Thank you.
Chair, we have 40 attendees. You can proceed as you can.
Ready to start?
Good morning, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's EPA hearings.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shaheed.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holliman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our Board Member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised the proceedings are being recorded.
Video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and 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 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 Sunken.
Let's look at our schedule for this morning.
Number four, MI 2023-005-953-5646 Cedar Avenue. That case is continued.
Number nine, here we go, number nine, number nine, MI 2023-003-440-1624-Napfall Street, that case is continued.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
Good morning, Chair. This is Doreen Blakey, and I will co-host this morning, and I have a hand up by the name of Stephen Rowley, and I will allow him to speak.
Good morning, sir.
Oh, no. I think I'm frozen.
Do you see him?
Pardon me.
There he is.
Can you please unmute yourself, Mr. Riley?
Good morning.
Good morning, Mr. Riley.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Mr. Riley?
Chair, he's unmuted, but he's
not responding. Mr. Riley?
His hands up.
Mr. Riley, please unmute yourself, please.
My computer,
It's fine, Doreen. I'm assisting you right now. I've unmuted him, so he's allowed to speak right now.
Mr. Riley?
So it just appears that he's having technical issues.
All right. Thank you. Is there anybody else who has a request for a continuance?
No more hands, Chair.
Okay. So number five, MI 2023-003-382-6340 Musgrave. Troy Pratter is the owner. There's
no exhibits. This is the first listing. Mr. Pratter.
Mr. Pratter, can you raise your virtual hand if you're in the audience?
there's no Mr. Prater
there's a William
There's a William.
no he's gone chair
No, he's gone, Chair.
there are no hands up
There are no hands up.
Okay, so thank you.
So MI 2023-003-382-6340, Musgrave.
This is the first listing.
This case is continued.
Mark must be tried.
Number six, MI 2023-003-477-4231-61, North 5th Street.
Walter Tolliver.
We have no exhibits.
This is the first listing.
Walter Tolliver, if you're in the audience, please raise your hand.
No, Walter Tolliver, Chair.
Okay, so MI 2023-003-477-4231-61 North 5th Street.
This is the first listing.
This case is continued.
Mark must be heard.
And number 14.
Excuse me, Chair.
We had a hand that was raised last minute by the name of William, last name NNSL.
Hi, I just wanted to ask, I'm sorry that everyone could hear me correctly.
Hold on, hold on, sir.
Do me a favor, state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer.
William Luskiewicz.
I'll spell it L-O-S-K-I-E-W-I-C as in cat,
t is in tom z is in zebra i just had a hold on hold on hold on hold on do you swear a firm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do what case do you want to talk
about sir uh 231 dickinson street philadelphia pa191 okay well we're not we're not even close
to that yet sir yes no that that i just had a quick question i just wanted to make sure everyone
could hear me properly because i was having no way my time comes all right thank you thank you
you're you're going to be you'll be heard second so yes we we hear you loud and clear thank you sir
and number 14
M.I. 2023-003-495-3911-19 North 5th Street.
No exhibits, first listing.
Augustina Marina is listed applicant.
S&S Realty is the listed owner.
Augustine Marina is not in the audience here
Okay, thank you
So MI 2023-003-495-3911-19
North Fish Street
Cases continued
Mark must be heard
We're going to go to our add-on
That we have for this morning
MI 2023-003-495-3911
303-083-3100
Frankfort Avenue.
I vote yes.
Jim, you vote next.
Sorry, Chair.
My vote is yes.
Thank you.
We're going to go to our regular list
and we want to start with number 10.
MI 2023-003-493-3320, North 16th Street.
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
Letter of support from Nicetown-Tioga Improvement Team.
Rachel Pritzker is coming back in as a panelist.
Good morning, Chairman, members of the board.
Good morning.
could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer yes it's rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l
pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r um 1521 locust street suite 605 philadelphia pa 19102 you swear firm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes could you identify your client a
relationship to this property yes so my client is ramnack 1 llc and i have one of the members
Nadal Hassan in the audience okay and our vice chair has just a few good morning counsel do you
agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes I've emailed in
all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing yes thank you please proceed and show your screen
Thank you.
Can you see my screen?
We can.
Great.
So this is 3320 North 16th Street.
This property is zone RSA 5.
It's 1,750 square feet.
has been vacant since at least 1996, according to sort of our available records on Philadelphia's
website. This is the refusal. We basically have a refusal for use. We're proposing a new structure
on a longstanding vacant lot for eight dwelling units, and then a small de minimis dimensional
variance for, instead of nine feet rear yard, seven foot rear yard. I'll go into why in a minute.
I just want to give the board an aerial of the block that we're on, just so you can understand sort of the amount of vacancy and sort of light, if you will, on this block.
There has been one new construction project on this block in the last couple of decades, and it was through a variance granted by this board for seven units back in 2021.
this is again an existing vacant lot 27 of the over 48 properties on this block
are vacant with no active zoning or building permits for any construction the last I guess
over the last at least decade or last five years I think there were about four different
permits pulled for around four or five unit buildings none of which have been constructed
So just to give a sense of sort of the economic conditions and the lack of development and construction that has been going on over here, just to show a bit of the hardship.
In addition, as I mentioned, the only other variants that have been granted where there was actual construction was seven units back in 2021 by this board.
And again, we're a little bit different economic times from 2021 with materials and labor have obviously gone up and the financial conditions have gone down in so far as viability.
The rear yard is requesting just a de minimis two-foot change in the setback just to allow for some better spatial use of the property.
In addition to, as you'll see on the plans, we're including a ramp and some ADA accessibility.
And again, with a two-foot de minimis variance, usually the case law states that I'm not even really required to establish a hardship related to that, but it's worth pointing out for the board.
We met with the Nicetown Tioga RCO in which we had a community meeting, and they voted 17 to zero in favor of this project.
I'd like to call our architect on, Carl Enberger, just to go through the plans, and then I'm happy to answer any other questions, and I have my client on as well.
The architect raised his hand, please.
He raised his hands, Chair.
Does he need to present?
Yes, please.
He's getting promoted to panelists now.
Thank you.
Good morning, Sarah.
Could you please state your name?
Unmute yourself first.
Please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Hello, I'm Carl Enberger.
Could you please spell your last name?
Can you guys hear me?
we can
could you spell your name please
i don't think he's hearing us
mr enberger
can you guys hear me okay i don't know oh here we go sorry i'm sorry mr enberger could you spell
your last name please he is in uh edward m is in mary b-e-r-g-e-r
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Receive counsel.
Carl, can you just go through the revised plans that we have for the project?
I can.
And Chairman, we submitted a revised plans and a proviso plan form.
okay can you see my screen we can okay um these are the plans for 3320 north 16th street um as
these are the plans for 3320 north 16th street um as rachel stated the plans um include
eight dwelling units um at the top of the sheet is the um overall site plan um it this is um
twigback is noting the seven foot rear setback um the buildings on this block or there's not many
of them but there are two adjacent to the property so we're infilling a vacant lot between two row
houses. The current setback is about 25 feet on the site and that we're using that setback to
include a ramp down to the lower floor so that we have accessible units on the lower floor
and then the upper three floors would be accessed via stairs to a porch.
We are trying very hard to match what's out there on the site,
so we are picking up on the current articulation of the facades
and trying to keep our porch in line with the porches to the left and to the right of us,
So we're the middle and the darker, the more saturated colors.
So to the south side of the site, we have the ramp going down into the north side of the site.
We have the stairs going up to the first and first, second and third floors.
So the each floor is basically split in half.
There's a stair in the center.
we have dwelling units to the front and dwelling units to the rear. I think that is the gist of
the project. So again, the variances for the multi-use, the eight units, and for the seven-foot
rear setback. Variance request, excuse me. Rachel, you want to have your client come on, please?
Yes, it would be Nadal Hassan.
Sir, please unmute yourself.
Hello?
Hi, good morning.
Could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, sure.
Nadal Hassan, N-I-D-A-L, last name Hassan, H-A-S-S-E-N.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Nadal, have you heard my testimony today, and do you adopt it to be true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, I do.
And do you adopt a testimony as your own?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
not at this time Mr. Chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes Chair I have
Charles Richardson in the audience and I will
allow him to speak
good morning Mr. Richardson
good morning Mr. Chair
Charles Richardson
yep go ahead
Charles I'm getting ahead of myself
Charles Richardson Office of Councilwoman
Cindy Bass from 508 City Hall
Richardson is spelled R-I-C-H-A
J-R-D-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, sir.
The Councilwoman is not opposed to granting this variance.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no more hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning, David Vecto, F-E-C-T-E-A-U, with the City Planning Commission.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this 1,700-square-foot property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
However, we are aware of two triplexes, one duplex, and one five-unit building on this side of the 3300 block of North 16th Street, but no buildings with eight dwelling units.
Since more than half of this side of the block is vacant, these standing houses are all that we have to determine the character of the block.
So the city's planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed multifamily variance in keeping with the other multifamily units, but with a maximum of three dwelling units and the proposed variance for rear yard depth.
and the proposed variance for rear yard depth. Thank you. MI 2023-003-493-3320
Thank you.
North 16th Street, I vote yes with revised plans, one page, stamped by ZBA, January 10th, 2024.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. Jane Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
We're going to move to number seven.
MI 2023-003-522-231 Dickinson Street.
William Laskowitz is the owner applicant.
This application is for the erection of a second floor addition on the rear of the existing structure.
for no change
of use of single
family household living
whereas the vertical extension of a
non-conforming rear wall
is not permitted
the required rear yard in the RSA
5 district is 9 feet
0 feet is proposed here
there is a letter of non-opposition
from the Penn Sports Civic Association
and a letter of non-opposition
from Council Member Squilla
good morning sir
He's promoted.
Good morning, sir.
You've already been sworn.
Unmute yourself, please.
Apologize.
Just for the record, state your name.
You've already been sworn.
William Laskowitz.
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Good morning, sir.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
yes i have thank you please proceed and share your screen
the green square on the bottom sir
yeah that's it just it's i for some reason it's not letting me
let me
let me know if
everyone could see it
it should be popping up now
we don't see it
okay here it comes yep we have it perfect okay so this is the plans for and um what i'm trying
to do is just extend square footage to uh you know extend my daughter's the back bedroom
and it would be six foot an addition that's already over the first floor square footage
so in totality there's no change also the the back rear property I also own which is a lot
and I provided some pictures of that which I could pull up right now just to show you that
there's no
there's no one behind there
facing
so this would be this is like
the art and this is where the addition would
be right here
and I have other
over this already existing
structure
and it's just to extend you know
square footage on my personal property
that's where it comes out right there yeah right to the brick yep okay and and i submitted and i
went to the uh you know the the pensport community our community board and there was no rebuttals
against this at all so yes and this is the plans from the architect which you know it would be six
for it okay all right thank you um questions from the board no mr chairman no chair
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
there are no hands chair planning commission thank you sir good morning david effector with
Thank you, sir. Good morning, David Fecta with the City Planning Commission board members and
the city planning commission uh board member
chairman. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning
at this location. The appellant has shown that the proposed rear wall extension will not injure
the use of adjacent properties and the non-conforming rear yard depth is an existing
condition. The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed variances.
Thank you. MI 2023-003-522-231 Dickinson Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you all.
Okay. Number eight, MI 2023-003-472, 1901 West Thompson Street. Shamir Morgan is the owner
applicant. This application is for a two-family household living in an existing structure.
Under the North Central Philadelphia Overlay District, a lot of area of 850 square feet is
required for two dwelling units, whereas this lot is 625.32 square feet is proposed, which would
only permit one dwelling unit. There is a letter of support from the Roovytown-Chargewood Community
Civic Association. Samir? Samir Morgan, if, oh, there he is. I will promote him to panelists.
Thank you.
Shamir has been promoted.
Morning, Shamir.
Good morning, everybody.
Hi, good morning.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Shamir Morgan, S-H-A-M-I-R, last name Morgan, M-O-R-G-A-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has a few questions.
All right.
Good morning, sir.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Can everybody see my screen?
We can, sir.
Okay. So this is my existing, this is a single family house. That's my primary residence.
This is on the corner of 19th and Thompson. This green door right here, this is the front door.
What I'm proposing is on the side entry here to create an existing, well, another door to access
the studio apartment. So I'm going to just go through the pictures now to give you all an idea
of what I'm proposing. So this is part of the side yard here.
We're proposing different steps which will allow an easier walkway for the new existing
potential apartment tenant that will be accessing it through here.
We'll be building down a door here also.
Some more pictures of the side yard.
now we're going to enter the basement this is where the utilities are and I
had the plans also to detail exactly the configuration on how we plan on moving
all our utilities to where as though it's not where as though someone can
have access without entering the studio apartment
here's more pictures of the basement
is this where you're going to put the studio apartment correct so this is how it stands
currently um this is usually where i you know i come downstairs excuse the mess i got some dogs
but um i would usually come down here and we're proposing a different layout which would allow
for me to enter the utility space without entering the actual apartment so i now want to pull up the
planes um and i also have my architect john gibbons on the call which could uh jump in if
you like are you are you guys able to let me see how i could share the planes
you have the drawings what the basement is going to look like yes sir
Okay, can you guys see this?
Okay, can you guys see this?
We can.
I have my architect, John Gibbons, on the call now.
Is he able to jump on?
If you want, yes.
Mr. Gibbons?
I'm going to allow John Gibbons to speak.
Mr. Gibbons, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
John Gibbons, G-I-B-B-O-N-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
This is the layout of the proposed studio in the basement of the existing building.
You're entering into the studio from the rear yard.
There are steps down to the entry, a glazed entry door.
You enter into a living dining area with a unit kitchen and a bedroom behind, and then a bathroom beyond that.
There is a separate lockable egress that will give access from the upper floor, upper unit as well, in case it's needed as an accessory apartment.
There'll be lighting to meet code. The area proposed currently meets current codes.
and this will provide an affordable unit in what is existing single-family house but it's only a
two-bedroom house we're only really creating a three bedrooms in this corner unit so we don't
feel it's going to add to congestion or anything any adverse impacts on the neighborhood i think
commented in the appeal that there is a bus route so it's easy accessible for anybody who wants to
and access to center city.
We see this being occupied by a single person
rather than a couple
because it's obviously a small unit,
the minimum area for a studio apartment.
We think this will provide an asset
for the community
and an affordable housing resource.
Mr. Morgan, what was the vote of the RCO?
I could pull that up.
They were in favor.
I believe, one second.
um it was in support six people supported and zero opposed okay um mr morgan is there any
multiple units on the block yes how many do you know offhand how many offhand i wouldn't know how
many is it's on the other side like when you cross the street on thompson okay all right all right
questions from the board no mr chairman no chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney
hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands here questions or comments uh i mean planning commission i'm sorry thank you sir i
I appreciate that. Good morning, David Vecta with the City Planning Commission Chair and Board
Members. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential multifamily zoning at
this location. The appellant requests to build a second dwelling unit in an existing real home.
The refusals for open area 625 square feet proposed versus 850 square feet required.
This is approximately 73 percent of the required total. Since the appellant is already deriving
value from one dwelling unit there is no economic detriment that would require a second dwelling
unit city planning commission recommends that the board deny the proposed dimensional variance
for a lot area okay so mi 2023 003 472 1901 west thompson street i vote yes
thomas holloman my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
Thank you, Mr. Morgan.
All right. Thank you all.
Number 16.
MI 2023-003-508-2125 Pailthorpe Street.
Israel Farfan is the owner applicant.
Second, this application is for the creation of one off-street non-accessory surface parking space and to legalize an existing fence on the front and side of the existing vacant lot, size and location as shown in the application plan.
The proposed use non-accessory surface parking is prohibited in the RM1 district and any fence located nearer to the lot line than the required building setback on the actual surface of the building from the lot line, whichever is greater, shall be no more than four feet in height.
from the lot line, whichever is greater, shall be no more than four feet in height
and no more than 50% opaque, whereas the proposed is nine feet and 100% opaque.
Mr. Farfan, good morning. Mr. Farfan is promoted. Mr. Farfan, you have a second case
today too, right? So we're going to hear them separately, but we'll hear them right in a row,
okay? Sure, thank you. Could you state your name for the record, please? Yeah,
Yeah, my name is Israel Farfan. Israel is spelled I-S-R-A-E-L, like the country, and Farfan is F-A-R-F-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning. Sir, have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, yes, we have.
Thank you, sir. Please proceed and share your screen.
I believe I'm sharing my screen.
So I have all my documents together.
Yeah, so as you stated, it's basically asking for, I guess, a parking space on an empty
lot and then a gate that is nine feet tall.
Let me show you some pictures.
This is our location.
It's basically 25, 25 from Pellthorpe. It's like one block away from Hancock where my main property
is. Yeah, so I live in 21, 24 in the front. And this is from the back, 21, 25. We acquired a lot
behind it a few years back from the city. I'm going to do a little bit of zooming back and
forth. I apologize for that. So this is a view of the front, looking at that space. We have the
wooden gate currently. It's a view from the angle. It's another view from the angle. And this is
It's basically an empty lot that we acquired from the city and what we're hoping to do
is to be able to use as a parking spot and also to be able to have a metal gate.
So on the front side of the street, on my house, I have a metal gate that has this style,
which is both iron and open, and so we would like to have the same happen on the back,
which is here.
That's the goal.
I also have a copy of the, sorry, let me see if I can do this.
So this is sort of like the architectural rendering of it.
So it's enough space to have part one car and then have the gate on this side.
Let's see. The only thing I can think of is we also have the RCO from the community.
And so we had a support of seven and a post of three.
And I believe, yeah, this is the streets permit, if I'm mistaken.
And I think the last thing I also had to show you is like,
I guess the no tax
clearance.
Parking is in the rear of the property?
I'm sorry?
Parking is in the rear of the property?
For this
project, yes.
So we're hoping to convert that spot into a parking spot.
Are there other locations
along there that have parking similar?
I'm sorry.
I don't understand the question.
Okay. So
in the back where you're pulling in, is there other parking
places that other people have
back there? I know a few
blocks down there's older
garages, so people have
back to them, and those are all
older.
Okay, all right.
Questions from the
board? No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney,
Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning, David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chair and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends this property for residential single-family zoning.
However, in a community requested rezoning in 2021, the Neighborhood Association requested the current zoning of residential multifamily.
The appellant seeks to build a non-compliant fence, and they are also seeking to build an off-street parking space.
Off-street parking is an unusual condition for this block.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board deny the proposed variances for non-accessory off-street parking, fence height, and fence opacity.
MI 2023-003-508-2125 Pell Thorpe Street.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Mr. Farfan, stay on, please.
So MI 2023-003-489-2142 North Hancock Street.
This application for the creation of one side yard accessory service parking.
This application for the creation of one side yard accessory service parking, the erection of a side yard deck, and the erection of a solid 72-inch high wall at the rear of the second floor deck for use as a multiple family household living, three dwelling units.
Surface parking spaces and detached garages and carports are prohibited in the required front, side, and rear yards.
The proposed accessory parking is prohibited unless it can be accessed from a shared driveway, alley, or rear street on which no street parking is permitted, whereas the Hancock is not considered a rear street.
Decks are prohibited in the required side yard.
The proposed solid 72-inch wall on the second floor roof deck is prohibited.
There is a letter of support from NARS Square Alliance and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning, sir. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is
needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. Yes, we have. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Yes. As I stated on the document, we are asking for two different things. One is
we're planning to do, we would love to do a first floor, but because of the
narrowness of the garden, we're asking for a little bit of a wider, and I believe
that's one aspect. We also, we live in a
three-story brownstone, and we have rentals, and so part of the idea is to have
a parking space for us, and a parking space for the renters, which is, that's the one on the back.
And then a privacy wall on the second floor, we built a deck a few years
ago, and we are actually facing the back of our neighbor. And so the privacy
wall is for the deck not to intrude on my neighbor's bathroom. Before the wall, we actually
had direct access to my neighbor's bathroom. And so, that's a little bit uncomfortable for both of
us. Let me show you a few pictures. Let's see. Again, this is actually for the front. We just
saw the back. We're on the front or right across Hancock Street. And then let me do this. Yes.
And so, this is the front of our house. It's a three-story building with this very narrow
garden on the back where we have the gate so we're asking for the gate to be the parking spot and then
as you continue you notice that it's really really long it's just narrow but really really long
and so i'm not sure if it can be seen but there's actually a um bay window that we're hoping to uh
to get rid of and then be able to like play the the the deck on that side and as you can see the
the garden is very narrow and so that's the idea also for having a deck really wider than
Otherwise, it would be almost like a sidewalk as opposed to a proper deck.
This is the front of it, which is the space.
The second picture here is the front of it.
So, that's where the parking of the car will be.
Hoping to have some sort of cobblestone that would be nice to follow up with the Philly style.
Yes. And this is actually the back.
So, as you can see on the second floor, we created a deck a few years ago,
and we put a privacy wall, which is, I guess, solid, I guess, if you look at it from a perspective.
but this is actually the back of my neighbor's house.
And so my neighbor's is a small row house,
where the bathroom, as I said, is on the second floor.
And so for the longest time, I could peek into his bathroom,
and that wasn't appropriate.
This is the view of the deck from our side.
So as you can see, it's solid.
So it's actually worse on both ways.
I also have a picture of the actual diagram.
And let me see if I can zoom a little bit more.
Yes, a little bit.
Yeah, so this is basically, this is the front of the house.
that's where the two cars are, on Hancock, which is on the North Square Park side.
So the idea will be that as the gate, the way we already have in place for that to become a parking spot.
And then the deck will be on this side of the house, which will be on the garden side, so to speak, on the right side.
So try to make that wider.
And then the privacy will be on the second floor, which is on this portion here.
so it's actually a view of the whole the whole project right so i've been lucky enough to be
able to purchase the property in the back so this allows for two parking spots one for my
renter and one for myself uh and let's see last thing i have i do have the also the
the rco but we had a few weeks ago so that was a support eight or post three uh here is the
I believe there's a STRIX review, and last but not least, we also have the no tax, or the tax clearance letter.
So, yes, and I think that's all I got.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Comments from the virtual audience?
There are no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman and board members.
Good morning.
David Fecta with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends this property for residential single-family zoning.
However, in a community requested rezoning in 2021, the Neighborhood Association requested the current zoning of residential multifamily.
The appellant has a lot fronting on Norris Square.
Hancock Street has parking on both the east and west sides.
Off-street parking is an unusual condition on this block.
There's only one other curb cut.
There's also a new row home at 2100 Diamond Street on the same block as this, as the proposed project, which received permits in 2021 and does not have a curb cut.
And the proposed curb cut will remove a street tree, an action which conflicts with the city's tree plan.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed variance for a 72-foot wall at the rear of the property,
but deny the proposed variances for a deck in the side yard
and for off-street parking access from a primary street.
