okay chair we have 53 attendees you can proceed as you wish thank you good morning everyone my
name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's eba hearings with me as our vice chair
ismail shaheed president mr chairman our board member thomas holliman president mr chairman and
our board member, James Snell. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also present is our attorney,
Hillary Emerson, and our executive director, Tanya Sunken. Here's our virtual format. Proceedings
are being recorded. With your participation, you agree to be recorded. Video will be available by
contacting tanyasunken at phil .gov. For our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to
identify themselves before testifying. If you're participating by phone, press star nine to raise
your hand and star six to unmute. To enter an appearance statement, call 267 -270 -5548. Leave
your email address and the address of the property in question. And finally, the question box on the
screen is not for comments or testimony. All comments should be directed to our executive
Director, Tanya Sumpkin. Let's look at our schedule for today. Number one, MI 2023 -003 -382 -6340
Musgrave. This case is continued. Mark must be heard. Number three. Hold on one minute.
Number three, MI 2023 -003 -477 -4231 -61 North 5th Street. That case is continued.
Number five, MI 2023 -003 -524 -5618 -22 Chew Avenue. Darlene Treat is the attorney.
I believe this may be a request for a contingent.
Counsel.
Good morning, Jared.
This is Nadia, and I'll be your co -host today.
Thank you.
Darlene Treat has been allowed to speak.
Good morning, Counsel.
Could you please state your name?
It's spelled for the court sonographer.
Good morning, Commissioner.
Darlene Treat, D -A -R -L -E -N -E, Treat, T as in Thomas, H -R -E -A -T -T.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
I understand you want a continuance for this case?
Yes, Commissioner, we had to change civic associations.
We had a meeting scheduled yesterday.
It had to be canceled.
And this is an all parties request for continuance.
Thank you very much.
So MI 2023 -003 -524 -5618 to 22 Chu Avenue.
That case is continued.
Number six, MI -2023 -005 -953 -5646 Cedar Avenue, that case is continued.
And number nine, MI2024 -000127, 5458 West Burke Street.
Leroy Wichert is the owner applicant.
Could Mr. Wichert please come on?
Leroy Wichert has been allowed to speak.
Good morning, sir. Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
Sure. Leroy, L -E -R -O -Y, Wichit, W -H -I -T -C -H -E -T -T.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Sir, is your case ready to go on today? I understand.
I think I have most of my materials in. I did not receive the public meeting, but I submitted all my other documents. I guess I'm still waiting for my tax clearance certificate.
And you also, the RCO meeting has not been held?
Yes, the RCO meeting has not been held. I have reached out to the RCO and left messages and I haven't received a date for the.
Yes, the RCO meeting has not been held. I have reached out to the RCO.
OK, so so we're going to continue this case.
If you have any questions about what you need for for the hearing, please feel free to call the office.
OK. OK. So and my 20, 24, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 7, 54, 58 West Burke Street.
That case is continued. And number 12, MI 2024 -000 -179 -1514 -16 Church Lane, that case is continued.
Are there any other requests for continuance or any comments about the cases we continued?
I see no hands.
Okay. We also have a few cases here with no exhibits. MI 2023, this is number two, MI 2023, 003440, 1624 Naples Street. We have no exhibits.
this case was continued back in December
is Mohamed Montagher
in the audience
Mohamed Montagher has been
allowed to speak
Good morning sir, could you please state your name and spell for the
court stenographer? Good morning sir, my name is Mohamed
M -O -H -A -M -M -E -D
and last name Montahar
M -O -N -T -A -H -A -R
Okay, do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir. Sorry.
Yes, please.
So, we do not have
we have a letter from the
Ron Horst Civic Association
saying that there has been no meeting.
Yes, sir.
I didn't
hire a lawyer
because I went to the lawyer
this time they want a lot
of money from the case
more than $10 ,000
so I didn't
able to hire a lawyer
so I submitted all of the papers
of the
GPA board and
they told me then
you meet the meeting then after then they'll talk
about you
so you're going to have to have
civic association meeting, and you're going to also have to make sure that all of your paperwork
is put in. We're going to continue this one more time, but the next time this case has to be heard.
Do you understand? I understand, sir, but one question, sir. I didn't understand a lot of
paperwork there, so when I went to the lawyer, they had a lot of money. Okay, so here's the thing.
If you have any questions on what you need, call the zoning board office.
They will try to help you, but we're going to have to continue this case today, sir.
I'm sorry about the lawyer, but they'll tell you how you can present this yourself if you can, okay?
So MI 2023 -003 -440 -1624, Naples Avenue.
This case is continued.
Mark must be heard.
And number four, MI 2023, 003 -495 -3911 -19 North Fish Street.
Augustina Marina is the listed owner.
No exhibits.
This is the second listing.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
Just to clarify, Augustina Marina is the listed applicant.
And SNS Realty LLC is the listed owner.
Augustina, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
I see no hands.
So MI 2023 -003 -495 -3911 -19 North 5th Street.
This is the second listing.
We have no exhibits.
No one appeared.
The last time I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is to dismiss.
Thank you.
We're going to go to our add -on list.
So MI 2022 -004 -440 -204 North 52nd Street.
Mr. Holloman and James Snell
Mr. Holloman and James Snell, before they vote, will certify that they reviewed the video of this. I vote no.
Mr. Holloman.
Thomas Holloman, I certify that I reviewed the video and my vote is no.
So, James Snell, I certify that I reviewed the video of the March 6, 2024 hearing in this manner, and my vote is no.
Mr. Shaheed, my vote is no.
So number two, MI 2023 -006 -538 -6858 Keystone Street, voting on this will be myself, Thomas
Hallman, and James Snell.
I vote yes.
And Mr. Chair, sorry, just briefly, it's 6658 Keystone Street, just to clarify the address
for the record.
Thank you.
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes. James Snell my vote is yes. I'm sorry Mr. Chair there is a proviso
for this one per refusal dated 5 -2024. Can we please re -vote this matter? Sure. Thank you.
MI 2023 -006 -538 -6658, Keystone Street. I vote yes, proviso. Her amended refusal, 5 -20 -24.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes, with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes, with proviso.
number three mi 2023 007025 7001 tulip street
i vote yes her amended refusal dated 3 2024
um no living in the garage is that okay hillary no household living in the garage
No household living in the garage.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes, with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, everyone. We're going to go to our regular list.
Number seven, MI 2024, 000106, 1357 Dyer Street.
Joseph Consul is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the Frankfort Neighborhood Advisory Committee.
morning morning mr consul could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yeah it's joseph consul that's j -o -s -e -p -h last name consul c -o -n -s -o -l -e do you swear or firm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
the relationship to the property? Yes, my client is Raca Eterna Properties, LLC,
and BSET Durham, D -U -R -H -A -M, is the representative on this call. Our Vice Chair has a few questions,
Mr. Counsel. Okay. Good morning, Mr. Counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refute?
Yes. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed.
You have already shared your screen.
Great. All right.
Good morning, Zoning Board.
Joe Consul here on 1357 Dyer Street.
This request that we're in front of you all for was approved originally in 2008.
Another application was began in 2020, but for whatever reason,
And it appears to have not gone to the finish line, not through any any kind of opposition, but I can't really tell why.
But anyway, it's 1357 Dyer Street. We're here attempting to re -legalize, hopefully for the final time, the three unit household living in this property.
uh actually there's a note on here that it was issued in 2020 so there was two success
successful um applications here and um there was never any rental licenses pulled so they weren't
able to to keep that up so here we are the third time and third time's the charm we went in front
of the frankfurt neighborhood advisory committee they um approved it and we're hopeful that's
Approved it, and we're hopeful that's good enough to get the approval of everyone today.
good enough to get the approval
Here's the photos and plans. Again, it's set up as a three -unit building.
Showing the property, showing the meters, the electrical boxes. So in 2008, when it was approved as a three -unit, it was built as such, and that has withstood the test of time.
no no changes in terms of the layout of the property have been made since that time.
My client purchased the property in November of 2023 incidentally.
Submitted pictures, submitted our plans showing the layout of the property
and then all of our other required documentation. Here's the 2020 application for the same thing,
three unit here's the rental license that expired in 2012 and required the 2020 application and then
no licenses were pulled since that approval and again here is evidence of the 2008
approval so it's been through sean ward anastasio and me and here we are so that's
Joe Consul, 1357 Dyer Street. I'd like to call Bissette Durham from Rocca Eterna Properties, LLC, to adopt my testimony.
If you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Bissette has been allowed to speak.
Good morning, Sarah. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Bissett Durham, B -I -S -S -E -T -T -D -U -R -H -A -M.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Counsel, please proceed.
Good morning, Ms. Bissett.
Did you hear my testimony just now regarding 1357 Dyer Street?
Do you adopt it as your own?
Nothing further, Board.
Questions from the Board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning, David Fecto, F -E -C -T -E -A -U, with the City Planning Commission.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you, sir.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single -family zoning at this location.
This property has documented history of three dwelling units.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant their proposed use variants for three dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2024, 000106, 1357 Dyer Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
My vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Number eight, MI 2024, 000107, 177 West Norris Street.
Roger Perry is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the Norris Square Community Action Network.
Roger Perry, please raise your virtual hand.
They have been promoted to panelists.
Good morning, Mr. Perry.
Good morning, Mr. Perry.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good morning. Roger Perry, R -O -G -E -R, last name Perry, P -E -R -R -Y.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
Yes. The client is Jack Investment Group, LLC. He's the owner, and I represent the LLC with regard to this application.
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
good morning council do you agree to waive the read and other refuse or stipulate to its accuracy
yes i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed
five days in advance of this hearing yes i have thank you council please proceed and share the
screen i'm clicking on share screen and it looks like we have it
And it looks like we have it.
Thank you.
And you should see it there.
We see it, sir.
OK, thank you.
OK, these are this is the exhibit package.
OK, so this is 177 West North Street.
It's at the corner of North Street and Hancock Street.
It's a vacant lot.
And this is the lot itself.
And you can see it from the side here and so forth.
This is a request by the owner.
And I'll go back to the beginning with the refusal and so forth to build a structure,
just investment group as the owner.
And this is a request to pull permits to build a structure, all new construction with a commercial
use entirely on the first floor and four units above, two units on the second floor, which
involve the proviso from the North Square Community Group, and then by levels on the
third and fourth, a total of four. The refusal, let's go down here. Notice the board hearing.
Okay, the refusal is for two bases, one small. One is, because this is a CMX2 district,
CMX2 allows a commercial or requires commercial on the first floor as is proposed,
and three dwelling units are allowed above the commercial use in this quest.
In this matter, the applicant has requested four.
The discussion with NSCAN, which is North Square Community Action Network,
was that one of these units, which are two bedrooms, would be available for a discounted rent
and that they would refer potential tenants to the property, which we agreed to do so.
Property is slightly larger in terms of coverage area.
This is to allow the two full bedrooms plus a separate access stairway that comes up on the north side to the property and so forth.
And I can show the plans to the, and we did the mailings and it has a tax clearance form.
this is the property itself hosting of the property the notices were all mailed this is
the property diagonally across from 177 west north in a small park area directly across these are
several of the other properties on north street and here we have the uh the plans and i think
the architect can answer questions if you if you need to let me blow this up a little bit
okay so what we have here is a roof deck with a setback we have a basement and a cellar
and see it's down here somewhere okay it's over on the on this side um let's see if i can move
that over. Okay. So commercial on the first floor, trying to get it all, and seller to service
commercial area and so forth and so on. Then we're going to have two bedrooms on the, or two living
units on the second floor. The third and fourth floor are bi -level units, again, with two bedrooms
and so forth.
I'm just trying to see if anything.
Floor two.
Okay, here's the two bedrooms
on the second floor.
Tax clearance certificate.
And this is the proviso
that the community has requested.
It was last dated May 17th, 2024,
signed and counterparts.
We would ask that the proviso
be included in any approval
for this variance.
The neighborhood had several meetings
and we discussed it at great length with them
in terms of making this property available
in the neighborhood with four residential units
and a commercial,
also agreeing to have them make recommendations
as to the nature of the commercial property
that they made.
We're not obligated,
but we certainly agreed to meet with the community
to see what commercial uses may be most appropriate for this area.
With that, I'll ask if we should be a Mr. Nguyen
in the virtual, as well as Mr. Guthierre as the architect.
If Mr. Nguyen is available, I can have him adapt my testimony.
Mr. Nguyen, please.
N -G -U -Y -E -N.
representative from jack investment group please yes they have been allowed to speak
Yes, they have been allowed to speak.
hi hello good morning good morning could you please state your name
Hi. Hello. Good morning.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the course stenographer?
Jack Nguyen, J -A -C -K -N -G -U -Y -E -N.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Mr. Nguyen, thank you for joining us.
Were you able to hear my presentation with regard to the use and the community input?
Yes, sir.
And are you able to adapt it as true and correct as if it was your testimony?
Correct.
Thank you very much.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Anderson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Any commission?
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission. Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the split -zoned residential multifamily and commercial mixed -use
zoning at this location. The proposed variance for occupied area is minor and in keeping with
the purpose and spirit of the zoning code, so the commission recommends that the board grant
the proposed occupied area variance. However, the appellant could have sought an administrative
of remedy for the additional proposed dwelling unit by applying for the mixed income housing
bonus. This would provide a guaranteed affordable unit enforceable by the city, while affordability
and a community benefit agreement cannot be enforced by any city agency. So the City Planning
Commission recommends the board deny the proposed use variance for a fourth dwelling unit.
Okay. So, MI 2024, 000107177 West Norris Street. I vote yes. Use registration for vacant
commercial space at first floor required prior occupancy. Maximum three dwelling units.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Number 10, MI 2024 -000 -148 -8430 Busselton Avenue, number TA -224 -608, Zen Jin is the attorney, a letter of unanimous support from the Vaughnhurst Civic Association.
then jen is joining us as a panel so there's a letter of non -opposition from councilman o 'neill
good morning good morning council could you please state your name and spell for the court
sonographer yes my name is zen jen z h e n last name j i n um 1617 john f kennedy boulevard suite
1838, Federal Alpha EPA
19103 here on behalf of the applicant.
Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? I do.
Could you identify your client, the relationship
to this property? Yes.
My client is 8430
Busselton LLC. They're the
owner of the property
in question, and Mr. Tony Jung,
the representative, is here with us.
Our vice chair has just a
few questions, sir.
good morning counsel do you agree to weigh the reading or stipulate to its accuracy
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
i have thank you counsel please proceed and share your screen thank you i'm going to share
with the board the uh previously submitted exhibit um it should be up on the screen
before the board. Can everyone see it? Yes. Thank you. So we submitted in copies of the refusal,
the RCO letter, photos, plans, and related documentation. So this application is for
a development of what is currently a surface parking lot. And it's a corner property that's
rather large. And the proposal is to develop it according to more of a CMX commercial zoning
district type use with accessory parking spaces, which is essentially commercial offices and
commercial, I'm sorry, commercial spaces, offices, and parking space. To better understand what we're
talking about, this is a lot that really is very similar to other large corner commercial
large corner commercial properties in the area. However, it was somehow still zoned RSA 3.
properties in the area. However, it was somehow still
But if you look at this lot, it is abutting a commercial property, and it's also a corner
property that is essentially a large open parking lot at the present. It was, in fact,
as far as we know from a short history search, never actually used for any kind of residential
development and has always been some kind of commercial use. My client's proposal is to
develop this entire parcel as one single development of what is essentially a commercial
style structure with two floors, the first floor being separated commercial units and the additional
floor being offices. And the end product would look something like this with on -site parking,
accessory parking, we can maintain access through a curb cut onto the street that actually exists
because it's currently a parking lot. When we approached the community with this proposal,
I'm sorry, let me go back and stay on the plan here. When we approached the community with this
proposal, we were met with overwhelming support, partly because everybody remembers and knows that
this lot is really part of a commercial corridor off of Busselton. They don't really see viability
of this used as single -family property, and their commercial use is similar to it in other
corners, large corners in the area. So we received unanimous support in our request for these
variances. I understand that this is a substantial change from RSA 3, but I believe RSA 3 really
isn't the proper zoning for a lot of this size and at this location. So with that, we would ask
for the board's favorable review of our variance request. My client is here. He's on Zoom and
should be able to verify my testimony. Thank you.
Client's name?
Tony Zhang, Z -H -A -N -G.
They have been allowed to speak.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Tony's in. Please unmute yourself.
Good morning. It seems they may be experiencing technical difficulties.
Right. Counsel, you're an officer of the court. We'll
gladly accept your testimony questions from questions from the board no mr chairman no chair
um hillary you you have a few issues with this am i correct
uh no this this one is fine mr chair thank you we don't have to list the uses or anything
oh so well we did not yeah i was gonna yeah so i was gonna say we did not receive a list
of uses that the RCO and the applicant apparently agreed to.
So as it is, it's still permitting all of the CMX -3 uses.
So if the parties agreed to limit the uses, we would need a list of those uses
and incorporate them so that we can incorporate them into a proviso
to clarify what is approved.
So when we had the meeting with the RCO, the discussion was that my owner, my client would meet with the RCO to work out a list of uses on their own.
They never actually followed up and provided a list that they are against.
But, you know, we're certainly, my understanding is mostly restrictions for something like a bar.
But I'm not sure how the board would want to handle that.
But we're happy to work with whatever the board feels is best in this case.
So, Hillary, we would prefer to have a list and then vote on it?
The board can do it that way if they would like.
I mean, the RCO said the board was based on an agreement.
But Mr. Zinn is saying that there was not an agreement reached.
So, I mean, we could give them an additional time if we wish.
Mr. Jen, I did tell the board earlier that it would be better from an enforcement perspective to have the list of approved uses as opposed to a list of uses that they did not wish to see.
But I don't know what you think the possibility is of trying to work through something like that, you know, within the next week or so.
the next week or so?
So my understanding when we met with the RCOs,
So my understanding when we met with the RCO
is that they have a short list of specific uses
they really would prefer not to have.
Because CMX3 as a general use format,
they're okay with most of the uses.
So I think if we were to reach out to them and get a list,
it would be a list of uses they don't prefer.
It'll be hard to list every single use that we could have
because it would be quite a long list.
Understood. Understood. Yes. And then in that sense, it may make sense to do the reverse and say approved uses except for.
Right. So so what we'll do is let's let's work through. Let's see who's in the virtual audience.
Let's see where the planning commission is or or where they want to vote. And then we'll hold a vote.
And could we what do you think? Two weeks in? Yes. Two weeks should be sufficient.
Two weeks. We'll come back in two weeks. Okay, so questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission, David, do you want to vote or do you want to hold it?
Yes, sir. We'd like to put our recommendation on the record, please.
Please, please proceed.
Thank you, sir. Good morning, David Effecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single -family zoning at this location.
However, the proposed two -story commercial building is consistent with the adjacent properties as well as others in the area along this corridor, and the development is consistent with the comprehensive plan's goal to support the viable commercial nodes on both Castor and Busselton Avenues.
However, the request for uses allowed in CMX 3 would be unusual and out of character for this area and incompatible with surrounding single -family uses and zoning.
So the City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the proposed use variants for a detached structure with seven tenant spaces and accessory parking lot, but limit the uses to those allowed in CMX 1 and CMX 2.
Thank you, David.
it. We're going to hold this for two weeks. We will vote on this on that Wednesday, two weeks
from now at 9 .30 a .m. Thank you. That'll be June 12th, Mr. Chair, and the record will be closed
except for information from the RCO and the applicant regarding agreed upon uses that
um will not go into the spaces thank you counsel thank you thank you so number 11
mi 2024 000160 5800 cobs creek parkway mary costello is the attorney um
council person got the a supports the application at 5800 cobs creek
and recommends approval this is a city library mary costello
mary costello is coming back in as a panelist
good morning good morning council good morning members of the board
Hi, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
My name is Mary Costello, M -A -R -Y -C -O -S -T -E -L -L -O.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And just for the record, could you please state your client?
So my client is the city of Philadelphia who owns the property at the Blanchet -Nixon Crops Creek Library and then the real project.
okay our vice chair has just a few questions for you sure good morning council do you agree
to waive the written of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy 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? I have. Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Members of the board, what you're looking at right now is the front of the Blanche A. Nixon
Cobb's Creek Library. Our proposal would be to erect a small area of eight -foot fencing.
