chair we have fred gethers okay
good morning mr chairman good morning good morning sir could you state your name and spell for the
court reporter? Fred Gethers, F-R-E-D-G-E-A-T-H-E-R-S. Do you swear or fraud?
G-E-A-T-H-E-R-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Rasheed.
I'm the block captain of the 6100 block of Oxford Street.
There are a couple houses on the block that are triplexes that were grandfathered in.
We're presently as a block, as a community, trying to stop any more triplexes.
We're overwhelmed with the residents.
At the west side of the block, southwest side, we have the Monte Vista apartment building, which is a behemoth apartment building.
it's like over 300 apartments um i also i'm the one that submitted the paperwork and i submitted
some videos to you also about the ongoing at that um property and i understand that you can't show
them because of profanity but um there were residents there that were threatening to fight
the neighbors on one of the videos threatening is this property here you're saying oh yes right
okay so so let's go beyond the fights just tell me where you stand on the property and what do
you want us to do what i and the block um do not want this zoned as a um three family unit we would
If it has to be a two family unit, then so be it. But even more, it's a lot of people to come in front of the zoning board. They already transform their property without permission and then say, hey, well, it's going to be a hardship if you if you make us turn it back.
They can't be rewarded for the illegal activities.
She owns other properties.
They know how to do this.
So it's odd that on this property, well, we didn't know.
And again, the work done, there was no permits or anything for it.
It was just her husband went in and did the work.
So I didn't know what was going on.
So, Ms. Sarah, you're against it, you're saying?
I blocked the community as seen by the petition that was submitted.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
We have Gregory Allen.
Good morning, Mr. Allen.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Good morning, Chair.
Good morning, Board.
My name is Gregory Allen, G-R-E-G-O-R-Y, last name A-L-L-E-N.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
So I support, and our RCO, Overbrook Western Neighbors, supports this block.
It is a very organized and very tight-knit block.
They have, I mean, I can't even begin to tell you how well they maintain their properties and how they work together.
My only thing to add to what Mr. Gethers said is that this has been going on for over a year now.
And so we respectfully ask that it be decided today.
And where are you on this, sir?
Over Brookwest Neighbors.
No, no, no. Where are you with this property? Are you? I'm opposed. You're what? Opposed. Okay. Thank you very much for calling in and taking the time. Okay. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? I see no other hands, Chair. Okay. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location. The last recorded legal use was, as has been established, a two-family dwelling. We don't find evidence of unusual conditions of the lot or the structure that would compel the addition of a third dwelling unit. Properties on either side, we would note for the board of this property, are two-family dwellings as well. City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny this variance.
Thank you. May I say something? You can. Okay. I do know that I take care of basically the lawn
on the property next door, which is vacant and very terrible condition. Let's talk about your
property. Let's talk about it. My property has an alarm system. My property has good tenants.
My property is well-maintained.
My property is not as an asset to the community as a whole.
as an asset to the community as a hold.
As you can see, my property is in excellent condition
and my tenants are good tenants.
I really don't, I personally, like I said before,
I had no idea myself who owns this property
that everything wasn't taken care of
as far as going before the zoning board in advance.
I mean, I honestly don't.
So I really would appreciate if this was approved, et cetera.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
MI 2021, 003-786-6134 West Oxford Street.
I vote no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you.
All right, so we're back to Mr. Feynman. MI 2021-00128-1737 Bergen Street. Mr. Feynman.
Mr. Feynman. Sorry, Chair. He's unmuted. I'm not sure what's going on.
Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Feynman.
chair it looks like he's on another device so i'm promoting him to
panelists now all right thank you now i'm back as a panelist thank you very much all right mr
we okay now i i believe so and i thank everyone for their patience and okay so why don't we start
you sharing your screen. Okay. One moment here. I'm pulling up the document now.
no i don't see the link on that computer it's not on here
mr chair my apologies i have two computers up here on the one the laptop i i have for showing
this and sharing the screen but on my desktop which is uh it's not showing capability of
sharing a screen for some reason it's just showing chat raise hand and q a
you you don't you don't see where the green button says share screen i have that on my laptop but
that's that's the one where i don't have the documents i have the documents on the desktop
and it's not showing on the desktop as I'm looking.
Can you raise your hand on that device
so we can promote it to panelists?
Raise your hand.
There we go.
Join us, panelists.
I think we, okay.
Now you'll be able to share your screen on that.
There we go.
Pull up the document.
there you go yeah there we go we're making progress and i thank everyone for their
assistance and patience here it's a fine bit before i mean we've we've sworn you in and we
just identify your client again so we and the relationship to the property yes again my client
is lna installations llc the sole member and principal of the entity is yusuf y i'm u-s-e-p-h
abu ali a-b-u-a-l-i all right good proceed sir share your documents okay so the the first
open document
can you see that um no i don't see it there
and are you able to is there a link to show sharing it it says you are screen sharing
can we open that
can we open that it looks like it's open on this end here okay so what you would have to do is
just stop um sharing stop share yep and now that you have your documents open you can uh share
your screen and just click on the open document click on the open document
okay and we're still getting your uh your documents your whole list of documents
not yet click on the particular document itself i did click share
there we have there we go okay so uh first is the witness list uh next scroll down next
This is the refusal, and you'll note in the refusal, it reflects that the application is for the legalization of the removal of one off-street accessory interior parking space in the existing semi-detached structure and for one new off-street accessory surface parking space.
