behalf of her association and members of her association voted in support as well so this is
an odd and a new thing for me to experience in that there's a reversal of support a day out
after an RCO meeting. So with that, I did want to allow my client to just affirm what I've
indicated. We believe her use is very needed in the community. That was brought out. There was
a variety of folks that testified in her support, local pastor, neighbors, and they were all very
strongly supportive of the family and of the uses here and the proviso carved it down with such
with such specifics that we feel that this use would not only benefit the community but it would
be simply no would would create no problems that the uh that king sessing's original association
would be concerned about but that's it you can get your client to adopt your testimony then we'll go
from there yes so um miss church have you been listening to everything that we've been that i've
been saying on your behalf miss church yes please identify yourself first and last name spell both
first spell both your first and last name good afternoon my name is taisha church and you spell
my first name t-y-e-i-s-h-a my last name is c-h-u-r-c-h do you swear or firm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do thank you mr toppen yes i'm miss church
it's good to have you here did you were you able to listen to and hear everything that i've just
testified to on behalf of the the use that you're proposing for 1300 south 50th street yes i heard
everything that you said and do you agree with the content of my of my testimony on your behalf
Yes, I do agree with everything that you said.
And have I omitted anything that you find to be important or is there anything that you would
like me to edit or correct while you're here to testify?
No, I believe that you hit all points that we already discussed with everyone.
And would you like to have my testimony adopted as your own with respect to these proceedings?
Yes, that will be fine.
Thank you.
Thank you. Any questions from the board?
No. Anyone else would like to testify in this case, please raise your hand.
no anyone else anyone else would like to testify in this case please
Excuse me, Chair. I wanted to add that we had an email from Andrew Goodman this morning saying that Councilwoman Gauthier is requesting one additional proviso, and I'll read from his email.
We believe that one additional proviso that could be helpful would be stating that the assembly and entertainment classification is to be exclusively used as a small catering space.
that's it okay thank you all right anyone else to testify in this case please raise your hand
mr chair i have a mary ellen caffrey with her hand raised i will allow her to speak now if that
is all right please miss miss caffrey please identify yourself spell your first and last
name I'll swear you in. Hello? Hello. Your name please spell your first and last name. Mary Ellen
Caffrey. Please spell your first and last name. M as in Mary A-R-Y capital E-L-L-E-N capital C-A-F-F
like frank r-e-y do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes and your address ma'am 38 west highland avenue
uh are you here for this 1300 south 50th no i'm here for highland avenue you need to wait ma'am
I'm sorry, I'm going to hit the wrong button. Excuse me.
No problem. Okay. Anyone else to testify in this case?
Mr. Chair, I have a Diane Settles with her hand raised. I will allow her to speak right now.
Okay. Thank you. Ms. Settles, please identify yourself. Spell your first and last name.
Ms. Settles, unmute yourself.
Good afternoon. My name is Diane Settles. My first name is spelled D-I-A-N-E.
My last name is spelled S-E-T-T-L-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do affirm, sir.
Thank you. Please proceed.
I'm representing King Sesson Air Civic Association.
I am the person that sent in the letter of opposition, and I would like to speak on that.
I attended both of those meetings, RCO meetings for this property.
It was I that brought to the attention to the lead RCO that there was no zoning notice posted on this property for the first meeting in February,
I feel that had I not put it to their attention, it would have proceeded anyway, which it did,
even though the zoning notice was not posted. We went through with the first meeting, there was
not a lot of community neighbors there, but it was neighbors. It was not neighbors, I'm sorry. It was
people who were there to, as Mr. Tobin had told me, that were there to lend their support for this
particular applicant, even though they were not members of the community. The provisio that was
given, it was necessary in order for the community to approve this zoning here. As far as the hookah
bar is concerned, that is in reference to my community that suffered a hookah bar that took
us two years to get rid of where we had to go through the court on this eba and all um in order
to do it so that part i'm fully aware of and i just wanted to bring that to attention of why it
was such an important uh my letter of opposition um that i did send out which was one day from
today that is true is because um it fails to mention all the proviso anything about the personal
fitness movement that is supposed to be there and there's no benefit for the community there at all
because it was never discussed by the client or her lawyer what the benefits would be for this
other part of the zoning that they are going for. We were never supplied any letters of reference
of the applicant's prior employment as a dance instructor at all.
We had raised this question in the chat, but it was not addressed.
So if everything that's on this provisio is a benefit to the client,
there's no benefit to the community.
there's no benefit to the community. And when I think of a benefit to the community
And when I think of a benefit to the community,
as a dance studio, you know, where is the discount that should be given to children in that community?
That's something that's not enforceable by us. Yeah.
No, what I'm saying, what I'm saying is because that is part of the application, where is that in the
are you are you opposed to the are you opposed to that so on behalf of the community you know
what is going to be given back to the community the reason i think i think excuse me i think
members of the community could probably enroll in a dance class yes that is true the members of the
community could enroll but what we are asking for where i don't see anything for the community
I'm sure anyone can involve, but as far as being in that community, what are you giving back to the community?
That is beyond the realm of what this hearing is about.
It's about the use.
