I think somebody got my name under Thomas Holloman.
I'm going to change it.
I corrected it for you, Mr. Shahid.
Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
Good morning.
And Chair, we have 32 attendees.
You can start as you wish.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
Sorry we were running a little late.
We had a technical issue.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's meetings.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Holloman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our Board Member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is our Attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised the proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phila .gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we asked attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267 -270 -5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony. All comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunken. Let's look at today's schedule.
Well, number three, MI 2023 -003 -681 -147 West Luray Street.
That case has been continued.
Number eight, MI 2023 -003 -721 -241 East Armat Street, that case has been continued.
Number nine.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, with number eight, can we see if the applicant is present?
Because the continuance request came from the RCO.
Thank you.
Theodore Tillman or Tanya Watson -Govin?
Good morning, Chair. This is Yvette Benton. I'll be your co -host for today. I see no hands at this time.
Thank you. So MI 2023 -003 -721 -241 East Armat Street. The case is continued. Marked must be heard.
Number nine, MI 2023 -005 -883, 63 -41 Castor Avenue.
Is Mr. Patterson available?
Chair Ronald Patterson has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Morning.
Morning, Mr. Patterson.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court sonographer?
Ronald Patterson, P -A -T -T -E -R -S -O -N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Patterson, do we have a proof of mailing to the near neighbors on this case?
6331 Caster, Mr. Chairman?
Yes, I do.
Hilary, then we're ready to move with this.
Am I right?
Can he please send that to me so I can review it prior to make sure that it meets the requirements since there was no RCO meeting in this case?
And we have an email that was sent from the RCO.
We had met on this earlier in the year for takeout and drive -through, and then we changed it just to drive -through.
I'm sorry, just to take out.
so i guess the rco felt there was no need for another meeting but i still sent the the notice
out and then on friday the rco sent uh an email to board council with its position so i will i
will forward that again now okay okay thank you we'll get back to you mr patterson thank you all
Okay. Okay. Thank you. We'll get back to you, Mr. Patterson. Thank you. All right. Number 10, MI 2023 -002 -897 -2001 East Lehigh Avenue. The hearing on this matter will occur on Wednesday, January 24th at 9 .30 a .m.
And number 13, MI 2023 -004 -267 -900 East Shelton Avenue, the case has been continued.
Is there anyone in the audience who has comments relative to the cases that were continued or has additional requests for continuance?
chair we have a devin last name i can't pronounce they've been unmuted and allowed to speak
good morning chair my name is devin i'm an attorney from legis group um i represent
hold on one minute mr mr sir could you spell your name for the court reporter
devin d -e -v -i -n last name ukda u -q -d -a -h right do you swear or firm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sure what case do you want to talk about um so two
in reference two i represent two cases so the first one is uh 50 21 woodland avenue i i see
that yes um so i was going to request a continuance for that one yep so so for the record
mi 2023 003 683 5021 woodland avenue this is the first listing cases continued and what's the
second case? Uh, 1215 Tioga. 1215 Tioga. I see that. Okay. So MI 2023 003 682 1215 West Tioga
Street cases continued. No, thank you, sir. Sure. Um, quick question. Um, Tioga was actually
scheduled for a hearing today. I'm not requesting a continuance for that one. You're going to go
Today, the attorney of record is now a city council member, so he cannot actually take the case.
I'm his partner. I'll take the case and I have everything ready to go.
So what we do not have any exhibits on that.
Am I correct, Hillary?
That is correct, Mr. Chair. We have no exhibits.
Council.
Hi, Chair. This is Tanya. Is it OK if I speak to the attorney?
You most certainly can.
Mr. Upton, if I can request that you contact our office, we know there was a change in attorneys. We will rearrange the date really soon because we're settling far out. But please contact us and provide all the required documents and we can have you in as soon as next week. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. So MI 2023 -003 -682 -1215 West Tioga Street, that case is continued.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
Chair, we have Strawberry Mansion Community. With their hand up, they have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Hi, good morning, Chairman and Board. I was inquiring in reference to 3029 Woods Avenue.
Do me a favor, state your name for the record first.
Monita Cummings.
Yep, and spell for the court reporter. Thank you.
B -O -N -I -T -A -C -U -M -M -I -N -G -S.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And the case you're interested in is?
3029 Ridge Avenue.
I see that case. Yes, I do.
It was, I was just, is that being continued or is that?
I have no, I have not heard from that attorney where this case will go on.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
All right.
There's a few other cases here that we don't have.
Exhibits.
Number five, MI 2023 -003 -719 -849 North Newkirk Street.
Laura Brown is the owner applicant. There is no exhibits. This is the first listing.
Laura Brown, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
Chair, I see no one by that name with their hand up, but we do have France Pierre with his hand up.
He's been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Good morning, sir. Could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning, sir. Could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Mr. Pierre, unmute yourself, please.
Mr. Pierre?
Mr. Pierre, please unmute yourself.
Good morning, sir.
Mr. Pierre, please unmute yourself for the chair.
It seems like he's having technical difficulties here.
Hello?
Mr. Pierre.
Good morning.
Could you state your name, please, to spell for the court sonographer?
Good morning.
Mr. Chairman, yes, that's Frantz, that's F -R -A -N -T -Z, last name Pierre, P -I -E -R -R -E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
What case are you interested in?
Yes, I am interested in 1614 Porter Street.
Let me see what that is here.
As well as 1700 Reed Street.
Hold on a minute.
1614 Porter Street.
I'm about to call that.
At this point, we have no exhibits for that.
And it's the first listing.
I have not got to that yet.
And the other one you had was Reed Street, am I right?
Yes, sir.
What one's Reed Street?
What number?
I don't have it.
No, no, I'm talking.
That's number two, Mr. Chair.
That's scheduled to be heard but held today because there'll be a follow -up RCO meeting later tonight.
Yeah, correct. And that's what I wanted to mention.
Yeah, absolutely. We're going to we're going to hear that today and we'll have a resumptive hearing.
Wonderful. And then 1614 quarter, they never showed up to the RCO.
So, yeah, that's right. I should be calling that very shortly, sir.
OK, wonderful. Thank you. Thank you very much.
OK. All right. So on that number here, where I am now, five.
All right. So we handled five, right? Am I correct?
yep i don't believe we did mr chair okay we didn't uh yeah i don't believe we had anybody
appear for right mi 2023 003 719 849 north new kirk street that case is continuing mark must be heard
Number 11, MI2023 -003 -649 -1614 Porter Street.
We have no exhibits as the first listing.
Steven Jasmini and Carmen Matei from CGI Construction.
Is anyone in the audience?
i see no hands chair so mi2023 003 649 1614 porter street this is the first listing mark must be
heard continued. And also, number one, MI 2023 -003 -728 -1525R, South 12th Street. Jonathan
Holt is the listed applicant, and MPH LLC is listed also. Are they in the audience?
Jonathan Holt, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
i see no one by that name chair okay so mi 2023 003 728 1525 rear south 12th street
cases continued mark must be heard
And number 17, MI 2023 -003 -643 -2532 to 30.
0 -0 -3 -6 -4 -3 -25 -32 -34 -North Broad Street.
Roger Perry is the attorney.
Is Mr. Perry in the audience?
Chair, I see no one by that name.
Okay, so MI -2023, 0 -0 -3 -6 -4 -3 -25 -32 -34 -North Broad Street.
That case is continued.
Mark must be heard.
We're going to go to our add -ins.
MI 2023 -003 -3489 -2124 North Hancock Street.
I vote yes for the proposed solid 72 -inch wall on the second floor roof.
Proviso all other refusals and are no.
Is that appropriate, Hillary?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
All refusals are denied except for the 72 -inch wall.
Thank you.
Thank you.
thomas holloman my vote is yes with proviso
jane snell my vote is yes with proviso ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with proviso
thank you we're going to go to number 14 mi 2023 003 668 1410 alden street
Mark Rowe is the owner applicant. This application is for a two -family household living in an existing structure. The proposed use of two -family household living is prohibited in the RSA 3 zoning district. Mr. Rowe.
Chair, Mark Rowe is coming back in as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Rowe.
Mr. Rowe, could you unmute yourself, please?
Good morning, Mr. Rowe.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Mark Rowe, M -A -R -K -R -O -W -E.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I have emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
uh so i the exhibits were sent in on friday the 12th the meeting information from the rco
uh was sent in on monday got it okay i believe we received it uh please proceed and share your screen
okay see you mr open okay so this this is the front of the building with the the posted notice
okay um it's the second one um on the right hand side you can see there's two groups of duplexes
um they're all built as duplexes so all four buildings they um they were built as i just
want to use it um the way it was built um got two gas meters two electric meters
two boilers, two hot water heaters.
Here's a photo of the common hallway.
I have photos of the second floor apartment.
Both units are occupied.
To respect the privacy of the first floor tenant,
I did not provide pictures of the first floor apartment.
But we have the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom,
uh the bedroom the first bedroom and the second bedroom those are all photos of the
second floor apartment both apartments are identical
both apartments are identical okay um
questions from the board no mr chairman no chair chair no chair questions or comments from
our attorney hillary emerson uh just a quick question um for mr roe mr roe is there any
parking at the property there there is a driveway um it's it's good for about one car
okay you can get two cars in it um but you know one's gonna have to move you know like they're
gonna go they're gonna go stacked on top of each other so um you know the one that's gonna be in
the rear uh you know is gonna you know somebody had to move first yeah right okay so there's
There's enough space. You're saying there's enough space for two car parking if it's exact parking.
That's correct.
Okay. I just want to make sure that was on the record because the property is zoned RSA 3 and that requires one parking space per unit.
So just wanted to note that there is parking at the property. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no hands share planning commission good morning this is uh ron bednar city planning
first name ron r -o -n last name bednar b -e -d -n -a -r do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed uh this property is indicated for residential
on the city plan given the adjacent established use characteristics
recommended the quest variance be granted. Thank you. MI 2023 -003 -668 -1410 Alden Street,
I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shahid,
my vote is yes. Thank you. You have your vote, sir. Okay, thank you. Okay. Number two,
MI 2023 -003 -669 -1700 Reed Street.
Ernest Anastasio is the attorney.
Here, Ms. Anastasio is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good morning, Mr. Anastasio.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Vern Anastasio, A -N -A -S -T -A -S -I -O, 2016 Spruce Street, Philadelphia.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your clients and their relationship to the property?
I represent Mr. Arden Tenechuey, and he is the owner of the property, and he'll be the
occupant as well.
Okay. Our vice chair has just a few questions, but this is the case we're going to eventually hold for a resumptive hearing at a later date.
That's correct. We already had one RCO meeting. They just wanted to do a brief follow -up, and we're actually meeting with them tonight.
All right. Thank you.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stimulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case?
five days in advance of this hearing yes sir thank you please proceed you've already shared
your screen thank you mr chair members of the board this is 1700 reed street right on the
corner uh the applicant it's only a two -story building so we are asking uh the application
for a third floor addition we still stay within the height requirements uh and my client in
In addition to living on the second floor, a residential unit, he would like to operate a breakfast and lunch restaurant on the first floor.
It'll be very akin to popular breakfast, lunch spots like Green Eggs and Sabrina's.
They'll be closed by five o 'clock in the in the afternoon.
So it's strictly breakfast, lunch and brunch on the weekends.
so that's uh this is zone cmx one as a result of the request for a sit down restaurant we do have
to seek the variants so here is um one second here is the uh the plot plan as you can see
proposed the third floor addition is on the corner and i'm going to
And I'm going to go to the, this is what the rough rendering would be.
Thank you.
The exhaust fan, however, will be at the roof line so as not to interfere with any pedestrian activity.
Here's the proposed third floor layout.
The staircase at the side would be a full kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms and a bath.
Current second floor would remain the same.
This is the unit that my client will occupy.
It's two -bedroom, one -bath unit.
And here's the restaurant.
Proposed first floor, we've got about 12 two tops, got a common corridor, got open kitchen, full ADA compliant bathroom, and storage and materials in the basement area.
We have dedicated trash space.
As I said, the vent will be on the third floor, close to the facade, as a request from the immediate neighbors.
It is a corner property, which we do believe is conducive to the density that we're requesting, and we are staying within the height limit.
The hours of operation are 7 a .m. to 5 p .m., again, strictly breakfast and lunch, so as not to impact the traffic and parking issues after 5 o 'clock when folks get home from work.
It will be open seven days a week, looking for about at any one time, maybe a half a dozen employees on site.
As I said, there would be trash storage with a corral on the side against the property and daily commercial trash pickup pursuant to the community's wishes.
There will also be lighting on the property around the entire corner in the evening to offer safety concerns as well, since the first floor will not be activated after five o 'clock.
Because this sits on a corner property in a neighborhood that is interested in having
an amenity like this that will actually improve that corner, we respectfully request the granting
of the variance as it is a long history of commercial activity on that spot.
spot. And with that, I'd like
Mr. Arden Textahue to
raise his hand.
Arben Textahue has been unmuted and allowed to
speak. Morning, sir. Could you
state your name, please, and spell for the court
stenographer? My name is
Arben Textahue, A -R -B -E -N,
last name is
T -E -N -E -Q -E -X -H -I -U.
Right. Do you swear
or affirm the tell the truth, the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel thank you arden did you hear my presentation to
the board today yes is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes and do you adopt
it as your own testimony yes thank you very much thank you questions from the board no mr chairman
no chair questions from our attorney hillary emerson no questions mr chair but i just want
to note the resumption date for this case will be february 21st at 2 p .m again that's february
21st at 2 p .m a point will take um any testimony or note a letter from the rco um we also take
public testimony and the recommendation of the planning commission along with any response
from the applicant thank you thank you thank you chair i just wanted to make one quick note sure
This property is, in fact, zoned CMX1. There are permissible uses that could go there. The problem is that it's at 17th and Reed. And two blocks away, you have Broad Street. And that is where the major commercial activity takes place.
and that's where you have an overabundance of cmx1 and cmx2 uses as a result the only uses that would
be something that the community would actually want in a tightly knit residential block is going
to be something they can use uh and something like a breakfast and lunch spot for them is ideally
exactly what they'd like there aside from um you know but not yet another bodega or something like
that that they would prefer to avoid thank you thank you counsel appreciate it yep okay
Thank you. Thank you, Council. Appreciate it. Yep. Okay. Number. Do we get the planning commissions here? I think we're going to hold that, right? Oh, are we? We'll hold the planning commission, right? We'll hold for everything until the follow -up RCO meeting.
Thank you all. Have a good day. Thank you. Mr. Chair, before we move on to the next case, Mr. Reuter just wanted to say a couple of brief words.
thank you mr reuter leonard reuter yes and allowed to speak
uh good morning can you hear me morning morning counsel could you state your name
please and spell for the court stenographer sure this is uh leonard reuter r -e -u -t -e -r
senior attorney for the city of philadelphia uh i just affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth uh i do this is not in relation to any case though i just wanted to
make an announcement to the board and to anybody in the audience. Pretty much, I think many of you
already know this, but Joe Beller, a longtime attorney in the city of Philadelphia and land
use and zoning practice for, I believe, over 50 years passed away on January 13th. So pretty much
anybody that's been involved in land use or zoning in the city of Philadelphia of the last 50 years
as deltwood joe um he was a great attorney a great friend uh personally a mentor of mine
helped me out a lot when i was briefly in private practice and even when i the times that i've worked
for the city he was very helpful and and mentored me and a lot of other younger attorneys that i
know even up until you know he you know pretty much you know more or less retired over the last
couple years so i i know a lot of people and i know tanya and a number of other people you know
who work for the zoning board have known joe for a long time and auburn knows him so knew him so
uh i i know it's kind of late because uh his funeral is actually scheduled for today but
yeah but uh but that being said um you know so i i thought everybody out there should know and
Maybe just take a moment to think, to remember Joe and everything he's done for everybody, pretty much everybody in the city of Philadelphia.
Leonard, there was emails all weekend long about it, and it just, they praised him to no end.
So we appreciate that, and I'm sure the zoning board is a better place because of him.
Thank you, Leonard.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Let's see here.
Number four, MI 2023 -005 -179 -2002 Brown Street.
Jack Huppert is the attorney for the owner.
There was a meeting held on 12 -13 -23.
At this point, we do not have a letter.
chair jack hubbard is coming back in as a panelist now
morning mr chairman morning mr hubbard could you state your name please and spell for the
court stenographer my name is jack hubbard h -u -b -b -e -r -t do you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you turn your video on please
oh i'm sorry i thought it was on i apologize there we go
could you identify your client and the relationship to the property yes my client is
mr perlstein and he is available and on the call um when uh when it's appropriate and our vice
chair has just a few questions for you sir sure sure good morning counsel do you agree to waive
the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy yes i do have you emailed in all the
required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in
advance of this hearing? Yes, although I think some documents, particularly the RCO letter,
came in a little later than that. Understood. Please proceed. You've already shared your screen.
This property is located near 20th and Brown. It's traditionally, this was a rehab. This was
brand new single family home built in what used to look like these right here. This one was built
and you can see that there was traditionally front accessory parking at these units and what
we're here requesting is simply the legalization of what has historically always been there on
this property and is very common in this particular neighborhood.
in this particular neighborhood.
We have pictures of the,
these are other properties on the same street.
You can see all the front accessory parking.
We posted our zoning notice back December 26th,
21 days in advance, met with the RCO.
There was no objections from the RCO.
um so at this point i would like to have my uh client mr perlstein uh get sworn in
could you make sure we receive a copy one of the rco letter and do you have the rco letter there
and then i do if you why don't you show us the rco i thought hillary i thought hillary had it i'm
sorry. Let me just download it and I'm going to unshare my
screen and reshare it I think is what I got to do.
We're good. Can you see it?
