Association, and they have issued a letter of support.
um they were they did ask for a couple of provisos which we are happy which may or may not be
enforceable but we are happy to agree to um they do not want us to ever apply for a rooming house
permit and we are fine with that because that is not um what my what the owner uh does um and they
also did not want us to market to students for the college i'm not sure if that's enforceable
but i did just want to reassure any community members and the board that my client intends
for this to be community housing not student housing and i don't think there are enforceable
i'll yield to sharon on that one okay i'd just like to verbally say on the record that we have
no problem with them no chair not enforceable thank you all right do um any questions we have
client jennifer do you have a client oh yes trina trina clark are you on the phone raise your hand
if you are hello hi Trina Clark please identify yourself spell your first and last name and
address yes my name is Trina t-r-e-n-a my last name is Clark c-l-a-r-k-e the address is uh 107
south second street suite 300 philadelphia pa 19106 we're in the firm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes thank you please proceed trina um you're the property
manager for this for this property correct yes all right and you and what is the name of the
property management company you work for it is tcs management thank you and you heard my
testimony here today yes you believe it to be truthful and accurate yes do you
adopt it as your own yes thank you any questions from the board no anyone else
who would like to testify in this case please raise your hand
we have Charles Richardson from the council person office thank you mr.
Richardson, good afternoon and you're still under oath. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Councilwoman Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall. Councilwoman has no objections.
Thank you. Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the Board. Ian Litwin, Planning Commission staff.
Although this property is indicated for single family use on the comprehensive plan, this proposal is not out of character with its surroundings.
Accordingly, we have no opposition to granting the variance.
Thank you. MI-2020-000261. 736 Church Lane. My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Thank you.
Good luck.
okay uh here we are we are okay mi 2020-0011602532 west thompson street
I have a Nick Rupert. Nick, are you the attorney for this case?
Or the owner?
I am the owner for the case.
Okay. This, I don't have any, do you swear a friend to tell the truth, the whole truth,
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
and nothing but the truth?
Professor, let's get Nick to identify himself, your full name.
My name is Nicholas Gruberg.
I live at the subject property 2532 West Thompson Street, Philadelphia, PA 19121.
Tell your last name, please.
It's G-R-U-B-E-R-G.
Thank you.
Confessor, okay.
That's all I have, Chair.
okay should i continue confession to ask if he has uh i apologize i'm all lost here yep
sir have you uh emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents proof of ownership
proof of tax compliance copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans five days prior to this
hearing yes i have also have you met with the rco and have a letter i do you may proceed okay
um all right so thank you all for having me um i really appreciate this opportunity uh so i've
lived in um i've lived in this area pretty much all my life i grew up in francisville and i moved
into this house uh three years ago um i'm gonna try to figure out how to share my screen now
um i guess that's that should be okay let's see is that working
is it working okay um so yeah so basically this has been a great neighborhood to live in
um i'm very you know i love it uh a few maybe a week after moving into this house
uh my neighbors across the street put a letter into my mailbox um basically welcoming to the
neighborhood uh asking me if i've settled in nicely and most importantly that they had taken
one of my the package off of my stoop which is right here and put it onto kevin's porch which is
much safer from the porch bandits so this you know i mean there's no better way to be welcome to a
neighborhood than people that are so warm generous and also pragmatic um so i mean i've loved living
in this place um for the last three years uh there's uh basically it's it's something about
the neighborhood the character of the neighborhood is something that i want to maintain um now
recently i've had a child and i'm starting a family um so my son turned three months on i guess this
past monday and so what we want to do essentially for this project is turn this into a three unit
multi-family with a third story on top and that we can sort of arrange in a way that's going to
make the most sense for us with a master bedroom and a nursery right off the master bedroom
and then you know use income from downstairs for diapers and a college fund so that's this is my
basic this is my basic plan for for the property one of the the issues people always have is
you're going to have you know more people more density the first thing you know we're going to
be living there as well so in terms of who we're going to rent to we'll be very intentional about
who we decide you know allow onto the block um there's no there's no question about that um we
uh we're also you know conscious of sort of the in terms of density the the the parking situation um
and since i've lived there three years ago the parking situation has been basically a non-issue
i can usually park right in front of my house um and maximum you know i'll have to walk a block
mr gruber not to interrupt i apologize do you happen to have any floor plans
yes let me put them up right now that would be helpful thank you
um sorry i'm new to the uh how to switch things from let's see sorry one second this is this is
my first rodeo um here this is tanya i do have the refusal available should you request it
Okay, I have that as well. Do I have to, I guess I'll stop sharing and start sharing again. Is that how that works? Yeah. Okay, so here's some, I have the zoning or the floor plans.
