Thank you.
21 okay good morning everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this meeting of
the philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our board vice chair tenetta graham president
mr chairman our board secretary cheryl l gaston present mr chairman board member michael johns
present mr chairman board member tayo winn mr chairman and our board member ryan mcadams
president mr chairman also present is our attorney hillary emerson our zoning board
director ian haggerty and our board administrator lakeisha dandy recording of this hearing will be
posted on the zba website by participating you agree 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 you can identify
the case property address on your zoom webinar registration you can see a staff member or you
can call the ZBA appearance line by the close of business tomorrow. Call 267-270-5548. Leave a
message that includes your email address and the address of the property of the appeal case.
The following guidance is for our remote attendees. First, when directed, you must
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So let's look at our schedule for this morning.
Number one, MI 2024, 006, 02, 14,000, Busselton Avenue.
Vernon Anastasio is the attorney.
I think there's a request for a continuance.
Good morning, Chair.
This is Jason Handel.
I will be your calls for the session.
on the stage so it's been about to speak okay good morning mr chair could you please state
your name and spell for the stenographer yes sir it's verne anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o
do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do burn we need an update on this case yeah uh the my client passed away uh and that the property
He then is now in the hands of his, I guess, successor, and I'm working with that person
and the RCO to sort of put this case back on track.
So my apologies for the delay, but I do, in fact, need another continuance.
Vern, this has been going on since 24, and we've never had an RCO meeting, am I right?
That's correct.
My client was very ill and then passed.
But if you want to mark this must be heard, that's fine.
So what we want to do with this, Vern, is we're going to dismiss the case,
but they're going to waive the two-year rule.
Okay, so I could reapply.
Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
That's great.
Thank you.
Wait on, Vern, because I think I have another one for you.
You do.
Right?
So MI 2024-006-402, 14,000 Busselton Avenue, I voted this.
402 14 000 busselton avenue i vote to dismiss would a proviso waive the two-year rule thank you
michael johns my vote is to dismiss with proviso cheryl gaston my vote is to dismiss with proviso
tenetta graham my vote is to dismiss with proviso brian mcadams my vote is to dismiss with proviso
my vote is to dismiss with proviso and vernon we also have mi2025-006-85-11920
waldemere drive um um this is we had this is the third listing have we had a rco meeting
we have one uh on the books for next month but we do not have one right now all right all right
So what I'll do is I'll continue this one, but it's going to be Mark Must Be Heard, okay?
That'll be fine.
Thank you.
So MI 2025-000685-1192, Waldemere Drive.
That case is continued to May 6th at 9.50 a.m.
Thank you.
It must be heard, Mr. Chair.
Must be heard.
Must be heard.
Thank you.
Must be heard.
Yeah, thank you.
Number two, 1433 South Dover Street, that's MI 2024-006-543.
Raymond D'Arizio is the attorney.
They've been allowed to speak, sir.
Yes, good morning.
Good morning, counsel.
Could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
Yes, Raymond D'Arizio.
My last name is spelled D-O-R-I-Z-I-O.
and i'm here on 1433 uh south dover all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes would you please give me an update on where this case stands yes
thank you so we we did have one rco meeting i believe in the in the fall in 2025 um i'm just
seeking one more continuance to try to get this matter resolved as far as you know what direction
the uh applicant will be going as far as the project if he's going to either withdraw or
so so uh mr derizio what we're going to do with this is the same thing we're going to dismiss this
case and to waive the two-year rule this has been hanging around since 24 okay understood
all right thank you so mi 2024 006 543 1433 south dover street i vote to dismiss and proviso waive
two-year rule michael johns my vote is to dismiss with proviso cheryl gaston my vote is to dismiss
with proviso tenetta graham my vote is to dismiss with proviso i am again excuse me ryan mcadams
my vote is to dismiss with proviso hi i win my vote is to dismiss with proviso number six am i
you 20 thank you mr council have a good day all right number six mi 2025 001 549 4837 brown street
christopher dean is the attorney this is the second listing
um mr chair i've i've been in touch with mr dean um and there's a uh property transfer occurring
with with this matter um so if this could be continued again that would be great thank you
all right okay so mr so he he's already called you and talked to you yes okay all right so so
mi2025-001-549-4837 to 49 brown street this case is continued till may 6th at 9 30 a.m
number nine
number nine MI 2025 002 853 633 636 Kerper Street this case has been continuing to May 6th at 9 30 a.m
number 15
MI-2025-006-069-533 High Street. This case is continued until May 6th at 9.30 a.m.
Mr. Chair, that's actually a withdrawal.
Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. You're right. So MI-2025-006-069-533 High Street.
two oh five zero zero six zero six nine five thirty three high street this case has been withdrawn
thank you are there any other requests for continuance
chair i do not see any hands raised thank you we're going to go to our first
chair i do not see any hands raised thank you
first yeah our add-ons um
so number one are our add-ons 20 25 000 437 454 delmar street i vote no
Michael Johns, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tynetta Graham, my vote is no.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is no.
Tywin, my vote is no.
What's that?
This is a vote only, sir.
We're not having any conversations about the cases.
You can contact the office.
thank you well why don't you go in the back and find out they'll give it to you okay right number
two mi 2025 001 542 13 17 south 54 street i vote yes with proviso maximum two dwelling units
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso charl gadsden my vote is yes with proviso
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Number three, MI 2025-003-876-866, Medway Road, I vote no.
Michael Johns, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is no.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is no.
Tywin, my vote is no.
Number four, MI2025-0006299, 3435 North 3rd Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Tywin, my vote is yes.
We're going to go to our regular list.
Number 14, MI 2025-005-990-1023 Orthodox Street.
Carmen Alberto Ramos is the Jose owner.
chair i do not see any hands raised they're in the audience here okay thank you
um do we have an interpreter uh in the audience
i believe we do
yes good morning chair how are you good morning my name is joshua and i'll be your spanish
interpreter my id is d as in delta x as in x rate 156 how may i help you um but you uh first of all
state your name is spelled for the stenographer yes your honor my name is joshua it's j-o-s-u-e
and my last name is a-r-r-e-a-g-a all right do swear or affirm that you will interpret accurately
completely and partially from english to spanish and from spanish to english to the best of your
ability i do all right could you please call for us carmen alberto valrado ramos please
that's me okay um and then could you have her state her name and spell for the stenographer
decir su nombre completo para deletrearlo al estenógrafo muy buenos días primeramente a todos
mi nombre es carmen isabel alvarado ramos vivo en el 1023 ortodo street philadelphia pennsylvania
191 24 cuarzo la propietaria de la casa ok disculpeme solamente en el nombre me dijo
carmen isabel alvarado ramos verdad carmen con c c isabel is i-s-a-b-e-l
c alvarado con b de victor y ramos s-r-a-m-o-s correcto
okay so my name is carmen isabel alvarado ramos carmen is spelled c-a-r-m-e-n isabel is i-s-a-b
as in boy e l a alvarado a l v as in victor a r a
a alvarado a l v as in victor a r a d o ramos r a m o s
all right thank you then could you please state do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth
okay you said afirma y jura decir la verdad solamente la verdad y nada más que la verdad
yes okay so just so you know i'm going to i'm going to read a some refusals out for you i'll
go slow repeat you do it and then i'll continue after you get it okay so this application is for
the enclosure rear deck and the erection of a six foot high front fence
okay entonces vamos a leerle ciertos rechazos verdad el día de hoy vamos a ir despacio entonces
Esta aplicación es para el cierre de la parte trasera del patio con la erección de una cerca de seis pies alta.
La parte del patio no puede ser cerrada por paredes o techo encima del espacio utilizable.
nor may it be enclosed by walls below the usable surface of the deck
whereas stairs from the ground level to the deck are permitted except in the case of an attached
building where steps from the ground to the deck are prohibited
any fence located nearer to the lot line than required building setback
or the actual distance of the building from the lot line
whichever is greater shall be no more than four feet in height
de estas que sea mayor no puede ser más de cuatro pies en altura. And no more than 50% opaque.
No puede ser más del 50% de opacidad. Whereas a height of six feet and an opacity of a hundred
percent proposed comparación a la la altura de seis pies y la opacidad del cien por del 100% que
fue propuesta the minimum rear yard deck in the residential district shall be nine feet whereas
only two feet ten inches is proposed el mínimo de un patio en sí como una instalación en el patio
la parte trasera en el distrito residencial solamente puede ser de mí de nueve pies mientras
que solamente dos pies y 10 pulgadas fueron propuestas and our vice chair has a few questions
la vice presidenta tiene unas preguntas um good morning have you submitted your documents and
exhibits five days in advance of this hearing buenos días usted si pudo entregar los documentos
y los exibidos cinco días de con mantelación a esta audiencia
yes gracias and the chair read your refusals so do you waive the reading of the refusals
and stipulate to their accuracy okay entonces el presidente le leyó los rechazos verdad usted
desestima la lectura del resto de rechazos y estipula la precisión de ahora
Okay, you can begin with your case.
We can start with your case, then.
My name is Carmen. I'm the owner of the 1023.
The property I have in front of my house is about 600 or 500, more or less.
yeah let him translate you can't go too far away so okay good
yeah let him translate you can't go too far on so okay good interpreter please
I'm taking notes of everything sir no worries
so my name is Carmen um and I am the owner of the 1023 property and I know the fence that I have in
my house you know it's because of the fence the six foot fence but I've had that six foot fence
since since 2020 i'm a housewife and i take care of my grandkid okay so why don't we do this can we
start putting into the right could you come up ask her partner to come up and turn on her computer
right and then start showing us what she has okay okay
and then as you testify you can like point out things to us from the computer okay
so i hope and
there you go it's coming up okay so why don't we do this we have all your
all of her documents, what she should do is go and show us photos or plans of the property.
So go ahead. Why don't you show us photos of the property and or plans?
Okay, that's the property there, so there's a fence in the front, is that what I'm saying
where the fence is in the front?
Okay, so why don't you tell us what you did there?
Okay, perfecto.
Entonces, esa es la propiedad, la que está resaltada ahí con el cursor.
Cuéntenos, por favor, qué es lo que usted hizo exactamente ahí.
so remember he he has to tell us so just just slow down a little bit okay go ahead sir
so yeah the thing is that like uh we installed that fence and around like april or may 2020 and
it's uh it's a like a very recurring place like in regards to traffic and i have my my small
grandson with me okay siempre salgamos frente a tomar sol en verano
interpreter okay so and it was my mistake but once i was wasn't paying attention and
he threw the ball to the like out on the street while he was playing
me di cuenta y me asusté demasiado entonces por eso porque decidí poner la pinta
okay so and the thing is that like the kid went to the street and i was so scared when i realized
that i was very very scared so that's why we decided to put the fence there all right
is there any other could you show us some other photos of the fence as she's talking please
las que de la cual usted no se está hablando
okay so
is that just an awning could you answer questions just is that an awning on top of the fence
y eso de ahí que que está que es lo que está encima del de la cerca es como un techito así
it's like a kiosk okay the ones that you can get at home depot yep keep going
the body I can't use a la fence I mean I see Toma segura cool con el nene
I saw gamma porque no lo yo ballo party pola inseguridad care ahora mismo
yeah I said I'm a recrear no
you show after that I decided to install the fence because of the baby and we
don't we don't go out to the parks or anything like that right now because of
all the insecurity that it's happening so that's our recreation area basically okay so yeah i know
let's see i'm trying to figure this one here too do you have photos of the rear
okay um
um okay could you tell us
could you tell us what what you did in the rear is that an addition you put on the house
factory on a fabric so yeah I did add it something like in the back of my house
but the thing is that there is like a factory you know like a warehouse behind
my house basically
so i started adding uh i started uh doing that because like before um it wasn't very populated
when we got the property you know so there was a lot of like mice raccoons bees like you know
a lot of garbage you know but now it's a little bit more populated
but it's an actual i mean theoretically this is this is an addition you put on the rear of the
house right yeah we could basically say that because i closed it out okay thank you um
Questions from the board.
So are there any other homes on the block that have enclosures or fence like you had in the front?
No, en mi bloc nada más soy yo, niño chiquito tengo yo, hay una vecina que tiene una bebé, pero ella lo tiene como en el de Kea, yo cuido a mi nieto yo, no tiene nadie, piensa grande.
well nobody else has that big fence only me because i only have like small kids that i
take care of rest of the people i think they do day
did you talk to any of your neighbors before you erected the fence
Can you speak with some of your neighbors before you stop?
My neighbors are all good people, I've never had a problem with them, even there was a
man who died, that was always going to help me, he was always going to be in the street,
well all my neighbors are good people you know i i used to talk with a lot of them and uh there
was actually one one guy that would like be outside you know and he would like just pass
in front of my fans he would like be cleaning and stuff and i would just like speak to him but
like nobody so far nobody complained about that nobody has said any
yeah one of my neighbors like one of my closest neighbors to me uh he actually uh made this letter
Okay. Any other questions?
okay um any other questions
I'm sorry. Who did the work for you? Was it a licensed contractor that did all your work?
well so i don't i'm not sure you know i don't i don't think i know that because honestly the guy
that did the work for me was recommended and you know it was it was wrong on my side not to like
really find out if he was certified or not but he he actually did it for me but then i did not know
that it was gonna be like something this serious because i i just got the complaints i didn't know
that i was like out of work michael so that's i was just you know this is so out of character
from the rest of the eight houses or 10 houses that are on that block.
The other fence that's on that block is about two foot high, maybe three foot.
And, you know, between this six foot high fence in the front and this addition on the back,
and I know we're not here for that, it just seems...
I think we are, Michael.
Oh, we are.
Yeah, Michael, it's one of the refusions.
Oh, it's one of the...
oh so it's the back and the front the rear yard is only two foot nine inches
okay yeah so i mean you you got a lot going on that's kind of just been done um so
it's it's all questionable so um so questions from our attorney yes
oh go ahead yeah go ahead sorry that was a lot no worries
no en en este caso yo pienso que eso de ahí pues está bastante fuera de carácter porque no del
resto de las ocho o diez casas que están en su bloque debido a que la otra la otra cerca que
estaba ahí mismo en el bloque más o menos está como a dos o tres pies de altura verdad pero
está aquí tiene seis pies de altura en la parte del frente si entonces añadiendo esto de de la
parte de atrás pues no o sea bueno nosotros sabemos que es una una de los rechazos verdad
entonces simplemente que el hecho de que todo lo que se ha hecho es bastante cuestionable
questions for attorney not at this time this question questions or comments from the virtual
audience i do not see any hands raised
position interpreter no hay ninguna pregunta ni más preguntas de parte de la abogada del comité
ni tampoco de la de los presentes
planning commission good morning chairman david facto f e c t e a u with the city planning
commission do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth with nothing but the truth
yes sir please proceed thank you sir um the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the rm1 residential multi-family zoning at this location
entonces la comisión de planeación muy buenos días el señor presidente le saluda david facto
de la comisión de planeación de la ciudad entonces el plan el plan completo recomienda
ningún cambio a esta residencia multifamiliar de esta zona en esta ubicación hasta el momento
this part of the neighborhood still carries its original 1933 zoning
in this part of the barrio todavía carga la zonalidad original desde 1933.
The appellant built a fence in their front yard and a rear deck without the benefit of
permits.
La appellante construyó una cerca en la parte del patio frontal y en la parte trasera
sin el beneficio de permisos.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the proposed dimensional variances
for the deck, the fence, and rear yard depth.
yard depth
So MI 2025-005-990
1023 orthodox street i vote no michael johns my vote is no
el señor el señor presidente dice que no el señor michael jones vota que no tampoco
cheryl gaston my vote is no
carol gaston no tenetta graham my vote is no
jennifer graham and bota que no ryan mcadams my vote is no ryan mcadams bota no tywin my vote is
no tywin vota que no all right well uh interpreter number one thank you for your good work as usual
and and we had a vote now i'm very sorry for you guys okay thank you all right
We're going to move to number 11, MI-2025-005-860-4529 Baltimore Avenue.
Vern Anastasia was the attorney.
And Interpreter, I think we're all set for today.
Thank you very much for your service.
Mr. Chair, they'll be back in shortly.
yeah give me one just this i'll finish this coffee thank you ma'am what kind of candy do you eat
verne good morning mr chair good morning um verne you've already been sworn in could you just state
your name and spell for the stenographer sure it's verne anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o on behalf
of mr dimitri corrales right and i notice we have a letter of non-opposition with provisos from
spruce hill community association correct our uh vice chair has a few questions good morning
morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the reading of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy
i do okay thank you you can show your screen and proceed with your case thank you
We're coming.
There it is.
4529 Baltimore Avenue.
I've got a 44-page exhibit packet that I'm going to put into evidence in addition to the letter of non-opposition with provisos from Spruce Hill Community Association.
This property is already zoned, CMX2.
The application is for a takeout restaurant.
My client wants to just do an ice cream shop with no interior seating whatsoever.
instead everything would be through a service window I'm sorry the takeout
windows would be right here where my cursor is and inside would just be for
staff. There's also a restroom for staff and some storage.
There's also a restroom for staff and some storage.
This is on a block that has considerable amount.
Here's the property in question.
Considerable amount of commercial activity.
There is an Ethiopian chicken restaurant right here.
There's a nail salon right here.
This is where the ice cream shop will be.
This will be the service window.
So right to the right of it is an Indian restaurant.
And then we have a large longstanding pharmacy on the 4,500 block of Baltimore Avenue.
So it's very commercial oriented.
Here's the space.
My client's been in the food industry for quite some time, different sorts of enterprises.
And he'd like to get this up and running so that for summer he's able to serve ice cream.
There's the rear of the property where the trash will be stored.
There's the letter that went out to all individual households.
97 households were mailed.
We actually had a pretty good turnout at the RCO meeting, which, as you know, there was a consensus to, in fact,
offer non-opposition with the provisos that there
be cold food service only, which is perfectly
fine with my client.
Hours of operation are going to be from about 11
a.m. to
6 p.m., but then later during the summer months, of course.
And with that, I'd like to bring it in Dimitri Corrales, if he could raise his virtual hand.
We do not expect that this use will have any greater impact than one might expect of an ice cream parlor.
it's a chair council i do not see that individual in the virtual one this morning no hands have been
raised very well mr chair i asked as a member of the bar you take my presentation we will questions
from the board okay so what are we going to do about uh trash and what have you from well any
takeout place has to have a trash receptacle out front um there's already one there but we'll have
one over here on the other side uh and that receptacle will come in at night and larger
bulk trash will be taken care of with commercial commercial trash pickup and is this takeout window
is it there now or are you going to be putting it in there's the window right there okay i mean it's
not a takeout window right now but it's a window that that was my question right you don't have it
now you're going to put it in yep okay and then how wide is this sidewalk i mean are people going
to be uh getting this ice cream and walking away or you think they're going to loiter or how is
this going to work well i think it's the general consensus that people everyone hopes people hang
out right that's the whole idea of restaurants places like this that there's street activity
there's sidewalk activity um but there will be no tables or chairs
okay all right and um i wasn't sure if this is sort of like sidewalk cafes in that you need some
sort of streets department um approvals um we don't you don't because it's a takeout window
and you're not going to have seating on the street is that why that's correct yep ah okay
All right. Thank you. Yeah. There will also be there also be, by the way, lighting and cameras out front for safety.
OK, thank you. What's driving the decision to have the takeout window at the facade instead of have customers come in and create a vestibule where they can do takeout inside the building itself?
um i think convenience he just he'd rather uh have the window because he thinks that's going
to be better for for business uh it again it is is not unlike the coffee shop that i brought to
you on emerald street last week and the pops bun shop uh in bella vista that i brought to you
about eight months ago.
The window model is one that is increasingly something
increasingly something that takeout places are embracing because it seems to work better than
that takeout places are embraced.
asking people to go into a facility. It could be because of the post-COVID concerns about
germs and contamination, but that just seems to be where we're trending.
Yeah. I mean, I think the difference is Pops is on a corner and this is not on a corner. It's an
interior space I just know looking at a few of the other ice cream shops that in the city that
have done this I think of Weckerleys on uh on Gerrard Avenue I think of the one that's now
on the other side of Gerrard at 28th Street and like in the height of summer I think of Fairmount
Flavors and Fairmount and there's always these like you know 10 to 15 person lines outside of
the ice cream shops that are blocking the entrances or blocking the sidewalk whereas like
Like we talked about now in the fall, there's not really much activity.
But when you're talking about like height of season, it becomes something that overflows
what's already a kind of narrow sidewalk and there's not a lot of businesses on that side
of or that stretch of Baltimore that kind of have that type of sidewalk activity.
And so I am a little concerned about congestion without having any option for people to go
inside? Well, the plan is for them to queue to the left in front of the nail and hair salon here.
So let's hope there is 10 or 15 people in line at some time, but that's the plan. And
I think the street activity is exactly what is attractive about this. The sidewalk activity is
is what's attractive here and does your client have a plan to manage the line if it starts to
block the wheelchair access ramp yes uh yeah we don't want to be in angelo's right and make the
news because uh folks who are online causing issues so yeah we've already talked about that
and and he's going to be making sure that that is he's he's running this place uh and he's going to
make sure of that and he's going to be working as a active member of spruce hill uh you know
he's going to be working with them as well on it okay questions for our attorney um vern just to
confirm so this is just on the ground floor and possibly the basement as well of the structure
it looks like it there may be another use above yeah his lease is for the the ground floor only
right okay all right thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
I do not see any answer Mr. chair planning commission thank you chairman and good
morning David Vecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the CMX 2 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location
the appellant has shown that the proposed takeout restaurant will have no detrimental impacts beyond
what might be expected the city planning commission recommends that the board grant
the proposed special exception for a take-out restaurant mi-2025-005-860-4529
baltimore avenue i vote yes with proviso no preparation or service of hot foods
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl guest and my booty chefs with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso ryan
mcadams my vote is yes with proviso hi i win my vote is yes with proviso thank you council thank
you all right number three mi 2025 000 398 13 25 south 23rd street eric botson is the attorney
good morning good morning sir
there's unanimous support from the point brief cdc a total of eight votes
good morning council could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer but try to get your microphone closed first here you go
good morning uh eric bodzin at eric e-o-d-z-i-n of blank room do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do um have you could you identify
your client a relationship to the property yes uh sitting beside me is mr kazim kupa who is the
owner of the property okay our vice chair has a few questions sir good morning have you submitted
your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes i have okay and do you waive
the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy yes i do okay thank you can share your
screen and proceed with your case. Thank you so much. My hand is raised in the virtual
virtual audience. I'm not sure if I'm... Oh, here I am joining as a panelist. Just one
audience. I'm not sure if I'm, oh, here I am joining us.
moment. Members to board.
you're coming up yeah good wonderful uh thank you again and good morning uh members of the board
uh mr chair um i am here on behalf of the owner of 1325 south 23rd street uh seated beside me is
the owner, Mr. Ghazim Kupa. And in the virtual audience is our architect, Ron Arihi, as well
as Isaac Singleton, who's also a partner in the project. I understand that we are also joined
this morning in the virtual audience by community leader, Mr. Al Littlepage. We are, again, very
grateful for uh the unanimous uh community support of the coordinating rco the subject
property or subject proposal i should say is for the much anticipated activation of a
rare one of the few vacant lots around wharton square pictured here at the corner of 23rd and
earp street it is a uniquely dimensioned lot of about 1 000 square feet that has sat
unfortunately vacant and underutilized for more than 20 years at this point
these are this is the before and after pictures of when mr cupa acquired the property last year
As you can see from the after, Mr. Koopa immediately cleaned, greened, and fenced the lot upon acquisition, not to mention quite a bit of snow removal this winter, including the storm right before we met with Mr. Littlepage and the RCO.
so he's certainly been a good steward of the property and the proposal here is to restore
this lot to its prior use before it sat vacant for the last 20 years which was in fact
a corner store with an apart two apartments above it since the 1940s
The only difference in this case is that rather than a corner store, which is the only licensed business use within a few blocks of Wharton Square, Mr. Koopa's proposal is for a locally owned Parkside coffee shop on the ground floor, while Mr. Koopa himself will reside on the second floor and manage both the coffee shop and the one rental unit at the property.
uh this is the refusal a couple of the slide updates
updated on my computer but I'm not sure if it oh here we go uh it's it's now on the screen uh the
refusal is twofold um first that the RSA 5 zoning district uh does not permit a coffee shop rental
unit or both and second uh that a seven not nine foot rear yard is proposed with corresponding
88 percent not 80 percent occupied area that is to afford adequate seating for the unique dimensions
of this lot and of the block in fact where more properties than not have in fact no
unoccupied area here is the
zoomed out zoning map and i'll zoom in in a second to the zoning classifications of the area
as you can see most but not all nearby corners are zoned for commercial mixed use
despite the commercial used history mixed used history of this property it remains zoned rsa5
but of course this is a transit rich corner lot with access to bus lines 7 17 29 bike lanes in
the area and notably i'll pull up the the recent permitting in the area this is a map of the
the prevalent rental licenses in this particular area of South Philadelphia.
um in this particular area of south philadelphia um and by contrast um you'll see here in blue the
scarcity of business licenses as i mentioned um all of the the only business licenses in the
surrounding area for a uh for corner stores and um this is why the community and mr koopa are
confident that a local parkside coffee shop um will at last activate the space and be a benefit
to the community. Mr. Cooper also collaborated extensively with the community on the plans and
design, which I'll pull up now for this property. For with regards to the facade, the in collaboration
with the Point Breeze RCO coalition, the facade has been updated to match the brick of the
neighboring property and to feature exterior cameras, aesthetically pleasing lighting,
plantings and covered meters, as well as more soft and distinct commercial entrance space.
