the area. It would be two two-bedroom units. We met again recently June 22nd at an RCO
We met again recently June 22nd at an RCO meeting.
I think some of the issues were like raised that it would be a multifamily, but that really wasn't an issue with the refusal.
My client is going to be, you know, the owner taking part in some of the building, the general contractor building and residing there.
So those were the issues.
okay um why don't you bring your client on if you would please and he can adopt his testimony okay
Mr. DeSimone
he might be
he's he was registering i know we it said 10 30 i told him to log in a little earlier so
i will yeah did that person raise their hand if they're in a virtual audience can that person
raise their hand he's trying to register okay i'm gonna send him my link um
maybe that will speed him up
sorry for the delay
I sent him my link to that I registered on okay all right I wanted him to register on his own
did you get in touch with the council well with my client yeah yes should i i well i mean look
you're bring them in on my phone because i text for the let's make you're an officer of the court
You reported on the changes. We'll take your testimony. But I think this case is we're going to hold it in a way. Am I correct?
Yes, we're going to hold, but we're going to give it a date to hold.
All right, sure. All right. Questions from the board?
Questions from our attorney?
Yes, we're going to actually hold this matter because there's an issue with tax compliance.
Oh, there he is now.
And just to address that issue, I did attach the appeal because the tax compliance we attached was for the permit that he was cleared.
But I also attached in my packet submitted last week was his appeal document that the tax issues under appeal.
My client did just join.
Under my name.
OK, OK, one minute.
What years were your appeals for?
Um, it looks like there's an agreement that's indicated, um, with regard to 2026, but nothing
is indicated, um, on the actual like websites for, with regard to 2023 and to 2025.
So that's three years.
That's still in collections.
The form.
That's what, that's what it's for, Ray.
It's for, hold on.
I'm sorry.
I'm pulling the form.
Oh, wait, uh, council.
Hold on a minute.
Uh, sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yep, James DeSimone, and it's J-A-M-E-S, and then D-E-S-I-M-O-N-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth?
Yes, sir.
Okay, so, counsel, you were saying?
Yeah, so the form that I have is real estate market value appeal for the year 2027.
That is the form that I attach.
I could supplement that if my client has the ears mentioned by counsel but he
recently purchased the property we're gonna still hold it we're gonna hold it
we're gonna we're gonna give it a date at all we're gonna give it a date right
now of August 5th and I just sorry this is Hillary Emerson just in terms of the
If you appealed the 23 to 25 taxes, you still would need to pay something to be in compliance while the appeal was pending.
So we need something from either, I mean, something from the revenue department that indicates while your appeal is pending that you are in compliance.
So for right now, it shows that you are not in compliance, it's in collections.
It doesn't show an appeal.
Okay. So why don't we, uh, um, questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Okay, so why don't we, questions or comments.
No hands at this time, chair.
Are you relative to this case? Okay, sure. Come on up.
good morning sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
well does that mic one
thank you please state your name michelle andrea ward is spelled m-i-c-h-a-e-l-a-n-d-r-e
last name is ward w-a-r-d do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth yes your honor and your neighbor yes please proceed with your testimony yes i live at 1830
mcclellan street and i was uh against the request of the um james de simone okay i have uh testimony
and about signatures from my neighbors who were also against uh this particular case
the reason my concerns is when they had demolished this house in 2020 it had damaged my house
so when he goes to build a structure I'm really concerned about I would like the
variance still to be there whereas it fits because of just safety issues in regards to
the property itself also the property of 1828 mcclellan street has a tree that's growing in the
back on the property that's protruding into my yard which i'm really concerned about if they're
doing construction that's going to also damage the property next door all right so you're against
this because you're concerned yes during the process it could hurt your property yes a lot
my neighbors also have signed um they live up the street council do you have any questions
no i don't have any questions thank you so much for all right thank you we appreciate your time
anyone else in the virtual audience can i ask a clarification question um so so the current
property uh uh is going to be demolished no i believe that the city took down the property my
client brought bought a lot yes yeah okay all right thank you planning commission
oh we already testified but do you want me to for me i think we already have testimony but do you
want me to re no okay you're staying with that past testimony okay so um we're going to continue
is to august 5th at 9 30 a.m um hillary it's closed am i correct
that's just the vote okay so well just for the vote okay all right thank you very much council
thank you have a good day okay um
ian uh we're we're really ahead of schedule um do we know if uh
the other council is coming or she's going to be on the, because we're about right now, we're about the 40 minutes ahead of schedule.
She's going to be online? Okay, good. All right.
Okay, MI 2024-006-832-4283 Viola Street.
We have two counsels here, Meredith Verliger and Steve Masters.
While we're waiting for Meredith to go on, Steve, could you please state your name and spell for the scenario?
good morning mr chair members of the board steve masters s-t-e-v-m-a-s-t-e-r-s
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do hi mr masters could you identify your client or relationship to the properties
my client is the viola street neighbors association we are the objectors yep meredith
good morning good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Good morning. Good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
meredith ferliger f-e-r-l-e-g-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes i do could you identify your client in a relationship to the property
sure my client is haverford square viola llc which is the owner of the property okay all right so
So, we have a schedule here, and we ended with you, Steve, if I'm correct, and I think
the last time you talked about was your case would take 30 to 45 minutes.
