Thank you.
okay chair we have 53 attendees and we can start as you wish thank you good morning everyone my
name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's eba hearings with me is our vice chair
Ismail Shahid. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, Thomas Holliman. Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, James Snell. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also present is Hillary Emerson,
our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunken. Here's our virtual format. Be advised,
the proceedings are being recorded. The video will be available by contacting tanyasunken
at phila.gov. For the benefit of our court stenography, we ask attorneys and witnesses
to identify themselves before testifying. If you're participating by phone, you wish to testify,
press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. To enter an appearance statement, call
267-270-5548. Leave your email and the address of the property in question. And finally,
the question answer box on the screen. It's not for comments or testimony. All comments
should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunke. Let's look at today's schedule.
Number three, MI 2022-002-822-6701 Rising Sun Avenue. There's a request for continuance,
L and L
financial is listed
as the owner
who's here
for that group
Chair we have
a hand name Roger
hi good morning could you state your name please
and spell for the court stenographer my name is norma i'm the secretary for lno
this meeting is being recorded uh we're we're we're looking for roger santos
he's right here he's um with a customer give me one second let me grab him for you
hello mr santos could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
My name is Rogerio Santos, R-O-G-E-R-I-O, last name Santos, S-A-N-T-O-S.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir. I do.
Am I understanding you're requesting a continuance?
Yes, sir.
Okay. So back in March, you told us you were looking for an attorney. Could you tell me the problem you're having finding one?
Well, we did have the attorney, but in the last week, he's not having to return our calls.
so we are going to have to request a different attorney okay so here's what we're going to do
we're going to continue this but the next time it must be tried yes mr chair this is hillary can i
just ask um mr santos's relationship um with the property because previously the continuance
request we received was from a julio de hugo yes well that's that's my father okay okay so
But are you part of L&L Financial?
What's your position?
I'm the general manager, vice president.
All right.
Thank you.
You're welcome, Mr. Chair.
All right.
So MI 2022-002-822-6701 Rising, Southern Avenue.
Case is continued.
Mark must be tried.
Thank you.
Number 11.
MI-2023-001-600-3149 Jasper Street, that case is continued.
And number 14, MI-2022-004-443-3445 Kelm Street, that case is continued.
that case is continued are there any other requests for continuances in the audience
Are there any other requests for continuances in the order?
good morning mr chair this is jason hand i will be your co-host for today
thank you i have three hands up one is okay verne anastasio how about him to speak
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Good morning. Could you state your name for the record, Vern, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, sir. Vern Anastasio, V-E-R-N. Last name is A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
Do you swear, Vern, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
What case are we talking about, Vern?
2,600 Oakdale.
I think it's supposed to be listed for 930, I believe.
Vern, this is Hillary.
I have 2400 Oakdale, and I have Joseph Consul listed as the attorney.
My apologies.
It's 2400 Oakdale.
I have spoken to Mr. Consul, and he has given me permission to withdraw this appeal.
He did indicate in an email to me that that was what he intended for the case, so we can go ahead and do that.
Thank you.
So, number 13, MI-2022-005977-2400, Oakdale, this case has been withdrawn.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
I have Melissa Adams-Morris with a hand raised.
I have allowed them to speak.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yeah, my name is Joseph Patton. I'm on my girlfriend's computer. That's why I came up as Melissa Adams Morris. My name is Joseph Patton.
Do me a favor. Go back, state your name, and spell for the court stenographer.
Yes, my name is Joseph Patton. My first name is spelled J-O-S-E-P-H. My last name is Patton, P-A-T-T-O-N.
Right. You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
What case, sir?
Um, well, give me the location as 204 North 52nd street, Philadelphia, PA.
That's number 10 on the list, Mr. Chair.
Please tell us where you stand with this here.
Asking for a continuance.
okay all right thank you so and I excuse me Mr. Chair sorry one quick question for Mr. Patton
Mr. Patton have you have you retained an attorney in this matter uh yes is that corn wise yes okay
I just wanted to make that clear because this property is owned by an LLC yes all right thank
you go ahead mr chair mi 2022 004 440 204 north 52nd street case is continued mark must be tried
anyone any other hands up not can i uh
i want to say something hello yeah mr patty did you hear the your case is continued mark must be
try yes can i just make one statement if you'll mind your honor uh sure go ahead um i was trying
to get the uh the reason i was wanting to tell you for the continuous thank you for the continuous
by the way but the award leader supposed to send me the zoom meeting summary for uh our our
community meeting and we never sent that he actually sent the old one we had a new uh meeting
and i i think i i think you're going to have to deal with the word leader we don't we don't okay
Oh, I didn't know.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
Who else?
Do we have any more hands?
No further hands, Mr. Chair.
So let's see here.
So, number 15, MI 2023, 0001291727 Ingersoll Street.
We have no exhibits.
This is the second listen.
The listed owner is Edge LLC.
on 6-28-23
no exhibits were submitted
no one appeared
Mr. Chair
this is Hillary
I just want to clarify
that 1733-35
Ingersoll Street
is the listed owner
and EDGO LLC
is the listed applicant
all right
any hands
I do not see any hands
Sir, I do not see any hands for this particular matter.
for this particular matter
Okay, so this is the second listing.
so this
No one appeared the first time.
We still do not have any exhibits.
So MI 2023, 000129, 1727 Ingersoll Street.
I vote to dismiss.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is to dismiss.
And number 20, MI 2023, 000122, 2520 Brown Street, no exhibits, second listing.
on 6-28-23
this was listed no exhibits were submitted
then and no one appeared
Lewis Walsh
is a listed applicant
property is held in trust by Matthew
and Kerry Walsh
once again Mr. Chair
no hands for this matter
so this case was
listed on 6-28
There were no exhibits submitted. No one appeared. We still do not have exhibits. So MI-2023-000-122-2500 Brown Street, I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
My vote is to dismiss.
Okay. We're going to go to our add-on list. MI 2022-001-058-332 Delancey Street. The vote on this matter is being continued for a final time until Wednesday, October 25th at 9.30 a.m.
Number two, MI 2023-002-993-9916 Busselton Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Samuel Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Okay, we're going to go to our regular list.
We're going to start with number four.
We have an interpreter for this case, MI2023-00001-4647 North Front Street.
Vanell Fabio Rosario is pro se.
We also have an interpreter on this case.
applicant or interpreter if you're in the virtual audience please raise your virtual
hand and wait to be sworn in right i have a caller jacobson with their hand raised i
promoted them so they'll be coming back in shortly
they had a hand raised but for some reason they declined we see rosario with your hand up
Can you hear me? This is the interpreter speaking. I apologize.
Okay, sure, sure. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Yes, sir. Karla Jacobson. Karla, K-A-R-L-A, Jacobson, J-A-C-O-B-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Thank you. Do we see any other hands?
no further hands
Mr. Chair
Mr. Chair
we're looking for
Vianel Fabian Rosario
I believe
the interpreter
the interpreter please see if you can
Vianel Fabio Rosario
Vianel Fabian Rosario
Vianel Fabian Rosario
Vianel, Fabian Rosario, se encuentra presente.
nobody's responding sir all right so all right so we're what we'll do is we'll correct we're
Nobody's responding, sir.
All right.
going to continue this case so mi 2023 0001 46 47 north front street cases continued mark must be
try. We're going to go to number 12. Thank you, interpreter. You're welcome, sir. Thank you for
using our services. Interpreter, disconnecting now. All right. Thank you. So I have number 12,
MI 2022, 007-641-6904, Forrest Avenue.
Hillary, do I have a name on this?
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.
That is Karen Lucas.
Karen Lucas, please.
They will be rejoining us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning, this is Karen Lucas, K-A-R-E-N-L-U-C-A-S.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Okay, so this application is for the erection of an addition at the front of the existing
a tax structure for use as a single family household, size and location as shown in your
application plans. You have a letter of support from the 10th Ward RCO and a letter of support
from Council Member Phillips. Yes. Did I swear you in? No, sir. Not yet. Okay. Do you swear or
firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. And our vice chair has
just a few questions for you. Sure. Good morning. Have you emailed in all the required documents
and exhibits that are needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance
of this hearing? Yes, sir. Thank you. Please proceed. I see I've already shared your screen
so you can proceed.
Are you guys able to see my screen?
We can.
Okay, good.
So my name is Karen Lucas.
I live in West Oak Lane.
I wanted to have my front porch and closed
for my daughter.
She's special needs.
She's 34 years old.
To my surprise,
we were surprised that we got a refusal letter.
The reason why we got the refusal letter
is because my neighbor,
I live in a row house.
Before she bought her property, her front porch was enclosed, and the builders never applied for a permit, which made me have to go through all the process of getting a front porch enclosure.
I have some pictures of my property.
I have submitted all my documents, which you guys can see.
I have my application for my appeal.
And I'm going to go down to the pictures for you guys to see.
Give me one minute.
Thank you for your patience.
No, we're fine.
We're fine.
Thank you.
I'm almost there.
This is from my contractor.
Tax clearance.
Here's the documents that were submitted.
And the pictures are coming up next.
So as you can see, my front porch has a roof already.
My neighbor to the left, that's the property.
Her front porch is illegal from my refusal letter.
So this is my front porch here.
They're just enclosed in it.
It already has a roof on it.
And I'll show you another picture close up.
This is the front porch close up.
So what they're doing is just gonna insulate it
and just close it off and just, you know,
make a door where the next picture is coming up.
Where the step is right here
is gonna be the entryway for the door.
and here's another angle for the front portion posting your postings there too right yes sir
i have two two separate postings sorry for the upside down but um yes if you want me if you want
me to go back up to see the um second posting and this is i think we we have everything oh okay
Um, so you, the place next door already is enclosed.
So the place next door already is enclosed.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
And you, you have a daughter, you, you, you want to enclose it for your daughter.
Am I right?
My daughter is down syndrome and although she's very lucky that she can travel and her friends, I want to create a space, a safe space for her.
Questions from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman.
No chair.
No chair.
All right.
Questions from our attorney.
hillary emerson not at this time mr chair thank you planning commission
planning commission
good morning chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
Last name spelled H-E-G-A-R-T-Y.
You swear, affirm, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed.
Good morning, board members.
Members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single family of this location.
Given the existence of enclosed porches elsewhere on this block, we have no objection to the granting of the variance.
MI-2022-007-641-6904 Forrest Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you. You have your votes.
Thank you. Have a nice day.
Bye-bye.
So we're going to go to number one.
And number one will be, we're going to hear five cases together.
So number one is MI 2023-001-589-1716 Master Street.
Number eight, MI 2023-001-590-1718 Master Street.
Number 16, MI 2023, 001-588-1714, Master Street.
Number 17, MI 2023, 001-563-1710, Master Street.
And number 19, MI 2023-001-958-1712, Master Street.
Pascual Calavita is the attorney for this.
There's a letter of support from the United Neighbors Alliance Civic Association.
good morning good morning good morning uh council could you state your name please
and spell for the court sure pasqual colavita pas q u a l a c o l a v i t a
representing omega investment fund llc and their uh principal managing member is roman
Ovarotsky, and I would just ask that he be
placed on. Okay.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do.
Okay. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Sure. Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy? We do. Have you
emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed and required to proceed
Ad Nauseam, yes, yes. There are quite a few.
All right, thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Since these are, it's 1710 through 1718 Master Street. I have combined, I sent them in each
separately as requested but if attempted to combine each of the exhibit per exhibit tab
so as you can see there are actually 10 pages two for each property of the table of contents
each table of contents the only difference would be that the deeds are different and
And the architectural plans, they are the same, but obviously the difference would be that the.
They are the same, but obviously the difference would be that the address is changed on the top, as well as the notice of refusal and each of the, so A through P, if you want me to read them in, I'll read them in.
Otherwise, if we can just stipulate that those are the documents that I will be presenting
and I can go forward and try to make this a lot quicker.
Why don't we do that?
Why don't you start your presentation?
So the Certificate of Tax Clearance has been submitted.
So this is a refusal.
So what this is, is an RSA 5 zone.
We're asking for six units for each of the properties.
I've been in front of this board for this exact set of five properties about a year or so ago.
It was approved for three by way of court order.
About a few months ago, I was here on 1710 through 1708.
As you can see, I have submitted their permits, which this board granted.
and it's an exhibit n which i can show
these were approved by this board for six dwelling units it's the same owner so the same owner has
then purchased 1710 through 1718 and wants to make them exactly like 1700 through 1708
as well as some of the other properties on the block as you can see this entire
block is three-story multi-family dwellings this is the lot with all 10
properties there, they are 22 by 100 feet each, which is a lot larger than basically two and a
half times the normal Philadelphia row home lot, which are usually about 15 by 60. So the argument
here is the hardship criteria. All of them are met. It's for single family residents,
And as we go, unfortunately, inflation has increased that price. It's become no viable economic use for a single family residence. There'll be no change in character of the neighborhood. Again, as the rest of the block is multifamily.
uh so we met with the community group as you stated a um they have not just sent in a letter
of no opposition but they've actually support this project we again entered into a cba with
the group. And there's going to be a sizable, very sizable amount of $32,500 contribution
to this neighborhood to keep it up. And another thing about this project that the group was
happy, the RCO was happy about is the affordable housing. We've done it with the first five
properties from 1700 to 1708 and now we continue to deal with the second set of five houses that
are before this board just ask that you support this project do you approve this project similarly
as you had done with 1700 to 1708 there's really no change it makes it significantly easier for the
The neighborhood, because now you can build 10 properties all at once, it'll be rough for a little bit of time.
But the the like I said, the RCO, the community itself, they're happy with with these applicants and just asked it to it be approved for six family dwellings for each of the properties.
Counsel, what was the vote of the RCO?
You know, it's odd, but I didn't see it on here.
And this was a well-attended meeting because there was another project that was north of this.
It was a lot larger and more contentious.
But I requested those documents from the RCO. On the other one, I can look. I think the other vote was probably 13 to 1 the last time.
The vote was probably 13 to 1 the last time.
But this one, there were a lot more people there.
We never received the summary of votes.
The only thing that I received is this letter from the chair.
You want to bring your client on?
Roman, are you in the group?
Can I stop sharing?
You can.
You've been allowed to speak.
would you introduce yourself to the uh panel yeah could you state your name and spell for
the court stenographer yes can you guys hear me yes we can uh roman of rutsky r-o-m-a-n
o-v-r-u-t-s-k-y do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
yes sir proceed counsel mr of rutsky have you heard my testimony this morning yes uh do you
agree with the basis
of my testimony? Yes.
Do you
take it as your own
testimony? Yes. Adopt it as your own
testimony?
Is the board satisfied?
William.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr.
Chairman. No, Chair.
Chair. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from
our counsel, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not say any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good morning, Chair Bergman, members of the board, Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
board members in 2014 the zoning map was amended in this area from rm1 to rsa5
in accordance with a recommendation from the comprehensive plan the city council office
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the zoning board members the only hardship
presented here is an economic hardship which as you know is not a legal basis for granting a use
variance applicant has not demonstrated any unique physical conditions associated with the lot that
would actually prevent the use of these properties in conformance with the zoning code.
We recognize that a lot of the surrounding properties have been developed by variants
and are existing non-conforming uses.
However, we don't think the applicant has met the criteria for establishing hardship
in this case.
And I would just note for the board also that the affordable housing provisions that have
been promised are not recorded against the deed of the property in a way that's enforceable
by the City of Philadelphia.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny these variances.
Counsel, do you have any comments?
I do, and I can.
It's not an economic hardship per se that you say, hey, look, I can make more money here and there.
A Court of Common Pleas judge upheld the argument on this specific property.
These these five properties, when they approved it in twenty twenty one for three family dwellings.
And if you bear with me, I have those on my computer and I can actually pull.
I can tell you what some of the case law is that supports it's not indicating that it's an economic.
It's basically there's no viable economic use as a single family residence due to the fact that if you on the underlying appeal to the court of common pleas for the same five properties, the there was a expert report that was submitted by I think it was Carlos.
Give me one second.
Let me just actually pull these up.
I didn't think that this was going to be necessary, but I am prepared to recite those cases.
Why don't you just give us an overview?
Well, the overview is, look, if you're going to build this property, it's going to cost over $500,000.
You can't sell a single family residence that's on a 22 by 100 foot block for over $500,000 in this neighborhood.
They're only going for about $200,000 at best for single-family resins.
So to build it, it's economically not viable to do so.
There is case law, and as I stated, I mean, I can pull my, you know, I actually have it.
I just pulled it right before.
The only thing that I didn't do, I printed out the arguments, but without the actual case law itself.
I printed out the arguments, but without the actual case law itself.
You've submitted this.
I did not submit those.
What I submitted were the previous.
So do me a favor.
Make sure you submit that to Hillary Emerson, our attorney.
All right.
And what I'll do is I'll submit also the judicial order ordering the board to grant the variance for three units.
Okay, I'm going to vote this with all five together. So number one, MI 2023-001-589-1716, Master Street. Number eight is MI 2023-001-590-1718, Master Street.
Number 16, MI 2023-001-588-1714, Master Street.
Number 17, MI 2023-001-563-1710, Master Street.
And number 18, MI 2023-001-603, I'm sorry, wait a minute, number 19, I'm sorry, number 19.
mi20230019581712 master street i vote yes to all five thomas holloman my vote is no
to all five james snell my vote is yes to all five ishmael shaheed my vote is yes to all five
thank you counsel you have your votes thank you may be excused you can okay um number two
MI 2022-002-908-740-44 South Street. Darlene Dreet is the attorney.
We have a letter.
We have a letter from the South Street Head House, which is the Coordinated Guard CEO,
requesting that this board hear the case
but hold it for 60 days
to resolve issues related to odors from the use.
The applicant is in agreement with this request.
So you to be rejoining as a panel shortly.
Okay, sure.
Good morning, counsel.
You unmute yourself.
Good morning, Commissioner.
Darlene Threatt.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Darlene Threatt.
D-A-R-L-E-N-E.
Threatt.
T-H-R-E-A-T-T.
Great.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
My client is a proprietor of Cleopatra Cafe.
his name is Michael Zaker and I believe he's on the line today okay our vice chair has just a few
questions good morning counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy yes I do all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and
required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes I have
Can I share my screen?
Please.
It's taking its time, but it's coming in.
good morning commissioner can you see my screen it's starting to come up now
We don't see it yet.
we don't see it yet
You're up.
Let me just scroll that up.
All right, here we go.
I apologize. Commissioners, I submitted a package to the board, which contains 13 exhibits.
The exhibits are the refusal, the appeal, the property information form, a deed, a lease,
tax information, tobacco retailer permit, tobacco products license, food prep license, plans,
pictures, the specifications for the air cleaner purification center system, excuse me, the
community flyers, as well as a proof of mailing. Commissioners, I wanted to give you a little
little background on this case before I started. My client, Michael Zeka, operated the Cleopatra
Cafe at 42nd and Chestnut for approximately 11 years from 2009 to 2021. In 2021, the building
was sold to the university and Mr. Zeka had to find a new location for his cafe and smoking
lounge. Mr. Zeka actually contacted the city of Philadelphia, inquiring as to where he could
have a tobacco license and a retailer permit. He was given the location of 742 South Street.
Mr. Here is the refusal here. Mr. Zeka opened up his cafe in December of 2021, only in February to
be given a violation indicating that he needed a special exception to open a smoking lounge
at that facility.
Thereafter, Mr. Zaker hired myself and I applied to the board to have a smoking lounge in conjunction
with the cafe here at 742 South Street.
Attached is a copy of the refusal that's presently shown on the board.
We filed the appeal, which I put in the package.
I'm just going to slip through.
We have the property information sheet.
We have the deed.
and I also wanted to put a copy of his lease in here. I didn't put the whole lease in here,
but I just wanted to show you that we did enter into a lease. It was a five-year lease from October
21st, excuse me, from October 15, 2021 to October 15, 2026. Mr. Zeka,
the tax balance is zero here. And I just wanted to flip down to show you that Mr. Zeka actually
applied to the Philadelphia Department of Health for his tobacco retail license. And this license
was granted to him at this location, 742 South Street.
Thereafter, in conjunction with the proper operation of his business,
he also applied for a tobacco products license,
and this license was issued to him originally in 2021.
It has been updated, and you'll see it currently has an expiration date of 2-29-24.
In being a good business owner, he also applied for a food service permit. He currently has a current food preparing and service license. This license has been in good standing since he opened the business in 2021. And you can see here, it should be renewed in November of 2023.
Mr. Zeka has taken every effort to comply with the laws of Philadelphia.
Here is a picture of the actual cafe.
I'm going to show you a color picture in a minute so you can really see what the cafe looks like.
It's a simple straight back cafe.
Cafe. You enter from South Street here and on both sides straight to the back, you have some
You enter from South Street here and on both sides.
booths up against the wall. These are tables here. These are chairs here. On the other side,
you have the tables here. You have some booths up against the wall. And on each side, you'll see
when I scroll down a little further that we have some televisions attached to the wall for
entertainment. There's one restroom in the location. The certificate of occupancy is for
50 persons. And here is where we sell and distribute the tobacco hookah products. And
now we are serving finger food. There is no food cooked, excuse me, food is prepared on the
premises in an air fryer. We don't have a hood. We don't use ovens or any of those
types of apparatuses. I'm just going to scroll down very quickly. In conjunction with that plan,
I just really want to show you the picture. Here is the picture of the Cleopatra Cafe.
As you can see, you would enter the establishment right here. We have the tables. We have the chairs
against the wall. We have sitting chairs over here. We have the tables here. We have the seating
located against the wall. And right here, I don't know if you can make it out expertly,
is where the hookah pipes would go and the hookah stands. I'll show you some additional pictures.