I can't say take it take it up a little bit here.
okay thank you we're good okay yeah why don't you bring your client on okay um bob can you uh put your
hand up boris borsley has been unmuted and allowed to speak good morning sir could you state your
name please and spell for the court stenographer uh boris perlstein b -o -r -i -s p -e -r -e -l -s -h -t -e -y -n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
i do please proceed counsel uh mr perlstein did you hear my uh presentation to the board just now
Yeah, I did.
Do you have anything to add to what I said?
I don't know.
I've been living in this community for 20 years and building maybe 20 houses like that.
And each house, when approved for the parking on Uber Street, on Brown Street, on 19th Street, on 20th Street,
all these houses uh were set set back about 20 to 30 feet and they all were approved by the
ba for the last 10 years okay so you're saying this is consistent with this particular neighborhood
where you've built uh several houses yes so do you adopt my presentation as your own testimony
yes thank you you're welcome questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from hillary emerson our attorney i'm only to reiterate uh if you could
send that letter and as soon as you can that would be great thank you i'll send it to you
right now when we're done all right questions or comments from the virtual audience
i've seen no hands chair planning commission uh ron bednor city planning uh the property
is indicated for residential use on a city plan or adopted district plans recommends no change
the existing zoning at this location. We believe the applicant's hardship is not supported with
evidence of any physical circumstances or condition of the property that would prevent
it from being used conformity with the parking requirements of the code. Therefore, we recommend
Thank you.
MI 2023, 005 -179 -2002, Brown Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahi, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you. May we be excused?
Yes, you can. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Number six, MI 2023 -003 -674 -4630 Umbria Street.
Christopher Dean is the attorney.
Recommendation of support unanimous from Mattyonk Neighborhood Council.
Christopher Dean, can you please raise your hand?
Christopher Dean is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Dean.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning, Chair and members. Christopher Dean, D -E -A -N, representing the owner of 4630 Umbria Street, 4630 Umbria, LLC.
Good morning, Chair and members.
Christopher Dean, D -E -A -N.
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Our Vice Chair has just a few questions.
Good morning, Counsel. Do you agree to leave the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Good morning, everyone.
We're here today seeking a special exception to operate a takeout deli in a CMX2 commercial zoning district.
This is at 4630 Umbria Street.
It's doing business as Umbria Gourmet.
Let me go through the slides and then I'll go through the, this is the copy of the deed, let me minimize that, copy of the deed to my client, 4630 Umbria LLC.
The LLC is owned by Khalil Murr, who is also present today.
this is a notice of our refusal for the special exception and our application for the special
exception the prior to this um why we think we meet the special exception is this was a bar
um this was previously a bar um has now been changed to a takeout takeout deli um we're
hoping to provide essentially a do bruno brothers kind of setup where you can go in for the sandwich
but you also can take home some groceries um if you need to and save that trip to the grocery
store uh my client um heard the need from the community there was a lot of um when he proposed
this the feedback he got was tremendous when we met with um i'm going through the rco notice i
just sent we met with manny of neighborhood council the feedback we received was this was
similar. We had 15 to zero in favor of it. The hours of operation are Monday through Friday,
7 to 7, Saturday, 8 to 7, Sunday, 8 to 5. There's a tax clearance.
There's a copy of the zoning notice. This is the outside of the store.
And I won't bore you with all the mailings. If anyone would like to review them,
please let me know uh here's the inside of the store proposed it's very clean setup um it's not
too much but it's again it's something when you you can you can carry home with two hands if you
need to the um i said the feedback has been tremendous the in you know we're not we're not
causing additional congestion or putting any burden on the endangered properties endangering
the public. In fact, we've improved that because we are not operating a bar anymore. The hours
operation are not going to be late night. So we've improved the neighborhood safety and we
submit the appeal meets the burden of a special exception and ask that the board grant the special
exception today. My client is here. If Khalil could raise his hand. Mr. Dean, is he in under
your name uh he let me just he should
he should he put he uh he informed me he was in the waiting room this morning um
okay the person under your name has been unmuted and allowed to speak
good morning sir could you state your name please and spell for the court sonographer
Yes. First name's Khalil, K -A -H -L -I -L, last name Mir, M -I -R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, Mr. Dean.
Khalil, did you hear everything I had to say?
Yes, I did.
And was that true and accurate?
Absolutely, yes.
And do you adopt the testimony as if it was your own?
And do you have anything additional to add to the board or the members of the public?
No, I mean, I think it was just a simple zoning change. It was already a sit down restaurant. And I guess there's some sort of exception in that neighborhood where it can't be takeout or grocery.
So, you know, again, I've been in that neighborhood for, still in the neighborhood for 25 years, and there's literally nothing within, you know, a mile and a half radius for groceries or deli.
So the neighborhood certainly needs it, and the neighbors love it there.
So it's really, I can keep it as a sit -down restaurant, but I'd like the proper zoning to.
I can keep it as a sit down restaurant, but I'd like the proper zoning to to go with what I have going on there.
So that's really it. I have nothing further. All right.
Thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Ambers? Not at this time, Mr.
Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i've seen no hands at this time any commission yes this is uh ron bednar city planning the
properties indicated for commercial use on the city plan we believe the proposed uh grocery
store takeout first floor use will have no detrimental impact beyond what might be expected
given its proposed location therefore we recommend the request for a special exception be granted
Thank you. MI 2023 -003 -674 -4630, Umbria Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Jane Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, members.
Thank you, counsel. See you this afternoon.
All right, thank you.
um number nine mi 2023 005 883 6331 to 41 caster avenue ronald patterson is the attorney
hillary do we have the rco email so um yes mr mr chair mr patterson and i have been in contact
um unfortunately we'll need to continue this matter um because there was not a notice sent
to the near neighbors regarding this new application.
So Mr. Patterson will work with ZBA staff to get a new date,
send that letter out, and we'll get this case relisted.
So MI 2023 -005 -883 -6331 -41, Caster Avenue.
The case is continued.
Okay, number 15, MI 2023 -003 -735 -3933 Brown Street, recommendation of support on the
Mantua Civic Association.
Chair, Michael Mattione is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good morning, Mr. Mattione.
good morning mr chairman good morning could you state your name please and spell for the
court stenographer sure michael mattioni m -a -t -t -i -o -n -i you swear a firm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client the relationship
to this property? Sure. It's 41 Development LLC. They're the owner of the property, and Eugene
Nidovich is the principal, and he's here today. All right. Vice Chair has just a few questions
for you, sir. Sure. Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
to stipulate towards accuracy? Good morning. Yes, I do. Have you emailed on all the required
documents that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this
hearing? Yes, we do. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. Thank you.
Again, Mr. Chairman, Michael Mattione representing 41 Development, LLC, and I have – is my screen being shared?
It's up.
You have the RCO letters on top.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Again, Eugene Natovich is the principal, and this is for 3933 Brown.
As we stated, we submitted the tax clearance, revised refusal, support letter from the Mantua Civic Association, the coordinating RCO, revised site plan and revised plans form, revised floor plan, rendering and photographs in advance of this hearing.
Mr. Nidovich is seeking one variance to develop this property as a six -unit residential structure in the RSA 5 zoning district, and that's set forth in the refusal.
We met with the Mantua Civic Association, and they gave us strong support, and the support letter is up.
Mr. Naidovich, before filing the application, met informally with members of the community and discussed what this project should be developed, how it should be developed.
And as a result of the meeting, he came up with plans that show six one -bedroom units.
He originally had a pilot house and a deck. He removed that and he added a front porch to match the other existing structures on the block. There aren't that many. And a red brick facade. He will also talk about his rent model that he charges for these properties.
He originally had a pilot house and a deck.
He removed that and he added a front porch.
The zoning site plan, we comply with all the open area height and other dimensional requirements of the zoning district.
and again we added a front porch we removed the pilot house and roof deck from the original
application what he seeks to do is have six residential units and in the basement and first
floor he would have bi -level units with the main living area the kitchen and living room in the
basement and the bedroom and bathroom upstairs there are about 800 square foot units and then
on the second floor and the third floor 550 square foot one bedroom units on each floor again
this was developed after extensive meetings with the um community and here is the revised
facade showing red brick with the front porch the trash area in the front of the prod property as
well. Looking at that this is on, this is the site here, 3933, it's an empty lot. As you can see,
there are about 25 empty lots on this row of Brown Street. The properties all to the west of
this are vacant, several to the east, and across the street, there's only three structures that
exist. And of the structures that exist, more than half are multifamily. This is multifamily 3931. Next
to us is multifamily. I want to show the lot. There's the lot itself. The building next to us
is a multifamily. As you can see, there's three mailboxes on the front. Now looking at the
surrounding area it's largely undeveloped and that which is developed
is multifamily structures. Again the south side of Brown Street is virtually
undeveloped. So this is the context that we're talking about and why we added the
front porch. We're requesting the variance because this is not a single
family home block. We're trying to develop in conformity with the
surrounding properties. He would have modest rents. If he tried to develop a single family
property here, it would be very expensive. The community would not be able to afford it and they
did not support that. If you look at the block, there has been no new development since the
original homes were built probably 100 years ago. So, you know, we've got all these vacant
properties. We have problems on this block like illegal dumping. If granted the variance, you
Again, we meet all of the dimensional requirements.
The variance would benefit public safety.
We would develop this long vacant lot.
It meets the goals of the zoning code by revitalizing a long vacant property, making it a desirable place to live.
It removes the vacant parcel and reduces the likelihood of illegal dumping.
It adds eyes and ears to the street, making the area safer, having increased number of people in the area.
The rents will be modest and affordable by community members.
And the variance, quite frankly, is necessary.
It's the only way this property can be developed, and it will be developed in conformity with the surrounding properties, many of which are multifamily structures.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to call on Eugene Nidovich.
Chair, Eugene Nadevich has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Good morning, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning. It's Eugene Nadevich, E -U -G -E -N -E, last name N -A -Z -N -A -N -C -E -A -Y -D -O -V -I -C -H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Eugene, would you comment regarding how the development proposal came about?
Well, I've been building in this neighborhood already for close to 10 years. And, you know, I work very closely with the neighbors. They all have my phone number. We constantly meet with the RCOs, even when we don't have projects.
and the one thing that they really want a lot of or the one the thing they want developed is
affordable housing specifically for older people so it's one bedroom apartments they're going to
be 100 % affordable we accept VA vouchers we accept PHA vouchers work with other organizations
And this building, based on what we've seen, average out -of -pocket rent, including utilities, comes out to about $350 to $400.
in this building based on what we've seen average out -of -pocket rent
And that's based off of about 30 % of an individual's income.
And the rest is either covered by us or whatever other organizations are a part of, whether it's a PHA or the VA.
And have you developed other properties in this manner in this community?
I have.
And have they been received?
They've been great, which is why, you know, we're constantly up with the ZBA and we have a lot of support in all our projects.
You know, this is another project that shows that we have support and, you know, our history of building these projects and keeping them affordable and good quality, you know, speaks for itself.
And did you hear my prior statements to the board?
I did.
Are they true and correct?
They are.
And do you adopt them as your testimony?
I have nothing further, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no answer this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
the properties indicated for residential use on the city plan 2017 as part of a community
remapping at this location this zoning was changed the applicant's hardship is not supported with
evidence of unique physical circumstances or condition of property that prevent it from being
used in conformity with the use requirements of the code some proposal represents an overuse
Therefore, we recommend request for variance not to be granted.
Thank you.
MI 2023, 003 -735 -3933 Brown Street, I vote yes with proviso.
Revised plans, one page, stamped by ZBA, January 17th, 2024.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
So, Ishmael Shaheen, my vote is yes, we provide zone.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Number 16, MI 2023 -003 -645 -3029 Ridge Avenue.
Jermaine Harris is the attorney.
There was a letter of opposition from Strawberry Mansion CDC.
The applicant also did provide a petition of support by approximately 150 neighbors.
Jermaine Harris, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Chair, I don't see anyone by the name of Jermaine Harris. We have someone by the name of Tyrone Williams with their hand up.
See what that is.
I believe Mr. Williams is from Strawberry Mansion, CDC.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and the board.
Why don't we wait to see if we can find Mr. Harris, Mr. Williams, okay?
I appreciate that. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Jermaine Harris.
Chair, his hand just went up. I'm going to promote him to panelists.
Thank you.
good morning mr harris good morning good to see you chair uh i'm sorry i had some inner i had some
internet issues okay good could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
uh yeah sure jermaine harris that's j -e -r -m -a -i -n -e h -a -r -r -i -s right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
relationship to this property sure my client is jlk investments and uh the individual owner
amina perez is here on this call and our vice chair has just a few our vice chair has a few
questions questions sure good morning counsel do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy i do have you emailed in all the required documents and
exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
i did thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you
okay uh i just want to make sure my screen can be uh your screen's up sir okay all right
All right, so this is concerning 3029 Ridge Avenue, and I'd like to briefly go through the exhibit packet, if I may.
So this is concerning 3029 Ridge Avenue.
So we have here first the tax clearance, then we have the deed conveying ownership of the property.
This property was purchased June 14, 2021.
one now this is concerning a lot uh let me get a better picture draw a picture
bear with me
okay this is a this is concerning a vacant lot that is
at the corner of 30th and uh ridge this is a block that is full of uh full of shells
this is the subject property where i have the cursor so this is uh basically a corner property
and what my client is seeking to do is to construct a four -family dwelling
in at this particular area and this is what the proposed this is what the facade and what the
building uh would be this would be the perspective from ridge avenue now what we have here is uh
four families two bedrooms uh one bath on the top three floors and on the ground floor uh we have a
studio with a which is 427 square feet with a rear yard and with a front uh retail space
the amount of square footage is 800 of the top units of the two bedrooms would be
uh 864 863 square feet as we can see
and here is a with the front would look like of this particular uh proposed of this building let's
see here's what we we have the uh posting of the zoning notice that was done 21 days in advance
of this this is another this is the frontage the ridge avenue view right here of it which
shows abandoned buildings uh right there we have significant community support of
nearby neighbors here it's over a hundred uh signatures of the petition where they support
the erection of this particular project. Now, I wanted to talk about, there are four other,
there are three other buildings that are on this particular block of the ones that are active,
that are not shelves. And they are also multi -family dwellings. We have 3006 Ridge Avenue,
and that's a five -family dwelling with a rooftop deck. We also have 3007 Ridge Avenue.
uh that's a three that's a three story with a rooftop uh deck
we also have 3017 which is a three story with a roof deck um all of these are new
a relatively new air new construction uh they were issued these permits they were issued
in 2020 if you look at these uh permits for these uh by this board that was approved by this board
this is the rm1 district by the way um it already has by right three families uh they are seeking
uh four families and also this particular building they were seeking a and they got
approved a height uh increased height of 46 feet now i wanted to talk
46 feet. Now, I wanted to talk briefly about the letter of opposition by the Strawberry Mansion CDC. That's the coordinating RCO. And there's a couple, there's an inaccuracy that I wanted to discuss with regards to the voting.
They're saying that the voting was 12 to zero, but that's not true because there were 12 people in total.
This was a Zoom call. There were 12 people in total at this RCO meeting, this community meeting.
Myself and my client were two of the presenters.
There was another attorney and his client that was there.
So we comprised four of the 12 people that were there. So there wasn't there couldn't have been a 12 to nothing vote because there were four people who were not affected, who weren't part of the community that was there.
And then if you look at the voting tabulation, there's no breakdown whatsoever. All it says is the opposed and it has the coordinating RCO. It doesn't have any affected neighbors that was there. It doesn't have a breakdown at all.
So I just wanted to bring that to this board's attention that I understand that they have the RCO has an opposition to it, but it's not exactly it's not as accurate as they list in their meeting summary with the voting.
Now, they do state that they had an opposition because of that the variance would affect the neighborhood conservation overlay in Strawberry Mansion.
And so in response to that, my client decided to remove the rooftop deck, which is prohibited in that area.
And she also reduced the height from 45 to 43 feet as well.
We also have here, we have the letter of refusal and we have the application for appeal.
So what we're asking for is that in light of the significant community support, in light of the adjacent use of the properties that are on that block of multifamily, that this particular project be granted.
And I do have my client here again, who, if I would be allowed to have them promoted so that the way they could state their testimony.
Okay. Thank you.
Ms. Perez, would you raise your hand, please?
Ms. Perez?
Ms. Perez has been allowed to speak. Please unmute yourself.
Ms. Perez, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court's stenographer?
Good morning, everyone. Amina Perez, A -M -I -N -A -H, last name P, like Paul.
Sorry.
So, Ms. Perez.
Can you have one more time, please?
Sure. Amina, A -M -I -N -A -H, Perez, P -E -R -E -Z.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Okay. Ms. Perez, did you hear my testimony to the board?
I did.
Okay. Do you adopt my testimony as to what was stated?
Okay. Do you have anything that you wanted to add, anything you wanted to add to what I stated to the board?
I would like to state that I did go block to block all in the surrounding area where the building is proposed.
And I door knocked and there's significant community support from the near neighbors.
They would like new development. Most of the sentiment I received was that would be great.
it's been an empty lot people dump trash there i want to see my property values increase
and also they want to have ridge avenue and it's actually written in the underlay that they want
to have ridge avenue be a commercial corridor the other three buildings that are on the same block
which were already approved and are newly built they don't have any commercial space and this
could be a coffee shop it could be something that you know adds value to the community and
could be a coffee shop it could be something that you know adds value to the community and there's
going to be commercial space here which is in line with the overlay i would also like to say that
75 of the initial uh askings in these drawings i acquiesced and removed um
and so what i'm asking for is just one additional unit so we could house more people
in an affordable manner, and also give small business owners an opportunity to operate.
And I initially contacted RCO July 13th at 9 .22 a .m.
I contacted them in November.
I contacted them in December asking, could I come in and discuss the project?
So I was pretty proactive about trying to reach out, trying to show what I was doing, trying to garner their support.
Thank you for your time.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Two things, Mr. Chair.
One, Mr. Harris referenced a couple of changes in the plans.
There were no revised plans that were submitted with the application.
So I would suggest that the board's decision in this matter be held so that revised plans can be submitted and reviewed by the board.
