commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential symbol family zoning
with this location the current two units exist on one roughly 1 000 square foot lot the minimum
lot size for an rsa 5 lot in the first council district is 950 square feet allowing a lot split
will result in two lots that are far smaller than the zoning code allows there's no hardship created
by maintaining the current lot configuration therefore the planning commission recommends
the board deny the request of dimensional variance.
MI 2021-003231-400-Wolf, I vote no.
Harold Tenere, my vote is no.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is no.
Jane Snell, my vote is no.
Esmail Shahid, my vote is no.
Thank you, sir.
MI 2021-005-233, I'm sorry, that's continued.
MI 2021-000-558-5608-12th Street, Alan Nockamson,
approval from the RCO with provisos.
Sir, Ms. Clementa, Amazon had her hand raised, so I will allow her to speak to the panelist
at this time, sir.
I'm sorry.
Could you say, Tanya, what were you going to say?
Could you say, Tanya, what were you going to say?
Yes, I wanted to ask if Brandon said.
Yes, I wanted to ask if Brandon Saverin can reach out to me.
He's ready to go?
No, Chair. I want him to reach out to me so we can clear this up.
Brandon, if you can email me, thank you. Very kindly, Chair.
Thank you. Right.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, of course. Good afternoon, Board.
Quimente Amazon, C-L-E-M-E-N-T-A, last name is A-M-A-Z-A-N, address is 123 South Broad Street,
suite 1600, 19109.
Do you swear for them to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you state who your client is and the relationship to the property?
Yes, of course.
My clients are Kim and Locke-Wen, and they are the owners of the property.
All right. Thank you. And our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Clementa, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
It appears, based on my notes, that you've submitted all the required documents. Is that correct?
That is correct.
Thank you. You may proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Thank you.
again i'll be presenting 5608 north 12th street this is a very straightforward request and that
we are simply looking to legalize a three-unit dwelling here my client owns the property and
the entire block has a similar use we do have council matter support as well um with a few
provisos. So I will go through the notice of refusal, the correspondence that we do have
from Councilperson Cheryl Parker, who did facilitate this meeting. We also have several
properties that have similar views along the 5600 block of North 12th Street. We have
maps of the area, photographs of this property, our proposed plans and drawings. The notice
that we did send out for the community meeting, as well as the application for appeal, deal,
and the certificate of tax clearance excuse me. So again the refusal of property is currently
zoned as RSA 5. We are looking to have a triplex here in an existing structure. Again this is a
block that was primarily multifamily used. It does still have that use although it has since been
re-zoned so my client is simply looking to revitalize that use and we did meet with council
person, Cheryl Parker. And here we have a letter that we received from her zoning aide, Hillary
Emerson. We worked very closely with them throughout this process to ensure that we did address all
concerns from the community. To that effect, we did receive support with the following provisos
for my clients to receive. Within three months, the required permits for the extension of the
unit into the lower level, which does have a separate entrance and egress, as you'll see in
the photographs, obtaining the certificate of occupancy within nine months, the installation
of exterior lighting on the front and rear of the property, as well replacing a rear
deck that my client is currently working on at the moment.
And as I mentioned previously, this is a use that is very common along this block.
It has been rezoned rather recently, but it does have a history of multifamily use that
is still used within the block.
So we have 5610 North 12th Street, right next door 5612 North 12th Street, 5614 as well as 5616 North 12th, 5618 as well as 5620 North 12th.
All of these properties are currently being used as multifamily, and they have similar configurations and identical lot sizes to my client's property as well, and they are all along the same block.
So, as you can see, it's primarily the entire block that has this similar use in the requested
bank that we have here.
So, I don't want to drill it in too far in, but again, we have a map of the area.
So, we are off of West Olney Avenue and in between West Chu along to North 12th Street.
A Google map view of the area.
Here we have a view of the front of the property, and this is one side of the twin that are
multiple means of access.
So we do have one front door here, as well as a front door along the side that allows access for the upper level unit, as well as this unit here.
And this unit is going to be our lower level unit for the third floor, which has the egress here in the front, as well as access in the very yard.
Here we have a view of North 12th Street to the right of the property, North 12th Street to the left of the property.
And again, these are all of the homes that have similar variances and that they are all multifamily used currently.
Here we have a view of the front of the property dating back to August 2008 and there are multiple
And there are multiple electric meters, as well as multiple hot water heaters, and we do have a means of access here for that lower level.
multiple electric meters, as well as multiple hot water heat.
Again, it is not below ground. It is another means of access here along the side.
And this is a rear deck that we are looking to currently fix and rehabilitate, and that is another means of access for that lower level unit.
and here we have the plans and drawings the notice that we sent out for the meeting again
we did work very closely with the councilwoman's office to facilitate this meeting and to work on
addressing all concerns the community had through provisos that meeting was held on june 3rd at 6 30
p.m along with a copy of our refusal we listed the properties that were notified of the meeting
meeting. The notice was sent out on May 17th, as you can see here. Our application for appeal.
Again, we are looking for the legalization of a triplex. This is a very common use along this
block. Our project information form and the deed showing that my client does in fact own the
property and our certificate of tax clearance. So with that, if I could have my client lock one
and raise his hand so that he needs out my testimony.
