receive unanimous support. I'll also note that the RCO meeting held on, I believe it was the
22nd. The RCO announced that it was a tie. I don't know what changed in between the RCO meeting and
the letter of support, but I do find that curious. What was that? I missed that part. You said
the RCO meeting and you faded it off. Sure. At the RCO meeting, it was announced that the
result was a tie, that there was an equal number of attendees who were in support and an equal
number of attendees who are opposed. I will note that because of the late notice,
our neighbors were unable to attend. But regardless, at the RCO meeting, it was a tie.
And then in the letter apparently sent to the ZBA, it's been announced that it is
the neighborhood supported it, which I am confused by and do not understand.
Moving along.
Sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we try to limit as much testimony as we can to two minutes.
You're way past the two minutes. I believe someone else is there.
Yes, may I please summarize the remainder of my argument in the next 30 seconds?
Please do.
Thank you.
The second problem is that the applicant cannot demonstrate a hardship.
The applicant has the ability to build on this lot by right, especially post-consolidation.
They can build a single-family home.
If their argument is that the lot is too large to build a single-family home, then
that is a result of their own actions, and they should really have appealed for
dimensional variance. There are no other triplexes or quadplexes on Brandywine
Street, which is significantly smaller than the other nearby streets, 37, Spring
Garden, and Haverford, and it should really, if the applicant wants to see it,
be a duplex, certainly not a quadplex. Thank you. As I mentioned before, I'm joined by
Ms. Mary, I would be happy to put her on the line.
Yes, you do, ma'am.
My name is Mary Williams at 3606 Brandywine Street.
I bought my home in...
Ms. Williams?
Ms. Williams, you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Okay, I bought my home back in 68.
I saw the two properties being tore down. The street was a little rough around that time.
I had a fence put up so they wouldn't use the side of my house for a bathroom.
The property was not being used. I asked the city of Philadelphia could I buy the property.
I was under impression of this letter that when they were ready to sell that I would they would
let me know the city of Philadelphia did not let me know I wouldn't have put that much money in a
to you know two lots so right now I'm a little concerned I think the young man for giving me
another three years, first of all. And right now, with this big building being put up with no parking,
no parking on the street, but everybody has to run out of their house every two hours to check their
car so they wouldn't get a ticket. The street is full of trash. If you drive down there right now,
you will see the trash on the street from people that put their trash out two days after trash.
And for this building to go up, I was under the impression that they have a trash person,
but we have a big building on the opposite side of the street right at the corner where all of
where all of these trash cans, about 20 trash cans out there,
these trash cans about 20 trash cans out
and the trash is blowing up and down the street.
I am the one that sweeps up.
Ma'am, with all due respect, I hear your concern about other properties
and them not maintaining the trash.
But if your testimony is, we need it to be specific to the application that's before us.
Thank you.
that um like i said i thank the young man for the three years that he's giving me
i really appreciate that
okay chair we have corey sap you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in okay
and we have koreen sap to be sworn in
good afternoon please identify yourself with a record spell your name for the stenographer
my name is coreane c-o-r-i-n-e last name is sap s as in sam a p as in call p as in call
your address 514 north 34th street where is that in prox in relationship to this property
two blocks i'm on a course 34th and brandywine that's 36th and brandywine okay thank you
hold on please swear and affirm to tell the you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed i'm just gonna i'm just gonna object
to her testimony given that she's two blocks away from this property? I'm calling on behalf.
I'm the representative for the Mantra Civic Association. Okay. Okay. Please proceed. Okay.