Site and location is shown on the plan.
If I may, by way of background, this property is a twin rancher in the Bell's Corner area of northeast Philadelphia.
And the property is rented out to a tenant.
While the tenant was occupying the property, the tenant's son was involved in a very bad motor vehicle accident.
And as a result of that accident, the tenant's son became paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
The tenant had been living in the property rented by the owner and approached the owner about the ability to stay there.
However, the son, because of being confined to a wheelchair, did not have the capability of having access to the upper portion of the rancher because of the stairs.
They asked whether or not there would be the ability to convert the basement into living quarters using the garage space of the basement and the basement living space to make it into, in effect, an apartment there for him to use so that he could just wheel right in off of the sidewalk where the driveway is.
So by way of background, it gives you a sense of what the objective was.
The next document is the actual application for the appeal itself.
And again, indicating the nature of the appeal and the attachments will keep scrolling down.
And the type page there reflects what I just indicated to the panel.
And it also indicates that there's no change in the exterior space or sidewalk that's there.
Basically, what's being asked here is to have the permission to remove the garage door, replace it with a solid door, a solid wall with a window in it.
There is a door next to the garage.
And I'll have photos of that in a moment.
the idea being making the basement and garage area into living space the next document
is the tax clearance the next document this is the drawing of the space and as you notice
in looking at the drawing. The center, if you look what is the brick there, that would be showing
in the center of that where the siding would be replacing the garage door and
on the far, on the top of that drawing, because the drawing is turned around, the top of that
drawing shows the diagram basically the footprint of the of the property itself. Mr. Feynman do you
have photos? Yes they're they're I was just gonna say the next are the photos so first you have the
aerial view there but you'll see the front and we'll scroll to the next photo that's the front
of the property as I indicated it's a twin rancher there and the property is the one to the left
where there's the grass next to the the wall next photo shows the side view and you see two
entrances one to the living room one to the kitchen with stairs there keeping in mind when we go back
to keeping in mind the front of the property has an additional set of steps next photo shows the
back of the property and a little higher up there and you'll see where
And you'll see where the siding is already put in place with the windows. The garage door was taken out. There's no change in this concrete of the driveway itself.
The next photo shows a similar image, and then the next series of photos shows the interior of the unit and what was done inside.
So what we're looking to do is to legalize this conversion and change over into a living unit.
Next, this shows the different rooms, shows a bathroom that was installed there.
next shows the hall and that doorway leads out to the exterior of the property which was shown
in the earlier photograph those are the photos that we have this was the d we're showing that
That's owned by L and A, the next document.
As I indicated earlier, I received this morning the copy of the RCO, which was forwarded directly over to the panel.
I did not have that uploaded.
There was a meeting that was scheduled.
It took place on July the 20th of 2022, and there was a letter that went over to Mr. DiCicco on that date, indicating that there was seven board members present.
They vote, all seven voted in favor of it.
There was no opposition.
the change in the the configuration is really just the appearance on the exterior
and instead of a garage door as it indicated it is the solid door with the wind um the solid wall
with the window there so it's not changing aesthetically the appearance of the of the
neighborhood there's no additional burden on the property the same people that have been living in
continue to live there and that um it allows access for the disabled son
so the fact of the matter is he the garage door has been taken out a new wall was put up
he's going to enter through he's going to enter through there and his living quarters will be
right behind there right that is correct and he's been doing that what happened was he did that and
and they realized that they were not, they did not go through the proper process.
Okay. All right.
So we're filing to legalize what they did. And like I said,
we work closely with the RCO to make sure that they provided,
they had the information.
Mr. Feynman, is your client available to adopt your testimony?
again good morning for for the i could hi could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter please yusuf abwali u-s-e-p-h just try speak good get a little closer we're having a
hard time hearing you yusuf abwali u-s-e-p-h a-b-u-a-l-i right do you swear firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do thank you proceed counsel
Yes. Yusuf, you just heard me give a description of what your application is about and the reasons why you're seeking to make this change and to legalize what's currently there. Do you agree that what I've represented to the board today is what the situation is and that I've accurately described what you're seeking to do?
And it is your intention and plan to legalize this so that you can continue allowing the tenant live there with their disabled son?
yes okay thank you questions from the board yes mr chairman no mr chairman counselor is there a
kitchen oh is the kitchen in the in the downstairs yes is there open flame no it's electric electric
thank you all right questions or comments from the virtual audience excuse me mr chair this is
Hillary. Um, so in viewing the pictures and knowing that there's a stove, um, I, I don't
think the board can vote on this case as it is because this is asking, um, for parking and what
has actually occurred in this case is an additional dwelling unit. Um, so there really
should, this refusal needs to be amended to reflect that, um, that there is being an additional
dwelling unit and that there would also be an additional refusal, um, for having two dwelling
units in a property that is zoned RSA 3. So I think the board needs to continue this matter
So I think the board needs to continue this matter and it needs to be a request needs to be made to amend the application by L&I.
and it needs to be requested.
If I may, if I may address it, we're not seeking to have a second living quarters there.