I have to have her close left, so she seems to be in a way that I do think it's wrong.
we ready okay um good morning chair we have 52 people in the virtual audience how many people
52 okay um does our executive director want to make a statement
good morning everyone welcome to the zoning board of adjustment just wanted to make a quick
announcement before we get started today there's likely to be a fire drill during this morning's
session if we do have to hold a fire drill um the meeting will be suspended until the uh
building staff gives us the all clear just wanted to make sure everyone knows there may be a
uh brief interruption in this morning's proceedings thank you chair
no we're just
it's illogical i said the same thing good morning everyone my name is bill bergman i will be
chairing this morning's meeting with me is our vice chair tenetta graham president mr chairman
board secretary cheryl l gaston president mr chairman board members michael johns president
mr chairman iowen who will be here any minute layla bb present mr chairman also here is our
attorney lynn reuter uber our executive director ian hagerty um this hearing is being recorded
and will be posted on the cba website by participating you consent to be recorded
this is an in-person meeting with remote participation whether in person or in zoom
if you are called to speak please state and spell your name then wait to be sworn in
after being sworn in each time you testify start by stating your name
to under your appearance indicate the address on your zoom webinar speak with a staff member
call this ebay office by the close of business tomorrow please call 215-686-2429 and provide
your name email and the case address with remote participation raise your virtual hand
when directed so that we can call you to speak when we call you ensure you click join as a
panelists button use the q a only for um only for uh questions not questions concerning the
individual case if you are joining by phone please please press star nine and raise your hand and
And then star six to unmute in in person participation.
If testifying, please state, please get close to the microphone so that all attendees and
the court stenographer can hear you.
No talking, eating or drinking during the hearings.
Aggressive behavior will not be tolerated in an emergency.
please follow staff instructions the the main exit is the double doors in the rear and also
the nearest stairwell is to the left if we evacuate go to Logan Park which is across
Art Street please remain here so that we can call on you so let's look at our schedule for this
morning number one mi 2026 002 135 854 corinthian avenue that case is continued until 2 10 27
at 9 30 a.m. number two mi 2026 002 593 5024 um c street um we have no exhibits for this case
um kuang long is the listed owner
good morning chair this is doreen and i will be co-hosting this morning and i see no hands
okay um so this is the first listing so this case will be continued until 2 10
So this is the first listing.
So this case will be continued until 2-10-27 at 9.30 a.m. and mark must be heard.
Number three, MI-2026-00258-459 East Walnut Lane.
This case is continued until 2-10-27 at 9.30.
Number four, MI 2026-002-639-6402-Walnut Lane, Wood Lane, Woodland Avenue.
This case is continued until 2-10-27 at 9.30 a.m.
Before the interruption, Chair, co-host, could you please promote interpreter Tram Lay to interpret that for Woodland Avenue?
Yes, give me one second.
Tram Lay?
Tram Lay has been promoted to panelists.
Good morning, sir.
Tran Lai, you're allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer?
Do you swear or affirm that you will interpret accurately, completely and impartially from English to Vietnamese and from Vietnamese to English?
Thank you very much.
So the results of this case is this case is continued until 2.10.27 at 9.30 a.m.
Thank you very much for your help.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you.
thank you interpreter you're dismissed
thanks a lot for choosing our service your honor interpreter disconnect the line thank you all right
thank you very much yes number five mi2026 000 549 7343 well i'm colin pike this case is
contingent until 2-10-27 at 9 30 a.m. and number 6 MI 2026 002-447-1606 West Tioga this case has been withdrawn
we want to go to our add-ons
Number one, MI-2025-007-690-3301, grains back.
The vote in this matter has been rescheduled to October 28th at 9.30 a.m.
number um number two can we have a spanish interpreter
uh spanish interpreter will be promoted thank you very much yes mr chairman i am yeah
I'm trying to be better.
Good morning, your honor. Good morning, members. Good morning. How are you? Could you please state
and spell your name for the stenographer? Yes, sir. My name is Leonel Gillen,
spelled as a first name spelled as an L-E-O-N-E-L
last name Gillen spelled as a G-U-I-L-L-E-N
You swear or affirm that you will interpret
accurately, completely, and impartially
from English to Spanish, from Spanish to English?
I swear.
So case number two,
let's call the person on.
Mr. Ward?
Is that?
It's a vote only, though.
It's a vote only though. It's a vote only though. We're only voting.
It's a vote on.
Okay. All right. That's it. We're okay. So MI 2026 002 284 4063 North 6th Street.
Bien, entonces el caso MI2020-600228-44063. Norte, Sexta Calle.
Thank you. I vote yes and our council will read in a proviso.
Very good, I vote yes, and our vice president will read the conditions.
Lynn Weidelhubber Board Council. As the chairman indicated, the vote is yes with proviso. The proviso is the approved use. Vacant commercial space on first floor.
Muy bien, entonces, soy Lynn Weidler y como miembro del consejo se indica de que el voto es sí con condición.
La condición es que debe ser, es que es aprobado con el uso de un espacio vacante comercial, un espacio vacante comercial en el primer piso.
Use, registration required prior to occupancy. That relates to the commercial space.
Se debe tener un registro previo a que se ocupe el lugar.
Relacionado con el, y el registro debe estar relacionado con el espacio comercial.
and two household family
and a bar y un área de dos familias un área de vivienda de dos familias en la parte de arriba
michael
uh i thought that was that was the no on the commercial
it is she supposed to be a yes vote and you had no at the end am i correct no no this is the other
one michael this is just with a commercial on the first floor no michael solamente con
el con la parte comercial en el primer piso i'm confused i'm confused in it i'm sorry
So, so, so the vote is the vote is yes with proviso.
Entonces la voto es sí, ok, la voto es, el voto es sí, pero con condición, ok.
With the, with commercial on the first floor in two household above it, that's all, you're saying yes.
Sí, que es la parte comercial en la parte del primer piso y vivienda de dos familias en la parte de arriba, ok, sí.
All right, thank you.
are you voting I thought I did he said yes with proviso oh okay
wait Michael can you make sure that's on the record again I don't know if it can oh yes
michael johnson my vote is yes with proviso seeing michael johnson we vote to see a corn condition
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso cheryl caston we want to seek a condition
tennetta graham my vote is yes supervisor tennetta winn
oh okay i'm sorry is this this i'm sorry because i'm still confused i know yes this this is the
one across from the school where we voted no on the commercial on the ground floor but okay for
the residential right no that that's another one that's different that's coming oh so this is not
the 20th street no no no okay okay all right okay because i have it i have a different on my list
sorry about that my apologies no no leila bb my vote is just with proviso i am when my brother
okay um number three mi 2026
zero zero two three two three 1733 west butler street i vote yes with proviso internal trash
storage muy bien ahora vamos con
thank you we appreciate your your help it's a pleasure uh may i be excuse your honor you can
it's a pleasure uh may i be excused your honor you can't sure thank you do you have uh one yes
start thank you we do have uh one yes
interpreter you're dismissed thank you michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
i win my vote is yes with proviso
okay number four mi 2026 002 485 1505 west gerrard avenue i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes iowen my vote is yes
number five mi 2025 006 um 000 622 64 41 20th street um
reviso i never mind we'll we'll come back to it in a minute
do not get online participants please stand by we're having a fire drill in the building
we'll resume shortly all right thank you everyone we appreciate your patience so we're going to move
to number six mi2026-009-460-3807 cambridge street our council has a comment here or announcement
lynn reidel huber board council
I'll go back our Council has comments relative
our so everyone knows we're on number six which is 3807 Cambridge Street our Council has an
announcement um yes lynn reidel huber board council the board is reopening the record in
this matter to conduct a resumption hearing on november 4th
um again i'll start the board is reopening this is in um 3807 cambridge street um the board is
reopening the record in this matter excuse me to conduct a resumption hearing on november 4th
2026 at 2 p.m. instead of the scheduled vote
i want to start over again okay i'll start over again lynn reidel huber board council
um this is an announcement uh the board is reopening the record in this matter to conduct
a resumption hearing on november 4th 2026 at 2 p.m instead of the scheduled vote the purpose
of the resumption hearing is to discuss any changes to the plans since the october 7th
hearing as well as to receive an update on any additional discussions with the community
regarding the project
Thank you. We're going to move to number seven. 2030 West Ontario Street. Candia Presley has filed a non-protunk hearing. Is she in the audience? We want to bring her on first.
No, I think we can just make it.
All right. So our counsel has a message for us relative to this case.
Yes. Candia Presley filed an appeal on behalf of 2030 West Ontario Street. I believe it's an LLC. The hearing in this matter will not go forward today. A new date for said hearing will be scheduled in the future.
Thank you very much. We're going to move to our regular list and we're going to start with
number seven and eight. So we'll hear this together. So MI 2026-002-514-4401 Silverwood
Street. And number eight is MI202600.
And number eight is MI-2026-002-534-4403 Silverwood Street.
John Hunter is a pro se for both, am I correct?
Correct.
Mr. Hunter.
John Hunter has been promoted to panelists.
Thank you.
john hannah you're allowed to speak
thank you good morning good morning john let me see if i see your
john could you turn your video on
it is on it should be on okay um
I don't I don't think it's on John we just see it like a white basically spot in the middle
dark screen with a white spot in the middle
I see your name yeah um I'm sorry about this
also for some reason I'm getting a delay on when I speak
okay um do you want to take a look at it and i'll come back to you i'll um i'll be back in a short
period of time i'll um let me come back in about uh 10 15 minutes how's that that's fine i'll try
and correct it, but I don't know how. Thank you, John. Number 9, MI 2025, 007-219-828
Brooklyn Street. Vernon Anastasia was the attorney. This is a resumptive hearing.
we're going to have to clarify a couple things sure burn is coming in as a panelist thank you
morning mr chair morning vernon could you please state and spell your name for this
sonographer. Yes, it's Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O. On behalf of Mr. Herbert Blackwood,
828 Brooklyn. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Vern, before we start, our counsel has just a few questions she wants to ask. Sure.
Well, I have a couple others just because you indicated your client. We have your client as
foac investment holdings llc is that correct that's correct mr blackwood is the sole uh
member no problem i want to clarify that um but with regard to the actual hearing today
um it looks like we received some plans but it looks like this was held for you to submit revised
plans and it wasn't clear if these were plans were revised or not because you did not submit
a proviso form yeah these plans are revised it has the eight foot setback um which eliminates
the um one of the refusals the only other refusal being uh the use as a two-family dwelling
um the proviso form will be forthcoming and that was not submitted i i did ask the architect to
put that together for us but i don't think i've gotten it back yet so if we need to hold the vote
until then i'll be we'll make sure that that's forwarded to you this week
um the chairman will decide on that but yeah we do need the proviso form
yep thank you okay so this is this is a result of hearing um one of you um and where i see it is
you're going to make a presentation of additional evidence am i correct correct and the questions
from the board public and also planning so why don't you start understood uh this is uh this
is a lot in question uh 828 brooklyn street yeah this is the result this is the rendering of the
property it would be a two-story aligned with the cornices on the adjacent properties and
then the third story will be setback eight feet the plot plan has not changed but for the eight
foot setback pages 9 and 10 of the exhibit show the basement and the first
floor layout the change of course is the second and third floors the second floor
of course is the second and third floors the second floor had your living room with the
living room.
bedroom in the rear and then the primary bedroom with the um the eight foot setback here
we also were able to meet with the rco
and they came in nine in favor
They're not in favor. They are in favor. Nine. Yeah. Majority. Three times as many folks are in favor. They wanted us to set back the third floor. Right. Which we did, which eliminated the primary refusal.
The only other refusal is the fact that it's a duplex and it's zoned for single-family because it's brand-new construction.
I believe even the neighbors agreed building a single-family home here would be just economically not viable,
not only for my client, but for anyone who wanted to occupy the space.
Aaron, could you show the basement again?
both with access wells in the front and the rear
and this is the first floor here okay um council this is lynn reidel huber board council that
letter of support that you showed was that the original letter of support or is that the letter
of support pursuing to your revised plans this was the this is an email wasn't necessarily a letter
it was email of uh initially uh but it was uh recommended by the rco that we revise the plan
to set back uh eight feet okay i just wanted to be clear because um i believe that was the original
one i i thought it indicated that you would you went back to them so you did not get another
letter from the rco no that's the that's the original uh email of support uh in our discussion
they had asked that we set that third floor back uh to eliminate that uh that refusal and we did so
bernie do you want to bring your client on and yes your
mr herbert blackwell if you're in the audience please raise your virtual hand
i do not see herbert blackwell the only hand i have is a lorraine davidson would that be
that's yep that's yep lorraine's fine as well okay yep
lorraine should be able to speak
good morning good morning how are you good morning could you please state and spell your name for
the stenographer lorraine davidson l-o-r-r-a-i-n-e d-a-v-i-d-s-o-n
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Ms. Davidson, you are a business partner with Mr. Blackwell. Is that correct?
Yes. Yes, I am.
Thank you very much. And you heard my presentation to the board this morning?
True and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you very much. I have nothing further.
Questions from the board.
you know the one comment i have and you know i say this all the time is you know on the first
floor you've got this bedroom uh you're forcing the three family dwelling to have to go through
someone's bedroom to utilize an outdoor space uh the backyard it absolutely is bad bad bad i can't
support it i just can't support i can't support we have to go through having to go through a
bedroom to go to a backyard i understand trash is stored out there the dog is stored out there
the barbecues are out there you're forcing families to go through someone's most private
space to utilize an outdoor space it's just bad because we have two bedrooms in the lower level
if this board is so inclined to as a proviso no bedrooms on the first floor we can turn that back
room into a shared living space but we still would have two viable bedrooms for the unit
other questions
is this the first third story on this block
is this the first third story on this block
miss davidson are there other three-story buildings on the block
yeah there are a lot of apartments on this block um not apartment stories three stories are there
are there any with third floors i'm not sure actually um i'm not sure according to
Our third floor will be compliant now with the revised plan, though.
So it's no longer.
It looks like there are some three stories.
Because from my Google Maps, it's not showing any.
All right.
That's my other question.
Questions from our attorney.
I think that answers it, but you indicated that the proviso form would be forthcoming.
Yes, it would be.
and again if there was a if the board is inclined also say it again i was talking to the chairman
okay and if the board is inclined to uh eliminate any bedrooms on the first floor we would be
amenable to that as well okay if we can provide so that i don't know that we can but i would be
amenable to that i think i think the board has said no basement bedrooms in the past so i
I think, I don't think that the floor would matter here.
Is this ready to go now?
Is that what you're saying?
I mean, you could, but I mean, I don't know if you want to discuss it because of the bedroom issue.
That's me.
I don't want to step on it.
So questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good morning, Chairman.
david fecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission you swear or firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir i do um please proceed sir thank you sir uh chairman
and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2023 in a community
supported map change at that time this property was zoned rm1 residential multifamily this is a
majority single family block face the single the city planning commission recommends the board
deny the proposed use variance for two dwelling units okay so verne i'm going to hold this till
next uh wednesday and we'll vote at 9 30 a.m i just want to go over a couple issues with it okay
thank you and uh just and although i appreciate the planning commission's input uh this would
be a ground-up, brand-new construction. If we were required to build a single-family home here,
it would be neither economically or practically viable. The neighbors agree. So, thank you.
All right. All right. So, Vern, why don't you stay on, too? Why don't I go to number 10?
Oh, yeah.
Right? So, MI 2026-002-563-164 East Stafford Street. Vern, could you just state your name for
record yep it's verna anastasio anastasio on behalf of mr vincent douglas okay um our vice
chair has a few questions good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in
advance of this hearing yes and do you weigh the reading of your refusals and stipulate to their
accuracy i do okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case and ver before
you start counsel um do we we need anything on this case i think you said amended refusal there
might be let's see how the testimony okay all right good thank you all right go ahead
this is just for the relocation of lot lines and for the use uh for equipment and material storage
yard um and commercial vehicle repair and maintenance uh on this property this long
associated property that has never been a single-family home, at least in recent memory.
So we've been refused for use.
And let me...
So, the consolidation plan, you have these several lots here that we'd like to consolidate here.
Council, we don't see anything yet. It looks like now it does. Okay.
yeah it says i'm it says i'm sharing
you can
you can see that yes we see that yep okay so this is the proposed lot
you're not sharing it oh now you're sharing again yeah there's the layout
We have an office here, building and storage.
It's roughly 18 by 20 feet.
We have an air compressor next to it.
We have a garage and storage that is 30 feet wide.
There's space for construction debris, as well as additional storage and parking.
We went door to door on the block and got everyone who lives on the block to support the appeal, as my client is a well-known member of the community and has served these folks as well as others in the neighborhood with commercial vehicle repair and maintenance.
and by the way this has been going on for quite some time he believed that this was already
legalized i'll bring up the layout again of the site in question and of course it's all secured
with a front gate 16 foot wide right along stafford street with that i like to call mr
vincent douglas to the stand
mr douglas he's coming in now chair sure thank you
you're welcome
let me try it again
there he is he's been promoted okay thank you
okay can you hear me i can could you please state and spell your name for this stenographer
vincent douglas v-i-n-c-e-n-t last name douglas d-o-u-g-l-a-s-s
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel.
Mr. Douglas, did you hear my presentation to the board?
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Absolutely, yes.
And do you adopt it as your own?
Very well.
Please stay tuned for any questions about the use.
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
what kind of business are we doing here oh it's um well we do cement work
and um so we service the community in germantown mount airy and uh um west oak lane
okay so you're actually uh uh making a cement there no no we what are we doing well when they
call us and they need um work um we pretty much we uh go to their job site and um uh we you know
repair any kind of cement needs that they that they need ah okay so the trucks go out those are
those trucks where you can make those cement in the in the little back there well we really we
don't make any cement really there we we basically go to this job site we take our equipment and our
tools and we go there and um we perform our duties as patching grip pointing things like that
so we load our trucks in the morning with our tools and um and we go to the job sites
okay so this is more for like storage of the trucks and the equipment and that kind of thing
is that yeah yes because we bring in our um like we have some lumber you know for setting forms
um we have a lot of tools and air compressors for like breaking the concrete the dump trailers for
like um uh you know haul hauling the uh broken concrete onto the trailer to the dump site
uh to the dump site okay all right and mr douglas you also um repair and maintain these the the
okay all right and mr douglas you
trucks on site is that correct yeah only my equipment that's it yeah yeah okay all right
thank you um how many trucks how many trucks are being stored here four four and then have you
talked to any of the neighbors i know that like stafford street is a very neural street
you i see from the google earth that like you've got cars that are parked sort of half on the
sidewalk really even right outside your fence and so i think my question is more about the quality
of life for neighbors as you're kind of pulling heavy machinery and trucks and materials out to
go to construction jobs yeah so we pull out in the morning and um and i live across the street
so i own the properties across right across immediately across the street um there's one
neighbor our neighbor uh next door and she's you know very happy with with um um you know like
the way i've taken care of the community and the way i handle helping her around her house
to be pairing things and things like that so and there's not that many neighbors on the block it's
only just us yeah it's really the four of you it looks like yeah we have uh half a dozen neighbors
uh of the six households on the block uh we were able to get ask them all for support and they
uh they are uh actually a big fan of uh what mr uh douglas does here okay firm what about
the rco meeting what happened there we had the rco there wasn't a whole lot of opposition
we had immediate neighbors show up but i did not get a letter from the rco we we did not either
correct okay um okay um questions for our attorney yes uh i have a couple questions um with regard
to you mentioned uh parking um are you creating parking spaces what's happening with the parking
well that's just it's places for their trucks to go into okay uh to do work uh parking is not um
as part of your application so you would need to get an amended refusal for that
um what about your gate um i don't see that mentioned anywhere in the application
there is mention about the fencing but i don't believe that the gate is mentioned
well it it it exists okay that would most likely need an amended refusal also
because the fencing is mentioning refusal which i believe would be the um the four feet in height
i believe the fencing concerning the lot line i don't believe it's concerning the gate itself
but not the it's the same height as the fence so i'm just wondering what the how high is the fence
how high is the you got a refusal for the fence so then right and the gate and the
fence are exactly the same height but the gate is not mentioned understood okay um
thirdly i just want to clarify uh because there was an email that was attached in your application
your submission that indicated that um there would be light for uh fabrication excuse me
of concrete forms and related prep work that was to be done at the property is that not being done
at the property but my client has clarified that that will not be done at the property
okay because it was mentioned on the email because that would that would entail another
you know reason for an amended refusal understood so there is not going to be any making of anything
if i can use the correct word that's correct that's his anything that's what he just testified
to yes i just want to make sure we're clear on that so okay but like i said if regard to the
gate and the parking you would need to um um have an amended refusal with regard to that
so so for the fence there's the you said the fence is four feet but there's it sits on top
of like a like a four foot wall so does that matter
or do you need something for that wall too like it takes into your it takes into your gate there's
a four foot wall and then like four or five foot wall and then on top of that is a four foot gate
a four foot fence so just want to make sure you got the the correct refusal you know what i mean
once it's amended yeah i mean you also when you're going to back for an amended i don't know why the
description the fencing wasn't indicated in your description it's part of refusal but it also
should be in the application itself with regard to a description of the fencing and the gate itself
as well as the parking yeah I do believe it was submitted in Eclipse thus the refusal for it but
but I can make I can get clarity on that
our questions from the virtual audience
questions from the virtual audience
there are no hands here planning commission
thank you chairman and good morning david vecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa 5 residential
single family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1980
and a council supported map change at that time these properties had been zoned single family since the original zoning maps were produced in 1933 there appears to be a long-standing unlicensed contract or storage business at this location the city planning commission recommends the board deny all proposed variances
Mr. chair I appreciate the planning commission's input but their own testimony is that these properties have never been a single family home
for quite some time thank you uh how long do we need to for him to do what i can get amended
refusal only within two weeks so why don't we give a two week date sorry let me get my calendar out
sorry oops yeah uh the 28th okay mr chairman october 28th correct october 28th and 9 30
will do. Okay, Vern, you'll have it all. Thank you. But otherwise, the record is closed. Is that
correct? Except for the reamended refusal. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Let's go back to number
seven and eight. So, John Hunter, Mr. Hunter. John Hunter is rejoining as a panelist.
uh good morning again there you go there you go okay yeah just just to make every one clear this
is for 41 4401 silverwood street and also 4403 silverwood street um mr hunter just for the record
again. You've already been sworn, if I remember correctly. Am I correct?
William Moore- No. I don't think so. William Moore- You haven't been sworn.
William Moore- I don't think so. William Moore- Okay. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? William Moore- I do.
William Moore- All right. So we're going to hear both cases together, and then we'll probably vote
separately. But our Vice Chair has a few questions for you, sir.
William Moore- Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits
14 days in advance of this hearing? William Moore- I did.
Okay. And for both cases, it's your understanding that you're looking to—you had expired building
permits and you're looking to renew some zoning permits for work that was previously approved?
That's correct, too.
Okay. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
okay um i'll just go through all the sort of procedural exhibits first um the description
is correct um the building permit i was informed about a year ago now by l and i by letter that
they considered that the building permits for these two houses had expired and that i would
have to renew new building permits, not renew, sorry, apply for new building permits for both
properties. Subsequently, during discussions and after making a submission for building permits on
the basis that the properties were already externally 85% complete, that it would be a
partial submission of a building permit. That was clarified that that was not the case by
L&I and that it would have to be two new building permits as if the buildings
didn't exist and they also told me that because of the cancellation of the
building permits the zoning permits had also been cancelled so that's why we're
reapplying for the two variances that were originally granted by the zoning
Board in 2018 and there's one additional variance, sorry, refusal that was identified by the L&I
Examiner which has come about because of a clarification of a part of the zoning code
that affects 4403 and that triggered another refusal. So just quickly I'll go through the
various property here's the the deed and load the subdivision of the property
the subdivision of the property
the transfer tax the um clarification on the tax real estate taxes john we have all your paperwork
so why don't you try okay all right yeah okay we understand it okay i'll zip forward um including
the certificates and everything else the listings all right um i appreciate this new system so here
Here is a photograph of the existing building, and you can see the zoning notices that are attached to the existing building.
And this is the extent of the property as it already exists.
I'll go back. This is the summary of the meeting on the September the 2nd of MNC.
I, a zoning chair, recused myself and just presented the scheme.
And this is the vote that was taken, which was unanimous, but in support.
Here is the, just briefly go back and treat it as LNI instructed me to, as if it's a new proposal.
This is the building as I purchased it over a decade ago now.
And it used to be used as the principal Masonic Lodge.
And then they decided to relocate because most of their members were in Germantown and they sold the property.
You can see that the property originally was two buildings.
The one on this, on the top left-hand corner, that was the original building.
It was an 1860s cottage, three-story, and adjacent to it was a later addition of a house in about 1900.
As you can see, the building is set back from the front boundary.
And when I say the front boundary, when I bought the property, the OPA address was for 200 Levering Street.
So it was 200 and 202 Levering Street.
The existing house beyond, which is not part of this application, is 204.
Levering Street. Because when the property was proposed and developed, the front door was moved
onto Silverwood Street, the OPA address was changed to Silverwood Street. So just to sort
of clarify that, here is the state of the property was in bad condition. They'd used it as a sort of
meeting room on the middle floor and a kitchen and dining area and toilet rooms on the lower floor
and storage on the top floor. My proposal for the original application was to add to the front of
the Levering Street side the six-foot difference between where the building is and where the
property line is on both Levering Street and on Silverwood Street, and to replace most of
the the internal walls and floors and add another floor on the top of the on the top floor
um this is the floor plan for the first floor and this really explains the original two
refusals one for 4401 and one for 4403 this area that i'm sort of enclosing here
is 4401. And you can see that with a new entrance door on Silverwood Street, even though the title
of the drawings, the original drawings were still Levering Street, that because this became the
front of the building for the OPA address, LNI therefore considered what was previously a side
yard to be a rear yard. And the proposal was to put a parking space on that side yard.
So now that became parking in the rear yard, and that created a refusal.
The curb cut, which has been installed, really was in the area that was where there is no parking because of its proximity to the junction with Silverwood and Leverie.
The other refusal, 4403, was because the original walls, and as you can see them in shade and gray here, extended all the way back to what was originally the side yard.
But again, because this became an OPA address of 4403 Silverwood, this became the rear of the property, and there should be, because it's an RSA 5 district, there should be a rear yard of a minimum of 7 feet.
So the proposal here is, in the subdivision, to create a side yard of the property, which is this area, which is 14 feet by 10 feet, larger than was required, and that was to be attached to 4403.
So those are the two original variances which were granted, and building permits were secured.
and building permits were secured. What then happened was a local developer had seen
What then happened was a local developer
the presentation at the MNC meeting and approached me and asked me as an architect to design
the vacant lots adjacent to this property. And there were originally two lots that
he purchased and then he added another lot. So there were three lots and there were three houses
that were designed.
And the reason that's relative to this variance application
is because if I go to the next,
I hope it was the next one.
Oh, first of all, these are just the drawings
of the original variance appeal.
This is the Leverington Elevation,
Levering, sorry, Elevation,
and then Silverwood Elevation.
and this is just the refusal for the latest refusals.
And you can see that on 4401, that's the original refusal just for the side yard
that became a rear yard and the parking space in the rear yard created a refusal.
On 4403, the lack of a rear yard was one of the refusals, and the other refusal was because of a parking arrangement that was agreed with the developer for the adjacent property, which I'll now show you.
So, just as an explanation, this gray area here is 4401 and 4403.
The adjacent plan shows 4405, 7 and 9. And because of the steep slopes associated with this property, at the rear of the property, the whole property was part of a significant rock outcrop.
