care of.
Thank you.
Let's get the rest of the vote.
My vote is yes, Michael Johnson.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
my vote is yes
thank you
chair I'm going to recommend a five to ten minute
break for the board and staff
we have a five minute break we have two cases
left and then we have a few cases
on the
number six
MI 2024-006-806, 8100 Germantown Avenue.
Eric Bottson is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from Cheston Hill Community Association,
a letter of support from the Cheston Hill Business Association,
a letter of support from the property owner next door,
a letter of support from ACCT,
a letter of support from two neighboring businesses.
we're good
do we see council very good thank you good evening mr chair good evening we're sorry
sorry we're so uh run a little later here but uh could you please state your name and
spell for the court sonographer? Absolutely. Eric Bodzin, E-R-I-C-B-O-D-Z-I-N of blank Rome.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes. I am here with my client, Howard Nelson, who is the CEO and president of Doggy Style Pets,
doing business as KH Investors, LLC, and the tenant of this property.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Good afternoon. Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed.
Wonderful. I'll pull up my screen.
Good evening again. I am here with Howard Nelson, as I mentioned, who is the CEO and president of Doggy Style Pets,
regarding the ground floor pictured here of 8100 Germantown Avenue. Doggy Style Pets.
of 8100 Germantown Avenue. Doggy Style Pets has been before the board several times over the years
regarding this use, and so we will be brief in walking through what is this 10th location
of Doggy Style Pets, now the city's largest local and independently owned pet store.
As you can see here, Doggy Style Pets already has a permit at this location for both pet retail and animal services.
The singular and very narrow refusal here is for Doggy Style Pets application for the overnight keeping of, quote, two dogs for adoption in the Care and Supervision of ACT, which is the city's animal care and control team, which is partnered with Doggy Style Pets to run this adoption program two dogs at a time for the past decade.
resulting in 13,000 new homes for pets across the city. Again, this is a very narrow permit
application for two dogs for adoption in the care and supervision of the city's animal control
provider, certainly minimally modifying of the code and the previous approvals for this property.
Here is the zoning and vicinity map. This is a unique corner parcel of the Germantown Avenue commercial corridor adjacent to a block of row homes within the otherwise commercial and somewhat inactive middle segment of Chestnut Hill's Germantown Avenue corridor, right where Abington Avenue runs through to Pistorius Park.
Howard has been working with the supportive Chestnut Hill Community Association and Business District to keep long hours at this location, seven days a week, to promote walkability here.
His business has looked into customer data, and about 80% of customers for this kind of neighborhood-centric dog store live within five to 10 minutes walking distance.
And so the goal is to keep long hours and make this a regular part of neighbor's routine in efforts to activate this portion of the Germantown Avenue commercial corridor.
Here is an aerial from the east, and here are street-level photographs from each direction,
starting with the north-facing direction in the top left corner of your screen.
Here are interiors as required of the site and posting photographs.
Minimal fit-out is required to get the store up and running,
and the upper floor, as I should mention, have already been previously approved for two-family
household living. Here is the ground floor plan. It's an open plan with the retail entrance on
Germantown Avenue on the commercial corridor. And then on the Abington Avenue side is the
residential and pet services entrance. When you walk in, you'll find the sales floor in the front,
uh spotlight with track lighting outer walls merchandise with slat wall pegs and shelves
uh inner parts of the store feature tables shaped as dog bones um and pet friendly bakery goods
clothes and other accessories what makes uh howard store really successful is um having a very broad
wide swath of amenities. And neighbors often ask and make requests for certain amenities to be
held by the store. Towards the middle of the store, near the elevator, that's where those two
dog adoption rooms will be located. Two rooms, one for each rescue dog. I'll go to the next slide,
which shows a photo of exactly this kind of setting. The way that pet adoption works with
doggy style pets and the city's animal care provider called ACT is that ACT provides
comprehensive physical and behavioral health care upon rescue and continuing through the adoption
process. Then after a highly selective screening process, ACT and doggy style pets coordinate meet
and greets to find the right home for each pet using their website to minimize the actual amount
of time each pet spends in the store. And finally, as I mentioned, new dog owners submit adoption
new dog owners submit adoption fees that go directly back to the city's animal control
fees that go directly back.
and rescue program to rescue more animals across the city. I'll go back to the floor plan in the
rear. You have your grooming tables. That's nose to tail grooming already permitted as animal
services. And you have a delivery and residential entrance onto Abington Avenue with commercial
trash and recycling in the rear regularly serviced. Of note, Chestnut Hill Community
Association was particularly complementary of Doggy Style's trying true waste management
program for both pets and humans. For pets, Doggy Style utilizes airtight storage containers and
scented bags, which Doggy Style encourages customers to pick up even if they don't have a
purchase. You'll see in their good neighbor policy. And then for humans, Doggy Style does
their own deliveries from a local warehouse and recyclable containers to minimize both waste
and third-party delivery. The only deliveries coming in and out are food once a week during
normal daytime hours. Here is that good neighbor policy I mentioned. It's really important, as
Howard can elaborate if helpful that each employee is trained to be a promoting dog adoption and all the great work that the store does in the community.
One of the neighbors in Chestnut Hill asked, how does this kind of model today compete with online delivery services of the world like Chewy?
And this is it. It's 80 percent of customers walking from five to 10 minutes away as part of their daily routine because the employees greet each dog or cat or pet owner with specialized recommendations and care.
And that's certainly reflected in the support letters for this proposed use.
