Good afternoon.
Name and address for the record.
Yes, Alan Nockamson of Nockamson, PC, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And have you emailed the exhibit packet with the proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal referral, photos, plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
I have, and I do.
Proceed.
Good afternoon.
Again, my name is Alan Nockam, Simp Nockam, Simp PC.
And I'm going to share my screen.
And I have in front of you a packet of exhibits, which include eight of them.
The first exhibit is the deed to the property, showing that Northwest Holdings, LLC, owns the property at 6818 Chew Avenue.
This is in the East Mount Airy section of Philadelphia.
After the deed, I have proof of the certificate of tax compliance or that my client's a good standing with the City of Philadelphia.
After that, I have the notice of refusal that's dated October 22nd of 2019.
This is an RSA 3 property.
We're looking to put a coffee shop with a minimum of four seats, not to exceed 20 seats,
not utilizing any commercial cooking appliances or exhaust apparatus into place,
as well as have a single-family dwelling in the existing structure.
We are being refused because we're proposing to put a prepared food shop in this property.
I will say this.
This property has never been used solely as a single-family structure.
It's always had a commercial component going as far back as the 1930s where it was used as a grocery store.
It also has been used in the past as also a sandwich shop if you look at the L&I file for this property.
The fourth exhibit is our application for appeal that we filed with the zoning board of adjustment along with the project information form.
After that is the zoning map.
You'll see where we are in the neighborhood.
We're on Chew Street between East Gorgas Lane and Meehan.
I'll just point out this Google map shows Trades for a Difference.
This is also an entity that's owned by the principals of Northwest Holdings LLC, the property owner.
If you looked up Trades for a Difference, you'll see that they're a very good nonprofit entity
that does a lot of great work in the neighborhood in terms of construction
and employing people in the neighborhood as well.
After that is our exhibit for the pictures.
You'll see this is the property.
You'll even see like this is the structure in the front, which has always been used commercial in nature, which has been an addition in the front.
And in the back is the residential portion of the property.
There is even a signage.
I think this was like a co-op grocery store at one point.
You'll see the signage that says Unity Frankfurt because that was what was originally there back as far back as the 1930s.
You'll see pictures to the right of the property on Chew Avenue, to the left of the property on Chew Avenue, and then you'll see our orange poster as well, showing that we posted the property.
You'll see the next is our plans and drawings.
As you'll see, this is the commercial component, which is approximately 500 square feet.
You walk in, there's seats to the left, there's some tables to the right, point of sale system in terms of ordering food.
You know, pre-COVID and hopefully post-COVID, this will be a little place in the neighborhood where people can just, you know, get a cup of coffee, some pastries that are cooked off-premises and pre-packaged and or, you know, before or after work get food.
We did meet with the East Mount Airy Neighbors Association, and as you can see, there were 42 people that attended the meeting.
41 VOTED IN FAVOR, 1 VOTED IN NON OPPOSITION, 10 VOTED WHO ARE NEARBY NEIGHBORS IN SUPPORT IN FAVOR AND 1 IN NON OPPOSITION.
AND WE HAVE A LETTER OF SUPPORT FROM THE EAST MOUNT ARIES NEIGHBORS ASSOCIATION.
I HAVE CARLOS MASIP ON THE PHONE. CARLOS, CAN YOU VIRTUALLY RAISE YOUR HAND?
Thank you.
i'm unmuted hello everyone hi uh carlos can you state your full name and address for the record
sure my name is carlos massed address 2413 tulip street philippia 19125
we're in a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir thank you okay so um carlos you heard everything i stated today
Correct.
And is it true and correct?
Yes, it is.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
We also, I believe, have Joe Green, who will be one of the operators of the business,
and one of the things I overlooked in my exhibit packet.
I do have some information about Mr. Green.
He's a well-known pastry chef in the city of Philadelphia,
and there was an article about him
with the Temple Fox School of Business
season alumni.
Again, just to reiterate,
there will be no cooking on the premises,
but he will be using his product
at the premises prepackaged.
Any questions from the board?
Anyone else wish to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
Mr. Richardson, are you here for this case?
Here is Mr. Richardson from Council Office.
Mr. Richardson.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon. Please identify yourself.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass.
The Councilwoman.
Swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
I do. Yes the councilwoman supports the granting of the variance. Planning Commission.
Good afternoon this is Dave Munson M-U-N-S-O-N with the City Planning Commission.
We're going to affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth.
I do. Please proceed. This property is indicated for single family residential use on the
comprehensive plan. We feel that this use does not pose any negative impacts on
the surrounding area. Accordingly, we have no objection to the granting of the
variance at this location. Thank you very much. MI-2020-00014468182 Avenue, my
vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. Thank you.
Thank you. Calendar number MI2020-000772, 1905 Spruce Street.
I'm sorry.
Hi, this is Alan Occamson of Occamson, PC. I'm the attorney of record for 1905 Spruce Street.
I was waiting for you to leave the screen, but you're the attorney.
You did give your name and address.
Do you swear a firm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And have you exhibited the entire packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal referral, photos, and 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, in all respects.
Thank you.
You may continue.
All right.
I'm going to share my screen for this one as well.
Thank you.
So just a little bit of background.
We were here approximately a month ago regarding this matter in 1905 Spruce Street.
If you look at my exhibit packet, Exhibit 8, we did receive a letter of non-opposition from the Center City Residence Association.
