are already multifamily.
the community group saw that
and I believe want to make
that block multifamily
um multi-family i can't speak for them i can only relate as to what i understood and they're
I can't speak for them
I can only relate as to what I
certainly an overwhelming support of this use okay thank you mi2022 004 800 2638 north 11 street
i vote yes thomas holliman my vote is no
james snell my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you counsel number nine
thank you mr chairman okay mi 2022 004 844 2003 south 70 joseph vaquero is the attorney
letter of support from the 7th street community civic association with the proviso use of
basement limited to storage trash and mechanicals letter of non-opposition from councilman squilla
mr vaccaro can you please raise your virtual hands
he's coming back in as a panelist now
good afternoon can you see me i can could you state your name please and spell for the court
reporter good afternoon joseph vaccaro v-a-c-c-a-r-o attorney for the applicant stephen
lozzo okay do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes, I do.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed all the required documents to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did.
with the with the exception of i'm sorry um uh last week my client was still having some
difficulty obtaining the tax clearance certificate but we did check and there were no outstanding
taxes on this property but we still don't have the formal uh tax clearance certificate
um i think we might we may have it already um please proceed and share your screen
sure thank you very much
Mr. Loazzo had purchased the property in 2020, September 18th of 2020, and he had purchased it as a duplex.
By way of history, this property was converted into a duplex some 20 years ago as two apartments, a first-floor apartment and a two-floor apartment consisting of the second and third floors.
Mr. Loiseau had purchased the property on September of 2020.
He made approximately $120,000 worth of renovations to it.
If I could show you the photographs.
Can you see the photographs of the apartment?
Not yet.
can you see that now yes okay so here's the first floor apartment
kitchen bathroom
living spaces
and then we have the second floor apartment here's the back
so they're very similar apartments except for again the the second and third floor
the second and third floor being one apartment and then there being a another apartment on the
first floor uh the reason for the refusal is that this was cmx2 and uh with this cmx2 there was a
commercial use required on the first floor but this building has been used in this fashion
for a very very long time and that's why the rco took that into account and gave us
the support. By way of history, there was also some neighboring properties at 2007
and 2005. The two immediate properties next to this one are in similar circumstances
and also 2013. And it's our understanding that all three of those properties had obtained
those variances. I could just show you the poster on the building.
i could just show you the poster on the building
can't seem to locate that but i put the poster up on the building right before christmas
um at this point i would like to promote stephen lozo the owner of the of the property
don't worry do we have proof of posting
yes we are all set thank you thank you yes it wasn't provided thank you i'm sorry i just
couldn't hear i just said it was provided mr vicaro you're all set okay thank you
at this point i would just like to promote mr loiseau
Mr. Wiseau please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
I could you please
I apologize thank you
Sure could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Yes Stephen Loasso
S-T-E-P-H-E-N
Space L-O-I-S-E-A-U
Right do you swear or affirm
Tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Proceed counsel
Thank you Mr. Wiseau
have you heard my presentation to the board it was a bit saggy but yes i'm sorry the sound wasn't
wasn't too good um on my end not your end but yes okay i'm sorry so uh you bought the building
in 2020 and you bought it in this con under these circumstances with the first floor apartment and a
two-floor apartment consisting of the second and third floors correct okay and it's your
understanding that this building has been like that for a very long time at least 20 years at
least correct and um what did you what did you do to the building after you bought it i um put in
um updates to both of the units um consisting of a large amount of capital expenditures for flooring
meaning um utilities and pretty much everything inside added in central air
okay um Mr. Lazo uh do you have anything else to add um nothing at the time okay and you certainly
didn't subdivide this building correct no okay thank you did he adopt your testimony Mr. Vaccaro
he he said that he said that my testimony was a little didn't come in too clearly
on this okay fine thank you all right questions from the board no mr chairman
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair by planning commission thank you chair bergman members of the board
david vector with the city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning
at this location to residential multi-family under that zoning the proposed use as a duplex
would be allowed the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed variance
for two dwelling units thank you mi 2022 004 844 2003 7th street i vote yes with proviso use of
basement limited to storage trash and mechanicals thomas halliman my vote is yes with proviso
James Snell, my vote is yes
with proviso
Mr. Mel Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso
Thank you, counsel
Thank you, that concludes my business
Thank you, thank you very much
Number 10, MI
004-859
Brandywine Street
Brian Anastasio is the attorney
Letter of support from Spring Garden
civic association
mr anastasio can you raise your hand
he's coming back in as a panelist now
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Hi, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court reporter?
