Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
Property is currently split zone for both commercial and residential.
The city plan, close proximity to transit service and the applicant's intent to substitute bicycle spaces for required parking, we support.
therefore we recommend the request of grants be granted
uh i want to we're going to take this back to next week we're going to go over as an executive
session and have a conversation and we'll next wednesday we'll give our our results
mr chair can i respond to the one public comment from the council can i respond to that
sure sure go ahead um so our client respects and completely understands council members
efforts to encourage affordability in this area. We do note that her opposition is purely targeted
at affordability, and our variance here today is about parking. And so while we respect her
thoughts, we have received support from the Fishtown Neighbors Association, the Fishtown Bid,
and LMNO, the neighboring property owner. Thank you very much for your comments,
and we'll come with our decision next Wednesday morning. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, here, let's see here.
Number four, MI 2021, 002919, 3532 North 22nd Street.
Letter of support from Upper North Neighbors Association.
Nicole Montiero is the owner pro se.
She's coming in as a panelist.
Yes, hello.
hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please yes my name is nicole
montero m-o-n-t-e-i-r-o right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth yes i do our vice chair has a few questions for you sure hi how are you do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes carol sorry this is hillary
Yes, we need to read it. Thank you. Sorry, I forgot to put this one in caps.
I didn't even look. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of those questions.
okay this is this application is for use as a two-family dwelling unit in an existing structure
and the one use refusal is two-family household living is prohibited in the rsa5
zoning district so you can proceed and please share your screen okay i am sharing my screen
Give me one second. I'm sorry.
Do you see a green button when you hover your mouse along the bottom of the screen?
Oh, yes. Okay.
Okay. So I would like to first thank the board for allowing this case to come forward. Actually,
my husband and I went through this process in 2019 to request a variance for this property
that we purchased that had already been converted into a duplex. And the variance application,
we were approved. However, we had to get the certificate of occupancy, the CO, and we had
nine months to get it. By the time we went to LNI to submit that, we were about 30 days late.
So we had to start the whole process all over. We are just a couple. We're not developers. So we were feeling our way around how to get the correct plans for that application.
We did finally do it. And so we're back at square one. But we did go through the process again to submit the application, meet with the RCO.
to submit the application, meet with the RCO. We did get a letter of support. And we stated the
case that we purchased this property. As I said, it was already converted into a duplex. And we
purchased it so that we could have access to a downstairs apartment later on in case we wanted
my mom, my husband's mother-in-law to live there. We do not see this as a hardship to the community
and we actually see it as a positive because if we are to rent out the top part, it would be
one source of affordable living for people in the community. We're also residents of the
community, so we're not outsiders. We live in walking distance from that property, which is
partially why we purchased it to reinvest in that. So I can show you just the pictures
of what we submitted. This is the upstairs and the downstairs, outside. This is our
proof of ownership and the refusal. We stated here that we were, the project information,
the application, and this is the letter from the RCO,
indicating that we did meet with them and they indicated that they stand together in support
of this variance that we were considerate and we desired to be a community partner not just
coming from the outside to be a landlord or an outside developer and they were happy with our
plan for property management particularly they gave us instructions about trash
which is a concern in the neighborhood so about how to dispose of trash um and this is their
this is what was submitted these are the plans that we we finally got but we were
late turning it in to lni which is why we're back here but we did get them
from like real architectural plans.
And so this is how it's set up.
The upstairs is two bedrooms
and the downstairs is one bedroom and a living room,
bathroom, kitchen and access to the backyard.
And I believe that's the last.
document questions from the board no mr chairman mr chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience chair we have robert excuse me we have robert
everett hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Mr. Everett, please unmute yourself
Yeah, I'm here
I was raising a hand for the last
applicant session
you can continue on, I'm okay
Okay, thank you
Chair, we have one calling user
phone number ending in
Please unmute yourself
Could you state your name and spell for the
court reporter, please?
Yes, Adrienne Fernandez, Swampoodle Neighborhood Parcels Association, RCO.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Okay, we submitted a letter of support with two provisos requested.
If I can just read those into record because our letter was not acknowledged.
Okay, so the first provisional request is no basement living, and the second is that all trash and recycling be stored indoors except for collection days.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, Chair, this is Tanya.
We do have a different reporter. Could we have her name spelled in, please?
Sure, sure. Could you spell your name, please?
Hello?
we should have a copy of her letter somewhere
okay planning commission oh i'm sorry i can the letter was i'm looking through my
okay planning commission oh i'm sorry i can the letter
it was sent could you spell your name for the court reporter oh yes my first name is spelled
a-d-r-i-e-n-n-e my last name is spelled f-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z swampoodle s-w-a-m-p-o-o-d-l-e
neighborhood parcels plural association rco thank you thank you planning commission
yes this is uh ron bednar city planning this property is currently indicated for single
family residential on the city plan or adopted district plan proposed to convert this site for
multi-family uh dwellings use which could which would allow the proposal by right we recommend
that the requested variance be granted provided no basement living. MI 2021-002-919-3532 North
22nd Street I vote yes no basement living trash stored inside. Harold Tenere my vote is yes with
provisors. Thomas Harlem my vote is yes with provisors. James Snell my vote is yes with provisor.
