session oh okay i'm sorry thank you okay okay calendar number three eight two six four sixty
four twenty six kester avenue do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy i do and do you swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing but the truth truth
Good afternoon, good morning. This is an application on Castor Avenue for use as a
facial and foot facial and body massage to be operated by a licensed therapist. This is the
district itself is a CMX2 commercial district on that block, but it's also abiding residential.
The application has been before the community for meetings.
I believe we had a total of two in-person meetings as well as a site visit.
The community ultimately had a divided position on this.
The business itself, which is under Susan Spott, is a proposed massage business.
It used to be a restaurant bar that was converted.
I had also spoken with Hillary from the councilwoman's office regarding this yesterday.
The key concerns are that this type of business always for the community is a concern.
So they have proposed that if we do move forward, and the board is inclined to grant this, to have this as a temporary grant so that the business can be observed over the next few years to make sure that there's nothing that is out of the norm for the type of business that it is.
The community, when they saw the space, also met the masseuse.
The gentleman, his specialty is dealing with a Swedish massage, and he does a lot of work
with local athletes, such as gymnastics, swimming, and other team sport athletes.
My client, who is the primary operator of the business, will be the other masseuse.
She is from New York City and has had experience performing massage as a masseuse.
She has also obtained the license in Pennsylvania, so she is a licensed therapist.
In the beginning, they're only proposing the two of them working in the space, although I'm going to share the plans for the space.
Please let me know if that has come up.
Yes. So this is the proposed plan. As you can see, there is a waiting area and the foot massage
spaces in the front and the massage rooms in the back. Because there are multiple rooms,
one of the concerns when we did the walkthrough initially with the community is how many
rooms would actually be active at any given time because the space is so large as it used to be a
restaurant it runs all the way to the back these are proposed rooms however in actuality the actual
rooms that are currently set up there's only total of three rooms available for use the rest of these
are currently vacant because they don't have the business yet at this time to justify having those
room set up the there is a kitchen area and dining area in the back and the space runs out to a
parking lot in the rear of the shopping center so this is part of a small shopping center it has
parking space in the rear which is generally shared by other tenants in the center the
community primarily was concerned about having how many people would actually be coming in and
performing or having the massage done. The proposed hours are from 10 a.m. to
10 p.m. One of the concerns is to make sure that we end absolutely at 10 p.m.
and have that as a proviso. We are certainly in agreement with that. Another
Another concern is that because the space used to be something different and
concern is that because the space used to be something different
it was renovated, the request was made that we obtain a certificate of
occupancy prior to opening for business from the City of Philadelphia to make
sure that all work that was done on the property is in fact 100% approved by the
city and done properly for fire and safety reasons. So as you can see the
community has kind of a divided vote on this. We had people come in to look at
the space. We walked through the space with the gentleman who is the masseuse.
He answered their questions. So I think in general the proposal itself is at a
comfort level for the community that it will be properly operated it would not turn into a problem
business for the area as a result some some of the members did support it although some people
are just generally against this type of business and therefore we had a divided vote.
Again with a temporary permit I believe that if there are in fact any problems that would arise
from the use, the community would certainly take action. I know that the
Castor area community groups are very active in monitoring the type of
businesses that operate on the block and when they see any kind of issues they
tend to report them very quickly. So we would ask the board to take
consideration of that in your decision. Again the business itself, the restaurant
business unfortunately was unable to continue and this was the business that my client ran in New
York before and felt that she would be confident to move to Philadelphia and start here as her own
actually not she didn't run the business I'm sorry she she was serving as a masseuse in New York
before and this will be her first business and it will be her personal business here in Philadelphia
She will be relocating to Philadelphia as well.
So if the board has any questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them.
And I think my client is also on the line here with us.
Do we have a name?
Why don't you ask your client if she adopts your testimony, and then I have a couple questions.
Absolutely.
Tonya, it is Jin Ming Huang, J-I-N-M-I-N-G, H-U-A-N-G, she will be, she should be on the line.
Okay, she can unmute herself and she can speak.
Yes, I can.
Good morning.
Good morning, ma'am.
Do you swear and affirm that the testimony you give will be true to the best of your ability?
Okay, Ms. Huang, can you also state your full name and address for the record?
Oh, you mean the address, right?
The address, yes.
Name and address.
It's Sousa Spa, and address is 6426 Castle Avenue.
What is your current home address?
35 Fillmore Avenue, Livingston, in New Jersey.
Thank you.
You heard my testimony to the zoning board.
uh do you can you verify that the testimony is true and correct and adopt it as your own
yeah true thank you you mentioned the hours of operation 10 10 a.m to 10 p.m is that seven days
a week yes i'm sorry it is seven days a week and the lease that your client has is a three-year
lease i believe it is a three-year lease let me pull up the lease itself um we do have it in the
exhibit package five years oh it's five years five years but you're willing to accept the three-year
temporary variance if the board decides and my client is willing to accept that yes all right
and the interior is has not yet been uh built out according to the plan correct no the interior is
built out it is built out with all the i think i saw nine massage rooms in the plan yes but the
the actual uh space there's three prepared rooms the rest are currently just empty rooms
let me see if i have the photograph that would help visualize this is one of the rooms the double
bedroom is one of the rooms that's ready uh this is another room and there's one room with a painted
wall um which i'm not sure is shown in the photographs so are they doing manicures and
pedicure pedicures also are the pedicure just foot massage chairs foot massage chairs
they're not doing manicure pedicures okay i when i first looked at it they looked
They're not doing manicure pedicures.
