have these creative partnerships with communities and with private developers. And we were able to
reach that agreement last night. So with that, I would, I'll reserve the right to, you know,
cross-examine any witnesses. We do have revised plans that I provided to Ms. Saleta and Ms. Sunkit.
I would also emphasize that in this community benefits agreement, we actually did put in a
preference for local residents for these units, which was something that Cedar Park thought
would be helpful, that these will be residents who have lived in this neighborhood who will
that first crack at these units and with that I will I will I'll turn it over to back to the board
because we do want the community and the RCOs to have the opportunity to address the board.
Mr. Feldman do you have two questions you have anyone to adopt your testimony?
We previously did it Mr. Chair at the first hearing on April 7th. Okay no and revised plans
how many pages i believe there's is it i think it's five pages i can check that um
excuse me this is sarin i have three pages in my notes okay yeah thank you i think one is a
turning radius but yes those are the revised plans uh with the proviso form that match up
with the community benefits agreement with cedar park thank you questions from the board no no
anyone else like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand and i'll preface that
with saying i understand there may be a number of people on both sides of this issue who would
like to testify we ask that you when you're uh when you're recognized to please do not give us
any duplication of what the previous uh folks have said uh and we would appreciate you keeping
your comments as brief as possible but again please do not repeat any of the concerns that
have been raised by folks who may speak before you with that before i call i'd like to know is
mr goodman is held from councilwoman gaultier's office i'd like to hear from mr goodman first
and then we'll open it up for the rest of the folks goodman if you're available please
okay yes he is he's been allowed to speak good afternoon good afternoon mr goodman please
identify yourself and i'll swear you in andrew goodman g-o-o-d-m-a-n here representing the office
of third district council member jamie gaudier room 586 city hall you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do thank you mr goodwin please proceed
thank you mr chair members of the board our office is here today to oppose the granting of
this variance this decision stems from the input we've received from constituents which is at
volume that dwarfs all other zoning related matters we've encountered since entering office
last year. Between the RCO meetings, petitions, and direct outreach to our office, we count at
least 600 people that have given input in total, roughly 90 percent of which have said they're
opposed. Reasons we've heard for the opposition include concerns about density and loss of parking
and green space, but the most prominent we heard was the concern that the market rate units were
priced at a rate so high that they would reset the rent rates for the neighborhood and risk
displacing long-term neighbors in the process. Councilmember Gaudier firmly believes in the
community's right to have a voice in how their neighborhood is developed. We know that it's a
priority for constituents all over our district to proactively plan for what equitable development
looks like in their neighborhoods, and we hope to engage as many voices in our district as possible
on this topic proactively in the summer and fall as we you know think about solutions to to these
and how we how we ensure equitable development that has all the ingredients of equitable equitable
communities throughout our district thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you um
mr chair hi um may i make a suggestion if it's okay how many hands are up yes if we can check
your hands. I lowered them all. So please only raise your hand as directed by the chair's question.
Thank you. I will ask for those of you who are out there wishing to testify,
would everyone please put your hand down and only raise your hand if you're here in support.
We'll get to the those who oppose next. I just want to get a head count.
If you're in support of this project, please raise your hand now.
please raise your hand now all right sir there's at least 17 people with their hands raised at this
time. I would ask those folks who are in support to please limit your testimony and please
do your best not to repeat what has already been said by the previous speaker. So with that, Mr.
Mr. Hand, you can start calling up some of those folks. And if it gets to be redundant,
then we will move on to the next group. Okay, I have Ms. Catherine. I will allow
you to speak right now. Good afternoon, ma'am. Please identify yourself with a record, spell
your full name, and I'll swear you in. No, I'm against, so I'll hold my hand for this
time. Okay, thank you. Is there anyone in support who would like to speak, who would
to testify? If so, please raise your hand. All others please lower your hand at this time. We
will get to you shortly. Alex Schiefferdecker has been allowed to speak, sir. Hello. Good afternoon.
Please identify yourselves by your full name for the record and I'll swear you in. Hi, my name is
Alex Schieferdecker. My last name, S-C-H-I-E-F-E-R-D-E-C-K-E-R, and I live at 4721 Springfield.
You swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you. I live a block away from their project site, and I want to start by sharing
some contextual information about my neighborhood. The project site and my apartment are both
in the same census tract. From 2010 to 2019, the median annual income in this tract increased
by over $7,000. The population of the tract that identifies as white increased by 201,
and the population of the tract that identifies as black decreased by 162. This tract has,
over the past decade, experienced a textbook case of gentrification. This change can't
be blamed on new development because there has been none. In fact, in that same period,
the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the number of housing units in the tract decreased by 93.
My neighborhood has seen displacement without development. More people want to live here,
but there are fewer spaces available for them, and so prices have increased, and people who
can't afford the new rents have been forced out. And I support this project not because I believe
it will solve this issue alone, but it will help. The project proposes to add 15 new homes that are
deeply affordable for decades. It proposes to build 61 new homes that will be available at
extremely standard rents for the neighborhood, and rental apartments will always be a more
affordable way to live here than home ownership. There are no homes currently on the project site,
so this project is an example of development without displacement, and that should be celebrated
and embraced. I believe the ZBA should grant this variance request for two reasons. First,
it will help the City of Philadelphia achieve specific public policy goals as described under
the Thrive vision of the Philadelphia 2035 plan. This project will add affordable housing,
it will add a mix of housing at different income levels, it will provide housing adjacent to high
frequency transit, it will reuse a vacant lot, and it will add to the property tax base.
These are all enumerated goals in the plan. Second, I support the request for variance
not just because this is a good project, but because the existing zoning creates an unnecessary hardship by which the property owner is disallowed from building a building that is contextual to the neighborhood and equivalent in use and form to the multifamily buildings that previously existed on this site and exist today on the immediate blocks.
The existing map that limits the site to single-family attached housing is a classic example of exclusionary zoning.
To uphold the zoning on the site would be to endorse a city policy that the only people who can live in this neighborhood are people who are wealthier than those who lived here before.
It would also punish a property owner who is attempting in good faith to build an attractive, context-sensitive project that directly meets neighborhood needs far better than what the existing zoning and the existing condition allow.
For these reasons, I urge the DGBA to approve the variances for the site.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your testimony, sir.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else?
anyone else
Thank you.
chair this is sharon i just wanted to mention that we had an email from
ian hagerty at the planning commission yesterday saying that
he wanted to or would be submitting written testimony
we don't have it yet i don't believe i have it but um and you might not want to take it until
the end, but I wanted to mention Leslie. Okay, thank you. Anyone else to testify?
I believe I can wait to be sworn in, please. Yes. Good afternoon, sir. Please identify yourself for
the record, spell your full name, and I'll swear you in. Name is Ken Stager, last name S-T-A-G-S
and girl E-R. It's correct on the screen. And do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir please proceed uh alex said many of the things i
was going to speak on so i'll be a little briefer than i thought uh i share his complete sentiments
towards this project i would just like to say that i'm a little worried about the buy right
duplexes and the harm they'll do to this neighborhood um walking around the block
yesterday with my wife i'm seeing a lot of garage fronts starting to pop up and you know each one
of those equals a curb cut at this point and one less parking spot. I believe personally that the
proposed building is probably our best option to stabilize our neighborhood. That is quickly
changing and I will acknowledge that. I'm not sure about the best option to reduce gentrification in
the neighborhood, but I'm firmly under the belief that doing nothing is not the right answer.
That's it for me. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Brett, while we're on
that subject you may have said this uh the buy right duplexes yes uh they would be double car
garages yes and how what is the width of those curb cuts what would it be do you know oh i don't
know 15 16 feet actually it's uh i'll pull that up but it is a they have to be i mean they're huge
yeah i know i figured they were yeah i mean mr chairman here is here is what you will get
here is the by right i mean that is this is a block away um that you have to provide
two parking spaces and that that garage that you see this is for this is 40 this is 4600
block at king sessing it is almost throw a baseball that's what you'll get and then this
is what it looks like in manioc yeah all right thank you 20 feet here we have a gabriel gabriel
can unmute himself and wait to be sworn in good afternoon sir please spell your full name to the
record i'll swear you in yes my name is gabriel gottlieb g-a-b-r-i-e-l uh first name last name
is gottlieb g-o-t-t-l-i-e-b you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth yes i do yes uh thank you chair uh i my name is gabriel gottlieb i live at 4804 chester
Avenue, Winchester Apartments, which I believe is about within maybe about 50 feet away from this
site. I just want to make a couple points. Over about a block away from this
site, at the intersection of 49th and Chester Avenues, is probably the busiest intersection,
well, very likely the busiest intersection in southwest Philadelphia for public transit.
