Okay. Is there anything that you could offer that's not already been said?
I think there's a question that maybe doesn't need to be answered, but I actually think it needs to be said. We're talking a lot about Yadin. I don't think there's a question here that they are a great member of the community. What I haven't heard, and I'm curious about, is the owner. Does the owner live in Germantown? Does the owner live in the city of Philadelphia? Is the owner a part of this community?
Okay, so listen, listen to me, listen to me. I don't think that there are appropriate zoning questions. We will take note that you are against the project. Next hand, please.
Excuse me, Chair. I don't mean to interrupt, but I just want the public audience to be mindful that you're here for testimony, not to ask questions.
I got it. I got it. Thank you. Thank you, Fatina. Next hand, please.
um allison weiss has their hand up i haven't got them to speak
hi miss weiss please state your name and spell for the court sonographer
allison a double l i s o n weiss w e i s s solo germantown civic association
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes miss weiss we have a letter that you reported you're in non-opposition to this project and you
listed some provisors. Am I correct? That's correct. Hold on. Is there anything else you
could add? Yes. I wanted to add that while this business is a very good business, a neighborhood
business, which we appreciate and support, the concern is and was at the meeting expressed
that the category was very broad and once this lease is expired there could be another
business or even this could be divided into other
businesses in this very large warehouse that the use be limited
And that is the concern. The concern is not this business, it's future businesses, and how this category could be used without community input in the future.
So we would like the description to be limited to packaging and repackaging of cosmetics, and we would like it to run for the term of the lease.
thank you very much
thank you very much
Mrs. Weiss
is there anyone else
no further hands Mr. Chair
Chairman if I can just
provide a
point of information
it's a 10 year lease
which is why we don't want a temporary proviso
which is why we don't want a temporary proviso and if you review the definition of uh wholesale
and if you review
the definition
sales and distribution it and limited industrial it's pretty defined in the code um so that's why
we were not agreeing to further specification thank you thank you uh uh planning commission
hi meg cavanaugh for planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the existing residential single-family zoning.
However, the proposed use of wholesale sales
and distribution and limited industrial
is consistent with documented prior use of this property.
The City Planning Commission recommends
that the zoning board grant the use variance.
Thank you.
MI 2023-007-282-67 West Queen Lane.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel. Thank you.
Okay, let's go. So let's go to number one. MI 2023-006-111-2100 South 61st Street. Joseph Consul is the attorney.
there's a letter of opposition
from a neighbor along with a petition
in opposition signed by 31
neighbors
no RCO letter that we have as of yet
but there was a meeting
May 24th, 2024
Mr. Consul and also I see there
you have agreed with the RCA
to hold the vote
on this am I correct?
Okay. All right. Mr. Consul, could you state your name, please, and spell for the stenographer?
Yeah, it's Joseph Consul. That's J-O-S-E-P-H-C-O-N-S-O-L-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
Yeah, my client is John Lynn, who should be on the call. The owner of the property is Z's
Investments, LLC. He is John Lynn of JB Auto Works, and he's the tenant that is seeking to
occupy the property. Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Do you agree to waive the written of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Accepting the RCO letter, which I'll touch on in a second. Yes.
understood please proceed in shins okay
all right that should be my appeals packet
yep okay joe consul here 2100 south 61st street uh we're here today seeking approval to use
a property that's owned ICMX as commercial vehicle sales and rental, personal vehicle sales and
rental, personal vehicle repair and maintenance, and commercial vehicle repair and maintenance,
and vehicle paint finishing shop. Some of our requests are refusals, and some of our requests
are special exceptions as laid out on the refusal that is in front of you, refusal and refusal.
What is germane about this property, between the 1930s and 1981, it was a variety of different
uses, machine shop, parts, storage, all kinds of sort of disparate uses. However, starting in 1981,
and continuing through the present, the only use that it's ever had approved,
and it's been approved at least five times, is for auto repair, painting, and body works.
