Thank you.
Okay, Chair, we have 34 attendees, and you can start when you'd like.
Good morning. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's EBA hearings.
With me is Ishmael Shaheed, our board secretary.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
and James Snell, our board member. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also here is our board attorney,
Hillary Emerson, and our ZBA hearing supervisor, Lakeisha Dandy. Before we begin, here's a virtual
format. Be advised, proceedings are being recorded. By participating, you acknowledge
your agreement to be recorded. The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phila .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 address and the address of the property in question.
And lastly, the question -answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
Any comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit.
Let's look at our continuances for today, for this morning's meetings.
Number 13, MI 2022 -004 -440 -204 North 52nd Street.
that case is continued anyone have any comments relative to that case
are there any other requests for continuing good morning we do have a hand sure there was a hand
raised sir yes this is jason there was a hand raised but it has since gone down sir so okay
We have a hand up from Mr. Sherman Toppin right now.
Sure, put Sherman on, please.
Mr. Toppin?
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, my name is Sherman Toppin, S -H -E -R -M -A -N, T -O -P -P -I -N, address, 1800 JFK Boulevard, here in Philadelphia.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
You have two cases today. Am I correct, sir?
I do. I do. I do, sir.
Do you want to continue the cases?
Yes. I've been trying to. The cases are, as the court, as you guys may know, another attorney is experiencing somewhat of a personal emergency.
And I wanted to, I was contacted by the owners to continue to proceed with both.
And there's just one issue regarding posting that I'm unable to verify.
Either.
So, so the two cases would continue.
The first one is number four, MI 2022 -001 -062 -49 West Susquehanna Avenue.
That case is continued.
Correct.
And number 19, MI -2022 -001 -061 -2322 North 5th Street, that case is also continued.
Thank you, Mr. Toppin, for calling in. We appreciate it.
No problem. Thank you. That concludes my business today.
Thank you. Other requests for continuances?
Mr. Chair, I have Mr. Vernon Anastasia with his hand raised. I have allowed him to speak at this time.
Sure. Hi, Mr. Anastasio, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Sure. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Vern Anastasio, V -E -R -N, last name A -N -A -S -T -A -S -I -O.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
You have case number six, MI -2022 -004 -431 -1700 Reed Street. Is that a request for continuance?
Yes, it is, sir.
Okay, that case is continued.
Okay. That case is continued.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Other requests for
Other requests for continuances?
Do you know further hands for continuances?
I also have two cases, number 10, MI 2022 -004 -441 -6133 Tacowana Street.
I have no exhibits.
This is the first listing.
Is Mr. Marshall here?
You're not saying any hands raised at this time.
Okay, so number 10, MI 2022, 004 -441 -6133 Tacowana Street.
That case is continued.
It was the first listing.
And also I have number 12.
MI 2022 -004 -446 -626 Snyder Avenue. No exhibits. First listing.
Nicole Lex. Sir, Ms. Lex's hand is raised. I will allow her to speak at this time.
Sure. Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
hi yes my name is nicole lex n -i -c -o -l -e last name l -e -x right do you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes okay we we don't have the exhibits for this
case yes um i did send a couple emails um to the zbi i did not get a response um i'm having some
issues uh with this property i rented it um the landlord since has locked me out of the building
um he wouldn't give me some of the documentation that i needed to submit to you all right so so
here miss lex here's we're going to continue the case and you'll give you time to get this straight
okay okay all right so mi 2022 004 446 626 snyder abno that case is continued
okay we're going to go to our regular list
excuse me mr chair yes we have we have another hand raised by miss um vedita cadillo
okay i'm allowed her to speak
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
Beditza Cadillo
B -E -D -I -T -Z -A
C -A -D -I -L -L -O
Right. Do you swear
for them to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth? Yes, I do.
What case, ma 'am?
3445 Team Street.
We have submitted a complete package,
but we are trying to
continue communication
with the RCO.
All right, so here's what we're going to do.
We're going to continue that case, right?
You can continue your conversation with them, right?
Thank you so much.
Number 15, MI 2022 -004 -443 -3445 Keem Street.
That case is continued.
Thank you.
Any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands at this time, sir.
We're going to go to our regular list. MI 2022 004 445 1005 Lombard Street. Mr. Child Harry is the owner. There's a letter of non -opposition from council member Squilla. And there's a recommendation of non -opposition from Washington Square West Civic Association.
There's also four letters of support from nearby neighbors and the three adjacent properties.
Good morning, Mr. Chowdhury.
If you are in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
I promoted Mr. Chowdhury to the panelist, sir.
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter sure my name is rita joy
chowdhury r -i -t -u -j -o -y last name c -h -o -w -d -h -u -r -y right all right um proceed
I know. Go ahead. Good morning. My name is Sarah Nareka. Sarah is S -A -R -A -H. Last name Nareka is N as in Nancy, O -R -E -I -K -A.
Good morning. My name is Sarah.
Okay. Do you both swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay. So this is for the erection of an addition at the rear of an existing attack structure and roof deck access from the rear yard and first floor?
For no change of use from single family household living, for no change of height, size and location as shown in the application.
The minimum yard in the RSA zoning district is nine feet.
This shows five feet, six inches, whereas the maximum occupied area in the RSA zoning district is 75 percent.
And this shows 89 percent.
um our uh board secretary just has a few questions for you okay and then you can start your
presentation ish yes good morning uh did you all so they're not lawyers uh so did you all
send all the required documents in within five days of this hearing yes i believe we did our
architects are also um on this call as well they were the actual submitters of the paperwork
I'm not sure if they should join us at this time. We're fine. I think we'll go with you guys first
and we'll see. Great. All right. Why don't you start sharing your screen?
And excuse me, Chair, did we read the refusal into the record? I did. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry.
So our architects have planned to do the entire presentation. We don't have
okay all right so we're here's what we have to do right we're going to have to bring your
architect on but you have to do the testimony okay okay sure sure right so why don't we see
if the architects in the audience what's the architect's name um let's see mr richard tom
and lauren mark with the hands raised are those architects okay i'll allow them to uh i'll promote
The panelists.
We're joining as panelists shortly.
Hello, this is Laura Mark, and I'm here.
okay so here's what i would want you to do if you could um share your screen and they'll test
the fire off what you have up there okay okay all right and i and i i mean i've read into the record
i know what the issues are so why don't we just show the screen and then we'll we'll get moving
okay okay um would you like me to share the um the zoning drawings first or would you like to
go through photos. Well, I think photos would be easier for the, for the group. Okay. That's fine.
You show the photos and they'll do the testimony. All right. Okay. Can you guys see it once it gets
up? Yeah. Okay. We're good. All right. You see it? Seeing that. No, no. I'm talking to the,
the owners. Can you guys see it? Oh yes. Yes. All right. Good. So why don't you start your
testimony okay so um no no no no not the architect the owners have to testify i'm sorry
sure sorry about that no no no so my wife and i have resided at 1005 lombard for almost 14 years
yep um the house has been great uh neighborhood's even better um and we're we're just hoping with
the changes in work from home and some of our neighbor porches to expand a little bit
our working space in the basement and kind of double use, use our current outdoor space
elevated slightly so that it's a bit easier access to enjoy the outdoor space that we
have um so we had hired uh mr tom and ms mark to help us plan that and and make sure that it was
um amenable to the neighborhood okay can i can i see the rear of the property
and i'd love to provide a little more our context um so you can't you go ahead residents of
philadelphia for um over 20 years now but at this property for almost 14 weeks right in may 2009
2009. We've been thinking about, you know, maybe if we just had one more space for several years
now, but in the last few years with the pandemic, et cetera, the change from work from home and now
few years with the pandemic, et cetera, the change from work from home. And now I work full time from
I work full -time from home.
home. He works most days from home. So the office space that we're in now, he uses and I now use
our dining room table. We have a very open concept house. His work is mainly on the phone and
meetings all day. My work as a book editor is much quieter. So in our ideal world, we have a small
office space and really just an office space that has a door to close um and then this room um one
of the other changes that happened in our lives in the last so many years is we have an eight -year -old
daughter in this room we'd always intended to be her space for work and study and of course play as
well um and as she's growing older we're feeling a little bit of that pinch to have that extra space
okay more so our house is a split level and we love our house but there are disadvantages to
the split level. An advantage of this addition is that it would give us a deck right off the dining
room. So of course it won't be an all -year space, but it will be a space that we can use many months
of the year to just walk out, you know, enjoy a meal, etc. Right now our sunken garden, and as much
as I love the garden that I've managed to put in this north -facing space, you know, there's kind
of that mental barrier of walking down the stairs, etc. to access it. We also lose a lot of space
with the stairs and the platform. And then more so, I mean, we have thought about, you know,
is this the time to think about moving? Is this the time to find another house? We love this
neighborhood. Our daughter is in school. Her two best friends are within a couple blocks of us.
We don't want to leave. We love being from Seeger Park. But also, after my daughter was born,
my parents moved three doors down. Of course, that was partly to be with her, but also partly
as they're aging to be closer to family they move from ohio where they have no family so we're very
motivated to stay in the space um and hoping we can make it work you know with that one edition
can work okay much longer all right show me the edition show me what you want to do sure
okay why don't you explain that
Sure. So can I? I don't know if I can.
Okay. So the the darker areas is our property. Yep. And the way it is right now, those two sliding doors lead to stairs that go down.
Right. And in the in the planned or proposed version, there would be a built up area that would essentially make the deck or the outdoor space level with those sliding doors.
In order to do that, I suspect we'll be digging down a little bit and pushing northward the basement area that we have now and leaving a gap between there and the brick wall that is existing.
Okay. And from an outside perspective, our neighbors have a deck going off there with no room underneath. But from a visual perspective, it should look very similar to what they have.
So it wouldn't be congruent.
All right. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i don't see any hands mr chair yes chair we had that richard um thorn sure
what's this hand raised before
he's he was one of the architects and he was promoted to to panelist we're okay all right so
uh planning commission good morning chair ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning
Commission. Last name spelled H -E -G -A -R -T -Y. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Proceeding. Thank you very much. Good morning,
board members. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single -family zoning
at this location. The proposed dimensional variances are consistent with surrounding
properties and related to the small size of the lot. So the City Planning Commission recommends
that the board grant the variances.
Thank you.
MI 2022, 004 -445 -1005 Lombard Street.
I vote yes.
Thomas Allen, I vote yes.
James Snell, I vote yes.
James Snell, I vote yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed.
Thank you.
Thank you, Porter, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Good luck with your project.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Number two, MI2022 -004 -428 -2110, Titan Street, Pasquale, Calavita is the attorney.
letter of support from Point Breeze Community Development Corporation.
Mr. Colavita.
We were joining as a panelist soon, sir.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Pasquale, Colavita, P -A -S -Q -U -A -L -E -C -O -L -A -V -I -T -A.
Right.
Do you swear?
Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
I was just going to say my client is on.
I didn't know if you wanted to swear both of us in at the same time.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Identify your client, please, in the relationship to the property.
Keshav Patel, owner.
Our board secretary has just a few questions for you.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed all the required documents into our offices within five days of this hearing?
I have.
Please proceed and share your screen.
For a moment.
Screen dot at the bottom.
Got it.
I'm just trying to find the actual.
Okay, here we go.
We're good.
Okay, trying to.
And all of these documents have been submitted.
You're viewing the table of contents.
We're going to mark and admit A through L into evidence.
The deed's been presented, real estate tax clearance shown, architectural plans.
And I actually have one additional set of updated photographs of the location, which gives it a much clearer view as to what this property actually looks like versus what we previously had submitted.
This is the present property.
Okay. So what my client is the owner of this property, but that's not the one in question.
This is the restaurant that he owns and is seeking outdoor seating. And I can show you
on the architectural plans that's being shared. Are you able to see these? Yes. Okay. And this is
the uh plan of the property that is directly behind as you can see there's a three foot alleyway
behind the actual property and his uh he also is the owner of uh the proposed space and the the
property in question and if you look below at the renderings of what it is intended to look like
So it's just seating and nothing more.
There's no other use other than an accessory used to an existing building, an existing business to its west.
So this property in question is on Titan Street, and the other is on the corner.
um we've received we we met with a uh typically uh difficult and uh not difficult but probably
not the proper word uh that a they look at things very closely let's put it that way as well as the
uh uh surrounding groups it was nearly unanimous we had only one dissenter amongst
uh the entire panel it was uh heavily uh attended uh everyone uh so we got a letter of support from
from the uh the community group and we just asked that uh you approve this project as everyone seems
uh you approve uh this project as everyone seems to want this in the neighborhood right
council one one of you uh have your client come on and adopt your testimony
sure uh mr patel you available has he been promoted yet
patel's been allowed to speak sir hi could you state your name please and spell for the court
reporter? Mr. Patel? Mr. Patel, if you're still available, please unmute yourself.
Yes, I'm here. Sorry. That's fine. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court
reporter sure keshaw patel k -e -s -h -a -l tell p -a -t -e -l right do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel mr patel did you have an
opportunity to listen to my presentation of the project yes would you adopt my testimony as your
own yes okay sufficient yes questions from the board um no mr chairman hi questions or comments
from the virtual audience don't see any hands mr chair planning commission
thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing single family residential
zoning on this parcel. The appellant did not testify or provide evidence that there's
no possibility that the property can be used in conformity with the zoning code and that
variance is necessary to enable viable economic use of the property. This is a requirement for
establishing hardship, and so we don't believe that there is a hardship in this case, and the
City Planning Commission has to recommend that the board deny the variance.
Counselor, you have any response?
As far as can we build a single family property there?
I presume yes, but based upon the present condition of being it on an alleyway and have an accessory to the restaurant,
It seems that the cost basis of it is probably extremely high in comparison to what is presently being recommended.
Okay. All right. Thank you. So MI2022 -004 -428 -2110 -Pyton Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Tolloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
all right counsel thank you thank you i have one other i don't know whether it's on your list next
or uh i think you're a little bit further down i got a couple things ahead of you okay i tried
all right you did you did very good thank you mi 2022 004 395 805 diamond street zenjin is the
attorney. Letter of support from APM. Mr. Jinn will be rejoining as a panelist, sir.
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Counsel, could you state your name, please,
and spell for the court reporter? Yes. Zen Jinn, Z -H -E -N. Last name is J -I -N. 1617 John F.
Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1838, Philadelphia EPA 19103, here on behalf of the applicant.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
The client is Glass Estates LC. They are the owner of the property and a representative for
the company is here. Okay. Our board secretary has a few questions.
Good morning, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed all the documents that were required to continue with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board the package we have previously submitted with relation to this property.
This is 805 Diamond Street. A copy of the refusal, support letter, and related documentation were previously submitted.
