And she's got 4.5 stars out of 5 and 32 reviews, all stellar, explaining the clean, safe, and secure environment that she produces at these birthdays, at these luncheons, at these baby showers, and very small weddings.
So anyway, the table of contents here is we have the referral.
We have the photos of the property.
Exhibit three is the floor plan.
We have exhibit four, which is the RCO letter and the proof of mailing.
We have the zoning poster and the proof of posting.
Exhibit six is our lease.
Exhibit seven is a landlord letter of consent because it's actually a sublease.
We have a signed petition of 37 individuals from the neighborhood in support.
We have the tax clearance and then some overhead views.
Additionally, my client went to business school and created an executive summary for H Services Studios.
So it details her business plan, which is well thought out, well fleshed out, has been doing well for five years, and a financial plan that we submit today as well.
So she is by no means a fly-by-night operation, and it's for the use as special assembly and entertainment.
Of course, we went to the community group and obliged that there would be no nightclub activity, no third-party promoters, no funeral lunches,
because I think some of the folks in the neighbors that met felt that funeral lunches could actually be places where there could be problems.
So we've said no funeral lunches. We'll stick to birthdays, showers, graduations.
There'll be commercial trash pickup. There'll be security lighting and cameras on site security during each and every event, which will be required by contract and booked by the owner.
My client, Ms. Santiago.
This is I mean, if there was ever a place to have a special an event space, it's it's a strip mall.
right uh right off germantown avenue which is a massive commercial corridor there's no impacted
uh community members necessarily here so i mean it shares a strip mall the strip mall is shared
with a hair boss with a wine and spirit store uh with
with a hair boss with a wine and spirit store uh with a thrift shop so and it's a you know in a
very large parking lot by the way which here's the interior layout drawn the scale and and here's
here's a close-up of here's the build here's the strip of buildings here's germantown avenue which
you know is full of commercial uh activity right off of germantown avenue is the curb cut into the
very large parking lot. This is a vacant commercial space here, but then you've got the hair cuttery
place, the wine and spirit shop. You've got the halal restaurant in addition to the thrift store.
And then you would have on this side, this corner right here would be the event space. The event
space, of course, would be in the evening mostly, which means all of these shops, most of these
shops are closed, which would free up all this parking that could be absorbed by any of the
folks who attend the parties in this space. So it was very important to show you the proximity
not only to free off-street parking, but also the proximity to Germantown Avenue.
here is a here is it again here's germantown avenue again full of commercial space here's
the parking lot for the strip mall and this is this this is the unit behind there are no homes
facing uh the back of the property these are all very deep 30 and 40 foot deep yards uh and the
back of people's homes uh where there's a senior center right here on the corner my client's already
engaged with the folks who work there uh they're going to be donating decorations and balloons
and and get involved in the community service there as well so um yeah she's doing everything
she can to ensure that um you know that it's it's run correctly and it's run well the hours
of operation will be no later than 11 pm most of the activity will be on the weekends and um
With that, I just want to show you another aerial view so you can see.
And this is this is during the day. This isn't even a night shot.
This is during the day and there's plenty of available off street parking.
So, again, my client with four and a half star reviews at Google, 32 reviews of her five years of experience,
all submitted into evidence here in addition to the restrictions on the permit that she's
volunteered. I'd like to call her now so that she can demonstrate lastly in her testimony that
this use is A, consistent with the code. That's why a special exception is the only
bar we have to meet and that her history, her reviews and her business plan and financial
pro forma all speak to a business that will be well run, clean, safe and secure and have
no greater impact on the neighboring area than any other use like this one would be
expected to have.
And with that, Helene Santiago, please raise your virtual hand.
I'm here.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Helen G. Santiago, H-E-L-E-N-Y-I, last name S-A-N-T-I-A-G-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Santiago, did you hear my presentation to the board this evening?
Yes, I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Did you personally circulate that petition and getting 37 immediate neighbors to support this special exception?
Yes, I did.
Thank you very much.
I have nothing further, Mr. Chair.
There may be some witnesses.
They did log on earlier this afternoon.
I'm not quite sure if they're still there.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
no chair questions or comments from our attorney ryan mcsherry no mr chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience i miss i have a handout from charles richardson i've allowed them to speak
okay good afternoon mr richardson just state your name you've already been sworn good afternoon
again, Mr. Chair Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass,
Room 508 City Hall. The Councilwoman is opposed to granting the special exception. This is an
The councilwoman is opposed to granting the special exception. This is an absolutely horrible location for them to try to locate that. That is not a senior center. It's a four story, actually five story senior home. And, you know, just trying to buy them off with regard to, you know, giving them decorations and this type of thing and whatnot.
That is not a reason to grant a special exception. That's a horrible place in that location. There's all kind of gang activity that takes place right there across the street at what used to be the Sugar Shack and right at that location and within that block there on Germantown Avenue.
So, you know, really, there's no real way for her to be able to say how things are going to go because she really doesn't know.
And whatever she's presenting is from other locations and which are not not not this location.
So the councilwoman is opposed and joins with the two RCOs and opposing this special exception.
Mr. Chair, I respect, of course, Mr. Richardson's testimony.
I just need to make sure that it's crystal clear. This is not open to the public.
These are events that are booked through my client, as they are now at different sites.
And her reaching out and building community with the residential facility across the street
was by no means anything more than trying to build a relationship with her immediate neighbor.
