This picture really doesn't show the entire rear of that building.
That's a fairly large rear yard back there that had the picnic tables.
There are like four or five picnic tables.
A new fence that was put in about a year or so ago, lighting that was put in.
This picture doesn't really show the full backyard.
But he's not operating on the backyard.
he has no need for the backyard he has no lease for it he just puts you show you show a picture
and you describe that the backyard is not being used but yet you say that he removed the picnic
tables from the backyard this doesn't show the area where you say the picnic tables were removed
The backyard is much larger than that.
So that's, I have no other, I have no further questions.
All right. Thank you.
Questions for our attorney.
Yes. Hi, Lynn Riedel, Huber Board Counsel.
Counselor, I'm just a little confused on who your client is.
You've indicated, he's indicated his name is Mario Rodriguez, but the paper.
Yes, and it's the owner of the answer.
hello uh can i just finish sorry i'm sorry the um documentation seems to list someone called
estel romero d rodriguez who is that and who is in relationship to mario rodriguez that's his wife
we are together and he's still and he's together with his wife so can we clarify on the paperwork
it says ethel romero de rodriguez is that two names one name who is that
ethel de romero rodriguez is mario's wife is he romero
he's romero he's rodriguez and they're married okay so the tenant is both of them then correct
okay and do they both own uh the food market at 53rd haverford inc or does just a mr
or you call himself Mario, but Romero.
She is Romero, he is Rodriguez.
And he operates the store through that corporation.
I'll show you the corporate filing again.
I'm just looking for that corporate filing here.
The food market at 53rd and Haverford Inc.
The food market at 53rd and Haverford.
That's his corporation.
Yeah, what is his role? If it's her name for the corporation, what's his role in the corporation then?
It's his name in the corporation.
And actually it's her name in the corporation here.
that's that's what i just said so can you please explain to me what his role is in the corporation
if it's her corporation he he works there on a day-to-day basis he manages the store
and he lives together with his wife as a family
okay we're gonna hold it but i just wanted to ask a quick question on you said about
the preparation of the food i know you're not doing that now is that going to be hot or cold
that he's um well he is looking to do both
but that's not part of the application right now correct correct that's not
that's not part of the application
okay questions from the virtual audience yes I have Lee clouding with a hand up
sure we'll be promoted
good morning good morning good morning my name is Leah cloud and first name
spelled i'm sorry go ahead go ahead ma'am okay first name is spelled l-e-a-h last name is c-l-o-u-d-e-n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do are you a neighbor yes i am please proceed if you could could you turn your video
on if possible yes sure
thank you please proceed oh did i press the right button yeah you're okay okay i'm sorry i can't see
that um okay i am a neighbor and um i believe the lawyer is misrepresenting um the facts
There is no dumpster from the meeting. I attended the meeting on March the 26th, and it was established that they were supposed to get a dumpster. There is no dumpster in that yard. I can see the yard from my roof.
their trash when they do get deliveries, their pallets, as well as the wrapping paper,
the saran wrap that wraps the products, as well as carts from the soda crates. I'm sorry,
the two-liter soda crates, they're all placed across the street on the other corner where the
park is. That's where they leave their trash. As far as pickup of trash, it's just regular
sanitation. I don't know what the agreement is with sanitation, but that's what I see.
They constantly do go down in the basement all day long. So my concern with this location is that
there was a food truck out there. They tried it. It was connected to the building. They were
receiving electricity. They didn't get it up and running. They weren't selling food out of the food
truck but there was an attempt i had to call because the food truck um their window was on
the it was in order for them to service any customers next to that store they had to face
the food truck in the wrong direction on a one-way street so i had a problem with that because people
were constantly turning a corner the wrong way because of that and they did i'm not saying mr
Rodriguez fixed up the side. There was Latinos, or I'm sorry, Hispanics. I'm not sure what the
nationality was, but they were the ones to renovate that whole side yard. There were picnic
tables out. As of today, I really didn't pay attention. The way they set it up, it was almost
as if they were trying to do an outside restaurant with the convenience store. Another problem is we
have we have a convenience store on every single just about every corner leading all the way up to
our mini mart it's too many we're flooded with convenience stores in our community the trash on
the street i have never seen a trash on the street like i'm seeing the trash on the street it's just
to me it's a nuisance we've owned our property since the 80s since the early 80s there has never
We've owned our property since the 80s, since the early 80s. There has never been a store on that corner. So I don't even though he can, the lawyer can go back and date that it was it was zoned as such. There was never a store in all the years that we've owned our property, which is next to that property.
