No, no, no.
did you see the uh email paulie
i saw the one that you sent so he lost his internet and she was just requested that he
can um join over the phone okay yes that sounds great
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
They're resending him the information right now.
Is he on?
Not yet.
Okay, good.
Good. Is it Mr. Kelly. Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
do you know if the um caller call them listener if either one of them is mr kelly
and mr kelly if you're in the audience can you please uh press star nine to raise your hand
I don't see any hands up, Keisha, right now.
Excuse me.
This is John Kelly, the court reporter.
Pardon the interruption.
I was knocked offline for several minutes.
I am back on now.
Oh, that's great, Mr. Kelly.
Mr. Kelly, let me, it's Bill.
Let me ask you, would you want us to start this over?
Do you have where you left off?
The last, unfortunately, the last thing I had was the vote for the add-on of 1525 North Stillman.
So, and that was some time ago.
I can get the audio link from Tanya or whoever's working on that right now, if I should need it, if anything should be requested.
All right, so why don't I do this?
Let's start with number seven again.
Okay, 6015 Baltimore Avenue.
all right mr kelly yeah all right yes yes thank you for getting back on mr kelly we
you're the most important person here we could all take our steps back but we feed you okay
all right jennifer could you start again please sure i'll just start from um beginning
all right so hi jennifer basilow i'm the attorney representing the owner of 6015
BALTIMORE AVENUE. SORELE VIGIER WHO OWNS THE PROPERTY THROUGH HER LLC. WE'VE ALREADY SCROLLED THROUGH THE
PACKET SO I WON'T DO THAT AGAIN BUT SUBMITTED A PACKET WITH A REFUSAL DEED TAX COMPLIANCE LETTER OF
NON-OPPOSITION FROM COGS CREEK NEIGHBORS, AERIAL PHOTOS OF THE PROPERTY AND THE BLOCK,
A ZONING MAP, PHOTOS OF THE PROPERTY AND FLOOR PLANS. SO LET'S JUST GET TO THE FRONT PHOTO HERE.
All right. So, 6015 Baltimore Avenue is located in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia.
The parcel is a little under 1,700 square feet and is in CMX1. And there's an existing
two-story structure that is a little under 3,100 square feet. My client purchased this property
in February of this year. At the time, it was already divided into three units, which
appeared to be residential units, and was instructed by her realtor that this was a
legal use of the property by right, and there was a potential for a fourth unit in the building,
again, by right. Relying on that information as a first-time investor, she purchased the property
and soon realized that this was not a by-right use of the property and applied for this variance.
So the original application was for four units.
That has been reduced to three units, and that was what was proposed to Cobbs Creek Neighbors,
and that is what they entered the letter of non-mob position for.
So let's go to the floor plans.
um the um the three units would be a studio in the um in the front um area of the first floor
um a hold on let me scroll up so you can see the whole floor plan um a one bedroom in the rear of
the property on the first floor and then the second floor which is over here you get up through here
is a two-bedroom one-bath unit. There is no living space in the basement. It is storage only.
There is no living space in the basement. It is storage only, and it is accessible by that studio unit for extra storage.
Each unit has an entrance off of a central hallway on the first floor hallway.
So here you can see this is the view from the back of the property to the front. That's the front door.
The front unit has a door right inside of that front entryway.
And then in the rear of the property, you see you have these doors.
This is the door to the second floor unit to the left.
And this is the door to the rear first floor unit.
And this is a door to the outside.
All of these properties have access, all of the units have access to the rear yard and this alleyway to the rear yard.
In the rear of the property, there is also, you can see in this left photo, an alleyway that connects the rear of the property to the street.
So each unit has multiple ways to exit the building and access to the rear yard where it's proposed that the trash would be stored and took out on trash day.
Okay. So I just also want to mention in terms of parking and that which is always a concern
in the neighborhood, this is right along the trolley lines for Baltimore Avenue, there's bus
access, as well as like a block away from the media Elwynn regional rail line. And so there's,
we, you know, I know everyone always says it, but there's a lot of public transit use
for the people that live in this neighborhood. Let's go to the zoning map. Okay, so
So this property is zoned CMX1, as are all the other properties, basically on this side of this block.