So the design developed so that the lowest floor that was related to the sidewalk would be used for parking, shared parking between the three houses, and the living spaces and bedrooms would be on the floor above.
What that also gave was the opportunity for three parking spaces for those houses, but also one parking space for 4403 in this shared diagram arrangement.
And that proposal was carried through and went for variances for steep slopes and for this arrangement and was approved.
What that triggered on my, going back to my 4403 approval, was that there needed to be an administrative review with L&I for this change in this area of the plan for 4403.
And also, I then had to go to the Board of Building Standards because the separating wall was penetrated and required a granting of an appeal from them.
So, because of that later change, that is the additional refusal that was identified by the plan examiner.
sometime in 2020. David Fecto might know more than I do. I didn't quite understand it.
What was in the code before, which was a shared driveway, was acceptable to have a front access.
It was pretty efficient because it only took one parking space from the Silverwood Street
and granted four parking spaces within the site. That was no longer compliant with the zoning code
because this parking space straddled the property line
and it was no longer considered a driveway
because it was underneath the deck of the houses above.
So those are the two refusals for 4403.
And this is just the zoning plan that went through at the time,
again showing there's 4401, 4403,
the shared parking space that triggered the second refusal for 4403.
That pretty much, just so that it just clarifies it,
that is the existing house construction as it stands at the moment. It's been like this for a
year now while this process has gone on. You can see in the distance 4405, 7 of 9, which were
completed and occupied and the parking arrangement works fine and so that pretty much is the
scheme. This is just the interior photographs which I don't think are really
of interest. So I'm happy to answer any questions.
So I'm happy to answer any questions.
Okay. Questions from the board.
So if granted, and so are they saying that now you will have to get new building permits
and will you be required to be under the latest building code?
Oh, yes. Yeah. Thank you for that question.
The building permits process I've already gone through, and it's been approved subject to these appeals being granted.
But yes, what it means is that it's now triggered a whole host of – I've had to go through getting a structural engineer to reassess the original calculations, et cetera, for lateral bracing, which has changed.
The sprinkler system has been upgraded because of a PWD change to a backflow preventer and many other things like that.
Yes, it's been pretty much an enormous upheaval.
And frankly, I don't understand why, but that's a separate issue.
How close are you to finishing the project?
When the work was stopped, I mean, as you can see, the exterior is finished.
And the idea was to complete the exterior and that you just saw a brief glimpse of the photographs.
The interior of the is ready for drywall internally and then just the fitting out of bathrooms and kitchens.
Other questions?
questions for our attorney um has this been reviewed by streets because you made a change
with regard to 4403 yes it was reviewed as part of the 440579 application okay and streets already
looked at could you have a curb cut for 4401 correct yeah yeah that was not only the curb cut
but um obviously you can see the uh handicap uh depressed ramps on the corners that was all
gone through with streets sight lines and everything else yeah it was just a normal
uh application previously okay thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
there are no hands or any commission
thank you chairman and good morning david pecto with the city planning commission
chair will give the same testimony for 4401 and 4403 thank you so the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single-family zoning at this location the city
rezoned this neighborhood in 1979 a council supported map change this appeal appears to be
a resumption of a previously approved project which is substantially complete the city planning
commission recommends that the board grant the proposed variances for both 4401 and 4403
silverwood street so i'm going to do uh them separately so number seven mi 2026 002 514
4401 silverwood street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my body shots
tenetta graham my vote is yes i win my vote is yes layla bb my vote is yes and number eight
mi 2026 002 534 4403 silverwood street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
gerald gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes i win my vote is yes layla bb my vote
yes thank you john thank you very much okay sure i'm going to move on to number 11. mi 2026 001
087 1634 1635 church lane alan knockamson is the attorney
mr knockamson could you please state and spell your name for this thermometer good morning mr
chair members of the board alan knockamson a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could
you identify your client a relationship to the property so my client is germantown acquisition
llc uh the owner of the property and to my left is alan borovitch uh its member okay and just
so you know we received the letter earlier this morning about four o'clock this morning
like we we received it for something this morning too and been dissecting it okay all right all right
our vice chair has a few questions oh we also got uh i think uh letters of opposition or
petitions of opposition also yeah we yeah and we received those too and we would like to address
those as well good morning um have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of
um have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing yes other than
hearing? Yes, other than
the letter of opposition that was delivered at four something this morning we did deliver
everything 14 days in events thank you and do you weigh the reading on your refusals and stipulate to
the accuracy i do okay thank you see your screen and proceed with your case just make sure i get to
the right screen so i will say for a project this large we only have one refusal dimensionally we
have met all the requirements of rsa 5 on a 22 000 square foot loss um we're set back to the left
we're set back to the right we meet the height requirements we're 50 feet set back uh in the rear
we met with the community in the strangest way possible where we had a community meeting started
at six o'clock where the community organizer took our poster boards told us to leave the room and
she made a presentation for an hour in front of that community group we and where the it was hosted
at a church and the the reverend is looking at me saying well what i need to leave soon like why
you know when are you going to be done i'm like we haven't even started and i was told not to
enter the room eventually he's like let's go in and we did and i was rushed in a presentation
of a 48 unit project uh which is impactful for the community and a good thing for the community
um and you know i was you know basically i was given to the wolves and you know basically you
know we had someone present an hour um and then people were like i'm done i just want to vote
which is not fair now there's a james nelson who's behind us where we've met at the main community
meeting and he's come to both of these hearings we haven't spoken to him other than those three
times and you know i'd want to mr nelson to understand that he's behind us and there's a
retaining wall which he has had issues over the years that behind us at when we initially met
with him we told him we're going to take care of that right we'll work collaboratively on that
he came to the original hearing which we postponed at the request of the rco we told him that again
we assumed we were going to meet with him on this additional community meeting that never happened
what i heard from mr nelson today which is completely shocking there's been three other
community meetings we haven't been invited to which is nuts like you can't have that there's
a process here so whether what you think of the project as a community organizer is one thing
rcos are supposed to provide a forum that's it they're not supposed to have an agenda
and to have three other community meetings where we're not attending them i'll go on the merits
i will sit there all night long and talk to you and you may disagree with me and that's fine
right that's your prerogative like whether wherever you live like where i live i get to decide
where someone else lives they get to decide and there's no hard feelings right you know these are
you know impactful for a lot of people but you can't create a forum where it's one-sided when
i talked to mr nelson there was things that were misstated and he was misinformed and that's a very
frustrating process and you know while you know acca is a very involved group and i respect the
work that they do, they're also problematic in the sense they don't provide a fair forum,
which is very frustrating. So anyway, I'm going to present this.
All right. So we have 11 exhibits. We'll go through them. We do have the letter that was
submitted to us a little before 5 a.m., and we did go through it. And, you know, Mr. Nelson
actually gave a lot of flavor, too, to show there's some things that weren't stated in the
letter that were discussed, including but not limited to the community organizers stating,
well, they're providing parking. Most apartment buildings of this sort, they don't provide
parking. That's a good thing. That could be used against us. So let's not discuss parking in front
of the ZBA. So that's, you know, very frustrating. So again, this is a 22,000 square foot building
and a lot. And we're proposing to have 42 dwelling units on slab
accessible with an elevator so this is completely accessible building with 21 parking spaces
uh and a garbage room a mail room like this is a very sophisticated building a very nice building
um and we're hoping and which is not also out of character to the buildings that are surrounding us
there are multiple examples of apartment buildings with no parking which are not accessible which
don't have elevators and which are not affordable where we we believe that the affordability would
be like a 60 percent ami and especially for an agey population within this neighborhood this is
a good alternative which was discussed at the community meeting they wanted us to make a
commitment to make this completely senior housing we said we can't do that we don't know the market
but we do envision a lot of people who want to age gracefully in the neighborhood will have an
but we do envision a lot of people who want to age gracefully in the neighborhood will have an
opportunity to rent these nice units that are accessible. So let's just go over the ladder,
right? They're against it. Now, first thing is they talk about the height. There's no height
variance. We're 38 feet high. And you'll see in the pictures, again, the site plan. And by the way,
we have Scott Woodruff of Design Blends who'll walk through those plans as well as necessary.
we're set back 10 feet on the left and there's a there's actually a common driveway for residents
who the rear of their properties on the intersecting street which i would assume the driveway
is another 15 feet or more so we're set back 25 feet from their building structures we have a curb
cut within you know we have a curb cut currently in front of our building we're repositioning it
so that we're 18 feet driveway where we're separated from the building to the right of us
and then we're 50 feet set back you want to go over this yeah it'd be nice if we could see yeah
all right that's fine yeah yeah and then we can go over the letter i mean i'm we'll go over i know
you're a little hot with the letter but let's just do the normal presentation all right all right
well i just want to say these are the things we heard from the community
no i'm talking about in terms of revised plans what we did hear from the communities they wanted
us to remove the balconies from the left and the right of the building which we did we didn't want
to like oversee people's houses which also allowed us to reduce the occupied area to 52.6 percent of
the building of the lots which is again for an rsa 5 property that's more like an rsa 3 type of
coverage perspective and we increased the side yard because we eliminated the balconies so now
our side yard is essentially 10 feet to the left. So again, is it out of character to have apartment
buildings nearby? The answer is no. There's a 50 unit right to the side of us on the other side
of 17th on Church Lane. There's one at 6001 North 17th Street, which is 36 units. Again,
no parking. And then there are multiple other instances nearby. Like we're just off of,
you know, Broad Street, you know, 6301 Old York Road, 40 units, 6302 Old York Road, 69 units,
6300 Old York Road, 308 units, Conlin is 88 units, Grange is 36 units. So there's many other
instances. Are there single families and smaller multifamilies? Yes, but it's not out of character.
Again, what is out of character is the size of our lot, which is 22,000. Well, we're combining
three lots which are rather deep in size to combine it for 22 000 square feet you can also
see there is a mix of zoning classifications whether cmx2 two and a half and rm1 nearby as well
and you can see like we're not that far off from like again uh old york road here again to help
support the commercial corridor you usually do have multi-family nearby and then photographs of
the property again a pretty massive vacant lot these this is the driveway of the properties on
17th street we're going to even be set back another 10 feet here you can see this is the
curb cut that currently exists for this property we're moving it closer to you know adjacent to
this building structure to provide windows to the left and and to the right of this building
our building and also to provide us a setback you know in terms of looking at people's light
in there even though we're only 38 feet high this is the property since 2015 so it's been a vacant
lot these are orange notice posters you know proof of posting we've tried to do a tighter shot of
that church lane to the right of the property to left of the property and then our plans and
drawings this is a four foot structure so you can see there's a front door here we actually have a
ramp here for to make it for accessibility purposes as well we got rid of all of the
regular balconies and juliet balconies here we do have balconies in the front of the building
we added trees in the front of the building and there's a ton of landscaping to left and and
and to into the rear of the property as well and it's just different angles of seeing that
you can see here's the driveway i was talking to it's a two-lane drive driveway a two-lane
driveway going in and out of 18 feet wide trying to see what else no no roof deck access structure
other than for mechanicals again you know we can always put a roof deck on there because
they were complaining there's not enough um outdoor space which we think there's ample but
you know you can see this is the rear of the property this is the retaining wall we're talking
about here kind of because there's a huge drop um and you know we we again talked to mr nelson
And, you know, we, again, talked to Mr. Nelson and we've said on three occasions separately, we'll work with him and collaborate with him on that. You can see a lot of shrubbery to provide natural landscaping and a buffer to the nearby properties. And again, we're 50 feet set back here, 49 feet, six inches, I think, directly.
and we've said on three occasions
And again, this is the rear axis to the building as well.
And then there were questions about sloping. Let me just see. I guess this one would be the one that talks about sloping here. There are questions about our sloping of the property that we're not giving an accurate sloping of it.
Apparently, there's an architect who says, who stated our plans are not correct, which again, we have a survey. We have design blends, which is a known well known architecture firm.
um you know everything's been blessed by the survey district by the planning commission by
l and i um but we actually slope from front to back we go have a slight slope not much so we
actually go shorter in in the in the uh back as compared to the front but again we're 38 feet high
and then if you look at it here's the front door for this property this is the ada accessible ramp
here. And this is the area, which is the outdoor area, which again, we have bollards here because
what we envision is for trash. Again, Alan owns Liberty Bell Management too. So he self-manages
his properties. And I think he has hundreds, if not over a thousand properties in the Philadelphia
region. He's well-versed in handling these types of apartment buildings for himself and others.
like what he envisions is a minimum of two days a week potentially three days a week of commercial
trash pickup and you know what he envisions too is probably not even a trash truck that's the big
trash truck that you wouldn't envision but that trash truck would come here we have bollard set
up where it would raise you know when when the when it is trash day and it would do basically
come in you know like make the turn and then come out with a three-point turn and come out this was
all blessed by the you know streets department too um but like you know here's the trash room
right here we try to be responsible about having the trash room towards the rear we don't want to
block anyone's traffic like the street in any way here's the bike storage and we'll go through the
floor plans as well um but you know and here's the outdoor area where even this area right here
is 21 by almost 40 so that's almost 800 square feet right here and then in addition to you have
this little area here which is another 30 by 21 so that's another 600 square feet so other than
trash day where you may have to like block this area for the trash truck like you know this will
be an open area for all the residents and you can see there's a huge buffer here um that we have
for landscaping as well again to make sure that with the people that it's the rear of their
properties in 17th street like they have some nice landscaping a nice buffer as well you can see the
buffer back here as well and then again this is the area that kind of is a huge
drop-off and mr. Nelson can kind of tell you a little bit about that but you can
also see that there's a you know this drive aisle which is not ours that's
for the properties on 17th Street and then they're even set back further
because it's the rear of their houses on 17th Street this is the site plan let's
see let's go for the floor plans let's try the floor plan all right so floor plans i think maybe
we'll go back one all right floor plans okay so you walk in you have a common lobby area
you have a leasing office because we're going to have someone dedicated there
you have a trash room there's a mail room that's going to be right here as well so a common mail
room and you have the bike area and the trash room you have four units here like so basically
the breakdown is um 20 excuse me 15 two bedrooms which range in size from 896 square feet to 1015
square feet one 26 one bedrooms which with the range of 636 square feet to 200 677 square feet
and one studio which is 569 square feet so all good size and then by the way here's the elevator
to the common elevator and we'll go through the floor plans i think more so just showing you the
different versions of it right so this is the studio right so speaks for itself all washer and
dryers that are in there um and here's you know a unit type of b floor plan so you walk in right
here's you know a unit type of b floor plan so you walk in right you have a closet you have a
8 yab o'clock.
kitchen a living room and dining room right you have a bedroom and this is the washer and dryer
bathroom not too far away from the bedroom this is a unit a type of floor plan where you have a
living room in the kitchen right here you have a closet area you have a washer and dryer and then
you see the bedroom here and the bathroom's not too far away and again we there's no basement level
which is going to be used for living there is you know no one's going through a bed like a uh the
back of their their you know in a bedroom they're not going through like the outdoors this is a very
responsible apartment building and then if you look at here this is the two bedroom right so you
walk in you have the living room and the kitchen area you have the bedrooms near the bathrooms here
and you have the washer and dryer here here's another floor plan which is another two bedroom
you can see both bathrooms are next to the bedrooms you have an open floor plan as well here
and then the washer and dryer's there and then here's another floor plan where you walk in you
have the kitchen and the living room you can see this there's two bedrooms two baths and the
bathrooms are right there and here's the washer and dryer and then finally you have the two bedroom
here you walk in you have the washer and dryer here you have a bathroom right next to a bedroom
you have a kitchen with a living room and open floor plan and you have the other bedroom next
to the bath the other bathroom and this is just a survey of the property so one of the things that
the community group asked for was the was you know that a survey which we did do and we did a site
plan so we met with the community once right so we actually had to send a 45-day letter where they
wouldn't get to us we were like please we have a meeting you know so we sent out a notice on may
22nd to the community basically saying hey we have this project here like we would like to present
to you we eventually got a meeting on june 24th at at 6 p.m we didn't present till 7 p.m they
presented with our poster boards at 6 p.m for an hour um then we were supposed to have a hearing
on july 8th and they asked for a continuance because they wanted to have further discussions
we said of course we'll do further discussions we've been begging for a meeting since then now
we found out there were three separate meetings that we weren't involved in you know so i i can
only that's why i'm a little bit heated up about this notice yeah so we mailed to 102 addresses
nearby um and i don't know if mr nelson received it but you know we we always are more than happy
to talk to community members you know during you know during the community meeting after the
community meeting and before the hearing proof of mailing
our application for zoning variance our deed to property showing germantown
acquisition llc allen's llc owns the properties 22 000 square foot property
and our certificate of tax clearance for each of the properties 1631 33 and 35
church lane let's go now to to the letter
let me get let me just go maybe just move this up a little bit's a lot
okay let's just go over the petition right which by the way mr nelson signed because he didn't
know we're in communication with uh with with the community organizer but if you look at even the
petition we we do these petitions too and we keep it up front we're like we take the notice of
refusal language and say this literally track and say per the attached notice refusal i don't
flavor these at all right you know and we have someone walk the neighborhood and you know we
do have bullet points for them to say this is what the project's about if they have follow-up
questions but oh geez i gotta get my my computer's about to die but it's it says the undersigned
neighbors, the 1631-1635 Church Lane, state to the ZBA that they oppose granting lock
consolidation and zoning variance to allow the erection of a proposed four-story, 42-unit
apartment building at this location due to the numerous overlooked, ignored, and unaddressed
burdens shall the, I think it says shall, the proposed building will place on the surrounding
neighborhoods well when you have inflammatory language like that of course someone's going to
sign that we're being overlooked ignored and unaddressed that's not a proper form that's not
that's not a proper form that's not the way you do it like if people are against it that's fine
the way you do it like if people are against it that's fine like let's
like let's have a conversation and maybe we never convince them that's fine too like you know it
happens I think this is a responsible project though so let me uh well hopefully my computer
doesn't die um but here height right the proposed property is oddly configured on a high elevation
that towers over residential blocks below well we talked to james about that i said you know james
do you have any issue with the height and you know we're i just want to let you know we are 50 feet
setback and we're set back on the sides as well but the what would be the most important to him
is is the back he's like no i'm not gonna be able to see your property what i'm concerned about is
the retaining wall and you know we haven't gotten a straight answer from the group that you're going
commit and i said james we spoke the day of the community meeting we spoke when he came the first
time the first hearing and we expected to have future communications with him when we never did
but i said so make sure you understand we're making that commitment he's like oh okay you
know a light study was requested at the meeting at as multiple blocks will have their air visibility
surroundings obstructed by the enormously elevated building it's only elevated towards the people in
the back. To the left and right, we're in the same plane as everyone else. And we're set back 25 feet
to the left and 18 feet to the right. And we're 38 feet high building. An independent architect
advised that the blueprint circulates. The rear elevation extremely lower than actuality. All we
do is rely on professionals. Again, we have design blends. I think, what was it, Cornerstone that did
the the civil engineer that did this the survey everything was blessed by the survey district
everything was blessed by the planning commission and lni blessed in the sense of okay this is
appropriate not that they support this um so i don't know what they mean the topography is actually
we're a slightly higher in the front than in the rear at the rear of the properties an elevator
rear drop that's unaddressed in the applicant's plans we told them the first meeting like we're
going to address that. And we told James three times we're going to address that. Applicants
rendering show a neat finished wall at all around the rear of the cliff where the parking lot ends,
but that's not the actual plan. And again, I'll ask Scott to speak and, you know, Alan to speak
as well. In actuality, there's an existing crumbled retaining wall being uplifted by tree
roots, accumulated earth with massive overgrown towers over the wall and extremely elevates the
property in the rear we don't disagree with that and we told them we're going to address that
obviously it's a responsible thing to do and it's a fair ask water runoff drainage flooding erosion
unattended growth in a child in all caps child falling off the cliff are among the concerns
we have fencing right there's no children are going to fall off a cliff and you know we have
stormwater requirements which we're dealing with right with the water revenue bureau uh water
department and you know god can speak of that the driveway proposed for access to parking lot and
trash pickup is too small and too close to the neighboring residential home there is a little
sliver to the right to our right which is property and we we you know we have a natural like
landscaping to do the buffer but we would be more than happy to make whatever reasonable changes
that that would be requested of us the homeowner at 1629 church lane feels the plans for the lock
cross across this property line well that's not the case right we have a survey the homeowner
next door will have limited access to the side of his house which that's on our property but you
know having a driveway would probably be better for him anyway because then he would have access
to the side of his property or our property or side of his property through our property
and we'll be forced to live with constant traffic noise gas fumes and garbage smells which is not
the case. We have a garbage room that's in our building. We have trash pickup three times a week
and all of our parking is 18 feet away from him. There are no plans to provide guardrails to
prevent cars or trash. I can't read this part. Trash trucks from slamming into the residential
homes next door. We do. We have natural landscaping, but we'd be more than happy to address that.
again we only had one community meeting and we were ignored but they had three community meetings
on top of that uh hazards and too small outdoor space the outdoor space proposed for 42 units is
too small it's 800 feet just where it is not including the area which will temporarily be
used three times a week for you know uh three point turns but obviously we can talk about that
but we never had a chance uh let's see the patio is hazardly placed along the covered parking lot
area with no protection indicated we put we have fencing around that and we would be more happy
We have fencing around that, and we would be more happy to have further discussions, except we haven't had further discussions.
to have further discussion
Trees. Neighbors advised the developer that trees were unwanted in areas that they could possibly fall onto the driveway or someone's home.
We did shrubbery, not trees.
But we also said, if you want us to have that more bare on that side, we'd be more than happy to do that.
The property elevation makes this problem even more threatening, yet 40 trees are proposed.
we're not proposing 40 trees on this 22 000 square foot site we're doing shrubbery around
the left and in the back the homeowners of the immediate surrounding blocks are already burdened
with two existing high-rise apartment buildings across the 1635 church lane on the other side
which don't have parking and which are not accessible i added that the addition of four
stories and 42 extra units is an excessive burden of saturation it's not it's a 22 000 square foot
lot, 21 parking spaces accessible, it's actually something that would be positive for the
neighborhood. Unnecessary consolidation. Neighbors prefer development of single-family housing on
three individual lots. It's 22,000 square feet combined. That's humongous. RSA 5 is 1,440 square
feet. These are long lots, not wide, but long. It just wouldn't be economically feasible under
the circumstances. Neighbors were open to discussing the feasibility of developing duplexes
for seniors similar to those existing on Church Lane or the 6,000 block of Lime Kiln Pike across
the street. Again, six units for 22,000 square feet. That's unrealistic and an unreasonable ask.
I don't even think it's the community because the community is being told certain things. We're not
being told certain things. Again, Mr. Nelson will say, it sounds like we disappeared. We didn't.
maintaining the neighborhood format would provide additional housing
while eliminate the needless burdens to so many neighboring residents
by the proposed four-story structure.
I don't know what they mean.
Anyway, I'll have Mr. Borovic be sworn in,
and I'll have a couple of questions for him.
So why don't you give me a sense of how much longer your presentation is?
That's it.
I mean, other than—
Are you calling Mr. Nelson as a—
Yeah, I mean, I think Mr. Nelson is going to speak on his own.
I just—I didn't expect him to be here.
I think it would be great for him to tell you.
You want to call him as a witness?
yeah i'm just saying i would just say we go here first all right sir could you please state and
spell your name for the stenographer yes alan boravich a-l-l-e-n-b like boy o-r-o-v like
victor i-c-h you swear affirm tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do um counsel yeah
alan you heard everything i had to state today have you heard everything i had to say is it true
and correct yes and do you adopt this your own testimony yes actually there was one thing i did
ignoring my presentation packet you did provide a one-page letter to you know to the zba that i
included in that packet why don't you um summarize what that letter is and why you put it in there
sent because of your frustration with this whole process oh hold on let's see it's a letter the
letter should be in here all right here we go yes this letter is from our development team and we've
reached out multiple, multiple times to the RCO. As Alan mentioned, we met with the RCO. We heard
their feedback. We made the changes that we understood. And then we wanted to, again, meet
with them. And we reached out, I mean, on when I tell you 20, 30 times, and we got zero responses,
and we got very conflicting stories. So we just want to make that known. And we're ready, willing,
and able and we're respectful neighbors and um but we were never given the chance okay all right um
lynn i see that you have a dell can i plug my no thank you sorry i just don't want my computer to
die um yeah so again and and you know you and and and and your associates which we have one here as
well like you've reached out multiple times to the uh city council member to explain that you you
you've been unable to schedule subsequent meetings with the coordinating rco is that right
correct um is there anything i missed uh that's that you know or different than what i said that
you want to explain to the board no all right thank you are you going to call mr do you yeah
i think we can call we can call you after i i think i think it's good to hear mr nelson speak
again not associated no i what thing is i still have another five cases okay so i'm trying to
target 1145 is the latest site with you okay that's fine we'll keep it short right yeah mr nelson
good morning sir could you sit close to the mic for me if you would
yeah could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer james nelson j-a-m-e-s-n-e-l
J-A-M-E-S-N-E-L-S-O-N.
Do you swear a firm
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Nelson, are you a neighbor?
Please, now, call them so you can...
So, Mr. Nelson, we didn't ask you to come here today, right?
Absolutely not.
And we've met you on three separate occasions, right?
Yes, today being the third.
The first one was the community meeting.
Then we had this original hearing date in July, right?
And today.
And today.
and and each time we told you we're going to take care of that retaining wall yes okay now you told
us through our shock and amazement there were three other meetings besides the original meeting
that you're knowing that you know of about this project that i heard from miss sandra that there
was three other meetings because she indicated to me that i missed two and i was shocked because i
would have been at every one because i was opposing this situation okay and you know we
talked about you know your and your opposition's based on the retaining wall that's in the rear of
the property that i've been there since 1990 that i've always had an issue with that whole piece of
land but if we took care of the retaining wall you would have no opposition i wouldn't have a total i
would go with the neighbors and see what their gripes are because all of our disapproving issues
are all different mine is 100 retaining wall because the property butts up against me and
the neighbor at 16 that's right next door. So our homes are directly behind your property. So that's
what I was mainly coming at any time. If that wall wasn't fixed, that was my definite opposition.
And there was an indication in the letter of opposition from the ACCA group that one of the
issues was about light and air for your properties. But we're 50 feet set back from you. You wouldn't
have an issue with lighting there lighting in there wouldn't affect me it might affect 17th but
for me it's sitting reset so that part was not going to affect me yeah and during the fourth
meeting that you did attend you didn't attend the second the third there was an indication from the
community organizer that the group shouldn't mention parking because we're providing parking
and that's a positive thing and most most developments like this don't provide parking
right it was mentioned but she worded in a way that the zoning board does not care about your
parking issues this issue that issue we're like well we're not zoning so what can we gripe about
so that's where the water issue came up at one point the trash issue but again we weren't led
a hundred percent for what you're showing in these skits that i'm seeing i haven't seen it so i would
like to read these things and really take it back to the neighbors because some things we don't know
and some things they do but i'm not aware of the stuff that you're saying today like the retaining
wall 100 being taken off the plan i found that out today and that was through cindy bass's
office because i'm like what are y'all doing about this project and he said well they already took
the back wall off that's taken care of i'm like that wasn't mentioned on thursday's meeting so
So again, but we did mention, well, why is the retaining wall still an issue?
And I say, because the trees and the roots knocked the wall down.
And that's the issue I've been dealing with since 1990.
All right.
If you want to talk to, I mean, you're here separate and in part.
So if in narrative form, is there anything else that you want to tell the board?
