North Delaware Avenue is on the left-hand side. You come in from North Delaware on this main
entrance. There's an existing small office. This office, the entire office space is about 11 by
28 and a half. So we're talking about a very small area. There's a reception waiting room
here, a powder room, and then stairs that go upstairs. And on the second floor, you come up
the stairs and there's just one larger open office space so again you walk in here's the waiting area
here's the first floor office and here's the larger second floor office
now what what this is Perez therapy he took possession of the property and this portion
of the property one day before the city closed down for covid couldn't possibly have been worse
timing for anybody but he provides psychotherapy services there are no medicine there's no medicine
or prescriptions on site there's no prescriptions written from the site he started as a solo
practitioner and has now grown the practice to 14 therapists almost all of their appointments are
online via zoom or you know teams or however they do it and he averages that basically only by
request of the patient does anyone come in and have a have an appointment in the office so he
said approximately um felix perez is online and i'll have him come on just a second um he said
that on average each therapist uses the site the property one time per week so you know the the
office is open 9 a.m to 8 p.m monday through friday and as needed 11 a.m to 3 p.m on saturday and
sunday that was also presented to the community and they were perfectly fine with that i would
note the community vote was actually 37 to 0 in favor so they were resoundingly excited to keep
this going again the uh the commercial use of this property dates back to at least 2007 that
was as far back as we could figure out again just this rear portion um and so what happened is mr
perez self-reported here he you know had ran his solo psychotherapy practice he thought that he was
fine to increase the number of therapists that were working out of here. Again,
once a week for an hour appointment here and there. And he determined as he was going forward
and looking at things that he thought he needed additional zoning or heightened zoning relief in
order to practice with multiple psychotherapists. That is in fact the case. That's why we're here
today so he self-reported this that was a huge factor in his favor with the community frankly
was that there's no violation here no issues you will see there's no new construction being
presented here we're simply seeking to have to basically legalize the existing commercial space
on the first floor and the second floor in this small area with you know multiple therapists
being able to access and use the property again with no uh no medication stored on site or
prescribed or used at the site you want to bring your client on yes uh mr perez
you didn't tell me he had signed on
do you see a felix perez
mr perez yes chair this is ian haggerty i see felix in the audience he's very good thank you
I see him.
Felix, could you unmute, please?
Hello.
Sorry.
How are you, sir?
Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Felix Perez, F-E-L-I-X, P-E-R-E-Z.
P-E-R-E-Z.
Right.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth to...
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, sir?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Perez, you are the Perez of Perez Therapy, correct?
Yes, I am.
And you have been in that site since March of 2020?
And did you hear all of the testimony that I already presented today?
Yes, I did.
and do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge information and belief
yes thank you and would you adopt that testimony as your own yes thank you questions from the board
questions from our attorney hillary emerson the was the sign um previously approved
there is a there is an approval commercial approval for the sign dating back to 2007
okay in the zoning archive okay um so Perez therapy does have a sign there all he did was
replace the existing right right yeah I just I didn't see it in the history that was on the
refusal so thank you your questions or comments from the virtual audience
okay thank you planning commission Amy Boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change in zoning from the current RSA 5 residential single family the property has
a documented history of commercial and other non-residential uses the proposal is in harmony
with the mixed-use nature of delaware avenue at the rear where the use is proposed the planning
commission recommends that the board grant their requested variance for group medical and ground
floor use thank you mi2025-005-421-112 east allen street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes brian mcadams my vote is yes i
a win my vote is yes thank you counsel thank you very much everybody have a good evening all right
number nine mi2025-005-414-2550 east mama street verna anastasio is the attorney
mr anastasia is coming back in as a panelist thank you
afternoon mr chair good afternoon council could you please state your name um and you've already
been sworn yep verne anastasio on behalf of uh mr uh bo rosario okay our um i noticed there's
a letter of support from south port richmond civic and also a letter of non-opposition from
council member squiller our vice chair has just a few questions thank you good afternoon
have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing i have
and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do okay thank you
you can share your screen and proceed with your case thank you i hesitate to say this but it's
fairly straightforward uh this application 2550 east monmouth uh and we are here because uh the
The application is for use in the garage of the property.
They want to do just general office work that supports their video production and post-production work that they do now.
And that's why we're here.
The property is zoned RSA 5.
However, there have been a long history of commercial uses as the refusal sort of indicates
and as does the history of the property.
And with that, I'm going to show you some layout.
here is the floor plan of the garage existing condition
we've got a break break room video village here there's a meeting room and open production space
for their filming.
And let's show you some photos.
You can see this is the front and that's the rear.
This is what it looks like right now.
There's the garage back.
There's the garage back there.
They just want to have office space back there.
It's proof of posting is the letter that went out to all the neighbors.
