he's been allowed to speak. Good morning, Mr. Folks. Good morning, Chair Bergman. Can you hear
Good morning, Chair Bergman. Can you hear me?
me? I most certainly can. Could you state your name, please?
I most certainly can. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court's stenographer?
Yes. Good morning, board. My name is Sloan Folks, S-L-O-A-N-E-F-S and Fire, O-L-K-S,
Office of Council Member Ketzi Lozada, Room 584 City Hall.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do, sir. Thank you.
Please proceed.
I just want to respond to the question regarding the 7th Ward RCO letter of support.
There were 10 attendees at the meeting who voted.
Actually, there were 15 people who attended the meeting.
Ten of them were near residents who voted.
The vote was unanimous.
Thank you for that information, Mr. Folks.
Mr. Folks?
Yes, sir.
You're going to get the councilwoman's position too, right?
Oh, we said I let her in, but the councilwoman, actually, she fully supports the project.
I let her sit down that position, but she fully supports it.
All right. Thank you very much.
Yes, sir.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no more hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning, David Vecta with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location
from general industrial to industrial and commercial mixed use the appellant requests
relief for dwelling units and parking we would argue that the existing building creates a
hardship to the building's reuse in a primarily residential block the city planning commission
recommends that the board grant the proposed use variants for multi-family dwelling units
and the variants from the parking provision in the zoning code thank you MI 2023-006-623
3408 to 50 B Street I vote yes
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes
James Snell my vote is yes
Counselor you have your votes
Thank you
Number 16 MI 2023
004 532 910
Durard Street Joseph Consul is the attorney
letter of support from the 50th Ward Democratic Executive Committee, RCO.
Joseph, counsel has been promoted, Chair.
Thank you.
Morning, Mr. Consul.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning, board.
Joe Consul.
It's J-O-S-E-P-H, last name, Consul, C-O-N-S-O-L-E.
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 this property?
It's Mr. Jonathan Wilder, W-I-L-D-E-R, and he's the owner.
All right.
Mr. Holloman has a few questions for you.
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you e-mail all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. All right. That should be my packet. 910 Durard Street, Jonathan Wilder is the owner.
we are seeking to approve a um two unit use the property was built as a two unit
and has always been a two unit as i'll show you in a second the entire street both sides
were built as two unit properties however um while a lot of them and i'll just real quick
like zipped through a bunch of rental licenses, got their use approved before it was rezoned
as RSA 3, this one was not ever approved.
And so while it's always been that way, my client purchased it and needs to get it approved
for two units.
So the refusal is two-family household living prohibited in the RSA 3 zoning district.
Here's Derard Street.
As you can see, both sides of the street were built with identical properties at some point in the past.
And when my client purchased it from the estate of Cassandra Carey, you can see this was May of last year, that the property cert says two family.
However, at the bottom, as it always says, if it was discontinued, then a variance may be required, which is what we're here for.
Just going on the block that they live on, I found a bunch that have the two union approvals. There's 906, 900, 922, 924, 920, 926, 932, 928.
Just going on the block that they live on, I found a bunch that
um so moving to the rest of my packet we went in front of the 50th ward we got full support
one attendee was not not opposed but we've got no opposition and full support for the reason
given in their letter that the property uh and all the properties on that block are two unit
properties proof of mailing photos and plans there's the entrance to one which is the front
the property here's how all the all the properties are laid out only their mirror images of itself
and then there's on the side the entrance to unit two so you can see actually two's in the front
one's on the side there's the back they all have this side of the street they've got garages in the
back showing the two meters electrical meters and then we included some interior photos
my client
empty being renovated getting ready to rent out and then the deed and all the tax docs
with that i will call my client yep mr wilder could you raise your hand
do we see mr wilder
good morning he's been allowed to speak good morning mr wilder could you
state your name and spell please for the court sonographer yes jonathan wilder j-o-n-a-t-h-a-n
last name wilder w-i-l-d-e-r you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes sir i do please proceed counsel
good morning mr wilder did you hear my testimony about 910 derrard street
i did you i did yes do you adopt as your own i do all right thank you nothing further
questions from the board no mr chairman
i'm sorry chair i just kind of thank you thank you questions or comments from our attorney hillary
emerson just one clarification mr consul um the so that there are two garages for the unit so i
had two parking spaces uh no mr wilder i believe it's just one garage for yours and one's the
the property that's connected to it is that accurate i think he's still here
He's raising his hand.
I think there's two garages there.
There are two garages for each adjacent unit.
So I have two garages and the neighbor has two garages.
