floor makes the functional height of the structure well over 40 feet tall. Others will speak of this
from a public safety perspective i call it out as it is so out of place on a street of single family
homes the front entryways of these homes is another feature that harms our neighborhood's
well-established sense of community walk the rest of the street front porsches fake that face the
streets allowing the neighbors to greet and welcome passers-by these new homes front doors face a
retaining wall along a narrow 200 foot long alleyway with gates on both ends hardly welcoming
hardly engaging. Finally, I want to object to the planned unit development nature of this project
for at least two reasons. The first is this seems to be a sneaky way of dodging the requirements
that each single-family home have a minimum of 1,440 square feet of land as required
under the RSA 5 zoning rules. It also removes the individual property owner's opportunity for
self-expression that is so often found in the front-facing gardens and porches along the
streets of Roxborough. The two street-facing gardens will instead become a group project
that competes for financial resources with trash and snow removal and common area maintenance by
the Planned Unit Development Board. We've seen the results of this structure in other developments.
It is not pretty. For these reasons, and because we believe there is no hardship argued by the
presenting council, I urge you to reject this variance request. Thank you very much.
counsel yeah a couple quick questions for you um are you aware of the applicant requesting any
variances for height occupied area open space or rear yard no the variance currently does none of
the variance requests ask for that but i to answer that more directly the average height of this
building is calculated volunteer something yeah okay um just let him ask yeah are you aware of
the modifications that were made during the um during and leading up to the the community meeting
which i would say beefed up the facades on both loriston and peachen street in request in response
to requests from the rco to make them more welcoming and street friendly yes i am okay
that's all that i have thank you gentlemen i would say just quickly um there's been multiple
references to lot size i would say this is we're not proposing a subdivision here this is one lot
so we're you know we're we're not asking to meet a lot size requirement under the rsa5 zoning code
the lot size here is 15 518 square feet okay next next changes complexion of it next witness we'd
call would be Marianne Gilbert. Good morning. Could you please get closer to Mike? Could you
please state your name and spell for the sonographer? Sure. It's Marianne Petrus Gilbert,
M-A-R-Y-A-N-N-E, P as in Paul, E-T-R-U-S, hyphen Gilbert, G-I-T. Do you swear or affirm?
t-r-u-s hyphen gilbert you swear or do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do counsel
i i live um at 4101 loriston street and i also own 376 shares lane which is part of the same
building. And describe your property on Lauriston Street. The best that you can.
The best that I can describe my property is I am built into the hill. So you can look at
Lauriston Street and you see a three-story 1880s wool mill and you can walk up the stairs of the
hill following along the side the southern side of the of 4114 and when you get to the top of
that two-story stairs you are at roof level of your home of my house you can walk right out onto
the roof my building has been literally excavated and built into 4114's backyard and you mentioned
that it was a wool mill it was a wool mill and is it your residence now i live and work there
yes how long have you been there 30 years any significant changes in the composition of the
property in that 30-year period in my 30 years it has been rock solid with the exception of when
a retaining wall across shur's lane which would be 500 feet away fell we sustained a crack in the
building you have other notes that you wanted to i do actually if i if i can read this yes why don't
you um so this is not a typical empty lot it is part of a steep hillside with a long history
surrounded by homes and structures that have existed here for generations
this includes my properties at 4101 loriston street and 376 shurs lane the same building with
two deeds this building runs nearly the length of the southern side of 412 peachen and is an
unusual structure as two stories of my property are completely built into the hill as i just
explained this building has been here for generations and has existed with this hillside
and this drainage pattern in the surrounding neighborhood for more than a century
we are now being asked to make a significant exception to zoning which affects this hill
this is not a flat parcel where foundation can simply be placed on undisturbed ground
it's a steep hillside it means excavating and removing rock and soil
it means heavy construction equipment vibrations it means foundations retaining structures grading
and potentially significant changes to the way water moves through the property
mr chairman i would object unless she's qualified as an expert in construction or stormwater right
i agree i mean just just try to stay what you know i i'm trying no no you don't have to be sorry
i mean it's um i would love to aside from an 11-foot wide easement my building is essentially
the retaining wall for this hill every one of those activities has a potential to destabilize
the ground my building is part of again well i think she's testifying about her property now
yeah just testifying about my property i'll let him use it we're okay with that yes my building
is not a modern building constructed with today's materials and engineering standards
it's an 141 year old structure with mica schist mud and timber we cannot assume that a building
that has survived for more than a century can simply tolerate whatever happens next door
a new building may be engineered to stand but that doesn't answer the question of whether the
construction of that building could cause an existing structure to move settle crack or become
compromised that distinction is critical can the applicant build this structure sure what happens
to the structures that are here when they do and right now i don't believe that question has been
adequately answered as per the construction feasibility statement no geological study has
been completed i believe the committee should require a thorough independent evaluation of
the site and its impact on the adjacent structures. That should include a comprehensive geotechnical
study of the hillside and a slope analysis. So slope stability analysis. It should examine the
drainage and the stormwater. There should be a professional structural assessment of the existing
neighboring buildings before the construction begins. There should also be monitoring throughout
the construction for settlement, movement, vibration, and cracking. There needs to be clear
accountability if damage occurs for 30 years i've called this building my home
it's also my livelihood as i work here
if it knew i can't
I can't right there and a new building develops a problem.
