been previously been granted use variances and rental licenses for multifamily household use
with the same RSA 5 zoning designation. As you can see here, many properties on the immediate
block and surrounding blocks have been granted variances for multifamilies in the past. In some
cases property have been granted use for for more than two residential living units with the same
total square footage or in some cases less square footage per unit i'm now turning to our community
outreach efforts uh this is the notification letter that our office sent out on february 17th
in anticipation of our meeting with the east passion crossing civic association
We know that the community on March 9th received their unanimous letter of support, three actually abstained from the vote.
We know that the community on March 9th, where we see
Ms. McCarthy also spoke with neighbors before that meeting. She gathered 18 signatures of support from them.
Here we have the deed to the property, showing Ms. McCarthy taking title to 934 Tasker in November of 2015.
here we have our application for appeal and our project information form
here we have pictures of the zba notification posters notifying neighbors of our here and here
today this is our statement of real estate tax compliance and here we have our certificates of
mailing uh for the rco meeting um that we sent out to neighbors on february 17th
so uh with that i'd like to bring my client uh miss kellyan mccarthy she's in the virtual
audience uh i'll enter my testimony and answer any questions that the board sure
Thank you.
are you on she should be on that email
oh okay
Kelly Ann
here she is
yeah she is right here
hi Kelly could you unmute please
kelly mccoffee please unmute
here you go kelly
you're unmuted you should be able to speak
Kelly?
Hello?
Hi, yes.
Kelly, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Kelly Ann McCarthy.
K-E-L-L-I-A-N-N-E.
McCarthy, M-C-C-A-R-T-H-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
If possible, could you turn your video on?
okay wow all right council one why don't we start her i mean the video doesn't seem to be working
but see uh kelly have you had my testimony today i have and uh was it true and correct to the best
of your knowledge it was and would you adopt it as if it were your own i would great uh any questions
for the questions from the board go back to the plans i'm sorry no i just want to see the plans
we we kind of went through the plans up again and i was asking for trash for both units
kellyanne do you want to speak to the trash situation
um we plan on keeping the trash and enclosed receptacle out front
i plan to stay in the house so i will handle trash uh night um putting it out for collection
is there a space in the rear where you can store the trash instead of out front until trash day
for the first level yes but not for upstairs okay so is there a place in this uh the second
level where you can have interior trash storage until uh yes would you be amenable to that
i would okay thank you and the preference would be not having the first floor trash in the front
and you can throw it in the rear
until trash day. That would be great.
That's what we do.
Michael?
Yeah, I just wanted this. He kind of went through the
plans so quickly. I didn't get a
chance to kind of see them.
Yeah, sorry about that. Which page did you want to see?
No, I see the first floor plan.
Good doesn't
have access to our bedroom
access to our bedroom because the backyard was the second floor so you go upstairs and then what happens
because the backyard
was the second floor.
how come the stairs on the other side of the house now am i missing something
oh it should be flipped okay yeah
okay okay so the second and third floor is one unit correct correct okay
And board member Graham already mentioned about the interior storage for trash and a vented closet and no storage or trash out front, but in the rear for the first floor unit.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Is there access to the roof?
so that's not a spiral staircase
on that third floor plane
in the corner
it's a slight spiral staircase
from the second to the third floor
and then with the staircase
going down because there's two staircases
shown side by side
where does the other staircase go
one from the first floor to the second
and then there's second to third
Got it. So the spirals from the second and third. Understood. Yes. And the second floor unit, there's no washer or dryer? Not currently. Okay. And is there, do you think that you might put one in the future? Definitely. Okay. And then my second question is about the second and third floor units access to utilities. Are you planning to live on the first floor? Yes.
and then is it all electric uh electric and gas electric and gas okay so what is the plan for uh
the second floor and third floor unit if they need to access the pico and the pgw meters in the future
well i i will be in the first floor unit i plan to stay in the house so
I can I can assist with that at any time okay and then I think my last question is really about
like what's your what's driving your decision to want to do this well I would I would love to stay
in my neighborhood so doing this will allow me to offset the cost of maintaining my house and
give me some flexibility to stay here as I get older okay thank you I have no further questions
all right other questions questions from our attorney no questions at this time
questions or comments from the virtual audience chair i do not see any hands raised planning
commission you mean what oh well come on up
there you go hi my name is mary stump and they are down and relax sit down and relax
well we'll we'll watch you i'm gonna watch your purse when you talk i promise could you please
state your name and spell for the stop my name is mary stump m-a-r-y-s-t-u-m-p-f do you swear
or a firm that tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor
i am not a neighbor but i had a question well i live on i live on um the 1200 block of balesworth
street yeah sure that's fantastic i mean it's it's not immediately in that name it's a little
farther away yeah i just had a question about the um the uh petition that was um circulated
i didn't really get a chance to see a lot of the the addresses but i'm wondering are they
residents they do they are those from owners are they just from tenants or people that just happened
I think the owner gets it from the area right around so it could be you could have like I
thought it went pretty fast but I wasn't sure if there were like maybe uh three signatures from
one address I mean maybe not there's a lot of them but yeah but I don't know if those are just
tenants or are they I don't know people that are residents and you live at 12th and Ellsworth I do
that's a good distance away it is but yeah I just was curious because we had we had a doctor's
office that was switched from RSA five to a commercial on the corner and you know they
they did this petition and there were people that were just renters they didn't really own
the property okay well thank you very much everybody has it okay so questions or comments
will be the virtual planning commission that we do play the commission not yet
any commission planning commission amy boy for the planning commission the
comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning to the current RSA 5
To the current RSA 5 residential single-family, the appellant has not shown that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the zoning code.
residential single-family the appellant has not shown that there are
The Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the requested variance for two-family.
