Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing today's
meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our board secretary,
Sheila L. Gaston. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman. Board member Taya Nguyen, who should be here any minute,
and our board member, Ryan McAdams. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also here
Here is our Board Attorney today, Ryan McSherry, our ZBA Director, Ian Haggerty, and our Board
Administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
This hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the ZBA website.
By participating, you consent to be recorded.
This is an in-person meeting with remote participation.
whether in person or on zoom if you're called to speak please state and spell your name
and then wait to be sworn in after that state your name each time before you testify
to enter the appearance indicate indicate the property address while going on your zoom webinar
speak with a staff member
call the zba office by the close of business tomorrow please call 215-686-2429
and provide your name your email and the case address
for remote participation raise your virtual hand when when directed so we can call you to speak
when you call when we call on you please hit the joint the panel button use the q a only when you
talk about procedural issues, no comments about a case. And if you are joining by phone,
dial star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmoot. In-person participation.
If testifying, get close to the microphone so that all attendees and the court reporter can
hear you. No talking, eating, or drinking during the hearing. Aggressive behavior will not be
tolerated in the in an emergency following instructions from the staff the main exit is
through the rear doors the nearest stairs is to the left if we evacuate please go to love park
across art street and please remain there so that we can account for you so let's look at our schedule
for this for this morning
number one
MI 2024
Ken Kimbler
Avenue Steve
Gal Galang
is the listed owner
we have no exhibits
this is the fifth fifth listing good morning chair this is jasmine and i will be your co-host
for this morning session i see no one in the audience with that name so mi 2024 004 576
59 63 kimber street kimber avenue i vote to dismiss
johns my vote is to dismiss cheryl gaston my vote is to dismiss
ryan mcadams my vote is to dismiss
that's enough right yeah we're good okay so number number three
MI 2025 001 562 1315 North 47th Street Stanley Ellenberg is the attorney
we've had multiple listings with this is the attorney present
sure take a seat please
Sure. Take a seat please. You're an attorney, right? Good. Come on. Sit down. Thank you.
Hi. Get the mic nice and close. Could you please state your name? Drew Benison. And spell it for
the stenographer. B-E-N-N-I-S-O-N. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth nothing but the trace case yes truth could you tell us where the status of this
case is uh we haven't been able to uh post the uh property or get uh in contact with the uh community
group if we were given uh 30 days for our continuance we would be able to do this this is
the third listing am i correct yes this is the third listing um could you give us an idea why
this wasn't done already uh my client was out of the country for uh a uh large portion of the uh
this time and we haven't been able to get the uh okay we're going to do this one more time
okay so we're going to continue this to 9 16 26 at 9 30 a.m but that's it you you got to be ready
to go that day at 9 30 9 30 sir thank you right number five
mi 2025 003 170 4200 else else elsinore street this case has been withdrawn
Number seven, MI-2025-004-012, this case has been withdrawn.
Number nine, we're going to bring the attorneys in.
They just want to make what we're hoping is a couple short statements.
So it'll be number nine is MI-2025-005-709-102 West of Val Street.
And number 10 is MI-2025-005-712-100 West of Val Street.
The attorney is Steve Masters and Alan Nockamson.
Mr. Nockamson, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Mr. Masters?
Steve, do we see him in the audience?
Yes, Steve Masters has been allowed to speak.
Good morning, Mr. Masters.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
steve masters n-a-s-t-e-r-s you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do um so what what i want from both of you is a short update as to where we stand with
this particular case i'll start with mr knockamson and then i'll get right to you steve okay good
morning mr chair members of the board alan occamson uh for the apple kids uh this this
zoning matter has been going on for years up and down the courts, most recently remanded back down
here. The parties have come to an agreement in meeting my client, the applicant, as well as
Steve's master's client, the next door neighbor at 104 Duval Street. These are two separate
projects, 100 and 102 West Duval Street. They're both proposed single-family residences.
They have a few refusals. The most relevant to Mr. Master's client is there's a side yard setback that he wanted to have increased, which we did for both properties.
We provided revised plans as part of our presentation materials, such that Mr. Masters' client has a five-foot rear yard, side yard setback between 102 and 104, and then there's also a side yard setback for 100 as well.
There is also an agreement between the parties that's been executed that we put as part of the record, but I just want to state it for the record, because I know this is important for Mr. Masters.
The first item was to increase the width of of the side yard to 5 feet between 102 and 104.
We're decreasing the width of that building structure for 102 to 15 feet for west of all streets.
We are agreeing to install a privacy screen on the third floor rear deck.
We are agreeing to install a privacy screen on the third floor rear deck.
These are not, these are not, you know, the first two are obviously provisos, which are included within a revised plan.
The third one's not.
We're going to remove the tree at our cost that's shared between 102 and 104 west of Wall Street.
30 days from the issuance of a CO for 102 and 100 West Duval Street, we're going to make a
thousand dollar donation in the name of the 104 West Duval Street owners to a charity of their
choice. And, you know, as part of this, the 104 Duval Street owners will withdraw the appeals
with prejudice that's currently pending thank you mr masters update uh well this is a this is a
situation where i agree a hundred percent with the knockinson so um that's what happens when you have
a an agreement between the parties um so we are pleased um that we were able to reach a mutual
understanding uh it's very important to our client that the the side yard be that five five foot um
With which which it which it is within the new plans and that the that the deck that's going to be built on on the 102 property has been totally fenced in with an with an opaque design so that there can't be any spying over over the walls and to into the backyard of my client.
And we are going to withdraw our court appeal as required by the settlement agreement.
And this should be the last that this board hears about this.
Thank you.
Ryan, is that we good?
Thank you.
Thank you both.
All right.
Thank you.
And then we were talking with Hillary.
i don't know how the board wants to handle uh whether it's a new notice of decision or or what
so i'll leave it to the discretion of the board in that respect thank you oh i'm sorry but but it is
but there is a like that i wasn't i haven't seen the the corrected proviso that was um i think
submitted this morning or late yesterday but the but the the proviso should show that the width of
102 is 14 feet um i believe so that we have the full five feet um on on our side okay it does
steve okay great all right thank you both thank you number number 12.
MI 2025 007 182 2800 Allegheny Avenue that case is continued to 9 16 26 at 9 30 a.m.
number 17
number 17 mi 2025 007 236 12 12 12 301
medford road owner is christopher dean
this is the first listing we have no exhibits i see no one in the audience with that name chair
that case will be continued to continue to 9 16 26 at 9 30 n mark must be heard
number 18 mi 2025 007 237 6300 park avenue this case is continued to 9 16 26 at 9 30 a.m
And number 19, MI2025-007-240-2130 North 31st Street.
That case is continued until 9-16-26 at 9.30 a.m.
We're going to go to our add-on list.
Number one, MI 2025, 002, 821, 2226 West Tioga Street.
That case, that matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, May 20th at 9.30 a.m.
Number two, MI 2025, 002, 824, 2224 West Tioga Street.
2224 West Tioga Street, that case has been rescheduled to Wednesday, May 20th, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.
that case is big and re-screwed.
And number three, MI 2022-006-750-6151 Market Street, that case has been rescheduled to Wednesday, May 20th, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.
we're going to move to our first case which is a resumptive hearing
and we need an interpreter for that case please
interpreter chair the interpreter has been promoted to pay thank you very much
Hello, Your Honor. Hello, members of the board.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, of course. My name is Leonel Gillen. First name spelled L-E-O-N-E-L. Last name is Gillen, spelled G-U-I-L-L-E-N.
do you swear or affirm that you will um interpret accurately completely and impartially from english
to spanish and from spanish to english i swear thank you could you please call for us um see here
lydia paulino uh chair this is joe consul i was wondering if uh you called for additional
continuances um i was hoping to put one on the record and i don't mean to interrupt this case but
well i'll tell you what which one is it joe uh three four four five melville
it sorry interpreter don't worry don't worry so mi 2025 004 190 34 45 millville that case
is continued until 9 16 26 at 9 30 a.m thank you chair sorry to bother you no thank you joe
Okay, let's go back here.
Yes, Lidia Polino, yes.
Muy buenos días. La señorita Lidia Polino
se encuentra aquí. Señorita Lidia Polino.
La señorita Lidia Polino se encuentra presente.
Lidia Polino.
chair i see no one in the audience with that name nor do i see a hands a hand raised at this time
how about angie
uh chair could you please your own could you please spell the last name just to verify
f l u f a l u follow thank you y la señorita angie palu angie palu se encuentra presente
la señorita angie palu chair there is no one in the audience with their name
nor is there any hands up at the moment okay um okay so this is a result of hearing um
Council do you sense where we stand with this I mean I I I think it ultimately we'll have to
continue this matter but I mean we have had I know we've had multiple resumption hearings here but
okay yeah so I don't believe there's been any any actual for me I don't believe there's been
Okay, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to continue this one more time and it's going to be marked, must be heard. So could you mention that just in case somebody is listening and say that in Spanish?
Yes, you're right.
Muy bien, entonces, este caso se va a dar continuidad una vez más y la próxima audiencia debe de ser escuchado.
Repito, este caso va a ser continuado una vez más y la próxima audiencia tiene que ser escuchado.
All right, and it will be continued to 9.16.26 at 9.30 a.m.
Y la fecha de continuación va a ser el 9 del 16 del 2026 a las 9 y 30 de la mañana.
Y debe de ser escuchado.
I apologize, but we may need to strike that.
There is a note that this matter must be heard, so I do not believe we can continue this again.
I apologize.
All right, so we're going to have to dismiss it.
So MI 2024-005-585-4022 North Reese Street, I vote to dismiss.
Michael Johns, my vote is to dismiss.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is to dismiss.
Ty Owen, my vote is to dismiss.
Ty McAdams, my vote is to dismiss.
Counselor, could you please, in Spanish, report, I mean, not counsel, or interpreter, could you report that that's been dismissed for us?
Yes. Muy bien. El caso no va a tener continuidad.
Entonces, el caso número MI 2024-005-585 de la dirección 4022 Norte, calle Reese, ha sido desestimado.
All right, we're gonna move to number four, MI 2025 002, 260, 2160, 2169, North 29th Street, Gerald Notches is the owner, um, it's a request for assistance from the staff.
um let's see here in an office support from strawberry mansion
chair i see no one in the audience what they mean
okay um here oh here you go
good morning good morning how are you could you move closer to the mic for us yes i'm actually
the applicant the owner's here with me though so the owner
say that again i'm actually the applicant but he's the owner of the property right problem yes
ultimately we'll need the owner to to be providing testimony the owner's gonna have
testify am i correct yes yeah all right um um could you state your name for us please call those pain
p-o-i um pain p-y-n-a right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth um i i understand there's a letter of support from strawberry mansion yes correct the
RCO? Yes. Now he's going to be the one to testify, okay? Am I correct? Yeah, the
Strawberry Mansion is supporting your request. Okay. Our board secretary has
just a few questions for you. Chair, excuse me, this is the court reporter. Could I
ask the witness to please pull the microphone closer to him?
microphone closer to you sir okay uh good morning um did you submit your documents and exhibits
five days in advance of this hearing yeah remember yes right yeah you did okay so do we have um uh
we need proof of posting so do you have the picture showing that you posted the property
at least 21 days in advance of this hearing is that part of the exhibits that you okay and uh do
we have photos of the property yes yeah okay um our council has yes as of now we have we have not
received full exterior interior photos uh or the proof of posting or the proof of text the proof
tax compliance the property is is compliant though however we still need the proof of posting
and the exterior and interior photos okay so we don't have those do you have those with you
when did you submit them like five days before that's that uh it's Saturday you can't touch
Okay, so we are not going to be able to hear this matter today. Without the proof of posting, we really need to have that. And for purposes of, you know, us.
And for purposes of, you know, us being able to evaluate your request, we also need those pictures.
So the bigger thing is the posting.
So without that.
When you say, like I have.
Well, he's got it.
Yeah, the pictures of posting is right here.
Can you?
It hasn't been made part of the record.
if they have it in an envelope they haven't been submitted in advance we don't have them right
so the problem is you know yeah hands work with them i think
yes yes even working with them right in somebody's been working with them here maybe
Okay, so can we.
are we okay or okay well then uh never mind then um
So we have here, we do have pictures of the posting, so we're good. And we're also going to provide you with some staff assistance so you can help with putting on the case.
Then this application is for use as a prepared food shop within an existing structure.
And there were notes from the examiner that the application number 397227, calendar number 17954, was granted on 7-10-2012 for the use as a barbershop on the first floor of an existing semi-detached structure with vacant second and third floor.
provides a no sound on this application so there's one referral whereas the proposed used
prepared food shop requires special exception approval in the cmx1 zoning district and you
have a letter of unanimous support from the strawberry mansion cdc and there's a letter of
non-opposition from council member young so with that as the backdrop do you um wave the reading
well you've heard it of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy yes okay and uh so then you can uh
move forward with your case and you'll get staff assistance with respect to
uh your exhibits and what have you and um again
Excuse me, this is just board counsel again. I just want to note that ultimately the owner needs to present the case, but the tenant is allowed to speak. I believe that the applicant, you are the tenant of the property.
I'll swear him too.
Yes, yeah.
They should be sworn in as a witness.
Did I swear you in?
Could you please state your name as Belfort as a photographer?
Gerald Deitches, G-E-R-A-L-D.
Right. Deitches, D-Y-C-H-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Why don't we start? Tell us, basically, first start off by saying, what is it you're trying to do?
Trying to sell water ice and ice cream in the back of the shop.
Okay. All right. So, do, is yours, are you up when the, Ian, do we have a computer presentation?
Good morning, Chair. Yes, we do. I'm just organizing the documents that were just submitted to our paper this morning. So, I need just a minute for that. Thank you.
Yeah, sure.
All right.
He's trying to get your presentation will be up on the computer in a minute.
He'll be able to see it.
funny you went with the rco right the rco yes council members in favor of what you want to do
You went with the RCO.
yes you had experience doing this before no i may have been a cook all my life but
not running my own this is just going to be ice cream and ice cream water ice yes pretzels
okay are we ready to go yes it's up all right so you're leasing the property to him yes i'm
ready yes all right um is that right am i correct yeah you're releasing it to him yes right so um
um you didn't let him testify am i correct yeah so why don't you tell us like what you're doing
how you're fitting it out what hours of operation do you have want to do and things that well i was
operation is like from like 11 to like 7 during the week maybe a little later on the weekends
we haven't you know locked down that exact time but you know it's going to be like a
six day a week thing at least right clothes on Sundays right no prepared food no prepared food
no ice ice cream pretzels yes and do we can we move that that's the inside of the place yes okay
Yeah. And is this going to be eat-in, take-out? It's just take-out. No eat-in. Okay. And what are you going to do about trash? You don't want to get a service. Okay. For the outside? Yes. You mean? You're going to have. Okay. And then deliveries. What are you going to do about that?
Well, I haven't decided if I'm going to do deliveries yet.
That's not part of the plan right now, doing deliveries.
I mean, deliver the ice cream and water ice being delivered to you.
You're not making it there.
You're going to get it from somewhere.
So what are you doing about that, or what are your plans about that?
It's a few different companies in the neighborhood where I'll be buying it from.
And you've already made arrangements?
With respect to that.
All right.
Thank you.
any other questions yes so i know you said you're going to be selling water ice out the back this
looks to be the rear of the first floor property what's happening in the front of the first floor
nothing right now nothing so where are the patrons are they going to be coming to this blue door or
to the like wood right there right here and this is on susquehanna this is on the the side 29th
corner yes okay um and then how are you planning to heat because i know you said you're selling
pretzels are you doing just regular pretzels pizza pretzels regular pretzels okay so no okay
so you're just going to need like a electric warmer okay run the press just like electric
warmer that you just run the presses through if they want them heated are people coming into the
shop are you going to be selling through the window the window through this window also you
take the bars down and all that and install that okay um i don't think i have any other questions
questions from our attorney uh no chair just just wanted to note um you know if if there is
is is a grant of this request um just just to know if you'd like to limit the use as a proviso
to a specific portion of the building the portion of the building the rear yes correct like first
Yes, first of all, correct questions for comments when the virtual audience.
I see no hands at this time to any commission.
Morning chair members of the board, Michael Gall with the Philadelphia city planning commission M. I C. H. A. E. L. G. A. L. L. he swear or affirm to tell the truth. Told truth. Nothing but the truth. So, for.
please proceed sir the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location
from the current cmx1 neighborhood commercial mixed use to rsa5 residential single family attached
the applicant has demonstrated that the proposed use will not have detrimental impacts beyond what
would reasonably be expected therefore the city planning commission recommends the board grant
the requested special exception for special for prepared food shop use mi-2025-002-860-2169
North 29th Street. I vote yes with proviso. Rear or first floor only? Michael Johns, my vote is yes
with proviso. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso. Ryan McGowan.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Tywin, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you. You have your votes.
Thank you. Thank you.
Okay. Number six.
MI-2025-003279-2519, North 7th Street.
Sori A. Majula is the attorney.
Chair, the attorney will be joining us as a panel.
Thank you.
Council?
All right, here we go. Good morning. Good morning. Council. Could you please your name is spelled for the stenographer?
will do uh chair uh salary me here uh first name s-a-u-r-y last name m-e-j-i-a you swear
we're referring to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth uh yes counsel could you
identify your client their relationship to the property uh yes uh board uh chair um uh my client
is Berg 2519 North 7th Street, LLC. The property owner and the owner or sole member of the LLC is
Danilo A. Burgos. All right. And I see there's support from the 37th Ward RCO and non-opposition
from Councilmember Young. Our Vice Chair has a few questions for you. Sure. Good morning,
Council. Did you submit your exhibits and documents five days in advance of this hearing?
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And you can proceed with your sharing of your screen and making your case.
Okay, let's see how we do this.
Okay, look at that.
All right, so we have all your documents. So if you, if you want, you could really just, you know.
Go ahead. Okay. Cover just your.
Perfect your main issue and then head into your.
Photos and plans. Okay, so again, good morning board.
So, today, we're seeking a use variance for visitor accommodations at 2519 North 7th Street.
A lot of refused application on March 21st of 2025 because the visitor accommodations are prohibited in RM1 District.
And you can see on Exhibit B, the refusal is there.
um so uh then I'll try to walk the board I'm sure everyone's well aware of uh each of the various
criteria is on the section 14. um do me counsel do me a favor could you get closer to your mic or
just raise the volume a little bit I want to make sure the reporter can get this sure sure that's
All right, and okay, so this property sits on arm 1, but it's directly adjacent to a CMX 2, wherever is the visitor accommodations are permitted. You can see that on the zoom map on an exhibit.
1, sorry, exhibit L page, I'm sorry, let me see L is.
So let me see here, L is final 13, so I'm sure I put page on this, let's see.
That's your posting there, right?
yes that is my posting uh so here exhibit l you can see cmx2 um it's right around the corner uh
the the the property is uh feet from the uh district where uh the use is allowed
um the property is also within uh two overlay districts uh um nis overlay and the vd oh fifth
district overlay um that's uh that's noted on the uh refusal in exhibit b so this is a
transitional block uh not like a quiet residential street um uh and so we believe that uh
the building it actually the building already has why don't you show us the building and the
yes so the uh let's go up to exhibit j uh so well i'll show you the post and this is the building
everyone can see that uh this is what it looked like before well on the right it's it's the rear
on the on the left is is the front of the property uh this is the the side view uh of the block um
Can I ask how many units are in that building?
Uh, 3, 3, 3 units and this request is all for all 3.
Yes, okay. Um, and then you can see the interior photos here.
Um, uh, and so this, this, this building is, is, is made the, the, the property is is made for.
were what we're physically and exactly exactly requesting um and uh we believe um enforcing the
RM1 prohibition against the property uh given this location it's on the edge of the commercial
district and this existing configuration would would uh provide unnecessary hardship to to the
owner um the the advocate himself uh he did not create the situation uh the property was purchased
in 2022 as an existing structure you can see this in uh exhibit e which is the deed go up here hopefully
the uh it's a little blurry but
this was purchased in 2022 um and the zoning classification overlays are already in place
um so uh the just the transitional character of the neighborhood is a pretty existing condition
we're not asking for any dimensional relief no change in the building height footprint
And nothing like that. The request is simply to change the use classification from multifamily residential to visitor accommodations within the same existing building that we had shown before.
Like I stated before, just three units. Occupancy stays the same or it's actually lower. If the board wants, they can impose any priorities.
We would accept reasonable conditions on unit count, occupancy limits, or management requirements.
Because it's just three units, this will generate less traffic than, let's say, a three-unit apartment building.
Typically, the people that will be staring here, they usually use public transportation or rideshare.
They're not daily commuting, adding cars to the block and taking up parking spots.
We don't predict any harm to the neighborhood or any increase in noise, nuisance, beyond what the residential neighborhood already produces.
These are short-term visitors. They generate less wear on the block than some tend.
um uh they generate uh less wear on the block um than than some tenants um you know they'll
they're responsible to take out the trash um it's it's and they you know they get rated for
the way they leave the the unit when when they do leave so if you know you're going to get a review
you most likely they're not so council want to explain how they intend to manage the place
Sure. So my client has a team they manage. There's cameras on the on the in the building. There's noise recording, not recording devices, but they record a decibel.
So once it goes above a certain decibel, the team, someone in the team gets alerted and then my client is on hands.
He'll call. There's been he has another property where there was a noise violation.
He's he noticed in the camera that are outside. They're not in the actual physical units.
They're just in the common areas outside. And he noticed a lot of individuals going into the units. He immediately went over and ended up having to call the police and disperse the crowd.
So that's one way. And this is actually on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. So he's on this 24 hours a day. So I don't see any burden to the neighborhood or any burden to anyone in the area. Again, there's no new construction, no excavation, nothing like that.
so why don't you bring your client on and have that client adopt your testimony let me give me one
second sure
i'm just gonna view myself for a second here
Thank you.
