especially when it doesn't hamper the operation itself, which is why this is basically an
agreement here. The occupancy is important. You know, L&I states occupancy, but it could be
much much much higher than this based on square footage but in our experience
a comfortable use and and actually this these numbers were offered to us by the the applicant
so we we wrote them down as something that let's let's start here and see where it heads
and they can always they can always go up depending on after a period of time of operation
we already had this discussion with uh ron patterson um and and and and the uh what was
the other thing that you were uh that was questionable here uh the uh the the where the
trash uh room would be um seems like we're all in agreement on this i'm not sure why we can't
just have it as as uh an understood proviso
i would i would have to check on the proviso being mentioned in an easement between
properties because it's not um it's not on the owner's property so zoning zoning um zoning runs
you know with the zoning ones with the land um and so i don't know if we can bring easements into
this or not so i would have to check on that but you should you should know at least for comfort
reasons we do have the easement with the neighboring property owner right for that reason but i
understand that we do have that right so that's a private that's a private agreement okay so my
understanding is that other than the easement and you're saying that we the the occupancy
can't be included here is that what you're saying it is my understanding that occupancy is determined
by l and i right but what if we have an agreement here that for us to uh support this special
exception, this is something that we feel are workable numbers? I would have to check with
L&I because, like I said, when they do the lawful occupancy certificates, they make the determination
of what is an acceptable number. So I don't know if the zoning board is able to make that
determination. Okay, so I think I understand. So if L&I, when they define the occupancy numbers
are higher than this, can this still be a proviso? I understand if they determine that
the numbers would be lower, then these numbers don't make any sense. I think what's going on,
which maybe is a shift in policy, because we've agreed to this before, I think we can
we can nonetheless address it in the cla okay but you know all right all right thank you man
satisfy you however you feel comfortable all right thank you for uh hearing me out thank you
questions from the board
no mr chairman questions or comments questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare planning commission
wow good afternoon david vecto f e c t e a u with the city planning commission
you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes sir i do proceed thank you mr chairman and members of the board the comprehensive plan
recommends this property for commercial mixed use three zoning so one notch up from the existing
zoning, the applicant has shown that the proposed restaurant will have no more of an impact than a
restaurant would be expected to have. So the city planning commission recommends that the board
grant the special exception. Thank you. Mr. Patterson, put the screen up with the provisors
again sure thank you mi 2022 000 487 1102 germtown avenue i vote yes with the following provisos
hours monday tuesday and wednesday close at 11 thursday 12 p friday 1 30 saturday 1 30 a and sunday
friday 1 30 saturday 1 30 a and sunday close at 10 p no outside music
close at 10.
carol okay i was waiting for you to read no outside
okay okay um carol tenery my vote is yes with provisos thomas holliman my vote is yes
with provisos. James Snell, yes, with proviso.
Nishmael Shahid, yes, with proviso. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. MI 2022-000-482-117 East
Allen Street. Letter of support from Fishtown
Neighbors Association, Michael Malloy.
Mr. Malloy is coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
thank you mr chair members of the board good afternoon could you state your name and spell
for the court reporter sure my name is michael p malloy m-a-l-l-o-y jr with the law firm of
obermeyer redmond maxwell hippel 1500 market street philadelphia pa 19102 you swear a firm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify your
client in relationship to the property? Sure. My client is Mr. Fred Longo, who is the principal
of the landowner entity, 117 East Allen Street, LLC. Thank you. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Mr. Malloy, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
see? I do. Thank you. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance,
a copy of the refusal or referral, 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, to all of the above.
Okay, great. You may proceed and share your screen. Well, thank you. And today, I just have
to mention that I have with me, or should be out in the audience, Mr. Fred Longo, who
is the builder and applicant today. And I'll be asking him, and we may have the architect
who is Mr. Michael Roy Hampton. And I don't expect that we'll need Mr. Hampton, but he
may be there as well. So thank you. And I'll share my screen. If I can figure out how to
do that. Let's see. There we go. So what we're looking at is the refusal for a very straightforward
application. And I'll just pre-mark some exhibits. We had an original refusal that had an error
that's marked as Exhibit A, a revised refusal with the correction, and I'll explain that in a second.
We have an elevation marked as Exhibit C, which shows the location of the property and the sort
of proposed renovation that I'll talk about in a second. And some renderings of the property
marked as Exhibit D. Exhibit E, some interior floor plans. Exhibit F are the site posting and
surrounding area photographs. Exhibit G is that letter of support from the Fishtown Neighbors
Association. Exhibit H is a zoning map, and I is the tax clearance. J is the letter to the RCO and
proof of mailing of that. K is the appeal and the project information form that we submitted,
and Exhibit I as a copy of the deed. So what we have, and I'll jump forward, is a relatively
straightforward renovation project of an existing single-family house located at 117 East Allen
Street in Fishtown. And this rendering, and I'll try to enlarge it a little bit for the board,
basically shows what we're doing.
And I'll show you the existing single family home.
So we're taking the existing single family home
and you can see the sort of cross-hatched
cross-hatched or shaded section is the addition to that home. So it's a second and third floor
or shaded section is the addition to that home.
So it's a set.
addition and the addition of a roof deck space with a pilot house. And as you'll see, or as I'll
explain, the location of that pilot house and why the builder is locating that pilot house in that
location is the reason for the variances. So we have a height variance and a setback variance from
Sarah Street. Now, this building and property, as you can see, it has two, it's a corner lot
with two frontages. And Sarah Street is the frontage of the street. Well, let me see if I
So Sarah Street is along the upper portion where the building and the property curve. And then Allen Street is the traditional front of the building. So we can see a photograph of that building right here. That's the Allen Street frontage showing the posting.