He's been allowed to speak.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Loc Nguyen, L-O-C-N-G-U-Y-E-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Proceed.
did you hear my presentation today yes and was it true and correct yes and would you adopt it as
your own testimony yes thank you um i'd be happy to answer any questions the board may have questions
from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions from the virtual audience or comments
miss hillary emerson has her hand raised that can allow her to speak at this time sir
please
good afternoon mr chair members of the board hillary emerson on behalf of councilwoman
sherelle parker h-i-l-a-r-y-e-m-e-r-s-o-n you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth i do thank you proceed yes thank you mr chair um the councilwoman
acted as the coordinating RCO in this case as the other RCOs in the area weren't able to hold
the meeting and we did we did hold a meeting with a couple of community members attending
we recognized that this property was converted back in 1946 to a triplex but through non-use
no longer the non-conforming use did not continue and the zoning of the area changed single family
So that's why they're here today. We did agree. We worked with the community to develop the provisors that we agreed upon and that Ms. Amazon went over regarding the expansion of the lower unit into the former garage area.
Also addressing a deck that had to come down and needs to be rebuilt, as well as lighting concerns and obtaining a certificate of occupancy within nine months.
And as I said, we've worked through these provisos with the community and with Ms. Amazon, so the community and the councilwoman are not opposed to this application with these provisos.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Any other comments from the virtual audience?
I see no other hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair, members of the board, Ian Litwin, Planning Commission staff.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
However, there is a documented history of three-family use dating back to a time before this property was zoned RSA 5.
This is not inconsistent with the rest of the neighborhood.
Therefore, we recommend that the variance be granted.
Thank you, Ian.
MI 2021-000558-5608-North 12th Street.
I vote yes with the following provisos.
One, within three months, obtain required permits for extension of benefit basement unit into Fulmer Garage Space.
Two, obtain CO within nine months.
steel must include review of utility costs.
Three, install exterior lighting on front and rear property.
And four, within six months, replace the rear deck and stairs that were removed, obtaining
And four, within six months, replace the rear deck and stair.
appropriate permits first.
Mine is a yes with those provisos.
Carol, you're muted.
You're muted.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes with provisos.
Sorry about that.
Thomas Harleman, my vote is yes with provisos.
James Snell, yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, yes, with proviso.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Chairman Berkman, this is Tanya again.
We have researched the matter, and Counselor Severn is prepared to go forward.
We resolve the issue.
MI 2021-005-027-2628
North Broad
I'm sorry Mr. Chair
Mr. Saverin has been promoted again
and I believe we already
swore you
I believe so Mr. Chair
did you talk to the Vice Chair
yes I did
Thank you. And I want to thank Administrator Sunkit for her help there. I am now reassured that you do have the correct referral in front of you. So as I began to mention, I'll show my screen here.
uh so this um this application pertains to two different properties um they are adjacent to one
another and it concerns um the uses on those two properties and a lot line relocation between them
so as i mentioned i represent the property owner philadelphia suburban development corporation
who owns both properties and the tenant of one of the properties, which is Starbucks.
The proposal seeks to accomplish a couple things. So this aerial image sort of outlines
both properties together. It's sort of got this leg out to 15th Street and is otherwise
a L-shape assemblage that I'm outlining here.
It's currently a strip mall sort of scent shopping center,
which is along Broad Street with a lot of parking behind it.
And what we're proposing to do is to demolish the existing strip center
and build a new construction building to house a Starbucks restaurant
with the drive-through.
We're also going to re-stripe the existing parking lot area and reconfigure the lot line between the two properties.
So to just illustrate that quickly, this is what it will end up looking like.
We're going to take land from what is currently the 1412-22 West Lehigh Avenue lot.
and move it over to give it to the 2628 North Broad lot to effectively make it larger.
And this will allow the Starbucks that we're proposing to build to have more parking on site.
The remainder of the parking, which will be in the remainder of the Lehigh lot,
will be non-accessory parking that the owner can use for other purposes as it owns some other properties.
in the area. And again, what remains of the Lehigh lot will be freshened and restriped.
So just to give you a quick sense, here's what the properties look like now. The Lehigh lot is
larger than it will be. The broad lot is smaller than it will be. Both properties will be partially
zoned CMX2 and partially zoned CMX3, but CMX2 controls under the zoning guidelines for mixed
designation properties. And in the CMX2 district, both of these uses, zoom in a little bit here on
our referral, both of these uses require special exceptions from the board. So the Starbucks will
be classified as a takeout restaurant in caps here because it will feature an automobile drive-through
and that use takeout restaurant requires a special exception. The non-accessory parking
use on what will be the smaller Lehigh Avenue oriented lot also requires a special exception
which is stated here. That's it. There's no zoning refusals so we're not seeking a variance. We do
not have to demonstrate a hardship to the board. We have to demonstrate that we satisfy certain
We have to demonstrate that we satisfy certain criteria for special exceptions that are enumerated in the code, and I beg for your patience, I'm going to attempt to satisfy those criteria on the record relatively quickly so we can, you know, build a satisfactory record and obtain our special exceptions.
criteria for special exception.
So we did attend two community meetings about these two properties and obtained support from two different RCOs.
The coordinating RCO was the Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation. This is their meeting summary. Here is their letter of support.
we also obtained a letter of support from a secondary or non-coordinating RCO called the
Swampoodle Neighborhood Parcels Association this is their meeting summary which is of the same