Tanya, I need a date and time.
Chair, for clarification, are we only going to ask for the letter to be read?
Whatever date you wish then, Chair.
Vern, do you have an idea when you can get that letter?
They tell me by next week, so maybe in three weeks or 30 days.
Give it like two weeks, three weeks out, Tanya.
Yes, Chair, that's perfect.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Ms. Sunkett.
That will be October, what's today, 12th, today's 6th, 13th, 2027.
October 27th at 9.30 a.m.
That work?
Thank you, sir.
sounds perfect chair okay this hearing will be resumed on october the 27th at 9 30 a.m
at which time the board will consider any feedback uh from the rco i'm sorry chair this is tanya
the zoning administrator if we could just specifically state for a letter to be read
into the record. So noted. Thank you. All right. Number five on our list, MI 2021-002082,
2318 East Albert Street. Ian Gallo is the attorney of record. Old Richmond Civic Association sent a
letter of support. And Councilman Mark Squilla sent a letter of non-opposition.
good morning everyone morning please identify yourself spell your full name and i'll swear
you in sure it's ian gallo g-a-l-l-o i'm the attorney uh for mr king you swear for him to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do i think ms canary has some questions
for you good morning do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
Good morning. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
accuracy.
I do, ma'am.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, 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?
I do. And I have.
Okay, thank you. You may proceed.
Thank you. I will bring up my screen.
So what I'm sharing right now is the documents that were submitted,
the notice of the refusal here's a here's an aerial photo in the orange you can see
the property its closest intersection is east albert and memphis here are the dimensions
by code and also as existing the deed which was the property was purchased by mr king
solely in 2016 september
moving on here are the comments from lni here is the proposed it's the two-story
framed edition to be legalized it's in this matter
the application for appeal the the bulk mailing to all all necessary property owners
in the area who submitted additionally containing the notice to the neighbors of the virtual hearing
with the RCL. Again, with the notice of refusal, these are all the properties that were notified
by and through the mailing. The project information detail form. Here's the letter from the RCL
and support, which took place on July 8th, 2021. Here's the tax clearance for Mr. King.
The zoning notice of today's hearing. On September 7th, the posting of said notice
on the front and here's a little bit of a closer uh view you can actually see mr king in the in
in the photo and then additionally i have some photos of the property and i will go into a little
bit more detail of it this is just a this was the before the before and the before before before
four pieces in the rear, four, and now the after, the sidon, and the pavers that were
done. So again, thank you everyone, and just by way of detail. So the subject property
is owned by Mr. Kenneth L. King. It's presently occupied by his daughter. The lot is the
width is 13. It's undersized for a RS5, where the minimum lot width is 16 feet. Additionally,
the lot's total square footage is undersized, as it's only 604.5 square feet, when the
The RS-5 minimum lot area is 1,440 square feet.
Mr. King's daughter is residing in the property.
Particularly, he was seeking to replace the windows in the siding initially.
However, after commencing to prepare for that work, he realized that more dire work was necessary.
in light of such and so as to make the structure safe especially in so far as his daughter was
residing in the property he employed an architect to handle the design and construction
work on the property noticing that the structure was in disrepair specifically beneath the original
deck the structure was rotting as you can see from some of those photos there was a hole in
the siding where the foundation met the siding. Mr. Gallo pardon the interruption but
we're only seeing the one slide that shows looks like
We're only seeing the one slide that shows, looks like pavers and maybe the back.
I'm sorry.
This is in congruence with the neighborhood and the area.
So, again, de minimis in nature, this is still owner-occupied.
It doesn't change anything in terms of the real layout, just seeking to legalize the addition.
And if there's any questions, Mr. King is also available.
If you'd like to get your client on to adopt your testimony.
Mr. King, I believe if you can please raise your hand.
Mr. King, you can unmute yourself and please wait for the chair.
Mr. King, please spell your first and last name and I'll swear you win.
Kenneth, K-E-N-N-E-T-H, last name King, K-I-N-G.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Mr. Gallo?
Great.
Mr. King, you heard the testimony that I presented before the board, correct?
Yeah, I agree with everything that Mr. Gallo stated.
And board, I would submit that he adopted that testimony.
He would adopt your testimony.
Thank you.
Any questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chair.
Anyone else would like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
I see no other hands, Chair.
Thank you.
Planning Commission?
Good morning.
David Fecto, City Planning Commission, Chair DiCicco, and members of the board.
The comprehensive plan recommends this property for residential single-family use.
The proposed addition has reduced the open space beyond what the code allows.
This addition appears to have been constructed without benefit of permits.
We recommend that the board deny the requested variances.
MI 2021-002082, 2318 East Albert Street. I don't like rewarding people for trying to get around the system, but in this case, I'll make an exception.
my vote is yes my vote is no my name is carol tenere first applause on my vote is yes
They insisted that the refusal be revised on a technicality before they would set that meeting.
Ms. Sunkit was kind enough to allow me to do that.
We submitted that to the RCO requesting the meeting, and we were just under the assumption that they hadn't gotten around to it yet.
