can be identified. All right. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir. Yeah.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing I have and I've also received yes
and I've also received a letter of support from the RCO it was emailed last night around five
right just about 5 p.m and I'll present that in my presentation as well and make sure Hillary
gets it has a copy of that please sir sir okay yep you proceed to share your screen all right
okay is my my screen should be before you you should be looking at my
okay great well i'm chair members of the board i'm happy to be here representing
the berglans and his wife on the property of 1128 south 52nd street in philadelphia west
philadelphia i'll be going through a number of exhibits to share with you our reason for
our particular zoning request today, and we just have one. Looking at the refusal,
our only refusal is to be multifamily. This is the most minimal request for variance that
we have for this particular property. Right now, we're seeking to use the existing use
from single family to a three-family dwelling. And we'll talk about why that is when we go into
to the neighborhood character.
Our exhibit two is basically the deed to the property.
And you'll see here goes down for several pages
until we get to our exhibit three.
And this is our application for appeal.
So what we'll be talking about in today's presentation
is really why the hardship that is presented
by this property being redeveloped as a single family.
On this particular block in particular,
there are 15 multifamily properties on the very same side of the street.
I'll be showing you on our exhibit map here. There we go.
This, hold on, let me get to it. Let me center this for your viewing.
So the property is located almost in the middle of the block in RSA 5. There's RM1 at the end of
the street, and of these homes here, these homes that go from on the South 52nd Street
over towards Warrington Avenue, towards the west side, of these homes, 12 of them are
multifamily, and we'll see pictures of them there.
So in this particular property, almost all of this, and even on the other side of the
Almost all of this, and even on the other side of the street, more than half of the homes on this side of the street and the 50% of the homes on the eastern side of the street are multifamily.
street, more than half of the homes.
So the character of this particular block has very definitely changed over time and has created a situation where density is needed and affordability is needed.
And that is why my clients are interested in making sure that this property is redeveloped as a free unit.
Let's look at the property more closely. I'll have some pictures of the property here. So here's our, here's the property close up. Now, what is proposed here is to change nothing about this wonderful character. As you can see the corners here, the design of the windows, none of this will change.
It will simply be refinished and upgraded, new window and door, painting and fixing up
of this porch area, but nothing will change.
The character of the property will look just as it is except upgraded.
So from the outside, you will just see a nicer, cleaner, wonderfully developed property
from what you see there.
Along the side of the property, you see it's just stucco along this entire side.
There's a breezeway here that will be overgrown.
That will be taken care of by the development.
In the rear of the property, as you can see, the property is in need of complete renovation, front and back.
Let's look in the inside.
There's a breezeway here shared between the other, and here is where you'll see trash will be stored on this side.
So it will be out of the view of the street until trash day arrives.
and in the inside of the property when you open the front door you can see that there's already
some it can it can really the character that was originally there that continues from the outside
continues on but as you can see in other pictures here it needs to be completely renovated and
brought up and these are the upstairs pictures of the back this is where the kitchen was it's
all taken out pretty much. As we go upstairs, you'll see, again, much of a very traditional
look, three bedrooms upstairs on this particular floor. As you go further up, again, to the top
floor, three bedrooms there, very traditional, but completely in need of renovation.
And if those pictures continue, these are just additional pictures of the floor of the bedrooms.
This one is on the second floor, and these are second floor pitchers.
All of this appearance will be completely done.
And this is the lower level.
The lower level will have no living here.
It will only continue to have mechanicals for each of the three units.
And this is where those mechanicals will be.
And this is the reverse side of the room on the basement level.
so i mentioned that there were multi-families and there's a lot of them
so here's an example of what you see all up and down that street here's 1138 this is 1140
same side of the street just a couple doors down here is i think this particular property is 1126
three mailboxes all of these are legal two and three unit properties here's 1150
three mailboxes is 1136 two two mailboxes and two front doors on this particular property
and this property here you have again this is 1136 1135 right next to it this is 1137
one two three units right there it's almost near virtually across the street
1151, three mailboxes. And it goes on and on and on. So the neighborhood character has become
one in which the density of multifamily is needed and pretty much used throughout this particular
street. So let's look at what's going to be planned for the property. In our exhibit eight,
nothing different but renovation is planned on the first floor, except there's going to be one
door to get into the the the main door will enter into the first floor unit and a second door will
go into the upstairs units as we go into the layout there's three bedrooms i'll make this a
little larger for your viewing so basement again nothing but mechanicals there first bedroom
the first floor will have you will enter there'll be a living room kitchen and there's two bedrooms
in the back and the stairway that goes into the upper units is on this on the left side and as
you move up the layout of the top two floor two two floors are exactly the same as you enter the
as you enter the unit sort of in the middle there's a living area with a kitchen and bath
bedrooms in the front and the back for units two and three
bedrooms in the front and the back for units two and three so as we present as this is a
continued hearing there was a notice that was provided for this particular hearing that notice
in our exhibit 10 was posted on the property and there's pictures of the posting of the notice
on the property we had an rco meeting in this particular case on march the 31st we sent that
The public meeting was on April the 10th at 6 p.m.
Those notices were sent to the 138 required addresses
near neighbors in the affected area.
These are the addresses
and the certificate of mailing to those individuals.
And we have our tax permits
for the two co-owners of the property,
Mr. Bourbon and his wife.
and as far as the rco letter this is the letter here i'll make this bigger that we received
so in the beneath in the meeting itself it was held by zoom there were 11 persons that
attended in total as you can see here the support of the rco board and committee was
was 100 on our favor the other five members that are that were near neighbors that came to the
property were all in support and our team was there to make the presentation so we have unanimous
support from the RCO, and I'll make sure that this, and I think this was emailed to the board,
but it did not arrive, as Mr. Chairman has mentioned earlier. So I'll make sure this is
obtained. So we believe that this particular property, and because the community is in
agreement, that the density that is needed on this particular block on the street is welcome
in this neighborhood and needed in this neighborhood. So we simply want the opportunity
to allow my client to develop the property as a three-unit building and I'll ask at this time
if Mr. Berman is available on the line to adopt my testimony. Yes. Good morning Mr. Berman. Could
you state your name please and spell for the court reporter? Yes Paul Berman. P-A-U-L-B-E-R-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Mr. Berman, have you been on the call here listening to my testimony regarding the property, 1128 South 52nd Street?
And would you adopt my testimony as your own if you were able to, if you were testifying?
And have I missed anything, or is there anything additional that you'd like to add to the board in support of your zoning application in this matter?
No, nothing else to add.
questions from questions from the board. No, Mr. Chairman, questions or comments from the
virtual audience? I see no hands, Mr. Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, Chair Bergman,
and good morning. Mr. Chair, I'm sorry. I have Mr. Paul Berman, who's been allowed to speak.
please forgive the interruption
okay um state your name please and spell for the court reporter
jason is your hand up full berman he's been allowed to speak already mr berman
are you still present yes i'm here yes do you have anything else to add mr berman
Oh, no, no, no, nothing else.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
David Vecto with the City Planning Commission.
Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
This property currently has a rental license for one dwelling unit.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance that would prevent this property from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
However, the appellant has shown that the nature of the block has changed to a mix of single and multifamily units.
The proposal matches the character of the block.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variance for three dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2022-007-125-1128 South 52nd Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Toppin.
Thank you, members of the board. Thank you, Mr.
Okay. Number
seven, MI
2022-007-333-
South A Street.
Nicholas George is the attorney.
We have letter of
non-opposition from Passion Square
Civic and letter of non-opposition
and Letter of Non-Opposition from Council Member Squilla.
from Council Member Squilla.
Mr. George.
You'll be rejoining as a panelist, sir.
Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. George.
Do we see him, Jason?
Yes, he's being promoted, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
Oh, hi. Good morning, Mr. George. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the
court reporter? Yes, sir. It's Nicholas George, N-I-C-H-O-L-A-S-G-E-O-R-G-E.
You swear or affirm the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do.
Could you identify your clients in relationship to the property?
Yes, I'm here on behalf of Louis Gangora and Hannah Gaudete.
They are the tenants.
And our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. Can you see my screen?
We can.
Oh, sorry. This is the wrong one. Let's see here. Let me try again.
Let's try again. Okay, there we go.
uh good morning so i i represent um the proposed tenants at 11 55 south 8th street um this this
property uh here's the notice of refusal um i'd like to point out that uh historically uh so this
this relates to the first floor at a at a corner property the historically this property was used
for uh an office this this space was used for an office space um it was it was previously a pharmacy
um the the current uh current zoning is is rsa5 um and the the tenants uh proposed to
open up a ceramics shop and coffee shop. Basically, the concept being that people from
the community that live in the neighborhood can come in. The slogan is have a mug, make a mug.
So essentially, you can make your own coffee mugs, you can make pottery, and then you can
have a coffee while you do so. We think that there is a need for an activity like this in
the neighborhood because this is a popular hobby for many in the area, and there aren't
many ceramic shops that are in the immediate vicinity. So this is a need for the community
to help promote seniors, family activities, arts, and I believe that that's why we received
the community support because the neighbors agreed with our presentation at the RCO meeting
that this is something that the community can participate and enjoy in. As you can see,
the community straw poll vote was 5-0 in non-opposition. The committee voted 3-0 in favor.
Let me show you a few pictures of the current building. This is the notice of the zoning posting. This is what 1155 looks like from the outside. As you can see, there's a separate entrance to the commercial space, the traditional commercial space.
um this is the current state of the building um it's it's pretty much set up and uh ready to go
um this is the this is the this is a garage area that's associated with the the first floor unit
where trash um would be stored as as well as storage and um and the the kilns for firing the
ceramics um letter of non-opposition this is the business plan um the
Um, letter of non-opposition. This is the business plan. Um, the concept is, as I said before, make a mug, have a mug, make a mug. Um, the concept of beyond ceramics is a coffee shop. The, um, the tenants, Lewis, uh, he's, he's an experienced, um, barista in Philadelphia. He's had experience roasting, um, coffee beans.
We'll be right back.