Good morning, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman.
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, Teneda Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
board member taiya when she she should be here any minute and our board member ryan mcadams
president mr chairman also here is our attorney hillary emerson our zoning board director aane
hagerty our board administrator lakeisha dandy recording of this hearing will be posted on the
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in case of an evacuate evacuation the rally point is love park directly across art street
Please remain there so we can account for you.
Let's look at our schedule for today.
Number three, MI 2025, 004-069, 5424 Valley Street.
This case is continued until 6-3-2026 at 2 p.m.
And number nine, MI-2025-006-889,
3001 Hellerman Street.
This case is continued until 6-3-2026 at 2 p.m.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
Good morning, Chair.
This is Jasmine, and I will be your co-host for today.
I see no hands at this time.
Okay, thank you.
We're going to start with number two, MI 2025 002 368 4821 Garden Street.
Al Nockamson is the attorney.
alan knockamson will be rejoining us as a panelist okay thank you mr knockam 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 about the truth i do
Mr. Nocklinson, this is a resumptive hearing.
You will give us an update on your presentation of the amended refusal.
There will be questions from the board.
There will be public testimony only limited to the amended refusal.
there will be public testimony only limited to the amended refusal and um planning will
i understand um planning may make a recommendation at a later date um yes i think planning just um
they want a chance to review the revised refusal and they'll just need so we won't vote on this
we'll wait for to hear from planning uh i just need to be promoted as a panelist so i can share
we'll take care of that and you're going to be held to a half hour i'm not going to need a half
an hour okay well we we think there may be other people that's why they're okay to be held to a half
hour um there there are quite a few uh letters of opposition as you're aware um did you recently
had another rco meeting we have not mr chair okay all right okay thank you all right
oh can i just be promoted as a panelist
yeah we'll we'll take care of that for you
Thank you.
it's not going to be before you start you can give us just a two-minute overview where
we were with this and where you are now yeah so mr. chair this is an icmx property on a
30,000 approximately 30,000 square foot lot has a long history of industrial use as a
painting and manufacture manufacture of painting products uh it's currently a vacant property
uh my client is and and we are surrounded with a lot of industrial or non-residential uses we do
have some residential uses nearby which are two-story residential single-family structures
my client originally proposed to have 48 dwelling units in a five-story building
with 54 parking spaces after meetings with the community they have elect and with three
commercial units there on the ground floor after meeting with the community we we downgraded the
density of this project for 24 units got rid of two floors of the of of the five floors so now
it's a three-story structure where the residential units are in the second and third floors the
commercial units on the ground floor there's a lobby there's a trash room and we increase the
amount of units from excuse me parking spaces from 54 to 57 so you have a basically over two
parking spaces per residential unit and then you have a few floating parking spaces for the
commercial unit as well. So in order to properly memorialize that, we received an amended refusal.
So originally our refusal, the first refusal, had a refusal for multifamily living where this is an
ICMX property where multifamily use is not allowed by rights. And then we had issues with our roof
deck and our front setback with our change in plans we also got rid of the roof deck access
structures as well so our revised refusal has now two refusals in it apparently the examiner
originally missed a side yard with refusal where eight feet is required by code where we are five
feet two inches at its smallest point but on the left hand side of the product the property which
has the commercial unit so if you look at the the and we can look at it quickly the site plan
it's an irregular shaped lot on this left hand side where i believe the side yard width at its
greatest point is 12 feet um so you know again from a undue hardship standpoint we believe that
we've met that burden because of the irregular shaped lot uh the secondary refusal again has
all to do with the multifamily living so we did receive you know prior to making these changes
a letter of opposition from the community and they went through the analysis of what
a letter of opposition from the community.
And they went through the analysis
of what would be required of us for undue hardship.
Ultimately, if you read the letter,
I don't think they have an issue with residential use.
They just wanted to have it as single family use.
And again, the lot width is 166 square feet.
Given the size of the lot,
we think it's more appropriate to have this as multi-family again to leverage because they also
said there's a parking situation in their neighborhood where there is you know not
enough parking in the neighborhood so by providing 57 off street parking spaces that would be a
better scenario for the community in terms of the parking situation so that's where we are that so
I just wanted to address the refusals, how we got from point A to point B, and we believe that multifamily use with off-street parking is closer to the zoning code classification of ICMX than single-family, because you can't go from industrial to single-family.
That's like polar opposites, so we think this is one step down in a way.
Thank you.
okay um do you want to bring your client on and adopt the test yes yes i think he did last time
but yes yeah well you change right uh yeah yeah i mean yes yeah okay uh can i have mr cadrew uh
virtually raise his hand he's the principal for 1934 diamond estate llc the owner of the property
hadrew will be joining us as a panelist
hello i'm here good morning good morning could you please state your name and spell it for the
stenographer gentian kadrio g-e-n-t-i-a-n less than k-a-d-r-i-o right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do counsel uh yes mr kadro you heard
everything I had to say today about your zoning matter yes as in true and
correct yes and the adopters your own testimony yes thank you all right
questions from the board I have a quick question do we know how many single
family homes would would fit in this space if it were single family units so
So if they would be 16 feet wide properties,
if this was an RSA five zoning classification,
you would get 10 single family properties,
but then the lot size would be almost 3000 square feet,
which is completely, because of how deep the lot goes.
So it would be out of character.
That's what we're dealing with too, a rather large lot.
So it just, it wouldn't make financial sense.
and i would ask mr kadru to confirm that from a from a dollar to cent standpoint mr kadru
would you be able to would it be feasible for you to build 10 single-family homes here
um no and also the parking situation which the community was very opposed of if you put a 16
feet house you can't really put a parking or you're gonna have to make a a big curb cut pretty
much and the parking is actually on the on my lot size side well the parking right now is on my lot
side so we're only using the driveway that's already there the curb cut that's already there
okay um other questions from the board
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time this question from the audience come on
Come on up. Yep. Good morning. Is that on? Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Michelle Minch, M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E, M-I-N-C-H.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, or nothing but the truth?
Okay, so your testimony should be on the new information that he just gave.
And then the second thing was we're trying to keep it tight so you've got a couple minutes, okay?
Thank you.
So I did submit.
I just want to touch on a few things that he brought up.
It is not vacant at this time.
He's currently running his electrical business.
out of the property so it does have use um i submitted the lni paperwork through the portal
there are nine current violations on the property okay that were just cited in january
so it's not a vacant property um i just want to clarify that also on the
so it's not a vacant property i just want to clarify that also on the record i wanted in our
community meetings and the last hearing no one had any parking concerns just so that's on the record
other than that i just had a statement um that i understand this was an investment and we all know
that investing is risky in my personal opinion this was a high risk investment as a developer
where he knowingly bought this property, zoned ICMX,
and not for what his plans are as residential commercial.
If I was investing this large amount of money,
I would personally would have did more research,
a market analysis, and a community outreach
to see if this project is even welcome or needed
in the Bridesburg community.
It is not the residents nor the community's responsibility
to make sure this is a profitable investment for him.
Our community has voiced that we need houses,
single family homes.
our city has voiced that we the citizens of philadelphia need more homes our own mayor
cheryl parker has stated that she wants homes for our citizens of philadelphia not apartments
so they can invest in their future i understand that this investor might not be able to do single
family homes at this time or as many single family homes so he gets a bigger return on his investment
but again that is not the resident nor the community's burden that is his if he is unable
to do that at this time it is requested that he drops the zoning appeal and leaves the property
zoned as icmx and continues to run his electrical business out of there as he has been doing
since october of 2025. no one in the community is opposed to him running a business out of
there and keeping it industrial as long as he is adhering to all lni codes and standards he
currently has the nine open lni violations which need to be rectified for the community and for
the business's own safety and along with this past week snowstorm the property has not been
properly shoveled we took pictures and submitted that as well so it's not showing good faith to
the community that he's even up keeping the property now going forward it would be more
important if there's going to be more people in cars that it'd be properly taken care of okay
thank you thank you very much do you have any questions no i think well why don't we do this
why don't we see if there's anyone else is there anyone else in the virtual audience
oh come on come on sure
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
i'm going to get a little closer to the mic that's no that's good go ahead margaret gary
m-a-r-g-a-r-e-t last name is a-g-u-i-r-r-e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes um so with what so the same issue you should testimony should be
on what he presented today not the past and the other thing is try to keep it to a few minutes
absolutely all right thank you so my biggest thing he said that he cannot put 10 properties there
because of parking concerns there's been other buildings built on richmond street which is
around the corner from us that have sorry that have um elevated housing and they have parking
in the back he's worried that the property is too big and he couldn't accommodate and that our
biggest concern in the neighborhood was parking which wasn't brought up at any of the meetings
that i've attended if you truly wanted to put 10 buildings there he could and put parking behind
there that's my biggest thing and i'm still concerned about the epa testing that we haven't
been said anything thank you very much for coming down is there anyone else in the audience the
virtual audience i have two hands chair okay but for now um barbara jackowitz i'm going to allow her
to speak
hello my name is barbara could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
it's barbara jackowitz b-a-r-b-a-r-a-j-a-c-k-o-w-i-c-z do you swear or affirm that tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth right i do um barbara uh we've had two people
testify already could you um please testify to anything different than what what we've already
heard and then give us your short synopsis of where you stand
yeah i'm against uh building the property uh the major concern of mine is the the epa
report that they submitted it's inaccurate there's lead paint and asbestos in our property
um no uh there's oil paint oil and paint tanks underneath the ground that was not mentioned in
oil and paint tanks underneath the ground that was not mentioned in the report okay um you know
of a report.
will this property be remediated and how will that affect the community all right thank you
Barbara thank you very much for taking the time next hand please D Watley is going to be allowed
the speech hello hi could you please state your name is bell for the sonographer d whatley w h a t
l e y um do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yeah we already had three people testify if you have anything different please tell us
and if not just give us your position on this okay okay so it was just already spoken about the uh
ground levels yeah that will be contaminated my also issue also i have is
if this gentleman cannot tell the truth about the violations that he received um
and working in in that building listen to me listen listen to me i don't think he's testified
relative to the violations today and what we want is what your comments are or what the lawyer had
today say today okay i just don't trust anything they say okay all right all right well thank you
very much for taking time to call it next hand please julie williams is going to be allowed to
speak hi
hello good morning hi good morning could you please state your name is bell for the sonographer
my name is julie williams j-u-l-i-e-w-i-l-l-i-a-m-s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do are you in favor of this project or against
i am not in favor of this project we are not northern liberties this will not be another
north gate okay so thank you listen listen to me julie listen to me your testimony has to be on
what he said today and we've already had four people testify to that so your your your testimony
is that you're not in favor of this project right correct all right thank you very much for calling
for calling us next hand please chair i have three hands remaining and marie is going to be allowed
to speak. Can you hear me? Hi, Ann Marie, could you please state your name and spell for the
sonographer? Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Ann Marie Zambalak. It's A-N-N-E-M-A-R-I-E,
last name Zambalak, S-Z-A-M-B-E-L-A-K. All right, all right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Are you in favor of this project or against?
i am against this project thank you very much for taking the time to cause next night please
but but listen to me you can but you you got to concentrate on what's not been said
give me the next hand he presented so i'm sorry can you hear me i can um i just want to just
two quick things um the renderings that he provided on the screen are not um factual the
street is much more larger on that just because i believe that was presented that was one piece
that i wanted to share and as far as the property that he said it goes too far back there's actually
an industrial property behind that sits behind that which would provide if he did single family
homes it would be provide an ample opportunity for a big family to be able to have space for
their children to grow and live there for the future all right thank you very much for taking
of time next hand please dennis mooney has been allowed to speak and chair i have two hands
remaining after this hello dennis i could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
dennis mooney d-e-n-n-i-s-m-o-o-n-e-y you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do mr mooney are you in favor of this project or against
no i am not in change all right thank you very much we appreciate your call the next hand
hearing for rentino has been allowed to speak and chair this is my late last hand that is up okay
thank you hello i could you please state your name is spelled for the star a a r e n
Hi, could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
K-A-R-E-N, Fiorentino, F-I-O-R-E-N-T-I-N-O.
All right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
I am not, and I'm talking, I question the parking spots.
Are those free parking spots that he's applying, giving to the residents, or is he going to charge them?
As in another property in Bridesburg, where the people do not pay because they're being charged, and then they park all over the street.
And that is a one-way street, a small one-way street that he wants to build on.
All right.
Mr. Forantino, thank you very much for taking the time to calls.
Mr. Nockamson, the Planning Commission will be, we're going to do a letter, am I correct?
right and what we'll do is we'll get back in a week next week we'll vote on next wednesday
yes um and i believe mr knockamson wanted an opportunity to respond to the comments
yeah can i just have a short sure are they done with the testimony there there's no more hands
all right good um so let me first address the violations as i i never stated that there were
no violations i looked at them while the testimony was going on dealt with the building like being
occupied and i would ask mr cadrew my understanding is that you go there periodically just to as an
office just to keep tabs on the property but you're not working there full time is that correct
yeah that's that's correct all right um okay now listen to me all right and then um in terms of
stating that there's a parking issue this is not our first project in brysburg
every time we present something there is always indication that there's an issue with parking this
time we're providing parking more than two to one now there's no issue with parking but i i'll read
the bridesburg community alliance letter where they where they answered you know state you know
commentary to this question will the variance you seek substantially increase
traffic congestion in public streets or place an undue burden on water sewer school park or other
public facilities um and i say no and in the in the application and say we must dispute this
response in addition to the massive traffic burden this project poses the bridesburg neighborhood
currently has one public elementary school which is also uh which is always at full capacity they
no longer have a catholic elementary school their concern is adding too many families to this
neighborhood. So by going to single family use, and we'll talk about how many single families you
can have with off-street parking, it's only going to create more of a burden than having an
apartment building. The apartment building, again, I could just go from life experiences.
You have to be able to develop roots in neighborhoods. You have to put young people
in neighborhoods and keep the older people who want to downsize in neighborhoods. When you don't
have apartment buildings, there's a lack of diversity in the housing stock. So there are
neighborhoods who will never grow or stay when you don't have apartments for their young people
and people are introduced to those neighborhoods and unfortunately there are people who eventually
can't walk the steps and things like that so how do you keep those people in neighborhoods
you have apartment buildings which have elevators to keep them in the neighborhoods they live their
whole lives in terms of how many units you can single family homes you can get with off street
parking yeah if you had a common drive aisle you can do that and and have parking in the rear
you would be taking at least one other, because it's 166 foot wide lot. You have to have 16 foot
wide for each unit if you're going RSA 5 standards. So you would lose one unit. So now you're down to
nine units of single family homes, and you have a lot that's almost 30,000 square feet. You would
have was that 3200 square feet per lot like that is completely out of character for this neighborhood
the the lot widths at length are 117 square feet so it would just be way too large not feasible
in terms of the epa report we provided a phase one according to our expert who we're relying
upon whether we're building you know a you know a multi-family building or potentially a single
family building we have to rely on that expert report where said that there was no indication
that there was any environmental impact to this property such that we needed a phase two
and finally in terms of the width of garden street it's 20 feet wide at least according
to my calculations when i measured it on atlas that's not a tiny side street it's not a huge
street by any means, but you have commercial properties that litter garden streets. So
But you have commercial properties that litter Garden Street.
So having residential use with not huge pickup trucks would be less of a burden to the street.
For all those reasons, I understand that this is a difficult situation in terms of, you know, the community opposition.
But this is an ICMX property.
Having a multifamily building is a slighter modification under the Philadelphia Zoning Code
than having nine single-family houses, which are out of character,
which their own community say they can't support through their school system.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
We've heard the testimony.
Where we're going to be with this is the Planning Commissioner
is going to do a letter on their position.
We will have that letter next Wednesday.
we will look at this whole thing at executive session and we will vote at 9 30 a.m. Thank you
thank you and thank you to all the people who testified. Number eight MI 2025 006 729 4255
Main Street. Robert Roderick L. Foxworth is the attorney and also Paul Toner.
good morning council good morning ladies and gentlemen boards uh my name is uh roderick
get that little closer to you okay uh roderick foxworth on behalf of best kept secret lounge
there at 4255 just for the record spell your name for the stenographer uh roderick's first name are
okay r-o-d-e-r-i-c-k last name foxworth f-o-x-w-o-r-t-h do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do uh mr toner could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer yes uh good morning mr chairman paul toner with the toner law group
for counsel for the mani young development corporation okay thank you um do you swear
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i did all right so for both of you um
mr chair i believe there's going to be a request for continuance oh it is
yes this is german we're actually requesting the 60-day continuance of this matter
is there another matter that's currently pending that has a direct direct bearing on this matter
okay all right so oh well thank you we appreciate that um all right so the date that i have now is
in june all right so i have a date here of uh there is a result that you want to do a
resumptive hearing okay all right so 4 7 20 26 at 9 30 a.m i thank you both really for uh
i was ready for like a long uh case here but we appreciate it i never make long presentations
are you under oath then that was only that was only on zoom thank you i appreciate it thank you
okay we'll go to number one mi 2024 006 713 2618 north 22nd street bianca and bobby basket are the
owners this is a resumptive hearing yeah sure and chair this is ian hegarty the director i will be
uh bringing the exhibits up on the screen for this application thank you hello
good morning good morning get that nice and close to the mic okay all right could you state your
name is spelled for the stenographer? Bianca Bosket, B-I-A-N-C-A. Right. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Okay. So this is a resumptive
hearing. And what we would do, what we hope is you give us an update of what you've done,
right? There'll be questions from the board. Then there will be questions from the public audience.
and then there'll be an update from planning okay okay all right so um and mr chair i just want to
note for the record we did receive a letter of support from swamp poodle with some provisos okay
let me from the summary of the right the rco summary did you receive a copy of that as well
no not yet he said she was going to send it to you guys yes we did receive it um last night
early this morning. Oh, y'all got it. Oh, I didn't check my email this morning. You got it this
morning? Yes. So, well, I can forward you a copy of it. Okay. Okay. So, you see it's up on the
audience here. Why don't you start? And get a little closer. Make sure you're, so tell us what
you've done since the last time and where, what we, what we have to hear. Well, I had to come back
Well, I had to come back because I had to add purpose, personal services or something you guys wanted me to do. This time I did have an RCO meeting. Last time I was the young lady that was trying to get an RCO and I had issues with that.
because I had to add purpose, personal service.
So I was able to execute everything. I did my RCO meeting. I mailed out all my paperwork to all the neighbors within 250 feet of my property. I'm here to fight to get my commercial zoning back because it was switched on me to RSA5 without my acknowledgement.
I have been a part of the community for over 14 years. I have had no issues with none of my
neighbors, and I'm just trying to expand when it comes to my licenses and different classes that
I want to do. I'm a part of Dobbins as well. I have a good relationship with the high school
that's across the street. I help with trash pickup normally on Harrow Street. We do like
cleanup days when it comes to trying to take care of our block i also pay for commercial trash even
though my zoning has been switched on me i still have to pay 500 a year so i do have trash cans
that get picked up that i pay outside of my other bills um and i i just did the same steps with
submitting my pictures um i was told about my zoning uh papers so i had to do that over again
make them you can do additional photos in there yes i do additional phone could you start showing
some photos that's where you posted right yes and it's more because i was told that it has to be
bigger and color all right we'll look at it what's that we're looking and that's the basement that
i'll be using likes for storage but the rco told me to include the basement in case i wanted to
expand so she told me to send you guys like pictures and stuff like that even if i'm not
using that so i submitted it as well okay i kind of like the same pictures i submitted as well on
november 18th for the last hearing what's that the first floor yes that's the first floor
that's the basement
that's in the basement too yes that's the basement
Those are all the photos that I have from the upload to or there are additional ones that you wanted to show today. Yes, I uploaded all my photos on the website.
Give me 1 second. I'll see if there anymore.
I uploaded the back door, the front.
the bear frooms i uploaded i don't know because i did it was it saturday or sunday
but it said that they got record of the pictures though but i have all of them on my phone
as well but i did upload those images for you guys
Thank you.
Okay, those are the only ones I'm seeing on this case.
Were there additional photos that were sent by email?
yes it was additional photos i did it on that um website where you just upload like
the images when i did my tax compliances and all my other paperwork
but i have everything in the file like if you need but but i submitted everything
hey are you going to look for that yes chair all right why don't we do this why don't we move on
to the next case we'll come back to you in about 15 20 minutes okay okay all right thank you
number four mi2025004101 5944 cala hill street erica taylor is the owner this is a pro se come on up
i mean erica taylor erica t a one of you
My name is Erica Taylor, E-R-I-C-A-T-A-Y-L-O.
Why don't you start over, pull that closer to you, make sure it's on, the green light should be on.
Good morning, my name is Erica Taylor, E-R-I-C-A-T-A-Y-L-O.
I am the owner of a non-profit community-based organization.
This particular project that I'm working on is a daycare, community daycare center.
Okay, could you, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Absolutely.
Do you have your documents?
I actually uploaded it to the portal as well. Yes. Okay. So the last, my last visit with you guys, I was told to get in contact with LNI. I contacted LNI. I got all the paperwork submitted. I contacted an architect, which we worked together. The floor plans were submitted to LNI.
um two weeks maybe two weeks later I received that the the plans need to be revised I reached
out to my architect several times come to find out two weeks ago I found out that he was detained
by ICE so I had to get a whole new architect I spoke with my examiner and they um I spoke with
my examiner and they gave me an extension they gave me an extension so I had to get another
architect my architect is going to submit those new floor plans to me I want to say maybe he said
my thursday friday this week so i'll be okay so we you're gonna we're gonna have to continue your
case i okay no i mean if that we you know if he submits them thursday and friday that today's
tuesday right so um but presumptive hearing all right so why don't we do this we'll we'll get you
in a little bit quicker we'll um because i did get all of the exit i have okay so what we'll do is
here's where we're going to be. So MI 2025, 004-101, 5944 Cal Hill Street. This case will
be continued to 4-7-2026 at 9.30 a.m. And then just check with the staff before him and make
sure you have everything and we'll go along with that. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for
all right um number five mi 2025 004 398 10012 sander meyer lane isaac slepner is the attorney
this is a resumptive hearing
isaac slepner will be rejoining us as a panelist
good morning members of the board good morning counsel could you please state your name and
spell for the sonographer yes isaac slepner i s a a c last name slepner s l e p n e r
I am counsel to the property owner of Mariam Star, LLC.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
All right.
There's unanimous support from Somerton.
Am I correct?
Correct.
And what you're going to do is give us a presentation of the supplemental information from the applicant.
Correct.
Questions from the board.
There will be public testimony limited to what you present today, and then planning may give us an update.
Understood, Mr. Chair.
At our initial hearing, the board had requested plans.
Just to refresh the board's memory, this is an application for a use variance.
The property is owned. I, too, and my client plans to open a takeout market, small grocery market, with a prep kitchen, no on-site seating, no liquor license, no tobacco license.
It did have unanimous support from Somerton Civic.
