We are not impacting anyone's light or air, any adjacent property, and we're basically in harmony with what is on the street, and we're also in harmony with the zoning code because it is residential.
With that, I would ask my client to unmute himself.
It may be Josh or Solomon on the line.
It may be Josh or Solomon on the line.
Joshua Friedman?
Thank you.
He has been allowed to speak.
Mr. Friedman, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Joshua Friedman.
J-O-S-H-U-A.
Friedman, F-R-I-E-D-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Freeman, were you on the Zoom call when I made the presentation concerning your project?
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
Thank you, Mr. Freeman.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary.
No, Chair.
Thank you, Ish.
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson uh just a quick clarification um mr
clinton did you say there was there was um off-street accessory parking at the property
yes there's a curb cut on the front of the house and there's stacked parking of two to three cars
some of which were in the photographs okay um so because that wasn't included on the application
and you actually got a refusal for it, I would just recommend that that is documented maybe if
you're submitting any future zoning applications related to this property, because it doesn't
look like that parking is currently recognized by L&I. So I just recommend documenting that in
the future. Understood. And I agree. I don't know that it's documented by L&I. There is a curb cut
And the community group, if you really look at their letter closely, the president wouldn't even weigh in on the parking.
She said, you have parking. We're not going to we're not going to put that in the letter.
I saw that. I saw that. Your statement is well taken, Ms. Emerson. I appreciate it.
No problem. Thank you for the clarification.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Hello, John Lovacar from the Planning Commission. My name is spelled J-O-H-N-L-A-V-A-C-C-A-R-E.
You swear or firm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, sir.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 3 zoning on this site.
Due to the length of vacancy, any grandfathered prior use or variance would have lapsed.
There is no hardship for three dwelling units on the single-family twin block.
Therefore, PCPC staff recommends denial of this variance request.
Thank you.
Mr. Clinton, you want to respond?
I don't know if – I thought John said in the beginning it was a documented use of three families,
so I don't know why the positional planning commission is against the project.
So maybe you can give me clarification on that. But there's three gas meters, three electric meters. It's the largest house on the street. It was three family. It's been vacant for five years. And the community group would like that property occupied and restored to what it was.
Thank you. So MI 2024, 001-621-5416 Vine Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ismail Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So, number four, MI 2024-001-387-7516 Haverford Avenue.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
There is a letter of opposition from the Overbrook Park Civic Association.
25 opposed, 7 in support.
The applicant also has a petition of support signed by 43 neighbors, along with five letters of support.
Alan Nockamson has been promoted.
Good afternoon, Mr. Nockamson.
Could you just state your name for the record and spell for the stenographer?
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Could you identify your client, a relationship to this property?
Yeah, my client is Dream Property Realty, LLC, and in the virtual audience is its member, Yoha Grissom.
Yeah, my client is Dream Property Realty LLC, and then the virtual audience.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reason of the refusal or sticking it to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Hi, so we're here to present 2516 Aberford Avenue.
First, we're going to review the notice of referral. So again, first point is this is not a variance request.
This is a CMX 2 property, and thus we're seeking a special exception here.
The question that the board needs to answer is, is this use proposed by the applicant any worse off than what you would expect of an event planning facility?
That's our proposed use.
So as the board knows, there's conditional approval for this type of use in CMX2.
And, you know, it's a much lower burden than what you would expect from a variance where we would have to prove what's the hardship here.
So point one.
And that will be reviewed through our notice of referral.
Second, exhibits are correspondence from the Overbrook Park Civic Association, and we'll go through that.
My client did an extensive petition.
You know, she's from Overbrook.
She has multiple businesses in the Philadelphia region.
She's a well-known quantity.
and she has much support in this neighborhood,
including the property owner next door to us
who will be most directly impacted
by this use of an event planning facility.
Next, we'll review the maps of the area,
including the zoning map,
which confirms that this is CMX2 zoning,
which would require a special exception,
not a variance.
We're on a commercial corridor.
Then we'll review interior photos.
This is just raw space. My client just purchased this property, but just showing the interior of the property.
And then photographs of the surrounding area, our plans and drawings, simple floor plan.
This is an 1,800 square foot, one story structure.
Our RCO meeting notice, along with proof of mailing of that notice, our applications for a special exception,
our deed to the property, showing that my client's dream property realty LLC is the owner of the property,
and a Certificate of Tax Clearance.
At the conclusion of my presentation,
I would ask that Yoha virtually raise her hand,
be sworn in, and I have a few questions for her.
So again, this is a CMX-2 property.
This is a notice of referral, not a notice of refusal.
And then the question the board has to ask is,
the proposed use as an event assembly facility
in an existing structure,
is that proposed use worse
than what you would typically expect
from such type of proposals, if that makes sense.
You know, an event assembly facility, by definition,
is less than 50 individuals within essentially an event planning space.
We received this referral based on, you know, our zoning classification.
Now, we did try to present in front of the community
the Overbrook Park Civic Association.
My colleague, Alex Goldberg, made the presentation, and we tried to summarize the difference in the law between a variance and when you would expect to get a special exception.
We were told that there's no difference where there really is.
