right um repeat your last question mr tomilchek is there a physical condition
of parcel i that prevents its use as a single family structure
just for clarification let him answer that question yeah just for clarification parcel i
is the consolidated lot for parcel i so that's the one that also fronts i just want to make
sure when he's saying parcel i what are we talking about because parcel i is
it's the parcel i you designated in all of the images you showed right so it's the street to
street property that fronts on frankfurt avenue you're asking why there's not one single family
home on that parcel correct okay i just want to show it for so
Correct. I just want to show it for. So this is what you're talking about. Why one single
family home can't go on this street to street. Who consolidated these parcels?
I'm just clarifying what you're talking about with parcel I. You're talking about this
consolidated lie. This is parcel I. Why once you're asking Uri why one single family home can't.
just clarifying the question so we could answer is there a physical condition of
parcel i that prevents its use for single family uh residents
so to to answer your question we can build one single family residence on a
what 36 by 120 lot yes who consolidated these lots to create the lot of the size that you just
mentioned by consolidating do you mean the zoning that we're going through right now again i don't
understand exactly you just mentioned the size of parcel i and i presume it's because you're saying
why would we build a single family structure on such a large parcel and i'm asking didn't you
consolidate the lots to create that condition i bought the all of the lots from one single owner
like that and this is what we're asking for in this case to be built okay listen to me
once you're done with this client you're going to bring your own client on and present your case
am i correct i i'm not going to prevent affirmative test present affirmative testimony
We are not going to prevent any affirmative testimony.
I'm here exclusively to examine.
How much longer do you need?
Because you told me this would take five minutes.
I thought I'd be allowed to have questions answered.
And that's why I feel like here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
I'm going to tell both of you.
You're like 40 minutes over where we should be.
There's other people waiting.
This is going to be a result of hearing.
That's okay.
Right.
Just, just chairman.
I'm just.
he is examining like he's like examining the architect and the client but i haven't heard any
concerns or standing related to like the neighbor who's affected by this or their concerns so
i i agree i'm just confused about where we're going with this that's that's something we'll
look at the next time we come back i i i have to i have to move on um this result of hearing will
be 10-6-26 at 9.30 a.m. Thank you, everyone. Number seven. MI 2025 007-692-1311 South 47th
street murder for liquor is the attorney counsel could you please state your name is spelled for
the stenographer? Sure. Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Could you identify your client
in relationship to the property? Sure. My client is Good Works Housing LLC, the owner of the
property, and that LLC is represented by Anthony Goodwin, who is sitting to my left. And I see
there's a letter of unanimous support from southwest philadelphia district and our
vice chair has a few questions for you good afternoon have you submitted your documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes i did and do you waive that we didn't know
the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes i do all right thank you can see your screen to
proceed with the case thank you uh good afternoon members of the board uh in addition to myself we
We do also have our architect on the line from Fusa design in case there's any questions should they arrive arise.
The property before the board today is 1311 South 47th Street in Southwest Philadelphia, which is just off Woodland Avenue, and just a stones throw away from the river.
Today's application is to legalize 3 dwelling units that exist in the property.
importantly my client anthony is fully aware that following the board's approval that he will need
to obtain a building permit to legalize the physical conditions of the property and obtain
a certificate of occupancy as you mentioned we did receive a letter of support from southwest
As you mentioned, we did receive a letter of support from Southwest Philadelphia district services.
philadelphia district
As many of the attendees of that meeting, we're happy to see this formerly dilapidated property back brought back into active use.
Tax clearance is provided at exhibit 2, and then the deed to the property is provided at exhibit 3 showing that my client purchases property in October of 2021.
one. The property before you is located on South 47th Street between Woodland Avenue, which is
just to the left in this image here, and Linmore Avenue, which is just to the bottom of the
photograph here. I'll scroll through some aerial photographs here and just a couple of notes in
terms of the location and the appropriateness of the use so the north view that i have up on the
screen here again shows the properties right off woodland avenue and then from the east view here
you'll see that the block itself is relatively unique with only two residentially used structures
across the street and then the remaining structures that either face woodland avenue
or are directly to the right in this image are dominantly automotive in use and you can
see that across the street here to the left as well
the zoning map at exhibit seven shows that the property itself is zoned rsa5 but you can see
here that this rule this block and the property are largely sandwiched by cmx2 zoned properties
at either end, as well as the entire opposing side of the street here on South 47th Street.
