district council that was responsible for this property. But I do have a letter
of non-opposition that I just received today. And I have not uploaded any of that because I know
that you wouldn't have seen it in any event. I learned that last week. So our vice chair has a
few questions. Good evening. Have you submitted your documents in exhibits 14 days in advance of
this hearing? Other than the exhibit letters, that's correct. Okay. And do you weigh the
reading of your referral and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. All right. Thank you. You can
share your screen and proceed. Thanks. Can you see my screen? Yes. Okay, great. Again, I'm here
this afternoon representing That's Fetch Dog Grooming LLC. I have with me today Devani Uzair,
who is the owner or the managing member of That's Fetch Dog Grooming LLC. She'll be able to speak
to her business operations and answer any questions that the board has. And I also have
Sal Siddiqui with me. He represents the Frankfurt-Lehigh OZ LLC, which is the owner of the
property um to answer some question any questions that the board may have regarding the building
and its operations as it relates to the proposed use um we're here today for a special exception
regarding a dog grooming business the notice of referral references animal services and as you
can see as being the app what's the use has been applied for and why the referral was issued
because the property is on CMX 2.5, and in CMX 2.5, Animal Services require a special exception.
And you can see a copy of the Notice of Referral here, dated April 22, 2026, indicating as much.
As required in the criteria for the granting of a special exception,
we need to show that the proposed use fits in within a category that requires a special exception.
And you can see right here under 146017, subsection B, animal services are uses that provide for the treatment, care, maintenance, or keeping of animals.
Dog grooming, we believe, falls within the care and maintenance of animals.
And under the table 146022, as you can see here, under the column for CMX 2.5, and I'm circling it right here, you can see that animal services, except for boarding and other services, is a special exception.
Boarding is not permitted, requires a variance, and there is no proposed boarding as part of this operation.
It's daytime only, dog grooming.
um the subject property um is you can see here on the aerial um it's located on uh east lehigh
avenue uh it's a property that is bounded to the south of us by a vacant lot that was previously
utilized as a trucking transportation terminal that property is zoned uh irmx across from us
are a number of units buildings that were developed as part of one development project it's an
icmx property uh it was mixed commercial residential there were variances granted for
that property for the residential use for that development for the residential use and some
parking uh deficiencies in that application um you'll see in the photographs that i'm going to
show you in a couple minutes that then located to the uh to the right of us as you look at the
property from East Lehigh Avenue is a gas station. There's some commercial buildings, row home
attached structures located as you look at the building to the left.
Here you can see, as I mentioned, our building is to the right. I'm going to show you here
the building. This is the Lehigh Avenue frontage of the property. The commercial space I'll show
you on floor plans is in the bottom right hand corner. It's the shaded dark glass with the
arched glass along the left-hand side. There's stairwells to the left that go to lead to the
upper units. So between our property, then it's actually a vacant lot located to the left of our
property, to the east of our property. There's a hallway that separates the unit and our unit from
the property to that side of us. There are residential units above us. As mentioned,
And when you look at the property from this view, that ICMX vacant property is behind us, behind the building, on the other side of the building.
And then the ICMX property that I mentioned that had the variances for the residential uses behind us.
I just wanted to show you another photograph.
That's the stairway leading up to the commercial space that provides a buffer.
that provides a buffer. Here's the storefront for the proposed dog grooming, and you can see here
Here is the storefront for the proposed dog grooming.
that there's a walkway that leads along the right-hand side of the building, the western side
of the building, that leads to the back where there's trash storage, and we'll be talking about
that in a little bit. And then the rest of the block, you can see vacant lot next to us,
a series of one- and two-story commercial properties extending to the east to Lehigh
Avenue. Here's some examples. There's a Pilates studio. And then across the street, there is the
mixed commercial residential development that, again, required a use variance. And you can see
that that stretches pretty far to either side of our property. There are personal services,
two personal service permits that have been issued for two of the commercial spaces,
and a number of the commercial spaces are presently vacant. So, you know, there is vacancy
on this block on the stretch of East Lehigh Avenue of commercial spaces.
This is a view to the west on East Lehigh.
You can see the gas station on the left of the photograph that, again, is abutting our property to the west.
There is additional commercial property here on Coral Street with commercial space on the ground floor,
some of which is presently vacant.
the uh again as i mentioned the property zone cmx2 and this map shows the irmx property behind us
the icmx property across the street and the cmx 2.5 properties to either side of us including
the gas station to the right uh this this property was developed uh as a matter of right by
um the current owners of the property um and that was developed for uh vacant commercial space on
ground floor and 21 residential units above across the street uh the the variants at the
icmx property is 155 residential units with commercial um the as mentioned the present
proposal is to utilize the 965 uh square foot commercial space located in that corner um in
the northeast corner of the property you can see uh for the dog grooming business you can see the
stairway to the right to the east of that that i had mentioned that leads up to the units upstairs
and there's residential units to the rear this is the proposed floor plan uh to the bottom left and
i and i put a red box here that's where lehigh avenue is but the bottom left is that curved
storefront glass that i showed in earlier pictures um you can see that there's a reception area
Two grooming stations, washer-dryer, place another low area for washing and storage, and then storage in the rear.
There's a powder room as well for use of the people that work there.
Here's interior photos of the space.
It's all basic open floor plan.
Again, there was an application for special exception that my client submitted along with the project information form.
There is proposed signage that is not included as part of this application.
However, that signage, I've reviewed it, and it looks to be as a matter of right, given that it's a flat wall sign and not digital animation in any way.
We did meet with ECNA.
They are the coordinating RCO, and as mentioned, we have a letter of full support.
support from them. And that meeting took place after the mailing of the notice to the list of
addresses that were provided from the link from the Planning Commission. To summarize my client's
operations, my client attended Temple University Fox School of Business. She intends to apply what
she learned there, her training there, to operate her business and manage her proposed business.
