Got it.
And your business is the second floor?
And then, so the apartment.
So I guess my next question was about the 65 proposed height. You're now 10 feet over the sort of limit, and I guess I'm asking why.
May I? The main roof absolutely is at 60 feet only. The main roof is only at 60 feet.
What's being noted as 65 are the excess conditions of the roof itself.
The pilot house, if you will, is what's being noted in that.
Is it because the pilot house is over the minimum square foot to not be counted in the roof height?
That would probably be the case because of the square footage and the interest of getting.
We're hoping that we would have tenants being able to use that upper left.
So there's like an amenity space?
Yes, that would be accessible by the tenants.
is there roof access for the tenants yes there is two stair towers uh and the one has the elevator
that is intended to also get to the roof level that would be up towards correct but the 65 foot
is to the top of the pilot house is the two pilot houses and the you're saying that the
the primary roof without the parapet is the 55. yes i think again if you zoom in
thank you ian that i think this answered and then i guess my last question is um is there
going to be any social service support for the multi-family tenants in the building
what do you mean by that um no so it's literally like there's an apartment their care there's your
your offices and then there's uh apartment buildings and there's sort of like three
separate business entities yes ma'am there's floor plans if you want to see um i mean but i mean
again the objective was the first floor was strictly uh daycare center probably a leased
space along with the pharmaceutical which was also intended as uh his intents uh the client's
intents and uh the second floor would be running his uh daycare not daycare but home care services
Okay. And then the rest is apartments. Rest or apartment, correct.
Okay. Sorry for the... Any other questions from the Board?
Questions or comments from our attorney? Just two things briefly.
One, I noticed in the amended refusal, it did not still list the height as being a refusal,
so I was a little confused by that because it doesn't sound like there was any change
to the envelope of the building between the between the reviews right by lni so i wonder
if that was maybe missed the second when they redid their refusal um or did the amend refusal
um my other um my other thing is the revised plans um if the board grants and adopts with
grants and adopts with revised plans the plans need to specifically show where the bikes are
revised plans. The plans needed to specifically show
they can't just point to a general area and that is also not listed as a change on the proviso
form so the proviso form would need to be updated as well to indicate that the bike spaces were
being provided because the lni uses the proviso form to know what the changes are and um and then
it would be clear that that that uh variant that uh sorry that refusal was being resolved so thank
you thank you can we vote today yes we can i just not we i wouldn't be able to stamp the plans and
the notice of decision be issued until we had an updated one that showed where the bike spaces were
more specifically in that area i think um i i have updated plans but i we don't we don't redline them
anymore like 30 years ago do we can i sign off on i can bubble the area specifically uh articulate
that it's 60 square feet which is typical for the class one parking and I
could definitely put my signature. That would be fine I think they just that I
think the issue with the bicycle parking is it needs to be shown that it's on an
accessible route and you know in in the rough location of where where it would
be stored. So it would be better to revise the document. Yes I did yeah I'm not a
plans expert so if that would be easier for you then that that's fine not a problem how would i
submit it again um you can you can yes you can submit it to to the zoning board okay so thank
you questions or comments from the audience for the virtual audience
i see no hands planning commission amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change in zoning at this location from the current cmx 2.5 commercial mixed use
proposed max area and minimum yard depth are existing conditions the pending commission
recommends that the board grant the requested variances for occupied area and brewery yard depth
so hillary this is voting and what revised plans or what do you what do you want to
so there is both an amended refusal in this case as well as one page of revised plans
so amended refusal and revised plans that is correct do we stamp the revised plans
uh yes we we will once we we get the version that shows exactly where the
thank you thank you
it's okay so mi2024-005-358-2026 south 7th street i vote yes amended refusal
revised plans one page stamped on may 21st 2025 and so try to want to note the amended refusal
is dated 3 19 25 amended refusals dated three let's say it again 3 19 25 3 19 25
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with provisos it's not a gram my vote is yes with provisos
my vote is yes with proviso ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with proviso thank you thank you guys
number seven mi 2025 000 539 26 49 south 7th street alex goldberg is the attorney
