in the and i could have just missed them sorry i'm lynn reidel huber board council so um
lynn reidel huber board council so i just wanted to make sure that you did submit those you uploaded
those so yeah i did i actually have so i tried to upload them and they were large and so it's i i
spoke with someone at zba and they said i could email them and i can show you okay you emailed
them i can i can show you where where i emailed them um if you want to make sure they're part of
record let me see let me see if i have this here or if i have it
yeah so this is there you go this was sent in the 26th so this is the first set
oh okay you sent it there okay the first set of pictures this is a
any other questions from the board council do you have any other questions thank you
no no more questions questions or comments from the virtual audience
No hands at the time. By the way, I'm also the block captain.
So, so you voted for yourself. I, I just, just got the, I, no, no, I'm not.
I'm just making making a statement. I get it. Thank you for being a block. I just want to just want to say, oh, that pays pretty well. So congratulations planning.
I just want to just want to say, oh, that pays pretty well.
So congratulations planning commission.
Thank you, chairman and good morning.
David effector with the city planning commission, chairman and board members.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the R S a five residential zoning at this location.
The city rezoned this neighborhood in 1974 and a council supported map change.
the zoning board of adjustment previously approved this use in 2012 with a five-year temporary
variance city planning commission believes that this use probably qualifies as a home occupation
and if so probably doesn't actually not actually need to be at the board so the city planning
commission recommends the board grant their post-use variance you you want to say something
yeah i'd like to to ask for a 10-year variance if that's workable
um i'm just gonna yeah we'll just approve it period i mean i'm i don't i don't think
okay so mi2026 003 000340 6311 harrock street i vote yes
Sheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tonetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Mike Adams, my vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
You have your votes.
And thank you very much. You were very entertaining.
Thank you all.
And by the way, it's permanent. We gave it to you. We didn't.
It's permanent?
Thank you very, very much.
Wow. You guys just made my year. I appreciate that.
Well, number seven, MI 2026.
What did he do?
All right, number seven, MI 2026, 000185, 240 East Highland Avenue.
know, Robert, yeah, careless is here as, as my counselor said, no, that's Bob.
I would love to be Karellis or whatever.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Robert Karellis, unfortunately, C-A-R-E-L-E-S-S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
Could you identify your client in the relationship to the property?
Yes, I represent Leslie Gomez and Richard Sachs, the record property owners.
Okay. And our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Okay. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
I hesitated there, and I'll explain why, but with the huff that I accepted the refusal on this from L and I, but we'll go through that.
So, again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
I'm pleased to be joined today by Leslie Gomez, who is actually even one of my colleagues at COSIN, as well as Maddie Schroeder, who's going to be the operator of the use that we're going to talk about today.
And I'll also note that Mr. Sachs, the other record property owner, is in the virtual audience.
So just for purposes of the record, we have submitted all of our required documents, including the deed, proof of tax compliance, the zoning application, the refusal, the zoning application, the photograph, and the poster.
And we're grateful to have a letter of support from the Chestnut Hill Community Association.
So it's very similar to the last case. Actually, we applied for this is an R.
A 3 zoning district. We had applied for a home occupation on this.
This is proposed as an accessory license, massage therapy use in the property.
It will operate like a home occupation. Ms. Schroeder lives at the property with Mr. Sacks, Andrew, who is the son of Ms. Gomez and Mr. Sacks. It's actually their family home, Mr. Sacks' childhood home, which makes this kind of a special feature of this application.
You know, so if Ms., just so the board understands, if Ms. Schroeder was proposing a chiropractor, she would be able to pull a by-right permit for a home occupation, but because it's massage therapy, L&I interpreted the use as personal services and refused it.
You know, so if Ms. just so the board understands, if Ms. Schroeder was proposing
So, as I mentioned, I stopped my foot and we came here because of the because of L and I's interpretation.
We also have a corresponding companion variance to allow a second principle use of the property under 144014 a.
But again, as we'll go through the presentation here, and I brought the presentation that Miss Schroeder actually put together for Chestnut Hill, which I think is really well done.
And you'll see that this really is a limited home occupation use, not a second principal use of the property.
So, Ms. Schroeder is a licensed massage therapist.