You have your client's name so we can call you unmute, please. You've muted yourself.
Oh, boy.
Uh, his name is Daniel Burgos. Actually, he, um, is he on?
No, he actually is outside. I thought he was in the zoom, but he's actually here outside.
Oh, he's outside my office. Can I go and grab him?
Could you bring him in?
Thank you. Thank you. Let me just one sec.
And you're saying you can't run it, is that what you're saying?
It's a transitional block, transitional block.
Oh, boy.
So what we need is your client to say his name and spell it for the stenographer and everyone hear me actually.
Yeah, he just should get a little closer. Okay.
Good morning. My apologies. My name is Danilo A. Burgos. First name is D-A-N-I-L-O.
Middle initial is A. Last name is B-U-R-G-O-S.
Middle initial is A. Last name is B-U-R-G-O-S.
Do you swear?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Counsel, please proceed.
Okay. Mr. Burgos, do you own Burg 2519 North 7th Street, LLC?
Yes, I do.
And can you tell us a little bit about the property history, the purchase, when it was renovated?
we we purchased it in 2022 um right after purchasing it we put all the necessary permits
to uh renovate it and also add in addition to it in the rear it's a three family uh uh rental um
they're all the one of the units is a two bedroom one bedroom the second unit is also a two bedroom
one bedroom and then the third one is a three bedroom uh three bath um and uh right now um
well it was a rental and as we know we're here requesting a visitor accommodation
did you change any uh the configuration of the building add any extra units anything like that
uh no not since we pulled the permits to renovate it and convert it into three units okay and you
want these visitor accommodations um could you tell us a little bit about how you're going to
manage the property the guest screening um background checks anything like that uh yeah
Yeah, so we have so all the guests that stay with us, they all have to be verified through the apps that we list our units on.
So they have to provide identification.
And then we also have a third party screening application where they have to pretty much click a link in order to fill out the application and put in all their personal information into it for us to have it for record keeping.
safekeeping and then i we also have um so i have virtual assistants that are on call 24 7.
um so if there's any type of emergency they call me directly so my phone is always on
um like for them it's um if my phone's on do not disturb it comes in directly so if there's
any emergencies they call me directly so that i can report to the site i'm only 15 15 minutes
away from the site because i live in philadelphia i live in northeast philadelphia okay and uh do
Do you have any cameras, anything in the building, not in the specific units, but around for security purposes, things like that?
Yeah. Yeah. So we we have I have LTS cameras on the building that I can monitor from my phone and also my assistants can also monitor from the phone inside the individual units.
all the guests uh know because it's on on the listing we have what's called a a minute um a
noise monitor system so it measures the noise frequency inside the apartment so that if it
goes over a certain decibel um then it sets off an alarm on our end um and we know if they're
having like some type of party or being too rowdy or maybe if there's some type of argument that we
don't know about but all the guests know about it ahead of time um so it's um this disclosed
and it's completely legal so so you're you're really drifting away you got to get closer to the
mic council has he adopted your testimony yet yes uh so i um i i yes yes uh uh chair or chair yes
questions from the board yes um i think i just need a little bit more clarity into what's
defining the hardship it does look like this is a self-imposed hardship you bought this as a single
family home you did extensive construction you extended the building and turned it into three
units um so could you walk us through what's uh what's what's driving your decision to want a
short-term rental so the the the property is zone rm1 so we um the prior use yes it was a single
family to as far as i know but we bought it because um we can convert it into multi-family and the
the when we bought the property was already being um it was like in the process of being renovated
into a into a three unit um we we bought it with a construction loan to it got approved with a
construction loan for three families so we renovated it it has three families we tried
putting it on the market but the market is saturated with rental units and we're not we
weren't able to rent it um long term um at a at a rate that can that can support the mortgage
um so we we put her as visitor accommodation and we were able to see um a more income on it to be
able to cover the mortgage and like barely leave like um money left over for for for operating
reserves um so we did try to put her on on as a long-term rental but the market's too saturated
there's too many units hitting the market um and it just doesn't it's that it doesn't pencil out
so it wasn't like i had to get money from elsewhere to pick mortgage when was the last time you tried
Like, I had to get money from elsewhere to pick mortgage.
When was the last time you tried to rent it?
Oh, we're always looking for people.
It's not like we're not.
So it's, like, actively being marketed now?
When was the last time there were tenants?
Like, long-term tenants?
It's not on MLS, no.
No, okay.
But when were the last time there was a tenant in the unit?
I haven't been able to get a tenant in the unit.
So you've had, no one's been in this since 2022?
as a long-term tenant? Yes. No. Okay. And then for your other properties,
do you have other short-term rentals in the city? I do. You do? And are you self-managing those
as well? Yes. And then how has management of those been going? I think one, I'm a little
skeptical of a virtual assistant. Like that's essentially setting an AI alarm to let you know
when something's going on it's a glorified you know voicemail system uh no no it's not it's an
actual it's a it's a person you have actual person okay yeah yeah no there's no there's no
ai i don't believe in the i'm very skeptical when it comes to ai um because you can ask a question
and answer something completely different and it makes no sense and what it does it irritates people
like it irritates me when i call somebody and ai answers and i'm like why like where's the human
touch to it all so i understand where you're coming from that because i i'm with you on it
but no there's no there's no ai communication everything is real real you have a 24-hour
real person so all your tenants if there's an issue they're talking to a live line and that
person is going to okay and then how's the management of your other units been going
um it's located near in the same area near temple um no the what the the it's in northeast philadelphia
okay um i don't think other questions from the board yeah how many units do you have how many
other units do you have i have five other units five other units and that that are uh the short
term rental uh yeah it's a major of short term and and and long term and when was the last time
you said they were advertised for rent a long-term rent the ones were the ones were the hearing is
about correct that we're talking about yeah um i would have to check the record it was probably in
2023 2024 honestly and and the community meeting how did that go um there was there was um
A lot of people went to the community meeting. It was very productive. I did get to hear a lot from the community in regards to their concerns around the visitor accommodation, and they did voice that they had concerns with the people that were staying there.
um so it overall went good i believe we have the community support they did provide a letter
supporting um the property as visitor vote was 12 to 4 for an opposition 12 in favor
okay thank you chair um so so i would say the community meeting went very very well
and i also got uh an extensive amount of phone numbers from direct neighbors um that they get
contact with me directly if there's any issues okay last question i guess this is for the attorney
you mentioned several times that this neighborhood is transitioned what does that mean
so it it sits right at a corridor where there's commercial um uh other commercial properties uh so
So when I say that, I say the foot traffic and just the public, I guess, interaction with the residential area, it's busy.
It's not a quiet neighborhood where only the neighbors that are there are going through the area.
Okay. Questions from our attorney.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time to make a commission.
Michael with Philadelphia city planning commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the existing R. M. 1 residential multifamily to RSA 5 residential single family attached.
The appellant has not demonstrated that there are any unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property that would prevent the property from being used in strict conformance with the zoning code.
The community in question is largely single family in nature, leading to an increased likelihood of parking and nuisance issues for nearby properties from the proposed use.
proposed use and as note to the board the nearby cmx 2 district does not allow visitor accommodations by right the planning commission therefore recommends that the board deny the requested variance for visitor accommodation so council we've heard your test money we've heard your client's testimony
And as a note to the board, the nearby CMX2 district does not allow visitor accommodation.
we're going to talk about this next week in executive session and we'll vote at 9 30 a.m. on wednesday okay okay thank you both thank you very much thank you all thank you all
on to number 13 number for me
right so now
MI-2025-007-032-1007-13, New Market Street, Myrdeth Ferliger is the attorney.
Sure. Sure, we will.
Number 13.
MI 2025-007221-8003-Nevajo Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Vern Anastasio will be rejoining us as a panelist.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Counselor, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O. On behalf of my client, Mr. Michael Orzolik.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
um let's go back to your client again um my understanding and in the conversation with
council that the owner of this place but is his partner right but the question is who's to testify
right? Well, ultimately, you know, Mr. Orzelek is not on the deed. No, we have a letter from
the owner in my exhibit packet authorizing him to pursue this. Ultimately, you know, the issue is
the individual on the deed needs to be the one to adopt your testimony. Mr. Orzelek cannot adopt
your testimony. He may be called as a witness, but that's fine. Yeah, I wasn't. That's fine.
no one emailed me in advance to advise of that but that's fine okay um and so let's see here
the rco support yes unanimous from chestnut hill association correct okay our our vice
uh not our vice chair our board secretary has a few questions for you learn thank you
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning.
Did you submit your documents and exhibits five days in advance?
Yes, of course.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Then you can share your screen and proceed with your presentation.
Thank you.
The application is for personal services.
Basically, my client is a trainer, personal trainer.
He'll do concierge services one-on-one, only one client per visit, approximately 45-minute sessions, opening mostly in the morning, but we'll have clients throughout the day.
By the way, here are the immediate neighbors, 8005, 8001, both in support, in addition to the folks across the street.
And we'll get to, you've already seen the Chestnut Hill Civic Association's letter of support with the proviso that it's sunset.
Here's the refusal. Obviously, the personal services is not permitted in RSD3.
Here's the interior layout of the house itself.
Here's the floor plan of the basement.
Here's the floor plan of the basement, and this is where the work, the gym will be right
here in the basement.
This portion here, this is the home itself, as you can see, it sits off the street, rather
large driveway that can fit three cars or more. This is the interior gym section. And here's the
rest of the basement. And the business model is, you know, I'm sure many folks are familiar with
this. My client would enter a business relationship with an individual. An individual
pays on a monthly basis and that individual will come to my client's home you know one two three
times a week for 45 50 minute session this is 41 individual households were mailed the notice
and the chestnut hill civic association questionnaire that was filled out
and of course ms khan who is my client's partner authorizing him to pursue this variance and again
And the immediate neighbors surrounding the property are in full support as well.
We have no objection to the sunset provision.
And with that, my client, I'd like to call my client to the stand.
Why don't you do that?
Michael Orzulik.
Can we take him?
Michael Orzulik will be coming in as a panelist.
he may he may testify as to the use but he just the only issue is he can't adopt
I understand counsel I heard you I heard you thank you
hello everyone please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is Michael orzilek
m-i-c-h-a-e-l-o-r-z-o-l-e-k do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes counsel thank you michael did you hear my presentation to the board today
yes is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes can you explain your history as
a trainer and um you know and you know that this is not something that you're going to be doing
for the first time? Please explain to the board. So I majored in sports medicine in college,
continued on to get my master's in human performance. I've worked as like a physical
therapy aid. I've coached multiple sports in my life, and I've been working as a personal trainer
in the city for about 10 years. And you're also a championship rower, are you not?
Correct. Thank you. I have nothing further.
okay um are you gonna bring into your uh mr con on no man no sir okay all right we have
unanimous support i don't necessarily yes i have a few questions one um did you all talk at all to
the owner of what is 8004 the house directly behind i see you got everyone on the immediate block
but that house's backyard would be sort of facing parts they attended the rco meeting
they did okay yeah but they did not sign in support we didn't get to them my client was
working yeah yeah that's all that was that was no other reason okay so it's not like they're in
opposition yeah we weren't trying to avoid anyone uh and then my second question is are you going
to be exclusively training in the basement or do you plan to use any of the outdoor spaces
as well when the weather's nice?
Strictly in the basement.
Strictly in the basement.
Other questions?
So how many days a week?
I guess it depends on the client.
Right.
It does depend.
Typically, personal trainers work Monday through Friday full time,
maybe a Saturday in the morning, but Sunday's usually off.
That's my own experience with trainers.
and then the parking will be in your own yard in the own driveway yes and this would be um
these are all by appointment only i mean by appointment only correct okay and because
these are individual then you can't have but so many people in the day all right okay yes thank
you and how how are the how are the clients procured that's a good question michael um
So my plan is just, you know, basically like set up a website, set up an Instagram, get
My plan is just, you know, basically like set up a website, set up an Instagram, get some local flyers at the local businesses, you know, go door to door, just talk to my neighbors.
I want this to be like a pretty small community business.
My target population is just people that can walk here.
So that is my basic marketing strategy.
And typically, how personal training works is that a personal trainer will plop into a residential community or near a residential community and just operate in maybe a two-mile radius where people can walk to.
It's not like I would decide to get in my car from Center City and drive to Chestnut Hill at 7 a.m. for training.
Most folks aren't going to do that.
Yeah, convenience is one of the main things I'm going for.
Questions from our attorney?
no chair questions or comments from the virtual audience or the current audience here
i see no he's at this time too well any commission michael gall with the philadelphia
city planning commission the the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsd
three residential single family detached zoning at this location the property is large and has
a physical parking configuration off the shared driveway that would easily allow for the proposed
use at this intensity level the appellant has demonstrated that the proposed use would not
cause undue detriment to the local community beyond what might otherwise be expected therefore
the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed variance for personal services
home business use um thank you um number 13 mi 20 25 007 221 8003 the havo navada street
i vote yes with proviso no clients after sunset michael johns my vote is a yes with proviso
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with provide so Brian McAdams, my vote is yes with provide.
My vote is yes, let's provide them. Mr. chair, I have 1 question about that as we all know, sunset changes throughout. But I mean, that's what you told me. Yeah, I know throughout the year. No, I don't think I said that.
who said who said not me that that's not that has not been any part of my presentation i'm sorry
didn't somebody say the proviso was no from the client from the no no it was it was sunset
provision oh i'm sorry they wanted the temp they wanted a temporary okay so no proviso
we'll vote with no proviso thank you all right okay thank you do they need to revote with no proviso
um council we i i think okay we'll be sorry the record thank you yes we all right no not
to revoke i i think i think we should i think we should okay let me get it back yeah we need to do
the process with the tail of property survivors no no no no
we do not know okay six be right with you
okay mi 2025 007
221 8003 nahama nevada street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
Cheryl Gaston my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you council
Meredith we ready one more okay we can just keep going here
we continue he got on that phone and continued it
Number 14, here we go, MI 2025 007231 1650 North 5th Street, number 8, Joseph Consul is the attorney.
there's support from south kensington
and also council member lazada's non-opposition
hello again
joe you were wrong earlier right i swore you in earlier right i don't think i spelled my name and
stuff i just kind of butted in for a continuance could you please state your name and spell for
stenographer yeah it's attorney joseph consul j-o-s-e-p-h last name is consul c-o-n-s-o-l-e
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth another but the truth
i do do you want to identify
i do you identify your client relationship to the property yeah my client is uh evan
anderson of ec dynasty llc who owns the property our board secretary has a few questions
good morning counsel have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing? Yes. And do you waive the reading of the
refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Then you can share your screen and
begin your presentation. Thank you. My screen's up. Joe Consul here for Evan
Anderson of EC Dynasty. He's on the call. We're here for 1650 North
5th Street, Unit B. It's an IRMX zoning district seeking a use variance for a
two-family household listing. For the record, and you'll see in the photos when
I get there, my client does not own the ground floor. That ground floor is Unit
A of a separately owned and separately owned commercial condominium space. So
So we've got nothing to do with unit A here, we're here for the three upper floors.
Second, we are positioning this as a paperwork correction.
The original developer in 2017, and I've submitted all these documents, did a bunch of PUDs and
condos in and around this block all in one go, and this piece of it was not done correctly,
meaning he built this as four floors, commercial on the first floor, two units above it, but
for some reason when it went through, it came as just a single family home in an IRMX district
for this particular unit.
So, again, I'll go through things in a little more detail, but we presented this timeline to the South Kensington Community Partners.
They understood because they were around when this project came around the first time when the developer did all this work, and they voted to support the variants.
Let's see.
So, as I mentioned, in 2017, let's see if I can find it in my files here real quick.
quick. Board granted a variance for the overall development of 57 dwelling units. However,
on those plans, which I kind of just have sort of faded versions of and what I submitted,
our building that we're here for today was called building 35. And at the time was labeled
as having a commercial unit on the ground floor and single family living above. So it
wasn't even labeled as being two condos at the time, but either the developer did this by accident
or, and I'll show you the pictures now, or he ended up just building it as a commercial unit
on the first floor and two units above. Either one of those things could be true. We're not sure,
the RCO's not sure, but we do know that other units that were similar to this one in this PUD
were correctly identified as commercial with two residential above so we're
thinking that this was just an error in the paperwork so if you look at that's
what it looks like from the outside we don't own the ground floor above that is
unit one which is a one-bedroom one-bathroom apartment and then unit B
twos by level three-bedroom I believe three bath my client can confirm that
when he when he comes on just showing you the outside from another angle that
is actually a trash storage area in the back you can see there's three you know
gas meters there giving you some more exteriors showing you the interiors of
the units like I said this was designed and built completely as it is you can
see there's four for electrical meters there one common and then the commercial
for unit A and then the two for my client's two units the roof the deed so
he purchased it in 2022 marketed as a duplex on all the marketing materials
he went to get his rental license and this is where we're at he's on the board
This is where we're at. He's on the board of the condo association and is very involved in everything here.
to the condo association and is very involved.
And we don't anticipate this being problematic to anyone in the neighborhood for any reason.
I don't need to go through all my other exhibits, but, you know, we've got support from the RCO and everything else is submitted along with the tax clearance deed and the previous approvals.
I'll call Evan to raise his hand.
And he's being promoted now to panelists, Chair.
are you there Evan yes could you please state your name and spell for the
sonographer
what's your client's name joe evan anderson mr anderson thank you hello are you able to hear me
mr anderson yes yes hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
excellent thank you my name is evan anderson e-v-a-n-a-n-d-e-r-s-o-n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth to whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes mr chair uh evan did you hear my testimony just now regarding um your property at 1650 north
fifth unit b yes i did and it is accurate thank you so you adopted as your own um would you just
uh just recap the layout of the two units uh in case i was i misspoke there yeah i think you
described it pretty well uh so again i purchased this duplex with the intent of um occupying it
myself and having a family member in the other unit um with optionality to rent uh was seeking
a rental license and so the layout is across three floors the upper three
floors of this building first floor being one unit that is one bed one bath
the upper unit is three bed three bath okay I have nothing further questions
from the board questions from our attorney no chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience I see no hands at this time chair any
commission michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommended a change from the former i2 medium industrial zoning at this location to rm1
residential multifamily in 2016 however the city remapped this property in a community-led remapping
to irmx industrial residential mixed use the property in question was previously permitted
for a commercial ground floor use with single family use on the floors above and it is physically
configured for a use other than industrial the appellant has demonstrated that the proposed use
would not cause undue detriment beyond what might otherwise be expected therefore the city planning
commission recommends the board grant proposed variance for two family residential use mi 20
25 007 231 1650 north 5th street unit b i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my boot is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes highway my vote is yes
number 11 mi 2025 007 039 032 100 1007 to 13 new market street um meredith furliger is the
attorney uh counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer sure meredith
ferliger f-e-r-l-e-g-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do um could you identify your client a relationship to the property my client is proud
american llc which is the owner of the property and that llc is represented today by sarah proud
finale well you have a letter of support from um um north northern liberties and let's see here
Um, North Northern liberties.
And let's see here and a letter of non opposition from council members.
So, our, our, uh, board secretary has a few questions.
Did you submit your exhibits and documents 5 days in advance of this hearing? Yes, I did. And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
yes I do then you can share your screen and begin your presentation thank you and I appreciate your
flexibility while I dealt with some technical difficulties maybe like towards the end you
seem to like to go to I think you might be right my computer said it's too early you have to present
later I think I agree with you on that the request before the board today concerns 1007
11-13 New Market Street, and seeks to remove a now three-time granted temporary approval,
so that hopefully this fourth time will be the proud's last time in front of the board
for the foreseeable future. And not that it's not very enjoyable, but this would now be
the fourth time. I will be brief, given this case has come before the board and been granted
relief many times before. This application today concerns the outdoor seating area for
Jerry's Bar, which is a long-time staple of Northern Liberties. As always, you have an
exhibit packet in front of you that contains 15 exhibits, including tax clearance at Exhibit 2,
as well as the deed at Exhibit 3. As Mr. Chairman mentioned, this application did receive
give overwhelming support from the northern liberties neighbors association with that background in mind.
Let me orient you to the location of this particular property on the zoning map that I have up on the screen here at exhibit 7.
You can see that this property sits on New Market Street, which I didn't know even existed prior to this application just north of Laurel Street.
it is an irregularly shaped parcel that is zoned rsa5 it also sits within the nca neighborhood
commercial overlay district north delaware avenue area i did also include some aerials at exhibit
eight zoom in there a little bit so as you can see in this view here i have an arrow pointing
to the location of this property and just in terms of the context jerry's bar is right here
on this corner of laurel street so it's just the two diagonal corners here
the south view that i included i think gives the best context in terms of the context of this area
this area around jerry's bar for those of you that know northern liberties quite well is mixed
residential and commercial just west of 95 and if surrounded by many new large multi-family
developments some single-family homes as well as some commercial uses as well
from the photographs
from the photographs i have in the packet at exhibit 15. uh you'll see that this parcel has
since the COVID-19 pandemic been used as an off-site seating area for Jerry's Bar.
The use itself is obviously quite seasonal.
I don't know that many people would like to sit outside in the middle of January, but
it has become a wonderful asset to the community in the warmer months.
Just to give you a little bit better context, this next photo shows some of the area behind
behind the parcel and adjacent to the parcel, which are predominantly used as parking for some of the surrounding buildings.
