Anyone else to testify?
I have a Ms. Julie Nemeth, whose hand is raised.
if you wish I can allow her to speak, sir.
Please, thank you.
Good afternoon, Ms. Nemeth.
Please identify yourselves by your last name
and provide us with your address.
My name is Julie Nemeth, N-E-M-E-T-H,
and I live at 2312 South Street.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Both my husband and I have lived in the neighborhood for over 10 years, and we've known Ryan since he's lived here and worked in the neighborhood and building up our neighborhood.
And he's done stellar work that not only benefits the community, but also increases the safety to have a single family on our block versus three apartments.
a single family block versus three apartments makes it a little bit safer. I understand the
business concern, but at the price that someone would be paying for the single family, I'm sure
they will do lots of business in the neighborhood. And both my husband and I are avid bikers. We also
park on south street and i would say that you know we're all very careful and we love having
the bike lane and that whoever lives there is going to buy it based on understanding that they
are backing into a bike lane and i'm sure they're going to be conscientious of that
um as far as the speed on south street the the light that was put in on 24th and south has really
slowed down the traffic and so people are coming off of the highway but once they stop and start
again on the 23rd block it's much slower and so my husband and I are in support of
the renovations and the variants and particularly allowing Ryan to convert it into a single family
home with a garage. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Anyone else? And we're going to ask
it something new and different. Mr. Chair, I have a Marcus Ferrero with his hand raised.
Good afternoon, Mr. Ferreira. Please identify yourself with a record. Spell your last, Marcus, first and last name, and provide us with your address.
Hello, Marcus Ferreira, F as in Frank, E-R-R-E-I-R-A, 1620 South Street, Unit B, Philadelphia.
1620. You are seven or eight blocks away.
Yes, I am.
I'm also chair of the South Street West Business Association that I could reference.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
So one thing I want to reiterate is, or not reiterate, but emphasize, is we fought tooth and nail to get the South Street Bridge to be pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
and and then this bike lane was recently added as an extension of that and it basically feeds
right into the western node of the south street west businesses there's the uh pedestrian triangle
there um which has it's a pedestrian epicenter and what we want to do is cultivate more of that
and do less interruption of all the good work that's been happening in terms of uh bicycle
pedestrian friendliness over the past few years. Approximately 11,000 pedestrians go through this
block. And then to have a curb cut with a sloped sidewalk, no street tree, a garage, instead of
potentially a ground floor apartment, which would be eyes and ears on the street, all these things
vitiate the overall pedestrian and safety experience on multiple levels. And yes, while
Although it would be nice to have one wealthy resident who can, you know, afford a more expensive meal out or whatever, having three or four apartments where people just need to buy necessities overall is going to be better for the business climate.
So I just wanted to address those points. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Chairman. I just would want to mention that single families permitted by right and RM1.
Thank you. Anyone else?
Mr. Chair, I have a Mr. Neville Strumpf with his hand raised.
Good afternoon, Mr. Strumpf.
It's Ms., but that's okay.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Can you hear me?
Yes. Please spell your first and last name and provide us with your address.
Yes. The first name is Neville, N-E-V-I-L-L-E. And the last name is Strumpf, S-T-R-U-M, as in Mary, P as in Paul, F as in Frank.
And your address?
2310 South Street.
Where I'm from to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
Yes, I've been a resident in this building, in this house for 20 years. I am outside a lot because I spend a great deal of time at 10.
side a lot because I spend a great deal of time attending to my window boxes and my tree well and
the gardening in the neighborhood as well as for my neighbors. I think it's really important to
keep in mind that we on this block are very attentive to the fact that we have a lot of
pedestrian foot traffic, we have bicycles, we have cars, and we have an extraordinary number of
delivery trucks. And really nothing is going to change the number of delivery trucks who pull
onto the side to make deliveries. There's an Amazon pickup and delivery right next to me.
There's also a bus stop. To my knowledge, we have not had any disastrous episodes with
pedestrians or bicyclists. I think we're all very committed to making this work.
The McManuses are excellent neighbors, very committed to the beautification of this block
of South Street, which was not as beautiful 20 years ago when I moved here. And I do not think
in any way their plans will negatively impact bicyclists, shopkeepers, business, or safety
in the neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?
Mr. Chair, there are no further hands at this time.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The property is indicated for residential multifamily use in the city plan.
believe the applicant has not demonstrated hardship regarding the specially enacted
center city parking control requirements of the code standing policy of the city planning
commission is not to support unnecessary front loaded off-street parking on high volume pedestrian
and bicycle lane urban corridors we recommend the quest for Vance not be there all right thank you
rachel yes mr chairman i'm going to cast my vote i'm going to cast it in the affirmative i'd like
to have a proviso okay some sort of a non-audio warning device you know when you come in out of
a garage if some of them had a light or something that um alerts someone that a car may be exiting
or entering that garage absolutely mr all right all right so mi 2020 dash zero zero three three
nine zero two three one six south street my vote is yes with the proviso installation of a non-audio
uh traffic uh alert device or something like that i'm sure he has a technical name but you know what
i'm talking about yep absolutely my vote is yes proviso yes we're proviso yes we're proviso yes
we're proviso but for the fact that there are other garages on that street my vote would have
been no but there are other garages understood thank you chairman members of the board thank
you calendar number three three one six three six eight five richmond street
is that um is that no let's not continue
joe console is the attorney
i'm here i raised my hand
can you hear me i can hear you but uh it says my videos stop not on true oh i gotta step i gotta
step away for a few minutes all right okay i see you now joe name and address on the record please
and spell your last name hi everyone joseph console i'm back it is console madison llp
1 West 3rd Street, Suite 204, Media, Pennsylvania, 1-9-0-6-3.
You're still under oath. Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? Yes. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership,
tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property
five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes to everything but the tax clearance. We submitted a couple things that were not in compliance and we haven't gotten the thing back. So if we could hold this, we should have it in a day or two.
