. There will be no alteration of the
property other than um the request this is the um the deed as we said the tax clearance you heard
about that we had a certificate of mailing to the um the nearby neighbors and then there was
number seven please exhibit seven is the letter to the uh rcos with the the meeting that was held
to which was scheduled and held on january 17th um after that i'm going to go through the quick
quick quickly through the pictures this is an aerial view of the location as you can see this
is in a corridor in a in a commercial corridor there are no real residential um properties
around there the next picture is the exterior um entrance on the side on east woodland street
um picture number 10 please is another picture of the um exterior entrance on woodland street
number 11 and 12 these are the interior shots of the property uh there may be some minor cosmetic
changes but nothing um no construction of any kind um and then finally we have a floor plan
But there will be no actual alteration of that floor plan in any way.
And then finally, we have a petition of the near the commercial neighbor, the neighbors around that property in support of this of this project.
I would like to have the applicant, the tenant, adopt this, if that's possible, if there are no questions from the panel.
Mr. Wheeler, are you here?
Hello?
Mr. Wheeler?
Mr. Wheeler?
He was here.
He was here.
What's his first name?
What's his first name?
Robert Wheeler.
Mr. Robert Wheeler.
I don't see him.
Counsel, you're an officer of the court.
We will take your testimony.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
There's another Patrick Jones raising their hand.
Would he possibly have come in under Patrick?
I don't know.
because we already have
let's see what
what if he's there no it's just me
okay thank you okay
and we would like to know
if the if the I mean I
can I can I can
verify that's what I'm saying you're an officer of the court
we'll take your testimony
questions from the board
no Mr. Chairman
no Mr. Chairman
no Chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience excuse me mr chair um miss miss berkland can you
just speak to the lease um for a few moments because the the initial lease term has run out
but you indicated that there had been an extension um can you please explain that yes hillary thank
you so much uh the lease term has run out but he continues to pay rent and we can rectify that
with an addendum going forward, but he has continued since the expiration on the lease
to pay rent in anticipation of this project going forward. So he has stayed, and the taxes are also
in compliance, all in anticipation of this project moving forward to completion.
thank you and we would be happy to submit that if you need that be um in order to finalize
the approval this is an exception it's not a variant planning commission thank you chair
there we still have hands here we have three hands up in the audience okay
Mr. Charles Richardson will be first.
I'm allowing him to speak.
Good morning, Mr. Richardson.
State your name, please, and spell for the court reporter.
Charles Richardson, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 508.
Richardson spelled R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Proceed, sir.
I just wanted to let everybody know that the coordinating RCO, which was the 12th War RCO and 5th CDC RCO, sent theirs in late, so may not have been received in time for you guys for consideration, but they are in support.
The councilwoman is in support of the of granting the variance of the special exception, rather, but with a three year proviso request for that.
Thank you, sir. Thank you for the call. Who else in the virtual audience?
The next one is Miss Weiss. Miss Weiss, you're allowed to speak.
Good morning, Miss Weiss. Could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter?
yes allison a double l i s o n weiss w e i s s solo germantown civic association
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes proceed um i wanted to clarify uh our position was one of non-opposition with proviso
for a temporary variance of three years.
And when this was presented to the community,
it was presented as an event entertainment space with catering.
It was not presented as a catering hall, per se.
And also it was said at the meeting that they were in the second year,
I believe, of a five-year lease.
So it's not clear to me that they don't have a lease at this time.
Counsel, could you answer that?
First of all, to clarify, this is not an application for a variance.
This is an application for a special exception for the use of a catering hall.
It is not within the parameters of the code.
Um, and my understanding based on the actual lease, it looks like it is a two year lease,
but it is being, it is, um, extended, um, for that period for the other period.
And we will provide that documentation to clarify that had the applicant been on, he
to clarify that. Had the applicant been on, he would have been able to testify to the veracity
would have been able to testify.
of that. Yes, may I speak? Yes, I apologize. Yes, it was a special exception. I misspoke
when I said variance. But it does say on the application, assembly and entertainment. So
can can you please address that the application that we saw
that is uh the general uh category it is a catering it is an event hall for um for um
events that will involve food and um and meeting for so people in the neighborhood
will there be a proviso that it's a catering hall and not an entertainment center
to the extent isn't the assembly and entertainment use limited isn't that
what catering comes under yes so well it it there's a catering in commissaries but that
doesn't involve any assembly um if there's yeah there's assembly here food catering is
is a part of that or can be depends on the venue but that that falls that fault like a banquet hall
falls under the assembly and they're telling you
thank you thank you for clarifying that hillary is there anyone else in the virtual audience
yes chair i have uh cheryl smith with her hand raised i would love her to speak
hi miss smith could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter
Hi, my name is Cheryl Smith, C-H-E-R-Y-L-S-M-I-T-H. I represent the 12th Ward, RCO. I'm not sure why you didn't receive the letter, but like Mr. Richardson said, it was.
Hold on a minute. Hold on. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Again, I'm not sure why you didn't receive our letter, but everything that's been said is correct. We supported it.
And there were five RCOs actually on our meeting, three of which wanted the three-year temporary special exception and two did not.
And then there were two community members.
So basically the petition, because this was a second meeting, because the property is located in a commercial area and it's very difficult to get near neighbors.
So they were allowed to get a petition together from the businesses and any other near neighbors, which are mostly senior citizens because a lot of housing units.
And those that we had on there, you know, like I said, agreed to it.
Three and the two community members wanted the special exception with the temporary three year extension or whatever.
and the other two didn't so um we basically supported everything thank you very much for
calling in is there anyone else in the virtual audience excuse me uh mr chair i um been texted
that um the applicant the tenant is on is here now he's under the second mr wheeler under the
second box of patrick jones would it be permissible for him to um come on it is
could you please raise your hand sir
do we see him yes i see him chair okay he's allowed to speak i could you state your name
please and spell for the court reporter uh yes uh robert wheeler w-h-e-e-l-e-r right do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Proceed,
counsel. Mr. Wheeler, thank you for getting on. We have put on the record your desire to have a
special exception to run a catering and event planning place. Could you please briefly describe
the nature of that so that everyone here will understand what exactly you were planning to do?
Yes, provide a space where people could have, you know, formal weddings, birthday parties, you know, baby showers, dinners, just something nice and elegant for the community.
I'm actually born and raised in the Germantown community and did business there for years.
Thank you, Mr. Wheeler.
The other thing I want to have you put on the record is that you were continuing to pay rent and you do have an addendum to what was in the written lease.
to pay rent, and you do have an addendum to what was in the written lease?
Yes, I do a lot of business with David. This will go on for, I mean, David loved me as a tenant,
so I'll be there for years to come. And could you be, will you be willing to provide a written
evidence of that addendum
that the
lease continues
for this board? Yes.
Thank you. Are there any
questions from the board to this
to the applicant, to the tenant?
Any questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands,
Chair. Planning Commission.
Thank you very much, Chair Bergman.
David Fecto, City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
commercial mixed-use zoning at this location. The proposed use is not likely to cause detrimental
impacts beyond what might normally be expected. So the City Planning Commission recommends the
board grant the special. Thank you. MI 2022-002-233-5607-13 Germantown Avenue. I vote yes.
proviso
temporary
excuse me Mr. Chair
can we hold this for a week
for the addendum for the lease we really should
have that before we vote on this matter
okay fine
we will vote on this
next week at
9.30 a.m. on Wednesday
and the record is otherwise closed
except for receipt
of the lease and
I understand the other letters from the RCO
were submitted, we will accept those as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
MI 2022-006-892-2202-04 Wesley High Avenue. Alan Nockamson is the attorney for the owner.
It's remand hearing. Must be heard.
Mr. Nockamson has been promoted.
Good morning, Mr. Nockamson.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I understand this will just be supplemental testimony. Am I correct?
That is correct, Mr. Chair. I would like to just give a quick overview of the matter.
So just to familiarize the board again.
Yeah. Please.
Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Again, let me, can I share my screen?
You can.
Okay. Thank you.
so again just to familiarize the board with this this project has been in existence for some time
we presented I would say almost a year ago to the day and what we're seeking to do is put an event
planning space in this cmx2 property so what we're looking to do is not a variance but merely
a special exception, which is allowed under the code. So the standard is a lot lower than the
variance where the use is conditionally approved. And we feel like we've met our burden
in that respect. So during the original hearing, there was some connectivity issues with my
client's representative, Darren Hardiman, who is now present in the virtual audience. And,
And, you know, at the conclusion of my short presentations to summarize what's going on, I would ask that he virtually raise his hand, be sworn in, and then he could give some testimony about, you know, what protective measures we're going to have for this event planning space.
Just, again, just to quickly go through this, this is the notice of referral.
I do have an objection in one respect.
It's an application for a nightclub and private club for $89.
Mr. Nackamson, you just froze up.
Mr. Nackamson?
Hello?
Hillary?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
so we gotta wait for
yeah we'll give
we'll give him a minute I think he needs to
we'll give him a minute I think he needs to excuse me needs to go out and come back in probably
excuse me needs to go out and come back
he must have heard you Hillary
chair yes we still need to get on the record uh we haven't sworn them in
I I thought I did but I I will do that for you if you if you don't think I did yeah we haven't
sworn them in
Here you go.
You ever have one of those cases that it just, it's jinxed from the beginning.
So we had connectivity issues.
Did I, apparently I, did I swear you in, Mr.
You did swear me in.
So I don't know how much I was talking.
All right.
Well, we'll do it one more time to be sure.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And this, this is a remand.
We don't have to go back to the vice chair.
So why don't we just continue your overview?
What I'm going to do is, I don't mean to be rude, but I find that sometimes when I don't have the video on, there's less issue of connectivity.
So if you don't mind, I'll turn my video off.
That's fine. We've already seen you. That's fine, sir.
All right. I'm going to share my screen.
All right. Again, we were here approximately a year ago regarding this matter.
So this is a CMX2 property, essentially on a commercial corridor where Lehigh Avenue is.
You know, there are residential properties to write of us.
This is not a variance project.
This is a matter that would allow us, that conditionally allows us to have the use.
And this is for a special exception.
And so we had community input for this project.
And for the most part, we've had, you know, success.
I mean, you'll see in our presentation materials, or they are in the presentation materials,
We have support from the Coordinating RCO,
Strawberry Managing Community Concern.
We have a letter of support from Senator Sharif Street.
We have a letter of support
from the North 22nd Street Business Association.
We have a letter of support
of the 16th Democratic Executive Committee.
And we have a letter of support
from Morell Dobbins Alumni Association, Inc.
My client, Darren Hardiman,
who's in the virtual audience,
is one of the representatives
from Hardiman Hall Acquisitions, LLC,
the owner of the property he he was born and raised around the corner from here essentially
and he still has you know uh relationships in the neighborhood and the last thing he would want to do
is to have a nuisance uh property so it is an event planning space and you know unfortunately
with the zoning code it's it's not it's not uh well defined uh event planning spaces it falls
under the nightclub and private club category uh so as i was stating originally um are you still
there yes yes okay guys you weren't moving so i just didn't want to make sure i went no i was
looking at a piece of paper in front of me okay i'm sorry i just wanted to make sure i wasn't frozen
no you're not froze you're not frozen all right uh so uh it's it's it's a hard category that
probably needs to be redefined uh by city council but event planning space falls within the nightclub
and private club category.
And we understand that there's obviously issues
with us being defined as a nightclub and private club,
but there's no intention of having a nightclub
or private club.
We're not selling tickets or entries into the space.
This is for people within the community
to have an event playing space for birthday parties,
for community events, for educational seminars.
And Mr. Hartman will speak to that.
I do have one objection, I'll renew it,
is that for the notice of referral, it says that we're asking for 89 people, but in our application,
we actually ask for 142 people. 89 people inside and 53 people outside. But, you know,
ultimately, we're willing to agree to certain provisos. You know, we are willing, and you can
see, in addition to the individuals and entities who are in support, we have 35 signatures of
individuals in close proximity in support of this project. So we're willing to agree certain
provisos, such as hours of operation, and I'll have Mr. Hardiman testify in his own words what
that would be. We would agree to commercial pickup. Those are two enforceable provisos.
those are two enforceable provisos now the you know we would also agree to security of events
Now, the, you know, we would also agree to
after a certain hour um and we would also agree to put cameras and lighting um outside which again
some of those are not enforceable um and you know we would agree obviously you know mr hartman will
state that you know anyone who is um who's using our venue would have insurance uh and you know
they would be screened before they can actually have an event there.
You know, so given the overwhelming community support, given that this is a referral,
given the means and methods we have done to ensure that there would be no negative impact on the community,
we would ask that the board grant this special exception request.
Now, I will ask that Mr. Hardeman virtually raise his hand and be sworn in.
Mr. Hardiman, Mr. Hardiman, you're allowed to speak, speak.
Mr. Hardiman, could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Darren Hardiman. First name, D-A-R-E-N. Last name, H-A-R-D-I-M-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Yes, Mr. Hardeman, you heard everything I had to say today.
And is it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Okay, now, hours of operation, what would be the hours of operation that would be to form the basis of any zoning permit for your operation?
So the hours of operation are currently, or were, when we were open, it was 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.
um that that would allow for someone to start an event at 12 ending at four allow us for time
to clean up for another event to start at um eight ending at 12 and anything in between obviously
gotcha and then um would you also agree to commercial trash pickup yes we agree to commercial
trash pickup typically when we are open uh we have someone come in and clean they remove all
trash from each event and they take it with them to the dump. So that's something that we
definitely agree to. Yeah. And I referenced in terms of security, you would actually have
someone there during certain hours for events, right? Yes. For any event that ends after 8 p.m.,
we have security requirement for the space, not only to secure the person who's renting the space,
but our tenants in the neighborhood as well.
We want to make sure that we are, you know,
giving a deterrent to anyone who may be seeking any trouble in the area
for whatever the reason might be.
And then you would also be in agreement,
which is not an enforceable condition,
the zoning permit to put cameras and lighting out front.
We've already done that.
So there's a camera out front that has zoom lens.
It's in color and it's monitor.
And we already have lighting out front as well.
So those things are already done.
so that they're agreed to yes. Okay. And then you would ensure that anyone who had an advantage
or space would be properly insured. Yes. Everyone's required to have insurance,
even the people who we are renting. So if someone brings a bartender in, that bartender has to be
insured. We've taken the proper precautions and built the relationship so that we can make sure
that everyone is able to get insurance as well. Gotcha. And it's not your intention to
allow people to sell tickets to enter your venue? No. So we have absolutely no intention on
it being a nightclub at all. That's not our plan. That's not our destiny for the space.
We want to host events. We want people to come in and be able to have, like you said,
seminars, birthday parties, baby showers. At one point, there was a church who was interested in
renting the space. So there's a bunch of different uses, but nightclub isn't one.
Now, last hearing, there was something on the record about your operation starting
without the correct permitting. How would you respond to that?
Well, initially, we just didn't know. And we do apologize for it, but we leaned on the expertise
of our architect to give us the proper zoning and allow us to operate. So we started thinking
that we had it under the guise of his leadership. That not being the case, we were shut down
and we waited our time. I mean, at this point, it's been 21 months closed while we were trying
to get back to the table. So we've done nothing in that time. And now we're here looking to
get the referral. Okay. Is there anything else that you would like the board to know
before we conclude? I mean, I think that everything is covered. I mean, the biggest
before we conclude? I mean, I think that everything is covered. I mean,
goal for us, for me, especially in my business partner, as we try to own and operate the building,
we already do with apartments, but we also invest in the area. We just want to bring
another business to the area to increase or enhance the corridor. So I have nothing more
aside from that. And my goals are clear. We want to bring something to the community that makes
sense for all people to enjoy and share. Thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman. Alan, you have no other witnesses, am I correct?
That's correct. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
yes chair i have a person i actually see three hands up the first one is looks like a mr hall
calling from a samsung okay and i will allow him to speak
um the person in the audience there he goes he's unmuted hi could you state your name please and
spell for the court reporter yeah mr hall h-a-l-l what's your first name sir henry all right um do
you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes are you a neighbor
sir yes excuse me excuse me chair pardon me this is the court reporter i apologize i did not catch
the witness's first name henry he said henry thank you hillary go ahead yes i was gonna say
Mr. Chair, this is a hearing on remand, and it is limited to parties that testified in the prior hearing offering testimony.
I do not have Mr. Hall as one of those parties, so unfortunately, I don't believe we can take testimony from him today.
Thank you, Mr. Hall.
Sorry about that.
Who else in the virtual audience?
There's a person named Alfred Fields.
Do not see his name either.
He just left. He just left. Okay, anyone else? There are no more hands here. Hillary, go back
to planning for their position now. Yes. Planning, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. David Vecto with
the City Planning Commission chair and members of the board. The comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the commercial mixed use zoning in this location. During the previous hearing,
The RCOs gave testimony that there will be detrimental impacts beyond what might be expected.
However, we've heard no testimony this time around that this facility would operate any differently than any other assembly and entertainment use.
So the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant a three-year temporary variance for this application.
Thank you.
the vote on this matter will be held for the preparation of supplemental findings of fact
and conclusions of law which will be adopted as proviso of the board's decision prior hearing
transcript ccp order and previous findings introduces evidence hillary too so that that
was just for you mr chair to let you know that was said to you okay thank you mr knockamson yeah
Mr. Chair, can I just quickly respond to the City Planning Commission's recommendation?
I do not believe that the coordinating RCO stated that there was any detrimental impact to the community.
Their letter actually is in support of our application.
I just wanted to note the record.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called this morning?
There are two hands up, Chair, and one is with the phone number ending in 3552.
May I allow you to speak?
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Person ending with the phone number 3552, you've been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell it?
Yes, it's Adrienne Fernandez. I'm trying to let you know that myself and also...