I do have some photographs, let me scroll back up here, of the property so you can get a sense of
the property exterior, and then I'll also show you some of the interior as well. I will just note
here um that the front porch condition and that enclosed front porch condition is a long-standing
pre-existing condition of this property uh google street view images show that that condition
existed as far back as street view goes to 2007 so that was not a condition uh that that anthony
created that was something that existed here for a very long time so you can see here the photograph
The photograph on the right shows a view of the side of the property that leads into the backyard, and there is a 3 foot wide alley along this side that runs all the way out to Woodland Avenue.
And then if we zoom out a little bit, you'll see the proximity of the property to that automotive detailer next door.
from what i can glean it looks like that automotive property used to be a part of the
adjoining property that fronts on woodland avenue but at some point it looks like it was converted
into its own lot with its own independent use and then looking towards the corner at woodland
avenue again you can see the start of the more dominant commercial corridor in that location
And then again, you can see these conditions of the automotive and commercial uses across the street as well. And this view is looking towards Linmore Avenue.
And then again, just walking back again towards Linmore Avenue, this looks up towards the property facing Woodland. And then again, just a view of the property from that intersection at Woodland Avenue.
now if i back up real quickly to exhibit six we did include a couple photographs just to show you
the conditions of the property that my fat my client found it in when he purchased it
and as he can describe the property itself was already set up as two units with two independent
kitchens but as you can see here was was largely in an inhabitable state requiring fairly significant
significant improvement. I'll turn back for a moment to the current condition interior photographs,
and then I will also walk you through the floor plans. And actually, I think I want to do the
floor plans first. Let me give you a sense of what it looks like, and then I'll show you the
photographs. So the existing conditions floor plans, as you can see here at Exhibit 5, the
The lower level is unoccupied and is only used for mechanical use.
All three of these units are currently occupied with tenants.
Unit one occupies the entire first floor.
floor uh it is 616 square feet and as you can see here it is a two-bedroom unit
It is 616 square feet, and as you can see here.
with some utility in the back unit two is on the second floor this is a 483 square foot unit
and then unit three is on the third floor and that is a one-bedroom unit all three of these units do
have access both to the rear yard as well as to that upper deck that is shared off of that third
floor. And then let me turn back to the photographs because I think they're helpful to kind of
actually visualize what these look like, not in two dimensions. So the first photograph here are
photographs of that unit one where you can see the kitchen bedroom uh hallway and the uh in unit
laundry and then if i flip to the next page you'll see photographs of unit two which again is also
fully occupied as you can tell in the photographs and this is photographs of the kitchen living
areas and again the in-unit laundry and bathroom and then flipping to the next photographs you can
see photographs of unit three which is on that third floor and again you can see here the kitchen
living areas and the bedroom and bathroom and then you can also see a view of that shared upper deck
very briefly regarding the refusal because this property is zoned rsa 5 the application itself
was refused for the multi-family use however as i mentioned anthony found this property already
having been utilized as a two-family dwelling unfortunately there are no there is no permit
history for the property as the condition itself was already severely degraded and required extensive
of upgrades to make it habitable. Since the property already substantively existed separately
from floor to floor, Anthony completed the process to formally separate the floors into
independent units instead of undertaking the extensive demolition and reconfiguration that
would have been required to convert it to a single-family dwelling. Aside from the physical
conditions the property does suffer a hardship stemming from the multi-family context surrounding
the property including a multitude of properties on woodland avenue that are three and four unit
dwellings as well as this property's general proximity to commercial uses such as the auto
dealer immediately next door and the tool library across the street this block functions as a mixed
use environment that is well supportive of slightly added density and as always i did
include a map at exhibit 10 to visually support the character of this area that i have described
and in fact there seems to be another triplex application pending before this board
on this block again for use within an existing structure there's no information about pending
applications on atlas so i'm unclear if that is existing conditions or if it is a proposed
conversion but the point is merely just that this block itself is highly diverse and that
this particular triplex will not represent a deviation from the character of this particular
neighborhood we do submit that it would be a considerable hardship to convert this structure
to a single family use both in terms of the physical conditions that existed prior to anthony's
purchase as well as the practical reality that there are three long-term tenants living in this
property again as i mentioned anthony is well aware of his building permit obligations and i
do believe that this board has in the past added that particular requirement as a proviso
This neighborhood in particular is in need of diverse unit type availability and more flexible affordability, and these units provide a direct underserved need, which is ultimately why we received unanimous support from the community.
