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.