and then click on your documents.
They're coming up now.
Thank you very much, Tanya.
So I'll just skin right back down to the information from the Department of Revenue,
which shows that our tax balance, according to the Department of Revenue,
on page nine of these exhibits are clear. Here we go right here. I'm then going to
scan down to the plans to explain what we plan to do with this property.
This is the elevation of the property. We don't plan to change the footprint of the building at
all. All we plan to do is renovate the interior of the property. We would like to renovate the
interior of this property to a nice size three-family dwelling. You can see that we have no
plans for the use of the basement. The first floor you come in from Wayne Avenue and we have a good
size living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. You can go up the steps here in the
second floor apartment is basically the same designation as the first floor apartment.
The third floor apartment is also a two-bedroom apartment with one bathroom, a kitchen area here,
and some living space. These apartments are approximately 750 square feet, which would be
the third floor apartment, to 1,000 square feet, which would be the first floor and the second
floor apartments. It is our intention to offer what we would call affordable housing to the
residents of this community. Currently, I'm just going to scan down to the pictures.
This property is an abandoned property. It's been abandoned for many, many years. To the left of
the property is a vacant lot which we have maintained, cleaned, and cleared. You can see
the postings of the zoning hearing as well as the posting on the right of the community meeting
showing the people of the community when the meeting would be. The property to the right of
this property is listed as a single-family dwelling. I had an opportunity to speak to some
of the residents of this property. I would submit to you it's really not used as a single-family
dwelling it's a rooming house of some sort i uh spoke to the gentleman pardon the interruption
could you rotate that those exhibits
i wanted to show you the character of the neighborhood where we propose to develop
this three-family dwelling directly across the street is a big large multi-family dwelling that's
Directly across the street is a big, large multifamily dwelling that's coming up.
coming up.
To the left of that building, I think I have another shot here, is another warehouse type building, which I understand is going to be developed into another multifamily dwelling.
I took a picture of the actual block that our property is on.
I would like the board to note that there are, with the exception of this property that I spoke of, and I spoke to the residents of, there are no single family dwellings on this block.
This block is just filled with commercial uses, not the best well-kept block on the top of all of these properties here.
They're pretty much abandoned, and if they were in use, I suspect that they would be apartment or apartment type dwellings there.
Let me just rotate this again for you, I apologize.
I also canvassed both sides of the block up and down Wayne Avenue.
It consists of a few multifamily dwellings.
I took a picture of one.
You can see the three mailboxes or whatever there.
there are many multifamily dwellings on either side of Wayne Avenue. Commissioners, we did have
an opportunity. This is the corner of that block. It's another commercial development. On the top
here, you can see there's no development here, but if it were, it would be a multifamily development
of several apartments if, in fact, it were to be developed. Commissioners, we did have the
opportunity to meet with the silo community organization. I believe they sent a letter to
your attention, which I really would like to address, and if necessary, have my client give
some testimony in regard to the meeting. Commissioners, there were approximately
eight community members in attendance at the meeting who were there specifically for
4550 Wayne Avenue. There was another development there giving a presentation that night on Mannheim
Street. At the end of the meeting when the vote was taken is my recollection and my clients and
also the faith CDC's recollection that there was no one in opposition period to the project there
that we were trying to develop. We presented that we were trying to make housing that people
from the neighborhood could afford. The new development in the neighborhood is very, very
high priced. We represented to the community that our price point for these apartments would be
between $750 and $1,000. This would enable residents that already live in that area to be
able to still live in the area. Each apartment would be suitable for a small family or a single
person with one or two children. I understand that Solo sent in a letter indicating that the
community didn't come to a decision. I would highly disagree with that. There was no opposition
when the vote was taken. I was on the line for the entire time, so was my client. I believe you
also had a letter from the faith CDC who also attended the meeting that evening. Their recollection
of the vote and the concerns of the people at the meeting are consistent with mine. They did
offer a letter indicating that the community supported the development of this property as
requested uh excuse me this is sharon saletta we did receive a letter from solo and i believe that
their representative allison wise is also um in attendance to testify uh miss saletta i also
forwarded to your attention um the letter from the cdc faith community organization i did receive
that thank you okay so if you can uh summarize miss three uh in summary the development that
we're proposing is very, very consistent with the established development in the area. It's very
consistent with the new development across the street. It's one block from a transportation
center where it can be easily accessed and persons that are not, that do not have a car can
get back and forth to this development. That's something that might be attractive if in fact
a parking problem in the future develops we're not asking to expand the property we're not asking
for additional height the footprint of the property will remain the same it's consistent with
The footprint of the property will remain the same.
It's consistent with all the new development in the area.
The neighbors next door had no objection to the development of this property.
The community supported the development.
And I would respectfully request that the zoning board grant our variance request.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Anyone else would like to testify in this case?
if so please raise your hand here i have charles richardson from the council person's office
who's available at least one name thank you mr richardson please identify yourself with the
record i believe you're still on the road thank you mr chair charles richardson from the office
of councilwoman cindy bass room 312 city hall uh i am in possession of two documents one from solo
and one from Faith. They both pretty much list the same number of people that were
supportive of the project. And then on Solos, it has four individuals that were opposed that
or on the committee of the CDC.
Looking at the raw numbers,
the Councilwoman has no opposition
to granting this variance
because of the fact that the majority of the people
that were there were in support
of granting the variance.
