and separate utilities right separate utilities yes sir
okay why don't why don't you bring your client on to testify
doctor could you raise your hand please
the doctor has been admitted and allowed to speak
morning sir could you state your name please and spell it for the court stenographer
at the doctor at the barmiro sir a could you go ahead thank you a-d-e-d-o-t-u-n
last name a d e b a m i r o you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but
the truth yes i do sir please proceed counsel thank you sir doctor you heard everything i
just said a few moments ago yes and sir would you adopt everything i said was it all true and
accurate as far as you know yes thank you doctor questions questions from the board
no chair no questions share questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission it's uh ron bednar city planning comprehensive plan
And recommends no change to the residential zoning at this location, given the documented use history as a duplex.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board approve the proposed variance.
Thank you. MI 2023-004-819-1615 East Gowan Street, I vote yes.
James Snell, I vote yes.
laverne your apologies laverne leonard palmer my vote is yes it did not want to take me off mute
i don't know why all right thank you council you have your votes thank you very much have a nice
day everyone thank you okay so mr chair this is hillary i just wanted to note with the alder
street case um that can proceed um once we get to it on the list if you have received exhibits
and they are complete all right so we're going to hear number seven and number 19 together
Number seven is MI-2023-004-702-2600 Wharton Street, number TA-150-137.
And number 19 is MI-2023-004-722-2602 Wharton Street.
The attorney is Henry Clinton.
Morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Mr. Clinton. Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Sure. My name is Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is Edon, E-D-O-N, slow-mo, S-H-L-O-M-O, and he's a principal of the LLC, which owns the property.
And he's a principal of the LLC, which owns the property.
Do you waive the reading of the refusal and agree with this accuracy?
Do you waive the reading?
For all your documents, it's been within five days.
The only thing that we did, we needed support of the adjacent neighbor.
And he sent us a text message.
So we added that.
And I would note, too, that there's a support from the RCO, Residents Organized for Accupacy and Direction.
And I do see the support of the adjacent neighbor.
Please proceed, Mr. Clinton, and share your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Is that visible?
It is.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Henry Clinton for OTE Realty LLC, the principal of which is Adan Slomo, who is on the call.
This is a presentation package A1 through A11.
I'll walk through the documents and ask that they be admitted.
it. This is a pretty straightforward refusal. This is a corner property, and Mr. Chairman,
you indicated that you would hear this case and the one next to it. Yes, my key. It's redundant
information. That's sure. Thank you. I'll go through this presentation and then ask that it
be adopted into 2602 because it's the same floor plan, basically, and the same refusal. If that's
okay with the board. Please proceed, sir. So this is 2600 Wharton Street. This is a corner property
and we have one refusal. It is an RSA 5 zoning district and I'll show you a photograph later
from 1959 indicating that this property at one time was commercial as was the adjacent property
2602 commercial on the first floor with units above. So our one refusal is since we're an RSA
5 zoning district. We're asking for a two-family household living. We don't have any issues with
height, open space, or rear yard. As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, we do have a letter of support,
overwhelming support, 13 to 3, from residents organized for advocacy and direction for both
projects, both 2600 and 2602 Wharton Street. This is the text message from one of the owners
next door, Zachary Zuber, who owns 2604 Wharton Street. Basically, my client asked him to show
up today. He said, well, you have my support. These are photographs to give the board some
context of what we're asking for. So for 2600 Wharton, where my cursor is, that's the corner
property. 2602 is one in, and 2604, which is owned by Mr. Zuber, is right here. It's at the corner
of 26th and Wharton Street, directly across the street, is a four-story building. And I will show
the board the zoning records for this property. It's commercially used on the first floor.
It was a catering hall. Now it is a child care, day care. And then there's four units above.
Pretty unique architecture here. Back in the day, just by way of historical reference,
this used to be an annex for the King of Peace School, which is caddy corner to the property.
So just to give you a layout of the neighborhood, the two vacant lots, and they've been vacant since 1971, are right here.
To the far right is a wide open space.
This used to be the Benson Elementary School, which was the modest sometime in the 70s or 80s.
Directly across the street from the lots is the Church of the Pentecost.
And this whole facility here, directly across the street from the lot, used to be the King of Peace Elementary School.
to the south, the gym, and their church. That parish closed about a decade ago, and the school
was taken over by Universal. It's now vacant, but the church is operational, as far as I know,
with the Church of the Pentecost. Directly across the street is the annex of the old King of Peace
school, which has been converted to a four-family dwelling and a daycare on Titan Street, right down
the street, two-family dwelling. Caddy corner to our two lots is another two-family dwelling.
And then also caddy corner and behind these homes on Wharton Street, where my cursor is,
is 110,000 square foot business setting where there's 20 or 30, excuse me, five to six businesses
that I know of that are located in that area. Just a clear photograph of an area. I'll show
you the surrounding area another photograph for perspective these are signs indicating
our posting of the property and this is the photograph mr chairman that's uh pretty telling
i don't have any historical records to to show the board that in fact this corner was uh commercial
with two two units above or even one unit above all i have is this photograph that we're able to
All I have is this photograph that we're able to locate.
locate. So this, this now is 20.
So this now is 2,600 and one in is 2,602.
