use as you know they wouldn't allow any use that would conflict with the surrounding tenants or
substantial development upgrades that they recently made at this complex so that summarizes
my testimony on the application and i'll have my client brian hanley adopt my testimony
mr hanley please unmute yourself
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
yes good afternoon my name is brian haney b-r-i-a-n last name is haney h-a-n-e-y
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do proceed counsel thank you brian did you hear the testimony that i provided this afternoon
yes i did do you affirm that my presentation was accurate i do and do you adopt the testimony as
your own i do and do you um would you confirm that the hours and days of operation are monday
to friday 8 a.m to 9 p.m yeah okay is there anything further that you'd add beyond what i've
stated no i do not thank you questions from the board board no mr chairman no chair no chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare planning commission
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission?
thank you chair berkman sarah bond philadelphia city planning commission
Thank you, Chair Berkman, Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, the comprehensive
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing split commercial mixed use and
plan recommends no change to the existing split commercial mixed use and residential
residential multi-family zoning at this location the proposed use will not cause detrimental
multifamily zoning at this location.
The proposed use will not cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might
impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might normally be expected the city planning commission
recommends that the zoning board grant the special exception. Council, before I vote,
this is suite 106? Correct. Okay, thank you. MI 2022-006-901-3600, Neal Drive. I vote yes.
Proviso, use limited to suite number 106. Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with Proviso.
James Snow, my vote is yes with Proviso.
James Snow, Shaheen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number seven, MI 2023-000-674-7777R, State Road.
Okay. The property is here, 7777 R State Road. We admit to being a little confused. We've been told that we were not able to operate at this property because it was not permitted to exist as a junkyard.
we are not a junkyard we are a scrap metal yard and we have been a scrap metal facility
at the same location 77 77 r is here right across the way here is my client's property
7345 milner street and we have been there operating as a scrap metal yard in the city
of Philadelphia since, I believe, 1974. So, Mr. Greller, are you asking for any variants to do
anything differently than what Morris Iron has been doing at this location for the last 50 years?
No, we're not. Is Morris Iron a family business? Four generations. I'm the third. I have two
daughters and a son-in-law. And how long have you been in the city of Philadelphia? My grandfather
started in 1934. What exactly is the difference between, what's your understanding? We are a
scrap metal dealer, but why have we been called a junkyard, to be the best of your understanding?
My best understanding is the license and inspection, the only complication they have for
our kind of facility is a junkyard we don't handle cars we don't handle any retail we mostly handle
all industrial scrap and we needed this property to be able to move our material through barges
and each barge takes 150 trucks off the road presently we have we've done about 200 barges
and we employ 70 people both unions teamsters and local 57 who support the project and we did
had the zoning that was passed by uh city council and with an overlay they said you're not allowed
to have a junkyard there we we are not a junkyard now if you can uh chair bergman can you see my
we see it very well yeah okay that's is that a barge mr griller okay so what you're doing is
you're taking the scrap from here and you're putting it onto the barge and then you're floating
it down the river and you're taking again you're taking cars off the road you're taking trucks off
the trucks off the road right okay um there's there's really not much more uh that we do other
commodities besides us okay there's really not more to the case than that members of the board
we've been doing this for an awfully long time here uh and uh we would like to continue what
we were doing i think this is i've been uh appearing uh before this board for 40 years
And I think this is the only time that I have ever appeared before an RCO where the client was given a standing ovation after they left.
Remember from Councilman Driscoll's office was there.
Now, Mr. Grell, just to be accurate here, when you purchased this property, what was on the property?
We purchased the property five years ago.
It was banned in 13 years.
We actually had over $500,000 of trash.
It was basically a community dumping site.
We spent over a million dollars to clean the property and approve it.
And because we were able to get the property and the zoning change,
we were able to stay in the city of Philadelphia.
We almost were forced to move to Delaware or Virginia.
And correct me if I'm wrong, during the community group meeting,
that was one of the things that they were most appreciative of,
the fact that you had cleaned up the...
cleaned it up, and we also donated 1A
for the River Board.
Members of the board, really, that's it.
So, questions, sure.
Okay, questions from the board.
Questions from the board.
No, Chair.
No, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, I vote yes.
Ishmael Shahid, I vote yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, members of the board. Have a great day.
MI 2022-006904-7353 Oxford Avenue.
Joseph Consul is the attorney.
Letter of opposition from the Burholm Town Watch and Civic Association.
Mr. Consul is joining us as a panel.
Good afternoon.
Mr. Consul, state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter.
My name is Joseph Consul.
That's C-O-N-S-O-L-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you identify your client, your relationship to the property?
Yes, my clients are Albus Rosario and Bissette Durham.
They're the owners of Rosario's Trucking, which is the owner of the property.
Okay. Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to attack proceed?
Have you emailed all the required documents and exhibits needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, sir. The RCO letter came in yesterday.
No problem. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
OK, did that screen share work? Yes. OK, so the property in question is 7353, also called 7353 through 7355 Oxford Avenue.
And if you go back to 1960, which is the permit on the screen, it was called at that time the the South Corner Bly and Oxford Avenue.
Now, the reason why I went back to 1960 is because this is the oldest permit I could find on record. It was a refusal at that time to permit the erection of a gas station at this corner lot.
And as you can see, what's also relevant is at the time that this was permitted to be a gas station in 1960, the property was also in a C residential district.
And if you go through the zoning archive forward through time, you'll see that it was owned by Gulf Oil and by Sun Oil as a gas station.
