And by the way, I just want to let Alan have like a little, like a little, like just a little bit, not a big one.
And I did point out specifically this time the washer, where the washer and dryer is right.
right right question oh questions or comments from our attorney
not at this time mr questions or comments from the virtual audience no hands at this time chair
planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a
change in zoning at this location from cmx to commercial mixed use to rsa 5 residential single
family the variance for not including active ground floor use matches the recommended zoning
however there are no unique physical conditions or circumstances that would prevent the building
from complying with the two units as allowed under the code the planning commission recommends that
the board grant their requested variants for gone for use in occupied area but deny the requested
variance for dwelling unit count and i realize that there's no occupied area variance requested
anymore sorry about that yeah so as i would state um we are 1368 square feet um we are 2.85 uh
amount of units and unfortunately in the philadelphia zoning code you could be at 2.99
and you'll still be at two um i believe that under those circumstances and given other surrounding
cmx2 properties that fully residential nature and the practical realities of of developing
properties in the philadelphia we would respectfully request that the board grant
the variance for three units so mi 2025 005 135 2649 federal street i vote yes with proviso
revised plans one page stamp by zba on april 15 2025 maximum three dwelling units
michael johnson my vote is yes with proviso charl gaster my vote is yes with proviso
tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
are you doing five is that fine street yes yes i am okay so mi2025007
25252416 to 24 vine street alan knockamson is the attorney mr knockamson just for the record
you've already been sworn state your name alan knockamson and could you identify your client
relationship to the property yes my client is vine street llc the owners of the property and
in the virtual audience is either robert or ali bolpe one of its members and there's a letter of
non-opposition from Council Member Squilla there's a letter of support with provisos
from Franklin Bridge North neighborhoods neighbors our vice chair has a few questions
good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes we have and do you waive the reading of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy I do okay
thank you you can share your screen and proceed with the case all right thank you and this is a
special exception so we're um basically at the corner of fourth and vine here it's a rather
large apartment building and what we're trying to put in is a prepared uh prepared uh food shop
a coffee shop in there um and honestly my client didn't realize that they needed to get the special
exception they were planning to open and then realize from their architect that they needed to
do this so it's already built out and they didn't do it on purpose or maliciously more disappointed
that they had to participate in this six-month process but you know it will be a great resource
not just for the community as a whole but the obviously the inner community within this
apartment building so we have 10 exhibits here which includes the notice of referral and the
letter of support from the coordinating rco there are a couple of provisos um or conditions some of
them are enforceable and some of them are not uh so the notice uh first
enforceable and some of them are not uh so the notice referral is this is a prepare uh it's a
prepared food shop in an existing structure uh the size of the area in the apartment building
that would be for the coffee shop is 800 square feet we have a letter of support i'm going to
read these provides those so the board knows um them we also have a community benefits agreement
which elaborates further we you know in in the letter of support um it also states that the
actual language of the actual executed cba which is a matter of public record that we've filed with
the with these proceedings will control but you know i want to generally state them and then
there's there's more specificity in them um the applicant will provide trash cans in and outside
its location with the applicant's private trash haul or removal on a commercial on a regular basis
So commercial trash pickup would be the first one, which would be a proviso.
We also agreed to put a trash can outside our doors where the coffee shop is, but that will only be outside during normal business hours.
It's just to make sure there's no...
The in and outside, you said.
Yeah, just outside.
Yeah, just outside.
So I just wanted to elaborate on that.
Applicant will need approval of L&I and Streets Department for any sidewalk seating.
an applicant agrees to limit the number of tables to three with a maximum of two seats per table.
Don't think that's an enforceable proviso, but obviously we signed a community benefits agreement
that we'll abide by. Operating hours shall not be prior to 7 or after 5 p.m., and any community
event in the evening shall end by 10 p.m. So the space will be a coffee shop from 7 a.m. to no
later than 5 p.m. so those are the hours of operation and those are enforceable secondarily
outside those hours it will be also community you know event space for the general apartment
community um and so we agreed by way of proviso that those events will end uh no later than 7
p.m. any and all deliveries of food or material shall occur inside the building's parking garage
there's you know off street parking here or within a proposed loading zone on north lawrence street
Well, I don't believe that's an enforceable proviso. We will abide by that. There will be no application or possession of a license for the sale of alcoholic beverages, beer, or wine on the premises. Well, I don't think that's an enforceable proviso. We will abide by that.