We had a meeting on December 10th, New Kensington, CDC, South, South Port Richmond and Port Richmond
on patrol. 172 individual households were mailed. It was very well attended. And as a result, we
got a letter of support and Councilman Squilla's office also sent a letter of non-opposition
supporting the community. With that, I'd like to call Mr. Bo Rosario, who is the creative director
of philomedia sir rosario is coming back in as a panelist thank you very much
hi mr rosario could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer
sure beau rosario b-e-a-u rosario r-o-s-a-r-i-o do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth is nothing but the truth yes i do counsel bo did you hear my presentation to the
board uh this afternoon yes it's true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes uh do you
adopt it as your own testimony yes i do anything to add both no very well questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
I just wanted to note, I don't know if it's not clear from what's been approved previously at this property, but because this is an RSA 5 property, there may be refusals missing for multiple principal uses and possibly multiple principal buildings because there's another kind of principal use in another structure in the property.
So I just wanted to note that for the record, that if this is approved by the board, any missing refusals would be approved as well. Thank you.
All right. Questions or comments from the virtual audience for the audience here?
There are no hands in the virtual audience, Chair.
Thank you. Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change of zoning at this location from the current RSA 5 residential single family.
the proposed use will not injure the use of adjoining properties and the property has a
history of mixed use the planning commission recommends that the board grant their requested
variance for business and professional office thank you mi 2025-005-414-2550 east mom the
street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my
vote is yes hi i win my vote is yes thank you um mr anastasio number 10 mi 2025 005 415 2627
east lee high avenue just for the record state your name vern anastasio on behalf of adam bachman
all right and there's a letter of non-opposition from council member squilla
um and the councilman's letter says that the rco is in support yeah uh and the count the
uh the rco should have also sent a letter um i think i did i sent their letter yeah i don't
know that we have one we we didn't get one i don't think all right um our vice chair has a
few questions hi uh good afternoon the uh have you submitted your documents and exhibits five
days in advance of this hearing yes ma'am and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy i do okay thank you you can begin with your case thank you 2627 lehigh is uh the
application is for sandwich shop uh which technically i suppose it falls under takeout
restaurant it is zoned cmx one so in order to uh have this level of commercial we we do need a
a variance so but this is a long-standing commercial property and we'll show you
what we have as far as plans are concerned
This is the property, as you can see, this is the side elevation, and here's the interior layout.
this is the property as you can see on uh this is the
That's a plot plan.
As you can see, it's East Lehigh and East Thompson Street.
and here's the layout I was talking about
so ostensibly it's going to be a
cheesesteaks hoagies
you have a waiting area you have a kitchen this is the section that we'll be using right here
where my cursor is and let me show you some photos
There's a lot of work that needs to be done on this property.
Directly across the street there's a bar on the corner, on the other corner there's
another commercial space and this is the section here this is the residential
portion but this is the commercial stuff on the on the left-hand side which is
This is what we're seeking the variance for.
There's proof of posting.
And this is what we are proposing, the rendering.
There's some interior proposed look and the entire property will get an upgrade also with
lighting multiple days a week trash pickup.
We had our meeting, and this is our proof from our flyer with support.
There's the letter from Old Richmond.
Offer a stance of support for the proposed project.
134 households were mailed.
As I said, there'll be commercial trash pickup multiple times a week.
It'll be 11A to 11P Sunday through Saturday with five employees per shift.
With that, I'd like to get Mr. Adam Bachman to raise his virtual hand
and call him to the stand.
Mr. Bachman, is this just one floor you're using?
That's it, right here.
And what's the second floor?
That's all commercial, I'm sorry, residential.
no basement use uh mr bachman can speak to that i think it's probably storage if
if we are using it mr bachman could you unmute please
also just for clarity this permit does not include any of the signage that we're looking at
absolutely not mr bachman could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Adam Bachman, A-D-A-N-B-A-C-H-M-A-N-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Thank you. Mr. Bachman, did you hear my presentation to the board?
True and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
And you adopt it as your own testimony?
Do you have access? Will this cheesesteak and pizza company have access to the basement?
And it'll be used for storage?
storage and preparation yes yep thank you questions from the board yeah vern can you
pull up the floor plans again sure um i think just trying to understand how the the pizza shop
situates in relation to the residential units of course understanding that they're not part of this
permit um how are tenants getting to that second floor above the pizza shop yeah there are doors
Yeah, there are doors on Thompson, but Mr. Bachman could speak to it a little bit more.
on Thompson, but Mr. Bachman could speak to it a little bit more. Go ahead.
Go ahead.
Hello.
So the unit right next to the restaurant, I'm keeping that unit for my family.
So there won't be a tenant in there.
But there is access to that unit.
Everything has its own separate entrance on the side street there.
But the unit that goes above the restaurant will be my unit.
And then the unit right next door will be rented.
Got it.
okay so i'm entering the first door on thompson street and then the unit sort of turns like so
that the the stairwell that we're looking at that says second floor plan that's kind of like in the