Vice Chair has a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, Madam Vice Chairwoman.
Okay, and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Thank you. Let me just get that going here.
Okay. Good afternoon, members of the board. Sorry to hear you had a long morning, it seems.
So I'm here to discuss 4166 West Gerrard Avenue.
um the zoning board heard this same application in 2012 and as i'll go through with documentation
in a minute we believe that the zoning board approved that application at that time
but for technical reasons the permit did not get properly issued so we're sort of back on the same
case today. This is an image of the property in front of you just to give you the lay of the land. We're on the southeast corner of West Girard and 42nd Street. It's a corner property.
And let me go back now.
Now, I submitted 16 exhibits to the board in advance of today which I asked all be included in the record.
Exhibit one is the refusal, and while this is up i'll just sort of go through the highlights of the case, including our hardship argument really quickly.
So the property has six dwelling units. They're all occupied. That is the same physical condition that my client bought the property in in November of 2024.
for. My client applied for a rental license immediately after its purchase and was told by
L&I to its surprise that it could only get a rental license for five units and that L&I considered
the front ground floor unit, despite, as you'll see in a minute, its clear appearance as an
apartment. L&I considered that space to be a commercial space. So there's no question about
the status of the other five units they're licensed and permitted this is all about that front uh
downstairs unit and we're trying to legalize it as a as a dwelling unit and we sort of generated
the two typical refusals for that in the cmx2 district so we have you know the refusal for lack
of a non-residential use along gerard avenue and we have a refusal for the number of dwelling units
given the 1900 square foot size of the property um as i promised to do really quickly why do we
believe that we qualify uh for these variances today i did submit a memo of law at exhibit
four that fully addresses why we satisfy all of the legal standards but here are some of the
highlights um there's no known non-residential use of this space since 2009 at the latest
the planning commission's west park district plan recommends purely residential use of our property
and the entire block and there are no other non-residential uses that we're aware of on our
entire block it just fits with history and with sort of sensible planning recommendation
so moving on from there exhibit two is a copy of the five unit rental license
that I mentioned was obtained right after closing. That's the legal status quo. Exhibit 2A is just a
screenshot of inspections by L&I that occurred because of maintenance issues prior to Nate's
company's ownership. I'm showing you these inspections because they all occurred after 2012,
so after this last came before the board, but before Nate's company bought the property.
All is to say that L&I was in this property many times because of this issue, these issues, and although it issued violations, none of those violations were for unauthorized use of the subject space.
So L&I has been through here. It has never taken issue or issued a violation about the fact that this space is an apartment. It only came to their attention when Nate applied for a rental license. So voluntary compliance here.
um no you know code enforcement or anything like that exhibit three is the rco letter that the
chairman mentioned with my highlights on it we both attended the virtual community meeting it
was a mixed uh set of opinions in the audience um brian harris who's the zoning chairperson of the
set of opinions in the audience. Brian Harris, who's the zoning chairperson of the coordinating RCO, wrote this letter. He did not include a vote count, but he wrote the following in the second paragraph there, quote, I and three other attendees support the residential variances requested.
we don't see 450 square feet, he meant, as big enough to attract a good long-term commercial
tenant. I also noticed there are no existing commercial structures on the block. Every other
building is and always has been residential. Sincerely, Brian Harris. So although you have
a letter of opposition, I got mixed sentiment. Exhibit four is the memo I already mentioned.
