ZBA Hearing - April 20, 2022

presented already in this case yes I did and do you believe it to be true and correct to the best

of your knowledge yes I do and would you adopt it as your own testimony yes all right with that

chairman I would be happy to have either myself or the owner answer any questions the board

questions from the board no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience

i see no he is chair planning commission thank you chair ian hegarty for the philadelphia city

planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa3

single family zoning at this location we believe that the applicant's hardship claim is not

supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property

and we believe if the appellant appellant wishes to influence the behavior of the tenants we would

argue that there are other ways to do this that do not depend on a zoning variance city planning

commission recommends that the board deny the variance mi 2021-004-990 5619 winfield avenue

I vote no.

Harold Tenere, my vote is no.

Thomas Holliman, my vote is no.

James Snow, my vote is no.

This is my vote is no.

Thank you.

Number 10.

MI 2021-005-071-7102 Caster Avenue.

Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.

For number 10 and for number 11, I need to recuse myself due to prior involvement in these cases.

Drew Aldinger will be filling it in my stead if he can be promoted to panelist.

Thank you.

Thank you.

and also i wanted to note i have not reviewed the exhibits in either of the cases for completeness

because i didn't receive them um so if they if they were sent um to the other the other email

um and were received there the cases can proceed but they would need to be held for review

sure thank you so am i 7102 castor avenue

we have no exhibits for this it's first listing

do we have any hands raised

chair i promoted john taylor to a panelist but he has to unmute himself in order to speak

okay and who is sorry mr taylor um good morning my name is john taylor i'm the attorney for the

applicant we sent an email on friday which was five days before this hearing it was sent to

joseph hand we can forward the copy of the email it had all exhibits okay

i'm sorry first of all spell your name for the court reporter uh taylor t-a-y-l-o-r

Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

We do.

Okay. Who's your client, and what's the relationship to the property?

My client is Mr. Balbuena. He is the tenant. As part of our exhibits that were sent,

we showed the lease. As part of our exhibits, we also have a letter of authorization

from the owner of the property.

Okay. All right. So we're going to hear the case, but we'll have to have our attorney review the documents. We won't vote on it today. Okay?

Yeah, and actually we were unaware of any conflict until this morning. Thank you for, thank you to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for informing us of the conflict.

Yeah. And actually, we were unaware of any conflict until this morning.

I'm sorry, Chair, may I ask a question?

Sure.

This is Tanya. You said you forwarded the exhibit package and what email boxes were they sent to? Were they the ones that the directions mentioned?

yeah i believe one of them was the uh tanya sunk it at the gmail and we also sent it to

jason hand just as an overabundance of caution uh no they're supposed to go to the rcl zba

i think that was i think we sent that as well let me open up the letter

okay i can actually do that if there was a error of them being sent i do apologize

guys let me just find that email but it was it was set on friday i don't know if there's you

know the city was opened it was good friday so maybe that could be the reason let's see

our vice chair has a few questions while you're opening that carol could you

Sure.

Hi, Mr. Taylor.

Do you 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, 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.

We sent the email on Friday.

We will show it today.

i was actually just retained for this case we do have a letter of authorization from the rco

so i'd not personally meet with the rco the other thing is we have a tax cert for the owner of the

property we got that we received that yesterday we don't have a we do not have a tax cert for

the tenant of the property as of this date but i think is happening tanya if you're there were

Were these pieces of information sent to the wrong address?

That's what I wanted to see, to ensure that they went to the correct email box, which is

zba at gmail, as well as rcozba at phila.gov.

Mr. Taylor, put your documents up on the screen.

Yeah, I'll do that.

So let me see here.

Can I share the screen?

Sure.

all right let me

keep something here okay are you able to see my screen no oh that's unfortunate are you able to

see my screen it's starting now yep we see it i'm gonna try to close out all the other emails i got

this morning because i don't want people to see those and now i did the opposite all right um

Okay, okay, so this was the email

Okay was April 15th

I'm actually gonna say it looks like it was sent to the RCO, but looks like it was not sent to miss

Zuleta Zuleta I apologize. It looks like it was Jason hand and

Let me see here

This was the letter

Yeah, okay, so I guess there's the email right there

it's a letter yeah but but if you look at the actual email so i'm so here was the letter right

and this is where we're talking about the tax cert okay but if you look at the actual email

i think this could be part of the confusion let me just hope i can correct this let me see here well

no wait a second i apologize my paralegals uh i apologize let me look for another one here

Let's see here.

All right.

Give me a sec.

This is for a different one.

I apologize.

But no, it's not.

Here it is.

712 Caster Avenue.

So, all right.

So, it was sent to the ZBA.

It was sent to Jason Hand.

It was not sent to Ms. Sunker.

But it was sent to Ms. Sunker.

No, I don't believe it.

No.

I just saw that.

