ZBA Hearing - February 25, 2026

We're hearing you, but we're not seeing you.

Hold on. Where's the camera?

It appears that the camera's on. It's just something's over it.

It might just be covered.

Yes.

Okay, we covered.

All right, now we're on.

Here we go.

All right.

Okay, so first thing, interpreter, could you have Jamal Awad state his name and spell it?

Jamal Awad, J-A-M-A-L, the last name A-W-A-D.

the last name a w ad and then um do you i'm going to for yeah he may understand this do you do you

swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do okay um so so isaac

here here's here's where i think we need to be yes instead of using an interpreter the whole time

what he doesn't understand if he gets to the point he doesn't stand something we'll have the

interpreter come on okay i i think that is reasonable yes thank you and have you talked

all right why don't you start your presentation all right will do and isaac isaac let's say first

if there's anything you don't understand uh jamal yes let us know and the interpreter will speak to

you okay all right yes all right thank you very much go ahead thank you i think that'll work

i'm gonna go ahead and share my screen um let's get to my screen it should be this one

and sharing there we go all right um so this is our notice of refusal which we have already

stipulated to so i'm going to start with this is the deed to the property in favor of jamal awad

recorded on march 7th of 2020 so mr schlepner we have all your paperwork okay so i think what

what you need to do is um show us plans of what you want to do and photos absolutely so the refusal

was only for um the the grocery taking up more than 2 000 square feet at the ground floor of a

cmx1 so i do have many uh photos and also a full set of plans i'm going to show you the plans

first this is a full floor plan and bear with me while it

blows up the size of the plan there we go

so over here is the floor plan uh as it currently exists so this is actually

uh the rear door this is

actually i can't

no that's the front door this is the front door this is caster avenue right

here this is the front door at the ground level this is a future site of a bakery

this around right here is the site of the butcher counter then aisles of stock

over here are the produce racks freezer aisle rear of the store cashiers desk is

right about here these are a ramp that goes up to the exit at the rear where

there is a small private parking lot. This is the basement plan, which is largely just storage

and a powder room. No, there's no basement, Isaac. Oh, is that a second floor? No, there's no second

floor. There's no basement. Oh, okay. I'm just looking at this as to whether to... I guess one

is it furnished and one is it unfurnished. But all right, let me show the photos because this

has been an operating market for several years at this time. And again, the only refusal was for

overage of the square footage. So I will start with, in fact, Mr. Awad previously in August of

24 obtained a zoning permit for use as a grocery at this property. I'll show the

board the posting of the orange poster that was posted on 2426 at least 21 days

ago. That's a close-up. It's not orange. It was printed in white. This is the front

window of this of the grocery and then this is the Castor Ave front door of the

grocery with the poster posted there. This is a frontal view on a less snowy

day of the market. This is the interior of the front door looking out to Caster

Avenue. This space right here is intended eventually to become a bakery. Some

storage and some stock in the front of the store. This is the freezer aisle that

goes most of the length of the store back towards the back and some produce

case, and over here are some more stock shelves. Over here is a shot of the interior from the rear.

This is the checkout counter, some more stock, and then aisles one, two, and then there's a third aisle.

That window, that's the Castarev entrance side. This is sort of the same view, but more of just

the aisle. This is another view of the interior in the middle two aisles and some end caps.

that's again the window and the front door out to Caster Avenue. This is the

this is the interior looking from the Castor Avenue front door inside the

interior looking from the Caster Avenue front door inside.

store this is the future site of the bakery some more stock and then over

here's the butcher shop produce case produce case here's the butcher shop my

wife bought a whole pound of nice lamb and made some stew with it last weekend

this is the rear door going is a bit of a ramp going from the floor of the store

out towards that door there and then this is outside a view of the rear door

and this is a small parking area that's also part of 7308 caster

um isaac just to be sure yes it's your client is there anything he doesn't understand yet

uh mr awad is there anything you didn't understand would like the interpreter to interpret

it no i understand i do okay great all right all right um so mr awad uh i would ask i would ask you

you did hear every all the testimony that i offered to the board just now yes and it was it all true

and correct to the best of your knowledge yes that's correct and would you adopt that testimony

as though you had given it yourself yes thank you mr wad um so one isaac just could you address the

issue of this the the square footage yes so the property is cmx1 which does allow by right a

grocery store but it only allows 2 000 square feet uh to be devoted to the grocery store

This store is about 4,200 square feet, 4,500 square feet.

4,585.

4,585.

And that is the reason for the refusal.

The refusal was generated because Mr. Awad applied for a certificate of occupancy and was denied because of the notice of refusal.

All right.

All right.

