ZBA Hearing - April 8, 2026

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?

which

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.

Yep.

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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leave a message that includes your email address and the address of the property of the appeal case