can't happen fast enough calendar number 0916 2616 south 18th street
ron patterson is the attorney
and i believe there was an attorney representing the protestants yes all right okay right now
Okay, I'll be promoting the panels right now, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. And Ron, just identify yourself, you've already been sworn in,
and then Cairo will ask you some questions.
Good afternoon. Ron Patterson, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia EPA 19103,
on behalf of the applicant who is an equitable owner.
Do you agree to weigh the reading on refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I would agree to weigh the reading.
There was one inaccuracy on refusal, which I can discuss as I go through it.
And have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal,
referral, photos, and plans five days prior to this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of the above.
Thank you.
you may proceed oh thank you so as you mentioned this regards 2618 south
So, as you mentioned, this regards 2618 South 18th Street, if I could share my screen.
Yes, you have authority.
Can you see that or is it just my file?
We have it.
okay no actually well we have your file i'm sorry okay all right we'll try it again
yes mr patterson great thank you uh so this is just to locate where the property is what you're
looking, the viewpoint here is at Oregon Avenue and 18th Street, looking north. There's the
Dunkin' Donuts here that I'm pointing to. The site is directly behind the Dunkin' Donuts
building as you travel a little farther away. But as you travel towards the property, there
it is. Two curb cuts there. It's an old building that was built in 1930. It's currently operating
as a plumbing and heating supply a business groves plumbing uh it's old uh the uses are
out of context and it borders uh the gerard estate homes which farther down here past this brick
building uh the property is located in the cmx2 a commercial zoning district what we're proposing to
do is demolish the building and in its place construct 22 homes arranged here as you see in
two rows of 11 with each house having two parking spaces in the front over here as well as
roof decks and rear nine foot rear yards. The refusals, there are a few predominantly though
they're there because of our configuration of the property. We could have, we did look at a buy right
plan in the CMX2 district. It would have been approximately maybe 70 residential dwelling
units as well as some commercial on the first floor. We felt that was a disservice to the
neighborhood. Also, the Girard estate area residence gear felt similarly. So we looked
at doing then single family houses. But of course, we could not subdivide them on the
fee lots because each fee lot would need a front on public street, which this does not.
So this is one of those common perpendicular planned urban development type arrangements
you would see 18th street being here and we'll go through the drive-in to access each of the units
let's see here
there's typical of what the building would look like this did trigger civic design review
because it's creating more than 50 000 square feet of new floor area bordering a residential
district so around that the property is rsa 5. so that's our rendering here we move to the refusal
so first refusal you see is has to do with not providing commercial on the first floor
we didn't see that there would be a viable business that would go there but then again
we'd have to do the apartment building as i had mentioned so the trade-off was for this type of
use that would fit in with the character in the context of the neighborhood that commercial
would be overlooked in this sense.
We see there's some refusals here about rear yard and side yards, and that, again, arises
because – go back to the site plan – one of the refusals, for example, states that
pilot house access structure should not be against the rear yard yes this is the rear yard but
in the alignment of the houses it's actually their side yard we have a refusal for not
we have a refusal for not providing any rear yard which this would be the rear
providing any rear yard which this would be the rear yard
yard but in fact we've provided nine foot rear yards in terms of the house excuse me the house
arrangement um tough parcel to work with um because it's narrow and deep but it necessitated
this design 24 foot curb cut two-way we did review this with with streets department who
who did sign off on the plan again as I mentioned we went to civic design review on October 22nd
we met with here on September 1st I believe Jody Della Barbera is here on behalf of them
I'd like to ask if you could allow George Felici F-E-L-I-C-I to testify
Good afternoon, Mr. Felici. Please identify yourself with the record and I'll swear you in.
You would have to raise his hand.
Please raise your hand, sir.
sorry sorry about that i'm sitting here at my desk actually raising my hand
okay that's a first george yeah i know thanks i appreciate that here's your hand
please identify yourself yes george felici with frost development company
are you swearing a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes thank you please proceed ground hi hi george uh as you just say sorry i'm sorry mr patterson
and the chair can we just have to spell his name just to put on the record yeah london did it for
him but okay please spell your name sure it's f like and frank e-l-i-c-i thank you uh george as
you just stated here with frost development could you just tell the board what frost has to do with
this property sure so we uh we have the property under agreement uh we've done a lot of development
throughout the city, and so we looked at various options for the site, and we felt that this was
the best use for the site in the context of the existing neighborhood. And George, you heard
and saw my presentation. Would you agree it is true and accurate, and you would adopt it as if
it were your own? Yes. Okay, thank you. Ron, the photo we're looking at, is that looking north to
south that is looking from the rear towards oregon avenue yeah north to south okay yes yes
will be west to east i think and this is where the parking would be in the front of the homes
if you go out scott woodruff uh to join us
and while we're waiting for for scott i just wanted to address mr
i'll have mr woodruff to speak good afternoon mr woodruff please identify yourself with the
records by your last name scott woodruff w-o-o-d-r-u-f-f you swear in a firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing about the truth i do please proceed thank you hi scott uh could you
tell us your position with your firm uh yeah i am the uh director of architecture at design blends
architecture at LLP. And you're familiar with the project. Obviously, you've helped design and draw
these plans. Yes. And you were involved in our RCO and CDR meeting and hearing. And just briefly,
if you tell the board the materials of construction here, how you arrived at it, and any changes we've