The commercial entrance itself, as you'll see from this diagram and from the floor plans
i'll pull up uh is also now located um not from south 23rd street as pictured here but on these
updated uh first floor plans um on the side street uh of earp street so that it is distinct from the
residential entrance on south 23rd street i'll go back to the floor plans for a second another
Another element that Mr. Koopa and the neighbors worked to update collaboratively is a really thoughtful trash storage plan detailed here, showing physical storage of both residential and commercial trash and recycling, use of disposable containers, since we're right next door to the park, and commercial trash pickup from the rear.
three times a week after 8 a.m. with the commercial trash as you can see in the rear here of the
ground floor removed on plastic totes on rollers out to containers in the rear yard again serviced
three times a week in an area with a six-foot privacy screen to the next door adjacent neighbors
um mr cupa and mr singleton met extensively with neighbors including the adjacent neighbors to this
property um and um in in collaboration with those neighbors um have designed uh this ground floor
layout there were two options that we worked through with um point breeze rco the option on
the left is the one that was preferred with that side entrance on erp street again the design is
to afford adequate seating 10 tables and chairs the preparation of coffee and baked goods bless
you in the prep kitchen to the rear of the premises no commercial ventilation no hot foods
and no deliveries, which is something that was important to the neighbors. This is designed to
be walkable, locally owned, and for the neighbors in this area. Ghazim himself is an experienced
owner who spent his lifetime in the restaurant business. This has been his life's goal to open
up his own uh uh restaurant um and to hire about five employees locally business will be open from
7 a.m to 4 p.m um and gazeen will both manage the property um and the upstairs rental uh property
which if i go back to the floor plans it's about 800 square feet two bedrooms one bathroom um with
a trash storage area um that's that's mapped out in terms of how that trash is is serviced here
um on december 22nd uh mr cupa um mr singleton and mr arehi and myself met with the uh coalition
of point breeze rcos um after a few months of uh meeting with neighbors um uh in the proximity
The Point Breeze Coalition of RCOs voted 8 to 0 in support of the project, and Ghazim
is looking forward to continuing to collaborate with neighbors as he will manage, in addition
as uh he will manage uh in addition to the property the construction of the of the um
to the property, the construction of the project.
property and and he and the neighbors discussed making sure that sidewalks remain clear and
accessible um the construction hours work for the neighbors he gave out a cell phone to all
in attendance and at the meeting and and walking the streets and is really looking forward to being
to living and being a sustainable member of the point breeze community in conclusion
mr chair members the board for all these reasons and based upon the additional plans photographs
and filings that you'll find in your packet this morning we submit that grant of relief
is consistent with the spirit of the code to responsibly activate and restore the prior use
of this parkside lot as a ground floor local business single rental unit run by an on-premises
owner who again will continue to work with mr littlepage and neighbors to ensure that
this property is a benefit to the neighborhood's character congestion public facilities adjacencies
health and safety and built environment again mr chair we want to thank mr littlepage and the
Point Breeze RCO Coalition for their time and support. As I mentioned, on the line is our
architect, Mr. Arihi, as well as Mr. Singleton, and beside me is Mr. Ghazim Kupa, who is here to
adopt and affirm my testimony. So why don't we bring your client on to adopt your testimony.
Once we open it to the board, if we need an architect, we'll bring your architect on then,
and Mr. Littlepage will come on when we call for the audience, correct?
wonderful okay thank you mr could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
yes gentlemen my name kick real close to the mic my name is gazim kupa g-e-z-i-m-k-u-p-a
and i am the owner of 1325. do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do counsel thank you very much mr chair uh good good morning mr kupa
Have you heard my testimony this morning in its entirety?
Yes, I do.
And can you affirm that the entirety of my testimony, to the best of your knowledge, is true and accurate?
Yes, please.
And do you now adopt and affirm that testimony as your own?
Yes, please.
Thank you very much.
So, Counselor, when you gave the hours, it's seven days a week?
Seven days a week.
okay all right yes correct all right questions from the board yeah i have a few questions one
i think understanding that this is a coffee shop and um if there's no hot food on service
and they don't want deliveries how are you handling the food that's going to be served on site
in terms of the storage of the food i'm thinking like how is it being created because if you're not
baking on site and you're serving baked goods and you can't have deliveries how how are you
no we're making some cold snacks you know like uh cold snacks and uh juice and coffee and uh
ice cream and things okay so it's not going to be like bagels and breakfast sandwiches and muffins
and not hot one not hot one okay um yeah but they still have to be baked so i think my question is
like if they don't want you to have delivery like most other coffee shops in the city
have deals where they're getting these baked goods delivered from like another wholesaler
like laboos or you know somebody have some some they have something like that but uh the line i
make it just for the neighborhood over there you know not i live upstairs and i will take care you
know as much as we do on the business things like that to keep my expenses lower and to get something
like that like very profitable and then so like if they how are you going to handle just anything
that you need to run the food side of the business if they don't want deliveries is this like local
like small business are you going to the grocery store i think i'm just trying to understand like
no that one i will go and pick up from the big store by myself you know yes i will go to pick
up by my store you know not to bring the big delivery over there or things like that but i
I would go like a Jethro or something like that, Cisco, and pick up what I need.
I'm sorry. To clarify, by no deliveries, what the neighbors were particularly interested in is that to avoid added congestion theory that there's no Uber Eats or DoorDash of that nature, not deliveries to the property.
We did discuss with neighbors potentially a loading zone out in front in South 23rd Street.
They're going to think about it.
If there's interest in applying, Ghazim will be the one who applies for loading zone.
there's interest in applying uh gazeen will be the one who applies for loading zone we talked
about the same for a that makes more sense but we have had neighbors say no deliveries yes it's
something we have had no deliveries of food out of the premises i'm sorry all right and then i think
my second question is just about the plan so it from what it looked like in the plans this is a
three-story with two apartments above and a roof deck but you kept saying one apartment one rental
unit oh so because gazim is the second floor is the apartment there are two apartments uh full
floor hidden square feet the second floor is where gazim himself is is uh the third is a rental
apartment okay and the roof deck um is set back five foot from both streets and so only the rental
tenant is going to have access to the roof deck or do both have access leave both correct yeah
they will do both but mostly i have to be on safe side you know i mean to keep safe side
um i have a question just um did you get the approval of your neighbor at 1923
do you recall talking to your immediate neighbor at 1923 yes yes yes other questions
the plan doesn't show that by this plans it is showing that only the third floor unit has access
to it yeah right right yeah and who's who's using the deck the deck is not attached to the business
right no deck is not attached to the business now there's a separate entrance for the residential
space and i apologize that's correct only the third floor has access to the roof deck
yeah okay thank you and how many how many seats did you say you were gonna have
uh seating for um at least 10 individuals i believe in the updated floor plans there are
like five tables by two people sitting at the time like this right okay and then all of this
is just the cold stuff the ice cream the and the hot hot coffee that we have yes okay yes
okay thank you you're welcome
questions from our attorney um i just want to clarify because i know there was some changes
that you referenced like the facade and the entrances um and you had sent revised plans
is there is there anything in the revised plans that you wanted like we can't stamp the floor
plans part but in the site plan that you wanted memorialized based on the your your communications
with the neighbors? I don't believe so. The exhibit package includes the revised plans. None of those
plans impact the refusal whatsoever. There changes the facade and the location of the entrance was
moved from South 23rd Street to Earp Street if L&I needs to stamp that change, of course. Yeah,
no it's just sometimes when people make changes like that they will ask um to to kind of memorialize
it and you know cement it like yes voting board to stamp it so i wasn't clear if that it was the
situation here um if that you know if that needed if that was being requested because there wasn't
a proviso form so i wasn't sure if the the plans needed to be stamped or it was just kind of
illustrative for the rco yes illustrative and i would love to memorialize for the record that the
the the change in plans is from to move the location of the entrance from um south 23rd
street to europe street okay so if you if assuming the board approves if you want the plan stamped we
could stamp the one the one page site plan not the floor plans um we just need a proviso form
to go with it explaining the changes that would be excellent thank you so much you're welcome
um questions or comments from the virtual audience
mr chair i do not see any hands raised thank you planning commission
thank you chairman and good morning david vecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential
single family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1985 in a council
supported map change there are no unique physical conditions or circumstances of this property the
prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code the city planning commission
recommends the board deny the proposed use variance for two dwelling units prepared food
shop multiple principal uses maximum occupied area and rear yard depth thank you um so mi2025
000 398 1325 south 23rd street i vote yes revised plans stamped by zba 318 is that right
Revised plan, stamped by ZBA 318. Is that right? One page. That's the proviso. Revised plan, stamped by ZBA, one page on 318.26.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tynetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
hi owen my vote is yes with proviso thank you very much thank you thank you very much indeed
sure thanks good luck sir number five mi 2025 001 545 3711 fairmont avenue
eric carroll is the attorney um could we ever get an rcl on this hillary
meeting was held august 26 2025. i heard you ask about the rco if i could explain
okay sure why don't we do that why don't you state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure uh eric carroll eric carroll on behalf of the owner applicant nicole dryden smith
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do and and uh so before we start when he just tell us about the uh issue sure so we had
the original listing for this hearing was in september it was continued to today for
a couple of reasons um but we did have a a rco meeting back in august august 26 2025
25. That's correct. And with the Mantua Civic Association at 3729 Mellon Street, I appeared
with my client. It was a very sparsely attended meeting. Nobody wanted to vote. The chairman and
I'm sorry, the president, Dwayne Drummond, and the secretary told me they would issue a letter
of non-opposition. They never did. And I have as part of my exhibit packet that I uploaded last
week i have my emails to them requesting on multiple occasions something okay our vice
chair has a few questions for you sure good morning have you uh submitted your documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing i have and do you waive the reading
of the refusals and stipulate to its accuracy i do i think you can share your screen to proceed
with your case. Thank you. My client is the owner of 3711 Fairmount Avenue in the Mancho
section of the city. This is a photo of the building as it appeared within the last month.
It's a zoned RSA 5. It's a three-story row home. It's almost 1,500 square foot lot, existing
buildings 1,676 square feet, 18 feet wide, and a lot length of 83 feet. The existing building
is only 28 feet long and with a height of 31.6. We're here today seeking a variance strictly for
the use because this is RSA 5. We are proposing a three-unit multifamily property. We're not
requesting any uh dimensional variances this property is in pretty bad condition and will
have to be rebuilt the top two floors will have to be substantially removed if not completely
and we'll have to do a lot of reworking of the first floor but once finished it's the dimensions
will be exactly the same 31 feet high 18 feet wide the only difference it'll be a lot longer
going back towards the rear of the property nevertheless will still meet the
open lot requirements and all the other dimensional requirements
as you said this is a photo of the building as it looks right now
this is the front door with the notice of zoning appeals posted to the east of the property
is an alley which will provide access for the residents of the building to the rear where they
can store trash and recycling. This property, this is one property all the way to the right here in
this photo. It's a corner store with either one or two units residential above it. To the left
on this block, there were three other properties. This is to the west. There's one property which
looks to be an occupied single family there's a vacant lot and then there's i think an unoccupied
two-story building across directly across the street are similar buildings i mean obviously
you see the vacant lot to the right and to the left in this photo the one building has
The one building has five units as it stands.
five units as it stands this middle building has two and the one
This middle building has two, and the one here to the left has two as well.
And then you go down to the end of the block across the street, and you've got a vacant three-story building.
So as I said, this is a copy of the refusal.
We're proposing a multifamily household living with three dwelling units.
That's obviously not prevented in RSA 5, and that's the purpose we're appearing today.
This is the application.
uh here are the plans so we said the building will be extended about an additional 34 feet
in length going back towards the rear but looking at it from the front it would appear
it would appear almost exactly the same in terms of the height and and the width
uh we're gonna have three units the zoom in
you know one uh will be the basement of first floor that's going to be three beds four bass
for a total of 1762 square feet unit two uh is the second floor three beds three baths for 901
square feet in total and the unit three will be the third floor three beds three baths 952 square
feet uh the reason we're seeking this variance is given this given this location the current
condition of the block uh it is just it would be economically unfeasible to to build a single
family three three-story home this is i uploaded the deed showing my client as the owner project
information form this is the notice of public meeting i sent out to roughly 100 and 150 residents
i got a substantial number of those back as undeliverable there are a number of undeveloped
properties in this area right now and as i mentioned before i also uploaded my
numerous emails to the rco for that letter of non-opposition
um so i'm here nicole dryden smith the owner of the property is here today if i could have
promoted the panelists please sure
chair this is ian hegarty she will be coming back in as a pamela small small thank you
what was in the basement
uh the basement
The basement will essentially be the living space for the living room in the basement storage for the first for the unit one.
The bedrooms and the dining room and kitchen of unit one will be on the first floor.
is she coming on oh there we go nicole dren smith is available now although uh
ms dread smith you we're unable to hear you currently do you have your microphone on
nicole we can there's no audio it doesn't look to be that you're muted though
okay can you hear me now yes thank you hi hi could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer sure nicole dryden smith n-i-c-o-l-e-d-r-y-d-e-n-s-m-i-t-h do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes counsel thank you
uh mrs dryden smith you're the owner of 3711 fairmont avenue yes okay uh were you present
for my presentation regarding the property yes were all my statements truthful and accurate
yes would you adopt my testimony as your own were you to testify before the board today
yes thank you questions from the board yeah i have a few questions one just around management
since the basement is proposed as living space um what's going to be the plan for utility
management for the three units at the property well each um i mean there would be a separate
i mean there would be a separate meter for there is a hallway or stairwell so there would be a
meter for there is a hallway or stairwell so there would be a
fourth electrical meter um but are you and then there's typically all the meters are in the
basement and only one unit would now have access to that basement so what's going to happen when
you know unit three needs to access their meters for whatever reason uh there would have to be some
sort of whether it's leased or whether it's sold there would have to be some sort of provision in
the documents for access. Other questions? Go ahead, Mike.
Looking at this building, the first floor is approximately one foot above grade. What's
the depth of the basement slab we pull the plans back up and what are you
assuming for the make it easy what are you assuming for the ceiling height in
the basement I do not know I need to ask the builder sorry okay
Okay. Well, let's assume at a minimum you're going to meet code, which means that you're going to be at least seven foot six below grade. It's completely below grade. I have a real concern with having living a space completely below grade just in terms of light ventilation, although it does meet some codes.
I think as far as livability, it's just a really terrible living condition to be living underground lower than a grave.
That's one. That's one. Let me finish.
Number two, you have on the first floor, you mentioned the units having access to the rear yard through an alley.
But your property line goes from essentially building line to building line.
so all of the units wouldn't have access to a rear yard from an alley right uh well that whole
yes and that to the right there is that alley uh it's a little bit unclear as to who controls
the current door to the alley but that alley runs the length of the block block going up 37th street
um so so according to your site plan you it's an alley that is a i guess i don't know whether
it's a private alley if it's not it's not part of your property line doesn't show
it appears from my research according to atlas it's not it's it's a public alley because of the
okay so you're going to have so your your goal is to have residents go down an alley
that is a public alley,
knowing the way that alleys are kept in Philadelphia
to put their trash in the rear yard and access their trash,
where you don't have control
over how it's maintained or secured.
That is a bad idea, right?
Then on your ground floor unit,
you're going through a bedroom to access a rear yard.
You've got three bedrooms,
and that's another bad situation
where you have to go through someone's bedroom, someone's private space, to access another public
space. Bad layout. For a three-bedroom unit, the units are just too small in terms of the
living space for the individuals that are going to live there. Three-bedroom unit with a small
kitchen combined living room just doesn't work for three, three, you know, a unit, a three bedroom
unit. So I have serious problems with, uh, these plans. How, how many bathrooms are in for the
total project? Um, 10. 10 bathrooms? Yes. Okay. Is this student housing? Um, not, not necessarily.
Well, the questions questions from our attorney, not excuse me, not at this time. Mr. share.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience.
Mr. chair, I do not see any hands raised.
planning commission thank you mr chairman and good morning david effecto with the city planning
commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single-family zoning at this location the city
rsa 5 residential single-family zone
rezoned this neighborhood in 2017 in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan
there is no unique physical physical condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent
it from being used in conformance with the zoning code the city planning commission recommends that
board deny the proposed use variance for three dwelling units mi 2025 001 545 3711 fairmount
avenue i vote no michael johns my vote is no cheryl gaston my vote is no tanetta graham
my vote is no mcadams my vote is no tyo in my vote is no number seven please mi 2025
525-001-551-120 Dawson Street.
Stephanie Hoover is the owner applicant.
It's a pro se.
They will be rejoining us.
The panel is short, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
hi all can you hear me yes we can could you please see my camera's working as
well could you please state your name it's spelled for the sonographer my
name is Stephanie Hoover s-t-e-p-h-a-n-i-e Hoover h-o-o-v-e-r do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do so this
application is for the use as visitor accommodation in an existing structure
whereas the proposed use visitor accommodation is prohibited in the rsa5 zoning district um
i believe if i'm correct hillary we now have a a letter of opposition for this i think so stephanie
we received a letter i think this morning of opposition from the rco okay all right and our
vice chair has a few questions for you okay good morning good morning have you submitted your
documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes okay and do you waive the
written of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i'm sorry do i uh do you waive the
well the chair just read your refusal do you stipulate to its accuracy the accuracy of the
refusal? I think so. Yes, I do. I think you're thinking right. All right, thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with me.
So, Stephanie, well, first of all, tell us what you want to do, and then just so you know, we have all your documents.
And what we would want to see then is photos and or plans.
So tell us what you want to do.
At this point, overall, I would just like to have a short-term rental permit to potentially put my house on Airbnb or VRBO when I have spaces between tenants in this home.
Please proceed then.
Can you guys see my?
we see it says 120 dawson street yep perfect okay um all right so i'm just going to start
with the exterior photos of the property yep um so this is the front of our house um it's just
your standard brick row home this is our backyard with my dog making a guest appearance um
um and then moving to the interior of the property this is the front room when you
initially walk in the home. It's split by a staircase. From then, you move on to the living
space. And then beyond the living space is this kitchen as well. And then the kitchen opens up
to that backyard that I showed earlier. Upstairs, there are two bedrooms.
This is a bedroom in the rear of the home. This is the bedroom in the front of the home.
They both have closets.
And then here is our interior bathroom, which is at the rear of the home.
Moving on, I just copied our letter to the neighbors prior to our public meeting.
meeting. I have our refusal letter. Our certificate of mailing, which was submitted. I'm sparing you
I have our refusal letter.
guys the 17 pages of this. A copy of our deed. Additional copies of the deeds and the real
estate transfer tax certification um photos of our notice of zoning appeal and our tax clearance
is there anything else that i need so why don't why don't you try to explain so you're saying
that's a rental property right now yes yeah it's a rental property and you're saying that when
you're between tenants if you don't have a tenant you'd want to have an airbnb yeah i would like to
just make sure that we don't lose funds if we have you know space between our tenants so i'm looking
at this as kind of a security option for us financially have you talked to your next door
neighbors about this yes i have i'm friends with both of them all right all right okay questions
from the board yeah what was the rco meeting held it was right
january 15 20 26 we've received a letter this morning i don't know that she has the letter
and what was the that's a letter of opposition position okay and so i guess my question is
what was the commentary at the rco meeting like what feedback was received um i haven't seen the
letter oh go ahead oh i mean when you went there yeah when we were at the meeting i mean everyone
was more just asking you know would i be a responsible host in those instances um worried
about you know anything that there are some of those negative connotations with airbnb
um but i explained everyone i've been an airbnb host for over 10 years um so and i have a very
good rating i've never had issues previously i always make sure that anyone that is in my home
is screened ahead of time. I always ask questions. Why are they in the area? And I've never had any
complaints at any point from neighbors historically. So currently out in Berks County, we have two
Airbnbs that we just help my in-laws with an old farmhouse that they have. So that way they can,
you know, upkeep the property and it's a way for them to make income. So I just help them manage
that and then we also run one out of our own home out in Brooks County since we moved. So I would
like to just continue that option here and I've historically always had a very very good experience
with it. Some other concerns were you know how many there's always a concern of parking in
Maniunk. It's a two-bedroom home so there would never be the option to have more than two cars
there i can make that part of the listing if that's a concern and requirement um and that
was really everything that was expressed um i think one of the larger oppositions i had in that
was from one of the board members of the rco that he himself is a landlord um and he owns multiple
properties around the city of philadelphia and his thing was well um if we let you do this then
everybody can do it um and it's you know everyone would do this and it's an easy process when really
i've been trying to do this process for over a year so i don't think it's an easy process
that anyone could do um and that's okay you know i understand needing to go through all of this
um it's just very very hard to coordinate with with hick and rco uh they would not give me a
meeting date until a couple days before so therefore i would never meet the requirements
of owner notifications um so it is not an easy process but all right quite other questions from
the board questions so you you said that you run you've run these before yes is that at this
property before the regulations came into effect and you said yeah before the regulations came
into effect we lived on the property so we just rented out one of the rooms within the property
oh okay and then you said that you did this for outside of the city as well
okay and you said you have a good reading with yeah 4.98 stars 180 reviews
Okay. So that's a lot of rentals. Okay. So you've, you've done this for some period of time then,
is that? Yeah. Okay. I honestly really enjoy it because I've made some really,
really good friends. Especially when we had people that were within our home.
home. Some people have become longtime, longtime friends. And actually one of them got engaged to
Some people have become long time, long time friends and actually one of them got
my brother's best friend when they were staying with us for two weeks and they met and had a good
relationship and went from there. Oh my. Okay. I actually have one. Thank you. I do have one
more question. So it does look like you already have a limited lodging approval for this apartment
and you have a rental license. So I guess I'm just trying to understand why do we need the
additional visitor's accommodations approval for the same property if you already have limited
lodging and a rental license? I guess I, well, I mean, maybe you could help me out with this
on the difference between the limited lodging and the short-term rental, because I thought
with the limited lodging, that doesn't allow us to do short-term rental, and I, what'd you say?
so limited limited lodging is short-term rental but you reside in the property
okay visitor accommodations you do not reside in the property and it's a short-term rental
okay by the way that that was that was our attorney just so you know oh okay thank you
yeah i mean so i don't i don't live there anymore so that's why i would like to do the short-term
rental and to be honest i was a little bit confused at the beginning of the process and
And I believe I mistakenly got the limited lodging license at first and did not actually
need it at that time because we weren't doing Airbnb after the regs change.