And then, you know, worse off, my client was verbally attacked by the members of the executive board, where they said, you don't know anything about business.
And we try to explain that. First of all, my client's from the neighborhood, knows a ton of people in the neighborhood, which shouldn't matter.
I mean, for the standard for a special exception, ultimately, is she a qualified business owner?
And the answer is yes. She has three other businesses in the region.
She owns a home care agency. She owns a gym and she owns a laundromat.
The reason why she's opening up this event planning facility is because she does a lot of events with her home care agency, where she was renting space at a local country club, where it was costing her all this money. So she does a ton of seminars and events, you know, for, you know, people within the facility and their families. And she thought, okay, well, instead of me paying someone to rent a space, let me get my own space.
That's the type of entrepreneur she is.
And, you know, what she's looking into is like a bingo night, birthday parties, showers, like light lifting for the event planning.
birthday parties showers like light lifting for the event planning space um but we weren't given
the opportunity during the community meaning frankly to explain the difference from a legal
standpoint between a special exception and a variance and you know again i think they were
very dismissive of yoha's relationships in neighborhoods but more importantly to her
qualifications as a small business owner which goes to the heart of this special exception
So, yes, the people in the crowd primarily voted against it, I think, because more so that they were swayed by the questions or the lack of what they thought were qualified answers based on what we were trying to say.
But with that being said, the board itself, it seems like there were some vocal members of that local board.
It still was only a three to two vote against the project.
So three people on the executive committee of this RCO voted against it while two people were not in opposition.
So that was a close vote. But again, you know, and it's all stated in here, generalities like, again, ultimately, if we meet our burden for conditional relief here or approval, then the burden then shifts to the community to show how we are worse off than what you would expect from an event planning space.
In their letter in opposition, they just have general statements about, we don't like parties in our neighborhood because they tend to get out of control, and also about Airbnbs, which is not anything related to the use that we're applying for.
And they do admit that this is on a commercial quarter.
Again, we're not trying to create a variant situation here.
This is not a residential neighborhood.
This is a commercial strip.
There's a restaurant like a couple doors down that has seedy capacity, very similar to what the capacity that we're limited to.
We're no worse off.
And then in actuality, like our use actually complements some of the use on the commercial corridor, where in terms of traffic congestion, we're working with the next door neighbor who owns the property next door to us that has a daycare facility.
We're talking and talks with them to potentially rent out parking there.
But again, a lot of the uses that are in that commercial corridor, when we're going to be using our event planning space, most of those uses are closing down.
So they complement each other instead of contradicting each other.
And then my client, you know, took it upon herself to make sure that she met as many neighbors to this property.
And as you can see, this is where we are.
You can see the people who are in support on the commercial corridor.
But then, you know, there are people who are in support of it, who are close by, who are residential occupants or occupants of the residential properties.
And as the chairman stated, I didn't count, but apparently there were 43 people who signed that petition.
And that's the petition itself.
And then my client also had other individuals who were in the community, a realtor, Stephanie Washington, who's known in the community, who spoke about knowing my client on a personal level, on a business level.
The church that she's a member of and that she's an active member of, Holy Cross Baptist Church, also stated their support.
And these are personal letters.
These are not form letters.
These are personal letters that they submitted to the ZBA.
Naya Campbell as well, attesting to knowing her as an individual over the years, as well
as the happy insurance group that my client has done business with over the years.
And in addition, Tony Allen, who has worked with my client for almost 20 years.
So again, these are not just form letters that you would typically see.
There are people who really care deeply about Yoha and feel strongly that she's a responsible business owner.
And then maps of the area. Again, we're a CMX2 property.
We're not trying to create any type of nuisance to the neighborhood or traffic congestion that you would see that's atypical to an event planning space.
And in actuality, my client is in discussions with the person next door who has a 10 space parking lot right next door about potentially leasing some spaces as part of her events.
And then this is the parking lot that's here.
This is my client's property here.
But you can see this is solidly in this area commercial.
And then you can see that there are people who are in support of it or in the outskirts of this commercial quarter.
And then interior photos, again, just wanted to show, but this property, we're not using it right now for any purpose.
We're hoping that the board will grant this special exception.
uh this uh special exception
and then photographs of the property previously this property i guess was a karate dojo
and then you can see here the orange notice uh poster uh showing proof of posting for today's
hearing um here's the rear of the property which we intend to use for as a patio i have referred
abbey to the right of the property and to the left of the property you can see this commercial
corridor here and then our plans and drawings are simple we come through a lobby we have an open
area kitchenette area no cooking on the premises we're simply like allowing people to bring their
food in there's two bathrooms in the patio area our rco meeting notice we had a meeting on april
25th at 7 p.m we emailed that notice a few weeks before the community meeting to the rco as well
as other relevant parties we did mail that notice two weeks beforehand to 96 addresses
and these are the addresses and this is the proof mailing to those addresses our application for a
special exception our deed to the property showing that my client owns the property
and then a certificate of tax clearance with that being said i'm going to unshare my screen
I'm going to ask that Johan virtually raise her hand, and then I may have a few more comments about the legal standards here.
Johan, can you please raise her?
I see.
Oh, I see her.