No, I would definitely like to have us sit down with you guys again as a community.
So we're 100% on the same page for those that disapprove and don't know what's going on.
that we're a hundred percent on the same page and those that still oppose it we can say we oppose
it because of this but everybody has a different issue and adjacent to where the property is going
to be my main issue is that back wall and if it's taken care of i'm not going to say i still oppose
it but i want to see i want to go what the neighborhood is saying to say okay well i see
your point i don't want it to just be about me i want to make sure as a community we're all
talking about the same thing because parking wouldn't be an issue for me, but for some
it might, and that might be still a sticking point. But again, I think
you mentioned to me, she said it was a positive that we provided parking, right?
Yeah, that most apartment buildings in our neighborhood
wouldn't even provide parking, so that would have been a plus that there is
21 spots that would be off the books. But of course, we
said, but it's 42 units. That was our way of shifting.
yeah that's all all right thank you and one more Anthony and why don't you just come up
I mean you're done I mean if you're done I just want to make sure you've said what you needed to
in front of the board yes all right okay Anthony please state and spell your name for the stenographer
Anthony Fullard A-N-T-H-O-N-Y F-U-L-L-A-R-D do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from counsel anything? You're part of the ownership team, right? Yes. Can you explain the efforts that you secondarily made to, to get, get the community input that we needed and the presentations?
and nothing but the truth confirm counsel Anthony
We should have had in front of the community. Sure. After the initial meeting that we had, and it was a lot of concerns from the community and they articulated that.
so we went back and we listed all of the concerns that they had expressed and we
addressed all of those concerns and then was ready to represent in front of the RCO and the
community again to show them that we hear you we are making those changes and you know you know
and and we just wanted it to continue that lines of communication before we uh you know was able to
come before the zoning board hearing which we had already expressed of what that time and date was
yeah and so you reached out to the council member's office stating that even our office
had meet approached multiple times for reasonable requests we didn't make all the changes like
making it until one story structure have only six units dedicated to senior housing but things
that we could change, we did, and we wanted to present to the community, and you reached
out to the council member's office?
I reached out to the councilwoman, I reached out to the chief of staff, and they themselves
numerous of times called, reached out to this RCO to request, I mean, you know, why aren't
you getting back? Why are you not responsive to the developer so that we can move this
process forward through the normal process of the policies and procedures that RCO operates
under? And where I know I must have spoken to the councilwoman at least about 10 times
about this. I know that she had called and reached out to them on numerous of occasions
as well as the chief of staff.
Ironically, something came out at some point in time
that the present RCO leader was no longer
was resigning from her position from that RCO.
So then we were waiting, okay, well, if that's the case,
then who do we reach out to, you know, excuse me,
so that we can get some kind of response.
uh and then uh we was uh soon after that told uh well you know she's not resigning now she's you
know she's still in but at some point in time she will so it's like really confusing okay well then
who do we communicate to who are we looking for the response from and the councilwoman's office
you know both chief of staff and also councilwoman cindy bass reached out to get those types of
clarifications from the rco and to this day you know as i sit before you right now
really have not had a clear uh understanding until what we know this letter came well fourth
what 4 a.m in the morning uh uh and that was our response yeah and again i think that's enough we
want you know obviously to hear from uh the community group i will say this we fleshed out
this project. This is a responsible project. We've made reasonable modifications, and we would ask
the board to vote on this project. I think, unfortunately, I think the community has been
poisoned by what's happened to date, and I don't even think we would get a fair forum, honestly,
because of what happened, you know, for the six months this has been in front of the community.
Thank you. All right, so let me say this. We have the board to ask questions, and that'll be a while.
You also have your architect available.
Yeah, of course.
And we don't know what's in the community.
So what I want to do is create a result of hearing.
I mean, I just don't want to rush this.
Like, I don't want to say, okay, the board's got to get done real quick.
I mean, everybody has some legitimate questions.
It's a nice big project.
So I'm going to give you a date.
The date that we set is 2-2-27 at 9.30 a.m.
Is that now?
And now before?
Well, if we can do anything different, we will do it. But for the record right now, it's going to be 2-2-27. That's what we're always up to swear. So I know where we stand. I know how we do it. So I'll check with the staff later and they'll be in touch with you.
Is that okay?
That's good. Do we have seven more minutes or we're not, we're completed?
I don't want to start this and like, you know, say to people here, you got to rush this because, you know, there's a lot to it, right?
Yeah. And then, you know, you had Mr. Nelson and I don't know what we have up there.
Yeah. And then, you know, you had Mr. Nelson, and I don't know what we have up there. And we also have your architect. So I think we're going to do that. I don't know that we can finish this. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Excuse me, Chair. Yes. There's a hand up from Concerned Community.
yeah we're going to move on from that case story thank you okay all right right okay so uh
number 12 mi 2026 002 494 64 10 to 14 west gerard avenue zen jin is the attorney
then jen has been promoted to panelists
good morning good morning sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
yes my name is zen jen z-h-e-n last name j-i-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
truth nothing but the truth i do did you identify your client a relationship to the property
uh yes uh my client is uh lin jun jiang l-i-n-j-u-n-j-i-a-n-g property owner right um
our vice chair has a few questions for you sir good morning have you submitted your documents
exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing we did did you weigh the weeding of their refusals
and stipulate to their accuracy i do all right thank you can share your screen and proceed with
the case thank you i'm going to share with the board am i correct we have no rco letter am i
right do we have that is that is correct we did have a meeting with the rco and we made the rco
aware that we do have the hearing today right however we didn't receive their letter in time
Thank you. This is an application for 6410 to 14 West Girard Avenue. We are requesting
a change of use for the one commercial unit that is on the first floor into a residential unit.
When combined with the other two existing residential units, the total request is for
multi-family household living of three units this is a cmx2 zoning district and multi-family
household living on the first floor is not generally permitted this property has some unique
circumstances that prompted my client ultimately to make this request this is actually the building
across the street and this building here is in fact the building in question that we're making
the request so on this block with particularly with my client's building and their neighbor's
buildings the lot is situated in a way it's the broader side of the lot actually faces the street
with the shorter side of the lots going back into the rear.
So these are kind of rectangular shape with a long face towards the street side.
However, over the years, even though they are all zoned CMX2,
majority of these properties have found it very difficult to get commercial tenants,
particularly with across the street and nearby being more residential in nature,
uh my client just couldn't get commercial tenants uh and as you can see this is never really fitted
out um in neither of the neighbors really fitted out as large window commercial spaces these were
used for small commercial uses in its history about more recently the only tenant that my
client was able to find was actually a small private church who occupied this space until
recently. The church, unfortunately, because of its activities, actually caused more complaints
from my client's neighbors than any other uses on the block, which were all residential.
So ultimately, my client, based on that feedback, and in looking at the similar buildings nearby
being fully residential, brought forth this application to convert the first floor to a
residential unit. Prior to this initial, I mean, this application, my client actually was in the
process of trying to get a possible nail type business in a barbershop. I'm sorry.
a possible nail type business in a barbershop, I'm sorry, a barbershop into the space
and tried to negotiate that setup. This is the plan that they actually prepared for the barbershop
in anticipation of trying to get a tenant in. That ultimately also fell through. At this point,
other than a church use, my client has not been able to really get much interest as a commercial
space. The space itself is not that large. As you can see, the overall width of the space is 42 feet,
but the depth is 20 feet. So it's actually wider than it is longer on the inside. That also means
that we cannot change this into a smaller office space simply because the 20-foot depth from the
street frontage is required for CMX2 as well. The proposed change is to simply convert this
into a single bedroom residential unit by relaying out the space to have kind of an open kitchen
and living room area, and then a bedroom with its own bath and a secondary bathroom
on the side so this will be the entire first floor laid out simply as a single family residence
this is actually the same kind of use that is in the next door building which is same in overall
layout and size and would be consistent to both neighbors once it is converted the upper floors
already exist in current conditions. They are two smaller apartment units that
have been in existence and are legal. As you can see, these are laid out also as sort of a
one-bedroom setup with a smaller kitchen area and one of the corners being used as their living area.
the upper floors currently have their own access to enter and on each side so their their doors
if you're looking at the front of the property there's three doors so each of the upper floor
apartment has their own entry door and then ultimately if this was to be converted the
first floor into a third unit they also have their own entry into the space the basement
which is shown here would be for utility and storage that was previously a space that was
specifically applied to the first floor when it was a commercial unit the revised proposal will
have that maintained the same way it would still be accessed only by the first floor
So at this point, we have met with the community and spoke with the community and its neighbors.
As you can see, again, I just want to point out the similar situated properties on both sides were also CMX2, but are now fully residential.
We met with the community, and at the meeting, we did not receive any negative feedback.
They said they would discuss and provide a letter.
However, we have not received that letter as of today.
And ultimately, my client's position is that it's been very difficult to operate this particular space as a commercial space.
With the experience of the last use of church, she feels that the residential use would make the most sense for this property.
And that is why we're requesting the board's favorable review of this matter.
Thank you.
You bring your client on?
um let me see if we can um she should be here with us um okay yeah miss young can
you raise your hand and be identified
i'm promoting her now okay thank you thank you
she has declined the promotion that's the wait a minute dick she might have came in
she might have clicked the wrong button okay i'm trying again
she's rejoining now
She's rejoining now.
good morning
miss lynn you're allowed to speak
unmute yourself please
hi could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer yeah my name l-i-n-j-u-n-j-i-a-n-g
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yeah counsel thank you uh miss john did you hear my representation and see my presentation on your
screen yes and can you verify what i have represented to the zoning board to be true
and correct and adopt it and adopt my testimony as your own
i'm sorry do you verify what i have said is true and accept it as your own testimony
yes thank you questions from the board
my question is uh is there any uh rear access for that first unit uh rear access no i mean rear
exit there's no other exit uh no there's only the front uh because the property actually runs
on the rear side to the property line okay it goes to the property line yeah there's no that
was my next question um so is there any uh plan for trash um so they their lot does have um this
area here is actually kind of a side space that is part of their lot that's not covered by the
building um i can verify with my client if that's where the trash uh was stored prior to take out
a lot of times uh before the commercial space had their trash in the um they have belco doors
also outside that are existing so they had a different setup but i can find out more clearly
what the ups upper floors were doing with the trash okay and so the uh only windows um would
be the front the windows in the front that's correct so actually i'm sorry there is one window
here um show on the plants you show you show three windows on that side yeah they're actually small
window here and two larger windows here because the backs of the property itself is a open passage
it's not a it's not another building other questions no just i just have a comment but
you know i don't have a problem with anything it's interesting that the first floor is such
gracious one for one unit apartment if laid out better it could actually yield you two units i
would think um but you don't have any closet in the in the um in the bedroom so it's a weird
shaped bedroom other than that i don't have any problem with the the concept of doing a
unit on the first floor questions or comments from our attorney
no questions questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands cleaning commission thank you chairman and good morning david vector with the
city planning commission chairman board members the comprehensive plan recommends a change in
zoning at this location from cmx to commercial mixed use to rm1 residential multi multi-family
this neighborhood still carries its original 1933 zoning this appellant requests to convert
vacant ground floor commercial space to a dwelling unit this proposal matches the character of other
formerly commercial property on this block face the city planning commission recommends the board
grant their proposed variances mi2026-002-494-6410-14 west drada and i vote yes michael johns
my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes diana my vote is yes
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
Zen, please stay on.
Thank you, sir.
MI 2026-002-520-3698 Kensington Avenue.
Zen, just for the record, state your name.
Zen, Zen, Z-H-E-N-J-I-N.
Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
Yes, my client, my apologies.
Uh, my client is, uh, with us is, uh, Giordano, uh, Gomez, uh, tenant of this property.
okay and our vice chair has a few questions for you good morning have you submitted your
And our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good morning.
documents and exhibits for this case 14 days in advance of the hearing i did and do you waive the
reading of your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy i do uh just for the board's information
a letter in support was received by my office this morning i can share it with the board
and i believe we will be making that submission as well thank you
thank you I'm going to share with the board the previously submitted but updated exhibit
can the board see my exhibit on their screen we can great thank you uh so this is an application
for 3698 Kensington Avenue uh this is a proposal for use of this particular location as a
personal vehicle sales and rental, and as well as personal vehicle repair accessory to that
sales of vehicles. It is in a CMX2 zone district, which normally prohibits this kind of uses.
This property received this morning a letter of support from Harrogate Civic Association. We
met with the civic and the neighbors regarding this property, and the primary reason we received
no opposition is because of the history of the property and its prior uses. This has been a
kind of an auto sales or mechanics lot as far as the historical records can going back and see.
And even most recently, it was used as kind of an auto sales lot with accessory repairs
before it was left vacant for some time and subsequently my client took over and requested
the current zoning because of its location being on this triangular corner where along this part
of kansas 10 avenue there are quite a few other similar uses there is a sales lot right across
the street there are mechanic shop and sales lots further up and down the block the neighborhood
feels that this has been the use and is consistent to of uses of the neighboring properties and would
not cause an issue for the neighborhood which is why we ultimately receive support we do have plans
to update uh the building which is already started and it existed in a in the pretty
much this condition but it's being refurbished the property will contain two bays and we want
to show those photos it's a better way to see how the interior is laid out so that it has its own
lot and the lot has uh existing curb cuts and is fenced in the building itself also exists with an
office that's already in place along with two bays so the may uh the maintenance and repair aspect
that is being proposed is going to be mostly limited to the two bays at most by appointment
only primarily this mechanic bay here would be used really to refurbish vehicles that my clients
will be getting to sell and then the secondary bay they would like to have it available for
customers either for warranty repairs or if local customers or other customers are interested in
getting simple mechanical work such as oil change break jobs they don't want to keep any work
overnight so it will be limited to smaller projects such as oil change and things that
can be done quickly within an hour or two. And again, it will be organized by appointments so
that they will not have overflow of vehicles onto the street. Fortunately, we have not gotten any
feedback from the neighborhood when we went to the meeting about problems with cars parking
over the sidewalk. And because my client also, their three brothers, even though one of the
brothers here with us today. The three brothers will help manage the property and work on the
cars and handle the sales. They also have their father's shop not far away on Glenwood Avenue,
not shop, I'm sorry, his business, which is a body shop, and they have a very large lot.
So that was part of the discussion with the neighborhood that if they had purchased vehicles
and somehow have overflow,
they would make sure that it would stay
on their father's lot pending sales.
Primarily, the business is sales.
It's gonna be mostly focused on selling vehicles
and the repair is the accessory aspect of the business.
And the repair is the accessory aspect of the business.
So the neighborhood, again, because of the prior history of the use of this lot and the existing neighboring conditions, they supported us in this particular application.
So we're asking the board's favorable review of our request to use this as a vehicle sales lot with accessory mechanical services.
My client should be here to verify my testimony as well.
what's your client's name uh it's uh should be giordano that's with us today okay
uh giordano can you raise your hand virtually to be identified they have been promoted
good afternoon everyone can you hear me yes i can could you please state and spell your name
for this stenographer sir yes my name is jordano gomez is that j-o-r-d-a-n-o last name gomez g-o-m-e-z
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do counsel thank you uh mr gomez did you see my presentation to the board and hear my testimony
before the board yes can you verify what i have represented to the board to be true and correct
and adopt it as your own testimony i do thank you uh chair and members of the board i also have here
with me the uh the letter uh as a separate uh document i can share with the board real quick
to show the uh support letter sure why don't you why don't you do that sure do we have their letters
i don't know if that's submitted uh by the uh community to the board yeah council we just
received it this morning yeah we while we were in session yeah we we received it while we were in
session so we thank you for the timely uh notification with that thank you again i'm
just showing the board the actual letter itself thank you all right questions or comments from the
board um there's no other sales like tire sales or anything like that that's going to take place
on the premises no tire sales they're not going to do tire work at all to avoid having uh to store
them as part of work relating to tires. Thank you. And from what you're saying, there's only
going to be limited repair work. Correct. That it's going to be more for refurbishing cars for
sale. Is that what? Correct. Mr. Gomez's and his brother's primary business is to be selling. It's
going to be a used car sales lot. All right. Okay. Thank you. Questions or comments from
Artaria? Just a couple of questions. In our paperwork, it looks like the tenants are Roberto
and Miguel Gomez. Is Mr. Giordano Gomez, I know they said brothers, are they part of the same
company or just i want to clarify that there are partners in this uh venture uh all three of them
are going to be part of the the business i don't believe they have a corporation um mr gomez do
you have a corporation formed um yes we do have a corporation that is already active in the states
of pennsylvania and it's the three of us with equal ownership okay and also you indicated um
about the the repairs would be accessory um but in your application you don't have the word
accessory just so you know it's both of the uses it doesn't say one's accessory to the other
yeah the intent was to have it as part of the uh primarily as a sales lot with the
mechanic shopping taking up the smaller portion of the work okay i'm just pointing it out to you
you used accessory not that there's a problem but you have both uses okay understood questions or
comments from the virtual audience i see no hands planning commission thank you chairman and good
afternoon david fecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from cmx2 commercial mixed use
to icmx industrial commercial mixed use the west side of kensington avenue still carries its
original 1933 zoning the proposed personal vehicle repair and maintenance and personal vehicle sales
and rental are both allowed with a special exception in icmx and this property has a documented
history of auto related uses including a freight terminal and a gasoline service station dating to
at least the 1940s the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed use
variances. MI 2026 002 520 36
MI 2026-002-520-3698 Kensington Avenue. I vote yes. Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes. Layla Beebe, my vote is yes. Thank you. Thank you council. Number 14,
MI 2026-002-513-5851 Warrington Avenue.
Lisa Kapla Davis is the owner applicant.
do we see lisa yes chair lisa kepler davis has been promoted okay
lisa kepler you have been promoted and you're allowed to speak please unmute yourself good
morning good good morning good morning hi could you please state and spell your name for the
phonographer? Lisa Davis Caple, L-I-S-A Davis, D-A-V-I-S Caple, C-A-P-L-E. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir. I see you have a letter of support from the Third Ward Executive Committee. Is that correct?
That is correct, sir. And our Vice Chair has a few questions for you.
good afternoon um have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance for
your hearing yes ma'am okay and this is your understanding that you're here for a referral
for a personal care home that is correct okay all right so um you can share your screen we
have your documents and tell us what you'd like to do so my my daughter actually is going to be
i'm the owner of the property she is going it's going to be her business her baby so she has all
the documents and she should be sharing her screen um i guess she can raise her hand so
she can be born too because she has all the documents and uh able to go through step by
step all that so you'll go through the documents and she'll just put them up for you am i correct
no she's going to go through the documents and put them up listen um hold on our attorney has a
comment here we don't have any information about your daughter all we have is information about
yourself and you indicated you were the owner applicant so we don't have any information
for her to basically have standing in this if i mean okay but you have to be doing the
presentation then we don't have any documentation about her that is fine and i'm so sorry that
didn't go through because through the whole process she has been the contact person but
that is fine she could i guess i'm assuming she still have to share her screen because she has
the document yeah and you'll just tell her when to move the documents okay okay but again you can
call her as a witness but it's your presentation now okay thank you so much and her name is she
should be in the room i guess you raise your hand so you can be brought in what's her name brittany
davis i have promoted britney thank you
britney davis you are now a panelist can you unmute yourself please and then you will be
allowed to speak good morning good morning could you please um just put the documents up
and your mom will do the testimony, okay?
All right, Mom, so you could just start,
and then I'll hear the information for, like,
the property overview and all that stuff.
So we are basically proposing to establish a 24-hour residential home
housing six girls between the ages of 12 and 18.
A little background history,
the reason why we decided to do this is because I am a medical provider and
Brittany is a social worker who's been working in this capacity for 10 plus years now.
We came up with this idea of me being a foster parent in my past,
coming up with this idea to continue our help with children in our community in the same
community in which I raised her in. So the goal for the housing for the group home is to provide
like a safe, structured, family-oriented environment where youth who have been
family-oriented environment where where youth who have been um unfortunately were able to
experience some stability guidance and a sense of belonging um we are just uh asking for the
board's approval to the to for this property to be um rezoned as we are now and um it's
is listed as a single-family home and we're asking for residential, I mean, because we're
in a residential zoning district, we're asking for the zoning to be changed to, I guess, you know.
Why don't you, why don't you have the documents you need to present put up?
Okay. Brittany?
Yep. Am I able to, am I able to share my screen?
You should be.
Can you see my screen?
Yeah, I see it now, yeah.
Why don't you just put it up?
It's got a...
okay so that's the location I see that yes and this is the um schematics of the apartment
so why don't you explain what's up now so what's up now is the the house as it stands now um um
which was presented by um an architect so if you look there's it's got to make it bigger I'm on my
phone i'm sorry so you if you look from the first screen it's showing the lower level which is the
basement which has an attached garage in the in the basement there's an exit to the outside from
the basement and there's an exit for to the outside from the garage as well and then there's
an opening from the garage into the basement inside on the first picture on the second picture
is showing the first floor where in the entry there's an enclosed porch then you
come into the common area which is the living room and then there's a dining
room and then there's a kitchen off to the back if you see where the lines are
there's an exterior deck from the dining room there's a door that leads off to a
small deck where you can store a trash can, a grill, you know. And then on the
third picture is showing the upper floor, which is the first bedroom, which the
plan is to house three young ladies. The second bedroom, which is the smallest of
the three, we said that we can put one in the back room which housed two females.
and there's a bathroom on the second floor which is a full bathroom with the
shower tub combo to go back to the first floor I'm sorry there is a half bathroom
on the first floor was just a sink and a toilet off of the dining room like sits
between the living room in the dining room area you know we have photos we
should
All right. These are some of the photos that we have.
Explain what that is, please.
Yes. So this is the property as it stands. If you see when you come in,
there's a step up from the enclosed porch that's open to the living room and then the dining room
and then the kitchen towards the back. That fireplace is just decorative. There's no
venting or anything or fire use to it. Then you have the the bathroom that's on
the side which is just a toilet sink a powder room you know as you would say.
This is the exterior of the property. Small front yard this has been cemented.
It was grass like the neighbors on each side of me but during my occupancy I
had it uh uh concreted over um go to the next picture
or more pictures of the powder room this is just going up the steps
okay kitchen
so this is the back bedroom that we plan on housing two
occupants in this back bedroom if you can see from the other end there's a
closet and this alcove there's a closet on each side so it'll be two closets to have them um
have their um clothing and you know storage of their personal properties in each of those closets
this is the middle bedroom which is will be a single bedroom located
This is the middle bedroom, which will be a single bedroom located where you see the doorknob to your left, there's a closet there.
I'm not sure we have a picture of the inside of it. This is facing from the top of the steps from the back bedroom.
This is the full bathroom that's on the second floor, like I said, the tub shower combo.
I don't know if we have a picture of the other angle, there is a storage closet in there
to provide for towels and washcloths and all.
This picture we're looking at here is the main bedroom, which we, based on the square
footage, we assume we can get three children in that room.
This is a wide closet, okay, this is another angle of the bathroom.
This is back to the hallway.
middle room going backwards but it's just not in order sorry
all right back to the front bedroom this is the footage of the square of the bedroom
babe we're talking about the the main bedroom which um could occupy um up to three uh girls
back to the front of the house from the living room looking outside
it's at the end of the pictures yes that's all the photos okay and then this is the rco how let
me at least let me ask you this how is your next door neighbors on either side so the the the
neighbors on the left of me um their that that property is owned by um a private owner just
boarded from an LLC and he does a rooming house so those neighbors aren't
concerned about us having a group home and my neighbor to the right of me is
actually an elderly neighbor who is one of my good friends who was theirs when I
moved there for the house in my in my 20s when my children were old younger
with that used to watch my children who is has my back in this project all right questions from the
board okay so you said um you're gonna have um six girls you said from 12 to 18 yes ma'am is that okay
Okay. And where will these young ladies come from?
So they will come from DHS. So we plan to obtain a relationship with DHS and the services like Kua.
My daughter, because like I said in the beginning, she's a social worker. She has a lot of relationships already with those companies and her daily workings.
So that's why I wanted her to get on here and I can call her as a witness to testify
to that part of the question because that would be her part of working on that.
And have you done this before?
Have I ran a group home before?
No, I have not, but I have raised five children, four of my own.
I've raised my godson since he was two months old and I was a foster parent for about six
years back in the 2000s so i am well versed in raising children i am a nurse practitioner so i
have the medical background and you know about you know health and healing and raising and you know
what i mean the things of that nature that because we wanted to be not like a group home in a sense
of a institution we wanted to be more home home based so you feel more like home like a family
You know what I mean? And now I've never done a group home, but I've been a mother for many years and, you know, some things just come, you know, naturally and tending to children and making them feel loved and at home is something I've done most of my life. Like I said, I even was a foster parent at a point in my life.
Okay. And how many employees?
I'm going to divert that question to Brittany.
You can.
We have to call her.
with this we'd have to call her as a witness so so i can call britney as a witness i'm sorry please
state and spell your name britney um britney davis b-r-i-t-t-a-n-y last name d as in dog a-d-i-s
do you swear or affirm the total truth told truth nothing but the truth yes we should please proceed
oh i'm sorry so britney so the question was proposed of um the first question was what we
would get the children from who will be housed at that location and the second question was um um
oh i just had a brain fog i'm sorry how many employees how many employees
how many employees how many employees do we have i'm sorry thank you so much
what we have. I'm sorry. Thank you so much.
thank you um so yes we plan to uh get a contract have a contract with um the department of human
services once we go through licensing and inspection through l and i and everything
um we will be getting our children from um dhs we plan to have as far as staffing um
during our first we plan to have three shifts those during the first shift it would be a one
a six ratio with the children during the second shift it will be a one to three ratio where it
will be two staff and six girls and then overnight would be um one to six ratio
and can you do that one more time that kind of went that you kind of went fast do that one more
time i'm sorry during the first shift which is going to be from seven to three thirty we're
going to have one step um the expectation is that the children will be um in school during those
hours but we still would have somebody on site um just in case a child gets sick or they not
enrolled in school yet um things of that sort um during the second shift which will be from 3
to 11 30 we will have two staff um on site with six children so the ratio will be one to three
um during that time they will be getting assistance with homework doing chores meal prep
um things of that sort um and then for third shift which would be 11 to 7 30 um it would be
one staff doing rounds every hour checking on the girls making sure you know linens don't need to
be washed and then it's just like a 30 minute overlaps for each shift to give the staff time
to debrief and communicate with each other um you know what was going on the previous shift
okay and how many bedrooms and how many this is so this is a three bedroom um home is one
one full bedroom and a half bedroom
okay thank you and what area will the staff be designated for staff i'm sorry say that again
what area in the other home will be designated for staff like to do paperwork
whatever the port the porch area will be converted into an office space
other questions
questions from our attorney no questions at this time mr chairman comments from the virtual audience
i see noise any commission
thank you chairman and good afternoon david effecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2019 in
accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan the appellant has shown that the proposed
personal care home will have no detrimental impacts beyond what might reasonably be expected
the city planning commission recommends the board uh grant the proposed special exception thank you
MI 2026-002-513-5851 Warrington Avenue.
I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Hiya Lynn, my vote is yes.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
You have your votes.
Thank you so much.
You have a great day.
Oh, you too.
Thanks.
Number 15, MI 2026-002-595-2153 North A Street.
Meredith Verliger is the attorney.
Mr. Chairman, would you mind actually calling 16 first?
He is sitting in the room and my other client's on his way.
Is it okay if we switch them?
Well, you know, Ian gets mad at me when I do this.
I know.
I'm so sorry, Ian.
Maybe Ian won't hear me doing this.
