for many years, then it normally would be considered a vested right to the owner. And again,
my client did not create this hardship. He did not create this situation. He simply purchased
the property from the prior owner in 2020. And again, upon review of documents he had at the
time of the rental licenses, he had no reason to believe that this was an illegal building
in any way. And again, even when we brought it up with the community, some neighbors said,
hey, you know, we don't think it's legal, but the general consensus is they don't actually
accept that the city issued rental licenses would necessarily mean that the property was legal. So
that is ultimately why we still had a heavy vote against us during the community presentation.
But once again, our position is that this is a pre-existing non-conforming condition that to
kind of displace this particular individual renter now, even though we've had rental license
all these years to legally allow them to be in there would be a hardship and we would
ask the board's favorable consideration in this matter.
I will be happy to answer any additional questions and certainly happy to redirect any portion
of the exhibits.
Do you want to have your testimony adopted?
Mr. John Chi, can you raise your hand virtually to be identified?
If he's not here for some reason, we'll take your testimony, that's fine. Questions from
the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have someone with the last name Ling Chi.
Yes, that should be my client.
Correct.
And I'm on the line.
Okay, could you just state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
And X-I-L-I-N-G, last name is Chi, C-H-I.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, Mr.
Thank you. Mr. Chee, did you see my presentation and hear my testimony that I made to the board regarding your case?
Can you verify what I've represented is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Okay. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Alice Udovich.
good evening again chairman members of the board alice yudovich from councilman brian o'neill's
state your name you've already been sworn okay and the councilman is actually on the call as well
i'm not sure if he's having technical difficulty um the councilman is strongly opposed to a
conversion from a duplex to a triplex if you were to look at the entire block of hills patch
It's mainly single family, single homes, small Cape Cods. At the end, we're built two twin
duplexes. And there's no reason why this duplex should be converted to a triplex.
It's an overuse of the property. There's no hardship here.
Okay, thank you. Any other comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Ryan O'Neal.
Councilman, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Brian O'Neill, Councilman for the 10th District, representing this property.
I was just saying I was having trouble.
Wait a minute. That's okay.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, sir.
Thank you.
I was having trouble getting on.
I asked Alice to jump in if I was having trouble.
Thank you.
I would repeat what Alice said, what the community said, this is an illegal duplex, I mean triplex, straight.
This is an illegal duplex, straight, I mean, triplex, straightforward, illegal triplex.
The red herring here should be ignored.
The people with the rental license part collecting trash fees or whatever they're doing, making sure that it's compliant with a rental license, they're just sitting there.
If you pay it, you don't pay any more for a two family than a three family.
That has nothing to do with zoning.
And this is a sophisticated buyer buying at arm's length up and down Grand Avenue from the boulevard all the way to Busselton.
There's still a few single family homes, but it's either commercial or duplexes.
And this happens to be two sets of duplexes on a block.
It goes right to the to Grand Avenue. They're very close to the boulevard.
And every other home here is a single home, not just single family, but single homes.
And the idea that when these are built, they have the garage on the bottom.
It fits two cars usually, one for each of the units.
The area behind the garage is a bonus area.
I wouldn't really call it a bonus area, but it's an accessory area for each of the units upstairs.
They have a washer and dryer down there. They have some storage down there.
Somebody converted this. Ellen and I caught them. They went out in 2010. We just heard that.
They they they reinspected and there was no there was no use there.
And it's easy to get that inference because otherwise L and I would have kept issuing violations.
So at some point, L and I cleared it off their books.
The illegal use continued.
It's as simple as that.
The community is, this is a tough parking area.
It's so close to the boulevard.
Grand Avenue is so busy.
And it's an illegal use.
There's no unnecessary hardship. And I would just ask the board to return it to a duplex and refer the matter to L&I.
The fact that someone lives in there, they'll work out. There's plenty of units in the Northeast that that person can live in.
And if the rent gets raised by his corporation that bought it, he's going to be out anyway.
You can't personalize it.
And the zoning code is clear that the personalization is immaterial.
So I just ask you to look at it as a straight, illegal triplex and support the community
as I am in refusing the application.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman.
Any other comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
We have Bernard Jadish.
hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
can you hear me i can okay bernard jadak uh bernard carl jadak j-a-d-a-c-h
i'm with greater bustle and civic league i just wanted to make sure you
wait a minute wait a minute do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do proceed okay uh i'm with greater bustle and civic
i wanted to make sure you got the copy of the letter i uh mr jinn presented you a copy of it
in his submittals we sent a copy in i don't know why you didn't get it because it went to uh
uh karima cantana at philadelphia.gov under the planning commission so you should have got a copy
of it i don't know why you didn't but we're okay we we know what was in the letter okay and thank
Thank you. We basically oppose it. It's a basement unit. It was licensed by L&I for some reason. I have no idea why, but it's a basement unit that should have never been licensed as far as we're concerned and the neighbors. That's why there was a vote of 18 to 3 opposing it.
all right thank you we appreciate you calling in hi chair this is tanya if allowed may i please
just interject the thought that all documents for zoning hearings must go to the rcl zba
at phila.gov email box not to personnel within the zoning board that's the only way we'll
we'll have it to present right okay any other comments from the virtual audience
Planning Commission.
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
Good afternoon, Chair, Peter Bernard.
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rta one single family zoning
the applicant has not demonstrated a hardship that would justify multi-family housing
accordingly the planning commission recommends the board deny the variance
MI 2021-004-834-9423, Hillspat Street. I vote no.
Harold Tenere, my vote is no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you.
Thank you. I just want to say, Sharon, it's been a pleasure working with you all these years.
I wish you a happy retirement. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
is there is there anyone else in the audience that case has not been heard from the 330 list
um thank you everyone you know i'm sorry chair i was trying to talk but i was still muted
we have one person gary mulligan okay mr mr mulligan
we heard all the cases
Mr. Mulligan
Mr. Mulligan
you're unmuted and you're free to speak
Mr. Mulligan
there are no other
wait a minute I'm sorry
We got one more just popped up.
Phone number ending in 0088.
Put them on.
Paula, you're unmuted.
Please speak.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Can you hear us?
Okay, great.
We're both here.
This is Barry Mulligan.
and mary mulligan and mary mulligan and do you have a case did you have a case here today
2900 this distance street we received a letter we're in the neighborhood we got it from a just
a consul esquire regarding 2900 distance i have a number it's that was that was heard that that
was already heard but do you know when they told us to get off on there was 330 it said 330 and we
got on before 3 30 and never heard it what time did they hear that that case was heard earlier today
i believe in the two o'clock section well how would we have known that when the letter says
i'm not sure ma'am i don't i'm very sorry but i don't know but it was not voted that case was
not voted the um is going to meet with the rco again right so there will be another hearing
hello looks like we all good chair that's a good
wait wait one minute thanks everybody and i think yes ma'am
maybe tanya did her thing look thanks everybody and i think what we ought to do is
send sharon out with a round of applause yes
I have a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator
I'm now going to go and I will be toasting
all of you in the next five minutes
thank you so much
we'll talk to you next Wednesday
I somehow know it
i know it thank you
all right good night all
thank you