Thank you.
Okay, Chair, we have 23 attendees, and we can start as you wish.
Okay, thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's EBA hearings.
With me is Ismail Shahid, our board secretary.
here mr chair thank you thomas holliman our board member present mr chairman thank you
james snell our board member present mr chairman also here is our board attorney hillary emerson
and also our zba hearing supervisor lakeisha dandy before we begin here's our virtual format
Be advised that proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phillip .gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're 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
to the property in question. And finally, the question -answer box on the screen is not for
comments or testimony. All comments should be referred to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit.
So let's look at our continuances for this morning's hearing.
number four mi 2021 001 959 2349 north 20th street that case is continued
um number 11
mi 2022 003 289 303 brown street that case is continued
Number 12, MI -2021 -003 -544 -5007 North Fish Street.
That case is continued.
Number 13, MI -2022 -003 -288 -303 Brown Street.
Number C.
number 14 MI 2022 000 666 2452 West Toronto Street. That case is continued. Does anyone
have any comments relative to the cases I just listed for continuing?
Good morning, Chair. This is Yvette Benton. I see no hands at this time.
Thank you. Other requests for continuance?
Chair, we have Nicholas Foppiano. Mr. Foppiano, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Good morning. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Nicholas Foppiano, F -O -P -P -I -A -N -O.
do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes sir i represent the the property at a north 20th street i believe he said it was continued
but my my connection kind of blipped out let me see here
that's number four mr chair on the list we did continue it i did continue that case sir
okay thank you so much and thank you for granting that continuance last one i promise
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Other requests for continuance?
Chair, we have Vern Anastasio.
Mr. Anastasio, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Good morning, Mr. Anastasio. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Mr. Anastasio.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Could you state your name, please?
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, sir. Vern V, like Victor, E -R -N, Anastasio, A -N -A -S -T -A -S -I -O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Case number two, 7137 Wolland?
Yes, sir. I have been in contact with the RCO as recently as last evening.
I believe Craig sent over an email explaining that we would be working towards finally getting
together. I know this was Mark must be heard. I respectfully request one final continuance. Thank
you. All right. So MI 2022 -000 -485 -7137 Woodland Avenue. That case is continued. Thank you, sir.
sure sorry this is hillary did you hear that the two brown street cases were also already
continued yes thank you okay all right great thank you go ahead mr chair all right good
thank you other requests for continuance
here i see no heads at this time okay so so let me go to case number eight mi 2022
202 -003 -279 -2810
North 22nd Street. Ronald Coleman
is the elicit applicant.
Is there anyone in the audience by the way?
With the phone number ending in 3552.
Caller with the phone number ending in
3552. Please unmute yourself
and wait for the chair.
Hello?
Hi, good morning. Could you state
your name and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, Adrian Fernandez.
My last name is spelled F -E -R -N -A -N -D -E -Z.
Swampaddle Neighborhood Parts Association, RCO.
Right. Do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth?
So, you know, I see your request for it
continuing, so I'm trying to see if I can get the property
owner on the phone okay so just hold on one minute okay all right thanks is there anyone
ronald coleman or beans ideal llc
chair i see no one by that name at this time
mi 2022 003 279 2810 north 22nd street that case is continued
you. Thank you for calling in, by the way. Any other requests for continuance?
Chair, I see no other hands at this time. So let me go to case number one, MI 2021 -00 -3347 -639
South Conestoga Street. There are no exhibits for this. This is the third listing.
004 -362 -105 -Bethlehem -Pike, request for reconsideration. I vote no to the reconsideration and rehearing.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no to the reconsideration and the rehearing.
James Snell, no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ishmael Shahid, no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thank you. Number two on the add -on list, MI 2021 -004 -361 -101 Bethlehem Pike. This is a request for reconsideration. I vote no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
James Snell, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ishmael Shahid, a vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Accommodation is prohibited in the Zoning District RSA 5.
Chair, Ms. Murray is coming back in as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Good morning.
It's Erin Murray, E -R -I -N -M -U -R -R -A -Y.
Do you swear, Fern, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
uh one of our board members thomas hallman has a few questions for you sure good morning madam
did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required such as proof of ownership tax clearance
copy of the refusal pictures of drawings of the property five days in advance to this hearing
did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter yes i did i submitted all of those things
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. Okay, just a second.
Should be the green button on the bottom. Yeah, okay. Okay, so this is the presentation that
we did for our neighborhood from which we got approval. So I'll just kind of run through this.
um that's the picture of the property there 1511 east houston um this is just some necessary stuff
there's the refusal we're applying to legalize our airbnb um proof that we've notified our
neighbors okay so this slide shows kind of the layout of our property we purchased our property
in 2014 as a single lot at 1506 east susquehanna and on the opposite side end of the lot was just
a rundown garage and we always had intentions to turn that into um you know a workspace as well as
like a mother -in -law suite um but we realized when we went to develop it that it was not we
weren't able to do that by right so we had to subdivide the property which now you know creates
two properties and that's the reason why we are applying for this appeal um but this little
graphic down here with the pink and the blue people show you shows you the layout so where
the blue people are that's where we live and occupy on susquehanna and we access the garage
through the back as well as the front um and then the the rental or the two floors above that
and the picture is of that garage space so scrolling down here that's a picture of like
the original garage which we couldn't structurally keep and just build on top of so um and we came
to realize that we weren't allowed to build on that by right because adus are not allowed in our
zoning district or our our neighborhood um so we had to subdivide um and here's where i outlined
hardship number two because people are curious why won't we just rent it long term um but we'd
like to keep the flexibility of having this property that's you know just adjacent to ours
to use for family and friends we do have older family members who we think will be living there
in the coming years and we also do want to use it as an extra source of income um and have that
flexibility that i can you know work from home as an artist and caregiver as well as a parent
So that's our argument. This next slide is just showing that we aren't
So that's our argument. This next slide is just showing that we aren't, we, you know, we're deeply invested in this neighborhood. There's a lot of energy saving features that went into this home. It's incredibly well built. We care about the neighborhood and building quality.
and so we're not here just to suck money out of the neighborhood. We literally are the neighbor
to this house. This is a selection of our reviews. A huge percentage of our guests are visiting
family in the neighborhood, so a lot of people are very grateful to have the space, especially
post -pandemic, to visit their young family in the neighborhood. Next slide here is a testimonial
from an adjacent neighbor who we're very pleased being neighbors to this house.
And then finally, just an image of the rental and just things that we do to make sure that
this is not, there's no parties in this house. We have a two -day stay minimum. We only accept
people with a well -reviewed guest history. We're right there. We access the space underneath this
every day and are always on site. So as far as short -term rentals go, we're about as responsible
as you get so please let us know if you have questions and the other thing is your fishtown
neighbors association are in support of it correct thank you questions questions from the board no
mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair i see no hands at this time thank you planning commission
Good morning, Chair Bergman. This is Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Last name spelled H -E -G -A -R -T -Y.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Thank you. Good morning, Board members.
Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 5 single -family zoning at this location.
This building received a use registration permit as a single -family home in 2017.
The property has been listed on a popular short -term rental site since at least January 2020.
Short -term rental of non -primary residents was prohibited both before and after the recent code changes, but new licensing requirements have forced short -term rental hosts to apply to L &I for use registration permits.
That's why we're seeing a lot of these lately at the board, just for background.
um since there's nothing prohibiting the owner from using the property as a single family home
or as a separate dwelling unit we believe that the applicant has not shown sufficient evidence
of hardship um not being able to lease it for short -term use is not a hardship because it
already has a use registration as a single family home um the proposed visitor accommodation use for
the uh just for the record is a permanent change to the use regardless of who owns
this property or the adjacent property. And I don't think there's anything in the deed tying
the two properties together. So this would be a permanent change to this property to allow
visitor accommodations. So given all that, we recommend that the board deny this variance.
Thank you. MI 2022 -003 -272 -1511 East Hauston Street. I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Ms. Murray.
Thank you.
Okay, number, let's see here.
Number five.
MI 2022 -003 -273 -2012 -24 East Arizona Street.
Roger Perry is the attorney.
rco letter from east kensington association hold on one minute
from east kensington association
mr chair we're still waiting for a letter in this case okay okay mr perry i'm sorry uh good
morning, Roger Perry here. Morning, Mr. Perry. State your name and spell for the court reporter.
Roger Perry, R -O -G -E -R. Last name Perry, P as in Peter, E -R -R -Y. Right. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Mr. Holliman has a few
questions for you, sir. Thank you. Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading
of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, we do.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required,
such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal,
pictures of drawings of the property, five days in advance to this hearing,
Five days in advance to this hearing, and did you meet with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
and did you meet with the RCO, and do you have...
Yes, with the notation that the RCO is sending a confirming letter, but I do have their initial response as an exhibit today.
So yes, as to everything else.
okay share your screen sir uh thank you um i'm assuming i'm sharing what you see if i can
can you see that no no we don't see anything yet okay so let me hit the green button on the bottom
yep let me try that again
there you go okay thank you as indicated when we initially were interviewed they don't see
the final letter from the East Kensington Neighbors Association I assume it's somewhere
in the works John said that it was set but he did send me this and you can see that this is
the meeting summary form from East Kensington Neighbors Association. They supported the
application, 12 in favor, one opposed, and he said a confirming letter is to follow, so
I don't know if we'll need that, but, you know, we certainly can provide that as it comes in.
Okay, let's see what else we got.
Hey, Alex.
I'm trying to drop this down somehow here.
Hey, Alex.
I'm trying to get rid of the scroll bar here.
This is covering my...
You're underneath it.
I got you.
is there anybody in our group can help i start over again sorry you're off okay
are you trying to share your screen yeah what happened is that your
tool bar
covered my share screen thing.
Got you.
Thank you.
Oh, it's still covered.
I don't know how to
they're underneath.
My exhibits are listed under your
toolbar for some reason.
Share screen. Thank you.
okay i hope you can see that that's the i'm starting with the exhibit list i have a
come up here
okay so all the lists the the normal standard exhibits are listed as one through 10
probably the easiest thing is to go down to the photos of the property we'll see if we can do that
Okay, so this is a three -story warehouse of 2012 -24.
I'm going to just show you.
There's the posting and come back.
So the photos will give you an idea of what's going on here.
This is a lot adjacent where we requested to have parking.
This is the actual warehouse itself, the entrance and so forth.
And it's a three -story warehouse.
It was posted.
This is across the street.
and adjacent there too okay so here's you know what it looks like uh this is a uh property that
the um the owner the husband jesse gardner um originally planned to convert this uh warehouse
to 11 residential units and one uh commercial gallery and let's see if i can uh
blow this up a little bit. Okay. So
parking is to the left of the warehouse. The warehouse itself is a three -story building.
Unfortunately, Mr. Gardner suffered an untimely death and his wife is here today, Ms. Chen,
and she has picked up this project again to try to fulfill her husband's desires to repurpose
to repurpose this warehouse primarily for artist apartments and a out an elevator and a small
this warehouse primarily for artists.
gallery here so you know you're going to come in off of Arizona Street he's going to have a little
artist gallery here and that's the commercial space and then he's putting in 11 one -bedroom
units here. This is what the this is what it currently looks like. The parking is going to
go over here. And because this is in an RSA 5 district, of course, it's only eligible for
single family homes. But that would require demolition of the warehouse. And as you saw in
the photographs, this neighborhood is still primarily commercial industrial type uses and so
forth um it's a relatively large building so it it will accommodate this uh the parking over here
for handicapped parking and five cars uh there is a note in the refusal that there was an addition
the addition is in this little back area on three floors and it was to accommodate a single
bedroom for those rear apartments so that was the uh the fill out to sort of fill out the
the space here and this is what it looks like in terms of the footprint so you know the hardship
essentially is that we would have to demolish a very usable structure whereas you know providing
reasonably priced apartments he was very into the artist community and everybody was looking
for something they could do this and then you know artists who may live there will have an
opportunity to use the gallery on a recurring basis. We have filed all the appropriate notices.
That's the mailing we got here. This is a notice that was sent out to everybody and the certificate
of mailing is a certificate of the tax clearance. This is a deed. Ms. Chen is the current owner from
husband, Mr. Gardner. I'm trying to think of it. I don't think there's any really pertinent
other than the addressing the refusal. The refusal was for a variance to allow for the parking
and for the apartment multifamily and with one commercial space. But we think that this is a
valuable addition to the neighborhood. And as you can see, we did meet with East Kentington and did
get a support from them.
Mr. Perry, do you want to have your testimony adopted?
Ms. Chen, you should be there.
Can you raise your hand?
And they will let you in.
Ms. Chen?
And Ms. Chen, you can unmute yourself.
hi miss chen can you hear me yes could you state your name and spell it please for the
court reporter um my name is uh yuhong y -u -h -o -n -g my last name is chen c -h -e -n
right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes proceed counsel thank you miss chen have you uh been listening to my presentation in
terms of the request for variance for the use of this property? Yes. And would you adopt my
testimony as true and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief? Yes. Thank you.
Before I get up to the board, Mr. Perry, could you describe the surrounding neighborhood?
Yeah, the surrounding neighborhood. Let me see if I have the, just going to look at the,
okay so this is the adjacent property it's a series of this this is across the street actually
there's a series of garages and old commercial property this is immediately adjacent to the
right side again these are old commercial properties a lot of them are still used I mean
this was when i posted the property uh as garages and uh um you know most of these were
what's that what's at the end of the block those multiple windows way down here yeah there's a
couple there's some new construction this is my recollection uh this looks like an apartment
building i didn't look this up um but um you know because this building is uh is very usable
here it is here um it doesn't make any sense to demolish you know a three -story
you know a three -story this is it here three -story building he's put in new windows
this is it here three -story building he's put in new windows
um and you know essentially uh miss chen has taken over from jesse uh mr gardner prior to
his untimely death was uh an artist uh neighborhood person and uh there was a demand to try to get
uh usable space and affordable space and that's uh the essence uh which uh his architect has done
here all right thank you question questions from the board yes mr chairman no mr chairman
counselor what is your trash removal plan i'm sorry trash removal uh trust the the trash is
there's a basement and the trash is going to be stored the utilities and the trash
is in the basement and then they would have to have um if it's multifamily they either have to
pay the city to pick it up, or they can have commercial trash, but it can be stored inside
until pickup is required. Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission. Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning
Commission. Board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5
single -family zoning at this location. However, the proposal does not add height or significantly
change the bulk of the existing non -conforming building. The proposed use is also commensurate
with the size and configuration of the existing building. City Planning Commission recommends
that the Board grant this variance. Thank you. MI 2022 -003 -273 -2012 -24 East Arizona Street. I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahi, my vote is yes.
You're a yes, Ishmael Shahi.
My vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and board.
Number six, MI 2022, 003 -291 -716 North 3rd Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
Letter of support from Northern Liberties Association with several provisos.
Chair, Mr. Jin is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good morning.
Good morning, Jin.
Good morning.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Zen Jin, Z -H -E -N, last name J -I -N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1838,
Philadelphia PA, 19103, on behalf of the applicant, who is the tenant of the property.
All right.
Thank you.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client?
Yes, Mr. Tan Liu is the tenant operator of the business, which is seeking the variance before the board.
All right. Thank you. Mr. Holloman has a few questions.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I will waive a reading. It is a special exception, so it's a referral. Other than that, I do stipulate.
