Notice of refusal.
So this is an RSA 5 property.
I think in name only.
It has a long multifamily history.
Since 2009, it's been used as a duplex, and it's a large lot.
Nevertheless, it's 1,602-square-foot lot.
Letter of support.
So it was actually 25 people who unanimously supported it.
19 members of the community, as well as all six board members of the community group,
brought in support.
And then in the letter of support, they said that we support it.
There's an active rental license in place, and the property has been used as a two-family dwelling since approximately 2009, and we purchased it this way.
So, rental license showing that this isn't, well, now it's inactive, but it was inactive for some time.
So, rental license showing that this isn't, well, now it's.
I guess it's inactive because when my client purchased it, then the old owner didn't continue that rental license, but it was an active rental license.
The 300 block of North Preston Street, where we're at, if you can see, we're number one and highlighted and we're RSA 5.
But there are 10 other instances of RSA 5 properties, which are also multifamily in nature.
So it's not out of character to have multifamily on North Preston Street, or at least the 300 block.
And then here's some pictures of some of those properties, 318 North Preston Street, 319 and 21 North Preston Street, 322 North Preston Street, 324 North Preston Street, 325 North Preston Street, 326 North Preston Street, 327 and 329 North Preston Street, 330 North Preston Street.
And then the advertisement as well for this listing where my client purchased the property, but you can see it was advertised as multifamily.
And then maps of the area again, while our block is yellow in RSA 5, we do have a lot of instances of multifamily use, but then we're also near a lot of multifamily zoning classifications like RM1 and CMX2.
So not out of character to have multifamily nearby.
We're not only a few blocks away from Lancaster Avenue, which is a commercial corridor.
And then as you can see here, this is where Lancaster intersects.
So it's a few block walk.
But, you know, and then we're also close to Market Street as well, which is a commercial corridor.
And then photographs of the property.
This is the front of the property.
This is the property in 2009.
So nothing's really changed here.
You'll see the multiple meters in 2009.
for this property so it's three electric meters so one for each unit and probably one for
the common area and then this is our proof of posting for today's hearing our orange notice
posting which we posted and then this is north prescient street to the right of the property
to the left of the property and then these are the meters that currently exist there
and you can see the multiple mailboxes as well for the property
and then the multiple hot water heaters
and the multiple gas meters.
And then our plans and drawings are very simple.
You walk on the porch, you make a right,
you get into unit number one,
which has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom,
and another bedroom.
And then they have access to the basement
where the washer and dryer is.
Instead of going to the right in the vestibule area,
you go up a flight of steps.
It's a multi-level unit up there. You hit the landing, you have the kitchen, the living room, one bedroom, a bath, and then you go up a flight of steps and there's two more bedrooms and another bathroom as well as washer and dryer.
RCO meeting notice, we met on September 5th at 7 p.m.
We sent out that notice by U.S. Postal Service.
We then got a certificate of mailing.
We took the notice as well as proof of mailing, and we attached it to an email to the coordinating RCO and all relevant parties,
letting them know that we sent this notice to 110 addresses.
Here are the addresses.
Here's our proof of mailing to those addresses.
Our application for appeal that we filed on Rue and Jenny's behalf,
along with the notice of refusal and the project information form,
the deed to the property showing that they own the property,
and then finally the certificate of tax clearance
that's showing that they owe no real estate taxes for this property.
I would ask that Jenny virtually raise her hand to be sworn in.
but i'm not to speak could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
um i um i'm my i'm jenny's nephew i'm just going to translate and uh
after i do it um we can't tell alan we can't do that i can't i didn't realize they would
the translation so i mean she will speak i'm just gonna tell her what she needs to say
if that's okay um i don't i'm not sure that we can do that alan have you talked to her
yeah we have talked to her we've prepped her for this i didn't realize that i mean
all right and alan as an officer of the court we'll take your testimony instead of i appreciate
it. Thank you. Thank you. Questions from the board? Questions or comments from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Are there comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, sure.
I have a hand up from Strawberry Mansion Community Concerns.
I have allowed them to speak.
I know.
Sorry.
Sorry.
That's okay.
That's okay.
Yeah, I knew that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
First name Ron, R-O-N.
Last name Bednar.
B-E-D-N-A-R.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, sir.
This property is indicated for residential use on a city plan, given the documented use history where we recommend requested legalization variance be granted.
MI 2024-003-921-323 North Preston Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanada Graham, my vote is yes.
Thaya Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2024-004-362, 6800 Martins Mill Road.
Alec Sokoloff is the attorney.
There's a letter of unanimous non-opposition from the Longcrest Community Association.
There's also three form letters from people on the block.
Good afternoon, members of the board.
Could you just state your name and spell for the stenographer, please?
Sure. Oleg Sokolov, O-L-E-G-S-O-K-O-L-O-V, on behalf of Behavioral Health Solutions Holding Company.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
i do our vice chair has a few questions sure good afternoon good afternoon uh do you agree
the way to read another refuse or stipulate to its accuracy i do have you emailed in all the
required documents that's needed to proceed with this case i have and um i will be presenting and
hope the board will accept some additional letters of support that were just received in the last few
days okay uh the last few days did you send that over to our attorney already i have not yet the
package with the the original letters was sent but this is some additional that i just received
okay so we'll proceed with the case but we may have to hold the
vote but leave that up to the chair please proceed and share your school thank you mr
everybody able to see that we can okay wonderful um good afternoon everyone as i said oleg sokolov
on behalf of behavioral health solutions holding company i will let miss jackson when she comes on
give you a little bit more information about what they do but this is a mental health services
facility for people in the neighborhood. They provide various counseling services on site.