So I've got a quick question.
So you're going to be in Berks, are you in Berks County?
And so what's your plan to deal with issues as issues come up at this rental?
Because Berks County takes a minute to get.
Yeah, my husband's self-employed. So it's something that he can help with. He's a handyman by trade
and mechanical engineer. So whenever we have any issues at the property in general,
whether it's from a handyman situation or tenant situation, he's able to go down and help whenever
that's needed. Also, my work schedule is very flexible. So I can do that as well. And like I've
said, you know, I have a lot of friends in the neighborhood. I've been living in and around
Maniunk since 2013. So I know multiple people on Sharp Street, on Vassar, Salignac, Terrace. So I
also have a lot of other community members around me. And I am very close with both of my neighbors
as well. And we all have each other's phone numbers. So if there is ever an issue, you know,
with our tenant, there was a trash can issue the other day, someone took someone's trash can
accidentally and that got resolved immediately so she was just able to to text me
um questions or comments sorry attorney have anything else
not at this time mr care your comments from the virtual audience
mr chair i do not see any hands raised for the matter planning commission thank you chair and
good morning david fector with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single-family zoning at this
location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1974 in a council-supported map change there is
no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that were prevented from being used
in conformance 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 first short-term rental zoning regulations became effective in 2015.
what's changed since the passage of the 2020 ordinance is there is now a licensing enforcement
mechanism the city planning commission recommends the zoning board deny the proposed use variance
for visitor accommodation mi 2025 001 551 120 dawson street i vote yes temporary variance that
will expire 319-29 michael johns my vote is yes with proviso charl gaster my vote is yes with
proviso sonetta graham my vote is yes with proviso mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
i win my vote is yes with proviso thank you thank you everyone i really appreciate your time thank
you number eight mi 2025 001 556 53 14 to 24 north history darlene treat is the attorney
there is a recommendation of unanimous support from logan civic association
10 to 2 votes they're coming back in as a panelist thank you
good morning commissioners and members of the board darling free on behalf of the applicant
julia bridges just just for the record darling could you please spell your name for this
julia bridges just just for the record darling could you please spell your name
stenographer uh darlene d-a-r-l-e-n-e street p as in thomas h-r-e-a-t-t all right do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do our vice chair has a few
questions good morning um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing yes i have and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes i do okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case
uh good morning commissioners i'm here uh representing uh julia and katrina bridges
They would like to open a childcare center called Bridges to Learning. I submitted a host of documents approximately 50 pages. I'm just going to go through the relevant documents. I'm going to start with the refusal.
This has a dual zoning resignation. It's a TA-1 and an I-1.
A TA-1 would actually allow for the child care center.
I-1 prohibited the child care center. Since it's the most restrictive zoning, I-1 is adopted and we were given a refusal.
This area, I filed an appeal and basically my appeal states that this is really a commercial area.
There are a couple commercial businesses on the lot and the building has been used for commercial businesses in the past.
The applicants entered into a lease in 2024 and renovated the building only to find out at the end that it wasn't zoned and they've been waiting for the building to be zoned for like a year and a half.
I'm just going to go down to the property information form.
This is a huge lot.
It's about 41,000 square feet, and there are about five or six businesses on the lot.
I'm just going to go to what we propose with the child care center.
Here is a brochure.
Ms. Julia Bridges has previously owned two child care centers and has much experience.
Ms. Katrina Bridges currently works with an agency associated with DHS for collaborative
umbrella agencies, and they've been providing services for children through DHS for about
15 or 16 years.
Both of them currently now would like to open up their own daycare child care center.
They would like to be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The ranges of the children that they would like to service is from six weeks to 12 years old.
They would like to have a child care center, an after-school program, before-school program, as well as a summer day camp.
They have currently some certifications.
They have the, Ms. Julia Bridges has her SafeServe certification, and they both all have their, there's a food prep license.
They both have the child background clearance.
They have the first aid certifications, the child abuse certification, the criminal background check, and the sexual abuse clearance.
clearance i'm going to go down to the plans now and i'm just going to enlarge it and go through
it a little bit more closely so
i'm going to start on the bottom here and i'm just going to enlarge just the bottom part
right now so you can see it a little bit better so this is the layout of the whole entire premises
The whole lot area is about 41,910 square feet.
This is the section over here, which we would like to put the daycare in.
I'll show you better pictures later, but this is Fifth Street here, and you would actually enter the premises here.
This is a whole open area, like a parking area where you can actually park your car, walk out and go into the child care center.
In the front here is a large commercial building.
There's currently like a Chinese food store in here and there's also a grocery in here.
And even though it's not drawn on the plan, there is an existing dumpster or dumpsters that sit on the lot right here.
right here. In the back are more buildings. I believe there's a commercial construction company
In the back are more buildings, I believe there's a
that stores some equipment way back here in the back of the lot. Again, this is the area that we
would like to use. This is the building area, and this right here is the outside area that we will
use for the play area. Now I'm going to scroll up a little bit more so I can actually show you the
layout let's see if i could enlarge it a little bit more so you can see it a little better okay
so this is actually the um area for the daycare that we would like to have so this is the ground
level you will walk into the daycare here and we actually have four different uh areas i'm just
Going to move the phone over a little bit and up a little bit. Here we go.
So you'd be able to walk into the daycare here. Here is the first open area to the side. Here is the reception area.
okay so this is the first our child care area there's the kitchen area here we have the bathroom
area here we have a handicap bathroom here which the staff will use um and we also have a large
restroom here with six different facilities for the children to use over here we have the daycare
area two over here we have the daycare area three and this is the daycare area four but we do have
some stairs here where you can go upstairs and there's a area upstairs it's like half area i'll
show you some pictures later and that's for the staff to have meetings and or to sit on their
uh breaks and there are also a few computers up there i'd like to show you how you get in the
building here and i also would like to show you that there's another exit on the ground floor
through here now the all of the space together that we'll be leasing is approximately 1800 square
feet if we did a raw calculation according to the state guidelines for the number of children
Aurora calculation would be about 45. If you take out the non-usable area, it's about 40,
but ultimately is the Department of State who will come in and indicate to us how many children
maybe had. I'm just going to keep scrolling down now and I'm going to reduce it a little bit more
again so you can get a better picture of it. This is the actual building and this is the actual
area and the lot. This is the building that we would like to have the daycare in and there's
a fence. This is an older picture. There's a fence and lot on the side that we have converted
to a play area. This is the upstairs area where the staff can come and do their work
and congregate or be on break. This is the kitchen area.
That's the handicapped bathroom area. This is to the left is the children's with the six commodes in the bathroom area.
This is one classroom.
An additional classroom.
Another classroom. There are four different classroom areas. Another classroom.
and that's really the opening first classroom when you walk in the building
that's the side view that you can look out into the yard directly from inside
some additional classroom it's just more on interior pictures that's a picture of the lot
upstairs picture
uh infant room picture
side yard picture
this is actually the driveway where you actually enter the premises and you would drive back that
was where we originally posted it and this is uh currently i believe a chinese bakery
society with a picture in the windows where you can see directly out into the yard
inside that's the picture of fifth street
another picture of the original posting and that's a picture of the second posting uh we did meet
with the Logan Civic Association on May 12th.
Logan Civic Association on May 12th and we did have a meeting I thought I sent out 118 notices
uh I thought it was a great meeting uh that the addition of the facility would be welcome
and there were 15 members in attendance um and 10 members voted and we had a uh letter of support
and that's really all I have today
you want to bring your client on Darlene
yes Ms. Julia Bridges would you raise your hand please
Ms. Bridges
do we see her hand
um yes they'll be promoted as a panelist thank you very much thank you
please accept invite to be panelists
darling do you know how many uh students um aurora calculation uh commissioner would be uh 45
okay all right here she is now hello i'm here hi julia could you please state your name and
spell it for the stenographer julia bridges turner j-u-l-i-a b as in boy r-i-d-g-e-s space
turner t-u-r-n-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do counsel please proceed uh good morning uh miss julia uh is it your intention for you
and your cousin katrina to run bridges to learning on 5324 north fourth street yes
north fifth street excuse me yes i knew what you meant and do you currently uh have a leasehold to
um conduct that business there yes and have you heard my testimony as presented to the board this
morning yes and if you were to testify in this case julia would you adopt my bye excuse me my
testimony as true and correct yes uh that's all i have commissioner questions from the board
yeah i have a question about what else is happening at this location um like it's a
really big complex and i see lots of gates and lots of cars and so i'm just trying to get a
sense of like what else is happening on site okay i'm gonna go back to the plan and try to show you
what else has happened it's a um when you cut great a landscaping company they come in in the
morning and go inside of their gate and they park their cars and they go out and do landscaping
for the day and then there is a chinese bakery up front when you pull in so their customers pull in
and park their cars and go into their bakery but that's like far away from the child care center
so basically my parents and my staff have parking to park in a lot because it's a big empty lot
there's nothing else going on yeah and there's 41 000 square feet it's a really a huge lot
it's not about the size of the lot it was just like what are the adjacent uses i got concerned
children in cars and trucks are usually not things that i think go together very well um also just
looking at like aerial photos of it it seems to be a lot of security fences so like do you have
access to those fences are they managed by the by the are the gates sorry not fences gates because
it does look like there's two actress access control gates um from the street before you get
to the front of your property or yes i have i have access to the gates to open the gates and
close the gates yes and then okay so for drop-offs are parents pulling all the way up to sort of your
front door yes yes right at the door they could pull right up okay and then I think my like just
I heard you guys refer to the different floors but this appears to be a one-story building
so is the first floor the basement no it's one floor it's a loft a little loft like a little
room just for um staff and have yeah i didn't really take a good picture but let me just show
you uh or could you bring up the floor plans yeah here we go let me enlarge it a little bit
so okay so this is really the ground floor here and then there's just a little area where you
walk up and it's like a loft area right here and it has those two chairs and the computer
uh that i showed you and i apologize i didn't take a great picture of it but this is
that I showed you and I apologize.
I didn't take a great picture of it,
but this is.
the little upstairs area uh for the staff okay and then i mean just you know stating the obvious
it does look like this already exists and so are we are we legalizing and no um they've been vacant
um they've been vacant for almost two years uh we've been waiting uh to get the zone and it's
all fit out it's all fixed but there has been no child care center operating in there um we're
waiting on the zoning okay and then um has the state already come through and done all their
inspections of the spaces for the child care i'm gonna let miss bridges i'll speak to that
excuse me so the the health department came out the state says actually say how many kids and that
we can open did not come out because that's where I got stopped at. When I went for a certificate of
occupancy, that's when they advised me that it wasn't zoned and advised me of the steps that I
needed to take to get the building zoned. So I didn't go any further with the state. I started
dealing with the zoning. And then have you run or worked at a facility similar to this before?
Yes, I owned two child care centers previously. Okay. And then I guess my sort of last question
is for these outdoor play spaces because it does look like on your plans there's there's two one
that's not been uh put in yet and then the one that I guess is the fenced in area is there any
other things that you're doing to those spaces to get like to make them no I only have one outdoor
play space and it was already there already existed I don't have two it's only one gate for
play okay and so is is that the plan is like how it is currently is that how it's going to be
operated yes your plan to do like more things to it i'm going to put more toys and things out there
um per the city i the mulch that's approved for child care i'm going to put that down stuff like
that but no construction okay any other questions just a just a quick quick oh yep go ahead i'm
sorry okay um well that was my question about the play area so where is that exactly you're
pointing to like within this
i believe miss tana her question is what additionally will be done to the uh play area
uh on the side over here what materials will be used uh on the for the floor and i think you said
something this is um is a certain mulch that the state requires for child care centers i will put
that down and that's basically safety so when the kids fall it's not like the wooden march is rubber
mulch or I would get like the rubber play mats to go out there so if the kids fall they'll fall on
rubber mats okay and then this building has this is my questions I was asked about child care
centers okay so this is one floor so we don't have to worry about stairs this is great there's the
whole thing with the fire code issues which are not technically zoning but which I care about for
So there needs to be a sufficient means of ingress and egress, particularly for the children who are three and under and are not capable of self-preservation.
So we need to have that, panic bars on doors, the strobe lighting, and that shrill sound that we have when the fire alarm system goes off.
we need to have emergency lighting and the signs for that. So, presumably, and just, you know,
because, again, you've been working on this, you have all of these things in place for the center.
Yes. Yes, the building is and will be co-compliant.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
other questions just just last last questions are you are there any plans to do something with the
exterior of the building it is ugly um just in terms of having kids i mean it's for real you
know you come down the street you've got this constantina wire and to have little kids kind
of look down this thing it looks like it's like it's abandoned cars are going to be there is are
Are there any plans to do anything with at least the facade of the, to make it look that
at least the facade of the to make it look better i just yes again i stopped everything because i
got stopped in my trip whereas though they said it wasn't zoned so i didn't continue to do the
painting outside i didn't continue to put the things on the windows on the side i stopped
because i was told it wasn't zoned so it's like don't put out any more money until you get zoned
i i can understand that but but because the inside looks good um just in terms of you know the amount
of work and effort that you put into it it's just you know driving up to the parents driving up to
the the kids coming up to this it just you know you'll work on that because i think you've got
the spirit to do it but god knows it needs something outside and uh i'm just my only comment
when you spoke on the abandoned cars like the picture that's showing now where you see that
white truck at um that is the gate that i'm going to put like i don't know what it's called but
you've probably seen it where it's just like the it's not a sheet but it's a gate to cover where
the car is back there and paint outside i'm gonna work on it it's just i stopped okay
good good so so darlene could you let us know what's the actual building number of the address
there the actual uh address for the building is 5324 yeah no i'm sorry it's 5314 well on the
refusal here i've been having because it's 5314-24 yeah but the point is there's there's
several buildings on that block i mean does this have a particular number 5314 i'm just figuring
that out dealing with utilities it's 5314 dash they told me to just don't use the dash 24
because it's confusing our attorney may have something about yeah i think i think the lease
said sweet b yes it is it's sweet b is b as a boy okay
oh boy all right questions from the virtual audience
chair I do not see any hands raised for the matter planning commission thank you chairman
and good morning David Vecto with the city planning commission chairman of board members
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the I1 light industrial and CA1 auto-oriented
commercial split zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1975 and a council
supported map change this property has a documented history as a lumber yard dating to at least the
1950s and a history of commercial use dating to at least the 1990s the proposed child care center
matches the character of the other businesses on this block face which includes a child care center
across north 5th street the city planning commission recommends the board grant their
proposed use variants for a child care center in my 2025 001 556 53 14 to 24 north this street
i vote yes with proviso suite b only michael johns my vote is yes with proviso and curb appeal
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso it's another gram my vote is yes with proviso
And McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ty Owen, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much, commissioners.
So number 10, MI 2025, 005-852-2505 North 12th Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the 37th Ward RCO, 15 in favor, 2 in opposition,
and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young.
Good morning.
Good morning, counsel.
Could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, Zhenjin, Z-H-E-N-J-I-N,
here on behalf of the applicant,
Olympia Holdings, LLC.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hold on one minute.
Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth, then?
Thank you.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
And do you waive the read and know the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
Okay, thank you.
Share your screen.
Proceed with the case.
Thank you.
I'm going to share with the board what was previously submitted as exhibits in this case.
Give me one second.
I'm sorry.
He's doing something.
He's doing something.
okay the uh my document should be coming up on the screen they are sir we have them great
My documents should be coming up on the screen.
They are, sir. We have them.
Great. Thank you.
So this is an application for a use of this construction of a new property at the location of 2505 North 12th Street.
My client specifically is asking for a variance change in a dimensional format to permit the property to be built as a three dwelling unit property.
This property is located in the RM1 multifamily district.
The refusals are dimensional in nature due to the size of the lot, as well as a sub-area B overlay, which increases the requirement of square footage per unit that's being proposed.
We have met with the RCO, which is 37th Ward RCO, who has the jurisdiction over the area.
As the board can see, we received strong support from the RCO and the people attending the meeting.
The main reason that we're requesting the particular three-family dwelling rather than a by right two-family dwelling is because the area buildings and the area apartments that are generally available from a size standpoint tend to be closer to what we can propose based on the three-family.
we have buildings in the area that are already multifamily, including older buildings that are
actually more dense with smaller units than the newer buildings that are being put onto the block.
Essentially, some of our neighbors have five units or very dense small units in the area.
We're proposing a three-unit building based on the size of the new building and the layout of
new building being three stories given that the community supported our request particularly given
that it's the new building and it has a rather large lot and footprint compared to even the
existing even denser buildings down the block what we're proposing is a new structure which
is currently a vacant lot as you can see on the pictures here on the plan these are slightly older
pictures from google which didn't show an existing new building that is now up next to our lot at
this point our building would just be filling a gap between an older building and the new building
that has already been built next door so the building will be a three-story structure
i'm going to zoom into the elevation plan because i want to
show that the elevation for the basement is primarily above grade. It's 3.5 feet below grade
and 5.5 feet above grade. The proposed layout for the property is to have essentially first
floor and basement as one unit, second floor is one unit, and third floor is one unit.
These units will be about somewhere between 600, around 600 square feet each.
The first floor unit would also have a basement, which will be HVAC, washer, dryer, open finish space for whether they want to use it as a rec room or if they want to set up part of their living space down in the basement.
We have no issue with that.
the first floor would be the kitchen living room and bedroom in the back with full bath
the design here is to have a full bath with the bedroom and a separate bath outside in the upper
floors it'll be two bedrooms one front one back with a full bath and kitchen and living the living
will be smaller however the uh each of the upper floor and the lower floor will all have their own
trash closet uh which will permit storage of trash before pickup uh by the uh the trash
company drew in weekly pickups given that it is three units uh if needed my client would actually
uh pay the city addition for an additional pickup uh as a as it is a commercial type use rental
type use which would permit them to pay for additional pickups under the commercial use
type property and the community is okay with the design of the trash room being available as well
as having the pickup if needed additional pickup the upper floor has a access to the to a roof
deck i'm sorry let me uh actually so there is a roof access uh which the roof itself
access which the roof itself will be fiberglass so essentially it could be a deck there's no
will be fiberglass so essentially it could be
specific decking that's proposed as part of that but it does third floor does have roof access
first floor also has a access to the entire rear yard the second floor would primarily
be the one relying on the trash room for their trash until such time that it is brought out
Again, we are permitted to place a two-unit setup at this location, which most likely design would be to combine the second and third floor.
Again, it would produce a much larger overall unit with probably the same level of bedroom density with a slightly different layout for living room location.
again the community understands that most of the units that are in the area are either this size
or sometimes even smaller so having a triplex layout with this room size actually does make
sense as compared to what is in the area so certainly moving forward having the unit sizes
not being too large would also put it into a better value within the market that is available
So that is the primary reason we're asking for a dimensional variance from the board to permit
three units in this RM1 location rather than two. My client should be here to verify my testimony,
and I'm certainly happy to answer any questions from the board. What's his name, please?
It's Mr. Bader, Shagai Bader. Mr. Bader, can you raise your hand virtually to be identified?
Counselors will be coming back in shortly. Thank you.
hello hi sir could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer
yeah my name is chagai bader c-h-a-g-a-i my last name bader b-a-d-e-r all right do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes counsel thank you uh mr bader
uh did you see my presentation before the zoning board and hear my testimony
yes can you uh verify what i have represented is true and correct and adopt it as your own testimony
yes thank you what questions from the board yeah can you come again yes
Please. I didn't ask nicely. Please.
Thank you.
Mike, you can go ahead.
Oh, yeah. So, one and two.
Thank you for not having the basement
so low below grade that it will flood
and people will feel like they're living in a grave one so appreciate that's much appreciated
and two thank you for not having access to the rear yard through a bedroom um so i am i think
this works as a plan for the first and basement level that basement is huge they could use it for
anything um i'm surprised you just did one bedroom um for this unit clearly it could be more
particularly since you have the access above grade the way that it the way that it's set up
i just think it's a something that that that more developers should look at
um just in terms of the way it's laid out well other folks will have some comments about the
other floors but my question is what's the width of the building um i think i mean i'm a little
concerned about density i'm looking at the block it does not look like there's a lot of other
triplexes on this block um and i think that these units are are packing a lot of people
into what feels like a very tight space um i mean you're not showing furniture but
i'm pretty sure those bedrooms are only seven feet wide which means they're gonna like barely fit
a standard size bed. I'm confused as to why there's two full bathrooms for a one-bedroom
apartment on the first floor, which to me implies that there's a quiet density that we're not
talking about proposed for the basement. And there seem to be no other roof decks on this
block as well. So it does feel like a very dense project that doesn't fit in.
So it does feel like a very dense project that doesn't fit in with the surrounding context.
And I'm trying to understand the hardship.
So to answer the first question regarding the width of the property, it is 14.98, so
about 15 feet wide, which is the standard size of the lots in the area.
With regard to the other uses density in the area, when we looked at the density in the
area and when we also talk to the community uh for example the 20 while 2503 is a duplex
2501 which is on the corner i believe it's a quadplex and then 250709 uh one i think is a
five unit and one is a five unit uh rooming house in the way it's approved previously
So when we approached the community indicating three units, the feedback was actually that it's not uncommon on that block.
So that's why there was no real pushback from the community on that particular issue.
Other questions?
Yeah, I just have a question about the materials for the front.
that um just me just speaking of the character of the block um what are materials um are you
look like you want to use and why not choose the the brick facing um as the majority of the facade
to match the rest of the block mr bader can you uh touch upon the uh front facade material i believe
it might be break right yeah it's regular black you know like and we put like panel
ways go out a little bit and the rest is is similar what they have on the block as well
you mean brick the rest is brick correct okay so we would it be red brick are you looking to
match the color of the existing buildings i know the next door has gray uh gray color building
that they built we do we do like gray you know whatever in the area normally just what we like
to do like the same design yeah we didn't get any uh specific requests from the community for a color
But generally, my client likes to put a break for the facade with the paneling only for the bay areas.
Okay, thank you.
Other questions?
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions from the virtual audience?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission, Chairman and Board members.
the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from RN1 residential
multi-family to RSA 5 residential single family this neighborhood still carries its original 1933
zoning the appellant could have avoided a zoning variance and earned an additional dwelling unit
beyond the two allowed by applying for the mixed income housing bonus and building one low income
dwelling unit the city planning Commission recommends of the board deny the proposed
use variance for a third dwelling unit mi2025-005-852-2505 north 12 street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tennessee graham my vote is yes
brian mcadams my vote is yes hi owen my vote is no thank you thank you thank you council okay number
12 here
MI 2025-005-894-2218 South Broad Street. Jennifer Pizzillo is the attorney.
There's, um, we don't have an RCO letter as of yet. And there was a meeting December 16th, 2025? Yep.
sorry i just missed um what you were saying while i was joining us i i i said we don't have a rco
letter but there was a meeting on december 16 2025 correct and a second on february 17th
2026 as well okay and and yeah and and i was about to say it now is four dwelling units and
not six. Is that correct? Correct. Based on the request of the RCO. So I do believe we do. Okay.
Well, why don't I do this? Why don't I swear you in first? Okay. Sounds good. Why don't you state
your name is spelled for the stenographer? Sure. I'm Jennifer Bazitlow, B-A-Z-Y, D as in dog,
L as in Larry, O as in Oscar. 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 this property?
Sure. My client is the property owner, Andrew Wynn.
And our vice chair is a few options.
Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
Yes, I did say.
yes i did send an additional revised plan with proviso plan this morning as well though
okay thank you for that and do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate
to their accuracy i do okay thank you you can share your screen proceed with your case great
let me just get to the right
hold on one second give me one second i don't have the right screen open i apologize
Let me try this one more time. I apologize for that. Okay. We are at Zoom and we're going to
share. I apologize. I was working at something else when we were waiting for the hearing.
All right. Now we're here. All right. Thank you. So I have submitted a packet with information.