That's our original posting for the original meeting. We had a second meeting.
And there's a second posting in there somewhere. Here it is here. Here's the second time for the
second hearing, excuse me, that we posted this property. That's, again, a picture of the cafe,
a picture of some of the art in the front of the cafe. That's another picture of the cafe.
You can actually see the hookah pipes here that are used by the patrons.
additional picture of the back area and this is where we sell and serve the finger food
i didn't mention that there are three employees located on the premises at all time
mr zeka also is on location at the premises at all times not at all times but every day
The cafe is open seven days a week from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
There's a letter at 2 a.m., and it's my understanding that it's been insignificant.
There have been no noise complaints.
There have been no noise violations.
We do play music, but from an iPhone and a speaker, there have been no fights.
no arguments, no gunplay, no police have ever been called to the establishment. We don't play
live music. We don't have live bands. Frankly, most of Mr. Zeka's clientele is his clientele
that moved over from 42nd and Chestnut. That's just an additional picture of the bathroom.
That's another picture of refrigeration where we keep the beverages in the rear of the property.
That's just a general picture of South Street on the block in which it's located.
It's a very busy street.
There's a bar at the end of one street.
There's a Domino's that stays open to 4 a.m.
Mr. Zaker, again, closes at 2 a.m.
Our trash is stored in the back of the building.
We have a dumpster.
We have commercial trash pickup in conjunction with two of the other neighbors on the bus.
That's just another picture of the houses across the street, directly across the street from the Cleopatra Cafe.
I just want to give you some general pictures to see what it looks like.
I'm going to scroll down a little bit more here.
Now, when we went to the first meeting, I don't really know how many were in attendance, but there was concern about smoke emanating from the building.
Specifically, a neighbor indicated that there was this ventilation pipe in the back of the building and that smoke was coming from the back of the building.
Now, we did indicate to the neighbors that this vent is not used and we don't use this vent.
If we were to have a hooded system where we would cook, it would be attached to this vent, and it would vent to the outside of the building.
But because of the concern of the community, we did cap this vent, even though we don't use this vent because we don't have a hooded system in our building.
Even though we don't use this vent because we don't have a hooded system in our building, which we cook with.
What we do have in this building, just a couple more pictures of that vent closed up, is the Dayton 3-Speed Air Cleaner.
This is a state-of-the-art air filter and cleaning system recommended by License and Inspections.
It does not vent to the outside of the building.
It's self-contained.
It has charcoal filters.
It cleans the air and it recirculates the air. And this type of system was designed to clean air, dust, smoke particles out of the air.
That system has been in operation in our building since we have been in business.
And this is just some further specifications of the system.
The what's left in the package is I did notice a meeting with the community three times and I sent out three letters and I did three mailings in an effort to work with the community and work with the community concerns in regards to the operation of this business.
Now, we had a meeting on Monday and Mr. Harris of the head house district asked me if I would ask the board to hold the vote for 60 days because they wanted to do one other thing that I'm not completely sure of.
But I have no objection to it. We want to work to satisfy the community.
my client is a good businessman and he wants to be a good neighbor and be accepted in that
community. Now we were given the, we were refused with a special, for a special exception and I
believe the provisions of the special exception indicate that our use should not harm the health
welfare, or safety of the community. And I will submit to the board here that we've actually been
in operation for approximately two years. We did work with the inspector who indicated that
he would let us stay open until we traverse the zoning. But I like to say that his actual
operation over the last two years has proven that he has not been harmful to the health,
to the safety or the welfare of the community.
There's no smoke emanating from this use.
There's no loitering at night.
There's no noise pollution.
There's been no noise complaints in regards to safety.
There's been no fights, no arguments, no gun violence, no shootings,
no police coming out to the property for any related incident,
no noise pollution, and that we really don't have an integrated system.
We have an iPhone and a speaker.
I believe that Mr. Zeka has done everything within his power to operate in a safe manner
and to try and appease the concerns of the community.
And with that, that's all I have.
want to bring your client on please mr zekker are you on the line today
he's been allowed to speak could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
michael zekker m-i-c-h-a-e-l-z-a-k-e-r right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes sir proceed counsel uh mrs edgar did you previously operate the cleopatra
cafe at 42nd and chestnut yes and did you operate that cafe for 11 years yes and is that how you
support your family yes and did you uh engage in operating the cleopatra uh cafe at 742 south
Street in December of 2020 excuse me in October of 2021 yes ma'am and can you tell the board why
you picked that location it's been recommended by the city of the health department of the city
of Philadelphia they have a match and it's it's so limited with the location you can get a
a tobacco permit, and the most one was available at South Street.
And Mr. Zeka, is that why you chose that location?
And Mr. Zeka, have you heard the presentation and my testimony today to the board?
Yes, ma'am.
yes ma'am or to testify would you adopt it as true yes that's all i have commissioner
Or to testify, would you adopt it as true?
questions from the board no mr
yes chair um so there's there's not going to be no commercial kitchen at all you're only going
to be cooking everything in the air for you uh mr um zaker indicated to me that they really only
serve finger food hummus bubble tea and beverages and that they warm that finger food up in the
air fryer that they don't have an oven or a hooded system okay all right questions or comments from
our attorney hillary emerson yes mr sure thank you um miss three can you please send a complete
copy of the lease that wasn't clear from the packet if you were representing the owner
for the the tenant and we do need a complete copy of the the signed lease um since you are
representing the tenant so we can forward that please thank you very much right over to you it
was very very long and i'll send the additional pages to your attention all right thank you so
much these are comments from the virtual audience yes mr chair i have a joseph good with their hand
raised i've allowed them to speak at this time good morning could you state your name please
and spell for the court stenographer hi can you hear me uh my name is joseph glenn last name is
spelled uh first name is spelled j-o-s-e-p-h last name is spelled g-l-y-n one we're affirmed to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do proceed sir thank you for giving
me the opportunity to speak um i just wanted to share my experiences um once cleopatra cafe moved
in um it was i think the day after thanksgiving in 2021 when we heard an incredibly loud drilling
in the backyard and i saw cleopatra cafe installing that vent that was back there now it is capped but
for the past two years just about our backyard has smelled like um tobacco products like the
hookah products. And it has made our backyard almost unusable because at night, if we're trying
to sit out there, it's, you know, it smells terrible. And like recently, we just had our
Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which, you know, we sit in a hut in our backyard and we were unable to
enjoy the holiday because of the smell back there. This was raised at the initial neighborhood
meeting more than a year ago and nothing was done between that time and now. And only at the last
neighborhood meeting were we told or was claimed that they didn't even use that vent, which begs
the question, why did they even bother to install it and then cap it afterwards if it was never
being used? And it just, I think it just relies credibility given my experiences that it was not
being used um and the question is also what were they using in the meantime to vent the air out of
there if this new air system was just bought within the past week or two how were they venting
the air out of there like i don't understand it but basically during that time you know we've had
this terrible experience with our backyard and even when we open our back door the air
like in our house starts smelling like that like hookah smoke uh it's not smoke itself i just want
to be clear i'm not saying that they put smoke back there but it's this like smell of the product
itself which is emanating from that area um and you know this has been an ongoing issue for us
and a very difficult one uh for us and our family and just speaking to the character of the
neighborhood too you know that store that's at the corner which i was shown in the picture
is an unlicensed place selling paraphernalia drug paraphernalia it's not supposed to be there they
They're now a municipal court for that.
And now we have this other place, which opened up without the proper zoning.
And so we've been fighting this battle to change the character of our neighborhood, to make it a place that's better for our kids and doesn't have drug paraphernalia use at the corners and on the street itself.
So this is just the situation that we found ourselves in, where we are trying to, one, make our backyard a livable space.
and to, you know, make our neighborhood nicer.
Thank you for taking the time.
Ms. Treat, do you have any questions?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Glenn, you and I spoke at the meeting of October 9th, 2023.
Is that correct?
We did.
And you specifically told me you did not smell smoke in your backyard.
Is that correct?
No, that's not correct.
Well, it's not smoke.
It is the smell of the tobacco product.
So I'm not sure if you're trying to suggest I'm not smelling stuff back there, but I never said it was smelled.
You indicated to me that you smelled flavor. Is that correct?
You indicated to me that you smelled flavor. Is that correct?
Yeah, it is flavoring. It's like a flavoring type smell. Yes.
Yeah, it is flavoring.
Glenn, is there a tobacco store on the corner, which would be right in that corner store sells flavored tobacco? Is that correct?
Yes, but they were in existence before Cleopatra Cafe and we never had any smell issues before Cleopatra Cafe moved in.
And Mr. Glenn, how long where do you live at specifically? 607 South 8th Street.
And how long have you been living there? I've been living there since 2011.
That's all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Glenn, for taking the time to call us.
Thank you. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
i see no further hands mr chair uh in uh planning commission
uh good morning good morning this is ron oh ron do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do ron do you want to wait till um yeah we have information from the
council and squall's office and the neighbors or two rcos yeah we'll hold on this until the next
okay thank you mr mr chair then what because i had not um put this in as a resumption so this
is gonna have to be a resumption hearing then as opposed to that we were just holding the vote
yeah for 60 days yep so now now this will be a resumption hearing okay but we'll still go for 60
days yes we'll still we'll still use the the date that um i put in for the vote okay all right so
the vote in this matter is held until wednesday december 13th at 9 30 a.m the record is closed
except for letters from council the applicant council member squill's office and two rcos
and the planning commission um the letters will have to be in by tuesday december 12th at noon
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, if I may, I really would like an opportunity.
I haven't seen the letters also, and I would like the opportunity to also submit a writing in that I was not able to see the letter.
I think I said that.
The record is closed except for letters from council, council member school, et cetera.
I apologize.
Thank you.
You don't have to apologize.
Thank you.
All right.
Okay. Okay. Number five. There'll be three cases we'll be hearing together. MI 2023-001-605-3914-Wylusing.
And number nine, MI-2023-001-604-3975-Wyalucine.
And number 18, MI-2023-001-603-3933-Wyalucine.
We have...
Okay, we have a letter of opposition from Councilmember Gauthier.
I don't see an RCO letter as of yet.
Yes, Mr. Chair, we do not have a letter from the coordinating RCO, but we received a letter from the affected RCO that was in opposition.
All right, good.
All three projects.
Vern Anastasia was the attorney.
good morning mr chair morning and you've already been sworn once just for the record state your
name please sure verne anastasio representing thais serrano the owner of the three properties
in question i'm going to present one binder because hold it just wait one minute our vice
chair has just a few questions that's all okay good morning counsel do you agree to
the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy good morning i do have you emailed in all
the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing i have thank you verne please proceed thank you
members of the board we're looking at 3900 block of wailusing today uh three properties and we are
presenting the same product, which is new construction, duplexes, both of ample size.
And this is the block that we're dealing with here. As you can see, it's boxed off.
As you can see, it's boxed off. This is the 3,900 block of Wyalusing. Everything in red
This is the 3900 block of Wyalusing.
is vacant land. And everything that's marked orange is either vacant, boarded up,
or being squatted. It's certainly not fit for human habitation. So as you can see, 80 parcels
for uh homes on the 3900 block of waialusing 39 37 are occupied which is 46 54 of the lots
or properties on the block are are absolutely vacant on what we are proposing again are just
three duplexes and we have
let me show you the
refusal each property
is zoned for residential single family development
two of the properties are being refused primarily
for the use the two family dwelling
and the rear yard depth one of the properties
happens to be sandwiched between two-story buildings, which is why the third refusal
for this particular property is the third floor setback. But for all intents and purposes,
it's the same duplex that we're proposing. As you can see, all three will be brick facade,
storage area in the front also an ample five-foot yard in the rear
here are some photos of the block as it currently exists
here's a rear rendering of the property as well
staying within all height limitations
here's proof of posting of this particular property i've already sent under separate cover
uh proof of posting of the other two in question here's the rco letter uh notification that was
mailed three page letter and there were mailings for each of the three properties
here's a proof of posting on this one 320 individual households uh or at least addresses
were mailed and let's walk you through
the floor plan we have a lower level living space uh here
it's a living room and then uh here's a space that we're calling office or flex space as you know
many people are working from home now so instead of using a kitchen table or a dining room table
we are offering space that has no door no closet so it can never be used as a living room i mean
as a bedroom uh but it will be right off the living room with flex office space um the first
floor will have a open concept kitchen with a bedroom second floor is unit b which is a living
space with open concept kitchen and some flex office space again same thing with units uh
floor three which are two bedrooms and then there'll be a roof deck attached at the top
give me one second
we do think uh you know given the current condition of the block itself and even the
surrounding blocks uh density is something that that's needed uh there is an increased housing
choice for affordability. My client currently purchased and built two single-family homes on
this block, completely code compliant. They're empty. They can't be sold. They can't be leased.
They're just too big to make any sense for anybody in the community.
um this actually helps improve security by adding some eyes on the street and of course
it expands uh some uh choices for folks who otherwise don't have any options uh on this block
Under the cases of Marshall and Metal Green, the court has ruled more than once that if a property, if a lot or a property is so obtuse that it has literally no value in its code compliant form, then hardship is met.
under the
I'm going to have expert testimony today from literally the king of brewery town when it comes to real estate sales.
No one has sold and marketed and leased more property than my next, you know, my witness who will testify that to build more single family homes,
new construction on this block will lay the property to waste and that it'll be completely impossible to sell, market or lease.
that having two more approachable units at more approachable price points
will ensure that they're, in fact, occupied by families who need them.
And with that, I'd like to call my client, Thais Serrano, to adopt my testimony.
Chair, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court's demographer?
Wait a minute, Mr. Chair.
Taish Serrano, please raise your virtual hand
and wait to be sworn in.
They've been allowed to speak.
Your name, please, and spell for the stenographer.
Can you guys hear me?
I can.
My name is Taish Serrano.
It's spelled T-H-A-I-S-S-E-R-R-A-N-O.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
i do proceed counsel thank you mr chair miss serrano did you hear my presentation to the
board this morning i did is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge
yes and do you adopt it as your own testimony yes thank you i may call upon you again
mr chair i'd like go ahead i have several witnesses mr chair okay um sorry about that
No, no, that's fine.
I'll be quick.
No, you always are.
Mr. Chair, I'd like to call as our expert, Mr. Scott Frith.
Good morning, sir.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
They've been about to speak, sir.
Oh, can you hear me now?
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Scott Frith, S-C-O-T-T, Frith, F-R-I-T-H.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Frith, can you please tell us your profession as it relates to Brewery Town and in particular this particular neighborhood?
Sure, sure. I'm an attorney by trade, but I'm a real estate agent with Compass Real Estate.
My wife and our newborn daughter live in Brewery Town, just across the river,
and I was retained to sell single-family homes on Pensgrove and Wyalusing by Thais Serrano.
Okay, and what can you tell me about the first two properties that were built by my client,
completely compliant with the zoning code, the two single-family homes?
You know, I'm not used to bragging about my failures, Mr. Antazio,
But I had 39.59 Wialusing on the market for six months, did 18 open houses, and unfortunately was unable to sell that house.
Understood. And have you looked at the proposed duplexes that are proposed for the otherwise vacant block?
I have.
Okay. And in your opinion, in your expert opinion, would these be more economically viable than the single-family homes that lay vacant?
Yes, sir.
Okay. And in your expert opinion, is there a viable economic use as a single-family home on these lots?
Unfortunately, no.
And unfortunately, in my experience, selling, you know, attempting to sell those houses
shows that there is not.
Very good.
And are you reasonably certain that the smaller units, the duplexes, would have a better chance
of occupancy for folks in the neighborhood?
Yes, they'll be.
I mean, they'll be more affordable because they're smaller and they'll fit the need better
than the larger houses.
Thank you very much. Mr. Mr. Chair, I'd like to call Ms. Carol Grosso.
Thank you very much.
Jason, do we see a hand? Good morning. Good morning. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the course stenographer?
Yes, Carol Grosso, G-R-O-S-S-O, first name G-R-O-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
You see, counsel.
Thank you.
Ms. Grosso, do you work for my firm as the zoning coordinator who works with RCOs and the zoning board?
Yes, I do.
Okay. And were you responsible for mailing the notice that went out to 320 individual households for the registered community organization meeting?
Okay. And Mr. Chair, I've already submitted those flyers and the proof of mailing.
Ms. Grosso, I asked Mr. Hand as well if Ms. Grosso would be permitted to share her screen.
Please hold.
Thank you.
Ms. Grosser will be announced in Azapanda shortly.
Let me share my screen and I will show you the document.
can everyone see the document i have up no no no well i selected share screen
what do you see nothing carol can you please select select the document and then hit shared
screen. I did. I did exactly that.
Would you please try again? Yes, I'll try again right now.
I'm selecting screen one.
Selecting share.
It's up. That's fine. Okay.
Very good. Can you open, can you, you said you, you
mailed the notice for the RCO meeting. And to your knowledge, the RCO meeting was had. Is that
correct? That's correct. Okay. And after said meeting, you received an email from the coordinating
RCO. Is that correct? That is correct. Please share with the board that email. Okay. And that's
what I had up. I don't know where it went. Give me one moment to bring it up yet again. We see
your inbox but we don't see the actual email yeah i know you do i'm moving i'm moving it over to my
other screen um i apologize for the delay okay let's okay here we go all right let's hope this
time there you go can you see that yes okay can you can you zoom in please
let's try
okay so after the mailing went out to all 320 households and a meeting was held
you received an email from the coordinating RCO is that right
Lorraine Gomez, correct.
Okay, please read the email to the board that you received right after the Registered Community Organization meeting.
Yes, this was received on August 16th.
And Lorraine states, good afternoon.
Thank you so much for meeting with us.
We have some questions about the project, and when we'd like to support it, can we set up another Zoom meeting as soon as possible?
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Chair, I'm going to move this email into evidence along with my other my other exhibits.
Ms. Grosso, after receiving this email, did you attempt to ask the RCO about additional questions that they might have?
Yes, we were trying to get some indications of, you know, how best to be prepared for whatever their questions may be.
Okay. And was your inquiry answered with the information requested?
we had multiple attempts in getting responses from it did we did you ever get a response
We had multiple attempts in getting responses from it.
um there was some response that was given at one point that um we received
and i'll have to find that one but essentially um
i might have it in another email did they provide you with the questions that you asked for
there was no specific question ever provided okay very good and are you are aware though
that we did uh go to a follow-up q a meeting with the rco is that right correct and the initial one
that was set up they never they never initiated because someone was sick and then they did another
one very good they rescheduled it as well very good uh did you mail did you mail a notice of
this follow-up Q&A? We asked the question of whether or not we needed to do any subsequent
mailing, and the response was no. Okay, so you did not mail any notice to the immediate neighbors
about this second meeting? Correct. Okay, and after this second meeting, as a result of the
second meeting, did you ask the RCO for a sign-in sheet and a copy of the recorded video of the
meeting? Yes, I did, and I never received anything. Okay, so you did not receive anything
after requesting the sign-in sheet and a copy of the recording? That is correct. Did you ever
receive notification or vote tally of the initial RCO meeting that was advertised and presented?
um not a never a tally but uh we did get no did you know the initial the initial the first
meeting did you receive a vote tally or a position letter as a result of the first meeting
no okay thank you very much not the chair i have nothing for this witness nothing else for this
witness. And I call Mr. William Taylor.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Can everyone hear me? Yes. State your name, please, and spell for the stenographer.
William Taylor. First name W-I-L-L-I-A-M. Last name Taylor, T-A-Y-L-O-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Taylor.
Mr. Taylor, you're a property owner in the immediate area.
Is that right?
Were you in attendance at the RCO meeting that was convened as a result of the mailing from my office?
The first meeting?
That's correct.
Yes, I was.
Okay. And you weren't in attendance for the entire time. Is that right?
Yes, I was.
And after I left the meeting and my client left the meeting, you stayed at the meeting, of course, for the vote or for any discussion. Is that right?
Was a vote taken?
Yes, there was.
And what was the tally of that vote?
The tally of the vote was five to five. And the deciding vote was a lady, I don't remember her name.
she said i'm not i don't live on the block or i don't live around there i just want to support
what the neighborhood wants after being pressed for a vote she voted um against so it was six
to five against so ostensibly though from immediate neighbors it was a split vote is that correct
yes very good did you attend did you get wind of the second meeting and did you get uh were you
able to attend yes i was okay how would you characterize that second meeting i would i
characterize it the second meeting was um it wasn't uh a q a it was just uh it was more
contentious and attacking in the first meeting it wasn't it wasn't like a a mix of people who
were interested it seemed who were enthusiastic and unenthusiastic about the project it seems
to be entirely all unenthusiastic people on the call okay was did anyone ever identify
themselves as being immediate neighbors no there was no was the actual rco head the person who ran
In the initial meeting, did they acquiesce to someone else who turned out to be a paid consultant?
Yeah, there was a gentleman who, the head of the RTO said she wasn't feeling well, or she had just come off of COVID, and she let this other gentleman basically run the meeting.
Yeah, there was a gentleman who the head of the RTO said.
Would you characterize the meeting and the tone to be hostile to my client?
Very good.
mr taylor there's a letter uh that was generated by uh not the uh not the uh coordinating rco but
another rco a secondary rco that um states uh that is sent to the zoning board where did you see that
letter no i haven't seen it okay were you aware that they referred to you as debunking my client's
claim that a single family home newly constructed is not viable in on this block were you aware of
that they were using whatever you said at the first meeting or the second meeting against my
client? Yes, I'm aware of that. Okay. And how do you rebut that? Well, my comment at the second
meeting was I jumped into, there was some lady who also doesn't live in the neighborhood. I don't
remember her name either. And she was basically, her position was that the price point that your
client was trying to get for her single family houses was too high. And so I refuted that by
letting them know that i sold um three single family houses one block over on a less dilapidated
block at a higher price point so i'm like it's not the price point it's the block and the vacant
you know the the emptiness of the block that has been the issue on why i loosened so that that was
my that was my argument and position is that the block needs to be filled in more to achieve any
price point. The people who came to see those houses all commented on the block itself,
not the neighborhood and the price point. Very good. So it's your position that you support
these duplexes because they will, in fact, help revitalize the block?
