We can.
Great. So what I've submitted here is Exhibit 1 is a copy of the Notice of Referral. We have an application for the Appeal for Special Exception, completed project information form, copy of the deed to the property, confirming standing to bring this application, tax clearance certificate showing that we are compliant.
As I indicated, a letter from the RCO, which is NSPRAN Housing Economic Development Group.
Also copies of the notice letter and certificates of mailing to the surrounding area, zoning
notice poster, photographs of the notice, as well as photographs of the property, a
location plan of the property, the site plan, architectural floor plans, which we'll go
through.
as i indicated the owner of the property is rock and shield llc the property is located at 520
The property is located at 520 West Roosevelt Boulevard.
west roosevelt boulevard
Let me just bring down my site plan.
Just to give you an idea of location.
These are the zoning notices, just confirming they've been posted.
uh the my client has owned the property since 2016. uh it's zoned cmx2 it is currently improved
with a one-story building and parking lot it was previously used for a school that has remained
vacant for numerous years and actually has been many trespassers have come onto the property to
analyze the building and have graffitied the building. The Rock and Shield is an affiliate
of Accel Medical and they're proposing to improve this property and convert it into a medical use.
As you can see here, the property again, 520 West Roosevelt Boulevard, founded by West Wyoming
avenue there's a better location map of it properties here west roosevelt wyoming
this is a copy just of the zoning site plan and an aerial showing the existing improvements
as you can see highlighted in pink are the cmx2 properties bounded in the dark black line is the
property boundary and you can see the existing building that's currently located there
um as i indicated the my client is proposing to improve the property they are not making any
site improvements they're not changing the footprint of the building they are simply
renovating the interior so as to allow for a primary care physician's office
They will fit out the first floor for medical offices, exam rooms, waiting area, lower level will be administrative offices.
They will replace windows, paint the exterior of the facade.
Just to, let's see, view.
Is there just a couple photographs of the interior of the building?
All right, here's the lower level.
This is the exterior, as you can see,
West Wyoming looking east.
This is where a patio area will be.
This is from West Wyoming looking west,
the existing lower level patio area.
This is another parking area.
This is the back of the building here.
Just another photograph giving a site perspective.
here's the front of the building along this is roosevelt boulevard
so again we'll be painting the exterior facade replacing all of the windows
and cleaning up the paved area here for parking just a few more other
rotate this
and here's a copy of the lower level floor plan
and this is a copy of the upper level floor plan just showing the exam rooms nurse station
um here's the waiting area
this is just the exterior facade elevations
another uh rendering of the existing building again wyoming avenue roosevelt boulevard this
is the existing area and these are the current parking areas um they are they do currently have
14 locations across philadelphia they provide patients with primary care internal and geriatric
medicine. We will be serving the surrounding community, anticipate that many of the visitors
coming to this site will use public transportation or may walk to the property. They are intending
to combine two of their existing locations located on North 5th Street into this area.
All patients will be seen on an outpatient basis. No procedures or surgeries will occur
no procedures or surgeries will occur at the facility. Their proposed hours are Monday through
at the facility, they're proposed.
Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, they will be open, but by appointment only.
The zoning under the CMX2 does allow a group practitioner medical use, which is what's
proposed, by special exception. All other aspects of the project, including parking that's being
provided as well as the setbacks and everything else that's existing. It does comply with zoning.
It is by right. We did meet with the RCO. We addressed they had questions in terms of how
cars could park on the property, which is what we show in this plan. Red being where we would
expect employees to park. Blue being where the visitors will park. They also asked that we agree
that no pharmacy would be provided in the building, which we did agree to. We did receive
a letter of non-opposition, which has been submitted in the exhibit packet. So with that
being said, as I indicated, this is a request for a special exception, not a variance. The use will
serve the surrounding community. It would be a benefit to the neighbors in the area and will not
have an adverse impact. In addition, we believe the redevelopment of this property in terms of
the improvements that are being made will better an otherwise vacant building that is underutilized.
