you have to establish four things one is non-negligent circumstances prompt filing no
prejudice and duck, and then some type of either testimony or documentation substantiating that.
In this case, you're going to hear that a zoning permit was issued in September of 2025 for the
subject property, 6930 Ardley Street. You are going to hear testimony not only from my client,
from Richard Kramer, but from other neighbors, including one that owns a house and lives
directly across the street that the property has never been properly posted with a copy of the
zoning permit. And I will show you a copy or provision from the zoning code that talks about
the manner in which permits are supposed to be posted. You're basically supposed to be able to
review a permit from the sidewalk without having to go onto the property. I'm going to show you
photographs that show as of today, the only zoning permit is in the window. Other permits are in the
windows which are a considerable distance in from the sidewalk so essentially this property has never
been properly posted so effectively in terms of the posting providing constructive notice of the
issuance of a permit that 30-day period has never commenced so just to interrupt so the way so it
was unclear when this appeal was filed because it was filed as a nunc protunk not as please
accept as timely based on constructive notice those are two different grounds we are not having
a hearing today on constructive notice if that's the ground that it that it's being alleged that
it's timely then we will need to have a separate hearing because we we have today we have a lot
of just time for the nunc protunk piece um but if if what's actually being argued is that
it was filed timely based on constructive notice of the permit, then we need to have a separate
hearing for that. Well, then that's what it would be because it wasn't until a community group
meeting with East Mount Airy neighbors on December 15th or 16th, I believe, that my clients finally
found out about it, that a permit had in fact been issued. And then within 30 days of that,
that actually on December 26th or 29th, they sent in their appeal, their initial appeal.
And then I have an email from Ian to my client showing that they accepted the appeal as having been filed on December 29th.
Okay. All right. So then in that case, we'll need to schedule this because this will be a lengthy hearing if you're bringing on witnesses and that sort of thing.
And we also want, in fairness to all parties, give them an opportunity to be prepared for a hearing on that basis.
Yeah, so there was no active or actual or constructive notice outside of the time period that my clients filed their appeal.
that outside of the time period that my clients filed their appeal okay all right so then we um
Okay. All right.
we will get back mr do you have anything to say i agree this this case all depends on actual and
constructive notice and we were intending to cross-examine the appellant and bring on my own
client to show either actual or constructive notice how do you think leonard um i think as
CITY INITIALLY SAID WITH RESPECT TO THE NUNK PROTUNK THE CITY DIDN'T TAKE A POSITION ON THAT
BECAUSE WE WOULDN'T HAVE WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT ARGUMENTS THE APPELLENT HAD ABOUT WHETHER
THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A NUNK PROTUNK HEARING GRANTED BY THE SAME TOKEN WE ALSO HAVE NO
INFORMATION OR BELIEF REGARDING THE DATE OF THE POSTING OF THE PERMIT OR WHETHER IT WAS EVER POSTED
SO WE ALSO DON'T TAKE ANY POSITION ON THAT THAT'S BETWEEN THE DEVELOPER AND THE APPELLENT
uh or the applicant and the appellant and we'll just defer to the board's decision on that sure
yeah mr chair i will say this um we were wavering back and forth of whether or not we're we are
going to um issue requests for the board to issue a subpoena as to correspondence with the app the
appellant and neighbors both email correspondence as well as text messaging between the appellant
AND OTHER PARTIES, WHICH WOULD POTENTIALLY SHOW ACTUAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE.
I DON'T KNOW IF WE'RE GOING TO DO IT, BUT I WOULD BRING IT UP NOW THAT WE MAY DO IT,
SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE BOARD'S POSITION IS.
BUT UNDER THE PHILADELPHIA HOME CHARTER, RULE CHARTER, THE BOARD DOES HAVE SUBPOENA POWER
UNDER ARTICLE 2, CHAPTER 4, SECTION 2-401.
