Thank you. And, Lakeisha, we're ready, correct?
No, we're going to have to wait three minutes.
That's right. Sorry, I got ahead of myself again.
Yeah, I do.
Sorry, Lakeisha.
You're fine.
Thank you.
like you can start, Chair. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Frank DiCicco. I'm the Chair
of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. I'll be participating in today's hearing along with
our Vice Chair, Ms. Carol Tenere, Board Secretary, Confessor Plaza, and Board Members, Mr. Thomas
Holloman and Mr. James Snell. Board Administrator, Lakeisha Dandy, and Board Attorney, Ms. Sharon
Saleta, are also in attendance. For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual
hearings, I'll go through some of the basics of what you can expect. First, we will be administering
oaths to individual participants prior to their testimony. Second, we'd like to advise everyone
that this proceeding is being recorded, and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement
to be recorded, and that the recording will be available to the public on the web or otherwise.
Third, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star 9 and then star 6 to unmute yourself.
I'll repeat, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star 9 and then star 6 to unmute yourself.
Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
I will repeat, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
And I would also like to remind everyone, please do not attempt to testify in the chat.
Any comments should be directed to our board administrator, Ms. Lakeisha Dandy.
With that, I will read off a list of requests for continuances or withdrawals on the 930 list.
Case number one, MI 2020-003074.
1200 Intrepid Avenue is being withdrawn.
Number eight on our list, MI 2020-0030455513 Pemberton Street is continued. MI 2020-003043
5423 Larchwood Avenue is being continued. If anyone disagrees with those cases that either
been withdrawn or continued uh in error please raise your hand at this time only if you disagree
with the cases that have just been read to be continued or withdrawn raise your hand at this
time we have no handshare thank you is there anyone who would like to request a withdrawal
or continuance for the 9 30 hearing list if so please raise your hand at this time
we have mr sloan folks you mr folks good morning good morning chairman de chico and the zba board
my name is sloan folks s-l-o-a-n-e f as in fire o-l-k-s office of councilman maria quiona
sanchez from 508 city hall you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but
the truth? I do, sir. Thank you. Please proceed. I would like to request continuance on case number
seven, MI-2020-001263, 3901 North Reese Street. As of this morning, we still have no record of
um as of uh this morning we still have no record of there being a meeting with the uh
there being a meeting with the
our coordinating rco um okay let me check sharon we have no exhibits no exhibits and this is the
second listing okay uh mi2020-001263-3901 north reese street my vote is to dismiss dismiss
Dismissed.
Dismissed.
Dismissed.
Dismissed.
Dismissed.
Hey, Mr. Folks.
Thank you, Chairman Chico.
Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals on the 930 list?
Please raise your hand.
We have Ms. Hillary.
Ms. Hillary, you can unmute yourself.
Good morning, Ms. Emerson.
Please identify yourself and I'll square you in.
good morning mr chair um members of the board hillary emerson on behalf of councilwoman cheryl
parker another witness i'll swear i'll tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do um i'm here on number 10 on the list 71 35 rising sun avenue um i i attempted
to reach out to the applicant that heard from her early on um and case was continued back in
december and then there were a couple of uh permits by right permits issued for the property
in her name so i wasn't sure if she was still continuing with her request for the zoning
um hearing or not but i have not heard back from her and i just wanted to see if
she was on on the rco meeting has not occurred to my knowledge
did we get any exhibits no exhibits no exhibits it's previously been listed
yes mi 2020 that's zero zero one nine four four seven one three five rising sun avenue my vote
is to dismiss dismiss dismiss dismiss dismiss i'm sorry can we just make sure that that person
it's not here oh sorry about it is there anyone here anyone here for seven three seven one three
five rising sun avenue thank you time
mr daniel are you here for that case
no i'm not
okay no hands all right thank you anyone again if there's anyone who's requesting a continuance
or withdrawal for the 9 30 list please raise your hand thank you mr chair
mr daniel can i mute yourself and speak to a continuance
good morning sir please identify yourself for the record first last name and spell your last name
Daniel P. McElhatton, MC, capital E-L-H-A-T-T-O-N.