The application is based on the property being a CMX2 zoned property.
a CMX2 zoned property. However, based on the conditions of the property surrounding this one
However, based on the condition...
and the viability of commercial spaces in the area, we're asking for a variance to use this
property exclusive as a residential property. As such, the refusals are directly related to
converting the required commercial space in the 30 -foot depth into an additional residential
unit. We met with APM and notified the neighbors and obtained a letter of support from APM.
There were really no neighbors that made an effort to attend. APM's committee, for the most part,
came with another, there was another RCO present as well, and there were no negative feedback from
any neighbors or the community itself. We are proposing a three -story structure,
a new construction at this site. Again, the site is zone CMX2. However, this is actually not a
corner property. As you can see, this is the property that is in the middle. There's a corner
property next to us that is still vacant, and then there are residential properties on the other side.
Although across the street, there is what looks like a park.
I'm going to jump to the photos here.
There is what looks like a park across the street from the location, or I'm sorry, a
commercial use of sort across from the location.
Majority of the block is actually residential in nature.
The area predominantly is REM1 zoned, and the uses surrounding the area, there are very few
ongoing commercial activities. As you can see, almost everything in sight, including corners
that are built, are all residential in nature. So we believe that a full residential use would
make the most sense here until, in fact, this is, again, this street and its location really isn't
conducive to any kind of larger commercial activity. And the lot itself is a standard
row home width, making most commercial uses very difficult to fit into the space.
In addition, as you can see, the look of the building, if constructed as a residential,
would actually better fit what is already in the neighborhood. The proposal is simply a
three -story structure with cellar to be used as three units. These two units would have been
Otherwise, by right under CMX 2 and the first floor would have to have a commercial space.
We're simply asking the board to permit the first floor to be used as an additional residential unit.
So that is essentially our request before the board.
We asked for a favorable consideration in this case due to the hardship of putting a viable commercial use at this location.
Thank you.
Counsel, is your client here?
Yes, my client should be present.
Have your testimony adopted, please.
Yes. Thank you. Mr. Gitterman, can you raise your hand and be identified?
Yes. Good morning, everybody.
Hi. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Joseph, J -O -S -E -P -H, and the last name is Gitterman, G -I -T -E -R -M -I -N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Good to see you, counsel.
Thank you. Mr. Gitterman, you have seen my presentation and heard my representation
before the zoning board?
Can you verify what I have stated is true and correct
and adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I'm sorry, I have Mr. Charles Dices with his hand raised.
I will allow him to keep your time.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Charles Deitches, D -Y -C -H -E -S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am.
Well, proceed, sir.
I've been living in the community since 1974.
Members of the community didn't know about this zoning meeting today, and nor did we know about 8 p .m. having a meeting to vote on it.
So we would ask for you to table it and for us to have a meeting and do a vote ourselves.
and that area is the 8th and Diamond Advisory Commission
and that's that area, APM, is further down.
So we will ask you to allow the citizens of this community
to vote on this before you pass it through.
Mr. Chairman, we did the notifications
according to the requirements of the code.
The APM also was the coordinating RCO.
I don't know if Mr. Deiches represented a different organization
that wasn't listed on my notification list,
That wasn't listed on my notification list, but I was not aware of any neighbors, and I was not aware of the situation, in fact, until today.
but I was not aware.
Thank you, sir.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Sir, I have a Perel Geray -Semons with their hand raised.
I have allowed them to speak at this time.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Perel Jure Simmons. It's spelled P -E -R -R -E -L -L, capital J -E -R -A -E, and my last name is Simmons, S -I -M -M -O -N -S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Proceed.
I also live in the neighborhood as well, around the 2156 block of Diamond Street.
And I also would like to second what Mr. Deitch has stated that we did not know about this community.
We're unaware of this information, and we did not know that APM had took a vote.
We have been contacting APM in regards to this property,
as well as trying to get directly in contact with the owner of this property,
because that property was once a single family home
and we wanted it to continue to stay a single family home.
And we also had questions of how the property was obtained
from PHA to this developer as well, sir.
Thank you for your testimony.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Mr. Chair.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the Planning Commission?
I'm sorry.
Thank you, Chair.
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Board members, this comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX2 mixed -use commercial zoning on this site.
This proposal requests the substitution of one dwelling unit for the required ground floor commercial use that would otherwise be required in a CMX2 zoning district.
However, given the surrounding context and the site's location away from a commercial corridor or a concentration of commercial activity, City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2022, 004 -395 -805 Diamond Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Howell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number five, MI 2022 -004 -426 -1528 Nardine Street.
Stefano Bernardino, Bernardini, and Allison Dobowski are the owners, pro se.
letter of opposition from the center city residents association
mr bosky will be rejoining as a panelist
hello hello hi how are you hi could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
Yes, my name is Allison Dubovsky. It's A -L -L -I -S -O -N -D -U -B -O -V -S -K -Y.
Right. My name is Stefano Bernardini, S -T -E -F -A -N -O -B -E -R -N -A -R -D -I -N -I.
Right. Do you both swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes. This application is for visitor accommodation at the first floor in the same building with single family household living above an existing structure. The proposed visitor accommodation is prohibited in the RM1 zoning district. Our board secretary has a few questions.
Good morning. Have you emailed all of the required documents to proceed with the case five days in advance?
Please proceed and share your screen.
Oh, share screen.
Share screen.
So here we have the address, 1528 Naudane Street.
It is RM1, a duplex, and we do live.
We are owner -occupying the unit above,
And it's for the first floor unit to be used for visitor accommodations, which is the short term of 30 days.
to be used for visitor accommodations which is the short term of 30 day or less stays
known as airbnb to most people um this is a map showing exactly where we're located between 15th
and 16th in the middle of the block uh this is just a shot of our street it's no parking street
So there's no issues with any kind of cars, parking, anything like that.
This is the outside.
You can see that's the entrance inside.
It goes into a small vestibule where there's two doors, one which goes into the ground floor unit and the other which goes upstairs into our unit.
And then this is the unit that we have used for Airbnb for the short term rentals.
It's fully furnished, small living room, kitchen.
and then it has two full bedrooms and a bathroom with a small outdoor patio space
this is the entrance that my wife was talking about like it's a shared entrance
this is the door of our apartment that's where we are living and this is the rental unit so it's
actually down here and uh it's a shared entrance these uh these are pictures of uh the zoning
notice that we um hosted that we posted as per requirements and um this is another view of uh
of uh our building like with the two buildings that we have close and uh yeah the entrance is
shared between the two between the two apartments and um so basically uh we have been you know using
this as an Airbnb. And it's been, you know, it's been really great for us as the owners for,
you know, income, helping us pay for our mortgage and everything like that. But it's been really
great to having people come for people that are in need of these kind of short term stays,
a lot of people coming to visit people at the hospitals or coming in for work for conferences
that are looking to stay in a furnished apartment
as opposed to just, you know, they need,
they're staying for longer than a night or two.
So they need more availability
than what you would get in a typical hotel.
You know, we've been, we're upstairs.
We make sure it's, everything is extremely respectful.
This is not a party place.
We're the first ones to hear it if anything were to happen.
and also absolutely we take care of everything making sure there's no garbage that's left out
on any days that are not you know garbage collection days we you know we keep we keep an
eye on it it's you can see it's very close it's almost as if we're living there ourselves we're
not you know an LLC for coming from out of state that's you know managing remotely you know hundreds
of short term rentals in the area. This is very just much small thing for us. And the thing that
is really that we love about having the possibility to do the short term is that we can also
have access to the unit. And we can also have family from abroad come and stay where as opposed
to having a long term renter, you don't have any access to the apartment. So when his mother or
brother and nieces come to stay we have a place where we can host family and friends um and use
it yeah we understand questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments
from the virtual audience sir mr wade albert has his hand raised i haven't allowed him to speak
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
hello hello can you hear me yeah quite could you state your name please and spell for the
court reporter way you're you're you try to get closer to the mic if you can
can you hear me now that's hard but try again hello yes okay i'll give this a better wade albert
w -a -d -e last name a -l -b -e -r -t right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do proceed thank you so i am with the law firm of stevens and lee and i am
Council for the Central City Residence Association. I'm just here to explain that the reasons why CCRA
opposes this application is that... Excuse me, Chair. This is... I know. This is the court
reporter. I apologize. Wade, we're really having a hard... We can't hear you. I'm so sorry. I think
there's a problem with my computer. Can you hear me? We hear you now. Okay. I'm very close to my
computer, and I apologize. But I was just going to say that CCRA opposes this request.
But I was just going to say that CCRA opposes this request for variance because the property at issue is located in a very residential part of the neighborhood, and CCRA opposes the request for visitor accommodation status here, as we believe that that use is not compatible with this portion of the neighborhood.
Okay. Thank you very much for your call. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Do not change any further hands, Mr. Chair.
No other hands, Jason?
No, sir.
Okay. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RM1 multifamily residential zoning at this location.
In this case, I think we feel the visitor accommodation unit is related to the primary unit and connected to it, and so this effectively would function as an in -home short -term rental use.
The State Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance.
However, we do also recommend adding a proviso to limit the term of the variance to two years so as not to allow this use in perpetuity on this block.
Thank you.
So MI -2022 -004 -426 -1528 -North Dane Street, I vote yes with proviso.
Temporary variance expires 115 -26.
Thomas Howellman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, yes with proviso.
Sahih, yes with proviso.
Thank you. Thank you for your time.
Number seven, MI -2022 -004 -439 -1010 West Arizona Street.
Recommendation of support from the 37th Ward.
Eric Carroll is the attorney.
He'll be rejoining as panelists, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
My audio and video link got cut off for a couple seconds while I was joining as a panelist.
Okay, we're okay.
We're okay.
Did you read the refusal?
Not yet.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Good morning.
My name is Eric Carroll, E -R -I -C -C -A -R -R -O -L -L.
I'm the attorney for the applicant T. Chris LLC.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Our board secretary has a few questions.
Good morning. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Have you emailed all the required documents five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes. December 28th. Great. Please proceed and share your screen. Thank you.
Okay. Can you see the refusal, Mr. Chairman? We can. Okay. Thank you. As I said, I represent
T. Chris LLC. They are the owner of 1010 West Arizona Street. That property is currently
a vacant lot it actually is a vacant lot on an end of a block that is all vacant lots
it is zoned rm1 we are proposing to erect a new construction two -family dwelling unit
this overlay area is and this property is rm1 which requires 425 square feet per unit we want
to build two units and given our lot size, we're about 66 square feet short. So we're seeking a
variance just to overcome that, that what I would call a de minimis shortage and allow a variance
to allow us to erect a two store, I'm sorry, the three story, two unit residential property.
right here is a picture of the lot uh our lot is kind of in the middle and as you can see there's
two or three vacants on either side of it here's a little bit of a closer you can see
towards the back of the property you can also see how we posted the property
um i'll show you the plans as you can see it is a going to be a three
i'll show you the plans as you can see it is a going to be a three -story building
with a roof deck and with the basement uh each of the two units would have its own entrance
um the one unit would be the basement and the first floor the second unit would be
the second floor and the third floor and then obviously the roof deck for the upper unit
Each unit has two bedrooms, two bathrooms. Each floor is roughly 588 square feet of living space.
We went before the 37th Ward RCO back in November, and we presented this project to them.
We got unanimous approval, the vote of 21 in favor and zero opposing.
So we ask that the board today vote yes, approve this variance, and allow us to move forward, build this property, and bring some much -needed development to this end of the block.
Is your client here?
He is. Chris Tomasco is here. He is a member of T -Chris LLC, I believe. I believe he's on the Zoom.
Chris, can you raise your hand?
Can you hear me?
Yes, you can.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Kristen Tomasco, K -R -I -S -T -I -N, last name Tomasco, T -O -M -A -S -C -O.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Good to see you, counsel.
Mr. Tomasco, you are a member of the applicant T. Chris LLC, is that correct?
And did you listen and watch my presentation just now?
If you were to testify, would you certify that everything I said was true and accurate?
And would you adopt my testimony as your own?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chair.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Hi, Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Board members, the comprehensive plan recommends a zoning map amendment from RM1 to RSA5 at this location.
However, this proposed dwelling unit count variance is minimal and does not conflict with the purpose and spirit of the zoning code.
City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance.
So, number seven, MI -2022 -004 -439 -1010 West Arizona Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
number eight mi 2022 004 433 1700 master street pasquale calavita is the attorney
um once he gets on i'm going to read into the record four other cases we'll hear
five cases at the same time
Mr. Colavita will be rejoining as a panelist.
Good morning again.
Good morning.
Just state your name.
You've already been sworn.
Pasquale Colavita, previously spelled.
Right.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to now read in four other cases that you'll do all five at the same time.
Thank you.
So, number 11, MI 2022, 004 -436 -1706, Master Street.
Number 14, MI 2022, 004 -434 -1702, Master Street.
Number 16, MI 2022, 004 -435 -1704, Master Street.
And number 18, MI -2022 -004 -437 -1708 Master Street, all of these cases have recommendation of support from the United Neighbors Alliance Civic Association.
Counsel, would you identify your client, please?
Sure. Roman Orvatsky.
okay and our our vice chair our vice uh our board member has
And our vice chair, our vice board member has a few questions for our secretary.
I'm sorry.
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
We do.
Have you emailed all the required documents for all the different parcels five days in advance for this hearing?
We did.
And then we've updated them in separate packets.
Originally, I sent them all as one, and now we've sent them all separately.
So, yes.
Great, great.
Thanks.
All right, please proceed and share your screen.
so i represent um omega investment fund which uh roman uh ratsky or bosky is um the uh
managing member, and he should be on. And he owns 1700 through 1708 Master Street. This is in an
RSA 5 district. There are five empty lots that we're proposing to build three -story properties
with six units in them. They originally were requesting four or five units. He also has
recently purchased 1710 through 1718 which as of January were also there was a variance granted
on those properties that's going to be part of my argument the you know I'll get right to the
hardship the hardship here is that the size of this lot and to put a single family residence
on this lot would well exceed any value. The ability to market the place and sell it for
what it would cost is overwhelming. I actually had included, did not send it on this one, but had
included it in the 1710 through 1718, and the board, I'm sorry, a court of common pleas actually
agreed on that, remanded it, and granted the variance on those five adjacent lots.
So I'll get back to the original one.
We would like to mark and move all of the exhibits from the deeds.
It would be exhibits A through O on all five of the properties.
And they're all similar with the exception of the, I guess, the provisos are all reflecting of this specific property.
In other words, the proviso is different in Exhibit G for 1700, 1702.
They all mimic the same exact language.
