So if you have any questions about that,
you can reach out to the zoning board office
and they can assist you.
So Albert, just call the office
and they'll help you get together
everything you need for the next hearing.
Do you understand?
So yes, I understand.
the deed um rco letter which well why don't you do this why don't you do this why don't you call
the office and then go over with them okay all right sir in this case is going to be continued
to 7 30 25 at 3 30 p.m okay thank you okay
thank you very much we're going to go to number two
MI 2024-002-446-1715 North 56th Street.
Darlene Treat is the listed attorney.
There's a letter of opposition
from Overbrook West Neighbors Incorporated.
I'll be coming back in as a panel shortly, Mr. Chair.
good afternoon commissioners darling three on behalf of the applicants
just for the record could you please spell your name for the court stenographer
d-a-r-l-e-n-e freak t as in thomas h-r-e-a-t-t as in thomas 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 the
relationship to this property? My client is Mr. Orgy. He should be on the line. He is the owner
of the property. Board member Graham has a few questions for you. Good afternoon. Did you submit
your documents five days in advance of this hearing? Yes. And do you agree to waive the
reading of refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. Okay, you can share your screen and
proceed. Thank you.
Can you see my screen?
We can.
Good afternoon, Commissioners. I'm Darlene Thread and I'm here
representing 1715 North 56th Street. Commissioners, this is an
existing auto body shop. We actually have an existing auto
body repair license, but we got a zoning violation a couple years ago, and I'm here to correct the
zoning violation. I submitted a package of exhibits, 11 exhibits, and I'm going to go through a couple
of the exhibits now. Thank you. Here is the refusal. This is CMX2, and we applied for personal
vehicle repair and maintenance and an existing structure uh commissioners i submitted a host
of documents i'm not going to go through all of them but i'm going to go through the pertinent
ones commissioner on this place has been existing as an auto body shop it was built as an auto body
shop back in 1950 i'm just going to switch here to the philadelphia property information you can
see way back in 1950. It was actually built as an auto service garage. I'm just
So I'm just going to scroll all the way down to the end. I added some documents that I did not submit in the board to the board, but I wanted to also show you that as far back as
going to scroll all the way down to the end. I added some documents that I did not
as 2005 this place was operating and had a motor vehicle repair license uh commissioners uh my
client lou motors would like to operate an auto repair business out of this location i'm going to
first just show you a picture of the location this is a lose auto service it's across the street from
the big shopping plaza on north 56th street a little auto service operates from monday to
Saturday from 10 to 5. I'm going to pull up the plans for you here, and I'm just
going to reduce them and I'll go through them slowly.
So Commissioner, first I'd like to show you this is the front elevation of the
building. This is where you come into the garage. It's a pretty big structure here. It's about 7,000
square feet. The interior of the building is about 3,500 and the actual outside which I'll
show you later which is through these doors is also an additional 3,500 square feet. Right here
is just a side elevation of the building and over here we have
the rear elevation of the building.
Now I'm going to show you the layout of the building, which is here in the site plan.
As you can see, you would come through the...
these are the two big roll down gates that you saw in the front of the building back behind the
gates we have a large outdoor area which i'll show you pictures of a little later where we
park our cars that we're working on and this is the interior workspace of the garage we have one
two three four five six we have a six bays this is a picture of the um street looking north there's
a big shopping mall over here and our garage is over on this side i have some additional pictures
that i'll show you this is the interior this is the big roll down gate that you would come through
in the front and we have a huge area inside here where we park the cars no cars are parked outside
no cars are left outside and there is no work done on the outside of this property
i took some pictures of the interior to show you the lifts and how the cars are situated inside
we have a little teeny we have a bathroom in a corner office upstairs there's some
additional lift space where we bring the cars inside to work on the cars
that's a additional picture of the outside again as i showed you from the site plan we have
quite a few bays here we park all our cars inside the property but in the outside
our area overnight and when they're not being worked upon.
That's just an additional picture of how the inside of the facility looks.
That's an outside picture of the facility. There are really no houses that's immediately
adjacent to us. This is our property here. There's another little garage here, and I'll show you later
there's another little garage on this side that's not our property, but there are no residences
right on where we are on this block and that's a look of the block going
looking south down 56th Street again the big shopping plaza mall is over here and
these are the residential houses that are down the block
this is the left side as you can see this is a vacant garage next to us which is not ours
this is the left side as you can see
and then there's some houses on the street there but there are no houses in our
right next to our property again we don't do any auto body fender any auto body painting or body
and fender work so we have no noxious fumes or anything coming from the facility that's a little
better picture of the mall which is located or the plaza which is located directly across
the street from the body shop just another look at the street going south the street going north
the bus comes up that street and some additional interior pictures and that's a picture of the
posting of the property. I also want to just flip back here a little bit. There's the deed.
I want to show you that we have a current motor vehicle repair retail mobile dispensing license
to operate this facility. Again, this facility has been here since 1950 and in some fashion
or another has always operated
as an auto repair shop.
Commissioners, we did
notice a meeting with Overbrook
Neighbors West Association.
I sent out
the notices on January 18th.
The meeting was
January the 28th.
also flyered the neighborhood with
their OWN flyer for
the meeting.
I have to say that we sent out 114 notices, and you can see from the information that the Civic Association sent in, there were only two people that attended the meeting, one opposed and one was no opposition.
I had to say I was quite surprised to see that we got a lot of opposition.
I attended the meeting along with my client, and they asked us a lot of questions about the facility,
but there was absolutely no complaint about noise, about smells, about working outside, about loitering, about cars parked outside, etc.
Commissioners, I would be remiss if I didn't address this issue.
I also wanted to show you that as far back as 2005, there was an auto repair license at this facility.
Commissioner, when Mr. Allen sent in his letter, he indicated that he had called someone that signed a petition who indicated they didn't sign the petition.
I was quite disturbed by that, and I actually contacted Ms. Bridget McGinn, and I hope Ms. McGinn is on the line today.
If she is, I would like to ask her a couple of questions, if that's okay.
When we get to the audience.
Okay, so, Commissioners, if you take a look at the Civic Association letter, there's absolutely no complaint in this letter from anybody at the meeting in regard to the operation, to the hours, to loitering, to oil on the ground, to noxious smells, to anything like that.
This has been a business that I think has a good rapport with the community, and I'm going to ask that our request for a variance be granted.
And with that, if Ms. McGinn is on the line, I'd like to ask us some questions.
If not, I'd like to ask my client, Mr. Orgy.
Why don't we do this?
Why don't you bring your client first, and then when I open it up to the virtual audience, she's there.
Okay, so why don't you bring your client?
Mr. Orgy, are you on the line?
he's coming in
sure i have a bridget mcginn she's a panelist at this time
who's that bridget mcginn bridget mcginn is someone who uh signed the petition okay okay
do we see the owner of the place
okay so we don't see your owner
so we'll go to Bridget
Bridget could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer
Bridget McGinn
B-R-I-G-E-T-T-E
G-E-T-T-E-M-C-G-I-N-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Darlene, do you have questions?
Miss McGinn, do you operate a business in the plaza across the street from IU Motors?
Are you familiar with IU Motors providing automobile repair services to the community?
And do you support the continued operation of IU Motors at 1715 North 56th Street?
And, Ms. McGinn, have you or any of your clients or customers had the opportunity to use IU Motors for auto repair services?
And you support this application?
That's all I have for Ms. McGinn, Commission.
Thank you.
And your client did not answer, so you're an officer of the court.
We'll take your testimony.
Questions from the board?
what were the specific uh opposite uh comments for opposition from the rco
honestly mr john if we go back to the letter i don't see any opposition in the letter they did
ask us a lot of questions and here they are they asked us um how how were we operating when uh we
were in front of the uh zoning board and i explained that generally when i file a zoning
petition, I call the inspector and I say, I'm trying to clear this violation. And generally,
they work with you. They asked us whether or not the cars parked at the end of the block
came from our facility. And we answered no. In this area, at the end of this block where there's
a vacant lot and there's, I believe, a bus stop, people do park cars there and put for sale signs
on them. But we do not park cars there. We do not sell cars there. And we related that in the
meeting. Besides that, the only other questions that we had in the meeting was how is title and
salvage done? And what happens to cars when they can't pass the inspection? And my clients
answered those questions. Besides that, I don't recall any other complaint or opposition in the
meeting. Frankly, I was surprised when I got
a lot of opposition.
Any other questions on the board?
Questions or comments
from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time,
Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the
virtual audience?
Chair, Malachi
is trying
to call in. His
chat seems to have been
disabled i can go on to speak if you wish yep please put him on
hello mr orgy
can we get him hello they're unmuted all right sir could you unmute
Maliki
I think we're okay with
what we have
questions or comments
from the virtual audience
Gregory
Ellen had their hand raised they've been allowed to speak
Chair and board
thank you
sure could you please do me a favor state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes gregory g-r-e-g-o-r-y allen a-l-l-e-n you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes i do mr allen are you a neighbor i live in overbook i am not a
okay please proceed sir so i am the chair of the rco um and to be plain about it i you know i you
know me i call balls and strikes so i was just as surprised as um mr malachi and the owner of the
attorney that this was an opposition um i am both the um charity rco and the manager of the corridor