She has all the required medical training, all the required insurance.
She resides at the property, again, with Mr. Andrew Sachs, who is the son of the property owners.
And what we're proposing here is the massage therapy used within an 8x11 studio, an 88-square-foot space of the property.
And we'll go through that and show you some pictures on that.
We met with Chestnut Hill Community Association a number of times, got their feedback, implemented that feedback.
And again, like I mentioned, very grateful to have the community association support there.
We also, Ms. Schroeder, went around and we have a petition signed of 23 of our neighbors.
We're also very grateful to have support from letters of support from other neighbors in the neighborhood, including those on both sides of her.
As you see here, we have letters of support in the record.
This is a picture of the outside of the property, and then to your left here is the 8 by 11 studio space.
There are no proposed exterior signs. There are no changes proposed to the exterior of the property.
no lighting changes there'll be no sound this is a floor plan here so you can see this is the
the front door of the property here it leads right up to the studio in the in the home
this will be as I mentioned a very limited operation the practice is going to be limited
to one to three clients a day always spaced out in a gap hours are limited to Monday through Friday
930 to 1130 a.m. and 1 to 430. This is intentional, so they're not impacting folks
leaving for work, coming home for lunch, or coming home from work. There will be Saturday
and Sunday's appointments, but they're not regularly scheduled business hours. They're
just there for emergency health treatment. Ms. Schroeder is intending to specialize in
lymphatic draining, so if you have an issue and you need to see her on Saturdays and Sundays,
you can do on an emergent basis. There are no walk-in clients. All clients deserve appointment
There's always going to be spaced out, I believe, by 30 minute gap between each one. So there won't be a constant revolving door into the property.
And and and the short is committed to always have the the accessory use closed on holidays, and during the chest and hill fall for the arts and spring garden festival days.
um this was just an exhibit we put together for the for the community association there is an
abundance of parking on street parking here but um this just these are just this will amplify
um a sampling of during the uh anticipated business hours what the on-street parking
would look like at different points in time um so again like as i mentioned there's never one
more than one client at a time never early in the morning you know never over lunch never after 5
No overnight parking obviously as well.
And just some further photographs here of the on street parking conditions at different times during the different days.
We can continue to go through this, but you know there's obviously benefits to having a local business here, which Miss Schroeder is committed to being a great partner of Chestnut Hill.
And these are just some benefits to massage therapy.
There was overwhelming support from the community association here.
And again, you know, our, you know, what we'd submit to the board is that there will be no changes to the residential character of the property.
As I mentioned, this will effectively be a home occupation, despite L&I's interpretation.
There's no separate building entrance for the use.
There's no adverse impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
There's no noise, no vibration, no glare, odors, parking demands, traffic impacts, or other effects that will interfere with any neighbor's enjoyment of their residence.
There's no truck deliveries, no pickups, or anything of that nature.
And so we would respectfully submit that there's no detriment to the health, safety, and welfare of the community.
In fact, we would respectfully assert that there's a positive benefit to being a good local business and providing a good medical massage therapy use within the community.
And, you know, as I mentioned, we have very grateful to have a letter of support from Chestnut Hill Community Association.
They did issue their letter with provisors, which are largely just what I repeated to you and what we repeated to them.
issue their letter with provisors, which are largely just what I repeated to you and what we repeated to them. So it's not necessarily a condition to this, but it's in the record. We would agree to these conditions if the board was inclined. Otherwise, they're in the record and we're committing to them. So
I have Ms. Schroeder here with me. I also have Ms. Gomez here with me. They can adopt my testimony very briefly, and we're happy to answer any questions you might have. So, Ms. Schroeder, if you want to. Why don't we do that? I just want to first.
I would, you could please state your name and spell for the stenographer.
Hello, my name is Madeline Schroeder, S-C-H-R-O-E-D-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Counsel?
Maddie, did you hear my testimony to the board just now?
Yes, I did.
And would you adopt and affirm that as a figure of your own?
Yes, I would.
You have, I have a Miss Gomez here who's the property owner.
If she could just affirm my testimony, that would be great.
