Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, can you hear me?
We can.
Thank you.
And Chair, you can begin as you wish.
How many people are in?
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's EBA hearings.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismael Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holliman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our Board Member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Ryan McSherry, our Attorney for the Day, and our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised, the proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phillip.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
When an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
leave your email and the address of the property in question. And finally, the question answer box
on the screen is not for comments or testimony. All comments should be directed to our executive
director, Tanya Sunken. Let's look at today's schedule and any possible continuances.
Number 12, MI 2023-001-269-709 West Butler Avenue, this case is continued. Are there any comments
relative to that case? Are there other requests for continuance? Please raise your hand.
Good morning, Chair. This is Fatina L. I'll be your co-host for today.
Thank you.
You're welcome. I see no hands.
Okay. I also have a few cases here that we do not have documents.
Number four, MI 2023-001-304-16 West Johnson Avenue. This is the first listing.
Vernon Lucas is the owner. Andrew Barrios was working with him. No exhibits, first listing.
I see no hands, Chair.
Thank you. Number four, MI 2023-001-304-16 Winston Street. This case is continued. Mark must be tried.
Case number 10, MI 2023-001-268-1343 East Lycoming Street.
Anna, Narda, Sierra are the listed owners. No exhibits. First listing.
I see no handshare. MI 2023-001-268-1343 East Lycoming Street. That case is continued. Mark
must be tried. Number 11, MI 2023-001-264-314-Winona Street. Andy and Sarah Kim are the
listed owners. No exhibits, first listing. Chair, we have Andy Kim. Okay.
It looks like Sarah Kim as well. I love them to speak.
good morning mr kim good morning would you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
Would you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
andy kim
Andy Kim, A-N-D-Y-K-I-M.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
We do not have any documents that were sent in for your case, sir.
To my knowledge, there was a packet that was sent in.
um i had the assistance of uh um john um i'm sorry the hold on a second the
company name but it was a whole packet it has um 34 pages of documents yes sir we don't have
we don't have any of your documents what we're going to have to do is continue the case oh
Hello, Mr. Kim?
We're going to continue the case, and please call the office, and the office will make sure that all your documents are in order, okay?
Yes, sir.
Okay, thank you.
So, number 11, MI 2023, 001-264-314 Winona Street, this case is continued.
Hi, Chair. This is Tanya. May I speak? Mr. Kim, if you could, Mr. Kim, contact our office
right away. We'll put you right back on the list within the next 30 days. Sorry for the
inconvenience if you sent them and we didn't get them. Thank you so much, Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Kim, did you hear that?
Okay. We're going to go to our add-on list.
MI 2023-001-088-2848 Chatham Street.
The vote on this is myself, Ishmael, and Thomas Holloman.
I vote yes for a temporary variance to expire 1-31-26.
Hours of operation, Sunday to 30, events end by 8 p.m.
Friday, Saturday, events end by 11 p.m.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you.
We're going to go to number 13, which will be our first case.
MI 2022 004357 1439 Bonshaw Street.
Diana and Steven Wu are the owners.
It's a pro se.
This application is for a two-family household living in an existing structure.
The proposed use of two-family living, household living, is prohibited in the RSA 5.
There's a letter of opposition from Community on the Rise, and there's also a letter of opposition from Council Member Phillips.
Diana Wu has been promoted to panelist.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Good morning. My name is Diana Wu, D-I-A-N-A-W-U.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Good morning. Have you emailed them all the exhibits and documents that are needed to proceed with this case by the end of this hearing?
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Let me see.
You're up.
I'm just going to full screen this.
Oh, you.
can you guys see it we can okay
so this is the refusal letter for the appeal
um this is the application for the appeal
and uh we're requesting um a rental license from a one unit to a two unit
And in the past, I see that the previous owner had it as a rental license of the two units.
And this is the project information form.
project information form, and this is the deed, and the tax clearance form, and this
is the letter from the RCO opposing our appeal, this is the poster outside the house,
And these are the pictures of the exterior and interior.
So when we got the house, it's already a two-unit property. So there are two separate doors going
into two different units. So this is the first floor and then this is going up to the second
unit. These are the interior of the first floor, first unit. It has a separate kitchen and separate
bathroom. And also, when we got the house, it already has two separate electric and two
separate gas meters. This is a separate, the first floor bathroom, the hallway, a bedroom,
bedroom. And then this leads to the second unit, which is upstairs. This is the living room.
bedroom, and then a separate bath, and a separate kitchen.
And then here it shows like it had two electric meters, and we also updated to
an ENCODE electric meter when we got the house. And these are the two gas meters that were in the
basement and um i asked for the neighbors um if it was okay to change it to a two unit and
ask for their names and petition and that's it
when you when did you purchase the property um december 2021
2021. And was it advertised as a duplex? It was advertised as a two-family, but it needs to go
through application to have it as a two-unit. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you. Questions
from the board? No, Chair. No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual
audience. I see no hands, Chair. Planning Commission. Good morning, Chair Bergman. This
is Ian Haggerty with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Last name spelled H-E-G-A-R-T-Y.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir. Glad to see you, Mr. Haggerty. Good to see you as well, Chair. Good morning,
Board members, the proposed zoning in the comprehensive plan proposes no change from
the existing RSA 5 single-family zoning at this location. However, the proposed use is consistent
with the physical configuration of the building, and requiring single-family use at this site would
be a clear hardship for the owner. The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board
grant the variance. Thank you. MI 2022-004-357-1439 Fanshawe Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you. You have your votes. Thank you.
okay so we're going to go now to number five
we have a series of five cases um that are related but will be heard separately
so number five mi 2022 006 090 818 north 40 street darwin beauvais is the attorney
Leonard Reuter will be appearing for the city. There's a letter of support from Belmont Alliance Civic Association. The project is strongly supported by Councilmember Gauthier. There's a received waiver letter from the Department of Planning and Development as well as authorization letter from the Redevelopment Authority.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
How are you, sir? Could you please state your name and spell for the court's sonographer?
How are you, sir?
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, first.
Yes. First name Darwin, last name Beauvais. That's B-E-A-U-V as in victory, A-I-S as in Sam, from the law firm of Omeya.
You swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
So help me God.
Thank you. Leonard?
I am just curious if nothing else for my own edification, is Leonard here to represent
phdc in support uh i i believe so um um brian
so we i mean i i i think we're okay to proceed even without leonard we did receive the waiver
letters um good great yeah that's right okay darwin proceed okay just trying to hold on one minute um
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the documents and exhibits that are needed and required to proceed with this case?
Yes, I have.
Thank you, counsel.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, good morning. Thank you for having me. Again, my name is Darwin Beauvais. I'm from the law firm of Obermeyer, located at 1500 Market Street.
Today, I bring to you a great project with several applications that are connected together for an affordable housing project that's supported by PHDC, as well as the Pennsylvania Finance Agency, PHFA.
It is a low-income tax credit project. Here in particular, our exhibits for this particular address range from exhibits 1 through 16, where we have our referral, we have site plans, we have a memorandum of law, we have our zoning notice letter, we have our photograph and our authorization letter.
um also in the chat and if they could be identified because I'll most likely turn to them
we have Mr. Michael Thorpe who is the executive director of the Mount Vernon CDC which is the
owner and principal of of the official owner North 40th Street LP um and if we can also identify
the architect, Ian Toner, who I will be asking questions shortly.
So as I mentioned, this is a, let's just go to the referral.
as you can see we have a referral our application is for three dwelling units as well as having
an assembly slash entertainment area on the ground floor.
In other words, a multi-use facility
that could be used for community events.
If Mr. Ian Toner could be promoted
because I would like to walk the board
through our floor plans.
As you see here.
please. While that's happening, you could see the site plan. We're on the corner of 40th Street here
and Reno Street here. And here is our elevation. We're a slight rendering. We comply with every
with all the dimensions. And this particular application is a referral only because we're
not providing any ground floor activity as required and described in CME. But nonetheless,
And here are elevations.
our floor plans now Mr. Toner
is he on if you can just
Mr. Toner
Darwin why don't you walk us through
Okay. So what you're looking at here is the first floor with the entrance, and there is a management office, as well as two restrooms, as well as a kitchen area, and then the open space.
Like we mentioned before, Mount Vernon CDC is a community development corporation.
They've been in the Mantua section of Philadelphia, of West Philadelphia, for several years.
And they feel that they, one, have a pulse with the community, but two, also believe that this amenity will greatly serve the community.
Our next floor.
Lauren, I'm here.
I don't know if anyone can hear me.
Oh, we can hear you now.
We can hear you now.
Great.
The first floor.
So why don't you walk us through floors, the next floor?
Mr. Toner, state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer.