Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal or referral, photos and or 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 of the above.
Okay, great. You may proceed.
Thank you.
Here on behalf of Harrison Inc., the owner of 1243 North 26th Street, our application
is to demolish the existing rear portion of the structure, to replace it with a new three-story
rear addition, and to use the property as seven residential dwelling units and two accessory
parking spaces. This is the property. Obviously it'll look much better when we're done with it
but the historical use is there is an active auto repair use on the ground floor
and although there is no zoning archive for this property of any kind,
our information is that there were up to four families living on these upper two floors.
They are not occupied now. The application also seeks to reuse the existing curb cut at this
property. So we're not taking away any street parking and we're able to accommodate two cars
in the off-street parking area. To give the board sense of the context, this is the property here.
This block of North 26th Street has a substantial amount of multifamily that already exists on it.
Across the street from us at 1224 is a 15 unit condominium. And on the same side of the street
as us, 1235 North 26, there's seven units. There's eight units at 1229, four more units at 1217,
three at 1215, four at 1213. And also on this block is a dialysis center and then a Dollar Tree
that's located here on the corner of Grant Avenue. So the block has a mix of commercial
and multifamily residential uses. We think what we're proposing fits in nicely with the
existing conditions on that block. These are some additional photos of the current condition
on the property, photos of posting. This block, as you can see, has a mix of different building
styles some vacant lots this is a school so it's a very um mixed use and mixed style of structure
block um i in the interest of time i'll just flip through the renderings and plans very very quickly
this is what the exterior will look like when the renovation is complete
there are these are the existing floor plans i think it would be more helpful to see the
proposed floor plans. These are the two-car parking, and then each floor will have stacked
units as so. We met with the Brewery Town Sharswood Civic Association, and a letter of support
should be in your packets. The vast majority of the attendees either voted to support
or in non-opposition, and there were 58 attendees at our well-attended Zoom meeting.
In the interest of time, I will stop my presentation there. I know you've had a long day,
but if the board has any questions, we can certainly answer them. At this point, I'd ask
if Mr. Harrison can raise his hand so he can briefly adopt my testimony.
Mr. Harrison, please identify yourself with a record. First and last name, I'll swear you in.
if we're unable to uh locate mr harrison mr uh klein will stipulate that you'd be an officer
to court your client would have adopted your testimony thank you mr chair he certainly would
have a few available. Questions from the board? No. No. No. Anyone else would like to testify in
no no no no anyone else would like to testify in this case please raise your hand
no further hands at this time Mr. Chair thank you planning commission
Ron Bednar city planning this property is currently indicated for single family
residential use on the city plan 2014 it was proposed for multi-family we recommend that the
request of variance be granted thank you mi 2021-000020 1243-45 north 26th street my vote is
yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you very much
everyone have a great evening thank you you too calendar number zero zero three eight
1811 west thompson street the attorney is sarah alderfer i think mr tony is going to do it
Mr. Aldefer, if you are there, please raise your virtual hand.
It might be Mr. Toner, if not Ms. Aldefer.
All right, sorry about that, sir.
No worries, no problem.
good evening again good evening you're still under oath good evening hi can you put your
name and address on the record and spell your last name please paul thank you paul toner with
orphanages and toner the address is 1500 jfk boulevard suite 800 we're counsel for the applicant
Raza Nugent Properties, LLC. And I also have my client Rahil Raza in attendance tonight.
Okay. And you're still under oath. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy? We do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax
compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in
advance of this hearing? And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter? We have emailed
the application material within five days. We have not received a letter from the RCO despite
our numerous attempts to contact the RCO. In our packet, as I previously indicated,
we have four separate emails to the Friends of the 47th Ward which was the designated RCO
in our exhibit packet at tab 2. If I could share my screen. Sure.
As the board can see, last email was February 12th to the 47th Ward, and we have an email
chain going back from February 12th to February 5th to January 14th to January 11th.
