Present, Mr. Chairman.
We also have LeBaron Leonard Palmer from Development Services, who will be serving as our alternate board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised, the proceedings will be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at this afternoon's schedule.
number seven MI 2023 002 757 4535 Pulaski Avenue this case is continued and number 15
MI 2023-002-760-46
0-0-2-7-6-0-47-20 Richmond Street, that case is continued. Are there any other requests for
continuances? Good afternoon, Chair. This is Fatina. I'll be your co-host for this afternoon.
Thank you. I see no handshare. Okay, so we're going to go to our add-ons.
Number one, MI 2023-002-586-2100-12 Rush Street, I vote yes.
Thomas?
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2022-007-291, 430 West Burke Street.
The vote on this matter is being rescheduled to Wednesday, October 11th at 2 p.m.
in order to allow for additional discussions between the applicant, the RCO, and the council's office.
In addition, the record is being reopened for the limited purpose of receiving feedback on the discussions from the applicant, the RCO, and the council office.
Number three, MI 2022-005-922-1719 North 2nd Street.
The vote on this matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 at 2 p.m.
Number four, MI 2022, 004-231-4501 Woodhaven Road.
I vote yes, Wood Proviso.
Per refusal, dated 7-28-22, revised plans, two pages, stamped by ZBA, September 27, 2023.
thomas holloman my vote is yes with provisos
it's no shaheed my vote is yes with provisos we're gonna go to our main list i'm gonna start
with number two mi 2023 002 8841 1172 north 63rd street brett fellman is the attorney
letter of support from neighbors of Overbrook Association, and letter of support from Councilman Jones.
Mr. Feldman has been promoted as a panelist. Hi, Mr. Feldman. Mr. Chair, members of the board,
good afternoon. Brett Feldman. Hi. Brett, just for the record,
or do you spell your name for the court reporter?
Yes, absolutely.
Brett, B-R-E-T-T, Feldman, F-E-L-D, M-A-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
Dr. Charles Champion, Champion Dentistry, 1172 North 63rd Street.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed and
required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. Great.
My screen is there. Yes. Great. I just wanted to make sure before I continue that the rest of my the rest of the team is on Dr. Charles Champion, who is really the star, the star of this show.
Make sure he is he has been promoted as well as his wife, Michaela Racine, as well as from our sign company, Sharon Brandt and Howard Chin.
So why don't you start, and when we need the witnesses, we'll call them, okay?
Sure, sure.
So again, Brett Feldman, I represent Dr. Charles Champion, Champion Dentistry.
As you'll hear from Dr. Champion, he has been a dentist at this location now for, I think it was either 25 or 30 years.
He's been a pillar in the community, providing much-needed dental care in this West Philadelphia neighborhood.
And as you saw from, I think the letter of support from the community, the council person has really been a pillar for dental health in this in this neighborhood.
A PILLAR FOR DENTAL HEALTH IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD. I PASSED UP EXHIBITS 1 THROUGH 13 WHICH I'D ASK TO BE INCORPORATED INTO THE RECORD.
I passed up.
REFERENCE HAS ALREADY BEEN MADE TO THE LETTERS OF SUPPORT FROM THE COMMUNITY AND AS WELL AS THE COUNCILMAN.
SO LET ME GET RIGHT TO THE EXHIBITS THEMSELVES.
YOU HAVE THE REFUSAL.
this is a permit just uh showing how far the dental office going back to 2002 actually found
one today from uh earlier from uh the 1990s uh as far as how long the dentist has been there
at this location uh here here is so we could get our bearings this is malvern avenue this is 63rd
street uh in in west philadelphia um this is the corner property uh where the dental office is
located. The area will better help you see the location. Again, Malvern, 63rd Street. Here's
Lancaster, 62nd Street. But again, we're right at this corner. And here's the site photos. This is
once a residential property. 30 years ago, it became a dental practice. And this is the sign
that we're looking to replace, and many people know it's an iconic sign in the neighborhood.
It's a large tooth that says Champion Dentistry. It has been the main identifier of this business
for many years. The doctor has kept that sign going. It's actually falling apart right now,
and the time finally came to come up with a new modern interpretation of the Champion Dentistry
sign, which is what we have proposed here today. So again, 63rd Street and Malvern that we border.
Here's some additional pictures of the sign itself.
Here's coming from the Malvern location, and then the dental office is here.
That's right across the street on 63rd Street.
uh dr champion will be testifying but this is dr champion here and his and uh his staff uh the
inside is a state-of-the-art dental facility with all the modern accoutrements um uh full
full service uh dental uh practice uh here's some more pictures uh could go on and on with
the pictures and the modern dental care that's that's taking place here at this location
here is the site plan uh here's where there is that existing sign which is right here at the
corner. And again, we're looking to replace that sign with a new modern sign that also has the
same tooth, as you'll see, as tooth motto, and also has a messaging board, which as you'll hear
from the dentist is important, so they can provide much needed information about appointment
availability, days and hours of operation, dental clinics, dental screening, and other community
THE BENEFITS THAT WERE IMPORTANT FOR THE DENTAL OFFICE TO CONVEY, WHICH THEY STRUGGLED
TO CONVEY OVER THE MANY YEARS.
AND HERE IS ANOTHER SITE PLAN, BUT HERE IS THE EXISTING, AND HERE IS THE PROPOSED.