Yes. I think this neighborhood needs as much development as possible.
Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, before we bring it to parties of interest, I have to say that
in 15 years of practice, I'd never experienced an RCO situation as I did in this case.
We code-compliantly mailed all notices to 320 households. A meeting was held. It was a split
decision um and then a an email was sent under false pretense saying that they inclined to
support us uh but then when we attended rco leadership was absent a paid consultant then
created a hostile environment not my words my the witness's words uh and here's one of the few
female developers in the neighborhood who have consistently invested in this neighborhood
made to feel like, well, anyway, the point is that the RCO process was hijacked and made a
mockery of, and I do think that's something for note. More importantly, we have expert testimony
that these properties have no viable economic use as single-family homes. The proof is in the
putting the proof is on the block. That block is overwhelmingly vacant. And as a result, these
new duplexes, one and two bedrooms, will provide approachable price points, affordable
units as opposed to single family, and exactly what this block needs in order to turn itself
around with that i'd like to uh yield for now so that you can call parties of interest
questions from the board
no mr chairman
no chair no chair okay uh questions from our attorney hillary emerson um yes mr chair just
a couple quick things for Mr. Anastasio. First, one of the
properties has a different owner listed
than Ms. Serrano. Is she part of the
LLC that's the listed owner for that property? It's
39, 33 while losing? That's correct. Okay, so she's
BSM Investments. Yep. Okay. All right, thank you.
And the emails that Ms. Grosso showed,
since those were not part of the exhibit pack.
And if you could please submit those by close of business tomorrow
by close of business tomorrow
so that they can be included in the record,
so that they can be put in the record, that would be great.
that would be great.
Yes, and Mr. Chair and Ms. Emerson,
I do want to send, also submit into evidence
my email sent to the Zoning Board
at 9.04 a.m. this morning
objecting to the letter
that was sent by the non-coordinating RCO
as hearsay and inaccurate.
And actually, just because I have it,
I should put it up here.
Please bear with me. I submit into evidence 27 signatures of immediate neighbors, many of whom are on Wyalusing, in support of the zoning variances for the duplexes.
all with most of within 350 feet of the property many on wyelusing and on pens grove which is
immediately behind the subject property i move these two into evidence thank you hillary anything
else that's all mr chair thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience um yes chair
I have a Ross Mann with their hand raised.
I will allow them to speak at this time.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Ross Mann, R-O-S-S-M-A-N-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, sir.
I'm on the adjacent block.
Proceed.
uh briefly i have uh i have no concern about multi-family development so yes i believe the
neighborhood does need it however i wish to see i would hope to see some more developments um in
line with the with the character of the properties in the neighborhood many of these properties are
19 19th century homes um and my only concern is the three-story structure
thank you for taking the time to call us we appreciate it
just for just for a note they are all brick facades and all within the height requirements
okay is there anyone else in the virtual audience
yes mr chair um earfin raza with their hand raised i won't allow them to speak at this time
sure hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
My name is Irfan Raza, I-R-F-A-N-R-A-Z-A.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes. I'm the owner of 3971 Y Lusing Ave, which is on the block.
Okay, proceed.
I'm in full support of this project because I believe the block desperately needs more development.
As Vern stated earlier, there are many dilapidated houses, many vacant properties.
The developer came in and had beautiful previous projects on the block and in the neighborhood.
And I personally believe that duplexes would be a great addition to allow for more affordable rental options and a more diverse pool of property.
Thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to call.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair, Tarek McAllister.
With their hand raised, I will allow them to speak at this time.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, sir.
Good morning.
Tarek, T-A-R-I-K, McAllister, M-C-A-L-L-I-S-T-E-R.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Are you a neighbor?
Please proceed.
um i'm not only a neighbor but i've grown up on this on this block pretty much my entire life
um had an opportunity to meet the developer um and i was very happy to see the work that they
were able to do on the block and um i did attend the first rco meeting um as far as i'm concerned
the only rco meeting that took place with this because as stated the second one was not done in
good faith because I was in full support of it, the first one, but was not notified of the second
one. And I made it clear then that I'm in support of it because I think it's needed. I think it was
the effort to bring single family homes to the block has already been made. And someone like
myself would benefit from there also being a variety, such as a duplex option. As I look to
stay in the neighborhood and currently look to rent in the neighborhood and having a duplex on
the block would allow me to do that. Okay. Thank you for taking the time to call.
uh would allow me to do that okay um thank you for taking the time to call so we appreciate
your input is there anyone else yes mr chair a christina cultural with their hand raised
i've allowed them to speak at this time
good morning could you state your name please and spell for the court sonographer can you hear me
i can okay my name is christina cultural and uh i am your name please please spell your name for
the court reporter c-r-i-s-t-i-n-a my last name is cultural c-o-l-t-r-o right do you swear a firm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do are you a neighbor um i own a
property at uh 3963 pens grove so it's in the neighborhood okay could proceed please yes um i
just wanted to state I've seen the developments by this developer and I'm very pleased with what
they have come up with. I am in favor of this project because I think this neighborhood needs
desperately to be developed. We need properties like this to be affordable for people in the
neighborhood and to decrease the amount of vacant properties that we have on that specific block.
So I'm in full support, and I hope this project goes through.
Thank you for taking the time, Nicole, and we appreciate your input.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Roberto Machado with the hand raised.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Roberto.
roberto machado please unmute
once more roberto machado please unmute
is there anyone else in the audience yes mr chair a roberta connor levy i've allowed them to speak
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
can you hear me now i can could you state your name for the court
roberta r-o-b-e-r-t-a-l-i-g-h-t-y connor c-o-n-n-o-r roberta lighty connor
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
I live one block over.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
Against.
Could you give us a little overview of why?
because several of our organizations in the community have been working very hard over the years
to keep our community in with the zoning codes of single-family dwellings.
And we also have worked very hard with the turnkey program to bring affordable housing to this community.
That's the first thing. What I resent is that they have turned everything around, most things, in favor of this type of development.
From what I understand, from the last two meetings, those petitions that were put up were not in favor of this project.
Now, that's what I understood. I may be wrong, but I do not think so. I resent the fact that they come and talk about our community negatively when a lot of the senior patriarchs here have labored through the years to work hard in developing this community.
And now it is coming into full fruition. What I would say is that I hope that people would search their souls when they say, I will tell the truth and nothing but the whole truth, because some of what I heard is not the truth. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, can I briefly cross-examine?
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you.
Ms. Lightly, are you there?
Ms. Lightly, are you there?
No, you may not cross-examine
because your client was very rude
and very disrespectful to this community.
Ms. Lightly, I have a right to cross-examine.
I do not appreciate that.
Ms. Lightly, Mr. Chair, may I proceed?
Proceed.
If she doesn't want to talk, I mean...
Ms. Lightly, are you prepared to be cross-examined?
I'm not on trial here.
Thank you.
And I will not consent.
Very well.
Let the record reflect that the witness has broken with civil procedure preventing me
from cross-examining, which is my right and which immediately prejudices my client.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
No further hands.
okay mr chair planning commission uh ron bednar city planning this um recommendation is for 34 14
39 33 39 75 why losing um these three properties are all indicated for a single family residential
in the district plant on the comprehensive plan this block was recently re re re zoned rsa 5 as
recommended by the district plan. The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of any
physical circumstances or condition of the property that would prevent them from being used
conforming with the code. Therefore, we recommend the inquest of variance not be granted.
Mr. Chair, I just want to make briefly say that again, and the Planning Commission probably
doesn't know this, but under the Marshall Court and the Metal Green, if we produce evidence that
shows that there is no viable economic use as a single-family home, and that is proof in bricks
right on the block itself, plus in evidence, then the hardship requirement has been met.
We have overwhelming support of the immediate neighbors, and not only that have testified today,
but that signed the petition of support to nearly 30 individual households. So with that,
Now, then, because we've met the burden, in my opinion, because 54% of the block is vacant and could use, we're not talking about a large multifamily development.
We're talking about duplexes.
And because the RCO process was unfortunately hijacked and operated at the end in bad faith, we respectfully request the granting of the variance.
so number five i'm going to list the cases first number five mi 2023 001 605 excuse me mr chair
um i just wanted to um note that we do need to hold the vote on these i know but i want to
i want to go back and mention sure okay i thank you sure so number five 2023 001 605
3914 while loosing and number nine
MI 2023-001-604-3975 while loosing and number 18
MI 2023-001-608-3933 while loosing all three the vote will be held
to handle the tax
clearance. Okay? Thank you, Mr. Chair. The record is
closed, otherwise. The record is closed, yes. Thank you, Ms. Emerson.
Okay. All right. Let's move on here.
All right.
Okay. Number
2023-000-111-3401-Royer Street.
David Garcia is the attorney.
Letter of support from IMPACT.
Letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
They will be coming back in as a panelist shortly, sir.
Thank you.
We see David Garcia.
Yes, he's in here now, Chair. Mr. Garcia, can you please unmute yourself?
There we go. Mr. Chairman?
Good morning. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Yes, it's David Garcia, DAV ID, G-A-R-C-I-A, ID number 54351.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
He is the owner.
That would be Adelivi Torres.
He's operating a garage at the moment at the location at Motion Auto Shop.
So he should be participating by phone, Mr. Chairman.
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Yes, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, sir.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Mr. Chairman, I'm just going to go straight to the share screen.
this is a uh a property located at 3401 war street let me just here
i'm sorry mr sharp let me just
confirmed to my client
that we're on
we don't see your screen yet
yeah it's loading up
I think I forgot to feed the squirrels
this morning
but in the meantime
as I said this is a property
it's about
about 3700 square feet it is being used as a vehicle repair shop here we go
as well as for maintenance the variance we're seeking is to legalize what it's being used at
the present time I know in the filing of the variance and I'll just go through
the notice of appeal here's a refusal it's owned as an rs a residential a5 and which has a
prohibition for a personal vehicle repair or maintenance shop in the area um i think when
this was filed initially somewhere in the filing documentation it indicated that the previous owner
had been using it for the same purposes, i.e. that of a garage for maintenance and service
of vehicles.
And at the RCO meeting, one of the members of the RCO pointed out that she believes that
this property location was already zoned for this use.
However, it just, for whatever reasons, didn't make it into the record, into the file that
maybe even kept by L&I. So it was previously used for the same purposes that my client is using at
this time. Since he's taken over the property, he has put on a fresh coat of paint. It was somewhat
of an eyesore, and he certainly has removed bush and just made it certainly attractive for the
the commercial purposes that he's using as i go through this i could just scroll down
here or this is the deed of the property
being purchased back in july of 2022 here's mr torres's name
This company that he is operating under is a limited liability corporation and there's two tax clearance certificates for both. Here's the one for Mr. Torres. What follows is the one for Monsignor Auto Shop, LLC.
his company that he is operating under is a limited liability
see um here is the rco meeting and i will show you briefly here's a certificate of bulk mailing
let me just reduce this a bit i believe there's about 147 or 46 different addresses that this
that the notices were sent to we did meet with the rco i've read their letter and their letter
of acceptance and approval
pretty much encapsulates everything
but I don't think it could be said
better
here's a drawing
simply and I know some of the
board members are using
their phones so I'll try to make this
a little bit bigger but this is just
for purposes of
the plot plan you've got
Ontario on one
side you've got Rower Street and adjacent
properties next to each other
let me just
reduce this and of course here's a zodimap in the location what i would point out there's another
this property here i think the next drawing will show it it's also a commercial mixed use
i believe that we have here of course this is our client's property or my client's property
now as you can tell i wish i had some of the older photographs but
um since taking possession of this property uh mr torres has repainted
made it somewhat nicer looking for what it what its actual purpose is
uh this is by the way looking for roer street um i could just get a
yeah here's here's about here's on i believe this is ontario but not ontario's over here i'm sorry
but here's a better overall look he's also installed as you can see here outside lighting
um here's another one of the outside lights uh for the property if i could just keep scrolling
down again you can see evidence of of his maintenance once he he assumed possession
of the property here's the interior garage holding areas where the repair and maintenance work is
done. By the way, there's not going to be any painting or any auto body type work done at this
location. Again, these are the interiors. They installed a roll down door for safety purposes
in the area. Here are the notices that were posted
for the zoning hearing. Excuse me.
Scroll down. Here's one of the doorways for access
to the garage. I said before this, and here's the
waiting area, as you can see. Mr. Torres
certainly made some improvements to the area with the new
flooring, drywall, painting.
let me see if I can get down
I can't believe that's pretty much it
for whatever reason I may have passed it
but the letter from the RCO
and their approval which I know is part of the record
if I may just paraphrase it
They're all they were all in favor of this simply because the property prior to my client's possession was a nice or the RCO was somewhat happy that not only was it now being used and in possession of my client, but they like the fact of the improvements that were made and that this would be a property.
It was no longer, I don't want to say abandoned, but certainly no one was using the property at the time.
Now it's in four years and it's going to be an income producing property, not only for the client, but certainly for the tax revenues for the city.
And the RCO has already also commented that the prospect of employment by local members of the community is something also that they find positive.
do you want to bring your client on and adopt your testimony
certainly Mr. Torres are you on the phone
Mr. Torres
let me just
let me just did we see a hint no hand share let me just tell them
did we see a hand
no hands
mr taurus you're free to speak please
hi sir could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
mr torres he's unmuted chair mr torres could you state your name please and spell for the court
stenographer mr garcia you're an officer of the court we will accept your testimony
thank you questions questions from the board
no chair
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
there are no hands mr chair planning commission uh ron bednar city planning
uh while this property is currently indicated for residential use on the city plan given the
documented use history and its official condition on the site recommend the quest of variance be
um mi 2023 000 111 3401 royal street i vote yes thomas holliman my vote is yes
James Snell, my vote is yes
Mr. Shahid, my vote is yes
Thank you, counsel
Thank you, Mr. Bergman
and I wish everybody a good rest of the day
All right, thank you
So number seven, MI 2022
006001
5408 Chestnut Street
Letter of strong support from the West Philadelphia Economic
Development Council. Councilman Gauthier has taken a position also of support.
Applicant has also provided letters of support from the Philadelphia United
Democratic Ward Leaders of Color and the Democratic County Executive Committee.
Amanda Davidson is the attorney for the owner.
They're backing as a panelist, sir.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Yes, my name is Amanda Davidson, A-M-A-N-D-A Davidson, D-A-V-I-D-S-O-N.
You swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, I represent Mr. James Smith, who is sitting here with me, and in addition, the contractor who filed his appeal for him.
Okay. Our Vice Chair has just a few questions.
Thank you.
Good morning, Counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. And I have an assistant helping me with that, since I'm not very good at it.
So can everyone see this is the rear of my client's property where we are requesting
a variance so that my client, who is legally blind, can build a weather security enclosure
so that he can go out his back door, which you see that comes from his dining room and
has some steps that go down and walk out and go down into his basement where he can do his laundry
and where his utilities are located. As it stands now, whenever he goes outside, he has to be
outdoors in the elements. He has to turn his back to open up the entrance to the basement.
And when he does that, he feels extremely vulnerable because he is elderly, because he is
blind and because in the neighborhood there has been shots fired on on that alleyway in his
backyard. He's even had a bullet go through his kitchen window while he had family sitting in the
kitchen window while he had family sitting in the room. He is in a neighborhood where he is
room. He is in a neighborhood.
feeling very vulnerable, particularly for the reasons I just stated. So he went to see a
contractor who had designed a shelter so that my client would be able to walk out his steps
and open up his entry to the basement and go downstairs and be safe from all the things I
just mentioned. I have him sitting here with me today, and I also have all the documents if you
need me to go through them. But it's a, it's a variance. It's really a humanitarian request
that there's just a slight difference in how much of the rear is being used up so that he can have
this sense of safety in his own backyard. He's lived in the building for seven years. He's owned
the building for 20 years. He is very active in his community. We had the meeting. Everybody was
so supportive of my client being able to have this shelter for the purposes of safety. And
we didn't have anyone at the meeting object to this. In fact, they wanted him
to be able to build this shelter. I also had- Counsel, could you show us what the shelter
would look like? Yes, I have the documents. Let me just switch over. And I also, I can call the
contractor who's been waiting patiently since 9 30 um on the telephone who could describe um some
technicalities probably better than myself but just well just show us what you have first absolutely
yeah just give me one second we're switching over
Sorry, we'll have it up in a minute.
Okay, sure.
I think I can do it.
Is it the first or the second or the third thing?
The third.
Zoning application.
The third thing that we've put on.
Is that it?
Oh, yeah.
I think we have everything now.
It's good.
I know he wants a photograph what we just sent, the whole packet that we just uploaded.
Just go to desktop. I'm sorry. Just take one more second. I'm so sorry. Court's indulgent.
It's fine. Go to the top thing that we put up on today. That was the picture. And then what else?
We're having a little trouble getting the picture up right now.
Maybe we could put on some testimony and work on it.
I did send it with my materials.
We're just having a little trouble finding it at the moment.
Why don't you put the contractor on then?
I think that would be the best idea.
What's his name?
His name is Melvin Brown.
They've been about to speak.
All right.
Mr. Brown, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Melvin Brown, M-E-L-V-I-N-B-R-O-W-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
one. Okay, Mr. Brown, can you tell us how did you first become involved with my client James Smith
for the purposes of this project? I was recommended to Mr. Smith by the Enterprise Center. I was doing
some work for the Enterprise Center. They said they had a client who needed my assistance because
of the situation that you described. His only access to his basement is actually having to
leave his house from the back. There is no stairwell or there's no access to the basement
stairwell or there's no there's no access to the basement from the inside of the house so he
from the inside of the house.
actually have to leave the house to uh out the back uh put himself in and in harm's way it's an
open alley driveway where young guys are hanging people are hanging out and uh and and and you
know he has to go out in the weather and and put himself in harm's way to get to his basement to
do his laundry right and i think we were able to get the photos the pictures up can everyone see
that now? I see the drawings. Okay, thank you so much. So once you went to his backyard, you came
up with a plan, and are these the drawings that you submitted? Yes, they are. We hired, I used
an architect and an engineer to design something as very minimal. It's the only thing it serves
is as a weather and safety shelter. It's just enough room for him to go down the steps,
make a left open up his bill code doors and go down into the basement and then return
with uh you know whatever time of year or whatever time of day it is that he needs to do that
all right i think we understand it um counselor do you do you have your client with you yes i do
he's sitting right next to me why don't we swear your client and then your client can adopt your
testimony okay okay very well very well hello my name is james smith j-a-m-e-s
S-M-I-T-H
Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, sir?
Okay, proceed, counsel.
Mr. Smith, you've heard everything that I've said
so far, right?
And you've been listening?
And would you adopt and agree that everything that I've said is truthful
and is that your testimony as well?
I just have one.
The bullet came through the dining room instead of the kitchen.
The bullet came through the dining room instead of the kitchen?
Yes, I just went through.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. All right. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair. Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson? No, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i do not see any hands the chair all right planning commission
i run bednar city planning the property is currently indicated for residential use on
the city plan we have no objection to the granting of the requested variance provided
that rear car access is still fully available is still fully maintained
did you hear that yes i did and i would just maybe defer that question to the contractor
because i don't know that that's been brought up before contractor back could he get back
one or did he leave no i'm here but i did not hear the question okay
Ron, repeat one more time, Ron.
So, again, we have no objection to the granting of this variance, provided that rear car access is fully maintained.
Oh, yeah.
The shelter does not extend even to its property line.
So, there will be no obstruction for traffic, traffic inflow.
Thank you.
MI-2022-006-001-5408 Chester Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ismail Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you so much. Have a good day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
a second is there anyone in the virtual audience who's who's 9 30 the 9 30 case has not been called
i do not see any hands mr chair okay thank you everyone see everyone at 2 p.m thank you very much
good afternoon my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this afternoon's eba hearings
with me is our vice chair ismail shaheed who will be late our board member thomas holliman
president mr chairman our board member james snell president mr chairman also here is hillary
Emerson, our attorney, and also our executive director, Tanya Sunkett. Here's our virtual
format. Be advised to proceedings are being recorded. A video will be available by contacting
A video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phil.gov.
Tanya Sunkett at Philadelphia.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement call, 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question-answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony. All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken. Let's look at this afternoon's schedule.
number eight
mi 2022 005
442 3021
their avenue i understand we have a continuance on this
jermaine harris please come on
excuse me chair this is jason and once again i will be your calls for this afternoon
i do not believe i see mr wait it's an attorney jermaine harris
okay he's been about to speak okay
yes good afternoon mr harris could you state your name please and spell for the courts in honor
good afternoon uh jermaine harris i apologize for my dress um jermaine harris jermaine harris
for uh 3021 bear avenue that's cp 2022 007616 you do swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do i understand you're looking for a continuance this is the third
listing. I realized that I just spoke to the son of the applicant, and he tells me that his father
has been ill for several weeks, and he's not available to participate. Okay, all right. And
I would just ask, I understand with the understanding, I would just ask one last
time that this could be, mark, must be tried. Sure, absolutely, sir. So MI 2022-005-442-3021,
their avenue, this case is continued, mark, must be tried. Thank you for coming on, Mr. Harris.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate your kindness.
Is there any other requests for continuances?
Mr. Chair, I do not see any further hands at this time.
