those issues beyond which would normally be expected or associated with a nightclub or
private club. I think we've all seen those, and we know what those are like, and this is not that.
I will, I'd ask you to take a look at the letter of support from the community, which is a tab two.
Oops, I'm sorry. Tab two is actually the- Well, let me interrupt you. The RCO,
14th Ward Democratic Executive Committee, Westgerard Progress, is the RCO?
You're breaking up. Now you're frozen.
Can everyone hear me?
can everyone hear me yes okay he has a letter of support as we know with provisos
and none of them are enforceable by us other than um how we vote this
so you'll see a tab three the meeting we do see your your letter of support
with provisos none of which are enforceable by ellen i miss um soletta
Yes, Mr. Orfanides, can you confirm, I believe the RCOs said that these provisos that they were requesting are going to be incorporated into a community benefits agreement, is that correct?
That's correct. So you'll see, this is the letter that I believe that Diane Monroe sent to the full board.
She subsequently sent a letter to me and to Mary Jones, which is the same, except this right here, it says below provisos are hereby agreed upon.
And then where she says, recognizes to grant it, special exception, to discuss and finalize a community benefit agreement once she comes home.
Regina Farrell, who we were dealing with on this project, went into the hospital over the weekend.
We were engaged in discussions to finalize a CBA at the end of the week.
Last week, I called her on Saturday after my son's softball game.
She was literally getting CAT scans.
I mean, she was amazing enough to answer the phone.
But that's when Diane had to pick it up.
We had conversations.
I have forwarded an email to Mary Jones and that was a conversation between my client and I
where he confirmed and agreed that we would do a CBA for these conditions these provisos
and I forwarded that to Mary so that she had evidence of that Mary and I did speak yesterday
about this matter and she I told her verbally she has it in writing in an email from both my client
and me that we will do the CBA with these provisos that are included in the letter because we do
recognize that they're not enforceable they're not appropriate for the zoning board and they're
not enforceable okay can you ask your client to adopt your testimony i can can i just say one
last thing and then i'll stop i promise one last thing letters of support we have at tab two um
there are i think 20 some letters from immediate property owners 23 letters from property owners
residents on the on the block um between poplar and gerard by the way we are just a couple
properties south of gerard avenue all the business all businesses to the north of us
um right to the south of us of where residences start although there's a cmx1 and then there's
63 letters included in there um at 2b that are from other people users of the event space
who don't necessarily live in the immediate area
but have felt
and benefited, have felt the benefits
of this operation and benefited
from it. If you could
identify or have
Mr. Albuher
brought online
so he can adopt my statements.
What's that?
Just, yeah, raise your hand.
You have it as
Mr. Albuher.
has been allowed to speak can you all hear mr abuher
mr abuher name and address please and spell your last name
is your video on
sorry to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes, I do.
Okay, Mr. Fernandez, you're up.
Thank you.
Mr. Albuquer, first of all, you are one of the owners of Philly Construction Company,
LLC, the owner of Subject Property?
Yes, I do.
And you're one of the owners of the tenant and operator of Open Space Studio, LLC?
And did you hear the statements that I made to the board this morning regarding our case,
regarding your operations, regarding the evidence that I've submitted?
Yes, I did.
And are they true and correct, to the best of your knowledge?
True and correct.
And would you adopt all of those statements as your own?
I adopt it as my own.
Okay, thank you very much.
And understanding we have time limitations here, I am open to answering any other questions,
and I move for the introduction of our exhibits and our testimony into the record in this matter.
Thank you.
Is there anyone here who would like to testify?
But if so, please raise your hand.
Madam Chair, I have a Ms. Regina Farrell
with her hand raised.
I will allow her to speak at this time.
Thank you.
Look at her, her trooper.
Good morning.
Good morning. Can you put your name and address on the record, please?
Good morning.
Can you put your name and address on the record please?
Yes. Regina Farrell, R-E-G-I-N-A, F as in Frank, A-R-R-E-L-L, 1238 Wallace Street, W-A-L-L-A-C-E, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19123.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Okay. David?
this is your witness she's not my witness I think she was raising her hand to participate
which I'm okay I'm amazed by it's tremendous I hope you're well Regina okay you you may proceed
thank you I am actually the co-chair of the 14th board I am the person that he was referring to
I'm actually calling from Pennsylvania hospital oh my gosh yes we are in full support of the project
and um the provisos were um we did talk about doing a um cba in conjunction with the provisos
unfortunately as he explained i had gotten ill and wound up in the hospital in the midst of doing
this and our chair diane merrill wound up finishing it for me um and in addition to the
provisos and the CBA. We just wanted to stress that. We wanted to stick to the original hours
that was originally set forth by the original
plan that was set in force when they originally came up with it. But other than that,
we are in for support of it. Okay, thank you. And I hope you're feeling better.
