changing the bottom commercial space to a residential space the only changes to the
commercial space hillary um i mean it's your it's your call mr chair unfortunately the the rco's
letter or they didn't really send the letter they just sent the meeting summary form so
there wasn't an indication as to what they were giving their support to in that letter i don't
know if anybody from from the rco is is on um anyone on the on the for 921 f west somerset street
i do not see any hands raised for this matter now so so devon i i think you're going to have
to go back and have a communication with the rco no i got sure would an email be enough i just
did somebody have to reboot because it was presented to that it's only one unit that's
being changed so what what i want you to do is you don't have to have a full meeting but i want
communications from the RCA. Okay. So we're going, yeah, that's right. And we're going,
so we'll, and we'll try to get you back as soon as we can. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank
Thank you.
Number four, MI 204-003-295-229 West Roosevelt Boulevard, Abdul Ali and Ahmed Jani.
This is a resumptive hearing.
Very nice, panelists, Mr. Chair.
Coming on.
Coming on.
Ahmed Johnny is on.
Ahmed Johnny is on now as a panelist.
Mr. Johnny, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
So Lee will also be rejoining as a panelist.
Good morning.
They are now a panelist.
Abdul Ali is now a panelist.
You see them, Chase?
Yeah, both individuals appear to be muted.
mr johnny is on camera
johnny yes i'm here mr johnny good morning good morning right um just for the record could you
please state your name is spelled for the stenographer ahmed johnny a h m e d j o and n y
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
So this is a resumptive hearing.
I take note that the 42nd Ward was unanimous support for this.
They did have a proviso, no household living in the basement.
And the council person, Bass, has taken a business of non-opposition.
So this is a resumptive hearing.
So what we need from you is to show us your presentation.
We need to see proof of posting and interior photos.
Your Honor, I have my son to help me because I'm not too much into tech.
I'm going to mirror his screen so that he can show you.
So wait a minute.
So you're the only one that can testify, am I correct?
yes yes but he's going to put the screen up for you okay sure yeah sure and you can testify off
of that thank you okay and can we start by seeing proof of posting for today's hearing correct thank
Thank you.
It's going to start showing up.
Can you see it, Your Honor?
And that is the proof of posting for today's hearing?
Correct, ma'am.
Okay, thank you.
This is the bedroom and the first floor.
This is the part of the kitchen and the first floor.
This is the other part of the kitchen and the first floor.
this is the the basement
and that's the other part of the kitchen that's the bathroom for the first floor
and that's the windows for the first floor bathroom that's the bathtub
that's a small closet storage area and that's the bathroom from our other side that's the door
to the right is the door to the bathroom, and the one to the left is to the second bedroom,
and that's the hallway that goes all the way back to the bathroom and to the bedroom, that's
again from the other side with the laundry mat by the end of the hallway, and that's
the laundry mat, that's the bathroom to the second floor, and that's the living room to
the first floor and that's again the living room with the entrance to the apartment on the left
hand side that's the second floor uh laundries and that's the second floor bathroom that's the
first floor bathroom isn't it let me see uh they're similar to each other the design is almost
the same but the only difference is that toilet is in the other side in the first picture okay
and this is the living room to the second floor and that's the kitchen to the second floor
And that's the living room with the kitchen on the second floor,
and that's the living room with the kitchen and the second floor with the entrance to the
with the entrance to the left-hand side corner,
that's the main door to the apartment.
And that's the picture of one bedroom.
And that's the picture to the second bedroom.
And that's the poster again.
And that's the entrance to the house.
The one to the left is going to the first floor,
and the one to the right is going to the second floor.
Two separate entrance.
All right.
Questions from the board.
That's all I have.
Any questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i do not see any hands raised mr chair planning commission
amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends zone change
in zoning at this location when the existing single family residential rsa 5 the appellant
has not demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances that
would prevent the property from being used in conformance with the zoning code moreover the
conversion to two-family was done without the benefit of permits. The Planning Commission
recommends that the Board deny the requested variance for two-family. MI 2024-003-295-229
West Roosevelt Boulevard. I vote yes with proviso. No household living in the basement.
i can't vote on this one so okay tanetta graham my vote is yes with proviso
i won my vote is yes with proviso ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with proviso thank you sir you
have your votes. Number six, MI 2024-006-033, 2601-31 North 28th Street. William Kerr is the
attorney. I'll be rejoining as a panelist soon, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Can you hear me?
I can. Mr. Kerr, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, William Kerr, K-E-R-R. I'm an attorney with High Sports 40 East Aries Street in Norristown.
You're referring to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes. My client is Help Pennsylvania Development Court. They're an affiliate of the nonprofit Help USA. They are the intended lessee of the property. The property is currently is owned by Philadelphia, or excuse me, Philadelphia Housing Authority Development Court.
