Thank you.
chair we have 30 attendees we can start when you wish thank you we're ready to go good morning my
name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's eba hearings with me is carol
Toneri, our Vice Chair. Present, Mr. Chair. And Thomas Holloman, our Board Member. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also here is our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkett, and our Board Attorney, Hillary Emerson. Before we begin, here is our virtual format. Be advised, these proceedings are being recorded. By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded. A video will be available by contacting Tanya Sunkett at Philadelphia.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance date, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And last, please note the question and answer box is not for testimony or comments.
Any comments have to be sent to our executive director, Tanya Sumter.
Let's start with what continuances we have this morning.
Number seven, MI 2021-004-012-225 East Springer Street, and number eight, MI 2021-004-011-223 East Springer Street.
Both these cases are continued, attorney-moving parties, and please note, you have to get back with a new request from us within 90 days.
Also continued is number nine, MI-2022-00456-2227, Brimmar Avenue.
This case is continued, attorney-moving party must get back to us within 90 days.
There are the three continuance.
Are there any comments relative to those continuances
in the virtual audience?
Any other requests for continuances?
chair we have burn
mr anastasio you can unmute yourself
good morning mr chairman good morning could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
please of course it's verne anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o 2016 spruce street philadelphia
19103. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing about the truth?
I do. What cases do you have, sir? I have two cases that I'm asking for continuance today.
The first is 1901 Westmoreland. The Planning Commission has just recently, in the past few
days, selected an RCO assignment, so we have to work with them to meet with them. That's case
MI 2021-003-722-1901-Westmoreland. Thank you. And the second one is 2321 North Broad.
I came back here on a remand. We are waiting for some evidence that we've requested from the
Historic Commission, and that evidence has not come to us yet. We expect it soon.
That's MI 2022-003-647-2321-North Roadtree. That case is continued. Any other cases, counsel?
That's all today. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Are there any other requests for continuances?
no more hands chair okay also i have two withdrawals
No more hands, Chair.
number five
do you have somebody
their hand just went down chair okay number five is a withdrawal mi 2022
to 000-404-2101, Cheltenham Avenue. That case is continued. And also case number 13.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. Number five, just to be clear, is a withdrawal, not a
withdrawal. I'm sorry. Yeah, the withdrawal. I'm sorry. And number 13, MI 2021-001-976-4927
west thompson street that's also withdrawal are there any other requests for withdrawal
no handshare okay we're going to go to our regular list
mi 2021 005 158 109 green lane attorney is daniel reisman
we have a letter of support from the manioc neighborhood council we have a letter of
support from the manioc development corporation we have a letter of support from councilman curtis
mr reisman and he's coming in now as a panelist
good morning mr chairman members good morning mr reisman how are you could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter please yes daniel reisman r-e-i-s-m-a-n you swear for him to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do our vice chair has a few questions
for you. Hi, Mr. Reisman. Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? Yes. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance,
a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of
this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter? Yes, do I. Okay, great. You
may proceed and begin to share your screen. Okay, thank you. Thank you.
okay can you see the screen
yes okay again my name is Daniel Reisman thank you for meeting with us today I'm here with my
client Jamie Kaplan who's the principal of the proposal and the property he's a principal owner
Also Aaron Monahan, who is our architect. I've handed up or sent in exhibits to the board. The exhibits include the application materials, photos, as the chair mentioned, it includes letters of support from the RCO and the councilman.
It also includes an amended zoning plan, site plan, which was amended to address comments made by the RCO at the meeting.
I've sent that in to the board and to the board solicitor with the proviso form.
And it's my understanding that because the amendment does not increase any variances, the plan can be amended at this time.
the um properties there are three properties um that we're talking about and this is a unity of
use application for the three properties and i'll show you a few um maps here's an overhead map
the properties are right here and then looking at the zoning maps again there are three properties
One is at 107 Green Lane.
You'll see it's CMX 2.5.