Thank you. Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal or referral, pictures or drawings of the property five days in advance to this hearing? Did you meet with the RNCO and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all questions.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board the exhibit that was forwarded previously. Can the board see my exhibit?
yes thank you uh so we have submitted copies of the relevant documentation uh according to the
requirements of the code this is an application for special exception use uh this is a cmx2
district and we're seeking a takeout restaurant use for a cafe now we did meet with lord northern
Liberty's Neighborhood Association, and they have a series of requirements because of the use we
presented. That is why there are these provisals, which my client is in agreement with. This is not
a restaurant. It's actually a cafe. There's no cooking, no exhaust venting, no food prep in the
premises. I would also show that on the plans, but it's a very simple setup cafe with coffee
availability from 7 a .m. to 3 p .m. Saturday and Sundays from 9 a .m. to 3 p .m. We can keep all
We can keep all the trash stored inside.
the trash stored inside. There's no need for a dumpster because
There's no need for a dumpster because very little trash is actually generated.
No pickup for delivery is mainly applying to those, I guess it would be like food delivery services.
There's no need for that.
Customers walk in to get their coffee, but they will certainly take out their coffee in many cases.
There are 10 seats inside.
There's no outdoor seating at this point.
If we seek that, we'll separately apply and speak with the community again about that possibility.
The property itself is already partially, it was actually in operation before my client received notification that this is actually a special exception.
Seeing that it was CMX2, they thought it would be a buy right use in this particular property.
But it turns out that the overlay there requires a special exception in this case.
We also have a simple layout. There's storage room, restroom. And as you can see, seating can be placed here and here. And there's a counter area which serves coffee. So that is essentially this application. There's nothing here that would make this use more impactful than a use typical of this nature under the special exception rules.
and we asked the board's favorable review of this application.
My client, Mr. Tian Liu, should be here
and available to verify my testimony.
Thank you.
Why don't we have your testimony adopted?
Thank you.
Mr. Liu, can you raise your hand to be identified?
Mr. Liu, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Yes, I...
Good morning.
could you could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please yes uh my first name is
tan last name is liu first name t -a -n last name l -i -u thank you do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed counsel thank you mr liu can
you verify that you uh saw my presentation and heard my testimony before the board
yes and can you uh adopt it as your own testimony and verify that they are true and correct
yes thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands share thank you planning commission thank you chair bergman ian
Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Board members, this proposed special
exception is not likely to cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might
normally be expected for the use. The City Planning Commission recommends that the board
grant the special exception. Thank you. MI 2022 -003 -291 -716 North 3rd Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
yes i'm sorry are you going to incorporate any of the i got it okay so i vote yes with the
following provisos no cooking or food preparation on the premises hours of operation tuesday to
friday 7a to 3p saturday and sunday 9a to 3p interior trash storage remove existing illuminated
sign from the front of the building until approved thank you thomas holloman my vote is yes with the
provisos james snell my vote is yes with provisos ishmael shahid my vote is yes with proviso thank
you counsel could you please stay on yes so case number seven MI 2021 -005 -423 -4629
Wayne Avedo letter from Solo Germantown not taking a position letter from Faith
Community Development Corporation
with provisos.
You've already sworn.
Could you identify
your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, my client
is the owner of the property.
He is present with us
to verify my testimony.
The owner's name is
Sachko
Savyatslav
and he is with us.
before I give it to Mr.
Holloman, is this a request for
four or three units? This is
a request for three units pursuant
to our agreement with the community's
request for a reduction of one unit.
We are in
acceptance of all the provisals
after multiple meetings to work
out the terms. Mr. Holloman has a few
questions for you, sir. Good morning,
Good morning, counsel. You do have refusals on this case.
counsel. You do have
refusals on this case.
Do you
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures or drawings of the property, five days in advance to this hearing?
Did you meet with the RCO and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all questions.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board the package that was submitted in support of this application.
Can the board see my package on the screen?
Thank you. So we have met multiple times with this RCO pursuant to this application.
The initial application was for four units in the RTA1, two -family dwelling district, with related minimum side yard and parking refusals.
After meeting with the community and with various changes we have agreed to, we have reduced the units to three units, and we're only seeking that before the board today.
There are, however, actual hardships to the minimum side yard and parking space requirements as presented on the refusal.
So this application is actually for a lot.
I'm going to zoom in to allow the width to be more easily seen here.
This application is for a lot that is part of an attached two unit setup that is prevalent on the block.
The issue here is that with the side yard, this is actually built at the same size as what was present on this lot before.
and the side yard cannot be met simply because there isn't enough width to the property to
accomplish it. In addition, the block basically has no off -street parking for any of the units
because there is a slope in the front that actually requires a retaining wall in order to maintain
structural integrity of the yard in the front and also for the buildings. So it's impossible to put
in off -street parking even in the front of the property for even one parking space. That being
said, we've had multiple meetings with the community to go over many of the items that
are mentioned on the RCO letter. I'm going to go through that, and it is in agreement, and we do,
my client, accept all the requested changes. The near neighbors are particularly concerned with the
structured look of the property because this block is rather historical and has very specific
design looks. In addition, although this property, when it was in existence, was legalized for six
units, the community feels that six units or even four is excessive for even as large a lot as this
and asked that we reduce to three units, which we were happy to agree to. They also seek that the
trash be stored in the rear of the property due to having a side yard that is not an issue and all
units can access that trash storage location. The front porch has been redesigned to match
the existing buildings in the neighborhood with their front porch, both in design and look,
and also facade, brick to match, the window styling, the cornice line, and the roof top will
all be redesigned. I will jump to the plans in a minute to show those changes. And in addition,
we're going to repave the property in the front, fix the retaining wall, make sure all that is up
to date for safety reasons, and install lighting and security cameras as per requested by the
community. The community also asked that we try to put a fence and gate in the front and back to
kind of separate our property from the next two building property on the other side.
The design has been revised to, I'm sorry, it's zoomed out, I'll zoom in a little bit,
It's revised to three units per the request of the community.
As you can see from the site plan, we have added in a porch and the bay windows and everything
to match what is requested.
I should have also a front facade drawing.
Here we go.
So we're going to do the design exactly to match the old building that is actually on
this side.
The building to our left is vacant, but actually in a condition that the community is not satisfied with.
So if and when that gets sold and changed, I'm sure this will also end up be the look that they would request.
And this matches further down the block and all the existing buildings.
I'm going to show photographs, which will give a better idea of what we're talking about here.
So the community particularly cares that this building has the look of this with the front porch, all which are now incorporated into our design.
So, based on those changes and the reduction of unit to three, which are now laid out as follow, essentially one unit on each floor, two bedrooms per unit, I believe, I'm sorry, I'll zoom in further.
So based on those changes and the reduction of units...
There's two bedrooms per unit, and it's a rather large, long building with a nice living area and an internal stairwell access for all three floors to the side yard, for the upper floors, directly to the front with the porch for the first unit on the first floor, and everyone would have access to the rear yard.
So based on all those changes, and based on the reduction of the unit, and the hardship that exists for the parking, the community gave us in there in from face CDC, the coordinating RCO, a letter of support, in this case, with the revisions with the vote of the near neighbors and near near neighbors.
So with that, I will leave it open for the board to ask questions, and my client is available
to verify my testimony.
Mr. Jin, could you describe the remainder of the block relative to multifamily houses?
So what has happened with this block is that it's RTA1, so it's actually structured for
two -unit buildings, which are existing.
The remainder of the block is a mix of multifamily.
Some of them are also three.
and lesser uses of single.
But there's actually, I believe,
based on feedback from the community,
there's a by right 90 unit multifamily
that'll be going up somewhere nearby as well.
So it is a heavily multifamily designed neighborhood
and it would not, the three family use
would not be out of character
with the surrounding uses.
Thank you.
Could you have your client come on, please,
and have your testimony adopted?
Mr. Satchko, can you raise your hand and be identified?
I see no one by the name at this time, Chair.
Counsel, could you do me a favor?
Could you spell your client's name for the court reporter?
Absolutely.
So the name of the owner is Sachko, S -A -C -H -K -O, first name, and then last name, S -V -Y -A -T -O -S -L -A -V.
All right.
Counselor, you're an officer of the court.
We will take your testimony.
Questions from the board?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Counselor, can you go back to your site plan?
I believe I saw four units on your site plan.
Let me go ahead and reshare the exhibit.
I will jump to the site plan.
So as you can see, they marked it as three family,
but I will go see if perhaps something...
Oh, yes, I'm sorry.
They did not fix this caption here.
Hillary, how should we handle this?
Well, so actually I was going to ask Mr. Jin if he, because there were some changes made pursuant to the RCO, if the board decides to grant this, if he would like to have revised plans stamped, we would just, we would need this corrected to say three family and we would need a proviso plans form, but the board could adopt with revised plans today.
I would also recommend a proviso that specifies that three units would be approved if the board decides to approve today.
I have no problem with the proviso for three family as the highest use permitted.
I don't know if we need to stamp the plans. It's up to the board.
Because I think if we go with the revised plans, the revised plan, well, the site plan perhaps would need to be corrected
because we want to do the front facade.
Thanks, Tom.
Any other board members with a question?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson with his hand up.
Mr. Richardson, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair, please.
Good morning, Mr. Richardson.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court report?
Certainly. Charles Richardson, R -I -C -H -A -R -D -S -O -N, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, Room 503, City Hall.
Certainly.
Charles Richardson, R -I -C -H -A -R -D -S -O -N.
Right. Do you swear for them to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, sir.
The Councilwoman is in support of three units at that location with the associated provisos as applicable.
Thank you very much for calling in. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Allison Weiss with her hand up.
Ms. Weiss, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Good morning, Ms. Weiss.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, good morning.
Allison, A -double -L -I -S -O -N, Weiss, W -E -I -S -S.
You swear to God to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Proceed.
I just wanted to clarify our position, Solo Germantown Civic Association. While the board did not reach an agreement, the majority opposed this, and the two near neighbors also opposed.
and as was stated this is already zoned rta1 for two families and we have multi -family going up
just across the street 90 by right units and the community feels that this is
enough development of multi -family and we have other developments in close proximity
that's quite enough that's why so officially you're not taking a position
well i solo germans count the majority of our board is opposed and we're supporting the near
neighbors who are opposed all right thank you thank you chairman chairman bergman if i may
uh it's my understanding that uh face cdc the coordinating rco actually took the vote of the
near neighbors in consideration in their total vote for support i just want to point that out
to the okay thank you i'm just going to go what we have we have not taking a position
faith development corporation in favor of so thank you um anyone else in the virtual audience
here i see no hands at this time planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty
for the philadelphia city planning commission board members the comprehensive plan actually
recommends a zoning map amendment from rta1 to rm1 multifamily on this block which is consistent
with upper northwest district plan the proposed use in bulk are consistent with the recommended
zoning district so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant this variance
thank you mi 2021 -005 -423 -4629 wayne avenue i vote yes with provisos maximum three stories
maximum three units trash stored in the rear of the property hillary how do we want to handle the
mistake on the site plan um unless unless we're doing a revised um unless we're doing revised
plans um we don't we don't need to worry about that unless we're docking that plan all right
thank you very much thomas holliman my vote is yes with provisos james snell my vote is yes with
provisos ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel thank you have a good
day. Number nine, MI 2022 -003 -305 -1005 South 3rd Street. Shubba Jaganath is the owner applicant.
This application is for visitor accommodations at third floor in the same building with two family
household living at first and second floor. The proposed two family household living is prohibited
in this zoning district. The proposed visitor accommodation is prohibited in this zoning
district. The proposed multiple principal uses is prohibited in the zoning district.
Letter of support from Queen Village neighbors. Letter of non -opposition from Mark Squillip.
Mr. or Ms. Jaganath, could you please raise your virtual hand?
Chair, they're coming back in as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Jaganath?
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Hi, that's okay.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Shuba Jaganath, S -H -U -B -H -A -J -A -G -A -N -A -T -H.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Chairman.
Could you turn your camera on, please?
Sorry, I apologize.
No, no, no, no, no, you don't have to apologize.
Good morning.
Mr. Howland has a few questions for you, okay?
Yes, thank you.
Good morning, Madam.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures or drawings of the property five days in advance to this hearing?
And did you meet with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, I do, Mr. Thomas.
I have provided all the documents to RCO, Quinn Village, and everyone.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
This is from the view, from the front view of my house.
you know what your screen it's it's not up we don't we only see you at this point we don't see
your your screen oh i'm sorry mr chairman no no no don't be sorry just try to get your documents
up thank you technology i'm trying to sell okay let's see
okay can i say we don't see it yet
it should be coming up now okay we should okay this is the property i live in i live in the
first floor the house with the red door the pulper horny and i'm the airbnb i'm requesting
is for the third floor okay so this is a small place and it's very well secured and no parties
only limited to attend to visitors no parties and no smoking and i have cameras
basically I'm not doing any modifications to the building it's well secured since I will be living
temporary variance for expires 12 -1 -24? I did not. Okay. All right.
Okay. So MI 2022 -003 -305 -1005 South 3rd Street. I vote yes with proviso. Temporary variance for
visitor accommodation use to expire 12 -1 -24. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you. All right. All right,
Let's see here. Number 16, NI 2022, 000 -491 -1226 South 47th Street.
we're waiting for
a copy of letter of mail to the neighbors
from the October RCO meeting
letter of support also from Southwest
District Services
Mr. Mulvihill
coming back in as a panelist now
all right good morning chairman members of the board hi mr mother could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter please certainly it's leo leo last name mulvahill that's m as in
michael u -l v as in victor i -h -i -l -l all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
who is nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify your client in relationship to the
property? Yes, the client is Tarkin, T -A -R -K -E -N as in Nancy, Holmes, L -L -C. Mital Amin, that's M as
in Mary, I -T -A -L -A -M as in Mary, I -N as in Nancy, is the representative. All right, Mr. Holliman
has a few questions for you, sir. Yes. Good morning, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading
of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes. Did you email all of the exhibits and
documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal,
pictures of drawings of the property five days in advance to this hearing? And did you meet with
the RCO? And do you have a letter? I submitted the materials, although I was late. I appreciate
that Hillary allowed me to continue nevertheless. We had three meetings with the community group.
we do have a letter thank you please proceed and share your screen all right so good morning members
of the board again for the applicant tarkin homes llc you'll see right now on the cover screen
my presentation packet the refusal and project information form page one area zoning maps at
8 deed at 10 commercial activity license at 16 tax clearance at 17 zoning notification letter at 19
RCO letter at 22, photos of property at 24, plans at 55. Moving on to our refusal members of the
board. So this is pretty simple. This is an existing property, three stories tall, rather
large. It's previously been used for multifamily. When my client purchased the property, they saw
there were three separate kitchens, one on each of the different floors. There was separate
bathrooms and there was beds attendant for each. So it was set up more or less with these separate
entrances as a three -family dwelling. In order to change it back to a single family would require
essentially the entire property to be gutted and redone, which is simply not feasible for
this project versus a rehabilitation sprucing up of the existing interior structure and then
renting out those units as they currently exist. You'll see to the right my application for appeal.
The old property owner's name is still showing on OPA records, but Tarkin Homes is the current owner.
I'm moving on to the area zoning map and so what we have also the right of the screen at page 8 is our zoning map. We are a largely RSA 5 district with some CMX 2 mixed in there. There are a number of multifamily properties already in the immediate area which are evidenced as when you see in the pictures by multiple mailboxes on people's front doors.
although as we all know members of the board not everybody always gets all the permitting that's
required so that's the best that i can speak to as respect to this block this is the overhead
This is the overhead shot of the block from Google Maps. Zooming in, we're actually right by a school, repair shop, building, supply store, pardon me, building, supply store, etc. Essentially right off of Chester Avenue.
shot of the block from google maps zooming in we're actually right by a school repair
This is the deed for the property. Again, this is the property purchased by my client, Tarkin Homes, LLC.