But that is not how these properties are being used.
And a three-unit residential building is actually much more consistent with these properties than would be a commercial use in this space.
So I've marked the use of the properties, current use.
you can see over here we have a cmx2 that's actually automotive use this is a three-story
building used which is a cmx1 that uses four residential units you have two vacant properties
another auto-centric business the corner does have a commercial space on the first floor it's
a salon with two units with two additional residential units our property the property
next door which is two residential units. The one next to it is three residential units.
We have two residential units with no commercial and then again on the corner we have a deli
with I couldn't really determine the number of residential units above but there are residential
units above. So as you can see the middle of the block is basically being used as more
of an RM1 type usage, not as commercial use. And if we go across the street, while it appears it's
RSA5 zoning through most of this block, about half of the properties are used as duplexes. As far
as I could find documentation for, it's possible even more of them are used as duplexes. And at
the corner, we have a very large senior housing complex. Again, I couldn't find the actual number
of units but it's a very large building so let's go to the aerial photos you can see
that's a really large residential building there. I also want to point out that our building has a
first story addition on the first floor and that's where this rear most of the rear first
first store unit is going to be so that's why it makes sense that this is one of the buildings that
have three units instead of just two, because it is a larger building than even the one next door,
which has a commercial unit and two residential units. So that makes sense. So you might say,
well, why aren't we using the commercial space? First of all, it's not what is happening on the
middle of this block. As you can see, this is all of this side of the block. You have a corner
commercial and a corner commercial and everything else is used as residential um and the residential
that what would be the commercial space is very small it's um less than 500 square feet which
makes it not really suitable or marketable for most of the uses we find in cmx1 um like a daycare
or retail um those sort of things i guess it could be an office but it's not a very large office
either uh my office is about that size and it's not really all that suitable for more than one
person um so we met with like i said so and we already do have on this block um you know
We met with, like I said, so, and we already do have on this block, you know, neighborhood accommodations, such as a salon and a deli, which would be common uses for CMX1 properties.
We did meet with Cobb's Creek neighbors on September 12th.
There were maybe two or three near neighbors who were there.
none of them were in opposition and one of them explicitly said they were so happy that there's
not going to be more commercial use on this block because they had been having trouble with the
congestion from the commercial uses so in summary you know we think this is an appropriate use of
this property given the way that these buildings are currently used and the surrounding uses of
the property. I just want to mention that if this was actually zoned RM1, like how this block is
basically being used at this point, based on the size of the parcel, four units would be allowed
by right, and we're just seeking to have three here. So we think it's an appropriate use. It's
consistent with the surrounding neighborhood. It wouldn't really burden anyone. None of the neighbors
are opposed, and it would provide much needed housing in the neighborhood. It was mentioned
at the community meeting that there was a lack of housing for people, especially smaller units
in the neighborhood, and that they thought this was a good use of the building. So that's my
summary, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Well, you want your client to adopt your testimony?
Absolutely. Sorrel, are you on? Can you raise your hand?
Mr. Sorrell, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Hi, good morning. I'm Sorrell Vang.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Sure, Sorrell Vang, S-O-R-E-L-L-E-V-E-I-G-N-E.
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do proceed counsel as well did you hear my testimony here today and believe it to be
truthful and accurate yes correct i do as your own yes thank you okay questions from the board
no mr chairman mr chair no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual
audience. I see no hands this time, Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good
morning. David Fecto, F-E-C-T-E-A-U with the City Planning Commission. Do you swear a firm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir, I do. Proceed, sir. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman and members of the board. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
commercial mixed-use zoning at this location. This property, along with the others on this side of
the block, were built as commercial mixed-use buildings, and the commercial mixed-use one
zoning district allows the applicant the flexibility to decide whether to include
commercial space on the ground floor. The zoning archive shows that the building received approval
in 2002 for a ground floor commercial unit and one apartment. Converting the ground floor
commercial unit to residential would yield two apartments the third unit was built without
benefit of permit through no fault of the applicant and so the city planning commission recommends
the board grant the use variance for maximum of three dwelling units thank you MI 2022 003 456
60 15 Baltimore Avenue I vote yes proviso maximum three units
carol tenery my vote is yes with proviso thomas holliman my vote is yes with proviso james snell
my vote is yes with proviso ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel
thank you so much okay number nine mi 2021 001 108 2500 wilmot street sean ward is the attorney
recommendation of support from the Bridesburg Community Action Alliance
Mr. Ward is coming back in as a panelist now chair thank you
good morning Mr. Chairman members of the board Sean Ward on behalf of the owner applicant
Hi, Mr. Ward, just for the record,
should you spell your name for the court reporter?
