because of the overall size of the lot and uh height permissions that you know you can obtain
for the uh for the building so i i do want to have the board take that into consideration that
these are smaller units one and two bedrooms only that actually has its own elevator trash room
bike space so everything is contained internally and managed and is a very good project for the
community and meets their needs if i'm not mistaken there were about 14 commercial spaces
because you have commercial in the basement um no the keith uh if you can shed light on that i
believe uh the commercial in the basement is part of the uh commercial on the first floor that's
basement portion? Yes. Part of the first floor in the basement shares it. So it'll be, I believe,
a trash compactor down there for the trash for the building as well. So the first floor basement
portion would be the same. How many, in total, how many commercial spaces? I believe it was five.
I don't have it exactly in front of me. I can put the plans back up. I believe it is five.
just bear with me one minute
sorry the uh zooming actually affects it yeah so it's five commercial spaces
didn't i see something on the front in the basement though i thought i saw
the basement portion of the commercial space would be part of the tenant space number four
number five and the utility in the utility rooms and you're showing one two three four five
five commercial spaces right so this is tenant number one's commercial storage area this is
their commercial space above and this is storage area for tenant tenant number two uh tenant
tenant number two just you're you're showing just a storage space correct in the basement yeah for
the first floor units correct that is correct all right again i'll ask any questions from the board
no oh no
no am i 2021
I really believe he should go back and try to work this out my vote is no I'm thinking
out. My vote is no. My vote is no. My vote is no. My vote is no. Thank you. Calendar number
2957, 2442 North 20th Street. The attorney is Rachel Pritzker. What happened to three?
oh sorry i should have announced it the calendar number mi 2021-001234 1808-10
benton avenue mi 2021-001235 1812-14 benton avenue and mi-2021-001233 1800-02 benton avenue
these cases are all continued or are we hearing them together i thought we were hearing them
okay that correct we're hearing these cases correct cheryl that's correct there was no
continuance request right and the attorney's carrie percus
mr percus is coming back in as a panelist
good morning mr percus please identify yourself for the record and i'll swear you in
someone muted yet
there's also three letters of opposition from the ron horse ronhurst civic association
uh this is mr preface to hear me now i was i was on on yes yes we can please uh spell your
full name to the record? Yes, Gary, G-A-R-Y, Perkis, P-E-R-K-I-S-S. Do you swear if I'm to tell the
truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you, sir. Please proceed. Yes, I represent
Benton Garden Associates Limited Partnership, who are the owner of the Benton Garden Apartments. My
client purchased the apartments on April 30, 2007, and have managed and operated the apartments
at that property since that time. There are six buildings with 72 apartments, all one bedroom.
There are 10 units in building 1800 to 02, 10 units in 1804 to 1806, 10 units in 1808 to 1810,
10 units in 1812 to 1814, and there's two buildings with 16 units each, 7833-41 Frontenac Street.
The properties are on the corner of Benton and Frontenac.
Excuse me, Mr. Perkis, when you were reading off the addresses, you said, I think I heard you say 1804-06, is that correct?
Oh, yes. The properties that are subject to these appeals are 1800-02, 1808-10, 1812-14, but also as part of the complex is 1804-06.
Okay. All right. But those three, okay, because I didn't see them on that list and I haven't made a notation.
Right. So those are, 1804-06 is not subject to this appeal.
Okay. Thank you.
So those four properties or those four buildings have 10 units each, four on the second floor, four on the first floor, and two on the lower level.
Do you have any exhibits you can share with us?
And, sir, may I interrupt? Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you.
So I have, these are the exhibits that were submitted, the application, the refusal letter,
the refusal letter. We don't have it yet. We only have your index. We don't have the actual
your index. We don't have the actual documents you're speaking to.
All right you have the list.
This is the list of exhibits. Do you have this?
Not yet. We have the list. Yeah, I'm sorry. We do have the list, but we're not seeing anything beside the list.
So we still see your files. So if you want to unshare and then open up your exhibit package and then share again, we may be able to see them more readily.
Do you see it now?
Yes, I read it.
If you can make it a little bit larger, that would be helpful.
All right.
That's good.
That's good.
Thank you.
First exhibit is the application, which was actually submitted electronically.
please. The next exhibit is the refusal, and the refusal was back in 1960. This property was
granted a permit to construct these apartment buildings. The area where the property is
located is RSA 3, which does not permit multifamily housing. However, these buildings
were approved for construction in 1960 with 10 units. And what we're proposing is in three of
the units to add one additional unit in vacant space in the lower level of three of the buildings,
1800, 1808, and 1812. Right now, the space that's there is unused, and I'll show pictures of it
so you can see exactly what we're talking about.
But the refusal, again, was based on the fact that it was approved for 10 units.
It was built for 10 units.
However, there are basically 12 units in each of these buildings
with two of the units being used for either storage or utilities.
And so in three of the buildings, my client wants to take the vacant utility room
and convert that into a one-bedroom apartment.
The next exhibit, Exhibit A3, is the application for appeal, which included the tax compliance certificate and the notice of refusal.
Exhibit A4 is the project information form.
Exhibit A5 are the deeds or the deed and the original deed and the deed of correction, which was corrected to correct the legal description.
Exhibit A6 is a separate exhibit for the tax clearance.
Now, Exhibit A7 is the drawings that were prepared by my client's architect, and the architect is here if you have questions for later on.
I want to address with it a couple of points here to show the board.
Wait, that got a little bit big.
