Are you ready?
No, two, two, two, two, just two.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting on the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is our board vice chair, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our board secretary, Shara Elgasta.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
our board member michael johns president mr chairman remember tyah wynn and she should be
walking through the door any moment and our board member ryan mcadams president mr chairman also
here is our board attorney hillary emerson our zoning board director in hagerty and our board
administrator lakeisha dandy a recording of this hearing will be posted on the cba website by
participating you consent to be recorded this is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities
whether remote or in person if you're called to speak you must state and spell your name and then
wait to be sworn in once you've been sworn in please state your name each time beginning your
testimony any person may enter their appearance to become an an interested party you can identify
the case property address on your zoom webinar you can see a staff member or you can call the
ebay appearance line by the close of business tomorrow call 267-270-5548 leave a message
and also the address your email address and the address of the appell field case the following
guidelines is for people who are remote attendees when directed you must raise your virtual hand in
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Second, if you're called to testify,
you must be prompted to join as a panelist.
Please accept the request and then turn on your camera.
The webinar Q&A questions is about the hearing.
Do not comment on the Q&A.
And finally, if you are participating by phone,
press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute for in-person attendees please refrain
from talking eating or drinking during the hearings verbal and physical aggression will
not be tolerated restrooms are across from the elevators a water fountain is just outside the
room to the right when speaking on the record you must speak directly into the microphone in order
to be heard by all attendees and their court reporter in the event of an emergency please
follow directions given over the public address system or by the staff the main exit is through
the double doors at the rear the nearest stairwell is to the left outside the doors
in case of evacuation the rally point is love park directly across art street
please remain there so that we can account for you so let's look at our schedule for today
We'll be in here, six.
number one
mi 2024 003 407 2020 west 65th avenue cecile patterson is the listed owner
could you tell us the status of your first state your name and spell it for the stenographer
cecilia patterson c-e-c-e-l-i-a patterson p-a-t-t-e-r-s-o-n do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes uh could you give us an update of your
case where do i begin well well i would think um try to begin at the beginning let's go
thank you i the key question are you ready to go today
The key question, are you ready to go today?
I am. However, I found out that what we did, my husband, Bob Merritt, and I, we downloaded everything, and I was told that we were supposed to do so again, I believe, on April the 24th.
uh we had the neighborhood meeting with the ward leaders ward 10 and um we presented everything we
did a presentation for the neighborhood and we have not heard from the ward leaders nor did we
receive a summary so we did everything that we were supposed to to prepare for this hearing this
morning right okay so yes our attorney's ready to speak yeah i can i can fill in some things here so
first the reason why we need to receive the documents in advance is we need to see proof
that the property was posted we need to see proof that it's tax compliant and make sure you have all
your other documents in order in advance so we know that you're ready to proceed so that's why
we ask for things in advance like what you submitted before you know some of that is okay
but we have to have updated proof that you posted the property and updated proof of tax compliance
um so that's one to the 10th ward they did just send a letter over um literally seven minutes ago
um in in support um if if the board wants to to move this matter i can take a look at the documents
while we handle other matters and see if we have everything that we need to proceed um because i
have not looked at you know i haven't seen the documents that i've that miss patterson's brought
you can get that done yeah okay so what we'll do is we'll we'll continue this until we take a look
at where we stand yeah yeah we'll deal with some other things but just um miss parison just have
have a seat and i'll come over and look at your documents in a few minutes we just need to deal
with some other preliminary matters okay all right all right so we're going to move to uh
And number three, MI 2024-007-221-3014 Lehigh Avenue.
Richard Brown is the attorney.
This is Mark Must Be Heard.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
This is Jason Taylor.
I will be your coals for this session.
Richard T. Brown has been allowed to speak.
Mr. Brown, could you turn on your camera, please?
Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, let me promote him real quick.
Mr. Brown, you'll be coming back in as a panelist shortly.
to brown yes i'm sorry i i don't know if you can hear me i i can hear you could you please state
your name is spelled for the stenographer i'm sorry yes richard t brown jr b-r-o-w-n
as attorney for the applicant here, Brockington, at 3014 West Lehigh.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Brown, could you give us an update because this is the third listing?
Yes, and I'm sorry for that.
I did send in an email alerting the board ahead of time that we would not be ready to proceed,
and we are not this morning ready to proceed.
We would like additional time. My client believes that there can be letters and support that can be assembled from the community.
She's well known in the community for many years.
And so we would like another opportunity to coordinate with the RCOs and to repost and proceed at the next listing.
So, Mr. Brown, this this is the last continuance.
We'll give you one more, but that's that's it. Right.
So we're going to dismiss if this is not ready for the next time.
So MI 2024-007-221-3014 Wesley High Avenue.
This case is continued to 9226 at 930 a.m.
Must be heard.
Must be heard.
Great.
Number seven.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
number seven mi20
Number seven, MI-2025-002-578-3734 North 19th Street.
This case has been withdrawn.
8. MI 2025-002-593-2114 East Lehigh Avenue. This case has been withdrawn.
that hold on one minute number nine
mi 2025 004 985 23 36 7th street um this is the second listing is is uh
marty here we this matter can be continued we're going to continue it must be okay so
mi2024-004-298-2336 south 7th street this case is continued until 9-2-26 at 9 30 m mark must be heard
and then number 14
number 14 mi 2025 006 769 645 west venango street this case has been withdrawn
are there any other requests for continuances
mr chair i do not see any hands okay all right we're going to go to our regular list
and hillary will take care of that other issue and we'll add it on okay
so number we're going to start with number two um 47 32 to 42 north broad street which is
MI 2024-006-131. Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Good morning, counsel. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Mr. Norbert Brown.
He's the tenant.
And I see that our counsel is busy over there, but I'm going to grab her voice for a minute.
This is going to be a hold, Burns' case?
For tax reasons.
Right?
Tax reasons.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
I agree.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Okay, and do you waive the reading of the referral as stipulated to its accuracy?
Okay, thank you.
You can stay on your screen and proceed with your case.
Just kicked me out, so please excuse me.
I have to go back in.
Thank you.
progress there it is
we okay vern we are okay thank you sure
mr chair this property is now it was actually the old logan theater and on north broad street for
many, many years. And then it fell in disrepair. It was a church for a while as well, but the
general interior and exterior of this property was desperate to be gentle until Mr. Norbert Brown.
to be gentle, until Mr. Norbert Brown came to the property. He's breathed new life into the place.
Him and his organization have completely rehabilitated the exterior, driven the drug
dealers and the criminal activity away from that block, and has become an asset to the community,
and is slowly restoring the interior of the property. It is going to be, it already is,
the cecily tyson musical theater but we are here today because in order to support that mission
and the rehabilitation they need another space the second story to be a jazz cafe and restaurant
and when this is a special exception it's not a variance our our proposal is already uh consistent
with what the community and what the board the planning commission believes should be there
We're just here to make sure that we can show that we will be running this responsibly without any negative impact to the community.
As you can see on the screen right now is the interior layout of the restaurant itself.
This is going to be on the second floor.
That's correct.
And I'm going to zoom out here.
You have a picture of the building just out of the outside.
I just want to try to get my own mind where it is.
We have lots, lots of pictures.
Okay, well, here's the, here's the interior space.
I'm going to, I'm going to pull up an exterior shot.
I see there's somebody behind you with a with a photo in his hand thank you
oh that's thank you now I know where it's at yeah
We have some interior shots here as well.
The operation is going to have security.
The whole building already is operated with a security staff that are former Philadelphia police officers and state troopers.
There's been a trash plan put in place that will be amenable to the RCO.
As you know, the RCO has already, and I'm going to throw this up on the screen, sent a letter of support
and asking all individuals, elected officials, and this board to support the community in this effort.
and this is signed by Mr. Charles Karn and then of course I'm also moving into evidence
lots of signatures from
okay I don't think that's working for some reason pull out there it is lots of signatures of
community folks all within a few hundred feet of the property in support of our rehabilitation of
the property and the use the hours of operation will be um six days a week uh everything will be
done by midnight and um it'll be fully staffed by mr nolbert and his crew uh he's already shown uh
that he can uh rehabilitate a building this big and make it uh in a way that is uh beneficial to
the community and we believe that the restaurant will help that effort i'm gonna keep it at that
just just and this is just my own knowledge but what's on the first floor it'll be the theater
although it'll be a theater there oh absolutely musical theater yes it will be yeah yeah it's a
big beautiful old ballroom as the photos show i like to call my my client noble brown to the
yeah thank you sure can you can you show us the uh first floor the plan i think i saw you go by
yep i didn't see you be happy to
mr brown
good morning mr brown okay this is close to the mic make sure the mic's on okay yes that's the
theater section right there is the green light on yes sir okay good i could you please state your
name and spell for the stenographer yes my name is nobert brown jr nobert is spelled n-o-l
b-e-r-t brown b-r-o-w-n-j-r young swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth and let let let the burn finish that's the the inside on the first floor yes and as you can
see there's a lobby there's concessions there's janitor room men and women's there's a box office
Men and women's, there's a box office, the main entrance, the auditorium. There's backstage. There's a workshop. There's dressing areas, laundry and shower. But this is, this is the main theater.
There's some main entrance.
Could you show us the, the, the plans for the second floor? Again, just the, the plans.
right there
that's a dinner theater on the second floor
that's correct
as you see here there's a stage
there's a cocktail bar
and there's the main floor
here's the kitchen in the back of the house
there's a men's room
ladies room
commercial trash pickup place is already well lit uh much bigger you know better uh lit than it was
in the past and cleaned up uh with that mr brown did you hear my presentation to the board today
yes is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes and do you adopt it as your own
testimony yes would you like to share what you've done so far with the property and how you plan on
doing it moving forward with the restaurant yes i was in the business for 47 years i wrote for
all of the family, the Jeffersons, and many more. I've been doing this my whole life, and for an
African-American director to be able to open up a theater in Philadelphia of this size to bring
jobs, opportunities, education, and more to Philadelphia, it's my pleasure to make sure that
we are the mega of entertainment in the world, but also safe and honorary and also dedicated to
the arts, dedicated to educating the arts, and we will make sure that the theater is one of the
best. Diana Ross, people like that, coming to North Philadelphia, changing North Philadelphia.
We took away all of the crime by ourselves for it to be nice, safe. Right now, when you ride on
that part of Philadelphia, it's clear. No crime, no people standing around, and the building is
beautiful um it's back to the same color i also made it historical uh last year and um i did that
because i want to make sure that the theater stays there and open for life and generations after us
can come and do the same thing we have security we have everything possible we also have two
charter buses that's going to be riding from Broad and Indiana to the theater free for anybody that
got a ticket to the theater free for the workers that work there and that's my treat to Philadelphia
but I honored because Philadelphia is a great place I've been here many years I worked the
Academy of Music I worked the Met but now it's time for us to do something in Philadelphia
North Philadelphia. So Uptown will be the place to go to. And parking and everything is what we
have. And I'm just honored to be in front of you, Your Honor, and many more, just to show you that
we will change entertainment forever. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown.
Clarification. Is that broad in Erie or broad in Olney?
It's broad in Wyoming.
That's where the theater is, where the shuttles are coming.
yes the shuttle will come from it will come from yeah it will come from broad and airy
one way i have another shutter it's coming from broad and nidro but anybody that has a ticket to
any show uh matinee night show they will be picked up we also have we're going to have parking in
different places like donut what i yeah what i've already submitted into evidence are several
agreements with various parking lots in the area so that we could i mean we have to talk
We've got to talk about the arts, but we still have to talk about what's up.
Clear.
All right.
Five different lots that we already have agreements with, too.
And that's all being already submitted into evidence.
We are working with the Philadelphia local police district to make sure that that back
street is a residential street on the other side.
So that's going to be blocked off to through traffic, very much like we do in South Philadelphia
during games.
So that if you live there, you can park there.
But other than that, you're not going to be able to get in there.
There's also a parking lot adjacent to the theater. That's only going to be for tour buses and for like pick up and drop off during the day so that and all of that traffic will come in and come out of Broad Street side, not the small residential street in the back.
All of this has already been agreed to and in writing with Mr. Karn and the 13th Ward. Thank you.
Other questions?
So has the facade been restored?
yes it's already historic okay i haven't been up that way in a while it's beautiful there's
Yes, it has.
historic okay i haven't been up that way in a while yeah it's beautiful there's uh big signs
a big signs that say cecily tyner musical theater it's all in beautiful white there
all the windows are done up real nice and uh we welcome you and when diana ross comes
you're all invited i got front row seats okay i have two questions uh one in terms of you
said that you made this historical is this locally designated yes it's been designated
by the historical commission yes ah okay all right great and then my second question is uh for the
kitchen uh on this for this um second floor facility uh the venting how is that done right
through the roof okay all right great and on the broad street side not the residential side in the
back oh okay all right thank you yep it's like a full service menu oh yes really okay all right
no i just wanted yes it's going to be good cornbread sweet potato okay it's so it's going to be
everything and the building is i'm glad you were able to get some type of designation for it
so my question is you've done the facade is there any plans to beautify like the um the front of
the building like at any kind of type of landscaping or something like that flower i was thinking about
uh putting like the giant size of flowers out there in the front right where they come in at
and put some really
in the summertime exotic
flowers and then in the winter something
a little more rougher
and then also I own
my own ticket outlet so it won't go through
Live Nation or it won't go through Ticketmaster
it goes right through Cicely Tyson
Performing Arts Center, everything
goes through us and we're also
going to be doing a job fair
and we're going to be hiring everybody
from busboy to ushers to
everything, we're going to bring a lot
of jobs to Philadelphia
here uh for a long time and uh so and then my other question is in terms of just managing um
the entry when you have events um like the line management is there i know that there's other
stuff on the block so is there like a plan uh like the lines are going to swing and go as the lines
are going to swing actually uh our building almost take up the whole side uh burger king is like
almost a half a block down and then on the other side it used to be a hair salon but hopefully we
can get that built into and make it into something but um the next place would be the chinese
restaurant and they out there every day sweeping for us yeah they're great they're a good neighbor
they've already built relationships that'll be like the miller theater where you know just is
right down the street uh going north and the last question is you will you have commercial trash
pickup or yes okay thank you um i have a question about your lease does it cover dr owens flat next
store or is it just for the theater yes it covers the lot and everything so you have 47 32 to 36 as
well yes i have i have it all yes and for quite some time yeah it's a long lease what was what
was the hours of hours of operation for the restaurant theater for the dinner theater you
have two shows so if we had kenny g there kenny g will come on at 6 30 and he will get off at 8
and then the next show
would be 9 and they'd get off 10.30.
The whole theater itself,
the dinner theater, will close at 12
midnight every night. It won't go over
that. The theater
will close, the regular theater
concerts will be over
around a quarter to 12,
no later than that.
Is that every night?
Well, not the theater.
No, the dinner theater.
The restaurant upstairs will be six nights a week.
Oh, six nights.
yes black okay not seven but six yes blackout on uh mondays okay
kind of similar to like city winery downtown in terms of like you could always eat dinner there
but if there's a show that's correct yeah yeah if i don't have a ticket to the show i could still go
up there and have dinner and listen to some jazz or something and then i just know like second
floor restaurants are difficult so what's going to be the plan given that it's historic and you've
already restored the front of the theater to try to I guess like make it known and get people in
and then my second question just because I know this building fall too well um there's no elevator
in it so what's the plan for accessibility to the second level we're just we're designating
one stairway or two big steers we're designating the stair on the left side for it's going to have
a mobile chair with two chairs in it and then we have somebody at the top of the steps to
help that person off if that person needs help but that will strictly be uh for handicapped people
and then are you gonna have wheelchair because like if they're handicapped and they can walk
down the steps once they get to the balcony you're gonna have staff that's handling that
portion or even we'll have ushers and we also will have always a medical person on site uh
a medical person on site. I learned that with doing these things in California, you never know
I learned that with doing these things.
when somebody might get excited or somebody might come see Al Green and he dance. Yeah. I might pass
out for Diane Ross. I mean, let's be honest. Is there any future plans at all to make it fully
accessible by adding an elevator or is that not? Long-term plan. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Because
that would only help the restaurant. And how are you going to be managing the parking for
people who are coming from off-site who are parking their own cars understand that you have
agreements with different lots around but how are people getting because they're going to be
ticketed like how is that going to be managed and are you managing it are you going to subcontract
that out so like a like a valet or like a parking lots there's no tickets there's no cost for the
lot for the parking no cost for the parking that we have people go get in free and they'll be
shut and the theater is going to have shuttles all at the lot so folks don't even have to walk
to the theater they could just jump on the little white shuttle bus and and and get there yeah
just because some of them are a little bit of a walk away yeah yeah we'll make sure that's why
yeah any other questions i have one other uh witness who would like to just testify oh
very briefly sure yeah sure gentleman from the the freemasons could you let him sit down please
thank you
good morning sir
good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is vaughn
taylor b-a-u-g-h-n-t-a-y-l-o-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes counsel mr mr bond can you please just tell the board your position uh
and uh where you stand on this appeal uh two things i'm with the uh most works for pencil
grand lodge of pennsylvania which is located 4301 broad street yep and we're in approval
of the center so we're right down the street yeah i'm also with the approved but don't protect the
board of Elks of the world. I'm a past Grand Exeter Ruler. We're right down the street at 4932 Broad Street.
You got it in between there, right?
Yeah, and I'm in approval of that as well. I represent both stations and the first district, and they're excited about bringing it to me.
All right. Thank you very much. I have nothing further.
All right, questions from our attorney?
I'm not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience or the audience here?
yes mr chair i have a hand up from a charles
corn i will promote them and they should be back in shortly
you see rco guy right yes
Mr. Karn, please unmute.
Wait to be sworn in.
Got you.
Mr. Karn, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Charles Karn.
C-H-A-R-L-E-S, Karn, C-A-R-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, Mr. Karn.
chairman um i am the 13th ward rco i am the 13th ward rco chair we know that sir okay thanks um
we have um had several meetings with the um applicant and legal team we um we placed in our
submittals provisos um we are totally supportive however we've asked for contractual documents
In other words, promises said should be promises kept.
We have not received a lot of the documents that we've asked for, and that's what I'm here for.
Again, I can say I'm a Prince Hall Mason, too.
I'm all that.
But the issue is the density of which we're going to bring.
This is a residential neighborhood.
This is not commercial like the Met.
If you've been on that block, the 4,700 block, right next door to it is the Latter-day Saints Church to the north.
And someone brought up today about line control.
Line control. Okay. But again, the density and the parking, if you look at the documents that are submitted, we didn't understand them. Let's put it like that. In a sense, there weren't signed agreements. These parking lots we're talking about probably hold about 20 cars, but that's down the road. He does have a bus service. He did say it, but we didn't see the documentation that can support that.
Okay, but again, the density and the part.
And the only way to provide those, right, if you see in our submittal, that's what we're asking for, to ensure that promises made are promises kept.
Again, this is a great opportunity for the community itself, but I'd see a couple issues in the overall picture of this.
And by the way, this operation is open already, so that's an issue for the surrounding community, and it has been open, and it was just brought to my knowledge that it was activity going on already with some sort of events.
I'm just trying to get clarity, that's all.
All right, so Mr. Stoddell, could you respond?
Sure. All the uses are consistent with the buy-write uses. There's nothing going on with the restaurant right now at all, number one. And number two, the packet has letters of intent. And that's all we can get right now. Once we have our permits and are able to actually operate, then we'll be able to enter into full contracts executed by my office, facilitated by my office, executed by my client.
And as Mr. Karn knows, I have told him personally, and I put this under oath on the record.
I'm providing him and his RCO with all of those contracts.
So thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chairperson.
sir um again if if we don't have a contract that something states something's going to happen
um the community feels though it may not happen so where do we go if promises are made and
promises aren't um kept so i i i uh i don't i don't know that we can answer that question for
right should we uh i i think we've heard the presentation sure heard your concerns yes sir
um we're not voting on this today anyway so correct um i'm sorry sir i didn't know that
we're not voting on this those concerns have been addressed and mitigated and and the impact to uh
the impact of the community uh with this proposed use is exactly consistent with what that would be
is there anyone else in the audience that wants to speak
planning commission good morning chair and commissioners michael gall with the philadelphia
city planning commission m-i-c-h-a-e-l-g-a-l-l do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i so affirm could you um give us your comments on this case yes chair
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx 2.5 commercial mixed use zoning at this
location. The property has a documented history of assembly and entertainment use dating to at
least 1923 before the advent of zoning in Philadelphia. This neighborhood still carries
its original 1933 zoning designation. The appellant has shown that the proposed use
will not cause detrimental impacts beyond what might reasonably otherwise be expected from the
location. The City Planning Commission therefore recommends that the board grant the requested
special exception for assembly and entertainment use. Thank you. As you know, we're going to hold
vote on this until the tax issue is concerned. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you very much
and good luck, sir. It's a beautiful property outside. It's gorgeous.
After I do it, I'll call you. All right. See you later.
So, number one, MI 2024, 003407, 2025 West 65th Avenue. That case will be continued. And, Hillary, could you give us the date?
Yes, that date is June 17th at 2 p.m.
All right. So just keep an eye on your email. If you have any questions, please contact the office. Okay?
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're going to move to number four.
Thank you.
So MI 2024-007-291-4005 Brown Street, Vernon Anastasio is the attorney.
He'll be right back, I hope.
No, that's okay, Vern.
Mr. Anastasio, you've already been sworn.
Just for the record, state your name and spelled for this.
Just state your name, period.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
On behalf of Ms. Lillie Gao.
Our Vice Chair has a few questions for you.
Good morning.
have you submitted your documents and exhibits for this case five days in advance of this
hearing yes and do you waive the read know the refusal to stipulate to its accuracy
yes all right thank you you can share your screen and proceed with no rco letters of yet
wasn't this just rco meeting which was held yes but i was under the impression that they
had sent something in support mike right hillary we don't have it right i i will double check now
but we had not received anything as of yesterday well this is a two-family dwelling that's already
in existence, and it is zoned RSA 5.
I'm going to take you through the property.
The basement is just mechanicals, as you can see.
Vern, you got it. You're not out.
Sorry.
you're coming up now yeah thanks
as you can see here the basement is just utilities vacant
go up the stairs and to the right you have an entry for the living room kitchen open concept
You've got one bedroom in the center, a full bath.
By the way, there's a trash closet, I believe that's what that is, and one bedroom.
Yes, the exterior rear is accessed through this bedroom.
You go up the stairs on the right, and you've got another living kitchen open concept area
with a bedroom and a bath in the front
and a bedroom and a bath in the rear.
Oh, sure.
Does it occupy both now? Yes sir.
There's several multi-families on the block as well. This is the property in question.
Posting. There's two and three family dwellings on this block. There's the mailing that went out
to all individual parties. 121 households were mailed, and we're moving everything else into
evidence today. When did this become a duplex? Before my client purchased it, for sure.
There's no history of permits being pulled to legalize it, so whatever work that was done
uh at some point was done without the benefit of those permits my client's going to have to get a
ceo for the for the two family dwelling if if this variance is granted as you can see here
there is a lot of uh empty space on this block right behind it in reno so there as far as
congestion or or a taxing on the parking or an infrastructure is concerned it would be negligible
I have nothing further.
I would like to call my client.
Bring your client.
Thank you.
Billy Gao, could you please raise your virtual hand?
Why don't you put the plans back up, too?
they're being promoted to panelists here thank you
They're being promoted to panelists, Chair.
Thank you.
can you see me hello
we do not see you yet but could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
my name is lily gal um a spell l-i-l-y and last name g-a-o right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i swear um could you try to turn your
video on um sure all right okay okay good thank you see me all right counsel miss gall did you
hear my presentation to the board this morning yes i did true and accurate to the best of your
knowledge yes now do you adopt it as your own testimony do you adopt it as your own testimony
own test yes yeah okay and for a point of clarification is the property uh uh occupied
currently or unoccupied yes okay it's occupied yeah thank you questions from the board didn't
you show pictures of it of framing like it's got it out they're old pictures yes
so what are where are the pictures of of the exist of current
they're the photos i was given
also does that mean that it was that it's both units are occupied because
yeah right i mean i'm trying to understand if if it was bought as a duplex but the pictures show
it got it out then clearly that had to be work done at some point for it to be
to be yes that's correct miss gow yes did you hear the question yes okay
So the units are now built out, yes?
Are the units built out?
Built out?
Yeah, we have to.
Okay, one second.
Ms. Gao, is this the current condition?
Sounds like she said we have to.
Yeah, I'm going to try and get clarity.
Ms. Gao, are these current conditions of the property?
do you see that right are these current conditions
ms gal
ms gal yes yep are these current conditions or are these old conditions
that's old condition oh these are old conditions okay
So I think, Vern, what we should do is we should have a resumptive hearing, right?
Come back with the appropriate issues, you know, the appropriate photos and things of that nature.
So we're going to give this a resumptive hearing date of 7-28-26 at 9.30 a.m.
Thank you.
Number.
Number five.
MI 2025-002-377-651 Ray Street.
Clemente Amazon is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from HMC.
They're being promoted to panelists.
good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
her? Of course. Plumenta Amazon. That's spelled C-L-E-M-E-N-T-A. Last name is spelled A-M-A-Z-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Could you identify your client in a relationship to the property?
My client is Candace Presley. She is a tenant of the property or soon to be tenant for the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions. Good morning. Have you submitted your documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes we did upload the correct tax
clearance certificate this morning okay and do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate
to their accuracy yes okay thank you share your screen and proceed with your case
Of course, if I could have my client, Candace Presley, promoted to panelists as well.
of course if i could have my client candace presley promoted to panelists as well
yeah we'll we'll bring her on and we'll have her ready to be uh follow up after you make your
presentation thank you you're coming up now
okay great let me know when you can see it uh we see it we see in front of a blue building how's
that on the money I'll just put this in full screen mode again my name is Clemenza Amazon
and today I'll be presenting 6517 Bray Street this is a view at the front of the property
as well as showing the posting of the property so we received two refusals um what we are trying
to do here is to allow for an assembly or an event space on the first floor and then an office for
real estate on the second floor my client is a real estate agent she's very involved in the
community she does have several event spaces within the city of philadelphia and she's looking to
create a similar experience here in addition to having an office space for her use on the second
As you can see from the notes, this was previously a social private club that also had hot food that was prepared on site dating back to 1996. The property has been a bit of a nuisance to the neighborhood. There's been issues with the maintenance of the property, as you'll see in the photos, as well as just some illegal use that was occurring prior to my client being involved with the property.