It's Vern, V-E-R-N, Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, 2016 Spruce, Philadelphia, 19103.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yep, I represent Mr. Jafar Malecki, who is the...
Yep, I represent Mr. Jafar Malecki, who is the owner of the property.
All right, and our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon, sir.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed all the documents required to hear this case five days in advance to this hearing?
I have. Thank you. Please proceed and show your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. 2001 Brandywine Street is a property. It's a corner property where we're looking to legalize a four-family dwelling. This is the property in question.
for a very long time. This property was two separate commercial spaces. The commercial
spaces, the commercial tenants, the commercial activity there was, to say the least, not
welcomed by the neighbors. They longed for the day where this would become a commercial property.
So as you can see here is the first floor door.
We have a door on the side here that goes upstairs.
Here, here's the plans.
Here's the ground floor level by Unit 1A.
In the front, it's 453 square foot, one bedroom apartment.
It is already divided interior-wise with a load-bearing wall.
So there is one small would be one small studio in the rear of 290 square feet.
We have an existing third unit, which is approximately 600 square feet. That's two bedrooms.
And see if I could zoom out here.
And here's the here's the existing second unit, which I skipped, which also is about 575 square feet.
Again, it's a two bedroom unit and it exists currently.
We met on several a couple of occasions with the Spring Garden Neighbors Association, Patricia Freeman and her committee.
we entered into a community benefits agreement that the RCO has asked us to make some upgrades
to the exterior of the property. We have no problem doing so. Here's the interior as it
exists. Here are proof of separate meters, water heaters, electric meters, separate gas meters.
photos of the upstairs units.
Here we are with an aerial again right on the corner on what is primarily a residential
There is one commercial space across the street.
Also included in my exhibit packet is the deed, the actual application for appeal.
We have the letter that was sent out to all interested parties.
Total 128 individual households was mailed.
Under separate cover, I've already sent a proof of posting and a tax clearance good until the end of February.
We do have the support, the unanimous support of the immediate neighbors.
My client has demonstrated that he'll be lighting up the property at night.
and also adhering to a trash plan that was satisfactory to the community.
Mr. Anastasio, this is Hillary. Can you show the tax clearance because I don't have a record
that we received it. Can you pull it up on the screen please? Thank you.
what i'm going to do is stop sharing what i have here and then i'll share the tax clearance
it came in kind of late and we can already see it yep we saw you saw already yep yep
oh cool thank you i didn't know you could just resend that that would be great it didn't come
through for some reason. No worries. Yep. Yep. Thank you. So with that, because of the history
of the property, because it's a primarily residential neighborhood that the neighbors
a primarily residential neighborhood that the neighbors would like to see the property be fully
would like to see the property be.
residential because we've entered into a community benefits agreement with the spring garden folks
to upgrade and maintain what's there and to make it better i respectfully request the granting of
this variance and with that i'd like mr jafar malecki to raise his hand and be recognized
do we see his hand
he did text me that he's on first name is jafar j-a-f-a-r last name m-a-l-e-k-i
uh i see no one by that name with their hand up
Okay, so, Vern, you're an officer of the court. Your testimony's fine.
Thank you.
Vern, one question. The Supreme Garden Civic Associate, what was the vote?
It was unanimous, and I believe there's somebody here.
Patricia Freeman did say that someone from their group was going to vote.
Okay, thank you. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair we have justino navarro mr navarro you can mute yourself and wait for the chair
uh good afternoon could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
justino navarro j-u-s-t-i-n-o-n-a-v-a-r-r-r-a
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, sir.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
My name is Justino, and I just wanted to comment and reiterate the Spring Garden Civic Association's support and the zoning committee, of which I am a representative of both, for the application as presented by Mr. Anastasio today.
The two properties, the two units, commercial units, have been a nuisance in the neighborhood for quite some time.
And neighbors were unanimously agreeable to the conversion of those two commercial units to its zoned use as residential and welcome the additional improvements that the Civic Association has been able to negotiate with Mr. Maliki for compatible improvements with the Spring Garden Historic District.
So for that reason, we are in support of the project and would urge the board to approve so accordingly.
Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for your call. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Albert Tauss. Mr. Tauss, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter?
my name is albert taus i am uh also an owner of the property again my name albert taus spelled t-a-u-s
all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do proceed thank you mr taus did you hear my presentation to the board this
this afternoon i did is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge
perfect do you adopt and do you adopt it as your own testimony yes thank you mr taus i was not
expecting to call on you but i'm glad you're there because uh mr jafar has just texted me
saying he's having technical difficulties so thank you all right is there anyone else in the virtual