So I was brought on with Mantra Civic Association during COVID because of the overuse and overbuilding
of the uh properties i understand this is the last one now i can say that um the letter that
harrison mentioned it is an error that i will discuss with the mantua civic association that
it was a tie so there was no conclusion so that needs to be corrected outside of that
uh we rezoned this area uh the mantua civic association because as the uh attorney farami
mentioned it is an over building uh even though this is the last two lots on this block it's still
an overuse of the property it's an overuse on this block uh it is going to be a hardship to
the neighbor as you see in this picture behind it uh that's miss mary's house on the concrete
where the garden is behind it she's got a big giant building behind her and then right next
to this building is a small three foot if it's three foot in alley um i believe that we can rami
is a responsible builder in the community i've worked with him on other projects but i believe
with notice and with uh uh an agreement that we can somehow with miss mary and the nearby neighbors
if we give good notice that everybody can come out and come to an agreement we can right now
this it's an overuse as it stands according to the Philadelphia planning
it's it goes against your plan and also with our remapping and rezoning it was
as a result of the overuse that we is just too many apartments versus the
single-family homes in the Mantua even on this block so right now we need to
continue this somehow we can is a lot of errors in this whole development and I
believe that if we sit down and come together with the community and the nearby neighbors not
the community but nearby neighbors that some kind of resolution can come but right now it's an
overuse it's it's it's just too much for even if they consolidate it along with the lot
and the alley that's next to it in the alley that's behind it um the other the other issue is
regarding the alley and where this is there was uh there's a lot of resolutions because this is
actually three properties and not two so it's a lot of uh things that's not clear on this property
that the community and the owner and attorneys need to discuss clearly uh with the uh nearby
neighbors and also to the philadelphia planning and zoning because this is actually three properties
with my uh due diligence uh of getting this property here all right so you're asking basically
for a continuance to have further conversation with the developer yes anyone else Mr. Chairman
this is Rami Shami if you can allow me at some point to answer um whenever you can please yeah
um whenever you can please yeah let me let it see if is anyone else wish to testify in this case if
let me let it see if is anyone else wish to testify in this case
so please raise your hand and if you're going to testify please uh provide us with some new and
different testimony iman um you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in okay thank you
all right good afternoon please spell your name uh identify yourself spell your first and last
name for the record? My name is Eman Alkoban, E-M-A-N-E-L-K-A-L-B-A-N.
Your address? 3616 Spring Garden Street, Unit D.
Okay, do you swear and affirm? How far away is that?
It's parallel. So like Spring Garden and Brandywine.
Okay. You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I'll keep this very short. I know that we've already gone overtime with everyone else. I attended the community meeting. And I really believe that the developer is trying to work with the next door neighbor and just, you know, a small thing that we're mentioning that she is being very gracious about it, that she's going to have it for another three years, but that's already on top of two years.
So it's really five years if you think about it, and I think that that's something that should be put into consideration, too, that, you know, he's working very closely with that and being very gracious about it.
And, you know, I know that we're not exactly casting votes here, but I think that's something that, you know, is important to think about.
Thank you.
We have Francine Murray.
You can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
Okay. Good afternoon, Ms. Murray, please identify yourself with a record name and address.
Good morning, Branson Murray.
Your address?
3606 Brandywine Street.
We're in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
Yes, we have some concerns regarding the building.
it does appear to be out of sorts and not consistent with the neighborhood platform.
So I would move toward postponing the meeting so that further discussion can be had
and the community can take a part of the actual structure that's going to be allocated to that site.
Thank you.
That's all.
All right.
Is that it?
am i able to respond to a couple things yes uh look i mean the bottom line is that it seems that
most people might be willing to have if they have a continuous they're willing to have some
conversation whether the compromise works for your client or not i don't know because
we don't know what that may be uh but is any is there any is miss jones from councilman
council president clarkson this is west philadelphia this would be andrew goodman
okay it's on the other side brand new all right thank you i got my all right is anybody mr chairman
this is rami shrine i'm i'm the owner if you allow me to answer yeah i just wanted to check that
usually a council the council city district council person has a representative and i just
wanted to know if anyone was on the line. So this is Gautier's district. Yes. Okay, Mr. Shrami.
Rami, if you could hold off for a second, I want to just address a couple things for the record
before we get into the possibility of continuing this to a later date to allow additional
discussions. So first of all, regarding notification, proper notification was provided
to the community. And in fact, we, we worked directly with Mantua to try and schedule a
meeting for this. And they, I could pull emails to present to the board if necessary, but Mantua
did not realize when the hearing was coming up. And they ultimately scheduled us for a meeting
somewhat last notice. My office did mail out the proper mailing. We do have certificates of
mailing to establish that. And because of the short notice, Mantua asked us to put together a
flyer that they hand-delivered to every address that was on that list. So in this case, there was
actually double notice provided just to make sure that the community did have ample notice.