So what we're asking for, and just to add, one of the units, there's been an agreement with the community group.
And if you look at Exhibit O, it's a community benefits agreement where they're going to make it a affordable housing for one of the units in order to get this through.
Another benefit given in this community benefits agreement is to provide additional work for the neighboring residents.
So what we're asking for is nothing that's different than any other property on that entire block. That entire block, what I'd like to do is make it the easiest way to do it is to go to Exhibit M.
and exhibit m will show uh each all of these different properties in that area despite the
fact that uh it's rsa5 there really are none that are single family residents on that entire block
as you can see 1701 -357 -911 i mean go on and on go to the next block the 1800 block
and i can show you some photographs that's the actual photographs of the lot and let's see
and as you can see down the block there's three four -story properties uh that that all
uh have and if you look on the left side of that property that one has been updated there there's
some more recent photographs of the neighborhood, but in essence, this same, uh,
of the neighborhood. But in essence, this same ZBA has previously approved
four, five, and six unit properties on that same exact block. Again, I went back to
the 1710 through 1718. Originally, it was refused, but then a court of common pleas agreed that there
is a hardship uh on on the cost of it and again what i'll do is i'll go to what i attached the
cost back then um i had prepared had a realtor prepare uh the cost it would cost it well in
excess of seven hundred thousand dollars per property um to to build a single family residence
These are 100 foot deep properties. So, I mean, if you want, I can continue on with this one. If you look at the previous, let me go to exhibit L.
Give me a moment, having some struggles.
Okay. So, again, scroll down, but the property's history, each one of them were multifamily prior to this present, I guess, there were rooming houses, for example, the one on the corner had multifamily and rooming houses, etc.
So each one of them, and that's why I attached a copy of the zoning history for each of the properties, 1700 through 1708 here.
So I would just ask that the variance be granted for six -family dwelling with the provisos listed within the requests of the community benefits agreement.
And we, again, we did forward a letter of support from the RCO, which is being presented right now as Exhibit N.
As you can see, it was not well attended.
No one seemed to have any opposition to it.
Eight attendees and everyone had agreed to it.
So with that, if there are any questions or if you have your client come on, please.
Roman.
I don't know if it speaks.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, sir.
Roman Obrowski, R -O -M -A -N -O -V -R -U -T -S -K -Y.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Obrowski, are you the managing member of the owner Omega Investment Fund?
Yes, sir.
I'm going to, members of the panel, there's one brief correction or revision.
There's actually six affordable housing.
There'll be four two bedrooms and two one bedrooms.
Initially, I'd indicated there were five.
There's actually six.
So, Roman, have you had the opportunity to listen to my presentation today?
And would you state that it was accurate with that last revision?
Yes, sir.
And would you adopt that testimony as your own?
Members of the panel, is that sufficient?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Board members, in 2017, the zoning map was amended on this block from RM1 to RSA5 in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan and with the support of the community and city council.
With regard to the use variances in these appeals, the appellant's hardship claim is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property.
The appellant here is relying on an economic hardship argument, whereas we hold that use variances demand evidence of unique site conditions, regardless of prior variances granted on this block.
With regard to the dimensional variance for the size of the pilot house, the dimensional requirements of the code don't create an economic detriment for the appellant.
This is new construction on an unconstrained site.
on an unconstrained site and finally we would note for the board that the affordability restrictions
And finally, we would note for the board that the affordability.
cited by the appellant are neither defined nor enforceable by the city and are not recorded on
the deeds and so we would consider them ineffective city planning commission recommends that the board
deny variances for 1700 1702 1704 1706 and 1708 master street may i before a vote is taken there
There is one. The proviso actually reflects that all pilot, all dimensional variances were corrected as of within those provisos, within the new architectural drawings.
My apologies, Mr. Colavito. We rescind our objection to the dimensional variance.
okay um we're going to vote on each one of these separate
number eight mi 2022 004 433 1700 master street i vote yes with proviso revised planned one page
stamped by zba january 11 2023 thomas holliman my vote is yes with proviso
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso
Ishmael Shaheen, my vote is yes with Proviso
Number 11, MI 2022 -004436 -1706, Master Street
I vote yes with Proviso
Revised plan, one page, stamp by ZBA, January 11, 2023
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with Proviso
James Snell. My vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed. My vote is yes with Proviso.
Was that correct? Yes, right. It's okay.
Number 14, MI 2022 -004 -434 -1702, Master Street.
I vote yes. Revised plans, one page, stamp by CBA, January 11th, 2023.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheen, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you. It's number 16, MI 2022 -004 -435 -1704, Master Street.
I vote yes. Revised plans, one page stamp by ZBA, January 11th, 2023.
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes with proviso
James Snell my vote is yes with proviso
Ishmael Shaheed my vote is yes with proviso
And the last one MI 2022 -004 -437 -1708
Master Street I vote yes with proviso
Revised plans one page stamped by ZBA on January 11, 2023
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes, with proviso.
James Snout, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you. May I be excused?
Yes, you can.
Have a great day.
Thank you.
Number nine, MI 2022 -004 -394 -645 North 40th Street.
Melissa Frost is the owner -applicant pro se.
Recommendation of support from the Mantua Civic Association.
Council Member Gauthier is not opposed to the granting of the variance.
Ms. Frost, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your virtual hand, okay?
She will be rejoining as a panelist, sir.
Thank you.
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
melissa frost m -e -l -i -s -s -a f -r -o -s -t right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
truth nothing but the truth i do okay so this application is for visitor accommodations in
an existing structure. The proposed visitor accommodation is prohibited in the RM1 zoning
district. Our board secretary has a few questions for you, okay? Good morning. Have you emailed all
of the required documents? I have. Okay, thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Oh, yeah.
oh you okay sorry full screen there we go okay um so this is my home it's on the corner of
melon street and north 40th street um north 40th street is um four lanes wide with extra wide
sidewalks um three -story houses um originally uh that have all largely been converted to
multi -unit for decades um all of the new construction that's operating as infill
up and down the street is um large multi -units um and there's lots of construction in the area
so basically 40th street in the last um city plan because we're um a transportation hub we're we're
right off of lancaster avenue and lancaster avenue has trolleys buses and is also of course near the
40th street market subway we're um being basically you know in the new city plan kind of treated as
a more dense area of apartments. So my house, I bought it in 2002, looking like this. And I have
worked on it continuously, slowly, as I've had the money, but I've lived in it since this time,
when the adjoining property, you know, was torn down, I was able to purchase the lot and put in
a bunch of apple trees. And I plan to hold that long -term and we'll never build on it.
As you all know, this was, this presentation was made for my neighbors. So you already know this,
nothing about my house is changing. There's just, you know, new, new requirements being made.
This shows what my Airbnb page looks like. The unit is just a one bedroom section
off the back of my house. Here it is in plan. Guests enter the back door of the building
here. This is the bedroom, the kitchen, the living space, bathroom. And then there is a door to my
part of the house, but it's kept locked when anyone's there. I only host kind of, I think I
hosted 140 days of last year. So I don't host that much, to be honest. And so much of the time
that door is open and I use the back door of my house for coming in and out with my dog.
um i live on the second floor um the third floor needs renovation and is currently not
lived in by anybody um but i plan on you know living in this house as long as i possibly can
um i've been hosting since 2012 um my house became a rooming house in 1947 um it's been
multi -unit since then um there are airbnbs throughout the city and throughout my neighborhood
but most are run by large -scale landlords in multi -unit buildings. I always talk to possible
guests, and I am very clear about the neighborhood. I make them confirm that they understand this is
a residential neighborhood, and I largely host people who are either from the neighborhood,
visiting family in the neighborhood, or Presbyterian Hospital is two blocks from my house,
and then also, you know, both universities, Drexel and UPenn, are nearby. So I'm largely
hosting people who are coming to this neighborhood for something related. I require that people read
a message about the neighborhood and about being conscientious towards my neighbors.
And so I'm making sure that they understand this is not a tourist neighborhood and that
they're coming here before that reason. As I mentioned, I have only hosted 143 days of the
last year. I only host part -time. I do not allow parties, events, or more than three people to be
here at any time. Neighbors have never had a problem or complaint. As a long -term resident
in my neighborhood, I know all of my neighbors. I'm very active in the local RCOs. My house has
never, you know, other, while I'm surrounded by some houses that are owned by absentee landlords,
we have issues with trash with both houses on either side of me. My house has never been
part of a neighborhood problem. I'm home most of the time and I'm friendly with the people
that stay with me. So that's it. I did want to mention that I, as someone who has never been
through these processes before, I saw that the last short -term host was granted this with a
two -year proviso. I do want to say this process has been really difficult and really costly.
and i you know i understand if this is how you're doing it but i would like to request a
less short -term proviso given how um expensive and draining this process has has been and it
process has has been and it would it would create a hardship for me and i would not be able to
would it would create a hardship for me and i would not be able to continue
continue doing this every two years um if this was the process every two years so so just so you know
the last one was three years oh okay okay it was a recommendation for two we took it to three okay
okay great all right questions from the board no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual
audience um mr chair this is hillary um i just wanted to interject um miss miss frost um you
indicated that this is just for the first floor of your property is that that's that's correct okay
would you object to a proviso specifying that because that was not specified on on the refusal
oh yeah no i thought that that was on uh when i when i filled out all the applications they made
me put first floor on everything so i thought that this was just for the first floor okay
Okay, we'll add that as a provisor that I did not make it onto the refusal. Thank you.
No one further? No comments from the virtual audience?
No, sir. No further hand to this.
Planning.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Board members, in 2017, the zoning map was amended on this block to RM1 multifamily residential.
um the visitor accommodation unit is related to the primary unit and connected to it and so again
we believe this effectively functions as an in -home short -term rental use the visitor accommodations
use here is also similar in function to the prior legal use as a rooming house and consistent with
the internal configuration of the building the city planning commission recommends that the board
grant the variance and we also have no objection to granting the variance without a proviso related
to the term of the variance in my 2022 zero zero four three nine four six forty five north 40
street i vote yes with proviso um limit to the first floor thomas house with proviso
Yes, with Proviso.
You have your three votes and you're approved.
My vote is yes with Proviso.
You have your four votes and it's approved.
Thank you for your presentation.
Thank you for your presentation.
Okay, let's go here.
So there we go.
10, 14, 15.
let me see here
Hillary I see
I believe we are
number 17 is that right
yes number 17
okay yes
MI 2022
004 419
North Camac Street. Mark Danik is the attorney. Letter of support from the Logan Civic Association.
Okay, Mr. Danik has been promoted to panelists. He'll be rejoining shortly.
Good morning, sir. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
uh yes mark danik m -a -r -k d -a -n -e -k i'm here for applicant sbm holdings llc and also on this call
is uh thomas moses he's an authorized member of sbm holdings uh to speak today all right do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes our our um board
secretary has a few questions. Good morning, council.
I'm having trouble hearing. All right. Asia, break it up.
Can you hear me now? Yes. Yes. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? Yes. Have you emailed all the required documents
yes i have and i did receive a confirmation email
thank you please proceed and share your screen
Okay, Mr. Chair, this application is for a renovation of a property that was purchased by SBM Holdings in March of 2020, right at the start of the pandemic.
Okay, Mr. Chair, this application.
It was a vacant property that had suffered significant structural damage due to a fire.
My client purchased the property through one of the city's low -income housing programs to renovate.
Um, because of the pandemic and delays in the supply chain, uh, and getting construction permits, um, they, the first thing they were able to do was, um, secure a make safe permit in April of 2021.
By the time they completed that work and then were moving on to the regular building permits, the application had already missed the three -year deadline of the Philadelphia Zoning Code for restoration of an existing nonconforming use.
So it was historically always used as a two -family dwelling.
They were seeking, when they purchased it and when they were seeking to renovate, the plan had always been to maintain the two -family dwelling.
So during the make -safe process, they missed the three -year mark to get to the reconstruction.
And I can, let's see, I can show you...
So this is what the property looked like before renovation. And let's see. These are the plans. The plans themselves don't call for any exterior modifications. It's solely an interior improvement, a renovation of the property.
um we met with the um and here's uh as part of the make safe uh these are the photos showing the
posting but you can see that they replaced doors and windows uh basically secured the structure
uh to get to the next step uh we met with the uh logan civic association um the the members there
confirmed that it had always been used as a two -unit dwelling we received the votes in support
and we're asking the board to we're asking for a variance to allow them to
complete the renovation of the structure under 14 305 5b 0 .2 .3 and 10. in the alternative
if the board is not inclined, we would seek a use variance pursuant to 14303 AE .1 and 2
to allow for the two units to occupy the property.
How about your representative of the client? Is he here?
Tom Moses, can you have your testimony adopted?
Mr. Moses, please raise your virtual hand, sir.
He's going to have to speak.
Hello?
Do you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
It's Thomas Moses.
T -H -O -M -A -S and M -O -S -E -S.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes. Proceed, counsel.
Hey, Mr. Moses, were you able to hear and see my screen during the presentation?
And if you were called to testify, would you adopt all my representations as your own as true and correct?
And one additional question I wanted to ask you is, can you just please provide color for the board on the low income program under which the property was purchased?
and then the requirement that the two units be used for low -income rentals going forward?
Yeah, simply, it's actually the Student Redevelopment Authority.
It's the NCST program.
We've been a community buyer for years, and we can either rent or sell the properties.
uh but it has to be done to uh what's considered low to moderate income um renters or buyers
and and going forward you intend to comply with the program requirements uh yes
and with that mr chair i have no further questions questions from the board no mr
chairman no mr chairman mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
So, Mr. Charles Richardson has his hand raised. I have allowed him to speak at this time.
If you want to stand on the elevator, you can stand on the elevator and they hit the button.
Well, stand on the elevator. You can stand on the elevator.
Good morning, Mr. Richardson.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 508, City Hall.
Could you spell your name for the court reporter, please?
Certainly. R -I -C -H -A -R -D -S -O -N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, sir.
the councilwoman has no opposition to granting the variance thank you thank you very much thank
you any anyone else in the virtual audience
any further answer planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia
city planning commission uh board members uh the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the existing rsa 5 single -family zoning at this location this building was destroyed by fire
sometime before 2015. As the council has noted, this zoning code permits reestablishment of a
non -conforming use such as this that existed prior to the destruction, but only if the reconstruction
begins within three years after the destruction. Despite missing this deadline, it's our opinion
that the appellant has demonstrated a good faith effort to renovate this building, and the City
Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance. Thank you. MI 2022 -004 -419
4842 north camac street i vote yes
my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes
my vote is yes thank you counsel you're from you great thank you and if i didn't ask for it i
wanted to mark and move all my uh exhibits into the record thank you there that's great okay great
thank you you can great thank you is there anyone else in the virtual audience whose case has not
been called on the 9 30 list i do not see any hands mr chair thanks everyone see everyone at
o 'clock. Thank you. All right. Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman. And I will be chairing
this afternoon ZBA hearings. With me is Ismail Shaheed, our board secretary.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also, here is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our ZBA hearing supervisor, Lakeisha Dandy.