You can see from this second view on the plans here, this is the area, these are the two areas of the property outlined in red where that fencing would be.
And the fencing would be surrounding a shed at this portion of the property and HVAC equipment at this portion of the property.
I also have renderings here so that you can see a different view.
This is a rendering of what the project will look like once the renovations have been completed.
this is a rendering of what the project will look like once the renovations have been completed and
you can see to the right here this is where the shed would be and this is where the fence
would be erected around that shed and then in the next view of the property this is the back
of the cobs creek library you actually cannot see the fence itself it is behind this tree that is
going that will remain on the property so it won't be as easily seen um in this view you can
see sort of in the bottom corner this is what the project looked like before it started um this is
the north facade of the property this is where the i believe the shed would be um and you can
see that the construction has already started in that area but essentially if i can bring you back
to the original plans this this is where the where that small fence um would be and the erection of
the eight foot fence as part of this project the primary primary purpose is safety um we need this
we're hoping that this property before the renovations began was used by the public we're
hoping that use will only increase on once these renovations have completed and we would like to
be able to protect the HVAC equipment, and we would like to be able to have fencing around the
shed area so that that fence, which contains equipment that we wouldn't want the public
to access either, would be protected as well. And we, I do have Troy Hannigan here, and I'd like to
call Troy Hannigan to adopt my testimony. Sure. Mr. Hannigan.
troy hannigan if you're in our audience please raise your virtual hand
they have been allowed to speak good morning could you please state your name is spelled
for the court stenographer yes good morning my name is troy hannigan t -r -o -y h -a -n -n -i -g -a -n
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
i do please proceed counsel troy have you heard my testimony here today
yes and do you adopt that testimony as your own yes thank you questions or comments from the board
no chair no chair no mr chairman questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands planning commission thank you chair bergman and good morning david effecto
with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the special purpose open space zoning at this location the city is proposing
to build an eight foot tall fence at two locations on the property to protect utilities
from being vandalized the remainder of the site will remain unfenced and open to the public
So the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant a proposed height variance for the proposed fences.
Thank you. MI 2024 -000 -160 -5800 -Cobbs Creek Parkway, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, members of the board.
Number 13, MI 2024, 000238, 5813 Rising Sun Avenue.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
There's a letter of unanimous non -opposition from the Long Crest community.
Good morning, counsel.
You've already been sworn.
Can you just state your name for the record?
Yes, my name is Zen Jin, Z -H -E -N.
last name J -I -N. Right. And could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yes. My client is Ms. I may have to spell the name. It's hard to pronounce. The first name is
T -H -Y -L -A -Y -C -H -H -O -R -N, last name Sack, T -H -A -C -H. Thank you. She's the owner.
Thank you. 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?
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?
I did.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board the documents previously submitted in support of this application.
I do want to make one quick correction.
This is a referral, not a refusal, but we do stipulate to its accuracy.
So this is an application for use of a location.
This is an application for use of a location at 5313 Rising Sun Avenue, which is Zone CMX1.
We are proposing a prepared food shop, essentially a smoothie shop at this location.
My client has experience operating the smoothie shop in the past.
They actually own a food truck that specializes in fresh fruit cups and fruit smoothies.
And that's, in fact, what would be on the menu.
The prepared food shop itself requires a special exception from the board. The special exception, we believe, would not cause an impact greater than what is commonly used of this type of use in the area. This is going to be actually a very limited prepared food shop because it is only for fresh fruit cups and smoothies.
The property has a back area, along with other commercial properties in the area, a corridor behind these buildings that contains dumpsters, trash, delivery capabilities.
So the delivery, the trash management, there are no fumes.
This is just chopped up fruits and fruit smoothies.
In fact, there's no hood or cooking on the premises.
So it's a very limited impact in any in any form when it comes to a prepared food shop and was, again, very welcomed by the community.
It's a healthy type of food. And again, they have a lot of experience managing fresh fruits and presenting it to the community in the form of both cups and smoothies.
So we received very positive feedback at the meeting with people looking forward to having this space come and open for business.
So that is essentially the application for the special exception.
My client, unfortunately, just called me a few minutes ago with technical difficulties getting on Zoom.
So I'm unable to have her verify my testimony at this point.
As you know, as an officer of the court, we gladly accept your testimony.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed -use zoning at this location.
The appellant has shown that the proposed prepared food shop will have no detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might be expected.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant a proposed special exception for a prepared food shop.
Thank you.
MI 2024 -000 -238 -5813 Rising Sun Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
Thank you.
Number 14, MI 2024, 000255 -6345 Lancaster Avenue.
Meredith Ferliger is the attorney.
There is a letter of opposition from Overbook Farms RCO.
there was a meeting attended by 35 people seven people board members voted in opposition
good morning counsel good morning mr chairman could you please state your name and spell for
the court stenographer sure meredith ferliger f -e -r -l -e -g -e -r you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client the
relationship to this property? Sure thing. My client is Yadva Realty, which is represented
here today by Jib and Samuel. Okay, our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the read and other refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. I've 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. I did, yes. Thank you, counsel.
so please proceed. Thank you. Okay, good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
The case before you today is both extraordinarily unusual and yet also terribly straightforward in
terms of request. In light of the RCO's letter, I will walk the board through this application
thoroughly so you can both gather the significant hardship facing this property,
as well as the non -credible letter of opposition that was issued by the RCO.
I thank the board in advance for your patience this morning
and listening to the significant evidence that we will offer today.
To summarize, this application seeks to legalize five dwelling units in an existing structure, which is a use that has a documented history dating all the way back to the 1950s.
To summarize, this application seeks to legalize five dwelling units.
The application before the board today concerns 6345 Lancaster Avenue in the city's Overbrook Farms neighborhood.
Tax clearance is shown at Exhibit 2.
At Exhibit 3, you'll see a copy of the deed showing that my client purchased this property
on November 27, 2023 for $400 ,000. Proceeding with considerable diligence, my client submitted
this instant application to L &I to legalize the five dwelling units less than one month
after his purchase on December 21st, 2023. As you can see on the zoning map shown at Exhibit 5,
the property sits on Lancaster Avenue between Sherwood Road and Woodbine Avenue and is zoned
RSD 3. Looking first at some aerial shown at Exhibit 7, the board will begin to see the context
of the area surrounding this property, which I will address specifically later in the presentation.
For now, you may take note that this is a large, over 5 ,000 square foot structure that sits between an apartment complex and an event facility.
Zooming out on this view from the northeast, you may recognize this area with the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish at the corner of Woodbine Avenue.
Just across from 6345 Lancaster Avenue is another large apartment complex at the corner of Sherwood Road.
I have included another view from a southeast direction showing the surrounding area.
At Exhibit 8, I have included a few exterior photos to provide additional context.
The first photo shows the exterior front, while the second photo and the third photo show a view of the rear, which you'll note directly abuts the apartment complex next door that you saw in the earlier aerials.
At the next photograph, you'll see Ivy Hall, which is directly next to this property to the right.
From what I've been able to gather in public information, Ivy Hall is rented for conferences, seminars, lectures, retreats, and other events.
Next, I've provided a view looking along Lancaster Avenue.
Although it is slightly difficult to see through the dense tree coverage, this next photograph shows a view directly across the street, which is used as a religious facility.
and you can see the sign to the right of the photograph.
Looking northwest along Lancaster Avenue,
you'll see a better view of the adjoining apartment building.
And you'll also note the general layout of this section of Lancaster Avenue,
which does still benefit from on -street parking availability.
Looking northwest across the street,
the board will notice the sign for the church that I previously pointed to,
as well as the other apartment complex that sits at the corner of Sherwood Road.
Finally, we have included photographs of the timely posting, which was made on May 8, 2024.
Before I turn to interior photographs and floor plans, I'd like to first walk the board through
the absolutely bizarre history of this property. At Exhibit 9, I have included the full history
for reference, but I will summarize the relevant parts. In December of 1950, the board can see
a refusal was issued for a four -family dwelling. In March of 1951, that application was refused by
the Zoning Board. Later, in 1962, another application was filed for a six -family dwelling
by a mispassage. It's interesting to note that on this 1962 refusal, it specifically states that
the premises was, at that time, already being used in violation of the zoning code. That request
was again denied. On the denial, I will again call the board's attention to a note at the bottom of
the notice of decision, noting that the illegal use of the property was supposed to be referred
to the law department for action. What ultimately happens next is described by the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court decision of July 1st, 1963. Notably, that
of July 1, 1963. Notably, that case acknowledges that despite the request for a four - and a six -family
dwelling, that the property had been at some time following 1951 been converted into a five -unit
dwelling. It also notes that the city became aware of the use sometime in 1962. Ultimately,
Under the circumstances that existed at that time and the record that had been made before the 1950s zoning board, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to issue a favorable decision.
Importantly, the court then relied on a case called Sheedy v. Zoning Board of Adjustment in determining that Ms. Hassage was not entitled to relief.
I will discuss that case a little bit later on, as it is ironically extremely important to this board's determination today after the now passage of over 60 years.
Most critically, following all of this history, there is no further evidence in the file to suggest that the law department or L &I or any agency of the city took any action against this property's use.
And that use as a five -unit dwelling has continued uninterrupted since its original conversion back in the 1950s.
With the history in mind, I'll show you floor plans and photographs shown at Exhibit 6.
I do have interior photographs with these plans, so you can clearly see that these five units have existed in their current state for decades upon decades unchanged.
You will notice in many of these photographs that most of these units are occupied by long -term tenants.
starting first with the basement the basement is used as common storage for tenants there is also
a laundry facility in the basement photos of the basement and the laundry facility correspond to
the arrows shown on the floor plans that i have up on the screen moving to the first floor there are
two units on the first floor the area marked in green is the common entry lobby that leads to
the stairs marked in red. To the right, Unit A is an efficiency unit with direct access to the side
and rear yard. The tenant in this space has lived here since January of 2012. I have also provided
detailed photographs that I will turn to on the next pages, but before I do that, Unit B, which
is shown in yellow, is a one -bedroom unit with a tenant that has lived in this space since July of
2015. And again, I'll walk you through some closer up photographs. So again, this is the lobby space
from the front, and this is looking towards that rear stairwell. Unit A, as I mentioned, is an
efficiency unit, which again, you can see has been occupied for some time by a long -term tenant.
This is the living space, kitchen, and bathroom. And again, unit B is a one -bedroom unit.
living space bathroom they actually have their own laundry facilities in their unit bedroom and
kitchen moving to the second floor there are also two units unit c is another efficiency unit with
a brand new tenant that just moved in this year unit d which i do have photographs of on the next
pages, is a one -bedroom unit. The tenant in that unit has lived there since September of 2019.
And again, I have some closer -up photographs of all of these units. So again, this is Unit C,
which is the efficiency unit. You'll see the kitchen to the left, bathroom to the right.
And then at the time, there was no one living in the space when the photograph was taken,
but this is now an occupied unit. And again, closer -up photographs of the bathroom.
The bathroom continues a little bit out of this photograph, and the kitchen.
Unit D, again, is a one -bedroom unit, bedroom, living area, kitchen, and bathroom.
Finally, on the third floor is the fifth unit, which is a one -bedroom unit.
The current tenant has been there since June of 2021, with quite a few feline friends, apparently, which you'll notice in the next photographs.
And again, living space, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom.
Prior to the current tenants, it's the new owner's understanding that the units have all been continuously occupied throughout the years.
that the units have all been continuously occupied throughout the years and he did purchase the
And he did purchases.
property with the vast majority of these tenants already in place. Before I turn into the argument
I'd like to ask Mike Thompson with Design Blends a few short questions so if the administrator
could look for Mike Thompson to be promoted. Mike Thompson has been allowed to speak.
Mr. Thompson, could you please state your name as spelled for the court stenographer?
M -I -C -H -A -E -L, Thompson, T -H -O -M -P -S -O -M.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mike, can you just briefly share your background and your involvement with this property with the board, please?
I've been an architect since 1999.
I registered architect since 2008.
We were hired by this client at the beginning of the year to assist with making this premises legal in the eyes of the zoning code.
Thank you.
And as a part of your normal responsibilities as an architect, would you normally have the ability to provide a client a reasonable estimate of the cost of certain work that they're looking to undertake for any particular property?
While we can't provide a detailed cost estimate, we are usually providing something along the lines of what we call an order of magnitude cost for an owner.
So we would be able to at least provide an order of magnitude cost opinion for them.
And you prepared, you or Design Blends prepared the plans, the floor plans that I showed the board just moments ago, correct?
That's correct.
And in order to prepare those plans, did you or someone from Design Blends conduct a physical investigation of the property?
We did. I was on site with one other staff member from our firm.
And based on that investigation, did the floor plan shown to the board today accurately reflect the location and layout of the five units that exist in this property?
They did.
Is there any physical evidence that would suggest that there has been any material modification to any of the units that would have added or reduced the number of units?
We did observe some minor modification, but none of those modifications would have amounted to the addition or subtraction of any units at that site.
And hypothetically speaking, if the current owner were to venture to convert this structure back to a single -family dwelling, would that be a simple endeavor?
No, it would not. Under the eyes of the International Existing Building Code, it constitutes a change of use because under the eyes of the code, this is recognized as a multifamily residential facility.
So we have to change it back to single family residential, which means that we're bringing everything in this building up to the modern day codes.
And it's important to note that this building, I mean, it was converted in the 1950s.
In the 1950s themselves predate the current establishment of the International Building Code, the International Residential Code, the International Energy Conservation Code.
All of these codes would apply to a renovation of this facility to convert it back to a single family dwelling.
So just the amount of work that would be required to bring it up to code would be pretty extensive.
Does the fact that the structure sits within a historic district add any further complication?
It would. It adds a level of detail in terms of just understanding the neighborhood character
and making sure that it aligns with the regulations imposed upon it by that historic district.
So there would be some additional costs there.
And based on the nature of the work that you've described, can you give the board just a high -level, rough estimate of what you would expect all of that work might cost?
We would anticipate a range of somewhere from $550 ,000 for a basic renovation just to bring this up to code to one that's more probably closer to a million dollars in terms of bringing it up to a code in a matter that's sympathetic to the historic character of the surrounding neighborhood.
Thank you, Mike.
Thank you.
Because this property is zoned RSD -3, the application to legalize the five units was denied.
However, as this board has hopefully seen from the evidence presented, the five dwelling units have continued to exist since the 1950s,
despite several unsuccessful legalization attempts and due to no affirmative actions by the city to force the conversion back to a single -family dwelling.
The hardship is apparent on several grounds.
First, the evidence presented to the board has shown that these five units have been in continuous occupied existence for nearly 70 years.
for nearly 70 years following the 1950s and 1960s attempts at legalization
Following the 1950s and 1990s,
there is no evidence to suggest that any other owner prior to my client the new owner attempted
to remedy the situation conversely my client sought to begin this process less than a month
after he closed on the purchase of the property instead of simply leaving it in its illegally
occupied state as had been done by so many prior owners over the years. Second, the evidence has
shown that it would be an extreme hardship to convert this property back to single -family use.
That hardship does not solely involve financial constraints. The board heard that the physical
characteristics of the interior of the property would render it extremely challenging to convert
it to single -family use, particularly in light of modern building codes that would have to be
considered if such a conversion were to occur. This challenge and the corresponding cost is
accentuated by the property's location within a historic district that has specific requirements
that must be met. Physicality aside, the board also heard that based on the current per square
foot costs, it would be a minimum of a half a million dollars to convert this back to single
family use, but more likely over a million dollars due to historic considerations.
As the board heard earlier, my client paid $400 ,000 in an arm's length negotiated transaction
for this property. Accordingly, it will cost more to convert this property than it is worth,
rendering it impossible to justify such a conversion.
Finally, even putting aside the bizarre history of this property and the unique physical constraints that would prevent conversion, the applicant submits that this board may also grant a variance on a traditional basis, that this property is located in an area with unique characteristics that make a multifamily use of this structure infinitely more appropriate than a single -family dwelling.
At Exhibit 10, I have included permit history and a summary map showing the use of structures that immediately surround and abut 6345 Lancaster Avenue.
As you will see, every single property abutting this property is not used for single -family use.
Flipping to the exhibit list, I've summarized the use of surrounding properties.
The board may note that not only do all of these properties contain multifamily dwellings, except for the one to the right, which is an event space, many of these are significantly more dense than this particular property, and almost all of them were granted by variance due to the existing single -family detached zoning.
In the absence of this property's history, this particular property would still be uniquely situated to accommodate multifamily use, given the surrounding multifamily uses, as well as the event hall that's immediately next door, which would combined make single -family use of this property undesirable and not feasible.
Regarding the parking refusal, I do have to correct what I said earlier in that I do not stipulate to the accuracy of the parking refusal, as the applicant does submit the parking refusal was issued in error for this particular property.
Let me bring that back up.
Pursuant to Section 14801 -2D of the Zoning Code, no parking shall be required for any portion of a building or a structure that is located in a historic district and that contributes to the character of such district.
The nomination of the Overbrook Farms Historic District, which is publicly available on the Historical Commission's website, page 518, shows that 6345 Lancaster Avenue has been noted as a contributing structure to the district and is therefore exempt from the parking requirements of the code.
That aside, the board may recall from an earlier photograph that the only remotely feasible location for parking would be in the rear yard, which is subject to a significant slope.
Additionally, there is an existing driveway with a curb cut, but that driveway leads directly into significant mature trees that would have to be removed to facilitate parking.
The driveway is also extremely narrow, bring up a photograph, and would likely require a variance in its own from driveway width requirements.
This property has never had on -site parking at any time during its time.
This property has never had on -site parking at any time during its documented history.
The applicant submits the variance requested is the least minimum, given its use as a five -unit dwelling for over half a century.
It is the least minimum variance to legalize the current five residential apartment units
versus the extreme physical and monetary hardship that would result from converting the property back to a single -family use,
particularly in light of the consistent use of many of the surrounding structures.
The applicant further submits the request will not increase congestion,
endanger the public, or harm neighbors. The board may notice that the RCO letter is entirely devoid
of any allegation that this property has in its 70 -year history created any impact to the
neighborhood. This application merely seeks to maintain the status quo and remediate a decades
long problem that no prior owner has been successful in fixing. This property sits on
the dominant Lancaster Avenue corridor with ample access to significant public transportation
including nearby regional rail lines, a bus stop just at the corner of Lancaster Avenue and Sherwood
Road. The owner also employs the services of a professional management company, a summary of
which is included at Exhibit 14. This Exhibit 14 documents winter snow removal, spring and summer
lawn and vegetation management, and weekly trash service. As photos show, trash is stored along the
side of the property and is put out and returned by a third -party service to ensure the constant
cleanliness of the property. Presumably, a denial of today's request would likely pose more negative
impact to the community, as it would soon render this property vacant with limited chance of
conversion back to a single -family home, given the challenges physically and the costs involved
in effectuating such a conversion. Before I conclude, a brief note on some relevant case law.
Case law that I've referenced in the Memorandum of Law at Exhibit 11 confirms it would be unreasonable and by no means the least minimum variance to ask a property owner under these extraordinary circumstances to convert structure back to single -family use after a long history of multifamily use.
It also goes without saying that this is not a self -imposed hardship, as my client just recently purchased the property and is undertaking this process to ensure the property has all the necessary permits in place.
I should also note that this legalization will also require the owner to secure a certificate of occupancy, which will inherently improve the structure safety, as any missing safety features will have to be added if required by L &I and the building code.
As I mentioned earlier, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1963 mentioned that the case at the time did not meet the standards of the Sheedy case.
That could not be farther from the truth today.
The Sheedy case, which I did submit to the board in my exhibits, looked at three main factors.
First, it considered how long the multifamily use of the property persisted.
While in 1963, the use of this property had only existed for a few years, the five units have now
been in place for nearly 70 years. Second, the Sheedy Court considered whether the city took
any action to prevent the use despite knowledge of its existence or pursued a course that would
indicate a multiple unit tenancy was objectionable. Here, although the 1960s permits
specifically directed that the city pursue action, and the city was unambiguously aware of the use
even back then, there's zero evidence to suggest that any such action was ever taken. And in fact,
it was not until 2022, prior to my client's ownership, that a new violation was issued
concerning the use. Simply put, the applicant asserts that the city has stopped from taking
any adverse action given the immense passage of time and the failure to affirmatively seek the
removal of the five tenants that have existed throughout the property's history. Finally,
the Sheedy court considered whether the cost of conversion to a single -family dwelling would be
prohibitive. Ultimately, in the 1960s, the court could not reach this finding. However, the evidence
the board has heard today has clearly established that the physical and monetary constraints
that the physical and monetary constraints would make it an enormous and significantly
would make it an enormous and significant
prohibitive venture to convert this back to a single -family use. A final note about the RCO
letter. The RCO letter confirms that there were 35 people in attendance at the April meeting.
