to provide comprehensive medical, dental, behavioral health, and child development services.
If the Board would like, I would be happy to address each of the specific requirements of
the Code that justify granting of the requested variances and special exception. However, in the
interest of efficiency, since the Board did previously see this project substantively,
unless the board objects, I will submit that we comply with section 143037 and eight of the code
in that the request will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood,
impair development of the surrounding area, or cause any detrimental impact. All of the arguments
presented during the original hearing on this project should be expressly incorporated into
our arguments made today the modification of the proposed height is de minimis and this proposed
medical center directly fulfills nearly a decade-long planning process for this critical
mantua community with respect to the community mantua civic association issued a letter of support
for the proposal which is up on your screen at tab 16. at this time if the chair could locate
uh charles lomax to adopt my testimony
hi mr lomax please raise your hand
mr lomax please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
mr lomax could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
uh charles c-h-a-r-l-e-s lomax l-o-m-a-x right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth sir yes i do proceed counsel thank you charles uh have
Thank you. Charles, have you heard all of my testimony offered before the board today?
you heard all of my testimony offered before the board
Yes, I have.
And do you agree that the testimony offered was true and accurate, and would you adopt that testimony as if it were your own?
Yes, I will.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, if you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer that.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission?
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The property is indicated for residential on the city plan.
Given the conditions of the site and no impact directly related,
we recommend that both the variances and special exceptions be approved.
Thank you.
MI 2022-006-762-601-North-37th Street, Lot A.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, I vote yes.
James Snell, I vote yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Number 13, MI 2022-2021-
MI 2022-004-751-6243 Oguns Avenue. Matthew Laley, Michael Matione, are the attorneys. Letter of support from a concerned community group.
Mr. Matione is coming back in now as a panelist here.
Thank you.
Good afternoon again, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mattione, you've already been sworn. Just for the record, state your name.
Sure. Michael Mattione, M-A-T-T-I-O-N-I.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Certainly. It's Obie Ketchik-Paley. She is both the owner of the property and the operator.
Okay. Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
good afternoon sir have you emailed all the required documents to receive this
case five days in advance of this hearing yes with the exception of the rco letter which we
did not receive and send over until yesterday okay thank you proceed and share your screen
And again, I'm here on behalf of Obi Ketchikpeli, who is the owner of the property at 6243 Ogons Avenue.
And we did present the tax clearance, the refusal, the RCO support letter, floor plans, photographs, use history at this property, nearby commercial uses, support petitions.
We had 47 support petitions and the appeal and our proof of mailing of all the information regarding the RCO meeting.
And this property, again, is 6243 Ogontz Avenue. Our refusal is, it says multiple uses because we have a commercial use on the first floor and a single apartment on the second floor, and the commercial use, the personal services, is prohibited in the RSA 5 district.
As we stated, we did receive a support letter from a concerned community association.
We met with them on March 28th and they supported the project.
I just want to show you photographs of the site.
Well, let me go to the floor plan first.
What we're talking about here is the first floor.
Obi would like to have a hair braiding salon in the first floor as shown here.
This is a longstanding property with a commercial use on the first floor and a residential use above.
As I will show you, there are permits going back to at least 1944 with commercial use on the first floor and an apartment above.
The only way to get into the first floor is through this door here or through the door in the back.
It's separate and distinct.
There's the stairs, which you enter here to go to the apartment upstairs, and there is
a set of stairs outside to go to the apartment in the back.
So you cannot get to the apartment upstairs from the commercial use downstairs.
They're totally separate, and the basement is part of the commercial use.
So moving down, I just want to show some photographs.
These photographs. This is the exterior of the site. There's the front door that I pointed out. There's the door that's separate to the apartment upstairs. And here are some photos showing the interior of the facility.
This is the exterior of the site.
it's not operational now but the equipment and all is being stored in there
pending hopefully approval of this application and you can see in the back there's the back
door to the first floor and there's the back door to the second floor up the steps
now obi and here's the apartment upstairs i'm sorry the separate apartment upstairs
It's been in the process of being renovated, but as you can see, it's one apartment, totally separate from the unit downstairs.
Obie has been in the hair braiding business since at least 2008.
She used to own the property right down the street at 63, used to operate out of the property, I'm sorry, at 6338 Ogons Avenue, right down the street.
This is when she used to operate there.
She lost her lease in 2021.
one. These are some photos just showing the general area around. This is Ogons Avenue and
Metairie Street, just showing what's around. And this is a traditional corner property that has a
corner store in it on the first floor, like many in different parts of Philadelphia.
And then there are several commercial uses as well. 6301 North 18th Street, which is half a
block away that's a daycare center 63 40 50 and 52 Ogons Avenue right down the other end of the
block you have a supermarket and some bacon commercial stores and then on the corner there
you have a crown chicken right there on the corner of Ogons Stenton and Shelton Avenues
and then going back down the other way in the middle of the block about half a block from her
You have 6217 Ogons Avenue, which is Cassandra's Creations, another salon, and then down a little bit more down the block, you also have a deli at 6201 Ogons and another daycare center at 6149, I believe, Ogons.
Now, moving down to Exhibit 6, you see, this is the permit from 1943 or 1944, showing that the first floor was a doctor's office with a one-family dwelling above.
So, this is 80 years of use as a commercial use on the ground floor.
The next permit was in 1960 for a retail sale of stamps for stamp collectors on the first floor with a one-unit above.
In 2003, another permit for a three-year temporary permit for a deli on the first floor with one apartment above.
