Good morning, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our Vice Chair, Tenetta Graham. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our Board Secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston. Present, Mr. Chairman. Board members, Michael Johns. Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ryan McAdams. Also, here is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, our ZBA director, Ian Haggerty.
This hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the ZBA website. By participating,
you agree to be recorded. This is an in-person meeting with remote participations, whether
in person or on Zoom, if you are called to speak, please state your name and spell it and then wait
to be sworn in. After you're sworn in, state your name each time before testifying. To enter an
appearance, indicate the property address on your Zoom webinar, speak with a staff member,
call this eba office by the close of business tomorrow call 215-686-2479
and please state your name email and the address of the property in question remote participation
raise your virtual hand when directed so that we can have you speak
when we call on you you must click the join as a panelist button use the Q&A
only for procedural questions do not ask about the the case itself if you are
joining by phone press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute in person if you
are testifying get close to the mic so that all attendees and also the court reporter can hear you
no talking eating or drinking during the hearings aggressive behavior will not be tolerated
in an emergency follow the staff the exit is the large drawers in the rear and to the left is the
stairwell if you are if we evacuate please go to love park which is directly across our street and
stay there so we can account for you so let's look at our schedule for this morning
we're doing that during the adwords well you want to do it first yeah no no we'll do this
our schedule first, right? Yeah. And then we go to the Adams. Okay. We got a lot of data.
Number one, MI 2025, 000479, 5236 Rising Sun Avenue. We have no exhibits for this.
This is Rene's daycare listed owner, Julian Rene.
Chair, I have a hand up from Miguel Tapadas.
That is an interpreter for another matter.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, but thank you.
No further hands up at this time, Chair.
Okay, so this is our third listing. So MI 2025 000 479-5239, Rising Adams, Sun Avenue. I vote to dismiss.
Michael Johns, my vote is to dismiss. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is to dismiss.
Sonetta Graham, my vote is to dismiss. Ryan McAdams, my vote is to dismiss.
Hyah Nguyen, my vote is to dismiss. Are we going to use the interpreter for the next one?
Yep. We'll take it. We're just going to continue it. Right. Okay. MI 2026, 000622, 6441 North 20th Street. This case will be continued to 92326.
Must be heard. And at that 930 a.m., Mr. Chair? 930. Yep. Thank you. 930 a.m. Yep.
Number three, MI 2025, 000686, 418 North Southford Street, Burnout.
686-418-North-Salford-Street.
Bernard Astasio is the attorney.
I'm allowing him to speak.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Morning, counsel.
could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer? Yes, sir. It's Vern Anastasio,
A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, on behalf of Anifa Wasu. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Would you please give us an update on this
case? Yes, Mr. Chair. A few months ago, we needed, subsequent to an RCO, series of RCO meetings,
we needed to amend the application. So I received a new refusal in February, and that refusal now
has to go before the community because obviously it's the amended application generated different
refusals. So if I could just get one more continuance, I would appreciate it. Thank you.
So MI 2025, 000686, 418 West Salford Street at Cases Continued to 92326 at 930 a.m.
Mark must be heard.
Thank you.
Thank you.
number four mi2025-001-865-1754 south avondale street um yvette
yancy is the listed owner documents are needed for this case
There are no hands at this time chair.
So, and my 2025, 0, 0, 1, 8, 6, 5, 17.
58 South Avondale street, I've looked at this miss.
Michael Johns, my vote is to dismiss.
General guest and my vote is to dismiss to net a Graham. My vote is to dismiss. Right. Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt. A hand went up from Craig.
Melodosian?
With that case? Yeah finish the voting first then we can yeah we can hear yeah.
Tywin my vote is to dismiss. All right and yeah but I believe Mr. Melodosian's from the
coordinating RCO for this matter. That we just voted on?
Yes but we can we can let him jump in and just want to note that this is the third listing for
this matter. Craig Craig
Mr. Melodosian
good morning good morning Craig could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Craig Melodosian, C-R-A-I-G, last name M-E-L-I-D-O-S-I-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Chair Berkman.
Craig, just so you know, that last case, that was the third listing.
Yes, I guess I'm going to make an administrative point.
I didn't realize that, in fact, we were on the third one on that, and I understand the dismissal.
I did want to point out, in case Ian did not notice, and we've had this happen only occasionally in the past,
when I did do a global search for that address independently and with RCO notification,
I could not find the typical notice that we get from them indicating the issue has been relisted
and then following up with the new posting.
So I just really, not asking you to reconsider this, but wanted to make sure that the staff was aware that occasionally this does happen.
And we had had it happen on another piece on Island Avenue and only knew about it because that individual had also retained a PR attorney firm who then chased after us.
So you guys do a phenomenal job for everything you do.
Thanks, Greg.
And appreciate your help.
Thank you.
Okay, so we're going to move on to number six, MI 2025-004-483, 2169-66th Avenue.
2169 66 Avenue. That case is continued to 923 26 at 9 30 a.m.
That case is continued to...
Number seven, MI 2025 004 525 4151 to 55 East Wyoming Avenue. That case is continued
until 9-23-26 at 9.30 a.m.
Number eight.
MI-2025-004-643-6144 Van Dyke Street,
um no exhibits second listing eleanor mizanga
share i see no hands at this time we have no documents so mi 2025
zero zero four six four three sixty one forty four van dyke street i vote to dismiss
michael johns my vote is to dismiss cheryl gaston my vote is to dismiss
Tenetta Graham, my vote is to dismiss.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is to dismiss.
Ty Owen, my vote is to dismiss.
Number 9, MI2025-004-933-229 West Hazard Street.
This case is continued to 923-26 at 930 a.m.
That's actually a withdrawal, Mr. Chair.
Yes, number 9 withdrawal.
That case will be withdrawn.
Thank you.
number 10 mi 20 25 007 616 9401 frankfurt avenue this case is continued this is number 10
to 9 23 26 at 9 30 a.m
number 12 mi 2025 007 716 4045 for spring garden street this case is continued
until 9 23 26 at 9 30 a.m
number 15
chair i have a hand that just went up from kevin valentine
the last one we just did okay council
can you hear me i can sir could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
Yes, Kevin Valentine, first name K-E-V-I-N, last name V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And you have Spring Garden Street, sir?
Yes, was that, I wasn't sure whether I heard the address correctly.
Was that 4045?
4045 Spring Garden Street.
Yes, I have that, and yes, we would like to continue.
Yeah, continue that to 9-23-26.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for calling us.
We appreciate it.
Number 15.
Number 15, MI 2025-007-847-531-4352nd Street.
um sb sb r e limited listed owner try tray tracy smith is also listed here no exhibits this is
the first listing. Anybody in the audience? No hands at this time, chair. So MI 2025 007 847
531 to 43 South 52nd Street. This case will be continued until 9 30 26 at 9 30 AM. Mark must be
hurt. Number 17. MI 2025-007-852-2167.
0 0 7 8 5 2 2 1 6 7 north 29th street this case is continued until 9 30 26 at 9 30 a.m
are there any other requests for continuances
share there are no hands at this time okay we're going to go to
we're going to start with our add-on list
As our first order of business, we will be adopting revised regulations for the Zoning Board of Adjustment, dated June 10, 2026.
have all members received a copy of this the revised regulations and and had an opportunity
to review it yes chair yes mr chairman yes i have michael yes i have yeah sure yes all right
Do members have any concerns or proposed changes particular to the revised regulations?
No, Chair.
Okay. All right. All right. At this time, do I have a motion to adopt the revised regulations and adopt the revised regulations for the zoning board adjustment? Do I have a motion?
uh yes chair i move that we adopt the revised regulations of the zoning board of adjustment
dated june 10th 2026. um i second the motion but you you might want to say your name probably right
yeah yeah so why don't we start again this is this is board member the board secretary
Cheryl Gaston. And I move that we adopt the revised regulations of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, dated June 10, 2026.
Tanada Graham, I second the motion.
having a motion that has been properly second and and and the membership uh of of the of the
of and membership of the motion to adopt the re the review regulations and the zoning board of
adjustment dated june 10th uh 2026 signed by saying aye aye aye all right if you have if any
members are opposed please signify by saying nay
based on the vote of the membership the revised regulations of the zoning board of adjustment
dated June 10th 2026 have been adopted by the board and and will be filed for with the department
of records for 30 days um committed prior as a regulation in the home rule charter okay
we'll now go to our normal add-on list mi 2025 005 651 2035 moore street i vote no michael johns
my vote is no. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no. Tanetta Graham, my vote is no. Ryan McAdams,
my vote is no. Iowa, my vote is no. Number three, MI 2025, 007-524-31 North 50th Street.
I vote yes with proviso. Maximum three dwelling units,
um no household living in basement no rooftop deck or rooftop structure
i'm proposing a different uh motion that the maximum two units uh with all the other provisos
cheryl gaston i vote yes with the provisos of the chair
okay uh tenetta graham i vote yes with provisos uh from the chair ryan mcadams i vote yes with
Ryan McAdams, I vote yes with the provisos from the chair.
the provisos from the chair
Tywin, I vote yes with the provisos from the chair.
Number four, MI 2025-007527-9708 Decatur Street, I vote yes with proviso.
All building, appropriate building permits to be obtained.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisos.
cheryl gaster my vote is yes with provisos tenetta graham my vote is yes with provisos
ryan mcadams my vote is yes with provisor tyowin my vote is yes with provisor number five mi 2026
zero zero two nine seven three forty seven twenty three um sheldon street um at the request of the
parties the vote in this matter has been moved to wednesday august 12th at 9 30 a.m number six
mi 2026 002 975 4725 sheldon street at the request of the parties the vote in this matter
has been moved august 12th at 9 30 a.m we'll go to our first regular case number five
i'll be recusing chair oh okay number five mi 2025 002 755 1828 north natona street
russell choice is the owner applicant
Rashid, I'm sorry, Rashid, Rashidel, right?
Sure, hold on a moment.
Good morning, members of the board.
Why don't you state your name, spell for the stenographer.
Shantae Jenkins, S-H-A-N-T-A-E-J-E-N-K-I-N-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, yes.
So the property owner here is Ross Adele Choice.
That's the person that needs to testify.
Are you Ross Adele Choice?
Okay, where is Ross Adele Choice?
Can you turn your mic on?
He was in traffic, but he asked me to represent on his behalf.
Are you an attorney?
No, I'm not.
Then you cannot do that, unfortunately.
So if he's on his way here, then we will just wait to hear this once he gets here.
Thank you.
All right.
Just let us know when he's here.
Thank you.
Number 11.
MI 2025-007-690-3301, Green's Back Street, Danelle, the attorney is Treat, Darlene Treat is the attorney.
We have
They're being promoted to panelists
Good morning
Yeah, why don't we get to that
We should get her
No, you don't have to
Good morning, Darlene
good morning commissioners darling please could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer Darlene threet d-a-r-l-e-n-e threet thomas h-r-e-a-t-t do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do um could you identify your client
in relationship to the property i believe my client is sitting in the room today he's sitting
right in front of us but i've still asked you to do mr christian uh cordero we had a little mix up
all right okay um and he's the owner yes he is okay our vice chair has a few questions
good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes I have and do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their
accuracy yes I do all right thank you you can see your screen and proceed with the case
Okay. All right. Thank you. You can see your screen and proceed with the case.
here we go good morning my name is darlene and i'm representing christian cordero today
i've submitted a package of information which contains the refusal
appeal property information form deed tax information
Additional property information, plans, pictures, a community letter and a proof of mailing. We did meet with the community association. Unfortunately, though I asked a couple of times, I did not receive a copy. We can't see your exhibits.
Oh, let me read here.
No problem.
you're coming up now okay yep you're up all right i uh submitted a uh package of uh exhibits which
are listed in the syllabus here a commission is uh mr cordero uh purchased this property
in december of 2024 uh he started work and didn't have the proper permitting
uh and then he sought out to apply to the zoning board of adjustment to build a one family single
family dwelling which he intends to live in this property is a substandard property it is uh zoned
as a rsa 5 which allows for single family uh development uh we were refused because there's
not um enough space basically there's the property is only 651 square feet and there's not enough
room for uh the rear yard um etc we filed an appeal to the zoning board of adjustment
indicating that we like to build a single family structure which the lot is actually zoned for
here's the project information form
there's a deed, a tax information, general property information.
I just wanted to show you that it is a very small substandard lot in the house we are building.
There are compatible in lot and dimension as the other houses on the block.
Here are the actual plans.
I'm just going to blow it up a little bit.
This is just actually the site plan,
which shows we plan to build a single family house on the spot.
Down in the corner here on the plan,
you can see what's currently existing here.
Generally, we want one family on the top, a garage and some storage up on the bottom.
I'm going to go down to the actual floor plan.
Mr. Cordero has a business.
He is a trucker.
He plans to have an office on the first floor and some storage for some of his business equipment, files, et cetera.
I'm on the second floor, which I'll blow up a little bit more.
He just wants to have a one-bedroom.
Cutting the grass outside.
On the second floor, he just plans to have a simple one-bedroom dwelling.
It's a nice size apartment.
Basically you have a kitchen and a dining room area here.
Basically, you have a kitchen and a dining room area here.
You walk back, you have a full bathroom here.
And back here, you have a large one bedroom.
I'm just going to reduce that a little.
Here is just a rendering of what the rear,
the front of the property looks like this is the length of the property
and this is what the rear of the property looks like
here is the picture of how the property currently looks here's a picture of the posting
there is a little breezeway that you can walk through to the back there's not much of a back
there's somewhat of a year a rear alley back there that's down pretty much and here are some
other pictures just to show you that this house is built compatible with the size width height
of the other houses on the left that's the rear of the property
that's the little breezeway that i showed you that you can walk from the side of the
property all the way down the side to the rear
that doesn't look fabulous but that's what the back of the properties look like
that's a left side of the street of brands back
and that's a full picture of both sides of the street of brands back
some additional pictures
the commissioners we did uh actually meet with the 47th ward we met actually twice uh we met
with mr plumes at the property initially i went through it and then we noticed the meeting with
the community on april 27th i believe i sent out 156 flyers and it was my understanding that the
uh property was approved and again i apologize i was not able to get a copy of the letter although
i tried uh and that's our mailing and to show you uh that we did uh send out the appropriate mailers
for the meeting and that's all i have commissions
you want to bring your client want to adopt your testimony
council
mr cordero yeah sir could you please state your name get closer to the mic if you would
could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer christian cordero
c-r-i-s-t-i-a-n and cordero is c-o-r-d-e-r-o do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel
uh mr cordero are you the owner of the property at 3301 grand south yes and have you heard the
presentation that i made today yes and if you were to testify today would you be able to
adopt my testimony as true and correct yes that's all i have commission questions from the board
Yeah. Go ahead. I guess my question is, is there a legal curb cut for this driveway?
No, there's not a legal curb cut. There is not.
So. So this garage, then, do you need to go to streets to get approval for that?
uh be honest with you i didn't initiate this application and it should have been done in
the beginning and it is my intention to file a review and to see if i can get some parking
for downstairs but that's wouldn't isn't that part of what we would be looking at though for
consideration no today today the application he does have a home business our application
is for storage and a home office
downstairs, not for parking.
All right.
Thank you. Other questions?
Yes. I have a question
just because it didn't seem
that all of the plans align with
the photographs. What is the
depth of the rear yard?
There's no real
real yard. I'm going to go to the
rear yard. Is anything behind
the facade?
So how much depth is there
from the interior of the back wall to the end of the property line.
of the of the back wall to the end of the property line because your drawing shows one foot six
inches which is 18 inches and the drawing showed that there was enough space for a person to take
an angled picture with the camera and it looked like it was a closer to three feet and I just
wanted clarity and also I don't is the breezeway on the site plan yes the breezeway is on the site
plan this is in a little bit darling you you it was more visible when you had it at 400 and then
you okay okay so where's the breezeway on here because it's showing an offset around the entire
like there's no breezeway shown on this drawing
and showing the exterior
walls from the property line to property line
with an 18 inch rear yard
which is not what we've depicted
and is there a fence
between sort of your and it looks like the three-foot alley is not part of the legal property
right so that's outside of the property because typically there's an easement and that's shared
amongst neighbors so is the alleyway part of the property or or not this is the existing alleyway
i don't believe the alleyway is part of the property property line and the breezeway
is on the right side where on this drawing
so so on this plan the neighbor has a dream a breezeway
with the the hatched area below has a breezeway but you don't show
a breezeway on your property you just show your property going to the property line
let me just go back down for a second here and I guess I can just state so my concern is that like
part of the reasons we have rear setbacks is to allow for egress in the case of a fire and that
18 inches is not enough space for a human being to exit and so if uh if that if this drawing is
correct and a fence is put up at the property line then it negates the purpose of having that
rear door for a person to to get out they'd have no exit to that alleyway and and um out of the
property same with the breezeway um and because they're neither of them are even shown on the
site plan it makes it hard to i do uh i do see your concern and it does look like the plan the
line is incorrect on the plan but there's definitely an alley in the back and it's about
two three feet can we i mean is it i think it's hard to i feel like this whole case is predicated
on an accurate depiction of the of the existing conditions
and since it's already built i'm also assuming this was this built with permits i usually know
and check today okay it received a stop work permit which is why they applied for the zoning
got it so i think we need an accurate drawing of what is there
all right so so we before we go any further um why don't we consider this carlene why don't we
give it a result of hearing you come back with proper appropriate drawings that would depict
is that okay um is it possible for me to just submit um a new set of plans
i don't think the question of whether the use is at odds with what's supposed to be due there i
just think there's some inconsistency in that back breezeway in the plan so i would like an
opportunity just to be able to submit new plans hear the whole case then close it except for
appropriate plans yes we can we can do that if the board wishes okay other questions from the
board so that everything's on the table yeah if my second question is is the idea to to keep these
combined or is it to separate the unit so that in the future the unit could be separate from the
business like is it meant to have an office space and a separate unit because they didn't seem
fully legally separated also by the plans is there a door that would allow the upstairs
residential tenant to have their own separate this no no
their own separate this no no this is a home office use it is the intention of
my client mr. Cordero to live there and to use the downstairs for storage and
his personal home office understand okay and then I guess the big question
elephant in the room is if the you know if this gets converted to be a garage
later it doesn't look like the plan is set up to accommodate that easily right
now i didn't hear the last part of your question it doesn't seem like the plan is set up to
accommodate the conversion of this to have uh parking well if we had to convert it we would
have to go to the streets department um and have them sign off on a legal curb cut okay so you're
just gonna do that as a complete simple process yeah understood and there is no basement in this
unit right no no there is no basement all right thank you all the questions yes um so the garage
is going to be just used for an office or whatever there's no plan to um have curb cut
currently the garage is going to be used for storage mr cordero is an independent uh trucker
He has a business, and he plans to use the downstairs for his office for his business and to store some supplies.
Okay, so.
No commercial use for the storage is intended.
Personal use.
Okay, so because I guess my question is, again, there is no plan to use this as an actual garage, correct?
not currently and if in the future it's used as a garage we would go back through
license and inspections and put in the proper paperwork the proper plans with the proper cuts
on the curb okay so and is there parking that there's no parking allowed on that street there
no there isn't okay all right thank you there is parking on the street
no those that's parking is illegal people are parking on the sidewalk right yeah that's what
i mean i mean there's no parking there is no parking um a question from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair we have one hand up from uh sloan folks they're allowed to sure
good morning chairman bergman gv board good morning sloan could you please state your name
is spelled for the stenographer yes my name is sloan folks um s-l-o-a-n-e f as in fire o-l-k-s
i'm representing the office of council member ketchy lazada room 484 city hall right do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir we do proceed yes
Yes, the council member initially was going to request that any vote would be held for
two weeks to ensure that a letter from the community was on record regarding this variance
request.
What we're hearing now is that there's going to be, not going to be a resumptive hearing,
but there's going to be another hearing prior to approval.
Is that correct or incorrect?
Correct. That's what we would like to do. Okay. So our request is that prior to any vote, a letter from the community is, and we can ensure that happens. We're meeting with the community on a separate matter this week, but a letter from the community is on record stating their, any concerns they may have and anything that they really want to say.
So we will not do anything until after that meeting.
Thank you, sir.
okay anyone else in the board I mean in the audience
no hands at this time chair any Commission good morning chair David effecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with
the City Planning Commission do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes sir I do please proceed thank you Mr Chairman and board members good morning
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 5 residential single-family zoning at
this location. The city rezoned this neighborhood in 1973 and a council supported map change.
The structure proposed to become a single family home apparently already exists. This appears to
have been built without the benefit of permits. The city planning commission recommends that the
board deny the proposed dimensional variances. Thank you. So this will be closed except for
So, this will be closed, except for a letter from the RCO and also additional plans that we would understand. Right? Right. And then we're going to look for a date. This will be 915 26 at 930 AM.
a letter from the RCO.
Wait, so, all right. Okay. Are we, are we doing a resumption? Are you listing a date for the vote? I'm just giving the date for the vote. I mean, it's yeah. Okay. So I don't, I don't know that we need to hold the vote for that long. I was going to suggest July 8th.
Well, that's at 930. Yeah, that's fine with me. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you tell me July 8th, July 8th at 930 at 930 AM. But everything's closed, except for what we said. Right. The letters and the plans. Yeah. Thank you. Council.
Thank you. All right. Let's go back to number 1, right?
Thank you, sir.
come on up sir
here we go
number five mi2025 002 756 1826 north daytona street sir could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer my name is rasdale choice get closer to the mic and pull
pulled closer to you yeah that's good great rasdale choice r-a-s-s-e-d-e-l-l right choice
c-h-o-i-c-e and it's 1828 1828 okay and our secretary has a few questions
yeah yeah yeah that's okay take down take your time take your time
um good morning hey ralph how you doing today did you yes he is he is
I think that's wrong. Something's, uh, yeah, we're still hearing attorney three.
Oh, okay. Um, uh, good morning, sir. Um, did you submit your, um, documents and exhibits
five days in advance of this hearing?
And this is for the, where are we? Here. I'm sorry.
Is it right here? It's fine. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yep. All right.
No, I'm sorry. Yeah. And hopefully I can read this. This application is for use as a personal care home within an existing structure.
So, there's one use refusal. It says, whereas the proposed use personal care home requires special exception approval in the RSA-5 zoning district. So, do you waive the reading of the special exception and agree to its accuracy?
Correct.
okay great and then there is a letter of support with provisos from the strawberry mansion cdc
and uh for your proposed shoes and you can now share your screen and begin your presentation
so with the to what we're preparing here is my administrator here shante jenkins who's her lpn
who's going to facilitate the process
and I would like her to speak on my
behalf in terms of
the owner has to do it
so sir you need to give us a little bit
of information about what you're planning
to do you can call your administrator
as a witness
but she cannot speak on your behalf
because she is not an attorney
let me ask you this
do you have your computer with you to show us
it's up there
go ahead
go ahead sir
Thank you. I respectfully request the approval of a special exception to operate a licensed personal care home, 1828, North Flint, Toronto Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19121.
Beyond Home Care Services is dedicated to providing safe and supportive community-based residential services for adults who require assistance and activities in daily living, supervision,
and the personal care while maintaining their independence in a home-like environment.
The proposal is a small scale residential use.
Okay, okay. The proposal represents a small scale residential use that
The proposal represents a small scale of residential use that is professionally managed, closely supervised, and designated and integrated seamlessly into the existing of the neighborhood.
The property is the existing three-story residential dwelling located within an established residential neighborhood. No major exterior alterations are proposed.
the property will continue to continue to appear and function as a residential home
and will not operate as a commercial business or institutional facility
residents will we will reside in the home full time and participate in normal household activities
consistent with residential living the proposed use and preserves the character of the neighborhood
while providing an important housing resource for vulnerable adults resident capacity
the resident will operate within the occupancy limits approved by the philadelphia department
of license and inspection philadelphia fire department pennsylvania philadelphia human
services all applicable building and life safety codes resident occupancy will not exceed an
approved by approved license capacity established by the agencies the home healthcare licensing
llc is committed to a maintaining safe levels and ensuring compliance with all regulatory requirements
Staffing and supervision. The home will remain will maintain 24-hour supervision, staff coverages,
day shift, one direct care staff, evening shift, one direct care staff, overnight shift,
one awake overnight staff, administrative oversight. The facility administrative will provide
Staff supervision, training oversight, quality insurance, regulatory compliance and monitoring,
incident review.
Emergency response coordination and on-call supervisor will be available 24 hours per
No shift will be unattained.
Safety and emergency preparedness.
Residence safety is our highest priority.
The home will maintain smoke detectors throughout the residence, carbon dioxide throughout detectors,
fire standards on each level, emergency lighting, clearly marked exits, posted evacuation procedures,
emergency contact information, first aid supplies.
staff will receive training fire safety CPR first aid emergency evacuation incident reporting
infection control residents rights behavioral and de-escalation techniques
regular drills and safety reviews will be conducted traffic and parking
The proposed will generate minimum traffic. Residents primarily live within the home do
not generate significant traffic activity. Staffing levels are limited to staff rate
throughout the day. The expected traffic pattern is comparable to a traditional residential
traditional household. No adverse parking impact is anticipated.
Property and Maintenance. Beyond Home Care is committed to maintain the property in a
clean, safe, and attractive condition. The property will routinely be monitored for
exterior upkeep, lawn care maintenance, trash removal, building repairs, resident safety
and concerns the home will remain a popular addition to the community.
Community benefit approval of this request will allow beyond home care services to provide
safe housing personal care support community integration stability of vulnerable adults
reduce the reliance of institutional settings, increase the accessibility
Reduce the reliance of institutional settings. Increase the accessibility of quality resident services.
This services addresses the important community need while preserving residential character of the neighborhood.
Closing statement, for these reasons, beyond home care services, respectfully request approval of this special exception application.
The proposal of personal care home is residential in character, personally managed, properly supervised, low impact, consistent with neighborhood development, protective of all resident health and safety, beneficial to the community.
We're looking forward to responsible neighboring and providing quality residential services to those in need.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Do you have a witness you want to bring on?
Witness will be my administrator. She will speak on what exactly we're looking to facilitate here.
She'll talk on things different than what you've already covered?
No. A little more detail.
A little more detail she would give you.
Yeah, sure. So why don't you state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Shantae Jenkins. S-H-A-N-T-A-E-J-E-N-K-I-N-S.
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir. Please proceed.
Well, just to reiterate a little bit more on what Mr. Choi said,
We are just trying to bridge a deficit in housing for people in the community who suffer from homelessness or maybe in an institutionalized setting, but they can thrive in being integrated in the community and live normally without being inside of a facility.
So, we're basically just asking you guys to consider approving our proposal today to allow those processes to take place.
How many residents?
How many bedrooms?
How many bathrooms?
