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?