The packet that was introduced back in October has two things that are outdated, but those have been produced and actually were sent over.
That includes the current tax certification of clearance since that had expired.
And then there were four photographs, which would be the photographs showing the recent posting for this hearing.
And those were posted on March the 14th.
And that's the overview of it.
And as I've indicated, the idea behind it was the exterior parking space was the parking grounds that already existed there, just that we were now getting rid of the interior garage and converting that into living quarters.
We had meetings with the community RCO, and they were supportive.
And I believe that that letter was already submitted directly to the board previously.
And that was from a meeting that had taken place of May of 2022.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Sorry, Bill, trying to hit the button here.
No, no, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
no mr chair thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. I just have a quick question for Mr. Feynman. Mr. Feynman, can you confirm that the additional dwelling unit in the basement was presented to the RCO at their meeting?
mr chair this is hillary i just have a quick question for mr fineman um
I can confirm that. That was discussed at length with them. And as I indicated, they were supportive of that.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i've seen no hands at this time chair planning commission morning chair bergman david vecto with
the city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change the residential single
family zoning at this location for proposed conditions rear yard parking and parking stall
depth exist on the whole block the application would match the character of the block the city
Planning Commission recommends the board grant the variances. Thank you. Do we have a proviso
for this? Mr. Chair, we need to hold for the amended refusal. I have the letter as of today
from Mr. Feingham, so we will go ahead and issue our authorization letter and get that done within
the next few weeks. Okay, Mr. Feingham, thank you very much. We will back you in a couple weeks,
okay? Thank you very much. Thank you for coming in today. We appreciate it. You're welcome.
Have a nice day.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, with that case, the record is closed except for receipt of the amended refusal.
Thank you very much, Hillary.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the audience?
Chair, I see no hands at this time.
See everybody at 2 o'clock.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Good afternoon.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this afternoon's EBA hearings.
With me is our vice chair, David.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, James Snellman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, James Snell.
He should be on any minute, by the way.
Also here is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sung.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised, the proceedings are being recorded.
A video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sumkin.
Let's look at our continuances for this afternoon.
Number eight, MI 2022, 005-549-5900 Winsome Street. That case is continued. Mark must be tried.
And number 14 on our list, MI 2022-006-833, 1713 North 42nd Street, that case is continued.
Is there any comments relative to the two cases that have been continued?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
I see no hands at this time, Cher.
We're going to go to our add-on list.
Here it is here.
Number one, MI 2022-001-770-5021 Aspen Street.
I vote no.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is no.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2022 001 768 1625 North 18th Street.
I vote no.
Mr. Holliman will not vote on this matter.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Number three, MI 2022-165 West Seymour.
MI 2022, 165 West Seymour Street.
This is a re-vote.
I vote yes with maximum one dwelling unit and two personal services only in the two first floor commercial spaces.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with provisos.
James Snell
my vote is yes with proviso
Ishmael Shahid
my vote is yes with proviso
number four
MI 2022
002 962
4213 Germantown Avenue
I vote no
Thomas Tollman
my vote is no
James Snell my vote is no
Ishmael Shahid
my vote is no
Ishmael Shahid
Number five, MI 2022-003-932-2352 North 29th Street, I vote yes for reconsideration and rehearing.
Thomas Hull, my vote is yes to reconsideration and reconsideration.
James Snell, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Number six, MI 2022-003-166-4847-49 Haverford Avenue, I vote no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
We're going to move to our regular list.
Number one, MI-2022-007-219-714 South 16th Street.
Sean Quarry is the owner applicant.
There's a letter of opposition from the South Street Neighbors Association.
This use is for visitor accommodation in an existing structure.
Mr. Quarry, can you raise your hand, please?
He's coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Good accident, sir.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Sean Corey, S-E-A-N-C-O-A-R-Y.
Swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, sir.
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits into our offices that are required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you.
Please proceed to share your screen.
share my screen yes yeah so you want to put your documents up oh okay
and there's a green button on the bottom says share screen gotcha okay
okay take your time yeah sorry uh
you see the green button on this there you go you're good right so the the reason i'm here
today is for the visitor accommodation permit basically the short-term uh rental for properties
such as airbnb and vrbo uh as we know the city council passed uh the legislation back in 2021
that, you know, the need to rezone the area for the residents for this type.
I would like to point out, you know, that, you know, in Inquirer, when Squilla was mentioning
and talking about this rezoning, you know, the focus was, you know, we're not anti-rentals.
