Thank you.
okay chair we have 137 attendees you can proceed as you wish thank you
good morning everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's eba hearings
with me as our vice chair ismail shaheed president mr chairman our board member thomas
Solomon. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, James Snell. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also here is
Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett. Be advised the proceedings
are being recorded. The video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett 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, you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand
and star 6 to unmute. 200 appear on the statement call, 267-270-5548. Leave your email address and
the property in question. And finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for
comments or testimony. All comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sumpit.
Let's look at our schedule this morning. Number seven, MI 2023-007-281-8014 Caster Avenue. That case has been continued.
And number three, MI 2022-007-453-301-23 Spring Garden Street.
Is there anyone in the audience for that case?
This is the third listing must be heard.
Good morning, Chair.
This is Yvette Benton.
I'll be your co-host for today.
I see no hands at this time.
Thank you.
So number three, MI 2022-007-453-301 to 23 Spring Garden Street.
I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
Dismissed, my vote is to dismiss.
this. Number 10, MI 2023-006-162-1954 Patterson Avenue. This is a resumptive hearing, but
We'll take a request for continuance first.
The attorneys involved, Meredith Trego, Matthew McClure, and also Samuel Stretton,
who are representative of Samuel Stretton from his office.
Okay, Chair, the names you just called, I see none of those people with their hand up.
There's Meredith.
She's been promoted.
Matthew McClure, he's been promoted.
Morning, Mr. McClure.
The other hands that are raised, we will have to ask if any of them are here representing on behalf of Mr. Stratton.
Right. Okay.
Morning, Mr. McClure. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Sure. My name is Matthew McClure.
M-A-T-T-H-E-W-M-C-C-L-U-R-E.
I'm with the law firm of Ballard, B-A-L-L-A-R-D, SPAR, S-P-A-H-R-L-L-P, 1735 Market Street, Philadelphia.
And I'm here with my colleague, Meredith Trego, T-R-E-G-O.
We represent the Fama Park Conservancy, the applicant.
Do you swear, do you both swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
thank you it's mr stratton in the audience or anyone from his office
mr stratton or anyone from his office if you're in the audience please raise your hand
Chair, we had David, looks like, snap it.
chair we had david looks like
He's being promoted to panelists.
Good morning, Chair.
Hi, good morning.
i was having trouble hearing uh you said in opposition no no do you do you work for mr
stretton oh no i'm sorry okay thank you you'll have your chance later sir is there anyone from
mr stretton's office i see no hands chair thank you um excuse me uh there there's a note in the
chat that says someone named rich guerrilla is here for sam stratton um i'm not clear in what
capacity is mr guerrilla present thank you mr guerrilla you've been unmuted and allowed to speak
uh yes hello hi mr grill could you state your name is spelled please for the court
my name is rich guerrilla g-a-r-e-l-l-a right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Are you associated with Mr. Stratton or are you
an attorney that works for him? I'm not an attorney that works for him. I am a client of his in this
matter. Okay. And I've discussed with him his position and would like to present it along with
our, with hopefully some objections to why this, there should be a continuance.
um hillary um i mean if he wants i mean well mr grill i think you were
disqualified as a party in the previous hearing am i correct i was summarily disqualified even
though i am an aggrieved party uh under under as the court has ruled so i would have there's
There's nothing about distance that that I can find in the law.
And so I don't see, you know, the disqualification itself is is one of the objections.
So it seems like I should be able to address that.
So the aggrieved party has to do, I believe, more with an appeal to the court of common pleas and not who can testify at a ZBA hearing.
That has not been that has not been defined.
So it's really the closest thing.
it's clearly not any taxpayer that's true yeah i understand mr grella so
mr chair um i do hear other representatives from other entities that were that were
represented by mr stratton presence um if i mean if i mean if they want to proceed
pros say they can but um in terms of the continuance request um but i yeah so our
our continuance was request came from mr stretton's office right on behalf of the front of
park civic friends of fdr park and then there were there were unnamed individuals so i don't know all
of whom he's representing and and and the fact of the matter is that we had told mr stretton
that if he could not make it that we want an attorney from his office or another attorney
to represent him? Yes, because, yes. All right, Mr. McClure, what is your position on this?
Mr. Chairman, we're opposed to the continuance. Obviously, this hearing was originally
started on February 21st. It was continued at the request of the civic associations back in January.
The original refusal, I mean, referral was back in October. We've done the case already. This is
just public comment. There are a lot of people here ready to testify and
give public comment. Mr. Garella, although he may not have standing to appeal or
participate as a party, sure as hell as an individual can testify
when it goes to public comment. So he's here. I see no
reason why we cannot go forward in this matter.