Thank you.
Sir, I'm going to hold this until next week.
We'll vote on this next week.
I just want to have a conversation in an executive session
with the rest of the board.
So thank you for your presentation.
We'll vote on this next week at 9.30 on Wednesday.
Thank you.
All right, we're going to go to number one, MI 2023, 004-856-853 North 42nd Street.
Richard DeMarco is the attorney, Golani Development.
There's a recommendation of support from the West Belmont Civic Association.
And Council Member Gauthier has taken a position of support.
Richard DeMarco has been promoted.
Good morning, Mr. DeMarco. State your name, please, for the record.
Richard DeMarco, last name spelled D-E-M-A-R-C-O.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Do you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yeah, Golani Development is the client. They are the owner.
it's now lc and our vice chair has a few questions for you sure good morning council do you agree to
waive the reading of the refusal stipulate to his accuracy i do have you emailed in all the
required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to perceive this case five days in
advance of this hearing i do uh but the uh proviso plans form got stuck and i had to send it on
monday to hillary sorry about that but yes otherwise yes thank you council please proceed
Right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, members of the board. Richard DeMarco here for the applicant. And yes, we did meet with the RCO, did obtain support. I'm going to put the refusal on the screen first.
this is a little bit unusual in that the RSA 5 zoning was very recently initiated for this
property. The applicant and the owners have been operating under the assumption that it was RM1.
So that, and it was literally a matter of weeks whereby the new ordinance that changed the zoning
was passed by city council and reported out of committee. The pending ordinance doctrine applied
and the applicant, even though both L and I and the applicant were all operating under the RM1
zoning, it was literally changed after the application was filed, but we missed
the cutoff because it was reported out of committee before the application was filed.
So we are under the pending ordinance doctrine of the zoning code. We have to deal with the RSA-5. So that is why the refusal, you'll see there's a 45-foot proposed height. More on that in a moment.
But that was intended to be an as-of-right scenario because they were taking advantage
of the mixed income bonus height bonus, also the density bonus for RM1.
That is why five units were proposed.
This was going to be an as-of-right project under the RM1 based on a mixed income scenario
where they promised to pay the in-lub fee and be able to build a higher property.
uh, um, property. What happened was we realized that, um, we would be meeting with the neighbors.
What happened was we realized...
We wanted to try to maybe do something that might be amenable to the neighbors. So the plan was
revised to meet the height requirement. Okay. So we have, we are not requesting this 45 feet,
as you see on your screen, we are requesting a 38 foot tall structure and we are meeting the
setback requirement for the third story i'll show you more on that later um the third story sets
back eight feet and meets that requirement okay and you'll see it in the rendering it mitigates
the view and we actually meet the cornice line i'll show you that in the rendering in a moment
and we knocked off one unit so we are a total of four units okay and obviously the community
was receptive to this. The property is not in good condition. As a matter of fact, let me go
ahead and segue down to some of the photos. You can see the property is not in the greatest
condition. There are some serious renovations that need to be done. You can see it's boarded up.
There's our posters. Let me show you the panorama. There's some issues with the structure,
as you can see here. More boarded up windows. The facade is crumbling. We are going to retain
the structure, renovate it, clean it up, clean up the property, et cetera. That's the posting
of the refusal. Let me show you the block. So there are some larger structure. There is some
multifamily on the block. This is the property here. We are setting back. So let me go ahead
and get to the... This is the Z1, Mr. Chairman. This is the revised drawings. You can see the
setback here. That's the eight-foot setback, and only four units is proposed. And that's in the
proviso plans form that has been sent, that was added to the packet and was also sent separately
to Hillary. Here you can see the rendering of the proposed building. You see the setback here.
So we are not crowding the neighboring properties, okay?
This is the materials.
There's the third story there.
All right, let me show the...
In a minute.
So I don't believe we have opposition.
So at the conclusion, I will ask the board to...
Let me show this.
Actually, let me show the proviso form.
This is the Z1 drawing, one page. We'll ask the board if they're willing to grant these variances to stamp the revised plan so we have the four units and only the 38-foot height instead of what's reflected in the refusal.
Here's the proviso form that I sent to Hillary. It must have got stuck between the pages, and I submitted it accordingly.
Okay. Last but not least, I'll show the RCO letter. So, I mean, these are the mailings and the certificates of mailing that we sent in advance of the neighborhood meeting. Had a nice meeting with the neighbors.
Here's one more thing, and then I'll go to my client.
Here's the neighborhood letter.
So there was one opposition, but you see pretty strong support from the neighborhood group.
So to conclude, Mr. Chairman, obviously we feel there's a hardship that's brought on by the unique scenario whereby this was RM1 for decades and was literally changed while the application was being submitted.
So the client expended significant sums and money on a development that would have been an as-of-right project, would have taken advantage of a beneficial policy of the city involving the mixed income bonus.
That was taken away by the rezoning of the block to RSA 5, but we were already committed to the project.
So we modified the project to meet some concerns.
We think this is a beneficial scenario. The property will be cleaned up, will be well managed. There's trash storage available for all tenants in the rear yard that's accessible to all the tenants. It's going to be cleaned up. And obviously, we feel that it's a necessary variance to overcome the hardship of having had the property change classifications literally in midstream.
Even L&I didn't know and had to let them know at the last minute that they would have to issue a refusal.
They actually approved it first and then took it back saying, oh, sorry, that was changed to RSA 5 and we have to issue a refusal.
So let me ask Jason Fumann to raise his hand virtually and I'll ask him to adopt my testimony.
raise his hand virtually, and I'll ask him to adopt my testimony. And I think in light of the
and I think
support from the RCO, we can then conclude and rest with our exhibits. So Jason, if you're with
us, I'm sorry, it might have been Scott. My fault. There's two brothers. My bad. I think it's Scott.
Scott? Yes, Scott Fullman will be allowed to speak.
Yeah, sorry about that.
Thank you.
Yeah. Scott, are you with us?
I'm mute. Yep. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Scott Fubin, S-C-O-T-T-F-U-I-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Fubin, did you hear my opening and presentation and the facts and circumstances that I laid out for the board?
Yes. Are they true and accurate to your information and knowledge? Yes. Can you adopt them at my statements as your official testimony in this matter? Yes. With that, Mr. Chairman, we would ask the board to grant the variances with the proviso plans form, single page, based on the support of the neighbors and the unusual circumstances involving the zoning, recent zoning changes.
Thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from Hillary Emerson, our attorney?
Just a quick question. Mr. DeMarco, I can't tell from the refusal, is the existing structure being demolished and a new structure being built, or are you building on top of the existing structure?
um my understanding is it's not being fully demolished it's they are obviously bringing
it back to to a shell and renovating but i'll ask scott to confirm that because i i believe
that's the case but i uh you're right the refusal is not specific about that so let's ask scott
can you answer that can he be um allowed to go ahead he just needs to unmute
oh the architects are available as well scott's scott are you with us
yes he's there he's just muted
there he is yeah i mean architects can answer better but the the rco
asks us that we keep the front
so facade.
Right, Bar?
So Bar Levy
is the architect. Let's get
the definitive answer. That's a good question because
I don't want to confuse an L and I later in the game.
Okay, so Mr. Levy,
Mr. Levy, come on and state your name,
please, and spell for the court stenographer.
Raise your hand. Yeah, raise your hand virtually.
Bar Levy here.
B-A-R-L-E-Z-Y.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Levy, the question is asked, is this a full demolition or is this a renovation of the property, the existing structure?
So as it stands right now, the entire rear of the building is failing.
However, the front wall will be maintained.
So it's a combination of the two.
We will bring it to a shell while supporting temporarily the front wall and attaching to it the new foundation and the new structure to come to the back.
So we are, this was a response to the neighborhood wanting to remain at the front wall where it is, and so it will remain.
It looks like a demolition.
All right.
Thank you so much for the clarification.
All right.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning.
with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the residential single family zoning at this location the zoning here was changed from
residential multi-family to residential single family in 2023 during a community requested map
change under the proposed under the previous zoning four dwelling units would be allowed by
right the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variance for four
dwelling units. Thank you. MI 2023, 004-856-853 North 42nd Street. I vote yes. Revised plans,
one page, stamped by ZBA on January 10th, 2024. Maximum four dwelling units.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
So, Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, we're provisos.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you, everybody.
Have a great day.
Have a great day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2023, 003-447-2926 Ridge Avenue.
Number two, am I...
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
We do not at this point have an RCO letter from the Strawberry Mansion CDC.
Vern Anastasio is promoted to panelist.
good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
good morning Mr. Chair Vern Anastasio A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O I represent Ms. Nia Logan owner of
the property in question right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth I do sir our vice chair has just a few questions good morning counsel
do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy? I do. Have you
emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this
case five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, sir. Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share
your screen. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Chair, members of the board, 2926 Ridge Avenue. This is not,
we're not here seeking a variance we're here for a special exception uh it is a referral which as
you know means that our proposed use is in fact considered compatible with the code my client
would like to do an event space in in this commercial space and that's why we're here
i'm going to show you some of the interior layout
and some photos before I go over some details with you.
This is a longstanding commercial space on a longstanding commercial corridor of Ridge Avenue.
In my exhibit packet that I offer today, there's 40 pages of history from L&I that detail the previous uses.
This is the property in question.
As you can see, there are residential units above.
And there's your proof of posting.
This is Ridge Avenue. This is the block. As you can see through the aerial shot, there is lots of vacant lots on this particular block.
We've got vacancy all through here and in here to the left.
We've got additional vacancy adjacent to the neighboring property.
So this is, unfortunately, a block that has historic disinvestment over the last several decades.
Here we are over here.
And then, again, there's a different view of the various vacant lots.
In addition to the vacant lots, there are many vacant storefronts.
And for those reasons, my client was interested in breathing new life into the commercial corridor.
uh with the uh the uh use of the uh event space uh as i said there's many open storefronts my
client will be living above in one of the residential units uh and the the space is
not very large but it is large enough for small events there'll be no third party uses or promoters
uh there will be my client does have experience uh running event space uh she has previously run
space in new york city she will be testifying this morning uh again that's small space strictly
for birthday parties funeral lunches baby showers there'll be no events after 11 p.m there'll be
commercial trash pickup uh and security lighting and cameras installed at the front and the rear
of the property. There is a rear yard for storage of trash. There will be no, these events will have
no cover charge, no promoter events. As I said, it'll be managed by the owner because she'll be
an owner occupant. And at night, this is a very dark and empty block of Ridge Avenue. I think
block of Ridge Avenue. I think some of that has to do with the many vacant storefronts and,
some of that has to do with the many.
of course, the many vacant lots. The proposed use, as you'll see in testimony and through the
evidence that I submit today, will not impact the immediate area any more than a similarly
situated use would be expected to impact. And with that, I'm going to ask my client,
Nia Logan to raise her
virtual hand.
Nia Logan
is allowed to speak.
Good morning. Could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure. My name is Nia Logan
and as in Nancy, I A
Logan, L-O-G-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Receive counsel. Thank you, Mr.
Chair. Ms. Logan, did you hear my presentation to the board this morning?
Yes. Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge? It is. Do you adopt it as your own
testimony? I do. Thank you. And I know you might have something to add, so please
share with the board your vision for this space as an owner, as an occupant, as the manager of
the space. Of course. Thank you, Vernon. Thank you, everyone, for hearing the case today.
So I do want to, you know, give everyone an understanding.
I do have about a year of experience running an event space similar to what I plan to do with this one.
There's been no issues without my previous one.
And it was also a small, intimate event space.
So I kind of understand the type of usages that it could be.
I intend to have different types of events, various events, and it can be open to open mics, pop-up shots for local entrepreneurs, small dinners, photography events, content creation events, meetings, game nights, and that's the normal usage of that type of event space.
I also wanted to, once this was through, kind of hopefully registered to be like an official vendor of the Board of Education so that, you know, I can also have, you know, the neighboring schools and stuff have events there.
I know I spoke to something like that. So I do want it to be a space that is varied and has varied usage and has, you know, opportunities for the community to use it for a good purpose.
Um, uh, what else I will be using, um, vetting most of the, um, events through a website called
peer space, uh, which is like an Airbnb for, um, event spaces where you, uh, a guest has to,
you know, describe the type of event has to post a picture. There are, you know, certain filters
that come, certain insurances that come with using that, um, website. And it allows me to
have a greater control over the guests and the usage and, you know, understand what kinds of
events, you know, people intend to have so that I can deny or accept accordingly. As Vern said,
I do have ADT security around the space. So I have flood lighting in the front and a camera
in the front, as well as the camera in the back, a camera within the space, as well as
sensor, like door and window sensors. So anytime someone opens the door, anytime there's motion
detected, I will be notified. Thank you. And also one caveat I think you had mentioned earlier,
you would make the space available to the local RCOs and the community associations for meetings
as well as part of those events, right?
Yes, I definitely hope to.
Thank you.
I have nothing further, Mr. Chair,
having met all the elements of a special exception here.
Counsel, could you comment on the Strawberry Mansion CDC meeting?
We met with them.
We have proof of mailing that we've already submitted.
It seemed to be, folks seemed to be interested in it,
but we did not get any indication as an official position.
all right all right questions from the board no mr chairman no chair questions or comments
from virtual uh our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from
the virtual audience yes chair i have reverend tyrone williams and i will allow him to speak
good morning reverend good morning uh sorry
good morning reverend good morning uh sorry for uh no no no no no why don't you why don't you
state your name for me first sure tyrone williams tyrone c-y-r-o-n-e williams w-i-l-l-i-a-m
right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do please proceed sir first i want to start off with some apologies first off for
getting the letter to y'all late.
I did submit it.
But I just want to give you a synopsis
of what happened in the meeting.
Yes, there was a presentation
by Mr. Stagio and his client
on this property.
And after that presentation,
the client got a history lesson
of the violence
and has transpired
along that block,
along that corridor.
Just prior to their meeting,
there was a murder
right across the street from the very same property.
Now, I just want to bring attention to this board,
our plight here in Strawberry Mansion.
Not only that, there's another venue in the same block
that is like a nightclub setting in the same area.
That's a concern of ours.
There's a nuisance area a block away at 30th from Ridge.
That's a concern of ours.
Um, and, um, we know that the community is changing over, but it has not changed as of yet. We still have high balance along that one quarter.
We have given also the applicants some suggestions of what can be done with that location.
And the vote was an overwhelmingly no because of what I aforementioned, the violence in the area.
So at this time, our position is in opposition of it being used as is, as a venue space, because we have had recent trouble, and it was already testified that it's been that type of venue for years, and there's been a lot of balance because of that, too.
And those of us that live here, we are aware of that. So the position of the CDC is in opposition. As if they came back with another use, as we have suggested, we will consider that, but we cannot consider this project as is.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair?
I know. Do you want to respond?
Just briefly, first, no, just to respond, I understand and respect Reverend Williams testimony, and I and my client, I'm sure, sympathizes with the past issues that may have befallen the Strawberry Mansion community.
However, none of it has anything to do with this property.
None of it has anything to do with the proposal.
And based on the special exception analysis, unless there is specific evidence detailed in either a letter or in testimony,
that this specifically proposed use by my client would have any kind of negative impact that otherwise would not happen in a similarly situated use.
Unless that evidence is clear and presented, it just presented, then the special exception would apply here.
And again, 33rd and 30th and Ridge and nightclubs down the block are completely different uses than what we're trying to do here.
Therefore, they would not be germane or relevant to what we're proposing.
Can I reply to that?
Okay. And I do agree that what I've testified may not have anything to do with the special exception.
But as a RCO, as a community resident, as a resident who lives in Strawberry Mansion, we're just asking the board to consider the fact that we are already in transition in our community.
We have a lot happening in Strawberry Mansion.
We can't consider these type of exceptions, perhaps in the near future.
But right now, we're trying to get a hold of protecting our community.
Like I said, the venue is so close to another venue.
It may not have nothing to do with it because of the rules of the exception.
It may not have nothing to do with it because of the rules of the exception, but we will face the fallout or whatever may happen if this is granted.
But we.
We're asking to have enough time.
And if this evidence is needed to be presented, which just came to me, I can get that evidence from the 22nd Police District life today.
That's how relevant my testimony is.
And it's about safety. So I just want to put that out there.
All right. Thank you. Mr. Chair, any evidence that the opponent would propose would still be unrelated to this specific use of the opponents?
Don't you know, with respect, they don't meet their burden. We have.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I just heard about this evidence being needed. I'm just asking for.
Okay. I understand. I understand.
Listen, is there anyone else in the virtual audience who has a comment?
Yes. Strawberry Mansion Community has a hand up, and I will allow to speak.
Good morning.
Hello. Can you hear me?
Good morning. Good morning.
Could you state your name for the record, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
My name is Bonita Cummings, and that's B-O-N-I-T-A-C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, please, Ms. Cummings.
I just wanted to indicate that I am an affected ROCO for this location, 2926 Ridge Avenue.
And the community met on December 14, 2023, and a good amount of nearest neighbors are opposed to an entertainment event venue in the location of 2926 Ridge Avenue, as it is situated on a highway with no loading zone ability.
In front of that location, there is regular and heavy bus traffic along Ridge Avenue, severe speeding, and this creates very hazardous conditions based on it being situated in the middle of the block.
This is very dangerous for attendees of events, and it clogs up a major artery for traveling from one area to another along Ridge Avenue.
It is not fair to place pedestrians or people on a bus with constant delays due to parked cars or stopped cars in the highway while trying to take balloons, food, alcohol, and other items into this location.
Further, the owner talked about pop-up shops and three other uses or more.
We don't have a clear understanding of what the uses are and therefore creating further congestion along the Ridge Avenue area.
bus route and particularly in front of that location further these venues never come to
strawberry mansion community with a design that attracts other business owner interests
they have solid metal gating and this promotes ghettos and the look of a ghetto no thought is
put into the impact that failing to have fully planned to be a quality business the community
suffers. We deserve better. So we're just asking that this board would honor the
meetings opposition based on the danger and the delays that we would start to incur based on the
various types of ways in which this property is proposed to even be used. Thank you.
Okay. Mr. Chair, I just want a couple of rebots on that, if you don't mind.
Is that okay, sir? Yeah, sure. Thank you. First, we did in fact, my client has already said that when the use is in operation, the gating would be consistent with what the code requires. That's what you're seeing there is existing gating. It's not new. But if it's used as commercial space, we would, of course, be compliant with the building code with respect to gating.
And again, this is not an entertainment venue. This is a small event space, the use of which is already considered compatible with the code.
This is small private parties, the pop-up events. It's all consistent with the small events.
And it's on a block, by the way, that is 40 percent vacant of either vacant lots and then another 10 percent of vacant storefronts.
So to suggest that there's any sort of congestion or.
So to suggest that there's any sort of congestion or activity is just not accurate.
In fact, we believe by having some space that is lit up with activity, the crime issues that the immediate area is experiencing would actually come down because you'd have some eyes on the street and some folks with some street activity.
and that's consistent with you know with other commercial corridors that have gone through some
changes my client has the experience and the business plan that we've presented today we've
and i believe we've met our burden for a special exception is there anyone else in the virtual
audience uh there are no more hands here okay planning commission thank you chair bergman and
Good morning, David Vecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed-use zoning at this location.
The appellant has shown that the proposed assembly and entertainment will have no detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might be expected.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant a proposed special exception for assembly and entertainment.
Thank you.
MI 2023-003-447-2926 Rich Avenue.
No, I'm no, I know.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2023-004-274-5800 Catherine Street.
David Chandler is the attorney.
There's a letter of non-opposition from Cobbs Creek Neighbors.
Council Member Gauthier has taken a position of support.
Mr. Chandler is coming back in as a panelist.
Good morning, Mr. Chandler.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure. David Chandler, C-H-A-N-D-L-E-R, along with co-counsel Helen Beck, B-A-I-K. And we represent the applicant who is here. And his name is Stanislav Tejeda. His first name is E-S-T-A-N-I-S-L-A-O. And his last name is Tejeda, T-E-J-A-D-A. Mr. Chairman, as a matter of fact-
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on one minute.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth,
to hold truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
And you'll be doing the presentation, sir?
Yes, I will.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents
and exhibits that is needed and required
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Let me call it up.
Let's see.
Share screen.
Share.
Let me...
Ah, let me call it up.
Sorry.
So Chandler, if you're having a hard time getting this up, why don't I move on and I'll
come back to you, okay?
Okay, thank you.
All right, so we'll come back to you, sir.
I could share.
right you don't have to you're gonna have to log off there a minute now we'll come back okay
Number 11, MI 2023-003-481-4329 Westminster Avenue.
Cheryl Gaston is the attorney.
Recommendation of support from the West Belmont Civic Association.
Cheryl Gaston has been promoted, Chair.
Good morning, Council.
Could you unmute, please?
Okay. I'm unmuted. And start my video. Thank you.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay. Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Okay. My name is Cheryl Gaston. I'm an attorney with Spruce Law Group.
My client is Unity Properties, LLC, with the principal being Liliana Delpen.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon. Good morning, counsel. Do you agree the way the reading of the refusal to stipulate towards accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Could I have my paralegal, Christine Schlosser, promoted so she can help me with that?
You can.
Thank you.
She's coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Yes. This concerns a property at 4329 Westminster Avenue, and you may recall that on December the 20th, we had a companion case to this one, 4313 Westminster Avenue, and we have the same situation as Mr. DeMarco.
This is a property that was zoned RM1 when my client purchased the property, and during the course of applying for permission to use it for multifamily use, which would have been permitted in RM1, it was changed to RSA5.
um so i'll go through the documents and i guess probably the best way to start is to go to
the notice of refusal thank you and you can see where it says zoning districts rm1 change
to rsa5 so this happened during the course of uh the uh approval for uh this particular use
and going back to the documents which we are required to produce we'll start with
i have the agreement of sale and deed um maybe it's overkill but it just will happen we had both
documents so can we go back yeah um and uh so uh can we just go through scroll through please
Christine, this is the agreement of sale, and then there is the actual deed, and it is noted on the notice of refusal that the owner of the property is my client, Unity Properties, LLC.
see. And then we go back to the notice of refusal, which is again for the multifamily use. We also
you can go to the plan now. Thank you. So this is what the property looks like or will look like
when we get done with it. Next page, please. This is the plan that was submitted. What we're asking
What we're asking to do is to add a small addition to the second floor and the third floor so that the rear of the property is the same for all floors.
to do is to
Next page, please.
This is, again, pictures of the property as it exists now, and it's in pretty poor condition.
But next page, please. Again, this is what we are planning to do with it. Next page, please. This is showing the additions. There's a third story addition and a second story addition on the rear of the property.
So we don't have any refusals with respect to your rear yard depth or anything. It's just that the properties are now able to be used per floor for the proposed use.
Next page.
And this is what the units, what we're proposing in terms of the units.
There'll be two bedrooms, one bath, kitchen, living room, little dining area per floor.
And there are slight differences in terms of the square footage, but basically they are
about the same in terms of square footage.
Next, please. And what we're showing here is as part of the
request from the community group, although they didn't put it in the
meeting summary, they had asked us to add a trash enclosure. So we have done that. And we did that with the 4313 Westminster property as well, because although they asked us for it and we agreed to do it, when they sent the meeting summary, they didn't put it in there.
And we checked back with them to just make sure that we were doing what they had asked us to do.
Next, please.
This is the picture of the posting.
And next.
That's the Google map that we put in.
And then next, we have the, this is the meeting summary where this was approved, and both of these were approved by the West Belmont Civic Association and Belmont Alliance Civic Association on the same date.
We had the hearing on October 18th, and they approved them both at this time.
Next is, this is the email from the Planning Commission informing us of the RCO, coordinating RCO and the RCOs involved with this property.
and they were the same this is the addresses because they're just they're on the same block
and just a little distance from each other was basically the same addresses the same
community RCOs the same coordinating RCO this is our zoning notice letter that went out
We actually had to do two. We didn't get notice from them about a date, so we sent out one without
a date and then we got a date from them. And then these are their certificates of mailing.
And again, our issue problem is that when purchased, this was RM1 and then in the midst of
trying to get the approvals, it was changed to RSA 5. The multifamily use is what had long time
been the zoning for the area and more appropriate considering that this particular block has a
a number of other multifamily uses on this block,
including two by my own client.
Is your client here?
I hope so.
I hope so.
Liliana, are you here?
When you bring your client, I want to adopt your testimony.
Liliana, can you raise your virtual hand?
I don't see her there.
So, counsel, you're an officer of the court.
We will gladly take your testimony.
Questions or comments from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No, Haines, Chair.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chairman and Board Members.
Good morning.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
The zoning maps were changed here in 2023 from residential multifamily to residential single family during a community requested map change.
Under the prior zoning, three dwelling units would be allowed by right.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant a proposed use variance for three dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2023-003-481-4329 Westminster Avenue. I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shkahi, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, board members.
Thank you.
That completes my business, Mayor B.
All right, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number 12, MI 2023-003-441-5201-19 Winfield Avenue.
letter of non-opposition from the Winfield Residents Association.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
Zen Jin has been promoted to panelist.
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N, last name J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard.
Suite 1838, Philadelphia PA 19103 here on behalf of the applicant.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
My client is the Fairview Apartments LLC.
They're the owners of the property.
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal to stipulate towards accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I will share with the board the documentation previously submitted.
Apologies.
So I have up before the board the refusal. Can everyone see my exhibit?
We can, sir.
Thank you. This is an application for essentially an expansion of an existing use or a change of the existing use within a large apartment complex that is zoned in RSD-3.
However, historically, this property was previously approved for this use for a long time.
And one part of that approved use was a medical office and 43 dwelling units back in 1988.
Since that time, the medical unit has decided to move on.
And because of that, my client would like to change the space that is taken up by the medical unit previously into three separate, I'm sorry, four additional residential units, making this a total of 47 units from the 43 medical office use.
So the RCO did not oppose our request.
This is a large apartment complex that has existed here for some time.
Although one neighbor did mention some issues with trash,
we had put her in touch with the manager of the property to work out those particular items.
So as a result, we've had received non-opposition to our request.
To better understand the exact nature of our application,
This is the building in question on the map, and this is an overhead view of the existing apartment building.
So the application itself is only for a small portion within the apartment building.
Application itself is only for a small portion within the apartment building.
Once you enter the units, it's actually a portion of the building that is in the one corner entering through this entrance that is now empty and will be refitted into residential units.
It's essentially before it was a larger unit, all taken up by the medical use.
And now we will divide it into smaller uses of individual apartments, which would be consistent to the rest of the building, which are all apartments as well.
So here are the actual refit out of the spaces.
As you can see, they will come up the hall and you have the individual units accessed.
and it only takes up a small part of the corner of the overall building this is essentially
a expansion of an existing use and it's not a major change even though it is zoned rsd this
this is a use that's been here for many years so we do not believe that it would cause any new
hardship or change in hardship to the community and given its historical approval for
the number of units already there, and at one point prior to the medical unit, it was actually
approved for even more residential units, so we would ask for the board's favorable consideration
in this request. I do have the manager of the property as well as Mr. Nathan Ward, a representative
here, to verify my testimony. Bring whoever you want, bring on a verifier, and my understanding
I mean, this is an addition of four apartments, am I right?
Yes, it's just addition of, so changing what was the medical office.
Yep, yep, I got it.
Yep, okay, thank you.
Mr. Ward, can you raise your hand to be identified?
I've raised my hand.
Good morning, Mr. Ward.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning, Chair.
Good morning, board members.
Ward, W-A-R-D, 18 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, Suite 1400B.
Right. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Ward, did you see my presentation to the zoning board as well as hear my representation to the zoning board?
Good morning, counsel. I did. There is only one thing that I would change.
We are proposing to revert the usage to three units as opposed to four units.
I'm sorry, so three additional units, not four.
Again, which was what the original use of the building was prior to them converting the space to medical office back in the 1980s under previous ownership.
Great. Now, with that correction, would you be willing to verify that the remaining of my testimony or presentation would be true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
questions from the board no mr chairman questions or comments from hillary emerson our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and good morning david effectos
with the city planning commission uh chamber and board members the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the residential single-family detached zoning at this location, the appellant
seeks to convert medical space in a legally non-conforming apartment building into three
dwelling units, bringing the total dwelling unit count to 47. The proposal brings the building
closer into conformance with the residential zoning district, and the proposed three additional
dwelling units will not injure the use of adjacent properties. The City Planning Commission recommends
of the board grant a proposed use variance for multifamily residential dwelling units
okay thank you just one thing zen yes the are we at 46 dwelling units because you had 43 and a plus
three um so i let's go back to the refusal i think that would be uh the clarifying so it is um it's
moving up to 47 total units i i guess it was but in 88 it was 43 and he said it was a plus three
Yes, but I think the ADA numbers might be off by one.
Mr. Ward, can you verify there's going to be a total of 47 units total?
Nathan, are you there?
Can you hear me?
Verifying that we would be moving to 47 units.
So there are 44 units now.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
MI 2023-003-441-5901-19 Winfield Avenue.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel. You have your votes.
Thank you. Have a good day.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Number 13, MI 2023-001-967-6614 North 13th Street.
Darlene Threat is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from the
Oak Lane Community Association
There appear to be a split vote
Darlene 3 is promoted to panelists, Chair
Good morning, Council
good morning commissioner darling on behalf of the applicant
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do can you identify your client the relationship to this property
my client is actually uh miss uh vedita cadilio who's the applicant the owner who i also represent
today is noelis perez okay uh our vice chair has just a few questions
good morning counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy yes i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed
and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes i have
thank you please proceed and share your screen
good morning commissioners uh today i uh represent uh miss badita cadelio as well as the
applicant uh noelis perez let me just get my presentation up here can you see my presentation
we can we can yep okay uh commissioners uh the applicant purchased this property back in
2022 and proceeded to make a apartment on the lower level for his mother. I have
made a package today which contains 11 exhibits containing 43 pages. This is actually was a
single-family dwelling which was converted into a duplex. Commissioners, I'm going to
go through our package for you here today here is the refusal which shows you that this was actually
a rsa2 that multi-family are not permitted in this zoning district we filed an appeal to the
case and submitted the appropriate documents which i won't go through a tax clearance as well as the
Indeed. I'm going to start off with the plans here today, and I don't know why that plan is upside down. Commissioner, just give me a second. I think I have the wrong package opened.
Thank you.
Okay, I think this is the correct one where the exhibits are right side up.
Commissioner, I'm going to ask if you will come back to my presentation.
I believe I have the wrong package up, and I need to find it with my exhibits.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
We'll come back in about 10 minutes.
Number 15, MI 2023, 003-498-4023-27germtenance.
0-0-3-4-9-8-4-0-2-3-2-7-Germton Avenue.
Alan Dockamson is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the 13th Ward RCO Committee.
Alex Goldberg has been promoted to panelist.
Sure, sure.
Good morning, Mr. Goldberg.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
It's going to be me, not Alan, this morning.
Okay. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Alex Goldberg, A-L-E-X-G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in the relationship to the property?
Yes. My clients are Sukwinder Singh and Harwinder Carr. They're the owners of the property.
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
good morning counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed
and required to move and to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
i have thank you please proceed and share your screen
can you see my screen it's coming up yeah we have it we have it
okay so um thanks again my name is alex goldberg of knockamson pc
going to give a brief presentation uh regarding the variances requested at 4023-27 germantown
avenue and then i'll ask my client uh suquinder singh to come on and adopt my testimony
We are seeking variances for the approval of a personal vehicle repair and maintenance use, in addition to the previously approved uses at this location.
The backstory here is that this exact variance was approved in 2017.
The property owners, which were the same people then as they are now, opened in good faith.
They just unfortunately didn't pull the permit in time. It expired.
And when they were recently in the process of attempting a tire retailer license, they were notified that their zoning was not correct, which caught them by surprise.
They did some investigation, realized what had happened and hired us.
So we're going back through the process.
This is a actively operating neighborhood business that we're just trying to sort of get the zoning sorted out for them.
Here's a table of contents. We have a notice of refusal. There's two refusals here. A letter of support from the 13th Democratic Ward, which we met with on January 3rd and received unanimous support from.
A motor vehicle repair license, which was obtained at the time of the original variance.
The zoning map, photographs of the property, architectural plans and drawings, the RCO meeting notice, the application for appeal, the deed to the property, and the certificate of tax clearance.
So here's the notice of refusal. You can see it was issued in May of last year for personal vehicle repair and maintenance with one repair bay.
The refusals that you see on the screen, the first one is for the use itself.
This is IRMX. It's an industrial mixed use zoning classification.
So there are similar types of uses nearby. It fits within the fabric of the block.
And again, this has been in existence for seven years now.
The second refusal relates to parking that is required at a two-to-one ratio per repair bay.
We're not providing accessory parking spaces here for the code requirements.
We do have a 10,000 square foot structure here that's mostly open concept that has space for the storage of vehicles,
as does a lot, sort of an unoccupied portion of the lot.
That's a part of this parcel that you'll see on the site plan.
Here is the letter of support from the coordinating RCO.
You can see support nine to zero from their meeting
and a letter of rationale as well here stating that this is a win-win for the community.
They fully support this business, which is an asset to the community.
here's that license you can see it was obtained in june 12 20 june 12 2017 it's still active
um we're just hoping to get the the zoning permit straightened out and uh then ultimately they will
be obtaining a tire retailer license as well here's the zoning map irmx again this is a large
parcel um it's near icmx and i2 so this portion of the neighborhood
um it's near icmx and i2 so this portion of the the neighborhood here is is industrial uh in nature
neighborhood.
here's a google maps perspective you can see an outline of what that building structure looks
like it's rather large our lot itself is 10 880 square feet um here is a an aerial view of the site
on germantown avenue some photographs so this is the front of the property a current um you know
active represent or accurate representation of the current condition of the property and here it was
in 2017 um after they had obtained their variance you can see there's a big grand opening sign right
here at the front um they thought they had done everything right they almost did they just forgot
one last step, which was pulling that zoning permit. So that's why we're here now. Here's
the notice posting, which was posted on the property in multiple locations in a timely
fashion. Here's to the right of the property on Germantown Avenue and to the left.
Architectural plans and drawings. This is the same thing twice, essentially. You can see
this sort of hashed building structure here is the building. There's also an outdoor portion
of the lot here and here as well. This is a very basic floor plan of the building. You can see
there's a sort of a shop in the front, a waiting area, a bathroom, and then the rest of that is
is storage and workspace in an open concept in that building structure here's the rco meeting
notice it was mailed out in a timely fashion to 59 properties not a super dense area
here are the list of those addresses and the mailing certificates the application for appeal
and the project information form here's the deed to the property showing suquinder and harwinder
are the owners of the property and have owned this property since 2015.
And finally, the Certificate of Tax Clearance showing that the only taxes owed are those
that are not due yet for 2024.
A couple more notes.
This business operates during normal business hours so as not to disturb the community 9
They employ members of their own family as well as members of the community, not many
working at a given shift so there's not a large demand on um you know parking and uh just general
density when this business is operating um and it's it's known as sing tire center
uh so with that i would ask linder to uh adopt my testimony okay
good morning sir
Good morning.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Quinder Singh, S-U-K-H-W-I-N-D-E-R, last name Singh, S-I-N-G-H.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, Mr. Goldberg.
Good morning, Mr. Quinder. Did you hear my testimony today?
Yes, I did.
And was it true and correct?
And you adopted as if it were your own?
yes thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no chair no chair
what's your comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair
what's your comments from the virtual audience yes chair i have charles richardson and i will
allow him to speak morning mr richardson just state your name you've already been sworn
mr richardson there we go uh there you go there you go if you've always been sworn just state
your name charles richardson r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n office of councilwoman cindy bass room 508 city
hall the councilwoman is not opposed to granting the variance thank you very much for calling in
is there anyone else in the virtual audience
there are no hands here planning commission
thank you chair bergman and board members good morning david effecto with the city planning
commission chair and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the industrial and residential mixed use zoning at this location the zoning maps here were changed
in 2021 during a community supported map change this property has a documented history as a
personal vehicle repair and maintenance facility. The City Planning Commission recommends that the
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variants for personal vehicle repair and maintenance, and the proposed variants for not providing required parking spaces.
grant the proposed use variants for personal
Thank you. MI 2023-003-498-4023-27 Germantown Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ismail Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Goldberg.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
All right, we're going to go back to number three.
MI 2023-004-274-5800 Catherine Street.
David Chandler is the attorney.
David Chandler is coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Mr. Chandler.
Mr. Chandler.
I'm going to see if I can promote him again.
i see him at the bottom there okay mr chandler yes how did you you find your computer working
okay uh yes uh let me uh call up all right do me a favor just for the record you've already
been sworn state your name for the record uh david chandler c-h-a-n-d-l-e-r with co-counsel
Helen Beck, B-A-I-K, and let me pull up the exhibits.
Okay, please.
Okay, do you see them now?
No, we do not.
You do not?
We do not.
Share screen.
Let me put the share screen first.
Share.
It's coming up now.
Yeah, but we only see your, we don't, okay.
Do you see them now?
Yes, this is an application for a variance for, this is a grocery store and the applicant wishes to sell hot food.
So they need a variance for that.
He already sells cold food and all the other food items that a grocery store normally would have.
Now, let me go to the photographs. That would be very helpful. Okay, number 47. This is the storefront of the store at 58th and Catherine Street.
Then the next one, this is a side view, 58th and Catherine Street.
And 40, okay, and this is another side view looking down 58th Street.
and this is the front of the store the entrance now i'll show you some of the interior shots
this is a uh interior shot of the uh the store now towards the back you see where they uh sell
cold cuts and that's the area where the hot food preparation will take place uh this is uh near the
front of the store. And now this is the right side of the interior of the store. Again, you
can see the rear of the store where the hot food preparation will take place. Again, this is where
the currently cold cuts are sold. And this is the area in back of the counter where the hot foods
will be prepared. Again, this is the storage room in the rear. That's only the employees can go
there now i'll show you the zoning posters this is one in the front this is one on the side on the
58th street side and this is one the uh for the front door and also uh the uh at the community
meeting on december 4th the main concern of the uh community group was that the there would be
adequate trash pickup because with hot foods there would be a tendency to generate more trash.
So our client agreed that in addition to the once-a-week pickup by the city sanitation
department, he would hire a private hauler to haul trash away as needed probably at least once
as needed probably at least once a week if not more depending upon the volume of trash
a week if not more depending upon the volume of trash.
and this is the area in the rear outside of the store where you have the current trash
trash cans and he will have more if necessary there were
he did have a number of he circulated a petition among the neighbors and he got 225
signatures in support. This is the first page of about 25 pages, altogether around 225 signatures
in support of the proposal of the applicant. They want him to sell hot food. And we did send
a uh notices to uh about 189 neighbors on the on the list and this is the first uh
of four pages showing all the uh all the neighbors to whom we mailed the um the um
the notices to and this is the there were 179 letters to the neighbor's first class and they
were mailed in time for the meeting on December 4th. At the meeting, the community group issued
a letter of no opposition. So we respectfully asked the board to grant the variance and grant
the application of our client. Counsel, is your client here? Yes. As a matter of fact,
sure he uh we asked for a spanish interpreter but no one is available miss beck is fluent in
spanish so she can't interpret or well we can't i don't i don't believe we can do that we can only
interpret when we have uh okay well i i can ask him for me i can ask him about the uh uh
okay um well you're you're an officer of the court i mean yes you've you've been in front of him
before talking to him about this
and somebody explained to you
what he was saying to you, right?
You explained to him, right?
All right, we'll take your testimony
as an officer of the court.
Is that okay, Hillary?
That's fine, Mr. Chair.
Okay, good.
That's fine.
Thank you.
We're good.
We're good.
Questions from the board.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments
from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Comments from the virtual audience.
There are no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning, David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
This property has a documented history as a grocery store.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variances for multiple principal uses.
and for retail sales of food, beverages, and groceries.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2023-004-274-5800, Catholic Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Chandler.
You have your votes.
Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Number 13, MI 2023, 001-967-6614, North 13th Street.
Darlene Treat is the attorney.
Okay, we got it.
Darlene Treat has been promoted.
Good morning, counsel.
Counsel?
Council?
We're trying to repromote her chair.
Thank you.
Good morning, counsel.
Could you unmute, please?
Unmute.
Thank you.
Sorry about that, Commissioner.
Could you just state your name for the record?
You've already been sworn.
Darling 3, Darling 3 & Associates, 45 East City Avenue,
balakinwood pa19004 okay please proceed with your presentation
good morning commissioner i represent the applicants at 6614 north 13th street
i submitted a package of exhibits today which concern which contains approximately 43 documents
This is an application to legalize a duplex.
The applicant, Mr. Perez, bought this property back in 2022 and proceeded to make a residence in the bottom of this property for his mother.
The applicants did attend a meeting with the Civic Association where they explained that he wanted some separate quarters for his mother to live in.
It is my understanding that the applicant, his mother, and Ms. Cadelio went to the meeting.
Commissioner, you indicated that there was a letter of non-support.
I'd like to address that letter.
No, no letter of opposition.
a letter of opposition
it's my understanding that there was a meeting held here for this um project on september
23rd 2023 and the vote was actually a 21 to 10 in support of the application
But the board here decided that it was not a project that the board wanted to support.
I think you, well, it was eight unconditional support, 13 in support with conditions, and 10 in opposition.
Yes, and commissioners, we had no problem, but I don't know if the actual proviso that the supporters wanted is really enforceable.
The proviso that was suggested that's mentioned in the letter that this property is only used for the applicant's mother to live in the basement.
Once the property is sold, it would revert back to a single-family residence and that there would be no outside renters.
Only the family member could live in the basement.
Commissioner, this is what the property looks like.
It's a single-family residence residence.
She was not working today.
What's going on today?
This doesn't seem to be working.
I apologize. Here we go.
Commissioner, here are the plans for this property.
Basically, it is a two-story residence.
It's a first floor in the basement.
The basement is actually more than 50% above grade.
The applicant currently lives on the first level, and his mother lives here on the second level.
Here is a layout of how the property is designed.
As you can see, it's a pretty big property.
is the first floor residence up here.
First floor residence here, which has three bedrooms and
two bathrooms. The lower level has
four bedrooms and two bathrooms also.
Here is a picture of the posting. Here is a picture of the property
in general. There's some pictures of the
in general. There's some pictures of the neighborhood.
neighbourhood
That's the front of the property. Here's a picture of the interior of the property,
the upstairs bedroom, the living room.
The basement, another additional bedroom, the bedrooms and the bathroom in the basement,
the open area in the basement,
the kitchen currently in the basement,
or the lower level, I'm sorry,
the family room in the lower level,
more of the kitchen area of the lower level.
another bedroom
in the lower level office
so just additional pictures of what the
downstairs currently looks like
it's a bathroom
Commissioner, it was a meeting unnoticed for September 20th, 2023.
It was a well-attended meeting.
There was quite some discussion at the meeting.
Here are the certified receipt for the mailings for the meeting.
and here is the actual letter that came from the meeting. It reads that there were actually
21 residents in support of the request for the variance. There were 10 in opposition.
The main concern was they didn't really want a multifamily where it would be a rental for the
community, but they were satisfied with the representation from the applicant that the
apartment was made specifically for his mom, that his mom currently lives downstairs, and the
applicant was more than unwilling to enter into any type of provisal, indicating that the bottom
level would be for family use only for his mom, and if he were to sell this property, that he had
no opposition to reverting it back to single-family usage.
Commissioner, I didn't attend this meeting myself, and I'm not really sure
that that type of proviso can be
issued by the board. I would defer to
Ms. Emerson for that. With that, I would take any
questions that you had concerning the application.
Mr. Perez, can you
identify yourself for the record, please?
Mr. Perez is allowed to speak.
Please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, Mr. Perez.
Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court synagoguery?
Mr. Perez, can you unmute, please?
uh arlene you're an officer of the court we will lately take your testimony
okay okay thank you what questions from the board no no questions or comments from our attorney
hillary emerson um just briefly mr chair a proviso um limiting the proposed use of the
property to the current owner is not enforceable by the board because zoning runs with the land
um one option that could potentially be looked into but this would be a different
use would be an accessory dwelling unit at the property hillary how about a temporary variance
temporary variance we can do a temporary variance um but five year five year temporary variance so
but yeah the five year five year temporary variance so that'll they'll have to come back
They'll have to call.
um we we can do that um okay the feasibility of converting of it being converted back i i don't
know but technically we can do temporary variance all right thank you commissioner i had no objection
to a temporary variance thank you thank you questions or comments from the uh the virtual
community there are no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and good
morning david effecto with the city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the residential single family zoning at this location the zoning for this block dates
to at least 1979 there is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that
were prevented from being used in conformance with the zoning code and so the city planning
Commission recommends that the board deny the proposed use variance for two dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2023, 001-967-6614 North 13th Street. I vote yes. Temporary variance expires
1-10-28. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel thank you very much commissioners okay
is there anyone in the uh audience who the nine their 930 case has not been called
there are no hands here okay see everybody too thank you
you can proceed as you wish chair thank you good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i
will be chairing this afternoon the zba hearings with me is our vice chair ismail shaheed
present Mr. Chairman
our board member Thomas Holliman
present Mr. Chairman
and our board member James Snell
present Mr. Chairman
also present is Hillary Emerson
our attorney and our executive director
Tanya Sunken
here's our virtual format
be advised
proceedings are being recorded
video will be available by contacting
Tanya Sunken at phil.gov
for the benefit of our court stenographer
we ask attorneys and witnesses
to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone
and you wish to testify,
press star nine to raise your hand
and star six to unmute.