um okay exhibit 4a some historical photos 2009 they mentioned this is this is what the space
it's the the front half of the ground floor this is what the subject space looked like in the last
possible moment if they weren't already gone it was used for something other than a residence
there was a church there in 2009 or prior then then an owner um started to convert this to
a residence. So you can see the large windows that used to be there when it was a church,
but that owner came to the board, got approval, we believe, as I'll talk about in a moment,
and then completed this rehab. So you now have six mailboxes, show, you know, evidencing that
there were clearly six apartments by 2012, and the large portions of the exterior walls and windows
had been replaced this is 2019 a few years later but it's a better angle you can see how the windows
are totally different now they're smaller fenestrations uh it's not as sort of commercial
looking it looks like residential windows um you still have six mailboxes here in 2019 different
mailboxes but still six um here's an aerial um okay 2025 now we're in the period of nate's
company's ownership um we have a nice paint job but otherwise from the exterior things are basically
the same um just a view uh from the side on 42nd street a view from gerard this is across gerard so
um both that side and then here is our side of gerard the left of our property again are entirely
residential some parts of gerard have commercial uses our block does not um and then i'll skip
these photos they're really here just to show you we put the posters up floor plan we can come back
to and if you have questions but the highlights are that every floor is divided into all of the
units except the subject unit in the front on the ground level are served by the same egress
staircase which lets out onto 42nd street towards the rear of the building they're all true one
bedrooms i do have photos of the subject unit not the others because they're occupied so there's a
little bit of a tenant privacy issue there but here's the subject unit um it's kind of
self-explanatory but um i think nate you'll correct me in a moment if i'm wrong but i think
it's about 450 square feet um you've got the front door that goes directly out onto that corner there
is the bathroom um okay just to briefly address why we believe the zba already approved this
almost 15 years ago so um before that 2012 case had been brought the most recent permit before
that said one commercial unit one residential unit on the ground floor plus four additional
apartments above so for you know some length of time that was the status then we get to this
case that was filed here at the zba in 2012. two as this record summary says convert commercial
unit to residential and the applicant at that time belgier holdings clearly writes in their
application it's for a six family dwelling two units per floor in the petition of appeal the
applicant says quote the three-story building has little if any chance of finding a suitable
commercial tenant there is no viable commercial tenant that would take the first floor commercial
space end quote and then we get to an approval by the zba with provisos the sole proviso
is plans stamped by ZBA. And that's where things went off the rails. And what I think happened,
I'm going to zoom in a little bit. I don't know whether it was the applicant's fault,
quite possibly, maybe it was an error by board staff at the time. But I think they stamped the
existing conditions plan, because the existing conditions plan shows a commercial area.
Nobody comes to the ZBA, wins, and the result is no change whatsoever.
nobody comes to the zba wins and the result is no change whatsoever that was somehow the outcome
given this stamped plan so something went awry there and there's a lot of indications that the
zba's vote was yes as i just showed you i think it came down to stamping the wrong plan but because
the wrong plan was stamped then l and i took it from there and it really kind of went crazy so
So you have a use permit issued, a new use permit that is exactly the same as the prior
use permit, which makes no sense.
Then you have the examiner apparently retroactively changing the refusal.
I don't see this a lot.
He wrote five units per proviso plan.
Maybe that was more common back then.
But just to say there was sort of like, you know, a lot going on here.
um the the lni was not in my opinion reflecting the zba's intent okay to move on past that and
i'm almost done i promise this is the zoning map you can see the only cmx2 lots on our block are
the corners the rest is rm1 um here are a couple maps from open maps this one is business licenses
So it basically confirms, again, no businesses on our block face.
There is a corner store across 42nd Street from us, but that's it in this vicinity until you get all the way down to the 40th and Girard intersection.
This is a thoroughly rental block.
So this is a map with rental licenses.
You can see almost every property has a rental license.
The dark blue means active.
The light blue means expired.
But they're all rentals right there's not there's not a ton of purely owner occupied buildings.
A couple of pages from the district plan. So to quote the planning commission at the time, quote, the commercial quarter of Girard Avenue has seen steep decline to better meet the needs of residents and visitors.
The commercial uses need to be combined to form a denser commercial node at the intersection of 40th Street and Girard Avenue, end quote.
That is two full blocks away from us.
So basically, the Planning Commission is saying, let's stop mandating that people have non-residential uses in this area at 42nd and Girard.
And likewise, the Planning Commission recommends that our property be rezoned to RM1.
And that comes up on three other pages in the plan as well, which I'll just skip by.
