ZBA Hearing - February 11, 2026

did take place at the playground at eighth and diamond on the last uh refusal although the plan

is short one ada space the ownership is committed to meeting all requests for reasonable accommodations

a term of art under the law at the proposed development and the layout that is proposed

is to balance the community's request for parking also to be able to as you'll see in a moment have

one curb cut in and one out rather than multiple ones to preserve the pedestrian experience and so

the space is tight to take as many cars off of the street keep them out of the public view and

and make this, make all the objectives work.

Moving to the overall proposal, and I'll show you in some greater detail what's in front of you.

and i'll i'll show you in some greater detail what's in front of you so 232 residential dwellings are proposed for the site as i mentioned 38 feet in height to the roof lines with setback roof access structures 10 feet high

92 i'm going to turn to this colored rendering which i prefer and it is the same thing 92 accessory off street uh

parking spaces within the interior where my cursor is and i'd like to note that you can see

off of 8th street where the number 12 is that's the one curb cut in and the one curb cut out

is on to 9th street where the number 12 shows again to indicate the drive aisle those are the

only curb cuts whereas if you go to the site as i have there are multiple curb cuts for what had

once been a very active industrial site in it some other things to point out on the plan

there's pedestrian access into the courtyard here at number 11 to the left and in other locations

So that there's movement in and out through a state style fencing, meaning you can see in and out, and it is inviting to the community while being safe and secure within the courtyard are the 2 a.

spaces to electric vehicle spaces and there is room for 77 type one a bicycle parking spaces

along the four areas that i'm trying to show with the cursor let's say middle top right middle top

left lower left and lower right we can go in on that more if desired there are 20 triplexes

uh up at the top of the screen fronting on ninth street there are 20 triplexes fronting on eighth

street at the bottom and there are 13 proposed quadplex residences along both dauphin street

and susquehanna avenue the blue at the right and the left i pointed out the curb cuts and just

for the record there are seven existing curb cuts at the site right now to propose with this

reimagining and you can see the 44 street trees that surround the property

the subject property has been significantly underutilized

i'd like to hone in for a moment on the pedestrian experience on the slide up on the screen right now

so we are along 8th street at the bottom there's the entrance in for vehicular entrance in and you

can also see a paved safe walkway on the right where the letter m is and where the letter l is

on the left a paved safe walkway as well and you would see the same thing if you were coming in

off of 9th street here you can see a sense of the elevations which hopefully you've got a good sense

of through the conceptual renderings and this plan is just showing the 38 feet to the roof line and

i had mentioned the setback roof access structures if there are questions we can come back to it but

that's highly technical in nature uh the proposed floor plans i'd like to give a brief overview

the quadplexes that i mentioned would front on both dauphin street and susquehanna avenue 14

buildings each and you can see that these in front of you the typical quadplex floor plan

shows a common entrance depicted here in gray at the first floor level which takes you to

every unit within this individual structure. On the next page we have typical corner quadplex

floor plans which are very similar but because they are corners there are obviously slight

differences. And here we have the proposed triplexes that would front on both 8th and

9th Street, showing you a typical triplex floor plan. Finally, the typical corner triplex floor

plan is shown here. The roof plan doesn't add too much at all and just is showing you that there

doesn't add too much at all and just is showing you that there are light wells

There are.

and roof decks for the upper units that are set back

so in sum there are 40 triplexes proposed and 28 quadplexes the mix of units is really intended

for the community in a number of ways we heard voices that seniors are looking for

opportunities for affordable housing not being interested in maintaining homes that they've

lived in for a long time but they also there's also a need for family-sized dwellings

96 one-bedroom dwellings are proposed 96 two-bedroom dwellings are proposed and 44

four-bedroom dwellings which is a real need not just in this community but in so many throughout

the city of philadelphia the i2 use at this location is not practicable nor is it desired

not by the community which is in support of this project a glance at the zoning map and the aerial

photographs show that the zoning surrounding the property is solidly residential with a smattering

of dated industrial common sense would dictate that the proposed multi-family residential use

is most consistent with the resident residential character of the surrounding neighborhood

and the authorization of variance relief will not alter the character of the neighborhood

or district in a negative way it will certainly alter the the block itself but this is something

that has been desired for a long time to meet the residential character of the surrounding

neighborhood the authorization of variance relief will not alter the character of of the

district in general and the proposal fits into the surrounding neighborhood as evidenced by

