Yes, my client is 701 Wayne LLC.
It is both the owner and operator of the business in the property.
And I have Brianna Greer, the principal and managing owner.
So we do not have an RCO letter.
Am I correct?
All right.
And I see there is a letter of opposition for me.
Sorry, correct.
I didn't have my microphone on.
Right.
And there's a letter of opposition from Peter Forsyth,
the neighborhood concern near the resident area, churches, and et cetera.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good evening.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
And do you waive the reading of your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed.
Thank you. Members of the board, we are here today on the application of the property at 6029 Torsdale Avenue.
The applicant is seeking to have the second floor of the business properly classified and essentially legalized to include office storage, locker room, and restroom accessory to the existing adult cabaret on the first floor.
The expansion to the second floor is not for, as we wanted to dispel any rumors of anything, that the second floor is not an expansion to use for the business dealings or happenings.
It is strictly explain the business dealings. Yeah, sure. It is. Yeah, it is a it is a bar that has a topless dance stage and occasionally has dancers.
That use has been in use at that property for decades.
My client purchased the property in November of 2018 and has continued that use, and during an inspection for renewal of the assembly license and fire certifications, it was brought to her attention that the second floor, as it stands with the city, was still listed as a residential apartment.
So in order for her to get her certifications, and I will demonstrate that the second floor is used as a locker room staging room for any of the employees, a liquor storage room, and an office.
There are no other rooms upstairs, and there's no other use for that upstairs space.
We are not here necessarily to discuss the nature of the business that's been in place.
We are just seeking to get the legalization of that second floor.
I would like to point out that we met with the Wissanoming Civic Association last month.
I would like to point out that we met with the Wissanoming Civic Association last month.
We had a very nice neighborhood meeting and, of course, addressed as many of their concerns as possible.
I am a little bit taken back today that there is no letter of any sort with your office except for an opposition from a neighbor.
But we did address the concerns, and Ms. Greer can testify as to her efforts in the neighborhood to calm any concerns of rowdiness outside and so forth that comes with the general type of bars and businesses in the area.
She has agreed to include additional security for her business, and her business and her brother, who helps run it, routinely employ some of the local ne'er-do-wells around to assist in keeping the area clean.
They find that if they help incentivize them and ne'er-do-well, just individuals with not the best reputation in the area.
But those individuals outside of the place, I have learned that my client embraces them and tries to employ them to help clean up the streets when they can to try to make it a little bit better.
There is also, and we're not, there is also right next door a small convenience store that does draw a lot of traffic 24-7 that we believe double parking that has been attributable to our business is generally attributable to that store.
But nevertheless, again, I think the neighborhood meeting went very well, and I am surprised to hear that you have not received a non-opposition or something from the RCO.
But let me just – so we received refusals for, first, any use of this type, the adult-oriented use on expansion of it required a special exception in the first place.
But so it's a refusal to be on the second floor.
It is a regulated use.
but all we are talking about is bringing that office to the second floor.
