Again, it's CMX2, so we're required to have 100% of the ground floor for commercial and
we're not providing 100% of ground floor commercial.
The application is a little bit different just because the project was previously approved
for commercial plus three units.
We are actually, again, similar to the other project, we are going to be asking for a variance
for the commercial but we are proposing multi-family on this site it's zoned cmx2 and it's directly
adjacent to to rm1 the it to put a single family home here doesn't make sense these are it's almost
a 16 000 sorry 1600 square foot lot as 1440 gives you four units and it's in compliance with
a lesser zoning classification, RM1. Again, the lot is 1,561.7 square feet. The waiver we're
asking for is commercial. If we were to leave the lot separated out, you'd have two commercial
spaces and two units. So it's four units. Any way you want to look at it, it's just that commercial
on these lots doesn't make any sense. So really, this is asking for relief from the commercial
requirements and to provide multifamily on that block, which is in line with both CMX2 and RM1.
No other dimensional relief is proposed at all. Zoning map of the property. Again,
it's this large lot here, which was two lots, CMX2 in a block, an area that is completely RM1.
so these are the two lots 16 and 18 again this was the one we just discussed but
sort of the other side of that block so filling in these sort of key pieces
this is the lot here
another view
Character of the neighborhood, multifamily, brick, mix of two-story, three-story, but
character of the neighborhood multifamily
Thank you.
most of the corners are three-story or four-story, especially the new structures.
Down the smaller side street, again, some mix of architecture here.
It's all the way to the rear.
Zoning posters.
CMX2 requires 480 of lot area per dwelling unit.
Since they're consolidated, I think it is a little bit more square footage.
And then again, CMX2 requires 100% of the front first 30 feet of the property line to
be commercial.
This is the prior permit that was obtained in October.
that permits multifamily with the commercial on the ground floor.
Three dwelling units plus a vacant commercial space.
Commercial space is just not viable here.
The owners had met with a couple brokers and realtors
and just trying to find a commercial tenant
that's willing to put something in this location
where there's really not enough attractiveness towards it,
But foot traffic and where you'd rather be on Washington Avenue or Gray's Ferry or other
commercial corridors proved to have ground floor commercial challenging on this residential
block.
We went with the RCO on this project, same RCO as before.
The meeting we had last night was mostly to go through the single family home.
That project was more of the issue for them.
And we have a letter of support, as mentioned, sent the required mailers, and this is their
letter of support, which encompass both 1208 and 1216-18 in support of this project.
Again, some letters of support as well from neighbors.
mostly multi-family that's as you can see the apartment numbers
and then just uh we can have logan just again go through
Um, these plans Logan, Logan, they'll be coming back as the panel.
Let's call on Mr. Thank you. Thank you.
Understood. Hi, Logan. You've already been sworn just for the record. State your name.
Sure. Logan drive. Council.
Logan, can you go through the zoning plans on the screen?
So, you know, again, the only thing of note here is, you know, the original building was designed as a three-unit with commercial space.
You know, dimensionally, we kept the envelope the same.
You know, everything's compliant in terms of the height, the building coverage.
The pilot house is located well within its permitted setbacks, so no sort of dimensional variances here.