Hold on a minute, Adrienne. Were you sworn yet today?
I was sworn today.
Okay, just state your name for the record and what's your comments?
Okay. My name is Adrienne Fernandez and I'm asking that there's a neighbor trying to comment and also myself and we cannot get in. She's on Zoom, I believe.
Okay, so Hillary, can we reopen it, Hillary?
If the board wishes to reopen it, we will need Mr. Knockamson to come back in.
If the board wishes to reopen, it can.
We will need Mr. Nockamson to come back in if he's still available.
All right.
Get Mr. Nockamson back, please, if he's available.
Can I ask if the neighbor go in front of me?
I'm going to try to see if I can get Mr.
I want to try to get Mr. Nockamson first, Adrian.
He's not interested.
Adrian, what is the name of the neighbor?
Oh, she's muted.
I just want to make sure the neighbor is actually eligible to testify.
Adrian can testify, but I will try to get Mr. Nockamson back on.
Hillary, the people that had their hands up is James.
James McLeod is a different case.
We can come back to him.
and then darren hardiman yes he's the he's the applicant in the in the current case
um mr chair members of the board i my client was still on the on the hearing
he stated that you needed that someone else so so adrian fernandez from rco and swan poodle
wants to testify we have no objection okay adrian why don't you why don't you proceed
miss adrian can you unmute please you might have to hit star nine
can you hear me now yes we can you've already been sworn to state your name for the record and
please your comments. Okay. The neighbor, her name is Shirley, and I'm asking if she can testify
before me. Okay, sure. Shirley, please come on. There are two hands up under a fire tablet.
One of them may be Shirley. Go to that. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Chair, I would object to this testimony
because so miss miss lee already testified i'm like mr hardiman he wasn't given an opportunity
so i i i think where we are with this is that we said anyone who who testified prior could testify
we've turned people down that didn't testify prior got you mr chair right now mr occamson just to
clarify that was per the court order it said that parties could offer supplemental testimony only
so it's only people who have testified before that can testify
Ms. Lee
There's another hand up
but it's from a fire tablet
that could possibly be Ms. Lee
Try please
You hear me?
Ms. Lee
Yes, sir
Could you state your name please
and spell for the court reporter
Okay, my computer just came back up
I'm going back over to that
I'm sorry. Can you hear me okay?
My first name is Cheryl.
C-H-E-R-Y-L-E.
Ma'am, you're getting an echo.
I'm not sure I'm one of your devices.
she did i couldn't figure out how to turn it off
okay you're fine now you can give testimony hi just spell your name again for the court reporter
please
Ms. Lee?
I think she switched to her computer, but she's only been promoted with her tablet, so she needs to speak through her tablet and not her computer.
Okay, can you hear me now, sir?
We can. Just state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter.
My apologies. First name is Cheryl, C-H-E-R-Y-L-E. Last name is Lee, L-E-E.
Do you swear if we're going to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Hello?
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Oh, you. All right. Good. Proceed.
all right good proceed okay good morning to everyone um foremost i don't know if you can see me at all
Okay. Good morning to everyone.
we cannot we cannot um i unfortunately i'm i'm i'm not uh great with this i would just first state
The picture that Mr. Nocklinson provided at the beginning was an old picture of the property prior to the H2 events Philly moniker placed on the front of the building.
So that could lead to deception, in my opinion, that this all has not been in the works.
Secondly, we have had a year of peace and quiet since the nightclub activities have ceased with the late night parties because they were not permitted and because of the crowds, the noise, the smoking marijuana.
the police have not had to respond or shut anything down the loud music that came from
inside outside and i would submit that as they're trying to use semantics to not call the property
a nightclub if you're having adult parties with loud music beverages and people in and out i don't
Just because you don't sell tickets, it's not a club. It's a place that they have, I guess, pre-reserved, and I don't know that for a fact, pre-reserved to go in and participate and partying and drinking and dancing and so forth.
The crowds have been spilling out. The parties do not end at midnight. There is documentation through police reports where upwards of one, two in the morning that these parties were going on.
Your last ruling, the last time we were present, December 7th of, I think it was 20 or 21, two weeks later, after this board made their decision not to allow a nightclub, there was a party, December 18th, that the police had to come and shut down.
And the people still milled around for over an hour before it was dispersed.
The need for security, I would submit, why do we need security in our neighborhood for when you have the understanding of the potential of the impact within the neighborhood, aside from the trash and the noise and the small scrums that have taken place?
So, Mr. Notkinson, I'm sorry that you are opposed to my actual testimony here, but as an impacted person who lives here, this is what we all had experienced.
And at this point, we have all had quiet.
We have all had the quality of life that we are accustomed to and have been previously accustomed to.
Sure, neighbors have parties every now and then in the neighborhood, but we're all respectful of one another because we live here.
The decision or your request for change it from 89 to 100 people or whatever the case was, you had been having that and you had more.
it's just too much we would like to continue the quality of life that we have where we can
go to sleep at night we can uh not have to worry about extra element in the neighborhood
the smell of marijuana the loud noise this is our residences this is where we live
As far as trash pickup, that's nice, but on occasion, I have witnessed when they have people come and clean up, and sometimes the trash is taken, sometimes it's carted directly to the corner and left with the public receptacles that are right outside,
that are at the corner that the city has to pick up anyway.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I'm just getting flustered at the misinformation.
And as far as your letters of support from Sharif Street and various people,
I honestly, we never even saw them before.
But I'm sure I can have conversations with those council people
I can have conversations with those council people and the people who don't live in the area that have given you letters of support, these organizations as well.
and the people who don't live in the area that have.
Ms. Lee.
Mr. Chair, I just would like to brief you.
So how about if I bring Adrian Fernandez on and then you respond?
Okay, thank you.
All right.
Ms. Fernandez?
Can you unmute star six to unmute yourself, please?
Yes, I'll unmute it now.
Just state your name again.
You've already been sworn.
Thank you.
Adrienne Fernandez.
My last name is spelled F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z.
Proceed.
This proposed nightclub use is a problem.
first of all our business district on 22nd street does have nightclubs which we never have a problem
with if there is a problem the police are called we don't really know anything about it because
that is a commercial district pretty large our councilwoman cindy bass says there are 157
businesses on 22nd street and the nightclubs fits in over there we also have event spaces over there
they have birthday parties. I've never seen a birthday party at 2202-04 West Lehigh Avenue.
There's a number of zoning issues that show us that this use is not going to have many negative
impacts where we live at. Sorry, I'm looking at my letter. My letter is on file, but I'm reading
my written testimony. So the first is that this proposed youth nightclub and private club
is an overuse of variance in our area, and that portion of our neighborhood is under two
overlays that do not support a nightclub next to homes of our neighbors. The applicant party,
specifically Mr. Notchison, he disrespected our community, our majority Black affected community
at the community meeting. He failed to provide any visual presentation, whether it be the large
poster board or PowerPoint. He provided or handouts. He literally let me borrow his. He gave
this presentation with a eight and a half by 11 handout that only he had. And I think he bought
an extra one and he did give me one that is unacceptable um he did not post the property
proto-zoning code through 11-29-2021 for a 12-7-2021 hearing and i did forward three photographs
three photographs of the um of no posting and i'm sure that's on mr hardiman's cameras also
because it was posted the next day after I took pictures.
Also, the applicant owner, Mr. Hardeman, or his business associates,
they removed two L&I cease operations orders, which is a pretty serious violation.
I also submitted an L&I document that the police and L&I signed
for illegal nightclub parties at this location.
And just for the record, I want to give the DC number for the last illegal party. I'll give that before I finish. Just looking through my information. I'll give you that before I finish.
And that last illegal party was given 12-19-20-21 at something like 1.43 in the morning was when the police arrived, the 22nd District.
This morning they gave us, again, the D.C. number, and they had to stop this party of over 100 people where the neighbors called.
And they were just, you know, getting high, driving high, just all over the area disturbing the neighborhood.
Even though this is a large corridor, the homes are, they're quieter than smaller streets.
That's just the way this neighborhood is.
So, this continued disturbances.
Ellen and I reported to us that Mr. Hardiman could not even operate again without coming to them and providing a written, they have to have a signed agreement that he would follow Philadelphia codes and laws.
So he has no intention of respecting the Philadelphia Code.
And I do believe that he does not live in Philadelphia County, which is a problematic, that he thinks there are laws that don't have to be followed.
Commercial trash pickup, they didn't have any trash management plan they presented at the public meeting.
Commercial trash pickup is not good near people's homes.
commercial trash pickup is um is not good near people's homes it's the odors too much noise
and in our area commercial trash pickup starts at 4 a.m on the business district
much of the trash is picked up daily at 6 a.m by the philadelphia streets department
um i think i already said that the business district is concerned about nightclubs
have providing an increase in crime, and they told this to us specifically in our area, and
most of the businesses do not support a nightclub that is not right on 22nd Street and will be
operating at night when most of them are closed. Also, the parking, there's no parking for a
nightclub. The applicant, the owner, Mr. Hardiman, he falsely reported at the RCO
meeting that he would speak to Deliverance Baptist Church, Deliverance Evangelistic Church.
They are very, very helpful in the community all the time. They own a large amount of property.
They own Hope Plaza, which is catty corner on the northeast corner. And he told us that he
would bring a letter from Deliverance stating that they would allow him to use part of their
parking lot from Hope Plaza for parking. He never provided that letter. And we asked him
maybe at the meeting, and again, he never provided that letter. Deliverance always keeps their word
to our community, and they are, they, you know, they don't do anything we don't like. If they do,
we can talk to them, and it's over with. We never have any problems out of them, so I know that if
he had talked to them, they would not have ignored him, and they would have given him a letter or let
him know if they did not agree with it. They would not have ignored him, so he provided no letter.
The hours of operation proposed are not acceptable. Trash, loitering, loud music, drugs, the kind of clientele that he's already proven that he attracts. And we believe he, even though he doesn't sell tickets today, that's not common. Today, the ticket selling is done by cash apping or other digital payments using social media.
So we would never see any paper tickets anyway.
They announced it on social media.
They cashed that to that account.
And all we see is the disturbing 100, 200 people that show up.
This can be done successfully, but he has not mastered that.
We had a restaurant that would use that method.
They would put out, you know, guard, sort of guardrails.
They would have people in line.
And it was never a problem.
So, but he's not operating in that manner.
They're just, it's like a wild group that just does whatever they want.
They sit on neighbors' properties, get high on neighbors' properties, just do whatever they want.
That's been our experience.
So also, just to show that he doesn't communicate well with our community, there was an application and granting of a lot line change, I guess, in 2021, and the neighbors had no input with that.
um that's the summary of my um zoning information about that i do want i do want to i do need to
summarize from the um public meeting uh the the votes and this is in my written testimony
and that meeting was 10 28 2021 there were 18 attendees seven did not vote two supported the
project and nine opposed the project by voting um the voting details i'm not going to go over you
have that in writing. However, what's important is that the RCO coordinator, who was an affected
RCO, one of the affected RCOs, we are all equal without hierarchy. The affected RCOs are chosen
by our boundaries. The affected RCO, Strawberry Mansion Concern, did not properly or truthfully
report the voting. Also, the RCO coordinator did not vote at the meeting, did not vote by email as
all in the family RCO did, another affected RCO, three RCOs, affected RCOs attended, and
promptly voted at the meeting. All in the family voted by email and stated that their vote would
support the community, so that means that they were opposed to it. Strawberry Mansion, concerned,
did not vote at the meeting or by email, however, notified Strawberry Magic Concern RCO acting as
the affected RCO, they informed ZBA that they voted. They did not vote. So that is falsified
information, which personally we don't tolerate. And we report it to the ZBA whenever it happens.
It happens a little bit too frequently in Philadelphia. So that's pretty much what
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for hanging around and calling back in. And we
appreciate it. Mr. Nakamura said, would you want to respond? Yes, Mr. Chair. So first of all,
Yes, Mr. Chair. So first of all, if Ms. Fernandez submitted any materials to the board, I would ask that we would be given the same opportunity to review those materials, just like we're responsible to review any presentation materials that we show.
if Ms. Fernandez submitted any material.
Make sure, Hillary, make sure you have copies of that.
Yeah. And then as far as the posting, we, you know, in our current presentation materials, we showed posting of today's hearing. So, and which also shows the facade of the building and the current condition of the building.
um uh in terms of a lot of the testimony it again i'm not going to testify because i'm not i'm not
intimately familiar with the facts but but but my clients are and i'm sure that they would like to
respond in kind so if mr hardiman would again virtually raise his hand he can respond in kind
because there was a lot there.
Mr. Hardiman, bring Mr. Hardiman back.
Good morning.
Mr. Hardiman, you've already been sworn, just for the record, state your name again.
Darren Hardiman.
Okay, proceed, counsel.
So I'm going to try to keep this concise and make sure that I respond to all the points that were brought forward.
um our event space was shut down june 2021 we have not had another event at the event space
since june 2021 the the party that they're speaking of that was shut down in december
um that was a party that the tenants had on the second floor as this is an apartment building as
well there's no proof there's no police report that says that it was at the event space because
it was not, in fact, at the event space. So that's that part. With regard to parking,
we didn't get a letter for parking from the church. They didn't want to take the liability,
but again, this is a public corridor. There's plenty of parking on the street in front of
Dobbins High School and the surrounding streets. So we're not going to have a negative community
impact with regard to parking. Commercial trash pickup. We don't, at the event space, put any
trash outside in the front. We always keep it in the rear, in trash cans, inside of our courtyard,
and then it is taken away by our professionals and taken to the dump. So we've never put it
outside for the streets department or trash collection waste management to pick up. We have
had tenants that we've advised not to put trash in the front at the public trash can on the corner
but as much as we advise them when someone wants trash out of their property before we can get
commercial trash there they take it out of the property we try to control it as much as we can
and we're going to stay on top of that as well um there are a bunch of other accusations or i just
don't know what they were there were so many um with regard to zoning and police police only come
out with regard to zoning matters we've never had the police come out and shut down an event
but for zoning if and and like many of you may know when zoning comes out to shut down an event
they are treated as if they were a city employee so the police come out to assist
in shutting down that event that's the simple and plain of it uh i think that i hit most of the
points um with regard to posting i mean we're at a totally different meeting which we posted for
and at the very first meeting if it were not posted we did continue that first meeting this
is i think the third time that we've been in front of you guys um yeah we're not a nightclub we're
not accepting cash apps i'm not sure that she's ever sent us a cash app but we don't even accept
cash app everything is paid for by paypal we have invoicing people have to book um that's that as
far as her not ever seeing a birthday party i'm not sure that she's ever attended anything in our
space aside from a community meeting. So I don't know how she would have saw a birthday party or
identified for what would have been a birthday party and or not a birthday party. I can attest
to a bunch of the parties and I can send pictures as proof as to what we had there. And yeah,
nightclub just hasn't been one of those things. If there's anything else that the board would like
me to respond to, I can and will. I'm absolutely willing. We think you've handled what you could.
So, as I stated before, the vote on this matter will be held for the preparation of supplemental findings of fact and conclusions of law, which will be adopted as a proviso of the board's decision.
Thanks to everyone involved.
Is there anyone else whose case has not been called?
Chair, I see two hands, and one is from Strawberry Mansion Community, and the other is from James McLeod.
any others from james mcleod okay let me let me talk to mr mcleod okay
let me
let me
mr mcleod you're allowed to speak yes i'm james mcleod my last name is spelled m-c-l-e-o-d
the owner of 7120 with sakin avenue philadelphia pf
do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
Mr. McLeod, we called you earlier today.
I was on, Yana.
I was on, Yana.
I had tried to get on this way, but it wasn't, I was too early or whatever.
It wouldn't let me on.
So then I called in.
Then I know I had to dial star six till just recently to be unmuted.
All right, Hillary, I think we'll handle this case, okay?
That's fine, Mr. Chair.
Okay. Mr. McLeod, our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Mr. McLeod, have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits?
You're going in and out.
Mr. McLeod, have you sent all the appropriate forms in?
I believe they sent everything in.
The only problem that we had, we had a problem with the tax cert.
Even when I went to the city, they told me they would email you guys.
they self demanded presented itself so all right so this case is for the erection of a detached
private residence parking garage containing free parking spaces accessory to an existing single
home household living size and location as shown on the plans private resident garages with a gable
hip or gabriel roofs are subject to a maximum height of 15 feet whereas this is 21
six inches as proposed yes why don't you start showing your your uh your paperwork online here
all right mr chair this is sorry hold on one second mr chair this is hillary can you just
read the address and mi number into the record please mi 2021 004 390 71 20 wissahick and
mr mcleod why don't you start by showing photos of the garage um i don't even know i'm not too
computer savvy so i don't even know how i could present that i believe that's why my expositor
um emailed you guys he couldn't be here because he's going through surgery with cancer he had
surgery today it couldn't be put off all right sir so sir this is gonna have to be continued
okay okay um i mean i don't know how to do it i'm sorry well what's okay what's what i'm saying
we'll just continue the case it's going to be marked must be must be tried the next time the
case comes up okay so either you get you there you get your expediter to do it or you find someone
else could help you show the paperwork okay yeah and if you have any questions you could call our
office and we'll gladly help you okay okay and mr mcleod just to be clear you have to give the
testimony, but somebody else could operate the screen for you if need be, but they can not
testify. Oh, I wasn't aware of that. I thought I had to do everything myself. So that's what she's
saying. That's what she's saying. Yeah. Yeah. Now, no. Just have somebody work the screen for you,
but you could testify off the screen. Okay. Okay. So MI 2021-004-390-7120 Wissahickon Avenue.
this case is continued mark must be tried the next time it's on okay okay gladly call the
office we'll try to help you with whatever you need appreciate that thank you thank you
is there anyone else in the virtual audience whose case has not been called
um mr chair there's still strawberry mansion community with the hand up
let her come in a minute please
strawberry mansion community you're allowed to speak
hi could you please kai could you state your name please and spell it for the court reporter
is bonita cummings b as in boy o-n-i-t-a cummings c-u-m-m-i-n-g-s do you swear for
him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do so i don't want to belabor
No, no, no, no, no, no. Just, just listen to me a minute. We we've already closed the testimony. Mr.