We have not received responses either by email or phone call from the representative of the
friends at the 47th ward it's our position under section 14-3-3-12 of the zoning code that we have
complied with our obligations to make requests in fact numerous requests to meet with the designated
RCO and they fail to schedule a hearing within 40 days as is required by the zoning code
and so we we would like to have the board uh hear the case this evening and then vote on it if
appropriate. Well, I think we discussed that earlier that we would have an opportunity. We'll
hear the case. We'll do a resumption hearing. And I think Ms. Jones from Council President Clark's
office agreed to that as well. We would just ask that the resumption hearing be scheduled as
timely as possible. I'll have a date for you probably in several weeks. But let's hear it
go through the case and we'll take it from there. Thank you, Mr. Chico.
My client's proposing an infill project. My client's proposing a duplex at 1811
West Thompson Street. This is a property that is located essentially right around the corner
from St. Joe's Prep. The area as seen in Exhibit 3 of my zoning packet has numerous vacant parcels,
has seen some recent development.
And as I will go through in greater detail
as i will go through in greater detail towards the end of my presentation this area itself has
towards the end of my presentation,
this area itself has been
become a core a multi-family in the in the north philadelphia region so we believe that the duplex
is appropriate and uh customary now for for this particular block of this particular neighborhood
we have received a refusal from lni which is in exhibit number one of our packet and we have
received one refusal. It's for having a multi-family, two-family dwelling in a single-family district.
Otherwise, our application is fully compliant with all dimensional obligations or all dimensional
provisions applicable to this property in the RSA 5 zoning district.
I moved to tab number 8, or jumped to tab number 8, which is a rendering of our property.
The architect on this project is KCA, Logan Dry is the architect in particular.
my client has extensive experience within this community having developed scores of properties
receiving generally broad support from the community
at tab number six we have our zoning plan as the board can see we are fully dimensionally compliant
open areas at 25.9 percent which is in excess of what the zoning code provides we have a rear yard
of 16 feet 8 inches and is also in excess of what the zoning code provides. The height is going to
max out at 38 feet which is fully within the RSA 5 zoning provisions. The lot is a somewhat large
lot it's 15 feet by 6 feet in frontage with a depth of 64 and three and a half inches.
moving to the floor plans
as my clients developed um numerous properties in this community is very familiar with with
the demands and concerns of the community this is a two unit stacked development in the basement
you'll see that there's no there's no bedroom. It does have an egress well to allow for living space.
Each one of these units will measure approximately 1500 square feet
and include two bedrooms with kitchen and living space.
In terms of the the context of the block, I'm going to move to tab number or exhibit number five.
and this is tab number five which is down on your screen shows the current vacant parcel
the 1500 block of our 1800 block of thompson street is generally a three-story
real home community and my clients proposing three stories
moving to tab number six we have some street level pictures showing the existing conditions
of the 1800 block of Thompson Street. The end of the 1800 block of Thompson Street is now on your
screen. And this is a image of the 1800 block of Thompson Street looking to the east. And as you
can see, the end of the block is dominated by the Church of the Jesu from the St. Joseph Prep.
And looking west down on the 1800 block of Thompson Street, you can see there's
several, there's a vacant parcel on, as we saw for an area of view, there's several vacant parcels.
And then this is the corner of 18th and Thompson. Again, the
But the massing and density of the St. Joe's Prep buildings dominate the southwest corner.
In terms of the opposite corner, approximately five years ago, we don't have an exact date because there was a subdivision and adjustment of lot lines.
But two lots at the western end of the 1800 block of Thompson Street were subdivided into four separate undersized single families.
So the end of the block also has a multifamily presence.
In terms of this particular property,
if I can move to tab number 10 of my exhibit packet,
Wait for a second.
We have several of the sandboard maps for this particular property and as you can see
from the 1985 and the 1989 sandboard maps which are again part of tab number 10.
This property has a zoning history as apartments.
There we go.
As you can see on Thompson Street here, which is highlighted, there is the hand notation
of apartments, which is included in both the 1985 and 1989 sandboard maps.
