Thank you.
is our audience in
they're still filing in
okay chairman we can go forward good morning everyone my name is bill bergman and i will
be chairing this morning's eba hearings with me is ismail shaheed our board secretary
here mr chairman thomas hallman our board member present mr chairman and james snell
a board member. Present Mr. Chairman. Also Tanya Sunkit, our board administrator, and our attorney
Rebecca Cole are here. Before we begin, here is our virtual format. Be advised the proceedings
will be recorded. By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting Tanya Sunkit at phila.gov. For the benefit of our
court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by 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 lastly, the question answer box on your screen
is not for comments or testimony. Any comments should be directed to Tanya Sunkett, our board
administrator. So the first thing we want to do is start with continuances that we have.
And for this morning's meeting, I have MI 2021-00128-1737 Bergen Street for a continuance.
Is there anyone in the audience has an objection or a comment relative to that?
I see no hands, Mr. Chair.
That case is continued.
Are there any other continuances or withdrawals requested by anyone in the audience?
Mr. Chair, I have Ms. Hilary Emerson with her hand raised. I will allow her to speak at this time.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. How are you? Hilary Emerson on behalf of Councilwoman Sherelle Parker.
Great. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
i do proceed um good morning i'm here on uh the last case on the list 6811 oxford avenue
i've been in touch with the rco um they have struggled to connect with the applicant um so
we are requesting a continuum so we can try to continue to uh get the meeting set up in that
case um but if you could check to see if anybody's here that would be um great i do i do see that
there are no exhibits relative to that case so anyone here relative to 68 11 oxford please raise
their hand i see no hands there cases continued i recommend must be heard next hearing thank you
Any other case? Thank you. Any other cases?
Sir, Mr. Darlene has our hand raised. I will now speak at this time.
Good morning, Commissioner.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court sonographer, please?
Good morning, Commissioner Dr. D-A-R-L-E-N-E-T, as in Thomas, H-R-E-A-T-T, as in Thomas.
Thank you. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing about the truth?
Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Commissioner, I represent the applicants at 1733 Fillmore, MI 2021-003785.
Unfortunately, our civic meeting is for tomorrow evening. Therefore, I'm asking for a continuance.
Was that Fillmore Street again?
I see it.
Okay, number.
Yes, it is.
I also sent in a letter to the commissioner.
That's fine.
Thank you.
Cases continue.
Thank you very much.
Any other cases to be continued?
We have a Yu Wu with their hand up.
Would you please state your name and spell for our court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Yue Wu, Y-U-E-W-U.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
What case do you want to talk about, ma'am?
I represent the applicant of 636 North 11th Street, which is scheduled for this afternoon, 2 p.m.
and we're only we're only we're only hearing this morning's cases right now okay okay i see all right
thank you okay any other cases
chair we have a cam you
please state your name and spell for our court sonographer please yes my name is can you land
And I am the owner of 12 Ellsworth Street with a case.
Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
I see where it is.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, it's true.
And you have case number three.
Okay, thank you very much.
Case number three.
Thank you.
Tell me, do you want to continue, sir?
Yes, yes.
I want to finish today's approval from you both.
All right.
Say that again, please.
Yes, I want to continue today.
All right.
case is continued must be tried i'm sorry no that's my first time i have no idea it seems that this
applicant wants to move forward with the case today yes yes yes okay all right so your case
will be called okay thank you sorry i don't understanding thank you all right good thank
you thank you any other cases to be continued no more hands at this time chair all right case number
one mi 2021 003824 1018 wood street zenjin rco letter of support councilman squill letter of
non-opposition and he's coming in now as a panelist good morning good morning please state
your name and spell for our court stenographer sir yes my name is zenjin zh yen last name is j-i-n
1617 john f kennedy boulevard suite 1838 feldelf epa 19103 here on behalf of the advocate right do
you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do proceed
sir and mr hallman has a few questions for you thank you okay counselor do you agree to the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
According to our records,
you have submitted all of the required documents.
Is that correct?
That is correct.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
I'm going to share with the board the exhibits
that we have submitted previously.
Can the board see my exhibit on the screen?
Thank you.
We have submitted a copy of the refusal support letter
from Kellogg Hill Neighborhood Association, petition to support photos, plans, and related
documentation. This application is refused because it is a residential project that is being requested
in an ICMX district. However, we want to point out through the photographs and also through the
neighborhood letter that while this property is ICMX, the area has had some changes where
much of the buildings in the area are, in fact, residential.
The proposal is to demolish what is a former tofu factory,
which is owned by my client's family.
They have grown older and have decided not to continue their business at this point.
And this is essentially to present a future use.
And this is essentially to present a future use for their property and sort of a retirement plan of sorts for the family elders.
So this is going to be a self-managed property.
The proposal will be a new building at this location where you see right now is a single story structure.
However, as you can see, on both sides of this street, of this property, there are new residential construction going on.
And our proposal is also consistent to what is being done in the area.
And that is part of the reason Keller Hill Neighborhood Association had no objections to the proposal because it is very similar in nature to what is already there.
From the standpoint of design, the building is being proposed to be a multi-story structure for a total of 14 residential units.
We are providing bike parking and pursuant to requests from the neighborhood, we're increasing the number of bike parking that is available.
There's no off-street parking.
Unfortunately, this particular street is a small street.
However, I want to point out that there are parking lots nearby of this property.
However, there's no on-street parking that's really available in the front of the property.
That being said, this is not unusual for the area and for the streets.
Most of the buildings in the area that are multi-story, multi-residential, also rely on on-street parking and or off-street parking via other locations.
The building structure itself will have metal panel, which, again, pursuant to feedback from the community, we will try to make sure that the paneling is done in a type that would have advanced metal that would not rust quickly, and because that was a complaint that was brought before us during the community meeting, that some of the other metal panel buildings were having some issues.
In addition, in order to alleviate parking issues, my client actually have made arrangements for a parking agreement with one of the local parking lots for his building so that parking could be made available to the tenants and not have a lot of parking issues being brought onto the street.
The layout of the property is done in such a way that it's, again, it's apartment complex
with various units from the ground floor up to the roof floor. There's five total floors
and the units are divided into 14 total units. I'll zoom in again on each floor so it's a little
for the board to see that the basement has the pico vault, trash room, we have a built-in trash
room to alleviate trash issues, elevator, and a exercise gym room in the back. There's no living
in the basement. All residential living will be above throughout the various units. As you can see,
they're mostly smaller size units fitting to what is common in the area again, and it's easier for
people with lower budgets to have access. While we're not, quote, making affordable housing,
I do want to point out that this project is meant to be relatively affordable to those
who potentially will wish to pursue a rental at this location.
That being said, here is the copy of the parking agreement that my client entered into. At least
out at least eight parking vehicle parking spaces will be made available for a particular
cost. This was entered into prior to coming to the board. And as you can see, this has
been under discussion since last early last year, by my client. So as, as such, I'm sorry
for scrolling, I'm going to go ahead and jump to the Kelley Hill letter.
As such, the neighbors generally are in support. We had a Zoom meeting where 13 people were present and voted, mostly neighboring properties.
We also, at the time before the meeting, went and asked my client to reach out to the neighbors in the area and obtained a written petition in support as well.
Now, I am aware that PCDC has recently filed a letter with their own objections to the project based on the fact that it's ICMX and they're looking for affordable housing.
We understand the need for affordable housing. Again, this is a private property that was a factory that is no longer going to be running.
Again, this is a private property that was a factory that is no longer going to be run because, again, the proprietors have aged out of doing the business.
It's a tough business. The area is also changing, and that is why they proposed this particular residential use.
And as mentioned earlier, we are trying to keep the pricing down, but a 10-year deed restriction enforcing affordability is just not something my client can enter into at this time.
So with that, I will be happy to try to answer any questions from the board or redirect back to any exhibit that we have presented. Thank you.
And would you want to adopt the testimony?
Yes, my client, Mr. Kin Leung, should be present. Mr. Leung, can you raise your hand virtually to be identified?
Mr. Leung, are you there?
Yeah, I see him.
Yes, and they're available.
Thank you.
Could you state your name and spell it for a court reporter, please, sir?
My name is Ken Leung, K-E-N, last name is L-I-A-N-G.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Leon, can you verify that you saw my presentation to the Zoning Board and heard my testimony?
Can you verify that they are true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the Board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
the chair i have a ua wu with their hand raised that will allow them to speak at this time
sir could you could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please yes this is your
wu y-u-e-w-u do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
I represent Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, which is another RCO for this case.
And the CNA, Calo Hill Neighborhood Association, was the coordinating RCO for this case.
And we submitted a letter of opposition for this case because we believe affordable housing is a priority for a neighborhood.
There are a lot of low-income immigrant families in the area who need to be able to stay, and they also work in Chinatown, and it's important to keep the residents in the neighborhood.
And in our Chinatown neighborhood plan, which is recognized by the City Planning Commission, both preserving affordable industrial and commercial space and creating affordable units are priorities in the neighborhood plan.
And this neighborhood plan is created with the neighborhood community members with more than a thousand people engaged.
So this vision we want to advocate for, and we understand the owner's intention to convert the property into residential use.
And we understand industrial use has been difficult in the area.
but we do want to request the owner to consider including a full unit in their property and we
are not requesting a very low income house. We communicate to the attorney that we would like to
have like a few units under 80 percent AMI which is very reasonable and that's like some of the
market rent in the area is even at that branch and we, but the owner and applicant did not
agree to that, therefore we oppose the development and we hope the ZBA will take that into consideration
and support the community's need for affordable housing.
Thank you very much for calling.
If I may, may I ask a question to Ms. Wu?
you can. Thank you. Ms. Wu, isn't it the practice of PCDC to request a restriction on the deed for
these affordable housing units you had mentioned? So we normally write this
affordable housing units request in the proviso and the ZBA will take that.
request in the proviso, and the ZBA will take that into their approval, zoning variance approval.
I don't believe necessarily that's an enforceable proviso. We had agreed in the sense that
as far as affordable nature of the housing, the smaller units would be definitely marking
towards affordability. That was discussed at the community meeting. However, I believe PCDC is
looking for not only an agreement to specifically have a certain level of affordable housing, but
also in the past, I've seen that a deed restriction is commonly requested. And those are things that
my client are not comfortable with. That is the main reason we did not do a, quote, affordable
housing project agreement with PCDC at this time. So I just wanted to make that clear for the record.
i agree thanks thank you very much for for calling in and testimony any other people in the virtual
audience
no other hand at this time sir planning commission
good morning chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
that's spelled h-e-g-a-r-t-y i'm sorry do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes sir i do proceed thank you uh good morning members of the board
uh in 2015 the zoning map was amended in this area and that was done to reflect changes that
were proposed in the community plan uh referenced by the representative of philadelphia chinatown
Development Corporation. This community plan was accepted by the City Planning Commission,
and just for the board's reference, the intent of the ICMX zoning on this block was at the time to
ensure an adequate supply of land for the existing restaurant support industry that is sort of
clustered here. We recognize that that may not be the long-term land use in this location, given the
adjacent non-conformities that have cropped up over the last few years. However, given that this
was an accepted plan by the City Planning Commission and there's no other hardship other
than the economic hardship that's been presented here, the City Planning Commission has to
recommend that the board deny these variances. But Mr. Haggerty, the Planning Commission does
acknowledge that there has been plenty of changes in that block towards residential use.
Yes, we do, and we also acknowledge that that's not grounds for a hardship.
Understood. Thank you.
MI 2021 003824, 1018 Wood Street, I vote no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
Thank you, Mr. Chin.
Thank you.
MI 2021-003-793-1241-43 South 57th Street.
Michael Yanov is the attorney.
There is a letter of support from the RCO.
Okay, Mr. Chair, Mr. Yanoff, should we be joining as a pen?
I ask that everyone else put their hands down unless the chairman requests you to raise your hand for a reason.
Please put your hands down.
Thank you kindly.
Mr. Yanoff, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, Michael Yanoff, that's M-I-C-H-A-E-L, Yanoff, Y-A-N-O-F-F.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
I proceed, sir.
And Mr. Holloman has a few questions for you.
Counselor, do you agree to the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
According to our records, there's no RCO letter.
Can you address that issue?
There was a letter which we sent in last night, which we had just received yesterday, which
with a letter of support.
I sent that immediately to all the appropriate internet
addresses.
We have a copy of it now.
We have a copy.
Thank you, sir.
OK, please proceed.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board,
I represent the property owner, Francis Dubrow,
with respect to this application.
The existing property is a 13,890 square foot building
The existing property is a 13,890 square foot building,
which is currently vacant.
It had previously been established as a-
Mr. Yenoff, excuse me,
would you wanna share your screen for us?
Yes, can we have, can the administrator please allow
Michael Seabright to share his screen?
He has all the documents with him,
if that's possible, he is on.
Have him raise his hand, please.
Michael, will you raise your hand, please?
Mr. Seabright has also been promoted to panelists, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Seabright, could you state your name and spell it for the court stenographer, please?
You have to unmute yourself, Michael.
Michael, can you unmute yourself and state your name, please?
This is Michael Seabright, M-I-C-H-A-E-L-S-E-B-R-I-G-H-T.
All right, just in case you testified, you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Absolutely.
Okay, thank you. Proceed, Mr. Yanov.
Thank you. Mr. Seabright has shared his screen. And Michael, if you could just start scrolling down on this. As I indicated, the property is now vacant and had previously been established as a transitional house for homeless persons or recovering individuals.
The proposed project is a variance for 32 units of housing for single room residents to accommodate foster children aging out of foster care, but are still too young to be fully reliant upon themselves.
Housing is only part of the application. There are additional social services that would be provided for these young people with appropriate administration and guidance.
We are also requesting a parking variance. That's one of the two refusals. I should state that the refusals indicate that the use is not permitted in the RSA3 zoning district, and we don't provide parking.
Since the residents who would be living in here would not have vehicles, would not be parking, and therefore on-street parking would be more than sufficient, so we're asking for a variance with respect to that.
We have Michael Seabright is prepared to testify about the mechanics and the and the layout of the building.
But I also have here, and I think that they are here, Francis Dubrow, who's the property owner, who is involved in an organization known as Undivided Courage, portions of which are in the in the documents that we submitted.
And I also have Alexis Pugh, who is here to testify about the manner in which the program works.
and Mark Johnson, who is here to testify about the security that would be afforded to this
particular use because of the relatively unusual nature of the residents who will be living in
there, so that we want to make sure that the zoning board and the neighbors are sufficiently
comfortable with the level of security. Mr. Chairman, if we could have those individuals,
Mr. Seabright, Ms. Dubrow, Ms. Pugh, and Mr. Johnson sworn. They can then testify quickly
about what the program is all about. Sure. Thank you.
Ms. Alexis, Pugh has her hand raised. I will now speak at this time, sir.
Mr. Chairman, can she be sworn? Sure. Alexis, say your name and spell
for the court stenographer yes my name is alexis pew that's a-l-e-x-i-s-p-u-g-h
and my address oh i'm sorry what do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth yes i do how about the rest of the people mr johnson are you there
mr johnson has been allowed to speak sir
Mr. Johnson, state your name and spell for the court sonographer.
You have to unmute, Mr. Johnson.
Johnson, please unmute.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
State your name and spell for the court sonographer.
My name is Mark Johnson, M-A-R-K-J-O-H-N-S-O-N.
all right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes mr yanoff who else do you have francis dubrow
this is a bro please unmute yourself
this is a bro please unmute yourself
they haven't raised their hand have they
well while we're waiting for proceed thank you is she is francis on or should we start with
alexis she hasn't raised her hand okay well let's start with alexis go ahead alexis if you can
could you please state your name and address to the record unmute yourself alexis
my name is lexus pew my address is 1844 north 23rd street and i am the executive director for
programs for undivided courage can you tell the chair the chair and the board what undivided
courage is undivided courage is an organization designed a social service organization that aims
to provide support to runaways, homeless youth age 18 to 24. We address the social, psychological,
medical, and housing needs of young adults. And how is it that you do that in this program?
Our mission, it's to create supportive housing for aged out foster care youth.
And how long have you been involved in this business?
Oh, well, I have over 20 years experience working with the homeless population, some time spent at Project Home working to eradicate street homelessness.
In that experience, I was engaged with young people, which we identified as having a greater risk of homelessness.
That is how I became involved in Undivided Courage and meeting Mrs. Dubrow to help her through that mission.
Okay. And can you describe to the board what Undivided Courage intends to do with this property if the CBA would be so kind as to approve this?
We plan on having supportive housing, affordable supportive housing for 18 to 24-year-olds.
And I'm sure that everyone here is aware of what supportive housing is.
And supportive housing, it combines affordable housing with intensive coordinated services.
What are those coordinated services?
Coordinated services being medical attention, education, and also employment opportunities.
We are intent on building leaders that can be great civic-minded folks and living out their life opportunities.
Can you describe to the board what trained personnel there are to assist in this program?
Besides myself having many years of supportive services, we will also have on-site supportive services,
And that is 24 hours supportive services on site with residential service coordinators living inside the residence as well.
