Thank you.
thank you good morning everyone my name is bill bergman i will be chairing the meeting of the
philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our vice chair ismail shaheed president mr
Chairman. Our board member Cheryl L. Gaston. Present Mr. Chairman. Our board member Tanetta Graham.
Oh that's right that's right I'm sorry sorry about that. Our board member Michael Johns.
Present Mr. Chairman. And our board member Taya Nguyen.
She's here. Present Mr. Chairman. Good morning and also present is our attorney Hillary Emerson
and also our Zoning Board Executive Director, Ian Haggerty.
Also with us this morning is Ron Bednar, our planner for the day.
Ron has had a long career at the state of Pennsylvania.
He's also been with the City Zoning Board for over 10 years.
He's been a district planner.
He's the member of the legislative group,
and he's our person here who normally handles our 3.30 meetings.
Today's Ron's last day, and we wanted to take the time to thank you,
wish you well, and if in the future in your retirement,
if you get a little anxious about 3.30 in the afternoon,
you always have a home to come back to here.
But I would say Ron, who's been someone for the four years that I've been here,
um he's always worked the 3 30 group which the 3 30 schedules seem to uh stretch to six
and sometimes 6 30 he never complains that he's just done a professional job
so ron we want to thank you and a little round of applause for you ron thank you ron thank you thank
Okay, so a recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA website.
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Let's look at our schedule for today.
number
Number seven.
Let me get through my add-ons here.
number seven mi 2024 003 268 3501 g street that cases can continue to may 7th 2025 at 9 30 a.m
10. MI 2024, 006-754-226-Ritner Street. That case has been continued to October 29th at 9.30
AM. Are there any other requests for continuances? Good morning, Chair. My name is Kareem McEntana.
I'll be your co-host for today. We currently have a hand raised from Mr. Vern Anastasio.
He's allowed to speak. Good morning, Counsel. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Could you please state
your name and spell for the stenographer. Yes, sir. Vern Anastasio. It's A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. What case? 4005 Brown Street.
Mr. Chair, that's number 14 on the list. Okay. Thank you, Attorney Emerson.
okay Vern I see this is we have no exhibits as of yet for this no the RCO just scheduled us
later this month okay you know we got assigned around the holidays and they
they took off for a while so all right thank you yeah MI 2024 007 291 405 Brown Street that case
has been continued till October 29th at 9 30 a.m. Thank you. Thank you. Any other requests for
continuance? There are no hands raised at this time, Chair. Okay. We have a series of cases. We
We have no exhibits.
Number one, 2023-005-894-2300 South 3rd Street.
Joseph Bernardino is the listed applicant.
Rocco Weiss and Bridget Squiller are the listed owners.
This is the fourth listing.
We have no exhibits.
Do we have anybody's hands up?
There are no hands at this time, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
So number one, MI2023-005-894-2300 South 3rd Street,
fourth listing, no exhibits.
I vote to dismiss.
Johns, my vote is to dismiss.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is to dismiss.
Iowan, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is to dismiss.
Thank you.
Number five, MI 2024-003-179-815 Crispin Street.
Joseph Bernardino is the listed applicant.
Ishmael Bala and Burkary Dosky are the listed owners.
This is the second listing.
We do have an email requesting a withdrawal,
but we do not have the proper letters of yet.
Is there anyone in the audience for this?
There are no hands raised at this time, Chair.
Thank you. So number five, MI 2024-003-179-815 Crispin Street.
We will continue this one more time.
Mark must be heard October 29th at 9.30 a.m.
Number eight.
MI 2024-004-729-8030
Frankfort Avenue.
Chanani Duru is the listed applicant.
Craig St. Associates is the general partner.
This is the second listing.
No documents.
Mr. Chair, I just want to note for the record
that the applicant in this case was advised that an attorney was necessary.
The applicant in this case was advised that an attorney was necessary to proceed. No attorney has entered their appearance in this matter to date. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience?
Chair, there are no hands raised at this time.
Thank you. So this is the second listing. We have had contact. They have not sent an attorney.
So number eight, MI 2024, 004-729-8030 Frankfurt Avenue, I vote to dismiss.
Michael Johns, my vote is to dismiss.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is to dismiss.
Iowan, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is to dismiss.
Number.
number four
number four mi 2024 000 903 534 watkins street that case has been withdrawn
Okay, we're going to go to our add-on list.
Number one, MI 2024, 000748, 235 Cecil B. Moore Avenue.
I vote yes with proviso.
Her refusal dated 9-18-24, revised plans, one-page, stamped by ZBA on April 9th, 2025, an updated MN Overlay District Applicant Acknowledgement Form must be reviewed by the Planning Commission prior to permit issuance.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Number two, MI2024, 005-519-401 Lindley Avenue.
I vote no to request for reconsideration.
And rehearing.
And rehearing.
Michael Johns, my vote is a no for, what was that?
Reconsideration and rehearing.
And rehearing, right.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
I want my vote is no for reconsideration and rehearing.
Do you want me to do number three, Chair?
Yes, sure, please. Thank you.
MI-2024-006075, 1222 North 29th Street.
My vote is yes, with proviso, per amended refusal dated April 3rd, 2025.
My vote is yes, with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
My vote is yes, with proviso.
number five mi 2024 005 574 1510 north 25th street the vote on this matter has been continued
to 2 p.m. today number six mi 2024-004-380-1914 north lithgow
i vote no michael johns my vote is no
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
I win, my vote is no.
It's no, Shahid, my vote is no.
Thank you.
Number 7, MI 2024-003-406-1406 East Moyman-Sing Avenue, I vote no.
Dr. Johns, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
I win, my vote is no.
I'm not on this chair.
Okay, thank you. Number 8,
MI 2024-004-578-1722 Ridge Avenue.
I vote yes.
John, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
I win, my vote is yes.
Hi, I win, my vote is yes.
Okay. Number nine, MI 2024-004-579-150 Brown Street, I vote yes.
Number nine.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Iowan, my vote is yes.
number 10 mi 2024 007 230 635 west rooseville boulevard i vote yes
john's my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you we're going
to move to our regular list. Number two, MI 2024, 000685, 2306 North 21st Street, Vito Canuso.
Is the attorney?
Aye, Chair. Mr. Canuso is allowed to speak.
Morning, counsel.
Morning.
counsel could you let me see if i
good morning mr chairman veto vito canuso c-a-n-u-s-o attorney for applicant do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir i do counsel
could you turn on your video
Yeah, I'm trying to find it,
Mr. Chairman.
Okay. Thank you.
now i see it thank you your honor
um mr canoe so um could you identify your client their relationship to the property
Yes. The owner of the property is CMGT LLC, and they're the owners of the property located at 2306 North 21st Street, Philadelphia, which is a vacant lot.
Okay. Do you waive the reading of the refusal and agree with its accuracy?
Yes, sir.
And I would also note there's a letter of support from All in the Family CDC and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young.
Please share your screen and start your presentation, counsel.
And then
First,
first document shown is the notice of the hearing
for today. Second is the applicant
of appeal that was filed as a result of the
refusal letter, which is appearing on your screen now. If I'm going too fast, Mr. Chairman,
please let me know. Next document is, again, the refusal letter. I don't know why that repeats
in the application. The following document is the plans prepared by the architect for the owners.
And as you can see, this is a new structure, which can, which is proposed to be a two family residence.
Could you, could you have them move the screen up a little bit so we can see all the drawings?
Thank you.
No, there you go.
Make it a little wider, maybe.
Here we go. That's better. Please proceed, council.
Let me move it over this way, too.
Is that adequate, Mr. Chairman?
We can see it now, sir.
Okay. It's a, like I said, it's a three-story structure with a lower level, which is proposed as part of the living area.
The lower unit, which will have access to the rear yard or a patio, courtyard, however you want to describe it, will consist of a bedroom.
The lower unit, which will have access to the...
First floor will be a bedroom, which is the lower level, a bedroom, bathroom, and a living room with a kitchen area.
The second level would would consist of a bedroom and a and a bathroom.
The third level would be the B unit or second unit and which is the top two and floor number two and three.
um and that would that would consist of a living area a powder room and a kitchen area
um the top floor or third floor would consist of a bedroom a bathroom and a second bedroom
uh now uh in the past we had proposed a roof deck which the um
neighborhood or the RCO opposed, so we remove the roof deck, and you'll see that on the
third level, there is a deck extending to the rear of that unit so that there are access
to the outside for storage or whatever they intend to use that for.
And counsel, why don't you go back? Could you explain the basement? What goes in the basement?
Yeah, the first level would be a bedroom, bath and an optional room for whatever purposes the intended user has.
You could use it as a bathroom. I mean, a bedroom or office or den or however, but it's a substantial area for purposes of whoever occupies the property.
But there. And we consider that the lower level for the resident that has access to the first floor and the lower level.
So is that a proper response, Mr. Chairman?
I think you might have to explain, like, you know, are there exit wells there?
Is there how would people get out of the basement?
Well, out of the basement, you see there's a circular stairway, and it would lead to the first floor.
And the first floor has a rear courtyard or outdoor area, which would have an exit to the rear and, of course, exit from the front entrance.
so so the so the so i build the basement has these double doors out to this outdoor courtyard
direct access right at below gray so this is like a sunken um courtyard and there's steps up to i
guess the rear yard from there which is what the plan shows they just don't show it on the first
floor plan right right and they should uh i think the architect is on here
as a participant, and I'll make sure he's noted with that.
Why don't you continue with, Vito?
My next document is my appearance statement on behalf of the petitioner.
Now, the next screen shows the 2300 block of North 21st Street,
which is basically vacant, and only the adjoining property, which is 2304 North
21st Street, is an existing vacant building. It's a three-story building, and one of the,
that's to the property shown on the right top screen, and it's also shown on the bottom left
screen. That is, and again, it's shown on the continued page, but that's a vacant property,
three stories, and that was one of the, the RCO was very insistent that our structure be consistent
with that existing sole structure basically on that block.
The remainder of that block on both sides,
you can see in one of these pictures,
is vacant land owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority.
is vacant land owned by the philadelphia housing authority and we're not aware of any
And we're not aware of any...
proposed plans or what they intend to use that for the next screen shows the certificate of
mailing to all the neighbors also there's a tax clearance certificate which is required and which
is dated uh there's what this is an old one but there's a new one dated uh march 20th um
here's the second next screen shows again that's a duplicate i'm sorry
uh the following screen has the actual deed for the property um
get it back to the screen
Again, here's the appeal and windows of refusal.
Why don't you bring the architect on, let him explain.
Mr. Cole, are you present?
Here's some more pictures of the adjoining structure.
I'm requesting his name is Michael Cole.
I believe he's on here.
He's raising his hand, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Cole.
yes sir i'm here okay mr cole could you state your name and spell for the courts
name is michael cole last name is spelled c-o-l-e right do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do would you please turn on your video
could you explain the basement and certainly uh mr johns actually described it exactly that that
outer courtyard is at the basement level and there are steps up to the rear yard from there
so the direct escape from the basement is out the rear through that courtyard area
okay anybody have any questions for the architect
yes what's the depth of the rear yard
there should be a site plan there
and then do you know the width of the spiral staircase it's a five foot wide spiral stair
the rear yard is 17 feet four inches
okay okay any other questions and then wait the egress alley the egress alley um
that on this property or is that on the property to the rear
um i'm sorry may or may i respond uh miss uh when any anybody can answer that question
Well, at the current time, that property is vacant.
So when and if there is something built on that rear area, that will have to have an alleyway between the two properties, I believe.
There is also on record a rear alley leading to the public right away.
There is, and it looks like it joins your property.
I'm sorry, it runs along the rear of the property.
Along the rear, but it's not, you don't have an easement on your property.
No, no, there is not.
That was the question.
All right.
We're bringing the owner on, Mr. Canuso, and your testimony.
Ms. Wood, Ms. Wood, would you raise your hand and make yourself available?
Well, Mr. Chairman, can I ask that Michael Cole be, ask that him remain available, but
he can.
Sure. Just bring the owner on and adopt your tester.
Ms. Wood, please raise your hand so you can be recognized.
Chair, Ms. Woods is allowed to speak.
Okay. Ms. Wood, please state your name as spelled for the stenographer.
Ellie Woods.
And are you a member?
Hold on. Ms. Woods, could you spell your name, please, for the stenographer?
Yes. E-L-L-E, first name.
last name is w o o d s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
truth i do please proceed
Please proceed, counsel.
Ms. Woods, are you a managing member of the owner of this property, CMGC LLC?
Yes, I am.
And did you hear all the statements made by myself and Mr. Hill regarding the responses or testimony presented to the board today?
I did.
And would you adopt that testimony as viewers, as the owner of the property in question?
Questions from the board.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions and comments from the virtual audience.
There are no hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Sorry.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 5 zoning in this district.
There's no unique physical circumstances or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used and conforming with the zoning code.
Therefore, the City Planning Commission recommends the request for variance to not be granted.
Thank you.
MI 2024-000-685-2306-North 21st Street, I vote yes.
I vote Josh, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
I won, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
All right, number three, MI 2024-000-818-3309-North 6th Street.
Vernon Anastasio is the attorney.
there's a letter of opposition from hey cdc
chair burn is allowed to speak good morning mr chair when the council you've already been sworn
just for the record state your name it's burn anastasio on behalf of my client mr matthew
torres i uh there doesn't seem to be an option for me to turn on my camera mr chair i'm not sure
what's going on there is there anyone are we do we have him oh there we go okay
okay that's better thank you
council council could you identify your client relationship to the property
Matthew Torres is the principal owner of the property.
Right.
Do you agree to the waiving of the reading of the refusal and agree with its accuracy?
Yes, sir.
Why don't you start your presentation?
Thank you.
3309 North 6th Street.
And we are here because the property is zoned RM1.
and we are trying to get four dwelling units approved.
There's a bit of a narrative and a story here, which I'll get to with my witnesses,
but in a nutshell, my client purchased this property in 2019.
It was a vacant lot at the time.
He hired and paid for a contractor who then proceeded to build out the property
during construction. The city came and put a sticker on the door because it turns out that
the contractor never pulled the appropriate permits. And when my client found out about it,
of course, the contractor disappeared. My client was left with a shell and came to me to get it
legalized. And you'll see in a moment the photos of
just a really rough frame out on the property.
But I will take you through
these plans and I'll zoom in as we go. The basement is
just empty. It's mechanicals and things
like that, storage. The first floor is going to be
one car parking with storage space
in the back and then the second floor there is a unit in the front of the
building and a unit in the back of the building if you go up the stairs and
this is the front unit as you can see it's a ample size eat-in kitchen washer
dryer and a full bath and then what we're calling an efficiency here which
What we're calling an efficiency here, which can be a bedroom or some flex space and we'll explain why
can be a bedroom or some
We're working with this particular layout when I bring on the architect
this unit is
Mirrored in the rear of the second floor as you can see here. There's the eat-in kitchen
washer dryer full bath
partition with some pocket doors for efficiency a bedroom basically i would call this these junior
one beds i think in center city parlance uh this is uh the kitchen the eat-in space
and then the bedroom on the third floor and again it's mirrored in the front so they're
All of the units are identical, four junior one beds.
And then we have the roof deck, which will be accessible to all four units with a shared stairway and roof access structure.
I'm going to show you some.
This is the property right here.
As you can see, it has a facade, has a garage door.
It's adjacent to a vacant lot on this side.
More interior shots.
Interiors are coming up.
So the ground level looks pretty okay.
And upstairs, this is how the contractor left it.
And when I call the architect, he will explain and offer testimony as to why the layout of the property is proposed
based on the way the framing went out.
There's proof of posting.
In my exhibit packet, which I'm moving into evidence,
it's actually 45 pages, 44 in this packet,
and then I also sent the deed under separate cover.
I sent it via email and uploaded it to the system.
But more importantly, and we'll get into the testimony
as to what transpired at the two RCO meetings.
There were nine people that showed up.
It seems as though nine people opposed
or eight of the nine opposed, nine of the 10.
We have more than 30 supporters
in the immediate neighborhood.
I've got four letters here
from folks who operate businesses all within 300 feet.
And we also have two petitions of immediate neighbors.
There's 15 on page one, another 20 on page two.
So that's 35 signatures plus four letters of support.
That's 39 in total, which is 30 more than the folks who came and voted to oppose.
There's proof of post, proof of mailing.
And this is the streets department's approval.
This is the letter that was mailed.
and this mailing happened timely, of course.
With that, I want to start my witness list
by calling first the architect on the project,
Mr. Adib.
And he's going to raise his virtual hand.
Chair, that attendee, Mr. Madi is allowed to speak.
Good morning, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, Hadid Mahdi, A-D-I-B-M-A-H-D as in David I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Would you turn on your video, please?
Mr. Chairman, I've got to figure out how to do that.
it should be on the bottom left hand corner okay
what's that all tools all right you're gonna come back in this panel
what's that all tools all right you're going to come back in his panelist you should be able to
do it then yes join his panel that's the only way to do it yep yep
chair the attendee should be allowed to uh sure i see it now okay thank you
was he sworn in mr chair uh okay i have not yes i think i did swear thank you yes okay
thank you mr adib uh are you're an architect for the project here yes okay can you explain
um why the layout as it is uh with these junior one beds and and how the contractor left us this
and how you decided to work it creatively.
The building is a rectangular shape, of course.
It goes from front to rear, the rear of the property line.
And the three levels were built with windowing at the front and at the rear.
There's no windowing along the property lines.
So it left us limited options regarding the light and air to the apartments at each level.
So given that, we placed the bedrooms at the front and the rear with pocket door openings that allowed for that light and air to enter into the living space, both front and rear.
And that was our limitation.
Okay, thank you.
And each of these units will have a trash compactor, is that correct?
That's correct.
And there's storage also available at the garage level.
Vern, I think you indicated that there is a basement.
There is no basement.
The garage is slab on grade.
Thank you.
And at that level, each apartment having access to that level, there will be trash storage there.
And the owner hasn't done it yet, but he intends to have commercial trash pickup.
I might add one additional note.
The apartments or the entire building will be sprinklered.
Very good. Yes, thank you.
And Mr. Adib, you attended the RCO meetings.
Is that correct? Yes. Both of them. OK. Can you explain the movement that we that Mr. Torres made as a result of the first meeting and and your expectations and how that meeting went?
Yes. There was no conclusion or decision made at the first hearing. However, the neighbors were not so much in opposition to the way that the building was structured.
In fact, they seem to be very much in agreement with it.
However, they complained a lot about the goings on in the adjacent area, particularly the property that faces Glenwood Avenue.
There's a common alleyway between the properties at Sixth Street and the properties at Reece Street.
And there's a gate that opens out to Glenwood Avenue, and that gate was broken.
In fact, the fencing surrounding it was broken.
And the property that you see in the photographs surrounded by yellow barriers, most of them had been removed.
So they were concerned for access back there.
What did the client do to address that concern?
Well, Mr. Torres met with them.
I joined that meeting with the neighbors from Reece Street, and he hired a contractor to install or fix the gate area and the fence that surrounded it.
And I guess in conjunction with that, the owner of the corner property kind of joined in.
And he owns a, for lack of a better term, a junkyard across the street.
for lack of a better term, the junkyard, crossed the street on Glenwood Avenue,
and he reaffixed the barriers so that that property would be completely enclosed and not subject to vandalism.
So all of this came as a result of Mr. Torres kind of coordinating the help to the neighbors.
And the neighbors, particularly on Reese Street, they really appreciate it. In addition to that, the lighting at the back of 3309 was raised so that it would illuminate that entire alleyway area.
And what it essentially did was to create a space that was visible by all of the neighbors and sort of put it into encroachment into that area.
And I might add one additional thing. I never verified it personally, but the neighbors were complaining. They said there had been a murder at that corner property in that rear area.
And it was a woman, as I understand, from them.
And that was a part of their complaint that seemed to have nothing to do with our project.
However, it was brought up at the meeting, in fact, pretty intensely.
And Mr. Torres responded to that.
Thank you.
And then there was a petition was circulated by the client to all the immediate neighbors.
Is that correct?
Yes, Bern, I might add also that I don't think this is all of the petitions.
There were petitions before or just after the first meeting, which is another two pages.
I think the expediter sent that over to you, but it probably hasn't been uploaded into these.
So it's actually twice as many signatures as you've illustrated.
Okay. Well, if the board decides to hold its vote until verification and review of those, we'll certainly oblige. Thank you very much. Nothing further from the architect, and I'm just calling my client, Mr. Matthew Torres.
Mr. Torres, can you please raise your hand? Okay. Mr. Torres has raised his hand. He's allowed to speak.
Mr. Torres, please state your name as Bell for the stenographer.
How are you doing?
My name is Matthew Torres, M-A-T-T-H-E-W-T-O-R-R-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you please turn your video on?
Join as panelist or attendee?
He's panelist.
Panelist.
I can't promote him.
Can you promote him?
i don't know why i wouldn't let me do that that time
he should be coming in he's coming in now
hello mr torres
yep do you do you swear referring to tell the truth told you with nothing but the truth
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mr. Torres, did you hear my presentation to the board?
Yes, I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Do you adopt it as your own testimony?
And is it accurate that you purchased this property, hired a contractor, paid that contractor,
believing that he had pulled all his permits in order to build this out?
Yes, that's correct.
And is it true that upon learning of the violation on the property, this contractor literally disappeared?
And your attempts to locate him and find him have not been fruitful. Is that right?
Okay. And then you contacted my office to assist with legalizing and proceeding with the development if approved. Is that right?
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I have nothing further.
Questions from the board.
can you go back to the um the the plans the site in particular and i may defer to mr uh
adib if uh mr torres i have a question for you so um this has now been sitting for how long
partially completed?
Oh, go ahead.
hello mr tourists go ahead say that again i said this has been sitting for how long partially
Hello?
Mr. Torres, go ahead.
