Could not keep the, at least in this market,
we could not keep the historic use of the two-family
the way it was set up without that addition
because it simply wouldn't be comfortable enough.
But there were two kitchens there.
It was completely separated.
So my client merely added an addition,
thinking it was a legal two-family
because that's how it identified itself
and how it was presented.
Here's the letter that went out
letting everybody know of the zoning hearing date.
and 169 folks were mailed and with that i'd like to call my client
mr martin frazier burn did you participate in the walkthrough i did not my colleague did
attorney cook and it was and ms odessa and communicating with her at the time it seemed
as though everything was uh you know they understood why the addition was necessary to
maintain here's the property in question right across the street is this is all rm1 uh and then
the other corners are also two units it's just a matter of uh commercial mixed use okay why don't
That's on Lehigh Avenue.
Mr. Fraser?
Mr. Frazier.
Morning.
Morning, Mr. Frazier.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Martin Frazier, spelled M-A-R-T-I-N, last name F-R-A-Z-I-E-R.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mr. Frazier, did you hear my presentation to the board this morning?
Yes, I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is.
Do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, sir.
Very good.
I have nothing further, Mr. Chair.
There are other folks on the meeting, on the hearing, that I believe would like to testify.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
We did receive two emails of opposition, one from the Swamp Appeal Neighborhood Parcels Association, indicating that they are opposed to the variance, requesting the board deny this variance appeal.
We also received the email of opposition from all in the family.
Opposition from all in the family?
Correct.
okay i'm surprised mr chair i i'd like to call back my client just to put something on the record
based on the law mr fraser yes i'm here thank you please proceed counsel thank you mr fraser
just to remind you you're still under oath uh you did you uh attend the walkthrough with the rco
all in the family yes we we actually had a walk through uh so the week just a yes or no
mr fraser just a yes or no that's all you did attend is that correct yes okay were there not
were there not six community members all within a hundred feet living all within a hundred feet
who toured the property and supported the the the variants yes it was and some of them are here now
Okay. Very good. Thank you. And we'll have those immediate neighbors on in a minute. Thank you.
Questions from the board? No, I'm sorry. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have a Keith Davis with their hand raised. I've allowed them to speak.
Sure. Good morning, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the course stenographer?
Yes. Good morning. Can anybody hear me?
I can. Please state your name and spell for the stenographer.
My name is Keith Harris. K-E-I-T-H-H-A-R-R-I-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Please proceed.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and the board. I'm the ward leader in the district.
We did have the walkthrough with all of the family.
They were probably impressed with the layout of the facility.
I'm shocked that they will vote against it.
I really am because they said that they just had an issue with the trash.
Also, the other RCOs, other than all the family, their distances from this location is really beyond the boundaries.
They're just crossing the boundaries, and all the family is kind of the convener of the RCOs.
But Mr. Frazier has done a remarkable job, not only to that house, but to that block.
I've been having problems as a ward leader.
And prior to being a ward leader, I was the chairman with this block forever.
And I've been a committee person since I was 22.
I'm 62 now.
And that block has been a drug-infested block ever since I became in my 30s.
It's been horrible.
And Mr. Frazier has seemed to be able to get the neighbors together, talk to the neighbors,
and quite the calm, you know, bring calm and get rid of the violence on the block.
He's not just a landlord.
He's been a community leader on that block, and I commend him for that.
And I'm hoping that we can give Mr. Frazier some leniency.
You know, you know he made a couple of mistakes in the beginning.
He's came back to correct that, to rezone it.
And just like the attorney said, and I've seen the paperwork,
this has always been a duplex
and he's made another interest
because it always wasn't one
it always wasn't two interests
it was one and he's made it convenient
for the dwellers that will be living
in that property. Thank you.
Mr. Harris, thanks for taking the time to call.
Other people in the virtual audience?
Conlon Cressley has their hand raised.
I've allowed them to speak at this time.
Right. Good morning, Chair. How are you? Good morning, Mr. Crossley. You've already been sworn. Just for the record, state your name, please. And my name is Conlon, C-O-N-L-A-N, Crossley, C-R-O-S-L-E-Y. All right, please proceed.
Right.
um i had uh spoken to um miss uh dr odessa tate from all in the family um quite a few times about
this she's she's not able to attend right now however um she is in opposition of this as the
coordinating rco additionally the swan poodle civic is also or excuse me swan poodle is also
in opposition and the reasoning for all in the family and not support I shared with board
council this morning was the spacing did not accommodate the apartment style light living.
There is an illegal rear erection that was done at the space that is not suitable for a first
floor apartment space to convert this into a one bedroom and the trash storage initially installed
initially entailed tenant storage space in the rear alleyway.
And lastly, the architectural plans presented had inaccurate room sizes
and were not done professionally.
And that's all.
I just wanted to make sure it was on the record for on the docket.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Crossley.