So it's a very deep history, history as old as I am, of using this particular space as an auto spot
in every possible kind of configuration,
repair, paint, sales, storage.
And so it's all available in the archive.
Just scroll through it now quickly.
But again, starting in 81, we're going through 91 now.
Here's a spray booth approval.
and two. So over and over again, this property was approved for what we are seeking approval
for today. And in fact, the property was
And in fact, the property was even approved in 2022 for the uses that we're seeking today.
However, there were some issues between the then tenant and the owner and the RCO and the council people, which resulted in litigation that did not ever go anywhere, but eventually ended up with this being dismissed as a zoning permit.
But it was, in fact, issued at one point.
Now, fast forward to today, my client is John Lynn from JB Auto Works. He has one location at 5929 Woodland Avenue called JB Motor Works. He's got 246 positive reviews, and he's seeking to open a space at 2100 South 61st Street.
Now, we spoke about the RCO situation. We met with the RCO on the 20th of May.
We dealt with several RCOs, including Craig Meldosian. And at that time, there were different groups with kind of different ideas.
And we've been, since we actually applied, trying to please as many people as we could, because as we understand it, there was some neglect on this property during the period that it was not operating as anything.
And so my client, at great expense to himself, has invested time and money to rehabilitate the property and clean the space up.
And so where we came to, and I'll get there in a second with the RCO is we have made a series of promises, some that we've already completed and some that we're going to complete that will make us the best neighbors possible in this space.
There doesn't seem to be any desire for an industrial use by anyone here, but we understand that there is some bad blood with using this property or attempting to use this property as an auto repair shop.
I couldn't exactly figure out what it was, what the opposition really is, or what that was about.
But we are trying, and my client is desperately trying, to get everything in line in terms of pleasing everyone here.
So that being said, we believe that a hear and hold makes sense because we, and I'll show you in a second,
have an agreement that we are circulating with the RCOs that will kind of lay out what we're
willing to do here in order to hopefully appease them. So, you know, to that end, here's some
photos just to show you what the property looks like. I mean, it's a garage. There's really
no other way to describe it. We submitted plans showing the layout of the property.
I'll show you the interior photos in a second, but the plans of the layout of the property just kind of indicate that there is a big backyard, and that backyard was full of junk at one point, and we understand that that was problematic for the community, and we agree that was problematic for the community.
And part of what my client has done, again, to great expense, is to clean that up. We'll show you how that's looking now. Again, here's the exterior on the front.
exterior in the front. Now we're moving into the backyard. You can see that they've
cleared a lot of it. I mean, he's probably at 85% of the junk that was there. Again,
nothing to do with him prior to his tenancy, but part of his agreement with the RCO is to clean
this yard up. You can see that he's basically cleared the yard up. He's got some stuff that,
by the building itself that he's in the process of getting rid of, but it's a very expensive
project. Here's the interior. These are the paint spray booths. One of the things we've agreed to
is to, of course, get these certified prior to my client being allowed to actually use them.
There's a process that the city has in order to certify that they're safe and operating correctly
and not omitting anything that would be harmful to anyone in the shop or outside of the shop in
the neighborhood. And then there's another photo of the interior. You can see the spray
booth. We also included other required forms. We have a lease. My client signed a 10-year
lease. Perhaps that was a little bit of jumping the gun. We understand that. But he really
he really wants to operate in this space and we're hopeful that based on the history of it
wants to operate in this space. And we're hopeful that based on the history of it and
and working with the rcos we can we can get there uh the agreement that we're coming to
worked.
and again this is nothing uh official yet but it just kind of lays out the issues that the rco was
having uh spray booth needs to be approved um we're willing to limit the size of the vehicles
that get worked on in in the property removing the jolt from the yard removing uh there was a
neighbor that was storing his dogs in the yard. So it was kind of like junkyard dogs. Those have
been removed. Again, not my client. That was a neighbor that my client had to sort of facilitate
having that happen. Hours of operation were agreeing to what we believe is a reasonable
set of hours of operation. And again, I'm sure Craig will come on in a second, Craig Moldozian,
But we're hoping that some of these can be made for visors and the rest we can come up with, you know, deal with the neighborhood with, enter the safe camp program, get rid of the junkyard license, which my client has already done.