We also have coordinated efforts with our security team to manage any incidents that may happen on site.
Can you describe briefly to the board what the guidelines are for this particular program and whether there are written guidelines?
Yes. So we will use PHA's proven guideline for supportive housing measures, but then we will also internally have our own guidelines, which will require a intensive application process and drug screening.
We will partner with PHA to follow their guidelines, but also keeping in step with proven track records of Covenant House, Youth Valley House.
Those are our referral process to also filter out students that would be eligible and meet criterias.
How do you pick the 32 people out of the many potential participants in this program?
How is it that you select those who are going to be living in this particular house?
Oh, well, we actually will have them go through an application process, just like I said, with drug screenings attached to that.
They will need to also be employed at the time as well.
We will have guidelines that each applicant must be employed at least 20 hours a week or be enrolled in some sort of educational training program as well.
That will also let us know that these individuals are working towards a pathway of independence.
Okay, now we have Mark Johnson here this morning also discuss about the security. So we're going to ask security questions of Mr. Johnson. But for you, Alexis, is it safe to say that you have engaged in an extensive security analysis to make sure that the property and the residents and the neighbors feel safe and secure?
and and he'll he'll describe to that he'll describe that for us i have no further i
he'll describe that for us i have no further i have no further questions of this witness
have no further questions that this witness
mr chairman thank you like it would you like me to move on to my other witnesses i wish you please
thank you i then i asked mark johnson be sworn
he's already been sworn thank you thank you mr chairman mr johnson could you please state your
name and business address for us you have to unmute mark
thank you hear me yeah we can hear you now can you please state your name and business address
for us mark johnson 6405 over brook avenue philadelphia pa are you affiliated with a
security company sir i am but for this project i'm i'm helping her out as uh volunteering okay
can you tell us something about your experience in the area of security um i'm currently safety
Security Manager for U.S. Security Care. I also was Safety and Security Director at
Gerard College and Director of Campus Life at Gerard College, and I had retired from the FBI
after 27 years. Okay, and are you familiar with the program that is being offered at this location?
Yes, I am. And have you reviewed the program needs with the applicants? Yes, I have. And are you
familiar with the building itself? Yes, I am. And you're familiar with the neighborhood, I assume?
Yes, I am. Okay. Can you describe the security arrangements that are being made for this program?
Well, a lot of it's preliminary, but obviously we'll have the general physical security controls,
access control for the students. They'll have all key fobs to enter and access the building.
But I think the greater control, the greater issue, hold on, let me close this door.
The greater issue, since you will be having 30 plus individuals living in this home, is how do we manage and control them and make sure that they come in, they're not wandering around the neighborhood.
as alexis had probably mentioned we'll be following some of the standard best practices
other like facilities make sure that we have rules in place make sure we do proper screening
in the beginning including drug screening make sure we have clear concise rules and regulations
for the students and when when children or when some of our clients run afoul those rules we have
a fair and concise adjudication so that we can make sure that if we do have problems,
we can address them quickly. Would there ever be need to call in the Philadelphia police for this?
I mean, you never know, just like any other facility that's individual based. But just
like anything, we'll make sure that we have the proper relationship with the Philadelphia police
in the right district and in developing the emergency operation plan for the building,
we'll make sure that they are, Philadelphia Police is aware of everything that we do.
Well, are you comfortable that the arrangements that you're making are satisfactory for the
safety and security of residents, staff, and the neighborhood?
Yes, they will be.
All right.
That's all the questions I have of this particular witness, Mr.
Deanna, do you have any other witnesses?
Just Mr. Seabray, just to take us through the building.
That's fine.
Thank you.
Mr. Seabray?
Will you unmute yourself?
Thank you.
Mr. Seabright, will you quickly tell the panel what your position is with respect to this particular application?
Yeah, so I am the design professional, and we represent the Evolve Build.
We're the architects and developers, helping them put together the design and construction for the project.
Thank you.
Very quickly, by using your shared screen, could you just show the panel how it is that this building will be configured?
Yeah, so it's pretty simple. It will be a series. We don't have full design complete yet, but at this point it'll be, as you can see, the building is fairly massive. It's a little bit over, it's about 14,000 square feet.
It is divided up into essentially two homes. There is quite a bit of proper circulation in
the middle, both in the front and the back of the building, as well as this exterior
access to the street, and you have that on both sides of the building.
You have that same access over here that windows from any units in the basement will be able to
access the light and air as well as egress. This will be a refurbished stair tower that will be
rebuilt. Let me find the plans. So essentially there will be, each floor will contain four.
So the building is kind of in halves, almost like an old row home. So each unit will,
So each unit, each floor will contain four single room apartments with utilities, bathroom and kitchen areas in the central locations.
each floor will contain four single room apartments.
And it's pretty straightforward. And then there's circulation in the front of the building as well as the back.
It's actually easier to look at the pictures because it kind of shows it better.
this room this building here is which is part of the parcel will be developed into a rec center
as well as offices for the social service workers and potentially a community center for those in
the neighborhood wishing to meet the students or have kind of events and things like that
in the near future so yeah that's essentially what we're looking at again there's there's
four floors each floor will have four rooms on each floor with the amenities and then there's
two sides to the building, equaling 16 per building, 32 units per the whole building.
Thank you. That's all I have with this witness. And Mr. Chairman, I'd just like to
call Francis Dubrow, who's the property owner, to confirm the testimony of the other witnesses
here and accept that. Francis, will you unmute yourself, please?
please unmute could you state your name and spell it for the court stenographer please
francis you have to unmute
here we go
can i state your name and spell it please
Frances Dubrow, F-R-A-N-C-E-S
Go ahead, I'm sorry
D-E-B-R-E-A-U-X
Thank you
Frances, you're the owner of this firm
Wait a minute, do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman
Frances, you're the owner of this property?
Okay, and you're also affiliated with Undivided Courage?
Yes, I'm the honor of under Vida Courage.
Thank you.
And you've heard the testimony that's been presented by the other witnesses here this morning?
Yes, I did.
Including me?
And do you accept and confirm the testimony that's been previously provided?
Yes, I did.
Thank you.
That's all we have, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Yanov, do you have the RCO letter on your presentation?
I don't think it's up.
As I said, we got it last night, and I submitted it.
What's the name of the RCO? Could you just state for us the name of the RCO?
I can in a minute, sir. Let me see if I can find it.
Michael, I'll bring it up. One second.
Thank you.
Just give me a second. I'll pull my email. I just want to make sure it's proper.
It's the 51st Ward Democrat RCO.
And they're in support.
The letter says the RCO has adopted a position of support in the matter of the refusal for this effort.
That's right. Yeah. Thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman. Questions from the, or statements from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, I have a Ms. I have a Minister Enoch L with their hand raised. I will allow him to speak at this time.
good morning chairman and members of the board how are you doing this morning
can everyone hear me could yeah we can could you state your name and spell it for the court
stenographer sir yes i'm minister enoch e-n-o-c-h do you swear or affirm go ahead i'm sorry
i'm in right now a-m-e-n hyphen e-l right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth. I affirm. Thank you. Proceed.
As I said, morning. My understanding, I am
with Earth Keepers, we're one of the affected RCOs in this matter.
This matter, there was an RCO meeting held on January 24, 6 p.m.,
which City Council, through Andrew Goodman, was present on this call.
The attorney for the applicant made it very clear that they did not send the mail-in notifications to any other community.
That was brought up after the end of the meeting.
After we had this long exclusive meeting, it was brought up because Andrew Goodman for city council made a statement to the applicant.
And it came up that they never informed the community of an RCO meeting.
With that being said, we all agreed that we were going to come back and reschedule the RCO meeting.
As of today, there has been nothing emailed to any of the RCOs as well as Earth Keepers indicating another date.
The community have not been informed of this.
The community have not been informed of this applicant's proposed project.
Coming this morning, check my email.
I have a letter of support.
I just emailed the 51st Board of Republic, which is Greg Benjamin, who's the chair, informing him,
how are we having a ZBA hearing when we agreed to reschedule the RCO and the developer was supposed to reschedule the hearing for the day.
At this point, we definitely ask the board to deny this variance, or not deny it, that it need to be postponed, because none of the communities know anything about it whatsoever.
Chairman, may I address that?
Sure. Thank you.
First off, I just want to correct one thing for the record that the minister indicated.
I was not present at the RCO meeting, so I made no representations concerning the meeting.
It was retained after that occurred, and I just want to make sure the record is clear on that.
But secondly, we've submitted a petition which has a significant number of names, all of which are neighbors to the property and which are attached to our presentation, all of whom indicated that they're in support of this application.
I don't know what the board's position would be with respect to that.
I appreciate Mr. L's request that the matter not be denied if the board would be so inclined.
We would ask that the board vote in favor of this application, but if the board is inclined not to go forward based upon Minister L's comments, then we would ask that the matter be continued and we will come back and make this presentation again.
We just don't want this to be denied and have to make us go through the process of appeals and the rest of that.
So what we really prefer to do is have this voted on favorably based upon the testimony and the presentation of the petition that you now have before you.
And if the board is not so inclined to do so, then we ask that the matter be continued to another date to give us an opportunity to get a full RCO complement together.
Honorable Chairman, I'd like to respond to that.
I agree that this should be postponed.
However, the rules does not implement that a petition gets signed in order for a variance to be approved.
it must meet the burden of proof it has to follow pursuit according to the law and that is you have
to inform the community of a public rco meeting and that has not been done so just to go around
to to convert the law and go around to sign a petition where the petition doesn't even state
if you look at this petition it doesn't even state what's going to be done in that community
So I'm requesting this Honorable Court to postpone this hearing, to give the community an amp time to find out what is about to take place in this community.
What the developers are proposing to do is, I agree, it is a good concept.
However, because of what type of proposed project, the community has to support this.
Well, the community, not so much support, the community has to be aware of what is about to be erected in the middle of a residential community.
There's nothing like this, nowhere around this kind.
And it's only right that the chairman allow the community to have an opportunity and not have their constitution rights waived.
I'm asking that this be postponed.
Mr. Adam, thank you. Thank you, Minister. Are there any, is there anyone else in the virtual audience that wants to make comments?
um mr chairman this is tanya sunkett yep the administrator um as you wish i could um schedule
this as a resumption um allowing them to meet which is required and then be able to put on
record at a later time the feedback from the community but it's always your call sir i i
understand i just want to tanya at this point i want to see if there's anyone else in the virtual
audience okay all right thank you mr yanoff we will bring this back for a resumptive hearing
Is there a date, sir?
Tanya?
Give me one minute.
Thank you.
We can do March 2nd at 930.
Let me just make sure.
I'm just going to make sure that my calendar, sir, just make sure that I'm available, but I think I am.
yes i can do march 2nd at 9 30 at that time chair if you wish we can have a letter from the rco or
Yes, I can do March.
we have a letter from the rco already tanya the one i thought this was why i'm sorry we have a
letter from the RCO. I think what the minister said is the RCO met, but there wasn't a larger
community meeting, that there wasn't a mailing to the community. But we do have a letter of
support from the RCO, but we can still have a resumptive hearing. Okay.
Mr. Chairman, at that hearing, I assume the only thing that will be discussed is the RCO response.
Is that correct?
Well, I think it would be the RCO response, and I think where what the minister said, there wasn't a mailing to inform people relative to what was going on and a possibility of a meeting.
I do know that you, listen to me, I know that you have a petition, and I know where the RCO stands.
The minister disagrees where the RCO is, although I think, I'm not going to put words in his mouth, he said he thinks it's a good concept, what he would want is a mailing to let other people know about it.
Mr. Chairman, I will take care of that mailing.
Okay, Tanya?
Sounds good, Chair.
March 2nd at 9.30 a.m.
Thanks for the testimony from your witnesses, and thank you, Mr. Yanoff, and thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, members of the board.
Have a good day.
I'm sorry, Chair.
This is Tanya again.
Mr. Yanoff, may I request that you post the property again?
typically we don't in resumption but because of the confusion if you reach out to our office we
can give you new posters to post the property I will take care of that I think Mr. Yanov dropped
off but I'm the uh the architect we'll take care of that no problem at all thank you Mr. Seabright
thank you there was uh Miss Tanya Tanya yes there was a question in the audience that I was watching
come through I don't know that she wants to speak still or not she raised her hand with Katrina
i don't know if that matters now that we're continuing yeah she would have to put the
question inside the q a okay thank you so much i saw her as well very good thank you take care
case number three mi 2021 003787 1244 ellsworth street passion square civic association letter
of non-opposition, Councilman Squall, letter of non-opposition, Ulam Cam.
I promoted them to panelists, sir.
Sir, could you state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
Unmute yourself, please.
1244, can you land?
Live at 1244 Ellsworth Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147, Philadelphia.
Mr. Lam, spell your name for the court reporter.
Yes, K-A-M-Y-U-L-A-M.
Right. I don't know if I swear or not, but do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you answer a few questions from our board member, Mr. Holloman, please?
Sir, according to our records, you have submitted all the required documents. Is that correct?
Please proceed.
okay mr lamb are you going to make a presentation and put your presentation on the on the computer
oh i don't know how to do that i thought i sent everything on the online okay all right wait one
minute tanya um yeah we're gonna have to continue you sir hold on hold on can you see am i yes but
can you put your information that you submitted to the RCO box on the screen and scroll through
for us to see it? My information? Yeah, I think we will have to continue it because
Sir, yes, this is what we're going to do. We're going to continue. And Tanya, could he contact
the office and figure out how
what he should be doing?
what he should be doing.
Yes, he should send an email.
He should send the email
and if
And if not him sending an email,
my staff will be in touch with you
as long as we have the correct information.
You can move on, Chair.
Thank you very much.
So we have another day, another, other.
You're going to get it.
You contact the office and they'll give you another date
and tell you how to do it, sir.
All right, case number six.
MI 2021-003-820-2084 East Allegheny Avenue.
At this point, we don't see an RCO letter.
Jose Cadillo.
Sir, if you're in attendance, can you please raise your hand?
Bedita Cadillo has her hand raised.
Do I allow her to speak?
Please.
At once.
Hi, this is Bedita Cadillo,
Jose Stranoconnect.
We both here.
Wait one minute.
Could you state your name
and spell it for the court reporter?
Bedita Cadillo.
B-E-D-I-T-Z-A-C-A-D-I-L-L-O.
Right.
I'm sorry, Jose Cadillo, the tenant.
He's also my husband.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you prepared to make a presentation today?
Do you have it on the computer?
Yes, we do.
Mr. Holliday, could you ask a few questions, please?
Chair, can I just interject for one second?
Do we have exhibits for this case listed?
well I I think Thomas should ask the question about is everything mailed in
right excuse me miss according to our records we do not have an RCO letter can
you address that issue we do have an RCO letter miss Harrogate send that
yesterday morning i believe that they would have sent to you too if you i believe i have a copy
in the package
miss cadillo if you sent the necessary paperwork into the to the zoning board that was requested
Yes, I have.
Tanya, do we have it?
I was asking what the note said.
I didn't have my computer available yet.
I'm having technology issues.
So on the list that Ms. Saletta State, they sent the exhibits?
All righty.
Thank you.
And also, can we swear to husband in if he want to speak also?
Have your husband state his name, please.
Yes, my name is Jose Cadillo.
All right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
All right.
And can you just spell that for the court reporter, please?
J-O-S-E-C-A-D-I-L-L-O.
Ms. Cadillo, could you put your presentation up on the computer?
I have it up, sir.
And they're coming in now as a panelist, sir.
Ma'am, if you have it up, you might need to step back out of your presentation and the sharing of the screen and then open it and reshare.
We can't see it on our end.
it's not letting me promote them to panelists
same thing here let me see if i can do so
i would definitely recommend that she actually goes out of zoom and comes back in
see if we can then promote her
Ms. Cadillo, could you go out and come back in?
Wait a minute.
I think, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, to interrupt you, but I think that's here in the panelist
Excuse me.
Are you able to see my screen now?
Are you able to see my speech?
We do not.
Since you just got promoted, you'll have to unshare and then reshare it.
share screen okay i think now it's starting to work one second here we go
now did that work yep started to stick square to share
it's up thank you perfect perfect um if you can see this is 2084 east allegheny avenue
this existing restaurant for more than 30 years and before 1995 um we went to request a copy of
a zoning but when we requested we noticed there was nothing reported into the property
so we went to the community meeting they gave us the letter of support all our licenses are
compliance we have cameras we have lighting we have commercial pickup we keep the area clean we
work with the community we offer employment to the community so all we want to do is actually
legalized this because it doesn't show anywhere in the zoning archives that a zoning was ever
documented before 1995 or after even though we are able to get all our licenses and we thought
it was grandfather in because that was way before 2012 when zoning codes change there's nothing
documented in the miss cadillo do you have any photos of it yes i do um could you could you show
the photos yeah this is the application then you'll see the refusal right that's your extension
this is the letter of support that they gave us the rco power gate when we went and met with them
okay this is the flyer that we put out the lease
So you would like him to repeat so he could be there for you?
I have to reach out to our attorney just to chat.
Thank you.
