whose two o'clock case has not been called?
I do not see any answer, Mr. Chair. Is everybody okay to go right into this?
Yes. You ready?
good afternoon my name is bill barkman i will be chairing this meeting this afternoon with me is
our board member cheryl l gaston present mr chairman or board member tenetta graham present
mr chairman board member michael johns mr chairman board member tya winn president mr chairman board
member ryan mcadams present mr chairman also present is hillary emerson our attorney and our
Board Administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
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Let's look at our schedule for the 3.30 list.
Number five, MI 2025, 000796, 2061 Byberry Road.
that case has been continued
cases continued until
2-4-26
at 3-30
any other requests for continuances
good afternoon Mr. Chair
rather good evening this is Jason
and I will be a call host for this session
I do not see any further hands raised
for continuances
thank you very much
Stephen
Stephen, number one, MI 2024-006-475-917 South 9th Street.
Stephen Henschick is the owner applicant.
Stephen, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Yes, it is Stephen Henschick, S-D-E-P-H-E-N-H-E-N-C-H-E-Z-K.
Do you swear? Do you have a computer with you, sir?
Oh, we're going to do it. Okay.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
This application is for uses of visitor accommodation within an existing structure, whereas the proposed use visitor accommodation is prohibited in the CMX-2 zoning district.
There's a letter of non-opposition from Bella Vista Neighbors and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Please start your presentation.
All right.
Just to give a little background.
Could you get a little closer?
Sorry.
Just to give a little background.
Towards you.
Just to give a little background, I own a coffee shop at that location for 22 years.
I've rented for 20 years, and then I bought it three years ago.
The tenant upstairs currently, it's a two-floor, two-bedroom apartment.
She was going to leave last year.
That's why I started this process.
She hasn't.
She wants to stay for now, so that I'm still doing the process just for future.
My goal eventually is to have an Airbnb, do the visitor accommodations.
It's very, all the neighbors seem to really want me to do it.
My customers seem to want me to do it for their families.
There's nowhere to really stay in that area.
It's a very, a lot of people visit that area.
There's nowhere to really stay in that area.
everyone has to move everywhere else so i think it's a very good spot my neighbor did it down
the street you're a couple blocks above the market right above the what the north of the market i'm
right in the market right between carpenter 900 block 900 block yes okay um i'm right if you know
the the festival there's the graceful directly across the street from that so okay um yeah
that's basically it do we have the photos of his property i have
there it is i see it wow current photos of the inside of the property just she she's putting
it up here okay sorry yes so this is the living room this is the current state of things um
this is the the larger bedroom um there's a just a mother and a child in there now this is the
kitchen um there's but it's one unit it is one one unit uh it's two floors two bedrooms
um there's the bathroom there's not much i need to do construction wise uh i just i've been
collecting for years a lot of uh stuff from the italian market old businesses and whatnot so i
kind of want to make it like a a little bit of history a little bit airbnb um
uh that's pretty much the point you don't own any other airbnbs no okay no right and i i live
literally the first house right around the corner from it so you own the store downstairs yes
all right questions from the board what did you say that you said the tenant was moving
the current she was going to move out last year that's why i started the process and i was all
ready to go but her daughter didn't want her to so so what are you going to do if you get the
Airbnb, she's going to have to move, right? She's eventually planning on moving and buying a house,
but she wasn't ready to do it last year. But I, as soon as she's ready to go,
I mean, I'm ready to go. Gotcha. Thank you.
Yeah. What's going to be your property management plan? Right now, I plan on just using the coffee
shop as the base for kind of like a bed and breakfast style, just word of mouth through
that way, but use the Airbnb platform to kind of push it forward. So you're in the shop every day.
kind of push it forward um so you're in the shop every day i'm there every day what's your what's
I'm there every day.
your trash how do you handle your trash i have seven day a week pickup um that the current tenant
uses so basically in my mind i'm just going to rent it for shorter periods of time than i do now
other questions questions from our attorney oh i did have another question have you talked to
the adjacent property owners um well across the street is the parking lot um i think i'm pretty
yeah i mean all my the neighbors are all ready for me to do it they're all wondering why it's
taking so long i i had to continue this case because i was in march and i'm computer just
fine but the immediate next neighbor there is it's actually the um the store next door
is is the visitor center of ninth street so got it and there's no apartments above i can't remember
Above them? Yeah, there is.
