Hi, so we're here to present 1515 East Passiunk Avenue.
This is a property, a two-story property at the corner of Greenwich and East Passiunk.
We have 12 exhibits in our packet, and to my left is Mr. Griska, the owner of the property.
First exhibits and those are refusal.
So it's strange, you know, you're on East Pasadena Avenue and you have an RSA 5 property, and that's why we're here today.
There's a long history of single family above and commercial on the ground floor.
of single family above and commercial on the ground floor we're seeking a variance to allow
We're seeking...
for cmx 2.5 zoning here which is in line with the character of the neighborhood we have two
refusals first for the cmx two and a half zoning which is not allowed in the rsa 5 district as well
as no more than one principal use is allowed in the rsa 5 zoning district so as the chairman
stated we have a letter of non-opposition from the passing on square civic association both the
community and the actual uh committee itself voted unanimously in support of this project
or non-opposition this project with that i also have a letter of non-opposition uh from the
district council member and then we have a petition a pretty extensive petition by mr griska
of nearby occupants of properties,
along with letters of support as well.
I'm just trying to get through this.
Decent amount. Still going.
All right. Again, the property history here.
In 2011, there was a temporary variance granted for professional office use on the ground
floor with single-family above.
In 2000, it was a thrift store with single-family above.
And in 1957, it was a radio repair service store with single-family above.
Maps of the area.
Again, here we are in the corner of Greenwich and Passionk.
you can see here we are lined with cmx two and a half properties other than this block for some
reason which is definitely out of character to east passing out gavin
photographs of the property
there is one accessory parking spot in the garage which is legal this is the front of the property
since 2009 uh this is the post the proof of posting passing on to the right of the property
until after the property greenwich to the right of the property until after the property interior
photos this property looks like it hasn't been updated since the 70s
then our plans are drawing drawings pretty simple here this is from east pass yonk you have the
commercial unit you have the garage that you saw from east pass yonk there's a secondary
door that goes up to a flight of steps where you have an open floor plan well you have two
bedrooms an open floor plan living room kitchen bathroom and then in the basement level is the
commercial storage uh commercial storage rco meeting notice we met on october 14th at 7 pm
we notified 148 addresses of the community meeting these are lists this is proof of mailing
our application for appeal to the zba our deeds of property showing that mr griska is the owner
of the property and then finally our tax clearance certificate which i'm trying to get to
is here. Well, it shows there's a balance. It's because of 2026 taxes, which are not due until
March 31st. I will stop sharing my screen, and I would ask that Mr. Griska be sworn in.
Sure. Why don't you pull it closer to you a little bit? Yep. Yeah. Could you please state
your name and spell for the stenographer? My name is Jordan Griska, J-O-R-D-A-N-G-R-I-S-K-A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
do counsel yes uh jordan you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning matter
yes is it true and correct yes and do you adopt as your own testimony thank you questions from the
board questions from our attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the
audience the virtual audience no hands chair planning commission amy board with the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from rsa5
residential single family to cmx 2.5 commercial mixed use this block is surrounded by a commercial
quarter and there is another commercial mixed use on the corner of this property the proposed use
would be allowed under the recommended zoning the planning commission recommends that the board
grant their quest advance for multiple principal uses and cmx commercial uses thank you mi 2025
004805 1515 east pashuk avenue i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes
tanetta graham my vote is yes i am mcadams my vote is yes i am in my vote is yes thank you thank you
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Alan, yeah, you're here.
And then you're going to step out a little bit.
Thank you.
So number seven, MI2025, 004808, 814 South 13th Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
we have a letter of strong unanimous opposition from hawthorne um several different comments here
um just for the record could you state your name because you've already been sworn
alan knockamson and can you identify your client the relationship to the property yeah my client
is 16x7 llc and to my left is jackie zang its member and our vice chair has just 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 reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i do okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case thank you
so these visitor accommodation cases are tough sometimes because you have people who you know
don't want like temporary visitors in nearby in residential neighborhoods um but again my
philosophy and zoning variance law in philadelphia is this if you walk by the property built to use
as proposed does this stick out like a sore thumb or is this something that fits more so with the
fabric of the neighborhood so are there other visitor accommodation there of airbnbs there are
so it's not out of character here and i do believe because the uniqueness of this property which my
client purchased a few years ago uh leads it to be like for visitor accommodation use
uh so we'll review first the 12 exhibits um you know that we have here and i have my client here
um we're going to go a little bit out of order because we want to direct each point that the
community made i will say this while the community the people in the community who attended the
community meeting were against this product this this use of visitor accommodations we did actually
petition in the neighborhood and the property owner to left and right of us are actually in
support of this project so again we're in we're actually and by the way this the zoning
classification cmx1 so it's not like we're dealing with an rsa5 property here this is a mixed use
commercial property which is littered with different type of multifamily structures at
least from a zoning classification so you have to really take that into account when you're
deciding whether to have visitor accommodations because again we're not taking a single family
zoning classification and going and transforming it into visitor accommodations so the um the
letter was you know pretty harsh um you know you know they're not just unanimously opposed
with strong prejudice that's the first i've seen so um but you know and again i live in the
neighborhood just like you know the people here so i would be upset if if things weren't done the
right way and and nothing's perfect whether it's long-term or short-term anytime you're renting a
property it could be bad listen i've had situations where there was a renter living next to me long
term and i had to deal with that renter for one year and it was a bad renter and i told the
property owner to you know that this is a bad renter but i had to suffer a year you know if
Are there situations where, you know, you may have a bad renter short term?
