through the zoning process. So she has been not using the facility, but basically it's outfitted.
There's no structural changes. She has it fully stocked, but not open for business.
And if she gets the green light today and gets her permit, she's ready to open. And this is
her second location. She has one location with the same concept in Queen Village. She sells
stationery, creative goods, house goods, pillows, candles, greeting cards, and you can see the
wares as the shelves are already stocked. The intent is to open similar to the pet shop next
door with hours of 11 to 6, Monday through Saturday, and then 11 to 5 on Sunday. She will
have one full-time employee, two part-time employees. There really is not much trash,
if any, generated as a result of this use. We basically are going to be relocating
on a commercial corridor. The zoning is RM1.
on a commercial corridor. The zoning is RM1, but historically there are stores or commercial uses
on the first floor on this block up and down the street. You can see that the front has already
been painted, nicely appointed and ready for business. We are going to, as I said, just have
one full-time staff. There still is an apartment upstairs. Here's the layout and the plans. The
pictures tell the whole story, but we also have it in a concept form. As you enter the front,
you have the center display, candles, home goods, books along one shelf, greeting cards,
stationery, wall art. My client purchases items from over 150 different small businesses and
artisans in the Philadelphia and metropolitan area, and sometimes outside Philadelphia.
And we really expect with the traffic across the street, with people and visitors coming
to tour the prison, as well as the restaurants that are already on Framlin Avenue, that this
location hopefully will be as successful as the one that Ms. Haskin has in Queen Village.
This is our application for appeal.
We do have a tax clearance.
Our zoning map, as you can see, all the area on Fairmont Avenue on the south side is RM1, but most of the frontages have some type of a business.
As I said, be it a pet store, a restaurant, real estate offices, and just general offices.
And then Caddy Corner, this orange section here, that's the prison on Fairmont Avenue.
This is a lease indicating that my client does have an equitable interest in the property.
She has a three-year lease, and as I said, she's already been paying rent, and hopefully, if the board sees kindly upon this application, she'll be able to let her employee know, or employees, plural, that we'll be opening soon.
These are the letters that were sent out to over 102 individuals and businesses within 250 feet of the property.
And we did have a successful community meeting.
I just wanted to show the board that one of the prior uses from, I believe this is 2016 or so, yes, 2016, retail food, beverages, and groceries at the first floor in the same building with a single family household living on the second floor.
We're basically going to have a similar use, no groceries or beverages, but all dry goods, home goods, so it is consistent with past usage.
So this application is for a use application. We're not altering the essential character of the neighborhood. In fact, we're keeping in line with what's going on and has been going on on Fairmont Avenue. It's a bustling active area. A lot of passers-by, a lot of foot traffic. We're not impairing light or air. We're not impairing the development of any adjacent properties.
are uses in harmony with the code, harmony with uses on the block, and certainly in harmony with
the wants and desires of the civic association. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I'd ask my client to
unmute herself. Ms. Haskin, can you unmute yourself?
Is that Laura, I'm sorry, you said Laura Haskin?
Yes, H-A-S-K-I-N.
Satter.
Thank you.
She's allowed to speak.
Ms. Haskins, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Laura Haskin, L-A-U-R-A, Haskin, H-A-S-K-I-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Haskin, were you on the Zoom call when I presented your project to the board?
Yes, I was.
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
Yes, I would.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney?
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. Justino Navarro will be allowed to speak?
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Justino Navarro, J-U-S-T-I-N-O, N-A-V-A-R-R-O.
Right.
You swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, Mr. Navarro.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
As I indicated, my name is Justino Navarro.
As I indicated, my name is Justino Navarro,
in representation of the Spring Garden Civic Association and Zoning Committee.
And as you mentioned, you received a letter of support, enthusiastic support,
from the Spring Garden Civic Association dated May 30, 2024.
And hereby, I would like to reiterate our strong support for the proposed zoning.
As we continue to work on attracting new businesses to the Ferman Avenue Commercial Corridor,
We are particularly excited to welcome Bodie to this corridor, and particularly its product
portfolio, which is an attractive portfolio of consumer goods and home goods as well.
We encourage the board to look favorably on this request for zoning variance and approve
the variance at hand accordingly.
So in closing, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak and would hope that you
approve the request as presented.
Thank you for taking the time to call us, Mr. Navarro.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RM1 residential multifamily zoning at this location.
The city last updated the zoning for this block in 1974.
This property has a documented history as ground floor commercial use.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variants for retail sales, consumer goods on the ground floor.
Thank you. MI 2024, 001-793, 2026 Fairmont Avenue, I vote yes with proviso. Use is limited to first floor.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tana Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you.
Number five, MI 2024-001-892-518 East Cabot Street.
Mr. Knockamson is the attorney.
Uh, there's a letter of support from Fishtown Neighbors Association, 34 in support, 15 opposed, nine abstained. The applicant also provided 13 form letters of support from nine, nine of which from the block.