but um this will be submitted to the city that you can just sort of see shows the building
massing the extent of the roof deck pilot house a couple window bays that we have and then the rear
yard um could you show that as you're talking is that not on the screen yes okay go ahead uh yeah
and then uh these are the elevations which again there's a there's a color rendering in this one
too that I think might be at the very end but important things to point out here is just the
similar use of materiality primarily brick again a mix of composite wood and some metal paneling
same thing the buildings pulled out of the ground four feet of note and again it'll be
more clearly depicted I think on the color rendering and the floor plans but you know
we gave uh dedicated balconies to uh the upper units as well sort of a feature on the corner of
the building um again the height within the 38 feet that's permitted um you can go to the floor
plans next rachel um so here um just to sort of familiarize you can you zoom can you can you zoom
out oh there you go better i was going to ask you to zoom out a little bit more perfect so so just
to kind of give everybody a sense the the buildings comprised of two three-bedroom units and
two one-bedroom units ranging in size from 970 square feet to uh 1183 square feet um so the
uh 1183 square feet um so to sort of walk you through the first two units the plan in the
middle there's the first floor so um unit a you enter right in off of 27th street there
we've got a one bedroom one bath uh bi-level unit with the basement uh again main level's
got kitchen living and dining as well as a bedroom and bath and then in the basement we've got some
bathroom uh mechanical and then a den flex space we've also got some house mechanical down there
too um take you back up to the first floor to get to unit b which is in the back of the first floor
that has its own dedicated entrance off of the side street there off of ingram so you'd walk in
off of ingram street very similar to the front unit there you've got your living kitchen bedroom
bathroom on the first floor that is then by level with the basement where we've got a
den space as well as bathroom and some laundry mechanical and storage the other thing i'd point
out kind of hopping back up to the first floor there is that we do have dedicated trash enclosures
for everyone to use in the back there so we have you know a pretty big space for everybody to store
their trash in a fenced enclosure within that rear yard until trash day comes. In terms of
getting to the upstairs units, if we go back to 27th Street there on the first floor, the door
all the way over to the right bottom corner of the screen there, takes you up a common staircase,
you land there then on the second floor, unit C, that's over a thousand square feet. We've got
That's designed as a three-bedroom, three-bath unit with terrace.
So just to sort of orient yourself, the bottom of the plan there, we've got a bedroom and
bathroom.
We've also got that terrace there on the corner that's open to both street frontages, so a
pretty sizable seven-by-seven outdoor-covered terrace area.
In the middle of the plan, you've got your living and kitchen area, as well as mechanical
and laundry.
towards the back of the plan then you've got two additional bedrooms again 12 by 10 12 by 11
they each have their own bathroom their own closets so that whole second floor is a three
bedroom three bath flat with terrace if you go back to that staircase in the middle of the plan
take you up to the third floor the third floor is is basically an identical version of what the
second floor was so you've got again another three bedroom three bath flat exact same layout
the only difference here is this unit specifically gets access to the roof deck only so the staircase
then stops from being common and then takes you privately up to you know the roof deck that's
just for that top floor unit and then I think the last page is the color rendering so again
Again, you know, what we wanted to do is kind of open up the corner, massing a little bit on the upper floors by doing the terraces there.
And then you can see the use of, you know, the traditional red brick to kind of match a lot of the other red brick in the area.
And then again, much like the other project, use of composite wood paneling and metal paneling on the bays and the infill between the windows.
Again, any questions you guys have, feel free.
but this is this is what we arrived at again keeping in mind that originally we had three
units in a commercial space here you know it just didn't make sense you know from a rental
standpoint with the commercial spaces so we pivoted to the multifamily but I think again
just in my opinion the size of the units here you know compared to the the building footprint
you know I don't I don't feel like we're necessarily squeezing they're all pretty
generously sized in my opinion at least you know 900 square feet not for all the
unit sizes bring your client on to have the testimony adopted then we'll open
up the questions yep it's Scott love is still on they're coming back in as a
panelist now thank you
hello hi scott just for the you've already been sworn just for the record
state your name scott love um council scott have you heard my
testimony today do you believe it to be true and accurate and do you adopt it as
your own yes thank you questions from the board yes can you just plan again yes
I don't mean to zoom in better thank you Rachel yep
better thank you rachel yep
i have no questions all the questions so just just appreciate the fact that you raised the basement
uh height out of the out of grade at four feet is much better than a lot that i've seen
decently laid out building works on the corner i guess the only question that i have is why the
