Yeah, so I am currently the president and CEO of Manu Home.
And like Andrea said, it's an initial project to work with different service provider NGOs in the city that offer services such as financial health and spiritual health and mental health training and job training and employment recruitment.
But their participants don't have sort of a housing solution.
Housing could be quite like arduous and hard to sort of go into.
So the idea is to start with this program and work alongside the women's wellness space, see how their participants do in sort of housing, and then hopefully take this program to other service-oriented programs in the city to offer them a housing solution for their participants.
And Manesh, you saw my presentation in full, and it was true and accurate?
Yes, it was true and accurate.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Questions for the board?
Well, first...
Did you see the whole plan?
Go ahead.
The first problem I have, as I always do, is the fact that you're going through a bedroom to get to the backyard.
So that's always an issue for me.
I don't see any exit wells out of the basement.
You'd have to put those in.
I've got a concern with the depth of the basement below grade, considering the elevation of the front of the first floor is probably only about three feet or so above the pavement.
So, that living area would be almost completely submerged underground. So, those are three big concerns for me.
Okay. Other questions?
Where is the trash being stored for the second floor unit?
It will be stored internally. There's a closet space here.
It says coats.
yes these are schematic plans but they'll be stored internally
all right other questions yes um the there's what is this two bedrooms one bath on each floor here
there's two bedrooms two baths both units where's the second
Okay. All right. Okay.
Other questions?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hilary Emberson?
Only to note that because the original application was for three dwelling units,
if the board approves two, we would need to add a proviso.
So what's the proviso?
The maximum two dwelling units since the refusal is for three.
since the refusal is for three. Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yeah, I do not see any answer for the matter.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5
residential single-family zoning at this location.
The majority of parcels on this block are two or three-family.
However, this is one of the smallest parcels.
The proposed three-family is out of scale with the block's density, and it is not the least minimum.
The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the requested variance with proviso max two-family.
You said three units, right? It's two, right?
It's the refusal says three. They're asking for two.
I'm over. I'm over. Okay. All right.
So MI 2025, 001, 404, 913 North 6th Street, I vote yes with proviso. Maximum two units, no basement household living.
Michael Johnson, I vote yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with provisos.
Teneda Graham, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Provisos.
Tywin, my vote is yes with Provisos.
Okay, number 11, MI 2025-001459-7202 North Marshall Street.
Andrea, just state your name for the record, please.
Andrea Solomon, A-N-D-R-E-A-S-A-L-O-M-O-N.
Represent the same owner?
Correct.
And I see that there's a letter of support from APM
and also a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young.
Could you start your presentation?
Absolutely.
A relatively similar presentation.
I'll just state everything for the record.
We do have the support of
Association Puerto Ricanos and Marta.
Manesh also went out and received a petition of support
from near neighbors.
And this refusal will also need a proviso
So for two living units, the original application was also for three, and we've since reduced it to two dwelling units.
I already spoke to you about ManuHome.
They're partnering with various nonprofits around the city to provide a housing solution for nonprofits that see a housing need as a critical gap in the services they provide.
This property will also be partnering with a women's wellness base who's headquartered not too far from the property, and they've identified at least 16 women that are in need and eligible for long-term transitional housing, affordable housing.
uh here it is a similar scenario that while um the property is zoned rsa5 the block is largely
multifamily in fact the two adjacent properties are a duplex and a triplex and i'll share
the photos of the property
it is also PHA housing it's been vacant for over six years and so the interior of the property
is quite in a bit of need of repair this property is currently configured with five bedrooms and
one and a half bathrooms so this will also be a reduction in the number of bedrooms um but
provide providing you know a respectable housing density um this configure proposed configuration
is for two units um both one bedroom sorry one one one bedroom unit and one two bedroom unit
um the trash will also be stored internally as i mentioned in the prior property
and we're happy to to take any questions what's in the basement there this property also has the
living room in the basement and just utility and storage sorry bathroom in that basement
no bathroom in the basement right no it's just uh the other one other one disk the other one
had the bathroom all right questions from the board yes i have a question about property management
One, understanding your company's new to this market.
How are you going to be managing property across all of the different partners that you have?
Yeah, so we have identified a young woman that has been working at the women's wellness space for over two and a half years.
She currently is their office manager.
She currently is their office manager.
She's been doing so well there.