the support of the councilman the non-opposition of the coordinating rco the commendations of the

civic design review committee the proposed variance would represent the minimum variance

necessary to afford relief after three years nearly of a detailed uh discussion we believe

that we are bringing to this board the minimum variance necessary to afford relief and that the

grant of variance relief will not substantially increase congestion in the public streets

increase the danger of fire or otherwise endanger the public health safety or general welfare

i would also like to note that uh all of the architectural plans submitted take into

consideration the best practices uh that we have observed uh before this board and the city and we

have the full team available to answer any questions and to go back and hone in on any

of the plans that i've shared with the board today so why don't you have your testimony adopted and

you would one more time how many units in the original project uh there were 501 mr chairman

so you're you you're you almost cut it in half a little actually a little bit more than half right

okay all right that was a real i mean it was a real and how high was it before it was well

beyond the 38 feet that were okay all right why don't you bring your uh yes i'd like to call

development associate isaac singleton to please raise his virtual hand to be recognized by

chairman bergman they will be rejoining as a panelist thank you thank you mr hand

isaac please unmute yourself so that chairman bergman can recognize you

there he is isaac could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer

isaac singleton i-s-a-a-c-s-i-n-g-l-e-t-o-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the

whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel uh thank you for being here mr singleton as a

development associate with 2200 n8 llc uh it's my understanding that you've been present for

the entirety of this hearing correct yeah yes you adopt and affirm the testimony that i've offered

as your own yes thank you all right questions from the board i'll make a comment initially i

appreciate the fact that this development team has worked well with the community and has the level

of support from the community i think that's that tells a lot about the development team

Also, in terms of the way that the project has been laid out, the attention to providing safe access for pedestrians in and around this site, I think.

Access for pedestrians in and around this site, I think, should be complemented, because a lot of the developments that we see that are large scale like this don't take that into consideration when you have these large parking areas.

They don't consider the pedestrians, and I think you've done a good job with that.

And you've stayed within the height requirement of 38 feet, which I think is commendable by listening to the community and their concerns.

Also, of course, I've raised the standard concern that I have about basement living and bedrooms in the basement and the depth of the basements below grade.

I don't know what that is, but they look pretty shallow.

uh so i'm i'm there there's a concern there uh but overall i think the project

uh has done a good job in terms of um thank you other questions may i just make a comment for the

record very quickly thank you mr johns for for what you just said um the thought that was put

into the lower bi-level units was quite intentional allowing for the stair access right out into the

courtyard uh and um we feel very comfortable uh regarding uh that proposal um i have a question

just in terms of some of the design i know we went through it real quick but um some of the units have

rooftop decks and some of the they have access to it um i think no one shares the rooftop correct

You're right, Ms. Graham. The upper-level units each have a roof deck where applicable, and for the quadplex residences, the lower-level rear unit will have a small garden fronting onto that courtyard.

okay so i did see i think some of them had little balconies i'm not sure my concern is just there's

no open space for folks um um and then the the the whole open space in the project is just catered

toward parking and not toward like any place to sit out and just enjoy the weather um but yeah so

so there is open space in every unit every unit has us some open space there there first of all

I completely agree with you that the that there is limited open space overall there.

This is a challenge with the site and in most instances units residences have private open space.

There are a minority of residences that do not.

And that is where we hope that the limited greenery that we've put on here is there in addition to the playgrounds, et cetera.

But we have worked really hard to achieve that right balance.

Other questions?

I have a question about the number of accessible units.

And just did I miss how many there are?

I didn't put that on the record. We do not need Ms. Wynn. We're not seeking any variance

relief for a reduction in code requirements on accessibility.

For the housing units?

Right.

Okay. So my point is typically you're going to have at least 5% that are accessible, but

but we've only got two accessible parking spaces.

So I think my question was like one,

not seeing ramp access into any of the townhomes,

wondering like where these units are located,

their proximity to the handicapped parking spaces,

and why if we're gonna have more than two handicapped units,

which I would assume just based on shared unit count,

there's only two handicapped parking spaces.

it's something it's something that we uh first of all uh the corner units

are are the ideal uh residences for accessibility and maybe i should pull up for a moment

screen share for a moment the um plan here again

Okay, so I'm going to zoom in a little bit to the point you just mentioned, and I'm going

And i'm going to go over to this section here of the courtyard 16 and 17, which is showing the 2 Ada spaces if if if this board makes the determination that it really wants the the plan to include

to go over to this section here.

