We're just going to allow the attendees to load into the room.
okay chair we have 46 attendees you can proceed as you wish thank you good morning everyone my
name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning zba hearings with me is our board member
thomas holliman present mr chairman our board member james snell present mr chairman and our
Our alternate board member today is LeBaron Leonard Palmer from the Division of Development Services.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised if the proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and address the property in question.
And finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at what our schedule looks like this morning.
Number three, MI 2023-004-919-3904 Brown Street, that case is continued.
Number nine, MI 2023-004-946-1936 North 32nd Street,
that case is continued. Number 10, MI 2023, 004-947-1205 South 28th Street,
that case is continued, attorney moving party. Number 12, MI 2023, 001-895-4515 Van Kirk Street,
That case is continued. Number 13, MI 2023-004-943-2104 North Franklin Street. That case is continued.
at number 17. Hold on a minute. Number 17. MI 2023-005-052-2021, North Van Pelt Street.
That case is continued. Are there any questions relative to the cases that have been called?
Are there any additional continuances for today?
good morning chair this is doreen blakey and i will co-host today good morning
good morning i have a hand up by the name of thomas g i will allow him to speak okay
good morning
he's muted thomas g can you unmute yourself please and wait for the chair
good morning
he's still muted chair okay you have to unmute yourself sir
his his mic disappeared um he's still there but his hands not up anymore is there is there
anyone else in the audience who has a question for a continuance
no uh yes verne anastasio just raised his hand okay he's been allowed to speak
morning mr chair morning sir could you just state your name for the record and spell please
for the court stenographer sure it's verne anastasio v-e-r-n and last name is a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o
on behalf of Gujan Lee, the owner of 3235 Fanshawe.
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Hold on one minute.
Let me pull that up.
that's number seven yeah number seven mr chair and uh mr anastasia is that 32 34 fanshaw street
That's number seven.
Yeah, number seven, Mr. Chair.
that's correct i'm sorry okay thank you that's all right i just want to make sure i had the
right number please proceed sir mr chair i was notified by the rco and i do believe the rco was
trying to get on and do this themselves that uh they were going to request a continuance i i have
no objection they just asked us to come back uh to to their uh to their meeting just just to be
sure is there anyone from the rco here for the mayfair civic association
madeline murphy has a hand up i'm not sure if she's a part of it
should i allow her to speak sure please
miss murphy
miss murphy has disappeared okay thank you all right i think they're having so you want you want
to continue it's right burn yeah um or they do okay they do and i'm i'm not going to object
you know just in good faith i know they seem to be having technical difficulties and i don't want
do anything to undermine their request. Thank you. MI 2023-005-039-3234 Fanshawe Street,
that case is continued. Is there anyone else in the audience who has a case for continuance?
There are no more hands, Chair. Thank you. We have a few cases with no exhibits. Number five,
mi20230024387701 gilbert street we have no exhibits this is the second listing
uh the only one okay i think like he said madeline murphy having technical difficulties
there are no other hands here okay mr char is gonna say the the listed applicant for this one
is jason long jason long and then boston homes llc is the listed owner
no one has a hand raised by those names so mi 2023 002 438 7701 gilbert street
cases continued mark must be heard the next time and also number 16
MI-2023-002-403-3229 Rurer Street.
Madeline Murphy-Gonzalez, no exhibits.
This is the second listing.
I understand that exhibit packet has been submitted.
It was incomplete.
So, Madeline Murphy Gonzalez.
I believe she was trying to raise her hand, Mr. Chair.
I think she may be able to speak now.
Yeah, there she is.
Good morning.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
I'm sorry, Chair.
It seems that she's really having technical issues.
All right.
All right. So we do know that that package is incomplete. So MI 2023-002-403-3229 Rory Street,
that case is continued. Mark must be heard. And Mr. Chair, I just want to note for the record,
she did indicate in the Q&A that she was trying to request a continuance.
That's fine. Thank you very much. And number one,
MI 2023-005-063-1521 Tasker Street.
Thomas Mu and Xu Zhang are the owner applicants.
We understand this possibly could be a withdrawal.
Are Thomas Mu or Xu Wang Zhang in the audience?
No one with a hand raised by that nature.
here. So MI 2023-005-063-1521 Tasker Street. We still need a letter of withdrawal here. This case
is continued. Let's go to our add-on list. Number one through three on the add-on list. Number one
is MI 2023-001-605-3914-Y-Lusing.
39 14 why loosing number two is mi 2023 001 604 39 75 why loosing and number three mi 2023
001 603 39 33 why loosing i vote no to all three thomas holloman my vote is no to all three
James Snell, my vote is no to all three.
Number four, MI 2023-004-817-6041 Frankfurt Avenue, I vote no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
LeBaron was here for that one, am I right?
LeBaron?
Sorry, I'm muting.
Yes, LeBaron or Palmer, my vote is no.
Thank you.
So we're going to go to our regular list, and we're going to start with number 15.
wait no not 15 hold on here
that's correct Mr. Chair number 15 okay um oh wait a minute I'll be right with you
MI 2023
005035
1600 South 26th Street
Ahmad Sadi is the tenant
applicant
letter of support from Point Breeze Community
Development Coalition
amand has been promoted to panelist chair
good morning sir
uh can i request that we hear this uh
a little later in the meeting because my lawyer is uh he's running late he's representing me
okay we we did not have that you had an attorney but that's fine what's your attorney's name
his name is jonathan game okay we what we will do we will call you at the end he says he'll be on at
10 01 a.m well i i don't know that i can prime you at an exact time let me let me let me call
the next case and then we'll we'll get to you right after that okay all right thank you so much
Okay, number one, number two, and number four, MI 2023-005-127-6116 East Worcester Street,
And number four, MI 2023-005-119-6118 East Worcester Street, the Office of Councilperson Bass served as the coordinating RCO and came to a position of no decision, allowing the board to make this decision following a community meeting with near neighbors, with no near neighbors, I'm sorry.
rachel pritzker is the attorney rachel pritzker has been promoted
good morning counsel could you state your name for the record and spell for the court stenographer
yep rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r right do you swear or firm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes could you identify your client in relationship
to the properties two properties yeah the client is maybe one sec
ram phila community 11 llc which is the owner of the property and the second property is owned by
i mean it's basically the same what it named with a different number is that correct
yes it's ram phila community 16 llc it's the same owners okay all right all right thank you
um our uh mr hallman has just a few questions for you sure
Did we lose Mr. Hallman?