I have my cursor over it.
The second property is at 109 Green Lane, and you'll see it has access from both Crescent
Street and also Green Lane.
And the third property is 4457 Main Streets, and you'll see this one fronting Main Street.
So effectively, if you follow my cursor, you'll see the three properties here, here,
and then the sort of backwards L shape are the three properties.
I'm going to run through some photos for the board to give them a better idea of the properties.
I'm going to run through some photos for the board to give them a better idea.
This is looking on Crescent Street, the Crescent Street stride of 109 Green Lane, you will see there.
Here's a closer view. This is straight on, again, looking at 109 from Crescent Street.
now if you look past crescent street across from green lane you'll see this large parking lot that
has 176 spaces we'll be talking more about that but these photos give you a nice sense of the fact
that it's effectively across the street from the property here's another one
okay and now here's 109 green lane on the green lane side again that l shape comes out
on green lane there's the parking lot
that's the parking lot again you'll see it's very large and looking from the interior of the
parking lot. This is 109 Green Lane on the Crescent Street side, and this is 109 Green Lane on the
Green Lane side. Okay, now the second property is right here. It's a very small corner property.
it's 107 Green Lane and you'll see it connects to 109 and then over behind it is 4457
Main Street which is the third property that we're talking about today. So here's 107 Green
Lane, 109 Green Lane and 4457 Main Street all connected or all adjacent to each other.
And then the one other item I want to point out in the photos is, so here is 4457 Main Street.
There's a second large parking lot, public parking lot at 4436 Main Street.
And again, you'll see it's effectively a little down the road, but across the street from 4457 Main Streets.
now just um i'm going to show you a few of the interior photos so you get an idea this is
most of what we're here today have been has have been granted in prior variances
by the board since 2007 so this is the um artesano this is the artesano gallery and venue so
So this is the interior. This is at the 109 Green Lane property.
It's pretty much wins awards every year for one of the top wedding venues in Philadelphia.
And that's all 109. And then here's the existing cafe restaurant at the property as well.
All right. So let's let's talk a little more about what the proposal is and
and why we're here.
Let me zoom that up a little.
Okay. Here's the, here's a very, that our architect prepared a layout of the three properties. So as I mentioned, most of this has been already approved by the board from variances dating back to 2010.
Anything in blue is what's already been approved. So you'll see here at 109 Green Lane is the is the wedding venue and event venue that we just discussed.
In 2020, the board approved a small cafe restaurant at 109 Green Lane, which is right here.
And in 2020, the board also approved a restaurant at 4457 Green Lane, which is right here.
The change what we're here for today is that my client purchased this corner property at 107 Green Lane.
That is effectively going to be the linchpin for an expansion of the restaurant that exists and was approved at 109 Green Lane in this portion of that property and at 4456 Main Street.
So this is right in the middle of those properties.
So this is right in the middle of those properties. Effectively, the restaurant will be expanded into this space and there will be an interconnection between 109 Green Lane and 107 Green Lane.
effectively the restaurant.
And there will be an interconnection between 107 Green Lane and 4457 Main Street.
The proposal will also have roof decks. The roof, I'm sorry, roof deck. The roof deck will be on 107 Green Lane and it will be on 109 Green Lane.
And here are the floor plans showing the layout of each floor. An architect can walk through in more detail if you would like.
regarding that. We're here for two variances. One is for parking. So under the zoning code,
these buildings are older industrial buildings. They all predate the 2012 zoning code. Under the
code, this would typically be, there's no parking on site. The buildings pretty much take up the
entire site. Under the existing code, in those situations, the parking and the building are
typically grandfathered in and not subject to new parking requirements. However, the Maniunk
overlay does have specific parking requirements that L&I interprets as overriding the general
grandfathered provisions in of the zoning code. The board on the three prior variances that I
discussed, they've already approved the waiver of most of those parking spaces. The only parking
spaces that are required now because of the expansion that we're talking about are 38 parking
spaces. And that's based on the seating in the restaurant. As discussed, and we have a plan that
shows us very clearly. The parking is very available. This is a nice overhead view. Again,
here is the property. Here's the parking lot at 109 Green Lane. Here's the parking lot at 4436
main streets based on this readily available parking the board in the past and the fact that
you cannot have parking at this property because of these historic old buildings the board has
approved approved the prior three variances and there's more than enough available parking for
the additional 38 spaces. If you look here, 108 Green Lane across the street has 176.
