So the whole picture of what they have been doing here has not been clearly represented
to you today in terms of what we were observing.
And the last one major comment I do want to touch base on, they've been renting out these
units are legally i'll call it illegally and if i'm my word choice is inappropriate you'll correct
me but at the beginning of april we could start to find reviews that were showing up on bookings.com
there are approximately 79 of these reviews that were completed and i believe during that time
period this is when they were offering without the appropriate zoning variance to do this so
if you think about that there's only 79 reviews that were completed and that means there's probably
more people who stayed there who didn't submit it so you know the whole estimation about the
number of people that were maybe staying in this property is underestimated so okay that's that's
why i'd share there from that standpoint lastly i live like i said 175 feet away i live on that
street it was an absolute pigsty every day of the week there's trash out front there it smelled it
It was just nasty.
It's like you can imagine the robes.
So my only other comment is that I go by there,
and only these activities took place after they realized that their variance was in jeopardy
because of the lack of effort on it.
Thank you very much for coming down.
We appreciate it.
Thank you.
All right, sir, do you want to testify?
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Peter Janusik, J-A-N-L-S-I-K.
I'm a neighborhood resident.
I'm going to oppose this project. I'm part of Hawthorne.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
You're going to be held to two minutes, and we would appreciate you only talking about things that are different than what we've just heard.
Yes, I'm not going to repeat what has just been said.
I totally support what the two last two speakers have said.
We had a meeting with this at Hawthorne, extremely lively, went on for a very long time.
This is a total quality of life issue right here.
this applicant gives us absolutely no assurances whatsoever that they're going to operate in a way
that's going to be a benefit to this community. Case after case after case of like all the crazy
things that have been mentioned already and it's like okay I've been caught now it's my bad but
I'll be better later. I just don't expect it I don't see it's going to happen and that's why
we oppose it thank you very much thank you very much for coming is there anyone in the virtual
audience yes chair um there is lauren krieger will be promoted how many how many hands do you
have that's just her lauren krieger thank you lauren she's coming in now okay
Hello, my name is Lauren Krieger, L-A-U-R-E-N-K-R-E-E-G-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Lauren, are you a neighbor?
Yes, I live at 814 South 13th Street, so two doors down.
Okay. So you heard, we'll give you two minutes, and if you would, try to say things that haven't already been said. Okay?
Yeah, absolutely. I don't need to reiterate all my firsthand experiences, because Jerry and Jocelyn did a really excellent job summarizing them.
So instead, I'm going to focus on my opposition, really just because of my lack of confidence about how this property is going to use their future operations.
And I'm concerned that this LLC and the two other LLCs that are associated with the same business address at 210 Locust Street, they operate several other poorly, in my opinion, poorly managed and poorly reviewed short-term rental properties in Philadelphia.
And it makes me confused about counsel's suggestion that there was a misunderstanding about the rules and regulation because this group owns several other.
there was a misunderstanding about the rules and regulation because this group owns several other
properties that are being used for the same thing um so my ask is that together the board
and ellen i can prevent future operations at this property despite the history of what is again to
the best of my understanding unpermitted and misowned operations from 16 7 llc for this
property um the property at 1617 south 16th street um and basically that i that this isn't
going to continue to disrupt the neighborhood because i live two doors down a lot of the
stories that jerry and jocelyn shared came from me from that community meeting where i spent 32
minutes on the phone with this business trying to help a locked out guest get in um in general it
negatively impacts my enjoyment of my residence and i think it affects the character of the
neighborhood i don't think i need to take too much more of the committee's time because in my
opinion this is a pretty clear-cut case thank you very much for taking the time alan um would you
want to respond yeah you would try to hold it to a few minutes yeah so mr chur again we present this
variance not because we have a violation against us we present this variance to try to do the right
thing my client did misunderstand what the rules were with regards to airbnbs um if you look at the
notice of refusal that is dated july of 2025 i think there was some indication about reviews
in april of 2025 i told my client to stop operating as soon as she hired us i said you
know you cannot operate now knowing that this is not the illegal way of doing that and she stopped
In terms of how many units, she had six. I was like, you can't do that. You're not going to get acceptance from the ZBA if you have lower level living. So that has to stop.
And after the community comments, we weren't presenting five when we heard the community speak. I reviewed the project myself. I stated, listen, you have to go. If it was four bedrooms in the past, when you purchased the property, you have to stay at four bedrooms. You can't do that otherwise, because that's now, you know, real hardship here by adding to that hardship in terms of trash.
I can't and some of the comments from the first speaker it sounds like she's living next to an
Airbnb those are experiences from a different operator a general operator not us and I don't
believe we stated during the community meeting that we're gonna fit four people in that first
bedroom on the first floor that I don't believe we stated but again it's not out of character
we're half a block off of broad street this is a cmx one property which had four bedrooms
you know and with five bathrooms and the hardship is to then spend those
spend a lot of money to basically convert this really into a single family home
we're in probably before us was being used as a single room residence thank you planning commission
amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location from the current cmx1 commercial mixed use the appellant has not
demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or the circumstances that would
prevent the property from being used in conformance with the zoning code the planning commission
recommends that the board deny their requested variance for visitor accommodation
and my 20 25 0 0 4 8 0 8 8 14 south 13th street i vote no
michael johns my vote is no charles gaston my vote is no
tenetta graham my vote is no i am mcadams my vote is no i own my vote is no council thank you thank
you and i think you have one more here a couple of words in front okay um let's see here
number nine not not you're not nine you're not i i promise you we're going to get to you
number nine mi 2025 004 953 120 south street rachel pritzker is the attorney
letter of support from south street head house district affected rco and non-opposition from
council member squiller rachel pritzker is coming in as a panelist good afternoon and happy new year
the council could you please state your name is spelled for 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 affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
nothing but the truth? Yes.
Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
So my client is Michaela Lulovich, and she is the tenant for this property.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents five days in advance of this hearing?
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
All right.
Thank you.
You can show your screen and begin your case.
Thank you.
Can you see my screen?
We can.
It's a little blurry, but this is 120 South Street.
We received a refusal and a referral for this project.
The property is owned CMX1, and we are proposing use for a tattoo shop, also known as personal
services body art services it generated a refusal and a referral given the fact that
there is multiple overlays and then certain exemptions for this regulated use so
we are that's sort of what was generated on the screen for supplemental use controls for
the center city district overlay and then also for uses allowed in the commercial districts
for CMX1.
This is our application.
Project information form.
Tax clearance.
This is a copy of the lease.
this is the zoning map for the property as mentioned it's on south street and it's zoned
cmx1 as you can see on the screen surrounding areas multifamily and cmx2 and cmx1 as well
So aerial photos of the property, zoning posters, kind of stop here so you can see this space, some of the interior photos.
So, as mentioned, we're proposing body art services, basically a tattoo shop, and we're generating a special exception and a variance for this matter.
It's a small property on South Street. It's 17 by 55, so it's like 935, I believe, square feet.
And we're looking to use the ground floor commercial space for body art services.
The hardship is not self-imposed.
It's multiple regulatory burdens and overlays that require a very limited use of commercial
uses for this space.
It's also sat vacant for a significant amount of time, despite being on South Street, which
is well known for various different small businesses, and also given the size of this
space, it doesn't lend itself to many other uses or would require a lot of modification
of the space to fit anything.
it's kind of too small for a restaurant and even a lot of the permitted uses given the overlay would
also require a special exception or a variance so either way i think would be in front of you all but
given sort of the low impact use of a tattoo shop this small space and it being ground floor
commercial we felt like this was the least modification of the code and also appropriate
it um on this part of south street so you can see from the interior photos it kind of goes straight
back this is the front of the building so this is the rear the visual and then if you look for
there's sort of this lofted area so again also making it quite challenging for a lot of different
commercial uses but with the low impact use like a tattoo shop you can put you know benches back
there and you don't need to sort of heavily modify the building or the commercial space especially
given she's the tenant and the current owner was looking for a while to rent this out i think some
of the layout of the space made it challenging for you know some of the other commercial uses
that that might have been viable in addition in just the general area there's a lot of similarly
situated businesses so there's a lounge that's also restricted from the overlays at 119 south
street there's a queen and rock shop which is a nail salon all which received variances
these are sort of similar establishments small businesses as well and so this use is not
inconsistent with some of these smaller personal service businesses in the area and again just
given that the tight small space of this limited sort of an attractive commercial use for
um limited sort of uh in attractive commercial use for for some other spots um we also don't
believe that this is out of whack or out of character with the comprehensive plan um just
given sort of uh the goal on page 92 to try to avoid unnecessary variances or inappropriate
restrictions this again triggered a special exception and a variance because of an overlay
and the restrictiveness of cmx1 so it makes it really difficult for any commercial business
to be viable in this spot without some of these, this process and going through the variance relief
that we're requesting. Just the view from across the street. And again, this is just the zoning
code sections that are mentioned, body art services here, and CMX1. And as you can see,
most things in CMX1 require a variance or a special exception, pretty limited
options even the ones that are have a y next to them have some other consideration that makes it
so you typically have to get a variance or they restrict size of the space we met with the queen
village neighbors association and the other south street head house which was the other affected rco
we sent out all the appropriate mailers
And as mentioned, the Queen Village Neighbors Association sent a letter of support for this application, in addition to a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Squilla's office.
The client, again, the tenant also went and spoke with near neighbors, which the community respected, just given just making sure that other folks nearby were comfortable with this use.
and these were also presented to the to the community group as well so we include them in our
packet thank you get the point
um just to give a sense of the floor plans um again this is a sort of very limited space
um the ground floor is just storage um a bathroom as you can see here then just mechanical space
and then the first floor zoom out for a second
um as you can well let me zoom a little bit as you can see um has um you know just some areas for
um tables and benches and the cards for the tattooing stations and then again that raised
area that's um lofted provides those spaces as well again this has a bathroom in the basement
and just, again, really sort of a narrow, short space
and really limited modification
from any kind of alteration perspective.
We don't believe that it would be more harmful
than any permitted uses,
but again, really limited permitted uses
given the overlays.
And so we would just request, you know,
the variance be granted.
I believe Michaela is in the audience if I can.
Mikaela?
Mikaela?
Mikaela will be coming in shortly.
Do we want to swear her in?
I think she's um yeah as soon as I is she there yeah she's here Michaela yep hi hi how are you
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer Michaela Lulovich m-a-k-a-y-l-a-l-u-l-e-v-i-t-c-h
right do you swear or affirm the tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth yes counsel
Michaela have you heard my testimony today do you believe it to be true and accurate and do you
adopted as your own yes thank you questions from the board yes um question the uh one of the
provisos uh speaks about uh no use commercial use of the rear
speaks about no use commercial use of the rear patio did i see on this plan where this rear patio
is and do you agree with that proviso so i don't believe that the floor plans show the rear patio
but um michaela correct me if i'm wrong but i think we had agreed in the meeting with the rco
that the rear patio is not going to be used for commercial purposes no okay so we're fine with