I removed his.
When you were applied for your rental license, did anyone suggest to you that anything about
the zoning or was that did anyone suggest that there there had been a lapse in a and uh rental
licenses prior to your purchasing purchasing this no sir so again we we contend that it was a rental
of of a single family on whole not a multi-family well but he got a rental license for for two
multi-family for two units well i mean i i don't see any record i mean so if i mean i didn't see
the same records that mr rotor found i mean i'm looking on atlas with all the zoning stuff and
it does i didn't see any record of those permits i'm not saying they're not there or there's
an issue with this i'm you know i'm just saying it didn't show up with the regular search let's
finish from the owner thank you actually it shows two units on the um display the permit on on the
current one yes yeah and and and i will i will add so i i went back to uh you know to obviously
i submitted these uh these photos over uh to you guys i think almost a month ago um but on the
physical property itself so this is the property in question here and i just took this picture to
show you that all of these um properties in these rows are all um you know set up as multi-family
properties um they all you know and there are other multi-family property existing you know
just a house over from this one down the block um from my property so uh i don't it kind of
baffled me that we need uh first to you know to get a variance which um you know it's it's a
discussion i i i can't believe that we're even having um but uh for the property itself we have
you know, separate meters in the, you know, for this property, you know, we have the tenant
upstairs have their own electric, this unit downstairs have their own electric, and it goes
the same thing for gas. As you can see, some of these appliances are very old. I believe the date
on some of these dates all the way back into the 60s, you know, for this property. So as it
currently stands, and that is the, you know, as it is built, this property is built, to my knowledge,
as a multifamily, which obviously was what informed, in addition to the legal documentation
that the previous owner had, you know, informed my decision to purchase the property.
So I'm hoping I can keep this property as a multifamily.
I've already, you know, closed on this deal.
I've already, you know, have a mortgage set up for this and everything, you know, to appeal
this and move this back will be obviously detrimental on my end and also to the tenants
that I have.
That's why I said what I said at the beginning, and that's not what we're necessarily after.
here we understand that i understand i appreciate your hard work i know what it's like to do
remapping but uh you know i'm not going to be critical of the process there may be some
obviously some issues there but i think that's going to be for another time and another place
uh any questions from the board
no no anyone else wish to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hands up okay planning commission
um pardon me leonard reuter for the law department it's no plan it's an appeal against
l and i so that's right i'm sorry planning's not right thank you thank you uh confessor i
I had it and I lost my stuff
I need the
MI number
MI 2020-000
Arthur Street
Having read that in
my vote is to deny the appeal
Appeal denied
Appeal denied
Appeal denied
Thank you
Thank you everyone
okay um thank you thank you good luck to you uh i think we go now we go to our regular uh
our regular list yes okay mi 2020-001288 5610 lancaster avenue
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
How are you?
Mr. Bertil, please identify yourself, name and address, spell your name for the sonographer.
Steve Bertil, B-E-R-T-I-L, addresses 1835 Market Street, Suite 1400, zip code 19103.
You're swearing a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, for nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
You agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans five days prior to this
hearing? Yes to all of the above. Okay. Have you met with the RCO and have a letter? We have and
we do. Thank you. Please proceed. Thank you. I'm going to share my screen.
okay uh good afternoon again mr chairman the members of the board um as i stated my name
is steve bertill i'm representing the uh applicant for uh this uh referral for special exception
and a variance request for a refuse whatever you're entered for 5610 Lancaster Avenue.
With me, I have Sean Johnson, who is an authorized representative of the owner and
prospective tenant from Security Vault Works. I'll call him at the end of my testimony to affirm
and adopt my testimony. As you can see here, the property in question is, well, I should start
to say what we're here, the special exception relief that we're requesting is to allow for
the erection of a drive-through automatic teller machine kiosk and for the reduction of 10 parking
spaces in an existing accessory surface parking lot, bringing a new total of the parking spaces
to 160 spaces down from 170.
As I stated, the property in question is 5610 Lancaster Avenue.
You can see a zoning area of the map here.
The property is currently zoned as CMX3, commercial mix use.
Although, as I'll see in a second, the use of the property is actually more in line with
CA-1 or CA-2, any auto-oriented commercial because it's more or less a strip mall.
The main frontage of the property is actually along 56th Street, which is here, although
the address is Lancaster Avenue, and it sits between Lancaster Avenue to the north and
Haddington Lane to the south.
um it's currently photos here here's the area of the parking lot area that's in question where we
will be we're proposing to have our installation of the the uh atm kiosk um so you get a sense from
street view. This is a photo of the parking lot standing on 52nd Street, looking towards
the parking lot here. This just gives you a sense of the commercial uses that will currently
be there. As I said, known as Overpool Plaza, this is entirely commercial for the most part.
There is no mixed use on this property.
Here's another shot of the area that we're referring to.
This is another shot along 52nd Street and it's a standing within the parking lot along
the spaces that we're proposing for the reduction to be in the installation.
As I said, the parking lot is currently 170 spaces.
Lot size is about 165,000 square feet, including all the commercial spaces.
All right, so the proposed installation, as I said, is going to be along 56th Street along
Along the 10 parking spots that run perpendicular to the 56th Street sidewalk, as you can see here, we have the stacking lane running parallel to 52nd Street and then re-entering back into the drive-through lane of the parking lot.
the 10 parking spots that run perpendicular
The kiosk structure will include lighting. There's existing lighting, as you can see,
in terms of a light bulb, but it'll include additional lighting in addition to the street
lighting and the cameras that are located within the kiosk, but also within the ATM itself.
