MI 2022, 004-417-3901 Lancaster Avenue.
I vote yes.
My vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahi, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, and have a happy holiday season.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Happy Hanukkah.
Right.
Thank you.
Number five, MI202-004-531-1326-28, Chestnut Street.
Daniel Reisman is the attorney. Non-opposition from the Washington Square West Civic Association.
Letter of non-opposition also from Council Member Squilla.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Could you state your name and spell please for the court reporter?
Yes, it's Daniel Reisman, R-E-I-S-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 the property?
Yes, my client is Barcade P.A. Chestnut, LLC, and it's the tenant at the property.
Okay, and our vice chair, Carl Tenere, has just a few questions.
Hi, good afternoon. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Okay. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes. Yes, as to everything.
Okay, great. You may proceed and begin to share your screen.
Okay, can you see the screen?
Not yet.
It's coming up.
Nothing yet.
It should be up.
Nothing yet.
why don't you try to do it again it's up it's up i think it's up great good
yeah okay um so uh my name again is dan riesman i represent the applicant barcade pa chestnut llc
um with me in the remote audience are the principles of the of my client paul kermizian
and Pete Langway. Just as general background, I have 11 exhibits that have been submitted in
advance of the hearing. I'm not going to walk through each one, but just to summarize, they
include photos, maps, floor plans, background on the applicant, and Exhibit A2. I have two letters
in opposition one is from the washington west washington square west civic association
and the second letter in opposition is from councilman squilla
the proposal is for a sit-down restaurant um we'll talk a little more about this but it's
themed with arcade games the um use is permitted subject to obtaining a special very a special
exception from the board so we do not require a variance and we do not require a showing of
hardship the property i'm just going to give you general orientation of it
you'll see it right here so it's in the core of center city it's right at the corner of chestnut
street and juniper street you can see where my cursor is is the property the property faces
chestnut street it runs along south on juniper and then it runs through to sansom street in the rear
of the property if you look at the um i'm showing now an aerial photo again here is the property
and as i said this is a sit-down restaurant so as we all know this is obviously in
And as I said, this is a sit-down restaurant, so as we all know, this is obviously in the core of Center City.
It's a use that's very consistent with the immediate neighborhood right across the street from the property.
You'll see Fogo de Chao.
A block to the west is the Capitol Grill.
Right across the street on Juniper Street is the Tradesman restaurants.
and then across the street um across juniper on drury is mcgillen's ale house
so again it's right in the heart of the commercial district um and within that
radius you know we're talking um very consistent with all the various uses on that block
the zoning map
Here's the zoning map, and again, you'll see the property, and it's CMX5 is the zoning
classification and it has a center city overlay.
Can you show us exterior photos, maybe?
Yes, I'll do those right now.
so um this is looking west yeah there's the property there's the property
tradesman right across the street so this is in what's called the hail building it's an
eight-story building that's the frontage where the space will be here's the property and then
And I'll give you a straight on, Mr. Chair.
And here's the property.
Yeah, that's fine.
That's great.
And then it's, so, you know, the whole property runs to the rear and Juniper Street.
Our property, and we have floor plans, I can, I'll just make them available and my client
can answer specific questions.
But the floor plans show that the property goes about, the premises for this space goes
about halfway down Juniper Street.
yeah so really right about here there's an entrance to the building on juniper street
and then if i'll show you a few interior photos to get a better sense of the space
so the the premises are on the first floor a portion of the first floor a portion of the
mezzanine space and then there will be storage in the basement okay okay um this space it actually
i've included in the prior approvals it was previously approved as a restaurant as part of
a hotel in the building so this is not only consistent with the neighborhood but it's
consistent with the prior approvals for the property. The Exhibit A8 includes information
about my client. They operate under the name Barcade. They have nine locations in the country,
Brooklyn, Detroit, Los Angeles, and one in Fishtown. That opened in 2011. That's been very,
very well received. As I mentioned, this is a special exception, not a variance,
so it's a lower standard and um included in exhibit eight relating to my client is how they
will manage the restaurant and staff it all of this information and i'm not going to walk through
it in detail but it all shows that consistent with a special exception it has no adverse impacts
on the neighborhood in terms of overcrowding or light and air and so on and for those reasons
We believe it squarely qualifies for a special exception,
and the Wash West neighbors voted unanimously not to oppose it.
Why don't you bring your client on and have them adopt your testimony?
Mr. Kermizian, if you would raise your hand, please.
He's been about to speak.
Hi, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court reporter?
Hi, this is Paul Kermizian.
it's k-e-r-m-i-z-i-a-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do proceed counsel mr commission uh you're a principal of the applicant is that
correct that is correct and did you hear my state statements today yes and are they true and correct
to the best of your knowledge information and belief they are and you adopt them as your own
i do thank you what questions from the board no mr chairman
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Do not be in your hands, Mr. Chair.
Okay, Planning Commission.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and board members.