My client's commercial activity license, no taxes outstanding.
This is the initial letter that went out.
Two more letters went out and members of the board, I mistakenly put the first one in rather
than the last one.
We had three separate meetings for this project.
The third meeting was a week and a half ago, I believe, at that meeting, which is well
attended.
There was a vote taken after my clients appeared and explained everything to the members of
the boards who are present, ultimately we did receive a vote of support. As
evidenced on page 22 of my zoning packet, the letter dated November 1, 2022,
showing a letter of support. One moment members of the board, I'm gonna put myself
on mute for a second.
Sorry about that members of the board. So here's the meeting summary form and now
getting the photographs of the property. You can see it posted off to the right. You can see the
additional homes directly to the left of my property here. Just looking up the block and
we're just going to do a 360 so we can see the large twins and real homes are all over.
Just looking at the porch, as you can see members of the board, like I said, the property's intact,
but it's in pretty poor condition in the interior, so it's going to be an interior renovation job.
And this is just additional photos taken from this side of the street,
showing the church on the corner, other properties directly next door, and there's our porch once
again. I have some interior photos to show the board as well. Like we said, members of the board,
it's not in the best shape on the inside. It does need to spruce up, but completely changing
the interior layout is simply not feasible for the price of the property and this is the overall
floor plans would be broken up into different colors to make everything easier to see starting
in the basement to the lower left we have in the front underneath the porch we have storage
indicated in green off to the left that would be the front of the property uh recreation storage
in the basement with the bedroom to the rear it's already existing there is an egress well for exit
we do have mechanicals down there as well as a bathroom on the ground story which is just here
to the upper left, come in through the front door via the porch, common area in green, you hang a
right, and that's how you get into that first floor unit, which spans, again, first floor and basement.
There's another bedroom on that floor and a bathroom. There's space for exterior trash
storage for every single unit, 32 gallons, as well as the recycling bins, same size in the rear of
the property. In order to get to the second story unit, you go upstairs, get on the second floor,
which is here in the bottom right. This unit here, zoom in to make it easier to see,
is sort of a unit that we have split. So we have the second floor unit, which is 272 square feet,
and third floor, which is 500, pardon me, 450 square feet, for a total of 772.
So the way that works is you come up the stairs into the hallway, come into apartment three,
which is split level. This bathroom is actually part of apartment two to the rear. So you walk in,
immediately into the kitchen. You have living and dining and upstairs. You'd have your two bedrooms
and the bath to the rear as well as laundry. So we're not, like I said, changing the interior
layout. That's the existing third story structure. And then apartment number two is the smallest of
three. You have living and dining with the kitchen, bedroom and closet to the rear. So that's ultimately
what we're looking at. Rents are going to start somewhere around $1 ,200 or so. We did have support
from the community as evidenced in the letter. That's all we have. We're happy to take any other
questions at this time. And if Ms. Amin or anybody else from Tarkin Homes, LLC, if you're still on the
line, would you please unmute so you can adopt my testimony? Mr. Melvihill, first, what's the,
that side of the street, what's it look like relative to multifamilies?
You mean my, the side of the street where my property is located? Yes. Okay. Let me get to
the photographs again, members of the board. There we go. Okay. So our property is evidenced
here this is a multi -family next door as far as i can tell it is a single family the property
two doors down i believe is multi -family and there are and there's it's basically these three houses
standing and then there's another road that comes around there's new but i believe pha housing around
the corner as well members of the board and other multi -families can be seen across the street although
okay all right thank you but they're larger homes they're older many of them have broken up over
but they're larger homes they're older many of them have broken up over time it's not as if
time, it's not as if this is a
this is unheard of in the neighborhood um could you bring your client on please yes please uh
metal or anybody else who's here from target your hand to be unmuted
here i see no hands at this time mr melville you're an officer of the court will take your
testimony 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 chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia
city planning commission board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the existing RSA 5 single -family this location. However, the proposed three -family use appears
to be consistent with the interior configuration of the building. City Planning Commission recommends
that the board grant the variance. Thank you. MI 2022 00491 1226 South 47th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my word is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Number 17, MI 2022 -003 -283 -3163 Richmond Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Recommendation of support from Southport Richmond Civic Association.
Letter of Non -Opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Chair, Mr. Anastasio is coming back in as a panelist now.
Morning again, Mr. Chair.
Morning, Council. You've already been sworn. Just state your name for the record.
Sure. Vern Anastasio.
Last name is A -N -A -S -T -A -S -I -O.
Right. Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
I represent the owner, Elise Carroll.
Okay. Mr. Holloman has just a few questions.
Good morning, Counselor.
Good morning.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures or drawings of the property?
Five days in advance to this hearing, and did you meet with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, close to five days, if not five days.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
We are dealing with 3163 Richmond Street.
It is zoned CMX2.
For those of you who are familiar with Richmond, it was at one time the major commercial corridor in Port Richmond that connected Fishtown and the Delaware River waterfront to Port Richmond itself.
Today, Aramingo Avenue and Allegheny Avenue have become demonstrably commercial as Richmond Street becomes less commercial.
So there is still some commercial activity on the street, but it's far it's it's a lot more mixed today.
This property was always two units. It was a storefront on the first floor and an apartment above.
What we're seeking to do today is just to it's already converted as a duplex.
We just want to legalize the preexisting condition.
like most of richmond street the first floors have been converted to commercial space
there is a shared alleyway here where a trash would be part of our trash plant
two 42 gallon tubs on wheels would be stored here and then taken out on trash day
let's see if i have photos apologize for them being small let me let me zoom in some
Here's the shared alleyway where both units would have access to the rear for trash storage.
Now we have some interior photos, and let me spare you the 65 photographs, but here
Here is the letter that went out notifying the community of our meeting on the 12th of October.
is the letter of that went out notifying the community of our meeting.
Here is the additional information and unanimous support with over 20 people in attendance.
And here is proof of mailing 119 individual unique addresses where mail the notification.
We also have tax clearance, which is good through the 20th of this month.
Because of the history of this property being two units, although one was commercial, because of the dwindling nature of commercial activity on Richmond Street, and because we're simply trying to legalize a pre -existing condition, and we have a trash plan, I respectfully request that this board grant this variance.
is your client here that you could have your testimony adopted i i hope she's still here
if at least carol could raise her virtual hand
chair i see no hands at this time you're an officer of the court we will take your testimony
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission all right thank you chair bergman
and hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission board members the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the existing zoning at this location however this existing building
shows evidence of prior use as one commercial space and one residential unit. As council has
noted, most of the other buildings on this block face were either designed without a commercial
ground floor or have long been converted to residential use, and so the City Planning
Commission recommends that the board grant this variance. Thank you. MI 2022 -003 -283 -3163
Richmond Street, I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my good is yes.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been pulled?
I see no hands, Chair.
Okay, see everybody at 2 p .m.
Thank you.
and you can start chair okay good afternoon my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this
afternoon's meeting for the of the zba with me is ismail shaheed our board secretary
president mr chairman thomas hallman our board member president mr chairman
James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Also, here is our board attorney, Hillary Emerson, and the ZVA hearing supervisor, Lakeisha Dandy.
Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
Be advised, the proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting Tanya Sunkett at phil .gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
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.
And lastly, the question -answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
If you have any comments at all, direct them to our Executive Director, Tanya Sumkin.
Let's look at continuities for this afternoon.
Number six, MI -2022 -003 -690 -5856 Belmar Avenue. That case is continued.
And case number seven, MI -2022 -003 -674 -44 -48 Mannheim Street. That case is continued.
you. Is there anyone in the audience has comments relative to those two cases?
I see no hands, Chair. Are there any other requests for continuance?
I see no hands chair. Thank you. And I have a withdrawal. Number four, MI 2022 -003 -684 -2130
I see no hands, Chair.
North 20A Street. That case has been withdrawn. Are there any other withdrawals?
i see no hands chair thank you we're going to go to our add -on list number one mi2022
001 057 3251 fox street i vote yes thomas holliman my vote is yes
yes. James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes. Thank you. Number two,
MI 2022 -001 -709 -1746 Lombard Street.
The board has received the revised plans that we requested last week from the applicant. The board
has also received a request from the Planning Commission to reopen the record in order to
supplement their testimony from the October 26 hearing, as well as to submit a document for the
record. In response to this request, the Board has decided to hold a resumptive hearing on the matter
on Wednesday, November 9th at 2 p .m. for the limited purpose of allowing the Planning Commission
to supplement their testimony and submit a document for their record. Counsel for the applicant will
be permitted to respond to the Planning Commission's supplementary testimony. No other testimony or
documents will be accepted. Thank you. Number one of our regular list, MI 2022 -003 -720 -1535 -37
North American Street. Alan Nokomson is the attorney. Letter of support from the South
Kensington Community Partners, and also the applicant has provided a petition of support
signed by 10 neighbors along with four form letters of support from neighbors. Mr. Nockamson.
Mr. Nockamson, if you're in the virtual audience, can you please raise your hand?
tara i don't see his hand up i see someone else's hand up but i don't know
it looks like a corporate corporation walnut 48 llc um let's see who they are
wellness 48 llc please unmute yourself and wait for the chair uh yes uh mr chair this is okay
yeah we see this way okay thank you um mr novison state your name and spell for the court reporter
please.
And he's coming in now as a panelist here.
OK, fine.
Good afternoon, Mr.
Chair, members of the board, Alan
Knockamson of Knockamson, PC 123 South Broad Street,
Suite 1600, Philadelphia PA 19109.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Kelly, you have his spelling, right?
Yes, Chair.
Thank you.
Mr. Nackamson, could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is the Coffin Factory LLC, and in the virtual audience should be Michael Fritchett, the member of that limited liability company.
Mr. Holloman has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, Counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures of drawings of the property?
Five days in advance to this hearing, did you meet with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, in all respects.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
all right so i'm here to present 1535 -37 north american streams uh we were actually here uh
last year um regarding this same property and we'll explain why we're back
So in my presentation materials, you'll see our notice or refusal, our letter of support from the South Kensington Community Partners, the coordinating RCO, where I showed you then the support of the people who attended that meeting in favor of our project.
so in my presentation materials you'll see our notice or refusal our letter of support
Petition of nearby neighbors, also a letter of support from those nearby neighbors.
uh again we had a project earlier uh last year uh where we were looking to put an artisan space on
the ground floor residential units above but because of the shift in the economy in the real
estate market it's been difficult for my client to get financing for that project uh so the artisan
space in the ground floor is space my client was planning used for himself he cannot afford to do
the residential units above so he's merely looking to do the artisan space on a one -story
structure and we'll explain why we're receiving refusal for that uh but this board previously
approved you know artisan space in the ground floor on three residential units above and we're
only asking to do the one artisan space now well you'll see maps of the area photographs of the
property and the surrounding area our plans and drawings um our rco meeting notice including proof
book mailing of that notice or application for appeal that we filed to the zba our deed to
property showing that the coffin factory llc uh is the uh owner of this property and again in the
virtual audience is michael perchat uh who is the member of that llc and at the conclusion
of my presentation i would ask that he virtually raise his hand uh it could be sworn in and then
he can adopt my testimony as though it was his own uh and our certificate of tax clearance showing
that my client is in good standing with the city of Philadelphia with respect to this property.
First things first, it's a notice of refusal. This is an IRMX property, and we're looking to erect
an attached structure for use as an artisan industrial studio. And we have one refusal,
whereas a maximum occupied area of 75 % is required for the proponent structure.
We don't have 100 % law coverage, but we have close to it.
But there is good reason why.
And again, we're not affecting anyone's light in here.
It's a very unique property of how it sits in the neighborhood.
A lot of support from the South Kensington Community Partners.
Again, there was a well -attended meeting.
We had seven individuals show up to that meeting virtually in addition to the executive boards.
And all seven of those individuals voted in support of this project.
and then you know again we made a concerted effort uh to meet with nearby neighbors mr
forshad has lived in his neighborhood for some time so he's a known quantity he actually owns
the property to the left of us as well uh so you know he's known in the neighborhood well thought
of he reached out to nearby neighbors who would be most directly impacted by this property
in this project and they got he got a petition signed by them as well as corresponding letters
to support and then again this is not the first time we presented this project or a
variation this project to to the zoning board of adjustment last year uh we saw a little bit more
comprehensive project again due to market forces he's unable to add those three residential units
above instead he just wants to do one story uh artisan space for his purposes only so it's
be under occupied um but as you can see you know we did have a notice refusal uh that was under
uh calendar number m uh zp -2020 -008386 which this board did approve on march 17th of 2021
uh but you can see the community was also in support of that project
We are short of what's behind us on Phillips Street, but, you know, I get, I understand that we're basically taking almost full law coverage with regards to our property, but because the unique character of this property as in comparison to 1539, we essentially do have a rear yard.
It's just 1539. So 1535 -37 has this open area here. So that open area is for the benefit of the property to the right of us, which is 110 unit apartment building, and to the property behind us on Phillips Street as well.
Again, very unique, this L -shaped building or property.
And because of how the building structure does not go full lock coverage, they have open
You know, for all intents and purposes, that's our open area.
And, you know, again, within the spirit of the building, we have that open area.
And then here's just our floor plan.
Again, simple 20 -foot high structure where we can build a lot higher than that.
But because of market forces, we can't afford to do that.
But you can get in through a front door.
There's also a rolling gate here.
And it's just an open floor plan for Mr. Frechette to do his business, his artisan studio, for his artisan studio.
And then our meeting notice, again, it was July 27th of this year at 6 .30 p .m., well -attended meeting, unanimous support.
99 properties were notified of that community meeting.
Here are the properties that were notified, proof of mailing to those properties,
our application for appeal that we filed to the zba along with the notice of refusal and the
project information form our deeds of property showing the coffin factory llc is the owner of
the property along with the certificate of tax plan showing their their income standing uh with
that being said i would ask that mr for shadow virtually raise his hand he can adopt my testimony
and then we'd be more than happy to take any questions from the board
hi could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
hi i'm michael frechette f -r -e -c -h -e -t -t -e you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do proceed counsel uh yes mr frechette you heard everything i had
to say today correct is it true and correct yes and do you adopt that as your own testimony
absolutely thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission good afternoon members of the board david vecto
f -e -c -t -e -a -u with the city planning commission do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes sir i do thank you thank you sir mr chairman members of
the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the industrial and residential mixed
use zoning at this location the proposed use of the property conforms with the intent of the
zoning code the applicant is proposing 11 less open space than the zoning code requires but that open
space exceeds that of adjacent residential and mixed use development so the city planning
Commission recommends the board grant the dimensional variance. Thank you. MI 2022 -003 -720 -1535
to 37 North American Street. I vote yes. Thomas Holliman. My vote is yes. James Snell. My vote is
yes. If not, my vote is yes. Thank you, counsel. Thank you. Go Phils.
So, the next case will be number 2 and 13 will be heard together.
Number 2 is MI -2022 -003 -681 -2032 West Tioga Street, and number 13 is MI -2022 -003 -682 -2030 West Tioga Street.
Brandon Savron is the attorney.
Letter of support from Allegheny West Civic Association.
And we will work on some tax issues at a later date.
We will hear the case, but not vote today.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Could you identify your client?
Your relationship to the property?
My client is Diane Siegel Family, LLC, and Danny Siegel is here on their behalf to adopt my testimony and answer any questions you might have.
They are the contract purchaser of both properties.
Mr. Howman has a few questions.
Mr. Howman has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, county.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures of drawings of the property, five days in advance to this hearing?