And what we are talking about here is a request to use the upstairs spaces for the purposes of
office, strictly office. They are not seeing any clients or any, I'm not sure if it's the
right term, patients, but no one other than their own staff is upstairs in the office.
For a little bit more reference, this property was previously an accountant's office, and no changes have been made by the current ownership or Ms. Jackson, who is the president of Behavioral Health Solutions.
So this is ostensibly a request to legalize the use that was existing.
As I said, no work or refit of the upstairs has been done.
So I'll just take you through the exhibits here.
We have Ms. Jackson and Behavioral Health Solutions purchased this property just in
March of this year.
here. These are just some pictures of the space we are talking about.
This is the property itself.
It's actually, as you'll see when I go to the zoning map, it's a unique property.
It is on a bit of a corner and abuts and is very thin at one side and gets a little wider as you go further down Martin's Mill.
This is just a view of the street in one direction.
One direction. This is the intersection of Martins Mill and Oakley, and then North Street. So we are right here. And you can see that, you know, this neighborhood certainly has this unique characteristic of these triangular-shaped lots at the corner of this almost four-way intersection, surrounded by RSA 5.
This is the intersection of Martin's Mill and Oakley.
our application for appeal
we met with the RCO on August 15th it was an incredibly well attended
meeting in fact even the the state representative who we had a chance to chat with
at the end of the meeting you know was very supportive of certainly this kind of
business and the neighborhood as to the value that it adds to the neighbors and really provides
a service that I think more and more in today's world, you know, we're lacking and we really want
to support as a city and as communities. And that seemed to be the takeaway that we received
from the meeting. We noticed 60 neighbors along with the RCOs.
And as the chair pointed out, we do have this letter released on September 25th for non-opposition from the RCO.
Our zoning posters hung at the property.
Our tax clearance.
And as the chair stated, we do have the three letters of support that were submitted along with the file from nearby neighbors, almost immediate neighbors here on the block.
And then if I may, ask the board to consider some additional neighbors of once again, immediate or directly across the street neighbors.
These are residential neighbors, in fact, that, you know, do support this kind of use.
If it please the board at this time, I'd like to ask Ms. Jackson just to come on and add a little
color to what kind of business and exactly what it is they do there and what they do upstairs.
Why don't you bring Ms. Jackson on? Sure.
They've been enough to speak. Good afternoon. Hi, good afternoon. Could you
please state your name and spell for the synod for sorry jackson e-l-i-s-s-a-r-h-j-a-c-k-s-o-n
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i affirm please proceed counsel thank you very much um good afternoon miss jackson could you
give the board just a little bit more information about you know the kind of services that you
provide there just very briefly? So Behavioral Health Solutions is a social service agency that
serves adults with intellectual disabilities and mental health issues. We've been in business for
going on 16 years, and we've been renting property for about 15 years. So we're happy to be in the
neighborhood. Actually, I live in the neighborhood and have been in the neighborhood for 25 years.
So we're happy to serve our community. Most of our clients, 95% live in Philadelphia County. We offer behavior consultation, community participation supports, and in-home and community supports, which means that we take our clients out into the community.
So we use this area as a meeting spot.
So on bad days raining like this, we might have some clients in, but for the most part,
we get our clients out in the community, in their own communities and in this community.
So we have a management team of four persons, a clinical psychologist, I'm a social worker,
and two administrative persons, and we occupy the second floor.
the building is all when we moved in it was ready to go so we just painted the walls and
we moved our furniture and so it has always been residential I mean commercial administrative space
and Miss Jackson it's correct to say that you never you very rarely have clients or patients
coming into the space itself correct even in the downstairs even the downstairs because we're
the goal of the service is to get people acclimated into their communities so and
and you would never have anybody any of the clients or patients in the upstairs
administrative spaces right no not it's a long way up so
um and just quickly you you heard my testimony here my presentation here before the board
um and just quickly you you heard my testimony
i affirm yes did you hear my did you hear my presentation that i gave to the board
this afternoon okay and would you would you adopt it as your own yes okay all right thank you
ms jackson unless you want to add anything i have no no further things for you okay thanks
Questions from the board.
So this is like back of house administrative kind of use.
You're, I guess, processing whatever paperwork needs to be done, payments, if there's any payments involved or whatever.
Is that what this is really for?
so if i may quickly yeah we're what we're talking about is not the use of the the space itself for
this business we are just talking about the second floor office spaces which i'm displaying on the
screen and they're just for those four staff members that miss jackson just just mentioned
one of them being herself so it's administrative back of house kind of activities that these folks
would be involved yeah what what you're seeing here on the screen just desks and you know
coordination and and you know a place to do emails and and processing intakes and things like that
all right okay thank you thank you other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emberson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
Chair, I have Strawberry Mansion community concerned with the hand raised. I will allow them to speak at this time.
I don't think that's.
I'm not sure what's happening. I'm on my phone, so I don't know why my hand keeps going up.
I understand. That's okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
We would be happy to take support from Strawberry Mansion as well.