So you get a sense of the dimensions of the physical ATM itself.
and here is just some renderings within the context of the parking lot of what the
ATM kiosk structure would look like. Now we met with the community group
and receive um support for the community group i will be met with them on august 18th the
community group is overbrook west neighbors cdc and here is
letter of support that we received from overbrook west neighbors or own um as they are known
In addition to the letter, you'll see that their meeting summary report is here below.
Here's them indicating their support and their support for this project. There was no opposition
at the meeting or have not heard any opposition since our presentation from any of the new
neighbors. Now, in terms of the referral and the refusal that we have,
just scroll up so you can take a look at the referral. So the first thing that we have is
the referral that was issued for the use of, for the use in the property. Because the lot is
zoned in CMX 3, there is a referral for the drive-throughs, and they require a special
exception. Now, although a special exception does not require showing of a hardship, I would like to
highlight again that this property, although it was a commercial mixed-use district,
is primarily intended to accommodate auto-oriented commercial districts. So this use is actually
more in line with CA use, which would be allowable by right, and therefore this drive-through
referral would not have been issued. Secondly, we have a refusal for the stacking lanes.
due to the setback of the actual lane in the kiosk.
Now, we're set back for over 20 feet from every lot line except for 56th Street,
the lot line that runs adjacent to that.
So one main consideration for the stacking lane setback typically is the impact on traffic lanes
adjacent to that lane, typically the street that you're turning off of.
here will have no impact on the the turn in lanes from 50 seconds for 56th because as i said before
the the entrance and the exit from the stacking lane is the existing drive through
or thoroughfare of the parking lot in addition to that
um let me go to the aerial so you can see the parking lot again in addition to
That, as you can see, the existing parking lot has a green space medium there which prevents
us from actually setting back 20 feet from the property line because we would then lose
double the amount of parking spaces that we're losing now.
Right now we're only losing 10.
We would have to lose parking spaces on both sides to be able to even fit the proper dimension
drive-through lane for the ATM kiosk. In addition to that, we would negatively impact the parking
needs of the existing tenants of this strip mall. As such, we're restricted into which
we're restricted into which parking spots we can lose for this installation and therefore to not
parking spots we can lose for this installation.
impact the thorough lanes of the parking the distant parking lot not to remove additional
parking spaces and to not negatively impact the existing tenants in the structure um we believe
that the the location that we uh we have chose for the installation is the best location that
makes the most sense and as does has a minimal impact and therefore request the variance for
that approval. Thank you. Do you have any witnesses? Yeah, I have Mr. Sean Johnson who
from security vault walks, they'll be doing the installation, but he's also the authorized
representative of the owner being the authorized letter we submitted. So if he's here, if he could
raise his hand. We'll get them all on record so we can adopt your testimony. Right.
Mr. Johnson, if you could raise your hand so Ms. Sunken can recognize you.
No hands.
No hands are up.
Mr. Bertil, as an officer of the court, we'll stipulate that your client would adopt your
testimony.
Any questions from the board?
no no no anyone else wish to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
we have gregory allen gregory you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
mr allen please identify yourself with the record your name and address spell your name
Gregory Allen, 6361 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19151.
You're swearing to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Thank you, sir. Please proceed.
So as Mr. Bertel said, we met with the community.
We are the RCO, and we are in full support, or at least no opposition.
This plaza has been a very active commercial corridor.
So in addition to being the RCO, we are the Commerce Department commercial corridor manager for Lancaster Avenue.
And the commercial space here and the corridor has seen an influx of business.
And so this is a perfect use for that.
And we're pretty excited to be like Chase Bank's first prototype for this project.
And then finally, in addition, those parking spaces that will be lost are rarely parked in because they border the 56th Street side of the parking lot.
Most of the business happens on the entire opposite side of the plaza, and people don't park there because they'd have to walk clear across the plaza.
So there's really no negative impact to the plaza or to the community.
Thank you, Mr. Allen. Thank you for taking the time to be here today.
You're welcome, Mr. Allen.
Anyone else would like to testify in this case? Please raise your hand.
no hands at this time thank you uh planning commission
uh good afternoon uh chairman members of the board ian litwin planning commission staff
i swear you in they swear to firm it's all truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do thank you please proceed okay i'm sorry um could we provide the spelling
oh sorry it's ian litwin l-i-t-w-i-n thank you uh the applicant has demonstrated the granting
of a special exception will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood
beyond that which might normally be expected from the proposed use accordingly we have no objection
to granting a special exception in addition we have no opposition to granting the variance for
location of the drive-thru stacking lanes. Thank you very much. MI-2020-001288-5610
Lancaster Avenue. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. All right. Good
up. Thank you members of the board that concludes my business. Thank you. Next one up is MI 2020-000-889-3929
Bridge Avenue.
We have Alan Nockamson.
Mr. Nockamson, please identify yourself with a record.
Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
My name is Alan Nockamson of Nockamson PC, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia
PA 19109. We're going to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Thank you. So you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior to
this hearing? I have. Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter? We are in the process of
planning a meeting with them. So we would like to present this matter today, hold it
for advisement, and then have a supplemental hearing 30 days from the date
of today's hearing, if possible.