I'll just briefly go through it right now and then we'll come back to some of the important
documents. But we have the refusal, the deed showing ownership. This is a consolidation
deed these did used to be parcels okay proof of tax compliance this is our
notice that went out to all of the affected neighbors the addresses
notified and the proof of mailing we have zoning maps we're gonna come back
to a lot of this this is analysis of the uses on the block we'll come back to
that the previous use record some aerial views of the property we're coming back
to these as well photographs showing our posting I do want to just note that the
board had notified us that sign had come down it went up the same day we were
notified so it was back up that same day and then this is it is a vacant property
right now that's photos the rest of the block and our most current plans so let
Let me just start here saying this property was bought by my client in 2023 and consolidated
into one lot in 2024.
As you can see there's some cars parking on it right now but there's no structures there.
This property and this side of this block are all zoned RSA 5.
It is on South Broad Street between Jackson and Wolfe and across the street there's commercial
shopping centers and banks including the Starbucks, Subway and TD Bank. And we're
going to discuss that there's no single-family homes on this block at all. So just keep that
in mind as we talk about what we are proposing. As I mentioned before, let's just show the
documents of the prior use of these properties so there was two so 220 South
Broad last documented use was a two-family dwelling plus a I believe
dentist's office or doctor's office some sort of medical office and the last
documented use of 2218 was a four-family dwelling what we are proposing is a new
construction on this parcel. The parcel is around 2,900 square feet. It is a double width parcel.
And the proposed use is there's going to be a family-run Vietnamese restaurant on the first
floor. This restaurant is going to be owned and operated by the owner and developer of the
building as well. And then on each of the second and third floors, we are proposing
to have two residential units. They're each two beds and two baths. The unit sizes range from
883 square feet to 1020 square feet. So they are good size units. Like I said, this is a double
lot. So essentially there's one unit per floor per parcel, but because they're consolidated
and to one lot there are two units per floor but it's essentially having the density of one unit
per level I can go into the plans a little bit more let me just zoom in here let's see so we
have on the ground floor like I said is going to be the first floor is the restaurant the only
thing in the basement is going to be commercial storage so this is for use of the restaurant
All venting for this restaurant will be through the roof. You can see on our plans where you can
see the venting going through for the hood. I'm going to come back and talk about the restaurant
a little bit more after I talk about the residential units because I knew that was
actually some of the bigger concerns was the density of the residential units. So originally
we had proposed three units per floor for six units. And the reason we had come up with that
was if it had been a CMX2 zoning, like the block is kind of used, that's what the density would
would allow in CMX2. However, listening to the community group, we've reduced this down to these
allow in CMX2. However, listening to the community group, we've reduced this density.
four really nice, really good size units, two bedroom units, two baths. You can see we have
walk-in closets in some of them, in-unit laundry, good size kitchen, living area, dining area.
You know, the primary bedroom has its own bathroom. So they're really nice units. There's going to be
additional trash storage areas in the hallway,
which will be ventilated so that there's not odor issues.
And there'll be commercial trash pickup
for both the residential
and commercial portions of this building.
There is a roof deck, we'll talk about that.
It's not going to be for the tenants,
it's really just to access the roof.
There's the roof structure, the door,
we agreed that the door will be locked
and the only person who has the key
will be the building owner.
so uh let's talk about the restaurant a little bit um
so this is like i said it's a family owned and operated restaurant it would be open seven days
a week from 9 a.m to 9 p.m commercial trash pickup during the day kitchen ventilated to the roof
this family is experienced restaurant owners they currently have um an operating restaurant in
Delaware, and they've previously operated restaurants in Philadelphia as well. They also
have experience in construction, both residential and commercial. So they know what they're getting
into. This isn't their first time either building, renovating, or running a restaurant or rental
properties as well. If we look at the current facade here, we are proposing mostly brick
facade. The change in roofing here is largely because this is where the cornice line is to the
next door buildings. So by creating this space, we're creating kind of maintaining that visual
cornice line with the adjacent buildings. The RCO had asked us to address some of the aesthetics
to make it a little more compatible with the surrounding buildings. So that's why we had some,
we changed the window shape for the commercial space. We added this bay window in the middle.
we considered other bay windows, but just because of the size of the building, they weren't able to
be code compliant. So we have the one bay window here. We have other windows that are kind of,
you know, more aesthetically pleasing than the original proposed, maybe more modern looking
windows. In the rear, you can see that each of the units in the rear has a little tiny balcony
space, you know, just a Juliet balcony to provide some, you know, outdoor access as well as these
windows um so you know that's you know we try to let's just go to the photos here i can show you
what the surrounding buildings look like so you can see the buildings on either side have those
those bay windows so we just wanted to add some of that um visual interest to our construction as
well to make it not um look you know obviously it's the modern building but obviously we want
it to fit in a little bit better um you can see across the street these are some of the
commercial properties. This is a church, I believe, that's two doors down. But let's talk a little bit
about the uses of this property or our proposed use in the surrounding. So we received three
refusals, two of which were use refusals. Like I said, this is zoned RSA 5. Let's go to the zoning
map here hold on one second um you can see on this block the opposite side is cmx2
this is all rsa5 except for the one on the corner and when you zoom out you can see that the block
to the north of cmx2 to the south is rsa5 however our block of south broad as well as the one below
is largely not single-family homes and are mixed-use properties and the other
side of broad is obvious is is zoned and used for commercial and mixed use so
let's just specifically I'm going to show you this this kind of spreadsheet
that I put together actually let's look at photos first so you can see here like
I said across the street is our Starbucks you can see that these are
office spaces there's a retail store on the other side when you look at some of the other ones you
can see the bank and then on this side you see some of the other commercial properties on south
broad on this block of south broad so i did an analysis of how these properties on this block
are used and i think this is really helpful to showing what we're proposing and how it fits in
both use-wise and density-wise. As you can see, these are all of the parcels on this block.
If you go, the even side is our side,
If you go, the even side is our side, the odd side is the opposite side abroad.
the odd side is the opposite side abroad.
There's not a single family home.
They range from one residential unit plus a commercial space
to a nine residential unit building,
to pure commercial and everything in between.
So there's 11 mixed use,
two multi-family and four
purely commercial properties on this block.
And like I said, it does continue if you go and do
an analysis on the block up and down from Broad Street. Similar is what I'll say. So if this
property were zoned, so what I did here is I looked at the zoning, how it's actually the last
permitted use or what's obviously, I couldn't find the permit for the funeral home, but it is a
funeral home there. They're lot size. And what I did is that I did this analysis kind of, of
the square foot per residential unit and where we fit in with our proposed four units here.
So really just showing that we're in a lower density than many of these other existing
properties. So eight of the properties have less square footage per residential unit,
four have more. The median of all of these is in the mid-500s, and we're coming in at about 720
square feet per residential unit per post. The next analysis here is that if these properties
were zoned CMX2, or in the case if it's just only residential RM1, how many units would be allowed
per their, in those zoning districts, and then versus how many are actually in these buildings.
so if you see zero that's that's you know they have three units they would be
allowed three units in CMX2 if you see a negative that means that they have less
units than would be allowed and a positive number means that they have
more units than would be allowed so in that with that analysis we have three of
these three of these properties have what the number would be that would be
allowed three have more six have less of those six four have one less and two have two get less
we are proposing two less units than would be allowed for our square footage if this property
was zoned cmx2 like these properties are being used and i only bring this up i know that that's
not how it's zoned but you know when you look at the law it's clearly not the correct zoning based
on how this property is used its location we got to look to some sort of analysis and so that's
That's where I came up with CMX2 as the thing that makes the most sense.
So just showing that right here, what we're proposing is a lower density, a less intense
use than the existing properties on this block.
Thank you.
So I think you got that.
I just also want to say it's Broad Street.
We're located next to great public transit access so this will have a minimum impact
on traffic, congestion, all that sort of stuff.
The other thing, the other one was for maximum occupied area, and I just want to show here, we are meeting and exceeding the rear yard requirements.
We have a 16 foot rear yard plus a four foot alley.
So the rear of our property is going to be 20 feet away from the neighboring property line.
And as you can see in these photos as well, in the aerial views, many of these properties
are actually at or very near 100% occupancy.
So we have plenty of space, even though we're not technically meeting the open space area,
we have a really large backyard still.
And we were building actually shorter than the surrounding buildings.
So we did meet with the RCO twice.
The first time we obviously proposed six units, their biggest concern was the density.
So we came back, they asked us to come back and also make some of those aesthetic changes
that they asked for, visual interest, better windows, less modern.
We came back with five units, they asked for a further reduction and we agreed.
So they wanted to see four units and they wanted to see no more than two bedrooms per
unit, which we agreed to.
we also made other changes like I said the aesthetic changes we agreed that any
signage wouldn't be more than 40 square feet the commercial trash pickup and I
have a list of these provisos I can go through that we kind of agreed to no
dumpsters in the front of the property no tenant access to the roof commercial
trash pickup so we basically have done everything they asked us to do okay the
The only thing that we haven't, that we didn't specifically agree to, they were looking to
have one or two street trees in front of the property.
one or two street trees in front of the property.
We don't object necessarily, but there are some-
We don't object necessarily,
but there are some infrastructure things
that might prevent us from doing that.
So any proviso, we would ask for some leeway
to not have to do that if streets doesn't allow us
just to hold, not to hold up the project.
So I would just say,
I can go through those specific provisos for you
that they wanted and we agreed to.
But in summary, I just would say
this new construction property,
family-run Vietnamese restaurant,
for residential units it's in character and less dense with the surrounding properties on this
block it is the least variance possible as it's lower density and fewer fewer units than we're
seeing typically on this block it's also less units than historically have been on this property
um and less occupied area than the surrounding properties um it's not a single-family block
and so it would be a hardship for us to have to build single-family homes
why don't you bring your client on sure andrew are you here
andrew andrew one please raise your virtual hand
and if not him just seen or charlie
is there anyone in the audience relative to this property
andrew one is in the audience okay thank you
i don't know if i'm going to speak real quick
hello hi andrew hi sorry i was having andrew listen to me andrew could you please
Andrew, listen to me. Could you please state your name and spell for this themographer?
Yes, my name is Andrew Nguyen. First name is spelled A-N-D-R-E-W. Last name is spelled N-G-U-Y-E-N.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
All right. Counsel, please proceed.
Sure. Andrew, did you hear my testimony here today and believe it to be truthful and accurate?
And would you adopt it as your own?
yes thank you um hilary we we don't have a letter am i correct
that is correct and we also don't have any provisos well yeah so we we yeah we don't have
any letter or any requests for provisos from the rco um do you um miss bazillo do you have any
anything from the rco regarding the provisos or the their position i don't have anything in writing
no i just have what we what we um agreed to verbally in the meeting i can
um have mr win testified to that or i can testify myself
they didn't submit something no i mean they didn't submit them so we're you know we don't have to do
the rco at this point right i mean yeah i i don't i don't unless we'll see if there's anyone here
Is there anyone here representing the RCO and the audience?
Chair, I do not see any hands.
All right, questions from the board.
I know you mentioned provisos.
Since we don't have a letter from the RCO, what were the discussed provisos?
um so they were that um maximum four units which we obviously are happy to comply with
um no dumpsters stored in front of the property commercial trash pickup um
the signage would be limited to 40 square feet um the roof deck would remain locked and not accessed
by the tenants and um the trash would be stored like there would be trash clock ventilated trash
closets for the residential units and when you say the roof tech's not accessible by the tenant
they meant the commercial tenant um all tenants it's it's for the building owner's use to access
mechanicals and such on the roof.
They're going to put up
I'm sorry.
They said there is a pilot house?
Yes, there is a pilot house.
And there's no signage
proposed at this time, right?
There wasn't any on the application.
It was unclear. It was submitted
with a sign, but we didn't receive any
refusal, so I'm not sure if L and I
there's been some confusion about the sign
and I haven't gotten a quite
straight answer we discussed that if it's not if these zoning board does not
believe it's included in this we will resubmit while we're going through the
resubmit while we're going through the process of getting building permits and
process of getting building permits and stuff like that
stuff like that for this for the sign separately yeah you probably I think you
need to it's not included in the description so okay usually usually they
will it's either in there they'll say no signage it's just not in there yeah I
was unsure unfortunately that it's not included I understand that's understandable
that's kind of where we were too we were a little confused but other questions
Can you pull up the third floor plan again?
The residential unit?
Yeah, here we go.
So, and I know where Ms. Wynn is getting at, and so you can go ahead, Ms. Wynn.
You can do it.
But it seems somewhat specious that you're doing a switchback stair with a pilot house all the way to the roof deck and not providing access to the tenants.
Makes no sense, right? Because if you just provided access for the owner, you do a ladder.
Okay. You know, you don't need to do all that because once you get the HVAC units up there, that's kind of it. Doing a pilot house and putting rails up and all that is, eh, looks like you're going to do a roof deck for access for the tenants.
So that is very questionable that you would agree to a proviso to have no access for the tenants for the roof deck and have it designed in such a way that it only makes sense to have access for the tenants.
um so that's my comment on that the units are a decent size yeah I think that what it comes down
to is that it is the the owner who is going to be running the restaurant um I can let Andrew
maybe comment um that they wanted it for their use um but not for like a so for the restaurant
so for the restaurant use well not for the restaurant to have like Andrew Andrew would
you mind um maybe weighing in on let's bring them along please we're gonna get a little late here
yeah Andrew yes I'm here I Andrew what what's your intention with the roof
the intention for the roof is just for maintenance purposes but
we're not expecting to allow tenants up there and yeah it's really just for maintenance
to be clear I will reiterate what board member John said is true it was designed obviously for
made for use I mean it's fiberglass and it has a railing that goes above the other buildings next
door so I mean I do say like I would design it so that it doesn't look like it's intended for
use if that is the proviso you're going to agree to I understood okay other questions
questions or comments from the virtual audience are you okay just just one comment on the um if
the board decides to adopt with provisos um we just we need an updated proviso form that indicates
the reduction in units from six to four it's showing on the plans but it needs to be listed
on the proviso form for l and i thank you understood questions from the virtual audience
no further hands mr chair planning commission thank you chairman and good afternoon david effecto
with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the rsa 5 residential single family zoning at this location the city changed the zoning
in this neighborhood in 1998 in a council supported map change most of the buildings on the west side
of the 2200 block of south broad street have historically had multiple dwelling units and
professional offices the proposed multi-family dwellings with brown floor restaurant which
matched the character of the buildings on this block face the city planning commission recommends
that the board grant the proposed use variances for multi-family use and a sit-down restaurant
Hillary just just for curiosity if we go to uh provisos maximum four units trash stored inside
um yes we can we can do that um as well there's one page of revised plans what's that again one
page of revised plans and my 2025 0 0 5 8 9 4 21 18 south broad street i vote yes with proviso
maximum four units trash stored inside uh one page revised plans so it's the roof deck can you
provide on no roof deck access is that something you can provide or no um you could limit um
rooftop rooftop access um for maintenance only
Rooftop, rooftop access for maintenance only the question, but that doesn't answer his point about changing the design either. Right?
I mean, you could say no pilot house.
Um, and they have to be accessed another way with that.
It's not the neighbors.
right okay um let's leave it where we are okay okay mike all right uh mike johns my uh vote is
yes with provisos cheryl gaston my vote is yes with provisos tennetta graham my vote is yes with
provisos mcadams my vote is yes with provisos taiwan my vote is yes with provisos
thank you thank you and i will submit that revised proviso form today
all right number 16
mi 2025 006 618 616 westview avenue mark danik is the attorney
no cr letter we still don't have an rco with this hillary um oh no we did get so we did get an rco
letter today so it was a letter of unanimous support that's right that was this morning that's
mark dennick if you're still in a virtual audience please raise your hand to wait to be sworn in
thank you
let's be back in control chair sure thank you
Mr. Danek?
Hi, Mr. Danek, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Mark Danek, M-A-R-K-D-A-N-E-K.
I'm an attorney sorry good you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth I do you identify your client a relationship to the
property I represent Yohannes Yarka seller and Lucy Bell Yarka seller they
are the owners of the real estate and we do now have a letter from the RCO in
favor of it our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you
submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal simply to its accuracy
yes okay thank you you can share your screen proceed with your case
so it's usually a green button at the bottom yeah i'm just trying to get to the right
a bunch of things popped up uh should be this should be it uh do you see the the pdf program
yes with a cover letter yes yes we see the cover thank you um
uh my clients uh own a residential home in West Mount Airy um there's an existing garage
on the property that they intend to convert into an artist studio for Lucy, one of the owners of
the property. We were referred by L&I for a zoning hearing based solely upon the issue of the
garage itself. The existing garage is 300 square foot, where only 130 square feet is allowed.
um the uh use as an artist studio is permitted uh in the district um what i believe necessitated
this appeal is um if you look on the opa records they don't appear to have any record
of an existing garage on the property um but i can show you let's see what do you want to show
what he shows the car thank you yeah so this is the photo of the existing garage and you
You can see it's an old construction.
It matches the construction of the existing home.
And this is a side view.
You can see the slope of the hillside on the garage.
This is the other side of the garage. Another rear shot of the garage. And then this is the
This is the other side of the garage.
Another rear shot.
interior. The owners have primarily used it for storage ever since they've had the property since
March of 2014. Ellen Happ is the architect of record. She worked with Ellen and I on the plans.
You can see the existing home here. This is the garage. This is the driveway.
This has the stamps on it from, I believe, the Planning Commission and the other reviews.
These are elevations of the existing conditions of the garage.
And this is the proposal. You can see there will be doors on the front.
And the primary change here is going to be putting an angled roof on the garage to allow
more light in for the use of the artist studio.
Now, there is a 15-foot height limit for accessory structures.
We believe that we meet the 15 feet.
Ellen and I were shown these drawings that they didn't refer it for a height variance.
um and in this um drawing here mishap based upon the definition and the code she measured from the
average ground level to the average height of the roof in the center and she comes at 15 feet um
while they're not referred by lni to the board um we're to the extent the board deems that it
might be needed we would ask for that relief as well although we don't think it is um these are
the Google Maps showing the property. This is the street view. You can see the garage is back here.
This is the front of the house. Another shot of the driveway. We had a meeting with the RCO on
February 4th. They were in favor. I do have a copy of the RCO letter here for the board to the extent
I believe you have it though. And then the property was timely posted more than 20 days
in advance of the hearing. It was put on the front fence of the property. You can see that
posting here. So one of the issues that we do have is we don't have a tax clearance certificate
letter. And there appears to be an issue related to an old business of Lucy Bell Jarka Sellers,
an old business that is out of business now. So there apparently was missing tax returns. So
she did file the two missing tax returns. So we do have acknowledgements, but they're not yet
processed. So what we would ask the board to do if they're so inclined to grant the relief is that
we would ask that they just, you know, hold their decision until we are able to submit the tax
clearance certificate to the zoning board council. Mark, our attorney wants to say. Yes. Mr. Danik,
so we're just looking at the real estate taxes and those are current. So the board can vote on
this matter today. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, but we just couldn't get the tax clearance certificate
letter. So I just wanted to make sure that was clear. Right. I know it does wrap up other taxes
in it but we only look at the real estate taxes yeah okay um and then um johannes yarkaseller and
lucy bell yarkaseller they should be online as well as mishap um i could just call them
to confirm i want to have somebody to adopt your testimony yep
so uh johannes or lucy can you uh raise your hand in the um in the zoom window
they've already been promoted they should be in now oh okay great and then uh ellen happ can you
also raise your hand please who's ellen hap for oh she's the architect that she prepared why don't
we why don't we do this why don't we see if the board has any questions for the architect before
we okay okay perfect so let's just get your testimony adopted we'll go to the board and
see who has questions okay um uh uh lucy bell yarka um sellers uh were you present during my
presentation hold on is she is she here i'm here okay could you do me a favor could you please
state your name and spell it for the stenographer my first name is lucy bell l-u-c-y capital b-e-l-l
Well, my last name is Yarka Sellers, J-A-R-K-A hyphen Sellers, S as in Sam, E-L-L-E-R-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
And Ms. Yarka Sellers, were you present the entire time I was giving a presentation of your proposal?
And Ms. Yarka Sellers, were you present the entire time I was giving a presentation?
Just now?
And if you were called to testify, would you state everything that I stated and affirm it as your own?
And do you have anything else you'd want to add to the testimony?
I don't think so.
Great.
um thank you I have no further questions and for the questions from the board
so um would there still be uh the required the off-street parking uh somewhere on the property
given that you've been using the garage for the studio it permitted it's uh is that for me
yes your attorney or your for for you either one go ahead yeah well um do you you personally do
You have a long driveway on your property, Ms. Yarka-Sellers, correct?
Correct.
Do you still have the ability to have off-street parking if the garage is converted into this artist studio?
Yes, we're depending on it.
We don't put the car in the garage.
All right, thank you.
I saw that.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from our attorney?
I'm not at this time, Mr. Turner.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i do not see any further hands mr chair planning commission thank you chairman and good afternoon
david vecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the rsd3 residential single family zoning at this location the city
rezoned this neighborhood in 1970 and a council supported map change the appellant requests a
larger accessory structure that is then is allowed in rsd3 zoning district the proposed use is
consistent with the comprehensive plan's recommendation to provide for additional
housing types in the northwest section of the city the city planning commission recommends
that the board grant the proposed dimensional variance for an accessory dwelling struct for
an accessory structure for dwelling use thank you mi2025-006-618-616 westview avenue i vote yes
Michael Johns, my vote is yes. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes. Hi Owen, my vote is yes. Okay, so number 17.
MI 2025 007532 1601 205 Walnut Street, Augusta O'Neill. Oh you're still here, oh good.
But could you please state your name is spelled for a stenographer?
My name is Augusta O'Neill, which is spelled A-U-G-U-S-T-A.
My last name is O-N-E-I-L-L.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
We have a letter of non-opposition with provisos from Center City Residents Association.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
and do you waive the reading of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy
all right thank you you can share your screen proceed with the case
members of the board uh i'm here this afternoon representing the lessee of the property at 1601
05 walnut street um with me this afternoon is constantino's porphyris he's going to be the
franchisee for the um for the bakery as well as peter phillips he's the ceo of some days which is
bakery that's going to be going into this location assuming this application gets approved we're
proposing an 1100 square foot bakery in an 1100 square foot space on the first floor of the medical
arts building i'm going to pull up a picture of that building on my screen for anyone who might
not be familiar so this is the front uh of building this is the location where the bakery is going to
be going into it was previously a first trust bank um as i said before this is going to be a some days
bakery it's a franchise that was founded in 2024 by peter phillips who's sitting to my right this
morning or this afternoon mr phillips is an experienced entrepreneur he's also the founder
of chip city cookies it's a new york city bakery that's got over 40 locations um some days is a
fairly new concept it's a croissant based um sandwich and croissant based bakery they've
got five other locations in northern new jersey and new york city um mr corpheus's brother is
actually a franchisee in new jersey which is how he found out about the brand um the intent here is
to bring a high-end bakery to a corridor of the city that's got quite a few other high-end shops
right around the corner from our location is rag and bone on walnut street there's um
a lot of commercial activity there's a levain bakery there's starbucks there's all kinds of
all kinds of businesses like that so with respect to the operation of the seven days bakery all of
So this is like that.
So with your .
the prep work is going to be done on site at 1601 to 05 walnut street every one of their locations
is a fully from scratch bakery they will get deliveries of the ingredients to their store
two times a week and deliveries can be scheduled as needed the hours of operation for the bakery
are going to be 7am to 9pm. They hope to open in the fall of this year. I want to thank the board
for getting us in for a hearing a bit earlier. We originally scheduled for April, but we are in a
rush to get open because the anticipated open date is the fall. So thank you again to everyone who
helped to move this hearing up. My client expects that the construction of the space is going to
take between three to four months. They're only going to be making interior changes. They're
have cameras in the space and there will be an alarm system for their security system.
So included in my exhibit package I provided a copy of the proposed floor plan.