The thing back. So if we could hold this, we should have it in a day or two, hold the, you know, the issuance of the approval that we're expecting to get here for that. That would be what I'd like.
Okay. I'm looking to see. Okay. So we'll hear this and hold for the, Tanya, are you there?
yes i'm going to look it up on revenue right now and then um come back if not we can always use
it to um close the record and then wait for the supplemental document of the tax cert only
okay i'm sorry rachel do you agree with that wait rachel's not on this joe console yes i agree
no no Rachel is our attorney
no we're on Richmond Street
I understand
but Carol Rachel is the attorney for this afternoon
no Joe is
sorry you mean Rebecca
sorry Rebecca I'm so sorry
Rebecca
I knew it
Rebecca
I'm sorry do you agree
yes thank you
thank you so much Carol I apologize
that's okay you had me believe in there were two
Rachel's
okay joe you may proceed all right hi everyone uh i'm gonna make this quick it's 3685 richmond
street uh it's 3685 richmond llc um mr stephen fox is a representative of that llc uh we're
seeking to use uh this property as a personal vehicle repair and maintenance uh in an existing
structure. The property, as you can see, was used this way until it ceased being used. It was bought
by my clients and they're seeking to reestablish that use. That's what the property looks like
right now on the outside. They're going to spruce it up a little bit. They have a master mechanic
called Gori Auto Repair that is going to be in there. The hours of operation will be Monday
through friday 8 a.m to 7 p.m uh there'll be one mechanic at any given time and then one uh what
they're calling the front desk personnel a maximum of two cars in the bays at any given time and
actually we were able to um yeah you can't really see it but there was an old layout of the property
on file and ours is going to match uh this whole layout with two with two car bays they're not doing
any uh structural work on can you go back can you go back to the previous picture because i want to
know uh if there are two cars being worked on where are the other cars going to be and how many
will there be in that parking lot oh the parking lot i don't know let me call mr uh mr stephen fox
he can he can weigh in on that because we don't like an overload of cars okay outside of these
places and does he have tires in there i don't believe there are tires they're not they're not
doing any sort of fume related work or anything that they need ventilation for it's going to be
so no spray painting and no gathering of tires requiring okay it's going to be uh just mechanical
internal work on the vehicles okay great
you've met with the rco oh yes we did yeah um what what is the rco's name the rco is propac
we met with them uh in january yep in january and we received full support 15 in favor zero against
they were fine with the property just uh re-establishing its use used to be called
port richmond auto repair okay i don't know if my client raised his hand or not
hello oh hey steve fox yes how you doing can you put your name on the record please uh yes steven
fox do you swear if i'm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do okay the
question i'm asking is you have two bays in there what will you do with the other cars and how many
of those other cars will there be if they have appointments on that day will they be in that
parking lot number one and number two most importantly how many will be there and then i
have a third question um what's the maximum number of cars because sometimes people don't pick up the
cars on time. Right. Um, I am one of the owners of the actual property. I am not one of the will
not be one of the operators of the actual said business to go in the location, but we have been
had some discussions with them, um, about approximately how many cars.
had some discussions with them um about approximately how many cars they would have
parked outside um at any one time and they assured us about maybe four to six cars max at any given
time okay yeah if there's a max proviso the board would like i'm i'm sure we can work that in
okay do you want to ask him if he'll adopt your testimony yes uh mr stephen fox did you hear all
the testimony i gave regarding your project i did do you adopt it as true and accurate to the best
of your knowledge i do do you have anything you'd like to add i do not okay thank you
Thank you. Does the board have any questions?
Hi, Vice Chair.
Hi, Tanya.
Hi. I looked it up on Revenue's website.
The taxes are current to 2020 and 2021 are just becoming due.
So they are tax compliant.
Okay. So that's good. We don't have to hold this.
Great.
okay calendar planning commission carol's rank again before you you're going to gerard avenue
um i'm on richmond street now oh okay i'm sorry all right that's okay
all right i'm bed in our city planning property is indicated for commercial use on the city plan
given you given the established use history of the site we have no objection to the granny
my vote is yes with um a maximum of six cars on the lot
yes yes yes with proviso yes with proviso thank you thank you good luck carol before we begin
it's almost four i don't know if this does the court reporter need a break we only have one
more case on this list and then we'll break for the three-third. I'm fine. Okay, this is the last
case on the two o'clock list and then we'll have a break. Thank you. Okay, calendar number 3385-701
East Gerrard Avenue. The attorney is Sean Whelan.
Mr. Whelan has been promoted to panelists, Madam Chair.
you're still under oath can you put your name and address on the record
actually madam vice chair I'm not under oath from earlier today this is my first case today
really yeah I know you're just so excited to see me you feel like I know I just think that
you're always there on the screen okay name and address
Sean, S-E-A-N, Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N, Vintage Law, 6 Coulter Avenue, Suite 1000, Ardmore, PA, 19003.
Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do, with the caveat that there is one typographical error on the refusal, that it does not result in any kind of confusion.
It's it's just a typographical error where it says CMX three at one point instead of CMX two.
But the refusal is correct with that typographical error.
OK, have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal or referral, photos and plans five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO and you have a letter?
Yes, Tal. Thank you. You may proceed.
All right.