Thank you, Chair.
11, 12.
I think that's me.
Is there anyone else in the audience whose case has not been heard?
No hands, Mr. Chair.
Okay, we are off until 2 p.m.
Thanks, everyone.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Recordings begun.
Thank you. All on you, Chair.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this afternoon's EVA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere, our Vice Chair.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ismail Shaheed, our Board Secretary.
Should be here shortly.
Okay. Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also is our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkett, and our Attorney, Rebecca Cole.
Before we begin, here's our virtual format. Be advised, these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548. Leave your email address and the
address of the property in question. And lastly, please note the question answer box is not for
testimony or comments. Any comment should be directed to Tanya Sunkett, our executive board
member. Let's start with continuances. I have number one, MI 2022-000273 as continued. Does
anyone have any questions or statements concerning that continuance? What is that address? Yes,
Thank you. 1238 to 46 Belmont Avenue. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay. That case is continued. Is there any other continuances requested?
Mr. Chair, Mr. Stephen Pollack has his hand raised. I will allow him to speak at this time.
Good afternoon, Chairman Bergman and members of the board. Stephen Pollack with regard to
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Yes, Your Honor.
Stephen with a P-H Pollock, P-O-L-L-O-C-K.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
Proceed.
Asking for a continuance of case 934 to 44 East Passionk Avenue.
We had an initial RCO meeting and need a second one, but I have a special request.
We have another hearing scheduled for the same property because we had to split the use and the sign applications up.
So I have a hearing of June 8th, 2022 at 3.30 p.m. at ZP 2021 012 683 that we'd like to just have the current case in front of you today consolidated to that date.
so that we can have the use and the signage case heard at the same time.
Tanya, is that possible?
Yes, Chair. We can do that for Mr. Pollack.
We can do it, sir.
I appreciate it. Chairman Bergman and Administrator Sunkett, thank you very, very much.
That would be our request for today, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. May I be excused?
Thank you. Take care.
And any other continuances?
Sir, I have Mr. Rich DeMarco with his hand raised.
I will allow him to speak at this time.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. DeMarco, you've already been sworn today.
What case?
525 South 42nd Street.
I'm requesting a continuance because we have met with the RCO
and have done a significant revision of the plans,
and we are seeking an amended refusal and we are in that process right now so I ask for a
continuance of this matter what number is that seven carol number seven yes
What number is that, 7, Carol?
Number 7, yes.
Okay, hold on one minute.
I'll be right with you.
number number seven 525 south 42nd street mi2022 000280 continued
thank you thank you mr demarco have a good day any other cases
sir mr leonard reuter with his hand raised i will allow him to speak at this time
Mr. Chair, this is Commissioner Shahid Amir.
Good, thank you.
Hi, hello, members of the board.
Hi, how are you?
I'm fine.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Sure, Leonard Reuter, L-E-O-N-A-R-D, last name is R-E-U-T-E-R.
I'm not asking for a continuance.
I just want to confirm that there were two appeals against L&I scheduled for this afternoon
involving 7542 Thoron Avenue, that's T-H-O-U-R-O-N Avenue, that those were filed with the wrong
board and that they've been dismissed.
They're going to bring those to the Board of L&I Review.
I didn't see them on the list today, sir.
I guess that means they were taken off then.
Maybe Ms. Sunkit can confirm.
Yes, they were removed from the list
and re-sent to the administrator of LI and I review board.
Okay, thank you so much.
That concludes my business.
May I be excused or probably?
Yes, yes.
Thank you so much.
Any other continuances?
I see no further answers, Mr. Chair.
We have an add-on.
Add on, MI 2020-003442-1617 Fawcroft Street.
The attorney was Raymond D'Arizio, and Sloan Folks was getting the RCO back.
This is a resumptive hearing.
Mr. D'Arizio.
Mrs. Derizio and folks have been provided to panelists, sir.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Raymond Derizio for 1677 Falkrod Street.
Could you spell your name for the court reporter, please?
Yes, that's D-O-R-I-Z-I-O.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And I remember this case, we resumed this because Mr. Folks was in the process of having the RCO meeting.
Yes, we needed to have that.
That was held on March 24th, I believe, Thursday, March 24th.
I haven't received any correspondence since then, but I'm sure maybe the board did or whoever else.
Mr. Folks, are you there?
Good afternoon, Chairman Bergman.
ZBA board, so long folks.
State your name, you've already been sworn.
Thank you, sir.
Yes, there was a hearing, there was a meeting on that date.
The RCO did forward a response to our office, which we forwarded to the ZBA.
It came in late to us, and we only got it early yesterday afternoon before noon.
We also submitted a written response, but that was late also.
And there was another letter from the Community Association that came in that was included.
In total, we submitted three letters to the RCO. I don't know if you received them because of their late submission, and I also know that Council Saleta is no longer with the ZBA now, so we did forward them to all of the respective parties on the email list.