As you can see there's this entrance the entrance is on 16th street so you walk in and there's this
is the trash area there's about nine seats there's some counter seating there's a couple of tables
there's an order area a service area where they're gonna have the decanters
for coffees and things like that storage closet there's a pretty spacious back
of house kitchen kitchen area that's where the employers are gonna be
laminating the dough and making the pastries and doing everything to prepare
prepare all the food they are going to be baking using an electric convention
So they're going to have an exhaust that will pull some of the heat out.
The operation is fully electric. There's not going to be any gas required.
They are going to sell some products to places like DoorDash or Uber Eats or Grubhub.
But my client estimates about 95% of their operations is going to be walk-in with fewer deliveries expected.
The trash will be picked up daily.
Initially, before meeting with Center City Residence Association, we had proposed to have an alleyway and keep the trash there.
but CCRA made it clear that they don't like to see dumpsters they would prefer that we just
have the trash picked up daily so they asked for that proviso which my client was amenable to.
The recyclable materials are going to be kept separate they'll get picked up two to three times
a week those kind of materials will be kept in that storage closet that's on the floor plan.
The storage area is also going to be used for things like a step ladder cleaning supplies
and some paper goods. We did receive a referral for this application. This
requires a special exception because we're in an overlay the Center City
District Center City overlay district which requires that the takeout
restaurant use obtain a special exception. Included in my exhibit
package is just a copy of the criteria from the code for why we meet the
special exception standard. I would propose that there's part of a showing for a special exception where we have to show that there's not going to be any congestion in the public streets, overcrowding of land, impairing an adequate supply of light or air to properties, or causing a burden on public facilities. I would submit that this application certainly meets the criteria for a special exception. And in support of that, I would point the board to the
letter of non-opposition that we received from the Center City Residence Association. It's my
understanding that they never actually issue a letter of support. It's always a letter of non-opposition
if they're in support of an application. They like cookies. So my client, as part of his due
diligence, he did go out and meet with the neighbors of the property and met with the other
residents of the building he went to rag and bone and he did receive an astounding i was very
impressed by this he just received if i can find it um over 41 signatures on a petition of support
that he took around to um to neighbors of the property um so at this time i would like to
ask my client let me ask you a question before you start absolutely just out of curiosity how
you invent a building like that you i don't think it requires ventilation because okay all right
why don't you bring your client on all right could you please state your name sir and spell for the
stenographer yes sir it's uh peter phillips p-e-t-e-r-p-h-i-l-l-i-p-s all right do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do counsel uh mr phillips
did you have an opportunity to hear my presentation of the board this afternoon yes was everything
that i said true and accurate yes would you like to adopt it is it your own testimony yes
Um, just as a point of clarification, Mr. Phillips is the CEO, but my client, Mr. Porphyris is the...
just as a point of clarification mr phillips is the ceo but my client mr porphyris is the
tenant he signed the lease if in case that matters for who don't worry does that matter
testimony so he's the ceo of the business he's the ceo of some days but the actual um franchisee
who signed the lease for the location is constantinos who's behind me oh okay that's i mean
that's yeah he's if you want to have him adopt your testimony as well that's fine since he's here
All right, you're going to bring him up?
And when he come up, take that seat.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the sonographer?
Yes, Konstantinos Porphyrios, K-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-I-N-O-S-P-O-R-F-Y-R-I-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Counsel?
Did you have an opportunity to hear my testimony this afternoon?
Is everything I said true and accurate?
um would you like to adopt my testimony as your own yes thank you so much all right and the the
question is you're saying we don't need to vent this no venting thank you very much questions
from the board yeah um the one question i have is it does look like there's a current loading dock
on the moravian street side that has a roll-up gate that is not shown currently on your plans
And so I was just curious because it says that you're not changing the exterior of the building.
Yeah, so that's closed.
There's no access from that gate space.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, and CCRA also asked for proviso that all the deliveries have on 16th Street.
And we were, yeah.
Any other questions?
Questions from that?
Oh, go ahead.
Not questions, but no venting?
No venting required. My other concept is the same way when you're utilizing fully electric equipment and there's no open flames.
You know what? You know what? I can barely, I can barely hear him.
And you speak into him.
I'm sorry. So when you have an operation that's run fully electric with electric convection ovens, no open flames, no gas, you do not require a venting for the space.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
i just wanted to verify that the the premise the specific unit is 21-gf
was that again hillary 21-gf i believe is the specific unit that's being leased um i don't
know that that was called out in the lease um exactly i think that we would have i think we
pulled that from the lease okay yeah oh 21-gf yep that's right yes okay
questions or comments from the virtual audience yes I have a hand up from Wade
Albert I have allowed them to our multiple morning mr. Albert back in
shortly sure good afternoon good afternoon sir could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer sure wade albert w-a-d-e last name is a-l-b-e-r-t right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do please could please proceed sir
Thank you. So I am counsel for the Center City Residents Association, which is the coordinating RCO for this matter. And I am just speaking to just reiterate that CCRA voted to not oppose this project subject to certain provisos that we we talked about earlier.
One was that all trash generated by the premises will be stored internally and picked up from the 16th Street by a revutable and licensed trash disposable company.
Two, deliveries be made on 16th Street to avoid congestion on Chestnut Street.
And three, we understand that ventilation is not going to happen here, but the third proviso is that ventilation through the building roof will be provided if any cooking equipment requiring it by the code is utilized.
so i would respectfully ask that if the zba is inclined to grant this application that it
include the provisives thank you all right lori planning commission
thank you chairman and good afternoon david fecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx5 commercial mixed
use zoning at this location this part of the city's uh this part of center city still carries
its original 1933 least restricted commercial zoning designation the appellant has shown that
a takeout restaurant will have no detrimental impacts beyond what might reasonably be expected
the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed special exception for takeout
the city planning commission recommends the board grant a proposed special exception for takeout
restaurant right hillary what what you i i have trash stored anxiety anything you else you want
restaurant.
to recommend i mean i also have 21 gf too right so i mean the commercial the commercial trash
pickup and things are given um and the the ventilation appears to be a non-issue at this
point all right well it it is and it isn't can i just speak to that if if you are cooking foods
that are going to produce a significant amount of smoke or grease then the health department still
requires that you provide a venting so depending on what your menu is you um will need a venting
so we do deal with it in some capacity so what i meant is like we don't need a full ansel system
the way a normal restaurant would operate we do either include some kind of type 2 exhaust to pull
heat from the top of the oven or there are a ventless hood options that sit on top of the oven
as well that help reduce any kind of smoke and just help dissipate smoke and heat so there will
be something um it's just not a traditional ansel system that you would see in a full-on cooking or
gas right you need that i think we understand but they were still saying that they wanted that
vented through the roof yeah yeah our question was they said they said if if required right
the uh right yeah that's what i'm saying that whole if required do we want that because they
get that's not enforcement i mean i think it would be an issue if like if another business
came in afterwards and they had cooking that had that then they would be required to do it
All right, so MI-2025-007-532-1601-205 Walnut Street, I vote yes with proviso.
21 GF location only and trash stored inside.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Brian McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tywin, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you.
thank you thank you thank you you know just as a landlord i would not have
just give me give me a minute yeah so number
number 13 17 17 south street mi 2025 005 906 will be heard at 2 p.m
uh first first first time okay
Okay, so we have one case left from this morning.
So, MI 2025-005-906-1717 South Street, David Orphanides is the attorney.
good morning mr chairman oh good afternoon i should say i'm still in i'm in the mode for this
year you're in the morning because you had a morning case there right so um mr orphanetes
could you please uh state your name is spelled for the stenographer certainly my name is david
orphanetes i'm an attorney um here in philadelphia my last name is spelled o-r-p-h-a-n-i-d-e-s
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
My client is a tenant in the subject premises.
All right.
And I also have a letter of non-opposition from Center City Residents and a letter of support from North Washington Avenue Coalition.
And our chair has a few questions.
Certainly.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
And do you waive the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I think you can share your screen and proceed with the case certainly um hopefully my screen
is being shared let's see right now can you see my screen it's coming up right now it's
up yep okay it's up okay um um this should be fairly quick as you mentioned we have uh
This should be fairly quick. As you mentioned, we have a letter of non-opposition from CCRA, which is as good as you're going to get from CCRA, and we have a letter of support from NOAC.
we have a letter of
The subject premises is 1717 South Street. You can see area photographs here up on my screen right now.
the property let me zoom in a little bit here the property is a split zone property and you're going
to see in a second that this is a you can see on the zoning map but you can also you also see what
the zoning archives that creates a unique condition on this block in that South Street
is obviously a commercial corridor large number of the properties are zoned CMX2 which is a
neighborhood commercial residential mixed-use zoning classification however
because parts of the property some of the properties the difference between
the RSA 5 designation to the north for the portions of the properties or for
the properties the structures that front on Rodman Street to the north and the
portions that are CMX 2 do not coincide exactly where the property lines split
and you can see that in the map here where cmx2 kind of can't cuts across the rsa portion in a
number of lots including including our lot it doesn't matter much here because the proposed
use the personal services the fortune telling use is not permitted in rsa5 or cmx2 but it does
create a unique condition on the block and as mentioned um i'll show you in a couple minutes
just to allude to it this block has a lot of zoning variances on it but this property has been deemed
because the port large portion of it is cmx2 to be cmx2 by the um by the by lni um i have up here
photographs of historical photographs and the reason i have these up here let me just fix this
for a second there we go is that um this property like much of south street if you're familiar with
it has a history of a lot of vacancies particularly as of late since the pandemic but you can see here
the property 1717 south was vacant um as as recently as may of 2025 before my client signed
the lease. You can see here back to October 2024, vacant unit 2020, a vacant unit. It's a little
hard to tell here whether or not it was being used or not. There was a use back in the late teens
that continued for a number of years, 2018, 2017, 2016, back to 2014. And then you see again back
in 2012 you see a for rent sign here so this property has a history and again like other
properties on south street or on this particular block of vacancy we feel that this is a reason or
a basis a rationale a hardship for the granting of the variance in uh in this situation we have
photographs and let me just go back to here again um of the property here you have the photograph
of the property um my client's uh business so my client is in operation um when she entered into
the lease with the landlord i believe both she and the landlord believe that the use was permitted
given the commercial classification it's it's a common um mistake or oversight that's made
um people don't realize that just because it's zone it's a commercial zoning classification
that some commercial uses are not automatically permitted she commenced operations and then
discovered that the use was not permitted which prompted this this particular application but this
is her existing use right now her she operates mainly predominantly in the front portion of the
space but as you look down South Street this is looking east on the north side property two doors
down which used to be pumpkin the pumpkin restaurant is now vacant property further down
the block oops here we go you can see here pumpkin is vacant property down at the northwest corner
of 17th and um and south street is vacant it's been vacant for a long time actually did took that
property to the zoning board many years ago there's a parking garage it's uh located on the south side
of the block for a large portion of the block and then as you round and you can see here as
you round back um to the west this is a long-standing bacon property on the uh southeast
corner of the block across from walgreens and then as you wind back around again um you
across from walgreens and then as you wind back around again um you can see here a vacancy
another vacancy here i believe before you get back to the properties that but my client's property
um you can see here so there's there's there's a mix of vacancies um different commercial uses
on the property on the block and we again we we believe that this is a factor that warrants the
granting of a variance in this particular situation. My client also resides at the
property. She and her children reside in one of the apartments above. So she lives and works at
the property. And again, we believe that, and I can show you here, I have a list of all the
properties on the block that have been granted variances by the zoning board, different variances
over the years because again uh south street um is a little difficult particularly these days um
to to have occupied and you can see those properties include 1701-09 south street 1723
south street 27 but i don't think i think we're okay you don't have okay um the notice of refusal
is simply um for the use as i mentioned uh cmx2 although it is a commercial residential mixed use
um does not allow uh personal services fortune telling services other personal services are
permitted but fortune telling is not and that's the reason why we're here uh to the zoning board
today um the we did submit the tax clearance uh posting photographs uh with the exhibits that we
submitted to the zoning board and with that i'd like to have my client adopt my statements and
answer any questions that the board may have my client is mitchell alexis mitchell yes that's
That's correct.
See that individual in the virtual audience.
Miss Mitchell.
Alexis Mitchell, if you're out there, please raise your virtual hand.
I think she wasn't 100% certain how to raise her hand when I spoke to her about an hour ago.
So, David, you're an officer of the court.
We will take your testimony.
Questions from the board?
So, hours of operation, and how does this work exactly?
So, she is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.
um she exists she lives there she doesn't necessarily sit there waiting for people that
they bring the bell she'll come downstairs she does see also see customers outside of the uh
outside of the property okay and that's seven days a week or is this seven days a week yes
okay she said she had received a text she says waiting for the host to start the meeting
I'm not sure that was a 202 so she seemed to be here. Okay. I think we're okay, David. Okay. Any other questions from the board? No, I'm good. Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
David just wanted to clarify the use. Is it just on the 1st floor or is it 1st floor and basement? It's only it's only the 1st floor. Okay. Hi. Thank you.
is that number two no hillary didn't you didn't you have a number two
i'm just curious that's all right now is is this considered unit number two
we're just trying to figure out where the well no so so the so she's unit so the applicant
address is unit two because she's upstairs okay all right so first floor only yeah it's only the
first floor the upstairs are residential units and then downstairs just utilities and storage
why should your comments from the virtual audience
chair i do not see any hands raised planning commission and just real quickly this is i
mean here are some photographs i mean that's the that's where she basically sits in the
front when she sees people but she also has an area in the back where she sees customers
and clients as well and here are the floor plans right okay um planning commission good
afternoon sorry uh good afternoon nina solomonic for the planning commission
could you spell your name for the stenographer yes nina nina solomonic s-o-l-o-m-o-n-i-c
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes please proceed the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx2 commercial
mixed-use zoning at this location the property has a documented history of commercial use
the property has a documented history of commercial use while pennsylvania law and
while pennsylvania law and philadelphia
philadelphia law prohibits fortune telling for money this law is based on biased assumptions
about people over money ancestry the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the
proposed use variance for fortune telling thank you um mi2025-005-906-1717 south street i vote yes
with proviso first floor only michael johnson my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso tennetta graham my vote is yes with proviso
ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso ty owen my vote is yes with proviso
thank you is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called from this morning
i do not see any hands raised mr chair all right so um good afternoon everyone my name
is bill bergman and i will be chairing this meeting of the philadelphia zoning board of adjustment
with me is our vice chair tenetta graham president mr chairman board secretary
cheryl l gaston president mr chairman board member michael johns president mr chairman
board member of tyo win president mr chairman board member ryan mcadams president mr chairman
also here is our attorney hillary emerson our executive zoning board director ian hagerty and
our board administrator lakeisha dandy recording of this hearing will be posted on the bzba website
by participating you consent to be recorded this is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities
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testifying any person may enter an appearance to become an interested party to a case
There are three ways. You can identify the case address in your Zoom webinar. You can see a staff member, or you can call the ZBA website line by the close of business.
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so let's look at our schedule for this afternoon
so um mi 2025 004 033 1608 to 14 walnut street that case has been continued to 5 13 26 at 2 p at
2 p.m number two mi 2025 006 726 5900 drexel road that case has been continued attorney moving
party mi 2025 006 sorry i think that the first case i'm just trying to pull it up i think that
was also yet number one was supposed to be attorney moving party as well not given
specific dates okay so 1608 to 14 walnut street mi 2025 004 033 that case is attorney moving party
mi 2025 006 774 63 40 musgrave that case is continued to 5 13 26 at 2 p.m
MI 2025-006-908, 1500-04 at Germantown Avenue, that case is continued to 513.26 at 2 p.m.
And MI 2025-007-020, 2408 West Lehigh Avenue, that case is continued to 513.
2408 West Lehigh Avenue. That case is continued to 513, 26 at 2 PM. Are there any other requests for continuance?
I do not see any hands raised for continuances.
I think Mr. Jindis had a comment about the last case that you continued.
Good afternoon.
2400, and you've already been sworn to sworn. 2400, 2408 Lehigh?
Yes, I will be taking over this matter from Mr. Ward due to his health issues he has had some
difficulties moving the case forward. I'm okay with the continuous. I was actually going to
request one. Okay. Ian had put it all down earlier this morning. Oh, okay. All right.
Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good one. Okay. Okay. Let's look at our add ones.
MI 2025 004 512 757 South 5th Street I vote yes with proviso revive plans one page
stamped by ZBA March 18th 2026. Michael Johns my vote is a yes with proviso
Cheryl Gaston my vote is yes with proviso Tanetta Graham my vote is yes with proviso
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Hi, Owen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Number two, MI 2025-005-850, 416 East Woodland Street.
I vote yes with Proviso.
Approved use is a lot line adjustment to create three lots from lot 416 East Woodland
with one dwelling unit single family living on each lot no roof decks on roof or roof deck
access structures I'm not on this one oh I'm sorry uh Cheryl Gadsden my vote is yes with provisos
Tanetta Graham my vote is yes with provisos Ryan McAdams my vote is yes with provisos
I know I vote is yes with proviso.
Number three, MI 2025-006-964-3136 Melville Street.
I vote yes with proviso per refusal dated 3-16-26.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Hi, I win.
My vote is yes with Proviso.
Number four, MI 2025-007217, 3043 Miller Street, I vote no.
I'm not on this one also.
Sheryl Gaster, my vote is no.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is no.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is no.
Hi, I win.
My vote is no.
number five mi 2025 000 492 65 15 ridge avenue i vote yes
michael johnson my vote is yes charles gaston my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes i win my
vote is yes okay let's go to our regular list number one twenty twelve fifty four to fifty
166 South Asia MI 2025 006 632 Mr. Orphanides good afternoon good afternoon again uh Mr. Chairman
members of the board I just wanted to point out that this case is listed in the chat as being
continued attorney moving party my my client just called they called me a little little worried so
I I just want to make sure that everybody knows that's not the case and nobody jumped off I think
the case before it was attorney moving party that uh that uh error has been fixed sir excuse me
mr orphanetes
mr orphanetes yes
all right so 1254 to 56 south 18th street correct it's your case right yes state your name because
you've already been sworn correct uh david orphanides last name is spelled o-r-p-h-a-n-i-d-e-s
and could you identify your client their relationship to the property
certainly my client is mhjl holdings comma llc which is the owner
certainly my client is mhjl holdings comma llc which is the owner of the property and there's
a letter of unanimous support from point breeze of cdc correct um our vice chair has a few questions
for you sir certainly good afternoon um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days
in advance of this hearing i did and do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their
accuracy uh i'll stipulate to its accuracy sure okay all right thank you you can share the screen
and proceed with your case sure and the re the reason that i i half chuckle is um because uh
this case was previously or a case very similar to this was previously before the zoning board
you have a picture of the property up in front of you this is uh 12 um as you can see um it's
to 1254 to 56 South 18th Street.
My clients purchased the property back in the late teens
and we actually went to the zoning board
for an addition to the property,
which you can see here at the rear,
to utilize the upper floors for residential units,
for residential units,
and for the ground floor to be utilized as an architect.
The architect for the project put this application in
back then. And I'm going to pull that up right now. And you can see this right here. It was
application 770030. The architect put the application in for the addition plus four
dwelling units and a vacant commercial space at the ground floor. And you can see here that it
was indicated on the plans. I was brought in when the notice of refusal was issued in April of 2017.
Again, you can see the ground floor indicated vacant commercial space.
Back at that time, some people were applying,
and L&I was issuing permits for vacant commercial spaces.
I never felt comfortable with that.
I reached out to the examiner back at that time and asked for that to be changed,
that I wanted a use that was to change the application to a use that was either uses permitted in CMX1 or CMX2,
MX2, what have you. Something that was more specific. Didn't make the change. We went through
the zoning process. And you can see here that a zoning board variance was granted at 30484.
And that variance included the vacant commercial space, which was what got permitted.
My client went ahead and redeveloped the property, pulled building permits. I have copies of the
construction drawings, pulled building permits, finished the building, got a CO or certificate
of completion. The residential units are all finished. You can see your photographs of them
that I've included. Really nicely done. Each of the units, they're occupied. They're having
problems getting a tenant at the ground floor commercial space. As you know, as I mentioned
just before on South Street, brick and mortar commercial spaces are difficult to rent right
Right now, they did get a tenant, and it's the specific use that we're coming in for
today along with general CMX1 uses.
But what happened is when I applied for the use of basically personal services, yoga studio
and other classes, enrichment classes, which we'll get into a little bit, Ellen and I said,
no, we're going to issue a refusal.
And I said, well, wait a minute, we got approval for a vacant commercial space, and I had an
exchange with Hillary about it. Hillary's aware of that. And it ultimately, it was decided that
that variance that my clients got back in 2017, the permit in 2018, for vacant commercial space
apparently wasn't worth anything. And which is why I brought it up with the examiner when I first
got to notice the refusal. Needless to say, we're back to actually do what we tried to do back in
2017, which is put in an application for uses that are permitted. And you can see here uses that are
personal services and other uses that are permitted in the CMX1 zoning district. And you can see
because of the property is owned RSA5, commercial uses under CMX1 are not permitted. In this
situation, we have a specific use because we have my client as a tenant. Again, they went in and
occupied the space. Everybody was under the understanding that this was going to be allowed
given the prior zoning permit. But personal services, while allowed under CMX1, is not allowed
in RSA5. And under RSA5, you're not allowed to have more than one principal use. In CMX1, you are
allowed. So these are the three variances that we have here. So we're basically going back through
the process to redo what was done in 2017.
to redo what was done in 2017.
And I think just as we had the support of the community
back in 2017, and you can see here,
here's a letter of support.
It was another community group down there
that we had full support back then,
there was seven in support.
And as you've mentioned,
we have a letter of support presently
from the Point Breeze CDC.
And again, now it's up to 14 people that were present that voted in support, unanimous support for the project.
The current application, again, is all uses that are permitted in CMX1.
Specifically, the ground floor use is a personal services.
The business is called Social Beings.
And here's a little bit about their business.
It was founded by Jennifer and Sebastian Hernandez.
I believe at least Jennifer is on to answer any specific questions you may have regarding social beings.
But different classes, different movement classes, they have – I've checked their current schedule.
They have between one and four classes a day.
The yoga movement type classes tend to be 45 minutes to an hour.
The workshop type classes can be several hours depending on what they do.
They also do private training, as you can see here.
And back here are some examples of some events that when I pulled this, which was when we had our community group meeting, were some things that were scheduled.
So it's very much community-based.
It's not just a yoga studio.
They have things that try to pull in members of the community, which I think when we were presenting to the community, those in attendance found to be greatly beneficial to the community.
here are some interior photos you can see here of the space of the ground floor
you know multi-function multi-use multi-functional space you can see that it's set up with things for
yoga studio movement classes and then on this particular day they were i believe they were
doing a workshop um and you can see it was right around i think christmas time back then
um you can see here's a copy of the deed showing my clients owning the property
tax clearance a copy of the posting photographs we posted both on the
south 18th street side of the property as well as on the wharton street side you can see here
and a copy of our 14-303 notice that went out.
There are, just so you know, on the other corners,
on the southwest corner, I took that property to the zoning board
and the variance was granted.
I'll get to that in a minute.
Variance was granted for a restaurant at the ground floor,
and you can see that right here, and they're up and running.
and then on the southeast corner i did the original variance for the conversion of this
church into a multi-family dwelling my clan ultimately sold it to another developer who
i believe completed it and there might have been some modifications to the application so
you have four you know four corners here and three of them have been two of them have already been
granted well three of them have been granted variances including this one previously and
again we're just back here to uh activate the commercial use at the ground floor and to allow
for the zoning permit, for the current use, and not to require, given how difficult it is
to lease brick and mortar commercial spaces, the idea is allowing the least impactful commercial
mixed residential zoning classification for the property, and that is the CMX1 zoning
classification, so that in the future, hopefully, social beings is here for a very long time,
But in the future, if the space ever becomes vacant, finding a tenant and then making them or asking them to wait several months to go through a variance process in order to be approved is a very difficult sell for a landlord, which is why we wanted this specific accommodation and this variance granted, the CMX-1 uses, all CMX-1 permitted uses, and then specifically here, the personal services.
and i have my client on the line and i also believe jennifer hernanzas is on to adopt my statements
yeah mark hammerberg
he's the mh of the mhjl
mr chair council they will be rejoining as a panelist shortly
hi there hi sir could you please state your name is bell for the sonographer yes mark hammerbird
Hi, sir. Could you please state your name is spelled for the sonographer?