Be advised the proceedings will be recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phila .gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, if 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 comments. All comments should be directed to Tanya Sunkett,
our executive director. Let's look at continuances for this afternoon's list. Number one, MI 2022
202 -004 -684 -9800 Busselton Avenue. This case is continued. Attorney moving party.
Number three, MI 2022 -004 -690 -300 -02 South Street. This case is continued. And number four,
MI 2022 -004 -893 -6600 North Wall Street.
That case is continued.
Is there anyone who has comments relative to those three cases?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
This is Jason Hand.
Ms. Isabel Ortiz has her hand raised.
I have allowed her to speak at this time, sir.
hi could you state your name and spell please for the court reporter
May you please unmute?
Ms. Ortiz, may you please unmute?
Can you hear me now?
Yes. Hi.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes. Good afternoon, Chairman Bergen.
My name is Isabel, I -S -A -B -E -L -L.
Last name is Ortiz, O -R -T -I -Z.
I am the community representative on this particular case.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Absolutely.
So I just continued three cases.
What's the case?
Case number MI2022004684.
What's?
9800 Postleton Avenue.
Yeah. So that case is continued, attorney -moving party.
Correct. I wanted to just have my parents recognized, and I also want to make sure that I would like to become a party to the case, and I'm on all future notices as it relates to the ZBA hearing, or as it relates to this particular case.
We will make sure you're notified of this case, okay?
Thank you. Can I be dismissed?
And thank you for your call.
No, no problems. Have a great day. Have a blessed day.
Is there anyone else who has comments for all of these three cases?
I see no hands, Mr. Chair.
Is there any other requests for continuance?
Sir, Ms. Mary Friend has her hand raised.
I have allowed her to speak at this time.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Ms. Friend, if you're available, please unmute.
Yes, sir. My name is Mary Friend, F -R -I -E -N -D.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
What case do you want to talk about a continuance?
9800 Busselton Avenue.
So that case has been continued, turning moving parties.
Do we have any idea when it will be postponed till?
Hillary, do we have any idea how long this will be?
No, she can reach out to our office at RCO, ZVA at philadelphia .gov.
They will let you know when it's going to come up again, okay?
Thank you, sir. I appreciate your help.
That's fine. That's fine.
Any other requests for continuances?
so it looks like mr knockamson has his hand raised i will allow him to speak
i'm mr knockamson could you just state your name is spelled for the court reporter for the record
mr knockamson
is his hand so up
yeah it is but i'm not sure yes but it's not allowing him to um speak for some reason i'm not
sure. Mr. Not comes in. Well, he has one other case on the list. It's number six, and it'll be
a while before we get there. Hopefully, he'll be in by then. Any other requests for continuances?
I do not see any other hands at this time, sir.
I have two withdrawals I want to enter in.
Number 10, MI 2022, 004 -697 -2401 North 13th Street.
That cave has been withdrawn.
And number 13, MI -2022 -006 -688 -1303, Poplar Street, lot number one.
That case has also been withdrawn.
We're going to go to our add -on list.
MI -2022 -003 -690 -688.
58 56 Belmar Street. This is for a vote only. We have received a letter of non -opposition from the
RCO. 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.
Vishnu Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Number two, MI 2022 -004 -389 -1222, North 41st Street, I vote yes.
With proviso, revised plans, one page, stamped by ZBA, January 11th, 2023.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes, with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
And number three, MI 2022, 004 -390, 1220 North 41st Street.
I vote yes, revised plans, one page, stamp by CBA, January 11th, 2023.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with Proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso.
and number four my vote is yes for proviso thank you ish number four mi 2022 01695 530
the 32 moore street this case was held for a vote we now have a letter of support from old
kensington neighbors association and a letter of non -opposition from council member lazada i vote
yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. Jane Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you. We're going to go to our regular list. Number two,
MI 2022. Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. I got you. I got you. I got you. We're going to go first
to number seven because of a scheduling conflict. MI 2022 -004 -924 -234 -36 South 4th Street.
Attorney is Catherine Mismer. Letter of support from Society Hill Civic Association.
Letter of non -opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Okay, sir, Ms. Missimer, we'll be rejoining as a matter shortly.
Good afternoon.
Hi, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, Catherine Missimer.
It's M -I -S -S -I -M -E -R, 1835 Market Street, Suite 1400, 19103.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Sure. It's 234 South 4th Street LP, which is the owner of the property.
All right. Mr. Howellman has a few questions.
Good afternoon, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required, five days in advance to this hearing?
I have.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Great, thank you. Is that visible?
It is.
Great, thank you. We're here today with an application for the installation of a fence
to shield a utility transformer. There's no new construction proposed,
so I'll try to keep this as short and sweet as possible.
I have with me today, owner's rep, Michael Island, as well as project architect Ming Yan.
As you can see, this project has a letter of non -opposition from Councilman Squilla's office, as well as from the coordinating RCO Society Hill Civic Association.
They also have a letter of support from our direct neighbor across Locust Street at 400, Mr. Andrew Holmes.
This lot fronts 4th, Leithgow, and Locust Streets in the Society Hill section of Philadelphia.
Some of you may recall this project as we were recently before the board for the larger reconstruction here.
It was a proposed addition and restoration to some historic buildings.
What we're here for today is just the fence, if you can see in the southern portion of the plan on the screen, the fence enclosing this required PICO transformer.
It was in connection with the building permits for the larger development project that the current proposal arose.
When we were in for building permit, PICO advised that the current infrastructure in Locust Street was insufficient to support the proposed home.
As a result, they're requiring the installation of a new transformer on site.
It can't be accommodated underground.
As a result, the property owner has decided to shield that transformer from view using the same height and opacity of fence that was previously approved to.
using the same height and opacity of fence that was previously approved to enclose the property
in the prior presentation on the proposed addition and restoration for the larger development.
The fence proposed today would shield the required transformer with a like -kind fence.
In connection with the larger development project, we did receive this board's approval for a fence
that exceeds the allowable height, which is four feet in the RM1 district, and opacity of 50 % in
the RM1 district. This site is zoned RM1. We are proposing a fence that obviously matches what was
previously approved. You can see in some of the posting photos what that looks like. It's a wrought
iron fence. And you can see that the site is already under construction in connection with that
prior approval. These images highlight exactly what's proposed today. This is a wood inlay and
a steel gate. And as you can see, this would be the PICO transformer that's being required to
serve the site. Here's some context photos. You can see that the wrought iron fencing is common
in this section of the city. The height is consistent. I apologize for flipping too quickly.
The height is consistent with the walls that are nearby. And as you can see, there's one refusal
issued in this case, and it's for the fencing. We met with Society Hill, the coordinating RCO,
to review this proposal. While they opted not to hold a separate RCO public meeting for this
application, given the elongated process we went through with them on the prior development project,
We did meet with their zoning committee on several occasions, including at the site, to discuss the height, the materials, et cetera.
The revised plans you have before you today, consisting of one page, reflect those comments on design in particular, as they reflect, by way of example, that wood inlay showing in the prior rendering.
That was at the request of the RCO in particular.
In addition to our conversations with the RCO, we did also publicly notice this application, and we did post the site.
As a result, you have a letter of non -opposition from the coordinating RCO, as well as Councilman's School's Office.
And again, we do include a letter of support from the near neighbor that's most likely the largest impacted across Locust Street and would otherwise be looking at the transformer, Mr. Andrew Holmes.
um obviously given the letter of non -opposition from the rco this application wouldn't be
detrimental to the public welfare or the use of neighboring parcels it's consistent with the
essential character of the neighborhood given again it's consistent with what was previously
approved by this board as well as the neighbors and lastly it would not be detrimental to any
other property owners do you have somebody is your client here or someone representing yes
Mr. Michael Island, I would just ask you to be promoted to speak.
He's been allowed to speak.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Michael Island, E -I -L -A -N -D.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Proceed.
Mr. Island, have you heard the extent of my testimony today?
Would you agree that it's true and correct?
and would you adopt it as your own yes hi questions from the board
no mr chairman
no no mr chair okay no mr chairman thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
do not see any other hands mr chair planning commission
so ron bednar city planning first name ron r -o -n last name bednar b -e -d -n -a -r
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, Ron.
This property is indicated for residential use on the city plan.
We have no objection to the granting of the variance.
Thank you.
M -I -2022 -004 -934 -234 -36 South 4th Street.
I vote yes with revised plans.
One page.
Stand by CBA January 11, 2023.
James Snell yes with proviso
Ishmael Shaheed yes with proviso
thank you counsel great thank you all all right number two MI 2022 004 970 101 25
RE -ROAD. LETTER OF SUPPORT FROM SOMERTON CIVIC ASSOCIATION. LETTER OF NON - OPPOSITION FROM
COUNSELMAN BRIAN O 'NEAL.
Sir, Mr. Gusto O 'Neal will be rejoining the panel.
O 'Neill will be rejoined as well as the panelist.
Good afternoon, members of the board.
Hi. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Sure. My last name is O 'Neill, O -N -E -I -L -L.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Busselton Enterprises, LLC, and that is the owner of the property.
All right.
And Mr. Holloman has a few questions.
Excuse me.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Can you not see that I've shared my screen?
It's starting to come up now.
All right.
I think my computer, hold on, sorry.
Of course, there's always a technical difficulty.
It looks like it's coming up.
Okay, great.
You're up.
Wonderful.
Thank you so much.
I'm here this afternoon representing the owner of the property at 10125 Varee Road.
This property is currently an office building and we're proposing to put a pharmacy in the property.
Just for context, I have an aerial of the area of this property is zoned, RSD3.
The property is off of Redline Road, going north on Bree Road.
um there are a number of medical offices currently in the building and also in the area
the some of the tenants in the building currently include a pediatrician and a dentist and so we
felt that it was you know a natural addition to have a pharmacy in the building um the tenant
that we have uh potentially going into this property assuming that the application is granted
this afternoon is called Royal Pharmacy, and their proposed hours of operation would be from
8 a .m. to 6 p .m., and so this would be really, you know, a good addition because someone who's
going to see a doctor's office in the building can then go and visit the pharmacy on the way out.
You did receive a refusal on this application because the pharmacy use is prohibited in this
residential RSD three zone districts.
And again, just for context,
this is.
The property in question, this was taken from Verree Road.
As you can see, it's set back pretty far from Verree.
Plenty of parking.
There's a number, as I said,
the number of medical uses currently in the building.
Again, plenty of parking.
And just for context, I got some pictures of the outside of the building, just so you
can see how large it is.
And the pharmacy is actually going to be located right down here behind two doors.
So that's the door that would lead into the pharmacy, and this would be the door leading
into the rest of the office building.
So we did meet with the affected RCO for this property, the Somerton Civic Association.
we met with them on October 11th of 2022. And they were generally in support of the application
with a proviso that they wanted to have the property owner record certain restrictions
against the property. Some of the things that they wanted to see, you know, not ever be able to
open at the property included things like drug paraphernalia sales. They didn't want to see a
medical marijuana dispensary. And so my client was in agreement to record a deed with those
restrictions. And that restrictive covenant was filed this week. And due to that agreement that
we reached with the RCO, they were in support. There were 20 votes that were in support of the
application. And as I noted earlier, we also have a letter of support from Councilman O 'Neill's
office. So with me this afternoon is Jeff Darin. He's a representative of the ownership. So Jeff,
if you could hit the raise hand button on your screen, we'll bring you forward to identify you
and I'll ask you a few questions. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Judge, you hear us?
Is your hand raised?
Yes, it is.
You just unmuted.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
do we turn name hand uh chairman council you're an officer of the court we're you're an officer
of the court we will take your testimony i was just going to right questions questions
from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no further hints mr chair planning commission this is ron bednar city planning
while this property is currently indicated for residential on the city plan given the surrounding
use context recommend the request of variance be granted thank you mi 2022 004 970 10125 re -road
I vote yes. Thomas Tomlin, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you so much. You have your three votes. Thank you so much. Sure. Thanks for your time.
Number five, MI 2022, 004 -683 -2314 North American Street. Hercules Griegos is the attorney.
uh nara square community alliance did not reach an agreement on the application
but does have a petition in support
sir mr grugos will be rejoined okay
Good afternoon, members of the board. Hercules Grigos, 1835 Market, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, representing PPFSS2314 North American Street, LLC, equitable owner of the property.
Counsel, just for the record, could you spell your name for the court reporter?
Yes, first name H -E -R -C -U -L -E -S, last name G -R -I -G -O -S.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Mr. Howellman has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
I agree to the waiving.
There is one typo that I will reference in my presentation.
did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing
please proceed and share your screen great thank you very much uh mr chairman and members of the
board uh let's see green green button there it is it's up coming up okay can everybody see it
yep thanks so much uh we're here today with an application for construction
of a Safeguard Self -Storage facility on the vacant lot at 2314 North American Street.
I have with me today Stanley Bonilla, who is the Senior Vice President of Development at Safeguard
Self -Storage on behalf of the Equitable Owner, as well as Elizabeth Norton from Pannoni and Chris
Michelek from SGW Architecture, Project Engineer and Project Architect, respectively.
um for context safeguard uh is a premier self -storage company uh with locations nationwide
they have eight existing facilities here in philadelphia and they're seeking to open a
ninth facility uh at 2314 north american street um we're here today you know uh it's a 40 000
square foot lot um and i'll just scroll down here uh fast of course i'm out of practice mr chairman
uh the lot is bound by north american to the east york street to the north and bodine street to the
west um and just for um i'll give you some more site context but i did want to respond to the
procedure we procedurally we uh met in october with nara square uh community alliance as well
Community Alliance, as well as NARA Square Action Network, the two RCOs, the NARA Square Community
as nara square action network the two rcos
I suppose.
Alliance being the coordinating RCO. You'll see from this that we had nine votes to support the
project and nine votes to support the project with conditions. And the conditions were really
be able to come to an agreement with regarding local hiring. And, you know, we worked really
hard. And I'm excited to say that we did come to an agreement last night. And we are, we finalized
community benefits agreement with NARS Square. And we are just waiting, you know, Safeguard is a large
company we're waiting for our corporate sign off from above so i've spoken with both rcos as well
as the councilwoman's office and i've spoken with the solicitor as well and we're hoping to present
our case today um and just hold the vote until um until we get this uh uh community benefits
agreement signed which um i feel will be forthcoming in the next couple days so i just
wanted to put that out there um that we worked really hard to get everybody on board and the
the agreement is really a local hiring and and uh inclusion uh type community benefits agreement so
with that i'll continue um just working through we had numerous um neighbors that uh signed
petitions and support um i think 29 near neighbors signed petitions and support um and this was our
mailing where some folks went out and knocked on those doors within 250 feet. This is just some
context photos of the site. As you can see, it's currently a vacant lot. Here's your survey.