There will be, there shall be no amplified sound from within the premises that can be heard at street level on the exterior of the building. So I believe that may be enforceable proviso. So, you know, again, no amplified music outside, you know, the, the restrictions imposed by the, you know, building codes.
And, again, you know, these were the provisos that we obtained our approval from the community.
And, again, it says in the language, in the letter, the actual language of the executed CBA will control and will be presented at the time of the hearing to the CBA, which we're doing here.
I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but we do put it as a matter of public record, so we can always reference it later on.
and then we got a letter of non-opposition from council member squilla based on those
provisos as well and then again we're a cmx3 property we're in an apartment building again
this is a referral referral our use is no worse than what you would typically expect
we're a responsible operator um we'll be you know it'll be basically owner occupied self-managed
and we think this will be a great addition to the apartment community but as well as the community
as a whole because there's really no coffee shops that are in close proximity to here
vine street to the right of the property to the left of the property north lawrence street to
the right of the property to the left of the property our interior photos so this is it you
know it's already been built and again not on purpose but you'll see it's it's done very well
relaxed um this is just a community event there but it just gives you a picture of like how
much light in there and the adequate seating and things like that they'll have a point of
sale system again it's a prepared food shop no cooking on the premises this is the construction
drawings you know because my client did not anticipate actually having to go through this
process i just expanded that outward it even the seating's not completely accurate but like i
wanted to give you something just so you can see other than the pictures but here's the opening
right here the point of sale system is right here there's a ton of adequate seating here
and again when you go backwards if I can get backwards this is the garbage area right here
that's for the general population of the apartment building and that's where the coffee shop will be
able to access that as well RCO meeting notice February 2nd I do believe we also met with the
RCO meeting notice February 2nd I do believe we also met with the immediate
neighbors separately unofficially to just make them feel comfortable and I
believe the meeting that we had with the community was in person it was at the
coffee shop or soon hopefully soon to be coffee shop this is proof of mailing
application for special exception along the notice of referral project
information form the deed to the property showing that my client fine street llc is the owner of the
property and most importantly the certificate of tax clearance with that being said i would ask
that either ally or robert virtually raise their hands and be sworn in there are no hands up at the
anything all right we have a hand up from robert vault okay
mr volpe if you can just yeah i'll mute yourself yes well could you please state your name and
spell for the sonographer yes robert volpe v-o-l-p-e right do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel yeah uh mr volpe you heard everything
i had to state today about your zoning matter yes is it true and correct yes and you adopted
as your own testimony yes in particular you heard all those conditions that we need to fulfill in
order for us to have had that support from the community the ones that are enforceable you plan
to abide by right yes the ones that are not enforceable zoning approvals but are in the
community benefit agreement you're willing to abide by yes thank you um questions or comments
from the board questions or comments from our attorney Hillary Emerson yeah just a couple
of clarifications um one you mentioned that there's events and you said something about
being the apartment complex but you also said it being community events i'm just concerned that
there may be another principal use it's it's a when i said community i meant apartment community
like the actual apartment itself okay it's the apartment building community not the community
as a general it's not events outside okay so thank you for clarifying that and then is the
so it doesn't specify this on the refusal the uses on the the first floor or first floor and basement
i believe it's just the first floor i would ask mr volpe to confirm that
mr volpe am i correct that it's just the 800 square feet on the first floor right that's correct
all right thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
planning commission yeah very much get your shit together
any board with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning to the current cmx3 commercial mixed use the appellant has demonstrated that the proposed
use will not have detrimental impacts beyond what would reasonably be expected the planning
commission recommends that the board grant the requested special exception for prepared food shop
hillary how about first floor only commercial trash pickup um hours not before 7 a.m not after
5 p.m right and then lastly um apartment community events no later than 10 p.m so um
um yeah i think i think we could just do hours of operation and sorry is that seven days a week
six days a week i i believe yeah well i think six six i think it's six days yeah i think it i think
it's six i think we would appreciate to keep it all seven i think we our intention is only to do
six okay so i i i think because i the events of it it's more of like a you know like a private
like extra space so i i wouldn't worry about doing the hours of operation for that it's not like a
venue that people can rent um so but i would say hours of operation you know um between 7 a.m
and 5 p.m um and you know the first floor and commercial trash pickup okay so mi 2025
five zero zero seven two five two four sixteen to twenty six mine street i vote yes with proviso
first floor only hours of operation seven a to five p and commercial trash
Hours of operation, 7A to 5P, and commercial trash pickup.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Tannetta Graham, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Thank you.
