ZBA Hearing - June 24, 2025

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good morning everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's eba hearing

with me is our board member charlotte gaston president mr chairman or board member tinetta

graham president mr chairman or board member michael johns michael's there i know he's there

And our board member, Taya Nguyen. Thank you. And our board member, Ryan McAdams.

Present, Mr. Chairman. Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.

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remain here so we can account for you. Let's look at our schedule for today. Number one, MI 2023-006-201-2940

East Tioga Street. Richard DeMarco is the attorney. Leonard Reuter is also part of this case, the

attorney for the city in Illinois. Mr. DeMarco.

I am present, Mr. Chair. Mr. DeMarco, could you please state your name and spell for this?

Oh, okay. All right.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Can you hear me? I can. Could you please state your name and

spell for the stenographer? Richard DeMarco. Last name is spelled D-E-M-A-R-C-O. Do you swear or

affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. And Mr. Reuter,

could you please identify yourself? Thank you. May I please the board? Leonard F. Reuter, R-E-U-T-E-R,

Senior Attorney, City of Philadelphia. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Mr. DeMarco, do you want to start?

Sure. I believe there's an agreement. I was asked to do a letter of withdrawal. I was just confirming at the very end of the day yesterday that, and I'll just ask Len to confirm on the record that the other, so there's two cases. We had filed an original appeal from a violation.

uh the city and the board asked me to file a second appeal on a second violation notice

i just want to be clear that we uh both notices will be complied uh one is already complied and

that this appeal is thus moot mr chairman uh we have permits now for the use so um the only thing

that would concern me the only reason i didn't file a withdrawal up until now is because there's

still an open case on Atlas, but Len has already assured me that that's going to be taken care of

as well, so we can mark this appeal moot and withdrawn. Yes, the city can confirm that the

violations in question, there were two separate appeals from two separate violations that were

basically the same thing. They're using multiple lots and didn't have the use permit. The lots

have been consolidated. The use permit was issued. One of the violations was marked, complied a while

ago uh the other violation which is essentially identical uh hadn't been marked complied that was

just an oversight so that's both both of those are marked complied will be marked complied and

the city agrees that the these this appeal is moot i don't think the other appeal had been scheduled

yet but we'll let the other appeal had already been withdrawn right exactly yeah oh okay yeah so

Based on that, Mr. Chairman, we can withdraw this appeal as moot.

Hillary, do you still need a letter for me to send a letter?

Nope, this is fine. You put it on the record. Thank you.

That's fine. I'll make sure that happens.

We don't have to vote on this.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, everybody. Have a good day.

So number two, MI 2025, 001-805-7801 State Road.

The Holmesburg Civic Association has a letter of non-opposition.

Council Member Driscoll supports the letter of non-opposition by the Holmesburg Civic Association.

Council Member Driscoll supports the letter of non-opposition by the Holmesburg Civic Association.

Attorney is Mary Costello.

Hi. Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?

Right.

Microphone working? Oh.

Here it is.

Turned it on.

Mary Costello on behalf of the City of Philadelphia.

C-O-S-T-E-L-L.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

And you represent the city of Philadelphia, am I correct?

Yes.

Please start your presentation.

Okay.

So I'd like to share my screen.

Okay, great.

so good morning members of the board and chairman bergman um we're here today to ask for a variance

and special exception for the property located at 7801 state road this is part of the mayor's

riverview wellness village project and it's an expansion of that project and you can see in

city's exhibit c1 this is a picture a general overview of the site and the new building that

we would be planning to build is the portion of the picture that's in color so essentially we

already have a campus there for the Riverview Wellness Village and what we would like to do

is expand three of the non-conforming uses and those would be for single room residents personal

care home and the hospital use we would like to introduce a new use of multi-family and then we

We would also, in the course of this project, be removing five heritage trees, which requires

a special exception.

And I have a few people here with me today that would be able to testify to the project

and explain in a little more detail about what we're having to do, and I can introduce

them now, or would you rather I introduce them as we go?

Do you have any presentation you want to make before they come?

I do.

