this is a one-bedroom one
correct correct okay you mentioned the hallway but the plan didn't show it but
it is a one-bedroom and how does the and they have access to the basement yes the
first floor has access to the basement and the basement is used for just
utilities utilities and storage okay if they need it all right thank you other questions yes um you
said that the this was supposed to be a commercial what is it our office or cmx2 yeah yeah so um
you said something about how it was vacant for a long time and then you said there was some use
for an office type use for a little bit can you yes repeat that please i'm sorry yeah sure
it was vacant from 2006 to roughly 2021 where it was used for a yoga uh yoga classes
and they would make fruit drinks and stuff like that and and then they left the property
about two years ago, and Ms. Messina put it on the market for office space or retail
or commercial or business, and there was nothing, you know, no hits, nothing.
So this is basically a residential sort of area, is that?
Yeah, there's residential, and it's kind of mixed, but yeah, this property was built
as a residential property.
gotcha okay thank you you're welcome um not a question but just a comment that um if the board
does grant this um it should include a proviso clarifying that the approved use of the property
is two-family household living so since there's already a dwelling unit there um it's not single
family it's two family thank you thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands at this time chair mr lamb's not there was that his name long hello hi mr long
yes hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes dominic d-o-m-i-n-i-c
last name long l-o-n-g do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do please proceed sir i so i'm here on behalf of the second district office of council
president keyata johnson and uh he would like to testify in support of this project
i'm so long thank you very much we appreciate you taking the time to cause
of course okay um anyone else in the audience
no hands at the sim chair planning commission thank you chairman and good morning david pecto
the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no
change to the cmx2 commercial mixed use zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood
in 2017 in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan in 2007 the city issued a
use permit for a daycare center on the first floor and the city issued a permit into in 2022
for a business and professional office so commercial use is viable here the city planning
commission recommends the board denied a proposed use variance for not including ground floor
commercial use mi 2025 007 355 1931 west peshawk avenue i vote yes with proviso approved use is to
family whole soul living uh michael johns my vote is yes with proviso charles gaston my vote is yes
with proviso tennetta graham i vote yes with proviso ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
hi when my vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel thank you sorry about the uh
technical difficulties all right we're going to go back to number one um mi 2024 001 949 2900
it's not around Devin up to is the attorney they're being promoted to panelists
I'm sure
this has a tax issue right am I correct sorry good morning Mr. Chair
all right counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes Devin Okada uh D-E-V
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
then i think we're losing you there we lost you dh
that's me try try yeah we're we we can't we can't see you but
here it goes devin please state your name and spell for the stenographer
D-E-V-I-N-U-Q-D-A-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, the client is Zahid Khan. Can you see?
And our vice chair has a few questions for you.
good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes all right thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case
devon i show there was a letter of support in 1924 from tasker moore neighbors association
wait in 1924 no they supported um 2024 right 828 15 24 right yeah okay all right yes so um
yeah that's why i said it's 24.
uh are you able to see my screen
we see your screen my screen okay um so just a high level overview of this property um
this property is um set up as a um a lot to sell cars so i have some historical zoning that i'll
go through to show that in the past it actually was set up is that it looks like at some point
this property would just rezone with the entire area but it always was either like a car dealership
or a parking lot. So we're looking to just basically have it stay as a car dealership
as most of the properties on the block are. So here is the notice of refusal. This is the application
for personal vehicle sales and rental in the zoning district.
So this property is in South Philadelphia off of Snyder as a corner lot, so this is a higher overview of what it looks like on Google Maps.
If you look around, so it's CMX2, so most of the properties on this block here are CMX2 properties.
They're all usually like car dealers or car lots on this block.
this is the original zoning notice um so what i have here is basically some historical zoning
permits that were submitted for the property um i'll go through them rather quickly but it's just
to give like a circle context so that you can understand um it was originally zoned for its
use now um in like the 1950s so this is like the zoning permit um for 1951 that was um basically
approved for it to be a parking lot and then at some point it was converted in 1955 from a parking
lot to a lot for the people to sell cars on. Now I do understand at some point that my client is
the the tenant of the property so at some point the property may have been not used at all which
think probably has caused this issue. So currently, when my client came into use of the property,
we were under, they were under the assumption that it still had its correct zoning from the 1950s,
and that's kind of how we ended up here. It's the approval, just kind of how we ended up here.
So right now, this is what the lot looks like now. So it's pretty much, it's owned by one person,
and they basically run entire lot this is a car lot on the property so this is the outside of the
lot so the grounds are pretty much the same this all the signage and stuff like that that was from
prior permits so and this is the postage from far away so pretty much we're just looking to
basically maintain how it's currently set up all the stuff was already there when it came into use
the property so the uh i guess the office location and then a lot in the gates this stuff was already
up so we're not actually looking to make any i know there was a question in some of the responses
from the uh from the zba with the pictures like any changes to like the internal you the internal
property or like any like renovation so all of this is going to maintain it's going to be the
same um the gates and everything that how it looks on the outside the inside
the gates and everything, how it looks on the outside, inside, the office space, all that's
already set up by the owner. So the stuff is going to stay the same. And then here are some
pictures of the areas around it. So if you see, if we're looking to the left of the property,
there's lots up and down. This is our lot now. There's lots up and down the street. So this is
another car lot that's on the same block. So pretty much when we met with the RCO, they were
aware that pretty much this entire strip is car lots in this area or you know some type of like
parking lot or something like that something industrial so the entire you know strip is is
is another car lot as well the entire strip is just car lots so we're looking just to have our
our obviously zoning updated so what that business actually has been since the 1950s
Here's the proof of the postage that went out.