I do have to interrupt. I looked on a different website. Apparently, it was submitted to someone
else, the Wissahick and Civic Association. They didn't submit it to us, though, but
they oppose it. All right. That was, again, we didn't receive a copy of it, but we had some
extensive meeting with them and addressed the concerns. And again, I think many of the concerns
were about the nature of the business itself which we were addressing but this is just to
legalize the second floor as an office so it you know we understand that we still need to be a
locker locker room too right yes and i i will show you the pictures of exactly what's what's going on
in the building um so again been operating for decades under the prior owner and uh if i recall
correctly there was some discussion at that neighborhood meeting that the way it's been run
now is fairly decent but people are still concerned with bars and uh things that happen
nuisance bars or they consider nuisance bars but we have um as you can see from the photograph this
is the exterior front there is an alley in the side which has a trash dumpster so the trash is
stored off uh off the front of the street you can see to the right on this picture there is the
corner store or not corner but but convenience store that that um we frequently butt heads with
people who are double parking uh and some of the foot traffic that comes in and out of there
this is looking uh north on tarsdale avenue and here we have south on tarsdale avenue
just for a little bit of geographical uh placement we are at the corner of
Benner and Torresdale. Um, we found that, uh, several neighbors who, who, when they work did
have concerns, it was with parking. And we indicated that, um, the, we will do as much
as we can to tell people that they should, cannot park or double park in other places if they're
attending our establishment, uh, and trying to police that as much as possible. But parking is,
is what it is in the city. And I, unfortunately we don't have a better, uh, answer for people
going to the bar. But as you can see, it is in a CMX2, which does not allow for the commercial use
on the second floor. So this is a floor plan. As you can see from the first floor in the middle,
the stage area is directly to the left when you walk in with the bar on the left-hand side in the
front half of the establishment. In order to get upstairs, you have to go towards the back of the
property and up the stairs that only has an, it has an entrance in the rear, but it also has an
entrance from the back of the property. The second floor, as you can see it in the, on the right hand
side picture, you come up the steps and directly to the left of the steps is the employee locker
room. There is a bathroom up there for employees and staff. There is a storeroom where all the
liquor is kept and locked. This is, this storage area is completely open. There are no partitions
that close it off these you'll see some partitions in the pictures that were there from uh the
that were there from the previous owner but they are not closed rooms they are not private rooms
previous owner but they are not closed rooms they are not private
and you have a management office the basement we also have pictures of though as well there's
a food prep area down there there's a kitchen on the first floor but food prep in the basement
and further storage downstairs this is the entrance way into the property you know what hold on one
moment wait and let me jump so we have a first floor you can see the staging area
and that's me in the picture as well in the mirror but so it's a small stage
area that is used and restroom let me get to the second floor where it's at
kitchen on the first floor basement leads to a food prep area and storage
and then as we get back to the second floor you'll see that this is the entrance way it is
it it is locked there's a lock there for the coded lock so um actually i mean that's that's
generally left open for fire purposes but that area is restricted to employees only
but that leads to the second floor yes okay yeah so as you come up the second floor
and I forgive me I believe that the photographs submitted um there may be some some other
photographs that I submitted that but so first door on the left is the locker room area you can
see that there is just the lockers for um staff as they you know enter the the room and they can
they have a space upstairs there's a back area that they can step out on if they need but this
is all private access all right so this is that area that had storage areas or
partitions there are no separate things happening or going on this is just open
space this door to the right I'll show you in a moment is the management office
and this door is the door to the liquor the locked room as you can see there is
the liquor in that room and here is the management office looking back down the
management office was always there and when they observed that they said you're
in violation that's correct so they came in to to just check on the assembly
license and fire certification they saw a management office they didn't see a
residence and said you need to have this legalized as part of the business
right all right from the exterior just showing you some of the alleyway rear
this is the side alleyway of the property the rear abutting to the
neighbor in the in the back deed to the property indicating that they purchased
in 2018 and we have the notice to the neighbors I submitted the posting photos
I have them up separately I can share that screen separately momentarily we do
that real quick
and then these these were also later transferred to interior door so that they would last longer
on the front of the facade let me go back to the other picture or the other package
and so again you know members of the board we're we're not seeking to now turn this into an adult
cabaret we're looking to just legalize that second floor as a business use to dispel any
rumors about what may have been there and to properly get the fire certification i know you
bring your client yes please over all right could you pull the mic nice and close to you
yep here you go pull a little closer you gotta that's it could you please state and spell your
name for the stenographer uh my name is brianna greer b-r-i-a-n-n-a uh g-r-i-e-r do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes counsel yes miss greer
can you uh indicate are you the uh managing member of 701 wayne llc yes and have you had an
opportunity to hear my statements and testimony to the board today yes would you characterize
as my testimony is true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes and would you do you adopt
my testimony as if it was your own yes thank you questions from the board yes so um before you
showed us photos you depicted like that second floor as like all open space and then I saw like
several doors along a highway I mean highway a hallway so can you go to your picture on the
so can you go to your picture on the second floor and tell and describe to me where what
second floor and tell and describe
where do those doors go yes if you wouldn't mind i can take you there but i do have other pictures
that i'm just going to get at the moment but um bear with me one moment oh here we go
Thank you for your patience.
Let's see if I can share this screen.
All right.
So I'm going to go through some of these pictures, and you'll see the – okay.
