mess. This is the rest of the salon with the private bathroom to the right, and
there's also another staircase in case of any emergency. So we have two exits, but
they have a private exit in the back, and I'll show you where they'll be coming
in and where we will be using for parking just give me one second okay
Okay, so this is 63rd Street, and that's right eight on the corner, and we are right here to
the left where the white car would be, and that's also our parking, and we have a private driveway
that holds five cars. Although it will only be a two-person salon, it will just be me and my
sister working there. So we will only be having two people per person, which would be four max.
I'm going to show you the driveway.
This is our private driveway, which goes all the way to the back of the house with
more room. And I'll show you the entrance. So if you come up the driveway, you have a walkway,
There on the steps right here will be the entrance.
We just got a banister there.
And this is going down the steps into the salon.
And this is the surrounding area around the neighborhood.
And I'll give you a few more pictures.
This is the front of the house.
with that being it right here
um and this is just another picture of our side of the street
um yeah and it's pretty much it so like i said it would just be um me and my sister
pretty small. We had an existence
before
COVID.
And that's when we got the idea
to utilize the space that we have.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience or comments?
Mr. Gregory Allen has his hand
raised. I will allow him to speak at this time.
Sure. Chair and board, my name is Gregory Allen, G-R-E-G-O-R-Y-A-L-L-E-N. I represent the RCO.
Wait a minute. Wait one minute. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you, sir. Proceed.
Chair, we've never had an RCO meeting where 100% of anyone agreed on anything.
Thank you.
Yeah, I'm sure you can relate.
Ms. Ford and Ms. Geiger have complete support of her neighbors, all of whom live near her
and neighbors throughout the community.
In fact, she approached me early last year
to try to get this done
and has been struggling a little bit with her business
because she wanted to do it the right way.
So we are in full support of her application.
Thank you so much for calling in, sir.
Any other comments?
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair Bergman, members of the Board, David Fecto, City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at
this location.
This home-based business appears to be accessory and secondary to the residential use of the
building, and the applicant has shown that the home-based business will not alter the
residential character of the building or the neighborhood, and so the City Planning Commission
recommends that the Board grant the use variants for personal services.
Thank you.
MI 2021, 002610, 1117 to 19 North 63rd Street.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you for your presentation.
Good luck.
Okay, Melita.
You're all completed, and you will get your results in the email, okay?
Thank you.
You did a great job.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
MI 2021-002382, 3930 Brown Street, Mr. Nockamson, RCO, Mantua Civic Association, letter of support.
Mr. Nockleton is coming back in as a panelist, sir.
Jason.
Jason, can you remove Ms. Ford?
I can't do it.
Something's wrong with my Zoom.
He's been removed.
Thank you very kindly.
Turning as our attendee.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Alan Nockamson of Nockamson PC.
Mr. Holliman has a few questions for you, sir.
I already swore you once.
I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
Mr. Holliman.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you mail the exhibit package with all the required documents?
Yes, I did.
Please proceed and share your screen if you can.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oops, wrong one.
Sorry.
Let me unshare the screen.
That's the next one.
Sorry, technical difficulties.
DOES EVERYONE SEE MY SCREEN?
Okay, great. So we are presenting 3930 Brown Street. And as indicated, we have the support
of the community for this project, coordinating the RCO with the Mantua Civic Association.
We'll go through our presentation materials, which include our notice of refusal, our letter
of support from the Mantua Civic Association, recently granted zoning Board of Adjustment
variances in close proximity to this project. As you'll see, it's not uncommon for the zoning board
to grant similar type of variance requests. Maps of the area, photographs of the property
in the surrounding area, our plans and drawings, proof that we had a community meeting and that
the affected properties received notice of that community meeting,
our deed to the property, our applications for appeal, and our certificate of tax clearance.
Again, a notice of refusal. So 3930 is an RSA 5 property, but it's substantial in size.
It's 1,422 square feet. And the properties that are surrounding that property are similar
in size. And that's probably one of the reasons why the Zoning Board of Adjustment has seen
an influx of variance requests for this part of town. You'll see in our presentation material
and what we're requesting is a three-unit dwelling. You'll see in our presentation materials
that the community actually supported this project and unanimously. There was no opposition.
It was a well-attended meeting. We had seven people who attended that meeting and all of
them were either in support or in non-opposition on this project.
AND THEN JUST AS AN EXAMPLE OF SIMILLY SITUATED PROJECTS IN CLOSE PROXIMITY YOU HAVE 3860 BROWN
STREET WHERE THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT UNDER APPEAL NUMBER 39950 GRANTED A VARIANCE
FOR A MULTIFAMILY DWELLING FOR 3801 BROWN STREET UNDER APPEAL NUMBER 39952 THE ZONING BOARD OF
ADJUSTMENT EQUALLY GRANTED A VARIANCE FOR THE INCREASED USE.