Questions from the board?
yes um you mentioned about um where uh what what community or what kind of um clients are you
planning to serve uh the elderly uh elderly patients who typically may don't have family
or a support system to help them thrive in the community independently they may need some
assistance with their activities of daily living but because they don't have the supports that they
need within the community they wound up in long skilled facilities like such as nursing homes
and i'm trying to bridge the gap so that way they can have a sense of normalcy
with the help that they need in order to thrive within the community okay and where would you be
getting the referrals for these clients typically the administrators of these long-term care
facilities uh are outsourcing to organizations like mine um they don't have the supports that
they need in place in order to integrate the seniors back into the community and that's where
i'm bridging the gap okay and uh okay so you said you have five bedrooms yes ma'am one bathroom yes
ma'am okay and you're gonna have say four four residents okay and that's 24 hours a day seven
days a week correct all right and then uh i guess my other question is staffing yes ma'am we plan
to have one direct support professional staff over a course of three shifts so the first shift will
cover 7 a.m to 3 p.m we'll have someone put in place um second shift will be 3 p.m to 11 p.m and
third shift will be 11 p.m to 7 a.m i also make myself available i'm a licensed practical nurse
here in philadelphia i've been so for 16 years i also make myself available 24 hours a day as an
on-call backup for the staff that i have in place just in case some unfortunate things happen that
they aren't able to facilitate independently so um that's how we're covering the shifts
the seniors are also integrated out into the community to senior centers one in particular
we plan to use on cecil b more um that facilitates uh daily live they facilitate
they facilitate activities throughout the day for people of senior age so that way they can be
activities throughout the day for people of senior age
amongst their peers and get out and be social. So we're trying to just emerge ourselves within
the community but also help some seniors who are in need as well. Okay and then okay so you have
stairs in this? Yes ma'am we do. We are in the process of incorporating a stair lift
We are only utilizing the second floor for the seniors that we have in place.
And the Department of Human Services that are helping us facilitate all of the processes
that we need in order to make their house living as suitable as possible for them within
the community.
Thank you.
Yes, ma'am.
Then what's the plan for the third floor if you're only going to utilize the second floor?
um for storage uh of things like depend and uh the activities that we have inside a house like
their games their bingo games and car games and things of that sort we're utilizing one of the
rooms up there for storage and the other room is going to be utilized as an office space for
the direct support professionals who are going to be working within the home so the near plan
is to have two seniors share the primary bedroom correct okay and then is there a basement in the
house yes there is a basement in the house what is happening in the basement nothing is happening
in the basement we just put a fire extinguisher down there for safety purposes in order to be
compliant with the department of human services regulations but other than that it's just a part
of the house right so you uh said that you uh i think you said you currently have three seniors
there is that yes did i hear that correctly correct the department of human services requires
us to actually ask for the special exception and get a certificate of occupancy for that fourth
person they allow you to operate unlicensed uh with three or less people within the uh dwelling
got you and how long have you been um how long have you had these three residents or
since may 1st 2026. okay so just this year okay correct all right thank you any other questions
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience no hands at the sign chair oh chair i'm sorry a hand just went up
from Branford Jones. Okay. They're allowed to speak. Okay.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, Branford Jones, B-R-A-N-F-O-R-D.
Last name Jones, J-O-N-E-S. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth is nothing but the truth yes correct jones could you turn your video on if
possible yep are you a neighbor yes please proceed with your comments so i just wanted to know what
the process was for the neighbors to have a say in this just to just just to make sure that you
know we can have our voices heard well you can tell us what you need to tell us now well i saw i
So we just want to know what the process is. Does each neighbor need to come on and say how they feel about this? Or is there a process for us to vote on this?
If a neighbor wants to come on, can give us a comment.
Okay. I can't speak for my other neighbors, but I know that I personally am opposed to this. And I guess the rest of the neighbors that are on, I guess they'll come on one by one to say that they are opposed.
okay thank you for taking the time is there anyone else in the audience
yes chair we have a hand up from beverly wilson stone okay they're allowed to speak
yes hello can you hear me yeah i can could you please state your name and spell for this
the doctor beverly wilson stone b-e-v-e-r-l-y w-i-l-s-o-n slash s-t-e-o-n-e right do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes are you a neighbor yes
uh are you in favor of this project or against uh no i'm not for the um you're not sure okay
she's not forward okay all right thank you very much for taking the time to call us is
there anyone else in the audience no hands at this time chair planning commission
planning commission thank you chairman and good morning david effecto with the city planning
thank you
commission uh chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning
at this location from rsa5 residential single family to rm1 residential multi-family the city
rezone this neighborhood in 2014 and a council supported map change the appellant has shown that
the proposed personal care home will not cause detrimental impacts beyond what would reasonably
be expected the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested
special exception for a personal care home all right thank you very much um we've heard your
testimony yes chair i'm sorry to interrupt another hand just went up from a gwendolyn blake
okay um sure
you're allowed to speak miss blake hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
hello hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is
Gwendolyn Blake, G as in girl
W-E-N-D-O-L-Y-N
B-L-A-K-E
and I'm calling to let you know, number one
I understand. Hold on a moment
just one minute. Do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but
the truth? Yes. Are you
in favor or against this project?
I am against the project.
You're a neighbor. Yes.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call
us. We appreciate it. Anyone else?
okay so here another hand from nile right okay you're allowed to speak mr right
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer hi uh nile n-i-l-e
right w-r-i-g-h-t do you swear or firm to tell the truth told you it's nothing but the truth
yes are you a neighbor yes are you a favor this practice or against no i am not okay
Thank you very much. Are we done with the hands? Okay, so here's where we are. We've heard what people said. We know what the planning commission said. We want to sit and talk about it ourselves. We will vote next Wednesday at 930 a.m. Okay. Thank you very much for coming in. We appreciate it.
No, no.
All right.
Number 13.
Back here.
Number 13, MI 2025 007 730 2430 Master Street.
Vern Anastasia was the attorney.
There's a letter of support from Brevytown Sharswood and also a letter of non-opposition
from Councilmember Young.
Chair, I don't see. Okay. It just went up. Okay. Vern is here. All right. He's being promoted to
panelists here. Sure. Mr. Anastasio, if I remember correctly, I swore you in earlier today. So just
for the record state your name good morning mr chair verne anastasio on behalf of miss tangela
turner okay and um our vice chair has just a few questions for you sir thank you good morning have
you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing i have and do
waive the read and other reviews on simple A2 is accuracy? I do. All right. Thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with the case. Thanks.
Sorry, that's the wrong document.
Just encountered a computer error, so my apologies.
Do you want us to come back to you, Vern?
I have it here.
Actually, Mr. Chair, it might be best if you do that.
When I do, I'll go to the next one.
I appreciate that.
We only have two left, so I'll come back.
Yep, that sounds good.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
All right.
So we're going to move to number 14, MI-2025-007-799-5170.
G100, Umbria Street, Alex Goldberg is the attorney.
Mr. Goldberg, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Alex Goldberg, A-L-E-X-G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, their relationship to the property?
My client is the Feldman Ebner Family Irrevocable Trust.
Um, sitting to my left is Rebecca Ebner, who is the daughter of the trustees, Stephen and
Cheryl, and Stephen and Cheryl are in the virtual audience.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
All right.
Thank you.
You can see your screen and proceed with the case.
So I'm sharing my screen.
There's a lot going on in this application.
I'm going to do my best to explain it
and sort of get out in front of as many questions as I can.
We expect there to be some anyway.
Rebecca, as I said, is the daughter of the trustees,
but she's really spearheading what is proposed here.
So I don't usually do this.
I would like for her to be sworn in now, if that's okay,
because I may have some questions for her
as I give my presentation.
Is that okay?
You can do that, sure.
Could you make sure the mic is close to you, right?
You can pull the mic, right?
All right, could you state your name
and spell it for the stenographer?
Yes, good morning.
My name is Rebecca Ebner, R-E-B-E-C-C-A, E-B-N-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Okay, so 5100 Umbria Street is the address.
Maniunk Timber is the business that currently operates there.
It is the city's only owned and operated urban sawmill.
It's been in existence for the last 30 years.
The employees of that business are Rebecca, her father, and one other employee, and they
saw reclaimed beams, fallen trees, backyard logs, and produce custom cut jobs, furniture,
finishing work for different businesses.
have some photos related to that business which is legal and existing and has been in this location
but there's a lot of open space on the property this is a large parcel in roxborough it's almost
86 000 square feet and we're proposing to adaptively reuse some of this open space and
some of it's already being used this way into what's called a third space where people can
gather for you know a cup of coffee we're proposing a tap room here a small gallery market for local
artists it's got like some elements of Bach Bar in it it's a one-story structure so it's different
but in the sense that like there's different vendors here the RCO currently hosts their
meetings at this location and there's a sort of a garden that people can sit in and it's it's a
really nice project but we're asking for for four variances related to the i2 zoning of the property
so to break this down we are asking for the approval of a cafe of a small tap room of the
retail sale of consumer goods which i would call this this gallery area and the retail sale of food
beverage and groceries with the goal of having a Sunday farmer's market on the property at a
later date. None of those uses are allowed in I2, but we think that this is a really positive use
of the property that, you know, doesn't have a whole lot going on there other than cutting wood
and making really beautiful pieces. And this has the opportunity to be a really nice amenity for
the community um i was hired recently rebecca handled everything up until this point i think
she did a great job she submitted all the required documents she sent the notices out timely
um zoning lawyer and training she had the rco meeting her pro rco meeting herself they
unanimously supported the project um they uh a lot of you know a lot of the people in ridge
A lot of the people in Ridge Park and Roxborough are familiar with this property and her family, and they were excited to see, you know, this application come through.
Park and Roxborough are familiar with this property and her family.
So that was from Ridge Park Civic Association, which was the coordinating RCO.
That meeting happened on March 10th.
Separately and without a separate meeting, the Roxborough Development Corporation, which I think is kind of like the bid for Roxborough, sent a letter of support as well.
um talking about you know how how valuable um you know what they're proposing is and and the
existence of the business that's there now okay so some manny on timber information you can see
they do really nice work they um operate 9 30 to 3 30 monday to friday on saturdays 9 a.m to 1 p.m
they have that part of the business is entirely separate from what you're going to see later in
this presentation so you know one of the things that I asked her about when I was you know
learning about the application was is there any risk of a wooden beam on a forklift like taking
some people out that are like having a cup of coffee it's it's completely separate right
well you know there's there's there hey there's like a forklift that carries you know a railroad
tie for example and I wanted to make sure that you know that what we're doing here is going to be
you know safe obviously the property is insured all the businesses that we're proposing will be
insured um but but everything's that business is is entirely separate and i i had her put together
sort of an aerial image to show you where these different things are happening here's photos of
some of the furniture they've built there's a limited industrial and an artisan industrial
permit that were both approved in 2023 and 2025 for a coffee roaster that's on site and for a
bread bakery that's on site those are existing uses that happen there already um the bakery is
called dead king bakery and the coffee shop the coffee roaster is called i have it here park bench
coffee roaster and part of this application is for a cafe where that individual they've had no
problem with lumber hitting no no no problem no problem they have their own space in the back
um they currently have commercial trash pickup so that will be you know this what we're asking
for will be added to that and that individual who roasts his coffee and sells it to other coffee
shops will now be able to you know also be a barista and serve his coffee at this location
you can see it's it's along umbria it's along a stretch of all industrially zoned properties
here's some photographs so this is the front of the property um i think when you see an aerial
you'll get a little bit more context but this is what it looks like from the street on umbria
the notice posting here's to the right on Umbria and to the left
okay so I'm going to come back to that let's start here so this is an aerial image of the property
this thing right here called a mini forest is sort of like a garden there's a fire pit there
there's some chairs you'll see an image of it it's just a gathering space that people currently use
and i think we'll utilize more once you can get a cup of coffee or a local a local brew at this
location the cafe and the gallery and the tap room entrance is all right here where you see cafe
entrance and everything that's happening for the maniunk timber is happening over here we are
proposing to have a farmer's market on sundays which would be right where my this blue box is
maniunk timber is not open on sundays so while those sort of spaces are close to each other
The timber business is not operating on the one day that we hope to have a farmer's market for.
The cars would not be there either because those are cars related to the operation of any on timber.
There is reference on our application to existing, bless you, an existing parking lot at the property.
It's not, you know, the typical parking lot that I see from a zoning standpoint, but we have parking space here.
we have parallel parking right here and there's also street parking along Umbria so going back
here you can see this is the ground level view of that farmer's market area it's just a paved
area and then this is the entry point to the cafe the tap room and the art space hoping to have some
nice signage there at a later date this is what the mini forest looks like it's again just a garden
with some seating trash storage this is on the side of the property they currently have commercial
trash pickup um that is picked up by ritasky and trainer which is a commercial trash um
hauler um and and it's stored there currently in two cans because you only have a baker and a
coffee roaster once we have a cafe and a tap room i imagine we may have a small dumpster or or a few
more cans but trash has not been an issue on the site you can also see there's a ventilation there's
ventilation here for the um the baker and lni has has inspected that space and it's all up to code
inspected that space, and it's all up to code. Okay, so I'm going to go skip ahead, and I'll
okay so i'm gonna go
come back. I'm going to show you what the plans look like, and then I'll go back to the photos
so that you have a little bit more context. So this is the space that is the subject of this
zoning appeal. So we can start with the tap room. So you would walk in here, and there's sort of
three separate rooms, and then the gallery, which is the retail space. In the back corner
is the Tap Room. The Tap Room will be run, let's get my notes together here, the Tap Room will be
run by Two Locals Brewing, which is the first African-American-owned brewery in Philadelphia.
They began in 2016. They have a relationship with the Ebners, and they have a primary location
in West Philadelphia. Beer only, they're properly licensed to do that. This is going to be very
limited timing, meaning Thursdays and Friday evenings, five to nine. Plus, if there's a
community gathering, they may operate then as well. And these gatherings are small, like RCO
related events, Quizzo, stuff like that. And that space is 210 square feet. Below that right here
is a bookstore. And I guess I would say bookstore and record store that is owned or that is operated
by a business called Tomorrow Today. It's 350 square feet. Hours there are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday to Sunday, and they only have one employee, the person that owns the business.
This is one of the things that is, and you'll see the photos, it's already existing in the location.
So that's the bookstore there. In the bottom left corner here, you have the cafe, very small cafe,
a couple seats um one employee in terms of hours for that and we're talking 360 square feet
tuesday to sunday 7 a.m to 3 p.m just one employee they'll serve pastries and baked goods
i imagine there might be some synergy with the baker um and um they're called park bench coffee
roaster um there will be no commercial cooking equipment only prepare foods in the coffee shop
space and part of the goal here and i think this will make more sense you've already seen the mini
forest, but when you see the gallery, the goal would be for people to be able to, you know,
get a beer at two locals or get a coffee at the coffee shop and peruse the gallery, peruse the
bookstore, sit in, sit outside, you know, in the, in the garden. So that's the, those are the floor
plans. There's the bathroom. Back here is where the bakery and the roaster is. Okay, going back
to the photos i hope i'm not i haven't lost anyone yet um this is the interior space um
this what you're looking at here is going to be built out into the cafe um again like i mentioned
pretty small small counter with some seating um this right here is the interior and you can see
an arrow pointing to the cafe there's sort of a uh i would there's two entry points and this is
the gallery where they have artistic items, clothing. It's about 1,500 square feet. Rebecca
has relationships with artists from around the country who, I guess, they buy on consignment
and they sell. The hours for that are 10 to 5 Thursday to Sunday, and it's just one employee
that's essentially working or registered for anyone that wants to buy items here.
This is looking into the bookstore and the record store. You can see Tomorrow Today is the name of
that here's another image of that this is the interior looking into the bookstore
back here is where the tap room will be i think i have another photo that gives
a better angle of that more photos of the gallery or the bookstore
this is the bakery in the back again existing legal um inspected i just wanted to include
a photo of that for the board's reference who runs the bakery dead king bread dead king bread
um is there anything that you've already been sworn in is there anything with regard to the
operation of the businesses um that i haven't mentioned that you feel like is important for
the board to know no i feel like you really okay all right yeah um just looking here to make sure
i cover everything um the and this is something that i spoke with hillary about um the other day
just with regard to some community activity that's happening here in the gallery space or
or out in that the mini forest it's it's accessory to the businesses that are happening here it's
never more than 30 people the like i said the rco meets here they've had fundraisers here
they do a quizzo night here there's been a book reading um you know
they do a quizzo night here there's been a book reading um you know small small gatherings like
that so our understanding is there's not sort of a separate use that has to be applied for for those
accessory uses and that they are sort of shoehorned under the uses that we're asking for um i mentioned
the farmers market once a week on sunday mornings you know there's outdoor seating in the mini
forest and um you know they're looking to have sort of like an outpost for a river wards produce
type business where they can it can be a small operation where they are just bringing fresh
food items to this community um you know once a week where members of the community can walk
or drive or ride their bike there and and pick up you know whatever they need um i showed you
the plans the rco meeting notice was sent out in a timely fashion to all the near neighbors
again we had unanimous support of the community group at the community meeting
here's the application for appeal the deed to the property
and tax clearance if you would like steven her father one of the trustees to adopt my testimony
i believe he's in the virtual audience or if she's permitted to adopt my testimony that's
that would be easy we can have her do it right yeah why don't we let her do it rebecca did you
hear my testimony today was it true and correct it's true and correct and do you adopt it as your
own testimony do adopt it as my own testimony questions from the board i have a question yeah
question uh sorry the great concept um i haven't been there probably won't go um the questions
around how you're sort of designating the area uh where the wood is stacked um and and parking
How is that? How is that? How does that work logistically? I understand what your attorney said, but I'm just trying to figure that that out.
Yeah, pulling the aerial up on the screen. Right. So that the upper the upper current aerial.
But you can see that the wood is away from. Yes. Well, it's right near the cafe entrance.
so that's my concern it's kind of like so yeah most of that is um i would say cleared even
further um and that uh driveway that you see goes all the way around and is always clear
we designate cones um there is um a pretty as as we um have more people on the property as you said
there is a pretty delineated like area for the wood and area for people and we also have signs
that say danger we have all of our correct signage um yeah the i i think that the the wood is is
pretty separate from activities okay but it's not like it's not fenced off though no it's not fenced
off just because we need to have access to it for what we do but um it definitely there's
definitely delineated zones that say do not enter and so um with respect to
utilizing the wood and moving the wood how does that work and what are the hours that that takes
place and are there conflicts between those periods and when you have these other activities
going on so we actually don't move the wood as much as you think we're mostly a furniture
fabrication shop so the moving of the wood takes place in the wood shop itself um in terms of
outdoor moving of wood we really i know it um i know it might not be logical but we actually don't
um do it that often um so we process trees and reclaimed beams and the trees are pretty much
like we processed a lot during covid and we have a store of lumber that is there already
and we really don't process the trees unless honestly we haven't processed them since covid
so we have the trees don't really move around and then the beams we do process those more frequently
but that processing takes place away from anything and like anything that you see here
um it actually takes place like on the corner i'm going to share i think you want to share
the pavilion i'm assuming uh yeah sure i'm gonna go on atlas and share a larger a wider skit wider
view aerial photo um and it's again it's important for us that those activities don't mix so we don't
mix so we don't move the wood and we don't process the wood when people are when the
move the wood and we don't process the wood when people are when the
other operations are open that was that was really the point yeah yeah what's the hour of the retail
component um so the gallery and the bookstore are open wednesday through i mean thursday through
sunday 10 to 5. um the bakery has hours thursday through
saturday 10 to 2. and they're banking on site yes um are they a a retail operation in any way
at this point or is it sort of like wholesale they i don't know how many wholesale accounts
they have yeah like could i walk in off the street and get bread yes okay so then it's retail i think
also want to echo my concern as mike said about sort of how this relates to lumber operations
i think understanding how you said that you guys have a lot of back product from um i guess raw
material from covid but understanding that's not going to be here forever hopefully right if you're
going to stay in business. That would be your forever situation. And so just thinking like
long-term, what are these very different uses kind of mean together on one site? I think my
second concern is about trucks. Adding in retail and adding in things means you got to bring
products and you've got to bring raw materials to make bread and make coffee and all of these
things. And so now you're going to have more deliveries and we've got people coming in. This
is a very car oriented site. I think you did a lot to try to create more of a pedestrian
experience by adding the
forest
or that sort of outdoor plaza area
but it's still like from urban design
standpoint it's still not really pedestrian
oriented and I think
I would like to see some clearer
delineation
sidewalks, walkways
protective walks
striping
even if it's like planters
something that like delineates
because if a person
and understanding it is a part of the city where
cars are more frequent. If a person's walking off the street, having to come through this,
if there's a delivery happening, if something's happening on the lumberyard, this could be,
there's a lot happening. Sure. Yeah. I think striping is probably the most
feasible, meaning like painting the pavement. It just doesn't go with there.
So they use the delivery once a week at about 8 a.m., so before operations. They're a very,
very small bakery they do not um yeah they only receive one like food delivery truck once a week
and then we only receive about i would say one or two deliveries of wood a year um if that um and
that would happen also really early in the morning all of these guys wake up really early um and the
The bookstore receives no deliveries. The gallery receives no deliveries. The taproom
would have, I think they would come in their car with their product. And those are the
only...
So that's just in the current iteration. So I'm just saying, like, I also wanted to leave
this open that if these things need to grow. I think there's a lot of instances of businesses
that operate like this around the country, there's many in the South. It's a very popular
type of concept yeah in places like nashville yeah and almost all of the ones that i've ever
been in have like grown a lot yeah well i mean that would be that whole so idea a lot yes so i
hear you yeah i think most of them start off with like operations similar to the scale that you've
discussed and then they become like and i think to even use bach as your sort of alluded yeah
reference like same thing happened there and now it's like a very different operation than it was
when it started. So to set it up now so that long term the property is viable.
I have a question just about if there's any plans for signage, like how will people know
all of this fantastic stuff is happening behind this fence?
Yeah, signage is super important. We have a bakery sign in the forest with where to
enter. We have the Mount Young Timber sign already, and we also have a sandwich board
outside of the entrance of the cafe or where the cafe would hopefully be um the gallery and the
bookstore that has like signage of where to enter you have or would you like to ultimately be able
to put some signage up closer to umbria because it is a little bit further from the street to
catch we have a we have a pole that's on the street and it has a bakery sign a mount young
timber sign and a gallery sign um i think that probably suffices for now until we
Like get approval and like, and, and, you know, um, but yes, there is signage on the street as well. And parking is pretty tight to our driveway. So there's not a lot of space other than the pole to put signs. And yeah, just, just so I clear. Sure. Do you sell the, the firewood too? No, sells the firewood. It's right up the street. Yeah, because I go by and it's like, I'm thinking the whole time.
like get approval and like sure and and you know um but yes there is signage on this
it out like because yeah no it's not that we don't probably go by there most days yeah and i i haven't
noticed this i don't i just yeah i will i will but i just haven't and i'm i'm thinking because
who does that all that firewood yeah um i'm not sure but they actually their sign is very large
it's true but um very large product in the street we uh we did just put a bright yellow
So I'll sign off. I'm going to look. You should look for it. Maybe on the way home, I'll look. Yeah, it's called Umbria Arts. Okay. Okay. I have two questions. Okay. So one, the tap room. So you're talking about hours for the tap room where I'm not seeing that there's hours for the other, like food.
so how is that gonna work i mean i thought that you had to have some kind of food if you're
serving um alcohol of some sort and maybe i'm wrong but i think that you do so i feel like i
remember you and alan having this conversation a while back i don't believe that to be your
requirement they have um licensure from the liquor control board uh the two locals do um to be able
to serve alcohol here um yeah beer yeah and the rep it's it's beer it's a beer specific license
and i think that's all they sell at their i haven't been on market street oh they sell more
well it's just beer here they're licensed for that as well okay well we're just doing beer here
Well, I just know that I did some of those micro breweries at different times.
And yes, you have to have some kind of food.
If we're required to have food, we will figure out a way to have some prepared foods.
Yeah, if we're approved for the cafe, we can definitely be open at the same time.
So then there's access to food and alcohol.
And then my second question is, where is this farmer's market going to be?
Sure, I'll share my screen.
It's once a week.
Sunday mornings.
which is a day where the where the uh manny on timber does not is not open okay um and it's
the bakery isn't open either yeah the bakery's not open either and it's it's if you can see on
the screen it's essentially where these cars are which are there because this is a work day for
manny on timber and they wouldn't be there on a sunday and then i have a street level photo of
what that space looks like it's it's small i mean we're talking about like four four or five vendors
Yeah. Yeah. Right here. I mean, they do that in my neighborhood. Like they, you know, they have the Amish people and whoever, and they come and they set up and they have like, uh, they have trucks and they have little tents and things like that. So is that what we're talking about?
that is yeah okay temporary small but i'm hoping to make a relationship with someone that already
has the relationships with farmers okay and then um so it wouldn't be like i wouldn't have to set
up individual relationships with farmers myself i would like like to river wards would be a goal
for me because they already have um a grocery store so and it's all produce from farmers and so
i my ideal is to work with them so they can just bring what they have and have like an outpost
on sundays at at the space okay so i imagine it being like one entity versus like all the
yeah and you would have it in the space where now you yes have the cars parking near the cars in the
in red yes okay um and it is too late um if we get approval um it is too late to do it this season
so it would start next year okay and again like parking for you know because not just where this
is going to be but people would have to drive and yeah you know so we have about i would say
they're not delineated with lines but we have about 10 to 12 parking spaces other than this
delineated space that you see um and then there's ample street parking as well great especially on
a sunday yeah it's empty okay there's no trains running yeah thank you thank you all the questions
thank you all the questions questions from our attorney
questions from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
here we have two hands up one uh the first hand is from sloan solly okay sure
hi there can you allow to speak can you hear me yes could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer uh yes my name is sloan solly uh s-l-o-a-n-e last name s-o-l-l-e-y
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Yes, I do.
Do you, I don't want to say neighbor, do you live nearby?
Yes, I live very nearby and I have visited the property.
Why don't you proceed with your testimony?
Yeah, I just wanted to say that I have visited the location, Maniunk Timber, and seen the space.
and I just like to say that I'm really excited about the potential of having a
third space in a part of the neighborhood that it's really really
needed I think there's a lot of potential to support local artists and
other small business owners and we also have a problem with access to groceries
and vegetables in the Maniank and lower Roxborough area.
It would be amazing to have a farmer's market
within walking distance to my house.
Additionally, I've been on the property before
and I feel like there is plenty of space for parking
and I never feel that the activities of the lumber yard
are imposing on my experience there.
It is all very well,
There's a lot of signage around where some of the larger, older logs are in the back.
But like Rebecca said, I don't really see them move ever.
And I can tell that I'm not supposed to go into that area.
There's also tons of parking on Umbria always.
So that's great.
And I don't think parking would be an issue with any of these businesses.
um and it's also worth noting that it is really close to the ivy ridge line so i think people can
absolutely come on foot to this location um but yeah i'm excited and hope that uh this will
thank you very thank you very much for taking that time we appreciate do we have another hand
yes chair we have a hand up from a tm lusa visa day okay i will allow them to speak
Hi, could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
Hello, my name is Tiamu Savizadeh.
My first name is spelled T-E-E-Y-A-M.
Last name is M-O-U-S-S-A-V-I-Z-A-D-E-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Do you live nearby?
Why don't you start your testimony?
So I have been going to Umbria Arts as well as a lumber yard since within the last year and a half or so.