This is a meeting from when I met with the RCO, which was Tasker Morris Neighbors.
This is a letter of support from Tasker Morris Neighbors.
I don't think we had any people in opposition.
They were pretty aware of the community and what was going on in the area.
Here's a picture of the postage.
this is a picture of me backed out so you can see where it's posted as personal like the outside
gate where people would enter onto the actual property and that's pretty much it um i am
attempting to get a tax certificate from the owner so my client is the it's a renter so that
that is an issue that is outstanding hold we'll hold the vote for all to do that okay all right
you want to bring your client on and doctor yes so yes um his name is zahid khan muhammad zide
are you in the audience there's no one in a virtual audience audience with that name perhaps
if they could raise their hand i think he was supposed to be calling in let me um one second
devon that's right off the expressway there am i right yes could i can i just go on mute to
just call him to make sure he might have dropped off but just going to call him if you can do it
right away please sure
hey um i need you to dial back in can i give you the phone number to dial in
No, you got a Dalvik this phone number. I'm going to text it to you now.
All right.
All right.
Is he calling in, Devin?
Devin?
yeah thank you thank you froze yeah um can i take my screen down to just give
hear me devon did did you get him
do we see anybody coming on
Devin on mute Devin you're muted I don't see any new attendees at this time all right Devin
you're muted can you hear me I can hear you now Devin you're an officer the court will accept your
testimony okay questions from the ward yeah the rco meeting did any other issues um come up that
the community wanted the business up uh to address uh since it's uh during this operations did any
other issues come up no um it didn't i think the they were pretty aware i think they explained it
they knew that it was always a car lot right there so nothing else came up um they thought
it was pretty straightforward from when i recall that i mean the entire like i said the entire
strip is pretty much all car lots um i think so they didn't have any any questions about how he
was operating no parking on the sidewalks or anything like that nothing nothing okay all right
thank you the current is your client currently operating yes
Is your client currently operating?
He is?
Okay, because it looks like from most photos online that this is a contractor that's moving, building materials.
So I think my question is, like, where is the work on the cars being done that does not appear to be a garage?
And what's going on with the utility hookups?
So he's not a, what do you mean a contractor?
He's a car salesman.
I understand what you said.
i said that currently the photos online that are available of this property make it look like it is
a used building supply like there's big pallets of drywall and it looks like that is what has been
being sold as building materials you may so it may be a lot next to it he doesn't he doesn't
sell building materials he sells cars okay he doesn't sell like like like for like renovations
he doesn't do that at all correct so is there any any more uh accessory buildings being added
or he's just this we're just no legalizing what's already there we're just legalizing what's already
there okay all the questions questions from our attorney hillary emberson um no questions but just
want to note that we can, um, we can set the vote date for this at June 17th at 930. Thank you.
What was it again? June 17th at 930. All right. We're coming back then. Okay. All right. Okay.
Um, all right. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands at this time, Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, Chairman. And good
Good morning David Vecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from CMX to commercial mixed use to ICM x industrial and commercial mixed use.
The city last rezoned several parcels in this neighborhood in 2002. However, the zoning and the majority of this neighborhood, including this block dates to 1933.
33. the proposed use personal vehicle sales and rental would be allowed with a special exception
in the recommended icmx zoning the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the
proposed use variance for personal vehicle sales and rental thank you um devon we're going to hold
this to june 17th at 9 30. okay all right thank you thank you very much is there anyone else in
audience whose case has not been called from the 9 30 list no hands at this time chair body at 2 p.m
all righty
how many in the audience 29
we're ready to start good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman i will be chairing this
meeting of the philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our vice chair tenetta
graham president mr chairman our board secretary charl gaston president mr chairman board member
michael johns president mr chairman ty is here now ty win she'll be here in a little bit and
And Ryan McAdams is our hearing.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
So here is our attorney and also our zoning board director, Ian Haggerty.
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here so we can account for you so let's look at our schedule
Number one, MI 2023-005-621-254 South 54th Street, Zen Jin is the attorney.
Good afternoon, counsel. Could you please state your name and spell it for the sonographer?
Yes, my name is Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N-J-I-N.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do counsel could you give us an update on this case yes uh my client unfortunately would request
a withdrawal of this matter uh primary reason is that he has had a lot of issues with family
overseas and hasn't been in the states and therefore couldn't process the paperwork that
is required by the board so rather than delaying further he feels that a refiling in a later date
when he's ready would be a better avenue thank you very much so 254 south 54 street that case