on the other side of the alley with the solid wall we did provide a tax clearance the up as i
indicated the updated tax clearance that was pulled last week but i included accidentally
included the older one that we pulled earlier on in this process copy of the zoning board hearing
notice for today's hearing posting photographs this they're at tab 16 posted both sides of the
property both the front street and the east westmoreland side with a copy of the zoning
notice as well as a copy of the notice of refusal here is the current deed it's a deed of consolidation
where those two parcels 32 63 and 65 were consolidated as indicated the buildings predate
them but they were breached at one point and the properties were consolidated and then the earlier
deed from the first deed after my clients purchased the property or when my clients purchased the
property in April of 1994. And that's a tab 17. Tab 18 is a copy of our appeal in the project
information form. And again, at tab 19, you have our notice to the community. So again, you have
an existing use that's a great benefit to the community, well received, well respected as
evidenced and indicated by the letter of full support from the community. The addition is
necessary to provide access to the updated renovations inside the building for the clients
and for the employees, and that there will not be any impact on appreciable impact or impact of any
merit upon the abutting properties surrounding us because there's a solid wall to the east of us on
the other side of the alley. Is there someone from APM here can adopt your testimony? Yes,
certainly. So I have Nilda Ruiz, who's the president and CEO. I have Chanel Hans,
who's the chief financial officer, and Razak Aziz, who's the senior vice president of asset
management. So if one of you could raise your hand and adopt my statements, please.
I can't see whether anybody has or hasn't raised their hand.
Jason, anybody up? Hands up.
Someone raised their hand up.
They had their hand raised again, but they put it down.
It should be under Nilda Ruiz, I think, is the identification.
They've been allowed to speak.
Mr. Orphanides, you're an officer of the court.
Mr. Chair, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but they've been allowed to speak.
okay fine yeah yes hi can you state your name and spell it please
um state your name oh can you hear us yes could you one of you please just state your name and
spell it please yes nilda ruiz n as in nancy i l d a last name ruiz r u i z okay thank you
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes proceed counsel uh nilda um please uh what is your position with a
Proceed, counsel.
Nilda, please, what is your position with APM?
I am the president and CEO.
And did you hear the statements that I made to the board today?
Yes, I did.
And they're true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own?
Thank you.
And then I also have Alex Duller, who's on real quickly as the architect, just to adopt my statements regarding the architectural-related statements.
David, I think we're fine.
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no no no mr chairman questions or
comments from the virtual audience i see no hands planning commission thank you mr chairman and
board members david vecto with the city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a
change in the zoning at this location from commercial mixed use 2 to commercial mixed use
2.5 the applicant has shown that expanding the existing non-conformity to bring the property
closer into compliance with the building code will have no adverse impacts on adjacent properties
and so the city planning commission recommends the board grant the dimensional variance
thank you mi 2022 004 624 32 63 to 65 north front street i vote yes carol tanari my vote is yes
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you. Have a nice holiday.
Okay, thank you very much. You too.
Number 10, MI 2022 004532 2821 to 31 Island Avenue.
Stephen Pollack is the attorney.
we do not have an RCO letter at this point. Excuse me, Mr. Chair. This is Hillary. We did
just receive the RCO letter. It's a letter of support from the Southwest Philadelphia
Consortium of RCOs. It came via the 40th Republican Ward, which there does the coordinating RCO in
this case. That's great. And how about our tax clearance? Mr. Pollack. Good afternoon.
good afternoon mr chairman members of the board uh steven pollock uh p-o-l-l-o-c-k like the
spelled like this street in south philadelphia on behalf of uh do you swear a firm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do mr chairman members of the board uh because
you identify your client yes my client is to the property my client is the tenant uh it's trinity
uh health systems mid-atlantic uh and their affiliate mercy management they are the same
entity that runs nazareth hospital up at home circle has saint mary's up at langhorne and mercy
fitzgerald uh this is a an area just one mr mr park just one minute the tax clearance issue is
this we are have an unresolved issue with the tax clearance i have mr robert brown who's the
Director of Financial Reporting with me today for Mercy Health and Trinity Health. If we could,
the board, at least maybe in the spirit of the holiday season, hear the case and hold your
decision until we can submit. I think not just the holiday season, but I think we do that all
the time. So our vice chair has a few questions for you. Do you agree to wave the reading of
the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do have you emailed these in the packet with proof
of ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos under plans of the property
five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter
uh everything except as we mentioned the tax clearance madam vice chair also i have with me
today uh and he's will be able to speak i know the letter came in uh just a little bit before
the hearing, but Craig Maladosian, who is the chair of the registered community organization,
the coordinating committee, is here to also speak on behalf of the committee's and the group's
support of this application. I have with me also Gerilyn Patterson, who is our director of medical
practices for trinity health mercy management so basically i also would like to have because
i do not try and do both at the same time if nico realbuto my associate could be uh promoted so he
can share the screen and we can show you uh it's just for two accessory signs for uh this property
and Eastwick, Long Island Avenue.
Stephen, okay, it's my turn. You are proceeding. And can you please begin to share your screen?
Stephen, okay, it's my turn.
You are proceeding.
And can you please...
Yeah, I'm asking if you can allow Nico.
She can. She can. She can.
There we go. So this is the existing building at 2831. If you look at the lower portion where it says 1.2, you can see that there's a big parking lot in front.
And in Island Avenue, we are set back, and we're on a spur of Island Avenue.
Island Avenue has at least two lanes of traffic going one direction, two lanes of traffic going the opposite direction, and a trolley that runs down the middle of the road.
