And I would essentially present Ms. Hodges for your question.
And I would essentially present Ms. Hodges for your question.
Sure, thank you.
Sure. Thank you. Any questions from the board?
Any questions from the board?
Yes. Is there a basement for the property?
No basement at all? So it's a slab?
Okay. And the support of the neighbors, the two adjacent neighbors,
have you spoke with them and received their support?
They were among the neighbors that were notified of the RCO.
both are in agreement with the project none have expressed any objections
okay any other questions from the board questions from our attorney hillary emerson and hillary you
have an issue about parking oh i was just noting um i don't believe so this is zoned rsa3 which
would require um accessory off street parking one space per unit um i did it did not appear that
there was any on on the plans and it wasn't called out on the refusal so i just wanted to note that
for the record thank you questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair thank you planning commission
thank you chairman and good afternoon david vecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential
single family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1971 and a council
supported map change the other homes on the south side of this block face have multi-family dwelling
units ranging in number from 4 to 22 so the proposed two dwelling units matches the character
of the other homes on this block face the city planning commission recommends the board grant
for proposed use and dimensional variances thank you mi2025-005-4800-5334 vine street
i vote yes carol gaston my vote is yes danetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
bion my vote is yes thank you thank you council thank you have a good day all right number five
MI-2025-005-490-5001 Cheslin Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
We're coming back in as a panel, sir.
Sure, thank you.
good afternoon mr chair good afternoon council could you please state your name as fellow for
the stenographer sure it's vern anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o on behalf of mr daniel hossein
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do burn do you have anything from the rco by any chance i i do i have a letter of support
we don't have that do we hillary no do me a favor just whenever you're done uh
if you could show it to us and then maybe send the copy to hillary yep and our vice chair has
a few questions you're you're on mute
have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes i have
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Okay, thank you. You can share your screen and begin with your case.
Thank you. We'll start with the letter of support from Walnut Hill Community Association dated 17th, January, 5001 Chestnut Street. We did meet with them. We went through everything. And as you can see, letter of support, I will be sure to pass that on to the administration.
Also, moving that into evidence.
This is the property of 5001 Chestnut Street.
This is the side of the property.
I'm going to show you the front in a minute, but it's important that you see the side.
As you can see here, we have a lower level, and there are two doors that the plans will
This lower level has a long history, decades, of being a hair salon, full-service hair salon.
The ceilings are just under eight feet tall inside.
You can walk right in from the sidewalk.
So that's always been there.
And then upstairs has always been a two-family dwelling.
In fact, we have evidence that we're submitting today of current rental license.
In fact, we have evidence that we're submitting today of current rental license for both of those, and they've been that way forever.
As you know, this is 50th and Chestnut, so all the corners are multifamily.
There is a look. I'll show you in a minute.
This is the front of the property, as you can see.
And let's take a look at the plant interior layout.
This is that lower level I was talking about that I showed you previously.
And there are two entrances currently.
This entrance here will be for the apartment of my client's unit.
Living room, large kitchen for eating, and a home office with a closet, and one bedroom and a bath.
and also there will be access through a door to the shared laundry room from the interior just
for this unit of course it'll stay locked it'll be a steel door because of the different use
the entrance the separate entrance towards the back of the street it is for the shared laundry
there's also a breezeway back here and there'll be storage beyond the gate of the breezeway
for three trash containers and recycling containers so each unit will have access to this rear
in fact there it is again it's between the garage which is my clients
and the house there's a gate here and that's and that's how you get there so
that's I'm sorry that's that's the lower level this is what would traditionally
be the first floor through the porch there's a sunroom a living room as you
can see a kitchen two bedrooms and a full bath there is a door off the
bedroom it does not mean it opens to a yard it does not it opens to some stair
for emergency egress but there's no yard there because obviously even though
this is the first floor it is a you know it's more than 10 feet above grade
because that lower level has whatever concrete patio there is if the if the board decides that
this rear egress needs to be removed then obviously my client would be happy to seal that
up again there's no there's no access to a rear yard there but there is rear egress in case of a
fire and that's a pre-existing condition. Same thing here, this is the top floor
if your living room in the front, your kitchen in the rear, your hallway that
houses the bedrooms and full bath in the center. Again there's a rear egress door
for stairs to get outside so that you can escape a fire if there happens to be
fire in the front but again there's no door that leads to a yard from here unless it's down the
stairs this is the refusal we refuse because it's the multi-family uh despite the long history of
it always being three units i submit the history of the property uh also today in this packet
this is the the property in question right across the street is a large many multi-family
dwelling and then we have another one on this side and a multifamily as well
here so all four corners are already multifamily there's RM1 across the
street this property is actually longer than most of the RM1 properties but it
is burdened currently with the RSA 5 designation there's some interior
your photos that's the Sun porch
Very well maintained, very well appointed, very well kept.
Very well kept.
With the two tenants, we've never had any trash issues, any problems like that.
Only time we've ever run into an issue was when somebody illegally dumps someone from somewhere else because it's a corner, you know, sometimes that can happen.
My office was notified of that.
Recently, within hours, it was removed by my client.
It's very serious about, you know, maintaining the property.
Again, this is the history that goes pretty far back as far as it consistently being three units, just one of them being a beauty shop.
And I'm going to move all of that into evidence.
Here's the proof of mailing.
122 individual households were mailed.
The RCO meeting was held, and as I previously stated, they are in support.
I've also included just all the LeadSafe certificates, and this is a good – my client is a good landlord.
He has proof of posting and just wants to continue to maintain the property in the condition that it deserves.
And with that, I'd like to call Daniel Hossain.
Thank you.
I'm back in as a panel, is it?
Daniel?
I'm here.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
yes my name is daniel hossain d-a-n-i-e-l h-o-s-s-a-i-n do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes counsel thank you daniel did you hear my
presentation to the board today yes sir true and accurate to the best of your knowledge
yes and do you adopt it as your own testimony yes thank you i have nothing further questions
on the board uh yeah i i guess one uh there's uh if you can go back to the the plans yes sir
there's definitely something to be said about the old buildings in the old departments they're
livable um unlike some of the new stuff yeah unlike some of the new stuff that's being built
you can barely you can barely you touch one hand on one wall and your your hand is on the other
wall and that's your living room dining room the kitchen's ridiculous so the units are nicely laid
out my only criticism is on the basement level where you have to go into your bedroom to go to
the bathroom that is about as enough that's as big a peeve for me as having to go through the bedroom
to go to the backyard so when you have company actually have to go in your bedroom to go to the
bathroom so that that's problematic and it's a lot of rooms but you know that's i guess that's the
nature of those old buildings. So if there was a way you could make that so you don't have to go
in the bedroom to go to the bathroom, I don't really have an issue with anything else that I've
seen. Thank you. Anyone else? But somebody else probably is going to talk about trash and whatnot.
I just want to confirm that you're going to have a full separation for that basement unit to that
laundry room. Right now, I understand that they have to have access to it, but it's reading like
it's all part of the unit no this uh the everyone has access here from 50th street yeah this here
would be a steel door that uh that my client could access from his unit to the laundry room
uh that's the plan that doesn't mean it has to stay that way but that was the plan
okay and then the 60th street entrance into the laundry room is pre-existing because i thought i
only saw one you only saw one because a car is blocking the other it is pre-existing okay all
right and then where is that also where all of the meters are going to be i'm assuming since this was
already subdivided that there's already separate meters for all of the units in the building
existing yes there is okay okay okay and my question is why are we here this has been
three units for this long a period of time yeah but it's zoned rs the underlying zoning uh since
the remapping is rsa5 and that third unit was commercial remember ah okay all right wasn't
residential yeah right ah okay all right questions from our attorney hillary thank you you're welcome
you're welcome um not at this time mr chair oh well questions or comments from the audience the
um not at this time mr chair oh
virtual audience i do not see any answers any commission
thank you chairman and good afternoon david effector with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa 5 residential
to single family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2022
in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan this property appears to have been built as
two dwelling units with a ground floor commercial space predating the adoption of zoning the
appellant requests permission to convert the former ground floor commercial space into a dwelling unit
the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variance for a third
dwelling unit thank you mi2025-005-490-5001 chestnut street i vote yes
go john's my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
ryan mcadams my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you thank you council number six mi
2025-005-493-5801 Ridge Avenue. Mr. Patterson, Ronald Patterson is the attorney.
Mr. Patterson, you were here awful early today. Could you please state your name and spell it for
the stenographer? Good afternoon, Ronald Patterson.
just for the for the record spell your latest name
p-a-t-t-e-r-s-o-n you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
uh yes i do could you identify your client in relationship to the property
sure uh nova care rehabilitation is the tenant and um ridge avenue property llc is the owner and
And I'm here on behalf of both.
And the Roxborough Development Corporation formally expresses their support and also
align with Central Roxborough Civic Association.
Our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
And do you waive the reading of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Okay, thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Great.
thank you so this application regards 5801 ridge avenue it's at the intersection of ridge avenue
and rector street and as the aerial shows to the right on on this photograph is the rocks
roxborough memorial hospital
so the application is for special exception for nova care therapy rehabilitation office and
outpatient use it's characterized by the zoning code as a medical health and group practitioner
where are you having more than one practitioner one assistant which is the case here the property
is a four-story mixed-use building having 50 residential dwelling units
with commercial spaces on the first floor as i'm designating here there are also
So I'll go through here. This is the space where we're proposing to occupy here.
On the side on Rector Street, there's an entrance to a covered parking garage that has 17 parking spaces.
The Novocare is proposing to occupy one space. I'll go through the...
here's a space here it's approximately 2493 square feet there has not been a tenant
placed in there yet because it's a fairly new building
is that commercial space number two yes it is thank you mr chairman poster from the side
there's our refute our referral and we're looking to start looking at the floor plan
nice we did meet with the rocks uh borough development corporation in november on the 6th
2025 and it's exhibit two is there's a letter of support with that said i just i want to have
mr junta testify sure sure michael that was yes sir could you please state your name and spell
yes sir could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer sure justin junta j-i-u-n-t-a
for the stenographer justin junta
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes council