and i am an attorney representing the applicant with pritzker law group thank you do you swear
and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed
sir do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes and have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents including proof of
ownership tax compliance refusal referral photos under plans of the property five days in advance
of this hearing and have you also met with your rco and do you have a letter uh we did send in
the packet and we met with the rco twice yes thank you you may proceed um can i request a question
who will be presenting so i can uh promote i'm gonna present um initially and then i'm
gonna pass the baton to jeffrey owen who is our architect okay
Thank you very much.
Okay, so I just shared Atlas.
This is the property.
It's at the corner of East Columbia Avenue and Wildey Street, couple blocks below East
Girard, sorry, one block below East Girard right there.
So this is a 2,500 square foot lot that sort of has two uses on the property currently. On the corner, which you can see there, is a 1,400 square foot vacant portion. And then occupying about 1,100 square feet is this existing home, which has been owner-occupied before this year for a long time, is extremely dilapidated inside.
So my client, Joe Walker, and his business partner, Tom, Joe is on, and I'll introduce him in a bit, are proposing to purchase this home.
They're both Fishtown natives.
The idea is for this house to be renovated, gutted entirely, so that Tom and his children can move in.
And to assist with financing that project, the concept is to obtain a subdivision and build a structure on the vacant 1400 square foot space.
um the sort of part b of the project i'm just going to move down willie street here
is to legalize this existing curb cut which is right next to a fire hydrant as you see there
uh to put two parking spaces on what's already a paved lot back there um so that touches on two
of the three refusals right there that would be the subdivision and the lot areas um since the
you know 1400 ish square feet new lot is just shy of 1440 and the um fact that the curb cut is
directly on a side street we need a variance for uh third third issue is uh that we're proposing a
duplex for the 1400 square foot lot. And that is essentially to make the units affordable.
I'm going to pass, probably end my screen share here and pass things on to Jeff Owen,
if the board would assist me in allowing him to screen share, but he can speak about the
size of the two units. They'll actually be quite large and he can walk through their,
their layouts and such. Jeff, are you out there? Raise your hand if you are.
he's available okay good afternoon
the frank you're muted nope thank you very much sorry about that mr owen please identify yourself
with the record and i'll swear you in yes uh my name is uh jeffrey owen j-e-f-f-r-e-y-o-w-e-n
address is 107 Kings Road, Plymouth Meeting, PA.
address is 107 kings road plymouth meeting pa
one nine four six two and your involvement in this project is uh i am the architect okay and
you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do thank you
please proceed thank you very much um you should be able to see a screenshot of the site plan uh
left hand side is existing site plan no we don't have it yet oh i apologize okay no worries we
only have your name up there okay oh there we go you should now be able to okay and if you can
enlarge that slightly that would be helpful absolutely that's good thank you okay um oops
that is not gonna work
Yeah, I apologize. As Brandon had mentioned, the, the property has been subdivided or proposed to be subdivided into two parcels. The east parcel would have the existing house on it, which is scheduled to be renovated.
And then the west parcel is currently vacant at the corner.
And as Brandon mentioned, the proposal is for a two-units new construction house on that particular lot.
The building would be three stories tall with a full basement roof deck on the main roof.
And then behind, off of Will D Street, is proposed two off-street parking spaces.
What is the width of that curb cut for the proposed parking spaces?
I apologize.
18 feet.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Brandon, would you like me to go through the floor plans?
I would. Yes, Jeff. Thank you.
Okay, sure.
here are the proposed four plans uh from left to right is basement first floor second floor and
3rd floor. Main entrance is off of Columbia Avenue, Columbia Street, into a common foyer.
The units are divided. It would be basement and 1st floor as the lower units, and then
2nd and 3rd floor as the upper units. Both units are entered from the main foyer off
Columbia as you walk in the first floor there is a dining room kitchen rear bedroom and bathroom
you walk down the stairs to the basement where we have the living room second bedroom in the rear
bathroom and utility room and laundry there is an egress exterior egress stair out of the rear
bedroom from the basement to the rear yard of the property from the first floor you can enter through
the foyer directly straight upstairs to access the upper units and that takes you up to the second
floor where you have a living room dining room kitchen and powder room again you wind up the
stairs to the third floor where we have front and back bedrooms two bathrooms laundry and utility
Jeff, perfect. I was going to ask you about exterior materials, so go right ahead.