All right. Thank you. So number nine, MI 2023, 5558 Crowson Street.
Claiborne Anderson is the listed owner. This is the first listing. We have no exhibits.
5558 Crowson Street.
No hands for that case, Mr. Chair. I do not see them in the virtual audience.
Okay. No hands, right?
Right. No hands.
All right. Thank you. So MI-2023-003-244-5558, Crowson Street. That case is continued. Mark must be tried.
We're going to go to our add-on list first.
So MI 2022-007-291-430 West Burke Street. The vote on this matter is being postponed until Wednesday, October 25th at 2 p.m.
The record remains open for the limited purpose of receiving feedback on additional discussions from the applicant, the RCO, and the council office.
Number two of our add-on list, MI 2023-002-899-1170-90 Surrey Road, I vote yes with proviso.
This approval is for all uses permitted in the CMX Zoning District, along with a variance for the 2,000-square-foot occupied area limit in Table 14-602-2, Note 5, as applicable.
The following additional uses are also approved.
The following additional uses are also approved, prepared food shop, commissaries, catering services, sit down restaurant, along with accessory signage as permitted in the CMX 2 zoning district.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
So let's start with the understanding.
Mr. Chair, I just wanted to clarify one thing at the beginning.
I know that was a long proviso.
I'm just at the beginning that the approvals for all uses in the CMX1 zoning district plus the three additional uses that you mentioned.
Thank you.
Here we go here.
So we're going to go to our regular list and start with number seven.
MI 2022-004-487-6016 Bingham Street, Stanford Smith is the owner.
The application is for the legalization of a fence at the front, size, and location as shown in the plans.
The fence at the front exceeds the maximum height permitted under the zoning code, whereas four foot is allowed and nine foot two inches is proposed.
There's a letter of opposition from the Long Crest Community Association.
Mr. Smith.
They'll be coming back in as a panelist shortly, sir.
Mr. Smith, please, I'm here, I'm unmuted now.
Hi. Could you state your name, please? It's spelled for the court stenographer.
Stanford Smith Jr., S-T-A-N-F-O-R-D, Smith, S-M-I-T-H, J-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Holloman, our board member, has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, sir.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Please proceed and share your screen.
Can you see my screen?
I see an email.
Yeah, that's just a note.
It must have closed everything.
I had it up.
It is.
This is the internet.
I'll go to.
What would you like to say?
Why don't you first go to photos so we know what we're talking about.
I'll go to photos.
And then tell us what you're trying to do.
This is.
I guess Zoom closed everything out.
I did have it open.
This is the overview.
Well, the side with the sign, the photo I had to take.
Right.
Well, I would like to keep the roll-up gate as my spouse drives the school bus, which is here, and it allows her to get it off street during work hours.
now the wooden fence as i told the uh inspector in at the meeting was a misunderstanding with
the uh people who installed the gate so that was only supposed to come up six foot
and on the left side which i believe i have a picture of the porch right here
was the only section that should have came up so nobody falls over you know because
uh my neighbor likes to sit on that rail and six foot will put them right at the top
So that was a misunderstanding on the gate company that installed the gate, which is right here.
so that was a misunderstanding on the uh the gate company that
That's their business card.
Let's see the roll-up gate. What's the roll-up gate look like?
This is it, what is up?
Oh, that's it, Phil, what's up? Okay.
Yes, with the school bus in there.
and i'm not sure if i submitted a picture with it down but i can i can actually walk outside
because i'm at the no that's okay you don't have to do that okay i think i think you showed it
when it was down before when you yeah when i showed uh yeah this was it wasn't a full-fledged
and i submitted the uh the engineer letter in right yeah in the in the updated uh drawings
because i did zone the driveway and then i subbed the gate out for the other company to do
but the driveway i did myself so the the long crest community association right yes what was
the vote uh that vote was 40 to 1 that letter was attached as well okay and it was opposed
only because they wanted more transparency with the wooden gate they actually no the wooden gate
they wanted more transparency right here with the with the wood okay they said they couldn't see so
they thought it was a danger okay um okay question questions from the board no mr chairman
no chair thank you um questions from our attorney hillary emerson
at this time mr chair um questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission
Thank you, Chair Bergman, Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning.
The proposed variance will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be expected.
City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance.
mr smith we're going to take this under consideration and we're going to vote on
this next week at 2 p.m on wednesday okay okay yeah we're just going to we're going to sit in
an executive session and talk about it a little bit more okay okay no problem and do i definitely
have we'll have a vote we'll have a vote for you next uh wednesday at two o'clock okay do i have
to attend that or that is just coming you don't have to come on you can you can come and listen
okay okay yeah all right thank you thank you i appreciate it
okay we're going to go to number one
mi 2023 000 358 1845 to 47 east letterly street alan knockamson is the attorney
WE HAVE A LETTER OF OPPOSITION FOR THE EAST KENSINGAN NEIGHBORS ASSOCIATION BASED ON THE
ORIGINAL EIGHT UNIT PLAN AND A LETTER OF OPPOSITION FROM COUNCIL MEMBERS SCHOOLA.
MR. NOTCOMESON IS BACK AS A PANELIST.
MR. CHAIR MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, ALLAN NOTCOMESON, A-L-A-N, LAST NAME NOTCOMESON,
N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
You swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is the property owner, San San Development LLC, and in the virtual audience
is one of its members, Michael Ollidot.
And Mr. Holliman has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, Council. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to his accuracy? I do. Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required
five days in advance to this hearing? Yes, we have. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
So, I'm here to present 1845-47 East Larley Street.
This is a property located in the East Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.
First, we'll review the notice of refusal for this property.
I'll note that this is a double-wide property in a neighborhood with diverse zoning.
So we're an RSA 5 property, but this multifamily use is not out of character with the neighborhood.
And given the size of the property, this is a property which should have some type of multifamily use.
We'll review the correspondence from the East Kensington Neighbors Association.
It was not that well attended the meeting.
Only nine individuals showed up.
It was a close vote. More people voted in opposition to the project than in support, but there was support in the room.
We also, based on the comments that we received from the community that were at that meeting, we revised our plans.
We reduced the height of the building. We reduced the unit count of the building as well.
So we think that we're falling closer in line with the spirit of the Philadelphia Zoning Code as compared also to the surrounding neighborhood.
In addition, after the meeting, we did make a concerted effort to meet with some neighbors nearby who are in support of this project.
And I have a few letters of support in our packet of materials.
Then we'll review maps of the area, specifically the zoning map, which you'll see that we are RSA 5, but, you know, we do have a decent amount of non-single family use in close proximity to this property.
Then we'll review photographs of the property in this around the area, sample interior photographs.
So Mr. Alidad is a well-known property developer in the city of Philadelphia, and he has done many projects in the city, and you'll see some renderings of some of the work product that he's done that he wishes to put into this property.
Then we'll review the plans and drawings, which will show that instead of eight units as proposed, we're requesting six units.
Then our RCO meeting notice and proof of email of that notice, as well as mail of that notice
to surrounding property owners, our applications for appeal that we filed to the ZBA, our deed
to the property showing that Sansan Development LLC is the owner of the property, and our
certificate of tax clearance.
Again, at the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Mr. Ali Dodd virtually raise
his hand and be sworn in, and I'll have a few questions for him about my presentation.
So the first things first is the notice of refusal. We are an RSA-5 property, and originally we were looking to put eight units in this double-wide property, which is almost 1,800-square-foot lot.
After communication with the RCO and in the community meeting, we have proposed to put six units.
Again, if this was an RM1 property and there's many examples nearby of RM1, we would be allowed four units as of right.
Clearly, density is preferred.
Even in this part of the neighborhood, when we met with the coordinating RCO,
They even said that they had no issue with the additional density, just not to the point of eight units.
So just to highlight, if this is an RM1 property, four units would be allowed as a right.
We're proposing six.
In addition to the use variances, there are some dimensional variances, such as occupied area, rear yard setback,
and the fact that we're technically on a two-story block in the sense of there's a two-story structure to the left and right of us.
we're required to be set back. The only thing I would say as to that, it's uncommon in this part
of the neighborhood to have two-story structures. So essentially, we're unlucky because if you look
across the street, there's a huge apartment building across the street from us. So if we
were across the street, we wouldn't be subject to that requirement. As far as the open area and
rear yard setback requirements. The properties that we back up into, they have a 31-foot rear
yard setback themselves, plus there is also a four-foot alley as well. So, we're not taking
anyone's light and air in that respect. So, there's a de minimis impact to the surrounding
properties for those dimensional variances. But again, I can understand that the board may have
some concerns about that. And again, we wish to put a multifamily structure here and we
understand if there are limitations in that respect as well. So this is the correspondence
So, this is the correspondence we received from ECNA, East Kensington Community Association.
we received from ACNA.
And, again, I think the letter, you know, echoes what I'm saying.
They weren't against multifamily use.
What they're against was the amount of multifamily use.
They thought eight units was inappropriate under circumstances.
You know, I can hear what they're saying.
And that's why my client has now proposed six units to decrease the density of this project by 25%.
Again, if this was an R-in-1 property, this would be four units.
Again, it's out of character on this side of letterly to have such a large lot of 1,800 square feet.
So clearly, and again, if you will look at the zoning map of the area and uses around there, it's not out of character to have multi-use, a multifamily use there.
So we're asking for the board to consider that when voting on this matter as well.
Where we're proposing six, RM1 would allow for four.
Let's make this a little smaller.
And as you can see here, this was a closed vote. Nine people attended the meeting. Six voted in opposition. Three voted in support. Again, when we attended the meeting, we actually thought it was very positive.
There were a few questions. People understood that this is a multifamily portion of the neighborhood for the most part, and we were actually surprised that we had opposition. We thought that the people in the room understood the project. I guess the issue was the amount of multifamily use there. Instead of having eight, they wanted a lesser amount, and I think we met that goal by reducing our project by a density of 25%.
And then this is our RCO, or excuse me, revised proviso plan form.
So if the board feels so inclined to grant our zoning variance request, we would ask that they grant it with a proviso revised plans.
We reduce the building height from 38 feet, which is allowed by right, to 34 feet to meet more of the two-story nature on our side of the block, which is uncommon in that part of the neighborhood.
But understanding that we are surrounded by two story structures, one to the left of us and one to the right of us, we reduced the unit count from eight units to six units.
And then we also even removed an elevator in the building to give us more room in there for the unit sizes as well.
And then this is just our plans that would be part of our proviso if the board feels so inclined to grant it.
And then we did get additional support from individuals that lived nearby.
So down the block in 1921, East Letterly, we got a letter of support.
And then also from Cross Street in 1918-20, East Columbrilland, we also got a letter of support.
And then if you look at the maps of the area, so we're yellow here, but there's CMX4 here, there's CMX2.5, there's RM1, there's IRMX.
So we're not in a clear single-family portion of the neighborhood.
And then as you can see here, we are half a block away from Kensington Avenue, which is a commercial corridor.
So we're trying to help support that commercial corridor with that increased density.
And then also we wanted to show you a map that we got from Atlas. You can see like our property overpowers that block in terms of lot size. We're over almost 1,800 square feet on that side of the block.
And what you can also see is the how far the buildings are set back on East Cumberland, such that like any, you know, additional lock coverage based on the building structure or the lack of the requisite rear yards, not going to cause much issues with the property owners on East Cumberland.
and then photographs of the property this is the front of the property it's a vacant lot right now
as you can see we're just there's a building structure to the left of us and to the right
of us which are two stories in nature you can see that a little bit here maybe we shouldn't
have cut it off so much but there there's a an apartment building right to the right of us a
newly constructed apartment building and then this is our property in 2008 so this property
has been vacant as far back as Google Earth will take us.
So it's been for over 15 years.
So it's been for over 15 years and for good reason, you know, single family cannot survive here, especially now with rising interest rates and the cost of construction and such.
And for good reason, you know, single family cannot serve.
And then this is proof of our posting for today's hearing. So you can see the orange notice posters.
And then this is east laterally to the right of the property, as you can see at the beginning of a parking lot for a big residential apartment building.
And then this is east literally to the left of the property.
And then this is the apartment building that's across the street, as you can see.
So we're not in a straight single-family part of the neighborhood.
And then the sample interiors, I always try to give an example when I have the ability to of developers.
This is what his work product would look like in this property.
So I always try to give samples of kitchens, bathrooms, and such.
And then our plans and drawings, again, we're well within the height limitation.
We actually went down, so we're only 34 feet.
But I'll go through the floor plans.
So the floor plans are pretty straightforward.
There's two units essentially per floor.
The first floor also has access to the lower level, but the first floor unit are both two bedrooms.
The remaining units on the second floor and third floor, which are two on each floor, are one bedrooms.
There is a trash room on the first floor for access to all of the units.
That was really important to my client to make sure he has a responsible trash storage and maintenance plan.
And then there's also a roof deck as well.
And then here's a proof of our mailing of our community notice. Again, we had our meeting on May 10th. We also emailed notice to the coordinating RCO, all other RCOs, as well as the council member zoning aid.
So, we emailed that on April 27th.
98 properties were also mailed this notice.
Those are the properties that were mailed the notice.
Proof of mailing to those properties, our application for appeal along with our notice of refusal and project information form.
Our deed to a property showing San San Development LLC is the owner of the property.
and our tax clearance certificate showing my client owes no real estate taxes for this property.
With that being said, I would ask that Mr. Ali Dodd virtually raise his hand.
Alan, before you take testimony from him, could you just mention a little bit why six is the least variance you can go to?
Well, so this is for the board to decide.
As I highlighted, if this was an RM1 property, four would be allowed as a right.
My client has proposed six units.
That's for the board to decide.
I think the community thought eight was too much.
We've gone down.
Again, if we walk by the property, builder users propose this to stick out like a sore thumb, or is it something that fits with new fabric in the neighborhood?
But having multifamily in this living in this part of the neighborhood is something that fits within the fabric of the communities.
How many units that would be, I defer to the board.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Your client?
Oh, yes.
Mr. Ali Dodd.
Can you virtually raise your hand?
It could also be Mr. Christian Sanchez.
I know his partner is sometimes online as well.
Oh, there we go.
There it is.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Hello.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Christian Sanchez, C-R-I-S-T-I-A-N, Sanchez, A-S-A-N-C-H-E-Z.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Oh, yeah. Mr. Sanchez, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
Yes, I did. And is it true and correct? Yes, it is.
And do you adopt as your own testimony? Yes, I do. Thank you.
Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No chair.
uh questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
i do not see any further hands mr chair planning commission
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the existing residential single-family zoning.
The appellant has not supported their hardship claim
with evidence of unique physical circumstances
or conditions of this property.
The City Planning Commission recommends
that the zoning board deny the variance.
MI 2023 000 358 1845 to 47 East Lederle Street
I vote yes with revised plans one page stamp by ZBA October 11, 2023
four unit maximum four units
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes with proviso James Snell my vote is yes with proviso thank you thank
number three MI 2023 003 246 2990 Southampton Road
Carrie Nace
passed as the attorney
we were joining as a panel
yes sir
Good afternoon, Chair Carrie Nace-Poust, attorney with the law firm of Fox Rothschild, here
this afternoon on behalf of the applicant.
Just spell your name just for the court stenographer.
First name Carrie, C-A-R-R-I-E, last name Nace, N-A-S-E hyphen, Poust, P-O-U-S-T.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Cigars on Southampton LLC, and they are the equitable owner of the property.
Okay. Mr. Holleman has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, Counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate it to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required
five days in advance to this hearing? Yes, I did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
A moment while I share.
Can you see my screen?
can you see my exhibits yes great thank you
as indicated uh the applicant on this matter is cigars on southampton llc they are an affiliate
of holt cigars also here with me this afternoon is satia levin who is the managing member
Max Bustos, who is the engineer on this project, and Jerry Roller, who is the architect on this project.
This property is located at 22990 Southampton Road, zoned I-1 Industrial.
Before you are the exhibits that we have submitted.
Exhibit 1 is a copy of the Notice of Refusal.
As indicated, we're seeking a use variance to use this property for a smoking lounge as well as retail sales, which we'll get into further in the testimony.
Exhibit number two is a copy of the application for appeal that was submitted to this board.
Exhibit number three is a copy of the agreement of sale showing standing to bring this application.
Four is confirmation that all real estate property taxes have been paid in full.
Five is a copy of the notice that was sent to the surrounding neighbors and property owners,
notifying them of this hearing as well as the meeting that was held before the rco
as well as a certificate of mailing confirming proof of mailing to each of those individuals
exhibit six are photographs confirming that the property was properly
Our photographs confirming that the property was properly posted, notifying of the hearing being held this afternoon.
Before you is a copy of the aerial plan.
Property here is identified with red.
it's located on South Hampton Road along Townsend Road as well this property was
formerly used as a bakery it has improved with an existing building as
well as surface parking lot exhibit 7 includes various photographs of the
property showing the current condition this is the existing building this
photograph shows area of the existing parking facilities. Here's another photograph of the
front of the building. Just by way of background, Holtz Cigar Company is a family-owned business
that has been operating for over 100 years in the Philadelphia area. They currently have their
Corporate Headquarters and Distribution Center at 12270 Townsend Road, which is across the street
from the subject property. That location also does have retail sales of cigars and a small
smoking lounge area. The applicant is looking to expand the retail sales and make a new smoking
lounge area that would be in a more appropriate location for customers so as not to raise any
conflicts with the existing operations at their location on Townsend Road.
As I indicated, this new location would then allow there to be adequate parking. It would
avoid conflicts with the distribution center as well as employees within the headquarters.
The bakery has been vacant for several years. It's underutilized property, and we feel as though
this would be a good redevelopment and use of this property given its close proximity to
their existing facility.
the applicant is proposing to maintain the existing building they would demolish a portion
of the building currently the building is approximately 20 000 square feet they would
be demolishing a portion of that so that the remaining would be 11 400 square feet they're
also proposing to redevelop the parking area and stripe spaces to allow for 89
parking spaces there will also be four bicycle parking spaces the current
entrance off Southampton Road will shift a little to the northwest away from the
intersection here at Thornton Road the access point along Townsend will remain
in its current as-is state they are also proposing to install landscaping bring up the
landscape plan you can see
here they will be installing the parking lot landscaping to comply with the zoning code as
well as planning commission requirements as part of the irsa permit they will also be installing
a rain garden and installing a sufficient buffer along the perimeter here. This is existing
vegetation that will remain. The plans were revised slightly since those which were submitted
with our application. Minor adjustments, which include the building area, actually has increased.
It was originally proposed to be 11,200 square feet.
It's now increasing to 11,400.
There was also a small bump out at the entrance,
and that is no longer being proposed.
There was also a planter box that needed to be moved.
We did submit a proviso form and would ask
that the Zoning Board accept those revisions.
As part of the improvements, as I indicated,
Holtz is proposing to use this building for retail sales of their cigars and products and also include a smoking lounge, which would also include a restaurant component with the sale of liquor.
The improvements that would be made is upgrading the facade and as well as fitting out the interior for those.
Upgrading the facade and as well as fitting out the interior for those retail areas and restaurant.
What's before you here is a rendering of the proposed exterior facade of the building.
Just take a different view.
Here's another side of the building.
And then this is a rendering of what we're proposing that the interior would look like.
As indicated, since this property is zoned LI Industrial, we are requesting a use variance
both to allow for the retail sales of consumer goods, being the cigar products, as well as
to allow the smoking lounge, which will be used by the customers of the retail sales
This is similar to another location down in Center City.
A lot of the customers that come in, they do look to sit down, enjoy their cigar, have a glass of liquor.
And that's what we're looking to do here with the smoking lounge.
The bakery has been vacant. Property was on the market for quite some time.
There weren't any industrial users that were interested.
The property is located adjacent to residential uses, and given the limited land area of this property, it's difficult to redevelop this property for industrial use that would otherwise be permitted within this zoning district.
As such, we believe that the proposed use is a good use of this property.
It is in close proximity to its current operations.
It also will serve the community and the residents within the area that will be able to walk to this location to utilize the stores.
We did meet with the Parkwood Civic Association, and we did receive overwhelming support.
there was unanimous vote to support this project they were very excited to see that this building
would be redeveloped we did receive a letter of support which was submitted in the packet as exhibit
12. so with that i would like to have my client sathya levin join the meeting as well as max
Bustos and Jerry Roller who's going to adopt your testimony counsel um I would have uh Mr. Levin
adopt my testimony
so I think Levin's been about to speak hi could you state your name please and spell for the
court stenographer. Hi, can you hear me? We can. Name is Sathya Levin, S-A-T-H-Y-A Levin, L-E-V-I-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Proceed, counsel. Mr. Levin, were you present during the statements that I've just
made regarding the proposed project, the improvements that are being proposed, and the
use of the property? Yes. And were the statements that I made true and accurate? Yes. And had you
testified yourself, would you agree to accept those statements as your own? Yes. Thank you.
I have no further questions for Mr. Satya at this time. Do you have anybody else you want to call
council uh no okay thank you questions from the board no mr chairman
no chair uh questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
yes mr chair thank you um two quick things one um i noted in the rco letter that they
did request a proviso for hours of operation closing at midnight is that agreeable to the
applicant yes it is okay i'm sorry mr levin could you confirm uh that you would be willing to limit
the hours to uh midnight then please unmute yes okay thank you um and i and i see um alice you
from the the councilman's office has her hand raised but i know there has been some conversation
between me um um in this past and um miss yudovich regarding um proviso language we're still
working through that um and i've advised the parties that we'll hold for one week just to
make sure we get the language uh right where we need to be so okay thank you um questions or
Questions or comments from the virtual audience? Alice?
They've been out to speak.
Thank you, Chairman, members of the board. Alice Udovich, on behalf of Councilman Brian O'Neill.
