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to be advised this meeting is being recorded. Your participation in this meeting indicates
your consent to be recorded. The video will be posted on the ZBA website approximately one week
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Before we begin, our Executive Director, Ian Haggerty, has an important safety announcement.
All right, good morning. Thank you, Chair.
Welcome to the ZBA hearing room.
The safety of the meeting attendees is our top priority.
If there happens to be an emergency, please pay attention to the announcements on the loudspeaker.
If you don't hear any announcements over the loudspeaker, then follow the directions of the ZBA staff or security staff.
The main exit is through the double doors at the rear of the room.
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If we have to evacuate from the building, we will have a rally point at Love Park to make sure everyone is accounted for.
please make sure you follow the group to love park directly across art street from the public
entrance to the building restrooms are located just across from the elevators where you came up
and the water fountain is just outside the double doors to the right thank you mr chair thank you
let's look at our schedule for today number two mi2024 000820 1212 south 51st street this case
Cases continue to 8-27-25 at 9-30.
Number four, MI 2024-004-244-5300-202 Haverford Avenue.
Cases continue to 8-27-25.
Is that also at 9-30, Mr. Chair?
Is that also at 9.30, Mr. Chair?
Yes, 9.30.
Thank you.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Number 9, MI 2024-006-219-5911 Spruce Street.
This case is continued to 82725 at 9.30.
number 10 mi 2024 006 222 1542 to 46 north marston street this case is continued to 8 27 25 at 9 30
number 12 mi 2024 006 238 4805 walnuts street every kirk is the listed attorney
There's no exhibits.
This is the first listing.
There's a continuance request from Councilmember Gauthier's office.
Avery Kirk or Wilhelm Donlow.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
This is Jason Handel will be your co-host for the session.
I do not see any hands raised for this matter,
and I do not see the individuals named
in the virtual audience this morning.
Thank you very much.
So MI 2024-006-238-4805-Lawnton Street.
This case is continued to 8-27-25.
Mark, must be heard.
Right?
8-27-25.
At 9.30.
Number 14.
MI 2024, 006254, 2349 North 20th Street. This case is continued to 82725 at 930.
And number 19, 15, I'm sorry, MI 2024-006-262-460 Earlham Street.
This case is continued to 8-27-25 at 9-30, and number 19, MI 2024-006-487-3401 West Gerrard Avenue.
This case is continued to Wednesday, May 28th at 930 a.m. at 52825. Thank you. Are there any other requests for continuance?
Mr. Chair, I have a handout from an author of Kasambos. I've allowed them to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Arthur George Kasambas, K-O-U-S-O-M-B-O-S, first name A-R-T-H-U-R.
I just want to make sure you can hear me because I don't see myself on the screen.
We can hear you, but we do not see your video.
Yeah, I don't know how to do that. How do I do that?
We're going to call you, sir. We'll call you.
Okay, thank you.
Sure. Are there any other requests for continuance?
Yes, Mr. Chair, I have Devin Uchtah with the hand raised.
I've allowed them to speak as well.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Devin.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Devin, D-E-V-I-N Uchtah, U-Q-D-A-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
What case, sir?
5523 Bayton Street.
Number five. That's number five. And I understand we we do not have exhibits for that case.
Yes. Mr. Chair and the council is also aware we've been having trouble getting the RCO to reach out.
I think the RCO may have retired. So I guess I'm asking for another date to see if I can possibly get another RCO to take over or just to present to the board in my next hearing.
All right. Thank you. So number five, MI 2024-004-284. This case continued to 8-27-25 at 9.30 a.m. Thank you for calling in. Any other requests?
I do not see any further answer at this time, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Number 11, MI 2024-006-224, 1439 South Dover Street. Henry Clinton is the attorney. We have no exhibits. This is the first listing. Mr. Clinton.
We have no exhibits. This is the first listing. Mr. Clinton.
I'll be coming back in as a panel shortly, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
I believe we sent a letter in withdrawing that case in its entirety.
And if not, hold on, hold on, hold on one minute.
Do you swear or tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
So this case has been withdrawn?
Correct.
And you will make sure that there's a letter sent to us?
Right.
I believe one was, but we'll resend it.
All right.
Thank you.
So number 11, MI 2024-006-224-1439 South Dover Street.
This case has been withdrawn.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
And number 12.
12, I did already. Okay, good. Okay. Let's start with our 16. Okay. Hold on one minute. One more. 16.
mi 2024-006-278-1430 shung street angelita and armin carcilio listed owners no exhibits first
listing
hello mr chair once again i do not see any hands raised for that matter
We believe this case has been continued already?
This is number 16, Mr. Chairman?
Ma'am.
So it's listed as a first listing right now.
So it may have been previously rescheduled, but this is the first time maybe it's been called.
All right.
Thank you.
So MI 2024-006-278-1430, Shunk Street, cases continue to 82725 at 930 a.m., must be heard.
We're going to go to our add-on list.
Number one, MI 2024-000-929, 2450 North 30th Street.
The vote in this matter will occur once the board receives revised plans and proviso forms that reflect what was presented at the February 26th hearing.
The record has been reopened for the receipt of these documents only.
The applicant has submitted proof of posting as requested by the board.
Number two. MI 2024-004-313-2649 South 18th Street. I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
i win my vote is yes thank you number three mi 2024 005 996 2506 north 16th street
i vote yes proviso maximum two dwelling units no household living in the basement
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with provisos tenetta graham my vote is yes with provisos
tyo and my vote is yes with provisos number four mi 2024 006 034 1428 west allegheny avenue
i vote yes
is that right uh cheryl guest and my vote is yes it's not a gram my vote is yes yeah when my vote
is yes thank you number five mi 2024 004 765 1624 north 26th street at the request of the applicant
the vote in this matter has been rescheduled to wednesday april 30th at 9 30 a.m number six
mi 2024-005-928-2353-59 east haggard street
i vote appeal appeal granted administrative adjustment approved
Charles Gaston my food is yes uh with same
Insane. Administrative adjustment. You can say, you can say appeal granted with proviso.
administrative you can say you can say
Oh, appeal granted with proviso. Thank you.
Sonetta Graham, my vote is yes for appeal granted with proviso.
Taya, when my vote is yes for appeal granted with proviso.
Number seven, MI 2024-000898-5153 Wyalusing Avenue.
I vote yes with proviso. Maximum two dwelling units. Cheryl L. Gaston will certify when she votes.
I, Cheryl L. Gaston, certify that I watched the July 10th, 2024 video recording of the hearing in this matter. And my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Hi, Owen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Okay, we're going to go to our regular list.
MI 2024-000763-2601 North 31st Street.
Arthur Casabas is the listed owner.
Brea Kennedy is
okay, Mr. Kazabas.
They should be rejoining us
shortly, Mr. Chair.
sorry can you hear me now i i can sir sorry about that sir sure just just state your name
one more time please did i swear you when the last time were you wrong i'm sorry all right
state your name arthur kasambas a-r-t-h-u-r-k-o-u-s-o-m-b-o-s right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir all right and we have a letter of
unanimous non-opposition and a letter of non-opposition from council member young and our
vice chair has a few questions for you sir yes sir good morning sir have you emailed in all the
required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case yes in advance of this
hearing yes sir please please proceed and share your screen i'm sorry i couldn't hear that last
part please proceed and share your screen please show your documents oh um so bria kennedy is is
uh bria is my uh um uh adjudicator she was helping me expedite everything she has all the documents
well we're going to bring bria on but she cannot testify okay she will just show documents okay
Sounds fine.
Maria?
All right.
They will be rejoining as a panelist as well,
shortly, Mr. Chair.
are you able to see my screen we see your name we do not see we see we do not see your documents
yet. Your documents are up. Okay. Arthur, why don't you start your presentation?
Okay. So this is my purchase contract and my deed from when I bought the property.
Hey, Bria, what do you want me to do? Just scroll down?
She'll scroll down for you.
I believe that this was the proposal submitted by the engineer architect.
The property in question originally had two units in it and had some work done on it.
had two units in it um and had some work done on it um and uh you know the staircases and stuff
like that were in place uh at the time of purchase all these corner properties were um
were multi-unit uh for for years
do you have do you have plans for what you did to the building okay thank you yes here's here's
all the plans so why don't you tell us what we're looking at sure um uh you have the first floor
door uh you go into the um entryway uh to the right is the first floor apartment it is two
bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, kitchen, laundry area, all self-contained electric.
To the left is the second floor apartment door with the staircase. Upstairs is the same layout,
two bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms. There's a little bit of difference because the staircase
cases in the way the powder room is further to the front of the building and the laundry room
is adjacent to that. So basically what I'm looking is to legalize the conditions of the building as
a two unit as I purchased it as it was back in time. You know, I helped approve the zoning
across the street for the three
unit and then
the property adjacent to me is also
two units of Caddy Corner
and that's
basically at no living space
Arthur do you have photos of the inside
of the property? Yeah
so why don't you tell us what this is
okay so
I think she's scrolling backwards
so basically you have the kitchen
that's the exterior
The building's been painted since then.
You have the kitchen, the exterior of the building.
You have a two-story front.
This is the first floor, two-story.
It's almost a story and a half, about 16-foot ceiling there.
Okay, all separate up to code.
Electric hot water heaters. That's the hallway.
This is the second floor front. The door that's there is the powder room. The door next to it is the laundry room. Split systems for heating and air condition.
If you want to scroll down, there you go.
All separate, upgraded.
I had an electrician finish their electrical work.
That's the utility.
That's the laundry room.
That's the powder room.
basically each floor is a mirror of the other floor um where where the rooms are located this
is the living room that's the kitchen no appliances and as of yet okay all right questions for the
board. Yes. Can you let me know how do you access the basement and does the first four unit or both
units have access to that space? No one has access to the basement. It's a keyed entry. And
per the suggestion of the nice lady from Strawberry Mansion, I'm going to put a sign
that says no tenant access on on the basement everything that the tenants need
is basically upstairs unless you have a catastrophe of uh you know frozen pipe or
something which i you know i have everything insulated i don't think that's ever going to
happen so for the keyed entrance is it from the exterior of the building or is it from inside that
common hall. It's inside the common hall. Okay. And I have a quick question. Did you close off
entrance on the side? Did the side entrance closed off? Yes. Any other questions from the board?
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson. Not at this.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
I have a hand up from Pastor Tyrone Williams.
I have allowed them to speak.
Good morning, Reverend.
Good morning, Reverend.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Or Tyrone, T-Y-R-O-N-E, Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, Trevor.
First, I wanted to know what's the original application for, for this property?
The original application.
i see here is the applications for use of two-family household living in the existing
structure right and so we have four bedrooms correct yes sir okay um is anyone currently
living in the building i see it lights up beautifully at night and i see it's louise
arms or something of another
it got a name already
so is anyone currently
living in there? No sir
there's no appliances in there or anything
I need the lights on
okay thank you
and my last question is
have there been a public meeting
I've seen this
but I don't remember a meeting
I heard you mention
Strawberry Mansion
I'm imagining or assuming Strawberry Mansion community could serve.
Have you been in contact with them and what was the result of that?
Yes, they approved me.
The public meeting was last week and there was only one other person that showed up.
It was a neighbor and she was very happy with the improvements.
And I I let the the strawberry mansion.
There was two young ladies that showed up and they from the association and they wanted to go inside.
And they gave me some, you know, pointers and Miss Cummings was her name.
And and she from what I understand, I guess we all received an email that they they not fighting the the, you know, the zoning.
Thank you for that. That's the end of my questions.
Thank you very much. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair, I have Strawberry Mansion community concerns.
Let them speak as well.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good morning. Can you hear me?
I can, most certainly. Please state your name and spell for the stenographer.
My name is Bonita Cummings, B-O-N-I-T-A, Cummings, C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
I just wanted to make sure that the provisals that we're concerned with, particularly around trash,
That location, 2601, is between Stanley Street and 31st off of Huntington, and we're not experiencing too much corner dumping debris.
The second floor unit could be an imposition to that, so we just wanted to make sure that the provisos that we listed be a part of the...
I have your provisos. Thank you, Mark.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I do not see any further
at this time.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
A-M-Y-B-O-Y-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
One second. I lost my place.
in 2014 the zoning map was amended to rsa 5 at this location in accordance with recommendations
from the comprehensive plan the proposal is to legalize ground floor dwelling unit which has a
documented history of use as commercial the residential dwelling is more in the spirit with
the zoning code the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variance for
family. Thank you. MI 2024, 000763, 2601 North 31st Street. I vote yes with proviso. Interior
With proviso. Interior trash storage, no household living in the basement, must obtain a certificate of occupancy.
trash storage, no household living in the basement.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Teneda Graham, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Tayewin, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You have your vote, sir.
Thank you very much, everyone, and have a great day.
All right, thank you.
Number three, MI 2024-004-047-2717 Federal Street.
John McCrillo is the listed owner.
There's a letter of support from Grace Ferry Community Council.
Mr. Chair, Joseph Consul will be rejoining as a panel shortly.
Good morning.
Good morning, Mr. Consul. I didn't see your name on this one.
Please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer.
Yeah, I just entered my appearance like two hours ago.
um joe joseph consul j-o-s-e-p-h last name consul c-o-n-s-o-l-e you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do our vice chair has a few questions so you
agreed good morning counsel do you agree to waive the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy yes
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this
case five days in advance of this hearing yes thank you counsel please proceed
okay did that work all right so all right cool all right so Joe Consul here uh 2717 Federal
Street here's the refusal the property is zoned I2 uh this block is full of um residential
properties there are some um non-residential properties on this block but the majority of
the block is zoned um i mean is is uh multi-family or single-family residential properties um i had
a shot of the block give me one second
seven federal just to give you all an idea so the the property that we're here for is this vacant
lot here. Two doors down to the left, and I'll bring up is 2721. I'll bring up the approval.
The board approved in 2019, and in 2020, that was built as a three unit. So we're trying to mimic
that exact build. Like I said, this side of the block is all residential, either single family
or multifamily. Farther down, there's more multifamily. Across the street, we have some
lots. On the corner, there's all multifamily. At the end there, but directly across the street,
there's these sort of garages. And further down on both sides of the street, there's multifamily
approvals. So he's seeking to build a three-unit building. It's approximately 1,200 square feet as
a footprint. So were it zoned appropriately, it would support the number of units my client
is seeking.
The client is John McCrillo.
He has had that lot since 2012.
He's only now developing it.
Proof of tax clearance.
Our letter of support
from the Grays Ferry Community Council.
That's our lot.
Poster.
The building's going to, as I said,
go between those two other buildings.
The building itself will be equal height.
The pilot house will go a little bit higher.
It's going to mimic this property that you can see on your screen now,
which was approved for three dwelling units in 2019.
Let's see what else I got.
If anything, we have the layout.
Now, the original layout submitted for zoning.
has uh living space in the basement we do not want that to be approved we it's going to be
three two-bedroom apartments and we'd like a proviso for no living space
in the in the basement it's just going to be for storage and mechanicals
otherwise there's the layout two bedrooms one bath on the first second and third floor
and yeah that
that's it uh is there any questions from the board or or anything before
That's it.
Is there any questions from the board or anything before I call my client?
Why don't you bring your client on and have your testimony adopt it?
Mr. McCrillo, are you in the audience?
If so, you've got to raise your virtual hand.
It should be a button on your Zoom.
Do we see him?
Mr. Chair Counsel, I'm sorry, but I don't seem to see that individual in the virtual audience this morning.
I'm sorry, I was texting with him.
So, Mr. Counsel, you're an officer of the courtroom.
I heard a hand raised.
Wait, and Anthony C. has their hand raised.
I can let them...
Yeah, he might be with the contractor.
Yeah, Joe, he was just on the phone with me.
He's having a little trouble getting on.
So we're trying to get him on now.
Hold on.
It's on a phone call.
All right.
Well, we can wait.
Mr. Consul, you're an officer of the court.
We'll accept your testimony.
Questions from the board.
Can you tell me a little bit about the trash plan?
Yeah, actually, I have the contractor who could speak about it if you'd like.
I don't have that information
off the top of my head
Joe the trash will be put in the back
hold on
who's speaking
the contractor
okay could you please state your name and spell
for the court stenographer
Anthony Consul
C-A-S-A-T-A-L
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
now he's not the owner Joe he's the contractor
correct
he's not related to me
Anthony
please
please proceed
tell us where the trash is
in the rear of each one
there's going to be a little Juliet
railing and he's going to put
the trash in the rear
until it's trash day
it's a little storage in the rear of
the decks in the
like a little catwalk
kind of setup they have other questions from the board yes plan that shows the deck
no we don't have that yet we're waiting to get past zoning and then the modifications will go in
for the basement not being used and showing each little juliet railing in the back it's just for
storage only.
Questions? Yes, question.
What are we doing about
utilities? Where are
they and
in the building?
If we're not, we're not using the basement,
correct? We're going to use
the basement now as storage and a
mechanical room since it was taken
out. We have plenty of room and
that will be designed
from our MEP guy, mechanical
plumbing and electric, which is suitable.
So you're not going to have
self-contained utilities?
Are there washer
and dryer in the units?
Stackables, yes.
We were going to figure out where we were going to put them also.
Stackable washer, yeah.
And trash is going to be
regular pickup
or are you going to have commercial trash pickup?
Well, that's more in the midst of seeing now
because usually they want a commercial pickup
for three or more and you get built for that.
So if it's commercial pickup,
we would have our own little thing built
where they could come and it's not going to bother
anybody on the block.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Other questions for the board?
Yeah, I do have one more question.
Is the third floor unit the only unit
that has access to the roof deck?
Yes, it's feasible to do that
rather than put more stairs and accessibility in common area.
And then the first floor is the only unit
that has access to the rear yard and it's through the bedroom?
Correct.
Side door it will be.
I just want to say for the record,
while it has nothing to do with zoning,
these living rooms are pretty minimal
and that I question why three units instead of two.
Well, we're only mimicking what's in the area first.
And again, this will be all reconfigured since once she gets paid zoning.
This is a basic drawing of what our concept is.
The square footage and stuff is exactly the same as the property that was...
the square footage and stuff is exactly the same as the property that was approved two doors down
i'm not talking about square footage but yeah i i understand
other questions questions or comments from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
or the or the audience here
mr chair i do not see any further hands raised for the matter
planning planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change in zoning at this location from the current medium industrial i2 however the
proposal for residential household living is consistent with the majority of the properties
on this block base the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested
variance for multifamily household living thank you mi 2024 004047 2717 federal street i vote yes
Yes, with proviso.
No living space in basement.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Tana DeGray, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Iowan, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
All right, stay.
All right, number six, MI 2024, 004-292-122 South Peach Street.
Doris Jones is the owner.
There's a letter of non-opposition from the West Philadelphia Economic Development Council.
Doris Jones.
They were joining us panelist now, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Hello, I'm an architect.
Yeah, I'm looking for the owner.
This is Doris Jones.
Hi, Doris, could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
My name is Doris Jones, D-O-R-I-S Jones, J-O-N-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you please turn your video on?
Let's go to turn the video on.
Yeah, hello.
All right, thank you.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good morning, Ms. Jones.
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes my counsel
have all them paperwork thank you ma'am please proceed and you may share your
screen I'm sorry I got asthma really bad yeah I'm the architect I'm helping her
with the application i can share my screen with the document yeah and she has to do the testimony
okay unless there's a technical question we go back to you with but please share your screen
so that she can testify of your
okay why don't you start your testimony ma'am and tell us what you want to do
well it's not what i want to do it's what i did in the back of my house i had a little
orny in the back of the house but the tree that was in the back of the house
fell and knocked my orny down so i just redid it and that's why we here today
the only right there it was already one day when i bought the house
so a tree hit
a tree hit your wooden awning we'll call it right do you see that little cover in the back
of the house right yeah that's what i know that's what i'm saying so a tree knocked that down and
you build a new one and you build a new one yeah okay all right questions for the
yeah so there are pictures of the
so could you do you have any other pictures of that backpack or porch there yeah
so could you do you have any other pictures of that backpack or porch there yeah
that's the drawing of the backport right
yes that's the drawing that was submitted to zoning okay
you have anything else you have any other photos or just the one photo
just the one photo okay miss jones need to be speaking sir
do you have any other photos no i'm i'm here right now i mean no just that one
whatever okay all right other questions from the board
comments from our attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual
audience oh my god mr chair i have a hand up from kyle sampson i've allowed him to speak
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Kyle Sampson, please unmute.
Yeah, Kyle Sampson.
Good morning.
Hi. Could you spell your name for the court stenographer?
K-Y-L-E-S-A-M-P-S-O.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And Mr. Sampson, you're from the RCO, am I correct?
Please proceed.
I just want to let you know that with regards to the certificate of mailing, the only thing we received was a copy.
What's that again, sir?
With regards to mailing, the only thing we received was a copy of the receipt from the payroll.
That's acceptable to you.
Say that one more time.
We're having a hard time figuring out.
You're breaking up.
The only thing that we received
was a receipt from the post office.
All right.
But you did have a meeting, am I correct?
We did, and there was no opposition.
All right.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I do not see any further answers, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Wood with the Planning Commission.
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential multifamily zoning at
this location the appellant has demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or
circumstances of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning
code the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variances
for max yard area rear yard area and rear yard setback
Thank you. MI 2024-004-292-122 South Peach Street, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Teneda Graham, my vote is yes.
Ty Owen, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you. You have your votes.
And number 17, MI 2024-006-307-141-Roosevelt Boulevard.
Rakan Alaharani is the owner.
Mr. Chair, they'll be coming back in as a bench.
lot. Thank you.
Good morning. Yes, it's the owner. Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer? R-A-K-A-N-L-H-O-O-U-R-A-N-I. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Could you please turn your video on?
Yes, the Vice Chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, sir.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you. You may proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. You may proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
why don't you start your testimony sir that's diversity um
we're making what tell us tell us what you're trying to do we make we're trying to make a
restaurant in the robbery our we have a restaurant next door and we're trying to make a we're trying
to make a restaurant we're trying to move to this restaurant we're trying to make it nice and good
can can my brother speak with me guys um we we you are the owner we need your testimony
okay just take your time i mean just tell us what you want to do with it
we're trying to have any other photos with it that a little bit better than that so we can
figure out what what's there true right so so you already have a restaurant next door yes we do have
you want this to be the this restaurant's going to be a takeout restaurant you have a restaurant
next door you want this to be a takeout restaurant yes okay um this this the take it this the take
out area and there is going to be the kitchen and the cook the the all the cooking stuff
and right here in the back is going to be a fridge and the freezer in the back of it
right here is going to be the restaurant the back area the bread
and you're saying you already have a restaurant there yes could you show me a photo of what the
two restaurants will look like together um the other restaurant it's a different
you went to the rco and they gave you a letter of support am i correct yes okay
that's that's is that your current restaurant yes and you want to make that a takeout restaurant
is that what you're saying yes the other is just going to be in russell bolivar right there
oh so say that so hold on hold on no no go back
go back to the original restaurant
so you have a
it'll be a restaurant down the street
and then you're going to put a takeout on the corner
am I correct
you got to show us that please
I'm sorry guys
all right so that's brothers pizza is your current restaurant am i right
yes and then you're going to go past this driveway here keep going slow
keep going and then on the corner not weighed in short or is it waiting this one on the corner
yeah that's the way there yes so weight insurances are the one over there i i
You got to show us where the second restaurant is.
I don't.
That's the second restaurant.
All right.
And that's right on the boulevard.
We're just trying to move from there to over here.
You're going to close the second, the other restaurant.
Yes, I'm going to close that.
So you're moving that restaurant to this place here.
We have enough space right here in the back
and we had like we got better space to go out and in.
We got better space
to go out and in.
All right.
Questions from the board.
Do you currently own the property
that you're moving the restaurant to?
And do you reside there as well?
What's currently occurring
on that first floor?
It's going to be a restaurant.
No, no. What is it right now?
It's empty. There's nothing in there.
There's nothing. So you all are residing in, is it a separate apartment?
And what floor is the apartment on?
Second floor.
Second floor.
Right here.
And the restaurant is only going to be on the first floor?
Where are you intending to put the takeout?
It's going to be inside right here.
And we're going to go right there.
why don't you go back to the drawings
don't you have drawings
you showed us a little bit
you showed us drawings why don't you go back to the drawings
and then how many other residential units
are in the building
just one residential unit
and then are you going to allow
your customers to utilize
your residential driveway
While you do that, where would your trash be stored?
Do you plan on having a dumpster back there or just do you have a storage area for trash in the rear?
There's going to be a dumpster back all the way in the back.
okay and that and that roll-up door there is that going to be a takeout window or
how are you going to use they're going to go inside there is a door inside
okay so what are you doing with that roll-up window there
on the side which one the this one the one in the front yes um they're gonna be
it's gonna be a door there was one on the side i thought oh that you showed in the pictures so
what are you doing with that i think that was one of the other buildings
that's that one that one there yeah yeah that's the door that's the door to go inside
the interest
so they're going to go inside
from here
okay and do you have
any interior pictures
of this space can we see those
this is the first floor yes this is the first door that's in the back
okay that's the sides there's the there's the store inside
there's the door the one um miss miss charity she asked for they gonna go inside from here
this is the basement that's that's the only pictures i have
and you're living there now you're saying no i'm not living there no nobody lived there no
no on the second floor who's living on the second floor nobody it's empty nothing nobody in there
but you're going to move to the second floor is that what you said no i think you said that
no no i'm not gonna move there it's gonna be a rent area in the second kitchen in the second
floor say that again it's gonna be a ring for rent um i should go to run it okay all right
so who's living on the third floor it's it's only two floors there's only two floors there's a little
pop-up on the third floor. Got it. Can you go back to the floor plans for a second?
And when you get to the floor plans, can you point out how does your residential
tenant get into their unit on this plan okay
definitely says
you'll see the pop-up on the top of the
yeah right yeah
that's the lot that's that's the lot
you're gonna want to go inside
they're gonna go inside here in the back
where where it says storage
you see right here it's right here there's a steps there is a steps right here so they can
yeah and okay so they get it yeah but oh they're going in the egress quarter okay i understand
so they can go up and down okay and then i just want you to know that your plan states that this
is a three-story building which is why i asked what's happening on the third story of the building
well there is a there is a third floor pop-up there mike right it looks like two small rooms
on the third floor yes it's all right in the roof so that's one combined unit
second and third floor okay yes and are you doing any construction up there as well
no no nothing yet nothing yet okay questions from any any other questions from the board
questions from our attorney
Hillary Emerson
I just want to note so the refusal
only references the restaurant but I think
it might be helpful if the
board approves to clarify that the
restaurant is on the first floor
with single family household living above
right okay
questions or comments from the
virtual audience
Mr. Chair, I do not see any further hands for this matter.
Planning.
Amy Boyd with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location
from existing commercial mixed use CMX1.
The appellant has not demonstrated their unique physical conditions
or circumstances of the property that would prevent it
from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
The Planning Commission recommends that the board
deny the requested variants for takeout restaurant.
I'm going to hold the vote on this.
We're going to vote on this next Wednesday at 9.30 a.m., okay?
So you'll hear the results at 9.30 a.m. next week, okay?
Thank you.
Thank you.
number seven mi 2024 004 304 2001 kinsey street lewis stevens is the attorney
there is a letter of support from the frankfurt neighborhood advisory committee
and a letter of non-opposition from council member lazada
Mr. Trey, they're coming back in as a
panelist now.
What was that?
It sounds like a game or something.
That's another
That's a game.
I hear that all day.
counsel good morning good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the
court stenographer lewis stevens l-o-u-i-s s-t-e-v-e-n-s all right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel thank you um counsel before we
start uh we have do you have a proof of posting and a receipt of a paper printed to post it
right hillary we're looking at that am i right
yes we don't we don't have proof of posting we also don't have a deed for the property
that was not sent in no okay i'm trying to share my screen here
Thank you.
can you see my screen we just see a listing for bks zoning bkb zoning
mr stephens why don't we do this why don't i come back to you and see if you can find what
we were talking about okay i'll be back to you in probably uh 20 minutes all right okay thank you
very much number eight mi 2024 006060 1542 north 42nd street sharon harvey is the attorney
there's a letter of opposition
from HMN
HMC squared RCO
applicant provided
a petition of support for duplex
with 13 signatures
that coming back in as a panelist
Mr. Chair
thank you
good morning council
could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer probably have to turn that
on too i think see there the button yep yes thank you very good good morning mr chair members of
the panel my name is sharon harvey s-h-a-r-o-n harvey h-a-r-v-e-y do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do young could you identify your client
the relationship to the property my client is barbara clark pitman and she's the owner of the
property right and our vice chair has a few questions good morning counsel do you agree
to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy yes sir yes have you emailed in
all the required documents and exhibits that's needed and required to perceive it is case five
days in advance of this hearing. Yes. Thank you. Please proceed.
having trouble sharing my screen council could mr stevens could you please go out
we'll call you we'll call you back mr stevens okay
leave the webinar or they go out
It's not sharing the touch screen tube so it's very sensitive.
I proceed. I can. So why don't you proceed?
i'm sorry mr chair can i change positions with my client i'm left-handed
and this is not working for me okay sure
when they turn it might be on too
Chair, are we here?
You got to keep that mic close to you.
Yeah, it's not you.
It's our problem.
All right.
Mr. Chair, we're here to...
okay that's good there you go there you go there's no more chairs so that's that one's got to work
That's good.
yes for a variance uh which we already had since 1948 um but there was a denial when my client
applied to uh to do some work in the property so let me go down so as you see the first uh picture
is the posting. And the property was properly posted on January 30th, 2025. The property
already consists of a two-story property, and the building is used as a duplex since
1948. My client acquired the property in 2023, but it was owner-occupied property prior to that
time. So up until her aunt acquired the property in 1966 and lived in the property. Upon her death,
her aunt, the house was transferred to Ms. Pittman's father, Mr. Clark, and he had a cousin
tenant living in the property from 2009 until right before his death, he transferred it
to his daughter, Ms. Pittman, in 2023.
He died in November of 2023.
And then we were required to request the variance for the property, but it already had a variance
on the property.
let me show some photos of the property and are the utilities separated
yes okay so this is the floor plan of the property there's no structural or
changes uh being proposed to this property uh their the basement is used as a utility room
the first floor apartment uh and there's a second floor apartment they're both one
bedroom.
Does that basement have a kitchen in it?
Go back to the drawing. Did that look like a kitchen?
Bathroom? There's a bathroom in the basement?
This is the first floor
entrance.
So this is the first floor entrance to the first floor apartment.
It has a separate door.
This is the entrance to the building itself.
It shows where there's an entrance up to the second floor directly.
And then to the right, to the left of the stairwell are the apartment entrance to the first floor.
The interior pictures.
Here's the first floor is what is being rehabbed right now, the first floor kitchen and the living room.
And then I'm going to make it larger so you can see the interior of the first floor bathroom and again, a picture of the kitchen.
I enlarge it. I can't move it.
Do you have pictures of the second floor?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
okay this again is a picture of the first floor bedroom second floor is
is the living room in the second floor and in the second floor bedroom so they're already
rehab and someone has been living there up until June
of 2024. That's when the cousin moved
This is the second floor bathroom.
And it's just the
bathroom and the bathtub.
okay this is the interior of the basement it's the unfinished space there's no living quarters
in the basement and there are however two new was what hot water tanks and heating units in the
was hot water tanks and heating units in the basement.
basement.
And the basement is not to be used
for any type of living space storage.
Again, this is the exterior of the property.
There are no proposed changes
to the exterior of the property.
And this is a picture from the second floor bedroom
down to the backyard where Ms. Pittman plans to put a fire ladder in that window so that
if there's ever a fire, they do have egress either from the front or the back of the property.
This is the exterior of the property.
One, the view to the sidewalk is from the rear of the property, looking towards the front of the property, where the trash bins are closer to the front, and there will be a bin container built for the trash bins.
And that's just simply a picture of the backyard.
This is a view from, I guess, this is 62nd Street looking towards Lansdowne Avenue.
It's an all-residential area.
And then there's parking on the street, the lighting.
She has a motion sensor on the exterior of the property so that it comes on only when there's somebody in either the front or the back.
this is a from the atlas stating that this property was a residential apartment of five
plus units which is where some of the constellation of the neighborhood objections were that it would
be a five unit apartment but there's absolutely no way that this building could be a five
unit apartment. It's always, has been a two, two apartments, one bedroom each. And so I don't know
why that's at this part. This was the zoning refusal and the zoning notice that was posted.
Ms. Pittman has always paid the commercial trash bill and continues to pay the commercial trash bill.
She's charged commercial trash since she acquired the building.
And this is the bill from July 2024 to December 2024.
This was the summary.
There were 177 letters sent to the community.
There are five oppositions, and there was only seven people who attended.
Two abstained.
Ms. Pittman went around and talked to the neighbors, asked them to sign the petition.
We have 13 people saying they had no objection to the planned use of the property.
Since it had always been, at least since 1948, a two-bit, two apartments.
Okay, this is just the letters required to send out with the loan disc.
There's the deed.
It shows it went from Arnold Clark to his daughter, Barbara Clark Pittman.
We have the city tax cert.
City tax cert showing that it is legal.
And then we have 28 pages of postage that we sent out to the community,
the 177 letters, and verifying that we did send out.
I did then also submit the supplemental
the supplemental
which shows
this is the variance
that was received in 1948.
The other
there's only two pictures
on that particular item.
The other one is the second posting
because this hearing was continued
uh hearing was continued because of technical difficulties the first time we were here
because of technical
difficulties
To tease.
you did not have uh any internet so we we reposted okay as required
why don't you have your testimony adopted by your client
miss pitman did you hear what i stated hold on miss pitman please state your name and spell for
the stenographer. Barbara Clark Pittman, B-A-R-B-A-R-A Clark, C-L-A-R-K. Do you swear or affirm?
Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. P-I-T-T-M-A-N. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
told truth, nothing but the truth? I did. Please proceed, counsel. Ms. Pittman, did you hear my
testimony as to what we want to do with the properties today? I did. And do you affirm or
agree with that testimony? Yes. Okay. So counsel, just a real quick question. So the building has
always been in her family always been a duplex she wanted to do work on it went down to l9 she
got turned down because it wasn't so yes okay all right thank you questions from the board
yes can you expand on the work that you would like to do to the property
i want to continue using it as a duplex multifamily dwelling upstairs to first floor and second floor
my great aunt
she was in the process
of doing work on the property
she had already completed it
there was a young lady that used to live upstairs
but she was
I think she was there like 30 years
but she had dementia
my cousin lived on the first floor
up until June
26 of 24
and I just want to
bring it up to code
not only up to code but I also want to modernize it
And then could you expand a little bit about some of the commentary that you got at the RCO meeting?
There was someone there, a gentleman there, that told the neighbors that I was bringing drugs, that I was turning it into an Airbnb, that it was going to be used for short-term units of 30 days or less.
I don't know where he got that information.
That is totally false, all of it.
I've never intended to do anything with that building other than continue what my dad and my aunt had done.
I just don't know where he got the information.
Is that on the zoning permit?
Because I see that we have a use refusal for short-term accommodations.
I never applied for short-term.
And the explanation is, it may have been my office's fault.
When we applied for the appeal, you have to put duplex and or short-term accommodations.
You have to put either or, and they may have hit the wrong button.
and and that's why there was a lot of consternation as to what we intended to do our intent and i did
write a letter saying our intent was never to have an airbnb it was just always to have two
one-bedroom apartments and that was it and then have you talked to the neighbors on either side
yes i've been going door to door and some of the neighbors i knew from my great aunt and my dad but
i talked to as many neighbors that were home that day because i've been working on the property
literally by myself
day by day.
I'm sorry, I have contractors to put in.
They installed the heaters.
They also installed two new
guests, hot water
tanks.
The upstairs is completely finished.
Matter of fact, I have a tenant lined up for
the 15th of this month.
And then
the tenants at 15,
43, and 47,
do they support? Because I didn't see
their signatures on the petition that you showed of neighbors on the block um yes matter of fact
they are on there they are okay the ones on that daryl i think the father the husband's name is
daryl and the um the one on the opposite side i don't know the exact kind of thing that we're 51
i'm not sure 45 57 maybe 47 47 he was the one that gave the information to the rco
that was incorrect okay so that's why his signature is not there understood i have no other questions
any other questions yes are there any other uh two family dwellings on the block
that you know of no they're not no they're not and uh but the the uh paperwork that you showed
from the archives yes that i couldn't see the whole thing so but that said that this
was approved as a two-family yes yes in 1948 in 1948 i can't i'm sorry a duplex it says single
dwell oh sorry it says single family residence duplex apartment okay all right i'm sorry it's
on the screen now thank you okay questions or comments from our attorney thank you
Thank you. Okay. Questions or comments from our attorney? Thank you. Just briefly, we did note the refusal had the two uses. I did see your letter requesting to amend, which I think we approved, but I don't know if that amended refusal was done, which is fine. We can just amend via proviso and indicate if the board does approve that this is for two-family household living only.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands raised for this matter, Mr. Chair.
My Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing single-family residential RSA 5.
However, the property has a documented history of two-family.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the requested variance for two-family household living.
Thank you.
MI 2024, 006060, 1545 North 62nd Street, I vote yes with proviso. Approved use is two-family
household living only. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes
with proviso. Tywin, my vote is yes with proviso. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you. Thank you for coming down. Thank you. Sorry we kept you so long. No problem. Maybe be
excused. Thank you.
I certainly can. Have a great day.
All right. Number 13,
MI 2024
006 242
North 16th Street. Henry Clinton
is the attorney.
There's
an anonymous support for the
Nicetown Tioga. Vote
with seven in support.
Mr. Clinton.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Counsel, I believe we've already sworn you.
Just for the record, state your name.
Henry, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
And could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
My client is Dennis Gizzy, G-J-U-Z-I.
He's the owner of the A&P Construction Company.
He's also the developer, and he's also the builder, so he'll be here to answer all questions.
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
We did, except this morning, the architect figured out a way to access the basement living units with a set of stairs, and they were added to the plans.
Additional pictures or photos?
Thank you.
Please proceed and show your screen.
Thank you.
Is that visible, Mr. Chairman?
It is, sir.
All right, good. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Henry Clinton here on behalf of A&P Construction, LLC. This request is for the demolition of an existing structure. I will show you photos inside and outside. A new construction of a building with eight units, which basically mirrors another building on the block, and it's on a block that has other multifamily household living, and I'll show you zoning records as well as aerial photographs to substantiate that.
This is the table of contents, exhibits A1 through A10, as well as zoning records from the block.
Refusal, it's a straight refusal of use because this is an RSA 5 zoning district,
although as I indicated, there's many multifamily on the block,
and we are requesting a multifamily building on this application.
As the chairman mentioned, this is Nice Town, Tioga's improvement team's unanimous letter of support.
They're interested in having more housing in the neighborhood as is consistent with that block.
Photographs.
So this is the property right here.
And we're basically, the proposal is basically to mirror the same layout and construction of the house next door, the building next door, including front bays.
Our bays are a little bit different, but again, the general context of that building will be replicated with our proposed project.
Some photographs, again, that's a closer photograph of the building next door.
this is the subject building where my cursor is this is looking down the
This is looking down the block, south at the very corner.
block south at the very corner there's an apartment building
There's an apartment building with 14 units.
Some interior photographs and exterior photographs of the property.
Henry, the building's rehabbed. It's not coming down, is it?
No, it's demolition of the existing building, Mr. Chairman.
The demolition of the whole thing?
Correct.
And in 2020, there were a number of violations, unsafe violations against the property.
The client pulled a make-safe permit just to stabilize it, but the building will have to come down.
These are postings.
This is a proviso plan.
If the board looks kindly upon the application, the plans would have to be stamped.
So here are the current plans, and I'll also show you the prior plan.
So this U-shaped structure, again, mirrors what is next door.
It's going to be three stories, no rooftop deck.
There will be basement.
And the issue why plans were submitted late, actually this morning, is because there was an addition.
The architect figured out how to get access to the basement living areas via replacing the previous window wells on the front of the building with a set of interior steps.
Then you can enter from the front on both sides of the building because the building is split in two, even though it's built as one.
And then there's also going to be interior stairs with access from the rear yard so that in the basement level, you'll be able to exit the building on in the front as well as in the rear.
The front elevation is going to be brick with siding on the bay and the back will have siding.
This is a rendering of what the inside you will look like.
It will have siding with windows, five windows on either side.
The smaller windows are for the bathrooms.
On the left side of the building, where my cursor is right now, that's going to butt
up against the existing building, and we have no rendering of that.
And then on this side, where my cursor is on the right side, that will be siding similar
to what we have displayed on the rear and the interior of the building.
There will be no windows on the side to the right or on the side to the left because the building takes up the entire footprint, again, like the building to its north.
So this is the layout.
I'll start in the basement.
So as I said, the building is split in the sense that there's a unit on the north side and a unit on the south side.
You would enter through the front for the first floor.
The first floor has units three and four.
The basement has units one and two.
You would access the basement units by going into the front of the building and then going down the steps.
Actually, I think based on this redesign, I stand corrected.
You're going to be able to enter unit one through the front steps and unit two through the front steps.
And then there's a corridor or a hallway to get out from the back, again, with the set of steps on both units in the basement, which has, in effect, replaced the window wells that were there.
The third and fourth unit on the first floor, fifth and sixth on the second, seventh and eighth on the third.
So you basically have a four-unit building adjacent to a four-unit building, which yields you at eight apartments.
We do have trash storage for the upper floors on the second floor toward the front.
There's going to be a ventilated trash room for unit five and unit six.
And then that floor plan, as well as the trash storage, is duplicated on the third floor for seven and eight.
And obviously, on the first floor in the basement, you're going to be able to access the rear yard directly for trash.
My client, as I said, is the owner, the developer, and the builder.
He will self-manage this building.
He also will collect the trash with his team on a weekly basis.
And we will have trash containers self-contained in the rear yard.
They're not shown here, but they're going to be basically fenced in and also one cart for each unit.
These are the original plans.
So as you can see, the window wells are in the front.
The window wells are in the front.
They're no longer going to be there.
They're no longer going to be there.
They're going to be stairs.
They're going to be stairs.
The stairs are moved slightly to the left and to the right.
It basically duplicates what is there.
Likewise, with the rear, there will be no window wells.
There'll be walkout steps to get to the rear.
And this is the same footprint.
We're not changing the footprint.
We're not changing the height.
We're not changing the open space or rear yard.
In fact, we don't have any refusals for any of that.
But just so the board knows that the footprint is not changing from what was originally intended.
This was the original intent of the project with bedrooms in the basement, with window wells.
But now, again, we have rear access with the steps.
The application for appeal.
Our tax certificate good till the end of March.
zoning map, you can see that this is one of the larger lots on the block. It's 36 wide by 118
deep. And the aerial photograph I showed you of the house next door or the building next door,
they actually combined the two lots into one to make it a larger building and then
have multifamily in that building. The deed indicating ownership of A&P Construction.
Our notice letter to all the neighbors. We also include a flyer from Nicetown, Tioga.
Certificate of mailing indicating 121 pieces of mail were mailed out.
So then here is the zoning records.
3535 is next door.
But I have a history of this because at one time it was a three family dwelling.
Then it became unidentified as multifamily, but it was then combined into six units.
That's a six-family building next door, and I'll show you that plan when I walk through it.
This is the apartment building at the end of the street that I showed south of the property.
And then 3539 is an eight-family approved project.
I looked at the zoning records.
They just got an extension.
That developer got an extension of that permit, which was issued in 2021 until sometime this year.
I don't know whether they're going to move forward with the building or not, but at least that's what the records indicate.
So this is 35 next door.
Again, this is a vacant lot.
And they're going to subdivide one lot into two lots.
That was the original intent with three dwelling units on both sides.
Then a permit was issued 2016 for multifamily, for three-family dwelling for this property.
And then eventually the building next door was combined.
And this is the U-shaped building that I showed you from an aerial photograph.
This is our project or existing house right next door.
This is 3537.
It's listed as 14 apartments, but it's not 14 apartments.
I mean, when you drive by and you look at the block, and this is from 1974, so I don't
know if that building was demolished, but there's certainly not 14 apartments there.
It's down further south.
This is the building permit I referenced, excuse me, zoning permit I referenced for
35-39.
It was issued in 2021 for an eight-family dwelling, and it has since expired, and that's why I saw on the OPA records this morning that that permit was extended, and I don't really know if they're going to build it or not.
These are the plans for that particular project.
So this is now 3527.
It's an update from the one that indicated it was 14 apartments.
It's four apartments, not 14.
I don't know if that was a typo.
This is an older record from 1952 for 3527.
Again, I'm just doing this just to indicate it.
It has been historically multiple family use on the block.
I think, Henry, I think we understand.
All right.
Don't mean to overdo it.
Henry, the building that was right down the street, the large one, how many units in there?
The one that's shaped similar to this one.
Six units.
Thank you.
Correct.
You want to bring your client on?
Davis, can you unmute yourself for the board?
They have been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Devis, D-E-V-I-S, lost name G-J-U-Z-I.
You swear we're affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
You swear we're affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Davis, were you on the Zoom call when I presented your project?
Yes, I was.
And did you have to address the structural issues temporarily with this project back in 2020 with the Make Safe Permit?
Yes. And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own
and as true and correct? Yes, I do.
Okay. And by the way, do you self-manage any properties that you own in the city of Philadelphia?
Yes, I do. And do you collect trash on other properties
on a regular basis, at least weekly of other properties that you own in the city of Philadelphia?
you? Yes, I do. And do you intend to build a trash enclosure in the rear yard to contain
the trash receptacles for each tenant in the property? Yes, I do. I have no further questions,
Mr. Chairman. Henry, did you attend the RCO meeting? Could you tell us about that?
Yeah, I did attend the RCO meeting of the Nice Town Tioga improvement team. They were interested
in, again, I'm paraphrasing, bringing more units to the building, I mean, to the neighborhood
since this block already was or has multifamily on it.
And they were very concerned about pricing.
And that's why you see in one of the provisos that my client has represented to that board
and will put in writing that he's going to keep the apartments at $1,500 a month or less.
I don't think it's going to be less than that.
They also were concerned that they wanted my client's contact information, which we
will certainly already gave it to them.
There was a request for a hire locally.
My client committed to interview anyone that's licensed and bonded to work on the project.
And they want him to be part of the community and attend meetings on a regular basis.
So my client agreed to all those things.
as well as not having any co-living or calming living arrangements
and prioritize local residents.
Thank you. Questions from the board?
Yeah. How many feet below grade is the basement?
Davis, can you answer that question while I pull the plans up?
Yeah. It's three feet.
and how are we getting light and air into these basement apartments you said you were taking out
the window well and putting in stairs instead so correct that's um miss gaston i'll answer that one
uh these windows that are here now on the revised plans were not on the prior plan
So windows were put into the front to bring light into the living and dining area.
And then the door at the bottom will be a door with maybe a light at the top, not a physical light, but a window pane, and or it will be full glass.
So then what about the bedrooms?
What kind of light in here are we having there?
So the same thing.
This is a view of what's internal.
There's going to be one, two, five, five windows there.
On both sides?
Yes, on both sides.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, my mistake.
So where are these windows going to be?
They're going to be in this U-shaped area.
there's going to be five windows on one side and five five windows there we're
probably going to be awning windows or hopper windows that open in or out
okay all right thank you all the questions yes there is my other
question so why do we need to do eight units in here why couldn't we do cut out
the household living in the basement and just have six units as opposed to eight units?
Well, there's no reason, really. I mean, there's no reason that you could have a single family
home. It's just that with the size of the property, the depth of the lot, and the desire to have as
many housing units as possible, eight seemed to be acceptable to the community group. And it was
something my client was willing to commit to. All right. And so we're getting into the whole
And so we're getting into the whole least minimum variance sort of argument here.
least minimum variance sort of.
Understood.
Thank you.
Other questions from the board?
So all of the units are going to have access to the rear yard?
Well, they would have to come, Ms. Graham, they'd have to come out and then, you know, walk along the side where the other building is.
But they don't have any, there's no direct access.
There's no rooftop deck and there's no stairs out the back.
So the only units that have access to the rear deck directly currently are unit one and two in the basement.
Yes, you are correct.
And then who's going to maintain the rear yard and the, let's call it a courtyard for, I guess, that.
Devis.
Back of a better term.
I didn't mean to interrupt you, Miss Graham.
And, Devis, can you respond to that?
I'm assuming you are, but, you know, you make the representation, please.
Yes, the front yard and the rear yard will maintain.
And then what's going to be the surface treatment in that rear yard
and in the breezeway in the U?
Is it paved?
The U is going to be both the U and the rear yard is going to be paved.
They're both paved.
And then are any of your air handlers or any of your equipment going in the U
itself?
Yes, they can go because it's six feet.
I didn't ask if they could.
I asked, are you planning to put any of the air handlers in the U?
It's like your fans, your blowers, your HVAC.
On the U here?
No, we'll plant them in the rear yard and the roof.
No, your rear yard and the roof.
because
they'll impact the window
viewing.
Plus the noise.
Okay. Any other questions
to the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney,
Hillary Emerson?
briefly, Mr. Clinton,
we did receive your plans in Proviso
form. If the board
decides to grant
and then stamp those plans, we would only be able to stamp the one page of the zoning plans
and not the floor plans. I realize you probably did the floor plans for the benefit of the
community, I understand, but we would just need an updated proviso form then just to reflect
the one page of plans. Understood. All right, that's fair. I understand, Ms. Emerson.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission
amy board with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location from the existing residential single family rsa 5 we know for
the board that absent participation in a state city or federal program no city zoning initiative
for affordability can be can be enforced by any city agency. The character of this block is almost
exclusively single family. The lot is 4,126 square feet which is two to three times the size of most
parcels here. The requested eight units is not the least minimum however the density of three units
will be in keeping with the character of the neighborhood. The Planning Commission recommends
that the board grant the requested variance for multi-family with proviso max three units.
Mr. Clinton, because of, you know, we've heard some different views about the project. What I'd like to do is vote on this next Wednesday, and in the executive session, we'll discuss it, and we'll vote at 930 a.m. next Wednesday.
Understood, Mr. General. Thank you.
Thank you for your presentation.
All right. Thank you, sir.
number 18 mi 2024 006 328 1524 south 10th street pasquale calavita is the attorney
um there's a letter of non-opposition from the rco
and also a letter of non-opposition from council member squilla
in fact the passion square says they're unanimous non-opposition
good morning good morning mr calvito could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Absolutely.
Pasquale Colavita, P-A-S-Q-U-A-L-E-C-O-L-A-V-I-T-A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Would you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
or Juan Carlos Aparicio Torres. Okay, our Vice Chair has a few questions. Good morning,
Or Juan Carlos Aparicio Torres.
Okay, our vice chair has a few questions.
Counselor. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed
with this case five days in advance of this hearing? We have with the exception of about
10 to 15 additional petitions in support. Well, I see that we still have not received the tax
parents. So with respect to the tax clearance, we finally, after about two weeks going back and
forth, number one, the real estate taxes have been paid to date. The balance of the 2025
are not due until the 31st. What we learned was that there were some use and occupancy
uh returns that were not filed i uh assisted mr torres yesterday we've filed all of them he's
probably going to get at least about ten thousand dollars back uh as we filed amended returns when
he was paying more than is required after residential deductions and the um the yearly
exemptions so uh you didn't receive everything right we can supplement it but again i i've
um in the past you've at the very least have allowed us uh due to the fact that uh real
estate taxes uh for the property with the case um but we still need to make sure we see yeah i'll
check on i'll check on the taxes um well while we go and it is just the real estate taxes so if
i can pull something from the the philadelphia tax center that we can vote so and i did i believe
that i submitted the uh updated that that portion of it and it's attached as one of my exhibits
thank you okay please proceed thank you uh pasqua colavita turning on behalf of juan carlos
Torres, owner of, let me share this screen, owner of 1524 South 10th Street.
Mr. Juan Carlos lives in the property at this moment and on the second, third floor, as
well as runs his BYOB El Chingon on the first floor.
Just a little bit about Mr. Torres.
as he is a James Beard nominated chef for this location is opening up a second location in
Fishtown. The neighbor, we met with the RCO on December 10th of 2024. And as was stated earlier,
a letter of support with certain provisos were submitted to you, which we intend on complying
with, despite the fact that they probably are not enforceable pursuant to the zoning
versus state-run function, which I think preempts this zoning board.
But again, all of these documents, again, with the exception of certain petitions, were
submitted earlier.
Again, the real estate taxes in Exhibit 10 shows that there's zero balance.
Mr. Torres has purchased his property back in 2019, opened up the first floor restaurant, and we've received the refusal.
He has such a great following that there's constantly people waiting outside.
And in order to alleviate that problem of congestion on the streets, it saves the neighbors some headaches, if there are any, and to have that overflow go to the second floor.
The sole purpose of the second floor is to allow seating only. It's not for any plumbing and any cooking on the second floor.
It's strictly seating to accommodate the first floor restaurant.
And as you saw, we have the application for the appeal in Exhibit 3.
Exhibit 4, if you want any descriptions as to this or if you have any questions, Mr. Torres can probably answer them significantly better than I can.
There there's a separate entrance on Cross Street for the second floor apartment.
There's a separate entrance for the second floor apartment.
And as a matter of fact, the extension is solely for the front portion of the second floor as far as changing it from.
uh as far as changing it from uh residential to the commercial request for the variance there
notice to the neighbors was submitted we did meet with the community group on that date
as stated earlier and here are some photographs of if i can shrink this
of the posters were submitted on i mean posted on both sides of the property as required i can
continue to go through there's so this is what the property looks like uh on the corner
bedrooms again mr torres's bedroom bathrooms
entrance to the second floor on the side
I can keep on going
and that's it
and so that's what the inside second and third floor
look like at this moment
just to
go through this I'll go to the table of contents
and if you want me to go
do me a favor go back again show us how like the second
floor you're saying only the front portion of the second floor will be the restaurant yes so let me
show that so the side entrance will take him to part of the apartment he lives in now
yes so so i guess when you go up the side entrance if we can have uh mr torres
on here too because again he understands the the cutouts and unfortunately we do not have
our architect on on the call right now all right so mr torres
hello hi hi could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer sir
yes uh juan carlos c-a-r-l-o-s torres t-r-r-r-e-s do you swear or firm to tell the truth
told truth nothing but the truth i do counsel please proceed okay mr torres um you've been
sworn in and can you describe the entrance to the present let's do it this way the present
entrance to the second and third floor where where is it yes it's in the sidewalk on cross street and
it takes you to the second floor from the street there's a little um a step like a step way to the
second floor um and we intend to use the same entrance to exit the building but the entrance
is going to get built out to connect it to the same stairs through the existing bathroom
which we're going to build a second bathroom on the second floor as well and are you able
are you able to see the the plans that are presently on and it'll say you'll see it'll
say one two three and four at the bottom where it says first floor uh are you referring to
uh the interior portion where you'll be able to go from the inside of the restaurant to the
second floor and up the set of stairs is that what you're indicating correct on on the
on the second
picture in the middle
you're able to see the
the doorstep
from across the street
and that's going to take you
to the stairs to the second floor
You're not removing the stairs that are on
cross street, correct?
Correct, we're not
It's just going to be interior
interior manipulation of the
stairs? To come up
to the second floor, correct.
Does the board have any
other questions? Questions from the board?
Yes, so this
will still be a shared stairway
now between
restaurant patrons and
whoever is residing in
the apartment upstairs.
Yes, this is going to be myself.
I'm going to be living on the floor.
floor right now but like so okay and you're still going to maintain the exterior stairwell and
entrance but restaurant patrons will not be using that one they'll be coming through the restaurant
correct yes okay just a matter of note the first floor plan says it's existing and that's not true
that's proposed so i would fix that before you submit it all right other questions for the board
Yes. How many more? Well, let's start at the top.
How many seats do you have now and how many do you think you're going to have with this extension?
Currently, we have 32 seats inside, and I have a cafe license for outdoor seating for 12, and we're applying to try to get another 15, 20 more seats on the second floor.
Currently, we have 32 seats inside and I have a cafe license.
So you're talking 32, you said, and 12 for exterior, you said?
44, and you're trying to get another, how many did you say?
Between 15 and 20 other seats to the second floor.
All right. And again, the access to this second floor is going to be through the existing restaurant?
Correct. Correct.
Okay. Yes.
And there'll be no cooking up there or whatever?
No cooking. It's mostly going to be seating, extra seating.
Okay. And then you said there will be a restroom you're going to put up there as well?
We're going to build a restroom upstairs on the second floor as well.
All right. And have we given any thought to the idea of accessibility for patrons to this?
The first floor bathroom is ADA compliance.
And it's going to stay that way. We're not planning to change the existing bathroom on the first floor.
Unfortunately, the second floor, it's ADA compliance as well.
And we're going to maintain it that way.
How is it ADA compliant?
Just as if you see the plans, we are putting enough area for the second floor bathroom to have enough space to comply with ADA.
But how are they going to get up there to the second floor?
How are people going to get up there to the second floor?
We're planning to eventually put either like an electrical chair that is going to go up and down.
So is that on the plans?
That's not on there.
It's not on the plans yet.
And how many stairs are we talking about here?
There's about 11 steps.
All right.
Thank you.
Anytime. Thank you.
Other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Mr. Colavita, did you show the tax? I apologize if I missed it.
I did. I did. So before I do that, I just, I'm not going to go through every single one,
but exhibits A, 7A through J are other similarly situated first, second floor restaurants
within a couple of blocks of, this is right next to Pashunk Avenue.
And these are 10 different locations that have a first and second floor restaurant.
And let me get back to exhibit 10, which shows that the taxes for 2025, which is the top line.
And I don't know why it doesn't have the years on there.
i apologize for that i mean but um you're fine i did check on the tax center too so you're fine
thank you you're welcome questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time too planning commission amy wood with the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing
commercial mix to cmx1 the appellant has not demonstrated their unique physical conditions
or circumstances of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformance
with the zoning code. The Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the requested
variance for expanding the sit-down restaurant to the second floor.
Thank you. MI 2024-006-328-1524 South 10th Street, I vote yes with proviso.
No amplified music on the second floor.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso
Tywin, my vote is yes with proviso
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with proviso
Thank you, counsel. We have your votes.
Thank you very much. Have a great day.
Number seven, MI 2024-004-304-2001
Kinsey, Attorney
Louis Stevens.
Louis Stevens
will be rejoining us as a panelist.
Right.
Mr. Stevens?
We see Mr. Stephens is coming on.
Yes, Chair.
I'm sure we'll promote him to penalize.
chair um lewis stevens declined to be panelist and i have a hand up by the name of winston
banks okay let's see let's see what we have there they have been allowed to speak
oh hello is this mr stevens no winston banks the owner okay um mr banks oh can you hear me
yeah we hear you could you state your name and spell for the courts yeah winston banks w-i-n-s-t-o-n
Banks. B-A-N-K-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? Yes. Mr. Banks, is your
counsel with you? He had to step
away. He'll be back at 12.15.
We're not going to be
available at 12.15. I'm sorry.
Can I answer
Mr. Banks, we don't have a copy of the deed to the property and we don't have proof of posting for this property.
So we can't until we have those, we cannot proceed with the hearing.
And it also appears from our paperwork, but we don't have a deed to confirm that you may own the property in under an entity.
Is that correct?
Well, no.
Mr. Attorney Stevens is going to address the deed. My name is physically on the deed. And in regards to the dating of the hosting of the notices on the windows for the public, when I had called the ZBA office, and she confronted me about that, I said,
well, if I go to the place where I always get my documents, DocuCenter at Broad and Poplar Street,
I have a receipt with the date on it. Would that suffice? And she said, yes. So what I did,
I enlarged the receipt so it will be more unreadable. And I made a comment on it. This
is the receipt to prove
that this is the date
that I had posted
the window
postings for the public.
As far as that's concerned, that should
suffice. Mr. Banks,
are you able to show us any
exhibits, including your deed
in the proof of posting?
Are you comfortable proceeding
without your attorney?
I am, but the deed,
Yes, the attorney Stevens has to address that.
But as far as the proof of posting, I can address that.
Mr. Banks, unfortunately, I think we're going to have to continue this matter if we can't see all of the required documents.
Can you please reach out to the ZBA office and they will work with you and your attorney to reschedule this matter?
okay so so mi 2024 004 304 2001 kinsey street this case will be
i'm not okay this case will be continued and the staff will work with him to get a new date
thank you very much is there anyone in the virtual audience who their case has not been called from
Mr. Chair, I have a hand up from
The number ending in 3552, this may be Ms. Adrienne Fernandez. I will allow her to speak.
the number
ending in 3552. This may be
Ms. Andrea Fernandez.
Adrienne?
Good morning, Adrienne.
Hello.
Hi. Just for the record, state your name, please.
Adrienne Fernandez. My last name is spelled F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Adrienne, did we miss your case?
um i wanted to know if 2601 north 31st street was called
that was the first that was the first case that we heard today yep okay um it was voted on
yes it was okay all right thank you oh thank you thank you for taking the time closer is
there anyone else in the virtual audience whose case has not been heard? I do not see any further
answer, Mr. Chair. Thank you, everybody. See everybody at 2 p.m.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Our Board Member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our Board Member, Taya Wynn.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our Attorney, Ian Haggerty, our Executive Director, and
our Board Administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
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Before we begin, our Executive Director, Ian Haggerty, has an important safety announcement.
All right.
Thank you, Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Welcome to the ZBA hearing room.
Safety of our meeting attendees is our highest priority.
If there is an emergency, please pay attention to the announcements that come over the loud
speaker, which will provide detailed information.
If there's no announcement, just listen for directions from the ZBA staff or from security
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Please remain at the rally point so we can account for everyone.
Restrooms are located just across from the elevators, and there's a water fountain just outside the double doors to the right.
restrooms are located just across from the elevators and there's a water fountain just
outside the double doors to the
Thank you, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
We're going to look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number five, MI 2024-005-72752, 4028 Westminster Avenue.
Mr. Knockamson, please.
There's a request for continuance on his case, Mr. Goldberg.
I know.
I know.
Thank you.
Jeff, this is Jason Hand. I will be your co-host for this session. Mr. Goldberg has been allowed
to speak. Mr. Nockamson is here. Mr. Nockamson, on case number 5, MI 2024-005-752-4028,
Westminster Avenue, we have a request for continuance from the Belmont Alliance Civic
Association. Is there anyone from the RCO
president in the audience?
On chair, I have Cordelia
Baffik with their hand raised. I will allow them
to speak at this time.
I believe Ms. Baffik
is the
block captain. I don't know
if she's also representing the RCO, but I know
she's the block captain.
Hi. Could you please
state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hi, sir. I'll get to you in a minute. Cordelia Baffick. Cordelia Baffick. C-O-R-D-E-L-I-A-B-A-F-F-I-C.
All right. I also believe that the chair of the RCO is also present in this meeting, Mr. Nassier.
Just for do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir. All right. I'm going to start with Mr.
Nockmson. Mr. Nockmson, could you state your name, please, and spell for this stenographer?
Alan Nockmson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockmson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
The Belmont Alliance Civic Association is requesting a continuance on your case.
So we're going to object to that.
We filed our appeal on before September of 2024.
Due to the unfortunate passing of Betty Ferguson, we voluntarily delayed the last hearing, and it took some time for the RCO to schedule a community meeting, which is fair.
But we're already in March. It's over six months since the last time since we filed the zoning appeal.
I think all of the issues were fleshed out in the community meeting. Most of them are non-zoning with regards to this matter.
and we can address them at the community at this hearing and if the board feels so inclined
to hold it under advisement so be it but i think we can really address most of those issues at this
hearing all right miss baffigan yes sir who's here who's what is the name of the um head of the rco
mr nasir is it's here as well is he is he with you or is he on
He is virtually on another location, but he is connected, if I understand correctly.
I do see. Nasir N?
That's correct.
Okay, they have been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the course sonographer?
Yes, good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Nasir Nordin.
First name is N-A-S-I-R, last name is spelled N-U-R-I-D-D-I-N.
And I'm the current chair of Belmont Alliance Civic Association.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you give us your position on this, please?
Well, reasonably, we ask for a continuation primarily because of some significant safety hazards
that have not been addressed that we felt could and should have been addressed
and have gone longstanding for the past several months plus.
And the community did have an opportunity to share these issues.
We did have some photographs that were recent the day of
that illustrated what those concerns were and are.
And that is primarily the reason why we asked for a little bit more time,
just so Mr. Malik, who's the property owner,
can do what he needs to do to correct these issues.
and at least not pose any safety hazards
to the neighbors or to the community at large.
Thank you.
Mr. Knuckles.
Yes, Mr. Chair, I think our presentation
will show that we addressed almost all those issues.
There's one issue remaining that I'll have Mr. Boyd
to testify to that he's in the process of completing.
At the very least, let us present,
hold it under advisement,
give us an opportunity to show that last item
give us an opportunity to show that last item that we completed that item, supplement the record,
that we completed that item,
supplement.
and then the board can vote. And this year what we're going to do is we're going to go on with
the case, we'll evaluate as we go through the case whether or not we vote today, but we will hear the
case, and that will probably be in about a half hour from now. Okay, sir? Thank you. Thank you.
number one is there any other requests for continuance
i'm not sure i have a hand up from an avalash ready i will allow them to speak at this time okay
okay i'm sorry they have put their hand down mr chair you may proceed
Okay, so case number one, MI 2024, 004-714-2109-11, Nidro Avenue. Nixon, Lossier is the listed owner. This is the second listing. We still have no exhibits.
Sure, I have Harry Cook's hand raised. I won't let him speak at this time.
Yeah, I got that.
rather they'll be coming back in as a panel shortly
mr chairman good afternoon harry cook
mr cook will you please spell your name for the court sonographer
h-a-r-r-y-c-o-o-k do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth. I do, sir. Could you give us an update on this case? Sure. I'm actually, you had asked if
there were any other continuance requests, and we got a late continuance request in for 1454
South 28th Street, and I just wanted to make sure it didn't get lost on the continuance list.
Okay, yeah.
We have that. We will take care of that, sir.
Thank you, sir.
So number four, MI 2024-005-739-1454 South 28th Street.
That case is continued. Mark must be heard.
It's continued to 7-23-25 at 2 p.m.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Let's go back to number one, Nixon-Lossier.
Okay, so this case was continued on 12-4-24 because of medical issues.
We will continue this one more time.
MI 2024-004-714-2109-11, Nidro Avenue.
This case is continued to 7-23-25-2.
We're going to go to our add-on list.
Number one, 2024-006-217-1907 East Seltzer Street.
This case, the vote in this matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, March 12th at 2 p.m.
Number two, MI 2024-006-965-514 East Cabot Street.
The vote on this matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, March 12th at 2 p.m.
Number three, MI 2024-006-920-648-50 North Forty Street.
The vote in this matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, March 12th at 2 p.m.
Number four, MI 2024-006-905-12 East Cabot Street.
The vote in this matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, March 12th at 2 p.m.
and number
number five
he just handled this one right ishmael shaheed will handle this vote yes chair number five
MI-2024-006099, 4210 Teasdale Street.
