revised plans five pages stamped by zba on november 20th 24 all people voting after this will have to certify
on November 20th, 24. All people voting after this will have to certify
that they have watched the video. Michael Johns, I certify that I have watched the video
and my vote is the same. Cheryl Gaston, I certify that I watch. Excuse me, Mr. Johns,
can you just put your vote on the record as yes with provisos if your vote is the same?
Oh, I'm sorry. Yes with proviso, sorry. My vote is yes with proviso. Cheryl Gaston,
I certify that I watch the video, and my vote is yes with provisos.
Tanetta Graham, I certify that I watch the video.
My vote is yes with provisos.
Iowan, I certify that I watch the video, and my vote is yes with provisos.
We're going to go to our regular list, and we're going to start with number 13.
MI 2024-005-735, 900-38 East Washington Avenue.
David Guest is the attorney.
There's a recommendation of unanimous support from the Albury Arboretum Neighbors Association,
and Council Member Bass has expressed non-opposition through an email.
Good afternoon.
sir can you see me mr guest good afternoon good afternoon could you state your name please and
spell for the court stenographer yes david guest d-a-v-i-d-g-e-s-t you swear a firm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client the relationship
to this property yes my client is the aubrey arboretum association which is the duly authorized
operator and manager of the Aubrey Arboretum.
Partipulate to the readings of the refusal and agree with its accuracy.
I do. And have you had all of your
documents in five days prior? Yes, I have.
Please share your screen and start your presentation, sir.
Thank you very much. I will share my screen.
Thank you for hearing us. This is the cover
page of our exhibit book. Once again, my name is David Guest. I'm with Squareside Law and
Consulting here on behalf of Aubrey Arboretum. Here with me today are Sarah Stevenson, the
Executive Director of Aubrey, as well as Erica Spengler of ProSigns, who will be available to
answer questions at the end. I'll do my best to keep this brief. We have submitted all required
exhibits, including the zoning application, refusal, relevant photographs, evidence of
neighbor notices postings and meeting with the coordinating RCO which is Aubrey Arboretum
neighbors as you stated as you say as well we're happy to report that we receive the unanimous
support of the neighbor group for what is a very straightforward signage application for you today
and we also receive non-opposition from the council office so what I'm going to do is I'm
just gonna flip down to a visual for you that's in our exhibits this is what was
submitted to the LNI into the community just to orient you so I'm guessing a
lot of you are familiar with Aubrey Arboretum we're talking about the
portion of the Arboretum on this side the basically east side of Washington
Lane and so you can see it's a very irregularly shaped property that has
been in active use for uh over approximately 100 years um and uh it's a free public garden
and farm that has served northwest philadelphia for that time and so really in essence aubrey is
seeking to replace four existing somewhat dilapidated signs that around their property
with new signage that's designed to be easier to read more welcoming and informative and more
weather resistant. And Aubrey, as part of this process, has developed a close relationship with
near neighbors and has been meeting with the community in detail for well over a year to get
their feedback on the design of the signage and wayfinding at Aubrey. And so because Aubrey, as
I said, is such an old institution, it predates the establishment of zoning districts and is now
located in a residential RSD3 zoning district, which, as you know, has limited signage permissions,
approximately 15 square feet per frontage, which obviously causes an issue for Aubrey here with all
of its multiple frontages. So even with that limitation, the signage that I'll show you
shortly is still very minimal. It's approximately 60 square feet along Chew Avenue for three signs
and approximately 17 square feet along Ardley Avenue for one sign. And you can see the locations
here. So some of you may have been to this property. So we have an entranceway here on
chew avenue and you'll see a couple signs momentarily there one on ardly and one near
the washington lane regional rail station so i'm just going to flip down very straightforward this
So I'm just going to flip down. Very straightforward. This is the existing welcoming signage at one of the entrances on Chu. And then you can see this handsome new proposed signage that's been discussed in detail with the community. And you can see, you know, I'm not going to zoom all the way in, but you see sort of a map of the property and information about how to navigate it.
is the existing
and it's the it's the idea is to welcome people to the to the arboretum and make them feel
comfortable coming on the property because it's open to the public and so to that end these more
simple um uh identification signs uh you can see the existing imagery here you can see the
key plans with the locations on the map and they just say i'll bury arboretum and they specify
which entrance and it was a point um for aubrey in the community to make sure they said free and
open to the public on these signs to make that as clear as possible and then you can see right here
is the small sign designed for the uh washington lane station area so um that's it in a nutshell
i'll just briefly say in accordance with the requirements of the zoning code that aubrey
arboretum is a unique property of over 40 acres with many grade changes irregular borders multiple
entrances and compliance with the code signage requirements would in this case represent an
unnecessary hardship the proposed signage represents the least modification possible of
the relevant code provisions to allow our freedom to improve weight finding at the property to
benefit the community the proposed signage will not increase congestion will not harm neighbors
use of their properties or create any environmental issues to the contrary it will improve the ability
of the public to use the space and is in character with the surrounding neighborhood so that's the
conclusion of my testimony if i if i may just very briefly introduce these uh two witnesses to have
them adopt my testimony sure thank you um so sarah stevenson um the executive director of aubry
are you can you unmute yourself and able to answer my questions i am thank you could you
please state could you please state your name and spell for court senator yes my name is sarah
stevenson s-a-r-a and stevenson is s-t-e-v-e-n-s-o-n where or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth yes proceed counsel thank you um miss stevenson did you hear my
testimony today yes is it true and correct yes do you adopt it as your own yes thank you and is there
anything you'd like to add regarding this appeal oh we just appreciate everyone's time and you know
we're thrilled to hopefully create more welcoming entrances at the arboretum where we welcome over
60,000 visitors a year, primarily our neighbors. So thank you. Great. Thank you. And the second
witness is Erica Spengler. Ms. Spengler, are you able to unmute yourself?