I THINK THIS WAS THE BEST WAY TO, IF YOU CAN JUST GET THAT IN THE SCREEN HERE, THAT
is the best way to see it. It's right at the same location. It's a little bit bigger, but
this is, they wanted to keep the Tooth logo, which is really iconic to the business. And
then here in the middle is the messaging board, which provides information about, again, their
services, hours of operation, and other services and events that they will be holding. We spent
a long time with the community who supported this, talking
about, you know, how brightness and all those items
that we could certainly get into those, but they
understood the importance of the sign to the dental practice, the community,
and issued their letter of support.
We have some specs on the sign itself, as far as the height, as far as the size.
We could certainly get more into that with Foreman Sign, who's on the call.
It's also here. Here's our posting photos. But that's the big, that's the sign that's there right now. It is, you can see it's been painted over and over. It's literally falling apart out there on the location.
So we thought if we're going to replace it, we should really do it the right way with a modern interpretation and provide the necessary information.
So with that, I'd like to have just the doctor, Dr. Champion, if he's on, just briefly explain the importance of this sign to his.
um, just briefly explain, uh, the importance of this sign, uh, to his practice. Um, and, you
know, they've, they've, they've spent years and years kind of putting off getting this sign, but
they really thought the time was, was right now to, to get the sign. Um, so Dr. Champion, are you out
there? Yes. Uh, yes, I'm here. Hi, Dr. Champion. Could you state your name, please, and spell for
the court stenographer uh my name is charles champion uh c-h-a-r-l-e-s-c-h-a-m-p-i-o-n
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do sir please proceed counsel dr but you want to do you want to would it be easier if you put
put your would you put your video on or or are you uh yeah just touch touch the thing is it uh
yeah it should be up in the upper right uh there's three dots i think that's where you
excuse me you wanted the doctor to share his screen oh no i just wanted i wanted him to come
come on oh okay i just wanted to know if i need to promote yeah it's just hard for me to see him
and okay if not it's fine just am i on no one moment i'm gonna promote you to
panelist so you can be seen. Okay, I'm sorry. Hi, doctor. I know you've got to see patients and
we appreciate the zoning board putting us on it too so you can get back to your patients who are
right in the other room here. But doctor, can you just briefly just give the board
a little background? How long you've been there at the location, the services you provide? And
then I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about, you know, why at this point is the sign
absolutely critical and necessary and why it was worth going through this process.
Okay. Yes. My name is Charles Champion. I am from Westchester, Pennsylvania. I started my
practice here at 1170 North 63rd Street. I've been present here for about 32 years now and
have been providing care for our community. We have been providing general dental and
cosmetic dentistry, sleep apnea dentistry for 30 years now and have been attempting to
impact the health of our community in a positive way. The issue for the sign or existing sign is
extremely old and it doesn't allow us to essentially let people know the services we
provide nor the insurances we take or the opportunities for emergency walk-ins or
cleaning for holes in our schedule from the hygiene schedule to allow us to basically
help to provide, you know, better care for our community. We do a number of community service
days. We're doing a sleep apnea day on October 14th for the community. So we will be educating
them in our parking lot, telling them about the benefits of treating their sleep apnea
and helping to reduce high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues, also diabetes in our
community. So that's what we've been doing for 30 years. And we would like to update our sign
to make it sort of rival the amount of technology that we have inside of our office.
So our office is pretty much state of the art, but our sign is state of 1950. So we wanted to try and upgrade that so that we could, in fact, promote our business and to help us help the community.
Great. I was going to ask a couple other questions. I think you hit them all. With that, Mr. Chair, we have other witnesses. Certainly can bring on other witnesses if there's any questions that the board has.
um why don't i see what the where the board questions from the board sure for sure uh chair
uh mr champion you mentioned 1170 but on the application it's 1172 yeah do we need to
it's it's both both both buildings uh so we started at 1170 but we expanded to both buildings
and so we have the first floor of both buildings so it is actually the corner uh sign that we were
interested in upgrading yeah there's there's two properties one is next door
um but the sign is actually located right at 1172 north 63rd street
um so this is the way el and i wanted to process it fair enough
So this is the way El and I wanted to process it.
Fair enough.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments for the virtual audience?
Do you want to have Dr. Champion adopt your testimony?
Yes, yes.
Dr. Champion, I know you testified as well, but you heard my testimony as far as the other elements of the matter?
Yes, sir.
And is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, sir.
And do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Questions from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair, and good afternoon.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
While an identification sign may be warranted to alert patients to the presence of a dental practitioner, the appellant has not shown that complying with the sign regulations in the zoning code would have a detrimental economic impact on their property, and we also believe the sign as proposed would likely be distracting to drivers.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the proposed dimensional variances.
Yeah. Mr. Chair, the only thing I would say is the sign that we're replacing, what's allowed here, because the underlying zoning is very minimal, what we're proposing, what's existing is in excess.
So we get penalized if we try to take down a sign and put a new sign, you know, losing that kind of treatment that we have with the existing sign.
So, you know, we work closely with Foreman Sign coming up with a sign that made sense at this location.
And that was consistent with, you know, the intersection and the history of the property and the prior sign.
Thank you, counsel.
MI 2023, 002-841-1172 North 63rd Street.
I vote yes.
thomas holliman my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you counsel
thank you for your time and consideration and courtesy okay we're going to go to the beginning
of our list mi-2023 002-756-3947 clavard street alan knockerson is the attorney there's a letter
support from juniata park civic association and a letter of non-opposition from council member
Lozada. Mr. Nockamson is coming back in as a panelist.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the board, Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name
Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N. Alan, is this your first appearance today? It is.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Eulon Figueroa is the owner of the property, and he's in the virtual audience.
All right.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to