Questions from the board.

so will the bakery part of this be part of the 4585 or are we is that included in the 4585 or

or the potential bakery how how is that the 40 4585 square feet is the square footage of the

interior of the store currently so that would be included in the 4,585 okay even

though we're not operating that yet is that correct the bakery is not

currently operating okay but this would give him the option to have the bakery

and that's correct okay and then how much okay um my other issues about all

this signage um does he have permission for all these signs i i understand he has permission for

the grocery store and what have you but it seems like this is a lot of signage and i can my question

is had it ever been permitted in the past is is that what you're asking i'm asking if it's

permitted at all well um my understanding of signage is that there may need to be a permit

obtained but uh yeah i mean you've got from the pictures i saw there's a open sign which is

flashing in the window so that requires a huge sign on the roof too yeah and then the there's

the sign on the top which is the huge like yeah two sides line and then you've got in the back

there's a whole nother big panel um so my question is um do we have any permission

for all this signage that's on the property i'm i'm looking at the property history right now

but there are well electrical but that wouldn't necessarily be a sign permit and September of

2024 commercial building permit and that was for interior work so it I'm not seeing it Mr. Awad

had you ever obtained permits for the signage either at the front door or the rear door?

it's there it's been there the sign at the front door and the sign at the rear door yes okay

The sign at the front door and the

is there a sign on the roof too hang on i'll show i'll get my screen back up here sorry

what i'll say is that you know you're you're allowed a certain amount of accessory um signage

true but you still have to ask for it and you've also got all of this stuff in the windows which

is considered to be signage the stickers yeah all that writing on the windows and things like that

those are all yeah yeah you you're allowed a certain percentage but I I would think that

there would be so so Hillary um say we went ahead with this could we make a proviso no signs approved

with this so if they're not and sorry let me just go back to the language of the refusal if they're

not on the refusal that they're not within the scope of what's approved yeah so you would need

to get separate permits for signage I don't sorry I'm just looking to see if this oh yeah so this

this refusal actually said no sign on this application so it's art it's clear on the

the scope but i just did want to note um for um for the owner mr awad that there um there's

provisions in the zoning code that specify how much of a window you can have covered with signage

or stickers um so your attorney can probably help you find that but you can't cover more than a

certain percentage of the window um so just want to clarify that we can talk about that after we're

done here um today we're talking that roof sign and then the ones in the back where you've got the

big sign and you've got something on the building i mean we're and there's other yeah there's more

of that um at that uh at that i think that's the rear so you've got you've got quite a bit of

signage here oh hillary go back if we approve this thing should we provide those signs approved

so all that is before the board is the use greater than 2 000 square feet um no signage is before the

board so they will need the any explicitly states on the refusal that there is not signage as part

of this application so right okay fine any other questions yes do you have like a dumpster or like

where where's your your trash for the business um i know they have a contract with waste management

they have private haulers but where is the dumpster located out back yes in the back okay

And that's in the parking area. Correct? Yes. Yes.

Other questions.

Questions or comments from our attorney.

No additional comments questions or comments from the virtual audience.

I see no hands here.

planning commission good afternoon liz fuselay from the philadelphia city planning commission

the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from cmx1 commercial

mixed use to cmx2 however the property was remapped in 2022 from cmx2 to cmx1

with the planning commission voting against the bill the proposed active use occupation of the

ground floor would be allowed under the proposed zoning the planning commission recommends the

board grant the requested variance for ground floor occupancy so mi2025-005-261-7308 castor avenue i

vote yes michael johns my vote is yes charles gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is

yes mcadams my vote is yes i own my vote is yes um council will you please tell your make sure

he understands yes um mr wad the board has just voted to grant the variance um unanimously six

to zero so uh mr translate uh interpreter you may want to relay that to my client as well

okay all right thank you uh thank you members thank you thank you interpreter thank you very

much for helping us mr interpreter thank you uh mr wad thank you board thank you i'll give you

uh mr wad thank you board thank you thank you everyone have a good day right is there anyone in

Thank you, everyone. Have a good day.

the uh audience whose case has not been called no hands here okay see everyone

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman. I will be chairing this meeting

of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our Board Vice Chair, Tanetta Graham.

Present, Mr. Chairman. Our Board Secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston. Present, Mr. Chairman. Board

member michael johns president mr chairman board member tya wynn president mr chairman board member

ryan mcadams president mr chairman so here is our attorney hillary emerson our zoning board director

aane hagerty and our board administrator lakeisha dandy recording of this hearing will be posted

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so let's look at our schedule for this afternoon

number four mi2025-005-400 7789 craig street that case is continued to march 11th at 2 p.m

number five mi 2025 005 417 1110 wagner street that case is continued until 6 10 at 2 p.m

and number 10

Number 10, MI2025-006-493-4700 City Line Avenue. That case is continued. Attorney moving party.

Are there any other requests for continuances?

No hands at this time, Chair.

thank you we're going to go to our add-on list number one mi2025-006-25

Number one, MI 2025, 006253, 230 North 53rd Street, my vote is no.

I'm recused from this.

Oh, Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.

Tanetta Graham, my vote is no.

Ryan McAdams, my vote is no.

ION, my vote is no.

Number two, MI 2025-006-277-907 North 43rd Street.

The vote on this has been moved to 3426 at 9.30 a.m.

That's at 2 p.m., Mr. Chair.

Okay, I'm sorry, 3426 at 2 p.m.

and number three mi 2025 005 892 1341 east oxford avenue i vote yes

michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes

ryan mcadams my vote is yes hi owen my vote is yes we're going to go to our regular list

MI 2025, 004191, 338 to 50 North 65th Street.

John Warzarek is the attorney for the owner.

They're being promoted to panelists here.

He's right here.

Whoa.

Don't say that.

Or is it pretty good here?

could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer uh good afternoon board

members my name is john wazorek w-i-e-c-z-o-r-e-k and i'm here on behalf of the city all right do

you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do and