most of the feedback we got was aesthetically it worked for the it worked for the community
um and the board members of the rcos um and i think we're obviously open to being consistent
with the neighborhood so we will see how these other projects certainly um evolve
other questions from the board what's the building height
height is let me pull up the
the variance was not we didn't have any height issues but i will get you the
josh from the top of your head you know the actual
so it's on the drawing i just couldn't read it okay yeah my my screen is blocking half of my um
half of my uh screen
because your max is what 38 there we go
so i zoomed in can you see it can you read the zooms we don't we don't see it's not up
so i zoomed in can you see can you read the zooms we don't
you still have the map up for us oh i apologize let me stop that
i believe we're our height is at 36 total looking at the elevations 36 or 37
Yeah, and the regulations are 38.
All right, thank you.
Other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney?
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
There are no hands, Chair.
Questions or comments from planning?
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
for Multifamily Household Living.
MI 2023-004-919-3904 Brown Street.
I vote yes, with proviso, maximum two units.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Tanada Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, Chair.
Iowen, my vote is yes with proviso.
I'm sorry. I was on mute. I'm sorry. This is Cheryl Gaston. My vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel. Number seven, MI-2023. Thank you. Number seven, MI-2023-004943-2104
North Franklin Street. Sean Whalen is the attorney. There's a letter of no opinion from APM.
Sean Whalen has been promoted to panelist.
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning, Chairman. How are you?
Good. Could you please state your name and spell for the court's photographer?
certainly sean whalen w-h-a-l-e-n you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes i do um could you identify your client a relationship to the
property i am representing jb s all capitals development llc the owner of the property
our vice chair has a few questions good morning counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the
refusal or stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents
and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance
of this hearing? Yes, I did. Thank you, counsel. Please proceed to share your screen.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
right uh we're here today uh sean whalen here today for jbs development llc the owner of 2104
north franklin uh you should be seeing right now an atlas map from the city
we are just one property back from the corner at franklin and diamond
and in between 7th and 8th Street, just to give the board an idea of where we're at.
This is just an aerial view where you can start to see what's taking place. This was a previously
vacant lot. Right here you can see the red bubble. There was a double wide, actually triple wide
vacant lot next to us that is currently under construction for a board approved seven unit
all residential building and then there's a vacant lot next to us before you get to existing homes
and then you can see a lot of dotted up and down a lot of new construction
there has been this will be a constant theme today for this matter but there was a lot of
construction going on in this neighborhood so again you can just see this was the prior condition
we are right here. This is a small mid-block parcel. It's 978 square feet in a...
It's 978 square feet in a it's actually only 14 feet wide by 70 feet deep.
You can see here in a manner in which I could not put my finger on you have
several parcels back being delineated as CMX2 both here and on the next block over.
These are the only two blocks in this whole area that have what are mid-block parcels going back as opposed to parcels fronting on Diamond Street and going beyond the corner.
As you can see here, the city is rife with corner lots and corner stores, and that is absolutely appropriate, but you really don't see anywhere throughout the city sort of solitary mid-block commercial parcels.
And as I said already, this whole parcel next to us right here, CMX2 going all the way to the corner, is in fact already approved and was approved last March by this board for seven units residential only, no commercial, and that building is actually now under construction.
So we have one real refusal today.
We don't want first floor commercial requirement.
we would like to convert our first floor commercial into a residential unit.
And as you can see here, we have a first floor floor plan of a proposed first floor unit.
This would be a very large, over 700 square foot unit with private entrance from the front.
It has a living area, kitchen, going back, a very large kind of master bedroom.
It also would have sole and exclusive access to the rear yard.
So this would be a very nice unit for everyone.
There is no, the basement is unfinished.
It will remain unfinished.
There is no basement living.
The basement will only be for storage and for the tenant's laundry if approved.
So here you can see the existing building that was already built and constructed under the prior approved plans.
You have on the right hand side, this is the staircase directly up.
There's a unit on the second floor that's two bedrooms and a unit on the third floor that's two bedrooms with a roof deck.
So this is a very nice building. The two bedroom unit on the second floor is almost 850 square feet, as is the unit on the third floor.
