Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is our Vice Chair, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member, Taya Nguyen. She should be coming through the door any moment.
and our board member ryan mcadams present mr chairman also present is our attorney hillary
emerson our zoning board executive director ian haggerty and our board administrator lakeisha
dandy recording in this hearing will be posted on the zba website by participating you consent
to be recorded this is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities whether remote or in person
if you're called to speak you must state and spell your name and then wait to be sworn in
once you've been sworn in please state your name each time before beginning
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remain there so we can account for you let's look at our schedule for today
number one mi 2025 003 579 918 east chelton avenue that case is continued to august 19 2026
at 9 30 a.m 3 number 3 MI 20 25 0 0 3 5 9 4 9 17 East passion Avenue that cases
continued to august 19th 2026 at 9 30 a.m number what's that oh i'm sorry i'm sorry number three
is withdrawn so that's mi 2026 2025 003 594 917 east paschenk avenue case has been withdrawn number
four mi 2025 003 596 45 56 wayne avenue that case is continued to august 19th 2026 at 9 30 a.m
number five mi 2025 003 639 843 north 42nd street that case is continued to august 19 2026 at 9 30 a.m
let's see here that was 42nd street
number six mi2025 004 782 6021 delancey street uh at the pen properties is the current owner is
At the Penn Properties is the current owner. Is anyone in the audience from that group?
anyone in the room.
No hands at this time, Chair.
Okay, so MI 2025-004-782-6021 Delancey Street. That case is continued until August 19, 2026 at 930. Mark must be heard.
And Mr. Chair, I just want to note for the record, we believe the applicant needs to retain an attorney for this matter, and we are also missing some required documents.
Thank you very much.
Next one is number 10.
Let's see.
Number 10, MI2025-006251, 4420 North 15th Street.
Cases continue to August 19th, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.
number 13
number 13 mi 2025 006 391 210 higby street this case has been withdrawn
number 16
MI 2026-001-699-109 Hilltop Road. This case has been continued to August 19th, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.
Number 17, MI 2026-001-701-109 Hilltop Road, this case is also being continued to August 19th, 2026.
And number two.
Number two.
Number two, MI 2025, 003-588-5720 Marvine Street, Valerie Crawford is the owner-applicant.
Is Valerie Crawford in the audience?
it's valerie clorford in the audience
no hands at this time chair okay so this case will be continued until
august 19 2026 at 9 30 a.m and this mark must be heard
is there any other requests for continuances
no hands at this time okay we're going to go to our add-on list number one
twenty twenty five zero zero seven one nine five six one three four rear to 46 wayne avenue
let's see here
I vote yes, appeal granted, permit extended to 4-7-27.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, appeal granted with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is appeal granted with proviso.
Tenetta Graham, my vote is appeal granted with Proviso.
I'm McAdams, my vote is appeal granted with Proviso.
Number two, MI 2025 004184, 1720 68th Avenue.
I vote yes with Proviso. Interior trash storage.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
And our Vice Chair will handle the next add-on.
Okay, thank you, Chair.
M-I-2025-006299, 1401 East Sheltonham Avenue, my vote is yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, excuse me, Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Okay, here we go.
We're going to go to our regular list.
Number seven.
Number seven.
MI 2025 0061733545 North 11th Street. Joseph console is the attorney.
They're being promoted to panel.
We do number 1.
We continue that.
Hi, Mr. console. Could you please state your name is bell for this.
Yes, Joseph console. It's last name console.
All right, Joe, you're a little hard to hear you.
could you state your name one more time joe we had a hard time hearing it
joseph console is that better you go joseph last name console c-o-n-s-o-l-e do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do would you identify
your client a relationship to the property yeah um the individual's name is kirk wechter and his
uh company is k and k acquisition holdings llc the owner of the property right and we also have a
letter of support with provisos from nicetown tioga and a letter non-opposition from council
member young our vice chair has a few questions good morning um have you submitted your documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing i have okay and do you waive the read and other
issues or stipulate to its accuracy i do i think you can share your screen and proceed with your
case all right my screen is shared uh we're before you regarding the property at 35 45 north 11th
street that's an exterior photo of of it uh this property is currently located in rsa5 residential
district we are respectfully requesting a use permit for four dwelling units
currently the city recognizes this property as a legal three unit building
however we're seeking to legalize a fourth unit that has been in existence as
as far back as at least 70 years per the records of of the city we have
overwhelming community support we submitted the RCO letter as well as a
petition with a lot of signatures regarding this the folks approval of
this property so there's no interior exterior expansion to the building we're
proposing four dwelling units and I'll go through the photos in a minute the
The first floor is two bedroom, one bath unit.
Second floor has two units, two front and two rear.
Each of those is one bedroom, one bath.
And then the third floor is a one bedroom, one bath unit.
As I mentioned, if you go through the historical data, and I anticipate the city attorney asking
me to upload this because I don't think that I did.
But if you go back in time, as far back as 1963, you have an owner requesting four-unit approval, stating that when they purchased the property in 1956, it was a four-unit property.
And then going forward in time, you have instances of it being noted as a four-unit building several times between 1963 and 2005.
So we're talking 70 years of these four units existing in this property.
so we're not cramming something in there that has not been approved um so second to that the uh
neighboring properties uh literally the property right next door is approved for four units granted
they allowed their license to lapse but this is the direct neighbor and then i was able to find
three doors down or so another again they allowed it to lapse in 2015 but i have four unit property
again these are all identical in size back to mine this is our refusal
it's photos of our posters
you'll see the interior renovations that might
You'll see the interior renovations that my client is working on now, the property is
not occupied, I'll show you all the units in a second, it's a proof of mailing, it's
our petition, and at the RCO they audited all these signatures and they were happy
with them application information form tax clearance certificate there's our
letter of support from Nicetown Tioga I'll start with unit one on the first
floor go to the top sorry for scrolling it's gonna give you all the interior
photos you can see the work that my clients doing on this property
This is unit one, it's the entryway, another photo of the entryway.
Going up to the second floor, I'll start with two rear, kind of got a blue vibe going there.
to front
and then finally unit 3
let's zoom in a little bit
give you an idea of
the kind of TLC
he's putting into this property. That's the four the four units. Here is the floor plan.
It's the first first floor layout as mentioned.
i said two bedroom but it looks like it's a bedroom in a living room my client can confirm
this might just be a single bedroom with a large living room
second floor two front two rear two one bedrooms
and then third floor one bedroom one bath
again i can go back and
focus on any of these but the the goal is to is to legalize these we have good neighborhood support
and um yeah as you can see my clients committed to creating a good product for this neighborhood
um with that i'll call them will your correct if you could raise your hand
They're being promoted to panelist.
Thank you.
Do you need my camera on?
Yeah, why don't you put your camera on, sir?
Your video.
hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure kirk wechter k-i-r-k w-a-e-c-h-t-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do counsel good morning kirk uh did you hear my testimony just
now regarding your property on north 11th i did do you adopt it as your own i do all right
regarding the provisos from the uh nice town tayoga uh do you intend to um keep the i'm not
these are not enforceable but uh they they stated keep rents affordable and uh accepting if if
necessary section 8 vouchers absolutely okay um is there anything else you'd like to add
no not really okay joe joe you see the ones that we believe are enforceable interior trash
doors no household living in a basement do you agree to those as well kirk absolutely questions
from the board questions from the board can you go back to the second floor yeah you want the plan
or the photos the plan they did not label it and kirk's here to help explain it to you they
label unit 2r and 2f on here so this is two separate units yes correct could you explain
yes correct could you explain how that how it works yep um so on the left hand side you'll see
how that how it works yep um so on the left
the stairs coming up from the first floor you would make an immediate right into the unit
to uh 2f there's a door there kitchen through the there's a kitchen marked kitchen correct
and this actually has two egresses so you'll see from the bedroom you can actually have an egress
AS WELL TO THE COMMON AREA. BUT THEN THE KITCHEN FLOWS INTO THE BEDROOM AND BATHROOM AND SO FORTH.
OKAY. I THINK I MEAN JUST GENERALLY I THINK I'LL SAY SOME OF THESE LAYOUTS ARE INTERESTING.
I WOULD REVISIT THE FIRST FLOOR FOR SURE. I THINK YOU HAVE A LOT OF INSTANCES WHERE PEOPLE ARE WALKING THROUGH A BEDROOM
to get to a common area, and I think it's what's making it a little confusing to read the plans.
And then I have a question about trash storage for the units.
Proviso says trash storage has to be inside.
It does, but there's no place to put them, so that's sort of the question.
So the basement is huge and is being built out with storage bins for each tenant.
Also, trash bins, and what we discussed in the neighborhood meeting, kind of in detail about this, is creating a storage bin in the basement for the tenant's trash, and at the appropriate time, having that trash taken out to the street.
Like a trash room.
Yeah, exactly.
Does the basement have, like, walkout access to the street, or would the tenants be expected to carry these bins up the stairs?
Yeah, there's so if you look at maybe the first floor, can we go to the, what you call
The plans.
That's first floor.
So that stairway that you see that goes up, but also goes down into the basement.
That's where it's accessible.
And it's actually wide open so that all tenants can carry their laundry downstairs and carry the trash upstairs or down.
So that's how that would work.
I get that.
I would just say just based on human behavior, for you to have four units in this building,
it is unlikely that four units worth of people are going to go down to the basement and carry the trash out to the front.
Would you be opposed to commercial trash pickup?
Actually, what we discussed and agreed on in the meeting was that I will have the building
maintenance by my people weekly, so common area, plus the trash removal. So I'm actually taking on
the trash removal myself. Okay. And then my other question is about the rear yard. Is there access
to the rear yard? By the first floor only. By the rear, by that, oh, by this one big unit. Okay.
and where is there access because I don't see a door is it the one that's
through the we're looking at the second floor now yeah you're sorry through that
bedroom in the better dog let's see the bathroom in the back I see it okay
there's only that unit has access to the rear yard okay correct yeah any other
questions yes can we take a look at the first floor again where is the bathroom
in that at the very back okay so we have there's the living room
a little small okay so you got the living room the bedroom what is this
hall kitchen and then the bathroom is way there in the back so that you gotta wander
one of my little pet peeves you got to wander through uh the property to get to uh from
uh a bedroom to get to a bathroom and i just think that that you know well and so just to
point out too there's also two means of egress in this apartment as well so if you see the entry
door you come in and to the right there's a means of entry into the living room there directly or
Or if you continue straight past the stairway, you'll see another means of egress there.
That actually brings you into a really nice kind of a foyer, you know, hang your coats, put your shoes down.
It's all tiled and nice.
And then you can just meander right into the kitchen, and then the bathroom is right there.
Yeah, that's not my issue.
my issue is that where the you to get from the bedroom to uh the bathroom you've got to wander
through that hall and kitchen and what have you and that's you know at three o'clock in the morning
and that's you know at three o'clock in the morning that's a little trip and you have the
that's a little trip and you have
same thing going on when it comes to that second floor with the two units where the um again to get
from the bedroom to the bathrooms um you got to go through the living dining area um
to me it's just a poor layout okay i'm sure if kirk had built it i didn't even look at the
third floor from the ground up he might he might have done it differently yeah yeah yeah um
questions um just one comment mr consul yes the interior photos and the his uh historical
all archived documents if you could upload those please that record yeah thank you yep i did
compile them this morning so there you go
questions or comments from the virtual audience or the audience here
no hands at this time chair planning commission thank you chair and good morning david effecto
f e c t e a u with the city planning commission you swear or affirm to tell the truth to
truth and nothing but the truth yes sir i do please proceed thank you sir uh chair and board
members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single family
zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2024 and a council requested
and community supported map change the city issued a rental license in 2025 for three dwelling units
most of the homes on the east side of the 3500 block of north 11th street have either three or
four dwelling units the city planning commission recommends to the board grant the proposed use
variance for a fourth dwelling unit mi 2025 006 173 3545 north 11th street i vote yes
wood proviso interior trash storage no household living in basement michael johns my vote is yes
with proviso. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso. Tyowin, my vote is yes with proviso. Thank you,
Council. Thank you. Number 8 MI 2025-006174-2346 North 6th Street. Myrthe Furlicker is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from APM, the RCO.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Counselor.
Members of the Board.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Did you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is ESK Properties, and that LLC is represented today by Ellis Keplani, who is on Zoom with us.
Okay. And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did.
And do you wait with a read and other issues also stipulate to their accuracy?
Yes, I do.
All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Thank you.
All right, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, as I mentioned, my client today is ESK properties, uh, represented by Ellis and Alda Capilani, and you'll forgive me.
I'm a little bit under the weather today, so you'll forgive me this morning and this afternoon.
Uh, the property before the board today is 2342 North 6th street in North Philadelphia.
the board has just by way of context heard two other cases on this exact same block and granted
identical relief given the unique circumstances so i will be brief and i can expand on any point
should the board require additional detail the exhibit packet in front of you contains
17 exhibits due to the relatively low rco meeting turnout i did also include our certificates of
mailing although given the details of this case i think you'll likely understand why no one felt
compelled to attend the rco meeting starting first with just a basic property overview
as you can see here up on your screen from the areas at exhibit six the newly constructed
building that is in front of you today sits on north sixth street and that is between west
York Street and West Dauphin Street. Next to the building, headed
and West Dauphin Street. Next to the building headed towards Dauphin Street is a religious
institution to the left. And then to the right, which you'll see in the photographs, is another
newly multifamily, newly constructed multifamily property that, again, you'll see in a moment.
The only other structures on this particular block on the north side of the street are similar
regular residential uses flipping to the east looking view on the next page and this is looking
on the other side of the street again you'll note here the dominantly residential uses or otherwise
vacant land that exists on this block from the photographs that are up on your screen at exhibit
eight you'll see again the newly constructed building that's in front of you today it is
the portion in this photograph with the white brick facade the adjoining building that was also
recently constructed with the gray bay was developed by a separate owner but was granted
identical relief uh to that which is requested before the board today uh from this front view
again you'll notice that this project was originally approved and constructed with six
dwelling units with large windows and doors at the ground floor to support the required cmx2
non-residential use on the ground floor
another view of the building from clever little drones
is shown in the next photograph and again this is looking down from overhead
head in i'm on adobe cooperate
in the next photograph this looks uh out towards dolphin street and again the board will see here
the church that occupies much of the the rest of this block headed towards dolphin street
Street and again just for some full context I did include some additional photographs just to show
you the quality of this new construction and this one is shown from the side of the building
I did also include a few other photographs of the block this one is shown looking in the opposite
direction towards York Street and again here you can see the fairly exclusive residential use of
of the existing structures.
It's really not until you reach West York Street
that the pretty much only commercial use
on this block emerges,
which coincidentally happens to be one
that is not characteristically compliant
with CMX2 mandates.
The final two views that I have in the packet here,
again, are shown on the Dauphin side of the street,
which again shows the residential character
of the opposing side of the street,
as well as the church.
and we did also include our timely uh posting evidence in the packet as well
looking at the zoning map at exhibit five you'll see that this property is zoned cmx2 however this
is a fairly unique block in that it is the only block of north sixth street with cmx2 zoning in
an otherwise sea of rm1 zoning even at that only one side of this street bears the cmx2 zoning
the crux of this case is fairly simple my client built this to be a code compliant project
fully intending to rent the ground floor commercial space as you can see it was plainly
built to support a commercial use as the photographs show here at exhibit 10 the space itself is large
with high ceilings and flipping in the other direction with large uh double sets of doors
that would support the needs of a commercial user yet as i'll show in a moment we're nearing a year
later from construction and my client is unable to locate a single commercial tenant with any
interest in occupying this space the request today is simply to convert this 950 square foot space
into a seventh residential unit which requires two variances at exhibit one
you'll see that one refusal is for failure to maintain the cmx2 required non-residential space
and the second refusal is for increasing the maximum density permitted by one extra unit.
I have a few additional pieces of information for the board that will clearly establish my
client's hardship. First, if you refer to Exhibit 7, I have a copy of the proposed plans.
I have a copy of the proposed plans let me zoom in on these on the left, you'll see the current floor plan with a 950 square foot commercial space, which was designed to have an accessible bathroom.
On the right is my client's intended design for a conversion to a residential unit with two bedrooms.
Because this project is built slab on grade with no basement, this unit will be type B accessible, joining the other ground floor unit as type B as well.
A slight modification will be made to the front to eliminate one set of doors and convert them instead to windows.
In terms of the quality of my client's construction, I did also include some photographs of the other units in this building, just so the board can get an understanding of the high quality of residential living that will be duplicated for this ground floor unit.
All six existing units in the building are currently fully occupied.
I've included sample kitchen, bathroom, living space, and bedroom space photographs.
It should go without saying, but for the avoidance of any doubt, it would be a considerable hardship to convert the entire ground floor space into one unit and thereby avoid the density refusal as the ground floor unit is already occupied and would require disrupting a perfectly happy tenant.
It would also create an entirely uncharacteristic and unmarketable unit of nearly 2,000 square feet that would be extremely awkwardly laid out, given the central staircase design here.
I will also note that the density restriction here is based in the video overlay calculations and not in the standard CMX2 calculations, which would allow that seventh unit by right.
In terms of the commercial space itself, there are two main hardships that support the board's
grant of relief. First and foremost, as I mentioned, the board has granted two other
variances on this block shown at Exhibit 12 for exactly the same relief. One was granted
immediately next door at 2346 North 6th Street, and one was granted at 2360 North 6th Street.
i did include the refusals in the packet just to establish that the nature of the relief
is identical to support that there's a clearly established hardship on this block
that just does not support that cmx2 required non-residential ground floor use
now i can't comment on the timing of these other particular requests for relief but here the timing
is even more compelling in terms of this board granting relief in my client's case they did
fully intend to build and occupy a zoning code compliant project they did not seek relief from
this board before even attempting compliance however at exhibit 14 i have showed a sampling
of the history of showings or attempted showings of the commercial space which date back to june of
2025. The showings either occurred or led nowhere, were scheduled and canceled, or simply were not
requested at all, with even the most recent showing held in January, long after we had filed
this appeal. The only tenants that expressed any interest wanted to use the space for an event
venue, which would not only have required a special exception, but the owner felt would be
quite disruptive of a use for this otherwise residential stream they did truly try but given
the nearly exclusively residential makeup of this block no one was interested in occupying the space
for any commercial purpose and my client simply cannot leave the space vacant any longer
particularly since all six existing residential units are fully occupied you can just to conclude
At Exhibit 13, you can see the business license map that I pulled from the city's website, further showing the lack of dominant commercial use on this CMX2 block, which is further evidenced by the land use map on the next page, where again you can see the sea of orange multifamily
FAMILY EXISTING USES OR YELLOW AGAIN INDICATING RESIDENTIAL USES FINALLY THE COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR
Finally, the commercial corridor map on the next page shows that this block is not on or near any of the areas more dominant commercial corridors, which sit mostly around Lehigh Avenue front or Broad Street.
map on the next page.
The lower Northwest district plan did recommend this property to be zoned RM1.
So this proposal is also fully consistent with the comprehensive plan.
As always, we submit the proposal will not increase congestion, harm neighbors' properties,
or impair light and air, and a full legal analysis is provided in the memo of law submitted to the
board at Exhibit 11. Happy to answer questions on this or any more points. At this time,
I would ask if the administrator could look for Ellis Keplani and have him unmuted.
they're being promoted to panelists thank you
good morning good morning good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Yes, my name is Ellis Kapilani. First name is E-L-I-S. Last name is Kapilani, K-A-P-L-L-A-N-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and not to give it the truth?
Counsel?
Thank you. Ellis, can you confirm that you are authorized to speak on behalf of ESK Properties, LLC?
Yes, I'm authorized.
And did you hear all the testimony and evidence that I offered in front of the board today?
Yes, I did.
Do you agree that testimony was true and accurate, and would you adopt it as if you had given it yourself?
Yes, I do.
Happy to answer any questions.
Questions from the board.
I have two questions.
Looking at the first floor plan, understanding that we're converting both of these to wheelchair accessible units,
but I was a little confused about the grade change on the first floor,
because I see that it's at grade at the front entrance,
but there's steps that look like they're getting out to the rear and wanted just more clarity
about the wheelchair accessible path for both of those and if they're going to have access to the
rear yard so let me answer one and while i'm doing that if the administrator could look for
logan dry our architect who should be on the zoom to answer the second part of that question but i
just want to address the first part it's only one space that's being converted the one that you see
the back already exists exactly okay all right but that one is also wheelchair accessible yeah
the reason i asked is because from the original plans it looked like the wheelchair accessible
entrance for the unit at the rear was through that main front door that would now service both
of the units but they have a direct access to stairs and so i was trying to figure out
will both units have an access now to the rear yard and what was going on with the great change
understood if Logan is on he should be on he can address that question and then my second question
while we're waiting for him to come you can probably answer but was the original development
done by right yes Logan yep I'm here Logan could you turn on your video please sure
Sure. Logan, could you please state your name and spell for this stenographer?
Sure. Logan Dry, L-O-G-A-N-D-R-Y.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Council?
Thank you. Logan, did you hear the board member's question relative to the stairs and the type B accessibility?
Yep. So the existing building as it was built, we were required of that back unit as a type B handicapped accessible unit.
um as far as the grade change goes it is even with the sidewalk at the front and then the rear yard
does um you know go lower so that the stairs are there um so for the back unit you know being a
type b unit that does have access to the rear yard and you're permitted to have the stairs as far as
the path to get to that unit from the street there's no stairs to get from the street through
that entrance hall to the back of that unit so that is all on one floor including the trash room
including the trash room as well. As far as the unit in the front there for commercial,
as well as far as the
you know, we've got the stairs there because they built it that way for the commercial space.
The reality is when that gets fitted out, you know, we're not probably going to remove the
stairs to the backyard, but, you know, if it's handicapped accessible, you know, we could always
potentially remove those and install a ramp, but then that sort of convolutes things a little
bit with the staircase in the back for the type b unit to access the yard so i would say at this
point you know the stairs and the door to the backyard from that front unit are just there
because they currently exist when it was built out as part of the commercial but the reality is
that front unit probably wouldn't have access to the rear yard you know again they do have access
to the common hall as well as the trash room which is all on the same level but you know the reality
is that door um you know could be converted into a window or stay as it is but you know if you're
in a wheelchair um you know i don't foresee you having access to the back there just because of
how it's built in the grade that it already exists i mean it does seem like you have a lot of space
there i would a suggestion i would would be to convert those stairs to a wheelchair ramp that
you could have a landing that hits the other unit but again that's not zoning so understood but i do
think to try to create a type a unit where the the tenants have full access to all of the amenities
on the property is just good practice other questions from the board questions from our
attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience or
the current audience here no hands at this time planning commission thank you chairman and good
morning david fecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from cmx2 commercial mixed use to
rm1 residential multi-family this neighborhood still carries its original 1933 zoning
The proposed removal of this required ground floor commercial space would be allowed by right.
The proposed fully residential building matches the character of the other buildings on this block face.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant proposed use variances.
MI 2025-006-174-2342 North 6th Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Charles Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Taya Wood, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
See you later.
Okay, number nine, MI 2025-006-177-6335 Tulip Street.
Vernon Anastasio is the attorney.
You're being promoted to panelists.
we're we're selling out there she have another one she is this afternoon right yeah
morning mr chair morning counsel could you please state your name is spelled for this
stenographer sure it's verne anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client a
relationship to the property mr raymond lee the owner of the property and our vice chair has a
few questions good morning um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance
of this hearing i have and do you waive the reading of the refusal and similar to its accuracy
all right thank you you can share your screen to proceed with the case do we have a deed hillary
I don't there is there is one I don't think it was submitted but we do have one
we can pull so that's fine make sure your mic you're a little bit closer to the mic thank you
there's also a letter of support from the Tacconi Civic Association
sorry for the slow roll sure i'm used to doing this at home so okay so i've got a 53 page exhibit
binder and the uses for the legalization of a pre-existing non-conforming two-family dwelling.
And the uses for the legalization of a pre-existing non-conforming two-family dwelling.
This property was built as a duplex, as was all the properties on this block.
And the Ticcone folks who've lived there their whole lives, they recognize that.
The letter states that this property was initially built as a duplex.
We had rental licenses going way back to 2001.
That's all on the record.
and at some point there was i think the planning commission sort of uh snafu uh and the properties
could you get that a little closer yeah sure and the properties the properties were rezoned rsa5
but the properties have always been and always from built from from the day they were built
to family dwellings uh as is the adjacent property next to it on in the property on the other side of
there's two electric meters as well and enough of them talking i'm just going to show you
what we have as you can see that's the exterior that's two doors leading in
right that's correct right then we've got the existing building here's the first floor
you can see it's a two-bedroom full bath my size laundry room open concept living and kitchen
there's the second floor it's identical layout
there's a 3d cad and here are some photos
there's the two electric meters plus the third for the common area
here's exterior where trash is stored this is the letter that was mailed to all interested parties
there are two existing leases from our tenants
And I also want to, for a point for the record, rental license number 806266, rental license
526135, rental license 420920, and rental license 261414, all are part of the city
record moving that into evidence as well that this property has had a two unit rental license
as far back as 2001. again there must have been some sort of planning commission snafu at some
point and the block has been rezoned rsa5 so we're here asking respectfully for relief
mr lee raymond lee is uh joining us virtually and i'm asking him to raise his virtual hand thank you
there be a promoted to panelists okay
properties on the whole block are all duplexes okay the way it was built
mr lee yes good morning good morning sir could you please state your name
and spell it for the stenographer.
Of course.
My name is Raymond Lee.
Raymond's R-A-Y-M-O-N-D.
Last name Lee, L-E-E.
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.
Mr. Lee, did you hear my presentation to the board today?
Yes, I did.
True and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
Thank you.
questions from our attorney Hillary Emerson um no questions I just there's a couple things I
didn't see that submitted I know you've had some technical issues so um feel free to email those
but the the CAD drawing and the lease um and if you had a printout of I know you gave the lease
the rental license numbers but if you had a if you had had a if you had submitted a printout I
don't think that came came through so I just wanted to let you know thank you resubmit thank
Thank you. Questions or comments from the virtual audience or the present audience?
No hands at this time, Chair. Thank you. Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning. David Fechter with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA-5
residential single-family zoning at this location. The City rezoned this neighborhood in 1990
in a Council-supported map change. This appears to be legalization of an existing use.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant a proposed use variance for two dwelling units.