And the site is on ICMX. And as the board is aware, the storage use is a permitted use in ICMX.
So from a use perspective, bulk massing project is compliant with the ICMX zoning.
The reason why we're here is, and I'm sure you see this often with self -storage, the parking ratios for self -storage really fall more in line with larger industrial warehouse buildings and not the traditional self -storage.
So the zoning code requires, I believe, based on the size, 51 accessory parking spaces and six off -street loading zones.
We're proposing 12 parking spaces and two loading zones, which, based on Safeguard's vast experience, is more than enough to service this use, which we believe is a really benign use.
Is that the correction you're talking about?
Correct.
the 9 is 12 yeah the the refusal says 9 but if you see in the it's you know um it it was uh 12
and you know i counted them up a couple times just to make sure it's 11 plus the uh the one
accessory so we have 12 12 parking spaces and two and the refusal noted nine so thank you for
reminding me um so these are our zoning plans um as you see it's approximately about 39 000
square foot lot into your layout we have small office here and your typical storage lockers
hours of operation are approximately 8 to 6 p .m property is you know full security
cameras lighting I believe you can it'll be manned from about 9 to 6 access from about
8 a .m. to 10 p .m. through key fob or code. And as I said, it's about a hundred thousand square
foot building, 11 bike school spaces, two off street loading zones. We actually removed an
existing curb cut from Bodine Street to have one curb cut on North American, which we think will
allow better access and less car or truck access onto Bodine Street, which is a more residential
street. Typical hours of operation I gave you. And some of the things that we were looking to do is
make sure that we hire local. There's about three to four permanent jobs at this location that we
expect working with the community to help find members of the community and talking to the
trades to make sure that we if there's members of the trades that are in the neighborhood that
they'll have the opportunity to work on this site and I'll just scroll down with some other
information again here is the meeting summary
Again, here was the meeting summary.
three.
And then we did add a letter into your file from our civil engineer that really went through the trip generation and the parking,
just to confirm that the estimated trip generations for self -storage sites are amongst the lowest.
um and the parking you know from a traffic and parking perspective um is really a a low
parking generator um and i believe panoni is here if anyone has any questions but um you can see the
the the um uh the conclusion there is based on the trip generation and parking generation estimates
from the traffic engineer the provided parking spaces and proposed site um are anticipated to
sufficient um and then i will also just note um uh just for context i mean these are four
self -storage facilities um that uh were recently approved by this board in the last two or three
years and just anecdotally you could see 33 east woodlawn 12 parking spaces uh 339 east lehigh
avenue five parking spaces uh 2351 south swanson and south philadelphia eight parking spaces
and 5350 ogons avenue 11 parking spaces so this is typical of this use um and typical
um what we see so um again we we were um uh worked really hard um to to get everybody on board
um and uh we are confident that we will get this uh letter signed this cba and uh we asked the
board just hold the vote we worked with the councilwoman's office um so why don't we do
this why don't you have a representative of great adopt your testimony great uh stanley bonilla
available mr bonilla has been allowed to speak sir uh i could you state your name and spell it
please for the court reporter. Good afternoon. My name is Stanley Bonilla, S -T -A -N -L -E -Y,
Bonilla, B -O -N -I -L -L -A. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed, counsel. Stanley, have you heard my testimony?
Is it correct and true, and do you adopt it as your own? I have, and I do. Great. Thank you.
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual
audience mr chair i have miss elizabeth norton with her hand raised i have allowed her to speak
at this time sir hi could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
i think she's with us that's our engineer mr chairman okay well we're fine we don't
we're just there to answer questions all right anybody else in the virtual audience
Mr. Sloan Foulkes, sir, with his hand raised, I have a lot of words.
Hi, Mr. Foulkes.
Good afternoon, Chairman Bergman and CBA board. Can you hear me?
We can. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Thank you, sir. Happy New Year to all.
Thank you.
My name is Sloan Fuchs, S -L -O -A -N -E -F as in fire, O -L -K -S, representing the Office of Councilwoman Ketsi M. Lozado, 7th District, room 316 City Hall.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Proceed.
Okay. The applicant has met with the RCO, Norris Square Community Alliance, and has garnered a letter or a letter that they had not reached agreement.
I'm not going to recount the community vote because the applicant's attorney already had stated that.
But this office also has received a letter of petition in support of the variance request, as well as a letter of support from Norris Square Community Alliance.
The applicant has been through the community design review and completed the process.
This office recognizes that the applicant has been in good faith conversations with the community regarding a community benefits agreement and have met as recently as Friday, January 6th with representatives for the applicant to make final revisions to an agreement in preparation for this meeting.
We also acknowledge the efforts of the community in working towards an acceptable compromise.
This office also understands the terms of the CBA may not be enforceable by the ZBA and are also not enforceable by this office.
In light of that, this office will offer a letter of support once the community benefits agree.
will offer a letter of support once the community benefits agreement has been activated by signature of both parties.
I'm available for any questions, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Folks. We understand.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Sir, I have a, oh, I saw a hand up, but she's put it down, sir.
All right, Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
This property is indicated for industrial commercial mixed use on the city plan.
The proposal successfully completed the Civic Design Review last year.
Therefore, we recommend the request for Venice to be granted.
Thank you.
Hillary, correct me if I'm wrong.
The case is closed except for a letter from the community and the council person.
uh yes we can we can do it that way that that is fine mr chair um and i and i believe there's a
couple other people have raised have raised their hands but yes we can close the record except for
those two letters okay thank you do we want to go back to see who else is in the audience
i think we should mr checks one of the sure sure yeah sure jason yes i'm miss nilda pimento with
hand raised i have allowed him to speak sure hi could you state your name and spell it please for
the court reporter yes good afternoon uh mr chairman and hi yes my name is pimentel n -i -l -d -a
P -I -M -E -N -T -L
I'm a co -chair
of NASCAN,
the Norris Square Community Action
Network, a registrar
CEO. We respectfully
request that the letter that we
submitted... Okay, just one
minute. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth? Yes, I do.
Okay, proceed. Yes.
Our organization
respectfully requests that
the letter that we emailed early this morning endorsing the project under review now sent by
email being inserted in the record. We also want to mention that our co -chair who also signed up
to speak, Mr. Timur Cameron is going to briefly make some remarks. And we also want to mention
that we hope that the community benefits agreement that has been drafted will be signed
as soon as possible since we are endorsing the project
with the provisal that that agreement is executed.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for calling in.
Who else do we have in the audience to testify?
Two more, Cameron.
I've got him to speak.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, yes.
My name is Timur Kamran, spelled T -I -M -O -U -R -K -A -M -R -A -N.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Proceed, sir.
Okay. Yes, I'm representing the RCO Norris Square Community Action Network, which is affected by this project.
I'd just like to state for the record that our support, as my co -chair Nilda Pimentel just said, is based on the following conditions, which I believe are in the CBA agreement that is yet to be executed.
And these conditions are establishing hiring and contracting targets for laborers, licensed construction workers, and local and minority subcontractors, all at a 30 % minimum, and hiring qualified community members for 100 % available permanent positions after construction is complete.
Next, establishing a committee composed of representatives from the RCO to ensure that hiring targets are met, address any issues that may arise throughout the construction phase, and monitor progress and compliance.
Next, that assurances to reserve the ground floor for commercial retail should a change in use for the property is proposed within a period of 10 years.
Next, language providing a mediation mechanism in the event of a stalemate occurring in the future.
Next, a commitment.
Sorry, two more.
I, so we don't have to hear the whole thing. We understand it. What we're going to do is
So we don't have to hear the whole thing.
We understand it.
we're going to continue this for a vote until we have a letter from the RCOs and the council person
and how you work that out among the corporation and yourself will be the agreement you two have.
Okay. Yeah, sounds good. Just essentially, I'd like to report what's.
No, we understand. We understand. But, you know, the CBAs will be between the two of you and, and I say the two of you, the community and the corporation. Okay. Okay. Anyone else?
No further answer, Mr. Chair.
Planning commission. Do you, did you run, Ron, you already gave me your position, right?
right he did he did okay so the record's closed except for letters from the rcos and the council
person council is that okay would i be able to send a letter to just to to explain once we get
the signature sure sure okay i want to be able to be at the party too you're part of the party i
promise okay all right thank you we appreciate it thank you so much okay all right number
Number six, MI 2022, 004 -894 -1402 Ellsworth Street.
Alan Notkinson is the attorney.
A letter of support from Point Breeze Community Development Corporation.
mr knockamson uh yes hi good afternoon had a hard time getting you in earlier
i i know i i had some technical issues so i actually literally ran home
that's why i'm not even dressed the way i usually am i'm like what
could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please uh yes alan a -l -a -n
Last name, Nockamson, N -O -C -H -U -M -S -O -N, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia
PA, 19109.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your clients and their relationship to the property?
There are two corporate entities that I'm representing that are joint property owners,
IRA Development, LLC, and Mid -Cost Enterprises, LLC.
and in the virtual audience should be if he and she q as a who's a corporate representative
and mr hallman has just a few questions good afternoon council do you agree to waive the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy i do did you email all of the exhibits
and documents required five days in advance to this hearing oh yes i did thank you please proceed
and share your screen all right thank you
uh first of all happy new year to the board and to the virtual audience
um my name is alan i'm here to present 1402 ellsworth street
uh in your presentation packet we'll first review the notice of refusal
Second, we'll then review the letter of support from the Point Breeze CDC.
Then we'll review a document that we created based on the public record of nearby properties with minimal or no rear yard setback.
That's one of our refusals that we have to address as part of our presentation.
Maps of the area, photographs of the property, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice,
And our application for appeal that we filed with the ZBA, our deed to the property, showing that IRA Development LLC and Meek Coast Enterprises LLC are the owners of the property and our Certificate of Tax Clearance.
Again, in the virtual audience should be Mr. Eze. At the conclusion of my presentation, I would ask that he would virtually raise his hand, that he'd be sworn in, and then he can adopt my testimony as his own, and then we'll be more than happy to take any questions from the board.
First is our notice refusal.
This is an RSA 5 property.
What we're looking to do is subdivide this lot into two.
And we have two refusals.
First thing I'm going to state is this property has already been built.
This is a two -unit condominium building.
It's at a corner where one of the units, they're both essentially, if you look at it, for all intents and purposes, single -family homes.
One unit faces one public street.
another unit faces the other public street instead of making it into a two -unit condominium
Instead of making it into a two -unit condominium, there are two sets of unit owners that just want to own their properties separately.
there are two sets of unit
So it's just a different form of legal ownership.
Instead of a condominium structure, we just want to do a fee simple.
It's really form over substance.
We're not changing anything.
So this is not conceptually, oh, we would like to build this.
This has already been built.
And then the unit owners, the two corporate entities, would like to each own one of the building structures essentially separately.
So we have two refusals.
First refusal is the minimum required lot area.
Again, we're not changing anything physically regarding this project.
It's just some technical zoning variance requests.
The second one is the required rear yard depth.
Again, because of how the building has been structured, which has been built legally, we're asking just to change the form of the structure from a condominium to a fee -simple structure.
So, again, even though we have these two technical refusals, nothing has really changed over the course of since this property has been, the building structure has been erected.
So, I think that's why we had, you know, overwhelmingly support from, you know, Point Breeze CDC.
We're not changing anything here. And at a well -attended meeting, we received Oklahoma support from the Point Breeze CDC, which is the coordinating RCO.
And then just to address, you know, again, about the fact about the rear yard issue, the fact that we don't have any, you know, we decided to just, again, precautionary manner, in a precautionary manner, address this, and we looked at nearby properties.
Here's our property, and here's all the properties in close proximity, which would run afoul of the zoning code in terms of the rear yard setback.
And that would be 19 properties within like a three block radius.
And then here are maps of the area.
Again, we're at the corner of Ellsworth and Broad Street.
Again, we're a corner property, and we're just looking to legalize this fee simple structure as opposed to the condominium structure.
Photographs of the property.
As you can see, this is from Ellsworth Street.
It looks like a single -family structure.
You know, it's a two -unit condominium, but it has its own separate entrance like you would see at any Philadelphia row home in this part of Philadelphia.
And I did say it was Broad Street.
It's actually South Carlisle Street.
That's the one structure that faces Ellsworth. This is the other structure that faces Carlisle Street. And again, it's his own building structure.
So again, if you walk by this property, it would seem like these are two single family homes.
And that's all we're trying to do by creating this through a subdivision.
And then here's just proof of our Orange Notice posters. We did it on one on Ellsworth, a poster, and one on Carlisle.
And then this is Ellsworth Street to the right of the property. Ellsworth Street to the left of the property. South Carlisle Street to the right of the property. South Carlisle Street to the left of the property. This is a single family neighborhood, and that's all we're trying to do by way of this zoning request.
And then here are our plans and drawings. This is just, again, from a technical standpoint, our survey showing the subdivision of these properties. But again, the building structures are not changing in any way. It's just a legal technicality that we're dealing with by subdividing it and applying that subdivision to the Philadelphia Zoning Code where we're getting technical refusals, even though this is a legal building structure.
and then you know then again this is just our architectural plans and drawings this was
submitted as you can see uh to uh the city by way of these stamps have been approved
but the buildings have already been built and then there's just an elevation just wanted to
show you that this has been approved and vetted by the city already and then this is just our
floor plans. Again, two single families going straight up rather than side to side. Again,
this way we can subdivide these properties and they can be considered single -family dwellings
rather than through a two -unit condominium regime. And then our RCO meeting notice. We had a very
well -attended meeting on November 28, 2022. It was sent to 577 addresses, proof of mailing to
those addresses, the addresses that we sent them to.
Our application for appeal that we filed to the CBA, one with the nois refusal and the
along with the notice of refusal, and the project information form, our deed to the property, showing the IRA development, and the cost of enterprises are the owners of the property.
project information form, our
And our certificate of tax clearance. It is showing a balance of $1 ,984 .64, and the reason is, is that's just for 2023 taxes, which are not due until the first quarter of the year concludes.
With that being said, I'm going to stop sharing my screen.
I'm going to ask that Mr. Eze virtually raise his hand, and he can be sworn in.
I'm allowed to speak, sir.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, it's Ifai Chukueza, spelled I -F -E -A -N -Y -I -C -H -U -K -W -U, last name E -Z -E.