So, again, the two refusals that we have are because the property is zoned RSA 3 and we
are looking to have an event space on the first floor and an office on the second floor,
although this is use that is something that's been done on the property dating back to 96.
We did meet with the community on August 14th.
During that meeting, we did receive support of the project.
This was previously listed to be heard back in October, but we did request a continuance.
we do still have community support of this project
and here we just have the summary that we provided the community the timeline has since changed
because we did have to um postpone our initial hearing but it does explain that we are looking
to have an event space here for both corporate and community needs as well as the non-profit
that my client is involved in and the Philadelphia Metropolitan Board of Realists would also
potentially have meetings here and these are photos showing my clients events based on godfrey avenue
301 godfrey avenue excuse me and we would be looking to have a similar use here some of the
clients that she has currently that she uses are corporate classes workshops real estate classes
family events birthday parties community events and this is just a flyer for that 301 godfrey
property again a similar to use what we are proposing here and here we have the existing
basement and first floor plan so currently there is a kitchen in the basement um it's about
over 1 100 square feet it's a pretty open space here and there is a meeting hall again an open
space along with the bathroom along the first floor so the basement space open with a kitchen
first floor is that existing meeting hall with the bathroom in the rear there is an exit in
the rear as well i'm just going to zoom out that we can take a look at
the proposed floor plans for the basement as you can see here we would be renovating that
kitchen area there would be a dryer pantry in the rear and a closet and along the first floor
again because this is an open space because this is an event space you want to maintain
that is open um about 1050 square feet and it would allow for about 70 people along that first
floor and there is that bathroom in the rear as well as the exit
again as i mentioned um the current owner has not maintained the property there's been
significant issues so these pre-existing conditions are not the fault of my client
who's looking to enter into this space and do full reconstruction and a gut rehab to allow for
the property to be used in the proper way as an event space and here we have photos along the
side this area that you see here should my client be able to move forward with the zoning and enter
into this lease agreement we would be clearing this out it would be an open space and seating
for that event use. There would also be an enclosed area for us to put the trash, which
is a concern that the community mentioned. Again, here's the notice that we sent out
for that meeting that I mentioned previously, for which we do have support. The meeting
the meeting was held on july 24th at 5 45 pm we sent out our notice on july 10th
was held on July 24th at 5.45 p.m. We sent out our notice on July.
again the refusals that we have are because the property is zoned rsa3 it does have a history of
non-residential use as you can see the structure does not look residential in nature either
dating back to 1996 it was a private club we're looking to have the first floor used as an event
space and the upper level would be used for offices a list of the properties that were notified
of the community meeting as required by the city.
And here we have that zoning permit for that social club
that I mentioned previously.
And this is actually dating back to 78.
So the property has been used in a non-residential manner
for decades at this point.
Our project information form, the application for appeal.
And here we just have the deed for TMS Square Club Inc.
Who's the current owner of the property
end would be landlord and our tax clearances if you get that I submitted this morning
did I did I hear did you say there's a second floor
yes we are let's see I saw a basement at the first floor is there
drawings or plans for the second floor because that's what you were talking about putting the
office am i correct yes that is correct um see if i went past that there
if i could have my client promoted i think she could speak to that
a little bit better in terms of layout excuse me the office is in the basement i apologize
yeah all right that's just a one-story building i mean i just see a one story there's no that's
right there's no second floor i apologize i misspoke there so the office is in the basement
in the first lower cdms space um if i can i can't um good morning good morning
i think you have a second device on
try to unmute again
I think you have a device on the second year, two devices there.
How about now?
Okay. Is that better? Okay. Is that better? Okay. Is there two computers there or phone or?
I could you try again
can you hear me now can you hear me now no it was telling me to join from the
ma'am if you have if you're using two devices one of them needs to be muted
and then you can speak through the other one
why don't we try again
could you comment I'll check
Candace it looks like you're connecting to the audio um can you say something so we can see if
it's working now I'm wondering now that's perfect just stay exactly as you are okay
could you please state your name and spelled for the stenographer
Candace, C-A-N-T-Y-S-P-R-E-S-S-L-E-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Candace, did you hear my presentation today?
I'm hearing the echo.
I'm sorry.
Did you hear my presentation today?
And is it true and correct?
and would you adopt it as your own testimony yes thank you and to clarify we're now we're
saying that the basement has a kitchen and an office is that what we're saying
correct the office will be in the basement area okay all right questions from the board
um i guess uh my questions are about um about how many people are we planning to have at any
given time or do you have a sense of that capacity there will be 70. say it again where you're cut off
The capacity is 70, 7-0.
Okay. And then is this the, is there, okay, so I guess the concern is about accessibility here with the steps.
So is there any plan for handling folks who may have mobility issues or issues with steps?
Yes, we will have a ramp or a lift, so it will be handicap accessible.
All right. And then with respect to the kitchen, how is the venting for the kitchen?
so the on the obstacle there is an existing kitchen however it was too cold our intent is
to get that done properly and have the proper hood and ventilation everything for
kitchen you're breaking off yeah you're breaking up my it's okay i can chime in here um i think
Candace is saying is that we have to do a lot of the renovation work as is. So, part of that work
would include adding the vents and the hooding to allow for the air and any odors to be properly
removed from the building. Okay. And I guess I always ask about these vent spaces. If there is
some sort of room where you have like a sink or water supply for purposes of like mopping,
being cleaning up the establishment? I see that there's a bathroom, but is there some other room where you have a way that you can, like, have, like, janitorial, like, supplies, say, and a water source for purposes of, like, cleaning tables and mopping the floors?
is a closet. There is a closet that would be used for storage of supplies or anything that's needed
to clean up after events. The water supply would be coming from the bathroom and that would be
something that would be handled free or post. And there's a kitchen downstairs with that office space
that has a water supply as well. Okay. All right. And then the kitchen, well, I mean, you already
know that you're going to have the kitchen layout that's going to have to be done by the health
department so absolutely okay all right thank you any other questions what's what's going on with
the the back of the building is that going to be utilized how deep is the yard or is there a yard
so that will be like a green area so just uh i've been sitting we're probably going to put a guard in
there to the right of that area so is that is that your property to the right of the
blue building or no right yes it is okay but there's no there's nothing so that'll be open
space that'll be utilized okay and that's your rear okay of the side
and parking is just on the street is that what it is yes yeah it's a dead end cul-de-sac so there
be parking along the street level or along that street
and just one other thing about the sign there's no sign on this so are you planning to
ask for permission for a sign because like the sign the awning there with writing on it
can be considered a sign so are you planning to have a sign not planning to have a sign
yes we will have finished okay and that'll be in a separate application correct
it's not part of this yes all right okay thank you council have did you see the uh provisos
yes i believe they requested that trash be removed 36 hours after the end of each event
the proviso i'm saying i think i believe it says all events to end by 8 p.m six days
believe it says all events to end by 8 p.m six days seven days a week
yes the only request that we're making is that the times be extended for the weekend
if possible if the board would allow for the cutoff time to be 11 o'clock on the weekends
as opposed to the 8 p.m time okay other questions what's the plan for parking for managing traffic
it would be street parking um we did speak to the community regarding that
because this is a state that's been used in this manner and it's pretty much a cul-de-sac it's
completely um closed off it's not a two-way street we don't think that truck would don't
think that parking will be an issue for this particular application okay other questions
questions from our attorney um not so much questions a couple comments um one yes we
did receive the proof of tax compliance so we're good to vote on this today um secondly
i just want to note i think the refusal is missing a couple of refusal items um because
it is this rsa3 zoning district there should be refusals for parking as well as for multiple
principal uses on a lot so i just want to note that for the record
comments from the virtual audience
planning commission there we have two hands up one from amina mcmillan and one from adela williams
what what's hand are we going first hello hi hi could you please state your name and
spell for the sonographer uh my name is amina mcmillan uh spelled a m e e n a h m c m i
l-l-a-n right go ahead the zoom has my name spelled strangely i'm not sure what's going on
with that do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i affirm are you a neighbor yes i am please proceed okay so we live directly next to this
property uh the current house that i'm in uh we have been living here for about eight years
um i've heard a few things about um the community being spoken to or questions being asked uh i have
yet to hear anything um asked i'm not sure uh what exactly is um being said to our community in
particular um but as far as the zoning uh we're a lot of us are not interested in promoting or
having any business in this area this is a residential area we have a elderly home down
the street uh so we we look out for each other we have a lot of children that come through and you
they'd like to play on the basketball court down the street there's you know children live here
older folks live here families live here um and it's it's been a very big concern for us considering
past events that have happened in this area um it's you know again it's a residential area
and i'm hearing things about uh of you know business being operated and um parking being
on the street but then what about the residents that currently live here well where are we going
to be able to park and you know business is operating to 11 o'clock in my opinion you know
that that sounds a bit extreme you know most places you know that have that you know those hours are
usually you know it's a bit it's a bit extensive and um we we really don't want a lot of activity
here it's a very quiet neighborhood that's why the majority of us who live here have moved here in
the first place um again we've had problems where uh people would use the club for all sorts of
activities um it's caused property damage for us and our neighbors on numerous occasions
um as well as you know the the um noise and trash and things of that nature it's always
been a very big concern and you know things have been you know promised to us you know things that
You know, things have been, you know, promised to us, you know, things that were going to change with the individuals who were in charge of all the events and things that happened at that club, you know, and the promises and things that were said were constantly broken.
So at this point, you know, we're not interested in any businesses coming to our area, you know, and we're connected to a very large park.
it's you know there's a wonderful nature trail out there yeah we're not interested in having
our place you know ruined with you know trash and noise you know i think i understand uh your
comments counsel do you have any questions um if i could just respond very briefly um we did
hold the community council why don't there's someone else why not only bring the other person
on then you can respond to both people okay okay sounds good all right could you bring the next
person on well chair we got a dollar williams coming back in as a panelist he'll be back in
I'm sure this, huh?
Yes, I'm sure.
it's a double Williams are you there
but my camera's not working hi I could you um please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Yes, Adela Williams, A-D-A-L-L-A-8, Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I affirm.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
I'm against it.
Could you tell us anything different than what we've already heard from the prior person?
Some of it's probably the same.
The difference is there's Hartley parking out here for people who are not from this neighborhood.
And there is a business further down the one-way street.
So there's definitely no parking back there.
okay and secondly i don't i don't want the zoning change i wanted to keep it as residential i don't
want to deal with the you know food and trash and stuff like the last
okay property people and people parking in my driveway with no consideration at all because
it's literally right next to my my driveway is next to the property okay thank you very much for
taking the time to calls counsel do you have any questions of this person or do you just want to
make a general statement i'd like to make a general statement all right is there anyone else in the
audience no further hands mr chair um why don't you make your uh comments of course i believe
ms mcmillan mentioned that she was not contacted regarding the community meeting i would like to
clarify that the meeting was held on july 24th we did send out notice we also posted the property in
both instances for the zba hearing which i'm assuming is how she became aware of today's
hearing during those meetings we did speak to neighbors any concerns that were expressed at
that time we did address furthermore as it relates to trash we will be keeping that
and removing it within 36 hours of the events along that side area as I mentioned and I will
just share my screen very briefly this is a one-way street we are permitted to have street parking
there are several properties along this street as well that have their own parking available to them
as you can see here and here is now our intention to create any underburdens to neighbors as a
related to the parking. As you can see from the photos, there's plenty of space that is available
for individuals to park here. Again, this is a property that's been used in a commercial sense
dating back to 1978. We understand that it was previously an issue with the prior ownership and
how it was maintained. I can have my clients speak to how she handles her properties with
event spaces and an open line of communication with neighbors to ensure that any concerns that
any concerns that they have regarding the property can be addressed and handled as appropriate.
they have regarding the property can be addressed and handled.
Candice, if you could just speak to that very briefly.
Hi, yes. One thing I'd like to emphasize with our other location, and in general, we're not just an event venue.
we've had events on real estate ownership we're not just a party venue
and showing the space next door I mentioned we plan to make it a green
space where it's you know very appealing and I'm not looking to be a bad neighbor
to you we have trash collection processes now with the dumpster it picks
up more than once a week and um plan to be a good neighbor and enhance the property
that's been delivered and not well thank you counsel you're done or is that your case
yes it is planning commission
good morning michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 3 residential single-family attached zoning at this location.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance of the property that would prevent it from being used in strict conformance with the zoning code.
This is a relatively quiet residential community across from a park and trail system, so there is a high potential for nuisance here.
The previous approved use was as a private club, not an event assembly facility, so the expected scale of the potential nuisance is different between those two uses,
and an event assembly facility is typically not located in strictly residential districts
the city planning commission therefore recommends the board deny the proposed use variances for
event assembly facility and business and professional office thank you uh council
we're going to vote on this next wednesday at 9 30 a.m we'll take it to executive session and
we'll evaluate everything we've heard, okay? Thank you. Thank you. Number six, MI 2025-002-476-157-61
Bybury Road. Zen Jin is the attorney. There's letters of opposition from the Somerton Civic
association um why don't why don't we let him sit first he'll make his case and we'll bring you back
good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
yes my name is then jen z-h-e-n-j-i-n you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
about the truth i did could you identify your client a relationship to the property yes uh
if the board could bear with me my uh client is actually sitting next to me mr tashib
uh he is the tenant and business owner operator of the property our vice chair has a few questions
for you good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing yes and do you weigh the read know the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do
all right thank you show your screen and proceed with the case thank you
my apologies i'm not actually in the zoom um if the board can bear with me for one minute sure
i seem to have been disconnected from the internet
Thank you.
It should be coming in now.
I'm going to share with the board what was previously submitted.
Thank you.
it should be coming up on the screen it's coming it's up great thank you uh good morning this is
my name is dan jen i'm here for 157 to 61 library road this is an application uh for use of a space
in a ca1 zoned shopping center for the purpose of a smoke lounge this application was brought
my client actually leases the space he originally applied for and opened under a restaurant license
based on advice that was given to him which is incorrect so at some point license inspection
came and shut him down indicating that he would need to get Smoke Lounge specific
zoning in order to continue operations the location of this property is in a
triangular shaped parcel that used to house a Wawa at one point but it's its
own self-contained commercial strip his location faces Bybury Road and the
entire space comes to a point between Bybury and the road behind it so that this shopping center
actually does not directly abut any residential properties. There are residential properties
across the street. We went to the Somerton Civic Association meeting where they took the position
that hookah lounges and smoke lounges that my client is seeking to operate is something that
they as a community generally would not support based on 2019 city changes because again there's
negative connotation when it comes to this kind of operations my client actually in anticipation of
the meeting went out and also thought feedback from the neighbors through a extensive petition
which is actually attached with our exhibits here as you can see we utilize the same notification
list that was provided to us by the planning commission to reach out to local neighbors
he personally did the walk around with the petition to talk to neighbors and get their
feedback and as the board can see we have an extensive support petition attached with this
We understand that the purpose of the 2019 change is to separate the bad actors from the good actors.
The smoke lounge as an operation has often been looked at.
Some operate quietly without issues and some allow alcohol and other things to get involved and become essentially like speakeasies that causes problems for the neighbors.
My client actually does not permit alcohol at all at his location.
this is for religious reasons his own religious background he does he has no interest in alcohol
or alcohol service and does not permit alcohol on his property the actual service of the
lounge i think it's best that we look at some pictures before we discuss specifically the
services within so it's not a large space this is a smaller gathering space within a strip mall
that actually contains a large restaurant on the corner that's open 24 hours the lounge is one of
the middle spaces and it sits between what was an account is still an accounting office and i believe
another empty space at the moment the lounge itself is a rectangular shape as you can see
from the photos it's an open space so people are served the hookah when they enter the lounge
they're not allowed to bring outside tobacco products it's to one to control what is consumed
there to make sure that it is legal and safe and two for health reasons and health code reasons he
doesn't want to have people sharing stuff that he has no control over so they provide that as far as
the activities during the hookah lounge experience majority of it as you can see there are
sit-down spaces with a tv playstation 5 so a lot of the people that do come they watch
shows or they come and play video games it's not a club there's no music heavy music being
played inside there's no dancing there's no singing the service is limited to the hookah
and also some snacks that he can bring over from the restaurant next door when the
and also some snacks that he can bring over from the restaurant next door when the customers ask
for it they have a small snack menu that they bring the snacks over from the restaurant
so the entire operation is he on the restaurant no okay um they have an agreement to sure yeah uh so
the as you can see from the plans i'll zoom in uh so the board can better see it
this is the entire space laid out as you saw in the photograph there's a foyer
area when you first enter they do check at the door the IDs and make sure
they're of age to smoke once they get past the entire area is basically an
open area with one small party room in the back the bathroom is in the rear
corner and that service station is also in the rear because they don't do full
food service no cooking nothing like that the main thing is they bring out the hookah uh i don't know
what that exact item is called but they would clean it each time someone uses it there's a
mouthpiece that gets thrown out and replaced so it's a one use these are all for health reasons
the second picture you see these individual vents that are shown are part of a carbonized
ventilation system so there's a carbon filter built into it it is an expensive system that
he installed to make sure smoke gets removed from the room but not blown out into the atmosphere so
it's actually a carbon night there are carbon filters within the system that filters out the
smoke so we understand the neighborhood's general concern with these kind of operation why they
tend to oppose them my client has operated the location and in fact has a pretty detailed plan
that of how he wants to run everything and not only that recently business rate actually
considered their operation based on the feedback from google as one of the top three operations
in philadelphia as far as the hookah lounge is concerned so we are not here to ask the board to
allow this um you know fly by night shady operation we're asking the board to consider allowing an
ongoing tenant with a business and this is he's a young man that this is his first entrepreneurial
attempt into a business and he really wishes to be allowed to at least continue through his lease to
operate this particular hookah lounge and he has put substantial investment into this is it open
now it's well it was shut down by oh and i is it open now i don't think it's open now no it's not
open now okay so again it um the lease is also attached for the board review there it started in
2024, I believe, and it's a seven-year lease that currently he is still
liable for under the lease agreement. So, as you can see, it's a seven-year lease
that was originally entered into in September of 2025.
You want to bring your client on? Yes. Can you state your name?
Why don't you get close to the mic?
good morning hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer uh my first name
is sammy my last name is moradov could you spell that for them s-a-m-m-y uh last name is m-u-r-o-d-o-v
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth yes counsel i swear
thank you um so sammy did you hear you you heard and saw my presentation before the zoning board
uh can you verify all the representations i made to be true and correct and adopted as your own
testimony yes it is true thank you all right um questions from the board yes i have a quick
question so just for clarification you and you intended to use it as a hookah lounge yes right
so but you open it and didn't realize you weren't supposed to open it without the proper permits
so they they did ask me to uh get the tobacco license and then uh restaurant license in order
to open up a lounge but unfortunately uh when the inspectors came they did tell me the few rules
have been changed now that i have to get the smoking lounge because it's my place right now
considered as the restaurant not a smoking lunch although i do have a tobacco license also to to
sell it and so so when you as you were open before they shut you down you didn't sell food or
anything like that right no okay so you never operated as a restaurant no okay all right thank
you and he operates as a restaurant now no no he has again the restaurant next door is a legal
No, he has, again, the restaurant next door is a legal restaurant operation.
restaurant operation
and he
And he brings the food from there?
Yeah, just snacks, not full meals.
Other questions from the board?
How are you handling, since you're going to have food coming over, how are you handling trash?
So we made an agreement with the restaurant.
When we bring the food, we take it right back at them with the trash and everything.
they have they we also bought a big trash can ourself it's not from the plaza it's separated
and we do throw over there it's like separate i paid myself we've made an agreement with the
restaurant so we don't have uh stock up or anything like that no and then are you serving
other drinks like tea or soda uh drinks yes uh teas drinks but no alcohol are you making any of
that on site or is it all pre-bottled uh so the cold drinks are pre-bottled like can of uh sodas
all of that but the teas we do make it ourself we have like fruit teas lemon teas uh and i also have
like a like big hot pot and uh like i have a little kitchen in the back as you guys could see
it in the picture yeah and we just do a tease trying to understand what's the extent of what's
being done in that kitchen so so they they have a hot pot to cook hot tea for hot tea service
okay and then they have cold teas mixed teas but no food cooking there's actually no there's no
heating there's a microwave i believe but there's no heating unit no stove none of that in that
space so any actual hot food it's are actually off of the menu from the restaurant and it was
it's per customer order when they say look can we get some snacks hot food from next door his
worker would actually take the order go to the restaurant get the order bring it back to the
location too because they're they're within steps of each other what's what's the capacity
what's your total capacity there uh it's around 30 people okay and then is there
And that was just, I see that there's a parking lot.
So I imagine that services with the parking,
the entire shopping center has parking both front and back.
Now the business that operates during the day,
he actually opens relatively late around five and opens with the restaurant
until early morning to about 2 AM.
The accounting offices and the business offices that also run in the area
in that exact shopping center,
actually they close around 5 so they've been working it this way to kind of offset some of
the parking issues they anticipate when people so there's so there's okay so the restaurant closes
at 2 a.m awesome i believe it's 24 hours it's 24 hours oh it's 24 hour restaurant okay
and then anything with amplified sound like are you playing music is there live music uh so there
is no loud music we play jazz uh piano like background uh smaller to not uh so this place
is more like to connect each other like have a conversation have a tea or have a meeting we have
also sometimes our clients come for business uh purposes for to talk to each other or they have
classes or uh sometimes they don't even even get uh hookah they get like just uh desserts and do
their homeworks and stuff but i we do check id it's 21 and over we have a whole sign in front
of door 21 and over even though you don't have alcohol on site because tobacco is 21 21 now
yeah um so my last question is so um one why did you choose this location and two um are most of
your clientele local or are people coming from different areas of the city to uh to the establishment
before you got shut down so basically uh where we where we live in northeast uh it's most of our
community people that they like they know what is that and they're familiar with uh what i sell it's
like uh tobacco's hookah as of hookah and they know that uh it's not loud plays they they like
the vibe they just like to come sit down chit chat play we also have a card games dominoes
uh chess games they also play playstations just have they basically it's a relaxed place just
like for a few hours to relax have a talk with a friend and that's it is there outdoor seating
no no okay all right um could you have a question all right um questions from our attorney
um is this sorry give me one second
Is this in a particular part of the, like a suite or something like that?
units within the shopping center overall i believe on the lease it actually cites the specific uh
let me go back to the lease i'm sorry
because i believe at the end of the lease there's actually a layout of the entire shopping center
which marks the exact unit that my client is leasing up right here so he's leasing that
space that is darkened on that particular image okay can we see what number that is
let me see if the least site okay you know what unit number you are in the shopping center
Number 14, number 40. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, questions or comments from the virtual audience could could you please.
But someone said there, but yeah, right.
good morning chairman members of the board alice udovich from councilman brian o'neill's office
and just for the record everybody knows but could you spell your name for those sure it's a-l-i-c-e
u-d-o-v-i-c-a do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do
please proceed the councilman supports somerton community in their opposition of this unfortunately
these operators are opening without permission and there's very little oversight with these
operations you can say now that you're not bringing in alcohol but it's open till 2 a.m
so i'm sure that that's an activity that people are going to partake in at this location
um you know we've just seen because the northeast has um still has some tobacco licenses available
where other parts of the city do not we're seeing these operators find the uh the northeast a
desirable location right um council do you have any questions for house um so mr uh has the
councilman could you get a little closer to the mic oh sure yeah has the councilman's office
received any direct complaints about my client's location for alcohol use
no thank you all right questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands with the chair planning commission
michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends
a change in zoning at this location from ca1 commercial auto oriented to cmx2 commercial
mixed use the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1977 in a council supported map change
there is no unique physical condition or circumstance of the property that would
prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code city planning commission
therefore recommends the board deny the proposed use variants for a smoking lounge um
obviously we've had opposing views of this i'd like to really sit and talk to the board and uh
we will vote on this next uh wednesday at 9 30. thank you thank you thank you thank you right
and eight you can go okay council could you please stay right yes so um
so MI 2025 006 767 1209 south broad street um council could you please just state your name
yes then Jen Z H E N J I N and um just for a point of information we have um a letter of
unanimous strong opposition against the property all right um and um could you identify your client
relationship to the property yes my client is uh 168 brother investment lc the property owner um
and mr uh john new should be here with us on zoom okay our vice chair has a few questions
um good morning again um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do thank you you can share your screen and proceed with this case thank you how many
questions on this it's do you think this is appropriate the classification so so we did have
So, so we did have just looking at the layout of the property. Um, it seems that it was more akin to group living rather than visitor accommodations where it was, you know, 6 rooms with with private bathrooms plus and then there's like 1 kitchen in the whole thing.
so it's more like communal living as opposed to visitor accommodations um i don't know if group
living generally i have to verify with l and i if it book includes both short and long-term um
rentals um so i need to check on that but we weren't weren't sure that the the use that was
applied for actually fit what was happening in the space so i just want to make that note for the
record so once again yep why don't you start thank you good morning uh this is an application
for 1209 south broad street uh for visitor accommodation so this property uh is zoned
rc5 it is a large brownstone on south broad street uh when it was purchased in 2022 uh it
already contained six bedrooms my clients did make renovation changes for visitor accommodation
purposes which is what they at the time intended we understand that in 2023 of course visitor
accommodation rules kicked in when they did the renovations with and they were done with permits
at the time uh the visitor accommodation was kind of a vague situation once they did the renovation
they started operations. They have been operating the space as visitor accommodations since that
time. We went to the meeting with South Broad Street Neighborhood Association and was met with
strong opposition and that is as anticipated due to the location and the type of building.
We understand the opposition's position that they do not like to see buildings renovated from
single family to this particular proposed use at the time that the renovations were done again
visitor accommodation was kind of a unknown factor for many of the owners to also understand why they
felt this particular building was okay for that the immediate building to one side is a four unit
building that's rented the immediate building to the right of this building was also a rental
building although it is still a single family zoning the entire across the street of that part
of broad street is commercial buildings yes they're single family uh used buildings not far
from this one i think two or three units down there is a existing single family that is owned
by an owner but at this particular spot with the number of bedrooms that it came with originally
my clients felt that this would be the best use they are they did follow all the requirements at
the time to get registered for airbnb use and that's really the the way that it is used is
airbnb we again we we totally understand why the community is against our proposal however
the way this building would operate um if if they were to be uh required to go back to single
family uh i'm not sure how they would be able to accommodate it back completely to single family
they would have to still look for some uh alternative ways to make sure it's legally used
limited lodging was discussed with my clients but they originally did not intend to actually
live in the space but again visitor accommodation has been what they started with this purchase for
what they did from the beginning and it was never hidden from the neighbors uh it was just done
because at the time they thought it would be permitted to be done in the way it was uh renovated
I want to show the board the current conditions of the property. As you can see, they did renovate it basically into individual small hotel room setups, their TVs for each room, each bedroom. They made a bathroom available for each unit as well. So it is essentially set up as a hotel, small hotel setup.
and visitor accommodation would fit that particular design and that is the intent
that they originally went for so we understand while we understand the
opposition from the neighborhood given its location on Broad Street and what
surrounds it and given that its proximity to
AND GIVEN THAT IT'S PROXIMITY TO THINGS LIKE THE VARIOUS STADIUMS IN SOUTH PHILLY, THIS
IS THE REASON WHY WE'RE SEEKING THE VISITOR ACCOMMODATION USED FOR THIS PROPERTY.
I'M GOING TO SHOW THE BOARD THE PLANS.
I'M SURE THERE WILL BE QUESTIONS RELATING TO THAT.
SO LET ME GO AHEAD AND SO THE WAY THE BUILDING IS SET UP, YOU WOULD ENTER ON THE FIRST FLOOR.
there's no living in the basement it's all storage utilities so each unit is a mark here
this is unit one two three four five six there are basically two units on each floor going up
to the third floor no kitchens on each floor uh there is a kitchen only on the first floor in the
back one kitchen and who's that for everybody oh that's for everybody oh no actually i'm sorry
that's only for unit 102 so if they have a uh customer that require requests a kitchen
availability so they give them that one that would be the unit they get so it's not for everybody
you want to bring your client on uh sure um mr do can you uh raise your hand virtually to be
IDENTIFIED? IS HE ON? HE SHOULD BE.
um it's uh z-h-i-q-i-n-l-i-u
okay can you uh mr liu can you raise your hand virtually to be identified
on zoom that's why i found them they should be back in short thank you
So, did you go to the meeting? Yes, I did. And could you tell us what happened there?
Well, we did over. So, it was a zoom meeting meeting. My client was present. I was there.
And generally, I've dealt with.
South broad street many years and I'm on good terms with their positions. Very straightforward. They're they're still trying to preserve.
serve as hard as they can every single family building that is still within their neighborhood
on south broad street they're beautiful brownstones i totally understand and they feel that with
the value of the properties being the way they are that a single family use would be
perfectly fine on south street regardless of what surrounding properties are used as
and that's i believe that is the main focus of their opposition in this case right and
And they felt that, again, we did tell them we did the renovations legally, but I think
the 2023 change issue didn't quite come to their mind.
They just assumed that my clients went in, illegally converted everything, and that was
Is your client getting on?
I don't know.
Jason, is he?
I haven't got them to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
jingoo are you available
i don't know if he's having technical issues it may be difficulties mr
uh we'll accept your testimony questions questions from the board how long have you
have has this been in service uh since 2022 when they purchased it they purchased it in like march
of 2022 so they basically started into that year to start the and they've been using it as a
basically a boots hotel basically yes
time all the questions are there interior photos yes um i showed the board earlier
i mean i think i'm struggling a little bit with the six units given that that one unit
that has the kitchen also has the only access to the rear yard um and i'm a little curious about
maintenance so this is these are the actual management conditions the so my
clients they they only have this location for they're actually they call
uh location for they're actually they call 168 brothers i mean the partners and the brothers
once they say brother
two brothers and partner they basically this is their main focus on this type of operation
uh they do come to the property on a regular basis they they're doing self-management of six
units yes they're they're doing the self-management on that yeah okay and then they're only booking
through like airbnb vrbo type websites yes what's been their current occupancy um that
unfortunately i did not ask them i don't have the answer to that yeah i think so i think a couple
concerns one i've stayed at a lot of hotels say a lot of boutique hotels this does not look like
a boutique hotel this looks like a pretty baseline budget short-term rental one that's meant for
volume and not for like experience um and i think even at most hotels right any typical hotel
there's still like a utility sink or like a kitchen sink that people have access to
there's usually check-in service there's usually other things on site that sort of make that
business model make sense and i think even when people converted houses into smaller versions
there's still some sort of common lounge area like check-in area place where you can store luggage
like this doesn't seem to have any of that which makes me question how it's
functioning without like an on-site manager it's primarily airbnb uh which means it's
booked online and people would bring this i mean like that part i understand like the function
of it i'm just saying like if this is the primary source i also think because they didn't add
kitchens there's nothing here other than a gfi for a refrigerator that made this um separate
i mean they're not like they're not on separate meters right like this could be very easily
converted back to a single family home other questions questions from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a handout from uh peter zutter i will go ahead and promote them
right now. They should be back in shortly.
Peter?
Yes? Hello?
Hi, Peter. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Sure. My name is Peter Zutter, P-E-T-E-R, Z-U-T-T-E-R.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, sir.
So I would just would like to start by emphasizing a few things that it appears that this owner has made an illegal use of the property if they have continued to use it as an Airbnb since the rules changed.
They also, the permits that they applied for did state that they were applying for renovations to a single family home.
And as was pointed out earlier, I believe by your attorney, this does look more like a rooming house.
So it looks like the, you know, their application for work to a single family home was not entirely accurate.
They've also shown poor property maintenance already by not shoveling snow.
they've had disruptive tenants in there who have caused disturbance to the
neighbors with loud music Mr. Jin had mentioned that it was not hidden from
the neighbors what they were doing but what they applied for was permits for a
single-family home and when we reached out to L&I what L&I told us is that
there are no regulations that prohibit a bathroom with each bedroom. So everyone went under the
assumption that this was just going to be like a newer house where there were more bathrooms. So
they've really not been upfront with the neighborhood. These uses, especially with
absentee landlords, they're always a problem. We have several of these and they're just always a
problem and this already has been a problem you know the applicants have not been honest with us
about their intents there and we are strongly opposed to it you can see mr chairman you probably
know how many people we usually get at our meeting we have quite a few people come out for this and
and oppose it the councilman is in opposition this is something that simply continues to degrade our
quality of life and that we are strongly opposed to all right let me see is anyone else in the
virtual audience um anyone else in a virtual audience yes chair a sandrine she on i will
promote them they should be back in shortly do you have any other hands after that just one more from
do you have any other hands after that just one more from an alex tran okay
I'm an Alex Tran.
can you hear me i can't hear you could you please say hi could you please state your name and spell
for us on green shown s-a-n-d-r-i-n-e last name shown s-h-e-o-n right you swear or firm to tell
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor um i'm not far away okay please
proceed um i did attend the um south broad street neighborhood association meeting when this case
came up before and it was clear to to us that there again the property owner did not appear
on the screen at all so we only have his lawyer to contend with it is clear from
the meeting that they purchased this property single-family home zone and
then proceeded to gut what was historically a beautiful building there
were several people who described having lived there before and just being
crushed by what they have done to it in the cheapest possible way they wanted to
or be it be it and then discovered that they didn't have the right license for it and so they
came to us the neighborhood association to make white what they have illegally done so okay yeah
i'm just confirming that this is really uh disturbing to see again these buildings are
beautiful and they should be kept beautiful to add value to our neighborhood thank you thank
you very much thank you very much for taking the time next hand please
please. Alex Tran will be coming back in shortly. Okay.
Can you hear me? Yes. Could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My full name is Alejandro Aguilar Tran, A-L-E-J-A-N-D-R-O, and then Aguilar Tran is A-G-U-I-L-A-R-I-F-E-N-T-R-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Sir, are you a neighbor?
I live right next to them.
Please proceed.
So when they originally, we did see, or actually knew the family that lives there before these new owners came in.
it was a i've been inside the house beautiful they had a lot of artwork it was a single family
that had a you know decently decently big family when they so when the new owners came in we saw
the permit it did say it was supposed to be a single family home i'm kind of skeptical we just
assumed there was going to be like a rework since it was an old building maybe something needed um
renovations but recently and it's actually been over the past couple of years the tenants that
move in there they've been loud they've been partying the odor from the marijuana they've
been smoking has seeped into our rooms multiple times and i've had to close my windows open up
the fan and just get like a bunch of air fresheners just to drown out the smell there's a little alley
in the um like between our houses you can hear them yelling and screaming and the people right
across from my room specifically i've also heard them yelling and screaming and it's like different
voices every time so i i take it you're in my backyard you're against this
sure i'm opposed to this you're against the pro you you're not in favor of it
can you know i'm opposed to this so you're not in favor of this project yes i can hear you
yeah okay thank you very much is there anyone else in the audience
no further hands mr chair planning commission
Good morning, Michael Gall with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 residential single-family
attached zoning at this location. This is a highly transit accessible location on a main arterial
street appropriate for visitor accommodations under certain conditions, and it is surrounded
by existing multifamily and commercial uses. Due to its interior layout, this effectively functions
as a single six-bedroom visitor accommodation unit. Therefore, the City Planning Commission
recommends the board grant but with a recommended proviso of maximum one unit
yeah oh my 2025 006 767 1209 south broad street i vote no
uh cheryl guest and my vote is no tanetta graham my vote is no
i'm mcadams my vote is no i win my vote is no thank you councilor i believe i have one more
matter is it's 7105 you have here you go here you go mi 2025 0067
Here you go. Here you go. MI-2025-006-765-7109 Ridge Avenue. Zen, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes. Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N-J-I-N. Here on behalf of the app.
Right. And could you identify your client, please?
Yes. The property owners are Ms. Lynn and Mr. Jones, Z-H-E-N-G and L-I-N.
One of them should be here with us.
And you have a unanimous support and the strong support from another RCO.
Our wife's chair has a few questions.
that's great good to hear that uh good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits
five days in advance of this hearing yeah and do you waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy all right thank you can share your screen and proceed with you
i'm going to share with the board i'm sorry excuse me this is the court reporter could
i ask mr jen to get closer to the mic sure uh yeah and i think someone needs to mute as
well got a mute in the background here yeah go ahead all right can the board see my uh yeah it's
up sir okay thank you so the reason uh this application was refused uh by l and i is because
the zoning district when it was remapped this property fell under rm1 however as the community
support letter has indicated the business that exists there has been there for many many years
and well loved by the community they actually thought it would be grandfathers into some kind
of commercial mixed use when it was remapped but somehow the property ended up as rm1
as a result essentially we're trying to legalize the continued existence of this
printing business it's a it's a small family-owned business that's been in the area for many years
so the i'm going to show the board the photo very quickly uh this is a again a part of the
avenue that has multiple commercial uses nearby this is a printing shop we have dunkin donuts
across the street yep and it is separated from other uses nearby so there are no issues with
impacting neighbors as far as the printing use or the limited commercial use that is there now
I'm going to show the Board of Plans again very quickly.
It's the whole entire first floor is the printing shop.
That's essentially what it is.
And with that, I would ask for the Board's favorable review of this matter.
Thank you.
Do you have your client come on, please?
I'm not sure which of the two of my clients might be here.
So there's no changes?
You're just trying to correct what was done?
correct this is a legalization yeah i got it all right um i don't know if miss miss lin or mr jung
is on on the uh zoom can you raise your hand see if you can be do we see anyone on the zoom
i see chaffan then is in the virtual audience yeah that's it yeah chaffling please chaffling
Please raise your virtual hand and wait to be sworn in.
Prior to the hearing, yep, prior to the hearing.
Who's that one in the background?
You're still going to.
I'm having some difficulty with my clients on Zoom today.
I apologize.
nice and uh one more time chow fun then please raise your virtual hand away to this one in
council mr chair you can proceed
sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Okay. All right. You're an officer of the court. We'll take your test money. Does anyone have any questions?
Questions from our attorney?
Yes. I just wanted to clarify. So what's on the floors above? Because there's not
any reference to that on the refusal um so i believe if please give me one moment sure
i believe there's a residential unit above that's what it says right yeah yeah i just wasn't sure
if it was if it was just one or or two because looking at the zoning history there were two
previously it has two units it is two okay so so what i would actually recommend in this case
so what i would actually recommend in this case because the the refusal doesn't mention any of
because the refusal doesn't mention it.
that um in those and because of this the well the rm1 zoning it should be the you should be fine
subject to the um the lot area so i think we might want to amend the refusal and just indicate that
those that this thing uses the remain right exactly so um and they can just check the lot
area and verify that um so i my suggestion would be to hold and just amend so that because of the
way it's written i'm just a little concerned that it's not counting the other uh other uses so are
these that are there yeah hillary should we continue 1-0 and then just close it except for
that right yeah exactly virtual audience please chair i do not see any hands raised for the matter
planning commission planning commission morning michael gov with the philadelphia city planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning from at this location to cmx
5 commercial mixed use in 2018 this parcel was remapped from its previous zoning of rsa 5
residential single family attached to its existing rm1 residential multi-family designation
the local community also undertook a comprehensive remapping in 2024 that covered this area but opted
not to remap this individual property that said the proposed business and professional and business
support uses would be compatible with the local corridor as a number of similar compatible uses
exist along ridge avenue in this area therefore the city planning commission recommends the board
grant proposed variances for business and professional and business support uses thank
you uh we will wait till we have the amended refusal and but everything is closed okay thank you
Thank you.
6151 Market Street.
Joseph Consul is the attorney.
There's unanimous support
of the project,
but I think we're going to be here and hold.
Am I correct?
I think there's a tax issue.
Oh, yeah.
I think with this one, yes.
is there a tax issue hillary i didn't see that in my notes and sorry to talk out of turn you're
right oh no no you're you're fine no i think i think the this is an instance where the wrong
tax clearance was submitted so when we looked there is a balance on the property okay all
right I'll address that with my client when I call him so could you please
state your name and spell for the stenographer yes Joseph console that's
J O S E P H last name is console C O N S O L E do you swear or firm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do could you identify a client
in relationship to the property yeah it's a six one five one market LLC the
The owner, Daniel Harvey, is on the call and our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
All right.
Thank you.
You can see your screen and proceed with the case.
All right.
Good morning, board.
Joseph Consul here representing 6151 Market Street, LLC.
As mentioned, Daniel Harvey is on the call with me today.
As you can see on the refusal, this property is zoned CMX2, commercial mixed use.
We're here respectfully requesting a use variance to permit a vacant commercial space on the first floor
and a multifamily household living for four dwelling units above.
The city issued this refusal based on the lot area calculation.
We have just over 1,200 square feet available, which does not permit four units by right.
However, this is not a new development proposal.
We're not adding density nor expanding the footprint.
This has been physically and legally operated with four residential units for over two decades.
We have proof of that.
Although, as I'll show you in a second, the file got muddied when the property went vacant.
So we're here hopefully to restore the official zoning record to match the long-standing reality
of this property so my client can legalize it and pull rental licenses.
So I'll pull up some of the old files now. If we go back to 2001, the archives show use registration permit issued in May of that year, approved of commercial on the first floor, two apartments on the second floor, and two apartments on the third floor.
So I'll pull up some of the old files now. If we go back...
So what happened between then and now, we believe we know. There was a vacant property license pulled in 2004, which, as the board knows, negates previous approvals.
and that held in place until 2014 the property remained vacant after that the owner who had
purchased it got a approval for what they could get by right this is what we believe happened so
they got a food and beverages grocery on the first floor and two dwelling units above there's no
evidence in any records that they did any structural work or anything at this time to
bring the number of units down. And as you'll see in the photos, the property has the requisite
number of meters and things like that, that would lend credence to the fact that the property was
never actually internally down-zoned despite this approval. So when my client purchased the property
in 2023, L&I actually issued him a four-unit rental license, which matched the physical
reality of the building. There it is on the screen. However, my client applied for a fire
alarm permit after he had gotten this use permit, and L&I audited that record. They noticed the
vacant property license and the gap in the four-unit licensing history, and because
it wasn't by right, they told my client that they had to revoke his four-unit license and
he had to go through zoning to get it approved. So what we are calling administrative paper
gap is the reason why we're here before you today. And my client can attest that as he
understands and as the community understood, there was no down zoning on this property
internally. So that's kind of my background spiel. There's our refusal. It says only two dwelling
units are permitted by right. We have the letter of support from the community.
The community notes in their letter they're appreciative of these improvements on the
Market Street corridor and they feel confident because the applicant is a member of the community
who has several sites like this around this area and he is someone that invests in this part of
the city. In addition to that, we had submitted a long set of petitions from various neighbors on
around north and south 62nd street robinson street hearst and market street itself this includes um
the next door neighbor which is a vacuum store and another business across the street which is um
peerless chemical products so that's all in the packet all of our petitions of support um
and the rco was pretty diligent in checking up on those to make sure they were all valid
uh so go back to here proof of mailing
photos there's the exterior of the property uh the last uh permitted use of that commercial
space was a salon you'll see now it is a white box space so it looks like when the shutters are up
Here's the commercial space interior.
Do-do-do-do, got one bathroom.
Exterior rear.
It's the basement showing all the meters.
Unit 2B.
i'll show the plans in a second too but just to give everyone an idea of
the condition of the property which is quite nice
it's no boutique hotel to reference a comment from earlier
pretty good joe thanks man
I think it's just good.
Again, all the petitions are here and I'm, you know, we've got the deed to my client
from 2023.
And then obviously we have to address the tax clearance, which you do when I call my
client in in um in a moment why don't you bring your client one yeah all right uh daniel can you
raise your virtual hand the person will be coming back in shortly as a panelist
good morning good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer sir
sure daniel harvey d-a-n-i-e-l h-a-r-v-e-y you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth i do counsel good uh morning mr harvey did you hear my testimony just
now regarding your property at 6151 market street llc i did do you adopt what i said as your own
yes uh and is it true incorrect that this building upon purchase was already physically set up for
the four apartments in one commercial space that is correct okay and regarding the tax clearance
issue um if the board holds its vote today will you be able to clear all um any existing tax issues
with with that property to allow them yeah that's been done the trash fees were paid yesterday and
i set up a a a payment arrangement with the city okay i have nothing further for my client
we're gonna see it right okay questions from the board
what is the uh trash removal and storage plan for the property uh we we have someone on our team
that that goes around and you know places the trash out our tenants brings out brings the trash out
and our guys go places them on on the curb um and then cleans up after the trash truck leaves
that's just a weekly weekly routine that we do so you historically haven't had any issues with
tenants putting trash out prior to their trash day not that i'm aware of and i know the owners
on both sides so I haven't heard any issues all the questions what just for
clarity these are all intended to be one bedroom apartment that's correct yes I
apologize I didn't I didn't walk through the the as-built plans but they're on
screen now and then what's the plan for packages with the salon on the first floor
the slam i mean i would imagine they're there when the packages come but outside of that i don't
there's no you would imagine that the tenants are there when the packages come
oh i thought you said the uh for for the commercial on the first floor
what's the plan with four units for packages i don't have a plan for for that
because there's not much of a vestibule i just think that's something you might want to
and then are the the tenants are coming in through the front door uh the front left side that's
correct yeah there there there is a vestibule when you step inside uh there's a gap between
where you walk inside and the steps going up so the the sorry the patrons of the hair salon are
going to come in through a separate entrance because it does look like it has access to that
vestibule no it's separate it has its own if you stick on that side yeah so so so that has its own
door that goes straight straight straight into the commercial space okay
is that roll down grill there and that was in the other picture is that gone now and it's
just a glass and glass door or is it the roll down grill there the roll down grill is there
that was oh this is before the roll down grill that's correct that's the before
that's current
well that just took a dive down with the road that
well that just took a dive down with the road that grill yeah that was yeah
all the questions questions from our attorney so is is there a proposed commercial use now because
the the refusal says vacant no it's just vacant right right now we're just getting getting get
to the very right because we i was hearing things about a salon and so that personal services would
be by right in this zoning district i mean you would need to go get a separate you need to get
a separate permit for that because it's not included in this application that was the that
was the last use in this space hillary i'm sorry if i misspoke okay okay that's where i was getting
a little confused all right no problem questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no
further hands mr. chair planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the cmx-2 commercial mixed-use zoning this
property is on a main arterial street a block from a transit hub surrounded by
multifamily conversions and has a documented history of multifamily use
dating back to at least 2001 the proposed use would not cause undue harm beyond
what might otherwise be expected at this location therefore the state
all right so i understand hillary we have to hold this until we actually see the uh right we just
need proof of tax completely right it sounds like if that's already taken care of we should be able
to vote this next week i didn't say we're going to vote for this next week next wednesday at 9 30
a.m once we have the tax clearance okay and the records otherwise it's closed everything's closed
all right i'll have my team pull it now and send it over thanks everyone thank you
all right number 11. for for the record uh for the record uh i did hear the case on south broad
street and my vote was no just so you have that thank you thank you michael yep so i got kicked
out for some reason i don't know what happened so number 11 mi 2025 006 751 812 south 49th street
mirth furlicker is the attorney there's um
let's see the letter of unanimous non-opposition from cedar park
good morning council or almost afternoon good afternoon i have to say ian's estimated time was
12 0 6 and it is 12 0 4 getting better and better every day just remarkable
all right so could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer
meredith ferlinger f-e-r-l-e-g-e-r do you swear referring to tell the truth told you
nothing but the truth yes i do um could you identify your client and relationship to the
property sure my client is mm AG properties LLC and that is the owner of
the property represented today by Anton go on who is right behind our vice chair
has a few questions good um afternoon have you submitted your documents and
exhibits five days in advance of this hearing I did and do you waive the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy I do to both all right
thank you you can share your screen and proceed with the keys thank you mr.
chairman members of the board i do also have our architect alex duller with fusa designs
here with us today uh just in case there are any specific questions on the application itself
all right the property before you today is 812 south 49th street in west philadelphia cedar park
neighborhood simply today's application is to legalize three dwelling units in the property
where the zoning history indicates a use over the years of between two and four units.
Specifically, there is no question as to the legality of two of the units, and a valid
rental license for two of those units has been maintained on file for at least the last
20 years to current day.
This request only pertains to one unit, which was occupied by the former owner prior to
my client's ownership and is part of the reason we assume that there is a discrepancy in the unit
count as board chair mentioned we did receive a letter of support from cedar park neighbors
association and just administratively our tax clearance is in the exhibits at exhibit two
and the deed to the property showing my client purchased it uh in august of 2015 is shown at
Exhibit 3. The property itself is located on South 49
the property itself is located on south 49th street between florence avenue and warrington avenue
i have up on the screen exhibit eight to give you a better sense of the location of this particular
property as you can see here on the north view looking in a north direction it shows that this
block is predominantly made up of semi-detached twin homes and again if i scroll down
why did this zoom in on me
if i scroll down further looking in the opposite direction again you can see the
the makeup of this block is really characteristic cedar park twin detached homes semi-detached
at exhibit seven i have the zoning map which shows that the property in the surrounding area
are predominantly zoned rsa3 in this area
at exhibit 15 i have photographs of the property
and i'll walk through showing the well-maintained property that again is a really characteristic
brick twin structure that is very common to this area of West Philadelphia. There are three current
units that are in this building, all three of which are bi-level. I'll bring up the floor plans
in a moment, but as you'll see, the unit in question occupies a portion of the first floor
and the lower level that is more than half above grade. All of these three units are and have been
consistently occupied for the duration of my client's ownership so just to walk you through
the photographs again you can see here on the right hand side you can see one of two access
points to the unit that is in question before the board today and as you'll see in a moment
these stairs lead lead directly into the kitchen in the next photograph
you can see here the inconspicuous shared trash storage location on the side of the building
as well as a photograph from the back of the structure where you can see a well-loved garden
that is maintained by one of the tenants guessing it looks a little bit more lively in the spring
and summer whereas this photograph was taken in the middle of the winter
just to give you a little bit better context again for this area you can see
this the characteristic semi-detached twin structures that line this block up and down
the street and then again this is looking uh towards the property from beaumont street which
intersects the street right in the middle and other than this newer structure right in the
middle you can see most of it is fairly uniform in character and then turning back to the property
itself i've provided two other photographs showing there are three electrical meters
each serving one of the units and then just another view of the front of the property as well
i will turn back in a moment to interior pictures but before i do that i want to walk you through
the floor plans so that you have a sense of what you're actually looking at when we get to the
floor plans. So we will start first. And again, I do have the architect just in case there's any
questions. So I want to start in reverse here and work our way down instead of up. So starting with
unit two you can see unit two labeled here this unit is an existing 1 000 square foot unit
the existing living and kitchen areas are in the front of the property on the second floor
with the bedrooms occupying the entire third floor of unit two
moving to unit three unit three is an existing 957 square foot unit with the bedrooms occupying
the back half of the second floor and then if I move down again you can see that the kitchen
living area and there's even an additional work room that are in the first floor in the rear
and again as a reminder these two units are not the ones that are before the board today
there are these two units have been documented for quite some time
the unit that has been lost through permitting is the unit that was occupied by the former owner
which is unit one so this unit is uh just over 800 square feet
and you can see that it is like the rest a bi-level uh unit that has living space on the
and you can see that it is like the rest a bi-level uh unit
first floor and then the rest of this unit is on the lower level which again has an existing
kitchen and dining area as well as uh two bedrooms
there is also an unfinished attic in this building and there is a plan of that as well
we did also include sections just to give you a sense of the the grade of this building and again
you can see here that the that lower level really functions uh as the the first floor it is
predominantly above grade here with that set of stairs that you saw in the photographs and again
there's a couple of different sections uh that we that we can walk through if that would be helpful
so now that you have the context from the floor plans i'll walk back through the interior photographs
so that you can see the unit a little bit more clearly let me just make sure okay yeah so this
is the first one so uh to the left here is uh bathroom and laundry to the right is that first
floor living space so this is looking out to uh south 49th street if you walk out this door you
then are right at the door to the front door and then if we flip in the opposite direction
on the next photograph this is the hallway that then leads down to the steps
the next photograph is walking down the steps and then uh this is showing one of the bedrooms at a
POINT WHEN IT WAS UNOCCUPIED BUT I DO ALSO HAVE CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWING ITS OCCUPIED CONDITION.