I just saw it.

No?

well i'll be it looks it's the if you look at the letter the letter says yes but if you look

at the actual email i just showed you the email it looks like let me show you it says jason hand

correct that's what i'm saying oh but then it does say so let it see right up top i just showed

okay so so let's listen to me here yeah we're going to go on with the case we will vote on it

yeah we're going to go on with the case we will vote on it later once our attorney goes

later once our attorney

through all the documents okay but let's start with the case okay sounds good

all right let me close the current tab

all right so as i said before my name is john taylor i represent the applicant here mr belbueno

Mr. Balbuena is a tenant at a property at 7102 Castor Avenue.

His application was for a limited industrial use producing tortillas.

For retail and wholesale purposes, his request was denied because the proposed use of limited industrial wholesale distribution are prohibited in this zoning district.

this is a picture taken from Atlas you will see a hand I am moving the cursor

this is the aerial view of the subject property this is a aerial view of the

Castor Avenue neighborhood these photographs I believe demonstrate that

the variance requested by my client which would essentially be to allow him

to bake and sell tortillas wholesalely and on retail would not cause congestion

nor would it endanger the public nor would the proposed use in any way

substantially harm the neighbors of that neighborhood again this is kind of like

a mixed-use neighborhood in terms of commercial and register residential use

look at the parking very empty lots of much much parking in that neighborhood

also if you look at the neighborhood as it is now this is a lovely photograph

this is the property it is now vacant next door to it is a pizza parlor a

pizza parlor that I assume bakes pizzas, bakes dough, strombolis. My client wants

to make tortillas. Very similar use. It's almost like a coexistence. However,

granted I've never been to this pizza parlor, but I don't think the use would

in any way be detrimental to the neighborhood. I like to now show my

my exhibits which are to begin with the refusal to the property to the

application this was the application that was submitted earlier it was

submitted before my representation by the way but this was the applicant

the application submitted so you mean I've included some arguments since that

time

so again I wasn't present during the RCO process but this was a letter dated

February 16th. It's from the Take Back TBYN, which I believe is an RCO group. And the letter

clearly says that there was a site visit on Tuesday, February 8th, and that the organization

views this takeout tortilla manufacturing facility, not for indoor seating, as an asset

to the community and it did not oppose the request for a variance with these following three provisos

and that the applicant continue to work with the group tbyn that will keep the immediate

and surrounding areas free of dirt debris and trash handled responsibly now i think that

actually the parking issue i think is going to be not too difficult if you remember the aerial

photographs of Castor Avenue that were presented earlier this is a copy of the

deed the owner of the property is a Jorge Palero Morales a part of this

application process there is a notarized letter of authorization I'm scrolling

down the to show the deed any questions you can answer them just tell me if I'm

moving too quickly

So this next document is the lease that's signed with by Mr. Balbuena with the owner

of the property if you notice there's the address

yeah I'm scrolling down the entire lease please tell me if you want me to if you

notice the lease says making of tortillas also says coffee shop I like

that show photographs that were taken these photographs were taken by the

client this is a copy of the zoning posters this is the picture of the

property the picture of the neighbor which makes hoagies stromboli's soup and

pasta store is a barbershop for the side here's actually back parking which is

actually good in terms of congestion on Castor Avenue your pictures of the

property as the property is today

there is a bathroom and there is a basement

these are the building plan are proposed for the fit out

this is the letter of authorization from the owner of the property which is

notarized I have no further materials to show to the ZBA oh I do it is the taxer

for the owner of the property. We received this yesterday

on April 19, 2022.

We do not have the tax cert of Mr. Balbueno

at this time. I believe that is being worked upon.

These documents, I can definitely re-forward

these exhibits to the ZBA and I thank them for their patience as this matter.

I would like to introduce

Mr. Balbuena to testify briefly. I think he has an interpreter with him as well.

So I asked Mr. Balbuena to raise his hand if Mr. Balbuena could raise his hand

or if the unless the ZBA has any questions before that time.

can we allow an interpreter um we would have to have one that we would present so so uh

mr taylor here here's here's the issue we we have to have our own interpreter

have you spoken to your client and do you know what his comments are i do i've spoken to my

client about this in the english language um i've met with him and i've discussed what we're going

to do in the english language you are an officer of the court and we will take your testimony okay

thank you all right so questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments

question or comments from the virtual audience chair we have someone with the last name tyson

okay please unmute yourself and wait for the chair

hi could you state your name and spelled for the court reporter yes my name is kiyasha tyson

it's k-y-a-s-h-a last name is t-y-s-o-n i am representing councilwoman sherelle parker's

office okay do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth

Yes.

Proceed.

Our office is not opposed to this request.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Any other comments from the virtual audience?

I see no hands, Chair.

Planning Commission?

Thank you, Chair Bergman.

Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX2 zoning at this location.