ZBA Hearing - November 2, 2022

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?

I do.

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.

Okay.

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?

I do.

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.

Okay.

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