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes proceed counsel uh yes mr essay you heard everything i had to say today about
yes is it true and correct yes it is and do you adopt his own testimony yes i do thank you
i only have the other owner you want to bring on oh no he's he's a representative for both
okay all right questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman questions
or comments from the virtual audience do not see any further hands mr planning commission
sir ron bednar city planning property is indicated for residential on the city plan we have no
objection granny of the beards thank you mi2022 004 -894 -1402 ellsworth street i vote yes
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Nockamson.
Thank you.
Number eight, MI 2022 -004 -921 -1031 Germantown Avenue.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
we're waiting for we're still waiting for letter support from northern liberties
neighbors am i right hillary uh mr chair we did receive a letter of support from northern liberty
okay as well as a letter of non -opposition from council member scrilla okay a petition of support
signs by about 13 near neighbors. All right, great. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Mr. Whalen? Good. Hi. Good afternoon, Shannon,
Bergen and board members. This is Sean Whalen, W -H -A -L -E -N, from Vintage Law, here on behalf
of 1031 Germantown Avenue OCF LLC and Pollard Allen OCF LLC, the developers and owners of the
project. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Mr. Heilman has a couple quick questions. Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy? Yes, I do. Did you email
all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing
yes i did thank you please proceed and share your screen
so as i said i'm here on behalf of the owner and developer for 1031 germantown avenue
hopefully you're all viewing the screen right now this is a rendering of the project
This address may sound familiar and this project may look very familiar to you.
We are proceeding today with phase two, which we presented to the board in concept back in May when you approved phase one.
So essentially all we're doing is building on additional land adjacent to phase one.
We're building the same project. So phase one stopped right here.
You can see the drive aisle. We still have only one curb cut and one drive aisle, but we're just continuing the row of townhomes down along. This is West Allen Street coming off of Germantown Avenue over by the Piazza and just on the opposite side of Pollard.
There is a church at the end of the block here that is not subject to this application and is not involved in any way as a phase three or anything of the sort.
So, again, just to remind you, here's looking on Pollard Street now.
Again, we're just continuing the row of townhomes down to where the church rectory.
Again, we're just continuing the row of townhomes down to where the Church Rectory building is.
This is the interior courtyard that you previously saw.
So we have that single drive aisle goes down to an underground shared driveway for garage parking for each of the townhomes.
And then there is this publicly accessible and ADA accessible internal sort of garden area and pathway for everyone to utilize.
You can see the same thing at night. And again, here's this is where the project stopped again and you can see where we were going.
So as Miss Emerson already stated, we went before Northern Liberties Neighbors Association even more so than we did before the board in May.
We started working with NLNA on the full project, Phase 1 and Phase 2, well back in the beginning
of 2022 and early spring of 2022.
They fully supported.
We actually had multiple meetings and a number of revisions to Phase 1.
You may recall as I walked through those.
And Phase 2, we basically kept all of the revisions and all of the changes that NLNA
wanted.
so they were very happy to see what was coming before them and fully supported
this project phase two of this project i should say
councilman mark squilla in line with nlna's support did provide a letter of non -opposition
again similarly to the phase one of this project
As Ms. Emerson also referenced, we have about 15 individual property owners. You can see right along West Allen Street immediately across from, so this is previously the site of the Vesper Day Club, the pool, a bit of a problem business for the neighborhood.
We're building the townhomes all along this West Allen frontage.
So we went to each of the homes across the street and made sure that they were in support.
And we did the same thing along Pollard to make sure that they were in support.
So again, what you can see is phase one.
Here was this large triangular piece.
Phase two is these two rectangular pieces fronting on West Allen and this square fronting along Pollard.
So, as you can see, this is just gives you an indication of the extent of the development large development all around us. However, this is almost a an equal blend of single family row homes and large apartment buildings and industrial.
So it's really a mixed use area.
So again, just be clear and what leads to most of the refusals that you'll see before you or if you already looked at them.
Phase one was entirely CMX2.
So it was a commercial.
So we were reviewed under the CMX2 guidelines.
That was approved for 20 townhomes.
We are now adding in phase two here an additional 16 townhomes.
Now, because when we consolidate all of these properties together, phase two, which is all RSA 5, equates to 39 % of the square footage of the total property.
phase one is 61 % rather of the total property. So we generate a number of refusals because now
the same project that was already appropriate and approved for phase one is now re -reviewed
under the RSA 5 standards instead of the CMX 2 standards. Again, just to quickly go through some
site photos. That's the old Vesper Club. You can see some industrial uses over here. Apartments
over retail on the left. Again, you can just, I'll just kind of scroll through these quickly
because I know the board has already seen it and I don't want to belabor any points,
but you can see the large apartment buildings behind us. And as we scroll through, not only
is the piazza there but you'll also see a lot of these are the homes that we went door to door
on pollard and we did the same thing along allen so again you can see this is the piazza neighborhood
over here all this new development going on around us on may 13th this board approved
virtually the same project of townhomes and underground parking.
Now we're proceeding, as we told you we would, with Phase 2. So again, this is just kind of showing you the difference between the RSA 5 and CMX 2 and why we got those refusals.
Now we're proceeding, as we told you we would, with phase two.
So here's the outline in the lighter area. You can see the row homes that we had sketched out with the internal walkway. In the darker areas, you see the continuation of those homes, rows of homes, and a continuation of those internal walkways.
So the interior kind of walkable garden space that's accessible and ADA accessible as well to the public is just continued down each of the paths.
And as are, you'll see underneath the drive aisles.
So this kind of gives you a context.
Again, the darker orange here is the new townhomes we're proposing.
you can see the church sits by itself with its rectory building and its parking lot untouched
again that is there were some questions when we went before cdr that is not a phase three or a
continuation of any kind the approved already approved project of townhomes is the lighter
orange here and then you can see the kind of opaque offerings here are approved but as of yet
unconstructed larger apartment buildings going in in this area. As I said, this project went in
front of CDR also, so we worked closely with the Planning Commission. Again, working with the
Planning Commission began in the beginning of 2022, starting with phase one. We knew that phase
two would be coming. It just couldn't be brought for various reasons at the same time as phase one
because of different ownerships and closing dates.
And so therefore we worked closely in multiple meetings
with the planning commission
and received their approval of phase one.
Again, this shows, this is the underneath drive aisle.
So you can see two car garage parking for each house.
One of the homes has only one,
couple of extra spaces for visitors.
And you can see that the single drive aisle here
down to the subgrade parking area. Hey Sean just so I have my berry set where does this stand with
with the piazza where's the piazza at? Let me see if I can show you so the piazza is right over here
I got it Sean all right literally across the street yeah so we're literally across the street
kind of catty corner from i got it i got it okay thank you um again just a showing of the continuation
of the row homes and uh going into the refusals that we had um again i'm happy to walk through
the refusals if you want these are continuations essentially of phase one but now that we're being
re -reviewed in RSA 5. For instance, multiple principal uses, no more than one principal use
is permitted in RSA 5. It was permitted in CMX 2. So if the board has any questions, I'm happy to
walk through all of those. But I know we've already addressed all of the issues in front of
the board back in May that may come up. And we do have full support from the councilman and LNA.
and we've had prior support from the planning commission and those individual neighbors.
One last piece that came up with the community was asking for a trash plan
and this is just something an exhibit that was provided to NLNA and I told them that I would
show it as a as an exhibit to this board that we do have a plan for the trash to be collected
only down and through the dry uh the underground dry vial and not brought um
not having everybody dump their trash at the frontage um so again i'm happy to
yeah have your owners rep with you you can adopt your testimony yes of course excuse me mr chair
this is hillary i just had one clarifying question on the refusal for mr wayland um of course it
that it notes that there are now a total of six buildings with both phases one and two but phase
one approved three buildings and then this phase two has four buildings is one of the buildings
in phase two attaching to one of the buildings in phase one to have six buildings that they're
referencing their refusal yes it is so so what you what you see here is this is the street frontage
I think this is the most obvious view.
We're attaching, this is where the drive aisle is or the drive, the driveway and curb cut.
We're attaching, this is where the drive aisle is
or the driveway and curb cut.
We're attaching there along West Allen.
And so we have one long set of buildings here or row homes here, one along Germantown, one along Pollard.
And then we have the three separate interior ones.
So you are correct.
We can join two of them.
All right. No, thank you. I thought it was joined at the drive aisle, but I wasn't, I wasn't fully sure. So thank you for clarifying.
Of course.
If, if there are no other questions, I'll have the project architect and my client adopt my testimony.
Certainly.
Jose Hernandez should be on.
He's been allowed to speak, sir.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Jose Hernandez, J -O -S -E -H -E -R -N -A -N -D -E -Z.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
All right.
Mr. Hernandez, you're the project architect for phases one and two of this project, correct?
Correct.
And have you heard all of the testimony that I presented already today?
I have.
All right.
Thank you.
And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information,
and belief?
It is.
all right and would you adopt it as your own i would thank you very much uh chairman if you have
if the board has any questions for mr hernandez i would offer from now questions from the board
no mr chairman we're we're fine sean all right then finally mr bergman i would call
ori feybush as the representative of the owner sure
Mr. Finebush, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Hold on, sir. I'm trying to find him.
I don't see Ori Finebush, but Rebecca Schaefer has her hand raised.
See if he's on her line.
No, I know that...
Forgive me, that is correct.
But yeah, forgive me for that.
I'm sitting at a colleague's computer.
All right.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Of course.
Horry Fybush, E .I .B .U .S .H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth is nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Fybush, you're here on behalf of the owner and developer of the project of Phase 1s and 2.
Yes, that's correct.
Thank you. And have you heard all of the testimony that's already been presented today?
I have.
Thank you. And would you agree with me that it's true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
It is.
Thank you. And would you also adopt that testimony as your own?
Yes, I would.
Thank you very much. And Mr. Chairman, I would offer...
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any further answer mr chair planning commission this is ron bednar city planning
property is indicated for commercial mixed use on the city plan the applicant's hardship is not
supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances that would prevent it from being
used conforming with the code the proposal does not represent minimum variance therefore we
recommended request advance not be granted. Thank you. Mr. Whalen, you want to respond?
Yes, I certainly would like to. Thank you. So we addressed in phase one, and actually I
ironically have it up here, NLNA and the Planning Commission both wanted some commercial space,
but they recognized that a large CMX2 appropriate development here would not be appropriate or
contextual. And so what you see here at this corner, this is the corner of Germantown and
Pollard. Immediately, this is the catty corner angle to the piazza. This lower level, this first
floor, was significantly redesigned at the behest of an LNA and in working with the Planning
Commission in order to turn this into a commercial space to have a true public aspect here with a
commercial walk -up facility at this location. That satisfied NLNA and the Planning Commission
during phase one's approval that they wanted the commercial space. The project as you see it today,
phase two is actually entirely on RSA five.
is actually entirely on RSA -5 property, and so would be appropriate for RSA -5 single -family
development without any commercial space being contextual. And the consolidation of
all of that RSA 5 into this CMX 2 atmosphere actually makes the RSA 5 controlling zoning.
And we believe that the project as presented, again, both fully supported by NLNA, the community,
the immediate neighbors, and the councilman would be the best use of this property with a full
first floor commercial space and lots of apartments going up, just like all of the other
large apartment scales around us, we're not desired by the neighborhood, and we don't think
appropriate to kind of buffer the scale that's being developed with those close individual homes.
Okay. Ron, thanks for your input, and Sean, thanks for your response.
MI 2022 -004 -921 -1031, Germantown Avenue.
I vote yes.
Thomas Hollowan, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Sean.
All right.
Thank you very much, board members.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Number nine.
MI 2022 005865 113 West Cheston Hill Avenue. Justin Crick is the attorney.
We have RCO letter yet? Hillary? No, Mr. Chair, we have not received an RCO letter.
Thank you.
Well, we do have an applicant provided six foreign letters of support,
non -opposition signed by neighbors.
Good afternoon, members of the board.
Counsel, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court report?
Justin Crick, K -R -I -K.
First name J -U -S -T -I -N.
Address is 1500 JFK Boulevard, Suite 630 -19102.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in the relationship to the property?
Yes, I'm here on behalf of Dan and Katrina Spillane.
They are the record owners of the property.
And Mr. Heilman has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing
yes thank you please proceed and share your screen all right thank you
members of the board we're here today on an application for the property at 113
west chestnut hill avenue the applicants dan and katrina spillane are the homeowners
and they are seeking to erect a private residence garage at the rear of the existing part of their property next to their primary residence house.
The private residence garage will contain three off -street parking spaces, and I'll go over the plans momentarily.
The original proposal for this came with a refusal simply for height variance.
The allowed height of the private residence garage is 15 feet.
The proposed height originally was 20 feet, two and three quarter inches.
After what I will describe in more detail later, after some discussion with neighborhoods and near neighbors,
the proviso plans have been submitted with the appropriate form seeking to increase the side yard from three feet to 10 feet setback,
which was unrelated to and did not change any refusals, but it was an accommodation, and I'll explain further as you see plans.
However, we did increase the proposed height as well by two additional feet.
This increase in height in the proviso plan does not change the number of refusals and is still in line with the same refusal, even though it is slightly higher.
But for the reasons that will be indicated and the consensus that was reached, that is one of the modifications made to the plans.
as as indicated this is the addition of the original refusal with the original proposal
we are just now two feet higher for geographic purposes the property is located along west
chestnut hill avenue and is better viewed on this slide as a very large flag lot in the area
viewed on this slide as a very large flag lot in the area. And it is situated next to
two properties, 115 and 117 West Chestnut Hill Avenue, which was at one time one property with
the rear structure, a carriage house, very close within two to six feet at varying lengths of the
property line and had been subdivided to leave two properties there. The location of the attached
or the, I'm sorry, the accessory garage has been proposed in this area. And originally,
as plans will show, it was a little bit closer to this property line within the appropriate
setback limits, but still with a refusal for height. From a satellite imagery standpoint,
you can see the proximity of the houses together and an overall layout of where things stand.
And so the original, let me just show you some pictures as well.
The structure, this is the Spillane's property from the garage.
This side is the far side from the street of their property.
This represents that this is the home of the 117 parcel owner.
And this is the home of the 115 West Chestnut Hill parcel owner.
The garage was set to go closer to this fence line and in this area,
but has been moved 10 feet closer or seven feet closer from its original proposed to a 10 -foot setback off this rear property line closer to the driveway area, which will also get some improvement.
This is a view of the property from the street, and the structure will sit generally in this position as viewed from the street.
A little bit closer of the view there.
