So we're down from 24 to 20.
And again, we only have six.
I keep saying we, but my client only has 50 members.
Seventh-day Adventist Church.
This is looking from Castor Avenue.
This is a shot from Castor where my cursor is, Sally on the left.
and this is Casser Avenue again showing the parking spots
and additional parking. Our posters
indicating we did give proper notice.
We do have our proviso plans if the board looks
kindly upon this application. So let me walk through this if I
can. So here is the existing building.
It's squared off. The addition is about
1,200 square feet. It's not for new members, as I think some people at the Vaughnhurst Civic
thought. It's really meeting room and a fellowship hall for the existing members that they can use
after the services and also the meeting rooms, which are located in the basement. So it's a
one-story addition. The building is one story, and we're going to go, my client's going to use
the basement and the first floor. The basement will be four or five meeting rooms, and they're
right here. I'm showing the basement level here. The first floor is over here on the left-hand side
where my cursor is. And that's just one big fellowship hall. You know, they have coffee,
donuts, they have their services. And services, Seventh-day Adventist, their day of obligation
is Saturday. So they use this for about four hours on Saturday and maybe one or two nights a week for
informal meetings. So the parking situation, again, we tried to explain to Ron Hurst that
when we got approval five years ago, we got approved for 20, 21 parking spots. Since that
time, we had to put landscaping in for the planning commission, which we have, and that
ate into some of the parking. Our original proposal had 18 spots because the spots here
where my cursor is, they were on a 35 degree angle
and we lost two spots.
Then after we met with, or talked to Ron Hurst again,
we added two spots by making the spots 45 degree angle.
So we picked up two.
So basically we have 10 spots where my cursor is there
and 10 spots along the top of the property.
This is a more detailed look at the plan,
showing you the landscaping that we had to add to the building and this again took away some of our
parking but in you know all candidness the the four spots that we lost were right here where
the drive aisle was with the expansion so with the expansion i'll blow it up just a little bit
so people can see we have a set of steps that lead down it's really a means of egress and we
also have windows on this side wall here to bring some light and air into the lower level
of where the meeting rooms will be located.
We're not changing anything inside the building
or the atrium.
We're just adding, as I said,
about 1,200 square feet on the side of the building.
I enclosed this or included this within the package
just to show you what we had approved in 2020.
You know, kind of a bland look, no landscaping.
The spots were very tight here along the top.
And here are the four spots next to the drive aisle that are being lost because of the addition of the building.
These are basically a repetition of what I've attached to the proviso form, Z2 and Z3.
The remaining documents are what one would see in a presentation such as this, project information form.
Our tax, it's not a clearance.
It's just an indication that the real estate taxes are paid up to date.
Zoning map, it is RSA3, but again, this has been a commercial use since at least 1965.
Deed indicating ownership.
Certificate of mailing.
And then I just wanted to go into the zoning record.
So here's the letter from Vaughn Hurst in November of 2019.
You know, unanimous support, basically the same situation that we have now, expansion of the church.
This is our use permit for religious assembly.
When the church first acquired the building, we had to get a change of use.
It was done, you know, basically over-the-counter, change to religious assembly.
This is a zoning permit that was issued May of 2020 for the expansion.
This is a zoning permit that was issued May of 2020 for the expansion of a one-story structure and the existing structure as shown on the application.
And at that point, we had 21 parking spots.
And today we're asking for 20 spots because, again, of the landscaping that has come in between 2020 and today.
This is the application. You can see I filed it. I was involved in this from the get-go.
And this was a refusal back then. As I said, there's no mention about parking then. It was really more about bicycle spaces. And this was the permit, again, issued May of 2020. And you can see permit status expire.
Basically, the pandemic caused the clients to regroup.
And then now that they're back on solid footing, they come before the board again, because
after three years, as you know, unless you get a one-year extension, after three years,
the permit expires.
So I'm asking the board to look kindly upon this application and to basically provide
approval again, as we had in 2020, despite the concerns of Vaughnhurst. I understand it, but
there are other houses of worship in the neighborhood that have no parking at all.
We have a small congregation, and there's been no complaints from anyone that we're aware of,
and no one at the community group complained about the use of the structure by the members,
and they've been, as I said, worshiping at this location since 2018.
We are not impacting the development of any adjacent parcels.
We are not impacting late and air of any adjacent property.
We have no complaints from the neighborhood.
It's in harmony with the prior use of this building.
It's in harmony with the continued use of this building.
And we're not having any detrimental impact through the neighborhood.
So with that, I would ask my client to unmute himself and adopt my testimony.
It's Reverend Marcos Santos.
Reverend, are you on the call?
Reverend Santos, can you raise your hand?
Do we see him?
Yes, they've been promoted to panelists and they should be back in shortly.
Thank you.
reverend santos it takes a little bit over before i get on henry
i know it's been a long day for the board i'm trying to move it along we're fine we're fine
mr santos okay can you hear me hi reverend could you please state your name and spell
for the court stenographer.
My name is Marcos, M-A-R-C-O-S.
Last name Santos?
Yes, Santos, S-A-N-T-O-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Reverend, were you on the call
when I presented the project at your church?
And if you had the opportunity to testify,
would you adopt my testimony as your own and as yes as true and correct yes that's correct
thank you reverend thank you thank you questions from the board
questions from our attorney hillary emerson
um just not so much a question but um um mr clinton we may because of the change to the
landscape um we may need to have this re-reviewed by planning and l and i because depending on what
on what was happened what happened with the landscaping that might generate additional
refusals so i i don't know that we could make the changes via revised plans
with a proviso form so we may have to to do that before the board would vote on this case
so you want me to get an amended refusal then miss emerson i think we probably should unless
you unless you've already talked with planning or had them look at your landscape to see if it
impacted like the percentages that you need to have or the screening or whatnot no i'll go back
i'll get an amended refusal okay all right we can we can do that we can just hold we can do everything
else today but we'll just hold it and once we get the amended refusal the board can vote on it all
All right. That's that sounds fair. Okay, questions or questions or comments from the virtual audience.
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair. Planning. You want to hold your vote or no.
Planning, do you want to hold your vote or no?
Hi, planning is going to hold a vote.
Okay, so that's a resumptive hearing, right?
Yeah, then we'll have to resume.
We'll easily have the amended refusal by the resumption hearing.
So, Hendrick, we're going to have a resumptive hearing on 4-30-25, 2 p.m.
All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone in the audience who's a 2 p.m. case has not been called?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair. OK, thank you. As long as everybody's all right, we're going right into the three thirty.
You want to break? OK, never mind. We'll take a two minute break.
Acknowledged. No, no, three minutes.
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston. Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Tanetta Graham. Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Michael Johns. Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Taya Nguyen. Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and Ian Haggerty, the executive director of the zoning board,
and our supervisor, Lakeisha Dandy.
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at phil.gov before we begin our executive director ian haggerty has an important safety announcement
thank you chair uh we have no in-person attendees in the hearing rooms so we can proceed
Thank you very much. Let's look at our schedule for today. Number one, MI 2024-002. Let me start again. MI 2024-002-432-739 Tyson Avenue. That case is continued to 7.3025 at 3.30 p.m.
Number three, MI 2024-002-704-225 West Seymour Street.
That case is continued to 7.3025 at 3.30 p.m.
And number four, MI 2024-002-714-227 West Seymour Street.
that case has continued to 07-30-25 at 3.30 p.m. Number five, MI 2024-003.
Number five, MI2024, 003143, 2838 Cancel Street.
Alan Bristreth is the listed owner.
This is a pro se.
They will be coming back in as a panelist shortly, Mr.
Good afternoon. This is Albert Bucereth.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Okay, my name is Albert Bucereth, A-L-B-E-R-T.
Last name, B as in boy, U-I-S-S-E-R-E, T as in Tom, H as in Harry.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Sir, we're missing several of your documents.
We don't have a deed or lease agreement.
Am I correct, Hillary?
Our attorney will go over this with you.
Well, we don't have proof that you met with the RCO.
We don't have a letter you sent to them or a letter that they sent to you.
Summarizing the meeting, we don't have a proof of ownership or interest in the property like a deed or lease.
We don't have proof of tax compliance.
and we don't have photos of the property
other than the photo of the front door
showing the zoning poster.
So we need all of those things
and that the list of required documents
is sent to you with your zoning posters.