My vote is yes, with a three-year variance expiring 4-1.
with a three-year variance expiring 4-1-2028.
Moving on to number six.
The other members need to vote. One minute.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Number six, MI-2024-003086, 7330 Ridge Avenue.
My vote is yes.
And there's an amended refusal.
Okay, hold on a second.
Her amended refusal dated 10-11-2024.
Sheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
With proviso?
With proviso, I'm sorry.
Thank you.
Bill Bergman, I certify that I watched the February 26th,
2020 video regarding of the hearing in this matter,
and my vote is yes per proviso,
preventive refusal, dated 10-11-24.
Tanetta Graham, I certify I watched the October 30th,
2024 video recording of the hearing in this matter and my vote is yes with proviso my name
is tai wen i certify that i watched the october 30th 2024 video recording of this hearing in
this matter and my vote is yes with proviso thank you thank you ishmael number seven mi2024 006
Baten Street
I vote yes with proviso
temporary variance expires
4-1-2030
no fraternity, sorority
personal care home, group home
or temporary overnight shelter
Cheryl Gaston
I abstain
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso
I vote is yes with proviso
So Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, we're proviso.
Number eight, MI 2023-006-888, 623 North 44th Street.
The case has been withdrawn by the applicant.
We're going to go to our regular list.
Number six, we do have a Spanish interpreter for number six, which is MI 2024-005-763-221 West Loudoun Street. Would the interpreter please come on?
good afternoon my name is steven aubain a-u-b-a-i-n interpreter id y-m-2-8-8
you soundly swear or affirm that you will interpret accurately completely and impartially
from english to spanish and from spanish to english to the best of your ability yes i do
Could you ask both people who are sitting here
to identify themselves and spell their names
for the court stenographer?
Así que si se pueden identificar y deletrear su nombre
para el stenógrafo.
Armando Vicente Belén.
The interpreter requires verification.
Armando Vicente Belén, por favor, deletre su nombre.
And this is the interpreter speaking.
I'm just asking him to spell his name.
Okay, sure.
Thank you.
B, E, C, 7, N.
Sir, you can spell it in Spanish, that's fine.
Yes, sir, you can spell it in Spanish, if it's fine.
B I C E N T
E. N. T. E. B. E. L. E. L.
The answer requires verification and the name, please.
Armando, A, R, M, A, N, E, D, O.
Okay. Armando, yes, Armando is spelled A-R-M-A-N-D-O. Vicente is V-I-C-E-N-T-E. Second last name, Belen, B-E-L-E-N.
And an interpreter, could you please ask them, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And could you ask them, does he waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
de el rechazo, and this is the interpreter speaking, waive the reading of the refusal,
and what is the last part? We're actually going to read the refusal into the record because
he is representing himself. This application is for the legalization of an addition
at the front of a semi-detached structure for use as a two-family household living.
The proposed use to family household living is prohibited in the RSA 5 zoning district, whereas the RSA 5 zoning district, the distance between the front facade and the front lot shall be no less than the distance between the front facade and the front lot line of the principal building on the immediate adjacent lot.
This is the interpreter.
You do it, and I'll pick up where you might have missed that, okay?
yes are you are you reading from the page yes from yes from the document right in front of you
under application four and then the two refusals okay así que esta aplicación es para legalizar
la visión en la parte del frente este semi sacada para el lado de una estructura de un
domicilio o un hogar de dos familias este viviendo en esta ubicación y demostrado en
en los planes de la aplicación.
El permiso de arriba está ubicado y que no puede ser dado
porque la propuesta no cumple con las provisiones siguientes
del código de zonas de Philadelphia.
Ese código lo puede acceder en la página de web en la pantalla
y que son los códigos sección 14-7012B5.A
y notar la tabla de 147011 donde dice que el RSA 5 distrito, la distancia entre la parte de al frente del lote,
este al frente, la línea del lote del frente no puede ser más que la distancia entre medio del frente y la línea del lote del frente
con el edificio principal y el lote al lado inmediato.
Y la tabla 146021, donde dice los usos permitidos de distritos residenciales,
dice que donde se propone el uso del domicilio de dos familias viviendo
es expresamente prohibido
a través del distrito de zona residencial RSA5?
Ok, yo nunca me he salido de la línea,
simplemente estaba en la galería
y subí la pared de mición de la galería.
Subí y yo no me salí de la línea,
simplemente cerré la galería.
So the only thing that I did, I didn't cross the line.
I just raised it and I closed the gallery and I just raised it up.
Okay, why don't we do this?
Let's start making the presentation and we're going to show things he can,
We're going to show things he can, we'll ask him questions through you and we'll try to figure out if we can get through this, okay?
we'll ask him questions through you and we'll try to figure out.
All right.
Okay, we have that, the posting, I see it.
which is the greenhouse there
y la casa de la verde
Do we have more printers of the inside of the property?
¿Y hay más imágenes de la parte adentro de la propiedad?
just asked him what what it is that he wants us to do yeah i mean give give us an idea where
So, give us an idea of what you want to do.
I took that house from the bank and it was impossible to keep it paying because what
they give me from social security is $945 and I was atrasada with the bank and my daughter
the interpreter requires verification
okay so i owe the i still owe the bank uh the bank the house so it was impossible for me to
make payments on it because through social security only got 945 dollars and i was um
delayed on the payments so um my daughter said that she was going to move with me so that she
can start paying um helping me pay all right so he's in one apartment she's in another
so we are currently living together because the other section is still not done
is what the interpreter repeat the other section still isn't finished
okay all right um how long has it been a duplex
the interpreter requires clarification
duplex. No, ahora. So now. From now. Así que desde ahora ha sido un duplex. Yes.
Yeah, okay. Questions from the board. Yes, what is going to be the use in the basement?
it it's going to be used to store things okay
other questions yeah so um the closed porch is providing
more living room space
on the first floor?
Así que la sala
que está encerrada.
¿Eso es para proveer
más espacio?
Could you ask
if there's any other properties
on the block
that have a closed-in porch?
Y hay otras propiedades en ese lote que tienen esas salas cerradas así?
Y hay otras propiedades
en ese lote
So that's it.
Sí, la mayoría están todas cerradas.
Yes, the majority of them are closed.
Other questions from the board.
Both units will have the same entryway?
Y ambas unidades van a tener la misma entrada?
Yes, they will have the same entrance.
In the front.
Any other questions?
Questions or comments from our attorney?
I'm not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
The chair, I do not see any hands raised for the matter.
Planning Commission.
May I say something?
David?
it oh he wanted to say something yo quiero si no se puede yo quiero terminar con esto porque yo
después que me ha citado aquí la presión se me ha subido entonces yo que yo hago lo que ellos me
digan porque yo quiero salir de esto so i want to finish with all um this issue i want to finish
with all this issue because ever since I got cited to present myself here, my blood pressure
has gone up. So I want to take care of everything that I need to take care of so that I can
get out of this.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Could you ask him when he went to the RCO meeting, tell me what happened.
there were some paperwork that was missing and they spoke to me through the phone and i sent them in
So the RCO, when he went to the meeting, did he get a chance to give his side of the story?
Cuando usted fue para la reunión de RCO, ¿ustedes le dieron una oportunidad de dar su parte de la historia?
No, simplemente me dijeron que tenía que proponerla y me pusieron esta fecha.
So, no, they simply told me that I needed to propose it, and they gave me this date.
So, there's a petition for people who didn't want the project.
We were just trying to figure out if they relayed that to him at the meeting.
If they said why they didn't want him to do this.
Así que hubo una petición firmada por personas que no quieren ese proyecto que está haciendo.
They had a meeting with you, letting them know why they didn't want that project?
So, no, I didn't have that meeting.
sir we received a letter from the new 42nd ward rco and they said that they they met with you
and issued a letter in opposition can you talk about that meeting
Así que recibimos una carta de el 42RCO, donde ellos nos entregaron una carta que no estaban de acuerdo con el proyecto. ¿Usted recibe esa carta o la hablaron usted?
Sí, yo la recibí.
So I did receive it.
the one who sent the letter, we divided, but she has a room in Ebelman,
Sacó un
Algo atrás
There was something behind it, and it was the one that he called here.
So, the one that we divided is the hallway.
So, the person whom we share a hallway with,
that is the person that was the one that complained about and had called for the meeting here.
Okay. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon. David Vecteau, F-E-C-T-E-A-U with the City Planning Commission.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you, sir.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA-5,
residential single-family zoning at this location.
Así que él está hablando de efecto del Comité de Planeo de la Ciudad,
y ellos nos recomiendan cambio al plan residencial RCA-5.
The city rezoned this neighborhood in 1982.
The front porch matches the character of several other homes on this block.
Así que el porche de al frente es igual a diferentes porches en este bloque.
However, this is a primarily single-family block face.
Pero esto es primariamente un área de familias, de solamente una familia.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the requested dimensional variance for the front porch.
Así que el Comité de Planeo de la Ciudad le pide que den este permiso para estas variaciones.
But deny the request for a second dwelling unit.
pero negar el permiso para una segunda unidad de domicilio
thank you mi 2024-005-763-221 west loudon street i vote yes
charles gaston my vote is no
tennetta graham my vote is no
tyoan my vote is yes
so we'll hold this to uh good yes so um since since the votes are tied we will have the other
members of the board review the video and we will vote on this matter i will currently schedule it
for next week at 2 p.m okay next week at 2 p.m we'll give you the results of the meeting okay
You don't have to call me, you can listen.
Okay. Thank you. Interpreter, thank you very much for your help.
Thank you for using the service.
We're going to move to number eight. MI 2024-006-101, 1912 East Cumberland Street.
Jamie Gukas and Alexandra Rod Rieger are the owner applicants.
letter of support from East Kensington
Neighbors Association
a vote with 18
in support for or opposed
a letter of non-opposition
from Council Member
Squill
Mr. Chair
I have a handout from an end of file
director
I'm going to allow them to speak briefly
hello can you hear me ken could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes jamie gugas j-a-y-m-e last name g-u-o-k-a-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes
yes i do could you turn your video one please i'll have to promote into panelists uh mr
and mr chair after we hear this case if we could move to number 15 that would be great thank you
please back in as a panelist mr chair well i guess i'm over here
okay hi hi um do you swear if you did i swear you in do you swear for him to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but i think you did it i do yeah sure thank you um this application
is for use as a visitor accommodation and is this thing structure the proposed use
visitor accommodation is prohibited in the rsa 5 zoning district um is this for both units
it is yes okay why don't you start your presentation and share your screen
okay how do i share a screen all right my wife is helping me with this thank you
you're coming up sir okay um well i'm hoping you could see our presentation
um this is a rental property that we've had for many years 1912 east cumberland street
and um we would like permission to use it as a visitor accommodation
and i'd like to show you some slides there we go this is the facade the building
rear yard the interior
um i renovated about eight years ago
I live on the block and we've been using this as a rental property. And like I said,
we'd like to use it as a visitor accommodation. We have the support of our neighborhood
and all of our neighbors. Here's the posted zoning notice.
the deed
and I could return to these if you need
tax clearance
reasons for our appeal
refusal notice
and a letter
of support from our neighborhood
association
have you been using it as a visitor
accommodation
We did previously until that was no longer allowed, so not for the past two or three years.
All right. Thank you. Questions from the board?
Can you explain the delineation between the two units?
Sure. The first unit is the entire first floor of the building. There's a sort of entry vestibule.
The second unit has a separate entrance. I can show you the facade.
and that has stairs up to the floors two and three.
So this is an entry hall that accesses both units.
Okay, so there's one.
If I go up those stairs, there's a door to the right,
and then there's a door that goes straight through.
Yes, exactly.
And then for the structure in the backyard,
is that a garage or a...
Sure. No, this is just the rear of the house. The building has a duplex variance that's historical. It's been used as a duplex legally since the 50s or 60s, I believe.
And then there's no access at the rear of your yard to a shared alleyway.
Like we're standing at the property line, looking at the rear of the house in this image.
well there is an easement uh there's a sort of easement that's kind of overgrown but um yeah
the yard is available to the first floor unit only okay and then the second floor unit looks
like they have access to uh like a deck yes that's correct yeah there's a deck and
other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i do not see any hands raised for this matter mr chair planning commission
I do not see any hands raised for this matter, Mr. Chair.
thank you chairman and good afternoon david fechta with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned east kensington in 2016 in accord with
recommendations in the comprehensive plan. A 2020 zoning ordinance passed by City Council,
which regulated short-term rentals to not change the basic rule prohibiting full-time use of a
dwelling unit as a short-term rental. This type of absentee management, where the owner does not live
in the unit, has been illegal since the first short-term rental zoning regulations became
effective in 2015. What's changed since the passage of the 2020 ordinance is that there is now a
licensing and enforcement mechanism um city planning commission recommends the board deny
the request to use variants for visitor accommodation thank you mi 2024 006 101 1912
east cumberland street i vote yes with proviso temporary variance that'll expire 4-1-28
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Teneda Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Iowyn, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. You have your votes.
Oh, thank you.
number 15 mi 2024 007 280 2538 east ontario street al knockamson is the attorney
unanimous support from port richmond on patrol 32 votes in support applicant also provided
a petition of support
13 signatures, 7 from the block
and also the applicant is providing
4 letters of support from the neighbors
Mr. Goldberg
could you please state your name as spelled for the
court's demographer
Alex Goldberg, A-L-E-X-G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
do you agree to the waiving
of the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy i do um share your screen and
start your presentation could you identify your client sure my client relationship to this
property my client is donna ray lee she should be in the virtual audience she's the owner of the
property. Thank you. Okay, so this application seeks to legalize an existing duplex. This
property has been in Donna Ray's family since the 1940s. Her grandparents purchased it around 1940
and operated it as a candy store on the first floor and an apartment above. In 1970, her grandfather
passed away and the candy store was converted into an apartment since that time it was passed
down to her father and it was then passed down to donna ray in 2022 at which point she inherited
two residential tenants both single um older gentlemen uh that have been living there for
four and ten years respectively you'll see that in the photos they're happy to be there they'd
like to be able to stay um and and donna ray she inherited or she acquired several properties from
her father and and she's sort of going through the process of legalizing the ones that need to
be legalized and and sort of cleaning up the paperwork we're not doing this in response to
any violations her tenants are happy uh we just like to get the sort of uh you know the permitting
and licensing all straightened out um as you said we got unanimous support from port richmond on
patrol. RCO is 32 to zero, I believe. And they understood the situation. There's two front doors
there. So it looks like a multifamily. They each have washers and dryers. There's trash storage for
each of them and nice units for them to be able to live in. We do have this one refusal for
multifamily living because it is an RSA 5 property. Here's that letter of support from
pro pack you can see down here um 32 to zero in support
donna ray circulated a petition to her neighbors she got i believe nine signatures from from uh
the 2500 block of east ontario as well as uh some others people i think mostly just um you know i
think we're just a bit confused because for the majority of all of their you know their time
living there even the long-term residents this has operated as a two-family dwelling
this has operated as a two-family dwelling it's listed online as a multi-family property it's
it's listed on
recognized that way by pico she's paying multiple electric bills the water is separated as well and
you'll see that in the photos the zoning map of the property it is rsa5 across from cmx1 to one
one property across the street is a firehouse we're caddy cornered from an 18 unit apartment
building so there's a mix of uses here and again we are the corner of this block there's a google
maps perspective here's some photographs so this is the front you can see the two doors here it is
in 2007 as far back as i could go on google maps um you know significant amount of time ago really
no change other than the color of the paint here it is from the side of the property there's a rear
yard back there where the trash for unit one is stored um here it is again 2007 posting photos
on each street frontage on belgrade and east ontario two hot water heaters existing again
she got this property from her father in 22 so there's your hot water heaters and there's your
two electric meters there's only two because there's no common space uh for you know needed
for a third meter because we have two entry points there's no shared vestibule or anything
like that there's east ontario to the right and the left there's the firehouse that you can see
on the left side of the page and then uh on belgrade to the right and there's your 18 unit
apartment building that you can see on the left and then a commercial unit use on the right
and then to the left of the property on belgrade interior photographs uh you know clearly you know
lived in units um two gentlemen each separately in their own unit
both one bed one bath apartments see that on the illustrative floor plans
um so the upper unit is the yellowish one that enters on the left side on that left door
goes directly up the stairs and you can see bedroom a bathroom and a living space and then
the door on the right on the first floor gives access to the first floor unit which does have
access to the basement which is unfinished just you there's no living down there no need for us
to have a living down there and we would agree to that there's a washer and dryer down there
and utilities as well the upstairs unit has has their own washer and dryer
here's the rco meeting notice we met with the rco on february 3rd at 6 p.m it was an in-person
meeting columbia social club we emailed the notice out as required and and 114 properties
were notified here's the list of addresses the mailing certificates application for appeal
So, deed to the property, Rainer is Donna Ray's father, and the tax clearance, there
is a balance, but that's not due until the end of the month.
I'd like to, at this point, call my client to adopt my testimony.
Thank you.
I've been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Donna Rae Lee, D-O-N-N-A-R-A-E-L-E-E.
You swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth is nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Could you please turn on your video?
Uh-oh.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
I wanted them to provide us.
They'll be back in shortly.
I believe if you're still available,
please accept the invitation to become a panelist donna you have an invitation that could become a
panelist
hold on mr chair
Donna?
She should be aware of control, Mr. Chair.
I just mess up to you.
Okay, I saw it.
Chase, do we think she's having a hard time getting on?
Mr. Goldberg, you're an officer of the court,
We'll gladly accept your testimony, okay?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Are there current rental licenses for the existing tenants?
There are not, no.
And part of the next steps would be for us to get a CO and a rental license for two units.
And then when was the last time the units had any construction updates, given the tenants have been there for so long?
I don't know the exact date.
they're relatively modern just going back to the renovation photo or the other photos the unit
photos these are the condition of the property that she she took it in um it's not exactly you
know modern by today's standards um but you know relatively somewhat recently redone
and when did she purchase this property i'm sure uh the property was passed to her from her father
in 2022. And these gentlemen had been in there for how many years? So one of them had been in
there for a year. He's been in there for four total. So three of those years have been under
Donna Ray and the other tenants been in there for 10 years. So that individual was, you know,
long exceeded, you know, her acquisition of the property from her father. So they were like
holdover tenants but well it's a family property so i don't think they were hold over in the sense
that they were asked to leave and didn't um but that they remained in the property um as the
property went from don from donna ray's father to her and i don't think she has any issue with that
and she they're good tenants so she'd like to keep them in there yeah but without rental license
correct yes okay all right thank you for the questions from the board
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience i do not see any further answer mr chair planning commission
thank you chairman and good afternoon david fecto with the city planning commission
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA-5, residential single-family zoning at this location.
The city rezoned this neighborhood in 2017, and a community requested map change.
This appears to be a long-term non-conforming duplex.
The city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variance for two dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2024-007-280-2538 East Ontario Street. I vote yes.
So Gaston, my vote is yes.
We're fine. Thank you.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Tywin, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Kel.
Thank you.
Thank you. If you can hear me.
We can. Thank you very much.
Number 11, MI 2024, 006-985-4182-90, City Line Avenue.
Frederick Poindexter is the attorney.
You got that, sir.
could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
sure it's frederick poindexter f-r-e-d-e-r-i-c-k last name p-o-i-n-d-e-x-t-e-r do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
the relationship to this property yes my client is philadelphia urgent care management inc
They are the tenant in this property operating as Vive Urgent Care.
they are the tenant in this property operating as Vive Urgent Care.
Excuse me, this is-
Excuse me, this is the court reporter.
Could I ask the witness to please get just a little closer to the microphone?
Thank you.
Any better?
Yeah, it's better.
Why don't you say that one more time to what you just said?
I am the attorney for Philadelphia Urgent Care Management, Inc., and they are operating in the space as tenant as Vive Urgent Care.
All right.
Do you waive the reading of the refusal, and do you agree with its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Why don't you share your screen and start your presentation?
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
as mentioned i am here representing philadelphia urgent care management inc operating as five
urgent care uh this is an application for variance at 4182 90 city avenue and i will walk through
the index of the exhibits that we submitted to the zba and would ask that they be entered into
the record at the conclusion of the testimony first is the lease agreement for the space
or the excerpt of the lease, I should say.
The tax clearance, the original documentation
from the zoning application, the project information form.
Here's an aerial of the site.
This sort of jutting out here
is where the signage proposal is located.
We'll get into detail of that later on in the presentation.
There are evidence of the zoning postings on each of the windows that are fronting
King's Grant Drive and City Avenue.
And in this picture, you can actually see the space where we are proposing the signage.
And the remainder of the materials are here before I walk through the pictures, the refusal,
the notices, the appeal, and the notices to the RCO.
I've got to get closer to the mic.
I think you're starting to drift away.
It's just mics are a little sensitive.
These are the notice letters to the RCO for both looking to schedule the meeting and actually
having a meeting scheduled.
And the original packet I should mention did not have the RCO meeting summary and letters
of support.
We submitted those once we received them.
I think it was Monday.
So I will scroll back up to the pictures of the site just so that you get an idea of the
proposal here.
And this is essentially a visibility issue that we're trying to solve for.
As you can see from the vantage point here coming out of the driveway looking towards
City Ave and King's Grant, there's a blank face on the side of the building and there's
no identification of the tenant in that space from this direction.
There is an existing sign that you can see on City Avenue once you're further east, but you can see the obstructed views coming from the west on City Avenue that you're unable to see the signage that the tenant currently has in place.
And I'll give you the plans here.
So the current signage here on the left you can see is fronting City Avenue, but you can
see it coming from King's Grant Drive.
The blank space that was exhibited in the previous pictures is where the proposed signage
is slated for.
It's an identical sign.
The square footage, the illumination, the materials are all the same as the existing
you can see here in the original site plan that uh the proposal is just for the space
on the corner of king's grant and city f
and at this juncture i'd like to invite the president and ceo of fiber urgent care peter
host to join sure
counselor did you attend the rco meetings i did why don't you give us a little overview of the
rco meeting sure sure so i attended the rco meeting uh there was one rco meeting with
the coordinating rco winfield height civic association or community association now and
i attended that meeting with brian gould the vp of marketing and patient experience
at Vibe. We had the meeting for, I want to say, 30 to 40 minutes or so. We talked about the plans.
I showed them the exact plans and elevations that we have here today. And we addressed their
And we addressed their concerns related to lighting, placement, durability, and we did not hear any complaints during the call.
concerns related to lighting, placement.
And in the meeting summary, you could see that they provided their support.
We also have a letter of support from the City of Special Services District, which we got later after we submitted our materials.
Why don't we bring your client on?
Can we see him?
if you are in a virtual audience please raise your virtual hand
we have a fred point dexter with your hand raise is that them
i'm fred point dexter was peter holtz that we were looking for
personally fred point dexter is the only one with the virtual hand raise
there's two of you okay yeah so it it is him signing undermining you okay sir what's his name
peter hoats they have not allowed to speak please unmute yourself
hi sir could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes it's peter p-e-t-e-r last name is hoats h-o-t-z do you swear or firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel thank you uh peter were you
present for my testimony throughout and did you hear all of it yes i did all right and would you
accept it as your own is true and accurate yes i do is there anything else that you would like to
add to the testimony yeah i think the you you called out the the issue we have with the visibility
of the site we we opened our locations to provide care to people that can't get care otherwise and
in that neighborhood we we serve a lot of patients that are driving down city ave and
we've gotten complaints from them that they drive by the site without seeing it and so
we think it's important that we just put this signage up and really it's as much a safety
issue as anything else so people can see it and and pull in in time so we operate 10 centers in
the city. We've been good long-term tenants at all of our locations and hope that we can continue
to improve this location's visibility so we can continue to serve patients there.
How long have you been a tenant in this space?
We opened there in 2021.
And can you describe your existing internal signage and when it was installed?
The signage that you showed on the outside of the building was installed
Right before we opened our operations, we used the same signage company throughout all of our locations, and we take a lot of pride in our buildings, so we try to install signage that's tasteful and durable.
And have you heard any complaints or issues regarding the durability of the signage?
No, we haven't.
Thank you, Peter.
Thank you. Questions from the board?
it says internal internally illuminated so we're not talking very this would be mainly
at night when you would see this correct okay yeah all right yeah there's small light bulbs
on the inside to apply it for visibility other questions from the board how late is the urgent
care open we're open eight to eight monday through friday and eight to five on the weekends
and is the sign illuminated when the business is closed yes it is they typically stay lit
through the night okay questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson just to clarify for
the um on the lease what is the the lease term for the property it's a 10-year lease the 10-year
okay and it started in 2021 started in 2022 i believe i'm happy to share a copy i know that we
yeah no i i yeah no i understand i just wanted to verify the the term so thank you so much
questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience
i do not see any further answer mr chair planning commission
thank you chairman and good afternoon david fechto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location
from cmx to commercial mixed use to spins special purpose institutional the proposed additional wall
sign is in keeping with the character of the philadelphia college of osteopathic medicines
campus and other large properties on city avenue the city planning commission recommends the board
grant proposed variants for an additional wall sign thank you council is there a specific suite
you're in, or are we just going to have that location? Didn't you put that on there, Helen?
Yeah, no, I did make that note, but because this is only referring to the signage,
I don't think we need to specify. Thank you. MI 2024-006.
I don't think we need to. Thank you. MI 2024-006-985-4182-90 City Avenue, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes. Tannetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Iowyn, my vote is yes. Thank you, Counsel.
Number 14, MI 2024-007-236-5440 Lansdale Avenue, Brett Feldman is the attorney.
Okay, let's be coming back in as a panel shortly.
Thank you.
setting up here. Could you please state your name and spell for the court
sonographer? Yes.
Is that a one?
Very good now. Okay. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman,
members of the board, Brett Feldman, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
19103. I represent the applicant and the property
owner, Tain. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yes. Attain, they are owner of the property and the applicant in this matter. Do you agree to
the waiving of the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy? I do.
And I understand that you have a letter of support from Hestonville Civic Association
and a letter of support from Councilman Jones.
Yes, we do.
Could you please share your screen and start your presentation?
I think the screen, I think we're sharing right now.
And so I'll start right now.
Again, Brett Feldman, I represent ATTAIN.
ATTAIN is a national and local operator of centers
that provide therapy and counseling for those with autism
and those on the autism spectrum.
And with me today is Fernando Vinagre,
who is the Director of Compliance for ATTAIN.
So I'll go from there.
Passed up Exhibits 1 through 17,
which I'd ask to be incorporated into the record
and getting right to it.
As you mentioned, we do have a letter of,
I think it's unanimous support,
non-apposition from the Hestonville Civic Association.
Met with them and for about an hour
had a really good meeting.
We also have a letter of support from the district council person, Curtis Jones Jr.
at Exhibit Tab 2.
Exhibit 3 is our referral.
This is a special exception case.
We are here today for a group practitioner, medical, dental, and health practitioner,
because the therapy and care that they provide requires medical professionals.
So that's why we're in that category.
It's a special exception, we think, as we'll show, that we meet the standard for a special exception.
Most of the special exception cases I hear are for restaurants, but this is for treatment of patients, which is a little bit different.
But this is a location that was, let me just, so we all know what we're talking about as far as location.
We're in West Philadelphia, Lansdowne Avenue, North 55th, and Conestoga.
The property is right here.
It's a CMX2 property.
This was one of the Rite Aids that has closed recently.
And I'll show you a picture, a convenience store, pharmacy.
Here's the location.
So essentially, we're taking the building.
We're not adding any additions to it.
We're keeping the parking field.
And you see across the street, there's a rec center.
And then behind us is some residential.
And across the street are some vacant lots.
we think this will be a beneficial to the neighborhood to clean up what's increasingly
with trash dumping has become a problem in that area we get to exhibit tab six and at this point
And at this point, what I want to do is I'd like to ask Fernando, who is our real expert from ATTAIN to – Fernando, if you can provide your name.
what I want to do is I want I'd like to ask Fernando who
Why don't you state your name and spell for the court stenographer, sir?
First name, Fernando Vinagre, F-E-R-N-A-N-D-O, last name Vinagre, V-I-N-A-G-R-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Vinagre, can you just provide your title and what capacity you work for Attain?
Yes, I serve as the Director of Compliance for Attain.
And can you describe what that position entails as far as day-to-day?
My particular position is regulatory.
So we basically do a lot of the regulatory research across a variety of funders, insurance companies, and so forth, and also audits and overall compliance of quality services.
Great. In this situation, ATTAIN, as I mentioned, briefly provides counseling therapy for those with autism on the spectrum. Can you talk about how ATTAIN came to this location here in Philadelphia to open up a new location?
Sure. So we typically do a variety of neighborhood analyses, just kind of identifying where the larger referral needs are, where there are vacancies and services overall.
And this particular site or neighborhood area of Philadelphia was certainly identified as having very limited services from a therapeutic standpoint.
point, we thought it would be a significant value add to be able to service this community.
Great. Thank you. And just can you talk a little bit about the services that would be provided
here and ATTAIN's direction as far as providing therapy and counseling to those with autism?
Absolutely. So ATTAIN ABA, again, as was mentioned, is a national provider of
um behavioral health services specifically we service autism spectrum disorder um intellectual
and developmental disabilities is where some neurodevelopmental disabilities as well
we service children from from birth to 21. um this in particular would be a uh a center um
and we would be providing our primary discipline is applied behavior analysis uh hence the ava
acronym. And basically, what we would be providing within this center, it really allows us the
opportunity to expand our evaluation and assessments. A significant amount of research
goes into, you know, the earlier you diagnose and start treatment of children, the higher the
success rate. And so, we're really focusing on early intervention within this particular center
site with, obviously, direct treatment, but, you know, a lot of parent training groups
and social skills groups.
Great.
And we'll show the floor plan in a second, but just briefly how different areas of the
center would be used.
So because it's an early intervention focus, we tend to identify some very specific, we
call them classrooms.
It's not school-based, but they're identified as classrooms where we can have specific interventions per classroom running or very specific focused interventions running per classroom.
So I believe this space would have about six different classrooms.
It would rotate throughout, just be, you know, some would be assessment-focused, some would be observation-based.
Different interventions would be running, discrete trials, different things like that.
It will be an open area where, you know, they could gather, have larger type of, you know, group events, circle time.
It's also focused on training young kiddos before they go to school to increase their communication.
As we know, autism has, you know, a variety of deficits, and those deficits are communication-based and socially social-based.
So we're really increasing our ability to provide those classroom-based areas to where they can extend their patience, their in-seat time, their instruction time, their compliance, and so forth.
patients, their in-seat time, their instruction time, their compliance, and so forth,
their communication of their needs and wants. So those are a lot of the different things that
we're actively training and teaching on a regular basis. Right. Thanks, Fernando. And just as far
as days and hours of operation, I understand there'll be some of the clients will be coming
in in the morning staying for like a half day um and then um another group of clients would be
coming in around noon and staying till about five o'clock is that but but some will say all day if
you just give the board a quick understanding of kind of the days and hours of operation that that's
correct the the um the center will operate from from basically eight to five uh and you'll have
a group of students that come in just for the morning another group of students that come in
just in the afternoon time um and a certain percentage that will actually be there the
entire day it's based on need of the child um you know acuity deficit areas and so forth um
and that's monday to friday that is correct closed on the weekends yes sir okay yeah i mean
we could conceivably use saturdays but right now the right we're looking at um thanks fernando
So I just wanted to just, again, just return to the site itself.
This is when it was the Rite Aid.
We're keeping, the trash won't be there.
This is some old pictures from Google Earth, but we'll be reusing the building.
As you see here, here's some interior pictures that are requested by the board.
Just briefly, the whole idea is to really kind of turn this into a building that's much more attractive for younger children.
You see this as a proposed rendering that we show the community.
a lot of bright colors on the outside some additional windows that that aren't there now
we're looking at this is a rendering of what we hope this would look like once once we're open
and then fernando was talking about the interior just 30 seconds on this because it
it's really kind of impressive what what it looks like inside as far as making this warm and
inviting too but i know there's a therapy purpose for what we're seeing here there is
At the end of the day, it's for the children, right? So we're really looking to have it be inviting, fun, you know, stimulating, you know, so there's textures, there's colors, all of those things are therapeutically purposeful.
um and uh you know even even the seating arrangements and uh different vocational
types of things like daily living types of uh um you know instructional areas so you see a little
supermarket there and which and so forth so all that has an occupational purpose too it's not
just yeah correct kind of almost like the police touch museum when you go inside and there's
this is the supermarket that's in there right yeah right thank you um you know here's the
floor plan. We talked about that, the different spaces. But that's really, you know, we have a
we've worked on a circulation pattern. Most of the drop offs would be coming down Conestoga and
then circling in and the next thing on Lansdowne, there's mass transit here, there's plenty of
parking. And we think in all respects, we meet the special exception standard. So with that,
I'm going to stop. And if there's any other questions, questions from the board.
Yes, real quick while you have this drawing up. So the side windows that will be installed
is going to be installed along that wall right there?
Right here?
Yeah, we'd be looking to open that up.
Okay, thank you.
We're dealing with security. We're dealing with a lot of different, but yeah, we definitely,
we want to make this as light and as bright as possible within the constraints.
So you said there would be classrooms. You said you had six classrooms.
Is that what I heard?
That is correct.
So how many children per classroom?
There should be between eight to 10 at any particular time.
And then what age children are these?
So they'll be grouped.
It's typically going to be your younger children.
So we'll divide them up into, you know, by age grouping.
So you'll have your younger early intervention anywhere from one to five.
You'll have another grouping between six to ten.
It's entirely possible you could have some older children there, you know, 12, 11, 12, 13.
It's not typical in center environments.
So we're really focusing on the younger group.
And you said you'd be open from like eight to five.