My name is Cadillo.
She's going to find out.
Melissa, are you there?
I'm sorry, Rebecca.
I apologize.
Rebecca.
Hello.
Oh, I think if Mr. Cadillo adopts, essentially, Ms. Bajitza's testimony or repeats the primary points as she scrolls through.
Mr. Cadillo, did you hear your wife testify?
Did you agree to everything she said?
yes is that your testimony too mine yes thank you
i would ask that we just um not um voted today so we can confer because it's typical not to allow
that and i believe an attorney would be the one who could ask for the testimony to be adopted
but i would like to speak to mr mr letter because we've had issues in the past this is i'm checking
with Soletta again. I apologize for speaking out of turn. No worries. No, I just wanted to make sure
so it's on the record. And if anything, he's right here in the camera, so he could wish him, wish him.
Thank you. Rebecca, are you calling? Yes, I'm conferring with Miss Soletta now.
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you.
Rebecca Coole, Okay, this is Rebecca Coole again um my understanding is that if.
If Ms. Pedica can walk through Jose repeating the presentation, we do need him to actually
present.
And I understand you're both there, however, technically he needs to be the presenter.
Yes, he will read everything now.
Thank you.
I'm sorry to repeat ourselves.
So to get that confused.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, okay.
My name is Jose Cadillo.
What brings me here today is 2084 East Allegheny Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19134.
So what brings me here today is a big building that has been used for commercial restaurants, check-out, and under 49 people.
So I rented this property as a check-out restaurant, believing that zoning was not a problem because this use has been active since 1995.
But I was not found anywhere when I dropped off for zoning permit.
Copy was informing that I had to legalize zoning because it was never recorded.
We have attachment copy of flyers and mailing to community also.
We met with the community of Rico.
They give us the support.
So all my lenses are update.
I have cameras in a location.
We police departments always have access to them.
Lighting online if you drive a location.
Commercial pick up and clean up dumpster weekly when it gets empty.
Sidewalks get clean daily.
we employ people from our community so today we ask the cba also approve this only
thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
question is from the virtual audience
no hands at this time no hands sir planning commission
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the board, this is a special exception, and this proposed special exception will not cause
detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what normally might be expected for this use.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant this special exception.
MI 2021-003-820-2084, East Allegheny Avenue, I vote yes.
MI 2021-003-820-28...
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, Jim.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Sorry, Mr. Chairman.
No, that's okay.
Some kind of problem here.
I'm sorry.
My vote is yes.
Thank you.
thank you thank you have a good day okay m i number seven mi 2021 zero zero three eight two three
21 41 east ann street zen jin is the attorney somerset neighbors for better living letter of
support councilman squilla letter of non-opposition mr jen's been promoted to
The panelists, he should be rejoining shortly.
Good morning.
Mr. Jin, you've already been sworn to state your name.
Jin Jin for the applicant.
Mr. Holloman has a few questions.
Counselor, do you agree to the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
According to our records, you have submitted all of the required documents. Is that correct?
That is correct. Please proceed. Thank you. I'm going to share with the board the
documentation we previously submitted. It should be up before the board at this time.
This application, we have submitted the refusal, the support letter from the community organization,
petitioning support, as well as related plans and photographs. This application is for a
legalization of an existing two-family dwelling at this particular location. My client actually
purchased the location some time ago, and it came with the two units already presented and existing
in the property. Somerset neighbors met with us and it was voted in support primarily because
majority of the neighbors are aware that this is in fact the situation with this property for many
years. They were not aware whether it was legalized at any point. However, since my client
have acquired it, he has taken care of the property, kept it clean, and generally has
a great relationship with the neighborhood and the neighbors. And as such, he received strong
support from the neighbors for his legalization request. As this stands, the property is already
two units. It is, I'm sorry, the photographs tend to shrink when we move it. So as you can see from
the front, the property looks like any other property. I do want to point out also that the
the next door property is also a multifamily. And on the other side, it is a storage garage. And
again, another property that is not used as a single family as well on the other side.
So this property has existing two units, one accessed, they're both accessed through the
same door into a foyer. And then the foyer splits into two separate units, which is better seen from
the photograph of the front. I'm going to go ahead and scroll down to that first. So right here is how
the doors are separated in the foyer area. One door goes into the first floor unit. The second
door, which is also pre-existing, goes up to the second floor unit. The entire property is otherwise
separated into the two. He has left the second floor unit vacant for the period during which
He wasn't permitted to use it as a duplex. He has not, since acquiring the property, in any way violated any of the requirements of the city. But after waiting two more years, the property has not been able to be used another way. The first floor has been rented. And he's, again, looking to legalize the property for the two units that are in existence there.
With the neighborhood feedback, generally, the neighbors are aware that this property has been set up this way for some time.
And most of the neighbors on the block, in fact, are in support of legalizing it because leaving the top floor vacant doesn't really accomplish anything for the property.
having additional tenant in there doesn't negatively impact the current neighbors in
any way. As you can see, most of the Ann Street, Martha Street, and these are all closed neighbors
are in fact in support of legalizing this as well. Again, my client acquired this.
are in fact in support of legalizing this as well.
Again, my client acquired this in this condition.
While it was not previously known to be a legalized condition,
it is a hardship that he kind of acquired when he purchased the property.
So we would ask the board's favorable review of this application.
I'm going to show the floor plans, which reflects the existing condition at the property.
This is very straightforward.
There is a rear accessible entry to the basement.
The first floor unit is limited to the first floor and the second floor unit limited to the second floor.
Both are two bedroom units and there's no basement living.
I'll be happy to answer any questions from the board or show any additional exhibits as requested. Thank you.
Do you have your client with you?
Yes, Mural, can you raise your hand virtually and be identified?
He's been allowed to speak.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, Mural Kovaci, M-I-R-A-L-K-O-V-A-C-I.
Chairman?
If I may?
Yeah, go ahead.
Thank you.
Mr. Kowachi, did you see my presentation and hear my testimony before the board?
Can you verify that what I've stated is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission. Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning
Commission. Members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA5
single-family zoning at this location. However, the proposed use conforms to the existing interior
configuration, and so the City Planning Commission would recommend that the board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2021-003823-2141 East Ann Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Right. Number eight, MI 2021-003-827-3435 H Street.
RCO, impact, letter of support.
Councilwoman Quinones, letter of non-opposition.
Isaac Slepner, attorney.
Mr. Slepner?
Good morning.
Good morning.
State your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Good morning, Chair.
Members of the board.
Isaac Slepner.
I, India.
S, Sam.
Double A, Alpha C, Charlie.
Last name Slepner.
S, Sam.
L, Larry.
E, Elvis.
P, Peter.
N. Norman E. Elvis R. Robert, counsel for the property owner, J. H. Philly Homes, LLC.
And I have with me today our architect, David MacArthur, and Jocelyn Grione, who is the
principal of J. H. Philly Homes, LLC.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Good morning, counselor.
Good morning.
Do you agree to the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
According to our records, you have submitted all the required documents.
Is that correct?
Correct.
Please proceed.
Okay. Thank you.
Good morning, Chair and members of the Board.
I'm going to just kind of jump in here and show you what we've got in brief, and I'm going to go into more detail.
In brief, it's actually very similar to what Mr. Jin just presented in that we are seeking
legalization of the existing use of a two-family in an RSA 5 property. So I'm just going to
get right into it.
Exhibit 1 is our notice of refusal, which we have already stipulated to.
Exhibit 2 is our original application for appeal, which was filed
application for appeal um which was filed by me on behalf of the property owner
um exhibit three is our project information form as filled out and submitted the day we
filed the application for appeal exhibit four is an affidavit of service of notice to neighbors
that on November 8th, we sent out and mailed the following letter with, I'm sorry, on November 3rd,
we sent out and mailed the following letter to the list of addresses that were presented to us
by planning with regard to both the RCO meeting of impact services, as well as this hearing.
This is a copy of our letter. We notified the RCOs as well as Sloan folks of Councilwoman Kenyana Sanchez's office.
We also included a copy of our notice of refusal at that time.
This is a list of the addresses who were noticed, and you'll see there are about 50 per page.
So you're looking at about over 100, almost 150.
It's a pretty dense neighborhood over there, about 160, 170 in total.
Exhibit 5 is a copy of our letter to the neighbors and the RCOs, again, with regard to both the RCO meeting as well as this hearing today.
Um, exhibit six is the letter of support from impact services dated 12, 2021, um, in which
we received full support of the RCO for our variance request exhibit seven are our site
plans and floor plan.
And I am actually going to call on our architect, David MacArthur, who should be out there on this call, to walk the board through the plan.
David, are you there?
David?
I can walk the board through the plans.
Okay, you do that. You're right.
Yeah. Okay. Can everybody see this?
Okay. Yep.
okay uh yeah it's a pretty simple structure it's a um wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute
sir state your name and spell for the court reporter please sorry uh david mcarthur d-a-v-i-d
m-c-a-r-t-h-u-r right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i affirm proceed okay uh the property is an existing uh two-story corner structure
It has a first floor dwelling unit and an existing second floor dwelling unit.
First floor units, approximately 600 square feet, 592 exact.
Second floor is 870 square foot unit.
First floor units entered on the side street of the building and the entrance for the second floor units on the front.
It does have an unoccupied basement just for utility purposes.
And, yes, the basement has access from the first floor, also has access from Bilko doors on the sidewalk.
I can show, I'm going to continue and show some photos next, but it's, they're fairly, yeah.
I'll show some photos to the board next, Eric.
So you saw our plan, all right.
Sorry, technology issue, bear with me.
Oh, everything's gone. Hold on. That's not great. Oh, there they are. Okay, they're not gone. We're good. We're good. All right, 3435H. So 3435H, as we mentioned, is an existing two-story, two-family structure, one first-floor unit, one second-floor unit.
This is the H Street side, and that is the front door, which leads to the foyer going up the steps to the second floor.
This is the Shiller Street side, which has a separate entrance for the first floor unit.
And you can also see back there, that's the backyard of the property with an alley gate, with a gate that leads right out to this Shiller Street side.
This is another a little bit of a wider view of the Schiller Street side with the door leading
to the first floor unit. You can also see the Bilko doors that lead down directly down to the basement.
This is just a corner view. You can see both of the doors. That's the door that leads up to the
second floor unit. That's the door that leads into the first floor unit. This is another
that's the door that leads into the first floor unit this is another side view of the door to the
first floor unit and you can see the alley uh and backyard access over there
another side wide view this is part of the first floor apartment right now it's uh there's only
one occupant there's one occupant in the second floor unit um because my client uh is seeking to
get the use legalized in order to get to rental licenses. This is a view of the bedroom into
the kitchen of the first floor. This is a view of the front bedroom corner windows of the first
floor. This is a view on the second floor. This is a kitchen window. This is the bathroom on the
second floor, one of the bedrooms on the second floor, the second bedroom on the second floor,
that's the hallway leading from rear to front of the second floor apartment,
kitchen of the second floor, and living area of the second floor. And then this is a picture of
that gate that I previously shown you from the exterior view. This is on the inside of the
backyard. That gate leads out to Schiller Street. This is a picture of the basement. As you can see,
it's just storage and some mechanicals. Those steps lead up to the first floor. This is a
shot of the basement where you can see the Bilko doors out to the street are open. You can see the
light coming in, and it's just a bit of storage and some mechanicals. Exhibit nine are photos of
our orange poster which were posted 21 days ago that's on the side door to the first floor unit
this is on the side door to the first floor unit on the front door to the second floor unit
and again on the front door to the second floor unit exhibit 10 i just wanted would want to point
out to the board that the property directly across the street, 3434 H Street, also received
variances from this board in 2012 for two-family use in a similar RSA 5 property. So there are
other, there's a precedent and a history there in the neighborhood of two-family uses. This is,
as I said, a permit for the neighbor across the street, 3434 H, for uses of two-family
with the original notice of decision original notice of refusal from that permit application
exhibit 11 is the deed in favor of jh philly homes recorded in october of 2019
my client again jocelyn grione is here on the call and i'll call her in a moment to testify
she is the principal of jh philly homes this is the deed in favor of the owner
and with all attendant documents.
And Exhibit 12 is a tax clearance cert for J.H. Philly Homes,
which was issued on 124 and shows compliance
and is valid through 223 of 22.
I would just further submit that my client purchased this property
and when she did purchase it, it was being used as a two-family.
It was marketed to her as a two-family and to her knowledge
until she went and attempted to get rental licenses
and was held up,
was really not aware that it hadn't been zoned.
So we're just, again, seeking legalization
of the zoning of this property.
I would like to call Jocelyn Grillon,
who is the principal of JH Philly Homes
to adopt my testimony.
Jocelyn, are you there?
Please raise your hand if you're in the audience.
jocelyn are you out there um jones
no hand is raised okay um your officer of the court will take your testimony
thank you mr chairman um questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
Yes, Mr. Chairman. So when you say that when Jocelyn or J.H. Philly Homes purchased the property, you're saying within the closing documents, there was no information that was stipulated of the zoning of the property outside of the condition the property may have been in?
i i don't recall that there were um i've looked through them and it did not seem to address that
um she was aware that it was a two-family or she was aware that it was being used as a two-family
two-family or if she was aware that it was being used as a two-family I should say she didn't she
i should say she didn't
wasn't surprised to find the two units okay as part of your testimony was that you were
it was surprising to to the owner that the property was not zoned correctly although it
was used a different way no further questions okay questions from the virtual audience
no more handshare planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia
city planning commission members of the board uh the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the existing rsa 5 zoning at this location this proposed use however is appropriate given
the structure's existing configuration as one dwelling unit and one commercial unit which is
reflected in the historic zoning documents for this property the city planning commission
recommends that the board grant this variance in my 2021 003827 3435 8th street i vote yes
thomas holliman my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes
it's no shahi my vote is no thank you all right thank you members of the board i have nothing
further today. MI 2021-001-785-4601 Old York Road. Logan Civic Association, letter of support, Cynthia Bailey.
And she's coming in now as a panelist here.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Hello, my name is Chyna Bailey.
First name is C-H-Y-N-N-A.
Last name Bailey, B-A-I-L-E-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Holloman has a few questions for you.
Good morning, Miss.
According to our records, you have submitted all of the required documents.
Is that correct?
Please proceed.
I'm sorry.
Hold on.
All right.
Can you guys see my...
We can.
we can okay so i am the owner of the property at 4601 o'york rule this is the list of exhibits
my husband and i have to present to the board today um i would like to ask a question chairman
is it okay if he helps me present and is he allowed to speak i would want to swear him he
should state his name and spell for the court reporter i'm sorry if i okay good
I was just asking if he was the on the deed with China. No, it's just me. Okay, so you would have
to present only. Okay. All right. So the document on the left is our refusal from LNI. We are asking
for a use variance to allow us to use our property as a three dwelling multi-family.
Because we are in an RSA 3 based zoning district, it was refused. We also have our application for
appeal. Below is our project information form and we are not looking to do any construction
construction or building of any kind.
Here we have the deed that shows the property in my name.
This is our tax compliance showing we don't owe any back taxes.
These are the current floor plans we had drawn up of the property and again we are not looking
to make any changes so this is where we fall well this is where we feel the hardship comes into play
here's a closer look into the property is currently laid out to start with the second
floor there are three bedrooms two bathrooms in the kitchen in the living room area
in the living room area we also have two sets of steps one coming from the front door
and one leading from the back door on the first floor we have two bedrooms
one full bath a large kitchen and a large living room area
there are two exterior doors leading outside a front and a back door
Lastly, the basement, which is ground level, and we'll see pictures on the next slide,
has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a laundry room.
Most of the utilities are on this level as well as the laundry room.
This level can only be accessed from the separate entrance.
one on the side 1300 block of portland and the other through the backyard
we also have a nice size backyard and a separate garage
um a few things we want to stress here are we've made no changes we've done no building or
construction this is exactly what the layout was when we purchased this property in june of
2020. All three units already had separate utilities, which we will see pictures of later.
And because of the current layout, we cannot move freely between the three units.
All right, so these are exterior pictures of the property. The top left, the Old York Road
entrance to the top two floors. The bottom left, an extended view showing the surrounding
properties. The top right, that's the Cortland, the Cortland or side entrance to the lower
level. And the bottom right is the extended view of the side of the property showing the
The basement is ground level for the length of the house.
These are some interior pictures of the property.
The top left, the entrance to the top second floor.
Each unit is separated this way in the front entrance and the back entrance.
The top, middle, and right shows that both the gas meters and electric fuse boxes are
already separated into three units. We also have three separate electric meters and three
separate HVAC units, all of which were installed and operational before I purchased the property.
uh the bottom row from left to right the kitchens on the second floor
basement or ground floor and the first floor these were all here when i purchased the property
uh we think the we think the circumstances of this property particularly the utilities
being separated, and the physical layout of the property create a hardship.
We also think a use variance is the least possible modification to make this property
economically viable.
Here we have proof that we sent letters to 143 of our neighbors, and the letters were sent.
This is the letter of support from our coordinating RCO. The Logan Civic Association said that
they support the variance and oppose any development not consistent with the nearby properties.
