chair okay and on the second one um alice while you're still there uh busselton avenue
do we have an attorney representing
there's a request for a continuance on 7800 busselton is anyone out there objecting to the
continuance i believe this is justin crick who did submit exhibits if he is available to speak to
this yes hi thank you members of the board um good morning justin please identify yourself
for the record spell your name and i'll swear you in yes justin crick j-u-s-t-i-n-k-r-i-k address
is 1500 jfk boulevard suite 63019102 you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes please proceed thank you um we we would similarly on this matter uh
object to the continuance request although admittedly this would be a first continuance
requests, but the nature of the request is one for a similarly previously approved use in an
existing group practitioner building. And what my client is looking to do is put in a dialysis
center in an existing adult long-term care facility, and the services are greatly needed.
So delay would really hinder services to the patients for this. But in addition, and I completely
respect the RCO's reorganization, but despite various correspondence with both the RCO and the
councilperson's office, this is the first we're hearing of it. So simply because of the lack of
substantial change at all from what this property is currently used for and had been previously
approved, as well as the nature of the use being a dialysis center, a group practitioner for that
sort of life-sustaining and vital service, we would like to proceed today.
Atlas, what was the reason again for the request?
It was simply again that the community group had not heard the case, but we would agree for
if you could hold the vote and we'll do a follow-up with the with the community group's input
okay Mr. Kirk we're going to hear the case thank you all right thank you thank you Alice
any other requests for continuances or withdrawals
latina can you call someone else yes i have rodney little you've been unmuted you're ready to speak
morning thank you good morning sir please identify yourself for the record first my name is rod rodney
little stakeholder at 886 north holly street in west philly um i'm this is my first process but
i'm in total opposition of the 890 sir yes ma'am here could you swear him in please
we're in the firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do in what case are you speaking to 890 sir number 16 well you're you're here as a as an
opponent total opposition yes yeah well you have to wait till we get to that case sir oh i apologize
no problem once we get there then you can excuse me this is Sharon Saleta I believe there was a
continuance granted for this case number 18 I remember 16 yeah that case yeah you're right
thank you that case is being continued sir so sir you can look online to the ZBA calendar for
the next date yes ma'am okay thank you everyone uh anyone else yep continue Fatina please
Yes, we have Richard DeMarco. He's been unmuted. He's ready to speak.
Good morning, Mr. DeMarco. Please identify yourself with a record, and I'll square you in.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Can you hear me okay?
Thank you. I'm here on two matters, and I think you already continued 1615 South Broad for me, so I don't...
We did. Yes, we did.
Thank you. I'm also here as an interested party in the Packer Avenue matter. I understand there is a request for...
I'm also here as an interested party in the Packer Avenue matter.
I understand there is a request for continuance from Packer Park Civic.
I'm entering on behalf of Veteran Stadium Neighbors Civic Association, which is the RCO, about a block away from the project.
We are an interested party.
There are a lot of concerns about the application.
There's been no RCO meeting.
It was canceled, from my understanding, and we're joining with what I believe will be a continuance request by the Packer Park Civic.
We would like to hear more about this.
until we have information about it we're going to be opposed if we can find out some information
about the case we may not be but there's a lot of concerns in my community right now so we're
joining with the request for continuance from packet park civic since there has been no rco
meeting thank you excuse me excuse me this is sharon saletta um michael mattione is the attorney
handling this case i believe he wishes to speak to the continuance also paul bonnie is representing
the RCO. Again, not to get into the arguments now, I thought at the beginning I said we're
going to hold that case till the end. This is Paul Bonney. I have a question of clarification.
Mr. Bonney, please identify yourself with the record. My name is Paul Bonney. My last name is
spelled b-o-n-i my office address is 325 chestnut street suite 1109 philadelphia 19106
um and i'm swearing for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir please and i'm here representing the rco in this matter the packer park civic association
um i guess a point of clarification before i um um go further uh is the chair saying that
that the board is holding until the end of this list the question about what the question about
whether to continue the case or not well i was not aware that there was a request for a continuance
until just now. Thank you. If I may interrupt, this is Sharon Saleta. I believe there was some
consideration of, because this is expected to be a highly contested case, of perhaps splitting it
into two hearings. Well, if I could make the request for continuous, Mr. Chair.