So you can see that both properties were commercial.
This was a Pioneer food store.
You can see the old Breyers ice cream sign, Breyers plant located in West Philadelphia,
which has since closed.
But the doors to the upstairs are on 26th Street.
And if I got closer, you could actually see the word Wharton Street right here.
So it really is a picture from 1959 we were able to get from the archives.
So we're asking to return these vacant lots, which the neighbors are really tired of, frankly, to residential.
It was commercial and residential at one point, and we're asking it to be residential now because, frankly, the commercial corridor is on Grace Ferry Avenue and or Washington Avenue, both of which are within walking distance of our project.
These are the plans.
You can just shrink that a little bit.
So this is the site plan.
Again, we have a corner property, which we're asking the V2 family,
and another property, 2602 adjacent, asking the V2 family.
You can see we have ample rear yard, and we're not exceeding the height.
as is desired in the gray story area which within which this is located uh very fond of red brick
so we are basically conforming with the wishes of the neighborhood uh first floor second floor
third floor uh 2600 is to the left where my cursor is 2602 is to the right and then to my
The far left is the 2600 block, excuse me, the 2600 side of the property, showing, again, a lot of brick with the side door entrance to get into one of the units.
Floor plans are relatively straightforward.
We have two bedrooms in the basement with egress wells on the corner, living room, dining room in the kitchen for the first unit.
And then the second unit is on the second and third floor.
bedrooms on the second floor, as well as the third floor with access to the rooftop deck.
So both dwelling units will have rear yard, excuse me, will have open space access.
The basement of first floor will have the rear yard.
The second and third floor will have the roof deck.
The remaining documents are the typical documents you would see in a proposal,
which are referenced in my table of contents, tax certificate, zoning map,
the deed indicating ownership of the property.
This is our notice letter indicating we mailed that 129 pieces of mail to the surrounding neighbors.
And these are the zoning records.
So this is the backup of the aerial photograph that I showed you indicating that 1268 South 26th Street,
directly across the street, is a daycare with four dwelling units.
2545 Caddy Corner, two dwelling units.
On the corner of 26th and Titan, two dwelling units.
This is the industrial commercial space, 110 square feet, and then 2206 Wharton Street.
I just wanted to show the board that this has been a vacant lot since 1971.
If the chairman may recall, back in the 60s and 70s, the Redevelopment Authority was knocking down a lot of corner properties to bring open space into the neighborhoods.
But in the process of doing that, a lot of the commercial establishments went by the wayside.
So this is proof of the four-unit building across the street. This is two rental units, 2545 Wharton, Caddy Corner to the existing project. Again, proof that two-story, I mean, two dwellings is Caddy Corner to our property.
This is the 2,600 block of Titan, again, on the corner, two rental units.
And then this rental unit is inactive, but you can see that they got a zoning approval to have limited lodging in this two-unit property.
And this is just a record of the large 110,000-square-foot industrial site that is directly across the street.
And this is the archive record indicating from 1971.
This has been a vacant lot, 2600 and 2602.
And you can see there was a permit obtained for wire lath and a stucco party wall at 2604.
So that's the presentation, Mr. Chairman.
What I wanted to say is that in conclusion, we have a unique situation here where I know
it's zoned rsa 5 and the community knows it's zoned rsa 5 both of these properties
both 2600 and 2602 but they've been vacant for almost
both 2600 and 2602, but they've been vacant for almost 50 years.
They have the empty lot of the Benson Elementary School down at the corner, which I showed earlier.
I'll bring that up again.
And the lot remains vacant. We have educational uses across the street,
religious uses across the street,
multifamily within striking distance of the property
and directly across the street.
So we're not impairing the development
of any adjacent properties.
We're taking a long vacant lot
and making it into residential,
which is consistent with the neighborhood.
It's not impairing the development
or light and air of any properties
on the block or across the street.
We're basically in harmony with the code
because it is residential.
And frankly, we're in harmony
with the wishes and desires and, frankly, the hopes of the community group
to convert these vacant lots into residential use.
And with that, I'd ask my client to unmute himself
and adopt my testimony.
Mr. Shlomo, can you raise your hand?
Mr. Shlomo has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
I'm hearing.
Frank. Mr. Shlomo, were you on the call? Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the
court stenographer? Idan Shlomo. Idan, E-D-O-N, Shlomo, S-H-L-O-M-O. Do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed, counsel. Mr. Shlomo,
were you on the call when I presented your project for 2600 Block of Wharton Street, which is also
basically the same presentation as 2602 Wharton Street?
I was.
And if you had the opportunity to adopt my testimony as your own,
and true and correct, would you?
And also, are you looking at the screen right now?
And do you see the list of properties on the 2600 block on Wharton Street?
And do you see the market value assessment value from the OPA registry?
And you'll see that the values are anywhere from $125,000 to $140,000 for most of the homes on the block?
And could you, as a builder, could you build a single-family home for $140,000 on this block right now?
No, we cannot.
Okay. And what would the cost of a single-family home be if you had to construct a single-family home on this block?
Approximately $290,000.
Thank you, Mr. Snowmo. Mr. Chairman, I have no more questions on my client.
Questions from the board?
No, Chairman.
No, Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Jean-Pierre and Luis. They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.