000363
17 McKean Street
Eric Carroll is the attorney
for the owner
There's a recommendation of
support from the East Point Breeze
neighbors
chair eric carroll is coming back in as a panelist now
good morning mr carroll could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
good morning chair bergman my name is eric carroll uh eric c-a-r-r-o-l-l i represent
the owner applicant marco maestri right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth i do our vice chair has just a few questions sir
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
okay the subject property here is 1615 mckean street we're on uh mckean street uh west patch
yunk about a block north of patch yunk um and the cross street is bancroft street which is just
just west of 16th street as you can see uh the ground floor is a garage and then there's a second
floor that traditionally has been residential apartments, and that's why we're here today.
This building, and this whole block for that matter, is zoned I-2, which prohibits residential
use. My client is here seeking to legalize the existing apartments and have a variance so that
the upstairs can be residential. This is the deed. My client, Mr. Maestri, bought the property
in early 2022. The prior owner operated the building as a ground floor auto body shop or
or auto repair shop.
He was also the owner of the building
and the owner of the business.
He rented out the two top units.
And our understanding is that that situation
had held for some decades.
When we applied for zoning, we got one denial.
And as you can see, that was because the use
was not allowed in this particular residential district.
I've attached the project information form
as one of the exhibits.
These are the plans.
Let me just blow these up.
As you can see, the first floor, which is the middle diagram, is an existing auto body shop.
It's about 35 feet frontage along McKean Street and then 70 feet along Bancroft Street.
Right now, the whole building is unoccupied.
My client wants to renovate the two upstairs units.
So there would be two units. There's an entrance on the west.
So, there would be two units. There's an entrance on the west side, leading to a stairwell that goes up to the units.
Each is two bedrooms with a living area, kitchen, bath, washer, dryer, utility room.
As you said, this situation already exists. My client just wants to renovate them.
They were pretty old and dilapidated. And once hopefully you approve the variance, we'll get that we'll get that rented out.
Reduce that. Posted zoning notice. We did go before the Point Breeze Neighbors Association.
in advance of that meeting i sent out as required 155 notices to the neighbors
at the meeting four people showed up two of whom were board members
all four voted in support what that tells me is that nobody was really in opposition to this
and i'll show you are you looking at a street street view right now yes okay as you can see
this is, as I said, this is McKean and Bancroft. This entire block is set up the same way. So if
you go along Bancroft Street, you can see the same thing holds for the entire block all the
way north to Mifflin Street. You got a garage on the first floor, and then some sort of living area
or residential space on the upstairs. This whole building, this whole block is zoned I2, but you
have this residential use, almost 100% uniformity. As we said, we just want to legalize the
existing use, but there really is no other existing use. The hardship we have is that
the upstairs unit is 30 feet, 35 feet by 70 feet. So even if we were going to try to shoehorn some
sort of, you know, backroom office operations for the garage downstairs, there's not many
auto body repair shops of that type that's going to need that kind of office space. If these aren't
residential, they're going to be unrentable. So we're here today to ask your support. We hope
you vote for the variance legalizing the long existing use of the upstairs residential units.
Mr. Carroll, was there utilities upstairs separated for each department?
Yes, correct.
All right. Could you bring your client on, please?
Sure, Mr. Maestri.
here we have marco maestri he's been allowed to speak all right sir could you state your name
please and spell for the court stenographer yes mr chairman marco maestri m-a-r-c-o-m-a-e-s-t-r-i
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do proceed counsel thank you mr master you are the owner of 1615 1617 mckean street is that
correct that's correct okay and did you listen to uh every my presentation just now i did was
everything truthful and accurate to your knowledge yes it was if you were to testify here today would
you adopt my testimony as your own yeah yes i would okay thank you mr my questions from the board
no chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
here i see no hands at this time planning commission
thank you chair bergman sarah bond philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends a zoning map change to rm1 our chip claim is supported with
evidence of unique physical circumstances of the property the city planning commission recommends
that the Zoning Board grant the variance. Thank you. MI 2023, 000363, 1615-17 McKean Street,
I vote yes. Thomas Holliman, I vote yes. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you, Counsel.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2023, 0005364645 North 13th Street.
Peter Elliott is the attorney.
There's a recommendation of support from the Logan Civic Association.
Here we have Peter Elliott.
They are coming back in as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Good morning, Chair and members of the board.
Can you hear me?
Mr. Elliott, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Hello.
My name is Peter Elliott, P-E-T-E-R-E-L-L-I-O-T.
P-E-T-E-R-E-L-L-I-O-T, attorney number 327465, and my law firm Greenberg-Trorig represents the
Attorney number.
applicant in this case, 13 Homes Opportunity LLC. I am also joined by my colleague Kevin Greenberg,
Esquire, on this call. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth? I do. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you. Good morning, counsel. Do you
agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to his accuracy? I do. Have you
emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed and required to proceed with
this case five days in advance of this hearing? I have done that and I corresponded with attorney
Emerson. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. So, Chair and members of the Board, we have two projects before you today. This is the first, 4645 North 13th Street. So, by way of general introduction, 13 Homes Opportunity LLC is the owner for this property.
and it's an LLC that strives to eliminate societal prejudice and inequities.