At the meeting, many neighbors not only acknowledge the multi -unit dwelling use,
but confirm that it has created no impact to the neighborhood.
Despite this, no vote of the 35 people in attendance is provided.
Instead, only a vote of the Overbrook Farms Club board is indicated.
In the corresponding letter, Overbrook Farms Club even acknowledges repeatedly
that even it was aware that this property has a long history of five -unit use.
Seemingly, Overbrook Farms Club took issue with the applicant purchasing the property despite knowledge of its illegal use,
which is both irrelevant under established case law and is mitigated by the fact that the owner immediately filed an application after closing to begin to legalize the use.
Oddly, Overbrook Farm Club even notes that there have been other recent similar applications that it supported, and I quote, depending on the presentation made by the applicant.
Despite this language, OFC does not indicate what it was about this particular application
that did not garner support, despite its own acknowledgement of the very use that this
application looks to legalize.
Finally, the applicant further urges the board to find the RCO letter not credible due to
an ongoing public dispute a member of this RCO is having with other members of this particular
counsel's law firm, which is entirely unrelated to this application, the parties, or this counsel
before the board today. I would prefer not to elaborate on details due to a pending proceeding
in the matter, but I have included reference in our exhibit packet for the record to the relevant
dockets of the reference dispute. Based on the significant evidence before the board today,
the applicant submits it has met each element entitling it to a variance,
provided it's Section 143038E of the code.
As always, a more thorough and complete analysis is provided in the memo of law
submitted to the board at Exhibit 11.
And at this time, I would like my client to adopt my testimony
if the administrator could look for Jibben Samuel.
jibin has been allowed to speak good morning could you please state your name and spell for
the court stenographer yes uh jibin samuel j -i -b -i -n samuel s -a -m -u -e -l right you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed
counsel thank you uh jibin you are an authorized uh representative to speak on behalf of yadva
realty, correct? Yes. And have you heard all of the testimony and evidence that was offered before
the board today? Yes, I did. Would you agree that testimony was true and accurate and would you
adopt it as if you had given it yourself? Yes, I agree and I adopt it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Happy to answer any questions. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments
from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
We have a Connor with their hand raised.
They haven't allowed to speak.
Good morning.
Could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning.
Connor Corcoran, C -O -N -O -R,
last name C -O -R -C -O -R -A -N,
on behalf of the Overbrook Farms Club.
Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, sir.
For the most part, I would stand on the representations that were made in our opposition letter submitted to the board.
But I would just like to note for the board that this precise, decades -long rejection of this kind of use is precisely why the board should refuse this zoning variance request today.
It's these types of variances that have denigrated the quality of our neighborhood.
In particular, multifamily dwellings have been installed unlawfully in these old mansions
for decades, and it has caused significant problems for the historic character of the
neighborhood.
It often leads to what the board is familiar with as demolition by neglect, and it has
demolition by neglect. And it has been the main reason why the Overbrook Farms Club exists and
been the main reason why.
operates today is to ensure that the zoning protections exist for the purposes of maintaining
the single family residential character of this neighborhood. That Ivy Hall that's directly to
the right of the applicant's property was also owned by the former owner of this property. I
I don't know whether or not the Haas family ever got that up to speed with city code,
but that was also a single -family home.
It's a mansion.
As far as the apartment building on the left -hand side of the applicant's property is concerned,
I don't have any information as to when that was constructed.
But you can see in this photograph and in Exhibit 10 that Ms. Ferligar put up for the
Board's consideration, the entire neighborhood, with the exception of one or two commercial
apartment buildings is all single -family homes. And the fact that this current owner estimates
that renovations are going to cost in excess of half a million to a million dollars
indicates how long this neglect has gone on with this kind of unlawful operation,
and the board should not allow it to continue. Thank you.
Thank you. Other questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, we have Elizabeth Hudd with their hand raised. They have been allowed to speak.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Elizabeth, please unmute yourself.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Elizabeth Hudd, E -L -I -Z -A -B -E -T -H, last name H -U -D.
hold on hold on one minute do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do please proceed i'm a neighbor in the overbrook farms area and i was at the last meeting
um and um the this was brought up for discussion it was brought up for discussion in the february
meeting also. That was the first time I had been made aware that this was turned into apartments.
My house looks exactly like that particular property, but it is a single family home and
it's used as a single family home. It's really horrific what they have done to the inside of
that property and also to some of the existing windows that they have there. It is not what
this neighborhood is supposed to look like. People buy into this neighborhood because it's
stoned RSD -1 for single -family use. That's why they purchase these homes. They don't purchase
them to turn them into apartment buildings for the most part. This particular current owner
knew that this building was zoned RSD -3,
which means that it has a smaller footprint than, say, my house.
But they knew this going in.
They knew that it was not zoned to be a multifamily property,
and they should not have purchased the property unless it was zoned properly.
that's when you know it's it really goes against what this neighborhood is zoned like the pictures
that um meredith provided actually don't actually uh accurately present what the parking is like
when people are at home that is it's taken in the middle of the day when people are not at home
or when most of the students that are living in in some of the apartment buildings from st joe's
are not there parking is a real problem in that area if you go on Lancaster Avenue at
you know seven in the morning it is there's no parking there's you know there is no parking
you go on Sherwood which is the the the cross street people are parking in front of people's
driveways, they're causing a real horrendous problem. The property that was right in the back
that's used as a multi -use, it looks horrible. It doesn't look like what these buildings are
supposed to look like. I think if you allow this to continue, it's going to continue and you're
going to get the way houses look down on 63rd Street as you get closer and closer to Market
street where you have multi -use houses and they get run down and they're not kept up people that
People that live in these houses as a family, they do keep up their homes.
live in these houses as a family they do keep up their homes
Thank you.
Ms. Hood, one quick question.
So you said you just, so there was no indication to you before that this was being used as a multiple family property?
Usually when I, no, for me it was not.
It was new to me.
I usually, when I take the train to work, I will go up Lancaster Avenue.
And but it's, you know, I'm going for the eight o 'clock time and practice, you know, that it's hard to cross the street.
Yeah. You have to go up to Overbrook to cross the street at a traffic light.
I'm on Drexel Road. I guess the point I'm saying there was no indication there was any problems with this property prior.
It looked a little run down. It didn't look great, but it didn't look run. It looked a little run down.
Okay. Well, thank you very much for calling in. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Berkman, and good morning. David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single -family detached zoning at this location.
This property has a lengthy history of being converted without permits to multifamily units and operating as such, dating back to at least 1951.
Based on council's exhibits regarding the use of adjacent properties and the testimony of the architect regarding the cost involved in removing the current apartments,
Planning Commission staff believes that the appellant has shown that a hardship exists, which would prevent this property from being used as it is zoned.
So the Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variants for five dwelling units
and the companion variants from the off -street parking requirements in the zoning code.
Thank you.
And my 2024 -000 -255 -6345 Lancaster Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 9 .30 a .m. case has not been called?
I see no hands.
Thank you, everyone.
See everyone at 2 p .m.
All right, Chair.
Bill Bergman. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this
afternoon's EBA hearings. With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holliman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our Board Member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Also present is our Attorney, Hillary Emerson.
and our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our format.
The proceedings are being recorded.
With your participation, you agree to be recorded.
Video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phila .gov.
For our court stenographer, we asked attorneys and witnesses
to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand
and star 6 to unmute.
to an appearance statement call 267 -270 -5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property question.
And finally, the question box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Summ.
Let's look at our schedule.
Number one, MI 2023 -002 -778 -2848 North 26th Street.
The owner of the property is Mohamed Diallo.
I believe he would like a continuance.
Mr. Diallo.
Mr. Diallo, if you're in an audience.
Good afternoon, Chair.
This is Nadia, and I'll be your co -host.
Mr. Diallo, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Chair, we just have Vicki Mallory with your hand raised.
let's see if she's if he if he's on her phone they have been allowed to speak hi mr diallo
who's on the phone please
hello are you involved in 2848 north 26th street no sir i'm not okay thank you we'll we'll whatever
case you have, we'll be back to you shortly. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Diallo. I see no hands.
Okay, so MI 2023 -002 -778 -2848 North 26th Street.
Okay. So MI 2023 002 778
That case is continued.
There's a new owner of that property, Muhammad Diallo.
The next time will be marked, must be heard.
Thank you.
And number five.
I -2023 -006 -962 -3214, West Montgomery.
Henry Clinton, Strawberry Manson has asked for a continuance on this case.
Henry Clinton has been allowed to speak.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Clinton, could you just state your name and spell for the courts?
Sure. Henry Clinton, C -L -I -N -T -O -N.
Right. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
We've received a request from Strawberry Mansion for this to be continued so that they could see the drawings and better understand the project.
Understood, Mr. Chairman. Just by way of background, real quick, this is our second meeting with Strawberry Mansion. They've been very understanding.
Last meeting was May 23rd. They asked for drawings.
So my client did his own drawings and submitted the dimensions of the rooms.
uh but and then apparently they took a vote it was four to four i see now they want architectural
drawings so i'm wondering can we submit the case and just wait till we meet with them again and
then they can they can weigh in on how they feel henry why don't we do this why don't we continue
this and see if you can't do the drawings with them first is it okay all right understood all
right mr mr chair did you want to hear from strawberry mansion cdc on their request sure
Sure, if they want to.
Strawberry Mansion, CDC?
We have Conlon Crossley with their hand raised.
Would that be known?
We'll see.
Mr. Crossley is from Councilmember Young's office.
Good afternoon.
Hi, Mr. Crossley.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, sir.
C -O -N -L -A -N, Crossley, C -R -O -S -L -E -Y.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
This particular case, Strawberry Mansion, has indicated to us that they would like a continuance.
I think you heard what Mr. Clinton said.
Do you have anything you want to add?
Yeah, I just wanted to add, I looked over the drawings in which they submitted to Strawberry Mansion CDC.
And to be perfectly fair, they weren't to scale.
There wasn't a lot of. So I think a continuance just so the community could have an accurate representation of what they're going to be dealing with in their community would be best for all parties.
And I appreciate your time. Thank you, Mr. Crossley, for taking the time to call us.
Is there anyone in the audience from Strawberry Mansion?
I see no hands.
So, MI 2023, 006962 -3214 West Montgomery Avenue, this case will be continued.
Thank you, Mr. Clinton.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
Chair, we have Mohamed Diallo with their hand raised now.
I have allowed them to speak.
good afternoon mr diallo state your name and spell for the court stenographer
my name is mohammed diallo that's m -o -h -a -m -e -d last name diallo d -i -a -l -l -o
all right do you swear or affirm do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes sir yes chairman mr diallo we have continued your case
okay that's what i was here to request right yeah that's right so we have continued your case
if you have questions about what you need to present a case we know you're the new owner
please call our office and they'll work with you okay
okay um would i continue emailing the same correspondent i've been in contact with
you could do that yep all right thank you thank you thank you
Okay, we're going to go to our, let's see here, our add -on list.
Number one, MI 2023 -003 -954 -3753 North 18th Street.
We will need, I believe, Thomas Holliman and Jim Snell, when they vote, will have to certify.
I vote yes. Proviso. Revised plan, one page, stamped by ZBA, May 29th, 2024.
Thomas Holliman, I certified that I reviewed the video on this case, and my vote is no.
I certify that I reviewed the video on this case, and my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, I certify that I watched the video pertaining to this case, and I'm ready to vote, and my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell Shahid, my vote is yes with proviso.
For two, MI 2024 -000161 -5918 Park Avenue, the same individuals will certify that they voted. My vote on this is no.
Thomas Holloman, I certify that I reviewed the video on this case, and my vote is no.
james snell i certified that i watched the video pertaining to this case
and i'm ready to vote and my vote is no
number three mi 2024 001 excuse me mr sheriff on the last one um i was mr shaheed and mr
halliman needed to certify mr halliman did age would you please certify and mr snell certified
that it's mr shaheed that needs to certify all right all right you're breaking up hillary ish
could you certify the video and i'm ready to vote okay i hear you yes can you hear me
it's not shaheed i certified i certified that i watched the video on this case my vote is no
thank you number three mi2024 001 172 3928 west gerard avenue
I vote yes with proviso, per amended refusal dated 5 -13 -24.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
My vote is yes with proviso.
Break it up a little, Liz. So we have your vote. Number four, MI 2023 -003 -142 -3111 West Montgomery Avenue. This vote in this matter is being rescheduled to Wednesday, June 5th at 2 p .m.
Number five, MI 2023 -007 -211 -2812 -Snyder -Avedo. My vote is yes for a temporary variance that will expire 5 -31 -26.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes, we're providing it.
Number six, MI 2024 -00149 -2350 East Albert Street.
I vote yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes to rehearing and reconsideration.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Okay, that's enough that we have the votes for that.
Chair, can you hear me now?
We hear you now, Jim.
Okay, sorry about that.
My vote is, James, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thank you.
And number seven, MI 2023 -006 -343 -9901 -Frankford Avenue.
The vote in this matter is being rescheduled to Wednesday, June 5th at 2 p .m.
We're going to start with number two of our regular list, MI 2023 -003 -757 -2347 North
Phillips Street.
Dawn Tangrady is the listed attorney.
We have no RCO letter yet.
But notice was sent to nearby neighbors with proof of mailing attached.
Clementa Amazon is coming in as the panelist.
And counsel, could you please state your name? It's spelled for the court stenographer.
Of course, Clementa Amazon, that's spelled C -L -E -M -E -N -T -A, last name is spelled A -M -A -Z -A -N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client in the relationship to the property?
My client is the owner of the property.
could you identify the client yes frankie master marco is a member of the owner of the property
Could you identify the client?
Yes, Frank Green Mastermind.
and he's the owner frankie master macro thank you sure and our vice chair has a few questions
good afternoon council do you agree to read the written of the refusal stick to his accuracy
yes thank you have you emailed then all the required documents and exhibits that is needed
to proceed with this can stop these in advance of this hearing yes i have thank you council
please proceed and share your screen thank you
council out of curiosity you have a letter from the rco yes we actually received the
letter after submission of our materials okay thank you it's a letter of support thank you
would you make sure hillary gets a copy of that of course
and it's included within today's presentation as well so again my name is clemente amazon i represent
the owner of the property during my presentation i will be going through the refusal we did receive
a letter of support from the rco a zoning map of the area interior photos exterior photos as
as well as surrounding area photos, plans, the notice that we sent out for the community
meeting, as well as the affidavit of service showing that the notice was in fact sent out,
our application for appeal, project information forms, these showing that my client does own
the property, as well as a certificate of tax clearance. So the properties on RSA 5 and CMX 2 .5,
the proposed use that we're looking for here is for a duplex within an existing structure for my
client purchased the property it was fully fitted out as a duplex and it was also marketed as such
unbeknownst to him it was not properly legalized so we're looking to legalize the current use of
the property and at this point the property is vacant however we're looking to just get
appropriate donate for it we did meet with the community on may 15th and we did receive
a letter of support as you can see here from northward community alliance
and here we have a breakdown of the vote for that meeting which is pretty well attended there about
14 attendees and here we have a map of the area again the property is mixed on rsa 5 and cms 2 .5
it's within a sliver of single families that's surrounded by both industrial as well as commercial
mixed use across the street and to the rear of the property here we have interior photos again
the property is vacant my client intends to do a full renovation there is an existing garage that
we would like to maintain the use for here we have a view of the front of the property as well as
photos showing that the property is properly posted this is the exterior door we will be
adding um windows to allow for extra lighting within the property as well
here we have a view of the side of the property there is a parking lot that is adjacent to the
property as well here we have a view on long north phillip street just showing
the other residential properties along this block
and then just another view showing the side of the property as well and further down along
north phillip street across the street is a warehouse for commercial and industrial commercial
use the warehouse i mean for restaurants and here we have the plan showing the existing garage
and the two units. So you come up the stairs and you can either make a left or a right to enter
within the unit. So we have one front unit, which includes one bedroom, washer, dryer, kitchen,
living, dining area, as well as the whole bath. We also have unit two, which is also one bedroom,
one bath. Bedroom is in the rear, bath, kitchen, as well as the living and dining area.
We just sent out notice of the community meeting on April 29th. Again, the refusal that we have
here is that the properties on rsa 5 cms 2 .5 we are looking to maintain the existing youth and
we're looking to legalize it and it's currently fitted out as a duplex it was special my client
purchased it we're looking to renovate and legalize that youth here we have a list of
the properties that were notified of the community meeting our affidavit of service
the application for appeal for the property
our project information form, as well as a key showing that my client, 973 -9 Life Go
Street LLC, does in fact own the property, the member Frankie Mastromarco is in attendance
for today's CBA hearing, and our certificate of tax clearance as well for the property.
And our certificate of tax clearance as well for the property.
So, I believe Frankie is on if he could be promoted so that he can have got my testimony.
Frankie, can you please raise your virtual hand?
I see no hands.
Counsel, you're an officer of the court.
We'll take your testimony.
So when did he purchase this property?
Give me one moment.
Let me just double check the fee that we have on file here.
On May 15, 2023.
Counsel, he purchased it thinking it was a duplex?
Yes, he did.
It was marketed to him as such as well.
Okay, thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Just briefly, Mr. Chair,
um thank you and thank you for requesting uh that letter be sent over because we did not receive the
letter um um i just wanted to note for the record that it it doesn't appear that the accessory
parking was included in this application because it is front -loaded parsing and the property stoned
rsa5 i would think that would generally generate a refusal um so you may need to seek additional
approval if you're maintaining the accessory parking at the property. Thank you.
Thank you.
So, Hillary, they'd have to do another?
They might.
Yeah, I'd say they may if it was not previously legalized.
It was not noted in the refusal as being existing.
Okay, thank you.
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands planning commission that's uh 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 i do please proceed run uh this property is split zone for mixed uh commercial and
residential in the city plan the applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of any
physical circumstances or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used
and conforming with the code therefore we recommend request for variance not being
thank you so mi2023 003 757 757 um 2347 north phillip street i vote yes
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number three, MI2023 -006110, 2202 North 29th Street.
Rachel Pritzker and Zanetta Ford are the attorneys involved in this.
There's a letter of support from Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation.
Nine in support, one opposed.
Zanetta Ford will be coming in as a panelist.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it please for the court stenographer?
Zanetta Ford, Z as in zebra, A -N -E -T -T -A, last name F -O -R -D.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Would you identify your client, their relationship to this property?
My client is Medrano.
I'm sorry.
My client is Jose Medrano, and he is the owner of the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
do you agree to read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy yes i do have you emailed them
all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing yes we did thank you council please proceed and share your
screen. Thank you. Okay. Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the board. The property address
is 2202 North 29th Street, Build -Up EPA 19132. The applicant proposes the project to convert
The applicant proposes the project to convert the ground floor of a two -story building zone RSA 5 to business and professional office use.
the ground floor of a two -story
The building has generated one refusal, the application has generated one refusal, which I'll share here, because the business and professional office use is prohibited in this RSA 5 zoning district.
there's refusal turning to the hardship
first there's already a full apartment there's already a full apartment with its own kitchen
and bath on the second floor of the subject property and there is an existing vacant
commercial space on the ground floor to convert the property to a single family
use would entail interior demolition of the existing kitchen and some interior walls which
would be an extremely costly and difficult endeavor for the applicant. Instead, to avoid
such waste, the applicant has proposed converting the lower floor into a separate office for
business and professional use. This is the least modification of the code possible and
not out of character with the surrounding neighborhood. For example, there's business
and professional office use at 2145 North 29th Street, which is located approximately
250 feet from the subject property and is also zoned rsa 5. in addition 2122 north 29th street
it's approximately 300 feet from the subject property and is a corner property with a store
on the ground floor and it's zoned rsa 5. i'd like to show you the interior photos of this property
just to show you what it looks like on the inside
so here's this is the first floor of the property it's currently just in this vacant state
this is the what they're proposing to change to an office space
again this is another photo of that and then on the second floor i'll just briefly go through
these photos of the residential property where you can see here
they have a bedroom space kitchen space
and a living area so we met with the strawberry mansion rco
on march 28th and on april 25th and they issued a letter in support
let me show you there was a vote that was taken at the end of this meeting
which generated nine votes in support of the of the project and one in opposition
now i would like to have the architect damaso rodriguez uh to show the interior plans for the
property could he be promoted yep yes thank you
we see his hand the mosco is coming in as a panelist okay okay
sir sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
can you hear me now yes please state your name and spell for the stenographer
okay my name is damaso last name rodriguez spelled d -a -m -a -s -o rodriguez
could you spell rodriguez for them too please yes r -o -d -r -i -g -u -e -c right do you swear or
preferring to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
That's correct.