4436 Main Street has 90 public parking spaces. And in addition, my client has entered into an
agreement with the operator at 4436 Main Street, the parking lot across the street on Main Street,
for another 150 spaces solely to be used by my client for events at the property.
So between the fact that parking is not available on-site, number one, and number two, we have
readily available really off-site, on-site parking. The board has granted the variances in
the past, and we think it warrants the additional grant of the variance today for the 38 spaces that
we're talking about. Regarding the roof deck, we met with the RCO. The RCO had requests based on
the roof deck. One was that there would be no access onto the roof deck from the street. We've
amended the plans to address that. And number two, they requested screening on the roof deck,
which we've installed as well. So to summarize, this is an important location. It's basically
the gateway to Manyonk. It's a very successful, well-known operation already. The existing use
is very successful. The expansion will allow this to continue to be a vibrant part of the neighborhood.
And we think that based on this and the fact that there's no possibility for parking on site, a variance is warranted.
My client is here, can ask any specific operational questions, and the architect is also here who can answer any questions regarding the layout of the property.
Mr. Reisman, why don't we have your client adopt your testimony? Could we do that?
Yes. Jamie Kaplan, if you could raise your hand, please.
Jamie Kaplan, if you could raise your hand, please.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. This is Jason Hand. Mr. Kaplan has been about to speak.
Thank you. Hi, Mr. Kaplan, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
My name is Jamie Kaplan, J-A-I-M-E-K-A-P-L-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Kaplan, did you hear my testimony?
And was it true and correct, to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
And you adopted as your own?
thank you questions from the board no mr chairman
carol no mr chairman oh wait um you're good you're good okay questions or comments from
the virtual audience i do not see any hands mr chair wait a minute i see miss uh nasha
Maddox with her hand up.
I'm allowed to speak at this time.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
State.
Hello?
Sorry, she should be coming back in right now.
Okay, sure.
Ms. Maddox, please unmute yourself.
hello hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Lillian Maddox L-I-L-L-I-A-N right go ahead M-A-D-D-O-X
say say you spell your last name again one more time M-A-D-D-O-X all right thank you do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed
hello hello i was for for m i two oh two one dash oh oh one six seven five six sixty one
North 64th Street.
Ma'am, are you here to testify about this case?
I'm testifying for the case
for 614
North 64th Street.
No, ma'am, we're not on that case yet. You'll have to call back.
Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. Are there any
other comments from the virtual audience about the case in hand?
i do not see any further hands mr chair planning commission
good morning uh this is greg welfman planning commission staff um my name is g-r-e-g-o-r-y
last name w-a-l-d-m-a-n do you swear firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth i do proceed sir the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing commercial
mixed-use zoning at this location the application is consistent with recommendations in the district
plan to continue viable commercial development at these locations the city planning commission
recommends the zoning board to grant the variance thank you great m i 2021 005 158
i vote yes revised plans one page stamped by zba on july 19 2022.
carol scenario i voted yes with provisos thomas howell i voted yes with provisos
thank you council thank you board mr chair and board members
number two mi 2022 000 453 1324 north 30 street alan knockamson is the attorney
um letter of support from brewery town charged with community civic association
also applicant has provided petition of support signed by 26 neighbors most of them on 1400 block
of north 30 street so now i'm seeing as we joined as a panelist
Mr. Nockmson has rejoined as a panelist, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.