As I've already stipulated to this, the refusal of the Philadelphia Department of License and Inspections
to grant Gump LLC's request to permit the property in question to be used as a two-family dwelling
was predicated on the fact that the proposed use was expressly prohibited by the residential
single-family, quote-unquote, RSA-5 zoning district, which is...
Counselor, we have all those documents.
What may be helpful is, as you're speaking, if you showed photos of the property.
I will also do that.
Thank you.
So in light of what I was just indicating with respect to the zoning district, I also wanted to indicate in light of that prohibition, there are other properties that are currently permitted to be used in that same neighborhood for uses that are expressly prohibited.
One property, for instance, is 5235 Jefferson Street, and I will put these pictures back up momentarily.
And I just, I have a permit from that property just showing so you can see the use for that property since 2004 is for assembly and entertainment.
That property is located exactly on the same block as this property.
You know, so the argument is this, the same privilege that has been extended to other properties that are also thriving in this neighborhood that bring forth a benefit versus a detriment to the community should also be extended to 5285 Jefferson Street.
And I just want to, before I bring back the photos, just elaborate on the benefits that could be the benefits that this property, if zoned, or if the use is permitted, the benefits it could bring, which is similar to the benefits that have been brought from other properties.
So the benefits that this property could bring for, for instance, right now, this property is an abandoned property.
It is an eyesore for this neighborhood, having it zoned as a two family household would not only allow the work to resume on this property and take it from being an abandoned property,
but it would also bring families into the community and bring families together.
uh families into the community and bring families together so council why don't you show us the
So, Council, why don't you show us?
plans for the property yes i was going to get to that sure so with respect to the plans of the
property there will be no changes to the basement or the foundation um you know uh the most of the
work just to generalize everything. Most of the work will be done to the first and second floor.
On the first floor, there will be a two-bedroom family living space with a porch. The second
floor would have um a similar layout uh to family living space uh no porch uh and
excuse me courts indulgence and as i mentioned uh no changes to the basement foundation
no changes to the windows or exterior door size or placement um the stairs are going to exist
as shown on the first floor the kitchen cabinets and everything or I don't will
be installed as shown so so basically with respect to the interior that is
going to be the bulk of the work done with respect to the property. The exterior of the
property will remain the same. And I will bring up, if you could excuse me, another
my apologies um i just lost one of the photos
court's indulgence my apologies
And I also have some interior photos of the property as well, did not mean to click on
the same exact photo. Here it is. So this right here is a photo of the side of the property. You can
also see the posting, but this is a picture of the side of the photo. Nothing to the structure
of the outside will be changed. Of course, the debris and stuff will be cleaned up.
The initial photo that I showed you was a photo of the front of the property, and again, nothing on the exterior portion of the property will be changed at all.
could you go back to that last photo you had a couple minutes ago about
is that a side entrance or what was that in the rear so the rear that is a side entrance yes sir
so where does that take you the first floor or the second that takes you so that doesn't take
you inside the property that takes you to the backyard of the property the back of the property
thank you you're welcome
so uh the interior will only show um work that was started uh i believe during covet um that
obviously was stopped because of permit and zoning issues. So here it just shows just
framing framework being done within the property. This is on the second floor and this is additional
framework on the second floor of the property.
So why don't you, why don't you bring your client on?
Mr. David Seltzer, Virtus Perkins.
Please raise your hand if you're in the virtual room.
i see no hands
um so counsel you're an officer of the court we will uh we will accept your testimony
questions from the board
yes um can we look at the floor plans again yes
so there'll be you're not going to have any household living in the basement
right no that the basement will not be utilized for living space okay um and then uh
where how are we okay that's the basement so first floor second floor so it's one unit
per floor correct yes yes exactly it's a little small we could make it a little bigger
that would be helpful hold up i'm trying i i made it too big so is that is that enough
and you need me to go up or down okay porch living room kitchen
Okay. And then I'm sure that one of the, one of my fellow board members will ask about access to the rear yard. Is there access through that? And how do you get to that? I can't, I can't, you got to pull it up a little bit.
yes i think to piggyback on that it does look like from atlas that there is no rear yard
and that the property actually goes to the to the property line well i was i i didn't mean
i apologize and sorry for interrupting not into the property or the yard but
there is an entrance another entrance to get to the property it doesn't lead inside the property
though so what does it go to because there's a one story structure or one story it looks like
an addition at the rear of the property that has six doors that has access to it you've only shown
one in your testimony and I think we're just trying to figure out because they're not reflected
on the plans? Yes, understood. Let me just pull it up for you again. This would be, it
would explode today. No, we don't want that one. My apologies. That was the question I
initially had about, you said there was just one door, which was an entrance into the yard,
right? Yes. Well, I, I, I misspoke. I should not have said to the yard. Um, but what I was trying
to, um, discern is that it was definitely not an entrance into the interior of the property.
Right. But what, what, what's an entrance to? Uh, it is, it, it is my understanding
that it just leads it just leads to the side of the property um i can um i don't have any way
thank you i think your client's on i was about to say i don't have any way to get verification but
thank you mr seltzer is that you it's mr perkins mr perkins uh mr perkins is uh an agent of llc
Thank you for joining us, Mr. Perkins.