And as you can see here in the next photograph, the outdoor seating area is surrounded by a low decorative fence and really serves to activate this corner.
across new market is a combination of residential and some ground floor use commercial uses as well
the next photograph shows the fairly insulated location of this seating area and as you can see
here there are no windows on the side of the building on the side of the home that this use
adjoins directly to the right and then from laurel street again you can see the context of this lot
from jerry's bar which you can see here right at the corner
And then I did include just a couple of additional photographs here, showing the outdoor seating area as it's existed for the last five or six years at this point, which really only has a couple of tables, chairs, and some plantings.
and then i did include just a couple of additional photographs
at exhibit 10 i did also include some of the information that's been presented to the board
over the years uh just in terms of one important note the lot itself prior to uh sarah and her dad
activating it had really been vacant since about the 1940s uh there was no documented single family
use in that time over you know the last 80 years or so and then flipping back to exhibit five zoom
in a little bit on this i did include a zoning site plan that shows generally the existing layout
obviously it's movable tables and chairs so this is not necessarily exact but does represent a
general layout of the site itself importantly you will notice the location of four different trash
receptacles that are placed on the property two in this location here and then two more
at the bottom as well as i've alluded to this property has been used as exterior seating during
good weather months for jerry's bar exhibit six shows some of the operational considerations
that uh were in front of the rco as well which include about 30 to 35 occupants no live or
amplified music and then per long-standing agreements with the community as well
All food in this particular location is served on disposable place settings, and then, of course, trash is stored on the property and is removed daily.
the hours of operation are limited as you can see up on the screen mondays closed tuesday wednesday
thursday 3 to 10 friday 3 to 11 and then saturday and sunday uh start at 9 a.m and end at 11 p.m
or 10 p.m on sundays if you are hungry we did also include a sample menu in the exhibits as well
So, although the use itself only actually involves tables and chairs and has no structures, cooking, or any kind of other typical accompaniments to a restaurant, it is still classified under the zoning code as a sit down restaurant.
And you can see that here on the refusal.
although that use as a restaurant a sit-down restaurant would normally be a special exception
in the North Delaware Avenue NCA overlay because the property is zoned RSA 5
a refusal is generated from this use instead of a special exception
from the history that I've included at exhibit 9 you'll see that the
The long chain of approvals here started back in 2021, where the Zoning Board seemingly granted only one-year temporary approvals, which has required the Prouds to return back to the Board in September 2021, July 2022, and April of 2023.
I believe that the temporary approvals at the time were necessitated due to some misunderstandings that the community members may have had at the time about the implications of a permanent approval for this type of use.
When I got involved, I believe I was able to clarify some very critical factors, which is ultimately why we did receive such overwhelming support from Northern Liberties.
i'll share those factors with the board first as we've presented today the use itself is extremely
low impact and has become a wonderful asset to the northern liberties community in support of
jerry's bar now practically speaking while temporary approvals are often warranted where
there's some uncertainty in terms of a future ownership transfer here those concerns are
actually mitigated by the zoning code itself even with a permanent approval for an eating
and drinking establishment in this location no one can operate it as such independently
on this lot the zoning approval authorizing the use would only do that authorize the use
would only do that authorize the use it would not allow a future owner to the extent that sarah
decided to ever sell to come in and physically erect a restaurant on this lot that would require
an entirely new permit and trigger an entirely new set of variances i believe this was a critical
point of clarification for the community when we attended the meeting the refusal itself as you can
see is abundantly clear that this is only for the use and in fact it notes that it is open air
so the only possibility of operating this lot as a restaurant is with the off-site physical
restaurant location continuous grants of temporary approvals have required Sarah and her father to
returned to the board now four times and add significant operational costs that are not
in this case supported by any legitimate basis to support that temporary relief under the
circumstances that we've presented. As always, we submit that the variance is the least minimum
and now seeks to continue a five-plus year use of the lot, which has been maintained in a
perpetually vacant state with no evidence of a single-family use for at least the last 80 years.
The unusual shape of the lot and its orientation would also render a new single family development challenging, particularly since it faces an unopened street.
The use itself has no evidence over its lifetime of creating congestion, harming any neighbors properties or impairing light and air.
Although it did start during COVID to support the restaurant, the operations themselves have become wildly successful and of huge community benefit.
it the property is maintained in a clean well landscaped and condition and is fully compliant
with all of the rco conditions in this case the zoning code itself ensures that no unintended
consequences can result from a permanent approval and we would respectfully request that the board
allow jerry's bar to move forward without the burden of requiring future relief under temporary
conditions. As always, I did submit a memorandum of law at Exhibit 11, providing a little bit of
additional argument if necessary. At this time, I would ask Mr. Chairman to swear in my client
to adopt my testimony. Could you turn your mic on and get a little closer to the mic?
Hello. It's all right. And could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
S-A-R-A-P-R-O-U-D. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth counsel i apologize chair this is the reporter i did not catch the spelling
okay come on come on and get a little closer and say your name again please sarah proud s-a-r-a
p-r-o-u-d thank you counsel thank you uh sarah you are uh authorized to speak on behalf of proud
american llc the owner of the property correct yes uh and this you you've heard all of the testimony
and evidence that I offered in front of the board today. Yes. And would you agree to adopt that
testimony as if you had given it yourself? Yes. Thank you. Questions from the board.
Yes. When does it close? Is it open just the hours that the restaurant is open or is it
how do you secure it? There's a list of provisors here. Yeah, there's a list of,
here we go let me bring this up so the hours of operation I have up on the
screen Monday's closed Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 3 to 10 Friday 3 to 11 Saturday
9 to 11 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sarah are these the same
hours as the bar or these slightly different hours than the bar and we want
have these hours in here just to cover all bases but we really use the garden for um just small
little events it doesn't run every single day so it really just depends um on what's going on
throughout the week all right thank you and where does the food come from it comes from jerry's bar
which is is also their uh restaurant which is diagonal from i'll show you sarah i don't know
if you want to address just the logistics of yeah walking across the street it's across the street
yeah across the street okay and um so it would just come from our restaurant kitchen oh okay
Okay. All right. And, okay, no more than 35 seats.
Okay, no more than 35 seats. Okay.
And you agreed to all of these provisions.
Yes, questions from the virtual audience.
I see no hands at this time chair commission.
Michael with the Philadelphia city planning commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing 5 residential single family attached zoning at this location.
The property has a documented history of use as an outdoor eating and drinking establishment, including 3 temporary variance proof approvals granted by this board between 221 and 2024 for the same use.
The appellant has demonstrated that the proposed use would not cause undue detriment to the neighboring community beyond what might otherwise be expected. Therefore, the city planning commission recommends the board grant the request of special exception for eating and drinking establishments.
thank you uh mi 2025 007 032 1007 to 13 new market street i vote yes with proviso maximum occupancy
35 no live amplified music daily commercial trash pack pickup hours of operation monday closed
Tuesday to Thursday, 3P to 10P, Friday, 3P to 10P, Saturday, 9A to 11P, and Sunday, 9A to 10P.
Excuse me, Jared, but I believe it might have been a typo on the notes.
I believe that Friday it's 11, 11PM.
So Friday would be 3P to 11P.
Is that right?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisals.
Cheryl guest and my vote is yes with provisals Ryan McAdams. My vote is yes with provisals. My vote is yes with provisals.
Thank you. Thank you both.
Okay, number 15, MI 2025-007-232, 5050 Parkside Avenue, the attorney is Michael Agnell.
Letter of support from Parkside Association and a letter of support from Council Member Jones.
Chair, I see no one in the audience with that name.
E-G-N-A-L?
Yes, Chair, that's correct.
how about anybody from um a a l e f tower limited
if anyone is in the audience for 50 50 parkside avenue please raise your virtual hand
okay um so mi 2025 007 232 50 50 parkside avenue
excuse me so i just want to note that i believe we are technically we are ahead of ahead of schedule
so i i was unsure if perhaps we'll go to the next one yeah i think we should give them just a few
minutes how about that we got one more left here
and that guys I may retract that statement that's that's all we have left
why don't we do this why don't we take a five minute break okay and then we'll come back okay
that way that's fair right you know we for me all right number 15 mi 2025 007
232 50 50 parkside avenue michael egg now is the attorney
chair michael ego will be promoted to panelists thank you
hello can you hear me i i can sir we we got like a little ahead of ourselves today and we
uh we we almost missed you but um please state your name is spelled for the sonographer
please state your name is spelled for the sonographer yeah absolutely sorry my uh my audio
Yeah, absolutely.
i'm having a hard time hearing you so let me let me mess with this i messed with a little bit
okay it's a little quiet but you can hear me okay i i hear you perfect okay can you hear me now if
we speak up yeah yeah yeah i might have to ask you to repeat yourself but i can hear you let's
let's do so could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is michael
eggnall m-i-c-h-a-e-l-e-g-n-a-l right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i so swear and could you identify your client a relationship to the
property uh my client is the owner of 5050 parkside avenue unit 101 um and i am the attorney
for my client and you have support from the parkside uh avenue parkside association and
also support from council member jones our secretary has a few questions for you
Good morning, counsel. Did you submit your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
And do you waive the reading of the, I'm sorry, referral and stipulate to its accuracy?
Then you can share your screen and begin your presentation. Thank you.
Okay. Okay. So I can't see what your view is, but can you see zoning board hearing presentation?
okay okay so uh my client uh is an adult daycare loaded located uh in the parkside
uh community and this is a view of the the front of their business they work with seniors
during the day to provide activities enrichment meals with people not just in the very localized
community or even West Philly, but across the region. Our referral today relates to an application
for an event use at the premises. The desire of ownership is to utilize the space, which I'll
take you through shortly, to host activities for this same community. So the idea would be an 80th
birthday party um sort of after hours after the daycare ends um would be an example of the sorts
of activities that they want to have there and let me uh it's it's a large facility and it has
a dedicated parking lot here here's the view from the rear the adult daycares entry at the rear is
all the way in that back left corner where there's a yellow sign but this is the parking lot for the
entirety of of this um this commercial space here's an overhead view to give you a sense
um the front of the business is up towards the top there along parkside avenue um facing um the
the park sort of near the man music center uh if if you can imagine where that is and to the rear
through all these parking lots there's a lowe's and there's large commercial um development behind
there. And this is the parking lot sort of in the center of the picture to give you a sense of the
layout and where things are. Here's a picture. This is set up as a condominium. There are three
different condominiums. One is a goodwill, one is a medical provider, and the third is this adult
daycare, which is the third of the three spaces all the way to the right here. So this is the
space and this is the parking lot to the rear of it this is a layout of the adult daycare
there's administrative offices on the right hand side is parkside avenue and all the way to the
left behind there would be the parking lot to orient you so there's a a large interior space
where a lot of events happen you can see two columns there and then sort of down into the
left there's another large event space and then all the way to the left there's a large commercial
kitchen so this space it's got big open areas it's got a commercial kitchen it already you know
is enjoyed by the community during the day for the seniors and the idea is to allow them to
and the idea is to allow them to utilize the space in the evening we had two meetings with
utilize the space in the evening.
We had two
the community i'm going to take you through just a few pictures to give you a sense of the the
finishes and what the space is like it's a big open space that's adjustable with tables and
chairs and a stage that the seniors use all year long we had two meetings with the community to
get comfortable about the hours of operation utilization plans for parking all of it and
And as you can see from the letter from the RCO, the community was quite satisfied and they're very excited for this business to now add on an additional use to, you know, work with this population.
I think that's substantially what we want to say here.
The ownership wanted to join in and, you know, forgive me for not prepping them to hop on a little bit earlier, but I think they're tied up right now.
actually i i gave them an expectation to hop on in like 45 minutes so i i don't believe they're
available to answer any questions but if you have any specific questions uh i'm available
to answer them now counsel you're an officer of the court we can accept your testimony
questions from the board yeah hours of opera operations so these this the event space is used
That'll be every weekend and when will they close?
That's a good question.
So we spoke with the community and the idea would be that potentially during the week, you know, these are seniors and it's day entertainment.
So the activity during the week here would cease, you know, when normal business hours cease five, six o'clock.
So potentially there could be, you know, an anniversary party or like a Bible study, maybe at six, seven, eight o'clock.
But no events would happen. Everything would be shut down and cleaned out before 10 o'clock any day of the week or weekend.
You know, this population doesn't want to be up late and the community doesn't want a ton of activity around there anyway.
going very late at night and I just I want to point out one thing looking at the frontage here
this is a very retail kind of space if you look this is facing west there's a parking lot there's
a charter school down there going west from here and and to the east it's sort of I don't think I
have a good picture well yeah you can sort of see that you've got a park to the north and
commercial and retail here so that there isn't a great concern about traffic and activity here
nevertheless we're curtailing activity um sort of late evening and there's nothing late night
okay and so but you're not this is not an age restricted event space this because it's open
to the this will be up into the public though right that's right okay so yeah okay
all the questions is there a commercial kitchen on site or catering kitchen on site
yeah i i don't have pictures of it specifically but i i don't know how zoomed in this appears
for you there is a very large commercial kitchen um that's been fully licensed and overseen by the
department of health uh for years here for this use so um it it's there they serve hundreds of
meals every week. It's fully set up, all the way to the left, to the rear here.
I see. I understand that it's on site for the Senior Center, but will it be available for this
event space? That's my understanding. Okay, that was not clear. Okay. And then who's going to be
managing the event space? Is it a separate staff person or will it be the existing staff of the
senior center? I understand that the substantial staff and I understand that they'll coordinate
with the users and potentially scale up and bringing in their own people depending on what
the activity is and if there's help needed based on the number of people or the use that's
intended but my understanding is it'll be managed by the same people who are currently owning and
managing this place now. And then I know most of the photos you've shown seem to be of this like
big interior space where the two columns are shown on this plan. How much of this floor are going to
be available for the event space? I think, so if you see this sort of smaller sectioned off rooms
at the, around the perimeter of the image, those are largely administrative offices or things like
that so those would not be available and to the bottom these are these are large
bathrooms for men and women across the bottom besides that that's between that
I'm talking about the large room that's between that space and the kitchen.
space in the kitchen the two large room
The two large rooms that are between that space and the kitchen is primarily what I was inquiring.
Yes, that's right.
The main room would be the intended use, right?
Yeah, but the two large rooms between that room and the kitchen, are those also going to be available for the event space?
I believe so.
i believe everything that's not an administrative office potentially could be used and do you know
how those two other rooms are being used now because we did not see photos of them yeah i i
regret that i didn't take photos because i i toured through there with the owners it's it's
the same idea it's a large space where there's some seating and it looks like classes maybe
happen there or entertainment or activities it's it's the same idea as what you saw but slightly
smaller okay and is the so then leads me to the main question is there a plan to
have more than one event happening at a time no there is no plan for that single
single event would be the plan okay all the questions not a question but a
comment I travel by this facility church and back from church and I never
realized that it was a senior center I know there's a daycare around there it
looks like in a school so there is a traffic during the time of drop-off and
pickup of the kids so are these when this is operating what what what hours
is it operating so that we're not talking about that kind of traffic so
you're you're you're talking about the the current operation like what the
current operation hours are yes okay I I'm gonna Google it so that I'm accurate
but I think it's what you would call normal business hours the website says
seven to six i know i've been there at around eight or nine a.m and there are sort of shuttle
buses bringing seniors from various facilities so i i would say normal business hours in my
experience and it's closed during the weekend um this this this facility right yeah yeah you don't
usually see that but um uh there is a a school or a daycare near there where you know there's a lot
their traffic um if it's if it's during the week and what have you so um just to say um i'm not
sure how much the use of the parking lot you know would help with that but it doesn't appear to be
coming from this particular use just just as a comment so um again and i guess i was worried
about the actual operating hours pick up drop off of the seniors and that kind of thing and
how that might affect um the kind of events that you're talking about
yeah um i i i understand that i i think i think it ends at five and they probably close up and
wind down through to 6 p.m um is my experience but i was over there in the evening for the
RCO meetings that we had. And the places shuttered 530. So I know the current business operates
generally what you would call normal business hours. And I think the event space, it's a little
dynamic, right? Whenever people maybe necessarily can get there after work, what their plans are
for setting up. I don't know that it's a fixed idea. I know the idea is to have everything shut
off and emptied out you know at a reasonable time in the evening later on but um i i don't know that
it's written in stone when events would necessarily start and and will there be any weekend events
that would seem more likely with the seniors yeah i my client mentioned a desire to meet the needs
of the community and really try to make this space welcoming, not just, you know, from
nine to five during the week, but a lot of the same people say, hey, I'd like to, you
know, I heard the phrase Bible study, and I understand that that potentially would be
during the weekend, an anniversary party.
I think that there's a desire to use the space during the weekend, and I understand that
it's very quiet there during the weekend.
Like you said, during the week, I think there's adjoining daycares, and there's a charter
i think there's adjoining daycares and there's a there's a charter school that appears to be
school that appears to be not small.
not small i think about a block to the west but during the weekend i i think it's a bit like a
ghost town there so um i think that it should be a lot easier to to make these uses happen
on saturday and sunday when the space is normally vacant all right and before not not quite a ghost
down there's a there's like a methadone clinic right down the street true that's true it's
on this block that's not yeah yeah it doesn't really affect that no and and your comment about
the seniors wanting to be in before it gets dark is kind of uh something that uh i think it's true
too anyway all right thank you so council let me ask you a question the the property has three
different condos are are they have the different addresses or or is 50 50 the three condos how does
that work? So the entire condo is 50-50 Parkside. They're divided into units 101, 102, and 101.
What unit is this? This is 101. Okay, good. All right, I see. Thank you. But it didn't show up
on the referral, and I did mention that to the plans examiner, but maybe for whatever reason,
the way this is broken up with tax IDs, it just seems to be a hard time for it to show up
Appropriately, uh, on the website and all right. Thank you. Council.
Uh, nothing chair questions or comments from the virtual audience.
I see no hands at this time chair commission.
Michael Gall with the Philadelphia city planning commission, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX 3 commercial mixed use zoning at this location.
The appellant has demonstrated that the proposed use as an event assembly facility would not cause undue detriment to the local community.
what beyond what might otherwise be expected this property is in a corridor of high intensity of
commercial uses has a rear parking lot that directly abuts a major auto-oriented commercial
shopping center and is located roughly across the street from a major regional performing arts
venue so the proposed use is in keeping with the property's context it is also nearly 600 feet from
the closest residential property lowering its potential for community nuisance therefore the
city planning commission recommends the board grant the requested special exception for event
assembly facility use thank you mi 2025 007 232 5050 parkside avenue unit 101 i vote yes
michael johns i vote uh yes did we have a proviso for uh 10 8 10 pm we we never had provisos michael
i thought that was a request from the community or something i thought this with the
let me let me hop over to the the letter uh
uh we we didn't i don't think we got that specific and i think that they approved their
end without a proviso it if you'd like that proviso that's fine i mean i think what happened
was you said everything be out of here by 10 o'clock at night right is that what you say
council we it was a little i thought it was something go ahead no no i thought there was
something that the community had requested no we don't see that anywhere maybe it is all right
all right michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my booty yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you council and we have one more for you right
that's right um mi 2025 007 235 1000 south 60 street just for the record could you please state
your name my name is michael eggnall m-i-c-h-a-e-l-e-g-n-a-l and you've already been sworn
and so council my understanding is that um we're going to go on with this we know there was no rco
meeting and that um uh we're we're set to go without the rco am i correct counsel yeah unfortunately
um we know we have all the information on it okay i i appreciate that we and and our our um
board secretary has a few questions uh good morning counsel did you submit your documents
and exhibits uh five days in advance of this hearing uh yes ma'am and do you stipulate to
do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy I do then
you can share your screen and present your case thank you okay is my screen
shared it is okay thank you so allow me to hop around a little bit we notify the
community we worked hard to coordinate with them since November didn't work
out but uh we we properly posted here's an image of the the pro
but we properly posted. Here's an image of the property in question to situate you with what
we're talking about. This is, you know, fairly standard masonry twin. It's at 60th and Washington
in the Cobbs Creek area. Historically, it was two residential units above and
uh a doctor's office below um that that seems to be the use for a lot of the 20th century or
the most recent kind of approved use um here's some photos of the interior my client uh purchased
the property uh i believe it was last summer um my client grew up in west philly but he moved away
He wanted to, you know, invest in Philadelphia, and he thought that this was a good way to do it.
He relied upon his real estate agent to help him do this in a reasonable way.
And I wanted to show you, you know, the headline here is that he has clean hands.
He tried to do the right thing.
He's not a real estate professional, so I don't think he really could have known better that the zoning was not, in fact, correct.
In fact, here's the the blurb that was marketed to him.
It says it's, you know, a three family residence.
And you saw from the photos that clearly it had been taken care of.
It was fully occupied when he purchased it.
So he could have been none the wiser that the zoning was probably two family and a commercial.
It's RSA three, by the way.
so I wanted to show you from his perspective I'm going to try to zoom in I can't see what you can
see so let me know if this doesn't really work out well he had a like an appraisal report that
he read through that indicated the zoning compliance was of a legal use as three
residences I want to highlight that to you there that I think he reasonably relied upon
on these professionals to help him navigate this
and they did not do a good job.
Okay, so I included a whole series of emails
trying to chase down the RCO
and coordinate with the councilwoman's office
since November to discuss this.
I think you know what happened there.
So I don't need to belabor that.
um so that's it but my client i i i have he got a violation i think in novella i i i could try to
dig it up but that he received a violation for not having a rental license i think in march maybe
and he was told to fix it by eight and we're here and um he just wants to make this kosher
What I wanted to show you, and I don't think I have the right picture up, the way these buildings are built here is that the third level is actually an at-grade quasi-basement.
The first floor, you go up a flight to access it.
So what used to be a doctor's office and what is now an apartment of about 1,000 to 1,000 square feet is not subterranean.
and it's a grade it's got multiple you know doors and windows uh off of it um which you know this
doesn't give you a good angle on but i can hop over pictures of that to cancel what what's that
you have pictures of the different grades and the oh there you have photos of the different
grades and different entrances i'm i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna open up i i had it i had an image
Okay, give me one sec here.
