if i may commissioner hold on hold on one minute um well go ahead please proceed
hi commissioner this is the second listing of the case i'm not sure whether or not you want
me to make another presentation we did meet with the rco uh two times uh at the first meeting they
had some concerns about the air filtration center we sent them the specifications of our air
filtration center, excuse me, system. These specifications and the filtration system are
recommended by licensing inspections for this type of facility. At the second meeting, they
requested information about the vent. We closed that vent and we
requested information about the vent. We closed that vent and we presented pictures at the last
hearing of the closed vent. They asked us to continue the hearing again last time and we
agreed. It was my understanding that they wanted to walk by the place in the evening and see whether
or not they could smell smells emanating throughout the neighborhood. I'm not sure whether or not they
did that i do know that the head of the south street organization resigned um i don't know if
anybody continued in that effort uh commissioners but what i will say here today is my client i don't
know if you want me to put on a whole case again i will but my client everything from the first
hearing is part of the record my client has uh followed uh every indication by the city before
he picked this location, he contacted the city for a smoking license. The city specifically
designated this property for him to operate his business in. He has updated, which I sent to
Hillary, smoking license, food license, tobacco retailer license. He's in compliance in every
respect. We need the zoning to get the rest of the rental licenses for the property. But this
This is a business that my client has been operating since 2021.
There's been no police incidents, no L&I noise violations, no L&I loitering violations, no L&I smoking violations.
He just updated his indoor smoking license that I sent to Ms. Emerson this morning, and I apologize for that.
When I went over my exhibits this morning, I realized that both those licenses had expired.
I did send an updated food license, and I did send an updated smoking license.
Commissioners, this is how my client feeds his family, and he has taken every single
conceivable step to comply with LNI and to be a good model business in this community.
There have been no incidents whatsoever since he's been operating for the last two and a
a half years, and I would implore you to grant him his special exception. This business has
absolutely no effect on the health, the safety, or welfare of the communities as identified by him
operating for two and a half years and not having any type of incident whatsoever. And this is South
Street. And commissioners, I would like to say, if you can't smoke on South Street in the city
of philadelphia where are you going to smoke it um i'd be happy to do another presentation if that's
what you want no no no but i am requesting that um the special exception be granted okay um hillary
i don't believe we had uh planning take a position yet did we that is correct that is the only other
thing that we need on the record mr planning commission thank you this is uh ron bednar city
planning uh the zoning uh to this parcel was changed from commercial mixed juice one to
commercial mixture 2.5 in 2015 um in a neighborhood zoning map change initiated by the civics the
applicant has shown that the proposed smoking lounge will have no more than more of an impact
and would be expected to have at this location.
City Planning Commission therefore recommends that the board grant the special exception.
MI 2022-002-908-740-44 South Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Use limited to first floor.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much, Commissioners.
Have a great day.
Number 8, MI 2023-002-981-1828,
Catherine Street, David Orfanides is the attorney.
There's a letter of deferral from the South of South Neighborhood Association.
Mr. Orphanides.
He's become a panelist, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Orphanides. Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the courts tonight?
Yes, my name is David Orphanides. Last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Basecamp, B-A-S-E-C-A-M-P, Property Group, LLC, and they are the owner of the subject premises.
Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to leave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I have emailed them all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
i submitted everything except for the posting photographs i did not include them on
last week when i sent in and i sent them in on monday but the property wasn't properly posted
thank you please proceed
okay can everybody see my screen we can great yeah again my name is david orphanetes um here
with the law firm of orphanetes and toner here in philadelphia um and again i'm representing
Base Camp Property Group, LLC. You have up on your screen a photograph of the subject property,
1828 Catherine Street. It's a three-story structure that, as you can see here from the
aerial images that I have at tab three, is located in the Graduate Hospital section of Philadelphia
between South Street and Washington Avenue to the west of Grodd Street. Zooming in,
you can see a closer up image of my client's property. We back up to Webster Street, the
1700 block of Webster Street. We are on the south side of Catherine Street, and we back up the
properties on the north side of Webster Street, which is a dead-end street here. There is an alley
running between our property and the properties to the south of us. As you can see, the block
consists of rows on the south side of the block and you can also see what was on the north side
of the block which is also row homes um our property is owned rm1 you can see right here
this is a tab four it's uh that's residential multi-family uh we are located across the street
from RSA 5 properties and we back up the properties that are RSA 5. That's important
because you will see in a couple minutes regarding the use of the properties on our block.
At tab 5 I have other images of our of our photographs of our block you can see
up and down Catherine Street and as I indicated when we were going through the aerial images
series of row homes. Interior photographs. This property is presently, let me back up for a
second. The property is presently zoned as a two-family dwelling. It has been a two-family
dwelling rental property since 1983. We are between two other properties, obviously 1828
or 1826 and 1830. 1826 that you saw in the photographs that I took is also a three-story
row home. That has been a two-family rental since 2004. And then abutting us that you also saw in
the photographs to the west of us at 1830 Catherine Street is a two-family rental that has been
that since 2001 the property directly behind us 1831 webster street is a single family
but it was granted dimension dimensional variances by the zoning board in 2009 so our property has
been a duplex a rental property since 1983 and so to get back to the interior photos
you can see here this is the ground floor unit fully furnished
and I think
you might agree it is very nicely
appointed
there is outdoor space for the ground floor
unit on an enclosed rear yard
and then the second floor unit
or the upper unit
also you can see
very nicely appointed
and they have a deck the floor plans you can see the cellar first floor and part of the second
floor makes up the uh the lower unit that is two bedrooms and then the upper unit is also
And then the upper unit is also two bedrooms.
two bedrooms that deck is off the back of the third
That deck is off the back of the third floor.
I love it.
It's not a rooftop deck.
As I indicated, we've included at tab nine, the zoning archives for the budding properties to either side of us, 1826 and 1830 Catherine Streets, tab 9A and tab 9B.
as well as showing their two-family use, as well as the zoning archives for 1831 Webster behind us that had, as I indicated, variances granted by the zoning board,
reliefs granted by the zoning board for dimensional variances.
In 9D, I include the OPA information and zoning archives for the other properties on the 1800 block of Catherine Street.
I bring that up because at the present time, while there are 21 properties that front on our side of Catherine Street on our block, 21 properties, 14 of those are presently utilized as rental properties.
some a couple or one family units more than that are two or three family units in addition the
four properties directly across the street from us the front on the that are on the north side
of catherine street those four properties across the street from us two of those are rental
properties two of them are not i bring that up because again our application here is for use of
the property as an Airbnb, which under the current zoning code is deemed visitor accommodations.
At tab 10, I have a map showing the nearest hotels available presently for people that
are either living or hosting, having guests, having visitors. Come see them. You can see most
of those are up towards the Rittenhouse Square area and then you have a one further to the east
so pretty far away and then you obviously get hotels on Market Street and John Kennedy Boulevard
it was interesting at one of our meetings the first meeting we've had three community group
meetings scheduled in this matter one of the people in the audience brought up that there
There used to be – and this was actually from the Green Book, the famous Green Book – that there used to be places in our neighborhood – and I say our because I live in this neighborhood.
I live three blocks from this property.
By the way, the owners of this property live four blocks away.
They're on the 1700 block of Carpenter Street, so they live very close to the subject premises.
But you can see when you plot these out, here's 1828 Catherine Street here in pink, that there used to be places for people to stay in our neighborhood.
And that is gone largely by the wayside by, you know, for one reason or the other.
And you can see here the overlay of what used to be and where presently those places there are for people to stay close to our neighborhood.
a copy of our appeal at tab 11 and our project information form the hearing notice for today's
hearing is at tab 12 the posting photographs i imagine i mentioned earlier at tab 13
d to tab 14 showing my clients are the owners of the property at tab 14 our tax clearance tab 15
And then the 14303 notices that for three meetings that we had scheduled with SOSNA, two that actually went off that were held, the first one and the third one.
And again, I want to reiterate to the board that this is a multifamily block. As many multifamily blocks on our side, as many multifamily blocks are, many of those properties, obviously, as I indicated, over half have a history of rental licenses or have owners who do have mailing addresses that are not the subject premises.
And so, again, we come up with a number of 14 on the block out of the 21 homes that are not owner-occupied, that are rental properties.
My clients live in the neighborhood a couple blocks away, as I mentioned.
If I go back to the initial aerial, here's the subject property.
My clients live down on this block of Carpenter Street, so very close walking distance to the property.
They check on their property.
they're there at the property very regularly. They have somebody that helps them manage the
property. I've seen him walking on this block, walking around the neighborhood to a variety of
I've seen him walking on this block, walking around the neighborhood to a variety of different properties when I've left my house in the neighborhood.
So they're very active, very involved.
We mentioned at the community group meeting, our clients are very involved.
My clients are very involved in the community.
They actually offer a discount rate to those people that live in the community, have a need for temporary accommodations such as these.
That was something that was spoken to on behalf of my clients by a number of members of the community at the community group meeting.
And we feel that given the lack of availability of short-term rentals, short-term accommodations for people in this neighborhood, the need to go many blocks away in order to find that we meet the criteria for the granting of variance here.
We will not be causing any additional congestion in the streets, no additional traffic.
There's no additional impact on air and light to abutting properties as there are no changes to the existing building proposed.
There's no signage proposed with this building.
Although I will say that as part of the proceedings with SOSNA, we were tasked or we offered to try to develop a community benefit agreement to provide to SOSNA to provide protections and ensure good operations at this property and as well as other properties that SOSNA chose to use them.
And they included things that providing a small plaque at the property, identifying who the owner is and what their way to contact them if there is a need to do so.
There are probably about 15 or 16 things we provided to in the community benefit agreement.
Unfortunately, that wasn't something that we were able to enter into with SASNA.
They ultimately elected not to go that route, but it's something that my client remains committed to as a member of the community to providing benefits to the community, whether it's in rating or otherwise.
And for those reasons, we request that the zoning board grant this variance.
I know I've had a couple of these in front of the board.
I heard one earlier today down in Point Breeze, just to the south of us by a couple blocks over on the other side of Washington Avenue.
And obviously, given the kind of developing aspect of this use in the city of Philadelphia, the way that the city is working to regulate these uses, my clients would be open to a temporary if that's something that the board finds warranted here.
With that, I would ask my clients to identify themselves.
Yes, TIGA should be on right now and to adopt my statements.
mr orphanetes this is for both units am i correct yes this is for both okay thank you
hi hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer sure i'll give you the
full name is yisrael tg which is y-i-s-r-a-e-l and the last name is tg which is spelled t-i-g-a-y
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do please proceed counsel good morning yes um can you please identify good morning could you
please identify your relationship to the owner of the base uh the property base camp properties
uh yeah i am a uh owner of of base camp so thank you and um you real quickly you heard the
statements that I made to the zoning board today? I did. And they true and correct to the best of
your knowledge? They are. And would you adopt them as your own? I do. And then real quickly,
ask you a few questions as well. I'm pulling up photographs that show the interior of the
property. This is the interior you design and provide here at this property. And this is the
current state of the units as I've shown them? It is. Yes. Okay. And it looks like you went to
great ends to make very, very nice and very high end, pleasant accommodations here.
Is that correct?
That is correct.
And you heard me state that you live in the neighborhood.
That's correct?
It is.
And a little bit, can you please tell the board a little bit about how you and your
wife operate this Airbnb?
Absolutely.
So we have a close friend who manages it.
He's a professional manager of Airbnb or of the Airbnbs and others like it.
That's what he does professionally.
And so we work hand in hand with him in order to ensure one.
We work hand in hand with him in order to ensure, one, that the properties are kept up very well.
So he manages all of the physical aspects of it, including making sure it's clean, trash removal, as well as a communication with the guests, which is also a big part of how we make sure that we run this thing well,