We don't intend on doing any development, so we're good here.
next we have some historical zoning documents for this property the document on the left shows this
property was originally zoned for two residential units on the top and a business on the ground
level that was then changed to one residential unit on the top and a grocery store on the bottom
shown on the right. A few years later, it was changed back to a multifamily dwelling
with a store on the bottom. With this application referencing the above application stating
the property was already legal for two families. Lastly, we have the application that changed
the use to a single family for the first time. These documents show that for the
To a single family for the first time, these documents show that for the majority of the life of the property, it was used as multifamily and mixed use.
It was only recently that it was changed to a single family.
We believe there is a precedent here.
and um we are in the rsa3 base zoning district which is why we are here asking for the use
variance living across the street from an arm one district there are many multiple family
properties on that side of the block but we actually have at least five properties on our
side of the block with variants that allow more than one family dwelling. The next few slides
are pictures of the properties and the documents showing the uses. So this is 4601 O-year-old,
46 07 sorry uh 46 13 oh your crew 46 15 oh your crew and 46 17 oh your crew 46 19
oh your crew uh well that's all that we have mr chairman um we are good thank you thank you
questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chair. Questions from the virtual audience?
No hands, sir. Planning Commission? Thank you, Chair Bergman. I want to just take a moment to
compliment the applicant as a per se applicant for a very thorough presentation. Members of the
The board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 zoning at this location.
However, as the APCAN has demonstrated, the structure has a use history as two dwelling units and a commercial unit.
And we believe the proposed use is similar and is related to the interior configuration of the structure.
So the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance.
Before I vote, I would say you did not need any help with your presentations.
I agree, Chair.
second and third that mi 2021-001-785-4601 old york road i vote yes
i agree that the presentation was excellent thomas holliman my vote is yes
james snell my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you very much and good luck with your problem
thank you look number 10 mi 2021 003822 459 north 53rd street mr council rco letter in support west
philly together
the council has been promoted to panelists
Mr. Consul, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Good morning, Joseph Consul. That's C-O-N-S-O-L-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Mr. Howellman has a few questions.
Good morning, Counselor. Do you agree to the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
i do according to our records you have submitted all of the required documents is that correct
yes mr hallman please proceed my screen all right so i'm i'm hoping to do as good of a job as
miss bally just did but uh there's no no promises uh did my packet come up yes all right uh good
morning again joseph consul here for 459 north 53rd street with me is miss genesee baker the
sole owner of jg investment group llc which is the uh owner of 459 north 53rd street
my packet contains the refusal a letter of support from the rco photos of the property
a copy of the blueprints the deed and other required documents for our submission
we are here because the property at 459 north 53rd is zoned rsa 5 and we're seeking to legalize a
long-standing use for three dwelling units ms baker purchased the property in 2014 and i'll
Get you up a nice picture of it. There we go. It is a 1,486 square foot property on the corner of 53rd and Westminster. That's the side view. That's the view from the corner.
get you up a nice picture of it. There we go. It is a
the zoning archive shows that the property had permits going back 60 plus years
for use on the first floor as at different times a church a luncheonette and a retail store
always with the three bedroom one family on the second floor at some point in the past there was
a multi-family rental license issued on the property to the owner before miss baker but
But since her time in ownership, she has not had a multifamily license.
I'm going to bring up the floor plans showing everyone.
Just scroll through a few photos here.
Photos showing our posters.
The property also has a garage that sits on the end of the property, as you can see there.
Let me find my blueprint.
We submitted a blueprint which shows how the property is currently laid out and going back to this picture.
If you look at these pictures here, this door on the side here leads to the rear first floor unit.
This door in the back here on the blue leads to the upstairs unit.
you enter through there and this is an old photo so this has since been improved which was one of
the questions of the RCO that gate's been improved and so that back door gets you into the stairs to
the second floor unit and then this door on the front leads to the front first floor unit as
my client calls it the two units on the first floor are one bedroom each the rear unit on the
The first floor has been occupied since my client purchased the property by the same tenant.
The other units are empty pending the results of of this hearing.
Just some supplemental evidence.
This is all stuff that existed at the time my client purchased it.
You know, not that it's dispositive of anything, but, you know, she did her inspections and believed that she was purchasing a legitimate three unit property.
there's your four meters showing first front first rear second floor and common house meter
some gas meters it's a little blurry but we got three of them here's three old
old heating units that have been there since you purchased it obviously it's much
much further out than that. And here's three water heating units.
So each unit has access to this gated area here in the backyard, which is where folks
can store trash. And each unit has access to the basement, both through an entrance
on the side of the property here.
Not that people use Bilco doors, but there's stairs to the basement through this gated area here, too.
We met with the RCO in January, and we have their letter of support, which is on the screen now.
uh they just had some concerns about uh cleaning the place up my my client addressed all them and
started some security lighting she addressed all them so we you know that was at that meeting and
then we submitted everything that they were looking for to kind of follow up and show that we had
you know fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors and once we did that i think we soothed
their um their worries and we got their letter of support uh and uh with that i'll call my client
Ms. Baker to adopt my testimony.
My name is Genesee Baker.
It might be Jen Baker.
Ms. Baker has been allowed to speak, sir.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Can you hear me?
My name is Janese Baker, J-E-N-N-E-S-E, and Baker, B-A-K-E-R.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Good morning, Ms. Baker.
Did you hear my testimony regarding your property?
Do you agree with what I said, and do you adopt it as your own?
Is there anything you'd like to add?
okay thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
no no mr jim questions from the virtual audience
um mr chair i've got a few people with a that are stating they have their names as
randall jefferson i'm going to allow the first one to speak of that yes
Mr. Jefferson, if you have two devices on, one should be muted so we don't get feedback.
But please open your mic and wait to be sworn in.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
please randall g jefferson r-a-n-d-a-l-l middle initial g jefferson j-e-f-f-e-r-s-o-n
right remember remember the board of wp west philadelphia together civic association
thank you do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do please proceed sir um several questions on the letter of um starting with the letter of um
support as uh counsel stated we had uh several questions that i was one of the ones with
opposition and asked for the information to come back that we needed. It wasn't until I believe
it's February 7th that the council sent this floor plan. Now, I'm not sure how a floor plan
and a letter can, the letter can be dated before the floor plan, before all the issues were
uh resolved as a person that travels past this uh property day in and day out uh as even as of
yesterday as council said i have not seen any lighting the gate that he showed there is still
a safety issue which we wanted to address with uh yesterday probably about 8 40 yesterday morning
as I went by. There's still the toilet blocking. The gate is hanging off. So the safety issues
were part of our problem. And the other problem was that council never submitted to the RCO. Again,
it could be our fault as well, who he sent and a copy of the notice that he sent to the residents
of the community at that meeting that evening.
We did get similar pictures to what they submitted
showing the units, but one of my questions was,
was how for eight years did you not know
that this was not, you did not have,
you weren't in compliance?
And from what we were told, that this only came to being
because of a L&I trash issue.
So, you know, I think the residents need to understand,
is this going to be a three-unit plan
or is it going to be the bait and switch,
which we got here today, dated 2-3-22?
Again, letter dated January 31st, 22.
Is this going to be a two-family dwelling
or a three-family dwelling?
And if so, if it's going to be a three-family dwelling, then we need plans and we need to have this continued.
Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Consul, do you want to respond?
We fixed the gate.
Ms. Baker, can you address that?
Here's a photo that I was sent by my client.
Are you still on, Ms. Baker?
perhaps not yes i'm still here oh miss baker could you speak to the the efforts that uh you and your
your uh your people made to to fix the the gate issue that the community was concerned about
uh yes the uh the gate was was fixed yesterday um uh late morning um and the alleyway cleared out
of the trash um this is the second floor and as i said was empty so you know it was being cleaned
out um so that's why there was you know some trash you know in the alleyway prior to when the
gentleman walked past but everything was cleared out um yesterday by um you know by my handyman
And he fixed the gate again.
and uh he fixed the gate again okay thank you um regarding the letters
Thank you.
Regarding the letter of support in the three units,
the application was always for three units.
The letter of support is for the three units.
And that's how the property has been laid out.
Any other question?
Is there another testimony from the virtual audience?
There's another individual name of the...
randall jefferson but i think they're using an older version of zoom
they would have to be promoted to panelists to speak or something
we just spoke to him we spoke to randall jefferson i believe it's two individuals
right with the same name listed so you can promote them to panelists but i would ask
that they keep their screen off and use the audio only understood
could you state your name again this is randall jefferson right
again my question to the lawyer i'm sorry i'm sorry sir we already took your testimony
Does someone else have a device under your name?
I do. It's Bridget Powell.
Okay, Chair, you can continue. She needs to be sworn in.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Bridget, B-R-I-D-G-E-T. Last name is Powell, P-O-W-E-L-L.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, please.
I have some of the similar concerns as Mr. Jefferson. And my question was, we've never
received proof of mailing. So the turnout was very low for this meeting. So I'm asking that
this goes back and that we have another meeting about this. And the snow with the last, she
promised that she would have her handyman clear it. It was not clear. And it was evident by the
pictures that were shown. So I'm basically just asking that this goes back. The letter was
talking about two units. And I just really had a problem with that she said this property since
2014. And I've seen some of her permits were only asked for one rental. So had she put in for three
that this would have been flagged a long time ago. Just in response to the mailing, we sent out 157
pieces of mailing. We did not receive a lot of them back as undeliverable. I mean, we filed the
same compliance that we do every single time. And I don't see, and to me, the turnout was not
small. It didn't seem like it. And the letter addresses three units. I don't see what
going back to the community to talk about would accomplish.
Is there any other comments from the virtual audience?
I see no further hands Mr. Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty
for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Members of the board, the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 single family zoning at this location. However,
this proposed use conforms to the existing interior configuration as has been demonstrated here.
and so our recommendation is that the board grant the variance. Thank you. MI 2021-003-822-459
North 53rd Street, I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you, Mr. Counsel.
MI-2021-003786-6134 West Oxford Street.
No RCO letter received yet.
Phyllis Wise is the presenter.
Ms. Wise?
Ms. Wise, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Ms. Wise, could you unmute?
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
okay can you hear me now we can okay phyllis wise p-h-y-l-l-i-s wise w-i-s-e
WISE. W-I-S-E. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
the truth? Yes. Mr. Howellman has a few questions. Good morning, Ms. WISE. According to our records,
there's no RCO letter. Can you speak to that issue? Yes, it was one sent to me, and I thought
they sent a copy to you as well. I was looking at my files. I cannot find it. But nevertheless,
it stated that it was denied. Majority of the people in attendance denied it.
And he informed me that he would be here at this meeting, Mr. Allen, the president
of the Oak Brook Community Center. Okay, please proceed.
Okay. Presently, I'm a zone for a two unit, but it's presently a three unit. When I went down to renew my license, I had informed them. I said, you have it as a two unit and it's three unit.
he said, well, Ms. Wise, we have it. You have to go before the board. I did not, I was not aware.
We did add another unit on the first floor. I was not aware that it was not zoned for it.
Ms. Wise, are you, do you, can you put this up on a computer for us?
What would you, I see, in other words, I was not prepared to, I'm not that techie,
And I see how everyone did all that they did.
So I'm going to see what I.
Do you have all your documents right there on the computer?
Yes, I do.
I even have a computer.
And do you have a regular computer, not an Apple?
Yeah, I have a regular computer.
OK, so if you're actually inside the Zoom application, you will see a green button down at the bottom saying share.
Yes. OK, if you hit that and then hit your actual documents that you wish us to view, it should come up on the screen for us all.
Oh, OK. My daughter told me something like that.
OK, Miss Wise, you did it. Now let's go to your document and click on that.
Okay. Can you see that? Let me see. Let me see what else. My daughter, she did something for me. Let me see.
No, you have to actually have the documents open already. Which of these do you want to share?
wait one second which one i want to share um she's the only letter well here's the letter i
sent out to the neighbors 99 of the those in the community can you see that no ma'am do you have
one or two monitors okay i i i am not prepared i see no it's okay no you can do this how many
monitors do you have? Do you have one? Yes, just one. So, as Ms. Sun can explain, if you
stop sharing and open up your document first and then restart sharing, we should be able to see it.
Okay. Stop sharing.
So, hit the green button that says share. Take this off the screen.
Okay, stop sharing.
Here we go.
Open your document that you want us to see.
First, open that before you hit the share button.
Do you see the document on your screen?
Okay, I think this is what my daughter, yes.
Yes. Okay. Now share.
Correct.
I'm okay.
You have a website open.
we can see your screen but it's on the website is that where the document is yes this is the rco
letter yeah yeah let me know um or chair is your call i can do a short continuance so that
we can allow her time to get assistance with
um we could allow her time to get assistance with preparing uh the presentation on the screen
it's your call share i would appreciate it whatever is necessary because i thought if i
said that was it so ton i i think this is the last case for the morning
but we make this is it out of one at two o'clock no okay all right we can only do them as they
our schedule because that's why don't we do this five minute break right
take take a five minute break and then we'll figure out where we stand okay
um i i really don't think that's going to help chair okay i think she may need someone to give
her training as to how good and then do you want to let's continue is that correct ma'am yes i can
have my daughter here next time or whatever how about we do it in three weeks ma'am would that
work for you oh praise god i'll be prepared i saw that everyone else was prepared and thank you
we can have my staff can reach out to you and prepare new posters for you to post your property
and then we'll have this heard in three weeks okay i appreciate it to the utmost okay thank you
Ms. Weiss. Thank you. We'll see you again, okay? Yes. Thank you, Chair. Is there anyone in the
virtual audience whose case they're still waiting on? I'm sorry, I have Mr. Gregory Allen with his
hand raised. Do I allow him to speak? Sure. Understood. Mr. Allen, please unmute yourselves.
hello chair and board um we were here could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
yes sir my apologies gregory allen g-r-e-g-o-r-y a-l-l-e-n
overbrook west neighbors which is the rco for this case okay so you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do all right and so that case is going
to be moved right it's going to be moved to a different date okay i just want to be clear
for me i just just chair i just want to mr allen please do not speak to this case it was canceled
no testimony can be taken okay all right mr allen
all right anybody else in the virtual audience still waiting for a case
no hands at this time sir okay we will break till two o'clock thanks everyone
thanks pauline for your trying to help everybody today we appreciate it you're welcome enjoy your
lunch you as well
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the ZBA hearings this afternoon.
With me is Ismail Shaheed, our board secretary.
Here, Mr. Chair.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also here is Tanya Sunkett, our board administrator, and Rebecca Cole, our attorney.
Before we begin, I will talk about our virtual format.
Be advised these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating in my phone, if you wish to testify, 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 finally, the question and answer box on the screen is not for testifying or comments.
Any comment should be directed to Tanya Sunkett, our board administrator.
So I want to start with continuances for this afternoon's two o'clock meetings.
number four mi 2021 mi 2021 002899 3237 north 17th street mi number five mi 2021
MI number five, MI 2021 003524, 321 to 47 North 16th Street. Number six, MI 2021 002824,
400 block of West Cambria Street. Number seven, MI 2021-004548-4306-08 Parkside Avenue.
Number eight, MI 2021-003421-46 East Johnson Street, Parcel G. Number nine,
MI 2021-004544-4900 Reno Street.
Number 15, MI 2021-003132-8622 Germantown Avenue and MI 2021-003131-8624-26 Germantown Avenue.
Does anybody have any questions or comments
relative to these continuances?
Mr. Chair, I see Mr. Stephen Pollack
with his hand raised.
I will allow him to speak at this time.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board,
Stephen Pollack, P-O-L-L-O-C-K.
With regard to the first property that you call,
I'll appeal you. Wait, wait, wait, wait, sir. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. OK, go on. It's regard to 002899, the 3237 North 17th Street.
Yes. Property, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I asked that this matter be moved.
So I went to the list where I make the request that it be brought back.
We had our first community meeting on January 31st, and the community, maybe Tina Marie Russell may be on also on this call, but we agreed with the community to continue our discussions, so we need additional time, and I don't want to burden the board with continually bringing us back.
And I know that there's another matter that'll be right after us.
Maybe if Mr. Henry Clinton is on, that's the one at 7532, because they're right around the corner.
So there are two properties that are going on in the same neighborhood right around the corner.
And the community really wants to sort of have a full approach to both rather than piecemeal approach.
So that's why we're asking for this.
That's fine. Thank you. We've already we're agreeing to continue that for you, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That completes my business, may I be excused.
Sure, thank you.
Mr. Chairman, this is Tanya, the administrator?
So based on Mr. Pollack's testimony, could we state continue attorney moving party?
We can, attorney moving parties.
Any other comments about our continuances?
This is Rebecca Cole.
Did we omit number 13 from the list of continuances, Chair?
Well, I was going to call that first.
Okay, thanks.
In other words, we usually call them, and if they're not there, then we do it.
Any other comments?
Mr. Chair, we have Steve Nassim with his hand raised.
I will allow him to speak at this time.
