And then the commercial corridor on Ridge Avenue is all CMX 2.5.
The page three is just an aerial view looking north at the subject property.
To the north of our property is a large multifamily building, 27 units.
And just showing on the south is the Ridge Avenue commercial corridor that has been substantially redeveloped in the past couple of years, 10 years or so.
um and there is extensive vacancy on commercial spaces on ridge avenue which is one of the reasons
we have a support letter from the community exhibit four our block photo current photos
of the property which is the in the middle of the screen 855 north 16th and other block photos which
i'll scroll through just to give context this is the side of the property on harmer street
uh the other properties to the east on harmer harmer street are all duplexes
the property to the north as i mentioned 1510 poplar is a 27 unit uh multifamily building
and i'll scroll down to page five the property across the street to the west of us is a duplex
across the street to the west and to the south are as a pha property that's a triplex and then
on the corner is 840, which is a one-unit PHA building. 848 North 16th Street is a two-unit
building. The properties on either side on Ogden Street and Harmer Street, you'll see are triplexes,
The properties on either side, on Ogden Street and Harmer Street, you'll see are triplexes, duplexes, and quadplexes.
Looking at page 7, going to the south on the same side of the property, we have a two-unit condo building attached to our building, then two vacant lots.
And then farther to the south, we have a commercial building with two units above.
And the rest of that block, we have triplexes, a quadplex at 839 North 16th Street.
the properties on Ogden Street on the 1500 block are duplexes and a six unit building in the middle
of the block and the property is 843 North 16th to the triplex and farther down that block we have
another triplex and then a four unit building at 837 North 16th Street again and on the west side
are triplexes. And so I'll just go to the exhibit five are photos of the subject property. This is
the first floor of the commercial space that we're asking to use as residential. As you can
see, it's a vanilla shell. This is a view looking at the front door from the back of the front of
the commercial space. The second photo is a view from the front door looking to the back.
and then going to the fourth photo this is just a rear room behind that front room and then there
is a bathroom part of the rear room on the first floor the basement is framed out and the client's
been using it for storage of his just construction materials for now as he was looking for a
commercial tenant which for the past two years he's been unable to find
our floor plans art exhibit so i did include exhibit six for the neighbors these are just
photos of the unit two and three on the second and third floor just showing the existing two
bedroom one bath apartments that are occupied and have been for the past year or two and i'll
skip through to the floor plans for it so the proposed floor plan zoomed in
the first floor it has an angled entryway it comes into the living space with a a full kitchen
my client's proposing to put the stairs on the the south side wall and remove the stairs that
are currently in the middle of the building and then we do have an existing room which would be
a den at the rear with a bath and we would end up with in the lower level we have the stairs coming
down to the lower level and two full bedrooms, two full bathrooms and approximately eight and a half
foot ceilings. The room at the east, it would be used for mechanicals and storage. So we're
requesting approval for a two bedroom, two and a half bath residential unit. Exhibit eight is just
the existing layout of the building just showing open commercial space stairs in the middle of the
building and then that rear room at the back and the lower level is just vacant the i did include
at exhibit nine a series of all the zoning archive records for the or at exhibit 10 rather all the
zoning records for the properties on north 16th street that are multi-family and multi-unit
the property or as i noted exhibit nine was originally zoned for commercial use it was a cmx
two zoning it was rezoned to rm1 as the refusal indicates and we're basically requesting to
keep the character of the block as residential there's not really a need for commercial space
on this corner especially when ridge avenue corridor is full of vacancies at this point so
that's why we do have a letter of support for the community and we would request um that the
zoning board do grant the variance for this uh third residential unit with that mr chairman if
i could call the client mr nathaniel mahone to raise his hand
mr mahones could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes good afternoon chairman how are you i'm pretty good thank you
Say your name and spell it, please.
Nathaniel Mahone.
N-A-T-H-A-N-I-E-L.
Last name is Mahone.
M-A-H-O-N-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Mahone, have you heard the statements I presented to the board?
Yes, I did.
And were they true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
yes they were and is it true that you've tried to rent this property for commercial use for the
past year or two unsuccessful yes i have unsuccessfully and would you adopt my
statements as your own yes i do no further questions mr chairman questions from the board
Yes, I do.
No further questions, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the board.
Question. The new apartment that's for the first floor, that's bi-level, it's what, a one-bedroom with a den space?
It would be a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath space.
Can you go back to the plan of that basement level?
it looks like you're going at the bottom of the stair through a doorway into a bedroom out of a
bedroom so you're going so yeah we're changing the stairs from the middle of the building to the
south side wall it would come down to a landing which would then turn into the bedroom at the
i got it west and then a bedroom towards the east i got it i got it yeah i got it and luckily these
buildings have a deep basement and we have very high ceilings yep i'm good i got it excellent
questions from the board are there any uh hi mike um are there any uh commercial uses
anywhere around here i mean which what i saw was mainly residential you did show
there's only one there's only one use at
eight four seven which is a corner coffee shop on the ground floor with the apartments above
Okay. Thank you.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission.
John LeVicar, Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RM1 zoning at this site.
The variance to add a third dwelling unit is de minimis, and while PCPC would prefer that the first floor remain commercial to maintain the neighborhood fabric, considering the support of the RCO, PCPC expresses no objection to this proposal.