I'm an attorney, 2000 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.
And you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
I do, sir.
Thank you, Dan. Please proceed.
I submitted to the council and to the administrator an email yesterday.
My client, who is a protestant, this is on 428 West Thompson Street.
it's at the end of today's 9 30 list we've had two extensive hearings on it um the end of last
week my client received an email from the owner of the property uh indicating they were going to
proceed by right and that they didn't want to put along the process i'm just trying to excuse me
i'm sorry can i just ask that you call um leo mulvihill attorney leo mulvihill
and promote him as well i believe um he may have a response to that mr mulvihill are you available
i am all right please identify yourself i'll swear you win certainly this is leo mulvihill
amazon michael ul v as in victor i h i l l address one four four one east oxford o x
f as in frank o-r-d street philadelphia 19125 thank you swear in the front it's all the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth thank you thank you please proceed good morning members of
the board mr mackleheadon's representation is correct i've had extensive discussions with my
client and at the time this is going to be a withdrawal by the applicant to proceed by right
with a different design. Okay, Mr. McElhatton, this case is being withdrawn. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Mulvihill. Thank you. So MI 2020-002-446-428-30 West Thompson Street is withdrawn.
428-30 West Thompson Street is withdrawn. Any other requests?
We have a Mr. Goodman. Mr. Goodman, you can unmute yourself.
Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Goodman. Please identify yourself and I'll swear you in.
Thank you. Andrew Goodman, A-N-D-R-E-W-G-O-O-D-M-A-N, here representing the Office of
third district council member, Jamie Gaudier.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Here to request a continuance for what I believe is
agenda item number 11 on your agendas.
MI 2020-003087-800 South 60th Street.
Our office has no record of an RCO meeting taking place.
Thank you.
And Sharon, we don't have any exhibits either, correct?
No exhibits. It's the first listing.
And there was no RCO meeting, Mr. Goodman?
Not to our knowledge, no.
This could be a dismissal, couldn't it?
Usually it's the first listing. It would be a continuance.
Okay. All right. MI 2020-003-087, 800 South 60th Street.
that 6-0 street is continued if you'd like you can make this a must be heard sorry continued
must be heard thank you you're welcome i just wanted to make sure we to ensure that there was
no one here for that as the applicant is there anyone here for 800 north i'm sorry 800 south
60th street aside from mr goodman no hands chair thank you anyone else requesting a
continuance or withdrawal for the 9 30 list no more hands chair okay uh that leads us to the
add-ons. Oh, I'm sorry. We have a Ms. Blunt. Ms. Blunt? Ms. Catherine. Good morning, everyone. I'm
calling regarding 5513 Pemberton. Will that continue? Yes, one second, ma'am. Please identify
yourself for the record. Yes, my name is Catherine Blunt. I am the co-chair of the 46th Ward RCO.
And your last name is, how do you spell your last name?
Yes, B-L-U-N-T.
Do you swear in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do swear.
Thank you.
And what you're calling about 5513 Pemberton Street?
That case is continued.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, ma'am.
Have a good day.
You do likewise.
Any other requests?
no more handshare okay thank you we'll go to the add-on list mi2020-002477
1624 north 26th street my vote is no my vote is no my vote is no my vote is no
By 2020, that's 0003401530 West Champulse Avenue. There's a request for reconsideration.
There's also a letter from Councilwoman Bass in support of a reconsideration. So my vote is yes
to reconsideration and rehearing. Yes to reconsideration and rehearing. Yes to reconsideration
and re-hearing. Yes to reconsideration and re-hearing. Yes to reconsideration and re-hearing.
Thank you. Hold on, Thompson is done. Sharon, do we now go to, we hear the
case for 3948-50 West Gerrard, correct? That's correct.
Okay, so we'll hear a testimony on MI 2020-002-482-3948-50 West Girard Avenue.