Alice, just for the record, spell your name, please.
A-L-I-C-E, last name is U-D-O-V-I-C-H.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Thank you, Councilman. The concern was that the term smoking lounge was a bit too broad, so we'd like to make it exclusively a cigar lounge with the accessory use of eating and drinking, with the concern being that that category would possibly allow hookah lounge if marijuana were legalized, a recreational smoking lounge.
So we would really like to exclusively say Cigar Lounge.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Jerry Rower with their hand raised.
I have allowed them to speak at this time.
Why could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
I need to unmute here.
Sorry, I am. Mr. Roller, could you state your name and spell for the personographer?
Jerry, J-E-R-Y-R-O-L-L-E-R. Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. My hand was simply raised in support of this post and non-worthy architects for the project.
And we obviously support it. OK, thank you. Thank you very much.
Okay. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Mr. Chair, if I may. Yes. Sorry. Just to address Ms. Udovich's comments, and as Ms. Emerson had indicated, we have been working with both of them. We are willing to accept a proviso that the smoking lounge be limited to use of cigar and tobacco products.
Thank you. Plainty Commission.
excuse me mr chair we have one more hand raised from uh a number ending in six four
five eight i will allow them to speak at this time
start six to on you please hi could you state your name please and spell for the court sonographer
Yes, my name is
Donald P. Gordon
D-O-N-A-L
No D on the end of my first name
Middle initial P
Last name Gordon
G-A-R-D-E-N
Do you swear if I can tell the truth?
Listen to me, do you
Do you swear or tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
I live directly across the street from the proposed site.
Please proceed.
I would also like to add that we were told that the property, of course, would be cleaned up
because from the Thornton Road side, it is an eyesore.
I can give you a little bit of a history of some of this property
because I've lived here at this address for more than 43 years.
First of all, the property, Ms. Nassprost is correct.
The property has been vacant since January of 2013.
Secondly, we have had to deal with the vegetation that is adjacent to Thornton Road.
We've had to deal with this literally since the building was constructed, which was between fall of 1983 and spring of 1985.
We have
It used to be originally
And is listed on a 1974
Vintage Scepter Roadmap
As originally being part of
The Philadelphia Penal Farm
Where there has still
Remnants of
There is remnants of a
Scepter barbrier
We want to know is this going to be cleaned up
Sir sir sir sir
So listen so I think you have
Instead of the history
you have a request that the property be cleaned up is what you're saying
am I right
hold on Mr. Chair yeah is he still there okay so please unmute what I want you to do is say
Okay, so what I want you to do is say what you're looking for with this property and not give us a history of the property.
what you're looking for with this property and not give us a
But I appreciate what you tried to do, but we really don't need the history.
We need to know what you see in this property coming.
So what I'm saying is we don't need a history about the penal and all that.
What we need is what do you want to see now?
What do you want to see now?
What I want is that if the property is going to be cleaned up, that the vegetation, the trees remain and is properly trimmed, that the fence that is still there broken down after all these years, that it be removed posts, fence, and barbed wire, and that all the underbrush be removed and cleaned up.
because there are also syringes, crack pipes, liquor bottles,
and even God only knows what from underage drinkers
and also from drug users that have used it as a hideout.
We want to make sure that this is also cleaned up as part of the property rehab.
Thank you for taking the time to call us in and give me your input.
We really do appreciate it.
Thank you, sir.
Is there anyone else in the personal audience?
No further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing industrial zoning.
The proposed use will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be expected.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
Thank you.
So this case will be held for one week.
We will vote on 10-18-23 at 2 p.m. to work out proviso language if the record is closed.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, Chair.
Have a nice day.
Okay. Number two. MI 2023-003-579-414 South 23rd Street. Sean Rex Road is the attorney. There's a letter of non-opposition from the Center City Residents Association. And also the applicant provided a foreign letter of support from the adjacent neighbor at 416 South 23rd.
they'll be coming back in as a panelist there okay thank you
there counsel could you uh state your name please spell for the court's sonography yes
my name is Sean Rex Road uh that's S-H-A-W-N-R-E-X-R-O-A-D right do you
Do you swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, Mr. Chair, I do.
But before we get into testimony, I actually, my colleague, Joshua Eupin, is the other attorney on this matter, and he is here, and he will actually be presenting if we could call him.
Well, okay.
So he's going to handle the case?
That's correct, yes.
We'll say his name again, and we'll call him in.
he's already here he's here okay
sir could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
yes thank you mr chairman my name is joshua upin j-o-s-h-u-a-u-p-i-n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do could you identify your client a relationship to this property
Yes, the clients are Shelby and Travis Frazier, F-R-A-S-E-R. They're husband and wife, and they are owners of the subject property.
Okay. Mr. Holloman has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, we do.
did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing
yes we did thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you
um i'd just like to confirm that uh the the the board is able to see yeah
So this is a picture of the subject property. It's situated along South 23rd Street on the western side of 23rd Street between Waverly, which you can see a little bit here on the right-hand side to the north, and Lombard Street to the south.
to the north and Lombard Street to the south. The application is for the erection of a rear
addition to the first floor and an attendant deck above the new structure that we intend to build
off the back of the first floor. The initial zoning permit was refused for violation of
section 14-701-1 for falling afoul of the maximum lot coverage ratios permitted in the zoning
district. So we are requesting a variance to increase lot coverage by 10%, which will result
after the addition is put onto the first floor. As you can see from the packet that we submitted,
We have all of the requisite documentation, our client's tax clearance certificate, pardon me, proof of mailing to all of the proximate neighbors, including the USPS certificate of mailing.
We have a letter of non-opposition from the Center City Residence Associate, the designated RCO for this particular district.
we also have a letter of non-opposition slash support from one of the near neighbors
immediately adjacent to the subject property and
we have proof of the zoning posters having been posted on the subject property informing the
public of the of the project the board is also has access here to the architectural renderings
of the proposed addition and the deck.
And we also have Ms. Lisa Neely here,
who is the architect of record
in the event that the board has any technical questions
regarding the design plan.
And we also have Ms. Shelby Frazier,
the owner here to verify her testimony as well.
I'm mindful of the board's time
and no doubt the number of cases on the docket today.
I'm happy to go through each and every document in the exhibit list
if the board feels that's necessary.
Why don't you show us photos of the rear of the property
and then maybe the drawings?
Absolutely.
So this is a site plan and elevation.
and you can see here the existing structure, the home, and the shaded area here, the piano key
format, is the proposed bump out, which would expand the footprint of the kitchen on the first
floor and then also provide a deck above that would wrap around. I'll note that the property
immediately to the north at 416 has an identical deck set up as our client's home.
And so this design scheme would not be inconsistent with the existing layout.
I can show you here. We saw the front. Here's the existing the rear.
So the the addition would commence sort of just above the back door.
obviously would take away a little bit of the existing open area garden, but there would still
be sufficient space, open air space there. And then the breezeway here would also have
the deck wrapping around. The clients have lived in this property for a number of decades. They
wish to remain there as city residents um and age in place um this this particular row home is over
100 years old um and you know is not uh set up really for um maximized first floor living there's
no bathroom um and it's tight quarters and in order to accommodate the owners sort of continued
use of the property as they age on, this particular renovation would really improve
their ability to stay in the home for the rest of their years. Just again, to give the board some
um just again to give the board some context for the actual location of the property
uh it's it's just off the corner there 23rd and Waverly um everything that we're discussing is
is purely at the rear um construction would be staged through the home so there would be minimal
interference with if any uh foot traffic um or uh vehicular traffic along 23rd street okay
why don't you bring your client on to adopt your test tonight
thank you mr chairman um shelby could you raise your hand um
the uh the virtual hand raising function there at the bottom
um they've been allowed to speak hello hi this is shelby fraser i could you state your name and
then spell for the court stenographer yes um shelby fraser s-h-e-l-b-y fraser f-r-a-s-e-r
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do please proceed counsel thank you mr chairman um miss fraser were you present just
now for the um presentation and testimony that i gave with respect to your property at 414 south
23rd street um and um did you hear and understand um all of my statements yes and do you adopt those
statements as true and accurate as if they were your own testimony yes thank you very much thank
you questions from the board no mr chairman
no chair thank you um questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
no further hands mr chair planning commission
thank you chair bergman sarah bomb with the philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing commercial mixed-use zoning
proposed dimensions are consistent with nearby properties the city planning commission recommends
that the zoning board grant the variance thank you mi2023-003-579-414 south 23rd street i vote yes
Thomas Holliman, my boot is yes.
Jim Snell?
mr snell are you available yeah yes i'm sorry i'm having trouble with my uh
my uh my mouse i'm sorry about that okay i'm getting a good vote vote on that yeah my vote
is yes thank you thank you counsel thank you may we be excused mr certainly can okay have a good
day. Thank you all. You too. Thank you. Number four, MI 2023-003-182, 2832 to 34 East Pacific
Street. Brandon Saverin is the attorney. Letter of support from Port Richmond on patrol and civic.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, counsel. Could you state your name and spell
please for the court stenographer. Yes, my name is Brandon Saverin and that's spelled B-R-A-N-D-O-N
and then S as in Sam, A-V as in Victor, R-A-N as in Nancy. Right, do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Would you identify your client
and the relationship to this property? My client is Buildings Holdings LLC,
Sorry, Building Holdings, LLC, who is the owner of the property.
Mr. Holloman has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, Counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do, Mr. Holloman.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay, thank you.
Members of the board, the property I'm here to present on today is 2832-34 East Pacific
Street. The image on your screen right now is part of Exhibit 9D.
The image on your screen right now is part of Exhibit 9D in the exhibit binder that I submitted to the board last week.
This is a rendering of the front facade of the planned project on Pacific Street.
I would note that not only do we have support from the coordinating RCO by an 11 to 2 vote that was taken at the RCO meeting back in August,
and that letter is on your screen here. We also have a letter of support from the district
councilman, Mike Driscoll, councilman for the sixth district. And as you may know, generally
the council offices tend to take a position of non-opposition on many projects. So I found it
notable that the councilman supports this project explicitly. So what this project is...
Brandon, could you make sure Hillary gets a copy of that?
I sent it today, but it wasn't that long ago.
So the project is the demolition of a warehouse that's currently on the property that I'll show you in a moment.
and the erection of this building, which would feature 25 dwelling units and 10 car parking
spaces on a lot of 5,744 square feet. Before I leave this slide, I'll just note for you that
there's a mix of other warehouses, such as the one to the right in this image.
That's an actual photograph onto which the rendering was superimposed. So this is another
warehouse, whereas on some other sides of the property, there are residences. But you can sort
of see in this image that the residences are at a pretty good distance from this building. I bring
that up because that's one of the refusals that we obtained, as I'll show you in a moment. But
I'm not aware of any point at which one of the homes would be less than about 20 feet from our
structure. And you can sort of see that distance in this image. So the side windows of this
particular home on the corner of Pacific and Allen Street, you know, you can see how we're not
coming anywhere close to sort of encroaching on these windows or blocking their view here.
So I'm going to jump to exhibits five and six in our binder. They are images from atlas.phila.gov.
So the first one I'll show you is the zoning map. And you can see that our property is zoned ICMX. So we need a variance for residential use, regardless of the number of units, which is sort of funny, given that, you know, this is a mixed industrial residential block.
Where we are in the context of the city is near the intersection of Richmond Street and Castor Avenue.
Castor Avenue has some on-ramps here to I-95.
You know, Richmond Street, you may be aware, members of the board, is sort of the closest street that runs parallel to I-95 in this part of the city in Port Richmond.
So there's a series of blocks that are sort of orphaned or like sandwiched between Richmond Street and the retaining walls for I-95.
We are one such block. And I'll keep going here.
I'll show you an aerial image from Atlas.
And what this shows you is that there are across the street from us and to the north of us, other ICMX zoned properties that have very low value industrial uses.
These are not like light manufacturing, they are basically storage or parking. So that is sort of, you know, we heard at the RCO meeting, undesirable, because what you have on the other side of the property between us and 95 are some single family homes on Allen Street, which is a very small street that is literally in 95's shadow, as you can see in this image.
And, you know, because these industrial properties are not really used actively on the rest of the block, you have a situation where there's very little human activity on these blocks between Richmond and 95, particularly at night.
And it's lent to a situation where there's, you know, open air drug use and prostitution and just just a bad situation.
I'll just leave it at that. So we heard from neighbors and the leaders of the RCO that the introduction of more residents to this area is going to be a severely positive impact.
to this area is going to be a severely positive impact on the block.
I also just want to point out before I move on that what we're going to do is demolish the existing warehouse that's on the property.
That warehouse was not built by my client. It was there when my client purchased the property.
There are no building permits that we're aware of or zoning permits on file for this property.
So what we have is a deteriorating warehouse that was potentially built illegally, and we're going to tear it down. We're going to replace it more or less in its current footprint. But you can see in this image, there are pedestrian egress alleys that surround most of the property, and we're going to leave those intact. We're not going to build on those.
um i will show you our uh oh sorry i was going to show you the refusal last thing i'll do before
that is to show you some street level photos from atlas so this is our building on our property as
it currently stands again this would be demolished um it's basically a glorified indoor garage with
some weird windows on a second floor this is across the street from us this is what i mean by
the really sort of dire condition that especially our block of Pacific is in.
This is sort of used as occasionally an open air parking lot, but it looks like it's been
abandoned.
There's no maintenance and there's just all sorts of bad activity that occurs at this
lot frequently, again, directly across the street.
This is looking north away from 95.
You can see some other warehouses, as I showed you in those aerial images, not really like
high quality activity here it's it's basically just storage um and then this is looking south
again you can see sort of the the distance the significant distance between the end of our
property which is at uh this uh i think sort of this fence but we'll get into a site plan in a
moment in the nearest homes and that's 95 that's that raised embankment of 95 at the end of the
street. So now I'll go to the refusal, which is exhibit 2B and the zoning plan, which is exhibit
2A. Here's the zoning plan. I'm actually going to bring on the architect in a minute to walk
through this. So I'm not going to give you a whole lot of details at the inside of the building. But
the one thing I'll say, as you see in our site plan, is that we're proposing parking. So what
we have is 10 parking spaces. They're screened from the front street by our residential lobby.
You sort of come in and the spaces are tucked behind it. We're going to have a six foot high
opaque wooden fence that separates the rest of the parking lot from the surrounding properties.
There's going to be 10 spaces just to give you an image of that fence. Let's see. Here's sort of
what I'm talking about. This is at least for now the kind of fence that we propose separating off
the parking area from neighbors. Whatever we do, it will be code compliant. We're not seeking a
variance for the type of fence. And then the refusals back to exhibit two. I authored a memo
to the board at exhibit one, which lays out my full detailed long argument for why I think we
have qualified for variances with regard to these refusals per the sort of requirements under the
city code. But I'll just give you a summary of that argument here. Working from bottom to top.
So in the ICMX district, the parking ratio is one to two. That's the minimum requirement.
In a lot of other districts that you're probably familiar with, the parking requirement is one to
three. So if we were in a one to three district, we would be satisfying the requirement because
we're providing 10 spaces for 25 units. But because we're in a one to two district, the
requirement is 13 spaces. We've really, really tried to fit in the maximum number of spaces
possible without doing anything really expensive, like going underground or building an elevated
parking deck. We maxed out at 10. So that was the best we could do there. With regard to the
side yard requirement. So as I mentioned, on one side of the property, I think it's the southern
side, we are supposed to offset our building from the property line by eight feet. But to do that
would be to really reduce, if not almost entirely eliminate the opportunity to provide parking.
And we feel that non-compliance with this setback requirement doesn't hurt the public because we do
have the alley that separates most of the property from our neighbors, which we're leaving in place.
And if you saw in that aerial image, most of the homes in the area have pretty deep rear.
And if you saw that aerial image, most of the homes in the area have pretty deep rear yards.
So, again, I'm not aware of any point at which our building is nearer than about 20 feet from the nearest residential property.
As you know, in the ICMX district, any amount of residential use requires a variance.
Again, the current industrial structure is in very poor shape, may have been constructed illegally and it needs to go.
We don't think the market supports the cost of constructing a new industrial or commercial structure. We think residential is the only type of project that can attract arm's length financing here for new construction, and 25 units was the minimum that our development team felt it could do and get away with attracting financing.
It's also not clear, by the way, that in a non-residential district that one has to prove that they're proposing the minimum number of units, but that's a legal argument I've left to my memo.
And then finally, I showed you that fence that separates the parking lot from our neighbors. There are two sections of the code. One is 14705 and one is 14803 that compel us to have an eight foot planted buffer rather than just a fence.
And, you know, the reason we can't comply with that is, again, if we build in these eight foot buffers, we're going to lose a lot of parking on the ground level.
But further, we are providing the fence. And the reason for this requirement, I would say, doesn't really apply to this project, because one code section says that the reason for the eight foot buffer requirement is that we're in an industrial district, but we're not doing an industrial use.
Therefore, I would argue that we're not violating the spirit of the code, which is really concerning itself from separating industrial uses from homes.
I would say the buffer is not necessary because we're not proposing an industrial use.
And then the code also speaks in the 803 section about separating parking from homes.
But it's interesting to note on properties that are under 5000 square feet, and we're at 5744 square feet, so we're not that far over that, you don't have to provide the buffer between residential parking and residential homes, you can just do a fence.
So we would be excused from that section if our property was only, you know, a little bit smaller.
Therefore, I would argue the fence suffices for the purpose of those buffering and screening sections.
I think that that is more than enough for me.
If the board is willing to hear from him, I'd like to call on Chris Klass, our architect, just to walk you through the floor plans very briefly.
Go ahead.
Chris?
He's been about to speak.
All right, sir, could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Christopher Klass, C-L-A-S-S.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
So, Chris, what I'd like you to do is, you know, walk through the RCO presentation deck in, like, two minutes or so, and then I'm going to ask you one or two questions.
Do you want to share your screen, or should I do it for you?
Sure, if the panel could grant permission to share.
You probably have it since you're a panelist, if you want to give it a shot.
Excuse me, he's been a promoter.
Oh, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hand.
Okay, here we go.
Are you able to see my screen?
it's coming up now yep it's here great thank you so as brandon mentioned we do have a ground floor
that consists mostly of parking we did feel that it was important to the street frontage to provide
some active uses along the street and you know in part of the conversation of complying with
the landscape buffers to the rear if we did so that would really limit our ability to provide
activity so we didn't think it was important to promote that all of our
mechanical uses and things like that will be pushed to the ground I get below
ground again to allow for more active uses as we move up through the rest of
the building you'll see that it's predominantly residential units facing
the front and rear and
And Brandon had already shown some perspective views, but you can see that the design is
uh the design is is really looking to mimic some of the scales of the the larger surrounding
really looking to mimic.
buildings but also respect some of the residential scales of the ground floor
uh there will be roof deck access and we'll be setting that bet back quite a bit so it will
almost be unrecognizable from the ground uh brandon are there any other items that you'd
like me to elaborate on um so i'm just going to ask you like a couple questions and then and then
i'll ask the board if they have any questions for you sure christy i mean do you agree with
my assessment that we really maxed out the possible surface parking while still providing
a front lobby yeah i i do we we've gotten every bit out of this that we can and i strongly believe
in my professional opinion that the providing the fence and and active frontages uh is sufficient
for what the code is expecting um are are you um fair to say that if we did introduce the side yard
setback or the landscaping and screening buffers cited in the refusal that that any of those things
would have reduced the amount of parking we would lose approximately seven spaces in doing that
okay thank you um no further questions and and members of the board you're welcome to ask
Chris, why don't we do this? Why don't you have your testimony adopted? Then the board will ask what questions they need to ask. Okay.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Joel Edwards is here to adopt my testimony.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Joel Edwards, J-O-E-L, Edwards, E-D-W-A-R-D-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Thank you. Joel, are you authorized to speak on behalf of Building Holdings, LLC?
Did you hear my presentation in your zoning case this afternoon?
I did.
Were the things I said true and accurate to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
Yes, I were.
And would you therefore adopt it as if it were your own testimony on behalf of the LLC?
Okay, thank you.
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?
Mr. Chair, I have Felipe Sevilla on the line. I've allowed them to speak.
Okay. Hi, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court stenographer?
Hey, sir, how are you? My name is Felipe Sevilla, F-E-L-I-P-E, last name S-E-V-I-L-L-A.
Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Okay, proceed, sir.
Yes, I just have comments.
I do agree with Brandon's testimony to residential uses being increasing the area and definitely
upgrading what we have going on in the area now.
But my only comment is I don't believe apartments is the way to go.
I feel like if there would be single to two family properties along the block and we had
property owners instead of renters coming
into the neighborhood, that would
bring a lot of value and also
not affect the affordability of the neighborhood by
too much with that many people coming
into that area.
Thank you for taking the time to call in.
We appreciate your comments.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
No further answer, Mr. Chair.
Pardon me?
No further hands, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing industrial mixed-use zoning.
Recent zoning remappings have sought to limit the expansion of residential uses adjacent to I-95 for the purpose of protecting public health and limiting intrusion into established industrial areas.
The appellant has not supported their hardship claim with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property, including exclusion of required landscaping.
The proposed development is out of character for the neighborhood.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board deny the variance.
Mr. Sharvin, you have comments?
Yeah, I think, you know, again, I did address some of the things Miss Bond just raised in my memo to the board. It's just not fair to consume your time by ticking through all of those arguments.
It's just not fair to consume your time by ticking through all of those arguments, but I will just say, having visited this site, I do not feel, and I know that my client does not feel, that this block is functioning as a viable, safe industrial district.
It is a nuisance to the nearby residents, and our property would be better served as residential. That's all I'll say.
