five days in advance of this hearing uh yes i have thank you please proceed to share your screen
thank you
so i'm here to present 4713 north penn street uh in our package you will first see our notice of
refusal, then the letter of support from the Frankfurt CDC.
I believe we also have a letter of non-opposition from the district council member, Council
Member Lozada.
We also did extensive canvassing of the neighborhood, so we have a petition which are signed by
many of the occupied properties on the 4,600 and 4,700 blocks of North Penn Street.
um after that you'll see the certificate of variance uh so this property uh was a six unit
apartment building at one point um you also then will see the for our analysis of the 4700 block
of north penn street so we reviewed the public record um and even though this is an rsa5 property
and even though the other properties on this block are also rsa5 it it really screams as this should
be like an rm1 use um and you'll see like all the multi-family structures of public record on the
4700 block of north penn street so what we're proposing is not out of character in the
neighborhood and then you'll review we will review together the lower northeast district
plan philadelphia 2035 where the city planning commission is actually recommending that the
that this property's zoning classification changed to R1.
So there's good reason why we're asking also
for multifamily use here.
The City Planning Commission also agrees with us
in that respect, aspirationally.
We'll then review maps of the area,
photographs of the property, our plans and drawings,
our RCO meeting, our application for appeal,
which shows that Frankfort Capital 3 Limited Partnership
you know filed this or we filed this appeal on their behalf along with the deed to the property
which shows their ownership in the property certificate of tax clearance showing that they
you know that they are in good standing with the state of Philadelphia as it
pertains to real estate taxes and then at the conclusion of my presentation I would ask that
Mr. Silber virtually raise his hand be sworn in and have a few questions for him about this
presentation notice the refusal so this is an RSA 5 property I believe it's an RSA 5 property
name only because it has an extensive history of multi-family use um and the neighbor the
neighboring properties on that block also are multi-family in nature it's a rather large lot
it's almost 1700 square feet uh rather large building as well um we're proposing five dwelling
units here so we met with the community um at a in a well-attended meeting i don't think there
are a lot of nearby neighbors and i guess that was one of the concerns that's why we we circulated
this petition uh to show that there's extensive support from members of this community but the
three board members of the coordinating rco all vote in favor of this project
and then because of that support the district council matter member also issued a letter
of non-opposition and in our petition um we garnered the support of the property to
left and right of us so some of the you know occupants who would be most affected by this
increased use all on this block um are in support of this prop this this proposed increased use
and then these this is the petition that was signed by them letters of support signed by some of them
and then certificate of variance which shows at one point um and this is like i guess old
And then Certificate of Variance, which shows
school way of saying things but this premises was one times used as one housekeeping unit
and five non-housekeeping units um six units so don't know how like how they differentiated
between a housekeeping unit and non-housekeeping unit but um there were six units in this property
at one point and then we really did canvas a neighborhood um again even though this is
rsa5 classification i've never seen something like this where everything's multi-family there
and then we reviewed the 2035 plan and according to 2535 plan
they're recommending to change this part of town into rmwatt as well
and then maps area so we're the sliver of rsa5 there's a little rsa3 here but really everything
here is multifamily um we are bordering cmx2 rm1 there's a little bit of icmx up here uh so
this this yellow is an anomaly based on what we saw and just based on the use and based on what
2035 plan is is recommending and then this is just from a google maps perspective where we are
so we are between arid and uh folk rod as well as griscom and leaper
and then photographs of properties a really nice property i you know my client's very excited
to you know fix it up inside and you know freshen it up outside but it has great bones and it's
rather large structure and the lot itself is rather large as well which can easily accommodate
the five units that we're requesting proof of posting from today's hearing as well is included
in our presentation packet then north penn street to the right of the property north
penn street to the left of the property our architectural plans and drawings there's no
basement living or use down here um you walk into a common vestibule area unit a is here walk down
the hallway unit b is here uh you go up a flight of step there's unit c unit d and then third floor
is unit e um again no roof deck no no basement living actually everyone has access to basement
so i would suspect that garbage would be stored down there um our rco meeting notice we had a
well-attended meeting on november 9th at 5 p.m this is proof of email of that notice a few weeks
before the meeting so we sent it to the all rcos including the coordinating rco the district
council member and such but we also mailed it out to 102 addresses a few weeks before the
community meeting. These are a list of addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses, our application
for appeal that we filed on behalf of Frankfort Capital III Limited Partnership, along with the
notice of refusal and the project information form, our deed to the property showing that they
own the property, and then finally our certificate of tax clearance. I would now ask that Mr. Silver
virtually raise his hand.
