The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the current RSD3 residential single family to ICMX industrial commercial mixed use.
the proposed use is consistent with prior use and the recommended zoning the planning commission
recommends that the board grant their requested variances for wholesale sales distribution and
storage equipment and materials storage yards and buildings maximum occupied area front yard
setback and side yards mi-2026-003-774-5255 umbria street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my boogies, yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
T'netta Graham.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Aya Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
Thanks, Mr. O'Brien.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, members of the committee.
So number 11, MI 2026-003-802-100, written history.
Ronald Patterson is the attorney.
Mr. Patterson, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, good afternoon.
Ron Patterson, P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Patterson, can you identify your client and your relationship to the property?
I represent the property owner and developer, which is M-C-L-L-L-C, principal being Donald Doherty.
Right.
We have a letter of unanimous support from Whitman Council.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
And do you weigh the reading of your refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
All right, thank you.
Say your screen and proceed with your date.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, if I can just, I don't mean to interrupt.
we had a deed from jcd 100 llc that's who we had i just want to know the difference between you
just said mc oh maybe i misspoke sorry okay i just want to make sure so okay so is that correct
okay thank you okay so um this application regards uh this building at the corner of
front and ritner street uh in south philadelphia a block to the right you're at uh columbus
boulevard um here's another view of it it has two street frontages um doorway on front and a doorway
on rittner this is a view across the street it's a view of the building further down
right there side
and it's located um diagonal across from the waltz w-a-l-t-z restaurant that you may have
heard of which is also owned by don doherty so uh the building is vacant yes
so building is vacant uh historically it was uh an accountant's office on the first floor
and an apartment on the second floor uh when covet hit it became vacant uh there was a fire
um the accountant did not live there so it was two separate
we'll call it units one being residential one being commercial
A car hit the building, it damaged the structural stability of the building,
it was a dangerous condition, and Don, being a steward of the neighborhood
and looking out for everything, started maintaining it on his own,
met the owner and purchased it from her.
It had violations, the violations were fixed.
She tried to see if there was anyone that was interested in renting it
for a commercial or other than a residential,
but that was not really apparent.
There is, however, a need for rental stock here.
If you see it, it's all single-family residential dwellings.
And so that's how we decided to go.
You know, Mr. Docherty has had Docher Electric since 1994 there,
and like I said, has maintained the neighborhood.
So it always has and always has been two separate units.
It has two separate entrances.
we're in rsa 5 which would require variance to convert this to two single family units
this is a basic floor plan the first floor plan shows these two areas that are highlighted in
yellow or the interior trash trash stores areas here is the second floor plan
uh view of the interior of the building it's uh pretty much renovated to a vanilla box you know
ready to be um ready to be occupied uh we did meet with whitman council uh community group we
have a letter of support from them as well as from councilman squill so with that said if you
could promote Mr. Daugherty. Mr. Daugherty. Mr. Chair, counsel, who will be coming back
in as a panel shortly. Okay, thank you. Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me?
yes i'm here can you hear me i can't please state and spell your name for the stenographer
donald doherty d-o-u-g-h-e-r-t-y you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes counsel uh don you've heard my testimony yep and you would you agree
it's true and correct yep to the best of my knowledge yes and adopt as if it were your own
Do you want to tell the board anything more about the building that I haven't added?
No, I'm from the neighborhood.
I grew up at 214 Rittner about 12, 14 years ago when my parents passed away.
I took those two corner properties, 214 and 212 Rittner that were single family.
And when I was a kid, we grew up on the second floor and there was a card store and a fiat.
It was called the fiat shop.
That's where I grew up.
we converted that after they passed away because it was dilapidated to two apartments that and the
one across the street was about 12 years ago 212 and 214 Rittner lit it up put light poles on it
and everything like that and it really became an attractive uh corner at second and Rittner
we were doing my son and his fiance was doing the waltz bar and over the winter a truck turned the
corner and knocked a column off at that building at 100 Rittner. So we went over and shored it up
and made it safe. And in the meantime, the owner that had boarded off after the fire
had replaced the roof, replaced the windows, did some work inside. And just, I think she was in
over her head and she had asked us if we had any interest. And we really didn't have any interest.
We have a bunch of over 100 employees from that area and we're looking for apartments and stuff.
So we decided to fix it up and try to make it apartments.