And having this opportunity and space to be able to connect with the community for a place that I have recently moved to has been an incredible experience and has honestly increased the well-being of my personal life as well as others that I am aware of.
and having the access to the bakery as well as an artistic community has also been a great
presence in the Manny Young Roxborough area where these third spaces are harder and harder to find
and having the opportunity to bring all different types of people from ages as well as backgrounds
has also been incredible for me in terms of the parking it is also echoing what Sloan had said
that it's very easy and there's lots of space and in terms of the lumber and beams itself i have
not seen them moved once while we were there or any different problems interacting with customers
that have been there as well and i just say that i just offer my full support all right
thank you so much for your for your time anyone else in the audience
Planning Commission oh we got sure yes we have a hand up from uh Madeleine Shacumba chair they're
allowed to speak huh Marlene that's not it's not her case Marlene has her hand raised she's the RCO
we also have a hand up from Marlene Schaefer chair okay we'll allow them to speak
Well, I'll miss you.
Thank you.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
I got this right.
Marlene Schleifer.
It's M-A-R-L-E-N-E.
The last name is S-C-H-L-E-I-F-E-R.
I am the current president of Ridge Park Civic Association.
Hold on a minute.
Hold on a minute.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth of nothing?
What's the truth?
Absolutely, sir.
I am the current, actually, long-time president of Ridge Park Civic Association
and its RCO representative.
I am also a 35-year resident of this immediate area.
I have taken the train into town for all that time.
and the issue with being so close to an industrial area for me anyway is that unless you crash your
car you may not have any reason to use any of the businesses on Umbria Street. So I was delighted
to work with Manny on Timber several years ago because I plant trees as well and Steve Ebner
created tree steaks for us. And I am even more thrilled to be able to shop there, which the
Ebner and Feldman families know I love to do. So I have been to the gallery, I have had the bread,
which is delicious. I've participated in the quizos that have been offered as part of the
Civic Association fundraisers. And I'll just give you one quick anecdote, which is that when I
first moved to the area, I wanted to be able to walk to places like this. And there was one grocery
store on Umbria Street. And I went in there and asked for if they had yogurt. And they looked at
me like I was speaking some foreign language. So to be able to go someplace and get coffee and bread
and shop and just enjoy the area is an absolute joy to everybody and many of the people can and
do walk there which is even better so it's a draw to the neighborhood it's something other than
than you know auto parts places and junkyards and it's a perfect use
thank you very much for your time is there anyone else in the audience
Yes, sir. We have a hand up from Madeleine Sucumba.
I said no. I'm waiting for another.
What's that? Okay. All right. No further hands here.
Okay. Thank you. Planning Commission. Thank you, Chairman, and good morning. David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location
from i2 medium industrial to icmx industrial commercial mixed use this section of the
neighborhood between umbria street and the river still carries its original 1933 zoning the proposed
icmx zoning would allow retail sales and eating and drinking establishments by right the city
planning commission recommends the board grant proposed use variances for retail sales and
eating and drinking establishments thank you mi 2024 007 9799 5100 umbria street i vote yes
with proviso her amended refusal dated march 17 2026. michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Hi, Owen, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you.
Are we okay?
Thank you.
Yeah, I just didn't know she revised it.
I kept looking back and forth.
I was trying to figure out what the two of you, not you.
Oh, yes.
All right.
Thank you very much and good luck.
All right.
Okay, why don't we do
uh number 17. no not so i'm sorry here it is number 16.
mi2025 007 851 2132 montrose street
sean whalen is the attorney
sean whalen here w-h-a-l-e-n right um do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do could you identify your client a relationship to the property
certainly my client is chris ianavali he is the owner of the property and a right
Certainly. My client is Chris Ionavalli. He is the owner of the property and our vice chair has a few questions for you. Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, I did. And do you waive the no the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case. Thank you.
so while i share my screen as much as there was going on in the last case there is that
little going on in this case so all right so you guys should see
i think you can see my screen at the moment now
I'm not sure what happened. Sorry about that there we go. Is it large enough for you to see now? Yep, so this is an existing single family house.
roughly at the corner of south 22nd street and montrose streets
it is immediately adjacent to the julian abel park right here
what you can see here is kind of an aerial from south 22nd street you can see the park
and then this is the house with the red balloon on it montrose street is this street running along
the left-hand side so you can see existing house with no side yard fully built out and an existing
pilot house and again here's the same aerial from the front so you can see the height of the
properties behind and two houses away also has a third story that is set back
So this property is in an RSA five zoning district. There is no change in you saw it. It's a single family house, so there's no use refusal.
In fact, we have one use refusal, which is for height at 43 feet, six inches instead of 38 feet.
uh i believe that this is correct as i just testified although this is a bit of a technical
refusal in the sense that we are not attempting to install a an additional floor which is what
how l and i reviews this we are attempting to install a pergola and the problem is pergola is
not mentioned at all in the zoning code and so the the only way that l and i can review it
The way that Ellen I has chosen to review it over time is just as a full second full additional floor. However, we're not having a solid roof. There are no walls. There's no additional insulation or anything like that. I'll show you what it is.
So this is the original zoning plan, and I would suggest, I don't know if SOSNA is on today, they said they would be, I would suggest that this application worked the way the RCO process is supposed to work.
We came forward, let me see if I can, this, we came forward originally, so the hardship here is my client purchased the property in the spring of 2023.
There's essentially no rear yard here. It's a small property, 840 square feet. The rear patio area essentially just houses the trash cans and recycling. So the entire outdoor space while he has the park, you know, the public park next door, the entire outdoor space for this home was the pilot house. And I think as many of us have suffered recently, you know, the summers have rendered, sorry, not the pilot house, the roof deck.
the pi the summers have rendered the roof decks kind of unusable throughout the city just given
the heat and that's his only outdoor space so what we originally proposed is what you see here on the
screen in front of you we went in front of the sasna arc committee they liked the idea of a
pergola and actually several of them thought about doing one themselves although they they
had a lot of questions and wanted this kind of scaled back and so what we did in working with
their art community was significantly reduced the size the total size of the pergola so what you see
here is essentially what it would be it's fixed slat at the roof just trying to break up that
direct sunlight no walls on the side no intention to put on the walls my understanding is we would
need another variance if we tried to actually enclose this so it's not a risk of you know
kind of a Trojan horse. So now what we have is we have a 10-foot setback of the
So now what we have is we have a 10 foot setback of the, you know, from the original, the original was set back five feet, we set back now and what we're proposing the pergola 10 feet from the street frontage, so it's no longer visible from the street frontage whatsoever.
and we also pulled it back from the side of the property here kind of along the adjacent wall of
the park we pulled that back a foot and a half in order to again complete you know really reduce the
sight lines of that and kind of scale it back from the use of an intrusion into anyone else's
property. Now, again, there's no issue with anyone else's light or air. As I originally
went through, the pergola will be up here. It doesn't impact the park in any way with
the trees. And if you look at the properties in the rear, there's a rear alley with these
trees and the height of the buildings behind it these are all rm1 most mostly apartments
um they are unaffected by this additional height and again it would just be breaking up it's like
tree branches essentially um so i have the original plans and the render and the revised
plans that we submitted uh so because we worked with sosna uh sosna voted unanimously in favor to
support the project again they they were i think what you know completely against it at the at the
art committee meeting then we went forward with the proposed revisions that they wanted you know
with the open slats no walls all of that and they voted unanimously in favor um so they advised me
yesterday which i didn't know they did this i guess i've never had a unanimous vote before
that they don't uh they don't prepare a letter and submit a letter uh when they actually vote
unanimously because i figure it's self-explanatory um i did receive a letter yesterday uh from the
executive director which i appreciate from nowak uh they voted uh two to zero
to oppose the project um and essentially i'm happy to go through the the bases of it essentially
their assumption is uh that this is an additional floor and that we're trying to just
get extra height okay um again the hardship here is that the the home as is as it is existing
has no outdoor space so when the owner bought it the outdoor space the only outdoor space is
the roof deck which he has found unusable and therefore is trying to uh you know do the least
minimum variance what what's the least minimum thing he can do to kind of break up that direct
heat and sunlight instead of building an upper floor there with air conditioning and fans and
this kind of stuff what could he do and this is um you know what we believe meets that hardship
so i can call him he is on chris ianavali
he texted me that he is on so
last name is i a n
he says he's on do we see him oh can you hear me yes we can sir would you please state your name
yes my name is christopher patrick ion available c-h-r-i-s-t-o-p-h-e-r middle name is patrick
p-a-t-r-i-c-k last name is iana vale i-a-n-o b like victor a-l-e yes i do counsel counsel
thank you mr mr you're here as the owner of the property today
correct i think he i think he's i think he's might have two may have two
can you turn off one of you can turn off one of your devices
oh is there an echo here uh
i'm only showing one device um i'll try to i'll try to mute and then unmute myself i guess to
mitigate okay okay i only okay i only have a couple quick questions for you
so you're here as the property owner you just stated did you hear all of the testimony i already
presented he's got on mute he's got a mute on mute now you're muted yes you did chris you heard all
You heard all of the testimony that I presented?
you heard all the testimony that i presented yes and
And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your information, knowledge, and belief?
And would you adopt that testimony as your own?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
And the hardship is?
The hardship is twofold.
it's first that the house as built my my client did not build this house he he bought this house
what you're seeing and why it looks so new is he ran into significant problems with the home and
had to completely remediate it and deal with issues of mold and and so that's why it looks
all newly sighted and everything he did not build this house he bought it as built again it has no
outdoor space and so since it has no outdoor space he bought it with the roof deck being his outdoor
space and that is the hardship is that he's unable to use the roof deck given the direct sunlight and
heat in the summertime and so in order to overcome that hardship of not being able to use that roof
deck and have outdoor space for his family what he's trying to do is figure out the least intrusive
way that he can break up that direct sunlight again not have fans up there not have uh you know
full-time sunscreens and things like that and so that's the hardship that he's trying to overcome
is the inability to use any outdoor space at the property okay and what's the height uh the total
height of the building is less than 38 feet so the total height as shown here would be 43 feet
six inches it's the same height as the existing pilot house all right thank you any other questions
yeah well yeah you you say there's no outdoor space but this rendering looks like there's a
rear yard i'm not notwithstanding you have this huge deck upstairs but yes no so there's an eight
foot rear yard which essentially houses just the trash cans and the recycling bin and there's no
other usable space back there because what you have it looks larger than it is because there's
an alleyway between these properties and the properties on the uh on the opposite side of
that alleyway yeah so but there is outdoor space so you know just it's semantics sort of i mean
most of the houses in south fully probably only have a eight foot backyard um so that's not
uncommon for houses in in in this part of philadelphia um so so that's just a point of
comment actually certainly understood and this was something we discussed with sosna
and i agree with their determination that uh this this is something that they think will proliferate
and is warranted throughout the neighborhoods of south philly other questions yeah how um
um i guess what is the distance of the space between the pergola and the pilot house like
because it looks like in this in this depiction that the pilot house is under the pergola correct
uh no so the pergola goes up to i i can pull up sorry i i went over the uh the plan here um
the pergola goes up to and surrounds the existing pilot house so there's no there's no change to the
pilot house or any of the existing construction well it's the same height and and to a certain
degree as the pilot house yes it'll be the same height as the pilot house okay thank you and again
just because i know there is some concern on the part of uh noak that this was essentially a trojan
horse to build an additional floor it is my understanding and speaking with l and i if we
wanted to enclose this in any way it would require a new variance that would be an additional
issue but we'd be happy to you know entertain any proviso that that's that's not what's intended here
uh other questions questions more attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr
question from the virtual audience no but a hand just went up from madeline shakamba sure
she's allowed to speak yep hi good morning
Ms. Shacumba?
Hi, good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Please unmute.
Madeline Shacumba.
Right.
Okay, my name is spelled M-A-D-E-L-I-N-E, Shikumba, S-H-I-K-O-M-B-A.
My name is spelled M-A-D-E-L-I-N-E, Chacumba, S-H-I.
Do you swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Can I, before you start the thing, I have a correction to make concerning my documents, and I'd like to have, can I do that?
What's that?
I didn't hear what you said again.
I have a correction to, it was an error I made in submitting the documents, and I want to make a correction.
Okay, sure. Tell me your correction.
Okay. I submitted the documents, and the other documents said 2234 Montrose, when it should have been 2132 Montrose Street.
But the documents inside are correct in referring to 2132 Montrose Street, okay?
And also, I'd like to, you only give me three minutes, I think, to make this.
I would like to have the same amount of time as the attorney because this is an issue that
needs clarification and I'd like to have that extra time. We have your letter, right? You wrote
us a letter, right? Yeah, but there's also... Listen to me, we have your letter, but we don't
give people who are calling in the same time as the attorney. So what we would want is for you to
give us a sense of outlining more information that you gave in the letter?
Well, I think that the letter I sent as a co-coordinating RCO, we should be given more time.
We are here representing the residents who are fighting this property and properties,
not just this part, but properties that affect their living in the area. And as such,
we represent these residents and we think we should be given the same amount at some of the
time i don't i don't know that we listen to me i don't know that we could do that i guess the
question is we have your letter and would you want to tell us whether you're in favor of this or
you're still against i'm against this and let me say why okay okay one is the reason is that this
pergola has a roof it is called a louvre pergola because the boots are made of wooden slats okay
okay also uh this pergola uh he said that they have a hardship with the weather but everybody
does with the sun okay a shadow study was done by redfin redfin reality on this property and it
shows that there are nine hours of sun in june on this property and 4.3 hours in december placing
this property below the u.s average of solar exposure okay so they're not being that much
exposed to it also the biggest problem we have with this is that the pergola does not protect
you from them what really affects people which is the heat okay now the oh i did this is a lack
of privacy one uh uh two disadvantages of pergola is a lack of privacy okay and which you have uh
people can peep in on you and they can cover this many people cover this probably
this privacy but installing private certain privacy apparatus by installing curtains and
things like that okay and also this disadvantage turns into advantage because it makes it easy for
them to install an air conditioner that you would not even see okay yes this program does not have
have any size but that means there's no privacy but you do have the ability to install curtains
and other things and the heat is not a problem here because i already told you about the uh
shadow study okay and i think that they're using this as an excuse and this probably
is worth 1.3 million dollars there's no property in this area worth that amount of money i i
I understand that, and I have your letter, and I know exactly what you told us, and we appreciate your taking the time to call us, okay?
Well, I think you should look at this as being a lube, a lube, a lube, because the staff's lube.
Well, we're going to take it all into consideration and figure out exactly where we stand, okay?
All right, thank you.
Thank you, and thank you, but thank you for taking the time.
Is there anyone else in the audience?
No hands at this time, Chair.
planning commission chairman if i may just one quick clarification there uh the rendering i
pulled up just now this is the exact product that will be used it's a fixed slat metal right there's
no wood right and this is actually it's a florida company that builds these because they are used
specifically for this purpose in florida to just break up that direct sunlight to reduce the heat
with again without the need for air conditioning or anything like that okay so all right just want
to make that clarification thank you good morning chair david vecto with the city planning commission
good morning chair david vecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single family zoning at this
location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1977 and a council supported map change there is
no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent it from being
used in strict conformity with the zoning code and the appellant has not shown that they will
suffer an economic detriment if forced to comply with the height requirement in rsa 5. the city
planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed dimensional variance for additional
thank you council we're going to take this under consideration um we heard all sides of it i
believe and we'll vote next wednesday at 9 30. 9 30. yep thank you very much thank you let's go back
good afternoon mr chair hey you're back ron how are we yep i'm good my computer is sworn in i think
we're ready to go and um why don't you proceed i'll be quick 2439 master street is this property
here that we see long-term uh history is commercial first floor with living quarters above
Since, however, it was converted, reverted to an RSA-5 classification, what we're proposing is real simple, a vacant commercial space on the first floor consistent with CMX-1, as you see here on the left, and a one-family dwelling above, as you see here in the center, and the proposed roof deck.
Because the property is pre-existing and already sits on the envelope that it does, it does not meet any of the open air requirements, which is why that refusal was generated.
In addition, because it's now RSA 5, the multiple uses, commercial and residential, is prohibited.
That's why we're here today for that relief, as is the CMX 1 use prohibited.
As you note, we met with the community.
We got overwhelming support.
And the council office was also kind enough to send a letter of non-opposition.
I move all 70 pages of this exhibit binder into evidence, and I'll run through some more photos for you.
There's the letter that was mailed.
We have the deed.
And we have the long history showing commercial mixed use.
If you'd like to see some interior photos, I believe they're up here somewhere.
They're just, it's a shell, so there's not much to see.
But that's part and parcel of what we're trying to do here.
I'll bring it back up to, this is the rendering, as you can see the cross section.
And again, here's the exterior that shows the property as it now exists.
With that, if Tangela Turner is in the audience, I ask that she raise her virtual hand.
There are no hands at this time.
I asked the board to take my testimony as an officer of the court, thank you so the court will take your testimony questions from the board.
Can you show the demolition plan again.
Can you zoom in a little please can we do a little bit more yep all right trying to
see the demolition plan so okay that's who did so essentially we're taking a portion of the rear
of the building off and then we're rebuilding it with the addition that's correct okay
okay I think these these two renderings here on the left are probably the best ones
i think these uh these two renderings
okay and then I guess I see that you're trying to do a vacant commercial space
is that and that's an existing commercial space where's the is there going to be a separate
entrance or are they going to still share the primary door no there's a there's a corner
entrance for the for the commercial and there'll be a side entrance for the for the residential
okay as indicated here
got it all the questions and then is there a floor plan for what's happening with the extension
I saw the framing yeah there we go okay so essentially the extension is allowing
us to do this back egress there the stairs yeah yeah
and does the commercial have access to the basement yes and only just the commercial the basement
Correct.
Well, technically, they both have access to the basement, don't they?
Because they can all walk down.
Well, for those rear stairs.
But the tenant and the first floor tenant will.
It'll be included in their lease.
That's correct.
That's correct.
So is the apartment above, are they going to have to store everything in their unit?
No garbage, no bikes or anything allowed in the basement?
that's correct there'll be trash storage in the unit itself okay is there a dedicated trash closet
and i'm assuming there's laundry that is tucked in somewhere
yep okay yeah there's a laundry room for sure and they're typically i typically ask for
dedicated trash uh space as well but i'm not sure i see a dedicated trash cloth like a ventilated
trash closet i do see the laundry yep closet but not the fixture the fixture is just not drawn
the board wanted to make the vented trash closet a proviso you know that's perfectly fine on our end
yeah i think that's you know advisable even though they have access to the basement it's
just a strange setup that they have a full bathroom and then they have a powder room and
a one-bedroom unit it just kind of just just interesting doesn't make sense there's nowhere
to put any furniture but you've got a powder room and you've got a full bathroom for one bedroom
it's it's like is the intent at some point to do a third floor addition no the intent is is to have
a you know this really serve one or two people period you know period that's about it so that
it's a pretty nice size living dining area sort of no it's no no no it's not it's not it's not
it's not don't say that it's not it's not it's not it's not not gracious it's not at all but
it's a one-bedroom so i can kind of say it's your two people they can live with what they want to
live with but it's just you know for you know for a powder room and a full bathroom and a one-bedroom
just it just doesn't make sense
logistically and you've got this huge stairway and you want to and you want a roof deck
yeah just so the roof deck was before i guess well never mind it is a for the for the for the
tenant on the on the second floor sure that's their outdoor space anybody has i mean similarly
lead to the basement anybody has access to the roof access right also utilized by the commercial
space in the future the roof deck will be part of the lease for the residential tenant
that's their outdoor space i got it got it got it because you remember the commercial space
can only be cmx one level commercial anyway so it's not there would be no need for a roof deck
for that yeah other questions questions from our attorney hillary emerson um yeah i'm just a little
confused about the vacant commercial space because so the property is zoned rsa5 there is not a
request to permit cmx1 uses in that commercial space all there is the the proviso that's listed
on there is not act i mean a refusal that's listed on there is actually not something the
board can grant vacant commercial space is prohibited in the rsa5 zoning district that's
not a that's not a variance i'm sorry i can't hear you hillary could you speak sorry yes so the
you either i'm sorry i can't hear you hillary could you speak sorry yes so the what's listed
on the refusal is not a variance like the vacant commercial space is prohibited in the rsa5 zoning
district that that's not a variance like we're not unless there's a specific request for a
particular use or uses within a certain zoning district that's what we can grant so there's no
request on here for cmx1 uses so there's yeah so that we're not there's nothing for us to grant
related to the commercial space with this application the way it's written
so are you saying that the uh the the refusal is not accurate because the application was for
vacant commercial space yes so that's fine but it doesn't that doesn't mean that cmx1 uses are
allowed there's nothing about cmx1 uses here any commercial that you go to get a permit for
later will require you to come back to the zoning board for a variance
typically how it's worked my experience is that when we ask for a vacant commercial space
it's all it's all uses consistent with cmx1 no there's no set vacant commercial space is not
a use category in the zoning code so it all it should not have been listed as a refusal item on
here we have a very clear understanding with l and i about that and unfortunately this one
was not done correctly vacant commercial space literally means there's no use there and you need
to get a use permit to establish a use if you would like uses within a certain use category
you can request that but that is not how this refusal is written so you would be that's how
the request was written okay well then that means the refusal was done incorrectly so we should get
a corrected refusal before we vote on this because otherwise based on this there would be no approved
commercial uses as part of this application yeah yeah then i'm going to ask the board respectfully
i i to to hold the vote i i it seems like it'll be granted but i want to make sure that my client
has the vacant commercial space consistent with cmx1 use which is historically the how i brought
these to the board and been approved so we will hold the vote on this but we're going to go through
Yeah, and I will ask the L&I examiner to just, I may need to, I may need to have a letter from the zoning board granting me leave to ask the L&I examiner to do so.
So if there is a correction needed, they will do that without a letter.
Oops, sorry.
If they tell you that they don't believe it's a correction and that it's an amendment, then you will need a letter of authorization.
Understood.
Thank you so much.
let's let's see what the audience the virtual audience questions or comments in the virtual
audience no hands at this time chair you have one more question yep um so uh at the rco um
to the support did you guys discuss the uh roof deck i know there's an overlay uh for no roof
decks in that area and that was that an issue at the rco meeting or not it was not an issue
no they realized that it uh it's limited space on the second floor there's no outdoor space for
the tenant and it's on a corner uh because and that latter point was i think uh why it was um
acceptable
plenty do you want to take your position now or we certainly will okay uh thank you chairman and
good afternoon david factor with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single family zoning at this
location the city rezoned this section of the neighborhood in 2020 and a community requested
map change at that time this property was zoned cmx2 commercial mixed use the approvals for
two dwelling units and ground floor commercial use predate this zoning change however roof decks are
not needed for the appellant to derive value from their property so the city planning commission
recommends the board deny the proposed use variance for a roof deck and grant all other variances
so hillary we'll we'll close we'll close and just till we get the proper yes well yes we'll
close the record and um except for a corrected or amended refusal and and we and the response
from the attorney can we can we set up can we set a resumption hearing date please do we need a
resumption hearing i don't know that i don't know that we need a reason you don't need that okay
good that's even better i think what we should he'll get a hold of us when he's yes i'll just
forward it to you that'll be great exactly and then we'll put it on for a vote that sounds great
even better thank you thank you yep is there anyone in the audience who um their case has not
been called no hands at this time chair leonard do you have anything for us oh you're just visiting
oh okay all right thank you everybody see everybody at two o'clock
oh okay all right thank you everybody see everybody at two o'clock
good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be
chairing this meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is our Vice Chair, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Secretary, Sheila Elgaston, is right out here.
She'll be in the door any minute.
Board Member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Kaia Nguyen.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ryan McAdams.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also, here is our Attorney, Hillary Emerson,
and our Zoning Board Director, Ian Haggerty.
this hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the zba website by participating you agree to
be recorded this is an in-person meeting with remote participation whether in person or on
zoom if you're called to speak state your name spell it wait to be sworn in and then after that
state your name each time before you testify. To enter an appearance, indicate the property
address on your Zoom webinar, speak with the staff member, call the ZBA office by the close
of the business tomorrow, 215-686-2429, and leave your name, your email, and the address
of the property in question remote participation raise your virtual hand when you were directed so
that we can have you speak when we when we call you um you must click the join as a panelist button
use the q a for procedural issues and not for cases
If you are joining by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute in person.
When you testify, get closer to the mic so that all attendees and the court reporter can hear you.
No talking, eating, or drinking during the hearings.
Aggressive behavior will not be tolerated.
In an emergency, follow the staff directions.
the rear doors are the exit the main exit and to the left is the stairwell if we evacuate go to
love park remain there so that we can account for you let's see what our schedule looks like this
this afternoon?
Let's see here, six, ten, oh, I got it, yep.
number six MI 2026 000 810 200 North 50 A Street that case is continued until
7-8-26
at 2 p.m.
Number 8.
Number 8.
MI-2026
Lansdale Avenue
T&E Establishment
LLC. Are they in the audience?
Good afternoon. This is Doreen, and I will be your co-host this afternoon.
You said T&E?
I do not see anyone with their hand up.
There's also an Ida Alexander.
this is the group seeking a withdrawal I see no one with their hand up yeah we we received
the email correspondence indicating the applicant with wished to withdraw and provided them with
instructions for how to do so on two occasions but we haven't received the request so so mi
2026 000 834 5900 lansdowne i vote to dismiss michael johns my vote is to dismiss cheryl gaston
my vote is to dismiss tennetta graham i vote my photos is dismissed ryan mcadams my vote is to
Ryan McAdams, my vote is to dismiss.
dismiss i win my vote is to dismiss and number 12.
Ryan Wayne, my vote is to dismiss.
And number 12, MI 2026-001-076-547 East Shelton Avenue.
That case is continued to 7-8-26 at 2 p.m.
Are there any other requests for continuance?
I see no hands, Chair.
So I'm going to go to our add-on list.
Number one, MI-2025-003-385-4860, Lancaster Avenue.
I vote yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
No, this is a revote to add a proviso that was missed.
It's not a request for reconsideration.
Okay, so.
yeah i see i see it what's the what's the proviso okay okay all right
right so mi2025-003-384 no roof deck for a proviso
michael johns my vote is go ahead that's good it's good uh yes yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso
tywin my vote is yes with proviso number two mi 2026 000 188 555 to 57 north fish street i vote no
michael johns my vote is no cheryl gaston my vote is no tenetta graham my vote is no
ryan mcadams my vote is no iowen my vote is no number three mi2025-002-165-2815 north
second street i vote yes to reconsideration and rehearing michael johns my vote is yes
to reconsideration and rehearing
cheryl gaster my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing
Tannetta Graham, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Hi Owen, my vote is yes to reconsideration and rehearing.
Number 5, MI 2025-006-364-1841 Master Street, I vote no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Michael Johns, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Sonetta Graham, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ty Owen, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Number six, MI 2025-004-571-1401-66th Avenue.
Is this changing the proviso?
Is that what we're going to say, Hillary?
Yes, this is a revote with a corrected proviso.
So I vote yes with proviso.
Temporary variance for 24-hour operation of drive-thru lanes that expires June 4, 2028, where the variance expires, the drive-thru lane will open until 2 a.m. Sunday through Saturday, number two part of this.
Interior access to this restaurant prohibited after 10 p.m. and before at Monday through Thursday, and then after the 11 p.m. after before 5 a.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisos.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Number seven and eight, we'll hear it together.
Mr. Nocklinson.
Sorry, Mr. Chair, I think we missed one of the requests for reconsideration.
We missed number four, Angora Terrace.
What are you talking about?
Oh, I might finish.
MI 2023-007-377-5636, Angora Torres, I vote no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Michael Johns, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Ryan McGa...
Ty Owen, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Number 7, MI-2028-002-821-2226, Tioga Street.