Should I, am I on video? Should I activate my video? It doesn't matter. We can hear you.
that's all that matters. No, you're not on video. And Mr. Mattione is available if you wish to speak,
Mr. Mattione. Well, I'd like to make the request first, if that's okay, Mr. Chair.
Yeah, make your request. Okay. Well, first of all, this is a first request for a continuance.
This case has never been continued before. The parties agreed to have an RCL meeting on November
16. And we were all ready to have that. And unfortunately, and we had secured a safe outdoor
location, we flyered the neighborhood, and we were ready to have that. Unfortunately, as you may
recall, Monday, November 16 was the day that the mayor and the health commissioner at one o'clock
in the afternoon, announced that there would be increased, you know, COVID restrictions
coming into place, albeit not until November 20th. And outdoor RCO meetings were not prohibited
as if properly distanced. And we were prepared to go forward. The applicant called us that day,
the afternoon of the RCO meeting and begged us to cancel the meeting because of the COVID concern.
We didn't want to cancel it, but we thought about it. The applicant then put the request in writing.
We continued to think about it. Even the police department suggested that we should cancel it
out of abundance of caution. And so we did. So we agreed to the applicant's request
to cancel and then reschedule the hearing, the RCO meeting. We then asked the applicant for
new dates so that we could continue to progress with this matter. And we think it was somewhat
of a ridiculous suggestion, but they offered the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Well, that, of course, doesn't work for us. It doesn't really work for anyone. Even this board
canceled its, did not hold hearings last week
on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
And so we are just, this is a highly,
this is a proposal to put a-
Let's not get into, let's not get into.
What I'm saying is there are a ton of questions
from the community. I'm sure there are. And we are simply unable at this point to have any sort of
from the community and-
I'm sure there are.
And we are simply on a,
effective cross-examination of these witnesses when we don't understand or we don't even know
what the project entails. We have, as you can understand in an RCO meeting, a million different
questions are asked. Okay. I'd like to hear from you. He's muted. You can go forward. Mr. Mattione.
Mr. Chairman. You want to swear in here? Please identify yourself for the record and I'll swear
you in. Sure. Michael Mattione, M-A-T-T-I-O-N-I, Federal Reserve Bank Building, 100 North Independence
Mall, Suite 5A Northwest, Philadelphia 19106. You swear in the firm to tell the truth, the whole
truth, nothing but the truth? I do, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. You heard Mr. Bonney about they were
supposedly there were opportunities that were trying to have a meeting, but they were
canceled? Or your client? Can you explain that? Certainly. First, there was an original RCO
meeting scheduled on October 19th, and the coordinating RCO requested that that be continued
until after the election. Everybody was busy, etc. We agreed, and then we agreed upon a date of
November 16th, and it was going to be an outdoor in-person meeting, and as Mr. Bonny did say,
it was the same day that the city came out with the new safer at home restrictions on public
meetings um we we called him up and asked about whether we should have this meeting at all given
the new restrictions and the uh lack of you know concern for uh outdoor gatherings the city has no
more than 10 people per thousand square feet um we were really concerned about whether we could have
this meeting in a safe manner given the new restrictions from the city mr bonnie did send
me an email that said, and as I've mentioned, we've been having the same discussions here
on our end, especially because the police department refuses to attend tonight and is
advising us to instead meet virtually.
So yes, tonight's meeting is canceled.
Let us select the mutually convenient date, and then you can send out another round of
notices with a Zoom link.
So we suggested that we send out a Zoom link with meetings held either Tuesday or Wednesday.
I believe it was the 24th and the 25th.
I would have suggested the 23rd, but I already had another RCO meeting that night anyway.
So the suggestion that having a meeting the week of Thanksgiving is somehow improper,
it would be lied by the fact that the Point Free CDC had a meeting on November 23rd with my client.
