It's all personal vehicles owned by individuals.
Behind the garage is a fenced-in storage lot for vehicles.
This is a photograph of the entry door, which takes you from the...
Going back, would take you from right here on the site plan.
and the steps would come up and turn you into the apartment.
Okay, so again, that's the stair.
This is the office area.
You got a service counter, you know, to hang the keys,
a lunch table, an area for the clients or customers
to wait for their vehicles if they are in fact waiting.
This is the upstairs apartment.
There is a bedroom in the back here.
There is a kitchenette room with a stove area, a sink, cabinets, refrigerator.
There is an existing bedroom on the second floor, an existing full bath.
I couldn't get a picture with the door, but there's a tub shower behind the door.
Here is an aerial view. Again, this is Busselton Avenue. The site consists of, again, Busselton Avenue running north towards Bucks County, Bybury Road running from east to west towards Montgomery County.
um a half a block in this is the across the street is the old pavio's plaza i don't know if
you know some of us remember pavio's restaurant catering home which you know was a
the place to go back in the day um but there again there's three buildings
okay so you have the building that we are talking about right here this is the original
Marvick Supply Building. And then this was the lumber shed
located to the rear.
Again, the property is split
zoned. It's zoned CA1 and RSD1.
Obviously, this building cannot be
reasonably used as a RSD1 residential
property, unless you've got like 18 Hummers that you want to park in your garage.
I would point out that we did meet with, well, not in person or a Zoom meeting with Somerton
Civic. However, Somerton Civic has adopted a program whereby in order to hold their meetings,
and it's well explained in our letter, that they ask the applicant to post a presentation
or provide them a presentation, which I did. And they then post it online. And part of that process
is the applicant providing a letter of notice
of the virtual presentation slash meeting,
and they afford all the applicants or all the neighbors
to provide questions, not just one session of questions,
but two sessions of questions.
So there's a first round, and then we provide answers,
which we did.
Then following that, there was a follow-up set of questions, which we responded to.
And as a result of that, you know, one of the things Somerton usually does is they ask us to agree to a prohibition on certain uses.
Adult-oriented mechanical or services, drug paraphernalia, gun shops, detention and correctional facilities, the list goes on.
I indicated that my client doesn't own the property, but he himself, as a tenant, would agree to not seek those uses.
not seek those uses thereafter it came down to in response to all of our questions whether we would
Um, thereafter...
agree to a proviso on the variance that all vehicles would be stored overnight would be in
the rear of the lot or within the building and and that any and all vehicles situated out front
would be for customer pickup as scheduled to that we agreed so you know in in the end any any
customer vehicle waiting for service would be parked behind the building and what i did was i
i gotta i gotta move this uh i don't know why my my thing's at the top of the page but
okay um no that's not the one okay so i i this this was not part of my packet but i i i printed
this up off of Google Earth. Again, here's the garage. Here's the office with the apartment
above. These two yellow lines here designate fences and gates. So the entire rear portion
of the property is secured from the public out front. And this would represent the parking
area for customer vehicles um if i can get to
all right oh there i got it okay um so again this is this is looking at it from bybury road
so you can see there's a fence here and there's a fence here this parking area out front um we
have agreed that we would not park customer vehicles waiting for repair out front so as
not to detract from Bybury Road, which is rather a pleasant sight when you're driving up and down Bybury Road.
The only time a vehicle will be parked out here is if, in fact, a customer is picking it up that day.
So they would move it from the rear lot, park it out front, customer would enter, pay his bill, grab his vehicle, and off he would go.
Okay, Sean, I am going to interrupt you. Is there anybody in the virtual audience who would like to testify? It's now almost eight o'clock.
Carol, I do have Yusuf, if the board's willing to testify, if he was called, he would verify my representations to the board, and he would adopt my representations as his own testimony.
Okay. Is there anyone else?
Vice Chair, we have Senator Sabatina. Would you like for me to unmute him?
Yes, I would.
Senator, you may unmute yourself.
Thank you.
Hi, Senator. Can you put your name and address, your name on the record?
Sure. It's John Sabatina, J-O-H-N-S-A-B-A-T-I-N-A. I'm the state senator.
Thank you. Do you swear for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Okay, you may proceed.
I just wanted to echo Councilman Brian O'Neill's opinion in that this is an overuse of the property and that, you know, that I'd be opposed to it.
Thank you. Planning Commission?
Thank you, Senator.
Madam Chair, can I be heard on one more point?
Oh, sure.
I would point out that for decades, this was a building material and supply company where contractors came in day in and day out to pick up lumber, drywall, screws, hammers, nails.
And, you know, unfortunately, that business, you know, probably due to Home Depot and, you know, Lowe's, unfortunately left us in or about 2012.
to to utilize or adaptively reuse a portion of this property for a small auto repair business
with the owner residing in the apartment above and using the downstairs as his office
represents a reasonable adaptive reuse of the property and will not create an adverse effect
upon the community um yeah i mean a building and material supply company has traffic all day long
um especially early in the morning and in this case that would not occur i can appreciate the
councilman's uh you know uh deference in trying to uh protect the somerton community uh i was born
I was born and raised in the far northeast.
and raised in you know the far northeast i was on the other side of the boulevard but
I was on the other side of the boulevard, but this is not an impactful use.