She attended the Yardley Dog Grooming School, where she had extensive training in grooming of dogs.
She's been grooming dogs since she completed that program the end of last winter.
The proposal is to operate Tuesday through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
She plans to start by herself, ultimately hire another groomer to work the other table, and then possibly a receptionist.
So at most, it would be three people working there.
And again, there will not be any overnight stays.
We expect that a grooming appointment generally takes about one and a half to three hours.
So if you look at that over the course of the nine to six time period, you're not talking about a lot of dogs coming in.
They plan to schedule their appointments so that there's not overlap between the dogs, between being dropped off and picked up.
They plan to schedule their appointments so that there's not a lot of there's not over.
If the dog does need to be kept there, there is an area where they can keep them in a pen if need be.
My client has researched other dog grooming businesses in the area.
And it's our belief that with the shorter hours, the shorter days of operation, with the smaller number of groomers, that we are going to have less of an impact than its use typically has, which, as you know, is a standard for the granting of a special exception.
Interestingly, the owner of the property owns another property on Passy Yonk Avenue and where
they actually have another dog grooming business as a tenant. And if you would like, if you'd like
to hear from him, he can speak to the fact that this operation does not will not have a greater
impact than that operation does or any other operation for dog grooming that either my client
or he is aware of, or I am aware of for that matter, as I have two dogs and I take them to
be groomed here in Center City. So with that, we believe that the criteria for the granting of the
variants have been met with the hours, with the days of operation, with the limited amount of
grooming that's going to be happening there. We don't believe that there's going to be any greater
congestion in the public streets or transportation systems than would normally be expected from this
use. We don't expect there to be any overcrowding of the land with this particular application as
proposed to use and would normally be anticipated. There's nothing unusual here. There's not going
to be any impairment of adequate supply of light and air to adjacent properties. We're not proposing
any additions or alterations to the existing structure of the envelope thereof. The burdening
of water, sewer, school, park, or other public facilities, again, the hours and days of operation
are limited. We only have two stations, one groomer to start, two groomers eventually.
So we don't expect that this, we don't believe that this proposed grooming operation is going
to have that burden in any greater way than other grooming operations do. And we don't believe that
it's going to injure the use of adjacent conforming properties. Again, we have a vacant lot
To the east of us, there is a hallway between our space and that property.
To the rear of us, we do have an open area to the rear where I showed you where the trash is stored.
And then you have that large, vacant, former transportation and trucking terminal property.
To the west of us, to the right of us, we have open area.
then a gas station, and then obviously Lehigh Avenue, which is a very wide street roadway
between us and the properties on the other side.
And we don't believe that we're going to endanger the public health or safety by fire or other means
any more than this use typically would.
There's not going to be any open fires.
There's no cooking here.
There's going to be a washer and dryer for washing and drying of the towels
and other things that they use for bathing the dogs and grooming the dogs,
but we don't expect that to cause any type of risk of health or safety by fire.
And bring your client on? You want to bring your client on?
Yeah, sure.
Devani, would you please raise your hand so you can be sworn in and adopt my statements?
council mr chair they will be coming back in as a panama shortly thank you
hello hi could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer yes it's devonnie
luzer d-u-v-a-n-e-e-l-o-u-i-z-a-i-r-e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth. I swear. Counsel. Devani, can you please state what your position or your
role with that Fetch Dog Grooming LLC is? Yes, I'm currently the tenant and the owner of the
business. Okay, and you executed the lease between you, between that Fetch Dog Grooming LLC
and the owner of the property, Frankfurt Lehigh OZ LLC, correct? Yes. And did you hear the
And did you hear the statements that I made to the board today regarding your operations?
statements that I made to the board today regarding your operations.
And are they true, correct, and complete to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own?
And is there anything that you believe would be helpful for the board to hear that either I did not state accurately or you feel should be qualified or that I failed to say that you would like to inform the board of?
um and then mr chairman if you wanted to hear from the owner of the property regarding the
the trash collection i think you're an officer of the court you told us exactly what
he had to report to us okay questions from the board
questions from our attorney um lynn riteau here for board council um is the use only going to be
on the ground floor correct okay questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands planning commission amy boy with the planning commission the
comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the existing cmx 2.5 commercial mixed use the appellant has demonstrated that the proposed use
will not cause detrimental impacts beyond what would reasonably be expected the planning commission
recommends that the board grant their requested special exception for animal services. MI 2026
002-770-2040-50 Eastley High Avenue. I vote yes with proviso. Use limited to ground floor.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso. Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Laila Beebe, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, David.
All right, thank you very much.
May be excused.
Thank you.
Number seven, MI 2026-002-844-1801 to 03 North 19th Street.
Eileen Quigley is the attorney.
There is unanimous support from Beach Corporation
and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young.
Yes, good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Eileen.
Glad to see you.
How are you?
Nice to see you as well.
Right.
Could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer?
Certainly.
Eileen, E-I-L-E-E-N, Quigley, Q-U-I-G-L-E-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Our client is Habitat for Humanity, Philadelphia, and they own the parcels that are before the board today.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good evening. Have you submitted your documents in the Zippus 14 days in advance of this hearing?
And do you weigh the reason that your refusal is to relate to its accuracy?
Okay, thank you. Show your screen and proceed.
Thank you.
Can everyone see that?
It's coming up right now. We do now.
Okay, great. First, hello to everybody else on the board.
So we're here tonight or today for Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia.
Philadelphia with me. I do have Ed McCauley, who is the Director of Real Estate Development for
Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia, and Dan Kaiser, who's an architect with CBP Architects. As you