To an appearance statement,
call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email
and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question answer box on the screen
is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed
to our executive director, Tanya Sunke.
Let's look at our schedule
for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2023-003-305-8085-Rolland Street.
That case is continued.
Number five, MI 2023-005-752-32 West Seymour Street.
That case is continued.
Number six, MI-2023-001-070.
This is the third listing, 7080 East Worcester Street.
Is Mr. Nocklinson available?
Yes, Chair, Alan Nocklinson has his hand up, and I will allow him to speak.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Alan Ockamson.
Alan, just for the record, could you spell your name?
I mean, everyone knows him.
Could you please?
A-L-A-N, last name Ockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Ockamson, this is the third listing.
I understand you need a continuance.
So, first of all, happy new year to the board.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So in terms of my continuous request, so there's been requests by the community to make significant changes to our project.
requests by the community to make significant changes to our project. So we're working
So we're working.
diligently with our architect to provide revised drawings, which may require an authorization
letter. So I'm still waiting for the architect to give me those revised drawings so I can send
an appropriate letter to the ZBA. I would ask that we would be the moving party. We don't want to
clog the list. Just keep continuing it, but we want to keep this on the list.
Okay. Thank you. We will continue it with Attorney Moving Party. MI 2023-001-070-70-80
East Worcester Street, Cases Continuing Attorney Moving Party. Thank you. And then number seven,
MI 2023-002-778-2848 North 26th Street.
Cases continued.
Number 8, MI 2022-007-291-430 West Burks.
The request to continue to vote received from attorney,
A CBA drafted by the applicant and an amended refusal may be needed.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair?
Mr. Chair, you just need to read the part in all caps.
Thank you.
All right.
The board will reopen the record and schedule a resumption hearing in this matter for updates from counsel for the applicant.
The coordinating RCO, Council Member Lozada's office, when all parties indicate that they are ready to proceed.
The Planning Commission of the Public will be permitted to testify on any changes to the application since the September 20th hearing.
The applicant will be required to post the property for the resumptive hearing.
Thank you.
And then number 10.
MI 2023-003-011-906 South 49th Street.
This case is continued.
Mark must be heard.
Is there any other requests for continuance?
Yes, Chair, I have two hands up.
The first one is Jennifer Bazitlow, and I will allow her to speak.
Hello, Jennifer Bazitlow, B-A-Z-Y-D-L-O.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I continued your first, the case was number one on the list.
Correct. I just wanted to make sure, because I was just hired on this case, that my appearance was entered so that I receive notifications going forward.
The person who had been receiving the notifications is no longer involved in the case.
Okay. Yep.
I appreciate it.
Sure. Any other requests for continuings?
Yes, I have Joseph Consul. He's been allowed to speak.
Good afternoon, board, Joseph Consul.
Wait a minute. I just said, I had your case is number 10. Am I correct? 906 South 49th?
Yes. We're going to be withdrawing that. I'm sending an email now. So the continuance is not necessary.
Okay. Thank you very much. So MI 2023-003-011, 906 South 49th Street, case has been withdrawn.
Any other requests for continuance?
Yes, Mariana Dioza Cosme has a hand up.
Now she will be allowed to speak.
Hello.
Can you state your name and spell it, please?
Mariana Dioza Cosme, D-I-O-S-A hyphen C-O-S-M-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
What case are you here for?
So I'm here for MI-2023-005737.
Where's it at?
What's the location?
1924 Chestnut Street.
Okay, I, yep.
You're looking for a continuance?
It's my understanding that it would be, yes, a continuance with the attorney, sorry, moving party.
excuse me mr chair we only have a 1901 chestnut street um on the list today and the attorney um
we received exhibits not a continuance request for it uh i see the attorney's hand is raised
It's Joseph Ficarro.
Mr. Ficarro?
His hand went back down.
There he is. I will allow him to speak.
There he is.
I will allow him to speak.
Yes. Hi. Good afternoon.
Hi. Could you state your name for the record and spell it for the court reporter?
Good afternoon. May it please the board, Joseph Vaccaro, V-A-C-C-A-R-O, attorney for 1901 Chestnut.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you ready to go on with this case?
Absolutely. I even have my client, Mr. Brandstatter. He's in on the meeting, too.
And I'm also here for 1206 Walnut, same client.
The original person that came on, Mariana, what location are you talking about?
I am talking about 1924 Chestnut Street.
And it's my understanding that the attorney on file would be Meredith Furliger.
Uh huh. Yes. Hillary, do we have that anywhere today?
No, that is not on our schedule today. Ma'am, please reach out to RCOZBA at phila.gov to ask
more information about the status of that case. Thank you. Any other requests for continuing this?
Yes, I have phone number ending in 3552 and they are allowed to speak.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, Adrienne Fernandez, Swampoodle Neighborhood Partners Association, RCO.
My last name is spelled F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
What case are you here for?
2848 North 26th Street, requesting a joint request for continuance.
I sent a letter in late. The applicants
came to the first meeting, but no public, no
neighbors attended. Also, the affected RCOs were there.
Also, the applicants, we rescheduled the meeting and the applicants
became ill and they are still recovering
and we want to reschedule the meeting again.
Hold on a minute. Let me pull this up.
No, I see it. Okay. 2848 North 26.
Yeah, we already continued. I already continued that.
Okay, I didn't hear it. Sorry. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Any other requests for continuance?
No answer. Thank you. We're going to go to our add-on list.
number one
and I'll be voting
Thomas Holloman
number one
MI 2022
007 282
Orchid Lane
appeal granted
Thomas Holloman
my vote is appeal granted
Ishmael Shaheed my vote is appeal granted
the next several cases Mr. Shaheed will handle
I'm recusing myself from these cases
MI-2023-00
4049-282032, Diamond Street.
My vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Jane Snell, my vote is yes.
Mr. Snell, can you certify on this case as well as the next two?
Thank you.
Absolutely.
I certified that I watched the video and ready to vote on this case.
And as I stated, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Number three, MI-2023-0049302100 Diamond Street.
My vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
thank you certify mr okay do it for this one okay uh yeah we have to vote them separately
watch the video and ready to vote on this case and as i just stated my vote is yes
thank you thank you commissioner snow uh number four mi-2023-004929 2033 north 22nd street
my vote is yes
My vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman
my vote is yes
You got a certification one more time. Sorry. Sorry. I certify that I have watched the video
from this case and I'm ready to vote on this case and my vote is yes. Sorry about that.
No problem. Thank you very much. Thank you, Isha. Mr. Chairman. So, yes, I'm going back. So,
So number five, MI 2023, 005-146-4315 Boone Street.
I vote appeal denied.
James Snell, my vote is appeal denied.
Ishmael?
Yeah, I couldn't turn my mute back off.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is appealed tonight.
And number...
Hold on a minute.
I'll be right with you.
Number six.
MI 2023-005-346-4315 Boone Street.
I vote yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Do it again, Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
And number seven, MI-2023-004-606-3593, Primrose, my vote is yes, and that's Ishmael and James Snell again.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
We're going to move to our regular list.
Number two.
M.I. 2023-005-629-1901 Chessna Street.
Joseph Vaccaro is the attorney.
Letter of non-opposition from the Center City Residents Association.
Joseph Vaccaro is in as a panelist.
Mr. Vaccaro, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Let me try this again. Good afternoon. May it please the board, Joseph Vaccaro, VA, CCARO, Attorney ID 83366, on behalf of the applicant, Oak Berry.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Holloman, could you do a quick follow-up? Ishmael had to get off the phone real quick.
good afternoon good afternoon counsel good afternoon mr hollivan do you agree to waive
the reading of the refusal or referral and stipulate to his accuracy yes i do did you email
all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing yes i did with
the exception of the letter of non-opposition which i received over the weekend so that was
sent no later than monday thank you thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you
very much
We're doing 1901 Chestnut, correct?
We are, sir.
This is an application for a special exception to permit Oakberry
to run its store, which sells acai bowls and smoothies.
If I could show you the
photos of what the store looks like.
Then I'll share my screen.
Can you see the zoning notice?
We do see it, sir.
Okay, so I got the right one.
So I put up the zoning notice.
This is what the store looks like.
This is the inside.
This is the inside. Obviously, my client still has to clean up the place.
Obviously, my client still.
I'll show you the, there's no access to the back, so there will not be any photos of the back of
the building. I'm going to pull the nutrition fact booklet, showing some of the products that
would be sold i could just
how do i i'm looking for the screen again so i could share that screen uh can you can you see
the nutrition fact booklet you gotta roll it up i mean we see the front page okay yes but you see
that okay yeah okay that's basically the products selling in one in nine ounce bowls 12 ounce bowls
and 16 ounce bowls and 24 ounce bowls with the nutritional information uh essentially the hours
of operation would be seven days a week from nine to eight and as mr brandstatter who's in on the
meeting, they have stores in Florida, Washington, D.C., Chicago, all the major cities, and they're
looking to open up two locations in Philadelphia. One location at 1901 Chestnut, the other location,
which is coming up later on on today's list, at 1206 Walnut. Essentially, this is nutritious,
fast food. If the board
happens to have any questions
I could bring in Mr. Branstadter
in on the call.
Well, why don't you bring him in to adopt your testimony?
Sure. Mr. Branstadter
can you raise your hand?
Is that Alexander Branstadter? Yes, ma'am.
okay i will allow him to speak now mr brandstatter
can you hear me sir could you state your name and spell please for the court stenographer
okay can you hear me we can okay my name is alex alexandre brandstatter it's a l e x a n
B-R-A-N-D-S
T-A-T-T-E-R
Right. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Mr. Brandstatter, did you hear
my presentation?
Yeah, I saw.
Would you adopt it
as your own, as if you were testifying
yourself?
We are...
Start by saying yes.
Ah, yes, I'm sorry.
And what else do you have to add about your store and your operation?
We are bringing, just as a small store, we are bringing health fast food to the U.S.
We have more than 600 stores around the world, and we just started in the U.S.
in the west we had 20 stores and we hope we can open two stores in philly
uh our main goal is to bring a health fast food for for the people in the city
okay all right um and this is an application for a special exception
right i understand hillary we're going to do these separately right
um yes we get because they're they're different addresses different rcos
Thank you. Sure. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Just a quick comment, Mr. Chair. The refusal was a little bit confusing about the proposed use because it kind of mixed a couple of different eating and drinking establishment uses together.
so um i had prepared a proviso just to clarify the takeout restaurant yep did you hear that
thank you all right questions or comments from the virtual audience
there are no hands chair planning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
do you swear just just for the record peter spell your name yes my name is spelled p-e-t-e-r
b as in boy a as an apple r as in roger n as a nancy a as an apple r as in roger d as in dog
Do you swear a friend to tell the truth told you nothing but the truth?
do you swear a friend tell the truth told you nothing about the truth i do
I do, Chair.
We'll be right back.
Please proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX-4 commercial mixed use at this location.
We feel the proposed use would have no more impact than what could reasonably be expected.
Accordingly, we recommend the Board grant the special exemption.
Thank you.
So MI 2023-005-629-1901 Chester Street, I vote yes with proviso.
Approved use is a takeout restaurant.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you.
Mr. Vaccaro, we're going to go right to four while you're here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
MI 2023-005-628-1206 Walnut Street, Center's Recommendation of Non-Opposition from Washington Square West Civic Association, Letter of Non-Opposition from Council Member Squilla.
I think you sent this in with the other one, so I want to just start presenting.
Thank you very much. Again, this is an application. This is an appeal because we need to have
a special exception for the proposed use. We already are using the property. I could show
you the photo. Can you see the photo? We see the zoning notice. Okay. That's a photo of the zoning
notice. Scrolling down here, they're already in operation. Here's the front of the store.
Yeah, we see it.
So that's the front of the store.
That's the inside of the store.
I'll slow down here.
The inside of the store going down.
Here we have access to the back, so you'll be seeing a photo of the back and the back office.
This is the back.
okay and i already showed you in the previous presentation the uh nutritional facts and
let's see other i i think our attorney has a question for you hillary why don't you go right
away yeah no i did i did have a question on this one um because i was a little confused between
the pictures and the drawings how much seating was provided because the refusal may have the
wrong use on it depending on the number of seats that are being provided well uh there are no seats
in the store itself um the store is being used solely as takeout and and and maybe if i could
i could bring in mr brandstad or just to confirm that okay yes that that would be helpful because
the one the drawings showed that there were tables with some chairs and then but then the photos it
just kind of had that seating to wait for your order so it didn't have any like sit down any
sit down portion to it right there it's not being used as a sit down and and we could bring in mr
brandstatter that would be yeah that would be great if you could confirm thank you okay
any other questions from the board before we bring in mr brandstatter well why don't you
bring him in bring him in okay mr brandstatter could you yes okay do you need to swear him in
again mr chairman no no just state his name that's all he just states his name it's alexander
brand starter yep and i can confirm it's not it's not sitting no no seat inside just take out
all right thank you so much that that that me they could the category is then correct that
they had on their refusal so thank you thank you thank you questions from the board questions from
the board no mr chairman no chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands chair cleaning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing cmx5 commercial mixed use
at this location. We feel the proposed use would have no more impact than what could reasonably
be expected. Accordingly, we recommend the board grant the special exemption.
Thank you. MI 2023-005-628-1206, Walnut Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, I vote yes. Jane Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Vaccaro.
Thank you. That concludes my business. May I be excused?
Thank you. You can, sir.
Have a good one. Thank you.
Thank you.
Number three, MI2023004.
Number three, MI-2023-004874, 906 North Front Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Letter of None, Opposition from Council Member Squilla and Northern Liberties Association
has a proviso and a recommendation.
Alan Nockamson has been promoted.
Mr. Nocklinson, you've already been sworn in.
Just state your name for the record.
Alan Nocklinson.
Could you, oh, Mr. Holloman has a few questions for you.
Wait till he comes.
He'll be right back.
Here he is.
Mr. Holloman, could you follow up, give some follow-up questions, Mr. Nocklinson, please?
No problem, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, Counselor.
Good afternoon.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or referral and stipulate to its accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
All right. So I'm here to present 906 North Front Street. That property is owned by Nathaniel
Ittescu, who should be in the virtual audience. At the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask
that Mr. Ittescu virtually raise his hand, be sworn in, and I'll have a few questions for him.
So this zoning matter is with regards to visitor accommodations. We are hoping that the board
will grant a three-year temporary variance for this proposal.
So the first thing we'll review is a notice of refusal.
This is a single-family use and a single-family zoning classification,
and all we're looking to do is to have visitor accommodation use here.
Mr. Ittescu purchased the property in 2018 before there was enforcement by L&I
regarding these visitor accommodations,
and the change of conduct by L&I has caused us, you know, Mr. Ittescu to file an appeal
to hope to allow the legal use of the property. Prior to the change in the law, Mr. Ittescu
has used that property as an Airbnb. He's not using it now that way. But you'll see positive
reviews from him regarding this property. But in addition to the people who have used the property,
and have complimented Mr. Teskew
for being responsible short-term accommodations landlord,
we have a petition from nearby neighbors
as well as a letter of support
from the coordinating RCO
and the district council member.
We have, again,
the nearby visitor accommodation listings
to show that it's not out of character
to have visitor accommodations
in this part of Northern Liberties.
Also, we have the listing
for Mr. Teskew's property
via VRBO. We also have maps of the area. Again, we're not trying to increase density here.
There's a single-family zoning classification. We want a single-family use just on a short-term
basis. Then we'll review photographs of the property as well as the surrounding area,
both inside and out of the property. Some simple floor plans so the board can understand what
this property is about. Our RCO meeting notice, our application for appeal, our decent property
showing that Mr. Teske is the owner of the property, and our certificate of tax clearance
showing he's a good standing with respect to real estate taxes. At the conclusion of my presentation,
I would ask that Mr. Teske again raise his hand. All right, notice of refusal. Actually, I was
incorrect. I'm sorry. This is an RM1 zoning classification. And when I reviewed this,
Actually, you could do technically three units as of right because this is 1,082 square foot lot size, but that's not what Mr. Teskew is trying to do.
It was built as a single-family use.
That's all he wants to do.
But just so you understand, this is an RM1 zoning classification.
And then we have a letter of support from the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association.
We worked diligently with them in the presentation, as well as having a signed agreement with Mr.
Teskew, and we'll review that agreement.
But the proviso that I think is enforceable is three-year temporary variance.
They also stated a maximum of 10 people.
I don't know if that's an enforceable proviso.
I'll defer to the board in that respect.
I don't believe we have 10 people going to the property.
I don't believe we have 10 people, you know, going to the property at one point, but obviously we would agree to a three-year temporary variance.
And then, you know, as part of this process of having communications with the community and the coordinating RCO, they asked us to put a simple agreement together of, like, just rules that Mr. Teske would abide by, which he already does.
But, you know, they wanted Mr. Teske to sign it. So he has a noise monitor in his Airbnb. So in case it reaches over a certain level, he's notified and then tells obviously his tenant, you know, tenants as well to keep the sound down.
So that's something we would agree to continue with. He has quieted hours from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Again, that's something that he will abide by.
And when they submitted an application for the property on like an Airbnb site,
He asked the applicants how many guests will be in the property at the time they're renting it out. He'll abide by that going forward. That they would provide identification of all individuals who are going to be in the property. He'll abide by that.
and that he's not going to rent to anyone or any individuals
where the amount of the stay would be just one day.
That's where you see a lot of these nuisances.
And I think the spirit of the law is to prevent those type of nuisances.
That's not Mr. Tessue's intent.
He has a really nice house that he rents out, usually to families.
And he doesn't want this to be party central.
So he'll abide by that, that any stay has to be more than one day.
And let's see, and he'll provide his contact information to nearby neighbors.
So in case someone has to get a hold of him, because there is a nuisance type of tenant, they can reach him and then he can deal with it with the tenant.
And he already does that. He has a great relationship with nearby property owners and occupants.
And then we did a petition, not as extensive as we usually do.
I don't think there was much controversy here, but I told Mr. Teskew, why don't you go out there?
Here's a list of addresses that are considered effective properties.
Why don't you reach out to some of them, talk to them about the project and see if they support it.
And, you know, we do have a page of signatures and then some, in addition, some letters of support as well of nearby neighbors.
a lot of them on the 900 block of north front street and i think one of them is directly adjacent
to us and then again it's not out of character to have like visitor accommodation uh used nearby
and all we do is look at you know airbnb or vrbo and you know we give the board an idea of like you
know where they are and how much they're going for and then this is mr tescu's uh listing it's
You know, again, he hasn't actively used it because he can until this is this use is legal or legalized.
But you can see. Oh, I'm sorry. You can see he's at 4.8 stars out of five.
And you see some of the pictures that he has, like, you know, he keeps a really nice, clean house and he has nice furniture in there.
And he doesn't want to be a nuisance type of landlord for this type of use.
And then maps of the area, again, technically we're RM1.
There's a mix between CMX3.
It looks like some industrial use, some CMX2.5, a little bit of RSA5.
So it's a clear mix and diversity of zoning.
We're not that far off from Delaware Avenue and where Front Street is.
It's kind of a strange area.
It's a little bit commercial, a little bit residential in nature.
And here's a Google Maps perspective as well.
And then photographs of the property.
it's just single family use we have a front loading garage all legal newer construction
and then this is our property uh looking uh on north front street one direction
and then another direction and then this is proof that we posted the property of today's hearing
and then these are interior photos of our property
and then plans and drawings again single family use there is no basement use
first floor you have your garage uh you have a you have a little bedroom down here with a full
bath you go up a flight of steps you have an open floor plan of a dining room kitchen and
living room go up another flight of steps you have two bedrooms and two baths
and then just our meeting notice we met on october 30th at 6 30 p.m we emailed that notice
uh we typically try to do that um contemporaneous went the mail or so they can you know we have
um contemporaneous went the mailer so they can you know we have proof that we sent it to coordinating
proof that we sent it
rco and all other rcos as well as the district council members only eight which we did and then
51 addresses received this notice via a mailer and these are the addresses we mailed to proof of of
mailing to those addresses or application for appeal that we follow the mr test use behalf
along with the notice of refusal and the project information form, his deed to the property, showing that he's owned the property since 2018, and then finally, Certificate of Tax Clearance.
The only reason why he's showing a balance, it's not really due yet. It's just for 2024 taxes.
I will unshare my screen. I would ask that Mr. Teskew virtually raise his hand.
Mr. Teskew has been allowed to speak.
So could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Nathaniel Itescu, N-A-T-H-A-N-A-E-L, last name, Itescu, I, T as in Thomas, E as in elephant, S-C-U.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
please proceed counsel oh yes uh nathaniel you heard everything i had to state today about
yes and is it true and correct yes and do you adopt as your own testimony yes thank you
questions from the board no mr chairman no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary
emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
there are no hands chair cleaning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rm1 multi-family residential at this
location we feel the applicant has failed to demonstrate a hardship that would prevent the
property from being used in strict conformity with the code accordingly the planning commission
recommends the board deny the variance you mi 2023 004 874 906 north front street i vote yes
temporary variance expires 110 27 thomas holloman my vote is yes with proviso jane snell my vote is
Yes, with proviso.
Mr. Nockerman, could you stay on, please?
We're going to do number nine, MI 2023-005-747-1936 Watkins Street.
There is a letter of opposition from Point Breeze Community Development.
There's a letter of opposition from Council President Johnson,
and the applicant provided a petition by approximately 20 neighbors,
six form letters.
including the adjacent neighbor
at 1934 Watkins?
Yes, Alan Occamson.
I represent Ben...
Go ahead.
I represent Ben Horst,
the owner of the property.
That's Wizwith?
Yes, I'm sorry.
Yes, Wizwith, LLC.
Ben Horst is principal member.
Okay, all right.