And did you meet with the ROC, and do you have a letter?
yes to all of those questions except with regard to tax clearance we are working on that with the
title owner of the properties thank you please proceed and share your screen
okay give me one moment and I will do that
okay good afternoon members of the board and thank you for your time today
In front of you on your screen right now is the refusal issued by L &I for 2030 West Tioga Street.
And now on your screen is a refusal for 2032 West Tioga Street.
My client is under contract to purchase both of these lots with a zoning contingency in the contract.
So closing will take place soon in the future.
And the refusal is the same for both properties because the proposed development of both properties is the same, except flipped horizontally.
So what you'll see is that we are proposing on vacant lots to erect a set of twins.
These are semi -detached structures, brand new.
Each would have three dwelling units.
And the refusals we obtained because we are in the RSA 3 district are for multifamily use in both properties, as well as lack of parking.
RSA -3 would require one space per property, but we did not figure out a way to provide parking without violating other zoning rules, such as prohibition against front street loading.
And what we are doing is we're providing the required side yards for both of these homes.
We felt that providing parking would interfere with that as well.
So just to orient you, I have an aerial map and a parcel map in my exhibit packet, but here is the same information on atlas .gov.
So you'll see in front of you what the space looks like. It's vacant.
And here, I'm going to just show you, it's rather interesting.
If you see where my cursor is, this is 2032 as of five years ago. Here is 2030.
The image on your screen is from 2017.
If I move forward to 2018, you'll see that there was some sort of catastrophic incident, maybe a fire or explosion that damaged both of these properties that's now visible before you.
And then if you fast forward to the most recent aerial imagery, you can see that they've been demolished and the debris has been hauled away.
So what we're looking at today are two vacant lots.
Let me just dive into for a moment while I have this on the screen here, the hardships present in this case, and then I can show you the plans.
This is both our large lots measuring approximately 3 ,675 square feet.
They are the largest and deepest lots on their block, other than a couple lots that are through to the next block.
But if you kind of compare the lots to their neighbors, you'll see they're sort of the largest on the block face there.
We are replacing with a total of six units, if you grant the variances, we're requesting what used to be 11 units across these two properties.
One property, I believe, had three units. The other had eight before whatever incident occurred five years ago.
I also put together this spreadsheet that shows all this is the totality of all other parcels on the block, this 2000 West block of Tioga Street.
And what you'll see here, the addresses are in the left hand side of the column.
The number of permitted units, according to the most recent use permit on file in the zoning archive, is on the right -hand column.
There are only two addresses out of over 20 others that have permits indicating use as a single -family home, as the zoning code would command.
All of the others are either in use as.
All of the others are either in use as multifamily structures ranging from two up to eight units or are vacant.
So the context of this block and its economics are such that single family new construction is not viable here.
Given the lot size, as I'll show you in a minute on the plans, we really have ample space to provide three large units per property that will be completely appropriate for an entire family per unit.
So I showed you the refusals.
I happen to be in the 2030 West Tioga exhibit packet on my screen, but the 2032 packet is virtually identical.
I'm going to fly through some of the requisite typical documents. There is the current owner's
deed. Here is an excerpt of my client's purchase contract with the zoning contingency,
zoning map, aerial photos, postings. And I'm trying to get to the RCO letter. Okay. So here's
the coordinating RCO's decision letter. I attended an in -person meeting at the coordinating RCO's
meeting location, which I believe was the New Cortland Senior Center on Allegheny Avenue,
with Dan Siegel, with the architect, and with the proposed property manager. So I'll just briefly
read you Allegheny West's description under the vote count here. It says, Allegheny West RCO
confirmed the meeting for this applicant on September 6, 2022. The RCO had a board member
go out to the affected addresses and pass out flyers, inform of the meeting, urge attendance,
and explain the proposal. Verification of neighbor and RCO notification was received and reviewed.
Then, on September 20, 2022, the meeting attendees included nearby and affected community votes
were in favor of the project. There were two attendees that were directly affected neighbors.
Both are in support of this project. One of the proposed one with the proposed two parking spaces on the side of the property, the second without the two parking spaces.
So that's that's the RCO's expression of support showing a unanimous vote of support, seven votes to none in opposition.
And then there's a there's a second letter page, which I won't go through that basically summarizes the details of the project.
But since I'm going to do that anyway, I'll leave that aside.
So here is our zoning sheet. This shows a part of me.
I hate when this happens. Got to scroll over. OK, this is a side side yard elevation and a front elevation.
We actually have a rendering that I think is more helpful than the front elevation.
But anyway, this is the zoning plan that we submitted to L &I for each project.
And then here is a more detailed set of additional information that we showed to the RCO.
So here's that rendering I mentioned.
This actually shows sort of a 45 degree angle view of both properties together.
So you see, I think they look really nice together.
They look from the front like a traditional set of twin houses.
No basement proposed, no roof deck proposed, a traditional sort of front porch that matches
what's on the block already. Some of the units in each building, actually, excuse me, I believe
all of the units will have a small side balcony, as you can see on this side of the 2032 lot.
And then I'll just breeze through the floor plans very quickly. These are the same for both
properties but flipped horizontally one unit per floor each unit is at about 1500 square feet or
larger so relatively straightforward there's to use the ground floor as an example there's a
living room in the front an open concept kitchen that side balcony I mentioned and then we have
it proposed right now for three bedrooms two of which have connected baths and there's sort of a
half bath serving a living room in the front. I do have the architect here to answer questions
and I'm happy to take questions from the board as well. And I'll have my client adopt my testimony
if that's okay. Yes, please have your testimony adopted. Okay. So he is calling in on a phone
number that ends in 5717. And Danny, if you can hear me, if you could please hit star nine to
raise your hand. Hi. Can you hear me, Mr. Chair? Yes. Could you state your name and spell it,
please, for the court reporter? Sure. Daniel Siegel, D -A -N -I -E -L -S -I -E -G -E.
Sure. Daniel Siegel, D -A -N -I -E -L, S -I -E -G -E -L.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Danny, did you hear the testimony I just gave with regard to 2030 and 2032 West Tioga Street?
Yes, I did.
Okay. Was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it was.
Would you therefore adopt it as if it were your own testimony?
Yes, I would.
And are you authorized to speak for Diane Siegel Family LLC with regard to both properties as the purchaser?
Yes, I am. I am a co -manager with my wife.
Okay. Thank you.
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience here we have charles richardson
mr richardson unmute yourself and wait for the chair please good afternoon mr richardson you've
already been sworn just state your name for the record please charles richardson office of
councilwoman cindy bass thank you proceed please councilwoman has no opposition to granting the
variance for this. Thank you, sir. Thank you for calling in. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have someone with the phone number ending in 3552.
Okay. Can you please unmute yourself and wait for the chair?
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, Adrian Fernandez, A -D -R -I -E -N -N -E.
you've already been sworn um proceed
okay um i just want i spoke with brandon earlier we wrote each other earlier
and uh we have some provisor requests that i just want to put on the record
i i know you're not going to vote today right no we're not
okay so should we do that today or should we brandon what what what are the provisos brandon
um so adrian emailed them to me a few minutes ago i don't have any opposition to them um what i would
suggest adrian is if they're not that lengthy mr chair adrian if you'd like to to read them to the
board um and then i think what's going to happen um per what i hope is going to happen is that we
can close the record um so that the only thing adrian adrian read read provisors okay um the
first one is all trash and recycling stored indoors for both buildings except collection days
the second one is limit of three multi -family units per address the third one is no roof deck
or pilot house at each address the fourth one is no basement living at each address and the last
one is no airbnb temporary vacation hotel bed and breakfast or equivalent uses per address and of
course our biggest concern is if the buildings sell in the future that they're not converted to
uses that don't fit in with a family living neighborhood thank you for calling in we
appreciate your your input anyone else in the virtual audience here i see no hands planning
Commission. Thank you, Chair Bergman. David Fecto, City Planning Commission. Mr. Chairman and
members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single
family zoning at this location. Since none of the homes on this block face have front parking,
the inclusion of required parking at this location would be out of character with the
block face. Considering the presence of multifamily units on the block face, we would argue that the
multifamily units are appropriate and match the character of the block. However, we would argue
that two units would be the maximum necessary to afford relief to the applicant. And so the
City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the variances with a maximum of two dwelling
units for each property. Thank you very much. So for MI 2022 -003 -681 -2032 West Tioga Street
and MI
003682
2030 West Tioga.
Both cases are
closed. We will
wait until the tax matter is cleared
and Brandon, you'll be in touch with
our attorney, Hillary.
Yes. Okay. Excellent. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. I just wanted to clarify
that the record is closed except
for receipt of documentation
that the tax issue has been addressed.
yeah yeah so so the records close except for the tax documents understood all right thank you thank
Understood. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Number three, MI 2022 -003 -704 -1730
Washington Avenue. Michael Malloy is the attorney. We do now have the RCO letter. Am I right,
Hillary? Yes, we have received a recommendation of support from the Point Breeze Community
Development Coalition. Thank you.
Mr. Malloy.
Chair, he's coming back in as a panelist now.
Hi, good afternoon, Mr. Malloy. Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court
reporter? Sure. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the board. My name is Michael Malloy. It's
M -I -C -H -A -E -L -M -A -L -L -O -Y, with the law firm of Obermeyer, Rebman, Maxwell, Hipple.
Right. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Thank you.
Mr. Malloy, could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is AutoZone Nevada, Inc., and they are the legal owner of the property.
Thank you. Mr. Holliman has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Good afternoon. Yes, I do.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of refusal, pictures or drawings of the property?
Five days in advance to this hearing, did you meet with the RCO and do you have a letter?
Yes, we did. Thank you.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you very much. We have what I consider a very straightforward application for an existing AutoZone operation at 1730 Washington Avenue, which is basically at Washington and 18th Streets in Philadelphia.
The AutoZone was first approved by this board. The use was approved back in February of 2000.
It's a I -2 zoning district, and the use, which consists of basically the sale of auto parts, was not permitted then, except by variants, and is not permitted now.
The existing footprint of the building, and I'll share my screen, sorry.
There we go.
so just to run through um we do have a list of exhibits we have uh in the packet that we shared
with the board the original zoning approval uh the city's refusal a site plan elevations a
landscape plan uh the site posting and surrounding area photographs a letter from the point breeze
community development coalition in support of the application our zoning map and our rco
So letter, certificate of mailing, affidavit of service, appeal and project information form, tax clearance, and a copy of the deed finally is L.
You'll see, again, I said that the use, which we'll see, is for an expansion of an existing structure for vehicle equipment and supply sales and rental with accessory parking.
Basically, we have in front of us a site plan, which I'll try to magnify a little bit, maybe a little more.
So we have approximately 5 ,500 square foot auto zone, and we are proposing an approximately 1 ,500 square foot expansion.
and we need the board's approval of the expansion of that use.
I'll go back down so we can see the renderings.
The part of the building to the right, you see it's slightly taller than the existing building.
That represents the expansion.
And the front elevation is from Washington Avenue.
And then as we scroll down, we see it from the different vantage points.
The purpose of the expansion is, frankly, the changing use in the auto business.
AutoZone wants to have more parts stored.
They want to have parts on storage for both people in the neighborhood and for garages and mechanics around the Philadelphia area who need parts and need them right away.
And so we're trying to, AutoZone wants to have more parts on hand to operate the business better and respond to basically a changing environment in their business.
basically a changing environment in their business. And to do that, they've asked for
a reasonable expansion. That's all I have. I have with me online Ed Doyle from Collier's. He's the
project engineer. Kevin Murphy from AutoZone, who can speak to the project. We did meet with
the community group. They expressed support, unanimous support for the project. We discussed
some of the issues involving maintenance of the site, keeping the site clean. Kevin's committed
to doing that and has probably already reached out to his people after we met with them.
People were generally supportive and they liked the use. It's been of no issue to them and it's
a well -run business in the community. Mr. Malloy, why don't we have your testimony adopted?
said bring Kevin on. That's fine. Kevin, if you could just raise your hand and have you sworn in.
Hi, sir. Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, sir. This is Kevin Murphy with AutoZone Development. It's K -E -V -I -N -M -U -R -P -H -Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir. Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Kevin, were you on the call when you heard my testimony today?
I was, Michael.
And was it true and correct?
It was, sir.
Yes, I was.
And you adopted as your own?
I do adopt it as my own, sir.
That's all we have. Thank you very much.
Questions from the board?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Counselor, no auto repair work will be done, correct?
Correct.
Kevin can confirm that, but yes.
Correct.
We do not allow any automobile repair in any of our parking lots.
Thank you.
Anyone else on the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no hands at this time.
By Planning Commission.
Thank you, sir.
Good afternoon.
David Fecto, City Planning Commission.
Mr. Chairman and members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends a change in the zoning at this location to industrial and residential mixed use.
The application is for expansion of an existing non -conforming use.
Commission staff has heard no evidence that continuing and expanding this non -conforming use would impair the use of adjacent properties.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the use variance.
Thank you.
MI -2022 -003 -704 -1730 Washington Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much.
We appreciate your time.
Thank you, board.
Thank you.
Number five, MI 2022, 001 -989 -8417 Chippewa Road.
Jay Feinschill is the attorney.
Letter of non -opposition from Roxburgh Civic Association.
Letter of opposition from neighbor on block.
Of course, applicant finished building structure after notice of refusal issued.
Mr. Feinshield, could you please raise your hand?
He's coming back in as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
counsel could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
sir you're on mute oh gee after all that i'm sorry okay hi could you state your name is spelled
please for the court reporter yes i apologize my name is jay fineschill my last name spelled
F as in Frank, E -I -N -S -C -H -I -L.
I represent Mr. Mathis, the owner of the Chippewa Road property.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And could you state your client's name again, please?
His name is Joseph Mathis, M -A -T -H -I -S.
All right.
Thank you.
Mr. Holloman has a few questions.
Certainly.
good afternoon counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulation?
and stipulate to its accuracy i do did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required
such as proof of ownership tax clearance copy of the refusal pictures of drawings of the property
five days in advance to this hearing did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter
yes i do for all those things thank you please proceed and share your screen
green button at the bottom green button at the bottom
what is going on here
i don't see oh sorry let's share the screen
and just make sure you have your documents open but uh before you hit that green share button
Thank you, LaKeisha.
Open your documents. Can you see that one? No. Now open your documents,
and once they're open, then hit the share screen. All right. That's open. Hit the share screen.
Come back to Zoom.
all right I'm going to hit the share screen yep and then it's going to ask you to click
on the documents that you want to share just click on that and hit share oh I got it okay
here we go and hit share all right all right that's the property in question that's 6417 Chippewa
and i'm sorry sir you went muted you gotta you're you you unmuted yourself
she'll be on the bottom on on mute
there you go all right let's try it again all right now where are those documents all right
you're good start there um can you see that no yes is that is that the house in the background
no uh that's the neighboring property uh that's the show us a picture that shows this in front
of the house um that's the neighboring property too i don't have a picture it shows in front of
the house. But the refusal of the permit was conditioned on that the house was within 10 feet
of the property line. So that was a problem there. Rather, the shed was within 10 feet of the
neighboring property. It is three and a half feet from the property line and that it exceeds 150
square feet. It's 450 square feet. We had the RCO meeting. Let me see if I can get a new share up.
All right. We had an RCO meeting. There it is.
There were 17 people, I think, who attended.
no one opposed
the building of the shed
and I would like to draw the board's
attention to that the
budding neighbor on the side where the structure
in question was located
he was present at that meeting
he indicated that he had no opposition
so there was no opposition
from anyone the board
the civic association
was unopposed to it
one of the reasons
there was no opposition to this is
that this is a development in which the houses were built.
