mixing of adults and children on the same floor. So would you consider or have you considered
segregating populations by families, children or male and female to minimize attention and promote
safety germans said i think practically speaking if somebody's moving in here more than just
themselves if they're if it's them and another person they're more than likely able to rent an
apartment for a thousand a month if it's three people it would be 1500 a month so i think
practically speaking i don't think that families would end up being here just as a practical
matter it's not 500 a room it's 500 a bed so i think as a practical matter i don't think families
would end up being tenants here. So that's that part. As far as segregating by sex, I don't know
if that's even legal. Okay, we've concluded the transcript. Okay, so you want to start your
presentation? Yes. Okay. Well, the remainder of your presentation. Yes. So to recap, when we
started our presentation um i i argued that um the burden is on the applicant and oh i had um
i can pass this up to the to the new member because i gave a copy of
of this to each of the of the members we don't we don't have to do that okay all right so
So let's assume for argument's sake that this project is actually a unique transitional housing group living situation.
transitional housing group group living situation um meredith has argued vociferously that it's not
uh it's not single it's not it's not single uh residence it's not a group home it is some kind
of a almost magic quality that fits the definition of group living but doesn't fit the but doesn't
doesn't trigger the the refusals that that uh that a a personal care home or or a single room
occupancy would would would trigger uh what we what i want to go to next is um the actual
definitions of transitional housing meredith has has provided a significant amount of of verbiage
in her memo of law that argues that this project qualifies as a group living, which is with
a special exception, but she never showed you any actual definitions of what transitional
living is. So in
our transitional living
i'm sorry go to this first so in terms of the character of this neighborhood
uh meredith has argued that there is multi-family housing saturated throughout
this area that isn't the case when we're talking specifically about this block of viola street
in our on exhibit seven in our exhibit these are all single-family homes
that are on the exact block that we're talking about on viola street
it's virtually the entire block on both sides is single-family homes
so here in exhibit eight is what both under state law and and under the city of philadelphia's code
constitutes transitional living so i'm not arguing that this use is going to be exactly
one of these what i'm what i want to show the board is that transitional living has an actual
defined parameter it isn't just words that are put together to to allow um a developer to place
people in in a building um who uh without any of the safeguards and without any of the of the
common sense uh requirements that that are needed to have healthy and safe living this um definition
is from the Pennsylvania statutes and you will see that in a hospital the definition of a
non-hospital facility is a facility licensed by the Department of Health for the care and treatment
of alcohol dependent or other drug dependent persons except for transitional living facilities
so in that case transitional living facilities are related to alcohol or drug dependent persons
The next definition is called, the category is zoning of hospitals and this is an illustration
of proposed transitional living facility which would provide housing and meals to individuals
transitioning from controlled group quarters to independent or semi-independent living
such as incarcerated individuals did not fit within the town zoning ordinance's definition
of a continuum of care use as the provision of a spectrum of services to the frail and
chronically ill, and thus the proposed facility was not permitted as an accessory use to a hospital.
So again, I'm not arguing that this specifically is the same facts. What I'm telling you is that
transitional living is something that traditionally relates to people who are incarcerated who are
coming out of incarceration who are drug who who have been struggling with drugs and and other
addictive substances and who are and who are now coming into a way of of moving moving beyond that
the next one the one is zoning of hospitals and this is also from um
from the Pennsylvania jurisprudence,
from the Pennsylvania jurisprudence.
a proposed transitional living facility
which would provide housing and meals
to individuals transitioning from controlled group quarters
to independent or semi-independent living,
such as incarcerated individuals
didn't fit within the town zoning.