So currently, the property is allowed to be used on the first two floors as for professional and business office use,
and then on the third and fourth floors of the Center City property for residential use.
Al Ciardi recently purchased the property and is looking to put his law firm and maybe a few subtenants in there into this property.
So when we met with the San Diego State Residence Association, they required a proviso, which required law firm use only into the property, and we had no objection to that.
You know, it was a very well-attended meeting.
We even had some of the nearby neighbors voice what they had to voice in terms of whether
what they had to voice in terms of whether or not they were in support or not.
or not they were in support or not.
We met with the zoning board. A few of the neighbors attended the hearing and had a couple
of concerns. First of which, they had a concern that the property wasn't properly noticed.
And I'm just going to put photographs to exhibit six and just go through this.
so this is a rather you know tall property um and you know where we placed the nose originally we
placed it in the window there they claimed that they that it should have been in the door um also
this property goes street to street on manning uh and they claimed that my client did not properly
post so that was an issue that they claimed that there should be a continuance just for that
So the board heard that. We stated that, you know, if there wanted to be a supplemental hearing, you know, for more information and also to give us an opportunity to maybe meet with the nearby neighbors.
So we reposted the property with this, you know, hearing date and time in the front on the door and in the back of the property.
So we did meet with the nearby neighbors, you know, at their request or at least to try to work to see what we can work out.
And, you know, we gave them a full presentation, just like we gave to the zoning board, just like we gave at the community meeting, and ultimately asked them, well, what do you want, right?
Right now, this property, the first two floors, is commercial in use, right, or allowed by the code, you know, based on the variance, commercial in use.
By the way, this is an RM4 property.
We want to expand that use to the third and fourth floors.
You know, Mr. Ciardi has a boutique commercial litigation firm where he has seven full-time employees.
So it's a light use.
He may want to sublease, you know, to a few attorneys here and there.
But, you know, especially given COVID and just in general, he doesn't want to be a sub landlord.
He may just have a couple attorneys here and there.
There was really no indication as to what they wanted other than to, you know, hear what we had to say.
You know, we did do research on this block. There are 31 properties on the 1900 block of Spruce Street, seven of which have some commercial component.
Because one of the issues that the neighbors stated was, like, this is a block residential in nature.
And as we indicated to the board and to the community and to them, that's not correct.
Almost 25% of the properties has some type of commercial component in it.
And it's not something that's out of the ordinary where you would have a law firm take, you know, hold of a townhome in Center City, Philadelphia, and then like something like the 1900 Spruce Street or Locust Street or Pine Street and have their office there.
So especially someone who owns the property and who wants to have their law firm there.
So we received, you know, yesterday or the day before that they had no interest in compromising or anything like that.
And they had no obligation to.
I'm just telling you what, you know, notification we got.
You know, they also asked us to send notice of today's hearing to all the affected properties.
Even though we don't have an obligation to, like, we try to be as amenable as possible.
So there were 82 addresses where we mailed notice of today's hearing with an image of the orange poster.
So everyone would have noticed.
We repostered the property.
We met with the neighbors.
But ultimately, we're in the same position we were when we met with the ZBA last month where we have the coordinating RCO in non-opposition.
We have a use that's very light compared to what it could be in terms of, you know, expanding the residential space to have some residential multifamily.
So, you know, we're here to ask the board to decide this matter today.
question alan on the seven properties uh you indicated on this block that have some
commercial use do you know to what extent each of those properties uh is utilizing commercial space
that i do not know so we did a quick search of it we went basically we went into atlas.philadelphia
for every single property and you know all i'm going based on is the public record so i don't
know the answer to that. I will say this, you know, the fact is my client has seven full-time
employees. We also indicated that, you know, of the full-time employees, not all of them are
attorneys. Most of the support staff, their hours of working are nine to five. You know, you do have
an attorney and, you know, some attorneys work later than others, but it's a really light use.
But it's a really light use, and that was why the, you know, Center City Residence Association required, you know, that proviso in terms of law firm use, because they didn't want any business and professional office use in that building.
And that was why the Center City
Like right now, the first two floors allow for professional and business office use, and, you know, when we purchased a property, it was previously being used basically as a shared space.
where the use was a lot greater like we're not trying to overuse this property so let me ask
that question a different way of the seven properties that you uh you spoke of do you know
what type of commercial business is being used in them um let me see offices are they doctor offices
or i think i think yes mostly offices yes they're not like they're not like restaurants or anything
like that so mostly offices okay so there's a restaurant on the corner um nail salon hair salon
cleaners law firms doctor's offices i'm familiar with that area yeah i mean and and we took
testimony uh in the beginning at the earlier hearing with mr sorority mr sorority actually
started his his law practice with his father many many many many years ago at 1900 spruce street
So it's just like he started his career on the 1900 block of Spruce Street where his father's law firm was, and he wants to end his career on the 1900 block of Spruce Street in the building that he now owns.
Thank you.
Do you have any witnesses you want to bring on?
Yes, I have Mr. Ciardi.
Mr. Ciardi, can you virtually raise your hand?
Mr. Ciardi, are you going to unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in?
Am I unmuted?
Mr. Ciardi, please identify yourself with the record.
Spell your first and latest name.
Albert, A-L-B-E-R-T-C-R-D-C-I-A-R-D-I.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed, Alan.