only only the third floor unit has access to the the uh roof deck and not the second and third
floor unit since the stair since they have access to that same stair it's only yeah it's it's sort
of twofold one one primarily is the building code would kick that then into a technically a fourth
story above grade so the city would require us to put in a second egress stair that would
probably end up cutting out a good chunk of the layouts on the floors below um that's the primary
reason but you know even if that weren't the case a lot of times with the rcos we tend to see them
actually wanting just private roof decks because i think the idea is if it's multiple units that
have access to it then the likelihood of a party is heightened but it's primarily the second means
of egress but you know the other point of it is just usually the rcos typically like a private
but and we had talked about with the rco and the owner um if there was ever a desire to condo the
building then having the layout like this makes more sense um from a condo perspective as well
you don't want to have a shared roof deck if the intention is to is to condo the project and when
we talked with the rco um you know about some of the homeownership pieces that we didn't want to
leave it uh as an impossibility um to do condos if down the line that the owners you know thought
that they that made sense for for the market so that was the other consideration yeah gotcha
all the questions not a question more of a comment but um i think because this is a corner unit there
was an opportunity to get more light into that basement i do appreciate the way that you guys
attempted to expand the uh egress wells but with the mechanical and the like you could flop
the home gin den with the mechanical storage and bath and that gives you a whole wall where you
could potentially get more light down there to make it more livable yeah i think um logan i think
that's something that you and scott can look at um you know for building code uh when we
Yeah, one of the things that we do have to keep in mind is we only have a six-foot wide sidewalk, so a lot of times the streets department, when they only give us 25% of that width to encroach upon, they will allow stairs as the exception to that, but the egress wells are sort of hit or miss, and we can certainly try to put a couple more in if we can get it by streets,
but i know usually they're pretty strict about the 25 encroachment at least you know with the
exception being staircases but you know it's definitely something to look into i think
yeah we'll we'll definitely look at that uh with you logan after this because i'd love to have more
light down there too our attorney and they could be they could be windows they don't have to be
egress wells because you've already got your response no questions at this time
or comments from the virtual audience or the audience here
no hands chair planning madison matera planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends
a change in zoning at this location from the existing cmx2 commercial mixed use to rsa5
residential single family under the cmx2 zoning based on the size of the lot they would be
permitted three units by right and they are requesting four there are no unique physical
conditions or circumstances of this property that would prevent conformance with the zoning code for
unit count the proposed lack of active ground floor use is in harmony with the surrounding
neighborhood and would not be required under the recommended zoning the planning commission
recommends the board grant the requested variance for ground for commercial use but deny the request
variance for four dwelling units yeah sorry just to just a comment so i appreciate that the plan
as to maybe remap it to rsa5 but it's cmx2 as of right now and so um with the just ground floor
being commercial it's permitted four units although one would be commercial and three
multi-family above so just adding an additional just swapping the residential for the commercial
is the least modification of the code possible so mi2026 002 127 12 18 south 27th street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
cheryl gaston
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Chair, excuse me, this is the court reporter, I apologize.
Did I hear Ms. Gaston's vote correctly?
Could she repeat it?
Yes, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
okay all right well we can we still have we still have four right she wants to run out just do a
little something so okay so and knowing her she'll run right back in anyway so it doesn't matter
right so MI 2026 002 123 2275 Bridge Street Brandon Safran is the attorney
Attorney Saverin will be rejoining as a panel shortly good afternoon members of the board nice
seeing you Brandon could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer nice seeing
you too, Mr. Chairman. Brandon Saverin, B-R-A-N-D-O-N, S as in Sam, A, V as in Victor, R-A-N
as in Nancy. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Brandon, could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes. My client is Building 39 LLC, who is the owner of the condo unit within
Frankfurt Arsenal Business Park that is the subject of this application.
And you have letters of support from Wissahaden Civic, Councilmember Driscoll,
and the Arsenal Condominium Association. Our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
good afternoon madam vice chair yes i did and do you waive the reading of the referral
and stipulate to its accuracy yes i do all right thank you can show your screen and proceed with
your case okay thank you
so members of the board I am here on behalf of the owner of a certain building known as building 39
within the Frankfurt Arsenal Business Park.