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. DeMasa, would you please explain the interior plans for the property?
What we're looking now, we're talking about the system building.
And this is a proposal for the first floor to be converted into office space.
Now in the second page is showing basement is going to stay not occupied.
Second floor will be first floor, ground level.
That will be with the office space is going to be located.
The third image is the third floor, second floor,
so we can be more specific.
OK, perfect.
okay perfect so it's an assistant apartment that was already built
So it's an assistant upon.
and they're only trying to keep it and just build a commercial space on the first floor
thank you Mr. DeMaso are there any questions for Mr. DeMaso
no why don't we bring on your client okay Mr. Chairman I would ask as an officer of the court
if you would allow my testimony to be adopted.
My client's having technical difficulties
and can't join for it.
All right, thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney,
Hillary Emerson.
Just briefly, Mr. Chair,
I just want to note that there appears
to be a refusal missing for multiple principal uses
on a lot as the property is zoned RSA 5.
So if the board grants this variance,
then that a variance would be included as well.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Conlon Crossley with their hand raised,
and they have been allowed to speak.
Good afternoon, Chair.
Conlon, you've already been sworn,
so just state your name for the record, please.
My name is Conlon, C -O -N -L -A -N,
Crosley, C -R -O -S -L -E -Y. I'm with Young's office. Yep, please proceed. The council office would like
to take a position of non -opposition for this case. Thank you very much for taking the time
to call us. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Tyrone Williams has been allowed to speak.
Reverend, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon, everyone. Reverend Tyrone Williams, Tyrone, T -Y -R -O -N -E, Williams, W -I -L -L -I -A -M -S. I just wanted to add—
Hold on, hold on, Reverend, hold on.
I'm sorry.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Sorry about that, Chairman. Yes, I do.
That's okay. Please proceed.
We just asked that once this is supposed to be auto tax and auto tax insurance and notary, that it remains that we do have a way to get in touch with the only things go wrong.
But we also discussed in the meeting hiring from the community, and we would just like a job description once that becomes available.
And I think I spoke with Ms. Ford on that. Just give us a job description so that we can see if someone in the community can be a fit for the job. Thank you.
Thank you, Robert, for taking the time to call us. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no other hands.
Any commission?
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single -family zoning at this location.
Zoning maps in this part of Strawberry Mansion were changed in 2014.
At the time, residential zoning here had been in place since the early 1970s.
Property was built with ground floor commercial space and one dwelling unit above.
City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed multiple principal use variances for both residential and business and office professional.
Thank you, Ron. So MI 2023, 006110, 2202 North 29th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you. Thank you, counsel. Thank you. Number four, MI 2023 -006 -921 -2431 North 26th Street. Richard DeMarco is the attorney. There's a letter of unanimous support from all in the family seat, CDC.
Mr. DeMarco, could you please state your name and spell for the course?
Yes, Richard DeMarco, last name D -E -M -A -R -C -O.
Swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
Yeah, my client is Ayana Donovan.
And our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Could you agree to the way that we know the refusal is to relate to a back -to -sit?
Yes, I can.
Have you emailed them all the required back on some exhibits that is needed?
I have an email done all the required back
and some gibbous that is needed.
I have to tell you.
I'm prepared to consider this case for five days in advance of the hearing.
Yes, I have.
Thank you, Cal.
Okay, Mr. Chairman.
I'll share my screen.
You should be able to see the refusal on the board.
Great.
I want to point out that this matter was heard by the Zoning Board.
You can see it in the notes to the ZBA back in 2017.
My client's proposing the exact same use.
This board granted that variance for this use back then.
There was some issues with the permits.
Ellen and I held that.
Basically, what happened was the prior owner began the work pursuant to valid permits issued by the department
and began constructing the first floor takeout use and actually pulled building permits as well.
and then halted the work and then listed the property for sale. My client purchased the
property, believing that there would be no issue continuing with that work. However,
Ellen and I took the position that the zoning permit had expired. We did challenge that. We
did not agree with that, but we were not successful in that. So we went back to the
neighbors with a new application. This is the posting of the property. This is the property
here. As you can see, it's got roll -up commercial style doors at the front. I'm going to show you
some interior photos as well. Hold on. This is the posting. Here are some interior photos. As you
can see, Mr. Chairman, this is how the property appeared when my client purchased it. You can see
that the takeout style restaurant had begun. At least the work to convert it had begun.
uh ansel uh hooding systems were in place pursuant to valid permits
show you a couple other photos that's the sink all right so here's the layout um there's plenty
of space in the rear yard for trash trash storage mr chairman this is the site plan
you can see here the rear yard here um let me show you the certificate oh here's the old permit
Mr. Chairman, that L &I deemed to have been expired. You can see this board's calendar number
and decision date shown here. You see takeout, restaurant, first floor, single family above.
And again, we're proposing that exact same use. So this board has already determined that an
unnecessary hardship existed with regard to this property and granted the variances back then.
The property has only been vacant since then. No change in circumstances has occurred. So
obviously, we feel that this is the proper use of the property. This is a certificate that my
client, Ayanna Donovan, obtained through her realtor prior to making the decision to purchase
the property. You can see it here, takeout, restaurant, and then residential, single family
above. So she did, in fact, rely, and I'll have her accept my testimony in a moment. She did,
in fact, rely on this certificate when she made the decision to purchase the property. And
obviously, has been delayed by the decision by L &I to expire the permits. And obviously,
she has suffered additional costs and time in doing the use that she thought she would be able
to perform right away. I think that's basically the long and short of it. Let me go ahead.
Obviously, we had three neighborhood meetings with the neighbors. We finally got the neighbors
on board, they sent a proviso letter, the RCO on the family, CDC. My client is fine with all the
provisos, but we did have a discussion. If you note here, there's an hour of operations limitations.
We did speak to the RCO about that. We would like to stay open until no later than 8 p .m.,
and the neighbors did agree to that. Other than that, though, we are fine with the provisos.
it looks like the vote was unanimous in favor of the project. I did put the email thread in there
that the On the Family organization did say okay to the 8 p .m. closing. There'll be obviously
times when they'll close earlier, but they will not remain open past 8 p .m. And so let me go ahead
and this is indeed, let me go ahead and have Ayanna Donovan raise her hand virtually so she
can accept my testimony. And by the way, while she's doing that, Mr. Chairman, I'll show you
the, this is the Atlas website. You can see all the permits that Ellen and I granted
for the work that was done so all that all those photos are actually work that were done that was
for the work that was done. So all that, all those photos are
done pursuant to legitimate permits okay Ayanna Donovan has been allowed to speak
hi could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Ayanna Donovan a -y -a -n -n -a last name d -o -n -o -v -a -n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel um miss donovan did you hear all
of my opening presentation uh and statements made to the board today yes i did are they true and
accurate and will you adopt them as your formal testimony in this matter yes i do uh so mr
chairman in light of the support of the rco i don't have anything to add unless there's uh
opposition that we're not aware of um obviously we feel that the board has already heard this
matter, felt that there was a hardship
2017, seven years
ago, my client did, in fact,
purchase the property in reliance on that
decision and those permits, so
we'd ask you to grant the variances.
Thank you. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or
comments from our attorney, Hillary
Emerson? Not at
this time, Mr. Chair. Questions
or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission.
Ron Bednar, City Planning.
Properties indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted district plan recommend no change to the existing single -family zoning at this location.
The applicant's hardship is self -created due to a conversion not in conformance with the code.
Recommend the request of variance not be granted.
Thank you.
Well, I would just add, Mr. Chairman, the work was done pursuant to a decision by this board and valid permits, so that's not really accurate.
I love Ron, but that's not really accurate.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
MI 2023 -006 -921 -2431 North 26th Street.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Have a good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
So number six, MI 2023 -007 -017, 5700 Germantown Avenue.
There's a letter of non -opposition from Faith CDC.
Darwin Beauvais is the attorney.
Darwin will be joining us as a panelist.
I counsel, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Gladly. Darwin Beauvais, B -E -A -U -V, as in victory, A -I -S, as in Sam. I represent the
applicant, 5700 Germantown, LLC. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Our vice chair has just a few questions.
good afternoon counselor do you agree to read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy
yes i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes i have thank you please proceed
Can we see my screen?
We can.
All right.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I have a not -so -controversial application this time or not.
So, before you is an application in a SAMX 2 .5 commercial district.
It is for a telecommunications store in the Germantown section of the city.
Specifically, it's part of a mixed -use project that will feature the renovation of a historic building where the upper floors were vacant for over 70 years and the downstairs floors, the retail, ground floor retail, was unfortunately vacant during the Black Lives Matter riots.
We are looking to put, well, no, I strike that.
We are approved to put 16 affordable housing units that will range between 50 and 60 % AMI, and we will be marketing to seniors, but we won't be limited to that just in case we can't fill the units.
I would like for the board to identify my client, John Serpernicus.
Sir Pernicus, he is in the audience, and he will be available to answer any questions.
He is in the audience and he will be available to you.
So I have my exhibits from 1 through 14, which includes the refusal, the tax clearance certificate, our deed, our ZBA application, photos, existing photos, our floor plan, existing approval, the zoning map, zoning code section, aerial views, our memorandum of law, emails of support from both the councilwoman's office and the RCOs.
and our letter and certificate of mailings and additional photos.
Now, with respects to the application, let me just start with Exhibit 7.
That is page 124.
and this is our approval giving us the ability to have retail sales of food beverages groceries
from the basement through the first floor with multi -family household living 16 dwelling units
above. Now, and let me just show you the building itself.
Can everyone see this? So, this is the building. We see it better now. Yeah. Yeah, this is the
building. So, the retail stores have been empty. Now, what the board is viewing is a corner
It's a corner property that has two separate retail frontages, and then you have several units of stairs.
These units have been vacant.
This is a historic building, and as I mentioned before in my opening, the upper floors have been vacant for over 70 years.
Just by way of trivia and to show how much of a commercial corridor, the variety that Germantown had, this used to be a banquet hall at some point in time, 70 years ago.
Now we are excited to convert this to affordable units, 16 in total, with the two retail frontages.
So, let's get back to our refusal here.
Our refusal, we have one use refusal.
And it centers around the fact that it is part of an overlay district and telecommunications stores are prohibited in this overlay.
Now, what I do feel that I'm one of the few lucky ones that having shared a similar experience with the board council, Hillary, that I used to be a staffer for city council.
What I would like to take the board's attention is to the ordinance that actually created this overlay.
It was introduced in 2005 when I was still a staffer, and it was introduced by not the current councilwoman, but the prior councilwoman.
And I am certain from my own personal recollection that she put this in place because she was trying to prevent the proliferation of mom -and -pop stores that will sell pagers.
If you recall, back in 2005, 2007, pagers were the choice of a lot of drug activities, and there was a lot of, and the overlay was put in place to try to introduce and curtail certain types of retail uses.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, we present that we are looking to attract a national tenant.
We are looking to have either a Verizon, an AT &T, T -Mobile, or the like.
We are not, the applicant is a Class A developer and has not engaged in that type of activity that will warrant B or C or subclass tenants.
Again, this is where we are.
and if I could just show you the floor plan.
So here is the entrance
for what we hope will be Verizon.
what we hope will be verizon they haven't signed a lease yet so we do not want anything in our in
They haven't signed a lease yet, so we do.
our um uh notice of decision that limits us to verizon but we are seeking a national tenant
so i would like to rest assured this this here is the entrance to the new residential units
But that, as I mentioned before, has already been approved, and this blue area is what's before the board.
If I could show the board additional photos.
Here's a photo on Germantown Avenue.
Avenue. Here's photos of the interior of the retail space. Here's photos of our postings.
Photos of our postings. A view of Germantown Avenue.
the property is on the right of the screen as you can tell it used to be sneaker villa
another area and that concludes our photo so if we mentioned before that we did meet with the
community. This is our letter of opposition from the faith CDC. Non -opposition. Non -opposition,
yes. And here's our notice for the community hearing. We had not one, but two community
hearings were scheduled. After the first one, we actually fly the area and here's our certificates
of mailing. With that said, I would like to bring John on,
if he can raise his hand and identify himself in the virtual audience.
John has been allowed to speak. John, could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
john what's john's last name scopernicus john has been unmuted i believe they may have the
may be experiencing technical difficulties at this moment right um counsel you're an officer
of the court um your testimony is fine questions from the and just for a point of information this
is only about the retail sales of telecommunications that's correct everything else is approved
Okay, thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. We have Charles Richardson with their hand raised. They have been allowed to speak.
Mr. Richardson, just state your name, please, and spell for the stenographer.
Good morning. Good afternoon, rather, Mr. Chair. Charles Richardson, R -I -C -H -A -R -D -S -O -N.
Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass from 508 City Hall.
Do you swear or affirm the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Certainly do.
Please proceed, sir.
The Councilwoman has no opposition to granting the variance for this telecommunications storm.
Thank you for calling us.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no other hands.
High Planning Commission.
Ron Benmar City Planning. Comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from commercial mixed use 2 .5 to commercial mixed use 3. Proposed telecommunications store is what would reasonably be expected to find in a major commercial corridor. The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the requested use variance.
Thank you. MI 2023 -007 -017, 5700 Germantown Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number seven, MI 2023 -007 -031, 4714 Griscombe Street.
Jermaine Harris is the attorney.
No RCO letter, but there was a meeting held 5 -9 -24 by Frankford NAC.
Jermaine will be joining us as a panelist.
Thank you.
mr harris could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure jermaine harris uh counsel for the applicant just concierge reality good afternoon
counsel could you just spell your name for the record please for the stenographer
Oh, I'm sorry.
Jermaine, that's J -E -R -M -A -I -N -E, Harris, H -A -R -R -I -S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
One more time, could you state your client and the relationship to this property?
Client is concierge, a realty LLC, and they are the owner of the property.
okay our vice chair has a few questions for you sir sure good afternoon good afternoon counsel
do you agree to waive the reason of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy i do have you emailed
in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in
advance of this hearing i have except for the uh rco position uh which we don't have as of yet
unfortunately. Understood. Please proceed and share your screen.
This is concerning
property at 47
4714 Grissom Avenue. And I'm just going to walk over, walk with you my exhibit,
walk over, go over my exhibit packet. This is a posting notice of posting of today's hearing.
this is the subject property here and what we're seeking to do what the applicant
concierge realty is seeking to do is they are seeking to make this into a five unit building
so there are three levels to this building and this is a side view this is more so at a lower
level, the first level, and the upper level. Now, this property does have a history.
This property has a history of having, back in 1993, this was approved as a two -dentist office
on the second floor on the first floor an optometrist office and in the basement level
the lower level was a three family dwelling
and before that back in 1965 this same building was approved as a dental on the first floor
dental and medical office a dental on the second floor a dental and an apartment on the second
floor and in the basement it was used or at a lower level it was an optometrist uh it was used
for an optometrist office so this building has a a a significant history of multi -use
for this of five different five different uh five different tenants so to speak this is a pretty
large building it's about 20 over 2600 square feet with a lot size of 20 about 2300 square feet
let's get to the uh drawings
So what is proposed here as far as the actual layout is in the basement or lower level,
it would be two bedrooms with the kitchen and the mechanic on laundry roll in the front.
With the first floor, it would be...
With the first floor, it would be two units, so it would be two bedrooms in the back unit, and it would be two bedrooms in the front unit of the first floor.
and it would be pretty much the same layout for the second level or the third floor it would be
two bedrooms and for the rear unit for the third floor it would be the kitchen it would be two
bedrooms in that area. Now, let's go back. So there is, on the lower level, there is a method
of egress, which is where there would be the one unit, which would be, which runs the length of
the building with the two bedrooms there would be the method of egress as to that also
uh the drawings also reflect a egress well for the for the two bedrooms that would be on this level
as well and again it would be it has its own separate entrance for that so apart from
the egress wells for the actual windows there would be a separate level
there would be a separate door for escape right here and as well as in the front as well
these are uh this is just framing out of the first and second floor
there's nothing and this is the current condition that it's in once they discovered that there were
issues with the zoning they just stopped doing what they're doing uh pending the
pending the resolution of their variance application.
Also, I would like to add that this particular block has several multifamily units.
so we have an active uh three unit and that would be for 4728 Griscom which is right down the street
we have a 17 unit uh on the same side of the block which is uh again 4732 Griscom
street my client uh purchased this property in may of 2022 and uh as the owner
and then we have the refusal the notice of refusal which was issued and it's an rsa 5
zoning uh district so multi -families are not permitted by right so that's the reason why
the proposed use of the multifamily was uh refused and this application was necessary
so again we are we are waiting on the result of the RCO and what they what this their meeting
summary is but this is our presentation as to what it is and we would ask that
once you receive the summary meeting summary of the community meeting from the frankfurt cdc
that you grant this uh that this request be granted it does have a long history a lengthy
history of five different tenants since 1965 of this and i would open it up for any questions
Mr. Harris, why don't you bring a representative of your client on to adopt your testimony?
Mr. Senegal, he should be on the call.
Mr. Segal, you have to raise your hand.
Mr. Segal has been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Sir, could you please state your name?
It's spelled for the court stenographer.
Yeah, hi, good afternoon.
Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Zev Segal, Z -E -E -V, last name Segal, S -E -G -A -L.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Pre -proceed, counsel.
Okay. So, Mr. Segal, did you hear all of the testimony that I just gave to the board?
I did, yes.
and do you adopt meaning do you agree with the testimony that i just gave to the board as if
you were to testify i do yes uh and you don't necessarily have to say so but if there's anything
is there anything that you want to add to the testimony that i just gave um no i believe you
summarized everything i don't have anything else to end okay questions from the board
no mr chairman no chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emberson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands planning commission uh ron i'm going to hold the vote on this till we hear from
I'm going to hold it for two weeks in an effort to get a letter from the RCO.
Do you want to give your opinion now or do you want to wait?
Yeah, I think I will.
Ryan Bednar, City Planning.
Property is indicated for single -family residential use on the city plan.
Our adopted district plan recommends no change in existing zoning and dislocation.
Applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances
or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used conformity with the code
proposal represents a significant overuse. Therefore, we recommend the request of variance
not be granted. So, Mr. Harris, we're going to hold the vote on this. I understand. The record
will be closed other than hearing from the RCO and having you give you a chance to respond to
what the RCO says. Hillary, how about two weeks for this at 2 p .m.? That's fine,
Mr. Chair, that would be June 12th. June 12th, and we'll vote on this at 2 p .m., Mr. Harris.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay, number eight.
MI 2024, 00079811 Scherz Lane. Ryan Bolin is the attorney for the buyer. There is two letters of
opposition from the Mania Neighborhood Council. There is a letter of support from Council Member
Jones. The applicant also provided four letters of support from Manny Young Development Corporation,
Manny Young Special Service District, three near neighbors, and six area businesses. Also,
there's a petition signed by 58 neighbors. Mr. Boland, could you please state your name as
spelled for the court stenographer? Yes, Ryan Boland, R -Y -A -N, B as in boy, O -L -A -N -D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and their relationship to the property?
Andrew Langsom. He is the equitable owner of the property subject to an agreement of sale.
Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Mr. Bolland, just for a point of information, you were here once before with this.
As you go through this, could you point out for the board the changes that have been made since last time?
Yes, we'll do.
That includes, you know, letters against, letters for, changes in numbers of parking spaces, etc.
Yes, of course.
Thank you very much.
I'm going to give you a brief summary, and then I'll take you to the presentation.
So we are here today on a variance for one refusal, which is that multifamily dwellings are not permitted in the ICMX zoning district.
This is a mixed -use project, which has 944 square feet of ground -fork commercial with 42 residential units.
