um kind of objection to um in principle to this exception for this storefront because we'd like
to see other um more more retail and kind of community uh facing businesses go into a space
like this and feel that it's otherwise perfectly suited to that um and you know the fact that the
owner hasn't been able to find a tenant of a compliant tenant is is the owner's problem
so that said um and and we really you know just underscore i wanted to underscore the fact that
that it's not so much traffic or noise or some of the other good questions that the members have
brought up uh we're not concerned about that but it really is just the vitality of the commercial
corridor and its usability to the broader community uh and we don't believe that storefront churches
really contribute to that at this juncture.
So, however, like Overbrook West,
we are okay with a temporary exception
and would likewise strongly support
a 24-month to 36-month agreement over a four-year.
So that is about all I have to say.
Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you. Any questions, Alan?
No, other than the fact that, again,
this is not a variance request this is a special exception request this use is conditionally
approved under the philadelphia zoning code we have met our burden to show that the use that
we're proposing is no worse than what you would typically expect then burden has to shift to
the community who has supported this project uh at a community meeting uh to show that our use
is detrimental and in some specific way not conceptual way specific way to the community
which they have not shown. Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, I have a hand up from Kevin Chapman.
I will allow them to speak.
Hi, Mr. Chapman.
Good afternoon.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Kevin. That's K-E-V-I-N.
Chapman, C-H-A-P, as in Paul, M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm the tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
I'm a neighbor, nearby neighbor, considered by the panel, as well as a member, associate minister at the Word Church of Philadelphia.
I'm a neighbor, a nearby neighbor, considered by the panel.
I'm the assistant pastor there at the church.
Are you for this project or against the project?
I am for the project.
All right, thank you.
You want to give us just a few reasons why?
Yes. One of the several of the reasons as a church, a small congregation, we were looking for space, as it's been stated, to use for our congregation that goes for perhaps up to about 30 members.
We also have a partnership with several of the businesses, a couple of the businesses that are nearby, one being the daycare center, where we are able to partner with them to use for our youth that come into the church for services.
So we don't have all all the members there in one space at one time.
But we've tried to partner with different groups, businesses that are in the community and to do something positive with a space that has otherwise been vacant for a number of years, bringing nothing into the community.
One of the other things I'd like to speak to is that what we're looking to do as a congregation is to bring community back into the community, such as services, being specific to offer dance training for girls between the ages of 6 to 13 years old.
um we started out you know trying to do programs of that nature also senior seminars that we have
a plan to do senior seminars to bring forth information for medicare benefits as well as
estate planning for seniors in the community these are some these are not just for our church members
but to be able to offer these things for the community uh as far as uh we also do have
Our services, we have a good working relationship with both of the businesses beside us, the beauty salon, as well as above us, who if we do have a special service on a Saturday, we've never had any issues or problems with whether it be noise or traffic or anything like that.
we do with consideration of the community. Having come from a local congregation that was in a
community and parking was an issue, we make it a point to park down the street. The school is
closed on Sundays, where we're generally there, as well as Saturdays, so we make it a point to
park in other areas to make it as non-competitive as possible. One of the other things, and I'll just
kind of speak to is that we also have upcoming events where the meeting space, I'm thanking
Attorney Notkinson for speaking to that. One of the things that we'll utilize in that space,
we'll be part of partnering to do a back-to-school drive that won't be held in that community.
We understand, you know, we've been dealing with some of the oppositions, not understanding why
that when we're bringing services in a community, why we would have such opposition from a community
that we're trying to offer positive things where there's shootings and things like that and i'm not
going on a political rant but however we will have a location or we're going to use the we
would like to be able to use this the space to do the packing of up to 200 backpacks and then we're
going to go into other communities and put out information where uh people will be able to come
and get backpacks we have back to school we have uh other projects for our community so while we're
small, there's a lot that we're doing, not competing with
other churches in the community, but to offer things outside the
surrounding community to make a difference.
Mr. Chapman, we appreciate your input. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair. I have a Felicia Richardson.
I've allowed them to speak.
Hi, Ms. Richardson. Yes, can everyone hear me?
We can.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Felicia Richardson, F as in Frank, E-L-I-C-I-A, last name Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
I affirm, sir.
Ms. Richardson, are you a neighbor?
Yes, I live in the 19151 area.
Are you in favor of this proctored or against?
Are you in favor or against?
Oh, I'm in favor.
And I'm also a member of the church.
Ms. Richardson, listen, can you tell us anything other than what we just heard from the minister?
Yes, I wanted to speak on someone asked about the trash and how that's handled.
Someone had asked about the trash and how that's handled.
We don't create a lot of trash, but we actually collect our trash.
Mostly we're there on Sundays and some Saturdays, and we take the trash with us.
I am a property manager as well.
I also send someone to the property to not only clean in front of our area, but we clean the whole entire block.