Knackinson is off, was off the phone. And we, we can only take, well, you, you testified the last
time and we have where you were with that then. Okay. Okay. All right. But, but, but thank you
All right.
But thank you for calling in.
for calling in and.
And as you heard, we're going to prepare some paperwork before we vote on this.
All right?
All right, Dennis.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Thank you, everyone.
See everyone at 2 p.m.
Thank you.
Please.
Lakeisha, we're okay to go?
Yes, you can begin, Chair.
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this afternoon's DBA hearings.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holloman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is Hillary Emerson, our Attorney, and our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Here's our virtual format. Be advised the proceedings are being recorded. The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 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 answer box on the screen is not for
comments or testimony. All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at this afternoon's continuances. Number one, MI 2022-005-928-4829 Haverford Avenue.
That case is continued. Number eight. MI 2022-003-075-2050 Welsh Road. That case is continued.
Does anyone have any comments relative to those two cases that were continued?
I see no handshare.
Are there any other additional requests for continuances?
No hands, Chair.
I want to add it, read into the record two withdrawals.
Number six, MI 2022, 005-935-331-37, North 63rd Street.
That case has been withdrawn.
And number 11, MI-2022-005-933-4612 Wayne Avenue, that case is withdrawn.
Are there any other requests for withdrawals?
There are no hands here.
We're going to go to our add-on list.
Hold on here.
Let me get it up.
Number one, MI 2022 002 917 7770 Dungan Road. This is a request for withdrawal from the 930 a.m. list. That case is withdrawn.
Number two on the add-on list, MI 2022-003-166-4847-49 Haverford Avenue, I vote no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is no.
Number three, MI-2022-001-308-8330 Millman Street, my vote is no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is no.
Number four. MI 2022-001-570-500-08 North 2nd Street. My vote is yes. Proviso. No flashing, mechanical motion, scrolling, or animation.
Thomas Holloman. My vote is yes. We're provisos.
jane snell my vote is yes with provisos
Excuse me, Mr. Snell, can you please certify? And then Mr. Shaheed, you will need to as well. Thank you.
excuse me mr snell can you please certify and then mr shaheed you will need to as well
I apologize for that. Yes. In regards to this case, I have watched the video and I am very in tune with this case. And as I said, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ishmael Shaheed, I have certified to watch the video from September the 20th and my vote is yes with provisos.
Number five, MI 2022 004-466-1401 South 13th Street, my vote is no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell. My voters, no.
Ishmael Shaheed. My voters, no.
Thank you.
Number two from our regular list.
MI 2022-005-965-1742 Wiley Street.
Alan Nockmson is the attorney.
Recommendation of support from United Francifill Civic Association.
There are also a petition of support signed by 15 neighbors and four letters of support from neighbors of adjacent properties.
Mr. Nockamson.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Alan Nockamson, ALAN, last name Nockamson, NOCA.
You've already been sworn, sir.
Could you identify your client relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is the owner of the property.
Y-L-E-E-L-I-L-P-L-L-C
and in the virtual audience
is James Hodges,
its representative.
And our vice chair
has just a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, council.
Do you agree to waive
the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed
all the required documents
and exhibits to proceed
with this case
five days in advance
of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you. Please proceed to share your screen.
Hi, so I'm here to present 1742 Wiley Street. I do apologize that I'm going off camera.
I've been having technical issues all day and I think without having a camera I'll hopefully
help that along. So 1742 Wiley Street, we're proposing to have a two-family household
living in the Francisville section of Philadelphia. During our presentation, we'll first review the
notice of refusal. This is an RSA-5 property, but as you'll see from the presentation,
it's not uncommon to have this type of use in its neighborhood in close proximity to the property,
and that's why I believe that we got a letter of support from the United Francisville Civic
association. It was a very well-attended meeting, as you'll see, and we received overwhelming
support from the community. And then, again, it's not enough character to have multifamily nearby,
which makes sense because we're near the commercial corridors on Ridge Avenue as well as
Fairmont. So you'll see a decent amount of nearby multifamily on the 1,700 block and 1,800 blocks
of Wiley Street. And in addition to the community meeting, we canvassed the neighborhood. My
clients live nearby and they're well known in the area. So they circulated a petition of support
as well as letters of support from nearby neighbors just to confirm all neighbors that
surround us and directly touch our property line are in support of our project. Then we'll review
the presentation materials, which was prepared by NUM architecture. Then we'll review the RCL
meeting notice or application for appeal or deed to the property, as well as our certificate of
tax clearance. At the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Mr. Hodges virtually raise his
hand, be sworn in, and then he can adopt my testimony as his own. Our notice refusal. So yes,
this is an RSA 5 property deal. And this is, we're seeking a duplex. We're not seeking any
dimensional variances, just one use variance. And we met with the United Francisville Civic
Association with the coordinating RCO. As you can see, 34 individuals attended this meeting,
and we received overwhelming support from them. And then again, it's not uncommon to have
multifamily properties next to where we are. As you can see, we're the green bubble. And then we
did an investigation of nearby properties. So there's 14 properties within a block
on Wiley Street. There are multifamily in nature, all close by to us. And then
there are multifamily in nature all close by to us and then again it was really important to us
to meet with as many members of community to get the temperature of the community for this
multifamily project and by the way my clients actually are going to be living next door at
1740 wiley street but for there's 13 other instances in close proximity where people sign
Either a letter of support or a petition of support.
And then here's a backup petitions being signed, and as well as the letters.
And again, every property that touches our property is in support of this project.
And then this is our presentation with new architecture.
Again, it has some of the similar type of things we would include in our presentation material,
which are the zoning map, just a general map, and then the front of the property.
And then this is West side of Wiley to the Wiley Street on the West side, Wiley Street on the East side, the 1700 block, and then the West side of the 1800 block of Wiley Street.
And then this is proof of our notice poster going up on Wiley Street.
And this is our rendering of our property.
What was important to the neighborhood is that we kept in scale with the other properties nearby.
So as you can see, we mimic these properties, have a flat brick facade as well, something that you can walk by and say, OK, this is this should be part of this neighborhood.
And then this is just, you know, a site, a site plan for a property.
As you can see, there is ample rear yard space.
And again, we're not seeking any dimensional variances at all for this property.
So, again, the height is in line, not only with the codes, but also the neighborhood as a whole.
And then these are just our floor plans.
Again, there's two units.
There's a bi-level on the first floor, and there's a bi-level, first floor on the lower level, and there's a bi-level second and third floors.
Of particular importance, there's an actual separate set of staircases in the front of the property for the basement level.
So if someone is down there in a basement, they can either go up the internal flight of steps and go through their first floor door, or if they're in the basement and they choose so, they can actually exit directly through a flight of steps.
It was really important to my clients to have that safety measure in place.
And then the RCO meeting notice, we met on February 8th at 6.30 p.m.
149 addresses were notified of that meeting.
These are the addresses.
Proof of mailing to those addresses.
Our application for appeal, showing that Wiley E.L.P. LLC is the owner of the property.
Our notice of refusal was filed with that, along with our project information form,
our deed to the property, also showing that they own the property,
and our Certificate of Tax Clearance.
Now, it does show that $3,090.76 is technically owed in real estate taxes,
but those amounts are not due until March 31st of this year.
So we are tax compliant in that respect.
With that being said, I'm going to unshare my screen.
I would ask that Mr. Hodges virtually raise his hand.
Mr. Hodges is coming in.
Mr. Hodges, could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter?
James Hodges, J-A-M-E-S. Hodges is H-O-D-G-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Yes, Mr. Hodges, you heard everything I had to say today.
I did.
Is it true and correct?
yes and do you adopt as human testimony yes all right thank you hi questions from the board
no mr chairman no miss no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
no there are no hands here planning commission
thank you chair bergman fix my camera
Okay. Thank you, Chair Berman. Sarah Bohn, S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
In 2013, the zoning map was amended from residential multifamily to residential single family attached in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan.
City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board deny the variance.
Thank you.
M-I-2022-005-965-1742 Wiley Street, I vote yes.
MI 2022-005-9606.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Mr. Knocklebson, could you stay on for a minute, please?
So number three, MI-2022-005-267, 2314 Delancey Street.
Letter of non-opposition from the Center City Residents Association.
Applicant provided 11 form letters of support from neighbors on the 2300 block of Delancey.
Mr. Nockmson, you've already been sworn. Just state your name for the record, please.
Yes, Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Mr. Nockamson, could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, in the virtual audience should be Patrick and Shanley Campbell, the owners of the property.
Thank you. And our vice chair has a few questions.
Mr. Nockamson, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share this kind.
Thank you.
So this is a pretty straightforward project.
Actually, this is technically an RM1 property that was originally a four-unit apartment building.
My clients purchased this property a couple years ago as their personal residence, and over the course of the last year and a half, they've renovated the property as a single-family residence, and now they're looking for relief from the zoning board to allow them to use the rear of their property on Panama Street for access for two off-street parking spots.
so during our presentation we're going to review the notice of refusal the letter of non-opposition
from the center of city residents association we do have revised plans and you know we provided
those to miss emerson before the hearing so she has reviewed it and we gave her additional
commentary so she understood exactly the changes we made i also have in a virtual audience
or when dry the architect for the project.
So if the board feels so inclined to ask some technical questions
in terms of the differences between the original drawings
and the current drawings, he can answer those questions.
I have the streets approval showing that the streets approval
has reviewed this requested off-street parking.
I have letters to support from nearby neighbors
on the 2300 block of Valancy.
You'll see from the next exhibit, 2316 and 2318,
Delancey Place. It's not uncommon for properties that on Delancey Place, which those properties go
street to street from Delancey to Panama, and in the rear of Panama, there's no allowable on-street
parking. So it's not uncommon to have rear access for parking for these properties. And then we'll
see that on the next exhibit, 2300 block of Delancey rear accessory off-street parking.
Then we'll review maps of the area, photographs of the property, our plans and drawings, our RFCO meeting notice, our application for appeal, our deed to the property.
Again, Patrick and Shailene Campbell are the owners of this property.
They plan to use it as their personal residence.
And then our certificate of tax clearance showing that we're in good standing with the state of Philadelphia.
So first, our notice of refusal.
Again, the use is allowed as a single family.
we're actually decreasing the density because originally this was a four-unit before we
purchased it. We're just trying to get the off-street parking in the rear. We have two
refusals because of that. First, because we are not accessed through a shared driveway or rear
alley, we have that technical refusal. Although we're not taking any public parking off of the
street because there's no public parking allowed on Panama. And it's not uncommon, as you'll see,
through similarly situated properties and then how we're creating there's a almost like a catwalk
from the parking area to the to the side of our house of how the property is sloped um we are
having uh vertical support posts uh that hug the party wall on the basement level of our property
which makes it more structurally sound also according to my understanding through
when we drive the architect, we're going to have a staircase that goes from that deck to the lower.
We're going to have a staircase that goes from that deck to the lower level.
And in order to accomplish that and have a proper landing for that staircase, exterior staircase, we need a vertical supports to have no distance from the party line as opposed to the requirement of one feet, six inches.
So that's, again, another technical refusal as well.
So our letter of non-opposition, we actually met with the Center of City Residents Association last night, and, you know, they are not in opposition of our plans.
And then, again, if the board feels so inclined to grant our zoning, pending zoning appeal, we would ask they do it by way of proviso, one plan, one page of plans, which are these plans here, which the community group also saw yesterday.
And then here's our streets approval showing that they, that the streets department reviewed our plans and has no issue with them from a streets department perspective.
And then the 2300 block of Delancey, here are letters of support. Again, we have a significant amount of support. We always focus on the people most directly impacted, meaning the people that are to the left and right of us and behind us.
And as you can see, my client received support from all those individuals.
And then there's the backup letters for the petition.
And then what we're proposing is very similar to what's 2316.
So as you can see, just from this, this is from our deck at 2314.
But 2316 and 2318, you can see no one uses their rear yards for living.
they use it for parking and you know they have roll-up gates which is similar to what we're
asking for of particular note is we're mimicking 2316 you can see we have a landing for the
parking space and then there's a like almost like a side deck that leads you can't see it from here
but leads to a doorway along the breezeway side of the building structure and that's what we're
doing exactly. And then there's staircase that leads to a lower level as well, which we're
exactly mimicking. And then not uncommon to have rear accessory off-street parking, as you can see
here. These are, again, 2316 and 18. This is us in the middle of construction, obviously not using
it yet, but hoping to work all granted. And then again, you see from 2308 through 2312 to Lancy
Street, again, off-street parking. Then 2301 and 2303 Delancey Place, again, off-street parking.
2305 Delancey Place, off-street parking. 2317 and 19 Delancey Place, off-street parking.
And then again, just Google map, excuse me, zoning map of the area. We're not trying to
change the use in a way that would create another zoning variance from a living perspective just
to use the off-street parking in the rear.
And then this is where we are, too.
You can see Fittler Square is exactly towards our rear.
We go from Delancey to Panama.
And then photographs of the property.
This is the front of the property.
This is basically the catwalk
and what I was talking about here.
You know, again, this is a temporary measure here.
Obviously, if we get, you know, the ZBA's approval,
we'll have something more permanent in nature.
but you see where these double buckets are this is our which we hope will be our side door towards
our kitchen so here's the landing uh for the uh for the parking pads and here's the catwalk or
the deck um it'll expand out a little bit more than what's here now but this is just a temporary
measure and then here's our zoning notice poster uh facing delancey and then facing panama and
And then here's Delancey Place to the right of the property, Delancey Place to the left of the property, Panama Street to the right of the property.
As you can see, there's a long row of off-street parking, but you also can see that there's no on-street parking here.
People are parking on the sidewalk here.
And then architectural plans and drawings.
Again, two cars, which are within code with this dimensions of the, you know, that's allowed by the zoning codes.
And then here, again, you can just see what's the plus sign.
It's almost like a catwalk type of thing, but it's really a deck.
And you can see the steps that are leading to the lower level.
And then our RCO meeting notice, we met with the community last night, 118 addresses were notified. It was actually a very well attended meeting.
118 addresses were notified. It was actually a very well attended meeting, list of the addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses, our application for appeal that we filed with the ZBA, along with the notice of refusal and the project information form, our deeds of property showing that Patrick and Shanley own the property, and our certificate of tax clearance.
Same thing, there shows a balance, but those monies are not due until later this month.
So with that being said, I'm going to stop sharing my screen.
I would ask that Patrick virtually raise his hand to be sworn in.
Mr. Campbell, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
My name is Patrick Campbell.
It's P-A-T-R-I-C-K.
Campbell is C-A-M-P-B-E-L-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Patrick, you heard everything I had to say about your zoning matter.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chairman.
No, Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential multifamily zoning district at this location.
The proposed variance is a similar condition to many neighboring properties and is related to the lot configuration.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2022-005-267-2314, Delancey Place. I vote yes, proviso. Revised plans, one page, stamped by ZBA on March 1, 2023.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes, with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number four, MI 2022-006-011-4927 North 5th Street.
Rachel Pritzker, Brandon Savron are the attorneys.
Letter of support from the 42nd Ward RCO.
Brandon Savron is coming in as a panelist.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Hi, Mr. Saverin. Good afternoon. Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court
reporter? Yes, my name is Brandon Saverin. It's spelled B-R-A-N-D-O-N, S as in Sam, A, V as in
Victor, R-A-N as in Nancy. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth? Yes, I do. And could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes, the property owner is my client. His name is Ernst Gessner Daphnis, and he'll be on to adopt my testimony.
Thank you. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stay in the equity?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed all the required documents into our offices to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, members of the board.
So I'll be showing you some images on my screen.
These, with the sole exception of some support letters by neighbors,
were all submitted as part of my exhibit packet about two weeks ago.
I'm not going to show you the entire exhibit packet, just certain key selections. So the
property I'm here to discuss is 4927 North 5th Street. This is the notice of refusal that we
received upon making our zoning permit application. You'll see on the bottom here in the text
called Notes to the ZBA that this is a property on North 5th, which I'll show you images of in a
second. That's a main commercial corridor in this area above and below Roosevelt Boulevard.
This property historically was a triplex. It was three apartment units. The permitting had
probably lapsed over time, but my client purchased this property, I believe, about four years ago,
But my client purchased this property, I believe about four years ago, five years ago, has pulled permits to renovate it and in the process obtained a new zoning permit that took it down to two residential dwelling units.
five years ago.
So that two unit use is already approved. That was by right. And what we're here for today is to discuss the ground floor level, because the second floor and the third floor are the two apartments that we already have permitted and have been there forever, basically.
So we're talking about the first floor here. And because we're on a commercial corridor, my client felt that it was not going to be very marketable to try and rent that space out as a renovated apartment.
It's really in an area that's like mostly commercial storefronts. So we want a commercial use.
And the commercial use that he's here to apply for is assembly and entertainment.
That would be the regular version of assembly and entertainment, not the nightclub, private club version.
So we have the code is sort of explicit that that caps you at having events with 50 people.
We also made a commitment not to have larger events than that in our RCO meeting.
In any event.
See, I'm just going to start by showing some images of the property and the block.
So this is the property right here. As I mentioned, my client undertook some legally permitted renovations already.
He's just not permitted to occupy the ground floor until we get this variance.
But it's set with a rebuilt frontage. He has a security grate down since it's not in operation currently and assigned.
