Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Capone, did you hear my opening presentation and the facts and circumstances that I laid out in that presentation?
Yes. Are they true and accurate to your knowledge?
Yes. Can you adopt them formally as your testimony in this matter?
Yes. Mr. Chairman, that's all I have.
Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. We have a darling Olson with their hand raised. They have been on the seat.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Darlene?
Darlene Olson, please unmute yourself.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Darlene?
They are having technical difficulties at this time.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no other hands.
Planning Commission.
This is 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, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
This property is indicated for residential use on the city plan, given the site's documented use history and the existing physical conditions.
I recommend the request of variance to be granted.
Thank you.
MI 2023-007-052-955-Tree Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you. Have a great afternoon, everyone.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2023-002-910-5418 Media Street.
Eli Gabay is the attorney or the owner.
Chair, we have a Lionel, Artem, Ginsberg with their hand raised.
Would that be?
I think it's his partner.
All right.
They have been promoted to panelists.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good afternoon. This is Lionel Artem Ginsberg, L-I-O-N-E-L, last name A-R-T-O-M as in Mary,
hyphen G-I-N-Z-B-U-R-G, for NOAA Properties, LLC.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to wait to read another refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
We have.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
good afternoon this is uh about a property at 5418 media street philadelphia i am now showing
you the deed uh showing that it was purchased a share of sale by uh noah properties uh this
project is to convert what is zoned as a three family house back into a two family house which
is what it was when it was first constructed and was until the 1960s uh the rco has approved
and hestonville has approved it here are the letters hold on a second but what i wanted to
call your attention to is that in 1964, this thing was appealed to the zoning board of the time
to convert it from two to three. Because back then, two family zoning was the approved use
and three family zoning was not. And today we are now in a situation where people want to have
larger families in apartments, and the RCO, as you can see, has approved, unanimously supported the...
We unanimously supported the application.
Here's our tax clearance.
Here is a picture of the post-it sign.
This is the property at 5418 Media Street.
You can see it's a typical house of the neighborhood that was originally a two-family house.
Here it is in context.
You can see it.
It's on a commercial property on the corner.
other single-family homes on the other side of it.
This is the proposed floor plan for the first unit,
which would be on the first floor.
And then the second unit would be
on the second and third floors existing.
They're both already existing.
You can see that they've done a lovely renovation
of the space.
with permits in place and i would turn this over at this time to ziv noah to uh
to answer any questions you may have well why don't why don't we first of all get him to adopt
your testimony could we do that okay sure yes hi ziv noah owner of noah properties could you spell
your name for this stenographer yes first name z-i-v ziv last name noah n-o-a-h do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do proceed counsel
do you adopt my testimony as to the project at 3418 media street yes all right i would open the
i would open the floor questions um so you're saying counsel that this was a three unit building
and you're converting it back to two well it's still he was two he purchased it at sheriff sale
and it was still laid out as if it were as if it was two is that correct yeah the property's
already existing the way it was um what it was i mean from the record that we were able to pull
out from zoning um it was always two they try to convert the third floor to like a mini apartment
and take off um everything that was it was like a two bedroom and a bathroom um that's pretty much
it um uh i think during the zoning time when we bought it from the sheriff they made it um when
it's vacant for a couple of years it goes back to the original one um with the zoning so we just
had to bring it back to two uh the way it was since the 60s all right thank you questions from
the board no no mr no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson hillary emerson
um yes just just briefly um mr chair two things one um in terms of it being previously a three
family dwelling um it looks like that variance um from 1964 was denied so i don't know that
if it was ever a three family it was not a legal three family from what i could tell
um and second um i did want to ask if there's any parking at the property
street parking plenty of actually just street yeah okay all right so so i just wanted to note
for the record there's nothing that we need to do but this is an rsa3 property so there should
be a refusal on there for not having two parking spaces because they're required under rsa3 um but
that i don't need to do any more than just note that for the record that was an omission
by by the city so thank you very much questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands and hillary one other thing do you have copies of the uh rcl letter yes there was a
a recommendation of it's both they both checked uh they checked both support and non-opposition
from the hestonville rco the vote was unanimous all right thank you planning commission
it's uh ryan bednar city planning the property is indicated for residential use on the city plan
we have no objection to the grounding of the request of variance thank you mi 2023
303-002-910-5418 Media Street, I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell,
my vote is yes. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes. Thank you, counsel. Thank you. Thank you.