So the group that is more school age, how is that going to work for them?
They would typically come in the afternoon.
And then they'll be driven, somebody will, a bus will drop them off.
And then they'd be driven.
Somebody would, a bus would drop them off.
How is this going to work?
We do not provide transportation.
The parent would, a parent caregiver would be bringing their, their, their child to the center.
And are you going to have some sort of play area or is this what I'm seeing in here is going to be the equivalent of a play area?
that that's a good example of a play area on on the bottom on the bottom right um this the the
the left the bottom would be more of a classroom based i'm sorry the one with the fake grass
excuse me what is nice though is we're across the street from a rec center
um which i believe is one of the ones that's being renovated right now as we speak
so this was one of the you got great mass transit right there it was also looking to create some
maybe partnerships across the street with that rec center so that was something we were looking at
nothing definitive yet but definitely something we're considering all right thank you thank you
for your question any other questions for the board questions or comments from our attorney
hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the audience or the virtual
audience chair i do not see any hands raised for that matter planning commission thank you chairman
and good afternoon david vecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx2 commercial mixed use of zoning at this
location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2019 in accord with recommendations in the
comprehensive plan the appellant has shown that the proposed medical dental health practitioner
group practitioner will have no detrimental impacts on the neighborhood beyond what might
be expected the city planning commission recommends the board grant proposed special
exception for a medical dental health practitioner group practitioner thank you mi2024 007236
5440 Lansdale Avenue. I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Teneda Graham, my vote is yes.
Iowa, my vote is yes.
Great. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Okay. Be well.
Number three, MI 2024, 005-732, 1517 South 2nd Street,
TA-30461.
William Kerr is the attorney.
I understand that David Orfinides
may also be part of this case.
Mr. Kerr,
there's a recommendation of support
from Old City District
and a letter of non-opposition
from Council Member Squilla.
Chair William Kerr and David Orphanidis should be coming back in as a panel shortly.
Thank you.
Do we see Mr. Orphanidis, too?
Yep, I'm here.
Yes, he's back.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
I'm Mr. Orphanidis.
Let me get Mr. Kerr on first.
Do we see Mr. Kerr?
I can text him if you need.
Okay, he'll be rejoining, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
Hi, Mr. Kerr. Could you please state your name as spelled for the court stenographer?
Sure. William Kerr, K-E-R-R, 40 East Aries Street in Norristown. I apologize. I stepped away for a minute.
Sure, that's fine. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is actually the owner of the property, and they acquired it in two acquisitions last fall.
Okay. Do you waive the reading of the refusal, and do you agree with its accuracy?
I do waive the reading. There is one issue on the refusal.
It indicates 15 to 17 South 2nd. The actual property address is 15 through 25.
5 South 2nd Street, which encompasses both parcels that I just referenced.
South 2nd Street, which encompasses both parcels that I just referenced.
Okay. Mr. Orphanides, could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Certainly. My name is David Orphanides. The last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Mr. Orphanides, could you identify a client, a relationship to this?
Certainly. My client is Second and Trotter, owner LLC. They own 40 South 2nd Street.
it's a property located across the street and a couple doors down okay and at this moment we're
an interested party so um but we've had mr kerr and i've had some discussions okay thank you mr
kerr could you please start your presentation and share your screen uh yes let me find the screen
share okay here it is
are you seeing that it should say tab eight we see we do not see anything sir okay hold on
It's coming up now. Wait a minute, it's starting to come up. Okay.
Tabby.
I see Tabby. Okay, great.
All right. So I'm
representing the Tun Legacy Foundation, Inc. here today.
The Tun Legacy Foundation is a 501c3.
And it's an entity that's looking to reestablish what was the historic
Tonn Tavern, dating back a couple centuries. With me on today's call, there's Mr. Pat Daly,
who's president of the Tonn Legacy Foundation. We also have Keith Mock, our director of design
and construction, and Craig Bryson, who's our engineer with Pinotti Engineers. I'm going to
do most of the presentation initially. I'd like to just show you some photographs of the property
to give you an orientation. So these are included at tab 8 of the exhibits that we
had provided. This is a view of the property from across 2nd Street. It's currently a vacant parking
lot. And then I have some additional photographs. This is, both of these are from 2nd Street. This
photo is 2nd Street looking towards Chestnut Street. This is 2nd Street looking up 2nd Street
towards Market Street. And then we have 2nd Street looking northwest towards Market.
And then this is a view from inside the site looking out towards 2nd Street.
And then we also have the historic Black Horse Alley, which abuts the property
to the east. And then this is the black, the site and the Black Horse Alley, again, looking east.
Now I'm going to go back to my overall exhibit list. Just wanted to give you a sense for what
we have here. We have our application. We have a copy of the referral. We have a copy of the deed
for 15 to 17 at tab 3. Tab 4 is the deed for 19 to 25 south second. We have our zoning plan at tab
5. We have our landscape plan at tab 6. Some project graphics that Mr. Mock may get into if
the board desires to see those. Site photos I just showed you at tab 8. Tab 9 has the photos of the
property with the zoning posters in place. Tab 10 is an aerial photo to give you a sense for what
the neighborhood looks like from the sky. Then we had three RCO letters that went out because we
had an earlier hearing, which was continued based on some of the discussions with the neighbors.
The latest RCO hearing letter went out on January 17th. So we've included that. And we've also
included a certificate of mailing for that January 17th letter. That's page one of the
certificate of mailing. There were numerous pages. I didn't want to bog down
the exhibit package. Now, we do have an RCO letter of support from
the Old City District, which is at tab 15, and then
a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Squilla
at tab 16, our tax clearance certificate at 17,
and at 18 is our OPA property record.
So at this point, I'm going to go to the plan
okay here we go so this is this is our site plan as i said this is the extent of the property both
Okay, here we go.
parcels uh again currently a a vacant lot and what we're proposing is to build this
so three three story building and then this will be an exterior courtyard which we're going to
refer to as the Tunn Alley. So what I'd like to do is, now the Tunn Tavern, just to get into a
little of the history, was originally constructed back in 1686, and it was in place for about 95
years until 1781 when it was destroyed. There's a lot of history with the Tunn Tavern. It was
originally the birthplace of Freemasonry in Pennsylvania, dating to 1731, and it was the
first documented Freemason Lodge in Pennsylvania, or excuse me, in North America. It was also the
founding place of the United States Marine Corps in 1775. And the Tonn Legacy Foundation is
essentially a joint venture of a group of Marines, former Marines, and Freemasons, a group of Freemasons.
Some other history, John Adams and the Naval Committee met there in 1775 and outlined the structure for what became the United States Navy.
Benjamin Franklin was the first grandmaster of the Tun Tavern Freemason Lodge.
And then George Washington was also a Freemason, and we have documentation that he visited the original foundation.
So what we're looking to do is to recognize this history and reestablish a successor to the Ton Tavern here in Old City, which we think, based on the history of Old City, is an appropriate location.
And once it's rebuilt, the Ton Legacy Foundation will donate all the proceeds from the operation in perpetuity to veterans' charities and other charities that are associated with the other heritage organizations, including the Freemasons.
Now, the property is CMX-3, the Center City Overlay District.
The referral obviously indicates that we need a special exception.
And we're looking to do a sit-down restaurant, which is what requires the referral.
And the legal standard, as you're aware, basically for approval of a special exception is that any impacts from the proposed facility
are in keeping with the impacts of a similar facility or a facility of a similar use, size, and scale.
And we believe we do meet that standard.
What we're proposing on the parking lot is the three-story sit-down restaurant.
The 170 seats will have a bar and tavern.
We anticipate that the clientele will be locals and then also tourists and visitors
visitors who are drawn by the historic nature and the historic connection of the ton most of the
operation will be indoor as i indicated we will have that outdoor courtyard area which will be
designated as the ton alley there will be some outdoor seating in that area the city tavern the
old city tavern is kind of the model for this facility now the days and hour a week it will be
seven hours, or excuse me, seven days a week. We'll be doing lunch and dinner on weekdays
and weekends, and also doing breakfast on the weekends. Now, one of the things we've agreed to
with Mr. Orphaniti's client and some of the other interested neighbors is there will be no outdoor
music in the Ton Alley portion where the outdoor seating will be located. I'm just going to run
through our hours of operation weekdays during our peak season. The maximum hours of opening
will be 11.30 a.m. to midnight during the weekdays, and then that would be indoor. Then
outdoor, we would close at 10 o'clock during those weekday hours. Fridays and Saturdays,
our indoor hours will be 11.30 a.m. to midnight. Outdoors, we would close at 11 p.m.
on Fridays and Saturdays. And then on Sundays, we would do indoors starting at 9 a.m. So we would
have a Sunday brunch, Sunday breakfast, and then close at 11 p.m. And then Sundays, the outdoor
area would start at 9 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. We'd have no dinner service after 10, so we would
stop serving at 10. If folks wanted to sit until closing and finish their dinner, they can.
But we will stop serving dinner at 10 every evening.
Every evening, alcohol service will stop a half hour before closing on any particular evening evening.
Alcohol service will stop a half hour before.
And that would be that would be determined by the closing time.
Again, we would stop serving alcohol a half hour before closing.
One, a couple of things that distinguish this and we think make it better than a similar restaurant type use is that we won't have any sidewalk dining.
Our dining will occur in the Tonne Alley, so it'll take it off the sidewalk and prevent the interference with sidewalk traffic and conflicts with what's happening on the street.
Also, you'll see, if you look at the landscaping plan, we're proposing a significant landscape area that's about nine foot wide that's between the Tonne Alley outdoor seating and the sidewalk.
Mr. Kerr, it would probably be really helpful as you're talking if you start going through some of what you have.
okay i can do that i'm sorry the landscape i don't then go back and tell us the landscape again so
as we're sitting here why don't you show us some of the things you have yeah i apologize i'm looking
at my notes and uh and i should have gone there but anyway this is you should be seeing a landscaping
plan which says l 1.0 in the lower right hand corner yeah okay again this is second street
and the landscaping i'm referring to is this nine foot area here between the ton alley and
Second Street. And then there's also a significant landscaping area to the side and sort of
perpendicular to Second Street, which will also act as a buffer for the ton alley from the street.
Okay. So we believe that that landscaping and the fact we don't have any on-street
seating will actually result in fewer impacts to the neighborhood from this particular use
than a standard restaurant would impose.
Now, our employees, well, our maximum number of employees at any time would be 20.
as far as parking there is no parking required but what we're anticipating using a municipal
garage that has 400 spaces which is a just a short way down the block on second street and
then there's also a garage with 100 spaces which is much closer and it's only two properties away
so there's about 500 parking spaces available within within very easy walking distance for
patrons. As far as our trash, we'll have an indoor trash room and we'll have daily pickup by a
private trash hauler. In addition to just the regular restaurant seating and the bar and the
tavern, we would possibly do, the interior would be configured to allow us to do private parties
of up to 60 people. We wouldn't do a private party of anything larger than that because we
wouldn't be able to accommodate that. All of this, we believe, is standard and consistent with what
you typically find in a standard sit-down bar and restaurant. There's nothing unusual. Therefore,
it's our position that we wouldn't have any extraordinary impacts, including because there's
no sidewalk dining, and we do have that landscape buffering. So we believe we do meet the legal
standard. You have renderings, Mr. Kerr? I do have renderings, and I'm going to have Mr. Mock
actually go through those for you?
Mr. Kerr, how long do you think this presentation will be?
It should be another five, eight minutes.
I'm basically done.
I'm just going to have Mr. Daly adopt my testimony now.
Okay, so if we could admit Mr. Pat Daly as a participant.
Mr. Daly, if you could just raise your hand.
You see Mr. Daly.
do we see mr daly saying yes mr chair he has been allowed to speak thank you
yes sir mr daly could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
patrick p-a-t-r-i-c-k daly d as in delta a-i-l-e-y you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed counsel okay yes good afternoon
mr daly um have you been on the uh the zoom for the duration of my presentation here this afternoon
yes i have and do you uh agree with everything i said that i did i say anything that was inaccurate
no that's uh what you said is accurate okay do you adopt my statements as your testimony here today
yes i do okay that's all that i have for mr daly if the board has any questions for him
otherwise we'll move to Mr. Mock
Keith Mock
Keith, raise your hand
in the
David, excuse me
David, excuse me, Mr. Orfinetes, do you have any questions for Mr. Daly?
Mr. Orphanides
No, no, no, I don't have it now.
Mr. Mock.
They've been allowed to speak.
Mr. Mock, please state your name as a bell for this phonographer.
Okay, thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mock.
Excuse me, this is the court reporter.
I am not hearing the witness.
okay they've been promoted to um panelists they should be allowed to speak now
keith are you there hi mister i am here all right mr mock could you please state your name
and spell for this stenographer keith mock k-e-i-t-h m-o-c-k you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel
Okay, Mr. Mock, you've been on for the duration of today's hearing?
Yes, I have.
Okay. Now, on the screen, you see an image which shows a graphic of the ton with a label, Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment. Is this an image of the historic ton as it existed back in the 1700s?
Yes, it is.
And were you involved in preparing this graphics package?
Yes, I was.
Okay, could you describe what I'm showing now on this second page of the graphics package?
So the image you're looking at is an aerial view down towards 2nd Street.
You see the historic Tun Tavern as it was depicted in that historic photograph.
To the left of it, you see Tun Alley.
It is the brick pathway that leads you through along with the landscaped area that was previously mentioned.
And then in that courtyard is the seating where we have approximately 44 dining seats.
And then the rest of the seating will be indoors, correct, Mr. Mock?
It will be indoors.
We also have on the third floor, you can see there is a covered dining area that is only open into the Tonn Alley Courtyard.
Okay, I'm going to scroll down to the next graphic, which is the location plan.
And can you just describe for the board what this depicts?
Yes, so you'll see two stars. The star to the lower left is the original location of the historic Tun Tavern. If it were there today, it would be sitting in I-95.
We were fortunate to find the Second Street site, which is the second star, and a perfect location given all of the historic museums and cultural activities in the area.
and then we have the project summary site plan if you could just briefly describe this for the board
yes again second street to the left hand side you see the arrow depicting the entry into the
ton alley courtyard with the dining area and then there's a open porch where there's an access into
the historic tavern building with the second entrance there into the restaurant.
This is the basement level, which is primarily utilities and back a house, including restrooms.
Next slide.
As we move to the first floor, again, to the left is Second Street.
You see in yellow the period tavern, and then behind in orange the sit-down restaurant area.
The rest of the space is back of house.
That includes restrooms, employee areas, as well as the enclosed trash room.
That is accessed then off Black Horse Alley.
The trash room where you see the words back of house, it's just below the back of house
area, that big room.
Second floor, we have two restaurant areas.
One, we will have a period restaurant over the historic tavern.
And then in the back, there will be a chef's kitchen type restaurant, which is where the functioning kitchen is to the right of it, as well all the other back of house areas from dishwash to dry storage, wet storage, toilet rooms, additional back house space.
And then in the back, there will be a chef's kitchen type restaurant.
The third floor on the left-hand side in blue is the office space for TTLF.
And then the outdoor covered dining area that I had mentioned looks down into the
Tun Alley courtyard. The rest of the space is mechanical and back of house.
Roof plan.
Nothing really to say there. And then the building elevations, again, largely you see in the lower left, the tavern, and then the portions of the restaurant space in the back.
Mr. Curry, you're done?
Yes, I don't have any questions for Mr. Mock.
Mr. Orfinides, do you have any questions?
um i do not uh yeah real quickly um sir my name is david orphanetes and i i represent second
LLC um just two quick questions um the is there a place for the staff to take breaks
um indoors or outdoors on the premises yeah yes this is keith mock indoors uh we have a
uh staff area uh which is on the second floor okay and have there been any uh sound studies
that have been performed regarding the potential impact of the um of the outdoor seating both at
grade and at the third floor as i understand it uh right now you are showing 44 units at grade in
the kind of courtyard in the alley area and 80 seats at the third floor the open covered area
That's 124 seats.
Have there been any sound studies done?
We've done sound studies with regard to the existing decibel level.
That's a requirement of the code.
And we are not permitted to exceed that decibel level.
You know, at that decibel level, did you take readings?
We did take readings.
I do not recall exactly what those were.
But we can make them available.
All right. And then. In terms of the occupancy, the outdoor ground floor, you're showing 44 and then you're showing 80 at the third is, in your opinion, is that the maximum lawful occupancy for those areas based upon the seating and the square footage of those areas?
Yeah, it is. It is the maximum number of seats that we can fit to properly have dining spaces.
Well, no, that wasn't my question.
So my question was, could there be, if I put it in an application for those areas,
could there be, given the square footage and given, I believe it's 15 square feet per seat,
could there be, and that's if it's only seating, if it's standing, we're talking about something,
we're talking only five square feet per person.
What would the maximum occupancy, lawful occupancy be for those two areas?
Have you run those calculations?
I have not done those calculations, so I couldn't tell you.
And have you run the calculations for standing as to what they would be?
No, I have not.
As of right now, I have no further questions.
Mr. Kurz, are you done your presentation?
Just a few points of clarification.
Mr. Mock, you're a registered architect in Pennsylvania, correct?
That's correct.
And how long have you practiced architecture?
45 years plus.
Okay. And during and over the course of your career, you've done other restaurants, correct?
Okay. And you heard my statement that this restaurant is designed similarly to other
restaurants of the same style, type and use, correct?
Yes. Second Street is primarily a restaurant street. I've been to most, if not all of them.
And this is very consistent with all of those restaurants.
And is it your position that the impacts resulting from this restaurant will be consistent with impacts of other similar restaurants in the area?
That is correct. Yep.
And with the exception of the fact we don't have sidewalk seating, correct?
That's correct. That's a huge benefit to not have the need for any sidewalk seating.
to not have the need for any sidewalk seating okay that's all that i have for mr mock
Thank you.
all right but my question is are you done your presentation uh yes that's the end of my
presentation as well mr orfinity so you have a presentation uh well i have a follow-up question
for mr mock um a couple follow-up questions first of all mr mock um you said it's consistent with
the other restaurants located on on that block um i haven't been down that way in a little while
but can you tell me what other restaurants have uh open outdoor seating or serving
um i know that several of them do i couldn't tell you the ones by name uh cuba libra
does actually have outdoor seating they are right across the street um and they actually
their outdoor seating um is a constructed uh temporary structure that sits on the sidewalk
and their restaurant is very much the same scale as this restaurant
so what so a couple things so so it's a temporary seating on the sidewalk or one that's in like the
parklet that's in the parking area um cuba libra is the uh restaurant that has the
temporary structure on the sidewalk on the sidewalk that's correct and that's a covered
structure i believe it is yes okay and do you know how many seats it is i i don't know no okay
um and that's not on the property that's that's that's on the sidewalk correct
yeah that is across the street from this site and then and that's and that's subject to a
license correct not a not a zoning permit correct i believe a sidewalk license i believe it does
require a license that's correct so it's something that could be revoked by the city correct
doesn't have that let me rephrase that it doesn't have the same rights as a zoning use that's been
granted by a zoning permit on a property correct yeah i'll just to the extent i'm not sure mr mock
okay listen listen mr mr orphanages listen a minute could you get to the point where you
want to make that so so this the point is this is that um mr kerr and you know really didn't
have an opportunity to discuss this at the beginning and i have been in discussions
regarding the conversations that my my client and his client mr adeli i believe it is
have been having regarding the hours of operation and the nature of the operations that will be
outside, open to the outside. My client obviously has an interest regarding sound volumes and
quality of life on the block, having just constructed a very large 42-unit, or no,
it's actually a larger unit than that, 61-unit building, multi-story building,
mixed-use building down at 40 South 2nd Street. They've been having very pleasant conversations,
as i understand we just not we have not had the ability the time yet to reduce those to writing
and as you know this approval runs with the land so while the ton and mr daly may be amazing people
and may abide by the hours and may abide by the noise and whatnot if they sell to somebody else
they sell to david orphanetes i mean we understand that so so what i would ask at this point is rather
than dragging this on, is I would ask the board's courtesy and consideration of keeping the record
open on the issue of the outdoor use and whether the standard or the burden has been met regarding
for special exceptions regarding that for a resumption hearing to allow our clients to
hopefully reduce their agreement to writing so that both properties and both owners are properly
protected. And if that's the case, then we can present that at the next meeting, and there
wouldn't be the need for this to drag on today or at the next meeting. Mr. Kerr, what's your
opinion? I think we're very close with Mr. Orvan Eges and his clients. There is some time pressure
on us with regard to our proposal. Two of the things I didn't mention is there's a 250th
anniversary of the United States Marine Corps this year. And so we're hoping to have this
restaurant up and running so that we can have a substantial portion of the year where we can
tie into that anniversary. And also next year, we have the 250th anniversary of the United States,
which which uh we're hoping to to market um this all right okay okay as well so if we could if we
could if i if i might if i may so if we could just have a uh a decision that's conditioned
A decision that's conditioned when I reach a written agreement with Mr.
on our recent agreement a written agreement with mr rafanidis i think that would
I think that would work.
We can approach it the way he suggested.
Hillary, can we get a date for a result of hearing?
I think you have a date there.
I see two possibilities on the 8th of April at 930 a.m.
And I don't want to hold Mr. Kerr up.
Is there any chance?
I mean, we could be extremely brief.
Can we set that?
and if there's a chance we have...
Mr. Orphanides, I'm giving
you what we have available.
I'm just trying to hold Mr. Kerr
up and his clients.
Is there anything
sooner than that, Ms. Emerson?
No. I'll tell you
what to do. Call the office.
That's what I'm saying.
We're going to continue this for
a resumptive hearing that will be set
in a short period of time.
Not this hearing, but in a short
period of time we can set when that
date's going to be okay fantastic and thank you both so we're not setting it we're not setting it
for the eighth then you just you both just told me you didn't want the eighth so i'm gonna see
if there's anything else okay yeah i'd like it to be at the outside bill let's just let's we'll be
fine okay thank you i take you at your word david thank you i'm with you okay thank you everyone
Number two, MI 2024-005-262, 1311-13 North 27th Street, Al Nockamson is the attorney.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal?
Do you agree with its accuracy?
Could you identify a client, a relationship to the property?
My client is S2 Real Estate LLC, and to the left of me is Sheriff Ron Whitaker, one of its members.
Right, and just for a point of information, I have a letter of opposition from Brewery Town.
from the council member and show with different people from the block.
Okay, so why don't you start your presentation?
I just have to be a minute as a panelist.
Yeah, thanks.
Hi, I'm here to present 1311 North 27th Street.
This is an adaptive reuse project.
It's actually 1311-13 North 27th Street.
The size of the lot is 3132, so it's a rather large lot.
We'll go through this, but the 2035 plan actually recommends that this lot be reclassified as an RM1 lot, which would allow seven units as of right.
During my presentation, I'll review the notice of refusal.
We do have correspondence from the Brewery Townshardswood Community Civic Association.
It is technically a letter of opposition.
It goes to the community vote, but there are two votes in that letter.
There's one from the zoning committee itself, where they voted overwhelmingly in support of this project. And then the community did not. I will say that Brewery Town Shardswood Civic Association is a rather sophisticated board. They have been in existence for as long as I've been practicing zoning law in Philadelphia.
and um they have their own meetings which are not attended by the public where we have to provide
our presentation materials well in advance and they review it and they take it very seriously
so when their zoning committee supports a project it's because it makes sense um technically um
under the law so we'll review that the property history as well again this is an adaptive reuse
project. It looks like it was a former firehouse of some sort, and it's never had a single-family
use, even though this is an RSA-5 property. Exhibit 4 shows that next door to us is a six-unit
building. Again, so it's not out of character for the property to have non-single-family use,
and it's in character for that block to have multifamily use. There's six units right next
store. And many of the refusals that are applied to us would also have applied to them.
Uh, and many of the refusals that are applied to us would also have applied to them and, and they are occupied and built again, the Philadelphia 2035 lower North district plan recommends that this property should be an R or should be an RM1 property.
And again, based on the square footage of a lot, we would be allowed seven units as of right.
We are only asking for five units.
Um, and again, you'll see that with this property is a responsible use of the property.
There is no basement use whatsoever. It's built on grade. There's access to the rear yard for
everyone for trash storage. We would agree to commercial trash pickup as well. Aerial view of
the property. One of our refusals, and we'll review that, has to do with the occupied area.
We're just extending a non-conforming use by building a story above. So again, not out of
character for this property to have full lot coverage. Maps of the area, photographs of the
properties around the area, or other exhibits. Our plans and drawings, these plans and drawings
are designed by 24-7 Design, a great, again, adaptive reuse of this property. Our RCO meeting
notice, where we show proof of mailing that notice, or applications for appeal that we filed on behalf
of S2 Real Estate LLC, deed to the property showing that they own the property, and our
certificate of tax clearance. Again, to my left is Sharon Whitaker, one of the owners of the LLC
that owns the property. Notice of refusal. So again, we're a rather large lot of 3,132 square
feet. There's an existing building structure there that's been vacant for a while. And we want to
have an adaptive reuse of having five dwelling units. Again, not out of character because the
property adjacent to us is six dwelling units. We have three refusals. First is the height of
the building where we're proposing to have 38 feet. And again, we're in the overlay where
we can only go based on the height of our adjacent building. The adjacent building is 36 feet high,
but they also have a parapet wall of three and a half feet on top of that. So really from the
outside, you're looking at it, it's 39 and a half feet high. Here to the roof line, our property is
38 feet high, and there is no parapet. So again, for the outside world, it looks like our building
is actually shorter than the building to the right of us. Roof decks. Again, what we're proposing is
really not a roof deck. That's a technical refusal. You'll see that there's balconies throughout.
Everyone has outdoor space. So it's not the quintessential roof deck that you would see
like a pilot house and things like that. And within the spirit of the overlay prohibiting
roof decks, I think they're looking at roof decks, not where you're walking out to a balcony area.
And that's throughout the whole property. So I think that fits within the character of the
neighborhood. Also, I think it fits within the spirit of the law in that respect. The third is
parking where, you know, we are providing, we're repurposing like a garage door and we're proposing
off-street parking there. The fourth refusal has to do with the amount of units. Again, the 2035
plan proposes that this should be an RM1 property, which will allow for seven units. And we're only
asking for five units. Again, not out of character, even though this is RSA 5, because this has a long
history of non-single family use. And next door to us is six dwelling units. And then the rear
yard depth where nine feet is required, zero feet is proposed. It already has a rear yard depth of
zero feet because of the existing building structure. We're just extending a non-conforming
use by having that addition on the third story. Correspondence. So again, I know that it looks
worse than it is in some ways. You just never know how a community is going to react. But if
you look at the zoning committee, they overwhelmingly supported this project. And again, they're
professional, like within the community, they're very sophisticated, they look on projects on a
case by case basis. Sometimes you go into a here a community meeting, and you just never know who's
the room um and you know why they're there um i will say that here like the zoning committee
heard what we tried to do and and they're in support of this project um
and then you know for them the discussion here was they felt that a five unit proposal did not
align with this the surrounding area well there's six unit right next to us so as stated there was
mentioned about a community garden so there's a community garden to the rear of us they have had
access to our to that community garden partially through the side yard that we are continuing to
partially through the side yard that we are continuing to keep we have no issue with giving
keep we have no issue
them a permanent easement of some sort for that walkway we never like we proposed that we never
heard from anyone from the community garden we are still ready willing and able to sign whatever
documentation they need to effectuate that but we're not interrupting their access to the
community garden and we are more than willing to put that in writing uh parking and traffic again
um you know this this property is slated to be an rm1 property um you know where parking would not
be required under the law under the philadelphia zoning code we are providing parking because we're
leveraging the the current configuration of the property as you will see um so we're providing
parking where we can. And then they said lack of clarity. I don't understand what that means,
but we would give access to the garden. It's pretty straightforward. There's a six-foot
walkway from the front to the back of our property on the right-hand side.
We would be more than happy to give that access. And we reached out. No one's gone back to us in
that respect. And then this is a letter from, I don't know who, but like, you know, we, when we
get something, you know, from the community, we put that in there. I believe that was delivered
to the ZBA. But again, this is a single family zoning classification, which will be hopefully
designated one day as RM1. This is not solely single family homes. Even the community group
acknowledge that there are multi-families on this block and there is one to the right of us.
So again, we are not violating the zoning regulations or at least the spirit of the law
by coming here because it's not out of character. The building height is not out of scale because
the property to the right of us has a building height to the roof line of 36 feet, but the
parapet adding three and a half feet on top of that to the outside world looks like 39 and a half
feet while ours is a 38 feet height and again it's adaptive reuse so it's not like we're starting
from scratch either we are like keeping a piece of the history of that of that neighborhood by
repurposing that property and that they have higher ceilings on those two floors and you know
we have a three-story structure which is 38 feet high but we wanted to be able to use that property
And the only way to actually be able to afford this property renovation is to add that third story and to add to make it five units, but it's not out of scale. Parking and traffic concerns, again, the property next to us has no parking. We are providing the parking we can.
No outdoor space for the tenants.
I respectfully disagree with that.
We'll show that each of the units have its own outdoor space.
Plus, there's a side yard as well for outdoor use.
Unclear property boundaries and impact on Brewerytown Garden.
I don't think there's anything unclear about it.
We have a six-foot pathway from front to back of our property, and we'd be more than happy
to give them access to that legally.
Right now, they don't have anything legally.
I think you've said that a couple of times about the pathway.
Yeah. Well, I think because it gets frustrating when you try to reach out and try to make a deal with the community and there's when they ask for something and they don't do it. So, again, the property history, again, this is not multifamily in nature.
excuse me, not single family in nature. It's anything but that. This is what it's looked like
in the past, and we want to preserve that. This does no longer exist, this more ornate
function of it, but it's really pretty, but it doesn't exist. And then 1305-09 North 27th Street,
I wanted to show you that it has been approved for six units by way of variance previously by
this zoning board. And then I also gave the drawings just so you can see the height of the
building. It's 36 feet high. But again, with that parapet, it makes it a little different.
And then the lower north district plan, again, this is slated to be an RM1 dwelling property.
And then aerial view of the property. The reason why I show this is to show the full
lot coverage of the property. So all we're doing is extending a non-conforming use.
And by the way, here's the walkway here.
And then maps of the area.
Again, there's a mix of zoning all around this property of this neighborhood, both commercial and multifamily and single family.
And then this is a rather large lot, too.
So it's not like we're trying to squeeze five units into this into this small property.
into this small property and then you can see here also shaded that this is full lot coverage
And then you can see.
here so it goes to one of our variance requests and then photographs of the property this is what
the property currently looks like and it's been unoccupied for some time and what we're trying
to do is breathe life into it and these are our orange notice posters and then this is to the
right on north 27th street to left on north 27th street our plans and drawings again what we also
try to do with some interesting architecture is not put our roof line at the front completely in
the front is to kind of angle it off a little bit to kind of respect the height limitations that are
required of us technically under the overlay. And as you see, there is no roof deck because
the roof that they're claiming is a roof deck is right here. So it's, again, not the quintessential
roof deck that you would think about. Again, falling within the spirit of the code and
providing access to everyone. And then you can see here, this is the beginning of the walkway,
some landscaping as well, but we would be able to give access to everyone.
And then we have a one car parking right here. This is the only addition of the width of the building structure. But, you know, even in its smallest part, it's a six foot walkway from front to back.
and then again no basement use at all built on grade because we're just repurposing this
building structure so you come in the front and you know you can unit number one which is open
by the way has a mail room right it has a maintenance office um but unit number one
is right here that's a two bedroom uh two bath 900 square feet windows everywhere here here
then the second floor you go up a flight of steps to the left is is or i guess to the right is is
unit two which is also a two-bedroom two-bath 900 square feet to the left is a two-bedroom
two-bath which is also well 896 square feet and then the third floor is units three and four
uh excuse me four and five excuse me four is is two bedroom two bath 900 square feet and the unit
five is 827 square feet no roof deck by the way here's the outdoor space for unit two here is
outdoors you know outdoor space for unit five and then here's outdoor space for unit four
rco meeting notice we met on november 21st at 6 30 p.m proof of email of proof of mailing of
that notice was sent out a few weeks before we sent it to 158 addresses these are the addresses
we sent them to proof of mailing to those addresses our application for appeal that
we filed with a ZBA on behalf of S2 Real Estate LLC. Our deed showing that S2 Real Estate LLC
is the owner of the property. And our Certificate of Tax Clearance showing that no taxes are owed.
I'm going to unshare my screen. I would ask that Mr. Whitaker be sworn in, and I have a few
questions for him. Mr. Whitaker, could you please state your name and spell for this tonight?
Sharon Whitaker, S-H-E-I-R hyphen R-O-N Whitaker, W-H-I-T-T-A-K-E-R.
You swear or affirm the whole truth and nothing but the truth, sir?
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes, Mr. Whitaker, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
yes do you have any uh type of diagram that depicts the proximity of the garden yeah we do
it's it's actually a aerial view i think it's one of the aerial views so let me do that
so the garden is right behind us a sliver of it
and i don't think there was any issue in terms of us like extending another story
i think it had more to do with just their access to the garden because i think they're afraid that
we're going to activate this property by using it honestly and they were concerned okay are you
going to prevent us from having that access? And the answer is no. So I know I have a picture.