All right, I have Mr. Goldberg now.
mi 20 25 007 256 2205 gall street alex goldberg is the attorney
there's a letter of support from fishtown neighbors association
27 looks like the one and a letter of non-opposite from become council members squill
Mr. Goldberg, please state your name and spell for a 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, nothing but the truth?
Mr. Goldberg, could you identify your client in a relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is Gouman Properties, LLC. It's the owner of the property and its representative Talbender Gouman is in the virtual audience.
And our vice chair has a few questions for you.
good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
i have and do you waive the read now the refusal is simply to its accuracy
i do okay thank you you can show your screen and proceed with your case
okay so
let me just go full screen while i'm on our new computer so um let's see
Okay, so this is a rescue of a project that essentially died in 2022 after being approved by way of variance in 2019 and construction permits pulled in 2020 by a prior owner.
My clients bought the property in June of 2025, so a little less than a year ago, and the structure that you see on the screen there is the building structure that was approved.
am i sharing the right thing are you seeing on your screen okay okay um because i see mr mcadams
has his hand up and i wasn't sure okay oh you're good uh no worries so um the the the building
structure you see on the screen is is basically a shell of the building structure we're asking
to be reapproved today it's in frame condition on the interior the architect that was a part of the
project when it was approved in 2019 is back on board with the new owners but it is a new
general contractor and obviously new ownership so that's sort of the general overview of the project
i think when we went to the community meeting they were just happy to see somebody coming in to
finish the project and from my understanding the street dig already took place when it was
originally built up so in terms of finishing the job here there should not be any large machinery
needed on site or in the street and i think you know almost all of the work is done to the interior
and should be able to be done without much disturbance at all to the to the neighbors um
yeah i'm having a share issue here let's see let me share
okay there we go so here's our notice of refusal um this is an rsa5 property and this is a single
family home but it's kind of funky because it's an irregular shaped lot that has two street
frontages and um while we have a gall street address uh the gall street side is the wide side
And because of that, we are coming up against some dimensional issues that were dealt with, you know, in 2019 when this was presented to the board.
And obviously we have to ask for those same variances again.
Number one being the roof, the height of the building, which the roof line is 30 feet, eight inches, which matches exactly the roof line of the building structure that we're attached to.
But because of the pilot house, which is sitting along the technically the rear lot line, right, because this we're building with a strange orientation, the height of that pilot house is being counted against us.
It's nine feet or it's nine feet, right, that pilot house.
So this building is considered to need a height variance, but that's a technical variance in nature.
And again, it's not a new pilot house that's existing and framed up there.
And then the other variance that we're asking for is for rear yard depth.
So we are considered a lot of 45 feet or less in depth because of the orientation.
45 feet or less in depth because of the orientation we have a lot of open space at the front of the
We have a lot of open space.
lot it's just not being considered our rear yard because of the way that the structure is built
on the site and i think when i show you the site plan that'll make a lot more sense
here's the letter of support that we received from fishtown near unanimous support from uh you know
the near neighbors and the RCO zoning committee, sort of referencing that, you know, they had no
questions. They've lived next to a vacant unfinished property for almost six years. They're
excited to see it finished and occupied. And our client is happy to do that. Here's the zoning
permit that was issued in 2019 for a single family dwelling. You can see you'll, this will
look very familiar in a few moments when I show you the site plan. It's the same building structure.
and you can see we're at the corner of Townsend and Gall Street.
Here's an aerial view. Again, the building structure is already there.
Aerial map. Here's a zoning map. Single-family zoning. This is a single-family home.
Here's photos. So this is from Gall Street. So there's open space on both sides, basically.
There's a little side yard here where I imagine trash would be stored.
then there's a larger open space over here there you can see from Townsend Street so this is what
I would consider to be our rear yard but because the rear yard is technically this lot line that
abuts the building structure next to us or behind us we're considered to have zero rear yard from