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