right there
It can potentially be repaired.
But if construction was a serious damage to the 19th century building, it is my house.
My home repairs are not flex fixable with a trip to the Home Depot or call to handyman.
responsible development should respect history and should not place historic structures
at unnecessary simply risk simply because a new development can technically be drawn on paper
into a difficult site i am not you okay yeah i can do it okay i'm not opposed to development
that does not adequate i am opposed to development that doesn't account for the conditions of the
site and the structures that are already here i'm opposed to forcing a substantial new structure
into a steep hillside immediately adjacent to buildings that have stood for more than a century
the fact that this property is difficult to build on should not be become the reason that
surrounding neighbors should have to assume risk we should not have to prove after the fact that
our properties were damaged the responsibility should be on the applicant to demonstrate before
construction that this project can be completed safely and without compromising the neighboring
buildings because once that hillside is excavated we can't put it back okay do you have any water
issues at your location currently no have you had in the past i have not had water except for the
immense water of floyd there's a natural spring that runs under and water bubbles up okay
i have no questions i would just say that you know we've obtained all the necessary prerequisite
approvals from l and i and otherwise we submitted a letter from pwd with our initial submission
materials and of course as i'm sure the board is aware my client will be subject to the excavation
and construction requirements of the city of philadelphia which includes in providing
insurance for the adjacent neighbors which she is one on uh council are you ready for your next
with me. Carol Traister, it's Carol. She's on Zoom. Okay. Hello, are you able to hear me and
see me? I can. Could you please state and spell your name for the sonographer? Hi, my name is
carol traister k-a-r-e-l t-r-a-i-s-t-e-r right you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes i do all right um so council let's try to now concentrate on
things we haven't heard does that make sense and that that's not to say she can't say i agree with
a lot of people testified before the testimony thus far do you incorporate all that testimony
as your own also yes okay um is parking an issue on larson oh goodness yes absolutely
in what way i would object to whether parking is an issue on loriston i object to it every day
it's pretty bad wait wait wait wait wait wait um i know but you don't you don't get to object i i
think i'll allow that for now if she says parking's bad and i'm concerned about more people uh
we'll allow that go ahead i'll explain what you mean by that um there's not enough parking for
the number of people who live i live on loriston street and um if you come home after two or three
pm there's no parking you have to already if i come home past 5 p.m i have to park three to
five blocks away i work at night sometimes if i come home in the evening i'm parking even further
away than that and uh with this proposal do you think it will alleviate parking on loriston or
region no because from what we've seen from other similar buildings they don't there's not enough
parking spaces if more than one car is there i know they they showed us at the meetings the
parking we had many many questions that they could not answer about cars getting in and out
about cars being turned sideways to fit in and we also have experienced from other buildings that
people just stop using the parking spaces and just start parking on the
street because it's so tight to get in and out that they just can't do it
I thought it did. Yeah. I couldn't remember. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right.
Okay. Um, Harold, do you remember being sworn in? Yeah. Yeah. I did. I did. Yeah. Yes. I, yes.