And the original plan, for reference purposes, had the proposed garage at a three -foot setback, again, which was not a refusal, but still was addressed in neighborhood discussions.
The original plan provided for a structure that was essentially 19 feet in height at the rear point.
And my understanding is that the height of this structure without the dormer would have been a by right structure, but the addition of the dormer created the need for a different average height on the property, creating the refusal.
So, just again for reference, since this plan has been revised slightly, the original plan provided for this garage, and as you'll see in later photos, the increase in height that was agreed to allows for additional height on the first and second floors to allow for a little bit more reasonable comfort in the location.
The plan proviso, as indicated, was just an increase from side yard setback, but not something necessarily with respect to any refusals and still falls within the by right setbacks.
In fact, the 10 foot setback is actually more akin to what would happen and what would be required if the Spillanes ended up providing any sort of connection, which they would have been able to do as well.
Then this setback would have been allowable by right with a larger structure in the garage.
Um, so this is the proviso plan, uh, after meeting with, uh, the RCOs and other organizations in the area, as well as subcommittees of the RCO, um, and several negotiations and discussions, um, for, you know, with, with near neighbors, the, uh, owner of 117 and the owner of 115.
we believe we have a consensus and an agreement to allow for this structure to be built with a 10
foot setback the increase in height to a 22 feet two inch two and three quarter inch height
in this in this location as proposed the revised renderings do show the increase in height
and also as you can see this additional stone area above the garage doors and a little bit
more height and the ceiling on the second floor allow for just a better better use of the garage
better use of duct work and other systems that are going to go into the space and a little bit
more viable use on the second floor the i can skip ahead here we we located where the property would
be or where roughly this location would sit in relation to the two structures so this is with a
10 -foot setback and an aerial view of it. We did receive a lot of support, near -neighbor support and
so forth, to the original plan, and we do believe it carried over to the revised plan because we
actually moved the setback further. Some of the greater concerns were that proximity to the near
neighbor. We also have evidence of hacks.
We also have evidence of tax clearance. It did not come through as clearly, but it came through.
We did not get the opportunity to review a certificate, but the real estate taxes, if any, that are due are for 2023 and are not yet due.
We have photos of the posting and copies of the letters that were sent to all the neighbors.
We did, in fact, receive letters from the Chestnut Hill Community Association recently that indicates that they do support the project at this time.
This is a copy of the letter dated January 8th with the following provisos.
They approve of this with the side yard setback and the additional two feet in height.
the existing historic garage that is located on the property, which I can go back to, but it is
in generally, it is not to be impacted by this. This is one of the provisos of the conservancy as
well. So no change to that historic garage that is situated further back on the property.
There will be no rental or commercial use of this area other than maybe as a home office,
a spare gym, and so forth for the homeowners. They will continue to use the materials that
were specified in the meetings to keep in character with the neighborhood. The applicants
have agreed to include a stormwater management or drainage runoff measures, including a dispersion
to the latter and rear part of their property, and that they will install some form of landscaping
within that 10 -foot setback to just help with the impact of the structure where it's at.
The Chestnut Hill Conservancy, a separate RCO but also involved in the area, did send a letter of
opposition but for the fact that they have agreed as long as we provide that 10 -foot setback
and we do not impact the historic garage in any way. Just to give you a little bit of a clearer
picture of where that garage is. It is located much to the rear of the property. There will be
a better drive aisle put back to there, but nothing will happen to this existing remaining
structure. So members of the board, we believe that a literal enforcement of the height issue
here, where the structure is now situated close enough to the house that if it were connected by
even a breezeway or so, it would be subject only to height restrictions of the existing family
dwelling, higher than this, and that also the idea of giving it that additional height and
breadth and design adds to the character of the building and the feel of the neighborhood.
Again, we went through some very meaningful discussions with these near neighbors to work
out something that was feasible to everybody, understanding that by right left us with
different options.
But we're here today asking for the support to move forward with this variance.
I have Dan Spillane available to adopt my testimony, if that is okay, or if there's any questions from the board at this time.
Why don't we adopt your testimony?
All right, Mr. Spillane, if you could raise your hand.
I'm about to speak.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Good afternoon. This is Daniel Spillane. The last name is spelled S -P -I -L -L -A -N -E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed to counsel.
Yes, thank you. Mr. Spillane, did you have an opportunity to hear my testimony to the board today?
Yes, I did.
And was that testimony true and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief?
Yes, it was.
And would you adopt that testimony as if it was your own?
yes I would thank you any questions for the owners
um Hillary question for you in in that letter what's enforceable
um so I literally just got the letter forwarded to me um give me one second Mr. Chair
all right I'll go to the board first then questions from the board no Mr. Chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
sir i have miss celeste hardister with her hand raised i will know to speak at this time
okay hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter i'm celeste hardister
c -e -l -e -s -t -e hardister h -a -r -d -e -s -t -e -r and i represent the chestnut hill community association
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do indeed.
Proceed.
Thank you. I just wanted to confirm that our RCO did submit the letter to the ZBA, absent copying Hillary Emerson, whom I have now just sent it to as well.
Thank you.
I just wanted to confirm that our RCO did submit the letter.
Okay, thank you.
Yep, and thank you.
All right, I appreciate it. Thank you very much for calling in. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, sir. Mr. Charles Richardson, I've allowed him to speak at this time.
Hi, Mr. Richardson. You've already been sworn, sir. Just state your name.
Charles Richardson, the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass Room, 508 City Hall.
I had one question. Could you ask, Justin, do the owners agree with the provisos that were submitted to the board?
Yes, the owners have agreed to all of the provisos submitted.
okay as such the councilwoman has no objection to granting the variance thank you very much for
calling it mr chair so this is hillary i look so i looked at the provisos the the first two are
addressed in the revised plans um the third one the historic garage um it's not part of the the
project okay um number four where it discusses um rental or commercial uses that would require
separate use permits and most likely separate variances the only um the only thing that may
change would the only use um that would kind of fall outside of that would be a limited lodging
use so there could be a proviso to prohibit limited lodging if that was a concern from the
community um and the other things i believe are um beyond the scope of um provisors for the board
all right thank you planning commission this is uh ron bednar city planning property is indicated
for residential in the city plan given the typical surrounding design context we recommend
thank you mi2022 -005 -865 -113 west chestnut hill i vote yes proviso revised plans two pages
Just stand by ZBA, January 11th, 2022.
No limited lodging.
Thomas Holloman.
Okay, Justin.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you very much.
Okay, thank you.
um number 11
mi 2022 004 952 1250 north 18th street
alan knockamson is the attorney
support from the united neighbors alliance civic association
it's been promoted to panelists and we'll rejoin shortly sir
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Alan Nockmson of Nockmson PC.
You've already been sworn.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes, it's SJC, Real Estate LLC.
And then the virtual audience is Shati Cooks, its principal member.
Mr. Holloman has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
I agree.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
So 1250 North 18th Street, this board actually heard this presentation for all intents and purposes earlier last year, in which the board granted the variance for the use.
The reason why we're here is that my client wanted to extend the third floor of the building structure, and because we're technically increasing the variance by way of that extension of the building structure on the third floor, we have to go through this whole process again.
So you'll see the notice of refusal, the letter of support from the United Neighbors Alliance Civic Association, the zoning permit that was previously granted for the variance that was approved by the zoning board, our previous floor plans, and you'll see the difference between what we previously presented.
our previous floor plans and you'll see the difference between what we previously presented
in front of the board which was approved and what's going on today and to show it's not uncommon
what the board granted last year and what they would have to grant this year for the ability
addition on the third floor there's nearby recently granted multi -family variances
regarding properties nearby we'll go over maps of the area photographs of the property our plans
and drawings our rco meeting notice which we had a community meeting that was well attended
and the individuals that in that meeting voted overwhelmingly in support of our project
our application for appeal that was filed by sjc real estate llc our deed to the property showing
that sjc real estate llc is the owner of the property our certificate of tax clearance and
then in the virtual audience again we have shati cook so at the conclusion of my presentation
I would ask that Mr. Cook virtually raise his hand, you know, be sworn in and adopt my testimony as his own.
Again, this is a RSA 5 property, and all we're looking to do is an addition on the third floor.
And you'll see that this is basically the same presentation we had last time.
It's just that the addition on the third floor last time was three quarters of the third floor.
This time, when we eliminated a roof deck access structure, which was asked of us by the zoning board as a way of a proviso, what we should have done is then indicate to the board that we would like to extend the building structure all the way from the third floor, just like it is on the first and second floors.
floors. And if we did that in April of last year, we wouldn't need the second zoning appeal. But we
do because my client, when they tried to do this at the building permit stage, was told that we
needed to go through this process. And then so just like last time, we met in front of the community
and the community here overwhelmingly supports this project, just like last time. And, you know,
Again, this is just a zoning permit. As you can see, we had a proviso, no roof decks. So it was really like a roof deck on the roof of the second floor. There was a spiral staircase to go to a roof deck on the third floor. We agreed last time to eliminate that roof deck.
The community did not want a roof deck, but instead of just extending the building structure all the way back, we kept the building structure where it was proposed on the third floor addition and the board approved it.
But now we want to extend that all the way to the rear of the building structure.
So this is our floor plans last time.
As you can see, this is an existing three story structure goes all the way back on the first floor, all the way back on the second floor.
It only went halfway across on the third floor of the building structure, but we extended it out probably, if you say this is a third, we extended it to the third.
The other third was, under the original plans, was a roof deck on the roof of the third, of the second story, which would be a roof deck for the benefit of the third story, and then it was a spiral staircase to go up to a roof deck on, you know, the roof.
But, you know, we agreed by way of proviso to eliminate this spiral staircase.
So all we're trying to do is fill in this additional portion of where the roof deck was for additional interior living space.
So it's not uncommon. Just again, this technically is a use refusal because this is an RSA 5 property and we're looking to do as a duplex.
this board has agreed that this should be a duplex. But again, you can see there's a whole
multitude of properties nearby under similar circumstances. The board has agreed that these
RSA5 properties should be multifamily in nature. And then just showing where we are in the
neighborhood. We're in the Kabat section of Philadelphia, which is not too far off of
Gerard Avenue on 18th Street. And then this is a Google Map perspective as well.
And then photographs of the property, again, is an existing three -story structure in the front.
We're just trying to cap it off in the back on that third story. And then you can just see,
again, there are orange -nosed posters, so we properly posted the property. And just so you
understand, one of the properties which did receive a variance over the past few years is
the property next door to us at 1248 North 18th Street. And then this is North 18th Street to the
right of the property, North 18th Street to the left of the property. And then here are our plans
and drawings. Again, all we're doing is from here, this perspective is capping it off so that the
third story is in line with the first and second stories. And then you can see the new addition.
And then you can see the new addition. I mean, the proposed addition, the first time we did this was basically half of this addition, where if you consider in thirds, again, existing structure, proposed addition first time, and then another third of this is the proposed addition the second time.
I mean, the proposed addition, the first time we did this,
And then again, we're just cleaning up the building facade. I believe it was a stucco facade. We're going to take down the stucco and hopefully reinvigorate it with the brick that's behind there.
And then these are just the floor plans, two bi -level units, first floor and lower level for one unit, and then the second floor and third floor for another unit.
and then the rco meeting notice we had our meeting november 9th 151 addresses were notified
these are the addresses proof of mailing to those addresses application for appeal showing sjc real
estate llc is the owner of the property our notice refusal or project information form
our deed to property showing that sjc real estate is the owner of the property
and our certificate of tax clearance the only balance we have and there is a balance of 26 76
42 is because that's for real estate taxes for 2023 and those are not due until uh march 31st
of 2023 with that being said i'm going to unshare my screen i would ask that mr cooks
virtually raise his hand
Mr. Cook, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Hold on, sir. His hand is not raised. Mr. Cooks, if you're still in the virtual audience,
please raise your hand. Okay. He has been allowed to speak, sir. Okay.
Hi. State your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter.
Got T. Cooks. S -H -A -T -E -E. Cooks. C -O -O -K -S. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Proceed, counsel.
Excuse me. Mr. Cooks, you heard everything I had to say about your zoning matter.
Yes, sir. And it's a term, correct? Yes, sir. And do you adopt it as your own testimony? Yes, sir.
Thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman.
No, no, Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
To no further hand. My planning commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning. Properties indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted district plan recommends no change to existing residential single -family zoning. Multifamily uses here is not in character with the block. The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances that would prevent it from being used in conforming with the code. Therefore, we recommend the request for vans not be granted.
Okay, thank you. MI 2022 -004 -952 -1250 North 18th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you. Thank you, Counselor.
Thank you. Have a great day.
All right. MI -2022 -004 -927 -1520 -22 Arridge Street. Brandon Savron is the attorney.
Letter of support from Frankfort Neighborhood Advisory Council. Letter of non -opposition from Council Member Lozada.
He's rejoining as a panelist, sir.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Hi, counsel. How are you? Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes. Brandon Saverin, spelled S as in Sam, A, B as in Victor, R -A -N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Do you identify your client and their relationship to the property?
My client is ASV Properties, LLC. They are the owner of the property.
Okay. And Mr. Hallman has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Good afternoon, members of the board. I haven't been here in a while, so I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Good to be back.
I hope on my screen you can see the refusal for this case. This case concerns the legalization
I hope on my screen you can see the refusal for this case.
of an existing building. So there is no construction proposed by this application.
The refusal here is because the uses that were last in the building and that we're proposing
to reactivate are not permitted in this zoning district, which is RSA 3. So really, there's
technically three different refusals, but they all really say the same thing. What was last in
the building was a restaurant on the first floor and four apartments across the second and third
floors, so four apartments total. My client purchased this property, I believe, in early 2020
after a prior owner, who perhaps was not really up to snuff in terms of the maintenance of the
property, chose to help get out of some L &I violations by pulling a vacant structure license.
So my client came in and is attempting to, you know, get users back into the building.
And it needs to be re -permitted because that vacant structure license wipes away all prior permits, including zoning permits.
What I can tell you, and I'll show you in a moment, is essentially that the hardship here is that putting the building into really any other use than these uses, including single family home use, which is what the zoning code would require,
would be a tremendous expense. This is a unique property because you have two buildings that
still are separated by a firewall upstairs, but downstairs that wall is breached to create a
restaurant. So it's sort of a very unique structural situation and tinkering with it
would be a major undertaking that we're hoping to avoid. And that's why we're here today.
So let me show you some images of the area.
This is the zoning map.
So I'm going to try and adjust my screen here.
The property is on the corner of Aritt and Griscom streets.
And this here is the Aritt terminal, the station on the Market, Frankford Ale.
So we're one block off of that.
And as you can see, most of the properties in the vicinity are zoned CMX2.
