of time and how expensive it is. He couldn't build it. He still can't build it. Three years later,
we're still here. And that's the issue. So that's the hardship. It's not economically feasible to
build a single family home. And you already mentioned when the price point for a single
family home is $200,000 to $300,000. I appreciate the testimony on both sides.
So I'm going to read them both together. Number three, MI 2023-001-050 and MI 2023-001-051-3222, West Norris. I vote no to both.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no to both.
James Snell, my vote is no to both.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is both. My vote is no to both.
Thank you, Mr. Nockmson.
Number
let's see here.
Number six.
MI 2023
001 062
244 West
Green Street. Brandon Saverin is the
attorney.
Letter of support from the
Upper North Coalition of Community
Councils.
Yeah, Brandon Saverin is coming back in
as a panelist now.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, counsel. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yep, Brandon Saverin, B-R-A-N-D-O-N, S as in Sam, A-V as in Victor, R-A-N as in Nancy.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Do you identify, please identify your client in relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is JJ Rental Company, who is the longtime owner of the property.
And our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Yes, I do.
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?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Okay, let's see.
Well, thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman, and good afternoon, members of the board.
So the property I am here speaking about is 244 West Grange Avenue.
My internet connection is a little dicey.
so if you need me to repeat myself at any point, just let me know. The subject property is at the
southeast corner of West Grange Avenue and North American Street, so this is in the Alney
neighborhood. To the right of us would be North 2nd Street, which is pretty much like the major
thoroughfare in this area. To the left on the map along Grange eventually would take you
all the way west to the Fern Rock Transportation Center and Train Yard, and then further out to
Broad Street, just to give you some context. This aerial image of the property is from
atlas.phila.gov and is marked as Exhibit 6 in my exhibit binder. So I'm just going to show you
before I show you the notice of refusal, some photos of the property also from Atlas. This is
Exhibit 14 in my packet. This is the property from the Grange Avenue side before a fire that
occurred in late 2019. And you'll see that the bottom was a grocery store that was operated by
the property owner, and the top was one apartment unit. So there were two units, one commercial,
one residential. This is before the fire in 2019. Here is after the fire in early 2020.
What happened since, and this is the same vantage point in 2022, I believe around when we filed this case, is that my client obtained a make-safe permit to stabilize the property.
You can see that new windows replaced those boards upstairs.
New metal doors were put in in the grocery store space.
New metal doors were put in in the grocery store space, but my client cannot act on the
but my client
building permit that it has since gotten to renovate the ground floor until we determine
what the new use of the ground floor is going to be.
And my client nor the community wants to reinstall a grocery store in that space.
Instead, it wants to make it a second apartment unit.
This, real quickly, still in Exhibit 14, is the same series of photos from the broad side of the building on American Street. So here it is before the fire. Here it is right after the fire. Here it is more recently.
the graffiti will be we're moving forward so again we're sort of paused here until we get
a decision from you today I will now show you the notice of refusal at exhibit 2a zoom in a little
bit excuse me so what this tells you is that we only have one refusal it's because we're in the
RSA 5 district and two family use is prohibited. What you can see in this notes to ZBA line that
the examiner wrote is that a variance was granted for that grocery store in 1982. But because there
was a fire and the ground floor has been vacant for over three years, it's our belief that L&I,
if pressed, would determine that that variance has lapsed. So because of that, we actually can't
reopen the grocery store either without a variance. The only thing we would be able to do
without a variance, which would incur additional interior demolition and additional expense to my
client, which has already faced a hardship because of the fire, would be to combine this into
one dwelling unit. But that doesn't make sense given the location of the stair and doors in
the property, which I'll show you in a moment. And just that the general history of the property
has always been as two spaces. So let me walk you through that history. In Exhibit 12,
I have a series of all of the zoning permits that I could find that have ever been issued
to this property. So this one is from 2000. Basically, this was pulled to enable the grocery
store to sell sandwiches because that's considered takeout food. But the permit basically states that
there already was a grocery store and it's going to continue to function as a grocery store as of
the year 2000. Going back, here's a permit from 1982 that came from the zoning board. That's the
variance I mentioned where the grocery store use started. Here's a 1962 zoning permit at which time
the space was described as a candy store rather than a grocery store. And here's a zoning permit
from 1959 in which, again, the space is described as a confectionary, which I take it to mean that
was a candy store. And what the applicant wrote at that time to L&I was this type of store existed
on the premises before 1930. So given that the zoning code was not established until 1933,
for as long as the city has been tracking uses through zoning permitting, this property has
always had two spaces. It has never, at least per the city's records, been a single family home.
Moving along, I want to discuss the RCO process. So at Exhibit 9C, I have our letter of support from the coordinating RCO. It describes the vote, and I was in person in attendance at this meeting with the rep of the property owner.
the vote was almost unanimous it was 36 to 1 it looks like in support of the project
and then Mr. Jackson who heads the zoning operation of the RCO wrote a little note here on the second
page that really talks about how badly this RCO did not want that grocery store to come back
there were no personal attacks I'll give them credit it's not as though they were saying that
my client had ever done anything wrong. But the block is otherwise residential, and they just
don't want a grocery store there again. That's stated in this explanation. They were totally
fine with having two units, two residential units, and they were really excited to see the boards.
