i see no more handshare thank you um planning commission good morning
David Fecto, City Planning Commission, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
These properties are indicated for residential single-family use in the comprehensive plan.
The I-2 zoning here dates back to 1933.
The applicant proposes to build two duplexes.
We have no objection to granting these variances.
Thank you.
MI 2020-001564, 1010-12 West Kelowna Street.
My vote is yes.
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you can we just stipulate that
my client is present and would have adopted my testimony i'm sorry i got ahead of myself sorry
about that yes thank you thank you have a good day thank you calendar number 1557 1400-38
North Howard Street. Wait a while. What about number two? East Luzerne? I just didn't want to
call it out. Sorry about that. Strike everything I said. Calendar number 1569, 1400 East Luzerne
Street. The attorney is Sean Ward. Mr. Ward, you've been promoted to panelist.
Mr. Ward, you've been promoted to panelist.
Mr. Ward, please unmute yourself.
Hi, Sean.
Can you put your name and address on the record if you can hear me?
I am getting there I see your graduation I'm not the only one having technical difficulties
there you are uh good morning uh Mr. Chair
uh good afternoon I mean good morning Mr. Chair members of the board Sean Ward on behalf of the
applicant Elizabeth Morales my name is spelled S-H-A-W-N-W-A-R-D my address is 331 East Street
Road, Trevos, PA 19053. Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but
the truth? I do. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes. And have you mailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal,
referral, photos, and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing? Have you
met with the RCO, and do you have a letter? Yes, to all. Thank you. You may proceed.
Okay. At this time, I'm sharing my exhibit packet screen. If the board can confirm it,
they can see it. Yes, we can. Thank you.
I've submitted my typical exhibit packet on behalf of Elizabeth Morales.
A1 is the notice of refusal.
It's an application for personal services, i.e. a beauty salon at the first floor in the same building with an existing single family household living above.
Resulted in two refusals.
Personal services is not permitted in the district and multiple principal uses are not permitted in the district.
Accordingly, we seek a use variance today.
A2 is the application of appeal.
A3 is the project information form.
A4, proof of ownership, copy of the deed.
A5 is tax compliance.
A6 are the site floor and elevation plans.
A7 are photographs of the posting, the subject property, and some aerial views.
A8 is the RCO letter of support from Juniata Park Civic Association.
If submitted, I would ask that the district council person's letter be marked as A-9.
Usually Sloan folks participate verbally in these hearings, so I'll defer to him.
A-10 is the relevant zoning history.
Historically, this has been used as a luncheonette and a single family above.
A-11 is the zoning map.
A-12 is the aerial photograph.
Just brief comments.
The operation would entail the owner and one to two employees.
days and hours of operation Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed on Sundays,
and it will be by appointment only. So moving through the exhibits, there's a copy of our
refusal. You'll see the two refusals listed. We also have the project information form,
copy of the application of appeal.
the deed dated november november 25th 2019 property is owned by elizabeth morales and
her mother filma akino um moving on uh tax compliance as you can see taxes are paid
through 2020 21 is not due yet with regard to the plans uh basically what you have here is a
corner property in Juniata at Luzerne, 1400 block of Luzerne Street, M and Luzerne. As you can see,
it was a typical first floor commercial corner property with a dwelling above.
My client proposes a new beauty salon to occupy the entire first floor.
There is dedicated steps up to the apartment above. We have a small powder room in the rear
for customers and employees and a mechanical room and storage. Again, the property, it's an
existing two-story building at M and Luzerne. While no signs are proposed in this application,
we did review with Juniata Park the proposed signage. It would be a wraparound type awning
sign to which they had no objection, but that would need to be the subject of a separate
application as we needed to get this application in uh in a timely fashion and assigned plans
were not available so uh again some photographs you got the typical storefront there's a picture
again some photographs you got the typical storefront there's a picture
from the side the dedicated entrance to the apartment above there is ample
storage room in the rear yard a view from the rear again these are Google
photos these are not taken by me so they may not be as current as what the
property is but it gives you an idea generally what the property is and it
It had been long used as a commercial property on the first floor.
We have a picture of a copy of the posting of the notice.
The notice on the front, here's Juniata Park's letter.
Generally, debate took place around the hours of operation, trash storage and pickup, lighting, and the types of services provided.
It was then agreed on the hours of operation, again, Monday through Saturday, 9 to 7, and by appointment only,
and that they would be closed on Sunday.
There was also a condition we agreed to
that the outer door would not be kept open
during the summer to exclude music
from being heard outside of the salon.
Again, with the zoning history,
dating back to 1968,
you can see a luncheonette, one family.
