at the navy yard it was for a client that was situated in the navy yard um it went to new york
So it had to be closer to the mic. It had to basically that object had to break down and fit into crates for shipment. So I built it in four sections in my current shop, which is actually a thousand square foot. So I built it in quarters on its side. I have 13 foot ceilings in my current space. So you have to be adaptable when you're working in a small space. So that's what I plan to continue to do here just on a slightly larger scale.
Okay. And I just wanted to check because it looked like it was a relatively small ceiling height. It looked like it was about eight foot high ceiling height for the basement and the first floor.
Yeah. So the ceiling height in my current space is 13 foot and the ceiling height in the shop that I'll be moving into is also 13 foot. But it's, I think, six times the size of my current shop.
Okay. And then the just second question is about the ADA bathroom on the non-accessible second floor.
sure um i i don't believe the project architect is on um on the call
is matt master pasco in the virtual audience by chance
council i do not see him in the virtual audience um
i'm not entirely positive why it was designed to be an ada bathroom on the second floor yeah i guess
my question is was there a future plan to convert the mechanical uh stairs the to elevator yeah i
don't think so but joe if that were a possibility in the future i would not be opposed to making
the elevator mechanical okay for access yeah my question is about uh the neighbors and their
concerns um first about noise um and hours of operation so how often do you feel all the the
hours that you would be uh working there and like it would you know what would you how would you
respond to their noise and uh toxic materials complaints our current schedule is monday through
thursday nine to five one hour lunch and um there are no toxic chemicals i work with water-based
materials i think people were triggered by the word paint um think bob ross not painting cars
It's fine art. It's the application of non-toxic materials for our own health, you know, as well as others. We're honestly a little bit overkill with air quality and like procedures and things like that right now. That's why we utilize like water-based materials as non-toxic on wood and metal and things like that.
it's generally like tongue oils and natural natural options for sealing that need to be
reapplied later by the owners it's like there's you know an explanation and an education there's
an education process of how to how to maintain these objects for the owner so to allow for
non-toxic applications and you do have a system for removing those even though they're because
because people feel but like for you have a system for paint removal and stuff like that
people feel but like for you have a system for paint removal and stuff like that
when needed if if you know we we use uh finishers so i use i use sometimes like a powder
coater in camden so i'll bring the materials there the powder coater will do the stripping
and the and the refinishing and things like that so we're not planning to do much finishing in this
space and we do have uh air recirculating okay and do you anticipate making like noise banging
metals and stuff like that it's pretty it's a pretty quiet operation um you can see on the
facade that there's uh there's essentially a vestibule so the idea is uh the vestibule will
sort of hide the noise it's going to be two by six with brock wool on the facade and on the party wall
on the neighbor's side where there is a home it's vacant on the other side we do plan to
um do as much sound deadening and fire uh fireproofing as possible on the party wall
on the facade and you just got my last question that neighbor that's immediately adjacent to you
do you have their support i do yeah i have i have a good relationship honestly with
with all the neighbors and thank you i have a question um just because it's on a residential
street um how often would you be getting deliveries and how long does a typical delivery take to
unload because since there's no driveway or right for a truck yeah right now our shop truck fits
on the sidewalk in front of in front of the building where there's an overhead door so
I have a 15 foot bed I generally will pick up steel and park on the sidewalk and hand hand load
it in we're not going to have a forklift or we're not going to have any sort of mechanical objects
for unloading trucks and things like that we do occasionally load objects onto trucks finished
objects and things like that but it'll be like a box truck pulls up I'm usually proactive with
putting a cone out i don't know if you know that's necessarily the right thing to do but
um to avoid the drive up and sort of people getting upset that their path is blocked
it's like maybe you know the time it takes to open the door put the object on close the door and
sign on sign a sheet okay all the questions questions yes um yes uh uh what kind of what
kind of pieces are these that you're making are they're it's artisan industrial so the question
is what kind of pieces are these are they um they're metal you said but other than that i'm
having a little trouble yeah it's like mixed media generally anything from uh paintings to sculpture
to, uh, the, the object shown right now, the sample work is, uh, it's, it's an interactive
space on 57th street in New York.
And it was just essentially like a, a booth.
I don't know.
It's, it's like, uh, display fixtures and things like that.
