Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see their heads at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the City Planning Commission. Members of the board, the comprehensive plan – sorry, getting a lot of background noise.
Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
We don't think that the proposal meets the requirements for dimensional variances.
First, denying the variance doesn't appear to create a significant financial burden for the applicant.
And second, the proposal conflicts with characteristics of the block.
And second, the proposal conflicts with characteristics of the block.
There's only three buildings.
There's only three buildings with three stories on this entire block face, and they're at the opposite end of the block.
So we have to recommend that the board deny the variance.
Thank you. MI 2022, 002-944-1909 South 3rd Street, I vote yes.
Carol Cineri, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
My will is no.
Thank you.
Number 12, MI 2022-002-556-1928-30, North 2nd Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Letter of support from the Norris Square Civic Association.
he's coming back in as a panelist now chair
good morning mr chairman good morning counsel could you state your name please and spell it
for the court reporter sure it's verne anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o 2016 spruce philadelphia
19103 right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
I do, sir.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is the leasehold agreement holder, Mr. George Hernandez.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Thank you.
Hi, Mr. Anastasio. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of proof of ownership, tax compliance,
a copy of the refusal or referral photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of
this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes we met with the rco twice
and secured a letter of support nearly unanimous okay great you may proceed and begin by sharing
your screen thank you this is a 1928 north 2nd street uh it is uh body arts is is what we're
looking uh to do here also known as a tattoo shop uh and it is this is the refusal that we
that we received it is zoned rm1 residential multi-family as you can see though on the street
The use is both industrial, some of it's commercial, there's many garages on the block,
so it's a nice mix. There's still some vacant lots. On the block here, right down the street
from us, is a large parking garage. Here's the front of our building. It's surrounded by
and on top of multifamily and new multifamily dwellings
that is adjacent to what was a commercial space
here on the first floor to my left.
Here's an aerial view of the block in question.
As you can see, there is significant number of vacant lots still.
And let's get to some interior.
The interior layout of the property has already been laid out
for commercial space my client had signed the lease and started to to work there only to find
out that he needed to go through this process so he has stopped working there and trying to get
through this process now for over a year of course the pandemic delays with city government and just
with everybody it just happened to be that way so nevertheless there's the
interior the property here is the intersection of Berks it's a large as
you can see large street there's proof of posting of both posters here are the
plans I'll zoom in a little bit so you can see them a little better which is
basically a reception area and a salon space and a place to store the hazardous materials.
When we met with the community, they wanted a comprehensive trash plan, which has been
provided to them. And it's in the letter that was sent over that we would have a regular trash
pickup, not only for traditional trash, but for the hazardous, the needles, basically. Also
included in my packet is a copy of the appeal as I submitted on Eclipse. This is a very well
This is a very well-regarded place.
regarded place. My client actually
My client actually has a reputation
of being one of the best body arts studios in the city.
And you can see here five-star reviews
all throughout Google and Yelp
and known for its cleanliness
and customer satisfaction.
Most of these are by appointment only.
So there is not a whole lot of coming and going or folks coming off the street looking for, you know, just a tattoo on his arm because he got drunk or something.
That's not the kind of place that this is.
And we have a letter of, again, almost unanimous support, not opposition, but support from the RCO with all but one person in attendance voting to support us.
Here's proof of the two meetings, both mailed to 98 individual households, and here is the tax certification that shows that he's compliant.
And with that, I'd like to ask Mr. George Hernandez to raise his virtual hand.
i'm mr hernandez please state your name and spell it for the court reporter
counsel you're an officer of the court we will take your testimony
questions from the board no mr chairman mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments
from the virtual audience
planning commission
thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
board members in 2021 the zoning map was amended to rm1 on this block in accord with a neighborhood
remapping process however this existing building and the commercial space within it was constructed
pursuant to a valid zoning permit issued under the previous cmx2 zoning this proposed use is
consistent with the physical configuration of the building and the city planning commission
recommends that the board grant the variance thank you mi 2022 002556 1928 the 30th north
2nd Street, I vote yes. Harold Tenere, my vote is yes. Thomas Hollum, my vote is yes.
Gaines Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you. Thank you all.
All right. Number 13, MI 2022-002-221, 2113 South 15th Street, Henry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Chair.
It appears as though there's a bit of a problem, but we have witnesses for the previous case.
Okay, no one answered when I called.
I understand.
I think the staff might have been at a lag or something.
Okay, that's okay.
How many witnesses do you have?
I mean, we've already voted.
We do have a representative from the Councilwoman's Office, Mr. Folks.
Mr. Folks, we're going to unmute you.
You can speak.
Thank you Ms. Sunke. Can you hear me? We can and as you know you've already been sworn just state
your name and give us your comments all to the list. Thank you uh Chairman Brinkman. I thought
it was my uh connection to the uh to to the to the webinar but thank you Ms. Sunke for recognizing me.
Again Sloan Folks, Office of Councilman Maria Keona Sanchez. The applicant having met uh with
the coordinating RCO, North Square Community Alliance, and receiving a letter of support
to the Councilwoman, offers no opposition to this variant surprise.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Folks.
Tanya, anybody else in the audience?
That would be good, Chair.
Thank you kindly.
Thank you, everybody.
That's passed.
Okay, so MI 2022-002-221-2113 South 15th Street, Henry Clinton is the attorney.
There is a letter of opposition from South Broad Street Neighborhood Association attached.