BASED ON GUIDANCE FROM THE ARCHITECT THIS PARTICULAR EGRASS WINDOW DOES NEED TO BE
UPDATED TO MODERN CODE STANDARDS WHEN ANTON APPLIES FOR A CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY.
NEXT YOU CAN SEE THE KITCHEN AND THEN MOVING INTO THE RIGHT IS NOW THE CURRENT CONDITIONS
of this unit showing that it is currently occupied and again this is that first floor living space
and then this is as you're standing in the kitchen looking at that door and then again
to the right would be leading directly out to uh this path that leads directly out to the street
so the kitchen is basically directly behind you in this photograph
Now, regarding the refusal, because the property itself is zoned RSA 3, the application was
refused entirely for the multifamily use, not just for the legalization of the one unit.
RSA 3 would also require one parking space per unit, where the existing conditions, of
course, have none.
At Exhibit 9, I have included the zoning permit history.
again just to try and give you some sense of what i believe might have happened here
and this shows the progression of the unit count uh and should establish at least some sense of
of where we have uh moved into current day so here you can see that in 1937 a variance was
granted for use of this property as four dwelling units if we then fast forward again this is 1937
174 dwelling units and then if we move fast forward to 1979 you can see existing conditions
at the top with the four and then a permit was submitted to reduce it to two units with
one of the units at that point being identified as the owner's apartment now history on this
property was maintained essentially until the 80s and now even as of the 80s you can
SEE THAT IN TERMS OF THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS, I DO HAVE ANOTHER PERMIT HERE, EVEN AS OF THE 80s,
YOU CAN SEE THAT THAT STAIRWELL WAS ALREADY IN EXISTENCE AS OF THAT POINT.
AND THEN IF WE MOVE TO THE NEXT AVAILABLE PERMIT HISTORY, A CLEAR DISCREPANCY EMERGES,
WHERE YOU CAN SEE THAT IN 2003, A RENTAL LICENSE WAS OBTAINED FOR TWO UNITS.
However, at that point, the former owner was still living in one of these units, and no rental license would have been required for the owner-occupied unit.
This rental license was maintained until 2015 when my client purchased the property, and then he took over the licensing as well.
Now, aside from the permit history and the physical conditions, the property itself also suffers a clear hardship in that it has never, based on all of the history, maintained a single family use.
in that it has never based on all of the history maintained a single-family use and we would argue
that the photographs and physical conditions make it clear that this layout has existed for many
decades each of the three units are large and have been consistently occupied at least during Anton's
ownership but even before that I did also include here an appraisal that was done shortly after the
anton purchased the property again just to show that even at that point in time
i'll bring up below even as of that time it was a triplex
noted right here and highlighted and it looks like it was built in 1906.
and then i did also again i won't walk through them but i did include relevant sections of
leases, just to show again that these were occupied very shortly after he purchased,
and that the physical modifications of this property were not done by Anton himself.
It would not only be a considerable hardship to return the structure to a single-family
use given its long-standing multifamily use, but it would be a further hardship to attempt
to convert it to two units which the history shows likely never existed but instead was only
considered two units because of that owner occupied condition even beyond the properties
history itself exhibit 10 shows that the proposal is consistent with the context of the density of
this block which are mostly three and four units with a couple of duplexes and even some five or
six unit properties as well there are only a handful of single-family homes on this block
despite the rsa3 zoning you might also note in terms of one of up one of the other refusals
that not a single one of these properties have off-street parking and the physical conditions
of both this property and all of the others on this block would render it impossible to provide
any parking for the existing units. If the board is interested, I do have several case law
references confirming that it would be unreasonable and not the least minimum variance to request that
a property owner convert a structure back to single-family use after a long history of
multifamily use, nor would it be justifiable to require physical modifications to reduce it by
one unit to render it in compliance with inconsistent permit history this is not a
self-imposed hardship as i did mention and as anton can confirm uh he purchased the property
in its physical condition and is undertaking this process voluntarily to ensure that the property
has all up-to-date permits in place he did initially start this process and hired the
architect shortly after his purchase but life unfortunately got in the way of it being completed
no violations were issued for this use i did also include a memo of law at exhibit 11
confirming that the prop the proposal will not increase congestion harm neighbors
properties or impair light and air and as board chair mentioned did receive a vote of unanimous
non-opposition.
Anton?
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the Sanofre?
Make sure you're close to the mic.
Anton Gallant, A-N-T-O-N-G-O-L-A-N-T.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Counsel?
Thank you.
Anton, have you heard all of the testimony and evidence that I offered in front of the
board today?
Yes, I did.
Was that testimony true and accurate, and would you adopt it as if you had given it yourself?
And just real quickly, could you just give the board an understanding of how you maintain this property in terms of trash and other maintenance?
So my company does our own maintenance on the properties that we have.
We have several employees that go out and they take care of trash and repairs and so on and so forth.
thank you we're happy to answer any questions questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the um
the audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission
morning michael gall with the philip city planning commission uh the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the existing RSA3 residential single-family attached zoning at this location.
There is a documented history of multifamily use in this property dating back to 1937. The proposed
use would not cause undue detriment beyond what might otherwise be expected. Therefore,
the City Planning Commission recommends the Board grant the requested variance for multifamily use.
MI-2025-006591-812-SOUTH-49th-Street. I vote yes.
William Moore- My vote is yes.
William Moore- Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
William Moore- Tenetta Graham, my vote is yes.
William Moore- Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
William Moore- Ryan, my vote is yes.
William Moore- Thank you.
William Moore- Counsel, I will mention to Ian that you made it within a minute, one minute.
amazing thank you board listen i i aim to please okay was i last again
um i'm starting to see what's going on here this this is years now of me you weren't you weren't
last yesterday is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called
from the 930 list all right see everybody okay see everyone at 2 p.m. thank
you yeah you can step out that way you can get a little break
she may not come back michael all right right yeah that's right don't do that don't do that
okay everyone good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this meeting
of the philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our board vice chair danetta graham
president mr chairman board secretary cheryl l gaston president mr chair board member
michael johns president mr chairman board member kaya win and our board member ryan mcadams mcadams
is right outside also present is our board attorney hillary emerson our zoning board
director ian haggarty and our board administrator lakesha dandy a recording of this hearing will be
posted on the zba website by participating you consent to be recorded this is an in-person
meeting with remote capabilities when remote or in person if you are called to speak you must state
and spell your name and then wait to be sworn in once you've been sworn in please state your name
name each time you testify any person may enter their appearance as an interested party there are
three ways you can identify the case address on your zoom webinar you can see a staff member or
Or you can call the ZBA appearance line by the close of business tomorrow, call 267-270-5548.
Leave a message that includes your email address and all the address, also the address of the
appeal case.
The following guidance is for our remote attendees.
When directed, you must raise your virtual hand in order to be recognized to speak.
second if you're called to testify you will be prompted to join as a panelist please accept
and and please accept the request and turn to your camera third the webinar q a is for questions
about the hearing do not comment on the q a and fourth if you're participating by phone
press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute for in-person attendees
please refrain from talking eating or drinking verbal and physical aggression will not be
tolerated restrooms are across from the restrooms are across in the elevator a water fountain is
just outside the room to the right when speaking on the record you must speak directly into the
microphone in order to be heard by all attendees and the court reporter in the event of an emergency
please follow the directions given over the public address system or by the staff
the main exit is through the double doors in the rear of the room the nearest stairwell is
to the left outside the doors in case of an evacuation the rally point is love park directly
across arch street please remain there so that we can account for you let's look at our schedule
Number 6, MI-2025-007-692-1311 South 4th Street.
That case is continued until 8-5-2026 at 2 p.m.
Is there any other requests for continuance?
We're going to go to our add-on list.
No answer.
Raise at the same checks.
number one 2025-007-550-1400 mcnulty road
I vote yes with proviso. Per refusal dated 227-26.
i vote yes with proviso per refusal dated
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with proviso.
Number two, 2025-007-585-2129 Sybert Street.
i vote yes with proviso internal trash storage michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is no sonetta graham my vote is yes with proviso ryan mcadams my vote
is yes with proviso tye win my vote is yes with proviso number three mi2026 000 792 753 north
44th street i vote yes johnson my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my
vote is no ryan mcadams my vote is yes i am when my vote is no number four mi 2025 007 186 36 15
spring garden street i vote yes temporary variance expires 4 29 29
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
i can see that oh okay so i'm sorry per amended refusal dated 4 17 76 it's a referral temporary
temporary uh variance expires 229 29. johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
tennetta graham my vote is yes with proviso i'm mcadams my vote is yes with proviso hi
owen my vote is yes with proviso and mr chair just a note for the record it's now a uh referral
special exception yeah so just temporary special exceptions at the temporary variance so just you
don't have to revote. I'm just clarifying for the record. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's
interesting. We're going to start. Number one will be case five, MI 2025, 007, 641, 254 to 60 South 24th
Street. Elaine Hong is the appellant.
This application is for a third floor above roof deck opening at the third floor about, here it is here,
above a teen two-story building for use as a single-family household building
who's going to testify
he's going to work the computer for you all right could you do me a favor could you please
state your name and spell for the stenographer
yeah no is your you have to turn it on right
my name is elena huang it's e-l-e-n and the last name is h-u-a-n-g right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do our vice chair has a few questions for
you okay good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
hearing we have okay and oh go ahead all right nope all right so um so you have uh two refusals
do you waive the reading of the refusals or do you stipulate to the accuracy of the refusals
okay so your refusals you have two refusals right do you stipulate to their accuracy do
you know what your refusals are i can read them to you if you need me to no i understand
all right okay all right so thank you you can show your screen and proceed and the center city
residents associations is a non-opposition correct all right share your screen so my name is elena
huang as i stated before um this is my husband larry leso he is the stated um appellant on the
file but i'm the homeowner so we weren't sure i i'm happy with that hillary okay that's what i
thought okay okay all right um thank you so much we're proposing to renovate and expand our single
family one-bedroom property into a two-bedroom property. The second bedroom will be created by
adding a third story. A portion of that third story will contain a small roof deck and the
property will remain as stated a single-family dwelling. ZBA approval is needed because there
dwelling zba approvals needed because there are two variances that we're requesting the first is for
are two variants.
section 14 305 6d for non-conforming structures the existing rear wall of the first and second
story is non-conforming under the current code section 14 701 2b7 the required rear yard depth
for the lots less than 45 feet deep is seven feet and the existing rear yard depth is 5.54 feet
under section 14 305 6d a vertical extension of the rear wall does that does not conform to the
code is not permitted as the existing rear yard does not conform a variance is required from
section 13 14 305 60 to allow for the extension of the wall for the proposed third story
So that's the first. The second is for 146045A for roof decks. This requires that roof decks be set back at least five feet from the front building line. The proposed roof deck has zero setback from the front building line, and a variance would be required from the section to allow for that construction.
What do you do in your words? Tell us what you want to do.
So we'll go from there.
He's a land survey and civil engineer. He wrote what I'm supposed to say.
Oh, well, you know, I mean, why did you listen to him?
I was practicing last night.
My understanding, my layperson understanding of this situation is that essentially for the first piece about the third floor, that it would need to be 18 inches set back from the existing first and second floor, which would then require a wonky design to even be able to support them the roof above it.
And then also be a concern in terms of water, right? So you would have this ledge of 18 inches that's set at the top of that first and second floor that would be sticking out if the third floor were set back according to code.
So that's our understanding is that, you know, we're trying to request the third floor to match the first and second floor extension.
And then the roof deck, the goal here is because of the layout of the existing structure, which he's showing now, where the plumbing and mechanical systems exist for us to then be able to carry that forward to the new proposed floor, the third floor in the roof deck is that the existing stairs occupy the space to the right of the building existing bathrooms are currently in the back left portion.
So to be able to keep those structures in place as we move the third floor in, we, the roof deck pretty much can kind of sit only in that front left position.
And I think so I said stairs, I said plumbing, let me make sure I've got everything else there.
So I see the building next door is most of the block three stories.
Most of the block is three stories, you are better.
Yes, correct.
And to also clarify about the other houses on the block a roof deck closer than 5 feet to the front building line would still be in character for the neighborhood there.
As you can see, my neighbor also has a roof deck that also comes to the front of the building, and we have a list of other and pictures of other similar roof decks in the area.
Summary of the RCO meeting, that was February 24, 2026 with the CCRA. We presented this and
they granted their decision to not oppose the request. We then have many photos and proposed
plans that we can share in answering these questions. Why are you doing it? Why are you
doing it? Why don't you tell us why you're doing it? Do you want more space? This was my home for
many years until we got married, had two kids and moved to the suburbs. I've been able to
rent the home out to pretty good tenants over the years. Most of them stay for a year to
three years. And we do find that it's an awkward space, kind of a funny building that only
has one bedroom. So it's a little bit tougher to find the right tenants who are going to
take good care of the place and enjoy living there. So we often have people like, oh, you
to do a second bedroom is there another option for um us and our family to be there you know
having a child having a roommate those are all things that we've kind of run into in terms of
finding good tenants so there's only one bedroom in the current only one bedroom so you're doing
this to put an extra bedroom in like a little deck outside that yes and you know to be truthful
it's an old old building so um you know we have this discussion from a construction and cost
Do we just renovate it and leave it as is? Do we make it in the existing structure into a very small two bedroom option? And we're attempting here to think about try to make it a really nice place for people to stay.
Okay. Questions from the board.
Questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience or this current audience here?
Mr. Chair, I do not see any other answers for the matter.
Planning Commission.
Amy, board with the Planning Commission, AY, B-O-Y-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
The Comprehensive Plan recommends no change in zoning at this location to the RSA 5 Residential
Single Family.
The proposed addition will have minimal impact on surrounding properties.
However, the Appellant has not demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions
or circumstances of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformity with
the zoning code for roof setback.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the requested variance for extension
of the rear yard non-conformity and deny the requested variance for the roof deck setback
thank you mi2025-007-641-258-60 south 24th street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tanetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
I win my vote is yes you you have your votes okay thank you very much thank you
you're very good by the way I'm just good presentation not my day sound
number one MI 2024 003 927 545 5344 Ray Street
Moomin Islam is the owner.
What's that?
And great attorney.
Okay, Moomin is the great, great, great, green, green, green eagler.
Oh, the green eagle program.
All right.
You don't have to stay, by the way.
You don't have to stay unless you want to stay for the rest of the day.
Mr. Chair, Moomin Islam will be back in Ezebubanaga shortly.
good afternoon council could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes mukman
m-u apostrophe m-i-n last name is islam i-s-l-a-m as in mary you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client a relationship
to the property uh my client is uh green eagle properties uh they are the owner of the property
53 44 ray street and the 44th ward has unanimous support for you and our vice chair has a few
questions all right good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days
in advance of this hearing uh i have submitted them from previous hearings um i did send some
updates that were uh sent in a couple of days ago i had given the new tax clearance and the poster
okay thank you and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do all right thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case all right thank you
all right
there you go you're coming up now sir
All right.
Give me one second.
All right.
I apologize. Good afternoon. My name is Mukmin Islam. I'm an attorney and I'm with Ace Law.
I am here to present regarding this property. This property is 5344 Race Street. As you can
see right here, this is the front facing of the property. I'll get a little bit into the
detail with about it in a minute, but what we're asking for is generally speaking is
minute but what we're asking for is generally speaking is a rsa rsa3 and we're asking for it
to RSA, RSA,
to be modified to allow for a duplex and i'll explain to you why we're asking for legalization
today as opposed to this is not new development this was already built as it was constructed
and my clients and um are wishing to have it as a duplex based upon um the structure that they were
they they have when they moved into it all right I should say acquired it
okay can I get this move
it's my screen moving not sure all right there we go it did not move there bring
this down all right let's try it now there we go all right give it a little background on the
property hold up hold up it didn't move it moved now it did not move stop sharing and then reshare
All right, I'm going to re-share.
Re-share.
you see the screen now it should come up but I it hasn't come up yet
there you go all right rather than showing in the presentation mode it seems like my computer is not
cooperating so i'm just going to show it in the format here as you can see just to give you a
brief description of the owners green eagle properties the primary owner samuel yuxel
he is the managing member of that entity they are currently have several development properties
that they're working on or have either managing or are developing the list is here there's 900
east shelton is another project that was approved by this board 1818 south canastoga 1325 linden
world um currently they're managing those other three properties and as i mentioned earlier my
name is mukman islam and i will be i am the attorney on this file a brief overview as i
mentioned earlier what the developer is trying to do is to have this legalized i'll show you a little
bit in a minute on the floor plan but there's already a current structure where it's two separate
units essentially that were created. It's not
two inches, which is something we would like to propose, but what we're asking for
is currently it's a RSA3, and we're asking for it to be
an RM1, or at least just to give the legalization to utilize it as a
duplex.
Did something happen to my screen or not?
It did not move yet.
You see it says overview now? I see the overview, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's where I'm at.
That's where I am. Just give you a little explanation. I'll show you the grid in a second. The properties around this unit are somewhat mixed use. There is a unit that's on a corner that is a three story unit and a three unit construction that was recently constructed. So that's that there. And then also you'll see that there are on several parts of this corner on these blocks. You'll see that there is some commercial activity.
So the use that we're asking for as a duplex would not change the current structure of the neighborhood, and it wouldn't necessarily impact it with additional traffic and things of that nature.
Lastly, regarding the tax clearances, the tax clearances, I want to demonstrate that.
Now here is right here what I was talking about as far as what the current layout is.
The property that we're talking about is around this area.
What you have is you see some CMX, CMX, CMX, and then you also see some other commercial properties.
So there is some commercial activity in the area. Some of them are corner stores. I understand one of them may be a daycare or at least some type of home health care type of program. And that's what you have in the area. So it's not completely just residential. And then secondly, if you look at this map, this is a very good map as well, because you'll see the same thing here. So the orange represents the commercial or other activity. I don't think it's commercial, but the purple is the commercial.
and you'll see this one right here this is where my client's property is right
where my client's property is right on this street here on ray street so it's right about here so
on this street here on Ray Street so it's right about here so you'll see that
you'll see that there's two commercial right near in that area which one thing i would say that my
client did purchase the property with the understanding that it was a duplex at least
based upon how it was currently construed at the time i'll show you some pictures of the inside so
you can see how it's hard this is already things that were done when they walked into the unit
and what you can see is here as you can see there's already a pre-existing uh i would say
for the elect uh not electricity but the um the appliances so the gas and or um electricity is
coming already because they already had um when my clients purchased the property the built-in
kitchen on one level and this is the second floor then you look at the first floor very similar it's
already set up with that structure um it looks like as you can see uh i believe maybe one word
here but you'll see already in this unit that there's already this structure where you'll see
it as if there's one floor going this way and one floor going that way and um when my clients
purchased the property um when they walked in and saw it like that that's what they thought that it
was already zoned as which is why they're asking for the legalization today uh this is the back of
oh i'm sorry this is right here this is more of the basement um as you can see right here you
already have the two not different lines because I do think they're all in one
line but you see the pump here which is a brand new pretty much was already was
installed by my clients and it's already there available to fit out or provide
services for both units here is the back just to show you a picture what the back
of the unit looks like this development at least of the repairs or the you know
the furnishing up they did do the back stucco and things of that nature so they
have done the back now I'll show you the neighboring unit so this is the clients
this is the property of 5344 so right here you can see this is the unit and
as you see right here even this bigger this is the taller one that I mentioned
that I believe did recent construction within the past five to ten years and in
doing so now they have three units so you literally have a unit here unit there
and a unit on top I'll show you a little bit of the floor plan what the what what
we are proposing what we are proposing and I'll zoom in a little bit so right
here the proposal is to implement a door so right here you have this is the
entry to the first part so we if I showed you the first picture there was
the door that would be this entrance right here coming up here on this right
hand side the one in the middle would be the next level on the door and I'll show
you real quickly if you look back right here on the left hand side where there's
the the reddish mark that is where they propose to do the work the goal is to
take the window down make that a doorway so you will have two instances you
have an entrance here where this is where the current burgundy I guess
oldest door is and then you have an entrance here which will be another new
door built I'll show you what it looks like on the drawings and what you would
have is this unit here they will be able to walk come in and walk straight up
this one unit here will be coming and stay on that first level so it's two
levels here is the floor plan again this here as I mentioned earlier I'm sorry
let me go back to here my apologies give me one I can't see that so this here
gives you a good idea what i was referencing so this right here is the second level um and this
right here would be the bedroom this is the living room right down here is the bathroom i'm not
bathroom the new doorway that will be intended to be built so if you look at the bottom right here
i'll zoom it in a little bit right here will be a door that will be built it can open up allow the
person in they go right up the stairs this one over here and then this has a
one bedroom a living area and the kitchen and the bath then this is the
other unit which would have when the first door came in they will come here
come straight upstairs and walk up here and this has a two bath I'm sorry yes
two bath and two bedroom now the two bedrooms they would not be there's no
intention of having multi-tenant you know not we're not doing rooms this is
strictly just for two two units and that is the end of the presentation I think
lastly there will be a outdoor trash in the back I'll show you again where that
was going to be right back here in the back there is a back trash share trash
cans that will be able to be used there is a gate as well that will cover some
that stuff in so it wouldn't be uh just sitting on the corner um and that's about it any questions
so so uh council the uh how is it now i mean this is functioning it's a duplex
Counsel, how is it now?
I mean, is this functioning as a duplex now?
Because you want to put a door in.
How does it work now?
Now, no one is in there.
No one has been in there.
But I'm saying, can you walk upstairs when you come in the one door?
Is it separated?
Well, yes, it's separated, but you can't walk upstairs because that right now is leading right out to outside.
So technically speaking, someone will have to go in, go into one of the areas with the stairway, and then walk upstairs.
so the point is it's not separated yet it's a duplex it is separated without the entrance there's
no entrance to walk straight up because that there's a stairs right there all right is there
any other duplexes in the area right around here do you know uh yes that's the one i showed you
earlier if you look at right here this is the triplex right okay all right triplex right here
why don't you bring your client on have your testimony adopted and then i'll open it up to
questions all right mr youksu is mr youksu
mr chairman council I have some me youksu I'll go ahead and promote them
right now thank you
I see he's on here. Uh, you can unmute yourself. Mr.
Sorry, could you Mr. useful?
Can you hear me, sir? You guys hear me? Yes. Can you show that counts? I'll do it.
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer his name is sammy s as in sam
e as an advert m as in mary i as in h is in henry and my last name is yuksel that's y-u-k-s-e-l
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do sir please proceed counsel i i yes mr did you hear uh the testimony that i gave
earlier um regarding to what is being currently uh projected for this property yes i did yes thank
you and i can clarify okay do you adopt what i said as far as being the truth is what's going to
okay now go ahead if you'd like to add something please add
sure like as far as the question that wasn't quite i guess answered so the only thing that
needs is this the second door as on this picture it needs to be installed to make the second
entrance because the entrance is right by that door there's a stairs going up to the second floor
as mr islam has presented the first floor and the second floor so it's just functioning like that
but there's just not a door that needs to be placed so once we place the door it's it's a two
units property it's separated like that questions from the board so right now it's just one unit
yes so you go in and you can go to the left and go upstairs yes you go to the left you walk to the
stairs and then you go up when you go i'm sorry when you go in from the store you can make a left
and go upstairs so it's all one unit but if they do put a door here that will separate the units
so there will be two separate entrance because it has its own stairways going up the second floor
right but right now it's all one one unit so and can you go back to the right can you go back to
the floor point yes sir is this one good yeah can you zoom in somewhere so we can see it in more
detail. Yes, sir.
It's problematic
for me that you have to go through a bedroom
to get to the backyard. And unlike
the houses across the street, this is a row, so there's not a breezeway,
correct? Or is there? No, sir.
There's not a breezeway from the front, so you're going through your bedroom to get to
the backyard no i mean you can use that for an entrance door that's already existing there to
get to the first no no no no to get to the backyard you have to go through the bedroom
on the first floor to get to the backyard no there is the whole way there's no there's a
whole way here you don't go through based on the plan that you presented yes yes you're right sir
You have to go. And I have a real issue with having to walk through a bedroom to access a rear yard.
And what's happening with the basement and what's happening with the utilities?
The basement is storage. That's what that is anticipated being for.
You have a full bathroom in the basement.
bathroom in the basement and it's completely yes which would you would you say uh remember when
And it's completely.
it's completely there's a full bathroom for the utility rooms for the uh like all the
all the appliances and everything is in there and we just thought it would be helpful to just put
the bathroom in there just to put a separate like extra amenities uh it's completely finished
in the basement just the storage here there's no rooms yeah as you can see
i'm sorry two rooms with doors yeah i mean it's not a bedroom it's just i mean they're not a
bedroom because there's not a closet but certainly a person would think that it is a room
i mean yeah but it is like our intention is just to give them a storage just to make it a finished
store or they could use some sort of like a hobby room or anything like that but
i don't think it will be feasible for a bedroom too it's not as big for a bedroom one thing i
would add to the board is that the anticipation is the person who has the going up to the steps
would also have the access to this space so therefore that would be one of the amenities
the user as either a sitting area play area um you know recreational area or whatever um as far
as the utility um so that's just to clarify that's what that basement um would be storage
and kind of, you know, a romp area for that individual.
Mr. Yuxle, can you explain about the,
it was a question, what would you ask the question, Mr. Johns?
Yeah, the question, the other question was about the HVAC unit.
Is that servicing the entire house or is that,
how does that work?
And as a hot water tank, is that a servicing the entire house?
They're separated.
They're separated.
So there's two.
So, Councilor, I think they both have their own, you know, the controller for the HVAC system.
So, Councilor, I think it would be helpful if you could say, what is it he purchased and what work did he do?
So, when he bought it, it was a single home?
Is that what we're saying?
It was a single home, at least, but the structure, as far as the separation with the stairs and things in that nature, was already there.
But I'll let Mr. Youksu, can you explain when you purchased the property, what was the structure or could you explain what did you do as far as development since?
It was like a house constructed, so the kitchens and like all the lines and everything was on the second floor.
And it was a single family.
Speak up, we're having a hard time hearing you, Sheriff.
Sorry about that.
It was a single family home and it was amid construction.
So there was all the line, like it wasn't complete the finish.
uh but like all the lines and everything for the second floor the kitchen area i guess they
were trying to put a kitchen aid or something and uh we just completed all the the remaining
part like pretty much it was a half and we just completed and we thought it would be better to
use this as a two units versus not using a just a single family and that's what our purpose is
just to convert put the second door and just convert this to a unit property okay so good
yes i have a question about access to the back for the trash storage um because there is no
breezeway you noted a little alleyway for people to put the to go through to put their trash so
how would the second floor access that alleyway just store their trash yeah yeah that's a good
question that's in the front we there's also a trash cans at the front on that street on the
neighbor houses neighboring houses and there's a space to put the trash can in the front so that's
for the front is a porch you mean you put it on you put the trash on the porch
i've seen like everybody's they're they're putting their trash cans on the porch or street
and like that's what we were planning to utilize i wouldn't recommend storing trash on the porch
but but i do believe sammy can you confirm is there an entrance to get to the backyard from
both units how would that work no it's only from the first unit because that's the one bedroom
that's what the entrance other questions
are you planning to have any kind of washers or dryers for the units
yes for the first floor it's in the basement for the second floor it's on the second floor
okay thank you sure the other questions yeah did you pull permits when you did any of this work
uh because currently it's showing that there's a there's only a rental license for one unit
um and it looks like there's two units here existing i'm just trying to understand when
in the second unit got added.
Well, one thing I would add is that, number one, the current structure, as you mentioned before, the buildings, the built-out, the rooms, they were already built as rooms.
Well, one thing I would add is that number one,
the...
What they did was just simply finish the flooring, finish the finishing aspect of it.
As far as the structure, there was no cutout.
The reason what they're asking for to have it a two-unit is mainly because that one step is kind of in the corner.
So, the issuer is that, or at least what they were anticipating was, they can, instead of
having that kind of be like a dead space, they can have the other wall make that an
entrance so then you can walk right up to it, walk right up the stairs and then go into
a different unit.
So, I say that to say, just to give an example, that there wasn't any permits needed to my
understanding as far as structure-wise, because they didn't change the structure, they just
kind of furnished it and made it look a little clearer.
so all construction in the city of philadelphia requires you to pull some permit there's a permit
called an easy permit but i i think i just but you added the utilities i'm sorry did you add
the utilities and you added a kitchen yes appliances and stuff all of that is stuff
that requires permits are you opposed to a requirement of a certificate of occupancy
all the lines and everything was there we just simply hooked up there wasn't like we didn't
of course because there was an existing single-family house so the plumbing was there i mean
are you opposed to a certificate of occupancy no okay questions from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr questions or comments from the virtual audience
I'm just chair. I have a hand up from a number ending in 4374. I will allow them to speak.
we have someone in the audience
i miss number ending in four three seven four please okay they raised their virtual hand
please unmute and wait to be sworn in star six to unmute star six to unmute
i i was actually had raised my hand previously for the other case so
i'm sorry for the 258 to 260 case yeah that case that case is over ma'am yeah i was trying to raise
my hand the entire well i'm sorry about that all right if i could add one thing uh here uh board
chair very quickly it's just that when we did meet with the community they were as you see they were
in favor unanimously i did see that i would say the only concern well the major concern they had
was the traffic, such as parking and things of that nature, and we understand that, and
we are working with the community for that, but I do want to say that the community was
in favor for it and had some concerns, but I feel like, obviously, we must have been
able to address them accordingly.
Thank you, Counsel.
Planning Commission.
Mr. Chair, sorry, just one thing I forgot.
Mr. Islam, if you would like this presentation that you've shown today included as part of
the record please upload that before close of business tomorrow because i think we have pieces
of this presentation but we don't have the actual presentation on file so yes board council
planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends
to change the rsi 5 residential single family zoning district i'm sorry recommends no change
the city we zoned this neighborhood in 1971 and a council supported map change there is no evidence
that the work was done to convert to two units was done with the benefit of permits we are aware
of several multi-family dwellings on the 5300 block of ray street but the remaining block is
single family the city planning commission recommends that the board deny the proposed
variance for two units mi20 mi 2024 003927 5344 ray street i vote no michael johns my vote is no
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is no.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is no.
Ty Owen, my vote is no.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2025-005-737-2118-34.
737-2118-34 West Norris Street.
Jeffrey Stacey is the attorney.
There's a letter of non-opposition from Strawberry Mansion
and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, Council.
Could you please state your name?
It's spelled for the stenographer.
Yes. Jeffrey Stacey, J-E-F-F-R-E-Y, S-T-A-C-E-Y.
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 relationship to the property?
Client is Mastery Charter School Frederick Douglass Elementary.
It is a licensee or equitable owner.
The owner is the School District of Philadelphia, who has authorized and supports this appeal.
Thank you. Our vice chair has a few questions.
good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
uh yes and in addition we've we've provided a number of submissions since that date which i'll
explain in a moment okay thank you for that and do you wait to read another refusals and stipulate
to their accuracy yes okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case
okay are you able to see my screen yes sir great uh good afternoon members of the board
again my name is jeff stacy from o'donnell stacy attorneys for the applicant mastery charter
school frederick douglas elementary so frederick douglas is a public charter school operating at
the property in West 211834 West Norris under a license agreement with the property owner of the
School District of Philadelphia. The School District has authorized us to seek the relief today,
which is a variance. Frederick Douglass is seeking to put some signage on the Van Pelt and North 22nd
sides of the property. The subject property is a full city block bounded by West Norris Street,
North 22nd, North Van Pelt, and West Burks. The actual building itself was constructed about 1939
by the School District of Philadelphia, and it's operated continuously as a public school for
nearly 90 years. Prior to Mastery Charter School taking over in 2015, it was previously operated
by the Young Scholars Charter School, and before that, the School District of Philadelphia.
you. Although this has been a public school building for, you know, 90 years or so, the
parcel is in the RSA 5 zoning district, which is single family classification. And there's a
mismatch between, you know, the actual longstanding institutional use and the residential base
zoning. So projecting signs, wall signs, exceeding 15 square feet, these are all prohibited.
submitted, and that's what we're seeking to get approval for today.
What you can see on the screen here is the first page of the site plans that were submitted.
These were submitted in January of 2025, and as a note on the information I have been repeatedly
providing ZBA staff with today. There was an original refusal dated March 7th, 2025.
That was inadvertently included in the exhibits package, but the refusal that we're here appealing
today was dated August 6th, 2025. And so I've updated the exhibit package and provided it to
staff this is the actual refusal that was attached to our appeal which was filed in September
so I just wanted to make sure that that was clear for the record
going back to the actual proposal
we have just sort of as background the entire city block that I was referencing before
is where this public school sits. We have North 22nd Street here to the left side of the photo,
West Norris, 22nd Street, and West Burke Street here. What we are seeking here today is to put
a wall and projecting sign here on the 22nd Street entrance, as well as wall and canopy
over an existing entrance on the Van Pelt side.
Walking through the exhibit package.
walking through the exhibit package we have the aforementioned we have all your we have all your
documents so we have all your documents so I think I would concentrate on the drawings and
what it looks like and anything you could show us sure appreciate that so again these are the
plans that were submitted they were submitted to the strawberry mansion community concern a RCO
meeting was held in November. So once again this is the Van Pelt side and you can see the proposed
canopy which is over an entrance. This entrance here is actually a bit recessed in the original
building and this projecting element which is approximately seven feet or eight feet in length
will come out you know towards that street but remain you know under five feet from the property
line. The signage will you know obviously promote the aesthetics of the school sort of modernize
the school. We on behalf of the Mastery Charter Schools for several other campuses have been
before this board before with similar plans for other buildings owned by the school district of
Philadelphia. Going to the second page of the plan, you can see sort of a black and white drawing of
the entire elevation of the Van Pelt side. The canopy would be in the middle, so it's a new
entrance and a new feature, and the projecting sign, the top of it would not exceed the height
of the highest part of the school building. Looking at the property from 22nd and West Norris
is the other entrance. And so this is a wall sign that also projects about 11 inches past
an existing wall there. Contains, you know, indicates that this school is a mastery charter
school. More details of each of those on the left here is the 22nd and Norris view that we just
looked at. And then there's a more detailed view in these two other drawings of the recessed
canopy and projecting wall sign. Going to some additional photos here showed the map view.
This is an elevated view showing that 22nd and Norris side. You know, there's a mural on
the building in this photo, right where my mouse is hovering is where that wall sign and projecting
sign would go. A few other photos. Difficult to get an actual photo of the entire elevation of
the Van Pelt Street side, but where my mouse is hovering, that is the entrance. So that will be
more of a waypoint with the proposed construction that is being sought here.
like i said we did we did meet with the rco i did receive a notice from zba staff
after submission of our exhibits that our tax clearance tax clearance was not up to date
because of the previous ownership by this running of the school by the young scholars organization
there was some confusion as to the name in the system and actually just just about an hour ago
from the city's tax department uh we obtained a new tax clearance certificate that has been uploaded
uh to the quick base uh database thank you um so i i'll pause there for any questions before
i call mr malik murray someone from mastery or somebody who can adopt your testimony yes i do
mr malik murray should be in the audience thank you
mr chair if i promoted the panelists they'll be coming back in shortly thank you very much
good afternoon good afternoon sir could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer yes sir malik murray m-a-l-i-k murray m-u-r-r-a-y we swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do counsel thank you mr murray are you the
senior directing senior director of facilities and capital planning for mastery charter schools
including Frederick Douglass Elementary? Yes. And Mastery Frederick Douglass is an equitable
owner of the property? Yes. The School District of Philadelphia is the actual owner of the property?
The School District of Philadelphia is the actual owner of the property?
And has the School District of Philadelphia authorized the filing of the Zoning Permit
application in this case?
Has the School District authorized the filing of the appeal in this case?
And did you hear the statements that I made to the Zoning Board here today?
Yes, I did.
Was everything true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
Yes, it is.
and would you adopt those statements as your own testimony yes i will thank you mr chairman i have
no more for no more questions for mr questions from the board
yes um how many signs are there going to be is it three or four there it's it's three um so you have
you know on the van pelt side you have this one vertical sign here the second would be this
signage above a canopy right here above the entrance um and then then the third is the
one that was on 22nd street all right and uh have you gone in front of the art commission on this
yeah so we there was some confusion about this at l and i uh we did get confirmation from the
art commission that this did not require art commission approval and that was indicated on
our submission okay all right thank you other questions questions from our attorney hillary
emerson um not at this time but thank you for noticing the refusal that was incorrect because
that would have caused problems later so thank you for that absolutely from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a hand up from strawberry mansion community concern
i will promote them and they should be back in shortly thank you
hello i counsel could could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
hi good afternoon chairman and the board my name is bonita cummings b-o-n-i-t-a c-u-m-m-m-m
M-I-N-G-S.
Mr. Cummings, do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, to hold truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please start your testimony.
Just wanted to indicate, because there was indications
that there were open violations and the concern
to the health, welfare, and safety of the building
and occupants, children, or whomever,
that we just make sure that whether that's
a certificate of occupancy or whatever is needed to make sure that all the proper permits and or
licenses that are needed for safety um be met so just wanted to mention that as it was in my
correspondence okay thank you thank you very much is there anyone else in the audience
no further hands mr chair planning commission amy both with the planning commission the
The Comprehensive Plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from RSA 5 Residential
Single Family to R1 Residential Multi-Family.
The City rezoned this neighborhood in 2024 in accord with recommendations from the Comprehensive
The appellant has not shown that they would suffer economic detriment if they were forced
to comply with the sign requirements in the RSA 5 Residential District or that the proposed
sign area is the minimum needed.
the planning commission recommends that the board deny the proposed variance for a projecting sign
and proposed dimensional variances for sign area mi 2025 005 737 21 18 to 34 west north street i
vote yes johns my vote is yes daryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Tyra Wynn, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2025-007-625-300 Packer Avenue.
Robert, Carl's Careless is the attorney.
Careless.
Which one do you want to tell us?
It's called Carlos, okay.
she kicked me on the table and told me to do that I just want you to know
council could you please state your name as bell for the stenographer
I'm sorry this is the reporter I cannot hear
you pull closer to your council
robert careless c-a-r-e-l-e-s-s i'm glad you said that because i thought there was something
wrong with me and she was kicking me under the table do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do but you identify your clients in the relationship
I do. Would you identify your clients in the relationship to the property?
to the property i represent truly
I represent true leave PA merger sub three LLC, the ground tenant of the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions, and we do have non-opposition from veterans stating neighbors.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to this accuracy?
All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with the case.
um good afternoon members of the board um the current use of the property today is a medical
marijuana dispensary that was approved by a use variance in 2017. we're here today on a review
under section 14303682 of the code which provides that when the terms of a prior variance are
inconsistent or proposed to be modified the proposed application should be denied and referred
to the board. This is a little unique in the sense that we're not actually asking you to modify
anything with respect to the prior use variance that was granted in 2017. In a sense of what I
would imagine is the common situation before you all where if someone comes back to you and wants
to relax a proviso or is expanding the scope of a business that was presented to you. Just to orient
you to where we are here. We're in South Philadelphia along Packer Avenue and South
This is the current and where the red pin is is the current configuration of the property, which would my cursor is indicating the current improved area with the surface parking and then the vacant grass area to the plan right to the page right of the screen.
What's bringing us before you today is when the use was approved in 2017, it was proposed to be housed within an existing structure that I'm displaying on the screen right now, which is the site of a former bank, which I believe was PNC Bank.
um under again under the applications before you we're not actually proposing to change any
anything with respect to the use of the property um but what we are proposing to do is replace
the existing structure um with a new modern building which we'll show you
that is dimensionally compliant with the code um l and i took the position that because the
structure that's housing the use is different from the one that was shown to the board in 2017
That constitutes the modification or the inconsistency that's bringing me before you today.
We talked quite a bit about this. Oh, glad to hear it. Okay.
I'm sure Hillary did a much better job presenting it than I could. I could have done. So I appreciate that.
So just to confirm, and I'll run through my exhibits very briefly, but but it's the same user, the same operation, the same hours, the same employees.
So I'll show you some of the features that are that are bringing us before you today.
This is our zoning plan, which I'm going to span out here.
So what the location of the building is currently right here. What we're proposing to do is utilize the entire site, tuck the proposed building back so the parking and circulation around the site works better.
We are adding a drive-through component here, which I will show you a better view of in a second, along with a secured entryway.
Some of the challenges, it's been a successful business, which we're appreciative of the use variance that was granted by the board in 2017.
There are challenges with operating within a former bank, as you can probably imagine.
We have two vaults in there.
We have not a space that's designed for a retail use.
It's a bank use.
So in order to better enhance the business and the customer experience, what we're proposing to do is essentially construct a more modern building that would allow the open layout here for product, a secured lobby.
You can see there's a consulting room, managerial office.
You can also see that there's some employee room here, the secured entryway for delivery of product and receiving a product, and also the drive-through component, which I know might seem uncommon.
It's not a drive through and as you would traditionally imagine a drive through to be like a Wendy's or a Chick-fil-a where I could just pull up and the menu boards there and I can order a dispensary product.
It's it. This is online orders as if you were coming to the site.
You have to place the order with your medical marijuana card.
It would allow a user if I were going to pick up my my order to not have to get out of my car, allow better privacy, maybe even better security, right?
I can just I don't have to walk into the building.
um and and also overall security is better with now better security around the perimeter of the
building um not that we've ever had a security issue but it's just an enhancement on the site
as it is um so again just to confirm the drive-through component is there for customer
convenience it's for customers it's for patients it's not for the general public i can't just pull
it's not for the general public i can't just pull off the street and access it um i also i have with
off the street and access it um i also i have
me today mr joyce bobby joyce from truly that can testify along with our civil engineer mark
de monte who can also testify to some of the additional site improvements that we believe
is a justification for this better landscaping better site circulation um a better site layout
improved all over overall site utilization um so i know this is a little unique in the sense that
we're not asking the board for a new deviation from the code um the only request is to continue
to use a already vetted use in the in the community just with an enhanced and superior design.
We did meet and discuss this with Veterans Stadium Civic Association. I do have a letter of
non-opposition as the chair noted from Veterans Stadium Civic and just I you know the property's
been posted for the hearing and we are happy to answer any questions you might have. I'd ask Mr.
Joyce to come forward. So why don't we have, we'll bring Mr. Joyce on. You can have the
testimony adopted. Yep. As far as the improvements, we'll let him wait there in case
there's questions. That's fine. Why don't you come up? No, Mr. Joyce.
I didn't wait to be sworn. Sir, could you please state your name as fellow photo stenographer?
Bobby Joyce, B-O-B-B-Y-J-O-Y-C-E. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Counsel? Mr. Joyce, what's your title? What's
director of construction and you're authorized to be here today to testify on behalf of the company
that's correct okay did you hear the testimony offered to the board just now i did would you
adopt and affirm that testimony as if your own yes okay we are happy to answer any questions
questions from the board yes do you have a site plan that shows sort of the overall
drive through uh and the road and have you already gone through streets department approval
this is the site
this is the site plan that we have
to offer
can you zoom in
so that it's just the site plan
could you please state your name
and spell it for the stenographer
Mark DeMonte
M-A-R-K-D-I-M-O-N-T-E
do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, told the truth, not to quit the truth
Council. Mark, did you hear? Are you done here? Would you like Mark to adopt my testimony? Did you hear the testimony I gave to the board just now? I did. And would you adopt and affirm that testimonies for your own? Yes. And in response to board member Wynn's question, do we have streets approval for this project? We do. Yep.
And then I just have a question because it looked like on the floor plan that you have an area where the trucks can do deliveries where they pull right into, it looks like a garage door, and it looks like it's on the same avenue or the same accessory line as the drive-through.
So what's the plan if you have a truck and people in line at the same time?
How is that flow of traffic going to be managed?
Yep, that's a good question.
planned right now just plan south of where that garage is you're gonna see
some striping just plan south of where that car is so the idea is that the
truck will actually not access the parking garage there through the actual
drive-through lane it's gonna be accessing it through the lane that's
just south of the drive-through lane so the idea is that at any given time the
truck will be able to come and make that turn and come in and it's a small truck
that'll be doing the deliveries the idea here what as well is that the actual
pull in for the truck will be a fairly quick operation so the idea is that the person going
at the drive-through will just yield to the truck if it happens at the same time cars are stopping
at the end of the stripes so the stripe is painted and then there's a looks like there's a median
though like there is a physical elevated barrier that's concrete i'm assuming correct we have a
physical barrier right there between the bypass and the drive-through okay and then um second
question is just because i my office is next to a true leave and i know you guys in the center
city locations have all the windows blacked out like they're covered with a film is the plan to
do that here because i know like it has caused some like just what it does to the sidewalk in
terms of visibility i understand why you all do it but um it sort of blacks out the sidewalk which
kind of kills visibility as a walking experience this is a slightly different setup though yes we
will have film on that and that's per the DOH requirements and also on the
deliveries. DOH requires it to be 100% opaque? It varies from
municipality to municipality. Got it. Okay. But on the drive-thru, we have several other
drive-thrus and on our drive-thrus we deliver in off hours. Okay. And then just
because i think this is the first drive-through in our region right what is the typical sort of
traffic that you see at some of the other ones that you've had
like how long does the line i'm thinking just like in philadelphia and we got lines like when
like how long does the line i'm thinking just like in philadelphia and we got lines like
the chick-fil-a line or it's not compared to chick-fil-a that's the only other drive through
i think i said chick-fil-a first so i i think it's a lot of questioning didn't i go ahead
um the lines it's it's really unless there's a a special event and we get quite a bit of notice
on that you're not going to see it really backing up and into the street we've got several in ohio
we've got another one a couple here and uh pennsylvania um and we found that if it's like
4 20 that's kind of like our black friday um you'll see you know all the big sales and everything
else on that but for the most part we kind of notify you know the patients the neighbors and
everywhere else we're at to give them notice that there's going to be a lot of people coming in
Okay, I have a question just regarding pedestrian access and how they would navigate the site.
So can you point out the entryway and tell me how a pedestrian could navigate if they're
parking in their parking lot or just coming to the site to pick up?
You want to show them how they're going to do this?
Mike, you know, it actually might be better.
Yeah, let Mark drive.
Let me do this.
The floor plan might be a little easier, Mark, if you want to.
Yes, the floor plan will go up.
So the main entrance is going to be located on the land northwest corner here,
or upper left-hand corner, which is the northwest corner of the site.
And the main access will be right here on the left side of the site.
So if I go down to the actual site plan, up, I think, up right here, to answer your question, the main entrance will be right here for the pedestrians.
So we chose this location because, number one, it gave us a reasonably close connection to get to the right-of-way, as well as where the ADA spots will be.
So we're expecting most of the parking will be in this general lot right here.
These are quick orders.
You come in, you grab it, you go out pretty fast.
So the idea is that any parking out here is more for overflow.
So most people access just through here.
And then those that are parked out here will access via this depressed curb and will go right across the sidewalk and access the main entrance here.
I think the question is, too, though, how does a pedestrian that's not driving get to the front?
I don't see other than the strike that striped area, which is across from the handicap parking space. Is that the is that your intended walking area?
Yep. So we have, if I'm understanding your question correctly, there's an existing sidewalk up here. So should someone be coming from the sidewalk?
We have a access connection point right here. It's a little bit hidden because of the site triangle where my cursor is.
and but this right here is a sidewalk with the technical warning strips that cuts across the
access aisle through the ADA parking and then from here is where we have the connection point
where they can then safely walk right into the building nobody's going to do that let's be real
nobody's nobody's going to walk down across the handicapped parking space back to the back
past the drive aisle back up to the to the doorway I mean it makes more sense to have it on the other
side right doesn't that kind of make more sense that you come out the door you make a right and
you go right out to the pavement yeah that's fair i agree thanks board member john says what i'm
talking about i do have one other quick hat what are the hours of operation for the whole facility
and the drive-through if they're separate uh subject to mr joyce overriding me it's nine
nine to eight monday through friday nine to six on the weekends for the whole everything so the
drive-thru is only open when the whole facility is open correct any other questions yes um and
how many employees are we going to have and are they going to be used in the parking spaces too
or how is that going to work i'm sorry we currently have 10 10 employees there now
okay all right and is there a need for um hazardous waste disposal or anything with this
um not not sure just no because this is finished product that we have there
okay all right thank you questions from our attorney um just one question because i noticed
in some of the drawings there was signage is that being done through a separate application
that's correct okay thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair any commission
may be board for the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the current i2
zoning at this location from the current i2
medium industrial the proposed use is consistent with documented prior use the planning commission
recommends that the board grant their requested variance for medical marijuana dispensary mi
2025 007 625 300 packer avenue i vote yes with proviso per refusal dated december 11 2025. michael
johnson my vote is yes with proviso charlton my vote is yes with proviso tennetta graham my vote
is yes with proviso ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso my vote is yes with proviso thank
you very much thank you council
you have another case i have the next one yes um so mi 2025 007 627
120 to 22 north 19th street council could you please just state your name because you've
already been sworn robert careless could you also identify your client the relationship to this
property represent 19th and arch holdings llc the record owner of the property all right and there's
also non-opposition from logan square neighborhood association and also non-opposition from council
member young our vice chair has a few questions here good afternoon again have you submitted your
documents and exhibits for this case five days in advance of this hearing yes i have and do you
waive the reading of the refusal to stipulate to its accuracy yes i do thank you share your screen
and proceed thank you um board members uh this is a um hopefully a relatively straightforward
application um the subject property is is pinned with the rectangular vacant gravel lot here that
i'm showing um we're currently bounded by cherry street to our north and north 19th to our east
this is the former site of the child advocates center that was demolished approximately nine to
ten years ago what we're seeking is to utilize to convert this from a vacant lot to a surface
parking lot with 17 parking spaces effectively it will act as an extension of the surface parking
lot that i'm showing just to our south at which is a separate parcel 102 to 118 north 19th street
but under the same ownership and the same operator as i'll show you it's hard to see on my the drawing
i have the picture i have before you but we will be reconfiguring the uh the parking at the northern
top of our southern lot so there's no overlap in parking spaces but also no change to the
The current parking count on the southern line as well.
It's a it's a it's a 4600 square foot lot very small as you can see here in the in the pictures that i'm showing up top is a view from Cherry Street.
now I'm on 19th street at the bottom looking northbound toward the the current lot
just to show you the zoning plan
the current screen is the existing conditions with the subject property hatched you can see
the configuration, especially the northern strip here with the existing parking. Scrolling down,
this is our proposed zoning plan. As you can see now better reconfigured here with the it's hard
to see but the reconfigured spaces are in bold here with better site circulation to make a
cohesive lot here. We do have a recorded reciprocal easement agreement with the ownership amongst
between itself to allow for cross access and pedestrian circulation and stormwater drainage
one thing i also i should have shown you
some of the enhancements to what we're doing here is additional street trees
and we're redoing the sidewalk here and also adding a light here in the north western corner of the site
We are in cmx for surface parking is a prohibited use.
But again, what we are proposing is essentially an extension with the existing adjacent surface parking of 85 spaces, which is is on any given day today just very maxed out.
So the 17 spaces will offer additional parking off the street.
We met with our friends at Logan Square. We had a presentation with them on March 10. We are grateful to have a letter of non-opposition from Logan Square. I also have photographs of our property posting here. And I would just offer that, you know, being a 4,600 square foot lie, it really is too.
And I would just offer that, you know, being a 4,600 square foot lie, it really is too small and dimensionally restrictive to support any other use.
The real feasible productive use is to function as a surface parking lot that's integrated with the applicants adjacent parking lot, which creates no adverse impacts.
In our, we would argue to you that without the relief, the lot would remain vacant, unproductive.
Again, it's it will reduce on street parking demand extend the existing parking area to create a more unified site and total.
We argue would not alter the essential character of the neighborhood, and again, adding landscaping maintenance and improved in appearance is a benefit for the community.
Mr. Chairman, I do have Tyler up to Gray from Pannonia.
I'd like to ask him to raise his virtual hand in about my testimony.
let me come in back in shortly thank you very much
hey good afternoon good afternoon uh could you please state your name is spelled for the
sonographer yes it's tyler up the grave that's t-y-l-e-r-u-p-d-e-g-r-a-v-e do you swear or
affirm the tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Counsel, please proceed. Tyler, you're a project engineer with Pannoni? Yep. And the design professional on this project? Yes, I am. Did you hear the testimony I presented to the board? Yes, I did. Would you adopt and affirm that as if it were your own? Yes, I will. Tyler and I are happy to answer any questions. Questions from the board. Yes. Has the owner talked directly to Russell Byers charter school? Yes, I actually have been
into contact with the principal of russell buyers i specifically invited russell briars to our
community meeting um admittedly i'm not sure if they were there or not they didn't to my knowledge
voice any opposition to this but we have been in direct contact with them okay there's only i bring
it up because the area that you are proposing to expand the parking lot into is directly adjacent
to their play yard and i know they've planned to expand that play yard and so um what's going to be
the like uh what's going to be the lot line condition at that wall because i think currently
it's like a i think it's a chain link fixed with like a fabric now that there's going to be cars
further back is there any plans to put a more substantial barrier in place tyler did you be
able to answer that uh if you're referring to the frontage along cherry street we have
curb stops talking about the party line between your property and their property
oh okay well there's a concrete wall um along that property line and fencing so
no there's not going to be anything additional added to that
property line i thought the wall was a like a knee wall i thought it only went up like four
But I don't know, maybe I have no idea what's at that corner, but I'm talking about that. Yeah. Okay. But you're saying that they there's a there's a barrier already there. Yes.
Other questions?
Are you addressing the landscape requirement?
So, we are, Board Member Johns, we are providing 1, 2, 3, 4 street trees, and the rest were agreed upon with the Planning Commission for a fee in lieu, which we agreed to remit.
And what are we doing about drainage?
And are we using a, what do you call it?
I'm talking about stormwater management, but I'm also talking about the surface, like what are we, what are we using? Are we using a, uh, uh, yes.
I'm going to ask the good Mr. Updegrave to field that one.
Yeah, we have approval from PWD to install an inlet, which will then connect to the city sewer. So this property will be graded and drained towards the sewer. It will not run off. The new impervious will not run off towards the streets.
Okay. And have we thought about using the pavers or things like that as opposed to, what do you call it? I'm blanking out.
like per like per pervious pavers is that exactly no we versus impervious yes yes yes
yeah we we have not considered that due to the size of our lot we you know per pwd requirements
we actually don't need to meet stormwater requirements we just need collection and
conveyance which is what we're proposing okay and i guess the other thing is um
it says here the property is consolidated for tax purposes but
here the property is consolidated for tax purposes but is considered to be two separate parcels
on the city map so are you planning to consolidate that's so for for zoning purposes this 120 122 is
one lot i believe that it's one of those funky deed registry issues where you have two registry
numbers here which i think is what we're depicting but for zoning purposes and tax purposes it's one
lot existing today um the lot will work in unison with the southern lot via that cross access
easement that i uh put into evidence okay all right thank you you're welcome questions from
our attorney not at this time the comments from the virtual audience i do not see any hands mr
chair commission amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends
no change in zoning to the current cmx4 commercial mix use the plan has not demonstrated that there
are unique physical conditions or circumstances of the property that would prevent it from being
used in conformity with the zoning code the planning commission recommends that the board
deny the requested variance for non-accessory parking mi 2025 007 627 120 to 22 north 19 street
i vote yes john's my vote is yes sir augustin my vote is yes jenetta graham my vote is yes
ryan mcadams my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you very much thank you
thank you number seven mi2025-007-696-333 north 10th street david orphanetes is the attorney
um i don't cnm i don't we do not have an rco letter as of yet am i correct hillary
there are letters so we have a letter from council member school's office which indicated
the rco was in support and provided a list of their provisos but we don't have a copy of that
letter we do have a copy of a letter from china from yes from an affected rco that lists some
similar provisos okay restore for needy's that would come up I can also plan of a
shortly messenger good afternoon we have to do a council could you please state
your name and spell for the stenographer certainly my name is David orphan edie's
last name is spelled o-r-p-h-a-n-i-d-e-s you swear or firm to tell the truth the
truth nothing but the truth i do did you identify your client a relationship to the property
uh my client is the trustee pets department llc and they're a tenant of the ground floor
commercial unit and our vice chair has a few questions for you sir good afternoon have you
submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing i did do you waive the
reading of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy uh you should have an amended refusal i
want to make sure we're looking at the correct refusal but i do stipulate to the accuracy of
that and that was amended with the authorization of this april 16 2026 mr urbanides uh let me just
take a quick look yep that is correct and then um and in terms of the position letters um there is uh
uh the as you mentioned the letter of support with provisos dated february 20 2026 that i received
today um or it's a letter of non-opposition with provisos i'm sorry that references the
letter of support with provisos but that is from i did receive the letter of support um
with provisos from the cal calahol neighborhood association who is the coordinating rco yeah if
you could forward that to us yeah we didn't get that we got the china tinatown cdc yeah but not
not Callow Hill but yeah it's not some over school's letter well it's funny
because I didn't get I didn't get a I didn't get the Chinatown CDC's one so
so together we'll piece it we'll piece it together certainly so let me share my
screen see right here okay there we go this minimizes subject property is 3 3 3
north 10th street it's property located on the northeast corner of north 10th and wood street
um you have a picture of it here on the screen in front of you um it was a building that was
permitted following a subdivision of 920 to 920 to 26 ridge avenue which is the property you see
further uh to the right down uh wood street uh for the erection of a three-story building with
multi-family above uh three accessory parking spaces you can see them right here access to
the right of the building on wood street the easternmost portion and a vacant commercial space
Um, that commercial space has had a variety of uses or I would say only several uses since the building was constructed approximately 20 years ago. It had a wedding supply business. Um, there was a manufacturing of, um, and packaging of food products. Uh, most recently in 2015, there was a tutoring business, personal services business.
that commercial space has had a variety
It's been largely vacant for the past 10 years.
And in Callow Hill's letter of support with Provisos, they do reference, and I will spin to that letter real quickly, their appreciation.
You can see right here in the third line, the neighbors appreciated that the long vacant store fund would be occupied and bring an amenity to the area.
The application is for the retail sales of pet supplies and for an interior dog park.
So the original application was for animal services, which was more the dog park.
I learned as I got involved in the project that there was a retail sale of pet supplies that was part of the business of the operations of business plan.
And that was the reason why we amended that.
You can see is one of the provisos that the category that we amended and included was the retail sale.
The category itself is the retail sales of pets and pet supplies.
My client only looks to sell pet supplies.
So the sale of pets was not included and was prohibited in the letter from the Callow Hill Neighborhood Association.
You can see there are a number of other provisos that were included.
the dogs need to be registered, proof of vaccination. The employees will monitor the
play area for aggressive behavior of the dogs. Trash can on the sidewalk for, you know, dog
owners that are coming in or out or passing by the operation. The property you see here from
aerial photos were located kind of just north of Vine Street and between Vine Street and Callow
hill so um you can see that there are a number of different uses in the area you have the um you
have the holy redeemer chinese catholic church and school located across wood street from us
you have a noodle manufacturing factory to the north of us you have an auto repair shop further
to the north as you get up to callow hill street you have movement uh on the southwest corner of
Callow Hill and North 10th Street, which is a rock climbing and yoga facility gym. You have
a parking lot located across North 10th Street from us, and you have a number of two-family,
three-family dwellings a little further to the north and then a multifamily down at Vine Street
and North 10th Street. So you have, and then behind us, you have some residential uses at Wood
and ridge so you have a mix of different uses again this this unit has been vacant for a very
long time and um and i can see here from the street view images that was able to pull you can
see going back through the years that documents that it's been vacant and boarded up this is all
the way back to 2018 2016 and you can see here um this is about the time when they had right before
or right after they had the tutoring service.
The wedding supply was back in 2010,
but it's been largely vacant since the building,
like I mentioned, since the building was built.
This is the interior space as it presently exists,
just an open floor plan that my client will then pull permits
in order to fit out for the intended use.
The property is zoned RMX3,
which does not allow either the animal services or the retail sales of pets and pet supplies,
or pet supplies in this case, which is the reason why we're before the zoning board.
Here's a rendering of renderings of what the interior is going to look like.
You can see the dog.
It's like an interior dog park for people in the neighborhood to bring their dogs as they need.
There's going to be a dog walk station. As mentioned, there's a retail sale of pet supplies, an area where the owners of the dogs can hang out, socialize while they watch their dogs.
They can also be down with their dogs. There will be staff in the area to monitor the dogs, as mentioned in CNA's letter.
Here's a three-dimensional floor plans of the proposed fit-out of the interior space, and that did include more full detailed plans at C3.
There is signage that was not included with this application that was applied for separately.
And, well, it wasn't applied for because they utilize the existing previously permitted and approved.
it wasn't applied for because they utilize the existing previously permitted and approved framing
and just put new uh new awnings on and you can see here this was obviously taken a little while ago
when the weather was worse but you can see those awnings are up right now and that's all the signage
that you have uh proposed for the use as mentioned there was an original notice of refusal that was
issued back in november just for the animal services and i learned that we had a retail
sales component so we did an application to amend following the submission of a letter request for
authorization the amended notice of refusal that we've already referenced for the two uses that
require a variance in front of the zoning board i've included a tab f a deed for the property
that shows that 920 to 926 ridge avenue limited partnership owns the property and then our lease
the trustee pets department llc's lease with the owner of the property
Tab G, you have our tax clearance.
A copy of the zoning posters that were posted on both the Wood Street sides
and on the North 10th Street sides of the property.
And then the copy of Tab J is a copy of the 14303 notice that went out to the list of properties
that we pulled from the Planning Commission's website.
And you can see that for the meeting.
the virtual meeting we had on February 23rd, 2026.
It's our position that, again, we're taking up where there's been a hardship.
It's been very difficult in this location to have a tenant to utilize this commercial space of the building.
And so we believe that that provides a hardship that warrants a relaxation of the zoning requirements
applicable to RMX3 that would otherwise prevent these uses.
We believe that the nature of the uses, particularly as qualified by CNA and as proposed by my
client, will not have an adverse impact on the abutting properties in air or light or
their uses.
We believe that there will not be an increase of traffic congestion in the streets.
We imagine this is mainly going to be utilized by residents in the area, Chinatown, and then even somewhat to the north and then along Vine Street, some of the other apartment buildings that have sprung up there.
I will say that our days and hours of operation are seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., so you're not going to be having dogs there late at the evening.
Boarding is not included with this application.
um it's it's a separate subcategory of under animal services it was not included in this
I had actually asked that we express expressly prohibit it but uh I think it was determined by
LNI with the amended application that it didn't need to be included and I did consult with Hillary
about that as well um the uh we expect about two to three people to be sometimes four people to
be working at any particular time. Trash and waste will be stored inside. Trash collection,
commercial trash collection will be as needed. We're planning right now to start with everyday
collection and then see how that goes and see if that remains necessary, if we can switch to
something less frequent. But we're going to start with day-to-day.
um and uh um and again we feel that the for all these reasons that the the requested variances
should be granted I do have uh Eva Eng from uh from the LLC who's here who can adopt my statements
sure thank you
if Eva if you can raise your hand Eva
they're being promoted to panelists thank you very much
hello hi eva could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Hi, my name is Eva Eng, E-V-A, last name E-N-G.
Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Counsel?
Certainly.
Eva, what is your connection with the trusty pets department, LLC, the tenant of the commercial space at this property?
I'm the owner.
And did you hear the statements that I made to the zoning board this afternoon?
And are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own?
And you're going to be the one operating this business, correct?
Thank you.
And I open things up to the board for their questions.
Questions from the board.
So is this like doggy daycare?
and it's not like dog it's a it's a very good question uh i asked that question as well so
It's not like doggy.
It's a very good question.
I asked.
it's not like a typical daycare where you just drop your dog off and leave so the owners stay
with their dog so it's like it's like an inside dog park um that's affiliated with their retail
so it's not drop off and leave which is another reason where it's why it's less likely to generate
traffic congestion because you know when people bring their dogs they usually drive drop them off
and then go on their way to work or wherever they're going to go.
Where here, they're walking their dogs to get here
and then playing inside and then walking their dogs home.
So it's all interior.
There's no exterior?
No exterior.
It's all interior.
All right.
And then I thought you said you had about two to three employees?
Correct.
isn't just to monitor the people who are there with their dogs yeah so the eva can speak to this
in more detail but there'll be somebody in the retail department there'll be somebody you know
monitoring the the dog park if you will and then um and then somebody else could be working you
can see here in the rendering there's somebody at her front desk for check-in and what have you
for the dog park but uh eva if you if you have further questions eva can address it
okay and then um there's going to be sales of dog food and pet supplies yes mainly dog food
yeah collars and toys and things of that nature and again eva can give you a little more detail
about that than i can but that's my understanding yes as far as the types of dog pet supplies that
will be sold and again that's all going to be inside this space you're not going to be like
having people um order this stuff and pick it up or i mean some somebody can come in and just
buy the retail and they might call and pick it up i don't know eva you're going to have a an
online component where people can order online and come and pick up uh not as of now yeah it's
usually just like if they just come in and then they see something they like they can just come
and purchase it okay and are there going to be like dog grooming kind of services there's a
go ahead eva there's self-wash but go ahead eva yeah i'm sorry uh there is a self i will be having
self dog washing stations where the owners will uh just clean their dogs themselves and will provide
us uh the amenities for them with like the towels and shampoo and the the shower station you can see
that in this rendering in the upper right hand corner okay all right okay and then uh i guess
my other question is about the um uh waste disposal and uh is there gonna be like exhaust
kind of um okay yeah it'll have it'll have to exhaust whatever you're gonna have because you
know you're going to have all these animals running around inside right um so uh what are we doing
about that so it will be my understanding is that it will be a climate controlled room i mean it's
not going to be there for that long because trash like we said is probably going to be picked up
every day for that very reason um and it will be climate controlled and in whatever it's internal
ventilation or ventilation that has to go up through a chase in the building to the rooftop
it would obviously we have incentive not to have the place think so I'm also
investing in the commercial grain HVAC diffusers that are safe for pet and
children feel like limit order as much as possible okay all right okay oh and
how how many did I I'm not sure if I asked this before how many square feet
we talking about here uh it is around what is it it's around i think around 2200 square feet um
something like it's like 22 to 25 yeah wow okay all right and that's gonna accommodate how many
how many dogs at a time i'm sorry so i think um at max we would probably have around
12 to 15 dogs at a time okay all right okay thank you any other questions yes i have a question
about insulation knowing that there's residential units above i just would imagine with 15 dogs in
a place if they start barking that it could be loud and i know with some of the other pet
facilities that we've had come before us that's been a primary concern from residential neighbors
or tenants that were in the surrounding building what's the plan here to reduce sound transference
here to reduce sound transference so so to the north of us i mean from for the residential or
so so to the north of us i mean
budding property concerns we have the noodle factory to the north of us and then to the east
of us there are three parking spaces and then an open area before you get to the residence
uh the residential units on ridge so there's a decent buffer there and then there are the
residential units above and the idea is to provide some type of sound provide soundproofing between
the units because obviously again it's not going to help the building owner or the property if
it turns out that it's they can't rent the units on the second floor totally understand it but
we're looking at the construction documents so i feel like there's two things that we've said
the intent is to but like what is the plan so i think both for the trash because i think it was
sort of like we intend to have we're assuming that trash is going to get picked up every day but
isn't that the business owners like don't they have to schedule that or pay for that and then
to what is the plan here for the sound attenuation going through the roof so so eva can speak to the
trash because she's already been talking to uh to a trash hauler correct eva yes uh i do have
a trash company that uh i have set up a contract with to be coming every day and for and for the
soundproofing um i was told by our contractor and architect that there's the ceiling above is um
um several inches of concrete so sound should be limited already in of itself but they did
say that we can add um soundproofing uh foam if anything yeah like to do insulation okay
other questions questions from our attorney Hillary Emerson um not a question but just to
clarify basically the provisos that are asked slash agreed to on this application so we always
already talked about the amended refusal so this use is just for the first floor correct correct
and then the retail sales element is is limited to pet supplies no sale of pets correct okay all
right thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience hi chair we have a hand up from
John Chen.
They're being promoted to panelists.
Sure, thank you.
Good afternoon.
Hi, good afternoon, John.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Sure, John Chen, J-O-H-N, last name C-H-I-N,
the director of the Philadelphia County Town Development Corporation,
which is the second RCO in the neighborhood.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
We provided a letter of support for this zoning use.
And just want to underscore the fact that we like the fact that this space will be occupied.
has been vacant for a long time it's actually also on the 10th street commercial corridor
and if you paid attention to the attorneys uh one or two of the photos on the awning
you could see that we always pay attention to the attorney john
when david talks we pay attention oh thanks if you don't fall asleep right now
um you would have seen the graffiti on the window so because of the vacancy uh on some stores along
10th street uh it does create a problem of safety and i think this use is uh not only will add to
the safety of the street but it's a welcome use uh there are a couple apartments uh west of it
east of it and our rco office is a block east of it um throughout the day we see a lot of dogs
so i would imagine that the local residents will be walking their dogs to this facility so
our standpoint of safety we like it from the standpoint of a use we like it thank you thank
you very much for calling we appreciate it anyone else in the audience no hands at this time chair
commission amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location to the current rmx3 residential mixed use the proposed use is in
harmony with the mixed use character of the surrounding area will have minimal impact on
surrounding properties the planning commission recommends that the board grant their requested
variances for animal services and retail sales of pet supplies thank you mi2026
zero zero seven six nine six three three north 10th street i vote yes with proviso
per amended refusal dated april 16 2026 use limited to first floor
April 16, 2026 use limited to 1st floor retail sales limited to pet supplies. No sale of pets.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provides us.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with provides a.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with provisos.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you. Thank you, counsel.
Okay. Thank you, ma'am. We're going to move to number eight and nine. We'll do it together.
Tadetta is recusing herself from this. So number eight is MI 2025-007-700-1953 North 31st Street.
MI 2025 007702 1955 North 31st Street um I believe we have letters of support am I correct
that is correct Mr. Chair yep from Strawberry Mansion CDC non-opposition
uh council could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yeah alan knockamson
but i mean you like but spell it anyway go ahead a l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do
um but you identify your client a relationship to the property yeah my client it's friends
rehabilitation program inc uh in the virtual audience is uh aleda zeldin director of development
and compliance for that organization board secretary has a few questions all right thank you
uh good afternoon council did you submit your documents and exhibits to five days in advance of
this hearing yes we have and do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their
accuracy. Yes, we do. Thank you. You may proceed with your case. So my internet service is not
working from my computer, but Mr. Goldberg is on there. I know it's a, I think I'm being
always prepared. I got that. So begged Mr. Goldberg to do this. I was like, I don't know
what's happening, but 1953 and 1955 North 31st Street. So the Friends Rehabilitation Program
is a nonprofit organization. They do both affordable housing as well as social services.
And, you know, they collaborate with many organizations, including the Strawberry Mansion
CDC over the years. So this block, they've developed, I think, approximately 20 single
family homes here. And there's two lots here that are vacant. And they're looking to put two duplexes
here where uh multi-unit uh usage has been in the past for both of these properties plus it's not
out of character to have multi-family usage and we have many examples in our materials
so we'll go first uh through um the table of contents there are 12 exhibits here um you know
aleda you know i'll probably have to present you know maybe even before the the architectural
plans and drawings just to give a little bit idea of like some of the social services they do
um you want to bring her on now yeah let's bring her on now okay what's your name aleda please uh
zelden they're promoted to panelists
hello everyone hi could you good afternoon could you please state your name and then spell it for
the stenographer elena zeladon a l e y d a zeladon z e l e d o n you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel yeah elena can you just
uh summarize the board the uh your organization's mission and and your thoughts about uh how you're
using or proposing to use these two properties um uh do you want me to describe our mission
yeah your mission like you know i explained it generally that you know your organization does
affordable housing and social services um i think we can explain the affordable housing component
but some of your social services that you have um in your organization's mission yes we are the
city's largest provider for transitional housing program the thp program and we are also the
largest provider for the commonwealth of pennsylvania for the re-entry program
gotcha and so you have a homeless services program uh where you re-home individuals is that correct
uh where you re-home individuals is that correct correct and then you also have a re-entry program
correct and then you'll
uh transforming lives changing communities tlcc is that correct that is correct and then you
actually have a training program called grit program where it's part of the construction
trades and training individuals to uh to have those skill sets to enter the workforce
that is correct all right and then for this uh for this uh these two homes uh the goal
is is to have one of the units in each property uh be affordable housing for senior living
that is correct and the other one just to do lower market rate housing for the second unit
that is correct michael uh why don't we go to the exhibits exhibit one to notice a refusal so
So this is an RSA 5 property, you know, again, each property has a history of multifamily or multi unit use. And we have two refusals here, we have a de minimis refusal for maximum occupied area, where 75% is allowed where we're asking to occupy 76, 76.92%. So the minimis variance, in order to for us to put a functional floor plan here for those two units, and then the second
refusal has to do with the multifamily household living. I believe we have exhibits in that
respect by 1931, North 31st Street, 1928, North 31st Street, 1921, North 31st Street,
and 1917, North 31st Street, or all multifamily in nature. We met with the Strawberry Community
Development Corporation, who was the coordinating RCO. They gave us a letter of non-opposition.
My understanding is this organization has also collaborated with the Friends Rehabilitation Program over the years on programs within the Strawberry Mansion area, so they're quite familiar with my clients' good causes for housing in the neighborhood.
Next exhibit.
And then we also facilitated a petition for nearby neighbors who are in support of this project.
Again, my client basically redeveloped most of that 31st Street with 20 single-family homes.
What they see now is a need, because of the aging population in Strawberry Mansion, to provide affordable housing for seniors.
But with rising interest rates, cost of construction, and just the practicalities of things where older people may not want to use steps as much,
They thought that having two units with minimal steps for the lower level unit, plus having an affordable unit for the second unit, they could build that.
And so there's a diversity of housing they're proposing on this block, in addition to the 20 single family homes that they built over the years.
Did you mention Councilman Young has a letter here, too?
I don't know.
We have a letter.
Okay, is that a letter of non-opposite?
Okay, we didn't get that, but yes.
Yes. And then you can see just the history of the property. 1953 North 31st Street has had longer history, but had a history at one point of multifamily use.
My understanding is that 1955 was a fish market and a single family home at one point some time ago.
Just wanted to give you some information about my clients. You can go look on the Internet, but we wanted to summarize it.
I know that this is, you know, you know, we want to give you some information about them. Next.
Then maps to the area. While we're in the RSA 5 block, you can see there's a diversity of zoning classifications nearby, including RM1, what we're proposing. Next.
And there is ample public transportation nearby. The bus routes are 61, 7, 48, and 49.
next photographs of the property so this is two vacant lots it's been vacant for some time
i believe they built that one to the left but if you go back as google street view as far back as
2007 these have been vacant lots next and then proof of posting for today's hearing
north 31st street to the right of the property to the left of the property
are plans and drawings. So again, trying to mimic the architecture there,
flat building facades, you have lentils around the windows, you have a pronounced cornice line,
and you have windows that kind of match the architecture as well. We're slightly less
deep than the property to the right of us. I do believe we are deeper to the property up left of
bus there most of these single-family homes are really really short single-family homes that were
built uh so for minimal upkeep unfortunately given the current market conditions my client
Unfortunately, given the current market conditions, my client would be unable to build that and then actually have affordable housing, you know, based on their mission.
would not be will be would be
And then simple floor plans.
You just walk through a common, you know, front door.
You make a right.
You have one bedroom, one bath.
You know, kitchen, open floor plan in the rear.
the person who's living on the first floor we expect to be senior living they would have a trash
area in the rear and then the basement area not expecting to do much down there other than the
washer and dryer down there you go up a flight of steps you then have a three bedroom three bath
again open floor plan first floor is of that second unit on the second floor is a living room
kitchen bathroom bedroom there's a ventilated trash closet on that level too and then you go
up another flight of steps and there's two bedrooms and two baths importantly we did not
propose to have a roof deck access structure respecting you know the wishes of the strawberry
mansion community next we met with the community on april 23rd at 6 p.m i believe there were
multiple meetings here because you know people have questions about the organization and such
so we want to make sure we can answer all those um you know we emailed that notice uh you know
proof of notice uh showing that we mailed it to 151 addresses those are the addresses we mailed
it to proof of mailing to those addresses then for both separate properties we did that and then
our applications for appeal showing that we filed on behalf of friends rehabilitation program
following that are the deeds, the property, and tax clearance certificates. With that being said,
I think Aleta was sworn in, right? It was. Yes. So, Aleta, you know, in addition to your testimony,
you heard everything I had to say today about your zoning matter. Yes, I did. And is it true
and correct? Yes, it is. And do you adopt it as your own testimony? I'm sorry, couldn't hear that.
be adopted as your own testimony correct thank you questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments from
the virtual audience mr chair i do not see any hands raised for the matter planning commission
and we vote with the planning commission would you like the testimony for 1953 and 19 we do both
together hillary yes yeah do both together okay the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location from the current rsi 5 presidential single family this block face is
mostly single family and the appellant has not demonstrated that there are unique physical
conditions of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the zoning code
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the requested variance for a multifamily and occupied area.
For both?
All right, so I'm going to do both.
Number eight, MI 2025-007-700-1953-North 31st, and MI 2025-007-702-1955-North 31st.
I vote yes to both.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes to both.
Cheryl, yes, and my vote is yes to both.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes to both.
Tywin, my vote is yes to both.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
All right.
We have a five-minute break in the schedule.
We'll go out and come back, and we'll get rolling.
Number 10.
Thank you.
Number 10, MI2025, 007734, 611 South 7th Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
There's a letter of non-opposition from Bella Vista, a letter of support from South Street
head house and a letter of non-opposition from council member squilla
good afternoon mr chair good afternoon council could you please just state your name because
you've already been sworn uh yes uh verne anastasio on behalf of uh the
Yes, Vern Anastasio, on behalf of the occupant of 611 South 7th Street, Ang Campar.
All right, and I read while you were getting on, you got three letters of support.
Yes, sir.
All right, and our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you. You can show your screen and proceed with your case.
611 South 7th Street. The application is for a third floor addition. They're calling it that
because, and I'm going to show you in a moment, the rear wall is already, the existing rear wall,
the first and second floor are not compliant with the open open air uh requirements for the
per the code so any extension of that rear wall uh of course generates a refusal and and that's
why we're here so i'm gonna share my plans also david whipple is here in the audience too
if he could please be promoted in the he's the architect on the project
and he may in fact uh be able to answer some questions uh that are design related
how to get that space bar out of the way excuse me
this year could you show us a photo first i just sure just see what it looks like now and where it's
that this is Camp R and the third floor wall would come up there and Mr. Whipple can be
sworn in and walk through the plan if he if he'd like Mr. Whipple
do we see the architect in the audience all right thank you very much is he is he on he
said they share him in the audience he's getting on thank you I couldn't hear I'm sorry
hello hi sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer sure my name is david
whipple w-h-i-p-p-l-e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do counsel please proceed thank you so david do you want to explain the third floor uh
the extension there of the wall sure um so as everyone was saying the um existing structure
uh was taking up the entire site uh there's also a a frame roof on the front third of the structure
um so our our only option without completely redoing the structure was to push the addition
into the center into the back of the existing structure um there were a number of uh i'm not
sure if you know the history of the property so there was recently a fire um and there were a
number of code issues that we discovered um inside the property so upgrading that kind of uh had a
cascading effect um so the reason that we had to push it all the way back
in order to maintain our distance separation between the two egress stairs off of the third
floor. There's really no way to not build into that rear area and still provide two
compliant stairs. And this here is what we're talking about, right, David? Correct. Yeah.
Mr. Chair, we met with the Bella Vista neighbors. Also, South Street Headhouse was present at that meeting. As you read it to the record, we've gotten two letters of support and Council Member Squilla's letter of-
Is there a rendering showing what it's going to look like when it's done?
I'm just trying to get a picture in my mind what it's going to look like.
No, just the sketch. No color rendering.
No color rendering, right? Okay. So that's what it's going to look like when it's done. Correct. Correct. Okay.
Okay, so that's what it's going to look like when it's done.
Correct.
Correct, correct.
Questions from the board. Did he adopt your testimony? Who's going to adopt your testimony? I don't think Angie is here to the court. Thank you questions from the board.
Questions or comments from our attorney. Not at this time, Mr. Chair questions or comments from the virtual audience.
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the current cmx2
commercial mixed use the proposed addition will not well sorry the proposed addition will have
minimal impacts on surrounding properties the planning commission recommends that the board
grant their quest experience for the extension of the non-conforming rear yard setback thank you
M-I-2025-007734-611 South 7th Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Ty Owen, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number 11, M-I-2026-001-198, Fort Leverington Avenue.
it this is a resumptive hearing
reconsideration oh that's right
Rachel Pritzker will be coming back in as a panel shortly, Mr. Chair.
All right. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Council, could you just state your name and spell for the sonographer?
yes rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r right do you swear firm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes all right so this is a um we're going to have a
testimony from you updates on where we stand yes questions from the board um public testimony and
and then planning commission if they want to do it again here's our preaminal the evidence
Evidence and testimony presented at the January 7th, 2026 hearing in this matter are incorporated
into the recordings for the hearing on reconsideration.
The scope of this hearing is limited to the presentation of supplemental evidence and
testimony only.
So why don't we start?
Great.
I'm going to share my screen.
Do you see my screen?
Yes, you might want to make it a little larger.
That's better?
So this is for Leverington Avenue.
As mentioned, it's a reconsideration hearing.
I represent Matthew Grossman and Stephen Kramer on behalf of Watermill Lofts Acquisitions LLC.
And we have here today also the architect, Scott Woodruff, and our civil engineer, Matthew Kurse,
This was our motion for reconsideration that was granted, basically in granting of the motion for reconsideration established that the prior denial reflect either a misapplication of the variance standards, reliance on considerations outside the board's jurisdiction and or procedural irregularities arising from late introduced testimony in this matter.
A lot of the legal precedent is incorporated herein and also was reviewed by the Zoning Board
and is included at length in our memo of law. In order to be sort of brief in going through this,
I just want to provide another copy of the refusal. Please note that we originally sought
to include four new units and an existing structure that already has 20 units already.
We are reducing that from a request for four units to a reduction for just a request for three units on the ground floor, where there are also already two units there.
And there, again, are already 20 units in this building, which was approved many, many, many years ago, I think 2011 via a variance.
Just for the record, and I spoke to Ms. Emerson about this, there was a request to try to reach out to the plans examiner to get them to update the language in the refusal because it makes it seem like it is for 24 units total.
for 24 units total it's not it's there's already 20 units it's just just an additional now three
It's not, there's already 20 units.
It's just as much.
units however they were not able to modify the refusal so we include the correspondence in the
record but just wanted to acknowledge that the request was made it just wasn't able to be
satisfied by lni as they don't allow for revisions to the refusal once it's been issued just to
orient yourself with the site again. This is a property that's zoned I-2 Industrial on Leverington
Avenue. Just an aerial, sorry, street view of the structure. It's a 150-plus-year-old historic
structure, which is listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. It has no commercial
currently in it, just vacant ground floor space and all residential units, and is sort of at this
intersection on Leverington Avenue, and sort of, as you can see, a pretty unique building,
which makes it difficult for industrial uses under I2 or really any commercial uses. I used
to hold an animal hospital that left a while ago, and so there's about 3,000 square feet,
if the board can recall, that have been standing vacant despite longstanding efforts
and hiring different brokers to try to get tenants in the space.
This is just a front view of the structure as well.
The entrance in the rear of the building.
Some of the parking.
This is that vacant space that we're looking to fill with just three units.
I just want to go through some of the updates. So after the last hearing, we undertook substantial efforts to address the concerns raised on the record and engage with the Registry Community Organization, specifically John Hunter at Maniunk Neighbors Council, and consulted also with the Department of Licenses and Expressions through an official preliminary meeting that we had with them.
in addition to meeting with some other members of the city on the flood management side of things
and environmental side of things. So this is just a summary of the different revisions and
iterations that we went back and forth on to address all of the concerns that were satisfactory
to those stakeholders that I just mentioned. This is in collaboration with our civil engineers,
our architects and their team as well, in addition to, like I said, a preliminary meeting with L&I,
we will have to undergo, if we get through zoning to the building permit phase, we will have to
undergo mandatory meetings with them as well as we developed building permit plans for this project.
But this was helpful into laying out what we were thinking and the different revisions that we
wanted to make in order to update the revised plans this email number six just states basically
the notes that were taken at the meeting the things that we discussed we reviewed the additional
bulletin that weighs in with some of this flood plan scoping meeting that we have to do with
l and i once we get past zoning and almost all if not everything and then some of their suggestions
were, as best we could, added to the zoning floor plans, which, because this isn't a new
structure, you know, they're incorporated as part of the record, but we'll have to submit
floor plans and building code compliant plans as well. These comments, in addition to the
conversation and the review of the bulletin, were incorporated into our revised plans, which
our architect will go through it's just worth noting through a couple months of this work
we ended up getting a letter of non-opposition from the rco manioc neighborhood council and
their zoning committee as long as we agreed to and incorporated these elements so the first
the floor level for the first floor we raised 30 inches to the bfe plus 18 so it's 46 and a half
which is required for new buildings. Again, this isn't a new building, but for the new
three units to make sure that they meet the new building standards. Proposed apartments
were reconfigured from four units to three units, which will be connected via a new corridor
to a newly restored entrance and exit on the Leverington Avenue side of the building above
above the base floor elevation the bfe this will allow safe execution and entry to the
the base floor elevation, the BFE. This will allow safe execution and entrance.
evacuation entry to the apartments during any flood event and then one of the egress stairs
which serves the 18 apartments on the upper floors of the building will connect with this
new corridor to also provide safe evacuation for the building occupants in the event of a flood
and so with those modifications after a few months of back and forth um basically gave us a letter
the mnc board was not opposed to our application i'm going to ask scott to go through our actual
floor plans to kind of show those changes and then bring on our civil engineer as well
who helped with this project scott woodruff
they'll be coming back in as the panel
Hello, good evening more. Hi, could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer?
Sure, Scott Woodruff, a C. O. T. T. Woodruff. W. O. O. D. R. U. F. F.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth to hold truth? Nothing, but the truth.
Council?
Scott, do you have the plans up or do you need me to share my screen?
I can share my screen.
Okay, so if you can see my screen, I'll zoom in here just to orient everyone to the
plan uh on this left hand side this is the leverington avenue face as rachel had shown
before the primary entrance is via a ramp here in the rear off the parking lot which has access
to an existing elevator and there's an existing log entry over here the proposed area that we're
looking to infill with new residential units is kind of highlighted in these colors as you can
see there's we're proposing three units down from the four units there is one two bedroom and then
two one bedroom units some of the changes that rachel had gone through was raising the floor
level so we're doing that via two ramps which would be accessed via the corridor here for
ada accessibility purposes with the entire area that's shaded in this color being that 30 inches
above the base flood elevation or 46.5 feet above that datum pretty standard one bedroom
open loft style units as we get over to the leverington avenue face one of the changes that
in coordination with the rco in the neighborhood that was very important was to provide access to
leverington avenue there's an existing staircase that is there that is can be accessed via these
stairs which has been shut off for years we are proposing to reopen this entryway
as this is the one area of the site that does provide safe ingress and egress above the
base flood elevation you can see that the sidewalk here i have the survey as well which
which Matt can also go through, comes out at 49 feet. The landing's at 52.29 feet.
And again, our corridor's at 46.5. So we're going to be coming upstairs to access through
this landing and then back down some stairs to get above this BFE. So there is safe ingress
and egress for all of these units. The other request was that we modify this existing staircase
that you can see right here that was the other second means of egress for the entire building
and reconfigure this landing to connect to this new corridor that we are creating above
the place flood elevation and then remove this door which would exit you out to a walkway next
to a vehicular zone so we agreed to shut this off connect to this new corridor above the bfe
that we're creating, which provides all residents in the building, not only these three additional
units that we're proposing, to be able to have access out to Leverington Avenue for ingress and
regress purposes. Can you also just go through the additional flood mitigation? I think there
I think there was pumps and some damage resistant materials and some of the absolutely absolutely so we met with flood protection free up preliminarily got some advising from L and I on what flood measures they would see doable here and what best practice would be they advise that they would like to see a wet flood proofing approach which basically means we're adding engineered flood events along two of the sides.
There was pumps and some damage resistant materials and some of the
of the building um we had talked to them about proposing along this side on the snowman side of
the sheet and then the southern side of the sheet uh which they did agree to obviously you know the
we will engineer those openings appropriately at the the proper stage uh but they found that that
would be the the best scenario um also you know we'll go through a little bit more of that
engineering they also wanted to make sure that all the materials that we are uh proposing to
raise this floor structure were of flood resistant materials which we also agreed to being that
those measures would be all concrete in nature and any of the joists that would be kind of utilized
to raise that floor structure would be of of a metal floor joist to provide again flood resistant
materials in that event and they did seem to agree that that was the the best option given that it
is a residential use in a residential building um and we also did meet with the office of
sustainability uh as well to review kind of our approach and plan in that understanding we also
met with flood protection um and they did also uh seem to agree with that methodology and that
that would be the best practice from a flood mitigation perspective thanks scott yep i don't
I don't know if we want to bring on Matt Kurse just to...
Who was the person again?
Matt Kurse, K-E-A-R-S-E, Matt.
Matthew Kurse, please raise your virtual hand.
that should be coming back in as a panel shortly thank you
good evening good evening sir could you please state your name and then spell for the sonographer
Matthew Kearse. M-A-T-T-H-E-W-K-E-A-R-S-E. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Council? Thanks, Matt. I just wanted you to
provide any additional comments that you had given you're the civil engineer for the project.
You've dealt with flood issues and in this project in particular, we're not asking for any
waivers or variances related to any flood or waterfront setbacks, but just wanted you to also
put your testimony on the record and also related to the conversations we had with L&I
and the steps we'll have to take going forward if we are able to have the board's approval and
move towards the building permit phase. Yeah, absolutely. As Scott outlined, we've taken
considerable measures above and beyond what would typically be considered at the zoning stage.
Typically, these conversations with L&I and Office of Sustainability would occur after we get zoning approval, but we felt it was important based upon the neighbor's input, the board's input, that we address these concerns and get a hold of them now.
So I'm confident in my professional opinion that we are complying with the regulations. Obviously, we'll have to go through the formal application process with the city and the floodplain officers to get their formal approval at building permit stage.
But, again, in my professional opinion, I feel very confident we're complying with the regulations and providing safe ingress and egress during a flooding event.
Thank you.
I just want to lastly just mention, you know, just about the hardship, just obviously given this is a variance hearing.
As I may have mentioned, we're not here for any waivers or variances related to flooding or waterfront setbacks or any of that.
we're here to expand the residential use in an already residential building.
Just to mention, the property is just uniquely constrained here by its historic designation,
which limits exterior alterations, as you saw from the exterior windows. It's an industrial
era design, including limited ground floor fenestration and constrained layouts, the physical conditions.
including limited ground floor fenestration and constrained layouts, the physical conditions,
including adjacency to the Maniac Canal and SEPTA infrastructure, and the longstanding
residential conversion and limited remaining commercial footprint. So this, we believe,
is the least modification of the code possible under Pennsylvania law and under the zoning code
here in Philadelphia. And so that we've shared with both the prior hearing and hopefully this,
that the evidence shows that we can't really reasonably use this property for the permitted
industrial commercial purposes. You know, it was important to us, given the last conversations
and the last hearing went, to make sure to go above and beyond to address the concerns
that were had, whether premature or not. It was important to undergo at this stage and
also truly help the project move forward on better footing and also will set us up for
success going forward so it was definitely a worthwhile exercise and we're happy to
sort of incorporate as best we can in the record these plans the testimony that we've
given and the proviso to reduce from four units to three units and happy to answer any
questions i'll do you want to bring on our client do you want to yeah i'll bring on please um sure
mac grossman or stephen kramer
Matt Grossman will be rejoining as appendix short
can you hear me i can could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes
Yes, Matthew, M-A-T-T-H-E-W, Grossman, G-R-O-S-S-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Matthew, have you heard my testimony today?
Do you believe it to be true and accurate, and do you adopt it as your own?
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
You know, the only thing, and it's really just to echo, Rachel, much of what you've said,
I think, you know, since we have had the denial issued over the last number of weeks and months, we've taken really sort of painstaking efforts in our collaboration and our dialogue, most notably with the RCO, to really address, you know, the concerns head on.
You know, and I think in opening up the Leverington Avenue access point, reducing our unit count from four to three with no interior bedrooms and better light and air and access and the raising of the base floor elevation across the space.
uh it's really been a very collaborative and productive effort to what we believe you know
presents a design and a schematic that is safe practical and and accessible so yeah you know
thank you and we we appreciate the consideration thank you questions from the board i have a
question. So, what, if any, impact does this have to the ceiling height of the units?
Sure. So, the existing ceiling heights are, I believe, 12 plus. They might be 12, 6, 13 feet.
So, we're going to be raising another 30 inches. So, we'll still have
more than eight feet, eight to nine feet, that'll be able to be in there.
So the nice thing, being an industrial building, we do have those tall ceiling heights
at our disposal to raise the floor level.
The questions.
So question, the 30 inches is from, so what's the difference in finish or floor height
from the gray area to one of the units.
What's the difference in floor?
So the difference from our slab, current slab,
to the new proposed is 30 inches.
So it'll be 2 foot 6 above the existing floor level,
which is 18 inches above the base flood elevation.
Okay, so the gray area is already 18 inches above
the flood area is that you want this am i correct yes uh-huh this area is the still at the existing
floor elevation this entry of 44.2 feet okay and so from there to the the raised area for the
There's a 30 inch difference or is it 30 plus? 18? No, 30. 30 is a 30 inch difference.
units is 30
there's a 30 inch difference or is it 30 plus
18 no 30
And so you have a 30 foot ramp. Correct.
Okay, the questions.
I know there were some concerns about like a severe flood to give it because the previous business.
had been um the vet and that you know there weren't people on that floor sort of continuously
i think you've addressed sort of being above the flood plain but is there any additional provisions
that have happened to the structure that take into effect sort of you know 100 year or more flood
events so we had conversations that maybe scott we can address we had conversations with um
I'm trying to remember the official title, Program Manager for Flood Resilience and Compliance
Strategy.
And one of the things we talked about was posting like flood evacuation plans the same
way you're seeing, you know, commercial and residential buildings in addition to.
They have monitors on the Schuylkill River where you can get text alerts to when there's
potentially a flood event.
So we have talked through with them some of those additional mitigating factors outside
of the raising the floor level and opening the different egresses because that was kind of the
the biggest concern was let making sure people know about it and then making sure they can quickly
evacuate um so that's from a notification standpoint but is there any provisions being
done with the building systems to address it in the event that that happens i know some of just
from seeing a lot of these floodplain cases some of the other buildings in like on that maniunk
corridor have other systems they put in place like as just in case belts and suspenders
like a warning system like uh like sump pumps like french trains and all like you know like
just additional so we we did discuss that with um the office of floodplain management flood
protection uh they advised because it's a residential structure that that those would
be wet flood proofing measures and they advise that would um those would be dry flood proofing
measures sorry they would advise doing wet flood proofing measures which would be to allow the
safe passage of water into the structure and out of the structure um in that event we were open to
any of those strategies if they did think that they were warranted um and would be would be
worthwhile though okay and then i think the second question i have is just you know as a renter and
rental units typically when this is the instance for buildings it does have an
increased carrying cost to the resident and like as the operators of the
building has there been any discussion around like how that's going to be
measured to messaged to potential tenants like revolving things like flood
insurance or like because that is slightly different it's a low risk but
but it's a slightly different risk than you'd carry in like a different location.
Matthew Grossman, are you able to answer that?
You know, I mean, look, we haven't, I look at that as really, you know, being an onus on ownership.
You know, like we have, you know, flood, excessive flood coverage, you know, in place today for the building.
We will maintain that.
You know, in terms of the rental income and what we're going out on on these units, it's going to be in line with the rest of the building.
I wouldn't see any additional outlay of expense or cost, you know, to the to the tenancy.
OK, so you don't think that because of the location that they might have like a higher renter's insurance or.
I don't. I don't. Yeah.
questions from our attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual
audience chair i do not see any further hands planning commission amy boyd with the planning
committee do you want to change your position or yeah um in light of the revised plans we have some
new statements to make thank you um amy war with planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends a change in zoning at this location from i2 medium industrial to r1 residential
multifamily this property was granted a variance in 2012 for animal hospital on the ground floor
and 20 units the property is located in the special flood hazard area section 14-704 sub 4.
the proposal to convert the commercial space on the ground floor into dwelling units will
endanger the public health safety and welfare and increased flood danger and
and increased flood danger and the likelihood of loss of property. The property has a history
the likelihood of loss of property the property
of flooding. The zoning code requires residential development in the floodplain
to be elevated to the design flood elevation which is 18 inches above the blaze flood elevation.
The revised proposal to raise the elevation 30 inches is not enforceable by L&I and is not
included in stamped zoning plans without the following provisor. First floor elevation
to be located above the regulatory flood elevation with flood protection designed to
address enclosed uninhabitable areas located below the first floor elevation the planning
commission recommends that the board deny their requested variance for three additional dwelling
units thank you and just respond to that yeah sure i'm just i'm just confused um so the the
request is or the recommendation is to rezone to RM1 which would allow ground floor residential
which we're providing and then it would it now would meet the 30 inches plus 18 above BFE which
we're also providing so I believe that we did discuss the on the rec putting this on the record
the submission of the letter from Maniac Neighbors Council and our testimony that we would
comply and agree with those. I did discuss with Ms. Emerson the ability to put whatever we could
as far as a proviso, and so we're willing to do that on the record and, you know, whatever is
actually enforceable, but I can assure you we wouldn't have gone through all this effort
to not follow exactly those considerations. Hillary, we spoke about this. Where do we stand?
yeah so unfortunately so rachel and i talked through this couple different ways because
what's challenging about this application is that it's a change of use so there was not plan review
so we are not permitted to stamp plans for it um we talked about putting in a proviso
regarding the first floor corridor but because there's being a new first floor corridor created
you kind of need plans to show where that is so we we unfortunately cannot um put in a proviso
related to um how the uh the new height in the new portion of the corridor so um but we you know we
understand everything that's you know on record and we have all of the documentation to support
that so okay so um mi 20 26 0011984 leverington avenue i vote yes with proviso 23 total dwelling
units michael johns my vote is yes with proviso cheryl guest and my vote is yes with proviso
Tenetta Graham my vote is yes with proviso Ryan McAdams my vote is yes with proviso
hi Owen my vote is yes with proviso thank you council thank you thank you
is there anyone in the audience who their two o'clock case has not been called
I do not see any hands raised Mr. Chair okay so we're going to move to the 3 30 list
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board. With me is our Board Vice Chair, Tenetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Secretary is Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member Ty Wynn.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And Board Member Ryan McAdams.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, our zoning board director, Ian Haggerty, and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
Recording of this hearing will be posted on the ZBA website.
By participating, you consent to be recorded.
This is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities.
Whether in person or remote, if you are called to speak, you must state and spell your name and then wait to be sworn in.
once you've been sworn in please state your name each time before testimony anyone can enter the
appearance to become an interested party you can identify the case property on your zoom webinar
you can see a staff member or you can call the ZBA appearance line by the Clovis business tomorrow
call 265-270-5548. Leave a message that includes your email address and also the address of the
property of the appeal case. The following guideline is for remote attendees. First,
when directed, you must raise your virtual hand in order to be recognized to speak.
If you're called to testify, you'll be prompted to join as a...
if you're called to testify you'll be prompted to join as a panelist please accept the request
and then turn on your camera the webinar q a is for questions about the hearing do not
comment on the questions on the q a the cases on the q a and finally if you're participating
by phone press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute so let's look at our schedule
here. Number one, MI 2023 007024 857 Tarsdale Avenue. Sean Ward is the attorney. Does he come again?
We'll come back in as a planner shortly. Sure.
So, I'm here.
Can you hear me?
Good to see you.
We can.
We see you.
All right.
Let's do that first.
all right could you please state your name is bell for the stenographer
thank you mr chair sean shawn w a r d uh counsel for applicant all right you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i still do um um sean could you give
us an update on this case uh uh can i do two side notes real quick uh cheryl cheryl we can hardly
hear you next to me yeah now we i can we can hardly hear you on the uh you know the the you
know the webinar uh so i don't know if you're too far from the mic or what but or or if you're
not feeling well but uh it's hard to hear you so i just want you i want you to know that
OK, thank you. All right. And and Mr. Chairman, you know, I, you know, I watch things on Facebook and the Web and whatnot.
But you are a faster talker than Senator John Kennedy from, you know, what, Louisiana or whatever.
But you sound a lot alike. But he talks much slower than you.
oh my goodness
I couldn't
I couldn't help but
I'm almost like a senator now
I can't
I can't believe that
I'm a Republican on top of it all
my God
I was born in South Philadelphia
I've been a Democrat my whole life
you made me
oh my God
I'm not changing your party
or anything like that
but oh my gosh
let me tell you why
I speak a little quicker
because we try to move this
oh yeah
we don't like people
going home at seven o'clock at night and okay all right i'll speed it up punching hour right now so
why don't you tell us where you stand on this john uh 85 75 tartho avenue you know i know this has
been going on for a long time i've been involved with this property for you know uh you know 20 or
you know more years uh to make the life short here uh we are scheduled for upper holmesburg
Civic on June 18th at 7 o'clock p.m. I confirmed that with Stan Sawinski. Stan is also with
Councilman Driscoll's office, and I am authorized through both of those entities, the RCO and the
Councilman's office, that they join in the request. We're scheduled for June 18th,
so give us a date. We will meet on June 18th, and we'll be back here to make this case.
