It's not the first time we've heard this.
No, so I'll just ask Ms. Templeton to put on her conclusion so that it comes in her words and not mine.
So if you could find Ms. Nancy Templeton.
Ms. Templeton has been allowed to speak, Mr. Chair.
Good evening, Ms. Templeton.
Please identify yourself with a record first and last name.
Spell your name.
Hello, Nancy Templeton.
N-A-N-C-Y-T-E-M-P-L-E-T-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
thank you chair uh miss templeton um you know you've already provided us her name can you
tell us where you work a ch planning consulting firm in philadelphia okay and uh you were retained
as an expert land planner in this matter correct correct uh if the board would like i'm happy to
go through miss templeton's extensive uh you know background here but i'm happy to just stipulate to
We'll stipulate to her credentials. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. So, Ms. Templeton, you know, you've heard all of my testimony, or did you hear all of my testimony today?
I did.
And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt it as your own?
I would.
Now, just in anything that goes beyond what I have already testified to, could you please describe kind of your conclusion as to the land uses and viable land use and appropriate land use of 541 East Worcester in line with the 2035 plan and your expert opinion?
Sure. Well, I do just believe that the neighborhood, this immediate neighborhood has just changed so much. And I do think having a single family home there would be difficult given the surrounding density and apartments.
It feels somewhat wedged in there.
I think with the large industrial property, which is most certainly going to be developed, I don't know into what, but probably likely not single-family development.
I just think apartments or multifamily fits better in that location.
Thank you.
And would you opine that this is, you're familiar with all the requirements of the zoning code for the grant of a variance?
Yes, I am.
And do you believe that this project as presented with the provisos meets all of those criteria for the grant of a variance?
Yes, I do.
And do you believe that there will be any, in your expert opinion, be any negative impact from this development?
No, I don't see additional negative impacts.
Okay, and do you believe, finally, that this would be holding in line with the 2035 plan from the Planning Commission?
Yes, in as much as the plan said that the area is, the demand for housing is very high.
the the demand for housing is very high and the supply is very low and there's a need for
additional housing in the neighborhood all right thank you very much miss templeton
i would offer miss templeton up for any questions the board may have
i'll have a question for you mr whalen is is 541 east worcester currently occupied
I will allow the owner to testify to that.
So if there's no questions for Ms. Templeton, could you please bring up Leron Grossman?
Leron Grossman, please identify yourself with the record, spell your first and last name, and I'll swear you in.
Jerry hasn't raised their hand yet
Mr. Grossman
are you in the audience
okay here we go
Mr. Grossman has been allowed to speak sir
good evening everyone
my name is Leroy Grossman
L-E-R-O-N
G-R-O-S-S-M-A-N
you swear or firm to tell
the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir
Thank you. Please proceed, Mr. Whale.
All right. Mr. Grossman, you stated that you're here on behalf of the owner, Grossman Holdings LLC?
That's correct.
Okay. And you are personally also a professional real estate, a real estate professional, yes?
That's correct. I'm a real estate broker.
Okay. Thank you. Now, did you hear all of the testimony that I presented?
Yes, I did.
And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, I am.
And would you adopt it as your own?
Now, very quickly, I don't know if you heard the chairman asked whether or not the property is currently occupied or whether or not our property, that is, 541 East Worcester, is vacant.
It is going to be vacant.
I'm sorry, chairman, go ahead.
Did he say currently vacant?
Yes, it is currently vacant.
There are no people living there.
When you purchased, Mr. Grossman, when you or your company purchased it, was it occupied?
Correct.
It was?
Yes, it was.
It was owner occupied?
It was not owner occupied.
It was occupied.
Thank you.
Very briefly, Mr. Grossman, because you've already adopted my testimony as your own.
um you know is there anything else in relation to what what's the current condition of the property
it's very poor condition that's why we removed the tenants uh the property both properties are
very very poor condition it's a lot of work okay so so it's no it was no longer good good in good
condition for residential tenants? That's correct. Okay. And is there anything else that you would
like to add beyond the testimony that I have already provided and you've adopted? Yes. LaSalle
buildings and the surrounding area have a large multifamily building already existing. I thought
originally that commercial stores and cafes will be very, very viable to the area, to the
neighborhoods. I actually talked to many people in the past. They loved the idea. After the
hearing with the RCO, hearing their concerns, we revised the project to accommodate their concerns.
and we also reach out to the next door neighbors and regarding purchase of their house at some
point and i think we were more than generous with our offers and they respectively refused we moved
on i think that given the change of the neighborhood and you know the requirement for
more housing you know i think it just makes sense to do a multifamily i don't think twin home will
will be viable or even possible in that area at this point um i did actually check in terms of
redevelopment if anyone would be interested and as i mentioned no one think it's viable to to
redevelop as a you know twin home or a single um i think yeah that said pretty much okay thank you
and just to make one thing clear uh there was a concern raised mr grossman that by the neighborhood
that this was just going to be more LaSalle sort of undergraduate housing,
but that's not the clientele that we are targeting, correct?
That's correct.
We decided to make it a condo to show, okay, this is not our intention.