David Fecto, City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at this location.
the applicant has shown that a sit-down restaurant would have no more of an impact than a sit-down
restaurant would be expected to have and therefore the city planning commission recommends the board
grant the special exception for a sit-down restaurant. Thank you. MI 2022-004-531-1326-28
Cheslin Street I vote yes. Carol Tenere my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Sorry.
Shahi, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Happy holidays to everyone.
Same to you.
Thank you.
Number six, MI 2022-004-624-3263-65 North Front Street.
David Orphanides is the attorney.
um letter of support from h-a-c-e uh also letter of non-opposition from council member lozada
applicants applicants submitted 21 form letters of support from neighbors the majority from the
33 30 3200 3300 block of north front street good afternoon mr chairman members of the board
the one-story portion extending all the way to the rear property line to a three-foot wide alley
that separates it from the abutting property to the east at Fronts on East Westmoreland.
But as you can see, that condition continued from the 40s straight through to the present day.
So again, three stories at the front.
And this building, my clients acquired this property in 1994.
And back at that time in 1994, they secured a zoning permit, which you can see at tab 10, for the use of the subject premises.
Excuse me, it was a buy-write permit for the use of the property for social services, which, as you can tell from my description of my client, is what they do.
And it's been used as that.
It had been used as that until recently when they elected, they decided to temporarily move out.
They moved down the block into temporary offices in anticipation of renovating the interior of the property for their use of both their employees and their clients.
Now, as you can see here, again, this is the one-story portion of the building that extends to the rear.
And here is the alley to the one side, to the east of that.
And you can see the abutting property to the east of us has a solid wall on the other side of that alley.
The proposal is to fill in the one-story portion, above the one-story portion, with two stories at the second and third floor level above,
in order to provide elevator access and a second means of egress to the floors above,
both for the convenience and use of the clients, of my client, and to comply with building code requirements.
Our notice of refusal is that the addition at the upper floors is not set back nine feet from the rear property line.
But again, as I indicated, the one-story portion that exists behind the building on both lots,
and you can see here, it extends all the way to the rear property line.
So the existing rear yard depth at the one-story portion that presently exists is zero, and that we will be filling in just basically above the one-story portions.
As mentioned, we do have a letter of support.
We sent the notices out, the 14303 notices out to, I believe it was 176 addresses after HACE was identified as a coordinating RCO by the Planning Commission in their email of July 27th.
You can see a copy of the notice right here. We did meet with them on October 12th via Zoom.
The notice provided notice of today's hearing, included a copy of the notice of refusal.
And here are the lists of the addresses to which that notice was sent and the certificate of first class mailing.
At the meeting, there were a number of both the members of the community group and members of the community
that were on the meeting ask questions we address them and again we have full support with no
opposition as indicated at the beginning by the chairman actually we have 20 letters of the 21
letters from the near neighbors that we provided 20 or letters of support and one is a letter of
non-opposition to be clear zoning drawings that were provided and submitted with the application
shows the where the existing one story portion is and where we're filling in above that with
the second and third floor and you can see here the section plan that shows that as well
the floor plans and you can see in the area of the existing one story we're going to be providing
another code compliant egress second means of egress which leads out to the existing rear yard
and then there's a gate that then provides access to that alley three foot wide alley between our
property and the solid wall of the property abutting us to the east. You can see the addition
of the elevator and then a bathroom in this area. That's down at the ground floor, up at the addition
area. So this is where it's existing right now, the placement of the staircase and the elevator
and the bathroom. And then at the addition, you can see the continuation of the staircase, the
elevator and storage at the second floor, and then the same thing at the third floor. By providing
this again this addition we're able to provide uh better access co-compliant access both by
elevator and by staircase and then by doing this and allowing this this addition with the renovations
we're able to keep the same amount of space about approximately um that we would otherwise have
without adding the elevator and the additional staircase that we presently have now so uh we're
not looking really to expand the existing occupancy. We're just looking to provide better
access and service both to the employees and to the clients. And here's a rendering of what that
And here's a rendering of what that addition will look like from the street.
additional will look like from the street. He's very much in case.
He's very much in keeping with the rest of the colorful building.
And again, just filling in what's above there.
The building to the east of us, again, it's just the sidewall of their building that faces the addition and faces the existing one-story portions that extend there.
The property is on CMX2.
It does have the nine-foot rear yard depth requirement at every floor.
it does permit the expansion of the use as indicated that was used of the social services
offices was originally approved as a matter of right you can see our property is located between
west east westmoreland and allegheny avenue west allegheny avenue you can see from the
photographs that i have right here that up north front street is a commercial corridor
here's the view to the south from the intersection with east westmoreland towards
west allegheny and you can see it's a series of mixed-use buildings commercial on the ground
floor some residences above it's coming up the other side this is the property that's located
on the opposite corner on the southwest corner supermarket on the northwest corner there's a
vacant building. That's in pretty bad shape, property. You have a mixed-use commercial
building across the street with the store and residences above. You have a vacant lot then to
the east of that mixed-use property with the store and the ground floor, and then some residences
extending to the east of us, including you can see on the bottom side, again, the abutting property