If I may share my screen, I would like to go through the plans.
And my client, Zakid Raskojehev, I'm sorry, Zakid, if I mangled your name, I apologize, is here, who is the principal of Mariam Starr.
And also our architect, James Ferreira, should be out there as well.
And why don't you go through the plans?
And if there's questions, you can bring your architect on.
Sure thing.
I'm going to go ahead and share my screen.
All right.
Thank you.
Here we go.
Okay, is everybody seeing that?
We do. Okay, great. We're up now. Yep. All right, so
Up here is a kind of gives you a synopsis of where it is at the site and the site itself is a strip shopping center and has been
So for a while I would say several decades here. We have our floor plans. So
Here we have our floor plans. So, this is the front of the store, Sandmeyer Lane.
This is the front of this
Here's a nice little rendering of it. This is what it will look like ideally when finished.
Over here you see you've got your front windows, your front door right here,
and then you've got shelving, shelves.
Here's a refrigerated unit back here, your cashier.
Then you've got a hallway back here, prep area, kitchen, and a restroom.
These are stairs to the basement.
Then your stairs to the basement lead.
Down here you've got your mechanicals.
I know it says living room.
This is more of just a general large open storage type of space.
Some more storage, storage, linen closet, employee area, and that's at basement level.
Over here, again, you've kind of got, just so you can see the square footage and where the doors are, here's the front door.
You've got just a large empty space that can be modified as needed, your stairs, your pattern room, your rear door for trash takeout,
and then your electrical, mechanical, basement, and some other configurations if need be.
these are renderings this is your first floor your ground level it's really a
one-story with a basement here's a side view elevation I know it says deck but
that's just ground level street level here's a left side side view we're
rear elevation with your rear door for trash takeout then these are some
renderings. So this is your prep kitchen, shelving, sink, range with hood. This is
the interior of the store area, your cashier's desk, shelving, and that's
looking from front to rear. Here's your interior of your restroom, rendering, and
And then these are some cross-sections. So as you can see, here is the ground level front with your big windows, your front door, customer area with your shelving and cashier, prep area, restroom, and then downstairs.
and then another 3D view with your storage in the basement and then some larger storage spaces and closets in the basement.
And then here's another angle of it. This is from the front with the wall cut off and you can see the store space, prep kitchen, bathroom, basement.
This is the placement of the store kind of within the strip center, and over here is, this is actually rear view.
That's your rear door for your trash takeout, your downstairs, mechanicals, and then towards the front of the store where the basement is storage.
Here's your market area, prep area, and powder room.
And then a few more rendering views.
This is your basement from front to rear.
this is your basement from rear to front and then this is sort of again the
basement from front to rear and again the basement more of a side view but this
is front and rear so those are our plans and I if the board has any questions I
think that would actually probably be a good time for that and I have my
architect here if uh if we need him well why don't you do this why don't you bring your client on
sure to adopt your testimony all right uh zakid you there
i have a hand up by the name of rasul that that is my client okay thank you
your client will be promoted to panelists
good morning good morning sir could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer
Zohid Rasul
Z-O-H-I-D
R-A-S-U-L
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth?
The whole truth is nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Counsel?
Okay. Zahid, are you the primary
member of Mariam Star LLC?
And Mariam Star LLC owns this property, correct?
And did you hear all of the testimony and see
and did you hear all of the testimony and see all of the exhibits that i've shown so far
all of the exhibits that I've shown so far?
yes and do you um was all of that true and correct to the best of your knowledge
yes and would you adopt my testimony as though you gave it yourself today yes thank you questions
from the board yes is all of the exhaust being vented through the roof or the rear
the my understanding and i have a photo of this is that the exhaust goes through the roof but
zakid you may be able to speak to this and i think our architect may be as well
i can go through my photos um i mean i could take you through all the photos
what money is your client so zakid is does it vent through the roof is that the how it is situated
yes uh all uh my neighborhood over the setup uh uh you know uh kitchen hood and we will do the same
things yes all the photo you will see yes that's correct and there's a photo of the exhaust set up
for um the commercial kitchen type of use that's correct and the previous use of this property was
also a commercial kitchen or are we adding the hot cooking on site the
immediate previous use I don't believe was but as a kid was it used as a
kitchen at some point in the past and you're going to use it again as a
kitchen yes but we you know focusing only market first it's not gonna be a
full service restaurant they're going to make they're going to prep food that's correct and
it's not the dining restaurant also it's not gonna be i understand that but you're still
making hot food on site and then selling it out of the deli side right correct uh yes
all right and i guess my question is was this already a commercial kitchen like was there
already or do you have to do like construction to allow this property to be able to uh support that
use uh yes okay other questions questions from our attorney hillary emerson um just uh just
wanted to verify so this this use is for the entire property the entire structure there's not
any other uses in this structure correct that's good thank you questions or comments from the
virtual audience I see no hands at this time chair well any Commission do you already to
have you already taken a position we have not share okay sure uh good morning chairman David
effecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir I do please proceed thank you sir
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from I2, medium industrial, to CMX2, commercial mixed use.
The city rezoned this neighborhood in 1978, and a council-supported map change.
The proposed use would be allowed by right under the proposed zoning and is consistent with the configuration of the current structure.
The city planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variance for retail sales of food and beverages.
Thank you.
mi2025-004-398-10012 santa meyer lane i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
brian mcadams my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you um all right thank you board
thank you do you have your photos when they come up
just for the record state your name again you've already been sworn
Bianca Buskett right um so why don't you start your presentation you know we've and Mr. Chair
just a note for the um stenographer we're going back to number one 2618 North 22nd Street oh thank
you so that's the picture of the bathroom i have two bathrooms in the property one upstairs and
one also downstairs if someone wanted to use it downstairs um so i have wrote something down
did you want me to read it well what i want you to do is you you were here once before yes just
give us an update of what you've done since um right and the photos and things of that nature
okay i painted everything over i painted my floors um which are epoxy floors
I painted everything over. I painted my floors, which are epoxy floors now, and I just added
lighting and just, that's pretty much about it that I did. I didn't do too much, but I do plan
on like having my different classes and stuff because I was told from state boards that my
building was too small because my plan was to do a hair school, but they said that the space of my
building is not enough you have to have 2600 square footage or more to do an actual hair school
but i'm licensed to be able to do classes so this has been like a big struggle with
getting my zoning change and i didn't know all these years i did not know i wasn't
informed or anything how long have you been in the building i've owned a building for 16 years
i've been in the building it would be 15 14 years may 5th may 5th it'll be 14 years all right and
i've been of involved with the community i did book bag drives i also get i employed a lot of
the youth in the community like i'm really involved i don't have any you're doing wellness issues and
fitness issues yes right and then you're giving instructions on how to take care of hair too i
guess what right yes but you don't have you're not having you're not licensed to have a school
well you know you cannot have a school because it's not yeah i'm not licensed to have a school
but i am a life goes through the photos goes through the photos okay so that's the back room
that's a that's an extra entrance so if you walk all the way through the building you can enter out
that door right so the building has two separate entrants it has that back room and then i also
submitted a photo of the front of the building um front door and why don't we move the photo stroke
that's the um bathroom on the first floor right
that's the first that's the first floor and then it's it's a it's and this has been like
this for a while the way it's say it again this has been in this situation for a while this yes
the way it's yes okay and i have tables and chairs too that i pulled up in our store downstairs
and whatever that's a window right there to harrow street i took another picture and
and uploaded it and sent it to you guys
that's the bathroom in the basement okay i don't plan to use the basement too much but they told
me to include it in it to you guys that's in the basement too yes okay and i'm waiting for
the front door like the front of the building because that was uploaded as well
but that's the those are the shutters that's the front door that's the first
entrance of the building the second floor has an apartment yes do you live there yes okay
so you're coming here for the first the the first floor in the basement
yes that's what this is of a wellness center and things that nature yes sir
all right questions from the board i don't see my other pictures that i submitted
well i think you had the first which are hours of operation well my hours operation
hours say it again sir a proposed hours of operation um my proposed hours of operation
i would like to do probably monday through friday like 9 a.m to 10 p.m i wouldn't probably like use
all that but i was told to like give like a estimate to you guys because i might not need
all those hours but and then on Saturday and Sunday I was going to do like nine to
six or nine to seven nine to seven for Saturday and Sunday
Hillary is there anything relative to the hours of operation and the provisors
um the RCO didn't mention as a proviso the hours that were stated by the applicant at the hearing
so okay all right thank you specify they also said something about a trash management yes again
was not not specific um about you know where trash was stored or anything like that start on the side
of the building i have two i have two commercial trash cans that i'll pay 500 for and i also have
a recycling bin so i i keep up with the property i've always has oh okay other questions
questions from our attorney um not a question just wanted to to note for the record um for
the board that uh because there are multiple principal uses at this property that that
was not included on the refusal as a refusal but if the board grants that will be important
it was not included on the refusal as a refusal but if the board grants that will be incorporated
okay but today it's just first floor basement um correct okay yes but then it's multiple we're
ending up with we have to list the times too um it is up to the board but that is typically an
enforceable provides it's ours operation right questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time chair 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 2014 in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan
at that time this property was zoned cmx2 commercial mixed use the city issued a permit
in 2009 for personal services and a permanent in 2011 for another commercial use the proposed
used is in keeping with documented prior use the city planning commission recommends the board
grant the requested use variants for personal services and other uses described in the
appellant's testimony so mi 2024 006713 2618 north 22nd street i vote yes with provisos first floor
and basement only and hours of operation monday to friday 9a to 10p and saturday and sunday 9a to 7p
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisos.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with provisos.
