vacant commercial uses permitted in CA2. And we went back to the community group with only one
And we went back to.
variance. We no longer had the residential use variance, and simply we had the parking variance.
By way of background, further background, these two lots that you see here have been vacant since
about 2007, 2008, maybe even as late as 2010. Aerial, historic aerial images, it's a little
hard to make out by but by 2010 the lots were vacant apparently according to the community
there was a fire that destroyed 90 the building that used to exist on 92 47 92 49 92 51 and 92 53.
92 53 is still vacant um the owners of 92 51 which is a gym body crafters they reconstructed their
building which you can see to the left uh in this photograph that you have here um they reconstructed
a building that occupies 100% of the lot. The lots are 20 feet wide by 80 feet deep, so it's a 1600
square foot footprint. The issue we have is that the only access to the properties, and I can show
you on, let's see, on a zoning map. Oops. The only access to the properties is from the front.
There used to be a street in the front of this strip of, I think it's 16 properties that are kind of, as you can see here in an aerial, and you can see them right here.
I'm drawing a looping around in the middle of the aerial.
There are 16 properties that are, for lack of a better word, landlocked.
There used to be a city street that ran from Welsh Road to in between them and the Northeast Shopping Center.
that was stricken from the plan. But access to the properties is still through that
former street. But there's no access to the rear of the properties. And I'll show you in a minute,
and you can see here on the zoning map, that there is a lot that backs right up to all these
properties. There's two individual lots, which we'll talk about in a couple minutes, that back
up to them. So the only access is to the front. So the only way that you could actually provide
parking. And again, none of these buildings, none of these 16 properties have any on-site parking.
They all have buildings that occupy the full depth, the full 80 feet from front to back,
and the full width. So the only way to access parking you couldn't be able to provide
on-site parking would be from the front, which would obviously destroy the commercial frontage,
the ground floor frontage of any building that would be built there. The other issue is that
And because the lot is 80 feet deep, there is no way to provide all of the required parking spaces, even four spaces, if the amount of net leasable area was less than 1,000 square feet or less than 1,500 square feet because of the way the calculations for the number of parking spaces are done under the zoning code, they wouldn't even be able to be provided here.
So there's a real hardship. There's a longstanding vacant lot, bladed property. We are proposing a building that has the same amount of net leasable area or the same amount of required parking as the buildings to either side of us, because if the building was to be built up even one level, the full depth and width of the property at 1600 square feet, it would require the same number of parking spaces.
We aren't required to have more because we pulled the building back.
And you'll see here on the zoning drawings that we pulled the building back from the rear of the property.
And you can see here on the floor plans that pink is what's indicated as the net leasable area.
So because we have less net leasable area as we go up because stairs and landings and hallways aren't considered to be that,
We have the same net leaseable area as a building that if it occupied one story for the full extent of the property.
At the last hearing, we did present a letter of intent from 9280 Marshall Street.
And 9280 Marshall Street is located here, which is just a little bit off of our properties to the rear of our properties and a little bit to the northeast.
That property is used for a transportation and trucking terminal. Non-accessory parking would be permitted at this location. I believe Board Member Wynn raised a concern at that time regarding people walking from parking on this lot to the property and possibility of trucks passing by.
There's not a lot of truck traffic, but we understood that.
Here's the letter of intent that's still in effect with that property owner.
At the time of last hearing, we weren't able to actually get in touch with the property, the owner of the property directly behind us, which is 2361.
property, the owner of the property directly behind us, which is 2361 to 73 Welsh Road.
Since the last hearing, we were able to do that. And we have a letter of intent from them
indicating that they're willing to rent to us the 16 off-street parking spaces that are required for
the two properties, eight at each property. And you can see here the notice of refusal for each
one because 1,000 square feet of net leasable area requires four parking spaces and we're over
1,600, eight parking spaces are required. So it's our position, again, that none of these
properties on this trip have off-street parking. The building before the fire didn't have off-street
parking. To provide off-street parking would make the property virtually unusable. It would
really would not be a viable commercial space because the whole ground floor would have to be
parking in a drive aisle. We could not provide eight. At most, we could provide three or four.
And again, that would take up the whole ground floor. And that now we have the letter of intent
showing that we can lease space from the property directly behind us. And looking at the zoning
plans, you can see now, because we have this open area to the rear, there'll be a gate that's in the
rear, and there'll be a means to enter and get in from the rear if necessary. At this present time,
the other properties are using the area behind the Northeast Shopping Center for parking.
My client has witnessed that, has been out at the property on various different days and times of
the week, and I've witnessed people parking and going into the other businesses. But again,
And we're going to be having parking that's available for our customers to the rear or the occupants to directly to the rear, utilizing 26, 2361 to 73 Welsh Road.
We did again, we did meet with the community just real quickly.
The Northeast Community Civic Alliance.
uh we did um send out notices to the list of addresses if you look at the addresses most of
those almost all of them are commercial properties uh it does not the 250 feet did not reach any
residential properties and then you can see um the um the uh the notice and a notice of refusal
um that was for the zoning board hearing uh for today's hearing and then the october 7th
meeting with NECA. As I indicated at the beginning, I have reached out to NECA via
phone and email regarding their position. They didn't respond. I did email Councilman Driscoll,
Councilmember Driscoll's office as well. Their zoning representative, Stan Sawinski,
was unable to attend a community group meeting on the 7th and was going to defer to NECA. But
again, we haven't heard from them regarding their position in this regard.
