That will be fine.
My apologies if I thought that it was already.
No, no, that's fine.
That's fine.
We'll take care.
Is there anyone else who has a continuance request?
Chair, we have Rachel Pritzker.
Ms. Pritzker, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yeah, Chairman, I don't need to speak now.
I was just, I wanted Neil to know that the case hadn't been called.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Anyone else has a continue?
I'm sorry, Chair.
Go ahead.
I see no other hands.
All right.
So we're going to go first to an add-on case that we have from last week.
MI 2022-001809, 2300 South Woodstock Street.
I vote yes with the following provisos.
No cooking at the property, interior trash storage, commercial trash pickup.
Carol Tsunari, my vote is yes with those three provisos.
James Snell, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ishmael Shahe, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chair, was the balance that the tax balance?
Yes, it was. Everything was good. Ready to go with that.
But number three, and number three, we'll have one, two, three, four, five, six additional cases with it.
Number three and number three.
So MI 2022 001 581 1848 North 17th Street.
MI 2022 001 578 18 North 17th Street.
Number five, MI 2022, 001-580-1822-North 17th Street. Number six, MI 2022, 001-579-1820-North 17th Street.
Number seven, MI 2022-001-769-1857, North 17th Street.
Number nine, MI 2022-001-577-2015, North 17th Street.
And 10, MI 2022-001-783-2019, North 17th Street.
Mr. Nockamson is the attorney. 32nd Ward does not take a position on this particular cases, on these particular cases.
good afternoon mr chair members of the board allen a-l-a-n last name knockinson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n
1-2-3 south broad street suite 1600 philadelphia pa 19109 we swear for him to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth i do the vice chair has a few questions for you mr
knockamson hi mr knockamson do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i did have you emailed the exhibit packet for all of these cases with proof of ownership
tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos under plans of the property five days in
advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter uh yes in all respects
Okay, you may proceed and please share your screen.
Mr. Knackleton, you're fine with going with all these cases at once, right?
Yes, as long as the board is as well.
Yeah, we're good.
So, again, I kind of got transitioned into, as a panelist, midway through the description of the cases.
I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page.
The board's going to be hearing 1818, 1820, 1822, 1848, 1857, 2015, and 2019 North 17 Streets.
We are. We're good.
Great. And for record-keeping purposes, my client's representative, both of them are in the virtual audience, Ahmad Shami and Halal Mahdi.
And the entities addresses for 1818 and 1820 is ZMA1 LLC. For 1822 and 1828 is Temple Villas 3 LLC. For 1857 is 1800 North 17th Street LLC.
For 2015, it's 1500 Jefferson, LLC.
And for 2019, it's 1415 N15ST, LLC.
So I'm going to share, I'm going to go in full screen mode here.
Essentially, I represent Temple Bellis.
And what we're trying to do here is legalize student housing
by way of special exception.
And these are the addresses
that we are looking to legalize today.
And as part of my presentation packet,
you'll see notices of referral.
I believe there's one refusal in there
and has to deal with off-street parking,
but even within that property,
they're all referrals.
And as the board knows
that under the Philadelphia Zoning Code
that the use with these properties,
because there aren't one,
as student housing
is conditionally approved and that we would have to have comments from the neighborhood
as well as approval from the CBA. And as indicated, we did receive a letter from the
32nd Democratic Board. They didn't take a position, but I did talk to the community
representative, Judith Robinson, earlier today. She indicated to me, while they don't support
the project, they do not oppose the project either. They find that Tampa Villas is a good
neighbor, and they added to the letter that they originally sent to indicate as such,
and we'll go through that letter. And then we'll go through the zoning permits for each
And then we'll go through the zoning permits for each of the properties, showing that these are legal properties.
of the properties showing.
The issue we have here, as the board knows, is that when you have more than three unrelated individuals in a unit, that is considered a rooming house.
And our intention is to legalize that use by way of these proceedings.
And just for your understanding, each bedroom only has one student in there. We are in the Temple University community, but some of these landlords have more than one student in a room. That's not Temple Villa's strategy or use of these properties.
We will also go over nearby resident recently granted group living approval.
So again, this is typically just a formality, but you'll see in the close proximity, this
ZBA has granted similar requests.
Then we'll go over maps of the area and photographs of the property in the surrounding area.
We can go over our floor plans if you wish.
I can also just give you a detail of each property and how it's being used.
Our RCO meeting notices, our applications for special exceptions, our deeds to the property showing ownership this way, and our certificates of tax credits.
So first, our notice of referral for 1818 North 17th Street.
Uh, again, it's, uh, four single, uh, room residents which share a bathroom in the existing
unit C and D in the same building as the existing two family household living.
So it's, what does that mean is that we have two, uh, four bedroom, uh, units, uh, in this
building.