as you can see in the photograph proper posting was done 21 days prior to this hearing
um you know as you know with most property owners they they do their best and and use
as much diligence as they can to ensure that these notices stay up um and given the fact that mr haas
um and given the fact that mr haas has participated in this hearing today that is
that is constructive notice that he had of this hearing uh and i also question no question about
it and also i do believe that he attended the community meeting as well so there was no issue
with understood and i think all what you're saying is great but it'll be a moot point
if we continue this, right? Understood. Rami, go ahead. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted
to point out two things. Number one, Ms. Mary Williams, my next door neighbor at 3606 Brandywine,
I'm actually confused at this point, because I actually was over at her house, and we sat in
the garden, both me and her, and she was very thankful and really said to me, like, I really
appreciate what you're doing and and and and it was all it was all support and and she even gave
me a plant out of that garden yesterday that I have in my house right now and so I'm really
surprised and a little confused of what and really want to understand what is her position today
because it seemed like just you know one neighbor you know took her in and now she's sitting next
to them and and I really wasn't clear on her uh her position today so I would like to clarify that
one and then we're going to continue this and we'll have time but i i do i was a bit confused
myself to be honest with you so yeah and then the other thing is the the lady that claimed that
she's a representative of mca that that is also not accurate because again i um um uh i we did
hold the meeting and they did issue the the letter they did do the count it was initially they
miscounted a vote and and i was there when that happened so it was uh uh and supported in favor
but i guess a continuous yeah everything is fine let's do the continuance because i've heard kind
of conflicting comments uh before it for it but maybe too many units but maybe not enough
you guys will work it out all right okay mr chairman i'll work with miss sunkett but we
would request a relatively short continuance on this given that a full and ample meeting was
already held and we do need to just work out a couple issues. Okay you'll work that out with
Tanya. Yep actually if we is there a way that we can announce it now so that Tanya will not have
to. If Tanya has it yeah. And this will be a follow-up hearing. We can do November 4th as well
2. November 4th at 2. Thank you. Thank you. So MI-2020-001180-3602 Brandywine Street
is continued to November the 4th at 2 p.m. This hearing will be resumed. We gave you the date
at which time we'll consider any feedback from the RCO. Thank you very much. Thank you.
calendar number mi 2020 00091 3860 brown street isaac slepner i think is the attorney
hi good afternoon uh can you put your name and address on the record please yes uh good afternoon
mr chair members of the board isaac slepner with matione limited 100 north independence mall west
suite 5a northwest philadelphia pa 19106 and i am counsel to the owner of 3860 brown street which
is 3858-GERRARD-LLC. With me is, oh, you're welcome. Do you swear or affirm to tell the
whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. And have you emailed an exhibit packet with the
required documents, which are proof of ownership, tax clearance, referral or refusal, photos, plans,
five days in advance of the hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter
yes we did email yes we met with the rco and yes we have a letter thank you okay thank you um good
afternoon uh members of the board um we are here this afternoon actually this hearing was continued
from our initial hearing on august 19th i believe uh at which we presented a number of the substantive
at which we presented a number of the substantive materials and had a bit of a conversation with the board regarding what issues had been raised at the initial RCO meeting.
materials and
The chairman at that time had ordered my client and I to go back to meet with Andrew Goodman of Councilmember Gauthier's office as well as Mantua Civic to try to iron out some of the specific issues that had been raised at the RCO meeting.
And we did meet with Mantua Civic. On one occasion, we met with Andrew Goodman, as well as two of the chairs of Mantua Civic, Dwayne Drummond and Gwendolyn Morris.
And that was, I thought we had a pretty good conversation. It was just me and my client and those three.
we then agreed that our next course of action was to meet with again with Ms. Morris and Mr. Drummond
who are two of the chairs of Manchua Civic as well as several of the neighbors on the 3800 block of
Brown Street and we did meet with them as well this was all via Zoom and phone calls of course
last week. So a few of the issues that were presented specifically were, first of all,
were affordability at which my client had presented. He had presented this to the board
when we had previously been before the board, and he also had presented this
Again, to the RCO chairs and the RCO constituency, his planned development at the site, 3860 Brown, is a six-unit multifamily development, and he had proposed of those six, three would be in the affordable range.