Say that again?
completed about like i'll say about two years now two years and at any point have you had
someone come in and do an assessment of anything that was already constructed no to determine the
viability no mr adib is is an architect he he's now not a structural engineer he's not a structure
No, he's not a structural engineer. That's right. But all of that will be determined before all the walls are closed up. The city will have to get involved.
And he's already involved. But yes, I mean, as far as determining the integrity of the of the construction.
Has there been a preliminary review from streets yet for the curb cut that will be needed for the driveway?
I've already submitted the streets department approvals.
So they've approved it already?
Correct.
That's all part of my exhibits.
I'm sorry.
I went by that one pretty quickly.
My concern is that the tire shop across the street has an entrance right there, and that's a busy intersection.
And because this is a double-loaded driveway, you'd have to back in and back out to get the second car in.
I don't know.
The streets department approved the turning radius.
i can tell you that and if there's any other questions with respect to that i would uh
defer to the architect okay because you also didn't show the turning you didn't show the
curb cut in the in the plans either so it miss mr abid there
you should probably stay on because i believe mr johns is going to ask
some questions i was looking for the site plan these are the yeah there's no site plan i don't
I'll see a site plan.
There is a site plan.
There it is.
It's showing.
Showing this panel.
Thank you.
So what's the rear yard depth?
Can you promote, Mr. D?
Looks like 10 feet, Mike.
Then there's an alley.
Well, let's get the architect on to speak on this.
Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Go ahead.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
The plot plan indicates the, or shows the curb cut.
The turning radius and the site document are included.
This is the plan that's reviewed?
And they approved.
And I believe that was in the exhibits that were first introduced by the attorney.
And the rear yard, there's a 10-foot rear yard, correct?
And a three-foot alley, accessible alley?
It's the three-foot wide alleyway. That's correct. That's a public alleyway.
And that's only accessible from the garage, right?
Or the storage?
Yes, that's correct.
And you said there were trash compactors in the units?
Yes, trash compactors in the units and more than sufficient space in the garage area for bins assigned to each apartment.
All right.
And they don't have to leave the building to access it, right? Everything is internal.
That's correct.
That's great. Thank you.
And then what's happening at the rear of the garage is the storage?
Other questions from the board?
Yes. Can you explain to me again why it is that we have to have four units here?
this started off as a vacant lot
there was construction to a certain extent
you've got some framing going on
but why do we need four units
in this space
why couldn't we have fewer units
which would be more in line with meeting the
minimum variance
shall we say
yes for this property well the um uh the configuration of the building was there
that's what we had to work with um if we had made it one apartment
um the um uh the windowing both at the front and at the rear would have made that
and at the rear would have made that very awkward um it was the intent originally to make it uh
very awkward
for apartments and uh and what we did though they weren't laid um they weren't really um
uh fashioned out completely we took what was there and uh and just made it work
the staircase at the center apartments at the apartment at each level at the rear and at the
front and we just we just made it work
sorry and they're all they're all about 500 square feet and they're all one bedroom apartments is
that right? Yes, that's correct. So fewer units would just, the number of bedrooms would still
be the same, yes? Yes, yes. And I think what was targeted was either a husband and a wife
or a single person, and that was a concern with congestion with regard to parking and
that sort of thing. So again, the target were either a single person or a husband or wife.
and a larger apartment yes would mean what then more congestion okay more okay like more of a
family situation yes okay are you other questions all right
yeah i do have one more okay so in terms of accessing this garage we're gonna put a curb
cut and then we are crossing the sidewalk to get into this garage we don't have a
yes pad or anything like that no no parking on the footway at all just access to the um
to the garage door no parking whatsoever on the footway nor in front of the property
for that matter right so we're not taking any we're not taking any parking from that side of
street no no all right okay thank you questions from our attorney hillary emerson yes i just
wanted to clarify um mr anastasia um you said at the beginning there was one car but it looks like
it's two car parking in the garage and that's what the refusal says as well can you just verify the
number of spaces that are requested yep i may have misspoke because i was walking quickly
but the application is for two cars okay thank you yeah questions or comments from the virtual
audience chair there are no hands at this time commission
this is ron bednar city planning the property is currently indicated for multifamily residential
and the city plan we recommend a maximum of three unit variants be granted only no variants require
No variance for required accessory parking, nor rear yard as proposed.
Thank you.
Vern, I'm going to vote on this.
What's our day back?
April 23rd.
April 23rd.
I'm going to sit in an executive session and talk to the members of the board and figure out where we stand with this, and we will vote that morning at 930 a.m.
Vern, you're muted.
You're muted.
Yeah, I'm sorry about that, Mr. Chair. Someone used me. I don't know why. But yeah, would it be okay if we kept the record open for us to submit those other two documents that my architect says he circulated?
Yeah, so everything is closed except those two other documents.
Very well. Thank you.
thank you number six mi 2024-003-240-422 morris street roger perry is the attorney
there's a recommendation of support from dickerson square west civic association
letter of non-opposition from council member squill
chair roger perry is allowed to speak thank you
hi there good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
okay there i am sure could you state your name and spell for the stenographer
could you state your name and spell for the stenographer
yeah roger perry r-o-g-e-r-p-e-r-r-y and i'm here today representing the uh
the owner with one of the owners jack newin all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client um i represent jack
investment group, and the owner and managing member is actually sitting here with me also,
and they own the property at 422 Moore Street that runs through to Watkins Street.
Do you agree to the waiving of the reading of the refusal? Do you agree with its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Why don't you share your screen and start your presentation?
Okay, let me see if I can move this over.
Okay, can you see my screen there?
I can, sir.
Yes, I see your posting.
Okay, that's my screen.
Okay, this is just the posting for the April 9th hearing.
Okay, this is the property, and this is the property here,
and so the picture is probably worth more and so forth.
This is 422 Morris Street, which is on the adjacent street.
This is Watkins Street, and the property that we're talking about,
uh chairman bergman and and board members is to build over this garage adjacent to this property
which is pre-existing this is watkin street and so forth and what we're asking to do here um
is to the well the refusal is essentially that uh there's one lot here and we're building
what would be a single family home here and an existing uh single family home on
Morris Street. So Morris Street has been posted. This is the adjacent 424. It's multifamily.
420 is multifamily, and we are 422, and I'll come back up to 422 for you.
It's posted for today's hearing. This is the garage, which we posted. This is the posting
on 422 Morris Street. This is 422 Morris Street. It runs through to Watkins Street in the garage
and has an alleyway to the left here and so forth and so on.
So what we're asking to do is essentially put two units on one lot.
One unit is the pre-existing.
We're making no changes to 422 Moore Street.
As I noted on the documents, the adjacent properties are multifamily already.
This is the garage, which is separately posted.
and what we're going to do is build on top of the garage, build here, and move the garage a little
bit to the back and so forth. I'm probably also here with the architect, Jerry Gutierrez,
and I'm here with Jack Nguyen. Let me show you the plans. Okay, here we are. So this is the
proposal. This is Watkins Street, which is the rear street to 422 Morris Street. There's an
existing property here, existing property down here. This is a garage that we're going to
maintain. So what we want to do is do this structure here, which would be essentially
a single family, two bedroom, two baths. And this is Moore Street here and so forth.
And this is what it looks like. Let me see if I can just expand this a little bit.
now it doesn't want to expand
okay so we've got
we're going to put a bedroom bedroom
okay and living room and garage
so you're going to have a garage on the first floor storage area at the rear of the first
floor on Watkins Street. They're going to have a living area with a kitchen and dining room
combined, a part of them here, and then two bedrooms, each with
accessible bathrooms and so forth. That would be built
over the top of the existing garage
and tax clearance and so forth. So that's this.
This exists, and there's going to be some open area. There's a deck here.
There's an open area, a little bit yard in the back.
and this is the moore street property and so forth when we come back to okay so here we are
this is the property that we're talking about this is pre-existing and so forth and what we're
going to do is move this garage back a little bit and put up it runs about 34 feet which is about
here uh in terms of the height um let me see what else um so it's certainly going to be sort of
So it's certainly going to be sort of consistent with what's been going on in Watkins Street.
consistent with what's been going on.
This is three single-family homes here added on.
What we're doing that's a little bit different is we're not subdividing lots.
We're keeping this as one lot, which generates the refusal of putting two units on one lot.
One unit will be here, single family.
One unit will pre-exist at 422 Morris Street.
As Chairman Berman noted, this support.
Morris Street, right?
It's Morris Street, but it's through to Watkins.
This is Watkins Street.
But ours is showing Morris, right?
I mean, there's a Morris and a Morris standard.
We're showing Morris on our records, am I correct, Hillary?
Yeah, M-O-R-R-I-S.
Yes, yes, no, that's correct.
as Mr. Perry was saying, the property
is not being subdivided, so the address
is on Morris Street, even though it
goes all the way through to Watkins. I thought he
was saying Moore Street, which is
Yeah, they're in the same neighborhood, but
it's Morris. M-O-R-R-I-N
Okay, all right. Gotcha. And this is
the property, because
it's one lot, this is the legal address
in the property that we've got.
Right, okay. You go through the alleyway
and you go back to Watkins Street,
that's where the garage is, and that's what we're looking
to. Right, okay.
So it's two single homes you have, right?
That's essentially on one lot.
Right. Okay.
So that's essentially what we want to do.
And we're just saying that because, you know, you already have duplexes on Moore Street,
both adjacent properties are duplexes.
And then you've got the properties already on Watkins Street,
which essentially are large single family homes.
That's these.
This is where we are, and this is a single-family home.
Ones on Morris Street are already duplexes.
You can't have two homes on one lot without a variance.
So I have, if there's questions about the construction or whatever, I think Jerry Gutierrez may be here, and I have the owner here today.
Any other questions?
yeah sure i can i mean we have the whole pan of exhibits on that we went through
we've got the deed and we've got the everything through and the support of the
community and so forth and so on which means the refusal why don't you bring your client on yeah
sure uh jack do you want to sit here good morning good morning please state your name
misspelled for the stenographer jack newton j-a-c-k my name is n-g-u-y-e-n do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed
counsel yeah thank you no you're fine just sit there john okay jack did you hear my presentation
in terms of 422 morse through the walk-in street yes i did and if you had to testify or could you
adopt that testimony as true and correct. If you had to
testify yourself, it would be the same testimony?
Yeah. Thank you.
Questions from the board?
I guess my question is,
so what's the address
going to be now for this?
The address
of the property for which the variance
is 422 Morris, M-O-R-R-I-S.
Yeah, but I thought you said that this addition is going to be on Watkins Street.
It's an existing lot that runs all the way through from 422 Morris.
We're not changing anything on Morris Street, but the rear of 422 Morris Street looks exactly like this.
Okay, so here's the garage that exists.
But that's where you're going to put this addition on, correct?
Correct.
So then what are you going to call the address now of this?
Well, that's up to the OPA.
It would be normally 422 Morris Street Rear.
The post office has their own.
The post office has the right to give it a Watkins Street address if they desire.
Well, you usually should have your own tax ID number.
And they won't give it a separate ID number because we're not subdividing the lot.
It's all it's two units on one lot and the lot happens to have one OPA number.
But you're going to aren't you going to have different people living in these properties?
So how? OK, that's not a zoning issue.
that's not a zoning issue we get separate uh when we do a lot subdivision of course
We get separate when we.
they give us the whole new opa numbers and so forth but in this particular case it's one lot
can i request we hold discussion mr perry i have a question is there no rear yard
for the moore street property there's a small rear area accessible by that alleyway
right here and there's a small rear yard in the area now between the garage and Morris street
but it's not you really have a site plan of the of the existing yeah sure could you make your
screen full screen i feel like it's cutting your page off oh okay let me see if i can yeah can you
make this, you know, can you go ahead and make this larger? Yes. And then when you showed a site
plan, can you kind of pull it out so we can actually see what's going on? Here's what it
looks like from the side of the site plan and so forth. This is Morris Street here. Yeah, that's
the existing house. This is the proposed construction. You'd have the entry coming in
off of Watkins Street. You'd have a garage and then you'd have a two-bedroom apartment or two-bedroom
home, if you want to call it, above the existing
structure. So will 422 Morris will no longer
have access to this garage? That's correct.
The garage is going to be accessible. Walken Street. They could have an agreement
but it's intended to be part of Walken Street.
Effectively now, Morris Street's property
functionally ends at the back wall of that garage and they'll get
whatever little rear area they can
access through the pass-through
for the Morris Street
side, is the assumption that they're
going to enter the property on the Morris
Street facade
or they're going to come through the alleyway as well?
What's going to have its whole
here's
here's Watkins Street where they're going to have a separate entrance, separate garage
it won't affect
Morris Street at all.
Watkins Street does not have a backyard. Understood. Okay.
So neither one will have a rear yard.
They'll have a small rear yard. It's not called a rear yard, you know, technically because it's between two properties.
It has a small yard and it has a deck for Watkins Street.
Is there a future plan to subdivide this long property into two separate parcels so they are fee simple properties?
I don't think so.
So for the Morris Street side property, is this just going to always be a rental?
Yeah, Morris Street is a rental.
So you can see here's, this is the adjacent, the adjacent properties, the 422 Morse are
already duplexes, and then they've also subdivided and put single family.
So you've got, essentially in those spaces, you have three units.
There's 424, it's a multifamily, and 420 is multifamily.
We're 422 and we're single family.
Okay. This is 422 here, single family. As I showed you, 420 and 420, this is 422. 420
and 424 are on Morris Street, are already multifamily. And at the rear, they did,
And as Ms. Gatson noted, they did subdivide off the rear to the left of Locken Street.
So, Mr. Perry, let's let's try to focus a little bit.
So both properties, either one will have a yard. Am I correct?
They'll have a small yard between the two properties.
I didn't I didn't see that. I thought I thought we're.
This also appears to be the only property on the entire block that hasn't been subdivided.
All of the other properties have been subdivided.
Yeah, most of them have been subdivided to build.
They left the properties at this little area here.
Well, I guess it's technically not a yard because.
It's technically not a yard.
There's probably a deck at Watkins Street in a small open area behind.
uh behind um
a second.
yeah second floor it says behind uh 422. all right all right questions from the board
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 at this time chair any commission sir ron bednar city planning the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential zoning at this location most of the
homes on this block are either duplexes or triplexes the proposal for a two-family dwelling
unit matches the character of the surrounding neighborhood city planning commission recommends
that the board grant the proposed use variance for a two-unit dwelling thank you mi 2024 003
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, I believe Board Member Johns, did you want to hold this for discussion?
I think.
Or were you ready to vote on it?
I can vote.
I'm ready to vote.
Thank you.
So MI 2024-003-240-422 Marr Street, I vote no.
Michael Johns, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
I win, my vote is no.
Thank you, Council.
Okay, thank you.
So MI 2024-005-732-1517 South 2nd Street,
Street TA-30461.
William Kerr is the attorney.
David Orfinetes is also representing an interested party.
Mr. Kerr has been promoted to panelists
and is allowed to speak.
Good morning, Mr. Curry.
morning mr chair members of the board can you hear me i can could you please state your name
is spelled for the stenographer uh yes it's william kerr k-e-r-r right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do mr orphan 80s please
good morning mr chairman
mr orphanetes now good now i can hear you
can you hear me
yes mr orphanetes we can hear you okay i i couldn't hear the uh i can't hear the
chairman but
this is the reporter neither can i i can't hear him either okay good i'm glad it wasn't just me
i mean it's not a situation we want but i was hearing him but i don't hear him
yeah i heard him when he when he got you bill uh but i didn't i didn't hear him after that
yeah he cut out now now i'm feeling it's my fault we can hear you now all right good all
All right. All right. Mr. Orphanides, state your name is spelled for the stenographer.
Certainly. David Orphanides, last name spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
All right. So this is a resumptive hearing. We're not going to vote on this today because a couple
board members have to look at the video from the first meeting. So what we hope to accomplish today
is an update from the applicant,
an update from counsel for the interested party,
board counsel questions, public testimony,
and planning.
And then we will vote on 4-23-25 at 9.30 a.m.
So Mr. Curry, Mr. Kerr, could you go first, please?
Sure, thank you.
If I could share my screen.
You can.
Okay, I'm looking for that link.
not seeing that
okay here we go
okay are you seeing my my screen now we we do not sir you do not
it's coming up now okay how's that yeah we see it sir please proceed okay yeah just to give you
a little bit of refresher uh this photo that you're seeing is is the parcel 15 it's actually
15 to 25 uh south 2nd street um initially three parcels there that were consolidated into a single
There were initially three parcels there that were consolidated into a single parcel.
parcel.
That's the parcel.
I've got a couple other photos here.
This is looking south on 2nd Street on the left and then north on the 2nd Street to the right.
And I represent the Tun Legacy Foundation.
And what they are intending to do is recreate the historic Tun Tavern, which existed in Philadelphia.
Where did that go?
which has existed in Philadelphia for many years.
And I don't know why that keeps flipping off.
Technology is always interesting.
So that's what the recreated tunnel essentially look like.
And what I'd like to do is go to another set of exhibits.
For today's hearing, we had submitted a supplemental set of exhibit.
Through the RCO process, we had revised our site plan a bit.
The architectural plans we presented last time were the revised plans.
I realized that we hadn't included the revised zoning plan, so I do have that with this exhibit packet, which was submitted.
We also, at the request of Mr. Ruffiniti's neighbors, had a noise study report done since the last hearing.
I will go to, this is the plan's proviso form.
This is the revised site plan.
And the only thing it really changed was this area here.
The building originally cut off here.
We extended it out to accommodate a stairwell, and it reduced the size of the exterior seating area a little bit.
So what we've highlighted in yellow is the revision from the original plan, and that has been submitted in the plan's proviso process.
I don't know why this thing keeps jumping back.
But the other thing I wanted to display is our noise study.
It's just a one-page simple memorandum.
Basically, what this says is the consultant analyzed existing noise and determined that it's a very active, somewhat noisy block.
And the conclusion was that our proposal would not significantly increase noise on the block.
And then he also included this graphic.
Our, there we go again, this thing keeps jumping.
Our property.
Let's see if I can, our property is here.
Mr. Orphaniti's client owns the property here at 40 South Second Street so it's across and down this down the block and these red dots represent existing restaurants that have outdoor seating so there are four, you know, really just across the street or on the same side of the street within a very short distance our location will be down the street but we do recognize the concerns that Mr. Orphaniti's client has.
So we have had some discussions in the past month, and we've agreed to a number of limitations on the use, if you will.
We've agreed that there will be both indoor seating and outdoor seating.
The indoor restaurant will not be open later than midnight on any evening, and on Sundays it will close at 11 p.m.
um the outdoor seating area will close at 10 p.m um five days a week the weeknights and sunday
and it will close at 11 p.m on fridays and saturdays so we did agree to that we there
is a an agreement that was circulating we haven't finalized that but um we again we have been in
discussions and i think mr orphanages and i are both in agreement that we're um we're happy with
board to make a decision although you indicated you won't vote it today but we are at a point
where we where we think the board can make a decision and will continue to work uh work
through the issues that mr orphanetes remaining issues that mr orphanetes clients may have
mr that's what i have
yes orphanetes yes um so uh my my client's property at 40 south second street is a
seven-story 61 residential unit building with a commercial at the ground floor um it uh
it's just recently been built according to the opa has a
assessed value of $14 million. It's a brand new building, a great addition to the old city
assessed value of 14 million dollars it's a brand you know brand new building
neighborhood. It's a beautiful building. And they're obviously concerned about protecting
their investment and the ability of the occupants of their building to quietly enjoy
their occupancy there. I do agree with what Mr. Kerr stated, that we're trying to work out the
details i think everybody's on the same page or i think there have been good discussions and
a good relationship between my client and his client thus far um we believe that there you
know our concern is is noise there yes there are other outdoor operations on second south second
street um associated with restaurants but we believe that none of them have the amount or
the extent of outdoor space that this property has and as such we want to make sure that
But there are limitations or restrictions in place to prevent there being issues in the future.
As you know, Mr. Kerr's client, they could be the best people ever, do exactly what they say they're going to do, do even better, make sure that they're a great addition to the community, don't disturb anybody.
But they decide to move on.
They go out of business.
Mr. Orfanides, maybe we could focus on this.
No, no.
Are you to the point where you're ready for the board to make a decision?
I would like to submit a list of provisos, because I think Mr. Kerr went through some things.
And then I would like to submit a list of suggested provisos that we would like the board to consider when they vote the case next week.
Thank you.
They would include some of the things that Mr. Kerr put on the record, but we feel that they should be incorporated into the decision of the board.
And then we can also have an agreement on the side as well so that everybody's, you know, not who's talking to talk can walk the walk.
Thank you.
Can I ask a quick question? Where is where is your client's property in relationship to this project?
We're 40 south second. Mr. Kerr and Indy showing it is just below Trotter's Alley on the opposite side of the street.
It's it's a couple of properties down.
Is my screen still up here?
Yeah, it is.
All right.
This is circling with the cursor.
Mr. Orphanity's client's property, 40 South 2nd Street.
My client's property is a bit up the block.
Gotcha.
Thank you.
Any other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney?
Just briefly, sorry, one second.
um mr kirk would you mind sending because there are revised plans a higher resolution version of
the revised plan it was just difficult to read and i'm just afraid it's going to be difficult
if the board approves to stamp and be reviewed by lni okay we will do that you could do that
that would be great thank you so much comments from the virtual audience
at this time chair no one and it mr chair it's it's april 2030 said at 9 30 did i get there
i'm going to say whether i get to the end right because i okay okay thank you all right
all the testimony planning commission it's uh ron bednar city planning comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the cmx3 commercial mixed juice zoning at this location the applicant has
shown that the proposed eating drinking establishment sit-down restaurant will have
no detrimental impact on the historic old city neighborhood beyond what would be reasonably
expected therefore we recommend uh hold on a second therefore we recommend that the uh requested
special exception de-granted. Thank you. We have three board members who are going to look at the
video from the first meeting. We will vote 4-23-25 at 9.30 a.m. Thanks, both of you. Okay, thank you,
Mr. Chair. Mr. Bednar, good luck and enjoy your retirement. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Number 11, MI 2024-007-091, 2501 Amber Street. Adam Laver is the attorney.
