operations. While we know that the burden of proof is different for a special exception than it is
for a variance, the applicant still must demonstrate that the use will not cause specific
detrimental impacts. Their case to the community so far has been wafer thin, which shows me that
this group living proposal was never genuine in the first place. It is unfortunately being used
as leverage against the residents of Iola Street to pressure them to support the applicant's other
vision for the property instead, which is 16 units of multifamily housing. It is regrettable
and frankly very disappointing that this applicant chooses to waste this board's time
over and over again with this attempt at a Trojan horse sort of strategy I hope
that you will deny the special exception today and I thank you again for your
time murder if you have any questions for the councilman no okay
Meredith, you want to have, where are you going to be with this now?
So I guess I just, I think I have a question for Mr. Masters first, just so that I can better frame my response to the board.
Is he intending to bring up any members of the community? Because I would prefer not to respond twice if there's going to be more testimony offered.
Well, whether or not he brings it up, I'm sure that they're going to come up and make comments when I get to them.
I do have Mr. Jihad Ali. I've submitted a statement from him, and he wanted to testify. He's the adjacent neighbor to this property.
and we also have a letter from state senator vincent hughes that i wanted to bring to the
board's attention yeah we have it i uh we have both okay we both have both all right so i mean
i i guess i can i i can bring german up to respond specifically uh to mr master's presentation
um and and then we can go from there if that is the board's preference where we'd be then we'd
eventually up to the public comments. Okay. I'm sorry, Mr.
Chairman, I couldn't hear you. What did you say? I said what
we'll do is after that, we'll get the public comments. Okay.
So sounds good. The administrator could look for Mr. Yacoubouf.
Administrator could look for Mr. Yakubov.
They're being promoted to panelists.
Hello?
Good morning.
That's not...
Yeah, that's not German.
Do we see him?
They're promoted.
They have done.
Yeah, we can.
Could you please state your name as well for this thermographer?
German Yacobo.
G-E-R-M-A-N-Y-A-K-U-B.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Thank you.
German, you've been present for all of Mr. Master's presentation to the board.
Is that accurate?
I have.
Based on our presentation that we gave to the board several months ago,
was Mr. Masters' characterization of the use
that was presented to the board accurate
or consistent with the information that we presented
to the board or with your intent for the property?
No to all of the above.
One, Mr. Masters read the transcript into the record,
and in many occasions he misread it into the record.
So there would be a lot of times where if you would line up
the transcript if he was submitted as an exhibit to the transcript that was created as a result of
his narration there would be clear misspeakings or misreadings and a lot of times misattributions to
to quotes furthermore he is the one that has created this straw man of a tenant that we will
have. To the contrary, our definition of the people that would be our potential tenants is
quite broad. And I didn't say that any of the people that he or the neighbors have suggested
would be tenants. I'd say we'd have to look at it a case-by-case basis. It was never going to be a
transitional facility. Everybody's definition of, I guess, transitional living is different.
anybody living in an apartment is transitional um because they have a month-to-month lease
so and and this is what this would be it would be a month-to-month lease for anybody that wants to
stay there um furthermore there were clear questions that were either classist or racist or
a myriad of other um suggestions that wanted me to to bait uh into responding to who would we allow
and not allow into this building.
Ultimately, I'm the one that has to manage the building.
So I have to be able to be okay
with anybody that would be in it.
We've managed hundreds of apartments.
We've managed, I would say,
at least eight group living facilities
like Mr. Masters has read into the record
for at least a decade.
A lot of those tenants were students,
not always were they the case.
They were roommates.
And that's what this is going to be.
This is going to be a big building
with a lot of roommates in it.
by Mr. Masters' definition of a single family, the neighbors would have no problem with the
Manson family living next door as long as they were all related. I'm objecting to that. That's
ridiculous. So I think we want to move on from that. I don't think that's necessary.
Okay. I can move on. So generally speaking, German, if we assume that just for purposes
of this argument that everything that was stated during the rco meeting uh was accurate which of
course we've disputed it is is everything presented during an rco meeting and is the
discussion had during an rco meeting meant to be firm and absolute objection you're that's a leading
question and that's not proper this is redirect of my client so it's not proper to do a leading
question of your witness continue with the question german in your experience as a real
estate developer in philadelphia is the information presented during an rco meeting
meant to be firm and absolute in all cases no it's actually one of the benefits of the
No, it's actually one of the benefits of the zoning code that allows you to interact with the community prior to the zoning hearing to be able to get feedback from the community to see if your vision is aligned with theirs.
zoning code that allows you to interact with the community
So there are opportunities where the community had good feedback and that we took that feedback, like the number of people that we would be housing or, you know, it would be okay with the maximum.
And we reduced it from, I believe it was at 50 to 30 or 32.
So that was some feedback.
and as well as the design of the building, right?
A lot of people had issues
with the initial design of the building.
That's the intent of the community meetings
to get feedback that is organized
that can be then reincorporated back into our design
and represented to the board for final approval.
Mr. Masters read a statement that said that,
that inferred that it would be your intent
to rent to anybody who can afford rent.