an additional handicapped parking space at this moment in time it can be done with a reduction

by one of a standard parking space we looked into this and we know it can be worked out

it's feasible we had preferred to state publicly that we would make every request for a reasonable

accommodation which actually means as you know going above and beyond the code if it comes up

so the development team is not new to housing uh even in philadelphia has is known to the community

and is absolutely willing to work on that but should ms win it become

uh critical to to the board to have that um proviso it's something that we we understand

although it would have to recognize a reduction in one parking space no i think it was less that

i was trying to mandate that it happened i was just trying to understand mathematically

where we landed and i mean to have 200 units you know five percent if they're ada and only have two

parking spaces that means that you know even people who are just getting picked i mean i have

a lot of there's a lot of units here and i have just general questions about like how we anticipating

uh pickups and drop-offs because right now there's a you know one big building here that

hasn't been in active productive use for a long time um and there's just this it's while i like

density it's a lot of density that's gonna be a change in this neighborhood and i've seen the

layout, but I haven't heard much about quality of life addressed. Well, I actually, I appreciate

your comments. I think that the single curb cut in off of 8th Street and the single curb cut out

off of 9th Street does allow for a nice flow through for pickups. And there is an abundance

of parking available around the site for potential pickup drop-off. We can work with

the streets department as needed to make sure that this is successful, and we can work with

the 37th Ward RCO, for example, to make sure that it is meeting the needs. I think that we are

looking at a balancing act of a very vocal i mean this hearing hasn't touched on it but a very vocal

desire from not necessary leadership but from from the the neighbors who are there every day

who are working right now and not able to attend the hearing to put as much parking into this site

as possible while at the same time we recognize the planners and the city vision of that may not

be completely in agreement with that so we had hoped that the design that is so refined now and

before you um addresses that in the best way possible but it is we don't suggest that this

is 100 perfect in every way it's real though and then is this um anticipated to be a low income

housing tax credit project uh this is we're not anticipating any uh governmental uh benefits so

any proposed affordability is it deed restricted there is there are no deed restrictions there is

a community benefits agreement that was mentioned and this as whyyy recently noted in looking

at this project it is a rare example of naturally affordable other questions real quick how

was that parking lot lit lit because I didn't see any uh is it the lights are on the buildings

or how is the parking lot lit the plan does not show uh right now a a interior lighting plan

specifically but um lighting definitely needs to be a part of this uh and it needs to take

into consideration those who live there right so it's not in their in their bedroom but also

those who live there right so it's not in their in their bedroom but also the safety factor

and we'll look that let me put that on the record that that needs to happen

for the success of the project and the well-being of neighbors and those in the community it just has

to all the questions i think that you mentioned that this might be a building that

seniors might want to say downsize into so we've got steps right multi-level units and what have you

how does that fit in with the plan to have seniors maybe occupy this property very very fair

question miss gaston we don't we don't purport to be assisted living or independent living

supportive community that that has meals and things like that it is going to be appropriate

for those who are a bit more independent but don't are not able or wanting after years of

having to do it to shovel the snow and to go down into uh mechanical areas and things like that

so so there are some units that are more ideally suited for uh for both seniors with

some limited mobility as well as Ms. Wooden was was stating for the uh accessibility units but

we do this is this is not right if uh if if you want to maximize full use and are really needing

more care all right or dealing with steps which okay there was there was some interesting

discussion ms gaston probably about honestly like two years ago about whether there should be

some buildings on the site that were restricted only to seniors because there was such a need

and then there was a realization that came from the community not from us that generations want

to be mixed and together and that there could be benefits to that and that that led to the

proposal that's before you today all right thank you all the questions questions from our attorney

hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience

mr chair i do not see any hands planning commission amy boy with the planning commission

the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning to the existing i2 medium industrial

the proposal completed its civic design review on november 2025. the civic design review committee's

advisory recommendations are not an expression of the city planning commission's recommendations

recommendations or opinions regarding zoning variances, special exceptions, or other discretionary approvals associated with this proposal.

The proposal for residential three-story structures is in harmony with the surrounding land use.

The area's zoning maps still carry the original 1933 districts.

The appellant has not demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances that prevent the property from complying with the required ADA spaces.

The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the requested variances for multi-family and accessory parking, but deny the requested variances for ADA parking.

Thank you.

MI 2025-006-260-2200 North A Street, I vote yes with proviso per refusal dated 11-6-25.

Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.

Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.