you're recording
thomas can we do a quick audio check please yes tanya is this okay you sound great thank you
kindly thank you tanya
Chair, we have 27 attendees.
You can begin as you wish.
Good morning.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's EBA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Carol, unmute yourself.
Present, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Ismail Shahid, our board secretary, will be on shortly.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit, and our Board Attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Our virtual format, be advised these proceedings are being recorded by participating in your knowledge agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting Tanya Sunkit at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating in my phone, if you wish to testify, press star nine to raise your hand
and star six to unmute. To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548. Leave your email
and the address of the property in question. And last, please note the question and answer box
is not for testimony or comments. Any comments should be directed to our Executive Director,
Tanya Sunkett. So before we begin talking about our contingencies, we spoke about this yesterday.
The board wants to take a moment of silence for the tragedy, the untold hate and the use of
semi-automatic weapons in Buffalo over the weekend. So the board would just want to start
this with a moment of silence.
thank you very much everyone and thank you board members for
your continued interest in this just terrible tragedy our continuances for the day number nine
Number nine, MI 2021-005282, 3257 North 16th Street.
Number 13, MI 2022-000401-6022 Altman Street.
both these cases are continued is there any comments in the virtual audience relative to
these two cases good morning chair we have miss tina marie russell with her hand up
miss russell you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair
good morning miss russell good morning good morning you swear for him to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do proceed i'm just calling in to say we agree with
the continuance for 3257 north 16th at north central philadelphia cdc thank you so much for
calling in. Thank you. And case number, case number eight is, here it is here, is Victoria
Scarpato in the audience.
Ms. Garpato, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
Good morning, Ms. Garpato
Hello.
Could you state your name and spell it for our court reporter?
Could you state your name and spell it for our court reporter?
Victoria Scarpato.
It's V-I-C-T-O-R-I-A-S-C-A-R-P-A-T-O.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
So the attorney for license and inspection has requested that this case be continued.
We just wanted to make sure you're aware of that.
Do you know when it's going to be?
Our office will be in touch with you to give you a different date.
Thank you.
Are there any other continuance for requests for this morning's list?
Chair, we have Dylan Mahoney with his hand up.
Mr. Mahoney, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair, please.
Thank you.
hi mr mahoney could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter
dylan mahoney first name d-i-l-l-o-n last name m-a-h-o-n-e-y you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do what case sir
um 59 47 north 13th street excuse me 58 47
i'm sorry i had it right the first time excuse me chair 59 47 um
mr chair that's number um okay are you requesting a continuance for that
what's your relationship what's your relationship to the property are you attorney
um i'm the no sir i'm the representative of the councilman parker's office um the applicant i'm
not sure if she's here today miss cooper um but it's not yet met with the community and we're um
we're gonna be having an rco meeting in the in the coming month okay all right so let me get that
again here is she on the line by the way
would you like me to unmute her i would i would miss cooper please unmute yourself and wait for
the chair hello hi miss miss cooper could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
my name is unique cooper u-n-i-q-u-e last name c-o-o-p-e-r all right do you do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes okay so miss cooper
your case has not went to the rco yet for a meeting so we're going to continue to your case
okay you will be notified when the hearing is is that okay uh do you guys have my uh direct
contact information um we will we will find it our office will find it and be in touch
can i can i have like an estimated date of when to hear back from you guys what i what you should
do is call the office and they will give you an estimated date uh what's the all we'll make sure
we get back to you okay what's the office direct number tanya could you someone will assist you
offline. You can continue, Chair. Okay. MI 2022 00406 5947 North 13th Street, the cases continue.
Any other continuances? Chair, we have Ms. Allison Weiss with her hand up. Ms. Weiss,
you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair, please. Hi, Ms. Weiss, could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter yes thank you allison weiss a double l i s o n weiss w e i s s
do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
yes i do what case um i'm calling uh about 401 west queen lane uh solo germantown civic
association we're an affected rco and we were told of this case was being withdrawn
Ma'am, ma'am, give me a couple of minutes.
You're going to hear that I'm going to announce that that case is withdrawn.
Okay, thank you.
Let me get through the continuances first, okay?
Thank you.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
Chair, we have someone with the phone number ending in 7740.
Please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Diane Manning, D-I-A-N-E-M-A-N-N-I-N-G.
diane manning d-i-a-n-e m-a-n-n
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
What case?
For 2086 Haines Street.
I need to continue it.
Thank you.
MI 2021-005-284-2086 Haines Street. That case is continued.
Any other continuances?
Chair, I see no other hands at this time.
Case 11. Hold on a minute.
Case 11.
it's here
m m i 2022 000 405 401 west queen queen lane the case is withdrawn
any other requests for withdrawals
we're going to go and no hands at this time chair we're going to go to the add-on
list. Adeline number one, MI 2021-002-648-1001 Chadwick Street. I vote yes with proviso. Her
amended refusal dated 5-10-22. Carol Tenere, my vote is yes with proviso. Thomas Holloman,
my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, yes with proviso. Ishmael Shahid, yes with proviso.
Second add-on, MI 2021-004742, 2017 Auburn Street, I vote yes for reconsideration.
Carol Tannery, my vote is yes.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, for the record, please indicate yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
And rehearing.
Yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
My vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
James Snell, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
So I'm going to go to case number five first. MI 2021 004041, 1820 West Venango Street. This is a reconsideration hearing. Council Member Bash is the appellant. I want to first certify that I've watched the video of the 9-1-21 hearing.