Oh, right here. And if I may, that's not the only access to the garden. That's right. It's
a shortcut that they've been used to using, which I, again, I have, you know, I know.
um which i again i have you know no means of taking it away from them i just told them let's
talk about and figure out how we make it still accessible to them yeah so secondary access but
their garden area there's a bigger portion over here but this is where their garden is
and this is a walkway we currently have over here with where there's no barrier of entry and we
don't have any intention to give them a barrier to enter the property. But again, we reached out
to them. Okay. And could you just tell me again, what are you offering for the gardeners to have
access? Well, this is a secondary means of egress. So we would give them what's called an easement
over the property where they would have the ability to go over this walkway legally. Right
now this is our property right so they've been using it and it's a secondary form of egress we
have no issue with that but we want to we want to formalize that you know i think it protects
everyone and you know if this board you know grants or variance requests we'll continue reaching out
to the community and trying to get like a more formal relationship with the garden
thank you other questions from the board yeah i guess two questions so if you're gonna if you're
willing to do an easement you're not putting a rear fence to at your property line no well what
we would yeah we are but they would have that well the fence is right here we would have a fence and
there would be some type of entry you know that they would be allowed to have a gate like a gate
yeah and you'd allow okay and then my second question is that addresses the garden but for
the brewery shardswood community civic association it's generally not comprised of large people a
large group of people that have a lot to do with that garden what were their main concerns because
they also opposed well i i think first their first uh matter was about the overlay about like the
fact, they don't want roof decks and they want to keep the height limitations. And again, it's
nuanced. I think, especially when you're dealing with adaptive reuse and you're not starting from
scratch, you have to take an honest view of that matter. So we only have a three-story structure
at 38 feet. We're not four stories at 38 feet where we're trying to cram it. Our two stories
are rather high. By ending that third story, we're exactly at 38 feet, but we're not because
of how like 24 seven design actually did a good job of like i'm just going to go to trying to get
the rendering here but like they did a good job like this is the 38 feet right here but really
it's what i see as the roof line from a like it from a common person point of view is like here
you're not going to see here because it's set back and angled and that's why we try to be creative
in terms of working through that, respecting the overlay in that respect. And also the second
part of the overlay has to do with no roof decks. Again, I don't consider this a roof deck. I would
consider anything above where the gray is a roof deck, and that would be adding height. And I think
people are upset like you're adding this height over someone's roof line, which is intrusive.
Here, it actually provides eyes on the street. It's architecturally interesting. It gives everyone outdoor space because that was one of their complaints, that there was no outdoor space for the unit occupants. And every unit has outdoor space of some sort through these roof structures or balconies or in the first floor unit in the rear.
Other questions?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience?
Chair, I have a hand up from Sharon Hildebrand.
I'm going to promote them to panelists right now.
How many hands do you have?
Two hands.
Thank you.
they've been about to speak
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
hi are you speaking to to me sharon heldebrand i am yes okay thank you i'm sorry
Yeah, sure. State your name and spell for the stenographer.
Sharon Hildebrand, S-H-A-R-O-N-H-I-L-D-E-B-R-A-N-D.
r-a-m-d do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
i do are you a neighbor yes i am i live on 29th street at master i've lived in the neighborhood
for 22 years okay please proceed i um also um am the chairperson of the steering committee for
brewery town garden the garden that you've been talking about yeah no one has contacted us um
Or if you have contacted someone, I'd like to have the name of the person you contacted, because no one from the community garden, to my knowledge, has been contacted to discuss this at all.
You'll see in the slide that's on the screen right now, there's a gate restricting the access to the back of the property.
And I believe the owner suggested that this is a shortcut we use.
It is not a shortcut. This is our accessible entrance. So this would be the entrance that
someone arriving to the garden in a wheelchair would use. The other entrance to the garden is
up a hill that is covered in mulch and dirt because it's a garden. And that would be difficult
for anyone with a mobile device to be able to enter the garden. They've also suggested that
We had no issues in terms of the height. That's incorrect. We are opposed to the height of the building because of the shadow that it would cast on the garden. It would restrict our afternoon sun.
And he has stated that it's a substantially large property, and it is.
And so I don't believe that the appeals for additional height decking and use chains rise to the level of demonstrating undue hardship for this property.
I would ask that the variance does not be granted.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mr. Yeah.
Do you have questions?
So my understanding is that there was a representative from the garden at the meeting. I gave my contact information. I said, here's my contact information. No one contacted me. I can't know who are those actual people.
I'd be more than happy to talk to the person at the community garden, seeing about formalizing some type of arrangement regarding an easement for people for emergency egress purposes for non like disabled individuals.
And obviously for people who do need those accommodations, we would work with them in formalizing that as well.
Thank you. Do we have someone else up with their hand up in the audience?
yes the quarter satterfield i'm promoting them to panelists right now mr chair
why could you please state your name and spell for the stock
yeah carter satterfield c-a-r-t-e-r s-a-t-t-e-r-f-i-e-l-d
Do you swear, Fern, to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am. I live at 1303 North 27th Street. I've lived here for three years.
Please proceed.
So I just want to point out a couple of inaccuracies that were suggested earlier.
And I will say, this is my third time at one of these.
I voted in favor of the last two, both of which are connected to my house, including the six-unit building that's been mentioned a couple of times at 1305 to 1309.
It was stated earlier that that building does not have any parking, which is incorrect.
One of the reasons I was for that building was because of the six units, each five of the units have a garage.
So they're able to store their car under their units.
We do not have any parking left on the block. And adding additional units with not enough parking is going to be a problem. And the other thing I want to mention is it was said an overwhelming amount of the zoning board approved. Four of seven is a majority, but I do not find that terribly overwhelming.
what was overwhelming was the community against this property and i don't believe that that any
or if many uh changes were made from the community meeting uh plan to where we are now um so i uh i
oppose the the adjustments to zoning right um mr do you have any so i do apologize if there was
parking i did not see that as part of the the other application so i did not need to like misstate
that so if that's the case that's on me okay um as far as the zoning board for the six members who did
The zoning board, four to six members who did vote, there was one person who abstained, did vote in favor.
That's 66%.
I consider that overwhelming.
And in terms of revisions to the plans, there was nothing asked of us.
Again, there was more of like, we just don't want this in our neighborhood.
If they would have said, hey, we want a reduction of the unit count or anything of that sort, we would have entertained it. But again, the height of the building is more because of an adaptive reuse. We really can't do anything about that.
We'd be more than happy to meet with the neighborhood community garden to see if we can formalize an arrangement and we would ask that the board may be holder under advisement. And again, I don't have, I think her name is Hildebrand, you know, her information. But, you know, if you go on my website, knockupsin.com, it has my email address and phone number. It's very easy to find me.
okay thank you um anyone else in the virtual audience
no further answer mr wait um i have a hand up i'm sorry mr chair i have a hand up from
rachel melinda i will allow him to speak briefly your name and spell for the stenographer
hi there um yes i'm looking for my video to turn it on uh hold on i gotta i have to promote you
to panelists rachel oh okay okay got it thank you please stand by
perfect thank you hi um my name is rachel molenda r-a-c-h-e-l
M-O-L-E-N-D-A. I live at 2738 West Master Street. Do you swear or affirm that tell the
truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Are you for or against this project?
I am against the project as it has been proposed. You're not against it?
I am against this project. All right. Is there anything you can offer that hasn't already been
offered today? Um, I guess what I would say is the concern that I had, um, you know, in addition
to everything else that has been said is, is that, um, I think that not, um, changing up these
renderings, there's nothing different that was presented here today that was presented at the
RCO meeting. Okay, that's my daughter, Hazel, sorry. And so if I believe it was requested that
the owner of the building could come back with different plans that we might reconsider. And so
I just want to add that to the record that what we're seeing here today is the same thing we saw
at the RCO meeting.
Thank you very much for taking the time to cause planning.
David, I'm going to hold this.
I'm going to hold it for two weeks.
I'm going to close it other than what Mr. Nocknob or the community or the garden bring
back to us.
Everything else will be closed.
Do you want to take a position or do you want to wait to see what comes back?
Sure, we'll take a position.
Thank you.
Thank you.
uh good afternoon David Fecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members
the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning of this location to RM1 residential
multi-family the city rezoned brewery town in 2014 in accord with recommendations in the
comprehensive plan at which time this property remained RM1 in a 2016 map change requested by
the civic association this block face was rezoned to rsa5 the proposed height is de minimis and in
keeping with the purpose and spirit of the zoning code the proposed absence of a rear yard setback
and the off-street interior parking are also existing conditions however the appellate has
not demonstrated that five dwelling units is the minimum needed to afford relief this lot is 3,225
square feet, which is twice the minimum lot size in RSA five. The city planning commission recommends
the board grant the proposed variances for height, off-street accessory parking, access from a primary
street, and rear yard depth, deny the proposed use variance for a roof deck, and grant the proposed
use variance for unit count with a maximum of two dwelling units. Okay, thank you. Hillary,
we have to bring this back for resumptive um no not if i think everything's everything
i think everything's everything i think they're going to close everything except what you bring
everything except what you bring back and then you comment
back and then your comments relative right yes and all i would say is for the person who's online
you know please contact me i mean i i can't you know like i don't know that person's contact
information so i'm going to bring this back to in two weeks at 2 p.m to vote just to vote and
the record is closed other than um any changes to plans or negotiations as a result of further
can i just make one comment on planning just just a comment to respond sure yeah again this
is planning stated that this should be an rm1 property or at least that's their proposal and
given the size of the lot you know you would based on rm1's calculations seven units would be allowed
as if right um you know so again offering five units is the least modification possible under
the philadelphia zoning code under those circumstances thank you all right thank you
um we're gonna take a quick break we're gonna take a five minute break and then i'll just stay here
okay we're back so number five mi 2024 005 752 4028 westminster
Mr. Nockamson, just for the record, could you please state your name?
Alan Nockamson.
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is SW Play LLC, and to the left of me is Malik Boyd, its member.
Do you agree to the waiving the reading of the refusal and you agree with its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Why don't you share your screen and proceed.
Alright, so 4028 Westminster Avenue.
This is a legalization of a triplex.
So during our presentation, we'll review the notice of refusal, and you'll see there that
it does have three-family dwelling use referenced in the notes.
And there was a building permit actually even issued as well, and you'll see that as part
of my Exhibit 3.
My client took over the property in July 18th of 2024.
The week that he took over the property, he hired my law firm to legalize the structure
by first getting the zoning permit, then reactivating essentially the building permit.
The individual who owned the property previous to this, who did the renovations ran out of money
and the lender took over and my client purchased it from the lender. So, you know, he's been
diligently pursuing this. There are some aspects that he has based on legal advice, not done
because we want to make sure first we get the zoning approved. Then we do the work that's
necessary to get the, you know, to get the building permit, then to confirm all the work
was done correctly and modify as necessary based on city inspections. So we did meet with the
Belmont Alliance Civic Association due to the unfortunate passing of Betty Ferguson. It's
taken us a little longer than we wanted to. And we do apologize for that. And there was no ill
intent for us to just leave the property in its current condition, but it was in its current
condition for a while before we got there. And again, the renovation started because I believe
there was even a fire before that. So I can sense the frustration of the community. I would be
frustrated too, but we're trying to be a good actor here by doing the right thing, getting all
the governmental permits and approvals before we do the work. We'll look at an aerial view of the
property, maps of the area, photographs of the property inside and out. My client does have his
dads staying there just because there's an issue throughout Philadelphia. When you have an empty
property, you have squatters. The worst thing that can happen is that we get these governmental
approvals. Someone moves into the property illegally, and then we have to go to the
court of common pleas and deal with that for nine months in the year. So my client's dad is staying
there just to stay there to make sure that no one stays in there. So you'll see some living there.
it's more to protect the property from squatters. Our plans and drawings and it's simple plans and
drawings that we created based on you know a rough sketch out of what our client says are the
existing conditions but it shows us a three-family dwelling which is not out of character for that
block. There are multiple instances of multi-family use on that block. Also where we're situated in
neighborhood we're near railroad tracks so when you're around railroad tracks typically you don't
have single family use it's a little bit tough uh to have that type of use we did have an rco
We did have an RCO meeting and we have proof of mailing at that meeting.
meeting um and we have proof of mailing at that meeting there
There were issues that were discussed.
Honestly, some of them were for the first time about issues with the property.
There's one instance and we'll talk about how we dealt with it beforehand.
But some of those things we did not know about.
I made sure my client addressed every single one regardless.
And we have pictures to that effect.
There's one item where he just needs to do like a little extra work.
But because of the rain, he was unable to complete that work.
So I leave it up to the board if they want to see pictures of that completion of work before they vote.
Our application for appeal that we filed on behalf of SW Play LLC, the deed to the property, showing that they purchased it in July of 2024.
We have a refusal dated August of 2024.
Our office immediately took upon itself to file the zoning permit application, got the notice of refusal, immediately filed the zoning appeal.
but we've been delayed a little bit through no fault of our own, and our Certificate of Tax
Clearance. Again, at the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Malik be sworn
in, and then I have a few questions for him. All right, so our notice of refusal. This is an RSA3
property, but we're asking for three units, and if you look in the notes section,
this board granted in 2020 an addition plus three units, and it states in here that the zoning
permit expired and there's no co issued and that's through no fault of our own the individual again
before us ran out money and we're trying to legalize this go back to l and i figure out
what we need to do on top of that and get this building structure here this is the greatest
undue hardship you know in in that sense it to force us to now revert that property a single
family use would make no sense. It would be out of character to the block. And based on the best
of rights argument, we have approvals from the city. There is a delay in time, but based on the
best of rights we have in this property as a three-family dwelling, we would also make that
argument as well. Correspondence, again, multiple issues, repair front sidewalk. Again, the reason
why part of the front sidewalk was exposed we did put like um some some protective measures there
but if we we haven't filled in and completed the sidewalk because we we have to do the plump we're
probably going to have to do part of the plumbing over based on our investigation or at least we
don't know what the city has inspected so we need to make sure that the city has full access to the
sidewalk ultimately hopefully hoping we get this approval from the board again getting a building
permit. Address the road-in issue. Again, we did not know there was an issue in that respect.
Again, other than my client's father staying there, it's unoccupied. Repair the rear fence.
Again, my client didn't want to, upon legal advice, I told him not to touch the property.
I said, let's go through the zoning process. Because what happens is, even though you don't
need a permit to do that work, when things happen and people get a little bit nervous,
especially with a property like this where it's been a probably a problem for the community for
the last five years so i told him not to do that after the meeting again no permits are required
under the philadelphia building code or administrative code i had him put the fence
back up as well as like a side fence because what was concerning was there's a side uh yard
and they felt like people were coming in from the side yard into our backyard and being a nuisance
to the neighboring property so we also put a fence for the side yard as well to secure it again no
permits are required and we immediately did it we had our meeting last week what what was it what
day was that thursday so it's wednesday he already has that up so again you know something about
malik you know he manages 110 units in the philadelphia region he self-manages them so it's
not that he didn't want to do it. I recommended that. And he knows his responsibility as a home
owner or property owner. And that's why he immediately hired our firm. Pre-closing, he said,
I'm purchasing this property. I need to legalize this. So pre-closing, he engaged our firm.
And soon thereafter, we started this process. And then the last thing,
remove trash from the yard. We removed whatever trash we had in the yard. And we did that as well.
And, you know, the, the refuse, the, the objection from the community had more to say, like, where it's the, they're, they're, they're not acknowledging the elephant in the room. This has been approved already as a three family dwelling in 2020. All we're trying to do is not just do we have a zoning permit or a former owner had a zoning permit, a former owner also had a building permit. Unfortunately, they never got the CO and those
A former owner also had a building permit.
Unfortunately, they never got the CO and those permits have lapsed.
But, you know, the work has already been done to a degree.
So, you know, that's what we're trying to do.
We're trying to be a good actor here.
And then so they showed a picture.
This was the, you know, the plywood that we put up for the sidewalk as a temporary measure.
And again, Malik has been, you know, in the neighborhood for some time, talking to the members of the community, keeping them up to date about what's going on here. I think they were frustrated because they thought we were just sitting on this. Again, we did not want to push for a community meeting because of the passing of Betty Ferguson.
you know so we were patiently waiting for that to happen but you know again our intent is to
legalize this structure and then this was where the the fence was again I told my clients that
don't touch the fence let's get everything situated and we'll deal with it again it's a
fence for our property it's not affecting anyone else and you know I thought but you know I can
understand why they were upset we removed again the trash all this debris as well to make that
look a lot nicer and then i can't say what this is i it's too close of a shot so i don't know what
this is oh so it's the fence um i don't know if this fence is on our property or their property
but obviously we'll we'll deal with it and then you know they complain they're like oh there's
four meters here how can you have four meters here if this is a single family use well yeah
the zoning permit yeah the building permit you have three meters for each one for each of the
units and one for the common element this is not anything we put on the property this was done
based on approvals from this zoning board and lni and then this is just an angle another angle of
the fence this is all from that community group uh and they mentioned that there's some issues and
i can't speak to that i know malik will be dealing with that hopefully at the building permit stage
but there are some obviously issues with the facade that we're going to have to address
So I can't speak to that. This is a picture, apparently, of the fire that happened many, many years ago. This is not an active photo. This is not during our ownership. This is not during the previous ownership. This is, or maybe it was, but maybe this is what spurred the proposed three-family dwelling.
So I can sense the frustration with the community.
I would be frustrated too.
That's why we're trying to legalize this structure.
And then again, this is not part of our ownership, but these are pictures that they presented
to us and the ZBA as part of their letter.
So I can sense their frustration, obviously.
Again, not us, not us, not us.
And so again, those are the pictures that they are showing.
But again, we had a zoning permit or this property had a zoning permit for three family
use. And again, most of that work was done. It's really just to verify what hasn't been done.
And then here's the building permit as well, which expired because obviously a CO wasn't
granted in time. And then area of use of the property. So again, this is how close we are
to the railroad tracks. Again, not out of character to have multifamily on Westminster,
40-30, 40-34, 891, Westminster, 891, 905, 900, all on North 41st Street, which is right here.
So all within close proximity.
And then maps of the area.
Again, we have a mix of zoning here.
I mean, we are RSA 5, but you can see ICMX, RM1, even CMX 2, some industrial here with the railroad tracks.
So again, not out of character from a zoning classification point of view either.
And then photographs of the property, again, it was set up already with three mailboxes.
This is all on someone else's watch.
this is the property uh in 2009 so it was multifamily in nature even 2009 before the
approval for three units this is a recent photo this was a photo taken the last couple days of
when you know i asked malik i said you know what why don't you just do i i verified that
no permits are necessary when the when the fence is six feet or less and of ends of a wood material
so that's what he did and did same thing for the side yard as well again we just didn't want to do
any work on the property until we got the zoning approval we just didn't want to have a situation
where now we had to explain that this is allowed but you know that's you know but because of the
comments from the community we obviously you know did it very quickly and then this is just
a newer piece of plywood our hope is that we get approvals we get the notice of decision
a newer piece of plywood our hope is that we get approvals we get the notice of decision
we get you know we get the zoning permit we apply for the building permit we get those
inspections done and we move on and then this is our orange notice poster this is westminster to
the right of the property to the left of the property interior photos this is where his dad
staying and then just simple floor plan common vegetable area make a left you have a kitchen
dining room living room bedroom there is this is unfinished this basement there's no living in this
basement it's just where the mechanicals and storage would be instead of making a left to go
to the first floor unit you go to the second floor unit and then you have a bedroom a bath
living room, kitchen, dining room, and then the same thing on the third floor. All of this is
existing. All of this is based on zoning and building permits that have been issued.
This is our community meeting notice. This was, again, a long process for my client. We, you know,
again, we purchased it in July of 2024, immediately filed the zoning permit application, zoning
appeal. And then this is our application for appeal, our deed to the property, and then finally
our tax clearance certificate. Shows two years as owed, technically no, because this year is not
owed because it's not owed to March 31st. And then my client just made sure he made payments
for 2024 as well.
With that being said, I would ask that
Mr. Boyd be sworn in.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Malik Boyd.
Yes, Malik Boyd, B-O-Y-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes. Proceed, counsel.
Yes, Malik, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt this in your own testimony?
And then with regards to like, you know, my testimony about not doing any of the work,
it was your intention to complete that work upon approval of this zoning variance?
Okay, thank you.
Questions from the board?
Questions from the board?
questions or comments from the virtual audience mr chair i do not see wait a minute hold on a
second a hand up from cordelia baffick yep i'm going to depend on this right now great
they'll be rejoining shortly okay
hello can you hear me i can could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
cordelia baffick c-o-r-d-e-l-i-a b-a-f-f-i-c did i swear you in earlier today you sure did
okay thank you uh you're a neighbor yes i am the neighbor and i'm also the block captain
OK, please proceed. Sir, we the community met last week and just as in some ways the lawyer has stated the community, the community did speak up about our concerns.
There are several things that we need. He did not bring up to your attention.
One is the sewage pipes are broken in that house and they continue to spill into the neighbors adjacent on the right and on the left.
We, the neighbors, when we found out and met Mr. Malik that he had purchased a house since August last year, we have been trying to be in contact with him, texting him and letting him know about the issues in the house.
In particular, and more importantly, about the sewage that was spilling into the neighbors' houses on the right and on the left.
Every time the sewage spills up because there's broken pipes in the house, we have to pay people to come and clean up the sewage.
It is horrific, horrific.
This has not happened once.
It continues to happen.
He still has not fixed that.
He did not address it back since we made contact with him.
There is the wood, the roof, whatever work they did before, sir, I don't know what inspection Mr. Malik did to the house, but there's pieces from the roof that are falling, the siding is falling, there is a school across the street from the house, and the children stand with the parents on the sidewalk in front of Mr. Malik's house.
And the children stand with the parents on the sidewalk in front of Mr. Malik's house and pieces of wood, pieces of siding keep falling.
So everything is insecure. We try to address that with him. He did not. He did not respond.
um we uh part of the front of the sidewalk that is ripped if there's a huge hole in there from
clearly a previous owner who tried to address the problem of the the leakage of the sewage
and didn't take care of it so they just put in a piece of plywood Mr Malik came back and yes he
addressed it this past weekend because we had a meeting with the community and the community said
know that we would not say yes to the change unless he addressed the issues that we've been
asking him to address since he purchased the house. These are not issues that require for him
to have a permit, sir. These are issues of quality of life for the neighbors. The smell that comes
out of those pipes and out of that sewage is absolutely horrific. And he completely ignored
the neighborhood, sir. There's holes, and the lawyer actually presented some of the pictures
in there. There's holes on the wall where nests of raccoons and rats have been made in there,
a huge raccoon, sir. And there's children playing in the back, children playing in the front
of this house. And we asked them to seal those because the raccoons and the rats are starting
to come into the adjacent neighbors and he ignored that as well sir we are not against Mr. Malik
changing the zoning of request and his request to change the zoning into a three apartment sir
we don't we understand he has invested a lot of money but we the community are concerned that he
has not shown any concern whatsoever or not until now at least that there was a vote from the
community from the RCO. Has he shown any desire to go and put the fence? That fence was down,
not up. That fence, there was nothing there, Sarah. There were people coming in, drugs being
sold in. The traffic from the back to the front was horrific constantly. And crime happening,
people were running right through that property. So we asked him to address that, sir. And he just
did it this weekend he addressed the fence and he put up a new piece of plywood on the on the
sidewalk the hole is still there and the in the the wood the piece of wood that he put is high
so anyone can trip on it once again we desire to help mr malik we want him to succeed we we have
no problem with him having three apartments there sir but the problem is that he has not shown any
concern or care for our community we we have single homes yes there are a few houses that
have apartments no problem with that but the single homes and and some of the uh the people
that have that live in that community in our community have been there forever and this is
absolutely a disrespect from his part to come in he wants to make money in the community by
purchasing this house but he's not caring for us we have flower pots we have so so anyway listen i
i understand exactly where you're from okay i'm listening to everything you said alan do you have
any questions yeah so two two items um and i mentioned the fact that he was trying to address
one item but because of the rain he couldn't address it can you explain what you're planning
to do with temporarily with that hole that or the part of the sidewalk that's exposed yeah so uh my
contract and i finally agreed on pricing and also a solution of putting gravel and some dirt down
to make it even at least until we get the permit so that way we can go back down in there to put to
uh to do our sprinkler systems so and and the reason why you couldn't do that by today was
because of the weather right and the weather stopped them from working that's why and then
the sewage like can you explain what you what you did address oh yeah so uh when cordy and also the
other neighbor said that they were having some sewage issues i had the entire building snaked
camera uh and they didn't find any issues until outside where that space is and when they found
that we did a temporary boot to to connect it to the lateral from the house until we get the
permit so that we can go back down there and put a more permanent solution down okay thank you do
we have one more pan could that person come on yeah it's um nasir n sir and i don't love him to
speak hi could you please state your name is spelled for the sonographer
don't be coming back in strong mr chair
are they coming on okay um planning commission
thank you chairman and good evening david effecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa3 single family
zoning at this location proposed use is consistent with a use variance granted by the board in 2020
and the proposed multi-family use matches the character of this block face which is primarily
multi-family the city planning commission recommends the board grant the requested
use variance for three dwelling units excuse me mr chair i have um excuse me that's here
hold on a minute please yeah i'm sorry you missed me and i didn't make comments so we
we actually can't vote in the cynics we do not have proof of tax compliance there's still
we we have we've made the second it's an edit to the back of our of our presentation we made
that payment oh you did okay i did not see that oh i'll show it again yeah sorry pull that i'm
to show him that i yeah yeah i'll show that that was i think we can that's right here
okay all right all right thank you that was in there right thank you do we have someone trying
to get on someone trying to get on yeah i'm sorry to interrupt you again mr chair they were trying
to get on but uh looks like their hands are going down so you may proceed all right thank you so um
alan um i'm gonna hold this okay all right and i'm gonna hold it for a month yeah and and um
Look, you had a neighbor say, I don't care about the three units.
They just need a little relief.
So I'm going to hold this for a month.
Give me a date somebody will vote on this.
I think my client stated he can finish up the additional work in the front within one week.
I'm going to take a month.
and that way what i i just don't want it like he finishes that up and then the neighbors
you know so i think i think you gotta you know make that particular block captain
yes you know show exactly where you stand with this go ahead
the eighth so we'll bring this back on 0408 25 at 9 30 a.m to vote
Is this a vote only?
It's a vote only, and the only thing we would consider is additional information that Alan has maybe from the neighbors, too.
Yeah, no, I would say, yeah, additional information from Mr. Knockamson about repairs that have been made to the property in response to concerns.
That's right.
And then any response from the RCO and the block captain regarding those repairs.
But everything else is closed.
Everything else is closed.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Alan, stay there for a while.
I think these next few are going to be a lot easier.
You normally say that, Alan.
Number nine, MI 2024-006-299-1453 North, New Kirk Street.
Letter of support from Brewery Town, 17 to one vote.
A letter of non-oppositions from Council Member Young.
Applicant also has a petition of support from five neighbors.
uh alan knockamson all right um mr knockamson do you identify your client a relationship to
the property uh yes my client is amina oliver you waive the reading of the refusal and agree
with its accuracy i do please start all right oops i raised we got three more with you so
all right so we we a lot of people in the back here a little but i'll try to be quick on these
this is actually pretty straightforward uh i say that a lot 1453 north new kirk street
uh we have the notice of refusal this is single family use uh we're just renovating the property
uh we're adding to the third floor and uh a little bit in the rear as well um we do have
correspondence from the brewery town shardswoods community civic association overwhelming support
from the community again a very sophisticated community group as i stated before with the north
27th street project but hey petition uh in support uh nearby so one of our variance requests is
nearby roof decks um you know because of the overlay it's not out of character to have roof
decks on this block we have multiple examples uh aerial view of the property as well uh because
we're looking at maximum occupied area variance. Again, not out of character to have a slight
variance of this sort. And, you know, we have maps of the area photographs.
Uh, and, uh, you know, we have maps of the area, photographs of the property and the surrounding area, which kind of shows in terms of the height, because even though we're in the overlay, uh, which requires a shorter height, typically for the, when you have neighboring properties, there are multiple properties of our height, uh, which are 38 feet in nature.
So we're in line with the spirit of the code.
RCO meeting notice we met with the community, application for appeal, deed to the property
showing that Ms. Oliver owns the property, certificate of tax clearance.
Again, at the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Amina raise her hand to be
sworn in.
And I also have Chris Johnson, architect's representative from 24-7 Design.
Notice of refusal.
Again, we're not trying to increase density here.
It's a single family use.
It's currently a two-story structure.
we're looking to add a third story on there a little bit in the back as well we have three
refusals first is maximum occupied area again because it's such a small lot of 700 square feet
to have a functional floor plan we just need slightly a little more occupied area to make the
the staircases work um up through throughout the property height of the property we're in the
overlay and so it's crunchy us down a little bit not out of character to have height on that block
of what we're asking for of 38 feet um and actually our height is is 33 feet six inches so
we're not even 38 feet uh and then the roof decks again not out of character to have roof decks on
this block again the spirit of this overlay is where you have a block that does not have roof
decks you shouldn't introduce those roof decks to the block here there are multiple structures
on this property on this block that have roof decks uh again unanimous support from the zoning
committee 1401 by the community in support of these variance requests petition as well of some
neighboring property owners my client has lived in on in this neighborhood for her whole life
1400 block of Newkirk shows, again, roof decks, I believe, that's right, roof decks for a number of properties on this block, 1439, 57, 1420, 1463, and the list goes on and on.
aerial view again where we are in the neighborhood if you look down further down the block and up
here the occupied area exceeds the uh what's allowed on the philadelphia zoning code and
falls in line with what we're requesting
maps of the area again we're not changing the zoning this is zoning map like we're seeking
single family use google map kind of so you know where we are in the brewery town section of
Philadelphia. Photographs of the property. This has been a vacant property for some time that
needs some desperate TLC. This is our proof of posting for today's hearing. New Kirk Street to
the right of the property. As you can see, some of these building structures are well above what
we're asking for. Also, you can kind of sense that they have roof decks. This is New Kirk to
left of the property. This is our site plan showing our roof deck. This is showing our
reuse of the property by adding that third story. Again, simple floor plan, open floor plan in the
front, living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, a bath, a linen closet on the second
floor, and a primary suite on the third floor with a roof deck. RCO meeting notice, well-attended
meeting february 20th proof of mailing of that notice is here as well our application for appeal
that we followed on amina's behalf along with the deed to property showing that she owns the property
and then finally our certificate of tax clearance showing that while she owes taxes for 2025 those
or not do yet. I would ask that Amina
virtually raise her hand and be sworn in.
Amina? I'm sorry.
Hi, could you state your names and
spell it for the court stenographer? Amina,
A-M-I-N-A, last name Oliver, O-L-I-V-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
yes please please proceed counsel uh yes um amina you heard everything i had to state today
about your zoning matter is it true and correct yes and do you adopt as your own testimony
yes thank you thank you questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission
thank you chairman and good evening david fechto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2014 and accord
recommendations in the comprehensive plan there is no unique physical condition or circumstance
of this property that would prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code
the city planning commission recommends the board deny the reposed use and dimensional variances
thank you MI 2024 006 299 1453 North New Kirk Street I vote yes
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tana DeGraham, my vote is yes.
Hi, Owen, my vote is yes.
Mr. Nockamson, MI 2024-006-883-219-25, Cecil B. Moore Avenue.
State your name for the record.
Alan Nockamson.
There's a letter of unanimous support from South Kensington.
Also, the applicant provided a letter of support from the next-door neighbor
and a letter of opposition from Frida Anderson.
You waive the reading of the refusal
and you agree with its accuracy.
Yes, but we do have a revised plan
and a proviso form filled out, but yes.
And could you identify your client,
the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Millennium Philadelphia Development LLC.
and to the left of me is Umar Sethi, one of his representatives.
Why don't you start your presentation?
All right.
All right, so here we have 219-25 Cecil B. Moore Avenue.
I think it's more appropriate to recognize this as a North American street address
because of where it is.
it's the corner of Cecil B. Moore and North American. It's probably the largest growing
part of Philadelphia from a residential apartment building perspective. To the left of us is the
locks, which this board granted by way of variance, which created 179 units with a height of the
building of 77 feet high. So, you know, what we're trying to do is mimic like what you would see on
North American street and NOM architecture who's handling this matter as the architecture firm
did a great job of trying to mimic that use on North American street. Also, the zoning is
partly the industrial in use. So their use of materials was very interesting and in conformance
to what you would expect on North American
Street now. We have the notice of
refusal, the proviso form and revised
plans. This is in the affordable
housing overlay where
when you have more than 10 residential
units, 20% of those units
have to be at 40% AMI.
part of our proviso plan,
we indicate
changes in the height of the building, but also
the amount of units that we're
reducing to. And then we
would also need a proviso separate from the revised plans about the planning commission
commission acknowledging a new form for the overlay because we have to resubmit a form
and we've done that before our office has done that before but the zoning board needs
to have that proviso in there directing the planning commission to do that. Correspondents
from South Kensington Community Partners. Again, overwhelming support here, letter of support from
the nearby neighbor. Don't have the other letter that the chairman indicated, so I don't have the
benefit of looking at that letter. Posting photos, presentation package that we got from Nome,
or RCO meeting notice. So South Kensington Community Partners, they have a pre-community
meeting, and when the project is big enough, they have two community meetings, not one, but two.
And again, just, you know, they, they're a board of architects and other real estate professionals. So they really hold their developer developers accountable. And we made some major changes in terms of the height and the unit count that fell better in line with what you would see on North American street.
telling the letter of uh opposition has to do with removal of trees okay um i guess we're
removing some trees is that okay um all right our application for appeal or deed to the property
Is that okay? All right. Our application for appeal or deed to the property and our certificate
of tax clearance. Again, all I can say about removal of trees is it's a prominent corner.
You know, we'll work with the Fairmont, you know, park to like put like trees around that as well.