This is 53 PS 10609.1,
procedure for land owner curative amendments and here we have applicants as the bearers of burden
to provide evidence related to statutory enumerated impact factors were not entitled
to curative amendment of a town's zoning code to create a single zone that would allow applicants
to construct a transitional living facility on two separate properties in appeal of a decision
by the town council challenging the zoning codes and requests for curative amendment where the
applicants fail to address impact factors leaving the town with no information on which to base any
cure consideration of impact factors in 55 pa code 3800.292 we have the following requirements
do not apply for transitional living uh child who leaves the premises of a facility
the case of act one inc versus richard kleinhold appellants is this still
still documents that you said meredith put in or these are other documents you're blown to now
No, these are our documents. Meredith just had a, she finally, she finally produced her.
You're showing us what your interpretation of the law is.
No, I'm telling you what the state, not what my interpretation of it is. I'm telling you what the, how the state defines transitional living. It's people who are formerly incarcerated, people who are, okay.
Also, my own, I'm just telling you, you're mixing it up a little bit when you start talking about hospitals and I don't, I don't, I don't understand what that's about.
so people who are coming out of hospitals who need a place to live that's that's a definition
of transitional living so those those are the folks who should be the main people who are going
to be living in on this in this structure and okay a little bit more clear there okay all right
uh background landowner sought judicial review of a town council's denial of validity challenge
to a zoning ordinance denial request for a curative amendment to add transitional living
facility and homeless shelter as permitted uses in that case uh the proposed transitional living
facility did not fit within the town zoning definition of continuum of care and um
said that the ordinance didn't make a provision for transitional living facility use or as a
homeless shelter um so again this is they're linked together what we're talking about are
people who are profoundly limited not able to live on their own but here we have a situation
where there literally will be no caregivers there will be no custodians there will be no supervisors
they will all be 50 60 people will be in this in this location without anyone providing any
services or any supervision um back in uh about a year and a half ago the board uh ruled in in our
favor when i was representing some applicants in uh south philly about a proposed uh it was
it was a proposed uh a drug rehabilitation center um and in that case the board understood that
that while if a qualified team had come in to to to manage that i think the board would
have approved that use but the team that they chose were people who had been prosecuted by
the department uh by the drug enforcement unit for violating uh drug laws um that they they were
they were a mess and they were and they were uh they had literally no background in what they
were going to do um so here we have the same situation we have uh we have we have a proposal
that literally has no none of the safeguards none of the guard rails that we have come to expect for
for transitional living um situations they're the only thing that is provided here not even a bed
is provided we we've established that um they have to bring their own bed they have to bring
their own their own safe in order to provide for security for their own for their own belongings
they they have a closet apparently that they share everything is is kind of topsy-turvy upside down
everything is is kind of topsy-turvy upside down I don't think we've ever seen any of us on
in this room have ever have ever seen a proposal like this before um and it's it's quite alarming
um so all right this is still this case we're going through this um
here is in bloomsburg industrial ventures llc versus town of bloomsburg this case deals with
a community living facility and whether it's properly zoned the residents of a community
living facility have mental health problems or conditions and as it's currently proposed the
transitional living facility would not be limited to only those individuals diagnosed with mental
health conditions and therefore um mr sapati uh did not believe that that um as currently proposed
the facility fit into the ordinance so again this is another when we're talking transitional living
that's what that's their language that's their choice of how they chose to put this
to categorize this it has nothing to do with people who are well who are independent who are
going to just put their head down apparently between like one month and and um and 12 months
that's not what a transitional living facility is and they have no the only the only uh aspect that
that they claim is that some years ago there was um a building that that mr yakubov had students
living in which is kind of like a dorm uh many times and i think this this board has has has
seen this many times that when when when when students or young people are put into dorm-like
um settings that are privately held not connected to the school not not not um basically uh supervised
by the school in any way there's a tremendous amount of of harm that goes to those neighbors
and uh i just i had a case not that long ago in in which um the the developer decided to
not go forward after we were very uh insistent on that so uh i think we're pretty done with the
with the traditional the transitional living things um
i wanted to then go to the comprehensive plan so in our when when this location came up the
first time for the 16 unit multi-family living uh we we went into depth on uh the the um the
it's it's called the um uh reclaim which was the the the the um the plan that was created by the
the design collaborative for specifically for this block of viola street and um
I wanted to go to one slide on that.
