property and i saw it being renovated um it made a big change to the to the neighborhood honestly
because when my mom used to take me to school i used to live um about five minutes away from there
and she would say how that block would always have trash in the front and it was just cars
coming out for the automotive shops and everything like that and once we saw that
he was renovating that property and making it feel better for the community
and once 2023 came and you know everything around that area and
everything started getting rehabbed and stuff I feel like he really made a
change to this area around here all right thank you very much for taking
time to close is there anyone else in the audience
i don't i see no hands chair plenty commission it's a hand raised okay oh
they put their hand down okay planning commission
good afternoon chairman david facto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning do you swear affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir please proceed thank you sir uh chairman
and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city last rezoned this neighborhood in 1971
in a council supported map change the appellant has stated that the condition of two dwelling units
existed at the time that they purchased their property the third unit appears to have been
added without the benefit of permits city planning commission recommends the board grant the
requested use variance but with a maximum of two dwelling units now do you have any comments about
that uh only that you know as the photographs show here mr chairman i mean the the third unit
up here is a perfectly liv livable unit um there is a tenant in this unit that's been in there for
many many years uh and there's you know again this property is unique in that it does have
some ample open space especially with this deck right off this third floor unit so
all right MI 2025 007 692 1311 South 47th Street I vote yes with proviso certificate of vacancy to
be obtained Michael Johns my vote is sword in the rear right Michael Johns my vote is yes with
provisos cheryl gaston my vote is no tanita graham my vote is yes with proviso my name
mcadams my vote is yes with proviso tylen my vote is yes with proviso
so number eight and my 2026 001 010 2000 east cumberland street murder furliger is the attorney
you've already been sworn could you please just state your name meredith furliger and could you
Can you identify your client a relationship to the property?
I can. My client is Wolfpack Property Group, LLC, the new owner of this property, and that is represented on Zoom by Adam Lopate and Austin Haley.
There's an email letter of support from East Kensington and also a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
um or why share us a few questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits
five days in advance of this hearing yes I did and do you waive the reading of the refusal and
stipulate to us accuracy yes I do all right thank you can share your screen and proceed
uh Mr. Chairman members of the board uh this property before you today is 2000 East Cumberland
street which is in east kensington today's application is to legalize and improve
six dwelling units in the property as i will explain four of these units are permitted by
wright but my client requires relief for the remaining two as you mentioned there is a letter
of support from ecna in the packet at exhibit 17. tax clearance is provided at exhibit two
and importantly, particularly to board member Wynn's
Uh, and importantly, particularly to board member wins, uh, prior point, uh, the deed is at exhibit 3, showing that my client just purchased this property, uh, in March of this year.
Upon doing their sale due diligence and discovering the incorrect zoning status, my client initiated this application before they even closed on the property.
As you can see, the refusal itself is dated February prior to the closing. So they found
these conditions and they moved forward with this application right away. So let me start first with
some general site context and some background. As you can see here, the zoning map at exhibit 10
shows the property is zone CMX1. At exhibit 11, you can see some aerial images showing that
this property is located on east cumberland street right at the corner of emerald street
you can see here that this property is located proximate to several dense apartment complexes
particularly along emerald street
photographs at exhibit 18 show the existing exterior of this three-story building the
The building has three entrances, one from East Cumberland that you can see in this first image, and then two entrances off of the Emerald Street side.
The roll-up garage that you see next to this building is not related to this property in any way.
You can also see from this view that the property benefits from an existing ADA ramp that is going to be incorporated into the design that you will see.
from the Emerald frontage it does appear that the back half is an addition but from everything I've
been able to find in the history it looks like that portion of the building has been present
since the early 1900s despite what it looks like you can also see here that the property has a
small roof deck which surprisingly the former owner did get permits for and then you can also
You can also see here from the images that this property has a gated rear yard, which will be used for trash storage.
And then just for additional area context, flipping across the street is another multifamily property at the corner.
