Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi. Good morning.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of proof of ownership, tax compliance,
a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of
this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter? Yes, yes, and yes.
Okay, this is an application for a partial change in use to a sit-down restaurant on the first
floor front of an existing attached structure. There's one use refusal. A sit-down restaurant
is prohibited in the RM2 zoning district. You may proceed with your case.
Good morning. Thank you for having us. I'm representing the men of Mill Creek.
They're a non-profit organization that is looking to open a restaurant on the first floor of this
property. They've owned the property for a while. They're looking to outfit it according to the
plans which have been approved. The restaurant itself will have approximately a max capacity
seating of approximately 30. It will be open seven days a week. Council, could you share
Councilor, could you share your screen with us?
your screen with us? Sure.
Let me open up their plans exhibit.
Or actually, I'm sorry, is there a specific exhibit you would like to see?
If you could, could you put your package up?
I mean, obviously, we want to see pictures of it.
Photos of it.
the green share screen on the bottom oh no i know how yes sir my computer is actually just moving
really slow okay fine of course
Okay. Are you able to see that? Yes. Okay. So this property is located on the corner of 46
and Brown. That's the property specifically right there. You can see that the postings have been
done. This is the side of the property. So this door is the side door and there's another door
that you just saw to the front. The restaurant, in addition to providing basically a sit-down
restaurant and 12 to 15 jobs within the community, they will also provide safe serve classes.
So that residents of the community can begin to receive their safe serve licenses in order to work in the restaurant industry trash collection private, there is available parking if you can see here.
All along brown street along 40 free parking all along 46 and along brown street right here, let me scroll back up to this.
so free parking all up and down the street um
essentially uh you know we met with the rcos in the community um this organization this group
has a long-standing relationship with the community everything from already providing
meals, as part of community engagement, to providing services, classes. There's a barbershop
upstairs, I believe, and other people that rent within the space. This is something they would
like to take on themselves in order to provide this additional assistance, additional opportunities
within their actual community. This is the inside. As you can see, it's not necessarily huge. This
This is from the front door, or what I'm calling the front door, so from this door right here, if that door is behind me.
That's the restaurant through.
Obviously, it hasn't had any.
It will be hooded all the way around from this wall, if you can see my cursor, all the way out to this side of the property.
The inside itself will have seating along this side, along with a counter, and basically you can see there's some kind of refrigeration storage, but they'll set this up and outfit it with a counter as well as seats along the side.
There are two, there's a window over here, and there's another window right back here behind this refrigerator, this angle.
And essentially, after meeting with the community, I believe that we answered all of their questions, addressed, let them know that any concerns, if there were any were addressed, shared what the hours of the restaurant would be.
um a lot of people are really interested in the job opportunities and the safe serve opportunities
and the classes that would be available through the restaurant and i believe we receive pretty
strong support from the community and i will keep my presentation short um for any questions
do you have someone to adopt your testimony
we have on the on the call i believe we have um
derrick long stan allen and john adams just just one will be fine derrick long
can you hear me yes hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
thank you chair my name is derek long d-e-r-r-i-c-k-l-o-n-g
do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
derek yes did you do you hear do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do thank you counsel
yes so um essentially i would ask mr long um if he wants to share
any of his information anything about the restaurant and their plans um
so i think i think we're okay with that council why don't you just have him say that he adopts
your testimony as his own okay and i see oh mr long are you willing to adopt the testimony that
i just made on behalf of no milk creek and your plans as your own i do okay thank you
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chair no mr chairman
um questions or comments from the virtual audience
good morning mr chair i do not see any hands planning commission good morning chair bergman
this is ian hegarty here on behalf of the philadelphia city planning commission last
name is spelled h-e-g-a-r-t-y all right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
is nothing but the truth yes sir proceed thank you good morning board members the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the existing rsa 5 single family zoning at this location however
the proposed sit-down restaurant use is consistent with the physical configuration of the building
the city planning commission recommends that the board grant this variance thank you so mi 2022
2022-003-664-4656, Brownstreet.
I vote yes.
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, guys.
Have a great day.
Thank you.
Number five, MI-2022-003-642-514 West Burke Street.
Coordinating RCO's South Kennedy Community Partners did not take a position in this case, as the vote was three to three.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning.
could you state your name, please, for the court reporter and spell it?
Sure. Vern, V-E-R-N, Anastasio, A-N-A, S-T-A-S-I-O. And for the record, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
For the record?
For the record, the letter from the RCO came to us entitled A Letter of Non-Opposition.
Okay. Okay, thank you for the record. Could you identify your client,
the relationship to the property? Sure. Burke Street Investment, LLC, Principal Adam Akay.
Okay. And our Vice Chair, Carol Tenere, has a few questions. Thank you.
Hi, Vern. How are you? Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents
consisting of proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal referral, photos under plans of the
property five days in advance of this hearing? And have you met with the RCO and do you have a
letter. Yes, to all that. Okay, great. You may proceed and begin to share your screen. Thank you.
I've already shared my screen. I ask that the administration please promote architect Ian
Toner of Toner Architects. He's the architect on the project. I'll walk you through preliminary
notes that I have on the refusal, and then he will walk us through the project itself and the
changes that were made as a result of feedback from the RCO. Mr. Conner, state your name and
spell for the court reporter, please. Sure. Ian Tonner, I-A-N-T-O-N-E-R. Do you swear for him to
tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Proceed, counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We're talking 514-16 West Burke Street.
It's quite a large property.