Okay. I really want to take a couple moments next week and discuss this with the other members of the board to get their input and just figure out where we want to be with this.
So we will do that next week, next Wednesday. We will vote at 2 p.m. on this case.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number five, there we go. MI 2023-003-065-4241 Richmond Street. Alex Goldberg is the attorney. Recommendation of support from Bridesburg Community Civic Community Action Alliance.
vote was unanimous
the applicant also provided
a petition of
approximately 51 neighbors in support
good afternoon Mr. Chairman
Mr. Goldberg
could you state your name please and spell for the
court stenographer
Alex Goldberg A-L-E-X
G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Can you identify your client, please, and the relationship to the property?
My clients are Thomas and Patrick Goodyear.
They're the owners of the property.
And Mr. Holloman has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents that's required five days in advance to this hearing?
I did.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay, I'm going to go full screen here.
Okay, thank you again.
My name is Alex Goldberg of Nockimson PC.
I am here with Thomas and Patrick Goodyear seeking two variances at 4241 Richmond Street.
We're proposing the erection of an attached structure with a ground floor commercial space
and two residential units above.
This is the table of contents.
First is the notice of refusal.
Then the property history showing that this property does have history of mixed use with
commercial and residential correspondence from the Bridesburg Community Action Alliance
where we received unanimous support, an extensive petition including signatures from the nearest
neighbors, a zoning map and a Google map of the area, photographs of the property and the
surrounding area, the architectural plans and drawings, the meeting notice, the application
for appeal, the deed, and the certificate of tax clearance. So here's the first exhibit. It's the
notice of refusal, which was issued in April of this year. As I said, we're proposing the erection
of an attached building with a, more specifically, a business and professional office on the
first floor and two units above.
That professional office will be for my client's roofing business, Bridesburg Roofing, which
has been a mainstay in the Bridesburg community for multiple generations, as has the Goodyear
family.
That second, or those two refusals, the first one is for that professional office use on
the ground floor, and the second one is for the two-family household living above. As you'll see
in the maps in the slides to come, you know, we sort of see this property as more of a CMX2 property.
It's a corner lot. There are mixed-use properties like this one directly across the street,
and we're not sort of disturbing the residential neighbor of the block that we are attached to.
we're right on the end of that. And on the other side of the street on Headley, which is our corner
street, is sort of a warehouse use. So we believe it makes sense for what we're proposing here.
Here's the property history. This is dating back to 1959, showing that there was a grocery store
and a residential dwelling in the building structure. Correspondence from the coordinating
RCO. This was a well-attended meeting. 27 people in attendance. You can see that there were 25 votes
in support. Those two votes that were not counted, or those two individuals who did not vote were me
and the applicant. So we had great support from the community group, as I mentioned, the Goodyear
So we had great support from the community group. As I mentioned, the Goodyear family is large. They've lived in Bridesburg for generations. They live close to this property. They will be self-managing it. And they had strong support from their fellow community members.
family.
Here's the petition. This is a map illustrating where the signatures came from that you'll see in the coming pages.
You can see that pretty much every property within that 250 square foot radius is signed in support.
We had over 60 signatures from over 50 individual addresses, including the property that we are going to be attached to and the property directly behind us, which would be in this case the most directly affected neighbors.
Here's those signatures, many of which showed up at the community meeting.
Here's a zoning map of the area. So you can see there's a mix of zoning here.
We're an RSA 5 property. We have a large cemetery directly across the street.
There's a school down the way on our street, and there's a number of industrially zoned properties, which are mostly warehouses to our left.
Google Maps perspective, you can get a better idea of what I just described.
Richmond Street is a commercial corridor.
You can see directly across the street identified as one of those commercial uses.
But there are a number of building structures very similar to what we're proposing here with commercial on the ground floor and residential above.
Some photographs. This is the front of the property. It's currently a vacant lot.
you can see the posting photos here as this is a corner of property it was posted facing both
Hedley Street and Richmond Street to the right of the property to the left of the property there's
the warehouse that I referenced that is directly to the left of us and as you can see in the right
side of this photo there are a number of mixed-use structures which is in line with what we are
proposing to the right of the property on headley and to the left of the prop uh the property on
headley um you know when we were at that community meeting something that was discussed was um how
headley uh street actually in bridesburg was was one of the um the best opportunities for on street
parking in the neighborhood and that the neighborhood was happy to see that there
would be plenty of opportunities for on street parking for the future tenants of this building
structure. Here's the architectural plans and drawings. A couple things that I'd like to point
out, and I'll zoom in here. We always focus on how is trash going to be responsibly managed and
stored. We have separate trash enclosures in the rear yard here, one for the residential units
and one for the commercial unit as well. And we will be willing to agree to commercial trash
pickup and both of those trash enclosures would be accessed from an existing alley sort of separated
off from the rear yard next slide is the elevations both the commercial and the residential components
gain access from headley street you can see there's a gate here that will provide access to
the rear yard which is actually where the residential tenants will enter the building
structure. The commercial portion of the property will have two entrances along that brick facade.
You can see the floor plans here. We have a tenant space for the commercial unit, which again
will be my client's roofing business of over 750 square feet. We have two nearly identical units
above, one on the second floor and one on the third floor. Those are both two bedroom, one
bathroom apartments. My client, Tom, again, very familiar with this neighborhood. He was able to
identify sort of what kind of residential apartments are desired in this neighborhood,
and he felt that doing two two-bedroom apartments would be much more suitable to those looking for
apartments rather than a much larger apartment above the commercial space. Last thing I'd want
to point out is that we do have, in addition to the trash storage in the rear yard, ventilated trash
holding spaces in the residential apartment units for trash to be stored there before it's carried
to the trash enclosure outside in a ventilated and cleaned space. Here's the RCO meeting notice.
We met with the community on September 28th. This notice was mailed in a timely fashion.
And here's the email sort of confirming that that notice went out in a timely fashion.
It went to 92 properties, not a particularly dense cross street here because of the industrial.
not a particularly dense uh you know cross street here because of the industrial warehouse on our
corner and the cemetery above so not a ton of addresses but these are those addresses
when we're required to notify and here's the proof of mailing the application for appeal
the deed to the property showing that thomas and patrick are the owners of the property
And then finally, the certificate of tax
clearance showing that no tax, real estate taxes are
owned on property. With that, I'd like to call my client to adopt
Bring your client on, please, Mr. Goldberg. Thomas Goodyear?
Mr. Goodyear?
Mr. Chair, I do not see anyone answering to that name amongst the virtual audience.
Mr. Goldberg, you're an officer of the court.
We will take your testimony.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
No, at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning.
The proposed use will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be expected.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance.
mi20230030654241 richmond street i vote yes thomas holloman my vote is yes
he's there jim
we're trying to get him to unmute now just okay
hello hi hi jim go ahead i'm sorry something's wrong here uh bill with my it's your mouse jim
i i don't know what the heck i gotta get a new one i know that maybe the battery's dying in the
mask. I'm sorry, though, about that. But you need my vote right now, please? My vote is yes.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Goldberg. Thanks. Have a great day. Okay.
Number six, MI 2023-003-075-6323. Greenway, Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
The Consortium of Southwest Philadelphia RCOs is in support of the requested variants
with provisos?
We're coming back in as a panelist, sir.
Afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Anastasio, as you know,
you've already been sworn to state your name
for the record, please.
Yes, sir.
Vern Anastasio, V-E-R-N,
last name A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
I'm sorry, representing, I'm sorry,
Great. Representing Mr. Gerald Talley.
Okay. Mr. Heilman has just a few questions.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I've just started sharing my screen.
Mr. Chair, members of the board, this is a rather straightforward case.
My client purchased 6323 Greenway Avenue and believing that it was a two-family dwelling, a legal permitted use.
It was marketed as so.
He reasonably relied on that.
And as a result, he's now asking for relief so that he can operate it as the legal, you know, a compliant two-family dwelling.
Here's some photos of the subject property in question.
Interior and exterior.
Front side and rear.
As you can see in the photos, we've got two gas meters, two furnaces.
two gas meters two furnaces subsequent photos will show two electric meters
Subsequent photos will show two electric.
so at some point this was converted uh and not by my client when he purchased it the appraisal
company compared it to other multi-families on the block and in the immediate area
here's the interior layout
We have an entrance, we have a living room, and a kitchen.
This is all open space.
We have one bedroom in the front of the property with a deck and a rear patio.
The second floor has, again, open living kitchen area, the bath and a bedroom at the front of the property.
The basement is for utilities only.
there's the zoning map showing that it abuts um industrial use there's additional
property photos as you can see there's exterior lighting already in both the front and the rear
some additional interior shots here's the two electric meters
Here's the two separate entrances, interior.
So the front of the property actually looks like a single-family home.
There's some posting.
We have submitted a deed to the property, property history,
that shows that there was an application made quite some time ago, 1989,
to install some doors in the basement.
Mr. O'Donnell, who owned the property at the time,
initially filled it out as a two-family dwelling.
He did that because that's exactly what it was physically,
only to find out later that he was unable to get the permit that he needed
because it was zoned RSA 5.
So he crossed out the two and put the single.
And that's, I believe, evidence that this property, since at least 1989, has been a physical two-family dwelling.
Here's the RCO notification letter that went out to all of these addresses, and we submit proof of mailing to 73 individual households, and we move into evidence.
in addition, pages 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44 of my exhibit packet demonstrate that this property
was marketed as, right here as you can see it, a duplex. And in fact, one listing even listed it
as RM1. So my client reasonably relied on this marketing and this classification when he
purchased the property. As a result, we were able to meet with the RCO and come up with
an agreeable plan where they asked for proper trash storage, an electric meter for the exterior
lighting and the installation of as much exterior lighting and cameras that we can have for safety
purposes. For that reason, and because my client reasonably relied on the marketing, and because
the physical infrastructure itself is a two-family dwelling, we respectfully request the granting of
this variance. I ask Mr. Gerald Talley to raise his virtual hand. Mr. Talley has been
allowed to speak. Hi, Mr. Talley, could you state your name, please, and spell it for
the court stenographer? Yes, Gerald Talley, that's G-E-R-A-L-D, last name Talley, T-A-L-L-E-Y.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Talley, did you hear my presentation to the board this afternoon?
Yes, I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
I have nothing further, Mr. Chair.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
chair all right is your back thank you questions or comments from our attorney hillary amberson
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Amberson?
Just a super quick one, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Anastasio, just to clarify, Gerald Talley is part of the owning entity, Chucky Pearl Investments, LLC, for the property.
Yes, that's correct.
Thank you so much.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no hands chair planning commission excuse me chair a hand just this hand going up it went
went up back down it was craig meladosian okay sure is craig's there he's took his hand down
now again okay right thank you wait wait i'm sorry i'm sorry no something's going wrong with him
it's going up and down
can we promote him because I'm sure
he's going to put on the record the community
support yeah that's his
he's been promoted
okay hi could you state your name please
and spell for the courts and I'm going to for a correct
he should be coming in now
all right
can you hear me yes you can could you just state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Great. Craig, C-R-A-I-G, last name Melidosian, M-E-L-I-D-O-S-I-A-N.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, Chair Bergman.
Please proceed.
Thank you. I'm the coordinating RCO for this matter, working along with the Southwest Philadelphia Consortium of RCOs.
We wholeheartedly support this for several reasons.
One, Mr. Talley has been a pleasure to work with.
His tenants appeared at the community meeting.
They were supportive quite frequently.
The tenants are not supportive of change.
His were.
The near neighbor was supportive.
And he abuts a very difficult ICMX area that's been problematic for us.
So when we have people who invest in this area, we support them and we need this type
of multifamily dwelling accessibility in Southwest.
thank you so for much so much for taking the time and calling and we appreciate it
thank you is there anyone else in the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission
thank you chair bergman sarah bond philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change the existing residential single family zoning however
the proposed use is consistent with documented prior use of this property. The City Planning
Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance. MI 2023-003-075-6323 Greenway
Avenue. I vote yes. Proviso. Trash and recycling stored in basement. Thomas Holloman. My vote is yes
with proviso
James Snell
my vote is yes with proviso
thank you Mr. Chair
number 10
003177
North Lithgow Street. Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Letter of support from Old Kensington Neighborhood Association.
A letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
Alan Nockamson is coming back in as a panelist.
Good afternoon again, Alan Nockamson.
Mr. Nockamson, you've already been sworn.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is Glamour Accessories, Inc.,
and in the virtual audience is one of its members, Julio Figueroa.
Mr. Holliman, could you handle the questioning, please?
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
I do. Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required?
Yes, we have. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
All right. So it's here to present 1530 North Lithgow Street.
this is a pretty straightforward presentation as well we'll review the notice of refusal so this
is an rsa5 property or these are rsa5 properties seven tiny lots that we're reconfiguring to five
single family structures and lots where we're the only variance we're asking for is off-street
parking where no parking is allowed on that side of the street or at all on that side or on that
street at all. So we met with the community. They were unanimously in support of this. They have a
parking situation like many communities in Philadelphia. So when you develop properties,
you need to find parking spaces for those properties. So they appreciated the fact
that there is no parking allowed on that side of the street. So creating curb cuts in front of
those properties is causing no impact to the community in any way and actually is a positive
impact because you're taking these cars off the street where otherwise there would be a fight for
parking on the street with other neighbors. They did ask us to make some changes to, you know,
whenever you have, you know, front-loading garages, there's always concerns about eyes on
the street, so we made modifications to our plans to provide as much windows and just
encouragement to have people in front of these properties, and you'll see that through our
presentation. We also met with many members of the community nearby, and we circulated a petition.
You'll see that, and that's pretty extensive. It's not uncommon also to have off-street parking
nearby, especially on Lithgow, where there's no parking allowed on the street, and we have
examples of that in our presentation. And then maps of the area, photographs of the property
and the surrounding area. Our plans and drawings, very simply, these are five single-family homes
with front-loading garages. Our RCO meeting notice, we met with the community. I think it
was a well-attended meeting, and they were very supportive of this project. Our application for
appeal that we filed on behalf of Glamour Accessories, Inc., our deeds to the property
showing that our client is the owner of these properties, which are going to be conjoined
and then redistributed as five single-family homes, and our certificates of tax clearance.
Again, at the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Mr. Figueroa virtually raise
his hand, and he can be sworn in, and I have a few questions for him about my presentation.
Before you go on, what's the relationship between Glamour Accessories and Mr. Figueroa?
Oh, he's one of the principal members.
Okay, fine. Thank you.
Yeah, he's one of the owners of that company.
And so here's our refusal.
As you can see, there are seven properties here.
We're downsizing them or conjoining them to five properties.
And we're just making them all single-family structures with front-loading garages, you know, under the code.
You're not allowed to have a front-loading structure under the front-loading garage under the circumstances.
Again, it makes sense here because there's no parking allowed on this street, specifically in front of our property.
So we're not taking any parking spots off of the street.
We're actually helping the situation in this community that's in desperate need of parking.
So we met with the community. As you can see, we got unanimous support for this project.
Because of that support, the district council member, Lazada, is in non-opposition to this project.
And then we also, again, made a concerted effort to meet with members of the community nearby.
So we have 15 signatures of individuals who are in support of this project.
And then these are these actual signatures.
And then not uncommon to have front-loading garages here, as you can see, 1501 North Lawrence Street, 418 Jefferson Street.
That's not a front-loading garage, but it is a garage nonetheless.
406 Jefferson Street, a non-rear-loading garage.
1549 North Orkney Street, 1521 North Orkney Street, 1513 North Orkney Street.
1521 North Orkney Street, 1513 North Orkney Street, 1509 North Orkney Street, and then you can just see on our block as well, 1512 through 16 North Ford Street, which has parking access on Lithgow on our block, as well as 1532 North Ford Street.
And then here's a variant, excuse me, 1532 North 4th Street.
It's also a zoning permit for this as well.
As you can see, this board granted such relief that we're asking for in 2017.
Again, not that it matters here because, you know, we're just creating single-family use,
but you can see from the zoning map, this is a single-family part of the neighborhood.
and then you can see this from a google maps perspective as well and then photographs of the
property uh this is 1530 uh through 42 north of lithgow street from the front of the property
um our notice poster that we posted on these properties of today's hearing um this has uh been
a non-usable lot for some time. And then our Google Maps photographs or Google Earth photographs
only go back as far as 2007, but you can see this has been undeveloped for well over 15 years.
And this is North Lithgow Street to the right of the property. As you can see, there's no parking
allowed on Lithgow, North Lithgow Street to the left of the property. And then these are the
changes we made and i think they best are summed up in this picture so a couple things they wanted
more eyes on the street so we agreed to have doors with it's glass so people can you know have more
eyes on the streets both in the door inside the door and above the door also in the garage we
would have glass so people can see we also agreed to create like this landscaping where there'd be
a bench for each of the single-family homes where people can sit, almost like stoop living there.
So that was very important to the community. Equally important was obviously the fact that
we're providing off-street parking, which is going to be helpful for the community in the
development of these properties. And again, this is just a landscaping plan. We have no
dimensional refusals, even though these are really small lots. And then just from
just going through the floor plans really quickly. First floor, you have, you know,
you walk into a common area, which goes into a vestibule area, and you go up a flight in the
garages on the first floor. You go up a flight of steps, you get into a living room and kitchen,
and you have a bathroom on the second floor. Third floor, two bedrooms and a bath, and then
And the third floor is two bedrooms and a bath.
And then the fourth floor is a master suite.
And here's just the elevations.
We are having our building structures at 37 feet, 4 inches at the roof line.
And again, we met on September 12th at 6.30 p.m.
Old Kensington Neighborhood Association was a coordinating RCO for this matter.
This is the email that we sent out two weeks before the meeting to not only the coordinating RCO, but all RCOs, as well as the district council members zoning aides, alerting them of the meeting.
We also on that day mailed this notice to 124 addresses.
These are the addresses we mailed them to.
Proof of mailing to those addresses, our application for appeal that we filed on behalf of Glamour Accessories, Inc.,
Along with the notice of refusal, the project information form for this matter, the deeds of the property showing that Glamour Accessories, Inc. is the owner of these properties.
And then the certificates of tax clearance for each property.
With that being said, I would ask that Mr. Figueroa virtually raise his hand.
Mr. Nackamson, there's no parking on that block at all.
oh none no not at all okay just one car just one car coming down the street that's that's right
exactly and then across the street is is the rear for north ford street where they got their own
cars in okay thank you mr fiagora yes hi could you state your name please and spell for the court
stenographer my name is julio figueroa j-u-l-i-o-f-i-g-u-e-r-o-a right do you swear
J-U-L-I-O-F-I-G-U-E-R-O-A
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Yes. Julio, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
And is it true and correct what I stated?
Yes, it is.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Okay. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, I do not see any further hands.
Okay, Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning.
The appellant has not supported their hardship claim with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board deny the variance.
MI 2023-003-177, 1530 North Lithgow Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Mr. Nakamson, please stay one, please.
Thank you.
MI 2023-003069-612 South 10th Street,
letter of non-opposition from Bella Vista Neighbors Association.
just for the record, state your name.
Alan Alckamson.
And could you identify your clients
and the relationship to the property?
Yes, my clients are Rich and Tony Artieri
and they own in their individual capacity, this property.
And I believe in the virtual audience is Rich Artieri.
Our vice chair, Ismail Sheehy, has the key questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to his 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?
Yes, I have.
Yes, I have.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
All right.
Before I begin, I would say that if the board is inclined to grant this variance,
I would ask for a proviso, a two-unit visitor accommodation use.
I believe that the zoning permit application that was originally filed by my client only had visitor accommodation use and did not differentiate that this is a multi-unit dwelling.
So if this board does grant the variance, it should be as a two-unit visitor accommodation dwelling.
So I'm here to present 612 South 10th Street.
First, we'll review the notice of refusal.
Again, this property is an RM1 property, so multifamily use is allowed.
Given the size of the lot, we're actually allowed to have four units here as of right,
whether it's even long-term accommodations.
And this property, I believe, has a history of even more units.
So we're only asking for a two-unit visitor accommodation, which is a very light use of the property.
So when we met with the Bella Vista Neighbors Association, the community was dramatically in support of this project.
And you'll see that by the letter.
Then in our presentation, we wanted to give you a flavor of who Rich and Tony are.
So we gave the materials that they have online with Airbnb.
So about us, the Airbnb listing, nearby listings.
Just so you understand, you'll see in the presentation materials that they are highly regarded in the Airbnb world.
Their rankings are not five, but pretty darn close to that.
So, you know, they're responsible individuals for tenants, but they're also responsible landlords of short term accommodations as well.
They live nearby so that they're a known quantity.
People know who they are, and they've done a really good job at that, of being responsive to anyone's needs if there's an issue.
Then we'll review maps of the area, photographs of the property, inside and out.
Then simple plans and drawings or RCO meeting notice.
Then simple plans and drawings or RCO meeting notice, again, very well attended meeting, overwhelming support for this project or application for appeal or deed to property showing that Rich and Tony own this in their individual capacities.
And then our certificate of tax clearance showing that they're in good standing with the city of Philadelphia with regards to real estate taxes.
And then at the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Rich virtually raise his hand, be sworn in, and I have a few questions for him about my presentation.
So our notice of refusal, again, this is an RM1 property.
It's a pretty large lot.
It's almost 2,000 square feet.
So I think we're just shy of having five units as of right.
We would have four if he wanted to convert this into a quadplex.
And he's just looking to legalize this visitor accommodation use.
You know, the city has cracked down on this.
He's been using this property since 2016 as for visitor accommodation.
So he's a known quantity.
And, you know, we're just trying to get through this process.
And hopefully this board will be supportive of this continued endeavor.
And then, you know, we met with the community, again, showing that there was overwhelming support.
