RECOMMENDED ZONING. THANK YOU. DO YOU MIND IF I RESPOND? YOU CAN. OKAY. THANK YOU. I JUST WANT
TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT WHEN PLANNING COMMISSION LOOKS AT THIS I DON'T KNOW THAT THEY ARE PRIVY TO
ANY FINANCIAL ANALYSIS REGARDING THE SITE, SITE CONDITIONS, THE COST OF CONSTRUCTION,
viable commercial interest rates or anything of that nature to make a comment as to what's viable
or not viable. So the number that we came up with and which has been discussed with the community
multiple times, they understood the need for the amount of density and also given the amount of
vacancy on that block to be able to support real viable commercial and get attractive commercial.
It was important to have, you know, this number of units. So we did look and review to make sure
that we didn't have to include more units than necessary,
but a lot of financial analysis went into that.
And again, it was fully supported by the community
and the council office as well.
Thank you.
So we're going to hold a vote on this till next week.
Here we will work on what provides,
on provisos and also receive the updated revised plans.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience
who had a 2 p.m. case that has not been called?
no hands chair okay we're gonna we're gonna take a five minute break come back and we'll
we'll do the 330 list thank you thank you chair all right good afternoon everyone my name is bill
Bergman and I will be chairing this afternoon's ZBA hearings with me is Thomas Holliman or one
of our board members present Mr. Chairman James Snell one of our board members present Mr. Chairman
also present is Hillary Emerson our attorney and our executive director Tanya Sunken
we excuse me mr we also have um mr um palmer here as an alternate board member i thought
maybe he he left us also present is our alternate board member lebaron leonard
present mr chairman thank you very much
here's our virtual format be advised the proceedings are being recorded a video will
be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at philo.gov. For the benefit of our court sonographers,
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.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address to the properties in question.
And finally, the question-answer box on the screen is now for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at this afternoon's schedule.
Okay, so number three, MI 2022-005-736-1610 Margaret Street, is Attorney Darlene Treat here?
Yes, Chair, she's here. She will be allowed to speak.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Commissioner. Can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the sonographer?
My name is Darlene Threatman, Commissioner.
For whatever reason, my video is not working today.
That's okay.
We're fine.
We're fine.
D-A-R-L-E-N-E, T as in Thomas, H-R-E-A-T-T.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do, Commissioner.
I understand on number three, you're requesting it to continue.
Commissioner, somehow this case slipped my calendar.
I didn't recalender it, and I'm not really prepared to proceed today, and I apologize.
We're going to continue this, and we'll mark this must be tried, okay?
Thank you very, very much.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
So number three, MI 2022-005-736, 16 cent, Margaret Street.
This case is continued.
Mark, must be heard.
Number nine, MI 2023-005-170-7553 Maryland Road, this case is continued.
Is there any other requests for continuances?
Oh, come on.
There are no handshare.
All right. And number two, MI 2023-005-129-6428-30 North Beachwood Street.
Kenneth Clark is the listed owner. Patrick Jones is a third-party professional.
We have no exhibits. This is the first list.
No one in the audience by that name, Chair.
Okay, so MI 2023-005-129-6428-30 North Beachwood Street.
That case is continued.
Mark must be heard.
And number seven.
MI 2022-004-477-2633 Oxford Street.
michelle cruz is the listed applicant a lot of cruz investment llc and there was also an
attorney involved donald funk this is the fifth listing mr chair this is hillary i just wanted
to clarify that this is orthodox street orthodox street okay yes thank you 2633 orthodox street
This is the fifth listing.
No hands, Chair.
Okay, so MI-2022-004-477-2633, Orthodox Street.
This is the fifth listing.
I vote to dismiss.
Thomas Holloman, I vote to dismiss.
James Snell, my vote is to dismiss.
We're going to go to our regular list.
We're going to start with number four.
MI-2022-001-771-2641 York Street.
Steve Masters is the attorney.
Steve Masters is coming in as a panelist.
There's a letter of support from all in the family CDC with provisions, provisors.
Mr. Masters, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board. My name is Steve Masters, S-T-E-V-E, M-A-S-T-E-R-S with the law firm of JustLaws.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
We represent the property owner, James Edwards Jr., who is also here in the virtual audience.
Mr. Holloman has just a few questions, sir.
good afternoon counsel good afternoon do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon.
and stipulate to his accuracy I agree to uh to to waive the reading but we do not believe that the
refusal is completely accurate because it doesn't contain the references to the historic use of this
property that was permitted by the zoning board of of takeout uh use for over almost 100 years
okay did you email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing
yes we did thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you
uh good afternoon again uh mr chair members of the board um we're here um at this uh property
in north philadelphia and strawberry mansion which um is uh has a historic use going back
almost a hundred years of having takeout candy and ice cream for this neighborhood.