There were no basements built in.
There's no attics for storage.
There's no garages for storage.
All throughout the neighborhood, there are these kinds of sheds built throughout the neighborhood.
And I've taken the liberty to present some photographs showing us.
is that in the behind the boat in the back there yes okay
that's directly across the street okay
there it is share okay there we go okay so um that's right behind the boat that's right on the
property line that is uh 6430 chippewa it's right across the street it's actually two feet from the
property line it's 400 square feet and you can see it a little better on that's behind that's
behind a property all right that's behind the property correct no and the one that we're
talking about is in front of the property yeah it's on the side it's on the side of the property
okay um and is that a garage yeah your property is that a garage
no his uh mr mathis is is right now just a shed there's no driveway leading to it what what's
inside of it he's he's just throwing his tools in there there's no place to he's got no place to
put anything um there are several properties like that and i could have posted 30 or 40 but i i took
photos of several. This is 8428 Chippewa Road. This is also 400 square feet. That one that you see
in the back there that is right on the property we're not seeing anything now we're seeing a list
of uh of things to open all right i gotta share that
start a new share you're at 84 .28 that's what you have listed now yeah you might have to um stop
Stop sharing and then open it here.
And then open your documents.
You're trying to open 8428, right?
I'm trying to open now 8430.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
is the document open
that's the one i opened this is 84 28 okay uh i want to get 84 28 you see this one here
You will have to click that green share button again.
Where is it?
It's on the bottom.
And just make sure you're in Zoom.
It's not coming up, I don't like to share that.
So, so let me, let me, let me ask a few questions. So the ones you're trying to show us, as you said, about 400 square feet.
Yeah. 8430, when I did manage to show you, it was 400 square feet. It was two feet from the property line. 8428 Chippewa, which is right next door to it.
chippewa which is right next door to it right it's 400 square feet on top of the property
Right. 400 square feet on top of the property.
let me wait wait wait wait now is that in the rear uh that one's in the rear right right listen
and they may ask you this do you have any a picture of any other ones besides your own that's in the
front? No. A couple on the side. Ours is on the side. And ours is on the side too. The rest of
them are all on the side. They're all almost on the property line. One is on the side.
Let me see if I can get a picture of Mr. Mathis's front.
all right so what you're saying there's other there's other property similar is what you're
saying right yes yes here's a picture of uh mr mathes's property but the notice let me see the
picture of his again yeah this is this is a picture that you haven't seen in which you can really
There's the notice.
Okay. All right.
That's his house.
Yes. The shed is right here. It's on the side of the house.
Okay. So could you show me the shed again?
Here's the shed again.
That's it. Okay.
Here it is.
Not pictured, because it's on the side of the house.
Right.
There it is on the side of the house.
All right.
I'm sorry about that.
Mix up.
But as you can see, his shed is in, comports with the other sheds in the neighborhood.
So just out of curiosity, does he intend to use that as a garage?
I think he might go for that later on. Right now, he's just using his storage.
How would you get a car in there?
You have to build a driveway up to it.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, so if the affected neighbor, which is the neighbor next door is not only not opposed to it, he would have written a letter of support for it.
He's ill right now and could not get the board that letter.
And the RCO did not oppose it.
So why don't we do this?
Why don't we swear your client in and he can adopt your testimony?
Very good.
He's right here.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Joseph Mathis, D -O -S -E -P -H -M -A -T -H -I -S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Counsel, proceed.
Do you affirm what my testimony was before the board?
It is true and correct to the best of your information, knowledge, and belief.
Yes, it is.
Do you adopt it?
Questions from the board?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Can we do a proviso?
No living space allowed?
Mr. Mathis doesn't intend to have anybody living there.
proviso would be fine. Any other questions from the board? No Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments
from the virtual audience? Chair we have a Michael Dunn with his hand up. Mr. Dunn please unmute
yourself and wait for the chair. Hi Mr. Dunn could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter. Yes, sir. Michael Dunn, M -I -C -H -A -E -L, D -U -N -N. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Proceed. Yes, sir. I had written
email testimony for this building. Should I read the testimony, the main points?
Well, why don't you just tell us, if you want to read along, but just tell us what your thoughts are.
Okay. It's a commercial -sized storage facility that's close to the street.
Okay. It's a commercial -sized storage facility that's close.
I have not seen any kind of buildings that store different garden items on our block that size or close to it.
It's not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood.
There's no other storage building like that right up front on the street side.
Usually they're way in the back of each property.
Now, I did at the RCO raise my hand in opposition to this structure.
And the president had acknowledged that I had.
At the meeting, the homeowner said he intended to build a driveway to the shed for vehicles.
I just see it as an inappropriate use of the space since it's so close to the street and no other building is like that on the street.
Okay. Thank you for calling in.
Counsel, what I'm going to do is I'll see if anybody else has any comments, and then I'll let you have a closing comment, right?
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience that has a comment?
I see no hands, Chair.
Counselor, you want to respond to the -
Yeah, just a couple of words.
Mr. Dunn was present at the RCO meeting.
As I recall, and as stated in the RCO's letter, it says one of our members expressed some
concerns about the contention that the structure was in keeping with several others in the
immediate vicinity, but did not wish to oppose the granting of the variance.
Mr. Dunn did not oppose the granting of the variance at the RCO meeting. He now apparently does. But I've submitted about 10 photographs of nearby properties that have similar or larger sheds and garages that are very much in conformity with the one that Mr. Mathis
uh and started the build and it is not completed yet he hasn't put doors on it he hasn't painted
it he hasn't put landscaping on it it'll look better as as he finishes it up i think mr mathis
wants to address the board if the board would be so kind um okay thank you uh first this garage is
60 feet from the street, the same distance as my house. It's alongside my house. It's not on the
street. And on Chippewa Road itself, there are, and the pictures are there in spite of our trouble
pulling them up, of structures alongside houses and larger than mine and on the property line.
i mean there's multiple examples that we're just in line with most of the other garages in the
neighborhood okay thank you planning commission
sorry are you all right on good afternoon i'm sorry david that's all right i apologize um so
good afternoon members of the board david effecto city planning commission um so the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the residential single -family zoning at this location
uh the proposed legal this is a proposed legalization of a structure that was built
without benefit of permit the applicant has not demonstrated the hardship exists for the new
structure nor have they established the structure is needed to enable them to derive value from the
property the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed use and dimensional
variances we also note that a driveway might require the applicant to return to the board
for a variance depending on how steep the slope is on the property uh the front of the property
Thank you. MI -2022 -001 -989.
Mr. Chair, this is Harry. If you are inclined to grant this, my suggestion for the proviso
member Holloman asks for would be to limit the use of the structure to storage only.
Thank you.
MI -2022 -001 -989 -8417 Chippewa Road, I vote yes with proviso for storage only.
For storage only.
Thomas Solomon, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thomas Solomon, my vote is yes with
James Snell, yes with proviso.
Yes, Snell Shaheed, yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much.
Apologies about my document navigation.
Uh, MI 2020, number eight, MI 2022, 003 -672 -916 West Fisher Avenue. Cheryl Gaston is the attorney. Um, recommendation of support from the Logan Civic Association.
Chair, Ms. Gaston is coming back in as a panelist now.
Hi, Ms. Gaston, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
uh yes uh i'm cheryl gaston uh i'm with the spruce law group at 1622 spruce street
counsel could you uh uh say your name again and spell it for the court reporter please i'm sorry
Cheryl. C -H -E -R -Y -L. My last name is Gaston. G as in George. A -S as in Sam. T -O -N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm the total truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay. Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
My client is Markins Coriolan. It's C -O -R -I -A -L -A -N. And he's on here somewhere.
OK. And I would also ask if you could have my paralegal be promoted so that she can help me with the share screen.
We will do that. We will do that. But in the meantime, Mr. Holloman has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree? Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes. Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures or drawings of the property five days in advance to this hearing? Did you meet with the RCO? Do you have a letter? Yes.
thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you again could we have uh it's christine
schlasser she is not paralegal she's on okay thank you
do we see the paralegal
yes she's there she has her hand raised all right good miss slasser
miss slasser can you unmute yourself and wait for the chair yes i am unmuted okay so so council
what we're going to do is we don't have to swear her she'll just she'll go through the slides and
you'll you'll do the testimony off the slides all right no problem so why don't we why don't we put
up the slides Christine I just need to be able to share my screen please okay
sure could we let her share and promote it now chair to a panelist thank you thank you you're
welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon, members of the board. This is a request for a visitor
accommodation permit to allow use of 916 West Fisher Avenue as a short -term rental or Airbnb
or however we're terming it, the applicant has been.
the applicant has been renting the property for short -term rentals in this structure for a while,
and a variance is now required because of the proposed new ordinance that was signed into law
that says that if you now want to do this, he has to have a visitor accommodation zoning permit,
which is basically a permit for a hotel or motel. So this is a picture of the exterior of the
property. We have as part of the packet the deed for the property. We have the zoning application.
The notice of refusal which was for visitor accommodation because this is
and RSA 5 area. And we have the application for appeal, the
project information form, and we can just go through. Thank you. And then the tax clearance
And then we have pictures of the unit. So this is the posting of the property. And then you'll see that we have unit one, which is this is the first floor.
there's a kitchen, a little kitchenette. There is a living area or living room. It has,
which is very nicely decorated and what have you. Keep going. This is all part of the living room.
And then there is a kitchen dining sort of nook area in it.
There is a, of course, bathroom for the first floor here.
Shower area. This is the bedroom.
and again there's a workspace and then for the second floor unit there is again a living room
again the kitchen
um little kitchen little nook bathroom and uh bedroom um the uh
the uh we have the notification letter of uh approval from the uh which is the meeting summary
reform for the RCO meeting that we had, the RCO was a little surprised to know that there
was even anything like this in their area because they have not had any complaints or
concerns from anybody about this particular use. And again, we have the letter that we
out to the RCOs, the address, and the stamped certificates of mailing.
Okay, so basically for purposes of this, the property is a renovated modern
a two -unit building with one bedroom and bathroom per unit with a living room, dining room,
small kitchen. The applicant, my client, began renting the units short term through Airbnb in
November of 2021. The new legislation that was
the new legislation that was passed in June 27, and it was signed by the mayor on June 27, 2021.
I'm not sure if it's actually become effective yet. I think the effective date has been pushed back,
but we started this process during a time when there was still talk of it being made effective
back in April of this year. So the support for granted, the variants are as follows.
The applicant host is an individual. That is something that is required under the ordinance.
The rentals are for stays of 30 days or less. The rentals are booked, confirmed, and paid through
the Airbnb portal. The primary guests are from all over the country. He's had guests from Florida,
Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and it includes those who are visiting Philadelphia for the first
time to those who have moved from Philadelphia but come back to visit family or perhaps to
stay with a relative who is in the hospital or being treated in neighboring hospitals.
The applicant has earned the high ratings from guests as a super host, which is an experienced, highly rated host who are committed to providing great stays for their guests.
The applicant respects the new neighbors and surrounding communities.
There are no parties or excessive noise allowed.
This is a mandate from Airbnb and the applicant host.
The applicant host provides trash collection bins for guests, and he actually puts out the trash that's generated by the guest rentals on trash day, as opposed to giving them the trash receptacles and then asking them to do it.
and he is in accord with the community character
and livability, which is respected.
The property is very well maintained,
and as you can see, the units are very nicely appointed.
And the applicant host has received only compliments
from neighbors concerning guests, i .e. no noise or disturbances,
as opposed to when he was renting the property for longer terms,
where there were complaints about some of his tenants.
The Airbnb collects the hotel tax up front and pays the city directly.
The applicant has a commercial activity license and a rental license
and pays all property and business taxes for this property.
And as you can see, there are no signs and there's no retrofit of this property to resemble a hotel.
And frankly, the applicant is, this is not the applicant's idea.
He's only doing this because this is what the city is requiring in terms of having this, what is in effect a commercial thing, that this property is commercial in nature when it has always been a residential property.
Community benefits, granting the applicant hosts a visitor accommodation variance will augment the lodging choices of those choosing to visit this city.
Visitors can stay in and sample the ambience of our city of neighborhoods rather than being limited to staying in Center City.
Short -term rentals provide flexible options for those who may be here for medical treatment,
family visits, or emergencies, special events, or as tourists to the city of brotherly love.
Short -term rentals are also a way for women, people of color, and seniors to generate or
supplement their income. They are akin to bed and breakfasts or vacation rentals at the shore,
lodging options that allow property owners to keep properties occupied while defraying
expenses for their upkeep and maintenance, a win -win for host guests in the city of Philadelphia.
And I would just say that, you know, I went to school overseas for a year. When you traveled
around, you have hostels, you have bed and breakfast, you have pensions, you have all
kinds of other options for lodgings rather than just hotels. Council, why don't we do this? Why
don't we have your client adopt your testimony okay let's bring your counsel your client on
could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Yes. My name is Mark Coriolan. I'll spell my full name, M -A -R -K -E -N -S. I go by Mark. Coriolan is my last name, C -O -R -I -O -L -A -N.
yes my name is mark hariolan
Mark is
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Okay. Mark, have you heard what I've said?
Yes. And do you agree that the testimony that I have given is accurate?
Yes, I do. And do you adopt that testimony as your own?
Yes, I do. Okay. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
here i see no hands at this time by planning commission thank you mr chairman good afternoon
david effecto city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the residential single family zoning at this location this appears to be a duplex dating to
at least the late 1940s the applicant has failed to show that visitor accommodation is required to
continue deriving value from the property and so the city planning commission recommends the board
deny the use variants for visitor accommodation. Okay, thank you. So MI 2022 -003 -672 -916 West
Fisher Avenue. I vote yes with proviso. Temporary variants to expire 12 -1 -24.
Thomas Solomon, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, yes with proviso.
thank you counsel
number nine MI 2022 003 721 614 Wises Mill Road Alan Nockamson is the attorney
letter of non -opposition from Curtis Jones office letter of non -opposition
from Upper Roxburgh Civic Association.
Mr. Nocklinson, you've already been sworn to state your name for the record.
He's coming back in now as a panelist, Chair.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, members of the board, Alan Nocklinson, A -L -A -N, last name Nocklinson, N -O -C -H -U -M -S -O -N,
We received this refusal because we are building on a prior non -conforming dimensional aspect of the property.
That would be a second floor addition. That is sort of where you're seeing my mouse.
This addition was built because there was an existing pergola on the second floor.
And over time, in Mr. Aboot's time living there, he's experienced significant water damage when there's inclement weather.
and this was the best process moving forward to him give him more indoor space for his family and
also eliminate those issues he was having with rainwater again it's a very straightforward
project we have support unanimous support from the community group and the council member's office
as well as letters of support from the neighbors on both sides of the property
so here's my table of contents first is the notice of refusal then a letter of non -opposition
from Upper Roxborough Civic Association,
as well as a letter of non -opposition
from Council Member Curtis Jones Jr.'s office.
Then letters of support from the nearby neighbors
on the left and, sorry, to the rear
and to the right of the property.
A zoning map and a Google map perspective
of the property, some photographs
from a street level of the property
and to the left and to the right,
and then also some aerial photos.
