And we have been living there for the past 30 years.
and their house has been built since 1930s so I just feel having a structure this height and
magnitude that will when they're in construction it will be detrimental to the properties in the
area surrounding like all the buildings on you know next to it because we're older building and
our foundation is weak and and it's not as strong as you know a lot of the you know especially our
basement is really um you know this we need to you know do a lot of work and to have all that
drilling and uh building i think is going to be very detrimental to the structure and the
foundation damages to the surrounding you know properties thank you and when i live there
it always have been a you know uh you know uh family oriented residential uh street you know
to have like a commercial you know building coming in and especially with the traffic coming in is
you know we have all they have enough uh problem you know finding parking and to have that you know
i think it's going to be really detrimental to to the uh our area and the street all right thank
you very much for calling in mr jen do you have any questions uh no mr lee do you have any questions
no your honor thank you is there anyone else in the virtual audience see no he is chair
Planning Commission. Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning
Commission. Board members, in 2014, the zoning map was amended from CMX-3 to RM-1 in this area.
We believe the applicant's hardship claims not supported with evidence of unique physical
circumstances or conditions of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformance
with the code. The adjacent non-conforming development is not grounds for hardship and
nor is the presence of more permissive zoning districts in the vicinity.
The zoning map here has been intentionally reconfigured to have RM1 on this block face.
With regard to the dwelling unit count, we believe the application would have been eligible
for the mixed income housing bonus and green roof bonuses, but neither is being used here.
Applicants are asking the board to allow additional dwelling units on this site,
despite not providing the required benefits.
With regard to the proposed height variance, the proposed height of 71 feet is 33 feet higher than permitted.
We don't believe sufficient evidence has been presented to explain why such a significant difference is necessary to enable viable economic use of the property or why this is the minimum necessary variance.
So the City Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny these variances.
Mr. Haggerty, thank you for your comments.
For both counsel, thank you for your comments.
I'm going to take this to the executive session next Wednesday.
I'm going to take this to the executive session next Wednesday, and we will vote on this at 930 a.m. next Wednesday.
And thank you both, Army.
Thank you.
But I don't I didn't hear whether or not the exhibits that Mr.
Jinn proffered were going to be offered in evidence.
I think I said they were.
I think I said that.
OK, I wasn't sure that I said everything he put in, it's going to be in.
but we're going to take this to executive session, discuss it among ourselves. We will vote next
Wednesday at 9.30 a.m. Okay, Your Honor, I do have an objection. Again, I joined this late to
Exhibit 12, an exhibit on the basis of hearsay. So Exhibit 12 is the appeal document to the
Zoning Board of Adjustment, and it contains hearsay. And I only object to the extent that
the statements in the reasons for the appeal and the statements given for the granting of the
variance be considered by the board for the truth of what they say. If Mr. Jin agrees that it's only
to provide notice to the board of what he's contending, I don't have an objection. But if
they're being offered for the truth, as if everything he says there is true and has already
been proved, I object on the ground of hearsay. We're presenting that to the board. Mr. Jin,
Mr. Jinn, I hear your comments, Mr. Lee, but I am accepting what he put in.
And we will look at everything that's been said, take this into consideration, and we will vote next Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.
Thank both of you.
Thank you.
And excuse me, Chair, if I may, this is Mr. Jinn.
The record is closed otherwise.
Oh, absolutely.
The record is closed.
Thank you.
Number three, MI-2023-001-266-112 North 2nd Street, number 5A1, Matthew Monroe is the attorney.
Recommendation of support from the Old City District.
Letter of non-opposition from Councilman Squillett.
Mr. Monroe.
Hi, Mr. Monroe.
Monroe, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Sure thing. Good morning, Chairman Bergman, members of the board, Matthew Monroe, M-A-T-T-H-E-W-M-O-N-R-O-E, on behalf of the applicant.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
uh yes your honor uh and if you if you may just a second while i share my screen um
is my screen coming up here it is it's fine okay i'm uh joined today by steven caladrino
who is a representative of the uh the owner um uh which is the uh commercial space located at
112 North 2nd Street. This is unit number 5A1. The proposal is for a retail sale of specialty
paired Italian foods. Mr. Monroe, our vice chair just has a few questions for you first.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to
its accuracy? I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
Thank you. Please proceed. You have already shared your screen.
Thank you. And yes, so Chairman Bergman, this is a simple use change for the commercial space.
And is my volume coming in okay?
You're fine. You're fine. It's fine this time. All right. Thank you.
Great. This is a simple use change for commercial space located at 112 North 2nd Street. This is at the National East Condominium Complex. It's a 193-unit apartment complex condo building.
And this is a proposed use for the retail sale of specially prepared foods, Italian foods and wines for on site and off site consumption.
And like I said, this is a mixed use building and this is a commercial space.
I'll just run quickly through the documents that we presented.
And over here we we have the deed.
The referral. This is for a special exception.
this is in old city and pursuant supplemental use controls in the city city center city overlay
district we have our application for appeal as well as the project information form filled out
the rco notice letter which went out and we had a well-attended meeting from the old with the old
city district rco and here's our certificate of bulk mailing we posted the property appropriately
as you can see. And then we have some site plans and just photos for the use.
And then we have some site plans and just photos for the use. And here's our support letter. And then we do have a tax clearance showing zero tax balance for the property.
um and chairman bergman as i mentioned this is just a simple use change and there have been
other similar businesses that operated in this area without any impact on streets or transportation
we submit that this special exception will not cause any congestion congestion in the public
streets or transportation uh systems beyond what would be expected for a normal user
there have been other similar businesses in the area that have operated without any impact
And there was one business, a business located at 227 Market Street, and that was under use permit number 610617.
It was a similar Italian grocer and wine store called Pino.
They closed due to COVID, and Mr. Calendrino and his partners are the commercial owners of this space.
And they've been marketing the space and trying to find a user for it and had been unable to do so.
So rather than to try to keep the empty space, they decided to bring in a use that was now missing from the neighborhood that was popular at the time and to sort of provide an amenity for the community.
And so they are going to be the owner operators themselves of the space.
and we submit that the proposed use will have no material impact on the public streets or systems.
Foot traffic is a primary means of travel down in Old City. People will get there by Uber and
the occupancy is a CMX3 zoning district and this will you know attract a relatively small crowd but
a dedicated crowd but it's not you're not going to see like the type of crowding that you see
outside of like nightclubs or anything like that. It's just a small Italian store. Other by right
uses have been had similar occupances in the area. This was last used as yoga studio. It's been dark
for a little while now. And there's other uses in the area that we're all living in the city
are familiar with. ICI, Macarons Cafe, among others. It's not going to impact the adequate
air supply of air and light because it's to use change only no changes to the exterior of the
building and um we also submit that there's not going to be any impact on the water and sewer
system in part this is well this is going to be a grocery store um there's not going to be any
cooking or venting so there's not going to be grease or food waste impacting um uh the sewer
water waste lines um the shop is just going to be serving an amenity in the community and um with
that. Why don't you bring your client on? Yes, and Mr. Calendrino, if you could just raise your
virtual hand, please. Stephen Calendrino has been allowed to speak. Hi, sir. Could you state your
name, please, and spell for the court stenographer? Calendrino, S-T-E-P-H-E-N-C-A-L-A-N-B-R-I-N-O.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do uh thank you uh mr calendrina did you hear the factual statements that i made for the record
yes um and uh to your knowledge were they accurate yes do you adopt them as your testimony
yes thank you questions from the board no mr chairman
no chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission thank you chair ian hegarty for the philadelphia city
planning commission board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing cmx3
zoning we believe the proposed use will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood
beyond what normally might be expected for the use and so the city planning commission
recommends that the board grant this special exception. Thank you. MI 2023-001-266-112
North 2nd Street, number 5A1, I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell,
my vote is yes. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you. Thank you, counsel. Thank you.
Number six, MI-2022-005-715-1801 Rittner Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the Drada State Neighbors Association.
Mr. Jin, just state your name for the record, please.
You've already been sworn.
good afternoon good morning it's almost after just state your name for the record please
Good morning.
It's almost afternoon.
yes zen jin on behalf of the applicant okay could you identify your client and the relationship to
the property yes uh my client is uh mr yi jiao and miss lee ball they're the owner of the property
okay and our vice chair has just a few questions for you sir
good morning counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to
with accuracy. Good morning, and I do. I've emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that
are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing. Yes. Thank you. Please
proceed. Thank you. I'm sharing the documentation we previously submitted to the board. This is
an application that we submitted the refusal, support letter, photos, and plans. This is an
application for use as a two-family dwelling in a RSA 5 zoning district. However, I want to point
out that this was previously a CMX district in the history of the records, and that's kind of
what led us to this application today. So looking at the community support letter, when we presented
this to the RCO, they're well aware of the history of the property, that it was for many years
used as a resident above and an office below.
The property itself is structurally separated
for many years because it was essentially
a commercial mixed-use property.
The property is a corner property as well.
So the fact that it was commercially mixed-use
is not unusual because it is a corner property
and many such properties in Philadelphia
was structured this way.
Currently, the property below,
in fact, right before it was sold to my client,
It was used as an office.
However, the owner actually put a kitchen in the back part of the property, which at
the time was a legal commercial use as an office, and essentially made it into what
looked like a residential property without structurally changing much of the interior
layout.
They had a front office, a rear office, and a kitchen bathroom, which once they vacated,
the office use looked much like a one-bedroom apartment.
So when my client purchased the property, she was under the impression that, I'm sorry, I don't know why I didn't jump to the plans.
Let me, okay, I'll have to scroll to the plans.
I'm sorry.
So you can see in the pictures that, again, the property itself on the first floor is structured, typical of commercial mixed use.
It had the two water heaters, two electric meters.
All these were in place previous to my client purchasing it.
From the layout inside, as you can see here, I'm going to zoom in for the board.
You have what is essentially a front room, hallway, kitchen.
There is a storage, so trash is kept inside, even if it was used as a residential.
The second floor has a separate entrance altogether, leading with a stair up to the second floor.
The community supported our request to simply make this two residential units.
That corner is not really active commercially, nor does the neighbors really want an active commercial use there.
Therefore, they supported our request to simply use the first floor as one residential unit and the second floor, which is an existing residential unit, to remain.
And that is, in fact, what we're proposing to the board.
I would point out there would be a hardship to convert this to an actual single-family house because of existing structure, and this is not something my client created.
And that concludes my testimony on this matter.
I do have my client here to verify my testimony.
Bring your client on, please.
Thank you.
Ms. Lee or Mr. Zhao, if you're here, please raise your hand virtually.
Mr. Zhao is free to speak.
Hi, sir.
Could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hi, my name is Ye Zhao.
I'm sorry.
My apologies.
I must have gotten the names confused.
Okay, that's okay.
That's okay.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.