been a
um and also the owner of the property is also um putting his his trash from out his house
across i mean i'm sorry they must have been cleaning out the place because they've been
placing mattresses and all types of trash from that entire building across the street on the
corner of the park it's it's been really bad before it was dumping in the yard that's behind
the location. So that's my testimony. Well, thank you very much. Mr. Vaccaro, do you have any
questions? Yes, I do. Thank you. Ms. Cloudon, good morning. Good morning. Yes. Okay. The
trash that my client is allegedly dumping on the other side or across the street,
did you take any video of that or photos of that or no? I have photos of it.
But you're not showing that to the board. I can show it. I'm new. I apologize. I'm new to this, to this, to the zoning board and hearing and everything. So I signed up. I wasn't aware that I had to submit pictures five days prior to the meeting.
so but i have a record of everything and i've also reported it to 311 so they also have a record of
this location thank you and very recently as of tuesday with regards to the april 6 2026 zoom
meeting um you participated in that meeting correct yes yes i did okay and um did you show
us any photos or videos of this alleged trash dumping then no i didn't have a problem with it
well why don't we let her answer the question joe yeah i didn't have a i wouldn't have a problem
with it i have a record of everything i wouldn't have a problem with it but you didn't show that
you didn't show that at the meeting of april 6th correct it wasn't it wasn't asked and it wasn't
necessary when everybody was in agreement not to allow this to be as zoned as the store that it is
with respect to with respect to any other violations did you report any violations to
the department of licenses and inspection i reported everything to 311 i assume that 311
directs those complaints to whatever department the city runs or handles i'm a i'm a citizen
did you get any receipts from them or any confirmation numbers from them
yes sir it's in my email did you you didn't give that email to me you didn't give that
email to anybody who did you my email or the receipts the receipts that you
receive for me I don't have a problem with giving the receipts to anybody but
you didn't you didn't circulate you didn't share those at the April 6th
meeting and you didn't share them today correct because it wasn't necessary
everybody was in agreement not to allow this store and everybody saw that was in
the meeting as as because they kept viewing the property like i do and they all saw we all saw
the same thing so that's why it was 100 unanimous that we didn't want the store thank you thank you
thank you joe you're done thank you okay thank you ma'am for uh your testimony
appreciate it is there anyone else in the virtual audience
there are no more hands planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommend i'm sorry good morning this is liz fusely with the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa 5 residential single family
zoning oops okay wrong one very sorry could you get that mic a little closer to you too i think
that's the new mic here the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa 5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1971 in a council
supported map change the proposed use is consistent with documented prior use of this property the city
planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the proposed use variance for retail
sales. Joe, there's some issues that have been raised that I really want to talk to the board
about. One of the things that I would find helpful is if we had a letter concerning the last meeting
at the RCO. So I'm going to continue this for maybe two weeks. We'll continue this for two
maybe two weeks we'll continue this for two weeks give me somebody give me a date if it's possible
weeks. Somebody give me a date if it's possible.
i believe it's august 5th august 5th at 9 30 a.m this is closed this this whole thing is closed
except the possibility of a letter from the from the rco okay and then you would also have the
opportunity to respond to the letter that's what i'd like an opportunity oh yeah sure sure
And I do have just one question, Mr. Berkman. Is that going to be a resumptive hearing, or is that going to be a...
It's going to be a vote, except if we think you need to respond to the RCO.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay? All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Have a good day.
All right. Let's see. Number seven.
Mr. Chairman, did you want to go back to the first one yet, or no?
We could.
Or do you want to...
um which was number four so mi 2025 005 491 1804 orth no is that it orthodox street yeah orthodox
street latish if you're in the audience please raise your virtual hand
chair i see i don't see latish okay so what we'll do is we're we're going to move on we
will check later to see where we stand so we're going to move to number seven mi2025
05-840-3400 North Sydenham Street.
Christopher Dean is the attorney.
christopher dean will be coming in as a panel very much you're welcome
good morning mr chair and members how are you could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer christopher dean dean and i am the attorney for the applicant and also present
is ben sabah who is the principal of the entity do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do there's a letter of support from the tayoga improvement team and
our vice chair has a few questions good morning good morning have you submitted your documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing I have and the only supplement I have today is
just the certificate the proof of the certificate of mailing um which I'll have on the screen okay
thank you for that 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 with the case
I hope everyone can see that again. Thank you for the opportunity to present this. This is 3400 North Sydenham Street. We're here for essentially two reasons.
um the one is the uh one is dimensional and the other is a use as this is in a
cmx2 district um we are proposing uh this is the rendering of what we're proposing a
a six unit property on the corner of sydenham and ontario i'll just go through the presentation and
then and then make argument and then have my client uh adopt my testimony
This is the renderings and this is what the lot looks like now. As you can see, the lot is adjacent to another lot that actually is collecting trash and has clip violations that are still outstanding.
This is the view heading towards Ontario. Just a bit of the housekeeping stuff. This is the deed of the property.
this is the certificate the tax clearance um good through august 8th this was the nice town
application that we had to submit and this was our application for the actual variance with the pif
uh i'll get into the plans a bit these so the plans um the plans as now submitted um we did
these plans were actually revised twice, but they didn't change the footprint or any of the refusals.
We initially, when we met with the RCO, we presented a
Initially, when we met with the RCO, we presented six units, but with no basement living, and unit A and B being only a one-bedroom.
The RCO, to our surprise, really was pushing for—they, in fact, insisted on additional units.
They really want more residential living, especially with Temple Hospital being in such proximity to the location.
So they wanted to attract more people to live there, consistent with the use on Sydenham Street.
So we revised it.
These are the final plans to include a two three-unit building, two three-units, two two-units, and two one-unit units.
Each one has a washer-dryer, and we do have a – we plan for a trash.
We do have a six-foot – an area in the back over eight feet to handle all the trash receptacles, and we'll have a six-foot privacy fence that will have a gate to store the trash.
This is – and here's, again, the square footage of all of the units, so that the two bigger ones are 1250 and 1500.
And then unit C and D, the 630 square foot units are, you know, more set up like a studio and then the two bedroom units. They are small. There will be smaller bedrooms and we did propose rent that the well, you know, I'll just go ahead and put in the I'll go right to the right to the right to the meeting summary as it was pretty important for when we met with the community to.
give me one second well before i get into the actual summary of the meeting
um the neighborhood characteristics and why this property this what we're proposing does
is actually consistent um with the neighborhood and does not change the the character at all of
the neighborhood the sytenham arms apartments uh they are pretty they actually have they became
before this board in 2009 it's 12 units all residential living the rents there are above
their sixteen hundred to two thousand dollars they're above what we're asking they're mostly
three unit uh three unit three bedroom units um we're offering more alternatives one two bedrooms
one bedrooms to accommodate different types of living not everyone needs a three bedroom and
it does it is more affordable um these are the three properties this is the lot the three
properties before the sinham arms apartments they're all residential single family homes
So, again, even though we're in a CMX2, this entire, nearly this entire area, CMX2, is really residential living.
So, we are certainly not altering what is currently in the property.
Here's a picture of the actual posting.
This was the Nicetown letter.
This was our letter notifying everyone of today's hearing.
Now, we sort of made a community benefits agreement with Nicetown.
did get nine to zero in favor of the of the presentation um as so long as all these provisos
were met which we agreed to um again they they wanted the additional um we revised our plans
for them so they could get two three bedroom units in the on the first floor um we agreed
that we take care of trash we're actually going to put in security camera as well
during construction because the adjacent lot is full of is full of litter and they're actually
collecting clip violations so we we've agreed to this proviso by the RCO and this is the these are
just the you know all the certificates of mailing to prove that we mailed for both the RCO and the
ZBA and. With that, if I could have my client adopt my testimony.
Council, this is Bill Bergman. I'm going to recuse myself in this. Tenetagram will be taking over.
What's your client's name? Ben Sabah.
OK, thank you.
I do see a name with Ben.
s could that be ben sabah that's probably that's probably him all right