The structure that we're going to see has never been used for a single-family home,
and so an unnecessary hardship exists because the premises cannot be converted into what is
required by the zoning code, the single-family home, without a demolition and extensive
reconstruction. So we contend that we have compelling hardship in this case.
The notice of refusal has a single variance, which is for the takeout restaurant. That's
expressly prohibited in an RSA 5 residential zoning district. We also have support from the
coordinating RCO. In this case, there were two RCOs that we engaged with quite a fair amount of
meetings and back and forth. The coordinating RCO was all in the family. Also, Strawberry
Mansion Concerns was another RCO that we interacted with many times. The coordinating RCO
wrote a letter to the board supporting the use of this building in its historic use as a takeout
restaurant. They asked for four provisos. I'm sorry, five provisos. Trash to be stored in the
basement with commercial trash service. Hours of operation expected to be between 10 a.m. and 6
p.m. Business is expected to be closed on Sundays. Security floodlights and sensors will be
installed and then coordinated with the security camera program by the Department of Commerce.
There is not a sign on this application, but we anticipate that they're going to paint
an attractive sign on one of the windows that we'll show you, and there will be no outdoor seating.
uh we added a an additional proviso um in in our um conversations with the additional rco so there
was um as you see in the there were five in the coordinating rcos letter we have a sixth one and
that is it appears on our proviso list uh at number four when uh when mr edwards purchased
the property and began to clean it up, fix it up in anticipation of this application.
He installed, as we'll see this in a moment, he installed a grate for security purposes
when the business was not open, and the community would like a different kind of security
grating that would allow people to look inside the business and not have it be all solid.
So we are hoping to work with the Commerce Department or with the district council person's office to be able to find some support so that the owner can replace that.
In Exhibit 4, we have the petitions in support signed by 44 near neighbors for the takeout restaurant.
And again, on our petition, it explains what the attended hours are, what the trash removal process would be, and all of the basic items that are in the provisos from our provisos and also from the coordinating RCO.
In Exhibit 5, we have the plans.
So what we have in terms of the site plan,
it's a straight rectangular property that fronts onto West York Street.
Here's the elevation.
in in the renovations that were done um and we'll see this with some of the photos but we
we installed some attractive windows and an attractive door at the front of the of the
business there it was it was quite blighted uh before mr edwards bought this bought this location
the first floor is going to be where the food uh prep and um and counter and take out will be
occurring. This is the front door. There's the counter. Behind it will be the areas for
food prep, for cold, and for warm food prep. There's a large area in the back here that's
also going to be for kitchen prep use, and then restrooms that are only available to
the staff of the restaurant. On the second floor, there is an employee break room and
um significant areas that are available for storage and an additional restroom for the for the staff
in exhibit six we have the presentation that was provided to the the community this is the new
more attractive uh view of the facade on the front but it does have this
great. That has become an issue. Here you can see what it used to look like before the
renovations. And this is the after photo. We had sample menu for the food. Then these
are the photos for the inside. This is obviously still a work in progress because we haven't
uh been granted the zoning permit for for us to to get to the finished work yet
exhibit seven are the zoning poster photos showing the zoning posters for today's hearing
this is a uh tax clearance that we obtained some time ago when we tried to obtain an updated tax
clearance we ran into some issues with the department revenue so we we have shared that
with um with board council and so if the board uh wishes you may want to defer a vote until we do
have a a up-to-date tax clearance but we do expect to have one very soon. This is the the deed that
conveys the property to Mr. Edwards. Exhibit 10 was our application for appeal. Exhibit 11 is our
project information form and Exhibit 12 is the RCO notice letter that was delivered to all of the
area neighbors, and also
it had information for a prior zoning hearing
and the certificate of mailing.
At this point, I would like to call my client
James Edwards to adopt my testimony.
Mr. Edwards.
Mr. Edwards has been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name is spelled for the court stenographer.
Mr. Edwards?
He's unmuted, Chair, but he seems to be having a technical issue.
Oh, wait, he put his hand up.
We still can't hear him. He's been
unmuted. Counsel, you are an officer
of the court and we will gladly accept your testimony. Questions from
the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Yes, just two quick things.
One, Mr. Masters, I did check the taxes and the real estate
taxes are paid through 2023. So the board can go ahead and vote this. I know sometimes the tax
clearance pulls in other taxes, but the board only looks at the real estate taxes. So that's
So that's probably, you know, there's probably other things on there that are causing a problem.
probably, there's probably other things on there that are causing a problem.
The other thing is in the RCO's letter, they mentioned not wanting to have any household living at the property.
Is that something your client would agree to or not?
It wasn't listed in their provisos, but it was in like the sentence right before the provisos.
They said they didn't want to see any like an apartment there.
Yes, that is. We do agree to that.
But we did not put any application in for a dwelling.
We want the entire building to be used for the takeout restaurant.
Okay, great.
Thank you so much.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
First name Ron, R-O-N.