That's what you said.
All right.
That sounds possible.
But, Meredith, I understand you want to have a response to transcripts now?
is that right well mr chair i i still have more of the transcript to go through we didn't finish
the entire transcript i think hold on one minute okay mr chairman i had made my objection during
the last hearing about mr master's introduction the board had overruled that objection okay i of
course will have my client come back on for some redirect in response okay all right so why don't
do this why don't we we'll go right with steve is that okay yep steve why don't you start your case
okay i think i need to be promoted to panel
yeah we tried to be but there's but there's a few more that i needed to put onto the record
yeah how how much and this is all part of your 30 to 40 minutes yes okay i don't i don't remember
that but uh i thought yeah because i i well all right let's let's get to it how many transcripts
do you have to go over uh let me get it up here
okay it is page 175
so members of the board and and the new member welcome uh
were you i i'm assuming you're you had a chance to to listen to the to the she has not done that
yet she hasn't she will be here she's here to uh uh experience the whole oh great okay all right
she'll start tomorrow okay um we we ended um our the uh the recitation of the of the transcript
last time um around page 175 um this was uh questions from neighbor neva white um and she
was trying to get at um what kind of background check mr yakubov was going to be performing at
at this location and what would prevent an individual
from being able to rent the property?
And Mr. Yakubov said, it's case by case.
And then Neva said, well, give me an example,
at least two cases that you would not rent to
based on a background check.
And Mr. Yakubov said, it depends on violent crimes
that may be and how recent those crimes
may have been committed and the circumstances
behind those crimes that may have been committed.
You know, nobody's perfect.
Then Neva said, what's the next violent crime?
So if they've been convicted and served their time
and they've committed a violent crime,
you would not rent to them.
And Mr. Yakubov said, that's not what I said.
And so Neva said, tell me what you're saying.
Be clear, sure.
And Yakubov said, well, it's not a clear,
it's nothing's clear in life, right?
So in this instance, everybody's case is different.
So if somebody got out of jail yesterday,
right for killing someone I'd want to know what happened right and and if it I
if I'm okay with that then they could live in my building okay it varies so
it's a case-by-case and Neva said can you at least give us two examples of two
individuals that would not be able to that would not be rented to based on
their background check that's the question I'm asking and German said oh
I'm not sure would have to be a case-by-case basis I don't know I can't think of every single
and Neva said give me one example of an individual you would not rent to that's what you're saying
here today on the record that you can't give us an example of one person that you would not rent
to based on their background and Yakubov said check that's and then Meredith said correct with
all due respect there are very specific requirements under the Philadelphia code under the state law and
there are very specific requirements under the philadelphia code under the state law and federal
federal law in terms of who
law in terms of who he can and who he cannot rent to so um and then neva said can you give us an
example of one person you would not and um and then it appears to be german saying i don't know
i would treat everybody and neva says am i able to ask your attorney and german said um is not
the one that's going to be able to to live there or let them live there or not so i think that if
somebody walks in and then somebody might deny them i might approve it maybe because i like them
so it varies so it's somebody that i have to end up managing and i have to make sure that they'll
be able to pay their rent and that you know that they wouldn't damage the property or anything
okay case by case so neva says so just be clear you you determine who rents you solely determine
who would be able to rent and you would call it in that place you would be the person who would
be making that decision and German said it wouldn't be a room it would be a bed and yes
so how when you start I said it how much is they think you'll be reading
it's it's almost done okay yeah all right thank you so then Kia asked to reduce recidivism is it
to give people who are coming out of jail a place to live because they need to have you you you can't
if they come out with the ankle bracelet they have to have a room and a place to live and this helps
people from recommitting crimes i mean there there's some research there and germans said yeah
it's not i mean if that's somebody that can afford the rent then they are more than welcome
to stay at my place but it's not who we're targeting and not targeting them and then sandy
carter said what's to say you won't have conflicts when people want to wash their clothes when they
want to wash it but the washers are all tied up and they're going to walk they don't want to fight
over the washing their clothes and the same thing with the kitchen suppose they want to cook at a
certain time how do you resolve these problems resolution conflict resolution is something
that definitely should be given to us about this property because it's ludicrous it makes no sense
And Germans said, no, I don't think that,
and then, I'm sorry, there's then Andrew Goodman
from Jamie Gaudier's office said,
what about rental subsidies and vouchers?
Will this building involve Section 8
and other government subsidies?
And Germans said, no, I don't think Section 8 provides,
I could be wrong, but I don't think they provide
subsidies for group living.
And...
then joy smith said do you have any other group living buildings that you manage and
if so what the what's the volume do you have any volume of incidents and if so what is
the general makeup of that tendency do you have any other group living buildings that
you manage and german said we haven't managed the group living building in about six or
seven years but up until that time we had a lot of student housing which was effectively
group living. We had eight buildings next to each other on Haverford Avenue that had seven bedrooms
each that had about 56 people collectively and we've been managed on a regular basis for many
years. And then Jeffrey Cruz from the New Presbyterian Church said, I'm concerned about