Number four, MI 2023-002-925-2126-32 East Somerset Street. Stephanie Baza Magna,
is the attorney. There's a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squill's office that also
reports that Somerset Neighbors for Better Living garnered support from also have supporting the
project. And Mr. Chair, we do have a copy of that recommendation of support from Somerset Neighbors
for Better Living. Thank you. Council, could you please state your name and spell for the court
and spell for the court stenographer sure stephanie magania lessons m-a-g-a-g-n-a
stenographer. Sure. Stephanie Magania, last name's M-A-G.
you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do could you identify your client in relationship to the property sure my client
is somerset tool and die llc they're the owner of the property and i am joined today by peter
crawford um who's their representative our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon council
do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. I've
emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days
in advance of this hearing. Yes, I have. And I'll note that we did submit revised exhibits yesterday
to include the RCO's letter. The RCO meeting was held on Tuesday or on Monday, I'm sorry,
May 6th. So we just received that yesterday. Understood. Thank you. Please proceed and share
Thank you. So as was mentioned, this subject property is 2126 to 32 East Somerset Street with frontage on Somerset Street. It backs up to a private street here, a rear alley essentially that's noted as East Seltzer Street.
It's occupied by an existing building that we believe was constructed in the early 1930s.
It's been a mixed-use building since its inception, and records indicate that it was used for commercial and industrial purposes over its life and was converted as a machine shop in the 1950s.
Here's a selection of some of the zoning archives that were submitted along with our exhibits showing the breakout of different uses within this building.
My client purchased this property in 2021 in its existing condition, but the current
uses of the property are not committed under the existing RSA-5 zoning.
Certainly, this building was constructed prior to that zoning being put in place.
So we are seeking variances for the existing uses of the building, which do include five
residential dwelling units, office space, a machine shop, personal vehicle repair and
maintenance, as well as artist studios.
Here's a floor plan associated with this application. I'll note that we are simply
seeking to document the existing uses within this building because the records that are associated
with this property are not complete. So my client is looking to document what is existing. We are
not proposing any additions or changes to the building itself, nor to any uses that exist
within the building. So this plan is just to reference the layout of the existing uses within
the building. You'll see the cellar, there's a residential dwelling unit there as well as
residential in the frontage along East Somerset Street. We have office space, machine shop and
repair on the first floor, auto repair being accessed off the seltzer on the first floor.
And on the second floor there are residential units again with artist industrial studio space
on the second floor. Here are some existing photographs of the building and its existing
condition. And again, my client is simply looking to document what uses are here because the
existing building and its longstanding history as a mixed use building, it doesn't pose,
it wouldn't pose an unnecessary hardship on my client to have to convert this existing building
for a use consistent with the RSA 5 zoning because of its past history. And because we are simply
looking to note what is existing, we do believe this is the least modification of the code that's
required to grant relief in this matter. And finally, as was mentioned, we presented this
application to Somerset Neighbors for Better Living on Monday, May 6th, and are happy to include
their letter of support within our exhibit package. With that, I'll ask Peter Crawford to
identify himself for the board. He is the owner's representative so that he can adopt my testimony.
Council, before we move on, the basement has residential?
Did you say that?
At least a portion of a residential unit in the basement, yes.
But I'll have Peter clarify.
Okay, good.
All right, fine.
Thank you.
Clarify the location of the unit.
Peter Crawford has been allowed with date.
Hi, sir.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes. My name is Peter Crawford. That's P-E-T-E-R-C-R-A-W-F-O-R-D.
You swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thanks, Peter. Did you hear the statements I made to the board this afternoon?
Yes, I did.
Are they correct and accurate to your knowledge?
Yes, they are. And by way of clarification, the two basements that they were referring to are unfinished basements.
They're part of the residential units, but they're unfinished basement areas.
Thank you, Peter. Would you adopt my statements as your own?
Thank you, Peter.
Would you adopt my statements as your own?
Yes, I would.
Yes, I would.
Thank you. If the board has any additional questions, we'll be happy to ask.
Peter, could you explain what that means?
The unfinished basement and parts? Tell me what that means.
That means they're utility space simply for the use of the washer and dryer.
They're not living space.
Nobody's living down there, right?
Thank you. Questions from the board?
no mr chairman no chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
um just briefly mr chair i want to note note because this is an rsa5 property i think there
was a refusal missing for multiple principal uses on the lot um but i'm just noting that for the
record um we don't have to take any further steps thank you thank you questions or comments from the
audience. I see no hands. Planning Commission. This is Ron Bednar, City Planning. This property
is currently indicated for residential use on the city plan given the physical size,
use, and location of the site and its use history. We have no objection to the granting of the
Thank you. MI 2023-002-925-2136-32 East Somerset Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.