Yes. Mark Hammerberg.
Could you turn your volume up, Mark? We're having a hard time hearing you.
Sure, sure. Is that better?
All right. Try to just go as loud as you can.
Leaning closely, maybe that's better.
Mark Hammerberg. M-A-R-C-H-A-M-M-A-R-B-E-R-G.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
i do counsel um mark um what is your position with mhjl holdings llc i'm one of two partners
i'm the 50 owner okay great and did you hear the statements that i made to the zoning board this
afternoon i did and are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge they are and would
you adopt them as your own i would yes thank you all right do you have another client up there uh
Yes, Jennifer Hernandez, who is one that she and her husband, Sebastian, one of the partners that run social beings and I believe she's on as well. And I'd like to just have her adopt my statements. And then between the 2 of them, they, and the 3 of us, we can answer any questions that the board has Jennifer.
We were joining as a panel of short, Mr. Chair, thank you.
Hi, hi, Jennifer. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
yeah jennifer hernandez and that's h-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do also uh jennifer um you are one of you and
sebastian your husband are one of the owners of social beings yes and did you hear the statements
that i made today uh regarding social beings i did yes and were they true and correct to the
that's your knowledge hopefully i did a good job yes and uh would you adopt them as your own yes
okay thank you all right questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
um i didn't know if we wanted to to clarify this but the commercial uses on the
first floor and then the already approved residential uses would be on above that
correct that that's is the way i submitted i um and we don't have any problem with that proviso
um the ground i have photos of the sellers sellers just utilities and storage um right
right no i just noticed they didn't i i figured it out by looking at it but i know they didn't
clarify on the the refusal that that was that's kind of a change from the vacant space on the
first floor to these the specific uses so yeah i i don't uh we can get into this another time
but my understanding is that lni is getting away from unless the zoning board uh has the restricts
it to a particular area of the property they're not writing refusals anymore that limit a use to
a specific portion yeah not not usually no not through the zoning process we do not have an issue
with that um my client spent a lot of money making the upper units david we're good we're good
questions or comments from the virtual audience
mr chair i do not see any further hands raised thank you planning commission
ina solomonic the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
existing residential single family zoning the property has documented prior use as multi-family
the proposed use is consistent with neighboring corner properties the city planning commission
recommends that the zoning board grant the variance for multi-family and personal services
use first floor only okay first floor only is fine yeah that would be fine because it's only
they're um they're recognizing from what how i'm reading this they're recognizing the
multi-family is already existing so it's just the first floor mi 2025 006 632 1254 to 56 south
18th street i vote yes with proviso first floor only and sorry mr chair would specify commercial
uses on first floor only because there is a multiple principle use commercial lot commercial
use first floor only yes thank you instead of commercial can we say the cmx1 uses so that
there's no question i just said commercial uses because it has personal services and it says
commercial uses as allowed under cmx1 so i was trying to encompass both of them that's great
that's fantastic yeah that's fantastic i just didn't want to get back into the commercial thing
no last zoning permit have that happen all over again you know we could say approved approved
commercial uses um on first floor only and then that should cover everything
approved commercial uses on commercial uses first floor only okay michael johns my vote is yes
with proviso sure yes sure guest and my vote is yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes
tennetta graham my vote is yes with proviso mcadams my vote is yes with proviso iowen my
with proviso mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel thank you maybe excuse yes you can thank you uh number
three am i am i twenty twenty five zero zero six six three five fifteen seventeen west cumberland
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
It's your first time today?
Oh, wow.
But I think we have two in a row.
Am I correct?
Yeah, I have three, so I don't know.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Well, I see.
Well, we'll get to it.
All right.
So, Mr. Nockamson, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Mr. Nockamson, could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Uh, so my client here, uh, is, uh, Wasky Construction LLC, uh, in a virtual army, uh, next to me to
left is Samuel E. Wise, uh, E. Wise, right? Yes. The owner of the property. Um, somehow I
didn't, uh, I didn't. So just for the point, there's a letter of support with provisos from
all in the family CDC. Okay. That's correct. We're aware of that, right? That's correct.
our vice chair has a few questions thank you good afternoon have you submitted your documents and
exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes we have and do you waive the read another
refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do okay thank you share your screen and proceed with your
case thank you
As the chairman stated, we met with the community. I believe it was either a letter of non-opposition or support with certain provisos, which we accept.
This is a rather dilapidated property just off of Broad Street on West Lumberland Street.
During my presentation, I'll present 11 exhibits, and then Samuel will be sworn in, and he'll have some questions for him regarding my presentation.
Uh, so this is an RSA five property, um, where we originally seeking, uh, three family dwelling
here. Um, we, you know, the property to the right of us is a duplex and there's many examples of
multifamily use nearby, which is not uncommon given that we're basically a block away from
broad street. Um, my client after meeting with the community agreed, uh, that, uh, to provide
PROVISO TWO RESIDENTIAL UNITS, A MAXIMUM OF TWO RESIDENTIAL UNITS, ALSO AGREED TO PROVISO
NO LIVING IN THE BASEMENT, JUST UTILITIES AND STORAGE IS DOWN THERE FOR THE FIRST LEVEL UNIT.
SO, AND I BELIEVE THAT ACCOUNTS FOR THE PROVISO. IF I MISSED ANYTHING, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
TRASH IS STORED OUTSIDE ON THE FIRST FLOOR FOR UNIT NUMBER ONE. THERE'S A VENTILATED TRASH CLOSET
for unit number two um on you know as part of part of unit number two we met with the community
again they were supportive based on those provisos uh you know next door neighbor is in support of
this project again that's multi-family next to us the 2035 lower north district plan also has this
as a non RSA five property so I think the City Planning Commission has accounted for the fact
that we're so close to North Broad Street that this should have multiple units in it and you
can see the mixed zoning here as well and you can see how far close we are to Broad Street as well
as well as the Broad Street line again very dilapidated property Samuel purchased this
property with the intention of reviving it uh you know to its you know former glory
and then you can see even here he's had to board up the property because people have
you know trespassed onto the property so he's trying to protect you know having you know
trespasses in there so he's looking forward to hopefully developing this property as a duplex
uh this is cumberland street to the right of the property uh until after the property
And then simple plans and drawings. We're not changing the shell in any way. We're, you know, again, it's a rather large structure. And again, we changed our floor plans based on the comments from the community. But, you know, you walk in here to the left, there's a study area, there's a bathroom here, dining room, and a kitchen area, and a bedroom.
dining room and a kitchen area and a bedroom
and then if you go up a flight of steps instead oops sorry let me go backwards
go up a flight of steps instead you have a similar type of open floor plan here where you have a
dining room kitchen area a sitting area two bedrooms here with a bath and then you have
on the third floor again existing we haven't changed it basically a bedroom and a bathroom here
we met with the community i think it was a well-attended meeting we met with them on
february 10th at 6 30 p.m we emailed that notice to them a few weeks beforehand as we typically do
showing proof of mailing of the notice that went to 115 addresses these are the addresses we sent
to along with proof of mailing to those addresses showing that we filed this application for appeal
on behalf of waski construction llc along with the notice refusal and the project information form
the deed to the property showing that wax ski construction llc is the owner of the property
they purchased it in j in june of 2025.
and then the certificate of tax clearance wall shows a balance due it's not due until march 31st
of 2026. I would ask that Samuel be sworn in. I have a couple questions. Samuel, could you please
state your name and spell for the stenographer? Thank you. I'm Samuel Awusi. Awusi goes by E-W-U-S-I-E.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes. Counsel? Yes. Samuel, you heard everything I had to state about this zoning matter.
yes is it true and correct yes and do you adopt this your own testimony
yes specifically to provide those with you know maximum of two residential units
and no living in the basement yes thank you questions from the board
okay how many units are we talking about here two and how is this the first floor has one unit
That's correct. And then the second and this part of the third is a bi-level. That's correct. Okay. And can I see that first floor unit again, please?
Let me get through this.
Let me try to do it. Otherwise, my computer's jamming up a little bit.
Oh, it's just a slow computer today.
Oh, I think it's right here.
So you come in this entry away here, you make a left, there's a study here.
there's a bathroom here um maybe one of the things I didn't bring up is the way to get out
to the rear is right here and there's a breezeway here and then here's the rear yard and this is
where the garbage would be stored this is the dining room and living room area and then this
is the bedroom so the bathroom is down here that's right and the bedroom is back here so
yeah and there's like a little study here too so i think you you know my little pet peeve here these
we're bathrooms i know i've heard it i'm where you have to wander all through the living room
and in the kitchen to get to the bathroom at three o'clock in the morning it's to me it's not
a good setup but no i hear you i mean so when you're dealing with these older row homes it's
is a little bit tougher um you know we're not expanding the building structure in any way
we're not doing any really you're not doing any structural work on at least that unit so we're
trying to keep it as is and we're agreeing not to do any living in the basement as such too so okay
too so okay so just just saying other questions i think it's more of a comment is that it is
Just, just saying.
that the existing layout in the first floor i'm sorry is that the existing layout on the first
one is existing layout or is this a gut job um that's existing layout so basically i'm just
whatever that's all there i'm just making it like look better that's all okay i think um you know
understanding that you reduced from three units to two i think that second unit the bi-level unit
was most likely to be rented to a family it's three bedrooms and i just you know the comment
that there's no bathtub like you have a bathtub in the first floor unit that's one person
and typically families need a tub if they have younger kids and you've got two full bathrooms
and they both have stand-in showers, so I would just think about that.
So, in Unit 2, on the second floor, that bathroom is supposed to be a bathtub,
so that's a correction I'm happy to make.
It's supposed to be a bathtub.
That's supposed to be a bathtub.
It's the third floor that it says.
It doesn't look like it's long enough to be a bathtub,
so you might want to look into your configuration.
and then i think the second question is just about trash storage for the
bi-level unit because it doesn't look like there's a
ventilated trash closet or a laundry oh is it the laundry room
here's obviously the the i think the floor plans need some work
yeah yeah i i think i agree i agree yeah when i looked at these floor plans i
looked at that but i think once he's hopefully has the
approval of this board he's going to revisit those floor plans with his architect okay i looked at it
too also you got a lot of like hallway all the questions other questions questions from our
attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
mr chair do you not see any hands for the matter planning commission
ina solomonic with the planning commission the property was remapped from commercial mixed use
cmx2 to the existing yeah existing residential single family rsa5 zoning in a community remapping
in 2014. the appellant has not shown that the property cannot possibly be used in strict
conformity with the zoning code and the variance is therefore unnecessary the city planning
commission recommends that the zoning board deny the variance for multi-family use mr church just
you know just can i just comment sure you've got it's it the philadelphia 2035 plan actually
recommends that it this property revert back to that zonia cmx2 which will allow two
residential units plus one commercial unit and there's many examples on the block of multi-family
there there are non you know multi-family sorry designation thank you both of you so mi 2025
006 635 1517 west cumberland street i vote yes with proviso maximum two dwelling units
no household living in the basement michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Thia Nguyen, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Thank you.
So we're going to go to number seven.
MI 2025, 006-778-322 Milner Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
mr knockamson just for the record could you state your name alan knockamson all right could you
identify your client a relationship to the property uh yeah my client selected me paul
kushner the owner of the property okay and um there's a letter of support with proviso from
the 13th ward rco our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted
your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes we have and do you waive the
read another refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do okay thank you you can see your screen
proceed with the case thank you mr chair i also believe there's a letter from solo yeah i see i
see there's a letter here from um 13th ward in favor there's also a letter from solo germantown
um um they have uh also uh provisos and there's a letter of opposition from swamp poodle so we
don't have the swamp poodle i did know the solo one so i'm just you know the swamp poodle one
just came in today i can forward that to you all right thank you thank you so this is what i would
just woman i i see where they their um letter of opposition but they also have some things
their um letter of opposition but they also have some things in yeah but both solo family dwelling
certificate box fee all trash and recycled stored outdoors etc but go ahead why don't you just yeah
i mean and again i think we embrace all that i think you know this is 322 milan street this is
a really unfortunate incident i i know how the board feels about like legalization the structures
this my client's not a developer he hired a licensed contractor to do the work and that
and we'll show you that that that it was he was a licensed contractor until he lost his license
and i don't know if it was we're the tipping point or this was just uh illustrative of what
he was doing back in the day but it's a real shame and it's unfortunate that we're here today
and this is a single family structure so it's not like we're trying to squeeze in more units to do
in addition to this property so we'll review the many exhibits that are part of our presentation
and we'll go straight to the refusal right basically we did this we enclosed the porch area
we we added some square footage on top of the porch area and in the rear we did like a little
overhang like in in the back and we have two refusals right so first our building facade
doesn't match the building facade to the right of us so that's the first refusal and then the
refusal in the rear is because of the rear yard depth. But you'll see from our drawings that
it's in a regular shaped lot, you know, where the longer part of the lot meets that nine foot
rear yard setback. And everyone else has what we're looking to do, what we did do,
we thought legally. So it's not out of character. It's a single family house. It's a single family
house. And it's just, it's a shame. And so we met with the 13th Ward RCO committee, which was a
coordinating rco you know charles karn who i don't know if he's online but basically you know
his question was what we're going to make him tear down this this this you know structure um
and that was basically the gist of the conversation there were some people who were against it they
were like well it was illegal you got to tear it down but it's different when someone's being
defrauded versus when someone's defrauding the system and you know mr kushner you know
We'll tell you what he does for a living, but he's not a developer.
He does good for his job.
He does good for people, and he's just hoping that the board understands that, and he understands
that this is only the first step of the process, that he needs to get a CO, which he embraces.
Whatever that takes in terms of modifications inside, structurally, whatever he needs to
do, which he'll deal with, he'll deal with it.
so why don't you show us what yeah so um and again i think solo and the sound swamp pool said the
same thing of course we're going to get a ceo we have to um in terms of like something to the effect
of like no mailboxes in the front like solo said that i was like we're not dealing with a multi-family
structure and i don't know i think everyone deserves to have a mailbox in their front of
their house yeah well yeah and then and then in terms of storage or trash forcing my client to
store trash inside. I don't know. Like I have a single family house. Like I've stored my trash
in the breezeway outside. I don't think you should force someone to have to store their trash inside
if they have the ability to store it outside. So we would object to that. And then we, you know,
we met with the, you know, Paul was like, you know, he's debating whether he's going to live
there now, right now he's renting because he's in this unfortunate situation. And he said to the
community, depending on when his lease ends and, and depending on how long it's going to take him
to get through the CO process. He has a good shot of living there, but you'll see from the pictures,
he really did try to do a good job, you know, on, well, he hired someone he thought was going to do
a good job, but you can see how this contractor lost his license, and he was licensed when my
client hired him and expected to get permits, and this was a shock to him. You'll see that this is
our property right here. You'll see everyone else has what we're asking for in the rear.
right and we also set back because there's a park behind us so we're not taking anyone's
light in there anyway this is the people who are adjacent to us has basically the same thing we're
seeking um and then properties across the street other people enclose their porches
i'll be honest no one does the addition on the second floor like that um again he did that for
the extra room he he wanted to get and you'll see from the show second floor yeah uh yeah this is
just other pictures. Let me go to the, maybe I don't care about that. Let's see. That's,
this is our structure, right? And by the way, the, the property to left of us is completely
faking lot. It has steps leading to nowhere. He completely redid all of this. He thought he was
doing this all by right. And then this is the rear of the property as well. Again,
And then this is the rear of the property as well again, not out of character to have those that rear bump out millen street to the right of the property to left their property interior photos ground floor.
not out of character to have those that.
He did everything new. He thought he was doing everything the right way.
and we did in the floor plans highlight where the addition is that was asked of us
at the community meeting so i want to make sure we got that again this is not to scale but this
is where he has the bump out on the first floor so a little entryway to bump out in the rear on
the first floor which allows him to have a functional kitchen in the living room in the
dining room and then um again no again this single family but like he has above ground entryway um
but here's this the you know the second floor which has that additional space it just provided
him additional space and again he wasn't trying to the game the system most importantly it was a
well-attended meeting um and i think people voted mostly in favor of it i think just people were
upset because of the legal use but even during the community meeting someone who voted for it said
i've i've had the same situation where i hired someone and i thought
i was getting permits and the same thing happened to me
so that's just a you know our notice our application for appeal he put in his own name
he wasn't intending to make this so much of his investment as a home the deed to property
and then finally the tax clearance certificate while there shows a balance due it's not until
march 31st um so i would ask that the board uh swear uh paul in i'm sure could you please state
your name and get closer to the mic if you want thank you could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes counsel paul you heard everything i don't think the microphone's on is
the microphone on is his microphone try it again yeah okay paul kushner k-u-s-h-n-e-r okay paul
you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning matter yes sir is it true and correct
yes sir and do you adopt as your own testimony yes sir uh what's your occupation paul i'm a
registered behavioral health therapist i work with autistic kids okay and and when you heard
my testimony about the contractor your understanding is that he was a licensed
contractor at the time yes sir i found him on the internet yeah and your understanding was that
he was going to pull whatever permits were necessary to complete the work yes that was
our agreement sir all right and then you you know when you when you found out that that wasn't the
case that he that he did not pull the permits you received violations from lni right yes i turned
a violation over him he told me he would handle it and then he completed the job and told me that
things was being handled and then he just disappeared and um so when i like i got a
permit expedite a person to try to help me figure it out and they couldn't find him and uh his
google number uh like disconnected i still can't find him and you paid him in full yes sir and
and half and half okay but half we started half when he was completed okay and then ultimately
you hired my firm once you discovered that you were defrauded to try to legalize this situation
yes sir all right thank you all right questions from the board yeah do you uh can you like show
which pictures are in the actual edition um the photos you showed because you showed the whole
house yeah so let me do you have a picture of the rear yeah we do backyard in the back door
yeah yeah i maybe i went too quickly through it let me show you you center we've requested it
you sent it in the picture over here well i'm looking specifically for the the basement door
exit all right let me see i saw like the parking like i saw those so this is the second floor
paul is this area here the addition part yes sir that's the mass available no but is this the
addition part where the bump out is well yeah that's right in front of the windows yes sir
and that's where the rear is that's the no that's the front that's the front okay that's where's the
kitchen well we're talking about the second floor the second floor oh there's the rear on the second
i didn't do anything to the second floor it's just bedrooms back there oh you have the addition over
the porch okay let me see what that's the addition over the let me see that's the addition over the
porch okay okay the back it off this is the back of the house there's nothing that's exactly two
Two side-by-side bedrooms.
And then, what's this?
That's the staircase leading up to the second floor.
And then, this is the addition in the back, right? That's where the kitchen is?
Yes, sir.
And then, is this the door that's leading to the back?
This is just, is this the door that's leading to the back?
To the back of the basement.
To the back of the basement.
To the basement.
The basement, yeah.
So it is a walkout basement?
Oh, yeah, it is.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, let me show you a picture of, here it is.
This is our rear.
I couldn't see the, that's the first floor, right?
No, that's the basement there.
That's the basement.
Yeah, it's how it's sloped.
Got it, okay.
There's no houses behind it.
It's like the highway is right there.
alan is that an addition on the right though it's a different property it's not yours this
is different but this one is again mimics kind of like i got it yeah
all the questions from the board and you're still utilizing the garage
no one's living there no it's not a garage i'm not no i'm saying oh it's not no oh it looked
like it was a garage no he doesn't have access just the one door in the back oh that's the
neighbors made a garage back there so okay what's beside so are you going to close that area
i'm trying to figure because you got the door i look at i see the door in the back and then
what's next go back to that picture yeah i'm gonna do that is that just stuff in front of the wall
or something it's kind of it's a little confusing because it's a driveway so i imagine at one time
they were garages it sounds like or it seems like they're all driveways sir there was never a garage
so when you purchased this property this was this was not a garage
everyone has the same pull-in basement uh okay okay so they're not garages okay
all right it's just kind of hard to tell from that picture all right thanks yep so uh like from
the rco notations and stuff it seems like there's um some apprehension that it's going to turn this
into something that's multi-family so is your intention is to keep it a single family even if
servanetal yes i hope i hope to get it done and move in there i mean it's uh that was my intention
to buy a home to live in and uh you know that's why i made the bastard bastard bay room a little
bigger and um you know i just didn't want to be a renter anymore i'm not like a contractor or you
know you know so i don't never plan to make it a multi-unit or anything like that yeah and i
explained to paul if there's any intention to make it multi-family we have to come back here
yeah okay uh questions or comments from our attorney
not at this time mr chair the comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission
nina solomonic the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change the
existing residential single family rsa 5 zoning the proposed front yard step back conflicts with
the characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood the appellant has not shown that the rear yard
dimensional setback was the minimum necessary the city planning commission recommends that
the zoning board deny the dimensional variances for the depth of front and rear yards
chair i'm sorry to interrupt but um hands hands went up sure it went up it's probably uh first
one is three five five two please unmute and wait to be sworn sure
hello hi adrian how are you could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes adrian fernandez my last name is spelled f-e-r-n-a-n-g-e-swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed okay um i have your list
okay um so overall um swamp little rco is opposed to this variance um i'm not sure it
is to be kept as a single family home and the owner seems to have a lot of problems with you
know following instructions in the law as far as um going to work with permits that will be inside
and outside um we were told there were additions of bathroom and possibly other changes to rooms
on the inside that i'm not sure i heard the board address i'm not sure if you had pictures of that
it was very difficult to tell what was existing and what the owner added inside and outside because
the drawings also are not dimensioned um there were things that didn't make sense like two very
small bedrooms in the back i didn't see where a master bedroom was i asked for the uses of the
the front enclosed areas on two occasions and I never only received drawing back with a yellow
highlight but no labeling as to what those rooms are I never saw a master bedroom so overall the
opposition is based on no permits at all for the interior and exterior and the building is
for the interior and exterior.
And the building is completely out of character
with the other houses on the block.
Older pictures show that that house was originally
possibly smaller than the other houses on the block.
Currently, the roof line is changed
and it may not even be the same from the front to the back.
The windows are completely different than the other houses.
the building as it is now looks like a commercial building like a commercial small office building
it doesn't look like a single family home um see we also didn't see pictures from the back especially
so you can tell is the roof the top roof at two different heights or how many roofs there are in
the building and that leads into the fact that the building um is changing the storm runoff
is increasing it a lot because the the permeable surfaces of grass in the front were removed
and replaced with a lot of concrete and also the roof surface area is increased which would
just make for more a lot a lot more storm water runoff which is not desired by the city or
neighbors even. So as we are opposed to this variance, if the board decides to grant it,
we're asking that there be five provisos because the owner cannot be trusted to
file instructions based on the Philadelphia zoning code. So we're asking there be provisos
for no multifamily living. We don't want to wait until the owner comes and fills out an application
because it doesn't seem to be his tendency um also we're asking for no group living no
boarding house no drug rehabilitation no mental health facility um no personal care or personal
services nor behavioral health because that's the business the owner is in um no um temporary or
visitor accommodations and um no other commercial uses we're also we're asking it to be um licensed
if it's if it's rented out that it be single family rental use only and that there'd be
certificate of occupancy required to make sure the codes are followed and lastly that all trash
and recycling be stored indoors except their collection times thank you thank you where did
we did did Planning Maker yeah you did okay so I think everybody involved agrees there needs to
be a certificate of occupancy or every person including yeah so m i 2020 right mr mr share
there there is one other hand it's from uh yes uh from allison weiss they've been about to speak
yes hi allison hi allison how are you could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer a double l i s o n w e i s s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed yes uh as a member of solo just wanted to clarify
that we in fact are opposed and uh additionally we uh support the provisos as uh stipulated uh
from swan poodle in addition to those that we had um indicated uh we agree with many of the
points that swan poodle made and those are our same concerns okay thank you very much for taking
of time to call us we appreciate it ms not gonna have anything to say um not really okay all right
so mi 2025 i started out saying before every person involved believes we need a certificate
of occupancy all right so mi 2025 006 778 322 milane milane street i vote yes proviso
So, certificate of box B2P obtained.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Teneda Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
All right.
