or this is the the the a unit this is the unit where the disabled veteran is currently uh residing
when you open the door you have a kitchen as you move down into the property there's a common
hallway with one bedroom um to your right and in the back is the second bedroom this is an exterior
door and then there is only one bathroom for the property handicap accessible here over the toilet
as well as in the shower and the widths in the hallways are also handicapped accessible.
In the second unit when you open the door you have a stairway going straight up
At the landing, there's a bedroom to your left and further in the back to your right.
at the landing there's a bedroom to your left and further in the back to your right.
It's got a simple kitchen, L-shaped kitchen in the front of the upstairs unit.
And there's only one bathroom in the upstairs unit.
As far as the layout of the property, we've already seen it visually, but here is the layout of it.
The basement has nothing in it, mechanicals.
I'm going to come out of this, I'm going to show you, and this is, I also omitted to share this one picture.
Let me stop to share and go in so that the board can see the, I'll go back and share this picture.
And this was the infamous earlier picture that the board saw previously.
And that's what the basement looks like, just four walls with mechanicals present.
And this is the reverse of that same room.
And all they've done is they basically have put the new mechanicals in the rear of the building.
So going back to the main presentation.
And as you can see, the layout of the existing conditions of the property reflect the pictures I've already shown to the board.
And for this particular meeting, here is a proof of posting on the properties, both of the property doors.
the refusal as well as the zoning hearing for this particular meeting we sent a notice to
the members and to the neighbors that live uh in the near vicinity of the property according
to the code 134 letters went out to the affected area beyond and around the property and these
are the addresses our certificate of mailing is here and our verification that we've had this
RCO meeting as well, our tax clearance. And in the meeting, we did receive support from the
Frankfurt NAC, the Neighborhood Advisory Committee, and the members of that board did
supply to this board a letter of support for our variance. So at this time, I'd like to bring on
And if Mr. Bogdan is in, he should be in the presentation by now, hopefully I can bring him in.
If he could be advanced as a panelist so that I can have him authenticate my testimony on his behalf at this time.
Bogdan, if you're still in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Mr. Bogdan?
yes he just texted me and said that he can see me so i'm hopefully he can um he can make that uh
please i'm just texting him to have him to please raise his hand i know he's listening
hello all right could you state your state your name please and spell it for the court reporter
Hi, my name is Bogdan Luca. My last name is L-E-U-C-A. And I'm the owner of...
And what's your first... Go one more time. What's your first name again?
Bogdan. B-O-G-D-A-N.
Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Yes, Mr. Bogdan, if you could please, were you here to watch and to listen to the testimony that I gave on your behalf, on behalf of the project at 4692 Hawthorne Street?
I did.
Okay, and was it true and correct and proper?
Is there anything you'd like to add to it, or is it pretty much what I've already testified to?
I don't want to add nothing so far.
okay great and would you accept my testimony as your own had you been able to testify in that way
yes i accept questions from questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no no mr
chairman and council just for the record there's always been two front doors yes yes okay all right
and questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no other hands mr chair planning commission
thank you chair sarah bond philadelphia city planning commission s-a-r-a-h-b-a-n-h
in 2012 the zoning map was amended to rsa 5 at this location in accord with recommendations from
the comprehensive plan the appellant has not supported their hardship claim with evidence
of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property the city planning commission
recommends that the Zoning Board deny the variance.
MI 2022-006113
M.I. 2022-006113-4692-4thorne Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, thank you, members.
And number 13, MI-2022-005-365, 4001-203, Kensington Avenue, Augusta O'Neill is the attorney, letter of support from Council Member Squilla, letter of support from Impact CDC.
Just coming back in as a panelist, sir.
Good morning.
Good morning, counsel. Could you state your name, please, and just spell it for the record?
Sure. My name is Augusta O'Neill. That's spelled A-U-G-U-S-T-A. My last name is spelled O-N-E-I-L-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Sure. My client is MCB Real Estate. They are the equitable owner of the property at 4001-03
Kensington Avenue. They have the property under an agreement of sale.
okay and our our vice chair has just a few questions sure good morning counselor do you
agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to a zag receipt i do thank you have
you emailed all the required documents and exhibits that are required to proceed with this case five
days in advance of this hearing i did thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you so
much. Sorry, I shared the wrong screen. There it is. Okay. Thank you so much, members of the board.
As stated earlier, my client is the equitable owner of the property that is located at 4001
Kensington Avenue. Just to orient the board to the location, up on my screen is an aerial map
showing the property. The property, as you can see, is located off of Kensington Avenue
and Worrell Street. It is west of the Frankfurt Creek. You can see that the creek runs right next
to the property. This property was currently the site of a Walgreens. As you can see from
these pictures, the Walgreens has since been abandoned, and it is a site that has a lot of
trash and graffiti. This is just another view of the building. But it's currently vacant and
therefore has become a bit of an issue for the neighborhood as far as nuisance. So our proposal
is to redevelop the property and put up a 150,000 square foot five-story self-storage facility and
make some significant improvements to what is currently at the at the property. And so in your
exhibit package, I provided some renderings showing what my client intends to build at this location.