Mr. Chair, we need, let me just see if board member Shahid is back on because board member
Johns needs to recuse. And I believe board member Shahid stepped away. So I'm just seeing
if he's back on yet. We need to, we have one other case that we can hear. And I can get
Let's get him back on.
him back on.
Chair, they're allowed to speak.
I'll answer the phone.
Thank you.
why don't we do this why don't we go to the next case right number 12 and then we'll come back to
it so number 12 mi 2024 007 249 56 16 chew avenue david turtsey is the attorney
unanimous support from the 12th board democratic committee
they've been allowed to speak
good morning council
Mr. Tshutti, you're allowed to speak.
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning.
Good morning, counsel.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
David Shutti, last name spelled T-S-H-U-D-Y.
Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
My client is Why Not Prosper, Inc. and is the fee simple owner of 5616 Chew Avenue.
Do you waive the reading of the refusal? Do you agree with the second?
Very true.
Okay. Thank you, Ish. We're going to hinder this case, then we're going to go back to the other case.
um counsel do you um i'll leave the reading of the refusal and agree with its accuracy
yes we do share your screen and start your presentation please absolutely
one second here guys
uh good afternoon i mean good good morning my name is david surety we represent uh why not
Prosper, Inc., owner of 5616 Chew Avenue.
The applicant has owned the property since 2016,
and in 2016 was granted a use permit to use the property for the housing of up to 10 occupants in five rooms.
Why Not Prosper is a non-profit, 501c3, that supports women that were recently incarcerated and provides transitional support for them.
In 2016, there was a proviso that was a five-year temporary permit.
Those five years have elapsed, but the properties continue to be used for this mission.
uh last week we presented uh similar cases uh for two other properties and which why not
prospers the owner of and operates in a similar fashion as a result we uh as all the termination
As a result of the termination, we applied for transition recovery housing within this structure, which was refused because it's in the CMX1 zoning district, which does not permit that type of use, and that applied to the board.
in our week.
We did have a meeting with the RCO last month at the same time as we had the meeting with the RCO on the property, which is in the same block, and received a positive result from that meeting.
Again, the property is currently used as transitional housing for recently incarcerated women.
Let me get to the exterior of the property, something like this, and it is at the corner
of Chu and Gray Street.
And then the interior interior is a common room, looks something like this.
We do not have rooms of the, we don't have pictures of the actual residential rooms,
But they are two beds per room, and there are five interior bedrooms that are shared among the 10 women that are there.
As I said, Reverend Michelle Simmons founded Why Not Prosper almost 20 years ago and has been a pillar of the community since then.
As I mentioned, we met with the RCO last month and received a positive result from the RCO.
And I'd like to bring on Reverend Michelle Simmons to adopt my testimony.
Good morning, Reverend.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning, Reverend.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is.
okay so my name is reverend michelle simmons m-i-c-h-e-l-l-e last name simmons s-i-m-m-o-n-s
you swear or affirm that tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes that is correct proceed counsel reverend simmons uh uh did you hear the testimony i
provided this morning? I did. Okay. And is it true and correct? Yes, sir. And do you adopt it
as your own testimony? I will. Do you have anything else to add to the board to support
the variances being requested? No, I just would like to echo what you said. Yeah. Why not Prosper
been here at you in Shelton for 23 years? And we had our other zone in here is the reason why we
here is because when we went back in 16 they gave us the five years and I wasn't knowledgeable that
I needed to do something to keep it going. They gave us a proviso because like it was you know
at-risk people and we haven't had no problems since we started. We actually just have adopted
our community. We give out food in the facilities at 5616 down at the bottom. It's a little space
for women in the community coming home to do job resumes and things like that.
We actually also have support from our city councilwoman, Cindy Bass.
She knows of our organization really well.
And I guess my only request of it at this hearing is that we don't have to keep coming back every five years
because we've been a great example of community.
I'm the block captain on 5,600 and 700 block of Shelton.
And so I would just ask the board just to, you know, grant our zoning.
We've been there.
We even used one of our spots to, when the community came to me and said they didn't have nowhere to vote,
We use one of our downstairs part and we'll then the voting machine so that our board could be able to vote.
So just a couple of examples of who we are and what we stand for in this community.
Questions from the board?
I have no questions.
Questions or comments from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have a hand up from Mr. Charles Richardson.
He's allowed to speak.
Good morning, Mr. Richardson.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Why could you please state your name as spelled for the court stenographer?
Certainly.
Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N.
Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass Room, 508 City Hall.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
i do please proceed sir uh the councilman has no opposition to granting the variance
thank you very much anyone else in the virtual audience
no hand at this time chair planning commission sir ron bednar city planning while the property
is currently indicated for commercial mixed use on the city plan there are insufficient social
service housing facilities to meet residents needs in this area therefore the city planning
Commission has no objection to the granting of the request of
variance. Thank you. MI 2024 007 249 5616 2 Avenue. I vote yes.
Michael John's my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
I win. My vote is yes.
Okay, you have your votes for that. All right, see where it is.
when i hear mr richardson i think we're at the end of the day but
that usually comes at seven o'clock michael not this time thank you
i'm here chair my button wasn't working
Good, good. Okay. Number 11, MI 2024-007-091-2501 Amber Street. Adam Laver is the attorney. Michael Johns has recused himself.
There's support from East Kensington Neighborhood Association, a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Adam Laver of Blank Rome, 1 Logan Square.
Although everybody knows it, could you just for the record spell your name for the sonographer?
Of course, Chairman Bergman.
Adam Laver, L-A, V as in Victor, E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, Mr. Chairman, I do.
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Of course.
Blank Rome represents BMK Properties, LLC, an affiliated entity of the River Wards Group,
owner of the subject property.
Do you waive the reading?
I refuse and agree with its accuracy.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, I do.
Can you start your presentation, sir?
Thank you.
As I mentioned, Blank Room represents BMK Properties, LLC,
a Riverwards Group-related entity.
With me today is Mo Rushdie,
a managing partner of the Riverwards Group.
along with architect Jason Zor, S-Z-O-R, of Marshall Sabatini Architecture.
The proposal before the board calls for the erection of a new three-story single-family dwelling to be built on a vacant parcel.
You can see the parcel on Amber Street, which is outlined in red on the screen before you.
Here is the subject property across from Kensington High and another view of the vacant parcel.
Here we're looking from Amber Street at the vacant parcel.
It's to your left and to the right in this image.
The zoning for the underlying property is RM1, adjacent to CMX2.
And moving to the refusal, this is one of the most de minimis cases I've ever had.
The zoning code calls for a minimum rear yard depth of 7 feet.
6 feet, 4 inches rear yard depth is proposed.
As I stated at the outset and as shown on the notice of refusal, the proposal calls for the new construction of an attached structure with roof deck for single family household use.
for single family household use we're very proud that this is part of the turn the key
We're very proud that this is part of the turn the.
affordability housing initiative for the river wards group they're approaching
200 turn the key residences in the city of philadelphia
moving to the plans you can see the uh three-story proposal that i mentioned
with elevations on the left, zoning site plan on the right. One of the really nice
features of this single-family residence is the generous living spaces. Three bedrooms are proposed.
From the right to the left, the basement plan has flexible living space with a bedroom
with egress out to that rear yard.
The first floor in the middle shows your main living spaces,
living room, dining room, kitchen.
And the second floor shows the additional bedrooms,
as does the primary bedroom on the third floor
and the roof deck that I mentioned.
We had the opportunity to appear before the coordinating RCO, the East Kensington
Neighborhood Association. There was unanimous positivity for the project. You can see that the
vote was for support, six in support, one in non-opposition, no opposition at all.
and District Council Member Squilla recognized the letter of support from the coordinating RCO
and offered his position of non-opposition. Mr. Chairman and members of the board,
the authorization of very de minimis variance relief will not alter the character of the
neighborhood or the district or be detrimental to the public welfare. The photos reflect that
the proposal would fit into the neighborhood. The support of those most impacted who live in close
proximity speaks to the granting of variance relief being of benefit to the public and within
the spirit of the zoning code. The proposed variance, a matter of inches on that rear yard,
represents the minimum variance that would afford relief and will represent the least
modification possible of the regulation at issue, while once again allowing for, as Mayor Parker
likes to say, affordable luxury, generous spaces that everyone deserves. The grant of variance
relief will not substantially increase congestion in the public streets, increase the danger of
fire or otherwise endanger the public health, safety, or general welfare. There are no light
or air issues. This will not adversely impact transportation or unduly burdened water, sewer,
school park or other facilities there are no environmental issues as i mentioned the architect
is present should the board have questions and at the appropriate time mr rushti is prepared to
adopt and affirm why don't why don't we bring your client on adopt your testimony
thank you mo rusty would you kindly raise your virtual hand to be recognized by chairman bergman
there he is
the attendee is allowed. Sure. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, sir. Could you please
state your name and spell for the court stenographer? My name is Muhammad Rushdie,
M-O-H-A-M-E-D. Last name is Rushdie, R-U-S-H-D-Y. Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed, counsel.
Good morning, Mr. Rushdie. Have you been present during the entirety of this
hybrid presentation before the Zoning Board of Adjustment? Yes, I have. And would you adopt
and affirm the testimony that I've offered as your own? Yes, it is. Thank you, Mr. Rushdie.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson? Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions
or comments from the virtual audience? No hands raised at this time, Chair. Planning Commission.
It's Ron Bednar, City Planning. That property is indicated for multifamily residential on the city plan. Given the site's constrained physical conditions, we recommend the request of parents be granted.
MI 2024-007-091-2501, Amber Street, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
he's here somewhere hold on
he's here somewhere, hold on
can we see him up there?
I don't see anybody at this time, Sheriff
hold on a minute
over there is
as we need your vote
Mr. Chairman and members of the board, if I may, I believe the next case on your agenda
is for the same client, a similar turn the key.
Why don't we start that and then we'll vote them both.
Is that okay, Hillary?
Start that case and we'll find him and we'll vote both at the same time.
We need to make sure we have him in order to hear.
So we have a quorum.
Hold on.
no we don't have any hands up at this time chair he's saying he's having difficulty on um unmuting
well how do we get in the corn if we can yeah um mr shaheed can you go can you leave and come
back in again shoot thank you
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Tim, you did say this was the easiest case you've ever had, right?
He's trying to come back in, Mr. Chair, to see if he has better technical success.
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Thank you.
Sorry, Adam, we'll be trying to clear.
No, no, it's quite all right.
while we're waiting for a moment if i may hey can you hear me now chair here he is we can we can
okay vote on the first case sure i'm sorry bad i'm in the area of bad service it's no shaheed
my vote is yes okay now we're going to hear the second case all right so mi2024 007 264 25 2250
East William Street, TC19419. Adam Laver is the attorney. Adam, just for the record,
state your name. You've already been sworn. Adam Laver, L-A-V as in Victor, E-R, on behalf of BMK
Properties, LLC, the owner of the subject property. Can you identify your client,
the relationship with this property? Is that the same group? Yes, BMK Properties, LLC,
and its managing partner, Mo Rushdie, who is here today, own the subject property.
All right. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy?
Yes, Mr. Chairman, I do.
And I notice you have support from Southport, Richmond, and non-opposition from Councilmember
Squillow. Again, please proceed, sir.
That's correct. Thank you. And with us is the same architect, Jason Zohr of Marshall
Sabatini architecture. The proposal at the vacant parcel, which you can see here outlined in red at
the corner of William Street and Weichel Street, previously had actually been two separate parcels,
each of which would have accommodated a single-family dwelling. However, the city of
Philadelphia, as I'll show you shortly, condemned a portion of the property off of Weichel Street.
Originally, we had two 16-foot wide lots facing Williams Street with a 30-foot right-of-way
on Weichel. The city expanded Weichel right-of-way to 40 feet, resulting in a smaller
lot on this vacant lot. So two lots were consolidated into one lot at 22 feet wide,
and that actually leads to the variance before you today, which I'll get to momentarily.
Here is the subject property where my cursor is, and we are looking at it head-on.
again another image of the subject property it's that corner right there
Weichel Street has been widened making our property smaller actually we are on the left
in this streetscape photo and on the right in this photo the subject property is zoned RSA 5
and here you can see what I mentioned at the outset in the upper left-hand corner there
were originally two lots after the taking those two lots were combined into one smaller lot to
allow Weichel to be larger wider if you will the proposal before the board on this now combined lot
in RSA 5, is to erect a two-family household. And due to it being within the RSA 5 zoning district,
that led to one single-use refusal. The proposed height of the two-family home
is 32 feet 8 inches. No issues there. Again, the only issue is due to that seeking to have
two residences on the one lot. Once again, we are proud to bring another turn-the-key
property to the city, increasing affordability options for all. And you can see here,
starting at the right and moving to the left, each of the homes provides for three bedrooms.
There are two bedrooms on the lower level with egress into a backyard with full access out to the right of way.
The first floor has the additional bedroom and main living spaces.
and main living spaces moving to the second unit on floors two through three you can see a similar
Moving to the second.
layout on the lower level of that residence being the second floor living and dining spaces
laundry bedroom and then on the third floor the additional bedrooms and roof deck it's really
once again, nice, ample living spaces that everyone deserves. We met with the Southport
Richmond Civic Association, the coordinating RCO, which has indicated its position of support.
I'd like to note in the right-hand column that all impacted, affected, PCPC-notified neighbors
were in support of the project. And Council Member Squilla recognized the letter of support
and offered his non-opposition for this project. The authorization of variance relief will not
alter the character of the neighborhood or district or be detrimental to the public welfare.
The photos reflect the proposal fitting in within the neighborhood. The refusal itself
is due to a public good in widening the street for the good of all, making the subject property
a little bit smaller. However, the architects have done a fantastic job in making great,
generous living spaces for two families, allowing two more families in the city of Philadelphia
to benefit from affordability to return the key. The support of the impacted neighbors who live
in close proximity speaks to the granting of variance relief being of benefit to the public
and within the spirit of the zoning code. The proposed variance would represent the minimum
variance to afford relief. Had this not occurred, we wouldn't even be before you because two
residences previously would have been permitted at this site. The grant of variance relief will
not substantially increase congestion in the public streets, danger of fire, or otherwise
endanger the public health, safety, or welfare. There are no light or air issues. This will not
adversely affect transportation or unduly burdened water, sewer, school park, or other public
facilities. There are no environmental issues. Again, the architect is here, and Mr. Rushdie
is already a panelist and prepared to adopt and affirm when the chairman wishes.
Why don't we bring Mr. Rushdie on right now? Rushdie on now right now.
Mr. Rushdie, please unmute. Thank you.
Okay, Mr. Chairman, please on mute.
Yep, you've already been sworn.
Just for the record, state your name, please.
My name is Mohamed Rushdie, spelled M-O-H-A-M-E-D, last name Rushdie, R-U-S-H-D-Y.
Right.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mr. Rushdie, I see that you've been present during the entirety of this hybrid hearing
before the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment.
would you adopt and affirm the testimony that I've offered as your own?
Yes, I do. Thank you. Thank you. Questions from the board.
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 at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission. This is Ron Bednar, City Planning. The property is currently indicated
for residential on the city plan
given the site's limited physical
circumstances, its priority
land bank redevelopment
with fully enforced affordability
requirements, we recommend that
the correspondence be granted. Thank you.
So MI 2024
007264
2250 East Williams Street
TC 19419
I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston
my vote is yes.
I own my vote is yes.
my vote is yes thank you council thank you mr chairman and members of the board thank you
we appreciate it and council you would know that that was iran bednar's last official
he retires right now so i was just about i was just about to say that uh it has been such a
pleasure to work with mr bednar and i join in the chairman's um remarks at the outset in wishing
Mr. Bednar, Only Good Things in Retirement.
We'll miss you very much.
Thank you.
Yes, we will, Ron.
We'll miss you, Ron.
Is there anyone left in the virtual audience whose case has not been called?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Thanks, everyone.
See everyone at 2 p.m.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting
of the Philadelphia Zoning Board. With me is our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman. And our board member, Taya Wynn.
Present, Mr. Chairman. Also present is our attorney, Matthew Webster.
Present, Mr. Chairman. And our zoning board, Executive Director, Ian Haggerty.
A recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA website.
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Third, the webinar Q&A is for questions about the hearing.
Do not comment on cases in the Q&A.
Fourth, if you're participating by phone, press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute.
you. For our in-person attendees, please refrain from talking, eating, or drinking during the
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point is at love park directly across from our street please remain there so we can account for
you let's look at our schedule for today
Are there any quests for continuance?
Good afternoon, Chair.
This is Jasmine, and I will be your co-host this afternoon.
I see no hands at this time.
Okay. Number 12, MI-2025-003-07-883 North Preston Street. That case is continued.
Chair, I think-
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That case is withdrawn.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
Are we going to go to our add-on list?
Number one, MI 2024-005-752-4028 Westminster Avenue.
I vote yes.
I'm not on this one.
Oh, Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tana Graham, my vote is yes.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2024, 005-790-3625 North 16th Street.
I vote yes.
I'm not on this one either.
show guessing my vote is yes
Tanetta Graham my vote is yes
I win my vote is yes
number three
MI 2024
005 262
1311 to 13
North 27th Street
that case has been rescheduled to Wednesday
April 23rd at 2pm
number four
MI 2024
867 1112
Roy Street
I vote yes with proviso.
I vote yes with proviso.
Per refusal, dated 2-18-25, revised plans, one-page, stamped by ZBA on April 9th, 2025, and use limited to a personal fitness, health, and wellness.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes. Can you confirm that address again?
The provisos?
No, no, the address.
Oh, sure.
11-12, correct?
11-12 Roy Street.
Okay, yes. My vote is yes with Michael
Jones. My vote is yes with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston. My vote is yes
with Proviso. Tanetta Graham.
My vote is yes with Proviso.
My vote is yes with Proviso.
Number five is
number five, 2024-003-335-621-25
Reed Street. This is a re-vote
with the adding of
a proviso. I vote no with proviso. Her refusal dated 1-2-25. Michael Johns, my vote is no with
proviso. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no with proviso. Tanetta Graham, my vote is no with proviso.
Iowan, my vote is no with proviso. Number six, MI 2024-004-239-900 North 41st Street,
My vote is no.
Michael Johns, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaster, my vote is no.
Tynetta Graham, my vote is no.
Tywin, my vote is no.
Number seven, MI2024, 005-849-4800 Bingham Street.
This vote, this matter, has been rescheduled
until April 23rd, 2025 at 2 p.m.
number eight mi2024-004-310-4122 comley street i vote no michael johns my vote is no
cheryl gaster my vote is no tenetta graham my vote is no
Ty, I win.
My vote is no.
MI 2024-005-574-1510 North 25th Street.
I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ty, I win.
My vote is yes.
We're going to go to our regular list.
We're going to start with number 11.
MI 2025, 000306, 2313 Green Street. Rachel Pritzker is the attorney. I understand that
Richard DeMarco is also maybe involved in this case. Good afternoon.
My counsel, could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
Yes, it's Rachel, R-A-C-H-A-E-L, Pritzker, P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is Laura and Anil Nanda. They are the owners of the property.
Do you waive the reading of refusal and agree with its accuracy?
Mr. DeMarco.
Good morning. Excuse me. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Richard DeMarco, last name spelled D-E-M-A-R-C-O.
I represent Thomas Leonard, the next door neighbor,
but we have an understanding with the applicant in this case.
Okay, do you swear or agree or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, yes.
Okay, so, Counsel Pritzker, could you please start your presentation?
You see my screen?
We can.
I'm going to go to the refusal. So, as I mentioned, I represent the homeowners of the property, Lauren and Neil Nanda. This property is at 2313 Green Street. It is zoned RM1, and we are proposing the removal of an existing one-story garage on the rear of the lot to erect an attached three-story structure on the rear, which you'll see in the plans, for use as a multifamily household living,
three dwelling units with an already existing six dwelling units on the site and the only refusal
that we have is just a de minimis refusal for minimum rear yard depth where the code requires
nine and we're proposing two feet three inches which i'll go into a minute
It's also worth noting that on the refusal under notes to the ZBA that the Zoning Board back in 1961 had granted a variance for five units on the property with an existing building with a de minimis variance for the courtyard space.
it's also worth noting that on the refusal under notes to the zba that
So similar refusal to this, just de minimis, dimensional refusal here.
The application for appeal.
um this is the um letter from the historical commission so it's worth noting that this
project is a historical uh structure the front of the property um so then any additions to the
site did include both a review by the architectural committee and the historical commission and
in collaboration with uh rich's client the neighbor um at 2315 and the coordinating rco
Spring Garden Civic, we worked on a number of revisions to this project that were supported
by the near neighbor and the community, but end up a little bit causing, not a little bit,
causing the de minimis refusal that we're here for today. And when the architects present,
you'll see just that what we're providing is actually more in line and is with the neighboring
property and leaves open the amount of light and air needed to keep the courtyard green and not
infringe upon the neighbor's courtyard and aligns with their structure as well. Just going to go
D to the property. The aerial, as you can see, it's a pretty large and long property. It's zone
RM1, as is the majority of the block and surrounding blocks. So the use that we're
proposing is permitted by right. And the multiple principal buildings are also permitted by right
on the structure as you can see and especially given the adjacent neighbor as you can see on
2315 they also have sort of this setup with an additional structure in the rear and what we're
trying to do is provide our structure in line with theirs so that it doesn't infringe upon
any of the additional open space and light and air which was really important to the neighbor
and also it keeps in context with the surrounding area so that's what is generating a little bit of
the issue here. This is just the zoning posters on the front of the property.
Some exterior photos.
So you can kind of see that courtyard space that we're trying to preserve.
And this is the existing carriage house. So part of the project requires the demolition
and removal of that and a new structure that's more in line with the neighborhood and the
newer architecture over there.
Before I bring the architects on that can kind of explain the proposal as far as the
plans are concerned, I just want to kind of go through the hardship argument, which is
again, this de minimis refusal for dimensional variance here.