The RCO meeting notice showing that we provide notice
of the community to the community of this meeting in an adequate fashion application for appeal
the deed to the property showing Mr. Abood is the owner of the property and then the
certificate of tax clearance so here's the notice of refusal issued May 20th so you can see here
the application was for a second floor addition the refusal we received has to do with the rear
yard requirement rsd3 which is 25 feet so again we are just uh building on top of a prior
non -conforming use there the building footprint isn't changing at all so the 10 foot rear yard
that is at present has been there um since the building was built here are letters of
non -opposition first from upper roxborough civic association a unanimous non -opposition as you can
see on your screen here and then non -opposition from council member curtis jones jr's office as
well exhibit three is letters of support from the nearby neighbors 7703 mathias street is the
property directly behind mr aboot's property at 614 wises mill road and 7 7700 lawnton street
is the property to the right uh miss kaufman whose name you can see on this letter of support
lived at the property at the time the zoning permit application was filed she no longer lives
there a new family has moved in Mr. Aboot hasn't had an opportunity to meet with them and speak
about the variance but they were notified of the RCO meeting here's a zoning map showing we are in
the RSD3 zoning classification sort of a suburban type use sorry a suburban type zoning classification
and then a Google map showing this showing similarly we're in a spacious neighborhood
some photographs so what you can see at the top of your screen is the before
you can see the pergola on the top right corner Mr. Aboot again not a developer didn't understand
the you know the permitting process as soon as he became aware of the permits he needed to
legally build this structure he stopped construction it's actually just framed on the
outside of the inside is still very bare and just mostly just framing and insulation that's when he
retained our firm hasn't done any work since then and you know here we are in this variance process
here's the side of the property from mathias street and then here are the zoning notice
posters so you can see on the left this is the wisest mill road perspective and because we're
corner property uh this is the mathias avenue perspective here's an aerial view so when you're
building up we'd like to consider how it's going to affect our neighbors light and air this series
of photos do a good job of showing the mature trees that surround our property this is when
the pergola was in existence not only do we have letters of support from the property behind us and
to the right but you can see again the mature trees that we're blocking out that were you know
sort of forming a barrier with regard to light and air even before we did this addition or will
continue to complete this addition so there's really no change in the nature of light and air
as far as how it affects the near neighbors there's another perspective large tree here
and a row of trees here here's to the right of the property on wisest mill road
and to the left of the property and to the right of the property on Matthias Street and the left
and to the left of the property
and to the right of the property on my thigh.
of the property and here's our plans and drawings so we just have a few so this is an elevation from
the front of the property with the addition built so it's sort of above these double doors
on this section right here here is a before a before site plan this white rectangle that you
see here is part of the uh was part of the existing building footprint because this is where
the pergola existed and as you'll see in the next slide the building footprint hasn't changed at all
we just sort of filled in that pergola space with uh indoor living space and i'll note that you can
see here uh the three feet and the seven feet combined make up that 10 foot rear yard that is
mentioned in our refusal here's the RCO meeting notice showing we sent notice of our RCO meeting
that took place on October 11th and these are the properties that were notified of that meeting
and here's the list of those properties and the proof of mailing
the application for appeal
the deed of the property showing Mr. Roy Abood is the owner of the property
and finally the tax clearance showing that all real estate taxes on the property are paid
I will unshare my screen and ask Mr. Roy Abood to virtually raise his hand
Mr. Abu, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Mr. Abu, please unmute yourself.
Yes, can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
It is Roy Abood, R -O -Y -A -B -B -O -U -D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Hi, Mr. Abood.
Did you hear my testimony today?
And is it true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt my testimony as if it were your own?
Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
We're happy to...
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments from the virtual audience here we have a dan finnegan with his hand up
mr finnegan please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
thank you all right mr could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
mr finnegan
mr finnegan
yes sir could you state your name and spell for the court reporter for daniel d -a -n -i -e -l
finnegan f like fox i -n -e -g -a -n do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor i am thank you counsel no i'm sorry mr finnegan
go with your testimony please excuse me proceed okay i am in opposition to the um
the zoning board request being made by sugar mama's daycare center i live directly next
door to the daycare center um we have had issues with uh excuse me mr finnegan um this is board
counsel hillary emerson um that case i believe is 300 shelton ham avenue and that is going to
be heard on the 330 list we are still currently on the 2 p .m list yeah okay is it the same length
thank you mr finnegan well just hang tight we'll get we'll get to the three here we'll get to that
shortly all right any other comments from the virtual audience we have sharon dennison with
her hand up. Ms. Denison, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair. Hi. Could you state your
name and spell, please, for the court reporter? Yes, I'm sorry. I'm also for a different case.
Okay, fine. That's okay. Thank you very much. Is there anyone in the virtual audience who
would like to make comment relative to 614 Wises Mill Road?
I see no handshare. Hi, Planning Commission. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. David Fecto, City Planning
Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single -family zoning at
this location. The proposed dimensional variance from the rear yard standards of the zoning code
the proposed dimensional variance from the rear yard standards of the zoning code
is not required to enable the applicant to continue making viable use of this property
is not required.
the city planning commission recommends the board denied the rear yard variance
MI 2022 003731 614 Wises Mill Road I vote yes Thomas Holloman my vote is yes James Snell my vote
is yes. Thank you, Mr. Goldberg. Thank you. All right. Number 10, MI 2022 -003 -820 -3725
Lancaster Avenue. Henry Clinton is the attorney. This is an appeal against an L &I
for an issued permit. Letter of Reuter is also should be coming on representing the city.
Mr. Clinton, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
Chair, Mr. Reuter, and Mr. Clinton are coming back in now as panelists.
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Clinton?
He should be popping back in now, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Hi, Mr. Clinton.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Henry Clinton, C -L -I -N -T -O -N.
Right.
Do you swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Reuter?
Thank you.
May it please the board, Leonard F. Reuter, for the City of Philadelphia.
that's l -e -o -n -a -r -d last name is r -e -u -t -e -r right do you swear a firm to tell the truth
and hold truth and nothing but the truth i do uh mr clinton would you uh want to proceed
yes can i address mr reuter first uh we may be you most certainly can you most certainly
mr reuter do you think it's uh more acceptable for us to talk offline i think we may have a
resolution of this matter uh well i mean sure uh i don't i'm not sure what's being appealed is the
problem that the only thing on the notice of appeal was the alleged failure to post but then
my main question here before we do that um hank is did anybody notify the property owner developer
that this appeal was taken yes but i think what happened i think he reposted it and then had 30
days of continuous time with the with the demolition permit posted so as an officer of
the court i don't want to take an appeal knowing full well that he reposted okay so i'm happy with
that um if mr clinton and i could maybe go offline and we can uh i can just reach out to
ms emerson and let her know uh what's what's going on and we can maybe just come back later
that's right that's okay that's fine yep i'll tell you what i think i have maybe
two two two cases left on the uh the 2 p .m list i'll check back we'll check back before we sign
off the 2 p .m list all right and mr chairman one of those two cases it is probably my case it's
i think it is all right uh let me see what the next mr chair this is hillary i think it's fine
that we can um just basically continue this case and then if it is resolved we can read the
resolution into the record at another date that's so we don't have to come back to mr reuter or mr
clinton today sure that's fine is that fine henry that's fine thank you okay thank thank the both of
you for doing this i appreciate it no problem thank you and henry why don't you stay on okay
yeah there we go mi number 11 mi 2022 003 683 1701 to 07 south 4th street
henry clinton is the attorney um
let's see here letter of non -opposition from the pensport civic association
although some neighbors are opposed to the application letter of non -opposition from
councilman mark scroller mr clinton you've you've already been sworn could you identify your client
relationship to the property please sure my client is representative of my client is josh
Rosenblum, R -O -S -E -N -B -L -O -O -M, and he is on the call. Okay, and Mr. Holloman has just a few
questions. Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? I do, Mr. Holloman. Do you email all of the exhibits and documents as required,
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures or drawings of the property, five days in advance to this hearing, and did you meet with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
such as proof of honor?
Yes, to all of the above.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Homer.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. Just to clarify for the record, can you just indicate that that last case, the appeal against L &I, has been continued?
Can you just read it into the record that it was continued?
Sure, I will. Yeah.
Thank you.
So, MI -2022 -003 -820 -3725 Lancaster Avenue. The case is continued. Attorney for the city and also Henry Clinton are in discussion.
thank you mr chair thank you mr chairman may i proceed please uh good evening excuse me good
afternoon mr chairman members of the board henry clinton for the applicant which is jwn2 comma llc
the principal of which is josh rosenblum who is on the call also on the call is the architect
Mark Wallace, and also the entrepreneur who is going to be the coffee shop owner, hopefully,
of this proposal, Mark Capriotti. So this is my table of contents, Mr. Chairman, containing
exhibits AA to A10, which I ask to be admitted into evidence, and I'll walk through each of
the exhibits as we proceed. My appearance statement and the refusal. So this request
is for a coffee shop on the first floor of a building that is under construction at the corner
of 4th and March. The building has already been approved for 25 residential units and what we
propose to do is to remove one residential unit and insert a coffee shop. So it's a one -for -one swap.
As Chairman mentioned, there is a letter of non -opposition from Pennsport Civic as well
as a letter of non -opposition from Councilman Mark Squillow. I think just to give a perspective
of what's going on to the board, I want to show you a couple of aerial photographs. So this is
Dickinson Square, Dickinson Park in South Philadelphia. This is the corner of 4th and
Morris Street. This was an old warehouse, which has been since demolished by my client and has
approval for 25 residential apartments at this location. This is a closer view of what it used
to look like. That is the warehouse that was there. It's been completely demolished. And one
thing I wanted to address with the board is there's a mural facing east. The park is to the
east to the left where my cursor is and when my client acquired the warehouse immediately entered
into discussions with friends of Dickinson Square and Councilman Squill was able to coordinate a
meeting which he actually attended a zoom meeting among friends of Dickinson Square the mural arts
program Jane Golden my client and other interested neighbors and happy to report that there is a
budget in place, and there are plans to basically recreate the mural on the right -hand side of my
photograph onto the Parsons Building, which is almost in the middle of Dickinson Square. The
mural actually will be on the east side of this building because it is a well -received and well -renowned
mural in the neighborhood and no one wanted to lose that view. This is our posting and you can
see that the buildings have now been demolished and we are under construction moving forward with
footings and foundations. Again, some more perspective photographs from the board.
so this is the corner of 4th and Mars Street uh this is the just showing you the site plan with
the rooftop deck this is the renderings of the of the building and this is the location of where
the coffee shop will be so this is the entrance right here there's going to be seating along
the window side facing the park. The park is at the top of the screen where my cursor is.
The prep area will be down on the west side of the location. The coffee shop will be about 650
square feet. It's going to be operated by two local entrepreneurs. The coffee shop name is
Re -Animator. They have several coffee shops in Philadelphia. The closest one is on Morton Street
about around 12th, 13th and Wharton between 13th and Broad. So they are a known commodity in the
So they are a known commodity in the area. It's not a chain. As I said, there are two local businessmen, and one of them, Mark Capriotti, is on the line to talk to the board if need be.
area, it's not a chain.
Again, just another rendering showing the board the location.
And as the park is toward the east, we have nice large windows, so occupants and customers get an opportunity to look out into the park.
And since this was a residential unit where the proposal is that the residential unit there be now made into a coffee shop, we've been told by realtors and particular brokers that of the 25 residential units in the building, this would be the most difficult to rent because of its location on a ground floor.
I think most landlords understand that the ground floor units are the most difficult to rent.
And while we have not actually started renting, we anticipate that it could be difficult renting this first floor unit.
And plus, when the spring of this year, when the park is in full bloom, more people are walking around,
we were approached by a broker suggesting that this might be a good location for a coffee shop.
And thus, discussions evolve with Mark and his partner, and they're very interested in moving into this location.
In terms of operation, typically there's three employees here at a time.
The hours of operation are 7 to 3 during the weekdays, 8 to 3 on weekends.
Trash is going to be internal, but we know trash receptacles, dumpsters of any type on the outside.
The landlord, Josh Rosenblum, will see to it that all the trash is taken internal to the building.
There's an internal trash storage room where trash from all the tenants, as well as this commercial tenant, will be located and then taken out on a daily and sometimes more than daily basis.
Excuse me, not daily basis. Several times a week, trash pickup will occur.
In terms of food, there will be no cooking on the premises.
any of the food that will be dispersed will be already pre -made like yogurt donuts croissants
and pastries you would be able to come into the coffee shop have a seat and have a cup of coffee
and maybe a danish or also take your coffee out we don't expect that this is a destination coffee
shop meaning this is going to be a walk -up situation where we anticipate people using the
park, people from the neighborhood will come in, enjoy the ambiance of a nice local coffee shop.
I'm just looking over my notes.
I wanted to show the board some renderings of the building and the location of the coffee shop.
This is basically the permitted and approved building with 25 residential units. You can
see that the entrances are there. And this is the redesigned building. And obviously, we'll have to
re -permit it where the entrance will be right here on the corner. And these are the seats
along these large windows facing the park to the east. The rest of my documents are the pro forma
documents that one would typically see in a presentation such as this. Tax certification.
I'll just enlarge it. Tax certification, our application,
zoning map, the deed indicating ownership,
and our notice letter to the community indicating that we mailed out over 150 letters to the
surrounding neighborhood. So in conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we're basically swapping a residential
unit for a small coffee shop, 600 square feet in total. I'll take you back to the aerial photograph.
Hi, could you have your testimony adopted, Mr. Clinton?
Sure. Mr. Rosenblum, can you unmute yourself?
mr chairman while he's doing i just want to mention a couple things i think we have a unique
uh circumstance here where we have a beautiful location right across from the park uh we are
not adding any units we're swapping out a residential unit for a commercial unit we're
not altering the essential character of the neighborhood we're not impairing the appropriate
use of light and air of any other adjacent property uh the proposal is in harmony with
the code and it's in harmony with the neighborhood, not impacting any late in error of any adjacent
property. And with that, Mr. Rosenblum, if you're available, can you just tell us?
Can you just tell us?
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Josh Rosenblum, J -O -S -H -R -O -S -E -N -B -L -O -O -M as in Mary.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, Mr. Clinton.
Now, Mr. Rosenblum, were you on the entire call when I made this presentation on your behalf?
I was.
and if you had the opportunity to testify would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true
and correct yes i would thank you mr rosenblum okay all right questions from the board no mr
chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair thank you planning commission good afternoon mr chairman david
effecto city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential
multi -family zoning at this location the proposed prepared food shop will be an accessory use to the
24 unit multi -family building the multi -family building meets the intent and purpose of the
zoning code and the prepared food shop will not change the basic nature of that proposal
so the city planning commission recommends the board grant the variance for for a prepared food
Thank you. MI 2022 -003 -683 -1701 -207 South 4th Street. I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you, Mr. Clinton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it.
All right, number 12, MI 2022 -003 -689 -3400 South Broad Street, a letter of support from the Packer Park Civic Association.
The attorney is Joseph Kessler.
Mr. Kessler, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Mr. Kessler.
Chair, for some reason, he's not promoting.
Did we see him with his hand up?
His hand was up, and I tried to promote him, but his name is not disappearing, basically.
It's still over here on the attendee's side.
Mr. Kessler?
He's in now, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Keisha.
Hi, Mr. Kessler, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Surely. Sorry for the technical problem.
Joseph F. Kessler, K -E -S -S -L -E -R, Joseph J -O -S -E -P -H, Gilworth Paxson.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, the client is the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development, and they are the owner of the property.
Okay. Mr. Holloman, one of our board members, has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, Mr. Holloman.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures or drawings of the property five days in advance to this hearing?
Did you meet with the RCO and do you have a letter?
Yes, Mr. Holloman, as to each, with the exception of possibly the tax clearance.
