use in the IRMX classification with a spray booth and a mixing room. Obviously, intensive
industrial is not allowed in an IRMX. That is the only refusal we have here on the use. To give you
a little bit of background on the property, the property is a sizable piece of real estate with
many different units within it, each of which has its own, you know, commercial or industrial use
that hopefully has been approved. Geographically, it sits between Tarsdale and Worth Street.
Justin, let me add, Justin, are you going to put this up on the screen?
Oh, I'm sorry.
I thought you were –
No, it's not here.
It says paused.
I apologize.
Let me see if I can get that back to you.
Did you see it at all, if I may ask?
No, nothing.
Let me try that one more time.
We're up.
You're up.
Okay, thank you very much.
I'm so sorry.
You couldn't make it just a little bit bigger.
That's fine now. It's good now. Okay. We're good. All right. So the only refusal, I apologize,
is that intensive industrial is not allowed in here. But again, the point being is that the
applicant does not spray cars, but rather artwork. And I will give you some examples of that
momentarily. The property is located between Worth and Torsdale and consists of several units within
this industrial kind of park, again, IRMX. We are looking to operate in one space over here,
unit F. But again, there are several commercial slash industrial uses. The applicant currently
does have a space in this building, but is leasing the larger space because he needs additional
space to work. His initial application at his original location in this building was put
through somewhat incorrectly by a prior attorney who sought to get him artisan industrial believing
that the artist aspect of this was controlling but again the chemicals that are being used are
more important so we are for the new space he is i'm you know trying to get this all straightened
out um mr torani also does comply with all city of philadelphia and state environmental and
Mr. Tarani also does comply with all city of Philadelphia and state environmental and air regulation matters.
This is the side of the building that is located on Worth Street, as well as this angle of the building from Kinsley Street.
What's notable is our property is located on the Torresdale side of the property, and it is the three, these two bays and central door located within this red box.
The applicant will be potentially using the bay door to get certain items commissioned for work in and out, but it is not for vehicles and so forth.
As for a key plan, just to give you some bearing on where in the building, we are talking about unit F.
The space currently looks like this on the inside. It's very bare bones and just an open workspace.
This pad right by the bay door that you saw from the exterior is where the paint booth resides.
sides. We have schematics of a paint booth, which again, from the initial view that the
neighborhood took, they had concerns about what was going to be done or painted in there.
We assured them that there will be no automotive painting. The reason for the size of the space
is, as I will show you in a bit, some of the artwork. I'll jump to the bottom of it to give
you an example. This is kind of what we're talking about. Mr. Tarani is commissioned to spray paint
a lot of metallic artwork and as much as uh you may not believe it these are not mylar balloons
they are metal and they are uh you know detailed with obviously automotive quality paints and so
forth um this structure this sculpture down here is just as an example things might get large
again this is metal um so so the neighborhood had concerns that we might bring it in bring
larger objects or cars, so they issued a proviso regarding size. We agree with the proviso that
has been set forth, and I'm going to bring those up right now. It says no automobile painting or
anything larger than a surfboard. We don't have any general objection, but the idea of surfboard
as a general object, something might be slightly bigger or smaller, but no automobile painting for
sure. The neighborhood also heard testimony about, you know, the regulations that we follow,
but they have asked that we maintain openness to inspection, which we will, and they would like
this to be granted on a provisionary basis for a year. Again, my client is not opposed to complying
with the RCO. We do believe that an annual need to reapply for a variance would be a little
cumbersome and onerous and cost inefficient and would prefer potentially something in the lines
of two years, which I believe might be more standard. But nevertheless, we met with the RCO.
They are in support of the use and understand it. I have an exemplar copy of the initial page
of the lease for the new space at Unit F. Mr. Tarani is tax compliant with the City of Philadelphia
and has posted zoning posters on both the outdoor and on the interior doors of the property
and at every window that he has facing the street.
This is the other side of the building at the main entrance to the interior courtyard.
For these reasons, we don't believe that Mr. Tarani's use or application will impact the neighborhood
or create any congestion in the streets or with the utilities in the area.
We believe that there's a hardship in literal enforcement of the code because his use is not as extensive as we think the code is trying to protect against.
Something that is, you know, more private and lower key fine art finishing versus intensive industrial automobile spray painting and so forth.
With that said, I'd like to bring on.
So, so, so, so counsel, um, our attorney does not feel as though it's enforceable,
the whole surfboard concept. So we, we, we, we would not make it a proviso. And we also believe
that if you wanted to do the yearly process, you'd have to start right now. So we don't think
that's practical. And what we've seen in the past is three years. Uh, I believe the applicant would
be very appreciative of that again not trying to skirt an obligation to report to the neighborhood
or to the city but uh it's more economical and of course if anyone has issues during the interim
they are more than happy to report it or contact us to discuss so thank you
um if mr torani could be brought on to acknowledge the testimony
Could you please have your client raise their hand, please?
Could you please have your client?
The Tehrani Paintworks has raised their hand.
How are you?
Yes, Mr. Tehrani.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, James Tehrani, J-A-M-E-S-T-E-R-R-A-N-I.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
thank you
Mr. Tarani have you had an opportunity
to hear my testimony before the board
today yes I just did
and do you acknowledge that
the statements I made were true and correct
yes and
if you had the opportunity to speak with the board
do you adopt my testimony
as if it was your own and you would give
the same testimony yes
thank you thank you
Mr. Tarani is available for any questions from the board
as am I questions from the board
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Sloan Folks.