So, and that's really the big headline is that my client wants to make this kosher.
It is fully occupied.
He didn't understand what he was doing wrong by purchasing a building that was represented as a legal three-family, which you and I know is, in fact, not.
um i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna switch the sharing so you're saying the first floor is one
sorry what was that the first floor is one apartment and the second floor is two apartments
right are you now seeing a google street view image i see it okay so this this is um this is
OK, so this this is this is from like 17 years ago, which appears to be the latest street view image of this area.
from like 17 years ago, which appears to be the
So this construction is not going on now. And this picture looks different from the pictures I just showed you because the building has had work done in the last 17 years.
But this should give you a sense of, you know, that it has its own door. It has, I think, three or four windows down steps to get in there. Right.
That's right. So you go up a half flight to get to the front on the on the upper level and you go down sort of half a flight to be here.
And you see there's two doors there accessing the ground level.
Let's go back. So the apartments in the base, there's an apartment in the basement, we're going to call it.
That's right. There's three flats. So a second story, a first story and a lower level, each each individually.
have a apartment that's right questions from the board yes um are there tenants in the current in
the sorry are there tenants in the property currently it it was fully occupied when he
purchased it it is fully occupied today okay so there when he purchased it because i'm just
looking at the the violation history it looks like there was a violation for not having the
right number of rental licenses but it looks like the largest number that there were ever on record
were two um so i guess is uh what's your client's plan i guess this is the plan to rectify that and
has any work been done in the unit since purchase so uh right i agree with you the the largest number
of permitted units was what you saw, two, and a doctor's office on the lower level.
My understanding is that this was converted to housing a long time ago, and it was not properly
permitted and licensed. His plan is to, his expectation was to purchase three homes here.
His goal, why we're here, is to legalize this and then take the steps to, you know, operate it
uh in compliance with the the building code um property management code and proceed on
um yeah it also looks like he's done extensive work since he got there without the benefit of
permit well it wasn't him he bought it he bought it as is um it can you see it's something that
looks like homes.com now. Yep. Yes. Okay. So my client purchased this. These are the
listing photos that he purchased. So my client didn't do any work. He purchased this building
in this state. So, uh, he, he was, he was led to believe that this was a done deal,
that this thing was completely good. Um, my client hasn't done this work. He purchased it
from the person, I guess, who did this work. Okay, understood. And yeah, all of that's after
his purchase. And I want to say this also, my client worked with a real estate agent who was
also representing the seller who I suspect did all of this. So I think that, again, my client
has very clean hands because I think he was misled fairly maliciously by the person he was most
relying upon to protect his interest in buying something that was a compliant property
so um this wasn't done right if i were in touch with him when he was buying this thing i would
have told him to run away because this is just a problem but um he came to me afterwards when he
realized what was going on and he couldn't get a rental license okay how many bedrooms and how
many bedrooms how many bedrooms is the unit in the basement a single bedroom it's it's one bedroom
it's a one-bedroom unit and the doorway there's two exits out of there right and they enter into
what in that basement does one enter to the bedroom or does or do they both enter into
sort of the common area of the one bedroom are there photos of the basement so i i don't know
if you can see what i'm seeing here i can see the photos that you're where's the basement right well
right they all look like upper floors i i think i think this view now the the right hand
six photos i believe would be the basement you see an egress i believe you see i see that
okay so the one door goes into a sort of main area and just we can't see where the other door
goes to but there is a door directly out of the basement you know what here these all the way
left the two on the left i think give more of the picture i think it's a bedroom in a common area
give more of the picture i think it's a bedroom in a common area is probably you know most of
what's going on down there all right thank you all the questions yes last question where are
all the utilities for the three units in in the sense of the the water and gas coming in the
building or the meters so like typically if you have a multi-family building there's either
everything's in the basement and all the tenants have access to the basement or they're separately
metered in closets in each individual unit what's the setup here i looked at the clients
in the audience there's this group in the audience
what what's that it's your clients in the audience um i i i gave him an expectation to hop on in uh
later, but let me, can you join? Antonio Harley. Yeah. If you see somebody named Antonio in there,
that's him. I told him to come in after 12, so I just texted him. He did intend to join us. I was
speaking to him about an hour ago. Okay. So, right, to your question, I don't affirmatively know,
And if Antonio joins us, that would be great for him to tell us my my guess is, you know, and it's, you know, and it is a guess.
So take it for what it's worth. I think in my experience, first of all, in the street view photo, I don't see a single meter outdoors.
Yeah, so my suspicion is that I saw what appeared to be a small door, this photo. In my experience, there's, it's likely that there's meters behind one of these doors, but I don't know, that would be speculation.
Is this a common lobby? I think one, I think because of the history with this property, it's sort of hard to figure out what's going on without floor plans because like, is there a common space?
It just brings up all of the spaces where now you've got three people living in our three families living in what used to be a single family home.
there's lots of spaces for overlap it's a corner unit so there's a lot of
opportunity here but like trash packages well it's five meters it's five of 12
right you're saying he's gonna get on at 12 and we did put that information out
but we did say that yeah I forwarded him the alert I got so I think it was 12 20
ish but I spoke to him an hour ago and he did intend to join us after 12 I just
shot him a i shot him a text uh i told him to join now but i i don't know if he's well i mean i just
say that um with regards to the meters if he's he's got to get ultimately a co he's got to have
separate meters he's got to do it you know for code so i don't know that we necessarily need to
hold on for him to say where the meters are because if they're not they're not in the right
place he won't get a co i i agree but that's up i mean i'll defer to the chair but
ty i i think you make a a good point i i would just say that this isn't any building that was
probably at one point a single family home this was a building that has been divided into three
units since at least 1958. okay so yeah no i'm talking to our council here
Thank you, Chair. I know this was already touched upon, but I just, again, just wanted to formally
note for the record that Mr. Agnell did provide email correspondence showing their attempts to
reach out to the RCO for a meeting, also provided correspondence of them reaching out to Council
Office. Staff did send the warning letter to the RCO, and Council also provided notice to neighbors
regarding the ZBA application and provided group emailing to confirm that we have all those
documents. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no hands at this time chair
michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no
change to the existing rsa3 residential single-family attached zoning at this location
this property appears to be physically configured for use as a three-unit layout with a documented
history of use as a two-unit residential building with a medical office use beneath
therefore the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed
variance for multi-family use. MI 2025-007-235-1000 South 60th Street, I vote yes with Proviso.
C, it will be obtained. Michael Johns, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso. Brian McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tywin my vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel thank you board I appreciate your time
Tywin, my vote is yes with Proviso. Thank you, Counsel. Thank you, Board. I appreciate
is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called from the 9 30 list
I see no hands at this time too see everybody at 2 p.m all right
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting
in the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustments. With me is our Board Secretary, Cheryl L.
Gaston.
Present Mr. Chairman.
Board Member Michael Johns. If he's not, he'll be on any many areas. He's there.
Board Member Taya Nguyen.
Present Mr. Chairman.
Board Member Ryan McAdams.
Present Mr. Chairman.
Also, here is our attorney, Matt Webster.
our ZBA director, Ian Haggerty, and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
This hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the ZBA website.
By participating, you agree to be recorded. This is an in-person meeting with remote participants.
Whether in person or on Zoom, if you are called to speak, please state and spell your name and
then wait to be sworn in after being sworn in you must identify state your name each time before
testifying to enter an appearance indicate the property address while on the zoom webinar
speak with a staff member
or call this eba office by the end of business tomorrow
call 215-686-2429 please leave your name email and address of the property in question
remote participants raise your virtual hand when directed so that we can call on you
when we do call on you please push the button join join as a presenter a panelist
Use your Q&A only for procedural requests, not anything comments relative to the case.
If you are joining by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
In-person attendees, get close to the mic and speak as loud as possible so that all attendees
and the court reporter can hear you no talking eating or drinking during the hearings
aggressive behavior will not be tolerated in case of emergency follow staff instructions
the the main exit is the doors in the rear and the elevator is to the left the the stairs are
to the left if we evacuate please go to love park across our street and please stay there so that
we can account for you but let's look at our schedule for today
number one mi 2025 003 392 2231
fernell's fernell street um gsb 3 ltt is the limited owner um we have no exhibits
this is the third listing.
Also an attorney needed for this.
Good afternoon, Chair. This is Jason Hand. I'll be your co-host for this session.
I do not see anyone answering to that name in the virtual audience, and I do not see any hands
raised okay thank you very much so mi 2025 003 392 2231 fernell street i vote to dismiss
cheryl gas that my vote is to dismiss
ryan mcadams my vote is to dismiss i win my vote is to dismiss
number three mi 2025 006 856 10 16 to 18 ray street um we have no exhibits this is the second
listing the listed owner is um betty mon and g p
betty mon and gp race llc
sorry chap once again i do not see any hands raised for the matter and i do not see them in
the virtual audience so mi 2025 006 850 10 16 to 18 ray street i vote to dismiss
michael johns my vote is to dismiss
cheryl gaston my vote is to dismiss hi mcadams my vote is to dismiss i win my vote is to dismiss
number five mi 2025 007 020 2408 west lehigh avenue this case is continued until 7 15 26
at 2 p.m.
And number 7, MI 2026, 002-228-610-40 High Street.
This case is continued until 7, 15, 26 at 2 p.m.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
Chair, I do not see any further hands raised.
We're going to go to our add-on list.
MI 2026-000214, 1942 North Grad Street.
The vote in this matter has been continued to Wednesday, May 20th at 2 p.m.
And number two, MI 2023-2025-006-865-2530 North 11th Street, I vote no.
Michael Johns, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is no.
Ryan Wade, my vote is no.
First case will be, let's see here.
Number two, MI 2025-006-774-6340 Musgrave Street, Gabriel Fellis is the attorney.
I'll be coming back in as a panel shortly.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Counsel, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
my name is gabriel fellis g-a-b-r-i-e-l last name f-e-l-l-u-s do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do um could you identify your
client a relationship to the property sure my client is troy prater he is the owner of
the property atmosphere well there's a letter of non-opposition from the 59th ward our um
our board secretary has a few questions for you good afternoon counsel submit your documents and
exhibits five days in advance of this hearing um i believe i submitted actually saturday morning
just i think there was a little bit of a miscommunication but on saturday morning
all right and uh do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
And you can share your screen and begin your presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All set up, Chris?
We should.
Great.
Thank you, Chair.
So my client is seeking approval for use of the property at 6340 Musgrave as a sort
of quick serve bodega style takeout concept.
The store will be used primarily for general convenience sales, but it will also focus on
also function as a bakery and a pizzeria where guests can order from the counter and take out
those food items that are prepared in-house. So again, a bit similar to like a bodega-style concept,
the property is zoned RSA 5, so the concept generated these four refusals.
So before we get into the details of the project, I just wanted to provide a little bit of background
on Mr. Prater. He's been a member of the Germantown community for over 20 years.
He's been working in the food industry for over 30 years, where he has extensive experience
owning and operating small community-focused businesses.
This photo here is from 1993, where he started probably one of the first take-out and delivery
food businesses in the area.
He also operated several pizzerias and bakeries in and around Philly since he first started
in 1993, and one of them is Troy's Pizza, shown here.
So the property is currently vacant and basically in shell condition.
So the property is currently vacant and basically in shell condition.
We'd be looking at using only the first floor for the storefront with the top floor remaining as a residential unit.
Here we have the proposed site plans showing the anticipated layout.
So as you can see, there's not much seating or anything.
So the focus is mainly going to be on the quick serve takeout business and the convenience store sales.
these tables are just mainly going to be for guests to sort of wait around for their food to be ready
so here we have some photos from the street it's a corner unit with ample parking so there really
should not be any serious issue of a bunch of cars parking on a small residential block
the property takes up nearly the entire block so guests can park directly in front of the store
here. And again, because it's sort of a takeout focus concept, patrons can be in and out within
10 to 15 minutes. So here we have some interior photos of the property and its current condition.
Like I said, it's basically in shell condition. So there's going to be a lot of interior renovations
and cosmetic upgrades, but we're not proposing any exterior construction or demolition at all.
here we have some aerial views of the property in relation to the other properties
here we have our zoning map again the property is owned rsa5
so now turning into our community outreach efforts uh like you said we met with the 59th
democratic ward on april 21st where we received their letter of non-opposition this is the
notification letter that our office sent out on March 18th, notifying nearby neighbors of that
meeting. And this is the letter from Mr. Patrick Jones from the 59th Democratic Ward summarizing
that meeting and affirming their stance of non-opposition. Mr. Pereira and his family have
also been extremely proactive in engaging with the neighbors on the block with this project.
uh he's personally reached out and uh he reached out to explain the project
uh and address any concerns that neighbors might had um he's spoken with and he gathered 56 signatures
of support this is the deed to the property showing troy taking title in april 2009
Here you have our application for appeal and project information form.
We have our hearing notification posters at the property, advising neighbors of the hearing
here today.
And here we have our statement showing that Mr. Prater has a payment agreement with the
city for real estate tax payments and these are our certifications of
mailing for the notifications sent out for the RCO meeting in March so with
that I'd like to bring Troy on to adopt my testimony and help answer any
questions you guys might have okay you should be in the virtual audience
council for the record is that uh troy pater yes
Troy Prater please raise your virtual hand once more Troy Prater please raise your virtual hand
I wait to be sworn in.
Okay, they should be coming back in as a panel shortly.
Thank you.
Keep a hand keeps going up and down for some reason.
I'm sorry about the delay council council while we're waiting, is there any commercial
or retail anywhere around there at all?
not much
to be honest with you
okay now that we're coming back in
thank you
Thank you.
you're welcome
You're welcome.
can you hear me i can't please uh state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes hi my name is troy prater first name is t-r-o-y last name is p as in paul r-a-t as in
tom e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do counsel hey joy uh have you heard my testimony here today yes i heard you thank you
and was it true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes it is okay and would you adopt it
as if it were your own yes it is great thank you any questions you guys have we have an answer
sure questions from the board uh yes um so this is a corner property and it's attached to another
property on the one side is it a correct twin yeah okay and uh have you talked to that neighbor
and do you have their agreement with this well most of the time they're not at home i've spoken
to them we speak casually but i'm not sure what their work schedules are so it's kind of hard to
catch you know speak with them and they are aware of what what my plans are okay and then
um we've already established that there's no other commercial um use here um so uh what are
you planning to do with respect to making sure that um the noise and traffic and what have you
from this use will not disturb the adjoining neighbor in some way.
Well, one of the things that we are implementing is to make sure that the area is well lit
and to have security cameras, and that's one of the advantages to having takeouts,
so there's really no need for them to stick around.
And I've also spoken to the 14th Police District and have initiated a police log as well.
they've agreed to you know follow through on the police log as well okay and uh what are you doing
about venting of the property i'm sorry i didn't hear you what are you doing about venting like
venting of the um for the pizza oven for whatever if you're gonna have fry machines or what have you
Yes, I've spoken to two of the area companies that would come in and they would set up a professional exhaust system and make sure that everything is vented well above the roofs in the area.
So they've explained what, you know, what they would have to do, but it will be a professional company that does that.
Okay. You don't have that on your plan anywhere. So I just want to make sure that, you know, we've made some kind of provision for that.
yes i apologize yeah you're gonna have those kind of smells and what have you which could again
uh disturb the adjoining neighbor okay um all right thank you you're welcome
council can we bring up question go ahead can we bring up the plans again okay
so uh what is your go ahead i'm sorry go ahead i'm sorry mike um i was i was looking at is the
only entrance through the side door going into the establishment there's actually two entrances
one in the front and one on the side as well so the front's in the corner right would that
be where the bathroom's at that's actually the side the front is no i'm sorry yes that's the front
okay i see the accident where the uh but they're both on the side correct
no if you can in the diagram it says uh what the tables are and it says uh entrance and exit
that's one there yes okay so you have you don't have a rear exit out of out of it yes the one
that says back room yes that's a rear exit and bathrooms it's next to the bathroom okay so what's
your trash plan then for i've also spoken with waste management and they've agreed to come out
And they've agreed to come out and under a contractual basis to pick up the trash at least once or twice a week, depending on, you know, how I felt it needed to be removed.
and under a contractual basis to pick up the trash
So that's not an issue with them either.
So I'm just looking at the property like it is now.
There's a there's a door next to the steps going up to the I'll just say for lack of better second floor.
And then there's a side door.
Is there you're going to add a door to is there another door at it or not?
well there's there's two doors now but if if another door needed to be added i could
right oh yeah yeah your your your plan does not match the existing conditions basically
you show two doors on the side of the building but there's one in this picture there's one door
on the side and then there's another door in the front your plans don't match what the building
so that was the question
like are you putting in a new door
because it doesn't match what you show
no there's
two doors one on the side one in the front
and the other openings
are actually windows I don't know if that's
with the
we are all in agreement that there's two doors one on the side
and one in the front and your drawing only shows
two on the side which would
lead us to that you have two
okay you see that right yes yeah yeah and and the other things on the plan that are on a party wall
right and and the dimension of the plans don't make sense as it relates to the furniture and
everything in the layout because there's clearly not enough room if it's only a
14-foot wide house so the plans don't make sense and don't and don't relate to
reality we're really willing to I guess we move to the tables if need be no I'm
not I'm not saying that your your dimension on this plan that you show says 24 by 14 right
and if your width of that building is 24 foot wide there's no way you can put all this stuff
in there right you can't have pizza oven then the space for people to work in then a countertop
then a then a then tables you just don't you won't have enough room to do all that that takes
up about 10 feet right there you only have five foot left probably you see anything so this is
that they're just it's just not reality and then you're showing doors that don't exist
and they're not in locations where the doors are it's like this plan makes no sense as it relates
let me ask you a practical question i mean this is an area that has no commercial no retail
why did you select this this row I'm going to call row house why did would you select this row house
to put a pizza shop well it's because uh that's that's our family home and my kids were raised
there and we're familiar with the community we we realize that there's not a lot there
okay all right that's that's that's your answer any other questions
questions from our attorney no Mr. Chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
the current audience i do not see any hands raised mr planning commission addison matera
planning commission staff m-a-d-i-s-o-n-m-a-t-e-r-a do you swear we're affirmed to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed the property was remapped from rm1
residential multi-family to rsa5 residential single family in 2019 the appellant has not
shown that the property cannot possibly be used in strict conformity with the zoning code and that
a variance is therefore necessary to enable the viable economic use of the property the city
planning commission recommends that the board deny the variance for change of use for retail sales
in an existing attached structure with other uses in the same structure mi 2025 006 774
63 40 musgrave street i vote no michael johns my vote is no cyril gaston my vote is no i am mcadams
my vote is no hi owen my vote is no thank you council thank you number four mi 20 25 006
908-1500
German
1500 to
Germantown Avenue
Germantown Avenue. Alan Nockmson is the attorney.
Al Nackamson is the attorney
So, Nockmson, you've already been sworn in once today, so could you just state your name for the record?
Alan Nockmson.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is 1500 Germantown Ave LLC. And in the virtual audience is Iman Shahita, who's going to be the operator of the prepared food shop.
I understand you have unanimous support from South Kensington Council and a non-opposition from Councilmember Lozada. Our board secretary has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Did you submit your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
yes to the current refusal we're going to have to update the refusal um i spoke to uh miss emerson
uh previously about this matter this is actually going to be a whole oh excuse me a hold okay
great uh then you can go ahead and uh share your screen and begin your presentation thank you thank
Thank you.
As the chairman stated, we did receive unanimous support. A little strange situation here.
We're looking to do a coffee shop here at the corner of at this corner of Germantown.
We showed another operator who was going to be a prepared food shop coffee shop, you know, to the community group, and we did receive unanimous support. Unfortunately, that coffee shop backed out after the community meeting, but before the hearing, we were able to get another coffee shop to, you know, come into the space.
uh we're finalizing the lease here but we did have a pre-community meeting with that same group
um so we want to be you know honest with them that yes you supported this other operator
we have another operator we met we met with the executive board of the coordinating rco
they didn't see in it see to have an issue with it we want to at least present this again in front
of the community again with this new operator who's well known in the community as well so
And we'll have to modify the notice of refusal because in addition to a prepared food shop, it's going to be like almost like a Capital One Cafe where this operator is also a tax preparer in the neighborhood.
So part of her business model would be also to have like tax preparation services during certain portions of the year in addition to a coffee shop.
So we just wanted to make sure that we cleaned everything up, but I didn't see any reason for delay to present to the board, and we don't anticipate any issues with the community group either.
So we have 12 exhibits here again at the conclusion of my presentation.
I'll ask Amon to virtually raise her hand and have a couple questions for her.
But the refusal here is this.
This is an RSA 5 property.
It's a corner property, and we're looking to use this prepared food shop and for office use as well.
If this was the CMX 2 property, this use would be allowed as a right.
Why do I say that?
If you look at the bottom of the notice of refusal, this board, maybe not this board, but a ZBA board previously approved this in 2020 to have four residential dwelling units and on the ground floor is to have a commercial space.
If they would have put, you know, a commercial space with allowable CMX2 uses, we wouldn't have to be here today.
But because it just said commercial space, we're seeking a variance for that specific purpose.
We did get a letter of support, overwhelming support for a prepared food shop. I think everyone agreed that this was an appropriate use of the property generally, right? I mean, obviously we still have to bear the burden to show this operator is qualified and appropriate under the circumstances.
But you can see here was unanimous support 11 to 0. I don't anticipate having any issue with this operator because this operator actually has a tax preparation offices around the corner. She's been in business for many, many years. And she's also a member of the mosque, which is across the street. And she's been a member since 2001. So she's a well-known quantity in the neighborhood. And she thinks she's going to be very successful here, given her relationship
you know from a business and you know religious you know perspective so and again you know i don't
anticipate the letter of non-opposition from the council member will change but we do have
council member will change but we do have a letter of non-opposition based on the community support
a letter of non-opposition based on the community support
again the property history here is the zoning permit that was issued in 2020 based on four
residential units plus an empty commercial space and then again not out of character to have nearby
rsa5 properties their corner properties uh which also have commercial use so 1501 north 4th street
1519 north 4th street uh and then maps of the area again if we were just diagonal across the street
Here's a CMX2 property. Again, it would not be out of character.
Germantown Avenue tends to have more of a commercial corridor presence.
You can see there's some ICMX, so RM1.
So there's clearly density support this commercial space.
And then you can see the mosque right here, which is across the street that my client is a member of.
You also can see there's a grocery store as well.
And then photographs of the property. This is its current condition.
It's leased up the residential space, and we're looking forward to hopefully leasing up the commercial space.
And that's from both sides, from both Jefferson and Germantown.
And then here's our orange notice poster showing proof of posting for each public streets.
Germantown Avenue to the right of the property, to the left of the property.
Jefferson Street to the right of the property, and to the left of the property.
So again, it's more than a vanilla box. You've got nice floors. It's ready to be occupied, hopefully.
And then there are plans and drawings. They're a little small. I'll try to expand out here.
but there are multiple entrances here you can see for the space itself
you have it right here is the residential space they come in through jefferson
there's also double doors for the commercial space on jefferson oh here's jefferson i apologize
this is jefferson street this is germantown multiple entrances there's also as you can see
here a lower level where we'll probably have storage but no one's going to actually be working
down there but you know it's an open floor plan you have a number of tables you also see here
we'll be able to leverage that we mean in the commercial space we'd be able to leverage
the separate trash bins and you know obviously as a commercial space they would
you know avail themselves of trash pickup but you know there's counter space here
point-of-sale system here again it's a prepared food shop so there'll be no cooking on the
premises you know similar to you know like a starbucks heat things heated up but nothing
other than that and the space itself square footage wise is approximately 1276 square feet
and then we met with the community on february 25th again different operator but same plan
And other than expanding it to have some office use in there, maybe it'll be a subdivision of some sort to have an office for privacy purposes for tax preparation.
We sent notice to 111 addresses.
These are the addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses, our application for appeal.
Now, we did file on behalf of the landlord.
We spoke to Ms. Emerson.
We will provide an executed lease once we have it before the board votes.
So they'll see the, you know, the terminal lease and, you know, the arrangement between the landlord and the tenant.
There's the notice of refusal, the project information form, the deed to the property showing that 1500 Germantown Avenue is the owner of the property.
And then finally, it's a certificate of tax clearance.
Some information, hours of operation that we anticipate having Monday through Friday is 7.30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
And then weekends, so Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Delivery schedule, the pastries will be delivered in the morning.
The estimated timeline to get the place up and running in terms of minimal renovations, 30, 60 days.
as i stated about trash pickup we'll be leveraging the buildings you know trash
room exterior trash room and there is also going to be trash stored in that room and
that's basically it my client also will be collaborating with her sister who has experience
in the coffee industry she's been a barista in the service industry for over four years
I would just ask my client to virtually raise their hand.
I will make note to Ms. Emerson is back.
I know.
I saw her.
I know.
I just wanted to make sure everybody knew you weren't just talking to a vacant Ms. Emerson.
to a vacant Ms. Emerson.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
Chancellor, Mr. Chair,
let me come back in as a panel shortly.
Thank you.
Hello?
Hi. Could you please state your name
and spell it for the stenographer?
Sure. My name is Iman Shahada,
and that's spelled E as in elephant, M as in Mary, A as in apple, N as in Nancy.
Last name Shahada, S as in Sam, H as in Harry, E as in elephant, H as in Harry,
A as in apple, T as in Tom, A as in apple.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Iman, you heard everything I had to say today about your zoning matter.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt this as your own?
Specifically, I stated hours of operation on weekdays from 7.30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and weekends, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
That's correct, right?
Yes, that is correct.
And that trash would be stored in the outside trash room as part of your operations, correct?
and and you know again that you know your relationship to the neighborhood that you've
been a member of the mosque that's across the street since 2001 and that you have an office
right now for your tax preparation offices around the corner is that correct that is correct and
that you will be collaborating with your sister who has much experience in the coffee and service
industry yes all right thank you questions from the board yeah looking at the plan where
is the cold storage uh to be located let me see i i don't i don't know if it's going to be cold
storage i mean but i'm sure there's a very summer if you're doing a prepared food shop won't things
need to be in cold cases until they're heated up or frozen yeah let me take a look at that
they also milks and stuff yeah i i don't know if they have like a expectation to like have like a
more of a display in the front but yeah i would expect that there would be some place for storage
on my uh computer's just freezing
i i thought i saw something on the list of equipment but i'm not you have to bring it up
So there was a, I think like a refrigerated glass showcase and that's where like the majority
of the cold refrigerated pastry will go.
And I think under the counters, there are a few fridges where the milks and stuff will
be stored near the, near the, the espresso machine and things like that.
correct me if i'm wrong and i do note that there's some numbers labeled to them i want to stay on the
floor plans but we can go to the i mean i know what the icons stood for i just know that typically
there's another area in like 97 of the coffee shops i've been in and when it isn't it's a kiosk
where there's like something like a main store close by but okay yeah i mean the other thing is
we're coming back anyway and i'll make sure that we specifically address where the refrigeration
will be so then you know i'll make note of that um so i guess you go down to the list of go down
to the list of equipment i think there was a something there then you could see it's right
to the left so then what's happening in the basement or is the basement not a part of the
it is it's just it's just one of the areas and i'll go back to it let me just look at the list of
equipment let's see what we got here
ice maker
under counter refrigerant number one okay there we go yeah yeah but i'll make sure obviously we'll
we'll denote that a little bit better um you know we have to meet with the community and we'll you
know make a you know presentation obviously to the board telling what the
community thought of it and we'll update our drawings so there is the upstairs
tenants have no what there's a lot of space there's a lot of space down there
the up the tenants upstairs the residential tenants don't have access
to this so I think this is something we're still looking at to see which of
the rooms I would think it's there's one room where the utilities are so I don't
think we would take that room we mean in the commercial tenants I would think
it's one of those two rooms here but we'll have a little bit more definition like i said we pivoted
really quickly like this was an application for one tenant that tenant backed out after we got
community support my client was lucky enough to secure this other tenant so we're hoping to
My client was lucky enough to secure this other tenant. Um, so we're hoping to, like, you know, maybe.
From some of that stuff up, you know, between now and the community meeting and from the board.
All the questions Hillary, we're going to go right through the process. So, right to and right questions from our attorney.
It's Emerson not at this time, Mr. Chair, questions or comments from the virtual audience or this audience here.
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission madison matera planning commission
staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa 5 residential single family
zoning at this location this property received a variance for new construction multi-family with a
vacant commercial space in 2020. before the planning commission recommends the board grant
the requested variance for prepared food shop hillary we're giving the data we're just going
when it comes back so alan if we did um if we scheduled the vote for june 17th do you think
that would be enough time or do you think you need more time we need the community meeting so
i'm not 100 community meeting 617 right oh do we no i think it was on may 27th
so yeah june 17th would be great okay you also have to put in the request and get the amended
refusal so that's right too so we'll do that we'll seek you know leave of the board to do that too
yep okay all right let's go yeah june yeah we'll go with um we'll schedule the vote for june 17th
june 17th uh at 2 p.m will be the vote thank you well to leave it open for community yes right yes
so we'll so we will leave the record open one for the amended refusal and two for the results of the
rco second rco meeting so if they want to send a letter they can do that and then you can send
a response that's right if necessary so that's what we'll leave it open for
otherwise you're doing you're doing number e2 uh that would be uh 1959 bridge street yes i am
All right. MI 2026-000-229-1959 Bridge Street. Alan Nockamson is the attorney. Mr. Nockamson, could you have already been sworn just to state your name for the record?
Alan Nockamson.
And Mr. Nockamson, could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
My client is 1959 Bridge Street, LLC, and to my left is Mike Ripka, its representative.
And we have a non-opposition from Wissahickon Civic Association
and non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
Our board secretary has a few questions, Mr. Nogles.
Good afternoon.
Did you submit your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to us accuracy?
then you can share your screen and begin your presentation thank you
all right so we're here oops i went always the back so let's go i was just looking at
things while prepping so let's go always the front all right here to present uh 1959 bridge street
It's a corner property at the corner of Gilepsy and Bridge Street.
It's been a vacant lot for as far as you can go back in time because Google Street View only goes as far back as 2007.
Although this is an RSA 3 property, the surrounding area, you know, both has RSA 3 and RSA 5 properties.
They're multifamily and there's multifamily nearby.
So what we're requesting and the variances we're seeking are not out of character.
in general so we have 11 exhibits uh you know 24 7 design is the architecture firm uh in charge of
this project uh if necessary christopher johnson the architect's representative is here to answer
any questions and like i said to my left is mike ripka the owner's representative this is 2 000
square foot lot we have designed this property to be an rm1 property which is more appropriate
under the circumstance than RSA-3.
You'll see surrounding us is RSA-5 and RM-1.
There is some RSA-3 nearby.
I just think it would be inappropriate
given all the multifamily use nearby.
So we're seeking five-family dwelling.
There is no basement.
It's a corner property.
And we have the following refusals.
The first is the rear yard death.
We're following the RSA 3 requirements of 20 feet.
We're proposing 9 feet, which falls more in line with RM1.
I will say this, we have a setback that we need to comply with as well on the front, which is over 17 feet wide.
which is over 17 feet wide so between the two combined setbacks we're over 26 feet setback in
So between the two combined setbacks, we're over 20.
the front and rear combined if we didn't have to comply with the front setback we would be more than
able to uh to comply with the 20 foot rear yard setback but we have these circumstances that we
need to comply with and we wanted to not disrupt the the facade layout from property of the property
We thought it was more appropriate to have a refusal for the rear setback than to have one for the front setback.
Second refusal has to do with multifamily household living where five is requested.
There's 1966 Bridge Street, 1958 Bridge Street, 1930 Bridge Street are all multifamily just on that block, so not out of character.
The next refusal has to do with the occupied area. We're required under RSA 3 zoning to have half of the lot occupied, that means half open, where it's occupied at 73.3%, which is more in line with RM1.
i looked it up the other non-conforming lots that are you know under similar circumstances 1969
bridge street is full lot coverage 2001 bridge street is full lot coverage in 1943 bridge street
is full lot coverage and then the final refusal has to do with parking while we're in rsa3 property
we're required to have a one-to-one ratio in terms of our parking it would be impossible our our
width of our lot is 20 feet wide we couldn't even put a parking spot not even one from a street
perspective even though we're a corner property because it would be almost impossible to have
even one parking spot and it would be out of character no one else even the multi-families
on that block have off-street parking so for all those reasons we're requesting these variances be
granted we have a letter of non-op oops keeps going back I don't know why it won't show it but
we do have a letter of non-opposition from the community and then letter of support from nearby
neighbors so we did a group like a map showing all the people who are in support of this right
so 1951 19 uh 1957 uh i think it's 1957 1953 1955 bridge but also 52 10 jackson so all the people
that surround us who would be most directly impacted from a light and air perspective
are in support of this project, right?
We've talked about rear yard setback.
We talked about maximum occupied area.
They have no issues with their effect of light and air.
Secondarily, all the people who are affected more so about the density
who are nearby, you can see, are in support as well.
So we have the backup petition.
We have the backup letters of support.
My client diligently did it himself.
And then the aerial view of the property, we're just showing that we're a corner property. But you can also see some of these, like, just as an example, here is full lot coverage. I don't know which Bridge Street property it is, but apples to apples, we have another corner property, which we're not full lot coverage, but, you know, they have full lot coverage there.
so and you can see that here too 1967 would be a non-conforming building structure as well
then maps of the area again if you look at it if we're on the other side of this block city block
and we were here instead this would be a buy right project if this was an rn1 property
and you can see we're across the street from rsa5 and here's some more rm1
we also have ample public transportation to 25 to 26 to 73 to 84 and the 426 photographs of the
property this is the front of the property from bridge street this is the property you know as
far back as google street view goes which is 2007 so it's never been really used at least what we've
seen maybe they had some past as as some residential component this is bridge street from
Gillespie Street this is the two zoning hearing notice posting photos one from
Gillespie one from Bridge. Bridge Street to the right of the property to the left of
the property Gillespie to the right of the property to the left of the
property. Architectural plans and drawings as you can see here this is the
front setback that we need to conform with which hurts us in terms of the
rear yard setback but you'll see for you know these two floors go up you know to
you know for entryway for four of the five units this entryway is just for one
of the units in the rear and again no basement living and then you can see
here in the rear we are providing for outdoor trash storage so that would be
a provide so that we would request that's what we presented to the to the
community and you can see even though you know well you can see our front yards over 350 square
community and you can see even though you know
feet our rear yard is 180 square feet and then in terms of our plans so you can see that from here
we go in this is unit number one which is a one bedroom one bath ample windows so there's plenty
of light and air each of the units have a washer and dryer they're in that utility closet for each
of the units uh instead of uh and then by the way you'll go up to the second and third floors but
here's the entryway direct access for unit number two that's also one bedroom one bath again ample
light and air with all those windows and again you see the utility closet which also includes the
the washer and dryer that's the first floor second floor you go up a flight of steps and the same
thing is one bedroom one bath for units three and units four again ample windows for light and air
also utility closet for washer and dryer in both units and then the final unit is a three bedroom
three bath and you can see it takes the whole floor and again lots of windows bathrooms that
have a separate laundry facility here we met with the community it was actually a well-attended
meeting mr goldberg told me that i think there were i think at least 10 people there i don't
know if the letter of support i don't think it mentioned how many people voted but it was a
well attended meeting we met on March 31st at 6 p.m. we sent it to 87 addresses
that notice proof of mailing of that notice or application for appeal our
notice of refusal which included that in within the application or for appeal our
project information form our deed to property showing 1959 Bridge Street LLC
is the owner of the property and then our certificate of tax clearance I would
ask that um mr ripka be sworn in sir could you uh should make one your microphone yeah could you
get close to the mic could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer
uh michael ripka m-i-c-h-e-a-l r-i-p-k-a do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes counsel yeah mr ripka you heard everything i had to state it today about
or zoning matter yes is it true and correct yes and do you adopt as your own testimony i do
specifically would you agree to provide so that trash would be stored outside in the rear
yes thank you questions from the board how are they accessing the trash from the for the outside
from the upper units they have to go downstairs go around the back of the unit and around the
corner and go to the back yes that's correct board member johns i do believe they all also
have i believe the units have ventilated trash closets as well but we would expect that the
the occupants would store the trash in the rear by going outside can you can you go back to the site
clean and what's the what's the building height the building height is 32 feet 5 inches
and where is the so the the front facade matches up with the front facade of the adjacent property
That is right. And we're approximately set back almost 18 feet in the front.
Yeah, the one unique feature about this block is that all of the buildings have porches, and this building proposes no porch whatsoever.
so in terms of context it's it's sort of out of context i'm just looking at the picture
my site plan and i i have not looked carefully but if you look at the picture that's on my site
plan next door to us doesn't and and mike owns in the neighborhood too like i think you actually
own next door right correct i i don't know if that has a porch i think it has a landing
it had a porch the porch it had a porch clearly and the roof was taken off or fell off or whatever
but it had a porch but if you if you pan around the rest of the block every building has a porch
so contextually it just doesn't fit for that block face
Well, I think if, yeah, I can't speak to that. I would say that if the board feels so inclined for us to add a porch, you know, would you have any objection to that?
I would have no objection to that.
so we thank you we can update the site plan to include that that would but the only thing is
i would defer to miss emerson that would would would that that would create a greater
variance because we have an open area refusal or occupied area refusal is um
yeah assuming you're not moving the building we can't I mean like assuming
you're not moving the building anymore too so the rear yard depth that's
already proposed to be the same so if assuming that they include the porch as
part of the area of the building then yes that would result in a higher
occupied area so we'd actually have to do an amended refusal in that case yeah
so I defer to the board if the board feels so inclined and strongly about it
we would our office would have no objection to seeking leave of the zba to file an application
to the amended for amended refusal all the questions yeah what's happening with the is
the garage part of this that white garage part of this parcel uh that's going to be taken down
it is because oh it looks like it was it is part of the parcel but it's going to be taken down
that's going to be because it looks like it's in the rendering yeah that was not intentional like
If you look at our site plan, which just happens to be up, there's no indication.
Can you zoom out, Alan, so the entire plan is visible?
Let me get back here.
Other questions?
Okay, so just to be clear,
the property line ends at the back wall of the garage or is it that alleyway behind the garage
i believe it goes back another two feet another two feet behind the garage okay and so are you
just going to abandon the existing curb cut i would okay i've never used it since i've owned
the property and then trash is going to be in that enclosure at the rear that's correct
okay i don't think that questions any other questions questions from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
Here I have a hand up from a Greg Melvin. I will promote them and they should be back in shortly.
Please accept the invitation to panelist Greg Melvin.
hello can you hear me hi hi i can could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
first name is greg last name melvin that's g-r-e-g-m-e-l-d-i-n
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir bregg are you a neighbor yes okay please proceed with your testimony
well um i've been living in blue street for i think the past five to six years now and um mr
mike is a very good intelligent person and he helped us like when you got snow storm he
shove up the snow for us you know bring his his plow so snow for everybody in the block and
i don't think like um parking would be an issue also and because um when the shop they don't close
up the mechanic when close up there's a lot of parking and bridge street and i think what he's
trying to do it'd be a perfect fit for the community you know a nice uplift lifting for
community and i think his idea is pretty good all right greg thanks for taking the time to
cause we appreciate it is there anyone else in the audience yes i have a hand up from a steve dobson
i have allowed them to speak they will be coming back in shortly do you have any other hands after
do you have any other hands after this
um one more from a ryan hipsman okay all right
One more from our
steve dobson has been allowed to speak sir could you please state your name is spelled
footage sonographer yes absolutely steven s-t-e-v-e-n dobson d-o-b-s-o-n we're a firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do yes i do dobson are you a neighbor yes sir
please proceed yes i've been mr melvin took the words out of my mouth i've been living in 1958
bridge street we're going on five years now and everything mr mike is a good guy and as far as
the parking is concerned once that uh shop closes that auto shop closes on gillespie street like
between 5 and 5 30 there's open parking on both sides of the street and another thing is mr mike
is all about helping people so i i see that as a a great help to people who are looking for uh
housing i really do mr mike he's wonderful mr doctor thank you for taking the time next
you're more than welcome thank you
ryan hibshman has been allowed to speak sir could you please state your name as
spelled for the stenographer it's ryan hibshman r-y-a-n last name hibshman h-i-b as in boy
that's h-m-a-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do sir are you a neighbor yes i am please proceed with your testimony
um i just want to say i had no issues with the building um i second everything that the first
two gentlemen said mike goes out of his way to help people uh i think it'd be a great thing for
the neighborhood if you allow him to build this and uh that's too much it uh thank you for taking
the time to calls do you have any more hands on in the audience no further hands mr chair thank you
Planning Commission. Madison Matera, Planning Commission staff. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 3 residential single family zoning at this location. The plan has not shown that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of this property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code. The Planning Commission recommends the board deny request variances for a minimum rear yard depth, maximum occupied area, multifamily use, and parking.
okay uh i just say contextually uh i think we showed that this does fit within the fabric of
the community thank you uh hillary so we're gonna hold this right
mended refusal so sorry i didn't i okay if the board wishes and we'll we'll do it okay yeah
that's where i wasn't clear we'll do it okay all right so why don't why don't we give this one
the same 617 date we have them the same with the other one have them both done
at the same time and submit the letter for both in tomorrow and then yeah yeah
so let's just give it give it plenty of time so thank you very much and more
other yes as I say and otherwise we'll we'll close the record except for the
amended refusal there's no other community interactions planned or
anything so thank you yep i am recusing myself for the next case
number six we have mi 2026 000204 1931 north 18th street henry clinton is the attorney for the owner
Ms. Gaston, Mr. Clinton will be coming back in shortly as a panelist.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Ms. Gaston.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Could you state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
True, my name is Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And could you identify your client and their relationship to the property?
My client is Saad, S-A-A-D, Chaudhry, C-H-A-U-D-H-R-I.
And he is one of the representatives of the applicant, which is capital P, capital A, capital B, capital K, capital S, Properties, LLC.
see um and we have a letter of support with provisos one which is unenforceable from the beach
community services um and uh council
Community services and, uh, counsel, did you submit your documents and exhibits 5 days in advance of this hearing?
I did. And do you waive the reading of the refusals and relate to their accuracy? And I do, but then you can move forward with sharing your screen and presenting your case.
Thank you, Ms. Gasson.
Is that visible, Ms. Gasson?
Yes, it's a little small.
I will enlarge it.
Thank you.
Better?
All right.
Good afternoon, Ms. Gasson and members of the board.
I'm Henry Clinton on behalf of PAB, KS Property, LLC.
This is 1931 North 18th Street.
You may recall, I know you hear a lot of cases, but last week at this time, I was before you on a similar matter involving the same clients.
And prior to the introductions today of other cases, chairman indicated that that property, which is on Grad Street, will be voted on next Wednesday.
So by way of background, I'm seeking legalization of eight apartments in a home on the 1900 block of this street.
I have the table of contents, A1 through A10.
And again, it's a storied history, this property, and I'll use the table of contents as a little bit of a backdrop.
this property was legally zoned in 2012 as a two-family dwelling over the course of three
owners somehow it morphed from two family into eight family and i have plumbing permits electrical
permits and hvac permits for eight toilets eight wall mount split units so somewhere between
uh 2013 and 2021 the owner made this two family dwelling into eight eight family eight apartments
and if you look at the dates of the permits when i get there you'll see the permits were pulled in
2012. so for approximately 12 years through two and possibly three owners this was used and
and operate it as eight individual apartments.
The apartments all have separate bathrooms, separate kitchens, separate sleeping quarters,
but they are studio apartments.
So I'll walk through the presentation.
The refusal, this is an RM1 zoning district.
When I show you the photographs, you'll see that there are many triplexes on the block,
just as there was on Grad Street last week,
typically catering to students
right within the Temple area
and so if we wanted to build
a triplex
or if this was a triplex
it would be as of right
obviously eight apartments
is not as of right
and that's why we're before you today
as was mentioned at the outset
we do have a letter of support
from Beach Community Services
And we also have a community benefits agreement, which I will show you at the end of this presentation.
I think it might be the last entry that I have in this presentation.
And as was mentioned, there were two provisos.
One was trash management, and the other was renting only to senior citizens.
And again, if the panel board recalls last week, I had a lease from an organization that was going to master lease the building on Gratt Street.
and then bring in seniors on all four floors.
And again, not that I'm trying to hurt my presentation, but candor to the board,
there was concern about seniors walking up to the third floor, excuse me, of this building.
Photographs, aerial photograph of the 1900 block of North 18th Street.
This is the front of the building, and it may seem eerily similar
because it's the exact same frontage that I showed you,
exact same elevation I showed the board for Gratt Street
because it was the same builder, the same owner,
and the same subcontractors who put in, as I said,
eight toilets, eight bathrooms, et cetera.
And you can see that that photograph,
there's a triplex next door of those two mailboxes
rather than three.
Again, this is looking north.
Again, multifamily on both sides of the street.
Again, further down the street, we're looking south now towards Center City.
Again, further down the street, we're looking south now towards Center City.
There's another triplex with three meters for each apartment and then one meter for the common areas.
And again, as I said last week, I can't prove that with these triplexes, there's not two bedrooms in each.
That would be six bedrooms.
Obviously, bedrooms a little bit more different than apartments, which we're asking for.
but there are multiple bedrooms on many of the homes on this block.
Again, just another view looking south.
Here's the property to the left.
This was the sticker, cease operations.
My clients purchased the property in April of 2024.
And then here in November of 2025, a cease operation was basically taped to the front door.
And it says quite clearly, obtain zoning for current use.
And it's incorrectly listed as a rooming house.
It's, again, eight separate apartments.
Some interior photographs.
I've been in the property.
It is in decent shape.
it's a common stairway it's a switch back steps there's a four units in the front and four units
in the rear including a unit in the basement which has access with a set of steps leading
to the rear and leading to the front of the property but i'll show you the floor plan this
the rear of the property, the yard. This is just indicating that, you know, we have our zoning
poster placed nicely above the cease operation poster, which I thought was kind of ironic.
Here are the plans. So I'll start with the basement and work my way to my left.
So, again, there's a set of steps that lead down to the lower basement unit.
And then to get upstairs, you can also take the switchback steps and get to the first floor and get out the front door.
Access to the rear unit is through the front door, down the switchback steps, and into the rear.
So there's two on the first, excuse me, two in the basement, two on the first, two on the second, and two on the third.
Square footages range from 278 square feet on the first floor front and basement front to 408 square feet, which would be the first floor rear.
You can see it's a mirror image, basically, of all the floor plans are the same, basically, especially the rear ones.
The front have a little bit of deviation because of the stairwell.
There is no rooftop deck.
The property is fully sprinklered.
Tax clearance from the tax center indicating no real estate taxes are due.
Zoning map, again, it is an RM1 zoning district.
The deed indicating ownership was purchased, as I said, in April of 2024.
This is our notice letter we sent out to every property within 250 feet of the subject property.
and let me get, this is the community benefits agreement.
I have a signed one at the very end.
So these are the zoning records.
I won't belabor the point.
I think the board understands what's going on
because it's a repeat of what I presented last week
on Grad Street.
Zoning records, two family in 2012.
Rental license, two family.
Then between 2012 and 13,
the property morphed from two units to eight units.
And I also have the permits that support what I said at the outset.
And I also have a sprinkler certification.
So I will walk through the.
So this is a zoning use permit in 2012, two family dwelling.
Rental units, two, excuse me, rental license, obviously inactive from two units.
And then the transformation occurred where it transformed into eight units.
with the license in 2021.
2023, another rental license for the next owner,
indicating eight units.
And then when my client purchased it in 2024,
and then when my client purchased it in 2024 they did likewise as the the prior owners did
they did likewise as the prior.
obtain a rental license for eight units here's the most selling thing though really are the
permits the permits were drawn in 2011. eight water closets or toilets eight bathtubs
sinks washing machine electrical permit also drawn in 2012.
mechanical permit to install eight wall mounted heat pumps
and then this is the administrative notice of violation which mirrors the sticker that was
placed on the front door indicating the use is improper this is an indication that there are
sprinklers in the building that has been expired since there's no one in the building
and this is the community benefits agreement that has been signed by beach community services
so that's the presentation i mean we're not affecting any lighter air uh we are you know
in conformance with the code in the sense that it's residential albeit it's uh above the allowed
three unit maximum in this zoning district my client is basically
the subject of a situation where he didn't create it. He stepped into a situation that was created
by others. He mistakenly believed that eight units were proper. He rented the units for
over a year with that in mind, with no issues, no violations, no complaints until someone or
perhaps just, you know, L&I on a regular routine check realized that the proper zoning is not in
place. So we're asking the board to look kindly upon this application and consider the past
history of the property and the future usage, which will be for seniors. I realize that cannot
be enforced by the board, but it certainly can be enforced by the community group that we signed a
community benefits agreement with. And we would also look to the same organization that I presented
a lease for last week. And the board basically said that they really didn't want to consider
that. So we do not have a lease attached. And frankly, the company wants to see what happens
with regard to Grad Street before they want to enter into another lease with this property.
But they are interested in acquiring the master lease for eight of these units.
So with that, I'll ask Saad to unmute himself, adopt my testimony, and then we can field any questions the board may have.
Saad, can you unmute yourself, please?
He is on the call. He was on the call.
I'm Mr. Counselor. They'll be coming back in as a panelist shortly.
Thank you. Thank you.
Saad Chaudhary, S-A-A-D. Last name is Chaudhary, C-H-A-U-D-H-R-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
so were you on the call when i presented the project your project your company's project to
the board yes and if you had the opportunity to testify would you adopt my testimony as your own
and it's true and correct yes okay thank you okay questions from the board i mean my comments from
the last time still stand i think you know as we're talking about operating a senior building
having this many stairs is not something that's really conducive to assisted living is the is the
operator on the line today because i know last time they had planned to get on and then there
was no representative from that company no the operator is not on the call okay um yeah i mean i
think like most of my questions and comments are really around how this is going to operate
as an assisted living senior building when that's not really how the place is set up I mean it looks
like student housing it was clearly built and intended to be student housing and students and
seniors are very different populations and this one I think you're right there were students in
there from what we understand from the inception until my clients had the cease and desist they
had students in there there was one senior i met uh in there but was mainly students that's why you
uh in there but was mainly students that's why you know they they moved to to try to have an
all senior complex uh again i i don't want to you know rehash it but they're they're going to be
ambulatory they don't take anyone with wheelchairs or walkers who cannot negotiate steps
um so i think the the basement the first floor and the second floor is certainly doable i understand
your comment about going up to the third floor uh and certainly that would be on the master tenant
uh to make sure that the individuals they would place if the board looks kindly upon this
application or any portion of it will be on that tenant to make sure that they're able to
have individuals in here who can cope properly i guess um is the so the plan is to to rent these
as is with no additional work correct to them correct
and then i think similar to last time these don't have trash closets so um
no they did last time they had trash closets and this time yeah right here here
and then also the part of the lease was includes that the master tenant is going to collect the
trash and get rid of the trash as well as bring in you know foot doctor or occasional aid to
to to clean that's what the lease was said it said in the individual units or just the common
stairwell the individual units too they're going to usually I have some experience with usually if
an aid would come in like PCA aid or somebody like that they would change the sheets do the laundry
occasionally and I don't I didn't see it in this lease where they would bathe the individuals where
possible or where one is needed but if they're ambulatory and get around on their own I don't
know that that's possible, but cleaning the sheets, doing the wash, and laying housekeeping,
I've seen that. And then I guess the laundry is going to be shared every other floor?
They also take the laundry away and do the laundry.
Even though there's laundry on each floor? Yes. Well, excuse me. I mean, take it away
out of the building i mean take it away and do the laundry in the building so i mean i because
i feel like before we talked about them being ambulatory sleep staff ambulatory seniors and
it not being assisted living but this does feel like a high this is like a it's an interesting
hybrid because it does sound like they are getting assisted um are they doing their own cooking yes
but then they're not doing their own cleaning and they're not doing their own laundry
well bringing doctors to them what about groceries it's like they're going to have a
shuttle that would come and pick people up and bring the shopping I mean right now there's so
many people aging in their homes and you know and this is written into the master lease this is a
model of me with my 15 years of affordable housing that I feel like is unfamiliar I know of senior
buildings i know of nursing homes i know of like facilities where they're like all of these things
are baked in there's a person on site there's a management office i think this being something
that looks like a row house that has separate rentals and sort of having management is new
and i think it's really hard to like understand how this building is going to function
without the operator um i guess your client is here today he wasn't here last time either
like is he more familiar because he's entered into this like master agreement with them but
yeah he was here last time but he'll can answer any questions because he was the one that actually
found this organization because you're right it's it's a kind of a unique thing and side you can
talk to it about that they may see this as if this happens they may end up trying to do this
throughout the city but you can speak to it not me go ahead sad yeah so i mean you know when we
purchased these properties we you know initially we thought you know it's zoned properly and now
that i know that it's zoned incorrectly and you know and then when we have season this
cease and desist operations we had to make sure we've done it right uh yes it never been done
before and then you know this is our plan is and then hopefully the board looks into it
and if there's any you know I mean I do not have yeah go ahead what I want you to do is just just
I do not have. Yeah, go ahead. What I want you to do is just just talk, explain to Ms. Wynn how you came about finding this company. Well, what we did is. Hold it, hold it. What this company does and where they do it now.
So, how I found this company is we called the community groups, we called all the different
companies who are more doing home care services or senior care services in the city, and then
that's how we found it. Upon conversation with them, they do have the similar scenario in one of
the senior complexes that we shared the pictures of in previous presentation and that building
that's a senior yeah i'm sorry this is the reporter i'm having difficulty hearing
oh can you make sure that you get as close to the microphone oh i'm sorry i was having
difficulty hearing miss win oh i'm sorry i was saying yes in the it was a senior building that
an elevator the example yeah so that's uh that's how we found get to know about our tenant potential
tenant have they expressed any concerns about this walk-up building and how they're going to operate
in the building uh they have not i mean there were more concerned about okay this is now zone prop
uh incorrectly and when our priority was to get this correctly and have everything in line
before we rent it out
okay uh and i'm going to just reiterate my concern about the density
i think that the size of these units are entirely too small compared to
what is uh the minimum required and um i just think it's too dense um can i address that
you can yeah just just a comment a minimum efficiency or otherwise known
as an efficiency living unit the minimum is 220 square feet
just just for the record not that i want to disagree with you but for the record
okay um are there any further comments from the board
do we have any comments from our council miss emerson not at this time madam chair
uh thank you uh are there any comments from the virtual audience or the audience um in front of
loss no hands at this time okay thank you planning commission madison matera planning commission staff
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rm1 residential multi-family zoning
at this location this property was originally built as a two-family dwelling and was later
converted to eight units without the benefit of permits the planning commission recommends the
board deny the requested variance for eight dwelling units and are we gonna hold this Hillary um if the
board wishes we can hold this for discussion as well yes I think we should because they're both
um the prior uh request and this are so similar okay that we probably need time to discuss okay
sounds good so we can vote in next week at two o'clock thank you thank you um thank you counsel
So thank you. I appreciate you hearing us out very much. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
number nine
mi 2026 000234 321 31 fairmount avenue
andrea andrea solomon is the attorney
Andrew, could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
Good afternoon, Andrea Solomon, A-N-D-R-E-A-S-A-L-O-M-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is JFR Investments LLC.
With me today is Fran Popak, one of the principals.
also here Evan Lipvin the project architect and my colleague
uh also here evan litvin the project architect and my colleague michael phillips okay i i
understand you have a letter of non-opposition council member young right our um council member
okay i guess i guess you're you're probably right yeah that we we we we we
Okay. Yeah. Oh, that's right. You're right. Yeah. Okay. All right. Our board secretary has a few questions.
Good afternoon, Council. Did you submit your exhibits and documents five days in advance of this hearing?
We did. We submitted the exhibits five days in advance. We also submitted revised plans two days ago with a proviso form.
okay and uh do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do
then you can share your screen and begin your presentation thank you thank you i'm just rejoining
as panelists
i'll just note for the record we did receive a letter from councilmember young but this property
using council member school as district well see i don't we don't usually make mistakes like that
so i just want you to know well we'll take councilman for young support too
i have not seen one no we were in communication with his office and expected a letter of support
or non-opposition but uh we didn't receive the actual letter yet yeah there's i i i don't know
was this year or last year but there were some recent changes to the council boundaries that
did cause some confusion about which council district some properties were in so that's
probably what happened here that might have been it um we do also have support from the
coordinating rco the northern liberties neighbors association
so uh this application is for the adaptive reuse of a long vacant property it's
a deep uh but quite narrow lot that has two long vacant structures on it um it's zoned rsa5 but
the block is uh zoned with other mixed uses uh directly adjacent to it is st michael's
and it's sandwiched on the other side with the community center
we are proposing the partial demolition of the two structures and an addition to combine the two for
the proposed use of seven dwelling units uh here the photos of the property as existing
and the uh the street along fairmount avenue this is the rear of the property
the front of the property and this is the rear second structure in the back
as you can see it's seen better days
so the the proposed project received two refusals uh one is for the proposed use because it is
zoned rsa 5 despite its lot size and adjacent uses and um the second is for the the height uh
the front of the property is remaining with the same height as existing but we are proposing a
fourth floor addition in the rear so that's the total height of 46 feet um and that's what the
the for the second refusal. These are the revised plans that we submitted. The change is that the original plan submitted to L and I included a roof deck in the rear of the property above the fourth floor.
We've since removed that roof deck and roof access structure.
No other changes to the what was submitted, and the refusals remain the same.
you'll see we'll have the renderings later on that show the pilot house and roof access
structure but we're proposing without that there is a roof deck on the third floor of
the structure that is still maintained so the partial demolition of the rear of the
uh the partial demolition of the rear of the two properties this will actually result in an
two properties this will
increased open area in the rear and an increased setback uh of the two structures and allows us
to come combine them nicely here's a rendering of the plans of the proposed project the proposed
additions really nice open area again sub there will be a larger rear setback
we're proposing the seven units they're really generous footprints one on each
floor of the two existing structures with the addition that connects them in the center
this shows what's the new additions and what proposes existing
I'll just flip through the floor plans but we're happy to return to them and Evan
is here as I mentioned and can answer questions on the floor plans but essentially one unit in
the front and one unit in the rear on each floor with the fourth floor addition in the rear
suction
and the elevations
again we have the refusal for the height this white space is what will be
the fourth floor addition that is giving us the height refusal it's adjacent to this to the church
which has a height of 76 feet the other properties on the block are very varied in height um in the
rear we have the 42 feet uh properties that are just in the rear uh but again we'll be setting
it back this is the part that's proposed for the demolition
and the fourth floor addition will nicely match the cornice line of the of the existing church
the second refusal is for the number of units uh the block is largely zoned rsa 5 this is zoned
are say five but just north of here on fourth street there are some triplexes and we're actually
contextually less dense than that because of our lot size um further south on third street there's
a similarly south lot that has uh nine units um this prop this pro parcel was previously before
the board for an application for 10 units we've seen since reduced that was with the prior owner
we're proposing a more moderate seven units but that is the minimum required
variance for this adaptive reuse to to work
and again you see the that there's uh here's where those triplexes are they're also zoned rsa5
a lot of varied uses on the block there's cmx2 the special purpose for the rec center cmx1
and really an area with very varied underlying zoning so we think that this proposed mixed
family use on this uh deep narrow site is is really well suited for the adaptive reuse
and some nice renderings again the the rear where the additional height is proposed is minimally
visible from the street frontage.
What was that to the right of the front?
The rec center.
Rec center?
And is that Churchill and Fairmount on 3rd?
On Fairmount.
So 4th Street is over here where my cursor is on 3rd Street is by the rec center.
The zoning map, zoning archives. It was previously single-family warehouses. They stored wire frames for lampshades and our application and project information form, the notice to the community,
our zoning posting, hearing notice postings,
And the proof of ownership.
And the proof of ownership and with that, uh, I, the, we're asked for the relief and any other relief required and I'll ask that Fran be sworn in so you can adopt my please.
And with that,
Please come forward a little bit and get in front of the bike.
Could you please state your name is bell for the stenographer?
Yes, good afternoon.
Is it pressure? Is your mic on?
Okay, state your name and spell for the stenographer.
Brian Popeck, F as in Frank, R as in Robert, A as in Apple, N as in Nancy, last name, Popeck, P as in Paul, O as in Oscar, P as in Paul, E as in Edward, K as in Kevin.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Brian, you saw my presentation in its entirety. Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
um and you have an architect available yeah right questions from the board
i was kind of confused when i looked at this the site plan and the is this all one within one
property line because it looked like there were two parcels if you go back to your plan that shows
the the property lines sure let me just uh get back to it but it is one single parcel
okay so this is one single parcel with two existing so i guess that was my question too
because you've got windows that are literally on the property line then and i'm trying to figure
out how are you are you planning to move the property line or i can speak you can't have
windows on the property line yeah that is that is correct wait a minute wait a minute who's
talking evan is the project architect we can all right evan could you please state your name as
bell for the stenographer sure it's evan litvin e-v-a-n-l-i-t-v-i-n you swear or affirm to tell
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel please proceed i think mr johns had a
question go ahead yes um actually andrea if you could go to the rendering i think it might be
helpful to explain yeah that that uh ariel one if you go back there we go perfect so actually
there are not windows on the property line the existing masonry has openings and we're going to
leave them open but the fire separation distance will be maintained as you can see these are
existing openings where the building is actually right up against the property line the openings
are filled in so it's open to a light well and to an exit passageway only
okay okay okay okay okay okay i see it now got it
Yes, I have a question about the rear yard and is it, how is it accessed by the tenants? Because I see there's a courtyard for the sort of rear building with that interior stairwell. So they each, every unit has the two egresses, but how are they accessing the patio?
the patio is only accessible to the ground floor unit that's a private unit so all egress is going
to go out through the front and that's what that's the purpose of the exit passageway on the first
floor to the is the door missing here or is it oh is that a sliding door through the yeah slider
yeah understood okay but everybody does have access to the courtyard and the plaza and then
the roof decks yes okay perfect other questions
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair
since your comments from the virtual audience
planning commission madison matera planning commission staff the comprehensive plan
recommends no change the existing rsa 5 residential single family zoning at this location
two existing buildings sit on this 3500 square foot lot and there is documented history of
previous multi-family use given the size of the lot seven units is in character with the
surrounding neighborhood the building on fairmount ave is currently non-conforming at 38 feet and six
inches the pellet has not demonstrated that the proposed height of 46 and a half feet is the least
minimum the planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variance for seven
and dwelling units and grant the requested variance
for height with proviso max 38 feet, six inches.
If I may, I'll just respond quickly to the height. Because we are adaptively reusing the rear, the additional height allows us to get back the GFA that we're demolishing in the rear of the property, but also level the floor so that they match up with the front of the, of the prop, of the front structure.
If I may, I'll just respond quickly to the height
because we are adoptively re...
all right so mi 2026 000 234 329 to 31 fan round avenue i vote yes with proviso revives plans four
pages stamped by cba on march may 13 2026. michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Diane Wynn, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
You have, let's see, your number 10.
Thank you very much.
Who's doing 10?
Oh, I'm doing 10 and 11, yes.
Oh, okay.
All right, I got it.
All right. MI 2026-000-236-56-69 East Armat Street. Council, could you please state your name? You don't have to spell it, just state your name.
Yes, Andrea Solomon, and my client is here, Kyle Leslie, so I'll ask him to step up. I'm also going to switch over, if that's okay, to plug my computer.
whatever you want to do you have the 12th ward with uh serious support and council member bass
has also sent a letter of support
our our board secretary has a few questions uh good afternoon council did you submit your
documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing we did and do you waive the reading
of the review home stipulate to its accuracy i do and you can share your screen and begin your
presentation thank you thank you very much okay this application is for the change of use at the
ground floor of an existing structure to add artist studios the there's no proposed changes
to the height or to the the existing structure the property is located in a commercial auto
commercial zoning district and so the proposed use for artist studios is not allowed
as chairman bergman stated we did receive the support from cindy bass actually and my client
kyle leslie is here and he can speak to this they're working with the councilwoman's office
to find tenants community-based tenants for this space
we also received the support of the coordinating rco the 12th award democratic rco
The property is at the corner of Kenyon Street and East Arment Street. It has 46 parking spaces. It is a large 14,000 unchanged square foot property that formerly housed child care facilities.
and I believe it was also a foster office that they helped adoptive parents and foster parents.
It has then, since they left, has been sitting vacant. My client acquired it about a year ago
and has not been able to find a single tenant that is able to occupy this large space. As you
can see it's set quite set back from the commercial corridor of chelton avenue and it's in front of
this extra space storage facility across kenyon street and on the other side it is facing a
warehouse for verizon wireless so not a lot of foot traffic and a difficult place to find tenants
So, what we're proposing, and here are the images of the street frontage, Kenyon Street, Armit Street.
This is Armit Street, one of the entrances to the lower parking level.
What we're proposing is in this corner of the ground floor space to add artist studios and break up for smaller tenant spaces.
What we're proposing is in this corner of the ground floor.
We're envisioning really community driven asset, and that this becomes an asset for for local artists to be able to come in, set up shop, emerging artists to really have a place where they can create.
This is the interior of the property. It's quite vast. This is the actual space that would be subdivided into the artist studios and more images of the interior of the property. It has a large storage space in the back.
um we did actually get a permit for the second floor of this for an adult
care facility that tenant has since dropped out but the the vision for this is to really be
community spaces and it's been difficult to rent out such such a large structure in this location
the it's just for the one part of it over this is just for the one part of it yes i have the
our application
here we go so this is the ground floor level
again there's 46 or so parking spaces and this corner of the ground floor level
level is what we're proposing for the subdivided artist studios
We've seen this model be successful in other areas in Philly.
This is the former U of Arts building and they're renting, subleasing these spaces for, for studios of smaller footprints so that they can come in and create the posting notices.
so that's that's the proposal um if we can swear callan i'm sure we can talk a little bit about
the green light on the bottom yes all right could you get close that's fine could you please state
your name then smell spell it for the stenographer calfani leslie k-h-a-l-f-a-n-i
leslie l-e-s-l-i-e do you swear referring to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth
yes counsel uh mr lovely you saw my presentation is it true and accurate to the best of your
knowledge yes and you adopt it as your own testimony yes anything else you would like to add
um yeah actually i think uh i've had other projects that have been solely more residential
mixed-use developments and this was one that honestly i'm struggling with because
the use for it is is not really a network i have which i think would be beneficial for
the community city organizations to use vast amounts of this building in different ways
So this is just one concept that is proposed as an idea, given that this space is available specifically and work needs to be done in this part of the building anyway.
But this is a small portion of the building where other offices, community-based organizations could be involved and pretty much share the space.
the intention is not really to you know build a giant structure at the at this location it's
really to use it for what exists in that neighborhood and i just don't have those
kind of connections within the city or to get this in front of them so artists is and that's
why you've been working closely with the council's office to to find community-based tenants right
correct so that's that's really the goal for this building i think of i'd love for organizations to
take a look at it because then they would understand the scale and how it could actually
be used so this is the first step okay questions from the board yeah what are the other uses that
are happening right now the rest of it is vacant so we're only talking about this portion as artist
studios and then whatever's coming next is still tbd yeah offices businesses again we had the we
had the second floor was going to be an adult care facility but that tenant dropped out hopefully we
can find a similar entity and the artist studios are only happening at the first floor level or
first floor level or like yes
like, yes.
okay other questions nope so i just thought something just as you talk as you talk that
this is a way to get this building activated on the first floor okay all right and that's
been the the input from council and and in the community okay i got it i mean i think
so have you interviewed or talked to any artists in the planning of this i have you have yes okay
because i will just say um your comparison to the via building is it's a wide comparison because
like both locationally but the building the other building also has a lot of other wraparound
support spaces for the artist um i'm one of the tenants that's going to be in that building
or I should be moving, at least starts on Friday.
And like most of the building is not individual artists.
The draw is all of the like other space.
There's a gallery space.
There's like things that artists need.
Whereas this looked very utilitarian, like the matrix.
It was a bunch of cubicles.
I also feel like artists typically need a lot of like water,
right, like most art things either need water.
And like, I didn't see a lot of water hookups
on this building.
So I do question a little bit how this is going to function as a really great studio space. They also need lots of light. These are very tiny windows and fluorescent lights. So like the things that typically artists would want, or that most fine artists would need, the building currently doesn't look like it's supporting. And so I'm a little curious, like without some of those other supportive spaces, how this is going to function as an arts community.
yeah it's so it's it's been vacant and i i think you're right the hope is that we have all these
other bigger tenants that are drawn it becomes a really community-based space that makes sense
most of that has little to do with the use and more with the layout of the space but i do think
like as you're developing it that's something i would i mean think about their options here i mean
if they we have multiple units designed to make it you know affordable attractive but they can be
larger occupy more of the window spaces when we construct it we do have water hookups at two
locations within that area but they weren't shown on that plan that we plan to incorporate
overall this idea essentially came from uh interested tenant who wanted to do a print shop
That would make more sense, because those operate very well on things that look like
basements.
Right.
Well, we didn't even show you that portion of the building, but it's like a warehouse
space.
And that was where the print shop would have been, and you could have walked from the print
shop to these artist studios, and those were students that would come into the building.
So then it would start becoming this kind of environment that supports all of these
So after school programs, things like that.
And that print shop is the business support, which is by right, but is part of this application.
Got it.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
It doesn't sound like the buildings come divided into, like, units or suites,
so it probably wouldn't make sense if the board granted to put a proviso for a specific area,
the way it's set up now, anyway.
Right. It's not subdivided yet. I think we had applied for it on the ground floor.
Okay. Yeah, it doesn't specify that on the refusal, but that that's fine.
So, okay. Thank you. Just ground floor only when we do it.
If the board wishes, yes, we can specify the ground floor. Yep.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
planning commission thank you Madison Matera planning commission staff the comprehensive plan
recommends a change in zoning at this location from the existing CA1 auto-oriented commercial
to CMX3 commercial mixed use under the recommended CMX3 zoning artist studios are allowed by right
planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variance for artist studios
and my 2026 000236 53 to 69 east armat street i vote yes with proviso ground floor only
michael johnson my vote is yes with proviso cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
i am mcadams my vote is yes with proviso i win my vote is yes with proviso
thank you for coming in sir good luck with your project thank you appreciate it um
So, MI 2026-000267, 1935 Huntington Street.
Andrea, just state your name. Andrea Solomon. And could you identify your client, a relationship to this property? Yes, my client is LOD LLC, and here on behalf of LOD LLC is Evan Lipman, who was already sworn in.
Andrea, just state your name.
Andrea Solomon.
and i see a letter from council member squilla and also there's uh east kendington neighbors
association am i correct great our our um board secretary has a few questions
good afternoon council did you submit your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing we did and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
I do. Then you can share your screen and begin your presentation. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much. This application is for the demolition of the existing structures and a lot line adjustment of two parcels, 1935 East Huntington Street and 1944 Herald Street, combining the two parcels and then readjusting to subsequently create three parcels.
uh we received the support from ecna
this uh parcel is located on hunt it fronts two streets huntington and herald street as you can
see it is an oversized and irregular lot that is zoned for RM1. Sorry, so many today.
It's zoned for RM1. We're proposing to more regularly subdivide the lot and
follow the context of the neighborhood to create more regularly sized parcels. The refusal is due
to the fact that even though the parcels will be similar in size to the others existing on
the block and in the neighborhood, they will be below the required lot size. This is East Huntington
and Harold Street streets where the proposed lots are, the existing structures that are proposed to be demolished, and again, it's a primarily RM1 block.
There is various zoning, but you can see the parcel sizes are really similar along Huntington Ave.
Here, there's other very similarly sized RM1 lots.
We're proposing this lot area diagram breaks it down further and the more immediate blocks, including, in addition to the lots that I just showed,
are very similar in size. The three resulting lots that we're proposing,
K, L, and J, will be in conformity with the other existing parcels, also zoned RM1.
The zoning site plans gear the lot lines as existing and as proposed,
and elevations of the eventual proposed development which would be by right
here they are again a little bit more closely and i'm happy to
turn the mic over to evan for more questions but it's the again the the refusal is just for the
resulting lot sizes nothing to do with the what's going to go on yeah okay bring evan on
evan yes evan just for the record could you please state your name you've already been sworn
sure it's evan litman okay council evan you saw um my presentation
And is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is. You adopted as your own testimony.
I do anything else that you are you would like to add or
i think we can we can take questions for from the board any questions that you have
so once these are subs once the slot is subdivided will the rear yards comply yes
So, they all be by right. Okay, correct? Okay. Can't hear you. Can't hear you. You're right. Um, I was saying the, the red is showing an easement alley and is it shared just for those 3 parcels or the entire block and a 4th parcel at 1937.
so they all be by right okay correct
in the alley of the basement.
any funding to it and have you talked to the adjacent property owners about the subdivision
so evan 1937 there was common ownership is that right yeah we we presented at ecna at the rco
and we we discussed it at length the the immediate immediate neighbors were not there though
actually night i'm sorry 1937 is is aware of the product project the immediate neighbor
to the other side of the team 33 i guess it is or i guess there's one on each side okay
other questions questions from our attorney not at this time mr chair comments from the virtual
audience i do not see any hands mr chair thank you planning commission welcome madison
matera planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rm1
residential multi-family zoning at this location the proposed lot sizes are in harmony with the
surrounding area and the configuration is in the spirit of the zoning code planning commission
recommends the board grant the requested variance for minimum lot size thank you mi 2026 000 267
1935 east huntington street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you very
much have a great afternoon you too number 12 mi 2026 000 291 47 14 griscom street verne anastasio
is the attorney there's not opposition from council member lazada and support from the rco
don't be coming back in as the panel control there he is good afternoon mr chair council
you've already been sworn today just for the record state your name vern anastasio anastasio
on behalf of my client mr mark brown okay our uh board secretary has a few questions thank you
um good afternoon council afternoon did you submit your documents and exhibits five days
in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy?
Then you can share your screen
and begin your presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The property in question was purchased by my client, and it was already built out by the previous owner as far as framing is concerned.
So what my client would like to do is, in fact, finish it up, and when doing so, it would become a five-family dwelling.
This is the property in question exterior.
Here's the interior.
And we'll show you some plans as well.
Just so we know here, unit one is the basement, 737 square feet.
Unit two is 422 square feet.
Unit three on the first floor will be 546.
Unit four will be 503.
And unit five will be 500.
You can see the plot. Here's your aerial view, your plot, and the interior layout drawn to scale.
I can zoom in if you'd like.
you can see the lower basement unit you enter to the side
kitchen living area two bedrooms and a full bath
We have a rear entrance to unit three, open concept with a full bath, two additional bedrooms.
we have a rear entrance to unit three
You got this unit in the front, the kitchen, two bedrooms and a full bath.
Then the second floor, two additional units, one in the front and one in the rear.
We also have an attic with laundry area and mechanicals.
This is the refusal, dated 12-18-2025, and the project information form.
Here's the taxes, here's the rental license that was active, effective 224-2026.
The internal, there's the proof that the purchase was just, you know, several months ago, October, 2025.
And as the RCO letter indicates, the work that was done was done with permits.
I'm also going to share something else here for you.
That's not what I want. Hold on.
So the request is for five dwelling units, there'll be no new construction exterior-wise, and there will, of course, be one sprinkler system.
There's a 75-year history of multi-use on the property as far back as 1948.
There was a multiple mixed-use commercial structure.
In 1965, there were five units.
There were two dental offices, an optometrist, and a two-family dwelling.
So this historically has, in fact, been multi-use for quite some time,
which is another reason why the RCO felt compelled to send a letter of non-opposition, as did Councilmember Lozada.
MVMDE LLC is going to be the property management.
As you can see here, here are the five units broken down, again, with the different square footage, the bedrooms and the baths.
Unit one basement has a dedicated entrance from the rear.
There's two street facing entrances for the first floor.
and then there's interior stair access for the unit 4 and unit 5.
We're moving all of this into evidence as well.
And we have two binders.
This one is a 21-pager that we're also submitting into evidence.
With that, I'd like Mr. Brown to...
We're going to question before he comes on.
What does the block look like?
Say it again. What's the rest of the block look like there's vacancies and there are some boarded up properties. There's vacant lots. And of course, there's also multifamily dwellings, including single families, a couple single families on the block as well.
Okay, thank you. Why don't you bring your client on?
And with that, I'd like to call Mr. Brown. You could raise his virtual hand. Thank you.
that we were joining as a panama sir thank you welcome
yellow hello can you hear me hi sir could you please state your name is spelled for the
stenographer name is mark brown m-a-r-k-b-r-o-w-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
told truth nothing but the truth i do could you turn your video on mr brown
thank you
mr brown um i'm sorry mr chairman may i proceed yeah sure oh thank you mr brown uh did you hear
my presentation to the board this afternoon yes i did is it true and accurate to the best of your
knowledge yes it is do you adopt it as your own testimony yes i do thank you do you have
have anything to add mr brown to the uh for the board's consideration um not really this property
was was purchased i mean in october of last year it's a very large compared to um very large
property um as as you can see it was of um various uses throughout the years it was never really used
as a single family property in its entire existence i mean as mr um vernon said that
I mean, as Mr. Vernon said, there's quite a few different properties on the block.
There's quite a few different
There is an open lot beside me.
There is also large multifamilies further down the block as well.
There are mid-block, and there's also single families.
There's really a mixture of quite a few different properties on the block.
But again, given the history, go ahead, Vernon.
Thank you, Mr. Vernon.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
yeah um yeah just one general comment i think the units are too dense i don't think they work at all
for two bedrooms for each one of those units even even your plan just says kitchen doesn't say
kitchen living you can you don't have you know it doesn't it doesn't work in terms of a living space
so it's just uh just too dense in my opinion
other questions yeah i mean i'm looking at the history and it looks like this is
for a long time only been a two family uh apartment like building so like we're going
from two to five and i think that's like a really big shift a question that i have is
like what's the width of the alley that's now two of the units are being accessed from
sort of about it's about five feet it's about five feet yes okay and then all units will have access
to that backyard yes all units have access to the backyard truly it's through the alley
okay and then what's the plan for splitting the mechanicals and for the two separate boundary
areas well the mechanicals the the idea is for the basement to have the mechanicals for
for two of the apartments and the attic to have the remaining okay and they're already in place
no no nothing is in place nothing in place nothing is in place everything is just it's right now is
just whatever you see in the pictures that's all that's there so it's still reframed yes
still reframed okay um i mean then i will i think reiterate i do agree that uh that there could be
more living space. I do think these are very dense with not a lot of public space for like
the units. And I feel like if you're hoping for families, that's going to make these really hard
to be viable housing units. If the board is inclined to grant a variance for a number of
units that are less than what Mr. Brown is proposing, he certainly would prefer that to
uh a denial thank you thank you what's what was the width of that side yard again the side alley
the side five my boy five feet you've got five feet so once you do light wells out of those
out of the basement bedroom i don't think you have enough room for a walkway
um what is the size of the units i'm sorry i couldn't hear the square footage for the units
oh yeah i went over that at the beginning i'll bring it up again for you it's right
it's right on the screen it's right there okay they range from 422 to 737. all right thank you
are you determining the occupants because they're all the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms
well that's going to be subject to the lease i understand that but you've got it listed here as
three and four like these are all the same bedrooms and bathrooms but like one is 200
almost 250 square feet bigger than the other i think it's mr brown's intention to at least
to know more than it's really it's really really just based on the number of bedrooms i think when
we did the initial drawing from the architect that's basically as it was listed but if it's
a two-bedroom it's only going to be ready to a two as a somebody told it to our events
i think a two-bedroom would be four no questions but i just want to note um mr anastasia i don't
think we got your we've gotten piecemeal documents for this and not your packet so if you could
upload that by close of business tomorrow so we have your complete packet that would be great
thank you yeah i send it to mr haggarty but i'll do the same yep questions or comments from the
virtual audience mr chair i do not see any further hands planning commission madison matera planning
commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the
existing rsa 5 residential single family to rm1 residential multifamily this property was remapped
from cmx2 to rm1 in 2014 according to the recommendation in the district plan and was
later remapped again in our to rsa5 in 2017. under the recommended zoning of rm1 they would
to RSA 5 in 2017. Under the recommended zoning of RM1, they would be allowed 5 units based on
the size of this lot. The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the requested
variance for 5 dwelling units. William Moore, obviously there's been some questions raised,
so what I'm going to do is we'll take this to executive session next Wednesday morning,
and I'll vote at 2 p.m. next Wednesday. William Moore, Thank you. William Moore, Thank you.
William Moore, For the record, this is targeted for RM1 use. Is that correct?
pardon me this property is tagged for rm1 use a designation in the future that's what the
planning commission has said is that correct yep thank you all right thanks all um all right
i think we got one more here mi 2026 000 855 1664 conklin street um mr consul is our attorney
um there's not opposition from with the hick and neighbors and non-opposition from council member
Lozada I'll be back in as a panelist the council uh I just warned you earlier today could you just
state your name for the record attorney Joseph council could you identify your client the
relationship for property cynthia buffington and she's the owner of prima casa sessa llc
and our um board secretary has a few questions good afternoon counsel did you submit your
documents and exhibits five days in advance of this year i did and do you wait the reading of
the refusal and stipulate total purchase i do and you can share your screen and be getting a
presentation thank you all right last one of this docket joe's up i'm here on 1664 conklin street
uh as i mentioned cynthia buffington is on the call hopefully uh she owns prima casa sessa llc
which is the owner of this property uh as noted on the screen we're here seeking
approval for a two-family dwelling. As noted, lower down on the screen in 1985, this was granted
approval for a two-family dwelling, but as it notes, the permit was not picked up. So there's
the variance that was granted in 1985 for two units. Property was built as such, but they never
picked up the use permit. And we have some decent background about this property because
my client's been involved in it since that 1985 date. The property in 1985 was owned
by her ex-husband and her former mother-in-law. They went to the ZBA, got the variants, but
didn't pick up the permit, as mentioned. And for decades, it operated as a single-family residence
with an antique bookshop in one of the units on the lower floor. And I'll show you the pictures.
That does not appear to have been licensed, but it was lived in by the family that owned it.
But at some point, my client got divorced, and her and her partner, who's now deceased,
purchased the property from her ex-family members. So not super convoluted, but the point is she's
been involved with it since the beginning. So as you'll see in the photos in a second,
the property is still set up as two units. It's perfectly move-in ready quality. She's kept it
really nice. And we don't believe that there's too much to discuss here. So there's the exterior
of the property. It's our proof of mailing. Some more exterior photos showing where they store the
trash in the side yard. This is the first apartment which functioned as an antique book shop. My
client cynthia is an antique books dealer and that has that operation has been moved somewhere else
going upstairs we'll go going to the basement pardon me
now we're upstairs at apartment two
We also included the deed project information form and she does not have a tax clearance
we also included the deed
at the moment.
We do have a tax balance of a credit on the property.
We're going to get the clearance.
There was some issues with her LLC not having filed something or other, but she's rectifying
that so we understand the vote has to be uh held but um this is the only property that llc owns
and um she got it when her former partner died and the estate transferred it to her llc
so with that if um if cynthia's on the call could you raise your hand
They're coming back in as a panelist council, Mr. Chair.
Hi, do you see and hear me?
Cynthia Buffington, C-Y-N-T-H-I-A, Buffington, B as in bird, U-F-F as in fish, I-N-G-T-O-N.
I do, and I should tell you that I am not hearing everyone quite clearly.
What's that?
what's that yeah there's a coming through it sounds like
and faintness for some speakers not all okay mr council uh uh uh uh uh just now
I don't think so.
My phone is nearby, though.
Let me turn it off.
Does that make a difference?
A little bit.
hello hello yeah i think it did yeah i think it did uh uh oh no there's a delay on your computer
i don't know what to do about that or okay so i can step in here this is
why don't we do this why don't we do this um
Joe, you're an officer of the court. Because of the situation, you can testify forever. Am I correct?
If I can, then yes, I will.
You seem to be able to do it. Okay. Questions from the court.
Questions from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
do not see any hands mr chair planning commission
addison matera planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
existing rsa 3 residential single family zoning at this location this property has a documented
history of two families the planning commission recommends the board grant the request variance
for two family household living mi 2026 000 855 1664 conklin street i vote yes
michael johnson my vote is yes
thank you counsel thank you board all right cindy i'll give you a call bye all right is
there anyone in the audience who um case has not been called from the two o'clock list
i do not see any hands raised okay we're going to take a five minute break and then we'll
come back and finish, okay? Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will
be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our
Board Secretary, Shoal Gaston. President, Mr. Chairman. Board members, Michael Johns.
He'll be on any minute. Taya Nguyen. President, Mr. Chairman. And Ryan McAdams. President,
present mr chair also here is our attorney hillary emerson
Also, here is our attorney, Hilary Emerson, our zoning board director.
our zoning board director ian haggerty and our board administrator lakeisha dandy
this hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the zba website by participating you agree to
be recorded this is an in-person meeting with remote participation whether in person or on zoom
if you are called to speak please state and spell your name and then wait to be sworn in
after that state your name each time before testify
to enter an appearance
indicate the property address and list it on your zoom webinar speak with a staff member
call the ZBA office by close of business tomorrow call 215-686-2429
also provide your name email and the case address
remote participation raise your virtual hand whether directed when directed so we can
uh bring you on to testify whether whether we call on you you you must click the join the
join as a panelist button use the q a only for procedural questions not the case comments
if you're if you are joining by phone please hit star 90 raise your horn hand and star six to unmute
let's look at our schedule for this afternoon there's nobody here in person um number one
number one mi 2025
0 0 7 1 8 3 24 35 to 37 east vang ven venico street wow okay um this is a continuance my
correct hillary okay this case will be continued to 9 16 26 at 3 30 pm next case number two
this is withdrawal number two
oh five five i got five okay never mind i'm sorry i went to the two
MI-2025-007-392-2232 Latonia Street. This case has been withdrawn.
And number six, continuance. MI-2025-007-410-310 Moore Street. This case has continued until
9 16 26 at 3 30 p.m mark must be heard we're going to go to case number two is that what andrew
and mr share we received updated documents in case number two that is ready to proceed
yep okay thank you number two mi 2025 007 314 1949 devereux avenue um min nego is the attorney
yeah this is jason handle will be a calls for the session i have a hand up
you're welcome sir i have a hand up from a tanya solomon let's see if she's related
why don't we bring everyone and see if she's part of that understood
maybe the attorney's with her
good afternoon good afternoon good afternoon is counsel there yes all right counsel could you
please state your name and spell it for the stenographer min m-i-n-h-v uh nugent m-g-u-y-e-n
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes could you identify your client the relationship to the property
could you identify your client the relationship to the property
my client is miss tanya sulliman she is a lease or of the property right
dc i'm sorry the owner no she's the lisi okay are you okay sorry um i do have a letter of
unanimous support from the rco and also i see a letter from council member lazada
yes our uh vice chair has i'm not a vice chair our secretary has a few questions for you uh good
afternoon counsel did you submit your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
good afternoon uh board secretary my client tanya did submit the documents five days before hearing
and uh do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes then you may share your screen and proceed with your presentation
hey join as a panelist it's joining right now as a panelist they'll be back in shortly
good afternoon uh steam council members are you seeing my screen no sir
are you seeing the screen now we see you now sir yes what is the screen shared council uh esteemed
council members okay yes we see you and your your client i guess right let me share the screen again
yeah did you click the share screen button the green button at the bottom
i did but let me redo it it may ask you to select what you wish to share whether it's your screen
or a particular document or window okay there we go there we go okay so let's go to this
um esteemed council my client is requesting a limited zoning release to permit a small group
child care use with a maximum of 12 children at the property um she's not requesting an intense
commercial operations she's requesting a moderate community center daycare operation
in the building that has already been uniquely situated to the exact type of use
the evidence from the board shows before the board shows that this property is not
a typical dwelling residential dwelling the property historically has operated as a dental office
the photographs that we submitted clearly demonstrate that the property has long
functioned in the community serving manner and physically resembles a small professional office
rather than a traditional single-family residence then show you some so Council here we have all
your documents yes do this why don't you go to the photos so when you're talking about it we
see what the photos look like okay okay so here's the photos of
yeah it's a long one sorry councilman oh no take your time
here's the other photos this is the drawing uh survey of the property architectural um
this is the photo of the the property it's a it's a corner unit it's attached to the resident rs5a
right it's always been in use as a dental office
this is the photo of its original use right do you want me to go back to that picture
so that original use that's the property she's going to have the daycare is that right
Do you have pictures inside of there?
Yes, a couple pictures of the inside.
Right now she's not operating, but this is a picture of the inside.
Right, right.
And that was a dental office at one time.
Yes, it was.
And then I think I saw you have drawings of this, right?
Why don't you show the architectural drawings?
here's the architectural drawings of the property as you can see this
the property is semi-detached from the residential area
the property is semi-detached from the residential area
but so why don't you go back and just let people take it in a little bit okay so
and it'll only be in that part of it not into the house right it just stays there
yes okay okay
this is the notice of refusal let's go back up to the notice of refusal
Well, we counsel, we've already seen your notice of refusal.
OK, so we have so she wants to have 12 children in there.
Am I correct? You say that? Yes. Yes, sir.
She runs one now. She does have another business.
Yes. That as a daycare. Yes.
OK, so how long has she done that? Give us an idea of their experience.
I've been in business now for over 17 years.
started from a family on up i know one let me do this why don't why don't i could you state your
name and spell for the sonographer and i'll swear you in yes solomon t is in time a is an apple n
is in nancy y is in yo-yo a is an apple solomon s is in sam o is an orange l is in larry o is an
orange m is in mary o is an orange n is in nancy you swear or affirm to tell the truth to hold
truth nothing but the truth yes so council one question her about what her experience has been
and things like that um miss solomon do you agree that you've been in the child care professions
for over 15 years yes um how do you feel about working with the community um i've actually worked
close with our council people in the community as far as book bag giveaways. Not only have we
been trained to do CPR, we are certified to train other facilities to do it.
So, Ms. Solomon, the community, you have signatures from the community. Can you explain that?
Yes. So, what we did when we decided in the location that we wanted to put this,
We saw the need for a daycare. There is not oversaturated. There was a need for it there.
So what we did, we went to the businesses that's already in the area and we spoke to several of our neighbors.
And with the zoning signs and everything going up, we actually got a waiting list now for the facility.
How many neighbors signed the petition to help you?
We have over 50. The RCO also contacted and we got 30 more supporters.
Do you also have support from the councilwoman? Can you explain that a little bit?
Yes, we spoke to Councilman Lizardo, who was also in support of the facility going there.
Now, could you answer this? Is she going to have to do work inside that property?
there's nothing to be done only thing we had to do was paint um the walls everything else is there
is already handicap accessible um in a daycare facility with 12 children you only need one
handicap bathroom we actually have um not only a handicap bathroom we have um another bathroom
there okay all right questions from the board yes what's the plan for play spaces for the
there's a huge yard out front it's a huge yard already fenced then there are also barriers I
guess they put extra barriers around there um because it is a corner property they put extra
barriers around the fencing okay um and then are you going to do anything or is it just going to
be the yard as is I can't hear you are you going to add anything or is it just the yard as is
um well we um not adding anything um ridiculous like we would have some toys and stuff that we
would put out there and then what's your plan for drop off um there's um drop off and pick up
there's parking spaces in the back of the building there's um off street parking not only is it
parking on Devereaux. There's also parking on Busselton Avenue. Okay. So you have exclusive
exclusive use for the parking lot that's attached to the commercial? Yes. Okay. Yes.
use for the parking lot that's attached to the commercial building? Yes.
And then how many employees are you planning to have on site at any given time? Two full-time,
one part-time. Okay. Other questions? Yes. What age children are we talking about here?
Infancy to school age. So it'll be a mixed use with it being 12 children is considered a mixed
use for a group and there are no steps in this no steps no okay and uh how many restrooms did you
say one handicap and one regular size bathroom okay and then uh i think even with um with there
being no steps um do you have sufficient means of ingress and egress for this property we can't
hear you do you have uh sufficient ingress and egress you need like yes there's a front entrance
and a back entrance okay and uh yeah generally you have to have you know the upgraded fire
protection system for um children who are not capable of self-preservation which yes it's a
fire system already in the building okay and uh door with panic bars so that folks can get out
yes okay all right thank you any other questions questions from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission madison matera planning commission
staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa5 residential single
family zoning at this location the appellant has shown that there are unique physical conditions
or circumstances of the property that would prevent it from conformance with the zoning code
the planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed variance for group child care
hillary what do you want to do for defining where it's at
so yeah so i was going to ask because this this is this is like an adjacent almost like wing of
another row house is is this specifically set out as like a separate
suite or anything like that I'm just trying to determine location I mean we
could say ground floor found for addition yes we could say ground floor
addition does the applicant or their council have any feedback on specifying location council we
have it down as ground floor also ground floor okay yes all right so you just say i think just
just say ground floor that'll be okay thank you mi2025 007 314 1949 devereau avenue i vote yes
with proviso ground floor michael johns my vote is yes with proviso cheryl gaster my vote is yes
with proviso ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso tya win my vote is yes with proviso
thank you counsel thank you esteemed panel thank you very much good luck good luck thank you bye
number three mi 2025 0 0 7 3 3 3 7 34 to 42 samson street darlene treat is the attorney
unanimous support from washington square west and a letter of non-opposition from
council member squilla there's also a petition of 29 signatures
good afternoon hi council chairman darling on behalf of the applicants could you please state
your name and spell it for the stenographer my name is arlene d-a-r-l-e-n-e last name freight
t as in thomas h-r-e-a-t-t do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth yes i do would you identify your client the relationship to the property uh my clients
today uh ashkar and val patel our board secretary has a few questions good afternoon council did
you submit your exhibits and documents five days in advance of this hearing yes i did i did receive
the community letter today and i only uploaded that today and uh do you waive the reading of
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
the refusal and stipulate to
And you can share your screen and begin your presentation.
Thank you.
Can you see my screen?
Yep, we have it.
Great.
Good afternoon.
I'm Caroline III, and I'm representing the Patels today.
Actually, the official address is 734 to 42 Sampson Street.
But this address is part of the Jewelry Trade Center. And the actual address for the property is 129 South 8th Street. I submitted a package of information today, which contains about a 40 document. I won't go through them all.
uh i will start by uh showing you the refusal uh we asked the lmi to give us a permit for to add
pawn to a jewelry store that we operate currently at 129 south 8th street my clients have been in
the jewelry business for many years they've been in the jewelry business for about 12 years
Currently, they have another jewelry store on 8th Street 117 South 8th Street called
Ruben the Jeweler.
They also have a jewelry store down at 2746 North Front Street that they've been operating
for about 14 years.
I just really wanted to show you the store down here to show you that at this particular
the shop here it's an outlet which is also a jewelry store and it also operates as a pawn shop
now currently we are asking the board to grant us a license to expand our business at 128 south
8th street to add pawn now we only want to add pawn in regards to jewelry and jewelry only so
there'll be uh no one walking down the street uh with televisions or stereos or anything like that
uh basically we have uh we do custom jewelry we've had a jewelry shops for a very long time
and our clients have uh asked for the need to get loans or either corn their jewelry so we're in
front of the board today trying to legally get the right to add pawn and pawn only just for jewelry
to our current operation here on 129 South 8th Street.
I'm going to just go through a few documents for you.
Here is the actual lease.
I didn't put the whole document in.
It's about 50 pages, but I did give you the terms.
The lease is until 2027 currently, and it is signed.
And I just really wanted to show you, too, the actual address of the lease is 129 South
8th Street.
There was a little bit of confusion concerning the posting of this property.
And here's the lease, and it's signed by the Jewelry Trade Center and my client, Valsap
Kumar Patel.
And here's the tax information for the property up to date.
And I just really wanted to show you that the client has the current licenses.
He has the commercial activity license.
The precious metal dealer license, the scales and scanner license.
That's a picture of the store
that they've been operating in the porn capacity down at twenty seven.
46 north front street and i would like to say in order to operate pawn in the city of philadelphia
every year you have to renew your license and every year you have to get a letter from the
captain of the police station in your district uh to indicate that you've been operating correctly
and that you're a good business uh here is the uh scales and scanner license for the business
down on 2742 north front street this is the current store uh as you see we just have a sign
here as goldilocks jewelers we like we currently operate this business uh six days a week uh from
10 to 6 monday through saturday uh we have two employees and we do high-end custom jewelry
mainly gold and diamonds at this location just going to show you how the block looks
of course we are on a street in the jewelry district that's the front of our store that's
the posting that's some of our goods in the front so another picture of the store and this is
actually the interior of the store and this is the entire store you were walking through here
the entire store you were walking through here we have an l shape counter here we have some display
We have an L-shaped counter here.
counters here we have some displays here some displays in the back and you could actually walk
down here and go behind here there's a restroom back here and in the back behind there there's a
safety that's just to enter a picture of the jewelry and display that's the safe
behind the jewelry display council that I previously showed you it's just a long
shot of a 8th Street looking to the right-hand side of the street that's a
double shot angle of the entire block so another shot of eighth street eighth
street and here's the actual plan for the store again we have the entry right
here we have the roll down gate here we do have a buzzer at the door here we do
have security lighting outside you come into the jewelry store here we have the display counter here
uh you could actually walk behind the display counter and there's a little desk in the back
here there's a bathroom in the back here and back behind here there's a little storage
and there's a safe again this is display counter and these are the counters on the wall
with the jewelry.
We did notice a community meeting which was held on April 28th with Washington Square West.
We sent out 103 notices.
We also circulated a petition with 30 signatures.
We did get signatures from Samson Street, from Pestnut Street, as well as 8th Street.
uh here is the uh letter from uh washington west uh there were nine members uh board members in
support of the project and uh frankly uh everyone who attended the meeting uh
23 participants all support the project.
And then we had a character letter from the pastor that lives near the jewelry store that's operated currently in Palm Shop on Front Street, indicating the character of the Patels, how they've been in that neighborhood for 14 years and how they run a good business.
and uh that's all i have chairman bring your client on council uh mr patel can you raise your hand
please
we're coming back in as a panel thank you
hello could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer yes akshar patel
could you spell it please for the stenographer sure a-k-s-h-a-r patel p-a-t-e-l right do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes patel could
turn your video on sure thank you sir council good afternoon mr patel good afternoon mr patel do you
and your family run goldilocks jewelers currently at a 129 south 8th street yes and is the lease
that i showed the members today the lease that you're under right now with the owner of that
building yes and have you heard my testimony as presented today to the board yes and if you were
to testify today mr patel would you adopt my testimony as true and correct yes that's all i
have commissioners okay thank you questions from the board so are you are you moving into this space
or how why is why are we here today um this uh store has been operating since uh 2024
and we would just like to add another service to the current jewelry store here which would be pawn
and we would just like to add another service to the current jewelry store here
which would allow us to uh hold our clients jewelry to lend money on the jewelry to buy
the jewelry and or sell it and does that include appraisals and things for yes they do appraise
jewelry okay all right thank you all the questions um given that you're going to be expanding your
services is there going to be any alterations to the site like are you adding a safe or
anything like that at the rear currently we have a safe at the rear i didn't go over explicitly
all these security measures that we have, but I will. We have a roll down gate. We have a buzzer
to buzz you in and out of the facility. We are connected with the police department there.
We do participate in the point of service system, which allows us not to sell stolen jewelry and
to report stolen jewelry and we also participate in the OFAC system which is the office of foreign
assets which allows us to track and in us to inform and individuals to inform us of stolen
jewelry items okay well and i'll and so i guess that safe is in the rear where the safe is in the
Maria, I'm sorry, I want to show you a picture again.
I think it's a picture of the safe.
It wasn't on the plane.
Other questions?
Questions from our attorney?
We want to straighten out what's the address, right?
Yeah, so I understand that the mailing address may be different.
here we can't really change what l and i we can't change what l and i has determined is the address
on the refusal um is there i'm not sure how big the overall building is at 734 to 42 sansum but
i don't know if there if there is a way if the board approves to specify where this location
is if there's a unit or a suite number or just ground floor um well i'm gonna just go back to
lease it is a little confusing uh miss emerson yes it really is um maybe mr patel could help us
the uh
the lease number and it's specified as 129 8th street and they also mentioned 740 sansom street
I see there. Yes, and when I sent my notice, I noticed the Samsung Street address. I just put
also doing business as 129 8th Street. And this is just, is this use just occurring on the ground
floor? Yes, on the ground floor only. All right, so maybe we can just narrow it down that way,
just to say ground floor the address they have so i i don't think i i think that would be confusing
if we listed either the addresses on the lease because l and i it recognizes this parcel a
certain way and so i don't want to call it i'm saying so it's going to be 7 34 to 42.
yeah so that's what's already on the yeah that's what's on the refusal that's what's going to stay
but we will say ground floor ground floor exactly and i would also note that the refusal says corner
with south 8th street yes it does mi 2025 007 333 wait a minute oh i'm sorry i i didn't mean to
forget you yeah you just came in here and surprised us too but go ahead
nina solomonica planning commission could you spell it please for the stenographer
s-o-l-o-m-o-n-i-c do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes please proceed the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing
cmx 5 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location this property sits along the historic jeweler's
row and the proposed use is in harmony with the surrounding area planning commission recommends
the board grant the requested variances for regulated use within 1 000 feet of existing
regulated use regulated use within 500 feet of protected use and personal credit establishment
pawn shop thank you thank you so much is there anyone did i do the virtual no one in the virtual
is there anyone did i do the virtual no one in the virtual audience i take it
audience, I take it.
no mr chair no no hands raised am i 2025 007 333 734 to 42 samson street i vote yes with proviso
ground floor only michael johns my vote is yes with proviso charles gaston my vote is yes with
proviso i am mcadams my vote is yes with proviso i win my vote is yes with proviso thank you
counsel thank you very much number four mi 2025 007 387 147 west loray street
bromley french is the owner applicant
i've been coming back in as a panelist shortly mr chair this application is for uses of two
three family household in an existing structure whereas the proposed two family household
is prohibited in the cmx1 zoning district
good afternoon everyone uh my name is bromley french jr i'm here with my father bromley senior
okay he is the applicant and owner hold on all right he's he's going to testify mr
okay mr bromley senior could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yeah good afternoon name is bromley french b-r-o-m-l-e-y french two f-r-e-n-c-h
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do okay um sir we're uh mr french our um board secretary has just a few questions for you
okay okay um good afternoon uh this um application is for use as two family household living in an
existing structure um there's one use refusal whereas the proposed use two-family household
living is prohibited in the cmx1 zoning district so um did you submit your exhibits and documents
five days in advance of this hearing yes yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal and
stipulate to its accuracy yes yes okay and you can share your screen and begin your presentation so
mr french senior i need you to be the one to respond not um uh mr french jr okay i can't help
out with the presentation yes i'm sorry yes yes you may proceed can i can i help out with the
presentation yeah you're my son absolutely you can absolutely provide tech support i just the
property owner is the one who has to testify that's all okay thank you mr french why don't
you tell us what you want to do yeah it's an existing um two story one bedroom apartment on
each floor it's been there i bought it oh wait i bought it all right oh eight which is was two
parcel which was so but subdivided by the other party I mean just like a guy
like that yes okay so I'll show you the this is the property yes yes
okay go ahead and there's a step from the first floor going up to the second floor
that's not separated you you come into the house and
come in the house yeah when you come in the house it's separated uh it's a hard as a
hard way going to the second floor to the second floor and you go into a door to the right
first floor first floor first floor right that's what i'm saying but there's a door there you go in
there's a door that separates that yes okay go ahead this is the first unit first floor
kitchen on the first floor
bedroom bedroom second floor second floor
bedroom kitchen bedroom bedroom
bedroom bedroom living room what the tongue for each each unit and the meters and three electric
meter for each each floor and one for the basement which you use for story mr french
how long has it been like this has it been already when did you separate it did you separate it or
or was it like that?
No, I bought it just like that.
You bought it like that?
It was already like that when you bought it?
Did you put the utilities in or anything?
Yeah, one of the utilities I put in.
It was a one out-water tank and I put a second out-water tank.
Let's picture the plug.
Picture the off the block.
beginning and end of luck we've got to join we've got to join here
a letter of support a letter of support in the meeting something
well why don't you go back for the did you have something there tell me why you think you're
was there once something said justification for this i just saw it so why don't you tell us why
you you think you're justified that's all if it's for the neighborhood it's for the neighborhood
because uh there's nothing congressional work there's nothing like mr french you need to let
your you need to let your father testify okay just don't get fancy why is it why do you think this
is justified because yeah i'm in the rent i'm in the property money um owner i own a few more
property so you know consider the city is short of um housing i do section 8 also too so i'm
figuring that you know i'm trying to establish more property for people to live right and uh
how many other houses on the block are duplexes that's that i that i own no that that there are
duplexes on the block is there other duplexes on the second on the second block is that no no
no the rest of the block where your house is right yes right you're on loray street yeah
on that block are there other duplexes yes yes i can't answer greater
okay um questions from the board
can you pull back up the floor plans
Can you zoom in so that it's like one floor at a time?
Can you go to the first floor first?
First floor, yeah, go to the, did you see that?
Wait, wait, wait, go back, go back first?
Okay, you can go to the second floor.
Okay, so what is your plan for the basement?
Just storage.
Just storage.
And only the unit on the first floor has access to that basement?
Just one person.
And then, what's the plan?
I see you've got the trash closets.
Is the plan to have each tenant store their trash in their unit?
All the way that I'm going to use for trash.
and you're going to add an enclosure okay it looks like in the side yard yes we're demolishing the
garage okay um i think the biggest comment i mean obviously there's no uh laundry here on site i
think that's not typical and you've got a whole basement and you've got two ways in and out i
think to figure out ways to get that on site would be nice and then to the
second floor unit is really tight I think you know it doesn't have a living
room I think you got a you've got two bedrooms and a relatively smaller living
space on the second floor one bedroom yet you said one bedroom but the plan says
two yeah let's read the pictures i don't show the picture i show the picture pictures
okay it's the liberal probably works as a one-bedroom and not as a two no it's a one-bed one-bedroom
this is the bedroom that's the living room
Go on, I'm just a liberal.
these are the photos yes that's the second floor not the first yes yes
and you go back to the plan really quick sorry
so it looks like it's furnished as a living room but it's called out
as a bedroom on the plan yes
all the questions questions from our attorney um did you say that
something's going to be demolished oh it's next door no we probably piece of the garage
is that on your property yes all right you're going to be demolishing that okay i just want
to be clear that this zoning permits for a change of use only it's not for demolition of a structure
so you will need no i'm not i'm not going to suck i just forget yeah i just want to make sure you're
you're you're clear that you need a separate zoning permit for that yeah so 36 inches
um walkway go back there okay all right thank you questions from the virtual audience
all hands raised mr chair planning commission
Dana Solomon of the Planning Commission, the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning from CMX one commercial mixed use to RSA five residential single family 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 two dwelling units.
So, Mr. French, what we're going to do is we're going to talk about your case next Wednesday in the morning when we are in the executive session, and we're going to vote at 2 o'clock next Wednesday on your case, okay?
All right.
And thank you for your presentation.
I appreciate your patience with us.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called?
It's in your hands, Mr. Chair.
Thanks.
Thanks to everybody.
We got a lot done today, I think.
uh we beat ian's times if anybody's interested and had a prediction of the time and uh we're
going to keep trying to do that the best we can but but thank you i thought they had a
couple interesting cases thank you everybody you're welcome