Democratic Party headquarters. It says Recreation Center. I'm not sure how those two go hand in hand,
but there was commercial use at this property for a long period of time. So with that, I'm going to
ask Mark Smalls to raise his virtual hand so he can adopt my testimony. The hardship would be that
the property has a long history of commercial use, vacancy, and in order to get it back into
service and serving the neighborhood. We need the variance room. Mark, go ahead and raise your
virtual hand. Mr. Smalls, you've been allowed to speak. Please unmute yourself.
Hi, Mr. Smalls. State your name and spell it for the court reporter.
mark smalls m-a-r-k smalls s-m-a-l-l-s you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do proceed and mark i neglected to mention during my presentation
You're from the area and this is you will not be an absentee landlord.
You are from this community. Is that right? Or nearby?
Yes, I grew up in the 19132 area code. Yes.
And did you hear my factual statements and are they true and accurate?
You adopt my statements as your own formal testimony in this case.
And again, you agree with the provisors presented by the RCO for office use, hours of operation, no basement living, and otherwise.
Mr. Chairman, thank you. That's all I have. Happy to take questions from the board.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no here, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. David Fechtow, City Planning Commission.
Mr. Chairman and members of the Board, the Comprehensive Plan recommends this property for commercial mixed use zoning.
The property has a documented history of ground floor commercial use dating back to 1948.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2022-000-478-2636 North 22nd Street. I vote yes with following provisos. Hours of operations 7A to 7P. No basement living. Trash and recycling stored in the rear yard.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with provisos.
James Snell, yes with provisos.
okay thank you thank you everybody have a good day thank you for your time
you too and by 2022 000 476 318 south broad street stephanie boggs is the attorney letter
of non-opposition from coordinating RCO, the Center City Residents Association.
Yes, good afternoon. Stephanie Magana, M-A-G-A-P-N-A, 1835 Market Street, Suite 1400,
Philadelphia PA, 19103. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth? I do. Could you identify your client in a relationship to the property? Sure. I'm
I do. Could you identify your client in a relationship to the property?
Sure. I'm here on behalf of the Kimmel Center, which is the tenant of the property. Ross Richards
from the Kimmel Center is here on their behalf. Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi. Good afternoon. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? I agree to waive its reading, but want to clarify its scope. The refusal notes that we
are seeking relief to allow a takeout restaurant at this location. Within this area of the Center
City Overlay, a special exception is required for all restaurant uses, including sit-down and takeout
uses. There is an existing sit-down restaurant in this building, but to the extent the board
sees the need to grant additional relief to expand upon that use, we want to clarify that
we are seeking approval to use this location for a sit-down and a take-out restaurant.
what is this building the Kimmel Center okay 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 I have okay you may proceed and share your screen thank you
so as I said this is a 300 South Broad Street it is the location of the Kimmel Center
existing. The property itself takes up most or half of a block bounded by South 15th Broad Street
and Spruce Street. We're within the CMX4 zoning district as well as areas of the center city
overlay district and specifically the Broad Street area south which requires special exception
approval for restaurant uses which is why we're here today. The Kimmel Center is home to the
Philadelphia Orchestra. On site as well, there are, you know, we have the Volver restaurant,
an existing sit-down restaurant there, as well as accessory parking on site. What we are proposing
to do is to convert a corner that's currently inactive at Broad and Spruce with some facade
and interior renovations to allow use for a new cafe at this location. The existing corner,
as I mentioned, it's inactive. It's the location of our back office, box office facilities at this
point. You can see some pictures of it here. The facade on the exterior is occupied by four
kind of poster signs that are there, and you can kind of see the back of house operations as well.
And what they're proposing to do is to activate this corner and introduce a new restaurant use
here at the corner and a new accessible access along Spruce Street. The cafe will have a bakery
and a sit-down component that will kind of feed into casual daytime experiences for Kimmel guests
during the day and feed into Kimmel activities at night as well. It will be operated by Garces
as a new location here will serve members kind of patrons of the Kimmel center as well as guests
visiting the site specifically the restaurant is intended to have 52 seats inside the space
they're also seeking separately through the appropriate approval process outdoor seating
for 20 seats no additional kitchen exhaust facilities are required in connection with this
use. All of our loading and our trash storage will use existing facilities located at the Kimmel
Center. Loading is facilitated off of South 15th Street, accessed on a private street to the south
of the building, as well as our trash storage was in the basement. The deliveries for this use will
kind of use existing service to the site as well. And guests who are coming here are welcome to
utilize the existing accessory parking that's located on site loading or you know restaurant
deliveries will be directed towards the lay-by-lane that is existing on broad street as well we did
meet with the center city residents association in march their letter of non-opposition is included
within your packets and i will note that part of this application is a request for signage that is
not part of today's hearing it will be considered by the board separately on July 13th but it was
referenced in our conversations with CCRA and included in their letter of non-opposition
so the signage you're seeing in the materials today will be considered by the board separately
on July 13th with that I'll turn it over to Ross Richards to identify himself for the board
could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
good afternoon my name is ross richards r-o-s-s r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s
you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do proceed
i do proceed hi ross have you heard my statements this afternoon i have do you find them to be true
and correct i do would you adopt them as your own testimony i would i do thank you um we're
happy to answer any questions um questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare planning commission thank you mr chairman david facto city planning commission
mr chairman and members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the commercial mixed use for zoning at this location the applicant has shown that a 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 a special exception. Thank you. MI 2022-000-476-300-18
South Broad Street, I vote yes. Carol Tenere, my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shahi, my vote is yes. Thank you. Have a good afternoon.
Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience whose two o'clock case has not been called?
I see no hands, Chair.
Okay. We take a break until 3.30.
Oh, okay.
As you wish, Chair.
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman. I will be chairing this afternoon's EBA hearing.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Present, Mr. Chair.
Ishmael Shaheed, our board secretary.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is our executive director, Tanya Sunkit, and our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
Be advised these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting tanyasunkit at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And lastly, please note the question answer box on the screen is not for testimony or comments. Any comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunkiff. Let's look at continuances for this afternoon's hearings.
MI-2022-005-086-5900 Harbison Avenue. This case is continued. Are there any comments
relative to this case in the virtual audience?
I see no handshare.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
I see no handshare.
We also have two withdrawals for this afternoon.
MI 2021-005-078-3021 Diamond Street
and MI-2021-005-077-3023 Diamond Street.
Both these cases have been withdrawn.
Any other withdrawals?
I see no handshare.
Going to the regular list, MI-2021-005-091-1617 West Montgomery Avenue.
Adam Laver, attorney.
Letter of non-opposition from coordinating RCO's 32nd Ward.
Chair Heidus is Tanya.
Um, the request from the attorney is that all cases be heard together.
The request from the attorney is that all cases be heard together.
We, we, we can do that. I was just going to have a little conversation with him about that.
Mr. Laver, you think you can do them all together?
Yes. I think that would be an efficient way to proceed.
Yep. Okay.
Hi, this, this is Hillary. Um, what let's, um, obviously you just read them individually into
the record and they the refusals are slightly different um for some of them because a couple
of them list the number of um units so we just want to make sure that we distinguish between
um throughout your presentation just distinguish which property you're discussing thank you
and i also mr labor there's a couple different rcos involved i noticed yes okay so let me read
them all in. I'll start again with number one, MI 2021-005-091-1617 West Montgomery Avenue.
Number two, MI 2021-005-088-1731 Willington Street. Three, MI 2021-005-090-2034 North 17th Street.
And number four, MI 2021-005-087-2122, North Carlisle Street.
Mr. Laver, would you identify who your client is and their relationship to the properties?
Yes. Would you like me to do that before being sworn in, Mr. Chairman?
Oh, I'm sorry about that.
Not at all.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do, Chairman Bergman.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Adam Laver of Blank Rome, 1 Logan Square, Philadelphia 19103.
I'm here on behalf of Goodherb Enterprises, owner of each of the subject properties and their principals, Mark Goodhart and Todd Belson.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Mr. Lieber, do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to the accuracies on all four of these, Mr. Chair, or do I do this four times?
I would say go four and then let him, he'll know what to do, Mr. Lieber.
Okay, so do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Good afternoon, Madam Vice Chair. Yes, we stipulate to the accuracy of each of the
referrals. Okay, great. 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? Yes, we have submitted
five days in advance individual electronic packages in each of these cases. I'm pleased
to share that each of the coordinating RCOs has submitted a letter of non-opposition
and collectively I'm not aware of any opposition in these matters.
Okay, great. You may proceed and please share your screen.
Thank you. I'll share in just a moment. As I mentioned, Mark Goodhart and Todd Belson are the owner of each of these properties. They are all located within walking distance of Temple University.
Mark and Todd are lifelong Philadelphians. They're invested in our city. They're raising
their families in Philadelphia. And quite frankly, their family names are important to them. Their
reputation is important to them, which I mentioned because in rich communities with lots of history,
as these are, those types of bonds are important. Following the community meetings in each of the
cases, the RCO has issued non-opposition letters, which I'll pull up on the screen.
So before you, you'll see four letters. The first is from the North Central Philadelphia CDC RCO
regarding 2122 Carlisle Street, letter of non-opposition. Second letter from the 32nd Ward
RCO for 1617 West Montgomery Avenue, non-opposition. Again, 32nd Ward RCO regarding 2034 North 17th
Street, non-opposition. And for 1731 Willington Street, Council President Clark's 5th Councilmanic
district was the acting coordinating RCO and Ms.
was the Acting Coordinating RCO, and Ms. Jones also submitted a letter of non-opposition
following meetings with the communities in each of these matters.
On the screen in front of you are some photographs that I'd like to share.
Each of the properties in question is an existing three-story row house structure.
The improvement sizes for each of the properties ranges from approximately 1,700 square feet to
2,400 square feet in size. Here is the 2,122 North Carlisle Street property, which has
the cast stone beige stonework where my cursor is.
On the second property here, this is a corner property, 1617 West Montgomery Avenue with
Willington Street having the other elevation. Again, as I said, existing Philadelphia stock
three-story row house structure. 2034 North 17th Street, in between these properties that have had
some more recent improvements in terms of the bay additions, that is not the subject, but 2034,
the brick property in the middle is the subject property. And here across from the police station
at 1731 Willington Street with the green awning is the three-story brick property,
which is 1731 Willington Street. Mark and Todd have owned each of these four properties for
several years. As rentals, they are proactively appearing before the board to document and
confirm the existing uses. Now, depending on the property in question, the RM1 underlying
zoning district would allow two or three multifamily residential units within each structure,