Sonetta Graham, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with provisos.
Tyia Nguyen, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh, you don't have to cry.
I mean, you know, you're...
Thank you so much.
Right, right.
I'm done?
i got another question too because since they switched my zoning to residential rsa5
i've been i had to pay ten thousand dollars last year for my trash i was informed that
since it was a rsa5 i was not supposed to be in charge for commercial trash pickup is that true
uh you know what i'm not sure okay yeah okay yeah but congratulations thank you so when i
would i get my zoning papers and stuff all right thank you so much thank you
oh okay so uh number nine and number seven together so number six mi2025 004 494
224-2247 Rear East Roosevelt Boulevard, and number 7, MI2025-004-495-2429 Rear East Roosevelt Boulevard.
David Orphanides is the attorney.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Good morning, counsel. Could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
Certainly. My name is David Orphanides. Last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Mr. Orphanides, I have a letter of opposition from Northeast Community Civic and a letter of opposition from Councilmember Driscoll. Is there any other RCO information?
What are the dates of those letters? Do you mind?
those are the i don't think we've received any um new letters since the there was a meeting last
month i believe yeah earlier in january right those are the the prior letters um and i followed
up i did speak with stan sawinski from council member driscoll's office yesterday he was waiting
to hear from neca um and um and i exchanged emails telephone messages and text messages with
uh thomas naville but um are they on the because if they're if they're still opposed my presentation
is obviously going to be much different than if they've changed their position based upon
we had we had a sec we had a second community group meeting and beginning of january and like
the first meeting at the end of october nobody showed up um to to say in favor or against
um the letters that you have right now from um neca dated november 30th references negative
feedback in regards to the project but that happened outside of the community group meeting
um so you know i'd be interested to hear if they're still opposed or because we've made
changes to the project you want to continue your case to see where they are i mean i'm just going
i mean i'm just going to go forward i just was going to give them an opportunity to speak up now
to go forward i just was going to give them an opportunity to speak up now because that might
because that might affect how i present but so i think i think we also this is going to be held
for an amended refusal am i correct well i again i don't know so let me explain so this application
why don't you start your presentation yeah let me start it and i'll and i'm going to get to
this real quickly so let me share my let me share my screen
okay can you see that i can't okay so the uh this is a photograph of the two properties 92 47
r east roosevelt boulevard is on the right with the paddy wax signs on top of the gate and 92 49
r is on the left east roosevelt boulevard is on the left um they're two vacant lots uh apparently
about 20 years ago, and I'll show you some aerial photographs, these two buildings were destroyed
by a fire. They've remained in this condition for approximately 20 years. The building to the left,
which is used as a gym, Body Works, excuse me, I have a bit of a cold, was also damaged in the fire
but was rebuilt since that time. I have had a Zoom call with the owners of that building since
our last zoning board hearing, which I can share with the board. The original application
which I can show you right here, was to build two buildings on each lot.
Those buildings were to be commercial, non-residential at the ground floor and cellar.
And then the upper floors were to be two apartments on each property, identical buildings.
And you can see here the site plan.
There was roof decks off the back for the residentials and a roof deck on top of the pilot house.
here's what the color elevations look like from the front there's a little bit of a court in the
front to create windows in on the sides here's the rear with the decks and the pilot house and
here were the floor plans you can see here the cellar the ground floor which is vacant commercial
and then the residential units on each of the one on each of the floors on the second and third floor
flats above with the roof deck. The original refusal, this property is on CA2 and in CA2
residential uses are not permitted. So each of the applications received a refusal for that.
And then on top of that, each application received a refusal for not having required
accessory parking. Now in CA2, the parking is determined not necessarily by the use,
but by the amount or square footage of net leasable area. And I can show you that here
at tab D4 at table 148025. You can see here for the first 100,000 square feet in that leasable
area for every 1,000 square feet of that first 100,000 square feet of net leasable area.
Four accessory parking spaces are required. These lots, as you can see on the site plan, and I'll show you on the aerials, they're 70 feet deep, all of them.
There's a string of 15 or 16 properties that are looking to be in an island behind the Northeast Shopping Center off of Roosevelt Boulevard.
At one time, there was a street, Dietrich Street, that passed in front of them that was subsequently stricken from the city plan.
And now they're kind of floating in the parking lots of the shopping centers that surround them.
None of the properties have any on-site parking.
All of the buildings in this strip, and you'll see in a little bit, have buildings that go from front to back.
and then with blacktop and parking areas and drive aisles for the parking areas to the front and rear.
So the original refusal cited, just like the other properties, there was no on-site parking, and they had four.
Because of the amount of net leasable area, the examiner wrote up that there were four.
Fortunately, I did the calculations, and it turned out that the amount was actually,
the amount of required off-street parking was more than that.
They issued a revised corrected refusal on 1210.
They said the number of parking spaces was 12, which was not correct.
Hopefully you have a corrected refusal dated the 7th, which has 8, which is the correct for the amount of net leasable area.
We presented the Astita Community Group at the first meeting on October 28th.
And at that time, even though the refusal hadn't been corrected, I advised them of the number of off-street parking spaces that required that,
But unlike the refusal, which stated four, it was actually eight for property for a total of 16.
It was made clear to us that, and during my conversation with the owner of the gym next door, the Zoom call with the owners, that they were not, there didn't seem to be a favorable view of the use of the property.
that they were not there didn't seem to be a favorable view of the use of the properties
for residential purposes so we have agreed to strike that from the application
and we did present that at the beginning of january at that community group meeting
on january 14th and what we presented was a different building um doesn't have decks off
the back it doesn't have a roof deck it's all vacant so with it's a use registration permit
it would be required prior to occupancy.
If it's a use that's permitted in CA2, it would be by right.
If it's not a use that's permitted in CA2,
it would have to go back through this process.
We presented these drawings.
The amount, what's important is,
so this eliminates the refusal for the residential use.
It does not change the amount of off-street parking
that's required because the amount of net leasable area
hasn't changed to the point
where it actually requires more off-street parking.