But like, again, do you have a bad renter for one day or do you have a bad renter for
one year?
You got to balance that off.
So first one was, you know, the first comment was about the illegal short term rental
operation.
My client got a limited lodging license.
She didn't understand that that's, you can't get that, right?
It's a term of art.
You can get a limited lodging license if that is your primary residence and you want to
the renter room she didn't understand that she came to my firm it's not like she has a violation
against the property she you know she must have read something somewhere where that was not allowed
and then she decided to proactively not ask for forgiveness ask for permission to like do this
so it's not like she's reacting to a violation notice she could have went under the radar screen
still and she chose not to uh the density right so when she purchased this property
it was four bedrooms she added a fifth bedroom there um and you know so you know and and there
was some there was some living down even in the basement level and we said to her listen you can't
put the people in the basement right so she immediately got rid of that after the community
meeting i said listen you know if if you're going to have a true hardship here you had four bedrooms
here like that's out of character to have four bedrooms in any row home in philadelphia like
you're going to need to revert that fifth bedroom back to a fourth to to a living room right so
to to a living room right so that's what she's prepared to do for purposes of today but she's
that's what she's prepared to do for purpose
not renting out the lower level like they were saying continuing she stopped doing that and she
discontinued any airbnb use you know upon our advice um as soon as we were hired
uh let's see poor let's say he's blocking customer service properties mismanagement she had
So, two doors down had an issue with someone who couldn't figure out how to open the door.
You know, it's unfortunate.
You know, my client has now updated, like, their materials to provide good instructions on how to, like, you know, use the Airbnb.
So, it's not mismanaged.
They have a professional manager who's behind us who manages, you know, who's managing her property now.
Trash.
Again, it's Airbnb.
be like you know it's you go in the day they take they clean up they take the trash with them it's
probably less trash than if you had a single family home so um but you know that's that's
that's their model now or will be now in terms of fire safety and egress whether it's being used
long-term or short-term accommodations it's the same type of egress parking again a lot of times
when you have people from out of town you know you know who go on vacation they don't have a car
They're like flying in from the airport. They come in. They don't have a car. They're using Uber and Lyft. I think it's more likely someone who uses this property is going to not have a car than someone who uses this property with four bedrooms and who will likely have one, if not two cars.
And then the character. They're saying it's being used as a hostel. I don't believe that's the case. I think they're using it as an Airbnb. So that's up to the board to decide.
So, my client, in response, if I can get to it, did feedback, right?
So, originally she had trash cans out in the front, which is not appropriate.
She moved them out to the back, right?
You know, and showing that in two different ways.
There was an issue about, you know, there was no number on the wall of the facade of the building structure.
she put a number in there so there wouldn't be any mischaracterization or misunderstanding of which
was their property and you know again putting even notices about smoking about no neighbor
disturbances and for help here's a direct phone number and then she also put you know she she you
know she's you know has a property manager bestow bespoke stay right and they put a noise monitoring
So if it goes above a certain level, they are then informed of that.
And just like these landlords get raided as a good landlord or a bad landlord, unlike long-term accommodations, there's a system in place with all these websites where tenants get raided as well.
And, you know, again, with that unfortunate incident, it was more someone was confused.
I don't know how to get into my property.
They weren't a bad tenant.
It was just they just were just, you know, somewhat disruptive.
And then it just shows the example of, like, the noise monitoring system.
And then she even went out of her way to, like, clean the street itself.
She felt so bad.
She was like, I feel so bad if I cause any harm here.
she actually cleaned a decent portion of the neighborhood like herself like she
hired people to do that she felt horrible about it and like you know she
like she wanted to purchase this property if she knew she had to go through this
variance process where there's a shot she won't get it because at four bedrooms
you know again I like it would there would the hardship would she would have
to revert she would have to change the structure of this in the inside of this
property but anyway these are just pictures of her cleaning up and then during what the first
snowstorm she actually shoveled it as well out of her own pocket she just felt really really really
bad and that was what was it previously just and then she created a brochure right to give
instructions about like what the house is about what the neighborhood's about like who to contact
making sure there was complete communication, direct communication with them.
And then she did have a petition, and you can see here's 812 South 13th Street,
a lot of the close crosswalk streets of Christian Street, 13th Street.
I think she has Catherine. She has a little bit of Webster.
Then she has the letter as well is 816, which is the other side of her property.
and a couple other properties on 13th Street.
We try to stay within the affected area.
And then it's not out of character to have Airbnbs.
And then it's not out of character to have Airbnbs.
You can see we're not that far from Broadway.
You can see we're not that far from Broad Street.
It gives an alternative of like, you know, having living in a neighborhood, something a little bit different, rather than going to the Doubletree or somewhere else.
And by the way, what we see a lot of times with Airbnbs is overflow during the holidays.
You know, these are smaller places, 2,000 square feet or less.
You know, you don't have a place to have your grandma or your mom or your sibling, and it's another place that for overflow for the families that live in that neighborhood.
And then you can see the mixed zoning here. We're on the line of CMX1. There's a ton of RM1.
So, again, this is not from a zoning classification like a straight single-family neighborhood. Are there single-family structures? Of course there are.
and then photographs of the property proof of posting south 13th street to the right
and to left interior photos and they keep it very clean
and just so you understand this was as is when they purchased it the only thing they did
was put this little wall here
for an extra bedroom.
They want to take this out
because they want a living area created.
Here's a kitchen and a living area created.
This is just for storage.
And then there's bedrooms.
And they do rent these by the room,
just so you understand.
So I asked Jackie,