Don Tan...
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes mr reuter uh good afternoon may please the
board leonard f reuter r-e-u-t-e-r senior attorney city of philadelphia do you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do okay and um could you identify your
client relationship to the property yes good afternoon i'm here today on behalf of the property
owner jmp investments pa llc with me here today is robert pandino on behalf of the llc
and also the architect agata reister is available virtually our vice chair has a few questions
Good evening, counsel. Do you agree to wait to read another refusal or stipulate to exact
proceed?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with
this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
May I share my screen?
could be where i promote it now
We see a refusal.
So today I did submit materials, as you mentioned, Vice Chair, and I would ask that they be incorporated into the record.
They are.
The property is zoned CMX2, as noted on the refusal before you.
The refusal is due to the fact that short-term rentals, visitor accommodations is not permitted
in CMX2.
Here's a photo of the property before you.
the property is a two-story structure zoned for two artist studios on the first floor
and two dwelling units above and we are seeking a variance to allow visitor accommodations in
the existing structure in the two units on the second floor the change here is that people would
be able to rent the two units for less than 30 days there are no other changes here
my client acquired this property back in 2023 it was in a state of disrepair which you can see on
the photos of the building prior to acquisition before you he did make some
changes and renovations he's added new windows and repaired the facade and is
currently updating the interior of the building if you take a look at the
zoning map before you you'll see that the property is situated on Bancroft
Street which is between Mifflin and McKean streets and 16th and 17th
streets in South Philadelphia it's surrounded by commercial and industrial
uses to the right is a brewery to the left is Eagle industrial electric
company there's also jojo's detailing company and photos of the surrounding area are also included
in the packet and i'll scroll through some of them right now there are garages across the street
in total there's approximately 15 garages on this block at the corner at mckean street there's two
more additional auto body shops there's car care auto body and there's also
Liberty auto body at the corner of Bancroft and Mifflin there's a church
that has recently been converted for use as 33 visitor accommodation units
units and this is for two am i correct excuse me two yes we're seeking two um so in evaluating
hardship uh the use of adjacent property is unquestionably relevant here the surrounding
uses, extensive commercial and industrial uses, along with the visitor accommodations
on the corner, render the property practically unusable and of little value for traditional
residential purposes.
My client does have a petition of support.
That's also included in the packet on page 3.
and you can tell that the addresses and the support are from nearby neighbors
i would like to point out that also within the materials there is a memo preserving and
addressing challenges to the zoning code as it relates to short-term rentals the arbitrary
treatment of short-term rentals based on whether they are owner occupied or not is arbitrary
the city is aware that we've made these arguments and preserved them and we are
not addressing them today if I could jump in at that point which is kind of
why I'm here if the city just just so it's clear in the record the city
recognizes that they're making a facial challenge to the constitutionality of
the city's treatment of short-term rentals short-term visitor accommodations
uh so we will acknowledge that they preserve the argument i think there's an agreement
uh or an understanding that the zoning board itself doesn't have authority to make a ruling
on the validity uh what's called a validity challenge to an ordinance but it's been preserved
to the extent uh to the extent it's necessary for the city to preserve its argument that they're
wrong um and that it we do believe you know we do believe that the ordinance is constitutional
will also preserve that defense um and as far as whether the city has any position on the variance
uh other than whatever city planning's recommendation uh might turn out to be we
don't have a position on whether the variance is granted this the challenge is is uh isn't
being made in the alternative to the to the variance request okay if you have any questions
I can stick around, but otherwise, please proceed.
At this point, I would like to ask my client to...
Can I have photos of the inside?
See what it looks like.
Interior photos.
I'll scroll through them now.
Thank you, Leonard.
You can see the photos showing the construction that's going on inside.
So it's two units up there, am I correct?
Two units up there.
Yes, there's two units.
And do you have a plan of how it's separated?
I have a copy of that plan.
For me?
I have a copy of that plan, and I'll show that to you right now.
one of the units is 645 square feet and the other unit is about 1,231 square feet okay
um could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer sure my name is Robert
pendino r-o-b-e-r-t pendino p-e-n-d-i-n-o do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel thank you robert did you hear my testimony
today yes i did is it accurate yes and you adopt it as your own yes okay and just a couple more
questions for him robert will you be managing this property i will yes how often are you
at the property i'm at the property every day okay and do your neighbors know how to contact you if
needed yes i've been in that area for the past 45 years i started my business there in 1979 about a
block from the present location so i kind of know everybody in the neighborhood do you use the
garages on the first floor i do okay i'm there every day okay anything else i have no further
questions from the board. Yeah, I do have a question. I'm trying to understand the rationale
that you're using to claim that this is the only viable use for this location?
that you're using to claim that.
The basis of the argument is based on case law from our Supreme Court,
which is the Valley View case, which discusses that a hardship can be shown
when you take a look at the surrounding properties.
So, the surrounding properties consist of some short-term rentals and some homeownership units and some other types of uses, correct?
Could you repeat that?
It's a neighborhood of a variety of uses, correct?
There's a variety of uses in the block.
Yeah. That's why I don't, that's why I'm not sort of understanding why this is the only use that.
There's a variety on the block there.
I defer to my lawyer, the lawyer that's on the boards, maybe that, I don't understand. Cheryl, can you? Maybe, I don't know.
I think the argument that's being made is based on this Valley View case that if a property is surrounded by disharmonious types of uses, like if this was a regular residential kind of area, well, then that's one thing.
But here you've got mainly commercial uses, from what I'm seeing, and these short-term rentals.
So it's hard to use it for a traditional residential kind of use because that's not really what is in this surrounding area.
It's almost a block full of garages, right?
It's all garages.
Garages and other uses which are not really traditional residential types of uses.
so that's that's the um that's the argument as to the argument yes correct that they're
not the traditional long-term residential uses on this block
any other questions none of the upper floors are long-term renters or owners on the first floor
Second floor.
It's under construction right now.
The block she's saying.
On the block.
I could ask my client about that.
I mean, there may be some.
I mean, it appears that there would be some if you look in Google.
There is an owner.
The car detailing place has the garage downstairs, and he lives upstairs, him and his wife.
I mean, it looks like the general use down the street is residential upstairs and business below.
There's some up and down with the business, too.
Some people have garages down there.
It's a dreary block.
It's a dreary-looking block.
We're hoping to change it around the last minute.
Any other questions?
Questions from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair, I have a Bree Neff with a hand raised.
I will promote them at this time.
Please accept the invitation for promotion.
Hello.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Bree Neff, B-R-I-E. Last name is Neff, N as in Nancy, E-double-F as in Frank.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am.
Okay, please proceed.
I live right around the corner on McCain Street with my partner, and our building actually butts right up against the property in question.
So our rooftops kind of adjoin right there.
What they're presenting is not exactly accurate.
it um we went over this with the zoning committee um like a month ago or so and
they're stating that the neighborhood and particularly that street is primarily
commercial and that is just not true um
we for example are
We, for example, are residential. Our building is residential. Many of the properties on that
exact street are residential on the second floor. And the end of the street is residential throughout
the entire building, first floor and second floor. Around the corner, it's residential
on Mifflin. On McKean Street, it's residential. And even more so, and more importantly,
is that the back of the building runs right up against 16th Street, and 16th Street is entirely
residential. This property, it is beautiful. They're doing such a good job. So we are not
contesting anything about what he's doing with the building. It's just the short-term accommodation
use that we are opposed to. The properties on 16th Street have backyards, very, very small
backyards. It's a very, very small area right there. And that property on, on Bancroft Street,
it butts right up against them. They want to put a huge deck on the rooftop. And we are,
we are highly concerned that there's going to be late night parties and people throwing beer cans
into people's backyards. And it's, it's, it's avoidable. You know, we, we already told them
that, you know, we love that they're converting the building. We don't think there's going to be
any, any trouble with finding long-term rentals in there. There are plenty of long-term rentals
in the neighborhood and we expect that they will have no trouble but they haven't even tried yet
so miss neff we're not looking at a deck on the roof i mean we're not that's that's not in front
of us it's actually in the plans and um and it's beautiful we're not opposed to a deck on the roof
we're not opposed to any of the renovations to the building we are simply opposed to turning this
It's using this property as a short-term occupancy.
I mean, we're not approving a deck, are we?
There is a deck on the plan.
There is a deck on the plan.
Yeah, I see it, but what I'm saying is...
Yeah, this is a change of use application only.
There was no plans review as part of the application.
I assume these plans are either from the prior approval to build or renovate,
um or they're illustrative um but that's these are not plans that are that if this application
was approved are being approved by l and i because there's no plan requirement the only thing we're
approving here is the only thing we're looking at is is the use and i and just to piggyback on that
the refusal i think is a little bit confusing because it says visitor accommodations and then
it says the ground floor uses to remain but it's really like a first floor second floor
um what's being proposed so if the board does um grant in this case i would suggest clarifying that
the visitor accommodations is for the second floor thank you do you have anything else
is she finished okay um i'm not really finished because the second floor you know again
the second floor has access to the roof deck. The second floor would be the short term
occupancy. And that's exactly what we're opposed to. And again, they haven't even tried for long
term occupancy. And we, the neighborhood believe that will not be an issue. It's actually, I mean,
they called it a dreary street and that is largely untrue it's really turning into a quite a
beautiful neighborhood and we want to make sure it stays that way yeah I I'm not I'm not going to
I do agree it's a beautiful neighborhood but that's I've always thought of it as a back street
but nothing but there's a lot of garages on that street maybe I'm wrong I I mean even the photos
she shows show nothing but garages yeah and I don't think that the photos were accurate either
because some of those photographs
were taken quite a long time ago.
I mean, we are in the process of transforming it
and it's working, it's looking good.
And just because there's garages and businesses
on the first floor doesn't equal dreary.