Good afternoon. Hi, Mr. Masters. How are you? Hi, very well. How are you? Could you state your name
and spell it for the court reporter? My name is Steve Masters, S-T-E-V-E, M-A-S-T-E-R-S,
with the law firm of JustLaws, representing East Parkside Residents Association and Centennial
Parkside CDC. All right. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the
truth. I do. Okay. What case, sir? This is the 4306-08 Parkside MI2021-004548.
Yep. My clients were insistent that I put on the record. This case, we had raised
the claim that this application violates the one-year rule. And the attorney for the city
was not able to come today, so there was going to be a continuance for that reason. Last week,
Last week, there was an RCO meeting where 100 people came out
there was an RCO meeting where 100 people came out and all voted 100.
and all voted 100 people against this project.
And now the developer is pulling it back and wants to go back to LNI to amend it again.
The community is incredibly irate about this.
They're fatigued.
This is now going to be the third time that this project is going to come before them.
The zoning board voted no.
Wait a minute, sir.
Steve, is this Mr. Beauvais' case, right?
All right.
So we've continued it.
I understand.
They just wanted me to put in the record their displeasure with...
Thank you.
We would prefer that you had dismissed it, and we wanted to put it in the record.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
But please understand that the attorney of record is not available, so there should be
no testimony taken.
So we're fine.
Steve, I hear you.
Thank you very much.
Any other cases?
Any other continuances?
Mr. Chair, we have Yue Wu with their hand raised.
I will allow them to speak at this time.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Yue Wu, Y-U-E-W-U.
And I think you're already sworn, right?
Sorry?
Did I swear you in this morning?
Right, okay. Proceed.
um i'm representing philadelphia chinatown development corporation we have a case this
afternoon 636 north 11th street we would like to request a continuance um and i sent an email
yesterday and uh um we hope to continue to may 11th where when we have two other addresses
Is this 626?
636, North 11.
Number 13.
Well, that's...
So that's the Housing Authority's case.
Right.
Is there anyone from the Housing Authority here?
So Housing Authority already approved the transfer to...
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Thank you.
can you allow us to present the housing authority first sure that's what i asked for is there anyone
from the housing authority here i'm not aware well any hands up for the housing authority
i'm not i'm not seeing any okay yes sir i'm sorry tanya we have no exhibits for this right
no no exhibits no hands so that would be your call for a container we're going to we're going
to continue that case
miss wu that case is continued okay thank you any other cases
mr chair i have diane monroe with her hand raised i will
I got it. Good afternoon. Could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter? Yes. Diane Monroe. D-I-A-N-E-M-O-N-R-O-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
What case?
The case you just did, the 636 North 11th Street.
We are the coordinating RCO, and no one has gotten in touch with us.
So just so you know, we're going to continue that.
Let's continue.
so we'll see how whether or not the housing authority gets a hold of you but at this point
that's continued okay okay and thank you will they let me know the date you will you will know the
date okay thank you very much sure sure any other cases i see no other hands mr chair thank you
We're going to go to act. We have two add-on cases. MI 2020-000-357-804-810-Tioga Street.
Request for consideration. I vote no. Thomas Holloman. My vote is no for reconsideration.
0-0-3-2-0-8-6951 Gillespie Street yes to reconsideration and rehearing
Thomas Holloman my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing
James Snell my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing
Ishmael Shahid my vote is yes for reconsideration and revoke
case number one mi 2021-004-543-12301 to 75 academy road jared klein is the attorney
rco letter but not yet received from parkwood area civic association and i believe we've
received an email this morning from the council person mr klein has been provided to a panelist
good afternoon mr chair members of the board uh jared klein yes good good afternoon mr chair
jared klein k-l-e-i-n from blank rome 130 north 18th street in philadelphia 19103
thank you do you swear or firmly to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes I do Mr Holloman has a few questions for you good afternoon counselor do you agree to the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy yes I do according to our records
RCO letter is still not presented can you address this issue yes we have received the RCO letter
and it's in the packet that I'll be sharing with the board shortly thank you please proceed
Thank you. I will share my screen. Can everybody see that?
We see. Yep. Fantastic. OK, so I'm here for one two three oh one to seventy five Academy Road, which is a shopping center.
And we're seeking zoning for one of the units within that shopping center.
The variance that we're here for is a pretty standard one in this area of the city.
As the board, I'm sure, is well aware, there's an overlay in the Northeast that prohibits certain medical and dental uses.
And this use does not fall into the intent of that prohibition and should be a reasonable use for the space.
What we're proposing is a physical therapy and rehab facility where they would have physical therapy that is by prescription only.
So this facility would not prescribe any medications and there'd be no medicines distributed from this.
It is for them to provide physical therapy and rehab services to clients that are referred by doctors.
Just to orient the board, this is the shopping center here.
Aerial view, again, this is the shopping center that we're speaking about.
So, and to give the board a sense, this is a street view of what the shopping center would look like specifically.
We are going into one of the specific spaces within this.
You can see here on the key plan, this is the space that Petrosky Physiotherapy would be occupying.
This is what the exterior signage of the space looks like.
And I can give the board a sense of the interior of the space.
also you can see it's a sort of traditional physical therapy with weights and massage tables
and these are other views of the shopping center just to orient the board to the context of the
site we had a very productive meeting with the civic association their letter of unanimous support
is on the screen before you as you can see they note that the members of the RCO are
overwhelmingly supportive of our physical therapy location. And we also received a letter of non
opposition from Councilman Brian O'Neill, which I've also put up on the screen. At this point,
I would like to ask the owner of Petrosky Physiotherapy to raise his hand. That's Eric
Petrosky. He can raise his virtual hand. I would appreciate it.
I'm going to have to speak.
I'm here.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Eric Petroski, E-R-I-C, Petroski, P-E-T-R-O-S-K-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Eric, did you have a chance to listen to my presentation this afternoon?
Thank you.
Eric, did you have a chance to listen to my presentation this afternoon?
I did.
And do you adopt what I've said as your true and correct in your own testimony if you've
been given the chance to testify yourself?
I do. Thank you. Mr. Chair, that concludes our presentation. We do have Eric here to
answer any specific questions about the operations of the board.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
questions from the virtual audience
no further hands at this time mr chair planning commission good afternoon chair
bergman david facto 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 thank you mr chairman members
of the board the comprehensive plan recommends this property for commercial shopping center
zoning the proposed activity would be allowed by right if not for the northeast zoning overlay
so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant these variants thank you mi 2021
004543 12301 to 75 academy road i vote yes thomas holliman my vote is yes james snell
my vote is yes. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you all very much. Enjoy your afternoon.
Okay. MI 2020-003-442-1677 Folkrod Street. Raymond Derizio, the attorney. No letter as of yet
from rco
mr derizio has been promoted to panelists
good afternoon mr chairman and members of the board i'm here for uh 1677 falkrod street
Last name is spelled D-O-R-I-Z-I-O.
Address is to Penn Center, Suite 520, Philadelphia, PA, 19102.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Holloman has a few questions.
Good afternoon, Counselor.
Do you agree to the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
according to our records there is no rco letter can you address this issue yes so there was a
i've reached out to the rco seven uh several times i've attached our correspondences in my packet
um there was a hearing scheduled i believe for august 12th
we sent in our packet there were one or two documents that were not in there and i sent
before the hearing a few hours before which was the I think a zoning map and a tax cert
for some reason the hearing did not go forward it was cancelled or I don't know but the zoom
meeting did not go forward following that we continued this case I reached out to the RCO
several times and I have not heard back for any scheduling you know I am asking if we can at least
proceed today and maybe keep the matter open so that we can meet with them um post-hearing um
if that's possible my client has been um reaching out and trying to get a meeting to
um meet with the community i also i also attach the the notices of that hearing when that was
counselor we're going to go on with the case and then we'll we'll hold at the end and make a
decision at a later date. Fair enough. Tanya, we're going to have the hearing and then close
the record. Am I right? If you wish to do a resumption, you can do that or you can just
vote at a later date is your call. Right. We're going to vote at a later date. Thank you. And
And I'm just going to pull up my screen if that's okay.
So sorry about that, working from an iPad.
So this is the packet basically my client's looking to do, they were refused, they're
looking to do vehicle repair and maintenance.
It's a CMX2 zoning district.
They're not looking to do any paint or have any signs.
This is an open lot.
It does fit about seven vehicles inside. So they're not looking to leave any vehicles on the street. There was a permit that was, I believe, issued several years ago, 1987. And I guess it was never followed through. I believe that was before my client owned the property.
before my client owned the property. I'm just going to go through here. We have
the deed that's attached. We have some plans. We're not looking to do anything of
structural changes to the property or physical changes necessarily. I mean, this is a lot.
We have CMX2. There's some RM1 around, some RSA5. The particular street is between Duffield and Dara streets. Here are some photos. This is the property. It's just basically a lot. Been a car a lot for several years.
If you look up the street, there's not many residences. If you're looking this way, I believe this is towards Dara Street. On the left, there is a fire station at the corner. There's a couple residences. There are some lots and vacant buildings. Right across the street, it looks like there is a church that has its own parking lot.
This is the other direction looking towards Duffield Street. And there's some vacant buildings and some other lots there. This is the church that's across the street. I'm not sure if that's occupied or not. My client tells me there's another mechanic that operates up the street. This is the lot. It does fit several cars. I'm sorry that my photos are a little to the side here.
um but essentially that is the substance on it there were some emails as i mentioned
and they're attached contacts with the rco we do have the tax clearance
um but essentially like i said there it's not many residents residents on this block
um it's been a car lot for several years um and they're not looking to do any changes
I do have my client, Ms. Elizabeth Silva.
She should be on by phone, and I would wish to call her just to ask if she would adopt my testimony.
Please raise a virtual hand.
Ms. Silva, do you hear us?
I don't believe I see her in the...
Counsel, you're an officer of the court. We'll take your testimony.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual audience?
mr sloan folks has his hand raised i will allow him to speak at this time
good afternoon chairman bergman and the zba board good afternoons mr folks my name is sloan folks
s-l-o-a-n-e f-s and fire o-l-k-s office of councilwoman maria quinones sanchez room 508
City Hall, 7th District.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do so.
Thank you, sir.
We are, our office is comfortable
with a resumptive hearing
in as much as the
applicant has not met
with the RCO. We weren't
privy to the emails back
and forth. So to that end, we
would like to offer our assistance in facilitating
a meeting between the RCO
and the community.
uh of the rco and the the applicants uh and for the record um we would like the record to remain
open uh so that um our office can weigh in as well as the rco and uh any letters from any other
community uh nearby nearby neighbors and we do know that the uh captain of the fire district
across the street had sent us a letter um and he um and he had some concerns uh so we would like
for the opportunity for everyone to be heard um at the community meeting and uh move forward from
there. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Folks. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Do you know him, sir? Tanya, so we're going to leave it open and reschedule it for a resumptive
hearing. Tanya? I'm sorry, Chair. I'm looking for a date.
So, any idea what a date?
Yes, I'm looking for one now.
Take your time, take your time.
We can do April 6th at 2 p.m.
Thank you, Mr. D'Arizio, and thank you, Mr. Folks, for volunteering to help.
Thank you very much.
Have a good day.
and thank you mr chairman may i be excused thank you mr chairman and members of board have a good
afternoon number three mi 2021 003128 1827 cuyoga street counselor is pritzker rco letter in
opposition from the 13th democratic group miss pritzker has been promoted to panels
good afternoon i state your name and spell for the court reporter please
for rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r uh 16 sorry 1521 locust street suite 605
philadelphia pa 19102 right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth yes mr holliman has a few questions good afternoon counselor do you agree to the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy yes according to our records you have
submitted all of the required documents is that correct yes sir thank you please proceed thank
Thank you. Okay, I'm going to share my screen. Chairman, members of the board, the property at issue here is 1827 Cayuga. As you can see, it's this corner lot. This is a long standing, non-conforming use.
The property is currently zoned RSA-5. However, it has never been a single family.
The history of this property dates back to 1938, where in 1938 to 1967, this property was a grocery store with a residential unit above.
In 1968, this board granted a variance to modify the grocery store to a luncheonette, and it stayed that way up until 2016 and has been vacant ever since.
Again, it's a corner lot. It is zoned RSA 5, but it has never been a single family home.
As you can see from the packet, I'm going to just speed this up.
Here is our copy of a refusal. The refusals are for use as assembly and entertainment, which is not permitted in RSA 5.
and also for storage use to complement the assembly and entertainment use,
which is also not allowed in RSA 5.
Again, I went through the history of the property.
It's a corner lot.
It has never been a single family home,
and it always has serviced the community as a commercial space.
It was a grocery store, then a luncheonette,
and now we're looking to have it be an event space with no live music, I should add.
Again, the zoning map.
It's also important to note that directly across from the site are all CMX2 zoning classifications, except for this park here.
So it's not out of character to have commercial on this corner.
I would assume back in the day there were other commercial uses.
In fact, 1815 Cayuga, just a few doors down, received a variance from this board for it to have a barber on the first floor with a residential unit above.
The reason that there is no there has been no development on the CMX2 properties is because they're owned by the city.
And so they are just now long standing vacant lots right directly across from our parcel, which is right here on the corner.
Again, an aerial photo, aerial photo posted of the property, postings of the property.
I will mention the obvious that there's an awning that says event hall. Before my client got to me, she was obviously unaware that she needed to go through zoning in order to obtain the correct usage.
She is a young African-American entrepreneur that grew up in this neighborhood.
But as soon as she realized that she needed to obtain zoning relief and that it was, although it has always been commercial, she needed an exact use permit for that commercial use.
we started to work through the process.
So just wanna mention that as I know,
you can obviously clearly see the awning on the property.
on the property again we posted both the side of the property and the front of the property
Again, we posted both the side of the property
and the front of the property.
and then this is just the interior of the property as you can see there's nothing
currently in it this is the ground floor this is the top level
nicely renovated, but not being utilized. And again, a reason for these refusals is for the
RSA-5. This is the zoning permit from, I think, the 80s showing that it had a storefront in one
family home. Again, just to show that this is in context. And again, before that, the luncheonette
permit, a luncheonette for the ground floor with one family above. We met with the coordinating
RCO, which was the 13th Democratic Ward. My client actually met with them a time before I was
involved, and we had another community meeting back in October when I became involved in this
matter. I want to make a couple of comments about the community meeting. For starters, there was 31
people propose to be in attendance at this meeting, yet there are not 31 votes represented
here, nine of which are just the RCO's board. They're not affected neighbors or affected
addresses. There is support from the four people that live directly in the affected
area and then 18 of non-opposition from those who participated in the meeting but didn't
live within that 250 feet. The only opposition really was coming from the RCO board slash
committee as referenced in their own letter. Some of the things that they mentioned were
concerns with parking. However, I've driven this area. And also, if you can, you can obviously see
from Google, and given the amount of vacancy on most of the directly adjacent block and further
down. It really is not an issue with parking. There's plenty of parking. These are not going
to be, it's not a residential use. This is a commercial use that will have limited hours.
And so I can't imagine that they would take up all of this parking, especially given the fact
that there's parking on this side of the street near the property, and none of this is developed
on this side of the street. In my opinion, the rest of the concerns related to speculative
issues like noise even though this application proposes no live music it's just to be an event
space for baby showers or birthdays or um engagements things of that nature with no live
music um the letter mentions that this would create an attraction for rodents we're not doing
any construction to the site so i don't know how this would attract rodents or pests um in addition
in crowd control was something that we were willing to discuss, but we weren't going to
bring in a security team aside from putting cameras and lighting and limited hours until
we were further along in the process. And there were questions at the meeting asking if we were
going to have armed security and things of that nature, but we had not gotten that far. And you
don't typically line those folks up until you know you're about able to use the space. But we had said
that we were willing to work with the community and specifically the near neighbors in a way
that made them feel comfortable. But a lot of the concerns like this being detrimental or being
devastating is, in my opinion, just an opinion. And I think that most people felt like this was
something very positive that a young woman from their neighborhood was willing to bring this use
and people were excited about that. This is a petition that I had my client get signed because
I was wanting to make sure that given there were only four people from the immediately affected
area that showed up at the meeting, that she went around and spoke with those who actually live on
the block and are within the 250 feet. This has been provided to the board. She was able to
obtain a significant amount of signatures from those who actually live on the block
and the neighboring blocks, all in support of the project.
All on the screen and included in the packet.
So you can see there's overwhelming support for this,
aside from the nine individuals of the RCO board who were not in support.
We did properly mail out notice for the meetings.
And again, there were two meetings, one of which I was not involved in,
the second one of which I personally attended. There also are some letters from some adjacent
RCOs like the Stenton Park Advisory Board, a nice town, supporting the project and stating
um supporting the project and stating that they believe that this is going to be uh beneficial
that they believe that this is going to be
for the community and offers a safe place for residents to have events um in addition they have
a letter noted to the block cap from the block captain of the 4400 block which is directly adjacent
stating that she's held the position for many years she met she went to the rco meeting and
felt that everyone would be in favor and attended the first meeting where people were in favor
We also did receive at the end of the RCO meeting, we were kicked off the call so that there could have a be a private conversation that we were not privy to.
