how many people in the audience okay good good morning everyone my name is bill bergman and i
will be chairing this meeting of the philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our board
vice chair tenetta graham president mr chairman our board secretary shellel gaston president
mr chairman and our board member tya win who should be here any minute president mr chairman
in. Oh, she's going to stay online? No, I'll be there. Oh, okay. Yep. I know. I know. Thank you.
Also present is our board attorney, Hillary Emerson, our zoning board director,
Ian Haggerty, and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy. A recording of the hearing
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the doors in case of an evacuation the rally point is love park directly across
our street please remain there so that we can account for you let's look at our
schedule for this afternoon or this morning, I'm sorry.
Be right with you here.
Number five, yeah, I just can't get all these pages together.
It's here.
Number five, MI 2025, 005-548-1925-Denise Street.
That case is continued until 7-28-26 at 9.30 a.m.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
Good morning, Chair.
This is Jasmine, and I will be your co-host for this morning's session.
I see no hands at this time.
Thank you.
number three mi 2025 004 497 6020 palmer street um this is a a
resumptive hearing um maria linda movello navarro is the current owner
we have an interpreter for this case
good morning my name is steven aubain a-u-b-a-i-n interpreter d-y-m-2-8-8 i will be the
spanish interpreter thank you do you swear or affirm do you swear or affirm that you will
interpret accurately completely and impartially from english to spanish and from spanish to
English to the best of your ability. Yes, I do. Thank you. Could you please call for us, Maria?
thank you um could you please call for us maria navarro maria navarro si puede entrar a la llamada
good morning buenos dias
could you please uh have have the appellant state your name and spell for the sonographer
para el reportero um so i'm the expediter the owner will be here in five minutes i don't know
if you can proceed with another case until she arrives um we'll have to proceed with another
case and we'll we'll come back okay thank you very much sorry interpreter
Let's see here. So we're going to move to number two.
Number one, MI 2021-004-387-6809 Woodland Avenue.
Byrne Anastasio is the attorney.
Byrne Anastasio will be coming in as a panelist.
good morning mr chair good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer yes it's verne anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o on behalf of kenneth kendall
singleton terry swearer do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth i do cancel this as a resumptive hearing and um i believe the way we would do
I didn't I did have you you did right okay update from you questions from the board
public testimony just on what you have to offer today and then planning commission if they
choose to comment we met with the RCO last evening after many weeks of conversations with
the consortium. And I believe a letter has already been sent to the Zoning Board of Non-Opposition.
They unanimously support the idea of a personal care facility at this location that will be run
for the benefit of senior vets. And there are some provisos, all of which that are in that letter,
that all of which we agreed to okay um you have any comments first i think our council had a
couple yeah um mr anastasia i think previously there there was not the the presentation involved
the prior proposal so if you could just give some more information sure about the personal care home
that's being proposed now, that would be helpful.
It's not much different other than we're going to be bringing in an operator
that'll be, of course, that's the wrong binder.
Excuse me.
Yeah, I did.
I'll get it.
For the request of the consortium, we have put an application in for use as a personal
care home throughout the existing structure on 6809 woodland avenue
uh show you the plan this is the existing property in question
there will be two shared kitchens one on the first and one on the second floors
It'll be staffed 24-7.
And as I said, this will be geared for senior veterans care.
It's a need in the community.
There are other sort of facilities and group homes for those who are unhoused,
but there was a specific need for a property that would be able to house veterans.
And so after speaking with the consortium, we put together a proposal in order to do that.
We put together a proposal in order to do that.
Here's the interior.
Here's the interior photos of the property.
Byrne, how many patients are?
Up to five or six.
Probably not all at the beginning, but there are referral agencies that are already working with my client, and they're going to be bringing in an organization that serves just vets.
The consortium asked for a temporary variance of five years.
We agreed to that.
It asked for security system upgrades, both in the front, rear, and sides.
We agreed to that.
And I believe there's a few other minor provisos that we have no problem with as regard to trash, including these containers not being left outside.
There'll be a house in the rear or in a trash corral.
Vern, will you have your client come on and adopt your testimony?
Yes, please.
Yes, Kendall Singleton, if he's in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Kendall Singleton will be promoted to panelists.
Thank you.
Good morning, everybody.
good morning sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes is uh kendall singleton k-e-n-d-a-l-l-s-i-n-g-l-e-t-o-n you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel thank you kendall did you hear my
presentation to the board yes and is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge
that's correct and do you adopt your own testimony i do thank you i have nothing
further mr chair questions from the board yes i have a question um so are are is mr singleton
going to contract the services, the personal care home services out, so he won't be operating
in himself? That is correct. And I guess, have you done this before?
Yes, he's been doing this. So you have other houses like this?
Several others, and very well known in Southwest Philadelphia for doing these sorts of things.