I have a screenshot showing that there are zero taxes.
the census property is owed by paid it's exempt it's possible that the screenshot did not
uh get attached when i submitted the information in so i can show
uh get attached when i submitted the information in so i can show that when i share my screen
if that's something that the board wishes me to do thank you please proceed and share your screen
mr chair i did take a look at the taxes and and they are fine so um mr kessler i did not receive
the the screenshot so if you could if you could try forwarding that again um that would be great
uh but i i did just double check them myself because i figured it was it because it was a
city -owned property that it would be exempt.
Thank you, counselor.
Thank you.
What am I hoping for?
This one, right?
Okay, I'm waiting to see if it's,
it says I'm screen sharing,
but I don't see it on my own screen.
Can you see it?
What happened?
We see a table of content.
Great. Thank you, Lakeisha.
All right.
The application here is for the property
located at 3400 South Broad Street.
This has been a matter that's now, I guess,
my third time in front of the Zoning Board of Adjustments.
And so I thank Chair Bergman and the other current members of the board for hearing this matter once again.
Simply put, I will just move to have all the documents that are part of the table of contents and submitted to be adopted by the board as evidence.
If I am controlling this correctly, you should see on your screen a Google Earth shot of the parking lot.
A lot of people refer to this as the NovaCare parking lot.
This was developed after Pate acquired the entire property from the Navy Yard, and to its right, which is not part of the screen, is the NovaCare complex, which is the premier training facility for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The purpose of the parking lot here was to provide for off -road surface parking for those particular times in the city when the stadium complex is overcrowded.
This week certainly would be the prime example, and even tonight, where we have two significant events, the Sixers and the World Series.
So this approval had first registered back in, I believe, early 2000s.
The last application before this board this March is asking for the continued use for public parking.
The use was last approved by calendar number 28178 on December 14, 2016, and the use was continued for a six -year period.
I appeared before the Packer Park Civic Association as the primary leading RCO with respect to all the civic associations in the area.
A letter of support was granted. There were over 200 to 300 people at that meeting, and there was unanimous support as shown by the letter of support.
The request today is to continue the variance that's allowed for this parking use. And I'm scrolling down to the last part of the presentation. In the adoption of the very first approval for this property, there's the current Packer Park letter of unanimous approval.
and attached to that is what we've called the proviso agreement all of these years that goes
back to November 14, 2001. And that proviso agreement was reached between PIDC paid and
the Packer Park Civic Association and establishes all of the rules and requirements associated with
respect to the use and design of this property. So I respectfully would be asking the board
to extend the variance for another six -year period, subject to the continuance of the proviso
as attached to the materials, which for purposes of the record is November 14, 2001.
Before I pass the baton, I unfortunately have to say that general counsel for paid Eileen Burek
uh, had to get called away, uh, as this was proceeding. And I do not have her there to
affirm my testimony. Uh, but all of these are part of the legal documents of the record.
Hi, Mr. Kessler. You're an officer of the court. Your testimony is fine. Question.
Hi, Mr. Kessler, you're an officer of the court. Your testimony is fine.
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, Mr. Chairman. David Fecto, City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change to residential single -family zoning at this location.
This is a long -standing parking lot. The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the continuation of this use for a period not exceeding six years.
Thank you. MI 2022 -003 -689 -3400 South Broad Street, I vote yes with proviso temporary variance to expire 12 -1 -28.
Thomas Howell, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, yes, for Proviso.
Mr. Shaheed, yes, for Proviso.
Thank you, Mr. Kessler.
Thank you, members of the board and Mr. Bergman, and I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been heard on the 3 .30 list, on the 2 p .m. list?
I'm sorry.
I've seen no hands, sir.
All right, we're going to take a five -minute break.
Mr. Kelly, you can get ready for this afternoon.
We don't have that many cases, so we're going to come back in five minutes and get it done.
Thank you, Chair.
Good afternoon.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the 330 list of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is Ishmael Shahid, our board secretary.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our ZBA hearing supervisor, Lakeisha Dandy.
Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
We advise the proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phila .gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, 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 the appearance statement, call 267 -270 -5548. Leave your email and the address of the property.
And finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
Any comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkin.
And here we are for our continuances on the 330 list.
Number seven, MI 2021 -005 -416 -3847 Germantown Avenue.
This case is continued.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience who has a comment relative to that continuance?
I see no hands, Chair.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands, Chair.
Thank you.
I also have a few cases that the documents are not here.
So the number, hold on one minute.
I'll be right with you.
No hands, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
Just give me one minute.
Number three, MI 2022 -003 -306 -1513, Widener Place.
We have no exhibits.
This is the first listen.
Haja Updand is the owner.
i see no hands chair thank you so mi20220033061513 why replace that case is continued
number four mi2022006482901 south randolph john mccullough is the listed owner
we have no exhibits this is the second listing
We have no exhibits. This is the second listing.
I see no hands, Chair.
So MI 2022 -000 -648 -2901 South Randolph Street.
That case is continued. That's marked must be tried.
Number five, MI -2022 -000 -649 -2717 Federal Street, same owner, no exhibits, second listing.
I see no hands, Chair.
Okay. So that case is MI20220006492717 Federal Street. That case is continued. Mark, must be tried.
And number six, MI20220006728107 Bradford Street. Dan Lee is the owner. We have no exhibits. This is the second listing.
i see no hands chair so mi 2022 000 672 8107 gradford street that case is continued mark must
be tried we're going to go to our list number one mi 2022 003 302 300 west cheltenham avenue
Jennifer Sanders Epps is the applicant.
The attorney, our attorney for this will be Ryan McSherry.
Hillary Emerson has recused herself from this case.
This is for the expansion of an existing daycare center located on the first and second floor of an existing detached structure.
The proposed youth daycare center was previously approved by the Zoning Board of Adjustment, and any expansion of this requires EBA approval.
Jennifer Sanders -Epps.
Ms. Epps, can you please raise your hand?
Okay, Chair, we have a Kiara Jones with our hand up. There's Ms. Epps' hand.
Okay, thank you.
I'm promoting her to a panelist now, Chair.
Please.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Jennifer Sanders Epps J -E -N -N -I -F -E -R -S -A -N -D -E -R -S hyphen E -P -P -S
right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes I do Mr Holloman has a few questions for you good afternoon madam did you did you email
all of the exhibits and documents as required such as proof of ownership tax clearance copy
of the refusal pictures or drawings of the property five days in advance to this hearing
did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter yes we do thank you please proceed and share your
screen. Are you on the phone? Yes, I'm on the phone and also an iPad. What's that? Yes, I have
my phone with my name, but I'm also on an iPad for a larger screen. What device are you trying
to share your uh your documents on my documents was emailed in well you need to present them now
ma 'am okay what do you need first uh for you to uh share your screen with the documents that you
sent in all right i apologize i assumes the documents was emailed into you guys
for exhibits I thought you guys
would share them on the screen
I do have them on the screen
but I assume that you guys would share them
since you asked them to be emailed
you have to share them
and present them in the way you want to present them
All right. Why don't we do this? Why don't we do this? Why don't you get yourself straight with the documents on how you're going to present them? I have two or three other cases. I'll do two or three other cases and I'll come back to you. Okay?
why don't we do this
why don't we do this
Okay. Thank you so much.
Sure. Thank you. Number two, MI -2022 -003 -277 -2748 Willits Road. Sean Ward is the attorney.
We're waiting for an RCO letter from the Northeast Community Civic Association.
Mr. Chair this is Hillary um this afternoon we did receive um the RCO letter of support from the
North East Community Civic Alliance um we are still addressing a tax clearance issue so we
will need to hold the vote in that case to address this matter thank you very much Mr. Ward
Mr. Chairman members of the board uh it's good to join you this afternoon um I represent
Anthony and Bianca Rodriguez, owners of the property at 2748 Phillips Road.
Mr. Ward, just for the record, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Sean, S -H -A -W -N, last name Ward, W -A -R -D, address 331 East Street Road,
Trivos, Pennsylvania, 19053. Do you swear for him to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do mr halliman has just a few questions
very good afternoon good afternoon counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to his accuracy yes i do tom did you email all of the exhibits and documents as
required such as proof of ownership tax clearance copy of the refusal pictures or drawings of the
property five days in advance to this hearing did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter
Yes, to most of the above. There is a tax clearance issue, which I've discussed with Ms. Emerson. This property is subject of a subdivision, and OPA and Revenue Department are behind. However, we believe all real estate taxes have been paid, but Hillary and I are going to work that out.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you very much, Tom.
Mr. Chairman, I am sharing my screen, which is a PDF of all exhibits, not a list of exhibits that are not open on my desktop.
up but in any event uh i represent anthony and bianca rodriguez mr rodriguez is on the call
this is the property at 2748 waltz road which is in the greater far northeast uh basically between
academy road and the boulevard if you're not familiar with the area uh the application is
for a permit for an off street parking space uh basically they're they're looking to enclose their
garage for a uh a grandparent um yeah i wouldn't call it a suite it's a bedroom um the grandparents
are elderly and uh they need to be on a first floor uh level so uh in the district surface
parking is prohibited in the front yard setback uh i i don't know uh the the parking space with
8 .5 feet is required, and they're saying eight feet is proposed. However, it's 11 feet wide.
So I don't know why that is even part. And just to cut to the chase, the relevant zoning history is
in 2018, there was an application for the relocation of lot lines, six lots from two.
So this property, you know, Tom might even recognize his name.
It was Vince Hassett, who was a legendary surveyor.
We've done a lot of work over the years while he was with us.
Unfortunately, he passed.
But so those lots, which was, I think, 2750 and 2752 Willits Road were purchased and then, you know, went through a lot line relocation to create six lots.
In 2019, it was the complete demolition of all structures on those two lots.
And then more pertinent was the erection of this single family dwelling.
And then more pertinent was the erection of this single family dwelling with an interior parking space, which was a, you know, a garage, a driveway with a garage.
So that being said, here is our notice of refusal, our application of appeal, our project information form, my transmittal letter, copy of the deed.
um as you can see dated april of this year uh transferring the property uh to the rodriguez
family uh moving on um uh so you know just for you know location purposes willis road
kind of runs from academy road um you know in in the east east torresdale section and
it runs out to the boulevard where it connects here with Walsh Road, and then it goes out to
the boulevard. This is a lot line, the plan, which doesn't really help anybody, so I'm not
even going to dwell on that. This is the picture of the posting. There's our poster. This is the
subject residents. Again, they're looking to enclose the garage and make it a bedroom for
grandma and grandpa. Presently, grandma and grandpa are residing in the basement. She's had
four falls already down the steps. Fire rescue has been out several times. But as you can see,
the adjoining properties have the window lights. We do not hear because the whole intention was
for them to have their grandparents reside on the premises. This is the sixth family subdivision.
Hold on. The landscapers. Landscaper Mona next to everyone.
So these these are the six houses, as you can see, the you know, most of them have this, you know, the upper lights in the windows.
This is the subject house in the middle of the block.
This was the subdivision prior to construction.
Willow Road looking each direction.
The zoning permit for the relocation of lot lines, the zoning permit for the complete demolition, and the zoning permit for the erection of this detached dwelling.
Here is our zoning map. It is zoned RSA2. And this is the aerial photograph. I also have today
the letter from the Northeast Community Civic Alliance. We met with them last week.
And Pat Parkinson, who is with Tom Neville. You know, Pat works for newly elected Senator
and Jimmy Dillon up in the 5th District. They provided their letter today. And then,
hold on a second. I think the thing's blocking my... So again, on the settlement sheets,
I mean, they're showing a balance of $6 ,289, but that's in the name of the builder.
and uh we've been trying to get um you know clearance uh but these are all the settlement
sheets uh and you know clearly they show taxes being paid to the city of philadelphia but you
know again not to belabor the point hillary and i are going to work that out uh she's been in
contact with revenue and uh we are in contact with the uh title abstract company to find out you know
you know what you know the the check the amount who was made payable to and when it was sent out
so uh we are confident we'll have that there for the board uh by the uh next uh you know next week
so this board can vote this case so uh mr chairman that's all i have i believe uh mr rodriguez is
on the call if he could raise his hand if he's not been identified already
there he is mr rodriguez could you state your name is spelled please for the court reporter
yes andre rodriguez a -n -d -r -e -r -o -d -r -i -g -u -e -z do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes proceed counsel may please the board uh mr rodriguez you've heard
uh mr rodriguez you've heard my representations to the board today yes are they true and correct
my representations to the board today?
to the best of your knowledge information and belief yes and you adopt them as your own testimony
as if called to testify today yes awesome that's all i have here questions from the board no mr
chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair hi planning thank you planning commission this is uh ron bednar city
planning first name ron last name bednar b -e -d -n -a -r you swear for him to tell the truth
the whole truth is nothing but the truth i do proceed ron this property is indicated for
residential use and a city plan or adopted district plan recommends no change the existing
residential single -family zoning at this location.
The applicant's hardship is not supported
with evidence of unique physical circumstances
or condition of the property
that would prevent it from being used
in conformance with the code.
Therefore, we recommend that the requested variance
not be granted.
Thank you.
So we're not going to vote today
because of the tax issue.
The case will be marked closed, right, Hillary?
Except for the tax information.
Excuse me. Yes, Mr. Chair, the record is closed except for receipt of the tax information.
Okay, so this 2748 Willard Street will be continued. Case is closed, just relative for the relative tax information.
Thank you very much, Chair.
number eight mi 2022 000 652 168 west cumberland street bern anastasio is the attorney
recommendation recommendation of support from nara square community association and we're also
waiting for tax clearance on this hillary uh mr jerry this is hillary i did um verify on this one
that the the taxes are clear so we can proceed with with a vote unless the board wants to hold
it for another reason no that's thank you thank you
council he's coming back in now chair as a panelist thank you
i think i'm there hi you you've already been sworn in council could you just state your name
for the record and identify who your client is in relationship to the property. Yes, sir. My name
is Vern Anastasio, A -N -A -S -T -A -S -I -O, and I'm representing Racima Herrera from the owner
applicant. Okay. Mr. Holloman has just a few questions. Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy? I do. Did you email
all of the exhibits and documents as required such as proof of ownership tax clearance copy
of the refusal pictures or drawings of the property five days in advance to this hearing
did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter yes sir thank you please proceed
and share your screen thank you i believe i just shared my screen 168 west cumberland it's a zone
underlying zoning classification is cmx2 there's a history of this property being three units
commercial first floor two apartments above and what we are trying to do is just have that first
floor become residential this is not a viable spot anymore for commercial use
and then two bedrooms with a large walk -in closet well this is
this is the corner property in question it is on one side next to a vacant property on the other
next to a three -family dwelling much of this block is sort of in transition
As you can see.
And here are some interior photos.
This is the upstairs living space.
Here's proof of posting.
Here's the rear of the property.
There's more proof of posting.
As you can see, there are several entrances.
uh in my exhibit packet we have the piff and we have the deed and we have uh the the application
for appeal here is the letter that went out to all the neighbors uh we had a public meeting the 12th
of october 5 30 p .m as a result of that meeting we have uh support here's the history by the way
retail sale uh with two families above so it's always been three units and there's this letter
of support uh from norris square community alliance because this property has always had
three units because this neighborhood this particular block is really no longer a viable
spot for commercial use and because the block itself is in transition with uh in need of density
I respectfully request that this board grant this variance in the appeal.
I also have my client online.
If she could raise her hand, please.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Ms. Herrera, please unmute yourself.
I'm unmuted. Can you hear me?
Yes, you can. Just state your name and spell for the court reporter.
Yeracema Herrera.
It's Y -R -A -C -E -M -A.
Last name is H -E -R -R -E -R -A.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Herrera, did you hear my presentation to the board this afternoon?
