star six to unmute yourself.
Or star nine.
Maybe she, maybe they accidentally raised a hand.
Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no other hands chair.
Planning commission.
Morning chair members of the board Greg Waller for planning commission staff.
In 2023, if the zoning map was amended from residential multifamily,
the single family residential at this location,
in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan.
However, the variance is not likely to impair the character of the block,
which is mixed in character.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance.
MI 2023-004-388-755 North 44th Street, I vote yes.
My vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
So number 16 is MI-2023-004-386, 660 North 42nd Street.
Meredith, just state your name for the record, please.
Meredith Ferleger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
And there's also a recommendation of support from the West Belmont Civic Association.
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
Give me one moment just to switch out my exhibits.
My client for this property is 617 Brooklyn Associates, LLC, owner of the property at 660 North 42nd Street.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to read or refuse or accept related to his accuracy?
I do, yes.
Thank you for the department.
it is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing i did yes
thank you uh thank you uh i'll apologize uh in advance board members i was intending to
present these together so you you may have a so on so so marath what's similar just just go a little
bit through it yeah so this is uh i'll walk you through where this property is and some of the
background uh but the circumstances surrounding this application are identical to the one that's
fine that's 44th street he purchased this as an rm1 lot and shortly after his purchase it was
rezoned so okay if if the board would like i'll walk you through uh the the area of the location
But otherwise, I'd be happy to just expressly adopt all of my testimony.
And thank you for that.
So but why don't you just take us through the areas with some photos and things like that?
No problem at all.
So, again, this is very similar case.
The deed I have included at Exhibit 3.
This property was purchased in January of 2022 around the same time as the prior case.
I've included all of the standard exhibits in the packet.
And again, what's also extremely similar in this case as the last one is that the rezoning line here, again, was drawn essentially right down this block.
So 660 North 42nd Street, you can see, sort of served as the point of division. The other side of the street remained RM1, and you can see the dense CMX2 Lancaster Avenue corridor up at the northeast of this image.
uh northeast of this image uh while you know the west side of the street retained the rsa
5 zoning uh by way of aerials what the board will also note about this image is that directly across
the street here this is 141 dwelling units so this is a pretty dense multi-family development
that sits directly across the street uh just by way of photographs not a little bit this this is
also an existing vacant lot that was demolished a couple years ago, probably a couple decades ago,
due to neglect. And the board will note as I scroll through that, again, this structure is
designed to be identical. It would be less than the code allowable height. You can even see a
little bit further down this block that there is a three-story structure with that Mansar design.
So that's really what drove this decision to, you know, add that design to better reflect the block.
And you'll see across the street where that very dense multifamily development is.
And at the end of the block, the other way facing Wallace Street, there is a church and just a couple other images.
Let's see what else. So I do have the zoning plans.
They are substantially similar to the plans that were presented for 44th Street, obviously
just different based on this lot and the fact that there's no rear street here.
The application is proposed for three family dwelling.
And again, the Mansart design was specifically based on discussions with the community.
These units are actually slightly larger than the project we showed for 44th Street.
these are about 900 square feet each similar similar amenities such as laundry trash storage
and ample living space board I would adopt the same hardship arguments that I gave in the prior
case concerning 755 North 44th Street again very similar to the prior case the remapping occurred
just shortly after this applicant purchased the property, which, again, fundamentally frustrated
its investment in the property. But similar to 44th Street, this area does remain fairly mixed
in the way of single family, multifamily, and even some commercial uses being fairly close to
Lancaster Avenue. And so in this case, densities range from two to four families, including
directly across the street, which is 161 dwelling units. I think that is the only additional
information. The rest of the argument is identical to that which would have been given for 44th
Street and is also included in the memo of law that I submitted to the board at Exhibit 11. So
that is fully referenced in the exhibit packet as well. Is it your same owner?
Why don't we bring him on
And just let him state his name for the record
Brahim if you're still there
The owner has been allowed to speak
Aye sir just for the record state your name
Brahim Ikeladen
B-R-A-H-I-M
Last name is I-G-H-L-A-D-N
Please proceed counsel
Thank you Brahim
Have you heard all of my testimony
Given today in regards to
660 North 42nd Street
yes ma'am and would you agree that all the circumstances concerning the 42nd street
property are similar if not identical to that you experienced with 44th street yes ma'am and would
you agree that all the testimony given today was true and accurate and would you adopt it as if it
were your own yes thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no chair
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emberson
not at this time mr chair um questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands here planning commission
good morning chair and members of the board this is greg robin planning commission staff
um in 2023 the zoning map was amended from residential multi-family to single-family
residential at this location in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan
the variance is not likely to impair the character of the block which is mixed in character
the city planning commission recommends the zoning board grant the variance thank you mi2023
004 386 660 north 42nd street i vote yes thomas hall i vote
James Snell, my vote is yes.
there's no shaheed my vote is yes thank you mr chair can we have can we have tom vote again i
Nishnah Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, can we have...
didn't catch one more time time you fell off a little bit at the end thomas holliman my vote is
yes okay thank you council thank you mr chairman we'll see you we're gonna thank you mr chair um
yeah actually can we move to number eight next okay we originally had that one later in the
schedule. Yeah, that was going to be last. Okay, you're right. Thank you.
