is the architecture firm on the project and then we also have representation from stantec which is
civil engineer on this project in the interest of time and in light of the fact that all that
all 10 of the projects did receive full expressions of support from both of the coordinating rcos
when we do get to the point of going through each individual case if it pleases the board we will
defer um most of the legal argument to the memorandums of law that we did submit in the
packets. We'll address just very briefly a summary of each of the cases, and then we'll be happy to
answer any additional questions the board has. Okay. So as I mentioned, the proposal before the
board today is being pursued by the Philadelphia Housing Authority and represents phase three of
the sweeping Fair Hill redevelopment. For all 10 of these cases, we did submit individual exhibit
packets, which each have 17 total exhibits. They do each include all of the required documentation,
such as refusals at Exhibit 1, ownership information at Exhibit 2, tax clearances at
Exhibit 3, as well as code sections, required notices and postings, and other detailed evidence
that supports the variance request before the board. In terms of a preliminary note on standing,
As I alluded to earlier, PHA is the owner of all of the properties before the board today via a notice of condemnation that was recorded with the Philadelphia Recorder of Deeds on March 15, 2023, following a declaration of taking that was filed with the Court of Common Pleas on the same day.
That notice of condemnation is in your packet at Exhibit 2.
also for the board's quick reference as we do walk through these cases for you
at exhibit one we did include a summary chart of all of the addresses uh the zp number a brief
summary of each of the proposals and the use and then also a summary of all the refusals that were
issued so as as we go through this if you need a quick reference point uh that chart is available
to you. We are going to go through them in the order in the chart. This order is sort of, you
know, least amount of refusals working up to most amount of refusal. The Fair Hill 3 project is a
groundbreaking 10-year, the Fair Hill project is a groundbreaking 10-year residential affordable
housing redevelopment plan from the Philadelphia Housing Authority seeking to revitalize the Fair
hill section of the city as is shown up on the map that you can see here at exhibit four
the project boundary for this particular phase that's before the board today is generally on the
the 10th street corridor between west cumberland street which is north in this orientation west
dauphin street which is south in the orientation north 11th street to the west and north 9th street
to the right as you can see here on the first page of exhibit five the fair hill three project
is adjacent to two other affordable housing residential redevelopment projects along the
10th street corridor known as fair hill one and fair hill two which had a combined 267 units in
first two phases fair hill um the fair hill project as you might recall from seeing prior phases
previously involved the redevelopment of the fair hill apartments and the creation of new street
pathways to better connect the neighborhood phase one and phase two are shown in this image you have
on your screen at page 42 which just for context included a mix of senior housing as well as some
low-rise units in case the board is curious or has any questions on page 43 up on the screen
we have provided the full breakdown of the affordability metrics for the entire fair hill
project that comprises all three of the phases which does include predominantly affordable
housing replacement units in the first two phases, as you can see here, while phase three that's
While phase three that's before the board today is predominantly funded by low-income housing tax credit units, and also includes 10 homeownership units that are not a part of the request before the board today.
before the board today is predominantly funded by low-income.
Phase one is slated to be complete by late 2027, and more detail on that phase is included on this slide as well.
Phase two is slated for completion in mid-2027.
Finally, phase three that's before the board today entails demolishing all existing structures on the various parcels and the construction of a total of 74 new residential infill dwellings that are designed to match the existing context of the neighborhood.
The projects that you'll see today include a mix of townhomes, including five two-bedroom homes, 43 three-bedroom homes, and 14 four-bedroom homes.
There are also six multifamily buildings, each consisting of two one-bedroom units, two two-bedroom units, six three-bedroom units, and two four-bedroom units.
Some sites have on-site parking, and there is also a community center that you will see in one of these sites as well.
Half of each of the multifamily unit type are fully accessible, and 100% are considered visitable.
The community center will include a large community room with a computer center, kitchen, bathroom facilities, as well as a PHA management office.
The Fair Health RE project embarks on an ambitious goal to improve the quality of life for local residents through improved housing, better neighborhood conditions, improved health and safety, and better educational and career opportunities.
