don don't tangrady or clementa amazon or the attorneys
good afternoon well good evening chairman we're sorry we're so late i i was
we well we we hate when we ruin people's night lights like this um could you state your name
and spell for the court sonographer of course clemente amazon on behalf of the property owner
name is spelled C-L-E-M-E-N-T-A, last name is spelled A-M-A-Z-A-N.
M-E-N-T-A, last name is spelled A-M-A-Z-A-N.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Good evening.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five 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.
Thank you.
can share your screen and proceed with your case thank you very much
all right
can everyone see my screen yes yes we can okay great i understand that it is almost seven o'clock
and so i will do my best to be brief this is a very straightforward case what we're discussing
here for 3941 aspen street is a pre-existing use it is currently zoned residential single family
however as you will see in my presentation it has been a duplex that was granted by variants dating
back to 2008 my client purchased it it was already fitted out as a duplex she did no work to convert
the property there was a rental license that was previously issued however the prior owner
did not keep up with the rental license and so we have to start the process all over again
for the duplex use. We have the refusal here just showing that the only refusal we have
is for the duplex use as a property zone single family.
At the time of my submission of the presentation materials, I had not yet received a letter
from the community organization. I did speak to Dwayne Drummond, who is the head of Mantua
Civic. He advised me that he is out of town and unable to provide the formal letter. However,
he did send this email indicating that there was a vote in favor of the project five to one
as you can see this is doing drama's email my contact information and my follow-up just
requesting for the letter of support um so once we receive the formal letter i will request that
he submit it to the board directly but in lieu of that we do have this email stating that the
community voted in favor thank you this is just one of my follow-up emails this is a view of the
front of the property. Again, this is a pre-existing use. There is no construction that's being done
here, no demo that's being done here. We did post the property. As you can see, this is a view of
the side yard. I have multiple photos just showing the two units. It's a one-bedroom, one-bath on the
first floor. The second and third floor is a two-bedroom unit. The first floor is currently
occupied the second floor is not occupied at this time as i mentioned dating back to 2008
excuse me michelle white was a prior owner she did receive a variance for the duplex use as you
can see here march 14 2008 it was approved this is the mls listing showing the listing that my
client saw indicating that it was a duplex two units when she was looking to purchase the property
this is a rental license that was on file with the city it was issued march 10 2008 again for
two units we did notify the community of the march 15th meeting as well as today's eba hearing
i would assume that there's the one present but if they decided to stay on that'd be lovely
we included a copy of the notice of refusal a list of the properties that were notified
our certificate of mailing we have the deed as you can see my client purchased this property
from michelle white who is the same person who had the rental license and filed that initial
application however did not maintain the rental license and so we have to go through the zoning
process once again our application for appeal project information form and we attempted to
obtain the tax clearance certificate we were unable to do so although it did say that the
zoning board clearance was passed so we did just pull the clearance showing that the only balance
dues for 2026 which is not yet due so with that i believe my client is on or i hope she is she
may not have been able to stay it would be zineb anor if she could have got my testimony
never no has been promoted she will be back there you go she waited
lovely
then up can you hear me yes i can hi everyone hi good could you state your name and spell it
for the court sonographer uh it's zineb anwar z-i-n-e-b-a-n-o-u-a-r do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes council then did you hear my
Council?
Jeanette, did you hear my presentation today?
presentation today.
Clementa.
And was it true and correct?
Would you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Yes, we're with the clients.
The residents store the trash.
um the trash is going to be stored in the front yard as it is currently stored it is
an enclosed space as you can see right here do we have a floor plan
it's a pre-existing structure so we don't have a floor plan yes there are what about pictures
of the inside yes so here we have the entryway coming into the property if you go up the stairs
that gets you to the second floor unit we have photos of the kitchen as well as a living area
one of the living areas as well the kitchen and unit washer and dryer one of the bathrooms
this is the upper level unit so these are pretty sizable units again this is not new construction
we aren't doing anything but using the property as it was purchased so these are the photos of
interior that were submitted with the presentation. Other questions? Are the utilities already
separated? Yes they are. Okay and I mean it looks like every picture you've showed us is
of the second floor. Are there any photos of the first floor unit and can you tell us what the
um how many bedrooms and bathrooms are in each unit sure the first floor unit is currently
occupied so we don't have pictures of that right now which is why we focus on the second floor unit
um the first floor unit is a one bedroom one bath and zanep correct me if i'm wrong the second and
third floor is two bedrooms how many baths two baths two bedrooms okay and then is there a basement
and what what's the the basement however it's not accessible to the tenants currently it's not
finished either tenant either tenants no one has access to the basement so how do you access the
basement then how is the basement access it has its uh it's separate like stairs and door
like through the the the you know the hallway but like you know the the door to the basement is
separate okay so there's the door to the basement is off of the main hallway it's it's it's in the
main hallway so who has access to the rear yard the tenant that currently occupies the first uh
um first floor lower yeah questions and then i mean i guess this is for um the attorney it
does look like there was a use permit pulled to convert this from single family to multi-family
in 2008 that you didn't talk about is it that the previous use was never completed
I did pull that use permit. So this is the application, March 14, 2008. It was stamped
as approved. Thereafter, this rental license was pulled. So because the rental license
wasn't maintained, we now have to go through the zoning process again.
Understood that, but the original zoning permit was for three units, and you've only
talked about too which is why i'm asking and from 2008 says that it was subdivided and that there's
a multiple bedroom unit on the second floor and a multiple bedroom unit on the third floor
and you've only addressed that there's the second floor unit we've seen photos and we've heard about
the existing tenant on the first floor so what's going on on the third floor the third floor would
be part of that second unit so the second unit would be the second and third floor so we're not
looking for three units here we're only looking for two one on the first floor then yeah i got
what you're asking for i'm trying to clarify because you said that there's no work done and
that's why you didn't have plans and you didn't have all the photos and it's not really clear
from the city's record what is existing so i guess i'm also clarifying what is there because your
your client bought the property in 2018 which is six years ago so i'm trying to like understand
what is it that we're that we're trying to operate
then uh can you clarify how many better rooms are on yeah sorry
Zainab, can you clarify how many bedrooms are on the third floor versus what's on the third?
Yeah, sorry. Let me make a correction, Clementa. You do have pictures of the first floor, actually.
Yeah, yeah. So the second floor and the third floor will be like, you know, one unit.
It's like two bedrooms. Each one has like two bedrooms and each one has one bathroom.
So it will be two bedrooms, one bath, and then another two bedrooms and one bath.
so they will be combined you know two and three will be into one unit and then they currently
aren't or they currently are what's the current condition they're separate units sorry what do
you mean by the prior condition so currently the second floor and the third floor are not nobody
lives in them right yes so i'm saying are they currently separate units no no so there's only
one kitchen yes okay and then if you want to scroll lamenta too so i can show you know the
pictures that pertain to the first floor this one yeah so this is the first floor
okay so this is the front living room in the kitchen that's correct yep could you walk us
then through the layout the kitchen is in the middle of the apartment or is it at the rear
it's in the rear there's the kitchen and then there's the small laundry room and then there's
like the door that will take you to the backyard okay and the first floor unit is the only unit
that has access to the backyard that's correct yes okay the questions
questions from our attorney um zamzon if you could just submit a copy of that email
from the RCO by Close of Business tomorrow,
so we have that for our records.
That would be great.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, I have a hand up from a Michael Jara.
I will promote them right now.
Michael?
hey everyone i am michael jara could you please state your name and spell it for the sonographer
yep michael jara j-a-r-a all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes sir michael are you a neighbor um yes i purchased the property uh right next
door actually okay um yeah three uh three nine four three aspen street um i was following the
case because it's my next door neighbor. So that's fine. I'm okay with the variation because
I believe they have like two units already being renting out or one, she says, not too
sure. But just want to make sure everything's, you know, okay, structurally wise, because
I was following the permits online. And I believe one of the panelists didn't mention
that um there was the the permit was for three uh units um but now i'm hearing two which is fine
i don't care as long as as long as it's like fine structurally okay that's all right but
we appreciate you taking the time to call us and uh thank you yeah thank you guys okay um
Chair, if I could respond.
Yeah, sure.
So, the notice of refusal, we are to clarify.
We're just seeking two units here.
The prior permit, as we discussed previously, was for the three units.
So, we're just looking for two units here.
Chair, can I request that if we do this, that we provide a requirement for a CO?
Because there's never been any L&I permits pulled for this.
Yeah, we'll get to the CO.
we're good um questions from uh comments from the planning
yes good evening liz scusely on behalf of the philadelphia planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single-family zoning at this
location. The city rezoned this neighborhood in 2017 in accord with the recommendations in the
comprehensive plan. There is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property
that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code. This is a solidly
single-family block face. The city planning commission recommends that the board deny the
proposed use variants for two dwelling units thank you mi2025 004603 3941 aspen street
I vote yes with provisos. Maximum two units.
i vote yes with provisos um maximum two units and certificate of occupancy to be obtained
can we can we also include that a trash be stored inside they've got enough room for both the units
sure trash or or the first floor then the rear yard and the second floor inside
yeah so you hear that clem it's it's in the front yard now we it should be either in the rear or
inside okay understood all right so in terms of the wording for that okay i was going to say in
terms of wording for that proviso just say no trash storage in front yard and then they can figure out
where the best put it otherwise why don't we start over it again right so it's uh i i wrote yes um
trash stored trash not to be stored in front yard right maximum two units and certificate of occupancy
to be obtained michael johns my vote is yes
joe gaston my boot is yes with provisos canada graham my vote is yes with provisos
ryan mcadams my vote is yes with provisos my own my vote is yes with provisos
thank you council thank you is there anyone in the 330 list whose case has not been called
um i do not see any hands mr chair thank you everyone we appreciate the the long lengthy day
and and uh tenetta i would say that i just want you to know that uh you were much more happy and
when you would say and i think it had to do because you're not getting ready to say to
cheryl how are we getting home tonight because usually this time of night you're saying this
cheryl how are we getting home are we taking uber what are we doing i noticed either one
One of you are worried about how you beat the whole thing.