Yes, sir.
Good afternoon, Chairman Bergman, ZBA Board, Sloan Folks, S-L-O-A-N-E, F-S in Fire, O-L-K-S,
Office of Councilwoman Maria Quinonez Sanchez, 7th District, Room 508 City Hall.
and you've already been sworn today thank you sir uh the councilwoman um well i'm sorry the
applicants having met with the coordinating rcl and receiving a letter of non-opposition
the council member has no opposition to this variance request thank you
any other questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hand here okay planning commission good afternoon chair bergman david fecto city
planning commission uh chair members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
industrial and residential mixed use zoning at this location the zoning for this block was changed
in 2014 to acknowledge the activities that were already happening within the building
The proposed intensive industrial activity could be compatible with the residential units already existing in the building, but we are concerned with that spray painting activity.
We understand the nature of it is small scale, but spray paint and people don't often go well together.
So we're going to recommend that the board grant the applicant the three-year temporary variance requested by the RCO.
Thank you.
MI 2021-002537-4520-40, Worf Street. I vote yes with proviso that this ends on 126-25.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes with proviso. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, yes with proviso. Ishmael Shaheed, yes with proviso.
Thank you, members of the board.
MI 2021 002540 740 North 20th Street, United Franceville Civic Association, letter of support, Gussie O'Neill.
good afternoon hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
sure my first name is augusta a-u-g-u-s-t-a my last name is o'neill o-n-e-i-l-l right do you
swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do our our vice chair
has a few questions hi good afternoon do you swear for him to tell the no you just did that
Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
And have you submitted all of the required documents?
I have.
You may proceed.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
I'm here this afternoon representing the owner of the property at 740 North 20th Street.
This is an application to demolish an existing single-family home that is currently on the property and construct a brand new three-story home that's going to look a bit more consistent with what is in this developing neighborhood.
This property is currently zoned RSA 5. Just for context, I'm going to bring up a picture of the existing structure.
Just for context, I'm going to bring up a picture of the existing structure. This is a single-family
home that's currently on the property. As you can see, it does have parking for vehicles for the
owner. Directly across the street from our property is a large multi-family apartment complex.
again for context just wanted to show the multi-family units there's also a number of
three-story homes that are on the street to the south of our property again are some
new three-story single-family homes this is pretty consistent with what you're going to see
in this area this is on brown street directly around the corner from our property
three-story modern looking properties. This is again to the north of the property also on Brown
Street you're going to see a lot of three-story homes. So the parking that is currently in front
of the existing structure the owner is going to keep. We are going to keep the parking space in
part because the feedback that we receive from neighbors is that parking in this area much like
in other parts of the city is extremely difficult um so the parking was certainly a plus to this
application but the parking space did generate a refusal as you can see from the refusal that
i provided at page six of our um zoning packet the other refusals that we received were for
the balcony that's going to be on the new home just so you can see on the plan let me just shift
this around. So the house is going to have a balcony, but that was one of the reasons for
the refusal that we received. The other refusal that we received, sorry, let me just shift this
back again. The refusal that we received was for the setback of the home. We had initially met with
the RCO for this property, the United Francisville Civic Association, on August 11th of last year.
At that time, there was a neighbor to the property who was in opposition to the project.
She thought that the setback that we were proposing could potentially impact her own home.
So we have since worked with her and had multiple meetings, both with
representatives of the RCO as well as the neighbor that was concerned about the setback.
and we've exchanged a lot of emails. We have since updated the setback from 16 feet that was
on our refusal and the property is now going to be set back to 23 feet. So we did have a second
meeting with the RCO on January 12th of this year, just a few weeks ago. I'm happy to report that as
a result of those additional meetings and the neighborhood outreach that I did and our architect
David Whipple did, we now do have a letter of support from the RCO, which appears at
page three of your exhibit package.
And as you can see, they're taking a position of support on this project.
So with that being said, I would like to call forward my client, Natal Loda, just to adopt
my testimony.
Natal, if you could raise your hand so that you can be identified.
yes can you hear me hi yes could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
sure my name is uh nita loda
oh yeah i'm sorry it's n-i-t-t-a-l last name is l-o-d-h-a
you will swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes proceed counsel thank you so much so natal did you have a chance to hear my testimony this
afternoon yes i did was everything that i said true and accurate yes yes and would you like to
adopt my testimony as your own yes thank you so much so um mr chair members of the board we have
our project architect david whipple available for questions i'm also available um for questions
if the board should have any questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman
no mr chairman questions from the virtual audience
chair we have shoshana brickland
could you no hi could you could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
I don't think I'm on this case.
I think that was a mistake.
all right thank you i see no other handshare planning commission
All right.
Thank you.
I see no other hand shared.
thank you mr chairman david vecto city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no
change to the residential single family zoning at this location the proposal for a single family
home is consistent with that zoning and as much as we typically oppose front parking the parking
pad already exists so the city planning commission is going to recommend that the board grant the
requested variances thank you mi 2021 002540 740 north 20 street i vote yes carol tanari my vote
is yes thomas holloman my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
Thank you. Thank you so much. MI 2021 002575 8501 Hegerman Street, Sean Ward, RCO, Upper
Holmesburg Civic Association, letter of support. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the