636 3433
North Carlisle Street. Darlene Threatt is the attorney.
Nicetown Tioga is not taking the position on this case, it's basically a tied vote.
This three has been promoted to a panelist.
Good morning, Commissioner.
I'm darling, through on behalf of the applicant, Passerelle NYC.
Right.
I think I swore you once this morning, didn't I?
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
My client is Passerelle NYC Corporation.
I HAVE MR. MICHAEL SIMPSON ON THE LINE TODAY WHO IS A PRINCIPAL OF THAT CORPORATION.
THANK YOU.
MR. HALLMAN HAS A FEW QUESTIONS.
GOOD AFTERNOON, COUNCIL.
DO YOU AGREE TO WAIT THE READING OF THE REFUSAL AND STIPULATE TO HIS ACCURACY?
YES, I DO.
DID YOU EMAIL ALL OF THE EXHIBITS AS REQUIRED, SUCH AS PROOF OF OWNERSHIP, TAX CLARANCE,
COPY OF REFUSAL, PICTURES OR DRAWINGS OF THE PROPERTY, FIVE DAYS IN ADVANCE OF THIS
hearing did you meet with the rco and do you have an rco letter yes i do please proceed and share
to your screen.
here we go I submitted a package of materials to the board last week they
include a refusal on appeal project information forum tax information
clearance form a deed zoning history of the block plans pictures a community
flyer a meeting flyer a certificate of mailing and the community letter of no
position I'm going to start with just showing you a picture of the property
Here is a picture of the property. It's a three-story building on a block in the Temple area, right behind Temple Hospital and Temple Parking. It's detached on one side. There's a little breezeway here. Right next to this is a Temple facility and there's some parking on the end.
i have another shot for you here which shows uh the back of the building actually this is the
yard on the other block and here is the uh back of this building but behind the fence here that
you can see i'll show you a picture looking north uh down the block carlois street as you can see
this is a temple facility some type of little office this is a big parking facility for the
hospital and this is a another temple building on the end here i also send you a shot looking south
down carlisle street as you can see again there's a another temple facility here there's another
temple i believe a medical facility here and there are um multi uh families uh up and down
this block which I'll go into a little further later here's a another picture
of the block I just took this to show you that there are multifamilies on the
block there is an apartment building I'm located at the very end of this block
again another picture of the temple facility and parking here's another
a shot of the end of the block to show you that our structure is consistent with all the rest of
the structures on the block uh again in the next block there is a temple overpass a temple hospital
a temple of parking i'll show you a few pictures of the interior of the building
uh the building had been gutted it's been out of use i understand uh for some time now it's been
empty. We have a couple pictures of what's going on inside in the building now. It's
just been gutted, waiting for zoning to be approved. Here's a final picture of the building.
And that's the interior of the building.
I'm going to go back now to the, I want to show you a little history of this block in
I want to show you a little history of this block in this building.
this building.
This is a zoning use permit for 344 North Carlisle, two family there.
This is a zoning permit for 3448 North Carlisle.
It's a three family dwelling here.
I also have a, this is on the same block.
I also have a zoning permit for 3, 4, 4, 3, North Carolina, or actually a six-family dwelling that was just recently approved, 8-11-21.
Let's scroll down and see here.
It was approved as a six-family dwelling.
the now I'm going to move to our plans here is the again the picture reduce it a little bit so
you can see it a little better there's an actual picture on all the property we don't plan to go
outside the footprint of this property basically we're requesting that we be approved for three
units. The ground floor of this building will be used for just utilities only. We don't
plan to have any space in the basement for living. It's just a basement area. The second
floor of the building is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, approximately 850 square feet. You
You can see you can enter from the front, you have a living room, kitchen, a full bathroom.
You walk a little further back, and you have the bedroom and a walk-in closet.
That's the first apartment.
The second-floor apartment is basically the same as a two-bedroom or a two-bathroom apartment.
It's approximately 850 square feet also.
That is a kitchen, living room, and two bathrooms.
the third floor is just a large uh studio it's about 550 feet square feet it's a large area
a little kitchen area and a large uh bath our commissioners uh we did meet with the uh
civic association uh we circulated uh this fire here uh for the meeting i believe we circulated
two, 86 individuals. And we did get a letter from the community. The letter was really a letter of
no position. Apparently there were a number of people at the meeting, but only four from the
block. And two were in favor, two were against, and there was one abstention. In support though
of our application, I'd like to say this is not an overuse of the property. The renovation and
construction is consistent with all the renovation and newer construction on the block there is
actually a six-family dwelling and the same size of property on this block as well as other three
family two families and as well as an apartment building and with that um i'm here to answer any
questions that you may have about presentation would you want to have your testimony adopted
sure mr simpson can you raise your hand please
he's going to have to speak uh mr simpson uh are you the uh could you state your name first and
spell for the court reporter michael simpson m-i-c-h-a-e-l-s-i-m-p-s-o-n right do you
swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed uh mr uh
Simpson, have you heard the testimony that I've given the board today?
Do you believe it's true and correct?
And would you adopt it as your testimony if you were to testify today?
And Mr. Simpson, are you the owner of Passerelle NYC, who's the owner of 3438 North Carlisle Street?
Yes, I am.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson.
You're welcome.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or questions or comments from the virtual audience
mr charles richardson has his hand raised i've allowed him to speak
all right mr richardson could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
good afternoon mr chair charles richardson from the office of councilwoman cindy bass
room 312 city hall last name is r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n do you swear for him to tell the truth
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
the whole truth is nothing but the truth i do proceed
Proceed.
As Nicetown Tioga Community Organization has taken no position, the Councilwoman will have no opposition to granting this variance.
Thank you very much for calling in.
Any other comments from the virtual audience?