There's two. They're both customers.
They're ready.
Giving everybody coffee
dinner. Yes.
Questions from our attorney?
Not at this time.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Planning commission?
You got a question?
anything kish okay planning commission good afternoon uh nina solomonic with the planning
commission n-i-n-a-s-o-l-o-m-o-n-i-c do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do the comprehensive plan recommends no change to zoning from the existing
cmx2 commercial mixed use there is no unique physical condition or circumstances of this
property that would prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code the city
planning commission recommends that the board deny the proposed use variants for visitor accommodations
Thank you. MI 2024-006-475-917-South 9th Street. I vote yes with proviso. Temporary variance, that will expire 7-17-28.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Iowen, my vote is yes with proviso.
You have your votes.
Thank you so much.
You've been sitting there an awful long time.
All right.
Number two, MI2025, 0006892325, North 26th Street.
Glenda Tate and Edward Fleith.
There's unanimous non-opposition from Strawberry Mansion with several provisos.
and there's a letter of non-opposition from council member young and a letter of support
from david hardy mr william kerr has been promoted to panelists he should be joining us again shortly
mr chairman can everyone hear me we hear you yep okay sorry my audio is down i think my video is
up now also hi mr kirk could you uh say your name and spell for the stenographer yes good
afternoon to William Kerr, K-E-R-R. I'm an attorney with High Swartz, 40 East Airy Street in
Norristown. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the
truth? I do. Do you waive the reading of the refusal and agree with their accuracy? I do.
The refusal is accurate. Yes. Why don't you start your presentation because I've already identified
your clients. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, you've been here quite a long time today, so I'll try to keep
quick. I'm representing All in the Family Group Associates, Inc., which is a registered community
organization in the village section of the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood. Ms. Odessa
Tate, who's the director of business development and the daughter of the property owner. She's
on the call here with me today as the representative of both the owner and the
applicant the applicant is all in the family group associates all in the family is an rco and
they've had their headquarters in the cecil b more rec center for for a number of years
that building was recently demolished um and it's being renovated it's being rebuilt so
all in the family is looking for a new headquarters
and what they're they're proposing to use the first floor of this property
And what they're proposing to use the first floor of this property on 26th Street as their headquarters.
The second floor will be configured for residential, a residential apartment.
Now, Miss Tate's mother has owned the property with partners since 1998.
The last use of the first floor was a barbershop.
That goes back to the early 2000s.
And the property has been totally vacant since around 2011 or so.
So getting the property reoccupied and rehabbed is important both to the owner and to all in the family.
All in the family intends to use...
Excuse me, Mr. Kerr, can you please share your screen?
We are not seeing it yet.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
That's okay.
Let me find the share.
Here we go.
Yeah, I wanted to do that up front.
are you seeing the screen that you should see that it's not working okay
it's coming up are you seeing that now we see it
you should be seeing a photo of the property we do
is that visible
yes we can see it now thank you okay okay good yeah this is the uh the the view of the property
from gordon street i'm going to scroll down this is the prop this is the view on 26th street it is
it is a corner property and you can see the first floor has these commercial windows
on both store frontages or on both frontages so it is configured more as commercial than
as residential and I'm going to try to scroll down here without jumping around too much
this is the elevation sort of the renovated elevation for Gordon Street that was the
first photograph that you saw and then we have the renovated elevation for 26th street is the
smaller frontage I do have some diagrams of the floor plan this is the site plan
this is the basement plan which is you know basically not part of the proposal today that
will just be storage for the occupants and then we have the first floor this is the existing first
floor and this is the proposed renovated first floor we'll have a space here in the front about
200 square feet a middle area space again these are theoretically be meeting rooms and offices
then we'll put a restroom back here and also a kitchen in the back and then another
smaller meeting slash office area and then the second floor will be the residential unit
and it has essentially what would be probably a bedroom or living area there's an existing
kitchen up there and a bathroom and then another another room again which would either be the
living room or bedroom depending or i guess yeah it does have windows so it could be a bedroom as
well um so that's the physical layout um as the chairman indicated we do have uh support from
uh the councilman the the strawberry mansion rco as far as the programs that all in the family
offers they'll be offering tutoring job readiness training fitness and health classes