We did include a memo of law at Exhibit 11, establishing that the proposal will not increase congestion, harm neighboring properties, or impair light and air.
And at this point, I would ask the board chairman to swear on my client.
Could you please state your name, sir, and spell for the stenographer?
Anthony Goodwin, A-N-T-H-O-N-Y-G-O-O-D-W-I-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Thank you, Anthony. Have you heard all of the testimony and evidence that I offered in front of the board today? Yes. Do you agree that that testimony was true and accurate and would you adopt it as if you had given it yourself? Yes. And just very briefly, if you could just explain to the board the physical condition.
yes and just very briefly uh if you could just explain to the board the physical conditions of
the property that you found when you purchased it um so it was a completely uh uh demo uh
vacant property um like it had it had two units already in there and then the third floor also
had like a bathroom up there so you know when we was renovating i just put another another kitchen
up on the third floor um but i put like i don't even know how much money we put in there well we
put like a lot of money to renovate the uh the building um we had tenants in there since uh i
think about three to four years but right now and they've been living in there for for like a long
time thank you okay and all this was done without permits right yes right okay all right all right
questions from the board yeah what year did you purchase the property uh 2021 2021 i mean i i
understand what we're trying to do here i think it makes sense for the rest of the block i would
say i'm tired of seeing llc's come in having done illegal construction having rented a property
without a license to come in and have us fix it i think like when it's a pro se still not great
but at least it's individual as a commercial operation i feel like i should know better
um and that we've got to be doing better in the city like understood board member but again my
my client is here he's voluntarily here he did hire council he's making the investment and he
does understand his obligation so did you have licenses at all to rent or you didn't do that
either no that will come after this mr chairman all right okay um so on the the pictures that
i see trash cans in the front is that where your uh residents store their trash in the front yes
okay and they have access to the backyard and they have access to the to the basement
can can we put the trash um in the rear yeah yeah that can go in the rear okay i mean it
makes the block look a little bit everybody has everybody has access to the rear yard or just the
first floor unit no can you go back to the plans yeah i can go back through that shared yeah let
me actually show you the photographs my bookmarks got me oh they have to walk there's yeah there's
actually an alley along the side as well so everybody does have access to the rear
is there an easement that's also on the property that's currently being used by the auto
usage i don't believe so no there's there's nothing shared between these properties so
is the property line like there's a bump out is the property line in where the bump out is
the blank facade of of 1311 or is there three feet into the asphalt that there is three feet
into the asphalt correct so i mean another thing i would say is like auto uses are not great i
think just for safety i would make sure you put a fence at your property line you know that makes
sense and so what what what was what was what was that what what change did you make to the
building in order to do the third unit because the unit you know in the first floor lays out okay
not great but okay the second floor unit is tight and then the third floor unit is just minuscule
so the third the third floor like when you walk up when you walk to the third floor
um it was a bathroom so I basically just uh opened that bathroom up like that room
and then just like we can go to the um ventures I can show you so when it so when it was a duplex
when it was a duplex the third floor was part of the second floor unit it wasn't no it was so I
I guess like somebody was just living up there because it was a you can look at that um bedroom
it was just a bedroom right there and then that open space and then it was a bathroom like it was
like it was in horrible condition like it was in horrible condition but it was uh separate it was
like separate up there as well as uh it was also a door right there as well so um they it was it
was it just wasn't a kitchen up there that was the only thing that wasn't up on that third floor
so it wasn't part of the second floor unit no it wasn't it wasn't a part of it go all right go
go ahead all right other questions questions from our attorney not at this time mr chairman
from the virtual audience or this audience here i see no hands chair plenty commission
my camera i can see you though thank you i see a hand raised excuse me oh sorry all right sure
bring him on bring the person on mr. Franklin you are allowed to speak mr.
Franklin could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer mr.
mr. Franklin hello my name is Franklin
uh hello my name is franklin willoughby could you spell your name please for the sonographer
f-r-a-n-k-l-i-n-w-i-l-l-o-u-g-h-b-y do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes are you a neighbor no but i live in the area and i drive past a lot
okay please proceed okay so um when they moved there around like 2021 well when he brought the