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Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one, MI-2022-006-992-711 South 23rd Street.
No exhibits.
This is the first listing.
There's been a request to continue this case from SOSNA on 121-25.
Mr. Chair, I just want to note this is the fifth listing for this matter.
Thank you.
Right.
is uh michelle you the listed applicant in the audience
good evening chair this is jason and i will be your calls for this session
i do not see any hands raised for this matter so mi2022 006 992 711 south 23rd street this is
the fifth listing. I vote to dismiss. Michael Johns, my vote is to dismiss. Cheryl Gaston,
my vote is to dismiss. Tanetta Graham, my vote is to dismiss. Dishmael Shaheed, my vote is to dismiss.
Number two, MI 2023-006-896-138 West Sharpnock Street. This case is continued until 7-9-25.
Number four, MI 2024, 001-897-2614 Pine Street. This case has been continued until 7-9-25.
And that's at 3.30 p.m., Mr. Sheriff, correct?
3.30 p.m., yep.
Thank you.
and number six mi 2024 001 934 4313 lancaster street no exhibits second listing there's a
request from council member gothier to continue this case is is sonia bachkin or unique soror
soror event rentals present or fantastic futures
hello mr chair i do not see any hands raised for this matter either so thank you so mi2024
001 934 4313 lancaster avenue this case is continued to 7 9 25 at 3 30 p.m and mark must be
heard number seven mi 2024 001 938 2091 bridge street this case has been continuing until 7 9
25 to 3 30 pm number nine mi 2024 003 134 1901 to 03 chelton avenue this case has been continued
until 7 9 25 and number 10 mi 2024 004 348 2350 east albert street this case has been continued
until 7 9 25 to go back a minute and go through a couple of cases we do not have exhibits
number three mi 2024 001 895
Number three, MI 2024-001-895-1200 Algoth Street.
Gene Pierre is the listed owner.
Roger Tennant is the ARB Services.
No exhibit, second listing.
We have been allowed to speak, Mr. Chair.
Could you please state your name
Mr. Pierre
Could you please state your name
It's spelled for the court stenographer
My name is Gene Pierre
J-E-A-N
P-I-E-R-R-E
Do you swear or affirm
To tell the truth, the whole truth
And nothing but the truth
Could you turn your video on please
Hold on, let me promote
Sorry, excuse me
they'll be coming back in as a panel shortly okay thank you
please take it as a panelist
Mr. Pierre
speaking
do you swear or
refer to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth right
yes so Mr. Pierre
this is the second listing
for your case and we do not have your
exhibits
I attempt to upload them
and it did
yes it looks like the file was too big
okay so Mr. Pierre this is what we're going to do
we're going to have to continue the case
you can call the office and they'll tell you everything you need to have we're going to
continue this until july 9th at 3 30 p.m okay thank you thank you very much sir
so mi2024 001 895 1200 alcott street that case has been continued to 7 9 25 at 3 30 p.m
Number five, MI 2024-001-898-966 Wakeling Street.
Leonard D. La Cruz is the listed owner.
No exhibit, second listing.
Chair Anastina Moreno will be rejoining as a panelist.
hello hi uh could you turn your video video on please i'm having problems with the video
is that okay okay so state your name and spell for the sonographer
agustina a a u g s i n m o m o r e n o right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth is nothing but the truth yes augustina we do not have your exhibits well they were sent
on the 7th of january excuse me one second um miss moreno you are are you the attendant because
our listed owner we have is leonardo de la cruz he's here with me okay can can he speak please
because he is the one
seeking relief. Is that correct?
Hello. My name is Leonardo
de la Cruz.
Could you spell your name for the sonographer?
It's a L-E-O
N-A-R-D-O
Go ahead.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth?
Yes. Sir, we do not have
exhibits.
I want to talk to Mr. D. LaCruz because he's the one that's...
Mr. D. LaCruz, do you want to have your exhibits?
Mr. D. LaCruz, sir, sir, my English is not good, right?
And I don't want to make a mistake.
If you told me something...
So listen to me.
This is what we're going to have to do.
we're going to continue this case one more time and if you have a problem
make it a presentation we'll have an interpreter here for you okay all right mr de la cruz what
language do you need an interpreter for spanish okay we will have a spanish interpreter available
for you all right so 2024 001-898-96
I-2024-001-898-966 Wakeland Street is continued to 7, 925 at 3.30 p.m.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
so number eight mi 2024 002 278 415 south man peltry jennifer bazillo is the attorney
they'll be coming back in as a panel shortly mr chair okay
there was a letter of deferral on 10-23-24 by center city residents association
sorry and i'll explain what's going on council how are you hello say your name and spell for
the stenographer sure it's jennifer j-e-n-n-i-f-e-r bazidlo b as in boy a as in apple
Z as in zebra, Y, D as in David, L as in Larry, O as in Oscar.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
My client is 415 South Van Pelt Associates, who is the owner of the property.