So if I may, I'd like to ask, I have Gilbert Ovide, who is a representative of the owner,
as well as Kevin Dow, who's the architect.
are they able to join
do we see any hands
mr kevin dow he's going to be allowed to speak okay i'm mr dow could you state your name please
and spell for the court reporter
Mr. Dow
counsel you're an officer of the court
we gladly accept your testimony
thank you questions from the board
no Mr. Chairman
no Mr. Chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
uh no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman david vecto with the city planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at this
location the applicant has shown that the proposed group practitioner will have no detrimental impacts
to the neighborhood beyond what might be expected from this use so the city planning commission
recommends that the board grant the special exception for a group practitioner thank you
MI2023-000120-520-West Roseville Boulevard.
I vote yes.
Tom Solomon, my vote is yes.
LeBaron Leonard Palmer, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Have a nice day.
Hey, everyone, we're going to take a five-minute break.
Let our court reporter get set up.
We'll come back.
we'll hear the one more case we have in this group
and then we'll move right to the 330 list.
Thank you, Chair.
Case number two, MI 2022-007-347-224-230
West Topo-Hawkins Street.
Councils have already been sworn.
We have letters of opposition from West Germantown neighbors.
We have letters of support from Council Member Vaughn, State Representative Kinsey.
Applicant provided letters of support from entities and individuals.
We have a petition signed by 67 people.
ZBA has received 12 letters, eight in support and four in opposition.
Mr. Phillips has been promoted
and Ms. O'Neill promoted
We have both one
Yes, thank you
Mr. Chair
Counsel, you've already been sworn
could you just state your name for the record
Certainly, Michael Phillips
Certainly, Michael Phillips, on behalf of the applicant slash property owner, Topohokin Mansion, LLC.
on behalf of the applicant
slash property owner
All right. Mr. Masters, just for the record, could you state your name?
Absolutely. Steve Masters with the law firm of JustLaws, representing the Pastoria Street neighbors.
Okay. Mr. Holliman, Mr. Phillips has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I agree to waive the reading of the refusal.
I do not stipulate to its accuracy.
I do believe there is one of the three refusals is mistaken.
Otherwise, the other two refusals, I believe, are accurate.
And I will get into that in my testimony.
Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance of this hearing?
Did you meet with the RCO?
Do you have a letter?
yes to all um mr thank you we object to that he he clearly did not submit all of his documents
i i think i remember your earlier uh comments yeah i would appreciate him i would appreciate
mr phillips correcting the record well i'll i'll put it this way i'll withdraw the uh the traffic
letter for now that that was uh submitted i don't think it it has a substantial bearing but i do
reserve the right to present any rebuttal exhibits or witnesses during Mr. Masters's
presentation, which I understand is not happening today. So, Mr. Phillips, just for a point of
information, we would like to see your presentation be under 45 minutes if possible.
Certainly. And Mr. Chair, is it possible with opening statements that I gave a brief opening
as well as Mr. Phillips so that you can so that the board can see the the contours if you could
yes Mr. Phillips why don't you why don't you start with your opening statement sure well I had a bit
more of an uh opening statement the intention was uh and can everyone see my my screen or did I just
we see everything yep okay um so um right now are you I just don't see what you see and I have
multiple screens up do you see the uh we see the blue yep yep we do the blue okay um so this is
the property 224 um west top of hawkins there is a uh long uh backstory uh to this that i don't
believe is uh entirely relevant for purposes of uh what we are here for today uh but i will
um first just go through i'm going to pull up the refusal so you have an understanding of
why we are here uh here we're seeking to add 15 parking spaces uh to uh this property uh in 2017
there was uh approval from the zoning board to convert uh the former nursing home that was
at the property into multifamily residential.
Altogether, there are 20 units at the property.
These are larger size units, predominantly two and three bedrooms.
