around sort of the timing of this and how it's going to impact operations for the current school
and the other tenants in the building? So because of the way that the building is configured,
it really is set up in wings. So we have the second and third floor and hopefully we'll be
able to develop the first floor in one wing, but it doesn't impact the other tenants. They actually
have a separate parking lot separate entrances um and we don't anticipate that the repairs and
the renovations that we are going to conduct on the first floor will have any impact on um on the
other tenants okay and then the two stairwells that we see here on this plan are those exclusively
currently for your school's use once you take over the first floor yes well they're exclusively for
our they're exclusively for our use and will continue to be for our use um so we've had some
space on the first floor just in our lobby area um but now it's not just the lobby area for the
first floor but also the larger space in the back that was occupied by the daycare okay and then
i'm assuming because you're already going to have to enter on the first floor that this isn't going
to change like access or the way that the students enter the building that's correct so there is um
there is a door where that provides access from the area that we currently use as the lobby into
the daycare space we're going to place an access control panel there so that students do not have
to change the way in which they currently enter the building okay other questions questions from
attorney um none right now thank you um questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no
hands to your planning commission good afternoon liz fuzely on behalf of the philadelphia planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rm1 residential multifamily zoning
at this location this property has a documented history and use as an institutional use going
back to 2018 this use is consistent with adjacent uses and appropriate for the site and the community
context the city planning commission recommends the board grant the special exception for an
educational facility so m m i 2026 003 877 6900 woodland avenue i vote yes um temporary special
exception that will expire 10-15-2036 do we want to put first word yes
michael johnson my vote is yes with proviso
if you want
did you need to add hold on one minute mike okay
part of the interruption chair but uh craig has also raised his hand okay
all right hold on craig
Craig has been promoted to panelists.
Hi, Craig. Please state and spell your name for the stenographer. We've already started our vote, but go ahead.
Hi, Craig. Could you unmute yourself, please?
good afternoon hi i craig all right could you please state and spell your name please
for a stenographer craig's b-r-a-i-g last name melidosian m-e-l-i-d-o-s-i-a-n
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, full truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
I'm confident that we were going to get a positive vote, but I just wanted to clarify a couple of issues.
clarify a couple of issues. This is a shared campus, an L-shaped
This is a shared campus.
configuration. The other primary tenant on the site is the Otley House, which is
a homeless shelter. The facilities are basically segregated with the Otley
House entering off of Woodland Avenue, and I believe the primary entrance for
the school is off of a small street called Irving Street with its own
parking lot and entryway. So there is good segregation there. I do want to indicate that
SLACS has been an excellent member of the community since its inception. Its facilities
are absolutely impeccable and I would urge any of you to visit. You would be stunned at the level of
maintenance that it enjoys, I think that's in part due to its very strong board participation
with people from the community.
We did put in the 10-year proviso, not because we want SLACS to leave, but it appears to
be their intention as they develop their new campus off of Whitby and Cobbs Creek Parkway
that they may be abandoning this location.
We would love for them to expand to such a point that they need to stay here in the future, but we didn't want to be in a situation where we have an attachment to the land that an owner then may decide to do something that was not beneficial to the community.
I think we all agree that Southwest Philadelphia is in need of decent, affordable housing, and this would be a site in the future for such a development if SLAC should leave.
I have the utmost confidence in the, I guess it's now CEO Purnell's ability to oversee the school.
We started working with her when she was the principal, so we just can't speak highly enough for this member of our community.
Thank you for listening.
thank you craig thank you very much so i voted
all right i voted michael voted
oh uh cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
to another Graham my vote is yes with proviso
my vote is yes with proviso Layla Beebe my vote is yes with proviso
okay thank you um okay thank you chair sorry to interrupt this is Ian Hegarty we do have an
interpreter on we do have an interpreter on the line now they've been promoted to
panelists and so we can handle that add-on case and uh case number four so we're going to go first
for the number five again we have to re-vote it thank you have a good day all right thank you
council thank you very much six four four one north 20th street
yeah but since the interpreter wasn't there we still do it
okay so spanish interpreter please hello good afternoon hi could you please state and spell
your name for the stenographer of course my name is rocio it spells r as in romeo o as in oscar
c as in charlie i as in india o as an oscar do you swear or affirm to tell uh to interpret
accurately completely and impartially from english to spanish from spanish to english
i swear okay um we're gonna go vote for number five right so yes and number five is mi2025
zero zero zero six two two
could you please state that for me yes of course i apologize uh vota por el numero cinco verdad
Así que sí, el número 5 es M-I-2-0-2-5-0-0-0-6-2-2.
All right, and it's 6441 North 20th Street.
Es el 6441 Norte Calle 20.
All right.
I vote yes per amended refusal dated September 15th, 2025.
Yo voto sí la negativa modificada con fecha del quince de septiembre del dos mil veinticinco.
Two family household living on the second and third floor of existing structure.
vivienda bifamiliar, situada en la segunda y tercera planta de una estructura existente,
is approved.
The proposed commercial uses on the first floor are denied.
¿Se niegan los usos comerciales propuestos para el primer piso?
Michael Jones, my vote is yes with proviso.
michael jones me
voto es si con proviso con una condición
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston mi voto es si con condición
tenetta graham my vote is uh yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is see
ma'am this is the interpreter you said proviso as well yes thank you
kaya win my vote is yes with proviso and just lynn reidel hubert this is a revote just noted
for the record thank you
okay is that it okay we're good now do number four am i correct we're going to do number four
interpreter so mi2026-002112 4045 west rod avenue
entonces vamos a hacer el número 4 entonces m y 2 0 2 6 0 0 2 1 1 2 4 0 4 5 oeste avenida broad
the attorney is joseph aquaro
el abogado is joseph aquaro
okay thank you interpreter this is ian hegarty executive director i just wanted to um introduce
you to mr vaquero uh and let you know that he will i believe be presenting most of this case
to the board as the attorney for the applicant that portion of the proceeding does not require
interpretation however any interaction between mr focaro and his client should be done in english
and translated by you and any questions from the board to the client should also be translated
and and lastly any disposition by the board should be translated do you have any questions
interpreters
um i'm sorry this is an interpreter just to clarify do you need me to say this or should i
ask uh answer just yes or no just answer yes or no thank you yes it is clear thank you okay thank
you very much please proceed mr vaquero good afternoon joe if i remember correctly you've
have been sworn in right yes do you identify your client yes gladly my client is jose vargas he's
sitting to my left and he's the owner of the property through his uh his corporation jose
vargas properties inc okay our vice chair has a few questions for you joe yep good afternoon
have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing uh yes i do
and do you waive the reading of your referral and stipulate to his accuracy yes i do all right
thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case thank you very much uh it's my
pleasure to uh represent jose vargas and his corporation i'll start sharing my screen
and Joe let it let us know if he if he needs anything okay relative okay very
and Joe let us know if he
well thank you do you see the front of the store we do okay and it's moving
right I have the the proper screen yes it's moving okay I just wanted to make
sure that we're all on the same page so this is basically an application for a
special exception so that Jose and his family in his grocery store, Girard
neighborhood food market, located at the southeast corner of 41st and Girard, so
that they could sell hot foods. It's already an ongoing bodega grocery store
with two aisles, already selling sandwiches, already selling cold foods,
and he'd like to have permission from the board to be able to sell hot foods.
This is a picture of the front of the store, courtesy of Google Maps,
and I'll be scrolling down with the photographs.
Here's our poster, which was put up, and I'm trying to make it scroll down a little bit faster,
if the computer will permit me.
You briefly saw the other poster.
Here's the third poster, and there's our poster.
He already has the sinks in place, a view of the food prep area.
This is a deli slicer condiment.
area. Here's a griddle. Here's a sink that we saw with the condiment area that we saw before.
Fire suppression and hood system.