What's required is nine feet.
However, the nuance here is that the deed has this portion of road that kind of nears between Wallace Place and 2315 Green Street listed as an alleyway.
And so per the code, the rear yard depth has to be measured from the closest point of the property boundary.
but because this is designated as an alleyway instead of a driveware or rear street the code
requires that the rear yard has to be measured from the boundary of the alleyway not any point
within the alleyway so literal enforcement would require that this new structure sit about six feet
further forward into the courtyard which would encroach upon the light and air of the directly
adjacent property right here on the screen. So what we're asking for is this de-minimal variance
that we can actually be in line with the adjacent structure and not sit six feet forward, which not
only is out of whack with the neighboring property, but just is not in line with sort of any other
additions of this sort and would be more out of character. So we worked with the neighbors on this
and we actually prefer where we had it proposed and that was supported and approved by the
historical commission, this nuance in the code related to this, the measurement needing to be
from this alleyway, because the term on the deed is alleyway, is what is triggering our need for,
I guess, three feet, six feet additional space setback. Literal enforcement, again, would require
this to be out of whack and encroach upon the light and air of the adjacent structure and also
be out of whack with the approval that was already given by the architectural committee
and the Historical Commission.
That's the only refusal that we're asking for.
And as mentioned, we worked really nicely
And as mentioned, we worked really nicely in collaboration with the neighbor and the RCO.
in collaboration with the neighbor and the RCO.
And I know this isn't really the purview of zoning, but I want to make sure I mention this.
We will be working on a written agreement with the neighbor and the community on the construction component because there was a lot of sensitivity around making sure that we are as thoughtful as possible as we work through the construction of this because there are a lot of other surrounding properties, small alleyways.
on it and it's you know going to be a little bit uh of a challenging construction perspective just
given the access needed for a lot of these properties just the way that they're situated
in the community so we are working on that but given the amount of detail involved with that
it's taking a little bit more time but we are committed to that and i've been working with rich
on that um for a little bit now so i just want to make sure that that that's mentioned on the record
because i know that there's some sensitivity to that other than that everything with this project
the lines dimensionally and use-wise it's permitted by the code and again it's just the the minimal
dimensional variance that we're asking for we did have a public meeting with the community
and we have a letter of non-opposition from the spring garden civic association who again has
been a sort of a very collaborative with us and the neighbor on on getting this project
moved forward and also as we handle the construction components of this so just so you have this as
well um other than that i would like to bring on our architects briefly um evan lipin from low
design just to go through the proposal um on the plans and then um be be done from there
what's your architect's name evan lipin evan yep
evan yes here
i'm right here do i need to be sworn in no that's fine evan could you please state your
name and spell for the court's stenographer sure it's evan litvin l-i-t-v-i-n you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed
council evan could you share your screen and go through the plans please absolutely second okay
here we go uh thank you uh thanks rachel um 23 13 green street as rachel mentioned uh fronts
onto both green street as well as as well as wallace place in the rear would you get closer
to your mic, you're fading off. Oh, I'm sorry. The proposed project includes three modest units
with a total of roughly 2,600 square feet, a height of roughly 30 feet, and sits on the
footprint of the existing garage structure, which will be demolished. We are here to discuss,
as Rachel mentioned, the relatively straightforward dimensional hardship refusal,
which is a direct result of the extensive collaboration with both near neighbors and the
RCO. Much of this dialogue took place during the historical commission process and we ultimately did
receive approval from the historical commission. I'll move quickly through the site photos.
It's also important to note that the site is pretty well tucked away from the main
right-of-ways. As you can see here, it's back down Wallace Place. This is probably the most
prominent view looking down that small street. This gives you a sense of what the new project
will look like from that view. A little bit farther down Wallace Street, and you can just
barely see the roof. I'll go quickly through these. Down from 24th Street, you can sort of
see the roof line again. We work very closely with the neighbors on the material pallet and the
massing for the project. And this is the existing site plan. As you can see, the existing one-story
garage in the rear and the 13-foot alley that Rachel mentioned. And here's the proposed site
plan. And note that the new structure sits on the existing garage footprint. To focus specifically
on the refusal, you'll notice that there is the 13-foot deeded alley. This is the existing
footprint, again, zoomed in on the garage. The alley runs through our property. The proposed
footprint extends the open space at the rear by two feet, three inches. The rear yard dimensions
is calculated from the point where the alley stops.
This means that the code would require a full nine-foot setback
from the structure to the beginning of the alley.
And if we were to move the structure as shown here, which would be a by right version of this project, it would be an additional six feet, nine inches, and we would be fully by right.
And if we were to move the structure, as shown here,
which would be a by-right version of the structure,
However, another concern that came out of the historical commission process and dialogue with the neighbors had to do with exposing the currently covered masonry stable wall to the east and the masonry party walls on the carriage house to the west.
these were very very specific concerns that we wanted to address which is why we we pushed the
project back forward we also as rachel mentioned we think it's just visually appropriate and i'll
just give you a brief run through on some rendering so you can have a better sense of
the project this is the main elevation the view from wallace view down the walkway connecting to
the courtyard a view of the courtyard of the existing building the rear elevation of the new
carriage house structure and i'll leave it on this view which gives you a a good sense of how it sits
into the site. Thank you.
Council. Yeah, I think the board has questions for the architects.
If not, why don't we do why don't we bring your client on and then we'll give it to the board.
Yeah, if Anil or Laura Nanda could raise their hand, please.
i see no one in the audience with that name at the moment it might be one of the numbers
or chairman if it's okay as a as a uh officer of the court as an officer of the court we'll
we'll uh accept your testimony thank you demarca do you have any questions before we
move forward uh no if you want me to make my statement now i can by the way thank you for
the accommodation that i greatly appreciate that sure why don't you why don't you make your
statement and then okay yeah agreed on the variance the position of the home of the not
the home the the new addition is what we negotiated and got approved by the historical commission so
the applicant was always wedded to that positioning and it resulted in the refusal. So obviously
we are not, and I represent the next door neighbor, Mr. Leonard, Tom Leonard, who's next
door. Obviously we're okay with the position of the addition. It's what we negotiated. The only
thing I wanted to add, and Rachel did say it, but the other reason why the variance is appropriate
is because the applicant has committed
to signing a written construction agreement
with the Spring Garden Civic Association and my client,
which involves some reasonable concessions
on the construction process,
which are obviously very important to Mr. Leonard.
Rachel's client has committed to that.
An agreement will be signed.
And based on all of that,
we are in support of the requested variance.
Pat, I think, may want to speak as well,
But the three parties are involved in a discussion.
We'll have a written agreement.
And Rachel, if you could just confirm that, we're in support of the variance.
So thank you.
As mentioned, Chairman, and I know this has nothing to do with zoning, just for everybody's
comfort, and working with Evan and his team and the contractors and the client, we are
committed to a written agreement on the construction.
And we want to make sure that it goes seamlessly.
And we continue to have a good relationship with our next door neighbor.
So we appreciate it.
Questions from the board?
I have no questions or comments from our attorney.
No, not at this time.
Questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission, A-M-Y-B-O-I-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing R&1 residential multifamily zoning at this location.
The proposed structure has the same footprint and location as the garage existing since at least 1996.
These tenants would have access to the public right away via Wallace Place.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant their requested variances for multiple principal buildings and rear yard setbacks.
Thank you.
MI 2025-000-306-2313, Green Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Iowyn, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
thank you for your comment council thank you number 10 mi 2025 000 303 26 20 east ontario
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number 10, MI 2025.
street vernon anastasio is the attorney there's unanimous support from port richmond on patrol
and civic association and a letter of support from council member driscoll
ver anastasio will be rejoining us as a panelist thank you good afternoon mr chair counsel you've
already been sworn just for the record please state your name yep it's ver anastasio could
you identify your client a relationship to the property uh yes anthony corsi is my client and
And he is here present virtually at the hearing.
Right.
Do you waive the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy?
Please start your presentation, sir.
Thank you.
Okay. Back in 1963, as my cursor shows, this property went from a vacant store and a one
family. It was supposed to be turned into a one family with the store being removed.
Well, that never happened. And as a result, the two units stayed in the property since before 1963.
it's a corner property
and over the years
before my client purchased the property
that store was converted instead
to, I'm going to stop sharing for a moment
and reshare, to a unit
a residential unit
this went blank for some reason
And my apologies, I'm going to try this one more time.
So my client purchased this property just several months ago
and wants to legalize the existing two-family dwelling.
And please excuse me, I'm going to pull up the binder one more time here.
it's coming out yep thanks for your patience um so nevertheless
Nevertheless, it has been refused because the property is zoned RSA 5, but as stated, it's a pre-existing two-family dwelling that's been a part of Port Richmond for, you know, 60-plus years.
Everybody in the neighborhood knows it, and as a result, we were able to get unanimous support from the community.
I'm going to show you the plans.
I'll have to pull out a little bit.
So this is the first floor.
I'm sorry.
This is...
and that's the first floor plan
unit one
come in through the side instead of going up the stairs you come into unit one it's 1303 square
feet you've got two bedrooms to the right one bedroom to the other end and in the center
a really nice open concept living room, dining room, kitchen, washer, dryer, and a full bath
on each end as well. This is the trash chalet that will be used on the side of the property
to house both units trash. Both tenants will have access to it. And here's unit two, 1,408 square.
Tenants will have access to it.
And here's unit two, 1,408 square feet.
Again, with the primary bedroom on one end, two bedrooms on the other,
and in between, really nice open layout concept living room, dining room, kitchen.
This with a nice laundry space and a full bath on this end as well, and a linen closet.
these are again existing conditions here's the property again
and let me show you some
there's the side of the property as you can see it's pretty deep
and here's the interior photos
clients met with the rco we have proof of mailing i have an 84 page exhibit packet that i'm going
to move into evidence right now and this is what we're dealing with as far as the interior is
concerned because my client purchased it with the two separate units already built out because the
neighbors and the rco in particular um have a long history of this property being two units
well before 1963, when one of the units was commercial,
and then subsequently when both of the units were residential.
And because we've enjoyed the support of the RCO,
and I believe Council Member Driscoll also sent a letter of support.
And here's the proof of mailing.
158 individual households were mailed but for all those reasons we're asking respectfully
that the variance be granted in this case and with that I'd like to have Mr. Corsi please
raise his virtual hand as you can see here on the corners most of them are CMX1 this one would be an
anomaly. Anthony Corsi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yeah, Anthony Corsi, A-N-T-H-O-N-Y-C-O-R-S-E-Y. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Counsel? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Corsi,
did you hear my presentation today? Yes. Everyone accurate to the best of your knowledge?
yes and do you adopt it as your own yes thank you i have nothing further mr chair questions
from the board i have a question could you let me know where would the trash structure go
um in relation to the diagram of the picture that you showed us on the outside uh this
not this side but the other side the uh the longer uh section let me see if i can show you
let me get to it for you unless of course you have a other recommendation but it would be over here
and there is no outdoor or rear yard space no no if there was believe me we we would prefer to keep
it inside other questions is there streets approval to place that enclosure in the side
in the right of way well so long as it's against the property that it's i don't necessarily think
that that's an issue that's not really an enforcement issue it's a depth thing um because
it's but okay i think if we had the we didn't have the neighbor support for it i think that
you know it's not the neighbors it's a wheelchair access and ada accessibility on the sidewalk
so there's an encroachment zone and yeah that's yeah a wheelchair isn't going to
have any problem getting through here with the with the chalet that we've come up with
however um and there won't be any my point was there won't be any enforcement unless
it wasn't agreed to by the neighbors but yes i i hear you that's where it would go and then
what's happening to the front door at the original property address if you're going to use the side
door now as the primary entrance the front door is just going to be part of the the front bedroom
it's just going to be closed off and it's going to be a window so it's not going to be a another
form of egress for the first floor unit no there's gonna be one door for first floor and then if you
make a left up the stairs it's it's for both units so this will be the this will be the primary
so this will be the this will be the primary entrance and exit
entrance and exit. Understood.
understood okay can you go back to the floor plan to show that i think that make it clearer
you want to see the plan itself right like because you yeah because you got it first
so you can i mean zoom out so you can see the whole thing okay
it still doesn't show the whole thing
I think what you're looking for is this here.
Right, right.
By the way, here's our chalet over there.
It's a trench location, right?
Right.
Any other questions?
Questions or comments from our attorney?
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
um planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plans
recommends no change to the existing rsi 5 residential single family and zoning at this
location the structure was previously one family ground floor commercial the conversion of the
ground floor commercial into residential is more in the spirit of the residential nature of the
zoning the planning commission recommends that the board grant their requested variance for two
family household living thank you mi 2025 000 303 2620 east ontario street i vote yes
johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tanetta graham my vote is yes i win my vote is yes
thank you all thank you see mr knockamson stepped out for a minute
Mr. O'Brien, why don't you come up?
Number six, MI 2024-007-538-1318 McKean Street.
William O'Brien is the attorney.
Mr. O'Brien, could you please state your name and spell for the court's stenographer?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
could you identify your client the relationship to the property excuse me chair this is the
court reporter i did not hear any responses from the attorney okay let's it's just is the mic one
bill here you go good uh good afternoon mr chairman members of the board william o'brien
W-I-L-L-I-A-M
O-B-R-I-E-N
the Manioc Law Office
for Derek and
Maria Baker, owners of
1318 McKean Street
and we'll do this over again, do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth
do you waive the reading
the refusal to agree with its accuracy
starting your presentation
sitting to my right is Derek Baker
Dirk has lived here for the last 13, 14 years.
He and his wife, Marie, are expecting twins.
And their two-story home is not going to be large enough to accommodate them.
But they want to stay in their home, and they want to stay in their neighborhood.
So they have proposed to put a third-floor addition on their home.
There are two refusals, if I may share my screen.
excuse me chair can william o'brien accept the promotion to panelists please
thank you we'll get him to do that right now thank you
while we're here i see the unanimous support from east passion
and non-opposition from Council Member Squilla you're coming up now so on the
screen is should be the refusal it is it is sir and there are two refusals one is
for height and the other is for the setback the code requires that if the
The two structures on either side, or the structure on either side are two stories, and the third floor addition, in this case, must be set back eight feet, and we don't fully satisfy that.
Bear with me. I'll navigate this screen.
Excuse me, Chair. Could I please ask the attorney to move the microphone closer to himself? Thank you.
Thank you.
So that's the refusal. That's the unanimous support from the East Pass Yonk Crossing Civic Association.
From the East Pass Yonk Crossing Civic Association, both the members that were present from the neighborhood, as well as the EPX zoning committee unanimously support it.
The next document in the package is a petition signed by Derek and Maria's neighbors, both next door and across the street, who support the grant of a variance.
This is the petition I was referring to and now it's to some images this is 1318 McKean
Street, two-story structure. And what's proposed is a third-floor addition.
uh the proposed addition uh maintains the cornice at the top of the facade and then the third floor
addition begins with a mansard roof, which slopes back. The intent is to respect the streetscape
and make it a softer third floor addition than it might otherwise be.
The way that the mansard roof slopes back also produces the depth required for
the setback on the roof deck.
So you can see here
the top of the top of the mastered roof
the roof deck begins five feet back
which is compliant with the code for the roof deck.
The access pilot house is a little bit more than 125 square feet,
which is why there's a height variance needed.
If it was 125 square feet, the whole structure would be considered 33 feet high.
But since the pilot house is a few feet larger than 125, it's actually 144 square feet.
The entire structure is now 43 feet high, but it's really only those last 12 feet which has
that height. The rest of the structure, which is visible from across the street,
is 33 feet high.
And as I said, both neighbors across the street
have seen the plans,
know that there's going to be
in the back of this roof a structure
and they have no objection.
The third floor addition,
one bedroom, one bathroom and a closet.
The depth of the building is about 34 feet.
So if you take eight feet off that third floor addition, the addition becomes a whole lot less valuable to the family.
If it was a deeper building, as we saw earlier today, you could do more.
But the way this building was built originally, the depth is very narrow, very shallow.
The rest of the floor plans don't change.
The second floor, the first floor.
the rest of the package, deed, the zoning notice and certificate of mailing,
and the
zoning
the zoning
And there's the zoning poster.
There it is.
I want to have your client adopt your testimony.
I want to have your client adopt your testimony.
There's the zoning poster.
Derek, did you get the signatures from your next door and neighbor's apartment?
Can I swear him in first?
Could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Turn on your mic.
Thank you.
Derek Baker, D-E-R-E-K, B-A-K-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Please proceed. I got the approval from both neighbors on each side, two neighbors to the front and the rest of the members on the block. But the signatures were both to immediate left and right into the front. Okay. Do you heard my testimony? Was it truthful? Yes. And do you adopt it as your own? I do. Okay. And I request that the documents be moved. Sure. Okay. Questions from the board.
Yes, I just want to confirm.
You said you have gotten a signature from 1320 McKean Street
because I didn't see it on the position.
I saw 1316, 17, and 19, but not 1320.
Not across the street?
It should be your contiguous neighbor.
13, 17, and 19.
1317, 1316, and 1319.
My question is about 1320.
I can get that for you if it's not in there.
I know they're newer.
You've spoken to them, though.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They've said they're in support.
Oh, yeah, they're good to go about it.
And then my next question is,
are there any other third and fourth floor additions
with mansard roofs in the surrounding blocks?
Yes, there's several.
Almost every block or every other block
is getting a third floor addition.
Are there any on your block currently?
Are they all still two-story?
They're two-story on my block on the corner
on, I guess, on our intersection.
There's three-story buildings there.
They're not additions.
They're existing.
Those are existing three-story buildings.
Other questions?
So yours would be the first on this 100th of McKean Street?
On that 13-hour block, yes.
Trendsetter.
Other questions?
Questions from our attorney?
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
yes chair yes chair i have a hand up by the name of jenna elliott they are being promoted to
panelists okay hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
hi um i'm jenna elliott j-e-n-n-a-e-l-l-i-o-t-t do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth is nothing but the truth. I do. Are you a neighbor? I am. Please proceed. So I am the
new owner of 1320. So Derek's next door neighbor. I can confirm that me or my wife, the other owner
of the home did not sign that. We did have brief conversations with Derek around the proposed
addition um and the main concerns we have we haven't seen the floor plans and and um you know
just concerned about the light um coming in because we are kind of directly uh i guess we're
west of 1318 um so you know unsure of how the light would be blocked from the third uh story
and the house on the fourth-story roof deck.
Do you have any questions, Phil?
I know this is a rendering, but is the facade of your home depicted in this rendering?
It is.
To the right or to the left of Derek's house?
To the left.
From where I'm looking, it is to the right of Derek's house.
um i i i'm not sure i understand your question the how the third floor could affect uh
access to light from your front or rear windows we have windows on the side of our house currently
there's no there's no windows on the side this is an attached row right it's wrong are you talking
at the let me bring let me change this image and there's a breezeway there's a breeze this is this
is the breezeway right here so we're we would actually if you're looking at it we are backing
up on the bottom of that uh floor plan and where if you go into their second floor um our bathrooms
bump into each other so there's that bathroom window and of course like we both have um backyard
areas. So I guess my question would be rephrased. What impacts would there be just to the light
what impacts would there be just to the light coming into our property?
coming into our property?
Can you go to the second floor plan? Yes.
That second? No, that's third. There's a second floor. So you have windows along here? Correct. Okay.
i don't know that there'll be any change in the light into that space
do is there a do we know where south is on this plan is there so the the dwellings face north
okay so they face uptown the rear of the yard south it's a unique setup there's brick walls
there's no fire escape in the back behind us is dwellings the dwellings already cast
shadow very little sunlight in the back to begin with the third story's behind you
two stories and three stories behind us
and behind you is the south that's south yeah which is unusual we actually have uh it's a
building slash warehouse and then two dwellings directly behind us right instead of an alleyway
correct and could you describe just a rationale for like the oversized pilot house
so what it is it's uh it's an enclosed cabana so you can use it like year-round versus just
the whole roof being a rooftop deck so that way like kids can be inside like during the winter
time or something like that it's like enclosed protected by the weather and elements and stuff
like that like a small little basically small little room to share the rooftop deck
miss elliot do you do did you hear what they said i did uh and just repeating there are no concerns
about light um you know removal of current light as it stands into our side windows and into the
back. I agree that there is a south or rather a building to the south of us, but, you know,
the earth moves. There is light that comes in today, just depending on the time of day and
the season. So, you know, that is the primary concern. Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else
in the virtual audience? I see no hands at this time, Chair. Planning Commission.
amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the existing rsa5 residential single-family this location there is no other structure taller than
two stores on the spock face the appellant has not shown that there are unique physical circumstances
or conditions that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the zoning code
the planning commission recommends that the board deny the requested variances for building height
and third story setback so bill i'm going to hold this till we come back uh it's 23rd am i correct
you come back on wednesday the 23rd
yep yeah i don't have that information yeah it's 23rd we come back to 23rd we'll vote on
this at two o'clock the 23rd okay thank you sure thank you thank you
Mr. Nockleson
Mr. Nockleson you have three cases we're going to do your three cases right now
All right. I appreciate that.
Could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Alan Nockmson. A-L-A-N, last name Nockmson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Which property?
MI 2024-00736-5911-Overbrook Avenue.
uh i don't have my notes here uh but that's jana fast
uh she's in the virtual audience yes jana fastest yeah exactly that's that's your first
case that's right okay right i have the notes now all right um do you waive the reading the
refuse and agree to its accuracy? I do. Could you identify your client, the relationship to the
property? She is the owner of the property. Okay. Would you please start your presentation? Thank
you. All right, so I'm here to present.
All right, so I'm here to present 5911 Overbrook Avenues in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia.
During our presentation, we'll first review the notice of refusal for this RSD3 property
that we're looking to have as a single-family use.
