ZBA Hearing - August 19, 2025

good morning everyone they should be in

morning everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's zba hearing

with me is our board member cheryl l gaston present mr chairman board member tennetta

graham president mr chairman our board member michael johns president mr chairman board member

ryan mcadams present mr chairman also present here is uh our board attorney hillary emerson

and our zoning board director aane hagerty our hearing a recording of the hearing will be posted

on zba website by participating you consent to be recorded this is an in-person meeting with

remote capabilities whether remote or in person if you're called to speak you must state and spell

your name then wait to be sworn in once you've been sworn in please state your name each time

before you begin your testimony any person may enter their appearance to become an interested

party there are three ways we can identify the case property address in your zoom webinar

you can see a staff member or you can call the zba appearance line by the close of business tomorrow

call 267-270-5548 leave a message that includes your email and the address of the property of

the appeal case. Following guidance is for remote attendees. When directed, you must raise your

virtual hand in order to be recognized to speak. If you're called to testify, you'll be prompted

to join as a panelist. Please accept the request and turn on your camera. Third, the webinar Q&A

is for questions about the hearing. Do not comment on cases in the Q&A. Fourth, if you're participating

by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute. For in-person attendees,

please refrain from talking, eating, or drinking during the hearings. Verbal and physical aggression

will not be tolerated. Restrooms are crossed on the elevators. A water fountain is just down

outside the room to the right. When speaking on the record, you must speak directly into the

microphone in order to be heard by all attendees and our court reporter. In the event of an emergency,

please follow the directions given over the public address system or by staff the main exit is through

the double doors at the rear of the room the near stairwells to the left outside the doors

in case of evacuation the rally point is at love park directly across arch street

please remain there so we can account for you let's look at our schedule for today

number five mi 2025 000 439 6027 hazel hearth street

alicia grain green is the owner it's a pro se um we need several documents for this case

are you here okay good morning chair this is jasmine and i will be your co-host this morning

i do not see anyone with that name she's in the audience here okay

hi good morning could you get the mic closer to you if you would sure um could you state your

name and spell for the sonographer my name is lache green spell l-e-s-h-e-a last name green

g-r-e-e-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth

yes sir um we do not have all your documents which documents are missing hillary and we did

not receive a copy of your deed and we did not receive any photos of the property other than a

photo of the poster okay so and photos of the property meaning the in the inside inside and

like a full outside photo to get a sense of what it looked like these the you were when you submitted

your exhibits you should have received an email back um indicating that these documents were

missing um that we have not received them okay i wasn't aware that it needed photos of the inside

i thought i just needed the um photos that were outside that were submitted before but okay yeah

because you're asking about a use inside the building so we need to see what the building

looks like that makes sense okay okay thank you am i able to resubmit them today right you're

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Am I able to resubmit them today?

You're going to resubmit them, but we're going to reschedule.

going to resubmit.

Reschedule.

Yeah, we'll reschedule.

Ian, do we have date?

All right, so you'll work with her on the date.

Okay.

The case is going to be continued.

Call the office.

They'll give you the date of the new hearing, okay?

Okay, perfect.

All right, and thank you for coming down.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, and before you come the next time,

check with the office,

and we'll make sure you have everything you need.

Okay.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

And number eight.

Number eight, MI 2025, 002-651, 1222-24, Walnut Street.

The case has been withdrawn.

Mr. Charcy, Mr. Kelly, on behalf of the city here,

I don't know if there was any remarks you wanted to make.

No? Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

We're going to go to number nine to start.

MI 2025-004-022-3201 Ryan Avenue.

This is an appeal against L&I.

Mr. McDermott is the appellant.

Mr. McDermott, could you make sure your mic's on and try to get close to you if you would?

Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?

Good morning.

My name is Peter McDermott, M-C-D-E-R-M-O-T-T.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Representing the school district of Philadelphia, Mr. Sklaroff, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Ms. Emerson, and Mr. McDermott. My name is Neil Sklaroff, S-K-L-A-R-O-F-F. I'm an attorney with Dilworth Paxson here in the city, and I am representing the School District of Philadelphia.

With me today is Teresa Fleming, the Chief Operating Officer, and James Rokar, the Manager of the Design for the Capital Programs of the School District.

And also Leonard Reuter is here representing License and Inspections.

Mr. Reuter.

Thank you.

May it please the board, Leonard F. Reuter, R-E-U-T-E-R, Senior Attorney for the City of Philadelphia.

And I'm here with the city's witness, if necessary, Sarah Adamo, the Director of Legislation and Zoning with the Department of Licenses and Inspections Quality of Life Division.

All right. Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?

I do.

And what we're going to have today, it will be the appellant's presentation, the city's presentation, and then the school district's presentation.

