else you wanted to add um i'd like to share a few thoughts maybe at the end and i think victoria
really should have the floor right now and give her presentation wonderful
Jason or Tanya Ducea, Victoria?
I think her last name is Ankra.
A-N-K-R-E.
I think so.
I'm going to say I'll raise her hand first.
Okay, Victoria, I'm able to raise your hand.
Okay, I won't allow her to speak since she raised her hand.
Good afternoon, ma'am.
please identify yourself with the records, spell your full name, and I'll swear you in.
Good afternoon, Victoria, B-I-C-T-O-R-I-A. Last name is Akra, A-N-K-R-A-H.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Your affiliation with this application?
I am the Executive Director of Accelerial Learning Camden, Philadelphia.
Thank you. Ms. Pritzker?
Yeah, Victoria, could you just please briefly explain to the board a little bit of just about the Ocelero Learning Program and the commitment to Philadelphia and sort of the importance of the location of this site specifically, so that we can kind of just speak to the hardship and importance of this application.
Yes. So Accelerate Learning Camden, Philadelphia is a Head Start program. Our program basically provides high quality early childhood services to children from low income families.
We currently have seven centers in the city of Philadelphia. This particular center,
it's so important to us simply because we recently are going to, you know, receive funds to do an
expansion to our current program. And when you look at the population in which this location is
in, in the need. It is definitely underserved in terms of high quality early childhood education
and that's exactly our mission to, you know, close the achievement gap for children
in the city of Philadelphia and there are many children who are currently in this area right in
the vicinity of where the center is located that would highly benefit from our services.
we're a comprehensive program where um while education is our primary focus we realize in
order to educate a child you need to make sure that child is healthy well fed um and so those
things are important we are we often um are employing our parents and because our parents
are residents of this community that means we will be employing the residents within that community
So we're excited about that. The way in which we will approach that is through, you know, providing them with information on upcoming job fairs. We do door to door in terms of, you know, getting the word out.
We also are looking forward to being able to provide them, you know, with a space.
All of our centers are outfitted with beautiful meeting space in which we're hoping, you know, if they need to have space to do meetings for the local community, that they will, you know, think of us and utilize us.
In addition to that, a core component of Head Start is about program governance, where our parents and our local community work alongside me to make decisions in the best interest of the children and families we serve.
So I look forward to the residents of this community also working with me to make sure the program is enhancing their current neighborhood and basically providing that high-quality education to the children and the services.
Thanks so much, Victoria.
Have you heard the testimony I gave to the board today?
Yes, I did.
And do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else who would like to testify?
No, excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Any questions from the board?
no yeah anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
there's a chair there's a call in the user who's um
Mr. Chair, there's a call-in user who's hand just went up. I will allow them to speak right now.
Hello. Good afternoon, ma'am. Please identify yourself with a record name and address.
Yes, this is Adrienne Fernandez, Swamp Little Neighborhood Process Association, RCO.
Adrienne, you're still under oath from earlier this morning.
Yes, I am.
We have a proviso where we would like to trash any dumpsters or trash and recycling to be
kept inside the property lines.
And also, we would like if Ms. Pritzker could provide us with a copy of the CBA.
We aren't aware of the contents, so we can also share the information as one of the effective RCOs.
And also, we approve of this project because it's going to be a head start.
We have a lot of really good children in our neighborhood who would benefit from that.
and also I heard the testimony about the jobs.
And I guess the only question we might have is
if the applicant party can discuss drop-off traffic
and parking during drop-off and pick-up
because it's a fast-moving curve that ends at the property.
Sorry for the background noise.
And we just want to know what considerations
the owner has for decision-making.
safety as uh people are um dropping off and picking up children around the curve
of near 17th and indiana yeah i can i believe if there's going to be a drop off zone that'll
be established uh in cooperation with the streets department there's also going to be there's also
on street um off street parking mr nicoletti can speak to that there's there's a parking lot
associated with this um so in regards in regards to the trash issue do you have commercial trash
pickup i assume yes okay so we'll have commercial trash pickup all right any anyone else wish to
testify in this case please raise your hand as the chair there is an under trunk whose hand is raised
i will allow her to speak right now sir thank you
Ms. Trung, please unmute your microphone and please wait to be sworn in.
I don't know if that was on purpose.
Linda, are you speaking to this case?
If you could open your mic and let us know.
Yeah, I kind of don't think so.
I think Linda's from Xin Jin's office,
so we can move forward.
All right, planning commission.
I'm Bednar City Planning.
This parcel is a part of a industrial corridor
proposed to remain industrial,
the zoned in the comprehensive plan.
The parcel was granted a variance for uses permitted
in CMX3 in 2017 with provisos for no daycare uses
among other uses.
This property has already received many entitlements beyond what would be permitted in I-1.
Due to these reasons, we oppose the granting of the variance.
Thank you.
002134-2900 North 17th Street.
My vote is yes with the proviso commercial trash pickup.
My vote is yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
Yes, with proviso.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Calendar number 1460, 1419 West Grange Avenue.
The attorney is Alan Nockamson.
Madam Chair.
good afternoon okay mr knockinson good afternoon please identify yourself for the record
uh yes alan knockamson of knockamson pc one two three south broad street suite 1600 philadelphia
pa 19109 thank you you're still under oath from earlier okay 30 agree to waive the reading of
the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do and have you also emailed an exhibit packet with
I do. And have you also emailed an exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance,
proof of ownership
refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior to this hearing and have you met with the
RCO and do you have a letter? I do not have a letter. I did do everything else but I don't have
I'm going to share my screen.