Mr. Folks, excuse me, Mr. DeRizio, we also have a letter. I think you're aware of it, Mr. Chairman, from the Councilwoman.
Right, right.
So, Mr. Folks, could you at least, I don't think Mr. DeRizio has this, could you let him know where we stand on this?
Okay, well, our office, and I will forward a letter to Mr. DeRizio.
unfortunately i'm sorry that he did get a letter from the rco but the rco um is not in uh is in
opposition and if the uh cba wants me to read that letter into the record i can do so is that
is that something they would like go ahead mr folks okay give me a moment please i have to put it up
Okay, give me a moment, please. I have to pull it up.
Okay, I apologize. Here we go.
Okay, this is the letter from the RCO.
And it reads as follows, March 30th.
The Frankfort Act Zoning Committee had a Zoom meeting on Thursday, March 24th, 2022.
The applicant was seeking a variance for personal vehicle repair maintenance within an existing structure.
This property has been on our nuisance car repair shop list for a few years.
The above address was submitted to Councilman Maria Canina Sanchez's office.
That address is 1677 Polk Rashid.
And we have numerous, have had numerous complaints about the above address from block captains, the fire department, whose car repair shop is next door to them, as well as a business, our way.
The Philadelphia Planning Commission had to redirect traffic because of the nuisance car repair shops.
Cars and vehicles block the roadway and junk cars remain on the streets for months at a time.
This business has a valid and current business license to operate.
The Frankfurt Zoning Board is denying the request and it is our recommendation that this business be shut down.
Sincerely, Thomas Garland, RCO Chairman.
And Mr. Folks, the position of the councilwoman is against it too, right?
Yes, and I do want to read her.
She asked, requested that I read her letter into the record.
Also, if I have a second to pull that up, I apologize.
Here it is.
Dated April 5th, 2022, regarding 1677 Folkroy Street, Dear Chairman Bergman, I am writing this letter in reference to the zoning appeal for the application, which was heard by the Zoning Board of Adjustments, ZBA, on April 6th, 2022, at 2 p.m.
The applicant has met with the RCO and has garnered a letter of opposition.
During the RCO meeting, near neighbors expressed the following concerns regarding daily business operations.
One, the legalization of this existing business has been a bad neighbor, leaving unrepaired autos on the streets for months at a time.
Point number two, unresponsiveness by the vendor over the years to community complaints and concerns.
And point number three, the belief that the business will continue to operate in the same manner.
Over the past three years, this office has worked with several city agencies, including the 15th Police District, the Department of License and Inspection, and the Department of Neighborhood Services to address the overwhelming number of unlicensed auto repair shops that operate in the Frankfurt community.
Recently, our office, working with these agencies and the community, has gained a foothold in addressing this issue with over 100 abandoned autos removed from the streets and a tremendous number of these illegally operating businesses closed.
Through the testimony at the community meeting and discussions with near neighbors, this applicant has not exhibited a level of responsiveness to issues or concerns their business calls to the community that this office is comfortable with.
Given these concerns and the outcome of the community meetings, we are sending a letter of opposition to this various requests.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Folks.
Mr. DeVruzzi, do you have any comments?
As was mentioned, there's a shop next to my clients.
And a lot of the opposition and a lot of the concerns were to do with that shop, that they were causing a lot of problems.
We did offer many different proposals to try to address the community's concerns, which chiefly was parking.
And my client has a lot that fits seven automobiles inside.
And we are fine with having any proviso in the permit that would keep cars off of the street and for work to only be done to the shop and for cars only to be parked there.
The street is mainly commercial.
There's only a few residential properties on the block.
There's a church across the street.
but you know there were we were trying to work with the community in whatever way and address
whatever issue they had as far as how could we address the concern at least for parking we can
we didn't hear really any other ideas besides that but I think a lot of majority what was heard
were that neighbors from around the corner or from the other blocks near neighbors were really
or from the other blocks near neighbors were really pointing out that the shop next door was
pointing out that the shop next
a problem. You know, we're here, we applied for this permit a while back. I'm not sure what the
status is to the place next door, whether they applied. I believe this building was
formally granted a permit to operate several years ago. So, you know, my client is presenting
herself and we'll try to address whatever issues there are. If there's further ideas
that are that are brought to us about what we can do to address those concerns my client
certainly opened to them but as far as the congestion issue you know she's fine with any
type of um uh proviso that could be placed that would restrict those issues you know those issues
and those concerns and and that was basically what we got out of out of the meeting all right
thank you does uh the board have any additional questions no mr chairman
anyone in the virtual audience have questions or comments
i see no hands mr chair or any commission have you taken a position on this case yet
no sir we have not okay could you please certainly uh good good afternoon members of the board david
Defecto, City Planning Commission, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing