I think she put it back down again or something.
who is here for 19 11 17 to 19 north geiger um 63 sorry thank you chair please raise your hand
if you're for this case yes it was for me um okay miss malita ford yes i'm sorry chair i was just
wondering who was she in respect to the case I agree I totally agree is this your case yeah so
I'm the applicant I believe something was mixed up where they had my sister um as the applicant
but she owns the property all right all right you've already been sworn our vice chair has a
few questions for you sure if we can pause one moment can we um promote her Jason so she can go
forward. Thank you. Ford has been promoted to panelists. Hi, Ms. Ford. Have you emailed the
exhibit packet in with the required documents? Yes. Okay, then you may proceed. So my sister
has the property and she has a pretty large space. She has a space in the basement where
we're trying to make a small boutique style salon. We did do a community meeting and we got
much respect from the neighborhood. Ms. Ford, let me ask you a question. Do you have documents that
you can show that we can look at what you're trying to do? Yeah. So what exactly did you
want me to show first? Everything that you submitted to us, can you put on the screen?
Give me one second.
Find a CBA.
No, where's the CBA folder?
We're going to Dropbox.
I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find that file on here.
we're here okay we see you
so i have another i'm on a another device will i be able to um switch to the other device because
I have everything better on the other device.
better on the other device i'm also on there is um alita ford okay so chair we can move her down
Also on there is Melita Ford.
yeah and then go forward with the next miss ford please turn over your turn off your mute
mute yourself and turn off your video thank you we'll come back to you all right mi 2021
2121-004016, 2127 Gilligam Street.
Joseph Consul is the attorney.
We don't see an RCO letter yet.
Mr. Consul?
You've been promoted to Panama's.
Hello, everyone.
counsel did i swear you this morning did i you did we did okay just just stay your name and
and our vice chair has a few questions for you okay cool uh joseph consul consul madison llp
hi mr consul do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do based on what we see here you've submitted all the required documents
i have the rco letter was sent over to us this morning and we flipped it over to you guys
shortly thereafter, so it's in someone's email line. I can pull it up, but besides that,
everything else. That's fine. Okay, great. You may proceed. Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Joe
Consul again. I'm here for 2127 Gillingham Street, Unit D2F. The tenant is Juliana Mena.
We are here on a referral. It is a ICMX slash CMX2 zoned property. She's seeking to use this
particular space. It's 510 square feet in a larger building called Frankfurt Works.
She's seeking to use it as body art services. It is a special exception.
um we here's the letter i i referenced it's a letter of non-opposition uh from our meeting
uh on january 13th which was last week with the frankfurt neighborhood advisory council
they came forth non-opposition there's our proof of mailing
here's photos of the space uh this space um was acquired somewhat recently by the owners
There's five tenants or so in there now, and Ms. Mena will be the sixth or so.
Here's the interior of her space.
She signed a two-year lease.
She is a body artist.
She has a history of being a fine artist.
Here is a top-down view of the space itself, showing the breakdown of the various units, that kind of a thing.
site plan. Here's sort of her bio plus the layout of the studio. She'll be working Tuesday through
Friday, five-hour window, servicing one client a day, no staff. It's going to be a private,
just a private studio featuring her as the artist. Here's the rest of our required documents
submitted at the end, the lease, and then the tax, there's the lease, and then the tax clearance
certificate at the end of our packet, which is down there somewhere. There we are. And then I
did attach more of a thorough bio for Ms. Mena at the end, which was more for the RCO, but we
are attaching here now. She's been, she's been doing, tattooing for five years and is now seeking
her own studio. That's the extent of my presentation. Here's a little bit of her work.
If I could call Ms. Mena to raise her hand and adopt my testimony.
Hi, Chair. This is the Administrator, Tanya. I just wanted to confirm that we have received
the letter from the RCO. Thank you so much.
Ms. Mena, are you online?
i've been allowed to speak miss manna please unmute yourself yes hi hi miss manna could you
state your name and spell for the court reporter yes hi it's j u l i a n n a m e n a m e n n a
sorry okay fine do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do proceed good afternoon juliana thank you did you uh hear my testimony just now
yes i did do you adopt it as your own yes i do is there anything you'd like to add
no thank you thank you with that we rest special exception no opposition from the rco thank you very
Thank you. With that, we rest. Special exception, no opposition from the RCO. Thank you very much.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
Planning Commission?
good afternoon chair bergman david fecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission
all right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes sir i do proceed thank you sir mr chairman members of the board the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the industrial and commercial mixed use zoning at this location
frankfurt was rezoned in 2014 in accordance with the recommendations of the comprehensive plan
the applicant has shown that body art services would have no more of an impact than this type
of use would be expected to have which is what the code requires to be shown so the city planning
commission recommends that the board grant the special exception for body art services
MI-2021-004016-2127-Gillicum Street. I vote yes.
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Board.
Tanya, how do we stand with one?
let's go back and see Miss Ford
Melita are you there
Ford are you still available it doesn't seem like she's ready yet sure you can continue okay
Okay, sure. MI 2021 004357 2713 Livingston Street, Rachel.
Councilman's School, letter of non-opposition, letter of non-opposition from Old Richmond Civic Association.
Mr. Chair, Mr. Brandon Severin has been promoted with your panelists, sir.
Sure. And Mr. Chair, I think we're hearing five and six together.
Okay. MI 2021-004-358-2715 Livingston Street.
