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.