So these are very nice, large units. What you see here on the left hand side, this is a separate entrance into the what we're proposing to be the first floor, non-commercial use and rather just a one bedroom unit.
As you can see, we're some distance set back from Diamond Street. This entire area is actually being built up against our property right now to have a building that's going all the way to the street frontage there.
you can see uh this is where 2104 2106 is the vacant lot you can see just down the block from
us uh north franklin is a narrow street as you can see with parking on both sides this all plays
into our hardship argument you can see here this is a triplex this is a multifamily um and what
But what you can see and what the RCO even pointed out was there's sort of construction exhaustion going on in this neighborhood.
Certainly understandable. And in fact, I'm still in communication with some of the neighbors.
One of them told me that there's a 400 unit building going up just a handful of blocks from here.
So like I said, this corner is already under construction. This building to the left is under construction.
And as you can see, there's a Chinese restaurant right at this corner across the street from us. And that's really what we would argue is appropriate. And again, right throughout the city are these corner lots that have a lot of street frontage and a heavy commercial use ability where you have the intersection.
you've got easy ability to pull over our building has no ability to pull over any commercial use
would require there's no loading or unloading zone no stopping as you can see barely one car
As you can see, barely one car fits down the middle, so any cars stopping for the commercial use would completely block traffic and or steal any open on-street parking, which is not ample to begin with.
fits down the middle so
And then this is looking directly across the street. Again, you can see this is another multifamily building going up behind us.
just to show you this is this is from two days ago maybe yesterday tried to take it
got a bad angle this is the construction going on right next door to us that's building that
large seven seven unit all residential building going all the way to the corner at diamond
and here you can see a better image this is the front stoop again the right hand side goes
has a staircase that goes upstairs to the top two units this unit right here would have a
would be about nine feet wide so that's a primary concern for this is from the front door of the
what is currently the commercial space that we're seeking to change
this would only be about nine feet wide. So it'd be an extremely difficult location to put
a commercial use at and really not appropriate or viable for commercial use for many of the
reasons I've already stated, but also just trying to shoehorn one into something, a space that is
so small. As the chairman noted, we did get a letter of no opinion. I think it's actually
highly important for this board to hear we had four in opposition and none in support however
it should be noted we actually have had this was at the third community meeting for this matter
at the first community meeting back before in december there were actually almost 20 people
in attendance there was as you can see down here it talks about what the community members were
dissatisfied with construction at the site certain contractors that we had which were fired after we
learned of issues they were causing with certain neighbors break-ins and other things of that sort
we then there were a lot of issues raised generally about construction how it was going to be done
what it was going to entail and who the builders were since this was in the name of an llc
So we agreed to a second meeting. That meeting was actually in just before the ZBA hearing that was scheduled back in April. We agreed to continue to try to continue to work with the neighborhood and continued our ZBA hearing back in April.
At that second meeting, we walked through. There were probably about 10 or 12 people I had in my notes. We answered all their questions from the first meeting, gave them all. They wanted direct contact info to the owner and the project manager who are both on this call today.
And at that time, the first time damages were raised by the near neighbor to house across from the vacant lot.
So the first building there. And as you can see down in the language of the letter, which I understand you all have.
We attempted to work with that neighbor to satisfy items that she had claimed as damaged.
We were unfortunately unable to do so, although we're still in contact with her at this point.
And you can see by the end of this third meeting, there were only four people left.
All of them were opposed because of the issues with the closest neighbor that we had and our inability to satisfy those.
Walking backwards, these are the official historical maps for Philadelphia.
There is no record of our property ever having been used for commercial use.
And in fact, the historical maps dating back to 1875 in Philadelphia show this property.
You can see where 2104 is listed now.
Show this property as a residential property.
And as we walk forward, you can see this was previously built out as a residential property.
This is going back to 1895.
Going back to 1910, that same building and structure, purely residential, were still in place.
Jumping ahead to 1942, again, this is that double-wide lot right next to us that the board approved.
Again, that this is that double wide lot right next to us that the board approved last year for no commercial and only for seven units where the next lot over again, still no indication of any commercial use historically.