In addition, the vacant commercial space that is suggested, if the board does approve this application with that space, it should include a proviso that use registration is required prior to occupancy because any, because it's an RM1 property, any commercial use will likely require additional variance relief.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hillary, can we take comments from the virtual audience or do we need the revised plan?
Yes, I think we can.
I think because the changes to the plans were presented on the record today, we can take public testimony and planning unless planning wants to wait and then just hold this for a vote.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair.
His hand is up again.
Okay, it keeps going up and going down. At this time, I see no handshare.
If I may, I did submit these revised plans to the zoning board in my exhibit packet. The plans that have been submitted in my packet is the revised plans.
okay they weren't they weren't noted as revised plans and there was no proviso plans form
listing the changes from the original plan so the board had no way of knowing that these were
revised plans so they can be resubmitted with a proviso plans form that would be great
sure no problem no problem okay chair we have hands up now okay thank you i was going to say
go back um you're saying the strawberry mansion community okay they've been unmuted and allowed
to speak miss cummings you miss cummings you were already sworn in earlier today could you just
state your name for the record it's bonita cummings affected um rco please proceed i just
wanted to um say that i submitted a correspondence which went to um in my email as well board
Council to receive any revised material or presentation. It was never, that request was
never honored in terms of Strawberry Mansion community concern. Also, I just wanted to indicate
that these signatures are signatures from areas that are not affected. 33rd Street is very far
from where that location is. Also, I just wanted to indicate that many of those developments were
through COVID and many of them got done just, you know, because L &I was not there to do any
violations for some of the developers. So things are in those locations that may not even should
be there as far as development goes. But I also wanted to indicate that that block doesn't just
face Ridge Avenue. So that is like it comes to a triangle. So that height impacts negatively
the persons on that small street in terms of what they're proposing, the height that
they're proposing there.
So there was never any discussion, additional discussion as to any changes that were being
discussion, additional discussion as to any changes that were being considered. So in that
considered.
regard, we only know them to be violating our overlay and things of that nature. So I just
wanted to put on the record that that street is not like you're looking at something that's just
a straight corridor. It actually comes to a point which involves a whole nother block of residence
that would be negatively impacted by the height, even at 43 feet.
So thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Cummings.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have a F. Wilson.
They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Good morning.
Could you please, good morning, could you please,
could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, Felicia Wilson, F -E -L -I -C -I -A.
last name wilson w -i -l -s -o -n do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do please proceed are you a neighbor are you a neighbor i am a neighbor
and i have a property at 24 50 north 30th street okay and i plan to do the same thing as far as
development so i am in support of this project all right thank you for taking the time to call
us. We appreciate it. Anyone else in the virtual audience? Chair, we have Chanel Jackson. They have
been unmuted and allowed to speak. Good morning. Could you state your name, please, and spell for
the court stenographer? Hello. Hi. Could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hi, my name is Toni Willis, T -O -N -I -E, Willis, W -I -L -L -I -S. I live in Strawberry Mansion on 33rd Street.
All right. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I swear the truth is nothing but the truth. And for them to say that it's a distance from 33rd Street, I walk up and down Ridge Avenue every day, and it's nothing but abandoned property, trash, and everything else. And I think anybody should welcome new construction and to have more activity on Ridge Avenue.
thank you for taking the time to call us we appreciate it is there anyone else in the
virtual audience chair we have kalila reed williams they have been unmuted and allowed to speak
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
hi again my name is kalila k -h -a -l -e -e -l -a -h reed r -e -e -b williams right do you swear or
to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the
truth? Yes. I am
a neighbor of... Oh, sorry.
Please proceed.
I am a neighbor in the Strawberry Mansion
neighborhood,
21 -27 with
Natona Street, and I'm in support
of the... Say that again,
ma 'am. We didn't hear that. I'm sorry.
I am in support of the
proposed property.
Thank you for taking the time to call.
Is there anyone else in the audience?
Chair, we have Chanel Jackson
again they have been unmuted and allowed to speak hi could you state your name please and spell for
the court stenographer hi i just want to correct my name is chanel jet i'm not sure why the jackson
keeps coming up on my zoom but it's chanel s -h -a -n -e -l -l last name is jet j -e -t -t do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth to hold the truth and nothing but the truth yes sir are you
a neighbor? I am a neighbor. Please proceed. Hi, I just wanted to confirm that I am a neighbor in the
Strawberry Mansion in the area that is in question today. My address is 2452 North 30th Street,
typical 19132, and I am in support of this effort. All right. Thank you very much for
taking the time to call us. Is there anyone else in the audience? Excuse me, Chair. Sorry about
there you bet we have someone who's having technical difficulties with raising their hand
tyrone williams okay sure yeah tyrone williams please
good morning good morning reverend state your name please and spell for the court's talk yes
tyrone williams t -y -r -o -n -e williams w -i -l -l -i -a -m -s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.
Please proceed, Reverend.
Before I begin, I just want to say that the Strawberry Mansion CDC has a process
to show full transparency, and that is our RCO meetings that is held every fourth Thursday of the month.
thursday of the month it would have been nice to seen 150 on zoom on the 14th of december
It would have been nice to see 150 on.
however i did not uh there's great due diligence done by the team of uh um mr harris and miss amina
but but it goes against our process now they asked me about uh taking off one of the rooms
and all that. I simply stated, our process is that you have to come back to the community.
I suggest you ask for our continuance. They refused to do that. So they did this petition,
which I like to look at the petition again, because I see a whole lot of duplicated
names. I mean, really, I glanced at the petition after he showed it twice, and I see
a lot of duplicated names.
Now, this is totally undermining the process of this community.
Secondly, we have not received these new plans.
And these new plans, if we did receive them, I told Ms. Amina, when she came in my office,
that Ms. Amina, these plans have to be represented to the community
because they don't know what you're talking about, Matt.
If this goes through, a whole community
don't know nothing about these new plans.
Thirdly, I want to talk about the fact
that she's saying the vote was not right.
The strawberry mansion CDC has never,
and I don't think we ever will,
allow the developers and their team
to be part of our voting process.
So therefore, they are asked to leave the line
during the discussion and process of all projects.
So that's the reason I'm not going to count, Mr. Harris.
I'm not going to count, Ms. Amina,
or anyone else that was on their team
because they were off the call
and it was the community's process of getting to the vote.
And we do not have the developers right in there while we're discussing having to vote.
Their time is when they present, which they presented about 45 minutes,
as well as received Q &A, as well as received suggestions.
Everything that is being mentioned for these variances and hikes,
including their first plan that had the rooftop deck
is totally against the neighborhood conservation overlay
of Strawberry Match.
And we asked once again,
because in the presentation,
I asked Mr. Harris,
did him and his team go over the overlay?
His question was, no.
In fact, one person was, what is a overlay?
So is this lack of knowledge
prior to coming to our community
this lack of
this petition
I pray that y 'all
study it carefully because I know
I done seen quite a few of the same
names going down the line
what are we doing here
we're about transparency
thank you
alright thank you
thank you very much for taking the time to call us
is there anyone else in the virtual audience
Chair I see no heads at this time
um planning commission
planning commission is going to defer its vote okay all right thank you thank you uh hillary uh
can we put this on for next week
um that would be a question for the staff are you asking if we can do a resumption then for next week
right okay yes this is tanya hi we can squeeze it in but if we can ask that and have a certain
time limit chair that would be wonderful well once we get the plans i mean we're the only one
we have to go to is we're not going to go back to the community again are we hillary
well so mr chair it's up to you if you would like to um hear from the rcos um about the changes to
the plans with a response from the applicant and then the Planning Commission, we can limit it
to that. Why don't we do that? I mean, I think the community has heard basically what the plans
were today from Mr. Harris, but we'll try to limit the testimony as much as we can and then
testimony as much as we can, and then have the Planning Commission first take a position.
have the Planning Commission first take a position.
And Chair, I just wanted to note that these revised plans were submitted to the RCO,
the coordinating RCO, all of the affected parties once these plans, they were submitted
several weeks ago. All right. All right. So, we want to wait, Hillary, till...
So, Mr. Scher, why don't we have a resumption?
Tanya, what list next week should we do the resumption?
Same time, I would suggest.
9 .30 next week.
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
So we'll have a resumption hearing next week, the 24th at 9 .30.
And I think we'll limit the testimony to discussion of the changes to the plans now that everybody is aware they are revised, and then we'll take planning's position, and then we will vote.
And Mr. Harris, as I asked previously, if you can please recirculate the plans with a proviso form to all parties so we're clear on the changes, that would be helpful.
Thank you.
thank you mr harris thank you may be excused yes you can thank you is there anyone in the
9 30 group whose case has not been called i see no hands chair okay thanks everyone see everyone
at 2 p .m. Thanks, Chair. Thanks, Chair. Thanks, Chair. We're ready to go? Yes, you can start
as you wish, Chair. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will
be chairing the ZBA 2 p .m. hearing. With me is our Vice Chair Ismail Shahid. Present,
Mr. Chairman. Our board member, Thomas Holloman. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, James
Snell. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our executive
director, Tanya Sunken. Here's our virtual format. Be advised that proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tanyasunken at phila .gov. For the benefit of
our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star nine to raise your hand
and star six to unmute. To enter appearance statement, call 267 -270 -5548. Leave your email
and the address of the property in question. And finally, the question answer box on the screen
is now for comments or testimony. All comments should be directed to our Executive Director,
Tanya Sunken. Let's look at our schedule this afternoon. Number four, MI 2023 -005 -925 -1715
Rear McKean Street. That case is continued.
number seven excuse me mr chair uh the the request on that one was to be continued
attorney moving party so mi 2023 005 925 17 15 rear mckean street that case is continued
Attorney Moving Party. Thank you. Number seven, MI 2023 -003 -244 -5558,
Crowson Street, that case is continued.
Number 12, MI 2023 -003 -182 -2832 -34 Pacific Street.
This case was listed in error.
It has already been heard and decided by the board.
And number 14, MI -2023 -005 -964 -5101 Germantown Avenue, that case is continued.
Are there any comments relative to the cases that were continued or any additional requests for continuances?
Good afternoon, Chair. This is Jevette Benton. I'll be your co -host for this afternoon.
We have Vern Anastasio. They've been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Vern, you've already been sworn. Just state your name for the record.
Vern Anastasio.
Which case, Vern?
4825 A Street, Mr. Chair.
I was inclined to withdraw this matter, but as it turns out, I would instead like to ask for a continuance turning moving party.
I would instead like to ask for a continuance turning moving party.
The RCO has, in fact, gotten in touch with us and is willing to meet.
MI 2020.
Which one is it, Ron?
4825 A Street.
I believe it's on today's 2 p .m. list.
What number is that, Hillary?
i don't see that on the list mr chair mr anastasi we have 5101 germantown avenue
yeah i have that one all right my apologies i can go back to the drawing board and connect
with miss sunkett on that nope thank you you're welcome are there any other requests for continuities
i see no hands at this time chair okay thank you we're going to go to our add -on list
number one mi -2023 -002 -107 -2100 robbins this is a request for reconsideration
I vote no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no to rehearing and reconsideration.
James Snell, my vote is no to rehearing and reconsideration.
Aisha, you're muted.
You're muted.
This doesn't seem to be getting through here.
Hi, Ishmael.
This is Tanya.
Can you go out and come back in and see if that works?
Thank you kindly, sir.
We'll wait one minute.
recording in progress can you hear me now we can we can ishmael shaheed my vote is no to
reconsideration and rehearing. Number two, MI 2023 -005 -336 -2628 Latona Street, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Number three, MI 2023 -002 -453 -9201 James Street, I vote yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Thomas Hollowan, I vote yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
James Snell, I vote yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing thank you number four mi2023 003
509 4 499 south broad street number t 71c dash 87 9660
Zero. I vote yes. Thomas Holloman. I vote yes. James Snell. I vote yes. Ishmael Shahid. My vote is yes.
Number five. MI 2023 -005 -747 -1936, Walken Street. The vote in this matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, January 24th at 2 p .m.
Number six. MI 2023 -005 -665 -2121 East Sargent Street. I vote yes with proviso. Variance for accessory parking is denied.
Thomas Holloman. My vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell. My vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shahid. My vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you. Number seven, MI 2023 -005 -748 -3335 Firth Street. I vote no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is no.
We're going to go to our regular list. MI 2023 -005 -777 -100 -20, North 18th Street. Murrah Ferlegger is the attorney. Letter of non -opposition from the Logan School.
Attorney, letter of non -opposition from the Logan Square Neighbor Association with a proviso.
Good afternoon, Chair. Meredith Ferliger is coming back in as a panelist now.
Okay, thank you.
Good afternoon.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure, Meredith Ferliger with Delworth Paxson, F -E -R -L -E -G -E -R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Certainly.
My client is the owner of the property, two Logan Square Associates, which is an entity
which falls under the Brandywine Realty Trust umbrella.
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do, with one correction, that it is a referral, not a refusal.
Understood. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. As I mentioned, the owner of the property is two Logan Square associates falling under the Brandywine Realty Trust umbrella.
With me today from Brandywine Realty Trust is Matthew Croce, who is a vice president of leasing.
We do also have with us Ashley Phillips with Stantec Architecture in case there are any technical questions.
The request before the board today is for a special exception that has, in fact, been previously granted for this same building several years ago, merely for a different floor level.
The request is for the grant of a special exception to activate four existing roof deck areas for tenant use at the sixth floor of this high -rise building in Center City.
As you see at Exhibit 14 and as you referenced, we did secure a unanimous vote of non -opposition from Logan Square Neighborhood Association with a proviso against music amplification.
The owner had already indicated that there is a prohibition in tenant leases against music amplification, so we certainly have no concern with this proviso, if it is even one that the board can impose.
The board does have my exhibits, which contain 15 sets of documents, including my client's deed at tab 4 and tax clearance at tab 3.
The property before the board today is located at 100 -20 North 18th Street in Center City, which is bordered by Arch Street to the south and Cherry Street to the north.
You'll note at Exhibit 5, the property is zoned CMX 5.
From the aerials at Exhibit 6, you'll see that this building, which is commonly known as 2 Logan Square, is in close proximity to the new Comcast building and other dense center city high -rises.
The photographs at Exhibit 15 are helpful to provide a little bit of additional context.
In this first overhead view that you'll see here from Arch Street, the arrows are pointing to three of the four deck areas at issue that currently exist at the sixth floor of the building.
Just below them, you will also notice the green roof area that was constructed as a part of the prior approval, which I will touch on momentarily.
Switching to an opposing view from Cherry Street, you'll notice that fourth existing deck area.
These decks are ideally situated at each of the street frontages.
For full context, I have included street level views of the building,
but from this level you can just see the outer edge of these roof deck areas
from the street level, and even then they're really only visible if you are across the street.
I did also, and I'll just skim through, I did also include a few interior photos
showing these deck areas from the current interior of the six -floor tenant space.
So the board can glean from these photographs that the deck areas are currently unoccupied
but are structurally in existence today. And of course, the final photographs show the
required zoning posting was made on December 13th at each of the three street frontages.
As I mentioned, back in 2016, the board granted a similar special exception for two roof deck areas that were activated at the fifth floor level of this building.
At Exhibit 10, you'll see photographs of those spaces as they exist today.
So one of the areas is actually activated for use, the other is just a passive green roof area.
So one of the areas is actually activated for...
Similar to the request before the board today, the roof decks are a combination of lounge areas and passive green space.
I did also, for reference, include those prior permits in the exhibits at tab 7, which shows the 2016 approval that was granted for the fifth floor.
At Exhibit 9, we've included renderings of the proposed decks, which are substantially similar to what currently exists at the 5th floor.
These decks are only intended to serve as an amenity to the 6th floor tenant spaces, which are or will be occupied by business and professional offices.
They are not intended for event space or other activities that would generate significant noise or other impact.
The zoning plans are also included in the packet at Exhibit 8 and show the small roof deck areas
that are either 526 square feet or 609 square feet. Each of these decks will have required
guard rails to ensure safe occupancy. As is required by Section 3037E .1 through 3 of the
zoning code, the proposed roof decks meet the definition of a use permitted by special exception
in the CMX -5 zoning district. As always, I've included Section 146045 at Exhibit 12,
reflecting the relevant code sections. The proposed roof decks will not cause specific
detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond that which might normally be expected from the
proposed use. The proposed decks will not cause congestion in public streets. As you saw, this is
six floors above ground level, so no impact to the street can reasonably be expected.
Two Logan Square is an office building, and the tenants that will be occupying this space
will be professional office in nature, thereby limiting the magnitude of use of this roof space.
The proposed roof decks will not cause overcrowding, as the areas that are proposed to be
converted to active amenity space are currently existing as unoccupied spaces. As they are only
intended to be occupied by just the sixth floor tenant or tenants, there is no risk of overcrowding.
The fifth floor roof areas have been occupied in a similar fashion for well over six years
and have established that these roof areas can be occupied without any impact. The uses will not
impair light and air to adjacent properties since the deck areas themselves are already in place
and sit at the sixth floor of an expansive high -rise building. The proposal requires
minor modification to build out these deck areas and to add the guardrails for occupant safety.
The uses will not burden any public facilities as the utility use of these deck areas is quite minor
considering the scale of the overall building's utility capacity.
The proposed use will not endanger public health or safety, nor is the use inconsistent with the comprehensive plan.
This area is zoned CMX 5 in a dense center city location, which is surrounded by other high -rise buildings, predominantly commercial in nature.
The proposed activated roof spaces are intended to serve as a significant amenity to the sixth -floor tenants
and will further contribute to the reinvigoration of the Center City office market.
The proposed use is in keeping with the impacts that are normally expected from the proposed use
and is specifically contemplated as an allowed use in the CMX -5 zoning district.
We therefore assert the application has met all the requirements of Section 303 .7E .1 through .3 of the Code
concerning entitlement to a special exception, and we therefore ask the board to grant our
application. At this time, I would ask for Matt Croce to please unmute himself to adopt my testimony.
