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.