Beyond that, I have six witnesses online today.
This is a long case.
Even though it's only a special exception, there are several witnesses we're going to present.
I believe that there is ample opportunity for, one, us to at least start the case today,
given the number of witnesses and the amount of time it's going to take.
Two, for proper cross-examination, you know, that'll be available today.
And if we can agree on a virtual meeting, which we would much prefer,
especially in light of the safer at home, at some point in time as well, we can do that.
It is not uncommon for this board, especially in cases where there are numerous witnesses that will take more than one hearing date to have a hearing and then to have an RCO meeting afterwards, especially in when we've had already two cancellations of the RCO meeting.
So, given what you're saying and what Mr. Bonney and Mr. DeMarco have already testified to, everyone is in agreement that this is going to be a rather long, lengthy hearing.
and Mr. Bonnie indicated that according to him his clients are not even aware of what is being
proposed here whether that's true or not I'll take Mr. Bonnie at his word so maybe at least we can
hear the applicant's side of it and get to understand what the issues are and what the
application represents so that by the time we have our second hearing the opposite the RCOs
will have an opportunity to respond because they will have full knowledge of what this
application represents. So again, we're going to hold this to the end. It'll be the last case
this morning, and I'm sure we'll have some arguments again about this, but
I'd like to go forward with the other cases on our list, and we'll get to you folks momentarily.
Thank you. Thank you. Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals?
Chair, we have Sloan Foulkes. Mr. Foulkes, you've been unmuted. Please wait for the chair.
Good morning, Mr. Foulkes. Please identify yourself for the record and I'll swear you in.
Good morning, Chairman DiCicco and members of the board.
Good morning, Chairman DeChico and members of the board. My name is Sloan Foulkes.
My name is Sloan Fuchs, S-L-O-A-N-E-F as in fire, O-L-K-S.
Office of Councilwoman Maria Quinone Sanchez, room 508 City Hall.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed.
I have two cases that I would like to request be continued.
The first is MI-2020-000028, 1366 Anchor Street.
They have not met with the RCO at present, and we'd like forward them to some community input prior to the case being heard.
Excuse me, this is Sharon Saleta. That's number two on your list.
I need to say that we also have no exhibits and this is the second scheduling it was originally
scheduled to be heard on September 29th all right so I'm sorry yes I'm sorry chair but this here is
an old case mark from July 26th 2019 I got you thank you MI 2020-0000281366 Anchor Street is
continued must be heard. Thank you. My second request for continuance is calendar number
MI2020-0003462340 Orthodox Street. Again, we've reached out several times to the coordinating
RCO. The first time this case was scheduled to be heard several months ago, the coordinating
RCO hadn't heard from the appellants at the time. Recently, we reached out to the coordinating
RCO again, and we haven't got a response from them either. So if the appellant is here
and they have met with the coordinating RCO,
we would be fine with a holding here.
I'm sorry, not a holding here.
We'd be fine to let the case continue,
but we haven't heard anything at all.
And excuse me, this is Sharon Solita again.
This is number 10 on your list and I have no exhibits.
And has this case been scheduled before?
I'm sorry.
Just the first time, first continuance?
I don't know the answer to that.
No, it has been scheduled.
This will be the first request, correct?
This should be the second.
Oh, okay.
Sorry.
It should be a must be heard.
Yeah, that's what I'm asking.
Last year.
Gotcha.
That's why I was asking.
Thank you.
MI 2020-0003462340.
Excuse me.
Orthodox Street is continued.
Must be heard.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
any other requests there are no more hands here okay uh make sure i got everything right here
okay uh the first case mi 2020-001539 140-03 south 21st street
and excuse me chair if if you go forward with this someone could we then go on to the add-ons
uh yes i'm sorry um hold on
you talk about the hold on
I can read the first one in if you'd like. It's simply a delay list case.
Yeah, a delay list. I have it. We'll go to that one now, and then we'll hold the
South 21st Street moment for a few minutes. MI 2020-01228-223 South 44th Street.