That's fine. Thank you. All right. All right. Thank you.
That's fine. Thank you.
All right.
Number five, MI 2024 004 773 4926 North 12th Street.
Darlene Treat is the attorney recommendation of a unanimous support from Logan Civic Association.
Ten votes, including two near neighbors.
here darling three will be rejoining as a panel shortly
good morning commissioners darling council
please state your name and spell for the stenographer darlene threat d-a-r-l-e-n-e
threat t as in thomas h-r-e-a-t-t do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do do you identify a client a relationship to the property
My client is Ms. Annie Garcia. I believe she's in the virtual audience.
And our vice chair, Tenetta Graham, has a few questions.
Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. Good morning, Ms. Graham, and congratulations.
Thank you. And do you wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Okay. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
I just wanted to say one thing. My syllabus was incorrect and I just uploaded a new syllabus today.
can you see my screen um we do now good afternoon commissioners uh miss annie garcia filed this
application for a two-family dwelling i presented a package of documentation which contains the
refusal appeal property information form the pif the d tax information plans pictures the
community letter proof of mailing and the letter of support there is the package
i'm wondering if you can go to your plans and your photos because we do have all your
documents yeah i'm trying to i'm just going to reshare um the correct presentation did not come
I don't know.
Thank you.
Yes, please.
Okay, sure.
Number 10, MI 2024, 007315, 546 North 58th Street.
Gabriel Fellas is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from HMC Squared.
12 in opposition.
11 abstain.
one in support and we were joining as a panel shortly right good morning mr chair
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer his gabriel fellis g-a-b
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Gabriel Fellis, G-A-B-R-I-E-L.
Last name is Fellis, F as in Frank, E-L-L-U-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
My client is L&S Home Away From Home LLC.
Its principal is Mrs. Lakata Pedro, who is joining us virtually today.
Our vice chair, Tanetta Graham, has a few questions.
Good morning.
have you emailed your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have. And so this is a referral. So do you stipulate to its reading and its accuracy?
I do. Thank you. You can see what's your case. Share your screen.
Can you all see the table of contents? Yes. Great. So we're here today seeking
approval to use the property at 546 north 58th street as a personal home care health facility
property zoned rsa5 which requires special exception approval the property owner is an
llc owned by mrs pedro and her business partner mrs shonda whiting together they've operated lns
home away from home since 2017. lns is an established in-home health care service provider
where aides provide care directly in the client's homes and residences.
So now they're hoping to expand their services by establishing a small
licensed personal care home at this location. It's going to be called Florising Oasis.
I'll provide some background on the owners and their qualifications later on in the presentation.
This is the subject property here. 546 North 58th Street is a newly renovated
four-bedroom, two-story property with a finished basement and a small fenced-in backyard area.
This is the first floor. All four bedrooms are on the second floor. The owners already have planned
to install another handrail and potentially an electric stair lift to ensure accessibility to
their residents should their permit be granted. While none of the anticipated residents currently
require those accommodations they would be installed upon approval and before operations
actually began let's go through this is the second floor hallway and the four bedrooms
this is the bathroom on the top floor
and the finished basement with another powder room and this is the backyard area
So, again, this is the front of the property and here we have some aerial views and street
views from 58th Street.
Start a zoning map showing the property on a mainly residential block.
And here we have our floor plans of the property, again, the property has four bedrooms, one
full bathroom third floor and a powder room down in the basement
so here we provide some general information on Flourishing Oasis
and on the owners of the business like i mentioned previously
Flourishing Oasis will offer residents 24 7 personal health care services
uh supported by a team of four to six health care professionals on site
all for the business owners are Philadelphia natives with extensive home
health care experience. Again, Mrs. Pedro and Ms. Shonda Whiting have already operated L&S
since 2017. Before even beginning the zoning process, Mrs. Pedro and her partners met with
the community members who expressed that the limited availability and the years-long wait
lists at the larger personal care homes in the area have left some serious gaps in those local
services. Several of those homes and their current wait times are listed here for references. Again,
This is over two years of waiting for these homes.
This is a certificate of completion
for a personal care home administrator.
This was obtained by Mrs. Ikea Holley.
She's one of the four owners.
This is one of the first steps required by a Commonwealth
to begin operating a personal care home.
here we have a short bio for mrs pedro as well as for mrs whiting again they jointly owned and
operated lns home away from home since 2017 that business has expanded to employing over 70
employees and actively providing care for over 70 clients so a bit more background on lns and the
So a bit more background on L&S and the services that business offers to their clients.
services that
This is their Department of Health home care agency license shows that the owners have
already stayed licensed, experienced, and fully compliant with healthcare operations
from the state and the ones from the state.
So I'm going to turn now to our community outreach efforts.
So Mrs. Pedro and Mrs. Whitey met with the HMC Squared Community Association on February 27th.