An overarching theme, as the board may know, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency also delegates certain thresholds for price points as well as density and design.
many of these considerations which have led to some of the refusals before the board today
again you can see some of the overall context in this map here with the community center located
relatively towards the middle of the phase three construction there are also as you can see three
sites with parking lots for a total of 21 additional spaces beyond those that would
have been constructed during fair hill phase one and fair hill phase two overall fair hill phase
three has 13 development sites 10 of which are before the board today the other three sites did
receive zoning permits by right and those are also noted on the key plan here you can see those sites
were issued permits for Site 1 at 2301 North 10th Street,
Site 4 at 2319 North 10th Street,
and Site 5 at 2329 North 10th Street.
As I mentioned, many of these requests are quite minor and very similar,
so we will move through them as efficiently as possible.
Most of these also involve lot consolidations
that were approved prior to the filing of these applications,
so the lot consolidations are also not before the board today.
As a general note, and I believe as Mr. Chairman mentioned,
we would ask that the full record that we present before the board today
for each case be incorporated as if presented fully for each individual case.
We would also expressly request that all of the arguments that are made
be expressly adopted in reference to each case.
so that is our overview um as i mentioned we would like to go through them in the order in
our chart brandon is going to handle the first five set uh and then i'm going to handle the
second five and you're going to describe what's going to go on their property right yes okay yes
i will so let's let's try to figure out the best so your first one where where is that on my list
here the first one is 1001 west arizona street so it's mi2025 004 431 1001 to 21 west arizona street
good afternoon members of the board
good to see you in person and I will promise you I'll get in a rhythm as I go along here
i will promise you i'll get in a rhythm as i go along here so the first one may be a little
so the first one may be a little slow
slower and then we'll pick up speed so the first property we're going to present about here is
the one the chairman just read 1001 to 21 west arizona street in its exhibit packet exhibit
six shows the location of the property the property is zoned rm1 and results from the
consolidation of what was 11 parcels it's located on the north side of arizona street between 10th
and 11th streets as the aerials at exhibit 7 show 10 of those 11 parcels were vacant and one at the
western end contained a boarded up structure the zoning plan for these parcels which are now one
consolidated property is at Exhibit 8. Zoom in a little bit here. This shows that PHA will construct
five single-family homes and one duplex on this property. The duplex was selected in lieu of two
additional single-family homes in order to place a one-floor ADA unit on the ground floor of the
duplex. Only 55.6% of the combined lot area is occupied by the planned buildings. This leaves
room for small storage sheds for each family, six-foot-deep rear patios for each family,
and rear lawns of almost 16 feet of depth. Exhibit 9 contains both a composite elevation
of the entire property once it will be built.
You can see here that because we're on a side street,
unlike almost all of the other homes we'll present,
which are on 10th Street,
these are two stories as opposed to three.
And then the other pages of Exhibit 9
contain detailed elevations.
They're samples.
So we have an elevation for the single-family home-type structure, which are all the same here, and then an elevation for the duplex.
Likewise, at Exhibit 10, we have detailed floor plans for the single-family home-type buildings.
Each single-family home will have two bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths.
And then we have a detailed floor plan for the duplex, which will contain three bedrooms and two baths.
Exhibit 11 contains photos of the current conditions and photos of our hearing posters.
Shown at Exhibit 1 is the refusal, and the buildings themselves, here it is, did not generate any refusals.
The sole refusal is for lack of accessory parking, and two parking spaces are supposed to be provided.
Um, as is the case for all of the properties that we'll present today, the manner in which
this property satisfies all of the zoning codes qualifications for the requested variance
is detailed in a memo of law, which is submitted here at exhibit 14.
Um, I will focus on just one of those qualifications and summarize it, which is hardship.
