1601 south 17th street the attorney is vincent dofino and there's a letter from east point
Bree's Neighbors. It's a letter of support.
Mr. DeFino is coming back in as a panelist now.
Okay, Mr. DeFino, can you put your name and address on the record please and
spell your last name if you can hear me?
Here I am. Okay. Hi Vince, can you put your name and address on the record and
by your last name? Sure. It's Vincent Anthony DeFino, D-E, capital F, as in Frank, I-N-O,
with DeFino Law Associates, 2541 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA.
Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance,
refusal 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 i do and yes you may proceed
okay i'm trying to share my screen right now so there we go i think i'm sharing it
i'm trying to get my package up over here here it is
all right so exhibit a zoning refusal b plans and rendering c pictures of property
deed tax clearance ed and letter from the rco which is not in the package but was later provided
basically i represent um heather cox who's the owner and her husband cosimo
tricorico who is the uh he's actually the owner of um valentino's in south philly
the proposal this is a cmx1 property and basically you rotate the picture i'm sorry yeah i'm gonna
rotate it right now thanks and this is the property here as you can see it's an existing
two apartments two garage and one commercial space and basically it has a commercial space
And basically, it has a commercial space in the front of the property, which has been up for rent since they owned the property about four years ago.
in the front of the property which has been up for
And they are having a difficult time renting it for office space.
And Cosimo, the husband, is in the business of basically restaurant business, cafe-type business.
You can see the garages in the back.
And you can see the side of the building here.
And up here, it gives you a good view.
The venting, any restaurant venting would come out underneath the garages and go up and it wouldn't be seen from the street.
So it would be nice and clean.
CMX1, as you know, allows for many uses, but it doesn't allow for prepared food and for sit down restaurants and cooking.
But this is a view of the neighborhood across the street, George Child School.
This property here, which is owned by Heather Cox and Cosimo, is the southeast corner of 17th and Tasker.
This is directly across the street.
This is the George Child School, which is now apartments, which would be great because to take out food, you go right across the street with it.
There's plenty of residents there.
This is Caddy Corner.
it's a vacant lot on the corner and this is where the reverend from the neighborhood resides and
has his small church here's the posting and here's more of a posting so i want to get out of this
and i want to go back up and i want to show you the renderings we actually have a virtual on this
But I could just give you the images rather than – I know you guys have been through a lot today.
So I don't want to take any more time than I have to.
We signed up for this.
I signed up for it too.
Cafe La Bocche Vita.
There's our little Italian code words.
You go down.
This is going to be the seating.
it's going to be about 14 seats that's all all we're looking for in fact the proviso letter
calls for uh under 20 and then this will be the kitchen so it'll be like a bistro you know a
little cappuccino a little panini a little pizza linsalata i didn't eat i didn't eat yet enough
with the food we're really hungry if you if you can summarize sir we'd appreciate it okay and and
and that so that's your rendering okay so let's get out of that let's go down to um
let's try to get to uh the letter from the neighborhood with the provisos in it
and um hold on one second i'll get you there and then based on that you know you can render your
decision though and uh i did speak with the councilman's office and france pierre he might
be here he said he was going to testify but i know how long it's running so i don't know if he's here
but basically you can see the letter of support uh eight eight nothing on the board um six two
in the neighborhood uh 24-2 overall in favor so here's the provisos down here i'll blow them up
for you so you can see them uh seating limited to under 20 hours operation 7 a.m to 10 p.m
commercial trash pickup no outside seating no 30 minutes slow down slow down vince slow down
i'm sorry hours of operation 7 a.m to 10 p.m 10 p.m how many days seven days a week seven days
seven days a week
seating would have to be done a separate way
anyhow
what was the other one
commercial trash pickup
commercial pickup
no outside seating
that would have to be done by way of
legislation anyway
no 30 minute parking outside
that's a separate
it's not for us
do you have your client
to adopt your testimony or not?
Yes, I have Cosimo here with me.
Cosimo.
I'm trying to get back in.
Cosimo, please spell your full name
and I'll swear you in.
My name is Cosimo Tricarico.
C-O-S-I-M-O-T-R-I-C-A-R-I-C-O.
You swear for him to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Mr. DeFino.
Cosmo, you heard my testimony here today?
And do you adopt it as your own?
yes thank you uh questions from the board no no
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
anyone else like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
here we have france pierre mr pierre you can unmute yourself and speak now mr pierre
good evening everyone france pierre council member johnson's office
you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
I certainly do.
Do me a favor for the court reporter, please spell your name.
Yes, first name Franz, that's F-R-A-N-T-Z, last name Pierre, that's P-I-E-R-R-E, legislative assistant, Council Member Johnson's office.
Thank you, Franz. Please proceed.
Yes, good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
council member johnson's office does support the community and the registered rco and their support
of the appeal today thank you planning commission ron bednar city planning properties indicated for
commercial mixed juice on the city plan given the documented site history we recommend that
Requests for variance be granted.
MI 2021-000659-1601 South 17th Street.
My vote is yes with the following proviso.
Commercial trash pickup.
Hours of operation Monday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
My vote is...
I'm sorry.
Cosimo.
Valentino.
No more.
No more.
You're closed.
It's going to be
Actually, it's going to be
Alright, good enough
Aroma resa, yes
It's going to be
Do we get to vote
My vote is yes with proviso
Yes with proviso
Yes with proviso
Thank you
Calendar number
MI 2020
002490
2637 East
Clearfield Street. The owners are
I can't read
that properly so I don't want
to mangle it.
The last name is Domi
D-O-M-I
Domi and the RCO
Southport Richmond Civic Association
and Councilman Squill
both oppose this.
Jakub Domi is being promoted
to a panelist now.
hi um jackop can you put your name address on the record and spell your last name
okay actually my name is spelled jacob domie
do you swear for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Do you also strike that?
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of 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?
You may proceed.
Thank you.
Good evening, Mr. Chairman and board member of the board.
My name is Jacob Domi.
I've been living in the Port Richmond area for about 20 years since I came from Albania,
like an immigrant, working really hard, making some money on the side.
And I started investing since 2006, 2008 in the Port Richmond area, buying some properties.
And recently, I bought this 2637 East Clearfield Street.
It was used like a CMX1 and I'm trying to get a like residential permit for the first
floor.
Second floor is already rented.
It's an apartment.
I'm sorry, Mr. Domi.
Do you have any exhibits to present to us all?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, let me get to it.
Okay, so this is the location is like East Thompson Street and East Clearfield. It's a corner building.
this is the looking from outside the first floor issues like commercial used to be like
It's just like commercial.
It used to be like...
it was the democratic headquarters
It was the Democratic headquarters.
Exactly, yes.
And the second floor is an apartment, one-bedroom apartment.
So this is how it looks from inside.
And this is like an old office open area.
There's another picture here.
this is a back of the building it's a bedroom with a bathroom on it
this is the bathroom
okay so my plan is to convert this to like a apartment
even one bedroom or two bedrooms depend like one the architect size or like
uh philly code or living area i've been meeting with the community and with the neighbors i've
been talking to the neighbors a lot they are so happy to hear that i'm doing this change
this this used to be like like you said like uh mr chairman you said for a democratic party
and uh to tell the truth since i bought a building it's been like lettering outside and