And then finally, going up to 1962, we have the same condition. Again, commercially indicated lot, double wide lot at the corner that is now fully residential. And then we are the first residential use.
So again, not clear and could not determine where or why our property was ever, our mid-block property was ever determined to be commercial. Again, the next block over that I walked through before has the same condition. Both of these parcels are CMX2 at 2104 and 2106 North 8th Street. Again, no indication of why those parcels were also deemed commercial.
Again, here was just an indication this is 2100 to 02 North Franklin Street. This is that large property right next to us. ZBA decision from March of last year for multifamily household living for seven units, no commercial.
and then one of the issues we run into and i actually have an expert realtor to walk through
why this is not viable for commercial use this is the next the next block over that i was just
describing 2105 north 8th street this building was built in 2020 this is the current listing
for it it is still for sale and it still has you can see a small commercial space
on the first floor that commercial space has never been has never been utilized or opened
there's been no occupancy for that in four years since it since the property was built next to us
and you can see this is just the end of the of that listing i wanted to have it for completeness
so again here's the approved building we can answer any questions with regard to that
But I understand, you know, we have, I walked through quickly, and I neglected to do it.
The adjacent properties, we will certainly be contextual with all of those adjacent properties.
There are, walking through, again, this double-wide corner lot is approved for a variance for seven-unit
2103 North 8th Street, all of these properties right here, walking through those,
they are approved for, one is approved for a duplex, another is approved for a single family.
The one I just walked through, 2105, is this one right here, immediately behind us,
that has the four years of vacant commercial use there. So I've gone through many of the points
already, but the issue here for a variance is very clear, and I know the board members know this at
least as well as I do. We have to show three things. We have to show a hardship that is specific
and unique to our property. We have to show that there's no detriment to the health, safety, or
welfare, and we have to show that what we're requesting is the least minimum variance.
I've already shown with regard to hardship, there's no record of commercial use anywhere in
the historic records or photographs or historic land use maps. We already walked through that.
Also, this property being as narrow as it is, only nine feet at the entrance,
set back from the immediate sidewalk with a narrow, again, a narrow street
here with parking on both sides, commercial use would completely snarl the use of that property
as commercial in any way, shape, or form. There's also no commercial trash location
at a mid-block property like this. So all the commercial trash would have to be stored in the
rear yard. So instead of activating that rear yard through the residential use and having it
as a first floor apartment, we would have to have commercial trash storage back there and then
bringing it out through the front or having it in the basement and causing issues there.
So with that, I would also just suggest that we're seeking the least minimum variance because
we're not asking for any new construction or an expansion or any increased use.
What we're trying to do is convert this property to active use so there are no
What we're trying to do is convert this property to active use so there are not vandalism and issues associated with that vacant first floor.
And this, notably, would also not be an appropriate building.
We're only at 32 feet, actually 32 feet 4 inches, so it's not an overly built building.
um this uh it would not be appropriate just for a duplex use because if you had a duplex use
the duplex um the first floor generally gets turned into first floor and basement
for the unit that almost always causes basement living we very much want to stay away from any
basement living we do not have um egress because of the narrowness of the property here and the
need for the doorways. We do not have any egress wells out of the basement, so it is not being
finished, and we do not intend and do not want to encourage in any way the use of that for any
living space. Secondly, if we turned it into a duplex, you would turn the second and third floors
into a single unit. However, that causes a lot of issues, as we know, especially where
students are involved because you end up with a group of students having a four unit,
sorry, a four bedroom unit. And now you're having issues caused with that many people,
that many cars, and sort of an inappropriate use there. So with that, chairman, I would call
my, first my client and then second our expert realtor.
Client, please. Yep. Barry Farage, if you could
raise your hand.
I don't see Barry Farage with a hand up, but I do have
Steve Haas. Okay. Yeah. Please elevate
Steve Haas. Okay. I'm going to allow him to speak.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Barry Farage, and Steve Oz is with me.
All right. Mr. Farage, could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer, please?
Yes. My name is Barry Farage, B-A-R-A-Y. My last name is F-A-R-A-J.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Chairman.
Mr. Farage, you're here on behalf of the owner, correct?
And you heard all of the testimony I already presented in this matter?