So yes, there are doors along the left-hand side, and again, so this is the first door on the left, second door on the left, third door on the left is aborted up because on the other side of this wall and this wall,
These two doors that you just see that have that wooden wall are, if I may, I'll go one more.
They are on the other side of this door in this room.
So these two doors are in this room.
And let me get back to that.
yeah i mean so if you look you had the first door was um was the was the locker room second door
is a restroom which we have a photograph of and then the the doors the second two doors again
were boarded up or plywoods because the other side of that is the storage room
let me just get to the appropriate picture
that's what a liquor was right yes yes and i have that photograph uh going to the other one back to
the other yeah so those two other doors and i'll show you in a second backed up to this storage
room so that's the liquors in here and those doors are on this wall and the utility closet was right
there okay and then my last question is um has there been any complaints or um anything from
like the employees or the uh uh residents in the area so i have there's no complaints from the
employees that we know of uh neighbors in the area defer there's been no formal complaints filed
we had discussions with them uh about you know their concerns about you know noise levels or
people outside and so on and so forth that that you generally see with a with a bar establishment
uh and again i felt that the the neighborhood meeting went fairly well in terms of them
understanding what the ask of this application was so and and there has been a significant level
of commitment from ms greer and her brother who are owner operators one of the two of them is
there at all times too thank you okay other questions so what is happening in that open
space there so there's a room and there's a bathroom so what is the liquor then there's
the room for the liquor and then yeah so that was like extra storage like um like any boxes
or something like decorations.
I just cleaned it up to make it more organized,
but it's not used for, like, private dancers or anything like that.
It's just storage.
So, Ms. Greer, no customers are allowed upstairs?
No, no customers are allowed upstairs.
When I bought the building, it was already, like,
the only thing I did was add carpet and paint.
So the upstairs was already the way it was.
So that plywood was already blocked off of those two doors?
Yeah, they've been up there since I boarded it in 2018.
um and you said that when you bought it it was already zoned as an adult cabaret yes the the
And you said that when you...
building has been used in this exact manner for decades before the prior owner owned it and had
it and um for unbeknownst to ms greer again the second floor was just still called a apartment
it okay the zoning record the archive does have the the use in there from a long time ago
how far back um i can check in as to how long the prior owner owned it that would be
i believe they bought it
i think they said i don't know about 10 15 years you know the um it was it was called jack's pub
um i know that i have a cabaret license so i just continued on with the cabaret license
but i just know he was like an older caucasian guy way before i stepped in his past history was a lot
but that's moving forward now that i have it that per i'm sorry that that permit was granted
in 2010 permit for an adult cabaret as part of an existing restaurant with stage shows on the
first floor wow any other questions thank you questions for attorney no questions at this
time questions from the audience you guys want to testify i see a hand raised by peter for to stay
All right. All right. Bring. OK, good. Who's the other person? Bring them on, please. It's Peter, right? Yes.
Peter.
Do we see Peter? I saw him earlier in the audience. Do we see him now?
no i don't see him anymore peter forsyth yeah he's there peter could you come on please
chair it looks like uh mr forestay is in the panel but we're unable to hear him when he's
speaking even though he's not he's he's indicating that he needs a second to fix his audio okay all
If I may, in the meantime, I would like to state that we believe that there's a hardship here, given that this property has been approved for the adult cabaret use on the first floor and has been used in that manner for approximately in excess of 15 years.
And that given the approval for the adult cabaret, we don't believe that the highest and best use for the second floor of this type of business would be a residence, but that the highest and best use would be an office for this type of business.
yeah so we're not talking about the cabaret we're talking about the second floor correct
yeah yeah i just want to make sure the hardship of that second floor yeah
so uh chair again this is ian eggerty we can see mr forestay he is trying to speak
but the audio is not coming through into the zoom meeting i think it may be a setting with
the microphone on his device, so we should give him a second to try to work that out.
I think he's been waiting for a minute.
Great.
Was he at the RCO meeting?
Candidly, I'm not familiar with the name off the top of my head.
The letter seemed to indicate there were 50 attendees at the, it was quite.
It was a, it was a well-attended meeting.