MI 2024, 002-470-855 North 16th Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Jane Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Number 12, MI 2024-002-481, 700 East Hunting Park Avenue.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
No RCO meeting or summary, but notice was sent to the near neighbors with proof of mailing.
Meeting held on July 16th, 2024, before Aspera, Aspera Asperanza.
Good afternoon.
Counsel, you've already been sworn today. Could you just state your name?
Yes, Zenjin, Z-H-E-N-J-I-N for the applicant.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is PC Philly LLC. They're a tenant at the 700 East Hunting Park Avenue location, and Mr. Ameri should be here on behalf of the company to verify my testimony.
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to wavering another refusal or stipulate towards accuracy?
I emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
Yes, we have with the exception that we did not receive a letter from Esperanza who held the meeting with us. We did provide the proof of the meeting as requested by the board council.
Thank you, council. Please proceed.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board the documentation we submitted. Can everyone see my presentation on their screen?
Yes. Yes. Thank you. So we submitted, as you can see, item one through 10, including refusal, proof of RCO meeting, photos, plans, and related documentation in support of this application.
This is an application that is refused for a sit down and take out restaurant in suite 10 of an existing structure.
I want to point out that the only reason we received this refusal is because this place, which this space, is part of a shopping center.
And the shopping center is still zoned in an I-2 industrial district.
This is very common around the city of Philadelphia, and that is the sole reason that we were given a refusal in this case.
As you can see, the ZBA did grant variance for another space, also for a similar use within the shopping center.
The application before the board is for a corner unit within the shop.
is for a corner unit within the shopping center to be refitted out into what is essentially
a chicken concept, a Latino chicken concept, which was originally started in New Jersey
through my client's corporation. They are trying to expand one of their restaurants to this place
at this location. It is both eat-in and take-out along with the drive-through,
all of which will be contained within the shopping center premises itself.
There are plenty of parking.
Again, this is an active shopping center.
The surrounding neighbors are all predominantly commercial as well.
So that is part of the reason we had very few notifications going out to residential neighbors in the area.
The original, when we first filed the appeal, we reached out to the Councilwoman Lozada's office.
and spoke with her zoning representative.
And it was told to us that there's no RCO for the area.
What we did then is continue to work with them.
And eventually Esperanza was appointed to help us have a meeting
because we were unable to get another RCO involved.
Esperanza met with us about a week ago.
At the time of the meeting, I was assured that a letter would be forthcoming to the board.
They did not feel that this is a controversial application.
Certainly, the use fits the nature of the operation of a shopping center and is not objectionable in any way.
So that is where we have had the prior discussion with RCO.
Here's a rendering of the concept, how the space would look once it's completed.
I am going to also show the menu. This is the menu, which would be the food types that would
be available on the menu. And also some of the information relating to hours of operation is
part of a business plan that was previously submitted to the board. My client will intend
to hire locally. They will be opening seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. And their menu would
be predominantly the food that they would serve. Trash would be a waste management commercial
pickup six times a week as they have similar in their location in New Jersey. They will have
two three-yard containers for trash and one three-yard container for recycling. So given the
nature of the space, the area, and the site with the unusual I2 zoning for a shopping center,
we would ask for the board's favorable review of this application for variants.
My client should be here to verify my testimony,
and I'm certainly happy to redirect to any part of my presentation
and answer any questions from the board.
Counsel, is signage part of this?
Signage is not part of the application, Chair.
Is there a drive-thru window?
There is a drive-thru window, yes.
There's a drive-thru aisle and window.
Let me go ahead and put the plan up so the board can see better.
So the drive-thru, although there is a drive-thru,
the drive-thru is actually within the shopping center parking lot.
So it's not going to interfere at all in any way with the traffic
or flow of traffic in any part of the roadways that the shopping center abuts.
And as a consequence, neither the window, the driveway,
are really items of separate items of refusal on this particular application.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
You want to bring your client on?
Mr. Amiri, if you are present, please raise your hand virtually and be identified.
Tejas Amiri has been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Sir, Tejas Amiri, T-E-J-A-S, last name Amiri, A-J-M-E-R-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mr. Ajmeri, did you see my presentation and hear my representation before the zoning board?
I did.
Can you verify what I have represented to the board is true and correct and adopt my testimony as your own?
It is, yes.
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
Yes, counsel, can you go back to the plans and show me where the trash containers will be stored, the trash and the recycling?
Yes. So this is the, I'm sorry, let me move this bar out of the way here. Let me zoom in.
so as you can see the this is this is the space area we're actually part of the overall space here
um mr uh edmary do you happen to know exactly where the trash uh dumpsters are on your space
yeah go go north right um and right right there to the left that this space is uh dedicated to
these tenant spaces for the trash containers correct exactly yep thank you and it's in one
of those enclosed um concrete okay concrete blocks yes ma'am all right thank you thank you
the questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
it's just a question um mr jenna yes so i was looking at the
the permit application and it mentions the takeout window um but then it's not on the refusal
um i did see like a key plan um but i'm not sure if this there was some sort of review for the
the drive aisle that needed to be done and whether that that happened i understand this
on private property so it wouldn't necessarily be a streets review um and maybe planning can
weigh in on this um but i i thought it was because it's contained within private property and it in