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.