Just this once.
Just this once.
MI 2026-002-652-5821, Wayne Avedu.
Meredith Ferliger is the attorney.
There's a letter of support here from the 59th Democratic, am I correct?
Yeah, just received last night.
Would you please state and spell your name for this talk?
Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, yes.
Do you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Serge Maslanikov, who is the owner of this property, and he's sitting to my left.
And our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did.
And do you wait with the reading of your refusals as you play to their accuracy?
Yes, I do.
All right, thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with the case.
there we go all right uh Mr Chairman members of the board uh this request before you today
there we go all right
concerns one commercial property in Germantown located at 5821 Wayne Avenue as the board should
see today this is a quintessential hardship case that seeks one-dimensional variance that
is necessitated by the 524 square foot lot that's before you today let me move this over
let me first orient you to the location of the property uh and administratively speaking the
the deed is at exhibit two showing my client purchases at sheriff sale and as is very common
in with sheriff sale purchases uh the revenue department has not yet updated its tax balance
website uh so i believe this is going to be here and hold so that board council can confirm that
the sheriff's office is working through that uh so you can see here uh at exhibit nine some aerials
uh the property sits just on wayne avenue just east of west rittenhouse street uh let me actually
scroll past this first one and go to the next one so you can see the current condition
as you can see here 5821 wayne avenue is surrounded by other commercial and mixed-use
properties the property previously and i'll scroll back up completed a uniform row of four similarly
sized buildings between 58 15 and 21 Wayne Avenue which all visually appear as though they sit in
the parking lot of the adjoining car wash so you can see this first aerial is from 2015 before the
structure was demolished by the city prior to my client acquiring it and then again if you move
INTO THE CURRENT VIEWS OF THE PROPERTY HERE, YOU CAN SEE THAT THE PROPERTY IS NOW VACANT AND
QUITE ODDLY SITUATED JUST IN TERMS OF ITS RELATION TO THE SURROUNDING PROPERTIES.
LOOKING HERE AT THE ZONING MAP AT EXHIBIT 8, YOU CAN SEE THAT THE VERY SMALL PROPERTY HERE IS
ZONE CMX 2.5, WHICH THE BOARD MAY KNOW IS TYPICALLY SUITED FOR MUCH MORE DENSE DEVELOPMENT.
And then if you look at the photographs here at exhibit 14, you can see the vacant lot that is the subject of today's request. Now, in 2015 or 2016, the city demolished the structure that previously sat on this property.
sarge later purchased it at sheriff sale directly across from this property is a school and then
again just uh looking in the next direction again you can see the three commercial properties that
sit immediately to the right and then in the opposite direction looking towards rittenhouse
street you can see the car wash that surrounds these lots and then again just a couple of
additional views here from written house street uh and from price street looking towards the
property and there is actually a rita's water ice right on this block as well and we did also of
course include photos of the timely posting where again you should be able to see here uh the the
scale of this lot so the proposal here is shown on the site plans at exhibit five showing generally
speaking, the new two-story with mezzanine design. Like its immediate neighbors, the building is
proposed to occupy the entire lot. Now, in terms of the use itself, and I will bring up the floor
plans, the ground floor will contain a commercial space and then be joined by one single family
residence above. So I've included the standard floor plans at Exhibit 6, but I would like to
show you the rendered floor plans that we have here uh that my client was kind enough to prepare
for us so you can see here that at the basement level that is reserved for utilities and storage
for the commercial space and then if we move to the second floor you can see the uh mezzanine
that has one dwelling unit and actually you know what i'm sorry i skipped the first floor so the
first floor here you can see the commercial space with bathroom and
closet there is a separate entrance for the apartment and the commercial space
and then if you move to the second story this is the one residential dwelling
unit that has high ceilings and a bathroom on each floor even though this
And a bathroom on each floor, even though this is essentially a mezzanine design.
is essentially a mezzanine design
So you can see here the two-story living room and bathroom.
And then let me show you some amazing interior renderings that Serge was able to prepare.
So you can really get a sense of what this space will look like.
So this is that essentially two-story dwelling unit with the living room, kitchen on that first floor.
and then you can see that loft above as well which is where the bedroom is and you can see again
really how nicely this space will be laid out despite how small this particular lot is
and again unlike many loft designs which only have a bathroom on one level
this one is fortunately large enough to accommodate the bathroom at each of the levels as well
and then again a rendering so you can see kind of what that loft space will look like
and then we did also include a rendering of the building itself which is designed to blend with
the existing block to the maximum extent that is that is feasible here now although cmx 2.5 would
allow a building height of 55 feet high this is only designed to be around 28 feet high
to create the most consistency possible.
Now, regarding the refusal, you can see at the refusal here
that this received two refusals.
Number one, the proposed development seeks to erect a structure
that occupies 100% of the property's lot area,
and furthermore, it does not have a rear yard.
Now, from the information I've already provided,
you've likely already gleaned why this relief is absolutely necessary.
The applicant here submits to a hardship given both the history of the property and the character of the three other properties located on this very, very unique block.
Historically speaking, and as you saw at the aerial, the prior structure that sat on this lot contained one dwelling unit on the upper floor and a commercial space on the ground floor.
That prior structure also occupied 100% of the property's lot area and did not have a rear yard.
All three of the properties immediately adjacent to this one also have structures that occupy 100% of their lot area and also have zero rear yard.
As such, the proposed footprint of this new structure ensures that it is in harmony with its neighbors and further fits the aesthetics of the block.
like its neighbors this property is extraordinarily small particularly for cmx 2.5 zoning containing
only 524 square feet of lot area now although cmx 2.5 does not have a minimum lot size
just by way of comparison the smallest lot size permitted by other sections of the zoning code
is 700 square feet in the very rare RSA 6 district so this property is small even in
in comparison to standard lot sizes in all other zoning districts thus strict enforcement of the
two-dimensional rules at issue would result in a structure that would quite simply not be suitable
for any form of occupancy only occupying 75 percent of the lot would would equate that to
ground floor space of 383 square feet which doesn't account for walls mechanicals and other
physical improvements further leaving a nine foot rear yard would mean only occupying about 23 feet
of depth finally because of the existence of the active car wash immediately to the rear of this
property the outdoor rear yard would not serve any practical purpose or satisfy any zoning code
intent we submit the proposal will not increase congestion harm neighbors properties or impair
light and air and a more detailed analysis is provided in the memo of law included at exhibit
10 if mr chairman could swear in my client yes could you please state and spell your name for
the stenographer sir hi my name is serge maslinikov s-e-r-g-e-m-a-s-l-e-n-n-i-k-o-e yeah
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but yes i do counsel thank you uh
serge have you heard all of the testimony and evidence that was offered in front of the board
today yes and do you agree that testimony was true and accurate and would you adopt it as if you had
given it yourself yes uh happy to take any questions questions from the board yeah i have a question
looking at this diagram could you tell me where the cars enter the car wash and where they exit
i can't tell the difference it's a great question they enter directly on the left
and exit where the readers okay and go back to that other drawing for me please the the aerial
and exit where the readers okay and go back to that other drawing for me
or the one you just had I think okay so you see how like the house on the far end there's there's
like ballards on the side like I'm just wondering worried about well your property cars crashing
into your property is there any plan like to put ballards on the side of that or that's no longer
your property it's no longer yeah I've been thinking about it I thought maybe we can mount
some kind of steel beam yeah yeah yeah so so the corner is going to be protected i've been thinking
about it yeah okay and and again like if you are entering the business or coming out as a as a
resident you know you don't i don't know the flow of the car wash but yeah you know you just want
to have some safety for pedestrians as they're exiting or entering the building yeah they're
going to be they're going to be using front of the building so they're not going to be yeah but they
have to like cross that street like cross over um if they're walking but no again thank you for
like i was just worried about the side of the building and cars yeah the the obviously
very valid concern the door to the residence is actually on the other side so at least they are
not as close yeah so you can see here so the orientation here is the um car wash would be
essentially to the left of this so the the residents at least they have they have they
have some feet before they walk out and just immediately enter into the car wash uh but yeah
i think that's something that's there my next question is is there any like do you have an
idea what type of commercial business would um honestly it's open open layout so anybody who
needs such a small space because it's what less than 400 square feet so probably an office related
stuff so it's not going to be active like huge business with a lot of flow other questions and
i guess this goes to it's sort of the same question um not only about the business but i mean
having a tenant there that close to a car wash i mean is that so that that the car wash has been
in this location for a long time and that there previously was a commercial space and a residential
tenant here so um you know it is the long-standing condition of the property it is what i mean the
zoning code would require the commercial space um it is extremely unusually oriented um and i think
you know, to Serge's credit is really why he's designed it to be such high quality to ensure that, you know, it really can attract somebody that's looking for, you know, a really, really unique and nicely designed space, so.
And I guess my other question, well, I have two questions. Okay, so I know we're not providing parking, but where would somebody park?
uh I'm expecting it's one bedroom apartment so probably it's going to be only one or two people
living in in in an apartment plus there's plenty of public transportation on Shelton and Wayne so
okay yeah and there is actually street parking in front of the building yeah that if you look there
is a large school across the street so that has sort of the off hours where you know during those
off hours there's you can even see from some of these aerials there's plenty of plenty of parking
here okay and then um i mean and this is just a comment i i like that loft idea we have seen
some others where it's like the tiny houses where it's like a little yeah
love where you have to kind of climb up and there's no there's no yeah you got to climb up a ladder
yeah yeah yeah it's it's an effective use of of space especially when you have such a
a small lot like this one i i totally agree okay all right thank you other questions
questions for our attorney none at this time mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual
audience audience there are no hands planning commission thank you chairman and good afternoon
david effector with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the cmx 2.5 commercial mixed use zoning at this location the city rezoned
this neighborhood in 2010 and a council requested map change this is an unusually small and shallow
lot the condition of no rear yard and 100 occupied area are common conditions on this block face
the appellant has shown that they would suffer an economic detriment if forced to comply
with the debt with the dimensional requirements in the cmx 2.5 zoning district
city planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed dimensional variances
city planning commission recommends that the board grant to propose dimensional variances
okay thank you can we do this in a week
why don't we plan for a week and if there's an issue we can always push it back so we'll look
for next week at um that works thank you thank you very much
number 15 mi 2026 002 595 21 53 north a street um there's a letter of support from apm
um counsel just for the record state your name you've already been sworn
meredith ferliger f-e-r-l-e-g-e-r and can you identify your client in the relationship to the
property i can my client is 2153 north 8th street llc uh which is the owner of the property and
that is represented here today by nathan cohen to my left okay our vice chair has a few questions
good afternoon again um have you submitted your documents and exhibits uh 14 days in advance of
this hearing yes i did and do you waive the reading of your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy
yes i do okay thank you can share your screen and proceed with the case wonderful this request
before the board today concerns 2153 north 8th street and represents a truly de minimis request
so i will try and be brief given the hour you have an exhibit packet in front of you that contains 14
exhibits to summarize the basis for today's request this application requests a variance
for the addition of a third residential unit which would be permitted if the lot was a mere
15 SQUARE FEET LARGER THAN IT IS AS CHAIRMAN MENTIONED THIS DID RECEIVE SUPPORT FROM APM
LET ME FIRST ORIENT YOU TO THE LOCATION OF THE PROPERTY AND IN THIS CASE THE DEED AND TAX
CLEARANCE ARE INCLUDED AT EXHIBITS TWO AND THREE SO YOU CAN SEE HERE THAT THE PROPERTY IS
ON NORTH A STREET AND SITS ROUGHLY MID BLOCK BETWEEN WEST SUSQUAHANA AVENUE AND DIAMOND STREET
From the aerials, you can see that this block is made up of predominantly three-story structures, some new, some slightly older.
This property happens to be one of the last remaining vacant properties on this particular block face.
You can see that this block face is fairly built out, and this is one of the only few remaining vacant lots.
from the east here uh you can see the parcel indicated with the arrow
and then if we look at the zoning map you can see that this block and basically everything
surrounding it are zoned rm1 with the corners cmx2 so this is a fairly dense multi-family area
just to give you a little bit better sense of this particular block i've included photographs
at exhibit 14 and here you can see the vacant lot that my client purchased just this past spring so
he is a new owner of the property now looking at city maps it does appear that this lot has sat
vacant since at least the 1960s across the street you can see some of the newer construction that
bookends uh this swath of mostly city owned land and then the next photograph here is looking
towards west susquehanna avenue and then flipping in the opposite direction towards diamond street
and then just a couple of extra views again this is a fairly uniform three-story
block and we did include uh the evidence of our timely posting
the proposal for 2153 north a street is shown on the zoning plans at exhibit 5 and includes one new
three-story structure the building will contain three dwelling units as you can see on the
elevation the structure is elevated so that the lower level is roughly six and a half feet above
And you can see here on the zoning plan, you can see the rear yard here is about 12 feet, so larger than the code would allow. You can get a little bit better sense here of the proposal from the floor plans that are at Exhibit 6.
so as i mentioned this is three units unit a comprises the first floor and lower level and
it's just over 1700 square feet and you can see the layout that is proposed on the plans unit b
is on the second floor and is 888 square feet with a private deck off the rear and then unit
three is on the third floor and measures also 888 square feet and there is a roof deck for
that third floor unit as well each unit has its own washer and dryer and trash will be
Each unit has its own washer and dryer, and trash will be stored interior to each unit in a ventilated trash storage closet that is also shown on the plans.
You can see in each unit where that's indicated.
Nathan and his maintenance staff are responsible for all his property's trash maintenance, which includes putting out the trash and cleaning up after collection.
just by way of example this might not be exactly what it's going to look like but
we did include a photograph of another recent development that my client constructed
just to give you a sense of the general aesthetic for what he would envision for this particularly
for this particular lot possibly with a darker brick brick to match the new construction
immediately to the left so regarding the refusal as i mentioned this was refused for the proposed
density as two units would be permitted on the lot where three are proposed as i mentioned earlier
this block is nearly exclusively multi-family unfortunately the lot is 1065 square feet which
is a measly 15 square feet deficient to allow this third unit by right so 1080 square feet
would be required for that third unit this is not a unique request as the board has heard and granted
several similar requests on nearby blocks to this property including by way of example 2104
north franklin street and 2146 north franklin street along with at least five others that i
have listed in my memorandum of law that i submitted to the board the density here is
entirely in character with the nature of this specific block as well, which is a mix of two,
three, and four family dwellings, including on the higher end of the densities 2104, 2119,
and 2164 North 8th Street. While the applicant does submit that a hardship exists and has been
established by the evidence, given the unique character of the lot and the dense multifamily
character of the area, the applicant does also submit that the board here is not required to
find a hardship since this request is de minimis. Essentially, the lot would only need to be 1.39%
larger to permit this unit by right. That is unquestionably de minimis. Even beyond that
nature, given the longstanding nearly 60-year vacancy of the lot, despite the multifamily zoning
classification a clear hardship exists preventing the erection of just a two-unit proposal
uh we we submit as always that the proposal is the least minimum will not increase congestion
or harm neighbors properties and as always a full analysis is provided in the memo of law
and i'm happy to touch on any point in more detail sure could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer yes nathan cohen n-a-t-h-a-n last name cohen sorry i can't hear
one more we'll do it one more time he just put the mic on mike yeah uh nathan cohen that's n-a-t-h-a-n
c-o-h-e-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i affirm earth could i ask them a question real quick is this going to be temple housing
Okay, go ahead.
Nathan, have you heard all the testimony and evidence that was offered in front of the board today?
And do you agree that testimony was true and accurate, and would you adopt it as if you had given it yourself?
And just a quick question, just to confirm, one of the issues that we had heard from some members at the RCO was that this lot, historically, prior to your ownership, has actually created some dumping and rodent issues.
Is that correct?
and building a new structure on this lot will most certainly directly go to address that concern is
that accurate that's all i have for questions from the board um trash uh storage uh for each unit or
disposal plan yeah we have the ventilated trash rooms in our design that's currently uh in the
floor plans uh everyone also has their own private outdoor space as well so that's just another
all the questions and you're not going through the bedroom to go to the backyard hooray hooray
thank you i'm always looking for that one board member john thank you thank you
doesn't that doesn't that feel better you don't have to have people walk through your bedroom
doesn't it thanks especially when they're carrying the trash out right exactly or the lawnmower or
and you know the cat and the dog all right questions or comments from our attorney
no questions at this time mr chairman questions or comments in the virtual audience no hands
no questions at this time mr chairman questions or comments in the virtual audience no hands
planning commission thank you chairman and good afternoon david fecto with the city planning
commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
rm1 residential multi-family zoning at this location this neighborhood still carries its
original 1933 zoning the appellant requests a dimensional variance for lot size that is within
two percent of what rm1 requires as variance is minor and in keeping with the purpose and spirit
of the zoning code the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed variance
for a third dwelling unit mi 2026 002 595 2153 north a street i vote yes michael johns my vote
is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes hi i win my vote is yes
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh, 10 minutes to spare.
We got it in.
We got it in.
Look at that.
Is there anyone in the audience whose their 930 case has not been called?
There are no hands, Chair.
See everybody at 2 o'clock.
Thank you.
And I'm glad we got it in.
Me too.
You were coming back.
I kept texting.
Let me know how many people when you get a chance.
Good afternoon, Chair. We have 45 people in the virtual chat.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is our Vice Chair, Tanetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Secretary, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board members, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Ty Owen.
If she's not here, she'll be here any minute.
Laila Beebe. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also here is our board attorney, Lynn Reuter-Huber,
our executive director, Ian Haggerty. This hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the ZBA
website. By participating, you consent to be recorded. This is an in-person meeting with
remote participation, whether in person or on Zoom. If you're called to speak, please state
and spell your name then wait to be sworn in after that each time you testify please state
your name to enter an appearance to enter your appearance indicate the address on your zoom
webinar speak with a staff member call the ZVA office by close of business tomorrow please call
215-686-2429 and provide your name email and the address of the property
remote participation raise your virtual hand when directed to so we can call you to speak
when we do call you make sure you click to join as a a panelist button use your q a to
For procedural issues only, do not talk about individual cases.
If you are joining by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
In-person participation.
If testifying, get close to the mic so that the court reporter and all attendees can hear you.
So talking, eating, or drinking during the hearing.
Aggressive behavior will not be tolerated.
In an emergency, follow the staff's instructions.
The main exit is the double doors at the rear, and to the left is the stairwell.
In an evacuation, please go to Love Park and remain there, which is right across Art Street.
Remain there so that we can account for you.
Let's look at our list for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2026-003-684-4094 Olive Street, Raybon Velox and Retreat Valu are the listed owner applicants.
This is the first listing.
good afternoon chair this is dana dabney and i will be your co-host today
see any hands
this is mr value will be promoted to panelists okay hello
hi could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer my name is petri
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir we don't have any of your documents so here's the thing i was away for for the past three
So here's the thing. I was away for the past three months, and I'm attending this hearing to ask if you can push it further.
months and I'll
Thank you. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to continue the case until 1-20-27.
It'll be at 2 p.m., the listing of the case. Okay?
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2024-006-090-2038 Haines Street.
That case is continued until 1-20-27 at 2 p.m.
And number three, MI 2027-007-533-7000 Castro Avenue.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
I believe Mr. Clinton would like a continuous. Mr. Clinton.
Mr. Clinton has been promoted to panelists.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Mr. Clinton, how are you, sir? Could you please state and spell your name for this talk?
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?
Mr. Clinton, could you give us an update on this case?
Sure. We're having some issues with the landscaping plan.
There's a parking lot surrounding the building, and I actually have to go and meet with planning commission.
And so I realize this is the third request, but we're asking for kindness from the board.
Thank you very much.
So this case will be continued until 1-20-27 at 2 p.m.
And Mark must be heard.
Thank you.
I appreciate your consideration.
All right.
number six mi 20 mi 2026 003 735 230 230 levering street this case is continued and 12 12 16 26 at 2 p.m
number seven mi2026 003 758 230 levering street this case is continued until 12 16 26 at 2 p.m
And number 8, MI 2026, 003-794-230 Leverington Street.
This case is continuing until 12, 16, 26 at 2 p.m.
Are there any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands, Chair.
Okay, thank you.
we're going to go to our add-ons
this is where we're going to do the we have a spanish interpreter right
I mean do we have a spanish interpreter on yes Jerry they've been promoted to panelists okay hold
Hello, my name is Ana Artola and I am the Spanish interpreter.
Hi, could you please state your name again and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, of course.
My name is Ana Artola.
You swear or affirm that you will interpret accurately, completely, and impartially from
English to Spanish, from Spanish to English?
we want to go with the old one the older one first yeah we'll do yeah number five yes the revo
this is number five that was on this this morning's list mi 20 25 000 622
to 6441 north 20th street i vote yes with the following proviso per amended refusal dated
september 15th 2025 also two family household living on second and third floor of existing
structure is approved the proposed commercial uses on the first floor are denied
hold on one second i'm i'm sorry i forgot if you said this is a re-vote
okay yeah i couldn't remember if you had this in this morning's meeting this is a re-vote yes
okay all right thank you sorry about that michael i'm not sure but my mic my vote is yes with
But my, my vote is yes with proviso.
provisal.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Phoebe?
No, she can't.
Okay. All right. One more minute. I'll get back to our original list.
Okay. So, sorry to interrupt, Chair. We'll have to have that entire statement interpreted by the interpreter, please.
okay yeah interpret we have one more for the interpreter am I correct
the interpreter has to interpret what we did okay go ahead
do we want to do it again interpreter did you hear the part of my interruption and prefer
did you hear the proceedings um beginning from when you were sworn in we need to have
that interpreted to Spanish for the record thank you
Interpreter.
Interpreter.
ian interpreter your microphone is muted are you able to hear us and respond to us
so why don't why don't i finish our um add-ons here and then we can go back we can thank you
very much. So MI 2026-003-150, 101 to 23 South 52nd Street. The vote on this has been moved to
Wednesday, November 18th at 2 p.m. Number two, MI 2026-003-576, 101 to 23 South 52nd Street.
The vote on this matter has been moved to Wednesday, November 18th at 2 p.m.
number so number three MI 2026 003 405 7601 to 51 Lindbergh Boulevard I vote yes with with
proviso temporary variance that expires October 15th 2031 oh I'm sorry Mr. Chairman I think it
has to be a special exception sorry all right um so special exception for 7601 to 51
lindbergh bolvardo temporary special exception that will expire uh october 15th 2031.
uh mike michael johns my vote is yes for temporary um please provide some
So I need to say it again.
You can just say proviso, right?
Oh, with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Taneta Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes, with proviso.
So number four, we need a Spanish interpreter.
Mr. Vaccaro, MI-2026-002-112-4058 West Gerrard Avenue.
Mr. Vaccaro.
mr vaccaro you are allowed to speak thank you good afternoon hi mr vaccaro could you please
state and spell your name for the stenographer good afternoon may it please the board joseph
vaccaro j-o-s-e-p-h vaccaro v-a-c-c-a-r-o attorney for the applicant all right do you swear or firm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do mr vaccaro is this client
need an interpreter um he could use one uh let's see let's see it ian hi chair this is ian hegarty
ian hi chair this is ian hegarty the interpreter seems to have dropped off the line we're trying
the interpreter seems to have
to get them back in okay so why don't we go on and come back to this all right just i won't
leave you hanging long okay okay that's not a problem where i could also make my presentation
if we can't get him back all right thank you thank you number five mi 2026 003 679 16 snyder avenue
So, Ronald Patterson is the attorney.
Mr. Patterson, could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer?
Good afternoon, Ronald Patterson, P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Patterson, could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
I represent the owner and a developer of the property, which is 16 Snyder LLC.
I see a letter of support from Whitman Square, Whitman Council Incorporated, and our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive the reading? No, your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy.
I waive the reading. I think there's a slight mistake. It says we need eight variances. I think we need seven, but I'll explain it.
Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with the case.
Thank you.
So, contextually, this application regards 16 Snyder Avenue. It's a 6.1 acre site, as you see here.
It's bordered by Snyder Avenue, Swanson Street, Wekiko Avenue, and Wolf Street.
It's located between the Snyder Plaza shopping centers, the Home Depot, the Ikea.
To the right here is the river.
As you go further south along Swanson, you'll run past the 2300 Club and IATSE and the Bowen Alley.
and everything else that's being developed along that street which kate and i know that the streets
department is is doing a city plan action to actually make the street more consistent
widening it to 100 feet consistently through from snyder down to oregon avenue it's actually
across the street from the advanced auto application i was here about a month ago which
was right here uh and right next to it is john's pork so there's a good um
milestone right there uh for some more photographs
uh this is the way it looked a few years ago it was the former intellects facility
that was in operation i don't know maybe 80 years it was a brick building and manufactured
chemicals there the building was sold to our client who underwent demolition and cleanup
of the property to create a shopping center it also went through legislation with city council
the zoning district was changed from i2 to icmx that fit within the character and context of
the surrounding large shopping centers that are there here's some again some older older pictures
uh here's what it looks like now um completely demolished here's uh the john's pork over here
just a vast property this is a view from across the street you see target to the left acme to the
right i think you get the idea um so what we're here today for uh is for um some freestanding
signs we we the property was we have a zoning permit for the property was issued as a matter
of right we have buildings that are going to be occupied by retail and commercial tenants which
we'll go through in a minute. And so what we're here today for are three freestanding
signs and I'll get to the site plan here okay so you can acclimated here's Snyder Avenue
John's Roast Pork, Swanson Street below. The three red squares are where we're proposing the
The three red squares are where we're proposing these sub-pylon signs, and what we're proposing
are two monument type signs, the second and the third one, and one freestanding pole sign.
the three standing signs will identify the shopping center because of the large property
surrounding it identify the tenants and promote traffic safety to locate and navigate to the
shopping center the the monument signs have tenant panels as you see the proposed height is 32 feet
six inches and the sign area total with all the tenant panels and the shopping center
ID at the top is 284 square feet.
Referral was issued because the signs exceed the allowable 100 square feet per sign and
a 20-foot maximum height.
The second sign, which is the one to the left, is a freestanding pulse sign.
The height is 40 feet, and the proposed area is 100 square feet, which complies with the code.
Again, two refusals.
We have two refusals for each sign, for sign area, one on each side.
Each sign face exceeds the allowable 100 square feet, and a second refusal for sign height, which applies to all three.