And Mr. Holloman has a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or referral and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay, let me just make sure I have the right presentation now.
all right so i'm here to present 1936 walk-in street same presentation is 906 uh front street
um this is an airbnb visit accommodation use that we're that we're trying to uh legalize um
you know so we'll review the notice of refusal we have correspondence from the point breeze
CDC. I did not receive the letter from the council president, so that is why it's not in the
presentation materials. You'll see from the letter that was from the Point Breast CDC, a couple
things. There was only seven people that attended the meeting, and it was a very close vote. It was
three to four. We were actually surprised we got a letter about opposition and people voted against
opposition that people voted against it because when we went to the meeting there really wasn't
it because when we went to the meeting, there really wasn't many questions.
many questions and it didn't seem very controversial to the people in the meeting so having anyone
against it was a little shocking but it was a close vote not many people showed up um and
we don't know how many of those people who are against the project are within the 500 uh 250
square feet of of the property the affected neighbors so it's really tough to tell like
it was just people in general if it was board members like i don't know who who voted and what
um but that's why we we always reach out to the community it's important for us to to get a
temperature from the community and all we do is you know tell our clients here are the addresses
within the affected area according to the city and we get you know people who hopefully are in
support of this project and as uh mr chair you stated like we try to get the people nearby the
people that are most directly impacted and we did get i believe the person next door to us uh so
it's really important to get an understanding and hopefully support from those people and we did
and that was 20 people which is you know again most people don't go to community meetings the
they you know we find that if if someone if it's a controversial project trust me we'll get enough
people at a community meeting here we didn't um and that means usually that um there's no there's
no real opposition, especially when you have a closed vote like that. And we're going to look
at nearby Airbnb listings. Again, it's not out of character to have Airbnbs here. Even in the
comments with the correspondence from the Point Breeze CDC, one of the comments was like, we want
Airbnbs. We just want it for out of town guests. When we make our presentation, what we found
is that people, there's two sets of individuals who use Airbnbs. One is for people from out
of town who just want to visit philadelphia and and they they want to not get you know into the
traditional hotel environment they want to be in the neighborhood and and to feel philadelphia
um and then there's individuals who have a connection to philadelphia maybe they've lived
there in the past and they have friends and family there or um they they actually have you know like
their extended family there and they need additional um like space for them to accommodate
them because the houses in some parts of philadelphia are not that large so those are the
two sets of individuals people who want to see philadelphia for the first time but not in the
in the traditional sense going to like you know a traditional hotel and people who need to leverage
these airbnbs for their own purposes like you know we just had the holiday season you know
Christmas. A lot of times you have extended family that come from out of town. They need
these accommodations. So, you know, again, there are a lot of Airbnbs nearby. And then we'll look
at maps of the area, photographs of the property, inside and out and contextually in the neighborhood,
or simple plans and drawings, or RCO meeting notice for a meeting that was not well attended,
close vote, and we don't know who voted for and who voted against, or application for appeal,
So our deed to the property, showing their WISWITH LLC,
see on the property, and I have in the virtual audience,
Benjamin Horst, who's the owner's representative,
and our certificate of tax clearance,
showing that my client is compliant with their real estate tax obligations.
Notice refusal.
This is an RSA-5 property.
We're not trying to increase the density here.
We're just trying to get visitor accommodation use for a single-family dwelling.
link. Correspondence from the Point Breeze CDC, again, they had three people in support,
four people opposed. Doesn't really break down between the affected area and non-affected area.
Doesn't break down between board members and non-board members. So it's really hard to tell
who was in support and who was against it. But it does say in here, VAs, which I assume is visitor
combinations would be great if they cater to out-of-town guests, which we would. We don't
discriminate between people who are from out-of-town or from people who have some type of affiliation
or history inside the city of Philadelphia as well. And there are petitions. So again,
we gave a map to show the effort my client made here in terms of garnering community support.
and you can see there's it's all within a two-block radius and specifically within walk-ins
and on pier street which we are behind showing that the people who would be most directly impacted
support this project and then here's our paperwork that support that um proposition
with a petition and then letters to support form letters to support
and then nearby airbnbs again where we are is is this dot here and as you can see there's
dot here and as you can see there's a number of airbnbs within probably a four block radius
a number of airbnbs within probably a four block radius
so not out of character to have airbnbs in this neighborhood in this part of the neighborhood
and then maps of the area we are in rsa5 property we're not trying to increase density here
instead of having you know combinations for more than 30 days we want accommodations for less than
30 days that's the only difference and then this is a map of the area from a google maps perspective
As you can see, there's ample public transportation, which surrounds us.
And then photographs of the property.
We're not changing the building structure in any way.
It's a two-story building structure.
Proof of posting for today's hearing.
And then I just wanted to show you contextually what, you know, the street looks like on walk-ins.
And then this is just the backyard.
And, you know, again, we refreshed the property by putting new fencing in the backyard.
And then the interior photos, nice furniture, you know, new hardware floors, painted,
like updated bathroom, bathrooms, updated kitchen, washer and dryer.
And then there are plans and drawings.
We have no basement use, as you saw from the pictures.
We just have a washer and dryer down there.
You walk into the front doors, an open floor plan, the delivery room, half bath in the kitchen.
You go up a flight of steps.
There's three bedrooms and one bath.
There's no roof deck.
We had an RCO meeting notice that was sent out on December 4th for a December 18th community meeting.
We emailed that also to the coordinating RCOs and the other RCOs, as well as the district council members only ate about the community meeting. 168 addresses were notified. Only seven showed up. And we got over 20 people who separately supported this project by way of signing the petition and or the form letter of support.
These are the addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses, or application for appeal on behalf of WISWITH, along with the notice of refusal and the project information form, deed to the property, showing that WISWITH owns the property, and then a certificate of tax clearance.
They actually overpaid their taxes, so they owe nothing to the city of Philadelphia.
I will unshare my screen.
I would ask that Mr. Horst virtually raise his hand and be sworn in.
Mr. horse is allowed to speak. Thank you. Mr. horse. Could you state your name? Please spell for the court stenographer. Yes. Benjamin Horst B. N. J. A. M. I. N. Horst. H. O. R. S. T. Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do.
We'll see council. Yeah. Mr. Horst, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter. I did. And is it true and correct? Correct.
and do you adopt as your own testimony i do thank you thank you questions from the board
no mr chairman no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have heather light neck now we're allowed her to speak
hi could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Hi, my name is Heather Waitnack. It's H-E-A-T-H-E-R. Waitnack is W-E-I-G-H-K-N-E-C-H-T.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
I just wanted to raise my hand, let you guys know that I live in the neighborhood. I live
on the 2100 block of Cross Street. I just wanted to support this proposal to rezone the property
as a short-term rental, because in general, I do see it as a benefit to the community,
and I think we need more lodging options within the neighborhood for when friends and family
are in town, priced better than a hotel, and closer than Center City.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
No more, Haynes, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair.
Peter Bernard for the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family residential at this location.
We feel the applicant has failed to demonstrate any hardship that would prevent this property from being used in strict conformity with the code.
Accordingly, the Planning Commission recommends the Board deny the variance.
Thank you. MI 2023-005-747-1930 says Gwakin Street.
I vote yes with Proviso.
I vote yes with proviso. Temporary variance expires.
Temporary variance expires 1-10-26.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Hillary, we'll have to hold this and have Ish look at it on the film, on the video.
Yes, we will. Yes, we will need to revote it with board member Shahid.
We'll do this next week. Yes, we will.
OK. Yes. Thank you.
OK. Number 11. MI 2023-005-890-2246 Herb Street.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from Point Breeze Community Development Coalition,
a letter of opposition from the council president.
john whalen has been promoted here okay
mr whalen just state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
certainly good afternoon sean whalen w-h-a-l-e-n here from vintage law right do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do mr hollman has
us a few questions. Of course. Good afternoon, counsel. Good afternoon. Do you agree to waive
the reading of the refusal or referral and stipulate to his accuracy? Yes, I do. Did you
email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing? Yes.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Of course. I am here on behalf of the owner and applicant, JC in PA, Real Estate Investments Co. LLC, and I am representing, if it popped up for you, I hope, an aerial map.
I am representing the application in front of you for 2246 Earp Street. Thankfully, a pretty straightforward matter for you today. Small lot, 690 square feet approximately, mid-block just off of South 23rd Street, just two blocks off of Point Breeze in the Point Breeze neighborhood.
Again, you can see fully built out. This is a single-family neighborhood, all RSA 5 everywhere around it. This is an existing single-family house that was partially built previously.
here's the house right here in its current state and you can see again here it is on the right
just down you can see the completely built out nature of the of the block
so we made an application and we have one refusal which is the roof deck access structure must be
setback five feet from the extreme rear of the building here you can see the issue i'll actually
zoom in make it a little bit easier to see this is 2246 erp street this is the pilot house and
here the stairs come up with a pilot house under the current code this is required to be set back
five feet as the adjacent property is from the rear building line. You can see actually this is
the immediate, you know, one immediate neighbor. And we have over 20 examples in our package of,
you know, exact situations like this. So the situation was that, oh, and I should say there
were four people at the meeting, at the RCO meeting. They voted in opposition. They took
the position that the building should be, all buildings should be built without variances
in accordance with the code.
And I would certainly agree that if this building were a vacant lot to be brought today, that
should be the outcome here.
But unfortunately, that's not the case we have, and we're presenting a very different
scenario for the board today.
so we have back in 2019 the prior owner who owned the property pulled a single family permit
with a roof access structure attached the plans are in here it's all a matter of public record
and several months later pulled a residential building permit for that same building that you
just saw. The builder and developer at that time began construction and got it to
began construction, and got it to, as you could see, its current state as it is. So it's largely
finished with the mechanicals and everything roughed in and built out. And what happened
was in 2019 the roof deck that I showed you like this was fully permitted and approved
and it was built in accordance with LMI requirements and inspections. For reasons only the
builder knows, he ran into a number of issues and lost this property mid-construction to
share of sale. My client purchased the property out of share of sale approximately April of last
year. And once he built, once he bought it, proceeded to start working with L&I in order to
get the zoning permit and building permits renewed. So the zoning permit and building
permit had expired because they were from 2019. So the existing condition that you see has been
the situation since the fall of 2019. No changes have taken place since then, and my client has
done no work at the property, is simply at this time trying to get it permitted for what it was.
In the interim between when it was originally permitted and today, the code has changed,
and this roof deck would now have to be set back five feet from the rear building line.
Unfortunately, you know, we are not in that situation anymore, and it's already built.
So let me get you back.
You can see here's an indication of the pilot house from the actual roof itself.
You can see the stairway, the interior pilot house, and you can see the staircase is actually built as a continuous staircase all the way from the ground level up.
all of the structural components are built in
and the house was fully designed as you see it.
And now what you can see is this is 2247 ERP,
just immediately across the street,
has the same situation where the roof deck is built
all the way to the rear property building.
2110 ERP has the same situation.
2210 up and down the block you can see the same condition over and over and over again and again
if the board has any questions i'm happy to walk through them but i don't want to waste the board's
time we have images here of 20 different properties in the immediate vicinity that all have this same
rear pilot house condition so you know in order to have a variance granted and i understand why
an RCO might take the position that single-family houses at a minimum should be built in accordance
with the code. In order for a variance from the existing code, we need to show three things. We
need to show an unnecessary hardship that was not caused by the current owner. We need to show that
there was no detriment to the public health, safety, or welfare. And we need to show that
what we're asking for is the least minimum variance. First and foremost, as we set forth
this building was built and in its current condition for over four years at this point and
here we go and you know with without any changes or additions or construction of any kind by the
current owner so he did not create this situation rather this existing building was built with
fully approved permits. That's Zoning Permit 89-55-14 from February of 2019 and Associated
Building Permit number 851-335 from June of 2019. Now, in order to, you know, I wish it were so
simple and I have the project architect on the call or at the meeting here to discuss this,
you know it's not simply not possible to just move this pilot house forward five feet
again this is the whole building is designed both structurally and built as is with that pilot house
in the current location and it would be exorbitantly expensive if even possible to try to
move that pilot house even one foot let alone five feet because of as I showed those images
because of, as I showed those images before, it's already in a fully built condition.
before, it's already in a fully built...
And that ties all the way down through the entirety of the building. So the entire building
would have to have a new structural design. It would have to move entirely the entire stairs
and so forth. There is no detriment here to the public health, safety, and welfare.
Again, we pulled 20 examples for the board's consideration. They were in our package of this exact situation that was permitted and allowed at the time that this building was built.
And moreover, this exact location and build out has been in place, as I said, for over four years.
So there's no detrimental impact to the public because this is part of the fabric of the public at this time.
um and finally uh we are asking for the least minimum variance which is uh to not change the
status quo again this was previously permitted by code all we're trying to do is move this forward
and remove you know a bring a vacant building uh to completion that was purchased out of sheriff's
sale and lost and vacant and has been for some time and bring it to completion and make it an
active participant in this neighborhood. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that the
board may have, or I can call my client and the project architect to discuss the hardship.
Why don't you bring your client on?
Thank you. His name is Jeff Ko. He should be raising his hand now.
Yes, Jeff Ko has been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Mr. Ko
Do we see his hand up?
Yes, I did give him permission to speak.
I just did it again.
There he is.
Hi, Mr. Ko
Hi, Mr. Ko
there he's unmuted he might be having a technical issue
um uh what while i wait mr well you're an officer of the court we'll we'll take your testimony i
think we understand it how about the architect you want to bring him on yes please uh his name
is david whipple okay
do we see mr whipple
i'm here okay mr whipple could you state your name please a spell for the course
demographer uh sure my name is david
whipple w-h-i-p-p-l-e right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do proceed counsel thank you very much uh mr whipple you are a licensed architect
in the state of Pennsylvania, correct? Yes. And are you the architect of record for this project?
Yes. And did you hear the testimony that I already provided in this case? I did. And do you believe
it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief? I do. And
would you adopt it thus far as your own? I would. Thank you. And you heard me discuss
the difficulty or near impossibility of moving that
pilot house, correct? Correct. If you could, in your
own words, provide an opinion for this board as to
what attempting, the hardship resulting from attempting
to move that pilot house from its current condition.
Sure. It's a very shallow lot.
I believe the house is only about 35 feet deep. So our
only option would be to move this move the third to roof stair stacked over the other stair which
would be placing it into the center of the house which would mean not only like structural issues
but we're having to reframe the entire third floor we do all the mechanical electrical and
plumbing going to the third floor we do the roof um so it'd be a fairly expensive uh
remodel to something that's already built.
Thank you very much, Mr. Ripple.
Board Chair, I don't have any further questions for Mr. Ripple, but I'm happy for the board
to ask any questions that I have.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
There are no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair.
Peter Bernard for the Planning Commission.
Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single-family residential at this location.
We feel the applicant has a demonstrated hardship.
accordingly the planning commission
recommends the board grant the variance
thank you
MI 2023
005 890
2246 Herb Street I vote yes
Thomas Holloman
my vote is yes
my vote is yes
thank you
thank you very much chairman
I hope you have a wonderful day
did David Fecto
get back in
Yes, sir, I did.
Okay. Thank you.
Number 12, MI 2023-005-665-2121 East Sargent Street.
Alok Sokoloff is the attorney.
There's a recommendation of support from the East Kensington neighbors and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Alok Sokoloff has been promoted.
Counselor, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, good afternoon, Chair Bergman, members of the board.
Happy New Year, everyone.
Oleg Sokolov on behalf of the applicant, VA Properties 3 LLC.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Holleman has just a few questions for you, sir.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or referral and stipulate to its accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you very much.
okay is everybody able to see that yes thank you thank you very much once again members of the
board as I stated Oleg Sokolov on behalf of the applicant VA properties we are here seeking
three separate variances for a new construction of a single family residence
The refusals issued for this property, which is located in RSA 5 District, are an accessory
parking refusal, a minimum rear yard depth refusal, which is requiring a nine feet rear
However, we're proposing no rear yard and a front setback, which requires zero setback
and we're requesting a variance to 16 feet.
This property was purchased recently transferred or recently purchased by the applicant in June
of 2023. You can see the deed here. The applicant actually intends to use this property as a personal
residence for himself and his wife. This is the existing condition of the property. You can see
this property is very unique and you'll see that further when we get to the lot itself pardon me
you can see here the property as i was saying is very unique it's already very far set back from
the other properties on the block um there are some properties in this neighborhood that are
like this but the majority of properties go right to the sidewalk frontage this property itself
here you can see the zoning map and you can see the very unique characteristics of this lot
it is an l-shaped lot depending how you look at it i suppose but it it does veer off into lots
located nearby this property is located between collins and trenton street and then also between
east birth and hazard street here east birth and this here is hazard this is the east sergeant and
then we have collins and trenton down here here are plans for the property and at the end of my
presentation i'm going to have the architect of record evan litman and blow designs come on and
just discuss some of the actual property characteristics and the design characteristics
But as you will see from some of the renderings, the property that is proposed is a very unique property that utilizes this very unique lot in the best possible way to allow for this beautiful single family residence to be built.
beautiful single-family residence to be built.
And I'll just take you now through some rendering so you can see exactly what we're talking about.
This would be the frontage of the property. This is the accessory parking that we're requesting
here. It would be in the front of the property. The setback would be almost identical to the
existing setback. Now this is the L-shaped portion of it that turns into the rear yard here.
And now there is actually a rear yard.
It's just because of the zoning code, it's not directly at the back of the property.
It is utilized at the L turn of the property.
So we're looking right here in the design for this portion of the outdoor space.
Our application for appeal.
Our project information form.
Our notice of meeting, a meeting was held on December 13th.
with the East Kensington Neighbors Association and the other RCO of the New Kensington Community Development Corporation.
Our certificates of mailing, I believe we sent out somewhere in the neighborhood of 164 notices to nearby residents.
our letter of support from the coordinating RCO of East Kensington Neighbors Association.
I actually did not receive the letter of non-opposition from the council person's office,
but I appreciate the board mentioning that that was received. So here's the property once again
with the notice posters located in front. Here's a zoomed in picture of the notice poster.
And here it's showing a balance which was recently paid, however, you can see the balance
here from the tax center showing that the property has no outstanding tax obligations
and just for further evidence of that, a receipt of that payment which was made.
If I could bring on the architect, Mr. Evan Littman, to just give a quick presentation
as to the characteristics of the property and go through some of the design characteristics,
please.
Evan Littman has permission to speak.
Good afternoon, Mr. Littman.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Thank you, Oleg. Mr. Littman, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure. It's Evan Litvin, E-V-A-N-L-I-T-V-I-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Littman.
Good afternoon.
um you are the architect of record on this property is that correct that is correct
and and you have generated the designs that i'm now showing on on screen correct could you please
take us through the unique characteristics of this particular law and why it necessitated such
a unique design that requires these sorts of variances sure uh would it be possible to share
my screen. Let me stop sharing. Mr. Levin has been promoted.
you're up okay great thank you um well first off i want to uh point out the site is in a regular
shaped site is an l-shaped lot um what you're seeing on the site right on the plan right now
is the existing conditions. You have the small residential structure in the front and a one-story
structure in the rear, which is directly into the corner on the rear yard line. Our footprint
for the proposed structure, as you see here, very much falls in line with what is currently there.
as you see here, very much falls in line with what is currently there. We're a little bit wider,
we're taking up the full width of the site now, and we are connecting the footprint of what's in
the rear to the front portion. However, we are also providing light wells and some other relief
from the, to, for the neighbor property. Um, the, um, the front setback is, um, it is the exact
setback of the existing structure. And, um, as Oleg had said, at the rear, the idea was really to,
um, take the, what would be a rear yard and turn it. So it's, instead of it being an enlarged,
instead it's an enlarged side yard whereas 25 open areas required we're providing for over
42 here so we're actually under building the site dramatically and in terms of the
massing we are we're trying to maintain the character of what is there in a lot of ways
it's supposed to feel light on the site we're using let's get forward to the rendering pitched
roofs that will minimize the impact of light and and impact shadow on the neighbors and it's supposed
to really delicately sit into a fairly irregular site happy to answer any further questions
if i may before that just bring on the the applicant um mr antonio di tomo just to adopt my
testimony, please.
Antonio, I'm not allowed to speak.
Okay, sir, could you state your name and spell
for the court stenographer?
I guess Antonio DiTomo,
A-N-T-O-N-I-O-D-I-T-O-M-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. DiTomo. Were you listening to my presentation here today?
And do you adopt my testimony as your own?
And is there anything you'd like to add for the board's consideration?
No, I think we covered all the bases.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Well, I know that this is a different shape property. Is there anyone else on the block that has parking in the front?
We're not sure if on the block, there are certainly properties in the area that have very similar parking situations.
But you don't know if there's anything like that on the.
I would. I would. I do not know definitively.
Questions from the board.
No, Chair.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have three hands the um the hands are going up sorry um dan schulnick will be allowed
to speak okay all right mr schulnick could you state your name please and spell for the court
personographer. Hello, my name is Daniel Skolnick. It's D-A-N-I-E-L, Skolnick, S-C-H-O-L-N-I-C-K.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth? Nothing but the truth, sir.
I do. Please proceed. Thank you. Forgive my wavering voice. I'm a little bit nervous,
and I appreciate your time. You don't have to be nervous. There's no reason to be nervous.
Thank you. This is a beautiful house and a beautiful proposal and design, and I hope it gets built. But I am here in opposition to the curb cut and parking on the block. And I hope you will apply a proviso prohibiting those components. That's one of the reasons for the refusal.
In answer to your question, there is no other curb cuts or parking like this on the side
of the block or anywhere within eyesight of this property.
I was at the RCO meeting where there were only two neighbors.
There was a large number of people who came for a different property and they voted yes
on all cases and then they left before this case was presented. There were two of us there.
I started speaking with the next door neighbors afterwards and people did not understand what
was being proposed. I do have a petition of 14 neighbors who are opposed to the parking and curb
do have a petition of 14 neighbors who are opposed to the parking and curb cut
and i have sent that by email to the rcozba at phila.gov email address
so in addition to there being no curb cuts or off-street parking on on this side of the block
at all parking in the evening has already become very difficult because of the flourishing of bars
and restaurants on nearby frankfort avenue uh just basically a half block from there
um the location on the block makes it really dangerous because uh cars are typically
accelerating there uh there's an intersection just uh just up from there that uh where people
uh there's no uh stop sign so people usually have their foot on the gas pedal a lot of uh
accidents that I think other people are going to speak to today. I do know that there's I think
four of us who are testifying in the same vein. There's also a new daycare, Frankfurt Friends
Daycare across the street that's going to be opening soon, and that just raises the stakes
of street and sidewalk safety.
I do think this is a danger to health, safety, and welfare.
And finally, as all the Row House neighbors will attest,
there is no hardship here that would require a curb cut and parking.
Thank you, Chair Bergman and the rest of the VA.
Thank you for your call.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in a virtual audience?
yes chair jared pollen and i will allow him to speak them to say sir could you state your name
please the spell for the court sonographer yeah jared pollen p-o-l-i-n right do you swear for
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor i uh connect
with the uh property i'm 2120 east hazard so it's okay a connecting property behind it
are you in favor of this proper project?
I think it's a beautiful design.
I'm not in favor, as Daniel said, of the curb cut.
Let me ask you this.
Is there anything other than what Daniel said you could offer towards that?
No, that's it.