Are you opposed to the use that is being presented?
You can unmute yourself again.
This deals.
All right.
Well, wait.
Wait, anyone else to testify in this case?
No other hands at this time, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Planning Commission?
Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Board.
Ian Litwin, Planning Commission staff.
Ian, were you on this morning?
No, I was not.
Okay, so I'll swear you in now.
Do you swear or for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this
location however this corner building was constructed with a commercial first floor
city planning commission recommends the board grant advances with provisors thank you very much
i'm sorry chair uh before you proceed may i ask that mr litwin put his spell his whole name on
the record sorry uh ian ian litwin l-i-t-w-i-n planning commission staff thank you and chair
I just wanted to mention we have a totally new court reporter so if we can do that for everyone
that would be helpful. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. MI 2020-002-521-1300 South 50th Street.
My vote is yes with the following proviso. Assembly to be exclusive to catering.
hours of operation
Friday and Saturday to cease at midnight
Sunday through Thursday
hours of operation to cease
at 10pm
Sharon did I leave anything else out
because the rest doesn't look like to me
doesn't look like it's enforceable
no that's exactly right
okay thank you
okay my vote is yes with proviso
yes with proviso yes with proviso yes with proviso
to cumberland street next calendar number 2021 2167 east cumberland street
and we're looking for christopher pepper it was an attorney if i recall
no exhibits first listing yeah um sharon has the exhibits sharon has the exhibits
they were sent to the um wrong email address but i do have them now and it's michael malloy is the
attorney mr malloy okay you've already been sworn in mr malloy can you put your name and address on
the record, please, and spell your last name? Sure. Thank you very much. It's Michael Malloy,
M-A-L-L-O-Y. We're at 15, it's Obermeyer, Redmond, Maxwell, Hipple, and we're at 1500
Market Street, Suite 3400, Philadelphia PA. Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy i do thank you and have you emailed the exhibit packet with the
required documents consisting of proof of ownership tax compliance refusal or referral photos and or
plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you
have a letter yes albeit to the wrong address uh we did email that and now they are they have
arrived and we did meet with the RCO and the letter was included with the packet.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You may proceed.
Great.
Thank you.
So we have a very straightforward application.
Mr. Albert Zang is the owner, and he's on the line somewhere if we need him sworn in.
Mr. Albert Zhang is the owner and he's on the line somewhere.
Mr. Zang purchased the property located at 2167 East Cumberland in December of 2020.
And since then, he sought to pull licenses for what he believed was a legal two-family residence,
which is not permitted in the zoning district.
So when he went to pull that permit, his permit was rejected from zoning, and he immediately
filed for variance relief to allow the two-family unit to exist in the RS-A5 district.
So the property, if you allow me to share my screen.
Great, so if you can all see that, what was part of what we marked as Exhibit E shows
the site in the center of the sort of sea of yellow, it's at East Cumberland and Sepp
Sepp Viva Street. It's the gray block. The property had been used, as you can see,
this is the property. It's a nice brick three-story building. The property had been used
previously in the 90s and until some point before Mr. Zhang purchased it as a convenience store
on the first floor with a residential apartment on the second and third floors.
That's essentially the extent of the application. We would like the zoning hearing, the ZBA,
to grant a variance to allow what really is the continued residential use of the first floor.
And we have photographs of the area.
It's a nice residential area.
We have photographs of the interior marked as Exhibit F.
Mr. Molloy, did you share those?
That's it.
Share the interior?
Yep, sure.
You see the interior of the first floor space.
It was, you know, tastefully done.
It was well done, but done without proper zoning permit.
and when mr zhang purchased uh the space you can see the kitchen the living area
he was uh basically innocent of the well so completely innocent of this fact
and did not realize that this was not properly zoned until he went to do that himself
uh we did visit the community and that was on april 8th their letter of support
which they uh pretty much overwhelmingly supported the project uh we had three support and two uh
non-opposed and one person opposed but there was no
no reason that we know of uh the communities asked if we would please keep the sign which
Mr. Zhang is perfectly willing to do and the sign has become as they say a sort of a get the correct
language here from the letter sorry the zoom is blocking me but it's become a fixture in the
neighborhood and a point of interest at the core at that corner so we are perfectly willing to do
that and uh that's all of the information that i have for the zoning hearing board and we have
open for questions uh would you want to get your uh client to adopt your testimony yes sir uh if
mr zhang is on uh if we could just bring him and have him sworn in yeah mr zhang please raise your
hand yes i'm here and full name first and last name spell them sure first name albert uh last
name Zhang, A-L-B-E-R-T-Z-H-E-N-G.
We're a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you, Mr. Malloy.
Mr. Zhang, were you present, and did you hear the testimony I gave to the ZVA?
Yes, I can confirm that.
And you confirm that it's truthful, and you adopt it as your own?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
I have nothing further.
Questions from the board?
no anyone else like to testify in this case please raise your hand
Anyone else like to testify in this case, please raise your hand.
no further hands at this time mr chair thank you planning commission
good afternoon chairman members of the board Ian Litwin planning commission staff
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single family zoning
at this location however this corner building was constructed with a commercial first floor