I have commercial pickup on my notes.
Trash to be stored inside, commercial trash pickup.
All right.
All right.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Anyone else wish to testify in this matter?
If so, please raise your hand.
Here I have a Wade Alpert.
Wade, you can unmute yourself and speak to this.
Wade to be sworn in.
Good afternoon.
Can you hear me?
Wade, please spell your first and last name.
Give us your address.
First name is spelled W-A-D-E.
Last name is spelled A-L-B-E-R-T.
um i am counsel for the center city residents association my address is 1845 walnut street
23rd floor philadelphia pa 19103 and i'm with the law firm of sobel law group s-o-b-o-l
we're in the firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do thank you please proceed thank you so i uh just with regard to this matter um uh i i've heard
that the ZBA is aware of the provisos that CCRA has requested of the owner or of the applicant
and the applicant has agreed to all of the provisos. So I would just request that the
provisos to the extent permitted by the ZBA be included in the license. Thank you.
again there's only a couple that we could and are enforceable by us the agreements between the c
ccra and the applicant and the other provisors uh planning commission
planning commission yes uh this property is indicated for center city commercial mixed
juice on the city plan we support the granting of the special exception
let's see
calendar no mi-2020-0009112051 walnut street my vote is yes with the provisos
mi-2020-000
trash to be stored inside and also commercial trash pickup my vote is yes with provisos yes
with proviso yes with proviso yes with proviso
good luck calendar number 39661 1351 south 57th street
this is a referral and the attorney is verne anastasio
mr anastasio you've been promoted to a panelist you can share your screen
and unmute yourself.
Vern, you there?
I know that he was participating. He texted me to say that he was there.
Yes, he's here. He's just not on video and he has not unmuted himself.
His name has the mute on.
There you go.
Mr. Anastasia.
We're good.
Can you put your name and address on the record, please?
Yes, of course.
Vern Anastasio, 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 1006, Philadelphia, 19107.
And do you swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?
Of course, yes.
Do you also agree to wave the reading of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy?
Frozen.
I agree to wave the sort of tweet.
we are asking for no more than seven people not nine and you do agree on the referral
i agree reading of it i agree at the time that it was reviewed that it was referred yes
okay mr chair
you swear from the tell you swore him in on for you
I swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I certainly do.
And I would like Ms. Juanita Bates to be recognized and brought into the panel as well.
She is my client.
Before we get to her, you said at the time you agreed?
I agreed to the referral at the time that it was reviewed by the examiner.
it was the property generated a referral however as of today if it were reviewed again
it may have gotten a refusal
so since you are grandfathered in as of the date of the application it's a referral is that correct
That's my position, yes.
But I'm prepared to argue both, you know.
You had a witness you said, Vern?
Juanita Bates.
She's my client to Bates Associates, LLC.
She's the primary on that.
She's the principal.
and i would like her to be identified just for the sake of being able to uh uh attest to my my
my presentation but we can do that at the end all right wait we do whatever you'd like sir
at the end of the presentation all right very well this is a uh an application uh was submitted
for the legalization of a single room residence for up to seven adults ellen i issued a referral
and identify the property at the time as RM1, at the time of review. Property has been a single
room residence for 40 years, run by my client's father, with some tenants who have called the
building home for well over a decade. Actually, previous residents have lived there for 29,
27, 19 years. This is a place where folks live and die. It's not a flop house.
The neighbors at the RCO meeting admitted that the appellant's father, who she just purchased it from, has maintained the property in excellent condition.
The matter was before this board in 1980.
where the archive suggests the corner property has been maintained for the last four decades
with zero three one one calls zero nine one one complaints on record and the tenants who have
been there for over a decade the lease all have uh nuisance clauses in them to ensure peace and
quiet. The appellant recently purchased the property from her father, as I said, plans to
install additional exterior lighting to main safety, as well as to continue personally caring
for the property. The appellant would like to continue the proper maintenance of the property,
and she's now installing quarterly inspections of each unit to ensure continuance maintenance,
to ensure that it continues to not be a negative impact to the community.
ATLAS, however, now identifies the property today as RSA-5.
But regardless, under both a variance and or a special exception analysis,
given the history and the approvals and the current track record,
I believe zoning relief is appropriate in this case.
So I just want to go over that. First, let's get to the application. Single room residents for up to, this says nine, it's actually seven, all occupants, all self-sustaining and not under the jurisdiction of any court order.
At the time in January before the COVID, it was identified as RM1.
And now let's look at the property history, 1980.
application was made to go from a single-family residence to a rooming house.
It was refused, and a notice of decision was rendered.
Now, for whatever reason, no boxes were checked here,
but there were provisos, including getting a use permit right here.
I was like, I'm turning, I'm circling on this, tells me that, in fact, it was approved.
What else tells me that it was, in fact, approved as a rooming house is that as
2007 and then updated to 2011, L&I actually listed the property, as you can see right here,
as a rooming house, dorm, hotel, and complied.
And that's as late as 2011.
Another application from L&I.