Basically, Daniel covered everything.
That's why I asked.
Thank you very much for calling.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else that are virtually?
Yes, Chair Peter English.
hi mr english could you state your name please to spell for the court stenographer
hi peter english e-n-g-l-i-s-h you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do are you a neighbor i am i live at 2117 east sergeant which is just are you in favor of
the project not the curb cut no okay all right is there anything other than what's been said
that you can offer for the curb cut?
My only addition is, you know,
I appreciate what you and the ZBA do
to help ensure that we are thinking about our block
and our neighborhood and our city communally.
I think that this curb cut is out of step,
not just physically,
but with the way in which Philadelphia typically operates
and the way we share our sidewalks.
And so I would love the property,
but do not want the curb cut.
We thank you for your call.
Is there anyone else in the audience?
Yes, Chair. A person with the initials YSC will be allowed to speak.
Okay. Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Of course. Hi, this is Young Sun Compton speaking, C-O-M-P-T-O-N.
Great. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, yes.
Are you a neighbor?
I am. I'm directly adjacent to the property at 2119 East Sargent Street.
And are you in favor of this project?
uh i like the other one like other people who testified i'm not in favor of the of the curb
cut being the direct neighbor yeah okay so so is there anything else other than what's been said
you could offer uh i think in the in the drawings uh there you know for me like being the the house
that abuts this this location i think the curb cut is needed to to cut into in front of my property
um you know again i think the the specifics around parking in the neighborhood and the
impact of parking locally is i you know i especially feel because of that um you know
losing feet in front of my house uh for curb cut feels uh i'm not sure what the benefit to the
community and changing the zoning for that would be but that would be my only addition to what has
already been said thank you for taking the time to call is there anyone else in the virtual audience
excuse me chair this is the court reporter could i ask the uh prior witness to spell his first name
prior witness to spell his first name sure sure it's a y-o-u-n-g space capital s-u-n is the first
It's a.
name thank you thank you is there anyone else in the verse load is yes yes chair this is i have
antonio di tomo i'm not sure if he spoke already but he is is is he the owner uh all up he is chair
Sure. And if I think I'm going to if I may just add a few things that I believe he would add.
Well, well, one is there anyone else besides him in the virtual audience?
No, there's there's no way. So I'll like why do you respond? Is that OK?
Sure. So there are, in fact, two curb cuts that are not identical.
They're curb cuts for garages located on the block.
They're not open air parking spots, as we're proposing here.
That's a twenty one forty six and twenty one forty eight.
I would also like to add
that this neighborhood
does not allow any kind of zone
parking. It does not allow
residents to buy or obtain
zoning placards. It is open parking
total, including on this block.
That is certainly something that is a
hardship to an applicant here.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa5 single-family residential row
house at this location we feel the existing structures in a regular lot constitute a hardship
but feel the front-loaded parking has no demonstrated hardship as it is a new condition
privatizes a public parking spot creates a hazard for pedestrians and is not a common condition for
the block accordingly the planning commission recommends the board grant the dimensional
variances but with a proviso for no front-loaded parking excuse me mr chairman excuse me mr chairman
could we hold this for executive session this case we most certainly can thomas thank you
okay so mr sokoloff what we're going to do is take this back to the executive session
next wednesday and we will vote at 2 p.m next wednesday on this
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President, I mean, Chairman.
MI 2023-005-748-3335 West 1st Street, Allen Ockamson is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from Strawberry Mansion, along with a petition signed by approximately 26 neighbors.
Letter attached. There's a letter of opposition from Strawberry Mansion, CDC.
The applicant has 14 neighbors.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. I just want to note that since we started hearings,
we received an additional letter of opposition from Swampoodle Neighborhood Partials Association,
which I believe Mr. Knockerson will address in his presentation.
They did have some suggested provisos if the board was inclined to grant.
Thank you.
um mr knoxon just state your name for the record alan knockamson and could you identify your
client the relationship to the property yes my client is uh ber properties llc
and then the virtual audience is uh noah burson and alissa chapnick uh its members
and um um mr holliman has just a few questions questions for you sir i'm back here
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its address?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
so i'm here to present 33 35 west first street uh this is an rm1 property and we're looking to
put up a duplex here and the board's probably thinking well mr knockamson what i'm not i hate
talking third person, but why am I seeking a variance for RM1 property, which we're only
asking for two units, and we're not making any change. It's an existing building structure. We're
not making any changes to the building footprint. Our lot size is 699 square feet. So we have,
this is a clear case of undue hardship where we can't change the building, the lot size of our
the lot size of our property. And we're doing the least modification possible under the Philadelphia
property and we're doing the lease modification
zoning code because we're not changing the building structure in any way. We're seeking
the minimal amount of multifamily units, which is two, under the circumstances. And the entire
neighborhood is RM1. So as you'll see in the presentation packet. And to add an extra layer
complexity, my client purchased this property, not knowing that something that's RM1, you
may not be able to do more than one unit if the lot size is not 720 square feet.
And then to another level of complexity, my client hired a contractor who they relied
upon to do all the work, get the zoning permit, get the building permits or all duration permits
and do everything right.
Unfortunately, they didn't.
And they spent a lot of money.
I don't know, just maybe short of $100,000.
And only after Ellen and I came out and issued a violation notice did my client realize that the contractor did not get the right permits.
And eventually that contractor not only lost their license, but went to jail.
So my client's in a really bad spot here where they didn't know that an RM1 property, you could not potentially have two units.
They relied on the contractor to get the right permits.
They spent $100,000 of their money to do work that, you know, again, was not approved.
We're trying to legalize the situation with the zoning permit.
So, you know, this would be financially devastating for my clients if they couldn't just get two units.
And again, they purposefully didn't go seek, you know, more than two units or they didn't seek to, like, build higher than the two stories that, you know,
know, the building structure is today. So we'll review the notice of refusal. We'll review the
correspondence from Strawberry Mansion Community Concern, as well as Swampoodle. We received both
letters today. We diligently updated our presentation materials when we received each
letter of opposition. Actually, I think we have a third letter of opposition, Strawberry Mansion
Community, Strawberry Mansion CDC. So we have that letter too. Again, our thing is this,
We're open, we're honest, and we're going to address every single one of these letters, which I think have issues with them and don't really address the crux of this case.
Then we did do a petition, you know, pre-community meeting where we not only got the letter, we got letters to support a significant amount of people within the affected area, specifically the person that owns the property to left and right of us.
The people that we most directly impacted, a lot of people on 4th Street, but the people left and right of us.
So we'll go over that.
And then, again, not uncommon to have multifamily structures in this neighborhood.
You'll see from the zoning map that this is all RM1.
But we gave a few examples of recent approvals of RM1 properties.
And then we'll go review the zoning map and maps of the area, photographs of the property and the surrounding area.
Our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice, and it was not a well-attended meeting.
There was a representative from Strawberry Mansion Community Concern.
There was a representative from the Swamp Pool group.
And there were two neighbors who did not live on the block, but I believe lived somewhat nearby.
I don't remember the addresses.
So it was a total of four people that showed up to the meeting.
Two of them were community representatives.
Then we'll review the application for appeal.
the deed to the property, showing that BER Properties, LLC, is the owner of the property,
and then our Certificate of Tax Clearance, showing that they're current with their
real estate taxes, or at least, you know, I don't know if 2024 is due, but it's not due yet.
So then we would be current. And again, to conclude my presentation, I would ask
that either Ms. Shatnik or Mr. Burson virtually raise their hand. One of them could adopt my
testimony as their own and then we'll be more than happy to take any questions from the board
and we would love the opportunity to respond to any community input as well so notice of refusal
again we're not trying to convert an rsa5 property to multi-family use this is rm1 right clients
didn't know better they didn't realize that you know you it has to be at least 720 square feet
of loss size to get two units based on the base zoning classification of RM1.
So they're in this situation because they weren't advised properly.
They relied on the contractor who was supposed to get the right permits, did not, spent a
lot of their money, and eventually not only lost their contractor's license, but went
to jail.
So we're seeking the least modification possible under the Philadelphia Zoning Code.
So we're seeking the least modification possible under the Philadelphia Zoning Code.
We're not changing the building structure in any way.
All we're trying to do is do two-family household living in an existing structure.
So we met with the community, I believe it was this month, and there were only four people that showed up to the community meeting.
One member from Strawberry Mansion Community Concern, one member from the Swamp Poodle Group, Strawberry Mansion CDC did not have a representative there.
And then there were two individuals.
Again, I don't know the addresses, but they showed up, but they didn't live on First Street.
In this letter, they said that the Strawberry Mansion Community Concern Group stated that these are two affected property owners.
We'll take their word for that.
So in their letter, they're in opposition for the following reasons.
No demonstrated hardship.
Well, we clearly have a hardship here.
We have an RM1 property.
We can't change the amount of square footage of our lot.
We're 699 square feet, which is 21 square feet short.
So I think our lot's 14 feet wide, which means that we're like a foot and a half short, like in depth, right?
And that's basically this much. That's how much we're short. And that's why we're here today. So we do have a hardship. And part of it's not self-inflicted because we hired professionals to help us out. And they didn't advise us correctly. And worse, they stole from us.
No community support at the time of the meeting. That is not correct. We had a petition that we circulated pre-meeting that was acknowledged that we circulated a petition pre-meeting by Bonita Cummings, the Strawberry Managing Community Concern.
The reason why we don't present our petition or letters of support to Ms. Cummings was that it's been told of us previously not to present them at the community meeting, that they feel like that we're circumventing the community meeting by having those signatures shown on the screen.
And we said, okay, we hear what you're saying. This is not to be in addition to whatever community input there would be, but we'd always try to reach out to community. That's a good thing, right? To get community support and educate the community of what's going on. I think that's a good thing.
It was told to us at the meeting that, you know, the most recent meeting that she felt like that by doing this, we're not only trying to circumvent the process, but we were acting as kind of almost like bullies.
And I said, no, we're not.
You know, again, all we do is present, you know, the petition or letters to support, which mimic what is within the notice of refusal description of what we're trying to do.
and we give a copy of the notice of refusal
and we ask for people's support
and if they have questions about the project,
you know, we have, you know,
someone who can answer those questions for that,
for those people.
So I don't think we're trying to circumvent the system.
We're not trying to bully people.
We're trying to just get to some outreach to the community
because many times people don't show up
to the community meeting.
And it's really difficult, you know,
to then explain to the CBA
why there's a letter of opposition
when only four people show up
and two of them are people who are representative of those community groups.
Third thing is the proposed project per the applicant's plans to the single-family property
would create increased density within a single-family packing families tightly in this property.
I don't know what that means.
All I can say is that the zoning is R&M 1.
We're proposing to have one bedroom for unit number one.
We're doing one bedroom for unit number two.
So the use is very light.
And again, we didn't want to increase the density by building up higher, by increasing unit count beyond the two units.
So I think this is the least modification possible that we can do under the Philadelphia Zoning Code.
And I think it's a responsible use under the circumstances, especially since it's RM1.
and then you know as part of of of the the letter that we received this i think it was either this
afternoon or this morning i can't remember um they included their own petition and we'll go
through that but there's no signatures from first street which is would be the more affected area
of of the neighborhood for this project and then they also provided a picture from a contractor
at 3441 West 1st Street that I guess did some non-permitted work.
Again, we're here to, we embrace the fact that we hired someone
hired someone who ultimately turned out to be a fraud. My clients had no intention of doing that.
who ultimately turned out to be a fraud.
My clients had no intention.
You know, they wanted to build this as a legal structure or a legal renovation and a legal use.
And that's why we're here today. So what happened at 3441 should have no impact based on what we're
trying to do today. And then here's a picture from 3441, which I don't think is relevant
to the circumstances and then here's the actual signatures from strawberry mansion community
concern on their petition again everything's on west sergeant street looks like some stuff on
34th street some stuff on ridge some stuff on spangler but nothing on first street then we
got a second letter of opposition today from strawberry mansion uh cdc and the thing that
i would point out is they're in opposition they didn't show up to the community meeting
even though I guess they're an RCO, but they're not understanding what this project's about.
In their letter, they're saying the property's in the area that's zoned RSA residential single
family attached. That's not correct. I think they're used to individuals trying to get
variances to increase the density from RSA 5 properties to do multifamily. This is an RM1
property, and we'll look at the zoning map. Everything around it is classified as one-on-one.
And then finally, we received, I think, the latest letter today from Swamp Poodle,
and they had some objections, but ultimately they opposed it. But they said that if the board
does grant it, they have some provisos. And I don't even think that these are bad provisos,
And I think we have an agreement with these. They said no rooftop deck or rooftop structures for occupancy or medical mechanical equipment.
Well, we're not proposing a roof deck access structure. There's no roof deck up there.
So, I mean, I defer to the board in that respect, but we can agree to a proviso, no roof deck access structure or roof deck, but we're not proposing any.
So I don't know if that proviso is necessary.
Then the next proviso, all trash and recycling stored indoors only except on collection days.
We have no objection to that, that the trash be stored indoors.
So that's a enforceable proviso.
The next proviso is limit of two units multifamily.
Well, that's what we're doing, right?
If we wanted to go three units later on, we would have to go in front of this board again to gather variants.
But we have no objection.
We're seeking two units.
Then the next proviso is limit of two stories.
Again, we're not trying to build up.
We're taking the existing building structure, which is two stories in nature.
So we have no objection to that proviso either.
This one, I don't even know it's an enforceable proviso, but as a pet owner and someone who
meets people in my own community by walking my dog, I have an objection to this.
No pets on a lease.
I don't think it's an enforceable proviso.
I think that you create a sense of community by walking around your neighborhood.
I find that people are friendlier to you when you have a dog walking around, you tend to know the dog's names more so than the humans, but I think it's a good way of sense of community. So I have an objection as a pet owner, but I also don't think it's an enforceable proviso. No basement living. We have no objection to that. We actually said that we embraced it. We're like, we don't want basement living. We're not trying to do that.
So like some of the stuff that, you know, again, usually is objectionable to the community that we kind of tussle with, we have no objection to that. So that would be enforceable for RISO, no basement living. And I can't see what's behind my screen, but there's one more dot. No decrease in setbacks at any land or building improvements or yards or facades.
So we're not increasing the building envelope. So again, I don't know if it's required to have that as a proviso. And if we wanted to have a rear building addition, we would have to go in front of the zoning board, more likely than not, given the size of the lot.
So again, in terms of Swampoodle and all their provisos, I think we're on board with all of them that are enforceable. So the next thing is the petition.
Again, we really diligently try to reach out to members in the community and specifically the person, the individuals that own to left and right of us.
And we have that letter. We have three, three, three, seven West 1st Street and we have three, three, three West 1st Street.
We got signatures from both of them who are in support of this project.
And then we have other people on 1st Street as well.
And nearby properties.
And then nearby multifamily, you know, nearby, 3331 West 1st Street is scheduled to be a multifamily structure.
3341 West 1st Street, the same thing.
And then maps of the area.
And then maps of the area. I mean, it's orange. That's what it is. It's not like we're taking a yellow zoning classification of RSA 5 and trying to increase density. And this is where we are in the neighborhood. We're in Strawberry Mansion.
I mean, it's orange.
and the photographs of the property it's a nice handsome two-story structure that just needs some
TLC inside and out and I think that was actually embraced the fact that we were going to restore
the front facade not build up respect the roof line of the community by not adding a third story
even though we could because you can see there's no building structure to the right of us
so as a matter of right we could have built straight up and we chose not to again we're
choosing the least modification possible under the Philadelphia zoning code and trying to not
like overuse this property in any respect. This is our hearing notice posting for this hearing
for today. And then this is West 1st Street to the right of property. Again, it's a two-story
block. We're respecting that. And this is West 1st Street to the left of property. There are some
abandoned houses, you know, there as well. And then there are plans and drawings. We're keeping
are really simple, right? First floor, you come into a vestibule area, you make a right, you have
unit number one, which is a one bedroom, one bath. Go up a flight of steps, another one bedroom,
one bath. In particular, you can see there's no roof deck access structure, and we would agree to
no basement living as well. We would agree to, there's ventilated trash closets in both the
first floor unit and the second floor unit, so we're more than prepared to keep the trash indoors
other than collection day, you know, or night, you know, the night before.
Again, there's a need in the community for these one-bedroom units
because there are people who downsize, who want to stay in the neighborhood,
who want nicer accommodations, and this is what we're providing them.
There's also a lot of families who kids want to move back into the neighborhood
but don't want to live with mom and dad.
This gives them an opportunity to, like, to live nearby.
And then RCO meeting notice, we sent it on December 20th for a meeting for January 3rd.
We emailed that notice to the community leaders.
171 addresses were notified.
Only two people showed up of those 171 addresses.
We were told to provide information on the front page because, you know, again, it's been stated to us, well, people think that this is like junk mail.
So make sure you put something on there indicating that.
So they told us to put in yellow highlight.
You can't see it because it's not in color, but public community meeting.
So we've done everything they've asked of us.
And then these are a list of addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses,
or application for appeal on behalf of BER, properties LLC, notice of refusal,
project information form, deed to the property showing that they own the property.
Excuse me. And the certificate of tax clearance. Again, the only reason why there's a balance is because 2024 taxes aren't due yet. I would then, I'm going to stop sharing my screen. I would ask that either Noah or Alyssa virtually raise their hand, be sworn in, and they can adopt my testimony. And then we can take any questions from the board and respond to the community.
hi no could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
sure it's noah berson n-o-a-h my last name b-e-r-s-o-n do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed counsel oh yes no you heard
everything i had to say today about your zoning matter correct and is it true and correct what i
stated yes and do you adopt as your own testimony yes all right thank you questions from the board
what questions or comments from hillary emerson our attorney not at this time mr chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have strawberry mansion community i will allow to speak
Good afternoon.
On you, please.
Hi, good afternoon.
Hi, can you hear me now?
Yeah, I can.
You already were sworn once today, so you can just start your testimony.
You must state your name for the record.
Good afternoon.
My name is Bonita Cummings, and if I didn't mention it this morning,
happy new year to everyone oh thank you and greetings chairman bergman and the board um
oh thank you and greetings chairman bergman and the board um i would like the opportunity to speak
um you know through this without being cut off the the attorneys are given time um to rebuttal
or have a second or third opportunity to speak but the rvcos are not given any second remarks
opportunities so can i please speak to this matter before being cut off you know it's just kind of
We don't usually try to cut people off, but sure, speak.
Some of the statements that Alan Nocklinson Esquire is making are incorrect.
The statement he keeps making about me saying that we don't want him to present petitions during the public community meetings is not any conversation that I've had with him.
Also, when we asked for the petitions in this case, they said that they were in progress.
So I just wanted to, you know, clear that up because he keeps saying it as he continues to come to these meetings in reference to strawberry-mantier community concern.
The quadrant of areas surrounding 3335 West 1st Street is lived in by many elders, 80, 90 years of age.
They have been in Strawberry Mansion now, the 4th Councilmanic District, for almost all their lives.
The tactics used by Alan Knacklemson Esquire and his firm is having strangers approach them for signatures to support matters that have a public meeting process has been very disturbing.
Alan Nackamson, Esquire, is using tactics by any means necessary, even if it is detrimental to the senior citizens of our community.
I have received many calls about this alarming approach.
Further, RCOs don't receive payment, and these tactics are often petitions or letters without the knowledge of what people are signing.
Many are signing because they may be afraid or bullied, even.
Also, the petitions and letters doubling the work of what the non-paid RCOs have to do and making our work more taxing.
However, you can see that we have matched in opposition the number of nearest neighbors in opposition and could have gotten more signatures due to the burden of hardship this community has experienced from illegal renovations.
This is unnecessary pitting neighbors against one another when we have a public meeting process.
We want the board to be aware how this negatively affects our community.
The names starred on the two petitions are very active block captains and have full support of the nearest neighbors in opposition.
Further to the point of the address 3335 West 1st Street, the owners, Noah Burson, Burr Properties, LLC, were caught by licenses and inspections trying to turn a single family property into a multi-use property, and now not before this board.
Their illegal construction debris destroyed the adjacent lot, and the community was left to clean it up.
We have photos of proof that we did not have available to us at the time of sending in this information because we had to divert our time to going through the community to get a signature.
So it took us away from our focus of putting our package together.
33-31 and 33-41 West First Street.
And the presentation materials are lots.
Nothing is on these parcels, so no comparison. They stated at the public meeting on January 3, 2024, that they have 20. Burr properties have 20 or more rental properties, and therefore were well aware that 3335 West 1st Street requires zoning due to a lot area regulation, but yet they put the blame on their contractor.
We have no way of knowing if any of that is even true or correct.
What landed them here was illegally renovating 3335 West 1st Street.
The refusal indicates that the lot area starts with not enough lot area required for a two-family dwelling,
irregardless of whether or not it's an RM1 district or RM1 area.
This particular property, as they well knew, would not allow them to renovate that property into two family units without a variance, without coming before this board.
units without a variance, without coming before this board. The architectural drawings
don't show the room dimensions purposely, so you can't see how small this property space would be.
So we had, you know, we have to try as RCOs to, you know, get volunteers or look ourselves,
you know, continue to try to learn reading these architectural drawings, and then the
presentation comes to our community with no dimensional information, as if we were so stupid,
we would not be able to make sense out of these drawings to be able to understand that this
particular proposal is being put in a very, very small, trying to make two apartments out of a
very, very small house. If they do the stairwell to code 36 inches, that takes away from the first
floor space even more. If they keep the old stairwell the same, it still reduces the first
floor space because you have to add four inches for wood framing, the wall plus drywall in the
hallway inside the apartment, basically the property, 386 square feet first floor, that they
are squeezing in a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Due to the breezeway,
the bedroom would be very tiny, like being in a small box or jail cell, based on the information
that is presented. The property does not have enough adequate space. We have expressed our
concerned with keeping single family use as we have a market for it in this area. This property
is small at 3335 and it fits perfectly as a single family home. The second floor kitchen
living room are small and they are not one bedroom so they are presenting more like efficiencies 400
square feet approximately or similar 386 square feet. Even with the vented closet trash
has trash even with the vented closet for trash it has to come out of the unit possibly before
trash day where it ends up on the on the corners we would appreciate you upholding the refusal
as this property is not adequate in space to be to apartments and there is no demonstrated
hardship and there's no need to burden or have hardship to the community that we put this kind
the density on families living in this square space of just barely being able to turn around
with all of the things, kitchen, living room, et cetera. If they do the stairwell to at least
code the 36 inches, that makes that first floor unit even smaller. So this house would be a
perfect home for, you know, a family and there's no reason to change it from a single family
property. So thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Can I respond, Mr. Chair? Yeah. Why don't we
do this? Why don't we see who else is out there? Okay. Right. Is there anyone else in the virtual
audience yes chair um the next hand is uh phone number ending in 3552 and they will have permission
to speak okay i could you state your name please yes can you hear me okay we can just state your
name for the record i think i swore you once today already um yes you did this is adrian
Fernandez. Please proceed. Okay. My testimony was sent in late today. However, we are opposed
to this variance and we're asking the board that you please vote to deny it. We did list
seven provisos that if the board will not deny this variance, that we need those provisos
because of the conditions of the house
that was illegally transformed against the permit
and also the fact that there are, I think,
at least three empty lots next to it.
