Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the commercial mixed-use zoning at this location.
However, as recently as 2014,
this property was issued permits
for professional office and two dwelling units.
The proposed use is also consistent
with adjacent non-conforming uses on this block.
And so the City Planning Commission recommends
that the board grant the variance.
Thank you.
MI 2022-000-643-704 North 23rd Street.
I vote yes.
Carl Tineri, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Ward.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. See you at 3.30.
Okay, thank you.
Is there anyone in the audience whose 9.30 case has not been pulled?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, everyone. See everyone at 2 p.m.
No need to wait, Chair.
Okay, good.
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this afternoon's EBA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ismail Shahid, our Board Secretary.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thomas Holliman, our Board Member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And James Snell, our Board Member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is our Attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
Be advised that proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
Finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for testimony or comments.
Any comments, direct them to our executive director, Tanya Sun.
So let's look at the continuances for this afternoon.
Number four, MI 2022-002-272-1942 North 32nd Street.
That case is continued.
Number six, MI 2022, 002-205-233 South 24th Street, that case is continued.
Case number nine, MI 2022-002-176-3413 North 19th Street. That case is continued.
Case number nine, MI 2022.
Number 10, MI 2022-002-276-3415 North 19th Street. That case is continued.
And number 15, MI2022-002-208-744 North 40th Street, that case is also continued.
Is there any questions from the virtual audience about any of the cases that were continued?
No answer, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Is there any other requests for continuances?
No answer, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, Jason.
Case number three.
MI 2022-002-167-1600-36 North Broad Street.
This case is withdrawn.
Is there any questions in the audience relative to that case?
I see no answer thank you and then case case number 11 MI 2022 002 166 3811 Lancaster Avenue
um there are no exhibits for this case Mr. Chair this is Hillary this is a case that
we did receive the exhibits for except for the tax clearance um it can it can go ahead but the
vote will need to be held for the tax clearance thank you very much appreciate it
okay we're going to go to our add-ons
excuse me mr chair and i'm listening jason i'm sorry i thought someone had a hand raised but
Thank you. Case MI 2021-003-957-3440 North 18th Street. This is a re-vote to better clarify
the provisos that we have. Voting for this the last time was myself, Ms. Tenere, Thomas Holliman,
and James Snell. I vote yes for this. Provisos. Revised plan, one page, stamped by ZBA on August
3rd, 2022. Maximum of four units. No basement living, no bathroom in the basement, no bay
windows, interior trash storage, and garbage disposal in all units. Carol Tenere, my vote is
yes with all of those provisos.
Thomas Holland, my vote
is yes with all of those provisos.
James Snell,
my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you.
Number two,
MI 2020
812, 830
East Thayer Street.
A resumption hearing
on this matter will be held at a date
and time that will be announced on Wednesday,
August 10th at 2 p.m.
Mr. Chair, I'm sorry, just a clarification on that language. The board won't be voting on the case, because we will be conducting additional review as it was listed for a resumption hearing, as opposed to a hold. So we'll update the status of the case next week at 2pm.
All right. Thank you. We're going to start with case number 13. Hillary has recused herself from
this case. Amy Gaylor will be filling in. MI 2022-000-662-5637 North 10th Street. Mr.
Mr. Nockamson is the attorney.
Mr. Nockamson, promoted to panelists.
Good afternoon, Mr. Nockamson.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, the last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19109.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Palmer House LLC, and the member of that LLC is in the virtual audience.
And the member of the LLC is in the virtual audience.
His name is Maurice.
His name is Maurice Bennett.
Thank you.
Our vice chair, Carol Tenere, has a few questions.
And Mr. Jim Ockamson, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal, referral, photos, and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter?
um we do have a letter um and dylan mahoney of the ninth councilman district is here my
understanding the virtual audience um and we have a letter from them um we did have difficulties
meeting with the community um but uh it's stated in the letter as such and you can present that
when you are now ready to proceed and share your screen thank you okay
Again, we're here to present 5637 North 10th Street.
We'll go over the notice of refusal first, then the correspondence from the 9th Councilmanic District,
a rental license showing that this was a legal duplex as late as April of 2019.