By all means. First name, Sean. S-H-A-W-N. Last name, Ward. W-A-R-D. Address is 331. East Street Road, Trevos, Pennsylvania, 19053.
By all means.
First name, Sean, S-H-A-W-N, last name Ward.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
And could you identify your client in relationship to the property, please?
Yes, Mr. Chairman, I represent ROW, that's R-O-W-R-O-W-L-L-C, which is the owner of the property.
Okay, our Vice Chair, Carl Tedere, has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Ward, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I will waive a reading, and there is one inaccuracy as I see it, which I will address during my presentation.
Okay. 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 the above.
Okay, great. You may proceed and begin by sharing your screen, which is already up.
Very good. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I've submitted my typical exhibit packet for Roro LLC
for the subject property at 2500 Wilmot Street. Just as a little background, Mr. Chairman,
you marked one matter for 2500 Wilmot Street as withdrawn at the beginning of today's session.
There were two applications pending in this matter. I was granted administrative leave by
the executive director to amend the refusal and basically what we did was we included whatever
uses and refusals or referrals that were in the other appeal into this one so we consolidated it
into one. And therefore, we withdrew the appeal at MI 2021 001001, which the board acknowledged
this morning. So that brings us back to the present case at application ZP 2021-001772
at calendar number 001108 before the board now. A1 is the notice of referral and refusal
as amended and consolidated. The application is basically for use permits for personal vehicle
repair and maintenance, as well as equipment and material storage. Now with regard to that refusal,
Let me just fast forward a little bit here. In 2015, a permit that was granted pursuant to a variance for equipment and material storage, as well as in 2018 for the erection of a new building for use as contractor's office equipment storage.
So I am not quite certain why that was refused in the present application when, in fact, in 2018, you know, at the earliest 2018, those uses were approved and the new application was filed within three years of 2018.
and therefore I believe those refusals for equipment and material storage were issued in
error. However, I'll defer to the board on how we deal with that today. In any event,
we submitted with the revised application a key plan which identified the uses in the 10 spaces.
As you can see, they're all either personal vehicle repair or contractor use with
material and equipment storage. So the amended refusal resulted in six refusals, actually six
refusals and referrals together. The order of repair requires special exception. There was five
of those. And then there was one refusal for equipment and material storage as not permitted
in the district. So today we seek special exceptions for the five tenant spaces and a
use variance for the equipment and materials storage yard. A2 is the ZBA application, A3
project information form. A4 proof of ownership, A5 proof of tax clearance. A6 is the aforementioned
site and key plan with regard to the amended application. A7 are photographs. A8 is the RCO
meeting notices and certificate of mailing. There was two meetings held in this matter.
A-9 is the RCO letter from Bridesburg. That letter does reference some provisos, which were not worked out at the time they submitted their RCO summary, but we have since resolved that and have come to an agreement as to provisos, which I believe are acceptable and related to the zoning issues at hand.
A9 is the RCO letter from Bridesburg. That letter does
A-10, I would ask if a district council person's letter was submitted, that that be marked as A-10.
Again, the relevant zoning history.
2015, equipment and material storage was approved and permitted.
And 2018, the same direction of a new building for use as contractor's office with equipment and storage.
A-12 is the zoning map.
A-13 is the aerial photograph.
So we have attached, we have the amended refusal.
We have both other refusals as part of both appeals, the applications for appeal.