to run his administrative stuff for employees, et cetera,
out of the basement.
The first floor we're just proposing,
and let me just enlarge that a little bit for you.
Basically, we're proposing an ice cream shop on the first floor.
You would enter right through the corner.
Here is the counter space for the shop.
Back here is a bathroom, which patrons can use.
Can you speak up just a little bit?
We're having a hard time hearing you.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah, we can.
Absolutely.
This is where you would enter the shop here. This is the counter display that would have the ice cream in it. This is a bathroom for patrons and employees. And back here we have the prep area. And further back we will have some storage back here.
The second floor is an already established two-bedroom apartment, which is currently legal, and I won't go through that for you.
I have some pictures of the property for you.
You can see it is a corner property, and here's a picture of the posting.
Across the street, as with many of these corner properties, is currently a beauty salon, which has been in existence for a while now.
I took the liberty of taking some other pictures.
I took a long shot of the property so you could actually see the length of the property here.
In the back here is like a little shed garage area, and that's where we would be storing the trash.
There's an entrance here to the upstairs unit, and then there's another window to the facility here.
That's a better look at the entire property on the Harrell Street side.
It's a pretty long property, suitable for commercial use.
There's a breezeway alley in the back of the property.
I just wanted to show you the entire property.
Here's a picture looking across the street at Harrell Street.
Again, a commercial dwelling here with one family on top of it.
It's currently being used again as a beauty salon.
that's just another look going down north 22nd street to the north
that's directly across the street which is a high school which is a dobbins high school
it pretty much takes up the entire block this is the school area in back of it i have another
picture for you to just show you the yard that's the parking area for dobbins high school
and down at the other end is this the yard and a playground associated with the high school
a commission is uh that's another long look looking south
down north 22nd street i just wanted to show you how the corner properties are generally have a
commercial uses um on 26th street they're long established uses so what we want to do is nothing
out of the ordinary is consistent with what's being done um there and the uses of the properties
I did send out a flyer for the civic meeting.
We did meet with the Civic Association on February the 6th.
Could you enlarge that for us?
Let's see one thing in a second.
We did have a meeting, it was on April 6th, it was a zoom meeting held by all in the
family uh we did did notice 117 uh residents and we did get the proof of mailing i would also like
to add uh there was not one person that attended the meeting that was in opposition um to the
request everyone was glad that this property was going to be renovated and thought that at ice
cream parlor would be a nice addition um to the community i also had the opportunity to talk to
the block captain who was very interested in it and had support for the project and wanted to
know whether or not we would hire individuals from the community and we indicated that we would
I mean with that that's all I have a commissioner I'm willing to answer every question that you
picture the posting yes
I did post this property, and I did provide Ms. Emerson with a timestamp.
Okay. All right. Do you have the owner here to adopt your testimony?
Yes. Mr. Owens, could you raise your hand, please?
Mr. Owens is going to be allowed to speak.
hi sir could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
uh good afternoon my name is dean owens
spell please for the court reporter yes sir uh dean owens d-e-a-n-o-w-e-n-s as in sam
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth sir
I swear. Okay, counsel? Mr. Owens, are you the owner of 2620 North 22nd Street? Yes, I am.
Your company, I'm sorry, Darren Creative Solutions? Yes. And Mr. Owens, did we have a
meeting with the Civic Association on February 6, 2023? Yes, we did. And did they fully support
this project? They did. And Mr. Owens, have you heard my testimony as presented at this hearing
today yes i have and would you adopt my testimony as truthful i do adopt it as truthful thank you
that's all i have commissioner questions from the board
no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair mr chair this is hillary i just want to jump in quick
um there's three the rco did ask for provisos for um hours of operation um basically seasonal hours
we have no we have no i was gonna ask if you agreed yes we agree okay thank you excuse me
chair two hands sorry two hands just went up looks like one is from swan poodle and the first
one is from a number ending in
Shall I give the 0681
first? Yeah, give me the first one first.
Yep. Okay.
They've been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the
court reporter?
Caller ending in 0681.
Can you unmute yourself, please?
Star six on mute.
they're not unmuted yet okay go go to number two okay it's going to be um adrian fernandez
yep yep he's been allowed to speak miss just state your name for the record please
Ms. Fernandez
She's muted
Ms. Fernandez can you unmute
Is her hand up
no her hands down now but she's muted
can you hear me now yeah we'll hear you now could you just raise your voice just a little
bit just state your name for the record oh sure
all right you've already been sworn but we're having a hard time hearing you could you get
closer to the phone or raise it a little bit can you hear better now absolutely thank you
proceed okay um i did send a request for continuance um there was a neighbor calling
in i think she's going to try to call in again um we did not receive any notice at all for this
um meeting i did speak to the rco coordinator about 10 minutes ago and she said a meeting was
held but she wasn't aware that we did not receive a notice um this type of business um the neighbors
in that area do not like this type of business because there's too much traffic, too much trash,
noise, and loitering. Just a half a block away we had meetings and VBA hearings for a similar
request and that property chose to restrict themselves to businesses like a church or
accounting office or a law office. So it would be really unfair for a half a block away for there
to be a takeout business with lots of traffic, especially from the school across the street.
take out business with lots of traffic especially from the school across the street we have a mall
on the north border across the street from the north border of Dobbins High School and that's a
more appropriate place to have a business with a lot of traffic a lot of trash sugar water and
just other concerns that the neighbors have we are asking for a continuance because also the
building was not posted. So the chance for neighbors to come to the ZBA hearing was sort
of taken away from them. We're opposed to this project. As, as it's presented, I did
not hear a trash management plan. I did not hear a traffic management plan. So we're opposed
to this project. Thank you. Anyone else in the virtual audience? I see no handshare.
um council you want to respond yes commissioner uh commissioner
just that property and i posted it uh with the required sign not only that i walked the property
and i walked the neighborhood and i spoke to uh at least four neighbors on the block captain
no one person had an opposition um to the use uh the meeting was publicized
I sent out 117 notices. Not one person who attended our meeting had any objection to the operation of a ice cream, water ice store.
We did address the trash. We addressed how the trash would be removed.
We addressed the number of employees that we would have and how the outside of the property would be well kept and broom swept on a daily basis.
And for those reasons, Commissioner, I am asking you to approve this application.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
David Vecto with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
This building has a documented history of use as a storefront, sometimes occupied and sometimes vacant, dating to the 1950s.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant requested use variances for takeout restaurant and multiple principal uses on a lot.
Thank you. MI 2023-000-125-2620 North 22nd Street.
I vote yes with provisos.
Hours of operation 11A to 630P, September 1st and May 31st.
not 11 a to 9 a June 1st to August 31st sorry Mr. Chair there's an error there that should be 11 a
to 9 p okay 11 a to 9 p.m June 1st to August 31st thank you counsel Thomas Holloman my vote is yes
with provisos.
LaBara Leonard Palmer, my vote is yes,
but proviso.
Council.
Thank you very much, commissioners.
Number four,
MI 2023
000124
1330 to 32
North 5th Street.
Matthew Monroe
is the attorney.
Letter of support
from South Kensington Community Partners.
Mr. Monroe has been promoted, Chair.
Hi, Mr. Monroe.
How are you, sir?
Could you please state your name
and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, Chairman Bergman.
Matthew Monroe, M-A-T-T-H-E-W-M-O-N-R-O-E
with Monroe Law.
All right.
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 the property? Yes. I'm here today with representatives from the FS Family
Limited Partnership, as well as from Parallel Productions. FS Family, the partnership owns
the building and the Parallel Productions is going to be the new tenant. All right. Mr. Howlman has
just a few questions for you, sir. Yes. Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy? I do. Did you email all exhibits and
documents as required five days in advance to this hearing? Did you meet with the RCO and do
you have a letter? Yes to all with the exception of the certificate of bulk mailing which I sent
over and I'm showing on the screen right now. Thank you. Please proceed. Good afternoon Chairman
Bergman, members of the board. Today I'm here and happy to be here on behalf of my client who owns
this building, which is a single-story warehouse building. From what we can tell, this building was
From what we can tell, this building was built pre-zoning code. There's not much in the archives about it, but we're here with their proposed tenant, Parallel Productions, who is an established production services company.
built pre-zoning code. There's not much in the archive.
They do photography. They also provide support to many of the film, video, TV, movie, commercial productions in and around Philadelphia, and they also have some back office storage, and they're planning on moving their operations here to North 5th Street, which has a burgeoning artistic and creative community around it.
So the proposed uses that we have for this building are for artisanal studio, artist studio, business and professional office because Parallel Productions plans to use this as their headquarters and their back office, as well as for storage of some equipment that they're going to be taking out in the mornings for use on site at productions and then bringing it back.
I'll just quickly run through the exhibits that we have. And just to kind of go back, this is in an RSA 5 district, even though the building itself is an old industrial building.
We have here at Exhibit 1 the deed. At Exhibit 2, we have the refusal, our application and petition for appeal here, the project information statement, as well as the notice that went out timely, and we just showed you the certificate of mailing up on the screen.
here the building was properly posted more than 21 days before the hearing here you can see the
photographs and in here this is just some sketches of the building there's not going to be any
changes to the exterior of the building it is as it is this is just to give you an idea of what the
floor plan looks like in case that becomes an issue and here to provide some context this
highlighted strip in the middle of your screen is it's a street-to-street lot and you can see
there's nearby IRMX so there are industrial uses. To provide some context this building
as I said before it's been there for a while it's also not an outlier so this is not an ask where
we're requesting to put a commercial or industrial use in the middle of a neighborhood. There are some
existing structures across the street. You can see there's a single-story warehouse building
that's similar with a roll-up garage. And then if you're looking down, looking south on North
5th Street, you can also see some other single-story industrial buildings. And then looking
up North 5th Street, you can see some new development as well as some older office and
industrial spaces that pre-exist the building. This is on North Randolph Street, as I mentioned
before. This is a street-to-street building, and this is the rear of our property that we're
talking about right now that's going to be used. I've included also what is available in the zoning
archive. I think it's important to note that because the building was at some point just
built as an industrial building, it was later rezoned as RM1, but then later as RSA5. So in
order to continue to utilize the building for as it is, the owners needed to get a zoning
variance each time. So the last use, which was approved after the zoning board found at that
time that there was a hardship on the building, was for storage of bikes and repair of bikes.
it was an indigo bike storage, and they're no longer there, obviously. And so my clients were
looking for a use that would be appropriate, given that there are some residential properties
around there. And they did their due diligence, they had lined up a potential tenant for CrossFit
gym. But before they signed the deal and moved forward with that, they hired an acoustics
expert to determine whether the music and some of the louder noises that you would hear at a
CrossFit gym might be heard outside. And they determined that you could. So instead of trying