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
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