And then we also have 37 parking spaces on the ground floor, a small loading zone just inside the garage, and this is a 38 -foot -tall building.
We're seeking a variance here due to the unique physical and topographical conditions that create a hardship to have any as -of -right use.
And I think the board will understand this once I walk them through the photographs.
There's also an economic hardship here as it would cost more to build.
There's also an economic hardship here, as it would cost more to build and as of right use, such as office, than it would rent for.
Schur's Lane here is a 26 -foot wide road, and you're seeing a rendering here, and there's no parking on our side of Schur's Lane.
There's only parking on the opposite side of the road.
And due to the narrow road, it is impossible to have large trucks access this site, as would be required for ICMX.
This property happens to be pretty narrow for an ICMX property.
It is 76 feet wide and 231 feet deep.
As you'll be able to see through the photographs, this is surrounded by, there's the towering septa tracks on the uphill side of the property.
and then the Little Woods property, there's tall walls that I'll show you on this downhill side as
well as the rear side. And this is also located off of the desirable Main Street, and it happens
to be on either bedrock or solid rock that's just under the surface, which makes underground
parking not economically feasible. The current use looking at the aerial images happens to be
a parking lot, but it's an illegal parking lot. The owner has not gotten a special exception that
would be required. And in any event, he only brings in $1 ,500 a month, which wouldn't even
cover a mortgage payment and taxes on this property. I'm going to be presenting the testimony
of the listing agent, Senior Vice President at Biswanger, Chris Pennington, who already submitted
a letter that was included in our presentation. And Mr. Pennington is going to testify about an
exhaustive nine -month search for an as -of -right tenant, which was something that both he and the
seller wanted because they didn't want this dragged out process. And he will also be here
to rebut the bold statements from the RCO stating that there is an unspecified as -of -right user.
And they will also rebut some statements that were made in a letter we got at about 3 a .m. today
from the RCO as well. Finally, Chris is going to testify that the reason he didn't get any
interest over this nine -month period when he marketed the property is because the economics
didn't work. No one was going to buy the property and be able to construct an all -new building for
a as -of -right use. The money wasn't there. It didn't make sense. The code requirements for
a hardship are met. And it's important to note the hardship here isn't one specific to, it's not
one just generally for Maniunk or generally for the city, this or one for ICMX. This is related
to the unique physical conditions of this property. And what we're seeking here is instead of having
100 % commercial or industrial, we're going to be engaging the street level. And I'll show you here
with my cursor there's going to be 944 square feet of commercial here on the ground floor
we're going to have that with three stories of residential units above and this this commercial
space was added after seeking input from the community late last year and as Mr. Chairman
already said we have the support from Councilman Curtis Jones we have the support of our only
immediate neighbor who are the Littlewoods who own the property that's an L that surrounds the
property. We have the support from Manionk's business development organization, which is the
Manionk Development Corporation. It's 21 member board voted to approve signing a letter of support.
And that board has three members from seven different parts of the business community.
There's the community at large, business at large, wellness and specialty, retail, restaurant, professional office industrial, as well as commercial office owners.
We also received the letter of support from the Manion Special Services District, whose board also voted to sign the letter of support.
we'll also walk you through the individual letters of support from a bunch of other
nearby business owners and also show you our petition that was signed by approximately 58
members of the maniunk community so going back to mr chairman's question there was a hearing back
in september of 2023 where the applicant sought a variance for 45 residential units and important
here's the difference here there wasn't any commercial we downscaled from 45 to 42
to. We were criticized at our RCO meeting there because there wasn't, they said there wasn't
sufficient evidence as to that we had tried hard enough to find anyone. We ended up bringing our
listing agent, Chris Pennington, to the zoning board hearing, but it was a little bit, you know,
too little too late. And we got, so we ended up getting a letter of opposition from the RCO the
week of that hearing. And again, we thought we had addressed that issue by bringing Mr. Pennington on.
And, again, we thought we had addressed that issue by bringing Mr. Pennington on to explain the nine months of efforts and why he thought that his efforts wouldn't result in finding a tenant.
We also did not have a letter of support from the councilman at the last CBA hearing.
We didn't even have a single letter of support from anyone.
We didn't go out and get any letters from anyone.
So that's another major difference here.
So in January of 2024, we submitted this new zoning application after my client went out, spoke with members of the community, and we subsequently had a meeting with the executive board of the RCO Maniunk Neighborhood Council.
And we made more changes to the plans to to change the way the entrance was internally.
We added this truck parking inside and we addressed a number of other concerns about measurements and other design issues.
so after the RCO meeting we ended up getting a letter of opposition back in April that listed
that there were 16 non -near neighbors that were that were members of the RCO and two other non -near
neighbors who voted in opposition and I think there were two that actually stayed on the vote
in favor but this opposition we will show you that this opposition it doesn't represent the
community here, the immediate neighbors. This opposition was for non -near neighbors. All of
our neighbors here are commercial. And we've gone out and we've gotten the letters of support
from our immediate neighbors. And we will also be presenting evidence here today from our design
team, our engineer, our architect, our listing agent, the developer, as well as these letters
of overwhelming support.
So I'm going to just take the board briefly
through the table of contents of the documents
I'm going to walk everyone through today.
Mr. Bolin, I have a question.
How long do you think this is going to take?
I'm hoping a half hour total with our,
because we have three witnesses.
You have three witnesses too?
We have three witnesses.
I understand a member of the community
that wanted to testify has a hard stop at 345 all right all right come on please okay please
proceed then okay um the the first item i'm going to walk you through are the 3d renderings i already
showed you one page of those i'll also take you through the refusal and then most importantly
all the photographs and the aerial images i'll take you through the rco one and one of you
one of you start one of you starting start right from the top okay so here's the 3d rendering um
that everyone has already seen here. So pretty simple. We have the garage opening, a ramp coming
in. You can see there's a significant hill here. You can see how high the, and there's some better
images our design professionals will take you through, but you can see we have the railroad
tracks right here that make this just a tricky site. Let me show you another image that just
gives you a little bit more perspective so this is zoomed out and as you'll see where my cursor
is in the bottom left that is main street there that's main street um along there and and we're
this big building that that that is right here the four -story building and our neighbor the
little woods is this l -shaped building um in front of us then we have the refusal which again
is only because of the multifamily use. And then most importantly, I'm going to walk you through
these photographs. So just to orient everyone here, right here where my cursor is, is Main Street,
and we're on Schur's Lane. And the septa tracks are just behind us, and our property here is
in purple. It's actually a complete rectangle. The next image here is just zoomed up a little
bit more here. You can see this is the illegal parking I had referenced before. And this property
historically, there's a railroad spur that went across here and it was used, they dumped coal
here. Coal storage and then later on building storage supplies. And there's a dilapidated
building here in the front that needs to go. Here's just another perspective of it. You can
see here um on the top of the screen we have the very kind of imposing walls here of the septo
railroad tracks the next image this is just same thing it just zoomed in a little bit just to
understand and and all of these um support posts will be eliminated um which the railroad tracks
were on. Here's just another image where you can see the Littlewood. This is the Littlewood
Dye Works factory behind us. So you can see if you follow my cursor, there's some very
dye works factory behind us so you can see if you follow my cursor there's some very
tall imposing walls along the side and then the rear and there's also some tanks here
next photo again this is the dilapidated building in the front
here's just a shot of the entryway it's a very narrow driveway and we have this old facade here
again this is just looking straight down the driveway just to give you a little bit of
perspective here's another close -up of the dilapidated building letting you you see
exactly where the railroad tracks are and I have a couple more images here this is looking up
Schur's Lane from Main Street that gives you a little bit of a perspective as to the hill
another image and as you can see here there's no parking on our side of the street there is on the
other side next image again just just showing you the the imposing railroad tracks the hill
here's an image that is taken um from the top of our property looking down to main street down to
the Schuylkill down below, just to understand this is a steep hill where you don't want
trucks parking. And in fact, you know, there's nowhere to have a truck stop on this side of the
road because there's nowhere for a loading zone. Here's some more images. Here's just another image
looking straight back from the entrance letting you understand what the little wood looks like
another one looking straight back you can see the large towers i think we're seeing this
pretty well i mean okay um yep we've got we've got the
Yeah, the power lines. Right. Imposing over this.
So we received a letter of opposition from the RCO back in approximately September in the fall when we first came to the board.
And again, this the letter is here. We had about the same number of votes.
and the letter in essence said that they that we hadn't established at the RCO meeting any evidence
as to the efforts and in fact we really hadn't presented our listing agent we subsequently did
that before the board the next exhibit here is the letter of opposition for this here
and in this letter of opposition again we have a similar vote we have a few attendees here that
voted in favor of us. And in this letter, the RCO complains that they believe, again,
that this property should be developed as commercial. They don't say why. They don't
say what it should be. They don't present any evidence. And they also complain that
950 square feet of commercial just wasn't enough to address their concerns.
so now i'm going to call my first witness um dennis dennis if you can raise your hand please
dennis has the spot to speak dennis works for the real estate office is that
i'm sorry dennis is um he's with um ruggiero plant um the the engineers okay thank you sir
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer sure it's dennis kurek d -e -n -n -i -s
k -u -r -e -k and i'm with regiro plant land design right sure do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel and and dennis i think you
already did so but can you explain what your connection is to this project and your training
and experience we're this we're the civil engineers for the project got it what can you
tell me about how this site location limits the ability to have commercial and industrial uses?
Well, for access for larger delivery trucks or access for delivery trucks for your larger
commercial or industrial use, with Schur's Lane being a fairly narrow 26 -foot wide cartway
And the lot itself being a very narrow 76 and change width, you would not be able to maneuver or get any large delivery vehicles onto the site that you would need for any type of larger industrial or commercial space.
And you agree that there's also no parking on this side of Schur's Lane that we could utilize in the street?
Correct. The parking that's provided on Schur's is on the opposite side of the street. There's no parking in front of our property.
Correct. The parking that's provided on Schur's is on the opposite side of the street.
There's no park.
And in Schur's Lane, is this a steep hill where the property is located?
Yes, it's a steep incline up from Main Street.
Okay. So is it fair to say that the unique qualities of this property make it not suitable for the commercial and industrial uses that require trucks?
Yes. We would not be able to have any trucks maneuver on the site. So then you're talking about the only availability would be having trucks either shut down Schur's Lane for loading or pull on, head on and back out, which would not be a good safety issue that would arise from that.
and the rco had said it's at at some point in one of their letters they had complained why don't you
just tear down this old facade and and then you won't have an issue with parking um with access
with trucks if you tore down the existing building and facade and didn't save it is that going to
alleviate the issues with truck access to the site no the issue is the width of the property
The 76 feet wide, your smaller delivery trucks that any type of sizable commercial element would need are WB -30 and that would not, you wouldn't have the space to maneuver.
Terrific. Thank you, Dennis. If Chris Pennington can raise his hand. He's the commercial real estate broker.
Yeah, sure. He testified last time, right?
That's correct.
they haven't allowed to speak
Mr. Pennington could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure it's Chris Pennington
C -H -R -I -S
P -E -N -N -I -N -G -T -O -N
you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
please proceed counsel
Chris did you draft a letter and sign it for me last week
that I submitted to the board
I did yes
And are the statements there true and correct and you'd adopt them as your testimony?
Can you just briefly give the board a little bit of background about your experience in commercial real estate specific to Philadelphia and Maniunk as well?
I'm a senior vice president and partner at the Binzo Anger Company.
I've been selling real estate for 21 years, have completed over a thousand transaction transactions for about a four billion dollar volume and have done a number of different transactions in the Maniunk area area and surrounding areas in the greater Philadelphia market as well.
And is it accurate that you've testified before this board about a dozen times?
And were you retained by the owner of this property in March of 2021?
Yes, I was.
And is it correct that the owner of the property entered into a contract with Andrew Langsom in November of 2021?
So that means that this property was on the market for about nine months. Is that right?
Yes, it was.
What can you tell me about the marketing efforts you engaged in with this property?
As we discussed before, and like all properties that we handle in the greater Philadelphia market, we gather all of the property information and create marketing materials that we distribute to prospective buyers.
We send that out to our proprietary list of, in this case, end users and those groups that could use the property for what it is and conform with zoning.
We place it on our Binswanger website, on CoStar and on LoopNet, and we send it out to all of the brokers that are very active in our marketplace.
And did you want to find a conforming use here under the code or were you looking for a use that required a variance?
Yeah, the goal of the seller here was to find somebody to purchase the property as a end user.
So we would not have to go through any of the variance proceedings that we're in now.
That was that was the from the outset of this. That was the goal.
And is that the goal for the owner as well as you, because it benefits both of you financially to sell it quickly?
Well, I mean, as a commercial real estate broker, we get paid when we close things.
So, yeah, that would be beneficial if we could sell quickly.
And did the seller here only enter into the purchase agreement with Andy Langsam once you determined that you had exhausted the reasonable efforts to find an as -of -right user?
And when marketing this property, what were some of the unique attributes of the property that impacted the ability to find an as -of -right user?
that impacted the ability to find an as -of -right user?
Well, we've already...
Well, we've already made mention of a lot of them.
The ability to get delivery trucks of any kind into this location,
whether it be for a commercial or an industrial use,
is severely hampered by the length of the property.
In conjunction with the fact that it's up a hill,
there's very little parking,
and a number of the different macroeconomic factors that go into the development of this site
and building a building led us to Andy.
Okay. And everything that Dennis talked about as far as site challenges,
were those things that made it impossible to find an As -of -Right user?
and did you in fact market this to every single um icmx as a right user that you could find
yeah i mean we we when we go through a marketing process we study the code look at icmx and see
people that can have direct utility of this property in this instance it would be business
offices, professional offices, self -storage, mixed -use, artisan studios, wholesale sales
distribution, and a number of other different types of uses that would be allowable by code.
And did you make specific efforts to try and find a self -storage user?
We did. We've done a number of different transactions all over the City of Philadelphia
offer for self -storage. We thought that given the proximity to Main Street, that that could be an
opportunity for a self -storage developer to go there and construct a building by right.
And what else can you tell me about the vacancies for commercial spaces on Main Street and how that
affected the marketing of this property? Well, there's still a number of different vacancies
all up and down Main Street from a retail slash commercial standpoint.
And they're a much more viable location.
A lot of them have parking on both sides of the street.
They're existing buildings.
In our case, if we were to go commercial or industrial in conformance with ICMX,
we would have to construct a building where interest rates were and are now
with a cost of construction.
It's very prohibitive to build that building when you have so many different other options that are standing available for lease as well.
And did you perform an analysis to confirm that, in fact, it would be cross -prohibitive to build a new building here for commercial or industrial use?
Yeah, we had our construction management group and property management group take a look at it.
If you were to construct, let's just say, a 5 ,000 square foot building on this location with the cost of construction site work, all I need probably be somewhere at around $175 to $200 a square foot.
But when you combine that with the cost to acquire the land as well, I think that it's just tremendously onerous on any type of user to spend that much money when you could perhaps lease a building down the street on Main Street for a lot less.
When you run calculations on a pro forma, if an investor or developer were building this building, you'd probably have to rent it out for like $40 a square foot, which is not market for Manio.
So I think that's called it.
If you're an end user as well, you've got to lease it to yourself and go find financing.
And those type of things are difficult right now to swallow when we're 600 basis points higher than when we started with introverts.
So, I mean, so just to summarize what I've heard from you then, you engage in exhaustive efforts and they failed, but you don't believe that you would have been able to rent this property anyway. Is that right? Or sell it?
Yeah, I think that for all those macroeconomic factors and where we are overall in the Manny Young market and greater Philadelphia commercial office slash retail market, the state of that right now is very uncertain.
And I think that for all those reasons, we led us to put this under agreement with Andrew.
And I wanted to clarify one point just to rebut exactly what the RCO had said in one of its letters.
Counsel, we need you to wrap this up.
It's getting a little too long, Counsel.
Yeah, it's. You've been on here for almost 40 minutes. You got it. You got to wrap it up.
Yeah, it's.
You've been on here for almost 40 minutes.
You got it.
You got it.
OK, we will we will speed this along.
Got two more minutes. You got two more minutes, sir. You got to move on.
We got other cases and other folks are in line.
I will call our our next witness then.
Who's next witness?
our next witness will be um you know what let me call uh brian brian corkidillas he's not my
witness but i understand he has a hard stop and i wanted him to have a who's witness is he he's a
member of the community that that was just texting say saying he has a hard stop and he wanted to be
to testify okay but you you it'll be if he's in favor of the project right he's in favor yes
all right bring him on please brian brian has been allowed to speak all right sir could you
please state your name and spell for the stenographer sure uh brian cork delis uh b -r -i -a -n
last name cork delis c -o -r -c -o -d -i -l -o -s you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth. I do. Please proceed, counsel. Yeah, Brian, I don't have any questions
for you, but if you can just explain to the board why you support this project, I'd appreciate it.
Yeah, sure. First, I'll start as almost a near neighbor here. I own a property at 4100 Main
Street, which is roughly about 120 feet from here. Just from the standpoint of being a near neighbor,
this property right now is currently used as an illegal parking lot where people park overnight.
Um, just from a safety concern, I just wanted to bring up back in October of 2023, there was an incident at the corner of Schurz and Main Street, uh, involving BB guns with college students.
Um, just being a member of community who I talked to, uh, I was told that these BBs had a high likely chance that they came from the abandoned building on that site.
Um, so realistically, I want to see something done with that site.
Honestly, I'd like to see a property close to the Main Street corridor that is usable by residents and has commercial activity, not just to those that park overnight.
And safety is number one priority.
I don't want abandoned buildings close to the Main Street corridor.
As a commercial property owner, I can also speak to the hardship of just finding large commercial tenants at the moment that are willing to invest their businesses given the economic factors here.
I know Mr. Langston's site, I drive by it every day to and from the office.
Uh, it's just a challenge. You can't pull trucks in there. Uh, you know, obviously you could pull
smaller stuff like Amazon deliveries, but you know, you're not pulling an 18 wheeler in there.
You'll be backing up traffic. Um, I also don't want to see it become a large facility, a large
storage facility. We have enough of those in main street on either end of the corridor down on
Leverington. We have a storage facility and also on the other side of main street, we have a storage
facility. I know that's a buy, right use. I do not want to see that there at the corner of main
Street. I can also assure you that those large commercial spaces that are over 2 ,000 square feet
are just hard to rent at the moment. There's a plethora of vacancies on Main Street. But I also
think the small commercial that Langston is proposing, that 900 square foot, is actually
viable. As a commercial business owner right across the street there, I'm renting out to
small mom and pop businesses. I don't foresee that additional 42 units here is going to be
detrimental to our community as a whole. I see it as 45 to 55 patrons showing support
for local mom and pop businesses and retail and restaurants on Main Street. They may even visit
a mom and pop business in my building called Inspired Movements, who's a 600 square foot
Pilates studio run by a woman named Adrienne that these tenants are going to go to. I'd also like
to touch on the moment of a board member of Manioc Development Corp. I know a letter of support was
granted for this project, specifically because Mr. Langston added commercial to this project.
For the NBC, our mission is to improve the commercial corridor. We see this as a potential
spot where someone could get out of the gate as a business here in 900 square feet and potentially
move to a larger space on the corridor itself. So I believe it definitely supports the business as
a hole in the business corridor. And just again, you know, as a business owner, I employ over 100
employees on Main Street between my businesses. I run multiple businesses. I can assure you that
we do have a housing shortage in the city. And I believe that we also need additional options for
housing to employ my employees as well as others in the city. What I like, and lastly, what I like
about Main Street is proximity to live and work here. You know, residential buildings and small
businesses make Maniunk the best places to live, work, and play. I personally believe that Andy's
project contributes to most of those here from a live and work standpoint, and I personally support it.
to most of those here from a live and work standpoint, and I personally support it in my
capacity. Thank you. Thank you. I want to call my client to adopt my testimony and add a couple
small points. Okay. Let me ask this. Do you have any other people after that? Are you done?
I had my architect here if we wanted to walk through the plans, but it doesn't sound like
we have the time for that, so I'm going to skip past him, unless the board would like me to walk
the architect. No, no, please. I mean, I think you went over that. Fine. Why don't you bring
your client on and adopt your testimony? Andy Langsam, raise your hand, please.