mr silber has been allowed to speak you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer
my name is abraham silber that is a b r a h a m s i l b e r you swear affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel yeah mr silber did you hear
everything i had to state today about your zoning matter i did and is it true and correct it is
and do you adopt as your own testimony i do thank you questions or comments from the board no mr
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair to comments from the virtual audience
there are no hands chair planning commission good afternoon chair peter bernard for the
planning commission this area underwent a community-led remapping of the zoning in 2017
where the current rsa5 single-family zoning was supported by the council member and mayor
we feel the applicant has demonstrated a hardship for multi-family use accordingly the planning
commission recommends the board grant the variance thank you mi 2023 004 442 4713 north penn street
i vote yes thomas holliman my vote is yes
i vote yes thomas holloman my vote is yes james snell my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
thank you council thank you number eight mi 2023 zero zero four one six eight one zero seven zero
zero night road stephanie box of miss magna is the attorney uh recommendation of support from
the west tarsdale morrell park civic association ronald patterson is back in as a panelist here
hi mr patterson you've already been sworn just for the record could you state your name
good afternoon i've returned i just for the record state your name please
sure ronald patterson right and mr patterson could you identify you've already been sworn
could you could you identify your client a relationship with this property
towards tom and jefferson hospital is the parent uh entity that owns this property
okay our vice chair has just a few questions
good afternoon council do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to
its accuracy good afternoon yes i do have you emailed in all the required documents and
exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this
hearing uh yes i have thank you please proceed thank you as mentioned this application in case
regards 10700 Knights Road is in Northeast Philadelphia. It's a standalone building
adjacent to an annex to Jefferson's Jefferson Frankfort Hospital, which I'm showing on the
screen right now. Did you see my screen change? Yes. Okay, great. So this is the property
located off of Knights Road. November of 2022, we appeared here in front of the board for use
variance to use a portion of this existing building as a medical use. And I say a portion
because this portion over here, which you can't really read from here, but it's the settlement
music school in a portion of this building. The application in this RSA 4 residential zoning
district was for physical therapy, occupational therapy use, which is a group medical use,
termed as an outpatient vestibular therapy use. And that was granted. So this application
is for a signed package. This is for you across the street.
The initial application was for four signs, two flat wall, this number two here, a door
sign, and another flat wall sign here at the entrance, as well as one freestanding sign
that will be placed at the entrance off of Knights Road.
And the cut sign package was coordinated with the existing settlement school
sign, as I mentioned. So the first sign, this Jefferson sign here, was the standard Jefferson
sign, health sign, with a logo of 52 square feet. The smaller sign, as I mentioned, near the entrance
was 13.2 square feet. The door sign and the monument sign measuring here seven feet wide by
11 feet in height with a total height of 13 feet for a total of 91 square feet.
We did meet with the RCO, the West Tarsdale Morrell Park Civic Association.
And as a result of that, we reduced this sign by two-thirds to a much smaller sign having 34 square feet.
And we've also agreed to remove this sign number three, which I guess is somewhat redundant in this case.
So, with that said, I'd like to promote Mr. Chacko, C-H-A-C-K-O, and while we're promoting
And while we're promoting him, we have prepared and did file a request for a proviso condition to adjust this application.
him, we have...
Right here.
You see the hand of this witness?
Mr. Chaco, you're free to speak.
hi mr chaco could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes my first name is myrtle last name is chaco first name is m-r-i-d-h-u-l last name chaco c-h-a-c-k-o
you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do please proceed council thank you uh mr chaco what is your position with jefferson
i'm the director of rehabilitation services at jefferson and uh you familiar with and been
involved in this project yes and you've heard my testimony would you agree that it's true
and accurate and you would adopt it as if it were your own yes yeah um is it fair to describe this
is a the standard but perhaps reduced version of the typical jefferson signage a package
that would be contextual with this building yes and would you describe this
location is I guess fairly busy with high higher speed rates than normal yes
and the building set back quite a distance from Knights Road yes it is
okay and is it appropriate necessary to identify the building here to assist
patience to find the building?
