right she's pro se thank you okay thank you um executive director sunkett um you've submitted
the required documents it appears is that correct? Yes. Okay you may proceed.
Okay my name is Sabria McGill. I am appealing a decision for me not to
I'm appealing a decision to also have a business license in a dwelling that already has an
existing business attached to it um miss mcgill yes can you share your screen with us
um your documents
miss mcgill do you have your documents on a computer before you right now i do i'm just
trying to figure out how to get it on for you i'm about to i'm getting ready to share the screen
i do have and your documents are already up right yes okay and you can hit that green
at the bottom.
The share screen.
Correct.
And then tap on your documents.
Share screen.
What kind of device are you using?
it's an ipad okay i'm not familiar with how to handle it on ipad are you dpc zoom
or bill for me are you i'm sorry i'm not it bill i'm sorry mr bergman um so we i'm not
skills at sharing on an ipad
yes i'm not sure why it's not sharing
open up your documents
documents are not here
can you all see that
I'm looking at the zoning
application
yeah all right um yeah so it was a garage at first with which is would be like rear b the extension
of the actual um structure and it was actually split into two so i would be like rear b
and um I wasn't aware that well actually I had the wrong address when I actually rented it out
I used for 1432 so I'm I'm guessing I'm not sure if that's why um everything kind of went through
with health and um health and uh food safety everything I passed everything else but when
I went to actually get the license that's when it was uh clear that um another grocery store
was at the corner. So at 2163 would be the rare bee. And then that's where the conflict became,
you know, known and it became an issue. I just wanted to say that I started this venture in DC
when I moved to DC, I became a vegan. And I just decided that I wanted to bring it back home to my
neighborhood where I grew up to share healthy eating, plant-based food. It's a sandwich shop
that offers all plant-based everything, even the salad dressing, the cheese,
everything. And the community really loves the idea, the Temple students. I almost knew for sure
that the temple community uh student community would um appreciate us and support but the
community itself has really surprised me when you know people really would like to eat healthy
especially the seniors across the street there's a lot of seniors in the senior building across the
street department building across the street have embraced me very well and they really love the
idea so the community itself really surprised me so i really you know would appreciate if i could
just continue to service the community that i grew up in the temple student community as well
i went to temple all my life i actually went to the summer camp every year as a youth um went back
to temple so i just would really love to service the community if i can thank you thank you any
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman um senator street is in the virtual
audience, would you like to say something? Could you look for him in the virtual audience, please?
Sharif Street.
Mr. Street, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
I got him, sir. He's been allowed to speak.
Okay. Could you state your name, sir, and spell it for the court reporter?
Could you state your name, sir, and spell it for the court reporter?
My name is Sharif, S-H-A-R-I-F, Street, S-T-R-E-E-T.
My name is...
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, Senator.
I'm Sharif Street. I'm the senator for the area. I also have a political office across the street
in the senior building. And I eat at this restaurant all the time. It is one of my favorite
places as a vegetarian in the North Philadelphia community. There are not always a lot of good
vegan, healthy alternatives. I think this restaurant is one. I'm also, as a part of my
usual vocation as a state senator, talk with many people in the community and have found that there
an abundance of support for this establishment and so I asked the board to embrace it the corner
store at the corner is a very different type of business and so I think this will add to the
overall aesthetic peel and healthy eating options for the community and I also like the idea of
supporting a local North Philadelphian who is owning a business and operating one and so for
all those reasons especially the fact that i'm one of those senior senior citizens across the
street who wants to uh who wants to eat it i think it would be uh it would be great to help keep me
healthy and keep the community and create again maintain healthy options for the community so i
thank you senator thank you so much any other uh comments from the virtual audience
mr chair i have miss tina marie russell with her hand raised i will allow to speak at the time sir
Sure. Ms. Russell. Good morning, everyone. This is Tina Marie Russell. Could you spell it for the court reporter, please, Tina? Sure. It's T-I-N-A-M-A-R-I-E-R-U-S-S-E-L-L. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. So we are the RCO, one of the three RCOs, but we are the coordinator. All the RCOs participated in a meeting and we all concurred and approved this particular venture.
um so and then i submitted the letter as well as the summary form i guess it got lost somewhere
but um we had three people from three rcos and support there was 40 people who attended the
meeting um who were in support and um as well and our letter confirms pretty much everything
that the senator already stated that our business 2035 year business vision as which is supported by
the Commerce Department, as well as our City Council, is to revitalize the Susquehanna
Avenue corridor, business corridor, and this particular product line was definitely one
of the activities that we need, businesses that we need in our corridor to sustain it
and grow it, so we fully support, as well as the community, fully support this endeavor.
Thank you, Ms. Russell.
Is there anyone else in there, virtual audience, has a comment?
i see no further answer at this time mr chair planning commission thank you chair bergman
ian hegerty for the philadelphia city planning commission members of the board this is a special
exception the proposed special exception will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood
beyond what might normally be expected for the use and so the city planning commission recommends
that the board grant this special exception mi 2021 003850 2163 north 15th street i vote
yes. Carol Tenere, my vote is yes. Tom Solomon, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Good luck. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you. Appreciate you.
MI 2021 003849 244th East Springer Street. No RCO letter as of yet.
counsel
Mr. Cook
Mr. Cook you've already been
Mr. Cook you've already been sworn
I understand there's no RCO letter as of yet
so where we want to be today we're going to go on with the case and then we will
We will not vote today, and we will wait to hear from the RCO.
Your Honor, I did have discussions with the council person's representative about a continuance, a brief continuance.
Um, about, uh, about a continuance, a brief continuance, um, and also the concerns expressed by a new neighbor today. Um, just for, uh, procedural issues. We did meet twice with the RCO. Once was with the, um, the committee. We did proper notice for that second meeting. We did proper notice for that. Um, that was turned into a regular committee meeting, um, because revised plans were about provided about three days before.