Andrew has been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, Andrew Langsam, A -N -D -R -E -W, Langsam, L -A -N -G -S -A -M.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Yeah. Andy, can you just in 10 seconds tell the board your experience with developing multifamily in Manion?
Yes. Just real quick. I've been developing multifamily here for the past 10 years.
I've completed four successful multifamily projects in the area.
And this site was a site that I really liked and really felt that we could create a quality project.
One of the things that I wanted to share just very quickly here is that, you know, when we were going through this project, the first time we presented it, we presented it at 45 units.
We didn't really do a great job reaching out to the community.
That's why this time around, we really actually spent time in the community.
We went back to the RCO.
We went back to the MDC.
We went to the MSSD.
We spoke with all the neighbors to really kind of get people's feedback.
After we did all that, we really understood that people wanted a commercial aspect.
Everybody that I spoke to was happy to have the multifamily piece, but all they stated
was they really wanted to have the commercial.
So with that being said, we went back and we reduced the number of multifamily units
from 45 to 43 and added the commercial space.
And I just created some numbers to put together.
So Andrew, just so you know, we've had testimony about that.
We've heard about the commercial space.
We understand that you went back.
We understand the first time, you know, maybe you could have done better and where you stand now.
So I think what we need to do is get the testimony adopted.
Andy, let me get the testimony adopted and have you confirm that this is the least relief under the zoning code.
Andy, did you hear the statements I made?
Are they true, correct, and accurate?
And did you adopt them as your own?
And I wanted to just touch upon your, did you engage in a financial analysis that concluded
that 42 residential units is the least number of units you could have here?
Yes, I did.
Can you just share your conclusions with the board very briefly, like 10 seconds?
Yeah, just very quickly, total project cost was about $10 .1 million.
We were going to use a construction loan at around $7 .5 million, an interest rate of $8 .25
with our annual debt service and operating expenses.
we came up with a debt service coverage ratio of 1 .2, which was the minimum allowable by our bank
to finance this project. And Andy, can you also confirm that you and I reviewed the zoning records
and that a variance was granted for an ICMX property in about the year 2020 at the property
at 3811 Main Street for 36 commercial units with five, sorry, 36 residential units with five
commercial on the ground floor. Is that right? Yes, that is correct. And that property was a
little bit different because it had a very large street. But counsel, what's that got to do with
this property here? Just that this isn't going to be changing the ICMX zoning district here.
The next immediate property down had a variance grant. That's all. I understand it. All right.
Are you are you done with the year, your honor? Yes, I was going to have him. I mean, I'll just obviously introduce us all into evidence. I assume the board doesn't want him to walk you through the letters of support that we've submitted.
I think I went over most of them when I started. I talked about that. But the one with 58 people. I mean, we have a copy of it. I don't I don't think we need that.
Okay. That's all I have as far as witnesses. I understand there might be some other members of the community that we're going to possibly participate.
So, questions from the board?
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
I'm not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience and people who intend to testify, please raise your hand and give me a count of how many people we have.
who intend to testify please raise your hand and and give me a count of how many people we have
here we have five hands raised sean has been allowed to speak first okay thank you
sean thank you could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Sean McGranahan, S -E -A -N -M -C -G -R -A -N -A -G -H -A -N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Sean, are you for or against the project?
I am for the project.
And could you shortly give us a quick, brief why?
I'm a resident of Maniunk.
I live directly across the street at 10 Shares Lane in the Station Mill building.
I work in Maniunk.
I love Maniunk.
I think it's a great development for Manioc.
I don't like seeing the crime in the eyesore that is that project right there.
I really think that this would be a really good project for Manioc.
It would bring more people to Manioc and help elevate the businesses.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us.
We appreciate it.
Give me the next person, please.
Kevin Smith has been allowed to speak.
Kevin, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
for kevin smith um k -e -v -i -n -s -m -i -t -h uh president of manioc neighborhood council
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do kevin are you for or against this project i'm against this project
as representing as representing the manioc neighborhood council so um hold on one minute
We have two different letters from you about how you're against it.
Is there anything different you can tell us than the letters we have?
My intention was to highlight some aspects of the letters that might not be apparent.
But I'm saying we have two different letters from your group already.
um my testimony would be would primarily be related to the second letter
rebutting many of the claims that the applicant has made today and in their application we we
have those what you want to rebut we have everything you've said then i'll just offer
of course the minimum variance for this property would be a special exception to legalize the
parking. And otherwise, this application has no material difference from the previous one.
Devin, we appreciate your comments and we appreciate the letters you sent us. Next person, please.
Jordan has been allowed to speak. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court
stenographer? Hi, my name is Jordan Abrams. That's J -O -R -D -A -N -A -B -R -A -M -S. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Mr. Abrams, are you for or
against this project? I am in support of the project. Thank you very much. Is there any
reason that you haven't heard yet that you can give us? The only thing I would add is there is
a project similar to this at 140 Green Lane, the opposite end of Main Street, that this is near
identical to, that this board supported in 2015. Thank you very much, Mr. Abrams. We appreciate
that. Next hand, please. Mark has been allowed to speak. Hi, sir. Could you state your name and
spell for the court stenographer? Mark Wildstein, M -A -R -K -W -I -L -D -S -T -E -I -N. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Are you for or against this project?
I am for the project. And is there any reason you give us other than what you've heard?
I have watched what Andrew has done over the last 10 years in Maniunk. And I can only say that the quality and the detail that he goes to in building and creating living space for people is incomparable.
I own a property next door to one that he did on Terrace Street on the 3800 block.
There were some problems, which he addressed immediately and efficiently.
And the quality of the building and the quality of the tenants that he puts in the building are superb.
Thank you very much.
Complete support.
We appreciate you taking the time.
We have one more hand.
Yes, Chair.
the last hand john hunter has been allowed to speak hi mr hunter um could you state your name
is spelled for the court stenographer yes it's uh john hunter j -o -h -n -h -u -n -t -e -r
i know you are do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do a member of your organization has already testified am i correct
Um, that's correct. Yes.
um that's correct yes okay is there any i obviously you're you're not in favor
Okay. Is there any, I, obviously you're, you're not in favor of the project.
Correct.
Is there any reason you give us besides what's written in the two letters and what Kevin said?
Um, I, I think we just have to stress that, um, this is the, uh, the original, um, hearing that was had in, in September, which was followed up by a request for reconsideration.
And here we are eight months later with a second application, which is incredibly similar to the to the first one.
It seems to us that it's inevitable that this case, whichever way it's decided, will be pursued further.
And therefore, we want the right to place our testimony that could be on the record.
Well, I think your testimony, listen to me, listen to me. You've got two letters already. We've heard from Kevin. We know you're against it. And there's nothing that you can tell us now that we don't already know.
Okay, well, let me tell you something that has not been mentioned about the quality of the commercial space, which seems to be critical to some people. The commercial space is around 900 square feet. That's 900 square feet on a floor plate of the site, which is 18 ,000 square feet. It's a minuscule amount.
It's also because it's jammed underneath the second and third floors of the residential units.
It's a floor to floor of only nine foot six.
That would mean that the interior height of the building would be about eight feet.
It's not a good commercial space.
It's not an attractive commercial space.
I'd also like to point out that the descriptions of the uses that Mr. Pennington would consider,
which he gave a list of towards the end of his testimony none of them included large trucks there
were things like designers there were other parts of of uses which could be done with small um
vehicles if anything and deliveries all right so mr hunter we appreciate your comments
we know where you stand and we know where your group stands um planning commission
this is ron bednar city planning
the comprehensive plan recommends no change the existing industrial commercial mixed use zoning
at this location the applicant's um the applicant's property is located in a historic
industrial section of manioc and has traditionally and has transitioned to residential and mixed use
The proposed use is consistent with nearby recently undeveloped properties, and proposed bulk and height at 38 feet is in character with the surrounding neighborhood.
Therefore, the City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
Thank you.
Mr. Bowen, we thank you for your presentation.
We're going to vote on this next Wednesday at 2 p .m.
I'm going to take this back to the executive session, but we will be ready to vote on this
at 2 p .m., sir.
Thank you for everyone's time.
And thank you for trying to speed it up for us.
We appreciate it.
My pleasure.
Thank you.
And, Mr. Chair, the record is closed.
The record is closed, other than our bill.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the 330 list whose case has not been called?
The 2 o 'clock, Chair.
2 o 'clock.
I've got 330 on my list, ish.
I see no hands.
We're going to take a five -minute break, and we're going to go right to the 3 .30 list.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the ZBA hearings for the 3 .30 list.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holliman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and Tanya Sunkett, our executive vice president.
Here's our virtual format.
The proceedings are being recorded.
With your participation, you agree to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phil .gov.
For our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267 -270 -5548.
Leave your email address and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
To our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken, let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2023 -003 -305 -8085 Rowland Avenue.
That case is being continued.
Number six, MI 2023 -004 -271 -566 Centner Street.
that case has been continued. And number seven, MI2024 -000259 -5131 Woodland Avenue,
that case has been continued. Are there any other requests for continuance?
Yes, Chair, we have a hand up by the name of Tracy Soller, and they have been allowed to speak.
I could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Tracy Soller
T -R -A -C -Y
S as in Sam
A -U -L -E -R
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth
the whole truth is nothing but the truth?
What case do you want to talk about?
The case number is
ZP 2023
What's the address?
What's the address?
5131 Woodland Avenue
that's number seven mr chair we just continued it so i i we continued that
we your lawyer called and asked us to continue it yes you're the attorney you're the attorney
okay thank you which case is continuing
chair we also have a hand up by the name of tyrone williams and they have been allowed to speak
reverend you reverend reverend you've already been sworn just state your name for the record
yes uh tyrone williams in what case do you want to talk about sir uh 3214 west montgomery
um i thought they would uh continue this case to give us um a chance to talk some more about it
uh as a community as they did not end up wait wait hold up hold up hold up one minute so
that was the last in the last hearing and i continued that
well it did get continued i didn't hear that sir yeah yeah am i right hillary
that is correct mr chair thank you very much mr chair sure thank you i don't think there's no
more for strawberry man thank you oh thank you i appreciate it
And number three, MI 2023 -003 -526 -4331, Frankfurt Avenue.
David Chandler was the attorney.
This is the second listing.
We have no exhibits.
Is Mr. Chandler here?
David Chandler, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Mr. Chair, we received correspondence from Mr. Chandler.
today that the applicant intends to withdraw this matter. We advise him to either appear to
withdraw on the record or submit a letter. We have not received a letter yet, and it does not appear
he is here today. All right, so thank you. So MI 2023 -003 -526 -4331 Frankfurt Avenue.
We will continue this. It will be marked, must be heard. We will dispose of this case the next
time we bring it up. Thank you. So we're going to start with number two, MI 2023, 003 -523 -5530
Acela Street, building 108 -3808. Kathleen and Christopher Palmier are the owners.
this is a pro se good afternoon who's going to which one of you will do the testimony
i will okay thank you could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes kathleen palmier k -a -t -h -l -e -e -n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth, nothing but the truth. I affirm. Okay. So this application is for the relocation
of lot lines to create two lots, premises A and premises B from one lot, 5530 to 32,
a seller street for the existing detached structure to be split into two semi -detached
structures for use as single family household living on each lot. The proposed lot adjustment
is insufficient minimum lot area for both new lots.
A minimum lot area of 1 ,440 square feet is required
A 1440 square feet is required, and 771 feet and 971 square feet are proposed respectively.
and 771 feet and 90.
The required side yard width in the RSA 7 zoning district, RS 5 zoning district, is 5 feet, whereas the side yard width here is 3 feet proposed for premises A.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you, okay?
Good afternoon.
have you 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 please proceed and share your screen
mr chair i just want to note for the record because the information came in later we did
receive a letter of support from the rco the 12th ward rco and council member bass has also
taken a position of non -opposition. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Please proceed, Kathleen.
So am I able to share a screen? We want you to share the screen right now. Okay. So
should be the green on the bottom. It says share screen. Yes. And I'll share now. Thank you. Thank
it's coming up that's good yep thank you all for your patience um this is um 5530 and excuse me
5530 -5532 osceola street philadelphia pa19144 it's off of locust avenue in germantown east
germantown and it is um the a dead end street you can see if you can see my cursor here yeah
yeah um there are one two three four five six seven eight um street uh houses on this street
of similar size. These were built as separate units 100 plus years ago. I'm appealing to the
ZBA to allow me to redraw the lot lines. This is the lot line. And I'm appealing to have the lot
line drawn in accordance with the partition wall that's always been there for the purpose of selling
one of the semi -detached premises, this one here. And I do have a photo of it here.
I want to show us a photo of the front of it.
Okay. Let's see. Sorry, I'm a little clunky with finding my tabs all of a sudden.
where are they oh they're there this one okay um here is the photo of the front okay oh i see so
that's um the car indicates in the is the direction of locust avenue which connects to
osceola street you make a left off osceola street and you come up 5530 5532 are the first and second
on your right as you come up Osceola Street.
The sidewalks, separate entries,
they each have their own city service hookups,
water, sewer, electricity, gas,
and have functioned as separate homes
since their construction.
And as they said, we were approved by the local RCO
at a meeting a month ago.
anyway um we have other exhibits let's see can i just do that
so they're sweet we call them one and a half bedroom muse this is an aerial view i have a
few of these drawings i'll see how well they'll render if i if i um so right now they're there's
they're they're separate now right separate homes they are they always have been and what you're
to do is just get it straight with and right and here's the tricky bit um it's one lot with two
homes on it i understand and we have a tenant who would like to buy his side and lo and behold oh
my goodness we found out a year ago um it's been we've come a long way in a year um but we did find
that although, of course, set up to divide, we need to actually divide the lot in two.
we need to actually divide the lot into and the here we are today with doing so so so i i think
And here we are.
we understand it you've showed us the photos you went to the rco the rco has written a letter in
your favor yes right and also the council person is reacting to the rco and she is in your favor
correct okay so why don't we do this why don't i have questions from the board okay
questions from the board no chair no mr chairman questions or comments from our attorney hillary
emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands planning commission it's uh run bednar city planning the property is indicated
for residential on the city plan given the site's history and its existing physical conditions we
recommend the request of variance be granted thank you so mi2023 003 523 5530 oscillate street
Building 108 -3808
I vote yes
Thomas Holloman
My vote is yes
James Snell
My vote is yes
Ishmael Shahid
My vote is yes
You have your vote
Thank you so much
Thank you for your time
All of you and for your patience
That's fine, thank you
Number four
MI 2023 -003 -566 -337
North Front Street.
James Quinlan is the attorney.
There's a letter of non -opposition
from Central Delaware Advocacy Group
and a letter of non -opposition
from Council Member Squilla
and two foreign letters of support
from near neighbors.
Mr. Quinlan.
Hi, Mr. Quinlan. How are you, sir?
Could you unmute?
Unmute.
Got it. So, good afternoon.
Hi, good afternoon. Could you please state your name and spell it for the court sonographer?
Sure. James J. Quinlan, Q -U -I -N -L -A -N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
My client, my name is Carl Geiger.
He is the owner of the property at 337 North Front Street.
And our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to wait to read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you.
have you emailed in all the required documents and or exhibits uh that is needed to proceed
with this case five days in advance of this hearing i have thank you council please proceed
and share your screen thank you uh so this matter concerns um a a building uh located at um 337 north
Front Street. It front faces Front Street, and the rear of it faces Water Street. It's bound
by Cal Hill and Vine. Mr. Quillen, why don't you share your screen first? Sure.
Here you go.
uh is that can you see my screen we see your screen great so this property um as i'll bring
a picture up so to the left uh with the red door this is essentially this property it stands
four stories or four to five stories on front and on the back on water street is actually six
story is the way the property sinks down. So this unit has, this property has been owned by my
client since 2003. Since that time, it's been used with three residential apartments on front street
and in the rear, in the back, there's a commercial unit. My client, you know, the refusal here
relates to 14 -602 -1, which is a total dwelling space rejection. The unit on the first floor,
according to the footprint of the city, it only comes in at 660 feet, and the requirement is
according to the footprint of the city, it only comes in at 600.
1080. The second floor unit is about 775, and the third floor unit, which is a duplex or a
bi -level, is closer to 2 ,000 square feet. My client has used this property in this regard
since 2003 when bought, and we have three arguments in favor of our application. The
first is that when my client started, initially this property had two commercial units and two
residential, and in 2005 and 2006, as reflected in Exhibit A12, which is the L &I file, my client
applied to do some, you know, renovations to the property. And one of the renovations was to
convert the unit on the first floor into a commercial residential property, and also to
do some work on the third, the fifth floor deck at the top. And at that time, the permits were
reviewed by the city. There is signatures from a Richard Glazer and another gentleman
who reviewed the property, and ultimately, my client's zoning permits, not zoning, excuse me,
building permits were granted, and the work proceeded in that way. We did not become aware
until 2023 that despite the fact that there was L &I permits in the file to allow for the renovation,
there was a square footage issue with respect to the unit on the first floor.
We were not aware of it. We became aware of it, and hence, this process started.
it. So just to give a little bit of context, this is a pretty big building. The footprint is
generally 20 by 40. So really, the units on the first and second floor are closer to 800 square
feet. And again, the unit on the third floor would be closer to 1 ,600 square feet. So here's
apartment one. That's two pictures of apartment one. It's spacious, well done, well built. It
has had tenants for many years. Here's apartment two, and then apartment three is shown there.
Here are our zoning notices. We posted one on Water Street and one on Front Street.
So our arguments are, as I said, threefold. First, the property has been used in this regard
um as a as a residential at three residential properties since 2003 um the city you know
issued permits i strike that the property was used as three residential properties starting in 2005
when permits were issued to remodel the office on the first floor um so you know that work has been
done and there's been no issues since then um secondly we uh we we applicant contends that
under, you know, the RM1 zoning code for mixed use, this property is consistent with what is in
the area, which is, you know, some commercial use on the first floor and then smaller apartments on
the second, third, and fourth floor, which is this property, just for everyone's context, is right
down by the river. And it sort of looks down onto the river where near where the Ben Franklin
Bridges. Third, we went through the process where we talked to the RCO. The RCO not only didn't
object, but their letter is telling and references that there was no objections in the audience,
is compliant with the neighborhood standards, and they're not aware of any issues and was in
support of the application. And fourth, as you mentioned, we did provide next door neighbors
letters of support there. Those letters are particularly relevant because if you look at
this picture, the property with the blue door, so it's right next door, the people who would be most
directly impacted by the fact that this three residential unit building, which has existed since
2005, you know, would be most impacted, they're right next door. And those individuals wrote in
letter saying that they did not object to the application.
Mr. Quinlan, there's also a letter that we received from
the council member, Squilla. My client did not
provide that. It's a letter of non -opposition from council member, Squilla.
He's reacting to what the RCO sent him.
That's great. And we appreciate the councilman's position
on that. So that's essentially it.
Why don't you bring your client on and have your testimony adopted?
I'm going to have him raise his hand.
Mr. Geiger?
Yes, sir.
Is he with you?
Yes, he is.
Can we see him on the screen?
Can we see him on the screen or? Fine. Mr. Geiger, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
My name is Carl Geiger, C -A -R -L, last name G -E -I -G -E -R.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Proceed, Mr. Quinlan.
Mr. Cogger, did you hear my presentation just now to the chairman and to the ZBA, the board for, did I just put forth?
Yes, sir.
And were the statements that I provided to the board accurate?
And if you were, you know, asked to, you know, give testimony, would you adopt what I presented to the board as your testimony here today?
Is that sufficient?
Thank you. Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission.
Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The property is currently indicated only for residential use under city plan,
given the site's physical conditions and its use history.
we recommend the request of variance to be granted.
Thank you.
MI 2023 -003 -566 -337 North Front Street.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Nell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Quinlan.
I conclude my business, may I be excused?
You certainly can.
Thank you.
So thank you, Mr. Geiger.
Number five, MI 2023 -003 -577 -1007 East Hoarder Street.
The owner applicant is Chantal Samuels.
Letter of unanimous opposition from the 50th Ward RCO.
Ms. Samuels.
Ms. Samuels is coming back in as a panelist now.
Okay, I'm sorry.
Hi, Ms. Samuels.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Chantal Samuels.
It's C -H -A -N -T -O -L.
Last name.
Go ahead.
S -A -M -U -E -L -S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Affirmed.
Okay, so this application is for use as a personal care home in an existing structure.
The proposed use personal care home requires special exception approval in the RSA -3 zoning district.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, ma 'am.
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 thank you please proceed and share your screen okay just one
green button at the bottom okay i found it
Hello?
I've never done this on Zoom before.
I apologize.
So you got to put your documents up first and then share a screen.
All right.
Let me see if it works now.
Share.
Screen.
There we go.
Let's start now.
Can we see?
No, we can't see. We see you.
Oh, God.
Are you using a PC or a Mac?
You, you blanked out. Could you say it again, please?
We even lost her audio.
All right.
Ms. Samuels?
Yes. Can you hear me now?
Yeah, we can hear you. What kind of computer are you using?
I'm using my Chromebook.
I'm using my Chromebook.
Okay. So what you want to do is...
So what you want to do is stop sharing.
Cancel.
Open your documents and then start sharing again.
All right.
I did that.
there it goes here we go
I'm not sure if you can see it clearly
it looks kind of pixelated on my
so do you have a picture of your building
because we have all the forms
uh i do but i'm not it's not coming up on my end so i'm not sure if you can
see it can you see it and there's there's everything is just blurry
i yeah it's blurry for me too so i'm not sure okay um what's happening
but that was definitely in all the required paperwork um so so here here's what i think
we're going to have to do. We have a very long, we have a very, I can't continue to later because
we have a very long case. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to continue your case. You can call the
office and we'll try to see if we can't figure a way with our IT person and make sure that your
computer's set for the next time. And we'll try to get you, we'll try to get you back in as quick
as possible, but we're going to have to continue it today. Okay. Okay. No problem. Thank you so
No, no, no, thank you. So MI 2023 -003 -577 -1007 -East Quarter Street, the case has been continued. Thank you very much for working with us.
Number eight, MI 2023 -007 -020 -508 -14 Moore Street.
Darwin Beauvais
and Mr. Masters
Mr. Masters, could you state your name and spell it please for the court synopsis?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me this time?
I can, yep. Wonderful. All right, we're starting off good.
My name is Steve Masters, S -T -E -V -E -M -A -S -T -E -R -S, with the law firm of JustLaws.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Beauvais, you've already been sworn in.
Could you please just state your name for the record?
Darwin Beauvais, B -E -A -U -V, as in Victory, A -I -S, as in Sam.
Representing that.
All right. So I know Hillary's been in communication with both of you. We're looking for 30 minutes for additional witnesses with the Protestants, and then we're going to take public testimony, but no more than an hour. So it'll be 30 minutes and then 30 minutes, okay?
All right. So to start. So, Mr. Masters, you gave us a motion to strike John Disley's testimony. Is that correct?
That's correct.
Okay. So the protestant's motion to strike the record of John Disley's testimony in the letter from the Dickinson Square Civic Association is denied. The board will access the weight and credibility of Mr. Disley's testimony and the RCO's letter in light of all the evidence and testimony that is part of the record in this matter.
Did you hear that, Darwin?
Okay. And I understand where we are in this. Christopher Nevin, who was Darwin's, was Mr. Masters' witness, will be crossed by Darwin. Is that correct?
Christopher Nevin, please.
They have been allowed to speak.
Mr. Nevin, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Christopher Nevin, C -H -R -I -S -T -O -P -H -E -R -N -E -V -I -N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Bovee has several questions for you, sir.
Mr. Beauvais has several questions for you, sir.
If I can share my screen.
Can you see this letter?
Do you remember ever seeing this letter?
Okay. And what date? Do you remember the date of the letter? Or you can obviously say it was sent in December.
Yeah, I got it. I would say that first week in January or last week in December, something like that.
All right. So I would also bring the court's attention or bring your attention to, I believe, your petition.
This is what you sent out, correct?
I guess I'm just a little bit curious as to the questions that you asked.
I believe this column here, you said, were you aware of this project?
Yeah, like I said, sorry, go ahead.
Why would you tell people if they were aware of the project?
And even you are saying you weren't aware of the project when you got notice of the letter.
yeah so like i said last time i know it was a bit ambiguous because i was looking to communicate
my intention of this petition mainly was from mr disley's testimony saying hey i went out i
communicated with people i knocked on doors and all this and i from what i was trying to express
was yes i was aware that there was going to be an rco meeting but no awareness of what the details
of the project was well isn't that the purpose of the letter for you to give you notice so you
can come and find out uh so my other question is uh i notice it looks like i'm assuming right now
so this is my question and i'm assuming this because you're the first signator on this it
it looks like you wrote like 90 % of this,
of the addresses and names, is that correct?
I wrote the names, yeah, and then let them,
and then I wrote basically, let me say,
yeah, the addresses and print it and names,
and then gave it to the person to say,
went through the questions with the person to sign off on.
so everyone so i just want to go over
this is a letter of sort of proof of mailing certificates of mailing and in the interest of
time mr chair i'm not sure where darwin is going with this but he's taking up a lot of the time
that has been allocated to objectors and it doesn't appear to be i have the right to cross
but he's not crossing he's not he's not both you listen listen darwin i understand you have
a right to cross i i think it's an honest question tell us where you're going with it
unmute please
yeah just let us know where you're going with it i mean yeah i know you have the right to cross
but let's give me an idea where you're going. So I believe that Mr. Nevins wasn't clear enough
to all the petitions. Okay. This first question here says, were you aware, he writes the answer
and then he solicits a signature. So, and I was taking step by steps, but if we can just cut to
So what is the estimate? Ask Mr. Nevin what he did there. That's all. Yeah. So, Mr. Nevin's right. It looks to me that you you did write these answers and then you spoke to the individuals for the signature.
No, that's definitely not what happened, but it's definitely not what happened.
All right. No other questions. Thank you very much. Steve, your next witness, please.
uh the next witness is going to be um sarita seni
okay and can we have a proffer
they have been allowed to speak um can i um elevate her to a panelist
they will be joining us as a panelist mr chairman can we have a proffer
we have a whole she has a powerpoint presentation that she's going to walk us through
okay um is she on hi this is Sarita hi Sarita could you state your name and spell for the
court sonographer sure Sarita Sini s -a -r -i -t -a
Sure. Sarita Sini, S -A -R -I -T -A -C -I -N -I.
Do you swear or from the tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Masters, could you let us know what this is going to be?
Yes. I'm going to share my screen.
And Nassini is going to describe various safety danger issues of the near neighborhood
and to why this facility, if it's not run properly, would be significantly harmful to the near neighbors.
And she's also going to go through other specific details and data that she has developed.
She is one of the near neighbors of this project.
I object. He had that opportunity to bring expert witnesses.
He did bring expert witnesses. So I have no I have I think this is completely out of bounds.
Yeah. So so Steve, answer that answer his protest first there.
uh this this um this information has been in our exhibit binder for many weeks now there's been no
objection filed by Mr. Beauvais to this and this is the testimony of a vulnerable people in the
vicinity of a vicinity of a facility is prima facie relevant and important for the board to
hear so that you understand what the situation is in this community we beyond what what the what
what the fancy buildings look like and, and what the,
what the drawings are from the architect for, for Mr.
Bovee, you, you are entitled. And we,
we must be able to present evidence to you.
So, so here, so, so, so Steve, this is where I want it to be.
I want her to give,
I don't want her to go point by point of all these differences,
just a sense that there's a problems in the neighborhood.
And then if she can find a way,
if she can to connect that with the new building and that would be it,
the new property.
Does that make sense? I don't want her to go each individual thing. If she says there's, she has a fear of the neighborhoods, there's problems in the neighborhood, that's fine.
And then if she can.
Mr. Chair, there's also some graphics that she wants to show that would help illustrate her point.
The graphic. Well, let's see what the graphics is first.
Well, can we just walk her through her presentation?
Yeah, please.
please okay all right um um the scene you can can uh can you put your video on so we see you
um i would prefer not to i'm sorry i wasn't oh no worries okay no worries okay um so uh can you
can you tell the board um what brought you um what what uh research you've done into this um
into this proposed facility to come up with the various data that you have in your PowerPoint.
Objection.
So, let her testify. Let her see. Let me see if she could connect it. If not,
I'll make a ruling. Let me see what it is first, okay?
With regards, yes, thank you. With regards to the research that was performed, it is
publicly available information from the United States Substance Use and Mental Health Services
Administration, as well as the Department of Drug and Alcohol Licensing. It's really directly in
response to some of the statements made by experts brought by the applicant, you know,
statements like there are no 3 .1 facilities in Philadelphia. This is research performed over
eight or so months um which gives me the feeling that the same amount of research and um seriousness
was not given by the applicant and so that's what I'd like to go through and also to assert that
the people that Mr. Masters represents do not oppose substance use disorder treatment centers
and it's very specific to this applicant this site um and that's what I'd like to go through
okay all right so the next slide um tell us what we are looking at with the next slide
sure so i felt it's necessary to tell a little bit about myself since from the very first rco
meeting on this matter neighbors have been questioned as if we're under review for this
application questions like who here has lived here longer than 10 years why have i never seen
you at an rco zoning matter before even though i joined and volunteered with the rco for six months
leading up to this project, I still could not get a straight answer on the RCO or applicant
on what valid experience they have to warrant this application before the community and
community and the zoning board asking for 56 -bed 3 .1 facility. I volunteered with the RCO because
the zoning board asking for 56 -bed 3 .1 facility.
I needed community and support after a second shooting occurred in front of my house. However,
the RCO is not the center of the universe, and having worked with neighbors on this matter for
months, it's insulting the way that the RCO and applicant have tried to invalidate the numerous
people who enrich the community in ways beyond the scope of the RCO. So that is that slide,
uh steve if we could just quickly um and to be clear i had in no way would i spend months
researching this project speaking with people in the community out of a fear of and bias of
people undergoing said treatment i voiced reasonable and clear concerns regarding this
specific applicant project community this zoning hearing is the only chance this community has to
express concerns about this project. There is no other procedure during licensure which
is open to public comment. The concerns are and always have been concerns with project size and
scope, applicants experience in sub treatment facilities, applicants practices throughout
the process, and the community's ability to absorb any failures and missteps by the applicant in
their operations. I have serious reservations about the RCO's due diligence in supporting
this project especially considering the neighbors concerns they um the actions appear biased towards
the developer and their approval rationale simply stating cba a cba from which the community and
neighbors were blocked from participating in razors further concerns the rco board threatened
residents like myself with legal action for asking normal questions related to this zoning procedure
and they attempted to cancel a meeting the community organized with the developer to get
additional clarity on the project. The absence of RCO elections in October of 2023, as required
in our RCO bylaws, adds to my apprehension regarding this matter before the ZBA. So I'd
like to just talk a little bit about what due diligence looks like, what I would have liked
to have had acknowledged by the applicant, the RCO, as we went through this process, acknowledging
United States Substance Use and Mental Health Service Administration in 2020 said 60 % of
for -profit sub -facilities are not this large. They have fewer than 15 clients, 60 % of them.
And then, Steve, if you could go to the next slide.
Acknowledging that most inpatient non -hospital facilities in Philadelphia are not this large.
The Department of Drug and Alcohol Licensing in the state of Pennsylvania, as of early 2024,
when this was pulled, we have 32 treatment centers, non -hospital, inpatient in Philadelphia.
Only five of those are over 50 beds. And if we could go to the next slide.
Acknowledging that for -profit status matters. So in 2024, the New Jersey State Commission,
other states have come to similar findings. Profits drive abuse in this industry. The
Commission's in -depth investigation into recovery industry revealed unchecked abuses by so -called
professionals, owners, and operators of addiction -related businesses who routinely engage in
corrupt practices that were more about making profits and promoting their own interests
and less about getting their clients clean and sober. Fraud, unethical conduct, and wrong.
So I think, Steve, I don't want to talk about general. Let's talk about this project here
and not like this general people committed crimes
in other places.
Well, I know, but I understand,
but I want to try to let her get back to the here,
where we are today.
So, Messini, can you, why are you talking
about for -profit, the problems of for -profit facilities?
How does that relate to this project?
Objection, right.
What are her implications?
Let's see if she can answer that.
So Michael Daly thought it was wise in January of this year to, while he was presenting this application to a community with above average poverty rate to be interviewed by Food & Wine about his time on yachts with billionaires.
He has introduced his daughter Bridget Daly as a leadership role in operations of this facility without providing any experience to support that.
The applicant has used SUD residents as unpaid pawns in the RCO CBA negotiations to provide unpaid labor to specific non -RCO organizations, which could be worth thousands of dollars if we're talking about full -time people being unpaid.
RCO and applicant discussed specific non -RCO organizations.
Bridget Daly in the 410 CBA hearing said businesses in the area, a kitchen and corner store not too far from the last community meeting.
so they've already discussed who that will be and then most shocking of all the late introduction of
So they've already discussed who that will be.
And then most shocking of all, the late introduction of Chris Devaney, former Chief Operations Officer of Community Connections, as Interim Director of Operations, who I guess would be training Bridget Daly in how to operate a facility.
And this is how investigators in the $15 million DOJ settlement described this program.
So, so, so.
Improperability.
Listen to me, listen to me.
So what she's saying here is she objects, am I right, to the person who was named as the interim head?
is that he's objecting to the lack of experience of literally every single person in the team
then that was gone over by our expert but there's but um but specifically um miss missini what
i'm sorry i didn't ask where you live and what your profession is i'm within the 250 foot um
radius my my profession is it analyst and as a in your professional career do you engage in
online research and online searching for for various uh various causes or various absolutely
when it comes to what i'm supposed to be an expert in um it's very important for me to do
research of all types and say you know on top of constantly changing um information around
and i and i i appreciate that but we want to just concentrate on more street um so we're looking at
some some images now of do these have have what's the what's what are we looking at in these photos
and what's the relevance to this project so these are shootings in 2020 2021 all within the vicinity
of my home and the so so so so we're not going to let that in Steve I mean I understand she's saying
there's issues in the neighborhood but i i think i think shootings four years ago may not be
relevant and i understand she's affected by it but we can't do all this we have we have more
recent ones mr sheriff okay right within within the past year um we have had shootings and what
what i'm trying to communicate is that we are spread thin as a community we cannot you know
be able to come to this applicant and handle every single misstep that they do, especially
with the amount of money coming behind this applicant. There is too much on our plates right
now. And they have not done, they haven't shown any effort, any research to warrant the size of
this just extremely large project. All right. So why don't, why don't we move on in your
presentation okay i i can conclude at this point um what does due diligence look like uh to close
i wanted nothing more than to walk into the february rco zoning meeting and hear from an
applicant like our expert michael hurl who described his decades of experience and successful
sud programs so i could support this rco and this project instead i got michael daly who could only
tell us that he was a quaker when we asked for his sud experience instead i saw the rco run
interference for this application applicant as we ask for information. As a result, I urge you to
consider the applicant's lack of said experience, the series of inappropriate experts they paraded
before us, as well as their legal team's actions throughout this process, dehumanizing near
neighbors with accusations of not being part of this community. I urge you to deny the special
exception for group living at any capacity, so thank you for your time. Hold it, hold it, hold it,
Hold it. Are you done with with her, Mr. Masters? I believe so. Yes. All right. Darwin, do you have any questions?
Yeah. How do you pronounce your last name? Sini? Correct. Yeah. Your last one among your last statements, you said you didn't like what the legal team has done.
Have I done something to you? Yes. And some of the first zoning hearings, if you go back to listen to recordings,
you said supposed members of the community and a lot of other insinuations that we are not real
people that we are you know no I never said you were not real people it was the insinuation but
oh so you insinuated that I made an accusation okay so are you familiar okay
Are you familiar with Horizon House?
I think it did come up in the list of, but as far as familiar, absolutely not.
This is not my background and expertise.
Are you familiar that they have locations in your neighborhood?
No, because I'm not familiar with them and I would not be opposed to small groups that have experience at all.
In your research, did it ever occur to you to look for possibilities, what might be?
to look for possibilities, what might be close to you, or if not, at least.
I'm not concerned about ones that are operating close to me because the assumption is that there
was due diligence performed there, and I don't need to worry about that.
That's from the New Jersey Commission to discuss and bring here. I was just curious if you would
just do the simple research to figure out what other uses or similar uses might be in your name.
No, and certainly there are no 3 .1s and certainly none of 56.
Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Masters, your next witness, please.
My next witness is Derek Ayers.
Do we have a proffer, please?
He has a letter that's in our exhibit binder.
Hello. Hi. Derek, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Derek Ayres, spelled D -E -R -E -K -A -Y -R -E -S.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do. Mr. Ayres, are you a neighbor?
Yes, I'm a near neighbor. I'm within 50 to 100 feet of the front door.
Sure. Please proceed, Mr. Masters.
Can Mr. Ayres be given his video?
Derek Ayres will be coming in as a panelist.
Hello.
Hi. Good afternoon, Mr. Ayres.
you live at 529 Moore Street is that correct yes I do I live at 529 Moore okay and how long have
you lived in the neighborhood I've lived here for 12 years what are the major points that you have
that are concerning you about this project yeah I don't want to be redundant with anything that's
gone before so mine is not necessarily statute based I happen to be the father of a young
daughter. And I'm also speaking on concerns of other parents on the block. Our concerns have to
do with the fact that this is a neophyte facility. It is massive. It's a transient population that's
being proposed. And we are speaking out on behalf of the people who can't speak out, which is for
our children. We would assume, of course, that there are attendant issues associated with patients
of this type. And we are very concerned that this facility is so very close to such a densely
populated area that has seemingly kids at every other house that like to play on the street.
That's our main concern. I feel like it's sort of a giant in the room of what's stressing out
a lot of the parents on the block. How old are your children? I have a nine -year -old daughter.
okay and then um close to you are there other children that your daughter plays with on the
block absolutely we have a there's a two children next door that are that are small but are play
age they have by we just gifted them a bicycle across the street there are two sisters that are
seven and ten there are other children on both sides of the street going all the way down in
front of the facility well i'd also like to say uh in terms of being active in my community i
started a I am party to a community garden that's directly located right across the street from this
facility and my wife used to be on the NC the on the board of the of this NCO before it was renamed
so just to give context to the fact that we've been in the neighborhood so when you talk about
the children playing on your street can you describe in more detail do they do they play
on the street often do they where do they go uh they like to ride their bikes up and down the
street they like to chalk on the sidewalk uh they like to plant uh plants in the uh the tree boxes
variety of typical uses they also like to walk the dogs we're also at the age where we uh are
interested in giving them some freedom to not necessarily be a helicopter to be parent you know
be watched over every single second. So the idea that we would have to helicopter our parents
due to a large transient population that we could not form any bonds with to really get to know,
it's stressful. I mean, I defy anybody to tell me their first choice in neighborhood would be to move
right next door to a 56 -bed rehab facility halfway to house. I think these facilities
I think these facilities are warranted and they are needed, but this is not the appropriate place for one.
are warranted and they are needed, but this is not the appropriate place for one.
It should be located in a medical block.
Is the size of the facility also a concern for you?
Absolutely. It would double the size of our block.
I know parking's not my purview, but it's going to blow the parking off the block.
It's already contentious. It's already a hot block.
There's shootings. There's contentious. There are things going on with the neighbors.
This is just going to change the entire tenor of the block.
is massive and they don't they're not experienced is there anything else you want to wrap up with
no that's it i know we're short on time thank you thank you so much hold on hold on mr bouvet
yes derek um isn't there a beer distributor down the street from you no no there's no more more
here burned down they're closing what's your answer no they burned down they but there was one
but there was one how long ago uh the fire was in the last six months
okay so was were there people hanging out there sure okay um are you familiar with your neighbor
miss cena uh the woman who spoke to her earlier no i don't know her person so she talked about
their shootings in the neighborhood right where have you been aware of any shootings yes okay
all right no other my next one my next door neighbor actually the front of her house got
shot. Okay. Now the questions. Mr. Master is your next client. Next witness is Andrew Hartnett.