Hi, sir.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Mr. Perkins?
Hello?
Hi, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Yes, Bertis Villasen, Victor, E-R-T-I-S, last name Perkins, P-E-R-K-I-N-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you turn your video on?
Let me see how to do that.
I'm driving, so I'm trying to.
There should be a symbol that looks like a camera.
it should have a red line through it if you click on it it will allow your video to play
It should have a red line through it.
If you click on it, it will.
there you go can y'all see me we should yeah okay all right because i don't see anything but okay
all right could you counsel could you have him number one adopt your testimony
yes uh good good morning mr perkins uh have you heard the entirety of my testimony
this morning? Yes. And would you adopt and affirm my testimony as your own?
Yes. All right. Mr. Perkins, we're struggling to understand what's in the rear of the property.
Okay. Yeah. So let me kind of rewind just a little bit. So our attorney is correct. There
are two families, one on each floor. There's a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment on the first
floor, two bedroom, one bathroom on the second floor. The rear of the property actually is
garages. So the tenants actually have access to the side yard, which you can see in the picture.
There's actually no rear yard. There's only a side yard to the property.
so the front door gives access to the first floor and the second floor the uh the door that you see
on the on the side of the building in this picture it's kind of hard to see it but on the side of the
building gives access to the first floor only questions for the board can you go back to the
floor plans why is the garage not shown on the floor plan or the or the side yard i'm i'm also
confused as to how the side yard works because are you saying that the the right wall of the
building is not on the property line it is there's no side there's no side
the left the left hand side of the building has a side yard to the building
the right hand side is just attached to another building yeah but where where is
the side yard in this drawing yeah i think i think when in respect with
respect to the property line is the question here's there's a side yard there's side there's
a side yard because there's grass there but i guess the question is it just weeds well it's
a green it's a green oh yeah it's a green space so it's a it's a side yard with a fence i say
because i'm looking at google but is that is it technically not on your property is the question
because that's I guess the yeah that's the well technically it it it is um for whatever reason I
don't know why it's not in the plans but technically it is it's just um it's just a little small yard
it's probably uh if I had to say three to four feet wide by the length of the uh the building
that you see on plans.
And what are you going to do about trash storage?
Use that side yard for trash storage.
And you're going to use
regular trash pickup from the city?
Is that what you're planning on?
Or are you going to do trash pickup?
No, we'll probably do regular trash. Just pay the, you know, the, I think it's $300, $600 a year that they charge us extra when we have a duplex.
All right. And then in between pickups, where will the trash be stored?
it will be stored in the uh bin so that little side yard will pave that off
and actually put uh trash bins uh right there in the side yard
yeah it's actually fenced in already uh some somebody ran into the fence so we'll um
um actually take care of that as well where we'll put um so they can't park on a curve or
god forbid somebody flies around that corner won't be able to run into the building uh ever again
and so since it's not on the plan how would the garage is going to work or the
to a garage is that uh not at this not at this point so the garage would probably just be extra
So the garage would probably just be extra storage for whatever, you know, needs that needs to be for the building, you know, yeah, for now.
storage for uh whatever you know
And is there one garage, two garages?
There's three garages there.
And curb cuts?
Are there curb cuts?
Yes, it is.
All right.
years ago it used to be a shop or something that they used to do um uh there but right now it's
just going to be storage and actually um because there are curve cuts um it would be actually
extra parking for the tenants uh if they actually needed parking
mr perkins just out of curiosity is there room in the kitchen to sit down and eat yes
i just want to also point out that the tenants cannot park in the in the driveways because the
driveways are actually in the public right-of-way like they no no no they can park on the street
but there's no public the public can't park there because there's no parking sign so
tenants will be able to park on the street in front of the garage
i have a question about the uh the front porch
can we bring that back up real quick
a view of the front of the house
oh yes my apologies
no it's okay
why does it keep bringing up this
same picture
maybe I'm clicking on
could you show the plans
to show the front porch
is there plans
you said it was mentioned
there would be no exterior work
is there plans to put a fence up
on that porch
per se
it would be a wrought iron railing
wrapped around
and coming down the steps
do you know how many
of the other homes on this block are duplexes?
So actually, and it's weird because
5279 is a duplex. There's actually about four properties
on that particular block that are actually
duplexed. They've been that way for years.
5279 is a duplex.
5285 is a duplex.
I think 52, oh my goodness, that's going down the other way.
I think 77 is also a duplex.
There's actually quite a few on the block.
And just to be candid with the board, 52-85 hasn't been zoned as a duplex per se.
I don't know if they're going to appeal it, but it is definitely zoned for use, to be used for assembly and entertainment purposes.
So that's also a prohibited use under the RSA 5 zoning district, which is being allowed.
So on this plan that we're looking at, there's no door separating this first floor unit to the basement.
what's the what's the it looks like the first floor has complete use of the basement and
without a doorway so what's the yes so it's actually uh let me see i'm trying to pull this
thing up myself i can't see um so literally where the basement is at it's just really going to be
utility purposes uh we'll probably give them you know extra storage just because they're there on
the first floor but ideally what we were going to do is um eventually just uh come back later