What's your client's name, Meredith? Matthew Croce, C -R -O -C -E.
Matthew Croce, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Chair, Matthew Croce has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Thank you.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Matthew Croce, M -A -T -T -H -E -W, last name C -R -O -C -E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Matt, you're authorized to speak on behalf of two Logan Square associates, correct?
Thank you.
Matt, you're authorized to speak on behalf of two Logan Squares.
Correct.
And have you heard all of the testimony that was given before the board today?
And would you agree that testimony was true and accurate, and would you adopt it as if it were your own?
Thank you. Happy to take any questions.
Questions from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
no chair thank you questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no answer this time chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and good
afternoon david effecto with the city planning commission and that's f -e -c -t -e -a -u do you swear
referring to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed. Mr. Chairman and board members, in 2016, the zoning maps at this location were
changed from commercial mixed use 4 to commercial mixed use 5 in accordance with the recommendations
in the comprehensive plan. The appellant has shown that non -residential roof decks will have
no detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might be expected at this location.
the city planning commission recommends the board grant a special exception for the proposed
non -residential roof decks. Thank you. Hillary, is that an appropriate proviso?
Yes, Mr. Schreiber. I believe that is enforceable. Thank you. MI 2023 -005 -777 -120
North 18th Street. I vote yes with proviso. No amplified music.
Thomas. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with proviso. Thank you, counsel. Thank you. Okay. Number two,
MI 2023 -005 -884 -1308
North 22nd Street. Joseph Consul is the attorney.
Ishmael Shahid has recused himself from this.
There's a letter of support from the Brewery Town -Chargewood Community Civic
Association. Mr. Consul.
Chair, Mr. Consul is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good afternoon.
Hi, Mr. Consul, just for the record, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court stenographer?
Yeah, it's Joseph Consul, J -O -S -E -P -H, last name C -O -N -S -O -L -E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
My client is Chevetta Property Group.
They are the group that is under agreement with the Philadelphia Housing Authority for the development of this lot.
Right. Mr. Holloman has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or referral and stipulate to its accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
All right. Is that my packet?
You're up.
All right. So we're here for this corner lot.
1308. It's the corner of North 22nd and West Seabrook Street. So it's 1308 North 22nd.
It is a CMX2 zoned corner, completely surrounded by RM1 properties. As I mentioned in my intro,
but I'll repeat, my client is Chiveta Property Group. Chiveta is under agreement with the
Philadelphia Housing Authority to redevelop this vacant lot into two residential units that'll be
for sale. So they won't be renting them. They'll be developing them and selling two separate units
in one building. It's part of the city's Turn the Key program. The refusal that we have is
the agreement is for my clients to develop two units, two residential units and no commercial
space and so while we do have the space for the two residential units we have to get over the
hurdle of there being a requirement to have commercial space on the first floor we're not
providing that that was not something that was contemplated by the city in having my clients
develop this land so we have a refusal for that and that's the only refusal that we have
And that's the only refusal that we have.
We presented this
We presented this to the RCO, the BSCCA zoning committee.
We got nine votes of support and a vote of support from the committee itself.
Included our proof of mailers, photos and plans, showing all the pictures.
and then we include the layouts that are that will show the breakdown of the units it's uh
one two -bedroom unit and then one three -bedroom unit occupying the basement lower level first
or first level second floor and third floor of the property finally we have all of our compliance
documentation the project information form tax clearance certificate and we included the
development agreement uh in lieu of a deed after discussion with attorney emerson about what we
we should include this is just showing that my clients are under agreement with the pha
to develop this property so that's it so you can um have your clients yes my client is michael
Tomasetti. He should be on the call right now. Okay. Mike, could you raise your virtual hand?
Mike Tomasetti has been unmuted and allowed to speak. Sir, could you please state your name and
spell for the court stenographer? Yes, my name is Mike Tomasetti, M -I -K -E, last name T -O -M -A -S -E -T -T -I.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Who's she, counsel?
Good afternoon, Mr. Tomasetti.
Did you hear my testimony just now regarding Chivetta's property at 1308 North 22nd Street?
So you adopt it as your own?
Absolutely.
Nothing further.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Thank you. Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon.
David Fechter with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location
from commercial mixed use to residential single family.
the appellant seeks two dwelling units without the required ground floor commercial space
two dwelling units would bring the property closer into conformance with our recommended zoning
and so the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variants
for not including required ground floor commercial space thank you mi 2023 005 884 1308 north 22nd
Street, I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes. Thank you.
Thank you, Council. We're going to go to number three, MI 2023, 005 -952 -12285 McNulty Road.
Daniel Reisman is the attorney. There's a recommendation of support from the Parkwood
Civic Association, a letter of support from Councilman O 'Neill.
Chair Daniel Reisman is coming back in as a panelist now.
Mr. Reisman.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, it's Daniel Reisman, R -E -I -S -M -A -N.
Right.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, their relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Keegan Smith.
He's the president of Northeast Sports Performance, which is leasing 5 ,000 square feet at the property.
okay our vice chair has a few questions for you good afternoon counsel do you agree to weigh the
reading or the refusal or stipulate towards accuracy yes have you emailed in all the required
documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of
this hearing yes thank you please proceed and you can share your screen okay thank you no problem
okay can you see the photo we can sir okay thank you so again my name is daniel reisman i represent
the applicant keegan smith i've handed up or submitted in advance of the hearing exhibits a
through 10 which you can see on the side they include the letters and support that mr chair
There are mentioned photos of the property, the zoning posters, the tax clearance certificate, the deed and the lease.
the application is for the approval of personal services at this property and specifically
an indoor baseball and softball training center for youth boys and girls that would serve the
neighborhood the parkwood neighborhood in the city examples of groups groups that would be
served are the somerton youth organization elite baseball pensbury gym softball uh this is a direct
photo of the property but i'm going to first go to the zoning map
you'll see here is the property at the corner of mcnulty road and southampton road um
my client is leasing the space in suite 104 which as i mentioned is approximately 5 000
square feet it's um and it's in the parkwood neighborhood in the far northeast corner of the
city the zoning is industrial one the reason for the variance is that personal services are not
permitted in i1 here's a google map showing the property and what you'll see is number one
the use is very consistent there are a variety of uses first of all within the building
They're not able to fully lease up the building for all industrial uses, so this is an example of another use.
The board actually approved on December 6, 2023, so about a month ago, the board actually approved the exact same use of personal services for a fitness facility called Erica's Fitness, which is immediately adjacent in the same building.
You'll also see across the street is another fitness center, and then the armory is about a block away, and there's an urgent care here.
So it's very consistent.
There's just a variety of uses in this neighborhood and in the building itself.
Just to show you a few photos, again, here's the property head -on.
You'll see that there's ample parking at the property.
And these are some surrounding views from the property and the surrounding area.
Here's the armory that I mentioned.
You'll see it's a very, you know, spread out area, not high density.
here's the fitness center fitness and dance center that's right across the street
and then i want to i'll show you the key plan so you can get an understanding of
where the space is within the building
this rectangular shape right here is the 5 000 square feet as i mentioned the board approved
the same use it's an immediately adjacent space over here that was approved at the december 6
hearing
so to summarize the building can't be used
for all industrial uses. So they're leasing it for some other uses that we think fit very well
into both the building uses and the neighborhood, in this case, personal fitness. It's very
consistent with the uses in the neighborhood. The use certainly does not have any adverse
impact on the neighborhood and has a very beneficial use in that it serves the community
and children. And as the chair mentioned, the council, Councilman O 'Neill sent in a letter of
support and the RCO, the Parkwood Civic Association voted, the board voted 5 -0 in support and the
attendees voted 16 -0 in support. So it also has very strong community support. And that's the end
of my presentation. If the board has any questions, I can answer those or my client.
Why don't you bring your client on and adopt your testimony?
Why don't you bring your client on and adopt your testimony?
Keegan Smith, if you would raise your hand.
Keegan Smith.
Keegan Smith has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court sonographer?
Keegan Smith, K -E -G -A -N -S -M -I -T -H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Smith, did you hear my testimony today?
And is it true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
And you adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and good
afternoon david effecta with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from industrial one general
industry to industrial two general industry this property is located in one of the city's few
remaining intact industrial preservation areas there is no unique physical condition or circumstance
of this property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
The City Planning Commission recommends the Board deny the use variance for proposed personal
services. Thank you. MI 2023 -005 -952 -12285 McNulty Road. I vote yes with proviso. Use limited to
suite 104. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with proviso. Thank you, counsel. You have your votes. Thank you,
Mr. Chair. Number five, MI 2023 -005 -893 -2214 West Ontario Street. Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
letter of support
from Allegheny West
Civic Association
Mr. Chair
this is Hillary
we also just received
a letter of support
with provisos
from Swampoodle
Neighborhood
Parcels Association
okay thank you
Chair Rachel Fritzker
is coming back in
as a panelist now
my counsel
could you
hi could you state
your name please
the spell for the
court stenographer yes uh rachel r -a -c -h -a -e -l pritzker p -r -i -t -z -k -e -r you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes could you identify your client
relationship to the property uh yeah my client is uh zev um he the llc is
second uh sd realty llc and he is the uh owner of that llc and our vice chair has just a few
questions sure good afternoon counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate
towards accuracy yes have you emailed in all the required information uh the documents and
exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
yes thank you please proceed and share your screen okay and just bear with me i'm a little
sick today so if i sneeze or whatever no problem i feel better thank you okay
can you see my screen it's up
yep yep okay so this is the refusal uh for 2214 west ontario um this so this site is zoned i2
uh it's an existing uh structure we are looking to do an addition on this existing structure
um and uh with our plans what we have logan dry go through in a minute and we're proposing um
Use for multifamily, 63 dwelling units with 40 accessory surface parking spaces, including two van accessible spaces and three electrical vehicle spaces and 21 Class A bike spaces as well.
The project generated a number of refusals, which I will go through, including landscape buffering, some parking considerations for loading and drive aisles and through driveway and interior parking and off -street loading and multifamily use, given it is in I2.
I just want to give you sort of a visual of this site. This is the building here. It's an existing warehouse. It's been baked.
This is the building here. It's an existing warehouse. It's been vacant for a significant amount of time. It's actually never had any buy -write uses, although it's been zoned. It was like G2 and now I2.
This is a really great adaptive reuse project. As you can see, kind of bound by train tracks, a bunch of vacancy on the right side of the screen and some industrial and mixed use properties on the other side of the train tracks.
This building was a factory and a warehouse that's been vacant since at least 2019, according to L &I.
But images of the property show that really there hasn't been much going on since at least 2015.
Regarding the use variants for multifamily, we believe that I -2 designation prohibiting residential causes an unnecessary hardship
because the property is just ill -equipped for rental or sale of any uses that are permitted in
the I -2 district. It's a smaller multi -story structure with one singular vehicular access
point with about a 15 -foot wide drive aisle with no ability to expand that given the surrounding
properties and the building's existing condition. It's also directly adjacent to some residential
properties, as you can see from the screen, making it a really poor candidate for modern -day
industrial use, and also given it's not close to any easy access points to the highways, which is
important for industrial. Again, for those reasons, we can't really obtain a user that would be
beneficial for I2, a buy -right non -variance proposal. The property was originally owned by
an outreach ministry, and according to the city's archives, again, it had never been used for a
by -right purpose for at least the last 27 years. With this adaptive reuse project, it's important
to note that we spent probably a year fixing violations on the property that had come from
the prior owner, specifically related to some make -safe structural work. So there was a
significant amount of structural work done to this property, in addition to erecting new load -bearing
walls, repairing the roof, floor, ceilings, repairing exterior masonry walls in order to
make sure that the violation was cured and that this is a safe structure. With that in consideration,
the number of dwelling units, 63, played a role in that. In addition, also making sure that there
was sufficient space use of this building in addition to stairs and exits and things of that
nature. And so that's sort of the reasoning for the 63 units, in addition to making sure that we
can provide something with a reasonable price point and also that can actually be financed in
this current market. The code related to sort of non -uses, just to go through them quickly,
the code mandates a landscape buffer between the property and the adjacent railroad tracks,
but it's a bit unnecessary because the area is already paved and we'd have to remove the
paved service in favor of a planted surface, which would reduce the area available for parking and
trigger other refusals in addition to the safe maneuvering of residents' vehicles and service
vehicles just to create just more green on the property. So the balance of that really didn't
create any substantial public benefit, especially because it's on the extreme northwest corner
of the property. So it's not really directly adjacent to any of the surrounding residences
and it's not visible by the street. The code also mandates installing screening between the
parking lot driveway and adjacent residents. It's also a hardship that creates no public benefit
because the driveway, which is only 15 feet wide, cannot be made narrower. Otherwise,
Otherwise, it won't be able to safely accommodate any safe vehicles, any turning around.
And it already, again, is narrow.
It can't be widened either to then additionally accommodate landscaping.
So we believe that with what we've provided on our plans, we have an adequately safe buffer.
And more importantly, we have the correct maneuverability for cars to come in and out, which is, I think, a little bit more important than landscaping just in this particular instance.
We also wanted to make sure that we were able to include as many parking spaces as possible, as that was one of the community concerns as well.
So the change off of landscaping versus parking was a little bit tough, especially because we're working with an existing site.
We weren't going to demo portions of the building, and we certainly were not going to do underground parking.
The request that we've asked for as far as the use and some of these buffering and parking considerations, we believe are the least modification of the code.
And as the chairman mentioned, we do have support from the both of the RCOs and the coordinating RCO.
And I'd like to have Logan Dry come on just to go through our plans briefly and then happy to take questions and bring my client on as well.
Well, counsel, before your client comes on, the records say back 10 years ago, there was a project here approved.
The records say back 10 years ago, there was a project here approved for 40 units. Is that right?
On Atlas? Is that where you're looking?
Yeah, it says 2014 ZBA approved 40 dwelling units, but the permit was never picked up.
Yeah, I wasn't around for that project and it wasn't.
Oh, I know. I'm aware. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I think to your point, Chairman, this project has gotten approved for multifamily by this board, you know, 10 years ago at this point.
So obviously at that point, consider it reasonable. I would just offer that the 63 units is a function of now the market 10 years later. And again, we did do probably a year's worth of work on the structural side of this project, which I was heavily involved with.
So is do you see a Logan dry in the audience?
Logan dry has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Sarah, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Logan Dry, L -O -G -A -N -D -R -Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Logan, are you able to share your screen and go through the plans for the board?
If you can share it, I can go through it because I'm actually between site visits now, so I'm on my phone.
Give me a second.
Do you see my screen, Logan?
am i pulling up the right plans yep there's a lot going on but in general um you know the site plan
we submitted to the city as rachel mentioned um you know it's an existing three -story industrial
building that fronts ontario and in the back um you know we integrated using the existing paved
areas um we put in 40 parking spaces we did do some landscaping just to dress it up a little bit
But it wasn't the level that, you know, was required by the code.
But again, you know, as Rachel mentioned, just based on the existing conditions and what, you know, we were buffering with the train track, you know, we couldn't meet those without probably, you know, reducing by another 20 parking spaces.
So we figured, you know, 40 was a good amount of parking spaces.
You know, we have some minimal landscaping that we were able to integrate as part of the design.
But, you know, the overarching theme back there was getting, you know, as many parking spaces as possible, the correct number of ADA spaces and still maintaining enough space for, you know, safe two -way drive aisles in and out of the site.
um the the sort of little plus hatch that you see there in the back we are adding that small
one -story addition off the rear um again not exceeding or changing the building footprint
at all everything's um you know within the existing building footprint outside of that addition
um this is a typical floor plan you know most of these plans look exactly the same because it's
you know, the same building plate. But, you know, again, we've got 63 units. We've got 21 units per
floor. They're a mix of, you know, one and two bedroom units. You know, we've got our two means
of egress that are required by code, as well as an elevator. So, you know, really, when we went
through and, you know, fit this out, you know, the name of the game was trying to get an efficient
unit mix um but also keep you know the the sort of ada accessibility and uh fire rating uh means
of egress in mind when we're trying to do this retrofit we do have you know the two means of
egress based upon the occupancy you know we're using existing masonry stair towers that will
obviously be fitted out with you know new stairs with fire ratings you know the whole building
will get the works in terms of new plumbing electrical mechanical sprinkler um so you know
we did all of that, again, within the existing building envelope, plus that small addition off
the back of the third floor. And again, with the parking mix that we have, you know, we're not
not quite one for one, but, you know, pretty, pretty close, you know, given the existing site
that we had to work with. Thanks, Logan. Yep. Rachel, could you put up the Allegheny West
letter. Sure.
so they reached a position of support given the majority of the people in attendance were in
support okay yeah and and 63 is the least amount of units you can have yeah um the 63 is the most
viable for this project in order to get
the financing that we need and like I said
to compensate for all the structural
issues we had to do as well.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this
time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson.
He's been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Good afternoon, Mr. Richardson.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Just state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer.
Charles Richardson, R -I -C -H -A -R -D -S -O -N, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass Room, 508 City Hall.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Certainly do.
Please proceed.
Councilwoman has no opposition to granting the variance.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have a caller with the phone number ending in 3552.
The caller has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Could you say, Adrienne, is that you?
Hello?
Hi, Adrienne?
Hi, could you say your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, Adrienne Fernandez.