There we go. Can you hear me? Yes. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Erica Spengler, E-R-I-C-A-S-P-E-N-G-L-E-R.
Tore or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
So Ms. Spengler is a project manager with ProSigns, the company that's put together these materials for the signs.
Ms. Spengler, did you hear my testimony today?
Is it true and correct?
Thank you.
And would you adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
Thank you.
So, members of the board, that concludes our testimony.
Happy to take any questions from you.
Questions from the board.
um i'm sorry did i see four signs i'm sorry maybe i missed one yeah so they're
yeah i'll reshare my screen sorry about that thank you yeah it is a little it was a little
bit confusing i'll show you one second so i'm going to go back up a little bit
it so it's this one sign which has three parts it's larger okay that's one and then there's
two that are this sort of free and open to the oh okay all right yeah and then there's one more
the smaller one yeah that's by the train station all right but you're in essence just replacing
the signage that was already there with just some updated correct and more modern science actually
yep okay thank you yep thank you the questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands at this time
do you see him jason no sir no hands
Do you see a hand, Jason?
No, sir. No hands.
All right. Thank you very much.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission, AMY, B-O-Y-D.
We're affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends a changing and zoning at this location from residential single-family RSD3 to special-purpose parks and open space SP.
POA, the proposed signage would be allowed under the proposed zoning.
Moreover, the proposed signage is consistent with previous signage.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant their request to appearance for accessory sign controls.
MI 2024-005-735-900-38, East Washington.
Lane, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
I win.
My vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thanks very much.
Appreciate your time.
Have a good day.
Number five, MI 2024-005-576, 2619 to 21 East Huntington Street.
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
There's a letter of non-opposition from Old Richmond Civic Association and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
they'll be coming back in as a panelist
good afternoon
good afternoon counsel could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yeah rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r
are affirmed to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes yeah could you identify your client in relationship to the property
Yeah, the client is 2100 Hamilton, LLC, who is the owner of the, sorry, Hancock, LLC, which is the owner of the property.
Recipient to the reading of the refusal and agree with the accuracy.
And all of your documents have been in within five days.
Please proceed.
Share your screen.
okay so this is 2619 to 21 east huntington street as you can see from the refusal this
property is owned rsa5 our application proposes a lot line uh adjustment to create four lots
from one existing lot which is 2619 to 21 east huntington street the only refusal we have is
zoning refusal as we are not meeting the 960 square feet that's required for RSA 5 and proposing
960 square feet for each new lot. As you can see from our appeal, what we're providing is actually
in character with the existing lots on the block. This is one of the only intermediate middle
street-to-street lots. It's about 3,040 square feet. It fronts on both Huntington Street and
East Herald Street. And although 960 is what the code provides, all the adjacent,
already previously subdivided lots adjacent to this lot are all less than that 960. So we're
just looking to kind of conform with what's already there so that we can put four single
family homes. That would be by right, which is not part of this application, but this is just
for the lot land relocation.
We're at 760.
They fluctuate on this block between 545, 800, 780, 816, 720, 740.
And these are on the adjacent blocks,
and sorry, directly adjacent parcels
in line with what we're proposing,
which would provide for in-character lots on this property.
I will show, oh, we've got flipped around there.
There you go.
um showing no tax balance this is a copy of the deed
um as you can see on my screen zoom in a little bit this is a intermediate lot all the other lots
as mentioned have been subdivided or not as large and wide as this one is and so again we're just
providing something that's in character with the adjacent properties and this is the only vacant
lot on the block. This is an existing warehouse structure. Again, same thing. Zoning posters
on the property.
Part of the code that requires the 960. As mentioned, we did a
requires the 960. As mentioned, we did a in-person community meeting on November 13th at 7 p.m.
I think there was three people from the actual near neighbor block that were there and they
took a position of non-opposition to and support one opposed. There's a very low turnout for this
meeting um but they issued us a letter of non-opposition and then um as you can see
non-opposition from old richmond civic association which was the coordinating rco
and as such non-opposition from councilman squilla's office as well i did include um
the lot lane relocation plan in the hearing package just so that the board could see
um what we're proposing as mentioned just four lots um which will contain single family homes
um so no changes to any of that and again they're meeting the 16 feet in width which is in character
of the code but the depth um it's just 47 evenly spread across so almost 50 but 47 5 um spread
across um have the lot line information and then just this isn't part of this application but we
did provide for the community kind of just an idea of what we would be proposing um you know
just in my experience it's important to show kind of an idea of what we would be proposing when
you're getting community groups to agree upon a subdivision of anything because they want to know
what might be there um this has not been submitted to the city or anything but they would be single
family homes that would meet all the dimensional requirements. And as mentioned, and as this board
as well, where if there was anything that would need additional variances, we'd be right back in