So I don't think that's an enforceable proviso, but you know, I would definitely recommend that
to my client. Notice the refusal. It looks worse than it is because we have mixed zoning. We have
ICMX and RSA 5 zoning. Interesting. So multifamily use is not, so we're looking to do now 15 units
with a commercial space. And we updated the refusal to make it so that the commercial space
could be used for CMX 2.5 zoning. What they envision to have is really either some type of
restaurant establishment or maybe coffee shop there, which will be allowed as a right for CMX
two and a half zoning. But anyway, that's what we're seeking. So multifamily is not allowed in
RSA 5. Multifamily is not allowed in ICMX. The building height of their 85 and a half feet is
not allowed. We took a floor off. Now we're reducing the 73 feet, which is four feet less
than the Lux, or maybe even six feet less than the Lux, which is next door to us. Building height
for ICMX is not allowed based on that. But again, we're mimicking what's still left of us.
Um, you know, we have no side yard, um, which we do because if you read orient the property,
instead of thinking of it as a Cecil B. Moore address, you think of it as a North American
street address.
We have a 10 foot side yard to the left of us where people have access to where the garbage
is actually stored in the back too.
We have no parking, you know, as part of our project, there's no way we'd be able to fit
parking.
It doesn't make sense.
Plus it's a corner property as well.
And so those are two of our other refusals. Again, we, you know, worked with the community, have, you know, our revised plans here where we reduced the building height to 74 feet, 74 and a half feet. We reduced the amount of stories from seven to six.
We reduced the unit count from 18 to 15, which, again, we'll have to do a revised acknowledgement form with the Planning Commission as it pertains to the affordable housing overlay.
And we slightly reduced the affordable unit count from four to three based on the 20% requirement.
So it always rounds up.
So we're down to three affordable units as well.
These are the revised plans.
Again, this is the side yard.
with the entrance as well and then this deals with the heights the reduced height
and then again we met with community unanimous support they appreciated we make the we made
those changes letter of support from someone on cecil b more who would be directly impacted
i would also say the person to the right of us on cecil b more there's also a garage there so
they're not there's no living there so we're not affecting their livability of their space with
our building uh posting photos presentation packet kind of goes with what we have but you know zoning
map regular map and then an aerial view of of where we are in the neighborhood
you can see there's some massive structures nearby here and what we're trying to do is
mimic it because we believe we're more so a north american street property
and you can see that here as well and then this is what we're to the right of us is cecil b more
and this is the only thing left on cecil b more on our block there's vacant lot here
there's a two-story structure as well as a garage and then you can see this is the lock 1705 north
american street the americana which is 1740 north american street and so on and so on are some
significant building structures. And then again, no living in the basement. And we have like a gym
for the building. We have a bike room, the commercial storage, some utility bolts.
We have the commercial on the ground floor, which is facing North American Street. We have the
lobby, multiple forms of egress, but we have a lobby here with elevator service. It's trash
So trash is going to be stored inside.
Again, everyone has access over here.
There's also commercial dumpsters in the rear as well.
And then, you know, every floor is the same.
Every floor has a one bedroom.
Every floor has a two bedroom and every floor has a studio.
This is the same thing over and over again.
Here's the studio.
Here's the one bedroom and here's the two bedroom.
And so that goes along five floors.
and then there's our roof deck which is a communal roof deck so everyone has access to it
roof deck so everyone has access to it. And then again, this is our rendering of what we
and then again this is you know
envision the property is going to look like. Everyone has a little outdoor space with these
balconies. And then again, metal cladding, brick in some spots, more with the black,
it makes it look more industrial. But this is an ICMX property. North American Street used to be
very industrial in nature. So it has a cool hip look. But the color palette is to mimic also
So the traditional red brick that you would see in buildings here and just generally in Philadelphia, but having the metal for the industrial look.
A lot of like light too for the commercial, prominent commercial space that we hope to go there.
Either a restaurant establishment of some sort or maybe a coffee shop for the residents and the neighbors as well.
RCO meeting notice.
This was the last notice.
Again, we had two community meetings and one pre-community meeting, proof of mailing of that notice, our application for appeal that we filed on behalf of Millennium Philadelphia Development LLC, our deed to the property showing that they own the property, and our certificate of tax clearance, where we're actually in the positive for this property.
With that being said, I would ask that Umer be sworn in.
sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes my name is
amarseti a-m-a-r last name s-e-t-h-i do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel uh uh yes um you heard everything i had to state
today correct and it's true correct yes if you adopt it as your testimony yes thank you i have
one more thing that actually during it for the commercial element just to put it out there it's
actually my own personal restaurant that'll be taking place over there that was a um topic that
came up with the rco they were worried that would be a blank empty commercial space that's not going
to be the case my own personal restaurant will actually be there as well questions from the board
i guess i'm trying to figure out okay so um this is split zone so which one is
i'm not sure that the refusal was written correctly i think they're supposed to pick
one and evaluate it based on one or whichever is stricter and so the examiner went with both
in this case so i did not think that was correct i don't think there are as many refusals on there
as they're they're truly are well i think that this so for instance the height refusal either
way i mean i think you would go basically rsa 5 for 38 feet right rather than 60 feet either way
we're being refused right um okay you know so they they they didn't do it like it doesn't look
like they selected one district that they they use it or just they're supposed to select one
district or select like the the most restrictive one provisions yeah or the most restrictive
provisions of the zoning districts something like something like that but well even the use
of multi-family use either zoning district is not allowed right yeah but it makes it confusing when
it comes to the height and it makes it i don't see yeah the parking yeah it makes it a little
hard because if it was evaluated under rc5 there would be no parking requirement right right yes
yeah so it makes it so it's a little hard to say what you need the variances for because of the
way that this was i mean i can i can ask ellen i to correct it or provide further explanation if
that would be helpful i mean i need to because we got the revised plans today i need a little
bit more time to to just look at them and figure out how many pages to stamp if the board approves
it so um i mean if we just wait a week i could get clarification on that fine i thought we are
office submitted with the original materials i thought we just got them today maybe i'm
but so what we'll do is we're going to hold this
okay all right thank you yeah and i'll check are we asking questions are we
holding it okay all right so i'm just holding just
holding the vote i'll get clarification just one more go ahead okay so what about
the commercial use i don't see where
it's on the it's on the you know what mate did i
let me let me see this hold on a second
there's right let me take a no you know it's it says it's yes but but there is a i think the
updated refusal says that it's for two cmx updated refusal says for cmx yeah this is in cmx 2.5 but
cmx yeah this is in cmx 2.5 but yeah those are yeah okay i did actually have a question about
yeah those are yeah okay
that because if if you know what the use is already going to be do you want a proviso
specifying that it's going to be i don't know if it's sit down take out prepared food shop
like what this is the first time i've heard that we had a slotted use that's why we
now yeah we got to come back yeah so um i think for cmx two and a half
we would not wouldn't that be i have to i don't remember off top of my head except varies which
one special exception which is by right okay i mean that's the first that we all by right
that's the first we i heard about any definitive use that's why we wanted you know open to to deal
with that so um i can only tell you that if you give me a second i can take a look to see what it
was allowed well if we're gonna hold this if you just want to talk to your client and and let us
know what the use is in and then we can we can just add it in and you know either it can be that
if it needs relief we already have the cmx2 zoning in there as a request for relief um or if it's
buy right then it just gets added in and it's already done so what are the elements that are
missing it's the fact is we had this an open zoning use just as commercial cmx two and a half
not your i did not know you were having a restaurant in there this is the first i heard
about that so if you're if you're actually going to put the restaurant in there you make that
commitment that will get approved if necessary or at least documented so we don't potentially
have to do any more filings so maybe that's something that we talk about you know tomorrow
yes because i have a couple more well one more you do i guess okay so i have a few just for
clarification because there's been a lot of amendments they're now 15 units not 18 and it's
six stories not seven and it's 74 feet not okay because it's different things different all right
and there are there still any affordable units in the building right we're required 20 because you
did do the bonus yeah we did we have no not the bonus this is the min this is the overlay so we
have no choice which even goes more so towards you know the relief we're seeking on for the
variance okay yeah we're the men that's why i i indicated that we have to do a provide so i guess
my question then is for the affordable units are they equally distributed across the unit types
that's not on us that's planning planning i guess i'll ask the question well it doesn't weigh into
my decision but i can't still ask i can't speak for planning but i know how planning would react
to the situation they have to be of equal quality location and they do use but i want to know what
the developer's plan is so i can't speak to that i just can say this point so i would think if you
want to be fair you're going to get one of each one of each okay i would but i i know i'm not
planning but i know what planning is going to do i mean i know what i would have liked to hear so
okay any other questions actually before we we just hold it maybe the next application come in
just to chat real quick outside or no no no can't do that we're gonna we're gonna and then my second
my last question is in the basement it says pico and it says electrical in two separate utility
closets do we know which is going in which i do uh we have matt from gnome architecture
Sure. He can answer the question.
If Matt's still here,
I can.
And then is the trash
room that has access to both the street
and the lobby going to be vented?
Because that's not notated on that plan.
I would
I am here.
Are we going to
question Matt now?
No, I think there's two questions.
Please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Yes, Matthew Frambluti, M-A-T-T-H-E-W, last name F-R-O-M-B-O-L-U-T-I.
All right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, tell the truth, nothing but the truth?
Go ahead, Alan.
There were two questions.
First, about the vaults, like what's going to be in each of those rooms?
Well, just because electric and Pico are listed separately, and Pico is the electric utility.
Yeah, the Pico vault is probably where the transformer would go, and the electric room is
often there's a separate electric room outside of the vault that we would need, so that's what
um that we would need so that's what the electric room is for okay and then for the trash room is
the electric room is for. Okay, and then for the...
this trash room is it plans to be vented because there's doors to both lobbies or will the egress
that well the lobby and the street um yeah the tractor would be vented um you know as is required
for code okay and are there lights on the corner for the side of the building on this on the side
Yes, there would be lights probably on the underside of the overhang and also some lights at the entrance to the lobby and as needed for the tenant space as well.
There would be lights.
And while I understand the trash room was going to be vented per code, code does not necessarily address the actual transference of smell, which is what most neighbors and community members actually complain about.
So I was actually asking more so understanding what the code requirements are, which is not that stringent. Is there plans to deal with, because there's so many units in this building, how to handle smell?
um yeah i mean we we i'm sorry no go man i'm sorry i was just going to say that because the
amount of units obviously we'll have to have commercial trash pickup as well yeah so you're
going to have it's going to be multiple times a day yeah i mean a week excuse me a week yeah
okay all right hillary do we want to do this as a uh resumptive
um did david you didn't give your no i'm i'm okay do you want to get the amount of refusal so
so then then we'll um i think planning planning wants to defer on its testimony so then we'll
need to do a resumption we got it we still have a date of 520 it's into may or we have two two
spots on the eighth right we use one well do we need i i thought it was more for you to look at
the revised plans yes i mean i mean i don't know if planning got to see the revised plans that's
that's the problem is we didn't and my and my legal assistant confirmed we got them today so i
don't so planning probably didn't see them either so their recommendation is going to be based on
the prior plans gotcha so um but maybe we'll we'll put it in for for may for now then you
can contact the office and we see you call the office and see if we have you know other dates
it sounds like april 8th is available right we will use this two slots that we had in april 8th
already today but just call the office because things do change so call the office and is david
going to take a position that iris was going to wait no okay planning is deferring all right so
you'll hear from this alan okay all right alan i want you to you have one last one give me a
little bit of a break why don't you take a break leave all your stuff there yeah and let me handle
a couple of ones i still have three more before i get to 330 well the problem is i actually i'm
looking at my watch i have a 6 30 community meeting and i have to get back okay come on
let me do it i'll do it quick oh well yeah you said that before i'm gonna be
i mean thank you for your time yeah thank you sir if you move no one more right if you
the exhibits if you move the exhibits while you're yes going through the explanation of
All right. So, MI 2024-007-294-4498 Livingston Street.
Mr. State your name for the record.
Alan Nockamson.
Could you identify your client and their relationship to the property?
Yes. It's Robert Huttonlock, who's the owner of the property.
Do you waive the reading and the refusal? Do you agree with the exact accuracy?
why don't you uh share your screen and start sir there's a letter of support from bridesburg
community the vote was 16 in favor for an opposition all right um
i'm gonna get all right here's my screen all right all right straight all right we have like
We have two properties that have basically three building structures on it, and we're just trying to essentially legalize it in some way.
We have an original refusal, an amended refusal, because we noticed that there was a mistake on the original refusal that omitted the duplex use in the corner property.
That's $44.98 and a half Livingston.
So what we're trying to do here is make from two parcels to three parcels.
so what we're trying to do here is make two from two parcels to three parcels there is two parcels
that are two story structures uh and there is a warehouse where we're doing an adaptive reuse
with shaving a portion of the top of that structure and making that into a single family use so we have
three refusals there's lot c d and e lot d is a single family structure which we're just trying
to change the none of the buildings were changing we're just changing the lot recon reconfiguring
the size of the lots so again because of making it into three uh parcels rather than two we have
a refusal for 860 886.5 square feet lot d is i'm sorry lot c is the actual i'm sorry duplex lots
D is the actual single-family structure, which is 1,197.7 square feet.
And lot E is the warehouse, which we're making into single-family use, which is now 974.1 square feet.
We're also, again, not changing the building footprints, but because we're making that from three lots to two lots,
we have some issues with the existing structures in terms of lot depth.
Where lot C, again, is the duplex, will have no lot rear yards, as well as lot E.
And then finally, we're in RSA 5 zoning.
So the duplex that's currently there, that's been there forever, since my clients own that property, which we're legalizing, there's a variance because there's RSA 5 zoning.
so we met with the community the board voted unanimously in support the community voted you
know 14 to 4 in support of this proposed uh change in use and again this is just to give you an idea
here's the the two two story structures this is the duplex which is on the corner of the fever
and livingston this is the single family use right here to left of it these this is one livingston
street address this is one living state another living state livingston street address behind it
somehow a warehouse was built that spans both of those properties in the rear so all we're trying
to do is cut this where now the warehouse is its own uh parcel which will now be a single family
parcel the duplex will stay as a duplex and the single family will stay as a single family
the only thing that's getting renovations is the warehouse to make into a single family structure
and it kind of shows like you know again what we're dealing with here is kind of strange and
interesting at the same time so this is one building structure this is another building
structure and then this is the warehouse that connects us to that duplex in the rear
maps of the area this is rsa5 zoning photographs of the property this is from livingston streets
these are the two structures this is the multi-family structure and you'll see there
are multiple entrances this is the single family structure this is the actual warehouse which we're
looking to shave basically a floor off and then and then add to it and make that a single family
structure and again this is the existing conditions as far back as google earth goes in 2008 about this
and then you can see here this is something historical like in 1930 you can see this
warehouse existed and then there was no rear yard setback for 44 98 and a half livingston
so this has been existing for as far as back as you can see this is livingston uh street from the
rear of the property from Belgrade Street. These are all the hearing notice posters. This is
Livingston to the right of the property and left of the property, Lefevre to the right and left,
Belgrade to the right and left, the exterior conditions. This is of the warehouse, which
we're going to shave off a floor and then add a floor to the building structure and make that
single family use. We do not have any interior photos of the other structures because they're
being lived in. They've been lived in forever. The tenants didn't want us to invade their
privacy. Our plans and drawings. So this is the old warehouse that you saw. And now we're
making that into a single family house. This is the single family and the duplex as well.
and again what you're seeing here is c which is multifamily two-story structure d which is
single family and this is going to be the adaptive reuse of the warehouse to single family
and then that's the elevation for that single family use and then that's you know again you
use. And then that's, you know, again, you know, living room, dining room, kitchen, then
know living room dining room
upstairs, second floor, you have a primary suite. And then above that, you have two bedrooms
in a flex area with a roof deck. And then this is just the single family use here. Again,
you know, open floor plan, you have two bedrooms, and then one bathroom. And then this is the
duplex. As you can see from the pictures, which I quickly went through, there's two separate
entrances. There's one here, and then there's one here for another unit. So if you go to the unit
here where it's on Livingston, you have a limery room, kitchen, dining, and then bathroom, and then
the bedroom. Both the Livingston properties that are currently being occupied as residential units,
the basements are unfinished where the mechanicals are. Instead of going to unit number one, you go
You go to unit number two, where there's a separate door.
You have the living room, and then you go up a flight of steps, and it's two bedrooms, and then an open floor plan for the living area.
And then this is just a survey showing how we're re-dividing the properties.
RCO meeting notice, we met February 5th.
Proof of mailing in that notice, our application for appeal.
deed to the property showing that
Robert owns the property and has been
owning it since 2004
and finally
Certificate of Tax Clearance
no taxes are currently owed
at least until March 31st
with that being said I would ask
that Robert be sworn in
Robert could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer
Robert Huttenlock
H-U-T-T-E-N-L-O-C-K
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth
please proceed counsel uh yes robert you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning
matter is it true and correct do you adopt this your own testimony thank you questions from the
board yep could you just explain where the trash is going to go for each unit we're going to build
a enclosure on the side on the belgrade street side of the property can you show me that oh sure
all right so this is not an obviously greatest conditions here but you would be doing it
along the side here on Belgrade.
So again, he doesn't plan,
he rents these units out.
So he's planning to keep all those units.
And then, you know, again, there's more than enough space
like, you know, for, you know,
each of the units themselves as well.
Other questions?
Okay, so just for clarity,
lot c is getting a new structure let me just confirm with duplex no the duplex is an existing
duplex it's an existing duplex yeah with with with multiple like um yeah let me see what if i
can you go back to the lot subdivision plan that might help yeah because that was the one that
you went through really quickly
so this is this is lot c which is a corner property from the pictures you would see a door
facing livingston for one of the units that's and then for the upper unit you would have a door
there's a door existing right here lot d is here what's real what happened pre
this what's the current condition is basically just think about the line going straight down
to the back where you know you have 4498 livingston is premises d 4498 living 98 and a half livingston
is c somehow a built a warehouse was put in the back that spans both properties so what we're
trying to do is basically cut it into three yeah kind of two three okay okay other questions
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, I have a hand up from a number ending in 4500.
I have allowed them to speak.
Why, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yeah, Greg Palmier, G-R-E-G-T-A-U-L-M-I-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I affirm.
Greg, are you a neighbor?
I'm here for the Midvale Avenue zoning issue.
Greg, we're not there yet.
We're sold this one case.
You'll hear it when I get to that case, okay?
But thank you, and we'll get to you shortly.
Any other questions or comments?
I do not see any further answers, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good evening.
David Fechtow with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 5,
residential single-family zoning at this location.
The city last rezoned Bridesburg in 1970.
The appellant received a letter of MAP amendment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
removing the property from the special flood hazard area.
The appellant requests dimensional variances for three proposed lots.
The appellant proposes a lot adjustment that would result in three non-conforming lots.
The proposed lot adjustment would not have a negative impact on surrounding properties,
and the duplex is legally non-conforming.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant a proposed use and dimensional variances.
MI 2024-007-294-4498 Livingston Street. I vote yes. Proviso. Permended refusal dated 2-25-25.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tannetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ty Owen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nockamson.
Thank you.
Sorry you were here, sir.
number 12 mi 2024 007 038 1000 to 32 chestnut street rachel pritzker is the attorney
there's unanimous non-opposition from washington square
letter of non-opposition from command council member squilla
good afternoon good evening yeah good evening you're right all right could you please state
your name and spell it for the court stenographer sure it's rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r
you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes you agree to the
a reading of the refusal, and do you agree with its accuracy? Yes. Okay. Why don't you share your
screen and proceed? Could you identify your client also? Yeah. My client is John Betts.
His entity is the licensee for Starbucks, which is the tenant of this property, which is owned
by Jefferson. And this is the case you had a couple of months ago. Am I right? No, this is
the signage. No, no, no. I said, but then you do the Starbucks inside. I did. And this is for the
sign. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, exactly right. And I'm going to keep this very, very brief.
Okay. Can you see my screen? Okay. Awesome. So this is a CMX five property, a thousand to 32
Chestnut Street. As mentioned, this is just for one sign on the property. It's a blade sign or
projecting sign on the 11th Street side of the property. Because of the location in the center
city commercial area, as you can see on the refusal, this sign is prohibited except on
properties facing Market Street between Front and Fifth Street. This has been already approved by
the historic sorry not historic art commission pending zoning board of adjustment approval so
we do have our commission approval for this as well as the other by right signs
this basically and as you can see just on the refusal this board has approved other signs that
have been you know needing a variance as well so it's not out of character and there's plenty of
other signs on this block like at the taco bell across the street that have a projecting or a
blade sign. I'm going to skip down to page 98. Most of this packet includes the lease, which
takes up the majority of the documents. But just to give you a feel, this is CMX 5. This is a
Jefferson building, takes up the entire city block. And where the Starbucks is located
is basically on the corner of Chestnut Street. Here's a sort of front view of the building
with the zoning posters it's the gibbon building
and the need for the blade sign is really because given the size
And the need for the blade sign is really because given the size and scale of this, the other signage kind of all over the building and the one to help pedestrian traffic to locate the Starbucks, given the long apron on the 11th Street side, a small blade sign with the Starbucks logo emblem just helps identify the location of it and is also in character for every Starbucks you see around the country.
So we were amenable with the Art Commission to not put one on Chestnut Street, but they were supportive of one on 11th Street.
And here's just the part in the code that says you can't have these signs without a variance where we located them.
We met with the Washington Square Civic Association back in January 28th, and they issued us a letter of non-opposition.
There were 12 votes not opposed to the sign.
They also supported our application when we went for the variants for the Starbucks.
This is also Councilman Mark Squilla's letter of non-opposition as well.
I have our sign designer, Max Major, on if we can have him go through the signs, or I
can show these and bring them on if the board has questions, whatever you prefer.
Why don't you show us, and then if we have questions, we'll bring them on.
So this is just, again, the sign.
This is on the 11th Street side.
It's the C where you see just the Starbucks emblem.
If you've been to any Starbuckses in the country, they have just this small blade sign.
Again, on the 11th Street side, it's just where the apron is for the back side of the building.
So it just makes it more easily identifiable.
The other Starbucks signs are by right, and they've already been approved.
So literally just that sign.
It's just showing the location of it.
Just again, it's a very large building.
So on 11th Street is where we wanted to just have some additional signage to make it easy for pedestrians, people in the building, anybody passing by, employees to be able to see.
And here's just the, if you can see on the right here is just where the sign is going to be in comparison to the 11th Street sign in Chestnut Street.
And this is just a closer up version of what that sign looks like and the dimensions of it.
this is the interior so we're getting started on on that um other than that i have nothing else to
add um and we didn't have any opposition for this project i'm happy to bring john
bets on who's um the tenant for this when i bring him on and he'll got my testimony
is there a john betts in the audience there we go they're coming back in as a panelist now okay thank
you mr best could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes sir uh john
Betz, J-O-H-N, B-E-T-Z.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
John, have you heard my testimony today? Do you believe it to be true and accurate, and do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, Rachel.
That's all, Chairman.
Questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i do not see any further answer mr chair planning commission thank you chairman and good evening
david effector with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the cmx5 commercial mixed use zoning at this location the proposed
projecting sign is in keeping with the character of the other buildings on this block face the city
planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed used variants for a projecting
the sign. Thank you.
MI 2024-007-038-1032
Chestnut Street, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Thank you. Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much, everybody. Have a great night.
Thank you, sir. Thank you. Number seven,
MI 2024-005-790-3625
North 16th Street.
Olak Sokoloff is the attorney.
unanimous opposition seven votes over two meetings from the 13th ward RCO
RCO would be okay with two units
we're coming back in as a panelist now Mr. Chair okay thank you good evening chair members of the
board Mr. Sokoloff we got to you so late could you just state your name and spell for the court
sonographer. Sure. Oleg, O-L-E-G, Sokolov, S-O-K-O-L-O-V.
Sure. Oleg, O-L-E-G, Sokolov, S-O-K-O-L-O-V.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you agree to the waiving of the refusal, reading of the refusal, and also do you agree with its accuracy?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Dion Hart. I know he got kicked off of the call, Mr. Hand.
i don't know if you're seeing anyone come back on but i i would like he was trying to re-register
and then it was only letting him re-register for the 12th for some reason so i asked him to call
in i'm not 100 certain if he'll be able to make it why don't you start sir yeah um this is going
to be really long i'm just kidding i just at six o'clock i want it to be probably not a funny joke
i apologize funny okay if i may address a lot of people in the audience don't see it as funny
either. I apologize. I tried to bring a little levity. It was misguided. All right, Mr. Bergman,
I'll go through my whole exhibit packet, and I will be as fast as possible. You hear me speaking
quickly. I want to address the letter of opposition over two meetings. Firstly, let me start here.
We scheduled a meeting that was held in November. Mr. Karn, who runs the 13th Democratic
Democratic Ward asked us to reschedule that meeting because there weren't enough participants.
We said, of course, no problem.
We managed to reschedule the meeting for February, and what I want to do is just show the board
if you can see that these are our certificates of mailing, and if you can see there's an
October date.
So let me just flip that for the board here.
So we sent out 139 notices for October.
We showed up, we were asked to continue because there weren't enough participants. We continued the meeting until February, where we once again were asked to continue because there were not enough participants.
And my communication during the meeting with Mr. Karn was that, you know, we obviously kind of object to another continuance.
We saw this as an issue in November, and we asked what would happen when we come back, and we still don't have enough participants.
Mr. Karn was going to reach out to Mr. Richardson from the councilperson's office to just get some advice as to how to proceed.
he was supposed to cc me on an email that never happened so i i do i eventually wrote an email
to mr karn saying after attempting for the second time to hold the rco and your insistence that we
need to continue the meeting um not enough participants you indicated that you would
reach out to mr richardson i didn't see any emails you know please send either the email
to mr richardson to myself or you know uh this will this will serve as that email as i'm copying
Mr. Richardson, and everyone from the ZBA, including Ms. Emerson, was copied here.
You know, just to give a little background, my client purchased this property in July of 2024.
We filed this appeal in August of 2024 because Mr. Hart, who resides at the property, is not a
real estate professional, bought this property to live in it, and only after attempting to get
rental licenses for the property understood that it was nonconforming. So Mr. Hart himself,
is living in a nonconforming property. And this was obviously of grave concern. So, you know,
we wanted to get before the board to not continue it again, as this has been going on since
August. There were only two people at the February meeting. And then we received this
letter of opposition after an email from Mr. Karn, you know, basically discussing that we
didn't hold the hearing and some other issues. And then apparently our packet was presented to
seven members of the RCO offline and they voted offline. I represent to the board that I did not
present a single package other than what the submission that we made prior to the RCO.
No presentations were given to the board. And our original intent was to have, you know,
appear before the ZBA today, and we assume that you would perhaps hold the vote until we were
able to meet with the RCO at subsequent times. So that's kind of the background of the RCO
situation. So just to cap that all off, we certainly did not present to seven people,
and whatever seven people voted on was offline without a presentation and just the packet
that we had sent them. The other thing I would like to point out, per the letter from the RCO,
so again, this is a legalization of use. Mr. Hart purchased this property
in this renovated three-unit condition. Mr. Hart lives in
in this renovated three-unit condition. Mr. Hart lives on the third floor of the property,
which is a three-bedroom, one-bath. The first floor is a three-bedroom, one-bath,
and the second floor is a two-bedroom, one-bath. Apparently, the RCO would support a two-unit,
so the multifam issue is not one. I'll also say that this property has been this way since 2020
in my research. And there were no problems with density. There are no complaints, no L&I
violations issued on the property from any neighbors complaining. So I'm a bit remiss by
the unanimous opposition after there was no RCO held. And I hope that makes sense. I tried to
speak very fast to get that before you guys. And at this point, I'll go through my packet. So
as I stated, you know, July 3rd, 2024 is when Mr. Hart purchased the property.
It was in completely renovated condition. I also just want to show the board, if I may,
the listing for the property, which you will see here again, sold in July of 2024.
And represented, this is from, I believe I pulled this from Redfin or Zillow, I can't recall, but
you'll see rehabbed ultramodern triplex that can be yours. So Mr. Hart is a postal worker. He is
by no means a real estate professional, you know, as the board knows and has seen these cases many
times. Unfortunately, consumers sometimes purchase things based on a Zillow listing and
don't have the knowledge base to do due diligence to understand that the property may not be
conforming. Okay, our tax clearance certificate, pictures of the property. You know, I'm sure the
board has questions about trash and where it's been stored. Everyone on this block basically
stores their cans out on their porches, as you can see here, and you can see from some other
Google images, and then brings them to the street and then sometimes brings them back. These are,
you know, offset properties from the street. So there's plenty of room in the property line on
the porch to store trash cans. And again, there's never been a complaint, any kind of trash violation
on this property whatsoever. You have pictures of the inside of the property. Just pictures of
street quickly and here we go to pictures of the property itself. So you can see the renovation was
done very well. Mr. Hart had no reason to suspect there were any issues related to zoning when he
purchased the property probably because of how well done and nice the renovations were.
What I do want to particularly direct the board's attention to is in just a brief search that we
conducted um we found one two three four five six seven eight so six properties that have been
granted multifam um variances just within a two block radius and then in some other searching
we found a few more on westmoreland including this one which is not too far this is 32 to
21 to 47 which is a 48 dwelling uh building but numerous five unit two unit three unit
variances have been granted in the neighborhood. Also, what I'd like to point out to the board is
this, and I'll go through it quickly, but this is the previous rental license, which has since
expired, but pulled in 2009. This property had a historical variance for a six unit. And in fact,
as recently as 2019, and I guess up to 2020, if they didn't renew this license, there was a
six-unit rental license available on this property.
Zoning map.
And then here I just briefly put in the zoning history. You can see I believe this is
I don't even want to try to figure out this date. I think this is from the 50s
that it was a six unit and the property itself has not changed, has not been rebuilt. It's the
same structure. Our application for appeal, project information form. This is our community
notice letter for the second meeting on February 20th and then our letters of support which
we've mapped out here so one two three four five six seven eight nine ten five
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, five.
Nineteen letters of support.
Certificates of mailing for the February meeting.
and our notice posters for today's hearing um that's it happy to answer any questions again
board my my apologies your client here stupid joke
mr sakaloff is your client you know i mr hart are you on the phone are you on the line here
and so i don't see anyone with that name in virtual audience okay so mr is there anyone
on a phone call no as an officer of the court we will take your testimony okay and and again
my apologies no no no sure is there um talk to tell us what's going on in a basement
um i don't believe i i don't believe there is a basement i know there's no
oh i apologize there is a basement backyard i i honestly do not know what is going on
in in the basement and they only i only know about the basement from from this listing here
other questions from the board when did you say your client um purchased this property
he purchased it in july of 2024 and it was in the condition that we saw it was absolutely in
in this condition i i obviously cannot tell because there were no building permits pulled
for this so that's obviously another concern we have to go through this process in order to be
able to rectify the building permit issue. But from looking at the historical Google images,
there's an image from 2019 that has no door in it and some vacant windows. So it looks like
sometime between 2019 and 2024 when my client purchased it was when the construction was done.
Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gaston. Is your client the first occupant in the building that we know of?
meaning was it rented prior to him exactly i i believe he purchased it and then rented the
properties okay and are there currently tenants in all three units there are 10 he is he is living
on the third floor and there are tenants in the lower two units questions or comments from our
attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
Yes, Chair, we have Charles Richardson, and I will be promoting him to panelists.
You know, Mr. Richardson, I was wondering if you were going to still be around.
Mr. Richardson?
Good evening, Mr. Chair.
I'll tell you, I was wondering if I was going to hear your voice.
yes at least two more times today state your name and spell for the stenographer
charles richardson r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n office of councilwoman cindy bass room 508 city hall
you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth
certainly do please proceed okay so what we're looking at here is this was a situation
It's going to start the video. Hold on.
Do I look good enough to put the video on?
You're fine.
They made a mailing to 130 some odd households living within that specific area on the planning commission list.
There were seven people that were at that last meeting.
The seven people were actually of the RCO committee.
There were no near neighbors that were available that came on to the meeting.
The 19 letters of support that they have only actually have seven because, of course, I love to have a petition circulated and everything.
things so we so we i can at least vet the vet them uh there are only seven people that that
actually live within that uh that prescribed area so if and it really was something that you know
that prescribed area. And it really was something that
it's kind of disingenuous because the people
that are mapped out are nowhere near the
property. And actually some of them are even farther than what he's even reporting.
With regard to the RCO,
the RCO, their main thing right now is
they've been inundated, overindulged with
three units and more within that area of the ward.
And they're trying their best to try to hold that in place
so that they're only like two.
And that's why they're approving the two.
The councilwoman is going to be supporting the RCO
with regard to the request for the two units.
If Mr. Sokolov would like to come back,
the RCO and the council office would definitely welcome that.
so that there can be further discussion with regard to what the what what this actually will
look like at the end of the day so uh if it's going to go forward with three then we're going
to oppose we're going to stand with the rco if it can be done with two uh as a proviso then that
would be fine too also with no basement living as well so that's where we stand with that all right
Thank you very much.
If I may, if I may, share.
Go ahead, Oleg.
Mr. Richardson, I'm sorry.
You were not at the meeting, correct?
No, but I got the reports.
I got the reports.
And when you say there were seven people at the meeting, you mean that there were seven people logged into the Zoom along with me?
Because that's that.
I apologize.
I don't mean to disagree with you, but.
The RCO.
You're not listening.
The RCO committee.
Meaning they met afterwards.
And that's what they do.
Okay, but there were not seven people at the meeting.
None of the RCO members of the committee were at that meeting, correct?
They were on after you got off.
And is it correct that I stated that we were asked to continue that February meeting as well?
Yes, you were asked to continue the February meeting.
I don't see anything wrong with that either.
And no presentation was given, correct?
Not that I know.
