Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, sir.
I just wanted to indicate that there was a delay in getting in our consortium's letter of support as we were working on some issues with this through the end of business yesterday.
We did have two meetings with the applicant.
One was a technology-based meeting to review the specifics of this, along with our environmental consultant from the Clean Air Council of Philadelphia.
That was on the 2nd of this month.
We then had a community meeting on last Monday, the 13th of this month.
did want to point out that southwest philadelphia is an environment especially eastwick area is an
environmental justice community that currently has two superfund sites one under a runway at
the airport and the other one the somewhat infamous clear view landfill which the feds
have spent about 78 million to um to address so when an issue like this comes into the community
it does cause some concern among some of the people in Eastwick.
We distributed to our RCOs the criteria for special exception approval under Section 14303 of the zoning code.
We assumed that they looked at it.
Three of the four participating RCOs supported it.
The fourth one did not, which was one of the groups in Eastwick.
uh we went over the issues with them but they that that was that was their sense and we left
it as it is uh we felt that council and uh the team that they put together richard solbodian
and his sister uh answered all of our questions we felt that the burden that this placed uh on
the community and this facility, which is essentially looks like a strip shopping center,
but is an industrial strip, that it was not burdensome. It was less burdensome than some of
the operations that were there. I had made three site visits, spoke with the owner of unit number
one, who was supportive, I believe has put in a letter of support. We worked with the owner of
unit number four, because the family had non-zoning issues, issues regarding basically code,
the fireproof nature of the walls, as well as insurance coverage. Once they had that yesterday
at the close of business, they were satisfied and their abstention went to support.
So we welcome this business into the community. We wish them much success.
It is, I hate to use the word novelty, but it is unique and has caused interest and concern.
We do not believe it puts any burden on the business community.
As Meredith pointed out, the closest residential is RM1.
I measured it myself.
It's over a half a mile away.
The vast majority of the single family dwellings in the area are further than that.
This is an I-2 district, and across the street, we have a 250-acre fossil fuel site, which we're hoping to get abated.
So we welcome Richard into the community, and we wish him the best.
Thank you, Craig. We appreciate you taking the time to call.
Is there anyone else in the audience?
I see no more hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon.
david effecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the i2 medium industrial zoning at this location the appellant
has shown that the proposed animal boarding services will have no detrimental impacts to
the neighborhood beyond what might be expected this property is located in one of what one of what
beyond what might be expected this property is located in one of what one of what the
comprehensive plan designates as an industrial preservation area the proposed use will be
complementary to the current uses taking place in this part of the neighborhood the city planning
commission recommends the board grant the proposed special exception for animal service boarding and
other services. Thank you. MI 2024-005-199-7000 Halston Avenue, I vote yes with Proviso. Use
limited to household pet crematory services. Michael Johns, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tywin, my vote is yes with Proviso. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, counsel.
Break it there.
We get two more left and then we'll break.
Number 10, MI 2024-006-308-1310 Marlborough Street.
Alan Notchamson is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from Fishtown Neighbors Association
based on the original refusal.
Letter of opposition from Council Member Young.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Nockamson, for the record, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
All right, so my client is Sage Property Group, LLC, and to the left of me is Jamie McDonald, its member.
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Please proceed and share your screen. I believe you've been promoted.
I have not the hand just make sure I have the right screen up
all right I'm going to share my screen
Does everyone see it?
We can.
So good afternoon.
My name is Alan Ockamson of Ockamson PC.
You might want to sit like a little closer to the mic.
All right.
Good afternoon, Alan Ockamson of Ockamson PC.
I'm here to present 1310 Marlboro Street.
This is a property that's probably a block or so away from Frankfurt Avenue in the heart of Fishtown.
And to my left, again, is Ms. McDonald, the owner of the entity that owns the property, although this will be an owner-occupied property.
So as everyone knows, Fishtown's gotten really expensive, especially near Frankfort Avenue, and it's cost prohibitive for a lot of people to live nearby.
This is an opportunity for Ms. McDonald to build a two-unit dwelling where she'll be living on the upper unit.
And in order to afford that, she wants to rent out the lower units.
So during my presentation, we'll review first a notice of refusal.
So originally, and we'll see this in the refusal,
Ms. McDonald wanted to put two parking spots in the front of her property.
Fishtown Neighbors Association was completely against that for multiple reasons.
And because of that, we're trying to work with the neighborhood.
We have eliminated that and we moved the property, the building structure to the front of the property, which you'll see by that notice of refusal.
a refusal the next one the amended one and and by the way we are meeting with the fishtown neighbors
The next one, the amended one. And by the way, we are meeting with.