counsel could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer alex goldberg a-l-e-x
g-o-l-d-b-e-r-g you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do um could you identify your client the relationship to the property
sure my client is brandon gomez he's the owner of the property and he's sitting here to my left
i understand that whitman council is has a letter of support as well a letter of non-opposition from
council member squilla and the applicant has 36 signatures on a petition our vice chair has a few
questions good afternoon council do you agree to wait to read another refusal or stipulate to his
accuracy i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed to proceed with
this case five days in advance of this hearing yes i have thank you council please proceed and
share your screen sharing it okay i'm on i'm on my phone hot spot here so i hope i don't have any
wi-fi issues all right so this property is 2649 south 7th street as the chairman stated we have
support from a well-attended community meeting in south philadelphia as well as a letter of
non-opposition from the district council member to my left is brandon gomez he's the owner occupier
the district council member um to my left is brandon gomez he's the owner occupier of the
ground floor unit at 2649 south 7th street as he'll tell you at the conclusion of my presentation
um he didn't he didn't think that he signed up for this process when he bought this property
in december of 2024 this has a history uh as you'll see in my presentation of being a two-unit
building there were a flurry of building permits that were pulled around this time last year
presumably all of those being for a single family home because there was never a zoning permit
obtained to accompany those building permits as you can imagine those permits were never closed
out and uh you know the time has passed to have that re-inspected this far down the road so this
is step one for us to um ultimately um you know submitting as-built plans getting a co which we
would agree to a proviso as a condition of this approval and then ultimately ultimately a rental
license for the residential dwelling unit on the second floor the notice of refusal is on the
screen now this is an rsa5 property but i will note that there are multiple other instances of
duplexes on the 2600 and 2500 block of of south 7th street here's oops here's that letter from
whitman council incorporated um a little bit about brandon he he builds skate parks across
the country so um that requires him to be in philadelphia part of the time and all other
you know different different parts of the united states um so he flew in for that meeting uh he
he flew in to be here today because it was important for him to to be here in front of
the board and and um to sort of see this process through in person um and they appreciated uh you
his attendance in that in-person meeting the council letter is here from council member
mark squilla in non-opposition to the variance request we have a large number of signatures
on a petition including the adjacent neighbor at 2651 a lot of the neighbors that
were at the community meeting remembered when this when this work was being done to the property
Not only was there work done to the inside, but as you saw on the front page, the property
got a bit of a facelift and paint, so people were aware of what was going on.
Don't think anyone was aware that it was not properly permitted, so they were surprised
to see us, and honestly, felt bad that Brandon had to go through the process that we're going
through now.
Here's the zoning permit that I referenced for this property.
It was issued in 73.
it had an apartment and a professional office on the first floor so i imagine you know the the two
units that were there were just the one was was converted into a residential dwelling unit and as
you'll see the interiors were greatly improved um you know nice renovation job i think brandon will
tell you you know he's happy with the home he wants to stay there it looks nice he's comfortable he
would just like to get a tenant in there because uh from a financial perspective he bought it with
the expectation that he would not be covering the entirety of the mortgage, both PICO bills
and both PGW bills, which are being sent to him.
There's documents in here showing those other multifamilies in close proximity.
I've also included the listing that shows this was advertised as a multifamily property.
He did have a realtor and relied on someone's expertise that didn't necessarily do the full
due diligence to understand what was happening here.
Zoning map, we are close to the commercial corridor of Oregon Avenue and a number of CMX1 properties.
Here's some photos. So this is the front of the property.
Here it is with the notice posting to the right of the property on South 7th and to the left.
Here's the rear, two HVAC systems, three meters, one for the common space, and there's two PGW bills as well.
Interior photographs, pretty much brand new.
See, one of the units is lived in.
That's his living space.
The basement, which is on the right side of your screen here, is finished.
There's a front-facing window.
That door that you see towards the back of the room is a utility room.
We'd agree to a proviso for no bedrooms in the basement.