Thank you.
Anyone else would like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
i have allison weiss you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in good afternoon miss weiss
please identify yourself spell your full name for the record and give us your address yes good
afternoon allison weiss a-l-l-i-s-o-n weiss w-e-i-s-s solo germantown civic association
4908 wayne avenue philadelphia 19144 thank you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes please proceed yes um there is um no disagreement that the community
did not oppose the variance the solo germantown civic association board members
support single family home ownership that is where the disagreement came also what was not presented
clearly is the that property is next to the corner of Wayne Avenue and Zeralda Street
Zorolda Street going up to Pulaski Avenue is all single-family zoned.
So it's not unreasonable that the area is designated single-family, RSA 5, I believe it is, or 3.
um there will be a serious congestion problem and the applicant did not present any hardship
at the meeting there was no hardship presented so for this reason we feel the property should
remain single family it was never the zoning that that property uh was lived in up until
maybe two years ago when there was a fire and the zoning was never changed from single
family to multi nor was the remaining building that's attached those homes were built as a row
of 12 single family homes and the corner yes was a commercial property the going north
on the corner where it's presently a grocery store. But there was no hardship presented
and for that reason we prefer the property remain single family. We have an abundance of
multi-family at this point. There's another apartment, a building, a historic building
that's being converted into 26 units, half a block away. And the large property across the street
which was a by right property cmx3 zoning 40 units so there's an abundance of one and two bedroom
um units just explain to me again hello the rco was in favor did i hear you say that yes i'm here
what please explain again no we favor single family home ownership but there was there was some
single family home ownership but there was a there was some confusion that that we couldn't
reach an agreement the the confusion was the rco did not reach an agreement with the community
the community supported the variance the rco did not support the variance okay okay thank you the
RCO board. Okay, understood. Anyone else wish to testify? Hello, RCO board does not want the variance.
Hello, anyone else would like to testify in this case? Commissioner, I do have my client on the
line. Mr. Taliff, are you on the line? Yes, I am on the line. Good afternoon, sir. Please identify
yourself for the record spell your first and last name uh mark talliff m-a-r-k-t-o-l-i-f
i'm the property manager and i work hand-in-hand with the developer
mr talliff did you attend the uh community excuse me excuse me excuse me excuse me you're not the
owner no uh miss three i don't think it's appropriate for us to uh very well commissioner
May I ask Ms. Weiss one or two questions, please?
Quickly.
Ms. Weiss, you would agree that currently there aren't 12 single-family houses on that block?
You have to unmute yourself.
I was on the RCO call, and I can attest to no one from the community.
I'm muted, Tim. You weren't sworn in, Mr. Tolloff, so you can't speak.
Was that Mr. I don't know. Was that Richardson?
No, Mark Tolloff.
Okay, thank you.
So Ms. Weiss is available for the questions. She's unmuted.
Ms. Weiss, would you agree that currently there aren't 12 single-family residences on that block?
I didn't do an inventory of all of the properties.
I did research on the attached property, which is zoned presently, single family.
There's no variance against that property.
I would say that I know there's one across the street that is not, and I know there are several on the 4600 block of Wayne.
and um there's okay so we're having issues having technical i would ask that we move on
yeah let's put this aside for the moment um i need to ask you tanya what how are we standing
with time on uh for your staff um so i would um ask that if we can wrap up about 12 45 one o'clock
longer so we have at least an hour for all staff involved. Okay all right and we could uh we're
going to move on on this one and we're going to go back to confessor. Like I said there's no shortage
of multi-unit. We're having technical difficulties Mr. Miss uh excuse me Miss Three. We're going to
get back to you thank you all right in the meantime it's confessor we're going to go back
to number 11 i understand the uh documents that we were waiting for from mr mulverhill arrived
okay so uh mi 2020-001194 3211-19 katham street
uh my vote is yes with the proviso revised plan one page approved today yes proviso
Is Tom there
Thank you
All right
Confessor
Let's see what we have
We got number 12 coming up
No that's one we just said
We'll put it on the side
tanya we have number five on our list 2204 north second mr zellers that we are we able to
get through with him oh yes we have um he did um say that he was prepared to go forward
okay so let's do that one confessor i'll read it in mi 2020-001203 2204 north
That's 001203-2204 North 2nd Street.
Good afternoon, Mr. Zellers.
Good afternoon.
Please identify yourself for the record.
Spell your first and last name and I'll swear you in.
My name is Theodore Zellers, T-H-E-O-D-O-R-E-Z-E-L-L-E-R-S.
You're swearing for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I didn't mean to interrupt your address.
My address is 2255 Waterloo Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19133.
Thank you.
Please proceed, sir.
Thank you.
Sorry about the difficulties before.
We'll have a problem today.
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, quotas and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Yes, I have a presentation here.
um you can share your some of your exhibits that would be helpful and then while you're doing that
uh what was the position of the rco they supported my project
um let's see
this is sharon saleta we also had a letter of non-opposition from councilwoman sanchez
uh anyone from uh is mr falks available mr folks
excuse the interruption mr zellers i'm just try to i don't see him okay all right so we do have
a letter from the councilwoman in non-opposition so mr zellers if you could give us a brief
description that would be helpful yes um are you able to see my screen yes okay excellent um
so yes um i am asking for a um essentially we would like to do um