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?