It's also why the store is proposing to maintain long hours, nine to eight, six days a week, and then 10 to six on Sundays.
They host yappy hours for neighbors, ask neighbors to stop by any time, as you can see in this policy, without purchase for countertreats or parking coins, you name it.
And the last thing I'll note is that doggy style takes really serious efforts to promote security, to keep this active corner active and safe, LED lighting through day and night hours, state-of-the-art cameras, and a security system that is centrally monitored.
I'm happy to go into more detail, but I will share the community support letters and then close with a brief summary.
This is a letter of support dated February 10th, 2025, from the Chestnut Hill Community
Association, which coordinated local RCOs to host four noticed and advertised public
meetings on December 17th, January 9th, January 21st, January 23rd, with support from each
of those meetings from their Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee, the Development Review
Committee, and Board of Directors.
Here is a support letter from the Chestnut Hill Business District.
Here's a support letter from ACT, which is the city's animal care and control provider,
highlighting, quote, Doggy Style Pets' extraordinary partnership at other locations approved by the city.
Here are other neighbors' support letters.
You have Alphont Wissahickon, George Woodward Company.
and I should note
the founder of
Elfant, Wissahekin
came to each of the
meetings with a really wonderful story
about his experience at the Spruce Street
location. Howard,
the CEO, and all of his employees
know his adoptive dog to this
day and I think the best way
to sum this up as Robert
put is this is truly a win
win win. It adds a good well run
business to location, creates activity for other nearby businesses because it's part of this
walkable routine, and creates community building through the adoption program.
To summarize, I'll pull back up the image of the property. Grant of relief we submit for this
10th location is consistent with prior approvals for this beneficial use. This two-dog limitation
under acts care and supervision is minimally modifying. It is not adverse, but in fact
beneficial to the community as evidenced by the support before you from the Chesson Hill
Community Association, Chesson Hill Business District, and your neighbors. For all these
For all these reasons, Mr. Chair, members of the board, we respectfully ask for your support for this application and thank you for your time this afternoon.
reasons, Mr. Chair, members of the board, we respectfully ask for your support.
Howard Nelson is here to adopt my testimony.
Thank you.
And he's been promoted to panelists, Chair.
Thank you.
sir hello hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure it's howard nelson n-e-l-s-o-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do uh please proceed counsel thank you mr chair good afternoon howard
Hi, Eric.
Good evening.
Can you confirm that you've heard my testimony and description of the application this afternoon?
I can confirm, yes.
And this information that I provided, is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is.
And would you adopt and affirm that testimony as your own?
Yes, I would.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
um council hillary um do we have to identify the location in the building
i believe oh let me see if this was the one i know there was one that referenced it in the refusal
give me one second
okay uh this one does reference it on the ground floor so we don't need to
add it here. Just leave it. It's specific on the refusal. Yep. And it's limited to
2,000, less than 2,000. Questions from the virtual audience? I'm sorry, questions from
the board. What did you say the hours of operations? The hours of operation are 9 to 8 Monday through
Saturday and leave 10 to 6 on Sunday. Is that right, Howard? Yes, 10 to 6, yes. And the
THE ANIMALS AREN'T STORED ON SITE FOR ANY PERIOD OF TIME OR FOR HOW LONG.
THE ANIMALS ARE KEPT, TWO DOGS KEPT OVERNIGHT ON SITE.
GOTCHA. AND THE STAFF ARRIVES TWO HOURS BEFORE OPEN AND TWO HOURS AFTER CLOSE.
SO THE AND THEN THE DOGS SLEEP IN SLEEPING QUARTERS AFTER THE STAFF LEAVES.
OKAY. THANK YOU. OTHER QUESTIONS FROM THE BOARD?
questions from our attorney not at this time mr chair um nothing in the virtual audience
planning commission uh chair we do have a virtual uh charles richardson okay good afternoon mr chair
um as usual you're here very late but uh just seems like just state your name for the record
Sure. Charles Richardson, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass.
Please proceed.
Okay. The Councilwoman has no opposition to granting this variance.
All right. Thank you very much.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good evening, David Vecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the CMX1 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location.
This property has a documented history as a daycare on the first floor.
the provision of care for pets is not substantially different from the previous use the appellant has
shown the proposed use will not injure the use of adjacent properties the city planning commission
recommends the board grant the proposed use variants for animal services boarding and other
services thank you number six mi 2024 006806 8100 germantown avenue i vote yes
Michael Johns, my vote is yes
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes
Bushmel Shahid, my vote is yes
I just want to comment on the Planning Commission's comment
that not substantially different than the
I said to somebody here, boy, I hope the parents don't have anything to say about that one, Michael
I've watched Little Kids before, so I kind of agree.
All right, David.
David, it's okay.
I hope you guys have some cameras or something to watch when nobody's there.
Thank you.
So, number 12, MI2024-006-888-623-North44th Street.
006-888-623-NORTH-44-STREET.
Myrith Ferliger is the attorney.
There's a recommendation of opposition from the West Belmont Civic Association,
and a council member, Gauthier, has a position of neutrality based on revised plans.
Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure. Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
Sure. My client today is 623 North 44th Street, LLC, represented by member Michael Matlin, and that entity is the owner of the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
to that good evening council do you agree to either read another refusal or stipulate to
his accuracy i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this area i did on on both respects yes
thank you council please proceed thank you uh good evening mr chairman members of the board
as the board is aware this case in front of you concerns 623 north 44th street in the city's west