In fact, we're here just beyond that in the beginning of this RSA3 zone.
But across the street, across Aritz Street here, is a sort of similar situation to what we're seeking to have.
It's an apartment above a dry cleaner.
And I'll show you an aerial photograph.
Thankfully, there has been a new potential tenant, a restaurant that has approached my client and expressed interest in, you know, taking space in that old restaurant space on our first floor.
And this is a PPA municipal parking lot open to the public right across the street from us.
So people who want to eat at the restaurant can park there, which is a wonderful thing.
Let me show you our letter of support from the RCO. The coordinating RCO is the Frankfurt
Neighborhood Advisory Committee. They chose to support the application after we had a meeting
that I attended with the client's representative, and I think there were about a half dozen folks
outside of the rep and myself who were in attendance.
To give you a little history of the property,
this is a zoning permit from 1962
that establishes, we believe,
the first record of the uses in the property
that have been there since
and that we're seeking to re -legalize.
So that is that there was a puncture
between 1520 and 1522 to make the one building on the first floor. That was, I think, what was
called here a bar lounge. And then there were apartments upstairs. This was filled out by the
applicant and is honestly a little hard to make sense of. Although if you read through it, I think
you'd come to the conclusion that it was a restaurant and four apartments. What's helpful
here is that there's an index card written by Ellen Dye that summarizes the permit. And it says
there bar dancing 1520 half of the building two families 1522 half of the building two families
1522 half of the building, two families. So that's where you get our total of four apartments that
so that's that's where you get our total
are still present. There is also a city survey that was in the zoning archive from 1945 that
just illustrates how this used to be considered two separate properties prior to the 60s. And
again, they were joined at the first level. Now they still today maintain two separate entrances
for the two apartments on this side
and the two apartments on this side
with the firewall in between,
which is a little bizarre,
but probably enhances the safety of the building
because it'd be very difficult for one fire
to affect both halves.
I think that beyond that,
I'm just going to show you some interior photographs.
This is a floor plan that my client had prepared.
It's a little hard to make sense of
because it uses text labels.
It's not graphical.
but here are some photos. So this is the property. Again, you know, we really need permits prior to
doing substantial renovation. So it looks a little drab, but this is sort of what we inherited.
This is where the restaurant space is. And there is sort of the perception that this used to be a
nuisance bar. This is going to be a sit down restaurant. We did not apply for, you know,
like a lounge or anything like that. And the RCO sort of heard us out,
actually got to speak to, I believe the proposed operator and is behind us.
This is sort of one half of the building. This is the other,
these are the apartments upstairs.
You can see how each half has the separate door I mentioned, but there,
this is all believe it or not connected on the bottom.
The restaurant occupies this whole space.
And then these are photos of the apartments,
which my client did make sort of cosmetic upgrades to already. Apologies, I don't have
these labeled, but you can see that these apartments are really ready to go. And it's a shame that we
can't have folks in there, but we will be able to have folks living there after we get this zoning
variance and then the CO and licenses that we'll need. That is my case. I have Carlos Giraldo
is the representative from the owner
if he's available to adopt my testimony.
All right, could you state your name, please,
and spell for the court reporter?
Good afternoon.
My name is Carlos Giraldo.
Carlos spells C -A -R -L -O -S,
Giraldo, G -I -R -A -L -D -O.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Carlos, did you hear the full extent of my testimony this afternoon?
I have.
And was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
It is.
And would you therefore adopt that testimony as if it were your own?
I do adopt the testimony as if it was my own.
And are you authorized to speak on behalf of ASV Properties, LLC?
Thank you.
My question is from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
By Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
While this property is currently indicated for residential on a city plan,
given the physical condition of the site and its documented use history,
recommend the request of answer to be granted.
Thank you.
MI 2022 -004 -927 -1520 -22 Arridge Street.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 2 p .m. case has not been called?
all right is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called
I'm sorry sir
I do not see any further hands at this
Okay we're going to take a five minute
Break and we'll come back and we only
Have a few cases to do on the
3 .30 list okay so five minutes
We're back and Mr. Kelly you get set
For the 3 .30
Thank you chair
All right
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello?
Hello?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes, Chair.
How are we looking?
Mr. Kelly, are you back?
Yes, I am. Thank you.
Okay, everybody's here, Chair, and we are recording.
Okay, thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the 3 .30 meeting for the ZBA hearings.
With me is Ishmael Shahid, our Board Secretary.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
He's here.
James Snell, our board member.
Present Mr. Chairman.
Also with us is our board attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our ZBA hearing supervisor, Lakeisha Dandy.
Be advised, these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, your knowledge agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting the Board Administrator, Tanya Sunkett, at tanyasunkett at phil .gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating in my phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267 -270 -55488.
Leave your email address and address the property.
Lastly, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
The question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony. Any comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sumter.
So let's look at our continuances for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2022, 004 -549 -341 East Haynes Street. That case is continued.
And number four, MI -2022 -004 -546 -3251 Fox Street, that case is continued.
Both those cases are continued.
Does anyone have any comments relative to those cases?
Mr. Chair, I see Mr. Steve Portillo's hand raised.
I've allowed him to speak at this time.
Hi, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court reporter?
Hello?
Hello, Mr. Bertil.
Hello, can you hear me?
Mr. Bertil?
Yes. Hello, Mr. Chair.
All right. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes. Steve Bertil, B -E -R -T -I -L, counsel for the applicant.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
So you had case number one, 341 East Haynes Street?
Yes, I'm sure that's correct.
You want a continuance for that, right?
Yes. I just want to provide brief context and specify the request of the applicant.
As you stated, the property is 341 East Haynes Street. We did have a community meeting last week with the Faith Community CDC, which is the registered coordinating RCO for this property.
attendance. We're having a subsequent meeting on February 28th due to the lack of attendance of
the meeting that took place last week. As such, we are requesting, if possible, for this application
to be placed on the March 8th hearing list due to unique circumstances with the property. The
property was previously deemed eminently dangerous and unsafe by L &I. We have since obtained, or the
applicant has since obtained, makes safe permits to shore up the property as much as possible,
but the property's structural components are still exposed to the elements. And as we are,
you know, going into winter, or is in winter, we're concerned that the efforts would be
uh undermined so why don't you do this why don't you call the office and and um we'll
we'll get you in as soon as we can okay okay thank you very much mr chair and thank you for
calling in i appreciate the background no problem at all thank you very much
is there any other requests for continuances
i'm sorry mr chris o 'brien has their hand raised i have allowed him to speak at this time
Sure. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Chris O 'Brien. I'm the homeowner of 3612 West Crown
Avenue. Okay. Hold on. Yes, sir. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? Yes, sir, I do. And what case is this, sir?
Uh, it is in regards to, uh, 2022 -004 -548.
What, what, what location do you remember?
3612 West Crown Avenue.
Okay. All right. I see. Yes. So I'm going to get to that case. Uh, um, there's no exhibits. This
is the first listing. Do you want a continuance? I do request a continuance. We were not able to
get all of our paperwork. Okay, so MI 2022 004 -548 -3612 West Crown Avenue. That case is
continued. If you have any problem, call the office and it will help you on what you need
to have for the meeting, okay? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any other
request for continuance i do not see any further hints mr chair okay so i have a few other cases
that have no exhibits number two mi 2022 004 535 2412 north fair hill street dean's properties
north fairhill street dean's properties management this is no exhibits first listing
management, this is no
no hands have been raised for that okay so that case mi 2022 004
535 2412 north fairhill street first listing that case is continued
In case number five, MI -2022 -001 -270 -7448 -Lime Kiln Pike, Hanif Martin, no exhibits, first listing.
um hello again mr chair i do not see mr martin in the virtual audience okay
all right so mi 2022 001 270 74 48 lime kill pike first listing i'm sorry second listing
this case is continued mark must be tried
okay we're going to go to our regular list number three mi 2022 006 123 1643 north
marcel street yolen yolen arnett is the owner um we have this this came through council person
clark's office they are not taking a position but there was a petition of approximately 83
neighbors submitted to the council person's office and we have an rco summary from the
council person's office but the council person is not taking a position
hi yes hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter yes my name is
Yolan Arnett y -o -l -a -n -a -r -n -e -t -t great do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes this application is for visitor accommodations in an existing structure
The proposed visitor accommodation is prohibited in the CMX 2 .5 zoning district.
Mr. Holman, one of our board members, we'll have a few questions for you.
This counselor, are you a counselor, your attorney?
No, she's pro -secondary.
Okay, okay, I'm sorry.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required?
Yes, I did.
Five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Thank you.
please proceed and share your screen okay thank you all for your time today um this is the property
1643 north marshall street um i am requesting variants for the zoning of my building in order
to appropriately have the appropriate rental license with the hotel classification in order
to continue conducting Airbnb out of my building, my multifamily building.
This is what the inside of the building looks like as designed for short -term rental accommodations.
These are the three units of the building.
This is the original application for appeal for change of use submitted on October 13th,
where I explained that nothing about the structure of the property will be changed.
It's more of a formality for the change of use in order to get the appropriate rental license
to continue the business in compliance with what is necessary.
Here is the original project information form also submitted on October 13th.
And as requested, the approval or the certificate of tax clearance proving that I'm up to date with my tax payments for the property, as well as the initial notice of refusal due to visitor accommodations not being allowed in this zoning.
Here is a petition of 83, a petition of support for the use of my building for Airbnb short -term
rentals from 88 of my neighbors. This is all of their signatures, names, and their associated
addresses in the neighborhood, as well as my current activity license, which is classified
as commercial activity um this is just a sheet indicating the rules that we um ask our guests to
Indicating the rules that we ask our guests to abide by, which all are in compliance with the Philadelphia regulations, as well as even more strict rules to maintain the respect by our guests of our space and also the surrounding community.
abide by.
as well as the deed proving my ownership of this building. I purchased this building in 2021 from
ASU Properties to myself as a single woman. And then as requested by the court, just proof that
I had after the community meeting, I had noticed on the front of my property about today's hearing
taken at least 21 days prior to the hearing.
how many units do you have there are three units building okay and you want to have a
license for the whole building yes okay um questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
do not see any hands mr chair thank you planning commission this is ron bedman our city planning
property is indicated for residential use on the city plan recommends no change to the existing
single family zoning at this location the applicant's hardship is not supported with
evidence of the fiscal circumstances or condition of the property that would prevent it from being
used in conformity with the code therefore we recommend the request for variance not be granted
thank you MI 2022 006 123 1643 North Marshall Street I vote yes for a temporary variance
that will expire 115 2026 Thomas Holliman my vote is yes with proviso
James Snell my vote is yes with Proviso. Ishmael Shaheed my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you. Thank you. Let's see number number seven
MI -2022 -001 -124 -900 -08 -WEST -TIOGA -STREET.
Eli Gabay is the attorney.
Letter of support from Nicetown Tioga Improvement Team.
mr lionel autumn ginsburg had his hand raised okay the case i promoted him to panelists at
this time jason is he there
yes he's been promoted to our panelists okay thank you uh good afternoon uh uh chair this
is lionel artem ginsburg i'm substituting for ellie dubai in the uh hearing today uh okay
i'm going to do my properties all right could you do me a favor could you please spell your
name for the court reporter of course uh l -i -o -n -e -l last name a -r -t -o -m as in mary
hyphen g -i -n -z as in zebra b -u -r -g right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Okay. Could you identify your client
and the relationship to this property? My client is DY Properties LLC, which is the owner of the
lot. And I have here next to me, Yossi Meyer, who is the owner of DY Properties.
Okay. All right. Well, we're going to take testimony from you. Okay. First. Okay. Mr.
hallman one of our board members has a few questions good afternoon counsel do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy i do did you email all of the
exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing i did thank you
Please proceed and share your screen.
Good afternoon to the board.
This relates to a recycling center on Tioga Street that was given a five -year provisional zoning permit on February 7, 2017.
uh delays have have brought us to the to this point uh the the zoning has has expired on it
uh delays have have brought us to the to this point
uh i have here a tax clearance showing that dy properties llc
uh has a tax clearance and that they are the owner of the property
moment let me share that screen could you show us the tax clearance i don't see it
okay one one moment here we are here's the here is the tax clearance date of january 4th
um i don't see it you're you're you you have a zoning board of adjustment notice re -decision
up okay all right hold on a second let me switch back into this window and
share new share here we go here is the tax clearance i'm sorry here is the tax clearance okay
uh i have here the proof of ownership of the property
which is here, was purchased at sheriff's sale in 2012. I'm told it was in an absolutely
atrocious condition when it was taken. Mr. Meyer has told me that actually he unfortunately found
several overdose deceased individuals on the lot when he was clearing the lot back in 2012.
This is a recycling yard. They take in metal. They package it up. They sort it. They send it out.
The smelting is not done on site. He tells me that he has not had a complaint in the five years.
i can verify that the licenses and inspections has not given him a violation in five years
uh and essentially he just wants to continue doing what he's what he's doing already to extend
for to extend his provisional his zoning not he tells me nine years this is his second this would
be his second extension so so there was a five -year exception right but that was never picked up for
a permit uh i'm i'm gathering by the date that this permit was applied for that he applied before
the previous one expired but for whatever reason it's only coming up now right so he he right now
he's in a three -year temporary special exception five year fire but the five years up five years
okay good all right um you went to the to the rco yes hold on a second i will show you the rco
letter unfortunately they were not able to uh have a quorum at the rco meeting however they did
tentatively approve it.
Is that
showing up on the screen?
Yeah, I see it.
Let's have your testimony adopted.
all right i'd like to call my uh client mr yossi meyer hi could you state your name and
spell it please for the court reporter yosef mayor spell it my last name is m -e -i -r
yossi my first name y -o -s -e -f right and you're the owner of white properties yes
do you swear wait a minute do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
Mr. Meyer, are you the owner of DY Properties, LLC?
And you own the lot?
And do you adopt as true of all of what I just started?
Correct.
I would open the floor to any questions of Mr. Meyer?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Meyer.
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission ron bednar city planning
property is indicated for uh industrial like industrial um use on that city
like industrial um use on that city plan
go ahead ryan somebody okay the uh properties indicated currently indicated for industrial on
the city plan proposed use will have no more of an impact than would be expected to have
given its location therefore we recommend the special exception be granted all right mi 2022
001 -124 -900 -08
West Tioga Street. I vote yes
with a temporary variance to
115 -25.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. 115 -26.
I'm sorry.
proviso. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes, with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, counsel. Is there anyone on the 330 list whose case has not been called?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Okay. Thanks, everybody.
Good day's work.
Thank you.
Take care, Mr. Chairman. See you, everybody.
Good job, everyone.
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