So with that said, I'll have Kate now help me testify.
okay could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer good afternoon
katherine weiss k-a-t-h-e-r-i-n-e weiss w-e-i-s-s do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do counsel
okay we're back okay kate uh tell me uh who you work with sure i'm uh i'm with
dynamic engineering i'm a principal and branch manager of our philadelphia office
located right here in center city at 1515 market street and you've heard my presentation would you
agree it's true and accurate yes and you would adopt as if it were your own yes and you're
familiar with these plans obviously you prepare them correct uh and could you briefly review the
nature and type of the tenants that are proposed here sure um so overall as ron mentioned it's
about a six acre site um you know a unique opportunity here in philadelphia um to develop
more retail use you know fairly consistent with the area that it's in um there are a couple takeout
restaurants that are proposed so drive-through takeout restaurants a bank a mattress store
an advanced auto and the anchor tenant is a grocer and on this uh site plan where i have the three
squares uh this first one that i'm pointing to and the one at the bottom they're the two monument
type signs correct so they're the monument signs with the overall shopping center identification
and panels for each of the tenants they're really those locations are very important as
you know for those of you who are I actually I live in South Philadelphia I'm not too far from
here I drive by this site every week multiple times but for those familiar with this area
majority of the traffic here goes along Snyder Avenue and so about I'd say 80 to 90 percent of
all trips to this proposed shopping center are anticipated to come through the entrances at
wekiko avenue and along swanson um so those are the two primary entrances that are expected to be
used um you know by people coming to the center okay the the the length of the front is between
snyder and uh wolf street is about 850 feet that's correct okay and the third sign here up in the back
in the back the freestanding pulse sign and why is that a little higher than the other ones that
are proposed it's slightly higher it's got a 40 foot height most of the building heights vary
between 20 25 to 30 plus feet and so in order for that rear tenant to be visible from the street
it's important that the sign be slightly higher than the building heights um as i mentioned you
know a majority of the traffic is going to be coming from snyder so along the entrances at
wekiko and swanson swanson and so a very limited number of trips will come from wolf and so
you know for people to be able to safely get to um and know where that tenant is located where
the anchor is located it's important for that sign to be that height so generally in this area would
it's important for that sign to be that height so generally in this area would you say these signs
you say these
worth are within the character and context of the other signs in this area in terms of height and
size say the size you know throughout the shopping centers that run that you brought up when you
drive along i-95 corridor you see the pole signs that pop up to be able to identify so that you
know you can get off the columbus boulevard exit and also driving through that area the ikea sign
the target signage you know all of that signage is fairly comparable would you say the signs
actually promote public and traffic safety yes just by helping people to identify where the
stores are that they want to visit it's important that the signage is there and would you say that
the hardship exists in placing a small and lower signs at this 6.2 acre lot because of the street
frontages and and the visibility corridors yes just based on the sheer size of the lot and the
distance between where the cars are going to be accessing the site from you know the primary
corridors having signage that's limited to 20 feet it'll be it won't be visible so you would
conclude then that the sign area and heights would create no adverse impacts on the public
health safety welfare and traffic and probably on the other hand enhance public safety and traffic
correct correct okay um we did meet with uh the whitman council and i don't know if you have their
letter but i'll show it to you i think they they sent it earlier this week and they support the
bearances okay done that's all I have questions on the board did you want your do you have your
client to adopt your testimony oh she did oh I thought she was just an engineer well she's
adopted my testimony yeah are you a member of the well not all of it had to do with related
to the ownership it had to do with the plans that i was describing but it's if you're objecting to
it then i don't need to have her adopted okay because usually you have to have your adopted
by your your client who is 16 schneider llc so it's new to me okay um can we okay can we see
where these signs are again I mean I sure had the red little boxes but you also had pictures yeah sure
because I think I know where this is but yeah
So is Snyder where the IHOP is?
Yes, across the street.
Across the street.
not too far from Delaware Avenue Mike right here it is there's your IHOP
yeah it's kind of back up yeah yeah I know yeah okay so then you're gonna have
uh okay oh all right okay I see what you mean
all right all right um thank you
Okay, so that we can vote on this and move on it, as an officer of the court, you can testify to your client that's not here, am I correct?
That's correct.
Is that all right?
That's correct.
But just so you know, counsel, I mean, we've been practicing this for quite a while that you have to have testimony adopted by your client.
Understood.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands here.
planning commission good afternoon liz fuselay on behalf of the philadelphia city planning commission
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth i do sir
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the icmx industrial commercial mixed use zoning
at this location the appellant has not shown any hardship that would keep it from complying from
code requirements the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed variance
for signage all right so m m i 20 26 003 679 16 snyder avenue i vote yes michael johns my vote is
yes gerald gaster my vote is yes tennetta graham my vote is yes thank you layla beebe my vote is yes
thank you leila beebe my vote is yes okay parents tya i just wanted to let you know i'm back oh
oh sure sure come on i i'm glad to meet you what's your name where do you go to school
okay you know great oh yeah it's a great school great school right yeah
um and um you you are with a great lawyer by the way you know and cheryl knows him pretty well here
all right thank you all right so we'll go to nine does that sound right yes that's right
chair still no interpreter we'll let you know that's okay all right thank you we've got david
here. MI 2026-003-736-2119-St. Albans. David Orphanides.
This is on the other one, right? Yes, it's on the list.
is this the same block from the movie
you remember the movie the little boy said i see i'll tell you the truth it's right it's right
very close to it yeah i can't remember the block and they haven't made a movie about her yet but
we'll see. I would
tell you, that is right
near there, right, where they made the movie?
Was it 20th?
It's a beautiful block.
Yeah, it is. David?
Not on mine.
All right.
Okay, so
are we
early for him?
well because we jumped all those cases oh right yeah okay all right i see no hands here
okay how about verna is verna in the audience
no i don't see him at this time yes i am i've been a panelist since two o'clock
Okay, there he is.
Is that Vern?
It's me.
Okay, so Vern, we're going to bring you in for number 10 here, right?
That sounds great.
If I go before orphanages, it's always a treat.
That guy gets paid by the word.
I'm not laughing.
I'm not laughing at that.
MI 2026-003-791-1311 to 13 Irving Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Vern, you've already been sworn today.
Could you just state your name and spell for the stenographer?
It's Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, and representing Mr. Heen, Stuart Heen, who is the new owner of the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive that we didn't know your refusals and stipulate to the accuracy a wave? I'm not gonna step on a roof deck issue, but we'll talk about that when I get there. Okay. We have no RCO letter as of yet.
No, you have an RCO letter from Washington square west that was uploaded today and a letter from council member squilla in both both in support. Thank you. We did get an update here, right? Okay.
i'm going to proceed okay yes no opposition opposition right this is an application for
this building has been owned by the pennsylvania historic society for quite some time that
fronts on locust this is behind it across latimer street and the property my client
is planning to put a single family home uh the there already is an existing front-loading garage
uh it is not legalized excuse me for a moment i gotta do that again no we're doing over now
Give me one second, I'm sorry for about that.
computer's running slow for some reason
uh mr anesthesia this is lynn reidel huber board council i just wanted to clarify
you indicated that your client is an individual we just had irving street llc does he own
irving street llc he's the primary yes oh good okay you just used a single you didn't say on
behalf of. Great. Thank you.
This is the front-loading garage right here. As you can see, it's already in existence.
when my client comes on by the way we're going to clarify uh irving irving may in fact be the seller
but we'll clarify that so this is property in question just in case we may have to hold this
then um we do we do not have if he is not um a principal of um excuse me irving street llc we do
not have any information that he actually is the owner of it like a deed or anything like that so
we may have to hold that okay but if there's an agreement of sale right okay
we don't we don't have that either we don't have anything all we have is the
owner is Irving Street LLC very well as you can see this is the front loading
garage and that's been in existence for many many years here's a first floor
removal plan and then there's gonna be a second and third floor it's gonna be a
single-family home as I've stated this is the first floor build out be a one-car
garage right here on this side and on this side will be the living space there's
a roof deck. The deck is in fact set back from Irving Street. It is not set back technically
from Latimer, although the rear is a green roof. But in fact, Latimer Street is a dead street.
There's nothing back there. And it's my contention that the setback on Irving Street should suffice.
of Latimer Street should not be known or recognized as a front of the property.
There's mechanicals.
Irving Street will, in fact, have a railing here, though.
And that's the Latimer Street elevation as well.
moving all of this into evidence because of the long history of the front-loading garage
because it's not not going to be the only garage on the block
and because there are only habitable properties on this side of the street for all those reasons
I respectfully request the granting of the variance. With that, Stuart Heen,
if you could please raise your virtual hand and be sworn in. Thank you.
Mr. Heen has been promoted to panelists.
there's some photos too in case anyone wants to see them uh the place is vacant
can we make them bigger sure
so that we can see them there's not much to it but sure
it's the whole house
it's there already burn the one you the person you're bringing on is he the purchaser
fern the one the person you're bringing on is he the purchaser yes stuart heen okay
I'll see you later.
i think he's been promoted okay stuart
so so council hi can everyone hear me he's there just do me a favor hold on one minute so
So he's the purchaser. So we need the owner of an agreement of sale.
Well, if he's going to be the purchaser, we either need a deed or agreement of sale because we have information of apparently the prior owner.
So we can't. Right. You can't vote yet.
All right. Let me. Stuart, could you please state and spell your name for me, please?
Sure. Can everyone hear me? We can.
Oh, great. Great. This is Stuart. S-T-U-A-R-T. Last name Heen. H-E-A-N.
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes counsel why not want to use thank you steward do you see on my screen i have this deed here
dated may 23rd 2016 it's from irving street llc is that the seller of the property yes that's
correct that's the seller and do you have an agreement of sale i do i have an agreement of
sale and a deed for a transaction on august 21st of 2026 okay if you could please forward that to
me i'll get that over to board council thank you so you are currently the owner of the property and
you're under oath you're going to testify to that is that correct yes that's correct thank you and
did you uh hear my presentation to the board today yes is it true and accurate to the best of your
knowledge yes do you adopt it as your own testimony yes thank you i have nothing further questions
from the board okay is this did you do this already or no the photos are current condition
so all of that is just the garage was that no it's all else
i'm sorry we sent i showed you photos of the entire building okay yep
okay yep all right am i missing something or was the permission to
um add these additions to the garage is that there's no additions this is an existing structure
we're legalizing an existing curb cut and an existing front-loading garage all right okay
here's the garage
and then then the issue you you've talked about it but cover the issue of the roof of the yeah
and the zoning refused roof deck our deck it does have a setback from irving street it does not have
technically it does not have a setback from latimer street although one could argue and i will that the
roof that the green roof that backs onto latimer street is in fact a setback because it can't be
occupied by an individual the latimer street is a dead street it should not be considered the front
the property okay all the questions okay
i see no hands here questions or comments moratory
um none at this time other than what i indicated that we need that a documentation from your
client so so we're going to hold it yes we're going to hold it we can hold it for a week
just one week please thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission good afternoon liz fuselay on behalf of the
philadelphia planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this
location to the current cmx4 center city commercial mixed use the property has a documented history
of off-street garage parking while there are other roof decks on this block the appellant has not
shown a hardship for comp for not complying with dimensional requirements the city planning
commission recommends the board grant the legalization for the existing off-street
parking but ask the board to deny the dimensional adjustment for the proposed roof deck so the vote
will be next wednesday at 2 p.m is that correct and that's great 21st that'd be great and again
for the record our setback does in fact uh exist uh on irving street which is the front of the
property all right oh wait let me just comment um just so you know you did not appeal this to l and i
so that's we have to go by what's presented to us right now oh i know i didn't appeal it i just
but that's why i didn't stipulate to its accuracy it is inaccurate thank you all right thank you
Ian do we have anything no chair there's still no answer do we see David yet no not at this time
Ian, do we have anything?
okay we'll move on to number
MI 2026-003-877-6901 Woodland Avenue. Tameka McCoy is the attorney.
Tameka has been promoted to panelists
good afternoon hi counsel could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
sure tamika mccoy spelled t-a-m-i-k-a last name is mccoy m-c-capital k-o-y
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the choice
truth yes counsel could you identify your client a relationship to the property
Yes. My client is Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School. Its representative and CEO is Lee
Hernell, and she's participating in this hearing. Our vice chair has a few questions, counsel.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. And this is a special referral for a special exception. So do you wait to read
know your referral and stipulate to its accuracy. Yes. Okay. Thank you. You can share your screen
and proceed with your case. Thank you. So good afternoon. I'm showing you the referral. The
referral essentially is to use additional space within a facility that is designated as an
educational institution or within an existing building actually to supplement the occupants
that are currently there.
So basically, the Southwest Leadership Academy currently occupies the second and third floor
of the structure located at 6901 Woodland, and the request is for a variance to use the
first floor as additional space to support the existing school that is there
this is the notice that had been appended to the outside gate and behind it you can see
the outside structure of the facility i'm going to go to the plans
and essentially this is the first floor of the building at 6901 the anticipated use is to have
this is the existing on the top and on the bottom is what is the proposed use
so what you will see is that the plan is to have a area designated as a cafeteria area
with a prep room. The prep room is existing, and this area will also double as a assembly space
whenever there's a need to have a large group congregate for special meetings, special testing,
and so forth. There are additional classroom space that basically echoes what's already there.
There are minor configurations that's going to be used, and those additional classroom spaces
are going to be used for ancillary services and service providers. For example, autistic support
classrooms, speech therapy classrooms, and those sort of things. Right now, the Southwest Leadership
Academy service is about 300 students. That will not change. However, within this particular
structure, it houses kindergarten through the third grade, and the first floor is anticipated
to basically support those kindergartners through third grade students with those
ancillary services. The existing setup will remain where there are key fobs that are used to access
the building the same access that the kids use will remain there is a outdoor play space
and it is depicted on the larger image but
essentially what's going to happen is the school is expanding to offer additional services and have
all of that happen in-house. Right now, the school uses a
Right now, the school uses an outside service provider for lunch and so forth, and they basically deliver prepackaged lunches, allowing for the modification will enable for everything to happen in-house and also accommodate for the students to have a lunchroom space to be able to eat in-house.
And so that's the proposal, and I would ask for Lee Pernell, the CEO for the Southwest Leadership Academy, to be admitted into the room.
There was an RCO meeting in which there was no opposition and a proviso that they had incorporated, essentially asking for a 10-year time period.
The affected neighbors were notified and had the opportunity to participate.
These are interior photos.
This is a security door.
Most of the exits are equipped with these one-side panic bars.
And as I said, the access to the actual school itself is going to remain unchanged.
This is a small play area.
The location of the first floor was previously occupied by a daycare tenant who no longer occupies the building.
And this is a wonderful opportunity for the Southwest Leadership Academy to expand its services to its existing clientele.
And I asked Lee Purnell, who I believe is in the process of being admitted.
Okay, thank you.
To be admitted.
Lee has been promoted to panelists all right thank you hi Lee
miss burnell good afternoon hi could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
sure my name is lee l-e-i-g-h cornell p-u-r-n-e-l-l do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do counsel hi miss pernell uh did you hear the
testimony that was provided to the board i don't understand the question did you hear the testimony
that i provided to the board yes i did the project um was that testimony accurate in terms of the
intentions of the southwest leadership academy with regard to 6901 woodland yes it was and if
were to testify yourself would you adopt it as your own yes i would okay with that i would ask
the board for any questions that it has sure questions from the board yeah um how long has
the school been at the site uh the school has been at the 6901 woodland site since the 2018-2019
school year um it's actually our k-3 site we have a fourth through eighth grade site at 7101 pascal
where we've been since 2006. Okay, and has there hasn't been any issues or whatever in terms of
the community? No, there have been no issues. Just curious as to why the RCO acts for a 10-year
variance if you guys have already been there. I mean, a 10-year variance. So my understanding is
that we do have a long-term plan of relocating and building a new campus, but they wanted to make
sure that um they wanted to make sure that they weren't locked in to utilizing the space
as an educational facility forever in case they wanted to be able to explore other development
opportunities okay thank you you're welcome thank you um so what what is the location of the prop
the property we're talking about what are we going to use that as first floor or tell me what it is
Yes, it's the first floor of the existing structure at 6901 Woodland.
So currently the charter school operates on the second and third floor.
And because there was availability due to a tenant moving out, they're expanding to utilize that first floor to support its services on the second.
they're expanding to utilize that first floor to support its services on the second and third floor
uh this is lynn reidel huber board council so are you using the entire building
there are other tenants within the building um i believe the southwest leadership academy may
be the largest tenant within it though okay other questions from the board i have a question just
around sort of the timing of this and how it's going to impact operations for the current school
and the other tenants in the building? So because of the way that the building is configured,
it really is set up in wings. So we have the second and third floor and hopefully we'll be
able to develop the first floor in one wing, but it doesn't impact the other tenants. They actually
have a separate parking lot separate entrances um and we don't anticipate that the repairs and
the renovations that we are going to conduct on the first floor will have any impact on um on the
other tenants okay and then the two stairwells that we see here on this plan are those exclusively
currently for your school's use once you take over the first floor yes well they're exclusively for
our they're exclusively for our use and will continue to be for our use um so we've had some
space on the first floor just in our lobby area um but now it's not just the lobby area for the
first floor but also the larger space in the back that was occupied by the daycare okay and then
i'm assuming because you're already going to have to enter on the first floor that this isn't going
to change like access or the way that the students enter the building that's correct so there is um
there is a door where that provides access from the area that we currently use as the lobby into
the daycare space we're going to place an access control panel there so that students do not have
to change the way in which they currently enter the building okay other questions questions from
attorney um none right now thank you um questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no
hands to your planning commission good afternoon liz fuzely on behalf of the philadelphia planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rm1 residential multifamily zoning
at this location this property has a documented history and use as an institutional use going
back to 2018 this use is consistent with adjacent uses and appropriate for the site and the community
context the city planning commission recommends the board grant the special exception for an
educational facility so m m i 2026 003 877 6900 woodland avenue i vote yes um temporary special
exception that will expire 10-15-2036 do we want to put first word yes
michael johnson my vote is yes with proviso
if you want
did you need to add hold on one minute mike okay
part of the interruption chair but uh craig has also raised his hand okay
all right hold on craig
Craig has been promoted to panelists.
Hi, Craig. Please state and spell your name for the stenographer. We've already started our vote, but go ahead.
Hi, Craig. Could you unmute yourself, please?
good afternoon hi i craig all right could you please state and spell your name please
for a stenographer craig's b-r-a-i-g last name melidosian m-e-l-i-d-o-s-i-a-n
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, full truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
I'm confident that we were going to get a positive vote, but I just wanted to clarify a couple of issues.
clarify a couple of issues. This is a shared campus, an L-shaped
This is a shared campus.
configuration. The other primary tenant on the site is the Otley House, which is
a homeless shelter. The facilities are basically segregated with the Otley
House entering off of Woodland Avenue, and I believe the primary entrance for
the school is off of a small street called Irving Street with its own
parking lot and entryway. So there is good segregation there. I do want to indicate that
SLACS has been an excellent member of the community since its inception. Its facilities
are absolutely impeccable and I would urge any of you to visit. You would be stunned at the level of
maintenance that it enjoys, I think that's in part due to its very strong board participation
with people from the community.
We did put in the 10-year proviso, not because we want SLACS to leave, but it appears to
be their intention as they develop their new campus off of Whitby and Cobbs Creek Parkway
that they may be abandoning this location.
We would love for them to expand to such a point that they need to stay here in the future, but we didn't want to be in a situation where we have an attachment to the land that an owner then may decide to do something that was not beneficial to the community.
I think we all agree that Southwest Philadelphia is in need of decent, affordable housing, and this would be a site in the future for such a development if SLAC should leave.
I have the utmost confidence in the, I guess it's now CEO Purnell's ability to oversee the school.
We started working with her when she was the principal, so we just can't speak highly enough for this member of our community.
Thank you for listening.
thank you craig thank you very much so i voted
all right i voted michael voted
oh uh cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
to another Graham my vote is yes with proviso
my vote is yes with proviso Layla Beebe my vote is yes with proviso
okay thank you um okay thank you chair sorry to interrupt this is Ian Hegarty we do have an
interpreter on we do have an interpreter on the line now they've been promoted to
panelists and so we can handle that add-on case and uh case number four so we're going to go first
for the number five again we have to re-vote it thank you have a good day all right thank you
council thank you very much six four four one north 20th street
yeah but since the interpreter wasn't there we still do it
okay so spanish interpreter please hello good afternoon hi could you please state and spell
your name for the stenographer of course my name is rocio it spells r as in romeo o as in oscar
c as in charlie i as in india o as an oscar do you swear or affirm to tell uh to interpret
accurately completely and impartially from english to spanish from spanish to english
i swear okay um we're gonna go vote for number five right so yes and number five is mi2025
zero zero zero six two two
could you please state that for me yes of course i apologize uh vota por el numero cinco verdad
Así que sí, el número 5 es M-I-2-0-2-5-0-0-0-6-2-2.
All right, and it's 6441 North 20th Street.
Es el 6441 Norte Calle 20.
All right.
I vote yes per amended refusal dated September 15th, 2025.
Yo voto sí la negativa modificada con fecha del quince de septiembre del dos mil veinticinco.
Two family household living on the second and third floor of existing structure.
vivienda bifamiliar, situada en la segunda y tercera planta de una estructura existente,
is approved.
The proposed commercial uses on the first floor are denied.
¿Se niegan los usos comerciales propuestos para el primer piso?
Michael Jones, my vote is yes with proviso.
michael jones me
voto es si con proviso con una condición
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston mi voto es si con condición
tenetta graham my vote is uh yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is see
ma'am this is the interpreter you said proviso as well yes thank you
kaya win my vote is yes with proviso and just lynn reidel hubert this is a revote just noted
for the record thank you
okay is that it okay we're good now do number four am i correct we're going to do number four
interpreter so mi2026-002112 4045 west rod avenue
entonces vamos a hacer el número 4 entonces m y 2 0 2 6 0 0 2 1 1 2 4 0 4 5 oeste avenida broad
the attorney is joseph aquaro
el abogado is joseph aquaro
okay thank you interpreter this is ian hegarty executive director i just wanted to um introduce
you to mr vaquero uh and let you know that he will i believe be presenting most of this case
to the board as the attorney for the applicant that portion of the proceeding does not require
interpretation however any interaction between mr focaro and his client should be done in english
and translated by you and any questions from the board to the client should also be translated
and and lastly any disposition by the board should be translated do you have any questions
interpreters
um i'm sorry this is an interpreter just to clarify do you need me to say this or should i
ask uh answer just yes or no just answer yes or no thank you yes it is clear thank you okay thank
you very much please proceed mr vaquero good afternoon joe if i remember correctly you've
have been sworn in right yes do you identify your client yes gladly my client is jose vargas he's
sitting to my left and he's the owner of the property through his uh his corporation jose
vargas properties inc okay our vice chair has a few questions for you joe yep good afternoon
have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing uh yes i do
and do you waive the reading of your referral and stipulate to his accuracy yes i do all right
thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case thank you very much uh it's my
pleasure to uh represent jose vargas and his corporation i'll start sharing my screen
and Joe let it let us know if he if he needs anything okay relative okay very
and Joe let us know if he
well thank you do you see the front of the store we do okay and it's moving
right I have the the proper screen yes it's moving okay I just wanted to make
sure that we're all on the same page so this is basically an application for a
special exception so that Jose and his family in his grocery store, Girard
neighborhood food market, located at the southeast corner of 41st and Girard, so
that they could sell hot foods. It's already an ongoing bodega grocery store
with two aisles, already selling sandwiches, already selling cold foods,
and he'd like to have permission from the board to be able to sell hot foods.
This is a picture of the front of the store, courtesy of Google Maps,
and I'll be scrolling down with the photographs.
Here's our poster, which was put up, and I'm trying to make it scroll down a little bit faster,
if the computer will permit me.
You briefly saw the other poster.
Here's the third poster, and there's our poster.
He already has the sinks in place, a view of the food prep area.
This is a deli slicer condiment.
area. Here's a griddle. Here's a sink that we saw with the condiment area that we saw before.
Fire suppression and hood system.
Here's another view of the griddle with the hood system and the fire suppression system.
And all of this is located behind the counter area, located in the front of the store. If you
saw the front door into the store you have the cash register area immediately
to the left and this is all behind the cash register area. Going further down
to the photos and all of these photos were shared with the um rco when we had our meeting on
june 25th of 2026 which i attended along with jose um by way of background uh jose
had purchased the building on April 13th of 2021. Store hours are from Monday through Friday from
7 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. Saturdays from 8 to 8, Sundays from 8 to 6. Three people at a given time work at
the store, Jose along with his wife Julia Elena and Jose's brother, his name is Santos. We've had
We are meeting with the RCO on June 25, 2026, and even though we don't have a letter of support from them yet, at least I haven't received one, there was a positive response at the RCO meeting.
They did ask for a CBA, a community benefits agreement, which we agreed to in general, in principle.
there's just a few minor corrections um among the gist of the community benefits agreements was that
the uh the store needed to remove any of the uh games those those video games which they already
have been removed um city council and i believe even on a statewide level they're no longer no no
no um no store no concern is allowed to even have them anywhere statewide and they've already been
removed uh consistent with the cba and consistent with the uh with the law they also asked for um
additional healthy food options more fruits and vegetables which i'm showing you some photographs
and some fruits and vegetables that the store always has onions potatoes i have a few additional
photographs of again here go fresh fruits fresh vegetables which are available as well as frozen
fruits and vegetables in their freezers um that was the uh that's the food prep and serving license
that was the uh that's the food prep and serving license which the city already had granted to
which the city already...
them uh and it's still still active um i have some additional photos which i'd like to show the board
of the store
store. It's a two-isle store. Here's the aisle to the right when you come into the store.
this is the checkout area and all that kitchen equipment
is behind all this display and behind the deli counter
this is that same aisle looking towards the front of the store that's jose
this is the aisle to the left that's that deli counter
and another view of that same aisle and this is that deli counter area and behind that is where
the kitchen equipment was in addition to the healthy fruit healthy fruits healthy vegetables
and other healthier fruit fruit drinks we also agreed that we would apply for that the store
would apply for some sort of a cover to cover and hide away the trash bin that's on the side.
If you saw that first photograph, there was a trash bin that's on the sidewalk. It's a commercial
trash bin. So if the board were to grant us this special exception, my client would immediately
put in an application to have some sort of a structure to cover that trash bin
on the side and the third item or I'm sorry the fourth item that the RCO had
asked for was to keep the store looking nice beautify it paint it as may be
necessary we still have not gotten the community benefits agreement back to us
from the RCO, but we anticipate that the RCO will sign that. And with that, we would like to
proceed operating. With respect to the requirements that the code provides for a special exception,
this application to sell hot, to prepare and sell hot foods, it would not add to any congestion
in the public streets or the transportation systems it would not add to any overcrowding
on the land in question I'm sorry it's nothing Jeff but okay I thought I heard somebody ask
it would not be impairing any adequate supply of lighting or air to any adjacent properties
it would not be burdening any water sewer school parks or other public facilities it would not be
impairing or permanently injuring the use of adjacent conforming properties it doesn't
endanger the public health or safety by fire or any other means and it's not inconsistent with
the comprehensive plan for the city um this application to sell hot foods it would add
to the uh food choices that the neighborhood has um this is considered a food desert and every time
um when we've had our meeting with the rco there was positive response they couldn't wait for him
to be able to sell hot foods when i put up the posters at the property neighbors were asking
what's going on what are the posters for and they showed some excitement and they couldn't wait for
for jose to start preparing and selling hot foods so what was using the joe is he using the basement
to um let's ask that question of jose
do you want me to ask that question in spanish or do you want the
okay all right interpreter could you ask the uh jose if he's going to use the basement also
José, ¿va usted a usar también el sótano?
Yo lo uso para soda solamente.
Interprete aquí, un momento, por favor.
Señor, este es el intérprete.
Solamente entendí.
Yo lo uso solamente para...
Ok, para la soda y el agua.
Soda y agua.
I use...
Gracias.
I use it only for soda and water.
So he's, he's, he's keeping things down, but we need to swear on it.
So he's keeping things down.
But we need to swear him in.
Right. All right. Do we, are we going to Joe? Could you have your testimony adopted, please?
And we'll have the interpreter do that. Could he? Could you call the interpreter on for me, please? Jose?
As in the state, his name is spelled for the stenographer.
Señor, por favor, diga su nombre y deletreelo para el ecografista, para el sonido.
José Dolores Vargas.
J-O-S-S-D-O-L-O-R-E-S-B-A-R-G-A-S.
this is the interpreter would you like me to ask him to do that again in Spanish so I can
spell that yeah I wanted to do it in Spanish and then could you tell us what he responds in English
thank you señor este es el intérprete por favor dele trelo una vez más en español despacio y por
For example, J de Juan, O de Oso, S de sapo, E de elefante.