So, Mr. McDermott, why don't you start your presentation?

can i share my screen please you can

we'll get you in you won't be able to see it on the the big screen but the board can see it on

their computers so if you could just confirm once it's up mr chair just for you i'm sorry

go ahead oh just preliminarily uh we received this morning a batch of the documents uh from

appellant uh as a perspective exhibits just for the record just to preserve we want to rely on

it uh the city would would object to uh some of the documents particularly all the photos they're

just really not relevant to the issue which is whether or not a special exception was required

here um so i just wanted so why don't why don't we see it as we go through we'll decide what's

important what's not well make just a procedural uh issue i'll make some other procedural comments

later but uh some of these documents uh have a footer saying mayfair civic association um

mayfair civic is not a party here has not brought this uh appeal so just clear i don't know where

the documents came from we thought just to mcdermott i'm a member of the mayfair civic

association okay it's my neighborhood thank you mr skaroff but but they're not a party here pretend

it's not there. Right. Mr. McDermott, why don't you start? And we'll, as we go through this,

we'll figure this out. You're going to share? Yes. Okay. So, can we promote,

can you announce it? Can we please promote Mr. McDermott?

Thank you.

Can everybody see the screen?

I don't see it.

Should we also already be promoted?

Yes, if you could promote Leonard Reuter and Neil Skleroff as well.

Thank you.

Ian, should this be coming up here on the screen?

we don't have his uh documents or we can't see them he he has been promoted to a panelist

answer that.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Yeah.

I'm

on

first, right?

I don't think it's necessary.

I don't think it's necessary.

Mr. McDermott, as you go through this,

your concentration should be on license

and inspection, the actions of life's inspection.

Okay?

Yep.

Please proceed.

Okay, good morning, Chairman Bergman and members of the ZBA.

This is the package I've submitted for this appeal.

As you can see, this is the cover page identifying the meeting ID,

the appeal number, and the parties.

These are my list of exhibits.

They go A through P.

exhibit a this was a photograph from tuesday march 18th 2025 the reason why these photographs

are included are familiarized people on the board with this site it's a large campus

i won't spend a lot of time on them since they seem to be upsetting

city's not objecting to these types and sure it's the photos towards the end okay

then i'll talk about these photos so if you look at this photograph

Abraham Lincoln is centered in the middle of the photograph.

This is an oblique photogrammetric image from Tuesday, March 18th, as I stated.

This is one of the most recent images available.

Austin Meehan is still standing there with no demolition permits secured, which we were told was going to happen.

Abraham Lincoln, the new one, is in the middle of the photo.

And then you have a parking lot directly east of that.

Then you have a parking lot southeast of that.

And you have a parking lot west of that for the Northeast Propel Elementary School Academy, which recently was opened in 2021, I believe.

And then there's a stormwater retention basin further north on the site.

And there's a small parking lot for the former Austin Meehan School, which is now being dubbed as a swing space.

Zibbit B, Thursday, April 2nd, 2020.

So this photograph shows you that the new Abraham Lincoln High School, which was circa 2008, roughly, and those same parking lots.

But as you can see, there's a clearing on the site for the Northeast Propel Elementary School.

This was almost right after Lincoln High School was finished.

And this is what the site looked like with the same parking lots.

Austin being in middle school, still in use as a middle school.

This photograph is the former Abraham Lincoln High School,

which was really large and could take a lot of students.

And the parking lot off of Rowland Avenue, a parking lot off of Ryan Avenue,

and Austin being still there with a really small parking lot.

Exhibit E is a zoning permit, permit number ZP-2025-002664, which was issued on April 7th, 2025.

Now, this zoning permit is for 3201 Ryan Avenue, Permit Holder School District.

You can read all that.

we're good um it was for the erection of this addition modular classrooms to an existing

educational facility

exhibit f is that

exhibit f is that zoning drawing that accompanied that permit

if you look i put a balloon a highlighted balloon area around the area of work

where these modular classrooms are going these trailers

and also they built an access hallway connected to the other school so these aren't independent

trailers these are connected to the school okay exhibit g full of a zoning code title 14 zoning

and planning specifically table 14-602-1 which is the uses that are allowed in residential districts

so if you look this site which previously was known as r3 prior to 2012 when the new zoning

code came in august 22nd now it's known as rsa1 and you follow that column down the page to where

educational facilities is listed as a subcategory under public civic and institutional use category

and the letter s is there for special exception

exhibit h philadelphia zoning code title 14 zoning and planning zoning permits process

including the appeal of the decisions of L&I.

So if we look at this flowchart on how zoning permits are obtained,

it's reviewed by L&I, there's a decision by L&I,

and then there's the option to appeal to the ZBA

under Section 14-303, Subcategory 15.

Exhibit I, FIW Zoning Code Title 14, Zoning and Planning,

Subsection 14-303, which is Common Procedures,

and requirements, specifically sub-7, special exception approval.

So if we look at how that's done, there's another flowchart, right?

Ultimately, there's a decision here by this zoning board

after notice to and meetings with RCOs, public notice, what have you.

Now, Exhibit J, Philadelphia Zoning Code, Title 14, Zoning and Planning, Table 14-802-1, which is a required parking in residential districts.

Remember, this is Zoned Residential, RSA 1.

so if we look at this table specifically the area that i have put a dotted bold line around

that red line under all other uses there's to be a parking space for every 1 000 square feet

of gross floor area mr chairman may i interrupt you just ask a question the appeal is uh with

regard to a special exception what is the relevance of parking to a special exception

um if i can proceed mr bergman i'll answer any questions answer then we'll go ahead i'm going

to continue right well what tells us about the parking that's coming up in my it's coming up