But we are in this limited access spur, and we do have an aerial exhibit that we could show you.
show that before we get to that, here we are, that our building is set back more than a football
field away from even the spur road at 331 feet. So if we go back to our sign, what we want to do
is put up a flat wall sign up on the second floor where most of our offices are. We've
been in the building now since at least October of 2021, but have had to try and exist without
without any signage. And then what we'd like to do is if you go back to 1.2, you'll see right along
the spur to the lower entranceway, we want to put a freestanding sign on a pylon. Nico, go to the
next plan, and we'll show you that. What's happening is Trinity Health Mercy Management is adding
additional practices to better serve the medical needs of the community, and they want people to
know what this is i know when i tried to find it i drove right past it because as i said it's off
on the spur uh so we believe we need the signage one of the interesting things is if you can go to
that last sheet which is our a49 a13 but it's page 40 of our 49 rather of our second segment
one of the things you don't get from the new refusals is the history of the property
What I want to show the board is that back in the day in 1981, the very lower one, the zoning board granted a variance to allow a building to be built there was a medical building.
And throughout the history, going through up to and including 1997, the zoning board granted flat wall signs and a freestanding sign, all accessory to medical offices building with accessory pharmacy.
This property at that time was zoned R5. It's currently zoned RSA3. What has happened over the years is that despite being zoned residential, the zoning board has recognized that the use to allow use that has set this up, as you can see from the photos.
And if we could show those photos again, that show you that this is a two-story office building, the only way we could ever get this to comply with the RSA residential district would be to tear it down.
So, therefore, we can't make it into a single-family attached district.
The zoning board granted back in 1997 freestanding sign and a flat wall sign.
And if you go to that picture that you had up, what happened was at one point Mercy was there years ago and left.
But what we have is a picture of what the old sign that was approved by the board in 1997 looked like.
Compare that to we're putting it back in the basically the same spot.
Compare that to what we have for the proposed pylon sign that will be double sided and interiorly illuminated.
it's it's in the same spot as the prior one and we're asking for the flat wall sign so we get it
we get refusals because you have to apply the rsa3 sign code to an existing property that has
been allowed to be commercial all these years uh and therefore we believe there's a hardship we
believe that these are the least minimum variances that could be asked for because right next door to
us in a picture. I think it's on our first segment. We had to break this into two segments
because you know me, I like to throw a lot of photos in. There's a Penrose Park shopping
center. That's in CA2, which is immediately adjacent to us. If you get to our zoning map,
You'll see, there's our zoning map.
The CA2 is down in this lower corner, next down here, Penrose Park is right there.
Then we get the Eastwick Libraries right next door to us.
Then we get the Eastwick Libraries right next door to us.
and then in the
And then in this RSA 3 area, that's where we are located.
And right next door to us above that in an RSA 3 is an adjacent medical building.
So the hardship that we are complying well within the limitations of the sign code of CA 2 are we are being refused because our sign should only be at seven feet high.
And we're at 15, I'm sorry, we're at 10 feet high for the freestanding sign.
We're only allowed, we are only allowed, I think, 15 square feet of signage in this particular district.
We have 48.3, which is well within the 150 we would be allowed in the CA3.
And that same goes for the minimum sign for the wall sign where we've got 91 square feet, but we're being refused again for 15 square feet.
And as regard to putting it in the setback, we are just, again, affixing the sign to where the old base of the property was.
So we believe that this will not be detrimental to health, safety, and welfare.
the board in many years has recognized that this is a commercial property, even though the zoning
has remained residential. With that, I'd like to call up Gerilyn Patterson, who is our Director
of Management Practices on behalf of Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic and Mercy Management.
Could we promote her to? Sure. And she'll adopt your testimony, Mr. Pollack? She will. And then
And if I could, I promised Craig Melodosian, who is the chair of the coordinating RCO,
that to let Craig give you a chance to hear the perspective of the community.
And then we could then we could rest.
So we can get Geraldine.
I think she's just going to be on by phone, Mr. Chairman.
OK, do we see her? Has she raised her hand, Jason?
Not yet. No one's raised her hand.
Jarlene, are you there?
I'm there.
Or Bob Brown, are you there?
Why don't we...
Mr. Chair, I'm sorry to cut you off again, but I have a hand raised to my Robert Brown.
Yes, he's our Director of Financial Regulations.
Okay, and he can adopt your testimony, right?
He certainly can, Mr. Chairman.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Robert Brown, R-O-B-E-R-T, B-R-O-W-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
or traveling on the Route 36 set of the trolley. They're not tied into print media or multiple
digital outlets, so the signage here is absolutely imperative. Probably unknown to the applicant,
we are currently dealing with another healthcare provider looking to put in another facility
approximately 5,000 feet north of this installation. We're hoping that they'll all be
able to integrate into comprehensive health care for southwest uh and not uh competitively attempt
to cannibalize each other so it is a concern that uh that mercy really get a good run here
and i think that this is a trinity house embodiment of their commitment to our community by going
beyond the hospital walls of mercy fitzgerald hospital so i wanted to make it known that we
absolutely in the fullest extent
support this application.
Thank you, Craig.
We appreciate it.
The owner is a church-affiliated
organization. I don't know if Pastor
Simmons is here today,
but he's been long committed to the
community, and I think he would join
in me in wishing this board
as well as the city
peace in Philadelphia and goodwill
towards all of us.
Thank you.
We appreciate it.
Questions from the board?
With that, I would move for all our exhibits to be accepted into the record, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
All right.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, we have a hand raised from someone else under Stephen Pollack's name.
I'm not sure who it is.
Oh, I think what happened was Gerilyn Patterson.