Any more witnesses do you have, Steve? That's the last one on my name list, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. I appreciate it. Andrew has been allowed to speak. Andrew, could you please
state your name and spell for the court stenographer? Sure. My name is Andrew Hartnett,
a -n -d -r -e -w -h -a -r -t -n -e -t -t
where are firm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes sir
are you a neighbor
I live at 511 Moore
which is directly across the street
I can see it out of my front
proceed Steve
can I have Mr. Harden
promoted to panelists
they have been promoted to panelists
yes all right i know we can see you now too all right yeah i'm i'm currently in the car on the
way to my daughter's uh dance recital rehearsal so i apologize that i'm not at home um but that's
where i am i'm not driving you're not driving okay that's that's an important part okay um
so um mr hartnett there's a lot that's been testified to what are the areas that you want
to focus on in your testimony um so i did submit a statement and just to be cognizant of time i can
be as brief as you would like um excuse me there excuse me apologies gentlemen um i didn't i don't
believe mr hartnett was sworn in oh i thought i was i'm sorry i thought i did but okay we'll do it
again do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth yes sir
Proceed.
Mr. Hartman, let me go through some of your statements then,
because since you're in the car, you may not be able to review it in front of you.
I got a little piece of paper.
Okay. Oh, okay.
Can you – how many of the community meetings were you present at?
I believe I was present at all but one due to an illness of my children.
and um with all the times that you spent um with other neighbors and and with the applicants and
with uh the elected officials um what theme did emerge from all of those meetings and in your
mind um i i just feel that there was a lack of trust that has been established um there's not
been a lot of transparency um any any kind of questions that we have tried to um participate
in has been met with um either through the filter of of a lawyer or um you know it's met with with
a lot of opposition um and it it's been very frustrating especially because when we do get
some clarity on something things change um and it's just it doesn't feel very secure um it doesn't
feel as though um the community is really and this is my experience that the community has
has been well received by the applicant like i just feel like it should be the opposite i feel
been well received by the applicant. I just feel like it should be the opposite. I feel like
like the
we should be able to receive them and bring them in. And it just, that relationship has been so
contentious. And is the relationship between the community and the applicant something that's
important to you looking at this facility? Yeah. I mean, especially for myself, you know,
I'm right there. I would need to feel secure in knowing that my concerns are listened to,
that I'm not negated in what my experiences are. And I don't have that feeling. I don't
have that feeling of rapport. I don't have that feeling of trust. It makes me fearful,
to be frank it makes me fearful about what what could happen so you went to a lot of meetings
with these with the development team for this project right yeah i i was at the original
january meeting um i think i did miss one i went to the meeting with squilla i went to um
another one of the rco meetings um i feel like there was another one i can't put my finger on
it at the moment um but i i've tried to be be involved and be you know an active member in this
just just to even get answers and and and feel like there's some transparency about what's going
on so you know the um the the members of the zoning board haven't been at these meetings um
it'll be important for them to understand your experience so how would you describe the level
of candor and openness
to the concerns of the community
by the members of the development team
in all the meetings that you had?
It's been very contentious.
It feels like, you know,
for example,
a question that we are near neighbors
asking about this.
um having having a reply from emails that that's you know seems seems very aggressive um i i i wish
there was a way that i could you know quote if i had thought about it to write it down um
to quote what was said but it just doesn't seem like the the concerns of the community has been
It doesn't feel like the concerns of the community have really been addressed.
So for you personally and for your family, what kind of rapport, relationship, response are you looking for when something like this facility opens up next door to you?
I mean, accessibility to the response to any concerns.
um and i don't just just that we can participate at all in in what is happening i i just don't
feel like there's any and i don't want to put it this way i don't feel like there's any legal
recourse for us i don't feel like there's any um any way to to connect what our experiences is
to the people that are supposedly the experts that are trying to run this.
If you had gotten a different response from these real estate people
who are behind the 3R Ventures or from the people on the treatment team,
if you had gotten a different response than you did,
would you have a different feeling about this facility?
Would you be for it?
and i can't say with certainty that i would be for it but i would be far more open um you know
it's and it really okay for me i will say personally the thing that really drives me
is my fear is the impact the negative impact that this is going to have on a community
and really truly ultimately the people that are trying to get care at this facility that
the really, really vulnerable, and people trying to form their new identities, find their new
lives. They are so vulnerable, and they are putting trust into these people. I have not
felt that trust at all. I have not established any form of trust. I am fearful that there will
be more harm done to the people that are seeking care, and that is really what drives me of trying
to stand up and speak out against this because it's i am not against treatment i i just i cannot
get behind the applicants just time after time feels like they're doing the bare minimum
just time after time feels like they're doing the bare minimum that is not fair it's just not fair
did you feel at any point that they respected you or your neighbors and your concerns no
do you have anything more that you wanted to add i i mean respect to time i don't have anything
more um i'm willing to to submit the cross if that's appropriate at this time yeah hi mr bovett
thank you um mr harnett um you you signed chris nevins's petition right yes sir okay um you you
mentioned earlier or what i kept hearing from your testimony was you if if things were more amicable
with with between you and or your neighbors and the applicant i'm objecting that you're putting
words in his mouth and that's not correct but it's the question the question is is that what
am i correct with that i'm sorry you're gonna have to rephrase that here cut out a little bit
So it wasn't even an objection. So, so what I was trying to say, it sounded like your testimony was saying if you had a better relationship with the applicant, things may have been better, because there would have been better open lines of communications. Am I correct?
That's what I stated, yes, sir.
Yeah. So did did. Do you have that open line of communication with the members of the RCO?
So in my engagement with the RCO, I had sent a communication to the RCO president and it was received and replied fairly contentiously.
um and then any attempts that i had made to um connect to people at the meeting i mean
you were there the meetings were pretty pretty busy um i felt pretty dismissed um i believe at
the first meeting i was told i was being out of pocket um when i was just trying to express my
concerns um it just any reaching out for clarity was was met um in a in what i perceived to be a
pretty hostile man but but but my question is and i think you answered it did you feel that way
going through dealing with the rco and from what i understand i believe you agree with that statement
i'm sorry the answer is no his testimony was that he did not feel comfortable with the rco
yeah that's exactly what i wanted so yes he did not feel comfortable with the rco all right
i don't think those were his words but we'll stick with them right you weren't comfortable
with the rco well the rco okay i'm i'm on cross right right so did you also reach out to the
councilman i had sent an email yes the councilman schooler yes so they were and was that warm and
fuzzy at all uh that was pretty factual in his response letting us know that he was
either I forget his response but all right and I thank you for that so if if and and I know this
is the answer is probably no but I'm not going to assume are you familiar with the development
process in Philadelphia are you asking me if I'm an expert in the development process
no i'm asking if you're familiar i would say no okay so it if if if an applicant has to seek
uh some sort of zoning relief from the zoning board i'm objecting that this calls for speculation
and it's fact you don't even know my question yet but you're asking for speculation and that's
No, you don't even know my question yet. Right. Let me ask my question and you can object. Right.
So the applicant has to make it, has to file an appeal to get zoning relief.
And when he or she starts that process, she has to go in front of the front of the registered community organization.
So, nine times out of 10, anytime you see new development going on in the neighborhood, it's going to come before the RCO. Are you familiar with that?
I'm not. I'm not familiar with the processes. At any point in time, did you feel that that the applicant could have walked away from the RCO and just come directly to you?
I'm not. I'm not familiar with the processes.
I'm sorry, I'm not really understanding it, but are you asking if I withdraw?
It's OK. It's all right. No further questions.
Just a brief redirect. Mr. Hartnett, from your understanding, could Councilmember Squilla fix any problems that were happening at the facility after it was opened up?
That's speculation. There is no facility opened up.
You are proposing a facility. If that facility opens up, would Councilmember Squilla be in charge of fixing the problem?
does he think councilman squilla could fix the problem once it's opened up yeah you have no idea
what the what the problems are you have no idea what the future is like so so steve steve steve
i i i think we can skip that question i i think all right are you done you have any more questions
for the only the only the points that darwin uh that was trying to make was that there were other
people at these meetings who could have helped mr hardnett but the point mr chair is that only the
people who are running this facility can address any problems and either fix them or ignore them
or or do something in between and that's that's the point i wanted to make okay thank you are you
done yes all right no more witnesses am i correct no more named witnesses that is correct all right
questions thank you thank you we appreciate it thank you questions from the board no mr chairman
no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual
audience and tell me how many hands are there
chair we have seven hands up okay first one has been allowed to speak first
hi could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes my name is shannon bobin s -h -a -n -a -n b -o -b -o -n do you swear affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i affirm are you a neighbor i am uh i live at
535 Mifflin which Google Maps is okay I know where it is yeah thank you are you in favor of the
project or against it against there's been a lot of comments made relative to it is there anything
different you can offer uh just that I am on Mifflin Street which is not Moore Street it's
it's a block over yeah um and the other and I will affirm what one of the other testaments
testimony already stated was that the parking is atrocious in this area so that even though I
don't live on Moore Street I often have to park in and around 5th and Moore Street in fact the
only reason I even know of this project is because around midnight a few nights ago I had to park
right in front of this facility and I saw the orange sign I took the picture and decided to
sign on today all right because you know I was parking alone at midnight and even though I don't
live on Moore Street not within 250 feet I have to park there and I often have guests my young
nieces in their 20s my nephews and their teens and they also have to park in that area and the
fact that they would have to park in this area you know 11 12 midnight whenever they get done work
and walk to my house uh it's just i don't feel safe my neighbors don't feel it would it would
be safe uh thank you and don't thank you thank you for taking the time to close we appreciate
Next hand.
Larry has been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Larry Boone.
Could you spell your name, please, Mr. Boone?
Yes. L -A -R -R -Y -B -O -O -N -E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Are you a neighbor?
I live at 531 Ferdinand Street.
Okay. All right.
All right.
Are you in favor or against the project?
In favor.
And could you, you've heard a lot of comments relative to the project.
Could you tell us why?
Excuse me.
Can you repeat that question again?
You said you're in favor of it.
And I said, there's been a lot of testimony for and against it.
Could you offer something, a reason why that you're in favor of it?
Oh, yes. I've been a neighbor, a resident of this neighbor for 53 years.
Oh, yes.
I've been a resident of this neighbor for 53 years.
And my brother lived on that block, the 500th block of Moore Street.
I have a business at 4th and Wharton.
And so I'm a member of this community for 53 years.
And I run a program for the young youth.
And so, listen, right there what they're talking about, it needs some improvement.
Period.
and destroy. Like a lot of witnesses
says, it's an eyesore. And no one even said, like, who's living in
there right now? What's going on in there right now? And they didn't make
no complaints about what's going on in there right now.
And so if they really cared about the
community, they would be on board. All right.
Thank you for taking the time to call us. We appreciate it. Next hand.
Krista has been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hello, my name is Krista Estrada, spelled C -H -R -I -S -T -A -E -S -T -R -A -D -A.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Are you for or against this project?
Against.
There's been a tremendous amount of testimony relative to this project.
Could you give us anything different that we haven't heard?
I'd just like to say something a little bit personal.
I live at the 500 Block of Moore with my husband and two children.
We have a small family business about half a mile from 508 Moore.
I recently allowed my children to start walking our puppy alone around our block.
An enormous milestone as a parent dwelling in a city.
There is constant monitoring that needs to happen while allowing your children to play outside in a city neighborhood.
I fear this newfound freedom will be revoked if this halfway house of 56 male beds is permitted with a parking lot in constant use.
From the beginning, this project has stirred many concerns and questions.
When I attended the first meeting in January to hear from the developers, I left with more questions and concerns than when I had entered.
The lack of clear answers and uncertainty left me feeling confused and doubtful of the success of this project.
There are hundreds of families in either direction and their safety and the safety of pedestrians does not feel accounted for.
I do not feel confident in 3R Ventures capabilities and upholding a CBA due to lack of experience in a facility at this capacity.
People seeking rehabilitation deserve to do so in an environment that fosters expertise and safety for all.
i am strong i am in strong opposition of this project thank you thank you for taking the time
to close is there um next hand please excuse me mr chair mr bouvet has his hand uh raised
a question i i i am a little bit curious because she mentioned that it was an all -male facility
is she still on because i would like to ask if she if that's what she believes the application
is for and it's and if that's the case then there's something that was completely missed that
that i i think that should be explored if all of the if all of the protesters
are are being told especially the ones because so far the ones that have that i've spoken against
have been uh have signed the petition i'm just curious if they're being told that the project
Is she still on or is she off?
Yes, she's still on.
I'm sorry, she is off.
Can a previous speaker raise their virtual hand once again?
Krista is back on and has been allowed to speak.
Krista, did you hear Mr. Bove's question?
Since our questions weren't clearly answered, we are unaware and we are assuming
that it has to be either one male or female facility and we are under the assumption that
it's a male facility but we have not had our answers as i stated clearly our questions excuse
me our question clearly answered debove okay so you're you're you made that assumption so
you weren't what it are are you have you spoken to other neighbors and other neighbors have been
convinced that it's an all -male facility we don't have enough information you haven't provided us
with the information I'm sorry I'm asking what you did have you been talking to other neighbors
Have you been talking to other neighbors as if it's an all -male facility?
as if it's all
We're assuming that it's going to be either an all -female or all -male facility.
Okay, Darwin.
I would like to be recognized, Mr. Chair.
um this um this exhibit i'm showing you is entitled exhibit two in our binder it is the
answers and question from questions that the applicant provided at one of the community
meetings and it was read by council member squilla on p on the bottom uh of page two
it says the defined target population male adults receiving pennsylvania medicaid benefits
encompasses the individuals who meet the eligibility for medicaid assistance this group
may include individuals from various socioeconomic backgrounds ages geographic locations within the
state our expert mr harrell testified that the population that will be at this facility will be
all males so mr bouvet's protests are um bizarre um because his own app his own client has has
has basically stated multiple times that it will be all men and when our expert testified there was
no challenge or pushback to him uh so the the testimony and the record is that it will be an
all -male facility mr ministers we have that thank you very much could we go to the next witness please
hi yes my name is way lou w -e -i -l -u right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes sir and um are you a neighbor so i live uh three blocks away okay good
are you okay okay are you in favor of this project or against against it okay and we've got a lot of
reasons why is there anything new you could offer to us yes uh two two things um i have concerns
that this organization did not reach out to dickinson square park which i'm on the board of
or any other local businesses uh which i am a business owner it would have been nice as a good
act of faith that they've done so and not in a vacuum with disley who doesn't speak for all
businesses nor all neighbors and yeah and secondly um as as i'm not a near neighbor i did not sign
the petition because i believed it was for the near neighbors however i do live nearby and i
didn't hear this um uh explicitly so i do want to bring it up uh for any for any issues that that
we have as as near neighbors or as you know nearby neighbors parents like myself are completely
in the dark we will inevitably call 9 -1 -1 there will be a strain of city resources which are
already strained enough um we will you know i i expect and i you know will fully commit that i
expect this applicant to be on top of their game to legitimately work with the community
because you know i i will make sure that i will call 9 -1 -1 if i see anything out of line and that
will have a strain on city resources so i just want to make that point clear all right but thank
you very much for calling i have a question um uh ms lou uh i wanted to show you um
a uh a set of texts um are these texts between you and mr john disley yes okay can you
can you authenticate these texts so so so mr masters i think we talked about this we told you
that we were not going to approve it but that we would take everything that we saw and heard
and put it towards the character or or the the the the value of that witness okay so we don't
have to go back to that thank you well i'm just trying to establish that this is that this is
actually true evidence because but but i and i think i think i think i think we've handled that
mr masters and i thank you for trying but we've handled that already okay do we have any other
do we have any other hands
clobie green has been allowed to speak how many more hands do we have
chair there are six hands still oh okay we're going to have mr chair this is hillary i just
want to note it looks like there's at least one individual who already testified as a witness of
mr masters who's raising his hand for public testimony since we have already heard from him
i don't believe he needs to speak further but i just wanted to note that for the record all right
okay so how many how many more hands do we have minus that one person there will be six people
okay but let's give me the next one
colby green you're allowed to speak i could you please state your name and
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the corticinographer?
spell for the courtesanographer sure thing colby green
Sure thing. Colby Green, C -O -L -B -Y -G -R -E -E -N -E.
Do you swear upon him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am a homeowner at 524 Moore Street.
Okay. Are you for or against the project?
I am against.
Thank you very much for your call. We appreciate it.
Next hand.
Next hand.
Graciela has been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, Graciela Krause, G -R -A -C -I -E -L -A, last name Krause, K -R -A -U -S -S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Are you for or against the project?
Against the project.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us. We appreciate it. Next hand.
Jesse Shedd has been allowed to speak.
Hi, Jesse. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Jesse Shedd, J -E -S -S -E -S -H -E -D -D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Are you for or against the project?
Very against.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us. We appreciate it. Next hand, please.
Larry Boone has been allowed to speak.
Larry Boone's already spoke.
Laura has been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, it's Laura Rakfalski, L -A -U -R -A -R -A -C -H -F -A -L -S -K -I.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Are you for or against the project?
Against.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us. We appreciate it. Next hand, please.
Reggie has been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Is it Regina?
reggie please i'm years
they seem to be experiencing all right go to go to the next hand shelby wise has been allowed to
speak hi could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer shelby weiss
s -h -e -l -b -y -w -e -i -s -s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth. I do. Are you a neighbor? I am. Are you for or against this project? I'm against it.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us. We appreciate it. Next hand.
Hello. My name is Dorothy O 'Burlsen. I live on the block of 4th Street.
Spell your name again, please.
can you spell your name again can you hear me spell your name please all right my last name
o -b -e -r -l -t -o -n first name dorothy d -o -r -o -t -h -y right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do i want to hold it hold it hold it hold it hold
it are you a neighbor yes i am i live on the block okay are you for or against the project
I am against, and my name was put on a petition without me signing it.
Thank you very much. We appreciate your call. How many more hands do we have?
We have four more hands up, Chair.
But this is no more error.
That last witness was referring to a petition that Mr. Bovee's clients or someone who was in support of the project
circulated over the last few days and submitted to the zoning board without sending a copy
to me or to my clients, claiming that there are numerous people who are in the near neighborhood
who supported it, but it appears that there were many forgeries on this. Thank you. Thank you.
Margaret Reed, you have been allowed to speak
Hi, yes
Could you state your name as spelled for the court stenographer?
Yes, Reed, R -E -I -D, Margaret, M -A -R -G -A -R -H -C
Right, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am, for 43 years
Well, thank you
well thank you are you for or against the project against it thank you very much for
Are you for or against the project?
against it.
taking the time to call us next next name emily has been allowed to speak all right could you
please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
emily please unmute yourself
Charity seems to be experiencing
Move on, move on
We should have two left
We have Ariel with their hand raised
And they haven't allowed to speak
Hi, could you please state your name
And spell for the court sonographer
Yes, it's Ariel Salkowitz
Can you hear me?
Yeah, could you please spell your name, Ariel
Sure, A -R -I -E -L -L -E
S -A -L -K -O -W
Q -I -T -Z. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Are you a neighbor? Yes, I am. Are you for or against the project? Against. Thank you for
taking the time to close. We should have one more hand. We have a Hillary Sedgwick with their hand
raised. Okay. They haven't allowed to speak. Hi, Hillary, could you please state your name and spell
for the court stenographer? Sure. My name is Hillary Sedgwick, H -I -L -A -R -Y -S -E -D -G -W -I -C -K.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Are you a neighbor? I am. Are you for or against the project? I am against the project.
Thank you for taking the time to call us. We do appreciate it. Thank you. Are we done with our
hands, right? Yes, that would be correct. Okay. Planning Commission. This is Ron Bednar, City
Planning. Comprehensive plan recommended a change in zoning at this location from residential
single -family to residential multifamily. The zoning maps for this block were changed from
multifamily to single -family in 1979. The proposed group living is allowed with a special exception
in both the current and the recommended zoning districts.
The applicant has shown that the proposed group living will or should have no detrimental
impact beyond what might be expected.
The building's large size and complete lot coverage creates a hardship to comply with
the parking requirements.
City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed special exception
for group living and the proposed variance for off -street, for no off -street parking.
So here's where we are. We, for both lawyers, we'd like your summaries to be put on paper.
We'd like to have your summaries by Friday. We will vote on this next Wednesday at 2 p .m.
Thank you.
you're okay
Friday
close the business
yes please
Darwin okay
I thank both you
it's been a long
long long
case but we appreciate it
is there anyone in the 330
on the 330 list whose
case has not been called
I see no hands
um thanks everyone mr chair i just want to note for the record for for more street that other
than the summaries the record is otherwise closed thank you um uh thanks everyone we
busy day and we've got a lot done today we got took care of a lot of case i appreciate everybody
thank you great job chair thank you too chair great job chair thanks everybody