Not on mine.
All right.
Okay, so
are we
early for him?
well because we jumped all those cases oh right yeah okay all right i see no hands here
okay how about verna is verna in the audience
no i don't see him at this time yes i am i've been a panelist since two o'clock
Okay, there he is.
Is that Vern?
It's me.
Okay, so Vern, we're going to bring you in for number 10 here, right?
That sounds great.
If I go before orphanages, it's always a treat.
That guy gets paid by the word.
I'm not laughing.
I'm not laughing at that.
MI 2026-003-791-1311 to 13 Irving Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Vern, you've already been sworn today.
Could you just state your name and spell for the stenographer?
It's Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, and representing Mr. Heen, Stuart Heen, who is the new owner of the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive that we didn't know your refusals and stipulate to the accuracy a wave? I'm not gonna step on a roof deck issue, but we'll talk about that when I get there. Okay. We have no RCO letter as of yet.
No, you have an RCO letter from Washington square west that was uploaded today and a letter from council member squilla in both both in support. Thank you. We did get an update here, right? Okay.
i'm going to proceed okay yes no opposition opposition right this is an application for
this building has been owned by the pennsylvania historic society for quite some time that
fronts on locust this is behind it across latimer street and the property my client
is planning to put a single family home uh the there already is an existing front-loading garage
uh it is not legalized excuse me for a moment i gotta do that again no we're doing over now
Give me one second, I'm sorry for about that.
computer's running slow for some reason
uh mr anesthesia this is lynn reidel huber board council i just wanted to clarify
you indicated that your client is an individual we just had irving street llc does he own
irving street llc he's the primary yes oh good okay you just used a single you didn't say on
behalf of. Great. Thank you.
This is the front-loading garage right here. As you can see, it's already in existence.
when my client comes on by the way we're going to clarify uh irving irving may in fact be the seller
but we'll clarify that so this is property in question just in case we may have to hold this
then um we do we do not have if he is not um a principal of um excuse me irving street llc we do
not have any information that he actually is the owner of it like a deed or anything like that so
we may have to hold that okay but if there's an agreement of sale right okay
we don't we don't have that either we don't have anything all we have is the
owner is Irving Street LLC very well as you can see this is the front loading
garage and that's been in existence for many many years here's a first floor
removal plan and then there's gonna be a second and third floor it's gonna be a
single-family home as I've stated this is the first floor build out be a one-car
garage right here on this side and on this side will be the living space there's
a roof deck. The deck is in fact set back from Irving Street. It is not set back technically
from Latimer, although the rear is a green roof. But in fact, Latimer Street is a dead street.
There's nothing back there. And it's my contention that the setback on Irving Street should suffice.
of Latimer Street should not be known or recognized as a front of the property.
There's mechanicals.
Irving Street will, in fact, have a railing here, though.
And that's the Latimer Street elevation as well.
moving all of this into evidence because of the long history of the front-loading garage
because it's not not going to be the only garage on the block
and because there are only habitable properties on this side of the street for all those reasons
I respectfully request the granting of the variance. With that, Stuart Heen,
if you could please raise your virtual hand and be sworn in. Thank you.
Mr. Heen has been promoted to panelists.
there's some photos too in case anyone wants to see them uh the place is vacant
can we make them bigger sure
so that we can see them there's not much to it but sure
it's the whole house
it's there already burn the one you the person you're bringing on is he the purchaser
fern the one the person you're bringing on is he the purchaser yes stuart heen okay
I'll see you later.
i think he's been promoted okay stuart
so so council hi can everyone hear me he's there just do me a favor hold on one minute so
So he's the purchaser. So we need the owner of an agreement of sale.
Well, if he's going to be the purchaser, we either need a deed or agreement of sale because we have information of apparently the prior owner.
So we can't. Right. You can't vote yet.
All right. Let me. Stuart, could you please state and spell your name for me, please?
Sure. Can everyone hear me? We can.
Oh, great. Great. This is Stuart. S-T-U-A-R-T. Last name Heen. H-E-A-N.
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes counsel why not want to use thank you steward do you see on my screen i have this deed here
dated may 23rd 2016 it's from irving street llc is that the seller of the property yes that's
correct that's the seller and do you have an agreement of sale i do i have an agreement of
sale and a deed for a transaction on august 21st of 2026 okay if you could please forward that to
me i'll get that over to board council thank you so you are currently the owner of the property and
you're under oath you're going to testify to that is that correct yes that's correct thank you and
did you uh hear my presentation to the board today yes is it true and accurate to the best of your
knowledge yes do you adopt it as your own testimony yes thank you i have nothing further questions
from the board okay is this did you do this already or no the photos are current condition
so all of that is just the garage was that no it's all else
i'm sorry we sent i showed you photos of the entire building okay yep
okay yep all right am i missing something or was the permission to
um add these additions to the garage is that there's no additions this is an existing structure
we're legalizing an existing curb cut and an existing front-loading garage all right okay
here's the garage
and then then the issue you you've talked about it but cover the issue of the roof of the yeah
and the zoning refused roof deck our deck it does have a setback from irving street it does not have
technically it does not have a setback from latimer street although one could argue and i will that the
roof that the green roof that backs onto latimer street is in fact a setback because it can't be
occupied by an individual the latimer street is a dead street it should not be considered the front
the property okay all the questions okay
i see no hands here questions or comments moratory
um none at this time other than what i indicated that we need that a documentation from your
client so so we're going to hold it yes we're going to hold it we can hold it for a week
just one week please thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission good afternoon liz fuselay on behalf of the
philadelphia planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this
location to the current cmx4 center city commercial mixed use the property has a documented history
of off-street garage parking while there are other roof decks on this block the appellant has not
shown a hardship for comp for not complying with dimensional requirements the city planning
commission recommends the board grant the legalization for the existing off-street
parking but ask the board to deny the dimensional adjustment for the proposed roof deck so the vote
will be next wednesday at 2 p.m is that correct and that's great 21st that'd be great and again
for the record our setback does in fact uh exist uh on irving street which is the front of the
property all right oh wait let me just comment um just so you know you did not appeal this to l and i
so that's we have to go by what's presented to us right now oh i know i didn't appeal it i just
but that's why i didn't stipulate to its accuracy it is inaccurate thank you all right thank you
Ian do we have anything no chair there's still no answer do we see David yet no not at this time
Ian, do we have anything?
