we originally were seeking to do five units.
And based on community input,
they wanted us to have four units.
We removed the roof deck to the property, and we added one parking spot.
So there was a garage there that had a curb cut, which is existing.
They wanted us to leverage that garage to have off-street parking.
All was, you know, again, we have authorization from the L&I and the ZBA to have those revised plans as well.
So, again, you'll see I have 13 exhibits up here.
Now our screen is being shared.
We met with the community on April 16th.
We notified 100 addresses of there.
In addition to what you're seeing, we have the deed to the property showing that Gregory and Teresa, his wife, own the property.
The Certificate of Tax Clearance and proof of the mailing notice.
Again, Bridesburg, as the chairman stated, there was significant unanimous support.
I believe it was 16 to 0.
We do have revised plans where we would ask that if the board grants this variance request, that they do it by way of proviso with one sheet of revised plans.
If you look, whoever's controlling the screen, I think it's Alex.
Can you just go to –
Alex's not doing it.
Oh, no.
I don't know.
Ian's in the background.
Oh, Ian's in the background.
I'm sure someone wants to see, like, the amended plan.
So if you can go to Exhibit 9.
Oh, you want you want to see photographs, too?
All right. Let's go. Let's go. Sorry, Ian.
If you can do that, put the photographs in there.
Starting at seven. Perfect. Thank you.
So again, this is East Thompson Street from East Thompson Street.
And as you can see, it's an existing building structure.
This is from Ash Street. We're not changing the building footprint or any of the massing at all.
Continuing, I'm sorry, to the right of the property on East Thompson Street, to, I should say, to left of the property on East Thompson Street, Ash Street to the right of the property, Ash Street, well, I should say, to left of the property.
Again, we just gave an example of nearby multifamily, which is an RSA 5 property as well.
These were our original plans.
I think we could skip over.
Again, we were originally five units.
We had a roof deck there, and we had no parking.
so based on the community comment we went down to four units and everything's on that front page
this their site plan actually had uh floor plans as well but if you can see uh like that top
and i it's like the top left floor plan that's the first floor of the property um so it's in pink
yes perfect it's in pink and in yellow and you can see there's direct access for those those first
four units. There's no basement living. So you have unit number one, which is a one bedroom,
one bath. And then you have unit number two, which is a two bedroom, one bath. And to the
left of that, you see the parking spot. Behind the parking spot is where we're going to store
the trash as well. And we are in agreement for commercial trash pickup as a proviso as well.
If you go to the second floor, which is somewhere in this thing, second floor, perfect. Thanks,
Ian. You can see unit number three, it's just on its own floor, right? And that's a two-bedroom,
one-bath. And then unit four is a bi-level. So first, on the second floor, we have the living
room and the kitchen area. And then if you go up a flight of steps to the third floor,
it's probably down to the left, Ian. Thank you. Is it? Oh, there it is. It's just, again,
And two additional bedrooms and a bath.
So pretty straightforward.
Again, not out of character for this property to have non-RSA5 use.
Not out of character nearby.
It's a corner property.
And we're leveraging a parking spot to help the community as well.
And it was significant community support.
With that being said, I would just ask that Mr. Walton gets sworn in.
With that being said, I would just ask that Mr. Walton get sworn in, and I have a few questions for him.
And I have a few questions.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Do me a favor.
Come forward and make sure that's on.
Is that on?
No, no, no.
Click the button.
Hit the green button.
That's it.
You're on.
Gregory Walton, G-R-E-G-O-R-Y-W-A-L-T-O-N.
All right.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes, Greg, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
I have a question about the parking.
So from the images, it looks like there is sort of a paved area in front of the parking that sort of uses a driveway.
Is that enough space to fit in an additional car?
Or is it only in the garage?