And then across Emerald Street is mostly vacant land with some newer construction single family dwellings on the next block of East Cumberland.
this next photograph looks south uh southeast along east cumberland directly next to the
property so you can see here it's a fairly uniform three-story block with predominantly these
the three-story brick structures and then looking uh from uh the opposing end of the block
on the 2000 block you can see there is a church at the other end of the street here
and then we did also include photographs of the timely posting
what i want to do is walk you through the existing conditions floor plans
and then show you photographs of how the units currently exist as you're going to see the
existing six units are extremely awkwardly laid out and part of the goal of this request is to
not only legalize the units, which will allow my client to apply for permits, to renovate and
create more functional layouts than exist. So we want to give you a sense of what they currently
look like and then what my clients intend to do in order to renovate them. So as you can see here
on the existing conditions floor plans, cellar is currently for mechanical use only. The property
has a central staircase that bisects the entire center of this building at the first floor there
are currently two units plus common laundry facilities unit one in the front is a one
bedroom with office and has direct uh a direct entrance from the front of the building and you
can see that very awkward uh design here what you're going to notice is that a lot of these
units were set up as two-bedroom units and and you'll see that in the photographs unit two
is a two-bedroom with office which has direct access from emerald street in the back
and then the entrance to the upper levels is that front door which you can see just off the ramp
on the second floor are units three and four which are each currently roughly 400 420 square
foot two-bedroom units and then again on that third floor the units are slightly larger but also
And then again on that third floor, the units are slightly larger, but also tight 2 bedroom units.
So I think this is going to be much easier for you to visualize in the existing conditions.
Floor existing conditions, photographs that I have here. I'll walk through them quickly and can always go back if there's questions.
as you'll see here these units were not renovated under the former ownership and are in need of
some fairly significant work although many of them are are occupied so the first unit here
is of unit 1f so this is that door that leads directly to east cumberland street
and then the second photographs are just of the bathroom uh and one of the rooms either either
the office or the bedroom it's a little unclear how this tenant was using it next photographs are
of unit two are so this is the door you see here that leads to the ramp on emerald street
and then i did also include photographs of the bedroom as well as the office
on the next page is unit three which is on the second floor front and you can see kitchen bathroom
living room, and the two bedrooms.
Unit four is the second floor rear.
And again, kitchen, bedrooms.
And then you can also see that exterior deck,
which is right off of this unit,
as well as the bathroom and one of the bedrooms.
And then moving to the third floor,
this shows unit five, which is the third floor front.
And again, living area and bedrooms as well as the bathroom.
And then the final unit is unit six, which is on the sixth, the third floor rear, which shows the kitchen and the bedrooms.
And then I did also include a photograph of the utility meters that exist in the bedroom, in the basement.
So as I mentioned, my client just closed on this property in March.
So the photographs that you see here are of the conditions that existed at the time of their purchase.
It's their understanding from speaking with the former owners that the property was renovated roughly 10 to 15 years ago when the former owners purchased the property.
In having their architect Logan dry, who is on zoom, go through the property. They quickly identified that these unit layouts require significant improvement.
because these units need work regardless my client would like to take this opportunity to
improve on these layouts so at exhibit eight you can see the proposed unit layouts which you'll
hopefully be able to uh compare in your mind to what i showed you previously uh to see that this
is quite quite a significant improvement uh these all of these changes can be accomplished without
significant structural work or modification to the existing unit envelope, which is important
here to minimize the hardship that would result from needing to alter the overall number of units
given that central stair that effectively cuts this property in half. So as you can see, the
cellar is going to remain for mechanicals and tenant storage only. And then that common laundry
area will be retained on that first floor for some of the units. Laundry facilities will be
added to some of the units that do have sufficient space for that. Because of the benefit of that
ramp, the first floor units are going to be converted into two type B ADA accessible units
made possible by that ramp. To the extent that the building code would say that that ramp is
not sufficient a lift will be installed unit one is going to be a nicely sized studio with
a renovated kitchen in unit laundry and ample living space unit two in the back on the first
floor will be converted to a 635 square foot one bedroom unit again also with that in unit washer
and dryer on the second floor the unit three is going to be reduced to a one bedroom unit
while unit four is going to be a large studio which will maintain exclusive access to that
roof deck if you recall these units as they currently exist are both two bedroom units
so these changes will greatly open open up these spaces for more modern living
and then similarly on the third floor both units are going to be reduced from
and then similarly on the third floor both units are going to be reduced from the current two
bedroom condition to one bedroom units with much more functional space all with ample light and air
throughout the building due to the corner location as i mentioned our logan is on the
line and can answer any technical questions about the revisions but importantly as you can see here
the building envelope has remained the same the unit envelope has remained the same and is really
largely dictated by that central staircase and again as you saw earlier and as indicated on the
plans trash will be stored via a gated area in the rear that was shown in the earlier photographs
so in terms of the refusal this is somewhat of a unique one because the property is zoned cmx1
and is adjacent to RSA 5, the application was partially refused.