THAT IS CORRECT.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST A SUBPOENA FOR WITNESSES OR DOCUMENTS, PLEASE SUBMIT THAT
to the board as soon as possible and we will be back in touch regarding the hearing date um for
the issue of um constructive notice i see leonard has something to say here sure i just had a
question since it seems like we're all on the same page except mr whalen who has his hand up um maybe
uh with respect to this being rescheduled uh but my question is so if and this came up in the
Hillcrest case, I think the way that was approached is that that just got rolled into the the case
itself. I mean, I think you had a preliminary discussion about whether or not the permit was
properly posted, uh, and had, you know, and then you just, you know, you decided not to go forward
with the rest of the case. So my question is, it's like, if we're going to come back, do we need to
prepare to go through the case in chief as well? Or is it just going to be on the preliminary issue?
i understand the hillcrest case we did the preliminary issue eventually that got reversed
and it's been remanded back for hearing on the merits but we are only going to we're just the
the hearing on the preliminary issue is going to be lengthy from what i can tell we're just taking
one thing at a time the board will likely take that under advisement make a decision and then
we'll go from there the only thing i would request is for maybe board council to reconsider that
because i expect either way there will be an appeal lodged of the board's decision and i don't
want to have a situation where we're talking about procedural um aspects of it gets tied up in the
courts for like a year or two and we never hear the substantive i rather just have all issues on
appeal decided at the same time it will help the board as well administratively um if the if the
problem is if the board decides to dismiss the appeal appeal as being untimely cannot have a
further hearing on the merits it that's a final decision of the board if the board decides that
the appeal was timely then we will move to a hearing on the merits and any issues regarding
timeliness can be raised in the course of further appeals then last point um the the board's taken
a position that um the parties couldn't waive the issue of milk pro tonk um if the issue uh and you
we really defer to the board on that that issue if the question now is simply constructive notice
is that waivable can the party can the part can the i mean i'm not suggesting they would
but just you know we're going to have a few weeks now is is it waivable at all like could the could
the city uh for instance for its part could the city waive the issue of constructive notice and
just say yeah fine we'll agree that they can go forward with the appeal you we can have further
conversations about this um off the record okay okay okay and and and just real quickly i did
share the you know the exhibits that i put together you know very quickly um for today
um and i did share them hillary based upon your direction with the opposing council i would ask
that they similarly share um their exhibits or else i'll contact the board and secure copies from
you of course we'll of course share it the exhibit yes there were no exhibits submitted today other
than yours okay all right so 69 30 ardly street this can
Okay. Thank you. All right. So 6930 Ardley Street. This case will be continued to March 17th at 930 a.m.
What was that date? I'm sorry. March 17th at 930 a.m.
And is there an MI number for this case? I'm sorry.
There will be at that time. It had not been accepted up to this point, so there was no MI number.
Okay. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Thank you, both of you. Thank you. All right. We're going to number one. MI2025-000-993-4242 West Stiles Street. Evan Shingles is the attorney.
um there is a um letter of support from the west philadelphia carter collaborative uh there was
a split in votes relative to um of the rcl
mr shingles
Oh, I didn't see a computer stuck in the way. You come in the other way? You come in the other way? She's stuck in the other way.
Evan Shingles has been promoted to panelists.
Do we see anyone? Evan Shingles.
They have been promoted to panelists.
Thank you very much.
Evan Shingles, please unmute and turn your camera on.
Chair, I'm not sure if they are having technical difficulties because I'm seeing the name
multiple times and i'm promoting all two panelists but no one is coming up
good morning can you hear me yeah we hear you now sir okay thank you
could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer certainly mr singles you're
going to need to mute your other devices that are not the one that you're speaking into thank you
okay working on that can you hear me now i can please state your name
and spell for the stenographer oh boy can you hear me now i i can hear you now right i can't hear a
thing okay doing feedback all right so mr shingles what we're gonna do we're gonna come back to you
i'm sorry yeah we're gonna you can't hear us so i can hear you oh we're gonna come back to you
are you are you ready to go now i'm ready to go absolutely all right sure so could you please
state your name and spell for the stenographer certainly good morning chairman and everybody
my name is evan shingles i'm the attorney for 4639 westminster llc and that's owned by my client
malcolm richards could you spell your name for this stenographer s-h-i-n-g-l-e-s do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth most certainly okay our our
vice chair has a few questions good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five
days in advance of this hearing good morning I believe that my client submitted almost all of
his documents timely we received two letters of support a little bit late I believe those
been submitted within the past couple of days and additionally there was a tax clearance
certificate and then I instructed my client to upload that as soon as he got it which was
yesterday i believe he uploaded proof of payment as well okay all right and do you waive the reading
of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes okay thank you can proceed with your case
for sharing your screen okay thank you so much uh very simply we're seeking a variance from a
single family household to a two-family household um my client malcolm richards grew up in this
very same neighborhood. He's not a developer. He's not a suburbanite. He's not from New York
or Washington. He's from the neighborhood. And he was born and bred here. He purchased
the property on November 10th, 2023. He walked past it all the time. He saw it was a blight
he saw it was a blade on his neighborhood and he thought he could fix it up and
on his neighborhood. And he thought he could fix it up.
so quite nicely for the neighborhood um he'll be ready why don't you start sharing your documents
so that way you could eventually get the photos and plans and we'll be able to see you got it
we have all your we have all your plans i mean we have everything you sent in so okay
so i just need to share my docs yeah right and mr shingles just to clarify um your client who
referenced mr richards he is part of the entity that owns the property 4639 westminster llc yes
he's the sole owner of that okay thank you okay
and i have a full list of my exhibits um and i'm hoping you can see them on my screen
um yeah um
could you could you that's it that's better yep so we have all your we have all your exhibits okay
would you like me to continue so i i think what you need to do now is show your photos
and your plans for the building okay let me show you the building as it exists
the shell that my client purchased and here are these photos right here and if you just let me
at the beginning, here we go.
So these are interior photos of 4242 West Stiles.
And you can see it as its present condition.
And moving up to the construction plans, that would be Exhibit 8, okay.
And here are my clients' construction plans.
first we have to make the property safe
we have included argument so so that's your plans right these are the plans yes sir yeah so
you might want to blow them up a little bit and maybe turn it can you turn it
turn it well that's good so we'll take a look at what your plan you got it let me start
why don't you tell us what you think the plans look like here
okay so this is obviously the overlay showing the entirety of the property
and these are the separate floors
this is the first floor plan in the middle now is the second floor plan
the plan is for two units one on each floor of the property
how many floors in the property two
i believe there are three floors yes it's one of these i i thought there
were i thought you originally showed three council
coming is this this one yeah hey can you can you turn your screen can you turn your documents that
yeah let me try to do that let's try that that's better yeah that's it
yeah you can barely read it but it says first floor second floor third floor my apologies
three floors two units three floors so so is the first unit on the first floor and then the
second units on the second and third uh i believe my my client can speak to that
malcolm
do you want to bring your client on so he can talk i would like to could he be included please
his name is melvin
his name is melvin malcolm malcolm please malcolm richards is being promoted to panelists thank you
malcolm
good morning everyone good morning sir could you please state your name and spell for the
sonographer yes um i am malcolm richards m-a-l-c-o-l-m-r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s do you swear
referring to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i swear counsel you want to
start your um welcome you heard the question about how construction is split on the property
could you kindly speak to that we understand floors sure yes uh this is a uh three store pro
a three-story property it has three floors in it including a basement
well you you might want to talk about where where the apartments are going right i mean
you got two three floors two apartments okay sorry uh so yes i'm going to be sorry okay yeah
um the first floor in the basement will be one unit and then the second floor and third floor
will also be one unit so yeah I'm looking to put two units in the building so so here's the question
do we have plans for the basement no no plans just the laundry is going to be in the basement
I'll say there's no living space in the basement you're saying no no the apartment is basically on
the first floor the tenant will have access to the basement they can store things there they can okay
but the things that they like to do okay all right um questions from the board
kind of hard to comment without without without plans
i'm sorry oh no i was just asking about the trash for each tenant trash storage uh trash
would be managed by uh by trash cans that i plan to put at the property and make sure that
them there um i live around the corner so any trash that you know i'll be sure to make sure that
trash is taken out through the process of buying it uh i've been even making sure that my neighbor's
trash is okay uh she's been having issues with getting her trash out so you know i've been
helping and i'm always on hand to make it happen so when you say storage you store it on the side
of the building the back of the building on the front porch a day before night before trash day
Nothing, nothing all over the streets, nothing touching my neighbor's house, anything like that.
Will you have any storage space in the basement?
There will be storage space for the tenant that occupies the first floor, but it won't be storage space for trash.
No. I personally feel like most duplexes and triplexes don't really hold trash inside.
their units and people take their trash out day before trash day yeah but putting it stored it
on uh storing it on a porch you know and when you have like so many residents there might be an issue
um my other question is um do you know of any other duplexes on the block yes there are two
triplexes across the street from me there's uh also two more duplexes on the block
if you'll permit me malcolm will there be storage space in the basement for trash as opposed to
keeping it outside on the porch um i could i could certainly make arrangements for that
that sounds like a great idea so that's what we'll do okay respectfully yes please the zba
absolutely um my client is also intent on let me let me let me do let's get straight any other
questions is there any plan that shows the layout for the basement