Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Preguntas o comentarios de la audiencia virtual.
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Plenty of commission.
So Ron Bednar City Planning, first name Ron, R-O-N, last name Bednar, B-E-D-E-N-A-R.
Hola, señor. Yo soy el señor Ron, R-O-N, Bednar, D-E-D-N-A-R, de la Junta.
We're referring to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
i do please proceed ron this property is indicated for neighborhood commercial mixed
¿Usted jura decir la verdad, toda la verdad, y nada más que la verdad?
Please proceed, Ron.
use on the city plan according to the historic street view dating back to 2007 the size and
location of the awning side appears to be pre-existing for the most recent 2022 remapping
of the property and is consistent with similar signs along the corridor.
Given the documented use history of the site, we recommend that Quest Advance be ready.
Thank you.
Muy bien.
Entonces, tomando en cuenta que esto está ubicado en un vecindario de uso comercial
mixto y tomando en cuenta
vista de parte del tomando en cuenta
la vista panorámica de la parte histórica
y que va de acuerdo a lo que se está
establecido en el dos mil siete
y tomando en cuenta que los rótulos
de los lugares aledaños
son de similar tamaño
y que tiene
todas las regulaciones según
la restructuración del dos mil
veintidós
entonces nosotros consideramos que
se le debe otorgar el permiso okay so mi 2023 002854 7727 caster avenue i vote yes
thomas halliman my vote is yes
ishmael shahid my vote is yes she has her votes
thank you thank you thank you uh interpreter thank you very much for your help it's a pleasure
thank you for your service have a pleasant day
okay we're going to go to number one
MI-2023-001-071-3829 Pine Street.
Augusta O'Neill is the attorney.
Letter of non-opposition from Spruce Hill Community Association.
We're coming back in as a panelist, sir.
good afternoon members of the board good afternoon counsel could you state your name
please and spell for the court stenographer sure my name is Augusta O'Neill it's spelled
a-u-g-u-s-t-a my last name is spelled o-n-e-i-l-l do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth I do could you identify your client in a relationship to
the property my client is 3927-31 pine street llc it is the owner of the property and with me
this afternoon is one of the principals of the llc mr george kirstis and our vice chair has a
few questions sure good afternoon counsel do you agree to wait for reading of the refusal or
stipulate to attack this i do have you emailed then all the required documents and exhibits that
are needed to proceed with this case five days and i've answered this hearing i did thank you
please proceed can everyone see my screen we can excellent all right thank you again uh members of
the board this afternoon i'm representing 3927-31 pine street llc they are the owner of the property
at 3929 pine street uh in closing your exhibit packages i provided a picture of the outside of
the property just to orient the board um this is a three-story building on a block of similar
buildings um close to the university of pennsylvania going east on pine street uh you'll see
that the street kind of dead ends. This is the University of Pennsylvania's Bryan Veterinary
School. The application before you this afternoon is an application to turn the
property into visitor accommodations for five units within that existing structure.
Just for context, up on my screen is a map of the area. The property in question is right here.
this property is located on the same block as i noted as the ryan veterinary hospital
it's near the va medical center as you can see on the lower portion of my screen it's very close to
chop and the university of pennsylvania hospital the property is zoned rm1 it's surrounded by a
The property is zoned RM1. It's surrounded by a multitude of student housing. A lot of the
multitude of
stories.
homes on the block that I just showed you a picture of, they are students from the University
of Pennsylvania. My clients have had a lot of demand for short-term leases, not as much
for this particular property for the longer-term leases. Their typical short-term tenants are
usually family members who are visiting someone um either who's at the uh that chop or one of the
other neighboring hospitals the property is managed by two different management companies
those companies are core property management as well as host aid there is a management company
that is available 24 7 there's also uh noise control systems that my clients have put in place
so that if the noise decibel in one of the units
gets to be too loud, management will be alerted
and the short-term tenant receives a notification
that you need to lower their volume.
The trash is also stored in a storage room.
My client has a management company
that makes sure that the trash gets picked up
three times a week.
And I say that as far as the noise in the trash,
just to emphasize that there's very little impact
to any of the surrounding property tenants. My clients purchased this property in 2020.
As you can see from the pictures that I enclosed in my exhibit package, they did some pretty
extensive renovation work to the inside. This is what the building looked like on the inside before
or at the time that they purchased it. My clients hired an interior decorator and,
or I'm sorry, interior designer. And this is what the property currently looks like.
Here's another picture of the interior. My clients appeared before the Spruce Hill
Community Association back on March 19th of this year. Spruce Hill issued a letter of support,
which is in your exhibit package. And I'm just going to highlight some of the comments that
they made uh the spruce hill community association noted that the geographical location and general
makeup of this pine street block is a good fit for what is being proposed drawings of the interior
spaces reflected a concern for quality design and workmanship the developers have a successful
track record in our community and that factored into our decision to recommend acceptance of this
application um so again there's i would submit to the board that there's no evers impacts on the
neighborhood or any risk of endangerment to anyone. Again, this application will enable
out-of-town, short-term people looking for short-term leases. If they're visiting sick
family members at one of the local hospitals, they'll be able to have a short-term accommodation
that's more similar to a home that a hotel would be. As you can see from the pictures,
there's there's kitchens in there so these units provide some amenities that your typical hotel
wouldn't wouldn't be able to offer with me this afternoon as i said before is george kirstis
he's with the llc the that owns the property so george if you could um raise your hand and
identify yourself in the audience so that you can be called forward to adopt my testimony that would
be great thank you mike george could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Yes, George Kirtzis. That's G-E-O-R-G-E. And my last name is Kirtzis, K-Y-R-T as in Tom, S as in Sam, I-S. Thank you very much.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you so much. George, did you have an opportunity to hear my testimony this afternoon?