Having discovered the lack of proper approval for six units, my client had two choices.
Choice number one, they could have filed an application to legalize the six units,
drawn a refusal for six units, and pursued relief from this board.
I believe many applicants would have elected that path.
alternatively cmx1 does provide a path for buy right multi-family approval my my client chose
that alternative path which involved filing this application utilizing the mixed income housing
bonus so as a result and as you can see at exhibit five one of these units will be deed restricted
affordable in accordance with the request of the community my client has also committed that a
second unit will be rented in accordance with the same affordability standards as are shown on this
form. So the result of choosing that path is that, as you can see on the refusal, four of these units
are actually now permitted by right, with only two of the units requiring requests for relief.
so again i point this out merely as a technical argument it is at its core still a legalization
request but my client did elect the path that significantly reduced the degree of variance
that would be required from this board so instead of considering six units you're essentially only
considering two i am hopeful that the layout and photographs we showed have clearly established
the significant hardship that would result from having to convert this property back to any less
units than the six that exist that said i do have a few extra pieces of information that should be
helpful exhibit 12 does show the permitting history of the property and although the former owner did
admit to renovating the property when they purchased it they only ever pulled a rental
license for two units now there is evidence if you scroll through the history here uh that the
property back in the 1940s was four units seemingly later a single family home in the 50s
and then a restaurant and a two-family dwelling in the 70s so it seems to have changed quite a bit
oddly enough ellen i cited this property many times over the years starting in 2009
and continuing all the way through the former owner's ownership but without any explanation
all of the violations pertaining to interior renovations were complied seemingly without
requiring them to secure a zoning permit so again regardless of all of this the hardship here was
not created by my client who took the steps to rectify the permitting issue even before they
closed on the purchase of the property and then beyond the history and physical conditions of the
property itself exhibit uh 12 show 13 shows that the multi-family use is consistent with the
context of this neighborhood particularly along that emerald street frontage which has significant
density uh mainly at the corners as well as i mentioned earlier on and is not shown on this map
the corner directly across from this on cumberland is also multi-family so again the operative
question for the board here is not whether the property should be permitted to contain a
multi-family use instead the question that we believe the board can answer in the affirmative
is whether it would be an extreme physical and economic hardship to convert the property into
four dwelling units where six currently exist we submit that the renovations proposed will
will dramatically improve the physical conditions of the property including two type b accessible
dramatically improve the physical conditions of the property including two
units one deed restricted affordable unit a second voluntarily reserved affordable unit
and otherwise a complete renovation that will improve the residential quality of both the
property itself as well as the block my clients both live and work in port richmond and manage
their properties themselves so the community was encouraged to see two local owners take this
property over and improve it for the foreseeable future as as always we did submit a memo of law
at exhibit 14 and the proposal will not increase congestion harm neighboring properties or impair
light and air we do submit we've complied with all other standards of the code and would respectfully
ask for the board's approval of the request today. At this point, I would ask for the board to look
for either Adam Lopate or Austin Haley. I'm not sure who is here. Do we see hands?
Austin Haley has been promoted. Thank you very much.
hello hi sir could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer yes sir my name is
austin haley a-u-s-t-i-n last name haley h-a-l-e-y right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir possible could you please turn on your video
i'm trying to figure that out here okay well why don't we continue then uh austin uh have you been
present and listen to all the testimony and evidence that i offered in front of the board
today yes ma'am uh and would you agree that that testimony was true and accurate and would you
adopt it as if you had provided it to the board yourself yes questions from the board yes um well
one i do want to say i think um while we can understand that the hardship is not on your client
it is the current property owner's responsibility to comply with the law and all the requirements.
So I do think the case here today is really around, like you said, the four to the six, right?
I think they're allowed four, they want six. I think a few concerns I do have about the physical
just layout of the property. One, I think this is a place that doesn't have much like open space
for it to be pretty dense I would like to see something else done with the
backyard other than its current condition and garbage I think having
six people and what's presumably a standard row house lot with no outdoor