And Mr. Chair, just would like to touch on each of those notes.
The trash.
Vern, why don't we do this?
why don't we see who else is in the audience and then you can touch on all of it okay thank you
um anyone else in the virtual audience um yes chair adrian fernandez looks like is um in the
audience i haven't got them to speak adrian just state your name you've already been sworn
adrian yes adrian you've already been sworn just state your name for the record
okay can you hear me okay i can't i can't okay all right um uh three i think there's five rco
affected rcos on this adrian just for the record state your name please oh i'm sorry adrian
fernandez okay please for this address 2400 west oakdale street 19132 um there are five affected
RCOs, three of us, the coordinating RCO is the affected All in the Family, and then Strawberry
Mansion, Concern, and also Swampaddle RCO. Swampaddle RCO is located closest to this property
of about three blocks. We held extensive meetings with the owner. I believe he had another attorney
before so it's going on for a while and at the meeting on the family notice first that the owner
had violated the permit that was issued where it explicitly said to do not alter the structure
they replaced a window with a door and there is no evidence that this property
was ever a duplex and also Mr. Anastasio noted there's never been any rental licenses
We did have difficulties with the owner giving lots of misinformation, including giving misstatements by L&I inspectors.
He was saying that the L&I inspectors told him to violate the permit.
He named several L&I offices in North Central and North Philadelphia on C.C. Moore Avenue and also American Street.
We know these inspectors, and they do not tell permit holders to violate the permit.
When we kept asking him not to make these misstatements about them, he continued, which was pretty disturbing for us because they were not even there to defend themselves.
The property is very small.
We were all opposed, even after we had special meetings with the owner, and he refused to tell us the truth about violating his permits, even though we could see it.
I walked past it probably every month, so I knew that door was not there that he installed.
and he took out all the open space in the back of it.
These houses are very small.
They're very small.
Because the owner is showing a problem with following L&I instructions,
supplying with his permit,
and also not willing to go through the zoning process,
he altered this house and rehabbed this house before any ZBA public appeal hearing.
We're asking that he just use the house as a buy right and rent it as a single house.
Single house rentals are very successful in our area.
Many of them rented long term for over 10 years with good tenants.
with good tenants. If ZBA does not deny this variant, we were asking for four provisos,
the first one being a limit of two units, the second one being that the trash and recycling
be stored indoors, the third one is no basement living, and the fourth one is no rooftop deck
occupancies. However, a swamp of RCO is opposed to this variant. The owner does not seem to be
able to manage more than a single-family rental, and we are asking that the ZBA please vote to
deny this variant. Thank you very much. Thank you for calling us. We appreciate it. Is there
anyone else in the virtual audience? Yes, Chair Strober, Managing Community
concerns with the hand raised. I've allowed them to speak at this time.
good morning good morning can you hear me i can't could you please say your name it's
spelled for the court stenographer my name is bonita cummings b-o-n-i-t-a c-u-m-m-i-n-g-s
right do you swear yep do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth. I do. Please proceed. I am an affected RCO for 2400 West Hotel Street. There was a special
meeting held. Vern Anastasio was not in attendance at that meeting. At that time, as you know,
there was a walkthrough schedule. But what was discussed with the attorney that was present for
that special meeting was very alarming because he also mentioned using adverse possession of the
alley just so that they could block off the alleyway for the use of trash. The property on the first
floor has been completely destroyed in that the extension takes up the entire open space of that
property where even a living tenant or a family living tenant would not have any use of even
their back their back area so the residents of that block are in jeopardy based on the proposed use
of trash storage to take the alleyway away um from that block so this property needs to be
uh restored to its proper use and again you've already heard evidence of uh no real evidence of
it of him getting it in a multifamily use and he placed a second door so we don't want to have our
our families locked in their houses and not having uh access uh to getting out of those alleyways
based on a tenant or landlord proposing that he can he's going to take away the alleys for storage
and mr anastasio was not present so he cannot speak for excuse me of the proper the other
attorney who spoke with us at these meetings about what they were proposing for trash use
the trash use thank you mr i'm sorry can the witness stay on for a moment mr chair sure
thank you ma'am are you there miss cummings miss cummings
please unmute
miss cummings hold on
they've still been allowed to speak but they're not unmuting
miss miss cummings mr anastasia has a question thank you miss cummings
miss cummings uh you didn't attend the walkthrough did you
i was at the special meeting i was not at the walkthrough that was that was more than a year
ago i'm asking you where the walk no that wasn't a year ago we just had we had the meeting where
we scheduled the walkthrough the walkthrough was scheduled the week after the meeting
no it wasn't a year ago did you attend the walkthrough i did not thank you mr chair
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, one minute.
So is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There was a meeting, okay.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, I have Ronnie Wilson with their hand raised.
I'm not going to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer?