standing with the city of philadelphia with regards to real estate taxes i would ask that
I would ask that Jim be sworn in.
um jim be sworn in sure could you
Sure. Could you please state and spell your name for this stenographer?
James Maransky, J-A-M-E-S-M-A-R-A-N-S-K-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Yeah, Jim, you heard everything I had to state today.
Is it true and correct?
And do you adopt this as your own testimony?
specifically we updated plans after meeting with the community and reduced the amount of parking
spaces to 19 is that correct correct and we also uh made the front balconies into juliet balconies
at their request is that correct correct and then we also covered a portion of the first floor uh
first to reduce the sound effect of the parking area is that correct that's correct and that led
to a refusal that we
accept. Correct. And we reduced
the refusal for the rear yard setback
at their request as well.
Correct. And we also made the
garage structure, the front
gates of the garage structure
opaque at their request.
That's correct. Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney?
No comments at this time, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
There's one hand up.
A person by the name of Francesca will be allowed to speak.
I'll get to you.
I promise I'll get to you, sir.
Bring Francesca on, please.
She's coming in now.
Hello?
I can please state and spell your name for this stenographer.
Francesca Yipikina, F-R-A-N-C-E-S-C-A, Y-E-P-I-K-H-I-N-A.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Francesca, are you a neighbor?
Please proceed with your attention.
Thank you.
i just had a question about the change of this former community garden not vacant lot to a
building um is there going to be any drainage or runoff consideration for the properties downhill
from this so this is the council is answering so as the board knows there's requirements for
stormwater management which will obviously comply with yeah francesco thank you very much
thank you uh come on up sir come on up could we give him the seat
hi sir could you get close to the mic if you can sure all right could you please state and spell
your name for the stenographer peter kuzma k-u-z as in zebra m-a right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do peter are you a neighbor yes i am
please proceed with your testimony um just to clarify uh well two questions one is given that
this uh lot was part of a community garden from 1999 to 2000 that garden was then purchased by the
manager of the community garden, and she maintained it as a garden for the next 25 years,
it would seem that that space should have been an RM1 zoning, which would greatly limit the
amount of units that could be put on there from the current. And I'm just stating that somewhere
along the line, I think there was a miscue in keeping the zoning or having the zoning where it
is versus something like an rm1 given the community garden heritage okay um second uh i was uh present
at the local zoning meeting um and the decision to vote basically on the issue of should the bottom
floor be parking or should it be office space commercial space uh the first vote actually was
for the immediate neighbors vote it.
They wanted it to maintain office space.
Discussion was then held,
and basically a deal was made
to reduce two outside parking spaces
that were in this outside garden area
and eliminate them,
close the opening in the garage to that area,
and we and my wife changed the vote,
which went from two votes for keeping it as office space our two votes changed it to being okay for
parking given further consideration and further details like there's going to be some more
Given further consideration and further details, like there's going to be some more public parking on 2nd Street near the Acme, my wife and I would have changed our votes had we been aware of things like that.
So just to say for the record.
All right.
I appreciate you spending the time down here and we understand your issues.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
There's no one in the virtual audience.
Planning Commission.
Michael Gall with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX 2.5 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location. The requested roof deck access structure refusal is de minimis in nature, as is the maximum occupied area of the lot, so neither is objectionable.
However, this block has other active ground floor uses, which are required in CMEX 2.5 in order to prevent this sort of breaking up of commercial corridors, even side corridors.
So this proposal would be out of character with the community context and the spirit of the zoning code.
There is no unique circumstance or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used in strict conformance with the active ground floor requirements or the accessory parking access requirements of the zoning code.
Therefore, the city planning permission recommends the board grant the requested variances for roof deck access structure area and maximum occupied lot area.
but deny the requested variances for active ground floor use requirement
and accessory parking access.
Thank you.
Do you have a comment?
I saw you.
Well, I asked my client.
I just want to make sure I understood.
Like, there's no commercial uses on our block, on Poplar Street,
on our 100 block, right?
Is that correct, Jim?
Just on the corner at 2nd Street.
Yeah, but not mid.
All right.
It's in the middle of our residence.
All right.
Show them.
All right.
All right.
So, MI 2026-004-341-213-19 Poplar Street, I vote yes with proviso for amended refusal
dated October 23rd, 2026.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with proviso.
my vote is yes with proviso you have one more i have one more sir thank you thank you all right
all right um number 13 mi2026 003406 3807 cambridge street um mr knoxson knoxson this is a a resumptive
hearing um you will uh we'll do this is get straight here
we'll uh let you go first right and you will um give us an update of the changes that have been
made and the things that you've done then the board will get joined in and then um
public testimony than planning so why don't you start give us a little outcome where you were
and where you are now all right just as a reminder i'm just going to show the first page of my
presentation we're on the porch block three stories there's duplexes throughout this block
which i showed during the presentation i think there's like four or five duplexes on the 3800
block of cambridge this used to be a triplex uh building here before it was torn down the 2035
plan uh recommends that this should be an rm1 property um and we met with the community
um and there was overwhelming support you should have received a letter i think it was like 17 to
one we did receive the letter it was 15 to one oh 15 to one sorry i overstated so but that so
anyway i had the letter no the board had two votes too so it was 17 to one so either way it was
overwhelming so um and that's basically it um we actually had um and my client actually met with
the next door neighbor separately on monday just to work some construction matters out and they
held the letter until they felt comfortable with the next door neighbor and we got the letter on
monday um okay um any other comments no we did receive a letter from mr ali withdrawing his
opposition okay okay um questions or comments on the board
questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no hands planning commission michael gall
with the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommended no change to
the former rm1 residential multi-family zoning of this location however the property was remapped
to rsa5 residential single family attached to the 2017 council action the proposed two family is the
least modification relief and would be allowed under the recommended zoning therefore the city
relief and would be allowed under the recommended zoning therefore the city planning commission
planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variance
recommends board grant the requested variance for two families mi2026-003-460-3807 cambridge street
i vote yes john my vote is yes show guest and my vote is yes taiwan my vote is yes
all right thank you sir thank you all right
so i think we're ahead of the game here right
yeah yeah we're going to take a five minute break we'll be right back i promise you
um i think uh i'm going to move to number 16
and council we're going to do these both together am i correct correct okay thank you number 16
M.I. 2026-004-385-9247 Rear East Roosevelt Boulevard
and number 17, M.I. 2026-004-406-9249 East Roosevelt Boulevard.
David Orfanides is the attorney.
David Orphanides is rejoining as a panelist.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Counsel, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Certainly.
My name is David Orphanides.
The last name is spelled O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
And Mr. Orphanides, could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is L-M-E-M, so it's E-L-E-M, Real Estate LLC, and they're the owner of both properties.
And do we have an RCO letter yet, Lynn?
We don't.
No, we do not.
Okay, okay.
Yeah, we met, we did meet with them in September, and I followed up with them, and-
Did I, I swore you in, am I correct?
Yeah, yes, you did.
Oh, no, no.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
oh wait before you did it mr orphanetes we have that you met in october you said september oh i
guess it was in october yes sorry about that great just want to make sure there wasn't a
different meeting no no no it was in october good afternoon have you submitted your documents in
exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing for both cases yes and do you waive the reading of
your refusals for both cases yes yes i do i thought that's what you were trying to say oh yes
you can see your screen and proceed with the case certainly i think you can see my screen right now
can you we can we see you okay oh we don't see your screen we see you one second here we go
can you see now we can okay great um this so again my name is david orphanetes and i'm here
representing lm real estate llc i have with me here uh remotely amira hassan elsan who is uh
One of the members of LM Real Estate LLC.
And I have Rustin Oller from Armand Deutsch Oller Architecture who prepared the drawings that were submitted to the city of Philadelphia and the presentation drawings, the elevations and floor plans that we have for you today.
Some of you may remember or these addresses may sound familiar to you.
We were before you back, I think, back in the beginning of the year for an application to erect dimensionally compliant buildings on both of these vacant lots and to use them, the lower level, the ground floor level for commercial is permitted in the underlying CA2 zoning classification and the upper floors for two residential units.
that application and that appealed.
So there were two variances in that case.
One was for the residential use in CA2, which is not permitted.
The other one was the need to have eight off-street parking spaces for each of the properties,
and we weren't providing them.
The zoning board made a decision to deny the granting of the variances.
We had engaged, you may not recall, but there were a number of meetings over a number of months with the community group.
There were concerns, particularly from the property to the right in the picture paddy wax, the bar regarding the apartments, the residential dwelling units that were going to be there, that were also voiced at the community group meeting that we had last month or earlier last month.
And so based upon that, we resubmitted without the residential use and solely with vacant commercial uses permitted in CA2.