walking into unit two i mean unit one there's the living room space and there's a front sump room
to the unit. This is the basement entrance and as you can see in this image there is a door
a door in the left I mean in the right image where the utility the utility room is
for the water heater. This is a half bathroom in the basement as well as the gas utility closet.
there's another closet area and this is just to show that this is the gas utility and the
half bathroom in the basement just another view
and this is the access to the water heater and the gas I mean the hot water tank
here is the storage room in the basement as well and it provides the electric panel
displaying the separate unit, separate units, panel.
This is the kitchen of the first, the unit one, and the bedroom.
There is a hall that leads to the bathroom and the back area.
It also has a laundry room, and this is the back porch.
And I also just wanted to provide a view of across the street, there is an additional property that displays two, I'm assuming that it's displaying two units.
And I just wanted to conclude with the letter, with the support of the 9th District Office of Anthony Phillips, with the RCO, who are in support of me getting this approved.
um, me getting this, uh, approved and as well as showing that I had the support of neighbors
who had attended the public hearing in support of me, uh, proving the property as a duplex.
Ms. Cooper, let me ask you a question. How long has it been a duplex?
Um, it's been a duplex for multiple years, um, decade. There's been, uh,
But the tenant that lives upstairs has actually been there for 30 plus years.
And I moved in, I purchased the property in 2020 of October.
And I was not aware that the property wasn't correctly zoned.
And you had all the separate utilities there and things of that nature.
Okay. All right. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, I have a Melvin Sharpe with her hand raised.
Or it was raised, but they put it down.
No further.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Wait, I'm sorry.
Mr. Sharpe put his hand up.
I've got them to speak, sir.
Sharpe, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
first of all can you hear me yeah i can okay my name is melvin t sharp jr m-e-l-b-i-n
middle initial t s-h-a-r-p-e right jr swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do you have testimony for this 59 47 north 13th yes i oppose it um
Are you a neighbor, sir?
Yes, I am a neighbor, 5924 North 13th Street.
All right. Proceed. Go ahead.
Yes, I did receive the mailing from Ms. Cooper.
Right.
I'm just not familiar.
Well, not that I necessarily need to be, but I'm not familiar with her.
And there was a Zoom community meeting.
I usually participate in all the community meetings directly, not virtually.
So I was not able to participate in that meeting.
My primary concern is that block is composed primarily of homeowners, elderly homeowners at that, and very few apartments.
My concern is that I don't want to change a designation because it then will allow for apartments to proliferate in the future and then potentially change the composition of the block.
That is my primary concern.
I did not have a chance to express that to Ms. Cooper with all due respects to her, and I appreciate what she's done in her application.
It seems like she did a good job, but at the same time, potentially it will change the composition of the block, and I am not in favor of that.
Okay. Thank you for your input, and we appreciate the fact that you called in.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
No further hands at this time, sir.
Hi, Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning.
However, the proposed use is consistent with documented prior use of this property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2022-00406-5947 North 13th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman
James Snell, I vote yes
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes
Ms. Cooper, you have your vote
Thank you
You really did do a nice job
in your presentation, thank you
Thank you so much, I appreciate your time
Thank you
Number five, number five, MI2022-003-505, 1500 West Tioga Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Letter of support from Nicetown Tioga Improvement Team.
Good morning, Mr. Nockamson.
Mr. Nockamson?
Mr. Nockamson?
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-R-N.
Right.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is W. Tioga Holdings, LLC.
they're the owner of the property, and then in the virtual audience is Brian Wise, its member.
Okay, and our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Oops, wrong one, let's not share that one, let's see, one second, let me just get back
to that, let's do that one more time, all right, full screen mode, all right, I'm here
to present 1500 west tayoga street uh in my presentation we'll first review the notice of
refusal the letter of support from the nice town tayoga improvement team uh the a use permit
showing that this property has a long-standing history of multi-family use of five units plus a
commercial and that's what we're seeking here to legalize that use uh nearby multi-family variances
the board has granted in the past showing that's not out of character for this board to grant
similar type of multi-family use by way of variance, maps of the area, photographs of the
property, interior photographs of other projects that Mr. Wise's companies have done in the past
in the Philadelphia region, our plans and drawings. Basically, again, all we're doing
is legalizing five residential units in one commercial boat. We can go through the floor
plans that exist. Our RCO meeting notice at a well-attended meeting, we met with the community
and by unanimous support, they supported this project of this corner property for mixed use.
Our application for appeal, our deed to the property showing that W. Tioga Holdings LLC
is the owner of the property and our certificate of tax clearance showing that my client with
respect to real estate taxes is a good standing with the city of Philadelphia. Again, in the
virtual audience is Brian Wyeth, one of the members of the corporate entity that owns this property.