So it's essentially now looks a little bit different in the front.
It doesn't have that cut out in the front of the middle at the second and third floors,
but same materials, same ground floor storefront, same materials at the rear.
And then the floor plans, you can see at each level, if I were to zoom in,
it would say vacant use registration required prior to occupancy.
And each level, we've provided the gross floor area and then that leasable area.
We believe that with these changes, they address the concerns of the community regarding the use of the property for residential, for apartments, apartments or condos.
And and given that the other properties of the other commercial properties on this strip, which I'll show you in a second, don't have any off street parking, that there's no way to provide any off street parking on these properties other than to use the whole ground floor from the front as a garage door, which I don't think does anybody any favors, whether it's the other commercial businesses that are located there.
There is a sidewalk that's located in front of those businesses, which I'll show you in a second.
It doesn't make any sense.
There is parking for the other properties.
We're not sure right now where the guests or the customers of the other commercial uses on this strip park their cars.
We believe they park in the rear of the shopping center, the Northeast Shopping Center.
I did contact them.
They weren't interested in leasing any spaces.
My client does, unlike any of the other properties that are located on this strip, my client, I believe, my client reached out to a nearby property located behind us at 9280 Marshall Street, and he secured a letter of intent for them to lease to us the number of parking spaces that we require on site.
Obviously, this is not a zoning classification CA2, like CMX 3 or 4 or 5, that allows off-site parking to comply with the accessory parking requirements.
But in all material aspects or respects, we comply with that.
It's within 1,000 feet.
It's actually located right behind our property, and I'll show you that in a minute.
So real quickly, these are the two properties right here.
and you can see the strip of buildings that you see right here the arp ours is located right in
the middle of that um a little closer up and i'll show you pictures these are all commercial
different business operations ours is right here um there's a free library right here there's a
mosque that's right here uh i believe just like i did when i went and took my pictures that i
It's the customers of these properties are parking here somewhere in this area.
These are the backs.
Their properties do not extend any further than the rears of the buildings.
So all these buildings and the uses occupy 100% of the lot coverage, and they don't have any on-site parking.
And you can just see a little closer.
And I'll show you in a second.
This is what's called, strangely, it's hard to see.
There's a car wash here, and then there's a property known as 9280 Marshall Street.
So at one point, this was Dietrich Street,
and it was stricken,
and it ran all the way out to Welsh Road.
And then there was Marshall Street that ran back here.
So, and you can see it's all been consumed
or taken up by this shopping center.
I do have the historical aerials that show,
about in 2007, I can't tell if this is the point
where it was after the fire,
But clearly after, it's hard to tell here, but by 2010, and I believe in 2008, you can see right here, the property was a vacant lot, which shows how long this has been a longstanding vacant lot.
There was an attempt to pull a zoning permit back in 21 by the prior owner of the property.
to pull a zoning permit back in 21 by the prior owner of the property to develop the property as
a one-story building. They weren't able to make that work for financial reasons and ended up
selling the property to my client. Again, I've gone through the notices of refusal.
We believe that with the net leasable area of the new building, we are not increasing
the amount of parking that's required.
In terms of the off-site parking,
the arrangement we have with 9280 Marshall Street,
here you can see this is 9280 Marshall Street
back in this area, and here's the zoning map.
So our properties are, I should have marked this,
is this property here and this property here.
We're 7 and 8th in from the end, the northern end.
And so we have a letter of intent here for them
to rent us the number of up to 16 parking spaces because at the time um you know that's that's
currently what we have in the in the notice of refusal um here's and that's david do me a favor
could you go back a minute what's that long white strip behind the building uh in what picture well
with that picture okay is that a tractor trailer yeah so these are tractor trailers so what's
interesting is that well I don't know if you'll find it interesting so Alamov transport who 9280
um is this is their property and this is where they're storing their trucks
I they I think that in talking to the owner of that property and I'm testifying here
um I have spoken with him and uh he believed that the prior owner of the property uh had an
arrangement with this property owner to park his tractor trailers there he does not and since that
time the owner of the property behind us um has roped off and if i can show you here
there you can see they've roped off that's the transport you can see here this is the gym
these are our two vacant lots and so they have since roped off the area behind us
my client has been in discussions with the owner of this property behind us regarding actually
allowing us to park there and he can testify regarding um his discussions at the end i
believe they're close to an arrangement and discussion maybe they just haven't memorialized
it with the letter of intent yet but so we at one point i think alamov was parking their tractor
trailers there because they believed look at the striping um that they were allowed to do so
And since that time, it's been roped off or chained off and they're no longer parking there.
Okay, does that answer your question?
Yeah, it does.
Okay, great.
And anyway, so back to the Alamov, they own 9280 Marshall.
Here's the deed showing that they own.
They are the entity that signed the letter of intent.
And I included the zoning code provision regarding offsite parking.
again it doesn't apply to the ca2 zoning district but we do comply because it's ca2 ca2 and it says
it has to be located within a thousand feet and it has to be a property that either is already
approved for accessory non-accessory off-speed parking which this would be or is zoning classified
that it could be uh zoned by right um as such and ca2 does allow non-accessory parking as a matter
of rate uh i've included the deed for the property showing my client purchased the property in 2023
both properties uh that tab g tab h are our appeals tab i are two tax clearances tab j
or example are the hearing notices for 9247 and 9249 the posting of the properties um in 9247 here
and then 9249 here with the notices of the latest notices of refusal and then at tab l
we have the um the email from the planning commission designating uh neca as the coordinating
rco we have the list of addresses to which uh we mailed there weren't a lot of addresses as you can
imagine within the 250 foot radius a lot of that is just shopping center but they did receive the
notice is we i've not received any communications from anybody directly the only communications
i've had again were the was a zoom call between the first community group meeting and the second
community group meeting with the owners of the gym at 9251 and to testify i will say their concerns
were largely were the residential use which i advised them we were eliminating and then they
were concerned that when we built 9249R, if we were to build it, that we would not utilize
the wall that they, the cinder block wall that they built when they rebuilt their, they
erected, when they rebuilt their property.
And I advise them we wouldn't be.
It'll be a free, two free sanding structures that'll be erected and it'll be sealed where
um that'll be erected and it'll be sealed where they where they come together but we won't be
they, where they come together.
pocketing in or hanging off of the side of their building and they seem to be satisfied they did
not show up at the second community group meeting that we had at the beginning of uh January again
here's the the 14303 for the meeting we had back in October and then the 14303 notice we had um
back in um uh back in the oops right there uh back in january there you go on january 14.
so uh we have one refusal we left which is the parking refusal uh it's essentially impossible
to comply with that um given the sizes of the properties given how the properties are situated
with what's located around them and we believe that um and and we and the surrounding properties
don't have any off-street parking for any of their uses either as far as i know we're the only use
and the only properties that have arrangements um with any of the surrounding properties for
off-site parking and i'm just showing you some other pictures of the strip here's the the library
Here's the mosque that's at the end. There have been reported issues with the mosque on Friday afternoons. People parking there were not related to them, and I believe they're working on an arrangement there. And this is the back of the Northeast Shopping Center that I think some people are parking when they come. And here are the other businesses. That's the car wash. And here's the other businesses on the rest of the Strip.