And I have Adam Cohen, who is a member of that group, here with me today.
And our vice chair has just a few questions.
Evening counsel, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
I can agree to waive the reading, but I don't stipulate to the accuracy.
For sure. Tell us about that when you're a presenter.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to perceive it as case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, and I did also upload some supplemental exhibits.
I apologize. I've been really sick with COVID.
I still have COVID, so I was a little bit less organized than normal, but you had all the required documents five days in advance.
Thank you. Please proceed and you may share your screen.
Okay, one second.
Okay, let me just put this over here.
Okay, so like I said, I'm here today to talk about its offense on this property.
I'm just going to run through our exhibits real quick, and then I'll get to the heart of what's going on.
So we have our refusal here, which is we only have one refusal, and it's about the height and opacity of a fence,
which this refusal is saying it's in the front yard, and that's where the accuracy issue comes in.
But we'll talk about that later.
Here is our deed that shows South Van Pelt Associates as the owner.
uh that's a big deed and then you can see that the only taxes owed are for 2025 and they're not due
yet um and then we're going to come back to the RCO but we did meet with them twice already
um and as well as done some neighborhood outreach as well which we'll go through
um this is a zoning map of the area here we're going to come back to all of these um just an
aerial view because it's it's an interesting property um and we're talking about this fence
that's in between a couple of properties there's our zoning poster notices this is the current state
of the fence these are the front side uh and it's a corner property so this is the building itself
and these are the surrounding streets uh we'll come back to all of these and then i have some
um we're going to talk about security of this property and why we're asking for a variance in
terms of the security of the property. We'll come back to all this and our plans and our final
rendering of what we're proposing here. So let me just go back to page 30 here. So what you can see
here is, so 415 South Van Pelt is a really interesting multifamily property. It's been
this way for a really long time. It's located in Rittenhouse Square area. It's between Pine and
Lombard and 21st and 22nd on this small street. This is the front of the building here in the
lower right corner. And then this is the side of the building on the top left that faces
Lombard Street. It's a large property that consists of, let me just get back to the aerial
property. Hold on one second. It consists of six individual buildings on one parcel.
So if you can see where the circle center of this blue dot is here, there's two buildings that face Van Pelt Street, there's two buildings that are kind of in the courtyard area, and then there's two other buildings that face Lombard Street.
So if you can see where the circle center of this blue dot is here.
So it's a really interesting property.
It has a total of 32 units and about 45 residents in it.
What we're here to talk about today is this fence area that's between one of the buildings that faces Van Pelt Street and it connects to a building that faces Lombard Street.
um so what you're looking at right now is what has been there um for as long as i can determine
i found pictures back to i think 2009 based on the age of the materials and the age of this
property i think it's probably closer to you know uh you know 50 60 70 years old on this is not a
new wall here. Um, so this was the old fence that was here. It's about 10 feet tall as,
as it was, um, and consisted of these bricks at the lower level with these metal railings
on top. Um, so, and that's about 10 feet tall. Um, so what was happening with this property
over the past couple of years was there was a lot of security complaints that the building
management was getting, um, about stolen packages, stolen bikes, um, people that weren't supposed to
be in the center courtyard, in the center courtyard. Um, and the, before anything was
proposed about this fence, the, um, property management had replaced a door with a sturdier
door because it had been kicked in by people trying to, um, steal from the tenants. Um,
They replaced the key system so that it was more secure.
And basically, at some point, they realized that people were jumping the fence to get into the courtyard to steal people's bikes, to steal packages, and kind of linger in this center courtyard area of the property.
so they were using this space here between the brick and the metal railing to kind of
this brick is up to about five foot eight inches and they were using that platform to pull
themselves up and this existing metal had prongs that faced both ways so there was a space for
them to hop over and you know commit theft and then hop back over or walk out the front door
with a bike or whatever um and these were increasingly concerns for the residents they
didn't feel safe they didn't think their property was safe um and you know we could talk about
property itself but when you have people breaking into your home um it's a scary thing because you
don't know what else they might do other than steal your bike um so the um the property owners