The Civic Design Review's committee advisory recommendations
are not an expression of the City Planning Commission's recommendations
or opinion regarding zoning variances, special exemptions,
or other discretionary approvals associated with this proposal the comprehensive plan recommends
a change in zoning at this location from the existing medium industrial i2 to residential
industrial mixed use irmx under the proposed zoning the requested uses would be allowed by right
we also note to the board that absent participation in a city state or federal program or city zoning
initiative affordability mentioned in the palace testimony cannot be enforced by any city agency
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the request of variance for multifamily household living and for balconies.
Council, we've had a lot of testimony.
I'm going to take this to our executive session two weeks from today, and we will vote on it at 930 a.m.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I think we have one more case that we have to go back.
Number seven, MI 2023-005-953-5646, Teter Avenue, Berna Adji.
Do we see any hands?
Yes, Chair.
Berna Adji is coming in as a penalist.
I also see Attorney George Gossett.
i don't know if he's the one who's actually giving the presentation this is verna verna do you have
This is Verna.
Verna, do you have an attorney?
an attorney
Yes, he should be on the line, Attorney Gossett.
All right, all right.
I'll get back to Mr. Gossett.
Can you hear me?
I can.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
So my name is George Gossett, G-O-S-S-E-T-T.
Attorney ID number is 82983.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you please turn your video?
Oh, there you go.
There you go.
There I am.
And Verna Aji is your client?
That's correct.
There's a letter of support from the West Philadelphia Economic Development Council.
There's a letter of support from the generationalist of Philadelphia, and Councilmember Gauthier is in non-opposition.
Do you stipulate to the reading of the refusal and you agree with its accuracy?
Please proceed and share your screen, sir.
Certainly. So thank you. So this is my.
I'm sorry we're so long, but when I called her earlier, I had a hard time getting her in.
I understand these things happen.
My client is the Motivated Community Resource Center.
Verna Aggie is the CEO of the community center.
This is a variant asking to use a row home, as it currently is right now, as a community center.
Let me share with you just some quick pictures so you can get an idea as to what we're talking about.
I do apologize.
In the processing, the pictures came across upside down.
And I think you may already have copies of the picture.
But this first one that I'm sharing right now is the community, sort of a community classroom where they do after-school work with children.
They also have community meetings there.
Is it sharing?
I can't see anything.
He didn't do it yet.
I'm sorry, can you see it?
George, you're not up yet.
Oh, okay.
I'm sorry.
Let me see.
You should bring your documents up, then hit the green share screen.
All right.
Let me see here.
So you're saying bring the document up.
Usually you bring your documents up, then you push the share screen button on the bottom.
All right.
This is my first time doing it.
Okay, I see it here.
Share screen.
Got you.
There we go.
Yeah, you're coming up now, George.
Okay, thank you.
Thanks for your patience.
okay so that would be the picture of the uh classroom community work yep all right but you
gotta it's not coming up we see where it says but we need to see the photo so you gotta tap on that
and bring it up am i right yes so you're just sharing your um document screen you would have
to stop sharing and then reshare.
All right.
Instead of hitting documents,
just hit on share screen.
We're a tech person here.
Sorry.
Yes, I am.
I think he's better.
We're good.
We're good.
So that's upside down, you're saying, right?
that's the upside down classroom that's sort of the community room um i'm also going to share
with you a picture of the front of the house if you need to see that with the actual zoning sticker
is it possible to turn this photo right side up let me see you see if you see right next
right there yeah there you go all righty okay so as i stated before it's a it's a um 1500 square
foot, 1,600 square foot row home that has been being used as a community center. That
is a small, that is the small community room, general purpose room, where they do after
school work and they also have community meetings there. All right. I'm going to show you another
picture of just the front of the building so you can see the
So you can see the front of the building along with the zoning sticker.
Right.
is that showing up yeah could you turn that one too please yes sir
okay so that's the turn and hit it again
there we go
and how long have they had this project this property for this use i believe this is the
third year. They've just signed for a new lease, but I will bring my client on
at the end of my presentation just to clarify, but I know that they have in fact signed a new lease
to continue on this, to continue with this.
You want to bring your client on?
i'm here can you hear me yeah hi could you please state your name and spell for the course
that is verna aggie v-e-r-n-a-a-g-g-i-e where or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes all right please proceed counsel ms aggie how long have you
been uh operating at this at this um location about three years we've been operating for about
three years all right and you have can you describe very briefly just the services that you
offer we provide community resources to the west philadelphia area we provide workshops um
workshop senior cooking classes senior classes for youth and also cooking classes for children
We have bingo classes for the senior.
We also distribute food to the community on a Saturday.
We feed about 150 people in the community on Saturday.
And we also provide events during the year, such as we're getting ready for our Holiday of Hope next month.
I'm sorry, that's in December, where we are giving out 350 coats to the children.
And we're feeding the families food, a catered meal.
It's going to be a really nice event.
And next month for Thanksgiving, our goal that we're working on is to feed 500 families, turkeys, and all the trimmings.
And that's going to be all held at the Christie Recreation Center.
So our goal is to continue to be able to provide resources in this West Philadelphia area.
And do you partner up with various other groups within the community?
We have a partnership with University of Pennsylvania.
We have a partnership with Philly Lift. That's part of the city of Philadelphia government agency.
We also have partnerships with local churches, Abiding Truth Ministries.
We have a new partnership with the Corner Grocer, who's also working to provide fresh vegetables and produce and a new way of eating in the West Philadelphia area.
So we have quite a bit of partnerships in this area.
Can the members of the ZBA, can you see the actual zoning snippet?
I see. Yep, I see.
Okay. I want to direct your attention, Ms. Aggie, to September 30th.
Was there a community meeting held at that time?
Yes, absolutely. It was held. We had a great meeting.
Everyone was for what we do, loving what we do,
and to let us all share that they are 100% on board
and love the work that we do in this area.
And I believe that the ZBA,
you already have copies of those actual letters from RCOs.
We do.
We do.
Would you have your client adopt your testimony from earlier?
Will you adopt my testimony?
Yes, absolutely.
Is there anything that you would like to add or any further explanation you'd like to give?
No, everything is good.
Thank you so much.
Questions from the board.
I have a question.
Does the community center operate on the second floor as well?
We have storage rooms up there, and we only operate on the first main floor.
The questions?
the questions what's the what's the hours of operations we're here from 8 a.m to 4 o'clock
What's the hours of operations?
in the afternoon no after no after school stuff well we have uh students that come in from
families who homeschool their children and they come in in the afternoons to do some work with us
Now, right now, we're looking to provide a structure after school program from three to six, but that's also still in the works.
Questions from the board?
Yes. Question. Yeah. The signs, are they on this permit?
Yes. If you look at the picture that he showed of the front of the building, you'll see our sign.
That's hanging up above on a porch that says Motivated Community Resource Center.
No, no.
What I mean is, is this on this permit application?
Did you ask the sign?
No, I sure not.
That's just a temporary.
That's not a permanent attached sign.
It's just basically just that has information on it.
Yes, that's correct.
Are you planning to have a sign here?
Just the one we like, which is we don't want no permanent signs, just something that we can just put up to let the community know the location.
So right now it's a cloth banner, like a mesh banner.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?