51st Ward Democratic so what did the neighbors think of this
and I'm particularly asking about any neighbors on either side of this property
have you talked with them are they in agreement with this
well we provided we provided notice to everybody including immediate neighbors
and um we heard no opposition whatsoever all right thank you
um just for a point counsel could you tell me what the rest of the block looks like
i think mr stevens can probably answer that better than i can but my understanding is it's
mostly single family okay and is that correct josh yes correct okay questions from our attorney
no questions at this time mr chairman okay um
questions from the virtual audience no hands at this time
planning commission good morning liz scusely on behalf of the philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rta one residential two family attached
zoning at this location there is a documented history of personal care homes at this address
dating back to 1999 the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed
special exception for a personal care home mi 2025 006 674 1212 south 51st street
i vote yes proviso temporary variance that will expire 9-3-28
michael johns my vote is yes with exception go on mike my voice yet michael johns my vote is yes
with proviso cheryl gaston my vote is no teneta graham my vote is yes with proviso ryan mcadams
my vote is no tywin my vote is yes with proviso leila beebe my vote is no
okay so that's four uh grant with proviso and three no's okay thank you you have your votes
sir thank you so much temporary basis thank you very much have a great day thanks for your time
great thank you thank you
Number 8, MI2025-007-285-821-25 North 13th Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
They're being promoted to panelists here.
good morning good morning counsel 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 right do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel could you please identify your client
a relationship to this property yes my client is the zhang sheng jenjun temple that's spelled z-h-a-n-g
s-h-e-n-g-z-h-e-n-j-u-n temple america uh and they're the uh owner of the property and the
applicant we also have a letter of support from the 14th ward rco our vice chair has a few questions
Council good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
advance of this hearing good morning yes
Good morning.
Yes, we originally submitted five days before.
I believe the board requested because it wasn't showing on the system
and we resubmitted again more recently.
Appreciate that.
And do you waive the refusals and stipulate to the accuracy?
Okay, thank you.
You can share your screen and begin your case.
Thank you.
I'm going to share with the board what was previously submitted as an exhibit.
It should be coming up on the screen.
can the board see my exhibit we yes yes great thank you uh good morning uh this is an application
for 821 to 25 north 13th street a rsa 5 zoned property uh the refusals are all related
to the application which is to allow this location to be operated as a buddhist temple
with associated caretaker units.
To give a little more history
on this particular application and project,
this property was originally a church many years ago
before it closed down
and eventually was acquired by the temple.
This application also was previously approved
by the zoning board for this temple.
However, due to construction changes during the process,
the the new building design and changes to the building footprint led us to have to reapply
again for the use and that is why we're before the board again with essentially the same application
with some design changes which triggers the current refusals these refusals were the same
refusals that essentially existed when we did the first application with slight variance so
So one of the uses, obviously, is that we are primarily going to be using it as a religious assembly monastery with the cafeteria, because as part of the Buddhist temple process and offers, they allow the parishioners to come in and actually have celebrations where food is served.
So the cafeteria is going to be used specifically for serving vegetarian Buddhist cuisine to
parishioners during events.
So it's not an open restaurant.
It is not going to have any activities with outside customers.
The same goes for the residents that's being proposed, their caretaker residential units,
And the community was very specific in their request that this does not include any kind of use as Airbnb or anything that would allow it to be used as rentals.
And that is not the intent with the property.
It is, again, all contained within the Buddhist temples use itself.
So we did get the support of the community.
Their main concerns are listed in their letter.
that we would not acquire any rental license there would be no need for such
no limited lodging two caretaker dwelling units and commercial trash pickup we actually have
worked out also a a community benefits agreement specifically addressing the trash the future
cooperation with the community and the temple and other items that are not specifically listed
within their letter so as far as the temple itself as you can see it is already constructed
for the most part based on the original approval however there were some changes which i'll address
on the plans as we move forward the temple itself the main temple is the building here
built with imported materials specific to the buddhist background and requirements
particularly the facade it's actually a lot of these artist pieces were imported from asia
to fit the temple's requirements and under the buddhist practitioners desires the other building
the caretaker building has a hallway essentially a open hall at this point between the caretaker
building and the temple that is one of the changes i will show the board in a minute
this is the main temple as you can see it's not quite complete but the temple is very close to
in fact it should be with the board's blessings uh hoping to open uh this in the immediate future the
plans that uh so the location of the temple is here in this this property including uh
the little corner portion here on the site plan so this is all part of the temple property there
resident properties across the street and further down again this entire property at one point with
resident properties across the street and further down again this entire property
a church the original proposal versus the current the current proposal is to have
a separate residence building for the caretakers with the cafeteria the main temple here is uh the
primary temple where prayers will take place. And here, what was originally a one-story structure
that was going to be demolished, the temple decided to maintain it and convert it to what
they call an incense room, where people can do their prayers with incense, separate from the
main temple itself, but connected through an entryway available within the walls here. Actually,
that will be shown on the floor plan this differs from the original design
where the caretaker cafeteria unit had an l-shaped design where it was directly connected to the main
temple and this was originally a single story structure that was going to be demolished
so the layout now with the floor plan uh essentially is it's a multi-story structure
that has the cafeteria space on the first floor and then two residential units on the second
and third floor this is the incense room storage room there's entryway both from here and also a
covered walkway on the side that lets parishioners access the incense room this is the main temple
and offering area with the main entrance in the front what this does is essentially keep the
cafeteria and the uh the caretaker units separate from the main temple itself the trash storage is
actually in an enclosed area that's going to be right here there is a existing fence behind here
that also makes sure that the entire trash area is actually enclosed there's an access door and
would be brought out through this hall or access way in between the main temple and the new building
and will be picked up by commercial pickup the upper floors of the caretaker unit versus the
original this was the original design of the caretaker units upper floors now it's uh changed
I'm sorry, I'm kind of jumping a little bit here.