And I have Emma Colley, C-O-L-L-E-Y.
She's a representative of Pennsylvania Development Court.
She's on the Zoom here this morning, and she may need her to make some statements.
Counsel, do you stay played to the refusal and agree with its accuracy?
I agree.
Yeah, I agree that the refusal is accurate.
I do question whether it's actually an appropriate refusal, which we'll get into in a minute.
My understanding is that there's another RCO meeting coming up, am I correct?
That's correct, Mr. Chair.
We had a meeting on November 14th, and a few weeks ago, another RCO requested that a second meeting be held.
So that's coming up on Thursday.
So just for a point, we will not vote on this today.
We will vote on this. We will consider this for a vote next Wednesday, the 15th, I believe it is, at 3.30 p.m.
Okay, that would be great.
And that will be a resumption hearing, just to clarify.
And we will take public testimony and the recommendation of the Planning Commission at that time,
as well as any updates from Mr. Kerr as a result of the second meeting that's being held.
Okay. And that will be the 15th, 3.30. Is that correct?
Okay. Perfect. Yeah, that would be great because this is a – we have a financing deadline approaching in early February, and we need to complete this process before the end of the month if we can. Thank you.
Thank you. Proceed. Start your presentation.
Proceed. Start your presentation.
Help, again, I'm representing help.
Help is the proposed tenant on this property.
The property is the former site of the Walton School,
which for years was operated by the Philadelphia School District as a school.
Pennsylvania Housing Authority purchased the property,
or excuse me, Philadelphia Housing Authority purchased the property back in 2015
with the intention of converting it to affordable housing.
And they now have an agreement with my client, Help PA, and Help will be the developer of the affordable housing pursuant to a 99-year land lease.
PHA will remain the owner of the property.
This proposed project would allow this long vacant school building to be put back in service and provide important affordable housing rental units for seniors.
That's the proposal is 50 senior housing units, and those will be affordable.
They will be developed under the Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, which is administered in Pennsylvania by Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
And the PHFA financing deadline for 2025 is coming up in early February.
It's a one year, once a year application.
And so it's very important that we, again, that we have a zoning decision on this project so that we can get this, keep this moving this year.
The project also, in addition to the low income housing tax credits, the project has also been awarded a significant financing from Philadelphia Housing Authority in the form of a 40-year low interest loan.
There will also be some...
Counsel, counsel, counsel.
Could you do me a favor?
Why don't you share your screen?
So we can at least look at what the location looks like.
That's a great idea.
In fact, I was just getting there.
Okay, hold on.
You should be seeing.
I think this is the right.
Are you seeing a plan now?
Coming up now.
How about now?
Yeah, we see a plan now.
This is our zoning plan.
This is actually tab six in the exhibit packet that we submitted.
This is the property.
It's located with frontage on North 27th Street.
Let me scroll down a little so you can see the street.
You know, Mr. Kerr, I think we're going to get to this plan.
And it might be helpful if you could show photos of the property first, so then everybody could put this into a little perspective.
All right.
Let me just tell you where the streets are, because the photos relate to the streets.
So it's West Huntington Street, and this is the school building right here.
It runs along almost the entire frontage of Huntington, and then North 28th Street.
So let me get now to the photos.
There we go.
okay this is my first photo and these are in tab eight this is the 28th street view of the front
of the school building you can see it's it's vacant boarded up but it's a very substantial
a very impressive building so that's the 28th street view
next view is also from 28th street but this is looking back down 28th street to the left
next view is also from 28th street but this is at the corner looking down huntington street
okay then we have are you seeing these photos okay and yep yep we're we're seeing it okay then
looking at this is photo is from the corner of 27th and huntington looking back up huntington
street so this is from the you know the opposite direction on huntington and this view over here
is looking down west 27th street and now i'm going to get to a photo that depicts the
the gist of this this hearing this is the this is from 27th street again this is the existing
driveway that goes to a small parking area for the school been in existence for many years
And the refusal was issued because this driveway enters onto 27th Street. And the current zoning code indicates that where you have multi-family housing, you can't have a driveway to your parking area off of a main street. It has to be off of an alley or rear street where there's no parking.
Well, we can't do that because this is this is where the existing driveway is.
So our legal argument really is that this is a nonconforming property and that under the.
This is a non-conforming property, and that under the zoning law, we are entitled to use this driveway because it exists.
And so one of our arguments here today is that we don't even need variance relief, which is, to my point I made a few minutes ago, as to the accuracy of the refusal.
It's accurate technically, but I don't think it's applicable.
And the reason is, if you look at zoning code section 14-3059, that section addresses non-conforming parking or site improvements.
And I was hoping I'd be able to share this with you, but I'm not technically proficient enough.
But I'm going to read what that section says.
It says, where the design or location of all street parking does not meet the requirements of the zoning code.