So that's when we called Ron to see if we could do it.
Thank you. And the trash will be stored inside, as I denoted on the plan.
Yeah, there's two rooms inside for storage and we pick up the trash because we'll probably want to know the people that are there across the street.
there's walls in the docker the electrical warehouses right across the street too so we
have dumpsters in there that a lot of the neighbors that have trash that rather than
sit it outside because there's some people that don't have a yard there that sit it outside they'll
just put it in our dumpster and that's probably what we'll do all right thanks don okay you got
it guys questions from the board is there a basement yes and what's the use for the basement
Right now, it's just cleaned out. There is no use for it. There's nothing down there.
So let me clarify, there would be no living quarters?
Would the first floor apartment unit be able to use it for storage or the second floor?
Who has access to it? How do you access the basement?
There's a door there that would be locked. I mean, if they wanted, you know, we never really have talked to anybody. There's nobody living there.
we haven't done anything in there we haven't talked about what to do but it's not going to
be living space right now it's just like a south fully basement you know cleaned up you know
existing concrete floor and the walls were so it may or may be maybe stories for the tenants so
you're not sure yeah yeah i'm sure if the tenants wanted to use it for storage they could if that's
what they decide that they wanted to do it but you know we have no plans for it but yes if they
wanted to use it to somebody that was living there i don't see any reason why we won't let
them use it as storage where are the utilities for each and the mechanicals for each unit being
located there and on each unit there's a there will be there'll be self-contained there'll be
only each floor there'll be one on the second floor of the hvc and a water heater and one on
the first floor the panel electrically will be on the first floor and the second floor so they'll
be split self-contained inside the units okay um and is there a floor plan for what you're doing
on the first floor because that was not a residential property before this is the first
floor plan i'm showing you yes all right so then this is all the renovations you're gonna have to
do to make it correct and how many bedrooms don well i think it is two i think you're both two
smaller on the first floor okay all right okay thank you you're welcome questions so how are you
how are you accessing the second floor there's a there's an entrance i see the entrance from the
from the side where's the inch but on this plan it just shows that it's like connected to the
first floor but how do you get to the second floor there's a there's a side door
how do you get to the second floor there's a there's a side door to the second floor there's
one door on front street if i may and then one on i think they're both they're both on there's
one underneath that overhang and then there's one to the left there's none on rittner street sorry
so there's two doors there's one see that overhang it had the accountant's name above it
and then there's another door to the far left that's the far door that's the door not over
the overhang that's the entrance to the second floor you're looking at right there okay so there's
a door further back okay yes yes so two doors on that side where the tree is behind the tree is
that yes is that where it is okay gotcha gotcha all right so it's configured that way uh there
was no interest in commercial which we felt that created a hardship yet having the two units will
create no adverse impacts to the public health safety welfare of the neighborhood and it fits
it within the character and the context as well as providing uh rental stock thank you i have one
more question is there a plan to make the first floor accessible since the wheelchair ramp is
already there from the previous commercial
space?
Okay. I mean, I just
state, like, we don't have many
of these opportunities in the city
and this is an opportunity
to add one, especially given that that was a
commercial space, you can kind of
add whatever you want and
to utilize the existing ramp
would be a benefit. Let me ask
this way. If you had a tenant that needed
accessibility, would you provide
accessibility? He doesn't have an option.
It has to. That's the fair housing rights law.
Reasonable accommodation, but yeah, I just think.
Questions from our staff?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
I said our attorney.
No questions at this time.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from virtual audience?
We have no hands.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning
to the current RSA 5 residential single family at this location.
The property has a history of multiple units
and the conversion of the existing office into residential
is more aligned with the spirit of the residential zoning district.
The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant
the request of variance for two families.
MI 2026-003-802-100 Ritten Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Ian Wynn, my vote is yes.
All right, thank you.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
I'm sorry.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Here we go.
Number 12, MI2026-003885, 205 to 15 Cuthbert Street.
Sean Ward is the attorney.
there's a letter of non-opposition from councilman squilla a unanimous support from old city
you mr ward good afternoon mr chairman mr ward could you please state and spell your name for
the stenographer can that run oh there you go i was gonna say ron stop sharing your screen
My name is Sean, S-H-A-W-N.
Sean's just hanging around a little bit.
We're not sure.
I think he likes to hear.
Go ahead.