to that wound um let's go up to the traffic the the the proposed use of the driveway
again sort of ma'am ma'am with all due respect you're all over the place there's a driveway
that exists there was a building there which looks to me i could be wrong may have been a
factory building or something there's always been a garage there that accommodated that building
and probably whatever was in front where the vacant lot is whether it was a two-story three-story
whatever apartment building that driveway has been used by other folks beside the residents on
the left and i don't mean that to be disrespectful it's a common driveway we established that
if that driveway is used by the residents it's not a thoroughfare and people search but you
but okay i'm sorry chair all right we're gonna need we're gonna need to uh wrap this up but i
just would like to say if the chair is speaking please do not over talk him i appreciate that
tanya but it doesn't seem like it's sinking in yes all right so if you want to move on you can
yeah we're going to move on all right can we ask the planning commission maybe yep
planning commission
i'm sorry i got ahead of myself any questions from the board uh yes mr chairman yes yes mr
chairman yes i'd like to see the elevation uh the elevation of the new building that fronts
the driveway.
What the, where the vacant lot is?
Were they vacant lotters?
Or you know, not what they're proposing, you're saying, right?
Yeah, what they're proposing, correct.
I'm sorry, yeah.
Can I see the elevation of the drive?
Absolutely.
okay now let me ask you a question counselor is that parking garage existing or new existing this
few stories exist yeah yeah you know it's a two-story parking garage existing yes and it
faces the neighbors across the driveway so there's garage doors here and there's uh the driveway is
on this side it's the rear of them so any treatment you're doing to that existing garage
two-story garage now i understand that it's always been there but you're asking for something
to get a zoning variance for it so what kind of treatment are you going to do with that
Hey, Tom, can I interrupt you just for a second? I want to make sure I'm following you.
Correct. Rachel, the garage doors are not going to be facing the back of the residence,
the rear of the residence on 15th Street. Is that correct?
Oh, these face Grange Street. Correct.
Right. So to the left of what you're showing us.
Right here.
This is where the driveway is, correct?
Correct.
All right.
So you're not showing me the elevation that faces the driveway.
the driveway. This is the elevation that I have that faces Grange Street and the driveway
is this way. Yeah, but I asked for the elevation. I understand that. I'm just providing you
with what I have, sir. So the garages, Tom, the garages are not facing the rear of the
15th Street residential. It's just the driveway. It faces the rear of the driveway. The people
in the rear it faces the residential across the driveway right but the driveway garage doors
face grain street i understand that i understand any proposed treatment for the garage that faces
the residential on the across the driveway as far as the bottom of the building is concerned
correct the two-story garage um can do you see nissan levy um i believe the goal i want to have
him speak because he's the developer so i don't want to misstate anything i would assume there
would absolutely be treatment in order to bring the full building back to a more attractive look
but i would like to have him weigh in on that so that it's okay let's get him on please
okay um jason do you see um it's either nissan levy or the last four of the phone number would
be 8433 who are you putting on rachel the owner
once he once he's uh acknowledged i'll have to swear him in okay
Can I talk?
Yeah, your name, sir?
Nissan Levy, N-I-S-S-A-N, L-E-V-Y.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Mr. Holloman has a question for you.
What is the treatment for the elevation that faces the driveway?
First of all, do you have an elevation?
We have no elevation.
It's street level.
why why you don't have an elevation because it faces a residential community what we're talking
about facing the residential community is like just a drive it's not a driveway it's just a
pedestrian entrance there is no driveway for our building it's only entrance the only the other side
what we see on the for the street where the parking supposed to go in this is going to just
like gonna fix everything as and also one of the questions of the community if we're gonna do the
driveway and i actually accept it and we're gonna do this but actually it's not ours so we need to
ask for permission from everybody it's not ours we only have a small easement over there you need
only for pedestrians and not for cars sorry i'm gonna jump in for a minute looking at that
rendering uh the top one we're looking at now correct me if i'm wrong the garage doors are
to be to the right over here always would you do it with the other that's it right there
that's going to be the garage doors entrance into the garage correct correct all right so what tom's
asking about are there's any treatment which it doesn't look like they're going to be able to do
Are there any treatment, which it doesn't look like you're going to be able to do it, in the driveway?
in the driveway.
Is that what I think you're asking, Tom?
Anything on the building.
Like, what are we going to do to the buildings that faces the residential?
Correct.
The counselor was correct.