Gracias.
J de Juan, O de Oso, S de sapo, E de enano, José, D de dedo, O, O, R,
so first name j as and juliette
O is in Oscar, S is in Sierra, E is in Echo, second name Dolores, D is in Delta, O is in Oscar, L is in Lima, O is in Oscar, R is in Romeo, E is in Echo, S is in Sierra.
Last name.
Listen to me.
Could he ask them to, does he swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
señor jura o afirma decir la verdad toda la verdad y nada más que la verdad
i swear okay joe could you uh you mentioned the question you'd like to ask him about
adopting your testimony um did you mr barbus did you hear my testimony to the board my presentation
yes señor vargas escuchó mi testimonio ante la junta mi presentación ante la junta
yes okay joe continue would you adopt it as your own testimony if it were if you were testifying
Señor, ¿será que usted lo adoptaría como su propio testimonio si usted estuviera testificando?
Are there any changes to my testimony or any corrections?
Any corrections that need to be made to my testimony.
¿Hay algún cambio o corrección que deba hacerse en mi testimonio?
no all right all right all right questions from the board uh yes uh venting for the exhaust uh hood
is it are you venting through the building are you venting outside
well jill is joe there joe do you know what that answer is yeah i'm looking for that photograph
i'm looking for that photograph which should show the venting one moment all right
where did that go
why don't we ask that why don't we ask that of um of uh
could you interpreter could you please ask them is he interpreting
is he uh have an event go to the roof or just outside
Señor, ¿tiene una ventilación que puede ir a la azotea o simplemente al exterior?
A la azotea, su buena quisiera.
in the rooftop okay
michael you see the photo yes so i yeah yeah i don't see event event coming outside so
i guess it's already invented through the building
Other questions from the board?
Yes. Does he also have, does someone there have a safe serve certificate from the health department?
I have a terminal.
Of course.
tiene alguien allí que cuente con el certificado de seguridad alimentaria del departamento de salud
yes okay thank you gracias i guess i have a question because it does look like there had
been previous approvals for hot food on this location um so i guess my question is was the
kitchen built under a previous permit that expired or was the kitchen just added at some
point in time and if so would you be open to a requirement of a certificate of occupancy
parece que hubo aprobaciones previas para la venta de comida caliente en este local
So my question is, did you build the kitchen under a previous permit that occurred or simply added in some moment? And so, would you be able to ask a certificate of occupation?
keep slowly so that the interpreter can interpret so i'm going to stop right now and then let
the interpreter interpret okay thank you one moment please let me clarify something this
this is the interpreter, sir, this is the interpreter.
Me dijo, cuando yo llegué,
había una pequeña
cocina, ¿correcto?
Correcto.
Un momento.
Señor, un momento, gracias.
Donde yo cocinaba,
pero cuando fue la
inspección, me dijeron
que tenía que tener el qué, perdón.
El Sony, para comida también.
¿El qué?
El Sony.
Could you give us the answer, please?
Yes, one moment. I'm sorry. I was trying to clarify because it's kind of difficult to understand him.
So when I arrived, there was a small kitchen set up and we were cooking in this small kitchen.
But during the inspection, I was told I needed a permit that couldn't be found.
so i heart i company any other questions
questions from our sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry members of the board i think he was still
in the process of answering that question though
my answer still hasn't been my question still has not been answered yeah right he's still
in the process of answering so could you please proceed with the with answering this one's question
okay let's señor por favor continue respondiendo la pregunta de la señora this is the interpreter
one moment please señor por favor hable despacio en lento para yo poder alcanzar a tomar nota
gracias ok entonces contraté la compañía ellos me dijeron que estaba todo listo entonces el son
the company i hired they told me that everything was ready so but the permit i had was from any
other um was issue for other uh specific location not for that one so i was looking into the legal
permits needed to get my kitchen up and running okay so i guess to reiterate um and i guess the
so i guess to reiterate um and i guess council maybe you can answer this would would you be
counts.
opposed to a proviso requiring a certificate of occupancy no no objection to that okay thank you
our attorney i believe this was already answered but he might have been before he was sworn in
um it looks like the use is going to be on the basement and first floor is that correct
well in so far as the basement is concerned uh he testified that he is only storing sodas and
waters down there and it's my everything joe joe he's using the basement period yes yes yes so
first floor and basement exactly okay now i understand thank you question or comments to
virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission sorry chair yes we do have a hand raised
jihad ali has been promoted to panelists
jihad state your name and spell for the stenographer please
Yes, sir. Can you hear me?
I can. Could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer?
Sure. Good afternoon, Mr. Commissioner, members of the panel. My name is Jihad Ali, J-I-H-A-D-A-L-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I affirm.
Please proceed.
yes counselor uh mr commissioner i'm a member of the rco and mr vaccaro and his client did come in
there i just i'm not i was surprised that i didn't uh sign up today to speak but i i know that um we
i attended the meeting and i was surprised that brian wasn't here to give testimony or i sent in
the rco notice but uh mr vaccaro did a excellent presentation in front of community it was well
attended everybody attended everybody the close near neighbors had positive uh comments to make
about mr uh the store owner and i remember the thing about the outside they only wanted an
enclosure counselor i don't think they wanted it covered whatever the law would permit if he
could do an enclosure because the issue came up uh the client the owner said that his family lived
upstairs so there was access for everybody to put trash in there but the overall feeling was he runs
excellent store people get their money's worth they were really happy with the food products that
he was providing the coal sandwiches and they overall when he supported it whatever our attendance
was majority voted for it thank you that's all thank you for taking time to calls we appreciate
it thank you very much thank you for your support anyone else planning commission
good afternoon liz fuzely on behalf of the philadelphia planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx2 commercial mixed use zoning at this
location the appellant has shown that the proposed eating and drinking establishment
will have no detrimental impact beyond what might reasonably be expected the city planning
commission recommends that the board grant the proposed special exception for an eating and
drinking establishment mi 2026 002 112 4058 west rod avenue i vote yes with proviso first floor and
basement only and are you adding the co that was a request that was the other request
oh oh yeah a certificate of occupancy to be obtained all right i'm michael johnson my vote
is yes with provisals. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with provisals. Tanetta Graham, my vote is
yes with provisals. Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with provisals. Layla Bibi, my vote is yes with
provisals. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thank you for
your help. MI 2026-003-736-2119 St. Albans Street. David Orphanides is the attorney.
and just for the note for the interpreter interpreter you dismissed thank you for your
help today if there's nothing further interpreter will disconnect now but as opposed to services
thank you for general services interpreter disconnecting Mr. Orphanides could you please
state and spell your name for the stenographer certainly certainly my name is David Orphanides
last name is spelled o-r-p-h-a-n-i-d-e-s you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
about the truth i do you identify your client a relationship to the property sure allison charles
you identify your client a relationship to the property sure allison charles and dave matthewson
and dave matthewson
uh 2119 st alvin street our um vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted
your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this here yes okay and and do you wait to read
that your refusals are simply to the accuracy yeah i think you're good my mic is off oh here
okay so hopefully we don't have any other issues yeah okay do you wave the
reason that your refusal is simply to the accuracy uh yes okay all right thank you
see your screen and proceed with your case certainly hold on council we have anything
late on his uh yeah i have a revised proviso plan for him letters coming in i'm just saying what the
letters are coming i sent it late i sent it this earlier this afternoon it was just what you said
huh yeah yeah yeah okay no other revised provided we're here in hearings so yeah okay all right
well you can hold the boat and have it yeah we're gonna yeah i mean the changes were made based upon
what the community wanted us to do okay so i'm gonna put this on the record again when we're in
hearings we're not gonna we're not doing stuff yeah we're not trying to be difficult but just
understand so we might have sent it we looked at it before we started too it's all i want to get
going to leave that sure and then i have we have a letter from sasna yeah i did not noak was also
uh designated as a co-coordinating rco i have not received anything from them and then i did reach
out by telephone via email to council president johnson's office but i haven't received anything
of position from them maybe you have but we got noak we did not get sauce oh yeah that never
received no x so i don't know what that um it's non-support okay i'm not all right i don't know
why but okay i haven't seen it but i'm not surprised why don't we yeah no problem so um
can uh everybody everybody can see my plan so let me just scroll up here let me reduce that
let's get one minute
there we go all right all right the subject property is 2119 St Albans Street it's located
on the north side of the street it's a tree line street on the north side so there's street trees
on the north side no street trees on the south side here is a picture of the property it's an
existing two-story single-family dwelling and you can see uh extending this is a view extending to
the east on the north side and then on the west also on the north side you can see this picture
here seems to be a little bit of a lag um but all the street trees on on our side of the street there
no street trees a very few street trees on the south side very mature trees that provide shading
of the upper floors and above the roofs of the uh the existing two uh buildings
um my volume is all food so um so anyway the proposal is um to uh fill in the back there's
a notch at the back of the building and you can see this in the aerials um right here if i show you
you can see right there that there's a notch in the northwest corner of the building so the
proposal is to fill that in similar to the property to the left of us which goes a little
deeper and similar to the property to the right of us to the east of us which is a little shallower
but you can see that most a lot of the buildings and most of the buildings are either the same
depth as the property to either to the left of us you can see it goes deeper as you extend further
to the west and the same thing with the properties heading to the right so in the back we'll be at
about the same depth and that's where our open area refusal comes from so filling in that notch
we go from 75 open area to 80 open area but again it's to create a condition that exists up and down
the back street which is climber street the property goes from st albans on the north side
to the south side of climber which dead ends to the west from 20 uh 21st street um after filling
that in, we're going to put a third and a fourth floor addition on top of that. The third floor
addition has a refusal for not being the eight-foot setback. The fourth floor is setback way
more than the eight feet. It's setback so far back, and this is one of the revisions, that
initially the original design, in certain circumstances, you would have been able to view
certain portions of the edition um and what happened during the um
of the addition. And what happened during the process, you can see here in the bottom, and it's
a little hard to see because the line's a little faint. These are the zoning drawings that were
submitted originally. And you can see with the line of sight, the bottom right-hand corner,
that it clipped a little bit of the fourth floor and the deck that's above that. So there's a deck
at the front of the third floor and the deck above the first floor no pilot house just an open
staircase leading from the deck at the front of the third floor um to the deck on top and based
upon we met with the sasna architectural review committee and then we went in front of the full
community the um at the architectural review committee we had already kind of made this
determination but it was reinforced to push everything back at the upper floors um at the
fourth floor and then with a deck so that none of it is visible from across the street. And you can
see that in the rendering that I showed at the very beginning. This is what it will look like
from across the street. You'll see a third story. We're maintaining the cornice. The properties to
either side of us have cornices. We're trying to maintain that. We're not modifying that. We're not
raising the first floor or the second floor. We're keeping that exactly where they are. And then we're
having similar floor to ceiling heights at the third and fourth floor level. You'll see some
photographs that I have. With the height being increased to 38 feet, when some people do just
the third floor, they either push the ground floor way out of the ground with new construction
or they put a taller third floor, which creates almost like a top hat effect. What we're able to
do is by keeping the floor to ceiling heights consistent throughout all the stories to the
So the rest of the block, so it's interesting you say that, so the rest of the block has a large number of non-three-story or non-two-story structures, and you'll see this right here.
I pulled that up before.
So the red, so this right here is St. Albans Street, if you can see my pointer.
and this is our property right here. And what you can see is that there are, I can tell you,
there's 23 properties with frontage on the north side of St. Albans. 10 of them have more than two
stories. And I have those marked with red Xs. Does any of them have four stories like you're
doing? None of them have the four stories. But again, our fourth floor is set back very far
from the front. It's not visible. And it's actually basically effectively like a larger
pilot house okay but and it has far less occupied area than would otherwise be permitted so and then
you can see on the south side what i've marked with green are two properties that are presently
under construction they are three so many of these have three stories with decks with pilot houses
above them so again they don't have a fourth floor but they have a deck and they're not set back like
our fourth floor is set back they're more towards the front of the building um either right all the
to the front you can see i'll show you some photographs or at the eight foot setback
but essentially throughout the through the process what we did is we revised
the zoning plans as i mentioned and what we were able to do now is we and you can see here pretty
clearly is that we have pushed everything back so everything is out of line of sight so we pushed
the deck back from the third floor we pushed the fourth floor back and then we pushed the railing
above that back and deck above that so none of that is visible from across the street um and we
actually did um we did some renderings and as you can see this is what i showed you before
and so my client started um my client started with a buy right design and this is the buy right
design this is safe back eight feet at the third and fourth floors um and what happens and that's
they would go and they would get a by-right permit for that.
They didn't particularly care for that.
Like a lot of people, they don't like this requirement.
And so what they ended up, excuse me, sorry about that.
And so what they ended up doing is,
we know that in graduate hospital,
we see a lot of these, and I have photographs,
these third floor mansards throughout the neighborhood.
And many of the proposals I've seen
that have come before this board have a fourth floor,
but don't have it pushed so far back
where it's essentially like an enlarged pilot house
at that level. But if you can see here, let's scroll down. And here's, there's a comparison
between the two. Sorry, from across the street, you can see what the two, the two different views
would look like. We did shadow studies as well. And in our shadow studies, what we showed is a
comparison between the bi-right with third and fourth floor set back eight feet going straight
third and fourth floor set back eight feet going straight up with the pilot house on top of that by
up with the pilot house on top
right pilot house and roof deck on top of that and what you see here is what you see is in the yellow
areas indicate where the shadow of the by right structure would exceed the shadow that's cast by
our building and as you can see i'm going to try to get this zoom this down further
there are very very limited times where the proposed um shadows more and actually just so
the board knows in in the by right drawings that we have they they don't fully maximize what would
be permitted in a in a by right situation because they they've reduced it to some degree at pilot
houses and up to 51.6 the deck isn't built up above the existing structure but what you can see here
is um there's contextual site plans then the zoning elevations is what i wanted to show you
is where this is the comparison of a by rate building and again this is a little shorter than
what could be by right i think it's showing a height of 47 feet to the pilot house where the
pilot house can be up to 51.6 um and this is the what we're proposing here and as shown on the
rendering most the top of the third floor and all the fourth floor is visible with a by right design
and my clients wanted something they've lived on the neighborhood in the neighborhood for a
considerable period of time um younger couple there they should have been they should be here
on to adopt my statements and um they they want it to look in uh like that it it satisfies and meets
the other uh the designs of the rest of the block and that's why they want to push it back lower it
down and push everything to the rear they do need more space for the growing family which
isn't a basis for the granular variance but between these two options they end up with a
little less square footage with what they're coming in right now but it's something that they
would prefer to look at and they think that it fits in with the block much more than a buy right
scenario would um we there in the letter from sasna if you've reviewed it um at the community
group meeting, there was some questions regarding structural concerns. That generally tends to come
up at the building permit phase, but we did have a structural report that was done based upon
pre-construction surveys of the property as much as they could of the surrounding properties.
And if I go to the last page, which give me one minute,
The summary is that they don't believe that they would need to do any underpinning or structural reinforcement to the structure that exists. And as a result, there should be no structural implications to the properties to either side of them, other than what normal construction might impact them.
But the addition themselves, having the additional port floor, which, again, it could do as a matter of right, but having it be smaller than what would otherwise be permitted as far as the overall square footage further reduces the impact and the need for structural support.
And if I could just get there for a minute, I just have to scroll through. My PDF seems to be a completely slow.
There's the conclusion.
they say this is our preliminary opinion that the existing foundation supporting walls can
be retained for the proposed additions and no strengthening the existing foundation is
presently anticipated i have um the one of the the principles with the construction company
that's going to be doing this work is online that's online with tb here today i'd like them
i've promoted to panelists because he can not only adopt my statement tell me what he's going
do is testify he's going to adopt my statements regarding the design but i'd also like to have
him testify as to his experience he's done about 50 to 60 of these additions when we knew before
because we do have is that information just had right no no no no so that does this is the engineer
i know we just literally this just came in right right all right we don't have a lot of this
information i don't mean to be you're pretending who do you who are you bringing on down zach
Zach Winters is a contract.
And he's going to testify to what?
He's going to testify that he's done 50 to 60 of these additions.
All right.
15 to 20 of them include fourth floors to talk about lack of structural issues when they put these.
But he's not a structural guy, right?
No, but he's, but he, but he has built them.
He's never had an issue.
Please bring him one.
Bring him one.
His name?
Zach Winters.
zach has been promoted to panelists thank you
hello can you hear me we can sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
we can sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
Zachary
zachary winters z-a-c-h-a-r-y w-i-n-t-e-r-s do you swear i'm referring to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing about the truth i do that could you turn on your video please
uh yes sir one second david yes zach real quickly you've seen the structural report
that I'm showing right now that was submitted to the board today, correct?
And you've been doing these types of additions here in Philadelphia for how many years?
Nine years.
And about how many of these additions on existing two stories have you done in Philadelphia?
50-plus of vertical additions, so third stories or third and fourth.
And how many of those included third or fourth stories?
Third and fourth stories.
Around 15.
And during the construction of those, have you had any issues?
I mean, every property is different, but you haven't experienced structural issues with the properties to either side
when you put a third and fourth floor on these existing older two-story buildings in Philadelphia, correct?
And what's your background?
I'm a general contractor.
builder my background is uh i grew up in a family that uh practices historic preservation in in
germantown so of a deep love of old homes and protecting the architectural heritage
it's all around the city and this design of maintaining the two-story at the front the cornice
and adding the fourth third and fourth floor push back from the front i mean the third floor with
the mansard and the fourth floor pushed back is that in keeping do you feel with the with the
fabric of the block? Yes, it's really important for us to keep the original lines at the top,
which basically cornice lines. And we feel that the mansard adds a gentle sloping at the top and
looks appropriate on some of these historic homes, as many of them were built with mansards at the
time they were built. Okay. I don't have any more questions for Zach. Next witness. I'm just going
to bring my clients on. Bring your client. It's either going to be Dave Mathewson and or Allison
Charles. While we're waiting for them, just so you know, following the ARC meeting, they wanted
to have the mansard, make sure the mansard was at at least a 15 degree or seven and a half degree
angle. With our setback between the difference between the top and the bottom, it's at 15%.
So you don't get the fake mansards where it's basically a vertical wall with windows in it.
It's a true mansard.
Allison has been promoted to panelists.
Allison?
Yes, this is Allison and Dave.
Who wants to testify?
I'm happy to testify.
okay i thought you would make the baby testify the baby can testify allison could you please
state and spell your name for the stenographer yes allison charles a-l-l-i-s-o-n last name
charles c-h-a-r-l-e-s do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes david allison real quickly um you and dave uh live at the property correct correct and
And you're making these renovations not to rent the property, but to expand your living space and for you and your family to live there, correct?
Correct.
And did you hear the statements that I made today to the zoning board regarding your property, the block, and the design of the property?
The project?
And are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own?
And also, did you secure a number of letters of support from a number of your neighbors and provide them to me?
And I've included those in the first tab of our exhibit. So there's, we don't have 2117, the abutting property owner was included with the original submission. And then it was definitely wasn't. Okay. Okay. And then, then there were three other three or four others that came in later. This, I think I added that for today, which I will upload after today's hearing.
Right. And then just real quickly, deed for the property at tab by showing my clients on the property tax compliance.
It's good through the, you know, you have all that, everything that everything is everything is taken care of.
Okay. So again, we, we feel that there's two, there's two variances.
We're filled to open area, occupied areas to is the same as what the other properties on our side of block have.
And the only refusal we have regards the lack of a setback at the third floor, and by providing the mansard, we feel we've satisfied the criteria for the granting of that variance.
And the only refusal we have regards the lack of a setback at the third floor.
And by further pushing the fourth floor back, further than when we even need to under the zoning code, we've addressed other impacts on light and air surrounding properties.
All right. Questions from the board?
Did you say you kind of went, you got kind of loved.
you said both neighbors on either side support this we have a letter from 2117 which is the
property to the east and then i could have allison and dave speak to regarding other neighbors that
they've spoken to 21 21 and other people on the block yes um 2121 is a rental property we've been
working on getting in touch and going back and forth with the owner who we've never met uh and
And then we also have support from homeowners as well on our block and in the greater neighborhood.
And they showed up at the community group meeting, which led to the vote that's reflected in the letter from SOSNA, correct?
Correct.
They were there in force.
Thank you.
Other questions?
I see no hands, Chair.
Our attorney?
I just wanted to clarify.
is parking involved in this application it looks like you have a parking spot in the back um they
have a concrete area in the back and i don't know how i mean do they i don't know right now how to
use it okay but that's not included right now no and if there was something with parking it'd have
to be a separate application oh yeah there's no legal parking at the at the property right now
right correct there's no legal parking when i've been out there there's been no car in the back
Okay, I took the pictures that are there and there's no car when I was there.
All right. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands. Oh, wait a minute. I do see a hand.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
And I could just say, Council, if you can provide a letter from the SOSNA and the letters and petitions that you mentioned, we don't have this.
Yeah, I'm gonna upload this whole package that I have here presented today, so you'll have that.
Okay, thank you.
yep we have murray there murray wants to talk
yes hi could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer uh murray spencer m-u-r-r-a-y
s-p-e-n-c-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
uh yes i do let me turn on my video please proceed sir are you a neighbor i am the chair
the software zoning committee thank you very much i've testified before this committee several times
so um two two things earlier you wanted to know if this was a block that the 610 system
move you were questioning was on no that was the 2300 block 2300 block of st albans place
i lived there when i was a student at penn uh grad school um uh but but to this property 2119
st albans so we had a meeting uh in august about this uh with the architecture view committee who
was totally against it. And we had a meeting with the SOS, I mean, with the zoning committee.
And basically the SOS and the zoning committee is totally against it too, except for one member.
You know, I testified last year for, against, I'm sorry, a property that
wanted to add four stories plus a roof deck. And at the meeting, I mentioned that
that there was a letter from the engineering company, I believe, that maybe David referenced
earlier, but we were supposed to receive a report. And the report that he referenced,
we have not received. And the gentleman that did testify said that he's done three and
four stories, but this is three and four stories plus a roof deck. So that's really like three
extra floors on top of you know but a hundred year old foundation and i testified left last
year against a certain i mean a specific property that came up and david was the attorney and nothing
gets david but i mean it's just i'm an architect i just you know not saying that it can't be done
it's just you know questionable whether it can be done safely um but more importantly the four
story block plus roof deck on a two-story block house even with three stories this is is really
a bit much and um uh really though i can't testify for she did ask me she's the representative
noack to mention that she she did not get the report the engineering report that that was
mentioned uh by by mr orphanese earlier and when no act was totally against this project
We only wrote the letter of non-opposition because of the 24 people at the meeting, there were 16 that went in favor of it.
And that's the only reason why it's just numbers, not basically common sense.
and that's the only reason why it's just numbers not basically common sense and that's you know
that's i'll just leave it at that i just don't think it's a good idea and and the zoning committee
and the architecture committee don't think it's a good idea either all right murray thank you very
much you're welcome a couple questions hold it it has a few questions murray you're aware that in
2012 the zoning code changed from regulating stories and height to just right with the new
code the current code is not new anymore to just regulating height correct and no longer
regulate stories 38 feet right so but before that used to be three stories and 35 feet right so they
stopped regulating the number of stories correct right right all right and i'm just kind of in a
second we have zach just to talk about just not talk but does this testimony include roof decks
above the fourth floor but you've also i'm i'm flashing something up on the screen now this is at
22nd and cater so this is a this was a modification to an existing two-story building
um where what what ends up happening is when you do the taller third floor instead of doing upper
floors that are in context with the floors below you're familiar you get a you get a top hat kind
of abe lincoln stove type still like hat type of look for a building you're familiar with this
building murray right i am yeah and then another option that we often see is that where they
completely demolish a building and what they do is they then build to 38 feet new construction
here now this is the end of a block which doesn't have the same same restrictions that a mid block
does but you can see how the ground floor is out of the ground and they've built to 38 feet here
which even mid-block it could be this height with the with the the front door that high out of the
ground as long as the third floor and any floors above that were set back correct i did yes and
there's a precedent and there's a person that will taller buildings on corners of any any block no
matter two or three store i mean three or four stories um so i mean i'm from philadelphia right
and you see that all the time but i guess what i'm saying is this building with the third floor set
back with the front door five feet out four feet out of the ground is something that could be done
as a matter of right but in this case my clients have maintained the front door exactly where it
is right now maintain the second floor exactly where it is now but you you acknowledge that this
is a building that could be built at this property as long as the third floor was set back eight feet
and then the fourth floor was also set back eight feet as long as it was below 38 feet in height
correct yes okay that doesn't mean we like it but yeah and and and again i apologize for that i just
got the structural letter today the final letter and we had intended to get it to you sooner so
that wasn't intentional and i'll be forwarding to you guys afterwards any other questions and
then if i can just just have zach if he's done can zach just testify that whether he's done
root decks on top of the third and fourth floors that have not had structural you want to bring
back yeah just for a second please david pick it up come on zach
hello hi zach you've already been sworn just state your name for the record
zachary winters go ahead zach real quick uh murray brought up uh murray spencer brought up
the question or the issue of whether the four store the three and four story editions above
of existing two stories included a deck above the fourth floor and any of those that you referenced
that did not that you said none of them had structural impacts upon the properties either
side did any of those have decks above the fourth floor uh yes all but two of them okay thank you
okay um planning commission good afternoon Liz Fuseli on behalf of the Philadelphia Planning
commission we are going to hold um um because if we were not apprised of the new information
right okay so um so we're not going to vote on this yeah we're going to hold this uh take it
on the kit how much time we want to give this uh do you want to give two weeks yeah why don't we
go two weeks and we'll vote on that uh do i say 21st that is 28th 28th 28th we'll vote on the 28th
at 2 p.m thank you you're going to submit then i'm just going to upload this package everything
is there any other information out there did you get a letter from cessna by the way i'm sorry
murray i did and i included it with my package that i submitted the other day
i'm at the zba i'm sorry he did not oh no he did not we got no whack we got no whack we did
we got an acknowledgement from zba that you know you got the letter i'll have it reset
yeah i have it but you're right they send it after
two weeks it was less than two weeks ago all right so thank you thank you thank you mr knockamson
Mr. Nockamson, MI 2026-004-174-1221 West Wing of Hawkins Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Mr. Nockamson, I think I remember you were here this morning.
Yeah, I'll try to be a little bit more pleasant.
Could you please, just for the record, state your name?
Uh, Alan, did you identify your client in the relationship to the property? Yes. Reduced, uh, price, real estate, LLC, and in the virtual audience, uh, should be it's member. Dante Reeves.
Council, we have anything from here relative to updates. Yes. We get a letter because I didn't get one.
No, we got your tax compliance. Okay, good. Alex did that. We do not have a letter. No, we do not. Okay.
Great. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have. And do you wait to know your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
I do. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Yeah. Just so you understand, what I try to do is limit the amount of amendments to our
presentation materials. So after we file it two weeks from today's hearing, I was waiting for the
letter from the community group so that's why we submitted it last second for the tax
clearance certificate no alex told me that the the only difference was the tax compliance so yeah
um so hold on let me get the let me do this
okay so 1221 uh west wingo hawking street um this is a very technical refusal
We have a parking easement in the rear, and because of that, we have a rear yard setback refusal where really we have 25 feet, but because of the easement area, it's counting as though it's being occupied.
And then the second refusal we have is because of the required rear yard size or open area, which is required of 144 feet.
But again, it's considered zero because of the easement area.
But we really have an open area of 455 square feet.
