ZBA Hearing - February 28, 2024

Thank you.

okay chair we have 50 attendees you can proceed as you wish all right thank you very much

good morning my name is Ishmael Shaheed and I will be chairing this morning's

ZBA meeting with me is our board member Thomas Halliman present vice chair board member Jim

Snells. Present vice chair. And also we have Emily Persisco from the development services that will

be an alternate board member today. Present Mr. Chair. Also present we have our attorney Hillary

Emerson and executive director Tanya Sunke. Here's our virtual format. Please be advised

proceedings is being recorded and a video will be available by contacting Tanya Sunke.

uh benefits of our sonographer will ask attorneys and witnesses to id themselves before testifying

if you are participating by phone and wish to testify press star nine to raise your hand

and star six to unmute to enter an appearance statement call 267-270-5548 leave an email

and the address of the property in question.

The question and answer box is on the screen for testimony

or comments. All comments should be directed to our

executive director, Tanya Sum.

Getting on to our

list of continuance, we'll start off with our continuances.

MI-2023-005626, 2200 North 8th Street.

We're going to continue that.

Number three, MI-2023-001445, 611 Denson Street is continued.

number 10 mi-2023-005663 50 east pastoral street is going to be continued as well as

number 11MI-2023-00566148

East Pastoral Street is continued as well.

Okay.

So you have one more continuance. It's going to be

MI-2023-001

512-1307

East Moyaminson Avenue. It's being continued as well.

Moving on to

our withdrawals.

We only have one, and that's going to be number 15,

MI-2022-006-212-6428-2022.

30 North Beachwood Street. This case is being

withdrawn.

Are there any additional

companions that I've missed?

Good morning, Vice Chair. This is Javette Benton. I'll be your

co-host for today. We have Vincent DeFito with their hand up.

They have been allowed to speak and are muted.

okay good morning how are you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter please

yes it's vincent anthony defino and my last name spelled d-e-f as in frank i-n-o i'm an attorney

i'm representing rita damato uh i could give you an application number or

Do you spell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes.

All right, what is the actual address?

All right, what is the actual address?

912 South Front Street.

912 South Front Street.

Okay, that's number 18, Mr. Chair.

Okay.

Yeah, so I have a conflict today.

I will be representing Rita D'Amato, but I have a conflict.

I have to be in orphan's court in about six minutes on a Zoom conference that could last a couple hours.

so i'm requesting a continuance plus i think we need to go back to the neighborhood

and just uh hammer out some things so probably uh if i can get like a 60 day or 90 day continuance

okay uh mi dash uh this is gonna be the first this will be the first continuance so

So, number 18 MI-2023-005625, 912 South Front Street is being continued.

Thank you.

Anyone else on the virtual audience has a case that needs to be continued or withdrawn?

Vice Chair, we have Richard DeMarco with their hand up.

They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.

good morning mr demarco good morning mr chairman can you hear me okay loud and clear all right

great so i have two issues for you today the first is on 1307 moya mensing avenue i know the board

has continued that matter i do want to make a motion to dismiss the case based on the following

and just so you know my involvement in this i represented a number of neighbors before this

board in another case involving the property about five or six years ago or so. This board

ruled that this property was improperly converted to a triplex. This is now, I believe, the third

matter before you where they are trying to legalize the triplex. I and the council person,

Mark Squilla, and the Penn Sport Civic Association have been involved with this property for quite a

while. I would move to dismiss the case based on the fact this is the second listing. The applicant

has not met with the registered community organization, Penn Sports Civic. And this is

now the third time that the owners, it keeps flipping, the owners keep selling to another

person without full disclosure as to the zoning issues with the property. This is now the third

matter before you. And I believe you have some legal issues of res judicata. And look, the board

already said they would continue it i understand that i did want to make this oral motion to

dismiss um obviously when you hear the case again we'll be here uh but i do want to put this in

front of you and move for dismissal and put that on the record on behalf of the neighbors so with

that um thank you counsel for your comments you're welcome i have one other matter too

sorry mr chair just in relation um to to that case so one um i i don't believe counsel for the

applicant is here um to respond so i i don't think we can we can entertain that motion um but also

the the reason the continuance was requested this time is because the attorney um is recovering from

an extended illness um it was not prepared to move forward today um so that's probably also why um

He's not here, but Mr. DeMarco, we will note you and your clients' concerns for the record.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I understand.

And I have one other matter for you as well.

Continue, counsel.

So I have been in immediate discussions.

I was retained very recently on 1335 McKinley Street.