So 13 Homes is committed to providing affordable and workforce housing using high-quality building
materials and renewable and sustainable technologies. The 13 Homes team attending
today is comprised of Leslie Hollins, who is the real estate manager, Chrissy Garrity,
who is counsel, and we're also joined by Sean Frisch, Justin Chase, and Sarah Bryant,
who are also on the team. And we are also joined by Raymond Rolla, who is our architect for this
project. So this is a simple use variance for the legalization of an existing two-unit residence
in a property zoned for single-family homes. So this is in the Logan section of the city,
just north of Roosevelt Boulevard and just to the east of Broad Street.
um so here is a north view oh zoom in for you so our property is the orange property here
um this is a north view of the site this is a south view orange property on the left
and this is the current zoning map of the area. As you can see there are two large parks in the
area and Broad Street runs down the middle of the map. So next I want to show you some
photos of the condition of the property. So this is it again. This is the orange
building. So this is in the Logan section of the city in Councilmember Bass's district.
The property was designed to be and currently exists as a two-unit use,
and 13 homes acquired this property in July of 2021 with the plan to rehabilitate it and
and utilize it for workforce and affordable housing.
The intention is to make housing available for local residents to stay in the neighborhood.
So this is the upstairs unit.
So you can see the walls have been significantly damaged.
And this is the rear of the property, which we cleaned out.
And we're proud of cleaning it out. It took some effort.
So now let me introduce Leslie Hollins, who is the real estate manager for 13 Homes.
and i would like to make her available to testify if that's all right
mr ellen let me ask you a few questions first yeah please the right the remainder of the block
is there also multiple families homes as far as we are aware there are several uh existing
multiple family units we're not sure as to the legality of all of them right 13 homes does
actually have a property across the street at 46 42 which is multiple units and so we are on the
block and we're this plate this was also designed as multiple units when you bought it although it
was in bad shape yes it was it was purchased that way and the intention here is to
Yes, it was it was purchased that way. And the intention here is to just rehabilitate it and make it available as affordable and workforce housing.
Why don't we bring on the real estate manager and let her adopt your testimony?
Great. Leslie Collins, if you wouldn't mind raising your hand.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
hi um my name is leslie hollins um last name h o l l i n s swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed counsel leslie did you hear the testimony
that i gave today about 13 homes yes and do you agree with everything i said yes
Yes. And would you adopt what I said as your testimony here today?
Yes, I do. Thank you.
Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson.
Good morning, Mr. Richardson. Just state your name for the record.
you've already been sworn good morning again mr chair charles richardson office of councilwoman
cindy bathroom 508 city hall councilwoman has no objection to granting the variance thank you very
much anyone else in the virtual audience i see no hands planning commission thank you chair bergman
sarah bond philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the existing residential single-family zoning. However, the proposed use is consistent with
documented prior use of this property. The City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning
board grant the variance. MI 2023-000-536-4645 North 13th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you. Counsel, can you stay on, please? We're going to go to your other case.
Wonderful. Thank you very much.
So number 12, MI 2023-000-550-1321 West Wing of Hopkins Street.
Letter of recommendation from the Logan Civic Association.
Peter Elliott is the attorney.
Mr. Elliott, just for the record, state your name.
You've already been sworn.
Peter Elliott for the applicant, 13 Homes Opportunity, LLC.
This is the second project before you.
And our vice chair has just a few questions.
Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, I did. And I coordinated
with attorney Emerson on that. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
I believe my screen is being shared right now. Please let me know if it's not. It's not being
shown. No, you're up. You're good. Oh, it's up. Okay, great. So good morning, chair and members
of the board. This is the second project that we have here. And so just so you understand,
this owner, 13 Homes Opportunity, LLC, sees these projects, although they're a few blocks away,
as kind of a scattered site project. So just with that in mind, 13 Homes is the mission-driven LLC
that strives to eliminate societal prejudice and inequities. They're again going to be providing
affordable and workforce housing at this location. So 1321 West Wingo-Hawking Street is also located
just to the north of Roosevelt Boulevard, just to the east of Broad Street. I will show you
some images here. So this is looking east, sorry, this is looking westbound,
and this is the property here, or eastbound, I'm sorry, that's eastbound. This is westbound,
and you're looking at Broad Street here and this is the property here.
This is the existing zoning map. This is the property here and there's a park right here
and this is Broad Street running up down the center of the map. So
here are some images of the exterior and interior condition of the property.
exterior and interior condition of the property.
So 1321 West Wing of Hawking, this application is also a simple use variance for the legalization
of a downsize from three units down to two units. This is in the Logan section of the city in
council member Bass's eighth council district. It was designed to be and currently exists as a
three-unit use. In October of 1949, the zoning board granted a variance for two-family dwelling
in addition to a third-level rooming house. The proposal here is to combine the third-level
rooming house with the second level unit, and to maintain the first level unit for a total of two
units inside of the property. And the reason for that is that the third level, the owner determined
that it was just too small to really provide the quality affordable and workforce housing that they
are committed to providing. So you're looking at the second floor unit here.
And then these are the stairs to go up to the third floor unit that's looking back down the stairs, and this is the condition of the third floor unit.
so at this time um if there are any questions from the board i can take those
i can also make the architect available for questions and additionally why don't we have