So one of the criteria that we, that, that they have to show
is their burden is that it's that their proposal
is consistent with the comprehensive plan.
In this case, it is completely in violation of the comprehensive plan.
The comprehensive plan was created by this neighborhood and the planning commission in a special proceeding along with the design collaborative.
This slide shows the existing zoning and the proposed zoning for this block in Viola Street.
the existing zoning had a significant amount of both RM1 and CMX2 that all changed by what when
this when this plan was was put into into effect it removed all of the CMX2 and when we're looking
at um this part of viola street it is all um rsa5 there is um there's been no representation by the
applicant to to explain why um it's necessary to destroy this this specific this special plan that
was created by the planning commission by the city of philadelphia with the neighbors
to maintain the historic integrity and the very preciousness of a block that is virtually 100% single family.
uh the only thing i think i have to uh bring up is is one um aspect that um um member gaston was
challenge you challenged me last time on on the slice of life decision because it was um before
or it was under the municipality's planning code
and not under our code.
And you were correct.
So what I wanna say about that is that
we're not relying on it because it doesn't apply,
it's specific holding doesn't apply.
What does apply though is the findings
and that's on 187.
oh i thought i had the right number but it looks like i'm a little off
So this, where do I find it?
Okay, here it is.
So what we're citing this decision for
is its findings and its reference of many other
um cases including um the village of euclid case which is the the mother of all zoning decisions
that um that um that basically defines the the harm that can that can come from short-term
tenants being being brought into a stable and thriving single-family neighborhood
what the court said um is that there's been a long recognized goal of creating residential zoning
districts and short-term tenants have little interest in public agencies or in the welfare of
the citizenry they do not participate in local government coach little league or join the hospital
guild they do not lead a scout troop volunteer at the library or keep an eye on an elderly neighbor
literally they are here today and gone tomorrow without engaging in the sort of activities
that weld and strengthen a community the permanence and stability of people living in
single-family residential zoning districts creates a sense of community cultivates and
fosters relationships and provides an overall quality of a place where people are invested
and engaged in their neighborhood and care about each other this is a place where children can
play together neighbors can know each other and look out for one another and people can enjoy the
quiet seclusion of their homes so we believe that those findings from from those courts show you
that there is a specific danger here in in what and what this is in what is being proposed and
the burden then shifts to to the applicant to tell you how all of the crazy things that he has said
are going to be happening in this building are not going to destroy this neighborhood
where it's very clear to us that this is a destruction waiting to happen
if you make the decision to go forward with this.
Is that your case?
um um meredith do you um want to do uh where do you where do we stand what do you want to do here
i'm sorry councilwoman guardia wants to testify she on the phone i believe she is okay well
we'll we'll take that out of order we'll bring her on okay but we're going to have to come back to
okay we see the councilwoman on phone they're being promoted to panel share thank you
Thank you.
Thank you.
good morning good morning could you please state your name it's spelled for the stenographer
sure thing council member jamie gaudier j-a-m-i-e g-a-u-t-h-i-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed
Good morning, and many thanks for the opportunity to speak at this hearing today.
Mr. Chair and members of the board, I'm here today to ask that you deny this special exception
application. If approved, this would lead to a multitude of detrimental impacts on the health,
safety, and welfare of this neighborhood. This application is an extreme example of land
overcrowding street congestion and disproportionately burdening public infrastructure not built to
sustain this type of occupancy the 4200 block of viola street is a small one-way street not even
wide enough for there to be parking on both sides of it the most common land use here is single
family housing for a parcel like this one which is actually three smaller parcels that are being
combined that would put the maximum unrelated occupancy permitted by law at nine persons
this proposal today proposes an occupancy of 50 unrelated people with no on-site staffing
this block is not built to sustain a proposal like this and it never has been further we know from
prior presentations that this applicant has no prior experience with managing a group living
building this big, nor do they intend to bring on any third-party organization to assist in its