We've there was a junkyard license on the property, which, you know, there was a lot of junk, but it's cleared out.
We surrendered the license on behalf of everyone, so there's no longer the ability to store junk cars there, and the client's agreeing to not pull a junkyard license if he's allowed to operate there.
Complied with the Planning Commission, the layout that we showed you, the plans are for landscaping.
The RCO and the neighbors really want adequate landscaping that will create physical barriers to, you know, the neighbors that are adjacent to it to see any kind of, you know, things going on in the yard.
And that's sort of it from those items.
i don't know if it makes sense to call my client or uh or craig first or or what if he can adopt
my testimony but you know i'm anticipating having to hold this for you know three weeks uh in order
to come to some kind of uh final agreement with everyone here hillary do we want to bring his
client on to adopt what he said now do we want to wait until changes are made i would have the
client come on now and adopt what the remarks you've made so far thank you what's your client's
name uh that should be john lynn okay mr lynn they've been allowed to speak good afternoon sir
could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
mr lynn
Mr. John Lynn, please unmute yourself.
You just muted yourself.
Mr. Lynn.
Okay, so at this point, Mr. Consul, we're apparently having a hard time getting him on.
We'll accept your testimony.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from our attorney?
Just briefly regarding having a resumption hearing in this matter, I understand that
it's about three to four weeks requested.
I would suggest that the parties reach out to the ZBA staff to let them know once you've reached an agreement, and then they can reschedule you for a resumption hearing at that time.
Based on the negotiations, I'm hesitant to suggest a date at this point, you know, given that there's still ongoing discussions.
I understand.
Hillary, do we want to open this up to the virtual audience, or do we just want to bring Craig on?
We can open it up to the virtual audience in case someone is not able to attend.
Attending today was not able to attend the resumption hearing.
But we will take, you know, additional, any additional public comments at the resumption hearing,
just along with updates from the applicant and the RCO.
Why should there be comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, I have a handout from Craig Megadosian.
I've allowed them to speak.
Craig, just state your name and spell for the court sonographer, please.
Craig, C-R-A-I-G, last name Melidosian, M-E-L-I-D-O-S-I-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, Chair Bergman.
I do, Chair Bergman.
Please proceed.
What I wanted to indicate was this has been a long contentious matter here dating back to 2016 with multiple episodes before the board and in and out of common police court.
with the property being vacant during that period of time.
We'd like to try to create a positive structured relationship
between the owner, the lessor, the lessee, and the community.
We did not reach a decision at our community meeting.
There was a split with the RCOs
because we do take into consideration
what we would consider real concerns of the community.
That's one reason why there's no letter here at that time.
We did receive from Mr. Counsel material for us to consider,
which we've distributed to the RCOs and to the council president's office,
as well as to several of the people that we believed were in opposition
and leading the opposition so that we could get broad-based input.
it. The other concern that we have is so that we don't have a repeat of the prior Queen Lane issue
where people thought that they had an agreement. We're looking to clearly define what issues that
have been raised in the document will be proviso issues, and then the other issues we'll work to
move aside to a separate memorandum of agreement that would obviously not be part of this.
That's why we're asking for the resumption hearing to give everyone in the community an opportunity to read the document, put in, weigh their input, and then come before you.
And maybe I shouldn't say this. We also consider the position of the council president. This is unique, and we'd rather not have two contentious groups of individuals petitioning the council president for support one way or another.
We'd like to come to an amicable conclusion for this project if it's reachable.
I will point out that we've had a junkyard operating there, clearly not in compliance with the applicable code for multiple reasons.
And both the owner and the tenant agreed to surrender it, evidenced us with proof of it, which enabled us to move on with the landscaping plan.
And this does butt up immediately adjacent to a block of RSA 5 houses.