Tina, Liz. Good morning, Mr. Chair and board. Good morning, Mr. Richardson. We don't usually
hear from you this early in the morning, so please state your name. It's spelled for the
stenographer certainly charles richardson r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n office of councilwoman
cindy bass room 508 city hall you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do please proceed the councilwoman has no opposition to uh granting this variance it
sits directly across the street from a police station so i don't think there'll be any issues
with regard to ruckus or anything along those lines so uh she has no opposition thank you
very much for taking the time to call us is there anyone else in the audience yes chair i have a
hand up by the name of suzanne posen i'm going to promote them to panelists
good morning can you hear me could you please susan could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer. Yes. Suzanne, S-U-Z-A-N-N-E, Ponsen, P as in Paul, O-N-S-E-N, Ponsen.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
I am president of West Central Germantown Neighbors, and we held two meetings.
um we had we notified all the neighbors and made sure that everybody was aware of the situation
and uh we're we're uh happy to allow this variance to go into place uh but we're asking for a two
year variance thank you very much for taking the time to call so is there anyone else in the
audience i see no more hands up planning commission thank you chairman and good morning
david effecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes sir i do please proceed thank you sir chairman and board members
the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this property from its current rsa-5
rsa 5 residential single family attached to rm1 residential multifamily there is no unique
residential single-family attached to rm1 resident
physical condition or circumstance of this property that will prevent it from being used
in conformance with the zoning code a 2020 zoning ordinance passed by city council which regulated
short-term rentals did not change the basic rule prohibiting full-time use of a dwelling unit as
short-term rental this type of absentee management where the owner does not live in the unit has been
illegal since the first short-term rental zoning regulations became effective in 2015. What's
changed since the passage of the 2020 ordinance is that there is now a licensing and enforcement
mechanism. The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the requested
variance for visitor accommodation. Thank you. MI 2025 002 663 28 to 30 West Hane Street. I vote yes
with a temporary variance that expires 12-12-27.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ty Owen, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, sir. You have your votes.
Number six.
Thank you.
MI 2025-003-629-6218 Pine Street.
Ronald Mitchell is the owner applicant.
Ronald Mitchell, if you are in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
Oh, come on.
Come on.
Come on up.
good morning sir could you please um state your name and spell for the stenographer and
get closer to the mic if you would
hello okay yes my name is ronald mitchell spelled r-o-n-a-l-d-m-i-t-c-h-e-l-o
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
I do. Right. The application is used as a group living in an existing structure, whereas to propose used group living requires a special exception approval in the RN1 zoning district.
There is a letter of opposition from the third board executive committee.
There's a letter of opposition from the generalist of Philadelphia Cops Creek RCO and a letter of opposition from the Cops Creek resident, Joyce Lynn Nars.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, ma'am.
And the chair read the referral. Do you stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, sir.
Oh, yes, ma'am.
That's okay. That's all right. You can begin your case.
Okay, so just to give you the breakdown of my case.
Do you have your computer with you?
No, sir. I got a phone.
Wait a minute.
Are you able to, you're on the Zoom with your phone?
Yes, ma'am, I was.
The board will need to be able to see pictures, the pictures that you submitted.
So if you're able to, have you been promoted to panelist?
Yeah, it looks like you have.
So you should be able to share your screen and show photos.
I don't know if you had plans or anything like that.
he kicked me out the zoom so just one moment please okay
thank you
can I click on the link one more time
because for some reason
yes you can go back into the zoom
oh you mean the QR code
because if you registered before
you should have received a link in your email
you can just click back into.
ronald why don't we do this ronald listen to me why don't you go i have one more pro se
Ronald, listen to me.
Why don't you go?
I have one more pro se.
Let me handle that and I'll come back to you, okay?
Okay, I just got into the link.
Okay, let's see if you can do it then.
So do I have to raise my hand, I guess, to put the...
So my hand's raised.
Jared, this is Ian Haggerty.
If it helps me sing along, I have
Ronald's documents ready to
share from my aunt too.
You can share it there, Ian?
Yes, sir.
Why don't you start?
We have your documents, okay?
Okay, because I have them also.
Sorry for the delay.
He'll put them up in a minute.
Why don't you start by telling us what you
want to do okay so um currently um i'm a veteran um a military veteran served injured in line of
duty um honorably discharged came out of the military i was in bad situation mentally um
try to find my place in the world got lost became homeless um lost my family um five kids and a wife
I was on the street for a long period of time.
My wife, she came into my life, back into my life.
I was able to get back into a group, a home,
where they helped me get access to the resources that I needed through the VA.
From there, I got on my feet,
got the help that I needed, the resources, access to the resources that I needed in order to get
back on my feet. I'll make a long story short.
I've been trying to figure out what I want to do in life, you know, trying to give
back. So why not do something that can help other people
that was in the situation that I was in? You know, veterans. We serve our
country. We sacrifice a lot. And those people do
deserve help. They deserve the resources and help. So what I want
to do is I want to open up a group home that will actually help veterans that was in my situation,
give them access to the resources that they need, support, give them hope, you know. So I currently
run Airbnb. I ran for the past three years, had no incidents whatsoever with my neighbors besides
maybe someone leaving trash. And they called me up, give them my number, call me up, and I, you know,
take care of the business that needs to be taken care of. So that's just.
wanting to show us the building i mean all right so you you can see here can you see the computer
look up yes okay oh yeah so these pictures are i can see it on my phone okay good pictures are
basically showing that i had uh displayed you posted it yeah yes sir i had noticed uh several
different uh several different weeks throughout the uh this period um also i have pictures of the
interior of the property um this is what it looks like um of course i would do a little bit of
adjustments you know as far as bedrooms wise you know so that they can you know accommodate each
and every person um it's currently how many bedrooms do you have currently four bedrooms
three bathrooms also has an entertainment space for entertainment and another space for just like
office lobby area as well so my whole thing is to basically it's a small small by design
And the reason why is so it doesn't feel like a facility. A lot of times people go to a facility and they get caught up in just a number. Whereas though, with our home, it's actually a home, six residents, you know, that can comfortably fit in there.
and what we want to do is we want to basically give them the attention that they need by being
small we can give them that attention it's more like a home instead of a facility that's why
they're in the community because we want to re-acclimate them back into society not feel
like a number not feel like they've been processed through a system that doesn't care about them
so our setting is family it's a family you have four bedrooms will you be there too at all times
uh if i'm not there we also have people in place so we have staff there will be 24 hour staff
in place right so they will be monitored and a couple of bedrooms will be doubled up
yes sir okay questions from the board do you already have a state license to operate
a veteran's home uh no i don't have a state license that's why i'm here right now um as far
as licensing i have to go through the city um well that's the property i'm talking about for the
those wraparound services part i'm sorry so sorry again please for the to operate the group home
those wraparound services part i'm sorry so start it again please for the top
aren't you trying to offer sorry wraparound services to your tenants what do you mean by
wraparound like the it sounds like you want to do referrals to the va and counseling and other
sort of large support mental health i'm i'm not i mean i'm not administering mental health or
i'm just taking them to the resources which is like that they have appointments with da
So the VA is the ones who will actually facilitate the mental health and medication, anything that they need.
We're working together with the VA.
So what's your plan to sort of identify potential tenants?
To identify potential tenants?
Well, we go through the VA.
Because I'm a veteran, I can go strictly through the VA and deal with case managers from the VA who will refer the veterans to us.
They will give us the whole breakdown.
we only we're not trying to take in just anybody we want certain people that
basically want help that are already in a system at the VA they already have in
place the mental health the medicine with doctors so they're just looking for
a place like a transitional home to get to their next destination so that's all
we are we're just like a pit stop almost to help them get to the next level so
could you walk us through how the how the property will sort of operate like
Like, give me a fictionalized timeline of, like, the VA refers somebody.
What is the next step like for them in your program?
So I did, I don't know if you have this, but we have a system in place where we welcome people in.
And it takes about 72 hours to bring them on board.
That's because we have to go through all their files.
We have to understand their needs and how to address them.
So until we get to a good place, it takes about three days for us to really get to know the patient, the resident, sorry, and just to find out what they need and how to address them.
So what are some of the common needs that people have?
Common needs that people need is, first off, a place to stay, you know, somewhere where they feel like they're stable, because if they're not stable physically, they're not stable mentally.
So we want to basically give them a stable environment and also connect them to the VA.
Like I said, if they have appointments, we want to be in direct contact with their counselors
because a lot of them have like a counselor.
They have someone who basically case managing them with the VA.
I mean, the reason I'm asking is it sounds to me like assisted living.
Versus them being completely independent.
They're not completely independent.
We don't want them to feel like they're completely independent.
So, yes, we are trying to.
And you don't need any type of state licensing to do assisted living?
No, not that I didn't come across any state licensing for what we're trying to do.
You mentioned staff.
So who is your staff and how many staff?
So we want to have at least six people in place.
um a director um you know just people who's going to be there um 24 7 um those are the
the counselors that overlook and oversee uh the uh the residents so um
yeah we just we definitely have a system in place that there's going to be people there like i said
i'm an administrator i'm going to be there um i'm looking to also hire other people like i said to
be there 24-7. I also need someone that also is like working with case managing who deals with
the VA on a daily basis so that they can, you know, we can all be in communication and know
how to function correctly for the veterans. Have you had conversations with the VA
and any preliminary commitments from the VA in terms of residents?
So as far as communication with the VA, I haven't had any direct conversations with the VA.
First and foremost, I would have to get licensing to move forward.
But I am aware of the system and how it works.