Otherwise we'd have to repeat everything. Oh, oh, God.
i'm sorry i couldn't hear you could you speak up
this is loriston street can you see that yes i can
is that reflective of what you see in parking on loriston on a frequent basis
on a daily basis yes okay and this is peaching do you also see that yes and has that
been the consistent pattern of parking on peaching yes
same thing with 4100 pocket peaching at night yes mr chairman we're we're providing two to
one parking 20 spaces for 10 homes here i don't necessarily see the relevance of the street
parking on loriston i think i think and make an evaluation will take that into consideration what
you just said thank you carol i have nothing further yeah questions just uh no questions but
you know related to mr trace ms traister's testimony the gentleman who testified previously
suggested that the the four by four layout which from a use perspective may be right by right which
has four homes on peachen and four homes on loriston would create a significantly worse
street parking condition than what is proposed we're proposing one curb cut for 20 parking spaces
the alternative would be eight curb cuts or potentially eight maybe 16 but most likely
eight parking spaces where you're removing publicly available i'm going to object that's
not before the board it's it was submitted as an exhibit to the board yeah uh you know i understand
i understand your position but we'll allow that for now okay i have nothing further of this
witness okay do you have another witness i do yeah christopher hickey
good morning sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer good morning uh my
name is christopher hickey c-h-r-i-s-c-o-p-h-e-r-h-i-c-k-e-y all right do you swear or
The firm to tell the truth, tell the truth, nothing but the truth.
I do, sir.
Counsel.
And where do you live, Chris?
324 Pensdale Street, which is at the very top of Lauriston and Pensdale.
And that's within the block?
It is.
And what is your, what are one of your concerns that have not been addressed so far in terms of barking and massing and other things?
Do you have other concerns about this?
Yeah, my, personally, I do work, I have something written down here.
so yes please uh i want to get make sure you're nice and close that yes okay um uh good morning
my name is christopher hickey i live at 324 pennsdale street i oppose the new construction
for all of the reasons brought up by the other neighbors uh i wanted to raise the issue of safety
i'm a member of the fellow fire department of 29 years and i work at ladder 30 which is at 66 30
ridge avenue which is the closest ladder truck to the proposed site um
i came here today just so that my concerns could be addressed and heard by the board
um upon looking at the plans and knowing the area the only way if there's if there happens
to be a fire at this building or at this proposed site to gain roof access would be from peach and
street um because the tallest portable ladder that we carry is 45 feet high and from the proposed
and it takes six firefighters to raise it and it takes approximately 10 minutes uh i would object
speculation i understand this gentleman's a firefighter um but yeah he's alleging things
that i yeah i i um alleging how long it takes to put up a ladder that i let's continue and i'll
cut it when we need sure okay uh with the roof guard rails our ladders would be too short to
reach from the ground on the driveway side and almost impossible to raise that ladder on the
front door side. There are overhead power lines on the Lawreston Street side making it impossible
for our main ladder that's on the back of the fire truck to reach from that side and the proposed
zigzag stairway would make it extremely difficult for portable ladder access. The best scenario for
a fire would be unit one on the Peachen Street side but if it's units two through ten and we
But if it's units two through ten and we have to make roof access, we would have to cross over everybody's roof deck to get to that unit that was on fire.
have to make roof access, we would have to cross over everybody's
They say these units would be sprinklered, but if something electrical happens inside the walls, the fire will travel through the voids and pipe chases where the sprinklers can't reach.
And I know that these units will be trust constructed, which does make for a sturdy building.
But the plates that hold all these beams together fail after 20 minutes of fire impingement, which severely limits the time we have to extinguish the fire or save life before evacuating due to collapse risk.
All right. Thank you. Questions? No questions. All right. Thank you. Anyone else?
One more. Denise calling. No hands at this time, Chair.
No, somebody. Denise is waving at me here. Come on up.
oh okay sure sure take your time
good morning we'll get that microphone nice and close you could you please state and spell your
name i'm so sorry uh denise cawley d-e-n-i-s-e c-a-w-l-e-y do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes please uh counsel
where do you live uh three two four pensdale street yeah at the top of both of the streets
and you've heard the testimony there this morning without repeating any of that testimony
what are your concerns about this development project i without repeating um the monstrosity
of the building it actually looks like an institution and to have that in this neighborhood
would just it it takes away the cute neighborhood feeling um I've lived here for 20 years and
it's a great neighborhood with great neighbors and like someone pointed out you sit on your
porch we sit on our porch every night and every we know all of our neighbors you know people
walking their dogs it's just it takes away from the sense of community it actually I mean it looks
like an institution it looks like when I first saw the even the latest sketch it looks like that's
you're going to go visit grandma because that's the home you put her in and um it's not it doesn't
look like it's part of the neighborhood at all uh also i have lived there for 20 years like i said
there is a building already built on 2018 on larston street that had parking garage underneath
of it and a significant decrease in parking from before and after that structure is absolutely
and seeing um like carol said i also come home late from work but if i get home at like 5 30 i'm