We're going to go forward with this matter today. The hearing
will go on. This case was filed five months ago.
we heard about an attorney last week
so we are going to hear this case
just for the point of information
the case will happen sometime around
lunchtime we should get to that point
this will be the
last one on the list and we'll
hold that so that we can go a couple hours
or an hour or two strictly on taking
public testimony okay
so we will hear this case today
it will be heard about lunchtime
does that sound right Hillary
yes Mr. Chairman
Okay. Thank you. Thank you all.
Thank you all.
Thank you all.
So we're going to go now to our regular list.
Silver.
Number two, MI 2023, 004-396-1807 East Boston Street.
Mark Feynman is the attorney.
The owner is Tantra's MLL Real Estate Partnership.
Chair Mark Fineman is coming back in as a panelist now.
There's a letter of support from East Kensington Neighbors Association and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
Good morning, Mr. Feynman.
Mr. Chairman, sorry to interrupt. It's Richard DeMarco. Wasn't one of my cases supposed to be continued attorney moving party?
It's Richard DeMarco. I'm sorry to interrupt.
I know, Mr. DeMarco. Hold on. What case was that?
Sorry about that. Yeah. 2940 East Ohio, the appeal against L&I, we have no opposition to the continuous attorney moving party from the city. I sent a letter a few weeks ago.
Mr. DeMarco, it's not it's not on the list today, so I think it was already removed and continued.
Oh, I appreciate it. Sorry about everybody.
Oh, not a problem. Have a good week. Have a good day.
All right. Bye.
Hi, Mr. Feynman. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Yes. Good morning. My name is Mark Feynman, F as in Frank, E-I-N as in Nicholas, M-A-N. Mark is with a K.
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate towards accuracy?
Yes, I do.
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing yes i did thank you council please proceed and show your
screen yes bear with me one moment
are you able to see the screen we can sir okay excellent so uh i have my exhibit list here
number one is the application for the zoning and in this instance it was an application
for the first floor artist studio and artisan industry with retail sales, consumer goods,
with takeout window, dispensary window, second floor to be a single family dwelling.
The refusal, and this was clarified yesterday, my apology, this refusal that we have here is
exhibit two, which is a May 23rd exhibit. I learned late yesterday that there's actually
another refusal and that refusal is dated june the 30th i believe on that but i was not able to
get that loaded up in time for this hearing this morning but i believe that that is all part of
the packet there that refusal mirrors this except there is one additional item in there i can work
to get that over to the panel.
Exhibit three is the deed.
At one point in time,
this property was owned by co-owners
and this deed reflects a change.
Scroll down the next page there
reflecting that the Tantaros transferred
and now the ownership is with the applicant
who's before you today.
where i'm scrolling down here next i'll direct your attention
the diagram here is a rough diagram but i'll show you a sketch of it
our tax clearance these are photos of the posting of the of the notices my apologies for the change
in the angle this is the front of the property here with with the roll down door at this point
it used to be a garage in there and that was converted over this is how the interior looks
at this point with the you can see towards the front here where the window would be
With the you can see towards the front here where the window would be.
This is the February 28 letter from East Kensington Neighbors Association in support of the project.
And this was their meeting summary.
The application for the appeal.
And this is the sketch I was describing earlier to you, reflecting the nature.
The idea here is a working studio of glassblowing with the front area being a cafe selling or offering coffee to go.
The customers would come in, buy their coffee, or they would use the dispensary window to purchase the coffee
and to then stay on the premises that they chose to see the artwork
and also taking studio classes for the glassblowing.
The application is to use this area.
I want to go back to the letter from East Kensington, which describes quite well the circumstances that brings us before the board today.
There was a remapping in the East Kensington neighborhood area.
And as a result of that remapping, it restricted to single family zoning.
That's now been changed to allow for multi-use, which is what this property would be.
and that's why we need to come before the board we're asking for the approval to allow
the mixed use which would include the residential on the second floor and the commercial on the
first floor i believe present with with us today on online would would be rey lorenzo the owner
And I don't know if you can bring her on.
Could you please raise your hand?
Marie Lorenzo has been unmuted and allowed to speak, Chair.
Okay. Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Marie Lorenzo, M-A-R-I-E-L-O-R-E-N-Z-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Um, please proceed counsel. Thank you very much. Ms. Lorenzo, you heard, uh, my presentation
initially to the board. Yes. And if you were to call it be testified, do you incorporate what
my testimony is as what your testimony would be? Yes. Would you like to add to it to describe and
explain to the board what it is that, that you have in mind to do? And, um, when you're done,
I'll be asking Mr. Purcell to testify, and I know he's also there, so if you could.
Yeah, I don't think I need to add anything.
If you want to call Nathan up, he is the tenant, and he's the one that's doing all this.
He's working hard, so you can call him up.
And you've been working closely with him?
But you would incorporate my testimony, though?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you.
I would ask to call Nathan Purcell, P-U-R-C-E-L-L.