But these are the plans.
Basically, this is the front renovation of the property.
And then we have the, let's see if I can get a better picture.
Thank you.
What's going on, let's pitch a little bit.
I'm having a lot of trouble with that.
Excuse me, ma'am.
This is Pauline from IT.
I was just wondering what kind of trouble you're having.
Let me just see if I can read.
So you can see the point in a little bit.
i apologize it's fine
here we go
okay here we go so you can actually see here basically we have a empty basement the first
the living room dining room and kitchen the second floor has uh excuse me women and this
is pulling from IT. Again, it just zoomed out to 10%, so you might want to zoom back in for the
board. Is that better? That's fine. Yep. Yep, that's good. Okay. So we have a basement with
utilities only. The first floor has a living room, dining room, and a kitchen.
the second floor has a the third floor has the fourth bedroom with the master suite
we did uh sent out a notice uh to the community
have the uh certificate of mailing receive a letter of support from the fish town neighborhood
association to answer any questions that you may have do you do you want to have your client come
adopt a testimony?
Ms. Yang, are you present in the hearing today?
Ms. Yang?
Sarah, I don't see anyone by that name
with their hand up at this time.
Her name is Pidor, P-I-D-O-R, Yang.
Sarah, she just raised her hand.
Ms. Yang, you can unmute yourself
and wait for the chair we are on mute could you do could you state your name and spell for the
court reporter please yes my name is pidora yang first name p-i-d-o-r last name y-a-n-g
do we swear firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do thank you ms shang presented today i'm sorry darling i didn't get the full question
only as presented today yes would you adopt it as you yes at this time we're
willing to take any questions from the board questions from the board no mr chairman
Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience? Comments?
I see no hands at this time, Chair. Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the Board, in 2015, the zoning map was amended from RM1 to CMX2 in accord with
recommendations from the comprehensive plan however uh as presented here by council the
existing structure is not configured for ground floor commercial use presenting a hardship city
planning commission recommends that the board grant this variance thank you mi 2021-003-463-725
east rod avenue i vote yes carol tenere my vote is yes thomas holliman my vote is yes james snell
my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you very much is there anyone in the
audience whose case wasn't heard still waiting for a case
i see no hands at this time chair all right
i see no hands at this time chair all right we're we're gonna we're gonna break for lunch
and we'll be back at two o'clock thank you everybody all right
Are we on?
there you go sir you're good to go okay good afternoon my name is bill bergman
and i will be chairing the zba hearings this afternoon with me is carol tenary our vice
chair present ismail shaheed our board secretary yes dear thomas holliman our board member
President Mr. Chairman James Snell our board member
President Mr. Chairman also here is our board administrator
Tanya Sunkit and our board attorney for the day Rebecca Cole
before we start just a few comments about our virtual format
one be advised the proceedings are being recorded
participating you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded
A video will be available by contacting the Board Administrator, Tanya Sunkett, at tanyasunkett at phila.gov.
Two, for the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
Three, if you are participating in my phone and 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 your address of the property in question.
That phone number is 267-270-5548.
And lastly, you'll see there's a box that says question and answer box.
It is not intended for any comments.
Any comments should be directed to Tanya Sunkett, the Board Administrator.
So let's look first at continuances for the afternoon.
Our first continuance that I want to mention here is our number five, MI 2021-003951-20
West Queen Lane. It's a contingence requested by the attorney. Is there anyone in the virtual
audience who want to have a comment about that or object? I see no hands at this time, Chair.
That case is continued and must be tried. We also have
Case number 12. MI 2021-003952-6237-45 Germantown Avenue. There's an attorney, Mr. Scherner,
who wants to request a continuance. I want both attorneys to be put in the queue to talk,
Adam Laver and also Mr. Scherner.
Mr. Laver, you can unmute yourself or wait for the chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Adam Laver of Blank Rome on behalf of the applicant, Hatch Real Estate.
Mr. Laver, could you spell your name for the court reporter?
Yes, Chairman Bergman.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.
How about the second attorney?
What is his name, Chair?
Sharmer.
Mr. Sharmer.
Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Schirmer, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Yeah, Mr. Schirmer, just state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Good afternoon. First name is Hal, H-A-L, last name Schirmer, S-C-H-I-R-M-E-R, representing neighbors.
All right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Schirmer, I understand your request and it continues.
Yes, Mr. Schirmer.