It even said that three nearby neighbors in attendance residing within that 250 square foot radius were all in support of this project.
So people who are most directly impacted are in support of this project.
And then just the community as a whole was greatly in support of this project.
And then you can see here of the support.
The entire RCO board was in non-opposition.
No one voted in opposition to this project.
at all. And then just a little bit about themselves, like, you know, they, you know,
they live in Bella Vista and they pride themselves in, you know, in, in their, they, they, they're
very thoughtful about their neighborhood and, and, and proud of their neighborhood. So when
they get visitors there, they want to make sure they're responsible tenants. So, you know, they
screen their tenants. And if they feel like their tenant is going to be a nuisance, they'll reject
them. So just like landlords are ranked or rated by Airbnb and these short-term accommodation
websites, so are tenants. And if someone doesn't have a good enough rating as a tenant,
they won't even consider them. They also tend not to consider people who live within the zip code
and, you know, the Bella Vista Zip code
unless there's special circumstances.
Like we don't want a party house.
So if someone's living in the Philadelphia area
and they're renting in Philadelphia,
it's one of two reasons.
It's a party house or they have family that lives close by
and, you know, they just need that extra space,
you know, for a family gathering.
So they'll ask those other questions.
Well, why, if you live in Philly,
why are you renting in Philly?
So that's something that's really important to them
because they don't want to be a nuisance to their neighbors.
This is their Airbnb listing, you know, one of the units.
So as you can see, they had at that point, I think, I don't remember when we printed this out,
but like they have a rating of 4.94% on 350 reviews.
And then, you know, just a snapshot of some of their reviews.
And then it's not uncommon for properties in the Philadelphia area to, in this part of Philadelphia, to have short-term accommodations, and we wanted to show that as well.
And then, again, they're an R-in-1 property, which allows multifamily use, which allows for four units as of right.
I believe this property has a history of as high as five to six.
We're not asking for that many units.
We're asking for two-unit visitor accommodations.
And then photographs of the property, as you can see, it's well-maintained outside.
They do have off-street parking in the rear as well, which is helpful, you know, for their visitors and the neighborhood.
Here's our hearing notice poster from, you know, both, you know, the front and back of their property.
And then this is South 10th Street to the right of the property, to the left of the property, South Alder Street, which they, the rear of their property, to the right of the property, and to the left of the property.
And then photographs, they, you know, again, they want to make a positive impact in their community.
They don't want to be a nuisance.
But you'll see from how they keep a close eye on their property, but also how they keep the property in nice standing, it's important to them to have good visitors here.
and then just our floor plans um very simply uh you have one unit on on the first floor
and then you have uh another unit um on the uh second floor and and upper floors as well
and then RCO meeting notice we met with the community on July 11th at 7 p.m. 123 addresses
were notified at this meeting listed those addresses proof of mailing to those addresses
our application for appeal that we filed on rich and Tony's behalf
their deed to the property showing that it's in their personal names
and then the certificate of tax clearance.
I'm going to unshare my screen.
I want to ask that Rich virtually raise his hand.
They have been allowed to speak.
Rich, could you state your name, please,
and spell for the court's stenographer?
Rich Artieri, R-I-C-H-A-U-T-I-E-R-I.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Yeah, Rich, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
And everything I stated, was that true and correct?
With one exception.
I actually live next door to the property.
Our properties are adjoined, and we share an open backyard.
are okay and then um every do you adopt um my testimony as your own yes all right thank you
questions from the board no mr chairman
no chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time
Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Let me ask Mr. Chair, I have a Sherry Coltoff with their hand raised. I have allowed them to speak
at this time. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure. My name is Sherry, S-H-A-R-I Coltoff, C-O-L-T-O-F-F. Right. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I live on South Alder Street, right across the street, and I am in support of this. They have been nothing short of wonderful, if there's ever been an issue.
Thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate that. Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Kristen Phillips with their hand raised. I have allowed them to speak.
I could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer.
Hi. Yes, this is Kristen Phillips, C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N. Phillips is P-H-I-L-L-I-P-S.
You swear if I'm to tell the truth, told the truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am. I live directly across the street on 10th Street and have done since 20... Sorry?
Receive your testimony.
Yep, and I've lived here since 2016, and I know Tony and Rich, and I'm well, I've been well aware of their Airbnb business, and I've been quite pleased with it.
Everyone has been, there's no nuisance to the street or the neighborhood, in my opinion, and I support their business.
Thank you so much for taking the time to call in. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair, Jean O'Karma, with her hands raised.
I have allowed them to speak at this time.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Hello?
Jean O'Karma, please unmute.
Hi, can you hear me?
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Yes, absolutely. My name is Jeannie O'Karma. It's J-E-A-N-N-E. Last name O'Karma, O-apostrophe K-A-R-M-A.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am. I live on Cater Street, which is just perpendicular to Alder Street. So I face the back of the property.
Are you in favor of the project?
100% wholly in favor
of this project.
project. Thank you so much for taking the time to call.
Thank you so much for taking the time to call.
You are welcome. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no more hands, Mr. Chair. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential multifamily housing,
The appellant has not shown that the property cannot possibly be used in strict conformity with the zoning code and that a variance is therefore necessary to enable viable economic use of the property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board deny the variance.
I vote yes for temporary variance for a two-unit visitor accommodation. Expires 10-12-27.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with the proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Counselor.
Thank you.
Have a great night and go Phils.
Thank you.
Number 12, MI 2023-003-155, 7401 Andrews Avenue, David Orfanides is the attorney.
Letter of support for the 10th Ward Democratic RCO.
And letter of support from Councilmember Phillips.
They'll be rejoining as a panelist, sir.
Good afternoon.
Hi, Mr. Orphanides, just for the record, spell your name for the court sonographer.
Certainly.
David, D-A-V-I-D, last name Orphanides, O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Certainly. My client is TD Holdings NY, LLC, and they are the owner of the subject property.
All right. And our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I've emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
uh not everything except for the tax clearance which uh i forwarded i think uh either on monday
or yesterday thank you council please proceed and share your screen thank you
so confirming you can see my screen
yeah okay all right so um the property we're here for this afternoon is uh 7401 andrews avenue
It's located on the northeast corner of Andrews Avenue and 74th Avenue.
I have a photograph of the property on the screen right now.
As indicated, it's at the corner of those two streets.
You can see with the aerial images that I've included at tab three, you can see down here, the property is at the corner of 74th and Andrews, and it's right off of West Cheltenham Avenue.
As I'm sure you're familiar, West Cheltenham Avenue, you can see here from the photographs that some of the photographs of it, I have a tab five as a commercial corridor.
And you can see that also in the aerial that I've included.
This property is located in largely residential area off of West Cheltenham, just off West Cheltenham Avenue.
um there i've included the zoning archives for the properties located on the opposite corners
um they have a history of two units being approved and utilized for two units
um the property uh across the street on the northwest corner is um 1951 74th avenue and i
have the zoning archives there at tab nine of my exhibit book and that was approved as retail on
the ground floor and one residential unit above the other corner on the southwest corner which
I'm circling right now caddy corner from our property was which is 1950 74th Avenue is approved
and you can see from you'll see from the photographs is commercial grocery store on the
ground for one unit above the property directly across the street from us across 74th Avenue from
us 1948 74th Avenue was granted a variance by the zoning board for what we're applying for today
which is a two two family dwelling and I'm pulling up here you can see our property
which is a two-family dwelling. And I'm pulling up here. You can see our property here on the
northeast corner and then 1948, 74th Avenue here. And you can see back in December of 2022
with the decision issued in January of 23 that it was approved by L&I with the zoning permit
subsequent being issued for the two-family use. This property is presently zoned RSE5, as you can
see from the maps that I was showing you earlier, all yellow. However, historically, and as I think
confirmed when we were at the community group meeting, this property has historically been
used for two units. Like the properties on the other side of Andrews Avenue at 1951 and 1950,
50 74th Avenue. The property was commercial with residential above starting way back in,
we believe in the thirties. I'm showing you what we have at tab eight, which are the Kohl's
directories, which you can, which shows for properties, the phone numbers and who the person
associated or the business associated with those phone numbers are at a particular address. And you
can see in 1932, there was just a beauty shop. My guess is that it was probably a beauty shop on
ground floor and residential above but they did not have a phone um and then but then by and that
include continued through the 30s by the time we get to the 50s you can see that it's a residential
above and commercial well commercial below presumably commercial below with residential
above um and then that continued thereafter there are no zoning archives for the property
on atlas for the subject property but it's our position that this is a pre-existing non-conforming
use that existed when my client, he can adopt my statements, my client from TD Holdings NY LLC,
that when he purchased the property, it was two residential dwelling units, just as it is today.
There are separate water, gas, and electric meters. There's three, actually three meters,
one for the common area, and then one for each of the residential units, which I can show you
with the exterior photographs.
And here's a picture of the subject property, again, at the corner.
Across the street, 1951, 74th Avenue,
you can see the commercial operation on the ground floor
with the residential above.
That's on the northwest corner of 74th Avenue and Andrews.
Down here at the bottom, you can see on the southwest corner,
74th and Andrews and 1950 74th Avenue again commercial on the ground floor residential
above two units and then here are the photographs of 1948 74th Avenue right here in the front
and then here at the top of this page 13 of tab five you can see very similar to our property
residential looking at the upper two floors I do not believe it has a similar what's interesting
thing is, is that our property has a front door, which you can see even here. Well, you can't see
in there. So let me just go here. You can see a front door here on page two at tab five to the
left. And through this front door, you access through a door to the right, the unit on the
ground floor, and then after a flight of stairs, and I'll show you in a second, the unit on the
second floor. But interestingly, on 74th Avenue, there's this entrance, which is very clearly not
just a garage door entrance but a principal entrance so my guess is that that was probably
the entrance for the commercial unit for the beauty salon and then the front entrance was to
the dwelling unit that was located above and again my client purchased it as two units i
put interior photographs at tab six both units are vacant my client is looking to get the zoning
approval prior to having somebody move in you can see this is how it existed
And then the stairs that go up to the second floor unit.
And you can see, you know, very spacious, two bedrooms.
We have floor plans at tab seven.
The first sheet on tab seven is the ground floor unit.
And then you can see the floor plan for the second floor unit.
The, I wanted to just show you real quickly.
In addition, utilities, you can see two water heaters, we have the two gas, and then for the exterior, I think at the back of the property, you can see here there are three electric meters.
This is page 16 of our tab five.
From the letter that we received, we did meet with the 10th Democratic Ward, which is the coordinating RCO designated by the Planning Commission.
From the letter that we received, we did meet with the 10th.
And we met with them on September 14th of 23.
There was a vote 13 to 0 in favor.
As you can see, it has always been zoned as a two-family dwelling.
and that's as far back as and there were people there who lived in the media vicinity of the
property live on the block said that it had been a two-family dwelling and we had the full support
you can see here the meeting summary form there were 15 people in attendance 13 supported zero
opposed zero non-opposed as a result on october 10th uh the councilman councilman anthony philps
issued a letter also supporting the proposed development
uh i've included tab 12 uh or tab 10 a copy of our zoning permit application which again um indicates
that the existing use was is two the proposed use is two that we're documenting the existing
or pre-existing non-conforming use our appeal in the project information form our attack tab 12
tab 13 is the uh the hearing notice for today's hearing printed on orange filled out with the
owner's information that was posted at the property in compliance with the requirements
of the zoning code. You can see here the posting both on 74th or Andrews Avenue and then here on
74th Avenue. Tab 15 is a copy of the deed showing my client as the owner of the property TD Holdings
NY LLC since 2020. Our tax clearance at tab 16 and then at tab 17 the email from the planning
commission designating the 10th democratic ward as the coordinating rco the list of addresses to
which we uh sent the 14 303 notice copy of the 14 303 notice and a certificate of first class
mailing 167 mailings went out on august 28th of 2023 um so with that i would have my client uh
who is present, Isaac Twizor, promoted to a panelist so he can adopt the statements.
Sir, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
They've been about to speak. Please unmute.
State your name and spell for the court stenographer, please.
is a court reporter did you did you get that
yes sir i did okay thank you do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel certainly thank you mr chairman uh isaac did
hear the statements that i made to the board today yes are they true and correct to the best
of your knowledge yes and would you adopt them as your own yes uh thank you isaac mr chairman
with that i i rest um i introduce i would like to introduce my exhibits into the record yes i'm here
to answer any questions that the board might have questions from the board no no no chair
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Hillary, we have the tax clearance?
Yes, we did get it. Yes, we did.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Okay, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning.
However, the proposed use is consistent with documented prior use of this property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2023-003-155-7401 Andrews Avenue, I vote yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
So you have your votes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That concludes my business.
May I be excused?
Most certainly.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number 13, MI 2023-003-183, 538-40 Spruce Street.
Brandon Saverin is the attorney
Letter of Non-Opposition from Society Hill Civic Association
A letter of non-opposition from Society Hill Civic Association. A letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Letter
Hello, Mr. Chairman.
Council, you've already been sworn. Just state your name for the record.
Brandon Saverin.
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Yes, my clients are Zachary Frankel and Alexandra Olsman, and they are husband and wife and own the property.
Okay, and our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do agree to waive the reading, but I do not stipulate to its accuracy, which I'll discuss in a moment.
okay uh have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to
proceed with this case uh yes i have all right thank you please proceed to share your screen
thank you mr vice chairman um good afternoon again members of the board um i am here to um
discuss the legalization of a parking space at a single-family residential property at the corner
of 6th and Spruce in Society Hill. And before I get into the details, I just wanted to present
the documents that the chairman just mentioned, which are a letter of non-opposition from the
Society Hill Civic Association, which followed a unanimous vote of non-opposition at the RCO
meeting which zach and i attended um i i think that um paul who um leads their zoning committee
may be on the call and if he waited this long and i really have to buy him a beer but if not
i'll understand um and then here is our letter of non-opposition from councilman squilla um so
the details of the matter. This is our notice of refusal. We have three purported refusals.
Two of them basically say the same thing. The third, I believe, was issued in error. That's
why I didn't stipulate to the accuracy of the refusal. The one I believe was issued in error
is the middle of the three refusals. It states that vehicular ingress and egress are prohibited
to and from Spruce Street within this overlay district.
What I'm going to show you in a second is that the subject curb cut that serves the
parking space does not come off of Spruce Street.
It comes off of 6th.
So I believe that one was issued in error.
The other two appear to be accurate.
They say the same thing, which is that while accessory parking is not illegal here in and
of itself, what is not permitted is accessing a parking space directly from a front or a side
street. What you're supposed to do is access the space from a rear street or an alley or a shared
driveway. We do not have any of those features serving the property. So if we're going to have
parking, which I'm going to take the position as a necessity here, if we're going to have parking,
it is impossible to comply with those zoning sections. And that is one of the bases of our
hardship. I'll get into a little bit more about the hardship in a second. So this is part of
Exhibit 2, the refusal. Also in Exhibit 2 is our zoning plan, which we submitted to the
Department of Streets and L&I. Actually, really quickly, I'll just jump to, I think it's Exhibit
10 at the end of our binder, we have the zoning stage approval letter from the Department of
Streets. So they took a look at our zoning plan and felt that it met streets department requirements.
Going back to that plan in Exhibit 2, so this is a site plan drawn by Mr. MacArthur, our architect.
Essentially what's going on here is, and Mr. MacArthur included a few photos in his plan,
And this is the side of the home on 6th.
You can see to the right, there is a long-standing gate and a parking space there.
When we went to the RCO meeting, no one at the RCO remembered a moment in time where
this parking space wasn't present.
What sort of happened here is that my clients purchased this property as a newly married
couple about a year and a half ago.
And when they did so, they discovered that there was work on the property that had been done without permits.
When they set about trying to legalize that work, one of the things that L&I pointed out is that there was no zoning permit for parking.
One of the things that Ellen and I pointed out is that there was no zoning permit for
parking.
So here's a little site plan showing you.
It's pretty uninteresting, but you have a depiction of a car turning radius off of 6th
over the sidewalk into the property.
There's ample space for one car back there in the rear yard, which is largely paved,
has been for, again, as long as anybody can remember.
And, you know, the proposed parking space meets the dimensional requirements of the code. So we're not, no dimensional refusals here, just the use refusal, again, for accessing the space off of a main street.
I will jump to the zoning plan. Sorry, zoning map, which is Exhibit 5, just to show you the location of the property. Again, southeast corner of 6th and Spruce Street. This is Exhibit 5.
I'm going to jump to part of Exhibit 1.
So Exhibit 1 is a memo that starts here that I drafted to the board.
As I usually do, this lays out sort of the full scope of my argument for why I believe we satisfy the standards for a variance under the zoning code.
I will not read through all this, but I did want to point out that at the end of the memo, I attached a screenshot from a week ago of the property from atlas.phila.gov, and it just shows you here some of the permits that my clients have pulled in their effort to legalize the previously unpermitted aspects of the property.
So this is just to show you that my clients are making a good faith effort to comply with every regulation and law of the city of Philadelphia.
And that this variance is a part of that effort.
If, you know, they're trying to do things above board.
If they weren't, they wouldn't have bothered to pull permits to legalize what the last donor did.
I'll just show you an exhibit six, some photos from Atlas of our surroundings.
This is a parcel map. This is a parcel map zoomed out, just showing our location. This is an aerial
photo from Atlas. So this one's actually more interesting. What you kind of see here is Spruce
Street has a bike lane on our side of the street. And there are now plastic delineator posts in
front of our property. So what it means is that it's physically impossible for a car to pull over
in front of our property on Spruce. On 6th Street, there's similarly no parking on our side of the
street, although there's no posts or anything like that, like there are on Spruce. But again,
I would say, although it's possible to pull over next to the property on 6th, it's not safe given
that 6th is the main artery from the Ben Franklin Bridge and the Vine Street Expressway down into
Society Hill in South Philly, if you get off of 676, which is those roads I mentioned,
your sort of default first option is to go down six. So not really safe for someone to pull over
on this arterial street. There is parallel parking opposite our property on both of these streets.
But as you can see in this aerial, which is by the city itself, those spots are usually occupied.
And the general George McCall Middle School is a very old public school is right here. This is across from us on 6th. So during the day, what you have is faculty taking a lot of these spots in this area.
You also have people visiting Pennsylvania Hospital, which is a block away, taking these spots.
I should know because that's what I did for three days when my son was born.
So that's all just to say it's hard to park in this area.
There's no parking available directly adjacent to the property.
And I believe that that necessitates parking.
So that's a part of our hardship as well.
um i think that um that that really is my presentation um i'm happy to take questions
and um uh actually sorry before i conclude i'm gonna i'm just gonna show you a close-up of the
parking spot itself here it is on 6th so this is what it looks like a little more up close
but that that's it happy to take questions or have my client adopt my testimony
And then is there already a curb cut there?
Yes, there is.
You can kind of see it there.
Why don't you bring your client on?
So that would be Zach, Zach Frankel. Are you available in the audience?
So that would be Zach, Zach Frankel.
Are you available in the audience?
Please, I'm allowed to speak.
Hi, Mr. Frankel, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court's sonography?
Zachary Frankel, Z-A-C-H-A-R-Y-F-R-A-N-K-E-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
please proceed counsel thank you um zach uh did you hear my testimony in uh your and your wife's
zoning case today i did um was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge information and
belief it was um would you therefore adopt it as if it were your own testimony i do thank you
questions from the board
no chair
no chair
questions or comments from our attorney
Hillary Emerson
not at this time Mr. Chair
questions or comments
from the virtual audience
yes Mr. Chair
I have Paul Bonney on the line
I've allowed him to speak at this time
Counsel could you state your name please
and spell for the court stenographer
yes my name is paul bonnie b-o-n-i right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed sir uh i'm the uh chair of the zoning committee for
the um societal civic association i just wanted to reiterate that we do not oppose uh this
application and i want to thank the applicant and his attorney for you know making a great
presentation to us and uh for the record i will have a beer with you but i will not accept a
donation of any kind thank you thank you council thanks for waiting for on the phone um is there
anyone else in the virtual audience no sir there are no further hands okay planning commission
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential multifamily zoning. The proposed use will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be expected. The City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2023-003-183-538-40 Spruce Street. I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman
James Snell my vote is yes
Ishmael Shahid my vote is yes
Thank you counsel you have your votes
Mr. Chair can you have Mr. Holloman vote again
I didn't catch what his vote was
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes
Thank you, Tom. Number 14 MI 2023-003-189-724-26 Dickinson Street. Sean Whalen is the attorney. Letter of non-opposition from Passion Square Civic Association with a proviso.
and Letter of Non-Opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Mr. Whalen.
he is coming back in as a panelist sir okay thank you
good afternoon chairman hi uh counsel could you state your name and spell please for the court
stenographer? Certainly. Sean Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N. Right. Do you swear to firm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Could you identify your client,
a relationship to this property? Of course. I'm here from Vintage Law on behalf of ACG724
Dickinson, LLC. That is the owner and the applicant here. And our vice chair has a few
questions for you, sir. Good afternoon, Mr. Wellington. Do you agree the way the reading
of the refuse to assimilate to this accuracy? Yes, I do.
May the reading of the Refugee assimilate to this accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Probably not a request you get often, but thank you for the indulgence of letting me go last today so that my client could be on the call.
so i hope you can see the screen now we see the screen sir all right so what you see in the center
here is 724 dickinson uh used to be 724 26 and 28 this has been a single building that's been
built uh since well before 1940 and i'll show that in a second so we're right along fronting
on Dickinson on South Franklin, one block off of South A Street. Here's the building in question,
goes all the way out, has vacant commercial first floor and four residential dwelling units
with commercial garage access off of South Franklin. And notably today, we are not asking
for any new construction or change in height or increase whatsoever. We're simply trying to
legalize the conditions that's been at the property for as long as city records show.