Good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, good morning. Leslie Gomez, L-E-S-L-I-E-G-O-M-E-Z.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Leslie, did you hear my testimony before the board just now?
Yes, thank you.
Would you adopt and affirm that testimony as it were your own?
I would, thank you. And I would also say as a 15-year member of the District Attorney's Office of Philadelphia, this is the most fun I've ever had in court. Thanks.
I tried to tell her.
that's amazing um happy to answer any questions that you may have we don't always do that yes
questions from the board
okay so when you say massage therapy what are we what are we talking about here it's not like
the kind you get at a spa is it different or and if and and if it is different what's different in
what capacity so i am licensed currently in swedish massage which is what you would receive when you
go to a spa i'm also quite good at deep tissue and currently am set to be doing more continuing
education in lymphatic drainage which is a medical massage as well as i'm hoping at some point to do
uh neuromuscular so it's a com it's it's a both a combination of yes you would get it at a spa
and also if you have other things going on this is going to be a bigger benefit and have a deeper
understanding of the body and what we need okay and you said that you have going to school and
you have training and licenses and what have you for yes yeah i've done nine months of training
i'm fully licensed and with massage you are required to do an extra 30 hours of continuing
education every two years so wow that's a minimum for me i have a lot of interest so okay and then
you're doing this in a home and just that one that one room yes yeah it's one eight by ten room
our whole house i think it's about 1800 yeah 1851. um so it's a really it's actually the smallest
room in our house besides our bathroom okay and you're doing it there rather than
and an office or other space. Yeah. The reason why I'm doing that is because I love massage
therapy a lot. And also the reality is the burnout rate for it is about eight years.
It's extremely hard on the body. It's really kind of bad for your joints. So part of why I'm only
ever going to do it 15 hours a week is because I want to do this for a really long time. I'm also
a yoga teacher so that's my main my main gig outside of this but um but yeah that's why i'm
doing it out of my home because otherwise i would need to charge people an arm and a leg to make
rent and i believe that massage should be affordable given the opportunity okay and where
are you getting your clients from so a solid combination i've had friends and family i'm like
i said i'm a yoga teacher so a lot of people i mainly teach yin and restorative which puts people
to bed. So when you put people to bed in that situation, and you tell them you're a massage
therapist, you usually have a lot of interest. So it does just kind of carry over that way. And
I'm lucky to not be in a major rush to gain a huge amount of clientele. Like I said, there'll
be no outdoor signs, it'll be a mainly referral business. Okay. And then your attorney mentioned
that uh there was no problem with like parking for no yeah we're very lucky to live in like
I I grew up in Vermont I didn't know how to parallel park before I moved here so
so quite the adjustment um but it's always been so easy to park around here and there's we are
lucky enough to have parking around back of our house for my partner and I to park our personal
cars which means that there would be no added strain on the street all right thank you thank
you any other questions yeah um so what bathroom would the clients use if they have to use the
restroom so we have one restroom in our house it's on the same floor as the massage studio it's
actually just one door over yeah they don't have to go all through the house all right thank you
yeah they don't have to go all through the house all right thank you any other questions
Any other questions?
council no questions at this time mr chairman council we did have a little conversation
about what we were thinking about for proviso we said no sign and the the time we want to use the
time if you wanted to put any provided what's the times again so we we were committing to let me
just make sure i stated accurate well one of the general ones we thought about was only in daytime
time hours does that sound right yeah that would be fine yeah okay all right questions or comments
from the virtual audience chair we have one hand up from uh jose ortega okay they're allowed to speak
hi um will there be more than one client at a time hold on hold on hold on one minute could
you please state your name and spell for the stenographer oh yes uh jose jose ortega r-t-e-g-a
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i i swear please
proceed i just want to know if um the operator is thinking about bringing more therapies into his
house into her house sorry so she is shaking her head no okay it would only be me operating the
business i have no intention or interest in hiring anyone else and because i only have two hands i
can only work on one person at a time so and also because i need to change the room over in between
clients that really does mean it needs to be one client and then i need to have space in between
two so never more than one car parked at the same time never more than one client in the home
all right well thank you for your answer and um i'm just going to say that the streets never
looked at empty when i'm look around thank you thank you for calling is there anyone else in