that by right by zoning but it does not require a zoning permit um so we are uh free to proceed
with that construction as soon as we obtain this use variance those stairs will be permanent
correct yes did you show a handrail around it um let me go to the the plans here um and i can bring
on the architect for questions if they're not clear from the plans but
um it looks like this elevation which is what i have this is not to that level of detail so
would you like to ask the architect about the safety features of the stairs no i can see from
the course section that there's no handrail and it's pretty deep it's about five six feet deep
a kid to fall down in there right there will there is currently i believe fencing that will be
maintained with a gate so there's no absent jumping the fence there will be no access uh to
that area for the public um i really do encourage you to speak with the designer i don't want to
misstate aspects of the project but uh the rco was comfortable with the safety features and
has experienced this apparently on nearby properties and is satisfied with the design
it's up to mr chair
let's let's go to is there anyone in the virtual audience has a comment
Mr. Chair, I have a minister, Enoch L, with a hand raised.
I can allow him to speak at this time.
Minister, state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter.
Yes, good morning, Chairman and members of the board.
My name is Minister Enoch, E-N-O-C-H, A-M-E-N-R-A hyphen E-L.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, sir?
I affirm.
Thank you. Proceed.
Good morning. I represent Earth Keepers. We're one of the affected RCOs in reference to the shared property.
There's a lot of discrepancies in regard to this applicant proposed project.
One is my understanding there was no orange sign posted on the premises.
And I did email the attorney of record, and he emailed me back stating that he was required to post a digital copy, which was allegedly a white piece of paper.
There was two meetings held in reference to the RCO.
The first meeting initially, there was no attendance from the community.
So with Earth Keepers being affected by RCO, our team actually flooded the community, which was 144 units, I believe, and posted a signage reference to the zoning meeting, which was a tremendous support.
The neighbors opposed the project.
One, the neighbors contested the post project in reference to they wasn't ready for that community.
I'm sorry. I will be objecting to the testimony that was just given. I have an image of the vote of support on the project. That's not correct.
I hear you, Counselor. I'm going to come right back to you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The community opposed the project. It wasn't ready for their community to be zoned for multifamily.
One, the applicant stated the reason for him changing the zoning or his proposed project was to be able to have his family members reside in the property, which were.
to be able to have his family members reside in the property which were in college to save them
some money as opposed to running on the dorms. However the community suggested why take the
stream of change and zoning simply move the family in and the applicant stated that he's not even
charging rent. So it seems as to be that there's no burden of hardship because developer or not
developer the applicant can easily just move his family in because he's not charging rent um
with with that being said as reference to the um letter of support um
it doesn't meet the burdens it's it's it's incompletely filed out it also states that you
know, the votes, the RCO, who was according to RCO, made it clear that even in the letter
of support that he made mistakes dealing with the voting process, but not to be long-winded.
We oppose the project to stand with the community based upon the applicant showing no burden
and no proof as to a real violent reason to change the zoning where the community do not
want the zoning change and they have stressed that this is a single family community and they
wanted to remain a single family community not open it up for other developers and I yield my
chair thank you chairman thank you minister for calling it council you want to respond yes very
briefly so firstly here is a screenshot it's the bottom question during the RCO meeting when they
took a poll, and you'll see that the vote, 60%, there you go, support. So I'm not sure where the
claim that the community was not in support is coming from. Secondly, this is the second page
of the coordinating RCO's letter, which I'm not going to read it into the record, but
at the bottom here, these brothers, that'd be the Simon and his brother Philman, who will be
assisting with the conversion are not developers who want to come into a community to make changes
or add additional floors or a roof deck. This will be a family home that will add to the upkeep
of the block. So I only, I'm going to keep it at that in terms of this letter. The letter spells
out the reasons for support. And I just, I don't feel that the applicant should be punished for
the secondary RCO's disdain for the coordinating RCO. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the
virtual audience has a comment. Yes, I'd like to object to the poll vote when I'm not in NBC.
Minister, Minister, Minister, I think we know where you stand and thank you for calling it.
Is there anyone else in the audience, virtual audience?
All the hands, sir.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the board, in 2019, the zoning map was amended in this neighborhood in accord with
recommendations from the comprehensive plan. Usually for cases like this, we're looking for
evidence of some kind of unique physical circumstance or condition of the building,
such as a prior legal use or configuration of the building that's supporting a three-family use.
however we haven't seen any evidence of that and so we don't believe there's a hardship and city
planning commission recommends that the board deny the variance. MI 2021 003964 5640 Thomas
Avenue I vote no. Harold Tenere my vote is no. Thomas Holloman my vote is no. James Snell my
My vote is no.
Dishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
MI 2021-003854-616 North 11th Street.
No exhibits.
First listing.
Prosperous Investments
66 LLC.
Mr. Chair, I have Ms. Diane Monroe
with her hand raised. Do I allow her to speak? Yes.
Ms. Monroe, are you here for this case?
Well, yes, I am.
I swore you earlier in the day, am I right?
Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Good morning again. I guess the young lady who is the applicant is not available here. I don't know. We are the RCO, the 14th. I'm the chair of the 14th.
I don't know. We are the RCO, the 14th. I'm the chair of the 14th board of RCO.
And we scheduled her last month to have the open community meeting.
I'm sorry.
So that's okay. Listen to me. Listen to me.
We do have another.