MI-2025-006-177-6335 Tulip Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ty McAdams, my vote is yes.
Ty Wynn, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Council, number 11, MI-2025-006-256-7175 Oguns Avenue.
Could you state your name for the record?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, on behalf of tenant Christina Jettel.
Hillary, do we have what we need?
Yes, we have received all of the required documents.
Thank you.
And let's see here.
Mr. Chairman.
Hold on one minute.
No RCO letter, but notice was sent to the neighbor's proof for your mailing.
Do we have an RCO letter now?
we had just that that was one thing we just we just got we did get a letter we just received it
yeah um we don't have it yet so mr chair just for the record it was a letter of opposition
i'm sure mr anastasia will discuss that okay our vice chair has a few questions thank you
good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
i have and do you waive the reading of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy i
waive the reading. I cannot stipulate to its accuracy because there is an address issue
that although the Office of Property Assessment has, in fact, registered the condo creation and
the subsequent sale of various units, the records department has not. So we're working towards that.
I'm going to ask because I do not want the permit to have the wrong address on it. I'm going to ask
you hold that vote sure today uh please until i'm able to reconcile that with the um the reporter
yeah thank you thank you proceed with your case thank you
just give me one moment please
okay this is an application for um event space as you know this is a referral not a refusal
this is a commercially zoned property and the use that we are proposing is already
considered consistent with the code we just of course have to show that what we are planning on
doing will not be detrimental to the community in any particular way or have an impact that
a space like this would normally have or that could not be mitigated uh through reasonable
measures so as i said i'm representing christina jettel and she's going to be
testifying today here is the zoning map
it shows 2100 22 72nd avenue and 7175 ogonts being in the same site which is why we're going
to be reconciling that. And here's the floor plan. 1,800 square feet, a little kitchenette,
ADA bathrooms, a coat check. And here's the site plan.
Under separate cover, I've also submitted letters from the, oh boy, letters from the
landlord, but I will also put in, put in the record in a moment.
Excuse me for one moment, technical difficulties abound.
computer is being weird right now
I'm going to call my client to the stand
so she can testify
i could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer could you turn the mic on
there should be a little green light there see it someone now yes all right good please proceed
my name is christina jettel first name is c-h-r-i-s-t-i-n-a last name is j-e-t-t hyphen e-l
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes counsel thank you just to tell could you please tell the board your plan for this
yes council thank you just to tell could you please tell the board your plan for this space
yes so the plan is to open and operate a low capacity event space in that location
our focus is on small gatherings scheduled ones as well we're trying to operate events such as
book signings the workshops seminars pop-up shops community focus gatherings as well
i've had someone reach out with interest in hosting a non-profit she has a non-profit but
she wants to host a space a meeting or a gathering in that space for battered women
her capacity would be for example 30 people so we're trying to do low volume events not parties
not anything late night, not high volume events, just things that the community can use the space
for. And then also for other business entrepreneurs, we're also thinking about maybe
using it as a co-working space as well, but not operating in the traditional means of how
an event space will operate. We're trying to get away from that and do more community-based
and smaller gatherings. Christina, is it true that the maximum capacity of the space,
we'll have a limit of about 45 people, is that right? Yes, that's right.
Okay. And you anticipate maybe two or three events openings per week. Is that correct?
Correct. Yes.
And none will be later than nine o'clock with ending and then of course vacating fully by 10
PM. Is that correct?
That's correct.
Okay. And you have the support of your, your landlord. Is that right?
And he, he owns the residential units above your space. Is that correct?
No, he does not.
Okay. And the landlord sent a letter to you. Is that, is that the email that you received
from the landlord?
yes that is and there it says that you have exclusive right to both the parking lot associated
with this uh a piece of real estate and uh full availability of the dumpster for the trash to be
shared with the other commercial spaces on the space in the area right yes and the other commercial
spaces mr chair members of the board are a vape shop a beer distributor uh so this is certainly
an upgrade uh and so it's actually something that's a little bit more uh for the community
not necessarily being placed on the community okay um questions from the board where is the
associated parking lot in relation to the commercial space it's in the front christina
please yes so it's in the front um it's about from that photo that was up there about maybe
four spaces down um if you go yeah right there so ashley if you see where that blue um outline
is at on that first image the parking lot is yep if you yeah like keep going down a little bit more
where the cars are parked right there that's the parking lot this is the parking lot buildings
down the one the one behind the building that's correct and then how do that's only for commercial
tenants no residential tenants can park there and that's accessed off 72nd street so it would be the
i'm not sure yes parking lot in the front um about the third building down is where the parking lot
starts to um begin here yeah okay here oh right here how do you how do you get from the how do
you get from the parking lot to the the front door to your unit yeah you just walk it's a sidewalk
okay so the parking lot in the rear is not for um visitors that's not the parking lot we would
be utilizing it would be the one in the front right here okay gotcha so they park here this
is not for any of the residents this is just for the commercial space and as we all know uh you know
vape shops don't don't stay open very late i think the beer distributor might be open until about nine
or ten um and this is what the space would be they're open seven days a week six days a week
my client would have space you know two or three days a week tops her lease is for four years
to be even more reasonable she's just asking for a four-year a special exception to be sunset after
the end of the end of the lease she wouldn't want to vacate the space and have the special exception
run with it because obviously anybody could have any kind of event space that they'd like
uh that would be a little different than what she's proposing today did you say the landlord
was the same landlord for the rent for the uh uh residential units above or no no they're different
they're different oh yeah yeah yeah because it's condoed letter from the from the uh landlord of
the residence no we had a um there were no no one expressed any uh concern as far as with the
residents you know because again noise mitigation uh limited hours uh limited days of the week
would have very little impact on on the residents yeah what about the rco since the rco is in
on on the residents yeah what about the rco since our shows in opposition what happened at the rco
opposition what happened at the rco
meeting well the rco meeting was pretty much uh taken by uh there's an organization called orc
orca i think yep uh they happen to have uh you know they're an interested party because they
happen to have event space they had an event space across the street uh they have a event space five
minutes from this site so i i think they believe that this might be some sort of competition it
will not be uh you know their event space is parties um this is not what christina is planning
on doing not at all um but uh you know the landlord did make sure that we addressed every
issue with respect to parking with respect to trash uh she's committed to the noise mitigation
and as you know so long as we we do that and her and her mother are long time members of this
community um she's been a realtor in the in the neighborhood and you can speak to that christina
My mom has been a realtor in the community. She worked across the street from where this event
space would be opening up at for many years. I don't want to say how many years, but I know
she was there for many years. She also worked at the restaurant. It was a popular restaurant
called Relish Restaurant that used to be there. She worked there as well for, I believe, four or
five years as well. So she's been very used to the community. There's also an event space right
behind already that's been used with no incident, absolutely zero incident. So the space, the vision
is kind of to create a beautiful upscale boutique event space, feels elegant and welcoming. They
plan to upgrade the suite with porcelain flooring, crystal chandeliers, new ceiling tiles, other nice
touches so it becomes a real asset to the block instead of just sitting vacant. Space will be
used as she said for community meetings and workshops churches and faith-based gatherings
book signings networking events repasts milestone celebrations senior events youth workshops and
things like holiday toy drives this yeah i don't how but how do how do if we were to agree with
this i don't know how we um uh you know commit to the space being used that way and not being
used another way you know what i mean i don't think there's a proviso that we can provide them
that you can't have a party in an event space i don't know that's true i would also argue that
some repasses are parties they can be yeah yeah they certainly can but that's not what christina's
plan is i feel like like you know like again uh it's it's a modest space 45 people it's it's you
know uh and christina's she's explained her vision but yes of course especially if you go to new
orleans lots of repasses any other questions i have two more i have two more questions actually
you'll you'll have an opportunity uh i think my my first question is about deliveries because
knowing that now there's the two different parking lots how do you plan to manage deliveries drop
off because the you've got a variety of events here i'm assuming you're going to need a furniture
you know you're going to have load in and load out for event purposes and where do you intend
for that to happen so the type of events we're doing we're not really um anticipating like large
scale deliveries um we already work time by supplying tables and chairs they're staying
within the space we also have a basement as well you do have a basement okay yeah so we can store
things down there as well so anything that someone would need to use would already be within the
space that we wouldn't be having large scale deliveries dropping things off and then my second
question is related to this parking because i know you mentioned a few of the tenants are the few of
other tenants but like looking at this there's about 11 tenants that are underneath that
residential building and then you've got ogons plaza where there's some other bigger there's
like another what 11 to 15 tenants including uh pin dot center and including a wine and spirits
which i would consider have like much larger uses so are they all sharing that one lot
we all are sure you're all sharing that one dot does close i believe at four o'clock
wine and spares, I think they close at 9 or 10 o'clock, but a lot of other spaces are
vacant spaces. There's not a lot of other businesses in that lot, maybe three or four
other ones. Oh, really? Yeah. Because on Google, it looks like everyone was full.
Yeah. Not that I'm aware of that they're all full. Not that some are open. I mean,
I know some of them are available for leasing as well. So, and I know the parking lot does
hold 60 spaces. So, we were thinking like outside of the hours that we would choose
to probably have anything there it shouldn't the parking lot wouldn't be utilized as much as it
would be maybe earlier in the daytime for other businesses but also i want to i've already moved
this into evidence earlier april 3rd letter from the landlord uh it says here that the uh
he's of course supporting this use you know obviously because it's uh the endorsement
The endorsement is granted with the understanding that all applicable regulations and community interests will be respected throughout the process.
is granted with the understanding that all applicable regulations and community interests
We'll be.
The condominium documents for the reference property clearly state, quote, all units are unrestricted as to use.
There was a question as to whether this use could be consistent with the condominium documents.
Obviously, this letter provides that, you know, refutes that it in fact is with no right of approval given to the condominium board or any other tenants in the building.
So this use does not have to go before any board. This will be the final say here today.
In addition, the tenant has stated the type of events they plan to host will not be noisy or offensive to other tenants in the building.
Rather, they will be low-impact events.
Pursuant to the terms of the lease, the tenants are prohibited from producing sounds that are audible beyond the confines of the premises
and will comply at its own expense with all ordinances and laws,
all regulations of government and authorities and all sound mitigation and he's confident that
it'll be an asset and it goes on and i've moved that into evidence i just needed to make sure
that you understood we have a plan we've uh we of course there's always concerns with a new
commercial so you agreeable with like a temporary variance you were saying absolutely absolutely
temporary variance we've got the parking and the questions and the trash yes okay um when you talk
about these different events i didn't hear much about uh food services so what are we talking
about with respect to those like some of them you're talking about community meetings and things
like that then others you've been talking about maybe repast and things like that so how are we
handling that and is there other facilities in there to handle uh there's a kitchenette
kind of kitchenette yeah so there is a small kitchenette in there um that would be able to
be utilized for any prepping of food there's not a full-scale kitchen so there's no cooking
that would be allowed in the premises at all um but if they just wanted to like have food
like presented on the counter or something like that or prep a salad or something it would be
space for that um outside of that we're not supplying food it's not it's not a commercial
kitchen and there will be zero cooking on the primary at least at least there's a place where
you can clean it uh that is what's my next question yes so there's there's uh some kind
of sink and water facility so that you can bring i can bring the plan oh yes yes okay all right
thank you any other questions yeah real quick have you run to places like this before so i've been
i actually have a friend who owns an event space um so i've been talking to her i have not personally
granted, but I've been in conversation with her for the last five years. So I know like a lot of
what she's experienced, she's been able to walk me through a lot of her pitfalls and challenges
and things that she's changed. She actually was the one who initially when I had the idea who
suggested not to get into the parties because she saw that it would be better and probably a little
bit more manageable doing other type of events. So that's why I'm not trying to really get into
like the party aspect of it as much, but I haven't personally read it. And I've also was part of a
mentorship program for six months that I paid money into by some, it was ran by someone who
actually also operates events basis on a large scale. And they, during that mentorship, went
through like all the processes of how to open one, how to legally run one, a lot of the pros
and cons of how to run one and be successful with it. Okay. Questions or comments from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Could you do me a favor? Could you take a seat in the back a minute?
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, we have a hand up from a Kimberly West Brown.
No, I have two in the audience here first.
I'm going to do the audience here first.
Okay, ma'am, want to come up?
Good morning.
Make sure the mic is closed if you can, okay?
Could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Christine.
davis c-h-r-i-s-t-i-n-e right davis d-a-v-i-s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes are you a neighbor yes please proceed well the neighbors
are expressing concerns regarding one of the main issues is parking.
We have a senior citizen's center less than a block away.
The traffic is a serious issue.
Now, they say they have parking.
that parking lot that they're talking about is full okay my house
is full okay my house is right around the corner from here
you can't get a parking spot over there in that lot
the area that they're talking about it could bring a lot of negative traffic
or not a lot of negative um they start off with events they always do
We don't want, I'm trying to be nice about, but straight up, we don't want no negative foolishness in that area. The corners are already loaded. The traffic is loaded. The neighbors do not want them parking in our driveway.
and if you've been to events when they come to events they're going to park anywhere that they
want and we won't be able to get into our garages or our driveways we don't want this event center
all right and there's just no parking the senior citizens come around now when they get ready to go
to the um senior citizen zone they parked on our streets when we come home there's no parking i'm
fortunate enough to have a garage but they're gonna trust me they're gonna come in that driveway
and park all right i i we would we respectfully ask you not to allow this burn do you have any
questions just one ma'am are you aware of the event space that is right behind this site this
that yeah okay thank you all right thank you do you want to please come up
good morning good morning mr chair and good morning could you um state your name and spell
for this stenographer absolutely my name is kimberly lloyd k-i-m-b-e-r-l-y lloyd l-l-o-y-d
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor
i am a uh president of the uh community development corporation called ogans avenue
revitalization court known as orc yeah and i am also president of in ogance hall investors
which is the majority owner of the condominium association of which uh this project this unit
is a part of why don't you start your testimony absolutely so first and foremost i'd like to note
that proper notice was not given to the community nor to the condominium association
secondly the condominium association of which we are 78 percent owners and to this current landlord
orders 22% never notified us of this particular project number three the condominium document
which is a recorded document in this project was developed redeveloped as a low-income housing tax
credit project with commercial space on the first floor in 1990 and this is a recorded
document with the city of Philadelphia there are use restrictions in regards to every commercial
unit in this condominium association the restricted usage is a adult bookstore adult video store
massage parlors taverns discotheque video amusement arcades and our pawn shops so quite a bit of what
this potential tenant has indicated that they were due is a use restriction to the condominium
association the other issue is the trash as previously noted by the resident so every
tenant has to have its own medallion uh i met with the potent the tenant regarding this project
the issue was was that one there's no parking as noted this is that parking lot is occupied by
people who are going to pendot fine wine of spirits or any of the other shops that are along
that corridor from the 7100 block to um uh to the corner that sits where the gulf is
the other issue is that there's no place for them to put a trash receptacle uh we get a lot of
notices about illegal dumping and in talking with the tenants they did not know that process of
getting a receptacle for trash. The other issue is the cars. Ogons Avenue is the gateway into
Philadelphia. There is no place to park on Ogons Avenue. There's no place to park behind Ogons
Avenue. Typically, the residents are in that area. They rarely move their cars. The apartment
building that is above is mainly a senior housing project. For any type of noise that to filter up,
For any type of noise that to filter up, and this is quiet enjoyment, as according to the condominium document, is to be enjoyed by the residents.
And this is quite enjoyment as a court.
And so to have something such as that would be, again, an issue in regards to the apartment renters who are above.
And we have individuals who have been in these units for over 15 years.
The other issue is that the tenant, when they met with me, expressed that their monthly rent is $4,000.
$4,000. By the way, nothing that has come out of this witness so far is even relevant.
Say that again, the rent? Yes. It was indicated to me by the tenants
that the rent is $4,000 for this property. It's not even relevant.
I understand. The reason why it's relevant is because to meet their rental obligations
that they will not be able to make money off the uses that they're currently indicating
for this project. We appreciate Madam President's business acumen, but I think my client knows what
she's doing. Okay. Okay. In addition to that, I just want to note something that was noted by
the attorney. So ORC does not own the rental space across the street. The rental space across the
street is owned by Maine Development. Maine Development, it used to be a Ogon's Realty.
And essentially, we leave it open for anybody to come to rent it for $50. And so it has remained vacant for a number of years because there's no interest for a 1,400 square feet project.
Now, when we do use it, we use it when we have festivals on the avenue, which we had last year when we used the space.
so we are in opposition i understand of this coming into the community when we just don't
feel like that this business could absorb um that this community could absorb this business
and the level of traffic and trash that would be coming with it do you have any questions yes ma'am
does your organization operate an event space within uh five miles of this place uh we are
Another entity operates a base at Stanton, Washington, which is not an immediate area.
Mr. Chair, members of the board, as you know, this is a special exception.
There needs to be very...
Vern, do me a favor.
Why don't you wait to the end because I think there's someone online.
Mr. Chair, I just had a question, and I know Mr. Anastasio had referenced that there were some things that needed to be addressed with the records department in terms of the condo units.
Correct.
But according to the last deed for this property, the current owner is Ogon's Plaza Partners LP.
Is ORC part of that partnership?
I'm just a little bit confused about that.
ORC is not a part of that partnership.
So the entity that sold it to Ogon's Plaza in 2016 was Haynes Eastburn Stenton Court.
Right. But the majority owner of this condominium association is Ogance Hall investors.
Okay. Thank you very much.
It is also outstanding.
Okay. Is there anyone in the virtual audience?
Good morning, Chair. This is Jason Hand. I am jumping in temporarily. I have a handout from the Kimberly Brown West. I will promote them and allow them to speak.
Thank you. Thank you for your testimony.
Thank you.
They're coming back in as a panelist for them, Mr. Chair.
Hello?
Hi, good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Kimberly, K-I-M-B-E-R-L-Y, and my last name is West-Brown, W-E-S-T-hyphen-B-R-O-W-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
No, I represent the 10th Ward, RCO.
I'm the Ward Chair.
um start your testimony please so we did submit a letter um basically saying that we didn't meet
um with uh the applicant and our votes were uh 14 no's and four yeses mainly our main concern
was about parking um we did receive a letter from Mr. Anastasio today basically telling us about
um her lease uh saying that she does have access to the parking lot that was not presented to us
when we did meet with them originally um the main concern for the parking has been built up i just
the reason why i raised my hand i raised my hand earlier um when the parking situation came up
because that parking lot even though it does have 60 spaces which they stated it is
Because that parking lot, even though it does have 60 spaces, which they stated, it is a very busy parking lot and it is not a beer distributor.
It is a wine and spirit. So it is always heavily crowded with that.
It is a PennDOT. There is maybe three or four eateries over there.
The parking lot is always full. And Ogons Avenue is super busy.
So it's hard to park on Ogons Avenue. So basically just wanted to talk about the parking and the other concern that came up.
So you're you're you're against this project. Yes, we were opposed. Vern, do you have any questions?
No, just a note. The pen dot closes at four. OK. And this property is commercially gone.
Let's see. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Thank you, ma'am.
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Cleaning. Wait, Vern. Good morning. Just that I appreciate everybody's testimony, of course, and respect it.
However, their positions, their opposition has to be very specific.
we all know the law they have to have specific instances of this particular use would be
negatively impactful to the community they have not shown that we have on the other side
presented a business plan a parking plan a trash plan a landlord who has on the record said that
my client can not only you must use the dumpsters use the parking lot but the lease will be enforced
that if there's any noise there will be a violation of the lease and they would be removed
So, I believe we've met our burden for the special exception.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman.
And good morning.
David Vecto with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the CMX2 commercial mixed-use zoning at
this location.
The appellant has shown that the proposed event assembly facility will have no detrimental
impacts beyond what might reasonably be expected.
We created the event assembly facility definition to distinguish this use as having less of an impact than nightclubs or private clubs would have.
These facilities are only allowed to host private events where the general public is not permitted and are not allowed to have kitchen facilities.
A nightclub or private club would still be prohibited.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant a proposed special exception for an event assembly facility.
Okay. So as we agreed in the beginning, we will not vote today. This is closed, right, Hillary? We're closed with this?
Yeah. We are closed aside. The record is closed aside from any information regarding the condominium component of the ownership.
Address clarification.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for testifying.
number 13 number 12 um yeah 12 here we go mi 2025 006 364 1841 master street zenjin is the attorney
only coming back in as a panelist sir okay
good morning good morning counsel could you please state your name
and spell for the sonographer yes my name is zen jen z h e n last name j i n do you swear or firm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do did you identify your clients
of the relationship to the property? Yes, my clients are the owners of the property, Mr. Chin
Zhu Lam and Ms. Liu Li Zhu. Mr. Chin should be here with us today. All right, and there's a letter
of support from Beach Community Services with a few provisos. Our vice chair has a few questions
for you. Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing? Yes. And do you waive the reading of the
reviews over and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Okay, thank
you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board what was
previously submitted as exhibits. It should be coming up
now. Can the board see my exhibit? We do, sir. Thank
you good morning this is an application for a uh essentially a legalization of a two-family
dwelling at 1841 master street this application is refused because the property is located in a
rsa5 district this particular rsa5 district actually used to be a rem1 district although
this property's history seems to show that it was used at some time in the past as a daycare
as part of a single family and then it was vacant for quite some time
My clients purchased the property from a renovator who actually purchased the property from the
the my clients purchased the property from a renovator
sheriff's department in 2017. The renovations were done originally based on the REM1,
which would allow the two-family dwelling, but the person who did the renovations actually
acquired the property right as the zoning district was changed. So they purchased the property in
June of that year, and the mayor signed a bill to change the district to RSA 5 in May of that year.
They started renovations and then realized that, of course, this is not permitted as a duplex.
They finished the work. There were violations, there were vacant property licenses, and then
ultimately they downgraded their building permit to a single family in order to complete the
transformation and then ultimately sold it to my clients my clients have had the property
since about 2019 they've operated the property more or less as a single family even though they
do have two units inside so they mostly rent the upstairs units because it has more bedrooms
and they originally had a plan to have their daughter or someone themselves use the first
floor but that's mostly stayed vacant recently given the circumstances of their own daughter
not going to the temple area schools they decided they'd rather legalize the second unit
and go ahead and start renting that out without running into issues with the city now
the community supported this application primarily they wanted to make sure trash is managed we do i
will show on the plan have a internal trash storage for the upper floor and they they don't
want it rented to students or become an airbnb now an airbnb would not be possible here even with
the variants because that would be a visitor accommodations variance not a duplex use
and my client is willing to work with the community group to put something in writing
that they would not run to students that was actually something that was done privately so
those two requirements the trash management we have no problem with what the community is asking
for so this block has long lots and actually is consistent mostly on this side of multi-family
dwellings my client's property is actually sandwiched between a triplex and a quadplex
that is pre-existing and legal up and down the block we have some single family houses by zoning
but predominantly everything in the 1800 block of master street some through variances some from
prior rm1 zoning and some just are single family but predominantly they're multi-family particularly
on my client side of the street and being sandwiched between the two that is multi-family
the conversion to a duplex use really would not be inconsistent or substantially change
the impacts that the block on the block to the neighbors so the property again is is
a existing property they again they're long lots as you can see the first floor is the longest and
has access to the rear yard there is a kind of a shared port between the buildings but this is
my client's buildings rear this is the interior recently after starting the application my client
actually had the entire building vacated for the most part to wait for the zoning decision before
deciding what to do as far as tenancy that was also made clear to the community the neighbors
again met with us through the community and they are aware of the conditions on the block
of mostly multi-family so as a result after reviewing the plans and the conditions of the
area we received a non-opposition from the community with the main concern being of course
near temple university area being trash so in the uh design of the uh upper floor the
there is actually a location right after entering the second unit where they put a trash closet
for the trash to be easily be able to be pulled to the steps and down and out during trash day
the first floor unit is a single floor on the first floor for the unit with the kitchen living
area and bedrooms towards the back there is an exit to the back that is marked as part of the bed
there is an exit to the back that is marked as part of the bedroom which I know that the board
sometimes has concerns with but that is actually the existing design from the time they acquired
the property the basement is open as you saw from the photo they are there's a washer and dryer in
the basement the HVAC there there's no bathroom there's no living in the basement on the upper
floor once you enter the first floor there's actually a foyer and then the second unit entrance
is again from the foyer directly to the steps so the steps leading up leads directly into the upper
floor unit into the living area and kitchen area there is because of the design of the flooring
slight stairs stepping up from the living area and front bedroom to the rear area of the building and
again that is existing uh due to the floor layout of the building uh the upper floor
which is the third floor is ultimately just bedrooms uh closet bathrooms uh and and is uh
essentially the master uh bedroom area if we want to see it this is again when they come up once
they enter this bedroom this is all part of one uh large bedroom set up with a contained bathroom
in closet so this is essentially a master setup with the fourth bedroom smaller bedroom in the
back so again my client's looking for duplex use here a lot of the prior requests in the area has
been triplexes they have had this existing condition so they're they're willing to keep
it as a duplex and the community again with after reviewing with the trash management being in place
was willing to support us on this particular request so uh with that uh i'm happy to answer
any questions from the board and uh and i believe my client mr chen is why don't you bring your
client on sure uh mr chen can you uh raise your hand virtually to be identified
and vern i mean um zen you said on one side there's a quad and the other side is a triplex
yes and you want to put a duplex in the middle correct right okay
do you see his hand yeah they're coming back in right now okay thank you jason
hi good morning
I didn't have a picture.
Do you have a picture?
Please turn the camera. Great. Thank you.
Well, good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Do you want to say your name?
Do you want to say your name?
My last name is J-I-U-L-I-A-U-N-G.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I'm sorry.
You can't translate for him.
No, you can't translate for him.
That's because I'm just speaking Chinese from a person.
I know, I understand.
So Mr. Chen, can you, are you going to tell the truth to the board?
Can you verify you will do that?
Tell the truth.
