one single table to allow guests or members of a family who's wandering around to be able to sit
while others are shopping in the store. Additionally, an addition of a hand washing sink
and a separation door to keep patrons out from going in here. I don't believe those two are
part of zoning though. Just for the internal seating component of it though, that is a proviso
So that we have submitted for the board's consideration are posting photographs again are exhibit J posting at the property exhibit I apologize for the delay in this.
um sorry k is the interior photographs of the existing space this was the prior boutique it is
what i would consider right now to be a plain vanilla box um this is the existing space looking
out towards 13th street um again the the layout the interior format obviously will be configured
to be the shop um and so the board members can see when looking at the um posting of the zoning
photographs this is the existing storefront so when you are on 13th street facing east
you are facing the empire building um this portion of the store of the building this commercial space
is the space we are looking at down to the right over here is an alley owned by the commercial
building owner that is to house external trash which will be done by commercial pickup um for
this facility um so this is the the general nature of 13th street in the area we believe that a
Kilwin's Chocolate Shop will be a valuable addition to the street commerce on the existing
street frontage. Exhibit K, again, are the interior photos. Exhibit L is the documentation
regarding our zoning hearing, our RCO meeting. We met with the Washington Square West RCO on July
26th via a Zoom meeting. We provided in this exhibit all of our proofs of mailing of all the
notices together with that and the councilman's office um giving them uh advising them of the
community meeting um where we addressed questions and concerns directly with the neighbors um to
which there were no additional questions um so mr barth why don't you have your testimony adopted
all right sure um if laurie could you raise your hand laurie smith on behalf of the applicant
hi laurie could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
Yes, it's Lori L-O-R-I Smith, S-M-I-T-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Lori, were you able to hear my testimony in full today?
I did.
Was the testimony I gave before this board truthful?
And to the extent of your knowledge?
yes would you adopt your my testimony as your own if you were speaking today yes i would thank you
Would you adopt my testimony as your own if you were speaking today?
Yes, I would.
very much okay questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
no further happens mr chair okay planning commission thank you mr chairman and good
afternoon david testo city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the commercial mixed use five zoning at this location. The applicant has shown that the
proposed takeout restaurant will have no more of an impact than a takeout restaurant would be
expected to have. The city planning commission recommends that the board approve the special
exception. Hillary, we have no enforceable provisos, right? We've had no requests for
improvise those on this case now okay MI 2022 003 274 1231 to 33 Walnut Street I vote yes
Harold Tenere my vote is yes Thomas Holland my vote is yes James Snell my vote is yes
my vote is yes thank you thank you counsel thank you very much
So why don't, why don't, was that, was that with the proviso plan allowing for the four
additional seating?
So I, the question I raised are Hillary, Hillary.
Yes, I'm here.
So that was the question I had, but we don't think that's an enforceable, right?
The table.
So let me ask Mr. Barth, were there changes?
So were there plans submitted to L&I with this application?
This is a change of use, correct?
This is a change of use that received the referral based upon the use.
Okay, so there were no plans that were required to be submitted.
That internal plan that you are looking at, the component plan, was submitted to L&I, just for the board's understanding.
The original plan without the seating was submitted.
That is why we are here today.
it was resubmitted to the board um in a secondary application by the applicant um previously that
is actually scheduled to come before this board for the seating in december okay so that is a
separate application with the seating okay all right then we're fine thank you thank you okay
so we're going to take a five minute break and then we should have a short period of time we'll
Thank you, Mr. Barth.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Lekesha, how do we look?
Mr. Kelly, are you back?
Yes, I am.
okay i think we're ready to go let me know when
here we are good to go whenever you're ready yeah why don't we start oh i'm sorry
oh we are recording sir okay good afternoon my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this
330 ZBA hearings. With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair. Present, Mr. Chairman. Ismael 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 with us is our board
attorney Hillary Emerson and Lakeisha Dandy, our ZBA supervisor. Our virtual format, be advised
the proceedings are being recorded. By participating, new knowledge agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at philo.gov. For benefit of our
court stenography, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testify. If you are
participating in my phone, if you wish to testify, press star nine to raise your hand and star six
to unmute. To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548. Leave your email and the address
of the property in question. And finally, the question answer box on the screen is now for
It's not for comments or testimony. Any comments should be directed to our Executive Director,
comments or testimony. Any comments should be directed to our executive director.
Tanya Sumpit. So let's look at this afternoon's continuances. Number two, MI 2021-005-086-5900
Harveston Avenue. That case is continued. And number four, MI 2022-002-962-4213 Germantown Avenue.
That case is continued. Mark, must be tried. Are there any other requests for continuances
or comments about the two cases that are continued?
i do not see any hands mr chair okay i also have three cases that we do not have exhibits for
number one mi 2022 002 951 2683 roberts avenue michael powell is the owner we do not have
exhibits. This is the first listing. Mr. Powell. Mr. Chair, Ms. Hilary Langer has her hand raised.
Okay. I'll allow her to speak. Sure.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
This is Mr. Hilary Langer. I didn't understand that.
Could you spell your name for the court reporter?
H-I-L-A-R-Y-L-A-N-G-E-R.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And you were involved with 2683 Roberts?
Are you from East Falls Community Council?
Yes, I am chair of East Falls Community Council Zoning Committee.
Have you met yet?
Yes, we did meet and we are providing a letter of support for the project. Mr. Powell is the owner of 2683 Roberts Avenue. He's not very familiar with this process and he communicated with me in an email that he sent me the exhibits and he failed to send it to you.
okay all right so here here's what mr mr langer this is what we'll do we're going to we're going
to continue the case and what i want mr powell to do is to call the office there are people
in the zoning board office who can help him and make sure he has everything to to go forward the
next time okay yep and mr langer thanks for calling in and offering that support to us
okay okay thank you sir so mi 2022 002 951 2683 roberts that case is continued
number five mi 2021 005 277 221 east waldie street uh estate heart and colin trainer are
listed owners. We have no exhibits. This is the second listing.
Any hands? Mr. Chair, I do not see any hands. Okay. So MI 2021-005-277-221 East Wilder Street.
This case is continued. Mark must be tried.
Number six, MI 2021 005281 7054 Rutland Street. Guillermo Moran is the listed applicant,
no exhibits, second listing.
Anything?
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, who was the individual's name again?
Guillermo Moran is the listed applicant, and there's also Junbin Lee and Lee Guangli, listed owners.
Okay, I do not see them in the virtual audience.
Okay, so MI 2021-005-281-7054 Rutland Street. Cases continued. Mark must be tried.
We're going to go to our regular list here. Number three, MI 2022-003-391-1538 Wadsworth Avenue.
Brandon Saffron is the attorney coordinating RCO 50th Democratic Board did not.
um coordinating rco 50th democratic ward did not take a position
brandon
going back in as a panelist sir okay good afternoon
uh good afternoon brandon um could you just state your name for the record yes my name is
Brandon Saverin. And I apologize, my baby son is crying in the background, just in case.
Definitely, you can have that. Okay. Could you identify your client and their relationship to
the property? Yes. So I represent the tenant in this case, who is Soiree's LLC, and the
managing principal, Shanice Allen, who is here today. Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Brandon, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance,
a copy of the refusal or 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? Yes to all of the above. And I
have a lease in the packet since Shanice is a tenant. Okay. You may proceed and begin to share
your screen. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Good afternoon again, members of the board. So this is a
application for a special exception. On my screen is a copy of our referral to the ZBA,
which as it says, is for assembly and entertainment use. This is a tenant space in a block that has
no residences. It's actually, you know, we're up in sort of like the West Oak Lane area.
And this is the type of block, as I'll show you in a minute, that has single level structures that
are purely commercial, so all businesses on this block. And in this space, Shanice operates an
event space and that use falls under assembly and entertainment and requires a special exception.
I'm going to actually go through my exhibit packet in the classic style here, but we'll try
to do so quickly. I just breezed by our application and our project information form. This is Shanice's
tax clearance cert. Said she's a tenant in this property. Here's her lease. We're going to fly
through that. Here's the zoning map. Shows that the parcel is CMX2, which again means that this
use is permitted but by special exception. These aerial photographs show you that there is
actually a parking lot that serves this side of the block that Shanice and her customers have
access to. So I'm not going to walk through all of the requirements for a special exception as
those are laid out in my application and memo, but sort of not impacting traffic and causing
congestion is one of those qualifications. And having access to this parking lot is certainly
very favorable to us in terms of not causing those problems. Here's another aerial map that
kind of indicates the names of some of the businesses on the block. Again, you'll see that
parking lot in the rear. This is the front of her property. You will see our zoning posters in these
photos. And in this one in particular, you can kind of see what I'm talking about. These are all
low-level structures with tenants, no residences. So the chairman did mention the letter that we
got from the RCO. I'm going to come back to that in one moment. We'll address it though.
We have about a half dozen letters of support. I think one is from a nearby resident, but the others are from the other business operators and or property owners on this block.
So Shanice is really supported in her efforts here by others who run businesses on this block.
This letter, just to pick one at random, is from a doctor, Dr. Harris, who practices on this block.
and Shanice actually has a couple business owners on the line in the event you'd like to hear from
them they're attending this hearing today I have a link in the packet to a video of the interior
of the tenant space but just to save time I actually pulled out still images from the video
Still images from the video. So here is that rear parking lot at street level.
so here is that rear parking lot at street level
Shanice has a rear door with direct access to this parking lot.
This is the back of her space, which is sort of a preparation area.
It has two bathrooms off to the right here. There's one, there's two.
This is the same space, but from the opposite angle. So you're looking at the back door.
This is a kitchenette.
This is not a full kitchen.
It's not for cooking, but it's just for food preparation and service.
And this probably is the most important photo.
This is the front of house.
This is the event space.
So there's that kitchenette I showed you.
She has a really nice decorative wall that separates the front of house space from the back prep space.
Has put a lot of time and effort into renovating this.
this was last an office. It was unfortunately not permitted as an office. So Shanice is sort of
playing the role of fixing the permitting here. That's why we're here. But this is what she has
built out. And now let me go back up to that RCO letter. And that'll be the last exhibit I touch on.
So this is our RCO letter. The RCO, as the chairman mentioned, chose not to take a position
or as they put it, they did not reach agreement. I attended the RCO meeting with Shanice. Letter
notes there's 17 people that were in attendance. I have no reason to believe that's not accurate.
And there are really extensive comments made by the RCO zoning chairwoman on the second and third
page. I honestly believe that these are comments that really lean in our favor. I will try not to
read them word for word, but just to sort of pick through some of them. This comment mentions the
back parking lot and how that is useful. This talks about the tenant Shanice's experience in
this area as she already has an event venue in Germantown, a couple miles away that she's