The RCO did provide a letter of opposition to the project
and submitted a letter explaining their opposition. Now, while we certainly understand some of their
concerns um that the neighbors expressed uh we believe some of those some of these reasons are
are a bit misguided um for instance they note the residential nature of the community is at odds
with a personal care home uh in reality this is a small family style home uh the maximum of four
to six elderly residents at a time assisted by between four and six aids but most of the time
not all four aids will be on site at once there's gonna be a total of around eight people with
property at any one time there's no commercial activity no signage no public traffic and there
shouldn't be any disruption to the local community beyond what another family moving into the
property would potentially have on the block the residents are just going to be following
their daily routines and then the aids will just be providing assistance as needed just you know
sort of the the kind of use that the special exception should be designed to to accommodate
uh another issue that they note is a the strain on local resources um respectfully it's difficult
to understand how four additional residents could place any meaningful burden on local
infrastructure or emergency services ambulance and hospital services will continue to function
as they currently do it will be an extremely minimal impact we believe well within what the
community can absorb. The last argument they make here that
they believe there are more suitable locations in the
broader region for these personal care homes. But the
very purpose of this facility in this specific location is to
fill the existing gap in the community. As we noted before,
the waitlist at nearby facilities demonstrate that the
need exists here. And the owner specifically chose this
property to address that shortage. And then lastly, the
The use requires special exception from the Zoning Board under the Code of Personal Care Homes are permitted in RSA 5, provided they satisfy special exception standards listed in Section 1460311.
That section requires compliance with Title 55, Chapters 2600 of the Pennsylvania Code.
That just outlines state standards for governing the administration of personal care homes.
This letter and the reasons for the opposition don't make any claims that the applicant cannot or will not meet those standards.
In fact, Ms. Pager and her partners have already completed the first required state certification step,
and they have a proven track record of compliance with state regulations with L&S.
They've grown L&S responsibly since 2017.
So nothing in this letter of opposition or in their discussions, frankly, at the meeting in February.
addressed any inability to complies to uh comply with state statute uh so in short none of the
objections raised in this letter address the actual legal standards relevant to the board's
decision here and on the merits we believe the proposed use is fully consistent with both the
zoning code and the spirit of the rsa5 district so here we have the deed showing that lns took
title to the property in May 2021.
So our application for appeal and project information form was
submitted on October 22, 2024.
These are the certificates of mailing for the RCO notification
letters sent out to advise neighbors of the february 27th meeting
and lastly this is our statement of real estate tax compliance and the zba posters um anticipation
of this meeting here today uh so let's go back one minute you said six residents of this property
it's gonna they're anticipating four to six but i think it's gonna be four because of the four
bedrooms but mrs paid miss pedro is on she can answer specifically what she's
great yes and mrs uh lakeda pedro should be in the virtual audience
do you want to raise your hand to give
Do you want to raise your hand to give a, to have them have, have you have on?
Do we see the hand?
Hand was raised.
I promoted them.
They should be back in shortly.
Thank you.
Hi, yes, Lakita.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, Lakita Pedro. L-A-K-E-Y-T-A-P-E-D-R-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Hi, Ms. Pedro. Can you describe your relationship to the owner of the property, L&S Home Away From Home?
Yes, I am one of the owners of the property.
Great. Have you heard my testimony today?
yes and was it true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes true and would you adopt it
as if we were your own yes i would great uh any questions from the board council money would you
check with her about the number of residents um miss pedro i know there are four bedrooms
were you anticipating on uh having four residents at one time in the property
um yeah so we did say four to six only because of the square footage at a home it could um service
up to six people with the front and back room being um the square footage that it is of a larger
for a shared room um but it will we are definitely looking to service for um but with the again with
the square footage it could go up to six okay questions from the board
yes oh go ahead mike i was just going to ask the rco what was the rc how did the meeting go
the community meeting yes the community meeting so um we did uh have a chance to speak with miss
barber which is the block captain um after the meeting so i think um the the meeting didn't go
as according but we were unaware that we should have met with the neighbors prior to
applying for the zoning um so i think it was just we had a little issue and it was a
a mixed understanding on what the property would actually be used for
um so after we did have a chance to go meet with the block captain miss barber
after and actually talk to her with the flyer, showing her what we will be doing with the property
and what it will not be. And she did say, you know, that she had a clearer understanding
afterhand. So I think when we had the meeting with us just not knowing and we did, you know,
apologize because we did move forward with the meeting and not meet and we did not
communicate with the neighbors prior. And I think that's where like just a mixed understanding
came because they just wasn't fully sure of the understanding of what we would use the property
for okay so so you've got four bedrooms one bathroom potentially two baths dogs where's
the other bathroom um the basement shows a full bath so it's a stand-up shower um a toilet and
the shower is next to the laundry is a toilet a sink in the stand-up shower with um garden
guardrails as well. So this is proposed
for elderly? It is
elderly, but some will be mobile. For the
majority, they will be elderly mobile that needs limited assistance with
ADLs. Okay. So one, you've got a lot of steps,
right? That's one issue that I have. Two,
I don't see any window wells, so having a living
space in the basement is problematic um and it seems like there's a lot of uh people that you're
proposing for for for this for this property for that care um those those are those are my
okay so um i'm gabriel did mention so we were just waiting for the approval to install a steer glide
which will take them the steps so they will not have to um walk the steps that is something we
already looked into with adding into the property we were just waiting for a final approval and