Again, I understand that folks are concerned about other criminal activity in the area,
But the standard here is, do the Protestants provide evidence or testimony that demonstrates that this particular use would be a detriment to the community?
And there's, in fact, there is not only no evidence of that, but it's to the contrary, that she's actually going to be improving a site with the work that she does.
What other comments from the virtual audience?
I had a Tori and a Zadie Haag who were supposed to testify.
I'm not quite sure that they are on.
Do we see any other hands?
I have A. Weiss with the hand raised, Allison Weiss.
I haven't allowed them to speak.
Okay, sure.
Ms. Weiss, state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Allison Weiss, A-double-L-I-S-O-N-W-E-I-S-S.
solo germantown civic association you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes please proceed uh yes uh well you have our letter of opposition and i wanted
to add further to that um that we don't see that the property owner has a active rental license
nor do we see in this case that it's supposedly a sublease and we don't have a letter of permission
from the actual property owner that a sublease is acceptable so we don't know
as opposed to the pretzel company where they have all of these documents we don't see that
that these documents are available for this particular business to be legitimately at this location.
The other thing is we are unsure the way the referral was issued, which space is being rented.
It doesn't identify a space number.
Usually when there's a shopping center, you have space one, two, three or ABC or something indicating that it's not referring to the entire center for the referral.
So that would need to be clarified.
Thank you for calling, Ms. Weiss.
Is there anyone else?
Mr. Chair, I just want to point.
Hold on one minute.
Ms. Weiss, do you have something more?
Well, I'm bringing it back.
I'm sorry.
Do you have anything else to add?
We have not had an opportunity to look at the petition that was presented to see where these people are in relation to the proposed business.
And this letter from the Nikki group that's being displayed gives permission to the sub, to the current lesser and not the sub lesser.
It gives the permission to the tenant that supposedly Nikki group.
permission to the tenant that supposedly nikki group has and not to the halal
meet which is proposing the sublease so again there's no uh active rental uh that we could
find or on the uh atlas or eclipse that's available to us to look thank you
Could I, Vern, let me see if there's anyone else in the audience.
And then you can respond.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yeah, Pamela Bracey has been allowed to speak, sir.
Good afternoon.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, Pamela, P-A-M-E-L-A, Bracey, B as in boy, R-A-C-E-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I'm a near neighbor. I'm about one block away.
Please proceed. Are you in favor of this or against?
No, I am against this. I don't think that we can not say that the senior citizens that live next door, and they really are next door neighbors, would not be impacted by this.
There's also a sign in the parking lot that says that if you're not participating with those businesses, your car will be towed. That came up at the meeting, community meeting that we had. One of the 49ers mentioned that.
Also, if we want to talk about the violence, we've had a young man who was killed right on that wall with four other young people killed and someone else.
So we know that violence is here, but I don't think that this is a great place.
I'm not saying this young lady has not done great things elsewhere.
I just don't think that this is the place for her business.
But I wish her well.
Thank you, Ms. Bracey.
Thank you.
Do we have any more hands up?
No further, Chair. No further hands, Mr. Chair.
Vern, do you want to comment before we close the planning?
Just a couple of things. The letter that was submitted, I have to object to because it was full of misunderstandings, I'm going to chalk it up to.
The tenant, my client, is the subleasy. She rents the space from the larger tenant of both the restaurant and the empty space.
that's all documented it's submitted here we even submitted a lease to the rco so there is
no question about that not quite sure what kind of rental license they're looking for but you
don't get a residential rental license for commercial space once it's full of course
uh there needs to be you know everything in place for that and she does have to be
she will be subject to a certificate of occupancy again the parking lot is available to the 20 or
so folks or however many people who would be going to a private event at that space it's not
open to the public and the parking lot is available to folks occupying all of the stores on a strip
it's it's a strip mall off of a commercial corridor two doors from a wine and spirit shop
if there was ever a better place to have a small event space it's this space
where it will not impact or overflow from the residential community.
Again, I think based on the financial performa and the executive summary and the reviews and the 37 signatures in support,
I think we have met our burden showing that we would not impact the neighborhood any more than a typical place like this would.
But I do think that there is still zero evidence that this specific applicant, this specific appellant, would operate in a way that would be detrimental to the community.
In fact, no one can make that claim.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The adopted city comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX 2.5 commercial mixed use at this location.
The proposal will have no more impact than what can reasonably be expected.
Therefore, the Planning Commission recommends that the board grant a special exception.
So MI 2023-005-964-5101 Germantown Avenue, I vote no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
thank you counsel thank you all right number 17 mi 2024 000 310 1100 south broad street
1100 South Broad Street, Unit 303C.
unit 303 c there's a
There's a letter of opposition from the South Broad Neighborhood Association
and a letter of opposition from Council President Johnson.
The applicant has had the condo association authorize him for short-term rentals.
Hi, Mr. Nockmson. Just state your name, please.
Alan Ockmson. Right. And could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
David Milano, the owner. Okay. And our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to wait to read another refusal or circulate to his accuracy?
I do. Have you emailed them all the required documents and exhibits that is needed
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing? I did.
Thank you. Please proceed to share this from you.
Thank you.
All right. So I'm here to present.
1100 South Broad Street, Unit 303 C.
So this is a unit in the Marine Club, which is a condominium building at Broad in Washington.
So not too far off from Center City, Philadelphia, depending on your definition, Center City, Philadelphia.
It could be even deemed Center City, Philadelphia as we move further and further south.