He's coming in now as a panelist.
Morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Mr. Quinton. As you know, you've already been sworn in. Could you identify your
client and the relationship to the property? Sure. My client is Jackson Duncan, J.A.
And the relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is Jackson Duncan, J-A-C-K-S-O-N, Duncan, D-U-N-C-A-N.
He is one of the principals of the LLC, which owns this property, and he is on the call.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Hi, Mr. Clinton. Do you agree to waive the reading of refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal referral, photos under plans of the property, five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, all of the above.
Okay, great. You may proceed and begin with sharing your screen.
Is that large enough, Ms. Neri there?
is that good mr bergman oh that's that's fine all right good afternoon or good morning mr
chair members of the board henry clinton uh for the applicant llc and its principal
jackson duncan at the outset mr chairman you did note that there was a letter of opposition
from the rco and i'm hoping after you hear the presentation that it would be strong and
compelling reasons to grant my client's request for a three-family dwelling. And I'll run through
the exhibits. This is my table of contents containing exhibits AA through A11, which I
ask to be admitted into evidence, admission statement. And here's the key document, the
refusal. There's one refusal. It's for use. This is an RSA 5 zoning district, and the two-family
dwelling is prohibited. Here's the RCO letter of opposition, which was previously submitted,
as well as a letter of rationale. So before I get into the overwhelming local and near neighbor
support, I just wanted to point out a few things, and I'll show the board as I walk through this
presentation. This property was a three-family dwelling, as the photographs will prove,
when my client bought it. It was a dilapidated, partly squatter building in deplorable condition
and a nuisance to every neighbor on the block. And that's probably why over 24 neighbors or
rather 24 neighbors are supporting this proposal because the property has been cleaned up,
the inhabitants removed, and my client started to demo it. I think his mistake was he started
to demo the property and then went and applied for the zoning because it was a three-family
dwelling at one time.
And when we presented this to the community group, and hopefully Anthony Brutani is on
the call, but they basically said, well, if you hadn't done anything and not affected
the three-family existence, we might have looked on this application differently.
But since you started to demo it, you basically got rid of the three-family use, and we want
to have it as a single family. So we have 24 neighbors supporting the project. What's key
about this property is to its immediate north, it's a triplex. And there are 14 multifamily
properties on this block, some four family, the majority three family, and some two family. And
I'll show the zoning board those records as I walk through this presentation. The other thing
that's important, this is 15th Street. We're literally one block away from Broad and Snyder,
which is a major transportation hub. It's a major area where apartment dwellers on this block
get on the subway, are able to commute to Center City, down to the Stadium District for employment
and for jobs. And if we read recently, not only in the Philadelphia Inquirer, but other publications,
there's a lack of affordable rental units in the City of Philadelphia. Here's a view of the
property from the rear. You can see that it's not an overbuilt property. You can see some of the
properties on the block are built out above the second floor. My client is not going to make any
change to the footprints of this building. He's not going to add to it. He's going to remain and
keep what it was, or hopefully keep what it was, that is a three-family dwelling. This is a photograph
of the block looking north. The property is right here with the awning. All the properties are three
stories on the block. They're very large properties. You can see next door is a triplex.
And this is what I showed the community group. This is the first floor kitchen. This is the
rear yard. And you can see there's where the sink and this is where the cabinets were,
both base and upper cabinets. And then this was the second floor. You can see it's basically
a shambles and the third floor kitchen. So I tried to present to the community group that this
really is a three family dwelling. And even in negotiations, we even said that, look,
And even in negotiations, we even said that, look, if you don't want to restore it to what it was, my client certainly would accept a two-family dwelling because it was multifamily for many, many years.
These are the very direct and simple plans.
The basement will just be mechanicals and washer and dryer.
First floor will have two bedrooms and one full bath.
Second floor proposal is two bedrooms, one bath.
And then on the third floor, as I said, we're not building out over the second floor, would simply be one bedroom.
So we're proposing five bedrooms.
If this were a single-family home, you would also have five and possibly six bedrooms.
rooms so we're asking the board to look at what this building once was what the neighbors on the
block support and want now were they you know voting in favor of this because they were happy
that my client rid this property of of the nuisance that was there possibly is their support
due to the fact that there's already many many many multi-family units on the block perhaps i
I mean, I can't really read into everybody's mind, but I understand a number of the neighbors were on this call at 930,
and hopefully they still are on the call and they can express their sentiments directly to the board.
One final thing I wanted to point out, in addition to the pro forma documents that the board sees,
tax certification, notices to the block, our application, and the zoning map,
So we're really off of Snyder Avenue. We're just two houses, one of which is a triplex, and then on Snyder Avenue, the CMX2.
My client lives on the 1100 block of Snyder Avenue. He's a resident of South Philadelphia.
He'll be on top of the maintenance and do all the maintenance himself.
So my perusal of the zoning documents indicates there's 14 multifamily units on this block.
There are two four-unit buildings, 10 three-unit buildings, and two duplexes, and I have supporting documentation for each property.
This is 2117, three units. 2133, three units. 2147, two units. 2104, three units. 2108, three units. 2110, three units. 2114, two units.
2120 four units, 2124 three units, 2138 three units, 2136 four units, 2143 units, 2144 three
units, 2146 three units. So one might ask, well, Mr. Clinton, you have 14 multifamily homes already