Thank you.
MI 2022-000450-5100 Chester Avenue.
Darlene Treat is the attorney.
Letter of support, Southwest Philadelphia District Services.
Ms. Treat is coming back as a panelist.
Hi, Ms. Treat.
Good morning, Commissioner.
Darlene Treat on behalf of the applicants.
We're sorry we lost you the last time.
I apologize about that.
We tried to get you back, but could you spell your name for the court reporter, please?
Arlene, D-A-R-L-E-N-E, last name Freight, T-H-R-E-A-T-T, 45 East City Avenue, number 496, Ballakinwood, Pennsylvania, 19004.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
My client who should be present today is the owner of the property, Ms. Fusia Moussi.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Darlene.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the
refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this
hearing? And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Yes, to all.
Okay, great. You may proceed and share your screen. Welcome back.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Commissioners, I have submitted a package today which has about 10 exhibits and 31 pages.
I'm not going to go through each and every exhibit.
I will go through a number of them.
First, the refusal here, I'm just going to enlarge it just a bit.
We were refused because this is an RSA 5 zoning district, and we are proposing to have a grocery store with food and beverages on the first floor in an existing building, which is currently a legal triplex.
Commissioners, I want to just give you some quick history about this building.
First, I'll show you some pictures.
So this is the picture of the building. You can see it is a larger corner property. It's
about four stories. The first floor is currently vacant and the additional three stores have
three dwellings in them. Here's a picture of the street that the building is on 51st Street,
the street that the building is on 51st street looking across the street all the buildings are
looking across the street, all the building.
basically the same they are large single and multi-family dwellings
here's an additional picture of the property you can see it's currently has a commercial front a
commercial setting it's the same size of the rest of the buildings of on the property excuse me on
the block. It is a large building with a commercial arrear. That's another picture of the building
there. This is a picture of the street looking north down 51st Street. All the buildings
are pretty much similar. They all are very, very large buildings here. That's another
picture looking down Chester Avenue. And that's another picture directly across from our structure.
That's the park for the community. And that's another picture actually looking down 51st
Street towards the west, just showing you the character of the neighborhood.
and there's a picture looking west down Chester Avenue just giving you an idea of the size of the
premises on the block the size of the houses and the park on the corner down the street of course
from our structure. Commissioners we are proposing to have a grocery store here
which sells fruit, vegetables, produce, no tobacco items, no cigarette items, no cigarellos.
We will be selling coffee, vegetables, and produce. I'm going to start here by showing you
a copy of the plan. Let me reduce it a little bit so you can see it a little better.
This is actually the site plan here. It just shows the length and the site of the building.
It's a corner property. I'm going to scroll down a little bit further so I can show you
the actual layout of the property. And here is the structures and here are the floors as
they are laid out. Again, these three apartments on floor two, excuse me, two, three, and four
are legal, and what we propose to rent out here is the bottom floor. This is the commercial space
that we plan to use for a grocery store. We would like to be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to
8 p.m. We have lighting on the side of the building, lighting in the front of the building,
and lighting in the rear. We have an inside area if necessary to store trash or we can also store
trash in the basement here which is just used for utilities. Basically that is the space here.
You can see it has a little bathroom. We have a little exit out the side here as well as an exit
in the front that you can enter on the store for. From we did this is a side elevation of the
building and this is a front elevation of the building you can see is a very large structure
here besides having the commercial window in the front is a commercial window on the side
and you also have additional exits out the side of the building there.
Commissioners, we did have the opportunity to meet with the Southwest Philadelphia District
Services. We did send out the zoning notice and the meeting was attended. We did also
submit the proof of service here. And we did receive a letter from the Southwest Philadelphia
District Services of support. Just also I'd like to show you a little bit of the zoning history for
this particular building.
This building has pretty much, or has always been used in a commercial capacity. You can see in 1985 here, it was actually legal for a variety store with a three-family dwelling on top. It lost its zoning at some point in time, and we're really just trying to
It lost its zoning at some point in time, and we're really just trying to rezone it for it to be used as it has always been used.
You can see here from this zoning document in 1973, it was also three families, and it was a luncheonette on the first floor at some point in time.
Additionally you can see back in 1958 as well in 51 I believe that it was also a three-family
dwelling and a store on the bottom. A commissioner is in that the community was in full support of
our application and they sent in a letter of support and we're asking for this property to
be used as it has always been used and the community supports it, we would ask that you
grant our request for a variance today. Is your client here that you would want to have your
testimony adopted? Yes, she is. Ms. Moosey, can you raise your hand, please?
Ms. Moussey? Can you hear me? Oh, I can hear you. Thank you, Ms. Moussey.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter? My name is Fouzia, F-O-U-Z-I-A.
The last name is Moussa, M-U-S-S-E.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Proceed.
Ms. Moussa, are you the owner of 5100 Chester Avenue?
And have you heard the representations that I've made to the board today?
And if you were to testify, would you adopt those representations?
Thank you, Ms. Moussa.