It's a defram has say.
You stay played to the reading of the refusal and you agree with its
accuracy.
Why don't we start just for a point of information.
We do not have an RCO letter.
Is that correct?
We don't.
We had a, we had a meeting,
but they decided not to take a position on this one.
All right.
Please proceed, sir.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, members of the board, this sounds like a pretty straightforward case, right?
But there's going to be a caveat at the end.
My client purchased this property, renovated this property.
It was a zone CMX 2.
He renovated the property as a three-family dwelling.
First, one floor per unit, one unit per floor.
and we'll get to the plans uh they're ample in size there's um he he pulled building permits to
do it the city of philadelphia came out and inspected the property he got a co for the
He got a CO for the three-family dwelling, which I forwarded to board council as well as the board administrator that just received that CO and passed that on.
three-family dwelling which i forward
I'm entering it into evidence along with this 61-page exhibit packet.
When he went to apply for his rental license, he was told he didn't have the zoning.
So we are here to legalize what he believed was already legal based on pulling the building permits, having the inspections and securing the CO.
So with that said, the basement is just mechanicals.
The first floor, I'll zoom in closer if you'd like.
Please.
First, in the rear, there's a rear alley, a breezeway that can be reached from the side street. All three properties will have access to their trash cans and their recycling bins. And of course, he will have commercial trash pickup.
as far as the first floor is concerned uh we have i hope mr johns is here because we have furniture
written in on on these uh we have a living room we have a nice size kitchen and a one bedroom
apartment in the rear second unit we have a living room ample dining space with an eat-in kitchen
and then another one-bedroom apartment with that apartment in the rear.
And it's identical on the third floor as well.
As you can see, the living quarters are quite large.
And now let me show you the work that was done.
This is the corner of the block.
This is where this breezeway here, where my cursor is, is how one would get to the rear yard for trash.
That's how the commercial trash pickup will come and go.
These here are multifamily dwellings right behind it, approved by this board.
This is the block itself.
Here's a three-family dwelling right across the street.
this is our property here three-family dwelling
here's the interior all very well made
high-end finishings
wood style floors
concrete rear patio stainless appliances
is washer, dryer in the units, three separate HVACs as well.
And there's the rear breezeway that folks can get to their trash cans to put their trash out and how the commercial trash pickup will be fetched.
Here's the letter that went out to all interested parties.
AMP is the APM, is the RCO in question.
We had a meeting on the 18th of, I'm sorry, on the 27th of June.
Today's the 18th of September.
Here's all the addresses that were mailed.
And here's proof of mailing of 205 individual households.
There's the proof of posting.
The electric meters.
here's the zoning permit
that but that was for two family and previous and the ceo is not in this packet it was
sent to the board separately
but i am moving it into evidence with this
uh these are just closing documents that showed that he purchased the property
uh in about two years ago now
and that's proof of tax compliance i'm going to zoom in here so we can make sure that we see
I showed you evidence of a three-family dwelling right across the street, and then right behind us is more multifamily dwellings as well.
showed you evidence of a three-family dwelling right across the street
There's a vacant lot on the corner on both sides of the street, and a couple more vacant lots down the block.
The meeting was sparsely attended, and therefore the RCO leadership decided to not take a position on this particular matter.
because my client reasonably on the department of license and inspection
had full inspections by city personnel and received a sign-off with all the building
permits and a certificate of occupancy because there are other similarly situated multi-families
brand new ones across the street from it on that same block and immediately behind it
And because of the number of vacant lots on the block, that would suggest that it could absorb density. I'm going to respectfully request that this board grant the variance in this particular case.
It would be a great hardship after having gone through that whole process with Department of License and Inspection to have to convert that first floor to commercial space when this portion of North 8th Street is not a viable commercial corridor at all.
As my pictures have shown, it's 100% residential or vacant lots.
And with that, if Defram could please raise his virtual hand
I think he's on a phone call
Is Defram
That's it
They have been allowed to speak
Hi sir, could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer
defram i think he has to unmute himself
hello hi could you please state your name it's spelled for the court stenographer
yes defram hysa d-e-f-r-i-m m as a mary hysa h-y-s-a you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Yes. Please proceed, counsel. Thank you. Defram,
did you hear my presentation to the board this afternoon? Yes. Is it true and accurate to the
best of your knowledge? Yes. Do you adopt it as your own testimony? Yes. Did you personally
renovate this building, pulling all proper building permits, having inspections, and securing
the co that i've submitted to the board today yes thank you and vernie your only refusal is no
commercial in the first floor am i right that's correct and it's not a commercial space question
questions or comments from the board
i'm unclear what the hardship is that kept this from being rented as a single family home
it was it's not supposed to be a single family home uh the hardship is is this first floor
viable commercial space the answer is no because it's it's 100 percent the block is either 100
commercial of residential primarily multi-family or vacant lots there's no commercial
the other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
mr anastasia just to clarify what was the the co for that was obtained
it was for the three-family dwelling
the co said three-family dwelling on it i just you know i just received it the realtor
just sent it to me and i forwarded it to you when i asked him and so the property has been fully
inspected okay thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
one final note mr chair there the property is fully sprinkled as well
is there anyone in the virtual audience there are no hands chair
Planning Commission Ron Bednar city planning this property is currently indicated for commercial
mixed use on city plan given the physical circumstance of the site and its residential
and its residential permit history, we recommend the request for variance to be granted.
permit history, we recommend the request for variance program.