you are a trooper yes thank you thank you are there any other witnesses
it will thank you or people who would like to testify
madam chair i have a miss michelle chan with her hand raised i will allow her to speak right now
thank you
hi um my name is michelle chan um i actually am a neighbor oh can you put your can you put your
you just put your name on the record but can you spell it and give us your address please and then
i'll swear you in okay um you said my name first sorry yes my name is michelle chan
and you said to put my address in yes and to spell your last name and spell my last name sorry um
c-h-a-n okay and your address it's 1010 north marshall street philadelphia pa 19123 okay do
you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing about the truth yes thank you you may
proceed hi um so i'm not this is my first zoning board meeting and um what i was concerned with
because i am a resident of this community um i did attend the first meeting publicly um sorry
i have a class going on right now um so um the noise was my issue um because i'm we shared that
alleyway and half the time the last three years I didn't know what his property was about and you
know it was just concerning that um the music at night when I was trying to sleep and like you know
I have a full-time job and stuff like that so it just makes it hard um so I wasn't sure of how to
go about this but I I don't know if you got my document I submitted in the by email this letter
i think i i wrote it to the roc zba and i wasn't sure if that was the appropriate spot
did you copy me on it um the email address would have been s-u-l-e-t-a-z-b-a at gmail
um z-o-z-r-c-o-z-b-a
at phila.gov okay no then i would not have a copy manager so i sent it to the wrong person
no no it's that i you um should copy me as well but okay um can i get i guess i'll get that contact
later um let's see sorry when was that maybe you could just let the board know what is in the email
or letter okay and first of all when it was submitted maybe too hold on
Give me one second.
give me one second
Sorry, can you come back to me while I find this or is that not possible?
all right um so
um so i also wrote up something about our neighborhood it was a petition
um because i didn't know like how to send this or whatnot um we actually you know uh it says
the neighborhood of the 10 000 block of north milshire street has ever been changing what was
once a block full of commercial buildings and stores have now changed the mostly residential
neighborhood it comes to our concern that open space has become a detriment to our neighborhood
we are frustrated and fed up because we don't know what else we can do to preserve the neighborhood
as residents we the neighbors constantly have to suffer with loud music loitering trash parking
issues that open spaces cause we know that there's other you know we can't just pinpoint
on open space but there are other commercials as well however you know it's our great concern
that granting this will cause over counting of purposes leading to loitering trash issues as
well as congestion on the street with parking already limited also improving this permit will
not just continue to disrupt the peace but exaggerate the current issues already listed
that making it incompatible with the hazard of health safety and welfare of this neighborhood
so that's a summary of what we did say um this to somebody then sorry
so you're opposed to this yes and i wasn't sure like who i was supposed to talk to or not
and you know i did talk to a few of my neighbors and there's at least 20 of us
that also agree and i did submit you can only speak for yourself oh okay yes okay is there
anyone else out there in virtual land uh who would like to testify
and i just hope eventually a chance to respond real briefly to some of these
I swear it will be less than a minute or two.
And also, Ms. Tenere, I believe there are a number of people on the line who are in support of the project,
and I don't think we need to have them all go and speak.
But if at some point you could ask the question to ask them to raise their hands and be identified,
and then we can count those hands and note for the record how many people are actually here on the call today
have taken the time out of their day to support this application and the granting of this special
exception i would greatly appreciate it okay is there anyone else here
who would like to testify in opposition
ma'am i have a jeffrey c30 with his hand raised
hi good morning um good morning can you put your name and address on the record please
and spell your last name yeah my last name is uh c-h-e-n
weren't you just on i'm sorry weren't you just on michelle no i was not okay
address uh 942 north marshall street okay um do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth
and nothing but the truth yes i do okay you may proceed yeah so i i've also been uh a resident
here for uh the past four years um and uh i i guess i just wanted to kind of comment on a couple
uh things i know i realized that there was a lot of support uh for open space um and i just want
to mention that um a lot of the surrounding built many of the surrounding buildings that uh mr
Albuquerque, he actually
he he actually owns he's owns a lot of the surrounding building so I I believe a lot of
owns a lot
of the surrounding buildings.
those um supports should be kind of discounted and I don't think that's I don't think that's
very fair um to have that many support with you know again I'm going to eject I'm going to check
can you speak to why you're opposed to this yeah sure um yeah I have the I have a lot of the same
issues that uh michelle brought up um you know there there's there there's there's constantly
there's constantly loud parties there um during weekdays i mean you know us resident us residents
there you know we we we have to go to work the next day and and sometimes you know we we can
hear the music from you know down the block it's it's it's it's it gets pretty crazy and then
Also, after the events, the loitering is a huge issue because a lot of event goers, you know, they, you know, they, they, they just fill up our street.
And then after the events, you know, a lot of times I'm waking, waking up by, you know, loud cars.
They, they, they blast their music and then they have, they almost have their own little parties outside on the, on the sidewalks.
Okay. Can I interrupt you? Can you give me your address again?
It's 942 North Marshall Street.
Okay, go ahead.
You may continue.
Thank you.
Yeah, so, I mean, it's, I think there needs to be some kind of restrictions put into place.
You know, I'm all for the events that they have, you know, I know they have some art exhibits sometimes and some cultural events.
like but when it just becomes like an hour outright nightclub and party it you know given
the fact that it's a residential area you know it there's a large disruption that that they cause
um and it's it's very concerning to me as a neighbor okay thank you
sure and can i i mean can i ask another question i guess
okay yeah so i mean i i guess i just had a question like what what like because i know
in the presentation i i know you mentioned uh special events uh what like what is defined as
a special event is like uh someone's birthday a special event or it's got to be a holiday or or
what like that would that would seem to be a special event a birthday a holiday an anniversary
so a special event is essentially anything is what is what uh any anything that that would
hold an event would be a special event is that is that is that my understanding i'm not answering
that okay i mean um i mean that's kind of the question i had there there were 18 events
or 43 events in 2018 64 in 2019 yes yeah and that's it's not a lot of events well and also
miss tenary let me give you the breakdown real quickly 2018 of the 43 12 baby bridal showers
i know they get pretty rowdy um you know uh four kindergarten and kids graduations those kids