Does that mean that you would flout any form of relevant
city or state federal regulations that might apply to leasing?
No, and the city outside of the federal level,
the city has specific questions that we can't ask,
whether it relates to criminal history,
whether it relates to eviction history,
other issues that we have to be in compliance for,
Not just things that, you know, might make the community feel safe, but also give an opportunity to protect potential citizens and potential renters that they have an opportunity for a place to live.
And it was never our intention and it's never been our practice to discriminate against anyone, both at a legal level and also at a moral and ethical level as well.
And then my final question for you, German. Mr. Masters presented on the screen and discussed
many definitions in various state codes concerning hospitals, transitional facilities, medical
facilities, drug and detox facilities. Is your intent to use 4283 Viola in any way that
that would subject it to any of the state regulations
that Mr. Masters presented today?
Not even the slightest.
The leap is tremendous in between the disparity
of what we're proposing
and the potential boogeyman tenant
that Mr. Masters has created to scare everybody.
Mr. Chairman, that is all I have for German.
I do at some point want to make
just a brief four sentence closing statement,
but i'm i'm very happy to do that at the end i would like to i would like to cross-examine german
ready to tell you to do it so just relax all right so please cross-examine sure um
german i'm looking at um the
document called memorandum of law in support of application for special exception that your attorney
finally produced for me. And I'm looking on page six. I don't have it in front of me.
I don't. Okay. Let me share the screen. I'm going to object to this, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure what
my work product, what relevant information he's going to be asking my client about from
my legal memorandum I won't keep you in suspense for long so I'm going to allow
okay we're gonna move on from that okay okay let's look at
I don't know what is happening in there.
All right, page six.
On page six, your attorney was aiming to distinguish a personal care home and a single room residence from the proposed use that you are.
and a single room residence from the proposed use that you are claiming, which is transitional
living. I'm not claiming transitional living. You keep saying that, but that's not what we're
claiming. Transitional housing. We're not claiming that either. We're claiming that it's a group
living facility. No, that's not what she says in her file. You're asking me, but that's not
what we're claiming. We're asking for a group living use. Yes, you're asking for a specific
of a group of living use called transitional housing.
No, we're not.
We're asking for group living use.
And you're once again putting words in my mouth.
Let him get his question out.
He says here, the definition of single-room residence
is defined as a building containing
rooms rented as living quarters without private bathrooms.
Examples include dormitories, rooming houses,
and supported independent living.
You claim that you've had dormitories before.
that's not what i've claimed at all you said that you had students living in in um multiple students
that are unrelated living in the same building that's not a dormitory that is people that are
unrelated living in a house like a group are they students some are okay but dormitories are limited
to students okay let me let me return to to being the one asking the questions um this says um your
your client your attorney says here each bedroom has a private bathroom further this is a group
transitional home that does not contemplate the payment of rent for individual living areas
throughout the city group transitional homes are categorized as group living and not subcategorized
as single room residences what does she mean that everyone has a private bathroom i thought that
you've testified multiple times that no one has any private anything in this building so explain
to me what you mean by a private bathroom each room has a private bathroom for it so if you look
at the plans the plans show private if it's four people who live like four four people live in the
room right the pod is four people up to four people and there's four bathrooms four bathrooms
in each pod yes that's not that's not that's not on the plans there are 16 bathrooms in the building
there are 16 bathrooms in the building and you're saying that four of them are in each pod
yes there are four how does someone so are you saying that these bathrooms are
are able to be locked and secured by one person only?
I don't know if that's what private means.
What does it mean to you?
Well, I don't know what it means to me,
but it's private means that somebody is using the bathroom privately at the
same time. And there's a bedroom per bathroom.
So your definition of private bathroom is that,
that only one person can be in the bathroom at a time.
That's not what I said. I said, there are,
there's a one bedroom and there's there are 16 rooms and there are 16 bathrooms there are 16
sleeping rooms and there are 16 bathrooms there are 16 pods right there are 16 rooms where people
sleep right and there are four which is here is in each room up to four people yeah up to four
people so when you were when you're proposing 50 people how are you supposed to get 50 people if
you don't have four four of them but that's not the definition is here it says there each bedroom
has a private bathroom it doesn't say each person has a private bathroom
what's it so if each person doesn't have a private bathroom who has the private bathroom
the person doesn't have to have a private bathroom the bedroom has the private bathroom it says
they're in clear black and white here each bedroom has a private bathroom we have 16 bedrooms we have
16 bathrooms okay so basically you are contradicting your attorney and you're basically telling me
literally reading what my attorney is saying my attorney is saying that each bedroom has a private
bathroom whoa whoa comment down here let's get back focused i think you've made your point okay
about bathrooms he has a different view of you so why don't we just move on from that
all right page 10
on page 10 your attorney wrote that group living is an inherently appropriate use and is consistent
with surrounding residential multifamily nature of the area multifamily use of the blocks existing
structures is common isn't she talking about um the the property that you have on
Isn't she talking about the property that you have on East Parkside?
She's not talking about Viola Street.
She's literally listing every single property on Viola Street in the next sentence down.