We ready to go?
I would say wait another minute.
Okay, Chair, we have 33 attendees and you're good to go.
Good morning everyone and welcome back.
My name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing this morning's EBA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Carol?
Ismael Shaheed, our board secretary.
Carol, Ms. Tenere, you are muted.
I apologize. Present.
Sure. Ismael Shaheed, our board secretary.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also with us is our board administrator, Tanya Sunkit, and our board attorney, Sharon Saleta.
Before we begin, I want you to take a look at our virtual format.
One, be advised these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting the Board Administrator Tanya Sunkett at tanyasunkett at phil.gov.
Two, for the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before they start.
Three, if you're participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and the address of the property in question.
That phone number again is 267-270-5548.
And lastly, please be advised the question and answer box is not for testimony or comments.
Any comments should be directed to Tanya Sunkett, our board administrator.
So we're going to start with the continuities.
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.
This is Tanya, the board administrator.
If I could just interject a thought.
Today we have with us the attorney for the record is Ms. Rebecca Cole.
Just so all involved will know, Ms. Cole will be acting in place of Ms. Saleta today.
Thank you very kindly.
Oh, great.
Great.
Thank you.
So let's look at continuities first.
we have a request for a continuance
from number 12
hold on a minute
number 12 if the
appellant's here could they please identify
themselves
this request for continuance has come from
the councilwoman
got the A's office
okay that case will be continued and it'll be marked must be tried we also have
two withdrawals mi 3021 003488 2423 north 56th street withdrawal withdrawal by
request of attorney. Number seven, MI 2021 00374 3204 Their Avenue, withdrawal by attorney. So
both will be withdrawn. And we're going to start with an add-on. MI. Chair, we do have a
Um, hand raised with a call-in user.
Call-in user.
Hi, uh, Tiffany Green, concerns to the point green.
Okay, could it, could I?
Wait, one minute, hold up one minute.
Do you swear for them to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Okay, go ahead.
I'm sorry, could we get your spelling, name, spelling on the record, please?
Sure. T-I-F-F-A-N-Y-G-R-E-E-N.
T-I-S-S-A-N-Y
Thank you. You can continue.
Okay. We sent in a withdrawal for our case, 1420 Point Breeze Avenue.
Ms. Green, is that for this morning or later on?
It is.
Oh, no.
so number four you okay
is your attorney here
um i don't i'm supposed to call him i don't know if he's there that's why i wanted to check and
make sure i was uh i thought he was going to handle this but i'm just i didn't hear you
here's what i'm going to do is i'm going to call that case first
and we'll see who's here on the case when i call it okay
Ms. Green?
Ms. Green, you've got to unmute yourself.
We're withdrawing the case, so we're not going to move forward, are we?
No, I'm just going to call the case, make sure all the attorneys know what's going on with it.
That's all.
you'll hear me call okay no problem okay all right are there any other requests for
continuances chair we have a franz pierre with his hand up sure you can unmute yourself and wait
for the chair are you on sir good morning okay could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter yes uh that's france pierre remember johnson okay could you spell it for
yep f could you do that one more time please
yep that's f-r-a-n-e last name pierre p-i-e-r-r-e right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth absolutely can you hear me better now i hear you better now
Yes. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and fellow board members. I just wanted to verify, did you say that 3024 Vare Avenue was withdrawn?
Okay. Wonderful. Thank you.
Any other requests for contingencies?
i see no other heads at this time chair okay so we have one add-on case
mi 2021 003843 2000 block of wallace street
this is a vote only i vote yes with provisos yes with provisos
Thomas Tolliman, yes, with provisos. James Snell, yes, with provisos.
So if I could, Chair, this is Tanya. I'm sorry to interrupt. Would it be approved if Rebecca Cole
state the provisos on the record for all to understand? Absolutely, that's fine.
Can you hear me? This is Rebecca Cole. Yes, Rebecca. Thank you. The provisos in this case are
one, no commercial uses, and two, revised plans, two pages.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, we're going to go to our regular list, and we're going to start with number four.
MI 2021-001578-1420, Point Breeze Avenue.
Russell Manning, Turney, and Leonard Reuter.
Mr. Reuter is coming back in as a panelist now, Phil.