Yeah, so let's hear that one. Thank you.
So MI 2023-003-927-1815
South 20th Street. Jennifer
Bradzillo is the attorney. Letter of
Opposition from Point Breeze Civic Association.
Ms. Bradzillo is coming back
in as a panelist.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Hi, could you state your name for the record, please?
Jennifer Zicklo, B-A-Z-Y-D-L-O.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
My client is Daniel Katz, and he is the owner of the property.
Now, our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to obey the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. 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?
Yes. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
All right. Before I start, I just want to let the board know I am at a hospital waiting for my father to get out of a procedure.
So your background noise, I very much apologize. This is a last minute thing.
So just wanted to just wanted to let you know. All right. So like I said, my name is Jennifer Bezidlow.
I'm here representing the owner of the property, Daniel Katz. He is owned it in various LLCs and ownership entities, but he's owned the property since 2007.
I'm just going to walk you through our exhibits. We have one refusal.
it is for a lack of commercial use in a CMS2 or deed showing that Daniel Katz on the property
and then we have showing that the property taxes are paid the only outstanding balances
from this year that's not due yet this letter will come back to the RCO letter or notification
letters, zoning map of the area you can see it's mostly RM1, our zoning archive
which I'll come back to later showing that this has been two units since it's
been built. These are our previous building permits I'll come down. This is
the marketing from the multiple listing services showing that this building has
been for rent and for sale unsuccessfully since 2019 aerial view and I guess we'll
start here with the photographs there's the posting of the property so let's
just talk a little bit about this building 1815 south 20th streets it is
a CMX 2 zoned property at the southeast corner of 20th and McClellan in the
point breeze neighborhood of philadelphia uh the parcel is a uh 1 156 square feet with an existing
building that's about 2 000 square feet total um currently uh it is one commercial unit
on the first floor and and ground floor let's just scroll there you can see the photos this is the
and then
There is also an existing two-car garage on the property that has been there and permitted
since at least the 1940s and confirmed with our 2019 building permits for the renovation.
Our proposal is to convert the ground floor residential unit, one second, just trying
to get to the plans, the ground floor residential commercial unit to a one bedroom plus an office
space on like the lower level um residential unit uh there uh the reason for this as i saw
in the multiple listing service records uh the property had was renovated in 2019
been actively marketed both for rent and for sale since then uh without success and as you know we
We have been going through quite the real estate boom in the past couple of years, but because of the relatively small.
But because of the relatively small size of this commercial space, along with the fact that we are dealing with a property that's right by Point Freedys Avenue, as well as other commercial properties that are nearby that are probably more suitable given their size and location, it has been very difficult to find a tenant for this commercial site.
So it has been remained vacant since the renovation in 2019 to 2020.
Here you can see across the street that there are two daycares across the street already.
And you can see there's another commercial building across McFlellan Street.
There's also a lot of vacant commercial properties in this area as well as on Point Cree's Avenue.
So it has been marketed. It's unsuccessfully both for sale and for rent.
And by right, this property can be one commercial unit and two residential units based on the lot size and the CMX2 zoning.
What we are asking for is a significantly less intense use of the property, which is to just have the two residential units with no commercial space.
um the uh existing commercial space will be converted to a one bedroom plus office plus
and two back uh and that is our only refusal is for the lack of commercial space
uh there'll be no major changes to the building on float uh we would just be putting a kitchen
mostly the biggest the biggest change would be to add a kitchen to uh this entryway area on the
first floor uh to have a residential unit uh we'll go to the floor plan you can see a little bit more
about what the layout would be but we're largely keeping the layout the same but adding the kitchen
space i'll see here downstairs could be like a playroom office probably an ideal space for you
know because there's not a big living room area upstairs so we're dealing with uh you know kitchen
upstairs living room downstairs home office attached to the bedroom and then upstairs you
can see that there is a three-bedroom unit upstairs um let's go back to so like i said
before the commercial unit has been unsuccessfully marketed for several years now uh and there are
numerous other commercial businesses in the area like corner stores hair salons daycares all that
of stuff that is being provided to the community already in a much more serviceable area in larger
spaces and on commercial corridors uh the small space of this first floor is not something we
created this building has been in existence since before 1940 i have documents back to 1940 and this
building was already existing by then uh so it's not something that we've created ourselves um by
converting this first floor unit to a residential dwelling will ensure that we have eyes on the
street and activating this first floor use so that it doesn't remain vacant um it is in line
with the surrounding area let me just get to the map so if we look at the map uh we are in a solidly
rm1 area um so we have some corner commercial here you see this block has a one large uh block
to the north has one large commercial building uh but for the most part we are dealing with
residential multi-family zoning and if this property were zoned rm1 like the adjacent parcels
three residential units would be unified right so again we're asking for something less intense
than is by right and less intense than would be by right in the surrounding uh zoning districts
in this area um we did meet this point breeze uh community development coalition let me just get
to that we had an extensive conversation uh 202 neighbors were notified five were in attendance
the conversation resolved revolved mostly around the existing garages uh their letter did say that