So Mr. Longo could explain in more detail, but the interior design of the building itself and the unusual shape of the lot are creating a condition where if he places the pilot house in conformance with the code,
um he will basically uh it will cause interior construction issues uh for the placement
and the placement requires it to be up against uh the adjoining uh neighboring house uh on allen
street so what you're seeing right now is a picture of where the pilot house you know should
be located, and this is the pilot house in the proposed location.
So by placing the pilot house in the proposed location, it gives the more space in the upstairs
of the deck and is easier basically from a design perspective on the interior of the
building.
We presented to the Neighbors Association, the Neighborhood Association, who unanimously from 16 and 0 supported the variances.
I want to show you one last photo.
And so this shows exactly the location.
And I don't know if you're familiar, but it's it's in Fishtown, close to Delaware Avenue.
And so the 117 East Allen Street is demarked in the center and the property sits almost sort of in a valley, right, where almost all the other uses around it are much taller.
And we're talking about a variance, a height variance of two inches and a setback of variance from Sarah Street, which, if you recall, is the rear street.
And that's the way we believe the hardship here is that the lot and the building are so unusually designed and unusually shaped that it prohibits placement in a way that can conform because you're otherwise denied a suitable outdoor space in this.
There is no backyard to this property at all. And so no usable outdoor space. And so given the interior design of the building, which again, Mr. Longo can testify to, and the difficulties in placing the pilot house in the proper location, we've requested the variances, we believe the variances are justified for this property in this location.
And I could have Mr. Longo, he can speak in more detail about this or have him confirm.
Why don't you get him to adopt your testimony and if we need people questions.
Sounds great. Thank you. So if we could get Mr. Longo, allow Mr. Longo in.
Mr. Longo, please unmute yourself.
I'm unmuted.
Yes. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Sure. It's Frederick Longo. It's F-R-E-D-E-R-I-C-K. Last name's L-O-N-G-O.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Mr. Longo, hi, how are you doing?
Uh, Mr. Longo. Hi, how are you doing?
Good. How's it going?
Good. How's it going?
Good. So were you on the Zoom call when I spoke about the project?
And do you agree with everything that I stated? And would you adopt that testimony as your own?
There are two minor errors, if I could share those real quick.
Please do. Thank you very much.
so you you stated we were doing a second and third story uh edition in the rear uh i think
there's just confusion because there's already an existing edition on the second story sorry
the third that's likely been there so it's it's just a third story rear like partial third story
edition in the rear um and another minor thing i just wanted to clarify what while you were right
about this being about outdoor space there is a backyard it is just very small and uh similar to
what you mentioned about the oddity of the lot shape it's a triangle and probably less than 50
square feet um so i just wanted to make those two clarifications otherwise everything else i agree
with great well i have no further questions thank you fred i appreciate what what questions from
the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission thank you sir mr chairman members of the board david
effecto city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential
single-family zoning at this location there is no requirement for a roof deck to be built on this
row home so the applicant has failed to show that the dimensional variance is needed to enable viable
reuse of this property so the city planning commission recommends the board deny the
dimensional variance for the roof deck mi 2022 000 482 117 east allen i vote yes with proviso
per amended refusal dated 3-15-22.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes, with proviso.
James Snell, yes, with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
MI-2022-000-490-1232 Chestnut Street.
Letter of non-apposition received from coordinating RCO,
the Washington Square Civic Association.
Alan Nockleson, the attorney.
Mr. Nockleson is coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Nockamson.
Good afternoon.
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N, 123 South Broad Street,
Suite 1600, Philadelphia PA, 19109.
do you swear to or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
i do could you identify your client and the relationship to the property yes with me today
in the virtual audience is isaac joy boba king cc llc uh the proposed tenant on the ground level
uh at 1232 chestnut street thank you our vice chair has a few questions thank you
Hi, Mr. Notkinson. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I do, but it is a referral. It is a referral. Have you emailed the exhibit packet
with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, 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, in all respects, and we have a letter of non-opposition from the coordinating
Okay, great. You may proceed and share your screen.
I mean some technical issues with my blank screen here eventually I think it'll go on.
there we go all right so i'm here to present 1232 chestnut street
So in my presentation materials, you will first see the notice of referral, then a letter of non-opposition from the Washington Square West Civic Association.
so in my presentation materials you will first see the notice of referral
A little information about Boba King. We took information off their website from the About Us as well as their menu.
A little background, Boba King has been in existence for a few years now.
Their initial location is at 3200 Chestnut Street on the Drexel University campus.
They're looking forward to opening up their second location, hopefully, at 1232 Chestnut Street, which is at the corner of 13th and Chestnut.
Afterwards, you'll see maps of the area.
Again, this is a referral, not a refusal.
So all we're asking for is a special exception, but you'll see that this is a commercial corridor.
and what we're proposing is not out of character for this section of Philadelphia.
Then we'll have photographs of the property in the surrounding area.
Our floor plans are proof that we met with the,
we sent out notice of the community meeting,
as well as proof that we nailed it out to the affected properties.
Our application for a special exception,
our lease of property showing that we do have an interest in this property
and the certificate of tax clearance.
And yet again, Isaac Choi, who's a member of Boba King CC LLC, the corporate entity of this proposed tenant, is in the virtual audience.
And at the conclusion of my presentation, he will adopt my testimony.
All right, the notice of referral.
Again, this is an application for a prepared food shop, not exceeding 20 seats,
No utilization of commercial cooking appliances that have requirements for exhausting air
containment on the same lot with all other structures as previously proved.
Basically, we're the ground floor of a residential apartment building in Center City,
Philadelphia.
Boba King, what they specialize in is different types of bubble teas that are out there and
they make their own bubble teas.