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