It was CMX2 when he purchased it.
And on page 29 of the exhibit package is one of the pages from the, bring that up now, this is from the Lower Northwest 2035 plan.
Again, this intersection at Shawmont and Ridge Avenue, the Planning Commission has indicated, will change from CA1, which it is now, to CMX2.
CMX2 allows multifamily, but allow this by right.
The next page, 30, summarizes the apartment uses that are in this block and the block on either end, either side, the 76 and 7800 blocks.
There's 338 apartments.
Fifteen of them are multifamily.
Fifteen of the properties are multifamily.
So this is consistent with the immediate neighborhood.
Landscaping is another refusal.
If I bring up page 41,
This is a aerial view from the Philadelphia Water Department's parcel viewer.
So here's the lot in red, surrounded in red.
The strict application of the code requires a yard tree.
There's no yard.
Requires a eight foot buffer between the parking in the rear of the building
and the residential neighborhood.
that can't be done without eliminating the parking. And then it also requires
parking interior landscaping within the parking area. But those are all
hardships because of the configuration of the lot and the location of the
existing structure. We went through this. This building was originally built as a
a warehouse about 1952.
That's, well, this is what it looks like now.
It is primarily showroom for a kitchen and bath business with some warehousing storage space on the right side.
Originally, when my client purchased it in 2009, it looked like this.
it looked like this.
So that's what it looked like in 2018.
So a lot of improvement has already occurred.
When he purchased it, as I said, multifamily was by right.
He now wants to go through with that.
The changes we've made are shown on the zoning plan
And summarized on the proviso plan form, you may recall we got to the, more or less near the end of the presentation, and some of the members questioned the wisdom of having the entrance to the apartments in the rear of the building where the parking is.
So we have redone it. Let me go to a rendering page 42 of the materials.
So we have redone it.
Let me go to.
So now you can see on the right side where the garage door was, that header has been enlarged.
There's a door to the storage area and now a separate door, an entrance to the staircase, which will serve the second and third floors.
There's an added benefit here because of the change in grade between the front and the rear of the building.
From the rear, there were two flights to the second floor.
Now there's only one flight.
In addition, in addressing some of the other concerns,
we've reduced the parking to eight spaces to conform with eight apartments,
And we've also introduced a handicapped parking space, which is shown on the zoning plan, which I'll get to in two seconds.
We've relocated the trash area from the front of the building right near these entrances on the right side to the north side yard.
And that's shown on the zoning plan as well.
And then finally, we've introduced a four foot wide canopy over the entrance to the apartments and then turning the building along the north side, extending back to the rear of the building where the parking is.
So if you're entering from your car, you now will be able to walk underneath a four-foot-wide canopy to the front of the building.
Here is the zoning plan.
Let me go through sections of it.
Go back to the mic though, the mic.
This is an image of that canopy, it is a fixed canopy four feet wide and as I said, it covers
the entrance and then makes the turn along the entire north side so that you're covered
from parking to entrance and go through the floor plans.
So here's a side elevation, a cross-section where you can see now the entrance is one floor to the second floor instead of two, as it would have been from the rear.
The parking, there was some concern.
I can show that aerial view again.
So if you see the back of the building here, there is a neighbor that has parked an RV
right here which interferes with the use of this area for parking. So to be fully
certain we had the architect come back out measure it to make sure that the
eight spaces depicted on the zoning plan will fit without any interference from
this RV and that is shown on the zoning plan right here so you have seven
spaces plus the eighth space which is the handicap you can see that the rear
property line is over 100 feet, but we're only using about eight times, eight
times eight, 64 feet for parking. So there's plenty of room where this RV can
continue to sit there and not obstruct access, ingress and egress to the
ingress and egress to the parking spaces.
parking spaces.
I think that's a bit about it for the changes.
Did you want to see more?
You want to have your client come on that?
You could.
Dan, a dragon mirror is in the audience.
If he'd raise his hand.
If I'd love to talk now.
Hello.
Hi, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Vasily Dan Dragomir, V-A-S-I-L-E-D-A-N-D-R-A-G-O-M-I-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I swear.
Please proceed.
Mr. Dragomir, were you in the audience during my testimony?
Was my testimony truthful?
and do you adopt it as your own yes thank you give questions from the board i just want to be
clear that there's now four foot walkway from the front to the rear yes okay along the north side
let me show you so along this path you can see
there's the uh four foot wide canopy it continues um all along okay okay
other questions questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair
questions from the um the public coordinating rco first
Other RCOs?
District council member or their representative?
And anyone else who has comments?
Planning commission.
There we have one hand up from George Davis.
this is jason hand um temporarily person's coming back in as a panelist sure thank you very much
Thank you.
George Davis, you're still in the audience.
Please unmute.
Do we see him, Chase?
He wasn't muted, but he's
something's going on with his machine, maybe.
George?
George Davis, are you still available?
We can move on, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Before we, I just, Mr. Davis is the next door neighbor at 7727 on the north side of this property.
Mr. Davis has solar panels on his two-story building.
I remember.
And he's disappointed now that this height-compliant building may be approved.
Just for the record, I want to say that my client, if it's permitted, will allow Mr. Davis to relocate his solar panels on his roof when it's finished.
He still has opening three sides.
But if the performance of the solar panels is inadequate, my client would give him a license to move the solar panels to the new roof.
and he would pay for the installation cost of those panels on his roof.
Again, I don't know if the code permits that, but if it does, my client will do that.
Thank you. Planning?
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission, AYBOID.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission, AYBOID.
Do you swear to tell the truth, all truth, nothing by the truth?
We proceed.
I will be re-entering the testimony shared on 8-27-2025 at 2 p.m.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning from the current CA1 commercial auto-oriented to CMX2 commercial mixed use.
the proposed eight dwelling units would be allowed under the proposed zoning
the application is subject to the landscape and tree code and the appellant refused to comply
with the requirements for yard tree landscaping buffering from residential and parking lot
interior landscaping requirements in certain situations if some or all the landscaping
provisions are impractical or impossible to comply with the number of trees and plants
or landscape dimensional requirements of the zoning code planning commission staff
could consider a waiver with a fee in lieu of providing trees.
In this case, however, the appellant refused to comply with the code
and did not submit a waiver request after various attempts from the plan's examiner.
For this application, it was calculated as a $9,000 fee of avoidance
and should go to the Philly Tree Fund for future citywide tree planting and greening initiatives.
The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the requested variances
for multifamily but deny the requested variance for yard tree
buffers from residential and interior landscaping. The applicant
will need to return to PCPC to comply with landscape and tree code or
waive for in fee and loop process.
Thank you. Mr. O'Brien, you have a comment?
No. Under the code, this is
considered a development even though there's not one spate of soil being
turned okay so mi 2025 002 113 7709 ridge avenue i vote yes with proviso her refusal dated 9-3-25
and revised plans one page stamped by zba on december 3rd 2025 michael johns my vote is yes
with proviso cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso tennetta graham my vote is yes with
proviso i'm mcadams my vote is yes with proviso and when my vote is yes with proviso thank you
sir thank you thank you mr chairman thank you so we're going to open up our 2 p.m meeting good
afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman i will be chairing this meeting of the zoning board of
adjustment with me is our vice chair tanetta graham how's it mr chairman our board secretary
cheryl l gaston our board member michael john president mr chairman sorry board member michael
johns president chairman board member tya win present mr chairman and our board member ryan
mcadams president mr chairman also present is hillary hillary emerson our attorney our zoning
board director in hagerty and our board administrator lakeisha dandy recording this
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Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2023-005-621-254-South 54th Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
Mr. Jin would like to address the case.
Mr. Jin.
good afternoon chair this is jason hand i will be co-hosting okay for the session at this time
mr jen will be coming back in as a panel thank you very much welcome good afternoon
hi counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes uh my name is then jen z h e n last name j i n you swear or firm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Counsel, could you give us an update where this
case stands? Yes, so this case was scheduled for a new hearing because at the first hearing
it lacked plans for the property and there were questions as to how the units were laid out.
It's my understanding that my client is getting the plans. However, it was not available as of
today. And this was a hearing that was marked, must be heard. We had originally been given a
potential January date as the resumptive hearing date, and it was moved to December.
The client was on vacation. The architect was on vacation. It just wasn't ready for today.
Okay. All right. So, MI 2023-005621-254-South 54th Street. Cases continue to 3-11-26.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. And MI 2025-004-255-5601-Hunter Street. Vern Anastasio is the attorney. This is the first listing. We have no exhibits. Is there anyone here for the case?
our debut enterprises to the listed owner it's the first listing