Hello, Mr. Chair. I'm sorry. As I was promoted to panelists, my sound cut out for a moment.
I am the attorney for this. Rachel Pritzker is my colleague. I'm stepping in for her.
Sure, great. State your name and spell for the court reporter.
Sure. It's Brandon Saverin, B-R-A-N-D-O-N, S as in Sam, A, V as in Victor, R-A-N, and I'm with Pritzker Law Group at 1521 Locust Street, Suite 605, Philadelphia, PA, 19102.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi. Do you agree to avoid the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, Madam Vice Chair.
I'm assuming you've sent in all the required documents or notes indicate that you have,
but I just need to ask you if you have.
Yes, we have.
Okay, great. You may proceed.
Does the board wish me to address these two matters one at a time,
or I can use our architect and present both so that you can vote on them in quick sequence,
whatever is preferred. If the architect makes it quicker, then we'll do the architect.
Okay. So I'm going to go through both projects, both 2713 and 2315. I'll do a brief introduction
for both. I'll then let him walk through both sets of plans and I'll bring on the property
owner to adopt my testimony at the end. So let me share my screen. Okay, so I always like to start
off when this is the case by saying that we have letters of non-opposition, both projects from the
only participating RCO, which was Old Richmond Civic. This is the letter for 2713, and then here
is the letter for 2715 um so that's that to give the board a quick introduction of the location
um this behind me here is um lehigh avenue this is a very short dead end street livingston street
off of lehigh um it only has three legal parking spaces boom boom boom on this side of the street
No parking is permitted on this opposite side of the street and the subject two properties
no parking is permitted on this opposite side of the street and the subject to
are at the end of the street.
They are currently this garage right here.
That's number 15 and number 13, which is this row home.
So the project proposes to demolish both of these structures and construct new single
family homes.
The refusal is the same for both properties.
The refusal was obtained because we are proposing a garage for each house.
And as you know, in the RSA 5 district, you can't have front-loaded parking.
Hardship here is that there's no side or rear street that abuts these properties.
And as I showed you, sort of the, you know, softening factors here are that we're at the end of the street.
So there's no through traffic.
I don't believe that the presence of the garage poses a safety threat from that standpoint.
In addition, it's just hard to park on this block, given that there are other garages
and that parking is illegal on the other side of the street.
So really, the hardship here is we want the residents of these two new homes to be able
to park, and it's very hard to do so if they don't have a garage, and we don't think the
garages will pose a safety threat.
But so with that being said, Zemir Garcia is the architect.
If we could promote him and he can walk you through the zoning plans for each property.
Mr. Garcia has been promoted, sir.
Mr. Garcia, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Hello.
My name is Zemir Garcia.
That's Z-A-M-I-R.
Garcia, G-A-R-C-I-A. I'm with M-Architects, 4590 Main Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19127.
Do you swear our firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Samir, before you start, would you just answer one question from me?
Is it true that we will be eliminating one existing garage, as shown here?
and um our plan which you'll go through now um will um retain uh one on-street parking space
so effectively we're not causing a net change in on-street parking is that correct yes that is
correct okay with that um you just tell me when to scroll or move to the next set of plans but
go right ahead and I'll control the screen for you. Sure. So this is the zoning plan for
2713 Livingston. So here we're proposing a four-story building with three stories of
residential above the garage and one bedroom on the ground floor adjacent to the garage.
We've included, so there's a garage entry to the left side if you're facing the property on the Livingston Street.
And then the building entry, the residence entry is right to the, sorry, to the left side of the garage.
and then there's a breezeway which allows egress from the back residential bedrooms
on the upper levels due to the fact that there's no alleyway at the back of the property
and so we've created a breezeway which ends up between the two properties and it sort of expands
that so as um brandon was saying um there because of that it's the swap with the garage um being
split on two on two opposite sides we end up with this parking space between the two um the two
garages so they're not taking away an on-street parking spot um the the home itself is a four
bedrooms four and a half bath and it is maximum height 38 feet as noted in the zoning and we do
have a larger than required rear yard um in in the in the rear of the property so zamir i'm just
going to pause right there so i showed as you were speaking the board the front elevation for 2713
And I'm now going to move to the front elevation for 2715 just to show the board how the garage door versus pedestrian door is flipped.
And as a result, what you end up with is a large enough curb in front of the two front doors for one on-street space.
Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct.
Yes, that is correct.
Okay, and if you have any additional comments to make, I moved to the other property.
And if you have any additional comments to make, I know we're going to go ahead and
So I now have the 2715 zoning plan up.
If you have anything additional to say about this property.
So 2715, the current use as a garage is actually occupying 100% of the lot.
um by demolishing the lot we're bringing back and and meeting the zoning requirements for
for um an open space um the the concern here is that it is not i mean it's not a concern it's a
it's a less than 45 foot property so it is exempt from having a required open area um
But we're meeting seven-foot setback at the rear, creates a rear yard, and we also have the breezeway.
So we are introducing open area where currently there is none on this property.
And then, again, as the previous property, it's a mirror image on the front of the lot.
And then on the side, it is shallower because the lot is only 40 feet deep.
but um it's still also a four bedroom um four and a half bath uh four story structure
with garage on the ground floor and a bedroom on the on the ground floor as well
thanks damir um does the board have any questions for this witness
no thank you okay um with that i'd just like to bring uh the property owner on to adopt my
testimony and then i will rest um his name is rob robertson