You know, as far as I know, what you what you gave them, sir.
No, I just want to be clear.
Olag, Olag, listen, I mean, you started this presentation off by saying you wanted to go back to the RCO.
Of course, you said you never had a chance to make a presentation.
Well, but they have made a determination on our.
I know what I'm saying is Mr. Richardson just said the same thing.
Why don't you go back?
So I'm going to hold this vote on this. I'm going to check with our attorney here. I'm going to hold the vote. I'm going to close it, close everything down other than the information that we get from the RCO.
OK, I would also you'll have a chance to respond to that.
OK, I would like to add that the as the board can see from the grouping, I'm not perhaps there are some people outside of the 250 foot radius on the letters of support, but certainly affected neighbors.
I mean, I see. I see that.
You know, these are the addresses. We did not map out fake addresses or anything to that extent. And I was not even informed that a committee meeting was held out.
Listen to me. Listen to me a minute. You started the meeting off by saying you wanted to go back to the RCO. That's your exact words. You said, I wanted to go back because I didn't get a chance to make a presentation. I want to go back.
I believe we will certainly go back to the RCO, of course.
All right. That's what we're going to do. Why don't we hold this for a month, Hillary?
Does the chair wish to have a resumption hearing or just hold the vote?
No, I want to hold the vote.
Then we need to have planning to give their recommendation.
Go ahead.
Thank you, chairman and board members.
and good evening david fecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa3 residential single family zoning at this
location this property has a documented history as multi-family household living the city planning
commission recommends the board grant the requested use variance for three dwelling units okay thank
you so we're gonna i'm sorry we're just since we're closed i i would like to for the record to just
state my client's hardship in this matter if if the board does not approve this my client has
to do an entire gut renovation of a
newly purchased property
that he is neither in a
position to do nor can afford to
do so. I would just like that to be
on the record, please.
I'm thinking of the month, Hillary, to bring this back
for a vote.
Let's bring it back for a vote on April
9th, Wednesday, April
on wednesday april 9th okay and the record is closed except for a letter from an updated letter
9th, and the record is
closed except for
I don't know.
from the rco and any response from the applicant and the council office right and i'll look you'll
have a chance to respond to that okay okay i i will just miss emerson i apologize uh we have had
issues scheduling these that's why rco so if we need a continuance of the of the the vote can we
reach out to request that still or is it a set date sure yes you can all right thank you good
evening all right thank you yes now what time two okay that's right we got them all here we're doing
good now mi2024007229 761 south a street david orphanetes is the attorney
Unanimous non-opposition from Bella Vista and a letter of non-opposition from council
member Squilla. The applicant also provided petition of support with 14 signatures.
Mr. Orphanides. And he's coming in now as a panelist chair.
Mr. Orphanides, you've already been sworn in.
Could you just state your name for the record?
It's not late.
My name is David Orphanides.
His last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Do you waive the reading of the refusal, and do you agree with their accuracy?
Waive the reading.
I do not agree with its accuracy.
Okay, thank you.
and could you identify your client
in relationship to the property?
Certainly.
My client is the owner of the property,
Mr. Johns Music, LLC.
Why don't you share your screen
and make your presentation?
Certainly.
Can I all see?
We can.
Great.
So again, my name is David Orfanides.
I'm representing Mr. Johns Music, LLC,
the owner of this property.
um you may recall i was you probably won't because there's been so many you had so many
cases today let alone how many cases have been since 2023 um but i was before you previously
for this for this address and on behalf of my client um they're a music school uh their original
door front was it's in an italian market and back in 23 after they had purchased this property
They had secured a by-right zoning permit to use the ground floor for the music school.
But because the property was on CMX1, they needed a variance to use the second floor for the music school.
The third floor was then and still is my client, the owner of Mr. John's music school, Mr. John.
It's his dwelling unit.
So we were secured a variance back at that time and they proceeded with the construction of the building. You can see the bottom picture. That's how it looked back in 23. You can see at the upper picture how it looks now. They've done a tremendous job of renovating the building, both inside and out. You can see here.
um here's what the inside looks like now i mean i could show you what it looked like before when
they were doing the work you can see here but uh my client has amazing taste and he has amazing
music school uh when we went in 23 i mean it was the room the palumbo rec center was packed with
people in support almost every everybody or anybody who has a kid in center city that plays
music has at one time or another uh been involved in being taught by mr john and his wonderful staff
and here's what they did they did a really incredible job this is the second floor so
originally it was the first floor um this is uh and i'll show you in a second there at the back
of the second floor when i say the back heading towards the east because we front on the east side
of uh southeast street along the north side of fulton street uh there's a for the staff there's
a kitchen. And then off of that, there's a deck that was approved previously. It's a roof deck
above a one-story portion that's still being built. And you can see the rest of the second
floor here. And then there's a door that goes up to my client's unit, his dwelling unit up on the
third floor. You can see here, this is the third floor. Beyond that, this application involves a
deck that's beyond the third floor to the rear of the third floor and then a roof deck above the
above the third floor. You can see here on the plans that were submitted. So here's the deck
third floor you can see here on the plans that were submitted so here's
that I was kind of showing you from the inside. It's off the back of the third floor. It's above
the previously permitted roof deck, and then above the one-story portion, and then there's a third
floor roof deck above that's for the use of John, his personal use with the pilot house. Part of
this application also involves a really cool sign. Right now, there's no signage on the building.
There's some cool lights that they light up at different times of the year, different holiday
colors and whatnot along the Fulton Street side. And by the way, Fulton Street is, although it's
called Fulton Street and has a street sign, like we'll show you in a minute, is not actually a city
street. And that, as a result, initially, there was a refusal that was issued about requiring a
setback from Fulton Street for the roof deck for any of the decks. And that wasn't that wasn't
necessary because Fulton Street's not an actual street. And but it does result in one of the
concerns I have or issues I have with the notice of refusal. But you can see here the application
involves not only the deck off the back of the third, which garnered a refusal, the roof deck
with the pilot house, which did not result in a refusal. And then this flat, flat wall sign,
statically illuminated sign uh in a and these i should notice a treble clef i believe um and here
you can see a rendering of what it'll look like um and these are the drawings that were submitted to
lni so um the property is located as i mentioned on the it fronts on south 8th street it's on the
north side of fulton street you can see right here um fulton street is not on the city plan
And here's the street cards, PSD, Phillip Streets Department card for the property.
And you can see here that the property, as I mentioned, is on CMX1.
Back to the aerials, it's interesting.
There is a 10-foot alley.
So this is before I think the decks were, even the deck at the first floor was started under construction.
The property extends at 17 feet, 2 inches wide.
It's 77 feet, 6 inches deep.
And then behind it is a 10-foot wide alley. There's a single-family dwelling to the east of us. And then there's a rental property or a property to the north of us, 759. I believe the owner of that property may be still on the call. We were having discussions. I contacted my client right before the hearing this morning to talk about a couple things.
there is a looks like there's a three unit rental license uh on atlas for that property but if that
owner's here he can speak to to what his use is of that property but here you can see the aerial
and these these are all taken before the renovations were done because you can see the
boarded up windows at the ground floor as you move around here um historically street view images
going back. You can see during the construction back into, you know, during 23 and then back in
the 20s. There are no zoning records back to that point, so I'm assuming by the looks of it,
even though it was in CMX1, that it was utilized for single-family dwelling.
So I'm not going to go into great detail because it's getting late. I did include in my exhibit
book some information about Mr. Johns Music School, much of which I presented back in 23,
both regarding their mission, their vision, their core values, some screenshots from their
website. They give lessons all around the area. This is one of their permanent locations.
They're also now located in Atlanta, where my client is presently. He is actually teaching
a class right now, so he may be able to come in and adopt my statements when we're finished.
But again, here are the current images of the property as they exist right now.
I did show you the zoning plans and the renderings, the notice of refusal.
There are three refusals.
One has to do with the deck, this deck at the third floor.
It can't be located, now they said, within the rear yard.
There is no rear yard, so there's a question as to whether that's legitimate,
but measuring nine feet from the rear yard depth from where the rear property line is,
that deck is located within that area.
It's a question of whether, if the building already extends at the ground floor all the way to the rear, whether there is a rear yard or not, be that as it may.
Again, here we're showing, you can't see it, this is another view, the rear elevation and showing the existing deck at the second floor and the deck at the third floor.
And you can see here, but there is that 10-foot alley, as I mentioned, shown here on the site plan beyond our property.
And then to the east of us, as you can see in the exterior photos that I have here, it's just the wall of the property as I swing around.
um as i swing around and you just see right here there's a wall of the property that's to the east
And you just see right here.
of us i think the woman that actually lives in the building to the east of us on the other side
of the alley parks in the alley so it's not like that the deck off the back of the third floor is
going to be looking in anybody's window there is there is a i would call it a legal window
small window up in the west facing wall of that building to the east of us but it's on the property
line. And that's why I say it's not legal, but it is what it is. It's a very small window and there
shouldn't be any impact upon that property owner in terms of the deck being located. The deck can
question that issue with the notice of refusal impacting that property. The other refusals,
this is the other one that I have an issue with. In CMX1, and I have a copy of the zoning code
provision right here, you're allowed one square foot feet for every one, every linear foot of
street frontage. LNI interpreted with the fact that Fulton Street is not a street. They said that
we get zero signage, even though it functions as a street, that we're allowed zero signage
facing Fulton Street. The zoning code provisions do not say that that applies only to that frontage.
It just says you get that much signage. Granted, at 17.2 square feet and given the number of square feet for that sign, we would still not be in compliance with the maximum sign area requirements for this sign.
However, we believe that they got it wrong as far as how far we're off.
We don't believe that it's zero.
We believe that it's 17 point whatever, I think 1.667 square feet, which, again, we do exceed, but it's not zero.
The other thing is, is that we would receive a refusal because the for the location of the sign.
All signs are not permitted to be located above the second floor windowsill.
And here you can see here you have the second floor and we're located up here.
I mean, 8th Street, there's a lot of commercial businesses up and down the block.
There's a lot of signage.
Again, this is not an overbearing sign.
The illumination is like it's very classic and it's very subdued.
It's not a digital sign.
It's not flashing.
It's static.
And we believe that it looks more like almost like a mural, like artwork than like a sign.
But it does help to identify what the use of the property is, which is as a music school.
Included in my exhibits are a copy of our deed at tab six that shows my client owns the property.
Again, in this deed is a legal description that does show that we do have that 10-foot wide alley to the east of us,
buffering us, and buffering, acting as a buffer that's greater than the required rear yard depth
for CMX1 for the property to the east of us. We have our tax clearance certificate,
the copy of the notice for today's hearing, and that it was posted on both frontages.
Again, Fulton Street technically isn't a street, so technically we wouldn't need to post Fulton
Street, but out of an abundance of caution, we did post Fulton Street, as you can see here.
And then the 14303 notice. Here's the email from the Planning Commission identifying Bella Vista Neighbors Association as a coordinating RCO for the project. The list of addresses to which we mailed the notice for the hearing, and I highlighted 759 South 8th Street, our budding neighbor to the north, because I think there was a question from him earlier today that he didn't receive that notice.
But here's a copy of the notice and the and the the list of the certificate of mailing showing that we mailed to all 255 addresses that showed up on the with the list of addresses that we secured from the planning commission.
So in terms of the refusals, we challenge the first refusal as to whether or not it's actually in the rear yard.
But even if it is in the rear yard, it's above a by right deck at the ground floor or above the one story portion.
So to say that that deck, even though it's a roof deck, in that sense that it's a different type of deck, but it has the same type of impact.
It's at the third floor. There is that 10 foot wide alley to the east of us.
The property to the north of us has the upper floor set back.
You can see here in the aerial, as I get in a little closer, you can see they have a one-story portion here.
And then their upper floor, if we go swing around here, you can see it's set back a little bit from the rear of our building.
So it's actually a little bit behind.
So somebody from this deck would actually have to look around to intentionally look into the back windows of that building.
We did have discussions with that property owner, and if he's still on, he can speak to that.
We did have discussions with that property owner, and if he's still on, he can speak to that.
We've agreed that along this side of both already the permitted deck and the proposed deck, we're going to come back.
We're not going to come back to the zoning board because we can do it as a matter of right.
The zoning code allows a 60-inch privacy screen, 60 inches tall, no more than 50% opaque as a matter of right.
And we'll go back after the fact and we'll submit for that because, again, that is permitted as a matter of right to address any privacy concerns that he has there.
But, again, so we questioned the first one.
We questioned the second one in terms of the degree.
But, again, we feel that given the nature of the sign, given the – if you take a look at the exterior photos that I provided up and down the street, the other businesses that are located, the other types of signs.
you have projecting signs you can see right here right across the street and then going up and
down the street you have other actual projecting signs that are located above the second floor
some of which are of similar size some of which are not you can see here flat wall signs larger
flat wall signs and sitting down 8th street we believe that the and then the third one that has
to do being above the window so i just addressed for so for those reasons we believe that there
There is a hardship here, given the other commercial uses and commercial nature of 8th Street, given the other existing signs,
given the subdued, the nature of the sign that is being proposed, having a minimal impact.
There's not going to be a lot of glare.
It's not going to cause any issues for the properties across the street.
That light will be turned off when the business closes at the end of the day.
So it's probably only going to be on for a limited number of hours in the wintertime.
They generally close around 10 o'clock. And the decks, again, the roof deck does not require any variances. And the third floor deck really doesn't have any more impact than the second floor deck. And for the reasons and with the modifications that we're going to come back and do for the screening, we believe that any impact that there is, and even with the by right deck, is going to be mitigated with those actions by my client.
And with that, I would ask that my exhibit book be moved into the record. And I am not sure. He said he was in his class, but he had his earpiece in, was kind of listening.
OK, so, Mr. Orphanides, you're a officer of the court. We will take your testimony.
Yeah. And I also have the architect, but I'm not sure if he's on. And if the same thing, if you would accept my statements, you can just move on from the board.
questions from the board yeah could you tell me the height of the building where the deck
the third deck uh sure let me take a look at that do not know that off the top of my floor
top of my tried to make it out i couldn't see yeah you know what i don't think we have that
on the plans um i will say well like let's put it to you this way so the bottom of the sign is at
18 three um the middle of so what is it is 12 feet so that's so that kind of cuts almost through
the middle so i would i would probably say it's around 20 23 feet it's a little bit lower than
that so that will put the total the total building height at the deck at what i know which are you
talking about the roof deck or the so the roof deck is by right yeah the roof deck is by right
That's not an issue in this notice of refusal.
So the height of the roof is 33 feet, three inches.
I'm sorry.
I just assumed you were talking about the deck.
This is the deck that's-
Yeah, that's the third floor deck.
I'm sorry, the third floor deck.
Yeah, the third floor deck is right here.
So not the roof deck.
So there's a deck off the rear of the third floor,
which is what one of the variances for.
There's a roof deck that we're also applying for,
but that's a matter of right.
So this is one that you asked me about.
The third floor deck that you keep pointing to.
that's on the back of the third floor.
Yeah, I would say that's at about,
I would approximate that that's at about 24 feet.
Can you scroll to the white
and close out the X on your bookmarks?
Because I think it's on the drawing.
I think it's covered.
I didn't see that it actually,
I don't know that we actually have the height of it.
We had the third floor marked,
but we don't have the dimension of it.
We have the height of the building,
but we didn't put the heights of the floors.
And again, it's, you know,
The third floor deck is for its own private use as well as, you know, as is the roof deck.
All right, other questions.
Okay, I guess I have two questions.
One, for the illuminated sign, is the second floor all music school?
So what time?
That was the variance from the last case.
I understand that.
I'm clarifying things because I was not here for the last case.
No worries.
So for the sign, is it going to be illuminated at night?
Is it going to be illuminated at night?
It is going to be illuminated at night, but only until the school closes, which I said is around 10 o'clock, maybe sometimes 11.
It is going to be illuminated at night, but only until...
Okay, so at 10 p.m. they're shutting this sign down.
When they're closed for business, the sign is being turned off, and they'll probably be on the timer.
Okay. And then were there any light studies done to look at potential light pollution both into the business and into the existing residential window across the street?
We did not do a light study, but actually John is actually a lighting expert.
He does lighting installations as well.
And he says he can, he just texted me and said he could jump in.
And he can tell you the exact type of bulb, the type of light.
He basically equated them to Christmas lights.
But if, John, if you can hear me, if you can jump in, you can answer the question.
My other question is, given you got a use refusal for the deck at the third floor, what is the need for this third floor deck, given there's a roof deck and a second floor and he owns the whole building?
i mean it gives some additional i mean the reality is is that having the roof deck above
is they're generally not as accessible or utilized as much as one that just is right
off of the living space and right off of the kitchen it's a lot more difficult to just
everybody what people want roof decks but the reality is they don't use them that much
so this is where he designed it that's what i was asking no no i'm just i'm just telling you
why why there's there's a need or desire to have this off of the third floor again there's already
a deck below at the second floor that's used for the for the business the deck that's utilized
off the third floor again there's there's decks up and down the block up and down like the backs
of buildings up and down the you know and everywhere in this neighborhood and again
when you take it when you take into account that you have the alley there any impact is
is eliminated you know i understand i just it was a one-story apartment with a lot of decks and i
was like it's not mardi gras here so i was trying to figure out what they were and and he's not
treating it as mardi gras either it's just it provides a little more outdoor space and this
is actually more functional more usable than actually the roof deck okay all right other
questions from the board questions from our attorney glory emerson not at this time mr
questions or comments from the virtual audience? Yes, Mr. Chair, I have a hand up from AJ Town.
Go ahead and throw them over to panelists right now. Okay.
Chase, do you have any other hands? No, that's the only answer. Okay, thank you.
Why could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
aj uh actually aj is my company name sir uh i own the uh company uh i didn't know my
my registration is with aj hold on hold on could you state your name as spell for this
yes sir bulent yavas b-u-l-e-n-t last name is y-a-v as in victor a-s right do you swear
or a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor
i am exactly the next door neighbor attached to their building sir yes please proceed uh well
mr orphanage mentioned 14 support signature for this project uh they got 14 signatures however i
did not know about this uh they did not reach out to me in the previous uh zoning hearing i supported
his music school you know project and stuff like that I did not oppose to it because I am the only
one directly be impacted by this project because noise and everything when I go to the building I
hear the noise music practices and things like that that's besides so initially before we had
two decks on the second floor both of us you know have decks and we are you know but now I'm decked
out everywhere is deck rooftop is deck third floor is deck and when i looked at the third floor deck
it is like looking at the it can see the windows of the bathroom bedroom or your kitchen in the
you know like it is and i reached out to the owner of this uh project earlier before this prior to
this uh zoning hearing and i left a message he finally returned my call and he called me i said
I expressed my concerns about the mailing that Mr. Orphanis mentioned.
I did not receive any mailing in that address or in my mailing address in regards to this hearing.
Previous hearing I did, but this one I did not.
But I happened to see the sign and I took a note and I'm here now.
but i happened to see the sign and i took a note and i'm i'm here now uh i had concerns about the
third uh like i said wall sign for music school we approved it sign i have no opposition uh roof
deck access structure it's fine but third floor residential deck is intruding our privacy in the
second floor deck and uh you know our windows and everything and i asked mr john what is his
proposal what can we do and another thing between our second floor decks joint there's a wall joint
wall in between us and two of his air conditioner condensers are attached onto the wall that's
causing noise and also vibration and i also mentioned that when we spoke with the second
floor deck or the third floor deck with the second floor deck so existing deck existing
You don't like the third floor deck, am I right?
Yes, I have a position to it, sir.
I don't want to be the only one opposing to it if he has some desire to have that.
However, he has to give me privacy and protect my, I don't know, it's going to devalue my property and also intrude our privacy by adding third floor deck.
However, he agreed that he's going to remove those two condensers up to the roof and he's going to try to put some privacy screening on the second and third floor decks.
And that way he will remedy the problem.
I mean, as long as the board is OK with that, I am OK.
I don't want to be the bad neighbor or somebody is just.
but my building is affected
enough with this project
with the noise and everything else
let me go back, in other words you're talking
to him yourself and he's promising you things
right? yes sir
alright
thank you
but I want this to be on the record so at least we have
common ground here
ok alright
so what you want to go on the record, you're not against
the project and he's promised you he's going to
take care of this? yes sir, that's what he said
He said he's a man of his word and he will take care of whatever is the issue to rectify, you know, our income is here.
Mr. Chairman, I had a discussion, my client had a discussion, and what I represented to you tonight is what, this is a little kind of went one way and then back the other, because there was an agreement that we would apply for the by right privacy screens following the hearing.
and is there anyone else in the and move the air conditioners that's fine yeah
um planning commission thank you chairman and good evening david fecto with the city planning
commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the cmx1 commercial mixed use zoning at this location there is no unique physical condition
or circumstance of this property to prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the
zoning code the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed variance for a rear
deck and the variances for accessory wall sign area location and height thank you um mi 2024
007 229 761 south a street i vote yes with proviso proviso her refusal dated 10 17 24.
Cheryl Gaston
I vote is
yes with proviso
Tanetta Graham
my vote is yes with proviso
my vote is yes with proviso
thank you counsel
thank you have a good evening
hope you get home at a decent time
so we're going to
move right in
is there anyone in the audience
whose 2 o'clock case was not called
I do not say anything else Mr. Chair
Thank you. We're going to move right into this. 3.30. Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board. With me is our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Taya Nguyen.
Present.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, Ian Haggerty, our executive director, and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
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Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon.
safety is our highest priority if there's an emergency there will be directions over the
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there's a water fountain just outside the doors to the right okay thank you and let's look at
our schedule. So MI 2023-003-524-5618-222 Avenue. That case is continued to 82725 at 330. Also,
case number six, MI 2024-006-477-1800 South 4th Street. That case has been withdrawn.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
We're going to move to number three, MI 2024-006-468-1824 South 5th Street.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
Mr. Whalen, could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Certainly.
Good night.
Sean, S-E-A-N, Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I certainly do.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, I represent the owner, 1824, that's 1824 Philly, LLC.
Right. Do you waive the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Why don't you proceed and share your screen?
Thank you very much.
and I will also note that Dickinson Square
Civic West Civic Association has a letter of support and the council member school has a
non-opposition letter.
Sorry, it just kicked me out of the Zoom.
I had it on the entire time back there, and of course, when I come up here, it kicks me
My apologies.
So it looks like it's only allowing me to come back in on the 12th.
Thank you.
I pulled up the old email.
Let me see if this lets me back in.
Thank you.
Are you in, Sean?
Turn off my video.
All right.
You've been here, what, since 2.30?
Yes, about.
Although I can't really complain, right?
You guys have been here a lot longer than me.
All right.
Now we're up.
all right so without joking or being facetious i will be extremely quick
given how it doesn't matter at this point
it no longer matters
all right
in that case uh 1824 south fifth street uh you see in front of
view a zoomed out atlas map this is an 1143 square foot corner lot in an rsa5 zoning district
it is about halfway between moore and mifflin street to sort of give you an idea of where we're
at by this is zoomed in so you can see it's a 100 lot coverage existing two-story building
it has historically for decades been a duplex and actually most recently going back to the
early 2000s was approved as a church on the first floor with a unit in the in the rear and a unit
on the upstairs so i'll skip over that so you can see this is it right on the corner here
it is in a dilapidated state so as soon as we get these approvals we'll be moving forward to fix
that that was one of the things the community was looking forward to here's the zoning map you can
see, like a lot of neighborhoods, we have CMX-1 on a lot of adjacent corners, and we have RM-1
right across the street with RSA-5 on our side of the street. By way of context, this block is
about 50-50 single-family homes and multiple units, mostly threes and fours in multifamily.
So we have one refusal. We originally applied to turn this into a three-family dwelling.
we then you do have a proviso plan we were going to include a third unit as an affordable housing
unit much to our surprise the rco said no thank you so they unanimously supported us as legalizing
the existing duplex but did not want that third unit if we agreed to make it affordable so that's
why our original application was for a triplex and now what you have before you is it's reduced to a
duplex because that's what we agreed with the community to have so that's what you can see
right in front of you now again we have a rco letter of unanimous support
they very much appreciated us working with them and my understanding is all of this the letter
was turned in so happy to go into it but again trying to keep this brief so here are some of
the site photos you can see it's the front it's the main one right here it has an existing bump
out this is seeing it from the rear it is 100 built out on the first floor and it has a rear
deck on the second floor the iron fence that you see there is a deeded alleyway
and then you can see you just the subject street views now as I scroll down you're seeing this is
the existing state inside I will represent my client is on and can adopt my testimony
the inside is in a dilapidated state as well and will be completely not gutted but completely
repainted you know what you'll see as I scroll down here is this this has not been in great shape
So, you know, the kitchens will be replaced and all that kind of stuff.
We're not we're not seeking to rent out what you see in front of you now.
There is no basement living.
There is no basement living. You can see the basement here. The basement will be cleaned
You can see the basement here.
The basement will be.
and waterproofed but it will remain open storage in the in the state that you have it there.
And then again here's just the other unit on the second floor.
Again as I said just by looking at the zoning archive you can see
actually by zoning that this is about a 50 50 neighborhood of multi-units twos threes and some
fours at the top and single family uh if you actually walk the block you'll see even more
evidence of you know additional units that may not be legalized in the zoning archive
and then the last page i have for you is simply a a floor plan if you want to dive into it
very quickly the you know the hardship standard here is relatively easily met which isn't usually
the case you have to have an unnecessary hardship you have to have a no detriment to the public
health safety or welfare and you have to be seeking the least minimum variance to afford
the relief that is necessary here we certainly have a hardship we have an existing building
It would be at a prohibitive cost to try to demolish what's already there and recreate
a single family home, which would be required by an RSA 5 zoning district.
And again, this has been in place for at least 50 years that I could go back in the archives.
Moving, you know, no detriment to the health, safety and welfare.
Easiest way to understand that is we're putting in a second unit that already existed and that
the community was fully in favor and unanimously supported and the least minimum variance is we're
only asking to legalize what's there since we limited it to a duplex again we did think that
a triplex was appropriate given the size and space of the building and the third unit would
have been you know a deeded affordable housing unit with the city's programs but the rco chose
not to support that so we're here today just asking to legalize the existing duplex and move
forward and i'm happy to have my client your client here yes adam singer should be online
can we see him thank you hello i'm mr singer could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer? It's Adam Singer, A-D-A-M-S-I-N-G-E-R. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed, counsel. Thank you very much.
Mr. Singer, you're here on behalf of the owner, 1824 Philly LLC, correct? Correct. And you heard
all the testimony that I already presented in this case? I have. And you believe that to be
true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief? Absolutely. And would
adopt that testimony as your own i do questions from the board yes are you keeping the side
entrance uh yes yes so that is an existing uh entrance to the rear so what you'll have is
the second story unit i can zoom in if you need the second story apartment will be accessed from
the front and go right up the steps and then directly up the third the second the rear unit
which is existing had its own access because the church space was was accessed from the front and
so the the rear unit um which was in the rear on the first floor had its own separate side entrance
and that will remain that's currently not what's depicted in these plans no no these are what the
plans will be not these are not existing floor plans i apologize these are these are what the
floor plans will be right so that door is missing should be there the side door is not there
i apologize the the the showing new entrance having both apartments entering entering from
the front on yes so the there will be access to the first floor apartment from the front
as you can see in the lower left and if you don't mind Mr. Singer
is he still there
it is my understanding that that side entrance will remain
I recognize board member Wayne that I do not see it here either I thought it was there
another question just the difference between the two is that this also shows
a fully built out second floor whereas the current conditions show
a fully built out second floor whereas the current conditions show a rear it looked like a rear deck
or a roof like it's a deck yeah but that's not what's there so are you building because that
would no we are not that would that would require another variance it would but that's what the plan
shows yes shows a bedroom where that deck would be yeah so that is not occurring um okay so this
second floor will be
a one-bedroom. The first floor will be
a two-bedroom.
Okay, any
other questions?
Questions from our attorney, Hillary
Emerson? Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Planning
Commission.
So, Ron Bednar, City Planning.
First name, Ron, R-O-N.
Last name, Bednar. B-E-D-N-A-R.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
thank you the property is indicated for residential on the city plan given the
documented history of the site we recommend the request for answer granted mi 2024 006 468 1824
South 5th Street. I vote yes with Proviso. Maximum two units. Cheryl Gaston. My vote is yes with
Proviso. Tanetta Graham. My vote is yes with Proviso. Iowyn. My vote is yes with Proviso.
Mr. Whalen. MI 2024-006471. 2031-33 Palford Street. Just for the record, could you state
your name? Certainly. Sean Whalen. W-H-A-L-E-N. Could you identify your client, the relationship
ship to the property. I almost just told you it was the same owner. At this stage, we'd probably
say okay. It is not. My apologies. The owner is M&T Property, LLC. Do you agree to the waiving of
the reading of the refusal? And do you agree with its accuracy? Yes, I do. And I would say there's
a letter of no position received from narsquare action network the rco stated the meeting ended
in a tie and after that the meeting they received a letter of opposition signed by neighbors
there's a letter of deferral from council member lazada the council office supports the rso position
of no position all right uh so 2031 to 33 palethorpe street this is a mid-block 1216 square
foot property i already have it pulled up here for you can see it outlined it is a 100 built out
existing one-story commercial warehouse i'll show the maps in a second this has been in place since
at least the 1930s it shows up all of these commercial warehouses that you see on this side
of the block which is actually the east side of the block date back to prior to the 1942 land use
maps in the in the historical maps so what you can say see here left hand side is more traditional
Philadelphia Row home housing that's the western side the eastern side of this block was again
commercial warehouses dating back to almost 100 years ago so we did go we actually had a good
meeting with the RCO the only issue raised by and actually there were only two
uh near nearby neighbors who attended that meeting but the only issue that they raised was
parking um i certainly understand that and commiserate with everyone who's trying to find
parking uh the interesting thing for this street is there is no legal parking on either side of
the street so they the complaints of seeking to protect illegal parking i don't i i don't think
can proceed before you. We did have one refusal for use. My client originally applied for,
they were going to do four one bedroom units over this building. And well before going to the RCO
meeting, they made their own determination that two units would be better. So we are only seeking
two units that was not done in agreement with the rco but they certainly liked two units better
liked two units better than four units when we appeared and there was some comments that they
than four units when we appeared and there was some comments that they
you know there would not have been yes votes at four units but we had proceeded already to do
larger these will be two two bedroom units one will be on the second floor one will be on the
third floor of a two-story addition so as I said quickly you can see here this is the 1942 land use
map it's already showing again on the eastern on the western side you have single family homes on
the eastern side you have already commercial activity so you do have before you a proviso plan
where we are reducing the number of dwelling units from four units down to two units
no change in the actual plans themselves so this is probably the most colorful zoning map I've
ever seen for a project that I've presented it is a veritable smorgasbord of zoning districts
in this area. You can see ICMX, RMX. There is, you can see right in the middle, the highlighted
in blue, we are in a row of RSA5. Interestingly, most of the middle of that RSA5 are all existing
garages that I'll show you in just a second. The homes on the left, on the western side,
our RSA-5, everything surrounding us in all directions is RM1 and CMX 2.5. If this were
CMX 2 or CMX 2.5, the duplex above the existing garage would be by right.
If this were RM1, a triplex would actually be by right. As it is, we have an existing commercial
use in a prior non-conforming building. So we have a prior non-conforming use and a not prior
non-conforming building. Zoom in on this for you. So as you can see, there's the line, the dashed
line right behind our property designating the distinction between RM1 and RSA5. We have a very
narrow, small, almost box-like property. It's 32 feet wide, but only 38 feet deep.
And Pailthorpe Street, which we are on, is only 14 feet wide, curb to curb.
So as you can see here, start getting to the site photos. The entire block up and down the block,
except for in front of the garage doors is existing illegal parking everybody parks on the sidewalks
otherwise nobody could get around it and again so here right here on the right with the two white
garage doors that is the building that we're talking about today these are proper these
are photos that i took and the entirety of this block was was fully parked um again now now we're
getting up to the top up at the top of the block everything is multi-family and there's actually
a very large um 18 unit building uh with a child care on this block so again it's it's a very big
mix of uses up and down the block everything in an existing condition again you can see some of the
properties are well maintained some are not but you have still these existing garage warehouses
on one side and then like i said you can see this new construction on the left here that's an 18 unit
building with a child care on the ground floor again just up and down the block giving you the
same kind of evidence. So here's what exists in the zoning archive, and I don't want to belabor
the point and go through the archive, but you have our property right here in the middle. You have
two commercial garages immediately to the south of us, and then you have a commercial garage with
a duplex above it. You have a very large commercial warehouse and multifamily down at the southern
end of this block and then at the top you have auto repair and vehicle storage and then you have
multiple unit buildings all up as you get closer to diamond street as well as the child care center
and 18 unit building that goes all the way from north second street through to palethorpe
these are the
these are the site plans and what you have here is we will actually be providing two parking spaces
so we'll be the only the only residential units on the entire block that have legal parking
what you can see here in the bottom left is the existing first floor layout there is no basement
and uh what you have is you have one small commercial bay here which will be uh all of
the commercial use is currently being activated for um the owner runs a an electrical company
so he's doing some light storage of his electrical materials there uh unfortunately as i'll get into
in just a second this you know as you've probably guessed from palethorpe street this property is
no longer viable for commercial use certainly for a commercial warehouse use so the you can see at
the top the existing floor there is an existing door in between the two bays what you'll do is
walk in that front door down here you'll walk upstairs there will be one unit one 700 square
foot two bedroom unit on the second floor and then one identical 700 square foot unit on the third
floor for two units we in this proposed addition we meet every dimensional requirement so we will
be we will still remain below 38 feet we're actually only about 35 feet and we are as you
can see at the top of this page we're pulling back the building actually nine and a half feet
from the rear of our property which is a fully built out lot line condition
and so again what you'll see right here in this bay will be one parking spot and in this bay
will be a second parking spot the commercial light commercial storage use for the owner will
actually remain in the rear but as you saw in some of the site photos the um the only trucks
you know commercial trucks can't get down the street um it's so tight there are only small
commercial vans and the like that can get up and down the block i can go back to them but
they are captured in the photos um and then actually i'll call mr hernandez here the project
architect in a second, but I thought this was a particularly useful slide for you to see.