So this is the space. These are the apartments above it.
you can see the neighboring properties are typically mixed use with retail or commercial
use on the ground floor and apartments or offices above. We're pretty much trying to be the same
thing in that sense. This is the direct opposite side of 5th Street from our property, pretty much
more of the same. This is looking south along 5th from our front door. This is looking north along
fifth from our front door, just to give you a sense of what the area is like here.
So I just want to speak about hardship for one moment. So our property is zoned RM1. Interestingly,
the entire other side of the street is zoned CMX 2.5. So kind of a weird situation where,
as I showed you, the block is kind of the same on both sides, but the zoning designation is
different. So if we were on the CMX 2.5 side, this assembly and entertainment use would be a use
that's permitted by special exception. Whereas on our side of the street, which is not physically
different in any way, it's a prohibited use and we need a variance. Essentially, I already mentioned
that putting an apartment in that space or the direct front door to the street, it's not going
to be the most comfortable, marketable place for someone to live. And that's why we went this
direction. And I'll also just note, although you'll hear from the Planning Commission directly,
that upon my review of the Upper North District plan that covers this area, there are maps in
that plan. Actually, I think I have an image of them here, right here, that discuss changing
the zoning of our side of the street, which I believe is right where my cursor is, if you can
see it, from its current residential multifamily use to a CMX designation to match the other side
of the street. So my read on that is the planning commission has acknowledged, at least when it wrote
this plan, that our side of the street has a zoning designation that prohibits all commercial
uses, and that doesn't really make sense, given that this is a commercial corridor. So the zoning
code's prohibition on commercial use on our building poses an unnecessary hardship.
Here's a zoning map just that illustrates what I'm talking about. We're RM1, here's CMX 2.5 on
the other side. Again, on the other side of the street, our proposed use would have been permitted
by special exception. Here's the RCO's decision letter. It was a meeting that about half dozen
folks attended. You can see that there was unanimous support among the attendees who voted.
I'll just show you the explanation letter from the RCO, which I'm not going to read it to you,
but basically talks about the owner's commitment to limit hours of operation.
The owner's commitment to limit hours of operation, no alcohol, there's not going to be a liquor license or there will not be alcohol served by the owner.
He's also not going to allow people to bring alcohol. Maximum occupancy, as I discussed, the property has a backyard with a separate rear exit and a side alley that allows people to get from that rear out to the street, which is really well maintained.
Beyond that, and I do apologize, I didn't submit these into the record on time, but my client did gather 10 letters of support from a mix of residents and business owners on his block.
So, you know, they're really, whether it's someone that lives there, someone that's running a business there, there was broad support for trying to activate the lower floor of this building in a commercial manner, rather than trying to squeeze an additional apartment unit in there.
I will rest at this point and bring on my client, Mr. Daphnis, to adopt my testimony.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Ernst Gessner Daphnis, E-R-N-S-T-G-E-S-N-E-R-D-A-P-H-N-I-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Daphnis, were you able to hear my testimony this afternoon about your case?
Yes, I do.
Was my testimony true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Would you therefore adopt my testimony as if it were your own testimony?
Okay, thank you.
Questions from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
no chair questions or comments from the virtual audience yes chair i have mr charles richardson
with his hand up thank you i'll give him permission mr richardson you've already
been sworn just state your name for the record please charles richardson office of councilwoman
cindy bass room 508 city hall rica chair ds wins the spelling
Councilwoman has no opposition to granting the request variance.
Thank you very much for calling in.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no more hands, Chair.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential multifamily zoning.
however the proposed use will not cause detrimental impacts beyond what might be expected
the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance
thank you mi 2022-006-011-4927 north fish street i vote yes yes thomas holliman my vote is yes
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes jim
counsel you have your three votes okay thank you very much thank you
number five mi202300840526 mercy mercy street this is an appeal against l and i
Hi, George Downey is the appellant, and Anthony Osborne is the owner and permit holder.
Would the city attorney also come on, please?
George Downey has been promoted.
Hi, Mr. Downey.
Could you state your name for me and spell it for the court reporter?
Hi, Mr. Downey.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, George Downey, G-E-O-R-G-E-D-O-W-N-E-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay, just hold on a minute.
Anthony Osborne?
Mr. Osborne, can you raise your hand?
I don't see Mr. Osborne.
I don't see Mr. Osborne.
How about the attorney for the city?
How about the attorney?
What's his name?
Is it Leonard?
Leonard, usually Leonard.
Leonard Ruder, okay.
Mr. Ruder, can you raise your hand, please?
Yes, I'm here.
Sorry, I...
That's fine.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
I was having a technical problem.
Yes, thank you. May it please the board, Leonard F. Reuter, R-E-U-T-E-R, for the city of Philadelphia.
Right. Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
So could you call Anthony Osborne one more time, please?
Mr. Osborne, Mr. Anthony Osborne, are you in the audience? If you are, can you raise your hand, please?
he's not there hillary uh mr chair since this is an appeal against ellen i and we have
attorney here on behalf of ellen i i think we can um proceed um as far as i could tell
mr osborne was given notice via email um about the hearing um so if he's he is not here that's
that's his choice. Thank you. Mr. Downey, would you present your case? Why don't we do that? Why
don't you tell us where you stand? Of course. So my name is George Downey. I live at 524 Mercy
Street. My girlfriend and I purchased the property in July of 2021. At that time, pretty quickly,
we realized that 526 was operating an Airbnb. Started talking to a few neighbors, started to
understand that, yeah, this is a full-time Airbnb. We haven't met the owner. We're not really sure
who it is. We don't really know who to contact. We have a phone number for a management company
that doesn't really respond too well. And we have an email that we can kind of shoot over.
So throughout 2021, and then as well as 2022, we've been dealing with Airbnb. I've been working
with Mark Squilla's office to try to figure out what we can do about it. And then at the beginning
of 2022, an individual named by Jeff Kummer, J-E-F-K-U-M-M-E-R, he purchased 533 Mercy,
and it found out that he supposedly was the owner of 526.
So at that point, I confronted him.
He validated that he was the owner of 526 Mercy
and was operating the Airbnb.
So I had at least somebody to correspond with for any issues.
And then at this time,
Squilla's office was letting me know
about new legislation coming out
that was going into effect January 1, 2023
in regards to limited lodging licenses.
um in november i think it's november 25th 2022 uh anthony osborne was granted a walk-up license
or essentially an exception to um having to go through the rco and kind of gather um community
support to get a limited lodging license on the pretense that he is the or that is his primary
residence um i have letters um that i can read as well i'm not sure if you guys had a chance to go
through them. We have five letters. Awesome. That pretty much state that we have never met
Anthony Osborne. We've never met the owner of this property. We've been dealing with
nuisances on the streets for over two, essentially since he bought the property
and started operating an Airbnb. I have a letter from the RCO. It was brought to his attention a
few days ago and he had no idea why a property was given a license to operate in a limited lodging
licensed operating Airbnb at that property without having a committee hearing to kind of hear the
the neighborhood's pro or support of it and then I also have a letter from Mark Squilla kind of
attesting the exact same thing that this license was granted using a municipal ID which as I
understand it is granted at with either just a utility in their name or a deed which obviously
does not prove that they are a primary resident and from the IRS website that I kind of looked
into what constitutes a primary residence. It's primarily where they spend the most time.
I also submitted a LinkedIn profile of Mr. Osborne. He's been working and living in New York City for
almost all of his career. So if he is living in this property, at least part-time, somebody would
have met him, somebody would have been able to talk to him. We have seen him come and go, especially
with having to potentially work up in New York City. Myself, I work fully remote, so I live in
this office almost daily. So I'm hoping that the chair can see and kind of disallow this license
and we go through the typical RCO process to have the community hear Mr. Osborne's case on why we
should, the neighborhood is, should be in support of a new limited lodging license for it.
Thank you for your test money. Leonard, you know, it's obvious that Ellen and I acted on
you know it's obvious that ellen i acted on information they were given by this person
information they were given by this person.
yeah so let me just kind of lay out a couple things here um first of all i mean obviously
mr downey testified to a lot of things that he doesn't have personal knowledge of so a lot of
that's hearsay but i don't want to you know i've got i you know i understand he's pro se and he's
appearing here um uh unrepresented uh but in addition to that i think we have one preliminary
problem with this appeal which is that it was filed considerably late in terms of appealing
against the issuance of the permit the permit in question uh was issued uh i want to say september
in at the end of september of 2022 this appeal was not filed until february 7th so it's several
months late um that it got filed and you know again i i you know certainly won't object to
Mr. Downey explaining why it took that long to file the appeal, and again, you can address
that separately.
The other issue here, and this is, I think, one of the important, a couple of the important
things to point out, and I can either share my screen or just simply reference the code
sections at issue, but what we're talking about here is, as Mr. Downey explained, this
This permit was issued by Wright, but the reason why it's issued by Wright is because pursuance to the Philadelphia Code, limited lodging is a by Wright accessory use for a residential property if, and it is for the accommodation of visitors that's conducted by the primary resident of a dwelling unit, the main use of which is for household living, and visitors are there for no more than 30 consecutive days.
So this is a 14-604 sub-13 of the Philadelphia Code, and this was permitted by way of a bill that was actually goes back to 2015, and it was amended in just in June of 2021.
So, and again, I think what we're what we're focused on here and again, I think this leaving aside the issue of the.
lateness of the appeal the other issues here are somewhat factual like uh in other words does mr
osborne reside at this facility but there's also a legal question which i'll get to in just a sec
um so for purposes of the subsection and i'm quoting from 604 sub 14604 sub 13 for purposes
of this subsection the primary resident shall mean either one a natural person who is the owner
of the dwelling unit and is entitled to a homestead exclusion pursuant to code section 19-1301.1 for
such dwelling unit or a renter, et cetera, et cetera. And that's not the case here. Nobody's
claiming that Mr. Osborne is a renter. And then there are some other requirements about who can
stay there and that kind of thing. And then in addition to having the zoning permit, a limited
it is lodging operator license must also be issued. And I can say that that license,
which is a Title IX license, not subject to this board, that was issued shortly after the
zoning permit had been issued. So the question here is, was Mr. Osborne eligible for the
homestead exclusion? And again, he is the deed holder of the property, and he submitted as Mr.
Downey stated, Mr. Osborne submitted what's called a municipal ID or colloquially in the city. We call it the PHL ID. And this is a provision that was added to the Philadelphia Code a little while ago, several years ago, I think in 2018.
And again, the reasons for it are varied, but the idea was to create a municipal identification card that would be required to be accepted by city agencies as proof of residence.
So Mr. Osborne does have, and there's no dispute that I'm aware of, that Mr. Osborne does have a municipal ID, and I can fortunately just have a poor picture of that.
I can share my screen on that, if that's allowable.
So this isn't obviously the best view here,
but this is actually how it appears in our system.
Let me see if I can...
And it doesn't look like I can flip it.
But anyway, so this is the ID that was presented.
Let me see if I can get that smaller in size. And it looks like an ID card. This is a Philadelphia, this is a municipal identification card issued by the city of Philadelphia.
let me see if I can get that
smaller in size and it looks like an ID card
this is a Philadelphia
And yes, there are a number of different forms of identification and proof of residency that you submit to the city through the managing director's office, I believe, in order to obtain this card.
and this was issued uh to mr osborne i guess it looks i'm assuming that's uh november 4th 2022
and it expires uh in 2027 yeah and i'm assuming they have that in the normal american month day
year. So anyway, this is at the time he was asked to provide proof of the residency. So this is
what he submitted. This is what's in the city's records at LNI in the Eclipse record. So, and
again, I don't think there's any dispute. Well, actually, I take that back. There does appear to
be some dispute about whether Mr. Osborne owns the property, but we do also have a copy of a deed,
which i'll show quickly this was uh this is in also in the city's philadoc system uh the property
was purchased by mr osborne in january of 2021 uh from a v2 properties the prior owner and again
this is attested to in the city's records so let me close that now uh after the bill this is i'll
show you the bill just since i have it open this is bill 16-0-1-5-1 this is the bill uh creating
the municipal identification card and excuse me mr leonard we are not seeing uh that we just still
see his id so you might have to stop sharing and share again okay thank you sorry chair no no that's
fine keisha okay are you seeing that now yes okay and again i think you can take judicial
notice of this this is a bill introduced by city council that became enacted uh
let me see the date of the effective date
it looks like okay so it was introduced in 2016 it would have
a link languished for a bit there were amendments and then it'd be it was signed by the mayor
october 10th 2018 and then just so i don't have that again i just want to share one more quickie
document. Sorry about that. Well, we'll forget about that. So the managing director then
promulgated regulations, and the regulations essentially just follow the requirements of the
code, which in terms of the admissible identification, the code simply, you know, again,
allows the city to issue the ID if you provide certain forms of identification, which
which include, you know, again, things like copies of bills,
bank account statements, et cetera, et cetera.
Obviously, the obvious types of identification
like driver's license, et cetera, et cetera.
But the key here is that the code requires city agencies
to accept the identification.
So chapter 21-2700,
just find the specific provision so under under 21-2706 sub 2 as may be established by regulation
all city agencies departments and any entity that receives funds shall accept a municipal
identification card as valid identification and as valid proof of residency in the city
unless such department or entity has reasonable grounds for determining that the card is
counterfeit, altered, or improperly issued to the cardholder, or that the individual presenting the
card is not the individual to whom it was issued. So the problem here is that Ellen and I receive,
we have a deed in Mr. Osborne's name, which is valid and it's recorded. We have a municipal ID
card that was presented to the department with or just shortly after the application
was submitted, and we have a code provision and regulations that require L&I to accept
it as proof of residency, and that would also be required of the Office of Property Assessment
for establishing the entitlement to the homestead exclusion.
so it's the position of the city that if it turns out that uh if at the time the
It's the position of the city that if it turns out that if at the time this application was submitted and the permit was issued, L&I had no reason to doubt any of the documents, then L&I was required to issue the zoning permit.
Because, again, the only requirement, if you're a residential property owner and you're a natural person, the only requirement to get a limited lodging permit, a zoning permit, is that you show that you're entitled to the homestead exclusion.
And because he provided proof of residency, he did qualify for the homestead exclusion.
So if it turns out some point later that, let's say there was no doubt and he actually lived there and there was no question about it, what happens if he moves away from the city later? At that point, then, it becomes an enforcement issue. It's a violation of the code.
So the question that's really in front of the board, and I think unfortunately it's probably going to, Ms. Emerson may have to chime in, is leaving aside the question of the lateness of the appeal, which I think, you know, maybe makes this a less interesting case.
but the interesting part of the case is if the permit issuance itself is challenged and it's to
the board is the board now required to accept the same uh municipal identification uh or if you if
you it's our position and my position that um you could decide that the identification was
improperly issued to mr osborne who uh unfortunately has chosen not to appear today
uh that would have made it a lot easier so because the city we have we l and i and the city don't
have the ability to go just like we don't we you know we accept deeds and we accept uh authorizations
we accept architects plans we don't review and make sure if that's a valid deed we don't have
the time we the plans examiners would need 10 times more time if they had to track down that
stuff so it's up to the board to make a determination about whether uh mr osborne does or
does not reside at the facility we don't have inspections we don't for this um there have been
by uh complaints that have been made uh i as of today i'm not aware that any violations have been
issued um but uh i think it would be up to the board or the board's council to make a determination
about whether you can you know we have documents that we're required to accept uh but because the
code says if you believe it was improperly issued you don't have to um and i don't have an opinion
about that and nobody at l and i would because we don't have the ability to to make those
determinations at the application stage i think what where i want to be on this is i think what
we'll do is we're going to hold this. I'll sit with Hillary and the other members of the board
and figure out what the options are. And I think we'll be ready to roll on this next Wednesday
at two o'clock. And even though they're not really factual exhibits, they're just sections,
the code and the regulations. I will submit those and copy all of the other people just to make it
a little bit. Absolutely, sir. Thank you. And thank you, George, for your time. And we will
roll on this next week. OK, do you real quick, do you want me to kind of submit my explanation for
the lateness of it? Sure. That's what I was going to say. Mr. Sherry, this is Hillary. Actually,
if he could just speak on that on the record for a few moments, because I know there were some
email conversations with Mr. Downey and myself and the staff about this. But if he could put on
the record. Why don't we do that? That would be helpful. Thank you. Okay. Go ahead, George. I
appreciate it. So yeah, so first and foremost, as Hillary mentioned, I was reaching out to her
because I saw that this zoning document was issued on November 25th, 2022. So as Mr. Reuter stated,
it came out in September. That's not kind of the document I'm kind of looking at. And to poke a
little bit more of a hole in that the municipal id date issued was november 4th um so at the very
least maybe application was submitted in september um so for me to even be aware of this zoning
document being approved and kind of being enforced and this license being out there i wouldn't have
at the very earliest known it till november 25th on that topic um at no time and as i understand
I'm not sure if there's a requirement that he has to post that he got a new license for it, but I was not aware that this license was kind of issued by L&I, so I was using constructive notice.
I got lucky in the first week of January where I was checking the – I think it's the Eclipse system to kind of check up on the property because I was fully prepared to have myself and all the neighbors come out to an RCO meeting to kind of make our case for the property.
to kind of make our case for the property. Once that happened, I realized the zoning
Once that happened, I realized.
document was issued on the 25th. I was already out the 30 days. So I contacted Hillary. She said
I could potentially use a constructive notice on when I found out, especially since I have
documentation of at least December 8th, 2022, where there was nothing posted if he did have
to be posting that. So at that point, kind of went through and kind of tried to patch together
The requirements to file an appeal went through back and forth between L&I and the ZBA to try to figure out who gets the document, how am I filing this, which is when I got this filed and everything kind of got submitted, which is why we're here today.