And so we were not actually privy to the vote.
However, there was some individuals that reached out once the letter was made public from the RCO and stated that they did not believe that what the RCO letter stated was in line with what they had observed during the meeting.
so they both signed affidavits stating that they personally showed up at these meetings and live in
the immediate vicinity and did believe that there were 11 to 5 in favor of the request for the
variance so we included those in our packet there was two different individuals and again this is
the adjacent property that was granted this is 1815 that was also granted a variance from a
single family to a barbershop with one family back in 2003 um so uh and just to touch on hardship
because i know that that's something that will get brought up as the board is can obviously see
from the screen uh if if we were forced to turn this into a single family home let me just get
back to the visual of it we would have to as you can see this is quite a large building we would
have to demolish not only the front of the building, which has been kind of stuccoed up a
bit, but in order to make this a single family home, but we would have to demo the entire interior
of what is there and try to somehow repurpose this as a single family home. I know that the
zoning code doesn't care so much about financial hardship, but we don't also have to show the
property has no value if it's not given the variance, but there is a hardship in that this
has always been a corner store or a corner amenity this is something the community supports it's a
large corner property and in order to meet the compliance of the code we would have to completely
redo the entire interior and change the exterior of the building with that said I'm going to just
bring my client on Mr. Chairman so that she can adopt my testimony and then I do believe that she
and other folks from the neighborhood would like to voice their sentiments on this project
what is the name of the client tamika marks miss marks please raise your hand if you're
in the virtual audience i'm not able to uh allow her to speak she's using an older version of zoom
are you able to hear me yes oh yes i'm here do me a favor please state your name and spell
for the court reporter please tamika t-a-m-i-k-a marks m-a-r-k-s do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed counsel uh tamika have you
heard my testimony today? I have. Do you adopt it as your own and do you believe it to be true and
accurate? Yes. Thank you. Please feel free to briefly provide any other comments and then
I do believe that there you had said that there were potentially other individuals from the
neighborhood that would like to speak as well so if we can get them to raise their hand and keep
it brief as well to keep things moving. That would be appreciated.
Amika, you have other comments?
Marks? Yes, I'm hoping that you will consider allowing me to open up my event space because I've
worked very hard to get everything together. I put my life savings in it and I'm from that
neighborhood. I was born and raised and it would be such an opportunity to be able to give back to
my community and be able to own a business where I was brought up and raised in. It just would mean
so much to me to have that opportunity. And Tamika, while I have you, did you go around and
get signatures for the petition that I showed on my screen? I did. I went to each individual home
and the people know me from that neighborhood being brought up and raised. And they were just
so happy to see that that building had been, it was dilapidated before. So it was really in bad
condition. So they were just happy to see that I was able to get in there and get the property
together and bring up the neighborhood value to that area. So they were all in support of
um and bring up the neighborhood value to that area so they were all in support of me opening
and looking for a safe space just to you know that they can come to that with in their own
neighborhood our own neighborhood to hold events thank you no questions from the board yes mr
chairman is miss uh marks renting the space i am currently not renting the space you're the owner
Again, we didn't know anything about that, and our name is not on that.
Yeah, just a point of clarification. I didn't say that the 13th Board was involved with that
variance. I just mentioned that it existed in 2003, but just to help show that it's not uncommon
that there were commercial or are commercial. I also just want to address the comment about
this being a residential block. As we all are aware, we live in the city of Philadelphia.
Most blocks, or at least every other, every third, every fourth, do have a combination
of commercial and residential.
As a city, we like to have amenities, especially on the corners of neighborhoods, so that people
don't have to necessarily travel far away to have any kind of amenities in their neighborhoods.
So it's just not an uncommon thing to have, and it doesn't affect the character, given,
And again, this has been longstanding as some type of a commercial use or was sitting vacant.
I also did address the fact that it was originally being used improperly, which is why I pointed out the awning.
The client was just not I wasn't involved at the time, obviously, and the client was not aware.
So the second that she was made aware, and we do appreciate any of the efforts that the 13th Ward RCO took to help with any issues related to that, but sometimes people are just not familiar with the rules as they didn't go to law school or not as familiar with how to read the different ordinances in the code.
So what we're just trying to, again, do is provide an amenity in the neighborhood, on a building, on a corner that has always had some type of amenity, whether it be if it was vacant since 2016 before, then it only helps the hardship to show that if a single family home could have been there, I think somebody probably would have purchased it and did the necessary demolition in order to revert it to a single family.
it's also significantly larger as it is almost a hundred percent law coverage than any of the
small two-story single-family homes on that block um but uh and again i wasn't at the first
council let me go back to the virtual audience to see who else wants to have a comment about
okay so who else in a virtual audience would it like to state a comment or talk about it
mr chair we've got um mr charles richardson with his hand
mr richardson please wait to be sworn in good afternoon mr chair afternoon mr richardson
state your name and spell for the court reporter charles richardson excuse me r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n
office of councilwoman cindy bass room 312 city hall do you swear a firm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. I do. Proceed, sir. Okay. Ms. Pritzker mentioned
amenities, grocery store, a luncheonette, a barbershop. That does not include an event space
that will have up to 100 people. The space was opened illegally. We received two petitions
that were submitted, one that was prior to Ms. Pritzker's involvement, second one after. The
first had a majority of people that were not anywhere near the 250 foot range and they were
not near neighbors. The second, assuming that, you know, that Rachel did coach her, did have
some folks that were within the 250 foot range. It was stated that it's just an opinion that
this place would not have any type of a negative effect on the neighborhood.
that it's just not what i said charles what was it that you said rachel i said it wouldn't be
devastating no you did say you consider it to be an opinion and you did say that can we please
let me charles why don't we get to the point you know the point is the count the councilwoman feels
that this would not be a good fit for the neighborhood and that it will have some
negative effect on the neighborhood as well so um she is opposed to granting the variance
thank you very much and thanks for calling in who else in the virtual audience
miss lucy carroll with her hand raised i don't know how to speak at this time
miss carroll could you state your name could you state your name and spell it for our court
reporter my name is lucy carroll l-u-c-y-c-a-r-r-o-l-l right do you swear for him to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i come i was born and raised and grew
up in the neighborhood too and we had a lot of different things going on but in the years we
haven't had anything and by her openness and event hall not only just like people
And by her openness in event hall, not only just like people thinking it's going to be a party in a big old club,
I'll talk to you later.
she also wants to give back to the neighborhood and allow the space also to be used for children and youth for different things that help them.
Like as far as education and different ways to get jobs or just meeting places to come up with things to better the community.
And I don't see anything wrong with it. And I really think that she needs to have a chance to open her building and see where it goes for the community. And I'm okay with it.
Thank you, Ms. Carroll. Thank you for calling in and your comments. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, Ms. Jessica Murray with her hand raised. I will allow her to speak at this time.
could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter yes jessica murray j-e-s-s-i-c-a
m-u-r-r-a-y you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes proceed um the october zoom that uh rachel was speaking of um i was in attendance there
and there was overwhelming support and even at the end of the call we were told that it was going
to be passed and the community voted yes. So when this came out saying that it was opposed we were
all confused because we all thought that this was going to be a very good opportunity for the
community like previously stated. Thank you thank you for your call. Anyone else?
Mr. Abu Edwards, with his hand raised, I will allow him to speak at this time.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Abu Abu, last name Edwards.
I'm here in support of Tamika Marks opening that place, the event place.
I grew up in that neighborhood, you know, mostly all my life.
and you know for years you know when she said that she's from that neighborhood she's from
that neighborhood families are from that neighborhood and I've seen this young lady
give out hundreds of book bags feed the community that's why she has the support I ask that the
board look at you know what has been submitted today and look what's on paper versus what's
verbal what people are talking about I've seen this process unfold for the last two years and
it is not a fair process and i hope that you know with you guys being the overall body to make this
decision that you look at all the facts and if something doesn't look right then you ask questions
before you make the decision because it's wrong to deny someone to open up a business right in
their own neighborhood especially when they're just trying to give back to their community we
all know what that community looks like we're trying to bring the property value up we're
trying to decrease the crime in that neighborhood. So opening up a place like that for the kids to
have a place to go to after school, to work with organizations to create some type of programming
for the community. Why would we want to address that? We have bigger issues in our communities
like these tobacco shops popping up due to a loophole in our zoning codes. We have made more
issues to focus on than to be focusing on opening up an event place that's going to bring the
community together and is going to help that particular community that's that that needs it
so i i hope that we all look at this and make the right decision as we move forward
thank you mr edwards any other comments
ms katrina moos has her hand raised i will allow to speak at this time
hi could you state your name and spell for our court reporter
i'm sorry i had dental surgery this morning so it's kind of hard for me to talk sure but my name
is latrina lewis i put it in the question and answer what i was going to say okay do you could
you spell your name out for our court reporter please l-a-t-r-e-e-n-a l-e-w-i-s right do you
swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes your comments ma'am
so i reside at 44 44 48 north grass street and i was present at the first zoning meeting and the
second one and i just wanted to let you guys know that there were not non-council people at that
meeting it was two and there were more than four people from the neighborhood that voted and
supported the project i myself have always been in support of this project because i feel it would
be a good asset to the community, a place where people from the community can have functions
close by and not travel so far. And I think it would be good for the different things that she's
close by and not travel so far. And I think it would be good for the different things that she's
trying to incorporate for the youth and not only just for event purposes. Thank you very much.
Chairman, would it be okay as a proviso if the council office would be okay with this to suggest
a five-year temporary variance so that we would have to come back after that time and revisit it
so that it's not something that the community
would be stuck with permanently if they have concerns?
I think that we probably would have a hard time
debating that right now with counsel,
with the council person's office.
I believe that Charles-
I'm sorry, Chair.
I'm sorry, Rachel, to interrupt.
This is Tanya, the administrator.
Mr. Richardson would like to speak again on the record
and testify about a proviso if you allow.
let let rachel finish and then we'll call mr rich go ahead rachel yeah i mean it seemed that
mr richardson in the chat wrote that he would uh be willing okay good okay good yep good
mr richardson you've already been sworn
you've already been sworn sir just state your name again okay i just unmuted charles richardson
from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass.
Actually, we would accept that,
but another that we would offer
would be limited hours
that 11 p.m. would be the end of the day
for that venue, if you do pass it.
Mika, I don't want to speak
to how to operate her business.
I think we would be amenable, of course,
to the five-year.
I just would like her to speak on record
about the hours
because, again, I'm not as familiar with her business.
Tamika, can you raise your hand again, please?
Thank you.
She's been allowed to speak.
Am I, are you able to hear me?
Yeah, just state your name.
You've already been sworn in.
Tamika Marks.
Tamika, do you have,
Do you have, so what Mr. Richardson offered was he would agree to a five-year temporary proviso, which would mean we would have to come back in front of the board in probably four and a half years, which is a lot of time for us to have to operate the space.
He had also offered a second proviso to have the hours of operation end at 11. Do you have any concerns with it ending at 11?
Is it possible that we can at least have 12 o'clock and then we can clean up and get everything together for people to leave?
That seems reasonable to me. Charles, would it be okay if it closes at 11 with cleanup to start at 11?
Close at 11 and clean up by 12.
You're cutting into event space.
I'm sorry, Chair. I'm sorry. This is Tanya, Administrator.
may i make a request if it's okay um suggestion um that we hold the vote for a week um so that
a discussion yeah that's where i originally was and miss the letter can review the provisals to
determine if they are allowable thank you chair that's perfect chairman and we're more than
amenable to that okay um i'm fine with that um do we want the uh well let's let's let's
let's let's do this we'll we'll continue this what what kind of time frame you have tanya
um so i would say no not a continuance but um the vote the board can vote right next week
as you wish and then they can submit documents regarding this particular proviso issue
to be submitted to the board so that you can review this letter can review before the vote
is held next week and we don't want to do the planning commission till that time too um it's
your call i think we wait for the planning commission too so they would at least know
what the provisos are okay sounds good chair chairman can we can we um put a deadline on
the on the letters i'm sorry who's speaking it's ishmael oh it's ishmael i'm sorry ishmael could
you just state your name please for the record oh yeah sure so ishmael shaheed one of the board
members. Can we at least put a
timeline that
we need the letters in for the
provisos, please?
Sure. I think Tanya said
we do this next week.
We do it next week. If the letters
can be submitted by close of business
Friday, Mr. Shahid, is that good?
Yes, that's good. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Chairman, members of the board. Thank you, Charles. Thank you.
Thank you, chairman
and members of the board.
here we go
number 10
mi 2021 004 531 5708 ridge avenue richard demarco
rco central roxburgh letter of support
Mr. DeMarco has been promoted to panelists, sir.
Mr. DeMarco, state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Richard DeMarco, D-E-M-A-R-C-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
i do thank you mr howellman has a few questions for you good afternoon counselor do you agree to
the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes i do according to our records you
have submitted all of the required documents is that correct yes please proceed good afternoon
everybody um i'm happy to uh tell you that there's uh full support for this application so i'm going
going to be as brief as I can. This is a request for a special exception for an animal hospital
and veterinarian offices within an existing commercial space with a building that was
fully approved. Let me go ahead and share my screen. I'll run through the critical exhibits.
The referral case does not require a variance. The reason for the referral, this would be a use that
would be normally permitted within the cmx 2.5 district but because of the ridge avenue overlay
requires a special exception from this board um you know in a moment i will invite
mr altmeyer who is the veterinarian the head veterinarian uh for the use just so you can see
the actual space that is this that i'm framing with my course first of all can everybody see my screen
Are you seeing my screen? OK, we can.
Yes. OK, thank you.
Sorry, I just want to make sure.
We are having also having some signage.
The signage is marked again.
This is the suite that will contain the use.
Let me show you the floor plan.
Mr. DeMarco, break it up a little bit. Yeah.
Yeah. Sorry.
This bike's a little tricky. All righty.
thank you thank you for telling me uh can you hear me okay we can now okay this is the floor
plan um we have a letter of support from the ridge uh the rco here's some of our signage let me rotate
look rotated the wrong way
We want you to see the signs. The signs are part of the application.
I did want you to see that. We're next to an urgent care, as you can see.
Show you some photos. I got to rotate back. Lovely.
Okay, that's the posting.
well anyway you get the idea so mr altmeier is with us oh let me give you some quick facts
it's about four doctors the hours of operation are 8 a.m to 8 p.m um there is commercial trash
and medical waste hauling as appropriate for those these types of uses let me go ahead and
ask mr altmeier and let me show you some of the window signs there was some discussion
This is going to be some of the tasteful window signs that will be used.
I'm going to ask Mike Altmaier to raise his virtual hand and adopt some testimony.
The RCO, meeting flyers.
Mike, go ahead and raise your virtual hand.
He's been allowed to speak.
Your name is spelled for the court reporter, please.
Mr. Altmaier, please unmute yourself.
with us mike michael altmeier last name a-l-t-m-e-i-e-r thank you for hearing our case
Thank you for hearing our case today.
today you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Mike, did you hear all the facts of my testimony, and can you adopt them as true and accurate and as your own testimony?
And is there anything unusual or unique about this use that would make it different or more impactful than another similar use of the same type?
no this will be a standard general practice veterinary hospital no animal boarding and
this will just be animal treatment and your offices correct no boarding
uh mr chairman thank you uh i put the rco letter on your screen you got support from the rco
everyone's excited about there's a lot of pets obviously with the COVID pandemic a lot of new
pets in all these all our communities there's exceedingly high demand for animal animal related
uses so with that I would conclude and happy to answer any questions questions from the board
no Mr. Chairman no Mr. Chairman no Mr. Chairman questions from the virtual audience
I see no further hands at this time, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission?
David, unmute.
Unmute, David.
Sorry.
Good afternoon, David.
You've already been sworn.
Great.
Good afternoon, David.
Fecto, City Planning Commission.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for sticking with me.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at this location.
The applicant has shown that the proposed animal services will have no more of an impact than animal services would be expected to have, which is what they have to show.
So the planning commission recommends that the board grant a special exception for animal services.
MI 2021-004-531-5708, Ridge Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Sorry, James Snell, my vote is yes.
Fishmere Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. DeMarco.
Have a good afternoon. Thank you.
All right. MI 2021 004589 624 South 26. And at the same time, MI 2021 04588 626 South 26.
Leo Mulvihill, South Street Neighbors letter of support for both, if yes, with revised plans, one page.
He's been promoted to panel, sir.
Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the board.
Mr. Mulvihill, please state your name and spell for the court reporter.
Ted Lee. Leo Mulvihill, M-U-L, B as in Victor, I-H-I-L-L.
Mr. Hallman has a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you submit the revised plan form?
Thank you. You can proceed.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the board.
I'm just going to, I have two separate packets for each of these properties, but they're more or less identical.
So I'm just going to use one and incorporate the other by reference.
I'm here today for 624 South 26th Street.
My client is Michael Murray.
What I have now is my table of contents.
Leo, could you speak up a little bit, Larry, a little low?
Oh, certainly.
