um council we're going to uh we're going to hold this till next wednesday we'll vote at 9 30 a.m
and we'll view it in executive session and we'll make sure we get it at a vote
understood all right thank you very much chairman all right mr council
M.I. 2024-007-318-1334-East-Peshon-Gavin.
Mr. Consul is the attorney.
Mr. Consul, I believe you've already been sworn.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
My client is PH Rentals, LLC.
I've got John Holt, one of the owners of the company.
with all right and i understand that there's a letter of opposition professional square
civic association a letter of opposition to the council member squilla and there's a community
letter of non-opposition so our vice chair has a few questions good morning council do you agree
the way to read another refusal or stipulate towards accuracy i do have you emailed in all
the required documents and exhibits as needed and required to proceed with this case i have
thank you please proceed good morning board joseph consul for ph rentals 1334 east paschionk avenue
ph rentals is owned by john holt and gabe plaguey both are in the audience today
prior to the city shutting down visitor accommodation properties mr holt's company
had five properties that were purchased and furnished by his company and operated successfully
for a few years prior to them being shut down. We've been in front of the board for the first
four. This is the final property that they are needing to legalize, having been purchased
prior to the shutdown. I'm going to share my screen now.
All right. So this is 1334 East Pass Yonk Avenue. This block is the block of East Pass Yonk Avenue that comes up from the Acme and the CVS.
There is a wide range of uses on this block. There is a popular brewery, an art gallery, at least two beauty salons, a bike shop, single family homes, and many multifamily properties.
uh i'll just real quick go down the list of the ones that i i found quickly 1324 1332
1334 which is our property it uh while being zoned currently is rsa5 it has been a legal
three unit building since 2008 when that was a buy right thing the rental license
is active and has been since that time 1338 is a three-unit building 1337 1339 1347
and 1335 uh so this um like a lot of east passion gav is a combination of a lot of different uh uses
Here's our proof of mailing, exterior photos, showing the bin, here's interior photos showing
their furnishings as with all the properties we've presented on behalf of my clients.
They have very nicely furnished these properties at great expense to their company.
We've included a layout of all three of the floors.
As mentioned, these are previously approved three units.
Each one's a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom, as well as a dedicated laundry space.
as well as a dedicated laundry space here is their old listing showing they have a perfect
score for this property 5.0 a couple of other photos and more information about the
listing some of the good reviews included on there
gabriel is the super host he's in the room um as mentioned
we uh went in front of the passion square civic and um it appeared uh to be or they made it clear
that their policy was not to approve these they vote they had the community vote uh and there
were near neighbors um involved and there was no uh no down votes it was an eight to zero
community vote and so it was um a little disappointing when we got their um letter
of opposition uh again we believe this is a strict across the board denial of these kinds
of requests and um we're hopeful similar to um another of our properties that the fact that my
clients have operated successfully prior to being shut down um and have had no specific um knocks
against them um by by anyone that the the board or the rco had nothing specific to say against
this property was just a blanket opposition. Some RCOs, you win the community vote and they
vote with you, but this is not what happened here. Their tax clearance, we submitted two
neighbors who live within the bounds of Passion Square Civic. Their letters of support
were uploaded I believe yesterday and included today. We also included in this packet
my client's operational policies. We've been through this manual before but I understand
there is a neighbor on the call that perhaps we haven't spoken to yet. My clients have a very
strict and thorough process with which they manage these properties. I'm going to call him
basically to talk about trash disposal and safety for this specific property in a second, but we
have and have available my client's operating manual that dictates how they run their properties.
And as we noted, they've done so successfully for many years for many properties.
um with that i'll call my client mr john holt to uh good morning good morning sir could you
please state your name as belford stock sure jonathan holt j-o-n-a-t-h-a-n holt h-o-l-t
he swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do please
proceed counsel good morning mr holt did you hear my testimony just now regarding
your company's property at 1334 East Pass Yonk Avenue?
Yes, I did.
Do you agree with what I said and do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, I do.
For the benefit of the board and anyone in the virtual audience,
would you first speak about how your company handles bookings
and safety concerns at this property?
Sure. Bookings, you know, we understand that with Airbnbs,
there's a lot of concerns with parties, that kind of thing. We have a lot in place to prevent
any of that from ever happening. Starting with when the guests reach out to us, we only allow
people over the age of 25 to book. We do advertise towards families. We stock all our units with
things like baby monitors, cribs, to really advertise to a clientele that's not going to
be bringing a party in, anything like that. We also collect IDs, do background checks,
things of that nature, and have minimum night stays because most of the time, the people
that are booking for a party are trying to do a one-night stay. Unfortunately, they're
also local residents, so we can vet them and fill that out and eliminate any issues before
they happen. We also include in our units some safety measures like noise monitoring system
called a minute device that doesn't record or anything in the units. It just kind of monitors
decibel levels. We have it set to 75 decibels, which is the, you know, the basically
uh decibels which is the you know the um basically equivalent to a vacuum so anytime like our cleaners
go off and they run the vacuum we'll hear it but you know that's a good way for us to prevent
you know any issues or people getting louder at night um so anytime the noise gets above that
decibel reading it'll send not only the guest a message immediately to to have them you know you
know respect the quiet hours but also to us so then we can enforce that as well okay um and then
finally would you discuss the um trash disposal specific to this property yes uh trash disposal
we have multiple markings throughout the property as well as uh the information they receive once
they book when trash is the rules of the trash when to put it out the night before trash day
not before 5 p.m. Besides, so if they're staying at the property during that trash time, they know
to bring it down. If there is no guest there, then, you know, our cleaners, once they clean the
property, they'll be able to bring it down for us at the appropriate time. We also have
maintenance men that do that as well. Okay. And finally, do you, are you and your partner local
and do you manage these properties yourselves uh yes we are i actually from this property
am just out of this zone i'm on uh fernon street so tasker is the southernmost zone so i'm right
off passing on gav and you know we care about our properties we care about the neighborhood
okay nothing further questions for the board yes how many total um short-term rentals do you have
in this neighborhood in this neighborhood this is our only one it's the only one okay and then
how many do you have total in the city of philadelphia in the city of philadelphia we have
12 i believe and at all of them do you leave it to the short-term rental tenants to put their
trash out on the street uh no it's the same thing um you know for the trash pickouts if there is a
guest there yes um if there is not a guest then you know we have maintenance and other you know
avenues to do so okay and then just for a point of reference the rco um the head of the rco i think
also lives on your block so did you talk to any of the nearby name i know most of the people on
that board specifically live on the block where this is so just wondering what has been your
interaction with the uh past young civic association membership not besides that first
meeting that was uh the only time okay and you've never had to present to them before like in your
previous operation of the of the property i was on that board but that was over 10 years ago yeah
when i when i lived there but no no one no one knows me anymore there um uh have you had uh john
have you had any experience with um any of the neighbors on the block either positively or
negatively regarding that property no other questions from the board
questions or comments from the our lawyer hillary emory oh hillary hill
i thought maybe she got married no
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair, I have a hand up from Thomas McDonald.