right um as uh reverend chapman had mentioned about the helping of the area we have noticed a
lot of um like people that look like they were without food or homeless um we invited them into
our church and we fed them and we gave not only inside the church but also we've given them food
to take out with them um so i just wanted to make sure you understood that as far as the trash is
concerned there is no problem there because we're making sure that it stays clean and we also we've
gotten a lot of uh gratitude from the other businesses for um just cleaning up the whole
block and we're not charging anybody for anything we're just doing that because we're part of the
community mr richardson we want to thank you for taking the time to cause we appreciate it
is there any other hands yes sir ryan watson how many more hands do you have jason just this one
just one more after ryan watson okay mr watson hi hi could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer this is ryan watson r-y-a-n-w-a-t-s-o-n you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor uh yes are you in favor
this project or against? I'm against. Mr. Watson, we've had a great deal of testimony,
I guess, to what I'll call the people being against. Is there anything you're going to
offer that we haven't already heard? Absolutely. Yeah. So I want to, I guess,
offer the perspective of a neighbor that's, you know, along 6300 Woodbine and does, you know,
already experience uh a degree of parking issues on uh on sundays um so we have as kind of many
point out you know a bunch of religious organizations that are kind of in this corridor
um you can look on google maps the city website our lady of lords jesus holy temple celestial
church japanese christian church the green hill i think i'm familiar with the area and i think i
know about the churches that are there sir so um you know it's it's it it's one of those things
where um i guess you know where we're kind of where we're where we're located on the street
we're already running into parking issues on the on the sunday morning so i wanted to provide i
wanted to provide that and um you know as uh as uh a parent of a of a young child you know getting
into and out of a car seat carrying them to and from the car it just makes you know that part of
kind of day-to-day living it makes it a bit more a bit more difficult um additionally um i guess i
you know wanted to point out um you know greg allen kind of mentioned um i think uh the update
on the was it four-year lease now in the community leading meeting that i think we all voted on i
believe it was presented as a two-year lease. So that's a big change. I guess just generally what
else I'd say in terms of the current owner and, quote, the inability to find a tenant,
maybe some of this reflects the lack of otherwise investment in the area, right? I mean,
I mean, if I walk along this corridor in this area, it doesn't look like anyone has really invested in these buildings.
If I were a business, I don't know that the state of the area, the condition it's in, the condition that these commercial real estate owners keep things in, I don't know that that would make it super, super appealing.
So I'd like to see, you know, in line with in line with other voices, I'd like to see more commercial development here.
And I'm just worried that, you know, a church kind of yet another church front that's going to remain open or going to remain closed most of the week isn't going to move the needle on us.
OK, Mr. Watson, we appreciate your input and we understand your concern.
We have one more hand.
Yes, Fenton Calloway, I have allowed them to speak
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
mr callaway please unmute and wait to be sworn in
Fenton Calloway, please unmute and wait to be sworn in
okay yes mr callaway could you state your name as bell for the photographer
vincent v-i-n-c-e-n-t callaway c-a-l-l-o-w-a-y you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes sir mr callaway are you a neighbor yes i live around
the corner mr calaway are you for this project or against i'm 100 for the project um we appreciate
your uh your input and thank you for calling it is there anyone else no further hands mr chair
planning commission hold on alan do you want to say anything real i i don't want to be
planning commission good afternoon michael gall with the city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed-use zoning at this location
the applicant has demonstrated that the proposed uses religious assembly and group medical dental
and health practitioner would not be detrimental to neighboring properties beyond what might
otherwise be expected these uses are in character with both previous uses of this property and with
similar uses in the immediate vicinity the city planning commission therefore recommends the board
grant both the proposed special exceptions for religious assembly and for group medical dental
and health practitioner uses.
Hillary's asked me to hold a vote on this until next Wednesday.
We'll vote at 2 o'clock.
When it was first written, it says,
for use as religious assembly and personal service is the hair salon.
And I think the hair salon is by right, so we just want to make sure.
Of course.
So we'll vote on this next Wednesday at 2 p.m.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
number 10 mi-2025-001-745-3810 the oak road julie bernstein is the attorney
do me a favor make sure that's want to get it real close to you good afternoon
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Julie Bernstein, J-U-L-I-E, last name Bernstein, B-E-R-N-S-T-E-I-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Did you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
My client is Fred Gerhart and Martha Cooper, and they are the owners of their property.
you um you waive the reading of the refusals and agree with their accuracy i will and i do
please start your presentation so uh
good afternoon again julie bernstein with kathlyn stewart i represent the owners fred
gearhart and martha cooper um the owners of 3810 the oak road and they're the applicants here
seeking zoning relief fred and martha own a residential property located um on the sort of
southwestern side of the oak road it's between mid val and uh the west schoolhouse lane the
property zone rsd3 and uh which is residential single family detached it's a very irregularly
shaped parcel i just currently have up kind of the overall plan and it is this parcel right here
and it actually cuts in currently and then sort of diagonals can you make that bigger please
so this is the property and currently actually there's a little square that's not owned by
um the applicants uh it's this the property that they currently owned is improved with a single
family dwelling um and a kind of detached garage that's taken access off of a kind of narrow
driveway that you kind of have to turn sharply to the left to get into this existing garage um
fred and martha are planning on purchasing this sort of square shaped to square off the southern
corner of their property. This corner right here did previously also have a detached garage on it
that was quite dilapidated. I'll show you photos in a minute. Can you speak a little more into the
mic, please? Is this better? Yes, much better. Okay, sorry about that. So just quickly, so this
is kind of the property that they own. It's very irregularly shaped. And then there's a little kind
of square at the corner they have an agreement of sale which we've included with our packet
the intent is to purchase this corner which would square off this is kind of
the intent is to purchase this corner which would square off this is kind of the southernmost
corner of their property and there used to be it was demolished because it was in terrible
condition but there used to be a kind of garage here and they have a garage here on their property
the plan is to demolish the current smaller garage and build a new garage in that place
reference for some reference we'll get back to kind of our but I think this might help everyone
so as you can see this is this is the property and then this is kind of the neighboring property
that had a little garage you can kind of see it here and they're going to purchase that kind of
corner um if you see here this is the street view so you can see their single family dwelling
slightly behind there's like very very mature landscaping on the property um that's quite
beautiful there's over a hundred year old trees this is the driveway access it's quite narrow
the garage would be behind this um there is the garage there that's behind it that you cannot see
and that would continue to be the situation if this relief is approved so and just as i mentioned
this was the former kind of garage that i mentioned was in quite terrible condition so it was torn down
and it was right next to this garage which is on their property just for reference this is a
neighboring detached garage that's 25 feet in height just so that you have a sense of