Is there anyone here from the owners, to represent the owners?
um talibah cherry is saying that she's the one can i talk with her on please
do i promote it to panelists yes
um yes the chair said yes that's fine thank you understood
she'll be coming back in as a panelist
hello hi could could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
Taliba Cherry T-A-L-I-B-A-H last name Cherry C-H-E-R-R-Y you swear for him to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth I do do you have an attorney with you and are you prepared
to go on today? I do not have an attorney with me. Okay. The case is going to be continued,
must be tried. You'll be notified of the new date, have your attorney, and the case will be
must mark, must be tried. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Chair, if I could add, this is Tanya.
If I could add, Ms. Sherry, also you need to submit all the exhibits required to the necessary
email boxes along with having
an attorney present in order for you
to go forward. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
MI 2021
003904
Lawndale Street.
Steve Masters is the attorney.
RCO letter
of support
slash non-opposition.
Mr. Masters has been promoted
to panelists.
hi mr masters could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
yes steve masters s-t-e-v-e-m-a-s-t-e-r-s right with just laws right do you swear or firm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do our vice chair has a few questions
hi mr masters do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
Yes, I do.
It appears that you've submitted all of the required documents. Is that correct?
Yes, it is.
Thank you. You may proceed.
Thank you. Let me share my screen.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
We are here for the Lawndale Baptist Church of Philadelphia.
this is um a sign permit only we are replacing the outdoor sign in front of the church with a
more modern and attractive and slightly larger sign um that has triggered a few refusals because
of uh the the dimensions of it and the fact that it will be animated uh we had a very uh so let's
just, I guess, go over the refusal really fast. So we have the animated use refusal. The sign area
is an appropriate sign for, as we'll see in a moment, with the size of the open area where the
sign will be, but it is larger than the RSA 3 sign area, and the height is also slightly more.
So we had a very productive and helpful meeting with the RCO. The Long Crest Community Association,
45 members of the community were there. They all voted unanimously 45 to nothing in favor
of this new sign for the church. We also have letters of support from, well, actually, so these
are the petitions from the near neighbors that are located extremely close to where the church
is located. And then we have letters of support from the Philadelphia Protestant Home, which is
across the street diagonally and has a sign very very similar in terms of dimensions and animated
to the sign that the that the um that the church is looking to to put in we also have a letter of
we also have a letter of support from the cedar grove christian academy which is also across the
support from the cedar grove christian academy which is also across the
street from the church giving their full support so this photo shows you this is the existing sign
and it's in the triangular open space where the the main church building is behind where the sign
is the sign is only going to have one face of the sign which would be facing this intersection with
with the triangle. Uh, here's another perspective of it. And, and, uh, you can see the current sign
now and a perspective from, uh, the other, the other street. Um, this is the sign itself,
the plans for it. Um, and it is, uh, more modern and it will allow the church to, uh,
be able to configure and change the messages in, in a easier and a more attractive way.
The only concern that was raised by the community, and we had anticipated this, and so we had raised it before the community did, was that we were not interested in having this sign illuminated all the time.
So the sign hours of operation will be from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.
this is our tax clearance our deed and our application for appeal we actually are making
a validity challenge argument because churches that are located in other zoning districts in
the city are allowed to have signs of this dimension and with an animated feature to it
But churches that are located in this RSA 3 area are not, and that violates the religious, the Arlupa statute, the federal statute that guarantees freedom of religion from onerous and burdensome regulations from ordinances to statutes.
um we have our project information form and our rco notice letter with our proof of mailing
and all of the addresses um at this point i would like to call
um uh timothy hinchcliffe who is the representative of the church to adopt my testimony
mr hinchcliffe has been allowed to speak could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter please timothy hinchcliffe t-i-m-o-t-h-y h-i-n-c-h-c-l-i-double-f trustee for the
londale baptist church right do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do proceed counsel hi mr hinchcliffe um you have heard my testimony do you agree with
it and adopt it as your own i agree and adopt it as our as my own thank you very much questions
from the board questions from the board no mr chairman
questions from the questions from the virtual audience or comments
mr chair i have miss hillary emerson with her hand raised i have allowed her to speak
good morning mr chair members of the board could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
please sure hillary emerson h-i-l-a-r-y emerson e-m-e-r-s-o-n from the office of councilman
shrill parker right you swear firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do thank you uh just a quick um comment this morning mr chair uh the councilman is um not
opposed to um the request of variance with the signs um for the church um with the proviso um
as mr masters mentioned um that the hours of elimination be limited to 9 a.m to 9 p.m um
daily. The community was supportive of this application, including near neighbors and
organizations that would be able to see the sign from where they are located. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
No further answers this time. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 3 single-family zoning at this location.
We appreciate the church's role in the community, but the code is fairly clear about sign size and animation.
And these rules apply to all uses in the RSA zoning district, regardless of use.
The proposed dimensional variances are substantial relative to the code requirements.
The proposed dimensional variances are substantial relative to the code requirements and do not represent the least variance necessary to support the use with an accessory sign at this location.
And so the City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the variances.
Thank you.
Counsel, the proviso they mentioned is agreement between the parties.
It's not enforceable, right?
Oh, I'm sorry.
You're asking your counsel.
Our counsel, Sherman.
Yes, Mr. Chair, that would be correct.
Thank you.
MI 2021-003904-6433 Lawndale Street, I vote yes.
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloway, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.