And number 8, MI 2025, 002-824-2224 Tioga Street.
The order of this will be the appellant will present revised plans, questions from the
board, public testimony, and update from planning.
oh geez
you know what
mr knockamson could you please state your name as fellow for the stenographer
uh yes alan knockamson i just realized i did not log in okay that's that's okay um do you
want to go to i apologize i'm like sitting here doing nothing
we'll go to the first case and come back that's all sorry sorry about that i'm not over there
right i'm realizing sorry and i'm sure the first case is happy now too
number 10 mi 2026 000 863 1122 frankfort avenue catherine messing is the attorney
there's non-opposition from council member squilla and unanimous support from frankfurt
area business association could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure it's katherine missimer k-a-t-h-e-r-i-n-e missimer m-i-s-s-i-m-e-r 1835 market street
one nine one zero three you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do could you identify your client in relationship to the property sure 1120 to 36
frankfurt dev llc which is the owner of the property our vice chair has a few questions
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 referral and stipulate to its accuracy
i do all right thank you can show your screen thank you okay
We're here today with an application for a special exception for a group medical office.
I have with me today John Freen on behalf of building ownership, as well as Dr. Alec Robin, prospective tenant.
As you mentioned in your overview, this project does have letters of non-opposition and unanimous support from Councilman Swilla, Fishtown neighbors, and the Fishtown Kensington area bid.
this property is located on frankfort avenue through to dunton street near the i-95 overpass
property is already home to a multi-family building with 107 units and commercial space
in addition to the ground floor retail space at this location the building also hosts two
commercial spaces on the second floor the proposal use would be located on that second floor
As mentioned, today's proposal is for group medical office to occupy one of those second floor spaces.
The second floor is accessed via a dedicated elevator, lobby, and stair.
And I'll just highlight that for you here.
So green is the commercial entrance and red is the residential entrance.
We thought it important to separate those out so that residents have easy come and go and patrons serving the retail spaces are not access to residential apartments above.
This site is on cmx 2.5 and located in neighborhood commercial area overlay the North Delaware Avenue.
district in cmx 2.5 solo practitioner medical offices are permitted by right it's the group
office that generates the special exception requirement the proposed tenant operates a
pediatric dentist dentistry office it would be a valuable resource in this family-centric
neighborhood especially given the existing residential use on site both the neighborhood
As evidenced by their letters of support and the property owner agree this proposal is appropriate as well as ideal at the second floor location.
Obviously, a standard retail use wouldn't necessarily work in this location, and the goal was to find an office use minimally impacting the neighbors that live in the building, but also providing this resource.
So we felt this was a perfect fit.
so we felt this was a perfect fit given the surrounding context along commercial
Given the
the commercial quarter frankfurt ave and we have a few photos of those of the existing neighborhood
which might be helpful to see here's the retail entrance that's where our patients would come in
this is what the space looks like today and these are the design ideas that the dentist office has
And then this is the building and a couple of the other establishments already in existence along Frankfurt Avenue.
We did meet with Fishtown neighbors according to RCO to review this proposal and received positive neighborhood feedback as evidenced by their unanimous letter of support.
We also met with Fishtown Kensington BID. You also have their letter who welcomed this project to the neighborhood. As the board is aware, the standard for special exception approval is a lower standard than that of the undue hardship associated with a variance request.
special exceptions should be granted where the proposed use creates no more of a detrimental
impact than a similar use in that category this is a prime location for group medical office on
the second floor of this existing multi-family building in a growing family-centric neighborhood
we believe the project will not cause congestion public streets or transportation system again we
anticipate many of the patients will be walking to the office or already living in the building
um we'll not impair any adequate light and air to adjacent properties again it's an existing
building um and this would be filling out an existing tenant space we respectfully request
that the special exception relief be granted i do have john farina on the line who would be
prepared to adopt my testimony and dr robin in the event that there are any operational questions
sure what's your client's name mr farina mr i'm here okay could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer uh john farina j-o-h-n f as in frank a-r-i-n-a do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do counsel john did you hear my
testimony this afternoon yes i did would you agree that it's true and correct yes i do and
would you adopt it as your own yes i would thank you counsel do you have a specific suite
John, is there a designated suite number for the dentist's office? I know there are two spaces on the second floor.
Yeah, it is on the north side. There is a specific address nomenclature for it, labeled A, B, C, or D based upon the space.
I believe it's C, John.
Correct.
Thank you for providing me that.
okay all right questions from the board
um yes okay so how many dentists how many support initially one um the issue comes with the
definition of group medical practice so anything beyond one employee and one practitioner technically
constitutes group medical practice in the code so even though there's going to be one dentist
he will also need obviously a hygienist and a receptionist and that pushes him into the group
medical practice. Okay and so it's just going to be the one for now? For now this is his first
practice obviously he's planning on growing but today one dentist. And you said this is a pediatric
yes dental practice okay so we're talking about how many children? It depends he's going to need
grow some client clientele um he anticipates starting with minimal hours frankly just because
he will be new and doesn't have that client base built up okay and then um i think there's a need
for like um is he going to use any kind of like drugs and things like that for the children
because sometimes they do things where they're sure anesthesia and what have you is that
I imagine that would be part of his practice. I believe Dr. Robin's on if he wants to speak
directly to that, but I imagine that'd be part of the practice. Okay. No, just making sure that
there's any kind of medical waste disposal. So there will be medical waste disposal containers
in each examination room. They will be emptied by a medical waste removal company and not
commingled with commercial trash or the residential trash of the building. Perfect. Thank you. Of
Of course, the questions questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Not at this time, Mr. chair, questions or comments from the virtual audience. Yes, chair. I have 2 hands up. The 1st, 1 will be Alec. Robin.
Dr. Robin is the tenant, so I don't know that.
Well, we don't, right. Okay. How about the second hand?
Well, we don't right. Okay. Um, how about the 2nd hand.
The second hand is from Robert. Robert Bob, Chair Everett.
FNA. Fish down.
Okay. All right. Please bring him on.
Should be coming in shortly.
i am here hi good afternoon sir could you please state your name and spell for stenographer
for can good afternoon everybody first name is robert last name everett e-v-e-r-e-t-t you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed sir
Short and sweet, you have our letter.
We are overly enthusiastic and supportive of this venture by Dr. Robin,
who happens to be a nearby neighbor himself and lives in Fishtown.
There you go.
And the fact that it's a pediatric practice,
a lot of the parents with young children really appreciate
they won't have to be driving across town to find a specialist.
All right.
Mr. Everett, as usual, thank you for always calling in and being there.
Anyone else?
Planning Commission no hands good afternoon chair members aboard Michael Gall with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission m-i-c-h-a-e-l-g-a-l-l do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I so affirm please proceed the comprehensive plan recommended a change from the former i-2 medium industrial to the existing cmx 2.5 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location and the property was remapped to cmx 2.5 in 2015 in accordance with the district plan
The proposed use group medical dental health practitioner would not cause undue detriment to this location beyond what might otherwise be expected.
Therefore, the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed special exception for group medical dental and health practitioner.
MI 2026, 000863, 1112 Frankfurt Avenue. I vote yes with proviso. Limiting use to second floor suite C.
michael johnson my vote is yes it's 11 22. i think it sounded like 11 12 in the
i said 11 22 i said 11 12 okay i'm sorry no problem just wanted to make sure
michael johns my vote is a yes with proviso charl gaston my body chest with proviso
tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
Hi, my vote is yes with proviso. Great. Thank you.
Mr. Nockamson?
Okay, so you're going to give us an update first, am I correct, for both places?
It's actually one building, but both places.
Yeah, yes, let me just get to my presentation materials correct one. So I'm trying to join as a panelist.
All right, just as a brief recap, we're looking to convert this historically significant property
or properties each into a 12 unit dwelling uh the board um asked you know in the last hearing
to kind of reconsider some of the design aspects of the project uh which we did um so i'll go first
to uh our plans and drawings so and i would ask that master pasqua uh the architect for this
project be promoted as a panelist they have been promoted
Sir, hello, can you hear me now? Yes, I can. Could you please state your name and spell for this?
Thank you, Matthew master basketball. M. A. T. T. H. E. W. M. A. S. T. E. R. P. A. S.
m-a-s-t-e-r-p-a-s-u-u-a you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes council oh yes um mr master pasqua you were here during the last hearing where the board
uh asked us to reconsider certain aspects of this project specifically about the rear um addition
um so i have in front of me the revised proviso plans form uh can you just briefly describe
what you have done to revise the plans for this project sure so we reduced the overall length of
the actual building by a few feet and increased the coverage by adding a rear porch so the porch
depth is a total of five feet which does count towards the building coverage but is not part of
the interior space and this so we will and this is the site plan for each property is that correct
correct all right you were going to say something else i'm sorry yeah so actually if you keep that
up you can see on the left of the section and the plan the clouded area is what we revised so the
rear yard depth increased the building addition length decreased but we do have that five foot
porch on the front or the rear facade. We also added a bay window to the second floor, which
we'll be able to see in the rendering later to match the existing homes across the street as
well as next door. We were able to maintain the parking as is. So we were able to maintain three
spots per side. So a total of six for both buildings. And we were able to maintain all of
the access to the front and back of the property from either side
and everything like that.
So the building largely stays the same with the exception of the addition of the porch.
All right.
Let me show the board the renderings, which will kind of clarify
the changes we made in the back to kind of help mimic the architecture to a degree
with the front.
So let me just find it.
Oh, here we go.
oh there it goes so uh uh mr master pasqua this is the the porch that you uh stated uh that you
included now as part of your a part of this project correct all right and then these are
the bay windows that you discussed as well right that's right yes okay and uh you have had preliminary
conversation since our hearing uh last time in front of the zba to have historic uh commission
uh review to a degree is that correct yes so they're aware of these changes these modifications
we have made to the rear portion of this of these properties yes they are okay um why don't we also
go uh to uh let me just get there was also discussion during the last hearing too i'm
trying to get to the uh about the extent of the work that it would take to to renovate
and rehabilitate these properties um so this is a report that was created by ascent right
the restoration uh plan for these properties can you just go through and explain to the board the
extent of the work that needs to happen to the front portion of these existing building structures
by way of these plans sure um so yeah center restoration is a masonry specialist
uh they really you know have expertise in restoring buildings like this
um and they took the original elevations from the original plans um and sort of overlaid where
repairs are going to be necessary. So you can see these diagonal hatches represent areas that need
attention. And then further down in the plans, they have certain details that need to be
executed in those particular areas. So the different types of hatch represent different
types of repairs. And then there are some more specific detailing, you know, items later.
And this is that the front was the first one was the front elevation. This is the side elevation.
Right, right. So, yeah, you can see by these that there's a lot of work that needs to happen to the existing brick terracotta and other features in order to get it back to not only stabilize, but hopefully back to, you know, close to its original character.
All right. And another elevation as well.
Right. That's the rear of the property.
right that's the rear of the property so you can see the sort of darker area is the actual
So you can see...
original building and then the lighter area in the middle that was actually the rear addition
to that that was built sometime shortly after it was constructed originally there are some
stabilization issues with the back facade but as we discussed last meeting as you can see in the
plans we are manipulating that back law to uh better accommodate the apartments in the addition
all right great well thank you so much for your time i have one more witness i think the board
want to understand the budget um and have a little bit more definition about the budget for this
project that was my understanding and if the board doesn't need clarification on the budget
that anybody on the board need clarification on the budget
i'm good all right thank you are you done yeah we're done i mean i think is anybody
going to adopt your testimony or are you uh or i i think the last hearing was adopt and
and mr master pasqua we're fine yeah questions from the board
questions or comments from our turn i appreciate i i do i do want to mention that i appreciate the
effort that was made uh by your development team to um incorporate the porch on the back
of the building and giving some respect to the uh the adjacent uh block in terms of the
architecture so thank you for that you're welcome it does look much nicer yeah i think it was a team
effort it's good um hillary um no question just commenting that um but there is a amended refusal
and the one page of revised plans
for each of the appeals that were proposed.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
There are no hands.
Planning Commission.
Michael Gall with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The Planning Commission does not change its testimony
from the previous hearing.
So I'm going to do, I'll read them both together.
right so MI 2025 002 821 2226 West Tioga Street and MI 2025 002 824 2224 West Tioga Street
i vote yes to both per and variety proviso per amended refusal dated 2-2-26
and um the review plan one page stamped by cba august 10th 2026.
michael johns my vote is yes to both proviso
um Cheryl Gaston my vote is yes to both with provisos
Tanetta Graham my vote is yes to both with proviso Ryan McAdams my vote is yes to both
with provisos hi Owen my vote is yes to both with proviso thank you thank you thank you
Number four, MI 2025-002-711-4634 North Front Street. Yolanda Delise Aroy is the owner.
Yolanda should be coming in now.
Hi. Hi. Could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
i'm yolanda deliz arroyo spelling it's y-o-l-a-n-d-a last name d-e-l-i-z hyphen a-r-r-o-y-o
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do this application is for use as a personal vehicle repair and storage
and equipment and materials storage storage yards and building
to include retail sales auto parts in the in the same building with an an ex uh an existing
sales service and auto tag service that is correct our vice chair has a few questions for you
That is correct. Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 5 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. Okay. And the chair just read your your refusal for your application. So do you stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with the case.
can i have a unanimous support from the the new 42nd ward rco
there you go it's coming it should be coming up now
maybe not yet
I'm trying to make it a little bigger if you could all right are you able to see is it bigger
there I think maybe a little larger yeah if you could yeah we're in trouble
okay why don't you start your testimony tell us what you want to do okay so this is my um
building right here and um i've owned the property since 2010. um my intentions are to have a repair
shop operate to be able to fix the vehicles have the ability to sell parts
if need to order you know tires basic necessities for the vehicles nobody shop
no paint shop these are just your postings my postings yes there's an
office space sorry it's just so pretty much what I would like is put the
building up to use um get looks like i kept the but this is proof that i own the property um put
the building up for use and be able to operate it um as a repair facility um switch brakes oil
changes basic necessities on the vehicles um and be able to do you have photos for the inside too
this is the um short this is the uh in what it looks pretty much what it looks like the office
spaced um and
i apologize i'm not too familiar with
so how about this is photos of the interior yeah okay
right this is the office space interior um so this is where pretty much customers will walk in
we're going to have the office space on this side right here this is where um we'll operate
the uh taggy uh auto tag agency this would be the office space for the repair facility
so yeah what's it what's it it's currently being used for
so um i have a auto uh limousine company that pretty much now operates we have the building
there um but it's more like from home based because of all the changes with the parking
authority um but we just use it up to store our cars inside currently but you want to change it
but i want to be able to now you know open up to the public and be able to have
income coming in from from the repair facility
put the place for use and not just have it sitting there
so how many cars can you fit inside um inside we can fit about eight to ten cars in the garage
um space and you would sell tires um we would switch we don't sell tires if a car needs a
flat tire and have to be switched out we will switch out the tires um but mainly it's brake
and oil changes okay all right questions from the board yes did you say
all right questions from the board yes did you say you had pictures of the interior space where
you're going to be doing this repair work I saw the pictures of the office spaces let's see it
honestly I don't have it right now to put that back up again with the office yeah
I didn't. I apologize. I didn't put pictures inside on my preparation for the other side.
And then this is a restroom. This is a restroom right here.
Okay. So you said you're going to do breaks, oil changes,
um but this inspection work is that part of what you're going to do correct okay this is
no body no body absolutely no body and fender spray painting correct okay now uh so uh what
you planning to do with the um uh waste products like the used oil and what have you do you have
we're going to have a company we're going to have a company to handle the uh disposal properly okay
but you don't have anything like that now no okay all right um do you have any lifts in the property
i'm not i'm not seeing that in the sketch that wait because we're gonna put lifts we're gonna
install lifts to be able to lift up the vehicles and do the repairs as of right now i didn't want
to put any more investment because i'm not sure this has been taking some time okay um and about
how many um cars do you think you're gonna work on in a day i would say two or i would say about
two cars they i don't want to two or three cars can i mean we can fit about eight cars inside but
i would say two or three cars it will be the most you don't it's not that that much work that you
know it's going to be out there okay and um what is i don't see any i don't see context is your
property on a block by itself what's it surrounded by it's a commercial um it's a mixed commercial
used uh building i'm on the corner property um they're on the same side there is currently
another um office space we have a block right at the next corner there's another
a repair facility a shop um across the street there are homes um on the opposite side of the street
okay all right thank you all the questions
questions from our attorney delirium not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the
virtual one again no hands planning commission michael gall with the philadelphia city planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning from cmx to commercial mixed
use to icmx industrial commercial mixed use of this location the city rezoned this neighborhood
in 1982 in a council supported map change in 2012 the city issued a permit for an auto repair shop
and equipment and material storage in a building at this location the city planning commission
therefore recommends that the board grant the proposed use variances for equipment and material
storage yards and building and via personal vehicle repair and maintenance mi 2025 007
118 4634 north front street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes
tennetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes kaya win my vote is yes thank you
thank you you have your votes thank you
moving on to number 13 mi 2026 001 099 4204 parkside avenue merler meredith verlicher is the attorney
i think we have a letter of opposition from the council person a letter of opposition from the
local R. C. O. Council, could you please state your name as spell for the stenographer?
Meredith Ferliger, F. E. R. L. E. G. E. R. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth?
Nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. You identify your client, the relationship to this property.
My client is 4204 Parkside Development LLC, and that LLC is represented today by German Yakubov, who is sitting to my left.
uh and that llc is represented today by german yakubov who is sitting to my left
the vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits
five days in advance of this hearing yes i did and do you waive the read and other refusal and
stipulate to his accuracy yes i do all right thank you can show your screen to proceed with the case
All right. Good afternoon, Mr chairman members of the board.
The request before you this afternoon concerns 4204 Parkside Avenue, which is a parcel that results from a prior consolidation of 2 parcels that were formerly known as 4204 and 4206 Parkside Avenue.
you do have an exhibit packet in front of you that contains 23 exhibits which includes a
petition of support signed by voluminous residents in particular 16 immediate neighbors
and many other interested parties and residents who took an interest in this project
to summarize the basis for today's request this application requests the renovation and
reuse of a historically designated building in the parkside neighborhood although the board is aware
that the zoning code recognizes a fairly broad exception to zoning use restrictions to encourage
and support the renovation of historically designated buildings that exception does not
extend to buildings with a solely residential history while the application of the historic
EXCEPTION UNDER THE CODE WOULD NOT IMPOSE A LIMITATION ON THE NUMBER OF UNITS THAT'S ALLOWED, THE APPLICATION BEFORE THE BOARD TODAY AND THE APPLICATION THAT HAS NOW BEEN MADE TO THE BOARD TWO PRIOR TIMES HAS CONSISTENTLY PRESENTED EIGHT DWELLING UNITS PER STRUCTURE OR A TOTAL OF 16 UNITS AS THE ABSOLUTE LEAST MINIMUM NUMBER OF UNITS THAT MAKE THIS RENOVATION EFFORT POSSIBLE.
Previously, the board granted 12 units, but that zoning permit has since expired.
As you'll hear from German today, these are incredibly complicated and deteriorated structures, and no less than 16 units will create the conditions that are necessary for this renovation.
As shown at exhibit 25, the project did receive wide support from many near neighbors, some who we hope believe are in the zoom audience today to speak.
In the interest of time, and despite the letter of opposition from the RCO, I'm going to proceed under an assumption that there is not significant opposition in the audience waiting to testify.
Of course, if that proves not to be the case, then I would respectfully reserve the right to introduce any additional evidence that is necessary during a resumption hearing.
Tax clearance is shown at Exhibit 2, and the deed is shown at Exhibit 3, showing that the property was consolidated for tax and other purposes that you'll hear today back in 2024.
By way of background, as you can see on the zoning map at Exhibit 5, the property sits on Parkside Avenue, just a few lots in from north, the north 42nd Street intersection.
As you can see here, the entire swath of land between Belmont Avenue to the left of this image and Girard Avenue to the right of the image is zoned RM1 multifamily.
Oddly, the over half mile stretch that I just mentioned was bisected here by a portion of RSA 3 zoning, which might have borne some justification if it matched the use of properties in that area.
As it stands, that classification is entirely inconsistent with the use of the structures that are in that RSA 3 zoned area.
As you can see here at exhibit seven, nearly every single property in the RSA three portion and beyond is dense multifamily.
That density is heightened even further to the east of this property on the 4100 block.
exhibit six up on the screen here is just a snapshot of the city's land use map which
again supports the dominantly multifamily character of this area
now looking at exhibit 10 to start i've shown some aerials of the property this is a view of
tend to start i've shown some aerials of the property this is a view of the property that's
in question from the rear just for context directly across the street is fairmount park
you zoom in a little bit further you can start to glean the mass of these historical properties
that line this stretch of parkside avenue from the south looking view you can see the front of
structures which are entirely uniform in historical character uh basically the entire rest of this block
uh exterior photos of the property are shown at exhibit 11 where again you'll see the
deteriorated condition of these structures that have not been occupied in well over a decade
and have continued to deteriorate due to natural conditions over the course of many years
you can see from the exterior of these uh extensive structures the historically sensitive
renovation that is going to be needed to ensure that the structure is revitalized
in harmony with the other buildings on the block
in this next photograph here you can see that the property itself has a very large side yard
that leads into the back the next couple of photographs further illustrate the condition
of the structure that has been diminished over the years by conditions such as fire
vagrants and just the passage of time
from this image here I will point out the lower level of this building which you can see here
does sit predominantly above grade from the back you'll see the unusual detached stair tower
that is a historical aspect of the structure but is ultimately going to be sealed off from use
and left as a monument intended to retain the historical conditions this was incorporated into
a prior variance case but did ultimately trigger additional variances so the decision was made to
just seal that off and not trigger additional variances with this application moving into the
next photograph you can see here the volume of windows that benefit these properties
which must all be replaced in kind in consistency with the historical standards
the windows themselves are all large and on the lower level you can see the unique arched
historical condition that must be retained
and then just another image here from the side
now in terms of general context as i mentioned previously fairmont park is directly across the
street and then looking to the east here across north 42nd street you can see here the denser
structures that range anywhere from around seven units all the way up to 43 units just depending
on which of these buildings they sit in flipping to the west this is a view looking now towards
belmont avenue and then the view here is a bit further west down parkside avenue where again
you can see here the unique and defendable late victorian historical character of the block
that all have uniform three-story structures that were designed by the late he flower
and then we did of course include photographs of the zoning posters
from the interior I have shown some photographs at exhibit 14
there are only a few photographs of the interior as they are so deteriorated that it is quite
unsafe and not possible to travel beyond the first level of these structures anymore
the first photograph here is shown as you enter the front doors one on either side
and then as we move further to the interior you can see that the structures exist in an entirely
gutted condition requiring a complete and total renovation just scrolling through here you can
see there is essentially nothing that is reusable either from a structural or cosmetic position
i will spare the board the long history for now but at exhibit 18 i did also include the history
of the violations that this property has received showing that the dilapidated and unsafe conditions
that you can see here today started long before my client's ownership dating all the way back to
at least 2008 and you can see that first one here violations have continued over the years due to
the continued vandalism and targeted theft but since my client purchased the property in 2015
he has persistently addressed all the violations promptly while seeking
he has persistently addressed all the violations promptly while seeking approvals to hopefully
commence the intended project and then at exhibit 15 you'll see again the property here was built
in 1895 and was added to the historic register as a part of the parkside historic district in 2009.
the historical nomination itself notes these structures as significantly contributing to the
district as i mentioned the proposal here seeks to renovate and restore the structures to each
contain a total of eight dwelling units or a total of 16 as you'll see there is intended to now be a
breach as you can further see at exhibit 18 prior to the demise of the structures each of these
structures contained six dwelling units and there this is 4204 and then you can see here the rental
license for 4206. furthermore when the property owner last sought relief from the board in 2021
seeking eight dwelling units per property the board did grant relief but issued a proviso
for a maximum of six dwelling units i would like to correct a significant misstatement in the rco's
letter that does represent that permits still remain in place for a 12 unit renovation
that is not accurate as there is no current unexpired zoning approval that covers these
this building just for reference and again for purposes of the record i did include the transcript
from the hearing in 2021 at exhibit 23 as well as the board's findings and conclusions that were
issued as a result of a subsequent appeal where the board did at that time determine that the
properties did suffer an unnecessary hardship warranting relief but then concluding based on
the evidence that was at the board at that time that it did not have sufficient evidence to
establish the need for eight units per building we believe that we will remedy that evidentiary
deficiency today the floor plans are shown at exhibit 13 i'll zoom out a little bit here
and again you can see here that the layouts will essentially mirror each other
with a central breach in the middle of the building which will accommodate the stairwell
and provide two means of egress for the entire building the property as i mentioned was
consolidated for building code review efficiency as a one lot condition will reduce unnecessary
duplication of utility systems fire suppression systems and other similar features that can be
made more efficient with a combined building as you can see here units one through eight are by
level one bedroom one and a half bath units that occupy a portion of the first floor and the lower
And they range from around 471 square feet to 686 square feet.
You will note here you can see the vast windows that line all of these units at both of the levels that will all be restored and brought up to modern code standards.
On the second and third floors are units 9 through 16, which are each two-bedroom, two-bath units, which range from 572 square feet to 720 square feet.
you can also see on the floor plan the location of the dumpster that's indicated in the rear
which can be collected via a very large shared alley that all of these properties share in the
back and of course with 16 units that would be via a commercial hauler i did just for reference
these site plans were from the prior request so there they are somewhat out of date in terms of
the site plan itself but just for reference purposes i did want to show the elevation of the
existing building here where you can see the lower level is predominantly more than half above grade
now regarding the refusal you can see here at exhibit one
that the application was refused because the multi-family use is proposed in the rsa3 zoning
district we submit the application relies on a multitude of hardships that the board can find
to entitle the applicant to relief first as i alluded to earlier the code already contains
a mechanism to permit the use of a historical building such as this one where the underlying
zoning may not already allow for multi-family use the section of code i'm referencing is found at
The section of code I'm referencing is found at 146028 and allows the use of a building as if it were zone CMX3, as long as it meets certain size and historical use conditions.
146028
Unfortunately, that section of code limits the exception to properties where there was a historical, non-residential use of at least 2,000 square feet.
so while this building would would fulfill the spirit of that section of code
it is deprived of relief under that section furthermore even absent the code historical
exception courts have recognized that zoning boards are given latitude in applying a lesser
standard of relief to a historically designated building given the inherent challenges and cost
considerations that go into a historic renovation german will briefly explain some of those cost
considerations which he is considerably qualified to present as he has just on this very block and
in the adjoining neighborhood renovated four other historical structures i did just for reference
again include those examples at exhibit 21. similarly the board did see that the rsa rsa
3 zoning classification of half the block is entirely inconsistent with the zoning of all
of parkside avenue which becomes even more dense with cmx 3 zoning once you get further west past
belmont avenue if the property were zoned rm1 it would be eligible for up to 18 units with bonuses
for affordable housing that my client already routinely provides in virtually all of his
properties dense multi-family uses of historical buildings are also well within the character of
the neighborhood as you could see from earlier evidence we would submit that the question before
the board today is not whether relief is warranted for multi-family but whether there is any evidence
that less than eight units per building would support the necessary renovation expense
following the board's 2021 relief granting six units per property my client did proceed to
secure building permit hoping to start the renovation however it quickly became clear
that the costs involved could not be supported at the previously grant granted density nor could he
secure financing to proceed with the project as a result the permits have all since expired
again for purposes of the record i have included a case in your exhibit at exhibit 17
that was recently decided by the pennsylvania commonwealth court which did deal with a
renovation project not too dissimilar from the one that's before the board today the inray 3401 sky
properties case squarely supports the notion that the dominantly multi-family surroundings support
grant of relief in that case the court specifically found that the redevelopment of blighted and
abandoned buildings by their very nature fits a hardship analysis we do also submit that the
relief salt is the least minimum as the proposed use here is most similar to the character of
surrounding the surrounding neighborhood the neighborhood here is dominantly dense
multi-family residential with a few single-family homes throughout and this proposal will bring the
building into more harmony with surrounding uses the sky case i mentioned shows that the applicant
the least minimum standard by showing that the density is necessary to permit the reasonable proposed use of the property for all of its decades long recent history.
The properties here each contain six dwelling units, which is a small deviation from that which is proposed before the board today.
furthermore before i conclude german will very briefly walk you through the financial analysis
that shows why eight units per building 16 units total is the absolute least minimum necessary to
support relief if necessary and as mentioned earlier we can go into considerable detail on
this point however even the base rm1 allowance is evidence that this density is no more than
the minimum necessary to bring these structures back to life. It is simply impossible to compare
the density of this structure to any other on this block as these buildings are uniquely situated
and conditioned in terms of the investment that is needed to bring it back to active use.
in terms of the investment that is needed to bring it back to active use we do submit the
proposal will not increase congestion harm neighbors properties or impair light and air
the proposal will ensure the preservation and renovation of a historic structure
with minimal impact to the neighborhood as i did include at exhibit six here
you can see that this particular area of the city still suffers from some degree of vacancy
which the aerials at Exhibit 9 show have really progressed in time over the years and you can see here starting in 1996 and then, as you continue to scroll, you can really get a sense of the loss of buildings and density that have occurred in this area.
At this point, I would, could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer.
Chairman Yakubov, G-E-R-M-A-N, Y-A-K-U-B-O-V.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Thank you.
Chairman, can you just confirm you're authorized to speak on behalf of 4204 Parkside, LLC?
So you've owned this property for the last about 11 years.
From your perspective and experience with the property, what has caused the property to fall
into further disrepair than you found it in? Sure. When we first purchased the property,
it was already in disrepair, but it still retained a lot of its historic features.
Over the years, people have broken in, started fires, squatted, stole the front doors,
stole the spindles from the porches. So we effectively boarded off the front, sealed it
off. So, um, you couldn't get into the property at all. Um, but that was one of the biggest things
there were two fires set over the past 10 years to that property. And there was fires prior to
that prior to our ownership of the building from its, um, or vacancy. Yeah. So, uh, I mentioned to
the board and showed them an exhibit of the other, uh, renovations that you've done to historical
structures, just even on this block. Is it fair to say that you are well-informed and experienced
in terms of the cost involved, not necessarily just even with historical structures, but in
particular, the type of historical structures that we're talking about on this block?
Absolutely. So 4262 Parkside was in identical condition. It was a fire. The property had a
fire we purchased it and it was zoned rm1 it's the last historic house on that strip and we put
seven units in there by right we rehabbed the whole place brought it back to use 4246 parkside
avenue was in a similar condition also historic also zoned rm1 we didn't have to go to the board
we were able to do it by right the two properties on viola street that are that back up to these
properties on Parkside are historic as well even though that block was is zoned single family
these those two specific properties had prior triplex uses so we reactivated those uses and
rehabbed those houses it brought them back to brought it back to life as well as restore the
historical nature of of them by replacing spindles the windows cornices etc so you had an approval
back in 2021 for 12 units, you secured a building permit. In your own words, why were you not able
to move forward with the development at that point in time? Sure. So we hired an architect,
we produced the building plans, we got the building permits, we went to get financing
for them and we just couldn't. The interest rate went up, the cost of construction went up,
and the numbers just didn't make sense. So we were going to proceed with 12 units,
six in each building it didn't work that we tried to figure out many ways to make it work and the
current proposal that we have scaled back the building in that we consolidated it so we only
have to run one sprinkler system one set of utilities we got rid of the roof deck we made
the building much more efficient and the only variance we're seeking is the the the number of
units because that rent needs to justify the the cost that has to go in it basically the rents have
to support the debt that it has to carry. And it has to carry 1.2, which is 120% of the mortgage
payment. And the taxes on these properties and the current interest rate, that's the only thing
that it's supported is 16 units worth of rent. So I think the next question I want you to kind
of handle in... If I can ask that. So over the past 10 years, we've had insurance on the property.
We're no longer able to insure the property for its building. We're only able to only insure
it for liability so if there's anything again that happens to the building there's we can't
we can't get insurance on it so so essentially if if something were to happen to the buildings at
we can't get insurance on it so so essentially if
this point there is no insurance coverage that would cover the reconstruction of the buildings
in their current condition that's correct okay um so i think i want you to handle this this last
question i have sort of in conjunction um i wanted you to give the board just a little better a little
better of a sense of sort of the scale of the renovation that's needed to this property and
then sort of how that ties into the pro forma, which I will bring up at exhibit 24. And you can
sort of talk through both of those things at the same time. Sure. So these houses are huge. It's
about 11,000 square feet across the four levels. And on average, it's about $200 a square foot to
build. So it'll be over $2 million to renovate these buildings. In addition to the historic
um elements that we have to replace the windows in the front some of them are fifteen thousand
dollars a piece the two doors are about fifteen thousand dollars a piece um so all those things
have to be um done to historical standards they have the wooden windows custom made
which we can't buy anywhere else so those costs make this project much more difficult
than a typical renovation or typical new construction project um and once again
And that pro forma kind of outlays how the rents that we would generate from a 16-unit building, even if it was split in two, versus a 12-unit building that was one building or two six-unit buildings.
And really the only way that it could support the debt would be at 16 units in one building today.
I think that's all I have for German right now.
Okay. And let me just, you've heard all of the testimony and evidence that I offered in front of the board today? I have. And do you agree that testimony was true and accurate and would you adopt it as if you had given it yourself? It is and I do.
Are you done? Yes, sir.
Back in 21, when it went to 12, wasn't that from years ago, the last amount of units, 12, six and six?
correct okay yeah but it also expired because it was vacant for so long right yeah right so nothing
has been done once you had that from 21 to 26 other than little maintenance like for break-ins
and stuff right and you mean to the building yeah yeah we've obtained the permit and we yeah yeah
but we couldn't we couldn't question from the board what's the configuration of the um of
apartments again sure so there are um on the second and third floor there are four units per
floor and on the first floor and basement it's a bi-level um unit there are eight
so they're all one bedroom units or is the first floor the first floor by level is one bedroom
correct one bedroom one and a half bathrooms there's a bathroom on both levels and the
The top two floors all have eight two-bedroom units in them.
Can you pull up the plans again so we can see them?
They're up.
I've got to switch my screen.
I'm going from memory.
I mean, I will say, do you have a target tenant that you're thinking of for this building?
So in the neighborhood, we're building a 49-unit building, but we already have about 50 units.
And the majority of those units are PHA voucher holders.
Outside of that, we do have market rate tenants as well.
So we accept anybody that is qualified.
And is your plan to do the section or HCV vouchers here as well?
We will accept the HCV vouchers.
We don't target them directly, but this is a great location.
and it's a desired property. It's also literally directly in front of the front door is a bus stop,
like literally two feet away. So I know just looking at your pro forma,
because I feel like the whole argument here is predicated on the need for the 16 unit
and the DSCR. I'm assuming that you've set the rents for this, that they kind of work with a
one and two bedroom for people that are in the voucher program based on the fair market value
in the neighborhood in in fact these rents are slightly oh yeah in some cases they're um they're
right in the in line in some instances they're below so for instance the the one bedrooms we've
performed at around 1500 pha pays around 16.90 um and two bedrooms performed around 2000 and pha pays
generally close to that but i mean i think i would just say like i think this has happened with a few
of the historic properties recently is that one you know trying to get the i think you did the
best you probably could to have things in the basement but the spiral stair is actually like
but the spiral stair is actually like really hard. It's hard to move in.
really hard it's hard to move in it's hard to like yeah
It's hard to like furniture in a spiral stair. I mean, that's why we got rid of trinities.
Like, I think that it like for the other units to have a switchback
to figure out a different configuration for the stair would probably be beneficial.
Um, and I think secondarily just because like they have this beautiful porch
and like you're res, you're preserving all of the like historic qualities, but
there's not a lot of like public space in the in the building like a lobby sure um yeah there is a
there is that porch um and it's on eight and yeah i mean you're right about the lobby the mail
boxes are directly outside yeah yeah i was just thinking like 16 units yeah could be 45 people
sure you're gonna have a lot of packages and stuff coming here on a porch that's sort of limited so
that we do intend to put an amazon locker nearby um on one of our other properties to have a block
away okay and we've had success in that um and just in general a common area there's literally
a massive thousand acre park out front um including the that's about the park side i'm
thinking more like bike storage you know people have shopping carts so things that yeah of course
accumulate outside one of the things that we've done um at 4262 parkside is we've put bike racks
in the rear of the property we have a fence that secures it um and we're more than welcome that we
might be able to use the the stair tower in the rear um for that it's it's um that's that's a
good suggestion okay any other questions i guess the other other thing is storage in the units too
and back to sort of tie his point with the front porch being enclosed when i looked at the um
first floor plan you've got a powder room with the the wind the uh wall that goes directly into
the center of the window of a three-bay window see there on the right so you've got the powder
room which is a little strange to have the powder room yeah on the floor where the bedroom is and
the full bathroom in the basement sure so even though it kind of shows that it's in the middle
there is a mullion or there's a separation on those in between those windows they're not just
kind of like a a full window wall so that wall would fall within that separation um it's just
probably not well shown here yeah but you're gonna have to frost it probably correct yeah
and it's currently frosted as well for that matter okay all right yes yes other questions
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair comments from the
No hands.
Planning Commission.
Michael Gall with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 3 residential single families attached zoning at this location.
The proposed use multifamily household living is in character with the multifamily community along Parkside Avenue.
However, the proposed unit count of 16 is excessive for this neighborhood and represents a potential overuse of the site.
In 2021, the board previously granted a variance for multifamily use with the visor of a maximum of six residential units per pre consolidation parcel, leading to a 12 unit count on this newly consolidated parcel, which is more appropriate for the property, given its size and context.
If this block were mapped into the surrounding RM1 district, as the appellant suggests, the multifamily unit count allowed on this property would be 12 units based on its lot size.
Therefore, the city planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variance for multifamily household living use, but with a recommended proviso of maximum 12 residential units.
Okay, I just want to correct the arm 1 would allow for 18 with the mixed income housing bonus, which I mentioned is something that German would have taken advantage of since he does already provide many affordable units. So, I just want to make sure that. So what I want to do with this. Thank you for your presentation.
We're going to take this back to the executive session and just try to figure out where we stand with this and what we want to do with this, okay?
And we'll book the vote on this next Wednesday at 2 p.m., okay?
Understood.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
Number one.
and my 2025 004-371-8226 germantown avenue stephanie magna is the attorney good afternoon counsel
okay um could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer stephanie
And said, like, Michael, it is. I'm sorry. No, not to be Stephanie. S. T. E. P. H. A. N. I. E. M. A. G. A. G. N. A. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth? The whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Um, and, um, Hillary, the other attorney's not involved anymore.
um and um hillary the other attorney's not involved anymore
is he mr demarco yeah is representing the advice is he so is he still involved
um he's representing the client um but my client has entered into an agreement of sale to purchase
that property we have a letter of non-opposition from peter fox in our exhibit pattern i'm saying
is mr do we mr demarco are you in the audience i don't know as of this morning he had not planned
to attend. Okay. All right. Thank you. Our vice chair has a few questions. I'll say that Meredith
Trago, real quick, is representing from Ballard's Bar. She's representing the other adjacent property
owner at 8238 Germantown Avenue. I do expect her to be in the audience. She's in the audience?
Yes. Okay. What's her name again? Meredith Trago. Meredith? Yes, I see her there. She's promoted.
Okay, thank you. You're welcome.
I'll say that I am waiting to be promoted as well. Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Well, that might be helpful.
I want our Vice Chair to ask you a few questions while you're waiting.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Hi, good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
And you have a couple of refusals and one referral, so do you stipulate to the accuracy?
Yes, provided we're talking about the latest refusal, which is dated February 18, 2026.
All right.
Meredith?
Yes, hi. Meredith Trego with Ballard Spar.
Meredith, just for the record, could you spell your name?
Sure. M-E-R-E-D-I-T-H-T-R-E-G-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
All right. We're getting ready to start, and why don't we start?
I am still waiting to be promoted to panelists. I apologize, but I can certainly start. I think for the record, my client is DP8226 Germantown, LLC. It's the property owner for 8226 Germantown. Roy Aronovich is the representative.
I did promote.
Okay, great. Thank you. I apologize. I missed that. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Okay, great. This application is about 8226 Germantown Avenue.
We are an RSA 3 lot located with frontage along Germantown Avenue. It's currently landlocked.
The site is occupied by an existing historic structure. It was individually designated historic historically used as a single family home.
part of a larger assemblage that we believe originally included the two adjacent properties here at 82 24 and 82 20 and 22 as well at some point in time, but the building that exists now was individually designated historic.
The lot is oversized it's 98 9,875 square feet, whereas in an RSA 3 district, the minimum lock area requirement is 2,250 square feet, so we're a little over 4 times the size of standard lot.
In summation, my client is proposing to restore the existing building that's on the site to restore to single-family use. It had been vacant for several years, maybe five or more prior to him purchasing this property, so it is in significant need of repair and restoration to revitalize that use.
In addition to that, on the vacant portion of the property, we are proposing to build a new building with commercial ground floor on the retail and one unit on the four floors. So there will be four total new residential units here in addition to the commercial retail space that's going to front on Dermotide Avenue for a total of five dwelling units on this lot.
this is a current rendering of the project Roy is going to go into this in much more detail
but this design is the result of a long process with our neighbors to kind of come to what made
the most sense I believe the the planning commission's 2035 plan here proposes this
for cmx2 zoning we originally proposed a project that had I believe 18 units which is more in
keeping with that cmx2 zoning we have brought that down so we are now much more in line with
our existing zoning at rsa3 given the oversized nature of this lot but i'll allow roy to explain
But i'll allow Roy to explain that because that is a long story. As mentioned, we are seeking several refusals here, one to allow multifamily use on the property to allow multiple structures.
that because that is a long story as mentioned we are seeking several
We are proposing to remove one heritage tree, so we are asking for a special exception approval, and we are, of course, proposing to replacement standards in connection with that request.
We are also proposing to use the proposed commercial space along Germantown Avenue for uses consistent with the CMX 2 zoning district, kind of in keeping with the Planning Commission's ultimate envisioning for what the zoning may end up being on this site, as well as seeking a front yard variance to allow the setback to be five feet, whereas eight feet would otherwise be proposed, and as Roy can explain that design changes specifically related to conversations with the community
to bring the building closer to the street
to have more of an active retail presence
on Germantown Avenue.
So as I mentioned, we had many conversations
with our neighbors.
I'll start with this being historic.
This was presented to the Historic Commission.
Conversations about what the design
and the materials was gonna look like
happened with the neighbors.
It also happened with the Historic Commission
and the Chestnut Hill Conservancy.
So we had the Conservancy's support for the design
kind of in the community engagement process with some conditions that we engage an archaeologist
and we keep communications open with them anything that is found on site will be kind of first given
to the conservancy and roy has already started that process having several meetings making sure
that the professionals who is going to be brought on board they're all working together as kind of
this starts so we're we've moved with that and are happy to have this store commission
blessed in concept the design that's being presented today. We also have a letter of support from the Chestnut Hill Community Association.
There are provisos to this, all of which are acceptable. The first being that we did hire as the first condition here.
We did hire a traffic engineer to do a traffic study for the driveway that is proposed.
so the parking access at this site as we'll explain is going to come off of germantown avenue
through an existing driveway that is shared between 8220 germantown avenue and 8224 germantown
avenue roy is under agreement to purchase those two properties as well as own 8226 germantown avenue
the easement agreement there is an existing easement agreement between 8220 and 8224 that
will be formalized prior to us pulling a building permit but the traffic measures the traffic
engineering study that we were requested we did get that is in our exhibit package any improvements
that are needed in connection with the proposed use that any future use of 8220 and 8224
those improvements would be made to that driveway to make sure that that is as safe and effective
for all parties involved second they asked us to hire the archaeologist i mentioned that as part of
our historic commission approval we have agreed to do that they've been retained and we've already
been in conversations with chestnut hill conservancy as well as the community association
on that process as the excavation and the redevelopment begin on this site
the project plans will be built according to the specs that are in this this is part of our
agreement with chestnut hill community association i'll also say that we've finalized a development
agreement with our adjacent property owner at 8238 germantown avenue in connection with us
building up against their property that has some technical aspects of how that is going to work
with them but as part of that agreement we will be building this in strict conformity with the
plans that are being presented to you today any deviations from that would be you know negotiated
and have to be agreed upon with those neighbors and while chess on hill conservancy and the
community association are not formally parties to that agreement also i'll say they are third
party beneficiaries as well um and last i'll mention that mr peter fox who's representing
i believe his parents own the property 8220 germantown avenue this is one of the parcels
that has the driveway access we have entered into an agreement to purchase that property from from
the current owners but his letter of non-opposition is in our packets today um with that i would like
way to kind of explain the history of and the design iterations and a little more specificity
about the design that's being proposed why don't you state your name and spell it for the stenographer
no how's that perfect that's good uh roy aronovich r-o-y-a-h-a-r-o-n-l-v-i-c-h
but do you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do counsel
do you hear the statements i made this afternoon to the board are they true and accurate to the
best of your knowledge that's correct would you adopt them as your own yes okay with that please
awesome well good afternoon everyone thank you for having me um i'll start by saying
I'll start by saying this has been a working process.
this has been a working process it's been a really long time we
It's been a really long time.
We, I'm on behalf of the development group.
We purchased this property two and a half years ago.
Originally, you know, we came into this
thinking this is on Germantown Avenue.
This shouldn't be really residential.
This should be some sort of a mixed use development in here.
Started the design, hired Zamir from Anne Morrissey,
architect, Siebel, planning, and started designing.
We started with an 18 unit building
a curb cut along germantown avenue as you can see here um you know five stories very dense bigger
something on the avenue that back at the time we thought might be a good fit um you know a few
weeks came by we went through historic get some more feedback from the community um and decided
you know what this is this is not the right fit um a few months you know went by came back with
another design at that point we got a224 germantown under agreement eliminated the curb cut
reduced the building to four stories set it back but again this was still a 12
unit building still received a little bit of pushback historic didn't love it
even though we you know separated it from the historic building it still
wasn't exactly there more time went by we started engaging the neighbors the
conservancy the business district everyone in the neighborhood to figure
out okay what's the right fit here what can be done here met with the neighbors
decided to reduce it even more went down to five units four residential one commercial
with the curb cut we set the building up towards germington avenue met with them again and decided
you know what this looks right it seems like a right fit but we're still not there at that time
we brought on board matt milan local architect engaged with the neighbors again neighbors on
germington avenue on southampton we try to figure out how can we make this happen we set the building
on southampton additional three foot to allow more space we changed a few things on the design
made sure that everyone is comfortable and this is something that can really work here
did that went back to historic historic gave us green light we loved it we met again with
the neighbors and at that point started a conversation um with the rco regarding
engaging pannoni traffic design cr chess for um archaeological uh engineering um
anything that can be done to make sure this is sufficient this is the right fit for the property
and then recently a few months ago after going through all those meetings ended up working
through everyone loves it we have support from the neighbors and we believe this is a good fit
and this is you know a win-win situation for the neighborhood for the business district
um just everyone around us and we're very excited to make this happen how many units again we have
four residential with one commercial in the building and then the house we
actually going to bring it back and restore it to the original Deppweiler
house. Yeah Roy can you spend a second just on the existing home and what you intend to do there?
So obviously this is a historic home it's been there for years shifts on the outside
very nice interior finishes with wood what we're going to do is rather than
rehab this we're going to restore it right chair rail flooring bring it back
to the original character and what's nice about it this will also have a parking spot in the back
we ended up with six parking spots overall one for the single family home one for the commercial
and then four each one per unit we're very excited we think that the home is going to be beautiful
and there's a lot of high demand for something like this on the avenue throughout the project
we also hired kim wetzel from kim wetzel group on the avenue they're going to present us and
sell those units including the house um yeah we're very excited we think it's going to be
beautiful we're spending a lot of money on the finishes on the design um we're going to basically
create the whole death while air basic collection of properties together um and yeah we're happy
with where this ended up even though this was a you know long road to get here i believe that
the end product is something that we're all happy with and to confirm why we have six parking spaces
AND SIX UNIT SPACES, THE EXISTING RESIDENTIAL HOME AND THEN THE COMMERCIAL SPACE AND FOUR NEW UNITS.
AND THEY ARE ALL ACCESSED BY THE DRIVEWAY THAT'S BETWEEN 8220 AND 8224 THAT WILL CONNECT TO 8226.
WOULD MARVITUS HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
MARVITUS?
MS. TRAGO, DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
for the witness
counselor do you have any questions
she must be having some difficulty
because she is unmuted
Hi, you have any questions? No, no, I don't have any questions. We're actually here really just to give our full, sincere support for this project.
you have any questions sir
no no I don't have
We really appreciate all the work that they've put in to making the changes as the buildings evolved and working with us. And we are very excited about this and just want to be here to throw our support behind this.
okay any other things you want to just just to tie up the loose ends i'll say that the
proposal as it's currently proposed is is the least minimum variance necessary to make sure
that we can restore the existing historic home as well as make sure there is a viable suitable use
for what is currently vacant there um much care as you've heard in consideration has gone into
what that use is going to be i did forget to mention that the provides that there be no food
uses um in the commercial space from chestnut hill community association is is completely acceptable
um so we'll make sure that that is you know an agreeable proviso to limit what otherwise
may be a commercial and retail use there um but we don't anticipate any negative impact to the
traffic there's going to be off-site parking here as well um and we're really looking forward to
making sure that this is suitable in in connection with the existing character but bringing something
new and adding a new act of use to germantown avenue questions from the board yeah i have a
question um so just trying to visualize what's happening here so you mentioned the purchase of
some properties that are adjacent how is that related to what you're trying to do with the
building so there's an existing curb cut so as i mentioned previously you know when we purchased it
we were going to create a curb cut right that was okay a new curb cut here is now a parking
um obviously we didn't get good feedback went back purchased a224 germantown a224 germantown
shares and there's an easement for parking with a220 and i'll show you on the plan so
8226 germantown is what's in color on this plan um immediately planned south of that is 8224
germantown this is the existing driveway this runs between 82 24 above it and 82 20 yep and 22.
so the the curb cut that will service this development is existing with an existing
driveway that connects through the rear of 82 24 and will be building the connection to 82 26.
there is an existing easement that governs the relationship between 82 24 and 82 20 but that
will be updated and final formalized before we pull a building permit to make sure it's reflective of
of this plan okay and are 82 24 and 82 20 uh are they historic as well correct they're both historic
and we do have a220 on their contract as well okay so the idea is that the whole you know previously
deathweiler community those three homes are going to be all restored and all together as one you
know there is no proposed development on either of those um as you mentioned both development
plans would need to go to historic and to the extent they need any variance relief they would
come back to the store all right thank you question um there's mention of a referral
about heritage trees i didn't hear anything correct so there's one existing heritage tree
on the buildable area of this site that's going to be removed in connection with the proposed
development there are trees that are going to be planted our landscaping plan is in the packet
to accommodate for that replacement one of the things that we did is in being able to build the
new building adjacent to 8238 to plan north here we created more open space between the existing
property and the new development to kind of preserve some of the sight lines that had existed
so some of that open space is intentional to make sure that the character of the home is still
visible with the new development and I think some between the new development and that space
the existing heritage tree unfortunately it's going to be removed but we are providing the
replacement trees all right thank you and then um question you said that all of these properties
are locally designated is that they were individually designated so um the date I
believe is the same on all of them at some point they were all owned by the Detweiler family
forgive me I don't remember if they were separate addresses at the time they were designated the
addresses have changed over the years okay and um is there any connection in terms of easements or
anything like that let's say the preservation alliance or any other kind of no not that i'm
aware of no okay thank you other questions questions from our attorney hillary emerson
sorry um not not a question but just in terms of the food related proviso from the rco
the only the only food and if we're just looking at the commercial services use is not like retail
And if we're just looking at the commercial services uses, not like retail, tail of food, beverage and groceries, I mean, that would be by right. So that could be part of the proviso too.
But in terms of the food, the food types that are permitted by right under CMX2, just are there a prepared food shop and a sit down restaurant, takeout restaurant, smoking lounge, those are already prohibited under CMX2.
so i didn't i my thought was if they did not want food related things to specifically
call out the food related uses that are permitted in cmx2 they didn't specify if they had a
preference but either option would be fine okay because you wouldn't because it's because it's
i don't think the space is large enough for a grocery unit so i don't think it's viable for
that anyway even if it was allowed i think the intention was more restaurants prepared food
shops sandwiches delis things like that um but they didn't specify okay well we can i mean we
can include those those two uses because the the sorry i'm just pulling back the yeah because
you're because you're seeking a variance for having sam x2 uses um within the property zone
rsa3 so we can just add a proviso that just says no prepared food shop no sit down restaurant and
that'll take care of those prepared food shops prepared food shop no sit-down restaurant
no sit-down restaurants so prepared food shops no sit-down restaurant okay
okay are they looking more for like probably going to be a boutique store it might be a small office
architect um what did furniture store um art gallery something like this okay all right
residential concerns about food kind of odors coming out in commercial kitchen
gotcha if i had to and it's right across the hotel remember over the last two years where
that comment came from i think i believe that was the concern yeah okay that makes sense thank you
okay um virtual audience no hands planning commission
michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a
change in zoning at this location from rsa3 residential single family to cmx2 commercial
mixed use the proposed uses would be allowed in the upper northwest district plans recommended
zoning for the site the proposed use multi-family household living is prohibited in the rsa3 based
zoning district this project also requires a special exception for heritage tree removal
the appellant has met the standards for the special exception for heritage tree removal
therefore the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested special
exception for heritage tree removal and the proposed use variances for multi-family residential
multiple principal uses multiple principal uses allowed in cmx2 and the proposed dimensional
variance for minimum front yard depth mi 2025 004 471 8226 germantown avenue i vote yes proviso
per amended refusal dated february 18th 2026 and also proviso uh prepared food no sit down
restaurant no no prepared food or sit down that's all right yep there they go
michael johns uh my vote is uh yes with proviso and i just want to say it's a great project that
it shows what you can do what developers can do when they work well with the community so
good job thank you charles gaston my booty chats with provisos tenetta graham my vote is yes with
provisals Ryan McAdams my vote is yes with provisals my vote is yes with provisals
thank you very much thank you thank you
number two MI 2025 005 417 1110 Wagner Avenue Jermaine Harris is the attorney
Mr. Chair this is Ian Hegarty I'm sorry to interrupt um if oh I'm sorry we'll
do the other one right please I'd like to switch I'll tell them I think I have
thank you we're gonna switch to number four no number yeah number four on the
330 list mi 20 25 007 96 160 58 castor Avenue we have an Spanish interpreter for this Portuguese
portuguese portuguese interpreter could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
Could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
Yes. My name is Miguel Tapadej. That's M-I-G-U-E-L. Last name T. Tango A. P. Paul A. D. Delta A. S.
right um do you swear or affirm that you will interpret accurately completely and impartially
from english to portuguese and from portuguese to english
i do okay so now we call the people here right so um
curr curr curb mccurby rl ince
it's a pennsylvania corporation listed and the applicant mr chair is uh sobeida velez
sobeida release
we have no exhibits for this
person name so beta could you please raise your virtual hand
can you just ask if there's anyone here for 60 58 castor avenue that's who we're trying to see if
there's anyone here there are no hands raised at the moment thank you interpreter we'll
Welcome. We'll continue. That's okay. Continue. All right. Yes. Um, to, to, um, 930 slot, 930, 2026. Right. Yes. Uh, well, sorry, to, sorry, but at 930, the time we continue it to, um, a list, a 930 AM list for, because there's an interpreter, 930 AM list you're saying. Yes.
um that's that's not what he has but i'll i'll i'll do what you say right um mr hegarty is should
we put this up on on september 30th at 9 30 yes please okay thank you all right so
MI-2025-007-961-6058 Castro Avenue. This has been moved to 9.3026 at 9.30 a.m.