And we're trying to have just those two units, um, as group living, um, at the conclusion
of my presentation, I will propose language that this board has previously approved under
similar circumstances to allow for this type of use if this board should agree to grant
these special exception requests by way of proviso. Then 1820 North 17th Street is the
same exact thing where we have two units which have four bedrooms each in them and we're merely
trying to make that into group living specifically for those two units while the remainder of those
units are three bedrooms where we don't run afoul of the technical aspects of the Philadelphia zoning
code. 1822 North 27th Street, 17th Street, also same thing. There are two three-bedroom units,
which we meet the technical code requirements, but there are also two four-bedroom units,
which we're trying to legalize by way of proof living. Again, all these are RM1 properties.
All of these are referrals. 1848 North 17th Street is the same. You have two three-bedroom
units, and then you have two four-bedroom units. And again, we're trying to legalize those two
four-bedroom units. So a student may be, you know, there may be one student in each bedroom for a
total of four unrelated individuals. And then if you look at 1857 North 17th Street, again,
another referral, four units. Two of the units have two bedrooms each, and two of the units have
four bedrooms each. And again, we're trying to legalize the four-bedroom units by way of a
special exception. And then 2015 North 17th Street, we have five units here. One of the units is a
three-bedroom. There is a five-bedroom and three four-bedrooms. Again, we're trying to legalize
the five-bedroom and three of the four-bedrooms by way of a special exception. There is a refusal
for this one because we are providing off-street parking. Again, this is existing and we're not
taking away any parking from the street. 2019 North 17th Street, that's another five-unit
building. Two of the units are three-bedroom units, so those are legal and currently. And
three of the units, two of them are four bedrooms and one is five-bedroom. Again, another referral,
another request for a special exception. And then the correspondence from the 32nd Democratic Ward,
ultimately, they did not reach an agreement on the application because no one honestly showed up to
the community meeting other than Judith Robinson. But, you know, they, you know, Temple Villas is
well known in the Temple area. They have, if you look them up, they're very good reviews. They're
If you look them up, they have very good reviews.
They're very community oriented.
very community-oriented, they're very responsible.
They're very responsible, right?
The things that Ms. Robinson added for the reasons for their position are positives.
There's their sanitation plan.
They do an excellent job in making sure that the outside of their properties are clean
at all times, including after trash day.
They're a good neighbor.
and these are things that go to the burden of proof as the board knows for a special exception
and the ongoing community support they're not just a landlord they are an active member of
this community they do a lot of non-pro bono activities helping along with street cleanups
things like that so for all those reasons you know that you know they are thought of positively
Unfortunately, no one showed up to the community meeting, but that could say something as well.
Typically, people show up to a community meeting where they're opposed to something, not when they're in support of something.
And then just these are just our zoning permits for all these properties.
1818 shows as a four-family dwelling.
1820 is a four-family dwelling.
1822 is a four-family dwelling.
1848 is a four-family dwelling.
1857 is a four-family drawing.
And actually, what I did just notice here
is it did allow for off-street parking.
I believe that we're just asking
for additional off-street parking
that goes beyond the off-street parking
that has been denoted in our refusal.
But we did get off-street parking allowed.
And then 2015, again, it's a five-family unit.
And 2019 is five-family unit.
Again, all these buildings were built as a right, as an R-I-1 property.
What we're really trying to do is to legalize the aspects with the technical requirements
on the Philadelphia Code where more than three unrelated people are not allowed to live together
and such that it falls within a technical classification of group living.
And then here are nearby approvals for group living.
So, you know, 1818, North 17th Street.
Oh, actually, those are ours.
Let's see.
Here, 1922, North 17th Street, 1713, West Montgomery.
I don't have to go through the list, but like literally we have like, I would say, 16 other instances where this board has approved on 17th Street and a nearby vicinity similar special exceptions.
And then this is just a backup showing, you know, when the board has approved it.
But you can see it's in 2020, you know, last year in the summertime, many of these were approved.
And then in April of 2022, just a few short months ago, they approved 1617 West Montgomery Avenue.
Many in 2021.
Then again, 1731 Wellington Street was approved in April of 2022.
2034 North 17th Street was approved in May of 2022.
And then just maps of the area, you can see, I mean, we're in the heart of the Temple community, and this is all RM1.
Just showing different parts of where we are.
And then these are the properties, all new construction, all separately metered.
Again, Temple Villas has been in business for well over a decade.
They're a responsible landlord.
They have a good relationship with the community.
And that was stated in the letter that was issued by the 32nd Democratic Board.
You can see that even though these properties were built some time ago, they are still well-maintained, clean from the outside.
And here's the 1800 block of North 17th Street
from the North view, from the South view,
2000 block of North 17th Street for the North view,
and then the South view, and then our plans and drawings.
And, you know, it's here for illustrative purposes.
I know that there's a lot of these,
but it just confirms how the properties are being used.
and then this shows like how for the one you know we we believe that we can get you know four cars
here um for accessory parking and then these are additional floor points of some of the other
properties and then again here are all the notices i i don't want to i'm going to try to quickly go
through these just so you know just proof that the mailing of these notices but there were a ton of
just proof of the mailing of these notices but there were a ton of notices we sent
notices. We sent a separate notice for each
a separate notice for each property even though they were all heard uh in during one community
i'm trying to get through it quickly