Sure. So here are images of the exterior of the proposed construction and also materials.
And I'll briefly zoom in just so it's a little easier to see. The south elevation here is the
main main entry facade proposed to be red brick to match the existing house that is to be renovated
again three stories with a roof deck the north elevation is the rear of the house
again red brick and then a cementitious siding
material. The owner is looking into cementitious siding. That's a light gray of color. There's
There's several other properties in there that have similar siding material used. The windows
several other properties in there that have similar siding material used.
and trim including the rooftop deck railing would be black vinyl windows and also black railing
for the roof deck. The long elevation, the west elevation along Wildey Street, as you can see,
three stories, mostly red brick, and then there are two bay window projections at three feet
off the facade in keeping with the street department's criteria. And as you can see,
a roof deck, and then also a pilot house to be able to access the roof deck from the third floor
apartments. The roof deck is only accessible from the upper units. Some of the area, the rear yard
and the parking spaces would be accessible from the first floor unit or the lower unit.
Jeff, just one more question for you. Could you speak to the areas of each of the square footage
inside of each of the two planned units? Sure. The overall net square foot of the
building is 3,300 square feet approximately. The lower unit is just over 1,400 square feet,
and the upper unit is 1,868 square feet. And if I'm understanding you correctly,
that means if this was to be developed as a similarly sized single-family home, it would be
over 3300 square feet interior that is correct the uh the size of the construction currently is
is by rights uh for zoning and that would as you mentioned um put the overall
building at uh just north of 3300 square feet okay um i just want to ask so i have rachel
Pritzker on the line here, my colleague. Rachel, if there's anything else you want to add before we
take questions, go free. Thanks. Again, Rachel Pritzker, R-A-C-H-A-E-L-P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R.
I wanted to just mention the community portion of this. We, I guess, we have the letter from
fna that we submitted um and they were originally during our board meeting with them i think that
they were um appreciative of the um affordability component of the duplex there was some concerns
around the parking um although as i'll say again i think that you know not providing accessory
off-street parking even if it was to be a single family home um which i think would be extremely
large for this lot I think although it might not be an issue in the in the neighborhood this minute
you know as things continue to develop accessory off-street parking is extremely important especially
if we're able to utilize an existing curb cut so we went around and the owner actually spoke with
the near neighbors so if you notice on the FNA letter which Brendan I don't know if you want to
bring that up there were seven people voted and then we have I believe 16 or so odd letters of
support um for both the duplex and the accessory off-street parking from the near neighbors that
we provided um to the board so um again just want to point out there was seven in opposition
um although none of them lived within 500 feet or um of the property and then uh we obtained
uh letters of support um from the near neighbors as well um so i just want to
mention that for the record and these are those letters of support
could you share those letters with us yeah we i believe we did submit them to the board in the
packet that we submitted yeah unfortunately we don't get the board doesn't get all that
material so we rely on what we can see uh during the presentation mr chair i'm just going to scroll
through these uh you know you can tell me to speed up slow down but um okay okay earl where
is earl street in relationship to this property it's a fair question let me pull up atlas
one moment
so that is one block to the east along it's within the 250 square feet okay
yeah 250 feet rather not square feet yeah it was important for us to um because some of the
conversation at the community meeting or the board meeting was that the parking wasn't really
community meeting or the board meeting was that the parking wasn't really that big of a problem
that big of a problem.
on this block so um you know i don't live on this block but the uh developer or the owner um you
know is a long-term resident of fishtown and again is uh decided to talk to you know some near
neighbors to get kind of their take and again we do believe that it's important to try to include
parking when when possible especially if we're utilizing um an existing curb cut okay thank you
so could we get the uh summarize uh your presentation and we'll get to the uh whoever
you have on the owner or whomever yep yes um joe can you uh raise your hand if you're out there
i believe and mr chair correct me if i'm wrong he hit star six if he's on his phone to raise his hand
bar nine and then star six i believe thank you joe if you're there please uh
please do so so the board can identify. I have a caller ending in 7921. I believe that's right.