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or referral and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Can you see my screen? We can. Okay. So this is 6116 and 6118 East Worcester.
As you can see, they're part of sort of this slew of vacant lots, and the area's got, you know, a decent amount of vacancy and mostly residential properties on East Worcester.
The application for both of these is just for the removal of the commercial space requirement on the first floor.
And just to add one dwelling unit where the commercial space is, these properties are both zoned CMX2, so they allow for multifamily, but they have a commercial requirement on the ground floor within the first 30 feet of the property line and 100% of the ground floor.
There's also a requirement for a minimum of 480 square feet of lot area per dwelling unit.
And we're a little bit shy of that by maybe 400 feet.
So essentially what we're looking for is just to be able to put a one bedroom unit on the ground floor of these already CMX2 properties.
um i'm gonna just go through
plans do we have um logan dry as i i'm just gonna go through sort of our argument and if
logan dry can be promoted to go through the plans you know as i mentioned this is these
are cmx2 properties there's a series of like 16 consecutive cmx2 properties where there's only
maybe two active uses. The rest of the properties and on the block is all vacant. So there's really
no market for non-residential uses as this location, as you could see across the street
and in the surrounding blocks, it's all residential. East Worcester is really not a
developed commercial corridor in this neighborhood. So requiring ground floor commercial, especially on
these smaller lots, just would contribute to the blight in the sense of just leaving
vacant commercial spaces, as opposed to putting one residential unit on the ground floor, which
brings eyes to the street, helps add to the affordability of the building, and provides
actually a viable use for the space, and also is in alignment with the city's 2035 comprehensive
plan. The Upper Northwest District Plan calls for right-sizing minor commercial quarters like
like Worcester Avenue, by consolidating the commercial uses to more residential and mixed
use along these smaller commercial corridors and focusing stronger mixed use and commercial
on Germantown Avenue, Chelten Avenue, and areas that there's actual viable commercial corridors.
So again, pretty simple matter. We're just asking to waive the ground floor commercial and put one
bedroom, one bedroom unit in each building. We did meet with the RCO. The first meeting we had
with the RCO, they wouldn't allow us to present the project because there weren't enough near
neighbors and there was like two or one or two or three near neighbors. Most of the area is pretty
blighted and vacant or it's a lot of renters. So, but they wouldn't even allow us to do a meeting.
So we then had to come back and do another meeting. The council office decided that they would host the meeting because there was some issues with the RCOs. And even though we flired again, and we posted and we sent the mailers, I think one or two people who lived near the area, but not exactly right there, because again, it's a lot of vacancy.
it wasn't a near enough neighbor, but we did mail this out twice. We did try to host two meetings
and there was nobody in opposition of this. So it just was a function of people not coming out
to meetings, which is nothing new. So again, here's the notices we sent out. We had the Zoom
that was hosted by the council office. Here's the proof of mailing. And ultimately the council
Ultimately, the council office just decided that because the RCO couldn't hold the meeting and because nobody showed up that they would just leave it to the board.
law office just decided that because the RCO couldn't hold the meeting and because
But, you know, again, we mailed twice. I didn't get any phone calls or any real issues.
And the one or two folks that showed up on the call didn't have any issues with the project.
So that's sort of why you have the letter that you have from the council office.
if we can promote logan dry i just want him to briefly go through our plans and then i can bring
the owner on um to adopt my testimony again just a waiver of the commercial so we can have a viable
project here all right mr dry logan dry i can promote it good morning sir could you state your
name please and spell for the court stenography sure logan dry it's l-o-g-a-n-d-r-y do you swear
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel
logan are you able to go through the plans for the board yep i think you want to go
back one more page yep there we go um so again as rachel mentioned you know we've got two of
these side-by-side properties um they're both mirrored duplicates of each other uh all dimensionally
complying with the zoning code um you know we'll just look at 6116 for example um you've got your
one bedroom unit in the front of the building that you enter off the street that's a type b
accessible unit you take the staircase up on the left side that takes you to the second floor
on the second floor then you can either enter unit b or unit a unit a is a two-bedroom unit
Unit B is also a two-bedroom bi-level unit with the first floor, so you've got that switchback staircase that takes you down to the second half of Unit B, which is behind what was, you know, formally designed as the commercial space.
Again, you go back up, you're on the second floor.
That center switchback stair then takes you to two more units on the third floor, and these are each one-bedroom units.
You know, there's no roof deck.
There's no basement in this building.
um they were just things we didn't feel like we needed in the design um other things to note just
you know based on the design of this you know we did incorporate a breezeway into the design of
the ground floor of the building since there's no alleys in the back of the lot so um you know
both of these buildings will also have you know access to the rear yard for trash and storage and
things like that um as well as a another means of egress from that rear yard um i'm going to go to
the next page rachel and this again just shows the roof you know there's no roof deck and then
it also shows the elevations which i believe rachel has a rendering of as well but you know