What do you mean?
mean he can't speak english okay okay okay i didn't realize his english was so limited
please stop but hold on hold on then you've had conversations with him yes and you understand
what he said yes right so he you're an officer of the court will accept your testimony is that
okay hilary okay questions right all right thank you um questions from the board can you go back
to the floor plans on yes absolutely i only shut it off to it and second third floor and i'm gonna
zoom zoom back out slightly so it's easier to see you can so we can see the whole unit sure
this will be the second and third floor the second third floor unit is one apartment with one two
three, four bedrooms, but the bedrooms on the third floor have some of these anterooms,
I guess, that could be used for lounges or something. And then there's this small living
room and a kitchen and a bedroom in the back and the front. So there are a total of two very large
bedrooms and our suites and two normal sized bedrooms for a total of four bedrooms yes
normal-sized bedrooms for a total of four bedrooms yes oh and then and and so are you
is the goal to rent to students like what's the goal here because so yes i'm sorry verne wanting
i mean jen wanting to answer that question about the students and the conversation you had with
the group sure we the community group also uh based on the review of the plans had concerns that
we would be renting these out specifically to students particularly with the way the upper
rooms are larger my client actually agreed to specifically put in writing with the group that
it would not be rented to students they with the language barrier as well they actually don't
prefer to have turnovers that quickly with the with the tenants so they've been trying to get
mostly tenants that are willing to lease stay for a year or two uh if not longer on on the leases
so that they don't have to do turnovers i think the general issue here is that like i don't see
how this is viably rentable it's four bedrooms you can't have more than four bedrooms go to someone
that's not a family now you have to find a family that can like absorb these two sort of large
anti-rooms it's going to make the rent higher i just i think we're all struggling with the like
mechanics of this you also cannot restrict rentals to no students like that violates fair housing
rights laws so i think like we're having a hard time understanding how this is going to be viable
and meet sort of the the demands or the provisions set out by the rco even though your client agreed
to it. Yeah, I understand that. I mean, for Airbnb, that's pretty easy to regulate. So I
don't think that's the problem. I do understand the board's concern with regard to finding
particular renters for the area. My client's using representatives from realtors, essentially,
to try to find tenants. They are, again, they do have some contacts with other people in the
community, Asian community that may be interested in renting. So as far as I know, based on my
conversation with my client, they've been renting the properties for a while. So they're pretty
comfortable with finding someone for the space because they've managed to do it in the past.
Okay, other questions?
not question but the same issue i i it looks more like um these are like like students like suites
if you will not uh a forbid room uh duplex arrangement um well i i do understand that i i
also um want to point out again i think this my client kind of inherited these plans um and the
layout uh they they didn't do any renovations they bought the property so the prior the the again the
the reo that did the purchase from the sheriff department then did the renovations may have
very well had originally planned to just simply have this as student housing um my client purchased
the property and then they they have been just renting it you know in the ways that they can
based on what they have available with the single rental license so again they they asked for a
duplex because quite honestly they do not um have the finances or the desire to do further renovation
to make a triplex out of the property uh so that's they were hoping to keep the existing conditions
and just legalize the use
so they can get the proper rental license
and rent it out, both units.
All right.
Questions from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions from the virtual audience?
No hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning.
David Vecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members,
the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the rsa5 residential single family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood
in 2017 in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan this property appears to have
been converted to a duplex without the benefit of permits through no fault of the current owners
the proposed use matches the character of the other homes on this block face the city planning
commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variance for two dwelling units
Thank you.
Zen, I'm going to take this to next week.
On Wednesday, I'm going to really sit in the executive session and try to figure out where we are with this.
all right thank you all right thank you very much for your presentation
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
all right number 14
All right.
mi 2025 007 102 1838 north van pelt street alan knockamson is the attorney
good morning good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer alan knockamson a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
and the relationship to the property yeah my client is the owner of the property van pelt
properties LLC in the virtual audience is its member Covey Kennedy as well as
his architect Justin Coleman and we have a letter of non-opposition from
strawberry mansion community concern our vice-chair has a few questions good
morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in
advance of this hearing yes we have and do you waive that we know the refusals
to stipulate to their accuracy? I do. Okay, I think you can proceed with your case.
All right, so I'm here to present 1838 North Bend Pelt Street.
You know, I have 12 exhibits here. As I stated, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Coleman are in the virtual
audience and i'll have mr kennedy uh you know introduce himself be sworn in and i have a few
questions for him uh we have a notice of refusal here for an rsa 5 property originally we're
seeking four dwelling units which would be out of character for this part of the neighborhood
really every property here is three dwelling units so you know after further conversation
with my client i indicated to him it would be in his best interest to follow like what the rest of
neighborhood has in terms of three dwelling units so we have revised plans which reduce the amount
of uh dwelling units to three we have two other variances one for occupied area and one for rear
yard setback as the chairman stated the community has no issue with those two variances plus they
appreciated the fact that we went down from four units to three units out of our own like volition
We did that prior to the community meeting, but we made additional changes as well.
So we do have a correspondence from Strawberry Mansion Community Concern.
One of the requests was a non-zoning request to change the color of the siding on the side of the property that matches the red brick.
They did have concerns about having the kitchen in the basement.
we are more than happy to switch it so that the kitchen is in this on the for the first floor
unit and the lower level is one unit to have the kitchen on the on the first floor um unfortunately
given the short time frame to have you know from the time we had the community meeting oh it says
i'm muted uh from there oh okay use the microphone yeah okay i was like i've never seen that come up
so i apologize for that yeah that's okay all right um but yeah given the short time frame we
didn't have chance to change the floor plans but we have no objection to obviously switch the floor
plans it makes more sense too um and my client acknowledges that um the only other issue the
only other so they wanted to switch the basement uh use uh we'll have kitchen on the first floor
living room uh a bedroom and then the lower level you know we just wanted to open floor plan
You know, again, this day and age from experience, a lot of people like work from home and that extra lower level area is good for, you know, an office area, maybe like a little secondary living area of some sort.
So we would like to keep that.
The only other request by the Strawberry Mansion Community Concern Organization was the exterior will be constructed in accordance with the revised improved design, not the original side siding concept.
AND THAT WE JUST CHANGED THE COLOR OF DECIDING. SO WE HAVE NO OBJECTION TO KEEPING THAT THAT WAY,
TOO. SO THERE WERE THREE PEOPLE ON THE BOARD OF THE SHORBURY MANCHIN COMMUNITY CONCERN THAT
VOTED IN NON-OPPOSITION. I DO WANT TO SAY THAT THERE WAS ONE COMMUNITY MEMBER THERE WHO ALSO
VOTED, I BELIEVE, EITHER IN SUPPORT OR IN NON-OPPOSITION FOR WHATEVER REASON THEIR VOTE
WAS NOT ACKNOWLEDGED HERE. I'M NOT SURE WHY. HERE ARE REVISED PLANS WHICH, AGAIN,
speak to the reduced unit count and also to clean up the site plan in some respects.
And then, you know, I want to give you examples of three family dwellings on that block, 1812, 1843, 1816. There's others on other blocks, but I also have in my notes that there are eight other instances of triplexes on that block.
And then, you know, I want to give you examples of three family dwellings.
there are actually 36 vacant lots on that block as well so again i think to have this development
would enhance the block and be consistent with the character of the block as well here's our
aerial view which shows where we are on the block but also shows a lot of the
vacant properties on that 1800 block of north van pelt street
So, while we are RSA 5 property, there are many RSA 5 properties on that block, which are multifamily in nature. In addition, you can see there is some mixed zoning as you go to left here with RM1, so not out of character.
photographs of the property so this is a vacant lot this is a hearing notice poster showing proof
of posting for today's hearing this property has been a vacant lot for some time we went
to google street view and it shows as far back as august of 2011 this is northbound pell street to
the right of property and a particular note you can see there's this is a neighborhood that has
three-story structures, flat brick facades, lentils, pronounced cornice lines, and having
some type of pronounced stone structure added to the brick as well in the front. You'll see that
we mimic that architecture in our design as well. North Van Pell Street to the left of the property,
so similarly pronounced cornice line, lentils, flat brick facades. The window structure is very
similar to the window structure you would expect from a traditional philadelphia row home
and again a pronounced lower level this is where we intend to store the meters under the staircase
and you know just a rendering from a different angle is oh this is just to show that we did
change deciding to mimic the color of the brick that we intend to have as a front facade so and
And you can see how we seamlessly are within the architectural detail and feel of that
block as well.
And then you can just see in terms of our, let's see.
We are four and a half feet out of the ground from the first floor.
and we are four feet out of the ground
and we're five and a half feet downward.
So that's nine and a half feet.
So if you count a little bit of ceiling,
we'll probably have eight, eight and a half foot ceilings
in the lower level.
And then these are our floor plans.
So, oh, sorry.
What is going on?
let's see all right these are our floor plans uh this one making that too big so just thinking
about it um we again the unit number one we're going to have to change up a little bit given
the fact that we had our bedroom uh bedrooms upstairs we intend to change it a little bit
more so to make sure that we have a kitchen, a dining room, and a one-bedroom upstairs.
But this is a common vestibule area where, you know, we'll have, like, again...
So the two bedrooms go?
Probably two bedrooms would have to go.
That's right.
That's right.
So what you would probably have here is that these would be replaced by a kitchen area,
a dining room area, and a living room area.
And then this is the lower level.
obviously we would take out all of this and just have it as an open floor plan our washer and dryer
is down here and we would like to keep like a half bath down there just for people who you know
don't want to have to go up and down the steps when you know say their their office is down there
or it turns into like a flex space with a living room maybe a little guest room with a fold-out
couch or something like that unit number two you go up a flight of steps and you can see there is
a living room and then a kitchen and they have two bedrooms up here with one bathroom
and then the same thing mimicked on the third floor one of the things we did not put in here
was a roof deck again respecting the character of strawberry mansion and and and their preference
not to have roof decks as well um overlay is there an overlay there too right i'm not a hundred no
not that far i i don't think so so but we we you know we present in front of all the strawberry
i i don't think so so but we we you know we present in front of all the strawberry mansion
Manchu groups and we
groups and we understand what their wants and needs are so we try to anticipate you know that
there's also uh trash closets in both of the units here here's just an example for unit three and
then the trash is stored in the rear for unit number one um again we met with the community
on i think march 30th uh and again not very well attended meeting but you know we had you know
notified 133 addresses i think one of the reasons why it wasn't well attended is because all these
vacant lots nearby so but we did have one community representatives there and three members of the
coordinating rco and proof of mailing of that notice or application for appeal that we followed
on behalf of van pelt properties llc excuse me as well as a notice refusal the project information
form the deed to the property showing that van pelt properties llc is the owner of the property
and then finally the certificate of tax clearance i would ask that um
mr kennedy virtually raise his hand and be sworn in
he's being promoted to panelists thank you
hello this is colby kennedy hi good morning could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer yes this is colby kennedy c-o-l-b-y last name kennedy k-e-n-n-e-d-y
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but truth yes counsel uh yes uh
colby you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning matter yes is it true and
correct yes and do you adopt this your own testimony yes specifically with regards to the
revised plans you agreed to reduce the unit count to three units yes I do all
right thank you questions from the board so just to be clear only the first
floor unit is going to have access to the basement and the backyard that is
correct so this so this first floor unit goes from a three-bedroom apartment to
a one-bedroom luxury apartment is that what i'm understanding yeah i mean it's how i see it is
there's you know just because of the how the the property is designed and where the staircase is
you can't put a second uh bedroom on that first floor and then as far as the lower level you know
we just want an ability for someone to use the lower well the washer and dryer is down there
But we also want someone to use that lower level as a flex space.
Yeah, I'm trying to understand, I guess, because we always hear hardship, financial hardship.
So I'm trying to understand how one bedroom with a full finished basement is becomes profitable in that on that block right now.
I'm just I don't see how that's financially feasible.
But that that's, you know, Kobe is a licensed realtor who's very well experienced in the field of real estate management, as well as financing.
You know, he feels that even limiting the unit count to three, having two two bedrooms and one rather large one bedroom makes financial sense.
And again, it's not out of character, too, because I have been in front of this board quite recently.
within the past year we had two instances under similar circumstances on the 1800 block of north
van pelt street where we have three you know triplexes under similar circumstances yeah i
understand the triplex i just can't understand how it makes financial sense to have this luxury
one bedroom unit and what's that rent going to be for that unit and if you can actually market it
So I think it's not quite viable from a from a business standpoint, but that's my only concern.
I think another question I have is I didn't see a washer and dryer in any of the upper units. So initially, I assumed everybody had access to the basement. So where are the unit 2 and 3?
Where are they doing their laundry?
All right, Colby, if you can maybe help me while I'm looking through the drawings.
Yeah, each department has their own washer and dryer in it.
Yeah, let me take a look.
By the kitchen.
all right um i went through it quickly so maybe i just yeah i'm having problems like let me just
All right.
I went through it quickly, so maybe I just.
Yeah, I'm having problems.
get through the drawing let me just going through my uh presentation materials trying to find
i think secondarily then what's the trash plan also uh so like the two things that i
maybe because we went really quickly and i was focused on a different part of the house when you
were on the plans uh both didn't necessarily see vintage trash rooms or the washer dryer so i just
wanted to be yeah there's an area specifically for for trash i pointed out on unit number three i
said quickly i said oh the trash area and i said it's also there for unit number two i didn't go
back up there but they're they're mirror images the unit three and unit two um but let me find
the washer and dryer i did not point that out um let's just see all right let's see oh here it is
let me just i'm just going to show unit two they're the same but it's all in this little
closet area right here here's the washer and dryer
are you you're sharing i don't see anything it's not oh that's me that's me sorry i was like i see
it um hold on hillary do you have any comments while we're waiting not at this time thank you
it's right here
in unit 2 and unit 3
sorry my throat is killing me today
I have a question
how are they going to access the washer
just based on that like you've got an air
handler in there you've got the trash sitting
right in front of like is the idea that you're going to move the
trash can every time you have to do
laundry
when I just looked at it
it's a very bizarre setup that i that why is that why you is that why you turned it off real quick
no i didn't he's quick on that way it's quick and then he won't be able to get back on
what's going on no no honestly i missed it when i looked at it
i'll be honest you guys don't usually ask about the washer and dryer so like i know
well i usually focus on the things like you know in terms of how far are we out of the ground and
and stuff like that i i do cover that pretty well i i well because i know that question's
going to be there but i i honestly there was no ill intent here's us like i think you got
cleaned some of the plan stuff that's right i i think so i think it's a it's a architect that's
new to philadelphia there's many of those and yeah so anyway but we'll uh we'll definitely
clean that up all right any other questions for mr knockamson
you got your partner giggling in the back too i'm just telling it right now you mean or or
soon to be new if it's right i mean he's he's been with you a long time now i mean well it's
a co-op lost law clerk but he'll be doing questions from the virtual audience chair
we have a hand up from strawberry mansion community concern okay
Good morning.
Good morning.
We share.
can you hear me i can now could you okay i was muted i'm sorry hi my name is bonita cummings
uh b-o-n-i-t-a cummings c-u-m-m-i-n-g-s all right uh sharae mansion community concern
okay all right hold on do you swear or affirm the tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
about the truth i do um please proceed hi i just um wanted to comment um as you know we held the
meeting um the community is of course not responsible for all of the nti uh you know
uh demolition that has taken place and created these conditions um but the process of trying to
be accountable to the community as it relates to these units are going up as new builds not as
apartment buildings so it was brought to us as four units and we said we would you know we weren't
as four units and we said we would,
we weren't trying to support four units because these are really just houses.
trying to
The footprint of them were pretty much single-family units.
But we just wanted to make sure that,
of course, we're not opposing,
but we wanted clearly on the record that no basement kitchen,
no basement living space and no way for this to turn into additional units later.
And the reason that's important is because you end up with four units anyway, if you're not careful in how these provisos are recorded to the record.
And also, it's a lot of moving parts here.
There's no real, you know, the changes are not on those records.
So I don't know, should they be changed first?
uh what is l and i working from in terms of these actual drawings these architectural drawings say
one thing it's said one thing here and then it's the drawing say something else i just wanted to
be clear about that thank you thank you very much for calling we appreciate is there anyone else in
the audience no hands at this time chair or any commission chair i'm sorry a hand just went up
from a justin coleman okay yeah justin's our architect um oh we're fine we're fine we're fine
planning commission thank you chair and good morning david fecto with the city planning
commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
RSA 5 residential single-family zoning at this location. The city rezoned this neighborhood in
2014 in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan. This block face contains
a mix of single-family and multifamily dwelling units. The City Planning Commission recommends
the board grant a proposed use and dimensional variances. Thank you. Hillary, does the revised
plans cover the change in the basement well so the the give me one second the well the revised plans
are a site plan but they do have the section that shows the different units on the side
oh yeah it does oh well you may have to clean it yeah it's better to take that app because if you
need to make changes to the floor plans in the process you're not locked in i didn't realize
that yeah you want to have those changes made then we'll vote next week is that right or or
can we just vote and then obviously eliminate those floor it's inappropriate to have floor
plans on them right whatever section he didn't just take it up i assume the exterior changes that
um miss cummings was referring to were reflected on the plan i i saw changes but i wasn't sure
what exactly the only thing we changed was the color deciding okay that which is not a zoning
related thing but we promised obviously that right right so okay and then there was a little cut like
a a light wall that was all the way down right they may have been on the original i mean no no
not on it it was on the newest newer ones the the newer ones had the light well all the way down and
that yeah that was the other change that i noted so can i request that can request can i request
the hold okay yeah that's what you said why don't we just hold it i'll i'll provide an updated yeah
you know uh site plan just get rid of the floor floors on there and hillary can we put somewhere
on there too just a half a half bathroom in the basement i mean that would i don't know if we can
enforce that but that's more of a building code issue no i'm just saying like so that you can't
you're not going to build a whole apartment right no i understand from miss cummings you know
perspective like if we built a fourth unit we would have to come back here all right okay all
right all right so we're going to have something by next week yeah yeah we'll vote on this next
week okay okay and so and just to be clear the record is closed except for the revised revised
plans thank you yeah okay okay thank you thank you number 15 mi 2026 00315 2501 wharton street
david orphanetes is the attorney um
you know we haven't had more than three people with all the rcob
They're being promoted to panel.
You can't share.
Yes, Mr.
Orkhanides.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer? Certainly. My name is David Orphanides. Last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Right. Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes. My client is Sean Ellis and Sean Ellis Elites LLC. And Sean should be on with us this morning.
there's a letter of support from the grace very coalition of neighbors and our chair our vice
chair has a few questions good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days
in advance of this hearing I did and do you waive the read and other refusals and stipulate to their
accuracy I do okay thank you you can share your screen proceed with your keys sure and I just
wanted to make sure i they um the gfcn sent an updated uh letter of support uh just this morning
um it's not very different from the one the original one they had submitted the original
letter reference to support and that would we would be entering into a cba and the updated
letter indicates that we my client and um the community had entered into a cba so um and i do
have that uh right here that letter right here um the updated letter with uh with our with our
package so just wanted to make clear so um the the property in question is 2501 wharton street um i
will show you uh an aerial image uh 2501 let me get rid of this here okay and you can see here
of my exhibit b1 nereal uh 2501 and i've outlined the property uh it's an extremely large
irregularly shaped lot on south 25th street it's bordered by uh the south 25th street to the east
this is below washington avenue oakford street to the north wharton street to the south and south 26
street to the west so it takes up large part almost all of the of the block um the my client
has leased building or unit Q, which I've shown here outlined in green. The property is outlined
clouded in red. Outlined in green is the unit that my client has rented. That unit, as you can
see from the cover, fronts on Oakford Street. There's a man door, a person door, and then a
large garage door. This unit, I included zoning archives for the property. This unit has been
used in the past as woodworking for woodworking purposes which is general industrial it's been
used for warehousing and accessory business offices it was vacant for a little bit of time
when my client came along and entered into the lease for the space last july sean ellis who
i will introduce a little bit is a former phillies draft pick pitcher for the phillies
played in the majors for quite some time in the minors and has started a baseball training
facility and this will be his first permanent home other than one he has one has had one up
in Kensington a smaller location this will be a full-sized facility to accommodate the large
number of kids in in the city that come to sean and his staff for training and i'll provide you
a little more information on that the issue is is that he and then he and his wife entered nicole
who they run the business together entered into the lease for this property last july uh went to
submit for a co we're told you need a zoning permit submitted for his earning zoning permit and
And nobody had mentioned, they've never done this before.
Nobody told them that they needed a variance because the property is owned I-2 and I-2
does not allow personal services as a matter of rate.
So they've been subjected to the lease or party to the lease on the hook for the lease
since July.
It's been a little tough to keep things going since then.
um sean's been making do using other facilities um field house on spring garden street spst to
the just to the south here um and we're grateful that we finally uh have made it here to uh the
zoning board today um and as indicated uh again the property is zoned i2 uh i2 does not allow um
personal services as a matter of right um as as a training facility um we've also included in our
application and you can see it on the notice of refusal at tab d1 uh dated 12 12 2025 which i
hope is a notice of refusal that you have um there was an earlier one issue that i had to have
corrected um but we added in addition to the personal services for the baseball training
we added the retail sales of wearing apparel and accessories you know swag t-shirts
um and accessories um you know swag um t-shirts hats sweatshirts things of that nature uh possibly
some uh other types of uh of clothing related to their uh their operations and then also the retail
sales of food beverage and groceries um and that's mostly like snacks and sports drinks and water and
things of that nature um it's nothing that they're they plan to have at the present time but we don't
want to have to come back for that as those two uses also require variance. I bring that up in
part because going back to the letter from GFCN, which was designated as the coordinating RCO
by the Planning Commission and Council President Johnson's office, is that one of the things that
came out of our meeting, and I don't know how we would do this in terms of, I think the board can
do this as a proviso, but they asked that the retail sales have to be accessory or incidental
to the personal services. They don't want them to be a principal use. As applied, they were not
indicated to be accessory or incidental. And so I think the same rules apply to accessory uses in
terms of uses. You can't have a permitted use and an accessory use that's not permit as a matter of
right to be permitted by right. You would have to still go for a variance for the accessory use. So
I believe this modification is one that the zoning board can be by proviso. But that is one that we
didn't have a problem with. It was always anticipated to be that way. It wasn't worded that
way but we don't have an issue with that so i would ask the board to consider that
um again looking at the aerial um you have the viaduct that extends above south 25th street to
the east of us this neighborhood was at one time very industrial with housing located around
industrial properties and uses to house a lot of the workers that the neighborhood like many of
these industrial neighborhoods have evolved very much so in recent years, particularly in the
north of Washington Avenue, and then just south of Washington Avenue, which this property is
located just a couple blocks of south of Washington. So if we go to the zoning map,
you can see that not only is our property zoning classified I2, and let me just go here to the
background. And here's our property with building queue outline. You can see the property on the
northwest corner of Oakford and South 25th is also zoning classified I-2. That's important to know.
I believe Mr. Fecto will indicate that on the 2035 plan, I believe that property is flagged to be
converted to ICA change to ICMX or IRMX, but he can speak to that. It's really hard to see on the
2035 plan because south 25th street is the dividing line so it's hard to see when the maps change as
to see what the plan is for the properties i believe our property is still slated to remain
i2 probably because it's such a large property you can see ca1 to the south of us you can see
icmx to the east of us to the northeast of us i2 um and then across the street south um south 26
on the west side of South 26. You have CMX2, RM1, and then you have RM1 across the street from us
on both Oakford Street on the north side and on the south side of Wharton Street.
And I bring this up. First of all, the property on the northwest corner, which is 2501 Oakford,
that was granted variances very recently by the zoning board. Those variances included a number,
a very large number of uses not permitted in I2, including 54 residential units, but also
personal services and retail sales of food, beverages, and groceries. It did not include
a variance for the retail sale of wearing apparel and accessories. I also bring that up because the
CA1 property that's located across from us on the south side of Wharton Street, on the 2500 block of
Wharton Street, allows all three of the uses that we've proposed here as a matter of rate,
as do the ICMX properties that are located across the South 25th Street on the east side.
David, why don't we, could we concentrate on this building and tell us what you want to do
and maybe show us what it looks like?
I mean, I think we see the area, we understand what you're saying, but why don't we zero in here?
Sure. So inside of the property, you can see it's a large space per the lease. It's 5,890 square feet. The floor plans, the dimensions show that as well. So you have a larger open space at the ground floor, and then you have an elevated space at the one end of the floor.
And then you have an elevated space at the one end of the unit where there's an office.
And I can show you here the floor plans.
And you can show all the ground floor.
You come in.
There's a lobby area.
There's a changing area.
There's bathrooms.
They're probably going to have showers.
There's a place for trash storage.
And then the office is above the first floor.
Right.
Going back to the photos here.
And again, my clients had started moving forward with, they purchased custom material, started installing it, believing none of these things required a building permit related to the CO.
And then they found out that they needed a variant.
So they stopped all of this, but they had already ordered the materials.
And here you can see the view from the office above.
As mentioned, the notice of refusal has those three particular uses that we applied for.
And I did reference the different zoning codes regarding the I2, ICMX, IRMX, and then the commercial classification of C2.
I also include the parking.
You can see from the exterior photos that I have up here that, and you can see it from the aerials as well,
in the middle, there's a large parking area here.
And you can see here the photos from the ground floor level or from the grade.
You can see the parking area.
My client does have access to that parking.
There are a number of spaces that were specifically designated in this lease.
And we believe that we'll have access to it as well during the evening hours and on business hours.
I do include photographs of the surrounding blocks at Exhibit B2.
Granted, these pictures were taken during a snowstorm.
but you will see from these photos that at least on the Wharton Street side, the South 25th Street
side, there is generally parking on both sides of the street. Oakford sometimes can be a little
more parked up, but you can see here there are openings on the block. So there is available
on-street parking. There's available off-street parking. There's a lot of public transportation
located nearby, both on 25th Street, on Washington Avenue, some of the cross streets located nearby.
So we believe that in terms of the criteria for the granting of the variance, that this proposed use will not cause congestion or increase traffic congestion in the streets.
We do believe that because of the change in the neighborhood, that there is a hardship for the property to get a lot of I2 uses that don't aggravate the community.
There was during the community group meeting mentioned that some of the uses at the property, like repair of automobiles, had caused some issues in the community.
And again, these uses that we're proposing not only are in keeping with the variances that have recently been granted by the zoning board across the street, but also variances that have been granted by not this particular zoning board, but past zoning boards for this particular property.
And David, what are the hours of the day?
and so i'm going to bring sean on to talk about that how do we do that sure yeah sean it's generally
after school until the early evening on the week and the weekends sean can you raise your hand or
if he's been identified they're being promoted to panelists thank you
all right i think i'm in good morning sean how are you hey good morning guys how are you doing
could you please state your name and and spell it for the sonographer yeah sean ellis s-h-a-u-n
e-l-l-i-s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Counsel?
Sean, can you please explain your position with Sean Ellis Elites, LLC?
Yeah, so I'm the owner.
I handle all of the baseball side with the tournament teams, private training, as well as our holiday camps and 40 summer camps.
And you run the business along with your wife, Nicole, is that correct?
Yes, yes.
So Nicole handles all of the back end stuff as well as the more general operations.
So I do the on field, she does the off field.
So it's a it's a great, you know, mixture of both.
OK. And the chairman asked a question regarding the days and hours of operation.
Can you please explain that to the to the zoning board?
Yeah. So during the school year, we are mostly 3 to 8 p.m.
And then on the weekend, we're more of like the, you know, 9 to 2 p.m.
Same thing in summer.
So we have our after school hours during the week.
And then we have more of like a modified weekend as well as summer hours, which.
And then we have more of like our modified weekend as well as summer hours, which roughly go between 9 and 2 p.m.
And roughly how many children, what are the ages of the children that you provide training for?
So we go as young as five and all the way up through college.
Okay. And about how many children and kids, young adults, do you presently have as clients?
So we have about 1,500 clients that we currently train, and then I want to say roughly 600 of them are from the 191-46 zip code.
And so that's a large number.
It sounds like you're providing a great service to the kids in Philadelphia and their families.
At any particular time, how many kids and staff will you have at the property?
Let's say for private lessons, clinics, the teams, which seem to be the kind of three different categories that your clients fall into or uses of the property.
Yeah. So I handle most of the one on one training, any type of camp or specialized clinic.
We do go five players per one coach. And then for our tournament teams, some of the age groups have two coaches.
some of the age group have four just depending on you know the identity the need and you know
the structure just based around practices okay um and um um do you and where do you where does
where do your teams play we're all over um so we'll go i think let's concentrate on this building
here okay that's not a problem i know he's other places but no that's fine no no i mean
he uses a nearby field in addition so um so and sean how and do um when you have the lessons when
you have the the clinics there do the people usually parks come and park or do they typically
drop the kids off and then leave yeah yeah since a lot of them are from the area um you know
realistically our goal is that they can bike or jog to to the space but uh for the most part they
are dropped off at our facilities okay and and sean you heard the other statements that i made
to the board today were they true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes and um would you
adopt them as your own yes okay um and and just as that if there aren't any i'll let i'll let the
board ask any other questions but i just want to say there's a tax clearance included at tab g
uh posting photographs at tab i and then we did meet with again the community um on february 24th
the certificate of mailing and the notices included at tab j um it was a hybrid meeting
there are people that came in via zoom and also i believe per the letter about 20 people attended in
person okay questions from the board so what is this about the food and so again a lot of times
can you can you let me finish yeah so again i mean like a gym she's letter is what are you
no i'm sorry i thought you were done my question okay um according to the uh uh letter of support
there was a concern about retail sales of food beverage and groceries at the premises as a
primary use so what what what was that about and what are the concerns about this retail sales of
food beverages and groceries as part of this facility so I think Mika outlaws on from GFCN
but essentially there was concern that it could become like a like a corner store could become
like a vape shop something along those lines because a lot of the vape shops put themselves
out there is retail sales of groceries, food, beverages, and groceries. And that obviously
was never the intention. So the intention is like a gym. You can get smoothies, you can get a drink,
you can get a snack, things of that nature for the people that are there training and availing
themselves of the services. So we didn't have an issue making that change to making an accessory
because obviously we don't have any intention to operate a grocery store or a full food store.
It's just going to be accessory to the gym.
And that means what kind of foods are we talking about?
Is this like just vending machine kind of things?
I mean, if you go to the gym, you go to the counter and you can buy sports drinks.
Sometimes they're machines that you put coins in, you know, money in to have or use a credit card.
Sometimes they have, you can get smoothies, they can have milkshakes.
Sometimes they'll have things behind the counter,
like protein bars that maybe you can't sell in a vending machine.
There won't be any cooking, that's for certain.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
um hillary how do we um should we get to the point when we vote on this how are we going to handle
Hillary, how do we, should we get to the point when we...
the uh proviso that grace ferry do we do we want to put that how do we want to do that yes so we
can we can certainly do a proviso indicating that the retail sales of food beverages and groceries
is accessory to the other proposed uses within building queue so accessory
To other uses anything else over.
No, it would just retail sales of food, beverages and groceries use is accessory to other approved uses within building retail accessory to other uses.
Okay, questions or comments from the virtual audience.
Yes, sure. This is Jason hand. We'll be stepping in right now.
I have a hand up from Dominic long. I will promote them.
hello can you hear me good morning could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer yes dominic long d-o-m-i-n-i-c l-o-n-g do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do mr long are you a neighbor
No, I am speaking on behalf of the Second District Office of Council President Leada Johnson.
Please proceed, sir.
So we are just here to testify in support of this project.
Thank you very much for taking the time to close.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the I-2 medium industrial zoning in this location.
This portion of the neighborhood still carries its original 1933 zoning.
The proposed retail sales of wearing apparel and food and beverages are substantially similar to other uses already operating on the site.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant a proposed use variance for retail sales.
Thank you.
MI 2026-000315-2501 Wharton Street. I vote yes with proviso. Section Q only and retail accessory to other uses.
Michael Johns. Michael Johns' my vote is yes.
No, no, no. So the way that I worded it, I'll put that as the language in the proviso where that particular,
where retail sales of food, beverages, and grocery use
is accessory to other approved uses in Building Q.
Retail, food, and beverages
are accessory to other uses.
Right, other approved uses.
So the proviso is retail sales, food, and beverages
are accessory to other uses.
Right, yes.
Thank you.
uh michael johnson my vote is yes with proviso and we need more programs like this sounds great
that's awesome thanks cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes
with proviso ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso tyah wood my vote is yes with proviso
thank you thank you is there anyone in the audience whose uh 9 30 case has not been called
you get hot i have a hand up from our maker outlaw i will promote them to speak sure
she's here for the last case she's with gfcn
your case yeah yeah she's she's with the she's with the coordinating rco okay
good afternoon
are you still available i'm here can you hear me yeah good morning could you please state your
name and spell for this stenographer mika outlaw m-e-e-k-a outlaw o-u-t-l-a-w do you swear or
firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes mika we've already
voted and we voted in favor of this is that okay
yes thank you thank you never that's all right
thank you very much mika we appreciate you taking the time to calls we really
do is there anyone in the audience whose
case has not been called i do not see any further answers to
everybody two o'clock thank you you too sir
Oh, that's not bad, we're good.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman. I will be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our board vice chair, Tynetta Graham.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Board secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Board member, Michael Johns.
President, Mr. Chairman.
board member tayo winn president mr chairman board member ryan mcadams president mr chairman also
here is our attorney hillary emerson our executive zoning board director aane hagerty and our board
administrator lakeisha dandy recording of the hearing will be posted on the cba website by
participating you consent to be recorded this is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities
whether remote or in person if you're called to speak you must state and spell your name
then wait to be sworn in once you've been sworn in please state your name each time before beginning
your testimony any person may enter their appearance you can identify the case property
address on your zoom webinar you can see a staff member or you can call the zba appearance line
by the close of business tomorrow call 267-270-5548 leave a message that includes your
email address and the address of the property of the appeal the following guidance is for our remote
attendees when directed you must raise your virtual hand in order to be recognized to speak
if you're called to testify you'll be prompted to join as a panelist please accept the request
and turn on your camera the webinar q a is for questions about the hearing do not comment on
cases in the q a and if you're participating by phone press star 90 raise your hand and star
6 to unmute for in-person attendees please refrain from talking eating drinking during the hearings
verbal and physical aggression will not be tolerated restrooms are across from the elevator
a water fountain is just outside the room to the right when speaking on the record you must speak
directly into the microphone in order to be heard all attendees and the court reporter in the event
of an emergency please follow the directions given over the public address system or by the staff
The main exit is through the double doors at the rear of the room.
The nearest stairwell is to the left outside the doors.
In case of an evacuation, the rally point is Love Park directly across Art Street.
Please remain near so we can account for you.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one.
Number two on the list.
4010 Old York Road, which is MI-2025-007241.
That case is continued till July 15th, 2026 at 2 p.m.
And number eight, 1509 North 29th Street, MI-2025-007358.
That case is scheduled till July 15th, 2026 at 2 p.m.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. This is Jason Handel will be your calls for the session.
I do not see any hands raised.
Thank you. So let's go to our add-on list. MI 2025 007 186 3615 Spring Garden Street.
The vote in this matter has been continued to Wednesday, April 15th at 2 p.m.
And number two, MI-2025-006-253-230 North 53rd Street, I vote no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Maya McAdams, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ty Owen, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Okay, so we're going to go to our list here.
We're going to start with number five.
Let's see if I can get it out here.
MI 2025 007 319 2031 East Stella Street.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
good afternoon mr chairman members of the board good afternoon mr clinton could you please state
your name and spell for the stenographer sure henry clinton h-e-n-r-y clinton c-l-i-n-t-o-n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could
you identify your client in relationship to this property sure my client is bedri b-e-d-r-i
alara a-l-l-a-r-a-j and he's on the call and we have a recommendation of support from somerset
neighbors for better living a non-opposition from council member squiller our our vice chair
has a few questions for you. Good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five
days in advance of this hearing? We have accepted the proof of payment of taxes came in yesterday.
Okay and do you waive the rate and other resources to relate to its accuracy?
I do Ms. Graham. Okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Is that visible, Mr. Chairman?
It is, sir.
All right. Good afternoon again, everyone.
I'm here on behalf of Mr. Aladra, and he is on the call.
This is a request for a two-family dwelling on a block that has multiple two-family and multifamily dwellings.
It also has a contractor's garage, as well as roll-top steel gates for other garages.
And in the zoning records, it indicates back in the 40s, it was a four-dwelling home, and then it morphed into a two-family, but it's been vacant for the last three years.
This is a table of contents containing exhibits A1 through A10, and I also have zoning records and aerial photographs identifying the various properties that are multifamily on the block.
refusal is pretty straightforward rsa 5 zoning district and we're requesting a two-family
household living within an existing structure this is not new construction it's a renovation
this is a letter the chairman referenced from the somerset neighbors for better living
a letter of support photographs of the block here's the subject property here 2031
and I've given you indications of where the multifamily are on the block 2023.
Two, family 2015 is four, 2013 is four, 2001 at the end of the block is two.
And across the street, we have two duplexes, the garages that I mentioned,
as well as Paul and Sons Concrete Contractor's Garage,
which is a pretty deep building and occupies 100% of the lot.
And then we have two family dwellings directly across the street.
Existing property, three stories.
You can see it's three stories, and then it steps down toward the rear of the property.
To the right is the property.
We're looking down the street.
To the right, this is the contractor's property, both top gates with other garages.
I have better or closer pictures as we follow.
Two found me at the end of the block.
This is the Paul and Sons Concrete Contractors facility, back of the property.
You can see it extends pretty far back and steps down.
This is the inside.
There is some walls constructed, but construction has stopped basically to support what's in there.
zoning notices
plans here's the the site plan it's pretty deep lot uh we do have and i'll blow this up an
indication there's going to be rear steps installed at the rear of the property for
access from the basement new wall mounted handrail new concrete steps and landing for basement access
floor plans i'll work from the basement up it's basically one dwelling unit will be in the basement
the first floor the other dwelling unit will be on the second and third floor
come into the front of the home you'd walk down into the basement if you want to get access to
the basement wider area in the front of the basement laundry room full bath bedroom is
the rear with access to the rear yard we also have an egress well on the side of the property
first floor living dining excuse me living kitchen and dining the bathroom and the bedroom in the
rear we have access to work to the rear yard on the side of the property that you can get to the
back of the property move up moving to the second floor living kitchen you have a trash closet
it's ventilated to the outside, a bathroom, one bedroom in the rear, then continue up
Then continue up to the third floor, which, as I showed in the photographs, is not as deep as the other floors.
to the third floor, which as I showed in the photographs is not as deep.
We have two bedrooms, which share one bath.
So it's basically, as I said, basement, first floor, two bedrooms, second floor, third floor, three bedrooms.
application for appeal the remaining documents is what you would see in a
typical presentation here's a printout from the Philadelphia Tax Center
indicating that all taxes are paid there's a slight balance in favor of my
client zoning map it is an RSA 5 zoning district despite the vast amount of
multiple dwelling units on the block. The deed indicating my client purchased the property in
2023. Notice letters sent to everyone within 250 feet of the subject property. Sent out 147 pieces
of mail. These are all the addresses. And now these are the zoning records. These reflect
what I had in the table of contents, all the multifamily on the block. So I'll walk
through these this is 2001 active rental license for two units 2004 two units active 2006 two units
active 2013 four dwelling units active 2015 1967 this is a garage across the street from the
property. 2018 to 20, rental for five units. Although I will point out it's inactive, but it
still indicates five units. 2023, this is a duplex. And 2029, excuse me. Yeah, this is four dwelling
units, 2029. And then I found another record. It says 2029 is one unit.
And this is the subject property. It's an ancient record. This is 1942. It was two-family, and then they changed it to four-family. That's the only record I could find with regard to that property.
so that's the end of the presentation we basically have a situation where we're asking
for an existing property to be uh guess go back to what it was once was there's no meters in the
basement that i could give get photographs of to show you today but there are other multi-family
on the block we're not impacting the light and air of any adjacent property it's in conformance
with the code in the sense that it's residential, albeit not single family, and we have the
support of the community to have this property rehabilitated.
So, Bedry, if you're on the call, can you unmute yourself, Mr. Chairman, if that's what
you want me to do now?
Yes, please, Bedry.
Bedry, can you please unmute yourself?
I know he's in a vehicle where he was in a vehicle when I talked to him before the call.
Do we see a hand anywhere?
Bedry, can you please unmute yourself?
Mr. Clinton, you're an officer of the court.
We'll proceed with your testimony, okay?
I appreciate that, Mr. Johnson.
questions from the board
what's the what's the your depth below uh grade for your basement level
uh let me go back to the elevation
i don't know the answer to that mr john that would only be guessing
Other questions. Can you go back to your plan for one second? Sure.
How are you handling trash? Are there trash rooms? I don't see trash rooms. How are you handling trash?
Yeah, so on the first floor, we have access to the rear yard for trash.
And then on the second floor, we have this trash area ventilated to the outside wall in the alleyway.
Other questions?
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson. Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission. Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission, AYBOID. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the current RSA 5 residential single family.
the property has a documented history of multi-family the planning commission
recommends that the board grant their requested variance for multi-family
mi2025-007-319-2031 east stella street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
hi owen my vote is yes thank you mr chairman that was the board um number six mi 2025 007
327 1601 washington avenue t dash a dash four two six eight three sean wellness the attorney
good afternoon
So, Mr. well, could you please state your name is spelled for the.
Sean Whalen, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do before we start.
In case this becomes protracted a little bit longer than.
That we would like we're going to give this a 45 minute.
deadline okay because as you look behind you there's a lot of people waiting for their cases
so and then we'll wind up with a resumptive hearing okay um could you identify your client
relationship to the property did we do that uh did not okay and sean whalen from whalen law
group here on behalf of the owner 1601 washington avenue fso llc
I swore sworn in, yeah.
That swear you hadn't, didn't I?
I believe so, but I'll have to get sworn in again.
No, I know you would, right?
And, you know, we have letters of support and letters of opposition, right?
I'll leave it at that.
There's several different letters.
Our Vice Chair has a few questions for you.
Hi, good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we did.
Okay, and do you waive the reed and other issues or stipulate to that accuracy?
Yes, we will.
all right thank you because pretty what the case thank you very much all right so my client uh or
if i bush should be he's either on okay actually he's actually in the lobby coming up so he'll be
here in just a second um i don't have to go that fast i don't think we need him for a little while
right but hopefully not but he is paying attention okay all right let's see
so you should be able to see my screen now we don't and what you're seeing just so you guys
give you some context this may feel a little bit like deja vu a little bit you're feeling you're
seeing now i'm seeing it what was previously approved five months ago just to be very clear
this was previously approved this is done over the zoning permits uh taken care of what we're
now talking about is just a little sliver of this prior property and again sort of just to give you
context here's 16th street and carpenter street again this is showing the changes kind of everything
in red where the extensive changes that took place to the major building through the you know
extensive community process that we went through this lower building right here are the townhomes
that we're talking about today so again just to give you an idea this is actually it on the bottom
right here this is 16th street carpenter street would be going across this image
this is to show the townhomes this section right here on the right
So again, this whole project, including that these townhomes were presented at the all of the original community meetings back six, seven months ago.
They were presented as part of this project, although everyone was advised and knew that this would be different.
So what you're seeing today actually involves, there was a separate meeting just specific to these townhomes in January, but what you're seeing today and what I'll describe are countless revisions to these homes that took place through the community process and with the immediate neighbors on Chadwick Street.
the immediate neighbors on Chadwick Street. So what you see here is the SOSNA letter and they
So what you see here.
break it down. The SOSNA committee was 7-0 in favor and the community at large was 21-0 in favor.
So we had 28 votes with zero in opposition. I did just receive today, although I think it was just
a snafu with my old email and my new email addresses uh the letter of non-support from
NOAC right and what you can see here they also break down the votes uh there were two members
of the zoning of the NOAC zoning committee who voted in opposition but there was no one who
appeared in at the public meeting in opposition so again just to give some context what we're
looking at here is the large this is the very large square parcel here at the corner of 16th
and washington and specifically what we're dealing with now you can see this is looking south from
an aerial view on the right hand side hopefully you can see my cursor these are the existing
homes on Chadwick that front onto Chadwick Street there's an existing three-foot alleyway in the
rear of these homes in between our property the former Waubin marketplace so what we're talking
about now is essentially just about 40 feet of this first area right here again this is
i2 zoning heavy industrial this is it's going to sound a little bit like a broken record
up and down washington avenue i2 industrials no there's been a sea change to washington avenue
unfortunately commercial heavy industrial uses are simply not not only are they not viable there
because of various aspects of trucking and you have the expert reports in front of you
But also with regard to, Council President Johnson has put an overlay in this area that prevents even most of the permitted I-2 uses.
So there are extremely few uses that would even be permitted under, by right, under the I-2 category if they weren't grandfathered in from a prior use.
Again, I'll show you only at this point.
I have all the photos of the rest of the property, but the only relevant portion.
This is a carpenter right here that I'm standing on.
This is the Wahbin marketplace that will be fully demolished on the left-hand side.
We did receive a refusal here.
There was some discrepancy about the number of trees.
However, we are putting in as many trees as physically allowed.
It was just a difference in the calculation between the two properties with the Planning Commission.
um and uh specifically again this this is the wwa overlay district that i just referenced
non-accessory parking is not allowed as we presented back in 2025 this there are 39 parking
spaces underground that will be part of physically under these 10 townhomes that we're presenting
today some of those parking spaces are all going for the townhomes that they have off street parking
The remainder of the parking, about half and half, will be for the use of the previously approved building, its retail tenants, and its existing residential tenants.
So that's where we get the non-accessory parking.
These aren't rented out spaces.
Therefore, this building, this was all being developed as a single unit.
and then again the main issue we have which we're all familiar with
multi-family household living is prohibited in the i2 industrial zoning district
so again to make clear this is chadwick street right here with the large trees on it
these are the existing homes on chadwick street many if not most of the homes which i'll show you
a minute actually have close to if not fully 100 lot coverage so they do not have existing rear
yards again there is an existing in paper three foot alleyway in between the rear of these yards
and our property and what you're seeing here this black line that i've installed
that is how far back from the alleyway that we're going to set back these houses so you can see
the dramatically improved condition of the chadwick homes which right now have you know that
fully built hob in uh i'll show an image of it in just a minute existing marketplace there
uh i'll show an image of it in just a minute existing marketplace there right up against the
back of their homes with no rear yards we are setting back not only do we have the three foot
alleyway we're setting back our homes another 12 feet so even more than the required nine foot
rear yard that normal home would be required this is part of the negotiation with the community last
year we're setting them back an additional three feet so you're seeing a
12-foot setback in addition to the three-foot alleyway what I'm showing
here is actually the same line of what would happen if you put all of the
Chadwick homes and had them have by right setbacks and what you can see is
just from the overlay image that you can see in atlas most of the homes violate that setback
and have again either 100 lot coverage or something close to there so here are the zoning plans
again the easiest thing that you can see we have 10 townhomes that we're setting up
they will be fronting onto the interior courtyard
um stopped one short of that so i'll go back here these are the images that were presented to cdr
and were presented to this board back in the fall again everything in green basically is
the previously approved building you see this very large courtyard that we had a
a lot of discussion about and then in here in blue are the 10 townhomes that are going in
And, again, all of the parking and access will occur from the same single ingress and egress point on South 16th Street.
And so there will be no additional curb cuts.
Again, we're going from, you know, essentially a dozen curb cuts here to a single curb cut at this property.
And then there will be additional parking.
I'll show you on the next page.
So here's the ramp down.
and then these are all the parking spaces that are now being added to this project
again that were presented previously but they weren't technically part of the prior application
because they're under this portion of the property so the property that you see is essentially this
rectangle in black with the dividing wall in between them
And again, here's these are the front of the this is just a rendering of the front of the 10 townhomes facing into the approved courtyard.
And then here's this White House is existing on Chadwick, and then you have the back of the existing homes, and this is shown just to see how far back we're setting these homes.
you will ask the
home is going to be
the four it is going to be 43 feet to the utmost floor however again the right hand side is the
courtyard the left hand side is the rear yard to Chadwick the fourth floor
there is no pilot house or anything additional above this the fourth floor
is being set back an additional 10 feet from the rear again doesn't need to be
but that was part of the negotiations with the community and those immediate
neighbors on Chadwick to try to you know not only are we setting it back we're
trying to set back the fourth floor even more to prevent any real loss of light
and air into their homes so again what you see here on the right hand side in that rendering
is that uh white house that i just showed you on chadwick this is the existing i'm standing right
at the on the sidewalk right at the beginning of that three foot alleyway and what you can see is
all of these homes are going right up to it and the the former hua bin marketplace was essentially
just a 20 foot brick wall cinder block wall right there at the edge um again the this set of photos
is just looking both south and north from the wa bin uh marketplace to show the existing condition
of where these homes are and you know the existing height of the homes i know there was some going
to be some discussion about these homes are you know shorter homes you know there are a number
shorter homes you know there are a number of larger homes here as well and so again
of larger homes here.
this is a 14 850 square foot lot fully supported and we believe meets all of the requirements for
a hardship or not only a hardship but for a variance in that sorry
There we go. I'll just stay there in that first and foremost, as the board knows, a C chain, essentially the way the courts say it, a C change in the uses and the surrounding uses to a single property or a neighborhood can constitute a hardship in and of itself.
here there's ample evidence and my client can testify further to you know the inability to
use this property really in any manner commensurate with i2 zoning district i walked through and here
it is again the wwa overlay district not only is are the i2 uses not viable you can't build to
those uses you know truckers can't get off the freeway into the freeway things of that nature
But then the overlay district that is in place takes away virtually all of the uses that might even be possible on Washington Avenue.
So I know there is some dispute back and forth going, you know, over the last 10, 12 years that I've been doing this on Washington Avenue.
And unfortunately, there's just no way to put new industrial uses.
The industrial uses that are there are only the longstanding ones.
And what you see here really is, as part of the least minimum variance requirement standard, we have single-family homes.
And what are these doing?
These are specifically designed to act as a buffer between the new mixed-use heavy-intensity buildings that are going up and the existing low-intensity single-family uses.
Now, here it happens to be Chadwick Street.
this has previously been done by my client to great success both at 2101 washington the top
former chocolate factory and 2201 washington where you know there's there's very large
redevelopment happening along washington avenue but then in an understanding with the immediate
neighbors who live there and have lived there they get a buffer of new townhomes so they're dealing
with and fronting new townhomes and not large um uh large heavy intense buildings with all the
trucking and everything else that would happen for those deliveries and things like that in the rear
here we've already went through this build this large building won't have any of those issues
there's no uh there is one loading zone at the request of sasna at the large building but that
is really just for uh move in and move out and uh you know the daily deliveries that will happen to
the individual residents not the um not the commercial uses um so again going through
all the sea change of uses here uh and inability to build um you know i've already addressed the
least minimum variance we get to any potential detriment to the health safety and welfare
this is the third prong under the marshall test for a variance there's really no hardship here
because there could be this is an i2 use that we could have a 60-foot building with extremely
intense noise and um you know smell and noxious odor uses right here at the backs of these
existing single-family houses instead of trying to do that instead of trying to force some kind
of industrial use out of place into that location we're instead taking what the law recognizes as
the least intense use under the under ending zoning code in pennsylvania a single family house
and putting single family houses back to mere single family houses while at the same time
giving up a significant portion of land that we could otherwise build on thereby increasing our
own profitability and here decreasing our own profitability by setting back to be even more
commensurate to what a real neighborhood would act like in the rear of these homes so we see no
detriment to the health safety or welfare this is quite obviously the least minimum variance
and for the multiple to multitude of reasons i've already set forth we have a distinct
hardship at this property so with that i would call my client sure well you can sit over there
could you please state your name
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
I'm sorry. I cannot hear.
I'm so sorry. There's a faint green light. Now there's a bright one.
Ori Fibush, O-R-I, F as in Frank, E-I-B-U-S-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Yes, thank you. Mr. Fibush, you're here on behalf of the owner and
developer of this project? I am. Did you hear all the testimony that I presented already today?
Yeah, I was zoomed in up until walking in the door here, so I heard all of it. And do you believe
it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief? With one
small correction, the existing building is 26 feet and not 20, but otherwise, yes. The existing
Wah Bin building? That's correct. Okay. And would you adopt that testimony as your own with your one
correction i would thank you very much and uh could you please just for the board explain to
them the you know as you attempt to rent out and develop along washington avenue here the ability
to put in industrial uses in in this i2 district sure uh did not state the obvious for a moment
but that this is an industrially zoned property an area with an overlay prohibiting uh every
industrial use that would be marketable for a quarter like this. But we've leased now to 20
different businesses over the last 14 years, our involvement along Washington Avenue. None of them
would be considered traditional industrial. The last five, for example, Bagel & Co., a yoga studio,
Planet Fitness, an Aldi, a CVS, much more pedestrian scale transitional types of uses that very much complement the residential neighborhoods, but don't in any way reflect turn of the century Philadelphia, which is obviously the I2 designation that sort of prevails here.