AND THAT'S 3801 AS WELL. MAPS OF THE AREA, AGAIN, WE'RE IN THE HEART
OF VANTUA. WE'RE ON BROWN STREET BETWEEN UNION AND 39TH STREET.
AND THEN THIS IS JUST A MAP OF THE AREA FROM A GOOGLE PERSPECTIVE.
and then photographs of the property it's it's a vacant lot it has been a vacant lot
uh it looks like since at least 2000 and uh well it's been abandoned since 2007 i went on google
uh earth myself uh just to confirm you know what the use has been and google earth goes far as
2007. So this hasn't been an active property for over 15 years. Here are properties to
Here are properties to the right of the property on Brown Street.
the right of the property on Brown Street. As you can see there's
As you can see, there's a vast amount of vacant lots on our side of the street.
To the left of the property, again, a vast amount of vacant lots.
One of the things I will point out is, like, you'll see this is a porch neighborhood.
One of the things that was really important to my client, knowing Mantua, because I do present a lot in Mantua, is that this is a porch neighborhood.
So we wanted a project that mimicked what, you know, you would see typically in Mantua.
In addition to the variances that have been recently granted for 3860 and 3801 Brown Street,
also 3938 Brown Street is a nearby RSA 5 multifamily structure.
3921 Brown Street, again, is a nearby RSA multifamily structure.
3908 Brown Street is a nearby RSA 5 multifamily structure. Again, it's not uncommon for this
part of Philadelphia to be multifamily even though it has an RSA 5 designation.
And then here's our plans and drawings. I'm just going to reduce the size of this.
Again, what we try to do is mimic what the look and feel of the properties that surround
us, again to emulate the porch feeling of Mantua, but with a brick facade.
We weren't trying to put a center city product in Mantua.
And I believe that's one of the reasons why they supported it, in addition to the similar
use that has been approved by the ZBA and has been used in many properties surrounding
this property.
And then this is just our site plan, which were in your materials. Again, you can look
at the site plan. This is, you know, the lots that surround us are vacant currently.
And then just our floor plans. And again,
Then what we have here is unit number one, which is bi-level with the first floor and
lower level, second unit is on the second floor, takes the entire second floor, and
then the third unit is on the third floor.
And then we met again with Mantua Civic Association, and here's our letter.
We met December 6th at 6 p.m. There were 168 addresses, so there was a great density of
addresses that were informed in this meeting. And just to reiterate, no one at the meeting
opposed the meeting, and we actually had either people voting in support of it or in non-opposition
to it. And here are just our addresses.
And then our proof of mailing of that notice.
And then just our deed to the property showing that H&M Development LLC is the owner of the
property.
Our application for appeal to the ZBA with our notice of refusal and our project information
form and our tax clearance certificate showing that my client is a good standing with the
City of Philadelphia as it pertains to this property.
With that being said, I have Joe Ades-Evin, a representative from the property owner who can adopt my testimony. So, Mr. Ades-Evin, if you can virtually raise your hand, that would be great.
I'm not allowed to speak.
Good afternoon, court members.
Mr. Ades-Evin, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
g-a-z-i my name is gazi r-a-7-a-t-a-s-e-v-e-l my address is 24 24 east york street Philadelphia
you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do proceed oh yes mr other seven you heard everything i stated today
yes i heard everything and with regards to this project is everything true and correct
yes and do you adopt this in your own testimony yes uh with that being said i i'm open to uh any
questions from the board questions from the board no mr chairman no mr
questions from the board no mr chairman
no mr chairman no mr jim questions from the virtual audience or comments
do you know other hands mr chair planning commission good afternoon mr chairman members
of the board david effecto city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location the zoning maps here
were changed in 2017 in accordance with the community-led process. The documents in the
zoning archive do show that there are some standing homes that are multifamily in nature.
However, since approximately 60% of the block is vacant, it's tough to characterize the block as
being either multifamily or single family. So since there's no unique physical condition of
this 1,418 square foot lot that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning
code the city planning commission is going to default to the existing zoning for guidance
and we're going to recommend that the board deny the use variants thank you mi 2021 002382 3930
brown street i vote yes thomas hollivan my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Mr. Nockleson, I have a couple of your cases here, so we'll go right to it.
MI 2021-002381-3861 Fairmount Avenue?
The state name, you've already been sworn?
Alan Ockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Ockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N, 123 South Broad Street,
Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.