what treatment are you going to do on the parking garage wall to enhance the new you're asking for
something for the community to grant you a variance what enhancements are you going to do
on the new building that you're going to the new and the old garage that you're going to
have facing the easement nissan can you speak to how what the plans are to rehabilitate
the existing structure as far as the exterior, specifically as it relates to the portions of it
that are facing, well, all of it, but most specifically the portions of it facing the
residential. It looks like in the photos, there's, you know, cleaning up of the brick, but if you
could speak to that, sort of how are we going to be enhancing the aesthetic and the materials so
that it's more appealing facing the, you know, residential side of the block in addition to just
given the conditions of it in general you can hear me yep definitely we're gonna actually
renovate everything including the the garage itself is going to be one it looks going to
look like one one structure with all a stack outside about cars and such it's not so important
as far as like if there is something that they prefer or something we can work with
this is not the issue the issue is like everything going to look new and nice and developed
we're actually going to touch everything including the garage if this is the question
and also the paving i have a follow-up question if i could and i'm probably going to hate myself
for opening up this can of worms but the parking garage uh the wall that we're looking at of the
garage that faces the rear of the property zone 15th it looks like there's openings correct
is window openings or window openings yes what are they the height of those in relationship to
a car's headlights shining into the rear of the houses on 15th street let me let me jump in there
because at the ground level that's commercial because that was required that's vacant commercial
because that was required by zoning to have commercial 30 feet into the structure so there
are no cars at that lower level at that driveway what about the next level up the next level up
there will there will be cars and if that's an issue then we can propose screening of some sort
that's that's what i'm getting at because i think that could be intrusive that especially at night
headlights shining into the rear of the homes on 15th street thank you mr chairman i think we
should we should have a drawing to define what they're going to do with that space other than
just verbal that's fine yeah I agree I agree Tom that would be that would be absolutely fine I think
um to get some more clarity on how much time you think you'll need well actually let me jump in
also above that is not parking either that's that's units and Rachel if you go to the second
floor plan I can see the beach I see the umbrellas up there yeah I can see that I'm more more concerned
about the headlights um and the materials and yeah i'm sorry to just interrupt but anyway
because of the winter or whatever and as much as we want to keep it as not as closed they're
going to be open blocks so basically you're barely going to see the the cars yeah i understand that
but the headlights shining directly into the rear of the properties i don't they're they're actually
going to be units mr chair three units there at that only faces grain street it won't be
actually facing okay the resident units from that from that rendition it looks like they're
openings you know for airflow for the garage yeah no i understand maybe you can submit something
to us that's a little bit more definitive we can look at it sure all right and some whatever
whatever you might want to consider to do as far as wall treatments sure when would would work best
for the board well you tell us because you guys have to go back and figure that out i mean as
soon as possible as my obviously all right uh mr chairman yes i'm sorry a uh a more comprehensive
site plan would be helpful too okay all right um where we could resume for next wednesday just to
go over those two um I don't know I'll have to ask Tanya about that no actually we're so backed up
no actually we're so backed up
when works for you tanya you want you guys want to talk about that offline
yeah that's fine all right why don't you do that tanya is that right you talk offline and figure
it out sure okay all right um any other questions from the board no no planning commission good
afternoon mr chairman members of the board david effecto city planning commission mr chairman this
property is indicated for commercial mixed use in the city's comprehensive plan we gave a
recommendation against the application on october 6 2020 since then the applicant has made concessions
and revised their proposal we are going to drop our objection to this proposal however we would
suggest provision of some kind of open space for the residents of the building even if the open
space is above grade. I think if I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, Rachel, isn't the open
space on the top of the garage? Ray, is that? The rendition looks like beach umbrellas up there or
something. Yeah, well, all of the units on that level do have balconies, and in response to the
community, that very point, what we did was we reduced some of the sizes of the private balconies
and created two community balconies
that could be used by all the residents
that didn't have balconies.
And those balconies are pretty much shielded
from the rear of the 15th Street properties,
one by a stairwell and the other one is all the way over
on the other side by the commercial, so.
Okay, thank you, thank you.
All right, thank you.
We'll go to the next case.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
MI 2020?
I'm sorry, Chair.
Tanya?
Because we would have to really give a date, so I want to try January the 20th at 2 p.m.
Great.
All right.
This case is being continued to January the 20th at what time?
I would suggest we say resume January the 20th at 2 p.m.
This case will be resumed on January the 20th at 2 p.m.
is there a way to limit it to just those two issues um or it's i don't see what other issues
there are i mean we talked about density it's a buy right um i i i don't know anybody has any
board member have any other opinions please i could just mention there are other people with
their hands up just to note for the board so i don't know how you want to state it's going to
be handled on the 20th if it's just for certain feedback clarity on how many how many hands we
have up tanya three uh well two because um the rco spoke already so it's two left
so we can have them return with the intent yeah why don't we why don't we do that and we'll limit
it to those their testimony all right thank you very much yeah we'll never get those who have
other testimony to add the hearing will be january the 20th at 2 p.m okay thank you all for your
patience thank you okay mi2020-001237 1801-59 north american street
Mr. Chair, Jared Klein has his hand raised
I'm sorry, I'm not able to promote him
I had to log back in, sorry
I'm not able to promote him for some reason
all righty i promoted him and if i could ask it pauline if you could um put jason as a co-host
i would appreciate that thank you sure tanya you got it good afternoon mr chair members of the board
hi uh good afternoon please identify yourself with the record certainly uh jared klein k-l-e-i-n
from blind rome 130 north 18th street philadelphia we're on the firm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. Yes I do. Mr. Klein do you agree to wave and snip? I do. And have
you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents including proof of ownership, proof of
tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral and photos and or plans of the property five days
in advance of this hearing? Yes we have. And have you met with the RCO? We have. Thank you sir.
Please proceed. Thank you Mr. Chair. I'm going to share my screen. So we're here for 1801 to
So we're here for 1801 to 59 North American Street. I understand that the board's agenda
59 North American Street.
has probably gone a little longer for the two o'clock than they expected. So I will
endeavor to be as brief as possible and give the board an overview. We do have the architect
Rustin Oller from Harmon Deutsch and Oller on if the board has any specific questions
as I move through. This is the project site, 1801 North American Street. It is an ICMX
zoned property. And we're building on a portion of the site. You can see here the aerial view.
This is where the proposed work area is. The site, part of it presently contains a warehouse
and two-story structure that is used for ICMX general purposes. There's makerspaces in there
and the owner and developer. The parcel has his office there. We are proposing to work on this
area that's outlined in white to construct a new structure that's five stories tall
that will have 110 residential dwelling units and 60 parking spaces and will also have ground floor
commercial space. This is some site context. As you can see, the site is currently a vacant area