So the seven provisos, including the no pets,
are related to nuisances that we are increasingly experiencing
from multifamily properties.
Excuse me for a minute.
I just have to look at my testimony.
The notice of refusal for this property is incorrect.
In the beginning of all hearings, you asked if the notice of refusal was correct.
In the beginning of all hearings, you ask if the notice of refusal...
And this one is not correct because it should say legalization.
The property owners, the LLC owned by the, I believe, the couple, it says, they said that they spent $100,000 and they did not know that a contractor or a general contractor that they hired
And the subs underneath them converted their building they owned from single family to multifamily.
And that is pretty much impossible when you have written documents for construction of something costing $100,000.
So they were fully aware and also guided the services that they brought from the general contractor.
And they were trying to make this building multifamily without the neighbors being involved at all.
And that is not permitted in Philadelphia. So if they have so much problem following the rules to convert the use of the building, we're not confident that they can manage a multifamily occupancy or a multifamily structure.
in this area too the strawberry mansion the strawberry mansion overlay is either present
or being extended by proposed bills so that we can preserve the type of single family living
that we are accustomed to we are again having increasing problems with pets for some reason
when people rent a property they will not walk their dog to the park they will not walk their
dog to the larger park, which is right near all of us in Swampoodle and Strawberry Mansion.
They will not walk their dogs to the smaller parks that they pass by in between.
And we literally can barely walk down the street straight because of the amount of dog
feces that are recently increasingly on our sidewalks in the street.
And we have many people that work at night.
And this is a huge hazard and nuisance.
um so that's why the one of the seven provides those if it's approved but we are opposed
is that there's no pets on the lease because we can't take any more of these pets um i've had
pets all my life and it's not my neighbor's responsibility to take care of my pets next door
down the street on a commercial district none of that that's my responsibility and um we're
finding they're not taking responsibility for their pets. Also, they now have six open violations
because the property was changed against the permit where they signed, they and or their
hired contractor signed that they would not make any low bearing wall or low bearing interior
structure changes or external low-bearing wall changes to this property or walls, beams,
anything like that, they completely disregarded that.
That's not a landlord that I would want to have on my block or next door to me.
um we did tell them that um if they rented property out a single family that um in most
cases most of the neighbors would not be opposed to that um however the provisos would still need
to be placed there so we can um try to get back to our standard of living um you know as long-term
residents in north philadelphia well but i i'm not sure i'm not i'm not sure if you if you did
a single home you'd have that provisos right i'm sorry that's right yeah i mean all right oh that's
that's okay all right all right all right well thank you very much right it is i'm not i still
have a little bit more to say if you'll let me finish sure um if it's multi i'm sorry if it's
i did write it correctly though if it's multi-family that um we're asking for provisos
um and i said it was conflicting with the overlay i said the refusal is misleading and incorrect
on purpose and the refusal omits legalization that only came out because of questions that i
asked the property owners who admitted to only renting more than 20 properties
when i did ask and somewhere in our conversation they admitted that they changed this property
before going to zoning.
However, the neighbors already knew,
and Danita Cummings found out more information
about how the neighbors knew,
but we were convinced the neighbors
were the ones that called in the violations.
We're also saying that this will be an overuse of the variance
if it's multifamily because they would be able
they would be able to put too many occupants in the building, which is next door, across the street, down the street from single-family residences.
to put too many occupants in the building,
which is next door.
All the provisals that we listed, if it's not denied, we're asking for, once again, because of the environment
and the increasing problems that we're having with multifamily occupants.
and more and more we're getting existing residents complaining that when they try to just talk to
these multifamily occupants that they're threatened so now they have to call the police just if we're
saying for example will you please put your trash out on the right day if you're not sure will you
ask someone will you watch what others do neighbors are being threatened many of them elderly and they
just don't appreciate this they'd rather just have a single family by right than have to deal with
someone who doesn't watch what everybody else is doing, who's doing it correctly, and wants to
create a new situation that's going to increase negative impacts. So hopefully you were able to
read our testimony. I think I've heard everything you said. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Sure. Is
there anyone else in the virtual audience? Yes, Chair Joetta Johnson will be allowed to speak.
Ms. Johnson, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Joetta Johnson.
My name is spelled J-O-E-T-T-A Johnson, and I am the block captain of the 3300 block of West Sargent Street.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
I'm against.
Is there anything that hasn't been said that you could offer?
No, sir.
Well, thank you very much for calling us and telling that.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no more hands here.
Planning Commission.
Oh, wait a minute.
Alan, do you want to respond?
Thank you.
Thank you.
There's a lot to unwind here.
But so, first of all, I would implore you to look up Carlos Perez of King and Queen Construction.
That's the contractor that we've used on previous projects.
And for whatever reason, he didn't do well by my clients and went to jail.
I don't know if it was just my clients or other individuals, but, you know, we fell victim to this.
And, you know, again, we're not there's indications about an overlay and us trying to change the zoning.
That's the point. We're not.
We're not even trying to get a variance of RM1.
We're saying this is a non-conforming lot.
It's slightly smaller.
We're asking for de minimis variance here.
You know, we had actually discussions with my clients.
We can go up a third story as of right.
We wanted to respect the community by not having a roof deck, by not going up on a third
story on a two-story block, by not having any window wells, because that's always been
an issue of strawberry mansion by keeping the building the facade the same way without having
any bay windows there we're doing the least modification possible under the philadelphia
zoning code in terms of the petition again you know these meetings i believe are taped i would
you know miss cummings as an officer of the court you have told me in the past that you did not want
us to present petitions at the community meeting that's why i don't present them i would be more
really happy to share them in future community meetings, and I will. And I would say in terms
of the petition that they had no one on First Street against this project. We have the person
to the left of us and the right of us. And by the way, the person to the right of us is building a
multifamily structure. This is not out of character to have multifamily here. Our lot
size is just slightly off. And my clients didn't know, trust me, they did not know that they
couldn't do this as if right. They relied on a professional, or at least they thought a
professional to handle this. So there's nothing indicated. They never admitted during a community
meeting that they knew this and they were doing it illegally. Trust me, they would not be here
if they did have to be. So again, to prevent a financial catastrophe, please allow us to use
this RM1 property for
two units in the existing
structure, no changes
to the building envelope, and
we're in agreement with
Swamp Poodle's provisos
with regards to trash,
with regards to
I forgot all
the others, but any of those enforceable
provisos, no basement living,
because we
want to move on and finish
this development project. Thank you.
So, Alan, as you started
respond. There's a lot to go through here.
What I'm going to do is hold this to next week.
What I'm going to do is hold this to next week.
We'll vote for this next week at two o'clock,
We'll vote for this
next week at 2 o'clock.
but I want a chance to talk to the board and really get ourselves where we
want to be with this. Okay. Thank you.
Can we get the recommendation from the planning commission?
Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Planning commission.
Good afternoon, chair. Peter Bernard for the planning commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RM1 multi-family
residential at this location we feel the requested variance for open space is de minimis accordingly
the planning commission recommends the board grant the variance thank you very much uh but this case
is closed and we'll vote for it next tuesday at 2 p.m thank you alan that'll be next wednesday
mr chair wednesday wednesday it's okay number 13 mi 2023 005 748 33 35 west first street
No, I'm lying. I've got to move the thing down here. Hold on.
Number 14, MI 2023-005-669-3655 Market Street.
Stephanie Boggs is the attorney.
Letter of support from West Poulton, Saunders Park, RCO,
and letter of support from Poulton Village Civic Association.
Councilmember Gauthier has also taken a position of support.
Stephanie Box has been promoted.
Hi, counsel.
Did you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Stephanie Magana, S-T-E-P-H-A-N-I-E.
Last name's Magana, M-A-G-A-G-N-A with Claire Harrison.
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
My client is Wexford, S-C-E-C, 3675 Market Street, LLC.
They are the owner of the property.
We also have the tenant for the building here as well.
All right. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to wave the reading of the review to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Sure. Thank you.
so 3675 market street is located at the corner of markets street um and 37th street we have
frontage on filbert street as well um the property is occupied by an existing office building with
ground floor commercial retail space um two locals is a local brewery founded by two west
philadelphia natives that recently signed a lease for two spaces on the ground floor
um the they have approvals earlier this year that they obtained for a sit-down restaurant
at the tenant space that has its primary footage along 37th street and they also have approval for
an artist industrial use at the tenant space that is located at the corner of 37th and filbert
street next to the existing loading dock in the building um these are some renderings of the
the restaurant and the brewery as it's currently been approved um construction has been ongoing
the last few months and they are well on their way and expect to be opening soon here are some
current interior site photographs that show the progress that has been made the restaurant space
as well as you can see the production space as well in the rear of this picture and as I said
they do anticipate opening soon under the current approvals but they are looking ahead into growing
their business and specifically being able to produce beer for off-premises consumption as
part of the business. So, this application seeks approval to change the use of the retail space D,
that is the retail space located at the corner of 37th and Filbert Street next to the loading dock
for uses, limited industrial and wholesale sales and distribution. Those uses are not permitted
in the CMX4 district where this property is located. So, we are seeking a refusal to use
variances to permit limited industrial use and distribution use of the retail space D
on the ground floor. We did present this project to the RCOs at a community meeting on December
14th. We're happy to say that we have letters of support from West Powleton Saunders Park RCO
as the coordinating RCO as well as Powleton Village Civic Association and their letters
of support were included in the package submitted to the zoning board. Again, this is our first
four key plan. This is a plan being submitted today as a proviso plan in connection with this
application for the sole purpose of documenting the tenant space that is the subject of this
application. We are only seeking approval to change the use of retail space D to permit that
particular tenant space for limited industrial and distribution use. It's approximately 2,600
square feet. Again, at the corner here, all other previously approved uses of the building will
again at the corner here all other previously approved uses of the building will remain
remain the same.
the same so we are asking that this plan be approved as a proviso plan to the board's
decision should they be inclined to grant relief um with that i will ask um i guess to kohler who
is one of co-founders of the two locals brewing company to identify himself and raise his hand
for the board and share a little bit more information about two locals
My guest, if you haven't done so already, can you raise your hand?
Do we see his hand?
Do we see your hand?
The hand was up here, and it went back in.
OK. He's been enabled to speak. Please unmute yourself. Sure, sure.
So could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure. Mengestu Coiler. Could you spell, please, for the court stenographer?
Sure. M-E-N-G-I-S-T-U is Mengestu. The last name's Coiler, K-O-I-L-O-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mengesu, have you heard the statements I made to the board?
Are they true and correct to your knowledge and belief?
Would you adopt them as your own?
Thank you.
With that, please, I'll scroll to the next slide, and you can please tell everybody a little bit about your company.
So Two Locals Brewing is Philadelphia's first Black-owned and operated brewery.
It's owned by myself and my brother, Richard Poiler.
So just a brief background.
Richard and I started homebrewing back in 2016, started with a one-gallon homebrewing kit,
spent some time formulating a handful of recipes, eventually won a silver medal at a homebrew
competition for our brown ale, which we call Nubian.
And then through our networking over, you know, the following years, we're really able to land a contract brewing partnership with Mainstay Brewing in 2021, whereby we're able to release our first commercially viable product, which was the brown ale and release several other beers later on.
And through our hard work, we're able to eventually sign a lease in 2022 at 3675 Market Street to open our own facility, production facility, 15-barrel system.
So production plus tap room as well.
Today, you can find us in several bars, taverns, restaurants throughout the city, Local 44, City Tap House, Lincoln Financial Field, to name a few.
and we are shooting to open this month, January 2024.
Okay, wow.
Just some additional background about us.
We grew up in West Philly.
So when we decided that we wanted to venture out
and open up a brewery and a tap room,
we wanted to have a footprint,
at least our first footprint in West Philly.
We're familiar with the area.
My older brother actually went to University City
before it went away.
We are also partnering with Liberty Kitchen,
which will operate our food menu as well,
which will also feature some of our West African cuisine.
Richard and I are of West African descent.
I was actually born in Liberia.
Our brewery is going to offer tours as well.
And we'll do, you know, obviously on-premise consumption, but we're also planning to do some small distribution as well.
So what we're asking is for some zoning relief, which will allow us to do a small amount of distribution.
We intend to distribute about between 10% to 20% of the beer that we're going to produce.
So for off-premise consumption, we'll probably have one to two pickups per month on the dock off of Filbert Street.
And just to be clear, within our space, we've accounted for proper ventilation.
for the production of the beer and we we've worked with our landlord to ensure we have
And we, we've worked with our landlord to ensure we have proper waste management internally that will be picked up, you know, frequently, you know, from the space as well.
Great. Thank you, Mangastu. With that, I think we can open it up to any questions that the board might have.
Pete Singer from Wexford might also be here if there are questions for ownership.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time it's questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair have jihad ali with a hand up okay he's been allowed to speak how could you state
your name is spelled please for the court sonographer uh good afternoon uh mr chairman
members of the board my name is jihad ali j-i-h-a-d-a-l-i and uh wait a minute wait a
minute do you swear or firm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i firm please proceed
well happy new year mr chairman members of board thank you i um work at the enterprise center so
i wanted to take this opportunity to talk to the applicant they asked him to find his way at the
enterprise up to the enterprise center introduce himself to miss della clark because we're going
have an event this month next month that i think would be beneficial to him and because we're near
neighbors this project i support this project thank you very much for taking the time to close
we appreciate it is there anyone else in the virtual audience there was a hand it went back
down to your planning commission good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx4 commercial mixed use at this location
we feel the applicant has a demonstrated hardship and that the request is the
minimum necessary accordingly the planning commission recommends the board grant the
variance my 2023-005-669-3655 market street i vote yes with proviso use limited to space
Retail D on key plans stamped by ZBA on January 10, 2024. Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with
provisos. James Snell, my vote is yes with provisos. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you, counsel. Thank you. Number 15, MI 2022-004-584-5824 to 26 North Broad Street,
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Letter of opposition from Councilwoman Bass.
Letter of opposition from Concerned Community Association.
Letter of opposition from the Philippian Baptist Church.
Letter of opposition from people next door.
And people in 16-under the block of Widener.
Alan Nockamson is back in as a panelist.
Mr. Nockamson, you've been sworn.
Just if you would state your name, please.
Alan Nockamson.
And could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Yes, my clients are the tenants of this property.
Excuse me, Brandon Brown in the Diego Exchange LLC.
Excuse me.
Mike Sher has a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refuser and stipulate to his accuracy?
I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. Thank you.
All right. So, I'm here to present 5824-26 North Broad Street. What we have here is a pretty large
CMX 2.5 zone property on North Broad Street. And my client, the tenant, is currently using the
second floor uh for recording studio uh clientele tends to be um people who are like you know
younger um and you know maybe more young adults um and he's an educator by trade uh brandon brown
and what he's hoping to do is he he works in the music industry he works with creatives
and you know he's hoping to use the first floor almost as like an ability for people to perform
like live to family and friends um it's in basically he wants to create an incubator for
um it's in basically he wants to create an incubator for creatives and um you know again
creatives
his his background is in education he's a teacher at um at the uh media production he teaches media
production at the global leadership academy in west philly um born and raised in philadelphia
and i think this is a good i mean it's conceptually this sounds like a really good project
Right. I think the issue is the Philadelphia zoning code gets in the way. And we'll go over this. But, you know, originally we're proposing to have more than 50 people in the space. And, you know, what that turns into is a nightclub. And, you know, people get really scared about a nightclub.
And, you know, and I know the zoning runs with the land. And, you know, again, maybe Brandon's a great guy and he's going to do this amazing thing, but maybe it doesn't work out for Brandon. And all of a sudden you have like this zoning that runs with the land as a nightclub and people may not have the next person may not be as nice as Brandon. And we get that.
And so it probably has to be a revision one day, hopefully, of this section of the Philadelphia Zoning Code.
But until then, we have to figure out ways to make it work where we encourage, you know, people like Brandon and the concepts that he's trying to push forward, but protecting the community as a whole as well.
So we're going to go over the notice of refusal.
We do have correspondence from council members, Cindy Bass, and other people, and I want to address that.
We show the license of, you know, the legal use of the recording studio upstairs on the second floor, as well as a zoning permit.
And then, you know, you'll learn a little bit about the flex space of what he wants to do, hopefully.
And, you know, we're hoping.
And maps of the area, again, we're not taking an RSA5 property or some residential zoning or in a residential neighborhood.
This is a CMX two and a half property on North Broad Street, right?
Right. So and this is a property that's beautiful on the outside and hoping to make it on the inside.
And, you know, we're in part of Philadelphia where there are young people who need like an avenue to express themselves.
And we're hoping that this is that place. And but at the same time, protect the community from bad actors.
And I don't think Brandon's a bad actor. I think, though, that the Zoni runs with the land and people get scared of it and they see the word nightclub.
So I'm hoping that we can come up with a reasonable provisos.
But we'll see.
We'll go review maps of the area, photographs of the property inside and out, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice, the lease to the property, our application for appeal, and our certificate of tax clearance.
And again, Brandon is in the virtual audience, and I would ask that he virtually raise his hand afterwards and a few questions for him.
And if he wants to speak too as well, I would ask that he does that as well.
So notice of refusal, this is a CMX two and a half property.
It's, you know, we didn't put in the applications for a nightclub.
But what we did say is a private club on the first floor and an establishment where 50 or more people regularly congregate primarily for entertainment purposes in the form of dancing.
We didn't. I submitted this application.
I did not put I don't think I put the word dancing in there, but I could be wrong.
An existing structure, no sign on this application.
So what we want to do is, is figure out a way that it makes sense for the community where we're not even having an inkling that this is a nightclub. So first things first, we would agree to a proviso less than 50 people. So then we're outside the nightclub category, and we're in the entertainment and assembly category. So I'm hoping that that diffuses the situation with the neighborhood.
it. Second thing is, you know, and we'll go over the letter that was written by Cindy Bass's
office. We don't want alcohol. Like originally we're like, oh, people have alcohol, you know,
they'll, you know, present, you know, BYOB. We get that the community is, you know, conceptually
against alcohol use at these type of properties. So we, again, not a forcible proviso, but we would
agree to, you know, no alcohol at the premises. And, you know, just to reiterate, this is not a
public club this is not a public space this is a private space and you know i can i don't know if
we can agree to a proviso in that respect um there was also like discussion in in a letter
we'll review it about cooking on the premises my client has no intention to create like a place
where they sell food they'll have catering outside catering but there's gonna be no cooking on the
premises. So we had a correspondence, you know, from
Cindy Bassett's office. And, you know, they have these bullet
points here.
And so the first bullet point directly affects, this is why
the people in the audience at the community meeting expresses
issues. Directly affecting residents question the impact that
Directly affecting residents question the impact that maximum of 50 patrons or guests would cause while going through the neighborhood.
maximum of 50 patrons or guests would call.
Again, I think, again, having a maximum of 50 will, like, help the situation.
This is a CMX two and a half property.
We don't want to create a nightclub atmosphere.
This will prevent it from being a nightclub, but it's a commercial property.
Two and a half is pretty strong commercial classification.
They're also concerned about alcohol consumption on site.
Again, not enforceable. We would agree to some type of community benefits agreement and the board wants to hold this vote.
You know, we can try to work through that issue because I know that's not an enforceable proviso, but we would agree to no alcohol consumption on the premises.
During the presentation, I referenced that, you know, that kids are the ones that are that are, you know, basically Brandon's working with.
well, I'm older now. Anyone who's under 25 is considered a kid to me nowadays. So they're
young adults, right? And there are some high school students, but there are some young adults
who are creatives that Brandon works with. Again, he's an educator by trade, right? That's who is
going to be there. So I'm just letting you know, like there was no intention to mislead. So young
adults uh don't understand this bullet point but they say several noted that no apparent hardship
was indicated as the activities the applicant mentioned he would like to do if granted the
variance could be done on the first floor without changing the zoning to allow a permanent event
space well that's not the case like even if we go under 50 50 patrons or occupants we still would
need a zoning variance. Then they said many people in the audience expressed negative experiences
with other nearby event planning spaces. Again, we're not an event planning space.
You know, we're more of a, almost like a co-working space in the incubator. So
that's apples and oranges. And then they were concerned about the influx of individuals
in that property for parking purposes.
Again, we're near public transportation.
That was one of the reasons why Brandon chose that place.
That's how most of our people go to the events.
I mean, not to the events, to the recording studio and the events.
You know, again, we would hope that they leverage public parking.
But this is a commercial corridor, right?
And this is a commercial corridor that is struggling.
And it would be beneficial, I would think, to have as many people as who are potential patrons of nearby commercial spaces as possible.
We're not trying to flood the streets with people, but having density on a commercial corridor is typically a good thing.
So that's those are the bullet points that were addressed that we want to address in Sidney Bassett's letter.
Let me just get this a little smaller so I can get to the next page.
All right.
And then ACCA, which I believe was a coordinating RCO here, also sent a letter of opposition.
Kind of goes with a lot of the stuff that was said by Cindy Bass.
So we addressed that.
mentioned something about like, you know, the church was nearby and they were afraid that
that was going to be disruptive to the church. Having a place for creatives, young adults
to express themselves, I think is a good thing for any community. I would want my kids to have
the ability to do that. So I don't know how that is in divergence to a church being there.
There are probably a lot of congregates who have children who want to be able to express themselves in the spot.
There's no such thing like that in this area.
I think it's a good thing.
And then the church also expressed their opinion.
Again, I think that the word nightclub scares people, and it does have negative connotations.
We don't want to create a nightclub.
We're not open to the public.
We're an incubator for creatives.
and then again my client has the proper licensing for their recording studio i just wanted to show
you that and then the flex space right you know this is i pulled it from their website
you know it's basically how can people leverage their creative minds to earn an income and
express themselves and this is you know their website but their core values is integrity
passion, support, and growth. Again, it kind of goes to what Brandon is as an educator.
And then maps of the area. Again, we're on a commercial corridor. We're on the broad street
line. It would seem to me that this is a proper use of the property. And then you can see there's
And then you can see there's ample public transportation and there's shops.
example, public transportation in their shops.
And I think some of those shops would benefit from having this type of density created.
Not all the time.
This is, again, once in a while he would use the first floor for the people who are working in the studio.
It's for family, friends.
So, and then this is a beautiful structure.