And then to really create the context of this particular development, we created with supporting zoning permits included in tab number 11, a context map of the surrounding multifamilies on this particular block.
On the screen now is our tab number 11.
And as you can see, there are simply 19 separate multi-families on this block, including multi-families
at triplex that's located immediately next to 1811 Thompson and 1813 Thompson Street.
there is a duplex one house to the west at 1815 Thompson street there is a series of triplexes
and quadplex at the end of the block there are numerous multi-families including duplexes and
triplexes on the southern side of Thompson street all with and this map includes the zoning approvals
showing that they were all legal uses that were approved either directly over the counter or by
this board. In particular, at 1305 North 19th Street, which is at the very end of
the 1800 block of Thompson Street, this board approved a duplex on November 11th of 2020
at MI2020-001316. It's my client's position that the proposal of a duplex that's fully
dimensionally compliant and consistent with the other multifamily surrounding uses
is entirely appropriate for this area. The interior design allows for safe ingress and
egress in the basement with no basement bedrooms. The trash for the first floor unit will be handled
by storage in the rear yard. On the unit number two, which is on the second and third floors,
the trash is in an air-sealed trash compartment.
And if I could, my client Rahel Raza is available, and I would like to have him
briefly explain to the board his experience with development in this particular area.
So if Mr. Rahil, Raza, could please raise your hand so you can be allowed to speak?
Raza has been allowed to speak.
Hello, how are you?
Do you want me to state my name again?
No, you've already been sworn in.
Mr. Raza, can you please identify some development projects, multifamily development projects that you have successfully completed in the immediate two-block radius of this property?
Yeah, sure. And I wanted to go over some of the things that you said about how this is a good multifamily property.
First of all, when we look to do a multifamily property, we look for a wide street with the availability of parking on both sides.
this is one of those uh we we never would do one on uh what should be a single family uh
neighborhood um on 18th street we have 13 25 to 29 north 18th which is
On 18th Street, we have 1325 to 29 North 18th, which is 11 units.
We have 17, 18 to 36.
That was 10 single-family homes that we completed and sold.
1720 West Siebert is a single-family home that we are currently building.
on the 19th Street block, 1906 to 10 Ingersoll Street are nine units that we have that are
rented out currently. That was one of our first ones that we did. I don't believe it needed a
zoning variance for that, 1321 North 19th Street. The other issues that when speaking to the
neighborhood group that they've mentioned repeatedly is the trash component and you know
that's one of the things that you know uh kind of worries me about the area as well uh what we've
what we've been doing because it's it's just a very difficult thing to control you know with
our uh waste hauling service as it is i mean uh we're going to add instead of one cabinet with
uh two trash cans we're we're trying to do two sometimes three cabinets with trash cans now
and i'm i mean that's the only way other than having the air air uh type uh room
it's the only way to really address the the trash issue um
you know and that's uh something that you know you know really you know we need to find a solution
for it for the future as well um and everything else that uh mr toner said was great uh zoning
history of the the property and um the other things that he mentioned and mr ryle for the
record do you adopt all my prior statements as though they were your own yes and you agree with
the factual accuracy of everything i stated yes thank you uh questions from the board no
no no anyone else would like to testify in this case please raise your hand
no further hands at this time mr chair thank you planning commission
ron bednar city planning this property is indicated for residential use on the city
plan given the documented contextual site history we recommend that the request of variance be granted
Thank you, Ron. MI 2021 does 0000381811 West Thompson Street. This hearing will be resumed. Tanya?
We have a date and time.
Did we lose Tanya?
I'm sorry.
Let's do the same June 16th at 2 o'clock.
I mean, 3.30.
At 3.30.
Thank you.
Correct.
So this hearing will be resumed on June the 16th at 3.30 p.m.,
at which time we will consider any feedback related to the RCO's position
on Council President Clark.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Have a good evening.
Same to you.
Carol, I'm a
Frank, you're muted.
Thank you.