That's it.
The rest is the deed, tax clearance.
I don't have to show you that.
I would like Nate to say a couple words of his own, if that's okay.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
And if you would, get closer to the mic for us.
Nathan Tolchinsky.
It's N-A-T-H-A-N.
Last name is T-U-L-C-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Nate, did you hear my testimony in your company's case this afternoon?
I did.
Was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
Would you therefore adopt my testimony on behalf of your LLC as if it were your own?
And are you authorized to do that on behalf of your LLC?
Okay. If you could, as a last act, please just introduce yourself, speak a little bit about how you find tenants for this building, how perhaps trash is taking care of maintenance.
Okay, go ahead.
So thank you guys for hearing our case. This specific building and my entire portfolio is throughout North and West Philadelphia. We do affordable housing. 100% of it's through city funded organizations. This building in particular is comprised of a few different organizations.
can you get just a little closer to the mic yeah yeah yes much better so this particular building
is comprised of uh city fund organizations um so it falls right in line with what we do we'd like
to not steer outside of the box and add commercial if uh you deem that appropriate um and then as far
as trash we uh have a space in the back for trash we do have basement storage that's accessible from
the street for extra storage if needed it hasn't been utilized because it hasn't been necessary to
date but it's out of the you know site of the street and the gerard avenue nate if you know
off the top of your head who are the organizations that you've worked with to put tenants in this
property specifically this specific building we have philadelphia housing authority i believe has
one of the units. And then the other organizations are Horizon House, Mazzoni, which has recently
merged with Action Wellness. And I believe that's it. So I think Horizon House has two units.
um and i believe that's it so i think horizon house has two units pha has one or two units
PHA has one or two.
and then the rest are of his own which is actual wellness that's our presentation thank you so your
request is just there's one unit that the city believes is commercial and you want to take it
residential that's exactly right questions from the board pha wouldn't have a unit you mean you
have section eight you have section eight yeah yeah yeah it's oh yeah yeah right sorry right
yeah it's not a pha unit right thank you questions from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time questions or comments from the virtual audience or this current audience here
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission
amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change in
zoning at this location from the current cmx2 commercial misuse to our one residential
multifamily the property has a previous permit for five family in a vacant ground floor commercial
use no commercial space is characteristic of this block the planning commission recommends that the
board grant the requested variance for six dwelling units mi 2025 007540 4166 west rod avenue i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes
Cheryl Gaston my vote is yes
Tanetta Graham my vote is yes
Ryan McAdams my vote is yes
Iowyn my vote is yes
thank you Brandon
thank you guys very much
number one
MI2025
007447
620 West Church Lane
Clemente Amazon is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the 12th Ward District Committee, Democratic Committee.
My counsel, how are you?
Good afternoon, Chairman.
How are you?
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer of course clemente amazon that's
spelled c-l-e-m-e-n-t-a last name is a-m-a-z-a-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes i do would you identify your client a relationship to this
property of course my client is oh i'm sorry i think i'm yeah we're i don't see you yet so
i'm sorry can you hear me i hear you okay i apologize my client is the property owner
church lane llc clemente we don't see you oh no she's there where she is okay yeah she is now
yeah okay oh we don't none of us see her oh she's up on the screen there
well some drawing in uh-oh i see me i promise i'm here yeah she's there
what are we going to be able to see the documents uh
I can share my screen if you'd like me to test it okay all right go ahead and
share your screen share your screen you guys see my screen it's coming up yep okay great okay um
and we went through you you've identified your client a relationship to the property right
yes i did okay our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes with the exception of the letter of support
which we received i believe yesterday so that was the only thing that was added to our presentation
we've also included additional photos okay thank you and do you weigh the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy yes i do all right thank you you can share your screen and proceed
with your case thank you so much um again my name is clemente amazon and today i'll be presenting
629-31 Church Lane. During my presentation, I will go through the notice of refusal,
photos of the property, as well as the floor plans indicating the existing conditions.