There have been none, no industrial applications or uses along Washington Avenue in the 20 years that I've been involved over there.
And I can't think of any industrial use that opened the last 40 years just from knowing when businesses would have opened there.
And I very much believe that the businesses that we have been bringing have been hugely beneficial and complementary to the neighborhood.
And I've had no negative externalities and just they're packed.
if you walk into Aldi or CVS they're mobbed they're serving a huge need there and obviously
this is a small part of a larger development but very excited to have this piece really continue
to support that continued growth and the providing of dignity and opportunity to to residents that
just have lived in both food deserts and opportunity deserts for many many years
Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Questions from the board, but I have one quick question. So how tall are the proposed townhomes in relation to the homes, the addition existing townhomes in the rear of it?
So the I apologize I intended I still talked about the height and didn't actually about that. Yeah. And then I got tangentially I apologize. Um, so the rear height to the 3rd floor is 32 feet, 9 inches and it is 43 feet to the 4th floor.
But that's only on the courtyard side. The rest of that height is set back 10 feet from the Chadwick homes. So they would not see any of that. Um.
Do you answer the question of the height of the Chadwick homes?
Sure. It's a mix of two and three-story homes, predominantly two-story.
And so just from experience, I would suggest those are anywhere from 22 to 38 feet, with the bulk being in the lower 20s.
Other questions?
so this is about this parking for the most part is that what we're well that town home but also
about the parking so this parking is going to be for the 10 units you said or is this going to also
serve the other part of the development no and i apologize if i didn't if i neglected to mention
that each house will have dedicated parking so there are 39 spaces going in under what is the
townhome property they will have ingress and egress access as will all of the other parking access
for the larger building to those 39 parking spaces the each individual home will have dedicated
parking in those locations the remainder that is of those spots that are not dedicated to the homes
will be incorporated into the larger building as additional excess parking and that's why we
received the non-accessory parking. So we received a refusal for it because you know again about half the
So we received a refusal for it because you know again about half the parking spaces will be accessory to the existing homes, so those are allowed by right.
The other half of the of the parking spaces are considered non accessory because they're not for the use of the single family homes.
They're for the use of the larger building and these are underground.
Is that what you said all of them? Yes, I apologize to cut you off there for a second.
Yes, they are all, they are entirely underground. There is no surface parking here now, which is the majority of the lot as it exists today.
All right. Thank you.
One more. Could you explain the tree issue again? Because that's a refusal. Why don't you talk about the tree issue? Because I think what we see here is 23 are called for, and they're saying you only have 12. So why don't you talk about the tree issue?
Certainly. Go ahead.
Sure. Sure. Did you mind pulling up the. Oh, yeah.
I know how to zoom in. I just don't know how to zoom out.
So that's particularly indicative here, but we have proposed to place trees as frequently as we possibly can all along the call it the buffer between
the townhomes that we're proposing as well as the rear of Chadwick. Similarly, if we go to the
south here closer to Washington on the previously approved parcel, there is a continued rhythm of
street trees as well there. So we're fitting as many as we possibly can on this idea. Just out
of curiosity, what do you think that is? Because I'm trying to get at the number. They're saying
it's only 12 that you that that feels generally correct roughly one behind each home is in the
ballpark so that that generally computes to to what i would expect with respect to the canopy
and whatnot here okay so so 12 and their zoning was 23. when you say zoning you mean the the
required uh yeah they said required am i right hillary yeah just yes sir i don't know mechanically
where they would physically fit but but yes okay all right other questions
and you can actually see them up here the the rhythm is almost exactly one tree per right
questions or comments from our attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments
from the the audience here yes mr chair first i have a handle from medical and
chacumba i promoted them i'll be back in shortly sure
anyone in the audience here by the way okay thank you
hello hi how are you how are you doing could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
My name is Madeline Shacumba, S like in Sam, H-I-K-O-M like in Mary, B like in Boyd, A.
All right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth?
Madeline, can you turn your video on, or?
I have my, oh.
Yeah, oh, okay.
Yeah, there you go.
There you go.
See my beautiful face?
I agree.
I totally agree.
why don't you start your testimony? Okay. Marston Avenue has the capability of one of
being the city's strongest employment cities. Replacing industrial zoning with market-rate
housing will destroy this potential, displace long-term residents, and result in a loss to
provide affordability in housing in the area. Housing alone does not bring sustainable long-term
good paying employment or jobs the developer has not demonstrated to me or to anybody else
how any hardship that he shows that we need 10 townhouses these townhouses are behind Chadwick
Chadwick is a street with only two-story housing that's all it is now you're bringing in four
stories in this with these townhouses and that's not fair to those people there are many people who
live there who are long-term residents who don't have uh their retirees uh and they are being
impacted upon by these four these few now right now long-term residences that they have in four
stories okay. Just recently Sazna who approved this here thing for them went and fought a
A grief is at 2400 Washington Avenue on the basis that the developer has not proved or demonstrated a sufficient hardship.
grief at 2400 Washington Avenue on the basis that the bill had not approved or demonstrated.
Yet, stocks have supported this development over 1601.
We do not feel that the hardship here is presented is truly a hardship.
The construction of additional market rate housing threatens to further erode industrial code,
displacing long-term residents and undermining neighborhood economic foundation.
We oppose the changing of I2 to RMX.
We oppose the building of these 10 storey houses is being built at the lot lines where
the developers threatened to build an end story, 80 foot building by right.
This is why he moved the lot right.
We ask that you do not approve this.
And also as far as the trees are concerned, we do need trees.
We need them for the climate, let alone anything else.
And we ask that these houses not be built.
this is enough on washington avenue as it is we request that uh the people begin in some breathing
room and that that 10 and 12 feet is not breathing room okay and the 10 houses he is not showing why
we have to give him 10 of these houses which um pack against uh chadwick that only has two story
houses okay madeline thank you very much for calling and i appreciate your input uh counselor
you have any questions for madeline uh i do not all right thank you how many hands do you have
up now in the audience virtual audience there are four hands go to the next go go to the next hand
please all right i got steve strutti okay they were promoted all right thank you
hello hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
hi my name is steve strutti uh that is s-t-r-a-t-o-t-i do you swear or affirm to tell
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you are you a neighbor i am i'm a neighbor on
chadwick street please proceed uh good afternoon i'm a resident of chadwick street directly adjacent
to the western boundary of this property i want to bring two specific facts to the board's attention
regarding the plan submitted for this application okay um the lawyer mentioned a sliver of land
that this is on well there is a five foot wide strip of land on the southern end of this parcel
created by the november 2024 lot subdivision and you can see it behind me right here
it runs directly behind my our homes on chadwick street that strip does not appear anywhere on the
architectural drawings submitted for this application it's been omitted entirely the
board is being asked to approve the plans that do not account for a portion of this lot
and the second thing is that the august 2025 plans submitted in connection with this with
partial b the plans this community reviewed and voted on did show landscaping for that strip
there were giant green evergreens and wogellia shrubs that were proposed there
so there is precedent within this very project for planting in that location so when this
submission was raised with the developer during the rco meeting they acknowledged that the strip
may be too narrow for the originally proposed trees but they also said that they were not
opposed to adding trees that they could fit a certified arborist present at the rco zoning
review confirmed that they can fit eastern red cedar and american holly are both columnar
evergreen species appropriate for a five width space five foot wide space
planted at 15 foot intervals so this application has already documented a deficiency of 11 trees
under section 14 5705 subsection one that strip is exactly where those trees should go
i'm not here to oppose this project i'm just asking the board to condition its approval on
the planting of columnar evergreen trees in that southern strip trees that fit trees that were
always intended to be there and trees that will provide year-long screening for our homes
thank you very much for calling it counselor do you have any questions
I do not know all right next hand please
yes chair I have Brianna Wakefield I have promoted them they'll be back in shortly okay
good afternoon everyone hi good afternoon could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer of course my name is Brianna Wakefield B-R-I-O-N-N-A last name Wakefield
W-A-K-E-F-I-E-L-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Yes, I work for Council President Kenyatta Johnson.
I'm just here to say that we are in support of this project, so as long as the developer honors his promise to plant as many trees as possible in the area.
developer honors his promise to plant as many trees as possible in the area okay
Okay, thank you very much.
thank you very much for taking the time to call thank you okay mr. chair next
hand is from murray spenter i will promote them all right all right
murray spenter please unmute okay i could hi could you please state your name is spelled
for the stenographer murray m-u-r-r-a-y spencer s-p-e-n-c-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed sir uh i'm the chair of the
sasna and just not to reiterate but to support the previous statements from brianna wakefield
who i spoke with yesterday from the council's office who supports the planting of the trees
as chief steve strutotti mentioned in his testimony behind those houses at the southern end of
Chadwick Street other than that rather than repeat I'll just sign off and say
they did very good job of stating what I would have stated otherwise thank you
very much could you please state your name come forward a little bit state
your name and spell for the stenographer my name is Valeria McGriff Williams V
like a victor a l e r y a right mcgrif m c g r i f f like afraid do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes are you a neighbor yes i am okay could you
are you for this project or against i'm against all right could you if anything you could tell
that we haven't heard yes go ahead okay um we have a problem and first first of all we have a problem
with not being notified of these hearings this year and here yes sastam put up two hearings
against the fence on 16th and washington avenue okay if you didn't go past there you wouldn't
know what was going on well it was no notification nowhere else and this happened before at the first
hearing i stated the same thing right well i'm glad i'm glad you you made it here yeah okay um
and but uh people i i talked to they couldn't get off from work to come okay uh we we want
that area, 60th and Washington, should remain a commercialized property. We have a sureness,
sureness of public parking spaces in our community. Well, just remember, we're not
talking this whole project. We're talking 10 additional houses, right? We do not see the
purpose for 10 additional help or any housing because when we these houses that come here
not only they start off as homeowners and then they become rentals every three years we they
someone new someone there but still our parking they're parking on our payments i have to call
the police every time we get a new group of people they park on the payments they park
anywhere because there's no parking okay so 60 for Washington would ease it by
being a public parking lot open 24-7 and that would generate money for the
city plus generate peace of mind for us homeowners the few this year because
most of our rentals these is a mortgage companies and our rentals making profit
offer these decisions okay and not us all right thank you very much for taking the time to call
us and again i'm glad you saw the sign that came thank you all right we have another hand
yes mr chair we have one more from james alfano they should be back in shortly
it mr alfano yes can you see and hear me i can sir could you please state your name
and spell it for the stenographer yes uh james j-a-m-e-s alfano a-l-f-a-n-o
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Sir, could you, are you a neighbor?
I am a near neighbor.
On the east side of Chatterick Street, my property directly abuts this property.
I'm just south of the Hoban Plaza.
Are you in favor of the project or against?
I have four short points, one in opposition and three in non-opposition.
I have four short points, one in opposition and three in non-opposition.
So in a tiered approach, my first point would be to respectfully request that the area for the proposed townhomes be rezone as a park or green space with trees lining the western border of the lot for privacy for near neighbors.
This is under the guise that we have an 80-foot high apartment building with 275 units and 10 ground floor businesses approved with a 30-foot wide dead-end courtyard already approved.
I want to ensure that this approved development is successful and works for all residents, including myself and future residents and neighbors that we'll have.
As you know, green spaces offer many benefits established in the literature, but people experience cities by how they move through them and where they gather.
This change by eliminating townhomes will improve by attracting more pedestrian traffic, which will help the 10 ground floor businesses thrive,
provide a more functional gathering space for all residents and mitigate the impact of the 80-foot
high building on the near neighbors by increasing light and access. This can be achieved without
removing any housing designated as affordable, which is in the larger apartment building itself
only. And we're the only plot of land, this is the only plot of land up for development west of
Broad Street on Washington that doesn't have a street in between it. So our properties, as Mr.
well and point out are really directly abutting this property.
So that's my first point.
And then moving to my second point, if not amenable to this, I do request that the townhomes
be limited to three versus four stories.
At the community meeting for this project, the applicant did not know if the townhomes
will be three or four bedroom homes.
Three stories would still support a functional three-story bedroom while increasing light
and air for near neighbors.
A majority of the homes on that block are two-story homes.
The pictures shown do show some three-story homes on the eastern side of Chadwick, but the majority of them are two-story homes.
And then regarding the trees, I support planting of new trees.
I won't reiterate that.
I do suggest tying the Certificate of Occupancy for these new homes to the planting of the trees as a safeguard for near neighbors.
And my last point is that the easement is going to be four feet wide.
I ask that that becomes five feet wide by just moving the fence back one feet for the new property.
there are utility poles back there many neighbors including myself have fences that open to three
feet wide making it just five feet wide would increase safety especially with all the increased
population density that will come from the approved apartment building and potentially
these townhomes so really a point about safety a point about the trees reducing the height or
creating a green space instead to help the businesses and the new residents and current
residents have a better gathering place thank you thank you very much you have any questions uh
council okay um any more hands yes no for all right mr chair i have uh steve melancore
that is the last hand raised okay thank you
could you please state your name as bell for a stenographer yes stephen with a v s-t-e-v-e-n
melcuri m-e-l-c-h-i-o-r-r-e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but
the truth yes are you a neighbor yeah i'm in the neighborhood i'm on 2010 annon street okay um
Are you in favor of this project or against?
I'm in favor of the project.
Thank you very much.
We appreciate you taking the time to close.
You have a short, very, very quick clarification for you.
I could feel Hillary telling me to hit my mic again.
Yeah, she's good with that.
So let me just share.
I can clear up the issue with the trees and why we have a technical refusal.
So, hopefully you're seeing here. This is the lot line relocation plan that was previously approved. What you can see here is this is the sliver. So this bottom line where it says proposed line of subdivision, going up from there is where the townhomes are coming down from here is a sliver of the property, sort of like a flagpole.
and what i will show you now is these are the stamped approved plans for the larger building
and what happened was the trees that were required didn't fit on that five foot sliver that came down
as that flagpole and so the trees that are required were actually put we pulled the building back in
coordination with the planning commission of the original submission and put all of the trees
and put all of the trees necessary at this much wider segment here. So you can, what you can see
necessary at this
now is this is already previously approved, already mandated by the prior variance that was
granted. All of the trees are necessary. So while the refusal is correct, technically correct,
because we don't have the trees in that five foot sliver, which is part of the current property in
front of you today it was taken again and made there was a larger buffer made to put the necessary
trees in that same location they just couldn't all be squeezed in a five foot width okay so we
provided a much larger width the last rebuttal I would have is this was a prior shadow study that
was provided and I would just ask my client to walk you through the townhome and the setback
shadow study portion. Sure. And I'll just maybe start with a summary and then happy to answer
additional questions. The proposed development that we have will have light earlier and longer
at every, on every day, every time of the year than the current condition. In every instance,
we are creating a better experience than the current shadows that are posed from the existing
building on these homes here and so they'll get light earlier in the morning and they'll have light
longer towards the end of the day here and there's no exception to that here and that's just a
function of of the proximity of the existing building to their homes versus the much more
generous setbacks that we're providing with with the new development okay thank you um you're done
with that i would rest unless you have any further planning commission
amy boy with the planning commission um if it's all right i'd like to submit a letter
because i want to check on some things is that okay hillary she's going to submit a letter
yeah if um we just hold the vote for a week planning can submit a letter and and obviously
the the applicant would have a chance to respond if there's anything we should respond to so this
is closed other than the response to the letter am i correct yes so yeah so we'll do this we'll
vote next wednesday at 2 p.m okay and it'll give us a chance to sit down at the executive session
in the morning just go over everything okay absolutely thank you both thank you very much
people that came in and testified to okay um number one all right number one
Sure, thank you. No, it's okay.
MI 2025 007239 12131 to 41 Knights Road.
Andrea Solomon is the attorney.
That wasn't too bad.
Hi, good afternoon. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Andrea, A-N-D-R-E-A, Solomon, S-A-L-O-M-O-N. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify your client,
the relationship to the property? Yes, my client is the tenant, Dazbav, LLC,
doing business as urban air adventure park and we have um um we don't have a summary from the rco
but there was it was sent to neighbors proof of the mailing um we have a letter of non-opposition
from council member o'neill and we are vice chair has a few questions good afternoon um have you
submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing we have with the exception
that the record was supplemented this morning with the copy of the fully executed lease
okay and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do okay thank you
you can proceed with your case okay thank you good afternoon um again i'm here on behalf of
jasbath llc with me is mr swapnil patel a representative of the tenant for this former
Big Lots space. This application is for a trampoline park, which falls under the umbrella
use of an event and assembly facility. It's proposed for the tenant space number 11, which
is the former Big Lots in the Philadelphia, I just want to get the name of the marketplace.
Yeah, the Philadelphia Marketplace Shopping Plaza, which is right across the street from
the Franklin Mills Mall. It's a very large 30,000 square.
It's a very large 30,000 square foot space. The brokers, when Big Lots announced it was filing for bankruptcy at this location and would be leaving this location, they've been marketing the space to both local, regional, and national tenants, and Urban Air came out as the as the most appropriate tenant for this large space that has long been sitting vacant.
uh the property is zoned uh auto commercial but the fart northeast overlay requires the
variance from this board uh we did meet with the rco back in march i made various attempts to get
the meeting summary from them but haven't been successful but um the council member's zoning
officer was there they submitted their non-opposition and i can attest as an officer
of the court that the it was a well-attended meeting and the vote was positive uh unanimous
in support of this project um it has plenty of shared parking with the rest of the tenants of the
market plaza space uh again it's this former big lots which was one of the anchor tenants of the
shopping plaza this is what uh you can all imagine a long vacant former big lots look
looks like high ceilings um but uh lots of lots of space for this new tenant to come in
this is a fit test of the proposed trampoline park um as you can imagine it's catered for
For younger children, there will be trampolines, rope course, laser tag, rock climbing wall, slides.
Swapnail can tell you a little bit more of the kind of uses that will be in there.
There's also event rooms that will be available to rent for children's birthday parties.
Further on, they'll be able to have extracurricular programming for STEAM activities.
Um, the community was overall supportive of having an indoor recreational space that the the children can go to and having a strong tenant to fill this long vacant space.
Uh, the hours of operation will not exceed, uh, an 8am start time and 11pm.
uh closing time and urban air park is a national franchise but swept neil and his group are local
business owners and will be kind of he's here and can answer any operational questions
um just some images of other urban air parks and what this facility may look like once built out
Of course, the build-out will take some time, but it will be a fun space for kids to enjoy.
With that, I'll ask that Sapnail will be sworn in.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Sapnail Patel.
Could you, in my favor, get a little closer and make sure it's on?
Is she agreeing late?
That's it.
Go ahead.
Sapnail Patel.
S-W-A-P-N-I-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Counsel.
so now can you just state for the record your relationship to the tent to the tenant um the
dazbav llcu yeah i'm actually one of the owners of of that group sure and you saw my presentation
in its entirety and uh was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes it was and do you
adopt it as your own testimony yes is is there anything else that you'd like to add for the board
no nothing if any questions questions from the board it's the first trampoline park we've done
if you're interested now so please questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
um i just wanted to ask if um council would have any objection to her proviso specifying
space number 11. that's fine okay the refusal doesn't uh specify any particular space so yes
thank you i do have a question is there plans to serve food on site and does that require
additional approvals that aren't covered there is plans to serve food on site but the events
space assembly use allows for the kitchen uh question to comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission
planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a
amy boy with the planning commission
change in zoning at this location from the current ca1 commercial auto oriented to ca2
the proposed use would be allowed under the recommended zoning and is compatible with nearby
land uses the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variance for
Assembling Entertainment.
MI-2025-007-239-12131 to 41 Knights Road, I vote yes with Proviso.
Limiting use to space number 11.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Hi Owen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Okay, number three, MI 2025-007-280, 1638 Porter Street.
Michael Mattione is the attorney.
There's a letter, an email of support from GEAR RCO.
Very, very little longer letter, very nice letter.
So, Mr. Mattione, could you, and also we have 80 form letters of support
signed by neighbor, 17 from the immediate block.
So, Mr. Mattione, could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
Michael Mattione, M-A-T-T-I-O-N-I.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client,
the relationship to the property?
Sunday's on 17th, and Leanne Sadloff is the principal.
She's here.
All right.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy
yes all right thank you you can see your screen and begin prior case is still up
so say the prior case is still up on the screen yes we still see the the air park yeah we uh
we got to get the trampolines down right there we go let's go on all right
here you go oh there we go that's better thank you again um michael maddione and i have uh my
client leanne sabloff here uh the owner of sundays on 17th they're a tenant in the first
floor space at the building at 17th and porter street and you know we submitted all of our
materials in advance and i just wanted to to key in on a few things um chitter into the lease this
property has been vacant for many many years but it had approvals back in 19 hold on
1966 for a dry cleaner it was a dry cleaner for a long time before that was approved with
an apartment above in 2018 there was also a variance granted by this board for an administrative
office on the first floor with two residential units above and there are two residential
units. Again, this is at the corner of 17th and Porter. There's photographs showing the
site. Again, additional shots of the site. As you can see, it is a long-standing commercial
use interior. It's just clear space, ready to be fitted out for a business. It's clearly
not a residential use and given that it has two residential units above it could not be a single
family use throughout the entire building you already have two approved residential uses
like you said mr chair we had a support email from gear
gerard estates area residents who are the coordinating rco and 80 um
letters of support now virtually all of them were within about a one and a half block radius
and my client also lives about a block and a half from the site she hopes to have an ice
cream parlor here just an old-fashioned ice cream parlor you can see from the site plan
typical counter service space some seating there's going to be indoor trash storage and
some outdoor trash storage as well if necessary her days and hours of operation would be seven
days a week all year long may to september would be noon to 10 p.m october to april 2 to 10 p.m
except on days when the same monica school has early dismissal and she would open up
30 minutes prior to the early dismissal to grab the students on their way home from school
Again, she lives in the neighborhood. She wants to run a family-oriented store with the typical treats sold in ice cream parlors. As I said, it's got a very long history, probably predating the zoning code as commercial use on the first floor, many, many years as a dry cleaner.
again she lives in the neighborhood she wants to run a family-oriented store
um nobody can ever remember it not being used as a dry cleaner when it was used again we believe
that we meet the requirements to be entitled to a variance I mean this is a non-conforming structure
with non-conforming uses um they're the minimum variance I mean this is a small commercial space
it's oriented as a commercial space meant to be a commercial space it's got to be the minimum
variance it's the only thing you can really use the space for is some kind of a commercial use
and given its zoning no matter what commercial use you want to make of it you need to come in
and get a variance it'll it'll benefit the public i mean the gear support email um keyed in on this
by eliminating a vacant property and blight from the area it'll add eyes and ears to the area it
won't injure the properties surrounding it'll help them out because there'll be people here
ear long at night making sure that there's people looking around see what's going on in the community
again it will it gets rid of what was the dry cleaner and actually dry cleaning shop there
which is an environmental problem or could be one because of the way that they operated
so it gets rid of that there will be no negative impact on the community
and it just it's supported by you know again 80 neighbors and they just want to see this happen
they want to see leanne come in and do this with that i'd like to call on leanne sure could you
please state your name and spell for the stenographer
thank you leanne savloff l-e-i-g-h-a-n-n-e-s-a-v-l-o-f-f right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel thank you mr chair and did
you hear my presentation and are my statements thrown correct yes and do you adopt them as your
testimony yes i have nothing further from the savloff no signage with this no signage okay
thank you or uh questions from the board um yeah do you do you anticipate any outside activities
um as you operate like maybe a window or take out those chairs we would love to have outside seating
that's a separate ordinance that's required okay so because we're outside of the
what like what was your plan to keep like this that corner clean just in general
my children um would attend ccd at saint monica's and for five years i wouldn't even allow them to
kind of walk on that property because it just sat um every time it was snow there was a ton of ice
there was a ton of you know it was just never removed since i took over the um since i started
my lease in september i've made sure that the property has been cleaned at all times
when it was the blizzard i actually helped a lot of the neighbors also because i acquired a snow
plow i grew up in south philly we just help each other i just want to add that and add that back
and also for new neighbors to realize like why they really want to live in south philly um i
just want to see people outside again because what i realized is the more you sit outside the more
you get to know one another and the more you get to know one another the stronger your community is
And I just really want to instill that in my 12 and 16-year-old going forward so that they understand.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And the saver it is, too.
Are you making the ice cream there, or are you buying it and just serving?
I'm just buying it.
I'm acquiring it, though, from a homemade, well-established two companies, one with new age flavors and one for old school to help everyone's needs.
Okay. And then what are you doing about deliveries? Like how often do you anticipate deliveries and how is that going to be handled?
Deliveries will be designated on Friday mornings. We're going to try to do it after the school rush hour so that we don't impact anyone coming and going or holding anyone up. Our trash day is Tuesday, so we will also not impact, you know, trash collection. But we do want to do it when no one is around so that we don't impact anyone's parking needs or anything like that.
Okay. And then you said it would be seven days a week, but how many seats are you planning to have? I mean, I see a little.
There's around 28, 26 seats inside. 26 to 28 seats.
Okay. Thank you.
I have a question about storage and prep space. Do you have the basement as well?
Are the freezers going to be in the basement or?
Are the freezers going to be in the basement or?
Okay. Yeah. I was like, I don't.
I was like, I don't see them on the plan.
I think that's the.
Are you doing any, like, are you making anything on site?
Like, I know some ice cream shops do fresh waffle bowls, brownies, any.
That would be the extent of it.
Just waffle cones and brownie bites.
I'm trying to figure out what would be the best for the situation.
how to source yeah okay i don't think i have so the serious question what's the new age flavors
we're sitting up there what's the new age flavors come on jelly ice cream butter and oh
we're going back to the old-fashioned one
school that i'm going to work with for my traditional and spot okay all right all right
Does our, does our attorney have any requests for flavors or agenda sessions?
No comment.
And I also don't have any questions.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, I have a hand up from Riona Wakefield.