Is that fair to say?
And we did meet with the Civic Group.
I think you were present.
And, Mr. Chairman, we have a letter of support.
That's the West Coastal and the Memorial Park Civic Association.
Correct.
With the conditions that we, as I mentioned, about reducing the monument sign.
So I would say that we believe that the building's location, its surrounding use, surrounding uses, traffic conditions, peculiar configuration now as it's located on the property, and that the use variance was granted last year, establishes a hardship to allow for this non-residential amount of signage in a residentially zone district, which only allows 15 square feet, which will be inadequate to appropriately identify this building.
building, both for identifying the building and also preventing adverse impacts with traffic
safety. Yet, we believe the type and size and location will cause no adverse impacts
to anyone. So, with the revised plans we formally submitted, dated 11-8-02-2023, we justified
um granting of this variance in this case thank you questions from the board
no mr chairman no chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair alice alice judovic has a hand up and i will allow her to speak
alice you've already been sworn just for the record state your name alice udovich u-d-o-v-i-c-h
on behalf of councilman brian o'neill the councilman has no objection to the grand
thank you for your call is there anyone else in the audience
yes chair audrey yep yes and now yes and off i will allow to speak
hi could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
audrey hi could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer
audrey has disappeared okay
all right is there anyone else in the virtual audience there are no more hands here
planning commission good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
this location was rezoned from ca1 to rsa4 in 2014 the district plan recommended no change
to the existing rsa4 residential zoning at this location in 2017 however this proposal
is largely consistent with the current ca1 commercial auto-oriented use we feel the applicant
has a demonstrated hardship accordingly the planning commission recommends the board grant
the variance thank you mi2023 zero zero zero zero one
thank you mi2023 000 168 10700 nitro i vote yes with proviso revised plans three pages
stamped by zba on november 29th 2023 thomas holloman my boot is yes with proviso
james snell my vote is yes with proviso ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with proviso
thank you very much thank you number nine mi 2023 004 443 22 16 north 7th street number ta
53960 alan knockupson is the attorney ishmael shaheed has recused himself from this
recommendation of support from the 37th ward rco applicant provided two form letters of support
from neighbors i'm sorry doreen hi chair this is tanya i just wanted to mention that we got a
couple um requests if you could um maybe put your volume up or speak a little louder louder they
having a hard time hearing you i'm fine i am yes you're a little low thank you kindly let me get
closer here okay thank you pleasure thank you uh good afternoon mr chair again mr knockamson you've
already been sworn um could you just state your name for the record alan knockamson could you
identify your client in the relationship to this property uh my client is threefold to 2216 is
owned by 2216 and 7th street llc 2218 is owned by 2218 and 7th street llc and 2220 is owned by abdph
llc um in the virtual audience is dimitri gordeski uh the member of each of these entities
mr hallman has a few questions for you sir thank you good afternoon council
do you agree to weigh the reading of the resolution i mean the refusal and stipulate to
his accuracy i do did you email all of the exhibits and documents that's required
five days in advance to this hearing yes we have thank you please proceed and share your screen
all right so 2216 north 7th street uh we're proposing a 12-unit uh building on this rm1
property uh it's a rather large lot and um you know we're hoping that the board uh sees
how the community saw in unanimously supporting this project all right so we have a couple of
we will review. First is the original notice of refusal, which is July 12, 2023. We did revise it with authorization of the ZBA, so I have a notice of refusal dated November 14, 2023.
we eliminated one refusal there was a refusal for a side yard we actually decreased another
refusal by by including instead of having a side yard as the open area we had the open area
completely in the rear where we had no rear yard setback previously now we have a five foot rear
yard setback which provides ample space to all of the occupants of the building who all have access
to it. And in our community meeting, there was commentary in the fact that they appreciated