Did anyone happen to hit the recording button?
Good morning.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the ZBA hearings this morning.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ismail Shahid, our board secretary.
here mr thomas holliman our board member president mr chairman and james snell a board
member president mr chairman also here is our executive executive director tanya sunkett
and our board attorney sherman toppen good morning mr chairman to start let me go over
our virtual format be advised the proceedings are being recorded by toward participating
you acknowledge to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting our Executive Director,
Tanya Sunkett, at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer,
we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone and you wish to testify,
press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call.
call 267-270-5548. Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And lastly, please note the question answer box is not for comments or testimony. Any comments,
any comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunkett. So let's look at
continuances that we have this morning.
Here we go. Number eight.
MI 2021
000360
2338 North 16th Street.
Number 9, MI 2021, 004014, 2813 North Kroski Street.
And MI, number 11, MI 2021, 004059, 3301 Princeton Avenue.
Do we have any comments relative to the continuances?
no hands chair okay are there any other requested continuances
I see no hands at this time chair and we also have a withdrawal MI 2021 004043
30 West Bells Mills Road.
That case is being withdrawn.
Is there any comments relative to that?
Here we have a Jerome Adams with his hand up.
Mr. Adams, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Mr. Adams, state your name and spell it for the court reporter.
Jerome Adams
A-D-A-M-S
J-E-R-O-M-E
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
are you here for that case that's just been
withdrawn
I want to withdraw
my case without prejudice
thank you that's done
thank you thank you for calling in thank you sir any other withdrawals
okay i've seen all hands at this time chair i'm going to the add-on list
mi 2021 003289 101 west wyoming avenue i vote no
Carol Tenere, I have reviewed the exhibits and watched the video of the 12-21-2021 hearing.
My vote is no.
Thomas Holloway?
I'm sorry.
James Snell, I have reviewed the exhibits and watched the video from 2021.
My vote is no.
No, Shahid, my vote is no.
my vote is no
you're up now Tom
Thomas Holloman
my vote is no
thank you
MI 2021
005028
to 30 West Hope
Hawkins Street
my vote is
motion denied
Carol Tenere
my vote is motion denied
Thomas Holloman
my vote is motion denied
James Snell
my vote is motion denied
Ishmael Shahid
my vote is motion denied
in that case we'll need
an additional hearing
for the merits and please schedule
that sometime in the future
Mr. Chair
I'm getting a little bit of
in and out from you so if you could remain with the mic close to your mouth it fades on and off
okay thank you for that particular case that particular case will need to have a
hearing in the future on the merits
yes chair it will be scheduled thank you
case number one mi 2021 004354 1117 north hancock street rco northern liberties letter of support
with provisos councilman squill letter of support with provisos rachel pritzker
chair brandon saffron is coming back in as a panelist now
good morning morning state your name and spell for the court reporter please
yes uh my name is brandon saverin b-r-a-n-d-o-n s as in sam a v as in victor r-a-n of pritzker
law group 1521 locust street suite 605 philadelphia pa 19102 our vice chair has a few questions
i'm sorry let me let me swear you in too do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do our vice chair has a few questions hi mr sovereign do you agree to
wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy good morning madam vice chair yes i
do thank you it appears that you've submitted everything required is that correct yes it is
Okay, you may proceed.
Thank you. I'm going to share my screen to begin here.
So the property I'm here on an appeal, variance appeal for today is 1117 North Hancock Street in the Northern Liberties neighborhood.
This is a view of the front door showing the postings that we had up during the required posting period.
uh one on um the two uh street frontages of the building as shown here this is a corner property
um so i'm going to show you the refusal here um what we are here to apply for is the ability to
um make this building into a um art gallery and artist's uh studio um and um this sort of looks
like an ugly refusal, but these uses are all necessary to be applied for to effectuate that
use. So I'll quickly run through these refusals and then I will show you how we worked together
with the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association to use provisos to tailor these uses so that all
that can be conducted on this property is the intended art studio and gallery function. The
The uses applied for in the first row here are artist studio and artist and industrial so that would allow my client, Chris who I'll bring on in a moment to produce art.
The next refusal is for business and professional office that would allow him to have an office and keep files, simply put.
The next use is libraries and cultural exhibits that allows Chris to display artwork and have public gallery sessions, and the last use is retail sale of consumer goods that would allow Chris to sell some of the artwork.
Um, this, uh, there's no intent to sell anything on this property, but artwork and, um, you know, uh, further, um, as I mentioned, we worked with the RCO to sort of tailor these down.