In 2006, you had the legalization permanently of that three-year temporary variance, making it a permanent variance.
I want to take you down and also show you Exhibit 8.
Obi went and walked the neighborhood, talked to all the neighbors.
She's been in this community for several years, since at least 2015, when she opened her braiding store down the street.
Support petition people on Godfrey Street, Gratz Street, North 18th Street, Metairie Avenue, which is the cross street, Ogontz Avenue, the 6300 block of Ogontz Avenue.
There are 47 names in total on this petition and a map.
This is her site, and you can see all around where the people in support.
um again what you have here is a truly unique situation you've got an 80-year use of the ground
floor as a commercial space every time because it's owned rsa5 you have a new commercial space
come in you need to get a new variance because of the the rsa5 zoning even if you took this out
and made it two apartments you would still need a variance and you can't have an apartment on the
first floor there's no kitchen there's no full bathroom so it just doesn't work they're totally
separate. They've been this way forever. You know, there's a hardship to the land. This is a truly
unique site with a unique setup, long history. When you look at it, this was prior a deli. We're
going to have less foot traffic than the deli. She proposes to have seven chairs, operate six
days a week, Monday to Saturday, 8.30 a.m. to 7 p.m., four employees, trash stored inside
with commercial trash pickup. And again, there's all these commercial spaces right down the street.
So we believe that, you know, this requested variance is warranted.
It's the minimum variance required.
It's in keeping with the longstanding history of the property, you know, and really, really should be granted.
you know, and really, really should be granted. What I would like to do, Mr. Chairman, is call
What I would like to do, Mr. Chairman, is call on my client.
my client, Toby. Yep.
What is your client's name?
Toby Ketchuk-Pele, K-A-T-C-H-E-K-P-E-L-E.
Ms. Ketchuk-Pele, can you raise your hand?
Ms. Kachepele, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is OBE Kachepele, O-B-E for the first name, and the last name is K-A-T-C-H-E-K-P-E-L-E.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
obie did did you hear my statements yes i do and are they true and correct yes and do you adopt them
as your testimony yes i have nothing further for ms questions from the board no chair no
questions questions or comments from the virtual audience there we have charles richardson
Sure. Mr. Richardson, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair. Mr. Richardson, just state your name. You've already been sworn. Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Bass Room, 508 City Hall. Councilwoman is unopposed to granting the variance.
Thank you very much. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
planning commission uh ron bedmar city planning well this property is currently indicated for
residential on the city plan given the documented use history we recommend the quest for grants
thank you mi2022-004-751-6243 ogons avenue i vote yes
thomas holliman
james snell my vote is yes
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you counsel thank you mr chairman let's go back to number
11 mi 2022 003 674 44 to 48 manheim street augusta o'neill is the attorney
Good afternoon. Sorry again about that delay.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Sure. My first name is Augusta. It's spelled A-U-G-U-S-T-A. My last name is spelled O-N-E-I-L-L.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
My client is Property Brothers 44 LP.
They are the owner of the property.
And with me this afternoon is Leonard Gay.
He's one of the principals of the Property Brothers 44 LP.
All right.
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
Bethany, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
you emailed into our offices all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing i did thank you please proceed
and share your screen and just for point of information we do have a letter of support
from the 12th ward democratic rco based on revised plans they also note that faith cdc
and wakefield 49ers also participated in the meeting and were in support there's a letter
of opposition from solo germantown but they do provide us with viso should we should we approve
it and proceed thank you so much chairman i also just want to point out that the 12th war democratic
rco that was picked as the coordinating rco on this application thank you thank you so much so
with that being said i'm again here this afternoon representing the owners of the property at 44 to
48 manheim street a picture of the property is up on your screens at the moment this property is
currently an empty building. The last zoning record that's available for this property
is that tab five of my exhibit package. As you can see, the last permit that's on file
shows that it was used for an office and storage. It is not currently being used for that. It's
currently just an empty blighted building in this neighborhood.
just for context here's a picture of the building in relation i'm sorry picture of the building
Here's a picture of the building in relation to the other houses on the block.
As you can see, this is kind of the eyesore of the neighborhood.
All the other houses on the block are nice and well-maintained.
And so it's our intent with this application to construct something at this location that's going to look as nice as the other properties on the block and look just as well-maintained.
This property is zoned RSA 5.
The initial application that was submitted was for a 12-unit, four-story building with parking
underneath for seven vehicles. We did meet with the affected RCOs on October 20th, as well as
the neighbors. At that time, the building that we presented looked like this in our renderings.
Again, a four-story building. And the feedback that we got from the neighborhood was that they
felt it was too tall, especially in relation to the building next door. So they wanted to see
something that was reduced in height and also had fewer units. So in response to the feedback that
was received, we are now proposing this building, which is three stories. It is 28 and a half feet
down from 38 feet that was initially proposed. It is eight units down from the 12 that my clients
initially asked for. And as you can see, we kept the parking underneath the building. We are still
proposing those seven parking spaces, which the neighbors had indicated that they wanted to see
more parking. So to meet with their concerns, we did keep the parking that was proposed.
so you're going to hear from my client lenard gay this afternoon mr gay um was the member of the
ownership entity that met most often with the affected neighbors he had multiple meetings
with the neighbors in response to the concerns that were raised um he was very responsive to
their concerns because he also happens to live nearby he's got a number of other properties
near this location, so he's very sensitive and committed to working with the neighbors,
which the RCO has noted in their letter of support.
So the refusals that were generated on this application I will bring up on my screen.
There were three refusals, one of which was for the use because we are proposing