made since we've met with the Civic Group briefly. Absolutely. So the facades are primarily
composed of a red brick material with a 12 by 24 cast stone that kind of wraps at a water table
and then up the first floor as it goes back the drive aisle. In meeting with the RCO gear,
they had suggested on some of the entries of the houses that face 18th Street that we look at some
of the contextual elements of Girard Estates, which we then included to involve kind of a little
bit more detail, including updated windows, soldier coursing, brick coursing, as well as
some of the planters you see at the drive, entry of the drive out, to kind of shield the parking
and create a better curb appeal to the whole development. And would you agree, as the statements
i made about the refusals that most of them are due to the fact of the configuration of the
are due to the fact of the um configuration of the property in this perpendicular arrangement
property in this perpendicular
yes okay thank you um that's all i have for uh george and scott uh i didn't want to address
yes i'm sorry is there an ho a hoa uh yes there would be they would uh uh would maintain
uh the property yes and the trash removal thank you i didn't mean to interrupt sorry that's okay
thank you uh i just want to address i know mr cook's going to speak uh adjoining neighbor uh
we don't have zoning issues with them it's just a side um agreement issue we need to work out so
um you know i would ask that the board vote the case and of course there's a 30-day appeal period
and when within which if we don't reach an agreement or you know as the board would please
to hold the vote and we could let you know if we've reached an agreement which i'm confident
we will yeah i think might be better for everyone rather than get through any testimony that you
guys might not even be uh germane to this in the end that we yes close this we can close this case
and and make a decision in uh at an executive session maybe in a month or so excuse me you
can do that but you cannot then consider any feedback from the um from any further meetings
or take into consideration any subsequently um agreed to yes i understand that but what happens
sharon if there is no agreement how do i mean it's really outside if we're doing damned if we don't
I mean, you could have a hearing for Mr. Patterson to come back and just report on whether or
not there was an agreement, but.
Well, resumption hearing.
I mean, as I mentioned, I don't think the discussion will result in any change to the
zoning plan.
That's not what this is about.
All right.
We'll vote this.
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
But we do have the attorney.
Understood.
And that's Harry Cook.
Let me ask if there's any questions from the board.
Vote on the panelists.
Any questions from the board?
Anyone else would like to testify?
Please raise your hand.
I wasn't sure if Ms. Della Barber was.
Harry Cook is getting promoted
I didn't understand what you said
I'm sorry
I just promoted Harry Cook
Mr. Cook
hi good afternoon hi please identify yourself the record i don't remember if i swore you
i was sworn in harry cook h-a-r-r-y-c-o-o-k anastasia law 1315 walnut street you're still
under oath thank you thank you um mr patterson is correct to an extent there are uh you know
in terms of our real property agreement it is in relation to zoning issues that are in play
in this application. So the rear yard area that abuts the shared property line under the variance
would allow applicant to build 12 feet closer to Protestants' property. Protestants' property
is a medical office. With me today is Dr. Pascual Nestico. You have elderly patients that do
traverse that area into and out of the medical office, building that much closer to the property
line will impact, adversely impact light and air and have a knock-on effect potentially of
valuation. And again, not only is Dr. Nestico an esteemed doctor, he's a real estate professional
for 50 years, and he can testify to that. We would ask that the board hold a vote today,
give us a week to come up with a final resolution. We are very close. In addition, we also,
an email was sent to the board by Paul Rossi, the zoning chair of the Girard Estates Neighbors
the zoning chair of the Girard Estates Neighbors Association, asking that a continuance be granted
Association.
until these issues could be worked out. We obviously are past that point, but a hearing
hold would still meet those sort of needs and allow us to work out the real property agreement
that would be a quid pro quo for us not opposing the zoning, the dimensional variance requested
that impacts our property. I would have two things to say about that. One being Mr. Rossi
was the secondary RCO, the coordinating RCO being here. He's with Jenna. That's the first I've heard
about the request for the continuance. And second, this is the first time I'm hearing
from our neighbor that there is a dimensional or zoning issue with the project.
So I'm happy to now hear that, even though we've been discussing this for at least a month.
Without seeing what Mr. Cook is talking about, I don't understand.
Are you asking that certain buildings be moved further away?
We've already had an admission that there was a buy-write option here where 70 units could be built that would have included...
70 with commercial mixed use um we have an assertion that commercial is not viable here
there's a dunkin donuts on the corner and a medical office right next door so you know in
terms of uh hardship and and in proving up whether or not that it's not viable to have commercial at
this project has not been met potentially but if we have some time it sounds like you're going to
you guys are going to start from it sounds like you're almost beginning this this discussion from
day from the beginning no we're very close there there are final drafts before parties
share some of those final drafts what what what what are we talking about here
it's it relates to an easement in the rear yard um uh to the rear of the property where there is
now a nine foot um an easement will be made more narrow no the easement is going to be extinguished
and there are certain terms and conditions that we would receive on regarding that in exchange for
supporting the dimensional variance that would allow protestant excuse me allow applicant to
build 12 feet closer than the code allows so if i may this is the easement i believe which we have
access over to get to oregon avenue and it's about when and how this easement gets extinguished so we
relinquish our rights and some other related collateral issues and one of the collateral
issues is the 12 foot expansion. Mr. Cook, I think you said that you need a week? Yes. All right.
So here's what we're going to do.
0-0-0-9-1-6-2-6-1-6-South 18th. This hearing will be resumed. Could we do this
week, Tanya, it'll be
15 minutes at the most.
I guarantee you. Fantastic.
Thank you, sir.
Tanya?
The only thing I really...
We could offer
3.30 on Wednesday.
Wednesday is the 9th, correct?