Mr. Cook, my question is, you want that a continuance?
We're going to go along with the continuance.
I just wanted to put on the record that, you know, code-wise, we were fully compliant in this matter.
So we'll continue this, and I think you're going to have to get a hold of our executive director to get a date, okay?
That's right. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
it mi 2021 well i'm sorry wait a minute mi 2021 003847 4911 frankfort avenue
this is first listing it's an llc and we have no exhibits is there anyone here for 4911 frankfort
Avenue mr. chair I have a hand raised with another ending in zero one four eight I can
allow them to speak at this time if that is okay with you sir sir or madam please unmute and wait
to be sworn in.
You have to unmute.
Sir, madam, please unmute.
I believe you have to push star nine or star six to unmute.
Please state your name and spell for the court reporter.
Yeah, my name is Ian Zhang, first name Y-A-N, last name Z-H-E-N-G.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you 4911, 4941 Frankfurt Avenue?
Are you prepared to go on today?
And do you have an attorney?
I don't have my attorney.
I prefer going on.
Pardon me?
Yeah, I will go on.
Well, we're going to have to continue.
You need an attorney.
We're going to continue this.
You'll get a new date and it's going to have to be must be tried.
uh you mean i have to get a new date you're going to get a new date you'll hear from us
you'll have a new date you have to have an attorney and it's going to be marked it must be tried
oh okay i had to get my attorney okay i didn't know that sorry all right thank you
MI 2021-003903, 5323 Chester Avenue. No exhibits. This is the first listening. Glenar, Ray Morris.
Mr. Glomar, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
Oh, I'm sorry, sir. It doesn't seem that... Cases continued, must be tried.
MI-2021-003964-5640 Thomas Avenue. No RCO letter.
Council may have one that we're not aware of yet. Rachel Pritzker, please.
sir mr brandon saverin has been allowed to uh yeah promote the panelist yeah he'll be coming
back in mr saverin state your name is spelled for the court reporter please good morning mr
chair uh brandon saverin d-r-a-n-d-o-n um s as in sam a v as in victor r-a-n right do you swear
for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Our vice chair
has a few questions. Hi, Mr. Saverin. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and
Hi, Mr. Saverin. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
stipulate to its accuracy?
accuracy? Yes, Madam Vice Chair. It appears that you have submitted the required documents. Is
that correct? That is correct. Yes. Okay. You may proceed. Thank you. And regarding the RCO letter,
I did receive a copy of the letter and a copy of the email by which the coordinating RCO
sent it to the ZBA yesterday. So I think you do have it. It came in late.
All right. Share my screen here. Okay. So good morning and thank you for having us.
This application concerns this home here, 5640 Thomas Avenue. This is a two-story home with
a sort of partially above ground basement on this block of Thomas Avenue, which is a thoroughfare
in Southwest Philadelphia. My client, Simon Howe-Michael, is the owner of this building
and applied to basically take each floor, make it a separate dwelling unit. So the refusal
is for the fact that multiple dwelling units are not permitted on this block because it's
owned RSA 5. That being said, we engaged an architect to design, see if I can make this a
little bigger, I apologize, to design a new doorway directly into what would be the basement level
unit. That is depicted here and we will also have a egress well in the rear, so two means of egress
from that basement to ensure that it's safe. We also walked through, which I will spare you the
details of the floor plans unless you're interested, but we walked through these as well with the
community. Each floor would be a one-bedroom unit. That's sort of the nuts and bolts of it.
There's no expansion of the existing structure. There is a rear yard that will remain. Each
bedroom will have windows directly into that rear yard for light and air. So with that all sort of
presented to the community, and we actually came back for two meetings to give more community
members a chance to view the plans, we ended up with the letter of support from the coordinating
RCO. That's the 51st Democratic Ward. That is essentially the presentation. I have the architect
here to go through those plans if you'd like, and what I would like to do is have the owner
about my testimony, but I'll take questions.
Could you have the owner raise his hand, please?
Yes, Simon, could you please raise your hand, Simon Hale-Michael?
He's been about to speak, sir.
State your name and spell it for the court reporter, please.
Simon, you're on mute, I can see, just make sure you unmute yourself on Zoom.
Okay, can he unmute?
Hi, Nicole, are you able to unmute, sir?
um i he's texting me he's not sure how to unmute so if it's the board is uh okay with it
you're an officer of the court i understand that okay thank you i appreciate questions from the
board no mr chairman no mr chairman counsel i have a question what's the rest of the block like
how many are there other multiple units on the block i mean there's so flexors triplexes what's
the block look like? I wish that the 51st ward chairman was here. So there are, I think, a couple
instances of that, but in candor, Mr. Chair, most of the block is single family homes. That being
said, what was discussed at the community meeting is that in the immediate area, this block, the
block behind um there are some instances of um sort of the basement unit being turned into a
separate unit using a um you know rebuilt uh door as we're proposing here and they've found that to
be um successful safe and a means of sort of uh you know making use of these homes have
And a means of sort of, you know, making use of these homes have a small front yard, which sometimes, especially in the case of an absentee owner, which is not the case here, but where it is that that yard sort of becomes a dead space for litter.
Thank you.
So I don't have a list of addresses. There apparently are a few examples of this in the area. That being said, the majority of homes are single family.
excuse me mr chairman yes uh those buildings are those yards are required for setback
right and uh mr holliman we would not be expanding the structure into the front yard we would uh
simply be uh digging i suppose a few stairs to expand this window right here into a door we
actually submitted a separate zoning permit for that to eclipse already i could pull up the
screenshot if you'd like but we received confirmation from l and i that not only is