The reason why is I was just recently retained to look at
uh the reason why is i was just recently retained to look over the record in this appeal when
looking at the record and looking at the prior zbo it turned out the sorry the prior rco zoning
hearing many people did not receive notice of the rco hearing and it was necessary to schedule a
second hearing we've had a fairly similar situation where a lot of people did not have
enough time to find out about this particular issue and also looking back it turns out that
that this is one of uh two properties which are the main parts of this zoning district which is
scheduled to be rezoned as part of the germantown 2035 uh logically it makes sense to have pushed
this in front of the planning commission rather than have probably two variances going through
and then rezone it. Second, as I said, I just came on to the case. Finally, I just found out
yesterday that one of the city officials had been advising the neighbors that they probably didn't
have legal standing to participate in this public zoning hearing, and therefore they shouldn't be
involved. In order to cure those problems, I would like a continuance so that we can go back
and clarify that no, actually the Philadelphia Code 14303, I think it's, sorry, 14303-14E
actually says interested parties get to speak, worry about who is standing after the zoning
board has made a decision. So that combination that the record, the RCO letter confirms that
they've had problems getting noticed to people, I just got on the case and we had some active
misinformation that no you really shouldn't be talking at this public hearing in order to clear
that and give a reasonable chance to actually get people involved and meet through process i'm
requesting a continuance mr labor you want to mr labor could you thank you chairman bergman and
members of the board thank you for the opportunity to to respond uh this this matter actually has
been one of the most well attended community meetings that I can recall going back to October
of 2021 with two virtual meetings having approximately 70 plus community members
attending both times lots of dialogue in between the meetings over the course of a two and a half
month period uh the uh notice was uh properly made there were no issues with the notice uh and uh
in fact all of the rcos including the coordinating rco have entered into a community benefits
agreement and uh this has been an open process completely in line with the zoning code
uh respectfully a continuance would not be appropriate at this time
Chairman.
We also have a council representative here.
We have Mr. Charles Richardson on the line, and we also have the city attorney, Mr. Leonard
Ruder on the line.
They're both unmuted, waiting for your instructions.
Tell them.
Mr. Richardson can be unmuted.
We only have the attorneys present now.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
How are you, Mr. Richardson?
what what mr richardson do you have comments on this
mr richards okay he's lost okay so so mr shermer um you know mr uh um um for for both of you here's
where we want to be i i don't want to continue this today i want this to go on so this will be
case number 12. You know, please hang in there. We'll get to you. We're going to hear the case
today. Thank you, Mr. Sharman, members of the board. We'll be on standby. Mr. Sharman, did you
hear that too? Yes, I did, Mr. Okay. Thank you very much, both of you. Okay. I have one other
one other case that was from this morning that we're going to continue to Tuesday.
MI 2021-00-3486-929-NORF 40th Street.
We're going to hear that Tuesday morning at 930.
Mr. Anastasio will notify all the RCOs that are involved.
Are there any other continuances?
Any other requests for continuances?
Chair, we have Alan Knackleton on the line.
Mr. Knackleton, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Alan Ockamson.
Could you spell your name for the court reporter just so we…
Yes, Alan, 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.
Yes, Alan, A-L-A-N, last name, Ockamson, N-O-C-H.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay. Go ahead, sir.
Yes, I actually have two continuance requests, the first of which is 1250 North 18th Street under ZP-2021-009003.
Okay, that's fine. 1250 North 18th, right?
That's right. I believe that's number two on your calendar, Mr. Chair.
Yep, yep. And what's the other one?
And number six on your calendar, Mr. Chair, 3440 North 18th Street under ZPP-2021-009386.
Very good. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Any other requests for continuance?
There are no other questions at this time, Chair.
Thank you. We have two add-ons we want to do, and we spoke about these in executive session.
MI 2021 002464 1128 North 41st Street. I vote no.
Carol Tenere no. Thomas Holloman. My vote is no. James Snell. My vote is no. Ishmael Shahid. My
My vote is no. And MI 2021-01486, 2427 North A Street, I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
okay toward our our cases here we mi 2021 00362 1022 buttonwood street
matt monroe is the attorney rco philadelphia chinese development corporation letter of
non-opposition the rco has a letter of support mr mr monroe is coming back in as a panelist now
Very good.
Good afternoon, Chairman Bergman, Vice Chair Tenere.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Sure thing, guys.
Matt Monroe, M-A-T-T, M-O-N-R-O-E, with Monroe LLC, 2030 Pemberton Street, 19146.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Boy, what just happened?
Can you see me?
Yeah, I can see you.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And based on my notes, it appears that all the required documents have been submitted, so you may proceed.
That's correct, Ms. Tenere.
and thanks for your time and it's a pleasure to appear before you for the first time Mr. Bergman.
I'm here today happy to be back on 1022 Buttonwood Street with my clients Houndstooth Tattoo and one
of their principals Andrew Johnson Lawley who's also here as well. I have before you our evidence