The true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
yes thank you mr chair just for the record uh uh we are at the corner of west cumberland
and north hancock thank you very much thank you um questions from the board no mr chairman no
mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair i see no hands at this time a planning commission siron bednar city planning this
property is indicated for commercial mixed use on a city plan or adopted district plan recommends no
change to the existing zoning at this location. The applicant's hardship is not supported with
Meredith Ferliger, F -E -R -L -E -G -E -R, Dilworth Paxson, on behalf of the property owner, A -O -G, Enterprises, LLC.
Okay. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Mr. Howellman has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, such as proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of the refusal, pictures or drawings of the property, five days in advance to this hearing, did you meet with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of the above.
Thank you.
Pre -proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
My screen is shared.
As I mentioned, my client is AOG Enterprises, LLC, which is the property owner.
And that entity is represented here today by both Oksana Fomina and Jean Fish.
Our architect, Ken Johnson, should also be available should there be any questions.
The property before the board today is 1517 North Bodine Street, which sits roughly mid -block on North Bodine Street between West Oxford Street and Jefferson Street in the city South Kensington neighborhood.
North American Street is just on the opposing side of the block to the rear of the property, which you will see.
The exhibit packet includes 15 exhibits that I will walk you through, which includes a tab 14, both a letter of support from the RCO, as well as a petition of support from 10 near neighbors.
As you can see up on the screen at Exhibit 9, this property sits along a mixed -use block of North Bodine Street on a very small sliver of remaining vacant land mid -block.
If you then look at the zoning map at Exhibit 8, you'll also see that this block bears some
rather colorful and interesting mixed zoning designations of ICMX, RSA5, CMX 2 .5, as well
as RM1 on the opposing side of the street. What's particularly odd is the fact that there is a small
sliver of RSA5 that somehow ended up mid -block here, which is really quite rare. The property
that's before the board today is zoned ICMX, which is Industrial Commercial Mixed Use.
You will note on this zoning map that a majority of the properties that share the ICMX zoning
designations are both considerably larger properties, and they also benefit from frontage
on predominant North American Street. You'll notice from the boundaries here that this property
only has frontage on North Bodine Street. Now looking more closely at the photographs at
Exhibit 15 here, you'll get a better sense of the makeup of this block of North Bodine Street.
This first photo is looking right at the property, which is behind this fence.
If you now look north on North Bodine Street, you'll notice that all of the commercial buildings use North Bodine Street as their back of house functions.
It looks like mostly for loading functions.
You'll notice that there's no active commercial or industrial use that faces this block of North Bodine Street, which is also quite narrow.
The streetway is only 14 feet.
The board can also note in this photograph the large multifamily complex on the opposing side of North Bodine Street.
And then if you turn south, looking towards Jefferson Street, you'll notice that the block changes to exclusively residential use.
now the current proposal which is shown at exhibit five is for the erection of a new
four -story structure to contain two dwelling units in response to discussions with the community
these units will be offered as condominiums for sale there were also some aesthetic modifications
that the community requested concerning window locations and facade but the only modification
that requires the board to stamp off on a revised proviso plan is the removal of a front bay.
You'll see just for reference, the original zoning plan did have this front bay,
which has been revised on the new plan. Each of the units will be in excess of 1 ,500 square feet
with two bedrooms, flex space, and three bathrooms. At Exhibit 7, I also included some
with two bedrooms, flex space, and three bathrooms.
sample interior photos from another recent project that this particular owner completed.
Now, regarding the refusals, this proposal received two refusals. I'll start first with
the somewhat technical refusal relating to insufficient side yard. Now, ICMX imposes a
minimum side yard on any side of a property that abuts a residential zone. So if we turn back to
the zoning map, you'll see that just north of this property is that somewhat strange mid -block RSA5
zoned property. But if I turn your attentions once again to the photographs, you'll see that
the adjacent property is not in fact a residential property. Furthermore, the applicant does submit
to a hardship given that this block is exclusively made up of attached buildings, as you can see
on both sides of the street. And it would be quite out of character to provide that eight -foot side
yard, especially one that is not serving the purpose of the code. Finally, the zoning board
will note that on the zoning plan, this property is only 18 feet wide, so therefore an eight -foot
side yard would result in a residence of a maximum of only 10 feet, which would really
actually make the living space quite narrower than that.
Now, regarding the proposed use, we further submit to a hardship given that this property
is subject to unique circumstances that would foreclose any compliant new construction ICMX
use of this lot.
As is shown in the code sections at Exhibit 11, the ICMX zoning is specifically intended to accommodate commercial and low -impact industrial uses and is intended to serve as a buffer from residential districts.
This property is not only too small to support a new commercial or industrial use, but even if it were larger, there are no active commercial or industrial uses that front on this block of North Bodine Street.
The commercial and industrial, as you would expect, are all oriented towards North American Street.
As I mentioned earlier, this property does not extend to North American Street, and fronting on this block of North Bodine, south of the property, are all exclusively residential uses.
Now, on the topic of the nature of the residential uses surrounding the property, which we do also submit establishes that the variance requested are the least minimum, the blocks surrounding this property are predominantly existing or soon to be constructed multifamily uses.
You'll see at Exhibit 12 examples of other high -density multifamily, including right across the street here that has 42 units.
And directly next to and behind this property in that grassy area that you can see on the aerial was just recently approved by Variance for a total of 10 units.
So, given that this is the only property on this street that does directly abut the commercial and industrial uses fronting on North American, we submit that the proposed two units are the least minimum and serve as an appropriately scaled buffer from that commercial and industrial use to the north, as well as from the residential uses south.
we do submit that this proposal will not increase congestion harm neighbors properties or impair
light and air and as always a full analysis is provided in the memo of law included at exhibit 10
and i'd be happy to touch on any point in particular detail with respect to the community
we did meet with the south kensington community partners back in the summer that discussion
resulted in the vote of support in your packet at tab 14, which is supplemented with additional
expressions of support from your neighbors. If the administrator could look for either Oksana or Jean.
okay i see no hands at this time well as an officer of the court uh mr chairman i i would
say that my client would have adopted my testimony thank you very much questions from the board no
Mr. Chairman no Mr. Chairman no Mr. Chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare hi planning commission this is ron bednar city planning
property is currently indicated for industrial commercial mixed use on the city plan
we acknowledge that the site does pose a hardship to its reuse residential lots on this block are
zoned for single family use the proposed duplex is not the least minimum variance needed to
enable viable redevelopment. Therefore, we recommend that the question variance be granted
provided it be limited to one family use only. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I think that the evidence
presented shows that, especially given that the board recently approved 10 units basically
surrounding this property, that two units is quite below the least minimum variance that
would be appropriate for this lot. Thank you. MI 2022 003 304 1517 North Bodine Street. I vote yes
with proviso. Revised plan one page stamped by CBA on November 2, 2022. Thomas Holloman,
my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
thank you counsel thank you very much so let's go back to
let's see here
let's go back to number
come on out here right on the list
let's go back to uh number one mi2022 003 302 300 west chelton ham street uh jennifer sanders epps
Ms. Epps
Okay, I don't see her name, Chair
Someone else has their hand up
That's fine, I think she did the same thing last time
I'll promote
Ms. Jones as a panelist now, Chair
Thank you
hi miss epps how are you i think i've already sworn you in and i think i said it but i'll
i'll do it one more time this is for the expansion of existing existing daycare center
located on the first and second floor of this existing detached structure.
The proposed use daycare center was previously approved by the zoning board,
and any expansion of use requires ZBA approval.
I'm going to have Mr. Holliman ask you a few questions, okay?
Good afternoon, Ms.
Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required,
such as proof of ownership tax clearance copy of the refusal pictures or drawings of the property
five days in advance to this hearing did you meet with the rco you have a letter
yes thank you please proceed and share your screen
So I think you open your documents, and then you push the green button at the bottom says
share screen.
All right, let's try it.
for the permit okay all right we have the refusal letter yes we have the application for appeal
right we have the um project information form thank you
uh we have the drawings of the um the use the area that we want to use we have the text letter
We have the letter from the community organization stating the vote in our favor, three to zero.
I mean, sorry, 30 to three.
Here's the letter.
We also have the letter stating on behalf from the church across the street from us,
granting us permission to use their parking lot in overflow in case of more clients due to the
expansion of our daycare. We also have signatures of persons on the block and to the block around
the corner who would be affected by any expansion use.
we have a letter um this is the letter from
us asking the um church giving us actually the church giving us permission to use um
their light as an overflow then we have the letter that went out to the community about the rco meeting
do you have pictures of the property yes we do i see the pictures here's pictures of the
basement area that is in question we have two bathrooms one handicap equipped one night
this picture um of one closed -in area that could be used for one separate classroom and then it's
pictures of another full area that could be used as another classroom here's pictures of the outside
area showing the actual parking area our parking lot and the street parking we also have pictures
of the parking lot showing half parking lot and half playground area for the children
And then here's pictures of the driveway area driving into our parking lot, and then a full picture of the parking lot.
Here's another picture of the parking lot.
Let me ask you a question. How many students do you have now?
Right now we have 39.
What are you looking to expand to?
We're looking to expand to at least 15 to 20 more.
Okay. Thank you.
Here's a copy of our lease for the property.
And then this is a letter thanking the church for granting us the utilization of their parking lot for overflow.
so questions from the board no mrs jim no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
here i see we have dan finnegan with his hand okay sure mr finnegan please unmute yourself
for wait for the chair. I'm Mr. Finnegan. I believe that I swore you in already, right?
Yes, sir. Okay. Could you state your name again for the record? Daniel Finnegan. All right. Are
you a neighbor? I am the immediate next door neighbor to the daycare center. Okay. Fine. And
start your presentation. Okay. I do not have a presentation. I do want to point out that the
members of the RCO were not notified that the Zoom meeting was occurring. We are actually down
at the office and we had to struggle to get the link to the Zoom meeting.
The issues I have with the proposal that Mrs. Sanders -Epps is making is that I feel very
strongly that the building is too small to accommodate 60 children. It was originally
a four -bedroom residential building. I just can't imagine 60 children and I don't know how many
staff, maybe 10 staff members in that building. I think that would turn into an extremely crowded
I think that would turn into an extremely crowded situation, especially in climate weather, cold weather.
situation, especially
We have had ongoing issues with clients of the daycare center blocking our driveway.
I actually brought a number of pictures that I wanted to show of vehicles blocking our driveway.
I also want to add that when we have approached individuals and asked them to move their cars, we've been met with a great deal of hostility and rudeness.
We have requested on numerous occasions if this is Sanders Epps could possibly limit the amount of noise the children are making in the play area, and by that I do not mean children, you know, normal child at play noise.
I'm talking about children who are shrieking for extended periods of time.
um in the rco meeting one of our neighbors testified how much she enjoyed listening to
the children when she was gardening in her yard that neighbor is located one block down
one block over from the daycare center and the line of sight between her property and daycare
center is obstructed by four or five buildings so that just gives you an indication of how loud
the children can be. My neighbor, Ms. Denison. Mr. Finnegan, let me ask you this. Did you object
at the RCO meeting? I did. Okay. And what was the vote at the RCO meeting? I think Jennifer said 30
to 3. 30 to 3. Okay. Thank you. Continue. Okay. My neighbor, Ms. Denison, who is at the end of
the block can hear the children shrieking when she's inside her house um uh the other concern i
have is uh littering by the clients and this is not candy wrappers and slurpee boxes this is diaper
wipes and upon occasion even diapers have been thrown out on the street so for those reasons you
No, I object to the idea of the zoning board approving this request.
So, Mr. Finnegan, thank you for calling in, and we appreciate your position.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience who would like to testify?
Chair, we have Sharon Dennison with her hand up.
Ms. Dennison, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
All right.
All right, can you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, I'm Sharon Dennison, S -H -A -R -O -N -D -E -N -N -I -S -O -N.
Do you swear for I'm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I live just a block down from the daycare.
All right, proceed with your presentation.
All right.
I'd like to say that despite the neighbor's objections, this property was permitted to be used as a daycare several years ago.
The principal objections at that time was the additional traffic, the trash, the noise, but we lost.
So we put on our big boy pants, and now we deal with the traffic, we clean up the trash, and we try to just listen to the additional noise.
Now, however, with Mrs. Epps asking to expand with additional children, I think somebody needs to speak for the children.
This house was built in 1925 as a single family home to accommodate a family, man, husband, wife, two children, two baths, never was meant to be used for commercial use, let alone a daycare.
And for me to think that there will be 60 children in that one house for, what, 8, 10 hours a day, it's just not right for the children.
Somebody needs to speak up for them, and I think that it takes us adults to do it.
I know that Mrs. Epps wishes to increase her income, but it certainly shouldn't be due to the detriment of our little young ones.
One of Mrs. Epps' employees said at the RCO meeting that many of these children come from distressed homes, that they need peace, they need space, they need time, they need caring, and I'm concerned whether an expansion of this daycare could provide it for the children.
Please listen to the voices of the children.
Thank you.
Ms. Denison, did you object at the RCO meeting?
Yes, I did.
And the vote was still 30 to 3?
I suppose so.
Okay. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no hands.
Chair, I see.
Ms. Epps, do you want to respond?
Thank you so much. The posting was posted to explain the meeting today. Also, we got approval
from the church across the street to use their lot as an overflow if needed. So that would
prohibit any extra traffic outside. Also, there is no trash. We make sure that there is no trash.
Trash is collected every week. We clean our area every day. There is no trash. So I have no idea
what they're speaking about. As far as the children noise, the noise we hear is children's
laughter, children playing, because we have a large outside play area in which I showed you
pictures of, and the children need to get out and enjoy the sunshine. The laughter is what they hear.
Mr. Dan and myself has had a wonderful relationship. We get each other's packages
when we're not here he allows me to use his water in the summertime as a sprinkler so we can have
two sprinklers mine and his i pay him a fee of 25 every friday that's the contract we have
we have no problems at all i really don't understand why thank you thank you planning
commission excuse me uh yes miss hepps do you have an active uh child care license pennsylvania
license yes i do is it active yes it is how many kids do they allow you we are a zone for 39 children
you're going to request them to increase it i'm attempting to increase it between 15 to 20 children
and if i may add i'm sorry i'm sorry all right if i may add the increase of children in speaking
in conjunction to the increase of parking most of at least 30 to 35 percent of our families
are multiple children we have one family we have families with two children we have families with
three children we have families that mothers are now pregnant and they also have a child here
so an increase of 15 to 30 to 20 children is not going to bring 15 to 20 parents because we have
at least 35 percent of our parents have multiple children here so we're not you know but i think
well i think what mr hollman said was you know you're coming in here for zoning but you're still
then going to have to go back to the state to increase the number there oh if of course exactly
Yes. One more question, Ms. Epps. What are your working hours? What are your hours operating?
Our hours are 7 a .m. until 5 p .m.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Question. Planning Commission, please.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning. The property is indicated for residential on the city plan, given the use history of the site.
We have no objection to the grounding of the variance, provided that safe drop -off and pickup is included as part of the expansion.
Thank you.
MI 2022.
Hillary, can we make that?
Hillary, can that be part of a proviso?
Hillary?
uh sorry this is this is ryan mcshary yes yes i'm sorry i apologize no i was muted um yes that
can be made part of the proviso all right good okay so mi 2022 003 302 300 west cheltenham avenue
i vote yes with proviso a plan for safe drop off and pick up at the location
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Mr. Heath, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 330 case has not been heard?
I see no hands, Chair.
Thanks, everyone.
Good day's work.
Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right. See you guys.
Good night, everyone. See you, Hillary. Good night, everyone.