Thank you. Interpreter, thank you so much for getting on.
You're welcome. So that means I'm dismissed, correct?
So you can just-
Could you say what we just said?
Yeah. Can you just interpret the new date into the record in case someone comes back?
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
you're welcome i hope you have a lovely day everyone thank you
did jermaine get on
number two mi 2025 005 417 11 10 wagner avenue jermaine harris is the attorney
good afternoon uh board members uh my name is jermaine harris uh that's j-e-r-m-a-i-n-e
h-a-r-r-i-s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do could you identify your client a relationship to the property
Sure. Evil Wiggins, and she is the owner of the property, and I am the attorney for Ms. Wiggins.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Okay. And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Okay. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Is my screen shared?
No. Okay. All right. Is it shared now?
All right.
Okay. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. All right. So this is regarding the property of 1110
Wagner Street and this will be a brief presentation simply what my client is
seeking to do is to legalize a porch a front porch that was constructed in front
of my client uh in front of her property now this property she's owned this property since 2002 so
she's been a long-standing member of uh the community so I'll just go with you through the
exhibit my packet um this is the posting of the notice and what we are here for now this is what
I was just talking about is to legalize this. It is 8 feet tall, 11 feet wide, and the depth
is 12 feet so pretty much this is this is what we're talking about and the
reason why my client got this is the reason why she did it is she wanted to
have a place for her grandchildren to play not knowing of course that she
needed to get the blessing of lni and that there was zoning uh that there was zoning considerations
that she would have to go through and this is uh what it looks like i guess from from the uh inside
of it so basically she would exit the front she would exit the front door and this is what it
would be from this angle. This is the refusal and the plans basically just state exactly
what i just said which is that it's eight feet tall 11 feet 11 feet wide and the depth is 12
uh 12 feet we did have a community meeting uh and it was a total of 31 uh neighbors that were there
but of those only 13 were eligible to vote we had the community meeting on march the 9th in front
at a Logan Civic Center, and there were several questions that were asked, but upon answering
the questions, they voted unanimously, at least the nearby neighbors, they voted unanimously
to support this project.
uh tax clearance uh again this property has been owned since 2000 2003 so over 20 years
and uh i would like to call my client to adopt uh the testimony if i may
okay miss wiggins could you raise your hand please
miss wiggins she should be coming in shortly okay okay she's in hi miss wiggins could you
please state your name is spelled for the stenographer
Ms. Wiggins can you unmute yourself please? Eva Wiggins
can you hear me? Hi yes could you spell your name for the stenographer? Yes E-V-A-W-I-G-G-I-N-S
And if possible, Ms. Wiggins, could you put your video on?
put your video on and do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
And do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
yes thank you
okay uh so miss wiggins did you hear the testimony that i just uh gave to the zoning board yes
and do you agree or do you adopt this testimony as if you were called to testify
about this project yes uh do you have anything that you don't necessarily have to
but if there was anything that you could say i mean that you wanted to say is there anything
that you would say or you're fine just standing on what it is that i've presented to the board
just that um i you know i have grandchildren and the the block that i live on is very busy it
doesn't have speed bumps and uh they fly up and down the street like it's a expressway and having
this deck gives me the opportunity to oversee like some of the other porches a little bit where they
hang out at and i'm able to keep my eyes on them and that's a comfort to me and um you know and
it helps keep them safe you know from what it is that i see on a daily basis around here um
that's it okay um if there's any questions we would open it up for any questions
i may ask miss wiggins are your next door neighbors comfortable with this project
Yes, they are.
All right. Questions from the board?
Yes. Can we put this picture back up again?
Okay, sure. I'm sorry. Let's do my screen share.
So, there's, is there a, what, what is, this is just a concrete, like, platform, is that
what I'm seeing, or?
Yes, that's the exterior of it, and then the interior, this is what it looks like on the
interior.
so that's just on top of it yes and to put that in did you have to cover up any windows or anything
is this a does this encroach on the public footway i mean it's hard to tell what well
So, Ms. Wiggins, I believe that the, yeah, so this is like windows weren't broken out.
No, no windows.
If I understand your question correctly.
So, let me just kind of jump in for a second.
So if you look at the if you look at the house to the right, there's a retaining a short retaining wall.
That's a block. This house had the same thing, and that was built up to the level of the main porch.
And I'm assuming it was filled in. So the question answer to your question were windows closed up.
They had to be because there are two basement windows that were on the front of the porch that were covered up in order to do this extension to this concrete deck.
Now, the question is, is was this whole concrete area filled in with dirt and there's a concrete deck on top of it or is it just hollow under there?
It's hollow under there.
OK, so you just build up the retaining wall.
they they did a truck came with cement and they did lay i don't know how thick it was but they
laid cement and okay so the ground is hollow you know you can walk on if he was under there
okay so yeah so they they built they built up the retaining wall and do you know if they got permits
to do that no they didn't get permits to do that okay they kept telling me they was getting permits
and they kept spinning me on the paperwork and i was believing them because i didn't know no better
and i just took their word for what they was telling me and they was lying to me all the time
and i didn't know i mean obviously if uh if there is approval of this uh if this is approved and
of this uh if this is approved and permits are allowed and permits are uh
permits are
pulled for this then i am certain that they are going to require a structural engineer to
attest i guess to the i guess for lack of a better word the stability of what was done here
with this right i'm certain of that yes you are correct is there any uh light and air getting to
your basement like are there other like windows in the basement or a basement door that opens to
the outside no there's no windows in the back of your basement on the side there's a there's a
window downstairs in the basement where at the back of the house uh-huh no in the front okay
but you covered it up with this deck right is there a door and there's no other way to get
off the basement that's why i guess i have a back door i have a back door to my basement
okay right i guess that's what i was yes thank you you also ran electric into that too am i correct
uh the electric i see lights all over the top yeah the the um the the electric box
is on my standard porch my original porch it's not uh built on to the deck
any other questions
questions or comments from our attorney
um so i i am concerned this is a little bit in the right of way um have you
i don't know the surveyor is the appropriate person but have you had somebody look at that
Because typically if something's in the right-of-way like this, it requires a council ordinance.
Is that really in the right-of-way if the steps are, if they're at the edge of the steps?
Yeah, it stops at the steps.
It stops at the steps. It's not like in the walkway or exceeding my steps.
yeah it's consistent with the neighbor with the retaining wall or the neighbor in the original
i'm looking at i'm looking at go i'm looking at google i'm looking at google maps and i'm looking
at older versions so you can see they all have sort of these retaining short retaining walls that
literally are at the same base of where this this wall is so okay so it's not
encroaching I don't believe so but I'm not serving unless the steps encroach
okay all right thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience I see
no hands chair planning commission
michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no
change in zoning at this location from the current rsa5 residential single family attached there is
no unique circumstance or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used in strict
conformance with the zoning code therefore the planning commission recommends the board deny the
request a variance for walkout deck so so jermaine we're gonna we're gonna stop and talk about this
we'll vote on this next week at two o'clock okay and uh thank you for your presentation thank you
number three
okay number three mi 2025 007 117 1650 to 60 van dyke street daniel treat daniel treat is the
lawyer, Darlene.
This is the one we're going to hold, right?
Vote and hold.
Good afternoon, board members.
Darlene Threat on behalf of Queerspan Contracting.
Counsel, you've already been sworn
We're going to hold this one because the RCO meetings tonight, am I correct?
Our vice chair has a few questions, so we'll hear and hold.
Good afternoon.
good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
yes i have and do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy
yes all right thank you you can share your screen and proceed
one moment please
sure take your time
can you see my screen we can okay good afternoon i'm representing clear span uh contracting and
i'm going to give you a little history while i go through these exhibits uh clear span contracting
is a cement construction company.
They are located currently at 2205 Wakeling Street,
and they would like to move their entire businesses
over to 1650 to 1660 Van Dyke Street.
I submitted a host of exhibits today,
which include the refusal, the appeal,
the project information form, a lease,
some tax information, the deed, plans, pictures, proof of mailing, and the community letter.
I would like to say that since this project has begun, my client has actually purchased
this property and plans to move their entire organization over that way.
So ClearSpan Contracting has been in business since 1990 and currently they operate on an
acre of land at 2205 Wakeling Street. Currently they have about 75 to 80 employees. They lease
this land at 1650 to 1660 Van Dyke and subsequently purchased the land at 1650 to 1660 Van Dyke
because they would like to move their entire operation over to those premises.
Now, I'm going to just go through the refusal very shortly because it's a little confusing.
The refusal suggests that this is for the use wholesale distribution of storage,
equipment and material storage yards and buildings in an existent vacant lot.
I'm going to show you a map of a bunch of addresses.
Today, though, the only address that's before you is 1650 to 1660.
What we would actually like to do is build a plant on this lot, but not a plant in the regular sense of a building with machines and stuff inside of it.
What we would like to build on this lot is what we call a cement batch plant.
And this is an outdoor semi-permanent structure that we will place on a cement pad on this lot.
Now I'm going to go through a lot of pictures and I'm going to show you the lot and then I'm going to show you a rendering of how we would actually like to parcel off the lot and how would we actually like to construct this outdoor batch plant on the lot.
So first I'm just going to show you, of course, we filed the appeal to the board.
This was the lease, and it was a four-year lease between my client ClearSpan and Broadway
Associates.
But again, we have subsequently purchased this property, it was a long lease.
I just wanted to show you the tax information.
There's no tax indebtedness on this property.
and then i was just i wanted to show you this map
So this is really not the best picture,
but I'm going to show you additional ones.
This is the property in question here.
There are a number of addresses here that I'm going to show you specifically a little later.
But this is what the area looks like and specifically,
Thank you.
This is a map of the entire parcel.
Now these buildings are not the subject of zoning today.
It's just this particular parcel, which is 1650 to 1660.
This is really just an open, open space
that used to be used by these buildings for parking, et cetera.
i'm going to go through several pictures to show you what the area looks like and then i'm going
to go through a specific plot plan which shows you where we like to place this equipment on
the lot and how the lot would be laid out this right here is van dyke street going towards
Carlsdale Street. It's pretty empty. On the left-hand side, the buildings that you're looking
at are 1612 to 1644. They're not part of this application, but they are owned by my client.
That's all that's back here. On the right-hand side is an abandoned CVS. This is Van Dyke looking
towards the other direction. It actually empties out into Orchard Street. On the left-hand side,
where you see the little or the little awnings is a sign company, which is the only other business
back here. This is actually just the opening the gate to our property, which would allow you to get
into the lot. Again, the buildings on the right hand side are not subject of the zoning request
today. There are buildings and warehouses that are already zoned for I2, which we can already
park our trucks in. This is just a better look at the whole street from Van Dyke. I wanted to
show you the posting, and I wanted to show you some of the blocking that we have, barriers on
the fencing around the property. Just another look down Van Dyke Street, Van Dyke Street.
this is across the street directly across the street from us and this is a sign company which
is pretty much besides on Paul Street over here there's a car lot in a car company but those are
the only businesses back here and when I noticed the meeting there were only 13 properties to be
noticed they're all commercial again this is van dyke street and this is a abandoned
cvs that's been abandoned for some time
so here is our entire lot which we would like to place the back cement plant on that apparatus
And I just took a few pictures of the lot to show you the scale and how large it is.
It's actually 44,400 square feet.
The lot is surrounded by a fence and a barrier.
And earlier when I went out for the lot, it was still a little bit snow covered, but this
is basically the lot and the surrounding.
So now I really want to go to what I call the rendering, which will really explain what
we would like to do here on these premises.
Here is the entire site plan.
So this part right here to the right today is not the subject of zoning.
Eventually, Mr. Kevin Ponieski will move his entire operation, about the 75 to 80 employees,
and they will occupy these buildings, have administrative offices, have some parking.
and they will occupy these buildings, have administrative offices, have some parking
for his employees around here. He currently rents this property out to another trucking company.
They don't have a batch plant, but they are a cement company, and they park their trucks on
the lot around here. Now, what Mr. Koniecki would like to do is actually build his own cement batch
plant which i'm just going to enlarge and move over a little for you on the empty um lot that
i showed you the pictures of so here we go this is the empty lot these are the railroad tracks
and the water the creek is back up this way let me just scale it down a little bit further
there. So this is the opening and the entrance to the lot. You saw the overhead entrance with
the rolling gate on it. On this lot, we would like to be able to store the sand and the rocks,
et cetera, that we will use, put in this apparatus to make the cement. And I'm going to scale down
for the apparatus a little later on to show you what we're actually going to do but i wanted to
talk a little bit about the lot so this lot will be paid won't be paved we will have a crutch
um stone on this lot and i do have the engineer on the lot today excuse me on the line today if
anyone has any questions about the lot this apparatus will be a place here by a company
and maintained by the company the trucks will our trucks will come in the lot this way
and go around and come under here where cement gets deposited into the trucks
the trucks can come on out and they can come right back on out the lot at a later date and
Even when the business maybe takes on some more clientele or is more productive, we may
think about putting another entrance on this side of the street somewhere.
But I'm going to go down now into what we call the actual batch plant.
plant. So this is what we would like to build and or store outside. This is actually what
we call a cement batch plant. Materials are put in here, they're put in here, they're
mixed, and they come out through the chute here. A truck will drive up under here. The
cement will be loaded into the truck and the truck will go on its way to do whatever job
it is hard to do now we would like to um operate this uh batch plant and again this is a step by
step project these buildings need a lot of work before his company can move over here and they
could be used in a fashion but before we can relocate we really wanted to get the uh plant
going uh so that we can have a more a business whereby we don't have to go outside to purchase
cement now currently mr konieski purchases cement from outside companies which is not productive
or cost effective for his business and i'm just going to give you an example if he has a
city job at nine o'clock in the morning and the cement company has a bigger job than his
and they're supposed to come at nine they may call him and tell him this cement won't be delivered
to 12 o'clock and that means he has to pay the union laborers to stay on that site an extra four
hours without doing any work before the cement is delivered and he can do his work i'm just going to
flip back to the pictures because I wanted to just show you a couple more
things in regard to what we have planned here.
So there are a lot of concerns in regards to having this type of operation at this facility.
One of the first concerns is the dumping and in one or two of the pictures that I showed
you previously you can see there's a dumping problem in this area because there are not really
many businesses uh in regard to that uh my client once they are on the premises
In regard to that, my client, once they are on the premises, they will have a crew that will not only maintain the outside of the area, but the crew will also maintain their lot and make sure that it's clean and there is no blowing rubbish.
Additionally, there is fencing around the whole lot, which would lead to the creek, as well as a cement wall, which stops the blowing of rubbish and or trash.
Additionally, there is security cameras located all around the perimeter of the buildings.
The security cameras are actually connected to a telephone and they actually send messages
when something is happening in the area whereby someone can come and see what's happening.
There are also a security camera in the yard currently just to monitor the conditions of the yard and what's going on at the site.
In regard to the structure or the pavement or the surface of the yard, currently there is crushed stone on this yard.
If I go back to the wandering, I can show you there's also currently a cement pad in this yard in regard to drainage.
We're not really putting any permanent structures on here or any building.
It is my understanding that the drainage for the yard since it's crushed stone currently is sufficient.
I did speak to the engineer about it and she can answer any of the questions she may have,
but she did indicate to me that once they cover the whole service,
that they would have to submit a stormwater plan to the water department
and it would have to be approved before any other additional colorings of the lot.
uh and basically um that is uh my uh presentation uh in regard to the cement batch plant that we
would like to sit at 1650 to 1660 van dyke street all right you want to bring your client on
mr konieski can you come on the line please
Kevin?
He's rejoining now.
sir could you please state your name is bell for the stenographer yeah you unmute unmute
you're muted that's it hi my name is kevin kinesny k-e-v-i-n k-o-n-i-e c-z-n-y do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth nothing but the truth i do counsel good afternoon kevin good
afternoon kevin are you the current owner of 1650 to 1660 van dyke street yes i am
have you heard my uh testimony as presented to the board today yes and if you were to testify
today would you be able to adopt my testimony as true and correct kevin correct thank you
questions from the board yeah but well hold on our our attorney would like a question so so
Ms. Threet, so unfortunately, I think this refusal is completely wrong.
Oh, boy.
So a storage use would be like keeping trucks there.
This is production.
This is considered an industrial use.
And also, I think the structure to hold the sand and perhaps the structures that want
to be installed for the concrete production, those probably also need zoning permits as
None of this was in materials that were submitted to L and I with the zoning permit application.
So unfortunately, if if the board did grant the variance here, all you'd be able to do with this property would be to store materials and vehicles and that sort of thing.
You couldn't actually do production because that's a different use.
You also in order to set up all of this, that probably would need additional permits for structures, too.
probably would need additional permits for structures too yeah and and that's that's
So, yeah.
what i was thinking because um outdoor structures like this um that's that's what they're considered
like i i've had a little lava please i said outdoor structures like this um that that's
what they're considered they're considered to be like structures um i've had some cases with like
refrigeration units that were like outside. I've had some cases with some other types of
like big fueling stations. Yes. Cell phone towers. Almost like a manufacturing plant.
Yeah. Yeah. It can be outside, but they wouldn't just,
they're going to want to approve the structures and the process too is different this is not just
storage yeah this is not this is not storage this is industrial use yeah so so i think i i don't know
if the refusal can be amended frankly to include everything that's here because it's a it's only
a change of use um but we can we can look into that but i i don't think this refusal is at all
what um you're seeking to do here unfortunately it's very different
oh it wouldn't be included in uh buildings equipment materials buildings no so so no
because specifically that that use in in the code for equipment materials storage
yards and buildings its uses related to outdoor indoor bulk storage of equipment products or
materials whether or not stored in containers and then if you go to industrial use intensive
industrial actually includes the manufacturing of cement in its definition so it's it's an
intensive industrial use which may this is an i2 property it may be permitted you know by right in
this but no it's not okay being told no so um yeah so i think you're gonna need relief either
way but this doesn't have anything of what you're seeking to do in it unfortunately
um we can we can understand yeah okay we can we can talk further offline but i had
no idea until i heard your presentation what exactly was was being proposed so all right so
we're going to you'll wind up talking with her offline yeah we're not going to continue this
right well i would respect respectfully request that uh you give me a time to consult with ellen
i and this refusal and uh see if it's allowed to be amended if so i'll amend it if not i'll start
over yeah that's we can probably just um just continue just continue this we'll put a continuing
in state on it but in the meantime we can either if it can be amended then we'll do a resumption
hearing um actually let's set a let's actually let's set the res let's set a resumption date
um and at that point we can either resume it with an amended refusal or we'll it'll be withdrawn and
we'll need to do a resumptive date of 9 15 26 at 9 38. uh commissioner if i could is it possible
we could get a july uh date because it'll be a yes or no whether or not it could be this is what
i would recommend you do call the office and tell them your situation all right okay thank you very
much thank you thank you thank you number nine mi 2026 000 848 326 cater street david orphan
GENETES IS THE ATTORNEY.
SUPPORT FROM QUEEN'S VILLAGE NEIGHBORS ASSOCIATION.
good afternoon mr chairman members of the board could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer certainly my name is david orphanetes the last name is o-r-p-h-a-n-i-d-e-s
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i did i do could you identify your client and relationship to the property yes my client is rich
or richard stouffer and he's the owner of the property and our vice chair has a few questions
good afternoon um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
uh we believe we did we attempted to we resubmitted them i think yesterday just to make sure they went
through because we've been having some problems uploading through the portal and then we just
provided revised drawings based upon some communications that hillary and ian and i
had regarding some changes to the design uh just this afternoon with the new revised provide updated
revised proviso plan form to the one that was previously submitted okay thank you for that
and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do all right thank
you you can show your screen to proceed and just to note for the board for this matter there is um
there is a revised refusal um and three pages of revised plans this matter can move to a vote
today based on the changes that were just submitted by mr orphanetes cool thank you
okay all right ready
i'm sorry may i proceed sure oh okay sorry um so we're here for 326 cater street uh picture
of the property is here uh up on your screen right now uh the history has the property has a history
of non-residential use at one time it was a barn or a stable with carriages you can see that kind
of telltale door loft door up here at the second floor uh the the property you can see here is
located um right off of south street and if you give me one put here you go let me just move this
here out of the way. It's going to bother me. Okay, here we go. All right. So the property
you can see here is located right here, and it's right off of South Street. Cater Street
is the first half block or first block south of South Street. We're located between 3rd
and 4th Street. And what you're going to see in a couple minutes is that the lion's share
of this block, there aren't a lot of properties on this block that actually front on Cater
street there there are 20 properties that front on it um six on the south on ours only six on our
side when i say front have an address there are a number of properties that have frontage but the
primary frontage only six of them are on the south side and 14 of them are on the north side but
you'll see in a minute um you know there you're going to see that we have a residential property
across the street we have a residential property next to us and then we as we go down the block
we have residential properties down at Oriana I'm sorry we go to Oriana Street not the third
Street ends at Oriana and there's a series of residential properties down here on the
north side at the east end and then one property down here at 308 other than that
all the all the properties that actually have the front door on cater Street have residential
residential type properties and when I say residential type properties you'll see with
with this zoning map, that our block or our side of the block is zoned CMX2.
The north side of the block is zoned CMX3.
And what you'll see is that even though the properties down at the east end on the north
side all look like single family homes, a few of them have received zoning approval
for visitor accommodations because that is a use that's permitted in CMX3 and they didn't
need to come to the board for that.
You can see here some photos.
Again, the photo property, the view to the east towards Oriana Street,
the abutting residential property to the east of us.
And then there's another view of that and a view down the alley.
And then as you go down, this is the back of a gym,
which I believe has been vacant for a little while.
you can see that until you get to 308 which i said is and that's the single family use a little
further you have this open area which is used by the jean madeline beauty school which is on south
oriana street between cater street and bainbridge street and then you can see here on the north side
from heading uh westward from oriana again those those residential looking buildings um and i do
have copies of all the zoning archives in a summary i'm not going to go through them all again
or go through them with you but um i did provide that documentation and then as you kind of head
down and hear those pick those properties you can see they look like single family dwellings
and then as you head back to the west back towards our property you have the rear of some mixed use
or commercial properties that front on the south side of south street and then you actually have
the back of the TLA theater, which you can see right here, which you can see also covered
which you can see also covered in the glass mosaic work that we all know on South Street.
in the glass mosaic work.
Then here's a residential property, 329 Cater, that's two units across the street.
Then at the end of the block, across the street, and then next to us, you have commercial mixed-use properties,
restaurants on the ground floor, commercial use on the ground floor with residential above.
my client purchased uh well let me go back for a second uh historically the i'm going to show right
here historically our property um 326 and 337 bainbridge were one property um interestingly
enough it's my client's father who was an attorney that i was actually partners with in early 2000s
handled the subdivision of this of these properties of this property to create the subject property
which his son then purchased a number of years later.
So it's kind of, I thought that that was a very interesting situation.
We purchased it in 2013 and back in 86.
His father was the attorney before this very zoning board,
securing variances to subdivide the lot.
But it is a deep lot, as you can see.
And as you can see, as you saw from the aerials,
the building itself is a very deep building, you can see here.
What you can also see, and you'll see on the plan, is there's not a lot of open area presently around our property or on any of the properties on this block.
You can see our buildings here into the east towards the back or to the west.
There's a small open area that then kind of curves around with a tail to the south.
We have a small rear yard, and you'll see on the site plan, it's about 3 feet 4 inches.
337 Bainbridge has a similarly shallow rear yard.
And then the 324 and the property that's behind it at 335 have some open area and then an open
area behind or next to the gym. But other than that, there's very limited open area.
My client bought the property, as I mentioned, in 2013. He's occupied it as his residence.
Since then, there is a history in the zoning archives that I've provided single family use
on the property. But because the property is on CMX2, as you know, CMX2 requires commercial
or non-residential use for the first 30 feet of frontage. And our desire is to clearly document
the use of all of the building for residential. And it's our position that this block is clearly
not suitable for commercial use at the ground floor. You have a lot of vacant commercial spaces
on south street um this is the only would be the only property actually with the front door on
cater street the 300 block of cater street with the commercial use um again with all the other
properties with the front door on cater street having residential residential type uses
the proposal is simply to build a the structure itself is non-conforming and it's been non-conforming
it's one of the reasons why the subdivision had to come before the zoning board back in 1986
is to add a dimensionally, as far as the depth, open area,
rear yard depth, compliant third floor with a roof deck above it.
Because of the height of the buildings that we have at the present time,
you can see the building to the east of us is a three-story,
613 to 15 South 4th Street.
And then the building next to us at 324 is a little over,
I think it's 36 feet 8 inches so 613 to 15 is 40 feet 5 inches 324 is 36 feet 8 inches as a two
story we're shorter than both of them with our third floor we're going to be above the 38 foot
height limit and I'm going to go to the zoning drawings right now and show you those
and here you can get an idea of the site plan and you can the gray areas are the open areas
And here's the rear yard that I indicated is three feet, four inches.
The proposal, again, is to build a third floor on top of that, as you can see here, with a pilot house and a roof deck above.
The roof deck is set back eight feet from the front of the building per the Queen Village NCO requirements.
And what you can see here, and I'm going to zoom in a little bit, is that when we add our third floor,
we end up being slightly taller than 613 to 15 south 4th street to the to the right of us to
the west of us and a little bit taller than the residential building to the to the east of us
our roof height is comparable to the height of uh for the pre-existing or existing building at 413
or 613 to 15 bainbridge street which is 40 feet 5 inches we're at 40 feet 11 and a half
we're 40 feet 11 and a half but because the height of the parapet at the front which we've lowered
but because the height of the parapet at the front which we've lowered
from what was originally proposed that goes into the calculation of height because it's more than
42 inches above the permitted height in the zoning district which is 38 feet so we we have a
variance for the height of the structure originally the variance was 44 feet seven and a half inches
the architect sharpened his pencils and before going before queen village we were able to get
down a little bit about four inches below what was originally submitted and we're now at 44 feet
three and a half inches but as you can see we're just barely taller than the property
to the east of us then you can see the setback roof deck and the setback pilot house here
on the front elevation detail b4 you can see the same in detail c4 g4 and then d6 you can see so
here's the front of the building there's a architectural window that projects over the footway
here's the setback of the roof deck the addition is pushed towards the north end of the building
uh and the property leaving the rear area for the required rear yard depth and open area
back in that area back in that location
here are elevations of what we're proposing the additional of the third floor you can see here
the material they're looking to use as a metal material, the sections.