She's been doing so well there.
And so she.
And so she has been identified as being the person.
Can you speak a little more into the mic?
She's identified as a person as a property manager.
Also, she's worked alongside the women at the space that some of the women who will be utilizing the housing.
So not only will she have that property manager status with them, she also has a connection with them where she can, you know, answer questions from them or take care of maintenance requests.
And so it's someone they feel close with already.
And then are the tenants going to be on traditional leases or is this more like short term or emergency housing?
Yeah. So this is not short term emergency housing. The idea is to give the women a chance to start to build generational wealth.
And so this will be we call it like short term and long term traditional one to three years of a lease.
It'll be signed as a traditional one year lease. And at the end of three years, we'll be able to decide if they can extend it or not based on where they are financially.
They also have goals to save as they're living in these homes so they can, you know, find their own afterwards.
And then are there any affordability metrics placed on the units for the tenants?
Yeah, it'll be strictly followed by the affordable housing rules of PHA with the restricted deed.
So restricted deed. Okay.
Other questions?
I have the same issues I had with the last one.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from our
virtual audience?
Do you not see any hands raised, Mr. Chair?
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the existing RSA 5
residential single-family zoning
at this location. The majority of the parcels on this block are two and three family. The
planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variance with proviso max to a family.
MI 2025 001459 1702 North Marston Street. I vote yes. Proviso. Maximum two dwelling units.
No household living in the basement. Michael John. My vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Iowa, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much.
I hope we held you here all day.
Number 12, MI-2025-001-465-5651-63 Walnut Street, TA-55610.
Devin Upta is the attorney is the attorney.
There's a letter of non-opposition from the RCO.
Good morning, Commissioner.
Position of neutrality.
And there's a letter of opposition from the generalists.
So West Philly Economic Development Council is non-opposition.
And the generalist is against this.
Morning, Commissioner.
There are.
Hold on a minute.
There's 28 signatures from neighbors.
nine from the 55 and the 5600 block on Walnut Street
and four letters of support,
two from the 5500 block on Walnut Street.
Counsel, could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, Devin Uqda, U-Q-D-A-H.
Right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Counsel, could you identify your client
and the relationship to the property?
My client is actually here with me.
Mina Perez.
And this is not a, this is a referral.
Do you agree with its accuracy of the referral?
Why don't you start your presentation, please?
May I share my screen?
Please.
let me know when you can see it
we're good we're good you're good you can see it okay um so commissioner yes this is the address
for 56 51-63 walnut street um before i get into it just to offer you some background on the
property um this is a gas station as currently states um in the past in 2022 um that we already
received the approval to remodel the gas station so basically um the gas station will be remodeled
and it'll be expanded and be larger and modernized um this specific what's in front of you now is
What's in front of you now is specifically to add hot food to that, right?
specifically to add hot food to that, right?
So we've already...
So we've already received the approval and been through the process to actually do the remodeling and building a property or rebuilding a property.
So now what's in front of you is specifically for serving hot food.
So here's a letter of refusal.
As you can see, the reason for the review is where it's a proposed use takeout restaurant requires special exception approved from the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the CMX Commercial Zoning District.
So again, although you'll see pictures of the property, we're only referencing the food aspect of it.
Here's the application of the appeal. Here's the deed to the property.
Again, the deed is owed by Sire Investment LLC. I'm here with Mina Perez, who's a member of the LLC.
You can see that the deed was recorded. So going into some pictures of the area. So
this property, again, is on Walnut Street on a commercial corridor. And one thing I wanted to
note to just drive from the idea of what a commercial corridor is, Philadelphia defines
a commercial corridor is a concentrated area of business businesses within a neighborhood that
provide jobs and offer residents local local access access to good services so as you look
at the pictures you'll notice that on walnut street there's a bunch of businesses in the area
and on a block um there's a the restaurants across the street and on the same block as it there's a
beer distributor there's all type of business because the street is on an actual commercial
corridor um in reference to the area so again it's a commercial corridor all of this area is
commercial on the block. So here's a current picture of the gas station as it stands now.
Here is the part of the gas station. It's small. It's only room for a person to actually
just work inside. So you're not, if you actually pull up to the gas station, you're not able to
actually go inside the actual area where the person is. It's just one person working. You
would like walk up to the stand. And so here's a picture of what the street currently looks like.