Thank you very much.
I just have a quick two other points to make.
Mr. Downey, and I think Ms. Emerson had made reference to email exchanges.
If somebody could just forward those to me.
And also, I believe, Mr. Downey, you said that you had, there were letters or things that were submitted by neighbors.
Yes, we have five of those.
Yeah, and like I said, I'll share that.
Again, I don't have factual documents other than the ID card, but I can scan that.
And I'll send those to everybody.
um so yeah i just wanted to to make sure that leonard i will i will send you what the board
has of record on this case okay will somebody send him the letters as well or should i reach
out to him and shoot those over we received those through the council office and last last point
only because you know hopefully this doesn't have to come back for some reason where was
the email address from mr osborne obtained that's the first i've seen of it from the uh
eclipse system okay okay thank you you both thank you
thank you that concludes my business may i be excused okay you certainly can sir thank you
Thanks. Number seven, MI 2022, 005-926-1503-07 North Front Street. Alan Nockamson is the attorney. Letter of support from Fishtown Neighbors Association. Letter of support from Fishtown Kensington Area Business Improvement District.
And a form letter of support from a Jason neighbor at 1501 North Front Street. Mr. Nockamson.
Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman of the Board again.
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M, Esquen.
Mr. Nockamson, you've been sworn several times today.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is 1503 Front LLC, and the virtual audience is Greg Guzman.
It's representative.
Okay, our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed all the required documents to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you. Please proceed to share your screen.
All right. Thank you.
All right. This is a pretty straightforward project at 1503-07 North Front Street.
In my presentation packet, you'll see the notice of refusal, then a letter of support from the Fishtown Neighbors Association, as well as a letter of support from the Fishtown Kensington area bid, a letter of support from the nearby neighbor.
The bid actually happens to be our other neighbor.
So the neighbors to the left of us and to the right of us are in support of this project.
Then we'll review some zoning permits.
So originally, this was approved as a seven-unit residential building structure.
We did then apply for this commercial use, knowing that we would be receiving a refusal.
But somehow, we did get the zoning permit, even though we objected to it.
So it wasn't until we received or we applied for the building permit did it come back to us that we had to go through this process.
But just so you understand, we did actually receive a zoning permit for this proposed use, knowing that we would eventually end up back here.
Photographs of the property, maps, excuse me, photographs of the property, maps of the area, or plans and drawings, or meeting notice, or application for appeal, or deeds of property and certificate of tax clearance follow.
At the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Mr. Guzman virtually raise his hand, be sworn in, and adopt my testimony as his own, and we'd be more than happy to take any questions from the board.
So what we're trying to do here is replace the required parking on the ground floor.
required parking on the ground floor. So this is a CMX3 property, which technically requires
So this is a CMX.
two parking spaces. We're underneath the L. It would be out of character and inconsistent with
the spirit of what this part of the neighborhood is to require us to have two parking spots. It
would also destroy the commercial corridor that this part of Philadelphia is trying to develop
and taking my eyes off the street by requiring two parking spots.
For that reason, we ask that the board grant or zoning requests.
Here's a letter of support from the Fishtown Neighbors Association.
Well-attended meeting.
Again, what they were indicating is similarly what I stated,
that we're underneath the L.
We're trying to help support the commercial corridor.
having a curb cut on this commercial corridor would not be safe for pedestrians.
And, you know, for all those reasons, Fishtown Neighbors Association was in support of this project.
Plus, there was overwhelming support.
Everyone but one of the 22 people that attended, or I guess 22 people that attended this meeting
weren't supportive of this project.
And then we separately met with the Fishtown Kensington area bid.
And obviously, they're in support of this project because they want to help develop this commercial corridor and requiring us to have two parking spaces on the ground floor would just break up this commercial corridor and not be needed.
And the parking is not needed because we're right underneath the L.
For that reason, they gave a very detailed letter in support.
And, you know, again, they are being directly impacted, not just conceptually as a bid, but they're next door to us as well.
So they are in support of this project.
And then the other person to, you know, next door to us as well, at 1501 North Front Street is also support.
So 1501 North and 1509 North Front Streets are in support of our project.
And then you can just see from, you know, the zoning permit that was issued for the seven units with no commercial use was approved as of right.
When we added the commercial component, that's when we were required to provide some type of parking, and we did get a zoning permit knowing that we shouldn't have.
We told the zoning examiner that, but it wasn't until we filed for the building permit that our zoning permit was revoked.
That's why we're asking for relief from the zoning board to allow for this variance.
And then this is just maps of the area.
This is a zoning map.
As you can see, we're on Front Street.
these are cmx street properties frankfurt streets behind us so this is significant commercial corridor
and you can see from the google maps as well the the amount of businesses nearby
and then photographs of the property uh this is our uh lot right here um this is uh the zoning
hearing notice posting showing that we did post on north front street within the applicable period
of time this is north front street to the right of the property as you can see we're right underneath
underneath the L. So the only off-street parking that's on North Front Street are parking lots.
No one has really accessory parking compared to like what the zoning codes require on our bus.
There's North Front Street to the left, they're parking as well. And then our plans and drawings,
just pretty basic. Again, all we're trying to do with the floor plan is to put a commercial
component here on the ground floor and on the lower level in our rco meeting notice we met
with the community on january 10th at 7 pm 88 addresses were notified at this meeting
here's a list of the addresses proof of mailing to those addresses our applications for appeal
showing a 1503 front llc is you know file the applications for appeal our notice of refusal
or project information form or deed to the property
showing it's 15-0-3-front LLC as the owner of the property,
as well as our certificate of tax clearance.
Again, real estate taxes are not due until the end of the month.
So technically there's a balance, but that is not in the arrears.
Thus, we're tax compliant.
With that being said, I would ask that Mr. Guzman
virtually raise his hand and be sworn in.
hi sir could you state your name and spell please for the court reporter
Mr. Guzman you're allowed to speak
hello yes could you state your name please and spell it for the court reporter
i do yeah could no could you state your name and spell it first
yeah could no could you state your name and spell it first
mr guzman
hello yeah could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
gregory guzman g-u-z-m-a-n do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do proceed counsel oh yes mr guzman you you heard everything i had to state about your
zoning matter yes i did and is it true and correct yes it's absolutely correct and do you adopt it
as your own testimony yes everything is correct all right thank you thank you questions questions
from the board no mr chairman no chair mr chairman thank you questions or comments from
the virtual audience. I see no hands, Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, Chair. Sarah
Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H. The comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the existing commercial mixed-use zoning. The proposed use will not
cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what normally might be expected. The
City Planning Commissioner recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance. Thank you very
much. MI 2022-005-926-1503-07 North Front Street, I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes. Thank you, Council. Thank you,
Have a great day. Right. Number nine, MI 2022-006-002-7543-79 Haverford Avenue. Joseph Consul
is the attorney. Letter of support from the Overbrook Park Civic Association.
Mr. Consul has been promoted to panelists. Thank you.
Hello. Mr. Consul, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yeah, sure. Joseph Consul, J-O-S-E-P-H, C-O-N-S-O-L-E.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
My client is Ms. Andrea Lewis, the owner of Deluxe Events LLC.
Okay. And our vice chair has just a few questions.
Do you agree to leave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed all the required documents for the exhibits that are needed to proceed
five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Am I screen up?
yes all right good afternoon board joe console here for deluxe events llc uh this is um a referral
the property was a pharmacy the space was also a dry cleaner um the intended use is a special
exception in cmx2 and that is an event space um my client uh does uh various events she's an
internal i mean she's a she's a designer helps people um set up life events and handle those
things um she was doing it uh without her own space and this would be deluxe events uh you know
initial foray into having their own space that they could use to host uh other folks events
That being said, we went in front of the RCO. Everyone was in support. We got a letter of support. There was one in opposition. I'm not sure what that was about, but it seemed to be pretty enthusiastic, her discussing the project and her uses and how it could benefit the neighborhood and all that good stuff.
They sent a letter in in support to the to the CBA.
We also included in here proof of mailings photos of the space.
Here's what it looked like.
What it looks like now next to a diner on the other side.
It's part of a larger complex that has almost infinite amounts of parking that are usable for the space.
And so the issue of where any of these guests would have to park was a non-issue.
We have just an existing plan that we submitted showing the floor plan.
We have just an existing plan that we submitted showing the floor plan.
There's what it looks like now.
There's what it looks like.
It will be spruced up and renovated for the event space for deluxe events.
There it is. There it is.
Project information form,
our two-year lease with several options to renew.
It all goes well.
And then our tax clearance certificate at the end.
I don't want to belabor it too much. I think I'll just call my client up now to adopt my testimony.
Ms. Lewis, are you on?
Did you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Andrea Lewis, A-U-N-D-R-E-A-L-E-W-I-S.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do could you just get a little closer to the microphone just a little bit
yes all right proceed counsel good afternoon miss lewis did you hear my testimony now regarding
your project yes i did do you agree with what i said and do you adopt it as your own
yes i do okay i have nothing further hi questions from the board no chair
no chair thank you no mr chairman thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a will nasir with his hand raised so i'll
allow me i could sir could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
mr nasir can you unmute yourself
Yes, good afternoon. My name is William Nasir, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-N-A-S-I-R.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, sir.
I'm the president of the Haverford Avenue Business Association,
and we are in full support of the business coming to our corridor.
Mr. Nasir, thank you very much for your calling in and taking the time.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing commercial mixed-use zoning.
The proposed use will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be expected.
the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the special exception
thank you MI 2022 006 002 7543 to 79 Haverford Avenue I vote yes
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes
James Snell my vote is yes
Ishmael Shaheed my vote is yes
thank you thank you counsel
Number 10, MI 2022-003-932-2352 North 29th Street.
Letter of opposition with exhibits from the Strawberry Mansion community.
Applicant has provided a petition of support signed by 86 residents.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Mr. Anastasio is coming in as a
panelist. Okay.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, sir.
Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court reporter? Sure. It's Vern Anastasio,
A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O. 2016 Spruce,
Philadelphia 19103. Right. Do you swear
a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify
your client in relationship to the property? Yes, sir. I represent the owner of the property,
Altrina Nixon. And our vice chair has just a few questions. Thank you. Good afternoon,
counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate towards accuracy?
I do. Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days
in advance of this hearing i have thank you uh please proceed and share your screen thank you
mr chair members of the board we are talking about 2352 north 29th street the proposal um is for a
North 29th Street. The proposal is for a small event space at 29th and York. I understand that
the refusal does mention nightclubs and private clubs, but that's the category, as you know,
that's something that we are proposing falls into. However, this is for private gatherings only,
not open to the public, no nightclub, no bouncers, no cover charge, anything like that.
Clients who use the space will be vetted and bound by service contracts. The space is relatively
small, only about 750 square feet. That's before the bathrooms. The primarily focus is going to be
small baby and wedding showers. No weddings, of course. It's too small for that. Repass lunches,
birthday parties. There's already a couple of small group Bible study groups that
are interested. So that's where we're going with this particular space.
The events will never be later than midnight. There'll be commercial trash pickup after each
event. Exterior lighting for safety around the entire perimeter of the corner. There'll be
interior and exterior video surveillance and additional security personnel present
at the end of the events. My client is committed to installing sound mitigation and absorption
materials. There'll be a live-in on-site property manager 24-7 who will be on the second floor of
the property. My client has already started to engage land bank about using the vacant lot across
the street for parking. As you'll see in my exhibits, there's lots of vacant lots. This
proposal brings new life to a long-neglected vacant corner that literally was falling down.
And a majority of 2022 and 2023 shootings in the area, this will come up when we discuss the
protestants exhibits. The majority of the shootings in the area are all adjacent to
vacant lots and properties, not to occupied spaces. And my client's goal, she is from this
neighborhood. She was born and raised there. She wants to bring a new use to an otherwise
struggling, to say the least, commercial corridor. This is the refusal that was issued in May 11th
of last year. Again, it's for the event space, and there's a two-family dwelling above.
Let's get to some of the plans.
Basement will be used for mechanical purposes only.
there will be a commercial space on the first floor
one apartment on the second and one apartment on the third which is a matter of right
the property was in fact dilapidated my client completely
installed a new facade brand new windows and in addition to the two properties adjacent to it
which he also purchased and completely rehabbed.
This is what the property looks like today.
There's still some interior work that needs to be done.
That's why there's it's fenced off.
But as you can see, new cornices, new windows, all new front, new rear.
And this is the interior, which of course is still being worked on.
Again, sound mitigation and absorption materials will be placed into these walls before being closed up if the use permit is, in fact, granted.
This is where the property sits on the corner.
As you can see, vast stretches of disinvestment, lots of vacant lots.
on what was at one point I'm sure
and a generation or two ago
a vibrant commercial corridor
now outside of a bodega
and some smaller shops down the block
there's not a whole lot going on here
again this is all within the immediate area
around the property
just vacant lots
across the street, more vacancy on both ends.
My client personally went to immediate neighbors, circulated a petition.
personally went to immediate neighbors, circulated a petition, and she's offering
these photos as evidence of folks signing them enthusiastically because there is no space for
events in this area. As you can see, and please bear with me, everyone not only read the zoning
notice, but then read and signed the petition. Over 80 signatures. My client will testify that
she personally went door to door and store to store. And 75% of the over 80 signatures are all
immediately impacted neighbors that were identified to us by the Planning Commission
on the list of addresses, many of whom didn't attempt
to attend the RCO meeting, but for reasons
that are unknown to me or my client,
they were unable to get out of the waiting room
and into the actual meeting.
Here are the signatures.
Again, three pages, over 80.
And I do want to speak briefly about
about the protestant exhibits, which I'm sure will come up when interested parties get an
opportunity to talk about them. I need to object to exhibit A, B, C, D, E, and F
on relevance grounds. All of these photos and evidence are, it's evidence of a code-compliant
CMX-1 use, code-compliant property that is currently causing havoc, trash, and nuisance
in the neighborhood. It has absolutely nothing to do with our property, which is also zone CMX-1.
I object to exhibit GH&I of the Protestants' exhibits because they are in the same interior photos of our property that I just shared with you.
It's the first floor, and I object on relevance grounds because we can't pull building permits and finish the first floor until the event space has been, you know, approved and a use permit is issued.
So that's why it's unfinished.
I don't know why the protestant used the unfinished first floor as a reason to object, but I did want to put that out there.
Also, the Protestants talk about, primarily speaking, the crime problem in the area, and they believe that using this space as private event space two or three times a week may increase crime.
And I did pull all the records of most of the shootings in this past two months of 2023, and much of 2022. And here are most of them, 300 block of York, 2400 Marston, and this is coming from the city controller's website on tracking all incidents of fatal and non-fatal shootings.
A second event at the same spot, 3000 West York, 2900 West Gordon, and 2700 block of West York.
What pages of my exhibit 199, page 99, show you clearly, these shootings all happen around vacancies, vacant lots, vacant properties, never in front of occupied commercial spaces.
So I do believe that that sort of produces a counter argument. There is no evidence that an occupied commercial space would, in fact, increase crime when all of the shootings this year and all that I could have gathered this year, last year, all occur where there's vacant lots and blight, not occupied properties.
We did in fact meet with the community.
And here's the letter that was mailed to everyone.
We met on the 13th of February.
166 individual households were in fact contacted.
I think 15 showed up. The breakdown is in the letter. We did in fact have a good amount of
I think 15 showed up, the breakdown.
folks who supported. There were some, of course, who did not. And with that, I'd like to call my
client to testify as first witness. What's your client's name? Altrina Nixon.
Ms. Altrina, can you unmute, please?
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Altrina Nixon. My name is spelled A-L-T-R-E-N-A-N-I-X-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Nixon, did you hear my presentation to the board this afternoon?
Yes, I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Okay, now I'm going to ask you a few follow-up questions, specifically to counter some of the concerns of the RCO.
Talk about your experience in hosting and producing private events.
How many years would you say you've been doing this?
15 years.
And with respect to needing to get a variance to do what you'd like,
The property is zoned CMX1, which would be a lower impact commercial space, doctor's office, lawyer's office, accounting, or something like a bodega or a grocery store.
Did you look into other tenants that might be compatible with the zoning code for this particular property?
There weren't any other tenants that was compatible with the zoning for our property that would be beneficial to the neighborhood.
Okay. And in fact, the only other tenant that came to you was for a full-blown restaurant. Is that right?
Yes, that's correct.
And that would require a variance as well. Is that right?
Very good. What are your proposed hours of operation for the private event space?
I do not want any events happening past 11 or 12 p.m.
I understand that this is in a community where people have to get up and go to work.
So I don't want any events past 11 or 12 p.m. at night.
Okay. And you are dedicated to installing sound mitigation and noise absorption in those walls that are still open. Is that right?
That is correct. I spent extra money to get the safe and sound, which does everything you just suggested.
Okay. And there are no homes attached to your building. Is that right?
No, sir. There are not.
The only attached structure to your property are your other commercial properties. Is that right?
Yes, sir. That's correct.
That you've also bought and transformed and completely renovated. Is that right?
Yes, that's right.
Okay. And to reiterate, there will be 24-7 live-in management on the second floor. Is that correct?
Yes, that's correct.
And you are committed to security cameras and lighting, interior, exterior, as well as personnel. Is that correct?
And trash removal won't be once a week as the RCO alleged, but in fact, after every event. Is that correct?
Yes, after each event.
Did you attend the RCO meeting on February 13th?
I did.
What was your experience in trying to secure the meeting over the last several months?
Well, we've had a lot of issues just even getting the meeting scheduled.
We started requesting meetings, I think, in November.
I've asked four or five times and then reached out to you to see if you could get some movement on just getting the community meeting help.
Thankfully, I received an email on January 17th stating when the meeting would be held.
after repeated attempts. Okay, and the refusal was issued May of 2022, is that right? Yes, sir.