Okay, why don't we do your presentation, then we'll take each person as they're needed

in your presentation.

Sure.

Thank you.

Okay.

I'd like to turn your attention to page three,

which is a sort of a site plan for the Riverview Wellness Village.

And you can see from this site map the location of the Riverview Wellness Village.

You can see in white are the existing buildings.

And then this small area right here is where the new building would be.

and essentially what this is showing is where the parcel is the underlying zoning for this

is i3 which is heavy industrial and you can see that on the left portion of the site

and then there's the homesburg prison the correctional facility as well as penny pack park

over here so this is a unique parcel and that the history of the site for the last hundred years it

has not been used for heavy industrial use. It was originally used as an almshouse in the early

1900s, which is a charitable institution to address issues. People who have issues with

seniors, they're indigent, or might have some sort of infirmity. And from there, it really progressed

to several different uses over the years. At one point, it was for indigent elderly. At another

point it was for emergency housing, temporary housing, and now it's primarily what I have

Isabel McDevitt here will speak more about, the programming that's taking place today.

So essentially this site has never been used as an industrial use, so we're not trying

to change the character of what this site has always been used for.

The parcel is irregular in the sense that it is very close.

It's very close to the river.

It's right next to the park.

So we did have to factor in things like the floodplain in our design,

and that limited where exactly the building could be and what we could do,

while at the same time maximizing the size of the building

so that we could help as many people as possible

and expand the bets offered at the site.

In terms of the variants

and why this variant should be granted,

it's the irregularity of the parcel.

It's the fact that it's located

in such a very specific small area

that it's always had a use

that was different from heavy industrial.

That it doesn't alter the essential character

that it doesn't alter the essential character of the neighborhood

of the neighborhood

because it's sort of contained

because it's sort of continuing with the uses

that have always taken place in this parcel.

It doesn't impair in any way the uses of the adjacent parcels

with the industrial site here and the park here.

And it's not detrimental to public welfare.

It also could not be cured by a dimensional variance.

and at this time the city has no use in this area for it to be in any sort of industrial use but the

city does have a need for is for these uses at the Riverview Wellness Village to be expanded

and this has been a priority of Mayor Cheryl Parker and her administration as they work to

come up with solutions to serious issues that we have in our community. So what I would like to do

is turn to

Isabel McDevitt, who's the Director

of Community Wellness and Recovery Centers

so that she can talk a little bit about

what's going on at the Riverview

Wellness Village now

and how we would like to expand

that use.

I think what we could do is put all your witnesses

on and when you're done with all your witnesses

then we'll open it up to the board for questions.

I don't want to do it each time.

Why don't you bring your first witness on

we'll go through all your witnesses

then I'll open it up to the board.

Okay, great. Thank you. Please proceed.

Yeah. Sure.

Good morning. Good morning.

Hi. Please state your name and spell for the stenographer.

Okay. Isabel McDevitt, I-S-A-B-E-L-M-C-D-E-V-I-T-T.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do. Please proceed, counsel.

so so isabel can you so can you explain to the board a little bit about what has been going on

at the riverview wellness village just specifically about the uses that we're seeking to expand so

that would be the single room residence personal care home and the hospital uses that are taking

place there today absolutely um well thank you for this opportunity um as mary stated this is a

major priority of Mayor Parker and the Parker administration to address the twin challenges of

the opioid crisis and homelessness in the city of Philadelphia. We opened Riverview

Wellness Village in January as a recovery-based housing for individuals in early recovery who

had already accepted help and had gone through inpatient residential substance use disorder

treatment. Everyone who now lives at Riverview is interested in longer term programming, which we

are offering on site to help them enter long term recovery. So we offer clinical services,

group services. We also are working to bring every resource we can related to the social

determinants of health on the campus. So we have primary care, we have access to education and

workforce development, we have fitness, we have social supports. And really, the goal is for

people to live at Riverview for up to a year, and then re enter the community in permanent housing

with stability in their recovery and access to income in order to thrive. As of today, we have

234 beds licensed at Riverview, as you can see in the presentation, we have six cottages,

And ultimately, we will have capacity for 336 beds.