Here's another view of the griddle with the hood system and the fire suppression system.
And all of this is located behind the counter area, located in the front of the store. If you
saw the front door into the store you have the cash register area immediately
to the left and this is all behind the cash register area. Going further down
to the photos and all of these photos were shared with the um rco when we had our meeting on
june 25th of 2026 which i attended along with jose um by way of background uh jose
had purchased the building on April 13th of 2021. Store hours are from Monday through Friday from
7 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. Saturdays from 8 to 8, Sundays from 8 to 6. Three people at a given time work at
the store, Jose along with his wife Julia Elena and Jose's brother, his name is Santos. We've had
We are meeting with the RCO on June 25, 2026, and even though we don't have a letter of support from them yet, at least I haven't received one, there was a positive response at the RCO meeting.
They did ask for a CBA, a community benefits agreement, which we agreed to in general, in principle.
there's just a few minor corrections um among the gist of the community benefits agreements was that
the uh the store needed to remove any of the uh games those those video games which they already
have been removed um city council and i believe even on a statewide level they're no longer no no
no um no store no concern is allowed to even have them anywhere statewide and they've already been
removed uh consistent with the cba and consistent with the uh with the law they also asked for um
additional healthy food options more fruits and vegetables which i'm showing you some photographs
and some fruits and vegetables that the store always has onions potatoes i have a few additional
photographs of again here go fresh fruits fresh vegetables which are available as well as frozen
fruits and vegetables in their freezers um that was the uh that's the food prep and serving license
that was the uh that's the food prep and serving license which the city already had granted to
which the city already...
them uh and it's still still active um i have some additional photos which i'd like to show the board
of the store
store. It's a two-isle store. Here's the aisle to the right when you come into the store.
this is the checkout area and all that kitchen equipment
is behind all this display and behind the deli counter
this is that same aisle looking towards the front of the store that's jose
this is the aisle to the left that's that deli counter
and another view of that same aisle and this is that deli counter area and behind that is where
the kitchen equipment was in addition to the healthy fruit healthy fruits healthy vegetables
and other healthier fruit fruit drinks we also agreed that we would apply for that the store
would apply for some sort of a cover to cover and hide away the trash bin that's on the side.
If you saw that first photograph, there was a trash bin that's on the sidewalk. It's a commercial
trash bin. So if the board were to grant us this special exception, my client would immediately
put in an application to have some sort of a structure to cover that trash bin
on the side and the third item or I'm sorry the fourth item that the RCO had
asked for was to keep the store looking nice beautify it paint it as may be
necessary we still have not gotten the community benefits agreement back to us
from the RCO, but we anticipate that the RCO will sign that. And with that, we would like to
proceed operating. With respect to the requirements that the code provides for a special exception,
this application to sell hot, to prepare and sell hot foods, it would not add to any congestion
in the public streets or the transportation systems it would not add to any overcrowding
on the land in question I'm sorry it's nothing Jeff but okay I thought I heard somebody ask
it would not be impairing any adequate supply of lighting or air to any adjacent properties
it would not be burdening any water sewer school parks or other public facilities it would not be
impairing or permanently injuring the use of adjacent conforming properties it doesn't
endanger the public health or safety by fire or any other means and it's not inconsistent with
the comprehensive plan for the city um this application to sell hot foods it would add
to the uh food choices that the neighborhood has um this is considered a food desert and every time
um when we've had our meeting with the rco there was positive response they couldn't wait for him
to be able to sell hot foods when i put up the posters at the property neighbors were asking
what's going on what are the posters for and they showed some excitement and they couldn't wait for
for jose to start preparing and selling hot foods so what was using the joe is he using the basement
to um let's ask that question of jose
do you want me to ask that question in spanish or do you want the
okay all right interpreter could you ask the uh jose if he's going to use the basement also
José, ¿va usted a usar también el sótano?
Yo lo uso para soda solamente.
Interprete aquí, un momento, por favor.
Señor, este es el intérprete.