And here we have some comparative massing where we show what the difference between a buy right and a variance.
Oops, sorry about that.
And you can see that the massing actually with a buy right could actually be, in many respects,
more massive than what we're actually proposing because everything has been pushed down because
you can put a deck actually higher or the height that where our roof deck surface is looking to be
and then you can see here the massing in the area we did do um here's some rendering showing
how it'll blend in with the with the block and you can see here
and then we did shadow studies and we compared the buy right uh a buy right scheme with what
we were proposing and you can see in the orange or the red that there's only some slight additional
shadowing and it's across the rooftops of the commercial mixed use properties uh to the west
of us a little bit of the property to the east of us at different times of the year but not
substantially different and we're not creating any additional shadow into those open areas in
the windows that front them surrounding the property unfortunately they're largely in shadow
most of the time the refusal over here the original notice we had original notice of
refusal as hillary mentioned um it did not have the height uh correct it gave the height to the
to the roof. And as mentioned, because the permitted height for parapets not to be counted
in the calculation of height is 41.6 in the zoning district like CMX2, where the height limit is 38
feet, we had to have that corrected. And again, we showed that to the top of the parapet,
it's actually 44 feet, seven and a half inches. But again, you can see that the roof height from
what where we were before and where we are now is comparable to what the roof height is or what the
height of the building to the west of us is at 613 to 15 bainbridge street
i did include in my materials a copy of the deed of my client where he purchased the property in
2013 um our tax compliance certificate a notice of the appeal of the notice poster that was posted
at the property you can see here compliance with the requirements of the zoning code and our
notice that went out for the meeting that we had April 8th with Queen Village as mentioned at the
beginning. Queen Village is in support of the project. They did include a proviso at the end
that there not be any that short-term rentals be disapproved. I did want to point that out but we
did not apply for short-term rentals. This is my client. He and his family live here. It's their
home and they're doing this addition so that they can continue to live here. Council member Mark
school have provided a letter of non-opposition yesterday. So, you know, we believe that in terms
of the refusal for use of the ground floor for residential or for non-residential use,
which you can see is one of the only two refusals that were issued. We believe that it would be a
hardship to utilize the ground floor for commercial use for pretty obvious reasons. It's not a block
that's conducive to commercial uses.
There are no commercial properties
that actually have a front door
on the 300 block of Gator Street
between South 4th Street and South Oriana Street.
between south 4th street and south oriana street and there's a there's an abundance of vacant uh
And there's an abundance.
commercial storefronts on south street as it presently stands which is a more suitable commercial
corridor as we all know in terms of the height um we believe that the we do have we have the
taller building to the west of us you have other tall buildings located in the area including the
gym, the former Pennsport gym, the TLA, we are in keeping with the heights of the buildings
next to us and surrounding us in the nearby vicinity.
We've lowered the height of the addition as much as possible, so it's a minimum variance
necessary to add an additional story.
It is dimensionally compliant other than the overall height because of the parapets.
and that we've provided the shadow studies that show that as compared to the by right building,
that it only produces a minimal amount of additional shadowing than what would otherwise be produced by a by right building.
And none of those buildings are conforming.
And again, as I think I mentioned during our hearings yesterday,
day, that provision of the zoning code regarding the zoning variance requirements regarding
shadow and light applies to conforming properties.
And the properties that surround us are clearly because they occupy all or most of the lots
and far more than they're permitted to occupy under the zoning code are not conforming properties
as far as the requirements, the dimensional requirements of the zoning code.
so with that i would have um both the architect uh and the david quadrini and my client rich
stouffer promoted to uh panelists so i can have them adopt my statements we start with your client
short rich stouffer hello hi mr stouffer could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer my name is richard stouffer r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-t-o-u-f-f-e-r
you swear or affirm to tell the truth to all truth nothing but the truth counsel I do uh
Rich did you hear the statements that I made to the board yes I did and are they true and correct
to the best of your knowledge yes they are and would you adopt them as your own yes I would
thank you are you bringing your architect on please David Quadrini David I'm here
i think he responded hello i'm here hi sir could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer yes my name is david quadrini q u uh first name d-a-v-i-d last name q-u-a-d-r-i-n-i
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do counsel david
did you hear the statements that i made to the board today i did and are they true and correct
to the best of your knowledge yes and would you adopt them as your own yes thank you questions
from the board i closed questions from our attorney not at this time mr chair actually
i did have one i did have one question um so the rco reference not having any short-term rentals
um visitor accommodations is not permitted in cmx2 um but would you be adverse to a proviso for no
limited lodging which is an accessory use i mean it's not permitted under the i've even applied for
it and it's not i asked them about that and they just said they don't want they don't want limited
lodging um because i thought it was i've never i haven't had that happen before um i mean i think
either way whether it's to eliminate that proviso or to come before the board to get a variance
either way you're coming back to the board so if it's that i mean to me i don't think it's necessary
i don't think it's maybe appropriate but if if you need it to to make this happen then we'll agree to
it because we either way you got to come back to the board to have it and they intend to live here
they don't tend to rent it out so limited lodging is specifically for owner occupied and it's an
accessory use it's right something you'd have to come to the zoning board for that's true yeah so
but visitor accommodations you would need a variant yeah i think they and in communicating
with them i think they mean more visitor accommodations because there are those on
the other side of the block at the north end but i mean richard do you have any problem with that
can you be promoted again i mean i'd have to no no problem with that yeah okay so we could we
could we could provide so no limited lodging about uh plans how many pages it's three pages
of revised plans yeah yes okay okay and you have the amended refusal already okay great
okay and you have the amended refusal already okay yeah great yeah thank you
mi 2026 000 848 326 cater street i vote yes um oh i'm sorry i'm here
i thought i did put we'll go we'll go questions from the pub audience
There are no hands. Okay, Michael, with the Philadelphia city planning commission, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX to commercial mixed use zoning at this location.
The block within the district, this block within the district lacks commercial street frontage along the entirety of the block face. So this requirement would be out of character with the surrounding community, which features these communities commercial uses half a block away along the south street corridor.
the height difference is likewise in keeping with the architectural character of the surrounding
blocks therefore the city planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variance
for variances for maximum height and lack of ground floor commercial use
and my 2026 000 848 326 cater street i've for me 326 cater street i vote yes per refusal dated
3-12-26 revised plans three pages um stamp by cba 6-10-26 and no limited lodging
michael johns my vote is yes with provisos
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with provisos tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso
ryan mcadams my vote is yes with provisos iowen my vote is yes with proviso
thank you very much thank you counsel have a nice day mi 2026 000 981 751 east wyoming
sean ward is the attorney
do we see mr ward yes he's coming in now i'm right here i i see you counsel could you please
state your name and spell for the stenographer yes thank you mr chairman sean shawn or ward
Esquire attorney for applicant and owner you swear referring to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth I do I see there's a unanimous support from the 42nd Ward but didn't you have a
question or so no I did um hi Mr Ward good to see you um so I just I'm sorry who is it this is
Hillary Hillary oh oh Hillary oh yeah the camera's on me right now you can't see me um so um so with
with this one um I noted in the in the refusal it talks about personal vehicle sales and rentals on
a vacant lot um but in the materials that were submitted there was an indication that parking
was to be provided as well as a trailer to I guess have office space the way this refusal
is written neither of those things are part of that so I just wanted to make that clear
up front and that it will probably require additional maybe even variances to have those
you know have those additional elements to the project so I just want to make sure we're
we're clear on that hillary i thank you for your you know due diligence in examining applications
and whatnot because it does help us um you know moving along because if we get approvals which
don't include everything we want uh you know as an applicant you know i i get that uh um i believe
Steve, I can address the parking. We do have a site plan.
Yeah, this was a use application and therefore site plans were not involved in the application process.
But I do have a site plan part of my application and ZBA exhibit packing,
which I would add is a supplement to what my client submitted directly to the ZBA in advance of this hearing.
so all right sean could you identify your client in the relationship to the property
mr chair am i uh
you know i'm seeing on the screen you know
You know, I'm seeing on a screen, you know, a bunch of faces. I'm not, I am not, um, allowed to share.
It's me. I'm speaking. No. Okay. Do you see the green button? You should be, you're already promoted to a panelist. So you should have the green button.
all right i got it now okay things have changed since you're coming yeah things have changed since
when you weren't looking we changed a lot of things here yeah yeah could you identify your
client in relationship to the property yes uh i represent
Nabeer Jabir is the owner-applicant and he is the owner of 751 East Wyoming Avenue.
Okay. Our Vice Chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Very good.
have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
for the record uh my client submitted the required documents in advance of the hearing
i submitted uh via email and through the zba portal uh the supplemental exhibit packet which
i have on the screen right now thank you for that and do you waive the reading of the refusals and
stipulate to the accuracy oh most certainly okay all right thank you you can share your screen and
proceed okay uh mr chair and members of the board uh i have a a 24 page exhibit packet not 174 pages
and it's not going to be a commonwealth court uh uh brief that i'm submitting to the board today
In my packet is A1, the notice of refusal, the application is for personal vehicle sales on a vacant lot.
It resulted in two refusals.
Personal vehicle sales are not permitted in the district.
and the application, because it was a use application, did not require a site plan nor any other indication,
but yet a refusal was issued for parking, nine spaces required, zero proposed.
I would note that our plan proposes 11 parking spaces, which includes one handicap.
Accordingly, we need use variances today.
A2 is the Proof of Ownership, which is the deed in the name of my client.
A3 is the Proof of Tax Clearance.
A4 is the Site Plan, which I just mentioned.
A5 are a deed map and an aerial photo.
A6 are photographs of the property.
Most importantly is A7, the RCO 42nd Ward, who met with my client and are well familiar with him.
and his other businesses and properties in the area.
I did not receive directly anything from Councilwoman Ketsy's office,
but if it was submitted or if they are present, they can acknowledge,
or if it is submitted, I would that be marked as A8.
The only relevant zoning history that I could find is a vacant lot registration zoning permit filed in 2021.
A-10 is the zoning map and A-11 is the aerial photograph.
And very briefly, it's an auto sales lot proposed.
Typical days and hours, Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and closed on Sundays.
So moving forward as briefly as possible.
The refusal, again, two refusals.
Required parking and use not permitted.
Copy the deed. Tax compliance. Here is the site plan. Going from upper left down to the bottom right is Wyoming Avenue.
There is a driveway coming up. Client proposes parking spaces totaling 11, including this handicapped parking space for the use as a auto sales line.
This is the deed map from Atlas showing the subject property, another one showing the
property with the aerial photo imposed on top.
His posting of the notice of appeal.
his posting of the Notice of Appeal.
This is the view from Wyoming Avenue.
As you can see, this property sits well above the street level.
You can hardly see it from the road.
He's done tremendous improvements to the frontage.
You would think it was a golf course entrance, let alone an auto sales line.
Again, the driveway going up.
There is an existing roll-down door, a lot secured.
Here's looking down.
It's got the stop signs at the bottom before you get to Wyoming Avenue.
This is a copy of 42nd Ward's letter of support.
As you can see, nobody appeared at the meeting.
It was the board and the RCO members voted 9-0 in support.
They gave us a great letter in support addressed to Councilwoman Katsy Lozada, indicating that he owns other vehicle sales lots, and they expect that he's going to be a great neighbor moving forward.
this is the zoning permit for the vacant lot
it's also known as 736-38 Maple
Avenue or Maple Lane I don't know why
but it's the adjoining street
again a Google aerial showing
the lot with the driveway coming up
that is the sum and substance of the application
You know, unless there's any objections from the councilwoman, we know that the RCO has supported the application, and we would ask that the board grant the application.
Why don't you bring your client on and have your testimony adopted?
Yeah, Nader, are you out there?
Click on raise your hand.
Mr. Chair, I have him on text message. He was logged in, but as an officer of the court,
I've reviewed this application with him, my exhibit packet in addition to that which he
submitted directly. I would ask that as an officer of the court, you recognize
that he adopts my representations as true and correct and as his own testimony.
questions from the board yes the residential properties that sit behind uh the property
are they in support of this uh michael they're directly attached from the at the back of the
property all right wait let me wait i'm trying to get to a better
bear with me right wait uh yeah right those two those two right there yeah in particular
michael michael we have we have we have received no objection or you know any other comment uh from
the folks behind us um and you know given the fact that this you know this property sits above
Wyoming Avenue. Believe it or not, I did the
property right next door here. We got approval
for this addition. That's like an assisted living
home that we got approved for this addition.
But no, we have received no
objections from anybody on the block
or in the area, despite
notification so also did but I think it's pretty nice that it sits back and
has the sort of green buffer you know that separates the the site and the
Wyoming but my question is how is what's what's the plan for for signage you know
usually you know you know sales part car sales has the you know the ribbons and
the balloons and all that stuff like what are you in signage which are you
playing what it was the plan well it's a great question I imagine you know the
the board above the roll-up door you know might display a sign you know Jaber
auto sales or whatever you know he wants to go by but at this point there's no
There's no application for signage.
If signage needs additional relief, we would obviously back to you guys and gals.
we would obviously back to you guys and gals to get your input and relief if required.
Any other questions? Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Excuse me, Chair. There is another hand up under the name of Sean Ward. Would that be the client?
no that's that's me i was probably on my cell phone like okay okay
no like i walked i walked away from my computer and i i probably logged in on my phone so i didn't
miss anything all right um i don't have any further questions or comments thank you questions
or comments from the virtual audience there are no hands chair planning commission michael
gall with the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the existing rsa 5 residential single family attached zoning at this location
the property in question is a large vacant lot that closely abuts neighboring residential
properties creating a high potential for nuisance from the proposed use therefore the city planning
commission recommends the board deny to request a variances for personal vehicle sales service use
and required accessory parking mi 2026 00981 751 east wyoming avenue i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
ryan mcadams my vote is yes i win my vote is yes um sean glad seeing you
uh mr chair uh i have a continuance on the 330 list but
yeah we have i'm not i'm not sure if i can wait that long no no we're fine we're fine we're fine
Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Um, have a great. All right, Alan, we're going to take a five minute break. Why don't you come up and get set up? We have two cases left and it's you. Right?
okay so this is number uh 5 mi 2026 000 484 1254 north 19th street alan knockamson is the attorney
mr knockamson you have been sworn today just for the record state your name
alan knockamson and could you identify your client a relationship to the property
Yes, my client is N-Vest 365 LLC, and to my left is Najee Good, one of its members.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good evening. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
And do you waive the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you, sir.
You have a letter of support from Brewery Town, and you also have a letter from Council Member Young.
Great. I just need to be promoted as a panelist, please.
you're still not promoted from this one i i must have a little humor you weren't promoted before
either right i was no that was last time was my fault but
all right so this is a story that you hear this board here sometimes you have a developer
who got approval in front of the zba and they ran out of money and then someone had to take over
the project that's what happened here my client took over this project and unfortunately in the
city of philadelphia you only given so much time to build uh you know the the building and and then
even if you have a building permit those permits expire and that's what ultimately happened here
so we're just renewing essentially or extending uh you know these permits by way first of zoning
and then we'll have to go through the building uh permit phase again uh so you'll see there are 11
exhibits here uh and then at the conclusion my presentation nausea will you know have a couple
questions uh to answer uh but everything you know that you're seeing today uh this board heard many
many years ago. This is an RM1 property, and we're only asking for two units. So you're like, oh,
it's an RM1 property, asking for two units. That's the least modification you can, that's the lowest
amount of units you can get for multifamily, except our lot's 765 square feet, which base
zoning would allow, but we're in an overlay, which requires 850 square feet for two units.
And again, this board heard that's the same appeal many years ago.
What the board didn't, the previous version of the board didn't hear is there's a now
overlay regarding roof deck access structures.
That was allowed many years ago.
And it's, you know, the shell of everything has been completed, including the roof deck
you know the shell of everything has been completed including the roof deck
access structure.
access structure again i don't need to tell you that the brewery town shardswood and strawberry
mansion communities have asked for this overlay and they don't take it lightly when someone asked
for it and we don't typically propose to have roof deck access structures in these neighborhoods as
new projects but under circumstances like this we you know we begged for forgiveness here or
permission um and you know they they did grant it so that speaks volumes about like you know the
fact that this is an extraordinary situation um it's already been framed out um and this community
um in spite of their overlay overwhelmingly supported you know the roof deck access
structure as well and that's in in the letter uh that's in front of the board and then i don't have
letter from council member young but i assume similar you know support or non-opposition
i did provide the sony permit uh you know that was uh issued in october of 2020
as well as the uh notice of refusal which again you see is exactly the same thing in two family
structure and the only difference is we don't have anything with the roof deck access structure
it's not to be sure you you heard me say that we have a letter yeah that's what i'm saying oh no i
i i don't have in my presentation materials no i heard that you said it i just don't know what he
wrote in there um but the roof and then you can see it's not out of character to have nearby roof
deck access structures and you know this is our property and then we took a inventory of the
neighborhood as a whole again you know they're very protective for the fact that they don't want
any new ones and i would say this is not a new one this was something that was pre-approved
pre-overlay and then again we're an rm1 property not out of character to have multi-family nearby
the only reason why we're here is within the overlay which requires a little bit more lot
square footage and again this has already been framed out and then photographs of the property
for the front of the property on north 19th street to the left i mean to you know on west thompson
street there's a door for each unit proof of posting north 19th street to the right of their
property to the left of the property west thompson street to the right of their property to left of
the property excuse me our plans and drawings uh you know our elevations um you know our proposed
building structure is only 28 feet 9 inches not very large or tall um there's two ways to get in
here's the thompson street side that goes directly into unit number one you have uh you know again
living room kitchen bedroom lower level um there is further living space in here and another bedroom
i you know i know the board's position on this again this has already been built um for the
most part, the shell, and has been approved by the ZBA previously. Unit number two is on the
upper level, so you go through the front door that's on facing North 19th Street, and then this
is the second floor with an open floor plan, living room, bathroom, and then you have three
bedrooms on the third floor, and then there's the roof deck and the roof deck access structure.
we met with the community and again brewery town shortsworth community is a a very sophisticated
neighborhood and they're they are very strong in their beliefs so the fact that we got
overwhelming support speaks volumes about the merits of this zony appeal we met with them on
may 21st we emailed the notice a few weeks before the the community meeting showing proof of mailing
to 97 addresses, proof of, these are the addresses we sent it to, proof of mailing to those
addresses, our application for appeal that we filed on behalf of NVEST 365 LLC, the notice
of refusal, the project information form, the deed to the property showing that NVEST
365 LLC is the owner of the property, and finally, the certificate of tax clearance.
so that was paid that balance recently uh with that being said i'm going to stop sharing do this
why don't you go back to the basement okay i know what you said it was approved a long time ago
whatever but let's go back to the basement and go just tell us what's there and have it laid out
yeah i mean what's there is the the proof hold on let me just go back here
so the anticipation again my client purchased this property with these approved plans
unfortunately when he tried to revive the building permit basically
Unfortunately, when he tried to revive the building permit, basically we were told that the zoning lapsed on him and he had to start over again.
So he didn't buy this with the idea that he needed to get another variance.
So the numbers that he ran with the bank loan was to have this as a two-bedroom unit.
And the way it's configured is the way that he's showing right here, is to basically have you come into Thompson Street, you have an open floor plan of a kitchen and a dining room, you have one bedroom here, and then you have a bathroom here.
And then the lower level, you have a living room, bedroom, laundry room, and another bathroom.
Michael, do you have questions about the basement?
The, this, well, what's, I mean, standard question, what's the depth of the basement below grade?
I can't, it's hard to tell.
It's nine feet, three inches.
Nine feet, three inches below grade, can't be.
I hope not.
It's, it's, it's, it's, the height is, well, it's nine feet, I think.
I think if you look at the.
Well, that's the height of the, the height of the basement is nine feet.
But what's the, what is it below grade?
i think it's pretty close to that he's right it's about a six inch yeah it's not it's how it was
built so uh there is not there is not much above grade again this is all pre-built and i understand
the position of this board and this is not something we would present as a new with this
board and but it's we have a zoning permit we had a zoning permit we had building permits this was
built in accordance with those permits i mean i understand the board's position i told my client
that and it's unfortunate but he purchased the property this way um you know and it would be
unaffordable as a teardown is there a walk out like you know that's that's how window wells are
they walk out uh maybe we can have my client and somebody sure why don't you state your name and
spell for us today naji good n-a-j-e-e g-o-o-d-e all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth but nothing but the truth yes go ahead yeah yes uh nausea you heard everything i
had to state today about your zoning matter you have to speak affirmatively yes uh is it true
and correct yes and do you adopt this your own testimony yes yeah so this is a corner property
and you have a window well in the rear yard for that first unit, right?
I think we don't have a walkout, and we don't have the width for a walkout.
There's no rear yard?
Can you pull up the plan one more time?
Can you pull up the plan again?
Yeah, I'll do that.
Hold on one second.
And only the second floor unit has the access to the roof, right?
That is right.
Hold on.
Let me just get this.
Let's see.
Turn it on.
Let me get it out of full screen mode.
All right.
Let's get it back in full screen mode.
I'm having problems with my computer, it's like stuck on this page.
Let's do this.
Page 29, let's try to get this low.
Let's see, is that the site plan?
I don't think it is, let's see.
and so is the is the is the window well at the is the is the bedroom at the rear of the basement
or is that the street side at the uh pavement side it's the street oh is that the street side
yeah i'm having problems with my this i don't know this pdf is something's going on it's not
giving me the oh here it is all right let's try to get this up here all right uh someone asked
the site plans i want to pull it up yeah okay so the window well is out the front
can you pull up the basement plan one more time just so we see it let me see if it's
all right here we go let's see
there you go so the bedroom is in the front
and is there a window well here right there is it's going to be two and and there's this one
right here as well right there's one out the side yeah other questions
Other questions?
Yeah, I have a question more so just at the time that you purchased it, where was it in the construction process?
It was already framed out.
The rooftop deck was done.
And that's where it was.
So the roof is closed in?
No, what you mean?
Like they sealed the roof?
It's pretty much.
Yeah, I think so.
You think so?
And did you get an inspection when you purchased it?
I would question some of this construction. So I think my concern is that I think having this unit and that one bedroom be all the way underground, understanding that it's existing conditions, you have one decent apartment and one terrible apartment, right?
And then I think if we were to grant it today, my question is how much work based on just looking at photos that are online is going to have to get reversed anyway because you're going to have to go back and verify what they did and how they've constructed it and it's been sitting out there for it looks like at least a year and a half.
so if like that could require some deconstruction just to even get it back up to like where we are
now um and so i would question that without a sort of physical needs assessment or a structural
report done um or like a inspection from purchase no and i hear you and and obviously we're going
to have to go through that whole process all over again and that's part of the building permit
process and i think my client's willing to do that where i don't think he's willing to
i don't think he's capable of converting this into a single family structure
yeah no and i think he will obviously make sure that you know you know he's gonna have to pass
inspection um with all this work of course he understands that um but again when he purchased
this property he purchased it with existing permits and he was shocked that he had it
that they expired there was no indication online that they expired and i would say again i haven't
looked at this in a while but i feel like basically you missed the window by a few months when you
were told it would be good it would be a good thing you know this could be could be saving
somebody's life here so it'd be a good thing i mean i also like just looking at it does not look
like this was a ground-up construction this was a rehab so i think there's like a lot of questions
i think i have to take i think the refusal sure no i mean actually i had the old i had the old
refusal in here so let me take a look at it but it looks oddly very similar to the structure that
was there before yeah i'm having all sorts of aspects and there would be no need to stucco the
first floor like that if you weren't covering up the pieces of what were there based on what the
yeah i think yeah i think it was overbuilt pieces of the old building are still here
no you're right actually if you look at the application it's it's it's a used application
so you're right yeah so i think that's my only concern is that like if going down investigations
it's discovered that like more has to get undone
we're gonna have to spend the money anyway might as well just do it do it better well i i think
what we could do is again my client at the building permit stage if there needs to be
modifications now not zoning related i think you'll have no choice but to do that yes
Yeah, well, you know, we were talking about if there was a walkout, right?
I don't know if the lot is.
I mean, the way it's it's I know whatever happened before, I understand it all.
But it is kind of like really against everything that we've been trying to do here.
No, I hear you.
And I and we don't do it for ourselves.
We do it because we think it could be an issue.
Yeah. I mean, I can, I can, you can hold it and I can ask the architect if there could be a possible walkout.
So, so we'll joke it aside. Yeah. What you did this morning. Yeah. We did the same thing. Yeah. Right. So why don't we do this? Why don't we hold it? Yeah. You come back. Right. And then we figure out where we go from there. All right. So we make this a resumption.
resumption
I would ask
if we can get a date pretty quickly
well here's what I want to do
I'm going to give you the date that I have
you call, talk to Wadean
and figure out where we go
so the date I'm using
is 9-15-90
9-15-26
at 9-30-8
and then you
see what we said right no no but i think i think what he's saying is and that reminds me the reason
see where we stand
Right.
Thank you.
why we didn't handle this right away is that i think he had he had to show that it was a safe
structure so but we'll we'll provide whatever additional information yeah and like like you
said take consideration you know the the issue of the basement being so low below grade i think
there's a a quick fix in my head is if you eliminated the door out of that kitchen and
made stairs out of that basement and kind of did something with that laundry room you have direct
access out to the backyard right are you from the first floor from the basement no from the basement
okay right yeah we'll take a look right in the thing on the side in the sidewalk you have a
little bit of space they'd allow you to make a bigger like like the ones that are double wide
okay so you got you got not so crazy options okay yeah yeah yeah okay all right well thank you thank
Thank you, sir.
So, MI 2026, 00822, 122 Hawthorne, Hawthorne Avenue, Hawthorne Street, Al Nockamson is
the attorney mr knockamson you've been sworn just state your name for the record alan knockamson
could you identify your client the relationship to this property oh yes kelly burnett all right
and our vice chair has a few questions good evening have you submitted your documents and
exhibits five days in advance of this hearing i have and do you waive the reading of the refusals
and stipulate to the accuracy we do okay all right thank you can share your screen and start
OOPS, I DIDN'T MEAN TO RAISE MY HAND, BUT I HIT THE WRONG PONDON.
NOW THERE WAS NO AGREEMENT REACH, RIGHT, WITH THE?
YEAH, I DO HAVE SOME ISSUE.
MR. GOLDBERG FROM MY OFFICE DID THE COMMUNITY MEETING.
I DON'T THINK THE BOAT WAS AN ACCURATE ASSESSMENT OF WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED THERE, BUT WE'LL GO
THROUGH IT.
Yeah. So this board has heard this matter before. This is based on hopefully a permanent variance, but there was a temporary variance for five years, which expires sometime this summer. So we're looking for it to be permanent. This property has been used as a daycare in different respects since 2008.