I can promote him to the panelists shortly.
Mr. McDonald.
Good morning.
i think i already swore you earlier in today yes you did are you a neighbor yes i live at 1336
east passing avenue which is the unit directly next to this unit okay please proceed yeah so i
wanted to specifically speak on the trash collection and maintenance from uh my perspective as a
neighbor i've had multiple instances where like my partner and myself have had to take the trash out
because it had overflowed so significantly in the small like container in the front of the unit
and then on an instance in April there was a rat that had died out in front of the property that
was there for about a week I have pictures dated and my partner and I had to remove the rat
ourselves. So I am a little concerned about whether this property is being monitored well
and being maintained well. And I'm concerned if it's really benefiting the
um and i'm concerned if it's really benefiting the neighborhood and our street in particular
thank you miss you have any questions uh well could i have my client respond whatever you want
um mr holt um are you able to to speak to that i i understand that at the moment you're not
a short-term rental but perhaps the the longer-term tenants you have in there might have some um or i
don't know if you've sure uh one of the things i guess in regarding to the trash and the black uh
bin that he mentioned was overflowing just from the earlier uh testimony today one of the things
they brought up with the trash in that larger building um we do have access in the sidewalk
there's a built-in bilko door so we'd be happy to move that kind of trash so to keep it in our
basement which is completely separate from all the units uh that would hopefully alleviate uh you
know uh mr mcdonald's our neighbor's um issue with the trash piling up you know out front right
right there where where he mentioned um so we would be able to uh bring that down through the
bilko door to store the trash uh there and keep it off the street and hopefully you know keep any
issues with the rodent that you know happened as well would you be opposed to commercial trash
pickup uh no we're fine with that as a proviso as well as a temporary variance other questions
or comments from the audience no further answer mr jay planning commission
sorry jonathan goings planning commission staff
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single family attached zoning at this
location there is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent
it from being used in conformance with the zoning code therefore city planning commission recommends
the board deny the most proposed use variance for visitor accommodations mi 2024 007 318 1334 east
Patashank Avenue. I vote no.
Michael Johns, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaston,
my vote is no.
My vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you, counsel.
Thanks, Gordon.
Number six, MI 2024-004-752-1923
East Allegheny Avenue.
Mark Feynman is the attorney.
They will be coming back in as a panelist shortly.
Good morning.
Good morning, counsel.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, good morning.
My name is Mark Feynman, M-A-R-K, F as in Frank, E-I-N-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
i do yes but you identify a client relationship to the property
yes um so my client is dema d-e-m-a realty comma inc it is a corporation owned owning the property
The president of that entity is Haytham, H-A-Y-T-H-A-M, Ayad, A-Y-Y-A-D, and Mr. Ayad is present with me, and if you'd like, I'll have him appear.
Sure, why don't you start first, and then we'll bring him on afterwards.
Very well, thank you very much.
the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy? I do, yes. Would you please start
your presentation, sir? Yes. The application is for the proposed- Sorry, excuse me, Mr. Feynman,
just an initial question. We don't have a letter from the RCO. We did receive from you a copy of
the letter that was mailed, but we didn't receive proof of mailing. Do you have either proof of
mailing or a letter from the rco with you today i do not i've never received that it was my
understanding that that was sent directly in um okay in the earlier listings um but i have never
received that okay do you have um do you have proof of mailing for the notices that were sent
out the certificates of mailing or other proof that they were mailed
i i do not have that again i thought that um when when i was involved that was
When I was involved, that had already been sent out, and there had already been the meetings for my retention.
had already been sent out and there had already been the meetings
Mr. Trey, I think we can hear this, but I think we'll need to just hold for either the RCO letter or proof of mailing.
Thank you.
All right, please start.
Thank you very much.
Greatly appreciate the courtesies.
So this is an application for the proposed use of offices, both business and or professional, on the first floor with a single-family household living on the second floor in an existing structure with no changes to the structure.
The reason for the refusal is reflected as the proposed use is prohibited in the RM1 residential zone district.
If I may, bear with me one moment, I'd like to share my screen.
You open your documents and you hit the button at the bottom that says share screen?
Bear with me for a second here.
My documents are open and I'm trying to find where my shared screen is.
So, so Mr. Feynman, I still have two other cases. So why don't I move on? I'll move on. You figure it out, then I'll come back in about, I'm hoping 15, 20 minutes. Okay.
Okay, I'm trying to, yeah.
No, that's okay.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.