Adam Nockmson is coming in as a panelist.
good afternoon mr knockinson could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes alan a-l-a-n last name knockinson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client a relationship to this
property? Yeah, my client is Cabot Street Holdings, LLC, and in the virtual audience is Jared
Brajali, its member. Our vice chair has a few questions. Good afternoon. Good afternoon,
council. Do you agree to read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy? I do. So we emailed
in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in
advance of this hearing. Yes. Thank you, council. Please proceed and share the screen.
thank you
all right so
i'm here to present 518 east kabbach street uh this is a property uh in the fish town section
of philadelphia uh the board may remember that i presented 516 east kabbach street uh two weeks
ago. For whatever reason, the matters were listed on different calendars. So this is why we're
presenting 518 East Cabot Street. And just like 516 East Cabot Street, all we're trying to do
is allow us to put a parking spot in front of our newly constructed property.
So during our presentation, we will review the notice of refusal. We have a letter of support
from the Fishtown Neighbors Association, and the chairman stated there was overwhelming support for
this matter. You know, in terms of having this off-street parking, there's no parking allowed
on our side of the street. And so we're not taking a parking spot off of the street by putting a
curb cut in front of our property. Also, there are many examples, which we'll show you via exhibit,
of off-street parking, similar to what we're proposing, you know, on Kabat Street.
But, you know, even the neighbors across the street on Kabat Street are in full support
are in full support of this project and you'll see many many uh form letters of support and and
of this project.
And you'll see many, many form letters of support.
maybe even a petition where people on that street even across the street uh who would be most
affected by any type of turning radius are in full support of this project and then as i stated after
we showed the letters of support the 500 block of east cabot street have a ton of off-street parking
on it and and for good reason because we're not taking any parking away from the street in a part
of City of Philadelphia, which is rather dense, we are, you know, again, leveraging the fact that
we can put a curb cut there and essentially create one additional parking spot for the street by
taking one car off of the street by way of this proposal. Then we'll review maps of the area,
photographs of the property, our plans and drawings. Our RCO meeting, meeting notice,
which was a well-attended meeting.
Fishtown is very active and, you know,
voices their opinion for better or for worse.
Here was good for us.
Our application for appeal that we filed with the ZBA,
our deed to the property showing that Cabot Street Holdings LLC
is the owner of the property.
And our certificate of tax clearance showing that, you know,
we are in compliance with our real estate taxes.
I think we're on a payment plan, but, you know,
We had Ms. Emerson look at this previously for the other property, and everything seemed to be in good working order.
At the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that Jared Burjali, the member of this LLC, to virtually raise his hand, be sworn in, and then I have a few questions for him.
So our notice refusal is simple.
This is an RSA-5 property.
We're trying to put a single family.
We already have a single family structure there.
We're just trying to legalize the parking pad, which we hope to put in there.
And, again, it's not out of character, and you'll see by way of additional evidence.
Letter support, we, again, it was a very well-attended meeting.
We had 37, 44 people in support.
And then I think it would probably be like a two-thirds, one-third split.
So two-thirds in support and then one-third not in support.
Um, and then, but, you know, people who are in support of this, 512 East Cabot, you know, multiple owners of that property, 514 East Cabot, 517 East Cabot, 519 East Cabot, 520 East Cabot, 517 East Cabot, 524 East Cabot, someone on Tulip Street, uh, and then a couple other addresses nearby.
And then it's not out of character to have off-street parking on this street.
And we did a map.
We investigated what off-street parking does exist.
And there are 14 instances.
We're two of them, 516 and 518.
516 was approved by the board.
We're now looking to approve 518 as well.
But as you can see here, that there is many instances of off-street parking, 12 instances in particular.
And then here are the supporting pictures of that.
So 518 to A to 526 East Cabot Street off-street parking, 519 East Cabot Street off-street parking, 529 through 533 East Cabot Street front-loading garages,
537 East Cabot Street and 1246-54 East Montgomery Avenue, front-loading garages.
534 East Cabot Street, front-loading garage.
So, again, not out of character to have off-street parking here.
And then maps of the area, again, we're not trying to increase density here.
We want single-family homes.
I think both the people who hopefully purchase these properties, as well as the people in the neighborhood,
i think would appreciate this off-street parking uh it's it's it's a win-win situation for the
neighborhood as well as the people who are looking to purchase these properties and then
this is 518 east kaba street uh from you know a google maps perspective as you can see we're not
that far away from east gerard avenue which commercial corridor photographs of the property
uh this shows our our notice posters for both properties but like you know orange notice
coasters for today's hearing for 518 east of off street to the right of the property and as you can
see there's a ton of off street parking on both sides east of off street to the left of the
property same thing you can see a little bit of some off street parking interspersed here
our architectural plans and drawings really the only thing of relevance here is the site plan
and it shows that we're able to put a compact car in here but it's a pretty large parking pad
It is looks like 24 feet. The front yard's 24 feet minus the three feet. So that's 21 feet.
looks like 24
And the width of the property is 16 feet wide. So we have a pretty large parking pad here.
And then these are just the floor plans. Again, not part of the zoning presentation because
it's RSA 5. It's already been approved. The property, the building structure has already
been built. But just for illustrative purposes, I just want to include those floor plans here.
But it's a single family structure. If need be, I can walk through the plans if any members of
the board have any questions about the layout of this single family structure. And then again,
elevations, which is really not part of this zoning matter. I figured at least I'll put it
in there. If the board members have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer any questions
they have about it. And then just our meeting notice, we met on June 4th at 7 p.m.
We emailed that notice a few weeks beforehand as well, just to the relevant parties showing proof