You know, we want more rentals.
You know, we want everyone to be in compliance.
And that's what I'm here today is to be in compliance with the rules that are in place and really just do it the right way and do it in the letter of the law and not run an illegal Airbnb.
I am here to follow the rules because we know we do have big events coming up with the World Cup coming up and the 250th anniversary.
the world cup coming up and the 250th anniversary, you know, the rentals are necessary. Uh, I've been
Rentals are necessary.
running this, uh, Airbnb for, you know, a few years, uh, and we've never had, uh, a problem,
uh, in the last three years. If we look at the incidents for, uh, this property, there were,
uh, no noise complaints. There was no, uh, complaints from neighbors. Uh, the addresses
is here really for an auto accident that, you know, was nearby. So, you know, we did not have
issues with our property running this as an Airbnb and VRBO. And a lot of that comes down to
how we run, how I run my business. I do not allow parties. You know, we have explicitly state that
there's no bachelor parties, no bachelorette parties, no birthday parties, no baby showers,
all of that to ensure that we are good neighbors with our next door neighbors.
We strive to have a good relationship with them.
We require that the guests provide us their driver's license.
So we have an ID of those people that are booking the property.
We make them sign a legal contract outlining quiet hours and number of guests in the properties.
We have security cameras and noise monitors to ensure that parties are not occurring at the property.
If you look at the RCO letter that was noted, one of the...
Why don't you put the RCO letter on?
Oh, okay. I'm sorry.
All right. So I need to new share. Sorry.
There it is. Yeah. So it occurred over two meetings and it was a healthy discussion talking about the benefits that short term rentals do provide in the city.
um you know they noticed that you know uh there's i there's no deck or no balcony uh in this uh
unit so you know we're not worried about you know loud music or people outside and even one of the
board members noticed that you know our street is extremely clean and that's because you know i have
my cleaners go out there and make sure that you know after trash day that you know the trash is
picked up. You know, as far as the support here, you know, two of the Sansa board members were
in support of it. Three did, were in opposition. And one is a near neighbor. And I want to point
that out specifically, as the one neighbor that was on the panel did not, is actually just three
doors down from me. And for years, did not even know that this was an Airbnb, just thought that
it was a neighbor. So to me, even though he was in opposition, because he's in opposition with
short-term rentals in general, the fact that, you know, even three doors down did not know that,
you know, it was an Airbnb being run, I think really speaks manners of how, you know, I've
been running this Airbnb. So he's, that neighbor was in opposition just because of the opposition
of short-term generals in, or in general, and not specifically for issues with this,
you know, property. Mr. Corey, why don't you, why don't you do this? Why don't you show some
photos oh yes sorry okay those are photos of the property okay
okay uh new share uh
So, it's a traditional, you know, three-story, you know, row home, you know, updated, you know, here with, you know, bathroom and, you know, bedroom.
You know how to turn it? Why don't you turn your screen? You know how to do that?
You go, you go.
Yeah, that's it. Okay.
so you know just traditional uh bedrooms uh you know that you know that we have uh you know for
traditional uh real home you know we provide you know a desk for uh you know people that are uh
you know coming in uh you know for let me rotate you know this again uh you know just a living room
for you know people you know to gather uh as i mentioned since we don't allow bachelor parties
bachelorette parties, birthday parties, baby showers. We get mostly families coming in during
the summer to, you know, visit Old City. We get people coming in for college visits because
Philadelphia has 85 colleges within, you know, in the city limits. We have graduations from
Temple, Penn, LaSalle, St. Joe's, all of those. We get the occasional wedding guests, but, you know,
we really focus on providing, you know, a family environment, you know, for our guests. And since
uh, you know, for, for our guests. Uh, and since we really focus on those families coming in to
we really focus on those families coming into
visit, uh, family visit Philadelphia, you know, visit colleges, you know, we haven't had issues
in the last three years. We don't have, you know, the, the police reports going there, uh, for it.
And, you know, we really focus on just providing, uh, you know, a, a home for people that are coming
to, um, you know, to visit. And I think we've been a great neighbor, uh, just shown by the fact
that, you know, one of the Sansa board members didn't even know that it was an Airbnb. We haven't
had neighborhood issues. And, you know, and we're proud of the service that we put together. And
we're trying to do it the right way by going through this, you know, this zoning process.
All right. So, questions from the board?
No, Chair.
No, Mr. Chair.