Well, there are no boards anymore, but to see that metal door taken off the property
And for this to reopen is fully residential.
I believe that I have plans that I'll show you really quickly.
I believe that I have plans that I'll show you really quickly.
These were drawn up, even though it's a change of use application, so we're not required of zoning plans.
These were drawn up as future building plans, if you are to say yes to our variants today.
And it just demonstrates to you that there's three doors to this building, and one of them leads directly into the existing staircase.
case. So one of the many reasons this property doesn't make a good single family home is because
you have a door that unless it's filled in, and it's nice to have these doors for, you know,
egress purposes for safety, you have a door that leads right upstairs to someone's bedrooms.
And that's kind of bizarre for a single family home. It's not an attractive setup. And it,
You know, it sort of has you looking over your shoulder if you're either in the front of the downstairs space and you really have no eyes on the access to the upstairs.
So I can talk to you through the floor plans at greater length if desired, but I'll skip it for now.
These are drawn by our civil engineer.
And then the last thing I wanted to point out, because I know it's.
to the birds you're breaking up are there other dresses in this area oh okay is that any better
mr chairman that's better mr chairman okay sorry thank you for letting know um so lastly this is
exhibit 13 um it just points out um what the uses of the other three properties at our corner are
and per either rental licenses active rental licenses or if there is no rental license
the most recent zoning permit all three of those properties that are at our corner besides us
are duplexes so this is 5800 American Street active rental license for two units this is 5801
American Street active rental license for two units and this is 248 West Grange which is right
across from us. No rental license on Atlas, but therefore I went to the zoning permitting as sort
of the next best source of info that most recent zoning permit is for two-family use. So what we
want to do here is write in context with our surroundings. With that, I'm happy to take
questions. I noticed you didn't say anything about it, but do you have the letter from the
council person so i have an email mr chairman we have it says letter of support from council
member phillips yeah you know um what happened here is that give me one second get some page 43
there we go um what i have is an email from um jameel duncan um who says that a letter of support
it was sent to the zba okay do we have we have one right uh yes mr chair this yes mr chair this
is hillary we did receive one um brandon i'll forward it to you thank you hillary okay great
okay all right you want to call your client
brandon you froze um so it's the um owner's representative uh and any better mr chairman
Well, your face froze for a little bit there, but I can hear you.
Why don't you pull the owners right?
I have Damaso Rodriguez.
Let me know if he's in the audience.
Mr. Rodriguez?
Damaso Rodriguez.
Damaso Rodriguez has been unmuted, chair, and allowed to speak.
Sir, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court stenographer?
My name is Damaso Rodriguez. My name is D-A-M-A-S-O, last name R-O-D-R-I-G-U-E-C.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Damaso, firstly, are you authorized to speak as a representative of the property owner today?
Yes, sir.
Okay. Were you able to hear my testimony in this zoning case today?
Yes, sir.
Was my testimony true and accurate to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
And would you therefore adopt it as if it were your own testimony?
Okay. Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, that's the general chair.
questions or comments from the virtual audience
Chair, I see no hands at this time.
here i see no hands at this time planning commission thank you
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman and Board Members.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
The appellant seeks to convert a ground floor commercial unit into a residential unit.
The appellant has shown that the proposed variance is the minimum necessary to afford relief from the code,
And the proposal meets a comprehensive plan recommendation to shift commercial uses from residential blocks to commercial corridors in the Upper North Planning District.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the proposed use variance for two dwelling units.
MI 2023, 001-062-244 West Scrange Avenue, I vote yes.
thomas holloman my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
mr saverin please stay on the line here okay so um mi2023 001 045 3238 north 16th street
um just state your name for the record because you've already been sworn
okay um my name is brandon saverin right um could you identify your client
relationship to the property yes um my client is um tayoga and temple llc
they're the owner of the property and our vice chair has a few questions for you
good afternoon counselor do you agree to waive the reading of the refuser or stipulate to his
that person? Yes, I do, Mr. Vice Chairman. 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.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. Thank you. Brandon, before you start,
the Temple part of the LLC has no relationship to Temple? No, none at all. So, okay. Yeah,
I'll address that, but you know, proceed. Okay. And just to make, make everyone avail, uh, known
letter of support from Nicetown Tioga improvement team with provisos, um, vote was six to five.
Okay. Thank you. Share my screen now. Um, so, um, as you stated, Mr. Chairman, um, and this is,
It's not the first time I've advised a client to leave Temple out of the properties on the, oh, I'm so sorry. Is that any better? Mr. Chairman, give me one moment.
yep okay okay um so
orland street so it's
we're not brandon we're not here um it's vacant okay i'm gonna i'm gonna relocate
closer to the internet signal give me literally 10 seconds
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, can you hear me any better?
We hear you now.
Okay, if it happens again, just let me know.
And what I'll do is actually go to a different building
and I'll come back later in the hearing.
But in any event,
so this property is at the Southwest corner
of 16th and Westmoreland.
It's a vacant lot that my clients purchased last year.
So this is on the block of 16th Street that's directly to the north of Allegheny Avenue.
And as far as the Temple portion of the name, no, the property nor the owner has any relationship to the university.
They picked that name because maybe about a half dozen blocks away is Temple University Medical School and Temple Hospital.