duty has been shared with all of the RCOs with a reachable telephone number, and Altera Property
Group and Sonder are partnering with Philadelphia Police SafeCam System for added security.
One final operational note, unlike many traditional hotels, Sonder has a noise monitor in all units that alerts management to potential noise issues before they become a problem.
I joke that it sounds a little bit like Big Brother. It's within the law, and it gives greater control over the management of the property.
We recognize that the coordinating RCO vote from Fishtown Neighbors Association was divided.
It fell slightly in favor of opposition.
Sondra and Altair Property Group remain committed to working with all parties to fill the need that's been identified for visitor accommodations with appropriate assurances for the community, while allowing the overall project to proceed in light of the changed market conditions.
that will also allow for the restoration of the historic property, the bank door.
Up on the screen before you is the support letter of the Fishtown Kensington Area Business Improvement District,
which is not the coordinating RCO, but the second of the two RCOs.
We have engaged in several discussions among Altera Property Group and Sonder with the representatives of the RCO. My understanding is that Mr. Collazo, who is the executive director, may wish to speak in support of what I would paraphrase as condition support of the proposal.
The RCO's letter recognizes that Sonder is an internationally renowned hospitality company.
It notes Forbes magazine recognition of the Fishtown-Kensington commercial corridor as, quote, the national model for urban revolution, end quote.
Mr. Chairman and members of the board, a mix of uses is needed for the destination travel location that many of our neighborhoods are becoming, Fishtown perhaps at the forefront.
The RCO notes, and this goes to the need for the use, quote, we need quality facilities to accommodate, end quote, the visitors.
And the visitors are not just tourists, but they're guests, family and friends of those who live in the neighborhood who need extra space.
The average stay at Sonder is four days to five days.
Sonder has agreed to security precautions, including ensuring a minimum of two Sonder employees on site from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
And I've highlighted just to bring this to the board's attention.
During the overnight, a security officer will patrol the neighborhood as well.
No additional density is proposed.
The floor plans are very straightforward, floors two through five.
This is just showing you some examples of the sizes, which are in line with what I had indicated earlier.
The proposal fits into a dynamic, vibrant commercial corridor of the surrounding neighborhood.
The proposed variance would represent the minimum variance to afford relief and represent the least modification possible of the regulations at issue.
The grant of variance relief will not substantially increase congestion in the public streets, danger of fire, or otherwise endanger the public health, safety, or general welfare.
In fact, as I explained with the Sonder protocols, traffic congestion should actually decrease in terms of no deliveries and the rideshare protocols.
and the rideshare protocols.
And there are certainly no environmental issues.
Mr. Chairman, Henry Sullivan of Altera Property Group is here to adopt and affirm at the appropriate time.
And as I mentioned, we do have representatives of Sonder if there are questions from the board.
Andrew Levin primarily is here on behalf of SONRA. Why don't we have your testimony adopted?
Thank you. Mr. Sullivan, Henry Sullivan, would you kindly raise your virtual hand
so that you may be allowed into the virtual room to answer the questions of Chairman Bergman?
Mr. Sullivan, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, Mr. Sullivan, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Henry Sullivan, H-E-N-R-Y-S-U-L-L-I-V-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Sullivan, have you been present for the entirety of the hearing this afternoon?
I have.
And have you been able to clearly hear the testimony that I've offered today?
Would you adopt and affirm the testimony that I've offered as your own?
Thank you, Mr. Sullivan.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Here we have Robert Everett.
Mr. Everett, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair, please.
Okay, I'm here.
Mr. Everett, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Certainly.
My first name is Robert, R-O-B-E-R-T, last name Everett, E-V-E-R-E-T-T.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, sir.
Mr. Labor mentioned in his comments that there would be two people on site from 8 to 10 p.m.
and overnight security patrol.
and i know in the letter that the fishtail neighbors association wrote that was one of
the concerns that unlike a traditional hotel there wouldn't be on-site staff 24 hours a day so
i'm happy to see that they're they're putting that into their presentation
i guess my question would be could that be part of the if it's approved
approval, you know, notations that that is part of the agreement.