We have some unique refusals given its non-conforming location on a rather large lot of over almost
20 000 square feet we have a letter of support from the overbrook farm club which is unanimous
support for this matter we also have a petition of nearby neighbors in support of this single
family use of the property we have an aerial view of the property which is going to show you
why this this project is so unique maps of the area photographs of the property in the surrounding
area our plans and drawings our rco meeting notice along with proof of mailing of that notice our
application for appeal that we filed on Ms. Fast or Dr. Fast's behalf. The deed to the property
showing that Dr. Fast is the owner of the property and the certificate of tax clearance.
At the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Ms. or Dr. Fast be sworn in and I have
a couple questions for her to adopt my testimony as her own. So the first thing we have here is
the notice of refusal again this is a single family zoning classification what we're taking
here is to essentially renovate a dilapidated historic structure that is located too close
to the rear yard and does not have enough of a side yard but this all we're trying to do is
create a second story for this property and dr fast will be living there just a little background
Dr. Pass is a physician for Jefferson Medical College or University, and she's just looking at this as her home.
She's not a developer.
We did meet with the community.
The Overbrook Farms Club unanimously voted in favor of this project.
Again, you see it here.
It's eight in favor and one in non-opposition.
And then we had a petition also. My client basically got her nearby neighbors to support. So we said, you know, again, these properties are pretty massive. So, you know, having five people in support in this area where you have lots that are 20,000 square feet speaks volumes about those, you know, the fact that we do have overwhelming support here, even though quantity wise, it doesn't look like it.
And then we also have, what's it called, you know, the letters as well behind them.
Aerial view of the property.
So this is what makes it very unique.
Here's Overbrook.
Here is our client's property.
And here's the dilapidated structure.
There's a driveway as well that leads to our property.
And she just wants to take this dilapidated structure, add a second story to it.
Again, it's historic in nature.
So we're trying to preserve a piece of history of Overbrook in a way.
And again, just to give you an idea of where the structure is, this is a non-conforming structure.
All we're trying to do is expand the use of that non-conforming structure by adding a second story and continuing its single-use nature of the property.
and then this is just maps of the area from a zoning and the google maps perspective
photographs of the property from the front of the property uh the hearing notice poster
um that we you know we've we placed on the property at least 21 days beforehand
uh this is over brook uh property or avenue to the right of the property to the left of the
property this is our structure so it's historic um and it definitely needs some tlc there
and then these are our plans so like we're trying to obviously renovate this property
and add a second story in character to historic nature of this neighborhood as well as the
building structure as well uh what you would see here is we created a front entryway
which has a half bath you have a kitchen you have a dining area you have a living room
the lower level would be just for utility use only and then you have a second story here with
a home office a flex space place you know and then a master or primary suite
RCO meeting notice we met on February 26th at 6 p.m.
Virtually proof of emailing of that notice
Proof of emailing of that notice showing that we mailed it appropriately to addresses within
showing that we mailed it appropriately.
the 250 square foot radius. There were 29 addresses here. List of the addresses, proof of mailing or
application for appeal that we filed on Dr. Fess' behalf. Loaned and notice of refusal,
project information form, deed to the property showing that she owns the property,
and finally, Certificate of Tax Clearance.
I'm going to stop sharing my screen.
I would ask that Dr. Fast be sworn in.
Mike, could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
John Fast, Z-H-A-N-N-A-F-A-S-T.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Just get closer to the mic.
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes, Dr. Fast,
you heard everything I had to state today
about your zoning matter.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Alan, do they have a property there already?
Do they have a structure next door?
Is that what that was?
Yeah, those are two single-family homes.
There's a single-family home to the left of us
and to the right of us.
And she owns one of them?
This will be her single-family home.
Oh, okay.
All right, okay.
All right, thank you.
Questions from the board.
yeah it's a great law this is a very large lot and so i guess my question is what drove the
decision not to put back another single family home that's more in line with the contacts in
the rest of the neighborhood and maintain the garage structure as a garage you can answer
i got the approval for the single family when you get closer to the mic i got the approval for the
single-family home, but by the historical commission requirements for the height and
the mass of the building, as well as materials, it was way too expensive to build.
She just wants to use it as a single-family home, and given the historic nature of the
property or the structure, it's rather expensive to renovate that property and then just in
general to you know to put a larger structure um on the properties just would be cost prohibitive
to her i get that no i was gonna say then what's the long-term plan for the rest of the lot one i
mean at 19 000 square feet this is gonna have really expensive taxes right because at this
point we're gonna have the smallest possible built building on it um i'm just trying to
understand like the long-term plan i think i'm also concerned because the historic structure
was a garage and is at the edge of the property, which like typically the garage wouldn't have had
a single family use or two stories. And like, what does that mean for the function
of it to sit on the property line so close to other properties behind it?
With regards to the assessment of the property or the tax assessment, funny you mentioned that
because I was talking to my client about that, you know, in the hearing room, the property is
worth what it's worth. I know it's a rather large piece of land, but it's not the potential of what
it's worth. And it's a single family structure that's going to have a built, a single family
lot that's going to have a building structure of 1200 square feet on it. You know, what the future
holds. I mean, I don't know if Dr. Fast knows, but she really likes the neighborhood. And she
wants to live there and uses a single family structure. And we, you know, she purposefully
reached out to the neighbors who would be most directly impacted and those individuals had no
objection to the use of the property as a single-family home back there all the questions
oh well no no no i'm going to open it up later to the audience okay so once we're done um
uh questions from our attorney no mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wait a second.
Why don't you sit down?
Why don't you sit down?
Why don't you state your name and spell for the stodopper?
I'm sorry, I cannot hear.
You need to turn the mic on.
Oh, pardon me.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Nasir Asan Nordin.
For the record, I would like to share.
No, no, no, wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
told truth, nothing but the truth?
And could you spell your name for this?
Yes, first name is Nasir, N-A-S-I-R. Last name is Nordin, N-U-R-I-D-D-I-N.
Yes, first name is Nasir, N-A-S-I-R.
Last name is Nordin, N-U-R-I-D.
My question is because I don't see any community members in the Zoom or present.
Maybe there are, there aren't. Mr. Nockmson did mention that there was a community meeting.
Are you a neighbor?
No, I don't live in that area, but I do have concerns.
What's your concerns?
My concern is because there's nobody present in the area, I would like to know, was there a vote summary done?
Was that information presented?
So there is support with the...
All right.
All right.
Well, that was it.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location from the existing single family residential rsd3 the previous structure on
this foundation was a garage but the proposal is for residents very close to the property line
of a large empty lot the appellant has not demonstrated that there are unique physical
conditions or circumstances that would prevent the property from being used in conformance with
dimensional standards the planning commission recommends that the board deny the requested
variance for rear yard and side yard depths in the response mr chair sure this is the only
building structure on the lot it's a non-conforming structure my client wants to use it as a single
family home and renovate and revitalize a proper a structure that's dilapidated her nearby neighbors
are in support of that endeavor thank you mi 2024 007 536 59 11 overbrook i vote yes
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
My vote is no.
Thank you.
You have your votes.
Thank you.
You're staying, right?
MI 2024-007-539-5236 North Broad Street.
Mr. Nockamson, just state your name for the record.
Alan Nockamson.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is Lovish Real Estate LLC.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I did.
Counsel, didn't we receive some information?
Yes, we received a letter of opposition.
We have a letter of opposition that came in a little while ago.
Well, so again, my under...
Okay, all right.
All right, we'll get to the letter of opposition.
And I just want to make sure you know that that's the case, okay?
So why don't you start your presentation like you normally would, and we'll go from there, okay?
All right, sounds great.
So just to begin, at the request of the community, we are requesting that the board holds this for a vote so we can have further community input.
all right so unlike the other presentation and this presentation is about a special exception
the standard is much different than when you would request a variance so this use is
conditionally approved under the philadelphia zoning code and what we're seeking to have here
is a senior living facility um here on north broad street right so 5236-38 north broad street
so during our presentation we'll be reviewing the notice of referral we did not have any
correspondence before this hearing so this is the first i'm hearing any well that's why i told you
we'll make sure you get caught yeah okay yes um but we did do a petition of nearby neighbors
I did talk to the council members, Zoney A. Charles Richardson. He does have some issues with the petition in that there's no record of these individuals living there. All I can tell you is that the person who circulated the petition does that a lot for our office.
And we honestly state here to the addresses that are within the affected area, knock on
the doors and, you know, you know, obviously get their position.
So all I can tell you is that's what our office did.
And that's what the person who circulated the petition did.
I can't speak as to whether that person owns the property or if there's any record of that,
but that's what we do as an office.
We, the property history is this, this was a home for foster children some time ago.
Now we're doing the opposite effect. Instead of having a group home for younger people, we're having a group home for older people, which is honestly a lesser use.
You know, none of these people really have cars. They're light use, not 10 knots.
None of these people really have cars.
Light use tend not to be as active as children.
But you'll also see that we do have parking in the rear, significant parking in the rear.
A little bit about my client, Care Nest Homes.
We'll talk to Rashida Robinson, who's to the left of me.
Maps of the area, photographs of the property, interior photos showing the work that she's done,
our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice, and we'll have another meeting hopefully in the
future, our applications for special exception, the deed to the property showing that her company
also lavish real estate LLCs, the owner of the property, and the certificate of tax clearance.
So notice of referral. Again, this is an RSA 3 property. We're seeking to use this property by
way of the doctrine of unity of use, not out of character for this property or properties
or the surrounding area.
But we have one referral given that we're seeking a personal care home.
As you can see here, there is a history of this property being used in such a manner.
We did meet with the Oak Lane Worcester Community Coalition on March 27th.
They didn't take a vote.
Two of the members nearby had some concerns about this proposal, and the rest of the audience wanted more information.
We stated because of the docketing and how long it takes to get in front of this board, we asked as a combination, let us present.
We would ask that the board hold this for a vote.
We would like to go back to the community and then have them give input, hopefully updated input, based on that presentation for us to respond.
We did, again, have someone who circulated a petition of the affected properties, according to the City Planning Commission's list. These are the individuals who signed it. They specifically gave email addresses and phone numbers, which I don't know if Mr. Richardson reached out to these individuals, but these are the addresses that they signed at.
and again the property history here also by way of variance this was a children's home
it was the home for the saint joseph catholic home for the children many many years ago
now i'm gonna have my client uh rashida kind of tell you a little bit about care nest
so why don't you rashida why don't you tell the board about why could we swear
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Rashida Robinson, R-A-S-H-I-D-A-H, R-O-B-I-N-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Rashida, can you just tell the board a little bit of your background in this area of health care?
I've been in health care for the most part of my life.
I went to school to be a neurosurgeon, came out, started working in the pharmaceutical industry, and then about eight years ago, got into the entrepreneurial side.
Give me just closer to the mic.
That way.
Thank you, ma'am.
In 2018, I started a home care agency, which led to a lot of phone calls about housing.
Home care agencies only provide non-skilled home care.
So I started to look more into the personal care home business, and out of that came CareNest Homes, which is a non-profit organization.
What we do is we find we get different charitable donations to help seniors in our community.
We are primarily located in Germantown.
In 2023, I found this home on Brett and Fisher, and I thought this would be the perfect personal care home.
That personal care home requires a certain acceptance.
I met with Alan and we started the process. In the meantime, I fixed it up and made it nice and
clean in preparation for, you know, it being a personal care home. So let's just backtrack a
little. You stated that you had other locations for personal care homes. Where are those locations,
specific addresses? Germantown, 147 East Walnut Lane and 5601 Chueavenham. Okay. Have you had
any issues in terms of violations against those properties with the city? No, none at all. I work
with PCA. I work with hospitals, nursing homes, clinics in the area. I get rave reviews. I have
individuals that live with me from all walks of life. What about licensing requirements for the
state? Have you had any issues in terms of licensing requirements for these other locations?
These other locations are small, so they don't require a license.
When you start to get into four or more, like this large home, this requires a license,
more like this large home this requires a license which requires this process all right so why don't
which requires this process.
you tell us a little bit about this location what what what's your intention in terms of staffing
this location has about 16 bedrooms it's a conjoined home so you can access the house on
every single floor um it has an office it has kitchen it has two living rooms two dining rooms
which are kind of conjoined my plan is to bring about 16 no more than 20 individuals into this
so let's just walk through the floor plans and then we can also see the current photos of the
property uh but like you know if you walk in there's two there's two doors right yes so this
is the front of the house that faces broad street i believe okay and there's a foyer right yes so
this is like a beautiful sun porch for the seniors to sit out and catch some sun. They have the
emergency exit doors, but they won't use those. And then you have the, as you make your way to
the back of the house, you have the two living rooms. You can enter through the north side or
the south side. And then there's another space that says storage. We have like computers in there
for them to kind of like, I mean, they don't really want to do a lot, but if they do want to
get on a computer, they can get on a computer. And then you have the two dining rooms, which
are conjoined where dining is like the main event for these individuals because they're older,
they're ailing. A lot of them don't want to go to different programs. They just don't want to
leave the house. So I've made dining, uh, like a pivotal part of their day. So they eat breakfast
together, lunch and dinner. And of course my plan is to have like this long dining room area so that
all of them can eat at the same time, which they do. And then if you make your way further back
on the right hand side there's the kitchen on the left hand side is the office which is also
would be like the main entry entry to the house which has a handicap accessible ramp that leads
to fisher street behind that as a parking lot gotcha let me uh actually let me stop sharing
for a second and make it so it's not full screen so i can kind of maneuver this a little better
so and then how many uh is there any living in the basement okay there's uh we provide we do
their laundry so there is a laundry room in the basement i did a washing machine and dryer set up
back down there it was already one there i just put you know how long is this operating now no
it's not no it's not yeah and so let's just go to the rest of the floor plans like on the upper
floors right so there are how many bedrooms 16 between both houses okay so there's 16 bedrooms
and how many occupants do you expect to have in those 16 bedrooms no more than 20 okay so you
would basically have a one-to-one ratio for most of them there are some there are doubles in terms
because of affordability and some people want others to be with as roommates right okay so i'm
going to go full screen but let's look at the pictures of the property so these are current
photos of the property right so um now did you get any permits for like these are new hardwood
floors, right? And what else did you do to the property? So I did get a permit for a dumpster
because I wanted all the floors ripped out. So we put new floors in, painting, furniture, as you
can see, windows, hair and hair, the kitchen, and the bathroom. Did you update the plumbing or
electrical? The one thing that was updated was the emergency fire alarm system, the hardwire fire
alarm. The one they had there wasn't operable. So we did get a permit for that to run those wires
to the house. All right. And did you get a permit for that work? Okay. So the only things that you
got a permit for, or you got a permit for all the work that you needed to do? I got a permit for all
meaning it was also referenced that you did some work on the sidewalk.
Did you do that work?
The gas, I like natural gas, especially for these older individuals.
So they had a nice heating system there, so I had it redone, but PGW came out.
Not sure if PGW pulled a permit, but what they did is they ripped the sidewalk up
and ran new pipes from the front of Broad Street all the way to the front of the house.
And, well, that's not.
well that's not no that's not yours um they they ran brand new pipes they left them undone and then
No, that's not yours.
They ran a brand new...
they said they would come back and pave them and they did they recently came back and paid them
probably like a month ago all right but you you weren't in charge of that work that was okay now
i i'm going to show the board this it's not out of character to have this type of use on north
Broad Street. So we see two instances of similar type of use at 5224-26 North Broad Street,
which is a personal care home. Also, 5230 North Broad Street is a home care agency.
So here's a proof of posting for today's hearing. And this is North Carlisle Street to the left of
the property and to the right of the property. Just to give you some context of where we are
in the neighborhood, West Fishers Avenue to the left and right of the property. And then North
broad street to the left and the right of the property wanted to also show you from carlisle
because we go street to street from north broad street to carlisle there's a significant parking
lot behind us so even though this is an rsa3 property this is more commercial in nature
that's your parking lot that's our parking lot not that we need it um i don't think any of our
you don't believe any of the clientele is going to be using that parking lot
they don't drive yeah but but you have staff that may drive yes some of the home care aides
that um come in to support them um they drive and they'll park in the park yeah can you explain
like the staffing um that you're going to have for this facility so how many people are you
going to have on staff so there are two site supervisors uh one being my mother and then
there is I'm bringing in someone to cook like to prepare the food and then I'm also bringing in
someone to clean the house and then for every it's not required by the state but for every senior I'm
going to for every four seniors that live in a house I'll have one home care aid to support them
the support is minimal because all these individuals have to be ambulatory they have to walk
because they don't really get out I like them to walk they get their exercise that way so we do
help them with like um you know just talking to them giving them social skills and services and
if they need do need social services we work with their physicians their families a lot of them have
social workers whether they're granted by the courts or their family members we work with them
to get them operable and just to maintain and sustain their lives so given the size of this
facility you will be regulated by the states yes yes so on top of potentially any type of zoning
and building permits we would need, you would have other licensing requirements from the
state?
This is a whole process.
So the state requires certain inspections, and then they will grant a license for the
house.
Plus certifications from you and your staff.
And those certifications typically have to be annually renewed.
It requires a lot of background checks, tuberculosis screening.
For me, I have to provide them with my background and my education as the owner and director.
And same thing with the caregivers.
Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that we don't miss anything here.
We looked at the drawings.
We have the RCO meeting notice, but we will have another meeting.
And for record-keeping purposes, proof of mailing that notice.
our applications for special exception, referral, project information form showing that my client's
corporate entity owns the properties, the deed. And then I know that there was an issue with the
tax clearance. We, for some reason, couldn't get on the OPA site for that property. I know we were
working with Ms. Emerson on that, but given that we're asking for a vote anyway, we'll obviously
bring an updated you know clearance certificate but we were our office was having having access
uh accessing the city's website but legally we have met our burden for conditional uh approval
here or permanent approval based on the special exception we we understand that you know community
is always concerned about you know this type of personal care facilities um but you know my client
is well-versed in this area she is very experienced she is she has a good track record and for all
those reasons we respectfully request when we come back here that the board takes that into account
whether or not we do have community support thank you okay questions from the board yeah i have a
question um with the seniors um accessibility um this is a three-story building so you've got when
you've got older adults that have difficulty walking, some, you know, with walkers and
canes. How do you plan to address the accessibility? I didn't see an elevator or a lift in the
How do you plan to address the accessibility? I didn't see an elevator or a lift
in the plans, or is that something you're planning to do?
Once I get the approval, I will be adding a chairlift to the south side of the building,
and all my individuals that struggle over time, because they do struggle over time,
the longer they're with us, the less they're capable of walking, they will be able to take
the chairlift to the second floor. And again, you can cross over from one side of the house to the
other from the second and third floor it won't go all the way up to the third because after a while
when they get so old to the point that they can't walk and they become bed-ridden then
Karen S. Holmes is no longer the best option for them now I did you mention a ramp from the rear
but I didn't see a plan that showed the ramp is that existing or not yep there was yeah there's
an existing ramp back there okay I just didn't see it on the plan okay I'll make sure I'll take
yeah one week maybe it wasn't just i don't know all right also i guess from the parking
night uh view picture is there outdoor space we right now it's just a parking lot right but i
once i get an approval i said i was going to add like an outdoor like cabana for them to sit out
because right now they have like you know i have picnic tables and stuff for them just to get out
because a lot of them won't leave and i always talk about them getting their son so other questions
yeah um i have a question about the sort of uh connection between the two units was that
condition existing when you purchased the property yes and then did you do any interior demos
of walls no well the kitchen the kitchen had some walls up that we kind of knocked down and put back
up with sheetrock but i didn't they didn't remove any of the main beams or anything like that now
Is there a long-term plan for the remaining spaces in the basement?
No, I just, you know, a storage space.
Because, you know, some of these individuals, they come, they leave, they leave clothes.
So what we do is we store clothes and bins with their names on it and their size.
So if other people come in, sometimes we get homeless individuals that are older,
that need places to live, or individuals that their family just don't want them,
don't want to be bothered.
So we'll use those clothing to, you know, to provide to them.
So just storage.
and then are there any rooms for when like family comes to visit
people or are they just using whatever public space already exists
so you know the one one the plan that was that one room i think is
noted computer room no it's not storage storage that particular room is like a
nook right i put a air i'm putting a computer
in there and a sofa and a fish tank for my individuals that like fish i mean
it's common for them but that will be an area for the
families okay and then some of the families they like to sit in their rooms you know and just talk
to them so because they want that private time okay and will those family members then be using
the parking lot to park or yes not likely so even though you're planning to put some kind of maybe
other space there there will be room for visitors to park most definitely okay yeah it's a pretty
I didn't spec it out, but that's a pretty significant parking lot size-wise.
But never can be great outdoor space.
Right.
Outdoor activity space would be great outdoor activity space.
That's a nice front porch, too, with the screened-in porch.
Yeah, the forehead.
Questions from our attorney.
Mr. Nogimson, you plan on doing more community outreach after this hearing?
Is that what I hear?
our our intention is to meet with the community uh at least once beforehand um we're hoping to
given the fact that you know um rashida wants to you know get up and running as soon as possible
we're hoping to have like maybe a specific date 30 days from today i think that's reasonable to
try to meet with the community and you've asked us to hold the vote are you open to a resumption
of this hearing the only thing we want is to make sure that if i however you want to phrase it as
long as we can have a hearing date within 30 days we would appreciate that i know i think i think
has some resumptive hearing dates is he basically in back there i can we can go off the record and
check he's got a couple dates for resumptive um what i what i think we would do is is uh
close it except for what comes out of the community we would probably open up and again
to the public too yeah and i'll make sure my office updates the drawings yeah and regarding
the ramp yeah do the ramp and things like that yeah other than that
planning once we get to you do you want to take a position you want to wait till they come back
the only thing we have is july 15th i heard that
i guess we'll we'll take it okay i have no choice well i think gave me a second one
I appreciate it. I know that this board
is overloaded. I respect that. I think we should see if there's anybody
in the community who wants to say something right now. Questions?
If we're doing a resumptive hearing and they're going to just do it then?
Okay, it's fine with me. Planning commission?
Amy Boyd with the planning commission. The comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the residential single-family RSA 3 zoning at this location.
