No, I don't have one.
Let's see, I've extended.
so Kevin why don't we do this
if you're having a hard time
why don't you maybe go in the back
and figure out what's going on
we'll bring you back
thank you
Number one.
MI 2024-004-415-5338 Walnut Street.
George Gossett, Jr. is the attorney for the owner.
There's a letter of support from the West Philadelphia Economic Development Council.
and council member got the a has sent a letter indicating that they had no well okay we we
believe that we do have that good morning can you hear me yes i can sir could you please turn on
your video. Yep. Good morning. Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer? Yep. Attorney George Gossett Jr., Supreme Court number 82983. I'm the attorney
of Brick by Brick Properties, which is owned by Nafisa Woodlock. All right. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Our board secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston, has a few questions for you, sir.
Very good.
Good morning, counsel. Did you submit your documents to the Zoning Board five days in advance of this year?
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning.
Did you submit your documents to the...
I do. I do.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you. Counsel, you may proceed and share your screen.
So this is a appeal of a variance, variance refusal of dated June 16, 2024.
My client became the owner of the property by deed dated March 20, 2024.
24. As was already stated, there was an RCO meeting in which the RCO found that they were in favor of the project. The long and short of this is this is a property 53, 55.
So, counsel, why don't you share your screen?
Okay, I'm sorry. I'll go.
Yeah, sure, sure. Share your screen and then you can.
All right.
i'm just looking at how to okay here we go all right
you're coming up now it should be up in a minute okay
Give me one second.
Thank you.
Okay, here we go.
Okay, so this is the subject property.
53 38 walnut it is uh it was originally purchased as a it was a it is zoned as a single family home
but it was set up as an actual duplex at the time in which my client purchased the property
not knowing it not knowing that that it was not properly zoned so it has uh two floors
I'm showing you pictures now.
So the second floor has three bedrooms.
bedrooms, the first floor has two bedrooms.
So as you can see, there was some work started, but the work stopped when it was determined
that it was not properly zoned as a duplex.
What my client is asking is that the property
can be properly zoned as a duplex
in which she will rent out the second floor
as a three-bedroom apartment
and the first floor
as a second, as a
two-bedroom apartment.
There will be
street parking
and there will
also be a place on the side
for trash cans.
Counsel, do you have drawings
counsel do you have drawings of how it's laid out no we don't we don't have any drawings only
of how it's laid out?
thing that we have are actual pictures but it's just two two floors the first floor being the
first floor apartment and the second floor being the the second floor apartment
and you're saying the second floor has three bedrooms that's correct
seeing how big the property is the actual square footage yeah um i can check it real quick but i
believe it's somewhere in the neighborhood probably about um well let me check it i don't
want i don't want to just just say my client is uh is here also okay well we'll eventually
bring him on to adopt your test. Yeah. I will check it real quick.
How about the rest of the block? Is the rest of the block multiple family?
I am not sure about that. Uh, there are, there are, uh, properties on the block that appear
to be duplexes, but I don't know what their
legal setup is.
So why don't you bring your client on and maybe you could ask them
a few questions. My client's name is
Nafisa Woodlock. I think she should be in the
waiting room.
I see no one in the audience with that name.
Oh, never mind.
And Chairman, to answer your question in terms of the square footage,
property is 1,440 square feet.
Let's say that one more time.
The square footage of the property is 1,440 square feet, sitting on a 1,718 square foot
We see the client.
Yeah, they've been promoted to panelists.
All right, thank you.
yes hi could you please state your name as bell for the stenographer
yes my visa woodlock n-y-f-e-e-s-a woodlock w-o-o-d-o-o-c-k you swear or firm to tell
truth told truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel good morning mr whatlock
there was a question pertaining to um
the actual uh block itself are you familiar if there are any other um
duplexes on that block um far as that block i believe i can see that there's one i know the
next hundred. There are a lot of triplexes and duplexes on the next hundred. The property I have
is also the next street is a corner store there. And then I know directly across from my property
is also, I believe, a home daycare. Okay. All right. And I've already expressed this to the
panel, but with regards to the apartments, you plan to do a three-bedroom apartment on the second
floor and a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor? Yes, keeping the existing structure that
I purchased it as. Okay. And what is your plan with regards to parking and with regards to
trash pickup? Well, there's street parking. And then if you look at the picture that's on the
side where the gates are, those are where I'll have two designated trash cans for trash day.
