to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief? Yes. And would you adopt them as your own
testimony? Yes. And Harrison, just to be clear, when you purchased the property, the structure
had already been changed, the steps were taken out, all the roughing was done, and basically you
just had to finish the uh you know the cosmetics correct yes that was correct okay questions from
the board no chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillier emerson
um just briefly mr chair um mr ward we didn't get the form and letter from community on the rise
just from take back your neighborhood so if you could please forward the community on the rise
one for our records that would be appreciated thank you uh hillary it's it's attached to my
exhibit packet but if you want it separate i can certainly uh forward that it was in your okay
because i didn't see it when i looked through your exhibit packet so all right well i'll make
i'll make sure i'll make sure i send it okay thank you so much am i am i able to elaborate on
on one thing as well as your attorney um if you feel the utmost need um
sure just uh i just wanted to just elaborate a bit more on the so first i'm philadelphia born
and raised i i was raised and grew up about probably two miles away from there um at the
Fox Chase area, Philadelphia public school education. So I have a very strong attachment
to the Philadelphia community. When I purchased that property, everything Sean shared was
extremely accurate. Everything was assured to me that it was all complete. I had a lot of
conversations, especially with a next door neighbor, sort of as the conditions of the
property, which was abandoned for a good year and a half. And in addition to that, where it was
pretty much a home filled with rats and pretty much abandonment and trash. So he was helping out
a good amount and sort of keeping that cleaned up when the contracting company that owned the
property at that time had stopped their work and everything that they had originally started. So
essentially, the way that I viewed it is it was a good opportunity for me to sort of give back and
add some enhancements to the community. So really what I viewed as a positive to the community and
adding in and making sure that things got cleaned up, especially with a lot of the concerns that
were around that property because of how abandoned it was, I really did view it as sort of as a
positive. So I just wanted to share that as well, sort of what was going on with conditions of the
property prior to my involvement in purchasing the property back in 2019. All right. Thank you
All right. Thank you very much. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
very much. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands. Planning Commission. This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
Properties indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted district plan recommends no
change to the existing residential single-family use zoning at this location. Up against hardship
is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or condition of the property that
were prevented from being used conformity with the use requirements of the code. Therefore,
we recommend the request for variance not granted. Thank you. So, Mr. Ward, I want to take this back
to the executive committee of the board when we meet in an executive session. We're going to do
that next Wednesday, and I'll vote on this case 2 p.m. next Wednesday. Okay. And just a brief
response to Ron's comments.
hardship is that the
level is separated from the upper level,
not created by this applicant.
And so
that is the unique physical
circumstance of this property
that creates the hardship. So
I would just ask that the board take that
into mind. Thank you for your comments.
Thank you. Number six.
Okay. Number six.
MI 2023
3-0-0-7-0-5-0. 1901 North 23rd Street. Henry Clinton is the attorney.
There was a meeting with St. Elizabeth RCO.
Henry Clinton is in as a panelist.
Good afternoon, Mr. Clinton.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Could you just state your name for the record spelled for the court stenographer?
Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
So my client is Drew Palmer, D-R-E-W, Palmer, P-A-L-M-E-R.
He's the principal of V-S-P, as in Phillip Properties, LLC.
Our vice chair has a few questions, Mr. Clinton.
Good afternoon, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
I do, Mr. Chahid.
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?
I have. I don't know if St. Elizabeth RCO's letter has hit the ZBA yet, but I understand that it's supposed to be coming.
Thank you, Counselor. We'll proceed. If we didn't have it, we'll hold it.
Okay. Mr. Chairman, I was in transition when you made a comment about St. Elizabeth's. Did they send a letter in?
Hillary, do we have the letter?
Not to my knowledge, Mr. Chair.
Okay. We do not have that at this point.
We do have one letter of support from Heritage CDC, and I think Ms. Burchett is on the call, but St. Elizabeth's was supposed to send one in.
but we'll take that as it goes.
Were you at the meeting, Henry, with St. Louis Smith?
Yes, yes.
And how did the meeting go?
Good, yeah, we had three meetings
and by the third time, everything was good
and we were supposed to get a letter of support.
And Ms. McChad, if she's on the call,
she'll verify that, I think.
Thank you, Mr. Clinton.
Okay, well, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman,
members of the board, Henry Clinton,
on behalf of VSP Properties, LLC,
and its principal, Drew Palmer.
This is my table of contents for the presentation today,
containing exhibits A1 through A10,
which I ask to be admitted into evidence. The refusal is pretty straightforward. This is CMX1
corner property, very long property. It's a 19 by 75. And the request is to have commercial,
two commercial spaces and three residential. Historically, if you look down here at the
bottom, the refusal in 1955, this was a repair shop, a confectionery store, barbershop,
and Philadelphia Bolton Distributing Center, as well as a two-family dwelling.