The appellant has demonstrated that the proposed use will not cause central impacts
beyond what would reasonably be expected.
The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant their special exception for personal care home.
All right, so we're going to continue this to 8, 20, 25, at 2 p.m.
We're going to close it.
Oh, I'm sorry.
See, I had the other one here.
July 15th at 2 p.m.
Pardon me?
Oh, 9.30.
It pushed it up for you, Alan.
And we're going to close and accept
the information from the community.
I will open it up to the community then
on the virtual audience, okay?
All right, thank you.
And then we're, okay, thank you.
And your last case, Al.
Thank you.
And then the other thing is,
I'll make sure you get a copy of
the letter we received.
number nine
mi 2024 007 548 3226 germantown avenue mr knoxman just for the record sheet
state your name alan knoxman right um you've already been sworn um do you waive the reading
the refusal and agree with its accuracy i do um could you identify your client
the relationship to the property yes my client is germantown liberty acquisitions llc the owner
of the property and to the left of me is josh claris okay who is who who is the executive
director of north 10 philadelphia okay and you have unanimous support from um wealth and cambria
advisory nicetown tioga community has unanimous support and non-opposition from council member
young so why don't you start all right thank you oops hit the raise hand by accident
this is a really nice project this is uh an adaptive reuse of a former uh i guess roller
rink roller skating rink and it's really phase two of this project if you look at the property
to the right of it that's the four-story structure my client did affordable housing development and
now they're looking to put a healthcare center for the community. So this is a CMX2 property,
just like the one we just presented. This is a special exception in non-variance. So we'll review
first a notice referral, and then we have letters of support and non-opposition from the relevant
parties. Wanted to provide the zoning permit to show about the roller rink here. The one
difference here is that it used to be a two-story structure outside. Inside, it was one story. So
what my client did was add a floor to provide that extra interior square footage for the facility
itself. Then we have aerial views of the property, zoning map, and photographs of the property in
the surrounding area, our plans and drawings. And Josh can kind of go through and kind of explain
what this project's about, just like my previous client did.
Our RCO meeting notice, application for special exception,
the deed to the property and certificate of tax clearance.
So again, same thing.
This is not a variance.
This is a special exception matter.
The use is conditionally approved.
At 3226 Germantown Avenue,
we're proposing to have a group medical,
We're proposing to have a group medical, dental, health practitioner practice or really health facility within an existing structure.
dental, health practitioner.
And because of that zoning classification CMX2, we need this board's stamp of approval.
We met with many of the community leaders and community members over the course of a lot of time,
know time not not just for this matter but also the affordable housing project so my client is a
well-known commodity in this community and they gladly supported obviously this community health
care center and then this is the map of the area showing excuse me the zoning permit showing how
we increase the square footage by adding an interior like divider to make it two floors instead
of one and then here's the history of the property showing that it was a skating rink at one point
and then the aerial views of of the property were right here this is an older uh map or
aerial view this is the affordable housing component and then this is where we are in
germantown avenue maps of the area again cmx2 property and then photographs this is the current
look of the property which is a lot different than what you saw on the front page of my
presentation so it's gonna be like night and day when it's completed
how many how many units next door uh let's have a curious oh you gotta get sworn in all right
all right um state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is joshua claris j-o-s-h-u-a
k-l-a-r-i-s do you swear or affirm tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth
i do how many units in there 41 thank you thank you well yeah uh so here's germantown avenue to
the right of the property to the left of the property west helton street to the right of
the property and to the left of the property and then you can see like this is really nice
this is like a cleaned up the facade well um and um you know and josh we can introduce the
project through you i i think you even have like some type of respect to the community in terms of
its history in the lobby area absolutely so the many people actually in north philadelphia know
the property it used to be carbon gardens roller skating rink and it is a beloved uh building in
the neighborhood. We did, as Alan mentioned, a ton of community outreach to really find out
what was needed. And I will admit for the record that everybody wants the roller skating rink.
However, it's not a viable entity. And so the second and third use was affordable housing and
access to better health care. There's a huge amount of health disparities in the neighborhood.
Everybody understood that that was a huge need. So we got the affordable housing built on a
notorious property next door which was the liberty motel and that's where the 41 units
of the affordable housing was built we tore down that motel that built homes for families
it is across the street from elementary school and then carmen gardens we committed to the
community to keep that building and transform it into a health center the only structural
difference other than the second floor that you see in the picture in front of you is that the
current entrance is on the near corner in the picture on the corner of west hilton and germantown
avenue and we're moving the entrance to the center of the block and as alan mentioned part of our
commitment is to keep the legacy of carmen gardens alive and we're doing that in two ways number one
working with the historical society actually we had a celebration of the history of carmen gardens
we north 10 philadelphia is a non-profit in the neighborhood we run a community center just up
the block and we hosted a roller skating party inside our community center and that was part of
what we wanted to do for the neighborhood so they can kind of keep the the feel and the joy and the
history of the skating rink and then inside the facility in the lobby will be a permanent
display museum archival of display of carbon gardens and then this these are like again you
can kind of see this project holistically this is the health care center and this is the affordable
housing project. So we're, this is essentially phase two of this project, right? And then
the, these are the floor plans for the healthcare facility. Um, again, as you can see here,
like you stated, they, you redirected the entry of the building to be more mid block.
Yeah. So the entrance and the flow of the building is from the mid block. We are working,
um, our healthcare providers, the greater Philadelphia health action, um, GPHA, which
runs about 12 other um health centers in and around the city so we've they've really been
the ones that that have added their expertise on what is necessary inside um the facility for
inside the facility for planning purposes.
planning um purposes so that you know
So from pharmaceutical, to dental, to vision,
to primary care and behavioral health.
And also women's health, right?
Not specifically.
Okay, well maybe you might even know what you're wrong.
It's primary care.
So, but, and again,
how many employees do you expect
to be working on any shift?
Yeah, give or take 40.
And then we met with the community on February 20th at the certified meeting.
We met on many, many occasions, but this was the certified RCO meeting.
And we showed proof that we mailed that notice to the relevant parties, that we mailed it
to 101 addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses, our application for special exception,
along with our notice of referral and our project information form, the deed to the
property showing that Germantown Liberty Acquisitions LLC is the owner of the property,
and our Certificate of Tax Clearance.
I would just ask three questions.
You heard everything I had to state today
about your zoning matter.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
Carmen's my childhood skating rink.
Thank you so much for engaging the community
and preserving it.
My question is, is there any parking?
Yes, there's parking.
uh there's 28 spots um behind that on the other side of the house yeah let me let me show you
where it is actually oh there we go right here there's part so it's part of this larger facility
there's parking and there's access from the what is that the the northwest corner of the building
that was the other question i had like is there access for uh entry into the building from drop
off saving yes thank you thank you saving carmen is the pharmacy going to be open for people
in the neighborhood if they're not getting serviced by the doctors at the facility
i actually don't know the answer to that i'm sorry um gpha will be the manager of it okay
and however they do it in their other sites yeah okay all the questions what's the timing for the
uh residential phase the timing for the residential project is done we uh cut the ribbon and folks
have been living there uh for a year now so march 8th last year um and we so that was the timing for
the residential questions from our attorney no mr chair questions or comments from the virtual
audience i see no hands at this time chair planning commission amy ward with the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing zoning at this location
commercial mixed use cmx2 the appellant has demonstrated that proposed use will not cause
detrimental impacts beyond what would reasonably be expected the planning commission recommends
that the board grant the requested special exception for group medical
mi 2024 007 548 3226 germington avenue i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanya Graham, my vote is yes.
Tanya Wayne, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Can I go to number two?
Counselor, I know you have two cases.
So, no, no, no, no, come on, sit down.
And we're going to do number eight first.
There will be two cases heard.
number one, MI 2024-007-547-5214 Baltimore Avenue. Meredith Trego is the attorney. Counsel,
could you state your name as spelled for the court stenographer? Yes, my name is Meredith Trego
of Ballard Spar spelled M-E-R-E-D-I-T-H-T-R-E-G-O. You swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Do you identify your client and relationship
to the property? Yes, my client is Archwell Health LLC. They are the lessee of the property
at 5214 Baltimore Avenue. The property is owned by 5214 Baltimore Associates LLC.
And there's unanimous support from the 53rd Board Democrats, and also Councilman, Councilperson Gauthier is writing a letter of support.
Councilperson Gauthier is writing a letter of support.
Correct. Thank you.
Correct. Thank you. Members of the board, Mr. Chairman, we are here today for a special exception for the use of the property as a group medical health practitioner use within an existing building in a CMX2 commercial mixed use district.
I'm joined today by Seth Dickey, who's with Archwell Health, as well as Dr. Sherlene Moten, who's joining us remotely via Zoom, who is the senior market medical director for Archwell.
We've included all of our exhibits that are required that have been filed with the board, our tax clearance certificate, our referral for special exception, our application project information form, our proof of mailings.
We have a schedule of our neighborhood outreach.
We met with the community on March 31st, and as you noted, they did provide a letter of support.
um turning to uh exhibit three first our referral just to note that this
use is a special exception in the cmx2 zoning district
and then looking at the zoning map so this is the property here this is a cmx2
um it's on baltimore avenue which is a commercial corridor um and um we note uh
Turning to a little bit about Archwell Health.
So Archwell Health provides primary care services to adults age 60 and older.
We have an average patient age of 72.
Our patient services include primary care, lab work, health screenings, social work visits, nutrition, education, and care management.
We know that there's a growing need for doctors and medical professionals throughout the country and including in Philadelphia.
At full capacity, the office anticipates roughly 35 full-time staff members.
That includes physicians, nurse practitioners, medical assistants, as well as support staff.
The facilities located at 5214 Baltimore Avenue are purposely located to transit.
We know that this location is served by the trolley along Baltimore Avenue.
Just sort of general operational points, the office will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
And in addition to primary care services for seniors, the office does have a modest activity room.
It provides some kind of group activities like fitness classes, Zumba, and chair yoga.
It's anticipated that this location will schedule 8 to 10 patients per hour, with the average appointment length being 40 to 50 minutes.
So not a huge turnover at this location in terms of the number of people coming in and out throughout the day.
So Archwell does provide or can provide some urgent care services to existing patients, but it doesn't operate as an urgent care.
So people are not coming here unless, you know, they're already an existing patient and have a relationship with a doctor.
We do want to point out and note that Archwell Health does not provide any drug rehabilitation or treatment services at this location or any other location.
Moving to an aerial of this site, the property is bounded by three streets, Baltimore Avenue, South 53rd Street, as well as Brumall Street.
It has entrances to the parking lot on all three street frontages, as well as an entrance, second entrance on Brumall Street that services the location of the dumpsters.
The site has 47 parking spaces, and except for some restriping of the ADA spaces, the parking lot will remain as it is.
The existing dumpsters are located in the corner of the property at South 53rd and Brumall Street.
Those will be for general office waste only and medical waste will be disposed of internal to
the site and secured on site. Archwell will contract with a private service provider for
that pickup. We'll go through some photos of the site, a view from Baltimore Avenue,
South 53rd Street. Like other sites in Philadelphia, this site is an existing Rite Aid.
west elevation south elevation and the east elevation looking at the proposed site plan
again most of the almost all of the renovations will be internal to the building there will be
some modest replacement of doors and windows on the outside new signage in general kind of cleaning
up of the property but it's really just the interior renovations that will be the primary
work here um we've included just some renderings of anticipated signage this application is just
for the use change but this is what we anticipate the new signage will be for the property
as well as a proposed pylon sign and then just some renderings of interior r2l spaces and other
and then just some renderings of interior archwell spaces and other exterior archwell
spaces located in different parts of the country.
We just want to note that the grant of the requested special exception for a group medical
health practitioner will not create a detrimental impact on the health, safety, or welfare of the
neighborhood exceeding that which might normally be expected from the use. In fact, it will help
to improve the health and well-being of the community by bringing healthcare services to
the 60 plus community. And I'd like to call two witnesses to adopt my testimony. I'd like
to elevate Dr. Shirley Moten, who is joining us by Zoom as a panelist. Sure. Shirley Moten
has been promoted to panelists. Could you please state your name and spell for the courts
sonographer. Good afternoon. Could you state your name and spell for the sonographer? Dr. Charlene
Moten, S-H-I-R-L-E-N-E. M-O-T-E-N. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole
truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed, counsel. Dr. Moten, you have just heard
what I said. Can you affirm that what I've said is true and accurate and adopt it as your own
testimony? I do. Thank you. I'd also like to elevate Mr. Seth Dickey from Archwell as a
panelist. Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer? Sure. Seth Dickey,
S-A-T-H-D-I-C-K-E-Y. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth i do um mr dickey you have heard what i said can you affirm that what i've
said is true and accurate and adopt it as your own testimony i do questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney no mr chair questions or comments from the virtual
audience i see no hands at this time amy board with the planning commission the comprehensive
plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing commercial mixed use
CMX 2. The appellant has
demonstrated that the proposed use would not
cause detrimental impacts beyond what
would reasonably be expected. The Planning Commission
recommends that the board grant their requested
special exception for group medical.
Thank you. MI
2024-007-547-5214
Baltimore Avenue. I vote yes.
Charles Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
my vote is yes thank you um did michael vote oh okay all right number two mi 2024 007 437 40 11
40 11 cotman avenue um erdith trego the attorney um
we do not have an rco letters yet is that correct
have you received an rco letter yet we have reached out we were told just informally that
a letter of non-opposition would be submitted but we have not seen one and we are not able
to confirm if it was okay so um just for the record could you identify your client sure i'm
here representing archwell health llc who's the lessee of the property at 4011 cotman avenue
you've already been sworn please start your presentation okay um we are here today requesting
a variance for the use of the property as a group medical health practitioner use within
an existing building, which is also a former Rite Aid. The parcel is located in the CMX2 zoning
district, as well as the Northeast Overlay District. I'm joined today by Seth Dickey and
Dr. Sherylane Moten from Archwell, and just want to note that we have filed all of our required
exhibits with the board, including our tax clearance certificate, our notice of refusal,
our application, our project information form, all the RCO neighbor letters, and proof of mailings
for those letters and proof of posting. We do want to note that this property is located. This is a
CMX2-based district. It is located in the Northeast Overlay, and the Northeast Overlay is the reason
for the variance. It would otherwise be a special exception in the CMX2. The Northeast Overlay
actually prohibits group, uh, medical, uh, use uses in the entire Northeast, uh, the two council
districts up there. So it is a sort of a area wide, uh, prohibition, uh, on the overlay in every
district. Um, and so, um, go through Archwell as well. Um, again, Archwell, Archwell. Yeah,
you could maybe go, go through it. Just a little quicker. Okay. All right. I think I've heard it
six times now. They provide primary care services to folks age 60.
um they provide a primary care services to uh folks age 60 and older um looking at the site
aerial for um this property um the building is at the corner of erdrick and common avenue
it is a roughly uh 15 000 square foot building the parking lot i believe has 47 parking spaces
go through some exterior photos of the property again it's an existing
Rite Aid is currently vacant and has been for about a year. East elevation, south.
And then internal photos as well.
Our proposed site plan, similar to other sites, most of the work will be interior to the building.
The parking lot will remain unchanged except for some restriping of the ADA spaces.
and as far as the exterior of the building goes,
really just replacement of doors and windows.
Trash will be kept in the existing dumpsters,
which are located at the corner of Cotman Avenue
and Erdrich Street.
That will be for office waste.
Medical waste will be stored privately
and securely inside the building
and the operator will contract with a private company
to dispose of that medical waste.
Here are just some renderings of the signage,
Pile and sign, internal renderings of the building, as well as external examples of the improvements.
And if it pleases the board, I'll have my witnesses adopt my testimony.
Dr. Moten?
Doctor, just state your name. You've already been sworn.
Charlene Moten will be joining us as a panelist.
I'm Dr. Charlene Moten, and
You've already been sworn, and we have the spelling of your name.
Counsel, please proceed. Dr. Moten, you have heard what I said. Can you affirm that what I've said
is true, inaccurate, and adopted as your own testimony? I do.
Thank you.
Mr. Seth Dickey? Just state your name for the record. Seth Dickey.
Proceed, counsel. You have just heard what I've said. Can you affirm that what I've said
is true and accurate and adopt it as your own testimony i do thank you questions from the board
so i have a question about catchment area because i feel like we looked at another
right aid on cotman last week and how close is this to the other facility that we approved
already so i believe this is the only facility on common avenue um we've been here for uh germantown
two on north broad and red lion road right okay that's what i was thinking okay all right thank
you i have a question we don't have an rco letter but in your view with how did the meeting go
so we uh we met with the community um the it's the mayfair civic association on march 17th
there was a good turnout um there weren't a ton of concerns they took a vote at the time it was
a vote in support with some requests for feedback on certain items and so we did follow up with the
RCO on those items. We never heard from anybody asking additional follow-up questions. The
questions that they had related to things like, you know, plantings and sort of the appearance of
the dumpster area. There's a blank wall, a long blank wall that sort of abuts the rear of row
homes. And they asked if, you know, that could be spruced up. We responded that, you know, we're
very amenable to painting that wall a different color. It's currently, it's not in bad shape.
It's just currently kind of a stark white. So we're open to sort of, you know, changing the color and appearance of that wall, putting planters in front of the building, the dumpster area, the current garage door will be filled in and a new sort of just pedestrian, you know, person door will be installed.
um so that'll spruce up that area and then there was concern about the fencing um currently the
parking lot is surrounded by a chain link fence um it's it's in good condition and it's you know
a legal fence um i think there was just you know a chain link fence wasn't um everybody in the
community's you know preference there um you know we understand the concern but it's not currently
in our scope of work to update that fence um as we know you know we represent the the lessee of
property so those types of improvements are really up to the owner okay other questions
questions from our attorney no mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing
commercial mixed use cmx2 the proposed use is consistent with documented power use and the
configuration of the building. The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant
the requested variance for group medical. Thank you. MI 2024-007-437-4011 Cotman Avenue.
4011 Cotman Avenue, I vote yes.
I vote yes. Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Pia Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Altieri.
Home High 2024-007-499-433-43 Wesley High Avenue.
Leonard Altieri is the attorney.
There's a letter of unanimous support from HACE RCO.
Hase? Hase.
I'm from South Philadelphia. Stop it.
Yep. Mr. Altieri, state your name and spell for the stenographers.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Leonard Altieri, L-E-O-N-A-R-D, Altieri, A-L-T-I-E-R-I,
with the law firm of Claire Harrison Harvey Brandsburg.
You swear a firm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Can you identify your client,
the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is Quick Lube of Carolina, Lehigh, LLC,
doing business as Take Five Oil Change.
They are the tenant of the property
located at 433-43 West Lehigh Avenue.
Do you waive the reading of the refusal
and do you agree with its accuracy?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
Could you please start your presentation?
can you see my screen we can we can sir perfect all right so again thank you very much mr chairman
and members of the board leonard out here at the law firm of claire harrison the property that we
are speaking about this afternoon
the computer wants to work there we go perfectly uh is located at 433 43 west lehigh avenue it's
former conoco phillips gas station uh it's located at the corner of lehigh and north fifth street and
it is located in the cmx cmx 2.5 zoning district property as you can see right here is currently
closed these photos are from when it was currently open but it is currently closed and is fenced off
i've been before this board a couple of times before with this uh use that we are speaking
about this afternoon. Again, it's called Quick Lube. We specifically received a refusal from
LNI because the proposed use that we are seeking today, which is personal vehicle repair and
maintenance, is expressly prohibited in the CMX 2.5 commercial zoning district. Again, Quick Lube,
as I started to say, we've been here before for, I think this will be our third location. The first
location was up at 2250 Cotman Avenue. The second one was over at Bluegrass and Welsh Road up there
in the northeast. What we are seeking this afternoon is to do a two-bay, 1,342-square-foot
take-five oil change facility. Again, if the board wants to hear it, take-five is unique from
anything else that we have in this area. Individuals will drive their car to the location.
They never leave the car. They stay in the car the entire time, and they are only provided a few services.
This one in particular will provide oil changes, windshield wiper replacements, engine air and cabin air filter replacement,
pool exchange, rotate tires, and they will do state inspections.
There are over 800 take-five oil change facilities across the United States,
And the average service time is about 11.2 minutes with a high volume of about 10 cars being serviced an hour.
With regards to this site in particular, as you can see from the screen, we're doing some substantial improvements to this property.
First off, we'll talk about traffic flow.
There's currently curb cuts right here where you kind of see this lighter green.
Also here, what we are doing is we are going to be closing those curb cuts off.
we are going to be doing, you know, we will be replacing the handicap accessible sidewalks just
so that they are freshened up, if you will, adding landscaping around the property. And so now the
only ingress and egress for the property will be along North 5th Street up here. Again, closing it
off, this has been done in consultation with the streets department. Right now, this intersection
at North Lehigh and 5th Street, excuse me, it's close to that intersection where that curb cut
is now so closing that off will allow uh cars to to enter in a little bit more of a safer location
it's more centralized with regards to hours of operation it will be open seven days a week 7
a.m to 8 p.m with regards to delivery supplies all deliveries minus the oil will be delivered
by essentially a ups uh truck with regards to oil delivery itself it's no different than your home
oil service a truck will pull up usually about once a week depending on volume if it needs to
go in it might be two times a week they'll pull into one of the bays uh and the truck will just
unload the oil and then they'll leave all the used oil which was something that was a question
uh with regards to the rco is stored and also removed uh out one
with regards to the RCO is stored and also removed out once a week.
The whole site is designed in a way that the oil collection system consists, you know, nothing spills out, if you will.
And I have someone from operations who can go into greater detail if the board so chooses.
Again, with regards to the support of the community, one thing that Quick Lube does is they look for employment opportunities within the community.
And I know that's something that everybody always says when they come to these.
This is something that this company really prides itself on.
In addition to that, they also work with, as they've been doing with the prior other RCOs that I've mentioned, to look at second chance opportunities.