My last name is spelled F -E -R -N -A -N -D -E -Z, Swampoodle Neighborhood Prices Association, RCO.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Yes. I just wanted to assure that our letter of support would include the three provisos that were in our written testimony.
why don't you mention the provisos so we have it on the record do you want me to read them okay
yeah please
can you give me a minute i didn't have them pulled up or i think um hillary is it possible
you can read them i'm sorry i'm not in an environment where i can get to them quickly
one moment please thank you okay the first proviso was indoor storage of trash and recycling
except at commercial collection times um two limit of 63 units three no rooftop deck occupancies
rooftop structures for mechanical use only so we can't we don't have a roof deck proposed
so that's not a big deal
but we have a trash enclosure outside
we can't fit a trash
enclosure inside the
structure but we will have commercial trash pickup
and we do have a trash enclosure
designated outside
on the plans
which I did share with
Adrian which
before
Adrian do you have anything
can we do our three provisions
pardon me
can we do all three provisos we can't do the trash one adrian no so we can do one which is
the trash oh we can do the there is no roof deck so there's nothing no roof deck is proposed for
this so i don't know that we need a proviso for something that's not on the plans um okay yes we
wanted to provide though there for any future changes to the building. Okay, you wouldn't be
able to get it without a variance, but I'll leave that up for Hillary. She can make the decision on
that one. What was the other one? Yeah, we're only proposing 63 units. So it could be maximum 63
units. I'm fine with that. Okay. So, Hillary, how many of the providers can be confirmed?
Yeah, well. With the roof, I was going to say, I mean, certainly you can say maximum 63 units
based on the current zoning of the property. You need a variance to go beyond that because
that is what is being requested um with the roof deck i'm not sure with that without further review
whether that would be a by right use or not um i guess we could proviso that um and and as rachel
um and and as rachel said the the trash is proposed outdoors because of space constraints
said the the trash is proposed
closed.
okay so that means that out of the three sorry my background as well out of the three
two of the provisos or one can be confirmed i i think two of them would be okay
okay thank you all right thank you is there anyone else anyone else in the virtual audience
i just wanted to swear in my client as well just whenever that makes sense
okay um uh ben zion siegler if you can uh raise your hand so that you can be brought on
thank you
Ben Zion Seeger
has been unmuted and allowed to speak
Hi sir
could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer
My name
is Ben Zion Seeger
Ben Zion is B -E -N -Z -I -O -N
Z -E -V
last name S -I -E -G -E -R
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Please proceed counsel
Ben, have you heard my testimony today in front of the board?
Do you believe it to be true and accurate, and do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Any other questions from the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
My Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from industrial to general industry,
to industrial and commercial mixed use.
Previous owners received a use permit in 1996
to convert the property into a church.
Churches are considered in the zoning code
to be compatible with residential blocks.
And the proposed residential use furthers
the conversion of this building away from industry
and is substantially in keeping
with the residential nature of the block.
We acknowledge that this is a tough site to work with,
but the code does allow appellants
to apply for waivers for landscaping requirements
to avoid generating refusals so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the
proposed use variants for multi -family dwellings but deny the proposed landscape variances
um council you want to respond to that yeah um the city waivers um i believe um
i don't know that if we i listen i've done them on a number of other projects but typically when
you have a bunch of other refusals you kind of lump everything in at once so whenever this was
applied for we tried to accommodate landscaping as much as possible and uh you know again given
we have four or three other refusals and we did our best with the landscaping we felt that that
was was reasonable and again we've provided the information related to the hardship on this site
and the trade -off between parking and bushes and trees.
Thank you.
MI 2023, 005 -893 -2214, West Ontario.
I vote yes, with proviso.
Maximum 63 units and no rooftop decks.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes, with provisos.
James Snell. My vote is yes, but provisos.
Ishmael Shaheem. My vote is yes, but provisos.
Thank you, counsel. Thank you.
Number six, MI 2023 -005 -892 -1204, chest on a treat.
Adam Laver is the attorney.
Letter of non -opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Letter of non -opposition from Washington Square West Civic Association.
Mr. Laver.
Laver is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Afternoon, Mr. Laver.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon, Chairman Bergman and members of the board.
Adam Laver of Blank Rome, 1 Logan Square.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, Chairman Bergman, I do.
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
Certainly. Blankrome represents RP -DOE -16 Incorporated and Shah S -H -A -H Management Company, the proposed lessee of the subject premises.
Vice Chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, Counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Good afternoon, Vice Chairman Shahid. We certainly stipulate to the accuracy of the notice of referral.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this?
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to
proceed with this in advance of this hearing yes we have thank you council please proceed
and share your screen thank you mr chairman members of the board on the screen before you
where the cursor is is the location of the subject property this regards the proposed
to use registration of the ground floor of 1204 Chestnut Street for a new Dunkin' location,
formerly known as Dunkin' Donuts.
Pari Shah, who's president and principal of the local Dunkin' franchisee Shah Management
Company, as well as Brian McCauley, director of operations, are present for this virtual
hearing.
Shaw Management Company is a local minority -owned business with a 33 -year -long proud record of investment in the community, both economically, for example, by employing local Philadelphians, but also charitably in their good works throughout the region.
Purry owns 19 Duncan locations, 15 of them in Philadelphia.
Nearby locations include 1100 Walnut Street, 808 Chestnut Street, the recently remodeled 809 South Broad Street, and locations in Suburban Station, among others.
The proposed tenant space is in this location here, right off of Chestnut Street, that's covered in purple paper.
It is the ground floor of the found residences. That's the name of the apartment building. The space is about 1 ,700 square feet. There is the entrance through these doors on Chestnut Street and service access at the rear of the property, which lets out onto 12th.
So here's an aerial. You can see chestnut at the front. The red is showing the lines of the property. This is on one of the city stormwater maps. And here you can see an alley out to 12th Street for purposes of service.
Here's another aerial photograph. The former Beneficial Bank Historic Building, which is now the Drexel Law Building, is on the corner right next to the property.
and here we see 12th street the access to the service alley at the back
the zoning map shows us that the property is located within the cmx5 zoning district
however we're here today because this is subject to the chestnut and walnut street overlay
requiring special exception relief for takeout restaurants the pending application concerns
a single issue a request for special exception relief for a takeout restaurant which i've
highlighted so that you can see it easily here are working floor plans for the property for the for
the duncan showing the entrance off of chestnut street with these through these double doors
It's ADA accessible. There are ADA accessible self -service kiosks along the western edge of the restaurant, a staffed service counter typical of Duncan locations, and most of the space is back of house operations, including room for indoor trash storage.
And at the rear, you can see the egress for commercial trash pickup.
The project was reviewed by the coordinating RCO, Washington Square West Civic Association, which unanimously endorsed a position of non -opposition.
Council Member Squilla offers non -opposition as well.
The proposed restaurant would be a fully takeout restaurant serving as an amenity to residents living at the found residences, as well as to those in the greater community.
Proposed hours of operation would be seven days per week, 5 a .m. to 10 p .m., providing eyes and ears on the street and an active use.
Curry expects to employ approximately 20 people at this location with each shift including
approximately eight to nine employees.
Trash pickup is expected via Republic Services through the rear via totes.
The Dunkin' menu does not rely on on -site fryers or related equipment.
All that is needed is the ability to heat up products.
An exhaust for this purpose is set up through that rear alley that I had pointed out.
The proposal fits into the surrounding neighborhood as evidenced by the neighborhood position, which speaks to the granting of relief being of benefit to the public and within the spirit of the zoning code.
Mr. Shah and or Mr. McCauley are available to.
Mr. Shah and or Mr. McCauley are available to adopt and affirm at the appropriate time, Mr. Chairman.
Why don't you bring him on now?
Okay. Mr. McCauley or Mr. Shah, would you kindly raise your virtual hand to be recognized by Chairman Bergman?
Perry Shah has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Perry Shaw, P -E -R -R -Y, last name S -H -A -H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Shaw.
Have you been present during the entirety of this afternoon's virtual presentation before the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment?
Yes, I have.
Thank you. And would you adopt and affirm the testimony that I've offered as your own?
Yes, it is.
Thank you, sir.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no heads at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon.
David Fechta with the City Planning Commission,
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at this location.
The appellant has shown that the proposed takeout restaurant will have no detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might be expected.
The city planning commission recommends the board grant the special exception for the proposed takeout restaurant.
Thank you. MI 2023 -005 -892 -1204 Chesson Street. I vote yes. Proviso. Per referral dated 1 -2 -24.
Thomas Holloman, 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.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Have a good afternoon.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number eight, MI 2023 -005 -755 -1201 Lindley Avenue.
Christopher Dean is the attorney.
Recognition of support from the Logan Civic Association.
Christopher Dean is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Dean. I think if I remember correctly, I swore you early this morning. Am I
right? You did, Mr. Chair. Could you just state your name for the record? Christopher Dean.
Okay. And could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Laventure Real Estate Group. They are the owners of the property. Rob Laventure is present today,
as well as Ben Estepani, who is the design professional who can go over the drawings.
Okay, our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have, and I did email with Hillary earlier.
The tax clearance is the only issue.
My client purchased this property in August.
The city cashed in, deposited the check August 31st, but for whatever reason, the taxes are
still showing as due.
And additionally, the title company just cleared the commercial trash fees that were owed.
So we're hoping within the next 30 days, both of those are cleared from the system.
Okay, Aaron, please proceed and share your screen.
so i have the pleasure of presenting 1201 lindley avenue it's at the corner of corner
property of lindley and north 12th street uh we're seeking a four -unit multi -family household
in an rsa3 single -family residential zoning district the my client's property is unique
in size it's a 6800 over 6800 square feet lot with a near 4 000 square foot improvement on the lot
my client's property is highlighted right here
we have rm1 right here at the corner of north camac street
That is 5101 North Camac and then right here on at 5101 North 12th Street, also apartment living.
01 North 12th Street, also apartment living. The uniqueness of my client's plan is while the
The uniqueness.
apartment living that he's sandwiched between is a lot of studios and one bedroom, my client is
proposing two to three bedrooms so we can have four separate families live in this massive structure.
Behind this right here, the area I'm highlighting now is actually a side lot owned by the PHDC and
my clients, if we're successful, have intent of acquiring the lot from the land bank in order to
create parking. So I'll go to the current structure and what we propose to do with it.
So here's the corner lot. As you can see, there's the apartment complex that one of the
they had mentioned. It's quite a unique structure. As I mentioned, it's 4 ,000 square feet.
Here's the other apartment, the apartment building directly across the street.
We are proposing additionally, by right, a second -story rear addition to go on top of
the two -story structure that would help build the four units. We received unanimous support
with the Logan Civic Association.
The vote was 26 -0.
The neighborhood was excited.
They thought it would be improvement.
The improvement to the property would attract families
and approve the neighborhood.
So here are the 3D renditions of what we are proposing.
Obviously, it's a massive lot.
um we it's really we think it's going to be a bright spot on the community on the neighborhood
uh it will garnish attention with the with the beautiful landscape it does have and the size of
the structure uh historically this was a there was a triplex um revealed in the zoning archives as
well which would be consistent with um both the residential the rm1 on both sides of my client's
property and the size of his of the property as you see here is where we will build this is where
we'd be building the addition to go over the i'll briefly go over the the 3d plan and then i'll have
um i'll have design fresh and i'll go over the actual drawings so you'll have four units three
of them will be a three bedroom and one of them will be a two bedroom we are proposing a
there'll be one unit one of the bedrooms will be in the um in the third floor and then we will have
two units in let me zoom this in two units in the um in the basement that but they are there
are two egress wells proposed
here's a copy of the zoning notice posted 21 days prior
and there's another copy of it as well and here's a close -up
as i mentioned we did meet with the logan civic association and here is the letter of support
indicating 26 to 0 in support.
I will have Ben, if you could raise your hand
just to go over some specifics over the drawings.
What is your client's name, Mr. Dean?
So my client is Rob Leventure and Ben Estepani
is the architect involved.
Robinson Leventure has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
You see the architect?
He's not.
Let's see if we can get the architect first, if he's there.
What's the architect's name, Mr. Dean?
Benjamin Esteban.
Mr. Esteban, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
I think I'm muted already.
There's no other hands up besides your client.
I hear Ben. He's here.
can you hear me yes this is ben this is ben he's with the owner
i'm the architect uh are you with the owner right now i am not currently with the owner no
oh i ben did you put it i think you put in uh rob's name i'm guessing when you
signed in okay all right all right sorry do me in favor state your name please and spell for
court stenographer it's ben estepani b -e -n last name e -s -t -e -p -a -n -i do you swear for him to tell
the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth that's correct yes i do please proceed counsel
please proceed counsel and then let me know i'm going to um you can direct me on what
ben let me know i'm going to um
drawings you'd like to go over but um for now if you want to start on this page
yeah i think you covered the floor plans pretty well chris um this um site plan on the right is
showing the existing conditions um the proposed addition is the hatched area um on the left -hand
site plan um we're just essentially extending the rear one story portion up to the second level
uh to include some additional bedrooms at the second floor um and then chris you just want to
scroll to the to the plans
i'll show this um the floor plans wait
you know
the 3D images
I can run through them very quickly
since you've already covered them
scroll to the bottom
as Christopher was saying
we are looking to
provide units for
family use so unit one and unit two which are located on the first floor are bi -level units
um they're each three bedroom two bath and above a thousand square feet um and then uh at that
basement level uh sorry the first floor there's kitchen living with a rear bedroom and then in
order to access the remainder of the unit you would go into the basement where there's two
bedrooms and a bathroom um and then also in the basement are the shared utilities for the building
the supply room laundry room and mechanical spaces are all dedicated towards that um towards the
building and are shared by everybody through a central staircase that connects the basement
all over to the third floor or to the second floor um and then if you can scroll up to the second
floor plan, Chris. The second floor is our two -bedroom units at the bottom half of the
plan. Unit three, which is on the top half of the plan, has access to the third floor
level, which creates the three -bedroom, two -bath unit for the property. But I think that pretty
which covers the floor plan, for sure.
I have nothing further of that.
Could you have your client?
Rob LaVenture, if you're in the crowd,
please raise your hand.
Mr. LaVenture has been allowed to speak.
Could you state your name, please,
and spell for the court stenographer?
Hello.
My name is Rob LaVenture.
last name
L -A -V -E -N -T -U -R -E
Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
Rob, did you hear
the testimony that
both Ben and I went over
on your project at 1201 Lindley?
Yes, sir.
And was that testimony truth and accurate?
Absolutely.
And do you wish to adopt the testimony as if it were your own?
Yes, sir.
Okay. And do you have anything additional you want to provide to the board or to the members of the public?
I think everything was stated at the moment. Community was excited as Chris stated.
Okay. I have nothing further of Mr. Lavender.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Just briefly, Mr. Chair, Mr. Dean, I just wanted to confirm there is currently no parking on this property or proposed to this property.
That is correct. That's correct. Our parking will be contingent on potentially acquiring it from the PHDC.
OK, thank you. I just I just want to note for the record because the property is zoned RSA three, which requires one parking space per one dwelling unit.
and that refusal was not noted on the refusal.
So I just want to note that for the record
and clarify that there isn't parking
on the actual property.
Thank you.
Correct.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Alyssa, Alicia El Camo.
Hi, could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer?
Sorry, I hit my hand by accident.
Hi, could you state your name?
Oh, okay. All right. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no other hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon. David Vecta with the City Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon. David Fechter with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single -family zoning at this location.
This property is located between two mid -sized apartment buildings.
Three dwelling units would be allowed by right if the current building were demolished and replaced.
The existing building constitutes a demonstrated hardship for single -family residential reuse.
Three dwelling units would be the minimum needed to ensure economic value.
An adaptive reuse of the existing structure is in keeping with the recommendations in the comprehensive plan.
And so the City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variants for multifamily units, but with a maximum of three dwelling units.
Thank you.
Hillary, we're going to hold this vote.
Am I right?
That is correct, Mr. Chair.
The record is closed except for proof of tax compliance.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll submit that as soon as we receive it. Have a nice day.
Number nine, MI 2023, 005 -931 -620 North Bodine Street. Henry Clinton is the attorney. There's a letter of support from Northern Liberties Neighbors Association, a letter of non -opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Chair, Mr. Clinton is coming back in as a panelist now.
Chair, we just repromoted him to the panelists again.
I'm Mr. Clinton.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Henry Clinton, H -E -N -R -Y Clinton, C -L -I -N -T -O -N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
My both clients are on the call.
They are the owners of the property.
Corey Manley, M -A -N -L -E -Y, and Alicia Alcamo, A -L -C -A -M -O.
And our vice chair has a few questions for you.
I thought I was off mute.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
I've emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
We have.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Sheehy.
No problem.
Is that visible, Mr. Chairman?
It is.
Good afternoon again. Henry Clinton for the applicants, Corey Manley and Alicia El Camo.
This is my presentation, which I ask to be admitted into the record.
containing the table of contents a1 through a10 we have one refusal refusal is concerning maximum
height uh to board knows the maximum height of any structure should be 38 feet any single family
property and we're proposing 53 feet it's a little bit of a misnomer here because the existing
property already is 43 feet and with a pilot house it's 53 feet we're simply adding solar panels
that'll be the same height as the existing pilot house.
And we're also filling in an open space that is open air,
which is adjacent to living space at this single -family home,
which I'll show the board as I move through this presentation.
As your chairman mentioned at the outset,
we do have a letter of support from the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association,
and their support is contingent upon the proviso form that I submitted
indicating that the the deck on top of the new living space we are creating will be set back
five feet and we've submitted that with a proviso form and and this is the actual plan
z1 that is attached so basically what we have is right now and i'll show you with photographs
this area here where my cursor is is an open area we propose to block that in with windows
and then have living space behind it.
Then on top of that, where the existing pilot house is,
we're going to have solar panels that match the height of the existing pilot house.
That's how we get to 53 feet, because as you see in this photograph,
the existing house from sidewalk grade to the top of the living quarters is already 40 feet.
grade to the top of the living quarters is already 43 feet and the existing pilot house
is an additional 10 feet. So we're simply adding solar panels to match up with the height of the
pilot house. We're not blocking any views. This is not going to be a closed -in structure.
It's simply panels with the supporting beam at the front, middle, and the rear.
These are some photographs to show you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
There's four or five houses on Bodine Street, which are all constructed the same.
The homes are about 20 feet wide.
Half have a roof deck.
The other half is just open space, open area.