So we have 13 exhibits here. We'll review it. Kelly Burnett is not only the owner of the property, but also the operator. So again, what we're trying to do is group child care in an existing structure with an existing single family household living above. This is an RSA 2 property. We have two refusals, two principal uses. We have a residential use and we have a child care use. That's the first refusal.
And the second refusal is group child care is expressly prohibited in RSA 2 zoning.
Again, this property since 2008 has been used as a child care facility and has been approved.
And as you can see from the refusal 2, it talks about the proviso for this use of a group child care was approved by the zoning board for a three-year temporary variance and expires August 3, 2026.
So, correspondence from the Northwood Civic Association, there's a 6-6 vote, six non-voting
people in the audience, and then the board voted separately.
I will say this, and this is based on Mr. Goldberg telling me this, there were probably
at least four members of the community who are also customers of my client, and they
were told to leave and they were unable to vote because they were customers but they live in the
community that's the whole point the people who are using this facility are people within the
community and i think that is patently unfair and probably against the rco rules and regulations
of this city to not allow people who live in the community to vote even if their customers i mean
i i would say usually you would want the customers to vote if they were a bad operator you would
definitely want to know that these people were like we live in our this community
we we love this facility and you know again my client miss burnett uh miss uh
And, you know, again, my client, Ms. Burnett, who I would ask to actually be promoted as a panelist, because I'm just going to let her speak.
She's a very accomplished business operator.
Her facility is a Keystone four-star facility and nationally accredited by NAFFC.
I've been told that's like the highest accreditation you can get.
Like there's not many facilities in Philadelphia that are like this.
so to lose one of these facilities would be bad not just for this community but philadelphia
what's her name uh oh i see her i got her
she's coming in as a panelist now thank you you're welcome
good evening everyone hi good evening could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
It is Kelly Burnett, K-E-L-L-E-Y, B-U-R as in Robert, N as in Nancy, E as in Edward, T as in Thomas, T as in Thomas.
Do you swear we're referring to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
All right.
Yeah, Kelly, can you just introduce yourself to the board as a professional?
your accreditations and then we'll walk through just the you know who works there how many kids
you have and hours of operation and things like that sure um thank you for hearing me today um
again my name is kelly burnett um i have been in business since 2008 um thankfully i was granted
variants, and we have flourished since then. I am also an adjunct professor at Eastern Esperanza
in Harcum. I'm currently in a doctorate program. What I do is I teach our new teachers that will
be in early education so that is preschool to three. I love what I do. I love all the facets
of early education and I take my job seriously as an early educator. I am
in a position to help strengthen families and to cultivate our youth into productive citizens.
And that's what I do. We are a Star 4 facility. We have been for several years. We are an NAFCC,
nationally accredited facility. We have been for several years. I am on several boards across the
city um i am on the board for advisory board for paca i'm on the advisory board for um the philly
pre-k advisory council i'm also a part of the family child care advisory board um so basically
this is what i eat and breathe every day gotcha and then um why don't you tell the board and maybe
we'll go to the floor plans and that may make it easier so let's do that how many people work at
the facility so currently there's four of us i'm in the process of hiring a fifth person um and
because some things were brought up at the civic association and we try to accommodate some of the
things that have been said um and we're going to try to make that work um because to me it's a
process i teach children and um to learn and if i wasn't a good educator i wouldn't try to learn as
well okay i just want to go to the floor points and by the way beyond uh behind the letter from
the community there's many letters from people within the community and her customers which
speak highly of her and there's also a petition but i want to go to the floor plans to kind of
walk you through those floor plans and then we can go back to that petition um trying to find it hold
Hold on, one second.
Sure, slow.
Oh, I missed it.
All right, here we go.
Okay, so you said you have four people working with you
You said you have four people working with you, and then you're going to add on a fifth, right?
and then you're gonna add on a fit.
What are your hours of operation?
Currently, our hours of operation are 5.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., and we do make variances for parents if something happens, if they have to work overtime, things like that.
But I was done today by 5 o'clock.
Okay, great.
And, you know, you have, you know, you come in through the front door, right, to go into the facility, right?
So we do have several doors in my home.
So we, you can come into the front door, which is our sun porch.
and that area has cubbies for our zero to three students as well as our school-age students,
but there is also another entrance coming through the basement and that's where our
preschool students have their cubbies. And then that's these separate steps that
have exterior steps, not, you know, so it goes directly in. It's not like someone's
climbing into something, there's exterior steps, right? That is correct. So I have three doors
to my property. And so there's several ways of egress. Okay. So you have an infant and toddler
room. How many infants and toddlers do you have at any one time? So we have regulations. And so
right now we have two infants. Okay. All right. And then how many, uh, toddlers do you have
currently? Currently we have, uh, the 10 toddlers. Okay. Because, and you're, and you're limited to
12 under the zoning classification. Absolutely. Okay. All right. Um, why don't you just say what
the typical day is? Why don't you tell me what today was like? Sure. My typical day is, you know,
I wake up and my students are coming in at 530. I do have parents that are prison guards and work
for the post office and things like that. So we do try to accommodate those early hours. So in
essence my front door is always open um so the parents come in at 5 30 and between 7 30 and
8 o'clock i'm either getting uh school-age students to school or i am fixing breakfast
um so for some of my students today was their last day um or yesterday was their last day
excuse me and then for some of my students tomorrow is their last day school-age students
We have a pre-K program, and our pre-K graduation is tomorrow at the Please Touch Museum.
But my typical day, we were planning for everything.
We were making sure that we had everything together.
And when I say we, myself and my staff, and our snack time is at 10, our lunch time is
at 12, and our afternoon snack is at 4.
So throughout the day, some of my kids went to a playground and were in the sprinklers today. The other half of my students were in the facility and they were doing things like playing with puppets. My staff was teaching them different elements of our lesson plan.
All right, great. I'm going to reshare my screen. I kind of want to go through the letters of support that you obtained. And so who are some of these people that you gave us as in support of this, hopefully permanent variance?
So I have parents. I keep in touch with all of my parents. We become a family. The proverb that
it takes a village to raise a child is what I stick by. I speak to my staff about that when
we're doing orientations. We're these people's family, so we want to make sure that we still
are with them. So some of these letters are from my parents, and these students are probably
graduating from high school. I have letters there from family. I have letters
from current parents and I have letters from colleagues that are either above me
in these advisory councils that I'm a part of or they have a particular status
within the ECE community and there are letters from therapists
There are letters from therapists that come into my facility. That is one thing that I want to mention. In this area, there are so many students that have needs and big facilities, oftentimes the parents come and they say they have trouble with the students getting the proper care.
And my students flourish because it is a smaller facility. We are quaint. It's a more one-on-one. And I have students that have anything from oppositional defiance disorder. They may be on the spectrum in various stages or they just have speech delays.
I also am Department of Human Services certified.
So that means that foster children that are being raised by their foster parents, they do come to me.
So I deal with a lot of children that have trauma.
And so I have a certificate in infant toddler mental health.
And that really helps me maneuver and figure out strategies to help these students.
My computer died, actually.
Can you charge it?
but yeah i mean we have many letters to support uh from members of the community this is a you
know a facility that has been approved previously by this why don't you show us some photos yeah
I'm going to show you some photos.
Not working?
No, it is.
I don't think I expected it to be here that long.
It's not an issue.
It's just like I should have kept it plugged along the wall
so my computer sometimes dies.
Oh, there you go.
That was quick.
I just hopefully get back in.
Uh, let's see.
I have to get Zoom back in.
Come on, I just gotta now sign up again.
I guess you've been invited as a panelist.
Check your email.
I don't see the email.
Not as a panelist.
Oh, wait.
Here we go.
Host invited you.
Here we go.
Maybe because I wasn't.
Let's join.
let's see
All right, so let me show you some pictures of the block.
here's actually some literature all right so a little bit about her we went through
uh and these are some pictures from you know her website showing the outdoor area
I'm just trying to find photographs specifically of the property.
So just, all right, here we go.
All right, so this is the front of the property.
There's a common driveway with the owner to the left.
And I think that's part of the pushback.
There's an owner to the left.
I don't know if they showed up.
There was a controversy of what she didn't show up to the community meeting.
like we were told that she was on vacation and then we were told that she didn't get the notice
and you know so it's all in the letter but you know we sent out the person next door the next
door she's lived they've lived they've owned my client has owned the property for almost over 20
years and she's been doing this for over 20 years so the person who's lived next door is also lived
there for over 20 years. And my clients had some issues with that person. So, but here's the notice
posters. This is hay work to the right of the property to left of the property. Here are the
interior photos. So, Kelly, what are these photos that we're looking at? Sure. So, this is the
basement area. I am really big on literacy. You will see books everywhere. I feel as though that
gives students that don't see certain things a gateway to the world. So downstairs in the top
left photo is that little barn door goes back to our storage area and my administrator has an
office back there um there is a set of cubbies the white door is the bathroom um and if we move
over to the top picture on the right um it's a different angle going forward um that is our um
you know our circle time rug area um the children have little red furniture so that chair may look
big in the picture but it's actually for um younger students my preschool students
um and in the bottom left um it's just a different angle it's the other side of the room
and um the bottom right is a desk um sometimes school-age children i do uh homework help with
them. They sit downstairs. That is the desk. There is a boat there. And the children read
their books on the boat and they rock back and forth. We find that black and brown children
need to move. But they are the races that go into the fourth grade and can't read at a fourth
grade level. So what we do is we give them the ability to move back and forth. So they rock in
the boat and they and they read um and i guess we can go to another picture so that's the um back
part of the room so that's the left hand side of the room um and we do small um small center
exercises or activities at the blue table um the on the right side that is uh our bins of everything
so it's our cubby tower and we have everything in there every type of manipulative you can think of
is in that cubby tower it has four different sides um bottom left is our sand and water table
um there's little cubbies and nooks for kids to put things in um and then on the bottom right
we do have a kitchen set so our dramatic play area is around that area all right and what about here
what's this so this is actually the bathroom so we have a bathroom on every
floor and so this picture is I guess just it's showing artwork there's an
easel there when you have children art children's artwork you need to keep it
on their level so that's artwork on their level and then this is just
showing you the bathroom um we were part of early head start our our children aged out
but they provide diapers wipes and things like that so we have an abundance of them
but they provide diapers, wipes, and things like that.
So we have an abundance of those things,
which gave us the ability to use those for other parents.
And that is the bathroom in the basement.
And then that next picture is actually the door
going into the zero to three area,
but that is my front door.
Okay. And then these are more pictures.
So those are the cubbies for the school age children. That is the front porch area. The picture to the right is my deck. We have all kinds of activities out there. That particular activity, the children were learning about gardening. We do have a scientist that comes out and helps us with different things.
um the bottom left oh well you moved it you moved um but the bottom left we do have a
no no that's what i'm trying to there's a lot i'm sorry yeah that's fine there's a lot
yeah and here are the steps the exterior which most importantly is the exterior steps
that leads to the lower level so as you can see it's it's a safe transition for the house which
is important obviously for you know for both my client and this board to understand that they're
not you know in in a place where there's and you know that is unsafe and then we have fire drills
regularly so they know how to get out every door yeah and then the person that lives on the first
on the in the single family dwelling above is a family member is that correct it's myself and my
son okay there you go so you even live on site so yes proof of mailing for the community meeting
notice or application for appeal the deed to the property as well as the certificate of tax
clearance and like i said we have some we have some response if there is some people talking
about opposition because i do know there may be and i'll leave that to if someone is going to
you know contest this matter right right um what was the whole tenor of the rco meeting i mean you
talked to mr goldberg well yeah i did actually that good point um so he presented and he actually
stated is there any issue here uh there were like 12 members of the community there and and five
board members and no one said anything so we were actually he was actually surprised by you know the
vote and and the and and the fact that they were not in support especially since there was a
temporary variance many years ago this property has been used since 2008 this way and um the
overwhelming support within the community from the members who use the part so questions from
the board so what is the issue with the neighbor maybe maybe she can explain that and and has there
been um any kind of uh activity to kind of remedy that you know throughout the years that that we
have tried well yeah you know kelly it's better for you to say it than me i know the general sense
um but you know let kelly speak to that miss graham you wanted me to answer the question
about just just give us an idea of why the neighbor does not want you to be able to have a
a permanent permission to have the day care and would rather you continue to have some variance,
I mean, temporary variances. So I'm actually, I can't definitively say
that the issue is the child care facility. The neighbor has had issues with us since we moved in.
So there's information in what the attorney presented.
There have been several issues since the very beginning.
And even in the letter that she presented, there's issues that have nothing to do with the child care facility itself.
So I can only say that it's just me living there.
I don't know.
I honestly, I don't know.
it's been since the beginning she said like the drop-off process how what is your drop-off process
in terms of the cars uh moving uh to get the students uh dropped off picked up how was that
um and does that like create any kind of um obstruction for the neighbors you know that
are just going about their business okay so uh we are between two schools and thank you for asking
the question we are between two schools an elementary school and a high school um hayward
street is a thorough thoroughway for between both of those schools um so there's going to be traffic
in the morning no matter whether i'm there or not um but the drop-off process we do have a community
uh officer and i went through this with him before um before when
and i went through this with him before um before when we had the zoning hearing into um in 23. um
the process is our parents are to either pull into the driveway um or find a parking space
we live on a two-side residency but one side parking one-way street there's not always parking
this is Philadelphia people grow up stopping in the middle of the street we ask our parents not
to do so but if we catch them doing it and if there is not a supervision issue we run out get
the child and bring the child in our parents that are like clockwork the children are ready
the process in the driveway on average we've been looking this week and last week the process is
between two and three minutes. And in regards to the driveway, we use the driveway. The neighbor
uses the driveway. But in that letter, it seems like she doesn't use the driveway and she uses
the driveway as well. And so my parents know not to pull all the way in so that if she does need
to leave she has access to the sidewalk with her walker um and when we were at the uh civic
association hearing um the president mentioned that there had been no um complaints so
i was surprised just like alex was surprised that these complaints came out because there
had been no complaints no one had called and made any complaints so um the letter is dated six five
and it seems like it's talking about things that happen in the past but never anything that was
brought to my door no one has ever rang my doorbell and said this is what needs to be done okay yeah
and and there has been uh the neighbor has tried to obstruct the driveway on her own we have
pictures in the presentation materials where she's put like actual obstructions like potted plants in
the middle so neither party can use the driveway is that correct kelly absolutely um after um
hearing the decision of the last um for the variants um she placed three large blue pots
in the middle of the driveway and I am I'm the type of neighbor that I just try to get along
to get along and I do not complain I don't call the civic association I don't call the police
but the pot stayed there for weeks and finally I called the community officer
Tom Karen and he came out and he just let her know that it's not fair and then in the letter
it also says that she doesn't have access but right now there is a large pot in the driveway
so for her to say she doesn't have access and to say that my trash cans are in the way
my water hose is in the way is unfair because the first thing you see when you come into the driveway
is her pot. So that would actually have to be moved for the access that she's talking about
to get back to the garage. So to say that I'm blocking anything is not fair. And there are
pictures to show that my trash cans are to the side. The reason why my trash cans are there,
if I may say so, there are certain regulations that we have to follow about secretion and
And dealing with children, I have a lot of trash. And there's also a supervision issue. I cannot continuously have staff go to the back of my house when we can just open up the door and throw it out that way.
um if we have it in the back i just was diagnosed with some back issues so if it's me that's left
with it uh i'm not sure who's dragging the trash cans all the way from the back okay um
sorry i apologize all right let's see if there's any else have questions yeah how many kids do you
have on site at a time well i have 12 children at a time my school-age children don't come till
school is over and i have two pre-k programs those pre-k programs are 5.5 hours so um students are
generally leaving by 2 33 o'clock okay so in terms of volume or like traffic you've got
okay so in terms of volume or like traffic you've got a group that's coming in probably early
morning and leaving in the afternoon and then you have a group that's probably coming around the same
time when school lets out and then leaving later in the evening so when you're talking about the
group that's coming later in the afternoon they're just kids so there there's nobody pulling in the
driveway for those kids until the evening but we're still talking about mid mid block traffic
of groups of you know it could be numbers of people walking up to the house which on a
residential block like that is atypical so just we've got these like two different kind of time
windows I guess you have people coming in okay so we do live a block from a school so there's kids
walking um at that time up and down the street that don't come to my facility and most of the
kids that are coming to your facility are from those schools right absolutely and then what's
the plan during out of school time like right now the school district is closed are you running
summer camp or out of school time camps so many of my students have um ieps they will be going to
the extended school year. And then I have, excuse me, I have other students that are actually going
to camps. So I will not have the school age children, but for the same amount of time that
I have them now. Okay. And then do you currently have commercial trash pickup?
We do not have commercial trash pickup. We just have city trash pickup. Okay.
Questions or comments for our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments for the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, I have a hand up from Terry Heiser, and there's two hands up now,
but I'll let Terry Heiser speak now.
Terry?
She should be joining now.
All right.
Hi, Terry.
terry hi terry heiser can you unmute yourself
okay i just unmuted hi hi could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer
Yes. Terry Heiser. That's T-E-R-R-Y-H-E-I-S-E-R.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Mr. Heiser, are you a neighbor?
I'm a resident of Northwood.
Okay. All right. Please proceed.
Okay. I heard some things there that I'd like to correct, so to speak. First of all, I think I heard somebody say we ordered the property owner and her attorney and staff members and parents to leave the civic meeting.
We did not order anybody.
What we say when we have a civic zoning matter is when the presentation has finished and after they leave, we will take a vote.
We do not order people to leave.
Also, go ahead.
Also, regarding the letter, the notification, several people, well, three people said they did not receive it, including Miss Jones, the woman who lives across the driveway.
mm-hmm and another member on the block another resident on that block and
actually two more so there are three on that block who said that beyond that the
attendance at the meeting was surprisingly low there were only three
There were only three people who were on the list of near neighbors who were to receive the notification letter.
people who were
Ms. Jones did not receive it.
She was on vacation.
Are you the head of the RCO?
I am the vice president.
All right.
So I mentioned the low attendance there.
Only three of the 59 addresses were represented.
There were none other than Ms. Burnett on the 1200 block of Hayworth.
The three who were represented were a block away.
And in addition, the attorney did present in the presentation certificates of a bulk mailing.
However, there was no evidence that the letters were delivered to everybody because the mailing was first class only.
well okay that's our system i mean that's the system first class so so so there's no telling
that everybody received it mr heiser listen to me one minute have you taken a position on this
project have we taken a petition have you taken a position on this project only insofar as the vote
okay all right thank you thank you very much for calling us we appreciate it okay all right
is there anyone else in the audience yeah yes chair there are five hands up now okay
um the next was kia kiani murph yep
hi could you please state your name
hello can you hear me yeah i can could you please uh state your name and then spell for
the stenographer sure it's kiana murph k-i-y-o-n-i-a murph m-u-r-p-h do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do kiana are you a neighbor
no i'm not or kiana do you support this project yes i do okay thank you very much
for taking the time to call so we appreciate it next hand please
amber burnett okay
hello good afternoon hi good afternoon could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer sure my name is amber burnett it is a-m-b-e-r-b-u-r-n-e-t-t do you swear or
firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do amber are you a neighbor
i am not a neighbor i used to be a resident at 1222 hayworth street okay could you um are
you in favor of this project or against I am in favor of this project thank you
so much for taking the time to cause we appreciate it next hand please next hand
is Patricia last name starting with an S okay hi Patricia
he's coming in okay
can you hear me i most certainly can could you please state your name no it's okay
Please state your name and spell, state your name, hold up, listen to me, state your name
and then spell it for the stenographer.
Okay, it's Patricia Steers, it's spelled P-A-T-R-I-C-I-A, last name is S-T-E-E-R-S.
Great, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth from nothing but the
truth?
Patricia, are you a neighbor?
Patricia, are you in favor of this project or against?
Yes, I am.
you're in favor or against favor in favor of it okay thank you
so much for taking the time to calls we appreciate it next hand please
jamesha murray hi hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Hi. Hi. Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
She's rejoining now. Okay.
Can you hear me? I most certainly can. Could you please state your name and then spell it for the stenographer?
Jamisha Murray. J-A-M-I-S-H-A-M-U-R-R-A-Y.
Right. Do you swear her firm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes. Are you a neighbor? No, I'm not.
okay could you uh are you in favor of this project or against i'm in favor thank you so much for
taking the time to call us next hand can i ask a question for the folks that aren't neighbors
how are they related how do they relate it to the project like they're not a neighbor
I will be surprised if they don't take their kids there.
That's the point.
Okay, right.
Can I answer?
You can answer.
Go ahead.
So, Jamesa's children used to come to me when she was a neighbor, and she's moved on.
So, it's the same with Patricia is a fellow provider, and we do everything together.
All right.
Next hand, please.
Joy Clifton.
And how many more hands do we have left?
After Joy Clifton, there's one more.
All right.
Thank you very much.
you're welcome joy could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
can you hear me i most certainly can so state your name and then spell for the stenographer
my name is joy clifton j-o-y clifton c-l-i-f-t-o-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes julia are you a neighbor i'm a speech language pathologist
are you a what ma'am i'm a therapist that works with the children oh good thank you very much
are you in favor of this project or against yes i'm in favor thank you very much for taking the
time. Last hand, please. Alicia Tanner. All right.
Hello. Mike, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
um yes anisha tanner a-l-i-c-i-a-t-a-n-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do okay are you in favor of this project or against
yes i am are you so so you're in favor of it i can tell by your energy um um do you live in
the neighborhood um i do live in the neighborhood all right thank you so much for calling okay so
Chair, excuse me. Another hand is up. It's Nikita Weaver.
And another hand went up.
hello hi could you please state your name and spell for a stenographer yes my name is nikita
weaver spelled n-i-k-i-t-a weaver w-e-a-v-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth
nothing but the truth i swear are you a neighbor no okay um are you in favor of this project or
against i'm in favor of this project thank you so much for taking the time to calls you have
one more hand you said yes it's the number color last word numbers four six nine four
will be allowed to speak okay
you are hi could you please state your name as bell for the stenographer
hello my name is dean jones j-e-n-j-o-n-e-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth of nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor yes i am are you in favor
are you in favor of this project or against i oppose and i am the one who has she has the issue
with okay um we share uh a shared driveway i understand and i'm opposed i would could you just
let me speak please sir because i have a few things that i would like to say
i oppose of her group child care can you hear me i can hear you i can you ask me to speak go ahead
Okay. I oppose of her group child care center. Also, I oppose of her approving without decision.
okay i oppose of her group child care center
i also would like to say that um concerning the rsa um um where there can only be one
principal use per lock in the rsa zoning district i would like to also say this is a residential area
and a lot of the things that her lawyer and her she spoke of was false information
i have been having a problem with her she did speak the truth on that since we moved in
um these properties with the driveway the driveway is not for parking okay so this has been my issue
with her with the cars coming in and out on an everyday basis right um it's very annoying
to me i own my property i do not have a mortgage on it and i would just like to have the piece of
my property without having to have to call the police to be able to have the freedom of my
property that's coming out and coming in and also i would like to state that of the meeting that was
hearing on April the 21st I did not receive notice we had testimony ma'am we've had testimony
okay okay did not receive notice and yes I was on vacation but if I had received notice
I would have set my time in back to be at that meeting okay so that's you know that's one thing
okay so and then another thing i would like for you and um the zoning board to review my letter
that was also sent out with um we did mr heiser with mr heiser's report okay and one more thing
that i would like to say um the officer from 15 district when he came out he don't have new
position uh to state who can pull in and out of my driveway okay she she says that she has this
thing under control no she does not i am a senior citizen i am a widow and i just would like to live
in my home in peace and that's all i have to say right now we appreciate your calls thank you very
much for calling is there any more hands no chair well thank you planning commission
michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no
change to the existing rsa2 residential single family attached zoning at this location this
property was granted a temporary variance by this board in august 2023 for the same use as is
proposed today there is a shared driveway condition with the neighboring single family home and thus
this driveway is inappropriate for sharing with a commercial use with the level of intensity as
group child care in a single family attached district this is an almost exclusively single
family location and the property is situated mid block on a quiet side block with high potential
for continued disruptions to neighboring properties due to nuisances associated with the use there is
no unique circumstance or physical condition of this property that would prevent it from being
used in strict conformance with the zoning code therefore the city planning commission recommends
that the board denied variances for group child care use and multiple principal uses in an rsa
district i know it's been a long day no it's not all right keep going what what do you want to say
this exactly i'm gonna get poured on anyway uh it's it's this property's been used this way since
2008 for almost a generation my client and and i should have her testify to this has spent
significant resources in maintaining this property for that period of time this community depends on
her facility for local kids and there were a ton of people that stated how positive this experience
has been for all those reasons and and based on the doctrine of vested rights which i believe
would apply here given her detrimental reliance on you know this use over the course of a generation
i would ask that the board grants not only grant the variance on a permanent basis thank you so um
thank you for your testimony um it was a lot said as you know so what i'd like to do is really just
take next wednesday in the morning sit with the board and get everybody's feel where we stand with
this and we will vote on this at 2 p.m thank you very much okay thank you thank you for your day
does anybody on the board have to go anywhere because we only want to read a couple of things
go anywhere because we only want to read a couple of things if you don't have this i mean has anybody
I mean, has anybody got a...
got a pressing meeting or nobody wants to go out there so everybody's going to stay here
it's only three in the room
hillary go with the preamble too
for me
i'll meet us at little parkinson's emergency
alan i hope the door was okay seriously yeah did he take him home right away yeah he had surgery
oh good good
good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this meeting of the
the Philadelphia Zoning Board. With me is our Vice Chair, Tenetta Graham.
Mr. Chairman. Our Board Secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Mr. President, Mr. Chair. Board Member Michael Johns.
Mr. President, Mr. Chair.
Naya Nguyen. Mr. President, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ryan McAdams. Mr. President, Mr. Chairman.
Also, here is our Attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our ZBA Director, Ian Haggerty.
this hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the the zba website by participating you agree
to be recorded this is an in-person meeting with um particip remote participation whether in person
or on zoom if you're called to speak please state and spell your name then wait to be sworn in
after that state your name each time before you testify
doing what was that to uh to to enter your appearance indicate the address
on your zoom webinar speak to a a staff member
call the zba office close office by by business close of business tomorrow call 215-686-2429
and provide that then with your name your email and the address of the property remote remote
participation raise your virtual hand when when directed so that we can we can let you speak
while while you uh when you are called to speak make sure that you click the join as a panelist
button use the q a button of the q a only for talking about uh procedural issues not the not
the cases themselves and if you join by phone press star nine to raise your hand and star star
six to unmute um there's no one here to tell them how to do it here so let's go to
Here we go.
Number one, MI 2025 00792 2061 by Burry Road.
This case is continued until 9 30 26 at 3 30.
Number two, MI 2025 004410, 500 West Duncannon Street, Duncannon-Navu.
That case is continued until 9.3026 at 3.30 p.m.
And number three, MI-2025-007-852-403 North 41st Street.
This is the first listing.
We have no documents.
Douglas Tien is the listed applicant.
I see no hands, Chair.
okay so that mi 2025 007 892 403 north 41st street that case is continued until 9 30 26
at 3 30 p.m and will be marked must be heard is there anyone in the audience whose case has not
been called there are no answer is there anyone in the audience who wants to go home thank you
thanks everybody all right thanks guys good night good night