Individuals who need a second chance, that's one big thing that they do with their hiring.
And they don't just keep them at entry level.
Instead, they really do an internal promotion program.
Some of the managers that are currently working at Quick Loop started out as entry level from a second chance program
and are now not only just managers of those individual stores, but also regional managers.
They also do charity.
They normally do two charities a year, one's for the local children's hospital where they're located,
and the other one is for Folds of Honor, which is an organization that benefits families of fallen service members.
In coordination or a conversation with the RCO, they requested two charities in particular.
So those charities, just for the board's knowledge, will be St. Christopher's Hospitals for Children,
as well as the Veterans Multiservice Center.
We did meet with the RCO back in, I guess that would have been March, excuse me.
The RCO meeting was attended by 22 residents.
The vote was 22 to nothing to support among the residents, and then 5 to 0 in support from the board itself.
I do have a full presentation packet with regards to the zoning notice and all that, but I don't think, you know, nothing's been flagged.
So I have no other presentation that I can have.
Why don't you have your testimony adopted?
it. Perfect. We'll start off with Shannon.
Why could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer and try to get close
and turn that off for us. Thank you.
Shannon Park. S-H-A-N-N-O-N
E-A-R-K. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Shannon, you were present in the room when I gave
that testimony? Yes. Is everything accurate
to the best of your knowledge, information, belief?
Yes. And just for the record, so you can
state for the board what is your role here this afternoon i am the civil engineer and so you work
with you you're you're an employee of bowler yes and you were responsible for the designing of
these plans yes perfect um and you would adopt that testimony that i provided as your own i do
there any questions for the engineer questions from the board for the engineer i guess i have
a question about the number of parking spots the plan shows i think spaces for seven cars and i'm
wondering is that a breakdown between cars that are being serviced employees of the location and
patrons yeah um the as a letter mentioned that the you stay within your vehicle for the service
so um the parking is mainly intended for the employees mainly for the employees okay you'll
never leave your car there's you know the you they're not parking like they're not parking at
actually go into the retail. There's not even a retail. It's just a storage and a restroom for
the employees and then like a spot for them to, you know, have their lunch. Um, but you pull in
here, it's kind of like a drive-thru restaurant. You pull in, you don't leave your car, you get
your service and then you leave. Okay. Other questions?
Questions or comments from our attorney? No, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual
audience i see no hands at the sound chair planning commission amy blood with the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the
existing commercial mixed use cmx 2.5 the zoning designation supports walkable community commercial
corridors and the property sets an important intersection for the el centro de oro commercial
corridor on north 5th street the planning commission recommends the board deny the
requested variance for vehicle repair and maintenance
mi 2024 007 499 433 to 43 wesley high avenue i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you
council thank you very much mr chair and members of the board sure mi 2024 007 535 1800 south 32nd
street brett feldman is the attorney hi council good afternoon
so council could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
try again yeah good
try again yeah good afternoon brett feldman 1835 market street philadelphia pennsylvania
19103 b-r-e-t-t feldman f-e-l-d-m-a-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client the relationship to the property
Yes, I represent Attain ABA Autism Therapy. They are the equitable owner of this property,
which was formerly the PHA headquarters. Yes. Do you waive the reading of the refusal and do
you agree with its accuracy? I do. Okay. Why don't you start your presentation? Great.
I'm going to share my screen here.
There's a recommendation and support from the Tasker Morris
Neighborhood Association, by the way.
You're coming up, right?
Okay, great.
Great. Let me get right to it here. Again, Brett Feldman, I represent the applicant to attain ABA
therapy. We've passed up exhibits 1 through 14, which I'd ask to be incorporated into the record.
Okay. Mr. Chairman, as you said, we do have a letter of support from the Tasker Morris
Neighborhood Association. That came after multiple meetings. We've worked closely with the community
to obtain that letter of support.
I'm joined by Fernando Vinagre,
who is the Director of Compliance for ABA Therapy.
This application might look similar.
Mr. Vinagre and myself were here about a month ago
for the location at 5440 Lansdowne Avenue,
which was a Rite Aid that Attain was purchasing
and converting into an ABA autism center.
This is now for the former PHA headquarters building, which would be really kind of their showpiece, flagship.
That's the one faces the expressway.
Correct. Let me just show you the picture, and everyone will recognize it there.
That's the letter of support.
Here is the building, right on 76.
That's Vare Avenue right in the front and 76.
There are the ingress and egress points, as you'll hear, are right on Vare.
We're not changing the building.
We're not changing the envelope.
We're not changing the ingress, ingress points.
We're not changing the 69 existing parking spaces that you see right there.
That's from the, I guess you would call it the back.
This is the picture of the front.
For many years, it was operated as a PHA headquarters.
It has now been empty for some number of years. If you've driven past, I drive past almost very frequently. There was a massive for sale sign that was on the back of this property that is weathered. It's been up for years and years, as I understand from PHA and its brokers.
There was not a tremendous interest in this property, but I think those in the community are very excited and appreciative to now have this type of facility, an autism center in that neighborhood, which is one of the, as Fernando, as you'll identify, is one of the main areas of need in the city for autism treatment.
along the spectrum disorder.
These are the pictures inside.
It is an office building.
That's kind of what you have on the multiple floors.
And one of the attractions of this is that
there was a variance issued for the office building.
And this use, which is both offices,
which is the existing use and also the group medical,
there is a lot of, you know,
there's work inside that has to be done,
But it's not the type of massive residential conversion that would cost, would be prohibitively expensive with all the new bathrooms and all the new infrastructure and life safety that you would see with the conversion.
And I think that was one of the main reasons why this wasn't developed.
So with that being said, I'm just going to, Fernando, you testified previously to the board, but I'm going to ask you again to go on the record.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Fernando Vinagre, F-E-R-N-A-N-D-O, last name V-I-N-A-G-R-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
And Mr. Vinagre, can you just provide your name and title and your area of responsibilities within ATTAIN?
And Mr. Vinagre, can you just provide your name and title and your area of responsibilities?
Yes, my name is Fernando Vinagre, and I serve as the Director of Compliance for ATTAIN ABA.
And can you provide the board with what is ATTAIN and what type of services does it provide?
Basically, it provides a variety of behavioral treatment services to the autism population and developmental and intellectual disabilities.
And you have locations throughout the country, but you also have locations in Philadelphia, correct?
That is correct.
And you have one existing location?
One existing location in Maniunk.
Okay. And we were here a month ago on the other proposed location that we're now moving ahead with.
So can you just provide a sense of what types of services we would provide at this type of center that we discuss with the community?
So basically, we specialize in Applied Behavior Analysis Services, which is the gold star evidence-based treatment for autism and intellectual disabilities.
So basically, what you would see at this center is a variety of assessments and evaluations that we would be conducting there,
which would be the first step in the process to kind of diagnosing what the various deficits are
for that individual. And then from there, the second phase of there would be that you would
see there is direct services. So once we have a full mapping of the assessment, via the assessment,
all the treatment needs, then we move into direct services. The children would come to the actual
center and would be undergoing direct services there as well. We also have ancillary services
that will be specializing there. So we'll be engaging in occupational therapy, speech and
language pathology, and physical therapy they'll be able to provide. Thank you, Mr. Vinagre. And
you see in front of you a kind of a day in the a typical type day um that um uh an individual
a youngster would would would experience at the center is this a good sense of what a day might
look like it is it is yeah um basically there's there's a series of a variety of classes that
we'll be um utilizing um children will be grouped into uh various groupings or classrooms based on
levels of need, levels of acuity, and treatment goals. So we'll be pairing a lot of the children
based on a lot of the treatment goals that they have. The day is basically broken up into two
halves, where you might have children that come during the morning time, basically 9 to 12,
another grouping that might come in the afternoon time from like 12 to 5, and then some of the
children that have larger needs would be there the full day. And I have some pictures in front
of you of what the types of classrooms and group therapy spaces look like. Is this a good and
accurate representation of what the type of classrooms that we'll have at the center?
I guess absolutely. These are some of the renderings that we're looking to design on the
inside. We call them classrooms, even though they're not academically based or won't have
teachers. We call them classrooms because of the learning focus that we have, and there will be
interventions and basically a lot of instructional play that is occurring that's all backed by the
treatment interventions that they're receiving. And this is one of the rooms? Yeah, so that's
an example of a vocational area that we would have. Occupational therapists would be utilizing
that area as well um for you know a variety of different interventions from gross to you know
um motor skill use and so forth and i know at one of the community meetings someone mentioned this
looks kind of like the police touch museum inside but there is a serious purpose to this correct
there is absolutely thank you okay um that's your presentation right that's as far as mr
of an algrace testimony um if there's questions that the board has questions on the board
no i i don't have a question i guess i just want to say i worked this was one of my projects when
we first did it at p michael i was just ready to say what a beautiful building by the way what a
wonderful building if if you live long enough they redo all your but i'm glad to see the adaptive
the reuse for this facility because I know it was a long time that PHA had been looking
to get somebody to come in and acquire that building once we sort of did the consolidation
of the apartments on Ridge Avenue, so it's great.
departments on ridge avenue so it's great i'll tell you that building always looked great when
I'll tell you, that building always looked great when you're going down.
you're going down the highway you look to your right it really it really was a classy looking
building well thank you thank you all right do you have a question sorry is your facility open
on weekends and are people accessing it on the weekends it's primarily during the weekdays um
there are some center functions that will do like respite or a variety of different community
activities that could be during the weekends, but the primary services are during the weekdays.
And then given that the high school's down the street, have you thought at all about just traffic
and even busing of youngsters drop-off pickup times at that location? That's the slide I have
up right now, which I forgot to get to, but this is my traffic slide, so thank you. So yes, this is
This is the in and out utilizing their avenue with the entrance on there.
The individuals who are receiving treatment are dropped off at the front.
A attained employee comes out, picks them up, brings them into the into the space.
And then that that vehicle then would exit out back onto there.
They don't ever go into into off the property or into there's no curb cuts into the into the neighborhood,
which is a big issue in our community meetings we have 69 parking spaces it's exactly the way
it was set up and this was really one of the attractions for attain was it's just so well
suited right on there it's also got great mass transit it's got great parking and then this
in and out configuration so hopefully that's a sufficient answer but yes one more so when
parents drop their child out they don't get out most of them stay in the car that's correct by
design so that we can keep the flow going um we have a staff a line of staff members that are
receiving each each uh client that comes comes right let's just a real quick question do you
target an area like a catchment area or do you take anybody that's referred to anywhere in the city
um so the the choice is purposeful um there are a large variety a large wait list um within the
general area for, to, to receive behavioral health services. So we've consulted with school
districts. They also have a large need for like social skills and treatment evaluations and so
forth. So yes, it was, it was a purposeful location for us. Thank you. And then one more
question. Is there no outdoor space for the kids? Like, do they need, and is there a plan to
accommodate that at the site um there is so there's a there's there's a smaller area in the
front um that we were looking at uh devoting some sort of play area um uh in in the front um the the
back area isn't isn't extensive but we could potentially do something back there as well yeah
but what's again this is another you know real attraction was there's a big chunk of that first
floor used for a large group play area correct that's correct i can go through the the floor
plans but it's it's a good size building so it gives us classrooms it gives us office space it
gives us back office operations but there also is that type of large play space here so it's
if we had a lot more land it would be probably better um but it certainly fit the needs your
programmatic and um educational and needs so correct a lot of that play area is targeted for
the inside on that first on that first floor i could go back to the floor plans on that but that's
a huge chunk of of that first floor is is that is that play is that play area group area
questions from our attorney uh yes sir i just want to clear up something um i believe you've
been in contact with hillary emerson the normal attorney yeah sure yes uh you represent the
equitable owner correct you have authorization from the legal title holder yes okay yeah yeah
attain is the client 1800 south 32nd lc is in the special purpose entity that was you know and i
think we had sent some emails i just wanted to put that on the record because i i wasn't in those
emails yes we responded yesterday to that as well so questions or comments from the virtual audience
i know he said this time to planning commission
amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location from the existing residential multifamily rm1 the building which
use which is to remain once housed pha headquarters and is not configured to be used as multifamily
household living the property is roughly 40 feet from i-95 occupies an entire block and does not
have adjacent residences so the proposed use would not injure the use of adjacent properties
the planning commission recommends the board grant their experience for group medical and
business and professional offices. Thank you. MI 2024-007-535-1800.
Thank you. MI 2024-007-535-1800 South 32nd Street, I vote yes.
Johns, my vote is yes. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Iowyn, my vote is yes. Thank you, counsel. Thank you very much. I just want to put on the record
the community groups down there, there's like three or four really worked with us. There's a
whole autism support community within some of those groups that we're going to be
working with and it was just a very nice experience and we had multiple meetings to go
through this so I think it's going to be I know people get criticism of community groups but this
this was this was this was done the right way well that's the right thing yeah it really was
it was wonderful thank you all right so number one MI 2024 006 677 3028 North 15th Street Henry
Clinton is the attorney.
There's a done opposition of
Mount Ganey West Civic Association.
Henry Clinton will be
rejoining us as a panelist.
Mr. Chairman, Henry Clinton here.
I don't know why my
video is not working.
promoted to panelists?
Yes, Chair.
He has been promoted to panelists.
Is it coming up now?
Yeah, should it come up now, Henry?
Yeah, I'm clicking the start video.
Here we go.
Thank you.
Well, maybe I can start my presentation and I could still show my screen if you don't see me.
Yeah, I mean, if you can get the screen on, it will be fine.
I mean, we know your voice very well.
Yeah, I don't know what's happening.
That's never happened.
And your office, we know.
That was a great fact.
Will you be sworn in there, Mr. Chairman?
Yeah, why don't you, first of all, state your name and spell for the...
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Henry Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N, Henry, H-E-N-R-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
My client is 3028 North 15th Street, LLC, and the principal Mann, M-A-N-N, Barpoor, B-H-A-R-P-O-O-R,
is on the call.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy?
Why don't we start?
I'll share my screen then, Mr. Chairman.
It's coming up now, Henry.
Is that visible?
Yes, it is, sir.
All right.
So I'll do this behind a curtain.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
I'm here on behalf of 3028 North 15th Street.
my table of contents, which contain exhibits A1 through A10, as well as a plethora of zoning
records, as well as the past history of this property. So I was before the prior board a mere
six years ago for this exact same project, 2019, with another client. That client also obtained a
building permit in 2022, but the zoning permit has expired, as has the building permit, and that
client sold it to my current client, but it's the same architect, the same project. The only thing
that we did differently is that we installed in the plans a rear set of steps for access to the
bedrooms in the basement. The refusal, we have one use refusal. This is an RSA 5 zoning
District, and we're requesting three families. There's no issue with regard to open space,
rear yard, or height. I did not get the RCO letter till late, but I know it was sent into the board
and a letter of non-opposition. Correct, Mr. Chairman? From Allegheny West Civic Association.
Correct. This is to give you a context of the block. This is a current vacant lot.
This is to give you a context of the block.
This is a current vacant lot.
And as you see from Allegheny West's letter, the lot has been vacant for at least 20 years and potentially longer.
I've outlined the multifamily properties on the block.
Directly across the street is a three-family dwelling.
And that almost caddy corner is a four-family dwelling.
Close-up view showing the vacant lot fenced in.
It's kind of unique.
There's two-story buildings on one side and three-story on the other side.
So we're trying to mimic the larger building on the right-hand side.
This is a photograph from 2004.
I was able to get it from the archives, again, showing the vacant lot.
This is the house directly across the street that I referenced earlier.
This is 3037.
This is the three-family dwelling.
You can see the three mailboxes on the front wall.
this is looking down the street in one direction again just showing you the different types of
housing on the block this is looking in the other direction it's tough to see with
where my black line is that's where the vacant lot is
zoning posters
some more photographs just for context
Next. This is the floor plan. So in the basement or cellar, again, as I said at the outset, we now have a rear means of egress. There's a window well with steps leading up to the rear yard. In the basement would be two bedrooms and a full bath. On the first floor would be one bedroom, living, dining, and kitchen with access to the rear yard.
second floor uh would have an entrance on the front and then two bedrooms living dining room
and what is unique is we do not have a rooftop deck but each apartment has a rear deck uh for
you know some outdoor area and to store trash until trash day moving up to the third floor
on the switchback steps it's really mimicking what's on the second floor two bedrooms a full
bath, washer, dryer, and then also we have the kitchen area toward the rear near the exterior
deck. This is a rendering of the front brick on the first and second floor with a mansard roof
set back a little bit from the second story homes on the left side.
This is a cutaway view showing the rear decks on the second and third floor.
We're also mimicking the porches on the block to try to have the house, even though it's new construction and it does look more modern, at least trying to mimic some of the porches on the block.
In terms of depth, we try to keep with the depth of the homes adjacent on either side a little bit shallower than the home two doors down.
Our application for appeal, tax clearance, zoning map.
Again, as I said at the outset, this is an RSI-5 zoning district, and the reason we're before you is we're seeking a multifamily dwelling.
Indeed, indicating ownership, my prior client was Lex Properties, who did have this project approved, but for the rear steps.
And just because circumstances didn't warrant them completing the project, and they sold it to my current client.
Notice of mailing.
mailed out 185 pieces of mail, and then I'll get to the zoning record.
So this is the prior history of the property.
You can see in 2019, we did get approval for a three-family household living.
These are the plans.
Again, the same plans.
You can see the rear deck.
You can see the porch, the upper deck.
The circles around here indicate that there was one change at that time
where the mansert roof was installed rather than a root of excuse me a wall going straight up
and here's the proviso form that we use there we introduced the mansert roof at the third floor level
this was a refusal back then basically the same thing rsa5
multi-family not prohibited in the area
and these are some of the other zoning records these mimic the aerial photograph that i showed
at the outset, various addresses that have two, three, and four family dwellings. But before I
get that, this is the commercial building permit that was issued in 2022 for the client at that
time, and they decided to not move forward. Here are the zoning records, 3008, two family. This is
30, 42, two family, 30, 45, two family, 30, 46, two family, 46.
30, 45, two family, 30, 46, two family, 47, 30, 43, which is, as I said, almost catty corner to the subject properties, four units, and then directly across the street was three units.
So the community group, some of the members did remember me being there a while ago, and they still want that vacant lot filled in, and they were happy that it was going to be multifamily.
my client promised to make the homes affordable and put that on the record in
front of everybody at the community. And that was well-received also.
So with that, Mr. Chairman,
I would end my presentation and ask if my client could be unmuted to adopt the
testimony. And we'll entertain any questions, obviously from the board.
I mean, what's your client's name?
Man, M-A-N-N, B-A-P-O-R, B-H-A-R-P-O-R.
Barpour Mahan has been promoted to panelists.
Good afternoon, sir.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Mahan, can you raise your hand?
Hi, this is Barpour.
Can you guys hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Please state your name and spell for the stenographer.
My name is Bharpur Maan, B-H-A-R-P-O-O-R, last name Maan, M-A-N-N.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Bharpur, were you on the call when I presented your project today to the board?
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
Thank you very much.
Questions from the board?
Question, what's the proposed basement slab level below grade?
Are you talking about the window well, Mr. Johns?
Yeah, how deep is the basement slab below adjacent grade?
I believe it's, I don't want to misquote.
Let's see a section I showed.
I'm looking at this.
I'm trying to get this dimension up for you, Mr. Johns.
Six feet from the top.
So the first floor is six feet above grade?
Correct.
Because we have steps up to a porch.
And then there are more steps?
The plan doesn't show that.
your plan doesn't show that i mean i see what the section says but the plan doesn't
right that number of steps that it would be another like three steps above there
also the section shows the first floor being above the first floor
right that's what i'm saying okay we're saying the same thing that's basically what i'm saying
and I don't because there are no additional steps oh I say they're inside correct I got it sorry
about that I got you okay they're inside Mr. Clinton can you make the image full screen it's
a little it's small on our end all right you know let me try you're sharing your whole screen
but only using a portion of your screen
right better yes a little bit that now we can zoom in though
so yeah your your elevation then is slightly off from your section and from your plan because
your plan does show you look like you're only about three feet below grade if that based on
this detail. All right. Thank you. That was it.
Thank you, Mr. Johns. Any other questions? Yeah. So
in your testimony, you said there's primarily a lot of duplexes on
the house. Is there any particular hardship
for trying to put three units here? Well, it is
a large lot. It's new construction. The depth of the homes next
were pretty deep. And certainly it would
accommodate three. And it was well-received the last time, six years ago, and also well-received
again because the client did make some commitments about having housing that is going to be
affordable for the neighborhood and the block. And he put that in testimony before the community
group. So the answer, not to give you a lawyer-like answer, yes, it could be single family
or could be two family, but we've opted for three, presented it to three, and the community was okay.
we've opted for three presented it to three and the community was okay with three
other questions but there are no other three family on that block
yes there's one uh directly across the street and then there's about on this particular block not
across the street but on that side of the block you're it's all two family on that side correct
Two on that side. This is three, directly right across the street. And then this one is four. So, on the block, but not on the same side. I agree with you.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Questions from our attorney?
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have a hand up by the name of Charles Richardson. They are being promoted to panelists.
Mr. Richardson
Hello again, Mr. Chair
You were already sworn, sir
It's kind of early for you to be calling in
But please proceed
You know, this is my last case of the day
Thank you
Councilwoman is not opposed to granting the variance
and I wish you all good
night. All right. Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have a
hand up with the phone number
ending in 3552.
I am allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer?
Yes, Adrian Fernandez
Swaputo Arcio.
That last name is spelled F-E-R.
Thank you, Adrienne. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Okay. I submitted testimony late for this address, and that is for a letter of support with four provisos.
this block is mostly two they're mixed they're mixed together kind of not consistently on that
side of the street there's two-story and three-story houses but it's a single family attached
block rsa5 four multi-units as a fill-in property we have many in swamp little that
Usually, they'll put a single-family home there.
For apartments, there's an overuse of this type of variance on this type of block.
So the other concern is when it's fill-in, people are concerned about damage to their structures
and that engineering monitoring is actually going to happen, compliance with that,
and also other inspections.