I see no further hands, Mr. Chains.
Planning Commission.
good afternoon board this is greg waldman city planning commission staff
the comprehensive plan recommends a zoning map change to rm1 residential multifamily use at this
location the proposal for three units would be permitted by right in the proposed zoning district
the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance
Thank you. MI-2022-000636-3438 North Carlisle Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Hallamann, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ismail Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Commissioner.
Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience still waiting for their 2 o'clock case?
i do not see anyone mr chair let's take a break at 3 30 everyone
good afternoon my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this afternoon's eba hearings
with me is israel shaheed our board secretary
President Mr. Chair Thomas Holliman our board member President Mr. Chairman James Snell our
board member President Mr. Chairman also here is our Executive Director Tanya Sunkett and our
board attorney Hillary Emerson before we start
Let me go over our virtual format.
Be advised, these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone, if you wish to testify, please press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And lastly, please note the question and answer box on the screen is not for testimony or comments.
Any comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sumkin.
So let's talk about our continuances for this afternoon.
MI 2021-005-160-4227 East Thompson Street. That case is continued.
Number five, MI 2021-005-118-428-28 Centner Street. That case is continued. And number six,
MI 2021-005-117, 534 South 4th Street. That case is continued. Anyone have any comments or statements
relative to those three cases? They're all continued. I say no hands, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
we're going to go past our, we're going to start our original, our, our list. We're going to pass
by one yet. We're still waiting for attorney. Number two, MI 2021-005-193-2068 East Somerset
Street. This is first listing. We have no exhibits. Any hands up? I see no hands, Mr. Chair. Okay. MI 2021-005-193-2068
East Somerset Street. That's continued. Must be tried. Number three, MI 2021.
Number three. MI 2021-005-120-2557 West Sterner Street. Letter of opposition from Strawberry Mansion Community Concern and RCO and a letter of opposition from Councilman Jones. Sean Ward.
Okay, Mr. Ward has been allowed to speak, sir.
Mr. Ward, you've already been sworn. Could you just state your name for the record?
All right, I'm back.
Okay, just state your name for the record.
Sean Ward, S-H-A-W-N-W-A-R-D, Esquire, applicant's attorney.
Okay, could you identify your client and the relationship to this particular property?
My client is Keith Yantes, Y-A-N-T-E-S. He is the owner of the property, and I also represent the tenant, Mohamed, M-O-H-A-M-M-E-D, Moolazem, M-U-L-A-Z-E-M, Asadi, A-S-S-E-A-D-I.
uh forgive me if i pronounced those wrong but uh he is the proposed tenant i am not sure that
muhammad uh was able to join us today but uh mr yantes is mr holliman has a few questions for you
good afternoon council hey do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his
accuracy yes i do did you email all of the exhibits as required such as proof of ownership tax
clearance copy of refusal pictures of the drawings of the property five days in advance of this
hearing did you meet with the rco and do you have a rco letter uh yes to the old above uh but to
clarify i submitted my exhibit packet five days in advance which did not include the rco letter
because i did not get that uh but uh that was submitted uh and i do have a copy of it today
and the chairman's correct is in opposition and i will address that during my presentation
thank you please proceed and share your screen thanks
all right just to confirm my screen is shared
anybody there yeah we're here which good okay all right good uh again mr chairman sean ward on
behalf of the applicant owner uh keith yantes and the uh presumed tenant uh mohammed molazem
assidi uh we call we refer to him as mo uh i think it might be easier for presentation purposes to
refer to him as Mo. I submitted my typical exhibit packet for the property 2557 West
Sterner Street, Philadelphia. With regard to the notice of refusal, the application is for a permit
for a grocery store on the first floor of an existing structure with an existing previously
approved single-family dwelling above, resulting in one refusal. A grocery store is not permitted
in the district. Accordingly, we seek a use variance. A2 is the ZBA application of appeal.
A3 project information form. A4 proof of ownership. A5 proof of tax clearance. A6 are photographs.
A7 is the RCO meeting notice and certificate of mailing, which I included in the packet in the
event that the letter did not get here in time however we do have so what i label as a 7.1 is
the rco letter uh no longer pending it's actually here a8 if uh if submitted uh and i believe tom
said it was um i would ask that the district council letter be marked as a8 uh i also have
the relevant zoning history of the property dating back to 1959 until at least 2016.
This property has been a check cashing agency and then in 2016 it became a daycare center.
A10 is the zoning map, A11 is the aerial photograph and just some brief comments.
It's been continuously used for commercial use since pre-1959.
The check cashing agency we can establish was 1959 through 2016, and the most recent use as a daycare, you know, unfortunately, the COVID-19, pardon my typo there, COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the demise of that operation.
operation with regard to the proposed use uh we're basically looking for sunday through saturday
operation. With regard to the proposed use, we're
8 a.m through 8 p.m uh mo uh proposes uh you know three to five employees including the owner
you know between part and full-time employees and uh if sometimes we talk about trash uh there is a
fenced in rear yard area where trash would be contained so without further ado in the packet
is the notice of refusal, the application of appeal, the project information form,
my transmittal letter to the board, copy of their deed.
Here is the tax clearance showing taxes are paid through 2022.
Here is a Google aerial angle view of the property. It's a corner property,
historically been used for commercial purposes on the first floor it's at i believe the corner of 26th
in the sterner um here is a moment yes hold on okay
Okay. Here is an angle shot of the corner. Obviously, it's a commercial enterprise most
recently used, again, as the center of attention, early learning center.
Another angle view shown the zoning poster posted on the property.
copy of the poster this is how the property has been left since the daycare vacated in
2020 during the pandemic
just a couple more photos of the interior and this this interior exists pretty much as of today
because we have not proceeded with the fit out or any other things for the grocery store