When I first looked at it, they look like manicure chairs, but they're not.
They're foot massage.
All right.
All right.
But there is a potential, obviously, if the business grows,
that they're going to be using more than just three rooms.
Absolutely.
And I'm not averse to that.
I just want to make that for the record.
It's not going to be limited.
Correct.
The three rooms.
I think that's all the questions I have.
Any questions from the board?
You're on mute, Carol. You're muted.
No questions, Frank.
What are the hours of operation?
It is 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
So, Chair, I have Hillary Emerson with her hand up.
I am now going to allow her to speak.
Hillary, you can unmute yourself and give testimony as you wish.
uh good morning can everyone hear me yes you can hillary identify yourself for the record and i'm
going to ask you right now do you swear in front of them to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do um hillary emerson on behalf of councilwoman sherelle parker
um here today on behalf of 6426 castor avenue calendar number 38264 um the councilwoman is
um not opposed to the granting of the variance in this case um with some provisos that i'll go
into in one second um this is a commercial um on a commercial corridor um and there's a
Hilary Hilary Hilary yes we're having a hard time yes feedback now we can but most of what you said
prior uh was not audible to me at least yes so could you start over again please
okay i'm sorry jim mute yourself jim oh it should have counsel for
i'm sorry chair might we suggest a letter um because it might be the connection
thank you
Hillary
how about this
if Hillary could submit
a written statement
before this afternoon's session
you could vote it at the start
of the two o'clock session
if that would be acceptable
let me try something
if you can hear me Hillary
the councilwoman is
in non-opposition is that correct
yes or no
that's not working either yes she's not in opposition are there any provisos
is the councilwoman entering any provisos
but with her
sounds like they're provisos there are could we have hillary call me and i could relate
no testimony we'll just have to submit we'll just to submit a letter
mr jen you were about to say provisos yes my understanding is there will be provisos from the
councilwoman's office you're aware of what they are i i don't want to speak on their behalf okay
all right only aware of i don't know if there's anything in the letter
can i just say that if hillary is willing to sign off i can relay here she's calling me right now
how about if i read her provisos okay okay okay that's okay i'm still on how about if i read what
you want to say into the record okay or as you know what i'll put you on speaker and you will
be heard. Okay, Hillary, go ahead. Can everybody hear me now? Yes. Okay, great. Again, Hillary
Emerson on behalf of Councilwoman Sherelle Parker regarding 6426 Castor Avenue. The
councilwoman is not opposed to this application but with provisos one of
those being temporary variants because the neighbors have had concerns about
this type of business in the past and this business initially open prematurely
and this business did initially open prematurely and do renovations prematurely before getting
and do renovations premature
zoning approval so we would would like to see a temporary if the board decides to grant this
application we would also like to see it required that a certificate of occupancy
be part of the provisos as well the neighbors in our office did share concerns about hours of
operation 10 o'clock does seem rather late so there may be a proviso there I
were talking to counsel for the applicant they they would like to be
able to open till 10 it is like I said it is a little bit concerning to us we
we understand that that is what what they would like to do
And I believe that is everything on behalf of the Councilwoman. Thank you.
It's my understanding that they would want to make sure that it does not extend past 10 p.m.
based on our request to have a lease until 10 p.m.
Part of the reason being that some of the work would come after other people have finished their workday.
Some of the massage sessions could take up to 40 minutes.
and with two masseuse in the beginning those four hours actually would not really cover that many
customers in the grand scheme of it but we're certainly in agreement not to extend the hours
beyond 10 p.m for any reason my only concern is that if you take a customer in at 9 30 and
potentially you're going to be going past 10 p.m and i'm trying to figure out what the i don't know
what the magic number is so that you would have, you know,
the doors would be closed at 10.
We could ask my client to verify if that's okay to have it closed at 10.
If she would better be able to answer her exact plans with regard to that.
I mean, they're going to have to figure that out.
If someone has a one hour massage,
obviously you can't take that person at 930 because you'd be going into 1030.
And if you took that person at 10, you'd be at 11.
right so yes um all right um i don't know any other questions from the board and thank you hillary
thank you patience no no waiting commission
i'm sorry i just lost my notes uh this property is indicated for residential use
and commercial use on the comprehensive plan because it is a split zone the building is on
commercial portion of the property accordingly we have no objection thank you anyone else tanya
i forgot to ask you no chair you can go forward thank you could i read the provisos just to be
sure that i'm recording them right if you vote to approve it temporary very good you you read them
off good um hours of operation 10 to 10 daily certificate of occupancy prior to opening and
three-year temp to expire September 1st, 2023 work so that they would have a couple of months
to obtain permits. Correct. Okay. Okay. All right. Very good. Calendar number 38264-6426
Castor Avenue. My vote is yes with the following provisos. Temporary variance to expire September