So we did meet, this is a long drawn out history, Logan Community Enterprise Center, Inc.
uh, elected to appoint Tina Marie Russell, um, as their representative to have a meeting.
We did, we had it outside. I think we had it around the corner from the property and we showed
it. And based on what Mr. Goldberg told me is that the community members understood that this
was a technical refusal. We were providing a rear yard. We were providing, you know,
we were providing a rear yard and it was just a technical refusal. So we weren't asking for more
units out loud like and we're doing what everyone else has honestly um so if you look at here we're
at the corner of camac and wingahocking we're just building a house with the same setbacks as
everyone else it's just there's a parking easement by the way we're the only one that doesn't have a
garage in the back or parking but everyone else does and everyone else benefits from it
but because of a technical uh terminology within the zoning code when you have an easement area
here is considered occupied area even though it's not physically so maps of the area where
arm one property we're asking for five units which is allowed as of right uh are you sharing
we're not seeing anything if you think i thought i was sharing hold on i hit share so hold on
let's see do i hit it all right well let's go back
huh that was strange
all right well sorry about that i thought i hit it well here's the rm1 let's uh photographs of
the property so this is from west wing o'hocking uh this is property has been vacant for some time
it's a 2200 square foot lot uh this is from north camac these are our hearing notice posters
a little bit of a close-up so you can see you know that we put you know this for this property
on this date west waco hockey street to the right to left north camac to right to left
our plans and drawings again we're not asking for any refusals we're not taking rsa5 property or
any other zoning classification that would not allow that use so you come into a common hallway
you have unit number one which is in the front you have a living room you have a
uh you have a living room you have a bedroom the bathroom's right next to the bedroom and you have
bedroom the bathrooms right next to the bedroom
one more living area uh down there with a bathroom down there we're five and a half four and a half
feet above ground the ground and five and a half feet below i would say the ceilings are nine feet
high here's the second unit here living room kitchen uh we have bedrooms down here the
bathrooms are next to the bathroom is next to uh the uh bedrooms and then we have three egress wells
on the side instead of the two units here we come up this is a single unit on the third floor it's
a one bedroom bedroom bathroom all of them have washer and dryers open floor plan instead of that
unit we have unit number four living room kitchen washer and dryer bedroom bathroom right next to
it. And then you have a fifth unit on the third floor, which is three bedrooms. So you come in,
open floor plan, washer, dryer, kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, one shared bathroom right
next to the bedrooms, and then another bedroom, which has its own bathroom. There's no roof deck.
We met with the community on September 14th. According to Mr. Goldberg, it was a well-attended
meeting nearby neighbors everyone was trying to understand why we're getting a refusal and we kind
of explained the technical aspects of the zoning code that we weren't seeking a variance for the
amount of units we mailed it to 93 addresses these are the addresses we mailed it to proof
of mailing to those addresses or application for zoning variance along with the notice of refusal
and the project information form the deed to property showing that reduced price real estate
LLC is the owner of the property. Certificate of tax clearance, we did show a balance due
when we made the original submission, but we showed proof just now that that was paid. I would
stop sharing my screen now. I would ask Dante to raise his hand. I have a few questions for him,
and then we can answer any questions the board may have. Dante has been promoted to panelists.
all right sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
dante reeves d-a-n-t-e-r-e-e-v-e-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth yes proceed counsel dante you heard everything i had to state today
about your zoning matter yes is it true and correct yes sir and do you adopt as your own
testimony yes sir i think i i think i omitted one thing about garbage uh storage that would
be in the rear dante correct thank you alan could you go back to the drawings sure questions from
the board it looks like your your pro your uh project sits sits back from the adjacent um
property so i wondered why well it's um no i mean we're set back our building facade
matches is in line with that so it's so it's the porch that it doesn't it does not have a
i don't believe it has the porch lines up with the main facade of the adjacent property
so i do yeah our facade amazing i'm sorry yeah dante you can speak you're the client so
Yeah, no, no. I'm saying our facade will be the same. The porch that the neighbor has is an illegal porch and part of his porch encroaches on our property, which I've already made an agreement with him that I'm going to fix that, bring it back to his property line. It's only about a two or three foot section in the front of the porch. It encroaches on our side. And we already made an agreement that I will repair that at my cost.
I guess that so so I guess my what I'm trying to get at is that you're you're so you're building
aligns with the face of the adjacent facade um but you don't you don't have a porch they have
a porch and all the other houses on the block have these sort of enclosed porches that sort
of run along the front and we don't you kind of you kind of don't match that so I'll just
kind of wondering why you're so far back but now i see the only i guess the concern that i have is
that um because this block is so intact in terms of the architectural style that you're building
is so different that it it it's it's jarring when you get to the to the corner of this block because
the block is so intact so i don't so that's that's a that's that that's
so i don't so that's that's a that's that that's a concern for me from a building standpoint looking
at it i feel like our building is going to help the integrity of their building um they have
they're exposed right now their stucco is exposed and once we've erect straight up next to it um
our roof seam line is we're going to bridge all those gaps there where the water is running in
proper drainage so it's not sitting on his roof and it's penetrating that side wall right now
where he just has stucco on the wall i'm not i'm not talking about the integrity
of the of the structure i'm talking about the overall character of the block
your your your structure is so different in terms of the of the overall character of the block and
the block is intact so when you look at that block they've got these eight frames sort of
going down the stone the stucco and your your building on the corner is just sort of this
straight out of place structure when it comes to the end unit and we're only going up um probably
eight or ten feet higher than their building so we're doing three stories and our building is
flat on the front with an even facade and we're just trying to ask that we make the
building even on the back so it doesn't look awkward
yeah but it does that i don't know how else to put it i understand this doesn't match the block
this is that's basically what he's saying your building does not match
yeah and i don't know that necessarily has to but it's it doesn't on the next block they don't match
they're flat roofs and so it's so different that it doesn't work right it conforms to the to the
code and we're just trying to comply with what we're allowed to do about right okay let me let
let me let me talk to your attorney now you hear some of these comments do you want to
resumptive this or do you want to go along so i always leave it to the board um and i always
know how the board feels about architecture and design and fitting within the community
this is a by right project essentially it's technical in nature because because of the
parking easement but if the board feels strongly about it i i i i think it i think i've heard
comments that it's as strong as it could be yeah i guess what about this project are we
saying is by right because it's not by right to do five units well it is five units by right that
that is by right the the only variance uh council i keep saying council member board member when
is that we have a technical refusal in terms of occupied area in the back because there's
a parking easement back there but if if you basically eliminated that parking easement
we would have the open area and the rear yard sat back in the rear right so
i i think you're you should retreat and think about it so so what i i would ask is me it's
every resumption hearing because this morning when i heard a resumption hearing i heard february
nervous huh that i was like i i don't have much time on this earth and i you know february 27th
can we can we give him a three-week date to come here i do hope you make it longer than that
what i'm saying is what he would have to come back with is a change and where the thought process if
he so wants if he wants to go back i think i can talk to my client about architectural design and
if we have to do some revised plans in terms of the architecture uh which would not change the
project and if we have to get an updated refusal too because of how we're changing things up but
think it would be good for the process not to wait till february and to you know see about like
just squeezing us in for three weeks from now and hopefully we can come to a common ground well
given ian kind of has to prove that i think what we have to do is right now give you the february
and then you contact the that's what you did this morning yeah that's what you're gonna have to do
okay Ian controls you know it's a presumption not like a vote or anything it is a resumption but
but I yeah I I think his presentation is over other than new information right but Ian keeps
the calendar that's fair so I will I will tell my client go to 2227 okay at uh two o'clock at 9 30
but before that you know talk to Ian about how we can work this back in all right sounds great
Okay. Thank you. And wait, wait.
I was going to say, am I in the next one?
You got the next one.
All right.
MI 20, MI 2026, 00175, 2230 Spruce Street.
2230 Spruce Street, Alan Nockamson is the attorney. Mr. Nockamson, you've been here several times today, and why don't you just state your name for the record?
Al Nockmson is the attorney.
Mr. Nockmson.
Alan Nockamson.
Could you identify your client or relationship to the property?
Yes. Well, the owner of the property, Sentra Associates LP, and then they also have a tenant, Cole Fittler Kitchen LLC.
I have both the deed as well as the lease.
It's the same owners, essentially.
And as the virtual audience is Bob Shaw, who's a member of both organizations.
Just, Alan, we don't have the lease.
We have the deed from Centra Associates.
It's in there.
It's right behind it.
I'll resubmit it.
I know for a fact, I apologize if our office did not make a resubmission, but...
It might be good if you're going to, who you represent, that's kind of clear.
no i haven't okay all right um have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance
of this hearing yes we have and the way that we didn't know your refusal wants to play to
its accuracy yes all right thank you share your screen to begin
i think this is a straightforward one it's uh oh i'm gonna go there last one try not to say that
here but it's a nine unit building in the front and you see this building back here this is this
is a one story it's been commercial forever it's a cmx one property we're trying to put a sandwich
shop in an ice cream parlor in there in that back second in the back section and i don't know if
any of you've been to sally's it's it's nationally renowned um it's gotten many awards yeah and then
Mr. Rabbit's there around the corner too is a coffee shop and they own Pizza Shack of Maxon
and Pizza of Richmond. And the owner was the son of the originators of Marathon Grill. So they've
been in the industry a while. So they're hoping to do this here. We have 11 exhibits. Again, Bob Shaw
is a representative of both entities. Notice of refusal. We're just trying to do a takeout
restaurant in the existing structure that's our only refusal where cmx won it actually was in
1959 used as a prepared seafood takeout restaurant most recently it was a laundry boutique i would
say a laundromat uh we got a letter of non-opposition uh from the ccra as you know they're
a very sophisticated group they take these things seriously my clients are well experienced um
restaurant operators and especially nearby in that section of filler square we also have other
letters to support Patrick Campbell who lives nearby on Delancey Street Avram Hornick who you
may know is another restaurant or in the city of Philadelphia acclaimed Andrew Dietrich as well
gave a letter of support who lives nearby who lives on Screw Street which is around the corner
from the property uh adam solo uh who also lives in the around the corner on pine street
and then you could just see that this is again very interesting zoning classification of rm1
and cmx1 um basically we're just asking for a cmx use cmx2 usage here uh not that i would say you
forgot but how about the letter of opposition there's a letter of opposition do i read that
oh i didn't get that
yeah aiden james there's a letter of opposition aiden james okay i can't speak to that we didn't
get adam's um i know who adam is we didn't get his letter but that's okay okay so adam i don't aiden
i know a i d e n last name james yeah so i can't speak to that because i don't have the letter
so i don't know why he's in opposition there's one floating out there yeah so again we're not
taking a property that has a residential use or anything closer residential use this has been a
commercial use for some time and it's been a takeout restaurant you know previously as well
so zoning hearing notice postings i showed the property from spruce street and 23rd streets
23rd street to the right of the property you can see there's a heating establishment here
23rd street to the left of the property uh spruce street to the right of the property
and to the left of the property you got another establishment here
interior of the property you know we're not doing anything yet we're hopefully hoping
to get support from this board for a variance put a nice establishment here with experience operators
pretty straightforward
in that we're putting a trash enclosure here.
in that we're putting a trash enclosure here that's going to be like um shielded
uh let me see where there's a good picture of that i think there was a good picture somewhere
here uh we'll find oh here it is i don't know why is that does that sometimes but like here's the
the trash enclosure we're having an awning we're not changing physically about the building
if you look out here basically we have the restroom we have interior trash we have venting
through the the roof here there's the little countertop point of sale system not even a lot
of seating here it's just like you know a little bit of seating here a trash bin and it's just
really a takeout sandwich shop and ice cream parlor and again the you know this operator it
has many locations throughout the city uh we met with ccra on september 20 september 22nd
we mailed that notice to i don't know i'm going to stop sharing my screen for a second i don't
know why it does that sometimes let me reshare my screen let's see that works yep all right
we mail that notice 151 addresses these are the addresses proof of mailing to those addresses
the application for appeal along the notice refusal and the project information form
showing my client owns the property and I do believe and I do apologize you didn't submit
I was about to say I just looked all you all we have is the deed all right sorry about that
but we do have we do have a lease here right with fitler kitchen and central associates
so the i'm just going to say i'm not going to review it right now to make sure that that's
correct are you representing them or are you representing central associates representing
central associates you're representing central associates you have standing yeah i mean to be
difficult but we're not going to sit there and review to see if your client has standing no we
center so we represent centuries yeah they they own both they're there it's pretty much owner
occupied so just putting it there i hear you certificate of tax clearance so um with that
being said i would ask that mr shaw be virtually um sure voted mr shaw
mr shaw has been allowed to speak okay mr shaw please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Mr. Shaw
It says right there
Mr. Shaw, can you please state and spell your name for the stenographer?
can you hear me i do sir please state your name and spell for the stenographer sorry about that
my name is robert shaw s robert shaw r-o-b-e-r-t s-h-a-w do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
told truth nothing but the truth yes um counsel bob you heard everything i had to state today
about your zoning matter yes uh and is it everything true and correct except that
we are not central associates we're the tenant we do have a lease with central associates our
entity is called fitler kitchen llc gotcha and um other than that yes yeah so i i looked at mr
goldberg he he texts me sometimes during the presentation i'm just telling you he said that
he he sent that to you so i don't know maybe it's a different presentation you're looking at
so all i can definitely gave the the the lease to alex no and i know and i know we sent it over
but that's neither here nor there so i'm just telling you that we but um you heard everything
out of the state today is it true and correct and do you adopt it as your own testimony yes
okay you know a couple items i did not mention i just want to make sure you adopt that as well
My understanding is the hours of operation would be 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
And I did say this.
There will be ventilation through the roof.
Is that correct?
As required by code, yes.
And deliveries.
Oh, and deliveries.
Yeah, so how would the deliveries be?
Yes, CCRA was concerned about deliveries, I believe, before 8 a.m.,
and we've agreed to require vendors to deliver after that.
all right and then obviously you'll have trash storage during the day and then during you know
all right and then obviously you'll have trash storage during the day and then
at night you'll put in that enclosure in the front right that's correct thank you and you
we made this whole presentation to ccra and they approved this project based on our presentation
that's correct and the one letter of opposition from that aiden gentleman has to do with trying
to keep fitler square residential this particular location hasn't been residential for as long as
you said alan and really probably couldn't be it's about 350 square feet in there half of the
um the bay window from the residential portion of the property actually sticks into
our leased space this could not be a residential property
questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney again we're gonna have to hold this to review
You know, with regard to the lease on that, so yeah, so how long do we want to do that?
We don't need that long. I mean, if it seems okay, we can do it for a week. I know we have a lot of things help. We try to get it done. Yeah, we can do it. Let's see who's in the audience. 1st. Okay. Questions or comments on the virtual audience.
Not at this time chair. Okay, planning commission. You want to hold.
What do you go for?
Good afternoon, Liz Fuseli on behalf of the Philadelphia Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the CMX1 neighborhood commercial mixed use at this location.
This property has a documented use as a commercial business for more than 10 years,
with other commercial uses on the other three corners of this intersection.
The appellant has shown that the proposed takeout establishment will have no detrimental impact beyond what might reasonably be expected.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the proposed special exception for a takeout restaurant.
We're going to vote on this next Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Wednesday, Wednesday.
I'm sorry, Wednesday, Wednesday at 2 p.m.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you.
Eric, Mr. Batson.
mi 2026 004 461 149 right stream eric bottson bottson is the attorney um
counsel i'm sorry we held you so long back there i could see you getting uh walking up and down a
little bit um could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer absolutely thank
you for having us this afternoon my name is eric bodzin uh eric b-o-d-z-i-n of blank room do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do you identify
your client a relationship to this property yes my client is uh khalil mir uh stated behind me he
is the equitable owner of the property the vice chair has a few questions for you good afternoon
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
And do you waive the reading of your refusals and stipulate to the accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Okay. All right. Thank you. You can show your screen and proceed with your case.
Thank you so much.
hey good afternoon members of the board thanks so much for having us this afternoon
um actually i should mention be seated beside me is ben estepani of pace architecture
um and uh i will briefly describe the nature of this matter and introduce ben
to uh briefly review the site plan so if it's helpful we can swear him in as well sure
you want to swarm in now that would be wonderful and spell your name for the stenographer
my name is ben estepani b-e-n-e-s-t-e-e-a-n-i do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth is nothing but the truth? I do. Counsel? Thank you. Why don't you do me a favor?
Why don't you pull the mic a little bit closer to you? That's it. Thank you. All right. Thank
you, Mr. Chair. The subject property pictured before you is 149 Wright Street in Maniank.
This is a particularly unique parcel. If you look at the picture on the bottom of your screen,
you can see the narrow triangular shape of the parcel. It gets more unique from there. So
the parcel is triangular. The shortest leg of the parcel to the west is Wright Street. That is the
only street on the city plan that bounds 149 wright street the um hypotenuse if you will is uh
The hypotenuse, if you will, is the Ivy Ridge Trail that bounds the property to the south, and to the north is the former Linney Street, which was vacated and stricken from the city plan in approximately 1912 to 1917.
however the street has been paved by the owner as recently as five years ago it's 20 foot wide
it's being used for vehicular access it's being used by the streets department for trash and
sanitation services but technically there is only one street that bounds the subject property which
you might suspect gives rise to the nature of this refusal
the current use of the property is a private parking lot which serves was zoned approved
for zoning in 2007 for a private business parking for a business that no longer exists
And as you can see from the aerials on the screen at various times over the past five, ten years, the parking lot has been quite underutilized throughout that period of time.
The lot is zoned. This is a picture of the lot from the south, from the Ivy Ridge Trail that is slated for redevelopment in the coming years.
um property is zoned rsa5 for residential single family living and this proposal is just that to
activate this unique triangular lot of approximately 17 000 square feet for residential
single family living the one challenge is and i'll pull up the old plan this stricken linney street
Because when Ben, who's seated beside me as our architect in Khalil, went to meet with the city a couple years ago first and consider the subdivision of this 17,000 square foot parcel, they learned, they were informed that because the only frontage is that short leg that is Wright Street, the property cannot be subdivided.
because lenny street is not an official street on the city plan so uh the development hit pause
for quite some time the owner fielded a couple proposals for apartment buildings
but thanks to some ingenuity from ben our architect the property has been reconfigured as
a planned unit development uh with uh 10 homes uh each with its own driveway and as ben will show in
plans in a moment uh 14 additional parking spaces on the shallow portion of the lot um here i'll
pull back up the lot uh on that towards the the shallowest portion where the depth of the lot
does not afford housing development so the technical nature of the refusal which i'll
pull up now is uh the planned unit development is technically multi-family household uh living
the proposal is for 10 homes each with their own driveway and 14 additional parking spaces
all single family homes but on one lot because this rsa5 lot of 17 000 square feet cannot be
subdivided because lenny is not an official city street the only frontage is that narrow leg on
right street to the west there are three dimensional refusals in addition to the
pud multi-family refusal all three i am pleased to say have been uh negated by the proviso plan
submitted by the applicant uh two of the refusals relate to the end unit facing wright street
uh the roof decks and access structures were not set back a full five feet from the wright street
frontage um thank with much thanks to a really collaborative design process with
uh maniunk neighborhood council uh john hunter and kevin smith um and elizabeth we we've
reconfigured the stairwell and roof deck access as ben will briefly run through in our plans
um to negate uh the roof both roof refrisals and then the
To negate the roof, both roof refusals. And then the other refusal has also been negated. That is the maximum building height because of the shallowness of the lot. The further you go east, the last two units were slated for an extra story in Ben's original design.
However, again, with some ingenuity and a particular thanks to John Hunter in this collaboration, Ben was able to redesign the development with recessed grades and maximize the household living use of the space, still with 10 driveways intact and the 14 additional parking spaces.
um another feature of the collaboration with mnc was in talking to neighbors uh making
any unused parking spaces in that 14 space lot uh available to neighbors in the uh in the area
um so with that um i would love to introduce ben to quickly run through the site plans
oh I'm sorry this is the revised proviso plan that I mentioned that addresses the roof and
uh height refusals the entire development is now within 38 feet as uh limited by the RSA 5 district
okay so um as Eric mentioned the property um the proposed development starts at Wright Street and
its way towards hermitage street centrally the of that full wedge the development takes up less than
half of the actual length of the long side of the site um so as eric mentioned the um the proposed
site plan on the bottom of the page um the left hand units had pilot houses and roof decks that
were facing front street or for facing uh right street um those homes were flipped in order to
further push back the roof deck and pilot house to be by right from right street um and then the
two units um furthest to the right that uh face hermitage or closest to hermitage street
were um were reduced in height and the fourth floor was replaced by a pilot house and roof deck
so this is essentially our site strategy for the development um lenny street is accessed
by streets department for sanitation purposes for um the homes facing umbria street they all
have rear yard parking homes the majority of all those homes again um that were behind or were
Yeah, we're behind Access Lenny Street for parking for their own homes.
So we didn't want to contribute additional curb cuts, additional traffic coming from the fronts of these homes onto Lenny Street.
So just as the Umbria homes have rear yard parking, we're proposing rear yard parking.
And it works best with the site slope.
you can see the site plan to the top shows a base elevation of zero from the back corner of the
property where essentially we're proposing our driveway and then as you work towards
Linney Street from Canton Street and that Ivy Ridge Trail the site starts to slope up and then
if you were to continue across Linney Street the site goes up another six feet you can it's hard to
telling the photos originally shown because of the the overall length of the site but it's a
significant increase so um the rear portion of that yard and part of the redevelopment from
parking of the park surface parking lot from 2007 um create a retaining wall um that addressed the
kind of lower portion of the site again where we're proposing the driveway so um the proposal
and at the request of MNC was to look at grading a little closer
and to push down the homes as far as possible
to have these homes be within the buy right building height.
So we're regrading the back portion of the site
to allow again for the homes to sink as far down as possible
WITHOUT HAVING ANY IMPACT ON PARKING OR ANY ACCESS ON LENNY STREET FOR THE SURROUNDING NEIGHBORS.
A CONTEXT PLAN HERE JUST SHOWING OUR DEVELOPMENT, OUR THREE-STORY DEVELOPMENT HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF
THE SITE WITH THE IVERAGE TRAIL FACING THE BACK AND THEN THE THREE-STORY HOMES ALONG UMBRIA AND
canton street behind and these homes again were kind of designed in order to
And these homes, again, were kind of designed in order to face Lenny Street and act as that primary frontage, but we were very considerate of the back as well, wanting to have those areas focus on the Eifridge Trail as it gets built and the trees and everything matures over time.
Again, showing that these homes are, based on height, are in context with the surrounding homes on facing Umbria and Canton Street.
And these are the proposed floor plans for all these homes.
There's three home types, but floor-by-floor organization program is the same.
Basin level, which is shown in the top plan.
It has rear yard parking in a finished basement.
The all parking is accessed by one curb cut from Wright Street that allows for each home to have single car parking.
The primary level of the bottom plan here has kitchen, living, dining, and certain units have outdoor space.
Again, in working with the MNC, we're really, again, we're treating the building as two frontages, the linear street frontage to maintain the neighborhood feel, and then the backs to face the park as it, or the extension of the trail as it.
Yeah, I should note that was one other very helpful reconfiguration of the layout that we collaborated with MNC on.
So there's, you know, a recreation, you know, a unique opportunity to create a streetscape to the north along Linear Street.
But at the same time, as the Ivy Ridge Trail is extended and redeveloped here, the idea was to flip the layout so that the living rooms face out onto the trail.
And then you can also see the stairwells are on the east side of the property, which allowed the roof access structures to be adequately set back.
So second floor for these homes is where the primary suite will be.
Again, each option has a carve out again facing the back to bring in light and open air and views of the trail as it gets developed.
with the third floor being two additional bedrooms with two additional bathrooms.
And you can see here the roof decks set back from right street, plain left,
and the far two right units with the fourth floor being removed and replaced with by right pilot houses and roof decks.
um this is the material palette for for each home primary frontage will be of brick thin
brick along the projection on the second third floor to keep the structure light but still
maintain the um typical brick frontage that you see in the majority of rural homes here
and see with a masonry water table along the the front entryway i'll just close in a minute
mr chair members of the board this is the letter of support from the maniak neighborhood council
the applicant met with the manny design committee in early september
made significant updates to the plans, including the revised proviso plan submission that I
mentioned, walked the site together to really understand the unique sloping of the lot,
not just down the hill, but up Linney Street towards Hermitage. And I think this highlighted
explanation well captures the tenor of our discussions with MNC, which is after
extensive extensive develop discussion with the development team the refusals were reduced to one
refusal for multi-family use in an rsa5 district the refusal is triggered by the proposal to develop
a pud on the site which is necessitated by the lot configuration of a narrow frontage on right
street with a deep triangular shape that's really captures the nature of this refusal
um and a highly collaborative process uh throughout um in closing mr chair we submit
um does anybody want to adopt your testimony yes uh khalil mirror seen beside me
behind me i'm sorry do you want to take places with ben
good afternoon sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer yes first
First name Khalil, K-A-H-L-I-L, last name Mir, M-I-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I counsel.
Yes, I do.
Counsel.
Good afternoon, Khalil.
Have you participated and witnessed the entirety of this presentation and this hearing this afternoon?
Yes, I have.
And can you confirm that the testimony that I provided is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
And do you now adopt and affirm that testimony as your own?
Yes, I do.
Thank you very much.
Great.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Questions from the board.
Yeah, question for you. The rendering looks great and shows a decently sized pavement, but on your site plan, I'm not getting the same sense that it has that level of pedestrian pavement in front of these units.
Can you go back to the site plan?
Yes, of course.
the plan that shows the pavement the currently on Lenny Street there is no
sidewalks on either side of the street the part of the design of the building
was to design a detached building one that allows that parking by right but
also allowed us to reintroduce the sidewalk so we're saying the primary
frontage of the street of the well i'm calling the primary frontage of lenny street um just based on
the orientation of the development um that's being set back five feet from the property line to
reintroduce the sidewalk so you set back five feet from the property line but are yours is it that's
is are the stairs set back five feet from the property line or are they the majority are some
do the first few homes have stairs that encroach on that proposed sidewalk right so so my question
is you know what becomes what's the pinch point of that pedestrian walkway are we talking about
just a two-foot walkway have you got a three-foot stairway like what it what does what does that
mean um yeah that's that's correct that's good and and there's actually oh i'm sorry
you've got a two foot wide pavement is that what you're saying yes but i think we've
looked at it and explored options of pushing that in like recessing that entryway slightly to allow
for uh increased width of increased pathway yeah i think safety reasons yeah well yeah i mean you
know you you've got a rendering with a woman with a stroller i believe and she
that's not even as wide as a stroller the kid would fall off the pavement
so i think it's commendable the layout that you were able to kind of do with this very unique site
And the fact that you've decided to provide a pedestrian area so that folks are safe because this really is like a driveway, right?
I think you've got to add, you've got to make it legitimate.