1963, candy store, luncheonette, one family.
again uh and then back in 1934 it was a single family home the property is zoned rsa5 however
is adjacent to a large icmx district right behind it and then we have the aerial photograph as you
can see luzerne runs left to right along the picture and m street runs north and south
and directly behind us is a save-a-lot grocery store and a Rite Aid as part of a shopping center
on Erie Avenue. So based upon the foregoing and the non-opposition and support of Juniata Park
Civic, bringing another business into the Juniata Park section of the city, they support the
application and we would ask that the board grant the variance. My client has somewhat of a language
barrier. However, I did review this packet with her through her family member translator. She is
fully aware of what I am presenting today and I would ask the board to stipulate that she would
adopt it as truthful to the best of her knowledge and belief and she would adopt it as her own
testimony. Noted, thank you. Questions from the board? No. No. Anyone else like to testify in
this case? If so, please raise your hand. There he is. Good morning, Chairman DiCicco and ZBA board
and Sean Ward. My name is Sloan Foulkes, Office of Councilwoman Maria Keyones Sanchez,
room 508 city hall the folks just please spell your name for us oh i apologize sloan s-l-o-a-n-e
folks f-s in fire o-l-k-s you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do sir thank you um having met with uh the coordinating rco and receiving other support
our office um the councilwoman uh does not have any opposition to this but she would like two
provisos on behalf of the community um the first proviso is that the uh the the signage for the
business if lit only stays on till midnight and the second proviso is that uh trash can be picked
up by our commercial waste disposal thank you this is sharon saletta the signs aren't before you so
right that's just gonna say okay thank you all right yeah that's a that's an application for
another date possibly understood you got it okay all right anyone else would like to testify in this
case i see no hands chair thank you planning commission good morning david effecto city
planning commission mr chairman and members of the board this property is indicated for residential
single-family use on the city's comprehensive plan. The zoning maps for this neighborhood
date back to 2018. At that time, there was no sign of recent commercial use of this property.
However, all four corners of this intersection appear to have once been commercial,
so we have no objection if the applicant wants to return the building to commercial use.
Thank you. MI 2020-001569, 1400 East Luzerne Street. My vote is yes with the following.
1-4-0-0 East Luzerne Street.
My vote is yes with the following provisos.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Ward.
Hours of operation Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Closed Sundays and commercial trash pickup.
Correct. No objection.
Thank you.
My vote is yes with provisos.
Yes with provisos.
Yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes my business until the two o'clock list. Can I be excused?
You may. See you at two.
Thank you.
Calendar number 1557, 1400-38 North Howard Street.
I see no hands for this case.
Wait a minute.
Everyone present for 1400-38 North Howard Street.
We have Hercules Grigos.
Good morning, Mr. Grigos.
Hi, Mr. Grigos.
Can you please put your name and address on the record and spell your last name?
Yes, thank you.
And Hercules Grigos, G-R-I-G-O-S, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
And you wave and stip?
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, including proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
and have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter? Yes. You may proceed. Great and I think
my client Craig Albach, A-U-L-E-B-A-C-H and or Tom Fitzgerald from Asana are on if they want to be
promoted. I'm here today representing Asana Development and its affiliate 1400 North Howard
LLC, owner of the property located at 1400 North Howard. We're here today with an application for
the adaptive reuse with almost 80,000 square foot warehouse building in the South Kensington
section. As I said, Craig Allback and Tom Fitzgerald are here representing the development
team. If I may share my screen. I'll orient everybody. This is an existing approximately
80 000 square foot uh former warehouse building in the city of south kensington section uh it's
bounded by uh north howard um master street uh master i believe jefferson to the north
we're proposing today to take this vacant building uh and do an adaptive reuse uh from
and I believe it was a former furniture warehouse
to essentially creative office and retail.
And here's some overview to the West,
just to give context across Masters, Hancock playground.
And then there's a series of townhomes and multi around us.
Just to give you some context to the street.
Some existing loading bays that we intend on reusing just one of them.
Procedurally, we met with South Kansas community partners, received support,
and a lot of support from the near neighbors.
We had two public meetings on this,
and you'll note the letter of support in your packet.
As I said, we're looking to do an adaptive reuse.
The site is zoned RSA 5.
Presumably that was,
this property was approved maybe five to seven years ago
for townhomes, but it was never developed.
And we think that it's a great opportunity
to reuse this building
and bring what we think there's a need
for some office space in the neighborhood.
As the South Kensington neighborhood
has been further developed with new residents
in proximity to developments on Fishtown,
my clients believe that there is a great opportunity
for office space and some retail.
So here's some proposed renderings.
um here's some uh proposed renderings um and how we intend to reuse the building put a new skin on
um and just um this is essentially uh some of the the pictures and the hope is that um we can include
you know some some light neighborhood retail and maybe get a larger creative office tenant
and here's just you know tenant entrances um potential for parking based on tenant needs
um refusal because it's rsa5 um the uh the uses we propose in cmx2 are not permitted
and uh meeting i think was attended by 100 people
on Zoom at SKCP, and you can see the position was to support the project.
And here's just our letter, et cetera.
So as I said, we're here today because the site's zoned RSA 5.
The requested variance is minimally, if necessary, will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood.
In fact, it meets the mixed-use character of the neighborhood,
will not impair appropriate uses of development or adequate light will not substantially increase
congestion will not be detrimental to the neighborhood as evidenced by our letter of
support i'm not sure if uh craig or tom fitzgerald are on but i would just ask them to uh affirm my
testimony and i have any questions for the board thank you any uh the gentleman who uh mr griego
just mentioned if either of you were available please uh raise your hand yes mr chairman affirm
his testimony uh name it name please all right this is tom fitzgerald t-o-m-f-i-t-z-g-e-r
tom have you heard my testimony you affirm it as your own