So, Mr. Nakamura, we have one more case, right?
Oh, you want me to do that?
Well, we have a list now.
okay okay right yep all right so mi2025-006-898 1822 chest on street mr knoxson just for the
record state your name uh mr goldberg will be handy oh okay all right
mr goldberg i haven't sworn you in yet could you please state your name
mr goldberg i haven't sworn you in yet could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer alex goldberg a-l-e-x-g-o-l-d-b-e-r-g do you swear or firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client the relationship to the
property um my client is in the hallway um alan would you mind grabbing him uh well okay he's a
representative of h philly center city llc which is the 10th and there's a letter of non-opposition
with provisors from the center city residents and a letter non-opposition from council member young
and also you have given us 10 signatures from neighbors our vice chair has a few questions for
you good afternoon have you uh submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing yes and do you waive the reading of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy
i do okay thank you you can share your screen proceed with the case i'm going to share my
screen and i'm going to grab my mouse just because it'll make it easier for me to
yeah are you doing the last case yes yeah okay so you're just doing this one yep
and to my left is hamza sheikh who's the representative of the tenant okay um okay
going full screen mode here so this is a special exception as the chairman noted for
a sit-down restaurant um and i defer to to hillary on this the reason why we chose to apply for a
sit-down restaurant i think we spoke about this upon application is that while this is what
typically would be a prepared food shop it's a coffee shop we exceed the explicit number of seats
that's allowed under that definition we don't have commercial cooking equipment so we're kind of
somewhere in between if you want you know however the board wants to sort of provide so this if it's
approved so why don't we just hear okay with that okay cool okay um so as i mentioned this is a this
is a coffee shop um specifically it's called the haraz coffee house um it's a it's a franchise a
small franchise that originated out of michigan um and and uh the gentleman to my left you know
can certainly tell you more in detail um but it is a yemeni coffee shop that specializes in coffee
and tea it's got a really you know large and relaxing interior um and uh of course because
the overlay we're required to get a special exception for this type of use um you know we
believe that we are meeting that legal standard we're also supported by the community group
but you know he's a he's a reputable operator that has other locations and this is a well thought
through plan that I do not believe will be any more detrimental than is what is to be expected
for a sit-down restaurant here is that letter of opposition but non-opposition excuse me from CCRA
they had the following provisos all trash stored internally until removed via Chestnut Street
agreeable and all deliveries made via 16th street which i think may have uh
may have been an error um but i'll go over our delivery schedule um it's it's reasonable under
the circumstances and what's expected for for these types of coffee shops out of early opening
hours here's a petition um they are primarily actually their only signatures from the building
the residential units above us and next to us at 1824 this was sent out electronically which is why
it looks a little bit different than what we typically show but we didn't face any opposition
that i'm aware of throughout the um community engagement process uh or or any anything for
that matter this is a slide that is sort of a description of harrah's coffee house
a little bit about this operation we're thinking that we will have about 15 employees and four per
shift we will have commercial trash pickup every day or every other day depending on the need
the renovation timeline shouldn't take too long 60 to 90 days once we have our proper permits
as far as the menu goes it's hot and cold coffee and tea traditional yemeni coffee drinks
and then like pastries and ready to go items the type of stuff that you would see you know
at a starbucks where like if it's being heated up it's in some sort of a toaster or
thing like that. We have no ventilation or commercial cooking equipment whatsoever.
As far as the delivery schedule goes, the only really sort of early delivery that we have
is croissants, which specifically come from one producer that are delivered between four and six
every morning so that they're fresh when the first customer walks in the door, which we open at 630.
And then all other pastries are delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays around 10 a.m., dry goods,
mondays and thursdays around 11 a.m and then sent us for the linens and
Mondays and Thursdays around 11 a.m. and then sent us for the linens and whatnot is Tuesdays during business hours during the weekdays. We close at 10 and the weekends. We close at 11, which is nice and something that we heard positive feedback for because there aren't a lot of spaces like this where that are open later than your average coffee shop.
you know if people are working or have late meetings or or something like that okay this
is reviews from the fishtown location there are three locations in the greater philadelphia area
this is the fishtown one that opened not too long ago well received the other locations
i believe there's one in the suburbs and there's another one in west philadelphia
flower town and and university city so this would be the fourth location in the general
in the greater philadelphia area here's a zoning map you know cmx5 ordinarily would allow this
type of use but for the overlay here's photographs this is the front of the property we are between
boyds and just we jolie some history about the use of this property a couple interesting things
it's a historic property built in 1858 it's called the elon dunbar house and it was nominated for its
italianate style and also elon dunbar was a wealthy dry goods merchant so i think it's always
a positive when a historic property in the city is being used you know to its fullest extent it
so i think sort of ensures that it's going to be well maintained and and i think that that aligns
with the city's goals for historic properties as far as how historic how it has historically been
used. There's a permit for a salon in 2009, a men's clothing store in 2012, and from 2017 to
2020. And from what I can tell, it appears to have been vacant since about 2022.
Here's the posting photos to the right of the property and to the left.
Here's the interior. So it's a vanilla box right now. Not much going on. You can see these stairs
here. I'll go back to these and you'll see this in the plans. There's sort of a split level
layout to the space that we're utilizing and i think is um positive because of the accessibility
element that it provides for the space you'll see that on the plans here's sort of inside on
those stairs looking out towards the windows so really tall ceilings nice um you know crown
molding in the corners looks historic there it is again plans and drawings okay i'll zoom in on the
bottom plan here sort of walk you through it so the proposed occupancy based on these plans is
48 people obviously that's an issue with the current definition of a prepared food shop
the floor area of the commercial space is 2700 square feet you walk in here there's a display
counter to the right there's seating on the left you can see there are two designated accessible
seats right here. And then an ADA toilet that's on this sort of lower level, let's call it.
And then going up those stairs that you saw in the photos that leads you back to the back of
the space that has some stools, additional toilets, there's a trash room, there's an office
for management, more seating, and then storage and prep area in the back. And then there's a
a door that leads out to the the alleyway um so you know it's a large space has a you know
the capacity for a lot of people to fit there comfortably um go back out of course we can come
back to these this is just the accessibility plan for the bathroom rco meeting notice we met with
CCRA on January 27th of course those meetings are always well attended um and they were in support
of this we didn't again hear any voices of opposition we mailed that notice to many
addresses 257 of them here's the mailing certificates
the application for special exception
and the lease the lease term is seven years from the rent commencement date with one five-year
option to renew and the rent commencement date is the earlier of the business opening
to the public or 300 days from october 6 2025 so we're not there yet
and then the last thing in here should be the certificate of tax clearance
get to that a lot of paper in here for the lease okay there's a certificate of tax clearance large
balance but not due yet until the end of the month with that i'd like to um have my clients
With that, I'd like to have my clients worn in.
sure what do you get close to the microphone and make sure it's
What do you get close to the microphone and make sure it's on?
Could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
Hamza Shaikh, H-A-M-Z-A.
Last name is Shaikh, S-H-A-I-K-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Hamza, did you hear my testimony today?
Was it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own?
And can you just share for the board, you know, your experience with Haraz Coffeehouse, the other locations, what sort of success you've seen from those?
Sure. Yeah, we opened the first Haraz Coffeehouse at University City at 34th and Chestnut in the middle of University of Pennsylvania in Drexel.
It's been great. We've been constantly busy and we saw that there was a need for a late night coffee shop.
so then we branched out to fishtown did the same thing at fishtown and then we uh went over to
flower town which is a smaller suburb and even in flower time we're getting some great reviews
people are really enjoying the coffee and um we think that we can continue to grow in this region
okay happen to take your questions yeah questions from the board
questions from our attorney and hillary do you have any comments from what
yeah alex raised before the code with the food things is kind of weird like it half fits in
prepared food shop and half fits in sit down restaurant so um i think it's fine going with the
in a sense that's a broader category and you know obviously someone else could come in and put in
commercial cooking equipment later um but they you know they have to go through the health
department and do that so that would kind of be the only the only thing that so the only proviso
we have as interior trash and commercial trash pickup right yes so i mean i think i if ellen i
knew like saw plans or knew how many seats there were or something then and that's where they put
it okay i think that's fine okay all right questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a hand up from wade albert sure i will go ahead and promote them right now okay
Good afternoon. Hi, Mr. Albert. You've already been sworn in. Just state your name and start
your conversation. Sure. My name is Wade Albert. So I'm counsel for the Center City Residents
Association, just confirming that we do not oppose this application subject to the provisos
in the letter. So I would just ask that if the ZBA is inclined to grant this application,
uh that uh at the very least that the proviso is relating to trash storage be included in
the license thank you all right thank you very much anyone else in the audience
planning commission no further hands mr chair thank you
ina solomonic with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the existing commercial mixed-use cmx5 zoning the proposed sit-down restaurant use is consistent
with nearby properties and will not cause detrimental impacts the neighborhood beyond what
might normally be expected the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board
grant the special exception for a sit-down restaurant mi2025-006-898-1822 chestnut street
i vote yes with proviso interior trash storage and commercial trash pickup
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso cheryl gaston my booty chest with proviso
tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso and mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
taiwan my vote is yes with proviso thank you thank you number 12. and by the way
it looks like a great project i can go for a cup of coffee
Of course, everybody wants a cup of coffee after he tested.
Okay. So, am I especially squishy?
Was my 20, 25, 0, 0, 7, 1, 8, 6, 36, 15, spring garden street.
How knock them since the attorney, Mr. not to me already been sworn to state your name, Alan.
Occamson and could you identify your client a relationship to the property? Yes.
keely and um there's a recommendation support from mantua civic and a letter of non-opposition
from palton village civic association you also have a petition of 17 signatures eight of which
are the immediate block and our vice chair has a few questions thank you good afternoon have you
submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing we have and do you waive
the read another refusal and stipulate to as accurate i do okay thank you you can share your
screen proceed with the case i think the next time we do a food establishment we'll have to bring
i think the next time we do a food establishment we'll have to bring bring physical exhibits
bring physical exhibits
we uh we had uh we just had ethics in so we
ethics gave us a lecture a little while ago you have to see the quality of the product
and experience um all right so this is a visitor accommodation request uh by the owner of 3615
spring garden uh street uh she lives there so um uh the reason why we're here today is that it's a
multi-unit uh building and so when she originally applied for zoning she you know she's applied and
obtained a limited lodging license but it's you know multi-unit um and it has been a rooming house
in the past so you'll see from the exhibits well first of all we have a support for mantua but
the other RCO asks us for two provisos, which are non-enforceable, but we'll comply with them.
First is to plant a tree in front of our house. And the second is to replace that front door to
something that's a little better than what's there. I believe they wanted something a little
bit more historic looking, and we have no objection to that. But those were their two
conditions. We have 13 exhibits here. Again, my client lives at this property. I think it's a
bit of a quirk in the zoning codes you know when you have these like multi-unit or rooming structures
but we're seeking visitor accommodations for a temporary variance of three years
we met with the community overwhelming support for this project my client lives there she also
hired someone to help manage her property who specializes in airbnb use we again my client
also got a petition of nearby neighbors as you can see property history again this was a rooming
house at one point uh some time ago of eight so there's seven bedrooms you know and then her unit
which has is the only one the kitchen that would be the eighth room so um not out of character to
have airbnbs nearby as you can see a few on haverford avenue and then maps of the area we
are an RM1 property. We're a significant size lot of almost 1,800 square feet. So we're not
taking an RSA5 property and making it an Airbnb of this sort. This is an RM1 property which will
allow four units, three bedrooms in each unit, which will allow 12 bedrooms. We're not looking
to do that. Photographs of the property, proof of posting for today's hearing, the back of our
property uh spring garden street to the right of the property to the left of the property you can
see there's a big apartment building across the street from us interior photos again very well
maintained like those those nice oak hardwood floors uh that you see in the more traditional
row homes in philadelphia she keeps it very clean and then very straightforward well
So here is bedroom. You walk in, here's bedroom number one. Then there's a door here. This is
basically her suite where you have a bedroom, a bathroom, another bathroom, a kitchen,
and her back porch. She's the only one with the kitchen. And then every single floor has like
three bedrooms on there, three separate bedrooms and different bathrooms and stuff,
such like that that's how we get to eight bedrooms which was the previous uses of rooming
house so how many are how many are you looking to rent out her just hers no this the other seven
so she stays she stays yeah she stays there um herself she's you know she's in finance and she's
like well let me leverage you know the fact that there's seven other bedrooms here and i'll rent
those out so i mean she has an incentive to make sure this is managed well because obviously she
lives there but this supplements her mortgage so we met with the community on march 5th in person
at 5 30 p.m oops okay and we of course always um we always email proof of the mailing along
uh with the notice itself and we sent it to 100 addresses listed the addresses
proof of mailing to those addresses
our application for appeal project information form deed to the property showing it's in her
personal name she's not hiding behind an LLC and then the certificate of tax clearance and again
And taxes are not due until the end of the month.
I would ask that Ms. Lee virtually raise her hand.
Oh, it looks like she's already on.
hi miss lee could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Ms. Lee, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
yes i'm chi lee q-i-l-i all right um do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes counsel yes um miss lee you heard everything i had to state today about
jersey or any matter is that correct is it true and correct what i stated yes and do you adopt
as your own testimony yeah and specifically you live in that one unit on the first floor is that
correct that's correct and then you hired a professional management company who specializes
in airbnb rentals to to rent out the other seven units right yes thank you questions from the board
yeah can i see the plans again i just want to see like um the movement of the seven individual
rooms like where the restrooms are and i saw some of the pictures the bedrooms had two beds in them
so are they running are you she's trying to rent these out visit accommodations per room or
or per unit yeah i'm stuck here on this page hold on let me move this page
yeah from your experience uh miss lee do those ones where they have twins how many occupants
typically do you have in in those units is it one is it two uh only below two all right yeah because
i'm very uh i don't like noise so i actually don't want too many people in the property i love that
historic building yeah if it's two it's with each two two with seven bedrooms that's 14 people
at least uh yeah yeah that's true but from my experience like i i've never seen like a lot of
people in the hallway like everybody's just very quiet okay i'm just waiting waiting for the place
yeah i'm just yeah it's just trying to get i guess the question i have is like you're you hired a
company right to come in and support what does that uh management look like uh i think uh jackie
Ms. Zhang is online, too. We asked her to show up. Is Ms. Zhang online? And she is. Can she virtually raise her hand?
I think she's online.
Are we coming back in as a panelist?
Coming back in as a panelist.
Just trying to find the floor plans.
well we sold them before so they're there somewhere no they are it's just some
there we go this seems more like single room residents and that's why
even less i would say less than that it seems like a hostel because
single room residents you usually have a kitchenette there's like right so that's what that's
why i showed the history of the property so my my client hasn't made any modifications to the
actual building itself this is how this is what she bought it as and that's why i wanted to show
the board that part we can understand alan i think just because it was historically used as a sro
though doesn't mean that like right now in 2026 um i i think this property as a person that travels
a lot and has stayed in a lot of places um like this looks like a hostel and like typically when
there is a hostel there's some sort of common public area public kitchen that uh the guests
can use and so like i mean just to stay any place like you need water you need to be able to heat
things up what like how is all of that being managed in what is uh you know this could be
incredibly dense site in a year where there's going to be a lot of people visiting so yeah
hold on one minute please i can just tell you from experience because i stayed in an airbnb
be last week i had the kitchen i didn't even use it some people don't but some many many people do
you have a kid you got a huda bottle you gotta let's let's let's let's get the other person
hi jackie could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer sure my name is
jackie sound j-a-c-k-i-e-z-h-a-n-g do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes so so let me let me ask one question and where i see the two bedrooms
two beds in a room are they are they are they people that know each other or sure that you
could put two different people in that room they are the people who know each other so the majority
of the visitors at this location are the college students who are visiting their friends or
professors attending events in here the only hotel they have in this area is the Marriott that's on
campus um it's very expensive it's beyond some of the students budget so when students come in
like sometimes they don't want to share a bed that's why we have the separate bed situation
That's why we have the separate bed situation in there.
in there, but every room has
But every room has an occupancy limit of two persons.
So then what are they doing when they need common space or they need access to drinkable water?
From our experience, they came here to attend events.
And most of the time, they will spend their time in either Drexel or UPenn.
like they they only come back to sleep and during the daytime like we barely have anyone in the house
okay and then so how does that work during the summer when the universities are closed
to be honest we have very low occupancy in the summer like the property is pretty much
empty in the summer because uh because of the you know the summer vacation for the students
which i understand based on location now obviously as a property manager i'm assuming this summer
you're not anticipating that that would be the case what's the plan for the property looking
forward um so for this summer it's probably gonna be a little busier than euro but we will still
track yeah we'll try still try to limit the occupancy in here just because the owner lives
there and we're trying to you know respect her daily life as well and we we are not trying to
you know have this place booked all the time and to be honest we are trying to you know keep the
operation simple as well for both us and also the owner's perspective so like too many people in a
house is definitely not what we want so we will probably raise the price to a certain level that
we keep about 50 percent uh you know occupancy in this property and then what's the plan when
tenants are in for the porch for the back uh i guess for the for the backyard and how are you
managing trash uh the trash is taken with the housekeepers every day and since we have multiple
locations uh every day our cleaner would take the trash to the trash yard in point threes uh so we
don't have trash on site there uh and the owner manage her own trash and then the porch in the
backyard that's i think so that's for her yeah that's that we don't go there that's private to
the owner is that written into the agreements for the short-term rentals renters they can't
get there physically they can access the porch that's how they get into the building no there's
a door you took in the back i was talking about the front porch like i'm thinking people who need
a smoke break people who need to take a phone call like there's a thousand reasons you walk
outside when you are staying someplace do you allow smoking on the in the premises no no we
we don't allow smoking within 15 feet from the property actually um since you own the property
like was there ever any other like kitchen or whatever on the first second or third floor
no like so you purchase it as it's configured well the miss miss lee is the purchaser
is the is the owner um miss zhang is the property manager right so i'm sorry so so for the owner
it was um when you purchased this this was the layout of the uh building yes yes i didn't change
anything i just love the historic and i don't want to damage anything inside
how many bathrooms are there for the um there is seven bathroom yes one two three four
i think it's four is that is that is that correct is that four bathrooms or five actually there's
one down on the in the first floor is that correct right uh right uh excluding the two
that i'm using it's five and that's five between the two floors where these folks will be staying
the three floors because there's the the first floor has a front bedroom in the front right here
and then there's she has hers i thought that was where okay so she's living in them okay yeah i'm
trying to move this screen but yeah she like so where's the bathroom for this person which one
one that's on this in this one room it's right here it's right here oh okay all right thank you
and then one last question what is going on in the basement and who has access
um miss lee or miss zang can you answer the question is there is there a basement down
in in this property there's a basement floor plan so yeah there is a basement but then we
will furnish the basement yeah and then only me and Jackie's team will have
access to the basement okay so the door that we're seeing on the first floor
that's like as soon as you come in the entrance that is where you control from
That is where you control from anything behind that door.
anything behind that door yes
Gotcha.
Questions from our attorney.
Yeah, I'm just a little bit confused about the way the use has been categorized because this seems more like a single room residence, which can include both long and short-term rentals.
So, yeah.
i so i'm going to hold the vote so you can have a chance yeah i think i just want to have a
conversation with ellen i because i'm not sure if visitor accommodations is the right category for
this like so it sounds more like where it says you know you don't have private it it fits more
the description of a single room residence like not a private residence although we don't have
any common dining and eating facilities um i would say also we're renting for less than 30 days but
short single room rentals that's it's not restricted to the 30 days so that might be the
more appropriate category for what how this is configured but i mean i'll talk to l and i we've
had a couple of these cases before we've kind of tossed around what some people ask for visitor
accommodations but it's more of a single room rental and so like i can talk with them and
either way we would embrace the temporary variance of three years because the spirit of this is a
visitor accommodation it's not you know anything but that i suggest you give them some space like
some livable space and at least a sink that they don't have to use in the bathroom if they wanted
some water or something so maybe one of those rooms could be a lounge or something like that
with you know a little kitchenette so i i defer to the board and i don't know about the plumbing
situation of how that would work and all that though that's the touch your comments from the
virtual audience yes mr chair i have a hand up from george polan okay i'll go ahead and promote
them right now sure good morning uh or good afternoon unfortunately good afternoon george
george could you george listen could you state your name and spell for the stenographer george
coolin p-o-u-l-i-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do george are you a neighbor i'm a neighbor correct please proceed um and i'm
representing the pelton village civic association on these comments um i just want to clarify i
guess four points um one uh allen represented that the the property had previously been used as a
an eight unit rooming house however there is actually no uh permit uh on trial so um there
is there is a refusal from 1986 but there's no approved permit um second point is uh alan
represented that the owner was willing to replace the front door i i just want to clarify that the
front door was uh the property is on the colorado for historic places and the owner removed and
replaced the door without a permit so we're asking them to go through the proper channel to get the
the door approved uh by the historical commission which they've agreed to
okay um and then just the last points are um jackie represented that there's uh there's no
trash on site but there's there's trash cans on the porch and when i walked by on monday there
was some trash in front of the property just for regular trash pickups and um she also represented
that there was no smoking on site but when i was sorry there was a man smoking just one of those
items and sorry for the background noise thank you all right um do you have any questions for
No, I would ask Ms. Lee, and I don't know the answer to this, but I would assume.
George, thank you very much. Take the time to call us. We appreciate it. Go ahead.
In terms of the trash, I think that the visitor accommodation trash is taken care of by Ms. Zhang,
but I would assume Ms. Lee has her separate trash, which would be the public trash. Is that correct, Ms. Lee?
Yeah. Okay. All right. Planning Commission, do you want to wait until we figure out where we stand with this?
what do you oh okay so um we'll we'll close this right except you know alan will have a chance to
respond to what you say and then planning yeah so i will so i will get clarification from ellen i
and communicate that to mr knockamson and then planning commission we need we want to make this
as a wrong was it presumptive because we have or do you just want to bring it back what presumptive
date do we have june 9th okay we could probably we could probably get this sorted out much sooner
than that so let's just let's just hold it all right okay just hold the record open for now
because but basically basically i'm just going to get clarification from ellen i'll share that
with you planning can send a letter in based on what ellen i says and you'll have a chance to
respond to that before the board votes i appreciate it thank you thank you everybody yeah thank you
Okay. Number six, MI2025.
Number six, MI-2025-006-776-2944 North 5th Street.
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
And I will get to you, I promise you.
You've been sitting there a long time.
Rachel?
they're coming back in now sir thank you
good afternoon hi rachel could you please state your name and spell before the stenographer
yes it's rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r do you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes will you identify your client relationship
to the property? Sure. My client is Esperanza Health Center, Inc., and represented by Justin
Perry and Juan Perez. There's a letter of non-opposition from ASE, RCO, and a letter of
non-opposition from Council Member Lozada. Our vice chair has a few questions. Sure. Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. And do you waive the read, know the refusal, and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Thank you.
Can you see my screen?
We can.
As mentioned, this is 2940 North 5th Street.
In front of you is a copy of the refusal.
The property is zoned CMX 2.5, and this proposal provides for the erection of an addition at the rear of the existing attached structure for the continued use of group medical, dental, and health practitioner.
The only refusal that we generated is for an additional 6% maximum occupied area.
The property currently takes up 94% of the property, and in order to do the addition, it's actually not at the rear. It's in between a sort of middle open space and above the building.
We're asking for an additional 6%, which would be 100% lot coverage of this existing site.
It's worth noting that back in August of 2022, this board granted a special exception for a lot line relocation and for use of these existing buildings for the same use of group medical, dental, and health practitioner in existing structure.
I'm just going to go to the zoning maps, tax clearance, deed for the property.
Okay, so this is the site here again on North East Street.
