Our vice chair has a few questions.
Great.
Good morning. Have you emailed the 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
photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with an
the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with
RCO and do you have a letter yes to books okay um hopefully yes to all because there are a lot
yes to all okay you may proceed uh great uh sorry and I'll be in front of a computer momentarily
um I am the owner of 2403 Carpenter Street we are excuse me you'll have to share your screen
oh so i'm so i have the architect with me janice woodcock and we've been advised that she will be
able to share the screen as she has the packet full of materials okay great
miss woodcock is coming back in as a panelist
good morning hi good morning miss wash you're gonna have to do the presentation and miss
woodcock and just put the screen up for you very good okay um great i will do my best i'm the owner
of 2403 carpenter street we are applying for a variance to add a third story addition with roof
deck to our residential property uh in line with many of the other additions that have taken place
in our neighborhood. We are seeking a variance to not do an eight-foot setback and bring the
third story to the front of the property to maximize living space. This would also be
directly even with our adjoining house, adjacent house, that has a third story addition directly
later the front of the property as well um our plans are all submitted and i think that's it
so i will take any questions that you may have
i i think i think if you would could you go through the plans a little bit what as you see
them on the screen um am i allowed to have my architect speak at all to the plans no you you're
going to speak to the plans. Okay. So it is currently a two-story row home on 2403 Carpenter
Street. And as you see in the plans, we are seeking an addition spanning the full length
of the property from front to back of the house. We would also have a roof deck with interior
staircase and pilot house leading to the roof deck. We met with the RCO SOSNA and they are
in agreement with the third story addition with the proviso that we also modify the existing
shutters on the front exterior of our house. And the third floor addition would include a master
bedroom and a bathroom and a walk-in closet. So it's a fully interior design, again, with a pilot
house to a rooftop. Okay. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no answer, Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the
Philadelphia City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the existing RSA 5 single-family zoning on this block. While we don't find evidence of a strict
hardship since the third-story addition is not necessary to make use of the property,
we have no objection to the granting of the variance. Thank you. MI 2021-004760-2403
Carpenter Street. I vote yes with proviso. Revised plans, two pages, stamped April 20th, 2022.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes with proviso. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, yes with proviso. Ishmael Shaheed, yes with proviso. Thank you.
number four
thank you miss wash
number four mi 2021
004991 2600 north 11th street
no exhibits first listing sean whalen is the attorney
Mr. Whalen is coming back in as a panelist.
Mr. Whelan is coming back in as a panelist.
Good morning, Mr. Whalen.
Good morning, Chairman Berkman. How are you?
Great. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Sean Whalen, S-E-A-N-W-H-A-L-E-N.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
um could you identify the owner in the relationship to the property sure the owner is g-o-j-e real
estate llc okay and i have a representative of the owner on uh our vice chair has a few questions
for you we don't we don't have any exhibits at this time so we'll have to figure out where we
stand with that okay they were all submitted so okay okay we're we're trying to work to do that
carol understood hi okay i'm ready do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy yes i do have you submitted all of the required documents consisting of proof of
ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal 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? Yes, yes, and yes,
unanimous support from the RCO. Okay, great. You may proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. Thank you.
All right.
Okay, so hopefully you can see, I'm going to try to enlarge it for you.
I'm here on behalf of the owner of 2600 North 11th Street.
I can't see what I'm sharing, so hopefully you can see it's a city atlas map showing the property, just giving an aerial view.
This is a vacant lot at the corner of North 11th Street here and West Huntington.
It's a 1,120-square-foot lot.
it's been a long vacant lot and actually uh there are vacant lots at almost every corner here
this is actually a city of philadelphia pictometry map that shows there's actually a vacant lot at
this corner a long vacant lot at this corner vacant lot here uh and notably and the reason
why i'm pointing these out will become clear in a minute up and down the block there are numerous
vacant lots in this neighborhood. Again, we have the entire neighborhood is RM1.
We have a CMX2 zoned property. There are a lot of CMX2 properties at the corners. The reason why I
pointed out the number of vacant lots is because it goes directly to hardship. If you go up and
down the block, the vacant corner lots are all the ones that are zoned CMX2. CMX2 zoning is just
not an appropriate use here. So that is our first issue of hardship. This property is
two blocks off of Germantown Avenue. All of the commercial uses in the area are focused up and
down Germantown Avenue, and there is no viable commercial use along West Huntington in this
area, again, as openly evidenced by the fact that essentially every one of these CMX2 properties
shown on this map, this is the city zoning map, are vacant and have been vacant for a long time.
Happily, we met with the RCOs. You can see on the board here, we received a 12 to 0
unanimous vote in support. They were actually very excited that this project was going to get
built and start to infill some of these vacant lots on their corners. Here is the refusal that
we had. This first refusal is that we were seeking not to put in commercial use. Essentially,
you're required along the 100% of the ground floor frontage to go 30 feet of building depth.
the second issue with this commercial refusal is if based on the floor plan or I should say
the square footage of the area with upper floor residential units you would end up with a
commercial space of maximum 450 square feet which is actually even too small for just a corner lot
a corner like grocer or any, you know, a corner mini-mart. So even if we tried to put in commercial,
the size of the lot simply does not warrant a commercial space. The maximum multifamily
household living units is two units. We are proposing four.
living units is two units. We are proposing four. We are initially turning the, or seeking
to turn the commercial unit, which would not be appropriate on the first floor, into a residential
unit. That was obviously fully supported by the RCO. The fourth unit is really what makes this
project viable, and again, was unanimously supported by the RCO and the community.
All of these units will be rented at affordable to workforce housing rates.
So, you know, the community was very excited to hear that, you know, and willing to include a fourth unit based on those rental rates that would match the neighborhood.