let's just i'll just put up the actual floor plans um and so just to go through this
um so this is the first floor right here can you see everybody see that so this is the first floor
and currently it's essentially laid out that way and the idea was to keep that um we're potentially
the first floor in the basement will be one unit um and in these plans we have a bedroom in the
basement but we can easily move that up to the first floor in the front half of
half of this room, depending on what makes the most sense. That was my idea was to put it on
this room depending on you know what the what makes the most sense
the first floor, but the architects thought otherwise who are also here and can talk to
this later. So that would be one apartment. And then this hallway would be a common hallway going
up to the second floor. And again, most of this is laid out the way it currently is. And so there's
a bedroom in the back, a bathroom, a second bedroom. And then this, which is currently the
master bedroom would turn into the living and kitchen space sort of an open
concept there and then this is we have the third floor down here and I'm
actually gonna I want to change things a little bit from these these are just
sort of the preliminary drawings to have a direct doorway you know from the
master bedroom to the nursery but that's pretty much it and then a roof deck on
top and actually if you notice at the bottom this is thompson street and the pilot house would be
at the very rear of the property and so not obstructing views any more than it would have
otherwise um so that's so that's that's all i have for the uh the floor plans um i've got let's see
um so let's see the let me say right density parking um right and so if you go i just wanted
to go back to the one second this so the reason there's not a lot of uh parking problems is i'm
basically the only residential on this side of the block um and if you go if you go look at the
street view so behind here there's a big parking lot that's Schinders auto auto auto body place
up to Girard so this is now Thompson all the way up to Girard we're basically looking at you know
mixed industrial uses a lot of parking lots a lot of garages there's actually one apartment building
here but in terms of density it's not that's not a serious problem right now and so I think that
again in in the in my conception to keep the neighborhood with the same character and you know
be very intentional about the tenants we have you know have living with us um i think that this
won't disrupt that uh that neighborhood feel um so i'd like to address some of the things from the
RCO meeting so I can put that up on the screen let's see one second sorry I'm
just new to this and I want to share my screen with RCO okay so right here's the
first page so the RCO meeting it was it was a close call but the community
supported me by one vote and I actually didn't know that but that doesn't that
doesn't actually matter that doesn't mean that I get the support they have they
registered it did not reach agreement on the application and that was because
the zoning committee opposed opposed the project I wasn't sure why that was so in
reading the letter I noted that let me get this highlighted okay so this is the
important part that I really do want to oppose. What they stated was the petitioner presented a
list of residents supporting this project. However, it is worth mentioning that these signers are not
residents of the block. Nearby neighbors are quite concerned and strongly oppose the introduction
of multifamily. Now that's just not true. So I did get 15 people to sign this petition, and
almost every single one of them was from the block. So I'm now going to put up a map of all
the people who actually did sign just so there's no confusion here so highlighted in green again
this is the map for the you know of the of the near neighbors and so highlighted in green are
the people who signed my petition which i could also put that up i don't know if you guys need
that i've also submitted that into evidence so again across the street these are all these are
all residential houses so one two three four these six uh residents is all signed um this next to me
is a this is the garage and you know the people that own that signed uh this is uh this is an
apartment being rented out and the owner of that signed this is that car lot and that's shinder
and he signed this is my auto mechanic who uh actually he just had a stroke recently and i
hope everybody's praying for him uh that's junior's car shop and uh this is actually where he lived
and so they signed and the car the auto body shop shinder also owns this place so
But I'm just sort of surrounded, and these two highlighted here.
I'm just sort of surrounded, and these two highlighted here are under construction, this one's under construction, and this is a church.
So to say that I didn't have support of the near neighbors and to use that as the basis of their opposition is disingenuous.
And because I do have the support of the near neighbors and because I won the vote at the meeting, I would ask that the board grant the variance.
And if there's any other questions, I can answer them.
I also talked to Daryl Clark's office, and they typically don't, you know, come out in favor of zoning such as mine, zoning guards such as mine, but they did say that they would not, they would pose no opposition to it.
So for whatever that's worth, other than that, I just ask, thank the board for having me here and ask that they would see my recommendation and hopefully vote in my favor.
Gruber, you pointed to two properties on the left of yours.
You said they're under construction.
Sorry, this one is under construction.
The one that's on-
What is it being built as?
It's going to be a single family, I believe, but-
How about the one right next to you?
This one is a church.
It's a storefront church.
I can show you-
Is that, it's not a residential?
No, that is not a residential.
But I can show you the church itself.
I'm fine.
I just wanted to know.
You said new construction.
I was curious.
Tanya, you said you have the refusal?
Yes, I do, too.
Would you like to move your back up?
Yeah, please.
2532 West Thompson Street, application for the erection of an addition above an existing attached structure with roof deck and a roof access structure.
to include stairs and landings only, size and location as shown on plan slash application
for use as multifamily dwelling unit, three units.
And it was denied because the proposed use multifamily household living is prohibited
in the RSA 5 zoning district.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
no yes how does he handle trash trash yes um let me put the let me put my uh floor plans back up
okay so in terms of trash there's actually only one unit that does not have an outdoor space
for trash so the first floor here uh that's first floor and basement this it has access to this
backyard and that's actually currently where i keep my trash right here on the second floor
the only allowance for trash would be actually where the washer dryer is right now and i'm
perfectly willing to convert that into a trash closet uh with ventilation and that would vent
to the back so this would be where the current washer and dryer is planned to be that would be
the trash closet for the second floor for the third floor there's a this is the deck off of
main living space and that would be where they would have to keep the trash and there would be
certainly no trash on the street except on trash there thank you thank you is anyone else who would
like to testify in this case please raise your hand here we have bart bart you can unmute yourself
and wait to be sworn in sir please identify yourself spell your first and last name uh bart
b-a-r-t b-a-j-d-a and your address uh 3026 west gerard avenue we're in firm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed i just wanted to add that uh for what
it's worth uh i am the one of the architects on the project and also a member of the community
in brewery town and i attended that uh community meeting and the stance there was generally
favorable so i'm not quite sure i just wanted to confirm what nick was saying i'm not quite sure
where the letter where that opposition came from thank you uh anyone else who wishes to testify in
this case no chair no hands no hands uh and we do have a letter tanya i think mr gruvers put it up
on his exhibit it was the one that was 21 to 20 i think yeah do you want me to put it back up yes
five where the zoning committee right okay all right just wanted to make sure i had that right
and three non-opposition uh planning commission thank you
uh good afternoon chairman members of the board ian litwin planning commission staff
this property was remapped from residential multifamily to residential single family in 2016
this was against the recommendations of the comprehensive plan therefore we have no objection
to granting this variance yeah so this parcel was remapped um from rm1 to rsa5 in 2016
uh the comprehensive plan uh recommended it remain multifamily uh so therefore we don't