This is a rendering just showing, you know, the nice building. These renderings were created by
JKRP, our project architect, who's also with me here this morning. Another rendering just showing
different perspective of the building. It was included in your package. And not only are we
improving this vacant site and putting up a nice new building, but we're also going to be doing
some significant landscaping, as you can see from the landscaping plan that was also provided in my
exhibit package. We're going to be providing a few rain gardens, which are going to be flanking the
building on either side. And so as a result of doing this, this landscaping, we are able to
reduce the impervious coverage that's at the property. Currently, the impervious area at the
site is 90%, but with all of these rain gardens and the landscaping, we were able to reduce the
impervious area down to 58%, which Planning Commission commended us for when we went through
CDR process on this application. This property is zoned CMX3. The proposed use as a self-storage
facility is not permitted by right in the CMX3 zoning district, which is one of the
reasons that a refusal was generated on this application.
We feel that this use is appropriate for the area because it is largely surrounded by
some industrial uses, which again, I'll pull up my aerial map, just showing that there's
quite a few auto sales near this building. So again, we feel that the, given the context and
the surrounding uses, we feel that the self-storage would be an appropriate use. And I would like to
note that we're not asking for any dimensional variances for the building itself because we have
built what is a CMX3 compliance structure. So again, just going back to the refusal,
built what is a CMX3 compliance structure. So again, just going back to the refusal,
as you can see, the other refusals that were generated by this application relate to bicycle
and vehicle parking. Due to really an anomaly in the code, there are an excessive amount of
parking spaces that are required with this use. The code requires that we have 75 vehicle parking
spaces with three accessible parking spaces along with it, as well as 15 parking spaces.
We're proposing 10 parking spaces, one accessible parking space, and six bike spaces.
The reason that we feel that this is an adequate amount of parking is based on the operator's
experience that this is a very low impact, low traffic use. I'm sure anyone who's on the board
and has a storage facility knows that you're not visiting your unit every day. You're going there
occasionally. And so for that reason, we feel that a lesser number of parking spaces is appropriate.
The bicycle spaces, we just don't need as many as the code requires because, again, most people are
not going to bike up to this storage facility to either drop something off or pick something up.
We did meet with the affected RCO on this project, the Impact Community Development
Corporation. We met with them back on November 30th. As a result of that meeting, we did receive
their unanimous support. And I would like to just note for the board that in their letter of support,
one of the things that they also noted was, as I just stated, this building is a bit of an eyesore.
And so they appreciated the fact that we're going to be adding safety, beautification, value, and
jobs to their community. So again, they were in full support of the application. And just to
briefly go over some of the variance criteria. The proposed development is going to restore the
property from what is an eyesore and again an abandoned building that's attractive for
nuisance activity. It's going to be an improvement to the existing condition. This is consistent with
the character of the neighborhood, particularly the context that includes quite a few commercial
businesses. In comparison with some of the other uses that are surrounding us, this is going to be
an improvement because it's going to be a much less trafficked use. As I said before, self-storage
facilities just don't generate a lot of pedestrian or vehicle traffic due to the nature of the
business. Again, the proposed development is not going to cause any congestion in the streets for
the reasons that I just referenced. It's not going to increase any kind of danger of fire or
endanger the public health whatsoever. And it's not going to then substantially or permanently
impair the use of adjacent properties that are in the neighborhood. So as I said, with me this
morning is Devin Gray from JKRP. He's our project architect. Should anyone from the board have a
question for him? I also have with me Mr. Ryan Whitmore. He's with Lancor. They are an engineering
firm. So to the extent that anyone has any questions about the plan, he'd be happy to
respond. And with that being said, I would like to call forward my client, Mr. Dan Schabel.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Daniel Schabel, D-A-N-I-E-L, Schabel, S-H-A, B as in boy, E as in Edward, L as in Larry.
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do proceed counsel thank you good morning mr shabell did you have an opportunity to
hear my testimony this morning i did and was everything that i said to the board true and
accurate yes and would you like to adopt my testimony as your own yes thank you so much
thank you members of the board i am i am available all right questions from the board
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair.
Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H.
In 2017, the zoning map was amended to CMX3 at this location
in accord with recommendations from the Comprehensive Plan.
The appellant has not shown that the property cannot be used in strict conformity with the zoning code
and that a variance is therefore necessary to enable the viable economic use of the property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board deny the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2022-005365-4001-03-Kentington Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you, counsel, you have your votes.
Is there anyone in the morning session whose case has not been called?
Mr. Chair, I do not see any hands.
Okay. Thank you, everyone. A lot of cases done. See everybody at 2 p.m.
Excuse me, Nikki, can we pause the recording?
You can begin, Chair.
Good afternoon.
My name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing the 2 o'clock CBA hearings.
With me is the Vice Chair Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Thomas Hallamann.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Stunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised, the proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting Tanya Stunkett at philo.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comment or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at continuances for the two o'clock list.
Is there anyone requesting a continuance for the two o'clock list?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
This is Jason Hand.
I do not see any hands raised for continuances at this time.
I have a few withdrawals for the two o'clock list.
Number one, MI 2022 006 085 4011 Meriden Street.