I understand there's some revised plans, but whoever's presenting, please raise your hand now.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Adam Lieber of Blancroam.
I'm glad you're swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
i do mr chairman please proceed thank you adam laver of blank rome one logan square
on behalf of david goldstein the owner of 3948-50 west gerrard avenue and 3962 west gerrard avenue
and 39 62 west gerrard avenue members of the board a full hearing in this single issue special
members of
exception takeout use case was held on february 17th of this year at that time revised proviso
plans were presented which took into consideration certain community feedback that had been shared
in an initial community meeting. At the February hearing, representatives of Centennial Parkside
Community Development Corporation, the coordinating RCO in this matter, appeared and expressed
opposition, unfortunately, to the proposed takeout restaurant with accessory drive-thru.
At the hearing in February, support from individual neighbors was also entered into the record.
The board permitted us to return to the RCO and the community in an effort at further
dialogue, which we appreciated.
A virtual community meeting was held on Thursday evening, March the 4th.
At the meeting, Centennial Parkside CDC Zoning Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Gomez turned
the floor over to Sergeant Jihad Ali.
Sergeant Ali ran the meeting.
Concerns were raised at the meeting about, quote, bringing different types of people into the neighborhood, end quote.
Regrettably, the RCO's position was conveyed to me, and I appreciated the frankness, that there's a fundamental opposition to the proposed use before the board.
And so where we had hoped to engage in some dialogue about potential changes that could be made to serve everyone's interests, that wasn't a possibility.
And we respect that.
Girard Avenue, as the board knows, is a major arterial roadway.
In some ways, it's an east-west version of our north-south Broad Street.
And a request was made at the community meeting from my client, David, who's with us today to engage a traffic study to offer a traffic engineer to offer professional guidance and possibly recommendations concerning the subject location at 40th and Gerrard Avenue.
Gerrard Avenue is a significant right of way with traffic challenges with or without the proposed use.
We engaged Kevin Savage, a registered professional engineer with Dynamic Traffic, who worked expeditiously to perform a full traffic study at this location, resulting in the issuance of a transportation impact assessment and recommendations, which became available yesterday, which we've shared with the board.
We are prepared to share these findings with the board and the community at this time.
Before moving to that I'd like to screen share briefly however and just go
over some background. Here you see where the hand sign is the subject property at
40th and Girard. You also can see four lanes of traffic on Girard with the
trolley at the center. You see the School of the Futures large campus across the
Street which houses the school and we also learned that the community meeting
houses church worship services at other times here to the right of our site where
hopefully you can see the hand is a former synagogue which is actually
interesting a bit of L&I history it's still registered as a synagogue use of
course that carries through to the church that occupies it now the revival center the revival
center also earns some owns some vacant land next to the church and there's vacant land along this
entire block unfortunately pockets of vacant land across 40th street from our subject property at
the corner, you'll see in a moment, is a cell phone store, a nightclub, and a Chinese takeout
restaurant. Here are some additional photographs. And here you see the Chinese takeout restaurant,
the nightclub, and I said a cell phone. It's a cell phone and dollar plus store. And here
in the background is our subject property. Of course, we're here before the board for
special exception relief. It should be noted that Golden Dragon and Encore are non-conforming
and that they would require special exception relief as well. Here is the subject property
in its former use. It was an eat-in and take-out restaurant, Spiro's Corner Restaurant,
It was a eat-in and take-out restaurant, Spiro's Corner Restaurant, beloved by some in the community.
And you'll see the signage of that restaurant showed delivery, pickup, and clearly it was in the style of the diner.
Here is our notice of referral just to refresh the board's recollection.
The proposed take-out restaurant is a special exception to the ZBA, one referral.
And the board previously saw, and these were entered into the record, the proposed upgrading of David's property, nine apartments above which are permitted by right.
The main corner section of the property is a larger commercial space for uses as permitted in the district.
We've had difficulty leasing that space as we have for the smaller proposed takeout as well.
A couple more images, and here you see the proposed revised plan that had been shared