Hilary?
Hi, Mr. Chair. This is Hilary. Mr. Everett, unfortunately, things that are provisos or
conditions on variances need to be enforceable by L&I and requiring security personnel.
um is not something that um l and i could enforce um that's not to say that there couldn't be a
private agreement between the parties that that issue is addressed um but unfortunately that's
not something that can be attached to the zoning decision thank you hillary all right thank you
thank you mr sullivan for calling in any other comments from the virtual audience
i see no other heads at this time chair planning commission
good afternoon mr chairman members of the board david vecto city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends a change in the zoning at this location to commercial mixed use
2.5 under the proposed zoning visitor accommodation would still not be allowed
the applicant received permits for residential and commercial use at the property in 2021 in
conformance with the zoning code nothing about the property has changed since then the city
planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed use variants for visitor accommodation
thank you mi 2022 11 48 to 62 frankfort avenue i vote yes her corrected refusal dated 7 15 22
with the following other provisos interior trash storage no use of the roof deck after 10 pm at night
thomas holland my vote is no
ishmael ishmael shaheed my vote is yes jimmy on not at the moment here okay so we will
we will continue this we will have someone else will you have the rest of our board take a look
at it and we'll revote when we when we do that okay understood thank you mr chairman and members
and we'll re-vote when we do that, okay?
Understood.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board for your time.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2022-002-547-1314 South 46th Street.
Alan Nockmson is the attorney.
Letter of support from the Southwest Philadelphia District Services.
Also, the applicant has provided a petition signed by approximately 18 neighbors.
Mr. Nockamson.
Mr. Nockamson is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Good afternoon, Mr. Nockamson.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, Alan, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19109.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, there are two corporate entities that own 1314 South 46th Street, FTF Group LLC and SWG LLC. In the virtual audience is Javon Forbes, the owner's representative.
Thank you. Our corporate secretary has a couple of questions for you.
Thank you.
good afternoon council yes good afternoon council good afternoon
you agree to wave your referral and refused to stipulate to his act or something
did you email all the exhibits and documents required such as proof of ownership tax clearance
copy of refusal or referral within five days in advance of this hearing and did you meet with the
rco and do you have a letter uh yes in all respects all right thank you please proceed and show your
screen thank you very much uh good afternoon again alan ottoms and pc i'm here to present 1314 south
46th street uh in my presentation materials we will review the notice of refusal the correspondence
we received from the southwest west philadelphia district services is a letter of support where we
received unanimous support at a well-intended meeting from the members of the community that
attended that meeting um as and as the chairman stated um prior to the meeting we canvassed the
neighborhoods to the immediate for the immediate neighbors and receive a petition signed by
approximately 18 individuals in close proximity to our property. Then we'll review maps of the
area for the rest of the property in the surrounding area, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting
notice, including proof that we mailed that to the affected properties, our applications for appeal
that we filed to the ZPA. Our deed to the property showing that FTF Group LLC and SWG LLC are the
owners of the property. And again, we have Javon Forbes, the owner's representative in the virtual
audience who will adopt my testimony. And our certificate of tax clearance, which shows that
the owners are in good standing with the city of Philadelphia with respect to this property.
First things first, this is an RSA by a property. If you know, this is a decently sized lot of 1104 square feet, knowing that it's not RM1, but if it was, this would be a matter of how loud as it writes.
We'll go through the map of the area. You'll see that we are close by to a commercial quarter, so this density will help support this commercial quarter, and we're across the street from a rather large multi-family building, which is RM1.
We're proposing to have a triplex here. This is an existing two-story structure with a roof porch, and you'll see from our renderings and our floor plans.
We wanted to preserve the historic nature of the property, but, you know, expand it out to provide that much-needed density for that commercial corridor in a respectful manner.
And we have two refusals. The first is, you know, because we're RSA 5, we're proposing three-family dwelling. We are getting a refusal for that.
And then we have a slight refusal in terms of the maximum occupied area, where 75% of the lot is allowed, while we're proposing 81.98%.