And but for the reasons that I've stated, we feel that there is there is a hardship here and that the denial of the variance, the parking variance would result in an unnecessary hardship that my client did not create.
They're simply trying to make use of a longstanding vacant and blighted property for what is permitted in the underlying zoning district.
We feel that the dimensional variance, or there are no dimensional variances,
but we feel that the use variance is the minimum variance necessary.
We're not asking for so much net leasable area that more parking would be required with us
than would be required with any of the other properties in the Strip.
So we believe it's the least minimum variance.
The building is dimensionally compliant.
It's not going to have an adverse impact on the air and light on any of the surrounding properties.
And because we now have this arrangement with not one but two properties near behind and adjacent abutting our property and then a little bit away from our property, we feel that we'll have less of an impact on traffic and traffic congestion than any of the other properties on this trip.
And that would otherwise happen if we didn't have those arrangements.
And I have with me again Amir Hassan, the property owner, who can adopt my statements, and Russell Noller, I believe, who's here from HDO, who can adopt my statements, if they can be promoted to panelists.
Why don't you bring your client on first?
Okay, Amir, could you raise your hand, please?
Chair I see no hands
Our mayor has been promoted.
Amir has been promoted
Thank you very much
Thank you very much.
Mayor, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Our mayor is declining the promotion.
Amir, please accept the promotion of panelists.
I'm going to do Rustin Oler while we're waiting for Amir.
Why don't we bring him on?
I'm here.
Rustin Oler is there.
Yeah, I'm here.
Sir, could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer?
roston oler r-u-s-t-i-n last name o-h-l-e-r do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do would you turn your video on please yes sorry about that
sorry about that go ahead david sure um roston uh your firm uh harman dewich oler architecture
prepared the plans for this uh the submission to department of license and inspections correct
Correct.
And you also prepared the elevations and the floor plans that I've presented to the zoning board, correct?
Correct.
And did you hear the statements that I made to the board today?
And particularly the statement I made regarding the amount of net leasable area for this property and the number of parking spaces that are required as a result of that net leasable area?
Yes, I did.
And you heard the statements that I made that the other properties, the existing structures, if they were to be built today, even though one-story or two-story, because they occupy 100% of the lot, would require the same number, eight parking spaces for each of those properties?
That is correct.
And are those the statements that I made to the zoning board true and correct, to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own?
Yes, I would.
Thank you very much.
I have Rustin here
to answer any questions that board members may have
let's go to
see if we can get Amir one please
excuse me is that
Amir Elhassan
he's still declining
so I'm allowing him to speak
and asking him to unmute but he's
not doing either
David you're an oath to the court
we will take your testimony
okay thank you
questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney no questions at this time questions or comments
from the virtual audience i see no hands planning commission michael gall with the philadelphia city
planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change from the existing ca2
commercial auto-oriented zoning at this location to cmx3 commercial mixed use similar project to
this location was denied by this board in 2025 but this proposal has eliminated the residential
use due to the reconfiguration of the city plan street grid in this area the corridor is a unique
local condition and the front parking requirement would fracture the character of the homogenous
commercial corridor layout so the lack of off-street parking is appropriate to its context
therefore the city planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variance of parking
okay so all right we'll vote on both at the same time or do you want each one different each one
Thank you. So M.I. 2026 004 385 9247 rear East Roosevelt Boulevard. I vote yes.
Michael Johns. My vote is yes. Cheryl Gaston. My vote is yes.
Tana Graham. My vote is yes. Taya Nguyen. My vote is yes.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
Number 17, MI20260044069249, Rear East Roosevelt Boulevard, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Guest, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Iowyn, my vote is yes.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone in the audience who their 2 o'clock case has not been called?
I see no hands, Chair.
We're going to move on to the 3.30 list.
So good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting.
With me is our Vice Chair, Tanetta Graham.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Board Secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board members, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Iowyn.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Layla Beebe.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also, here is our attorney, Lynn Reuter-Huber, our executive.
Also, here is our attorney, Lynn Reuter-Huber, our executive director, Ian Haggerty, and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
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so let's look at our schedule for this afternoon
number one mi 2025 006 296 59 48 north camac street that case has been continued
to 3 17 27 at 3 30 p.m number two mi 20 26 003 352 17 18 north 55th street that case is continued
until 3 17 27 at 3 30 p.m are there any requests for other requests for continuances
i see no hands chair we're going to go to number three mi2026
zero zero three four four four 6780 germantown avenue um jessica garland
lynn lindell is the owner applicant this is a a pro se and staff will help yeah put it down
sure sit down oh yeah can you hear me i can just stay close to the mic if you will just pull a
little bit closer to you the mic will come right back okay first could you please state and spell
your name for the stenographer. Yes, it's Jessica, J-E-S-S-I-C-A, Gorlin, G-O-R-L-I-N, Liddell, L-I-D-D-E-L-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?