You can see Palthorpe Street in the middle. It's essentially fully built out, no vacant lots.
I think there is one, maybe two on the western side, none on the eastern side.
And you can see our area of work. We are the shortest
depth lot on either side and what you have is if you look at the top you can see kind of the entire
middle of this block are one story existing commercial garages there's housing at both ends
but we are right in the middle so you went from four units to two yes we're down to two units
only two units, and both units will have a dedicated parking space. Again, will be actually
the only parking space, the only legal parking on the entire block. So I understand the RCO took
no position. If you look at the vote in the letter, the RCO board actually voted unanimously
in support and the neighbors who were surrounding voted no again the only issue that was raised
there are no issues of light and air or anything of the sort was simply that i talked about that
18 unit building that there have been a lot of similarly sized buildings around and i understand
that there you know there are difficulties with parking and again that's why we're we're actually
providing parking here, we'll be the only ones providing parking. So again, as I had just said,
and I think in this case, it actually needs to be stated, for a variance, you go either to 143038E,
or it's actually the 14 requirements under the zoning code are boiled down to Marshall
v. City of Philadelphia, which is a Pennsylvania State Supreme Court case from 2014. We need an
unnecessary hardship. Here, we have numerous grounds for an unnecessary hardship. The most
obvious one is we have a 100% lot coverage existing building that even if we wanted to
make it RSA compliant, it would be at prohibitive cost, we'd have to demolish the entire
make it rsa compliant it would be at prohibitive cost we'd have to demolish the entire property
which can't be required we do have that existing non-conforming use and
those physical features prohibit us from doing anything there so the again the street also
factors into our hardship we have 14 feet a 14 foot wide street as i mentioned before we can't
get commercial vehicles up and down this block it is a one-way they don't have the turning radius
in order to get anything larger than a small van the bay heights are also only 10 feet
so you can't get any you know full-size commercial truck into into those bays
you would also any single family house could also only be 31 feet deep because we'd be required to
have, you know, if we were to be required to try to meet code, which is not appropriate under the
case law, but even if we were to try to do that, you would have two houses side by side, 16 feet
wide by only 31 feet deep. As Mr. Hernandez will testify, that doesn't create a viable RSA 5
lot. And what you actually see across the street where you do have existing single family homes,
all of those lots are 44 45 46 48 feet deep so they're an additional 10 to 15 feet deeper than
than our lot and actually the two lots immediately adjacent to ours on both sides are 46 and 48 feet
deep again we just have this existing condition that precludes us from moving so the next issue
for a hardship is just the sea change in the neighborhood. I'm sure some of the members of
this board know better than I even, but dating back to the Valley View case from the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court in 83, followed up by the Wilson Pennsylvania Supreme Court case in 2007,
and then stated more succinctly in Chosen 300 Ministries before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth
court in 2016 a sea change in the neighborhood where you know here you had a commercial use
and now the whole neighborhood is different the whole neighborhood is now a residential neighborhood
these uh garages are being converted they're no longer you know modern uh commercial uses
have much greater requirements than their predecessors and so in this instance
um right we cannot do that so with that i would simply say uh there is no detriment to the health
safety or welfare of the neighborhood again the only objection even raised at any point was parking
we're offering the only legal parking there is no legal parking on the street and we're only putting
we're only seeking the least minimum variance is uh you know two units as opposed to you know any
additional units that could be supported here why don't you have your is just the owner here you
have or uh no i actually have uh you should see tom wysocki okay online do we see him
he texted he texted me that he was on okay thank you
can you hear me yes we can could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
it's thomas wysocki w-y-s-o-c-k-i you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but
the truth i do please proceed counsel thank you uh mr wysocki you're here on behalf of mnt property
or property llc the owner correct yes and did you hear all the testimony i already presented in this
case yes and did you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge information
and belief yes and would you adopt it as your own yes do you have anything pertinent that would be
separate and apart from what i've already testified to that the board should hear no sir thank you
very much questions from the board uh could i just ask my uh architect to adopt my testimony
what's he what's he going to adopt your testimony to yeah just adopt my test thank you very much
um mr hernandez mr hernandez could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
h-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth please proceed i'm sorry this is the court reporter could i ask the witness to put the
microphone yes thank you jose hernandez h-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth please proceed counsel thank you very much uh
i do please proceed counsel thank you very much uh mr hernandez you're the project architect for
mr hernandez you're the project architect for this
this project correct correct and did you hear the testimony that was already presented in this case
i have do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge information and belief
yes would you adopt it as your own i would and similarly uh separate and apart from anything
that's already been testified to do you have anything else pertinent and relevant for the
board to examine i do not thank you uh questions from the board yes a question um with the
parking on both sides of the street like that are you going to have the kind of turning radius that
you need to even have cars get into these legal parking spaces i i would certainly say yes but i
would allow mr hernandez to testify more distinctly so with the the units that have
the garage doors there's less parking there that are not currently residential units so the sidewalk
is wide enough where you can make the turn and come into those units um to that uh the western
side of the property is there a curb cut yes already there there's currently curb cuts in
front of each of the uh garage doors okay and you're you're building up correct two-story
addition on top of the existing one story ah okay so board member gaston if you if you would i just
pulled back up the photo yeah you can see uh again the two white doors are our doors there's no
parking in front of those doors and so uh that allows for the turning radius across the sidewalk
all right to get in now you can see from the way that car is parked i mean how are you
go park like that it's going to be a little difficult i would think to um make that turn
and you can't and you can't control how illegally people are going to park right correct yeah you
can make the call, but yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I guess my question is given that
the side of the street that this is on is the RSA five single family side, and there's not that
many properties on that side of the street that are more than two stories. Could you walk me
through the justification and the decision to include the parking and not do a two story two
unit building i'm sorry so let me just restate that to make sure i understand your question
so why would we not why would we add two stories here to have a unit on the second floor and a
unit on the third floor as opposed to a unit on the first floor second floor what is one floor
one window parking certainly uh so so multi-factored on that and it was considered first of all we
would in order to uh get to that situation we would have to demolish the entire first floor
there are party wall conditions there's excavation concerns um you know this is an existing condition
which which is fully built out um secondly in you my client works here and you uh he already
adopted my testimony he can speak further to this if i if need be um there are parking concerns in
this area and again if we did seek to just put two units in there would be no parking if we sought
to put in one very large single family house it would not be sellable in this area because it
would be you know 6 000 square feet we would need far more parking than two individual apartment
units and there would be no parking because that parking wouldn't be allowed similarly if we put
um two single family houses that would be commensurate with this area if we had enough
depth we would first of all be back here asking for an extension in the rear yard um but they
would also then require it more parking than two uh individual apartment units so that was that was
the primary factor was trying to be contextual to the neighborhood um also maintaining there there
will be maintained a limited commercial use in the rear so if i went to the uh the floor plan
and i think i got sidetracked here um storage so there there is commercial storage in the rear
and that commercial storage in the rear is going to remain so uh this this bay is separate and apart
um that will be one of the parking spaces another parking space will be on this side
that's a much larger wider side so Mr. Wysocki will be going around that built uh that existing
car when it's parked there and having his material stored in the rear um and I would assume there
Um, and I would assume there, there may be, there is not now, but there may be a condition
there may be there is not now but there may be a
where they put up some demising wall just to keep the commercial use from the parking
And then my second question is, uh, the height of your third floor, do you know how that
compares to the other structures on that street?
The elevations.
Actually, in the later.
In the RCO package, I have the RCO presentation.
What page?
I say this, and I'll say this for the record and for the rest of the board, like this is
going to be the first of a series of warehouses on this block.
So what happens here is going to set the precedent and be the case for anything else that comes
behind it.
So we are 34, eight or 34, 34, eight.
that we are 34 eight so we purposely stayed below the uh height limits in this zoning district i
didn't ask about the height limits i asked about the existing buildings you know exactly so i just
wanted to say i pulled up the rendering uh in context um while we were talking i was stalling
so i could get it up for you got it okay you try not to stall too yeah just say i'm looking for
the rendering only in order to answer a question um so what you can see here is an up and down the
block um and again if i go back to the the outline page that i was on before um you can see the
heights vary so uh on both sides of the street actually on the rsa5 side of the street the
heights are significantly taller than anything that uh we'd be building it's actually just our
side of the street that still remains low uh in the middle and at the ends uh goes up to
that your side of the street was the rsa5 street and the side across was the multifamily
so it's actually both i apologize i was trying to go fast and then i always yeah i'm just going off
what you told me um so it's actually there there are pockets on both sides here we go um
So our property is right here in the middle, this highlighted blue.
I'm not sure how or why this side, the eastern side, was made RSA 5.
Again, that has all the existing commercial uses.
And then there's also the RSA 5, which is actually mostly single-family houses, although there are definitely multifamily there, in the pocket on the other side.
and then sort of kind of surrounding us like we're the middle of the donut and then surrounding us
entirely on all sides is rm1 cmx 2.5 or cmx2 um so i apologize if i misstated and said that this
rsa5 was only on the other side of the street uh frankly if the rsa5 was only on the western
side of the street uh we wouldn't have to be here because we'd be by right yeah make make your night
just a little bit shorter all right other questions from the board questions from our
attorney um just one quick thing um with the parking spaces they're not referenced on the
refusal and i understand you said the curb cuts were existing i'm just a little bit concerned
that they're they aren't on the refusal because there weren't if it was a warehouse use before
there wasn't necessarily like accessory parking as part of that application and i could find no
zoning history for the property so i wasn't sure if it might be better to i don't know if it could
be corrected or amended i'd have to ask ellen i about that to include two accessory parking spaces
because if the board is inclined to grant because i'm just concerned that it's not in the description
i mean i'm happy to proceed however it would make you feel most comfortable
i believe it is covered by the existing prior non-conforming commercial use
because there is i mean if you had cars there that were the part of the commercial use you
would be accessing that as it wouldn't necessarily be like accessory parking spaces like if it was
just a warehousing or like pulling in and out it wouldn't be designated parking so um i mean if
you don't mind waiting a week i can ask al and i if you know if this needs to be noted on here
because i do see you got you went to streets and got the streets permit and everything
i just am concerned it's not listed on the refusal so i just don't want to cause problems later
absolutely we're happy to proceed however yeah just so just a week i just need to actually
3 30 yep or two o'clock two o'clock yep okay two o'clock yep and is the oh wait a minute planning
two hands okay
Two hands?
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
What's his name?
Daniel?
Butler, Trubman, Daniel, what's the second name?
Oh, I know, yeah.
When do I let you speak, Patricia DiCarlo?
Okay, right now.
Right now?
Yeah, but do me a favor.
Please state your name and spell for the stenographer.
Patricia DiCarlo, capital P-A-T-R-I-C-I-A, capital D-E, capital C-A-R-L-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, and nothing but the truth?
Ms. DiCarlo, are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am.
Not only am I a neighbor, but I'm also the chair of the RCO for NSCA Phila.
I was at the meeting, at the hearing, and with all due respect,
the presentation that was made was for the four apartments, not two.
The parking was not offered.
It was made clear that the electrician owner would have the commercial
and have his truck there also.
At the end of the meeting, so what they presented, the architectural design, was four apartments, not two, as the gentleman has said.
Number three, I noticed that when I came into the meeting, there was a gentleman who lives on that block and he was upset that the block had not received a notice on a timely basis and that more people needed to have been there and weren't.
So at the meeting, there were only two residents from the block and both were absolutely against this project.
I then, because I live there and I'm the chair of the other RCO, not the one that coordinated, I went to the block to talk to people and realized that there was a lot of opposition to it from the residents of that block.
The large buildings that have been shown are at the end of each block, which faces Diamond Street and Burke Street, which are large streets.
So it makes sense that the end buildings are large buildings.
Most of that block, like he said, it's a very narrow street.
most of them have two-story old old-fashioned original houses then there's some that are
three-story and then it's been invaded by a second street is on one side of pail forb and
um hancock is on the other side second street is a large uh mostly commercial and that's where
those multifamily humongous buildings are, but then the back of them faces Pale Fork.
So that's just to give you a context of what the block really looks like, as opposed to what's
been described. When I talked to the neighbors on that particular block and realized how much
they were opposed to what was being presented, I wrote up a petition for them that has been
included in the package. We the undersigned residents of the 2000 block of Pailthorpe Street
hereby signed this petition to oppose the building of anything other than single-family homes
as required by the zoning code. This is a narrow street with two-story single-family homes
recently affected by multifamily buildings
starting on 2nd Street to Pailthorpe.
They don't need more of that exaggerated building.
So we have, and you should have it in your package,
we have the signature for 23 residents of the block
of the block and 14 different addresses.
and for...
So it's not like it's just a few.
It's quite a bit of people who were signed the petition
and are opposed to this project.
And for me right now, I'm even more disturbed
by the lack of, what do I call it, clarity, actual facts that the gentleman here has presented
as having been something that they did at the RCO meeting.
The RCO and the plans that were presented by the architect were the four apartments, not two.
At the end, they said, oh, well, we could look at two apartments.
But that's not a legal definition or response to what they presented.
Mr. Carlo, we appreciate it.
Do you have any questions for Mr. Carlo?
I do not.
No, thank you.
Mr. Carlo, we appreciate your comments, and thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
but do you have the copy of the petition with you I do okay good I do I saw your name on it
right okay thank you um no okay if I may respond briefly okay but I I would simply again thrust
and Mr. Hernandez was there Mr. Wasaki was there uh we very clearly presented only two units we
said up front that the refusal was four units because we didn't want any confusion but that
we were only moving forward with uh two units and you know i can show we did we did the mailing as
required and actually uh what i've only shown a couple of pages from because i didn't want to
waste your time going through the whole thing is this document that we've scrolled through
is actually the JKRP architects RCO presentation so the floor plans we showed that only show two
units the heights that we showed that only show two units everything comports back to only two
units that that's all we presented to the RCO and there certainly was a petition that appears to
have been done almost none of those residents were at the meeting so I don't know what they thought
or heard or were told about the project uh and by my count i believe there were eight separate homes
there are 23 signatures but you know multiple people from each home uh on that petition okay
thank you um planning commission so ron bednar city planning properties indicated for residential
use on the city plan or district plan recommends no change to existing zoning at that location
Therefore, we recommend requests for grants to offer granted.
Hillary, we're holding this for questions to be answered, and then we'll take it to executive.
We're holding it for one week to see if a corrected or amended refusal needs to be issued.
And then we'll take it to the board in an executive session and figure out what to do.
You can vote on it at 2 p.m. next week to 12.
Thank you both, and I'm sorry you've been here so long.
Thank you very much, Hillary.
number two mi 2024 006 331 498 498 midvale avenue henry clinton is the attorney
mr chair can we go to number five quickly first that'll be a short a short case and
number two may take a little bit longer sure but all right mi 2024 006 475 917 south 9th street
stephen henchek is the owner applicant
letter of non-opposition from council member squill a letter of non-opposition
support with a proviso from bella vista neighbors
thank you very much okay thank you hope you get home tonight oh soon yeah
all right um stephen henshack
he's there hi mr henshack could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Mr. Henshack, Mr. Henshack, Mr. Henshack, can you speak?
Mr. Hinchik.
Mr. Henshack, we're having a hard time hearing you.
Mr. Henshack.
Should you go out and come back in?
Oh, no, the voice is bad.
This is a problem.
All right, we'll go to the next one.
I'll come back to you, sir.
MI 2024-006-331-498 Midville Avenue.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
So a letter of opposition
from the 12th Ward Democratic Committee.
Henry?
Good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Henry, I'm sorry we had to keep you waiting this long.
Just for the record, could you please state your name?
Henry Clinton, H-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is Anat, A-N-A-T, Madar, M-A-D-A-R.
You agree to waive the reading of the refusal and you agree with its accuracy?
Okay. Why don't you start your presentation?
Sure. Just at the outset, I'd like to make a mention of the letter.
The letter may be termed an opposition letter, but the vote was five to four in favor.
So I find that curious, but we can address that.
Okay, thank you.
All right, is that visible, Mr. Chairman?
It is. Thank you.
All right, so good evening, everyone.
Appreciate you taking the time to hear us tonight.
I'm here on behalf of Anat Medar, the owner of Owner Advanced LLC, concerning 498 Midvale Avenue.
So just by way of background, this is a vacant, narrow parcel of land, was previously used as a thoroughfare or access road to the railroad, which sits behind the properties in this neighborhood on Midvale and Coulter Street.
It's never been built on, no structure whatsoever, and it's surrounded by multifamily houses of two and four units, but it's actually in an RSA-5 zoning district.
So that's the brief overview, table of contents, A1 through A10, as well as the addresses of the other multifamily within either side of the subject property.
Refusal, RSA 5 zoning district, as I indicated at the outset, and we're proposing two-family household living.
Again, the RCO letter, I mean, I was at the meeting, it was a Zoom meeting, five in support.
for or oppose why the RCO took a position of opposition when the community voted in favor
is beyond me. This is their letter of opposition. I just want to walk through a couple things.
Again, one of the long-time residents did indicate that he's lived there for 60 years
and the lot has always been vacant. And it was an excavation for the railroad that runs
an excavation area for the railroad that runs directly behind the properties.
There was reference here that they're against a roof deck.
The property doesn't have a roof deck and it doesn't have a basement.
It's rather a unique application of a two-family dwelling.
Instead of having top and bottom, we have back-to-back, as I'll show you with the plans.
So again, the vote was 5-4 to support the project, but the 12th Ward opposed the building.
So here are photographs. So this is Midvale Avenue where my cursor is. This is a row of nice homes with nice elevations. And this is the vacant lot, which, again, served as an app.
And this is the vacant lot, which, again, served as an access area to get to the railroad in the rear.
There are multifamily on both sides of the subject property.
Directly across the street is a garden.
The homes down here, which I'll show you the elevation, are brick facades.
This is leading Coulter Street.
It turns a little bit and becomes Midvale.
Our project is right here on the other side of the weight fence.
We're getting closer to where the lot is.
It's right here.
And this is where there's actually a community garden there now, where my cursor is.
Again, this is the area where the lot will be, just trying to give you a contextual view.
This is looking down Midvale South.
If you're going the opposite direction and you'd make a turn right here onto Coulter.
The lot is here, a home next door is multifamily.
The home to the left is multifamily.
This is not our driveway area.
This belongs to someone else.
And I'll show you when I get to the plans.
It's kind of a pie-shaped lot next to us.
So these are the homes that are to the right of our vacant lot.
These are very nice elevations, very stylish.
I'll bring the architect on to explain why we can't replicate this or can't duplicate this.
So the way these homes are constructed is you walk into the front door and there's two units on the left, two units on the right.
And the architect explained to the RCO, we could not duplicate this design because the second floor porches are not permitted by the code, and we can't have one entrance for serving two individual apartment buildings.
And you have the same situation here and the same situation here.
These are just indication that our notices were posted.
And the property, again, the lot is here under the tree, and these are the single-family brick homes that are down the street, which we've tried to duplicate because we cannot duplicate the Doric columns that you see here.
The lot, first of all, is not wide enough, and zoning and building-wise, we're just not permitted to do that.
So what we try to do is mimic something that would accommodate the lot that we have, which is narrow and deep.
so here are the brick facades that are right down the street if you go down here you can see where
it turns where that white car is our lot is on the other side of that so here's the plans the
subject lot is right here on midfield avenue and what i said that the client has taken kind of a
unique approach to have two family dwelling instead of having top and bottom maybe first and second
floor, one unit, third or fourth floor, another unit. She decided to do units back to back,
which give you a feel of a single family home because you have two separate entrances.
You both have access to a rear yard because there's a nice walkway along the side of the
property with trash enclosures on the backside. It's not an overwhelmingly high building. It's
not four stories. There's no basement. There's no rooftop deck. And again, we have brick facades
to mimic what's down the block.
Here is the floor plan
for both the front and the back.
Again, no basement.
First floor, you would enter in the front living room,
the kitchen, you would go to the second floor
with one bedroom, excuse me, second floor is here,
two bedrooms, and the third floor
would be your third bedroom.
So it's a modest home, 1,800 square feet,
three stories, no roof deck, no foundation. And then the property back to back would be the same
layout, just reversed from what is on the front. Living room, kitchen, two bedrooms on the second
floor and a bedroom on the third floor. Again, this is the brick look that we've tried to mimic
the homes down the block. It's going to be brick on the side, brick in the front, nice double hung
windows kind of a classic look with the row lock brick above each window and a decent cornice area
on the front to be at the top this is the rear elevation again it's really just a duplicate
of what we're doing on the front so i just want to go back again and just try to emphasize what
we're doing so you'd have a yard you would come off midville avenue your entrance to the the first
home it's actually mimicking a single family home would be in the front and i gave you the
would be in the front, and I gave you the layout of the property, first, second, and third floor.
layout of the property for a second and third floor
The other tenant would walk to the back and then enter unit B from the rear of the property,
but again in the front, and the same floor plan replays over again with unit B.
so this is our application for appeal our tax clearance zoning map again this is an historical
map but try to pull something from 1996 showing 498 midvale you can see how long and narrow the
lot is again instead of bunching a two-family dwelling with three or four stories with a
basement. We just thought it would be a novel approach to have a front and back. We don't
have any issues with height, rear yard, or open space. And it does, as I say, mimic a single
family look. And I grant you, it doesn't match the elevations of the home to the right, which
are beautiful Doric columns, but we just don't have the width to do that. And so we look close
by, we saw the brick homes right here, further south on Midvale, and that's why we came up with
the brick design. Just showing you the zoning map. Again, it is all RSA 5, but as I'll indicate at
the end with the zoning historical records, there's multifamily on both sides of the property.
And the other thing is, it's never been built upon, and I think there's a reason for that,
The single-family home, as my client will testify, is just not going to work based on the values of the brick homes that are further down the block.
It's going to cost almost double the construction cost to do a single-family home than the sale price, because the sale prices of the homes in this neighborhood are under $275,000.
cost to build is probably gonna be around 425 to 450.
So I know economics is not necessarily a reason
for granting a variance,
but there's a reason that nothing has been built.
And my client is actually taking a risk
to come into the neighborhood
and try to build a duplex back to back.
This is a deed indicating ownership.
notice letter to everyone and these are all the properties on either side so our our
property is 498 500 midvale is two family 502 504 508 510 and then when you go the other way
on culture street 424 422 420 and 418 i can go through each of the records if if you want mr
chairman, but they're certainly there for review. Do you want me to go through each one?
No, that would be fine.
Okay. So we're looking for more housing units in Philadelphia. I think this is something that
taking a long, vacant, narrow lot, never been built on, I think that'd be supported by members
of the community and putting two modest apartments front and back. We're not affecting anyone's
lighter air or the development of any adjacent property. We are generally in harmony with the
code because it is a residential area. The square footage is adequate for a family.
And I think, you know, again, my client looked at what could be done here. And again, rather than
going to a fourth floor and having probably less construction costs rather than, you know,
two houses side by side, we came up with this proposal. It was supported by the people that
attended the meeting so again i was a little bit flabbergasted i don't use the word flabbergasted
but taken aback that you know the rco then went against the whatever the community had to say
so with that i would like to conclude my testimony ask my client to unmute herself
ask her questions and then have her got my testimony what's your client's name
Ms. Madar, can you unmute yourself?
Okay, thank you.
Annette, can you unmute yourself?
Good evening.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, sir.
My name is Annette Madar, A-N-A-T, Madar, M-A-D-A-R.
M-A-D-A-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth?
Yes, sir, I am.
I see you, counsel.
Ms. Medora, were you on the call when I presented your project?
Okay, and you heard me mention the single-family brick homes that are down the block.
Do you have an understanding of what the general market assets values are for those homes?
Yes, I did search it on OPA and search it on Zillow.
And they were selling around the $250,000 to approximately $270,000, not more than that.
And if on this slide, someone elected to build a single-family home, in your experience, what would the typical construction cost come to?
Roughly to build on this size of lot single-family will cost around the $440,000.
And if you had the opportunity to testify after hearing what I said about the project, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
Yes, I am.
Thank you, Ms. Madara.
Mr. Chairman, the architect is on the call.
I just want to bring him on to explain why we can't duplicate what is here, if you would find that helpful.
I think we understand that.
I think you spent a great time designing that.
But once we get some questions from the board, if they want to bring the architect, we'll bring them one question.
Yes. Could you tell me how I mean, tell me the width of the walkway going to the that you would have going to the back unit, your very unit.
Like what's the width of that walkway? Sure. Let me see if I can blow that up.
And Mike Cole, can you unmute yourself just in case I can't just can't get this high, large enough to actually see?
mr cole mr cole could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
certainly michael cole last name is spelled c-o-l-e you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do mr cole and mr clinton you want to talk to your witness
yeah mr cole is that five feet one to answer miss graham's question the walkway that is correct
That's a side yard.
Okay, and will there be lighting
on the side of the buildings?
Yes, we're going to put lighting
probably midway down on both buildings.
Thank you.
Other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney,
Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
mr chair am i am i being heard richardson you didn't you didn't leave yet
no they brought me back in i'm still here or just just for the record just for the record
state your name charles richardson office of councilman cindy bass uh i really want to let
the community speak first but i do want to want to make it to make everybody aware that uh solo
Germantown, the other RCO in the area that represents, sent a letter of opposition today
as well. I don't know whether anybody received it. I know that I did. I don't know if they
had put it into the portal as they were supposed to or anything along those lines, but there
is a long letter of opposition to this project. And while I'm just speaking, the councilwoman
is opposed to it uh it's like they're trying to shoehorn something into a space that is really
inappropriate for them to be trying to put something there it's already very dense in that
area and the uh traffic and everything is very heavy uh and very quick very speedy and um
you just don't think that that is the proper location for just trying to put something there
for the sake of putting something there thank you do you have any questions mr
Yeah, I would just like to say, I mean, if you build a single family home with four bedrooms, you'd have the same situation.
So what we have here are two units providing the ability for two families to have their own place within walking distance of the train station.
Hank, the unfortunate thing is that we know that this developer tends to try to shoehorn stuff into the into this community.
She has a lot of a lot of properties in the community and the neighbors are generally not in favor of them.
So, you know, that's that's that that is something to look at.
Mr. Richardson, I mean, all due respect, what's happened in the past or what someone's feeling is really should have no bearing today.
We had a meeting. The community said yes. And I respect you.
That's not what that is. That is not what the letter from the solo says as well.
So, you know, if you have ever received that, you need to look at that.
Okay, so do we have someone else in the audience? Mr. Richardson, thank you. Who's left in the audience? Who?
So do we have someone else in the audience?
Mr. Richardson, thank you.
Hello?
Hi, Cheryl, could you please state your name and spell for the court stock?
Hi, my name is Cheryl Smith, and I represent 12th Court RCO, and I wrote the letter in opposition.
All right, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And you wrote the letter of opposition.
yes from the 12th ward okay uh mr clinton do you have any questions yeah miss miss smith i how are
you doing tonight um i'm okay yeah i did i did get your letter and i note in your letter the vote was
five to four from the community correct correct in favor yes thank you i had no no questions
Ms. Smith, thank you for taking
the time to call. Who's next?
I could
Cynthia?
My name is I can't get that happen.
Hi. Could you please state your name
as spelled for the stenographer?
V-A-K.
I can't get that.
V-A-K.
You're breaking up a little bit.
You're breaking up a little bit.
have a hard time hearing you start over again okay zakiya jenkins z as in zebra i k e y a jenkins j e
n k i n s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do are you a neighbor yes please proceed um i was at the community meeting and the
The proposal that we're getting today, we didn't seem to get at the community meeting.
They did have provisions, but it was not a flat out, no, don't build this here.
They did ask for a single family home.
They were told that they're going to be side by side.
It's not going to be duplexly like the other properties on the block.
Being a near neighbor, traffic is parking.
It's a lot of parking on that block.
A lot of people actually use the train station. It's really good, a good area for commuters, which is what Philadelphia is.
Let me ask you this. Are you in favor of the project or against?
Yes, I'm in favor of it. All right. Thank you so much.
I'm tired of that lot being empty. All right. Thank you so much for taking the time to calls. Who's next?
Hello? Hi. Hi. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Edon Shlomo, E-D-O-N
Shlomo, S-H-L-O-M-O
Right, do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth?
Are you in favor, or listen to me, are you in favor
of this project or against?
I'm in favor.
Thank you so much for taking time to call us.
We appreciate it. I've been on the call for a few hours.
I just want to, again,
I was mentioning the RCO, I attended the RCO
and it was a couple hours long.
It was voted in favor, so I don't understand
what's the point of having those meetings
if they can change their opinion
based off of what they feel like
because it was five to four at least in favor
and more near neighbors that said yes to no
and to have an empty lot is unsightly
as opposed to having a nice property
that can have two families
or whoever wants to move in there.
I am greatly in favor of this project.
Thank you so much for taking the time to close.
Anyone else?
How many more hands?
you and i thought you hi mr reilly could you please state your name and spell for this
photographer john reilly j-h-o-d-o-h-n reilly r-e-i-l-y swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do are you in favor of this project or against
yes i am now are you in favor or against in favor i live in the neighborhood i'm actually
live in one of the apartments nearby on Colter. I love this neighborhood, and I think we actually
do need more apartments, less than single-family homes, because this is a very wide street over
there, a lot of parking, a lot of young people like me who actually do not have the opportunity
to rent a single-family home. We're looking for apartments, and I think it's perfect for this
neighborhood. Mr. Riley, thank you for taking the time to call us. You have one more left?
could you please stay your damn spell for the stenographer
oh yes uh manuel m-a-n-u-e-l last name adam a-d-a-m um right hold on i am in favor
Right. Hold on. I am in favor. Hold on one minute.
hold hold on one minute do you swear
Do you swear or affirm the tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Are you in favor or against the project?
I'm sorry. I did not catch the spelling of the witnesses. Okay, John, we'll get him to do it again.
Could you please spell your name one more time?
First name is Manuel, M-A-N-U-E-L.
Last name is Adam, A-D-A-M.
Okay. Are you in favor of this project or against?
I'm in favor of it.
And you're a neighbor?
Yes, I live in the area.
I also attended the last community meeting, which we heard all the information, and we voted in favor of it.
I don't want to reiterate what the other people say, but like I said, it's very disheartening that we're spending time of improving our community and listening to all this information,
and then have to go through it again
because we're having people hurt their feelings
or personally don't want to get this project involved.
I think it's better to have some type of structure there
that complements the neighborhood,
that an empty lot that could be harmful to play in
or whatever.
And also it raises our property values.
So go through the transportation, plenty of parking.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us.
We appreciate it.
One more.
Okay. Why, could you please state your name and spell it?
Angie Acevedo, A-C-E-V-E-D-O-A-N-G-I-E.
Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
I am in favor.
Are you a neighbor?
i am from the community advocate of building communities in the housing of the community
um i was not in the past meeting but um i was you know it was very important for me to hear this
case um i understand the hardship and the vacant lot bringing crimes drugs i'm very advocate for
like you know bringing more families helping more families and helping you know the community grow
um being so that you can bring in more families in here you know we could keep growing we could
keep doing what we need to do for the community and you know keep the crime the drugs away all
right thank you so much for taking the time to call us we appreciate it you're welcome yeah yeah
thank you um planning commission so ron bednar city planning while this property is currently
indicated for rsa5 our adopted comprehensive plan recommended rta1 where this existing two
family use would be allowed by right. Therefore, we recommend
granting of the requested variance. Okay, thank you. Mr. Clinton?
Yes. Mr. Clinton, I'm going to
take this to the executive session. We'll bring this back next Wednesday at
2 o'clock, and we're going to vote at 2 o'clock Wednesday. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much. Have a great night. Good night.
I think the night's over.
okay all right okay hold on all right mi 2024 006 475 steven henchick
he's not okay
Yeah, okay. That's perfect. So MI 2024-006-475-917 South 9th Street, that case is continued.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called?
All right, one-on-one.
hi hello hi what's your name sir my name is greg palmier i've been waiting for this last case that
was called and i did not get an opportunity to communicate i'm not sure why i was not called upon
okay so uh you you were not on the i i remember you called earlier today but as we went through
Yes, I've been waiting for a couple of hours.
Well, I'm going to let, we close the case.
So, Mr. Chair, if I may recommend, if the board, excuse me, sir, the attorney for the
case has already left, so we can't permit you to testify without him here.
However, I can recommend that the board reopen the record for, because we're not voting until
the record for because we're not voting until next week for the limited purpose of receiving
next week for the limited purpose of receiving a.
a written letter from you that can also be shared with the attorney
mr i think it's completely inappropriate that i was not called upon i've been waiting i had my
hand up i've been waiting ever since yep i had my hand up and i'm waiting mr palmieri i think
you're wrong and i'm sorry you feel that way but uh we're going to move on i've lived in
you know obviously i want to thank the people in this room who stayed here
um um and i want to thank is mr kelly still here yes of course chair
Mr. Kelly, we don't always thank you, but tonight I have to thank you because you hang in there and we really appreciate it.
So thanks, everyone.
You're very welcome, Chair, and I appreciate all the work that all you and your staff put into making this such a smooth operation.
I can't think of a better way to spend 11 hours and 38 minutes.