What I have now is my table of contents on the screen, showing the refusal appeal and project information form at page one, the HUD and deed at page eight, deed again at page nine, tax clearance at 18.
revised zoning plan photos at 19, proviso sheet at 25, posting photos at 27, and our zoning
notification letter proof of mailing at 31. Just going to the refusal members of the board,
both of these properties are existing two-story homes on a two-story block. What's proposed is
to have a third-story addition with a mansard-style roof, roof deck with rear stair access without
pilot house, and a slight addition to the rear of the property, but it doesn't trigger any
dimensional variances. The only variances that we're requesting are the relief from the effort
setback on the third floor. And that's for both properties. Here's our application for appeal
and the project information form. Page 13, this is the deed for the property.
page 13 this is the deed for the property at 624 sell 26 on my other packet which i've submitted
to the board i also have the deed for 626. the tax certification was not working and giving me a cert
but what i did was get a screenshot of taxes showing that taxes are paid up for 624. i have
a similar screenshot for 626 showing the taxes are paid. And here's essentially the plan that
we're looking at, members of the board. So this is the existing two-family dwelling with cellar.
We're looking to have a third-story addition, zooming in on that. With a mansard-style roof
and a dormer, we're going to have the roof deck set back five feet from the top of that roof.
Roof deck is going to move along the rear. Then there's rear access stairs, so there's no pilot
Then there's rear access stairs, so there's no pilot house that extends to block any of the
neighbor's views. The third-story, the addition is also going on the rear of the property,
but we are going to have a 14-foot rear yard, so that doesn't trigger any open air or rear yard
variances. This is just the overhead view. This is, again, both of the properties next to one
another. Again, because we're dealing with 24 here, this would be 24. Next door is 626.
They're identical applications as I stated. Zooming out a little bit, members of the board,
and i'll have photographs of the property 624 and 626 here's the rears of the properties which are
both going to have the additions attached then we have views looking north and south on the streets
along with rear views of both the properties and the rear alley i also have floor plans
the property members of the board they're going to be completely renovated
overall they're going to be three bedrooms with the roof deck and here's the access in the rear
I might show you members of the board. So it's just going to be open to the air rather than
having a pilot house. So we're going to keep that massing down since we are on mostly a two-story
block, if not an entirely two-story block. Here's a rendering. So we are keeping the
structures and simply building above them. We have photographs again of the postings
on the properties themselves.
This is the zoning sign.
This was our letter that was sent out
both for 624 and for 626 at page 31.
This is our proof of mailing
showing that everything was mailed out
back on December 17th, 2021.
Separately, I can show everybody
the letter of approval,
which I believe we have from S. Sasna.
one moment while I get that up on the screen there we go so members of the board I'm showing
now separately a letter dated February 2, 2022 indicating a letter of support for 624 and 626
showing there was a meeting we did answer the neighbor's questions they did have concerns
about putting street trees in which we're going to do our best to do although that is not an
enforceable proviso here. Overall, we had a vote of 13 in support, zero in opposition for both
24 and 26. Members of the board, rather than putting it up on the screen, again, I'd just
like to incorporate by reference the packet that's been previously submitted for 626-26
as well, and we're happy to answer any questions you may have at this time.
questions from the board uh yes mr chairman the counselor are these the plans that have been revised
pardon me i'm sorry you're cut out for a second the plans that you have shown are these a revised
plan yes you do you have the revised plan form yes it was submitted to msuleta and the revised
plan form is also included here at page 20 of my packet okay thank you mr milvihill could you just
a quick outline on the record of what what the revised issues are certainly the parapet walls
were lowered there we go um and the cornice was to match the existing adjacent structures
uh this is mission to fairmount park to seek approval for additional street trees that's
actually been stricken on a revised um proviso sheet was sent to miss suetta earlier today by
the architect i got her eyes sir thank you very much other questions from the board no mr chairman
no mr chairman no mr chairman questions from the um virtual audience
i see no further hands at this time mr chair planning commission good afternoon david fecto
city planning commission mr chairman members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single family zoning for 624
no change to the residential single family zoning for 624
and 626 south 26th street the proposed mansard roof in lieu of an eight foot third floor setback
matches the character of the block the city planning commission recommends
that the board grant the dimensional variance
MI 2021-004-589-624-South 26 and MI 2021-04588-626-South 26th Street.
I vote yes with revised plans for power fit and also the cornice and one page.
Thomas Hallamann, my vote is yes on both with revised health.
James Snell, yes to both with provisos.
Ishmael Shahi, yes to both with proviso.
Thank you, Mr. Mulvihill. Thank you, members of the board.
MI number 14, MI 2021 004529 705 North 40 Street. Mr. Consul, RCO Mantua Civic Association
letter of support mr council has been promoted to panelists
good afternoon board mr council just state your name you've already been sworn
it's joseph consul c-o-n-s-o-l-e mr holliman has a few questions good afternoon counselor do you
agree to the to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy i do according to
our records you have submitted all the required documents is that correct that is correct sir
please proceed okay good afternoon everyone joe consul here on 705 north 40th street
got my packet on the screen the owner of the property is park place developers llc
I do not have Jeremy on the line with me up, but I do have Momendar from Park Place Developers, LLC, who will adopt my testimony at the conclusion of my presentation.
The packet contains the refusal. It contains the RCO letter of support. It contains the plots and plans for the project and the other required documents.
this property uh let's see if i can get you a picture of it this property is the the one set
back here uh the three stories um you can see our we have our posters up the property is a
building that was bought by my clients to rehabilitate as a three-unit building uh it's
currently zoned as rsa5 however the property to the right uh which in in this uh photo is empty
is being constructed as an 11 unit building and the property to the left which is this one here
with the the newish bump out is a seven dwelling recently approved building and that building has
the exact same 1767 square foot footprint as does the property that we're here today to talk about
which is 705 North 40th. This property was approved for a four-unit building as far back
as the 1940s. As recently as 2007, this property had a four-unit rental license. However, at some
point after 2007, the property fell into dereliction. And because of that, and because of
a single-family rezoning that kind of blanketed this whole area, any previous approvals for
multifamily use were lost. We were originally proposing, so we're proposing, I'll pull up the
plans right now, rehabilitating the structure to have some closer views of it, weave from across
the street down block plans the plans show that each floor will be one two-bedroom unit
so that's a total of three units um we believe this is reasonable for a structure this size
again it's almost 1800 square feet as a footprint we're not trying to cram in
units. It's a large footprint, and we believe that a single-family home squished between
those other high-density multifamilies would be inappropriate and likely to generate little
interest to a potential homebuyer. Not only that, up and down the block and across the street,
not only that um up and down the block and across the street there's several other multi-families
there's several other multifamilies.
uh i didn't think i needed to to list them all out but you know we're squished between the 11
unit and the seven units so my clients thought three uh was a reasonable uh number to generate
here and they can make three two-bedroom units which are uh quite sizable we met with uh
manchua civic on the 13th of january and we received a letter of support all tenants had
access to the backyard by way of an existing alley for trash storage uh and the basement uh
which is here is going to be just for mechanicals and um storage only no living space uh and with
that, I'll call my client. It's Mr. Momandar, M-O-M-I-N-D-A-R.
And he has been allowed to speak. Good afternoon. Could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter. My name is Momin Dar, M-O-M-I-N, last name Dar, D-A-R. You swear or affirm to tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed, Counselor. Good afternoon, Mr. Dar.
Did you hear my testimony today regarding 705 North 40th? I did. Do you agree with my testimony
and do you adopt it as your own? I do. Do you have anything you'd wish to add? I do not. Okay,
Thank you. I have nothing further for Mr. Donner. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman. Questions from the virtual audience?
I see no further hands, Mr. Chair. Planning Commission. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. David
Fecto, City Planning Commission. Mr. Chairman and members of the board, the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location. However,
this is a predominantly multiple family block. The proposed three units appears to match the
character of the block. The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the use
variance. Thank you, David. MI 2021 004529 705 North 40 Street. I vote yes. Thomas Holliman. My vote
is yes. James Snell. My vote is yes. Ishmael Shahid. My vote is yes. Is there anyone in the virtual
audience for the two o'clock hearing their cases have not been heard
not to anyone with their hand raised sir okay we will take a break till 3 30. five minutes we're back
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Chair, we are ready when you are.
we're live yes we are sir okay good afternoon my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this
zba hearing with me is ismail shaheed our board secretary
ismail on mute
hello yes ishmael's here
hello yes ishmael's here thomas holliman our board member present mr chairman james snell
our board member present mr chairman also our board administrator tanya sunkett and our attorney
rebecca cole let me just cover our virtual format be advised these proceedings are being recorded
by participating. You acknowledge your agreement to be recorded. The video will be available by
contacting tonyasunkett at phila.gov. For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys
and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying. If you are participating by phone,
if you wish to testify, 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 your property in
question. And lastly, on the screen, the question and answer box is not for testimony or comments.
Any comments should be made directly to Tanya Sunkett, our board administrator.
We'll look at the continuances for this afternoon.
Number two, MI 2021-003828, 1428 Hope Street.
Number six, MI 2021-003767, 2622 East Allegheny Avenue.
and MI 2021-003878-6019-35 North Fish Street.
Is there any comments from the virtual audience about any of these continuances?
Mr. Chair, I have Mr. Sean Ward with his hand raised.
I will allow him to speak at this time.
Good afternoon.
Mr. Ward, state your name for the court reporter and spell it.
Yeah, Sean Ward, S-H-A-W-N, W-A-R-D, attorney on the Hope Street application and the Fifth Street applications.
All right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I most certainly do.
I see. Is number two a continuance?
They're both continuances, but attorney moving party. I just wanted to be clear.
Okay. And what was the other case?
Hope Street. Hope Street is 003.
i have i have hope street do you have another case you said yeah fifth street zero zero three
eight seven eight okay fine moving attorney moving gordon thank you very good mr ward thank you
any other comments for the contingencies
i see are there are there any other continuances requested
once again no further hands at this time thank you very much
number one mi 2021 003833 1001 to 05 passion avenue
bella vista neighbors association letter of non-opposition councilman school letter of
non-opposition, John Tran and June Tran.
If you're in the virtual, wait, sir, I have a Nathaniel Whitman with their hand raised.
Do I allow them to speak, sir?
Yeah, let's see who he is.
Right away.
Hello, Mr. Whitman.
Can you hear me?
Could you state your name, please?
Are you an attorney?
I'm not.
Can I ask what you want relative to this case?
I am the renter of that property, and I wasn't sure when to chime in, but I meant to present
today for my appeal on the case that you just mentioned.
Well, I'm waiting for Mr. Tran.
Oh, that's the owner of the building?
Right.
The applicant for this appeal is my architect, and I did not, who is Sergio Kosha, and the owner is not going to be present today.
Tanya, do we have this?
So it appears as though the applicant is who's speaking now.
are the one who applied for a variance or a specialist session sir yeah it's in the name
sir yeah it's in the name of the architect sergio kosha whom i know is listening okay but
of the architect sergio kosha whom i know
right i understand but is it your request for an appeal yes are you prepared to present
yes okay so yes we're we're not we're only discussing continuuses okay okay
could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter nathaniel whitman n-a-t-h-a-n
i-e-l w-h-i-t-m-a-n right do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth truth yeah mr holliman has a few questions for you good afternoon sir according
to our records you have submitted all of the required documents is that correct yes thank you
please proceed i'm sorry we're going to have to hold off one minute um chair if i could ask
who would be doing the presentation on screen?
Daniel, you're doing the presentation, right?
Yes, please.
Jason, can you promote them to panelists, please?
Already been taken care of.
Thank you.
Daniel, do you want to start sharing your documents?
Daniel?
Sir, you need to unmute yourself.
Thank you.
We see you.
Could you start sharing your documents?
Okay. Can you see my documents?
We're starting to see them now. Yep, we're here.
Okay. So I am appealing.
I am trying to open a restaurant at 1001 East Pass Yonk.
And it has been a restaurant for four years.
The zoning variants had not been formally brought to L&I.
And so the variance that the former restaurant had expired, and I'm hoping to open another
restaurant in this space.
It's a corner property.
It's, you can see it, the pictures of the restaurant right here.
This is the front and the inside, both sides along 7th Street and Pashunk.
It will be a-
I'm sorry.
I hate to interrupt, but could you maximize?
So that everyone can see.
So you can't see this.
We can see it.
It's just.
Very small.
I maximize.
Is that better?
Better.
My screen is very wide and I'm not sure what it looks like on other people's screens.
Let me go back to here then.
It's on the corner of 7th and Pashank.
This is that corner.
and you can see the outside of 7th and the Paschank side and the 7th side.
It will have some dine-in and a takeout window,
but only six seats or so inside.
It will be mostly a takeout restaurant.
It will be open from Wednesday through Sunday from 7 to 11 in the morning.
It's a breakfast location.
and it has a lot of the has has the um the hood that a restaurant would need it has a lot of the
plumbing that a restaurant would need um it just needs to be sort of sewn up and yeah i think i'm
not sure what else you'd like to know other than i have all the documents and i saw the presented
to the residents and got a favorable outcome there as well as from the city council office
okay questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr
questions or comments from the virtual audience
see no hands mr chair planning commission it's uh ron bednar city planning that's r-o-n
last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do proceed sir uh this property is split zone for both commercial mixed juice and
This property is split zone for both commercial mixed-use and multifamily residential on the city plan.
Maltifed.
Given the site's physical condition and surrounding use context, we recommend the request for variance be granted.
Thank you.
MI 2021-003833, 1001-05 Pashonk Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloway, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you for coming in, Nathaniel.
Thank you so much for having me.
MI 2021-003791, 1534 North 17th Street, Marquesa Carter.
I don't believe we have any exhibits for this.
Is there anyone in the audience for this case?
once again is there anyone in the audience for this case
i did not see any uh case is continued mark must be tried
mi number four mi 2021 002 421 1720 north 59th street leo movahill is the attorney
no rco letter councilman jones has a letter of support
good you've been sworn just state your name please certainly leo moldahill m-u-l-l-i-h-i-l-l
mr hallman has a few questions good afternoon counselor do you agree to waive the reading of
refusal and stipulate to his accuracy i do according to our records you don't have uh
rcl letters that's correct can you address that issue we had previously met with the rco and we
just had never received a letter i don't know whether one was forwarded to the board and why
i'm before you go on leo i'm gonna so this is similar to case number five right if number five
is 1715 then yes yes mi 2020 001856 17 15 north 59th and the first one is 17 20 north 59th
both have the same issue councilman curtis is letter of support and no rco letter at this point
for both cases proceed leo okay let me share my screen if i can yep okay
all right so good afternoon chairman members of the board this again leo mulvihill here for the
applicant what i'm showing you now is our screen my screen let me get this working right uh for
For 1715-1720 North 59th Street, we have the Refusal Appeal and Project Information Forms
at 1, Zoning Maps at 13, Deeds at 14, Commercial Activity at 26, Tax Clearing at 28.
This is an older packet because we had originally scheduled this hearing and it got continued
but I have updated tax information for both properties.
Zoning Notification Letter and Proof of Mailing at 31, Voters at 35, Plans at 58.
So, members of the board, essentially what we're seeking for both parcels, I'll move right to the refusal, is we're seeking two-family dwelling in an RSA 5 zoning district.
And why are we doing that? Well, my client, Alan Borovitch, is on the line. He's going to discuss his recent developments in the area with respect to single-family homes and how, due to the increased pricing of construction, materials, labor, etc.,
It's simply not feasible to have affordable single-family homes in this area right now, which is why we're seeking the two family dwellings on both parcels.
This was discussed at length with Councilman Jones by my client, and that's why we do have that letter of support.
Just going to the other, and here's the other refusal as well.
There we go. One moment, please.
Okay, so this should be for $17.15.
We can see the only taxes that are outstanding are for $22, which are
not due yet.
And then this is for $17.20.
We're basically there at this point. The taxes are
all paid up. There we go.
One moment, please. Getting back to my packet.
All right. There's the notification letter that went out. We had a meeting
quite some time ago, last year. There's the proof of mailing. And I have plenty of photographs of
both of the properties, several postings as well. But we can see just from this, this is 1715.
You can see we have two story properties, each with porches, and we'll just do a quick
360 of the block so we can see what the block looks like.
You can see now on page 38 across the street, that's a 1720 property that's vacant, and
we have all two story homes along the block.
So what we're planning to do with this design, members of the board, just getting now down
to my plans, which are essentially identical for each.
Oh, there we go.
So we are planning on more or less meeting the neighboring structures in terms of the
front facades, both on the first and second story.
We do have a third story as well, which is set back the required amount under the zoning
And that's for both parcels, members of the board.
The proposed floor plan is here.
We're looking to have in the basement a decent sized area, bedroom in the front, bedroom in the rear, access stairs to the rear of the property for emergency egress, and a bedroom to the rear of the first floor as well.
This blue is all the first unit. Living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, large walk-in closet.
The next unit, which is indicated here in green, you come in through the common area, go up the stairs.
living, dying, kitchen, much like the other unit, one bedroom to the rear, and
then one bedroom to the rear of the third story, one bedroom to the front of the
third story. And that's essentially it, members of the board. As I stated before,
we did have a well-publicized meeting. The hope was that these could be
single-family homes that were owned by residents, and that was repeated both by
the chair of the community group and by several neighbors that were involved. As
my client is going to testify in a moment though it's simply with respect to the costs we cannot
build at least with these parcels homes that will be priced in a way that isn't any way affordable
if these were to be single family homes it'd be upwards of four hundred thousand dollars
uh we simply don't want to do that we're going to have something that is more affordable in an
area that does pride itself on home ownership uh so alan if you would please raise your hands
Before you go in, could you show Councilman Jones' letter?
Yes. One moment, please.
Okay. So this is the letter that's on the screen right now, dated February 3rd, letter of support, which says essentially after careful reconsideration and closer examination, the councilman's in support of the applications because the plan development is appropriate and will be an asset to the
community. And like I said, my client can speak further as to the discussions.
That's fine. Bring your client on.
Sure. Alan, would you please raise your hand?
I'm not to speak.
Could you state your name and spell it for our court reporter?
Yes. Alan Borovitch, A-L-L-E-N, B like boy, O-R-O,
v like victor i ch do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth yes i do counsel proceed sure so alan let's talk a little bit about the discussions you have
with councilman's office and the other properties that you have in the area that are single family
can you tell the board a little bit about what your discussions with the councilman entailed
uh yeah i built two houses uh very close in proximity to these two lots um we put them for
sale and you know it was to do uh sale homes but it's just the pricing was they're for sale now
we're having a lot of trouble selling them and the pricing is now just gotten worse uh because
of material so we went back and said you know we would rather do these as duplexes um instead of
having it sit vacant and he was in support of that great so alan um with respect to the rest
With respect to the rest of my testimony, have you heard everything I've said today?
of my testimony. Have you heard everything I've said today?
And is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Have you any other questions or anything you'd like to add for the board?
Okay. I have no further questions.
Thank you. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions from the virtual or comments from the virtual audience?
mr chair i have um a jihad on leave with the hand raised i'll allow them to speak at this time
hello uh commissioner and members could you could you uh state your name please and spell
it for the court reporter my name is jihad j-i-h-a-d my last name is ali i'm a property
owner of uh of a property within that footprint right at the end of the block is 17 okay hold on
one minute hold on one minute mr do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth yes i do proceed so i'm a property owner in the uh in the 1700 block of north
redfield street which is right at the top of the block right through that driveway um i attended
both of the meetings before uh one thing as a community we had had some concerns about the
second floor setback and materiality of it the developer revises plans and do and as you see
now with the second floor setback, I support the project. Thank you very much. Anyone else from the
virtual audience? I see no further hands at this time. Planning Commission, Ron Bednar City Planning.
These two properties on 59th Street are both indicated for residential use on the city plan.
In 2018, the area was remapped to reflect the predominant single-family two-story block
pattern currently in place. The applicant's hardship are not supported with evidence of
unique physical circumstances or conditions of these two properties that would prevent them
from being used in conformity with the code. Therefore, we recommend that the two requested
variances for 1715 and 1720 on 59th Street not be granted. Thank you. MI 2021 002421
17 20 north 59th mi 2020-001856 1750 north 59th street i vote yes to both thomas holliman my vote
is yes to both jane snell yes to both ishmael shaheed yes to both thank you thank you members
the board. Okay. MI 2021 003842 6576 Buma Street, Camilla Daryl, first listing, no exhibits.
Ms. Daryl.
Ms. Daryl, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
I do not believe she's in the audience today, sir.
Continued, must be tried. MI 2021 00332 906 East Chelten Avenue, Lynn Nichols, the attorney,
Faith Community Development Corporation, letter of opposition.
They've been promoted, sir. Two panelists.
Thank you.
Counselor, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Lynn Nichols, L-Y-N-N, last name N-I-C-H-O-L-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Mr. Holliman has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
According to our records, you have submitted all the required documents.
Is that correct?
That is correct.
Please proceed.
Before I proceed, may I ask if there are any parties of interest in the virtual audience
that plan on testifying in this matter today?
By a show of, put your hand up, please, if you're going to intend to testify today.
we have one hand chair we have one hand may i ask if that person can identify themselves
May I ask if that person can identify themselves?
i believe that might be my client
I believe that might be my client.
Could you put-
Another hand has gone up, sir.
Colford Williams?
Yes, that's my client.
Is there another hand?
I thought there was another.
Oh yeah, there was another hand
that Ms. Diana Striplett has gone up as well.
Can we have that person identify themselves
and can I find out if they live on the block
or who they are with regard to this matter?
Ms. Triplett? Ms. Triplett, please unmute. Yes, hello, can you hear me?
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Diana Triplett, D-I-A-N-A, last name S-T-R-I-T-L-E-T, I do live.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you tend to testify today?
Yes, against it, though. I do live on the block.
Okay, fine. Okay, that's fine. Thank you, ma'am.
Can I just ask what her address is, though? Thank you.
908 East Shelton Avenue.
Thank you.
May I proceed with my presentation and testimony?
Absolutely can. Sure.
Thank you. As you can see here, this is our presentation for...
Mr. Holloman, do you have your questions answered?
Yes, I did, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Very good. Thanks. I'm sorry, Lynn.
Thank you, Chair. Two other things, just record keeping for the purposes of this hearing. I did present two additional exhibits, which are photographs of a property on that block. And our other witness that I had listed in our packet is not available today. He had an emergency architect, so he's not available today. So we will only be presenting Mr. Williams. Thank you.
With regard to 906 East Shelton Avenue, the property was purchased on March the 10th, 2020. It is currently zoned as a RSA 3 single family property.
The owner who is here, the representative, is asking for a variance to have this property zoned as a two-family unit.
They were able to get a rental license.
They got a license on July 14, 2020.
The license was renewed for a two-unit property on August 31, 2021.
One of our arguments is that this should never have been refused because of the fact that the initial license was granted on July the 13th.
Ms. Nichols, could you start sharing your screen for us?
Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you.
I apologize.
No, no, no.
Are you able to see my screen?
I'm making it bigger.
I see license number, Antonio Williams.
I'll go back. I'm sorry. I apologize.
So the property was initially purchased on March the 10th, 2020. This is the deed. We also had the rental license that the owner received on. It was granted on July the 14th of 2020 for a two unit property at that location.
They then renewed the license on August the 31st, 2021, again for two units at that property.
The tax clearance is here showing that the property is current. Here is a photograph
of the front of the property, 906 East Shelton Avenue, as you can see. There's a property to
the left or to the right of the photo as you're facing it, which is 904 East Shelton Avenue.
This is the front. This next photograph shows other properties on the block. The property
here in front of you where the white van is 904. The property next to that is 902 East Shelton Avenue.
And these houses on the block are all similar. They're all three-story properties. There's
currently a property at 918 East Shelton Avenue, I'll bring that photo up, which was granted a
variance by this board on September 22, 2020, and it is currently a two-family unit. As you can see
here, this is 918 East Shelton right here by this large tree. It's only a few houses away from 906
East Shelton. This is another view of 918 East Shelton Avenue. As you can see, it's a three-story
property similar, just like 9060 Shelton, which has a variance for two units. You can see here
where there are additional meters for that property that have been placed there.
This is a view looking to the left of 9060 Shelton.
This is a view looking to the left of 906 East Shelton down the street. As you can see, there's other buildings in the next block. They are all properties that are zoned for multi-units.
Across the street from 906 East Shelton is a church, and this is a photograph showing that church across the street.
Next, you see here a list of the impacted neighbors that were contacted.
And we did receive some support from those neighbors in terms of their verbal support
of the project.
We also provided a zoning notice for the RCO hearing we had with the RCO group on September
28, 2021. And this is that notice that showed the date of this hearing today. This is the notice of
refusal. And here we have the site plan that was drawn up by our architect. And I'm going to turn
it so that you can see it. As you can see here the site calculations that were done by the architect
indicate that on the lower level here it's only for the meters and utility. That's the only use
that would be of that particular basement. Here we have the first floor which shows that there's
an entrance into the first floor. This is the door into the first floor. This is the door into the
second floor. And there's a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. On the second floor, as you walk
up, there's the bedroom, there's a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom. And then the second
floor also contains another bedroom and a bathroom and a den. This is the RCO meeting summary.
Although the RCO did say that they objected to the use variants on this property, the only basis
that they had was because they suspected that this would be a boarding house
or a used for a recovery home. The number of people who were present at the RCO was a total
of 11, according to the notes here. There were only two that opposed it, and one person did
support it. So there was no opposition to the two-unit variance. It was just an opposition
that they think that the property is not going to be used for what the applicant is asking for.
So that completes my presentation with regard to this property.
At this time, I would like to call Mr. Williams.
Mr. Williams has been allowed to speak.
Mr. Williams, state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter.
Excuse me, sir.
Yeah, you need to unmute yourself.
Okay, my name is Calford Williams.
Can you hear me?
Yeah, could you spell it for the court reporter, please, sir?
C-O-L-F-O-R-D Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mr. Williams, do you agree and adopt the testimony of presentation as I've given here today?
Thank you.
I have no further questions of Mr. Williams.
Questions from the board?
no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions in the virtual audience or comments mr chair i have miss diana strip with her
absolutely sure mr diana strip okay
she's been allowed to speak could you state your name you've already been sworn just state your
name please just state your name please
Just state your name, please.
You have to unmute.
I just state your name.
You've already been sworn.
My name is Marcia Allen.
I'm not sure.
Excuse me, ma'am.
If you were able to see me or hear me.
do you have there's something wrong with your speaker right now you have um two devices turned
on excuse me this is diana triplet oh yeah all right you've already been sworn so just state
your name diana striplet you're okay you can start your testimony yes so basically um i am
against this appeal for many reasons one even though um you did i think miss lynn yes miss
lynn this date that 918 did get approval for a multi-family i was there at that meeting when
we approved for that and um they did it in an orderly fashion they came to us before they
started any renovations and any problem one of the problems that we had with that location was
the parking but as you can see from the picture they have parking on the side and that wasn't
a problem for that location. 906 however I actually graduated the year that he started
renovating that house and I couldn't and so I came home early because that was the year that
COVID started to have an outbreak and he started renovating that house before he went to LNI
and basically the reason lni has gotten into this equation is because we had a problem with him
and he didn't want to hear us out so we went to lni and that's how everything started so i'm pretty
sure that when it said that in july um that there was a renovation or something was submitted
he started building as early as february march because i remember being there um and having
um continue i think i think what you should do is let's testify why you're against it and not
what he did or anything like that okay i'm against it because i'm against it because one
there's a parking issue currently in front of how uh with how many people are living on the block
and adding more people the parking issue parking variance has like not been solved um in two i
I he well I'm not gonna say he but the way that it was went about was not done honestly and not
in a way that is respectful of the neighborhood we already have a problem with how many people
are there in the cars and the parking space and adding or making that unit a multi-family or
more than it is right now will only increase the problem we have with an overpopulation in our
neighborhood. And as a neighborhood that is predominantly Black, this is an issue that
continues to be a problem within the Black community. And that's why I'm against this
housing, the parking, and the overpopulation that it will contribute to.
All right. Thank you very much for calling in.
Thank you.
And anyone else in the virtual audience have comments?
Sure. Ms. Nicole Benbaugh has her hand raised. I'll allow her to speak at this time.
Ms. Benba, please unmute and wait to be sworn in.
Hi, could you try to unmute, please?
You need to unmute.
you need to unmute
could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter
okay it was unmuted sir
I know I saw it
state your name please for the court reporter and spell it
E-N-N-I-C-O-L-E
B-E-N-O-I-T
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes, please. Please go about testifying. Yes. Before she testifies, can we find out is she what is her relationship to this case, because before we started, I asked if there were any parties of interest that intended to testify, and she was not so identified herself.
So, so this been right. Do you live in the area. Yes, I'm living in 908. Okay. Yeah.
Yes, I'm living in 908.
Yeah, I'm the first one on call.
I'm in LNI because I know Mr. Colford for 15 years.
He's been working in the same company for 15 years, driving a school bus.
When he came here, I talked to him.
I addressed him.
I said, Mr. Colford.
Hold on a minute.
Hold on a minute.
Do me a favor.
What we want to know is, are you for this or against it?
And if you're against it, just give us a quick, not anything about him.
Oh, just, I'm against it.
That's all.
Okay, thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Mr. Charles Richardson has his hand raised.
I will allow him to speak at this time, sir.
Mr. Richardson, just state your name.
You've already been sworn.
Good afternoon again, Mr. Chair.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass.
Need to do a little quick interpretation of the summary,
meeting summary that was submitted. For whatever reason, Ms. Love fills it out in a very strange
way, but there were seven near neighbors that were opposed to this of the 11. And it looks like
she wrote that there was one that might have supported. But again, it looks like there is
more of the 11. There are seven near neighbors that oppose. She has two RCOs that oppose.
and then she also shows the applicant and attorney when there should be a separate column
showing other individuals that attended. So that's nine of the RCOs. There's two individuals
that voted against it and seven near neighbors that voted against it.
The councilwoman and the councilwoman. Mr. Richardson, where do you stand on it?
Councilwoman is opposed based on the community non-support. Thank you very much. Anyone else
in the virtual audience? Mr. Chair, we have Gerald Ellis. I will allow him to speak at this time.
Mr. Ellis, state your name and spell it for the court reporter.
Unmute yourself, sir. I state your name and spell for the court reporter.
My name is Carl Ellis, C-A-R-L-E-S, E-L-L-I-S, not Gerald, Carl.
Right, right.
Well, you're okay.
Do you swear, Fern, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And again, Mr. Chair, who is Mr. Ellis?
I'll find him.
Do you live in the area, sir, Mr. Ellis?
Yes, I live in 920.
Okay, fine, sir.
Testify.
i opposed it at the last meeting and uh i guess the sydney baird's office said it was seven
but she put up something saying two to one uh which kind of like balances out also that telephone
list is not accurate of the people who okay well let me say this your testimony is you're against
the project yes thank you for calling in mr chair can i ask mr ellis a question you can
Mr. Ellis, don't you currently have a rental license for two units at that property at 920 East Shelton Avenue?
Sure do.
So you're opposed to Mr. Williams getting a rental license, yet you have one for two units, correct?
You can word it like that, but you're just playing with words.
So what?
I got two.
All right.
I got all street parking.
Mr. Ellis, I know what your position is.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Ms. Marcesa Carter with her hand raised.
I will allow her to speak at this time, sir.
All right.
Unmute yourself, please.
Wait a minute.
Ms. Carter, are you testified to this case?
I know, Chair, that's why I was trying to...
Yeah, I know. I think she testified before.
Ms. Carter, you're not involved in this case, am I right?
Ms. Carter?
For today.
I think she was earlier today.
Mr. Chair?
I'm listening, Ms. Carter.
This property is indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted district
This property is indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted district plan recommends no change to the existing residential single family zoning at this location.
The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property that would make that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the code therefore we recommend request for variance not be granted.
MI 2021 00332 906 E Chelton Avenue I vote no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
so chair we would have the fifth vice um chair to mary review the transcripts
slash video to vote and we could put that on record in two weeks if you wish. That's fine.
Go ahead. Mr. Chair, may I be heard? I wanted to respond to some of the comments that came in
from the individuals that testified. May I put that on the record? Go ahead. Thank you. It
appeared from the two individuals that live at 908 East Shelton that they had a personal
vendetta, so to speak, against Mr. Williams. Neither one of them really addressed any of
the issues with regard to this specific property in terms of its size and its ability to accommodate
a two-family dwelling, which is what it is. The same property at 918 East Shelton Avenue
was given a variance for a two-unit dwelling, and it's the exact same size. In addition,
the individual who lives at 920 East Shelton, Mr. Ellis, who came on the call and identified
himself, currently has a rental life. I know, we heard, Ms. Nichols, we heard that.
All right, well, I just wanted to reiterate, and there's on-street parking here, Mr. Chairman,
respectfully, that accommodates all of the individuals that live on that block, and there's
a school on the corner as well. So in terms of how they try to justify their arguments, I mean,
you've already got two units in 918 that is legally zoned. However, 920 has a rental license,
not legally zoned, but he comes on to object to Mr. Williams wanting to get a license to
legalize his property. I understand. We hear you. And we will notify you as soon as we
have the fifth person take a look at it, okay?
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
So, anyone in the virtual audience
who hasn't had their case heard in the 330 list?
Sir, Ms. Diana Striplett has her hand raised again
for whatever reason.
The case is over.
okay thank you case is over um anyone else in the audience who their case hasn't been heard
how about miss machisa carter i i thought you let her come on
so she was number three and didn't answer at the time third case
Ms. Carter, please unmute.
Ms. Carter?
You need to hover along the bottom and go to the left.
Ms. Carter, reach out to my office for any questions or discussions about your case today.
Chair, we have complete the session.
Thank you, everybody.
we're done at record time here so thank you
bye bye
have a good night everyone