um so the and i'm sorry here if you don't mind if i can share my screen
please do thank you all right so
so if i apologize if it becomes a little difficult to read so the 80 square foot
addition is to expand out the area in the breezeway of the rear of the house. So if
you can see this diagram or trolling. I can show you if it's, sorry.
I can show you if it's sorry it would be in this area here it's only we're only talking the
the first one story edition and this is to expand out a kitchen property we did provide a copy of
the denial letter as well as the deed showing that Mr. McGugan is the property owner he purchased
of property in 2013 and is looking to make this property more conducive to his future living
arrangements. They're simply looking to expand out their kitchen slightly and expand out into
the breezeway. So we don't believe that this, we don't believe that the proposed modification,
well, the proposed modification is the least possible modification since we are only dealing
with the breezeway. The front portion of the property is not going to change. We don't believe
that this is going to affect congestion in the area at all because we're not looking to add any
additional occupants of the property. It's still going to remain a single-family home.
It's not going to affect the light for the neighbors or anything else with respect to
neighbors. There's no windows on the neighboring property that would abut up to this property.
uh the addition area and um and we are simply looking to take this area back to the rear edge
of the property so we're not taking away any further portion of the rear yard um
and sorry so if we can take a look at some of the over i provided two photographs um
And I just wanted to show that this is consistent with the other areas of the property here.
So this property here is 127 McKean Street, and this is the area, the breezeway, that they would be looking to expand out into.
The neighboring property goes from boundary to boundary at the same area.
We would not be abutting a second floor.
the by leaving the second floor open we are maintaining a means of egress through a bathroom
window on the second floor we're happy to answer any questions oh and as I mentioned so the
neighboring property immediately neighboring property is it goes from wall to wall as well
as this property here and the end property here and I believe this property as well
so we're trying to maintain the consistency of with the neighborhood without overburdening
neighborhood and we did also provide some renditions of what they would like to do with
the the area and that's simply to expand out their kitchen slightly we got it is Mr. McGuggan
available do you have him he is online yes yeah if you can ask him to raise his hand please Mr.
Mr. McGuggan, please raise your hand. We'll recognize you.
Is it Guggan or Guggan?
Mr. McGuggan.
Guggan.
Mr. McGuggan has been allowed to speak, sir.
Thank you. Mr. McGuggan, good afternoon.
Please identify yourself with the records by your last name.
Hi, this is Patrick McGuggan, M-C-G-U-G-A-N.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you, Mr. Good.
um mr good yes sir yeah you want to ask your client if he adopts your testimony
oh yes mr murgoogan um you've heard all the uh my statements today with respect to the property
do you have anything else that you want to um add to what i've stated to the board or
any additional comments or if not then i just ask if you would advise the board whether you
accept my
adopt my testimony as yours.
Yes, I adopt
your testimony.
Questions from the board?
Anyone else would like to testify in this case,
including members of the NARCO
and our Councilman Squillers office?
no further hands mr chair thank you uh planning commission good afternoon david fecto city
planning commission mr chairman members of the board this property is indicated for residential
single-family use in the city's comprehensive plan we have no objection to granting this variance
Thank you, MI2020-002478.
Thank you. MI 2020-002478, 127 McKean Street, my vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Thank you. MI 2020-001230, 1407-09 West Grange Avenue.
Thank you.
Chair, there is in the email that I sent this afternoon, there is a lengthy letter from the RCO.
Very lengthy.
I also have Ms. Rachel Pritzker whose hand is all raised if she wishes to present.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Ms. Pritzker. Please identify yourself for the record and I'll
swear you in. Good afternoon, Rachel, R-A-C-H-A-E-L, Pritzker, P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R, 1635 Market Street,
Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19103. Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth? Yes. Thank you. Do you agree to waive and stipulate to the accuracy?
No. So we've actually revised the plans to eliminate the refusal for the units. So it'll
be 47 units. And we've also, the other refusal should be eliminated as well. There is enough
rear yard space. We're only here for height at this point. We did present this case earlier to
the board and then had continued it for to make some revisions and to work in conjunction with
1419 which uh mr knockamson uh presented i believe maybe two weeks ago um so i i assume
the board will be familiar once i bring it up but we're really only here for the height refusal
met with the rco i don't need to go through that correct
so um jason do you see ray rolla um the architect as well
if he could be promoted i'm going to go through the refusal and the plans uh lightly and then
let him jump in as well. Rachel while you're doing that you're going from 63 units? To 47.
To 47. Yeah the property is zoned CMX two and a half or two so the amount of units is permitted
by right. We spoke with the community and the planning commission and that was a suggestion
that was made by both those groups so we were able to reduce take an entire floor off
So to just have a height refusal, given we're working within sort of rehabbing this existing structure and just putting on one floor instead of the two we had originally proposed.
Two hands raised. One is ACCA, another is Charles Richardson, and the third is Ray Rolla.
ray roll is the architect charles is from the council with this and accas rco
all right so let's begin rachel and uh give us an overview of the changing are we beginning with
mr rogan yes please um so as the board can see um we're looking at 1407-09 west green street
it is this center completely 100% lock coverage existing structure it is in the middle of the
block so sort of unique in its location and size again it's an existing structure that we're
looking to rehab the building has all concrete on the sides so we are adding an additional floor in
order to have some windows and some habitable space in which we will be providing 47 units,
which is permitted by Wright and CMX2, in addition to small commercial space. And again,
the other reduction we made was for parking spaces. CMX2 does not require any off-street
parking spaces for multifamily. However, given there's already been parking provided in the
building and given the additional density, we believed it was important to provide parking.