okay we'll move on to number
MI 2026-003-877-6901 Woodland Avenue. Tameka McCoy is the attorney.
Tameka has been promoted to panelists
good afternoon hi counsel could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
sure tamika mccoy spelled t-a-m-i-k-a last name is mccoy m-c-capital k-o-y
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the choice
truth yes counsel could you identify your client a relationship to the property
Yes. My client is Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School. Its representative and CEO is Lee
Hernell, and she's participating in this hearing. Our vice chair has a few questions, counsel.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. And this is a special referral for a special exception. So do you wait to read
know your referral and stipulate to its accuracy. Yes. Okay. Thank you. You can share your screen
and proceed with your case. Thank you. So good afternoon. I'm showing you the referral. The
referral essentially is to use additional space within a facility that is designated as an
educational institution or within an existing building actually to supplement the occupants
that are currently there.
So basically, the Southwest Leadership Academy currently occupies the second and third floor
of the structure located at 6901 Woodland, and the request is for a variance to use the
first floor as additional space to support the existing school that is there
this is the notice that had been appended to the outside gate and behind it you can see
the outside structure of the facility i'm going to go to the plans
and essentially this is the first floor of the building at 6901 the anticipated use is to have
this is the existing on the top and on the bottom is what is the proposed use
so what you will see is that the plan is to have a area designated as a cafeteria area
with a prep room. The prep room is existing, and this area will also double as a assembly space
whenever there's a need to have a large group congregate for special meetings, special testing,
and so forth. There are additional classroom space that basically echoes what's already there.
There are minor configurations that's going to be used, and those additional classroom spaces
are going to be used for ancillary services and service providers. For example, autistic support
classrooms, speech therapy classrooms, and those sort of things. Right now, the Southwest Leadership
Academy service is about 300 students. That will not change. However, within this particular
structure, it houses kindergarten through the third grade, and the first floor is anticipated
to basically support those kindergartners through third grade students with those
ancillary services. The existing setup will remain where there are key fobs that are used to access
the building the same access that the kids use will remain there is a outdoor play space
and it is depicted on the larger image but
essentially what's going to happen is the school is expanding to offer additional services and have
all of that happen in-house. Right now, the school uses a
Right now, the school uses an outside service provider for lunch and so forth, and they basically deliver prepackaged lunches, allowing for the modification will enable for everything to happen in-house and also accommodate for the students to have a lunchroom space to be able to eat in-house.
And so that's the proposal, and I would ask for Lee Pernell, the CEO for the Southwest Leadership Academy, to be admitted into the room.
There was an RCO meeting in which there was no opposition and a proviso that they had incorporated, essentially asking for a 10-year time period.
The affected neighbors were notified and had the opportunity to participate.
These are interior photos.
This is a security door.
Most of the exits are equipped with these one-side panic bars.
And as I said, the access to the actual school itself is going to remain unchanged.
This is a small play area.
The location of the first floor was previously occupied by a daycare tenant who no longer occupies the building.
And this is a wonderful opportunity for the Southwest Leadership Academy to expand its services to its existing clientele.
And I asked Lee Purnell, who I believe is in the process of being admitted.
Okay, thank you.
To be admitted.
Lee has been promoted to panelists all right thank you hi Lee
miss burnell good afternoon hi could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
sure my name is lee l-e-i-g-h cornell p-u-r-n-e-l-l do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do counsel hi miss pernell uh did you hear the
testimony that was provided to the board i don't understand the question did you hear the testimony
that i provided to the board yes i did the project um was that testimony accurate in terms of the
intentions of the southwest leadership academy with regard to 6901 woodland yes it was and if
were to testify yourself would you adopt it as your own yes i would okay with that i would ask
the board for any questions that it has sure questions from the board yeah um how long has
the school been at the site uh the school has been at the 6901 woodland site since the 2018-2019
school year um it's actually our k-3 site we have a fourth through eighth grade site at 7101 pascal
where we've been since 2006. Okay, and has there hasn't been any issues or whatever in terms of
the community? No, there have been no issues. Just curious as to why the RCO acts for a 10-year
variance if you guys have already been there. I mean, a 10-year variance. So my understanding is
that we do have a long-term plan of relocating and building a new campus, but they wanted to make
sure that um they wanted to make sure that they weren't locked in to utilizing the space
as an educational facility forever in case they wanted to be able to explore other development
opportunities okay thank you you're welcome thank you um so what what is the location of the prop
the property we're talking about what are we going to use that as first floor or tell me what it is
Yes, it's the first floor of the existing structure at 6901 Woodland.
So currently the charter school operates on the second and third floor.
And because there was availability due to a tenant moving out, they're expanding to utilize that first floor to support its services on the second.
they're expanding to utilize that first floor to support its services on the second and third floor
uh this is lynn reidel huber board council so are you using the entire building
there are other tenants within the building um i believe the southwest leadership academy may
be the largest tenant within it though okay other questions from the board i have a question just