Yes, I did.
Was everything that I said true and accurate?
Yes, it was.
is there anything that you would like to add no thank you very much you perfectly represented uh
our point of view thank you thank you and um would you like to adopt my testimony as your own
uh yes i would thank you very much thank you questions from the board no mr chairman questions
or comments from our attorney hillary emerson um just a quick clarification um miss o'neill welcome
back thank you first of all um second it's so your is it your client's intention to keep both
the multi-family household living use and then to add the visitor accommodations use as opposed to
changing the uses changing the use of the property yeah that's correct so our application was to
to add that use and so any of the existing uses uh we would like to retain okay all right thank
Okay. All right. Thank you. So, Mr. Chair, I would just note if you're inclined to do a temporary, we can specify what you do for.
Thank you. So, Mr. Chair, I would just note if you're inclined to do it.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board. Oh, I'm sorry. Questions from the virtual audience.
I do not see any further answers, Mr. Chair.
Leonie, Commission.
Yes, Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The property is indicated for multifamily residential use on the city plan or adopted district plan recommends no change to existing zoning at this location.
There's no unique physical circumstances nor condition of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the zoning code.
City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the proposed use variance for visitor accommodation.
MI-2023-001-071-3929 Pine Street.
I vote yes.
Visitor accommodation permit expires 4-24-28, temporary variance.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
So, Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, we're provisor.
Would it be possible for me to just have a few minutes to discuss that proviso with my client before it gets adopted?
Well, it was adopted.
If you've had issues, you can ask for a request for reconsideration.
Mr. Chair, I just wanted to clarify the ending date for the temporary variance was 4-24-25.
2428, yes.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Counsel.
Thank you so much.
And glad to see you're back.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Let's see here.
So, two, three.
Number four, MI 2023-006-889-1236 West Allegheny.
Alan Noctempsen is the attorney.
I'm back in as a panel.
Okay, thank you.
Noctempsen, could you state your name just for the record?
Alan Nockmson.
Could you also identify your client in a relationship to the property?
Berg 1236 W Allegheny, LLC.
In the virtual audience is Danielio Burgos, one of its members.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to either read another refusal or stipulate to his accuracy?
how do you know then all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with
this case five days in advance of this hearing uh yes we have thank you council please proceed
and share your screen great uh this is a visitor accommodation case at 1236 west allegheny avenue
during the presentation we'll review first the notice of refusal this is a multi-family property
Not too far off the Broad Street line and near Temple Hospital. So my clients, clientele are usually either students or relatives of students who are visiting them or people who are who have family members at the hospital itself.
We did meet with the 12th Ward Democratic Committee.
We just finally got an email from them confirming their support of this zoning matter.
So we have that email that we put into the presentation materials.
You know, this is our property, which has a legal use as four units.
So just putting it out there, you know, because refusal mentions that this is visor combinations in the existing structure,
which have four units in there. Just wanted to show that we do have a building permit for that
as well. Not out of character to have Airbnb listings in this part of town. Again, close to
the hospital, both for family members of students and people who work at the hospital, but also
obviously people who have loved ones at the hospital. So it's much needed. It's close to
the hospital. It's not that far off the Broad Street line. My client is a well-known Airbnb
My client is a well-known Airbnb operator, so you'll see this listing as well as my client's profile on Airbnb.
operator, so you'll see this.
Maps of the area, photographs of the property in the surrounding area, as well as the interior photographs,
our simple floor plans, RCO meeting notice and proof of mailing of that notice, our application for appeal,
The deeds to the property showing my client owns the property.
Certificate of tax clearance showing my client owes no real estate taxes as it pertains to the property.
And then I would have Mr. Burgos virtually raise his hand be sworn in and adopt my testimony as his own at the conclusion of my presentation.
So 1236 West Allegheny Avenue, again, is an RM1 property of substantial size, 1,684 square feet of lot size in particular, and we're looking to do visitor accommodations in existing structure, which has currently four dwelling units in it.
So we met with the 12th Democratic Committee. We received a positive vote from them in support of this project. Seven members of the community voted in favor, two against. So there was overwhelming support there at a well-attended meeting.
Again, just showing that, you know, this has a current use of four dwelling units.
So having visitor accommodations is not something that would have too much of an impact on this community.
And then nearby Airbnb listings, again, you know, in addition to our property, there's one, two, three, four, five, six other properties within close proximity to ours, which are similarly Airbnb properties.
And then my client has a good reputation on Airbnb. Here they have, you know, this site or visitor accommodation website, the Tux, where they have 47 reviews and, you know, almost a five-star rating.
maps to the area again we're not that far off of broad street here and um you know we're an
r-on-one property and you can see there's public transportation here as well um you know for people
who are visiting out of town who don't have cars photographs of the property my client with building
permits completely renovated this property as you can see here from the front facade
we also properly posted the property and you can see here with today's hearing we put two posters
here one closer to the door one closer to the street and then this is west allegheny from the
left and right of the properties and then interior photographs my client cares a lot about you know