Let me try to focus in better.
I'm not sure if we, I should have the second and third floor plans here.
My apologies if the board could just bear with me.
um I'm not sure if those plans were oh here it is uh no I'm sorry these are the old old
upper floor plans I I'm sorry I don't seem to have the updated upper floor plans here with this exhibit
um the the upper floors essentially is laid out
with very similar design except that this part is moved in the bedrooms are here and here and
the study rooms here and here the building would not be as wide uh with the with the access area
and bathrooms essentially where it is now i'm sorry about that i can update the board with
those plans i'm not sure why it's not included here in this particular exhibit but essentially
what we're asking for in the variance change from the first time this application was
approved is essentially where the rear yard coverage would be, allowing this space to be
utilized and separating the building for the caretaker cafeteria from the main building.
The actual tempo itself is also set back a little bit, which is why, although there is a
variance still for open space, the numbers and the percentage for it really did not change.
So that is essentially our request before the board, which is to allow this variance again
to be approved as a Buddhist temple with some of the changes that are part of the construction
that was done. And again, I can try to see if I can locate the second and third floor plans
while the board ask any questions relating to this matter.
You want to bring your client on?
Yes, I have with us Mr. Liu Dehua from the temple.
Yes, I have with us Mr.
He should be here on Zoom with us.
Can you raise your hand virtually?
Mr. Liu, can you raise your hand virtually on Zoom?
hello can you can you see me uh we we see your could you please state your name as
spelled for the stenographer my name is di hua lu last name is lu how are you right do
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes
then sir could you turn on your video if possible okay let me see how to do how can i
there should be a button for uh looks like a camera there you go okay uh please proceed
counsel thank you uh mr liu did you see my presentation on your screen and hear my
representation before the zoning board yes i did um can you verify what i have represented to the
zoning board to be true and correct and adopt it as your own testimony yes everything is true and
and uh chair and board members i do believe mr sam shu is the architect for the temple he's also
here with us okay thank you uh questions from the board yes sorry yeah all right thank you council
i know you said you don't have the uh the second floor but just are you saying that the first floor
or the other building is the cafeteria on the first floor and then the second floor is the units
the caretaker units uh the second and third floor each would be one of the okay so that cafeteria
is not gonna it's not like a commercial kitchen or anything like that no it's not okay all right
thank you all the questions i have a question about the third floor is this a new is this new
construction that's happening yes the the um the entire structure's new construction
but the uh is the existing addition being demolished uh no the everything that if i can
just put the photos back up i think that would make it easier to that would help i just know
in google maps in april of 2025 there was a two-story building where the three-story building
is going that looks very similar to the floor plans yes let me so pull the photos back up
uh sam would you be able to also uh chime in on the uh he's the architect am i correct
yes so there's two-story building right there hold on maybe i why don't i swear him in okay so
have him state his name and spell for the stenographer good morning um could you please
state your name and spell for the stenographer yes sir s-a-m last name x-u right do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes all right taya okay so
So we're looking at these photos right now, and I'm assuming that the third floor is going on top of the two story red brick structure that's to the right of the temple.
Yes. So we're doing just a third story addition.
Well, sorry. Can you repeat the original question, please?
i was asking how the like is the is this an addition to the two-story structure that's already there
uh this is a complete uh new temple with the uh the the three-story uh side building
so the side building was built as a three-story wasn't it wasn't built as a two-story
as the old photo show so it was i'm not looking at the old photos i'm looking at google maps where
there's a two-story building there's a first floor that has a window and two doors and there's a
second floor that has two windows so unless there's a a ghost story that has no windows i'm trying to
figure out oh i believe the what's the height like where is this third floor where's this third floor
addition to what's already there on the site sam the the third floor is set back right on the
here's the elevation plan which also shows what how it's how it's set up
how it's set up originally there was an l shape here that was not built
Originally, there was an L shape here that was not built.
correct okay yeah i think this is answering mr g
other questions if you move there your exhibit to the floor plan i can find out where the third
floor is further down i think i think that that question has been answered it was already a
setback 34 yeah yeah yeah that's right okay other questions questions or comments from our attorney
um uh mr chairman did the um owner well the representative adopt the testimony yet he did
okay i didn't realize i believe you you already talked to the owner am i correct yes he already
adopted my testimony i just want to make sure sure i have a couple um i just want to ask the attorney
uh did you um you mentioned about revised plans are these uh revised zoning plans or other plans
uh no so this epic this entire application was due to the fact that the building plans
did not match the original variance zoning plans so the examiner asked us to apply for a new
uh zoning appeal based on the current existing layout okay but my question was are the if the
zoning plans changed you have to do proviso that's why i was asking oh no no these plans were the
same ones uh submitted with the application so the zoning plans did not change throughout the process
itself okay that answers one of them another one i believe you answered in a roundabout way
um the prepared food shop is accessory use only correct correct okay questions or comments from
virtual audience yes chair i have a hand up by the name of desmond hudson i'm going to promote
them to panelists sure oh before you do that i just want to ask council um there's no front deck
correct no front deck it's uh there are steps leading up to the temple but there's no deck
okay thank you
desmond come here hi no i just i think i want to just confirm i think you may have done it with
hold on hold on hold on could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer sure
desmond hudson d-e-s-m-o-n-d hudson d-e-s-o-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole