Mr. Holloman?
we lost some chair i'm not able to see him on the phone all right so hillary uh ish got off
the phone a minute we're gonna have to hold this vote am i correct we're just gonna have to until
we have mr holliman back just pause hearings period so we have our quorum all right i'm happy
to wait for mr holliman for a bit um chair um let me see where he's at
excuse me mr chairman can you hear me now
excuse me mr chairman we can't we can't tom we need a we need your vote on this matter
okay i didn't hear what okay um okay so so it's 71 35 caster avenue it's uh a duplex
planning is in favor of it i voted yes mr snell voted yes thomas holliman my vote is yes
thank you counsel thank you all right hey tom just so you know uh ish had a step off the phone
so the next one could you do the follow-up for me too please no no problem all right so mi2023
002 907 2914 west gerada avenue vernon anastasio is the attorney
There's no letter from an RCO, but there was a meeting held on 12-7-23.
there's no letter from an
There's also a letter of support from the Lower North Philadelphia Community Development Corporation.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair. Mr. Harry Cook will be promoted as a panelist. He'll be coming back in soon.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
I believe Mr. Anastasia is out of town right now, so the case is marked for him.
Mr. Cook will be handling.
Good morning, Mr. Cook.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Harry Cook, H-A-R-R-Y-C-O-O-K.
Let me get my camera going.
All right, good.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
And as a point of order, I have two legalization cases with a community support very similar to each other in context that I think will go quickly.
We do have a letter of support for the incident.
For 2914?
We do, from Fairmount Civic Association.
21 in favor, zero opposed.
All right.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Not our vice chair.
Board Member Holliman.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon, Mr. Holliman.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do, sir.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we did, sir.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
So, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I'm here presenting on behalf of Fairmount Community
Development Corporation. They are the applicant here at 2914 West Girard Avenue. Their intent
is to operate their community development corporation on the first floor, host community
meetings, serve as an entrepreneur incubator. They are a well-established CDC in the neighborhood,
and this will be a new location for them. They purchased the subject property in the spring of
2023. They inherited two tenants in the second and third floor units. The first floor was a
daycare center. Most recently, this board granted use in 2015 for a daycare center,
residential on the second floor, and vacant residential on the third floor.
My clients went to apply for rental licenses as good citizens, and they were told that the
uses were not in order any longer. So I want to start with just an overlay.
The subject property is outlined in blue. This is from Atlas. As you can see, we are right on
Girard Avenue. There is commercial mixed use on the block at the end caps, and we are adjacent
to RM1. This property, as far back as 1948, was a three-unit apartment. So we have a pre-existing
non-conforming structure that is incongruent with RSA 5, no matter how you cut it, whichever uses
are there. I'll get to the plans in a little bit. We're not planning any changes except
to the meeting space on the first floor,
but I want to just give you an idea of photos.
So previously, Morgan's Preparatory Academy
was located here on the first floor.
It's a very nice, well-maintained building.
The second floor and third floor
have long-term tenants in it.
This is a shot of the block.
And again, this is the 2,900 block of Girard,
which is a main thoroughfare.
very well maintained and clean out front these pictures are recent no work is being engaged in
in the property this is the access to the second floor this is all throughout the first floor
commercial space pictures are going to be pretty redundant and for the sake of time they are in the
binder if uh the board wants me to go up to the uh up to the uh plans i can do that or down to
the letter of support uh for the sake of brevity letter support why don't you go to a letter okay
so letter of support in just a moment
We met with Fairmount Civic Association last week. It was a very well-attended meeting.
we met with
There were 21 people in attendance, only one affected neighbor. However, all 21 members voted
in support. 22 members voted in support of this. So it's not a non-opposition. It is a support
case. And here we have their position was the RSA single family zoning does not reflect
the historic configuration and use of the property. Gerrard Avenue is a major arterial
zone commercial or multifamily in this neighborhood, except for this block on the
south side of Gerrard Avenue. If you do look on Atlas at the overhead, you will see that this
block and the next block are the only two that don't have the zoning designation that would
allow for this by right. The proposed uses would not be out of character for the neighborhood,
would not impose excessive noise or disturbance on the neighbors. And that came from Teresa
Holberg. She did send it over to the board, I believe on Monday, and here it is. I can resend
it if Ms. Emerson doesn't have a copy. As for housekeeping, prior to the meeting, we sent out
a notice to the community. And that went out to 126 addresses provided to us by the Planning
Commission. And this was the notification that allowed for engagement at the meeting and
instructions on how to join this meeting today. So, you know, to summarize, this is a longstanding
pre-existing non-conforming structure. It has a longstanding pre-existing non-conforming use.
We're essentially here just to change one commercial use to a less intensive commercial use and retain the two pre-existing two-family above unit on the second floor, unit on the third floor.
You have a representative from the Community Development Corporation?
I do. I have Patrick Sherlock here, who is the executive director.
And we'd like to adopt.
Mr. Sherlock, could you please raise your hand?
Hello, I'm here.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
My name is Patrick Sherlock. First name is P-A-T-R-I-C-K. Last name S-H-E-R-L-O-C-K.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Chairman.
Mr. Sherlock, did you see and hear my presentation to the board today?
Was it true and correct to the best of your knowledge and information?
Do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Ramerson?
Just briefly, Mr. Chair, Mr. Cook, we didn't receive a copy of that letter, so if you could forward it, that would be great.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands Mr. Chair. Cleaning Commission.
This property is indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted district
plan recommends no change the existing zoning at this location the applicant's hardship is not
supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or condition of the property
that would prevent it from reverting back to being used in conformity with the code
requirements therefore we recommend the place of parents not be rented
mr chairman if i may respond uh with some legal argument on that um we've presented a property
that has been demised as three units for at least seven decades. Under the case law, it is a
presumptive hardship to have to spend money to bring a non-compliant property into compliance.
Along with that, I think the current consistent use, the support of the neighborhood,
including the coordinating RCO, which has best position to understand best uses for that block.
We ask that you consider and give appropriate weight accordingly.
May 2023, 002-907-2914 Western Avenue. I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
james snell my vote is yes um mr cook could you please stay on yes thank you okay let's see here
Yes. Thank you.
Okay, let's see here.
At number 17, MI 2023, 002-902-804 West Wingahawken Street.
There is a letter of non-opposition from Esperanza, and there's a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
And just for the record, Mr. Cook, just state your name.
You've already been sworn.
Harry Cook, again, the law office of Vernon Anastasio on behalf of applicant.
And could you identify your client and their relationship to the property?
I sure can.
Ms. Ortiz, are you present or do you want me to just?
All you have to do is tell me who your clients are.
i just um just a moment there's two two clients so it is uh yates ortiz and nathan nazaro
her son okay and and then our vice chair our vice chair has a few questions
not our vice chair our board member mr holland good morning counselor do you agree do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy did you did you email all of the
exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing yes sir thank you
please proceed your screen is up thank you uh mr chairman members of the board uh i am here
presenting 804 wing the hawking street before i get into my presentation i want to provide you
with a little overview and context for the property.
As you can see, this property is located near Hunting Park
with access to Roosevelt Boulevard.
The property itself is in the RSA 3 zoning district.
However, this block face in particular,
each one of these properties, according to historic records and access,
are multi-use with the exception of a record missing for this property, as well as 802
Wingahawken. 801, 800 Wingahawken is a CMX1. It is a bar restaurant with one unit above.
806 Wingahawken is a duplex. 808 Wingahawken is a duplex. And 810 Wingahawken is a duplex.
As to the missing Hanson file for this property and the other property, it could be a matter of when the early 2000 scanning project, it never made it in to the system.
When my clients purchased this property in 2015, it was a two unit.
They've made no changes to the demising walls.
It was consistent with every other unit on the block face.
In addition to that, this particular block, as I refresh to bring up the zoning overview of it, is a mixed block where the square block to the left side,
it's I'm having some technical issue there here we go is RM1
all the way down RSA3 here and CMX on the corner and again historically this block face on Wingo
Hawking as it goes to the park as it goes to Roosevelt Boulevard has been de facto multi-family
So that's a bit of the background on this particular property as it relates to historic
kind of site information.
As we go into the property, the first floor has a common entry, step upstairs, and you
have a kitchen and a single bedroom.
There's access to the basement.
The second floor apartment is a two-bedroom.
Again, no demising changes have been made to the property.
My client has made some aesthetic upgrades, but no changes structurally to the demising walls of the property.
Here are some photos of the property as they've upgraded it.
It's very lovely.
Consistent with stairs.
with the rest of the block face. There's a lot of photos. There is replacement material in here.
material in here and they went to
great effort to make this aesthetically pleasing
obviously this property cannot get a co uh without uh the zoning approval at this point
um so on and so forth you can review the photos in the record
i'll take you to the community meeting letter and some of the housekeeping items
as you can see it is beautifully appointed
we sent out our letter on the 29th of september to the addresses provided for by the planning
commission has scrolled through above it provided information about the refusal
the legalization how to engage at that meeting via zoom and how to attend this meeting