And there are 21 interior parking spaces.
We are seeking to add an additional 15 parking spaces along the pastoral frontage of the property.
And I will show the photos and get into that in a moment.
Now, the opposition will point to the prior zoning hearing and the appeals to the Court of Common Pleas, the Commonwealth Court where provisos were issued, reversed, et cetera.
We believe that is not relevant or before the board today, which before the board today is our application for these 15 parking spaces.
Now, in all my time practicing zoning law, I believe this is the first time that there is opposition to adding parking spaces, to relieving the burden of parking and congestion in this manner.
And you'll note in looking at the vote from West Germantown neighbors that the near neighbors actually voted in support 40 to 34.
And of all the letters of support that we submitted, I will also point to and particularly point out during my presentation,
the letter from Robert Lane, co-chair of the West Germantown neighbor civic, who wrote in his
individual capacity as a near neighbor, but in strong support of this project. And there were
a number of individuals waiting to testify as a strong support. So where does the opposition come
from? Well, it comes from other individuals who utilize West Pastoria Street for their own personal
other individuals who utilize West Pastoria Street for their own personal parking,
parking.
who want West Pastoria to remain essentially their own driveway or to remain, you know,
that way for their own personal use. And, you know, don't adhere to the old adage,
what's good for the goose is good for the gander. They want this for themselves and they are
motivated uh to prohibit recording uh my client's parking so uh if we first look at the refusal
there are three refusals uh the parking itself is not the nature of the refusal really we're
looking at the the location of the parking uh here uh i will show um this is west pastorius
And so the parking spaces are proposed along Pastorea Street. There's one here and the other 14 are here. And they are all surface parking spaces in front of these units that were converted from the nursing home and in front Pastorea.
The refusals received were one for the location of the parking within the required front yard.
Now, due to the configuration of the lot, which I will pull up here, you see that there are actually three front yards, one, two, three.
So, and this building was existing in its, you know, the footprint was what it was in 2017 during the development.
So this counts as a front yard and the parking is prohibited there.
The second basis for the refusal is the number of curb cuts.
Now, this curb cut right here is existing and I won't get too far into the weeds, but this is the curb cut that's at issue in Mr.
Master's appeal against the buy right zoning permit that was issued back in October of 2022.
But this curb cut was existing and this curb cut was existing. But these additional curb cuts received a refusal as well, just because there's more than one to access the property and the width exceeds 24 feet. We have 34, 26, 34 and 26.
Now, originally, back in 2017, there was proposed one single 115-foot curb cut, but after discussions with the streets department at the point in time when this parking was legal and allowed prior to the Commonwealth Court holding, it was modified to shrink the parking and shrink the curb cut.
And also, one other point of distinction between that prior approval and now, there were some stacked parking spaces here for a total of 18.
Those have been eliminated as part of this proposal.
The last refusal was for having a drive aisle of zero feet.
I'll pull this up now.
Minimum aisle width should be 18 feet, whereas the proposed space is located directly along the front line of pastorious, resulting in an aisle width of zero feet.
We disagree with that refusal because there is no drive aisle, so therefore we cannot, you know, we don't fail to meet the minimum aisle width.
That would only come into play if we actually had a drive aisle.
Here we do not, there's no requirement that we do have a drive aisle, so I believe that refusal is inaccurate.
But we do agree that, you know, for the location of the spaces and the curb cuts, we need relief from the zoning board.
with that i'll i'll i'll cede to mr masters i know he wants to give his uh his opening and
then i'll go into my presentation all right thank you i appreciate it mr masters um thank you uh
michael can you just uh i will stop for sharing thanks all right good afternoon again members of
board. I'm with the law firm of JustLaws and we proudly represent the Pastoria Street neighbors,
all of whom are property owners on the 200 block of West Pastoria Street. Back in 2017, when many
of the members of this board were not on the zoning board, this zoning board granted numerous