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