So, um, here is a letter from the RCO, um, in support with the provisos. I'll come back to this in one moment. Here is also a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Squilla.
Here is also a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Squilla, citing the same provisos, in fact, the same exact text that was proposed by the RCO in non-opposition.
Just to sort of run through these real quickly, proviso number one is sort of just a statement of the purpose of the application.
It's for the display and sales of artwork.
So there is no attempt to tailor the, just to go back to the refusal here, the libraries and cultural exhibit use, the display.
But there is an attempt to tailor the production of artwork.
That's number two here.
So the community is requesting a proviso for the artisan industrial use to be limited to painting and drawing only and to occur only in the basement of the existing structure.
And we have no problems with those restrictions.
Two other restrictions proposed have to do with hours of operation and the maximum capacity of the space.
And we're fine with those as well.
um essentially you you could if you would so choose um you know apply all of these uh four
points as as provisos uh and we would take no issue with that we're very supportive of the
effort that was undertaken to draft these um and just to quickly give you a little more context on
the building um this is a map of the immediate area it's just below um gerard avenue on the
northern end of Northern Liberties. Across the street is the is the rear side I'll show you here
and here's the property again by the way. This is the backside of a large commercial property
that features a grocery store and a parking structure. I think a liquor store and several
other uses. The neighborhood just to back out to the map is such that it is really a mixed-use
neighborhood and that's that's reflected in both the zoning map which can be seen here
While our block is RSA 5, there is ample amount of commercial mixed use zoning surrounding the property. And this is the type of neighborhood where businesses are found even off of the major corridor.
So there's a very good fried chicken restaurant here on the corner with Wildey Street. Again, this is much like our corner. This is not a major sort of thoroughfare. It's just a corner of residential minor streets, much like ours.
So here's that restaurant I just mentioned. We are up the street from that half a block on another sort of interior corner, if you would.
Again, this is our property. So with that, why don't I bring on my client to both adopt my testimony so far and tell you a little bit about himself and what he wants to do in the building, if that's OK.
And his name is Chris Surgeon, which begins with a C.
Mr. Surchin, can you please raise your hand?
Mr. Surchin, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
My name is Chris Kirchhen.
C as in cat, U-R-C-H-I-N.
right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do sir proceed hey chris thank you for joining us this morning um so so firstly have you heard
my testimony to this point this morning yes i have um and is it true and accurate it sounds
very accurate yes and true and would you adopt it as if it was your own yes i would okay thanks
So while I have you, just very quickly, if you would, just introduce yourself to the board and, you know, just tell a little bit about why you want to conduct an art gallery and studio in this property.
Okay. Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Chris Kirchhen. I've lived here in this neighborhood for 35 years.
I teach in a preschool run co-run and teach in a preschool in the neighborhood as well
and I've been an artist as well and both my husband and I are artists and we travel to
festivals to sell our work but we would like to open a small gallery space here in the house
open a small gallery space here in the house to show and sell our work and other artists as well.
to show and sell our work and other
Thanks, Chris. Does the board have any questions for either Chris or I?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Larry Friedman with his hand up.
Mr. Friedman, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Okay. Mr. Freedman, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Larry Freedman, L-A-R-R-Y, Freedman, F-R-E-E-D-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
I just wanted to, first of all, it's nice meeting you, finally, Chairman Bergman.
And I was just here just to view the provisos, everything is as we understand.
And so I'm just here to say if there are any questions, otherwise we're all good.
Thank you very much for calling in, sir.
You're welcome.
Any other questions from the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no other hands at this time.
Planning Commission?
Good morning, Chair Bergman, Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
That's Hegarty, H-E-G-A-R-T-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Proceed.
Members of the board, good morning.
In 2014, the zoning map was amended in this area, and this was done in accord with recommendations
from the Comprehensive Plan.
This parcel was intentionally left RSA five to reflect the desire to encourage single family attached infill development.
However, given the peculiar lot shape, which exposes two sides of the structure to the street and substantial changes to the surrounding built context, the property's range of uses is somewhat constrained.
And so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant these variances.
Hold on one minute, please.
am i 2021 004354 1117 north hancock street i vote yes with the following provisos
hours of operation tuesday through sunday no earlier than 12 noon and no later than ap
artisan studio and industrial use limited to painting and drawing maximum capacity 40 people
as per amended refusal to zp-2021-004354 dated 1 19 22.
two. Harold Tenere, my vote is yes with provisos. Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with provisos.
James Snell, my vote is yes with provisos. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. MI 2021-002533, 116 West Rockland Street,
RCO Esparza, housing, letter of non-opposition.