The third refusal we received was a minimum off-street parking space of one space is required.
um this actually is an impossibility because our uh our site is actually only 16 feet wide
so if you look at if you look at this we're only 16 feet wide north 11th street would be our front
street so we would not be allowed to put in a front accessed uh parking space so any parking
space would have to come in off of West Huntington. Now, unfortunately, you have to have under the
code 18 and a half foot deep parking space for a regular parking space. And our entire lot width
is only 16 feet. Additionally, West Huntington is a well-traveled road. And in order to put in
a rear access or a side access parking space, even if we forgot about the fact that it would
be dimensionally uh we it would require a dimensional variance that is uh we would be
putting in a curb cut along west huntingdon where none exists now that would be breaking up the
pedestrian walk ability and also disturbing uh the street flow um so those are the the variances
as you can see here's a photo of the present condition of the property it's a long vacant
lot there's actually two vacant lots next to it you can see there's an alley behind us
uh and then these are just some contextual photos and you can see again all of the cmx2
lots in the area this is a large school across the court street from us
all of these cmx2 lots at every corner in this neighborhood are vacant long-standing
And so we proposed a three-story, four-unit building. And again, I think most notably, the RCO had a well-attended meeting and voted unanimously in support of our project.
With that, I'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have. And I would ask that Ramtin Saniketam, on behalf of the owner, is elevated to a panelist so that he can adopt my testimony.
could you have your client raise their hand because there's no hands at this time
okay sir please unmute yourself and please wait for the chair
hi could you could could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter please
Good morning, yes. My name is Ramton Saniketam, R-A-M-T-I-N-S-A-N-E-E-K-H-A-T-A-M.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Rasheed.
Yes, Mr. Saniketam, you are here on behalf of the owner, G-O-J-E Real Estate LLC, correct?
And did you hear all of the testimony that I presented already?
Yes, I did.
And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge and information?
And would you adopt that testimony as your own?
Thank you.
Is there anything else that relevant or pertinent for the board?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience or comments?
i see no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia
city planning commission members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends a zoning map
amendment in this area from cmx 2 to rsa 5 single family zoning we agree with the argument presented
by council that ground floor commercial is not viable at this corner and that strict compliance
with the requirement for non-residential use constitutes an unnecessary hardship however
However, under the existing CMX2 zoning, two dwelling units and a commercial unit would be permitted for a total of three units.
However, under the existing CMX2 zoning, two dwelling units and a commercial unit would
By this standard, the proposed four dwelling units exceeds the minimum variance necessary, in our opinion, for zoning relief.
Financial viability is not grounds for hardship. It has to be something physical with the structure of the lot.
and we would further note that the board recognized that the rental rates represented
to the community are not in any way guaranteed and are not subject to deed restriction or other
form of formal affordable housing arrangement. We therefore recommend that the board grant the
variance with the condition that no more than three dwelling units be permitted.
Thank you. Mr. Whalen, we're going to hold the vote on this until our attorney can look at all
the documents. She didn't get a chance to get the documents of just a little while ago.
So we'll hold the vote, and we'll probably vote next week, next Wednesday on this issue.
We also noticed that you have a case number eight today.
Could you email our attorney, Hillary Emerson, with those documents so that when we get to number eight, we see where we stand?
Of course.
The vote's going to be held on this until she can go through the documents.
We'll probably vote next week, next Wednesday morning.
okay so uh chairman that will be at the 9 30 list oh yeah yep okay yeah okay thank you thank
you very much chairman number six
mi 2021 005073 4651 to 53 lancaster avenue justin crick is the attorney
do not see a letter yet from the RCO.
Good morning, members of the board. Good morning. Could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter, please? Yes, Justin, J-U-S-T-I-N, Crick, K-R-I-K. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify the owner and
the relationship to the property? Yes. Well, the applicant is Rue Live Poultry, Inc. by and through
its expediter, Betty Mann. They are the tenant of the property, proposed tenant of the property.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions. Good morning, Mr. Crick. Do you agree to
wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Have you emailed the exhibit
packet with proof of ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal 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
we have everything except the RCO's letter despite our attempts to contact them I don't
believe that they have submitted one to either myself or the board that meeting was held on
January 31st of this year well that was several months ago okay thank you you may proceed
thank you thank you
hello members of the board we're here uh seeking a variance for 4651 lancaster avenue
for use of the property as uh for what is labeled under intensive industrial and a slaughterhouse
This is for sale to consumers of meat and poultry, mostly poultry.
Essentially, the applicant seeks to have what would typically be considered your neighborhood butcher shop with the aspect of the slaughter of the chickens on site.
Um, we met with the RCO and discussed the nature of this process and, uh, what the purpose of it
was to bring fresh live meats to the neighborhood. They are prepared in the style of halal, uh,
meats so that they can accommodate the, what we believe to be a need in the neighborhood.
And, but ultimately while it's intensive industrial, technically under that classification,
we don't believe that this meets the issues typically raised with chemicals or hazardous
substances, but simply the minimalist of slaughtering of poultry and not larger animals or
meats. For geographic issues or general location, we have the property situated between Lancaster
Avenue and Marion Street. It goes through and through. From this perspective, you can see that
there's a school to the rear of the property and a park and a commercial unit across the street,
but mostly commercial directly on both sides of the property.
but mostly commercial directly on both sides of the property.
The property is located in a CMX2 district.
The frontage of the property is, as you can see here, in between two larger buildings
and is situated with this rear loading dock,
which makes it very convenient for delivery of some of the chickens.
Again, to be brought in, everything stored inside,
appropriate trash for the waste and compliance with health protocols, both at state, local and
there is no federal at this level because of the nature of the processing. There is already a curb
cut to permit deliveries of trucks. So we're not seeking any further assistance or variances for
that. The property has a history of use in the previous uses in the retail meat processing and