and there's the gym that's located in excess this property is also presently vacant i believe that
was destroyed in the fire as well and that has not been rebuilt and redeveloped since then
so for those reasons we believe we comply with the criteria for the granting of the variance here
long-standing vacant blighted lots i think would satisfy the herzburg um standards uh for the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and we've made arrangements for the one variance that we have
that I think exceed the arrangements that the other, and I'm not faulting them, and I'm not
critiquing them, but in terms of coming in with a new application for this development, we've done
what we can to address that violation, and it just can't be provided on site regardless. And again,
regardless of the use, it's a net leasable area. So if I put a one-story building here, because
these lots are 1600 square feet deep i'm going to be required to and build the full depth just like
all the other buildings i'm going to be required to have eight or my client not me my client's
going to be required to have eight off-street parking spaces because once you get to 1600
you then are now required it goes up into the second 2000 once you get over 1500 so to rebuild
a building anything here that occupies 100 a lot like the other buildings is going to require the
same number of parking spaces as we have with the three-story building that we're proposing
um i would have my client uh promoted to panelists bring your client on yep okay amira hassan
amir el hassan will be promoted to penalize
hello hi everyone hi sir could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer
yes amir el hassan that's a-m-e-e-r last name e-l-h-a-s-s-a-n do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel hi amir um i'm sorry i've been
mispronouncing your last name all this time and you've been so polite and not corrected me
um did you hear the statements that i made to the board today i have and are they true and
correct to the best of your knowledge absolutely would you adopt them as your own yes i would
and real quickly what's your uh what's your involvement with lm real estate llc
owner okay thank you and um in terms of just real quickly the conversations you've had with
the property owner behind you regarding a second arrangement for nearby off-site parking for the
required parking spaces can you just um very quickly tell the board a little bit about that
where you stand with that?
Yeah, absolutely. So the owner of that property, the Welsh Road School is also the owner of about 10 or 15, something like that building similar to it. And he has a building manager who represents all of those buildings, including the property in question.
Yeah, absolutely.
So the owner of that property, the Welsh Road School,
We have spoken firsthand with that building manager, like I said, represents the owner, and they agreed verbally to allow us to park there. They know to kind of get the memo signed and sent over. It just didn't happen in time.
um but we do have a verbal agreement with them as well yeah and then and that and I will add um
Mr Chairman members of the board that that uh this property that's located behind us um is approved
already approved for non-accessory parking including the spaces that are located behind
our building uh from the zoning archives okay um and then um I have I think Russ and Oler's on
if you know from harman deutsche and older they did the drawings if you'd like them to adopt my
statements regarding i i think i think we're okay with that i mean i think if anybody has a question
about it we'll bring him on then okay sounds great all right questions from the board yeah i have a
just very simple question sure what is driving the decision to add residential to this trip okay so
So originally, Amir can talk about that, but originally it was the idea that to help generate
revenue, because commercial is very difficult right now, as you know, brick and mortar commercial.
And it was the idea that they would rent more likely for residential to fund actually being
able to build something there. But we heard from the community they didn't want it. I mean, listen,
when they first came to me, I thought the same thing. I thought, well, that's a little odd, but
you know you're in the middle of a shopping center you want to put residential but when you
think about it it could be an opportunity for people that work in the shopping center to live
there so that they can walk to work where they if they can't commute otherwise commute or make
it an easier commute for them um i thought it was a little odd but then we talked about it it did
make some sense and then it made a lot of financial sense for the owners of the property um in order
to get financing because it's very difficult to get financing just for commercial um the uh but
But ultimately, the community and the neighboring property, I think the gym, because weights
clanging and whatnot, were worried they were going to get complaints about their use.
So we eliminated and we're going to try to make it work as all commercial, all non-residential.
So that has been removed and it's no longer on the plans, the revised plans.
I'll reference that it's vacant, that there is not a residential use, and that a use registration
permit is required prior to occupancy.
We'd be fine with the proviso from the board that there not be any residential dwelling units.
So there's so it's three. So it's three stories. And so it's just the upper floor is still it's still going to be three stories.
It's still going to have the elevation that you showed. And there weren't any real sort of contextual images to see kind of what's happening on that strip.
are they all single stories so the building next the building next to us to the left of us is two
um the other ones are all one story and so this is proposed to be all commercial now right is
that what you're saying yes so the upper floors are they sort of look residential they'll be
commercial yeah they'll be yeah they could be offices they can be doctor's offices they can
be an attorney's office they can be an architect's offices um you know they can be anything that's
obviously permitted in ca2 and the idea is corn shell what's that is the idea to have these is
just right now they're just big open spaces yeah they'll be vanilla boxes and then they'd be and
then as tenants come along they'd be fit out like you can see here on the floor plans
we've shown a bathroom on each one but other than that that's designed for them to fit out the space
other questions so the so the so the so the rest of the block are they are they just the ones that
are the one next to you that's two stories are they are there three stories like you don't have
any images that really show us with the rest of the how it fits in the context we just got
these three-story buildings and and there's nothing you're not showing anything else right
and quite frankly i can't even find it on on on uh on the google map i'm trying to find you know
you know why it's it's very difficult because when you it doesn't come up on google maps when
you put in 9247 r you know you got to know what you go got to go down the welsh road find the
northeast shopping center and do it that way you kind of kind of have to zoom out and zoom in but
you can see down here at the end it's a two-story two-story yeah and it's all and it's all one
stories but again the the height here is permitted as a matter of right right right i'm just trying
right i'm just trying to i'm just trying to understand the context right yeah yeah so i mean
to i'm just trying to understand the context like yeah yeah so i mean i mean
everybody's got to the right of you everybody's got these sort of awnings but you don't so right
so how does it fit just in context well not and i don't know is there an image of the left
yeah i'm going to show you now they don't have what's the yeah what's the pat patty wax does
because they just that's how they design theirs but so some of them do here and let me let me go
this way there some of them have different types of awnings
and then the gym has does have an awning there as well i mean and then and then our and then your
site is to the right and our site is to the right of the gym to the right of this gym that's between
paddy wax and between the gym okay i mean if it turns out that it was somebody said i mean we
have an awning it's a more modern awning than these older style awnings um over the the front
of the building um to protect people so this is a different this is a different than what you just
oh i'm sorry i'm sorry that's the original i'm sorry here you go so we don't have so we don't
have sorry sorry we don't have the audience we'd be happy to put the awnings back on i'm sorry it
didn't make it back onto this one no no i'm just i'm not i'm not telling you to do anything i'm
just trying to understand how this fits in the sort of the rest of the streetscape yeah and if
you're sort of if at some point maybe residential will be introduced then this becomes sort of a
you know a main street sort of feel right then what does that look like contextually that's my
so that's i'm just trying to understand your what you're trying to do here yeah i mean listen i mean
i think there's no reason it's clear from the prior zoning permit for a one story that a one
story you know they couldn't make it work and i my clients can't make a one story work either
they're they're they're pressed to try to make a three-story commercial and to try to get once
they're building once they have the foundation it makes sense for them to go to the full height
they didn't squeeze in four stories so they have good floor to ceiling heights it's three stories
within the 38 feet that's permitted they did lower the parapet originally it was the 36 inches that's
permitted um a three feet six inches to 42 inches that's permitted and they dropped it down to one
foot six um to bring it a little bit closer but it just doesn't make sense to build financially
or otherwise to build to everybody's lower height um maybe this is what it should be to make it to
continue to continue to make this a viable property and the other properties around it
and maybe like you said this becomes with this building i think it's very tasteful the way it's
done with the brick facade um it becomes a standard and the rest of the the buildings
maybe in turn eventually get developed including the one that's two up from us that's presently
developed i mean undeveloped vacant i'm sorry i have a question around financial hardship i feel
like you know we've sort of predicated this plan around finances but you're proposing six now empty
stores or empty commercial spaces and i'm just curious as you've done your market research and
you've talked to potential financiers what are the sort of uses that you think you're going to
get in this building I feel like you've mentioned a lot of things that also are not typical on this
strip I'm looking down the strip and it's you know it's a lot of disparate uses that don't
really lend itself towards office I don't know if I had an office that I'd want to be in between a
bar and a gym and there's not much in the design of this building that looks like it's insulating
whatever's going to be in there from sort of the, there's like, there's Mack trucks, you know,
pulling out back and forth behind it. This is going to be a really busy, both from a traffic
standpoint, also very loud area and a very congested area, not great for pedestrians.