The hardship can be summarized in that this block of Arizona street does not presently
have any legal curb cuts as far as we are aware so introducing a curb cut would negatively affect
the nature of the pedestrian oriented environment on the block further the parking requirement is
only triggered by the fact that the buildings are being constructed on one consolidated lot
as the refusal says the parking requirement comes not from the rm1 base zoning but rather from the
north central philadelphia overlay district sub area b and its requirement for off street parking
does not kick in until more than three dwelling units are proposed on a single lot so because
we're on a consolidated lot the code treats this development as though it were a seven unit
apartment building and applies a multi-family parking requirement rather than treating it like
a collection of single-family homes and a duplex. Parking, as you'll see, can be offered to
residents of these buildings at other Phase III sites, as Meredith will detail in some of her
presentations, and or in the large parking lots serving Phases I and II. The nearest Phase III
parking lot is going to be located directly adjacent to this site at 2332-48 North 10th Street,
but that doesn't satisfy the parking requirement because accessory parking cannot be offered on a
on a different parcel even if it's directly adjacent this concludes our presentation on one
even if it's directly adjacent this concludes our presentation on 1001 to 21 west arizona street
unless the board has any questions questions from the board questions from the board
mr chairman how do you want us to handle um having our client adopt our testimony do you want to
do that i i think what i would probably do is um why don't we go through them yeah and then i'll
read them all all one time when we're going to vote each one all right and that way we're going
to do with that and then at the end you can have your client right so what's your what's your next
excuse me sorry mr chairman um because all the revusals are slightly different as with their
proposals i have slightly different testimony for each one um i can handle them however you want me
too so what what will you you'll be able to remember what it was like if we do it all at one
time yeah i mean i haven't written down so what i thought we do is go through all 10
then go back and vote on okay so they'll go through all 10 we'll do public i'll read my
10 individually and then y'all vote okay great thank you now you'll get a chance great on each
thank you all right next one okay the next presentation concerns mi2025003929 which is
2307-11 north 10th street for this property just nine yep nine right 2307 north 10th yeah 2307
that's right yeah for this property exhibit six the zoning map shows the location of the property
on the east side of north 10th street between dakota street and dauphin street it is again
zoned rm1 and consists of three parcels that were consolidated as shown in exhibit seven
two of those parcels were vacant and one contained a home with the door and first floor windows
boarded up. The remainder of this side of the block was vacant save for one structure, one other
structure. PHA is proposing to build three single-family homes here. The zoning plan is shown
at Exhibit 8. Each home is the three-story A2 type home that is prevalent across the Phase 3
portfolio and is over 16 feet wide and 35 feet deep. This leaves room for small storage sheds
and six foot deep rear patios for each resident family and a very large rear yard. Under 45%
of the property is occupied by the homes. Exhibit nine contains the elevations. The first page is a
composite elevation. And one detailed elevation follows on the following plan. So this would be
the same elevation for each of the three homes, except it would be mirrored in one case, I believe.
Exhibit 10 is the floor plan. Again, this is a typical floor plan for one home and would be
mirrored for one of the three homes each of these homes will have three bedrooms and two and a half
baths exhibit 11 shows photos of the existing conditions and the zoning hearing posters
the application for this property received one-dimensional refusal
for insufficient side yard as shown at Exhibit 1 on your screen now.
The hardship as presented in the memo of law can be summarized in that for sake of construction
efficiencies, PHA's architects have designed only a few sizes of single family homes for
phase three. And those template homes cannot be combined to perfectly occupy the entire width of
the lot. So this leaves a 1.375 foot gap between the northern lot line and the northernmost exterior
wall of the homes. And I'll show you that on the zoning plan really quickly. That gap is
right here where my hand is this is considered a side yard by the zoning code and although no
side yards are required when one is present it must be at least five feet wide so in order to
work with the the templates for the different houses that PHA is going to design here we have
to have some degree of a side yard, but to have a code compliant side yard, we lose an entire house.
but to have a code-compliant side yard, we lose an entire house.
That's the hardship.
This concludes our presentation on 2307 to 11 North 10th Street,
unless the board has any questions.
Any questions from the board?
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Do you know if there's 2305, if there was support from that neighbor,
since that's the only house on the block?
I do not, and I think it's a vacant lot.
If it's not, it's a house.
The one structure that's left, yeah.
And it's occupied, right?
The meeting was very well attended.
It was an in-person meeting that was held.
There was nobody in the room that expressed any form of opposition.
So, and these are, these are like on the slabs, right?
So there wouldn't be any kind of issues with underpinning or anything.
All right.
Thank you.
Question I had was about the backyard.
Is this going to be shared across the three units?
so the yards do will not have fences that um delineate them from one another so in in that
sense it is shared yes and then um for the one foot side yard what is the plan for maintenance
because in the future the two lots on the corner are privately owned and a house could come up on
that party line leaving a one foot zone that now needs to be maintained is it going to be paved
what's the plan for maintenance
and how to, you know.
It will be paid.
So why don't we, did I
swear you in already? No.
Why don't you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Ziaurahman
Z-I-A-U-R
first name, last name