Morgan, is your gift?
Council, could you please state your name
and spell it for the stenographer?
And by the way, you have two,
but we can't hear them both together, I've been told.
We maybe can hear them together,
because I think they're related entities,
but we have to vote them separately.
But I thought Ian or somebody said,
one's completely different no maybe i'm wrong he did but i think he said okay all right okay well
there's an individual owner of the one and an entity that the individual is the sole member of
of the other all right so just so let me let michael mattione let me yeah my name on the record
mr michael mattione m-a-t-t-i-o-n-i you swear affirm the whole truth the whole truth nothing
about the truth i do all right so it's um 95 47 bustleton avenue and 95 45 bustleton app
correct so why don't you start we'll we'll figure it out
all right i also have here
Yeah, so for 95.45, I do have something for a provisor, just by sight.
95.45, we can hear them separately.
Put it together, put it together.
so so so Michael just so you know 95 45 is a um if granted include proviso specifying location
of commercial space need to specify the number of commercial units is that right
commercial units are by right in these projects um i messed up my computer so she's going to fix
the screen for me i apologize but for 95 45 when do you start i mean which one you're going to
start with 95 45 okay go ahead as soon as i get my computer back online i knocked it out somehow
i swear you in right michael yes no yeah no i don't think that i said my name swear me in
Oh, I sent your name and didn't swear. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, to hold you with nothing but the truth?
All right.
Thank you. And as soon as I get online, but Manny Matthias here, he is the owner of 9545, and he's the principal of MD Investment Group, which owns 9547.
Could you talk to our vice chair a minute while you're doing that?
Yep. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits for both cases five days in advance?
Yes, I did.
And do you waive the reading of your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
Okay. All right. Whenever you're ready, we are.
I think I got a lot going.
Do we have you straight? I mean, are we, uh, do we have him straight?
I don't know why I'm not on it.
Oh, we messed that up.
He said, yeah.
He's such a nice guy.
God is full.
Get on your way.
Apologize for that.
Okay, we ready?
Yep, you're coming up.
You're good.
Here you go.
Okay, well, it's 9547.
Let me go.
95.45, okay.
These are two properties, both sides of a twin, up on Busselton Avenue, Northeast Philadelphia.
For both projects, we have support emails from the Greater Busselton Civic League and support letter from Council Member O'Neill.
They both have a long history.
for 95 45 here are some photos 95 45 is
this this structure on the right
and there is also a second structure on the lot in the back this is this property
has a long history as multifamily residential and commercial use in the
same building as you can see it's a fairly large structure now there is a
history going back 2007 the property was last approved for offices on the first
floor offices on the second floor and an apartment on the third floor mr mathai is now
coming in and asking to have offices in the basement offices on the first floor
two residential units on the second floor and one residential unit on the third floor
he bought this property that's how the layout is despite the 2007 permit but it corresponds with
historic use of this property of both office on the lower levels and residential uses above
this property has nine parking spaces attached to it he has a parking agreement with 9537 and 9539
you pull in off of bustleton avenue there's parking nine spots for this property and you
share the driveway with the two neighboring properties he also owns those neighboring
properties but you share the driveway with them there's a recorded easement regarding the parking
for all three properties um the the basement level has been laid out as an office the first
floor is also office space the second floor has two residential units in it
and the third floor has another residential unit in it.
The area surrounding the property,
it's a very mixed area.
There are commercial uses, there's offices,
there are retail uses,
there are multifamily residential.
As you can see, this whole area is totally
varied uses all up and down the church and auto body and auto repair
strips shopping center across the street bank car wash funeral home additional stores down
the street you have multi-family residential and large buildings as well so and its own ca1 which
is basically a commercial shopping center district but these buildings and their historic use and
their historic existence is um commercial ground floor and multi-family residential above
that's 95 45. 95 47 is similar but slightly different again we have the support from the
cradle bustleton civic league and council member o'neill we have a revised plans form here
councilmember O'Neill we have a revised plans form here the only reason for that
is because when the architect submitted the site plan on the site plan he stated
that there were going to be four residential units but there are only two
residential units actually in the plan but on the site plan he wrote for he
made a mistake so the only thing that we're changing is the number of units
it's actually on the narrative,
it's always had two residential units.
So for 9547, you have two commercial units
on the first floor,
one two bedroom unit on the second floor,
and one two bedroom unit on the third floor.
Again, the other side of the twin,
it does not have as much parking,
it only has four parking,
but it also has another detached building
in the back used for storage.
so you have the main twin building in the front and two separate buildings in the back used for
storage. We're just basically taking what's already been here and using it as it's historically
been used. For 95-47, it goes all the way back to 1937 with three-family use. The most recent
permit was 1966 which had three family use plus a plumber's office plus storage in the garage
what he's looking to have here are two offices on the first floor one residential unit on the second
and one residential unit on the third in 1966 there was an office and a residential unit on
the first floor here it's just asking for two offices although the offices are permitted on
the first floor it's the multi-family residential and the garage for storage that are both
in need of the variance but this building it's what it is it's been there for probably 75 years
it's got a long history of multi-family residential use um i have nothing further mr chairman want to
you have your testimony adopted sir could you please state your name and spell it for the
sonographer many level mathai m a n i l a l m a t h a i right do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing about the truth i do counsel manny did you hear my statements
yes and are they true and correct yes and do you adopt them as your testimony yes thank you
questions from the board so what is the use of the property going to be businesses well there's
business on both sides there's business on the first floor and multi-family residential above
on kind of business well they're vacant he's had law firms there in the past but they're
vacant right now they're both vacant commercial uses the commercial uses are not the subject of
variant so they're permitted in the ca1 zoning district okay i'm just understood understood
okay so he wants to use them for some kind of commercial purpose correct you don't know what
possibly a law firm he's had interest from a law firm he's had a mortgage company he's had an
accounting firm with interest in it but he hasn't finished them because he's waiting to see if he
get the zoning approved for the long-standing multi-family above the commercial on the first
floor and in the basement okay and so you're saying that they there was multi-family before
yes but not on both floors is that there's been multi-family going back as far as we can tell
from permits including the one side back to 1937 there was three uses permitted in 19 in 95 47 there
were three multi-family units permitted in 1937. they've always had three units permitted on 95 47
he's only asking to have two now on 95 47. okay but it's always been permitted as multi-family
because there was a lap of use the permit lapse when the permit lapse you've got to go get another
variance because it's ca1 zoning district okay all right thank you all the questions yeah i
understand that we're trying to legalize the building in its current condition
but given the photos that we saw are a little dated is there any plans for future renovation
at the site oh you you have to renovate the buildings i mean so okay great i mean you see
how they are they i do so my second question then is uh sort of regarding the i understand
the commercial spaces are allowed but it seems like that the second commercial space in what i
think i'm trying to make sure i don't get 47 that rear commercial space looks like it's only
accessible from a porch that you can like or that like very long hallway and
from a porch that you can like or that like very long hallway and also you have both of the
basements that appear to be not completely finished and so in the future what's going to
be the plan for the basement like how is that going to work with the existing division of the
commercial spaces okay for 95 45 there's a proposed office in the basement there is no proposed office
in the basement for 47 so the basement will just remain as is for storage storage mechanical whatever
And then my second question is about this, I'm going to call it a garage, this exterior separated garage.
It does look like that the four parking spaces block the entrances to two of those roll-up gates.
Right, and that is correct because that one on 9547 is only going to be used for storage and not for cars, just storage.
So you still have to be able to access.
But you have two other doors.
But what's being stored in there?
you have two other stores what do you store in 9547 some of the uh uh construction material
so the construction material for the business business the other the other business not the
businesses that are being proposed on site and then um has the streets department already
reviewed the parking and the curb cut and driveway plans yes and they've approved everything yes
Thank you. Other questions? Questions from our attorney. Yes, I just want to confirm. I think you've said it just because I know I'm the one who said to do them at the same time. So I just wanted to make sure I'm correct on this. For 9545, you want commercial on the first floor in the basement, correct? Correct. Okay. That'll have to be improvised, though, that we're going to limit commercial use to the first floor in the basement. Okay. Thank you.
Actually, I do have one more question. Sorry, you can go. Go ahead. Go ahead. My question is about entrances, because it looks like there's three entrances to each building. Are they going to be segmented based on the residential or the commercial tenants? Or will everybody use that front porch?
There are separate entrances for commercial and residential.
Okay. On both buildings?
When you come into, looking at 47, well, you come in off of the commercial on the first floor in 47.
You walk in the front and you go to the commercial on the left.
That's the front commercial.
The rear commercial, you come in off the porch.
There's two entrances in the back for the rear.
But for the front, you share an entrance for the upstairs apartments and for the one commercial space in the front.
And then for the other unit, just because I'm thinking about them, it'll be a similar question.
Yes. The commercial is at the first floor front, you share the entrance with the upstairs
residential, but the commercial on the first floor back, you do not as a separate entrance.
Okay. So then I think I have two questions. One about wayfinding and signage because it's
not part of this application and how is it going to be clear like storage and which business is
which and how you get to them and then my second question is about sort of all the things that come
with managing a multi-family building like um trash packages mail what's the plan for the
management of that given it's also going to share the commercial entrance they have a separate
mailboxes in that festival kind of both of them okay oh and the commercial spaces gotcha okay
all right questions from our attorney anything more um just that uh regard
have a proviso a maximum that's what i have maximum two dwellings see that michael right
yes maximum two dwelling units yes okay uh comments from the reverse audience
yes i have a hand up from jack o'hara okay
hello hi mr harrow could you please state your name and spell for this phonographer
yes jack o'hara j-a-c-k-o apostrophe h-a-r-a you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do please proceed mr hara uh mr treatment i uh there was mention of a
construction material uh being stored uh i i wanted to clarify and i'm sorry stepping back
And I'm sorry, stepping back a little bit, I'm with the RCO.
it a little bit. I'm with the RCO. I know who you are. Okay.
I know who you are.
The construction material being stored, that was the first I heard of that,
and I just wanted to see if I could get that clarified.
Oh, construction material, what I mean is they have like four or five windows there.
That's the only thing.
this is not this is not a construction company using that as a storage for vehicles and material
no it's only four windows there other than that I don't think there is any construction material
I just mentioned that there is a couple of windows there that's all they have
okay it is not a construction company working from that location though
no okay thank you oh thank you for calling it we appreciate it um anyone else in the audience
planning commission dina solomonic with the planning commission
this testimony is for both 9547 and 9545 the comprehensive plan recommends a change from the