so it looks like it's 32 feet like based on what i'm saying yeah which would mean you i don't think
i don't think yeah i mean 12 and 20 so i don't think that would be sufficient to fit you know
an additional car that's not the attention and then um where will all of the meters be for each
of the individual units um i well so i helping my client here i i would think that we always try to
push it into the basement the lower level um it's safer it's secure um there's no living down there
so it makes sense to do down there but we also don't control where the utility meters go i mean
but we try to push it that way but so the idea would be to put as many things into the basement
as as possible and then they can all access it from that central stairway right yeah all the
the tenants accessing the basement i don't think it's correct me if i'm wrong greg but i don't
think it's the intention for the tenants to have full access so if there's an issue obviously then
you know my client as the property owner would be dealing with it but i don't think it's an
intention for them for the tenants to be down there it's just for mechanical uh mechanicals
down there only and then is there any other use that you're intending to have in the basement
even from like a property management standpoint just because the plan is selling a lot of
separate rooms office or anything no i don't do that okay
all the questions from the board i see a number of violations um can you tell us about those
yeah so my client uh was starting to do some of just the prep work for this matter
um he thought he could do it that way um once we discovered that it was probably best to wait
for zoning and that's what we have done but he wasn't trying to build to like to create anything
but to like prep it's an older building that's in desperate need of some tlc
so what percentage of the building you say he completed without permits um i don't know if he
plea without permits but i think it was just demolition work like prep work to like the
interior demolition cleaning up the property once you got a a violation i said stop let's just focus
on this process get that done and do everything at once okay questions or comments from our attorney
um just briefly just wanted to clarify for the record mr knockinson this is a new application
right it wasn't amended down from five units to four correct that that is my understanding that
we have a whole nother application we we got streets approval for the parking and everything
else okay okay great and then um and then the only changes to the revised plans had to do with the
addition of the floor plans there were no changes to the envelope of the building or anything like
that yeah we saw that there was a mistake on the floor plans i don't know if it was like the old
floor plans when it was five units on it so we just figured the zba would stamp it because that
was whatever was submitted for the second application is incorrect in terms of the
floor plan so we just wanted to make sure that that was cleaned up so yeah so we we can't stamp
the floor plans because those aren't reviewed at the zoning stage so we actually don't as long as
there's no change to the envelope of the building size of the parking space curb cut then we don't
need to stamp any plans yeah i don't believe so i believe everything's the same okay great thank you
Questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience?
I do not see any hands raised, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission, A-M-Y-B-O-Y-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth to hold you with nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the existing RSA-5 residential single family to CMX-2 commercial mixed use.
under the proposed designation four units would be allowed by right but the off-street parking
would not while the property previously had a garage and the curb cut the planning commission
The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant their request of variance for multifamily and off-street parking.
recommends that the board grant the request of variance for multifamily and off-street park
Thank you.
Hillary, it's just revised plans, one page, nothing?
There's no need to add revised plans, and I believe Mr. Roxton indicated they were willing to consider commercial trash pickup if the board wanted to consider that.
So MI 2025, 000540, 4652 East Thompson Street, I vote yes, Proviso, commercial trash pickup.
John, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Senator Graham, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Iowan, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Thank you.
Alan, we have one more case of yours.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
So MI 2025, 000-597, 4217-19 Languister Avenue.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Alan, just for the record, state your name.
Yes, Alan Nockamson.
You've already been sworn.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yeah, my client is BQ Lancaster Avenue LLC, the owner of the property,
and the virtual audience is nasha bunch and our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon
council do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy
i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed and
required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes we have thank you
council please proceed uh again i don't have um the benefit now i do have internet access but by
up to you see if we get one moment chair i'll be pulling that up short he's doing it now all right
i'll just give you some highlights we have 12 exhibits in our exhibit packet we had a community
meeting on april 14th with hope administered by hope phl uh 133 addresses were notified of that
meeting. We're a unique corner at the corner of Lancaster, Brooklyn, and Brown. This matter has
been in front of the zoning board before. The reason why we're back here is we're really not
changing anything. My client just ran out of time. They submitted for a building permit application
and their zoning permit lapsed because of the amount of time it took them to get through this
process. So now they have to go through this process again. But again, what we're trying to
do here is have uh six residential units an event planning space as well as a prepared food shop
so if you just go to the uh next thanks again so we um amended our plans we did some cleanup work
here as well um but those plans are amended um we have the letter of support in three
number four is the zoning permit shows like the same use um i think there was like a slight change
for one of the commercial uses but pretty much the same again it's a regular shaped lot we have
three refusals the first is cmx where cmx2 property where five units would be allowed as
of right we're seeking to have added six the z before the zba before it didn't have an issue
with that the second refusal it actually is a referral is because the prepared food shop
in the alternative we we're probably going to my client's looking to put a coffee shop in there
she may want to do eventually cooking there but not now so she's trying to put it the use as a
takeout restaurant as well because it's cmx2 that's a referral which is conditionally approved
again my clients are responsible operator her family uh the bunch family is well known in the
west philly area they've had other businesses nearby um and they're very well respected
they're a responsible operator the third refusal has to do uh with the maximum occupied area
where we're running afoul of the 80% requirement.
But again, same thing as last time.
We have an irregular shaped lot
and it's really difficult to put a functional floor plan there.
So if we can just go to the photos, Ian, on 7.
So this is our property that we're going to hopefully demolish
and build a beautiful property that you see.
But it's just Lancaster from Brooklyn Street, our orange notice posters from the three streets.
And then Lancaster to the right of the property is a commercial corridor to the left of the property with a trolley line.
Brooklyn Street to the right of the property and to the left of the property.
And then I think we have, those are our plans, if you can just pull them up, Ian.
Those are our plans, if you can just pull them up in.
So again, a very handsome
So, again, a very handsome building structure, brick facade, a lot of openings for the residential units.
There's no living in the basement, so the commercial units are first floor and lower level.
The residential units are above.
And then, again, you can see this is the irregular shape here, but that's all the commercial units.
So the bigger one to the right is where the event planning space is.