0 0 7 0 2 4 85 74 Tarsdale Avenue cases continue to 9 21 20 9 2 26 at 3 30 p.m.
wait wait wait 9 September 2nd 9 2 20 26 okay thank you senator oh my goodness
oh my goodness my god i'm i'm i'm taking back but thank you thank you sean and
and we're glad you're feeling better hey it was a compliment uh it just
well it's gonna start calling right now number two mi 2025 004 285 10 14 south 25th street um
do we have an interpreter for this one
okay all right so the uh complainant or is as marie marie miles seppler and paula
Okay. All right. So the complainant.
pauline speck stuck ride listed owners
this is the uh what listing is this so mr chair this is a reconsideration hearing this is the
second time it's been listed we have not received um exhibits yep okay do we see anybody in the
audience it's a chair this is jason hand i will be opposed for the session i do not see either
of those individuals in the virtual audience today my 2025 004 282 10 14 south 25th street
i vote to dismiss michael johns my vote is to dismiss cheryl gaston my vote is to dismiss
tenetta graham my vote is to dismiss my mcadams my vote is to dismiss my vote is to dismiss
and then mi2025-006-674-1212 south 51st street michael yanukov is the attorney
they're coming back in as the panelists now sir
Is this ready to go?
I'm going to continue.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Michael Yanov here for the applicant.
Counsel, could you spell your name for the stenographer?
M-I-C-H-A-E-L, last name Y-A-N-O-F-F.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you give us an update and tell us about this case?
Yes. Before I got involved in this case, we had my client was attempting to deal with the RCOs and had a very difficult time.
I was then retained and we were finally able to establish contact with the RCOs, heard nothing from them.
And then all of a sudden, my client advised that he received a notice that there was a meeting two weeks ago, less than two weeks ago.
unfortunately i've been out of the country for the last two weeks but nobody bothered to call me
and ask whether i was available for the rco meeting the my client went to the rco meeting
on his own on their own and um but we have not received any indication of any approval
or denial or conditions or proviso or anything from the rcos uh we i spoke i spoke to the uh
the board this morning. And I respectfully requested a continuous to give us an opportunity
to find out what the position of the RCO would be for this project. And I therefore repeat my
request for a continuance and ask for a new date to give us an opportunity to at least
So, all right, so MI 2025-006-674, 1212 South 51st Street, that case is continued until 9-2-26 at 3.30 p.m., and this case will be marked, must be heard, so it has to go on that day, okay?
I appreciate that. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Have a good afternoon.
I think I have number 7, too.
MI-2025-007-322-4841 Fairmount Avenue.
This case is continued.
We haven't heard from these people?
First listening?
All right, so this case is continued until 9-2-26 at 3.30 p.m.
Mark must be heard.
We're going to go to number six.
okay okay all right so let's see will we stay in here right with you
this 60s documents to proceed anyway
okay all right all right mi2025-006-980-1630 cheltenham avenue franklin martina the lossless
Hi, could you just state your name for us and spell it for the
phonographer?
It sounds a little low, so we do apologize.
It sounds a little low, so we do apologize.
We have the volume up high, so we can...
We have the volume up high, so we can-
No, we hear you.
We hear you.
We hear you.
Okay, perfect.
Would you please do me a favor?
State your name and spell it for the stenographer.
My name is Angelina Martinez, and my husband, Franklin Martinez, first name, A-N-G-E-L.
Sorry.
He needs to state his name for the record, because he is the listed owner on the property.
Franklin Martinez.
could he spell it well we have we have this yeah sorry do you do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes we do okay he has to answer yes not answer okay
so we have so sir we have a couple of issues one um we weren't sure if you needed an interpreter
because you had requested one for a prior case but there was no request for this case
do you need an interpreter well we had uh a contractor ma'am you cannot speak for him
no no but i'm you cannot speak for him i'm sorry and someone going to be able to understand what
he's going to say well he he we have let him let him try to say what he's going to say okay
okay so you need so sir you need an interpreter no we need to cancel this case is what we need
ma'am ma'am okay so sorry sorry yeah what do you mean what do you mean
are you so let me let me ask it this way are you still seeking to have signs on the property
okay so then we don't want to continue we don't want to cancel the hearing but we need to continue
it because one we need an interpreter for you for espanol correcto yeah espanol yeah okay um
and then um we also you we need proof that you mailed letters to the near neighbors
i understand that the rco was not responsive and that they refused to meet again but you are still
required to send letters to the neighbors so you can easily meet with them so yes we see more yeah
yes okay so and the our staff is going to call you tomorrow and give you more information um about
this um but we are going to continue today's hearing and the chair will give you a new date
so am i 2025 006 980 1623 cheltenham avenue this case is continued to the second
nine two the second of september at 3 30 p.m
i'm sorry no ma'am we've changed we're going to do it at 9 30 in the morning because we need
an interpreter okay september 2nd 2026 9 30 in the morning so the interpreter will be here
okay thank you very much sorry for the delay
I don't know what I said.
I don't want to listen to it.
I got scared, she smacked me.
They were coming back in as a panel.
You better not say too much, I'd say right now.
Thank God she's not here in person, she just smacked somebody here.
She smacked the husband.
She smacked the husband.
Jermaine?
Yes, hold on, let me.
oh man sorry i'm trying to get a better lighting hey there that's that's better
Sorry, I'm trying to get a better lighting.
i'm just in a bad state your name is fellow footer stenographer sure jermaine harris
and that's j-e-r-m-a-i-n-e and uh i am counsel for 521 prime properties
all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do do you have this lengthy letter from all in the family
there's a lengthy letter of opposition yes okay our vice chair has a few questions for you sir
good evening have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
i have okay and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do okay you can share your screen and proceed with your case sure
i'm sorry i'm just trying to get my uh
okay so this is concerning the property
at 2635 North 24th Street and just want to run through my packet so this is the property right
here it's a corner property and on 24th Street this is a picture well there's a
posting picture of the posting right here and what my client seeks to do is
to make this into a, to legalize this into a three unit property. My client bought this properly
recently. In fact, they bought it in September of 2025. And when they purchased it, they were
under the belief based on representations that were made by the listing that it was
a multifamily, that it was three families or three units as stated within here, live
in one unit, rent the other two.
and so they were unaware of the situation and currently right now the property has a two
it's two family and it is vacant right now there's a legalized two family
I just want to go over to go over to plans
so there are two units on the first floor one is a see here
you have the entrance right here you walk in with the front entrance and then it's it's a
studio apartment and you walk in and then that just that you walk in here then
you have the bathroom right here then you have a den and this is the kitchen
right here which is all to the right when you walk into the apartment now
there's a common hallway and that's a side entrance of as a side exterior
entrance but there's a common hallway and then there is a unit to entrance
which is in the rear when you walk in through the back of the unit and I'll be
happy to show the exterior again so you can see as I get into the pictures but
you walk in there's a den has a kitchen bathroom right there and then a bedroom
and that's what it is so then you have a another side entrance which would lead
up to the third floor this is how it was laid out so you walk up and then you have
And then you have a dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and then you have two bedrooms.
a dining room kitchen bathroom
The second floor comprises of two bedrooms for that.
So again, this is the front.
This is the side that's for the third floor.
And then this is the rear for the second floor unit.
Let's go into actual pictures.
So this is the unit one.
This is unit one.
This is the bedroom.
This is the den.
this is the bedroom
this is the kitchen
and then this is what I was discussing right here
this is the second
this is the second apartment
unit 2 this is the exterior
this is the bath
the den
in the bedroom for that one in the kitchen.
And then this is the unit three.
This is the side entrance of it,
which you walk upstairs and then that leads to the third floor.
I mean, the second floor, I'm sorry, the second floor,
which is the entire of unit three.
And that's the two bedrooms. This is one bedroom. This is the other bedroom. This is the bath.
There was significant support in the community for this particular project.
There were 71 petitions or letters, 71 nearby neighbors that signed or were in support of
this particular project.
Now, no, I'm sorry, not 78, 48. I'm sorry, 49. Now, I did want to address briefly the letter of opposition.
There were no nearby neighbors that appeared at the community meeting, and only the RCO gave their position as to what their position was as to this.
Let's see. Here's the notice of refusal.
and again this is the referring of it uh the letter the meeting summary there were no members
of the community that was present so i think that is pretty uh that's pretty significant even though
notice was given to the nearby neighbors only the applicant and rco whereby the rco made the
presentation. This is the letter that was submitted to this board in opposition.
This is the ownership, evidence of ownership. Again, this property was purchased
September, seven months ago, September the 3rd of last year. I'll have, I'll note that the property
is here's the tax clearance again there is a an active two-family for this
particular property and I would note that the property is vacant my client
decided not to do any sort of renting out for the property even though he has
an active license uh he decided not to do anything uh pending this and uh there are
yep there's another multi-family on the same block and uh that is it as far as the uh
presentation i'd like to call my client jermaine why don't you do this why don't you respond to
a couple of these things are in the letter. They're talking about size of units and maybe
combining. Could you at least respond or tell us what you think of what they're saying there?
Tell us what you think, what they're saying there. I mean, I know you're saying they didn't live there, but they're raising some issues that I think you might want to respond to.
I mean, I know you're saying they didn't live there, but they're raising some
Okay. Let me get my client, because I think it would be better to hear from him to resolve to do that. Could I promote, could I have him promote it?
Jitu, could you raise your hand, please?
Jitu, you have pictures of the inside?
Yes, I thought that I, uh, yeah, these are all, this is all the inside.
Yeah, I think, I think somebody has to respond to what they've reached. I really do.
Okay. It's fair enough. I'm just, because he articulated it much better than I could.
Uh, hold on.
Please, it's only second floor right he said he raised his hand he's trying to he's on the call right now.
Yes, we can we promote you to George.
Oh, you're trying to. Okay.
i'm going to promote them right now chair all right thank you very much thank you
hey there can you hear me i can could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer
yeah of course it's j-2-j-i-t-t-u last name is george g-e-o-r-g-e you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth i swear remain proceed okay so sir uh
mr george did you review the this letter uh that is on uh the screen right now yes i did okay uh
And you saw the concerns that the RCO had to this. Could you briefly respond to that?
Yeah, of course. Yeah, I think the main thing that they had pointed out was that the size of the units they thought were too small.
And I just wanted to address that really quick. So the way the home is set up right now, it has three separate entrances.
There's one on 24th Street, which is a dedicated entrance to our unit one, which is the studio unit.
So the total square footage of that unit is 360 square foot.
It has the studio bedroom in the front that also has the kitchen, and then there's a separate den.
The rear unit, which is unit two, it is 420 square foot.
And then the upstairs unit on the second floor, which has a two-bedroom, is 750 square footage altogether.
So, I mean, these are, you know, fairly sized in terms of it being a studio unit, a one-bedroom unit, and a two-bedroom unit.
So I actually met with the RCO rep on site because she wanted to go over and see the property herself.
um and i i think it is just her opinion on the size of the units you know i think these are
these are fairly sized for what it's designed to do um it's not like a crammed one room um
where there's absolutely no space for anything so i think it's just one person's perspective
on these units but based on the square footage and what the the requirements are for these units
to be code compliant um they're they're they're more than fairly sized
now mr george did you hear the testimony that i gave to this board i did yes okay
now other than the statements uh that the explanation that you gave regarding the size
of the units do you have anything else to add to the presentation other than
what I just stated you don't have to but is there anything else that you would
like to add yeah just a couple more really quick things and I think the RCO
had said that because there's a common hallway there's a risk of safety well
which I you know I fail to understand because common hallways are a very
common thing in multifamily units so the two downstairs units they have
So the two downstairs units, they have separate entrances.
separate entrances so the
So the tenants in those units can access their own separate entrances to enter their units.
The common hallway in the middle, it's primarily intended for the second floor tenant,
although it does provide access to the two units on the first floor.
Now, the main reason why this property has become an issue where combining the two units downstairs is not possible is exactly due to this reason, because there is that common hallway that separates the front unit and the back unit.
So, like, I could not combine the two without the upstairs tenant having access to the middle of this new, quote-unquote, hypothetical home, if that makes sense.
so there's a common hallway between the front unit and the rear unit unless i reconstructed
the whole home i could not combine both of those units because this common common hallway um now
like you stated jermaine when i council one minute why don't you put the plans up while
yeah that's exactly what i was doing okay that's exactly what i was doing that's great
yeah so if you look at this plan um the hold on can you zoom out so we can see the whole plan
because i feel like you keep you could go in a little bit more but like if you could have it
from yes no back there you go back out yeah could you zoom out a little bit you had it and then you
zoomed in again jermaine could you yes just leave it right don't touch it
okay all right yeah so on the left hand side of this drawing which is on west oakdale street
that entrance right there is the entrance to the common hallway so everything on top of that
is unit two everything to the bottom of it is unit one now when you go straight through
you have the stairs which will take you to a part unit three which is which
come which is everything on the second floor it's a two-bedroom unit so what
the RCO was saying was that I should combine unit one which is in the in the
front and unit two on the back but there's no way for me to do that because
of this common hallway which leads you to unit three which is upstairs I
I understand that. Alternatively, though, you could combine unit one and unit three and just seal off unit two.
I absolutely could. Yeah. I have the problem. Those entrances to unit to the now combined unit.
Right. Now, finding a tenant to occupy a space like that where it's two different kitchens and it's designed in a way where it's intended for three family.
you know that also becomes challenging and I would have to yeah I mean I don't know that
I would keep the kitchen I think the kitchens actually for that to be a smaller kitchen but
I mean it is possible to combine units is the only point I was trying to make yeah thank
you yeah yeah that is not something I would prefer to do which you know again
would require some construction and taking this kitchen down or finding a
tenant that would want two kitchens which you know would raise the the rent
of the that unit altogether the at the moment the way it stands I'm looking at
renting at the um three families and in a manner where it's affordable enough for the community but
i think yeah you say three families in that small one what family that's
370 some square feet three three tenants let me rephrase three tenants okay yes so i have a
question about this unit too um okay i see it says a den so that's the uh that would that be
considered the living area so it's really a one-bedroom unit two is really a one-bedroom
apartment unit two is a one-bedroom that is correct unit two is a one-bedroom one unit
one is a one-bedroom also with a small with with a smaller den well a studio with a smaller
that is correct yeah unit one is a studio unit two is a one bedroom and unit three which is upstairs
3, which is upstairs is a 2 bedroom any other 1.
is a two-bedroom.
Anybody have questions not a question, but these look.
This looks awfully small I have to agree with the.
And I can't you can't do this there's there's no real living space.
I don't. Okay. And can I can I see the second floor?
You want to see the plants? The one for the the second floor one.
but the unit. Yeah, the unit three.
Okay. So it's got a kitchen and a dining room. Yeah, you have my pet peeve where you have to
to wander through the dining room in the kitchen to get to a bathroom.
So, okay, I just any other questions.
One other question where's the actual like locked front door for unit three, because right now everyone has access to the shared hallway, and I'm not seeing the locked door at the top of the stairs.
go to the go to the first floor plan again
i guess that's what that is at the bottom of the steps
it's like i guess that's supposed to be a door is that that is okay that is correct yeah that's
where the door the locked door is located yeah only unit three has access to the stairwell
that is correct yes and then is there a basement there's no basement no basement
okay and what is the trash plan for the three units
well wait if there's no basement then where are the utilities
well so you know what let me let me rephrase so there there's no
basement that's accessible by the units there's um um one of those sidewalk doors
that you open up to go underneath that's where the the water correct correct yeah that's where
the access to the basement currently that is the only access to the basement correctly yeah
and my question was about trash storage for the units how are you planning on manage trash for
the three units i believe mr george said he's going to put it in the rear of the building
there's no rear see there's no rear there's alley
okay are there any other questions
It'd be good to see the pictures in color, but, you know, I don't know why we're black and white, but.
Questions from our attorney.
I just I was a little confused because you included in your exhibit packet active rental license for two units for this property.
Right. We were just showing that this property is an active it is an active multifamily.
That's what we were that's what we were just showing.
Yeah. So how did I guess my question is, how did how did that occur, given its single family zoning?
There was a history of this property since I believe looking at Atlas, it looks like it's been a history of this property being a two family.
So that's how since the early 80s.
I guess my question is, is it by variance or was it previously zoned for two family?
It was by, it was by variance.
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, I have a hand up from number, from the number, and they can 3552, so I'm sure, speak.
So I'm poodle?
Yes, I'm poodle.
oh hello hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes adrian fernandez my last name is spelled f-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed okay um swamp with rco was
opposed to this variance in this single-family home. This is also on one of the small streets
in our neighborhood. I think it's called Oakdale and 24th. The yard has been removed
and the shed, it's unclear whether that's legal or not, but it seems like
the illegal living in the space is using the shed as living space, which usually they aren't even
insulated or sound structures um there's a lot of units packed into what's what is a small
single-family home and this house should be rented as a single-family home
single-family home rentals are very successful in our area people rent them long term and at market
rates we are opposed to multi-family at this location there's nowhere to put the trash because
there is no backyard zero space in the back no space on the side and there's no space outside
if the board votes to grant this variance we're asking for provisos of a limit of two units
all trash stored in door with ventilation and no basement living and no shed living
thank you hold it council do you have any questions no i don't have any questions
um anyone else in the virtual audience no further hands mr chair planning commission
amy boyd with the planning commission
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning
to the existing R1 residential multifamily.
Oh, I'm sorry.
To the RSA 5 residential single family.
The property has a history of two spaces,
including two dwelling units.
There is no evidence that the property was converted
into three units with the benefit of permits.
The planning commission recommends
that the board grant the request advance
for a multifamily with proviso max two units.
We're going to hold this till next Wednesday. We're going to vote at 2 p.m. and we'll have that in the morning. We'll be in an executive session and talk about it and go over all the things we heard. Okay. So next Wednesday at 2 p.m.
All right. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Thank you, sir. All right.
number five mi 2025 is 0 0 6 8 6 7 25 30 north 11th street zenjin is the attorney
let me come back in short sure
good evening good afternoon council we've uh seen you several times today uh yes you've been sworn
just for the record state your name zen jen z-h-e-n-j-i-n um council um could you identify
your client the relationship to the property yes uh my client is the my client is uh olympia
holdings lc the property owner mr shagai bader should be here on behalf of the corporation
okay and i i think i see the rco seem to have a split vote does that sound right yeah they
did not take a position uh partly because they kind of had a divided vote with regard to the
neighbors that appeared at the meeting okay our vice chair has just a few questions sir good
evening have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the reading now the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do all right thank you share your screen and proceed with the case
thank you i'm going to share with the board what was previously submitted
can the board see my uh exhibit yes sir thank you so good again good afternoon this is an
application for a new construction at 2530 north 11th street uh my client is uh making
My client is making an application in this RM1 district for three family dwelling.
an application in this rm1 district for three
Thank you.
The three family request was refused.
The examiner did not specifically indicate the reason.
However, based on the code, I believe it is based on the lot size being about 180 square foot short of a by right three family dwelling.
uh mr jen i just only know i did look up so i yeah i was confused about that too and the code
section they cited to on the refusal was for the north central philadelphia overlay district which
requires 425 square feet of lot area um they didn't specify how much lot area is at this
property but presumably it's only enough for two units so that just to clarify that is correct yes
and based on that we we are short on the overall lot square footage again the rco took no position
on this they we did present before them uh the application what we're looking for again this is a
heavily residential multi-family area this will be a new construction filling out a space between
some existing buildings that are currently constructed uh the main reason that there was
a divide between the community members uh there's a faction of the community members that does not
want to see new developments coming into the neighborhood uh they were adamantly opposed to
the idea of any kind of construction uh we we understand that however uh we also understand that
even if we were to do a by right project uh some form of construction will take place here
what we did assure the community at the meeting is that my client uh made it would make himself
available to the community to the neighbors any issues with construction he would be available
there to make sure that it is addressed that being said uh this lot is uh about a thousand
a little over a thousand square feet uh it is again in on a block with a few new constructions
of similar type size and design uh three stories in height and approximately 600 to 700 square
foot per level once constructed with a basement level as well the elevation plan here shows
the way the basement is laid out again it's predominantly underground with about two feet
six above grade there is a proposed roof deck on the third floor which is accessible only by
the third floor unit again this is a private unit three deck I'm going to go ahead and go to the
floor plans so the basic layout here the basement would be a finished basement with hvac washer dryer
units utilities and an open area for use by the tenant or for whatever purpose they wish we do
understand that the board generally would not want basement living so no bedrooms or anything
of that nature we addressed that with the architect who originally wanted to put bedrooms in the
basement the first floor would be unit one the unit itself has a side exit to the rear yard
along with a front entrance they would enter into the living room it'll be a kitchen area
and then it's one full bedroom with its own contained bathroom and this is actually supposed
to be a powder room but it is designed in the layout as a full bathroom so that is unit one
unit two it's a second floor which is the same approximate size as unit one with the bedroom in
the front bedroom in the back it is accessed through the same entrance in the front up the
stairs and then would enter from the stairs itself on the side at a landing into the living room and
kitchen area and it has two bedrooms total in that unit the upper floor unit which also has access to
the uh roof deck is designed much like the second floor unit because of a little bit of more space
with the stairs ending on the third floor uh it has a larger living and kitchen area
um it has its own washer and dryer i'm not sure why the hvac system is also here i believe it's
due to the height of the building uh some kind of fan unit has to be upstairs to make sure the air
gets drawn at least that's how it was explained to me when i asked about why is there an hvac
unit up on the third floor my client might be able to clarify on that as well again it's a
unit up on the third floor my client might be able to clarify on that as well
two-bedroom design one of the things that we understand and that it's always a concern with
any of these multi-family units is temporary storage of trash each unit contains except for
first floor obviously but the second and third floor and the first floor actually all contain
the trash closet which will be built in near the kitchen for easy storage of trash until time for
taking it out for the trash pickup so again the reason my client thought to have three units
rather than just two is due to again the size of the unit upstairs would be very large and
And they understand as well that four bedrooms would not really work generally for rentals
because of limitations on the number of unrelated people, or in the case of the area, which
is the main reason why they want to do three units is that they have found over the past
from renting larger units that there simply isn't that many applicants that want units
of that size predominantly they find that the people that are looking to rent are looking for
smaller one to two bedroom units for the most part and that is primarily one of the reasons
based on the size of the lot the size of the building that would be constructed
my client is seeking a three unit rather than two so that is essentially the project
I believe my client is here to verify my testimony and I'm happy to try to answer
any questions from the board. What's your client's name? Mr. Bader, Shagai Bader.
Okay, Mr. Bader. They should be coming back in shortly. Yeah, they'll be coming back in shortly.
Hello? Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yeah, my name is Chagai Bader, C-H-A-G-A-I, my last name Bader, B-A-B-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I am.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mr. Bader, did you hear my testimony and see my presentation before the ZBA today?
Can you verify what I've represented is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
as a quick follow-up i made a representation about the divide of the people at the meeting
you were present with me at the meeting can you also verify what i stated about
the meeting uh challenges that were given the concerns that were given is that a correct
representation yes thank you questions from the board yes do you have any images of what the block
looks like now and i know there was a lot of vacancies but you said um and it was like a
mixture most of the uh mostly of two two okay all right so the three yeah three you the three uh
stories have already started to be yes there are quite a few started on the block okay thank you
thank you and you go back to the plans very quick sure
is there a particular floor you uh you want no i just wanted i just wanted to uh take a look
and i i think somebody else had a question i just want to see what's going on in the basement
yeah there's a hot water uh unit with uh one of the hvac uh uh there's a third floor hvac
closet as well is that because of the distance they need to have some kind of fan up there to
make sure that the air is drawn up is that you have one main yeah main units uh that splits up
into the central air no it's a duct system is the reason but the dock system okay so that it needs
another air unit above to make sure the flow of the duct has enough flow correct those are usually
while hung on the rear of the building but yeah um where are the picometers planning to be
where do you plan to put the picometers normally it's outside
so it'll be similar to what we saw on the pictures next door they they had it on the front the same
idea yes and then what is the plan for trash i guess everybody's going to use their interior
trash room well first floor obviously has its own exit into the rear yard as well
um and everybody will have a trash room okay all the questions uh real quick are there any other
and everybody will have a trash room.
uh units with roof decks on the block the the existing new three stories next door uh shagai
do they also have roof decks yes i believe we're not 100 sure on that though is that roof deck
here yes yeah there is a roof deck proposed for the third floor only um that is actually on the
site plan i can go to that uh for the board to look at it it's uh right here right there yeah
right here no this is because it's set back on on the uh i got you yeah so what's the point
what's the back from the vent are you not going to set back and block access for the tenants to
the roof vent in the front i mean at the rear sure guy the question is the vent at the rear that's
not that's still part of the roof deck correct yeah but we close we do like a close that people
don't go to it's covered it's a covered vent you are going to block it off yes there's going to be
a cover on it to make sure that there are no problems with that thing yes
okay so you have a you have a two you have two full baths in a one bedroom unit
yes the guy on the first floor there's two full baths can you speak to that
was that an issue on the on the architect side or is that something that you guys wanted
no it's supposed to be like a powder room and you know okay so he drew it as a full bathroom
yeah but you know it's not a big problem are you opposed to know a proviso for no household living
in the basement you're okay with that uh no household living in the basement i think so yes
yeah we're not opposed to it okay
um also the height on the basement it's like a sink and the other the other new construction
are they three units or two units do you know uh i believe on the atlas the immediate next
door one is a two unit uh based on the records i'm not so sure about the other one
do you want to talk about those yeah all right we'll do it we'll bring it back to the next
year so our attorney hillary emerson i'm not at this time mr chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience
planning commission
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the existing
RM1 residential multifamily to RSA5 residential single family.
The appellant could have earned an additional unit through the mixed income housing bonus
by providing low-income unit or by contributing to the Housing Trust Fund.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny their requested variance for the third dwelling unit.
Okay, thank you.
Zen, a couple issues raised.
We just want to figure it out, talk about it.
So we'll vote next Wednesday at 2 o'clock.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, and thank you very much.
Thank you.
Have a good one.
Is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called from the 3.30 list?
i do not see any hands mr chair thanks everyone we we uh he had us at 6 30 and at six o'clock
we exceeded expectations
see you guys
you later