Thank you for the clarification.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
And good morning, David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the single-family zoning at this location.
However, the property has a longstanding history of being used as a two-family dwelling.
The appellant has demonstrated hardship, and the proposal is the minimum necessary variance.
So the City Planning Commission recommends the board grant their proposed use variance.
Thank you. MI 2023-004-532-910 Durant Street. I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes
James Snell, my vote is yes
Thank you, you have your votes, counsel
Thank you, thank you
Number 17, MI 2023, 004-108, 1018-24 Art Street
Zen Jin is the attorney
There's a letter of support from Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation
with an enforceable proviso.
There's a letter of non-opposition with provisos from the RCO
from Council Member Squilla.
Good morning.
Please proceed, Council, and state your name.
Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N-J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard,
Suite 1838, Philadelphia PA 19103, here on behalf of the applicant.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth?
i do could you identify your client please yes my client is east coast investment inc
Yes, my client is East Coast Investment, Inc. They are the tenant of the property and the proposed operator of the use.
they are the tenant
All right. And Mr. Hallman has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
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 five days in advance to this hearing?
yes thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you i will share with the board
what was submitted in our exhibit pack uh can everyone see my exhibit we can sir thank you
so we have uh submitted a copy of the refusal rco letter um in support from philadelphia
chinetown development corporation photos plans and relay documentation required by the code
I want to address first the refusal itself. This is an existing lot that was part of the
old Greyhound bus stop at the Chinatown location. This is Zone CMX5, and the proposal is to use it
as an accessory surface parking, which in essence is an extension of a pre-existing
non-conforming condition. This lot was originally zoned as a parking lot as part of the use from
the Greyhound station for many years. The last time a change of use was in the history records
was in the 1980s when they wanted to put some advertising signs on the parking lot.
The PCDC and my client actually met more than once. One of the primary concerns PCDC had,
and it's reflected in their proviso request is that we try to make this parking lot beneficial
to the community itself, to the Chinatown community. Obviously, the lot itself will be
operated as a for-profit business. However, my client will be providing various incentives and
discounts to people who are in the community, much like how it is done with the parking available to
um the uh the the i'm sorry it just escaped my mind for the moment um airman avenue i know no
it's it's uh the the center right next to chinatown okay i can't believe i'm not all right
it's okay it's okay that's okay so we're doing something very similar where there will be an
incentive to um reading terminal i'm sorry reading terminal okay so we'll be doing something very
similar to that to help uh make this more uh easily beneficial to the community when it comes to
parking within the lot. So I'm going to go to the actual plan at this point to explain what the
refusals and some of the changes the community wanted. So the refusals, one is obvious for the
use under CMX-5. But again, this is an existing parking lot. It is a paved over lot. And it has
been for many, many years. The buses used to come in and out of this lot from Greyhound. So we're
not really changing an existing condition much. We're trying to put it back to use.
Now, obviously in CMX5, you can do a high rise, you could do a building, but that is really a
very big project and it's beyond the current owner's financial ability to do. So they wanted
to lease it to my client to continue to use it as a parking lot, but to organize it better,
to bring some greenery space buffers to be put in, to put traffic control per the community's
requirement and to add lighting to this lot, which now would be lit at night to some degree
and would also be monitored because it is a valet service type parking. The second refusal for the
width of the driving aisle is partly because of the way the parking is stacked because they will
have valet managing it. So obviously the only drive aisle in the middle, while it is of the
requirement with, not all parking spots will have that required with, and that's by nature of how
this is laid out. So given its prior use for many years of a parking lot, given that we are looking
to use it as essentially an updated parking lot, we asked for the board's favorable review. Now,
PCDC requested a five-year limit on the permit based on the lease that we have. We have no
objection to that as far as that requirement is concerned. I'm happy to try to answer any
questions. I will, before I turn off the presentation, show the pictures to the board
of the location so that we can, again, get a feel for what this lot is. So this is, again,
a view from the back of the lot towards Arch Street, and this is the view from Arch Street
And this is the view from Arch Street towards the back of the lobby, where the Greyhound bus station used to be.
towards the back of the lot where the Greyhound bus station.
Thank you.
My client is here, too. Yes, my client is here.
Yenny, can you it's Yenny Drew, Z-H-U.
Can you raise your hand virtually to be identified?
Yenny Zhu has been allowed to speak.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My first name is Y-A-N. Last name is Z-H-U. Z-S-Z-B-R-A.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Yanni, did you see my presentation and hear my representation to the zoning board?
Can you verify what I have represented is true and correct and adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.