All right, you can start with your case.
Thank you.
Okay, are you able to see the screen?
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, thank you for having me today.
My name, again, is Mike Gumbel and I am the owner of the property 850 South 2nd Street.
This property is located in Queen Village at the corner of 2nd and Christian.
It's a CMX2 property that is commercial on the first floor and then it's got two apartments
up on the second and third floor.
The commercial aspect of it is where I have my law office and my real estate office and
then the second and third floor are again apartments. What we're essentially doing is
seeking a renewal of the visitor accommodations license. We applied several years ago and were
granted a three-year temporary variance on that and it's now come up for renewal again so we're
seeking to renew that as well as originally I had only sought the third floor because the second
floor was occupied. The second floor has since been vacated and we've remodeled it and so we're
looking to extend the visitor accommodations into the second floor as
well exhibit a you've got the refusal again we're not making any dimensional
or construction changes to the property everything's going to remain the same as
far as that goes it's really just seeking a use accommodation for visitor
accommodations. We have the application, the PIF form. Exhibit D is the 2022 permit where the
visitor accommodations was granted again on a three-year temporary proviso.
We have the deed.
Exhibit F is the Tax Clearance Certificate, which was not included in the original exhibits.
However, I was able to obtain it today and I did upload it to the exhibit website portal.
Exhibit G is the posting back on March 26th of the signs for the ZBA hearing.
and then here we have photos of the property itself so as you'll see here on the first floor
we have the entrance to my office there's a separate entrance to the apartments
that just directly goes into them so the right of my property is lucky's last chance it's a bar
restaurant in queen village and to the left of my property is java coffee company again a local
business in the neighborhood so i'm surrounded by other businesses on both sides and up and down
the street next to the bar is a gym and then there's several other businesses north of that
here you can see the actual building itself
you can see this is a pretty busy intersection at the corner of second and christian
but again most of the properties themselves surrounding are commercial
Next, you'll see a couple pictures of the inside of the third floor unit.
Next, you'll see a couple pictures of the inside of the
It's a one-bedroom apartment, so it's not a large place.
We don't accommodate a lot of people in it.
And then this is the second-floor apartment that, again, we're seeking the variance for
as well.
This is also a one-bedroom apartment, it's a smaller apartment, so the usage would be
much less than the third floor here just by example is the Airbnb posting that
we've had for the last several years this is for the third floor apartment we
have a strict guideline where we don't allow anybody to come in and just book
automatically so if they want to book with us they have to send us a request
and tell us why they're coming in and we only allow people that have five-star
reviews. We don't want people coming in for parties. We don't want to disrupt the neighborhood.
We want people that are coming in that are going to take care of our place and be respectful to
the neighbors around us. Generally speaking, most of the people that are staying with us
are people that are coming to visit family and friends who live in Queen Village, Society Hill,
Bella Vista. So they want to be close to them so that they can visit them in a, you know,
walking to their house and not having to deal with parking and whatnot in Center City. They
want to be in a local neighborhood environment when they're staying in
Philadelphia. You can also see we have all five star reviews, guest favorite,
super host, top five percent at home. So I think we've done a good job of really
trying to promote ourselves as a great place to stay, a clean place, a respectful
place, and I think that bears itself out in the reviews that we have.
Next, we have the letter of support from QVNA, and after that I also just included the letter
that went out to the neighbors as well as the first page showing the certificate of
mailing for the surrounding neighbor letters. I think my only request is that
QVNA in their letter they asked for a two-year temporary. The original one was
for three years. I would request a longer variance than the two years because it
is quite onerous and expensive to have to go through this process every couple
years. As you know the process itself takes about six to eight months to get
through so essentially if i were to get a two-year then within a couple months i'd have to start all
over again so it's my request because we have a good track record here that we'd be given a longer
variance if there's going to be a sunset on this and with that i'll open it up to questions
yeah and they have to call for the owner i mean go ahead go ahead well questions from the board
why should your comments from our attorney yes okay so
have you ever rented these for like long-term rentals or why is that not an option here
so originally when we purchased the building i mean the building itself was quite expensive i
tried to get long-term rentals that would justify the mortgage and the capital improvements that had
go into the building and I couldn't get rents that were sufficient to allow us to pay the bills and
utilities on the building. In addition, in the last several years, there's been massive development.
So right across the street, there was an apartment building that went up with 42 apartments. So the
competition for apartments has also gotten quite onerous and competitive. And with how old this
building is, and again, the amount of improvements that would have to go into it, I simply just can't
compete. But I also feel that we're providing a service to the neighborhood and to the city
because, you know, again, a lot of people who come and visit, they don't necessarily want to stay in
a hotel in Center City. They want a comfortable place where they can stay at. And I think that
the apartments that we have and the services we provide are valuable to them. They're valuable
to the neighborhood into the city and let me let me just clarify so you want to extend
the temporary variance that was granted for the third floor and you also want to now have a
temporary well you want to have a visitor accommodation on the second floor is that
um on the second floor is that correct correct okay all right thank you all the questions
Correct.
not at this time mr chair are such a comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission amy void with planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing cmx one commercial mix use
The appellant has not shown that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
The Planning Commission recommends the board to deny the requested variance for visitor accommodation.
