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
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room to the right when speaking on the record you must speak directly into the microphone in order
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follow directions given over the public address system or by the staff the main exit is through
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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