At the conclusion of my presentation, I'll ask Mr. Wyeth to virtually raise his hand,
be sworn in, and to then adopt my testimony as his own. So the notice of refusal. So this is a
CMX1 property. It's a corner property at the corner of 15th and West Ioga, not too far away
from the broad street line.
And all we're seeking to do
is have five units plus commercial
because we're seeing a maximum on property
that's not allowed as a right.
But we met with the Nice Town Tioga Improvement Team
and at a well-attended meeting,
they voted unanimously in support of that.
The only proviso they asked is,
and I don't know if this is an enforceable one,
to essentially put Jacob Ladders
on the second and third floors of this property,
which we have no objection to,
just don't know the enforceability of that proviso.
But that's our intention during the construction
or renovation of this property that we plan to do that.
Again, it's not out of character
to have the use that we're requesting.
As you can see, there was five units
plus a commercial as of 1955.
That use was discontinued for some time
and that's why we're in front of the board.
Again, not out of character for this board to consider multifamily use on this block.
1518 West Tioga Street, this board granted six units in that property, and that was in 2021.
And then maps to the area, as you can see, we're in the corner of Tioga and 15th Street, and we're a few blocks west of North Broad Street.
And then you can see here from a Google Maps perspective as well.
And then you can see the front of the property in its current condition.
It looks like at some time it was a church as well on the first floor.
And then this property has been vacant or not in great use for as far back as we can see on Google Earth.
This is a picture in August of 2008.
So for a good 15 years, this property hasn't really been fully occupied.
And then this is just 1500 West Tioga Street from the 15th Street side.
And then this is just 1500 West Tioga Street from the 15th Street side.
And you'll see in the floor plans, there's an entrance for the residential units.
There's an entrance for the commercial unit on the corner.
And because we're a corner property, we'll be storing trash in the rear where all the unit occupants will have access to that.
And then this is just a zoning hearing poster.
As you can see from this angle and this angle, we posted the property well in advance of today's hearing.
And then this is West Hoga Street to the right of the property, West Hoga Street to the left of the property, North 15th Street to the right of the property, North 15th Street to the left of the property.
And then again, Mr. Wise is well-versed in renovating properties throughout the city of Philadelphia.
And this is, I always try to give examples of kitchens, bathrooms, things like that, so the board can see the quality of craftsmanship.
And then there are plans and drawings. So we're going to be taking this as a vacant commercial space and hopefully we'll be able to get a tenant to occupy that space.
But as you can see, all we're doing is restoring the natural beauty of this property. We're not trying to tear it down. We're not trying to add to it.
we're repurposing this property for its previous use. And you can see the renovation is hopefully
going to make it a really beautiful structure again with the community. And this is just our
floor plans. A couple of things. There's no residential basement use at all. The basement's
only accessible to the commercial space. But this is, again, Tioga Street. This is a commercial
space right here you know they it's existing everything's existing um and you know one of
our hardships is the fact that we have this common hallway that's coming along 15th street
and that kind of divides the floor in half on each floor so we have the commercial space in the front
on the first floor and then we have the residence residential state space in the back on the first
floor again no basement use whatsoever for the residential unit but every single floor is kind
of the same where this staircase kind of divides up the um the um the building in half where there's
a unit in the front and there's a unit in the rear and that's also that's on the second floor
and same thing on the third floor all again we're not changing the configuration in this building
From an interior perspective, we're just, again, legalizing this five-unit structure plus commercial on the front.
So, again, at a well-attended meeting, we had on December 20th of 2022, we sent out notice to 98 addresses.
These are listed addresses.
Proof of mailing to those addresses.
Proof of email to the RCOs.
the uh the cba the planning commission as well as uh the council members uh zoning aid
our application for appeal showing that w tiger holdings llc filed this application for appeal
with the zba our detail property showing that w tiger holdings llc purchased the property in early
2022 and then finally our certificate of tax clearance that we pulled off the website uh
within the past week or so, showing that my client owes no real estate taxes with respect
to this month. With that being said, I'm going to unshare my screen. I would ask that Mr. Wise
virtually raise his hand to be sworn in. Before he testifies, I noticed the properties that were
approved. Is the majority of block of 15th Street there multifamily? I don't know. Very large
properties right yeah these are all large properties our lot our lot size is almost
2 000 square feet um our building size is over 3 500 square feet right right so majority of that
block is majority i haven't looked to see the majority of the block is but we're not that far
from uh broad street so okay all right okay bring your bring your recline on yes
he's been allowed to speak sir i could you state your name please and spell it for the court
reporter bryant wise good morning um everyone bryant wise b-r-i-a-n-w-i-s-e do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do proceed counsel
oh yes mr wise you heard everything i had to state about your zoning matter today
yes i did and is it true and correct yes it is and do you adopt it as your own testimony