Mr. Reuter, you there?
good morning members of the board uh leonard freuder uh senior attorney for the city of
uh senior attorney for the city of philadelphia you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole
philadelphia you swear for him to tell the truth
truth nothing but the truth i do okay um we um if i might mr chairman uh we received pardon me
uh two messages yesterday one from uh russell manning uh indicating that his firm is no longer
uh representing the uh point breeze community group and also we received another uh message
from uh ms green who you'd heard from earlier uh also stating that the appeal was being withdrawn
and that email from mr manning went uh both to myself as well as uh sharon saletta
okay and that was yesterday so um yeah we we i don't think there's any i don't think there's
any dispute at this time that that appeal has been withdrawn case withdrawn thank you sir
thank you and that concludes my business made uh for this morning may be excused
yes you can sir thank you thank you all right all right number one
MI 2021-003389-1124 South 10th Street.
Van Anastasia, RCO, Letter of Opposition.
Councilman Squilla opposed.
he's coming in now as a panel great
good morning mr chairman members of the morning state your name and spell for our court reporter
please yes sir verne anastasio it's v-e-r-n last name a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o 1315 walnut street
suite 1006 philadelphia 19107 okay do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing about the truth i do sir proceed um mr anastasio do you also agree to waive the reading
of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do okay um it appears in my notes that you have
submitted everything required in the exhibit packet that's correct okay you may proceed
thank you i want to note that the um passion square civic association letter of opposition
is actually counter to the near neighbor's vote that was um in support of the um actual
presentation and i'm going to go through it with you so that you can see why that is just
just bear with me for just a second i'm looking for
my files are not coming up i apologize
let's see here
can't seem to pull up my packet and i'm not quite sure why i apologize okay
I only have one document open.
There it is.
Can you see that now?
We can.
Thank you.
Great.
So this is 1024 South 10th Street.
My client purchased this property relatively recently.
and when he purchased it he purchased it as a three-family dwelling and this was already
outfitted as a three-family dwelling let me show you the plans
there's mechanicals in the basement there's a one apartment on the first floor
one apartment on the second floor one apartment on the third floor
um already had three electric meters three full kitchens and i'm going to bring it down to
and i'm going to bring you down to let me show you
uh give you some context to the property i think that might be helpful here's our property right
here it is the longest in a row of residential properties here's a church um there are multi
families here to the south there are multi families here to the north across this uh parking
lot there's over 60 units here in this one building alone and here is the property 1124
again the longest in the row here's the gas station here this is a north and south
street the numbered streets in this particular neighborhood as well as some of the adjoining
neighborhoods typically handle the multi-family dwellings so this is not inconsistent with the
other multi-families in the immediate area. Again, my client purchased this property as a
three-family dwelling. And in order for them to revamp it, gut it, and turn it back into a single
family home would just be an incredible burden. And he would never get back what he put into the
property um so with that uh we did meet with the community um and here's the letter that went out
here's passion square um saying that you know the community that the nearest neighbors
voted five to one in non-opposition uh these are the folks who live in the immediate area
uh the zoning committee voted in opposition but the zoning committee none of those members lived
anywhere near this particular property. I shouldn't say anywhere near, but they're not impacted
neighbors. The impacted neighbors support this proposal. Right next door, there's a single
family home, by the way, that's been for sale for some time, $800,000. That's another reason why
the immediate neighbors support the granting of this variance. They see their community as turning
into a bunch of new homes that are eight hundred thousand dollars pricing them out all the more
reason to support an already existing we're not doing anything new we're not building anything
simply want to be able to get to legalize the pre-existing three-family dwelling
and then get the certificate of occupancy making sure that all the building code requirements are
bed. And with that, I'd like to bring Mr. Kang Mi Zhu to the panel. Less than 50, you know, 100 feet
away, there's a gas station, like I said. Again, multi-families to the north, multi-families to
the south, and a very large multi-family right across the street. Mr. Zhu, could you raise your
hand, please. Chair, I see no one with that name at this time. Kong, K-O-N-G-M-I-Zhu, Z-H-U.
Or Yanmi, Y-A-N-M-E-I-Zhu, Z-H-U. Ms. Zhu?
i see someone with their hand up and the name says winnie i don't know if that's what you're
looking for that's that's they have that that's fine too okay thank you the person with the name
winnie you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair good morning
good morning could you could you state your name could you state your name and spell for
the court reporter we need w-i-n-n-i-e last name w w do you swear for him to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes ms wu did you hear my presentation to the board this
morning yes is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes and do you adopt it as your
own testimony yes thank you mr chairman i'm going to be open for questions again i want to remind
the board that immediate neighbors five to one voted to support this pre-existing triplex to
turn this back into a single family now would be a catastrophic financial hardship for my client
this is not inconsistent with other multi-families on the block
commercial nature of the block as well with a laundromat a gas station a sport
a bar and a church on the same as well yeah questions from the
a bar, and a church on the same block as well.