That equates to 76 square foot feet for this 1,104 square foot lot.
Again, not out of sorts, whether it was single-family or multi-family, in order to have a functional floor plan, we need that additional space.
Again, not out of sorts, whether it was single family or multifamily.
Here's the letter of support we received from the Southwest Philadelphia District Services.
As you can see, 14 people attended the meeting, three of them board members of Southwest Philadelphia District Services,
and 11 members from the community all voted in support of this project.
And that's what they stated in their explanation of their vote.
And then our petition, we really did try to canvass the neighborhoods to make sure that, you know, we heard from the neighboring property owners.
And, you know, again, these are properties that are in close proximity to this one.
You can see there's many addresses on the 1300 block of South 46th Street and all supported.
Some of them even attended the community meeting as well, acknowledging our outreach to the community and their support for this project.
And then maps of the area, as you can see, well, partially, this is Woodland Avenue, which is a commercial border, which you'll see from the Google map that we have.
We're on South 46th Street, and here is a large R1 property, which is a multi-county structure.
structure behind us is marco streets and then down here and you'll see that probably better
than google map it's way more than you can see that from there but you can see this is the
commercial corridor uh where we're trying to help support uh there's ample public transportation
and as you can see there's a significantly sized multi-family dwelling across the street so what
we're asking is not all sorts it goes it's you know goes to help supporting this commercial
and then photographs of the property uh it's a two-story uh structure right now with the front
porch this is south 46th street to the right of the property and here's the significantly sized
multi-family structure this is south 46th street to the left of the property going towards
You can see the beginnings of the commercial corridor,
again, the large multifamily structure.
And then my client takes great pride in his work product.
And it's just examples of some interiors,
but we always try to show living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms.
You can see the work product of the people
who are proposing a variance project.
But here's an example of a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom,
And then, again, what we're trying to do is to reinvigorate this dilapidated two-story structure.
So instead of tearing it down, we embraced it by completely redoing the facade of the first two stories and fixing the porch area.
And instead of having a third story that goes straight up, we wanted something that was a little bit more or potentially interesting, something that you would probably see more so in Southwest Philadelphia.
That's why my client did a mandatory for proposing to do a midterm.
And then this is the existing plan, and then you can see from here, this is just a slight
increase in the square footage in the rear to make a more functional floor plan.
Again, just elevations from a black and white perspective, and then just a side elevation
from a interior point of view. And then these are the floor plans. Again, just to quickly go through
room uh you know you have to go on the porch get into a vestibule area make a left you have two
bedrooms one bath right here so you walk in there's a living room a kitchen bathroom two bedrooms
and the first floor unit has access to rear for garbage storage instead of going up to to the
left you go up a flight of steps again two bedrooms living room kitchen bathroom there's
a ventilated trash closet and then if you go up the third story it mimics the second story
two bedrooms one in the back one in the front a living room a kitchen bathroom and a ventilated
trash laws. And then we had a well attended meeting we had. This is proof of our notice
that we sent to the effective properties on May 25th, 2022. We notified 131 addresses of our
community meeting.
These are a list of the addresses, group of mailing to those addresses, our application
Use your list of the addresses.
Group of members.
for appeal that we filed with the zoning board of adjustment, their notice of refusal, and
our project application form, our deeds of property showing that FTF root LLC and SWG
LLC are the owners of the property, and our certificate of tax plan.
With that being said, I'm not going to share my screen. I would ask that Mr. Forbes virtually raise his hand.
Mr. Mackensen, before we go forward, could you tell me what the rest of the block looks like? How do we look at multiple families and dwellings?
I think there may be one or two examples. We really focused our attention across the street where there's a rather large multifamily structure.
Is that the University of Sciences across the street?
i believe so that's correct i believe so okay all right thank you
now mr forbes can you virtually raise your hand virtually raise your hand
mr forbes can you please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
hello hi could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter please
Hi, my name is Javon Forbes, spelled J-V as in Victor, O-N-N, and my last name is Forbes, F as in Frank, O-R-B as in boy, E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Forbes, you heard everything I stated today.
And is it true, correct?