MI 2025 007-325-850 South 2nd Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Temporary variance expires 4-23-29, second and third floor only.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Number six, MI 2020.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, counsel.
MI 2025 007 335 801 Selmet Street, Henry Clinton is the attorney. Selma Street, I'm sorry.
In a unanimous support from Somerton Civic Association.
Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Could you please state your name is spelled for this stenographer?
Sure. My name is Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
Sure. The two clients, husband and wife, their homeowners, Gilberto,
or Dinez, O-R-D-O-N-E-Z, and Arceli, A-R-A-C-E-L-Y, Cordova, C-O-R-D-O-V-A.
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good evening.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have, Ms. Graham.
Thank you.
And do you waive the reason of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with the case.
Mr. Chairman, again, good evening on behalf of my clients, husband and wife, homeowners
of this single family home.
This is a request for the removal of an interior parking space, which is a garage, and then
replacing that parking space with a parking space outside in front of the house.
When I show you the photographs, it'll become clearer.
These are my table of contents. Refusal A1 to A10, which I ask to be admitted. And here's refusal. It's an RSD3 zoning district. Removal of one accessory off-street interior parking space, i.e. a garage, and then an accessory off-street parking space in front of the garage, which is typically done in this neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia.
As Chairman mentioned, RCO, letter of support, 50 in favor, zero opposed.
Somerton Civic Association.
Photographs, this is Busselton Avenue.
This is Tomlinson.
So it's in Northeast Philadelphia.
A closer view, it's a corner lot.
And so typically the homes in this neighborhood have a garage that some people park in, others converted into, you know, storage, maybe a family room.
And you can see there's a number of areas.
And I actually have particular addresses on the street and surrounding streets where this is done on a routine basis.
So this is my client's property.
As I say, it's a corner lot.
just another view looking at the front and right here this was a garage and now it's a storage
area and i have interior photographs too this is looking at the property from the north this is
down the street 800 selma you can see this they've converted their garage into some type of a habitable
space or perhaps just unheated space 809 across the street excuse me on the same side of the street
Same thing, double doors into what was once the garage and parking on the outside.
into what was once the garage and parking on the outside this is the interior it's not going to be
a bedroom though we really the concern at the community group was whether my client was trying
to make this into a duplex and not really doing this doing that in any way more interior photographs
postings of the signs here's the plans again this this is the site on the left hand side
Different views of the property.
It's a four-bedroom home.
These are additional homes in the area that are doing or have done what my client has already done.
This is the site in the shaded area.
This is one of the properties I showed you.
That's F.
That's 809.
E is another property across the street.
808 has the same situation as does the homes on Burgess Street.
and also lakes per street right around the corner.
Turning radius, we do have streets approval,
which I will show you, in and out of the property.
Streets approval right here.
We also have an accompanying letter.
So instead of parking inside the home,
the family will park on the concrete pad,
which is in front of the property.
Streets approval.
Remaining documents are the typical documents you'd see, PIP form, proof from the tax center
that taxes are upstanding and paid, zoning map, again, RSD3 zoning district, deed indicating
ownership, my clients purchased it in 2023, notices that went to 48 pieces of mail to
the surrounding neighbors and neighborhood and as you can see that the the meeting was well attended
so we're not impacting anyone's light or air development of any properties it's in conformance
with what what other neighbors are doing in the block just adding additional storage space space
to the property and we are not parking on the street it is an off-street parking situation
just instead of being interior it's exterior um so with that i'm going to ask my client to
unmute herself uh shelly are you on the call i just i just spoke to you you can raise your hand
by pushing that button or pointing to that button i wish her calling his name because i have
her shelly she might be calling under m-a-r-r-o-q-u-i-n-n okay yes she's being promoted now to
Shelly hi Shelly good evening me there we go hi how are you good could you please state
your name and spell for the stenographer yes my name is aracely is a r a c e l y
the rest of it cordova a c o r d o b b d a okay um do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes. Counsel? Hi, Ms. Cordova, how are you tonight?
Good. How are you? Good, good. Good to see you. Did you hear the testimony that I gave on your
behalf concerning your home? Yes. And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt what
I said as your own? Yes. And would you consider that true and correct? Yes. Thank you.
questions from the board
question do we see okay all right no I just wanted to see so are we gonna where
where is the is there a garage door or are we yes so where my cursor is here this was a former
garage door and now there's a it's already been converted correct correct all right and then
what's inside so inside is stores it was going to be a gym they have a 22 year old son who lives with
them uh but i think those plans are by the wayside right now i think maybe planted fitness is in
there in the cards. Pretty good at me. Okay, thank you.
okay thank you questions or comments from our attorney not at this time mr chair
question or comments from the virtual audience yes chair we have alice udovich
all right alice this is your last one
thank you chairman Alice Udovich U-D-O-V-I-C-H on behalf of councilman Brian O'Neill
the councilman has no objection to the granting of the variants thank you very much thank you
good night everyone thank you thank you of course question or comments from planning
Amy Boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location from the current RSD3 Residential Single Family.
The appellant is seeking to legalize the removal of a garage and parking in the required front