It was consolidated several parcels into one on 5th Street, which is Zone CMX 2.5.
This is just the aerial of a site.
It's currently the location of Esperanza's Health Center again.
So we'll go through the plans, but this kind of just gives you a sense from even just the
aerial of what we're trying to accomplish, trying to move this out of the way.
okay um if you can see between these buildings that little gap space right there sorry this
building right here that's what this we're covering from a lot coverage perspective the six percent
and the addition of the building it includes this six percent it also includes by right
addition to the structure but all we're focused on for the purpose of this appeal
is just that additional 6%, as you can see from the aerial.
This is just a front view of the building,
just to show the zoning posters that we put on the property.
Again, it's the existing Esperanza Health Center.
More photos of the postings.
Some interior photos, if you're not familiar with the space.
Again, it's an existing health center that's operated since at least 2022.
This is the existing space that's not being used currently.
And again, the exterior of the site.
As mentioned, the prior zoning
As mentioned, the prior zoning variance, that was granted for the same use.
Here's where in the code we only can have 80% coverage because this is a, or sorry, 75% coverage because it's a middle lot.
However, the building already takes up 94%.
As mentioned, we had a meeting with OSCE CDC, and they issued a letter of non-opposition for the project.
These are the mailers that were sent out, and this is their letter stating that they had no opposition.
I think five in support, one opposed, so they sent a letter of non-opposition for this project.
We also have a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Ketzi Lozada's office.
Um, if we could just briefly bring on our architects, I think it's either Jose or Amanda should be in the audience architect, please.
Go through the plans.
That will be rejoining shortly. Thank you.
uh hello hi sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
uh my name is jose science that would be jose jose science s-a-i-n-z do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel thanks jose can you just go
through the plans um obviously ex you know going through and explaining the square footage that
we're adding, which is in the pink, but also for the board, you know, the other additional space
that we're going to be using for the building? Yes, we'll do. So this is currently, if you see
on the left side of the building, most of what is being, what is hatched is the existing clinic
that Esperanza is currently occupying. So their desire is to be able to better serve the community
by being able to expand their services within the existing clinic. So as we already mentioned,
they purchased the adjacent lot, which would be basically what you see on the right side
of the screen, the skinnier portion on the right side of the screen. And basically what they want
to do again is expand their service. What we're looking to do on the first floor is a reconfiguration
of the reception and entryway spaces,
including the extension of the already existing
ADA compliant ramp at the front of the building,
moving the entrance all the way to the right,
and again, extending that landing
and some of the steps
to be able to obviously reach that entrance.
As we move in from the main entrance,
we're adding a new vestibule
and again, rearranging the reception
and enlarging the waiting room
at the front as well.
And as we move back throughout the building, on the first and second floor, what we're doing is adding a number of exam rooms, obviously to further be able to have more patients in, a couple of consult rooms and some additional office space as well.
and then on the second floor again we are adding a couple more exam rooms some flex rooms which
can be used as consult rooms or exam rooms some additional storage and again some additional
staff space and so as you can see in the you know the red portions of the two plans
that is really what we are looking to basically enclose currently that is kind of like a
a courtyard of sorts that exists between the building.
And so in order for us to be able
to kind of like enclose this whole space,
we wanna basically take over the remainder
or the 6% that we've been talking about,
256 square feet on the first floor,
396 on the second floor as well.
One other thing is that,
since we are gonna have patients going
from the first to the second floor
and some staff also going down to the basement, which is going to be just storage space.
We are installing a new elevator that will be serving the basement, the first and the second floor spaces as well.
So here we can, we just added some, you know, aerial views that kind of like show you where the existing clinic is
and where the new space is and kind of like that hatched um space in between again that's what
we're basically looking to take over um in order to be able to fully um consolidate the the two
consolidate the two buildings into one main building. Then that middle picture you can see
buildings into one main building then
is the existing conditions with the clinic on the left side, and then the new space on the right
side. It's pretty beat up, so what we're trying to do in the image below, the larger image with
the orange canopy, is basically redoing the frontage or the facade of both buildings so that
we can you know again further consolidate the look of the building um modernize it a little bit um
again maintaining basically like the color palette that they currently have um and just then again
basically extending that canopy all the way to the other side to be able to cover you know the
entrance from the elements and again just unifying the look of of the building of the two buildings
themselves and then i think if you scroll down one more we just have a small rendering of what the
uh reception area the new reception area is going to be um within the space um and yeah thank you
um happy to take any questions for the architect um do you have anybody else you're going to bring
on i just want to bring on uh juan uh prez or justin perry to adopt my testimony we'll bring
him on and just have the architect in case someone has a question and won't we start okay
so why don't you bring and have your testimony adopted okay is there Juan Perez or Justin Perry
we're joining the meeting shortly Council thank you Jason
because I how you doing my name is uh please state your name and then spell for the sonographer
yep justin perry last name is uh p-e-r-y right and i work for tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth i do counsel justin have you heard my testimony today do you believe
it to be true and accurate and do you adopt it as your own yes i do thank you questions from the
board um yeah i think a question that i have so typically when you have those courtyards
And those second floor sort of breezeways, it's to provide light and air into sort of the building and, you know, at the property line, understanding that these are two separate properties. Is there a plan to consolidate this lot into one physical address in the future? Oh, it already is. Okay. Yeah. And then my second question is, have all the windows on the existing health center side been already eliminated from that courtyard area?
Yeah, so the existing clinic side, that interior portion of the clinic side doesn't have any windows on the inside. Now, the adjacent property, which is the one that they purchased and we're looking to consolidate, that has windows, but that is going to, you know, be reconfigured as we, you know, work within the plans.
And then just now that it's kind of 100% lock coverage, are there any plans that are being made to sort of address sort of fire safety in the whole building now, since that it will not have a setback and it won't have the.
Well, I'm saying all the planning we've done has been code compliant. We work with the code
all the time. And we have a life safety plan. We've taken into consideration all the required
egress paths that we need, any sort of fire protection that we need. We have that all in
our plans. And, you know, we do our best to make sure that that is all taken care of.
Yeah, totally understand that, like, you're going to have to follow code. It's more so that this is
now more than what would typically be, right? Code is based on what is typical. Typical would
be 75% lot coverage. This is 100% lot coverage. So are we doing anything above and beyond to
address the fact that the reason that that exists is for life and safety, and we've now eliminated
it yes so it's a good question and it's a question that the community group asked us as well so we
basically provided yeah we basically provided to them um some of the key compensatory measures but
not all of them that we responded to was reducing the maximum exit access travel distance to an exit
door compared to sprinkler buildings where longer distances are typically permitted more than one
exit in this case two exits from the interior of the building to the exterior stricter requirements
for the number of placement of portable fire extinguishers along with correspondingly shorter
travel distance to reach them interior wall and ceiling finishes and materials classified to class
interior wall and ceiling finishes and materials classified to class a in accordance with the astm
A in accordance with
e84 equivalent standard characterized by flame spread index of zero to 25 and a smoke development
index of zero to 450 fully installed operational fire alarm system with all components compliant
with applicable code requirements so those were some of the things that we had shared because as
you know obviously the concerns make a lot of sense in addition to um you know the front of
with the ramp and those doors allow easier and more access to the front of the building but
the concerns are well noted and heard and we did discuss this you know at length thank you for a
clear answer um and then the last thing is really more of a comment um you know i think esperanza
health center and the surrounding community groups have done a lot to create a sense of culture and
place on north fifth street and i will say that like in a space where the building has very
identifiable uh look and feel i do feel like the new facade does not fit in with the context of
the neighborhood i think some of the most interesting and culturally relevant aspects
of the building have been removed to kind of give it that new modern look and just want to
state for the record because i do think that is one of the things that makes fifth street special
yeah you're not the only one who mentioned that as well we did yeah we did discuss that and just
justin if you want to kind of share what you had shared at the meeting just related to some of the
maintenance and stuff that you guys have had to deal with with the current design and why the
thought was to make this a little bit less artistically beautiful i will i'll agree with that
yeah i mean we've had yeah we've had historical issues just with the roof line being i mean we
see the current roof roof line it kind of goes up and kind of like a peak to it um over time we've
and multiple times trying to you know make sure water was not getting that space and we've not
been overall very successful so in terms of just making sure that everything is clean and secured
and safe that's why we kind of have a new uh facade there to make it look as as best as we
could and understand your comments also all right any other questions questions from our attorney
and i see there's something to hear you've yeah no just it's more of a comment um rachel i think
on this one that the refusal because you're expanding a use that was permitted by
variants there should have been an additional referral for that group medical use
um so i think that's missing but that'll that'll automatically be incorporated and if the board
you know grants the variance that is listed so i just wanted to note that for the record
okay all right questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any further hands mr chair
Dana Solomon of the Planning Commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change the
existing commercial mixed-use cmx 2.5 zoning the property allows maximum lot coverage of 80
whereas the current lot coverage is already in exceedance of 94 and the appellant is requesting
100 the dimensional various variance is de minimis the City Planning Commission recommends the
zoning board grant the lot coverage mi 2025 006 776 2944 north 5th street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
brian mcadams my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you okay thank you um mi 2025
25-006-891-2438, Aspen Street, Leonard Altieri is the attorney.
It is unanimous support from Fairmount Civic Association.
The vote was 43 total votes, 11 affected neighbors, 6 RCO board members.
and also a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young.
Council, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Leonard, L-E-O-N-A-R-D, Alteri, A-L-T-I-E-R-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
My client is Patrick and Eileen Murphy, and they are the owners of the property.
Okay, and our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you weigh the read and know the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Okay, thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Thank you very much.
And again, good afternoon, everyone.
The property that we're here for is for 2438 Aspen Street.
It is a single-family home.
It's a very simple case.
What my client is trying to do is to do the applications for the erection of a rear addition
with a roof deck to the existing single-family home as you'll see as we go through this presentation
As you'll see as we go through this presentation, Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have two boys, ages 11 and 9.
mr and mrs murphy have two
Right now, there's only one bathroom in the entire house.
They love the neighborhood.
They love living in the city.
So to stay in the city, what they're proposing to do is just this small addition.
It's funny, you know, again, so we'll just go through.
Here's the refusal.
Again, to orient the board, it is mid-block.
This looks like the backyard backs up directly to the neighbors on Meredith Street.
It's actually a substantial grade change.
so they are not you know parallel to each other property is located in the rsa5 zoning district
this is the front of the house and then to just orient the board and give an idea what the street
residential normal street what we're proposing to do you're not going to be able to see
because again it is in the rear of the property this is the existing backyard right now
and then this really gives a good
view of what we are doing so on the left hand side is the existing second and first floor
on the right hand side are the proposed second and first floor when i was at the rco meeting i
made it a focal point to talk about how it's one bathroom and mrs murphy has to share it with three
men uh but what i think i realized with the rco uh the big selling point with the rco was not
necessarily the bathroom but that mrs murphy will now have a much larger closet uh that i believe
will also extend into the second closet so mr murphy will have probably one hanger which he's
very much looking forward to so again what we're doing is essentially building out about seven feet
on the rear of the property and doing so will allow for another bathroom to be installed as
well as for the bedroom to just be a little bit larger or actually i think the same size but
allow for additional living space in there looking at it from a view kind of from the side again
here's the existing wall right now and then we are proposing to have this extend out seven feet
it'll be a little bit of an overhang so they're not losing that that space in their backyard and
mr kerner can testify to it in a little bit more greater detail the existing look of the property
is on the top level here looking northeast as well as northwest and then again you can see the
proposal looking both from northeast and northwest we do have as the chairman said a letter of support
from the fairmount civic association it was unanimous there was about 40 individuals that
were there we also have letters of support from the following neighbors 24 28 aspen street 24 30
aspen street 24 29 aspen street 24 32 aspen street 24 34 aspen street and 24 36 aspen street
of those both of them uh of those um was that six letters uh two of them are from either neighbors
on both sides of the property so we do have letters of support from both the adjacent neighbors
and that is shown. Here's the RCO summary. And then these are just the letters of support that
have been admitted as part of the exhibit packet. Again, what we're seeking with regards to zoning
relief, it's very simple. In the RSA 5 zoning district, the maximum allowable occupied area
is 75% or 633 square feet. What we're proposing is 81% or 683 square feet. So only seeking a
variance for roughly 50 square feet to allow them for this addition. Again, it's a very modest
increase on what is otherwise allowed. It's consistent. By and large, there are other
properties that have done an addition on the back, both in the first and the second floor,
and it won't really have any major changes to the character of the neighborhood at all.
That's it with regards to the presentation. I would like to have Mr. Kerner sworn in,
and I'll have him adopt my testimony. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Timothy Kerner. I'm an
architect uh the firm spell your name for the stenographer please t-i-m-o-t-h-y-k-e-r-n-e-r
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do please
proceed mr kerner you were present when i gave this presentation yes i was and is everything
true and accurate to the best of your knowledge information and belief accurately and entertaining
thank you very much make sure that entertaining part is noted in the record we've noticed that
yeah i don't know how he did it after you sat there the whole time and you would uh you would
adopt this testimony as your own yes i would and just for the record you do you're the architect
director for this application is that correct that is correct and so you design and have familiarity
with these plans yes perfect you want to bring your client on to adopt your testimony i would
mr chairman how could you please state your name and spell them for the stenographer patrick murphy
patrick p-a-t-r-i-c-k murphy m-u-r-p-h-y you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel mr murphy were you present when i gave the
presentation yes and is everything accurate to the best of your knowledge information and belief
yes and would you adopt that testimony as your own yes and just for the record you are the
and just for the record you are the owner of the subject property is that correct yes so
owner of the subject property is that correct yes jointly with my
jointly with my wife perfect questions from the board uh yes i just wanted to know is there a
basement yes there is is there is it usable yes it's used mainly as storage and laundry
well that that that'll be your new place
that's the next phase of the plan
what questions from our attorney hillary emerson oh wait a minute all right um so we're legalizing
what's already been built correct no nothing's been built nothing's been built that's correct
okay all right thank you questions from our attorney i'm not at this time mr chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands at this time mr chair you know this is a mistake
planning commission nina solomonic with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change the existing residential single family rsa 5 zoning the applicant has
not shown that there is a unique physical circumstance to prevent it from being used
in conformity with the zoning code the city planning commission recommends that the zoning
board deny the variance thank you um mi2025-006-891-2438 aspen street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
i am mcadams my vote is yes tywin my vote is yes um mrs murphy congratulations uh this is a big
win for you i know what it's like i i had two daughters and a wife so i yeah i understand
thank you thank you very much everyone thank you
um let's take a five minute break then we just have a few more all right
thank you everyone thank you what you're doing right you want to go right through
Thank you.
we're ready okay good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing the meeting
of the philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our board vice chair tenetta graham
president mr chairman our board secretary shell l gaston present mr chairman board member michael
johns president mr chairman board member tya winn board member ryan mcadams president mr chairman
also here is our board attorney hillary emerson our zoning board director in haggerty and our
Board Administrator, Lakeisha Dandy. A recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA 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 test 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 registration
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call 267-270-5548 leave a message that includes your email address and the address of the property
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Attendees, please refrain from talking, eating, or drinking at the hearings.
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let's look at our schedule for this afternoon
number one 2617 north bankrop which is mi 2025 001 576 that case is continued to 520
at 3 30 p.m number three 2136 north 27th street which is mi 2025 005 855 that case is continued
to 4 15 26 at 9 30 a.m number five 22 53 north 33rd street mi 2025 005 975 that case is continued
until 5 20 26 at 3 30 p.m and number six 3409 goodman street which is mi 2025 005 980
That case is continued to 5-20-26 at 3.30 p.m.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
Good afternoon, Chair.
This is Jason Handel.
I will be your calls for the session.
I do not see any further hands right.
So we're going to go with MI 2025-001-791, which is 714 North 24th Street,
karen lindenbaum that's at you um so there's a letter of support from the fairmount
civic association the vote was 27 in support three of which were near neighbors four were in
opposition and five in non-opposition also a letter of non-opposition from council member
young could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
close as you can
see the one in the middle yeah push
all right could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is karen lindenbaum
K-A-R-E-N L-I-N D-E-N B-A-U-M. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I did. Okay. And did you read the refusal for her? Do you waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy? I'm sorry. Let me read it for you.
This application is for the legalization of accessory roof deck access from rear second
floor of an existing structure for use as a two-family household living. The property is
zoned CMX1 BWRSA5, whereas the minimum required roof deck setback is five feet and one and a half
feet is proposed. So you accept that as accurate? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. You can start
your presentation okay um there should be something that says share screen yeah there's
supposed to be a green button at the bottom there do you see that
here comes in here comes Ian's coming out he he heard this already look at him
The next one.
I'm going to share this.
I think that's what you want to share, right?
She should do it.
No, this is showing you.
People keep their houses nice.
We are before you to to request a variance for the roof deck.
The required distance setback is five feet and we are asking for one and a half feet.
A little bit of background. I bought the house in 1984.
I bought the house in 1985, and it had a deck, and that deck has been in place for all of these years.
Over the years, we mended it.
We replaced some boards.
We did some work, but here's the picture of how it was last year.
It needed to be replaced.
Some weed trees had grown up.
I removed the weed trees and I dismantled the deck, redid the roof underneath it, and I had redone the roof several times by picking up parts of it and doing it, but I redid the roof and built a new deck and I did not realize that I needed a permit.
So when we built the deck, this is what it looked like.
We made it smaller than it had been.
Previously, do you see the stack that is going up the slide from the right picture?
Previously, it was on the other side of the stack.
This is closer in on all sides.
And this is what it looks like, a whole lot sturdier than it had been.
If I can just bring your attention to one of the things is that many, many of the decks in the neighborhood are not set back five feet.
And part of the reason that it's difficult to do it for our particular house is because we are an end-of-row house.
So any end of row homes have two streets.
So we are way far from 24th Street.
But Perot Street is is this is the part that we are that we're looking at.
And right across from our deck, you can see another property that has the same thing.
Here is a picture of our new deck along with one that is now this this property
that you can see with the deck very close to the edge is
it's a row home so i'm not really sure actually no it's i apologize it's not a row home it's the
next block over um i have provided several pictures i just went around the neighborhood
and there were many many decks that were also right up to the edge so what we're proposing is
is an extra three and a half feet. The house is 14 feet. If we subtract five, then we would have
less than nine feet, I guess, less than seven feet. So that's what we're proposing.
Here is my certificate. We sent to the neighbors. We met in the middle of winter with the Fairmount
civics association they are amazing people i was certain that nobody would come there were about 40
people there um and uh um i think that's basically it i posted i did everything that i can uh that i
was asked to do but i'm i'm hoping that you will grant me the variance so the the past deck that
was on it was actually a little bigger yes you replaced it yes and you picked all that stuff
off and then you had a new deck did you have to do it yourself or somebody do it for you
oh no i didn't do it myself no those those years were over when i was younger i did stuff like
that for myself all right um questions from the board not question but comment i live in the
neighborhood i understand thank you is this a two family um it is and access to that deck is for
like it is for the so there's um there's two apartments one that's the first floor and the
other is the second and third the first floor has an entrance on 24th street and the the other
apartment has a an entrance from corrupt street so it's the deck for the only for the people
upstairs the second floor and this is is this on occupied or just two rentals no they're two rentals
we did live there then we had our son live there then our daughter lived there we hope to come back
when we retire um but yes it's rented now all the questions
questions for our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from
the virtual audience sorry mr try i did have sorry i did one one comment about this one so
i'm part of the refusal it mentions two family i think that's an error so if we just if the
board approves this i just recommend a proviso confirming that the approved use is single
family household living she says two things wait wait there's two fans oh there's two fans um okay
um okay so in that case um sorry i'm also getting this mixed up there was another one that had
so in that case
similar um so do you have do you have an existing because your rental license is expired so i'm a
little i'm a little concerned um if they're if you go back and try to renew your rental license
I just want to make sure that let me explain yeah when okay so so I was issued a there was a
complaint from the city and that's when I started trying to get permission to build this deck that
was already built at that point six months later was time to renew the license and I wasn't allowed
to do that okay because of this so i have made many phone calls and i was told that as long as
there's an open issue you they won't let you renew they won't let me renew it but i have always had
a no i've seen it for i've seen it for years so i just wanted to make sure that it wasn't lapsing
and then this would go back to lni and they'd be like oh wait you need proof for yeah okay so if
you've been in contact with them and that and they haven't allowed you to renew because of this then
you should what they said you should be fine okay thank you no proviso no i think we'll yeah no
proviso i think we'll be good be okay thank you all right questions or comments from the virtual
audience i do not see any hands raised planning commission
nina solomonic the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
cmx1 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location the appellant has shown that the proposed use
will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be
expected the planning commission recommends that the board grant the permit for the legalization
of the accessory roof deck mi 2025 001791 714 north 24th street i vote yes michael johns my vote is
yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes i win
my vote is yes thank you you've been here a long time i noticed today too so thank you very much
we appreciate it and thank you very much i really appreciate it number four mi 2025
005-889-834 avon road eugene or danuta collect are the owners it's a pro se
i'll be coming back in as a panel shortly mr chair
okay look at the approval
the approval
hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Yeah, hi, my name is Danuta Kolek, Danuta, D-A-N-U-T-A, Kolek, K-O-L-E-K-A.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
There is a letter of support for the Somerton Civic Association, a vote was 17 in support to an opposition,
and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member O'Neill.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
okay hi good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of the hearing
yes yes okay and um do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
listen to me i'll read it to you this application is for the removal and existing
interior parking space and the rear part of an existing structure existing single
family household living to remain whereas this proposed use single family household living
requires a minimum of one accessory off-street parking in the rsa2 zoning district and zero
spaces are proposed do you agree to that yeah okay all right so why don't you start making
your presentation turn your computer on to do your presentation
oh this is trouble
oh there oh you you all right who's putting that up is that and
no no sir that's that okay thank you good um well i have a little counter here i'm sorry
oh good good good good good okay so um we have all your paperwork so what i would uh think you
so what i would uh think you should do is number one tell us what you want to do right
should do is number one tell us what you
yes so what happened you put you took your garage away and you you you sealed that up
oh no no no no no we bought the house in 2002 as it is if they already if you look at my um
documents there is a picture of the house which we bought it in 2000 so it was like that when
you bought it you're saying yes yes it's only like three years ago and we had no idea whatsoever
that there was no permit i got it so it's like after those years all of a sudden uh i don't know
i've got evaluation about it and so you bought this in the garage had already been sealed up
and there was a door okay yes and that was the way it was when you bought the
property exactly in 2002 all right do you have any other photos there you can
show us well I had a thought of some existing I mean as it is now okay okay
mean okay i mean what are you gonna do she put it like that okay you posted it right yeah you
wanted you went to the rco meeting and they voted in favor of you yes they have the support you have
the support from your next door neighbor too yes we've got the support because they know that we
bought it like that and then we're just using as a storage and nothing is going on there it just
yeah question question wait a minute women questions from the board
questions from our attorney this was the one that i was thinking of the last case mr chair
where they had accidentally and one part of the refusal put um two family um where it's
it's single family so i would just we if we grant i would recommend just to provide those saying
existing single family household living to remain it says that in the description but in another
part of the refusal it says um two families for the parking spaces so so what i would just say
existing single family household living used to remain so just to just to clarify okay because
of the refusal thank you okay questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission this is where i go against something
nina solomonic with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change
the residential single-family rsa2 zoning at this location the proposed dimensional variance
is consistent with neighboring properties the planning commission has no objection to the
word granting the request variance for the front yard setback mi 2025 005-889-834 avon road
i vote yes with provisal single existing single household remains right
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso cheryl gaster my vote is yes with proviso
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ryan Wynn, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, ma'am.
You have your vote.
Thank you so much.
All right.
Is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called?
I do not see any hands.
What did Ian call for time for this?
What was the time he called?
Oh, are you kidding me?
Are you kidding me, Ian?
thank you everybody we're we're we we had a good day good day all right thank you
good day thank you mr chair have a good night all right thank you take care