If you see the picture in the top center of the page, I don't know if you can read that, but you can see that the location of the buildings where the units will be added are along Benton Avenue, and there is no other residential area along Benton Avenue.
across the street it's all um uh there's no there's nothing there other than trees and and
and greenery uh the um the only residential properties uh near um near the buildings are
on front neck street and that's not where these these these units face um if you go to down to
The next page, this is basically a layout of what the units will look like once the – no, I'm sorry, I take that back.
This is the drawing of the units as they exist today, which is basically empty.
There's a storage area here.
There's a sink with a drain.
in one of them there's a washer dryer but it's unused all of that is unused
In one of them, there's a washer-dryer, but it's unused.
All of that is unused.
The next drawing is a drawing of the units themselves to be constructed.
And then on this page is basically a view of the lower level, which is this here is for 1814.
this is for 1808 this is for 1800 but there's four essentially four spaces on the on the lower level
this one that i'm pointing to for 1814 is the unit that's going that's proposed to be added
as an apartment there's a storage area and then on the on the excuse me counselor excuse me
Counselor, can you go back to the proposed plan for the lower level?
This is the proposed drawings for the units themselves.
Let me ask you, is there sleeping?
Is there anything sleeping in the basement?
Is there sleeping?
Is there a bedroom?
There's a bed. This is an apartment. Yes, this is an apartment that will have a bedroom, a one bedroom.
Right now, there's already two apartments in the basement or the lower level.
How many feet is the living space out of the ground?
That I can't answer, but the architect should be one of the participants and can answer that question.
Thank you.
but again there's already two existing units on that level if you see there's two existing units
in the basement currently yes you see where are they legal oh yeah there's 10 10 10 units in the
building thank you there's 10 approved units in the building if you see the lower part of this
where it says existing corridor and then below that it says adjacent unit there's a there's two
there's a unit there and then there's a second unit but it but it's but it says propose
basement plan so where is it currently plans for existing in the basement well look can i can i go
down a little bit to the next plan that i started the show and that'll explain that
all right let me make this larger
So this is, if we look at the one to the left, which is 1814, on the left is the proposed unit, on the right is the storage area that currently exists, and then below that you'll see there's two adjacent units, which are also on that level.
But the adjacent units
doesn't show me the design.
Excuse me?
The adjacent units do not show me
what's in there.
I don't know
if that's part of the plans that the architect
did. I'll have to look further.
Here's what
I'm asking.
Tom, maybe we can get the
architect on.
He's available.
All right.
I think he might be able to answer better.
Mr. Perkis, is the architect available?
Yeah, Kurt Jensen.
He should be...
Mr. Jensen, if you're available, please raise your hand.
I'll swear you in.
Yes, can you hear me?
You're a little faint.
Sorry about that.
Kurt, excuse me, please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
I'm sorry.
Kurt Jensen, A-U-R-T, A-E-N-S-E-N.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Mr. Holloman has a question.
In your proposed plan, is there sleeping in the basement?
If Gary's in a little more, there is an existing stair on the top ends of each of those plans, and there was a door from the outside into each space of the basement.
The door is going to be replaced with a window in each of the proposed units, but the window is going to be sized large enough for egress.
What is the distance of the building out of the ground?
What is the height of the building out of the ground?
Um, Gary, if you can go through, um, later on your exhibits, you have photographs from Google Street View, I believe, which shows the, uh, the units and how they, how they relate to the ground. Yeah, there you go. I think you just went over it.
Gary, if you can go through later on your exhibits, you have photographs.
Yeah, if you can pull that up. So the buildings are half sunken on the, on the back of the property, but they appear to be three quarters of seven eighths of the way out of the grade on the front.
there's six feet out of the ground the wind is
uh well on the front yes on the on the rear there is a um there's a walkway that's at the
same floor level as the apartment on the outside but the rear doesn't seem to be six feet out of
the ground no but the rear has a walkway so it's dug out on the rear for the walkway
Do you have a picture of that?
I don't know if we have a photo in there or not of it.
I know it shows that on the plan.
No, that's the only picture we have of that type of view.
From that picture, I saw that the window is near gray.
In the existing apartment, yes.
so so the intent my understanding of what you're saying is the existing basement had apartments
the building is set up in a two by two fashion for three levels so currently the two units
towards the front on the lower part of the plans as we were looking at before those are existing
apartments. There was two storage rooms and utility rooms on the back, and one of those
storage utility rooms is going to be converted into an apartment in each of the three buildings.
I understand, but the slope of the grade is causing the back apartments to be too much below
grade. They're going to be below grade on the sides, but on the rear, there's a walkway that's
at the same floor level as the proposed apartment or the same floor level as the existing utility
storage rooms. From what I'm looking at, the windows on the side is not six feet out of the
grade. The window on the side? No, that's an existing apartment. The locations of the proposed
apartments is on the back side of the buildings in the photograph. And there's a walkway for
ingress and egress? Is that what you're saying? Yes. For the proposed units? Yes. Currently,
there's a door into the space but since it's going to become a bedroom the door is going to
be replaced with the window but with a window that meets egress requirements
but the building is still not six feet out of the grade
not on the back no so that's not legal
i i can't i'm not sure what you're saying legal in terms of philadelphia code building code or
ibc it has a it has an egress window though
can you show me your your proposed plan again in the basement
excuse me this is sharon can i interrupt for one minute i'm looking at the refusal
and um though the application that was submitted this is for one of the three properties was to