And as we get a little further into time, I'll scroll down on my packet here to my deed.
the transfer prior to my client buying the property was in 1983. And that was from Sun Oil
to the Zivognics, who are the folks that my clients bought the property from. And then if
you go back and see in 1983, the Zivognics started using this property as a motor vehicle repair
and maintenance center. And when my clients, so that was from 1983. And so when my clients
went to buy the property from the Zvogniacs, here's what it looked like, was called Brothers
Auto Service. And that was in February of 2022, when they purchased it. So they purchased it in
February of 2022. And I'll just give you a real quick idea of what it looks like now.
Sorry. Here's what it looks like now. It's across from the auto zone. And yes,
there are residential properties that's surrounded on the other side. Get you another view.
here is it uh from this angle here looking at it um so they bought it in february of 2022
and in april of 2022 my clients applied for and received a motor vehicle repair retail
mobile dispensing license for the property which is still active um but they weren't aware that
there was a use permit required at this property as well. So they got the license. They thought
that that allowed them to begin operating, and they were operating. In May and June of 2022,
as my clients will attest, there was a series of catalytic converter thefts on their property.
And so in June of 2022, they put up the fence that you can see in the shot here.
That fence is six foot high. The guy that installed the fence, thinking it was a commercial property, put the fence in at six feet.
And so the refusals that we're here to discuss today are, there's three of them.
And so the refusals that were were here.
One is the fence can't be six feet. It can only be four feet in a residential district because this is RSA 3 that requires a four-foot fence, and my client built a six-foot fence.
Two, personal vehicle repair maintenance is prohibited in the RSA 3 residential zoning district. And three, one parking space is required for every 1,000 square feet. We've got 13,000 square feet, and I'll have my client attest to the fact that they have parking spaces for 15 cars available.
Unfortunately, when they had applied for their use permit, they did not specify the number of parking spaces that were being provided. I wasn't available. I wasn't around at that stage. So I believe that initial application didn't include what it needed to regarding the parking, but the parking is there.
So that's that. So they put the fence up and then L&I came out and issued violations for putting up the inappropriate fence and noticed that there was no use permit, even though they do have an active repair license, there was no use permit on file.
And so the issues arose, which led to them filing the application, getting me involved for the appeal.
now um here's the older brothers auto service motor vehicle repair license
we couldn't find a use permit ever issued for for them either but they were operating there
um as you know at least since 2009 but going back to 1983 if you look at the older archive
um it goes back that far that they operated as motor vehicle repair which is what we're seeking
um so uh generally before i discuss our situation with the rco um we believe that a hardship
clearly exists if you pick through the archive you'll see that several times in the 60s and
70s there was uh oil tanks and gas tanks buried on the property uh to allow for these gas stations
to exist. It's just not a property that's suited for residential use. So we don't see how a 13,000
foot property that's been commercial as a gas station and as the exact use we're seeking to
have approved here for 63 years, how that does not present what we believe to be a clear hardship
here today. Now, in March, we went in front of Burlholm Civic Association. What I thought was
started off at least as a productive meeting. There seemed to be a neighbor who was really
pushing to try to get these variances disallowed. I spoke to them about what their issues were with
my client operating on the property. And the three notes I had was, one, he wasn't covering
his tires that were kept on site. Two, he was parking cars obnoxiously outside of his fence
while they were on the street and parked legally on the street. As I understand it, there was just
more cars than the neighbors wanted parked on the streets. And three, his employees were playing
music at night. So he has told me, and I can at least confirm from a photo, and I'll have him
confirm, or I believe Bissette will confirm in her testimony, that he's corrected all these issues,
his employees no longer play music at night, and the cars are no longer parked outside of his
building and that he has covered up the tires uh that were existing on site um so that that's our
case uh we had you know suggested provisors from the community and we just weren't met with uh
any kind of uh desire to to to talk it out so we have a letter of opposition as as you saw um
So if I could call my client to adopt my testimony and add a little bit of her own, it should be under Bissette Durham, if not Albus Rosario. Could you raise your hand?
Ms. Rosario, please unmute yourself.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Alvis, A-L-B-I-S
Last name Rosario
R-O-S-A-R-I-O
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth?
Yes. Proceed, counsel. Mr. Rosario, would you discuss with the board briefly? Actually, first, would you adopt the testimony that I gave already as your own? Do you agree with what I said? Yes. Would you testify briefly about the thefts you were experiencing and the installation of the fence?
Proceed, counsel
Mr. Rosario, would you
Yes, like you were saying in the beginning, it was a lot of deaths.
I have a police report, a lot of cuddly computers in this area has been stolen.
Also, it was one of the cars inside was stolen.
And I have video footage of that, too.
So it was like a safety concern for my clients and also for myself, because my dad was here one day.
And as you can see in the pictures, some cars, they don't want to wait in the light, and they tried to cross over.
They almost hit my dad one day, so it scared me really bad.
And that's why I decided that I need some protection.
Even though I called the police, but you know it's really hard when you're not here to protect someone else properly.
You don't have to pay them.
I can talk to my clients, okay, I got something wrapped yesterday.
I can pay, you know, they get mad.
So that was the reason why I installed the things.
All right.
Thank you.
And then on the next issue, at the RCO meeting, there was several complaints regarding covering
the tires, parking on the street, and your employees playing music.
Did you address those concerns?
Yes, I did.
Philadelphia E&T Charter High School to Logan Hotel, and also the Center City District signage
was approved by the Art Commission. Brandon, you have testified several times. They've been sworn.
Just state your name for the record, please. Sure. Brandon Saverin, spelled S as in Sam,
A, V as in Victor, R, A, N as in Nancy. Could you identify your client and the relationship
to this property?
So my clients are the owners of the property.
The owners of the property are a group of tenants in common.
I'll read you the LLC names.
BP, GFP, LLC, 1429, BFP, LLC, 1501, BFP, LLC, and 1515, BFP, LLC.