But we fully expected to have a community.
We have yet that we didn't do a mailing.
We didn't do anything like that.
So if I could state, Chair, that we do not do resumptions or hearing holds without a meeting taking place at all.
So if I could respectfully state, if we can do a continuance, I can work offline with Mr. Anastasio to come up with a good date after the meeting is held.
Thank you.
I think that's good advice, Mr. Anastasio.
I think so, too.
All right.
Yeah, I appreciate it.
I see Ms. Jones out there.
miss jones you have you want to weigh in on this any objection to us continuing this case
please identify yourself yes um mary jones council president daryl clark's office
city hall room 494 we're affirmed to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do i assume you've been hearing what was being discussed and miss uh sunkett made a
recommendation that this hearing this case be continued uh yes i did hear and no no objection
to a continuance thank you mi20 thank you tanya mi 2021-002-020-2601 west huntington street is
continued. Thank you. Case number five, MI 2021-002-083-6330 Rising Sun Avenue. Douglas Stern
is the attorney of record. Longcrest Community Association sent a letter of opposition.
Is Mr. Stern out?
He's coming back in as a panel.
Mr. Stern, good morning.
Please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
Good morning.
Douglas Stern, Esquire, on behalf of the applicant.
My address is 1420 Walnut Street, Suite 1218, Philadelphia, PA, 19102, and the applicant next to me.
Spelling of your last name is S-T-E-R-N.
Is that correct?
Correct.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Ms. Canary has some questions for you.
Good morning.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes. 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, to all statements.
Thank you. You may proceed.
Yes. Good morning. I represent Prince GB, who owns the Blues LLC.
the property zone for cmx1 we're applying for basically assembly hall for entertainment
purposes it's less than 50 people so it doesn't need a special assembly occupation
permit but we're asking because he's going to have parties for 25 people or less
on the property and uh i basically have the exhibit package here which shows the poster the
refusal the notice letters of rco just a rough floor plan tax clearance the appeal forms activity
license and he's leasing the property from the owner um and then i had pictures just
so there's the zoning pictures on front of the property there's only six pages of pictures
there's the front the blues um the pictures here just looking up and down the block of the 6300
block of uh rising sun um it's basically commercial on both sides of the block even and odd
and then these are some pictures it's not a big place um the front door area so let's just call
it the front front room with the pool table the back room the main room that's where they would
The back room, the main room, that's where they would entertain people.
entertain people
All right.
We could sit around and have parties.
And other entertainment, the bathroom, there's a little back room for business.
And that's always proposing in this area here.
We do have opposition from the community for some reason.
And in order to get the rest of the zoning permits, we need a use variance for this.
And we don't think it's going to be an issue.
I have my client here and he just works and he's running this sort of part time and they're just going to have entertainment parties and other social gatherings, I guess, in the evenings.
That's really it. It's pretty simple application. I'm not sure if anybody has any questions or any other issues.
Mr. Stern, do you have your client available to adopt your testimony?
Tony? Yes, I do. He's right next to me on the Zoom, and I can have him raise his right hand.
He'll need to raise his hand, but ask him to spell his full name.
Prince, G.B. is P-R-I-N-C-E. Last name is G.B. is G-B-E-E.
You swear if I'm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Stern.
yes good morning you're the authorized agent and owner of the blues llc yes and everything the
facts i just recited everything was true and accurate yes and you would adopt that testimony
as your own if you were called to testify under oath today yes okay thank you questions from the
board no mr chairman no mr chair no anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please
raise your hand. Chair, we have Hillary Emerson. Thank you. Ms. Emerson, please identify yourself
and I'll swear you in. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Hillary Emerson, on behalf
of Councilwoman Sherelle Parker, E-M-E-R-S-O-N. Where we're from to tell the truth, the whole
truth, nothing but the truth. I do. Thank you. Please proceed. Yes. The Councilwoman, as well as
the community are opposed to the proposed use at this property. The applicant in his presentation
today and at the community meeting indicated he's proposing an event space for parties, but it seems
more like a club-like space. In the floor plans, we see, and even in the pictures, we see a pool
table. There's a VIP area. There's space for the DJ. And on the lease, it indicates that the use
is a music lounge. The other concerns that our office and the community had were that the
proposed hours of operation were on the weekends between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m., which doesn't really
sound like an event venue to us. So more concerning late night activities that tend to
cause problems with the neighbors. There is already a bar on the next block, which is normally
pretty quiet but did have a shooting this past summer at the community meeting the note some
neighbors noted that they had some noise concerns because there are homes directly behind rising sun
avenue well i would object to some of her testimony is hearsay about what the neighbors said i mean
i understand her direct knowledge ms emerson does represent the councilwoman and she attends all
those meetings so the councilwoman represents a big district and i think she has standing
okay the other thing i i wanted to mention that there are some outstanding um lni violations
particularly fire code violations at this place and uh there were um violations issued for you
know the place getting outfitted and um set up and it wasn't clear if there had been events or not