Our proposal is to close in this open area, put a deck on top, which will be set back
five feet, and then on top of the existing deck and the one that we're going to build,
We'll have solar panels on the front of where the pilot house, as well as the rear of where the pilot house is.
Again, some more photographs just for perspective.
This is Bodine Street, very narrow street.
You can see at the top where my cursor is, there's an open area, which is better depicted on the next photograph.
So this is 620. It's my client's property.
This area will be filled in with windows and living space behind it.
This is just another perspective looking south.
This scaffolding is concerning another project that's ongoing, removing some panels and stucco in the front of the house.
It has nothing to do with the construction we're asking for here.
We're not moving forward, obviously, unless we get approval.
some more photographs for perspective and photographs of our zoning notices.
This is the proviso sheet. As I said to the board, we're creating a deck setback five feet from the
top floor with an elevation, the railing in the front, and a skylight in the area of that five
foot setback. Again, just another perspective, it's the same plan I showed you before, Z1
53 feet is the height of the existing piled house.
Our solar panels will simply match that height.
The remaining documents, tax clearance.
Actually, it's a printout from the Department of Revenue indicating that all taxes are clear.
Zoning map indicating that this is an RSA 5 zoning district.
The deed indicating ownership.
a notice letter to the community group indicating we've sent out notices to all the surrounding
neighbors. So basically, in conclusion, this situation is not going to adversely affect
any neighbors. The solar panels will not, nor will the infill on the fourth floor affect any
surrounding neighbors. It does not impair the light or open space of any adjoining neighbor.
It's in harmony with basically with the codes, because I know there's a push to have as many solar panels installed in the city as possible for energy efficiency.
We're not increasing any congestion and we're in harmony with the wishes of the community group, which with with whom we met and which has issued a letter of support.
Mr. Chairman, I can have my clients adopt my testimony.
Want to bring your clients on, please?
Mr. Manley or Ms. O 'Connor, can you raise your virtual hand, please?
Hi, good afternoon, Corey Manley.
Hi, sir.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Corey Manley, K -O -R -Y -M -A -N -L -E -Y.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Manley, were you on the call when I just presented the project that you'd like to have
constructed at your residence?
And if you had the opportunity to testify,
would you adopt my testimony as your own
and as true and correct?
I would.
Thank you, Mr. Manley.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney,
Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission?
David? David? David? Yes. Sorry. Okay. That's okay. I'm going to pull up my spreadsheet again. I just
lost it all right here we go all right uh thank you mr chairman and members of the board good
All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Good afternoon, David Fecta with the City Planning Commission.
afternoon david effected with the city planning commission
In 2014, the zoning at this location was changed from industrial and commercial mixed use to residential single family in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan.
In a community supported map change in 2015. Oh, sorry. In a community supported map change period.
In 2015, the property owner received a permit to enlarge a previously approved pilot house.
There is no detrimental economic impact that would accrue to the appellant if the additional requested height is not granted.
And so the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed dimensional variance for height.
Mr. Chairman, can I address that?
You can.
Yeah, so we're not building any type of structure to support living or to entertainment.
It's simply solar panels that are going to match the existing height of the pilot house.
We're not impeding anybody's views, anyone's lighter air, and it's simply to make the house more efficient and to have solar panels installed.
MI 2023, 005 -931 -620 North Bodine Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Revised plan, one -page, stamped by ZBA on January 17, 2024.
Thomas Holloman.
my vote is yes with proviso
James Snell my vote is yes
with proviso
Ismail Shahid my vote is yes with proviso
Thank you counsel
Thank you sir chairman
Number 10
MI 2023
005 778
1424 North Front Street
161104
Meredith Trego
and Eileen Quigley are the attorneys. Let's see here. Letter of support from the South
Kensington Community Partners. Letter of support from Fishtown Kensington Area Business Improvement
District. Sarah, Eileen Quigley is coming back in as a panelist now. Okay. Eileen, could you please
state your name and spell for the court stenographer? Certainly. Eileen, E -I -L -E -E -N,
Quigley. Q -U -I -G -L -E -Y. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth? I do. Did you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Yes. Good afternoon, Chair Bergman. As I said, my name is Eileen Quigley. I'm here
with my colleague, Meredith Trego. We're here on behalf of 1429 Hope Street, LLC,
and Archive Development Group.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Certainly.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal
or stipulate towards accuracy?
I just want to make sure that the refusal
to which you are referring
is the one that's dated 1 -16 -2024.
I believe so.
Yes, then we do agree to the waiving of the refusal.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, with the exception of the RCO letter from South Kensington Community Partners, because we just received it on January 14th, 2024. So we did send that along to council and zoning board staff on January 14th, 2024.
Okay, thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
can everybody see my screen we can
so as i say good afternoon chair bergman members of the board my name is eileen quigley i'm here
with my colleague, Meredith Trego from Ballard Spar LLP. We're here on behalf of the Archive
Development Group and owner, 1429 Hope Street. And with us, we have Henry Siebert and Ryan
Kalili on behalf of Archive Development, as well as the project architect, Paul Lorenz
of Cano Design. Just as some preliminary items to get out of the way, we did send out our
notices to the neighbors and to the RCOs. The neighbor notice letters went out November
13, 2023, along with certificates of mailing, and those can be found at
exhibits 9 and 10 of our packet. In addition, we attended three separate
Exhibits 9 and 10 of our packet.
In addition, we attend
meetings with the West Girard Progress RCO, the Fishtown Business District, and
the coordinating RCO, which was or is the South Kensington Community
Partners. The Fishtown Business District did provide a letter of support, which we
have at Exhibit 12, and as I noted, we just received the letter of support from
south kensington community partners which we have submitted to zoning board council we met with
south kensington community partners on two separate dates one with their zoning committee
on december 6th and then again on december 20th at the public meeting the property was also posted
in accordance with the zoning code and we have an affidavit a notarized affidavit of posting
at Exhibit 8. So we are here today, Chairman Bergman and members of the board, to request
zoning relief for the construction of four four -story row homes along North Hope Street.
And I think this will provide some additional context for you. This red rectangle represents
the area where the proposed dwellings will go. This is
Hope Street. Back here is North Front Street.
We would request zoning relief to allow for proposed
decks located at the second level rear of the property
because in the RSA 5 zoning district, you are not permitted to have
encroachments in the rear yard. We're also looking for relief to allow for
off -street accessory parking to be accessed from the front -facing
garage as in the RSA 5 on -site parking needs to be accessed from a rear alley or driveway which
this does not allow for and third we have a request for relief to allow for creation of these
four lots at 825 .5 square feet so under the fifth district overlay if the adjacent parcels are
more than a thousand if 75 % of the lots are less than a thousand square feet or
smaller you can subdivide this lot into 800 square foot lots however these
adjacent parcels most of them are larger than a thousand square feet so we are
required to obtain a lot area variance also the subdivision plan that was
submitted at this time is not approved by the Planning Commission because those
lot sizes do not meet the code or the overlay. But once we, should the board grant the variances,
then that would eliminate that refusal. With that, I would ask Paul Lorenz to raise his
virtual hand and be elevated as a panelist. Hello, Paul Lorenz here. Hi, Mr. Lorenz. Could
you state your name and spell for the court stenographer? My name is Paul Lorenz. It's P -A -U -L,
last name, L -O -R -E -N -Z. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Please proceed, counsel. Thank you. Paul, could you please
briefly describe your educational background and work experience? Sure. I hold a Master of
architecture degree from Yale University. I have been working in Philadelphia for seven years now,
and for five of those years, I've been a licensed architect in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
And at Exhibit 13, can you confirm that that is your resume? Yes, it is.
Thank you. And can you please describe your role in this proposed development?
Sure. So I've been working with Archive Development really since they acquired the property.
I believe it was in 2021. Alongside Kerry Jackson Yance, principal of Canada Design,
we've developed this concept for row homes with Archive Development.
All right. I would like to offer Mr. Paul Lorenz as an expert in architecture and design.
I think we'll accept him for the work he's done on this project.
Thank you. So, Paul, as you can see, I have control of the slide. So I would like you to go through describing the site location and then the project.
So is there a specific slide you'd like me to go on the zoning plans first?
or would you like to settle on this one right now to do we can start with page six thank
you um so uh chairman bergman members of the board
So, Chairman Bergman, members of the board, as we can see here, the project is located on Hope Street, which is one street west of Front Street in the Kensington neighborhood.
Hope Street is really a quite narrow side street that is occupied primarily by row homes, in addition to the existing use of vinyl goods facility.
As you can see here in these photographs, again, the street is quite narrow.
I would like to note that all of the cars we see here are not legally parked.
Importantly, there is no legal parking allowed on Hope Street, which is a it's only I believe the cartway is 13 feet wide.
And this is just a one way alleyway.
Could you go to the next page, Irene?
All right. As it's been noted earlier, the project is located in an RSA 5 location.
The lots across the street are also RSA 5. However, the lots behind and adjacent to the
project location are CMX 3. And that's really one of the main reasons why a majority of the
lots around the area are above 1 ,000 square feet. The next page, please.
All right, so this is just the zoning document that we submitted to LNI as part of this
application. We can just go to the next one as well, please. Thank you. All right, we've got a
site plan here. As has been noted before, we are proposing four nearly identical row homes
on parcels that are each 828 square feet. They're really extremely typical row homes of this area,
very typical size. Each of these row homes does include a proposed single car parking on the
ground floor, as well as a deck that extends out of the second floor. And in a moment, I'll get
into why that second floor deck is important. Next page, please. All right, so just to spin
through the floor plans very briefly, again, we're seeing the garage on the ground floor on the left
with a bedroom in the back. We do have a rear yard, which does meet the rear yard requirements
of the district. Going up to the second floor plan, what we would typically see in a Philadelphia
Row Home on the ground floor, we're pushing up to the second floor. And that's really what's driving
this second floor deck. So it offers some outdoor space to the common elements of these families
living in these row homes. The third floor is an extremely typical Philadelphia Row Home with
the bedroom in the front and a bedroom in the back. The fourth floor, again, is extremely typical of
many newly created row homes in this area with the primary suite taking up the floor.
And the roof, again, is an extremely typical roof deck with pilot house, again, typical of a row home in this area.
Each floor, each of these homes would encompass about 2 ,500 square feet, and there would be four bed, four and a half bath.
So it's really meant to house families with children in this area.
all right so this this building section again describes why we are using a second floor deck
a deck like this would be permitted on the ground floor however since we have
our common elements on floor two we are proposing that on the on floor two
um here i'm just going to extremely briefly describe some of the materiality and forms of
home as we see here these are just very um sort of contemporary contextual row homes we're proposing
a simple red brick facade to uh to mesh really well with the neighborhood um and some juliet
balconies on the second floor um just to offer some uh a good amount of opening to the street
okay thank you um paul i just want to go back to the lot area and yes of course let me know is it
which is easier to go back to the i think the um the the zoning map showing the the rsa5 district
and cmx3 district so if you can explain for the board the adjacent lots and what the sizes of
the lots across the street from our project are and have this project
the lots across the street from our project are and how this project actually fits in more with
the residential dwellings in the area. Sure, of course. So as we can see, the lot fronts onto
Hope Street. However, the zoning is impacted by these larger CMX3 lots that front onto Front Street.
The typical lot size on Hope Street is below that 1 ,000 square foot threshold.
An earlier calculation that I did came up with 35 parcels that went onto Hope Street.
Of those, 27 are less than 1 ,000 square feet.
So that is 77 % of the parcels are less than 1 ,000 square feet.
However, given this unique position of our parcel, unfortunately, that CMX 3 lot that surrounds it pushes that percentage of surrounding lots above 1 ,000 square feet above the threshold.
I also would like to note that many of the rail homes that front Hope Street, especially
the newly developed homes, do have the same ground flow parking that we're requesting here.
13 of the parcels along Hope Street have access to their own private off -street parking.
so can so to be clear without having a rear drive as we saw from the area of aerial photographs
and not have any rear access and being prohibited from parking on hope street
obviously there would be a hardship in trying to park anywhere other than having access on site
Yes, that's my opinion.
And we talked about the lot area, but the width of these homes is consistent with the width of the other parcels, single family dwellings along Hope?
Yes, so both the parcels along Hope Street and our proposed parcels are right within the extremely typical Philadelphia Row home.
I believe we're proposing parcel widths of just about 17 feet, which is very typical of, again,
both Hope Street and a typical rural home here in the city. So these proposed dwellings actually
fit in with the nature and the character of the existing neighborhood? Yeah, I believe so,
and that's really something that has been front and center during the design process here.
Okay, and I just wanted to go back to the photos, too, because I believe that they, well, they do show what you were talking about, where other parcels, other single -family dwellings have access to on -site parking.
correct and really the exact same configuration that we're proposing with the garage on the ground
floor in addition to the entry door and then the second floor has the main living spaces
demonstrated on the in photograph a by the larger window on floor two of that existing adjacent
property okay and with uh with that i would just like to ask you uh in your professional opinion
if the grant of the requested variances will be detrimental or have a detrimental impact to the
surrounding neighborhood or to the health, safety, or general welfare of the neighborhood?
No, I don't believe that they would have a detrimental impact.
Do you believe that these houses will actually engage the street and they
allow for additional dwelling units along with the existing housing?
Yeah, definitely. Again, I'm envisioning four vibrant families being on the street. Once you
have more eyes on the street, more activities in the street, research has found that health
and safety really increases. And as you said, this was a factory here. So with these proposed
row homes, these four four -story row homes, do you believe that the grant of variance will not
cause any overcrowding of the land? I believe it will not cause overcrowding of the land.
And it will not impair an adequate supply of light and air to adjacent properties?
That's correct. We're not really asking for any height or depth variances here,
which could theoretically do that. In this case, we are not really impacting any of the adjacent
properties in terms of light and air. And you don't believe that any of these
variances will impair or injure adjacent conforming properties? I do not believe so.
Thank you, Mr. Lorenz. So, as you heard from Paul Lorenz, we believe that this
So, as you heard from Paul Lorenz, we believe that this project meets the spirit and intent of the code and meets the criteria for granting variances.
We would open it up to any questions.
Eileen, do you want to bring your client on?
Adapt your testimony?
Either Henry or Ryan, can you raise your virtual hand?
henry siebert has been unmuted and allowed to speak thank you how's it going this is henry
i'm one of the owners hi sir could you state your name and spell please for the court sonographer
henry siebert s -i -e -b -e -r -t right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel thank you uh thank you henry uh i just want to
confirm when you are authorized to speak on behalf of the development group and this project
at the property? Yep, confirmed. Yes, thank you. And Henry, you heard my narrative regarding the
project. Would you adopt that as, would you say that my narrative regarding the project was
accurate? Yes, I would. And if you were able to testify and provide a narrative, would you adopt
my testimony as yours as it's accurate i would thank you questions from the board
no mr chairman no chair all right questions or comments from our attorney hillary amerson
sorry not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
here i see no hands at this time planning commission thank you chair bergman and good
afternoon david fecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single family zoning on the hope
street side of this lot the appellant seeks to create smaller lots than are allowed in rsa 5
the proposed lot sizes match the sizes of lots on hope street which range from the low
700s to over 900 square feet. The appellant proposes an off -street parking space for each
home. Hope Street is narrow with no parking allowed on either side. Off -street parking is
common on this block. And the variances for the decks are due to the small lot sizes.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed variances for
lot size, off -street parking, and rear decks. Thank you.
MI 2023 -005 -778 -1424 -North Front, number T -B -161104, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman.
With proviso, her refusal dated 116 -24.
Thomas Holloman, 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.
Thank you, Chair. That concludes my business. May I please be excused?
You absolutely can. Thank you.
Thank you. Have a wonderful day.
Okay. Number 11, MI -2023, 005 -888 -1537 South 6th Street,
Dawn Tangrady and Clementine Amazon. Are the attorneys assigned to this?
There's a recommendation of support unanimous from Dickinson Square West Civic Association
and a letter of non -opposition from Council Member Squill.
Chair Clementa Amazon is coming back in as a panelist now.
good afternoon hi good afternoon council
good afternoon i apologize you guys can't see my video i'm not sure what's happening here
okay all right could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer
of course clemente amazon that's spelled c -l -e -m -e -n -t -a last name is a -m -a -z -a -n
there we go do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do could you identify your client in relationship to the property
of course my client is jerry joseph and he's the owner of the property
okay and our vice chair has just a few questions good afternoon counsel do you agree to weigh the
reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy good afternoon yes i do have you
Good afternoon. Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
emailed in all the required documents and exhibits
Yes, I have.
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
is everyone able to see my screen we can perfect so again my name is clemente amazon today i'll be
presenting 1537 south 6th street and the property owner is gerardo de joseph he is also on today's
call. During my presentation I'll be going through the refusal. This property actually has a prior
use permit that was issued as I'll discuss during my presentation. Unfortunately my client was not
able to pull all of the necessary permits before the permit expired and therefore we have to present
this project to the board once again. And I will also provide photos of the interior as well as
exterior of the photo surrounds excuse me interior and exterior photos of the property
the surrounding area photos showing that the property was in fact posted the notice for the
community meeting as well as our certificates of mailing the application for appeals
seed project information form and our certificate of tax clearance
so this property is on cms1 it is along the corner of south 6th street and tasker
The proposed use is for a fraternal organization. Specifically, my client is one of the chairs for the First Word Italian American Club. It is not a fraternity, but more of a social club that convenes at the property. Previously, they were located at 632 Tasker Street. However, they have since moved, and they're looking to continue use of the property at 1537 South 6th Street along the lower level and first floor.
As I mentioned previously, there was a permit that was issued in 2019 for the exact same use
for the fraternal organization. However, my client had some issues with his health as well as just
pulling all the permits in a timely manner. So the permit did in fact lapse and now we are
requesting that the board honor the same use for this property. We did meet with the community on
On November 21, at 6 p .m., we received unanimous support for the project, as you can see here.
Dickinson Square West Abik Association hosted that particular community meeting.