Okay, almost a year. What was the, your, I'm sorry, to your knowledge, were there neighbors
in support of your project that had difficulty being admitted to the meeting and were stuck in
the waiting room? Yes, and thankfully that meeting was recorded. I, myself, and some other members
on the call, we held the call up because there were people trying to access the call from the
community and they were not allowed in. Many people said that they kept calling or kept trying
to log into the meeting and just said, waiting for host, waiting for host, and we're not allowed
in. So I stopped the meeting, asked the host if she could let the other participants in. There was
some confusion going on. Somebody asked for some phone numbers. Somebody else said, yeah, people
were blowing their line up, trying to get onto the call. And for whatever reason, no one else
was allowed on. Okay. Then you went ahead after the meeting and met with those folks, showed them
your petition, your refusal, your poster, and secure the circulated petition signatures of over
80 folks that I presented as evidence today. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. Around which
days did you do that? Do you remember? I started actually in January and secured about six or seven
I started actually in January and secured about six or seven, and then it was told that that isn't something that would be requested, that would be accepted.
And then it was told that that is.
But then after the community meeting, I know I have tremendous community support.
So I went door to door. I asked another one of the neighbors to help me, and we rounded up everybody that was in the directly impacted neighborhoods.
Because on the RCO call, people who live closer to the event space, the proposed event space, had more say than others, which makes, you know, perfect sense.
So I wanted to be sure that I spoke to everybody that was directly impacted on the streets of Myrtlewood, Hollywood, 29th Street, Gordon Street, Arizona Street, Huntington Street, and Dakota Street.
To make sure that these people in the neighborhood would be excited and something that this was, that they wanted to see.
And the first question that I was asked was, when would I open or how much would I charge for rent?
Because the residents of this area were excited about having an event space.
Another comment that I received was, well, we're glad that we have something that's close by.
We don't have to go far for events any longer, which I was excited to hear about that.
okay and uh is it your understanding that more than about 75 percent of the 80 plus signatures
are all from the immediate um impacted area yes absolutely that given to us by the planning
commission okay very good i have nothing further thank you i have another witness to call though
Okay, why don't we call your other witness and then we'll see if the board has any questions.
Thank you.
I'd like to call Ms. Tia Hardy.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Ms. Hardy?
If you're in the audience, raise your hand, please.
I don't see Ms. Hardy.
her head. Then I'll go to
Ms. Nadia Williams, please.
Ms. Williams?
Ms. Nadia Williams?
Ms. Williams,
can you raise your hand?
Ms. Nadia Williams.
Or Nadia.
Oh, there she is. Hold on.
Could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter?
Ms. Williams, can you unmute, please?
She's there.
She just needs to unmute herself.
Hello?
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
My name is Nadia Williams, N-A-D-I-A-W-I-L-L-I-A-N-S.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
proceed counsel thank you mr chair ms williams uh can can you state your address for the record
please 1832 north metronor street philadelphia and and that's within about two blocks of the
subject property is that right yes okay and what are your feelings about this particular proposal
for a private special event space?
I am in favor for the event space.
I think it's going to be a great asset to the community.
I have nothing further.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. There's two hands raised. One is the first one is Strawberry Mansion Community.
Put Strawberry Mansion Community on first.
Strawberry Mansion Community, you're allowed to speak.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Bonita Cummings, B-O-N-I-T-A-C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S.
Right. And I swore you in earlier today, so I don't have to swear you in so you can start testifying.
Okay, great. I just wanted to say that at this time, with the volatility of shootings and crime, specifically instrumentation, that this venue or type of venue is not, is injurious to the health, welfare, and safety of the most impacted neighbors.
we were not given um as evidence the petition so we don't really know who was on it
but the people that were in that meeting um were people who live on 20
But the people that were in that meeting were people who lived on 29th Street and the 2900 block connected to that property, connected to 2352 North 29th Street.
The people who live closest to the corner end of Hollywood Street, the 2400 block, Murderwood Street, the 2400 block, the block captain and assistant captain in the 2400 block of 29th Street and the neighbors closest to the corner, 2900 block of Arizona Street is impacted.
this is this uh property is really not even being described as it is more than just two units on a
floor above a um an event space it's it's several properties um collected together as one this
building is situated in a residential block it's residential it's a residential community it's not
a commercial corridor. So the impact to the community is agitated by what we are fighting
to secure peace in our neighborhood from an adjoining a property right across the street,
a nuisance business right across the street, which we've shown in our photos, that is a nuisance
business to our community right now who hold that corner up with violating uh our residents
with noise and um parking is blocking the 49 bus from turning on down onto york street which is
curving around the corner of that property that wants to be the event space the um
thing about people not getting on the the um meeting was hosted to the attorney so i'm not
really sure what went on with that so it may have been you know some situation around that but there
was no impropriety with people getting on the uh in getting on the meeting there was no intent of
keeping anyone out of the meeting the meeting was a proper meeting and the proper meeting was held
people that came to that meeting are people who are fear are in fear right now they're under
a lot of stress because every night on both ends of that corridor the the residential corridor the
2400 block of 29th street are two businesses that as you can see a lot of loitering goes on that
nobody seems to be able to get under control and what we're saying is that the agitation of
another type of business that brings the same type of atmosphere is what we're asking for
relief from at this time there may be a time when we can revisit it but at this time with the violence
and with the type of uh people that that venue bring whether it's small whether it's a birthday
party you can't say that you're in control of things somebody's drunk bring your own bottle
was discussed a lot of the things that the applicant is saying now she didn't say at the
at the meeting she didn't say when we asked about prior experience of even running on this type of
location so some of the things that are being addressed um today when we asked at the community
meeting like even you know other use now all of a sudden she's saying about people that did not
come forth when um at the meeting we asked about you know a consideration of maybe some other type
of business for right now so now it's like oh nobody wants to be in that space so these are um
things that are not true and and the the most important aspect to this is that this is a
residential community those photos that you see they don't show you the whole side of the street
that's residential property though there are families there there are families in arizona
street the the um insulation she's talking about is not proper insulation for audio the audio will
bounce out of that building back onto the arizona street uh community it'll bounce out onto the
york street side of the community it'll bounce out onto the 29th street side of the community
because everybody knows what how djs uh you know how they do with their music so we're saying as
the community that we have a lot of stress and a lot of violence right now at that corner and
along that street. Shootings that didn't make it to what the attorney presented are things that
are missing from that. We just had a shooting. A young man shot, ran up Stanley Street. He was
shot not in front of a lot. He was shot in front of a store. He was shot in front of a person's
residential property along that York Street corridor. So that's not true that, you know,
So that's not true that, you know, shootings only take places in front of lots.
So shootings only take places in front of lots.
These shootings.
These shootings are taking place in front of our properties and we're picking our children up off the ground.
Mothers are running around corners while their child, their children are trying to dial them on cell phones to say that they're shot.
And we're holding their hands and holding them and trying to, you know, survive them until some kind of ambulance or something can get there.
So we're saying for Philadelphia, and as we all know, right now is just too volatile and nobody can control the violence that can break out of a venue such as that.
And to say to us that you would place your property management person who is not the police, who to our understanding has no police authority in harm's way with what we know will be a problem because already is congestion at that corner with people who are parking all out into the street to get into the store that's open 24 hours.
that store is open 24 hours it never closed it's lit up all night long all kinds of problems are
going on with that location so our contention is that we need to be safe and right now that's
difficult and we're asking the board to not place us in a situation where we have to be burdened
with another venue that will add to the problems of what we're experiencing right at 2400
North 29th Street, which is directly across the street from that venue. And at the other end of
that corner is young men with vicious dogs. There's all types of things that go on in that
hundred that prevent us from even walking on the sidewalk. So we're trying to get our community
under control. We're the ones that's working to fight against the nuisances in our community,
and we've done the best that we can do, and we're continuing to work, but we're asking
that you not put more burdens on us while we have to stay there and live with it.
Ms. Altrina goes home with a proposed security person and a property that's not even completed,
so it's nowhere for him presently to either sleep. So even that was presented as if the
building was already completed. The building is not completed. So we're just saying that this is
too much violence. There's too much nuisance going on at that corner. Okay, I understand.
Thank you. Mr. Chigar, opportunity to cross-examine, please. Go ahead. Thank you.
Ms. Cummings, thank you for testifying this afternoon. The nuisance business that you speak
of across the street, are you aware that it is in fact code compliant?
If it's code compliant, it's code compliant because of the efforts taken on by my person
as a community organization.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
What I mean is-
Council member, Catherine Gilmore Richardson,
the fight that we have taken on,
we placed ourselves every day in harm's way
because we try to-
I'm sorry, ma'am.
I think you misunderstood my question.
Are you aware that it's zoned CMX-1
and the use is compatible with CMX-1?
miss you can unmute yourself that's what i meant by code compliant
are you aware that the use is a cmx1 use just like our property but as a cmx1 use
with you are aware of that is that correct i understand it's a nuisance i just want to make
sure you want you do understand that is that right well you're asking me but it's not just
that simple. It's not just, oh, it's a CMS-1. Ma'am, it's a yes or no answer, please,
so we can move this along. Thank you. I appreciate that's a yes. You answered that in the affirmative.
Speaking of the signatures, did my client not attempt to discuss with you collecting and
submitting signatures to you prior to the RCO meeting? We had no signature presented to us
prior to the meeting. She started prior to the meeting. We had no signatures submitted to us
prior to the meeting. Is it not true that you told her that you would not take into account
any signatures given to you? No, what I said was that it's to try and use petitions of farther
away people than people closest to that venue that came out. Sometimes we don't even get
the attendance that we got in such a volatile situation because of the fear that people have.
the attendance that we got in such a volatile situation because of the fear that people had,
but people came to that meeting that lived near that venue.
Ma'am, I just asked you about the signatures. Did you tell her not to bother with the signatures?
I did not tell her not to bother with the signatures.
Okay, thank you. Again, you testified that this is not just one single property,
but in fact it's a series of properties. Did you get a chance to review the refusal?
yes okay and do you did you we've lived in that community
ma'am again did you were you able to read the area where it says address and in fact it just
identifies one property uh seeking the appeal to the refusal 2352 north 29th no other properties
Were you able to review that?
And you spoke about the sound mitigation and noise absorption materials that my client hopes to use if she's granted the variance, either permanently or on a temporary basis.
And you said it wouldn't be enough.
Did you get a chance to review the materials that we were going to use?
Only from what you sent as a exhibit, your exhibit material.
Okay, so the answer would be no, you didn't really get the chance to look at any specific specs on any materials that we are proposing to use for sound mitigation. Is that right?
For that, no, you're right.
And you're not a sound engineer, is that right?
No, but I've worked with sale engineers, and we've done many event venue matters, and we are intelligent and educated to what that requires.
I understand. Are you familiar with a Daryl Roundtree, Ms. Cummings?
Yes, I am.
Okay. Are you aware that he was the previous owner of the property?
Yes, I am.
Okay. And would it surprise you to know that he might testify that you tried to purchase the property and were very disturbed that you were not able to purchase it from him when he sold it to Ms. Nixon?
I've never tried to purchase this property.
Ma'am, please remember you're under oath.
I am under oath. I've never tried to purchase this property.
So you had never had any interest in pursuing ownership of this property?
no and and i work with mr roundtree to help support him and whatever he asked me in reference
to violations or anything that went on with his property so maybe so if he were to testify that
you had an interest in buying the property uh it would be your opinion that that would be inaccurate
right that would be inaccurate yes it would be inaccurate i have nothing further
is there anyone else in the virtual audience
here we have 10 hands raised how would you like to proceed with this
um well let's take one at a time see where okay the first one is a keith harris
hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
yes my name is keith harris k-e-i-c-h-h-a-r-i-s do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do do you support this project i do and i support it as the ward
leader um this probably has always been a commercial when we were younger it was tim's
grocery store he sold meats had a butcher there and everything this has always been a commercial
corridor. Everybody wants to miss the town. So the building, once Mr. Roundtree purchased
the property after the crack epidemic, he purchased the property. He tried to open up
a seafood place at one time. And Ms. Cummings went against that also. And she did try to
purchase the property on numerous occasions from Mr. Roundtree. I noticed she told me
that and he told me that personally um um i don't know um why i was so adamant she's so adamant
about against this project um really i think the benefits outweigh the risk as far as the parking
is concerned i have a friendship with the mall across the street and i'm pretty sure that he
would would be in compliance with some of the cars parked over there if needs to be um miss
altrina grew up in this neighborhood she took a dilapidated building that would have been a lot
she did a benefit to this community right she took a building spent a lot of money um to get
this building back in back in shape as though um the community could benefit from it i don't have
no personal interest with matt and miss altrina um other than um being a personal observer and
with miss altrina um other than um um being a personal observer and also a community leader
you know as the ward leader and um also the surrounding committee people which i'm one
on the northeast corner of um um of 29th street the other committee person is on the west um on the
north um south corner of the property they're in compliance um or not in compliance but they're
agreement um that this will be a benefit to the community also to rally committee people that
that they're in probably they're on the call now which one is david wright and also angelo booker
thank you mr harris we appreciate you calling in who who who's what hand do you have next
i have a mr angelo booker up now mr booker could you state your name and spell for the
court reporter, please. Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Angelo Booker. That's A-N-G-E-L-O
Booker, B-O-O-K-E-R. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? Oh, yes, I do. Mr. Booker, we've had a lot of comments about this.
Do you support it or are you against it? Oh, I support it definitely. Okay. Because
there's always, you know, there's a lot of recreation that was already taken from the
community. And the young lady purchased the property to put it together to try to offset
and help the community from the violence that's taking place in our community already.
Thank you, Mr. Booker. Mr. Booker, thank you very much because we got a lot of other people
with their hands up. Okay. We hear exactly what you're saying. Who's next?
We have Lisa Monique. Lisa, could you state your name, please, and spell for the
court reporter last name jenkins hyphen hayden hi could you state your name please and spell for
the court reporter ma'am please unmute yourself i i have twice now it keeps popping okay it's
l-y-s-a-m-o-n-i-q-u-e jenkins hyphen hayden right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
i'm sorry chair j-e-n-k-i-n-s hyphen h-a-y-d-e-n
do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes as you've heard we've had a lot of testament are you for or against the project
i am opposed to this and i live right on this block okay the same block it's proposed on
okay many many meetings and concerns with no board leaders that showed up with the kind of
solutions that we've been looking for for the last three years. I've been in this community
50 years. And I do agree with the attorney about the shootings not occurring in front of the
occupied commercial spaces because they occur in front of our homes. People leave these places and
come in front of other people's homes to loiter, to sit, to smoke, to continue talking. And we have
had a hell of a time and no support from the ward leaders or any other persons to help us with
parking or noise or loitering or crime or robbery or increase. Thank you so much for calling in. We
appreciate everything you've said. We have a few other people behind you. We understand you're
against the project. Who's next? Mr. David Wright is next. Hi, Mr. Wright. Could you state your name
and spell it please for the court reporter yes i can hi my name is david wright d-a-v-i-d w-r-i-g-h-t
and where wait a minute wait a minute you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth well absolutely are you in favor of the project or against it favor wholeheartedly
okay thank you so much we have several people who want to have their names mentioned where they stand
who's next
do we have anyone else yes tammy johnson hi miss johnson could you state your name and spell please
for the court reporter hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Ms. Johnson, can you unmute?
Hello, can you hear me now?
Yes, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Tammy Johnson. That's T-A-M-M-Y.
Last name Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Yes, I do.
Now you've heard a lot of testimony.
Now, you've heard a lot of testimony. Are you for or against the project?
Are you for or against the project?
I'm against it.
Thank you very much, and we appreciate where you stand.
We're going to try to get other people on.
Who else do we have?
Kathleen Brown.
Hi, Ms. Brown.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Ms. Brown, unmute, please.
Can you hear me?
Yes. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
K-A-T-H-R-Y-N. B-R-O-W-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Now, you've heard a lot of testimony. Are you for or against the project?
I am against the project.
Okay. And you're a neighbor?
I live right across the street.
Thank you so much for calling in. We're going to try to see if we can't get other people up.
who's next
Desiree Taylor
Ms. Taylor could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter
yes Desiree Taylor
D-E-S-E-R-R-E-E
last name Taylor T-Y-L-O-R
right do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes
are you for or against the project
I'm for the project
thank you very much and are you a neighbor
okay thank you i don't i live on 33rd street okay all right thank you we appreciate you saying that
who's next gary jones here hi gary could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
all right my name is gary jones spell my name g-a-r-y-j-o-n-e-s and i'm against it well do
you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and that's what truth yes i affirm sir
And you're against it, and are you a neighbor?
I'm directly next door to the building.
Thank you very much, sir.
Who's next?
Tia Hardy.
Ms. Hardy, could you say your name and spell for the court reporter?
It's Tia, T-I-A, Hardy, H-A-R-D-Y.
You swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
The truth.
Are you for or against this project?
I am for the project.
And are you a neighbor?
Thank you very much.
How many more hands do we have?
We have two more hands, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
Who's next?
Nasi Nixon.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Nasi Nixon.
That's spelled N-A-A-S-I.
Last name Nixon, N-I-X-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
We've had a lot of testimony, sir.
Are you for or against the project?
I'm absolutely for the project.
And are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am.
Thank you.
Who's the last hand, please?
We now have two more, Chair.
The next one is Tamara Miller.
Hi, Ms. Miller, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, my name is Tamara Miller, T-A-M-A-R-A, last name Miller, M-I-L-L-E-R.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
We've had a lot of testimony. Are you for or against the project?
Against.
And you live in the area?
I live next to Ms. Tammy, who lives right next door.
Okay, thank you very much for taking the time to call in. Please, the last hand.
Last one is Karen Donaldson.
Ms. Donaldson, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Ms. Donaldson, unmute, please.
Hi, my name is Karen Donaldson.
Could you spell it, please?
D-O-N-A-L-D-S-O-N.
Now, Karen, you've heard we've had a lot of testimony, Ms. Donaldson.
Yes, I'm the committee person.
Chair, excuse me, Chair.
Okay, I know, I hear, John, I hear you.
Ms. Donaldson, spell your name again, please.
K-A-R-E-N-D-O-N-A-L-D-S-O-N.
Now, Ms. Donaldson, you've heard a lot of testimony that we've had.
Are you for or against the project?
Yes, I am.
I'm the committee person across the street, and I am for.
You're for the project?
Chair, again, excuse me, has she been sworn?
I thought I did, but I'll do it. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you very much for calling in. We appreciate it.
We've heard a lot of people. Vern, would you like to sum up?
Yeah, Mr. Chair. First, I just want to make a note of the folks who testified today.
Eight testified in favor. Five testified against. And I do object to anyone declaring that they live directly next door to this property.
Eight testified in favor, five testified against.
Again, this is a commercial property on the corner. The only adjacent property that's attached next door is another commercial mixed use property that is owned by my client.
no one else is attached to this property thank you because of that because of all the provisos
and mitigation efforts that my client is proposing because of her testimony that the only folks who
have any interest in moving in are exactly the same type of folks who are across the street
causing problems and because we have an overwhelming number of immediate neighbors in support not only
here today testifying, but in our petitions, I do respectfully request that this variance be
granted either permanently or given the real concerns that folks have just in general about
years and years of disinvestment and crime, perhaps a temporary variance. Thank you.
Thank you. Planning Commission.
thank you chair sarah bond philadelphia city planning commission s-a-r-a-h-b-a-n-h
the comprehensive plan recommends this property for commercial mixed use two in 2014 the zoning
map was amended to commercial mixed use one at this location the appellant has not supported
their hardship claim with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the
property for this variance use. The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the
variance. Thank you very much. Council, we've heard a tremendous amount of testimony today.
What I'd like to do is sit with the board in an executive session next Wednesday, and we'll look
to vote on this at 2 p.m. next Wednesday. I do thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one final point to
address the Planning Commission's point is that it's a 700 square foot small commercial space
where there is no viable tenant, despite my client's best efforts, but for another sort
of property that is already causing concern for the neighbors. And that's exactly not what my
client would like to do here. So thank you. Thank you, counsel. And thank you for everyone
who took the time in the call and participated today. We're going to move on to number 12,
MI 2022-005-925-2528, East Allegheny Avenue. Henry Clinton is the attorney.
Letter of support from the Southport Richmond Civic Association,
and letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Mr. Clinton is in as a panelist.
Mr. Clinton, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Sure. Henry Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and their relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is Voytek, V-O-Y-T-E-K, Spadio, S-P-A-D-I-O, and I believe he's on the call.
Okay. Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, Councilor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. Well, I think Ms. Emerson wants to comment on that.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Clinton. One of the refusals was for commercial services, a general category that doesn't exist in the voting code.
The board cannot grant a variance for this. I've discussed this with Mr. Clinton, and we have addressed this via proviso.
should the board decide to grant the application.
Thank you.
Understood.
So, Council, you have emailed all the required documents
five days in advance to this hearing.
I have.
I believe we have everything.
So if you can share your screen and proceed, please.
Thank you, Mr. Seguin.
The screen is loading, Mr. Chairman.
Coming up.
a little slow, Henry. Wow. I'll say. Why? Why? I don't know.
Here we go. Here we go. We're good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning,
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Henry Clinton for Voightech Properties, the principle
of which is Wojtek Spadio.
Wojtek Spadio. We're here today with the table of contents AA through A10, which I ask to be
We're here today with the table of context.
admitted into the record. My appearance statement, the refusal is the key document. This is an RSA
5 zoning district, but as I will show the board from aerial photographs, it's really a commercial
strip on Allegheny Avenue. And the request is to have a two-family dwelling and commercial on the
first floor. As Ms. Emerson said at the outset, we're going to ask for a proviso at the end,
if the board looks kindly upon this application, that we be permitted to have two apartments,
one on the second floor, one on the third floor, and that the first floor just be vacant. And at
some point in the future, we'll have to come back before the community and the board to ask for that
relief with regard to commercial usage. We do have an RCO letter of support, as the chair mentioned
at the outset of this presentation, pretty much overwhelming support, 13 to 2.
This is a photograph. So the subject property is right here where my cursor is. It's the only
three-story property on the block. That's why we're seeking an apartment on the second floor
and an apartment on the third floor.
The other uses on the block,
starting from the far right,
is a chiropractor's office and an apartment,
which the board approved,
and I had the application about a year ago.
This is a citizen's bank to the west.
Then there's a loan processing two-story building
adjacent to the subject property.
On the other side of the subject property is a deli
and one apartment above,
because again, it's only two stories.
At the far end of the block is a pharmacy on the first floor, an office on the second floor, and then once you cross the small street here, there's an auto tag company on the first floor and three apartments above, and that happens to be a three-story structure.
This is a ground-level view, again, showing the chiropractor office from right to left, bank, loan processing, subject property, three-story, deli, corner office, an apartment above, and then auto tag and three apartments.
Just another aerial view showing the rear of the property, that it is, in fact, three stories, kind of steps up in the back.
and then some interior photographs showing you that the first floor is vacant as is the second
floor and third floor right now copies of the zoning posters and a close-up view of the three
story structure our plans are fairly simple we're asking for a roof deck two apartments
one on the second floor one on the third floor the elevation is to the right we're not changing
the brick facade. We are going to do some changes, perhaps in the very front, but that's not a zoning
issue. We just pointed that out to the community in an effort to have full disclosure as to what
we intended to do when we came back to the community a second time.
The rest of the documents are the tax certification, our application, basically the pro forma documents
that the board sees on every presentation and a zoning map.
Again, it's kind of a misnomer to have all the properties on this side of Allegheny Avenue
zoned as residential, I think, because of the wideness of the street and because of
the other commercial uses up and down Allegheny Avenue.
The properties that may have been single family at one time in this area morphed into a commercial
use on the first floor with multifamily and or office on the second and third floors.
This is just a deed, our notice letter, indicating that we did mail out 138 notices to all the surrounding neighbors, and we did have a community meeting.
So in conclusion, I think we have a unique circumstance here where we have a zoning district that doesn't really support what is actually on the block.
It doesn't relate to what's on the block.
We have numerous commercial uses, as I indicated on the aerial photographs and on the floor level.
I'll go back to that.
Yeah, as we indicated in this photograph here, we're not impacting anybody's light and air.
We're not changing the height of the building.
We're not changing the footprint of the building.
We're not changing the brick look of the building or the nice corners at the top.
basically using this structure to mimic what else is on the block.
And because we have three stories, we're able to add an apartment
similar to where the auto tag place is at the far corner.
Similar to where the auto tag place is at the far corner, which has three apartments on the second and third floor.
So I would like to have my client unmute himself and adopt my testimony, Mr. Chair, if that's okay with you.
Okay, that's perfect.
Mr. Spadio, can you unmute yourself, please?
Sir, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Mr. Spadio, can you raise your hand?
I don't see him there.
Mr. Spadio, are you in the audience?
Mr. Clinton, you are an officer of the court and we'll gladly accept your testimony.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I do appreciate that.
Questions from the board?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H.
The comprehensive plan recommends a zoning map change to commercial mixed use 2.
The variance use conforms to the recommended CMX 2 zoning district in the comprehensive plan.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2022-005-925-2528 East Allegheny Avenue. I vote yes, proviso. This approval is for two-family household living on the second and third floors only. First floor is to remain vacant. Use registration required prior to occupancy.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso
Thank you, counsel
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, have a great day, everyone
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 2 o'clock case has not been called?
No hands, Chair
We're going to take a five-minute break and then we'll be back for the 3.30 list
and we should be able to move through it pretty quickly
Thank you, everyone
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Kelly, are you back?
I am, yes.
Kelly, thanks for reminding me the last time.
You're welcome, Chair.
And, Chair, we're all in, and the recording is on, so whenever you're ready to start,
we can begin.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this afternoon's 3.30 DBA hearings.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismael Shahid.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Thomas Holloman, our board member.
President, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett, is also here.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised.
The proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and 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 answer box on the screen is
not for comments or testimony. Any comments should be directed to our executive director,
Tanya Sumkin. Let's look at our continuances on the 330 list. Number one, MI 2021, 004.
Number one, MI 2021 004-365-4501 Belgrade. That case is continued. Number two, MI 2022 002-567-1412
South 52nd Street. That case is continued. Number eight, MI 2021-004-541-251 Ripka Street.
that case is continued mark must be tried and number nine
NI 2021 004 460 1508 Nidro Avenue that case is continued mark must be tried
are there any other are there anyone with comments relative to those continued cases
chair i see a hand up from david garcia okay
mr garcia can you unmute
mr garcia could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
yes mr chair david garcia g-a-r-c-i-a-p-a-i-d number 54351 right you swear for him to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir and what case do you have mr garcia
this is um it's on your calendar it's mi20022 i see 02679 and you are you requesting a continuance
yeah yes mr chairman if i if my just briefly if i may sure we've been trying to get a meeting
together with the rco in this case which is more by speranza they have had some turnover
However, the individual that originally was in charge of this is no longer there.
I'm afraid this may have fallen through the cracks.
I will tell you, Mr. Chairman, we did meet with them originally, and they wanted us to have, I guess, a sub-meeting with some of the community members.
So we have tentatively scheduled to meet these community members on the 20th of this month.
Okay, fine.
All right.
Thank you.
So MI 2022-002-679-515-17 West Erie Avenue, that case is continued.
And thank you for calling in, sir.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands, Chair.
I have two cases here that I do not have documents for.
Number three, MI 2021, 004-538-3516 North A Street, Joseph Estrada, no exhibits, third listing.
Mr. Estrada, if you're in the audience, could you raise your hand?
I don't see him there, Chair.
Number three, MI 2021-004-538-3516 North A Street.
I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is to dismiss.
Okay, that's three votes.
That's fine.
And number four, MI 2021-005-187, 2116 Gillingham Street, I have no exhibits, third listing.
Shanaz Dabadin is the owner applicant.
Shanaz Dabadin, can you raise your hand if you're in the audience?
Notion as debiting in the audience.
MI 2021-005-187-2116 Gillinkham Street, I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, I vote to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is to dismiss.
Thank you.
And number five, MI 2022, 003-820-3725 Lancaster Avenue.
That case has been withdrawn.
So, now we're going to go to our list here. Case number seven. MI 2021-004-536-1212 South 2nd Street. Keith Okoski is the owner applicant pro se. Mr. Okoski.
So now we're going to go to our list here.
Mr. Okowski, can you raise your hand, please?
Mr. Okowski is coming in.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Mr. Okoski?
He was there. Mr. Okoski, are you in the audience?
He was there, chair. He must have got kicked out.
all right so let's we'll call that again let's go to
to number 10 and maybe he'll come back and we'll see
number 10 mi 2022 005 718 2231 north 4th street david orphanetes is the attorney
letter of opposition
from Norris Square
letter of opposition from council member
Lozada
Mr. Orfanides
Mr. Orfanides is coming in as the
panelist
Mr. Okaski I'm coming back
to you
I'll call you back in
Hi, counsel. Could you state your name and spell, please, for a court reporter?
Certainly. My name is David Orphanides. My last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Could you identify your client in a relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is Punch Buggy Land LLC and Punch Buggy Brewing Company.
Okay. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree with the reading of the refusal to stipulate to his accuracy?
I do, sir.
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days in advance to this hearing?
uh i provided everything the one thing i didn't provide today was an extended addendum to the
agreement of sale as you'll recall this matter was originally listed for last wednesday and the
agreement was supposed to terminate at the end of february and it was extended until this friday
to allow for this uh hearing to proceed as my clients are the prospective purchasers of the
subject property. So I provided that to Hillary a little while ago today. Okay, no problem. Please
proceed to show your screen. Certainly. You see my screen? Yes. Okay. Good afternoon again. My name
is David Orphanides with Orphanides and Toner LLP here in Philadelphia. My clients are Punch
Buggy Land LLC and Punch Buggy Brewing Company. I have with me Patrick Coyne and John Riley,
who are Punch Buggy. I also have with me today Jonathan Massaro, who's the listing agent for
the owner of the subject property. And hopefully we can run through this quickly. I'll just have
them adopt my statements. What you have up on your screen right now is a photograph of the
subject property. It's a one-story masonry building with a roll-up garage door in the front
and a man door in the rear. You can see that there are lights on the front of the building
and security cameras on the front of the building. There's a vacant lot to the left of us
to the north, as you can see over here, and then a one-story building that I'm not sure what the
present uses, zoning archives show a commercial use, and as you'll see in the Sanborn maps that
I'm going to show to you, showing the historical use of this property, it may have one time been
utilized together or in common with our property for a non-residential use.
The, I'm going to be providing to you, in addition to the historical aspects of the property and the block, I'm going to be providing to you information regarding my client's proposed use of the property and neighbor support letters.
I'm going to be providing to you
I think we have 15 support letters from the immediate neighborhood, and I'll be going through a little bit regarding some of the oddities or regularities regarding the community involvement in this process.
So aerial images, our property is right here, 2231 North 4th Street.
We're just a bit off American Street.
My clients presently have their main installation or company or business at 1445 North American Street, which you can see at tab 14 of our exhibit book.
I can show you right here.
They are essentially outgrowing the space.
They need a little more space.
This is a picture of their delivery truck, which I'll speak about a little bit later.
But they're outgrowing their space on North American Street.
They've been, I think, in operation for about three and a half years.
Their story is included at Tab 4.
They started Punch Buggy back in 2016.
They're now growing out of their space.
They've been very involved in the community up to this point.
And they actually, not 3.5 years, it's 6.5 years now.
That's 2012, 2022, 2023.
And they're looking for a little more space.
They look forward to do some additional brewing, really low intensity use, no odors, no noise.
You can see the description of what they're looking to do at 2231 North 4th Street here at Tab 4.
Five new jobs.
They'll be taking delivery of ingredients once every eight weeks.
They'll only have one person working at the facility three days a week, three people the other two days.
They'll be working from 7 to 3, 7 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon.
They'll be making pickups with that small vehicle that has their decals on it, their signage on it.
On Fridays at 2 p.m., they use a local urban farmer to compost their grain.
And the four owners are all local and grew up here in Philadelphia.
There is a piece of equipment that was discussed with the community to add to their operations to make it odorless and what they're looking to do.
But they've looked in the immediate vicinity of the current operations for a property that is properly zoned for what they want to do, this small craft type brewing.
And unfortunately, everything that was available was 10 times too big and or 10 times too much money.
They're a small operation, as you can see from the at this point in time.
They obviously would like to continue to grow and they need a little more space, but not a lot more space.
And again, they're the property that they identified is located close to North American Street.
And as you'll see in the photographs that I'm going to provide in the aerials that this block, although it's presently zoned RSA 5, it was remapped.
and I have a copy of the ordinance where it was remapped
and think in 2016 or 2017 from industrial.
So you're gonna see in both the aerials
and on the photos that I have,
the aerials here at tab six and the photos at tab eight,
that the block has a very commercial aspect to it.
And in fact, there are only five or six residences
on the block and all the rest of the block
is either commercial,
which you see on the opposite side of the street
and then our property on our side of the street, obviously, or vacant land or vacant buildings.
Here's a closer up image.
Our property is right here, the vacant lot to the north of us.
That one-story building, I'm not sure about here to the south of us, there is, you'll see in the photographs, 2227 has a stop work order on it.
But I think what's important is the other properties, the commercial properties that you see here, here, and here, all have zoning permits.
And those zoning permits are included in my exhibit book at tab nine for auto body.
And you can see how this particular auto body, I think it's 22, 26 to 28 North 4th Street.
and you'll see in the photos has kind of taken over the block and are not only doing work in
the vacant lot right here, but on the street as well. So this is, although it's been zoning
classified as RSA5, it's hardly an RSA5 single family block at the present time and probably
block at the present time and probably for the foreseeable future. Here's a closer up view of
for the foreseeable future. Here's a closer up view.
the operations across the street, which I witnessed myself. And I'm not saying they're
a bad business, but you can see that here, again, here's the auto body. Here's our client's property,
the vacant lot. And then this structure is an abandoned building. It's all boarded up. It's
vacant. And then you have one residential building here, single family, and then you have one, two,
three, four, five. I'm not certain. This is the one that has a stop work order on it. I'm not
certain whether that's occupied or not. And then some additional aerial images of the props again
showing vacant, vacant, vacant vehicles parked there, vacant here, vacant, vacant, vacant,
and then vacant over here. I'm not certain what's going on down here at the corner of
Susquehanna and North Forth. It's all kind of screened off and it's a little hard to determine.
Historically, I had mentioned our property does not have any history of being residential,
except possibly back in 1917. It does call it out as a one-story, so I do not believe it was
residential, but it doesn't specifically state. But then back from 1947 on, it's all the Sanborn
maps show non-residential use. Here it shows auto, 47, 51 storage, 76 painter storage, 82 storage.
And this is where I said it shows the notation going over to 2229, storage in 85, 87, 88, 89, 92, 94, 96, 98, 2000, 2002, 2004.
So, you have a history here of non-residential use of the subject property never being used for residential purposes. Converting this building to a single-family use would not be easy. You can see here the interior photos. It's just an open masonry structure that the owner is presently using just for personal storage.
It was used for auto detailing. Prior to that, you can see the signage that was on the front of the building right here.
And again, images that I took on the street, we were just brought into the case at the beginning of, I think, last week.
