were living there. But the real thing that I want to enforce here is I don't need to maximize
profit. I just need to be cash flow neutral. And that's the reason why I've explained to the
management company, you may not advertise this openly. In addition to the professional management
company, we also have what I'm calling a doorstep manager, somebody that I hired that lives one and
a half blocks away to be able to attend to any problems immediately. For example, the fridge
broke a few days ago. And although we didn't have a tenant in there, he was in there taking care of
within 10 minutes. And the reason that we want to make sure that that's available, that extra level
of security and attentiveness is because if there are any concerns about noise ever, I want it dealt
with right away. I'm aware of the owner at 614 South Front. I have confronted that owner.
There are, I found out this morning that there are a number of my neighbors who also want to
file complaints against this person but specifically haven't done it yet because they knew of me and
this meeting and they didn't want to disrupt my ability to get permission to do this right so
this so i think this guy should be shut down but i want so so why don't we do this why don't we
just concentrate on where you are yeah we'll let him over there okay so is there anything else you
want to add? Yes. One final thing. I have a good reputation in Philadelphia. My primary business
is wealth management. We are a registered benefit corporation. Charity and philanthropy in this city
have been a major part of my life. If you look me up, you'll find a lot of participation. And this
has nothing to do with the property, but it has to do with character. And I think the decision to
make on this does, in fact, have to do a lot with character. And so I wanted to mention that.
Thank you very much.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Yeah, go ahead.
Did you?
Was that for me?
Well, you can go ahead.
I wasn't sure who else tried to chime in.
Under the visitor accommodation statute, you have to be registered with one of the companies that.
one of the companies that offers these kinds of short-term rentals, like Vroom, is it, or Airbnb
or whatever. You're talking about using your own private management company, which means you're
asking for not just the variance for short-term rentals, but you're also asking for a variance
from the oversight that is specified in the statute.
So I'm a little concerned here that it would put the city in the position of trying to police on its own
every short-term rental situation because, again, they count on and rely upon these
organizations to do screening of tenants, making sure that the folks who are renting
short-term are paying the taxes, collecting and paying the taxes, seeing to trash disposal
and the other parts of this. So I'm a little concerned that what we would be doing is
saying that you get to do things for short-term rentals that no one else gets to do.
No, ma'am. Let me explain. We will be using those companies. Airbnb, Vrbo, we will be using those. The management company was hired for two purposes, to help with the, I say the advertising, but mostly they were hired specifically because the limitations that we will be implementing exceed the limitations of Airbnb.
There is no way on Airbnb to limit visitors to specifically no more than four adults.
So we have a second layer of limitation.
The other reason that they were hired is to extremely proactively deal with any problems,
because even though I'm not that far away, I'm still over an hour away.
So things like cleaning services, if a pipe were to break,
This management company will be listing on Airbnb, on Vrbo. We will not be doing this ourselves. So to reassure you, we're not stepping out of that box.
the management company is to reiterate because the limitations that I've set forth for the type
of renter exceeds the limitations of Airbnb. We can do a higher depth of screening and also to
have a professional management company to be able to deal with things that go wrong, power adages,
a toilet is broken, things like that. But to assure you, we will be using those resources,
is Airbnb, Vrbo, and I'm sure there's a bunch of other ones, but we will not be stepping aside
that. This is an additional layer. So what does that look like? What does that look like for
someone who wants to rent? Who am I contacting? Well, you'd still go through Airbnb. So if you
do an Airbnb, you'd go through Airbnb and Airbnb would connect you to the owner. In this case,
when they connect to the owner, they're going to be connecting it to this company so that they can
do further vetting. It would work exactly the same thing, except there's a professional at the end of
that line instead of me, who's not a real estate guy. So it would work exactly the same for a
potential renter. I guess my question is, can you, how do I ask this question? I like the idea,
quite frankly, but is it legal, but can you do that? Can you restrict? You can do that.
You can. I mean, let's just be real. You know, we live we live in a free world. I mean, people can do their very best to lie. But that said, we are allowed to put our own restrictions. We are allowed to restrict to certain sizes of groups or certain number of adults. We absolutely do can do that because all of these companies allow the owner.
So I'm just like, so like you said, four adults, but a 21 year old is an adult. So you can say I want four adults that have to be 30 years older. I'm just trying to figure that. Can you do that? I just, I mean, I just asked the question.
Yeah, you can. We're going to try. We're going to try because I don't want any bachelor parties in my view.
why why i'm sorry you're you're saying you're going to uh list with a a one of
uh list with a a one of these whatever short-term rental type companies like airbnb yeah like airbnb
if that's the one you choose um but you're saying that somehow or another you have to have
extra cleaning services or whatever i don't understand and or maintenance services that
would be something you would be required to do whether it's a short-term rental or not
If you have to provide a basic and part of the statute talks about the fact that you have to notify and make sure that your tenants in this Airbnb are notified of trash collection services and provided the opportunity to either collect trash themselves.
themselves for you or you collect the trash so that's all part of the whole
that's the intent there's being airbnb is in effect the management company so you're saying
you're going to have a management company and then tell the management company that you have
that well you've got another management company airbnb is not a management company really if i
may. They're not really a management company. They're a broker. So it's my responsibility to
provide a cleanly environment. It's my responsibility to take care of all of those
things. And one of those things is just hospitality. If somebody arrives at my house and maybe the code
they have for the door is not working, I'm a really busy guy and I might not see that message
right away. A lot of Airbnb-ers hire these companies. I don't know what the statistic is,
but my guess is at least 25% of them hire companies because not all owners and hosts
have the ability to respond to questions very, very quickly. So to make sure that there's no
problems, a lot of people hire management companies to basically do what the owner would do
with Airbnb. But Airbnb doesn't manage the property. Like Airbnb doesn't provide
housekeeping services. They require that you have it, but they don't provide it.
that i said that part of the statute requires that you as the person who is has the visitor
accommodation uh uh uh permit and license have to provide for um the uh trash disposal
however you manage it but that's part of what you require to do yes ma'am
And I'm sorry, maybe I'm, I don't understand how this is somehow better in any way, in the sense that we can't monitor anything like this.
We can't, if that's what you want to do as part of getting your visitor accommodation license and permit and then signing up with whoever you have this with, you can do this without us having anything to do with it.
we don't we don't get to tell you who you get to have this with and we don't get to tell you
how you manage it but you still would be responsible as a lessor but but so so so let
me let me try to bring some cheryl let me bring some focus to this i mean it's done like this
because he's not living in the city so we get people and the first thing we say to people
who do you have somebody to manage it and that's what he's basically saying that he hired this
company to manage it through airbnb that's fine i don't i don't have any problem in doing this but
if it's if it's that somehow or another our our job here is to just say yes we want uh you to if
If we're going to grant this, then how you manage those kind of services that we can ask if you have it, but that's fine.
But what you have or our involvement in it is just to say, hey, we would expect you as someone who's renting the property to take care of maintenance, upkeep, collecting trash, making sure that the tenants have a habitable property.
all of those things are things that you would do anyhow.
And the other thing is that as a,
uh uh most of these services do ratings so if you're somebody who is um doing this on a regular
most of these services do ratings.
So if you.
basis your tenants have an opportunity to do ratings and say yes this is a great place it's
near whatever the the management was you know responsive when i asked for this or i had a
problem with that sure sure yeah sure i think i think i think he was just kind of saying that
i'm going to go above and beyond and this this is right so i'm going to manage it but i'm going
to manage it this way because i'm using these great folks that are going to manage it for me
they do this professionally and you're not living local but then that's living local
then that's fine that's fine it's not a you know i think that's a good thing yeah michael you said
it i'm really almost trying to advertise and i'm trying to take steps to go above and beyond i got
it yeah and thank you cheryl i appreciate your questions and your concerns and again i just want
to reiterate i just want to reiterate he's coming back to this house so it's it's very important to
him that he takes that he's on top of that so that when he comes back he's coming back to what he
left that's it all right okay any other questions for the board questions or comments from our
attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair is there comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a hand up by the name of claudia martin she has been allowed to speak
thank you hi could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
my name is claudia martin c-l-a-u-d-i-a-m-a-r-t-i-n and i swear affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do, sir. And are you a neighbor? I'm a neighbor. I'm
the new neighbor at 602 South Front Street. And this is a horrible way to meet your new neighbor.
And I apologize for that. No, please respond. Please comment. So I guess my question and our
question is, what is, you know, is this a legal precedent where, okay, 610 got the variance,
We want it at 614. You've already done this. And this is just another step. It's, you know, I sort of have a trust problem, you know, of, yes, it all sounds fabulous and easy now.
And we're just going to do for these families and to two adults.
And I don't know how many people will actually how much money that will pay, et cetera.
But it's hard to control people having guests over, et cetera.
And it's not our jobs as neighbors to be supervising.
I thought that you had to be looking at the statute that to have the short term rental in Philadelphia, you had to be a six month resident.
That was your primary residence. You were there six months a year. Is that not the case?
That's if that's if you're getting a limited lodging license.
That's a limited lodging license.
And I understand, I think, Ms. Martin, I think you just moved into the neighborhood a couple of months ago.
And, you know, certainly you already have somebody there who's, you know, going hog wild and not doing anything they're supposed to.
But that's not the case here.
And it's not, you know, every case stands on its own.
And again, this is a...
Dorothy, Dorothy. Hold on. Let me answer the question. So the issue is each case is different.
Okay. And each case would have to come forward and we'd have to take a look at it.
Okay. I hear that. I just, it's, it's not just me who's complaining. These are all the neighbors.
They sort of brought me in. So this is their concern. I understand. I understand. I understand.
Mr. Chair, can I add one comment that I think might help on this?
Now, hold up, hold up, please. I got to move on with this case a little bit here, right? Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Excuse me, chair. Before we let the next person testify, as a reminder, they are here to testify for testimony only, not to ask questions.
I understand. Thank you.
Yes, chair. I have a hand up by the name of Lindsay Scanafieco. She has been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hi, my name is Lindsay, L-I-N-D-S-E-Y, last name Scanapico, S-C-A-N-N-A-P-I-E-C-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And are you a neighbor?
And are you a neighbor?
I am. I'm at 766 South Front Street.
I'm at 766 South Front Street.
Please proceed.
Hi, I just, I just, I share the concerns that have already been expressed.
This is a very residential neighborhood, and I appreciate some of the offers that have
been made about this being for two adult families.
However, I don't know if that's violated what we as neighbors or as a board you're able
to do to then quote like shut it down if it's not working is what i would say i think that's
the main question that i saw so i so lindsey i think what happened is when when the neighborhood
group and the council person heard about this they've set forward that this is not something
that's going to be here it's for one year they're asking for one year and at the end of the year
they can evaluate and the neighbors will have input to where it stands okay i appreciate that
thank you oh well thanks thank you very much for calling is there anyone else
hold on somebody's speaking there um planning commission
thank you chair bergman and good afternoon david effecto 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.
Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RM1, residential multifamily zoning at this location.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the proposed use variance for visitor accommodation.
Thank you, David.
MI 2023-006-215-610-South Front Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Temporary variance, that expires 7-18-25.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tana Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston.
My vote is no.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2024-001-168-8400 East Roosevelt Boulevard.
Number D, Stephanie Boggs Magna is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the Ron Hurst Civic Association.
Vote was, looks like 20 to the sixth, 20 to nine.
and michael johns is going to recuse himself for this particular case yes i'm turning off
thank you michael good afternoon thank you counsel could you please state your name and
spell for the courts to knock sure stephanie magania s-t-e-p-h-a-n-i-e last name is m-a-g-a-g-n-a
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 and the relationship to the property?
My client is Penny Pack Associates LP. They're the owner and the applicant for this application.
Do you stipulate to the reading and also the accuracy of the refusal?
Yes, I do.
And have you turned in all of your paperwork within five days?
Yes, I have.