And here we have photos of the interior of the property along the cellar
and the first floor where the organization would have their meeting, as well as a photo of the posting of the property.
and i apologize for the quality here i think this better photos a little bit better just
along six year views go to the property again we are using the first floor as well as the lower
level for that proposed use of the social club for first word italian american club
and here we have a view of the side of the property
along tasker street to the left and tasker street to the right
And this is also another photo along Tasker Street.
And we did provide notice of the community meeting.
We sent that out on November 14th.
And again, the community expressed resounding support for this particular project, a copy of the refusal.
Again, we're just looking to have the same use that was previously granted by this board in 2019,
which is that of a fraternal organization on the first floor and lower level with the existing uses to remain.
A list of the properties that were notified of the community meeting that was held on
November 21st, our certificate of mailing showing that we did, in fact, send out that
notice for the meeting, our application for appeal, which also provided a copy of the
refusal, and the deed to the property showing that my client, Jerry DeZoseph or Gerardo DeZoseph
who actually owns this property,
our project information form,
the application for appeal again,
and our certificate of tax clearance.
So with that, if I could have my client Jerry raise his hand
so that he may about my presentation, excuse me.
Jerry DeJoseph has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Sarah, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Mr. DeJoseph?
I believe he may be calling in, so he has to unmute himself.
i believe he may be calling in so he has to unmute himself but if the court would like i can
stipulate for the accuracy how's that that well that's fine could you state your name please and
spell for the court stenographer gerardo de joseph g -e -r -a -r -d -o de joseph d -i -j -o -s -e -p -h
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Absolutely.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Jerry, did you hear my presentation today in its entirety?
Yes, I did.
And is it true and correct?
Yes, it is.
Would you adopt it as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
Hello, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Anderson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon, Dave DeTecto.
With the City Planning Commission, Chairman and Board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed -use zoning at this location.
This property appears to have a history of use as a fraternal organization.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant a proposed use variance for a fraternal organization.
MI 2023 -005 -888 -1537 -South 6th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Counsel.
Thank you.
Number 13, MI -2023 -005 -889 -411618 Chester Avenue.
Darwin Beauvais is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the Spruce Hill Community Association,
and Councilmember Gauthier strongly supports the special exception requested at this location.
Darwin Beauvais is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Thank you.
counsel could you state your name and spell please for the court sonographer
gladly the darwin bovay darwin d -a -r -w -i -n bovay is b as in boy e a u v as in victory a i s
as in do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do would you identify your client the relationship to this property yes um we are
are looking for sabrina tate the executive director of fabashi and our vice chair has just a few
questions good afternoon council do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to
its accuracy i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed
and required to proceed with this case thank you please proceed and share your screen great let me
Okay, good afternoon members of the board, Mr. Chairman, before you is an application for a special exception to use the property at 4116 -18 Chester Avenue as a free medical clinic.
clinic. Present with me today is Babashi, Transition to Hope, a respected non -profit organization
committed to enhancing the health and well -being of the Philadelphia community, which acts as a
beacon of hope and support, offering health screenings, case management services, and vital
education for the LGBTQIA community, as well as all of Philadelphia. Now, by way of further
background, Babashi, based in Philadelphia, plays a crucial role in enhancing the health
and overall well -being of Black and brown communities. Now, we do have exhibits here
from 1 through 15, including our referral, tax clearance, lease, zoning application,
the background information, floor plans, photographs, our letters of support, our
certificate of mailings, but right now I would like the board to see our background, Exhibit
5. We can get there a lot sooner. So, Exhibit 5, this is Babashi. Now, their mission is
Now, their mission is centered on providing access to culturally sensitive, high quality health care to HIV individuals, as well as provide health education and social services.
centered on providing access to culturally sensitive
Babashi offers a range of services, including medical case management for HIV -positive individuals, health screenings, support groups, prevention education, hunger relief, and nutritional support for the surrounding community, as well as the transgender and LGBTQ community.
The organization has also expanded its programming to address the evolving needs of its clients, which include hunger relief services and programming for its participants.
Babashi is dedicated to being a comprehensive health and wellness organization for disenfranchised communities and people of color across the Philadelphia region.
Now, we did receive one zoning referral for group medical office, which requires a special inception.
Now, in hopes of a favorable decision, I would like the board to take notice of Exhibit 10, where we will start, which is on page 93.
This is the property in question. We have Chester Avenue here. We have 41st Street. We have Woodland Avenue along here. This is where the building sits. It's huge. There's off -street parking, and it's mainly commercial uses here.
here. Also, I would like the board to note our floor plans, or rather the interiors.
Let's look at that. We are looking to occupy the first and third floors. This is how it
looks right now, as well as the third floor. Now, what we plan on doing, I believe we are
It needs to be at page 63.
Here's our floor plans.
In essence, what we're looking to provide on the first floor is a food pantry, a teaching
kitchen slash cafe, a set of offices for prevention programs, a medical case management
office and set of offices. We're going to provide mental health services on this floor. We're going
to also provide a pharmacy as well as a wellness center that would include private offices, exam
rooms, and lab rooms. We're going to also have something that's unique in the city, a trans
necessities boutique. Basically, we'll be able to offer a clothing store. And we will also have a
reception area with privacy for phone use. Our third floor will be reserved for administrative
offices. We will have open space where people can sit and wait. We will also have a multi -purpose
room as well as general storage and a kitchenette for the staff as well as conference room.
Now, given our proposed use, we submit our application aligns with the criteria
for a special exception under the code, specifically Title 14, Section 303 .7e.
And the reason why we say that, because one, we have no increase in congestion because the location
And our plans are designed to ensure smooth access without adding any traffic burdens, as you can see evidence from the huge structure that fronts two streets.
We also believe that we're not creating any overcrowding of the land.
Why? Because we're not expanding the building's footprint.
The current structure is well -equipped to handle us.
You saw the off -street parking.
You see the empty offices that are there now.
So we suggest that there's no overcrowding.
Furthermore, our operations won't impair light or air because we're maintaining the existing structure.
We're not going outside those walls, so we're not creating any additional burdens in that sense.
any additional burdens in that sense. Moreover, we have no burden on public facilities because
Moreover, we have no burden on public.
we are self -contained. We're already in an existing structure and that's fully capable
of handling the use. And also we have safety and health enhancements because
we are on the corner property. We are creating additional activity, which is also centered around
additional services that hasn't been in this area for quite some time, albeit that we are near the
VA hospital and as well as, I believe, other medical facilities. Now, with that said,
I'm pleased to report that on November 16, 2023, we did meet with the local RCA, Spruce Hill Civic Association, and they did support us.
And with that, we conclude that this special exception not only meets the zoning code requirements, but it also embodies the spirit of community welfare and health enhancement that this city has championed for years.
And with that, we respectfully urge the board to grant this, enabling Babashi to continue its vital work for our community.
Now, with that said, I would like the board to identify Sabrina Tate, if she can raise her virtual hand.
I would like for her to adopt my statements as her testimony.
Sabrina Tate has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
I'm Sabrina Tate, S -E -B -R -I -N -A, last name, excuse me, T -A -T -E.
Right. You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Please proceed, counsel.
Sabrina, did you hear everything that I stated to the board today?
Yes, I did.
Oh, and what is your position?
i'm sorry i'm the president and ceo of uh babashi transition to hope okay and hearing my statements
that i made to the board today would you adopt that as your testimony yes all right mr chairman
members of the board thank you include my presentation i'll open myself up for any
questions all right questions from the board no mr chairman no chair chair no chair questions or
comments from our attorney, Hilary Anderson? Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Hilary, a quick question.
Would this be the first and third floor only? Yes. We can limit the use to those floors if
that is amenable to counsel the applicant. Is that okay? Dorman? We have no plan for expansion
at this time and and we will have to work with the landlord in order to fix and if that's the
case we will have to come back anyway okay thank you um questions or comments from the virtual
audience i see no hands right now chair all right planning commission thank you chair bergman and
good afternoon david educto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at this location
the appellant has shown that the proposed general practitioner will have no detrimental impacts to
the neighborhood beyond what might be expected the city planning commission recommends the board
grant a proposed special exception for a general practitioner thank you MI 2023 -005 -889 -4116 -18
Chester Avenue I vote yes with proviso first and third floor only Thomas Holloman my vote is yes
with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with
proviso. Thank you, counsel. Thank you. Good to see everyone. Happy New Year. Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 2 p .m. case has not been called?
I see no hands, chair. All right, so we're going to take a five -minute break and then we'll come
back and we'll finish up the afternoon list. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing the 330 CBA hearings.
With me as our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid. President, Mr. Chairman. Our board member,
Thomas Holloman. President, Mr. Chairman. Board member, James Snell. President, Chair.
Present, Chair.
Also with us is Hillary Emerson, our attorney.
Also with us is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised the proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phil .gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267 -270 -5548.
Leave your email and address of the property in question.
And finally, the question answer box on the screen is now for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Silken.
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number two, MI 2023 -003 -755 -474 Harlan Street, that case has been continued.
Number four, MI20230037927320 Montour Street, that case has been continued.
And number eight, MI 2023 -004 -268 -6600 Lansdale Avenue, that case has been continued.
Also, look at number, case number seven, MI 2023 -003 -791 -722 North Shedwick Street.
Is the attorney for that case present, or is the owner present, Serge Faggio?
Good afternoon, Chair. I see no hands at this time.
Okay, so MI 2023 -003 -791 -722 North Shedwick Street, that case is continued. Mark must be heard.
Are there any other requests for continuance or any comments about the cases we have continued?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Thank you.
We're going to go to our main list, and we're going to hear number one and five together.
Number one, MI 2023 -003 -752 -6103 Callahill Street.
Tameka McCoy is the attorney.
And number five, MI 2023 -003 -751 -6101 Callahill Street.
Tameka McCoy is also the attorney.
There's a letter of support from HMC Squared with Proviso.
Tameka McCoy.
thank you hi could you state your name could you state your name please and spell for the
court stenographer sure tamika mccoy t -a -m -i -k -a last name is m -c -capital -k -o -y right do you swear
a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes could you could you
please identify your client the relationship to the two properties sure uh booker investment group
is represented by eloise jones and we also have the project engineer devon looney who is
participating in this session all right our vice chair has just a few questions for you
good afternoon counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy
yes have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
As Chairman Bergman indicated, I am presenting regarding two
properties. They are located at 6101 Callahill and 6103 Callahill. They are a joint with one
another. The property is a large three -story building. We received a refusal on June 29th
as stipulated. There are no modifications to that refusal. We submitted a proposal to the RCO who is
We submitted a proposal to the RCO, who is the HMC Squared, on September 18th of 2023.
HMC Squared
There was a meeting where we were provided with approvals with Provisio on October 12th of 2023.
We have a packet that contains within it the L &I project information, the deed, the tax certificate clearance form.
We also provided notices to, I believe, 136, 163 residents in the surrounding area that would be affected by the proposal.
and that went out September 18, 2023, also informing them of the RCO meeting that was
scheduled for October 12th. With regard to this property, it was acquired in a non -conforming
state. It was previously used as a tavern, though it was zoned RCA 5. The proposed use
is to reduce the request from a seven unit to a six unit multi -purpose family
occupation for residential purposes. It's currently zoned for residential purposes.
So the request essentially is that it continue to be used for residential purposes, but just allow
for multifamily. There is a scenario where the actual footprint of the building would not be
modified or changed in any way. However, the modification from a tavern, which it was currently
used, it's actually uninhabitable at the present state. It's a large dilapidated building, but was
previously used as a tavern in order to have that function as it's currently zoned would
present a hardship to the owner. I do have Devin Looney, the project engineer, and I'd like to have
him attend and participate if he could raise his hand virtually so that he could be admitted. We
can present that portion of the presentation okay chair devon looney has been allowed to speak
sir could you state your name and spell please for the court stenographer yes mr chair my name
is devon looney d -e -v -o -n -l -o -n -e -y do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do please proceed counsel thank you good afternoon mr looney can you please
provide your training and background for the benefit of the board? Yes. I am a professional
engineer licensed in the state of PA amongst other states, and we perform the building design
and co -compliant layout for the proposed use. I have a photograph on my screen, and it depicts
both 6103 and 6101 Callowhill Street. Do you see it? Yes, I do. Okay. And this is the
building for which you prepared plans to modify it to a multi -unit apartment. Is that correct?
Yes, that's correct. And the vantage point is basically front -facing
that we're seeing the photographs of, correct? Correct, from Callowhill Street.
Okay, thank you. And I'm showing a photograph that shows a direction facing down Callahill Street, facing the left of the building. Can you see that?
Yes, correct.
And that is a fair and accurate depiction of the existing structure at that location, correct?
Yes, it is.
And this would be facing the other direction, facing the right side of Callahill Street, is that correct?
That's correct. I'm going to go to the plans that you've prepared. Can you please describe the plans that you've prepared?
Yes. Is it they're rotated on the screen? Is it possible to rotate them?
Okay. Let me work on it clockwise, 90 degrees. There we go. Thank you.
Okay, so what we're looking at here is 6101 Collar Hill. This is the building that is on the corner of 61st Street and Collar Hill. As Ms. McCoy mentioned.
Um, as Ms. McCoy, uh, mentioned the existing use of the property or the pre the last known use was as a tavern.
Um, so the entire first floor as of now is dilapidated.
It is completely wide open.
Um, it requires structural repair amongst, um, also being fit out for, for any type of use.
So what we've proposed, based on what Ms. Jones requested, is a multifamily structure with six dwelling units.
We have two units on each floor.
The total is a three -story building, which gives us our six units.
There are no units proposed for the basement, but the basement will be used as a common space for tenants of the building.
Each unit does meet the minimum requirements per the 2018 IBC for space, for dimensional requirements, also for ADA access on the first floor.
As you can see from the first floor plan, both of those units are ADA accessible, and those will be assessed directly from Collar Hill Street via an accessible ramp.
each unit will of course have bathroom and kitchen facilities as well as a washer and dryer
and an open sleeping space for a total of six efficiency units although the footprint of the
building is not changing we are extending the third floor to match the limits of the existing
first and second floor. That is what generated that second
refusal for the proposed area.
This, of course, was done to get as many
units as possible into the building without overcrowding it or
without exceeding the requirements of the building code.
Excuse me, Mr. Loney, this is Hillary Emerson
board counsel. So the refusals that I saw for this
project were for a change of use only to seven dwelling units now six are being requested
um there was no mention of any construction um and i didn't see any refusals for area no plans
were reviewed from what i could tell this was change in use only so if there's any additions
proposed that would need a separate zoning application you cannot add that to a change
use application I don't know if there was another refusal that I'm not aware of but at least the
refusal that I saw for for this application were for change of use only no additions for both
properties okay I will um have to speak with the owner concerning that initially we were
planning on doing a uh an addition on that third floor but if that's not within what's in the
current application, then I would have to agree for six -family use. We need to modify the plans
you see on the screen. However, the layouts of the interior of the building aren't part of the
refusal is mainly just for the proposed number of dwelling units. All right. And perhaps Ms. McCoy
could speak to this if if there were multiple applications it's possible that maybe the one
the wrong one was appealed because this is the this is the application that was appealed
so sometimes there is confusion if there is multiple applications
so you may just want to to check on check on that we'll do
we'll proceed um the hillary can we go on
yes mr chair we can consider the change of use um but i just wanted to be to be clear that there
is no construction as part of the what what's before the board today okay thank you for either
property okay so what i'm showing is the um plan that shows the footprint for the building so the
intended use as a multi -family residential use would not change the footprint. I believe that's
what your testimony was? That's correct. And I do believe there may be an issue with multiple
applications here, Tamika, so I'm not sure if you'd like to continue this. Yeah, we're going to
continue um for purposes of the use and the information that you provided essentially was
that um the current footprint would not change um there may be another application regarding
the construction so we're not going to talk about that um with regard to the intended use
With regard to the intended use, would there be a detrimental impact to the community with the changes that are contemplated in the plans that you designed?
would there be a detrimental
instrumental in
No, we don't believe so. As you mentioned before, the existing building is going to remain. And as far as the number of units, just for the sheer size of the building, we believe that having six single occupied units would be about the same occupancy as you would as a single family home of this size.
just because it'll likely be a five or six bedroom home anyway. So we don't see that this
project really impacts the density in the area or anything of that nature. Okay. And recognizing
that the two properties are attached to one another 6301 and 6303, would there be a negative
impact to light or air with the proposed modifications? There were not. The existing
views that you see from Collar Hill and 61st will remain the same. Okay. And is the structure fully
capable of handling the intended use? The shell, the backbone of the structure, the shell, the
masonry walls, things of that nature are capable. There is structural work required within the
building, but that, of course, will be on the building permit application.
Okay, thank you very much for your contribution to the presentation.
Yep, problem.
Was that the same? Is his the same presentation for the other project, too?
Or just yes, yes, it is.
And I would also like to present Miss Eloise Jones.
Ms. Jones, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
Eloise Jones has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon, Eloise J. Jones, E -L -O -I -S -E -J -A -Y -J -O -N -E -S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Ms. Jones. Did you hear the information that was provided to the board by myself and the project engineer, Mr. Looney?
I did.
And would you adopt the statements as true and accurate?
Yes, I will.
And there's one additional caveat I'd like to add.
It's my understanding that you grew up in the current area where you acquired 6101 and 6103
Callahill. Is that correct? Yes. And it's my understanding that your mom had once
worked or was an employee of the tavern that had previously operated at the current location. Is
that correct? Yes, in 1969. So in 1969, she worked there? Yeah, we lived next door at the other
building. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Your presentation? With that, I would submit regarding
the presentation. I would like to add, though, that there is no detrimental impact to converting
a dilapidated building to multi -unit housing. The current zoning is for residential. The
intended use is for residential. We're just asking for the variance to allow for multi -families to
occupy the actual premises. It's my understanding that the area is one where the community is in
need of affordable housing, and this would satisfy that need. And it would pose a tremendous
hardship to the owner to convert it to a single family residence. It would be financially
difficult for them to be able to do that and continue to operate. And so that's why
The request is for the multi -unit residents to be approved.