So, MI 2025-007-803-934 Tashkar Street, I vote yes with proviso.
first floor trash started stored in rear yard second floor start stored in unit
michael johnson my vote is yes with provisos
cheryl gaston my booty chest with provisos tenetta graham my vote is yes with provisos
i went my vote is yes with provisos thank you thank you my 2025 007 849 1801 east huntington
street and the two lawyers names we have is not they're not here so council just um
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes uh mr chair members of the
board brett feldman 1835 market street philadelphia pennsylvania 19103 i represent the applicant um
1801 Huntington, LLC, and it's Principal Jacob Roller, as well as the Legacy Culinary Group,
and its Chief Strategy Officer, Natasha Stoffer.
Hold on. Do you swear or affirm the tell-the-truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And I see there's support from Kensington Neighbors Association and also non-opposition
from Council Member Squilla. 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? Yes, we did. Okay. And do you waive the reading out of refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? I do. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with the case.
I'll share one second.
Again, Mr. Chair, Brett Feldman, I represent the applicant, property owner and the principal, Jacob Roller, as well as the tenant, Legacy Culinary Group and Strother Enterprises, passed up exhibits 1 through 13, which I'd ask to be incorporated into the record.
they are great um what this is an application uh to convert uh this and i think we've got some
boards uh that we use to the community group and i thought we would just bring them anyway today
uh this is an amazing historic building uh this is uh from the uh kensington textile bank from 1909
um it's it's been in the paper i think for the last couple years and articles about
um what mr roller wants to do and what miss strother wants to do here and her family business
but the idea is the two-story building the lower level is a we've already have approvals for a
commissary kitchen which would support Strother Enterprises which is a leading Philadelphia
food culinary group they as as Mr. Strother will will testify provide a lot of catering at the
convention center and the airport and now at the Cobbs Creek Golf Facility they'll be using
they'll finally have a permanent location for their cooking and culinary needs in a lower level.
And then the first floor is this magnificent yet deteriorating event space that that's what we want
to convert this into. You know, if you've been in Del Frisco's or Union Trust or any of those
amazing old bank spaces, that's really what we're envisioning here. We went through the historical
approval process. We did obtain historical approval for this, and now we're here for the
first floor event facility. You see the exhibits here, and I'll just start going through these here.
We have a great letter of support from the Preservation Alliance, Paul Stenke, Executive
Director, who talks all about the history of the building and how this is really just a perfect
adaptive reuse for such a building we went to the east kensington neighbors association
We have a letter of unanimous support with provisos from the EKNA.
we have a letter of unanimous support with provisos from the
We had a lot of neighbors who came right from those immediate blocks.
We discussed hours of operation and the valet parking arrangements and trash disposal.
And you'll see that in our proviso letter, which we've agreed to.
And that's the proviso letter there.
But just getting to the property itself, here we are on Kensington Avenue, East Huntington
and Harold, East Harold Street is on the other side.
That's the building right there.
The view from, I think it's from Huntington right there, this magnificent two-story building
with the mezzanine and then another view of the building and then really the magnificence
is really the interior of this building.
Again, it's to marvel that it's still there.
I think it's been empty, Jacob, how long?
Since the 90s now?
Since the 90s, this building has been empty and vacant.
We plan to clean it up
and really just let the magnificence of the interior
and the windows speak for itself here.
again just taking you through some of the interior pictures here's some of the exterior
pictures historical and and then more more current we are we are that that's the posting pictures
and we have been working to keep this as clean as possible you'll see this is some more recent
pictures that we went out there working with the community to fence this area in to clean it to
CLEAN IT UP. AND WE'VE BEEN, AGAIN, WORKING WITH ALL DIFFERENT CITY AGENCIES, AS YOU
KNOW, ON THAT AREA. IT'S BEEN A CHALLENGE. BUT REALLY WHAT IS EXCITED TO THE COMMUNITY
IS THE IDEA OF BRINGING LIFE AND VITALITY TO THIS BUILDING, WHICH WE THINK WILL BE CRITICAL
TO MAKING THIS IMMEDIATE LOCATION AS SAFE AND AS CLEAN AS POSSIBLE. JUST SOME REAL QUICK
pictures here of how we supported it here is here is the floor plan and let me let me just I guess
with the floor plan and Mr. I'm just gonna ask you now to just speak for a minute um sure could
you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes can you hear me yeah hello
Mr. Chairman and Board. Hello, Mr. Chairman and Board. How are you? I'm good. My name is Natasha, N-A-T-A-S-H-A, Strother, S-T-R-O-T-H-E-R. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told the truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Counsel? I think I mentioned already, but you are the Chief Strategy Officer for Strother Enterprises. I know you're always hesitant to talk about the family business and the history of the business,
But if you could just give the board a quick overview of what, over the last, I guess it's 30 years now, 40 years now, your family business has done, and what types of lines of business.
I know we've got the boards that have some of the logos and operations of what your family has done, but if you could just briefly.
Thank you. Thank you, Brett.
So Strather Enterprises, as it's pointed out on the board, we are a local business.
We've been around for close to 40 years.
We're a veteran-owned business, and we provide contract food services.
We started as a catering company in the mid-80s, and I'm part of that third generation of this
business.
So we started as a catering company, and we transitioned into contract food services.
And like Brett mentioned, we partner with some notable clients, whether it's the Pennsylvania
Convention Center Authority.
We've worked with most recently the Fittler Club at Cobb's Creek, the new Cobb's Creek
Golf Course.
We also own and operate several airport concessions here in the Philadelphia International Airport.
So we operate two subway locations and a Southeast Asian brand called Wind Kitchen.
We've partnered with Live Casino.