Carol Tenere, city affirmed, 90-day save enforcement.
Thomas Holliman, appeal denied, with proviso.
Is there any way I can make it 120 days?
And Mr. Chairman, that should have said appeal denied, but I said city affirmed.
That's okay.
James Snell, appeal denied.
Ms. Snell Shahid, appeal denied.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you, and good luck, Ms. Scarpato.
Okay, so I think we're back to...
Mr. Chair, can we go...
to um excuse me um the okay find the number um be number six on your list yeah that's what i have
okay great yes the attorneys advised me that he is now available oh good mi2022-003-077-1521
watford avenue justin crick is the attorney letter of support from the 50th ward democratic
executive committee. I believe the attorney is coming in through Diana Thompson. Okay. Yes,
yes, they've been promoted to Panama, sir. Good morning, members of the council. Could you,
could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please yes justin crick k-r-i-k
address is 1500 jfk boulevard suite 630 philadelphia pennsylvania 19102 right do you
swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify
your client their relationship to the property yes uh my client is dara anderson on behalf of
her company, Uptown Event Venue LLC. She is the tenant of the property. Okay, our vice chair has
a few questions. Hi, Mr. Crick. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? Yes. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of
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? The answer is yes to all, but for the tax clearance, which the owner is resolving an
issue that just came up, does not understand the reason for it, but is resolving that
momentarily. Great. This is Hillary. In terms of the real estate taxes, there was a zero balance
on there, so you're fine on that end. Thank you. Okay, you may proceed and begin with sharing your
screen. Thank you. Sure. Members of the board, I am here on behalf of Uptown Event Venue and
its proprietor, Dara Anderson, seeking a special exception for the property located at 1521
Wadsworth Avenue in Philadelphia. This is a commercial property listed at CMX2, and we have
an application for the use as an event center or for assembly and entertainment, which, as you are
aware, the code does elaborate and includes nightclubs and private clubs within an existing
structure. This district requires that a special exception be obtained in order to operate this
type of business. To orient you, the refusal, again, the only issue here is the special exception
referral. The orientation is the property is located on a commercial corridor along Wadsworth
Avenue between Bayard and Providence Street. From a satellite view, you can see the entire
row of buildings on this are basically one-story commercial, as well as the opposite side of the
Street on Wadsworth. And zooming out, we'll show you one of the telling points of this is that
there is a roughly 180 car parking lot that is used in connection with this entire commercial
corridor. That parking lot was one of the main reasons why neighborhood concerns of parking
were kind of addressed and quelled, as is seen in the neighborhood's letter of support.
From a front view, this property is the property with the roll-down gate in the Wadsworth Plaza.
in the Wadsworth Plaza. They are separate and distinct properties. Each storefront is a different
They are separate and distinct properties.
owner. It should be noted that the property next door is a salon that is owned and operated by
this same applicant. So she is looking to kind of expand her business into this event venue space
and doing so right next to a business that she's been operating successfully next door
of a different type, but for many years. Here's a picture of one view of the interior and another
view of the interior. What you have basically is just an open space floor plan. There are two
storage rooms in the back and a powder room, but mainly the event is to be used as, I'm sorry,
the space is to be used for events such as birthday parties, wedding gatherings, bridal showers,
baby namings and other life cycle events. It is specifically not to be a nightclub. With that,
there is no liquor license associated with the property. The applicant has advised the
neighborhood association that there will be nothing, no space or time in the space offered
available after midnight on weekends and between nine and 10 on weekdays. There will be private
security personnel and our cameras that will be available for every event and management will be
on site at every event. We have copies of the posting notice on the gate and exemplar copies,
the first page and signature page of the lease agreement for the space. You can see 1521 Wadsworth
avenue and signature lines are at the bottom this is um you know contingent upon obviously zoning
approval and then we have the 50th ward who offered a letter of support and provided a very
good detailed explanation of uh the conversations that were where the the neighborhood understood
and approve this project. And then we have the application and project information form for the
record. Members of the board, the applicant has shown that the use of this property as an event
space would not do anything to exceed that which would be normally expected of an event venue,
that it would not increase congestion in the public streets, given that this is a commercial
corridor with adequate parking already. It will not overcrowd the land, impair any air or light
rights of neighbors, burden the public facilities, again impair or injure a neighbor, endanger public
health, or be inconsistent with the city plan. And with that, I'd like to ask Ms. Anderson if
she is available to adopt my testimony. Hi, Ms. Anderson. If you could raise your hand.
Yes. Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Good morning. Dara Anderson, D-A-R-R-A-H, Anderson, A-N-D-E-R-S-O-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes. Proceed. Thank you. Ms. Anderson, have you had an opportunity to hear my statements made to
the board today? Yes. And would you accept those statements as true and correct? Yes. And would
you adopt those statements as if they were your own if you were allowed to testify? Yes. I'm sorry,
you are allowed to testify. I mean, if you did testify. Yes. All right. Very good. Very good.