We are proposing the construction of a multifamily dwelling.
of a multi-family dwelling. Here's an exterior rendering. Initially, we had proposed a 15-unit
Here's an exterior window.
building. After feedback from the community, we reduced that number to 12 and removed all
living space in the basement. And I'll get to that here. We have bike storage we added,
tenant storage for tenant materials that can't fit into the units, a larger utility room.
There's a trash room on the first floor. There's additional bike storage for the 12 units.
We are here because of some dimensional variances, the height, occupied area and rear yard.
Those three are de minimis in nature.
In fact, because it's a multifamily dwelling, our outdoor space and rear yard is actually larger than other commercial and or multifamily units on the block.
We do now, in fact, provide plenty of bicycle parking, which eliminates altogether that refusal. And the use is peculiar because typically it's CMX2 and what is required is some sort of commercial space on the first floor.
That was really the rub that caused us not to have overwhelming support, and it became a non-opposition instead of full support.
That was really the rub that some of the neighbors had.
They would have liked to have seen us maintain some sort of commercial space on the first floor.
Unfortunately, the market conditions on this block just don't support that.
the only new construction on the block was 100 percent residential right immediately next door
and it was multi-family the same variance was granted by this board for them to have that
that we're seeking today and as you can see there's lots of disinvestment on the block
Not a whole lot of action going on.
Here's an aerial view of more empty lots.
There's huge parcels behind us that are just empty and vacant.
And then there has been, for many years, lots of disinvestment.
There is a shopping mall across the street, but there absolutely is no POS, no point-of-sale commercial on Berks whatsoever.
There is a daycare center.
uh and again that's not akin to what uh what's being asked of us here here's burke's again
here's an empty factory lots of empty space large portions of it are just underdeveloped and
undeveloped there's the daycare center that we talked about it's really the single only
space that is truly commercial along Berks that's fronting Berks as you can see there's that empty
warehouse again so we did meet with the community twice first with the committee who gave us some
recommendations and we went back and then met with the community as a whole here's the flyer
that went out to the folks who are mostly impacted. Here's the proof of mailing. It's
42, only 42 households anywhere near this space, unfortunately. That's how much disinvestment has
happened in this immediate area for quite some time. We have a proviso sheet that shows that
we removed three units from the basement, reducing the total unit count from 15 to 12.
We removed three window wells from the front sidewalk, five window wells from the rear.
We added tenant storage and bike storage in the basement and additional storage on the first floor.
And we added two street trees as a result of the neighbor's feedback and input.
With that, I'm going to have Mr. Toner just talk a little bit about the design, the trash plan and things like that.
Sure. So we have four stories, three units per floor. On the ground floor, we're right at sidewalk level. So those units will be type B accessible units. And we have some storage and bike storage on the first floor for residents of the building who can't make it to the basement.
In the basement, we have a large bicycle room, and as you saw from Vern's photos, there's also indigo right across the street.
And as you saw from Burns' photos, there's also indigo right across the street.
So there's lots of access to transportation other than, and we're also close to some bus routes.
So lots of transportation, no need for cars here.
We have the three uppermost units on the top floor with access to the roof,
and those pilot houses are pulled nice and far from the edge of the building,
so we're not going to see them.
And if you look at the rendering, you can see that pilot house is in the model, but it's not you know, they're not showing up in the rendering because they're they're set back.
So we're excuse me, excuse me, Mr. Toner. Sorry, this is this is Hillary.
Mr. Chair, did you swear in Mr. Toner already?
Yes, you did. OK. All right. Thank you.
Nope, no problem.
And also in the rendering, you'll see that we tried to scale the height of the building to be as close as possible to the neighboring structures.
So we're not overshadowing anybody.
We do have a trash room right by the exit door on the first floor.
So it's very convenient for the residents to be able to drop their trash and for the trash collection people to pull the cans out and empty them as needed.
and these are all one-bedroom apartments thank you Mr. Toner with that I'd like to call my first
witness Mr. Chair Ms. Dorothy Rondamski who is a realtor in the area and she's going to be
testifying as a witness okay Ms. Rondamski please raise your virtual okay
hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Hi, my name is Dorothy Rondamansky, D-O-R-O-T-H-Y, R-O-N-D-O-M-A-N-S-K-I.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Rondamansky, can you please state your profession and your credentials as a realtor?
Yes, I'm a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway.
I have been for a few years now, and I work primarily in Philadelphia, but in Pennsylvania
in general. Okay, and you are intimately familiar with this neighborhood, this area, is that correct?
Yes, I am. Okay, and you understand that the underlying zoning classification at this particular
property parcel does require, without a variance, commercial first floor activity, is that right?
In your expert opinion, if we were to build this to comply with the commercial requirement
on the first floor, would it remain empty or would it be an easy marketable space for
commercial activity?
I think it would be really hard to fill that space.
I picture it would be vacant and leasees probably wouldn't stay very long if they did at all.
Right. And that is that because there's no other point of sale retail or commercial otherwise on that block?
Yeah. OK, thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have nothing else. And I. Oh, by the way, I would like Mr. Adam McKay to raise his hand.
He's my client. Mr. McKay, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Adam McKay, A-D-A-M, last name McKay, A-C-C-A-Y.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Mr. K., did you hear my presentation to the board today?
Yes, I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Did you, in fact, appear with me at the first RCO meeting and as a result, agreed to reduce the number of units, remove all living space on the first on the basement floor, all window wells being removed and adding both trees and bike parking?
Thank you very much. I have nothing further.
Before I open it up, that's that's a pretty large shopping center, Christy, right?