And, Mr. Chairman, this is Carol Tenere. I also watched the video of the September 1st, 2021 hearing.
Mr. Chair, I watched it as well. This is Ishmael Shaheed.
Thank you very much.
We're going to incorporate testimony and the entire record for the original hearing on 9-1-21.
At this point, I would like to call Councilmember Bass and also the attorney Pritzker to be sworn in.
Rachel Pritzker is coming back in as a panelist, Chair.
Good morning.
Good morning.
uh rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r 1521 locust street suite 605
philadelphia pa 19102 you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes council member bass council member bass should also be coming back in as a panelist chair thank
you good morning this is councilman bass good morning do you swear or affirm to state your
name and spell for the court reporter please my name my name is cindy bass c-i-n-d-y-b-a-s-s
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
So we've taken all the testimony, all the records from the last hearing, and we've incorporated it into the record.
Council person, we're going to go to you first.
You're the appellate in this case.
And what we want to concentrate on in the hearing is your position and also the position of the RCO.
Correct.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning. I am requesting reconsideration and a rehearing in this case because the majority of members in the surrounding community were disenfranchised in the process.
I am requesting reconsideration and a rehearing in this case because of the RCO.
In June of 2021, my office received an RCO meeting summary regarding 1820 Venango Street from the former co-chairs of the Tioga United RCO, Ms. Veronica Holman and Ms. Charisma Presley.
The summary reflected that the near neighbors and other attendees had opposed granting the variance, and the RCO was opposed as well.
The ZBA hearing for this property was scheduled to occur on September 1st, 2021 at 2 p.m.,
and I was opposed to granting the variance based on the meeting summary and instructed and agreed with my staff member, Charles Richardson,
who had been very much involved with the community on this matter.
Approximately 45 minutes prior to the beginning of the hearing, Ms. Pritzker, the applicant's attorney, called Charles to inform him that Mr. Jihad Ali, one of the RCO's new chairs, had conducted an additional RCO meeting the week prior.
And that now the community was supporting the project, and as a result, Tioga United was also supporting granting the variants.
I will note that no one from my office was ever informed of or invited to this new meeting and no written summary or correspondence was ever produced.
Since Mr. Richardson could only take Mr. Ali's word as fact, he told Ms. Pritzker that Mr. Ali would have to appear on the Zoom hearing and testify to that fact.
Mr. Ali did appear and affirm under oath that he had conducted a meeting the week before where the attendees supported granting the variance.
That affirmation prompted Mr. Richardson, with my guidance, to shift the office position from opposition to non-opposition.
Subsequently, the variance was granted, and immediately the residents living in the surrounding community went crazy ballistic with rage in response to the results.
Between September 1st and September 27th, my office received numerous phone calls and emails, observed negative social media posts, and negative commentary on public radio and radio stations, attacking my office for what the community felt was a betrayal, especially given that the original Tioga United summary was in opposition.
Most of the constituents stated they were unaware of the additional meeting that had been scheduled, which is completely plausible since my office was also not notified about this meeting.
Additionally, on September 9th, 2021, we received some information from Tioga United, from Ms. Verna Tyner, the president of Tioga United, which is also a part of the record, stating that they had erred and were now withdrawing their support for the project and urged us to seek reconsideration and a hearing for the project.
Had the new position not been interjected regarding Mr. Ali's new position in the proceedings, my position would have remained in total opposition of the project as it was originally.
we don't know the nature of the negotiations between tayoga united and the property owners
or what caused the reversal and re-reversal of the rco's position but it is clear the community
was left out of the final equation and deserves to have their opportunity to be heard the actual
residents of the first rco excuse me the actual results of the first rco meeting need to be
considered and i ask that you grant a reconsideration of this case thank you mr chairman
with. Thank you. Ms. Pritzker, do you have any comments? Sure. So thank you, Chairman,
members of the board. By the way, but when you're done, I'm going to call to see if there's an RCO
member here too. Okay. So as you can see from the record of this case, it's quite extensive
and the packet that we provided is over 100 pages. This case, I've been doing zoning and land use
since 2012, I have never not once in my entire career seen a case go this wrong. I'm personally
involved in this project along with two partners as a certified women-owned business. We followed
the process to a T and relied on the RCOs to submit letters, ask for additional meetings,
attend additional meetings, make revisions to plans, door knock, submit letters and petitions,
and even were informed from the beginning of this project that members from the RCO or members from
the community were going around explaining to people that we were trying to build a battered
women's shelter on the site, a letter of which was sent directly from a neighbor to the council
office, further kind of muddying the waters in this case. We not only attended a meeting with
the RCO on the 24th of June as a result of that meeting as the councilwoman stated they were in
As a result of that meeting, as the councilwoman stated, they were in opposition and asked for some revisions to the project, which we then did a second meeting on 830 and made.
If you look at the meeting summary from that first RCO meeting on June 24th, you'll see that the near neighbors that showed up don't live on the 1800 block of West Benango, but live on the behind block of Gratt Street.
They basically stated that the reason they were not supporting the project was because we didn't speak to them ahead of time.
I've been told in many cases not to speak to people ahead of time.
We did do door knocking and reached out.
And then at the other meeting, we said, OK, well, we're willing to meet with you guys now.
They said, no, we don't want to meet with you and we don't want to meet about this project again.
at that RCO meeting there was also the directly adjacent RCO another affected RCO in attendance
as well in addition to other developers and property owners in the area we then had another
meeting which was conducted by Tioga United and as the applicant in the process we attended that