So we did go in front of Passy Young Square Civic Association. We got a letter of non-opposition.
Sorry, I should note, we got a letter of non-opposition. However, our original request
was that we would have a vacant commercial first floor
allowed to use CMX2 uses.
We agreed with Passy-Onk Square Civic Association
that we would reduce that variance request
from CMX2 uses to CMX1 uses.
So as part of the package,
and in case the board has any questions,
I just included from Table 14-602-2
the various differences between CMX1 and CMX2.
We are zoned RSA5, although as you can see, immediately across from us, which we are basically
the same type of building, and just next to us on the other side of Dickinson, the other
side of Franklin, rather, are all CMX2 uses.
I could not find a history of why our side was rezoned to RSA5 and the north side was
So as I said, we got refusals. Essentially, we have three refusals, one for multiple principal uses in a building that's not allowed in an RSA 5 district. Again, we have first floor commercial with four existing residential dwelling units.
No changes have been made.
It's an existing 23-foot tall building, and we are not looking to do any kind of new construction under this application whatsoever.
This is just for use.
So, again, the proposed commercial uses in CMX2 zoning are prohibited.
That was our request.
That was a correct refusal.
However, we are reducing our request from CMX1 to CMX, or from CMX2 rather, to CMX1 in accordance with the RCO and our agreement with them.
And then also we got a refusal for four-family residential because this is a single-family zoning district.
This you can see, this is the Philadelphia geohistory maps.
As far back as 1942, this building was built as a single building with commercial use and dwelling units above.
Go forward one map. They have them from 1962 as well. It's the same condition.
One of the members of the RCO stated that he has lived in the neighborhood for approximately 20 years.
And there's been no change in the condition in the 20 years that he's been there.
And the existing first floor commercial was previously an appliance use.
So it was a heavy industrial appliance repair shop and sales.
I'm showing now simply this is the street frontage.
You have a commercial lobby space.
This is existing.
This is not we're not proposing anything new.
a side storeroom, and then the large garage with the three bays and the parking use.
Again, all of that, all current uses for that are to remain.
So here I think is what gives the board the most context.
This is the building right at the edge.
It is detached along, that's the western side, and attached along its southern side.
It is detached along, that's the western side.
These are the three entry points along the garages along Franklin.
Dickinson is in the frontage.
You can see the commercial frontage here.
There's a separate doorway here that goes upstairs to three existing residential units.
and there is a an existing separate entrance for a one bedroom over here the four existing
residential dwelling units are there are two two bedroom units and two one bedroom units
there is no basement and there is no basement space for any of them living or commercial
so again we're just giving an example this is what's immediately across the street from us
This has been approved for a restaurant redevelopment recently.
So again, just some showing of the commercial status.
And here's what's immediately across the street as we go from the commercial openings.
And then we have, this is just an existing drawing, and I had that zoomed in for you.
to show the the overall outlay of the building again no new construction no change in the
envelope no no new height and here is the uh existing height showing 21 and a half feet
i've misspoke earlier saying 23 and a half it's 21 and a half feet
um from and this basement is just for the that first floor commercial space immediately under
the lobby only so with that i don't want to waste any of the board's time today because
mr well we had a question earlier the there's three units upstairs uh yes so and so where's
the fourth unit yeah um i apologize for rushing through that so no no no no no no here's it is a
little confusing so this is the commercial this is the street frontage along dickinson this is
commercial building right the red door has a single door entrance into a one bedroom unit
on the first floor right the second third and fourth entrance and fourth properties are upstairs
so also there's three upstairs and one downstairs yes three upstairs that
cover the entirety of the top floor okay there's a separate one bedroom here okay good thank you
if the board has no further questions for me and i know i was going quickly
i'll happily call uh kelly fox sure why don't you bring your client one
and while we're doing it i'll say the magic words for the board um i think a variance is certainly
warranted first and foremost we have an obvious hardship which is an existing building that has
been in existence in its current state for at least 80 years, with no change to the structure
or the size or building envelope. Therefore, it would constitute an extreme hardship to have to
demolish or significantly change the property in conformity with the underlying RSA 5 zoning
district. There is no detriment to the public health, safety, or welfare. This has long been
operated for the uses that we're seeking. And this is, I think, obviously the least minimum
variance because all we're doing is asking to legalize what's already there. We're not seeking
to expand anything above and beyond what is in existence at this time. Thank you. Ms. Fox?
Yes. Hi, Ms. Fox. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Kelly Fox, K-E-L-L-Y-F-O-X.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Ms. Fox, you're here on behalf of the owner and applicant, correct?
And you heard all of the testimony that has been presented today?
And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
Yes. And would you adopt that testimony as your own? I would. Thank you, Board Chair. I offer
Ms. Fox to wear myself up for any further questions. Questions from the Board? No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our Attorney Hillary Emerson?
Just briefly, Mr. Chair, since the applicant is in agreement with the CMX-1 uses, we can include that the board is granting a proviso just indicating the commercial space is approved for uses in the CMX-1 zoning district.
Just briefly, Mr. Chair, since the applicant is in agreement
Thank you.
And just to be clear, we are in agreement with that.
um and the only thing i would also like to be clear on is that the the three commercial door
openings will remain and and be permitted i don't believe that has any impact on on the zoning it's
it's solely the the use this is a use application so there's no uh structural building issues
thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any further hands mr chair planning commission
thank you chair berkman sarah bond philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single family zoning
the proposed use is consistent with documented prior use of the property
the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance
23-003-189-724-26 stickerson street i vote yes proviso one more time hillary
um he uh approved or um the commercial space is approved for cmx one
commercial space is approved for cmx one yes okay commercial space is approved for
pitch.
James, my vote is yes
with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes
with proviso.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you,
counsel. Is there anyone in the...
Thank you, chairman.
Thank you. Is there anyone in the virtual audience who the two o'clock case has not been called?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Okay, so we're going to try to go straight through here.
And the reason we are, the first case on the 330 list, we only have two cases, I believe.
The first case, we have an interpreter.
So I want to try to get the interpreter out of here and move right through it.
So let me do the preamble here. Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergen, and I will be chairing the 330 ZBA hearings. With me is our vice chair, Ismael Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Thomas Holloman.
Tom's having a hard time getting through. And our board member, James Snell.
Present, Chair.
Also present is Hilary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised that proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
to enter an appearance statement call 267-270-5548. Leave your email and address of the
property in question. And finally, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments
or testimony. All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sumkin.
Let's look at our schedule for the 3.30 list.
number two MI 2022 7105 Grays Avenue this case is continued number three MI 2023 001 748 143
East Shartnack, that case is continued. Number five, MI 2023-001-701-1639 Cecil B. Moore Avenue,
that case is continued. Number 7, MI 2023, 001-767, 6550 Musgrave Street,
that case is continued, attorney moving party. And number 8, MI 2023, 001-700-
MI 2023-001-700-1223 Belmont, that case is continued. Are there any comments relative
to the cases that I've just continued? Good evening, Mr. Chair. This is Jason Hander.
Once again, I will be your co-host for the session. I do not see any hands for those cases.
Okay, thank you. And MI 2021-005-236-776 Martin Street, James Hellings and Jessica Rogers are the owners. We have no exhibits. This is the fifth listing. Is Jessica Rogers present?
Mr. Chair, I do not see anyone in the virtual audience answering to that name.
So this is our fifth listing.
We still do not have any exhibits.
So MI 2021-005-236-776 Martin Street, I vote to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is to dismiss.
We're going to go to number six first. MI 2022 004 682 530 West Cambry Street. Jose
Kajas is the owner applicant and we also have an interpreter. I would also mention that there's a
A letter of opposition from the RCO HACE, H-A-C-E, and a letter of opposition from Council Member Lozada.
The applicant did provide five signatures of new zoning of 530 West Cabrera.
Do we have an interpreter?
We're on line, sir.
Interpreter's on line?
Hello, sir.
Hello, sir.
My name is Daniel.
Could the interpreter state your name, please?
Yes, sir.
My name is Leonel Gillen.
Last name is spelled G-U-I-L-L-E-N.
Swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I swear.
Thank you.
Mr. Cajas?
Cajas?
Señor Cajas?
Sí, yo soy.
could you
have him say
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth
señor lo vamos a juramentar señor José Cazas
yo voy a ser el intérprete ok
lo vamos a juramentar
señor Cajas usted
acepta decir toda la verdad
toda la verdad
solamente la verdad
yes I do
our vice chair has just a few
questions for him
Okay, el supervisor, el vice, va, tiene que hacer unas cuantas preguntas, ¿está bien?
Está bien.
Very well.
Good afternoon. Do you agree to wait to...
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?
Muy buenas tardes.
Usted ya mandó por correo electrónico
todos los documentos y solicitudes
requeridos
para que puedan ser puestos en exhibición
cinco días antes
de este caso
Sí, sí, sí, se lo mandó
Sí, sí, sí, sí
Sí, procede y
comparta tu pantalla
Ok, puede proceder y comparta pantalla
Mr. Chair, Hillary, ¿crees que la obligación de ir a la receta?
Permítame, permítame, caballero
There's applications for two-family household living in an existing structure.
Tell them that, please.
Muy bien. Esta aplicación es para una instalación de dos familias en una vivienda, ¿correcto?
And the proposed use of two-family household living is prohibited in the RSA zoning district.
Muy bien, y la propuesta de dos familias viviendo en una sola vivienda
es como una sola vivienda, está prohibido en la zonificación en la zona de RSA
Sí, eso es lo que pasa que yo me fui a la reunión
No, tiene que empezar aquí
La 530 West, de la Cambria Street, Viradelfia, PA19133.
Mi nombre es José Cajas.
Mi dirección es de la 476 West, de la 141 Street, Nueva York, Nueva York, 131.
Permítame, denle un poquito más lento, por favor.
Permítame, solo den un poquito más lento, por favor.
Interpreter here, I'm asking him to...
Interpreter here, I'm asking him to pause.
¿Puede repetir, por favor?
Nombres, Jose Casas, y después, la dirección.
La 530 West, Cambria Street, Philadelphia.
PA19133.
Okay, yes, hello, yes.
Yes, my name is Jose Casas,
and my address is
530 West Cambria
Street, Philadelphia
PA19133
He can start sharing his screen
and start making his presentation
Muy bien, comparta su pantalla
y comienza a hacer su presentación
Hoy me trae aquí
para la legalización de la 530
West y Cambria Street
yes i came here today to legalize the 530 west and cambria street so what what he needs to do
is start putting his documents on the computer okay lo que necesita poner sus documentos en
la computadora para presentar por favor por favor permitir a mi expeditor
Melissa Cedillo
comparta todo el paquete
I podrá encontrar
mi paquete
please
allow my
expediter Melissa
Cedillo
to share the package
the packet that I sent
that I
that I attached
she cannot testify
en la pantalla no puede testificar
She can show, she can put it on her
screen and put it on
Okay, se ponga en la pantalla
Necesito que ella se ponga en la pantalla para poder testificar
Si, ella está en la
pantalla
She's on screen
Favor permitir que ella lo
please allow her to
ella podrá encontrarte mi paquete duplicado por el sual de la aplicación
ok si proceda con sus documentos esto ya sabemos que es lo que es
It would be worthwhile if he could get right to photographs.
could you ask them is this an existing duplex two-family living okay este es un duplex
de dos familias existente si yo tengo una una casa de de dos familias que se hizo en el 2010
yes yes i have a house a two family house that was made in 2010
we can we can hear a conversation going on um we just we just need to hear from the applicant
and the interpreter, so can we please
see the conversation
otherwise, thank you.
Estamos escuchando una conversación
que está sucediendo ahí, solamente
necesitamos escuchar al aplicante y al
intérprete, por favor.
Yo estoy aquí, yo le estoy
especificando que la casa que
quiero hacer de dos familias es
la 528,
530 West
y Cambria Street, y la casa
que yo lo hice ya hace 10 años
two place
fue en el dos mil diez
que es la quinientos veintiocho
West y Cambria
so yes
I want to specify that
the two story
the two family
house that I want
to transform into a two family
house is a five
the five thirty
West and Cambria
and the one that
And the one that I already did 10 years ago,
I already did ten
years ago it already changed
that already changed into a duplex,
was the one that is 528 West Cambria.
This was done in 2010.
What he did before was 528.
So, the one that was already done was 528.
Yes, the one that was done in 2010.
Now he wants to do this one.
And what we're doing now is the 530 West Cambria.
aparte de eso
tenemos en la misma área
la 526 Ways y Cambria
también que es de dos familias
y la 2866
North Fire Hill
también que es una casa comercial de dos familias
también tenemos la 28
24 North y la
523 una casa comercial
de tres familias
caballero necesito que
haga más pausas por favor porque si no no puedo
interpretar
interpreter here i was asking to uh please space it out otherwise i can interpret okay yes so i um
the one that i want to the one that i already did was the one that's 528 west cambria that was done
10 now he wants to do this one now i want to do the 528 of the 530 but additionally to that
in the same area i have the 526 west which is a two family and uh the 2866 north which is a
Okay, so we're only concentrating right now on this one here, 530 West Cambria.
Why don't we need any other thing?
Get him to show the RCO letter, please.
Can you show the RCO letter, please?
Show the letter.
That's good. Hold on. Let me read it.
You're opposed.
Just hold up a little bit.
Permitame.
Move the ladder up a little bit so we can finish reading.
Subamos un poquito más para poder terminar de leer.
Wait a minute.
Go up, please.
Suba un poquito más.
Move the screen up.
Suba la pantalla.
All right, I'll stop right there, please.
Stop right there.
The RCO is opposed to him doing this.
tener las dos propiedades limpias
y en buenas condiciones
también
permítame
ok, yes, that's why I was
in the meeting, in the community
meetings with them
because they were worried about my property
manager company
because I've been owner
of the 528 West Cambria
since 2009
and as you can see in the photographs
I've been trying to keep that
very well maintained
cleaned and in good conditions.
Okay, so I also want to mention that of the garbage in the vacant lots, especially in
the corner, which is 15 feet from my property, and everybody dumpster garbage there, they
just dumpster garbage there illegally, and I have not been able to control that, and
the city has not been able to control that either, but either way, I clean that area,
even though it's not in front of my house i cleaned that area okay all right and there's
also a let tell him there's a letter of opposition from the council member lazada
And also there is a letter of opposition to the member of the Consejo of Lazare.
Yes, they told me about the garbage.
That's why we cleaned all the garbage.
I was going to clean all the garbage that was not in front of my property.
But, however, I was going to clean all the garbage.
And then we sent photos with all the area that was clean.
And all the area is like, if you can see the photos that we sent,
okay so uh and yes they sent that and it was because of the garbage
and uh but that's why we cleaned the whole area yeah we threw away all the garbage and even though
it's not in front of my property but either way i cleaned that and if you and uh you can see and
then we sent the photos and with the whole area clean and also in the whole area my two properties
are the are like an example of that whole area and they're the best uh the best properties there
that you that are the best visibly they look better the ones that look better questions from
the board. No, Chair. No, Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
do not see any further hands Mr. Chair
Planning Commission
planning the property is indicated
for residential use on a comprehensive plan
given the surrounding similar land uses
we recommend that the request of tenants be granted
interpreter you said
the request be granted
it one one so mi 2022 004 682 530 west cambria i vote yes thomas holloman my vote is yes
james snell my vote is yes
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes he has his votes thank you
thank you guys
interpreter thank you for your work
it's a pleasure anything else i can do for you chair
okay number four
MI 2023
now you can be dismissed i'm sorry chair
MI 2023
001 704
come on
okay let me start over
MI 2023
03-001-704-2029-South 20th Street.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
Letter of support from West Passion Neighbors Association.
He's coming back in as a panelist.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Henry Clinton.
Mr. Clinton, how are you, sir?
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y.
Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify your client, the relationship to this
property? Sure. My client is to my right, to your left, Joseph Virali. He's the principal of the
owner of the property, Vista Holdings, V-I-S-T-A Holdings, LLC. And he's going to sit with me
throughout the presentation, Mr. Chairman. That's great. And our vice chair just has a few questions
for you good afternoon counselor do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to
its accuracy i do are documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in
advance of this hearing i have thank you please proceed and share
Mr. Chairman, can you see that first page?
We can, sir.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Again, Henry Clinton for Joseph Verralli.
He's the sole member of Vista Holdings, LLC.
He's to my right, to your left.
This concerns 2029 South 20th Street.
This is my table of contents, which contains exhibits A1 to A11, which I ask to be admitted into evidence.
This is a refusal.
So this is a CMX2 zoning district on both sides of the street on 20th Street, just a little bit north of Snyder Avenue.
But you'll see from the photographs that this commercial corridor is really now a residential corridor, except for one business that remains.
So what we're asking is to convert the CMX2 garage, which historically was used as an auto body shop once it was a hand car wash.
as an auto body shop. Once it was a hand car wash, and recently when my client purchased it,
he was using it for storage for his restaurant business. We're asking that this property be
used as three one-bedroom apartments. We do have an RCO letter of support,
and their support is noteworthy because they're indicating that the multifamily parcel
is going to provide much-needed housing to a neighborhood that has seen increased housing
costs over the last few years. That's why the three one-bedrooms is a good fit for the neighborhood
rather than having two family dwellings. We saw a need for single-bedroom occupancy.
Here are photographs. This is 20th Street. To my right is south. To my left, where the cursor is,
north. This is the property right here. It's 100% lot of occupation right now. It has a roll-top
door on the front with a curb cut. To the south is a newly erected 12-unit apartment building,
and then two doors over is a duplex. Across the street is a duplex, and across the street
on both sides of Mercy Street is also a duplex, and I'll show you that in photographs as I move
through the presentation.
So the only remaining commercial establishment on the block
is this auto body place to the north closer to McKean Street.
Here's that existing auto body shop.
And here's our property here where my cursor is,
the 12-unit apartment building to the right of our property.
Here's a dead-on look at our property with the zoning notice.
Again, just some more photographs from perspective for the board.
This is a duplex across the street on Mercy Street.
You can see two meters, two doors, and this is the duplex on the other side of Mercy Street, the south side.
And this is the curb cut.
Our project is going to eliminate the curb cut, so we're going to restore one or potentially two parking spots to the street
because we're not going to have any garage with this proposal.
our plans are pretty straightforward there's no basement as this was a garage it's a slab
on grade situation first floor one bedroom one bath one kitchen second floor repeat third floor
repeat we have a rear stairwell which provides a secondary means of egress and ingress for
all of the occupants and the stairwell is actually usable by every occupant so every
occupant will have access to the rooftop deck to get some additional light and air. We don't have
any issues, Mr. Chairman and members of the board, with open space or rear yard or height. It's
simply a use issue. And as you know, in the CMX2 district, you're supposed to have commercial on
the first floor and you're welcome to get two units above if the square footage permits it.
In this instance, we're basically swapping out the commercial on the first floor
and maintaining two units above.
The refusals talk about the square footage of the lot.
We've opted for three one bedrooms.
We could have put two two bedrooms in here,
but that would have equaled four bedrooms
and it would have been an overuse of the property
that my client thought.
So we're sticking with the three one bedrooms.
The remaining documents for the standard dockage
you would see in a presentation like this.
We were not able to get a tax certification per se because of some instance with revenue,
but we're able to show the board that there are no real estate taxes owed whatsoever on this property.
That is in full compliance.
And here's the zoning map again to show the board.
This was a commercial corridor apparently at one time, CMX2.
But as you can see from the aerial photographs and even the ground floor photographs,
It's mainly residential, save for one commercial auto body shop on the block.
This is the deed indicating ownership.
Our notice letter sent to everyone.
We mailed out over 200 pieces of mail for the RCO meeting.
And the final documents, I just want to show the board to support what I said about the property to the right of our property at 2031.
We're 2029.
2031 was just approved several years ago. They just actually finished construction for 12 dwelling
units. And then to the north of our property at 2023, there's a duplex. And then the properties
across the street on Mercy Street are duplexes. That's pretty much self-evident. So just in
conclusion, we're not really changing the nature of the block or the neighborhood. We're in harmony
We're in harmony with the code.
with the code. We're certainly in harmony with the neighborhood group. They want residential
We're certainly in harmony with the neighborhood group.
They want residential.
They want single bedroom to bring more people to the neighborhood.
We're not impacting anyone's latent error.
We're opening up the rear of the property.
We're 100% lot coverage right now.
We're going to have an ample rear yard.
And we're not basically impacting any development of any other property on the block.
So that is the presentation, Mr. Chairman.
If my client could adopt my testimony, I'll certainly entertain any questions from the board or the virtual audience.
Why don't we let your client adopt your testimony?
Mr. Rally, you're right here.
Can you spell your name for the court reporter?
V as in Victor, A-R-A-L-L-I.
First name Joseph.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
proceed counsel mr brown you sat here while i presented your project to the board
correct yes and if you had the opportunity to testify would you adopt my testimony as
your own and it's true and correct yes questions from the board no chair
no mr chairman no no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any further hand that's mr chair hi planning commission this is ron bednar city
planning property is currently indicated for commercial mixed juice on the city plan or
adopted comprehensive plan recommended a change to single family residential at this location
The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of neat physical circumstances or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used in conforming with the code.
Therefore, we recommend the request of variance not to be read.
Thank you.
NI 2023-001-704-2029 South 20th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you mr chairman thank you council is there anyone
in the virtual audience who who's 3 30 case has not been called
you're not seeing any hands mr chair okay um thanks everyone appreciate everybody's work today
Great job, Chair.
We're all good.
Everybody go and watch the Phillies.
I think they're on, right?