And you sell these, you.
um I'm content I I have maybe like five clients that I actively do work with um request things
so it's sort of consulting collaborative design work figuring out how to make their vision sort
of come to reality and then the execution of it okay and then you make it and then it gets shipped
to some location is that it may go back on that same truck that I mentioned and I may deliver it
to um you know this one was New York but other places sort of in the tri-state um it may get
picked up by a box truck we use a vending service and um I can't I don't potstown that does the
logistics like pick up and delivery and things like that okay all right thank you
No questions at this questions or comments from the virtual audience.
I don't see any further hands Mr. chair.
Planning Commission.
Michael Gall with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential RSA 5 residential single family attached zoning at this location.
The appellant has demonstrated that the proposed use would not cause undue detriment to the community beyond what might otherwise be expected at this location and should have minimal impact in this building,
which was constructed as such therefore the city planning commission recommends the board grant the
requested variance for artists studios and artists and industrial use mi 2026 001 776 28 59 to 61
north reese reese street i vote yes michael johns my vote is a yes carol gaston my vote is yes
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
I'm McAdams, my vote is yes.
I win, my vote is yes.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Who's doing 12th Street?
Who's doing 12th Street?
So MI 2026-001-875, 3150 North 12th Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Mr. Nockamson, just state your name for the record.
Alan Nockamson.
Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
Yeah, to my left is Rashid Williams. He owns RTW Accommodations LLC, the owner of the property.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Did you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
All right. Thank you. You can show your screen and proceed with the case.
Alan, how do we stand with the RCO? What's going on with that?
uh i believe we have a meeting with them august 20th so we would like to present and then hold it
okay thank you thank you uh as you saw we had we had to send a 45 day letter you know we don't do
that often but you know we didn't have any response from them just to preserve our rights we always
want to meet with the community beforehand uh 31 50 north uh 12th street so this was previously
approved as a triplex. We're coming back here to get, you know, updated approvals from the zoning
board. You can see it's a three-story structure, flat facade, lentils, cornice line, traditional
Philadelphia architecture. We have nine exhibits here. At the conclusion of my presentation, I would
ask that Rashid be sworn in, and I have a few questions for him. I also have Logan Dry, the
architects representative here. So this is an RSA five property. It's a rather large lot size of
1,324 square feet. We have two refusals for this proposed triplex. The first refusal, as you can
imagine, was because of the use of the property as a triplex. It's an RSA five property. Again,
not out of character in that this, you know, this was previously approved as a triplex.
Second refusal. We have a porch to the left of us that's been filled in because it's been filled in. It's considered now the front facade, so we don't fall in line. But if it's, you know, it's form over substance, our front facade actually matches with the front facade of every single property on that block.
but because that you know porch has been filled in and that's why we have that second refusal
property history here you can see here is that a triplex was previously approved for this property
never built we did not own it at the time maps of the area you can also see from the zoning map of
how there's mixed zoning of rm1 uh which would be allowed as a right cmx2 cmx3 so you're not
sharing anything to see you understand okay oh okay i'm sorry that would be helpful i thought i
sure hit the share button all right can you uh see now all right sorry about that uh as you can see
uh we have a mix of zoning classifications here which we border rm1 there's cmx2 cmx3
there's a school across the street so it's uh sp uh dash civ uh we're you know we have uh you know
we're near commercial quarter on allegheny avenue um we're actually near train tracks too which kind
of speaks volumes as to not having you know a single family use near train tracks not typical
photographs of the property this is the end of our block facing uh north 12th street it's a vacant
lot it's been a vacant lot for some time as you can see since 2008 as far back as google street
view goes proof of posting for today's uh hearing uh this is north 12th street oh this is an
electrical facility here on the other end of our block uh so it's an electrical facility here on
north 12th street north 12th street to the left of the property this is a school um our plans again
Again, from KCA, we have no dimensional refusals at all.
Our property goes four feet out of the ground, and the ceiling height is eight feet, one
inches.
So you can see we're four feet out of the ground, and then in terms of the ceiling height,
eight feet, one inches.
Floor plan is pretty straightforward.
you come in there's a common vestibule area we come into here bedroom a couple
bathrooms living area you know kitchen in the living area another bedroom as
you can see there is no to get rear access we don't go through our bedroom
uh to get rear access we don't go through our bedroom we have actually direct access to our
we have actually direct
rear yard there's a lower level which has a home office like a gym area a secondary living area
and another bathroom and then the laundry facilities there instead of unit number one
you go up a flight of steps same thing living room you have a kitchen area ventilated trash closet by
first floor it's the trash is stored outside you have a bathroom and then two bedrooms and then
you go into unit number three or unit C same type of floor plan living room kitchen bathroom the
ventilated trash closets here washer and dryers in there two bedrooms one bath there is no I don't
believe there's a roof deck access structure here again we we gave our 45
day notice on July 17th 40 at least 45 days before this hearing just to
preserve our rights to present it from this board proof of mailing of that
notice is here we are meeting with the community on August 20th here's our
application for zoning variance along with the notice of refusal and project
information form, the deed to the property, showing that RTW accommodations LLC is the owner,
and then our certificate of tax clearance showing that no money is owed. With that being said,
I'm going to stop sharing my screen. I would ask that Rasheed be sworn in, and I have a few
questions for him. Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Rasheed Williams, R-A-S-H-I-D-W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes counsel yeah rasheed you heard everything i had to state
today about your zoning matter yes is it true and correct yes and do you adopt this your own
testimony yes thank you questions from the board yes how many multi-family properties exist on
this block uh good question uh we have specifically north 12th street north 12th street yes all right uh
i know i had it here uh 3144 and 3122 on the on north 12th street and are any of those more than
duplexes no they are not i think you know my general concern with this is that this is a block
where all the properties are two-story they are pretty intact for a row of row homes
And this proposal is adding a story and adding a unit more than everything else on the block.
I hear you. I mean, this was previously approved as a tribe.
Yeah, but I wasn't on that zoning board, so.
No, I hear you. And obviously, I knew, you know, the board was going to have some concern about, you know, what you're talking about, that third story, and we can talk about that.
And, you know, we've talked to our client about potential remedies, about setting it back, even though it's not required.
If it makes the board more comfortable to have that third story, I would say we always want to try to give more living area to individuals than less.
Also, we're the end property as well.
You know, it interconnects on that intersecting street.
So we're basically a corner property for all intents and purposes.
And it's a rather large lot.
um i think we're you know i i can do an analysis but i think we're one of the larger lots on the
block so we're at 1324 square feet so it's a nice design it was previously approved this way
it makes it more affordable for the for the residents in terms of rental rates to have
three units as opposed to two units depends on the rent of the three units but yes i get what
you're trying to argue can you go back to the the plans sure i'll make sure i share my screen
she passed the render in two hour yet except i don't think it was a porch
when the rest of the houses are porches on that block yeah i think there's there's a mix but um
you know we we can look at that as well i mean that's why we would love we always love to have
the community meeting before here to kind of deal with some of those issues so unfortunately we did
not have that opportunity but uh you know again if if that's something that you know the board
feels more comfortable with the porch that's not going to affect you know the design aspects in
from the interior and you know we can deal with that but the person to the left of us who did
have a porch they filled theirs in so and that actually goes to one of our refusals
sorry just taking a while
come on
All right, let me get out of this for a sec.
all right let me get out of this for a sec
The computer is slow today.
All right, let's see if we do it now and share the screen.
All right, I think we can go back that way.
There we go.
All right, there's the rendering.
So again, from a traditional Philadelphia row home perspective, we have lintels, we have a cornice line, we have windows that kind of match up. There's no bay window. It's a nice flat brick facade. Not a lot of nice light in there. So I think board member Graham asked me to show that. Board member Johns, what would you like to see?
The floor plans, but I'm glad you did show the elevation because the rest of the houses on the block do have porches, even though the one next to it is an enclosed porch.
So having something like that sort of so different than the rest is, this is maybe a little troubling.
I don't necessarily have an issue with the fact that it's three stories because it's at the end of the row.
The next property that's next to that actually faces the next street over and they're all three story buildings.
And the building across the street is three stories, I believe. And then there's the sort of open space behind that. So I don't necessarily have an issue with the three story in this particular situation.
but I do understand board member Wynne's concerns.
So I think there's a way to maybe do something at the roof
to address that situation or at that third floor,
kind of like what we saw early on with,