I'm going to have Ray, our architect, present the revised plans, which the board should
have in addition to Sharon as well. And then I'm happy to sort of go through the back and
uh sharon as well um and then i'm happy to sort of go through the back and forth of the community
someone has their radio on um or television would you please mute it
thank you was ray promoted to panelists i'm just not able to see it yes he was
okay thank you please identify yourself with a record first and last name spell your name for
the record please raymond rola r-o-l-a 1704 walnut street philadelphia pa i'm sorry 1518 walnut
street that was my old address old address okay you're swearing in front of him to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed rachel um ray are you
able to share your screen and provide the plans and kind of go through the revisions that we made
and sort of the reason that we um are only left with the height refusal i can try i have i have
things on on my screen um okay if you have difficulty i can share my screen and you can
narrate whatever is easier i think that's your screen right now so maybe we'll go through that
first try it with your screen basically what's existing give me one second because i want to
get the plans loaded so that the board can can see it didn't have them up
just download them so that it can be clearer
okay go ahead
one second okay basically the what's existing on the site
now is a concrete structure two stories that basically is a parking garage on three levels
the two interior levels, and then a roof level. So it's very durable structure, very heavy-duty
structure, concrete structure. And initially, the idea was going to be just to put units into the
what was the existing parking garage. However, because there is basically no yard space,
we can't really have windows. So what we came up with was to build on top of the parking garage,
a structural engineer did evaluate the structure in terms of its ability to carry the weight of
additional structure and we set the building back on two sides on the north side and the south side
we set the building back by 17 feet in order to be able to create windows and to recess the building
back from the property line and to utilize the two existing concrete floors that are designed
as parking utilize them as parking for the development the initial plans had four stories
of residential which were reduced to three stories and we've also proposing to utilize the
remaining roof deck that was used for parking as balconies for the units on the third level
I'm sorry, on the first level of residential.
So approximately a third of the units will have outdoor space in the way of balconies
that would be on what is now the roof of the parking structure.
So this is the updated one.
There you go.
So you can see the balconies which exist on the north side and on the south side.
Do you want to go down, Rachel, to kind of see the aerial view?
Or do you want to ask me some questions at this point?
Yeah, I just wanted us to go through kind of the changes that were made.
Again, you mentioned sort of the uniqueness of building on top of the existing parking
deck and sort of we had originally tried to do this by right.
and at least have reduced the number of units to the 47, which is the buy right number,
which again was a suggestion from the community and the planning commission. I think that was
their main concern. And sort of the height is as a result of sort of building on top this
existing structure and sort of we have this unique middle of the block sort of property. So
we believe that sort of just this addition, the reduction in units and the addition of
the addition of parking and sort of the rehabilitation of this structure will help to
parking and sort of the rehabilitation of this
provide more affordable housing for the area and sort of provide a landlocked piece to bring back
to life. So that's sort of the long and short of it. I know that there's some comments from the
community. What I would just kind of point out is we, this community group was ACCA and they
they let us know that they did not want to do a zoom and instead kind of wanted to go back and
forth through this platform in which they sent us a list of questions and we responded and we kind
of made those revisions as we mentioned we sort of answered the questions in addition to continuing
the hearing so we could work with Mr. Nockamson and his client who got approval from the zoning
board two weeks ago for 1419, which is the directly adjacent vacant property next door.
So I think a lot of the concerns that we're still hearing, I believe we have addressed or have
addressed the best of our ability. Again, we're dealing with sort of an existing structure and
just looking for a slight height variance in order to accommodate, you know, building on an existing
structure. So I don't really have much else. I think the board gets the gist and happy to answer
any questions that you may have. And thank you, Ray. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you
both. Any questions from the board at this time? No. No. No. Anyone else would like to testify in
this case? Please raise your hand, including RCOs and any member of a council person staff.
Mr. Chair, I have ACCA with their hand raised. I want them to speak right now.
Good afternoon. Please identify yourself with a record name and address.
My name is Sandra Baradis. I'm representing a concerned community association. We are the RCO
located at 5801 Ogons Avenue in Philadelphia, 19141.
And would you please spell your last name?
Last name is Baradis, B-R-O-A-D-U-S.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you, ma'am. Please proceed.
I'd first like to ask, I am working on a phone, and I have one of the community members
with our presentation, if she would be allowed to share her screen as well. I have to work from
her screen. I can't do it from here. Okay. I haven't seen any presentation. I just received
the sort of the back and forth letter from you. Sandra, would you be able to provide that to us
as well? I'm just not sure what you're presenting. I'm just presenting pictures of the property so
that we can discuss what our concerns are. Okay. Okay. Yep. The first, her name is
Oh, she signed into CL Morton, if she can be allowed to share her screen.
And I also request that if this presentation goes into discussion, that I'll be allowed
to remain one line to be a participant in the discussion.
Yes, you will.
Okay, I appreciate it and I thank you.
um just let me know when she's uh she's uh able to share her screen
is she just sharing a screen or is she verbally testifying
um mr chairman because my uh letter and and testimony um should cover all the bases i've
asked all the community members to simply um allow our testimony so i'll be the only one
speaking that is a favor that I've done for you but I would like to be heard in entirety if you
if you will okay because there are many people that would like to speak um but I think that I
you know can address it all um we appreciate that thank you okay should um should she uh should I
go ahead while she's getting her screen up I don't know how this works yeah well before you begin
And I'm going through this material letter that was submitted to us, and it has numerous provisos, other issues that are of concern to the community.
Is there still opposition?
Because I'm kind of confused.
Yeah, and that is their support with the provisos there is absolutely no support the provisos in no way address the community concerns. We have never discussed this with Rachel beyond the Q&A on paper that was submitted and answered at a very late date so we've been scrambling to stay on top of this appeal and this is the first time that the community
Or is there support with the provisos?
has actually had a voice in this, and this goes back since like September, October of last year.