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