And just curious, you are the owner of Uptown Event Venue?
Yes, I am.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Mr. Chair.
Aye, Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair.
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
board members the proposed use uh will not present any detrimental impacts to the community beyond
what might be reasonably expected for such use and therefore we recommend that the board uh grant
this special exception all right mi 2022 003077 1521 wadsworth avenue i vote yes
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes
James Snell, my vote is yes
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes
Thank you, counsel
Thank you very much, have a good day
We want to go back to Haines Street
MI 2021
005284
Haines Street, Diane Manning
Haines Street, Diane Manning.
You've already been sworn
You've already been sworn.
Mr. Chairman, what number is that?
It's 15 on our original list, Carol.
That's the one she had a hard time at the computer.
Yeah, I have some mixed stuff here.
That's all right.
Ms. Manning?
How's our computer?
yes i found it okay thank you so get your files and you you can start sharing your screen mr chair
this is hillary i just wanted to let you know that we did receive a letter from the 10th
democratic board rco um and that letter is in support of the applicant's proposal okay thank you
it was right here
but that's not how the format that wasn't the format before
when you click on it will it come up because that that wasn't the format before until they
zoomed you in. Mr. Chair, this is Hillary again. We had not received the tax clearance and I just
checked the tax payments and there is an outstanding balance on this case. So if we
are able to move forward, we will not be able to vote on this case until the tax balance is
address. Thank you. Excuse me. My name is Tim Manning. I'm Diane's husband. We were having
problems with the computer as far as the tax clearance was concerned, but I do have a letter
from the Annette S. Acklin, Operation Manager of Philadelphia, GRB Law, stating that the taxes are
paid in full okay all right so what let's let's do this we heard you say that we need diane to get
her miss do you see the uh green uh share screen button yes so you would um push that button
after your files is open once you hit that button it'll allow you to pick a screen
and you can pick whatever your document's at
and click on it and then she'll open right up.
Thank you, LaKeisha.
Do you see the green button at the bottom?
Yes, we're going back to the files.
We had it open.
Oh, it's showing different now.
It's showing different since they opened you up.
Click on that and see what happens.
You might have to click that view screen and then exit full screen.
Is that it?
If it's on full screen.
Can you see what it came up?
Can you see that?
Close that out.
You're not going to get it like that.
The share screen.
I'm sharing the screen now.
Now, after the share screen, what did she ask you to do?
Open up what?
Hit the documents.
After you hit the share screen button, it will be like another screen,
and it will be showing like other things that's open on your computer.
Just click on your documents and click share.
Why did that come up?
Go back.
I was looking for it.
Share.
What does that do?
so diane how do we think you're doing with that
we had it up and it just whenever you whenever you click this on like we had the format
where it was open to us but once you click this on a different format is coming up now that's
not allowing us to share the document and i'm just trying to understand what's going on here
So if you want to maybe continue the case.
so if you want to um maybe continue the case they can reach out to the that's what i'm saying
and i'll work with a good date first what we'll do is sir uh diane yes we want you to get a hold
of the office right the zoning office they will help you prepare for the next time and what we'll
do is we'll continue this case and i'll see if we can't you know get you in a little bit quicker
than we normally do with most cases we'll get you back in and then we'll get you the next time okay
thank you sir okay okay so but i want you to call the office and they'll try to help you with that
and and that that way by that time we'll also have your tax information yes i was going to say and
and mr um miss miss manning um please send in that tax information because um sometimes there's
a delay between when you address the issue and when it shows up on the city system as being
address so if you could please forward that information to the same email you sent your
exhibits that would be great okay thank you have a great day all right thank you thank you or anyone
in the virtual audience whose case has not been called
no hands chair okay thanks everyone we did a lot of cases this morning
they moved through really well thank you see everyone at two o'clock thank you
Thank you, chair. Have a good day. Thank you, chair. This is the court reporter. I had just a few intermittent glitches. It didn't interfere with making the record, but I am going to step out and then come back in just to let you guys know.
Well, we're okay, but we're done for the day, right, Kel? No, we're not. We're done till two. That's what I'm saying. It's at two o'clock. Yeah.
Yes. I just want to, I'm going to close out and.
Okay, good. Fine. Thank you.
My, my internet's a little unstable.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing this afternoon's ZBA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere our Vice Chair. Present Mr. Chairman. Ishmael Shahid our Board Secretary. Present Mr. Chairman. Thomas Holloman our Board Member. Present Mr. Chairman. And James Snell our Board Member. Present Mr. Chairman. Also here is our Board Attorney Hillary Emerson and our Board Hearing Supervisor Lakeisha Dandy.
Before we begin, let's look at our virtual format. Be advised the proceedings are being recorded. By participating, your knowledge agreement will be recorded. A video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in the club.
And lastly, the question answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sumner.
So let's look at our continuances for this afternoon.