So it's always been a blend of commercial and residential.
Over the last 10, 15 years, it's been vacant.
Commercial is really dicey and difficult right now,
but the neighborhood is certainly changing,
and St. Elizabeth is looking for commercial to take place there,
but not three commercial or four commercial, just two commercial.
and then three residential.
So what we're asking for is
instead of having the historic use
of four commercial and two residential,
we're asking for two commercial
and three residential.
And I'll show you the plans as I work through.
So this is the letter from Ms. Burchette.
So this is the letter from Ms. Burchett.
She is the founder and president of Heritage Community Development Corporation.
She is the founder.
So she did attend all three meetings in March, mid-April, and then the end of April.
And basically, the development team, as she indicates, was responsive to community questions.
We had detailed responses.
One time something happened.
Vandals broke a window and a tree.
and Mr. Palmer and his crew responded immediately.
Actually, that was a pretty good reaction by the client
and the community was really impressed with that.
The other thing I'd like to point out,
she agrees with me that this is a longtime vacant property.
I don't know how long I couldn't establish it
and no one really could at the meetings.
So this is a photograph of the property.
It's at 23rd.
23rd goes north-south.
This is Burke Street going east-west.
Again, the property's 100% lock coverage.
And ironically, the meeting was held right here at the Helen Brown Community Center where St. Elizabeth RCO meets.
So people could literally walk down and look at the property if they had any issues.
This is the current condition of the property.
What my clients really liked about the property and the community was very receptive to is,
you have some really nice cornice and detailed brickwork below it.
We're going to keep the same facade, repoint it where necessary.
We're not going to put a third floor on.
So we have no issues with open space, height, rear yard.
We have arch windows, which we're going to keep.
We're basically going to restore this little awning area and then rejuvenate the front of the building.
So back in the day, you had some commercial where my cursor is in the front, another commercial, a third commercial, and then a fourth commercial.
Our plan is to make the back first floor and basement residential,
and then you would go through the door here to go up to the second floor
and have two two-bedroom apartments.
Another view, you can see my clients had to do some make-safe work on it
to stabilize the rear of the property.
So the bones are good.
It just needs cleaned up, and it needs to be totally renovated on the inside.
You can see we have, you know, the old grates.
You can see we have the old grates to get down into the basement for the commercial.
And we're also going to have window wells in certain areas on the sidewalk.
Again, just different perspectives of the property.
Plans, basically the first floor, again, two commercial spaces.
The commercial space in the front, you'll come through the angled area in the front door.
There's also another entrance toward the back of the property.
another commercial space. And then the third will be a residential split level basement and first
floor. And then the storage for each commercial space will be in the basement. On the second
floor, as I said, we're going to walk up through one of those doors into the second floor right
here. And two bedrooms in the front, two bedrooms in the rear, full bath and kitchen. And this is
the impressive elevation, I think, of what the property is going to look like. And the community
was really, really happy about it because it's really bringing back the grandeur of this property.
I mean, there's a lot of properties in the area that if, you know, handled with tender love like
this and some good architectural work can really bring them back to life. So this is the way it's
going to look when it's done. Lighting on the outside, new doors, brighter windows, again,
pointing where necessary, some new coping at the top and maintaining the cornice.
This is the look on 23rd Street, same thing.
Everything's going to stay in context, even with the pediment heads here on the corner.
The remaining documents are the typical documents you would see in an application such as this.
Tax clearance, application, zoning map, again, indicating CMX1.
This is the deed to the property, indicating ownership.
notice letter to the community and we sent out 147 pieces of mail and these are all the addresses
so Mr. Chairman we have a situation where we're not impacting any adjacent properties later air
we're not over developing the property we're actually restoring this property to what it once
was we are changing the mix between commercial and residential because I think everybody at the
meeting. And Ms. Burchetta, if she's on the call, can validate this. There's concern that the
commercial might be vacant. So my client's taking a leap of faith that he can find commercial
tenants there and with the full support of the community. So we're mixing up the commercial
residential, but still bringing it back to what it was used for always a mixed use. So we believe
we're in harmony with the wishes of the community and in harmony with the code. And we're really
and in harmony with the code and we're really not altering the essential character of the
not altering the essential character of the neighborhood.
neighborhood we're basically uh bringing back to life what once was there so with that mr
chairman i'll ask my client uh to adopt my testimony okay mr palmer if you can unmute yourself
we have a ruth birchett with their hand raised would that be your client that's that's the
but we'll get to her when we get to the audience, right?
Yes, Drew Palmer, P-A-L-M-E-R.
Mr. Palmer, can you unmute yourself?
Drew Palmer has been allowed to speak.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, sir.
Could you please state your name
as spelled for this stenographer?
Drew Palmer, D-R-E-W-P-A-L-M-E-R.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
See you, Mr. Clinton.