association on february 4th so we would move that we would have this heard by the zba today
be held under advisement and then there would be a resumption hearing just in terms of the
community input aspect of it so the next exhibit we have is a correspondence from the fishtown
neighbors association jokingly there was only one person against that it was mr goldberg who from my
office who abstained from voting but it was a very bad meeting and we were we acknowledge that but
we're working with the community and i think that it really had to do with the parking because it's
not out of character to have multi-family there and there are three instances you'll see as exhibit
five um that you know where there's multi-family near on that block so what we're proposing is not
out of sorts and actually after that meeting we met with a few neighbors to the right of us
and we have letters to support from them based on the changes that we made by eliminating the parking
so we try to get to the person to the left of us but she's an older lady who literally does not
open her door we're going to continue trying to like reach out to her um but you know jamie's a
known well-known quantity on that block so we're hoping that based on these changes to eliminating
the parking aspect of it but keeping the duplex act aspect of it that will get community support
we'll find out uh exhibit six is our zoning map then we have photographs of the property in the
surrounding area and then you can see our plans and drawings both the original and the amended
you'll see the differences is that we moved the building structure to the front so now we have
eyes on the street um because we moved the building structure up um our building structure
is not set back in the front and it doesn't extend beyond the properties to left and right of us which
is important for the light and air of those property owners and i think that was part of
the concern too was we were out of sorts visually um we have a better facade we have lintels
um i know it doesn't show a cornice line but we intend to put a cornice line we it's a brick flat
brick facade more traditional look um than uh previously requested again we got rid of the
parking but we'll go over all that and and we may have a pronounced breezeway where garbage you know
people will have access from front to back and garbage will be stored in the rear uh so uh we
would propose if the board feels so inclined that part of the uh two two provisos uh no trash uh
stored in in excuse me trash stored in the rear of the property and then the second is no bedrooms
in the basement uh and then we have our hearing notice or a meeting notice with the community
this is for the one february 4th along with the proof of mailing that notice that went out
yesterday but we just want to show the board that we're attending to meet february 4th our
application for appeal that we filed uh with the zba or deed to property uh showing that sage
property group llc's miss mcdonald's uh group uh llc owns the property but again she attends to
live there, and our certificate of tax clearance. At the conclusion of my presentation, I'll ask
Ms. McDonald to be sworn in, and then we'll have a few questions for her. All right, so our notice
of refusal. As you see here, we have three refusals here, partly because of the parking and
also the setback, and then the use, right? So that was the older refusal. The new refusal just has
the use and again it'll be you know the deciding factor will be what the community believes
should be there but again it's really really expensive to live in fishtown right now
and you know in order to encourage a diversity of living arrangements like it's important to you
know i would put it from my example i live in fairmont i originally i lived on a two-story
street right it was an eight nine hundred square foot house it i developed roots in fairmont i now
live in a three-story house not that much bigger 1800 square feet but i raised my family there
in order to for all these communities to to thrive like people need to be able to develop
roots roots and you know it would be a shame that the only people that live in fair in in fish town
are the ones who can afford the million-dollar homes.
And, you know, the younger people are, you know, yeah, they can rent,
but the rent's getting cost-prohibitive.
And, you know, in order to own that, I mean, that's, you know,
what we would consider the American dream.
This is an opportunity for Ms. McDonald to help offset her mortgage payments
by having that second unit.
So when we sought approval to revise our plans, you know,
We wrote a letter to the ZBA administrator outlining just what I stated before.
Just what I stated before, we removed the two accessory service parking spaces.
We removed the two accessory service parking spaces.
We removed the 24 front setback.
The rear yard has been increased to a total of 41 feet.
Both units have access to that.
Ms. McDonald's unit on the second floor actually has a rear staircase that goes straight down.
And then both parties have access from front to back with this breezeway, so for garbage removal and such.
and then we added that exterior rear staircase to the second floor and then because of that request
you know we were allowed to amend our zoning appeal by seeking that additional or that
amended refusal which is our second refusal so i guess the third proviso would be
based on the revised refusal as well and then this is the letter from the fishtown neighbors
Association. Again, one third of it dealt with the parking, which we eliminated. The second third
dealt with the setback, which we eliminated by eliminating the parking and moving the building
structure to the front. And then the third had to deal with the hardship. Again, I would say the
hardship is this, is the fact is, is that it is impossible for people, you know, nowadays to be
able to afford to build a home from scratch generally because of rising interest rates and
construction costs. But just the cost of just living there is so expensive. And I think to
encourage a diversity of housing, as I stated, is important to have these duplexes. And I could see
if this was on a wholly single-family block if we weren't near a commercial corridor. But we are
near a commercial corridor and we are near uh we are on a on a multi-family block that has
some multi-family at least here's our letter of support again i think it speaks volumes of
the outreach we made what we heard from the community is that again our neighbors at 13 12
marlboro and 13 14 dash 16 marlboro after we made those changes they they wrote letters to support
And then again, not out of character to have multifamily here. So 1309 Marlboro has three units. 1358 Marlboro has three units. And then I believe the board also by way of variance also granted multiple units for two units at 1300 Marlboro as well as as late as October of 2024.
for and then maps of the area as you can see here we're right next to frankfurt avenue i mean this
is prime philadelphia philadelphia and fishtown real estate here but from a planning perspective
typically what you see coming off of a commercial corridor is maybe just a little bit of a step down
from cmx2 to like an rm1 of some sort so if this was an rm1 property i'm not saying it is
we would be allowed by right i mean the more than by right this is a rather massive lot of
1,919 square feet so again not out of character and also not out of you know the realm from a
city planning perspective to have this uh and then you could see where we are like you know
La Cologne it's like a block away from us and then photographs of the property again we're
between you know you know two uh two uh you know you know row homes hopefully we'll add you know
teeth to that street by adding our row home this is our proof of posting marlboro street to the
right of the property to the left of the property our plans and drawings which again we don't really
need to go into because we have the updated one these are the original ones but you can see it
was no lentils here we planted do have a cornice line here um and i'm trying to think what else
was different i think that's about it and then in the updated plans
first of all you can see that there's a there's a breezeway here so which is really important in
terms of life and safety but also practicality in terms of you know having the garbage you know
removed and stored you know every single week and then these are our floor plans and again we would
agree to provide some no bedrooms in the basement but this is just a simple one bedroom one bath
so you walk in there's a kitchen a living room one bedroom one bath there is a full living space
you know people still work from home right you know maybe we're here in person but a lot of
people still work from home and you know they want space they want an extra living space
um you know storage of some sort i'm sure that we'll put up a wall of some sort but that's where