I will promote them again.
and good afternoon again everyone hi could you uh you've already been sworn just for the record
state your name Brianna Wakefield proceeds and I'm here to testify that council president
Johnson is in support of this property all right good thank you very much for calling we appreciate
it thank you planning commission amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change in zoning to the existing rsa5 residential single family this property was
remapped from cmx1 commercial mixed use to rsa5 in 2017. the property has a documented history of
residential and commercial use the planning commission recommends that the board grant
the requested variance for multiple principal uses and prepared food shop all right thank you
MI 2025-007-280-1638.
Porter Street, I vote yes.
DARYL FOXMANNELL, MICHAEL JOHNS, MY VOTE IS YES.
DARYL FOXMANNELL, CHERRYL GASTON, MY VOTE IS YES.
TANETTA GRAHAM, MY VOTE IS YES.
DARYL FOXMANNELL, RYAN MCADAMS, MY VOTE IS YES.
TAYOIN, MY VOTE IS YES.
THANK YOU.
THANK YOU.
THANK YOU.
GOOD LUCK.
I APPRECIATE STILL STANDING.
LET'S SEE HERE.
HE KNOWS WHAT I'M JELIA.
THERE ARE MANY, JOHN.
all right so mi 2025 007 283 318 north 42nd street merrith ferrlicher is the attorney
and so as you know you've already been sworn once today could you just please state your name
meredith ferliger f-e-r-l-e-g-e-r could you identify your client the relationship to the
property sure the owner of this property is owner w and that entity is represented today by rami
shrine sitting to my left there's a letter of support from west patten civic association
there's a letter of a letter from council member gothia in favor and there's a letter of opposition
from Judy Weston and there's yeah understood our voice share us a few
questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits
five days in advance of this hearing yes I did okay and do you waive the read
and other referrals and stipulate to their accuracy I do waive the reading
and stipulate to their accuracy thank you can share your screen and proceed
with your case. Okay. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, as you know, the case before you today
concerns 318 North 42nd Street. In addition to Mr. Shrine, to my left, we do also have the architect
on the line, Waleska Stanke, to the extent there are any architectural questions that we cannot
not answer you have an exhibit packet in front of you that contains 16 exhibits just to briefly
summarize the basis for today's request the application requests the erection of four
single-family homes on this over 12 000 square foot lot which will each eventually be sold via
the creation of a planned unit development although we submit that the proposal is not
only patently reasonable in terms of the extremely technical variances requested and are completely
in character with the surrounding single-family neighborhood as with most proposals we do
understand that there remains a pocket of concern neighbors that said as you can see in your
exhibits at exhibit 15 the proposal did receive a letter of support from the official coordinating
the proposal did receive a letter of support from the official coordinating RCO,
West Peltz and Saunders Park RCO. And I did happen to notice that Ms. Andrews from that RCO
is in the room today. Furthermore, as Mr. Chairman mentioned, Councilwoman Gautier
also issued a letter of support for this proposal as well. I'll highlight just a few critical pieces
of these letters. Number one, the proposal that's before the board today is a staunch deviation
from two prior proposals pursued by two prior owners that were rejected by the community and
by this board, prior boards. Following Mr. Shrime's purchase in 2024, and as the councilwoman
highlights in her letter my client immediately began engaging with the neighbors holding a total
of eight meetings seeking to achieve a common ground that would allow this uniquely burdened
lot to be developed we believe that the proposal you'll see today is the culmination of these
efforts and truly the least minimum in terms of what is necessary to allow development of the lot
we do also believe we have some understanding of the community's concerns
most of which are not zoning related and i will address them during the presentation
tax clearance is included at exhibit two and the deed to the property is included at exhibit three
showing that my client purchased it in february of 2024. by way of background exhibit five
goes the zoning map of the lot where you will see here that the lot itself is a narrow
somewhat triangularly shaped lot that flags out to north 42nd street
as you can see north 42nd street is uh dominantly zoned rsa5 with some rm1 interspersed
to the west you'll see the drexel property which maintains a dense cmx4 zoning classification
to better orient you to the neighborhood i have some aerials up on the screen at exhibit six
again just starting with an overhead aerial you'll see here uh the large highly irregularly shaped
lot that extends behind the existing single family homes that front on north 42nd street
as well as adjoins the drexel fields to the west zoom out a little bit here
this next aerial here looks in a southerly direction
where again you can see the vacant land that is the subject of today's application
Here, just preliminarily, I will point out a row of large trees that line the Drexel fields, which was a patently reasonable concern that the community had over the health of these trees.
However, as I will show in a tree survey, none of these trees is on my client's property and all sit quite a distance from the proposed homes.
directly to the south of uh south of the property is a church and again that view here is shown in
the southeast direction and again looking northwest you can see here the little flag
portion of the property and the church directly next door again just a little bit more close-up
context from the photographs at exhibit 10. this shows the view of the property from north 42nd
street showing the fence that marks the front boundary of the lot in question
if we move a little bit more to the interior of the property this is a view generally facing
out towards powellton avenue and this is the church that i pointed out a little bit earlier
again the large tree that is shown in this photograph is also not on my client's property
Facing north 42nd street here, you'll see that the lot itself is currently vacant and sits along the rear of the backyard of these homes on north 42nd street.
Facing north, again, you'll see the relationship of this property in relation to the Drexel fields, you can see the parking lot to the left of this photograph.
And this is, if you're thinking about that overhead aerial, this is looking up towards the point of the property itself.
Again, none of these evergreen trees sits within my client's property boundary.
Another view here is shown facing north, again, towards that point of the property.
And then a final view here, again, facing north 42nd Street.
And then a final view here again, facing north 42nd street historically speaking from historical maps. It appears that this lot has existed in this irregularly shaped condition since at least 1895.
Seemingly, it was owned by Drexel for many decades, but was never consolidated into their own parcel.
and was later eventually sold off while we do understand that the community would prefer that
the lot remain undeveloped open space that is unfortunately not a reasonable possibility
uh since it that possibility was long since foreclosed when it was first sold from drexel
to a private developer all the way back in 2012. i did also include photographs showing the timely
posting at Exhibit 10. At Exhibit 7, the zoning site plans are up on the screen here. I'll
summarize, and then Rami and the architect can be available if the board has any further questions.
As you can see here, the plans show four single-family dwellings, each of three stories.
Given the extraordinarily unusual shape of this lot, the homes homes have been uniquely designed to accommodate that narrowing condition of the lot.
Four parking spaces are provided in a small paved lot that is next to the church, keeping the vehicles as far away from possible from the homes on North 42nd street.
Street here you can see that a 12 foot rear yard is provided which is more than sufficient to ensure
the preservation of the trees on the adjoining lot up at North 42nd Street a 16 foot wide curb
cut is designed that leads to a 16 foot wide driveway and this is also a paved walking area
which you'll see in a little bit more detail in just a minute as shown on the next plan here on
the tree schedule let me zoom in on that for you the only trees that are being removed from this
lot currently are non-heritage trees and are proposed to be replaced fully in accordance
with the requirements of the zoning code i will also note that all of the plans that are shown
to the board today were also shown to the community if i scroll back up to the zoning
plans and zoom in on the zoning table itself you'll see that the zoning code would allow
75 of this lot to be occupied by some kind of structure with that said this proposal represents
Over 75% of this lot is slated to remain open.
And again, page 2 of the zoning plan.
Shows that existing tree schedule.
Let me zoom out here.
Where you will see that none of the large heritage trees that the community has interest in sit on this project.
property and will therefore not be affected by this particular development I have also included
conceptual site plans and renderings at exhibit eight here you'll start to get a better sense of
the plan for the site landscaping and design with a dense hedge of evergreen trees along the shared
alleyway behind the north 42nd street homes there's also as I mentioned earlier a small
walking path that leads out to north 42nd street which is directly next to that 16 foot wide driveway
we did also include floor plans of ex at exhibit eight here you'll see that the homes the four
homes range from just over 2400 square feet to just over 3000 square feet the cellars will be
reserved for storage mechanical and general recreation area at the first floor each of the
homes will have a large kitchen dining and living areas as well as a porch and deck off the back
which overlook the drexel fields this was intentionally designed to ensure that the
active outdoor space would be on the opposing side where there are no residences at the second floor
There will be 2 bedrooms and balconies and on the 3rd floors, uh, there will be the main bedroom areas with some extra office space.
There will be the main bedroom areas with some extra office space for two of the homes. Again, they're a little bit different just because of how irregularly shaped this lot is.
Exhibit nine shows the conceptual renderings. This first view here is what you would see from the front of the homes, which again are dominantly brick.
The second view here is from the back, where you can see the balconies and the rear living areas that overlook the fields.
Finally, we thought it was important to render the separation between the north 42nd street homes and these four homes where you will see here not only a six foot high fence, but a dense evergreen barrier that will create more separation
than typically exists between back-to-back row home blocks.
The pathway that you see in between the fence is already an existing three-foot wide alley,
and then the homes themselves are set back an additional nine feet, eight and a half inches
minimum at the closest, up to 12 feet at the widest.
So, just by way of comparison, these conditions would approximate or exceed the same conditions that would be required by the zoning code if the front of these homes were considered the rears and is further buffered by fencing and dense vegetation.
My client can certainly speak to the aesthetics in greater detail.
Now, in terms of the refusals, this proposal only received two refusals, both of which are highly technical in nature, since there is no mechanism in the zoning code to recognize a planned unit development for a lot that is not permitted to be subdivided under the zoning code.
first the proposal received a refusal for failure to meet the front facade of the adjoining lots
let me bring up the zoning plan and just give you a sense of what that actually means here
measuring a front setback is quite challenging when it is applied to a flag lot but code section
142022 tells us that the flag portion of the lot is to be ignored when measuring front depth
therefore the front lot required depth would be measured from the lot line that adjoins the alley
so i'm just indicating that with my cursor here this is where the front lot line should be measured
from based on the lot depth of the adjoining homes on 42nd street and the church these homes
would be required to have a zero front setback which would be consistent with the homes fronting
on north 42nd street in this case that would require these homes to be brought even closer
to that alley and to the back of the homes on 42nd street and would certainly not serve the
intended purpose of the zoning code to ensure uniform facades given the flag shape of this lot
secondly the refusal was issued because the zoning code would treat this proposal as multi-family
even though this will be submitted to a pud in order to separately convey these new homes
The hardship here is plainly obvious in that this lot cannot be subdivided because of its irregular flag shape.
Even though a lot of over 12,000 square feet could be, based on the lot size, legally subdivided into 12 separate lots if it were oriented differently or shaped more regularly.
On each of the subdivided lots, one single-family home could theoretically be built.
In comparison, this is only proposing four homes, not 12.
In fact, in the eight meetings held with the community over the last year, earlier designs that did contemplate more homes were scaled back, resulting in a proposal that occupies only a very, very small portion of this lot.
as i mentioned early on this lot has been subject to considerable attempts over the course of the
last 13 years to see some kind of development all of which have failed those failed attempts
alone are evidence of the extreme hardship facing this lot at exhibit 16 you will see that in 2013
13, a proposal was first put forth to develop an eight family dwelling with only three parking spaces that.
to develop an eight family dwelling with only three parking spaces that request was denied four years
later in 2017 another attempt this time the proposal sought one single family dwelling
and one six family dwelling with six off street parking spaces again another denial now nine years
later my client invested significant energy into ensuring that his proposal would incorporate
community feedback resulting in over a year of meetings and the design that's put before the
board today reaching unanimous consent among community members is never easy if at all possible
however we submit that this proposal is the most reasonable balancing and response to all
expressed concerns over a very long review and design period recent pennsylvania commonwealth
court decisions have confirmed that where the impossibility of a subdivision reduces the number
of homes that may otherwise be developed this board may grant a variance either excusing the
subdivision or allowing it to occur on modified terms here there is no possibility of a modified
subdivision instead the only solution to a single family home development is through a pud
which unfortunately is artificially treated as multi-family under the zoning code
we submit that the variance itself is not only truly is not truly a use variance but is instead
a dimensional variance subject to a lower standard of review we also submitted as the least minimum
In accordance with case law, we believe that we have shown the board that there are no viable alternatives and that the proposed use of single family homes is the most similar to the adjoining single family homes in this neighborhood.
Now, just to anticipate some of the comments that the board might hear from some community members.
i have also included in the exhibits at exhibit 11 the conceptual approval that this project received
from pwd as well as a letter from the civil engineer that addresses some of the concerns
that we've heard over the course of the year relative to stormwater runoff i've highlighted
a few of the key points and will summarize that the current site conditions result in the discharge
This development, as you can see, the summary here will include such improvements as downspouts and area and trench drains, which will capture all the runoff from the new 6,300 square foot of impervious coverage.
Although the size of the proposal would not require it to comply with the city stormwater runoff rate control requirements.
The civil engineer has confirmed in their report that the development of the lot will reduce runoff discharges by approximately 50% from current conditions.
Further information relative to the drainage design is also included in your exhibits.
Finally, I will note that a full analysis of the project's compliance with section 14, 303 of the zoning code is provided at exhibit 13.
and most critically the proposal will not create congestion as it provides one for one parking it
will not harm neighbors use of their properties as it is set back to a degree consistent with
typical back-to-back roadblocks and will include dense screening for privacy i will also gladly
expand on any point that the board requires and at this point i just have two quick questions for my
client, and then I can conclude. Why don't you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer. Sit forward. Rami Schraim, R-A-M-Y-S-H-R-A-I-M. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Counsel? Thank you. Mr. Schraim,
can you confirm that you're authorized to speak on behalf of Owner W LLC? I do. Thank you. Just
briefly in terms of the trees and the concerns that you heard over the likely heritage trees on
adjoining properties are you prepared to implement tree protection measures to ensure the maximum
protection of any large trees on those adjoining properties i do and that was discussed during the
community meetings and agreed upon now the community expressed doubt relative to your
ability to connect these homes to the utility infrastructure in the area you've been building
in the city of philadelphia for nearly 20 years is that correct that's correct
That's correct. Have you confirmed that the project can connect to all required utilities, whether it be gas, electric or water?
have you confirmed that the project can connect to all required utilities
Yes, it does. And have you heard all the testimony that was offered in front of the board today? Yes.
Do you agree that testimony was true and accurate? And would you adopt it as if you had provided it yourself? Yes, thank you.
questions from the board um yes have you done a study to show from 42nd street if these would be
visible if you were on the sidewalk or on the street on the 42nd street side i mean understanding
that this is an odd shape lot most of the houses that are right in front of this development are
two-story and so i'm just wondering given the depth of the street like how much of the houses
are visible because of their original story so if you look at the zoning site plans here i think
it's highly unlikely that they would be visible so for a couple reasons number one if you just
look at the length of the driveway here you can see here that the driveway is is all the way to
the left of this view and then there is also a walking path here before you even get to the
first home on on north 42nd street so the address of that home is 320 and then you can see here that
the beginning of the first home is is quite a distance over i i don't have the measurements
i can bring up the architect uh who can very quickly identify what that measurement is i mean
i can read the measurements because i saw them on the plan but still like no photos no renderings
have shown it from 42nd street itself like if i was standing
in front of one of the houses and I think I'm more so curious about the impact given its
additional story it looks like for like the entire run of where the houses sit
only one of the houses on 42nd street has a third story most of the houses right in front of it again
are two and then there's a scattered three stories on the block but not right where this is going to
sit I think I'm more curious about the the impact like is this going to look like a second row of
teeth and a child that, you know, needs braces because you've now got houses stacked on another
house. So can I bring up the architect just to address the measurements that that you're
questioning? If you could look for Willeska Stankey.
And then I guess while we wait for him on the site plan that you showed, there's a landscaping
strip that's behind the the rear of the homes is that an easement like are they going to share that
in the pud or you you're talking about the the new homes the new home yes that's absolutely correct
so the way that the pud would work is that they would obviously have an hoa they would be
responsible to maintain all all the landscaping on site all of the improvements on site um
effectively anything other than just the the outline of the homes themselves would be common
area that they'd be responsible we see the architect do we see the architect who's going
to remain in the pud as the owner of the rest of the site typically in a pud there's like the
whoever is the operator the owner the manager it stays in it and they kind of own all the common
areas and then the others so okay so i may answer yeah we that was also discussed with the with the
community that we because we manage properties in in the neighborhood so they will we will manage
this project as well so you're going to be worried you're going to be salting the driveway
and removing the snow and okay that's correct to do that to that point how how is the uh alleyway
going to be managed i know it's not your property but it's directly behind the landscape uh strip
that you're providing and if you look at the photos that alley is pretty horrible yeah so uh
that's actually also another point that we discussed there's actually a community benefit
agreement right that addresses these items and and you know we will clear uh part of that community
benefit agreement is we will clear the entire alleyway uh in on the 300 block um as part of the
project we have the architect on Waleska there while we keep waiting oh she's there okay yeah
I could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes W a l e s k a Stanky
s t a n d k e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do
all right two things could you turn your video on and second could you speak up just a little bit
turn your volume up yes okay thank you council thank you uh welleska are you able
thank you council thank you uh waleska are you able to identify for the board member
the distance from the uh front of the homes on north 42nd street basically all the way back to
the start of the new homes how far that distance is one second so from the sidewalk i guess also
i wasn't necessarily asking for the distance i saw the distance i was asking yeah from the sidewalk
we have nine eight feet and a half i'm sorry how far did you say nine eight and a half
98 98 right so it's it's quite it's quite a distance my actual question which now the
architect is here is when you draw the elevation can you see it from 42nd street i think it's
really difficult to see because it's far it's almost 100 feet from the street and you have
two stories buildings on this on the front so it's quite but yet so you guys
haven't done an actual study to prove this no but board member as you know the
height here is not a refusal item it is not directly or indirectly relevant to
any of the refusals that we have here and it's not something that L&I or the
zoning code would require all the questions questions more attorney
not at this time mr chair questions from the audience how many okay okay how many hands in
the audience i have a hand up from mr mark aguilar in the virtual audience mr chair okay so could you
move okay so the people who want to make a comment could they come forward
rami you want to sit back they're gonna have to and when we have a a case like this
everyone will be given two minutes to make their case okay all right come first
i assume you'll want me to hold my any response to the end would hope so yeah unless you have
questions for an under some person could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
my name is eman alquban e-m-a-n-e-l-k-a-l-b-a-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth are you a neighbor yes okay could you tell us your thoughts on this
project in two minutes i've attended all of the many meetings that we've had about this project
yes and i've voted in support each time along with many other neighbors who you know it's been
a dumping ground for many years and the developer has been extremely you know flexible and
accommodating to concerns and push like having eight meetings for this was you know every single
time there were concerns brought up they you know they were supposed to be seven houses now it's
only four you're in favor of this yes i am and i think that you know it'll actually benefit the
neighborhood and the community benefit agreement will also be something that we're all going to
benefit thank you for taking the time to sit here that long next person please
good afternoon good afternoon hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Sure. My name is Karen Murray, K-A-R-E-N-M-U-R-R-A-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
So, Karen, could you, in two minutes, give us your views on this?
Okay. Bottom line, I am not for this.
We live in a very busy street, high volume, automobiles, pedestrians, school buses, fire trucks, everybody comes through there.
They come through at a very rapid rate.
we're the only way through north south because they're the other streets cut off 42nd street is
it all right the proposed development will add a surprise driveway in the middle of our street
48 second street is known for car accidents you haven't been baptized on the block until
your car has been hit and for some people it's the first day you move there that happened to
my other neighbor um you put a driveway that nobody's looking for pedestrians are in jeopardy
drivers are in jeopardy it's just not a good idea and we the developer has been
very accommodating like he suggested a gate with lights and noise or something
you know to let people know but then that's going to cause a nuisance for the
people who live on the street who are directly from this gate with lights
flashing sounds any time of night so that isn't it's not a really good
alternative either the driveway will be very small they're gonna have to dig it
up to put the utilities in emergency vehicles can't fit fire trucks can't fit
trash trucks can't fit so all of those are potential hazards and that will
impact those of us who live on the block directly so I would just say that you
really need to consider our view for those of us who live on the block sure
our view for those of us who live on the block sure because it's going to affect us every day
because it's going to affect us every day.
if you allow this thank you very much for taking the time to sit here next please
hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer nicholas patrician n-i-c-h-o-l-a-s
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do
are you a neighbor i am please proceed and could you if you would try not to repeat what you've
Sure. I'd like to address the issues with stormwater. Currently, the site is completely permeable. Any development there will reduce that permeability.
The study done by the developer from Aquas does mention some benefits to how it may manage stormwater for this development.
All of those benefits are derived by capturing that stormwater and putting it directly into the sewer system.
That sewer system is maintained by the City of Philadelphia.
It is not going to be maintained by the developer.
This puts an undue burden on the utility.
It also is in conflict with an agreement that the City of Philadelphia has made with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protections
to reduce storm water runoff into the sewers.
These sewers, as you know, have a history of being overflowed.
That water then runs up onto the street.
It runs off into our waterways, the Schuylkill River, the Delaware,
and creates an environmental problem for the community at large.
Also, this project does not require four homes of three stories to be economically viable.
When the developer took on this project, they knew what the zoning was. They had no
guarantee that they would be able to develop this in a different fashion.
These three-story homes are blocking the light of no fewer than eight neighbors who currently have
no backyard neighbors. That means in the entire afternoon through sunset, there's light coming
into those homes. Those, that lack of light will have impact to, yeah. Thank you very much. We
appreciate it. Thank you for spending the time here. Next, please. Could you please state your
name and spell for the sonographer? Sure. Judy Walterson, J-U-D-Y-W-A-L-T-E-R-S-O-N.
Um, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. I actually
have the letter here you wrote. Yes. Right. Okay. So, could you add anything at all besides that?
We all have that letter, by the way. Okay. Just for the record, I do not have that letter.
Oh, well, we'll make sure you get a copy. I brought copies. Oh, sure. All right. All right. Is there anything else you want to add besides that?
I do want to add, and I wish I would have taken a picture and had a timestamp on it, but the neighbors can confirm this. I know in the most recent snowstorm, the sidewalk wasn't cleared in front of the property.
if that's the kind of service that we're going to get with the privatization of services such as
garbage snow removal etc uh the neglect of any of that would be a detriment to all of the adjacent
conforming properties so i do want to make that point okay um i'd like to make this point the
proposed layout is such that there's no way a looped water service could be brought to the
proposed buildings with a loop without a looped water connection dual flow reliability cannot be
provided and without that the potential for buildings to be without an adequate water flow
in the event of a fire is increased there's no water sprinklers in the building there's no
access through the driveway for the fire department to get in there other than their hoses
also with the utilities perhaps all utilities will fit under the driveway under the walkway what if
one of them needs to be dug up what will happen to access to the properties to the rear when those
properties are dug up and then my last uh point is um the young lady who testified first today
i have been to all of the community meetings i've never seen her before today and i'm the block
captor for the 300 block of north 42nd street i made sure that everyone signed in um so i do have
copies of the sign-in sheets for um i'm not going to get i mean that was her testimony okay you know
i'm just saying that i mean perhaps at the community meeting on march 12th okay which
was zoom right but none of the previous ones all right and um i'd like to make the point that on
And I'd like to make the point that on June 28th, 2023, that was part of your packet. We did have a community meeting where the developer was thinking about purchasing the property. What would we like to see just in case it had to happen? Because everyone was telling us the zoning board is going to approve something. So you have to.
On June 28th, 2023, that was part.
you know take something and you have to talk about some kind of development on the property
if you look at those meeting minutes on the second page an informal vote was taken
12 of the 12 people who voted were in favor of one unit 11 of the people were in favor of two
units eight were in favor of three units only four of the 12 people who were at that initial
community meeting and that was attended by everyone who lives on the block um well not
everyone but by only by people who live on the block let me state that your neighbors um only
four people said that they would you know tolerate or do four units so i want to make that point
that from the very beginning from that informal survey to the community vote that we had the
other week where 18 of the opposed were near neighbors uh we have always been very reluctant
to see uh such a larger development developed on that land and we feel like our quality of
life concerns far outweigh a few benefits that might be received um because we feel like our
time and our energy may be spent trying to steward these properties as near neighbors so thank you
Thank you. Thank you for spending the time. Next please. Mr. Sure. Can I just ask her a brief question? Sure. Thank you. Miss Wilkerson. Miss Wilkerson. Do you work for the fire department? I do not. Do you work for a utility company or have any kind of special expertise to be able to testify to your, to your position that this will have some form of issue with connection to utilities?
I would just refer to the engineering report that we submitted with the letter and I can
give you a copy of that. I'm asking if you have any personal expertise. That's all. Thank you.
Next person, please. Good afternoon. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the
personographer. My name's Crystal Williams, first name C-R-Y-S-T-A-L, last name W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
Right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes. Are you a neighbor? Yes, I live directly across the district. So could you give us your
a short version of what your issue is? Are you in favor of this or against? Against. Okay.
Like you said, you don't want to hear repeats, so I'm not going to repeat.
Sure, and I appreciate you doing that.
Thank you.
Yeah, so.
So give me something different.
Okay, well, when, I went to every meeting.
Oh, good.
And I'm disabled, but I basically am near 24-7.
And I come out quite often, you know, just to enjoy, especially now the weather is getting warm,
which i really appreciate and i notice our neighborhood is changing i grew up there
childhood my mom passed away in 2022 i inherit the house and now i'm the property owner which
is a wonderful thing good carrying on my family's tradition amen so i notice the traffic
of people that walk back and forth you know we have a lot of people animal lovers which i'm one
but i don't have any animals and they're coming constantly back and forth so to have that driveway
there that would be a surprise and probably a hazard because you don't expect oh i think we
had testimony about yeah but i'm just confirming right okay sure what was previously said yeah
since you're asking me. I didn't know I was going to come up here and actually
I'm opposing. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. We have your
we have your name and we know you're opposed. And thank you for spending so much
time here. Okay. Thank you. Next, please.
Good afternoon. Could you please state your name
and spell it for the start? My name is Sandra, S-A-U-N-D-R-A
Y as in yo-yo, D-O-W-L-I-N-G
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told the truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I'm right in the midst of all the chaos.
Are you in favor of this or against?
Against.
I'm at 332 North 42nd Street.
They just got finished tearing up the front of our house, the front of my house, with gas and water.
And now they want us to start working on the back.
start working on the back my concern is what's going to be dug up we already have a rat problem
My concern is what's going to be dug up.
We already have a rat problem.
on the block right so there's all kind of those those kind of issues and i just
prayer out that god would do what needs to be done okay okay thank you thank you very much for
coming in we appreciate your comments hi could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
eva moral samuels eva m-o-r-r-e-l dash s-a-m-u-e-l-s do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth told truth nothing but the truth um are you a neighbor yes i'm a near neighbor i'm right at the
edge of it are you in favor of this or against in favor okay could you just give us real quick why
i think it's a good faith offer and i think i'd prefer to buy the lot as a community and make it
park but that's not an option i think this is a good faith offer that uh i don't know that we're
going to see something as measured as this again thank you very much for spending the time we
appreciate your comments yes right hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Yeah, Ashley Van Riper.
I'm kidding.
Sorry.
A-S-H-L-E-Y-P-A-N space R-I-P-E-R.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Yeah, I'm a near neighbor.
Are you in favor or against?
Opposed, yeah.
Is there anything that you can add that we haven't heard?
We've heard a lot.
Yeah, you have.
Yeah, I just want to kind of speak to the one person's point that it's a dump.
Well, I can't hear what you're saying.
sorry i have a very soft voice um i just wanted to say that it's not a dump like the first person
said it's just grass and a lot of animals live there nothing needs to be done with a lot and i
realize that like you use the argument that it can't be developed as a reason that it should be
developed but i just wanted to point out that so your point you don't want anything there yeah all
that's fine to say okay yeah that's all ma'am
how could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer kate devlin k-a-t-e-d-e-v-m-i-n
right do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes are
you a neighbor yes are you in favor of this or against against okay is there anything you can
offer that we haven't heard i don't want to take up any more of your time i just wanted to register
Oh, well, thank you. You register your name. We have your name. Thank you very much, sir.
Why could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Pastor J-J-A-Y, Broadnax, B-R-O-A-D-N-A-X.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
My church is down the street.
Yeah. Are you in favor of this project or against?
In favor.
Thank you very much.
could you give us any comments why um most of the comments uh have been have been made already other
than the fact that uh this this uh developer has really been over backwards to try to make this
something that is reverend thank you very much for coming we appreciate you spending a little
time here yes ma'am hi how are you i could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Good afternoon. My name is Pamela Andrews, P-A-M-E-L-A, Andrews, A-M-D-R-E-W-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you in favor or against?
I am in favor of the project.
Thank you. Is there anything you can offer?
I do. I am the chair of the RCO, and you have my...
I have, I have.
okay i don't really have too much um in addition to add to that because you have everything but
what i basically wanted to say is that i am here to represent the community who was at our zoning
meeting when we took the boat on march the 12th there was a total of 58 people 38 of those people
wanted to move the project forward 27 were in opposition i also just want to make another note
about the issues around the parking and fire.
In addition to being the chair of the RCO,
I live a half a block away from there,
right off of a little Filbert Street,
which is a cul-de-sac, okay?
My street is tiny.
When they talk about there's no other traffic,
that's not true.
We're a half a block away,
and the only way you get access
to Filbert Street from 42nd Street,
it's a one-way cul-de-sac.
they actually have to drive in and back out okay um i have lived there for 25 years now
we have never had an accident with anyone coming in and out of that block okay okay um so i wanted
to bring that up because i really felt as if that was unfair i will say that and i'm aware that 42nd
street is a major major major thoroughfare and just they have been accidents but when you say
when you say that there's it's out of character and there's no other block in that area
that there's it's out of character and there's no other block in that area
i'm exactly a half a block away so i wanted to bring that to your attention i thank you
thank you thank you no thank you thank you do we have any hands up in the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair okay um planning commission
amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location from the current rsa5 residential single family the appellant has not
demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of the property
that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code
the planning commission recommends that the board deny the requested variance for multi-family
do you have any comment why don't you give me yes again mr chairman i would just like to point out
working backwards in response to the planning commission's testimony that this is not a
proposal for multi-family that this is a proposal for single-family homes that unfortunately our
zoning code has no mechanism to recognize whether it be a condominium development or a pud development
there is no mechanism to recognize that and that this is not a multi-family development uh based on
our zoning code um just in response to a couple quick things uh just so that the board understands
this proposal did have to go through a prerequisite review with the streets department
they did not raise any concern with the proposed driveway uh it is in accordance with their
regulations and they would of course also have to review it during the technical review phase
and that's where the things that uh one of the community members mentioned in terms of
any form of gating or lights that would come up during that review um
And then just the last thing I wanted to respond to is in response to one of the community members who made some commentary about the fact that there's no economics to support for single family homes.
But I would just like to remind the board here that this is not a case where that type of analysis is necessary.
This represents a development of a quarter of this lot that if it were not irregularly shaped and were oriented differently could support the development of 12 single family homes.
So this is akin to a dimensional variance. It is not, although the zoning code would treat it that way, is not technically a use variance. It is simply a variance requesting for single family homes that cannot otherwise be subdivided due to the extraordinarily unique conditions. Thank you.
All right, thank you. So, first, I want to thank everyone who on both sides is who testified. We heard a lot. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take this to our executive session next Wednesday.
We will vote at 2 PM next Wednesday and thank everyone for spending so much time down here. Thank you for bearing with me today.
All right, number number 7.
Here we go.
people are friendly to each other too at least
all right number seven mi2025-007-330-7756 ditman street rachel pritzker is the attorney
it'll be coming back in shortly mr chair
good afternoon i guess good evening hi um hi council could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer yeah rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r right do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes could you identify
your client the relationship to the property yeah so my client is joe gagne from big joe's roofing
um inc and he is the um equitable owner of the property um it's uh under contract uh so he's
equitable owner okay and i have a letter of non-opposition from homesburg civic and a letter
non-opposition from council member driscoll and our vice chair has a few questions okay good
afternoon um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the read and other refusals and stipulate to their accuracy
yes i think you can share your screen proceed with your case thank you
can you see my screen we can okay so this is 7756 ditman street
So this is 7756 Dittman Street.
Just to quickly go through the refusal, the property is owned RSA 3, but it's a longstanding, it's Holmesburg Boys and Girls Club that is going to be concluding their service in the neighborhood.
And this will be hopefully the home of Big Joe's Roofing.
And most of the refusals relate to the fact that the lot is zone RSA 3, despite it being a longstanding warehouse building, which I'll show you, that was previously the home to Homesburg Boys and Girls Club.
We're basically proposing a partial demolition of the existing structure.
You'll see from the plans just to allow for a garage door so that the trucks can go inside
of the warehouse space for loading, and the improvements to the site for landscaping and
screening, basically creation of nine parking spaces in the back, and some cleaning up of
the spaces in the front, and again, as mentioned, the interior loading space inside.
that the refusals relate to surface parking spaces not being allowed in the rear of the
property although there's existing asphalt in the back so you'll see that we're just
improving that space and obviously building services for this roofing company is not permitted
an RSA3. So just to show you the site, tax clearance, the agreement of sale.
quite long this is an aerial view of the site
um a bit better on this screen here it's a corner lot quite large corner lot
it's another aerial view where you can see the site and the existing property on the site
Zoning posters on the property.
Here's a view of the building as well.
The side of the building.
There's a gate here and some of the rear parking will be behind here.
This is on the side street.
some of the inside of the building
you can see kind of a large
empty space that used to have the boys and girls club
that large existing structure on the site
another view of it as well
again just to orient on the street
some exterior photos you can see some of the existing parking that was here all
this will get cleaned up we're gonna remove some spaces in the front to allow
for the garage door and also going to be adding the required landscape buffers
obviously clean up the curbs and improve the site in the exterior this is the
rear of the site where additional parking will be underneath this snow is
an asphalt lot that I think was probably used for basketball and things like that.
So repurposing this to add additional off-street parking.
Don't comply with the code because you can't have any parking in the rear yard,
although it's sort of an existing condition that we're going to be improving.
And same with business building services is not permitted in RSA 3.
We met with the Holmesburg Civic Association in person back in February.
We sent out mailers to all the near neighbors and received a letter of non-opposition from the community.
We also, as mentioned, really received a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Driscoll.
If we can promote Rustin Uller to go through the architectural plans, I think it's just also worth noting that Big Joe's Roofing is a union roofing company.
They have a location not far from this and are looking to expand their business, add a little bit more value to the neighborhood and additional employees.
And they've been successful to kind of grow their sort of homegrown companies.
So the community knew Joe and his team and so was really welcoming, especially.
The community knew Joe and his team and so was really welcoming, especially, you know, obviously it's kind of a sad situation to see a Boys and Girls Club not be able to continue to provide services to kids and youth in the area.
But it was time for them to kind of close their doors and they spent significant time vetting different potential buyers for this.
They wanted to make sure it was somebody who was going to be mindful of the community they felt comfortable with and also really didn't want to see the building be torn down.
The RSA 3 zoning really allows for one single-family house on this quite large lot, as you can see, and so keeping the building as much as possible, again, just a small demolition to do just for a garage door and leaving the building as is, you know, allows for the building to stay in place and obviously is less detrimental as far as, like, construction and impacts to the neighborhood.
um the alternative would be demolishing the building subdividing the lots and trying to build
new homes there um but this was just what some you know what was comfortable for the seller as
well as obviously being a long-standing warehouse that had a commercial-ish use um is the architect
on yes sir all right could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yeah rustin oler r-u-s-t-i-n last name where we're a firm to tell the truth told truth nothing but
the truth i do counsel um rustin can you just briefly go through the plans on the my screen
yeah sure uh so rachel has the site plan up uh as she mentioned um previously the entire front
of the lot was was paved um people kind of park there a little haphazardly and over the sidewalk
we're going to be cleaning that up legalizing the parking adding a dedicated ada space in adding
landscaping and landscape buffers to both sides of the parking reducing the overall curb cut
reporting the sidewalk all that's been approved by the streets department
with our preliminary application to them as part of our zoning app maintaining the gate and curb
cut in the rear of the building which you see at the top left corner and accessing additional
parking behind the building with additional landscape buffers and fencing to the neighbors
building stays as is there's a small one-story portion in the rear that's going to come down
it was a shed that was added later on not part of the primary structure of the building
but from a zoning standpoint that comes down interior trash storage interior loading
reach out if you want to flip through so just some existing aerial views of the site just so
you can orient yourselves existing building we do have a rendering so we plan to paint the building
um at a garage door add the landscaping we have that down further here's a color site plan
just so you can see what's happening also has a layout inside the building
A building has existing bathrooms, kitchenette, office space, all that will remain.
So no real alterations in the building other than the rink that was there comes out and, you know, storage racks go in, essentially.
So a huge improvement to the site and exterior of the building, though, as far as paving, sidewalks, landscaping, fencing.
No changes to the original overall structure.
So there's photos of the existing inside,
and then just the rendering of what's proposed.
Essentially, it's a roofing company,
so we'll put a new roof on the building,
paint the existing structure,
keep the existing entrance where it is,
and then add one new garage door.
I think that's it.
That's it, yeah.
okay you want to rachel you want to bring the owner on to adopt your
testimony yeah please i think kelly and joe should be on
please raise your virtual hands away to be sworn in
what is the owner's names again i'm kelly and joe she's calling in from
her cell phone
is it an eight three eight three um two six seven nine seven two two one four one
hold on i got a hand up from my joke on there i'm gonna promote them right now okay
Hold on, I've got a handout for my Joe Gandhi. I'm going to promote them right now.
see coming on all right you should be on me sure thank you
yes hey joe could you please uh state your name is spelled
all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes all right um could you turn your video on if possible or if you're in a car that's okay
no um okay all right rachel gotcha joe have you heard my testimony today do you believe it to be
true and accurate and do you adopt it as your own yes is there anything else you want to add
no okay questions from the board yes i have questions about the loading capacity i saw
your loading zone and I see the two new driveways and I have a question about the size trucks that
would be coming to the site um even for major deliveries and where they're going to be directed
yeah um so all Joe's work trucks are small so typical like pickup or van so his vehicles
aren't large and then deliveries are through a box truck so we'll be able to fit those in the
building and the box trucks will fit down mcmay uh no the main road they would come in through
the front yeah so yeah no issue with the box truck turning in or out um we went through turning radius
diagrams with those on the streets department as part of our app and then i see it on the site plan
but just to confirm what's the screening and the fence height between this property and the
the surrounding residential homes yeah uh it's just it's a six foot high fence um and all the
screening is landscaping um we went through that with the neighbors during our rco meeting and i
guess for uh for council or for mr gagney have you spoken with the residents specifically at
7762 ditman and 5419 mcminnomy street like have they seen the plans for the things that are going
to butt their property lines? So I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Joe, but at least two of the
Dittman Street neighbors, Dittman and McMenemy, came to the RCO meeting, and we also sent them
the plans. So their concern was the parking, you know, the traffic in and out. How is that going
to work turning in on that street? The 4519 McMenemy, there's renters that are there. So
joe went over and he can attest to this several times to try to have conversations with them but
because when we met with the rco actually on site prior to the community meeting that was one of
their concerns uh and we just didn't have the we were not able to reach anybody that was in ownership
um you know of specifically the 145 19 uh mcmenemy and i think the vote was like i think it was one
opposition and the rest were in support so um and the opposition wasn't either of those two
yeah so i know joe if you want to just um since you did the walking around if you want to just
um confirm what i said or or you know if there's something different can provide that as well
no so i actually went there twice and tried to make contact and i even left my card with my
number asking could they have the homeowner call me the actual owner of the property they were very
nice people the renters um and i never heard anything back and then on the dipman street
side, the actual adjoining property, same thing. It was a renter there. And, uh, I mean, very nice
guy, you know, uh, he didn't seem like he had any problem we were doing, but I asked him to have the
owner contact me and I never heard anything back from him. Okay. And then just because sight lines
like this is a very residential neighborhood and looking at aerials for the surrounding area,
it does look like there's a lot of children on the surrounding block. Are you putting any safety
provisions in place at the front of the um driveway on mc i cannot pronounce the name of
that street um the one that's not ditman and are there going to be any lights or cameras in that
side lot on the rear just because at night when you're not there that could become a this you
know a safety concern for the folks that live there so we will have lights and cameras that
So we will have lights and cameras that will be part of our construction documents, as well, you know, so security system lighting on the building, landscape lighting in the landscape so that it's safe back there.
It'll be part of our construction documents.
The rear parking is just for Joe's employees as well.
In and out, we went through the turning radius diagrams, line of sight diagrams with the streets department, which found it adequate.
it um the only other thing we would maybe recommend is just a mirror um if we if we determine that we
need it so that's just more visible for to see people coming right there's no fence no there
is a fence yeah not i mean sorry there's no gate that like closes that driveway when yeah it's
the gate it's current it's currently gated and we would keep the gate you're gonna keep the gate
okay yeah um i mean i think you guys have done a lot of work to try to talk to those homeowners
but i would say like it does look like both of those houses have children and so i would you
know maybe try one more time to just let them know because there'll be cars next door just as a
courtesy other questions from the board yeah we dropped off a letter also and still didn't hear
from anybody but i i got you on that was one of the things that we talked about quite a bit i'm
just trying to show if there was a photo of the gate just so you can see uh you had you had it in
your stuff rachel it's not in mine yeah in the beginning yeah i think i saw it when you showed
the photos i just wasn't yeah i see right here yeah it wasn't on the site plan yeah i said it
was being removed but yeah yeah yes um i have a question and uh i don't usually get into this but
with parking lots like this um with stormwater runoff and uh the issue of whether or not um
you're going to have or have considered using pervious kind of surfaces
instead of an impervious surface for the parking.
Yeah, we haven't specced anything yet, but that's definitely something we can look at.
So, but you – are you going to or what are we talking about here?
I mean, that's up to Joe as the owner of the building.
So, most of the paving on the front is existing.
The only new paving we'll be providing is some in the rear.
So, we can take a look at that and we can discuss that with them.
See what the costs are and everything like that.
I mean, but, you know, because of where you are and you're doing a bunch of screening anyhow, you know,
that I think would make this look a little bit better than, you know, just the fencing and a
bunch of trucks. Yeah, we can encourage that. We're providing a large amount of landscaping,
which would reduce a lot of runoff that we're currently having. And any new grading, we can
make sure we also pitch to that as well. So currently, none of that is landscaped. It's
mostly all hardscape that's right questions or comments from our attorney not at this time
or comments from the virtual audience for this audience here chair i have a hand up from uh
someone else named uh joe gania i don't know who this is i'm just gonna let them speak
that was the other one that that's me the owner okay all right thank you thank you all right um
you got uh jack delaney with their hand raised so i'll allow them to speak okay sure
jack they're coming back in as a panel sure i think he's done
can everyone hear me i i can could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
uh my name is jack delaney j-a-c-k-d-e-l-a-n-e-y you swear a firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do jack are you a neighbor uh i am not i'm actually
the uh i'm representing joe in the real estate transaction uh in this in this regard all right
uh so i'll give you a little bit of a background neighborhood guy i grew up playing no no no wait
wait um um rachel do we need this testimony no i mean jack's just gonna say he's in support of
the project okay good good jack yeah that's it neighborhood guy i grew up playing basketball
down here uh when when we went to make this transaction happen and the idea came uh across
my table it was more so about community and service and i figured there was no one better
to have in there than joe um this is more than a real estate transaction for all of us involved i
I think there's a lot of there's a lot of value we bring back to the community as well.
Like I said, being from the neighborhood, graduate from Father Judge, you know, active member of Steamfitters Local 420 still to this day.
active member of Steamfitters Local 420 still to this day. When I talked to Joe about this to begin
with, I think, like I said, it's a lot bigger vision than just a roofing company, right? The
proceeds from this are going to go to a scholarship fund for somebody to go to high school. That's
thanks to the Holmesburg Civic Association and the guys who were operating it prior to us. But
I just wanted to get on here at my two cents, and I want to say thank you to you guys.
and thank you very much for taking the time planning commission amy boy with the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning to the existing rsa3
residential single family while the existing building and parking are non-conforming the
proposed building services is not compatible with adjacent residences the planning commission
recommends that the board grant the requested variance for parking and the required setback
but deny the repressive variance for building services thank you i think i just would chairman
if i can just quickly uh respond obviously the hardship argument here is that you can't put a
single family home in a giant warehouse and so in order to meet the code requirements you have to
demo the structure subdivide the lots and then build new homes and so that's clearly not the
least uh minimum variance that we could ask for we're asking for a use variance and then as
as mentioned the to kind of refresh the parking and landscaping all right thank you so mi 2025
007 330 77 56 dipman street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes iowa and
vote is yes thank you counsel thank you all right so number nine mi 20 25 007 389 50 south second
street leonard altieri is the attorney there's unanimous support from old city district and a
letter of non-opposition from council member squall there's also nine form letters four from
the block mr altieri could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes mr chairman
Leonard Altieri, L-E-O-N-A-R-D. Last name is Altieri, A-L-T-I-E-R-I, the law firm of Claire
Harrison. Do you swear our firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Counselor, could you identify your client, a relationship to this property?
My client is Old City Tattoo LLC, which is owned and operated, or the sole owner and operator is
Jason Goldberg, who is seated to my left. And our vice chair has a few questions.
good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
i have and do you waive the read another visual and stipulate to its accuracy i do okay thank
you show your screen and proceed with the case again good afternoon everyone my name is leonard
out here at the law firm of claire harrison for the property of 50 south second street
um this is a very simple and straightforward application that we have here um we never we
never say that yeah i just have well we we try not to ever say that okay i hear you
you know i wish the ice cream person was giving out samples i'm i'm melting over here you know
how about the jumping up and down well yeah i'll skip that one yeah so um what we have here is and
i have it on the screen my client right now is operating uh old city tattoo out of the property
at 44 south second street which is located right here where my cursor is what he's seeking to do
is to shut down that business and jump over to where Panda T used to be, which is the 50 South
2nd Street. He's been operating in his current location for the past 27 years, which is essentially
more than half of his 50 years of living. When we were at the RCO meeting, which as the chairman
noted, was unanimous vote in favor of this relief, one of the members there who was a business owner
said, you know, Jason was a kid when he first started here. They feel like they all watched him
grow up they watched him develop this into a successful business they wanted to keep him
as i said he's a current owner of old city tattoo now he's got three other locations one in media
one in feasterville and then this one in old city the reason why he's moving is the building that
he's currently operating out of is for sale and so he wants to move to the 50 south second street
for kind of a two-fold purpose one just a better longevity uh with regards to the lease and then
also just square footage what he's operating with right now is around 750 square feet a new location
will have approximately uh 2 000 square feet the property is located in the cmx3 community
commercial mixed-use district and the prohibition on tattoo parlors is specifically in the center
city overlay district the old city residential supplemental use controls with regards to and
here's a refusal um this is a rough floor plan uh so right now he has seven tattoo artists he's
hoping to ideally expand that into 10 um with regards to piercing he doesn't offer it at the
hoping to ideally expand that into 10 with regards to piercing he doesn't offer it at the old city
location right now because from the department of health with regards to licensing they need
a separate room and they don't have that so with the new location as you can see here he hopes to
have a piercer uh on site uh for this location with regards to hours of operation it's no change
we are really just moving this from 44 south second street to 50 south second street uh and
doing renovations to the to the interior of this. So the hours of operation will be the same days
and then noon to 9 p.m. I have up right now the floor plan, a very rough version of it. So
essentially it shows you the front door. You have the lobby, the work area where the tattooists
tattoo artists would be, a private station, your private piercing area, a bathroom, etc.
etc. This is a rough rendering. This is actually done by, I think, ChatGPT, right? Or did you have
an architect do this? Your wife? That's a picture of the inside. So a rough idea of what we're
looking at. Right now, it is a vacant storefront. There's nothing in the store at all. So it's just
completely vacant. We did go to the RCO meeting on January 21st. Again, we do have a letter of
support unanimous support from the rco and then we also have the letter of non-opposition as the
chairman said from councilman's school's office in addition in addition to that we do have letters of
support from seven uh adjoining properties we have 46 south second street 48 south second street
which is directly adjacent to our to the subject property 56 52nd south second street which is on
the other side of the the property 56 south second street 60 south second street 123 chestnut and
201 Chestnut Street. Again, the property is located in CMX 3 zoning district, and the specific use is prohibited in the Old City Residential Supplemental Use Control overlay.
With that being said, Mr. Chairman, I'll have my clients sworn in and to adopt my testimony.
Can you lean forward and make sure the mic's on?
Okay. Could you state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
It's Jason Goldberg, G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counselor?
Jason, you were present when I made the testimony this afternoon.
And has everything you heard shown accurate to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
And if I called you to testify, would you adopt that as your own?
Is there anything else you'd like to add to the board?
Questions from the board.
So is this an expansion?
Are you moving two doors now?
I just wanted to move two doors down to a bigger location.
Got it.
And I'm on a month-to-month lease in my building right now.
And the landlord is trying to sell it for more than I can afford to buy it.
I understand.
Any other questions?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
None at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning to the existing CMX3 commercial mixed use.
The proposed use is in harmony with the spirit and purpose of the zoning code in the surrounding commercial corridor.
The planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variance for body art services.
MI 2025-007389-50 South 2nd Street, I vote yes.
I vote Johns, and my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
ryan mcadams my vote is yes ty wood my vote is yes thank you very much i'm sorry you had to wait
too long no no i appreciate it it gave me good ideas to take my daughter either the trampoline
plate thank you very much everyone how about the new age flavors i'm still stuck on that one
mr o'brien please
mi 2025 007 395 75 63 ridge avenue william o'brien is the attorney
good afternoon mr good afternoon sir could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer. W-I-L-L-I-A-M O'Brien O-V-R-I-E-N. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify your client, the relationship to the
property? My client is James Sullivan, the owner of 7563 Ridge Avenue. Right. I see there's a
unanimous non-opposition from Akbar Roxburgh Civic Association, 21 total votes. Our vice chair has
few questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance
of this area yes I did and do you waive the read another refusal and stipulate to his accuracy
I do okay you can I'll share your screen and proceed with your case thank you Mr. O'Brien
Can you raise your hand first so I can identify which one is you?
there's two william o'briens in the virtual audience yes
there's two of me
it's worse no the why the guy was here he just took the fee and left okay i'm rejoining now
it's coming up it it did and it disappeared
Bill, it was up and it disappeared.
Yeah, it had disappeared.
I'm not sure where it went.
I found it.
I think.
There we go.
So first I'll bring up the refusal.
There are two refusals. One is for the use. The property is used as an auto repair facility. And the district is residential. The second refusal is for some impermissible, impervious coverage.
uh next is the letter from the upper rockstar civic this is a location map from atlas you can
see the square that's where the property is uh just to the north you see ca1 this use would
be permitted but it's not permitted where it exists um the use let me show you the property real quick
I don't know where that is. I live up there.
There we go. Okay. So this is Ridge Avenue looking north.
Behind it, the white building is a storage facility. The red roof to the left of the garage is part of that storage facility.
next to the storage facility is a 7-eleven. This is looking the other way, the repair shop,
and you can see just past the repair shop this little house is from the early 18th century,
many of the historic structures on Ridge Avenue. This is the Ridge Avenue thematic historic
district. The use itself is a pre-code use. We haven't had one of those yet today. This is a
zoning record from August 22nd of 1934, a year after our zoning code was adopted. The issue at
this time was the issue, the current user, the current owner was operating an automobile graveyard
and the board determined that the only use that could be it would be allowed on this property
without a permit would be the former owner's gasoline service station and automobile
accessories so again this use clearly existed before 1934 it has continued without interruption
And the only change in character is sometime, I think, in the early 80s, the gas tanks were removed.
So you can't get gas there. You can only have your car repaired.
And that was that was 34 in.
In 57, there was a permit granted for the demolition of an existing house and the construction
of one-story block building and the installation of four tanks.
That's 57.
Then we move forward to 79.
there was a permit granted for a one-story rear addition to that one-story block building.