And so that's the request.
And I would submit on that.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
One brief comment, Mr. Chair.
If you decide to approve these applications, we would want to add a proviso stating a maximum
um stating a maximum of six dwelling units since seven is what is listed on the refusals thank you
of six dwelling units since seven is what is listed on.
right um questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission thank you chairman and good afternoon david
duckto with the city planning commission and chairman i'll give testimony for both the
properties at the same time the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential
single -family zoning at this location there is no hardship that would require seven dwelling or i
should say six dwelling units since that's been amended there are two row houses on a primarily
single -family block we could see two dwelling units in each building one in the former commercial
space and one in the two floors above so the city planning commission recommends the board grant
the proposed use variants for multi -family dwellings but with a maximum of two dwelling
units in each building for a total of four dwelling units across the two buildings
Counsel, do you want to respond at all?
Well, I would like to reserve the opportunity to address the other construction application that may be floating around separately.
However, if we are able to have the approval for the multifamily, ideally it would be requested that we do it with the six and with the provisio that we maybe adjoin this with the construction application.
Hillary, let's talk about the construction application.
Do we just handle this today and then have to come back with construction?
Yeah, you have to file a new and separate application for the construction, a zoning application.
If that generates a refusal, you'll have to come back separately before the board.
You cannot add construction to a change of use application.
You can, you could, if they were applied for together, that would be a different story.
But this is only change of use.
We cannot add construction.
you understand council yes okay all right so i'm going to vote these both together
so mi 2023 003 752 6103 calla hill street
and mi 2023 003 751 6101 calla hill street together i vote yes
Maximum of six units
Thomas Holloman
My vote is yes
To both with a maximum
With proviso
James Snell
My vote is yes to both
With proviso
My vote is yes with proviso
For both
Thank you
Thank you counsel
Thank you
Number six we're going to go to
MI 2023 -003 -760 -524 -26, South 52nd Street. Meredith Ferliger is the attorney.
Letter of non -opposition from Cobb Creek's Neighbors Association.
Councilmember Gauthier also strongly supports the special exception requested at 524 to 26 South 56th Street.
This proposal does not lead to any increased occupancy or density in the building, as the total sleeping unit count will remain the same.
Therefore, the proposal has no undue burden on the surrounding community and should be approved.
counsel could you just state your name for the record please because you've already been sworn
uh sure my name is meredith ferliger with dilworth paxton f -e -r -l -e -g -e -r and can you
identify your client the relationship to this property certainly my client is potter's house
mission which is the owner of the property and with me today from potter's house is reverend
Kathleen Jones, the executive director. Okay, and our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its
accuracy? I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing? I did. Thank you. Please proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, as mentioned, my client today is Potter's House
Mission, represented by their executive director, Reverend Kathleen Jones. She is here today and
she is authorized to speak on behalf of this wonderful nonprofit organization. Just by way
Just by way of administrative, if the board is so inclined to grant the request today, there is an amended refusal that was issued on December 19th, which I will address, but I just want to make sure that it's very clear that it is based on that amended refusal, not based on the original referral that was issued back in May of 2023.
of administrative, if the board is so inclined,
The request before the board today seeks to correct a minuscule error in the zoning permit for this property that has carried forward since the property was first permitted in 1999.
Although slightly more technical, as I'll explain, the request ultimately looks to document that the property has seven bedrooms for occupant use, not three.
We did meet with Cobbs Creek several months ago, and their letter of non -opposition was just submitted to the board yesterday, and your counsel should have that now.
The board has my exhibits, which contain 14 sets of documents.
At tab four, the deed shows that Potter's House Mission acquired this property from the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation in December of 1997.
The property includes both 524 and 526 South 52nd Street.
Tax clearance is included at Tab 3.
On the zoning map at Exhibit 7, you'll note that this property sits at the corner of South 52nd Street and Hazel Avenue.
It is zoned CMX 2.
I did include some aerial images at Exhibit 8, but for better context, I will jump right to the photographs at Exhibit 14.
These photographs show that the property is an existing two -story structure of roughly 4 ,000 square feet that you can see extends fairly far back along Hazel Avenue.
As you'll notice, the property has multiple points of entry and egress, but the only main entry point is at the corner and through this door to the left of the building here.
The property sits along South 52nd Street, which contains a mix of commercial and residential uses, as you can see in the photograph on the screen.
And just looking the other way, again, you can see the existing commercial uses.
Through Reverend Jones's leadership for many decades, Potter's House Mission has been providing transitional housing for senior women.
This 52nd Street facility allows senior women to live independently for a maximum of one year.
Some on -site services are provided, but the ladies predominantly handle their own affairs while they live at this location.
As the interior photographs show, there is an on -site computer lab as well as lounge areas.
There is a communal kitchen where the women prepare their own meals.
Out of respect to the women living there at the time of my visit, I limited photographs of the living areas.
But you will see the hallways and the bedroom doors in the photograph up on the screen.
There are also communal laundry facilities and bathrooms.
I was able to photograph one bedroom where you'll note the typical bedroom arrangements.
Each bedroom is furnished in substantially the same way, with each of the bedrooms able to comfortably accommodate two occupants.
The first floor plans are included at Exhibit 5 and show the general layout that is reflected in the photographs.
The front office...
I'll scroll right back through.
the front office has security cameras and the facility is locked to outside visitors
to ensure the safety and privacy of the occupants photographs of the zoning posters that were posted
December 26th are also included delving into the main issue at hand at exhibit nine let me zoom out
So, I've included a copy of the original zoning permit that first approved this facility.
The board will note that the zoning permit approved three non -housekeeping units to accommodate a maximum of 14 persons.
It specifically notes the occupants are capable of self -preservation and self -sustaining.
The Certificate of Occupancy that I have included at Exhibit 6 was issued in 2002 following a substantial interior renovation to the building.
That CO notes the use as a boarding home for 14 persons.
Importantly, you will note that this building is fortunately equipped with sprinklers throughout.
Importantly, you will note that this building is fortunately equipped with sprinklers throughout.
The issue, as you may now see, is that the original zoning permit references three units, which is supposed to equate to the number of bedrooms.
However, the property has always had and will continue to have seven bedrooms, not three.
Even though the overall number of occupants is not proposed to change from the originally approved 14 occupants.
When Potter's House Consultant first filed a zoning application to correct this discrepancy,
L &I seemingly misunderstood the nature of the use and issued a referral for a personal care home.
Per Zoning Code Section 14601 -2B .1, a personal care home use is really intended for a residential use
where the occupants require assistance or supervision in matters such as dressing, bathing, diet, or evacuation from the residence.
Clearly, this facility is not one that meets the personal care definition, as the women living in this facility are largely independent.
Accordingly, I requested that L &I issue a corrected document to reflect the appropriate use as the now -defined broader group living category.
which is the catch -all category in the code now that includes uses such as a temporary overnight
shelter. Unfortunately, the group living use is not permitted in CMX2 and also generates a refusal
for insufficient parking, both which you can now see on that corrected refusal that's included at
Exhibit 1. Regardless of the use category or the type of relief generated from the request,
the important fact for the board to consider is that absolutely nothing is changing about the facility that has operated for over 20 years.
Very briefly, the applicant submits to a significant hardship given this variance request is generated simply as a result of a paperwork discrepancy
that is critical to fix to ensure that the Potter's House facility does not inadvertently jeopardize its critical funding sources,
which, as the board knows, is predominantly through city funding.
This is a classic example of dissimilar definitions that we and Ellen and I often grapple with
when comparing the use of property originally permitted under the old zoning code versus
compared to the post -2012 zoning code.
There's no longer a boarding house category under the modern zoning code.
Regarding the parking, the property has never benefited from on -site parking spaces, and it would require removal of a portion of the building to add parking.
Realistically, building constraints aside, parking could not be added to the site without generating additional variances.
The proposed variance is the least minimum, given nothing is changing about the structure or the use.
It will not create congestion or endanger the public, but will instead continue the longstanding and incredibly important public service to provide transitional housing for senior women.
Since the structure is not proposed to change and is in line with the adjoining two -story structures, the proposal will not impair light and air, nor will it harm neighbors, given this use has coexisted for multiple decades without incident.
The applicant therefore asserts it has met the requirements of Section 303AE .1 of the Code concerning entitlement to a variance and therefore asks that the board grant our application.
I'm hoping that Reverend Jones can hit the raise hand button to unmute herself so she can adopt my testimony.
Reverend Kathleen Jones.
reverend jones has been unmuted and allowed to speak uh good afternoon everyone uh it's a good
opportunity to have oh my name is uh reverend kathleen jones i'm the executive director of
potty's house mission uh for over the past 21 years hold on hold on one minute hold on one
minute could you stick when you state your name could you spell it please for the court stenographer
Yes, Kathleen, K -A -T -H -L -E -E -N, Jones, J -O -N -E -S.
And Reverend, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Reverend Jones, you're the executive director of Potter's House, is that correct?
That's correct.
And you're authorized to speak on their behalf?
Yes, I am.
Uh -huh.
Did you hear all the testimony that I offered before the board today?
Yes, I do.
Yes, I did.
And would you agree that that testimony was true and accurate?
And would you agree that that testimony was true and accurate?
And would you adopt that testimony as if it were your own?
Yes, I do.
Wonderful.
We're happy to take any questions.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good evening.
David Fecta with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed -use zoning at this location.
This property has a documented history as group living with no off -street accessory parking.
The current application conforms with this prior use.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variants for group living with no off -street accessory parking provided.
Thank you. MI 2023 -003 -760, 524 -26 South 52nd Street, I vote yes with proviso. Her amended refusal dated 12 -19 -23.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2023, 003753, 2651 Buckeyes Street, Michael McElhenney and Paul Toner are listed as attorneys.
Please. Letter of support from the Bridesburg Community Action Alliance contingent on applicants
signing a CBA that addresses concerns raised by the neighbors. Chair Paul Toner is coming back in
as a panelist now. Good afternoon, Mr. Toner. Could you state your name, please, and spell for
the court's stenographer? Good afternoon, Mr. Bergman. Paul Toner, T -O -N -E -R, with Orphanities
He's in Toner. We're counsel for the applicant in this case, All Saints Development, LLC.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you, members of the board.
We're here today for a partial change to a previously approved mixed -use development in the Bridesburg neighborhood.
Back in 2016, my client secured approval to convert the old All Saints Parish campus into a mixed -use development of shared offices and a total of 46 residential rental units.
Part of that mixed -use development was Building 1, which my cursor is now going over.
This was the former church building that was approved for the shared office space.
The concept approved was essentially the Benjamin's Desk shared office concept.
What we're here for today, and we have one refusal, we're here for today is to convert a portion of what had previously been approved for the shared office space into a craft market.
And there was only one use refusal here.
we have no dimensional refusals. The current property, I'm going to show the board what
we have marked as Exhibit 6. This is the existing church building. Since 2016, my clients have
focused the majority of their attention on converting to residential units. And after
a long period of construction, including through the COVID period, the occupancy of all those
residential units was recently completed and my clients are now looking to activate the former
church space. Our exhibit packet at exhibit three, four, and five are three renderings of the church
space when it's converted to the craft market space. And the concept for the craft market space
is to create 46 separate craft market stalls.
And these stalls will all house local vendors
and vendors from outside the community.
But the predominant intention here is to create a community hub.
All Saints development was proposed and has been developed to create a vibrant live -work play space.
All Saints development was proposed and has been developed
to create a...
And the craft market is intended to work in conformity with the remaining shared office space.
So right now, the interior is still in a state of partial demolition.
And the shared office space, which was fully approved back in 2016, has been partially framed out.
And we're essentially now waiting for approval from this board to move and reactivate the space.
So once my clients submitted their current zoning application, I'd like to go over some of the presentations and the process we followed.
First of all, we've met with the Bridesmaier Community Action Alliance on two separate occasions, on November 7th and on December 21st.
As the board indicated at the beginning of the presentation, we do have a letter of full support from the Bridesburg Community Action Alliance.
And that predominantly is based upon our agreement to enter into a community development agreement.
My clients have worked closely with not just members of the RCO, we've also worked closely with representatives of Councilman Michael Disclal's office and have tried to address as many of the concerns of the community as possible.
Now, since we're building a mixed -use development within a Bridesburg community that is a dense residential community, there are concerns with issues like parking, traffic congestion that were present when we got our approvals back in 2016 for the conversion of the church space into a shared office space.
And they were present when we presented this craft market application back in both November and December of 2023.
I would like to note in their letter of approval that was circulated to the board last night, the final paragraph of that letter makes this telling note.
And Ms. Stevens, the president of the Bridesburg Community Action Alliance, notes many of the
concerns that residents listed are going to be addressed in the community benefits agreement.
And we do think that is the case.
And I believe there will be some residents here after my presentation who are going to
express some concerns.
But I would like to go over some of the core components that my clients have tried to address
through the community benefits agreement.
One, they're agreeable to a temporary variance, and they're agreeable to a five -year temporary variance.
And in conjunction with the temporary variance, they've also made an agreement to participate in no less than four RCO meetings each year.
So we're constantly updating and addressing community concerns as they come up.
We've agreed to manage and control any issues with people illegally parking on the sidewalk and addressing parking controls as great as possible.
Appogant has agreed that any new structural improvements to the property will incorporate green elements.
As part of the conversion process, my clients fully replaced the roof of what is an important community asset, the former church building.
And one of their requests was that we could have solar panels on the roof.
Because the roof is entirely new structure, my clients intend and want to address the community desires for solar amenities.
But we just ask to do it when we go ahead and make new improvements, that we make the new improvements with consideration of those new green elements.
And this is one of the most important concerns that the community had.
They want local vendors to be given priority and a clear role in this shared market space, and that we have agreed to, and there will be clear provisions that priority will be given to qualified local vendors, but also the RCO will be given one craft vendor space so they can support and pursue civic projects as part of the craft market.
Exhibit 2 is the zoning plan that identifies the craft market.
The blue shaded area in Exhibit 2, this is all the area that's going to remain the mixed or the business shared office space.
The partially framed out cubicles that you saw in the image of the interior of the All Saints structure, that is where my cursor is right now.
And so what we're doing is in this open floor space, which had previously been intended to be like shared desk space.
This is where the market stalls, the craft market stalls.
And again, a total of 24 craft market stalls.
And again, a total of 24 craft market stalls.
Those stalls.
Those stalls will each be approximately eight by nine feet.
The total area of the craft market will be 3 ,975, give or take, square feet.
All of the existing improvements to the ingress and egress points are all already complete under the prior approvals, not just the prior zoning approvals, but also prior building plans.
This space will have appropriate handicap accessible entryways as well as as well as bathrooms.
And in the package, we've included some articles, which we're obviously not going to go through in totality today.
But the I think the board to understand how this concept is going to operate in this mixed use development is intended to be very much like the Bach craft market space and the Bach flex space.
space down in South Philly, or there's one up in Chestnut Hill, and we've included a
recent article from Philadelphia Magazine just on how popular these craft markets have
become with the local communities, how local artisans who pursue their crafts on Etsy and
eBay need a brick -and -mortar location to utilize, and that's what this space is intended to
This space is intended to serve the residents of Bridesburg in a way that not just complements
the already approved shared office spaces but also the rental units had already been approved
and built out and are now occupied in the former school building chapel building and rectory building
with me today who can answer any questions about the functionality of the craft market space is
matt samola he's the principal of all saints development as well as ron bauman who is going
to be one of the operators of the actual craft market space, and he's with an NE called Milk
Street Marketing. If the board has any questions about just the day -to -day functionality of the
space, either those two individuals are available and are happy to address those.
Why don't we have your testimony adopted, Mr.
I'd like to have Mr. Massimola raise his hand and be admitted to the Zoom.
Mr. Simola has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Sir, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon.
Matthew Simola, M -A -T -T -H -E -W, S -E -M -O -L -A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Simola, what's your position with All Saints Development?
I'm one of the principals.
And is All Saints Development the owner of the All Saints campus at 2641 Buckeyes Street?
2651, yes.
I'm sorry, 2651 Buckeyes Street.
And did you hear my presentation this afternoon?
I did.
Do you agree with all the factual statements I made to the Zoning Board of Adjustment today?
And do you adopt them as your own?
Mr. Smola, can you briefly describe to the Zoning Board your concept for how the craft market will operate?
Well, we hope to have a regular indoor market, crafts, a produce market, perhaps a coffee bar, something that does not exist in Bridesburg.
And we feel the demand is very strong for not only renting out our our studio craft spaces, but as well as well as the the the craft markets on a, you know, regular, we're hoping weekly, weekly event.
And, Mr. Smola, have you reviewed a community benefits agreement that was negotiated with the Bridesburg Community Action Alliance?
I have, yes.
And are you agreeable to enter into the community benefits agreement to address all the concerns listed and identified in that document by the Bridesburg Community Action Alliance?
Absolutely.
I have no further questions.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good evening.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good evening.
David Fechtow with the City Planning Commission.
David Fechto with the city.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single -family zoning at this location.
The proposed retail sales, artist studios and artisan industrial, food, beverages, and groceries, wearing apparel, and accessories matches previously approved variances at the site for multi -tenant spaces within a former church.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant their proposed use variants.
Thank you.
Hillary, in hearing Mr. Toner's comments, the only thing that I heard was a temporary variance.
Are you fine with that as a proviso?
Yes, Mr. Chair, we could include that as a proviso.
Okay, thank you.
MI 2023 -003 -753 -2651 Buckeye Street, I vote yes. Proviso. Temporary variance expires 1 -18 -29.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with Proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shahi, my vote is yes with Provaizo.
Thank you, Mr. Turner.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience who had a case at 3 .30 that has not been called?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Thank you, everyone.
Good day, a lot of work, and I appreciate what everybody did today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Bill.
Great job, Chair.
see you everybody
good night all
good night all
good night all