Okay. How are you doing? Good afternoon, sir. Please identify yourself with a record name and
address and uh i'll swear you in uh my name is joseph walker uh j-o-s-e-p-h-w-a-l-k-e-r
uh currently residing at uh 1841 williamstown aerial road in victorville new jersey
we're in a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir i just want i have a question i guess for you and the attorney attorney says
you're a long-time resident you live there at one time uh i am born and raised in fishtown um i
i currently moved out uh my my partner's born and raised in fishtown and he is the one that's
moving in the house next door i just was confused when he said you were a resident of fishtown and
And then you just gave your address to be in South Jersey. Okay.
Oh yeah. All right.
Do you want to ask your client if he adopts your testimony?
Yes. Mr. Walker,
do you adopt the testimony that Rachel and I gave as your own?
Yes, I do. I, I believe I heard Rachel say there was 16 letters.
I want to make correction.
I think there was 33 or 35 neighbors who, who signed them letters.
Yeah. Yes. To make that, uh,
and they're near neighbors, correct? Yes. Me and my partner,
we walked, uh, a one block radius. Okay.
Up each street. And that's as far as we went. Okay. Thank you.
Joe last question, just this final clarification. It's your,
it's your business partner Tom who is going to live in the renovated existing house is that right
yes it is my business partner Thomas Bernard Tobish who is going to move in the
the current house that stands on the property okay thank you very much thank you any questions
from the board no no no anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
yes chair we have a miss helen
miss helen you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn at yes the new man please identify
yourself with a record name and address my name is helen heenan i live at 412 east will d street
two blocks down from this house would you spell your last name please h-e-e-n-a-n you're sparing
the firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do yes please proceed
um i have a couple questions um that was presented to you first i was part of that fish town zoning
meeting and i oppose this project which rachel said that nobody nearby did and i know based on
the documents that we were provided that one at a time ladies please okay so i do um oppose this
project um a couple of other comments i'd like to make is that side yard is not a vacant part
parcel it is a side yard um we i don't think anybody was really um impressed by the affordability
of it i think everybody uh nearby neighbors um wanted to keep the open space um because that is
um you know not available um anymore in fishtown and we want to keep that and the density to what
how it is now.
We are concerned about this owner
because if you look in his history,
other houses he had issues with that he developed.
other houses he had issues with that he um developed um even to the port of the chairman
of the fishtown zoning committee um and uh all of these people that the neighbors that um are for it
i would like to know if they're renters or owners of their property that they're in because there's
a lot of renters around here and that's a whole different hello hello
he hit me i don't know what happened
miss helen can you unmute yourself
okay it said the host the host muted me yes it was me okay um so yeah i for all of those letters i
would like to know if they are owners or renters since we have a lot of renters um earl street is
you know it's a block away but from columbia to the uh 1000 block of earl street is a it's about
two to three blocks um so i would like to make sure that that is within the vicinity of that 250 feet
also i'd like some clarification from the attorney when i asked about where earl street was in
relationship to this property do you have the aerial shot of that please let me switch to that
absolutely and make and sorry please make sure it's the uh 1000 block not we're going to look
at it now ma'am that's what we're doing that's what we're doing okay so here's the property
where the the blue is um here's earl no no that's not the earl that you have ma'am ma'am that's why
i muted you before yeah please wait to be spoken to so go ahead tell me what hundred block are you
showing us of Earl Street? So, I mean, let me select a property and let's see how this comes
up there. So that is the 1100 block. Not the 1000 block. I'm not sure if that would be. Let's try
here. That's the 1000 block. It intersects will be. It is a block away from the property.
Okay. Thank you. All right. Anyone else have any comments on this? You'd like to testify
please raise your hand yes we have a venice whitaker you can unmute yourself and wait to be
sworn in uh good afternoon venice whitaker 1468 east wilch street resident of fishtown
And would you please spell your name for the stenographer, please?
It's like Denise, but with a V.
V-E-N-I-S-E.
That's my name.
Whitaker, W-H-I-T-A-K-E-R.
And your address?
1468 East Wilt, W-I-L-T Street.
Wearing a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.