Because on each side, there's a single-family home.
I believe one of them might be vacant.
As far as there being some buildings with three apartments or even two apartments on this block, because these are single-family homes, there's no testimony about which of those are legal.
So the illegal ones aren't really relevant.
The illegal multifamily uses are not relevant for two or three apartments.
So we're just asking for provisos.
First is a limit of two units, because usually people will build fill-ins as a single-family home in our area.
The next one is for trash and recycling stored indoors.
The next one is for no basement living.
And the last one is for a certificate of occupancy requirement.
And that's everything.
That happens anyway.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else that works for you?
I'll move back for one second.
hello this is a this is a three unit project not a four and i just want to say to the developer
that i appreciate how they laid out the front facade where they kept the elevations of the
porches consistent and they raised the they came into the porch and then raised the inside
to make to get that height that they wanted but they kept the basement high up uh not so deep
below grade so i think you did a great job and just sort of making it fit with the um rest of
the uh the block so thank you michael thank you mr johns that's well appreciated and i'll pass
that on to the architect and miss adrian you said mr johns it's it's not a proposal for four
its proposal for three thank you planning commission god bless you first thank you amy with the
planning commission god bless you first thank you amy with the planning commission um
now i've lost my place 15th street um the planning commission recommends no planned
change in zoning at this location from the existing single-family residential rsa5
the appellant has not demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances
that would prevent the property from being used in conformance with the zoning code
The Planning Commission recommends the board deny the requested variance for multifamily household living.
Thank you.
Can I address that, Mr. Chairman?
Just briefly.
So, I mean, there's a reason that the lot has sat vacant for at least 20 years or longer.
There's a reason that the community supported this six years ago, and there's a reason they supported it again now, is that a single-family home, the cost of construction is going to exceed the sale price of the homes on the block.
That's just the reality.
And having multifamily, I agree it's an RSA 5 zoning district, but it's not the first multifamily on the block.
And directly across the street is a three-family dwelling, which has been there for a number of years.
And right down the street, Caddy Corner is a four-family dwelling.
So thank you very much.
Thank you.
MI 2024, 006-677-3028 North 15th Street.
I vote yes with proviso, trash to be stored inside.
Michael Jones, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tana Graham, my vote is no.
Tywin, my vote is yes with proviso.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called from the 2 p.m. list?
I see no hands up.
Okay, so we're going to take a five-minute break, and then we're coming back,
and I think we're going to get done a reasonable time.
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia
Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston. President, Mr. Chairman.
Or board member, Tenetta Graham. President, Mr. Chairman. Board member, Michael Johns. He's here
and our board member Taya Wynn. Present Mr. Chair. So present is our attorney Matthew Webster
and our executive director Ian Haggerty. A recording of this hearing will be posted on
the CBA website. By participating you consent to be recorded. This is an in-person meeting with
remote capabilities. Whether remote or in person if you're called to speak you must state and spell
your name and then wait to be sworn in. Once you've been sworn in please state your name each
time before beginning your testimony. Any person may enter their appearance to become an interested
party. There are three ways. You can identify the case property address on your Zoom webinar.
You can see a staff member or you can call the ZBA appearance line by the close of the business
tomorrow. Call 267-270-5548. Leave a message that includes your email address and the address of the
property of the appeal. The following guidance is for our remote attendees. First, when directed
by the chair, you must raise your hand, your virtual hand, in order to be recognized. Second,
if you're called to testify, you will be prompted to join as a panelist. Please accept the request
and turn on your camera. Third, the webinar question and answer is for questions about the
hearing. Do not comment on cases on the Q&A. Fourth, if you're participating by phone,
press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. For our in-person attendees,
please refrain from talking, eating, or drinking during the hearing. Verbal and physical aggression
will not be tolerated. Restrooms are across from the elevators. Water fountain is just
outside the room to the right. When speaking on the record, you must speak directly into the
microphone in order to be heard by all attendees and the court reporter in the event of an emergency
please follow the directions given over the public address system or by the staff the main exit is
through the double doors at the rear of the room the nearest stairwell is to the left outside the
doors in case of an evacuation and rally point is at love point directly across from art street
please remember there remain there so we can account for you
here's our schedule number one mi 2023 007 209 1625 north marshall street that case has been
continued attorney moving party number two chair can we put the date on the record please
for the continuance oh okay four eight wait a minute
for the continuance oh okay four eight wait a minute
oh you're i i got you i got it i got it i got it all right september 17th at 2 p.m number two
mi 2024 002 822 807 roosevelt boulevard this case is continued attorney moving party
scheduled to September 17th
at 2 p.m.
Number 4
MI 2020
633 Parlin Street
that case has been continued
are there any other requests for continuance
I see no hints at this time
chair we also have two cases without exhibits number three mi 2024 003 041 4832 carl street
carol white is the listed owner it's a pro se no exhibits second listing we do have
information that this case may be withdrawn is katherine white in the audience i see no one in
the audience with that name chair okay so this is the second listing we still have to have no
documents. So, MI 2024-003-041-2832, Carl Street, I vote to dismiss.
Well, John, my vote is to dismiss. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is to dismiss.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is to dismiss. Iowan, my vote is to dismiss.
MI 2024-007-285-610 Christian Street. Dawn Tangrady is the listed attorney.
We have no exhibits.
This is the first listing.
I see no one in the audience with that name, Chair.
Okay, so MI 2024-007-285-610 Christian Street.
As cases continue, Mark must be heard to September 17th at 2 p.m.
We're going to go to case number five.
MI 2024-007-282-10-784 Lockhart Road.
Ann Siegel is the owner, applicant, and it's a pro se.
This application is to convert an existing exterior parking space,
required accessory off-street parking space removed,
an existing two-family semi-detached structure.
No plan review associated with this application.
One off-street accessory parking space is required per unit in the RTA-1 Zoning District, whereas two spaces are required and none are proposed.
A letter of support from Somerton and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member O'Neill.
Ann Siegel.
Ann Siegel has been promoted to panelists.
and sequel please turn your video on i'm miss seagull
miss seagull
here she has been promoted to penalist she just needs to unmute and turn
Ms. Siegel, please unmute.
Yeah, I see her over there to the left.
Ms. Siegel, unmute, please.
Ms. Siegel?
Chair, Ann Siegel may be having technical difficulties.
I see that they still have their hand up, even as a panelist.
Okay, so let me go on to the next case, and then I'll come back to her, okay?
All right.
Case number seven, MI 2024-007-288-833 Corinthian Avenue.
Joseph Consul is the attorney.
Letter of opposition from Francisville Civic Association,
and a letter of opposition from Council Member Young.
Applicant provided nine form letters.
hello so i'm mr console how are you sir i'm well how are you could you just state your name for
the record and spell it for the stenographer yeah it's joseph console that's j-o-s-e-p-h
last name console c-o-n-s-o-l-e do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do you waive the reading of the refusal and agree with his accuracy i do
Do you waive the reading of the refusal and agree with his accuracy?
and could you
And could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
My client is Jonathan Holt, and he is the owner of HP Group, LLC.
Why don't you start your presentation, please?
Joseph Consul here for 833 Corinthian Avenue.
This is a request to use this property as a short-term rental.
So we're seeking a visitor accommodation permit. The property is zoned RM1. My clients purchased this property in 2019 and operated it successfully with no issues with the city or any neighbors until the city cracked down on visitor accommodations shortly thereafter.
The board's aware of how those things went down. What I think is notable on this property is that they were fully operational for years prior to being shut down.
I understand there is opposition, but we believe that that is a general opposition and not specific.
And we'll get to the letter from the RCO in a second, but the vote was very close.
And we believe that the RCO just has a blanket policy of rejecting these requests.
However, we're not asking to start one from the ground up.
this is one that was operating is fully furnished and has been and um because of that we're hopeful
that we can um get a variance to use the property as a visitor accommodation so it's 833 corinthian
avenue it is zoned multi-family however it is a single family home there's our proof of mailer
some external photos of the property
this is directly from the listing showing the property nicely furnished
all these photos were in my submitted packet it's a three-bedroom three-bath
we included a layout so everyone can see the setup of the property
uh additionally my clients are not uh sort of one-off operators of short-term rental properties
they have several in the city and they manage them very professionally uh in a moment my client
will talk a little bit about his business but we included their sort of internal um operating
manual just to give the the board um more of a full picture of of who we're presenting here um
these are very serious uh folks who have a lot of rules and regulations about their property and
because of that there have not been any issues they have trash uh trash rules noise violation
enforcement monitors and things like that.
And again, that's all in the packet.
Here's the actual listing of the Airbnb showing they have a near perfect score.
We included some comments, the project information form
showing they actually have a positive tax balance.
So here's the deed from 2019, showing that my clients took possession of the property in October of 2019.
There's the RCO meeting form.
We had seven in support, 10 in opposition, and one non-opposition.
Still, we received a letter of opposition.
um i believe again that this rco just due to some research it appears to not support these
as a blanket policy which we understand um they are able to do that and they included a letter
again nothing specific to my client's property just at the idea of these approvals generally
We included nine petitions from near neighbors, including, I think, very relevantly, the next-door neighbor, Maggie, the owner of the property, 831 Corinthian.
She has a good relationship with my clients, I think appreciates the work that they do there, and submitted a petition in support.
Uh, this one's just a little, scanned a little weird.
and this one's just a little scanned a little weird
um with that call my client john to raise his virtual hand
jonathan hope has been promoted to panelists and will be rejoining us soon thank you
hello you know could you could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure it's jonathan holt j-o-n-a-t-h-a-n-h-o-l-t do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
truth nothing but the truth yes i do could you turn on your video uh i am trying to you're on
your honor okay great please proceed counsel good evening mr holt did you hear my presentation
right now about your property at 833 corinthian avenue yes i did um and do you agree with what
i said and do you adopt it as your own yes i do okay because we're we're the as a preview we're
going to be presenting a few properties in the next few weeks from my clients group um could
you just give the board a little bit of an insight into your company and how it operates
and the history of this property?
We, you know, started operating, as Joe mentioned, years ago and have fully furnished it.
We do a lot of work to, you know, keep out a lot of people here, Airbnbs, and the first
thing they think of is parties.
then their concerns go to excessive trash noise all that sort of stuff I think we do a great job
in managing our properties we can easily eliminate lots of those issues by
the screening of the guests we do we only allow guests with great reviews and ratings we won't
allow like first-time guests signing up we do have age minimums you have to be at least 25 years and
up we actually collect the ids and um also uh have um electronic devices in the house they don't
record or anything they just monitor sound so anytime like you know noise starts to go up to
we have it set for 75 decibels which is the basically a vacuum running would set that off
So anytime like noise like that occurs in the house, not only does the guest automatically get texts, we get that text, too.
And then we reach out and call the guest directly to make sure, you know, everything's still under control.
We have posted signs about, you know, house rules and quiet hours.
And, you know, again, these are our properties and our neighbors, you know, and respecting them is first and foremost.
Joe mentioned we did have, you know, we lost the vote when we went to the RCO, but some of their concerns were, you know, they really wished we could have brought our neighbor.
Unfortunately, Maggie, you know, Joe showed we have her sign that petition, but unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it.
She's pregnant.
We talk to her all the time because her pregnancy, her parents are from out of town.
So she was hoping that they would be able to come and rent the place from us.
So we do have a good relationship with them.
Next door on the other side is a building.
I believe it's CMX2.
It's been a couple of different things like a laundromat and a yoga studio for a while, too.
So the only neighbor that's actually living there, we do have a very good relationship with.
One of the other issues at the RCO meeting, they asked about, you know, helping the community.
Even though we lost that meeting, I still reached out to Megan Grimm, who is the zoning chair of the Francisville Civic Association.
and ask if there are some charities
we can involve ourselves with
the youth sports programs
that they run so we've been
working with her too
Are you done Joe?
Yeah just maybe just pull up
there's the external
just to show what he was referring to
it's a commercial mixed use
to the left of the property
and we're the little guy in the middle
and the property next door is rm1 um yes we're we're done questions from the board
is there a reason that this was uh decided to be a short-term rental instead of just
renting it out in this particular neighborhood uh we
in this particular neighborhood?
Thank you.
We just kind of decided to do that, you know,
when the opportunity presented itself.
You know, we had the furniture,
so we wanted to kind of make it nice
and do that to bring people into the neighborhood
in kind of a different way, if you will.
Yeah, and like we said, this was done, you know,
And obviously, the planning commission will have an opinion on it, but this was done when it was something that the city was permitting generally.
And so we're hopeful that, you know, the board would see fit, you know, at worst to offer us at least some sort of temporary plan to show that my clients are good actors here.
To your knowledge, how many Airbnbs are there on that block?
or the hundreds adjacent to them.
John, do you recall that meeting
that happening at the RCO where that was discussed?
He was pulling up,
I don't know about the exact adjacent block,
but she was searching that specific area
and I think she had about only like five or 10,
maybe just in the whole Francisville kind of area.
Yeah, we were at the meeting
The RCO was trying to narrow it down to say that there was a lot, but it was certainly less than 10.
I believe it to be around five at the time.
That was on the block or in the area?
No, no, no, not on the block.
None, just in their general Francisville area.
Thank you.
Mr. Holt, do you have any more in the area there?
Do you have other Urbane B's?
Yes, yeah.
There we, as Joe mentioned, we'll be back here in some later months, but we do have
some in South Philly as well as like the Fishtown Northern Liberties area.
How many do you operate?
So we have 10.
Thank you.
Other questions?
Warm welcome by every other RCO.
And again, I know that's not relevant.
Other questions from the board?
questions or comments from our attorney no mr chair questions or comments from the virtual
audience i see no means at this time too okay planning commission thank you chair keith davis
planning commission right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth yes i do please proceed thank you the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning
and dislocation from RM1, residential multifamily, to RSA5, residential single family.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that would
prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code.
A 2020 zoning ordinance passed by city council, which regulated short-term rentals, did not
change the basic rule prohibiting full-time use of a dwelling unit as a short-term rental.
this type of absentee management where the owner does not live in the unit has been illegal since
the four first short-term rental zoning regulations became effective in 2015 but what's changed is the
passage of the 2020 ordinance that there is now a licensing and enforcement mechanism the city
planning commission recommends that the board deny the proposed use variance for visitor accommodations
Mr. Consul, I'm going to hold the vote on this until the 23rd on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
Just want to sit and talk in the executive session about where we want to be with this, okay?
Thank you, Mr. Consul, and thank you to your client.
Okay, let's go back to number 5, MI 2024-007-282-10784 Lockhart Road.
Ann Siegel.
Ann Siegel has been promoted to panelists.
Ms. Siegel?
Ann Siegel, please accept the promotion to become a panelist.
can you hear me i i can now thank you um could you put your video turn your video on please
I can now. Thank you. Could you
turn your video on, please?
Change
way. Oh, start my video.
Okay, I see you now. The program has delays,
I guess. Could you state your name and spell for the
stenographer? My name is Ian Siegel,
a n n e s e a g a l do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do have you sent on all your documents that you needed to send five days in advance
yes why don't you start your presentation and i've read i've read before the the you know
this is application and convert existing interior parking space required all street parking space
removed an existing two-family semi-detached structure no plan review associated with this
application one all street parking space is required per unit in the rta zoning district
whereas two spaces are required and none are proposed so why don't you start your presentation
yeah um in 2021 uh i received the violation um can you see my screen no no why don't you try to
present your screen i'm sorry i i joined the meeting different way uh the first meet um i had
a year ago, I believe.
I was waiting for
the chance
to represent my case and everything was
fine. But I would send the link
from the ZBA.
So I joined the meeting room
and everything was fine.
Do me a favor. Why don't you share
your screen now? Share
the documents that you have in your computer.
I am trying to go
online and unfortunately for some reason I because I joined the meeting not through the
link that was supposed to send to me by mail but by myself through the regular
online tool. Ms. Siegel this is Ian Hegarty the director do you see a green button at the bottom
Yes, yes, yeah, can I, okay.
That's the button you should use to share your documents.
Have them open first, and then when you click the button,
you'll see an option to select an application window.
Select that window that has your document open.
I click yes.
Thank you.
You're coming up, you're coming up, I think.
Share, yes.
I see application window, application window.
share okay it's different program so it's different for me and i'm first time
online can you see my screen that's okay you're doing great i want you to start that over though
and just share that pdf document that you i think it was the third option on your screen there
okay so i i submitted all the documents so i'm gonna start with violation i guess this is what
What we need you to do is to stop sharing and then go back and instead of sharing the, because what we see right now is the window of your files.
We need to see the Adobe program so that we can see the actual files.
Thank you.
The actual files.
So just click stop sharing.
Stop sharing.
Click this button.
it's a little okay stop sharing i apologize no need to apologize it's your first time it's okay
your screen sharing and there is a little button i'm trying to push and okay
okay okay pause now it's good no I'm sorry remove remote access webinar share it only
has okay it only has the option to share uh-huh no no Jesus how about now can you see me now
Yeah. So the first thing we need you to do is there should be a bar at the top and one of the there's a red button that says stop sharing.
So that's the first thing you need to do. OK, stop sharing. Oh, yeah, I see now. Yeah, perfect.
OK. And then you have your documents open. Right. So go to share and then click in the application windows.
You should see not the file folder, but the documents themselves. I think those showed up before.
so try that again
so try that again okay i'm so recording you
okay um
no the program is just i can see the faces i i'm i'm sorry i i i thought i would be able to
show my documents it's not a lot but um uh the program is just i don't know webinar
hi do you gallery speaking
show meeting can i do it by the phone maybe um
so so miss sheagle yes so i think what we're going to have to do is
second time it's second time we are continuing okay so we're going to wind up continuing this
and i think what you need to do is to be in touch with the office here and other people who can help
you share your documents okay i mean so what i'm saying what i'm saying is let not know the next
time you've practiced you know what you're doing i don't have time to practice because i have a
sketch, I have settlement with the attorney already after the
first appeal was continuous.
If you can email them to me, I could share them for the board.
I did email zoning board, all the documents in the PDF.
Are you are you open to emailing them to me right now? I don't
have access to the file at the moment. But if you email them
to me, I will be able to share.
um if it's continual when the another appeal gonna be
because the agreement i signed with attorney uh he only gave me 180 days uh that i have to produce
all the documents which i did i thought i would be able to share it but my appeal was from 2021
beginning so
you know how many years
I'm waiting for that
do you understand my frustration
and it's only
simple issue I was
I was issued the violation
so my husband
ex-husband now
you move the garage door
and they put the wall and this is what
I'm dealing with
but Mr. Siegel we're
trying our best and I think he
he offered it i understand your frustration but if you think you can if you can't send him your
documents right now then we're gonna have to continue it okay uh could you give me a little
time or can you review another um um this is the last case this is our last case
and i bypass you once to go to somebody else um uh do i have to hire the person
i don't i don't i don't i don't i'm not telling you to hire anybody you don't have to hire somebody
that can give you some instructions on how to do it i would tell you that if you call the office
here there will be somebody who can talk to you who can give you an idea of how to do it okay i
already called today three times okay and talked to someone and they told me everything going to
be fine and i would be able to do it that's why but but listen to me i understand your frustration
i assume when you called you said you had your documents they thought you could do it
so how would i email do do i have email address so i can uh grab all these documents and uh email
him as attachment would you like my email address yes it's matthew.webster at phila.gov i put it in
the chat i can spell it for you if you need chat room chat room okay let's just chat room
chat okay i see chat can i copy like that mess you can i copy it now
john report i'm sorry i'm just when i'm nervous i have like a panic attack whatever
We don't want you to panic.
I know, but William Webster, Webster, that one.
Okay, I give up.
I see a lot of names, but Webster.
So I think what we need to do.
I only see Jasmine Webster, and that's it.
Can you open the chat?
Yeah, I opened the chat.
on my right on my right i see a bunch of the names and um mute okay chad jasmine webster
okay chat jasmine webster you don't have to you don't have to i see you don't have to
chat to me i've sent you my email in the chat so you're gonna you should he's saying to you
if you could email your documents to him he's going to put them on the screen for you but you
have to you have to email the documents email um how would they um i was just gonna copy his email
but I couldn't see his email
from the chat room
so you know
I'm sorry I probably have
different program it's just simple computer
windows so you know
I give up because
I don't see his I only see
his name so listen
I think what you need to do
is to practice a little bit and figure out
how to do this so the next time you'll be
prepared to do it and that way you won't say you're going to give up or anything like that
i don't so i mean you you know how to get it through to the office here we will make sure
that somebody at least gives you some instructions okay i try to get to the office but unfortunately
do my uh physical condition i cannot no i don't want you to go to the office i want you to call
them on the phone okay okay all right so now listen we're going to have to continue this
to September, September 17th at 2 p.m.
September?
So in June 2nd, I have to pay already fines.
So that's what the lawyer said.
I mean, I think if you got to pay the fine,
I think you tell them that you got this hearing
coming up in September.
That's what you tell them, okay?
And do you think the agreement I signed with the lawyer?
Whatever, you may want to talk to a lawyer.
you may want to talk to a lawyer who's done this before
he can at least tell you how to get into the
computer. No, the lawyer
from the city, from the ZBA
he called me and he gave me 180
dates to
settle it, you know, unless
if I will not
I'm sorry, I stumble because I'm
nervous. I usually speak better.
So I'm going to be penalized
It will be September
17th at 2 o'clock
we're going to bring the case back
And I would say even if you get a chance, notice the councilman's in favor of what you want to do.
If you call the councilman's office, you know, he has people in his office who maybe have give you some instructions on how to do the computer.
No, I know how to do computer.
She didn't send me the link that I requested.
All right.
We're going to continue to September 17th at two o'clock.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called?
I see no more hints at this time, too.
Thanks, everybody.
We're getting done at a reasonable time.
I felt sorry for the last woman, but I think we tried to do the best we could.
Thank you all.
Good night.
See you, Michael.
Take care.
Thanks.
Bye-bye.