Okay. And with regards to tenants,
tenants? Would this be for low income tenants or what is your mindset with regards to your tenants?
I think I'm open to low-income tenants or regular tenants. I haven't really decided on that part yet. I'm sure that's going to be another process as far as getting into this point.
I think I'm open to low income tenants.
With regards to the utilities, how are the utilities set up at this point?
It's electric there.
Are the units separated?
yes everything is um split there and was that the the condition that the property was in at
the time which you purchased it yes because i believe someone was already the person was living
um they had to build them for some years now they were already living upstairs and i guess they
couldn't you know afford to finish the rest of it and they just sold the whole property
okay all right everything is split it um all right all right okay questions from the board
uh go ahead go ahead okay uh living in the basement no living in the basement
no living in the basement uh it's a little hard to understand how you have a three-bedroom and
a two-bedroom when you've only got 1,400 square feet. Without a plan, it's kind of hard to
see both those size units working in 1,400 square feet. So that's kind of my issue.
The units, actually, it's not really crammed in there. Everything is a pretty decent
I mean that's
really all I can kind of say
about that
those are my
just two comments
and my comments
are the same
we can't tell
from what you say
what is going on here
is there any more
pictures because it's also like
No, the pictures are not helping.
We need to see a plan, a layout of how this is laid out so that we can tell what is really being proposed here.
So we'll hold the vote on this.
But is there any other questions from the board?
hillary what what what i would like to do with this is to close it except for plans
okay right i i i did have a question so the the property zoned rsa3 which requires off
street accessory parking but i didn't see a refusal for that is there parking at the property
no no there's not okay all right so that refusal was missing i just wanted to note that for the
record but we can i think we can go to the virtual audience and get to planning right
all right questions or comments from the virtual audience i do not see any hands mr chair questions
or comments from the planning commission thank you chairman and good morning david fecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u
with the city planning commission do you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but
the truth yes sir i do please proceed thank you sir chairman and board members the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the rsa3 residential single family zoning at this location the city
changed the zoning maps in this neighborhood in 2022 in accord with recommendations in the
comprehensive plan in february 2006 an owner applied for a use variance for two dwelling units
for this property there is no evidence that the zoning board granted that variance at that time
after this an owner appears to have converted this property into two dwelling units without
the benefit of permits so the city planning commission recommends the board grant the
proposed legalization of two dwelling units and proposed uh variance for uh for off-street
accessory parking okay so we're going to hold the vote on this and um i'm going to close close the
record except for drawings that would uh appropriately show the first and second floor
and you know obviously we would want to see what kind of space the bedrooms etc are okay
so um hillary should we give this like three weeks um sure we can do that that would be
give me one second mr chair that would be november 5th okay so so cancel november 5th at 9 30
okay so so council november 5th at 9 30 uh we'll vote on this but we'll have to have
uh we'll vote on this
the documents you know prior because we'd want to look at them in
executive session before we vote okay okay very good all right thank you very much all right thank
you george you ready for me oh i'm sorry yeah kevin i'm sorry kevin
As long as it works.
Please proceed, sir.
And just for the record, this is 6617 Alguard Street.
Kevin Valentine is the attorney.
We were talking about the bamboo fence, and I'm just trying to pop up a picture of that.
Well, we want your whole presentation up.
here's my appeal application
it's not
yes please please please
there we go
is this, this is what I want to share. Okay.
Okay. All right. And then I'm going to share that.
Okay. We know you're, we have your application for appeal. Yes. Okay.
We move on. All right. Would you like to see the refusal?
We have it. We're okay with the refusal as long as you're comfortable with it.
Yes. I'm comfortable with all of that. Yes. All right. So
So here, take this out.
Well, then should we go back to the photo that you were referencing?
All right.
Let's go back to that.
Here we go.
all right this is the um photograph that you were referring to the original photograph
You can see that?
Right, okay.
And now we're moving on to the later photograph.
Let me see if I can bring that up.
This is the photograph that you were referring to, the fencing, right.