But I was able to get out there. You can see plenty of on-street parking where the auto body doesn't have cars parked.
Here you can see the auto body taking over the vacant lot, using it there.
there was a zoning variance granted not for single family for non-single family residential
use across the street i did follow up with gabe deck from no marketex who i work with and have
come before this board with that project there's been no activity on the project since the zoning
board hearing so i'm not sure whether that's even going to move forward or not and i think it'd be
It's a little hard sell with this type of activity on the block to guess that there would be single family use or other residential, additional residential use here.
Guess, photos, vacant lot, trash strewn just to the north of us.
Here's that vacant building, residential building that's a couple doors up.
Then the vacant lot, this is what's next to us.
so i think you get a sense here of what the what the block is like what it's the property
has historically been used as tab 21 does have the bill that changed the zoning classification
from i2 to rsa5 the property has was listed showing that it's for commercial use the ideas
It says right here, property approved, restroom overhead doors, currently run as an auto detailer, potential art studio, warehouse space storage, and much more.
I do have the listing agent on the line.
He would testify that the only interested purchasers for this property have been for non-residential use, have all been for commercial or industrial use, not for residential use.
um the floor plans we have here um here is uh over here to the left is a roll-up door at north
fourth street trash storage you can see here's storage shelving a walk-in cooler canning and
here's the fermenting equipment um this is where the the condenser would be used this is the
condenser that had been discussed this is a tab 13 to make sure that there were no odors emitted
Again, they'll be keeping the doors shut during operations. The garage door will just be open when people come in and out, the workers come in and out, or when deliveries come in once every eight weeks, or that Friday afternoon delivery going out with the kegs to clients.
Again, they'll be keeping the doors shut during operations.
They'll just, the garage door will just be open.
There was a discussion with the community group for there to be an agreement that contract, a CBA, I guess.
I wasn't involved in those discussions to utilize this equipment, and my clients are completely in agreement to do that.
They had actually prepared this kind of contract, loose contract agreement.
It's not exactly how we would draw up as lawyers, but to show their intention.
and they had signed it in February, 2023, but it's not been fully executed with Norris Square.
As far as Norris Square is concerned, there was, I think there was an attempt over several months,
they were designated as a coordinating RCO back on October 7th of 2022.
There were efforts to have, I think, three or four meetings. There was finally a meeting
a week before last. Nobody showed at the meeting. My understanding is that North Square wanted to
continue and have another meeting, public meeting in March, but my clients and their attorney at
the time emphasized the need to have a decision, I guess, prior to last week's meeting because of
the originally scheduled closing date of the end of February. And so what was agreed upon as a
compromise was that north square would canvas the area go door to door and try to ascertain
the opinion of the community which is what their vote of six to two um comes down to six opposed
i guess those six people were people that they spoke with door to door the support with condition
is the one person with nor one of the people with north square whom i spoke with and this is that he
wanted to provide so about the equipment to make sure no odor is emitted. But my clients in one
afternoon went out, and you see this at tab two, and they secured letters of support from 15
property owners, including a number of properties on the block, both residential and non and
commercial uses or properties on the actual 2200 block in North 4th Street. So, you know,
The question is, you know, is there a vote? No, no offense to North Square. I think they were just trying to accommodate, but it does lead to kind of an odd situation where nobody is not a public forum.
We don't know. I'm not saying they said anything negative, but we don't know what actually transpired to them securing those votes that they got from the neighborhood.
And just like you can't say what happened when we went out, our people, my clients went out, but we obviously got 15 and they got six, and we've got a number on the block as well.
The notice of refusal is simply for the proposed use.
There's no proposed change to the structure itself, height or area, no signage is proposed.
Again, it does say limited industrial warehouse and distribution is the proposed use, and that's a refusal because of the current zoning classification, RSA-5. If it was still I-2, it would be permitted, the proposed use.
And again, this isn't really the type of industrial use, late industrial use you would normally anticipate or expect with that use category.
And we're more than willing to agree to provisos regarding the days of operation, the hours of operation, you know, deliveries once every other month, all those things.
They don't anticipate this growing here. If it ever gets to the point where they need larger or more intense facilities, they'd be looking for another property.
But I think this is, given the history of the property, the non-residential use, given what they're proposing, this is actually a perfect fit for this very mixed block for a property that's never been used for residential again and probably won't ever be used for residential or not in the foreseeable future.
For those residences that are on the block, this would be not very impactful, if at all, and very much in keeping with what's already there.
And again, probably much less impactful than the auto body work that's happening on the opposite side of the street and the several properties that are across there.
um i think i've touched on um again trash indoor trash commercial trash pickup they'll be using
the same company that they use over on north american street there are security cameras and
lighting in place on the facade that'll be maintained um and i think i've touched on
everything else so i think with that i would um ask my clients or at least one of my clients
I would ask my clients, or at least one of my clients, to identify themselves so they could adopt my statements.
to identify themselves so they could
Thank you.
And then also the listing agent to identify himself, be sworn in, to adopt my statements regarding the interest in the property being only for non-residential use in terms of purchasing the property.
Let's do your client first.
Mr. Coyne is going to be allowed to speak.
Mr. Coyne, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court report?
yes can you hear me yes patrick coin p-a-t-r-i-c-k c-o-y-n-e right do you swear or affirm
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel thank you mr chairman
patrick did you hear the statements that i made to the board today i did are they true and correct
to the best of your knowledge yes and would you adopt them as your own i will and real quickly
in particular the regarding the very limited low and non-intense low dense use of this property
um everything what i have up on the screen right now and everything that i've said
that is actually how you intend to operate if the board grants the variance is correct
yes that's exactly how it will be i mean you'll you'll never really even know we're there
okay thank you and then jonathan massaro miss mr massaro you're allowed to speak
could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter jonathan massaro j-o-m-a-t-h-a-n
i'm like mary a like apple double s like sam a-r-o all right do you swear or affirm the
tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel john did you hear the statements
that i made to the uh board today regarding the the listing history for the property i did and
are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes sir they are and would you adopt
them as your own i do okay thank you so just real quickly some members of the board i think we've
established the hardship to utilize this property for residential use um and we've shown that this
is the de minimis variance required given the low and proposed low intensity use of the property
thank you questions
no mr chair no chair no chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission this is ron bednar city planning first name ron last
name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth. I do. Proceed, sir. This application is not, while this property is currently indicated
for residential on the city plan, given the physical circumstances of the site,
recommend the request for various programs. Thank you. MI 2022-005-718-2231 North 4th Street,
I vote yes. Proviso. Proviso. Appropriate piping that will handle, as it says, virtually all the smell in the property.
But if we utilize the equipment indicated in the exhibits, Exhibit 13.
That's fine. That's fine. Equipment is Exhibit 13 that works on the smell, virtually all the smell in the building.
Thomas Howell, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you so much for your time. May be excused.
Sure, you most certainly can.
Thank you. Have a great day.
Good. We're going to go back to number seven. Mr. Okowski, please.
Mr. Okowski has already been promoted.
Hi, Mr. Okowski, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Keith Okowski, O-L-K-O-W-S-K-I.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
So, Mr. Okowski, this is for the erection of an attached structure for use as single-family household living. Size and location as shown in the application plan. The proposed structure lacks the required rear yard depth in the RCO zoning district, seven feet required, zero feet proposed.
Our vice chair just has a few questions for you.
Now, there's a letter of non-opposition from Penn Sports Civic Association and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
But there is a letter of opposition with exhibits from the neighbor at 202 Federal Street.
with exhibits from the neighbor at 202 Federal Street.
So, Vice Chair, a few questions, please.
Sure. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mr. Okoski.
Did you email all the exhibits and documents that are needed to proceed with this hearing five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
My screen is shared. I will go quickly to get to the drawing to give you a quick explanation, but tax clearance form, deed, settlement sheet, proof of ownership of the property, refusal, again, seven feet real yard depth, zero proposed or provided, but we'll get into that in a second with the drawing.
here is the drawing so many of you are familiar with the case it's the third fourth time we're
here something like that I made a lot of changes for the neighbors in opposition
the question here is the rear yard I didn't move in the first floor and the third floor
the current drawing shows this bump out on the second floor the reason is is for stairs
to be to code. I need a certain amount of square footage for landing at the top of those stairs.
I'm willing to, once you hear from the opposing side, move this back second floor bump out in
approximately 12 inches to, again, as a favor for the neighbors. Attached are the letters that you
mentioned postings pictures of the lot both aerial rs85 please mr okasky let's see a picture of the
lot this is the lot here so it's the front front of the lot so that all comes down yeah this this
fence would come down okay obviously
okay i'll open it up for discussion here from there from the opposition but it's pretty cut and
dry what what's what's what's show me uh the pictures of what's around it i mean what other
properties tell me show me where the properties are uh on the map if you can it was in my yeah
it was in my old packet. Let me see if I can pull it up here quickly. So to the right of the
property is the rear yard of a neighbor. To the left of the property is another lot. So there's
nothing really attached on either side. To the rear of the building, this brick that you see
is a neighboring garage that I think everyone admits is encroaching on my property about 12
inches, which is why I'm willing to step back my second floor to not interfere with that
encroachment on my property okay um the rest of the photos please you just like my postings
um here let me see could you turn that yeah i'm trying to do that now
here you go here's here's a better picture of the property as indicated um by these two lines so
again to the south side of the property is a lot to the north side of the property is a rear yard
of this um neighboring dwelling the rear of the property is a garage and that the garage is where
the back of your property backs up to correct and that's where the zero yard is excuse me
that's where they're saying you needed more for the yard correct okay all right and i
accommodated that request in the drawings all right questions from the board
no chair okay questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes sir i have a i see a hand up i see two hands up the first one is michael
michael mckehenney can't allow him to speak hi could you state your name please and spell
for the court reporter good afternoon michael mclehenney m-c-i-l-h-i-n-n-e-y
counsel for the neighboring property owner to the north gregory i'm sorry i would have
I would have called you up in the beginning, Michael.
Oh, that's fine.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
All right.
Why don't we bring your – you want to bring your client on?
Yeah, that would be great. Mr. Mester, could you raise your hand?
Yeah, that would be great.
Mr. Mester, could you raise your hand?
Mr. Mester, you're allowed to speak.
Okay. Could you state your name, sir, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Greg Mester, M-E-S-T-E-R, and I own the properties at 1214 and 1204 slash 10.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I swear. Okay. Your presentation, please.
Or counsel, you want to advise him on what he's going to say here?
Can you hear me now? Yeah, we hear you now.
There we go.
There we go.
Is your client going to make a presentation?
You're muted.
You're muted, Michael.
Keeps muted.
Go ahead, proceed.
I'll make a brief statement.
As Mr. Olkowski stated, we did have discussions with him about providing a three-foot setback at the first and third floor levels.
the issue that we have today is just at the second floor level my clients requesting
some revised plans showing a at least a one foot buffer off the back property line to create light
and air and really because the garage that is the neighboring property that structure is about 11
and a half feet to 12 feet high and where the second floor bay is projecting out
might impact, might actually touch it. So the design, he might need to pull that back so it
doesn't run into the existing structure at the rear garage. I'm sure the neighbor at the
Federal Street property can voice that more clearly, but my client will not support the
project, but he's not in opposition at this point, provided the second floor is pulled back at least
the foot to create some more space. I thought Mr. Okowski did say that in his presentation,
that he was moving that back. He did. We just didn't have a revised plan, so I wanted to confirm
that that was our position, and we have nothing further for Mr. Messer. Thank you. Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Yes, Chair. John Rogers has his hand up.
Hi, Mr. Rogers. State your name and spell, please, for the court reporter.
Hello. My name is John Rogers. That's J-O-H-N-R-O-D-G-E-R-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am, yes. I am the owner of that garage.
Okay. Proceed, sir.
So did you get my letter last week where I kind of outlined a bunch of things? Do I have to repeat all of that, or does the board already aware of it?
Just for the sake of it, you don't have to repeat all of it. Why don't you just try to summarize it?
For the most part, I mean, this lot is extremely small to build a property. I've had no conversations with the applicant for this variance.
He's never talked to me about, hey, I want to build a house here.
How would it impact your garage or the light to your backyard or anything?
I was hoping on this call for the drawings in this presentation, I would see more of what the structure would actually be like.
It would be a very, very small house.
I see he's scrolling up now.
So I'm not sure there's floor plan drawings inside of there, too.
I just want to make sure that the board knows just how small this lot is.
So if he does change his drawings to accommodate that backyard, how much square space will be left inside of the house once he builds it with walls, framing, drywall, all that good stuff.
Okay, cool.
And is this the drawings for the new property you recommended or is this the older one?
it looks like this is the old drawing from your previous submission um that's correct this is the
other drawings but you you wanted to take a look so i just pulled it up okay got you yeah so i mean
it's it just seems like it's a very uh it's a very small house i'm glad to hear that he is not
planning to to overlap the garage um so that's nice to hear um but i i'll still stand in opposition
um it's just a very small structure um in between two lots um it's just gonna stand out like a sore
thumb. And right there in that picture, you just scrolled past with your notices. I noticed that
you posted the notices from the email that Mr. Mester's attorney actually emailed back on the
thread about. You still posted the same notices and you didn't post the refusal along with it.
So I wish, I wish I was able to chat with a couple of neighbors who I saw reading those notices.
I was able to chat with a couple of neighbors who I saw reading those notices.
I seen the neighborhood.
I've seen the neighborhood.
I saw them reading it.
I was pulling out of my garage, taking my son to daycare,
didn't really stop to chat with them.
But they're reading it.
And there was nothing there about your notice of refusal.
So I don't think the community is really aware that out of nowhere,
there's going to be a three-story structure built on this very small lot.
And I think a lot of my other points are summarized in my email to the board.
But yeah, I mean, long story short, I wish I saw more in the presentation.
I wish Mr. Wachowski made an attempt to come and chat with me about this project before
postponing twice live on the ZBA calls where we sat all day waiting to do it.
And now we're on the final one.
This was supposed to be scheduled for, you know, 3.30.
It's only five, a little after five, which is fine.
I'm glad we got to talk about it. But it's a lot of time and efforts that, you know, was put on our part.
And it doesn't seem like the applicant put in the same effort, even with putting up the right postings on this property for this meeting.
So that's all I have to say. Mr. Rogers, did you, did you, you were, were you aware the Penn Sports Civic Association worked on this?
I was, yes. I attended the second RCO meeting about it.
And there were a lot of neighbors on the call who voiced opposition just because of the size of the lot and the size of the structure and would it fit into the dynamic of the neighborhood.
And a lot of the board members were asking good questions.
We had a good conversation.
And I believe that the RCO president, Patrick, he even asked him the call, hey, should we just submit the same letter as last time?
which I was a bit surprised about because, you know, I'm not sure about the previous RCO meeting.
I believe that happened before my family and I purchased the property at 203 Manton,
the garage and the house at 202 Federal. So I wasn't available for the first RCO meeting,
but I was a bit surprised they would submit the same letter that now there is more neighbors
involved and more opposition. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rogers, for calling in. We hear your
conversation. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Yes, sir. Patrick Carberry has his hand
up. Mr. Carberry, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, it's Patrick Carberry, P-A-T-R-I-C-K-C-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed, sir. I'm the neighbor
next to Greg Mester, not directly affected, but due to the size of this lot, I'm against
the construction.
Thank you very much, and we appreciate you calling in.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, Brent Heflin, just with his hands up.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Of course, that's Brent Heflin, H-E-F-L-I-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I swear.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, you can see my house directly through that gap.
So not directly related to this property in question.
Okay, all right, in the back there.
Correct, you got it.
Okay, go ahead, sir.
So I think others have mentioned the obvious concerns around the size of the structure
related to the size of the lot.
Another concern that I have, and forgive me, I had this on intermittently.
but it has been quite a delay. That tree you see there, which is directly beside the lot in
question, I know that that tree was subject of prior committee reviews and at one point was
actually saved. So I'm just interested to know if that's been a consideration throughout this
process or not and how the builder intends to account for that throughout this project,
if at all. So just a separate thought that I had in addition to my objection to the build.
Thank you, sir.
Before we leave, I'll let him follow up.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I don't see any more hands, Chair.
Mr. Okowski, you want to respond to any of the comments?
All neighbors were notified of the RCO meeting as per instructions.
It sounds like they did receive it, so not sure what I can do about that.
Conversations and my address is posted.
He could knock to my door and talk to me.
Mr. Mesner has my number.
I spoke to him as attorney.
throughout this process.
So I'm easy to find and have no problem speaking
with the neighbors.
As for the tree, I don't think it really applies
to the zoning and the reason we're here today,
but the overhang on my property will be removed
in order to build the structure.
Me and Mr. Mesner have spoke about that at length.
Thank you, Mr. Okafsky.
planning commission this is uh ryan bednar city planning this property is indicated for
Planning Commission.
This is Ryan Bednar, City Planning.
residential on the city plan based on proposed plan revisions we have no objection to the
granting of the variance thank you mi 2021 0 4 5 3 6 12 12 south second street i vote yes
excuse me mr chair um because there are um this is new construction there were plans submitted
and there are plan revisions that have been discussed um i think we should have revised
plans submitted before we vote on this so that our vote is correct so that the board is voting on
what is actually being proposed right now all right mr kaskin you had a revised plan sent in
please i will send them yes okay and thank you possibly we can have this by next wednesday
yes as long as we have the revised plans okay mr lakowski in addition to the revised plans there's
a revised plans form that needs to be completed and send it as well okay we'll vote on this next
wednesday at 2 p.m okay thank you mr kowski thank you everyone is there anyone on the 3 30 virtual
list whose case has not been called. I see no hands chair. Thank you. Thank you
everyone. Good day's work. Thank you. Thanks Bill. Good job. Thank you. Good night all.