So I'm here to present 1419 West Grange Avenue.
With me is Fran Popak, the owner of the property in question.
So our first exhibit is proof of ownership, showing that Grange Development LLC owns the property.
The second exhibit is the tax clearance certificate, showing that they're in good standing with the City of Philadelphia.
There you go they owe no taxes. The third exhibit is the notice of refusal.
So this is a CMX2 property and we are looking to put 36 dwelling units
as well as having interior parking of 48 spaces in total on this property.
And we received a refusal first for the parking lot.
We're not providing the required landscaping and screening that's required under the code.
And I'll show you that the reason why we did that was to provide more off-street parking.
Second, we were refused because we are not proposing to put any commercial units on the
ground floor as required by the code.
You'll see from the pictures that Grange Avenue is a block and a half away from North Broad
Street, which is a commercial corridor.
But Grange itself is in a residential neighborhood.
So we're heading into a residential neighborhood.
And we didn't think it was appropriate to have a commercial component in a residential neighborhood of this sort, especially if you're near a commercial corridor like North Broad Street, where it would be better to support the commercial corridor by directing traffic to North Broad Street.
And then the third exhibit, the third refusal is a height variance. We're seeking 42 feet in height, while 38 is allowed by the code. Again, you'll see an article from the Inquirer showing that there used to be a pretty massive apartment building on here, which is much bigger and was much taller than what was here.
are you going to get to those yeah i am okay okay sorry sorry all right yeah so you know i i provided
a an article from the inquirer which kind of explains how we got here today and how this is
a vacant lot uh this is um you know an article which shows that the you know that this was a
much larger building back in its day that it showed there was 60 units at one point and we're only
asking for 36 units.
And then the application will go to application appeal. Here's the zoning map.
And again, you can see we're a pretty large property in comparison. Our lot size
is pretty significant in the grand scheme of things here.
And as you can see, we're in a commercial corridor on North Broad Street.
And then here are photographs of the property. This is our property right here.
and then you can see pictures of the property from the right of the property you can see
we're in a residential neighborhood or we're heading into a residential neighborhood
you see properties to the left again residential neighborhood over here is north broad street
and then you can see our orange posters that we put up and then here are plans
and then here are plans and drawings the first page is a rendering of the property as you can
and drawings the first page is a rendering
see the first floor would be dedicated to interior parking for the residents and then you have
three additional floors second third and fourth floors which would be for the actual units
themselves. You know, we're heavily landscaping the area, brick facade, interior parking spaces,
exterior parking spaces. So with respect to the first refusal, if we did the shading that was
required on the code right here, we would lose probably one if not two parking spaces. And given
that there's a setback here this is a shared driveway with the residents here given the
you know the setback here we thought it was appropriate to add additional parking rather than
to lose a parking space or two counselor can i ask you a question sure is the additional parking
adjacent to residential it is set back from the residential so they're parking in the rear
They actually have a driveway.
This is a shared driveway because they access that shared driveway to park in the rear of their properties.
But it is adjacent to residential.
It is adjacent to residential.
That is correct.
Then there should be some landscaping.
So we can take a look into doing some landscaping.
Just so you know, the coordinating RCO, my understanding is that the representative is online.
I did speak to her yesterday.
They are in full support of this project, which includes, you know, the request for, you know, having no shading over there in terms of, you know, allowing for those additional parking spots.
And then here are the floor plans.
I can go over them if you want, but they're 36 units.
And then here's an example of a one-bedroom, one-bathroom
that I kind of blew up for the board's, you know, convenience.
There's no roof decks.
There's no basement living.
Here's an example of a two-bedroom, one-bath.
here's an example of a two-bedroom one-bath another version of it
and here's another example of a two-bedroom two-bath
and we did meet with the uh well we didn't meet but we gave a detailed letter uh to the
a concerned community association uh it's a 10 page letter they had they did not want to meet
in person they did not want us to communicate directly with the affected properties they wanted
us to give a detailed explanation in writing of what the proposal was and we prepared a pretty
extensive letter uh detailing exactly what this project's about and this is the this is a copy of
that letter and then as part of that just like the what you saw then i gave them a copy everything
that you've seen today they've seen so then they had like a pretty detailed understanding of what
was going on here and like i said i did speak to uh sandra from a concerned uh uh community
Association. I spoke to her yesterday. She indicated her support. She indicated that
there would be a letter of support sent to the board. I haven't received it. So I don't know if
you have received it. So, but that concludes. Jaren, have we received that letter?
all right move on uh and that's it that's that's basically our presentation in a nutshell we can
go through the floor plans uh or no i think we can bypass that unless the board has any specific
questions no other than the issue that tom raised all right so we can move on and do you have a
client you want to yes yes uh fran popak can you virtually raise your hand
uh mr popak uh can you state your name full name and address for the record
Fran Popec, 1546 Packer Avenue, Philadelphia PA.
1546 Packer Avenue, Philadelphia P.A.
Mr. Chair, would you like to?
Could you spell your last name for the reporter?
P is in Paul, O is in Oscar, P is in Paul,
P is in Edward, K is in Kevin.
We're in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth,