Thank you.
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Thank you.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustments.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismael Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, Taya Nguyen.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, Ian Haggerty, our executive director of the
zoning board, and our zoning board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
Please be advised this meeting is being recorded.
Your participation in this meeting indicates your consent to be recorded.
The video will be posted on the ZBA website approximately one week following the meeting.
This meeting is being held in person with remote capabilities, meaning that individuals
can participate either in person at the hearing room in the one parkway building or remotely over
zoom when you are recognized to speak by the board please state and spell your name for the court
reporter and then wait to be sworn in if you're in the hearing room you must speak into a microphone
so that everyone in attendance including the court reporter can hear you if you're participating
remotely please turn on your camera and unmute yourself when you're recognized to speak once
Once you've been sworn in, please state your name each time before testifying, whether you are in person or remote, so that the court reporter knows who is speaking.
Please mute yourself or turn off the microphone when you are not speaking.
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Any concerns related to hearing operations should be directed to the ZBA Executive Director at phillip.gov.
Before we begin, our Executive Director, Ian Haggerty, has an important safety announcement.
Okay, thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the ZBA Hearing Room.
The safety of our attendees here is our top priority, so I just have a couple of quick safety announcements.
If there is an emergency for any reason, please pay attention to announcements that come over the loudspeaker.
If there's no announcement heard, then please listen to the directions of the ZBA staff or security personnel.
The main exit is through the double doors at the rear of the room.
If an order is given to leave this room for any reason, the nearest stairway is to the left outside the double doors.
Just follow the red exit signs.
If an order is given to evacuate the building for any reason, we will have a rally point at Love Park.
That's the park just across Arch Street from the front entrance to this building.
Please remain there so that we can account for everyone in the room.
And as a reminder, restrooms are located just across from the elevators, and there's a water fountain just outside those double doors to the right.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number two, MI 2024, 005-361-2512 to 13 Island Avenue.
This case is continued attorney moving party.
Number three, MI 2024, 005-841-4010 Palmetto Street.
This case is continued until 2.26 at 2 p.m.
Number 4, MI 2024-006-752
MI 2024, 006-752-4518 Old York Road.
This case is continuing until 7-9-25 at 2 p.m.
Number 11, MI 2024, 006879, 2400 Washington Avenue, SOSNA, South of South Neighbors Association, has requested a continuance.
Mr. Mattione?
sorry i represent the applicant are you from sasta yeah please come up all right and i sent
in a letter as well i don't know if you received the mr chair we do we do all right so um mr
mattione could you please state your name and spell for the course now michael mattione m-a-t-t-i-o-n-i
do you swear we're a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do sir
thank you so much jonathan adler j-o-n-a-t-h-a-n a-d-l-e-r do you swear referring to
tell the truth told truth and nothing but the truth i do sir um you requested the continuance
uh i represent the south of south neighborhood association that rep that requested the
continuance today correct please give us your comment as you tell me why you want to continue
Sure. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I'm here today representing the South of
South Neighborhood Association. We're requesting a continuance for 2400 Washington Avenue for the
following reasons. Number one, last summer SOSNA made a request of the Philadelphia Planning
Commission to extend our boundaries to the south side of Washington Avenue. That request was
received in a timely fashion but was not processed as a result we were not notified of this project
until after there was a community meeting held by the point breeze coalition that community meeting
was attended to my knowledge by 15 or so members of the community none of whom live on the north
side of washington avenue this is a project that covers approximately three acres involves the
creation of a surface parking lot with 150 or so parking spaces a considerable amount of retail
the creation of 30 residential units this is a project that will have significant impact on the
traffic in the area on the quality of life for people who live nearby
Projects of a much smaller scale on Washington Avenue have been subject to numerous community meetings that are widely advertised, that are coordinated by our organization for projects on the north side of Washington Avenue, including near neighbors, members of the greater community, to our organization having one community meeting with a little over a dozen participants.
And then I will stipulate that there was a second meeting with a few members of our organization that took place on Zoom within the last two weeks.
We would like to have the opportunity to fully inform our constituents of this significant, significant project that is requesting a series of variances, not only to have a meeting with our greater community, but also organized neighbors who live on the north side of the 2400 and 2500 block of Washington Avenue, as well as the 2400 block of Kimball and Carpenter,
so that they are fully apprised of this project
that, again, will have a significant impact
on their quality of life.
Thank you.
Counsel?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Absolutely.
I did send in a letter as well, and I believe you got it.
First of all, SOSNA, I know that they asked
to include this property in their boundaries,
but that has not been granted.
So we properly noticed,
we had a meeting with the Planning Commission
back in November.
We then called the council president's office,
it's his district,
He told us who the coordinating RCO was.
We coordinated with the coordinating RCO, sent out the appropriate notices, as was given to us by the city, held the meeting with the coordinating RCO, and several other RCOs, by the way.
It wasn't just the Point Breeze CDC.
It was Washington Avenue property owners and several others also received notice.
Sent out all the notices.
We had the meeting.
The community supported it nearly unanimously.
We then received a call from the council president's office and asked if we would, as a courtesy, have a meeting with SOSNA.
We agreed. We had the meeting that was asked.
we had the meeting that was asked there was even a request for a follow-up by uh richard gliniak
There was even a request for a follow-up by...
from sasna followed up with him gave him the information he requested moved on today and
they've known about this for a while today they put in a request for a continuance they could
have requested a continuance a long time ago when they requested a meeting we agreed and we had the
meeting and this is outside of their boundaries again it's it's outside of their boundaries
um we're here we had the proper meetings it was in their in their letter they admitted
that we followed all the rules that we did what you're supposed to do gave all the appropriate
notices and you know we're here to proceed because we followed everything that we could
proceed we can't read their mind you know we can't come up with something out of thin air and say oh
there's somebody else that might want to meet with us when we followed all the rules as to who we're
supposed to meet with. With respect, counsel, we submitted a letter timely to the CBA over a week
ago. We're going to go on with the case today. When I open it up for comments from the audience,
you can give your state your concerns about the project. With respect, Mr. Chairman, I have no,
I take no personal opinion on the project. Thank you. I have no skin in the game, as it were. I'm
simply trying to represent the interests of my community and and their their their interests
are simply not going to be uh heard uh in this case uh because we listen to me we believe they
did everything they should before this meeting we're going to go on with it today come back
probably about 25 minutes half hour we're going to call your case okay thank you thank you thank
you too for coming in. Excuse me, Chair. We also have a Hannah by the name of Brianna Wakefield.
Well, the council president's office. Sure. And they have been promoted to panelists.
Hi, Brianna. How are you? State your name and spell for the stenographer.
Brianna? And I'm good, Mr. Chair. How are you today? Sure, sure.
And my name is Brianna Wakefield.
I spell that B-R-I-O-N-N-A, last name Wakefield, W-A-K-E-F-I-E-L-D.
And I just wanted to say that, Council President.
Hold on one minute.
Hold on one minute.
Do you swear we're affirmed to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
I swear.
Please proceed.
Yes, Council President Johnson would object to continue us today.
I understand.
We've already ruled the case will go on today.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Go ahead, please proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
State your name.
Ori Feibush.
Oh, sure.
O-R-I.
I'm aging ungracefully.
I apologize.
O-R-I, F as in Frank, E-I-B-U-S-H.
Right.
With O-C-F-R-E-L-T.
Yeah, sure.
Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, yes.
your comments about this case? Sure. I own a couple of properties in the immediate area,
most specifically 1936 Washington, 2101 Washington, 2201 Washington, 2235 Washington,
and most proximate, I am equitable owner at 23rd and Washington. I have standing and should have
been given notice, but was not, not through any fault of counsel here. The way the Planning
Commission's website works is they take the property address in question here 2400 Washington
and they put a point directly in the middle of the property and then they go 500 feet out.
It should be from property edge to property edge and it's just the function of how the computer
operates here and so properties that are well within 500 feet that have a direct and immediate
impact. I'm moving my office to 23rd in Washington. I have 61,000 square feet. We'll be 200 people
working here, it really has an impact. I love the idea that his client is looking to invest in the
area, but there are some meaningful considerations that just have not happened. And I was completely
unaware of this development here. And had the computer properly given a list of affected
properties, we would have been notified. I would have had counsel here. I would have had an
opportunity to present a case here. And there's just no remedy. Just holding the case open or
anything else would not possibly give us the needed relief. I will just share that for the
properties that I took through zoning across the street, for 2101 Washington, I had 47 meetings
with the community. At 2201 Washington, it was 32. This is a seminal project that will have enormous
impact for a host of different individuals. And all I'm hoping for is a reasonable and short window
to have a meaningful conversation and dialogue that just can't happen in good faith within the
and dialogue that just can't happen in good faith within the the confines of this room here i
the confines of this room here.
i understand your concerns we're moving on with the case thank you sir thank you
sure you you want to talk about a continuance i just
sure go ahead go ahead please if you would
would you please state your name and spell for the courts first of all good afternoon
My name is Albert Littlepage, A-L-B-E-R-T-L-I-T-T-L-E-P-A-G-E.
I'm here to...
Hold on.
Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
So I'll help you guys.