From 2007, updated to 2011.
Existing group home, basically, complied.
And these are the plans.
Right here, we have the entrance of the house, a living room, a very large living room, and a kitchen with one bedroom on the first floor.
Here's the lower level basement, but please make sure you understand, the basement is completely above grade.
So we have a laundry room, a bathroom, and two bedrooms, with right outside the bedrooms is an exit to the street.
The second floor has additional bedrooms and a bathroom.
And now I want to explain to you that there is other properties on the street that are not treated as single-family homes.
On the opposite corner of this, this is a corner property.
On the opposite corner, we have a group daycare and a church.
As you can see here, completely legal.
in the middle of the block we have a two-family dwelling
at 1337 we have another two-family dwelling and this is the property here's the basement level
if you could see my cursor with egress and ingress for the basement units
here's the rear um egress as well
and then the front of the property uh with a large porch and then we have some additional interior
this has been a single room residence for 40 years
with tenants living in the home for 29 years, 25 years.
With tenants living in the home for 29 years, 25 years, 19 years, these folks die in this home.
This is not a flop house by any imagination.
Give me one minute.
That's the basement.
here's the deed from her dad robert tab to tab tabette's associates
and i actually i want to i want to make sure you see this because it's really important
when it comes to trash and maintenance i mean they're fantastic i mr anastasio yeah not to
be sarcastic but uh looking at the photographs i see paint peeling all over the place electrical
wires connected to what i i'm a little concerned about this you know again my client
your client they're saying your client does inspections quarterly from the looks of things
it looks like it hasn't been inspected and or repaired in quite a long time.
My apologies. I want to make sure I'm clear on this. My client, who just purchased the property
from her elderly father, wants to do quarterly inspections and wants to make sure that the
property is kept up inside. But I have to show you, if you look at this photo here,
of all the trash receptacles and the recycling receptacles perfectly in place.
This rooming house has survived in this neighborhood for 40 years with not one 911 complaint,
not one 311 complaint. Now, obviously, going through this process, we're going to need to
get a new CO, and there's going to need to be upgrades to the property. And my client is ready
willing and able to do that. Otherwise, she can't be able to, you know, operate the way she'd like.
But, you know, so yes, I get what you're saying. It needs an upgrade. She wants to upgrade.
She didn't know that she wasn't compliant. Because for 40 years, this has been what we
all thought was a compliant, you know, single based on the history.
Fern, I have a question.
Hasn't she ever been in the house?
I don't necessarily know if she has, and we could talk to her about that.
Because you can't force these guys or people to make their beds or clean up,
but the interior is off.
I agree with the chair.
Well, again, once we get the zoning approval again,
because we had it before once we get the zoning approval again she wants to bring it to if she
has to bring it to code she will uh as recently as 20 2011 it was completely complied with
ellen i went through that property in 2011 and and as i showed you as part of the uh
as part of the the evidence there that it was completely complied with so yes
right and if there are issues now that now that she's purchased it
she would like to be able to get it up to speed and then do quarterly inspections
here's the deed just recently done july 14th you know that's that's kind of older can't really
keep it up anymore my client wants to do that and we also have a tax clearance
that i'll get to through october 7th mr chairman is this appropriate why doesn't
she get a cleaning crew to go in there and electricians and bring that up to code
first well she has to in order to get a ceo she'll have to do that right because what you guys are
going to grant us if if you're so kind to do is just the use permit but then we have to go through
the co process where she'll have to have a whole building review and if the building needs to be
upgraded or you know fixed up then of course that's part of uh getting the uh the necessary
building permit and co i get the rental licenses we'll put a time limit on it carol to get a co
Peace.
I also want to show you that here's a lease, standard lease, but it does have, in case you were wondering, a nuisance and guests provisos, where if you're allowed, if you're causing trash, if you have guests, you're out.
So bottom line, I mean, these people have been here for 20, 30, you know, 15, 13 years.
I mean, folks live here a long time, and every person who attended the RCO said that the
former landlord kept this place tip-top shape.
So I think that's important.
I also want to show you the special exceptional analysis.
I'll just bring it up to submit for the record because I don't know if you'd like to submit it as a review this as a special exception or a variance, but as the examiner has told us, this is just a special exception.
our proposed use will not require added parking it won't overcrowd the land it won't impair
neighbors like nair it won't burden the water sewer other utilities it won't injure the use
of neighboring homes it was not inconsistent with the city's plan at the time of review
and it will cause no detrimental impacts so i think that's that's something that you know
we need to look, you know, however, if this was in fact a variance issue and the examiner
was at fault in giving this a referral, I believe that 40 years history of it being an approved
rooming house with zero complaints. And both L and I, on two occasions, as recently as 2011,
recognizing this property as a single room residence. I believe that's a basis for,
it's basically a pre-existing non-conforming use. And that's why I respectfully request
the variance. My client
wants to make this place
even better. You're not
going to find one complaint
from anybody who protests
about this particular property.
And with that, I'd like to
bring in my client, if I can,