And is it true and correct?
And do you adopt as your own testimony?
All right, thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Michael Adler.
Mr. Adler, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, Mr. Adler. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Michael Adler, A-D-L-E-R, and I'm counsel on behalf of a group of neighbors that have retained me in this matter.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Okay. I'll be brief. I represent at least four neighbors who've retained me. One has retained me since January of 2019.
And as Mr. Nockmson alluded to, just to give the panel a little flavor of what this block has dealt with, the Concept Realty, which is a management company owned by her mother, the applicant's mother, and the applicant herself served as a property manager, according to her LinkedIn page, during this whole time.
this property at 1910 South mole street was the subject of a let's just call it a nuisance house
there was illegal karaoke house there was dog fighting there was cases and cases of alcohol
outside with no permit so I've been involved since 2019 in getting the police involved and
getting the commission the councilman involved and then all of a sudden what we learned was that the
the property was then transferred for a dollar to her daughter. Ms. Pham did assist the mother,
assist with getting rid of that tenant eventually, but it took years. And then I will commend Mr.
Notcomson and the applicant. I sent a demand letter back in September, I think when we first
learned about this, that we were going to oppose this. And that's when we've had constructive
conversations with the applicant and Mr. Notcomson to, we thought that the third floor would be way
out of character. They've reduced that back to the second floor. We had a very contentious but
cordial RCO hearing just a few weeks ago. There was a vote. A lot of this came up, but more could
have come up. We're still in opposition of this, but we appreciate that they've been reasonable and
brought back their application. I know that there's a lot of other neighbors who are here today who
may have some more to say, and I'll defer to them, but it's still the position of the Neighborhood
association and the neighbors that I represent that they're in opposition basically because of
the lack of trust and the lack of hardship to this character to this property and most of the
hardship has been brought upon themselves I also want to note for the record it did come up at the
RCO hearing that the property just next door our understanding was it was such a nuisance that
that property the property next door being 1908 was just sold on April 14th so the neighbor who
is most affected to this probably has never even gotten notice of this. And when I say most
affected, it's because the breezeway would reduce the light that comes in from their side, not the
1912 side, but the 1908 side. So the applicant had stated that they would try to reach out to
the new owner. I don't know if anybody has been able to do that. So for those reasons, this is
still a block that is a hostile block. And we're trying to cool the temperature of the block
because of all the opposition
that's happened with this particular property
over the last four years.
Yeah, Mr. Chargis would like to quickly respond.
Yeah, so my client did take over the property
and she made diligent efforts
to get rid of a nuisance there,
a tenant that no one wanted there.
And then, you know, so I hope, you know,
that shows, you know, her good faith
in resolving this situation.
And she, again, does not condone her mother
there's activities um in terms of the effect on 1908 mall street we did try to reach out to them
to no avail um there is no windows on their side of facing us on the breezeway side so that's why
i took that extra picture to show that so they would not affect their light in there on the on
the wall that's facing us questions from the additional people in the virtual audience
Questions from the additional people in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Lisa Egle.
Ms. Egle, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Lisa Egle, spelled L-I-S-A-E-G-L-E.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am adjacent.
All right.
Are you against the property?
I was against the third floor roof deck addition, and I'm against the expansion on two floors.
The expansion on one floor, I understand my property itself did have that, and I do believe about four or five properties on the block have the same exact push out into the breezeway.
However, I'm not sure if they have it on both floors. And that was something that came up at the RCO meeting. But the reason I want to speak very briefly is that one of the other neighbors involved in retaining attorney Adler wrote a letter that she wanted to read today in case it was necessary. And I do not believe she is in the audience right now.
If she is, she would be raising her hand. Her name is Joanne Mellis, and she is at 1911 South
Mole. So I know we don't have a lot of time. So I'll try to just recap what's in the letter
instead of reading the letter. And essentially what she wanted to say, and again, this is her
letter, but it does represent those who retained attorney Adler. So Mr. Chair, just for legal
purposes I would object to her reading the letter and hearsay but I would I would let her read a
letter just for a technical objection okay all right so well I was gonna say we need to have a
copy of that letter the board has not received that it's not part of the record sure or or our
attorney could just speak for what was in the letter that's fine too well yeah I could just say
I echo what attorney Adler said about her being the property manager during the period of the
Houston's house. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Okay, is there anyone else
in the virtual audience? Chair, I've seen all the hands of this. Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. This is Aaron Holley, the Planning Commission staff.
Do I need to be sworn in? Yes, please. State your, you know, spell your name for the,
please. Yes, Aaron Holly, Planning Commission staff, spelled A-A-R-O-N-H-O-L-L-Y. Do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do.
Rashid. The conference plan recommends no change to the existing RSA single-family,
RSA-5 single-family zoning at this location. The proposed variances are minimal and do not
conflict with the purpose and spirit of the zoning code. City Planning Commission has no
objection to the granting of the variances. MI 2022-007-131-1910-South Mall Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes. I vote yes with revised plans, one page,
stamp by CBA, plan for 2023. Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with Proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Number 12, MI 2022-007-036, 5616 Woodland Avenue.
Alan Nockimson is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the Southwest Philadelphia District Services.