You know, I think this is something that you can restore if it made money.
so we're at the corner of north broad and nedro and then you can see here we restore trash outside
that would be one of our provisos that's enforceable commercial trash pickup outside
no cooking on the premises another proviso here's our orange notice posters you know north broad
street to the right of the property to the left of the property west nedro to the right of the
property and to the left of the property again we're a commercial corridor we're not you know
I know there's some residential use, you know, further along in the neighborhoods, but this is a commercial corridor.
And then Old York Road, I guess we kind of intersect to the right of the property and to the left of the property, which is just an extension of Broad Street.
And then this is a former church building, never has been used residentially.
And it's really difficult, like, you know, for this property to be used just in general to build up this commercial corridor.
I think this would be a good use of it.
uh and then these are just pictures of the inside of the property and then mostly of like the first
and second floors and then just our plans like the first floor is the assembly area
so the lower level is like kind of like where we envision um you know the creatives would like
have a place to eat if there are events for the creatives they that's where they would have you
You know, food would be like, you know, you know, the caterers would be down there, you know, getting things ready.
And our RCO meeting notice, we met some time ago, you know, in 2023.
And, you know, we want to present this in front of the CBA.
We hope the CBA is supportive of this.
Again, we always work with the community whenever they have requests from us.
So, you know, in front of our mailer, we put an important community zoning meeting in reference to 5824 and Broad Street.
Please plan to attend in yellow highlighted in caps, 64 addresses to be notified of that meeting, proof of mailing of that notice, our lease, our application for appeal, and our certificate of tax clearance.
The only reason why there's a balance is because of this year's taxes, which are not due yet.
I would ask that Brandon raised his hand. And if he wants to articulate anything, you know, in addition to what I stated, feel free. So, Brandon, can you virtually raise your hands?
Brandon, can you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Brandon Brown.
And spell, please, for the stenographer.
First name, B-R-A-N-D-O-N.
Last name, B-R-O-W-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Brandon, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning.
Is it true and correct what I stated?
And do you adopt as your own testimony?
Is there anything you want to add to, like, I know this is very personal to you and you're trying to do something good and, you know, and you're an educator by trade.
Is there anything I missed or you want to state anything to the zoning board?
Most of the points were basically hit.
I just want to just emphasize that the young, the youth do need an outlet in Philadelphia and I'm trying to provide that outlet for them.
They just need a place to kind of like network and express themselves. And I'm trying to be that place for them.
So they already come here to create media, different forms of content and also learn how to create LLCs and pursue entrepreneurship.
So now we're just trying to get a space to where we can have like, you know, a little bit more family and friends over to kind of showcase what the people are doing so they can grow their businesses.
Thank you. All right. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Oh, Mr. Chair, one more thing.
One more thing. I know it's always a tough situation for the board to approve something
like this. If the board feels so inclined, we would be agreeable to a temporary variant.
we would be agreeable to a temporary variance of three years.
of three years.
Just, you know, again, we know it runs with the land.
So, you know, a temporary variance, I think, is the appropriate, you know, if the board accepts our variance.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, I have a hand up from Charles Richardson.
Mr. Richardson, you've already been sworn to state your name for the record, sir.
Good afternoon again, Mr. Chair Charles Richardson, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass from 508 City Hall.
It's a lot to unpack here.
This is the third property within a block that has tried to open up an event space and the community has always fought this back.
um while mr brandon is me you know might have great intentions and things along those lines
you know he has no way of of protecting the community as he tries to his tries to say
uh you know there's no way of of ensuring that bad actors do not attend any of the events there
and even though they're saying that it's not an event space it is an event space uh essentially
And, you know, whether or not you try to restrict alcohol, things along those lines, you really have no control over those types of things.
We question who those young adults are and what the family members are that will be attending.
Again, the thing about control, a maximum of 50 does not affect the activities of those people that are attending any of those events once they leave that venue.
uh let's see in our experience when they talk about public transportation that's a three block
range from broad now up and nobody really walks there uh for an event or anything along those
lines and i think with uh you know can contend with um with allen's uh uh essentially saying
that the corridor is struggling because it's really not struggling it's very active corridor
While he has a license for a recording studio on the second floor, that's much different than an event space, which could actually be a, you know, even though they say it's not a nightclub, it could be a nightclub.
So when you talk about young adults, you know, or youth, as Brandon put it, youth is not an interchangeable thing.
They've talked about young adults.
And let's make it plain that, you know, that that is not the crowd that's going to be coming young people, as they say.
So the councilwoman is very much opposed.
I actually ran the meeting, the RCO meeting, and we had an anatomist, and I don't think that they would say that there were not a lot of people there.
For that community, there were a lot of people there, including the pastor of the church around the corner.
I think it was the gentleman that runs the exterminating place next door and 17 community members, and everyone was totally against this.
And the Councilwoman backs the community up with regard to opposing the granting of this variance.
Thank you, Mr. Richardson, for taking the time to call in.
Is there anyone else in the first audience?
Yes, I have Sandra Broadus.
She will be allowed to speak.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Sandra.
um s-a-n-d-r-a broadest b-r-o-a-d-u-s you swear or phone to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do please proceed um i am um speaking on behalf of the neighbors
in the community um who are also participants in a concerned community association
location, which is one of the RCOs in the area. When this case first came up in 2022,
we actually presented it to neighbors who live directly behind this location on Nidro
Avenue and Conlin Street, who are very, very concerned about the fact that this venue,
along with other venues who've tried to locate in this one block area that there's no parking.
So those residents would have to absorb the parking for the location.
There's also a new apartment building opening up two doors down the street.
And I forget, it's a pretty large venue.
So they're already going to have issues with people parking on that block who will be residents.
that block because it is a very active block and actually does have a bar across
That block, because it is a very active block and actually does have a bar across the street, people park on the sidewalk.
The businesses actually have to park on the sidewalk across the street.
So it's going to be a big problem.
And the church a block away is close enough that the parking would overflow and actually disrupt folks that are actually trying to attend the church, depending on when the events are being held.
And to be clear, this facility will, in fact, be an event venue.
Because Brandon is a tenant, the zoning would allow the nightclub use that is proposed to change hands.
So there's no vouching for what the community would have to deal with later.
The young adults that would be attending the nightclub in the evening present another issue because the 1600 block of Negro Avenue has been protected by this community for years because it has been the headquarters of some very, very, very serious gang activity.
And now we are asking young people to co-mingle in that location.
And as Mr. Nockamson suggested, that they come on the bus, which means they will be on foot walking through the neighborhood, which is just not good for our youth.
But more important, the Broad Street bus, there are two buses that cross that intersection, and we have witnessed on numerous occasions when crowds get rowdy at the bar across the street, the police pull up, block traffic on Broad Street, and also disrupt the bus passing while they diffuse the problem.
If he actually has a nightclub going on at that location, it could disrupt traffic.
We have Einstein Hospital and night workers from various institutions immediately in the area that rely on being able to safely pass through that community.
It was indicated that this facility would use alcohol vendors.
Mr. Nockmson indicated that they would be having events and they would be having catering.
That makes this our event room.
If you look at the picture of the property, you can see partially the sign of best exterminating,
which has been a very long-term business in the area.
They've been there for 37 years, and they are right next door to this facility.
Because that building has been used for illegal events in the past, they can tell you, and hopefully they will, tell you what they've experienced.
It's been very, very bad when there have been illegal events and parties outside of that facility, and they blocked their ability to get into the building, and it has not been good.
I'm sorry
so those are just a few
of the reasons but the neighbors
are very
opposed to this and
hopefully you'll understand why
thank you for taking
the time to call and we appreciate it is there anyone
else in the virtual audience
yes Sherry
will be allowed to speak
Hi, can we see her hand?
She's there, Chair.
Okay, sure.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
R-R-I-E-C-O-H-E-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you, Chair and members of the Zoning Board.
Happy New Year to everyone.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, I just want to add my voice here as a neighbor that our community has seen many nightclubs in this area come and go.
and um they have presented a lot of problems for our community um a lot of uh chaos that we don't
need and as you know as uh attorney nokam said you know zoning runs with the land so even if
uh everything that mr brown does and the people he brings in
Uh, everything that Mr. Brown does and the people he brings in do not present any problems for the community. You know, what about the next tenant? Uh, one thing I'd like to add is that this is a neighborhood of predominantly seniors.
And, you know, we do not need, you know, nightclubs in our community.
As Ms. Broadus said, we already have a bar.
It is not helping to better and benefit our community to have nightclubs.
So I hope that the board will see the points made today by Mr. Richardson, on behalf of our council member, Ms. Broadus, on behalf of our neighborhood association, you know, and you see the letters by the church that's across the street and the business that has been there for a very long time.
So we hope you will find in our favor today.
Thank you. Thank you for calling in. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
yes chair Deanna Cardwell
could you state your name please
and spell for the court stenographer
could you state your name please
and spell for the court stenographer
yes uh deanna cardwell d-e-a-n-n-a c-a-r-d-w-e-l-l right do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes are you in favor or against this project
i am against is there anything that that you could offer that's not already been said
um not really i just like to say that the zone thing goes with the building okay and as mr
brandon may be a great gentleman with a great idea the zoning goes with the building um thank
you very much for taking the time to call us we appreciate it is there anyone else in the virtual
audience yes there are two more hands up the first one is tina morton hi could you state
your name and spell please for the court stenographer
tina morton
she's not there but i do have two more hands up here william will tina morton just came back
came back on hi tina could you state your name and spell please for the court stenographer
on unmute please
hi could you state hi could you state your name and spell please for the court stenographer
absolutely t-i-n-a tina morton m-o-r-t-o-n having nothing new to add i just wait wait wait wait
Wait, wait, one moment.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you in favor or against?
Against.
Thank you so much.
Okay, thank you, ma'am.
Thanks for taking the time.
Is there anyone else in the audience?
The hands are going up, Chair.
William Williams is next.
I could, Mr. Williams, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Mr. Williams
Mr. Williams
There he is
Mr. Williams
Please unmute Mr. Williams
Hi could you say your name please
and spell for the court stenographer
My name is Bill Williams
The B-I-L-L-W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
You swear or affirm it's all the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you in favor or against this project?
I'm totally against it.
I live right around the corner.
I'm a senior citizen.
All right.
Well, Mr. Williams, is there anything that was said that different that you could offer?
No, I agree with all of that.
All right.
Well, Mr. Williams, thanks for taking the time to call us.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else?
yes marcia logan hi could you state your name please and spell for the court sonography
i'm sorry
I'm sorry
could you state your name
and spell for the course not
Marcia M-A-R-C-I-A
L-O-G-A-N
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth
are you for or against this project
Ms. Logan
Ms. Logan
Yes. Are you in favor of this project? Are you in favor of this project or against it?
I am against it and I don't have anything further to add. Thank you for your time.
No, thank you for your time. All right. Is there anyone else?
Yes. Juliet. Hurston.
How many more hands do you have? One more.
Okay, thank you.
Hi, Juliette, could you state your name and please spell for the court stenographer?
Juliette Curiton, J-U-L-I-E-T-T-E-C-U-R-E-T-O-N.
Great.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Ma'am?
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
juliet
i think we lost her juliet
any more hand here she is juliet
juliet
all right yes can you hear me i hear you now
Now, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I swear to tell the truth.
Thank you, man.
Are you in favor or against this project?
I'm against it.
And is there anything you could offer that we haven't heard yet?
I agree with everybody that said something.
I'm against it.
Thank you for taking the time.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else?
One more?
Two more now, Chair.
Kelly Barnett is next.
Hi, Kelly, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
K-E-L-L-Y-B-A-R-R-E-T-T.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you in favor or against this project?
Against it.
Is there anything you can offer that we haven't heard?
um yeah as far as like um bringing the young um entrepreneurs for like a family and friends
um with a gathering like that that would um turn into like pop-up shops where young um entrepreneurs
are selling their ideas so that would bring them more traffic um like they usually have it set up
far as like a table if if you sold something then you have a table set up selling t-shirts or
hats or something like that so then that would bring in so much traffic with that would really
ruin the parking and the the crowd that you know would come along with bringing bringing more um
things into the neighborhood and we don't need that we need something else that could be in
place of
you know with what
he's trying to do something else needs to
be done with the space
that he has
thank you very much for calling in we appreciate it
is there anyone else left
yes so far one more
hand David
could you state your name please
and state your name please and spell for
the court stenographer
David Berno
D-A-V-I-D-E-B-U-R-N-O
right um do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do are you in favor of this project or against it against is there anything that you can offer
that you have that you we haven't heard yet no thank thank but thank you for taking the time
the calls is there anyone left yeah no more hands here mr now can you just respond quickly
I don't think I need to respond. I think we kind of stated that these nightclub designations have a negative connotation, and that's not the intention here. We think that this would be a positive development in the neighborhood. We're pushing for temporary variants. We're asking for three years. We defer to the board of how long the temporary variants.
We're asking for three years. We defer to the board of how long the temporary parents would be. We would also agree to hours of operation that make sense, that would prevent it from being like a nightclub. So we would do hours of operations from noon to 8 p.m.
So I don't know if that changes things. But, you know, I think Mr. Brown has great intentions here and it would be a shame, you know, but I understand the board's position.
I think that this may not be the purview of the board. It may be the purview of city council, but there really needs to be a change in these type of of this section of zoning code.
and we hope that the board finds a way to make modifications to our application that
protect the community but also allows like this you know incubator for creatives to take place
thank you okay thank you uh planning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing cmx 2.5 commercial mixed use
at this location the proposed use is specifically excluded from cmx 2.5 and we feel the applicant
has failed to demonstrate any hardship that would justify the proposed use additionally
the definition of nightclubs and private entertainment venues were recently clarified
through a zoning revision voted on by council on December 14th and signed by the mayor on
December 20th. We feel these new definitions and provisions would not change the lack of
hardship for this proposal. Accordingly, the Planning Commission recommends the board deny
the variance. MI 2022-004-584-5824-26 North Broad Street. I vote no. Thomas Holloman,
my vote is no
James Snell my vote is no
Ishmael Shaheed my vote is no
thank you counsel
thank you very much have a great night
okay is there anyone in the
2pm audience that
the case has not been heard
there are no hands chair
so we're going to take a five
minute break
wait a minute it went up but it
went back down so no more hands
we're going to take a five minute
break we're going to come right back
we're going to go through the list i think we are going to wind up only here in one case
so we'll get out of here in a reasonable time five minutes and we'll be right back thank you chair
good afternoon my name is bill bergman i will be chairing the 330 zba hearings
with me is our vice chair ismail shahid president mr chairman our board member thomas holliman
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, James Snell.
Present, Chair.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunken.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised that proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tanyasunken at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attendees and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter the period of statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2023-003-526-4331 Frankfurt Avenue.
That case is continued.
Number two, MI 2023-002-942-1546-48 South 20th Street.
This case was listed in error.
The resumption hearing for this matter will be held on Wednesday, January 24th at 3.30 p.m.
Number three, MI 2023-003-524-5618 to 22 Chew Avenue.
This case has been continued.
Number five, MI 2023-004-262-1416 South Broad Street.
That case is continued.
Number six, MI 2023-003-523-5530 Asaloa Avenue, Asaloa Street.
That case has been continued.
That's the first listing.
Mark must be tried.
Number seven, MI-2023-004-271-566 Center Street.
Number seven, MI 2023-004.
That case has been continued.
Mark must be tried.
Number eight, MI-2023-003-566-337 North Front Street.
Case is continued.
Mark must be heard.
And number nine, MI2023-003-577-1007 Porter Street. That case is continued. Mark must be heard.
Let's go to our first and only case. MI2023-004-390-726 West Dolphin Street.
Justin Crick is the attorney.
Recommendational support from the 37th Ward RCO.
Mr. Crick.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
Can we just try to make sure there are no comments or questions from the audience regarding the continuous request?
What's that again?
Thank you.
Oh, I'm sorry.
You want me to ask, is there any more requests?
No, just see if there's any comments or questions from the audience in regards to those.
I know some people are waiting.
There's already comments.
Thank you.
Are there any comments or statements from the audience relative to cases that I've just continued?
There are no hands up to you.
Thank you.
Mr. Crick, could you state your name, please, and spell for the courts on offer?
Yes, Justin Crick, K-R-I-K.
My address is 1515 Market Street, Suite 1200, Philadelphia PA 19002.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, all truth and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship? Yes, my client is Adam Garner, and he is the owner of the property. And he is on the line. Okay, our vice chair has just a few questions for you. Sorry. Yes.
Good evening. Good evening, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that was needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I will say that there was a minuscule tax balance that seemed to remain of a couple hundred dollars or shy of a few hundred dollars.
It was also paid today and the receipt was sent in just to clear that up.
But otherwise, everything was sent in.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
members of the board it is my first time after the new year so i will also wish you all a happy
new year thank you we appreciate that yep um okay so i will make this quick it has been a long day
and it's this is a very straightforward application uh especially given that it does have support from
the community um so everybody can see the uh the presentation at the moment we can thank you so
So, the property is located at 726 West Dauphin street in Philadelphia, the refusal that we received is because this property is in a CMX 2 district.
We are trying to do away with the 1st floor commercial and make this a 3 family dwelling multifamily dwelling and we refuse we received refusals for minimum square footage of the lot where we have 997 in a 1440 square footage required.
And we also have the CMX2 first floor, 30 feet of depth commercial requirement.
However, when the applicant assess the property, and given the geographical location of it,
I'll show you, at the corner of 8th and Dauphin, the property sits on a vacant lot right now.
If you were to view a satellite view of this, and you'll see short down here,
this is vacant, and there are a significant amount of vacant lots along this corridor.
the zoning chart will show you that the entire section roughly related to this area is in
zoned industrial and what this does is in this CMX2 area there are there's just not enough
at the moment we believe not enough residential density not enough commercial style corridor while
this is industrial it's not commercial that would make something viable here on the corner with a
commercial tenant. And we felt that, you know, given its location right up against this larger
industrial complex and the fact that several of the houses along 8th Street also do not already
do not have that commercial first floor, even though they are also located in this larger CMX2
district, we recognized and we felt that it just was not the right spot for commercial use, that
that wouldn't be the highest and best use at this time.
So the applicant has proposed a three-story dwelling
with basement living that does have egress windows, sufficient egress windows and a first
with basement living that does have egress windows.
floor unit with basement unit, a second floor unit by itself and a third floor unit by itself
with roof deck.
We did go, we met with the neighborhood and we went over all of the schematics, the dimensions
and again the use of the basement as living space with the appropriate egress and then
And then we had a long discussion with them about the commercial aspect of it and whether
or not that would be viable here.
I will tell you the neighborhood does have other properties in the area that are on corners
where they have expressed that they think commercial would fit there, but and have somewhat
rejected other people's attempts to do residential on the first floor.
But at this meeting, it was very, very well received that the commercial requirement would
not be the highest and best use at this time.
And that is essentially the hardship from the applicant is that the property just doesn't
seem to fit or draw the commercial tenants that would be desired or would be trying to
come into an area like this.
With that said, again, I think it's a pretty straightforward application and we belabored
the points with the RCO and received their support on this. So I will just go through
and show you that we have. So Stead Holdings is Adam Garner. I apologize. He is the member
of the LLC that is here. And this was the balance as of earlier today, but as of about
noon or two o'clock, I believe we submitted that this amount, this nominal amount had
been removed. And that may have been just an error in interest or something that may
have accrued um we did post the property on both sides since it is a corner property in the vacant
lot as you can see and again we have after the meeting we did receive support from all 13 attendees
attendees for the hope partnership at the hope partnership for education um but but again the
neighborhood very receptive to this they did receive the notice um as you can see we sent
significant amount of mailings to the surrounding neighbors. And I would, at this point, because
again, I think the application speaks for itself, I'd be happy to get Mr. Garner on
the line to adopt my testimony. Why don't you do that? Okay. Mr. Garner, raise your hand.
No, excuse me. I don't see Mr. Garner in the audience, but I, actually, nobody's raising
they're in. Do you have a phone number? Ending in 5-9-8-6. Oh, he dialed in the phone. Yes.
Yes. Okay. I will allow him to speak. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
Sir, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Adam, you may be muted or so. Yes. Please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
um i'm trying to communicate i think he should be any second he did confirm that was him on the phone
so maybe you need to hit star six to unmute ah star six to unmute very good okay can you guys
hear me now yes adam can you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
Adam Garner, A-D-A-M-G-A-R-N-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Mr. Garner, have you had an opportunity to hear my statements made to the board today?
And were those statements true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt my statements as if they were your own statements today?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Briefly, Mr. Chair, Revenue's website is half updated related to this case.
One part it shows zero balance.
One part it shows there's still money owing.
So, Mr. Crick, if you have that receipt and can just pull that up and then I haven't seen it in the email yet, then we could we could go ahead and vote this case today.
Yes, I will bring that up right now. I did forward it, but I if that is not a problem, I will pull that up right now.
Give me one moment. Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
no hands chair okay okay i am going to share a different screen okay
No hands, chair.
okay so this is one of the items that we just received if you see the time stamp in the corner
is uh today's date at 2 14 pm tax balance showing zero for the property at 726 dolphin
then I will do one other screen share for the receipt from that and that is
right I have too many screens on my desk to be honest so let's see that is this
one okay and here is the AC ACI payment receipt from the customer that 120 dollars and 78 cents
to the city of Philadelphia on 110 24 here's the confirmation number of that
so and I I will represent to the board and to Ms. Emerson that should that 128 not post
I would personally post it I mean that's I think we're I think we're just waiting for
to update on revenue's website thank you so much okay planning commission ron bednar city planning
first name ron r-o-n last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed sir uh while this property is currently
indicated for neighborhood commercial mixed use on the city plan given the physical circumstances
of the site we recommend that requested parents be granted maximum two dwelling units only
council you want to respond to that yeah uh so so i i respect that they are looking for two
dwelling units uh in essence um the the property has by right could would be able to likely have
the two units uh first floor second floor if we didn't have the commercial on the first i think
that while there may be a density concern there, that did not seem to be a concern of the RCO,
even with discussions of parking and trash. I will say that we did discuss trash in the rear
yard and an enclosure and other things to accommodate any potential or perceived overcrowding
of the land. All right. Thank you. MI 2023, 004-390-726 West Dauphin Street. I vote yes.
thomas holloman my vote is yes my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
thank you counsel thank you very much and good evening to everybody
is there is there anyone left in the audience whose whose case has not been heard
there are no hands chair thanks everyone i appreciate everybody's work today
We didn't do too bad for time.
Great job, everyone.
Good job, Chair.
Thanks, Chair.
And I'd like to say thank you to our IT HelpDP Zoom, too.
Thanks, guys.
And happy new year for all, also.
Thank you so much, John.