MI 2024-002-512-2104 North A Street, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Canetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Iowan, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Council.
Have a good evening.
Number three, MI 2024, 002-514-1231 South 27th Street.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
Unanimous support from residents organized for advocacy and direction.
Road RCO.
Henry Clinton has been promoted.
it. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Henry, could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer? Sure. Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
Sure. The client is Mark Clinton. The owner of the property is 1231 South 27 LLC.
You stipulate to the reading of the refusal and do you agree with the accuracy?
Share your screen, please, and start your presentation.
Is that visible, Mr. Chairman?
It is. Just make it a little bigger, if you would.
Certainly.
So did that work?
Just a little bit.
That's better.
And then maybe make the whole thing a little, like, drag the screen, make it a little larger.
That's it.
You're good.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Again, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Henry Clayton here on behalf of 1231 South 27th LLC.
see. This is a request for a two-family dwelling in a currently zoned CMX2, not zoning district,
but this particular property is zoned CMX2. The area is surrounded by RM1 and many of the
other properties in this locale, Grace Freire, are also in a CMX2 zoning district, and all of them
are two or three family dwellings, which I'll show you as I work through this presentation.
presentation contains a table of contents a1 through a10 we also have zoning records of
other properties nearby that are two family the refusal again as i said there's a cmx
henry just one quick question i didn't mean to interrupt you we don't have tax compliance
i just sent that to yes we do mr chair we do yes that has that was updated since i sent you the
update. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Mr. Chairman, one of the unique things about this property
and the reason for the delay in the tax cert is this property was dilapidated, unattended for
decades and conservatorship applied to the court for ownership, which was granted. And then my
client bought that property through the conservatorship and there were a number of
liens, judgments, taxes, and via court order, all those got situated, but that was part of the
delay. Thank you, sir. So anyway, back to the refusal. This is the CMX2 zoning district.
And as the board realizes in the CMX2 or CMX2.5 district, in order to promote active uses at the
street level of commercial uses, the first 30 feet of the building depth must be commercial.
We are not proposing commercial, and I'll explain why as we go through the presentation.
We do have a letter of support from the residents organized for advocacy and direction, and as the chairman mentioned at the outset, it was unanimous support.
So here are the photographs. This is in the Grace Ferry section of South Philadelphia.
Where my cursor is is Grace Ferry Avenue, and where my cursor is now is Washington Avenue.
So this property is situated really in between two commercial corridors.
That's where the commercial activity is, and that's where it's drawn.
On Grace Ferry Avenue, the Fresh Grocer is here.
It's a large supermarket, you know, sells everything that a supermarket typically does,
offer sandwiches, hot food, you name it, they have it, including wine and beer.
And then on Washington Avenue, though our commercial spaces are growing further and further west,
There's some of them are vacant on the 22 and 2300 block.
Not all of them.
Not all of them. Maybe there's leases signed, but currently there's residential structures there, but at least a half a block of vacant commercial structures on Washington Avenue.
Maybe there's leases signed, but currently there's residential structures there.
Right now, this is a vacant lot.
Again, as I mentioned, the owner purchased this property from a conservatorship because the property, which was residential, was not used and had been vacant and the heirs could not be found.
So under Act 135, a community organization or a conservator can petition a court for ownership, the court granted ownership to the conservator, and that conservator sold that property to my client, and then the monies or the proceeds from the sale of that property went to pay for the demolition costs, which the city demolished the property in 2022, went to pay back taxes and back liens,
with the understanding that the purchaser will have to construct a new property on this parcel
and basically unplate this vacant lot.
So this aerial view is meant to show that there are numerous multifamily already on the block
and in the neighborhood.
In fact, I know the board won't recall this, but where my cursor is now, this is 1220 South 27th Street.
I was before the board for this project about two or three years ago.
All these three houses here are zoned CMX2.
The corner is a single family.
1222 is a single family.
1220 was a vacant lot and zoned CMX2.
I appeared before the board and basically had the same presentation then with the same architect, by the way, that I'm having today.
we ask that there be no commercial on the first floor and that the board approve a two-family
dwelling. And that is in my packet. And as we move further south, this is a corner property.
This is two-family, 1236, two-family, 1230, two-family. And as you go further down the block,
1254, 1256 are all two-family. And some of these, when I get to the zoning map, are CMX2.
So we really don't have any commercial other than this corner store, which is right across the street from the property, which sells groceries, sandwiches, sodas, Gatorade.
As I said, the main commercial corridors are on Grace Ferry Avenue and Washington Avenue.
Just by way of reference, this parcel of ground right here has all been completely developed and it's workforce housing.
This is a view looking east.
Again, the vacant lot on the right, the food market corner store on the north side of the building.
Again, this is looking south on 27th Street, some new construction adjacent.
Posting of the sign, the plans.
So this is the frontage on 27th Street.
Try to match up with the house next door to give the appearance of a single family home.
The tops of the windows are in line with the windows next door.