Applicant also provided a petition of support from approximately 16 neighbors.
for the record state your name oh yes alan knockamson and could you also identify your
client in relationship to this property oh yes uh i have the leasees here isaac deborah and d
williams i believe d williams is in the virtual audience okay and our vice chair has just a few
questions good afternoon counselor do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal we stipulate
towards accuracy? I did. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits needed to
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing? I did. Thank you. Please proceed.
Okay, so the last one for today, 5616 Woodland Avenue. I will go over the notice of refusal
So we're looking to put an event planning space here.
And, you know, because of how the Philadelphia Zoning Code is impartially drafted, it's
the philadelphia zoning code is in for in artfully drafted it's this is deemed a private club's
backslash nightclub uh which is not but um that's what it's noted as and you know that's what we're
asking for our variance for um we have a letter of support from the southwest philadelphia district
services that coordinating rco um i believe it was unanimous support we also have support from
the nearby, some nearby property owners. This, you'll see, is a former, looks like a former
office building, which has ample public parking of almost 170 parking spots. So unlike most event
planning spaces where you see in center of city Philadelphia, there's always a discussion.
Where are the cars going when you have an event? Well, we have a lot of 170 car capacity, so I
I think we're in a good spot there.
You'll see the petition.
We made a concerted effort to meet nearby neighbors, and we have support from those neighbors.
Maps of the area, photographs of the property in the surrounding area, sample work.
So Dee Williams, one of the leasees, her family is in the industry, the event planning industry.
And what she wanted was a brick-and-mortar site to do her family's company to do events.
And that's what we're hoping to do here at 5616 Woodland.
And you'll see some sample work product of theirs.
Our architectural plans and drawings, very simple plans, just showing what the space looks like.
RCO meeting notice, showing proof of that mail in that notice.
Our application for appeal, our lease showing that the initial terminal lease goes through
2030, October 2030, and our Certificate of Tax Clearance.
And again, in the virtual audience is Dean Williams, who at the conclusion of my presentation
should virtually raise her hand, be sworn in, and then she can adopt my testimony as
her own.
Notice of refusal.
This is an I-2 property.
um but does not have an industrial history at all if anything you look at it i think it was a
most recently a drug rehab facility but has been an office building um and we just want to
repurpose it as an event planning space uh which makes sense because we're on the commercial
border uh because we're in we're in an industrial district the proposed nightclub and private club
use is prohibited. And then, but we had a letter of support. We have unanimous support from not
just the community, but the RCO as well. They were just very happy to have the property activated,
honestly, which has not been the case for a number of years. And then this is an explanation
of their support as well. And then our petition, in addition to meeting with the community
through a RCO meeting, we actually did outreach as well.
Again, it's not a high residential neighborhood,
more on the commercial quarter.
So we tried to get as much support as close by as possible.
And then these are just the signatures of those individuals.
And then maps of the area, as you can see,
where I2 across the street is CMX2.
It looks like there is a sprinkling of RSA5
across the street as well.
But you can see we're just on the commercial corridor.
You know, we have a bus line here, ample public transportation, but we don't need it.
As you can see, we have a humongous parking lot.
And the photographs of the property, this is the front end property on Woodland Avenue.
This is showing the orange notice poster up for today's hearing.
Woodland Avenue is the right of the property.
Woodland Avenue is the left of the property.
just a sample work product that my client's very proud of and she's excited hopefully for
the opportunity to have a brick and mortar location for her events and the events of her clients
and then just our plans and drawings this is just a simple site plan but you can see the
parking lot is rather large and again our understanding is you can fit approximately
only 170 cars in there and then just our floor plans in general uh you know you see here we have
ample space for events there are a couple offices here for my clients obviously public
restrooms there's some storage for them and then you know just our our community notice we had a
meeting on April 20th at 6 p.m 60 addresses were notified of that meeting these are the addresses
Proof of mailing to those addresses, our application for appeal, our lease of the property showing that it's the lease, you know, technically was supposed to start October 1st, 2022.
It's the lease, you know, technically we're supposed to start October 1st, 2022.
We haven't done anything yet, but it ends eight years from the commencement date.
So eight years from October 1st of 2022, which goes October 1st of 2030.
And this is the whole lease in general.
Get through it.
And then there's a certificate of tax money showing that no taxes are owed on the property.
With that being said, I would ask that Dee virtually raise her hands.
Oh, and is there other industrial operations in the area?
No, I don't believe so.
Okay, thank you.
And again, this property has a history of being an office building or drug.
Mr. Nackamson, what is your client's name?
D. Williams.
Ms. Williams, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
Chair, I see no hands at this time.
Nackamson, we will accept your testimony as an officer of the court.
Questions from the board?
The board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Aaron Hawley, Planning Commission staff.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing I-2 industrial zoning in this location.
The appellant has not supported their hardship claim with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property.
The thought has not shown that the property cannot visit cannot possibly be used in strict conformity with the zoning code and that the variance is therefore necessary to enable the viable economic use of the property.
City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the variance.
Mr. Nockimson, what I want to do is I'm going to take this to the executive session next week.
I'd really like to talk to the other board members about the whole industrial issue and see exactly where we stand with that.