So to have this concentration of commercial, I'm just curious how you all think it's going to work.
I'll have my client come on in a second and speak to a little bit about his research. But
But again, I mean, I'll say this.
First of all, I've been out to the property a number of times.
There's not a lot of traffic there.
There's just, there's not, you know, for better or for worse, you're not getting foot traffic because the only sidewalk is along this trip.
So you have to kind of come there, park there intentionally and want to go to one of these businesses.
The tractor trailers are to the rear and there's space, a significant amount of space, including the property.
we're looking to have our accessory parking located between us and the tractor trailers.
So there is a separation, and that's the rear of the property.
It's not the front of the property.
In terms of the gym and in terms of the bar, I think it's fair to say that most of the businesses,
whether it's a doctor's office, an insurance office, attorney's office, an architect's office,
the business professional office um that those their hours of operation are going to be during
the day most of jim's hours are they're more they're busier in the evening when people aren't
When people aren't working, not during the day and the same thing, you know, David, because architects work all night.
working not during the day and the same thing for the bar you know david
But no, listen, listen. And I understand that. But I'm just saying the likelihood is I mean, you have to have something there.
And whether it's three stories or whether it's one story, they would have they had the possibility there could be an architect's office on the ground floor if it was a one story building.
So, I mean, we understand there's a gym to the one side and there'd be soundproofing that would be done on the interior of it.
We understand that there's a bar on the other side.
So more than likely, there's going to be soundproofing on our side of the property that's going to be done to make the properties marketable and not have an issue with the uses to either side of us.
But, and again, I'll have my client come on and talk about the financial side and how there was a reason why it started with the residential.
And also between my client and Russ Noller from HDO, hey, can speak about the cost that, like, once you get out of the ground, the cost is, and I think Mr. Johns knows this as well, you know, adding those upper floors.
David, are you going to bring Nimble into the test right now?
Yeah, I'll bring him on right now.
so amir can you quickly talk about the financial side um and and how you went from you know why
you originally started with residential and why you need a three-story building
which which again is not a refusal again the net leasable area that wasn't actually my question yeah
yeah i'm just saying just for clarity that was not my question my question was what's the plan
for the six commercial spaces in the building i mean they could it could end up being one
commercial space too just so you know not easy it could it could but not easily so that's why i'm
yeah amir yeah hi so i think first to give a little bit of context on who we are because it's
the main uh reason why we had the idea for the residential unit so lm real estate we are a family
office. We manage our own properties, build our own properties and have residential and
commercial units across the city. And we also pay for these projects out of pocket and what's
going to be happening in the property in question. We initially thought the idea to build the
residential on top to make it make sense to generate enough income on the property to make
the construction cost make sense. Because right now we've spoken to a few commercial brokers and
to only have one unit, your maximum is going to get maybe $2,000 or $2,500 a month, which would
never ever cover the cost of construction, not even in a decade or in 15 years. So that's why
we thought to initially do the residential above the first floor commercial unit. Now,
we are oblivious to the fact that at face value, it might not make that much sense. But because we
have a portfolio of properties with a long wait list of tenants who want to work exclusively with
us they want to live in our properties exist in what we what we kind of build we have a number of
people who would have been willing to kind of live in this building and who work in the area we've
also spoken to a number of the community centers in the neighborhood um including a church and
including a mosque of people who want to be walking distance uh to those establishments but once once
once we realized that the community just simply wasn't in favor they didn't see this logic they
didn't see that their property value would be raised as well because you have the option to
put residential there to have and also the carbon market that you saw in the photos is another
commercial unit it's a supermarket they had workers who would have been happy to live up
there as well but it's a non-issue now as we have removed it from the case because um because the
lack of community support now in terms of the question from the the board just asked of how we
intend to fill up the existing building we intend to put kind of an academy or a daycare of sorts
but it's not finalized that would for sure use the first floor and most likely use the second floor
as well and then we've spoken to the bar and the bar is in hopes to maybe rent out one of them as
a kind of a storage facility facility for his unit as well so kind of a lot of put a daycare in
between a bar and a gym near max trucks in a very busy shopping center so in regards to the
mac trucks they are long-term parking they're not in and out often so what you're imagining
isn't the case it's not ideal to have it be industrial um in the back of the facility but
once you're kind of in the area you realize that you don't need to ever be in the back
quite often. And those Mack trucks aren't moving. There's maybe, I think, I think maybe bi-weekly
they'll come park a car there that won't move for two, or excuse me, a Mack truck that won't move
for two or three weeks. This is long-term parking and storage. Okay. For the trucks. And then had
you ever considered consolidating the property into one address and building one bigger commercial
building we uh yes i think the arch uh harman deutsch can speak to that or we're nowhere
we uh yes i think the arch our harman deutsch can speak to that or when we're open to it i think it
comes with a lot of implications um such as an elevator and multiple staircases and things of
the sort which we wouldn't be able to afford like we're a small family office we're paying this out
of pocket you mentioned financiers earlier uh we don't have those which is why we're being very
very conscious of different construction costs and the implications of the zoning code
we did we did look we did have discussions after the first uh community group meeting
um and before the second uh and after the first zoning board hearing was scheduled about
consolidating it but as amir said um there there's some implications costly implications to that and
russ and all or can come on and speak to that if you want to have him address that no i understand
the cost of elevators yeah okay any other questions it's not off the table but it's it's not likely
questions or comments from the virtual audience
our attorney i'm sorry i mean my god i how did i forget that go ahead um no no questions i just
want to note that because we received the revised plans um this morning they haven't had i haven't
had a chance to to review them so i just asked that the board maybe hold this for a week just
so we can review the revised plans and also we didn't know there was a corrected refusal
we were able to pull that but we just need to determine what based on the board's decision what
provides those would be appropriate thank you all right questions or comments from the virtual
audience i see no hands at this time chair planning commission chairman thank you uh
good morning david fecto with the city planning commission chairman we're going to enter our
testimony for both if that's okay with you sure okay uh chairman and board members the comprehensive
plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from ca2 auto-oriented commercial to
cmx3 commercial mixed use uh the city planning commission was going to enter a recommendation
to deny the proposed residential use variances however since the appellants have changed their
plans the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed variance from the
parking requirement in the zoning code okay um mr may i just say one thing if it were to be changed
to cmx3 then the off-site parking that we would have at alimov would would address that and would
eliminate that refusal sure okay so i i think when council started he talked about he's in
conversation with the councilman's office am i correct i'm sorry say what i'm sorry i didn't
understand i wasn't sure if you were talking about taylor here to me listen to me you started
your conversation off today saying that you were in conversation with the councilman's office
and if we waited till thursday or friday you would know where they stand i didn't i didn't
i didn't say that i said i talked to them yesterday and they were hearing waiting to
hear from neka and i haven't been able to hear from them wait a minute wait a minute you did
say you were talking to them right so i said i talked to you with them i said i had a conversation
with them yesterday that's what i said you were in conversation with the councilman's office you
wouldn't know until thursday or friday no i didn't say anything about thursday or friday
you didn't no i don't no i don't because i don't know anything about there he's waiting to hear
from neca okay and i haven't and i haven't been able to reach neca either all right so
we're we're going to hold this anyway because of what our attorney said is next wednesday okay yeah
hillary that's fine um and i would say the record is closed except for if there's any communication
from the rco or the council that's right regarding their position um and then any if there is that
communication we'll accept a response from mr orphan eating right okay all right thank you
so we'll vote on this next wednesday thank you at 9 30. 9 30. is there anyone in
anyone in the audience whose case has not been called no
i see no hands chair okay good see see everybody tomorrow morning thank you
Okay. Thank you, guys. See y'all tomorrow.
Thank you. Take care.