We got wind of an RCO opposition letter.

um uh hillary was was good enough to share it with me um earlier we were just aware of the

opposition i have been discussing potential revisions to the plan this is a special exception

case for a personal care home uh my client is khadijah green um we were discussing right up

until you uh opened up the zoom today of potential continuance we have decided to request a late uh

make a late request for a continuance on this we would like to um make some changes to the to the

proposal um i believe this is the first listing we may ask the rco to host another meeting

we may reduce the number of beds to from four to three and we would ask for a a continuance

in order to potentially redo the plan a bit and potentially have another meeting with the neighbors.

and potentially meet uh have another meeting with the neighbors i know they voted on the case but

I know they voted on the case, but

there was a support petition that we did not the applicant did not share with the rco we'd like to

take a chance at potentially getting non-opposition in the matter um so we would request a continuance

of 1335 mckinley street to take one more chance to meet with the rco and um revise the proposal

Thank you. Number seven, MI-2023-005685, 1335 McKinley Street is being continued.

I thank you.

Is there anyone else in the virtual audience that has a case that needs to be continued or withdrawn?

Vice Chair, we have Vern Anastasio. They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.

Good morning, Council.

Good morning, Mr. Vice Chair.

Please state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please.

Yes, sir. It's Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, on behalf of Mr. Jerry Lee.

You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Please continue.

Thank you. I'm here for 549 North 10th Street.

I know this case has been on the docket for quite some time, and it was marked be heard today.

The RCO had an unconventional request to physically tour the property as a community, and that could not have been accomplished until after their holiday break.

So that has been done, and to their satisfaction, but as a result, they do want us to reconvene with them one more time post-inspection so they can produce what they found to the general neighbors.

As a result, I do have to ask for one final continuance for a must-be-heard matter after my RCO follow-up to the walkthrough.

This has been the fifth listening counsel, so we will continue, but this will be the last and final continuance.

I've expressed that to the RCO, and I understand completely. Thank you.

No problem.

Hi, Mr. Chair.

This is Tanya.

Yes.

Would it be okay to do attorney moving party so he doesn't run into this problem again?

Sure.

That's not a problem.

That's great for me.

I'll be able to make sure that we've actually met with them before requesting the hearing.

Thank you.

All right.

Number six, MI-2022-002928, 549-51 North 10th Street is going to be a continued attorney moving party.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

to anyone else out in the virtual audience has a case that needs to be continued

or withdrawn vice chair we have alex goldberg with their hand up they have been unmuted and

allowed to speak good morning good morning mr chairman can you please state your name

is spelled for the court reporter alex goldberg a-l-e-x g-o-l-d-b-e-r-g uh you swear to tell the

truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do uh you address your so we had uh 4535 pulaski

avenue originally on the list for today a withdrawal was filed a few weeks ago and i didn't

hear it right off at the beginning of this hearing i just wanted to make sure that it had

been withdrawn uh you see that hillary is that on the nine o'clock um mr goldberg what was the

address again 4535 pelaski avenue okay that that is not on our list so it it must have been

withdrawn prior to posters and things going out so it's not on the schedule for today great thank you

all right mr chair um um i have one um one addition on number two mi-2023-005-626

um 2200 north 8th street um the attorneys requested that the attorney moving party for

the continuance sure would you like me to read that into the record um sure thank you

MI-2023-005626, 2200 North 8th Street.

0-0-5-6-2-6

2200 North 8th Street

continues with

attorney moving party.

Is there anyone else in the

virtual audience that has a case

that is being

continued or withdrawn?

Vice Chair, I see

no hands at this time.

Okay.

Moving right on.

going on to our add-ons okay moving on to our add-ons number one mi-2023-0056

670-1416

North 27th Street.

Allison Hartwin?

Mr. Chair, we don't need to...

Allison Hartwin has been unmuted and allowed to speak.

We don't need to call her up, Mr. Chair.

We're just voting.

Yes.

So,

I'm going to vote this in.

My vote is yes with a temporary

variance.

Three years ending

March 1st, 2027. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with

proviso. All right, moving on to our regular list. Number one, MI-2023. Sorry, Mr. Chair,

Sorry, this was an error on my part.

So the last case, there was both a variance and a special exception.

Did you wish both the variance and the special exception to be temporary?

Yes.

Okay.

I just wanted to clarify that for the record.

Thank you.

All right.

No problem.

No problem.

Moving on to the regular list, number one, MI-2023-005687, 600-602, North 64th Street.

Jeanette McCullough?

jennette mccullough has been promoted and coming back in as a panelist vice chair

thank you good morning

good morning miss mccullough

she should be coming back here now vice chair okay good morning good morning i'm her daughter

amy mccullough and i couldn't be with her this morning she's a little um she's having trouble

figuring out how to get in i think mom you've got to raise hit the hand button she knows she's here

okay yeah can you ask her to raise her hand because we need to speak with her as the

owner of the property

she did raise her virtual hand chair and i did promote her to panelists

Good morning, Ms. McCullough.