This is a great aerial photo that kind of puts that in perspective. You can see the larger
structure, portion of the structure here, that goes back to the 57. That was a one-story structure.
portion of the structure here that goes back to the 57 that was the one story structure
and then this is the rear addition allowed in 1979. What you also see in this picture is
the area to the right of the yellow line is in the Wissick and Watershed
the only area of the city that has impervious coverage limitations.
the strict application of the code we're 376 feet short of the required impervious coverage
which raises two issues one as compared to the entire lot that is a de minimis variance is 1.6
percent those 376 feet secondly there is a provision of the code that is contrary directly
contradictory to the impervious coverage requirement the code provides that any vehicle and repair
maintenance business number one all the automobiles have to be on the lot you can't
use the neighborhood to store your vehicles which is in place here and then secondly all areas of
the lot used for vehicle repair and maintenance storage of vehicles being repaired or undergoing
maintenance and all access driveways from the street shall be covered with hard top surface
of concrete bituminous concrete or asphalt so it's literally impossible to satisfy both sections of
the code but the good news is that by application of the landscape requirements of the code
And this site is now going to receive 32, let me make that a little bit larger, 32 new trees
and about 125 shrubs.
And as you can see, the perimeter along the north, east, south, and the west, except for the curb cuts, will all have a landscape buffer in which these trees and shrubs will be planted.
So if you consider that together with the dashed areas between, oh, let me mention, this is the proposed addition right here where my cursor is.
That's the 30 by 30 square foot addition in the rear, which will accommodate two more service bays so that there will actually be fewer cars parked on the lot because they'll be able to service them and move them.
They won't be waiting for service.
so it's a real win-win for the neighborhood this is this use has existed for nearly 100 years
um and now it's going to have a lot more foliage and uh not not have as many uh vehicles stored on
um i think that's my presentation my client is in the virtual audience mr sure why don't
we bring them in if you would raise your hand mr sullivan
they've been promoted they'll be coming back in and then and this is auto repair this is not uh
um like uh damage or damaged cars we're not painting we're not painting in there either
okay and it's just personal vehicles no trucks all right i got it okay
mr sullivan yes sir all right could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
james sullivan j-a-m-e-s sullivan is s-u-l-l-i-v-a-n do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do mr o'brien uh mr sullivan were you in the
virtual audience did you hear my testimony yes was it truthful yes and you adopted as your own
yes thank you questions from the board
So are you eliminating curb?
It seems to be one long ribbon curb.
Are you changing the curb cuts?
Let me bring up the photo.
I mean, to install the landscaping buffer along Ridge.
We had to provide that landscape buffer on Ridge Avenue.
okay right yeah but are you are you are you because they because the i look at the the
google image it looks like it's pretty much one long ribbon curb cut it is that will change with
the introduction of the landscape buffer there'll be two okay so okay so just have the two right
does the street has the streets have to re-approve that or no no it's existing okay all right all the
questions okay so you said um you're not doing body fenders repainting so what are you doing
so what are you doing you're changing tires you're changing oil what are you what are you doing and
you're changing tires you're changing oil what are you what are you doing
do you have like bays in there or how is that yes and i certainly recognize the limitations of my
expertise you said that yesterday too you did you did that yesterday too it was okay don't don't
go i asked mr sullivan to respond to ms gaston's question about the services your shop provides
uh it's just strictly um auto repair um in state inspections oil changes um check engine lights um
no body work at all okay and you do warranty work yes and and do you uh you have bays in here is that
yes we have four bays currently okay two more
there'll be two more here you can see from this image uh you can see the four bays there are two
here and then the 1979 edition there are two that enter from the back ah so this new edition
there'll be four bays that enter from the back ah okay all right so that's why you won't see
them as much and then the landscaping is going to make sure that you're not seeing those cards like
that on right but here here you can see this is the 79 edition this these are two bays that are
existing this is the original 1957 structure with two bays and this is the proposed structure with
two new bays entering from the rear okay all right thank you all right um hillary would you
would you look at the last paragraph there I don't I don't see us being
involved but I think I said sorry and with any there look at the paragraph on
the bottom that it basically the the RCO is telling with the ZBA included an
agreement right yes no we could not do that yeah we don't do that yeah all right
anything else um I just I just had a question because this is zoned RSA 3
rich requires parking but there was it didn't look like there were designated like parking
spaces on the lot aside from the bays like are people just parking on the lot just like employees
customers that sort of thing yeah there are there's no parking customer comes and drops their
car off and leaves they don't park and stay right no no but i mean the so if cars aren't in the base
or if or employees where like where are people parking uh if there's room on the lot an employee
can park there if not they'll park on the street okay okay bye thank you questions or comments
from the virtual audience yes i have a hand up from uh step i have a hand up sir from uh sarah
stevenson i'll go ahead and promote them
sarah stevenson hi sarah hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes it's sarah stevenson s-a-r-a-s-t-e-v-e-n-s-o-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do so are you a neighbor no i'm here representing the
friends the wissahick and watershed oh okay good good good please proceed yeah so um you know we
we understand that the the construction on this site would would change the impervious surface
from 45 of the site to 52.49 is that correct um it's not it's not the whole site um
As shown on this image, bear with me, about 20% of the site falls within the Wissick and watershed, and applying the impervious coverage limitations to that section of the lot, we're 376 feet short.
But as compared to the whole 23,400 square foot lot, it's only 1.06%.
that's within the watershed overlay no no only 5 000 feet of the 23 23 000 square foot lot is
within the watershed the area to the left of the yellow line okay all right and then when
you consider the introduction of impervious so we we had to um meet other landscape requirements so
I can direct your attention to this plan again so you can see the area that's
enclosed between the building that is going to be pervious this area in the
That is going to be pervious.
This area in the corner would be the northeast corner.
corner
That is all pervious.
This corner is pervious.
Now, this is the area roughly where my cursor is.
That's in the Wissick and Watership.
But all of this perimeter is also being introduced.
So at the end of the day, you look at the whole site.
it's i think a net win okay well um that's more clarification than i had before i got on the call
but i would just add that in addition to adding the landscaping which i think is excellent i would
ask similar to the to the good neighbor agreement i would just ask mr sullivan to also think about
mitigation plans that include considering where the stormwater is running off of the building
So if it's, you know, redirecting the downspouts or putting in rain barrels or as you're doing and in other places, consider where else you can be turning that impervious surface into something pervious in the areas that don't need to be below cars, as you stated, with that conflict.
So that's something that we would request on behalf of the watershed overlay.
Sarah, thank you very much for taking the time.
We appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you. Brian. Do you want to respond to that? No, I'll be advised.
Okay, all right. Um, okay. Where are we at planning commission?
Yes, is there anyone else in the audience? No further answer Mr. Chair. Thank you planning commission Amy board with the planning commission. The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the current RSA 3 residential single family to see a mix to commercial mixed use.
There is documented evidence of auto-servicing activities at this site since at least 1959.
The request to add impervious surface in the rear portion of the lot is not supported by evidence that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances that would prevent the property from being used in conformance with the impervious surface requirements of the Wissahickon Watershed Overlay.
Nor are there countermeasures proposed to manage additional stormwater resulting from excess impervious cover.
the planning commission recommends that the board grant their requested variants
for personal vehicle repair and deny their requested variants for impervious surface coverage
so mi2025-007-395-7563 bridge avenue i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my boot is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
Hi, Owen. My vote is yes to the use refusal, but no to the zoning refusal.
Have your vote.
Thank you very much.
All right. All right. We're going to take a five-minute break. Five-minute break.
I don't know if I could do that.
Right. Five-minute break. Right? Five minutes.
All right. Good afternoon, everyone.
my name is bill berkman and i will be chairing this meeting of the philadelphia zoning board of
adjustment with me is our board vice chair tanetta graham president mr chairman our board secretary
charlotte l gaston president mr board member michael johns president mr chairman board member
ty winn and a board member ryan mcadams mr chairman also present is our attorney hillary
emerson our executive director anne haggerty and our board administrator lakeisha dandy
recording of this hearing will be posted on the zba website by participating you consent to be
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Please remain there so we can account for you.
So I'm going to go over the list that we have for this afternoon.
So, number one is MI 2021-004-365-4501-03 Belgarage Street.
I vote to dismiss and waive and with a waiver of the two-year rule.
Michael Johns, I vote to dismiss and waiver of the two-year rule.
cheryl gaston i vote to dismiss with waiver the two-year rule it's not a graham i vote to dismiss
with wavering the two-year rule ryan mcadams i vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule
hi i want to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule and so number two mi 2024 002 779 6907 to 11
Tarsdale Avenue. I recommend a dismissal with waiver of the two-year rule.
John, I recommend a dismissal with a waiver of the two-year rule.
Cheryl Gaston, I recommend dismissal with waiver of the two-year rule.
Tanita Graham, I recommend dismissal with waiver of the two-year rule.
Tywin McAdams, I recommend a dismissal with waiver of the two-year rule.
Tywin, I recommend dismissal with waiver of the two-year rule.
And number three, MI 2024-006-394-1747 West Venango Street.
This case is continued attorney moving party.
And then number four, MI 2025-006-395-4020-58th Street.
No exhibits, first listing.
owner is Lycomen Investments, listed owner LaVar Scott.
Good evening, Mr. Chair.
This is Jason Handel, your co-host for this session.
There are no hands raised for the matter, and I do not see either
in the virtual audience today.
Thank you.
So MI 2025-006-395-4020-58th Street, this case is continued to August 19th, 2026 at 3.30, and Mark must be heard.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, I'm sorry.
Can we go back to the dismissals and just vote those as dismissed with two-year rule waived and not recommended?
Because we're making a decision that that language was recommendation for you.
So, yeah, I'm sorry for the confusion.
Right.
So, okay.
So I think I only did it on the second one or both?
Okay, sure.
MI 2021-004-365-4501-03 Belgrade Street, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Michael Johns, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Cheryl Gaston, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Tenetta Graham, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Ryan McAdams, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Tywin, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
And number number two, MI 2024-002779-6907-11, Tarsdale Avenue, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Michael Johns, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Cheryl Gaston, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Tana Graham, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Ryan McAdams, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Iowan, I vote to dismiss with waiver of the two-year rule.
Here you go. Thank you.
Thank you.
number number five mi2025-006-988-7975 oxford avenue joseph consul is the attorney
hi joe i think i i saw you earlier today right i mean it seems like a long time ago it does yeah
just for your just for the record could you please state your name because you've already
been sworn joseph console right could you um identify your client a relationship to the
property yeah my clients i'm mr james brody and he is the tenant hoping to um to run a coffee shop
in this location okay and um we have a letter of unanimous support from fox chase civic association
25 total votes um community was very receptive to having a coffee shop on the avenue and our
vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you put uh submitted your documents and exhibits
five days in advance of this hearing yes and do you waive the reading of the referral and
stipulate to its accuracy i do yes all right thank you to your screen and proceed with your case
All right, everyone. Joe Consul here for Mr. James Brody. He's on the call today. I think I just heard him raise his hand. We are seeking a ground floor commercial space for use as a coffee and prepared food shop. It's not the kind of place where they're going to make food.
they're going to have that, you know, prepared food purchased and brought in and sold at their
location. It's zoned CMX1, as you can see, and we're here seeking a special exception. We believe
this is a straightforward, low-impact application. This use would be conditionally permitted as a
special exception in CMX1, and we're here seeking the board's approval, as we don't believe this
provides or will cause any more of a detrimental impact than would any other similar use.
As mentioned, we got unanimous approval from the Fox Chase Civic Association.
Give you photos of the interior of the space. Here's what it looks like now.
we have a rendering which we'll get to in a second show our posters on the outside it's an all-state
office here's the layout we can come back to that if we need to
Here's the proposed rendering. As mentioned, small space, no kitchen.
A few other different angles here.
uh let's see we've got the lease which we we supplied proof of mailing
and our posters and anything else that might be relevant we already looked through these
and we're gonna look through that there's a tax clearance certificate
um yeah it's pretty straightforward i don't see um what else we would really
present to you proposed hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
no alcohol and low intensity use with community support with that i would call
mr james brody sure why don't you bring him on
i'll be coming back in there's a panel of short
are you there james yes i'm here okay sir could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer yes james brodie j-a-m-e-s-b-r-o-d-i-e right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes counsel james are you the applicant
and the tenant for the space at 79 75 oxford avenue yes are you seeking a special exception
to open a small coffee
and takeaway pastry shop
called Avec Coffee Company?
Avec Coffee Company?
And did you hear my testimony just now
regarding your application?
Do you adopt it as your own?
I have nothing further.
Questions from the board.
Questions or comments from our attorney,
Questions or comments from our attorney Hillary Emerson.
Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience.
I do not see any hands. Mr. chair, any commission.
Amy put with the planning commission, the comprehensive plan recommended no change in zoning to the previous to commercial mixed use.
the planning commission voted not to approve the down zoning of many cmx2 properties
to cmx1 in council district 10 in 2021 the proposed use will be allowed by right under cmx2
the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested special exception
for eating and drinking establishment mi2025-006-988-7975 oxford avenue i vote yes michael johns
My vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Sonetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Board.
Thank you.
Council?
Number 6, MI 2026, 00787, 226 Harvard Street, Harvey Street, David Orfanides is the attorney.
This is a reconsideration hearing.
So, counsel, could you state your name and you you're already been sworn once today. So just state your name for the record.
My name is David. The last name is both O R. P. H. A. N. I. D. E. S. Right. Mr. Orphanides. Could you identify your client in this case? Sure. My relationship to the property. Certainly.
I'm cutting everybody off today. Sorry. I'm eager to go. I apologize for cutting you off.
Sure. 226 W. Harvey ST LLC is the owner of the property. And as you know, in the past, we've had
there's several letters of opposition relative to this case, but this is a reconsideration,
them, right? Sure. The evidence and testimony presented at the November 19, 2025 hearing in
this matter are incorporated into the record for this hearing on reconsideration. The scope of
this hearing is limited to the presentation of supplemental evidence and testimony only. The way
we see it, there will be, you will make a presentation, there'll be questions from the
board there'd be public testimony and then planning okay so start your certainly um mr chairman um
members of the board uh the property in question 226 west harvey street um again is owned by my
client 226 w harvey st llc i i have with me uh brady martinez who is who is the entity he owns the
entities here with me today he appeared at the last hearing as well i have a couple of other
witnesses as well. I have the contractor who can just speak to some of the costs that are
associated with some of the different options regarding the number of units. I have Carlo
Batts who was before you yesterday who submitted an appraisal report. I have Brett Slackman who
provided the work with RATI and provided the financial analysis that was submitted with the
request for reconsideration. So I've listened to the recording from the last hearing. It was a
pretty basic presentation that was presented to the board. I think there is a basic misunderstanding
right from the beginning, and that's one of the things that I presented as my first point
in my request for reconsideration. This application involves a permit for a total of six units
at this property. At the time of the last hearing, the zoning archives for this property
only included the permit, and I can give you the number, but it's a permit from 2015 that
was approved by variants that went in front of the community group, and I believe they
were opposed to it, but the zoning board at the time voted to approve the variances for
six units and now it was first of all clear in that permit and in that approval it was change
it was taking four units in a daycare two units on the second floor two units on the third floor
and a daycare on the ground floor which had once been two units on the second floor two units on
the first floor units on the third floor so it had been six units since the 50s hadn't been I
I think, a single family since the thirties.
I have to look at my notes on that.
But a long time ago was one,
then from the fifties on it was six.
At some point then there was a daycare at 222
West Harvey Street, and they applied and they went into the expanded into the ground floor. And I thought expansion originally meant that they were the building next to it. They're actually separated by space, which is interesting. And I'll show you some street view images where you can actually see the sign for this daycare in front of our property in front of 226.
West Harvey Street and they applied
and they went into the expanded into the-
so at some point that daycare on the first floor and then how many units so there was it so there
were six and then they removed the two on the ground floor and put a date and the daycare that
was at 222 went into the ground floor at 226 and then at some point that daycare left and in 2015
the application it's on the application form itself it shows daycare ground floor two units
on the second two units on the third and then what they applied for in 2015 was two two and two
to put the two back that had been there before the daycare. So the variance, and because I
listened to the testimony, it seemed that some of the neighbors were going off into single family
land. This is a question of, is it going to be a four family with a vacant ground floor,
or are we going to allow additional units, residential units in the ground floor, or
maybe leave it open to someday be in the daycare again? So it's not a question of, is it going to
be six or one? Is it going to be six or two, six or three? It's a question of whether it's going to
be six, five, or four. And if it's left at four, then that means that the ground floor, and we're
going to have testimony, is going to be left vacant because of the financial costs of incorporating
the ground floor into one or the other of the second floor units. So that's number one. And
the reason why I was able to, we were able to figure this out is once I was retained in the
permit for 226 from 2015 they referenced a an expansion of daycare from the budding property
and again I thought it was this other side of the twin at 228 wasn't there 222 that's where we saw
these permits and those permits are included with my exhibit package that now provide this very
important history for this property it kind of completes the puzzle of how we got to where we
got and that also answers i think um board member win and board member john's points where they said
that there was a permit for only two units that's because the only thing that was being permitted
added was the two units at the ground floor so that's what the building permits that were
referenced that i've included in my exhibit book uh other permits i think there's a mechanical
permit or electrical permit that was issued following that 2015 variance and zoning permit
reference the six units. So just to clarify this, again, it's a question of four or five or six,
not going all the way down to one. Are the four units rented now?
No. So what happened was, and this is another part, I don't know that this completely came
through. So that developer started construction and started doing some work and ran out of money,
put it on the market with the permits. And my client paid, and he can testify to this,
based upon there being a zoning permit and building and other building permits, construction permits, and started work based upon the same.
And I guess some neighbors complained to L&I. L&I came down and said, your permits are no longer valid because he purchased it in the 20s.
And it had been more than so many years since there had been activity there.
And L&I deemed those permits from 2015 to have been expired.
now whether and that's the permit again that converted the ground floor the additional ground
the ground floor and the additional two units so when my client and you can hear his testimony but
to quickly summarize and you can adopt this is that he came in there were two units on the second two
units on the third and there had already been framing started at the ground floor to convert
the ground floor into two units and that's where he came in so he then continued to do the work to
renovate the property he was already doing some floor on the ground floor and and i have interior
photos like from when they went in the upper floors weren't in great shape the roof was damaged
he repaired the roof so elements were getting in through the roof elements were getting it through
the windows he put in all new windows he put in a new roof to make it weather tight but there he was
also going to have to repair the upper floors and i have the contractor who was doing the work here
as well so so again like i think it's very important here to set that table and understand
that you know what my client what happened what my client walked into and he walked into a building
that was not in great shape but four units on the upper floors and a ground floor that was
under construction but just so i'm clear but the building was an rsa3 it was an rsa3 but it had
been and then in the past i'd have to look at the zoning archives obviously would have been something
else like R9 or R9A, but it had been a variance. And the case law is clear. I mean, and I didn't
brief it, but if I need to brief it, I will. I briefed it and presented to this board in the
past. This issue comes up very often where somebody buys a property and they think it's
And they think it's 3 units and it's set up as 3 units and maybe, and they can't find any records and they can't, and they can't get a, um, and they can't get a rental license. Right?
three units and it's set up as three units and
So, sometimes we have to, or maybe there was a permit that was issued and people are saying it was abandoned or discontinued. And the case law is clear in Pennsylvania. It's a 2 prong test.
It's there is an intention to abandon an actual abandonment and here and not using the property is not.
abandonment. There's cases that talk about banks taking properties at foreclosure and
rental properties, apartment buildings, and because they're not in the business of renting
and managing properties, they sit vacant until they sell it to somebody who then, it doesn't
mean that any variances or approvals from before laps. Yeah, but it's vacant as an RSA, right?
No, so it's still RSA 5, but the four units were never abandoned. So the earlier variances
that predate the 2015, that go all the way back to the 50s.
It's our position that those variances were still intact
and that this property remained approved for four units at the second and third floor.
The question is, the permit, the variance that was granted to replace the ground floor daycare,
that lapsed by its own definition because the L&I said that they started construction.
but then i think so if you're going to argue that the the refusal is incorrect then we need
to have because the refusal says this is for multi-family household living six dwelling units
it doesn't differentiate between a prior approval for four and then two additional so if you were
going to make the argument that there's an error on the refusal then we need to have the city here
um a representative an attorney from the city to represent ellen i think what i'm saying is when
When he came back, it's still an RSA-5, right?
Right, but just because it's RSA-5, if it still has a valid variance for the four units, that doesn't change anything.
Well, apparently, LNI, at least on the face of the refusal, doesn't seem to believe so because it said you need a variance for six dwelling units.
I've never seen them when I add units, distinguish or differentiate.
They do.
I've not had them.
No, they're saying you need entirely new variance.
They clearly considered this. I mean, you couldn't go get a rental license for more than one unit at this property, I'm sure. So I think if they, and especially if they didn't let you have, you know, your building permits and whatnot, it seems like L&I deemed that the variance had lapsed on this property and perhaps the prior approvals, they may have been non-conforming.
they may have considered them abandoned, but according to the refusal, what's being requested
is six dwelling units at this property. So the building permit though is for an additional two.
So, and if you look at the zoning permit that was issued in 2015, it says six units. Right,
but it differentiates between the two additional units and the four units that were there. Not in
the permit language. Well, some of the information that I saw was very clear in like the application
that it was adding two additional units, but L&I for this particular application, L&I is saying
that you need a variance for all six units, and if you were to contest that, then we need to bring
the city in to discuss that. Because that's interesting, because I talked to the examiner
about this whole situation, and he never said anything about that, so. Well, I'm just saying
what's the paperwork say? I mean, the paperwork we have right now is what I'm saying. Well, it says
six but this but the zoning but here's the thing the zoning permit in 2015 said six but the building
permit was only for two so my point is that it's clear that that variance was you yeah answer
hillary's point yeah if you want to contend where where you are then we need to have the city come in
Thank you.
I mean, I, I think I didn't put in the application again, so I didn't put in the application. So I don't even know what the language on the actual application was like, whether they said 6 units or whether they distinguish the 4 and 2, um, most people don't when they do it online.
I upload an actual application. So you have something written. They put in the dialog box
and once you hit submit, you never see it again. But Ellen, I might be able to pull it up on Eclipse
But Ellen, I might be able to pull it up on Eclipse and see what that dialogue box was. And that might answer whether or not I even want to go forward with this underlying permit application and instead submit a new one that properly details the history here.
and see what that dialog box was.
okay i can tell you by looking at eclipse what was written in the description box by the applicant i
have to cross-reference this is the one the only one that's open um it says six family dwelling
multi-family dwelling in an existing structure zoning had been previously approved for the same
purpose i can see why somebody would without the background would write that but knowing what we
know i think that that's not accurate so then we may have to amend the application well you
You can you can try to amend it, but I don't know if Ellen, I would agree whether we're allowed to say because they may not agree with you that that that prior use was still in effect of the four units.
So I I can't. Okay, I understand. Yeah, I'm just going with what's on the refusal again.
I don't have access to that information, but our position is what I've stated once once like again, seeing the zoning permits and whatever.
So. So, Hillary, we could do a resumptive hearing for this. I've got to. David, you want to do you want to challenge the refusal? Well, I think now, like, if that's the interpretation, again, I have a different interpretation of it. But if that's your interpretation, then I think I'm going to I'm going to challenge it. Yes. And then I think but I think in the meantime, I think I need to talk to L&I as well and see what what the hell, even though it's written up that way, how
they're interpreting it because that might it starts as a challenge but then len and i can have
a conversation with lni and there's a chance that it may resolve well i mean you're still gonna you're
gonna still need you're gonna need a variance regardless whether you need six or you're asking
for two additions there's no doubt about that correct so um so so in the refusal that was
issued in 2015 or 2014 sorry for the 2015 case it says application is for increase in total number
of dwelling from four family to total six family dwelling, multifamily dwelling in an existing
structure. So that's what that refusal says. This refusal says for multifamily, six dwelling units.
So if you want to challenge that, then I do suggest a resumption and we'll ask
L&I's attorney to get involved. Okay. All right. And I guess I can also speak to the examiner and
see if he understanding it, he may change the wording of his refusal to correct it.
It's possible. I don't know that. Yeah. I mean, you can, you can ask.
they already corrected for the parking so i mean which was missed which i had them do you have that
refusal because i wasn't able to get that so apparently there's another refusal for this one
remember we added the remember we you and i both saw that the parking should have been included
lack of parking for the number of units right no i understand i understand that it's weird because
what happened is once the notice the decision i think was issued denying the appeal apparently
we can't get in and download uh the appeal or the decision that's the notice letter okay because i
andrew told me he changed it he didn't auto so i only yeah i i don't have a we don't have record
of another refusal being issued in this case i can double check that and i agree that that is missing
because this is an rsa3 all right yeah i mean maybe he changed it but i don't know that another
refusal was was issued i mean it would have only changed that it wouldn't have been okay all right
all right all right so you have to go home rolling so can we do this as part of reconsideration this
is reconsideration of the decision but i raised this point in my reconsideration so i i think we
can because normally we would separate this out but i think because this goes to the extent of
variance that's being requested we need to resolve this question prior to being able to just make a
decision on the merits and it goes also to you know least minimum and hardship and all of that
as well as to what's already there and what's being asked so i think unfortunately it's a
preliminary matter we do need to resolve that if it's being challenged and we i think we can
encompass it as a kind of preliminary issue in the merits of this case otherwise we would normally
separated because i'm still looking at this as a six unit justifying six units so that's that's
where we're coming from so to us we didn't see the distinction as being relevant but maybe by
laying that that groundwork there that that changed things because people were looking i mean the place
was vacant right never had any work done it's been vacant for that doesn't but in the case
i know that i know that but i'm saying maybe ellen i interpreted that a different way and
I don't know how they would know that one way or the other without some information, but then again, I've had these things.
All right. So here's where we are. We're going to have a resumptive hearing on July 7th, 2026 at 930 a.m.
on July 7th, 2026 at 9.30 a.m. And to the people in the back, I apologize. I know you've been here
the whole day. I'm very sorry, but we want to make sure we do this right. Well, if it's possible
that there's a change in the refusal, I wouldn't want you to testify. And then there's new
information and we already took testimony. So I'm very sorry, but we want to make sure we have
everything sorted out correctly so you're testifying on what is exactly before the
board. I can do that in a few moments. July 7, 2026 at 9.38.
I'm sure you take some antihistamines and, you know, when are you going to make settlement?
that. Never mind. Yeah, we'll rest over the weekend. Okay. You a lawyer representing you for that?
Who do you take for that?
You can ask to ask our attorney. Is there is is there anyone from the 330 list case
not been called and i do not see any hands okay and just so everybody knows i want to thank our
planning person here she could have worked from home today and decided to come in she's probably
the only person from planning that came to work today because they're doing work there so we thank
Thank you.