We're not going to have students there.
Okay, thank you. I will offer Mr. Grossman up for any questions that the board may have.
Okay, thank you.
I will offer Mr. Grossman up for any questions at the board.
You may have mentioned this in your presentation. What is the average square footage of the condos?
What, for each condo?
Let me double check there.
Yeah. I don't have that information. I do have the breakdown. The breakdown, as revised, are two one-bedroom condos.
five two-bedroom condos, and nine three-bedroom condos.
So these will all be much larger.
Yeah, we believe really kind of family-oriented condos
in this neighborhood that simply doesn't exist yet,
even though there's significant density.
And as you heard Ms. Templeton testify,
there's a demand for real housing in that area.
Okay, thank you.
Questions from the board for any of these witnesses?
No, no.
If anyone else would like to testify in this case, please raise your hand.
Mr. Chair, we have an Onita DeBrady with her hand raised.
I would like to speak now, sir.
Ms. Chair, could you please identify yourself, ma'am?
Spell your first and last name.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Onita DeBrady, spelled O-N-E-I-T-A, last name DeBrady, D-E-B-R-A-D-Y, and I am
the homeowner of 543 East Worcester Street, which is the abutted next to, or the joint
party wall with 541.
I just need to swear to you, Wendy.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Mr. Brady, please respond.
Please proceed.
Thank you. Thank you to everyone on the zoning board. I presented last time and I just want to
say that our opposition continues. I've also submitted a letter, Mr. DeChico, outlining
all of our many concerns. But before I go into the letter, I just want to respond to what Mr.
Whelan said about the offer or Mr. LeBron Grossman said about the offer that was made on our home.
There was an offer made, but it was with the stipulation and requirement that we put a lien on our home and that we support them at the RCO meeting so that the project would go through and that there was no guarantee that they would purchase our home even with the lien placed on our home if the project was not supported by the ZBA or, excuse me, allowed by the zoning board hearing.
I'm sorry. I'm a little nervous because this is the second time I've been before you.
Relax. You're doing fine. Relax. You're doing fine.
My family and I have lived here for more than 30 years.
We own our home.
We continue to oppose the requested zoning variance to detach and demolish the adjoining twin home,
with which our home shares a party wall.
if demolition in construction without a professionally engineered plan for protection
of the adjoining home is a violation, please note that I have not been consulted in any way
on a written plan to protect our home. And as a matter of course, I cannot consent to the proposed
multi-level multifamily building being partially abutted to our continuously inhabited family
dwelling. Additionally, the home that was purchased, which was 541, there were renters
in that home already there um three levels of renters there so that home could be re-evaluated
that same way and when we talked about it in the last zoning board hearing there was already a
variance that was approved for the number of occupants already in that dwelling place um the
house so these are our concerns and i know we've been here for a while so i'll try to be very short
um our many concerns include the pre-existing damage construction and demolition so the house
at 541 has been abandoned and unkept for two years. There was damage to our home, and I'll
just skip to that part right now. When we originally made contact with Lorine, it was to let him know
that his property was causing damage to our home. We were made to know that someone represented from
his real estate company was going to come to see how his property was affecting our home. We did
not know that he sent his attorney and she identified herself after having walked through
our home and taken pictures of the damage. That damage is still unaddressed. It's still an
unaddressed claim, which has not been addressed by Leron. We are also property situated on a steep
hill. So being between two large buildings, right, it's going to be much longer. It's going to cause
ponding. Right now, the water has the ability to flow down the hill.
Right now, right now, the water has the ability to flow down the hill.
Being situated between those two properties, it's going to cause damage to our property.
Um, previous jet hammering through the bedrock that comprises this block and the demolition
and construction on both sides of our home has caused vibration damages to surface structures
that can clearly be seen. Um, certainly there is concern for the likelihood that further major
land changes may destabilize the foundation of our home and we fear you know this proposed
demolition again no written structural engineering plan involving our property has been shared with
us or any other known property to address the issue um lastly my mother is a proud senior who
owns we own our home sir and we she's raised her entire family in this house um and we have
children and grandchildren in our home that we keep um she deserves not to be subjected to this
hardship. A new, larger, and taller abutting structure will detract from just currently
what's here, and we don't want this project abutted to our home. It's already an issue
with the party wall. We don't want this project abutted to our home. The traffic is still
an issue. Worcester is still the main artery in and out of the community since the closing
of 20th Street, which provided traffic relief from Chew and Owney Avenue to the main highways,
And as I stated before, it's still a half mile or more to get in and out of the community.
And Worcester Street is that main artery.
There's already overdevelopment.
Pedestrians are already currently unsafe because there's no stop signs.
There's no lights.
There's nothing to control traffic on the Worcester Street Hill.
Additional foot and cart traffic to this area is already unreasonable.
It's irresponsible.
And it's unsafe.
The kids literally run between cars just to get across the street as it is.
You're going to add more people and more residents.
I think that is just really negligent.
Our family already waits for long periods of time to pull into traffic from our driveway.
We, along with all the residents, wait in long lines just to get into emergency traffic, just to get off our hill.
There's no parking on Worcester Street.