And with the owner residing on premises, he is certainly not going to want an adverse impact upon his neighbors
because he himself is a resident of the neighborhood and would not want that effect.
So I would ask that the board take that into mind.
Planning Commission.
Good evening, board.
Peter Bernard for the Planning Commission.
Good evening.
Good word.
This property is indicated for auto-oriented commercial use in the comprehensive plan.
The proposal is inconsistent with the comprehensive plan's recommendations regarding street frontage
the proposed uses are incompatible. The paved front yard does not meet with the city's
landscaping standards. Accordingly, we oppose the granting of the variance.
Madam Chair, with regard to the Planning Commission's recommendation, it's an existing
paved lot and we're not proposing any new parking lots and therefore I don't understand
why the planning commission would say that it's inconsistent uh with with the with the plan uh
we're not changing anything that's out front we're just here for a use permit and all storage would
be in the rear of the building in the fenced in new york thank you calendar number zero oh does
supportive any questions no calendar number zero no or two four six two six dash 30 bybury road my
vote is no my vote is no my vote is no my vote is no my vote is no
thank you that concludes the two o'clock hearing are we taking we're not taking any break right
unless we're getting tripled over time.
So I would just like to check with the court reporter
and see how she is.
How are you?
Would you like a break?
I would, maybe a five-minute break.
Sorry.
Sounds good.
No worries.
That sounds good.
How about 810?
Come back at 810.
Thank you.
Mary, I'm the vice chair of the zoning board
of Adjustment. I'll be the Acting Chair this evening, along with, let me say, Board Secretary
Confessor Plaza and Board Members Thomas Holliman and James Snell, Board Administrator Fatina
Owl, and Board Attorney Rebecca, I can't remember Rebecca's last name, Cole, okay, are also in
attendance. For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings,
I'll go through some of the basics of what you can expect. First, we will be administering oaths
to individuals, participants prior to their testimony. Second, we'd like to advise everyone
that this proceeding is being recorded and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement
to be recorded. This is available to the public on the web or otherwise. Third, for anyone
participating by phone if you wish to testify you must raise your hand by hitting star nine
then star six to unmute yourself. Star nine and then star six to unmute yourself. To enter an
appearance statement call google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and address of the
property at issue. The number again is 267-270-5548. Fourth, the question and answer box is not for
testimony. Any comments are to be directed to Ms. Tanya Sunkit or Fatina L. Are there any
continuances. Okay, the continuances I have are calendar number 1856, 1715 North 59th Street.
That will be continued. Calendar number 1562, 279 Grape Street. That is also continued.
calendar number zero three two eight four six oh nine hedge street that is all also continued
if you do have any requests for continuances or disagree with what i've read please raise your
virtual hand okay calendar number i'm gonna
Okay, calendar number, I'm going to begin the hearings, calendar number 1307-1127 North Lee Street, the attorney is Zen Jin.
Mr. Jin has been promoted to panelists.
Thank you.
Mr. Jin?
Name and address for the record, please, and spell your last name.
Yes, Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N, J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1838, Philadelphia
PA 19103.
It's so late, I don't know if I saw you before, but do you swear for me to tell the whole
truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you also agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I'm kind of at a little loss here.
I'll be honest, I don't have this case listed on my calendar.
I actually had it, I had the 5108 Haverford as the case we are presenting today.
So I don't know if we made a request for continuance on this.
If not, I would like to make one because we would not be ready to proceed.
Okay, calendar number 1307, 1127 North Lee Street.
This case will be continued.
thank you um and you know since you're on i'm going to go right to your case calendar number
1567 5108 haberford avenue yes thank you do you swear a firm to tell the whole truth and nothing
but the truth i do do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i do have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance refusal
referral photos plans five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco and
Do you have a letter?
Yes to all except for the RCO letter.
We do not have a letter from them,
although we did meet with them.
I do believe that the council office
did send an email type letter,
which I attached with my exhibit.
Yes, she did.
And she is in opposition.
I don't know if Andrew Goodman is here.
he's not on the line last year okay and um mr jen the 44th democratic board achievability
parkside association west philly together all are opposed to this but their letter is not
included in the exhibits so you can go ahead and present your case thank you um i will go ahead
and share with the board the information related to this case if you could just bear with me for
one moment. Sure. We have all the time in the world. I understand it's a long day and
everybody's tired so I'm going to try to move as quickly as possible. Thank you.
So this is an application to use what is an existing
location which is zoned residential but has an existing commercial space on the first floor.
My client essentially wanted to open a store in the commercial space. He entered into a lease
agreement with the landlord and then realized that the food and beverages use itself would not be
permitted and therefore made an application. We did meet with the RCO. The main objection that we
found is that their feeling is another store which is a grocery candy type store is not what
the community wants despite the fact that the property itself really is a commercial style
building even as it exists. What you'll see is that it is already set up with the handicap ramp
and other parts that are related to the commercial use.
The owner actually, because it's set up as a commercial use,
the owner actually rented it to my client as a commercial space
when they entered into a lease.
So my client was not aware that the zoning would not permit the use itself.
And now he's kind of caught with the space already rented