In fact, we have, including in my exhibit packet, we have letters from various organizations stating that his commitment to the unhoused and to working with group care living is pretty well known.
Is this the first ones that's dedicated to veterans, senior veterans?
That's correct.
This will be the first one dedicated solely to senior vets.
He has housed other senior vets in the past, but not as an operation that will be just a home just for senior vets.
We have letters from RDS Home Care.
We have one from Community Treatment Teams.
And I believe we even have one from somebody else here.
Hold on.
Page 73.
The Department of Human Services.
we've got mario gallo uh maria gallo from the housing resource management uh folks
uh with valley youth house who have also worked with him in the past thank you yeah okay so how
many i i heard you say there would be five to six residents about five about five so how many
bedrooms in this there's seven bedrooms I believe six bedrooms yeah okay and how
many bathrooms I'll bring it back up for you okay okay I think it's two and you
said there were two kitchens so there's a kitchen on each I'll bring back the
plan for you basement is all storage and utilities first floor is a porch that
nice living area with open area kitchen then a bedroom in the back bedroom in
we've got a bedroom in the back a bedroom in the front and a full bath
the front and a full bath
the second floor is another little kitchenette area with two beds and a full bath shared
and then the top floor we've got two three additional bedrooms and a bath okay
so each person will have their own room i mean we're not sharing oh yes no no sharing okay and
And you said there'll be 24-7 coverage here.
So where will the caretakers or whoever you're going to have, the staff, where will they be?
They'll be working out of one of the bedrooms.
One of the bedrooms will not be used as a bed.
All right.
And is this facility already equipped with fire protection?
No, that will be the next, once we get through this stage, we'll have to go through that
as well.
All right.
So we don't have any of that.
And one of the provisos, just to be clear, one of the provisos from the RCO consortium
is that a CO was secured.
So in order to do that, well, in order to get that, we're going to have to go through
the fire protection.
Right.
And then you said there's a porch.
is that where the uh residents are gonna have some kind of outdoor space or is there
someplace else where they'll have some there's a backyard and there's a front porch
okay all the houses see all the houses here have porches okay and then um i guess my last
question is one that uh if board member johns was here he could better answer this than me
or maybe a board member win, but the bathrooms, are they handicapped, like accessible?
No, right now they're not. No.
Okay. So are you planning to do revisions?
At least one of them is going to have to be, yes. Yeah, yeah. We're going to have to outfit
all of that to meet all the requirements.
All right. And I also see that, you know, you access this property with steps. So, I mean,
And if you have residents who are not able to do steps and what have you, what is the plan for that?
Well, there actually are machines that you can attach here that can help folks up these stairs.
So, you know, we're going to need to be compliant with some of that in order to get, because this is going to be, you know, obviously these organizations are, there's oversight from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
and Mr. Singleton is going to have to do the upgrades to the property as needed.
All right. And then I guess my last question is, should there be medications and what have you
for the residents? Is there a plan for how that's going to be administered, where they will be
stored? Is there some sort of plan for that? There will, yes, there will be a plan for that
uh prior to the organization occupying the space of course okay but you don't have it right now
we don't have it because we don't have the operator yet okay all right thank you
could you show me how you access that rear yard are you do you have to go through someone's bedroom
to go to the rear yard no i don't believe so
you can access it from the side there's a there's a walkway right on the side of the house
there's a breezeway is there is there a rear is there a rear interior entrance uh exit to the
yard as well mr singleton there's a rear but it goes uh right now it goes into a unit yeah
i see so yeah it's not on the plan but so there's a there's a breezeway here
that is correct it's a cemented line um going all the way back
and that's part of your property is that correct so the lot is shared and i upkeep on the on the
lot as well i'm not sure it's a private lot but sometimes they're a lot the grass grows over the
top of it so we uh the landscaper actually clears the way it's a cemented way going all the way to
the back i see and the consortium of rcos last evening did in fact uh communicate a willingness
ask for mr singleton to actually acquire this lot as well for additional outdoor space for the for
the veterans okay um but to access it from the interior there's still steps of some sort that's
correct okay but the side there's a breezeway has mr singleton has set uh and that would be
right from the from the sidewalk gotcha all right thank you questions from our attorney
Oh, sorry.
I have a question about accessibility, just knowing that a lot of veterans are older and as they age, what's the plan for accessibility, both into the home and throughout the home?
Yeah, first into the home, there are there are machines that we can connect here to the step that we realize that people who cannot make stairs will need to ride.
up into the porch. As far as the interior is concerned, yes, we realize Mr. Singleton is going to have to turn one of those bedrooms into an either an ADA compliant or ADA adaptable space.
And he's fully understanding that that's going to be his responsibility in order for the operator to operate.
Okay, no further questions. Thank you.