Again, he lives on the first floor apartment, and he lives there alone.
with access to this basement use it for storage and that's really it but you know it is a finished
space and that's the condition that he bought it in very basic plans and drawings there's a common
entryway that you see on the floor plan on the middle of the screen you make a left and you go
You make a left and you go into his unit.
into his unit it's about 1400 square feet one bed one bath with
It's about 1,400 square feet, one bed, one bath with access to the rear yard.
And then if you were to go straight through that common hallway, you go upstairs.
It's about 700 square feet, two bed, one bath, currently vacant.
Since he bought the property, he hired us pretty much right after.
You know, we're six months from the purchase.
It takes about six months to get here.
So he wasted no time because he realized he couldn't get a rental license.
So no one has lived or is living in that upstairs unit.
And then here's our meeting notice, application for appeal,
deed to the property, and certificate of tax clearance.
With that, I'd like to ask my client to adopt my testimony.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Yeah, it's Brandon Gomez, B-R-A-N-D-O-N-G-O-M-E-Z.
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do please proceed counsel brandon did you hear my testimony today yes and was it true and correct
yes and you adopted as your own yes and is there anything else that you'd like to share with the
board uh no i just appreciate you guys attention to this and um i mean i'm it's kind of a personal
matter to me i've invested a lot of my money personally and time and uh i just want to try
to get through this and trying to make it right and uh i'm just kind of following the steps in
order what i can do to to you know mitigate the problems and fix what you know get it to where
it's got to be to rent that second unit and i hope to stay and occupy the first unit for a long time
i'm a long-term resident of philadelphia i love city and it's a good area for me close to the
airport um close to a lot of public transit so um for me it's a long it's a long-term uh outlook on
this project so are you done council i have questions from the board yep where is uh the
trash storage for the second floor and for yourself um for me i have access to the outdoor i can store
it out to the like there's an outside um kind of patio of my own private space to the side and
upstairs there is a small closet um laundry and a small closet that's um closed off and so i was
going to create like just a closed off private um trash uh storage space there for the tenant
other questions you should vent that make sure you have that vented yes the laundry space does
already have a vent going to the roof as well and i think that is connected to that store to that
closet for storage which i was going to use for the trash just a two couple general questions one
since you've moved in have you had any issues with the property just pulling the property's
history most of the work to convert it and most of the alterations that were done
to make it a new you know to look like a new new renovation were done either without permits or
with the incorrect permit which means you had there was like very little oversight so one i'm
wondering have you experienced any just maintenance issues in the property since you moved in
no actually i do i do construction for living i'm a construction worker and so and i've had
history of framing and plumbing and a little bit of electric so i was like pretty impressed with
the entirety of the the renovations that's one of the reasons why i did buy it i've kind of looked
into it myself looked at the walls i've even had because of this he's introduced me alex has
introduced me to a like a permit um expediter and he's even looked at the house and there's
it looks like it's ready to be clear it's what one of these i bought i mean it looks like it's
fully duplex ready um code compliant um and i did have a also a third party inspector when i bought
the house and he inspected it as a duplex fully passive flying color so this is one of the reasons
why i bought it is and i can present i didn't we may have the the inspection as evidence i can get
that for evidence but too but that was one of the main reasons why i did buy it and then i guess the
other two questions have are just like if you're intending to live in the property and then rent
out the other unit but you're traveling so much what's your plan to sort of property manage that
upstairs unit i would go through a property management company i've already sourced one out
and so it's otter property management company i have a good relationship with them i've talked
to them a lot and they actually started the process of rent searching for a tenant for me
and getting their rental license which is how this whole thing started so um that would use
a property management and then i guess my last question is just you've talked a lot about your
intention to be here long term but the property was bought by an llc so i just want to know
are you the sole owner of the llc that owns the property no no i bought the property it's under
my name okay the previous owner was an llc and that's why i'm like having a ton of problems
trying to trace all this back and like it's been it's been a really tricky for me i'll get i i think
the the deed in there is for an llc and i'll supplement that to hillary but he doesn't because
it looks like there's been a couple recent transfers from llc right llc probably to protect
probably to protect whoever that person was doing yeah i guess a question i have for hillary