Then we'll go over a map that we created based on our research of the public record,
showing that there there is significant multi-family use on this block so what we're
asking for is not of character not only with regards to the property but also this block
maps of the area photographs of the property in this around the area our plans and drawings we're
not changing anything with regards to this property essentially we're just trying to
re-legalize it as a duplex our meeting notice for last night's community meeting
Unfortunately, only one person was in attendance.
And as soon as they started speaking, or as soon as someone, I think it was Mr. Mahoney
was speaking, they left.
I take no offense to that, but there was no one else there.
Our application for appeal, our deed to the property, showing that Palmer House LLC is
the owner of the property, and our certificate of tax clearance.
And at the conclusion of my presentation, Mr. Bennett will adopt my testimony, and we
would be more than happy to get any questions from the board.
Mr. Nackamson, could you turn your volume up a little bit?
Is that better?
A little better.
Yeah, I guess you're just closer.
That's fine.
I'll just move closer without, like, seeing too big in there.
All right.
This is my notice of refusal.
It's an RSA-5 property, but it's RSA-5 in name only.
This has a significant history of multifamily use.
All we're trying to do is legalize it.
you'll see that the date of the refusal is January 25th of 2022. Presumably, we applied
earlier than that, obviously, because, you know, in order to get the zoning, the refusal,
we had to file a zoning permit application. The reason why I say that, it's my understanding that
if a use is abandoned for more than three years, that's when, if we filed, you know, for the zoning
permit application to restate that use we shouldn't have received a refusal we should have just
received another zoning permit given the change of ownership and less than three years of abandoned
use so i'm a little um i i don't understand why we would have received the refusal but that's
that's the case and we're here uh here's the letter that we received from um uh cheryl uh
Council member Sheryl Parker's office today and you know we sent those materials to Hillary Emerson
earlier today as soon as we received it to update our presentation materials but essentially the
fact is we did try to have a community meeting last night one person showed up as soon as you
know the presentation or the community meeting was about to begin that person left the community
meeting, so no vote was taken. But we did make a thorough presentation to the board. A little bit
more background, too. This rental license is in the name of Hall Palmer. That's why we're naming
this property the Palmer House LLC. Maurice Bennett is related to Hall Palmer. That's his
aunt. And unfortunately, when she died, you know, the use discontinued, and that's why we're here
today um but you know he wants to honor her legacy uh by um you know she honored her legacy by
you know purchasing the house the name of an llc that's essentially named after her
um so but you can see that we had a rental license so miss palmer had a rental license
as late as april 28th of 2019. and then there's a significant history of uh multi-family use on
significant history of uh multi-family use on this property for duplexes uh so we see 17 other
in this property for duplexes.
instances other than ours where there's that type of use so again not out character to what we're
asking for uh maps of the area uh we're on north 10 street uh between shoe and alney and we back
off back up to uh cherish a cherished playground and then here's a google maps perspective as well
so you can see there's ample public transportation for individuals uh who are looking to occupy this
property photographs of the property uh there's one entrance um but depending the property but
again we're not changing anything uh from uh what's already there and you'll see both of the
plans and drawings you have a ground floor unit and then you have a second floor unit
there will be no living in the basement uh north 10th street to the right of the property
north 10th street to the left of the property and then our plans and drawings oops just
look at that so you can see it um but here here's just basically our floor plan it's pretty basic
walk through the front uh you can either go through you know on the first floor of unit number
one was a two-bedroom one bath or you can go up apply the steps to the second floor which is the
second unit which is a two-bedroom one bath each of the unit owners will have access to this how
the property slopes down this is actually technically on the ground level in the rear
to a storage area that's basically the floor plans in a nutshell nothing's changing to what
is current was currently there when mr bennett took over the value of property
we met with the community again last night mr mahoney who i believe is the virtual audience
was in attendance as well 80 properties were notified of that meeting
these are the addresses of the properties proof of mailing to those addresses or application
for appeal uh that palmer house llc uh files to the cbi our notice of refusal or project
information form or deed to the property showing a palmer house llc purchased the property
from the estate of palmer lee hall also known as palmer l hall
and our tax clearance certificate.
With that being said, I'm going to unshare my screen.
I'm going to ask that Mr. Bennett virtually raise his hand
so he can adopt my testimony as his own,
and then we can answer any questions
that CBA may have .
Jason, do we say a hand?
and he's been allowed to speak sir okay thank you could you state your name please and spell
for the court reporter
yeah all right can you guys hear me yeah state your name please and spell it for the court