You have a stop of the Media Elven Line, which, as you know, goes into Center City and University
City and has a stop at the big Penn Hospital complex. Of course, you have the Route 13 trolley
as well as, as we pointed out, there are other trolleys nearby in Baltimore Avenue, Woodland
Avenue and the like. And also you have the Route 64 bus, which literally goes from Fairmont Park
all the way to the Delaware River waterfront in South Philadelphia and passes by numerous
shopping centers and supermarkets or within a short walk of that bus line. Anyway, so I think
that this neighborhood is one of the most prime areas for transit-oriented development, which,
as you may know, would require the building of apartment buildings so that you have as much
population near all this public transit as possible. And I think this building definitely
is a reasonable size for that. I also think that the demand for new housing, including
of different income levels will continue to increase in this neighborhood. As the board
knows that there's literally millions of square feet of new development happening in University
City and Center City, which will have thousands of new jobs, and this space is commercial,
office space, research, academic, and medical space. And most of these thousands of new jobs
are within a short walk of the transit lines that run through Cedar Park and Squirrel Hill
neighborhoods, the ones I mentioned.
So I think that we will find
incredible demand for new housing
continuing in this neighborhood, perhaps
continue in this neighborhood perhaps more than most people realize and i just think as uh one
more than most people realize.
And I just think as...
person mentioned earlier that if we limit the supply of this new housing then the rents would
probably go up by a greater amount than they would otherwise i mean they'll be increased but
i believe that the increase could be a little bit less if we allow some new construction of this or
or maybe other buildings like along um certain sites along the rail lines nearby also um i also
worry, too, because if we limit the development of some of these new apartment buildings in this
neighborhood, it makes it more likely that the owners of existing buildings like mine here at
Winchester Apartments will want to convert those buildings into expensive luxury housing to try to
fill the demand for all this new housing that will be happening in coming years. And just one
point I'd like to make, that this corner where the property is located at night is a very dark
and very desolate corner at night. I pass through here regularly, and in fact, the intersection,
Fort Heath and Chester, is probably the most dimly lit intersection you have along Chester Avenue,
and I think having a new building here with new lighting, with the potential for more eyes on
the street, we'll definitely, you know, brighten up the intersection.
I mean, I do a job where sometimes I have to wait for the trolley at three or four in
the morning on a Saturday or Sunday morning, and, you know, I often will have to wait out
there in this very dimly lit corner here at this dimly lit intersection, and so I just
think, you know, I'd feel better standing there waiting for the trolley at three in
the morning on a Sunday morning if there was, you know, a building there with lighting,
with the potential for eyes on the streets
and some people do stay up late at night here.
Right now, it just looks very dark and very desolate.
So I just think that it just makes sense
to build this building at this location at this time.
And I believe if we don't build it,
it'll only exacerbate the concerns
about gentrification in the neighborhood
and rather than what some others are saying,
the theory that it'll reset the rent.
I think it'll only make things worse
if we limit the supply of new housing
including preventing the construction of this building, which is one of the best sites for
a new building like this in the neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Yep. Go ahead
Chair, I'm sorry. Okay, you ask. No, I just was saying the next person is Bianca. Okay.
I think if someone said maybe you or Jason said there were about 17 people who had their hands
up in support. We're going to have to limit the testimony. We do appreciate and respect everyone's
taking time to be with us today. But in the interest of time, we would ask that you limit
your testimony to something new and different. So the next person. If you don't mind, I would like
to add if what was going to be testified regarding this project was already stated, that those who
had the same plans to testify please lower your hand and we can get the others with new something
new and different excuse me this is sharon did we get a count of hands from those in opposition
not yet no i think we only got oh sorry thank you bianca you can unmute yourself
um oh no i was against so i don't know how i got counted on the wrong one
we'll get to you thank you so chair we do have a problem because evidently people have their hands
up so our count might not be accurate because we asked for them to put their hands down if they
were opposed i think they're worried that we may not recognize them anyway um okay next hand
next person
catherine dowell has been allowed to speak sir good afternoon please identify yourself
for the record first and last name and i'll swear you in good afternoon chair my name is
catherine dowdell d-o-w-d-e-l-l where from to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the