You know, a two-foot wide pavement is not a pavement, right?
i think one one limitation of of this project um that i didn't mention that that was discussed a
lot with mnc is uh preserving lenny street our understanding is that that the city is not
interested at this time or has been in a hundred so years in reactivating lenny street i just i
going to cut you off and i understand that and and i agree that you've done a commendable job with
a site that's very unique and i think the fact that you added a pave a pedestrian clear
pavement that is defined for pedestrians because this really is a driveway right i think that's
too is commendable but to make it have a pinch point that's only two foot wide
yeah in my opinion makes it more dangerous right it's more easy for somebody to fall off the side
the pavement and into into traffic and so if you're going to have what i believe again is
commendable it needs to be at least a five foot wide pavement right that's something that's
that's legitimate not a two foot wide you know pavement in places that that's that's my only
concern you know um for some of the units they're recessed the entryways and entry stairs are
recessed into the first floor to reduce the encroachment on the sidewalk so those first
units could potentially explore that it's a it's i think i think a great a great issue
i don't want to yeah this is probably taking too long for everybody but a regular a regular
hallway in your in your house is a minimum of three feet right right so two feet
right right so two feet i'm i'm probably wider than two feet right
that's all i'm saying yes no i think on that that end of the sidewalk if we can reconfigure and
recess um we need to make up that so it can yeah i think i think it needs to be a legitimate
a you know a legitimate safety it's a legitimate safety concern
and accessibility concern right right and even like people with carts mothers with
our parents with strollers like anybody a person with a walker an elderly person with a walker
like for there to be 10 homes here there's a variety of ways that people might be living
and it's going to reduce their ability and access to the site as well
absolutely and that's you know
vacated portion of the property that can be claimed as well as as an extension of that
sidewalk so i can ask a question what's the answer i mean what are you what are you going
to do so can can we reconfigure the we can we the again those few houses are shifted back some
yard you don't have backyards for the most part the first floor we can yeah it was it's
the impact of the stairs were due to a great issue but if we and the other homes again as
you kind of proceed up lenny street from right to hermitage decreases and or the the level from the
first floor to gray decreases so the stairs the runs are much shorter for those homes that you're
talking about um the first essentially five from wright street could be we couldn't do it
perpendicular to lindy street because those extensions would take you halfway through the
home but what i think we could do is push it in within the first floor i'm not designing any
i'm not designing anything for you but if you took this i think i think the simple solution
is to recess them at the first floor i don't even know if you just shifted the buildings back you've
yeah i think i think it's just that shifting the buildings back and we can
and you know design but at least the the stairs that the stairs the front of the stairs on those
units would align with the front face of the other buildings so at least you have a one width wide
pavement all the way through not this sort of two foot or foot the two foot to five feet kind of
yeah exactly can we do that ben yes yes great okay all the questions
questions from our attorney um you probably have heard this before um i don't know what we're going
to do but from the legally from perspective you did not provide standing materials i look when
some of it came in it was after the hearing started we're not going to accept these anymore
we're not reviewing materials during the hearings um you indicated equitable owner
we had information of the prior owner you provided that you cannot provide stuff
like the day of the hearing during the hearing so we can't do that so whatever is decided if
you're going to go back and do that we can't vote on that until we review the documents that you
provided because i see what time it was actually provided 2 56 that's not acceptable on that so
And I'm trying to be difficult, but we have to set these standards. We can't sit there. Everyone does that. We can't sit there and review them during the hearing.
Understood. As soon as it came up earlier in the hearing, I talked to Mr. Hegarty, yes, and made sure that we...
I don't know if they're going to go back and try to redesign, but we can't vote on anything with regard to, because we don't have standing right now.
they provided documents we have to review it so it can be held for a week but I don't know if
they want to change any of the plans based on what uh board member Johns and board member
Wynn talked about I'm just saying from our my perspective we can't vote on it we can vote on
it a week if you want so so um how long would it take you to come back with it more clear less than
a week for drawings yeah we can do absolutely so why don't we do this to be sure why don't we take
two weeks so the 28th then correct okay is that right you'll have it here before and we'll look
to vote on the uh uh we will wednesday at 2 p.m right is it going to be are you just going to
submit revised plans or do you want to have a reason as i'm done i'm not suggesting anything
i just want to clarify for the record yeah i know i just want to clarify for the record yeah
we are happy to close and since it'll be closed if you get it in here we'll review it we'll vote
Absolutely. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.
And if there's a problem with the standing.
Do me a favor. I still have a little bit to do.
Okay. Yeah. No problem.
So questions or comments from the virtual audience? Do we have anybody?
No, Chair.
And how about planning, sir? Um, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to wait until we see. All right. Okay. All right. So you okay? Absolutely. Thank you members. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
And how about planning?
Sir, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to wait.
them is there anyone else in the audience from the two o'clock list
any hands not at this time chair five minutes we're starting the 330 list okay we have two cases
in five minutes.
All right, I'm going to start.
They'll stop when I start.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman,
and I will be chairing this last meeting today
of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
With me is our Vice Chair, Tenetta Graham.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Board Secretary, Charlotte L. Gaston.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Board members, Michael Johns.
he's here there he is president mr chairman hi when president mr chairman and layla bb
president mr chairman so here is our board attorney lynn reuter uber our um executive
director in haggerty um this this meeting is being recorded and will be posted on the zba
website by participating you consent to be recorded this is an in-person meeting with
remote participation whether in person or on zoom if you're called to speak please state and spell
your name then wait to be sworn in after that each time you get up as you start your testimony
start with stating your name to enter an appearance have the address put on your zoom webinar see a
staff member. Call the ZBA office by the close of business tomorrow. Call 215-686-2429 and provide
your name, email, and the address of the case, the property in question. Remote participation. Raise
your virtual hand when directed so that we can call on you to speak. When we do call on you,
make sure you click the join as a panelist button use the q a only for procedural questions not
individual cases if you're joining by phone press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute
in-person participation if testifying get close to the mic so that all attendees and the court
reporter can hear you they're talking eating or drinking during the hearings aggressive behavior
will not be tolerated in an emergency follow staff instructions the main exit is the double doors at
the rear the the nearest stairs is to the left if we do evacuate please go to love park directly
across the street and directly across art street please remain there so we can account for you
Let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
Number one, MI 2026, 002, 611, 521 West Venango Street.
That case is continued until 2-10.
Chair, both the applicants are in the room today.
Pardon me?
They're here.
They're here?
Okay, we had this listed as a continuance.
All right. Come on up. Come on up. I'm sorry. You sat there. Oh, okay.
Okay. So why don't we do this? Why are you're going to be this post person?
Who wants to talk here? I'll start it. Who wants to talk? All right. Please state your name and
spell for the stenographer? It's Kathleen Torres, K-A-T-H-L-E-E-N-T-O-R-R-E-S. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, right? So why don't we?
and i believe one of the doctors
that you actually found out about ensuring the rco this is a hot dog
right oh i'm sorry i wasn't on sorry about that the mic was off so those i'll repeat it again
because it might not have picked up um again your uh appeals there's two of them will be continued
your appeals there's two of them will be continued because certain documentation
because certain documents
or materials needs to be submitted 14 days prior to today's date and one of them i i know you want
to speak let me just for the record and then i'll then then i can answer your question one of the
documents is proof of mailing that you actually mailed out you have to mail out to certain entities
i'm just being and you have to have proof that you actually did that and then you have to submit that
to the zoning board like when you submit documents and if you don't have that we can't go forward
because then if we don't have proof that you did that someone can come later and say hey we didn't
know about this so it's a way to show you know that you let the you know public know that you
were supposed to let know does that make sense it does okay i know that he wants to speak but okay
no we have some of the no i'm sorry my name willie torres willie torres yeah w-i-l-l-i-e
t-o-r-r-e-s right do you swear or firm to tell the truth told truth please proceed sir
uh we send all the mails and i have some of the mail that even the the neighbor bring in to us
like i don't know what i did was playing to them and uh we went to the uh mr norman for the rco
meeting coordinator he's here they came also uh explain that we were there and some of the
neighbors there so why don't we do this here here's the thing okay we're going to continue it
until 2 10 27 both cases that you have he'll sit and talk with you and then this next thing is
before we come in the next time you can call and make sure that everything's in place we try
Okay. You know, that's all I'm not saying. That's why we're trying to make this though. It's right for you. We came to a meeting before I get to show. All right. All right. Thank you.
Everybody's with the same case, right? Yes. Okay. For both one and two, I believe, right? It is. Yes.
point to the end well you'll have to write it if you want to write another letter or the letter
you sent is fine we'll just keep it in the file okay all right okay good all right so number one
is mi 2026 002 611 52 521 west venango street that's continued to 210 27 at 330 and number two
mi mi 20 86 002 643 523 west venango street that's continuing on to 210 27 330
And number three, MI 2026-002-641-101 East Cortland Street.
This case has been withdrawn.
We're going to start with our number four case.
So it's MI 2026-002-610-1745 Tillman Street.
William O'Brien is the attorney.
William O'Brien has been promoted to panelists.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. O'Brien, how are you, sir?
Could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer?
William O'Brien, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-O-B-R-I-E-N.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth?
the old truth nothing but the truth i do mr o'brien could you identify your client
their relationship to the property
bill you're breaking up
you're breaking up bill
llc yep but you're breaking up your your mic or something's off
My mic's on. You can't hear me?
We're hearing you now.
You can't.
Why don't you give us the name of your owner?
Okay. I represent Got2Pay2Play LLC, Pennsylvania Limited Liability Company.
Its managing member, Jonathan Macero, is in the audience.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good evening. Have you submitted your documents as if it's 14 days in advance of this hearing?
yes and do you weigh the reading on your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy
And do you weigh the reading on your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
i do okay thank you and proceed with your case thank you um the uh the property we're here for
is 1745 tillman street uh mr massaro the managing member of the owner uh has been a resident a
couple doors away. Bill, we can't hear you. We're not hearing you, Bill. I'm going to go to a different.
Okay. This is frustrating, isn't it? I'm going to go to a different computer.
Okay. I'll come right back. I have one more case.
i'll hear the case and i'll come right back thank you okay all right thank you
yep all right number five mi2026-002-739-2503 welsh road verne anastasio is the attorney
afternoon mr chair members of the board um verne as you you've been here several times today
just for the record please state your name yeah Vern Anastasio A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O on behalf of
Gubas properties this is a resumption hearing okay our vice chair well that we don't need
anything but a resumption here we don't need the facts so what what we have is a presentation by
you talking about the evidence board questions public testimony and then planning commission
and then we'll vote okay why don't you yeah uh we had to give an overview of where we stand
yeah you asked for a resumption for uh three points um sure first this one that's all uh first
uh we needed a revised refusal okay we have the revised refusal for a child care center now this
is this is a previous uh uh right aid um at 2503 welsh road um and we needed to get it l and i
I made a mistake on the classification, so you now have that child care center.
I move that into evidence, and then I'll show you what else we have here.
There was a question about the plan.
You wanted a more accurate drawn to scale plan.
We know that that's stamped.
We've also put that into evidence.
That shows traffic flow going both in and out from both streets, all the parking that's available.
I don't know if we need to zoom in more on that.
And I'll stop sharing this.
The third thing you held it for was for an RCO meeting to be held.
We did, in fact, have the RCO meeting.
It was unanimous support by everyone present, although I have yet to receive a letter from the Northeast Alliance.
I'm not sure if they sent one over to you, but I did not get one.
As a bonus, we also have a proposed play area as a portion of the parking lot.
This is option one.
And I believe we have option two.
Hold on.
I'll get option two for you in a minute.
and this corner would be option two
option one in the green option two in the purple
that's it questions from the board can you go back to the green really quick that was yes ma'am
thank you
I guess the question I have, is there a reason that the one of them is so much larger than the
other? I don't think so. Okay. I could call my client to adopt my presentation, and he's been
working with the engineer on this so uh muhammad gubass if you could please raise your virtual
hand we could get you here to answer ms win's question no i can answer that as other
answer Ms. Wynn's question.
I can answer that.
Other ones are just the width of the
parking space.
That part I understood, but then there's the parking
on the... I was just trying to
where they reached... Is there
a target they were trying to reach? Because obviously
the green is a
larger...
more useful
space, but I understand
that it's not adjacent.
and i think depending on which one it is i'd have a couple followed questions okay mohammed
yes could you please please state and spell your name for the stenographer
mohammed guba m-o-h-a-m-e-d g-o-u-b-a-a right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed counsel thank you mohammed first
First, you're a principal participant in this project, is that correct?
That is correct.
And second, you already operate a very successful child care center in the city, is that correct?
Yes, that is correct.
And just to make sure that we understand this, is it correct that it's actually a certified,
a very difficult thing to get, a certified child care center where you even have pre-K?
Yes, correct.
Okay. And you'll be working towards that at this site as well. Is that right?
Okay. Ms. Wynn's question was, is there any particular reason why the purple section that was delineated is smaller than the green section?
So it's just the width of the parking, the way they're set up with variance.
The reason why I wanted to share it with the board is that way so they can give us an idea of where the placement would be ideal.
We've spoken with the civil engineer in terms of routing as you make the turn to make sure that it doesn't impact any of the structure of the playground and the fencing that we end up doing.
Personally, I would have preferred it in the front of the building so that way it can show into a playground, which would draw more crowd.
As parents are driving by, they'll see like a play area in addition to the outside sign of the potential.
Are you talking about the green section?
I'm actually not talking about the purple section.
yes but um uh we've uh we've got you know mixed feedbacks on both both of them are fine
i'm okay with whatever uh the board you know advises on us we're open to either options
thank you you're welcome uh by the way mohammed did you hear my presentation to uh uh adding to
our original hearing yes i did i was there i was present in uh this particular presentation it's
true and accurate to the best of your knowledge it is sir and you adopt this as your own i do
thank you thank you questions for the board
questions from our attorney
um i just wanted to indicate i know that there's parking you've indicated now just so you know
parking is not part of uh what's before the board it's change of use so if there's any issue with
with regard to parking you would have to file a different application on that so noted okay thank
you okay uh questions or comments from the virtual audience at this time to your planning commission
good afternoon Liz Fuseli on behalf of the Philadelphia Planning Commission the
comprehensive plan recommends a zoning change from the RSA 3 residential single-family zoning
to cmx1 neighborhood commercial mixed use at this location excuse me the existing commercial space
is currently vacant and underutilized the appellant has shown that the proposed child care center
will have no detrimental impact beyond what might reasonably be expected the city planning
commission recommends the board grant the proposed variance for a child care center
MI 2026-002-739-2503, Welsh Road.
I vote yes with proviso per amended refusal dated September 11, 2026.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso, and I agree with the green one, not the purple.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
it's not a gram my vote is just proviso and i second that the green is you like the green too
with proviso and i i will continue the third so noted
okay thank you thank you all have a good evening thank you all have a good day
mr o'brien i am here oh okay i think it sounds a little bit better good i've got another
Good. I've got another one. Our vice sheriff has spoken to you. Why don't you start?
Our vice chair has spoken to you. Why don't you start?
Thank you. So I represent Gotta Pay to Play LLC, the owner of 1745 Tillman Street.
Its managing member, Jonathan Massaro, is in the audience. Jonathan has lived two doors away from
here. He also owns and is a resident at 1741 Tillman Street. So he's familiar with many of
his neighbors, many of whom have expressed written support for this project and those
expressions are in behind tab number 11. Let me share my screen and move to the refusal.
There are four refusals. One is for rear yard depth. Eight feet is proposed. Nine is required.
Roof decks have to be set back five feet. The ICMX district does not allow residential use.
And in the ICMX district, three parking spaces would be required, and we're only calling for one.
My presentation will describe the project and also explain why each of these refusals should,
variants should be granted because there's a hardship in each case.
Let me move to the RCO letter and summary.
The RCO is opposed.
um there were six uh members who met and and the initial their car the correspondence with the
neighbors uh is behind or is that tab um 14 beginning on page 53 of the materials i'm not
going to go through each email but i just wanted that those in the record so that uh the attribute
if the representations I make about the correspondence with the RCO is in the record.
The initial position of the RCO is that they supported it with a proviso,
and the proviso is that the height of the structure be reduced.
As I mentioned, height is not included in the four refusals.
Furthermore, when we met with the RCO, height was never raised as an issue,
was never discussed uh after the presentation of the project we were asked to leave they then met
in executive session and then discussed height and we couldn't we didn't have the opportunity
the floor so to speak to explain why it's this high uh and i will address that briefly in in
my materials as i prove as i move forward um let me go to the uh map and place this
in or maybe I just have to move this. Okay, so here is the property. It's the blue
outline structure in the bottom middle right. It has RM1 to its left. That is not the residential
district that creates the first refusal for rear yard depth. Rather, it's the area behind it,
the RSA 5 area, that is a developed planned unit development. And as you can see,
the area behind my client's property is a driveway. So the fact that it's a foot short
doesn't present any issue for any resident. I think that driveway is 22 feet wide.
So there's plenty of distance between the end of the building, eight feet, and then another 22 feet.
Let me move to some photographs. So this is the existing building. I have to move this. There we go. Okay. So it is a one story masonry structure that consumes a lot. It's 20 feet wide and 100 feet deep.
This is a view of Tillman Street looking south.
Sorry, it's a laptop and it's a little less functional.
I get thick fingers.
Okay, so this is the view looking south on Tillman Street.
And this is the subject property right there.
This is a view of the property with the door to the location closed.
And that is...
Moody Bat. Moody Bat was installed in 2020 by Kristen Scholes. She's a noted Philadelphia
artist and muralist. In fact, with the support of Commissioner Slauson, Councilman Driscoll,
earlier this year the Art Commission approved Ms. Scholes's mural at Campbell Square. So the
project is proposed to keep that mural in place for the neighborhood as you can see from this
rendering oh this is uh this is the mural that was uh approved for Campbell Square it's going to be
installed it may already be installed I'm not sure I haven't driven by this is a rendering of the
proposed project. So its total height on the right side the south side is 58 feet 10 inches
on the left side is 54 10 inches. The reason for the height is that Mr. Massaro wants to
make some extraordinary living spaces. I spoke to the project architect this afternoon to ask his
opinion how many units could be put into this building considering its height and size. He
said comfortably eight. What is proposed are five one-bedroom apartments. They're all bi-level
and they are truly extraordinary living spaces. Each one, as you can see in the front here, this
is the roof deck, which is one of the refusals. It's not a roof on the roof. It's a roof on the
first floor, existing portion of the building. We're going to retain that line of the first
floor. And so it's not as though something's going to fall 58 feet from a roof deck, which
doesn't have a setback. This is 20 feet from the ground. This is the building from the rear.
This is that driveway that I mentioned serving the PUD. And here is the rear of the first floor
has a patio and the top two floors have balconies. So each of the five apartments
is going to have an outdoor space. Materials have been sourced
to be durable and responsible.
And so this is the elevation front and back.
Let me do the side view, the cross section.
So the first floor and second floor,
or the first floor and the first floor mezzanine
will be the owner's space.
It is a one bedroom unit.
There's the one car garage in the front of the building
on the left side. Then the second and third floors, and this is unit number two, unit number
three, unit number four, and unit number five. Each unit is by level, has the second floor and
then the second floor mezzanine, third floor and third floor mezzanine. Here is the floor plan of
the ground floor, the garage, the pedestrian entrance. This is the entrance to unit number
one. You come through, you pass through to the back of the first floor, kitchen, living,
powder room, mechanicals, washer, dryer, closet. Here are the internal staircases to get up to the
mezzanine. The trash can, let me mention the trash. So the trash, there's a trash closet here
for the upper four units and a trash enclosure in the garage for the first floor unit. The closet
has been designed to accommodate two 95 gallon trash cans which we've been advised is plenty,
large enough for four apartments. This is the second floor so this is the mezzanine for that
first floor coming up to an office with a storage area and a bathroom and then from the rear
floor, rear first floor, you come up to a mezzanine for the bathroom, closet, and
bathroom. The third floor, so this is unit two and three, first level, living, so this is the deck
that's above the garage, and this is where it doesn't have a setback. If there's a setback,
it's just going to make it, you know, not very livable, but as I said, it's only roughly 22 feet
from the ground. So I don't think pedestrians are at risk from having a flower pot inadvertently
fall 58 feet. And then it's the same mirror image on the unit three. It has a deck facing
the rear, living area, kitchen, washer, dryer, mechanical.
Uh, living area, kitchen, uh, washer, dryer, mechanicals, closet, half bath, and then the mezzanine, uh, staircase up for unit two to the bedroom, bathroom, closet, and then unit three, uh, same, uh, arrangement.
I'm not going to go through units four and five.
They're identical, uh, to units two and three.
So, addressing the issue of height that was raised unexpectedly by the neighborhood RCO,
this is a map of the area. The blue building is 1745. All the properties in yellow have
expressed written support for the project expressly indicating that height is not an
issue. And each of those letters is at item number 11 beginning at page 24 and continuing
to page 40. I'm not going to belabor that but they're all there and they are supportive
and most of them know Jonathan as being a neighbor and they know him well and are looking
forward to this project. Let me skip now to compatible structures. We looked at
some neighboring structures in this block face and if you go back to Tilman Street is
an angled street so it's got a five-way intersection so there's many buildings in its immediate vicinity.
Going from right to left, it's not very readable because of its size, but I'm going to go through
each one briefly. Going from right to left, 1801 North 2nd Street is 63 feet, 6 inches.
1733 North 2nd is 50 feet. 1712 North 2nd is 63 feet, 6 inches. 1731 Tillman Street is 63 feet,
6 inches. 1747 Tillman Street is 41 feet 6 inches. And two doors away from this, 1751 Tillman is now
under construction. Its legal height is 52 feet. But the distance from sidewalk to the top of the
structure is 67 feet due to the pilot house and the elevator overhead overflow um we've also
looked at uh area buildings in the immediate area um that uh are that have been converted
from icmx to residential and similarly there's many um i haven't picked them all i picked some
of the closest. And at pages 45 through 52 are all the zoning documents to support what
I'm now going to put in the record. 7101 North 2nd was converted from ICMX. It has 193 units.
1712 North 2nd was converted. It has 40 units. 1731 Tillman Street was converted to 28 units.
1741 Tillman Street was converted to 12 units. 1801 North 2nd was converted to 20.
And 1801 North American was converted to 110 units. I forgot to mention the building
two doors away that's under construction, 1751 Tillman Street. That is going to have nine units.
That's the sum of my presentation. I think I've addressed each of the four refusals
and why strict enforcement of the code presents a hardship. Many buildings have been converted
to residential in the immediate neighborhood. The property is landlocked. It's only 20 feet
wide. It has no rear access. So providing additional parking is not possible. The roof
deck, again, is not on the top of the building. It's not 58 feet from the sidewalk. And the rear
yard depth is a footnote. The proposed eight feet is code compliant for ICMX. But when it abuts a
residential district, there's a footnote that says it has to be the depth of the residential district.
But as I said, the abutting district is a completed project, and what's behind it is a driveway, not a buildable lot.
I'd be happy to answer questions.
Why don't you bring your client on, Bill, and adopt the testimony first?
uh mr massaro would you raise your hand please your virtual hand
Mr. Messara, would you raise your hand, please? Your virtual hand?
jonathan has been promoted to panelist
mr massaro
make sure your mic's on hello all sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
I'm Jonathan Massaro, J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N, last name Massaro, M-A-S-S-A-R-O, like Oscar.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel.
Mr. Massaro, were you in the office during my presentation?
I was.
Did you hear my testimony?
I did.
Was I truthful?
Yes, sir.
And do you adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
questions from the board
yeah i think mine is less of a question there were a couple properties uh bill that were
jonathan jonathan jonathan no no no let the board ask questions please go ahead time i so it's less
of a question more of a comment i just noticed like while this neighborhood is really dense and
And you've done a lot to try to give people outdoor space.
There's not a lot of space, it seems, for like trash and things that, you know, come
with having this many people living in the same building.
So one, what is the plan or the thoughts around how that's going to be managed on site?
so um the first floor plan
includes so here's the pedestrian entrance from the sidewalk okay and this is a trash closet
okay two you two two receptacles that will serve the four upper floor upper upper apartments and
And the closet has been measured to accommodate two 95-gallon rollers.
Yeah, I mean, I saw those.
One, my comment is that for four units, that doesn't seem sufficient.
I mean, like, I live by myself, and I fill up one of these a week, typically.
So I question also with recycling and trash separated in Philadelphia,
that those two is going to be enough for the whole building.
I also noticed that, like, the doors open up blocking the hallway, which, I mean, I know you're going to have to go through L&I, but I don't think that is allowable with an accessible path.
So I think, one, was not really feeling that that was going to be sufficient, but two, was thinking just in, like, the reality of people living in this building, what was going to happen,
because there's really no other place for it to go other than those decks
or in front of the building.
Well, the project architect, unfortunately, couldn't be here,
but he did his homework.
I mean, I have four trash cans.
Now, I usually don't fill them all.
When my kids were living here, we had more trash.
But the ones that you see, the normal trash can is 33 gallons.
This is a 95-gallon container. It's three times as large as your standard trash can. And two of them, almost 200 gallons, the architect assured us that that's enough for four units.
If we find that it's not, an interior alteration could occur.
There is space here in the garage where this could be extended to accommodate an additional trash can.
Jonathan's going to live here.
And he's going to be dealing with his tenants every day.
And if it's inadequate, he's going to want to redress it.
And he will.
And then I think by – go ahead, Mike.
No, no, I was just kind of agreeing with him that, you know, I think you've got enough room and if you needed more, you've got the closet right there that you could widen.
So I think, you know, you could make it work.
And then I think the second question I had was more about things like mail, bikes, like because of the way this has been laid out, it seems that everything would just be in people's units.
But that corridor is, what, four feet wide, three feet wide at some points.
So I think it's going to be a difficult place if you've got a bunch of packages filing up.
Is there another plan somewhere that everyone has access to?
somewhere that everyone has access to yeah the uh carter's four feet wide
Yeah, the card.
i don't know what the plan is for mailboxes i assume it would go on the front uh to the left
of the garage i usually put the mailboxes in right when you enter the pedestrian doorway right on the
right hand side i usually hear mailboxes that are adhered to the wall and each resident will have
a key for their own mailbox and USPS generally comes into the building I mean
all my walk-ups I have like this the mail service has a key they come in they
drop the mail generally with this type of situation Amazon doesn't really drop
off inside of these buildings per se so usually it's just left outside and then
and the stuff makes it up to the residence unit as it arrives.
And in many neighborhoods,
I mean, I've got a 7-Eleven down the block
that has an Amazon locker out front.
They do choose to choose that as a delivery option, right?
And I think is it like, I get stuff from online all the time.
And I think like it's a, it's a depends, you know,
In instances, and I've lived in a building like this, when it's like this, this is when people start sending it to their office because they can't have it at home.
And I think this is a really dense neighborhood. This is a dense property.
There are going to be people and there are going to be things here.
And I think that's like you've got four feet and it's got to manage both access to the trash, access to the mail and people coming in and out of the building.
I mean, that's a tight corridor for four units that are some that are multi-bedroom.
so that's all no no everything's a one bedroom okay yeah all the questions
questions from our attorney no questions at this time mr chairman questions or comments
from the virtual audience
no hands chair planning commission good evening liz fusely on behalf of the philadelphia planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from icmx
industrial commercial mixed use to i2 medium industrial as this parcel was remapped in 2016.
this block has a mix of residential and industrial uses there is no hardship hardship as to why the
eight foot depth setback requirement and roof deck setback requirements cannot be met parking
requirements are de minimis with on-street parking available the planning commission recommends that
board grant the variance request for parking and five residential units and deny the rear setback
and roof deck variance requests mi20260026101745 tillman street i vote yes michael johnson my vote
is yes uh tenetta graham my vote is yes i win my vote is yes
layla bb my vote is yes thank you thank you council yeah thank you thanks for providing
outdoor space for everybody everybody has some outdoor space thank you okay is there anyone in
the audience whose case has not been called i see no hands cheer um thanks everybody i i think we
done all in time i think uh i think he had the last class uh class one starting at 5 10 if i
remember correctly so we're we're in pretty good shape thank you all um see everybody next wednesday
am i correct next wednesday all right thank you yeah