Tynetta Graham, my vote is yes, with provisos.
Ty Owen, my vote is yes, with provisos.
And number two, MI 2024-003-175-6709 Essington Avenue.
The vote in this matter has been rescheduled to Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024, at 9.30 a.m.
We're going to start with case number 18.
MI 2024
1026 to 36
Fairmont Avenue. Augusta O'Neill
is the attorney.
Michael Johns has recused
himself from this
Augusta O'Neill
is coming in as a panelist. Good morning. Good morning, counsel. Could you please state your
name as spelled for the court stenographer? Sure. My name is Augusta O'Neill, A-U-G-U-S-T-A. My
last name is spelled O-apostrophe-N-E-I-L-L. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Do you identify your client in a relationship
to the property? Sure. My client is Frenkel Enterprises. They're the owner of the property.
Do you stipulate to the reading of the refusals, and do you agree with the accuracy?
I do. And in fact, a corrected refusal was just issued this morning, which your board solicitor forwarded to me.
I understand. You have a letter of support from the 14th Community Organization, RCO, and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young. Please proceed and share your screen.
thank you members of the board uh this morning i'm representing the owners of the property at
10 26 to 36 fairmount avenue my client is frankel enterprises included at page 34 of your exhibit
package which is up on my screen is an aerial just to orient you to the property i've also
provided some street view pictures of the property in question as you can see this property is
currently a vacant lot we are proposing to relocate lot lines and subdivide to create
22 parcels from one existing parcels and construct a three-story single-family home
on each parcel each of the houses are going to range from 1400 to 1600 square feet
a copy of our plan was included at page 29 of my exhibit package this project did receive a refusal
um in my exhibit package is a copy of the old refusal but as i indicated at the beginning a
new refusal has been issued um the refusal that was issued for this project related to the minimum
lot area as you can see there from the refusal on my screen we are in the fifth district overlay
we're required to provide minimum lot area of 1440 square feet and there are 17 parcels that
are less than 1440 square feet this project is a partnership with turn the key for anyone who
isn't familiar with turn the key the program is designed to take vacant lots in the city of
Philadelphia, such as the one at issue here, publicly owned land and partner with private
developers such as my client to create affordable housing. A lot of the lots are vacant, like
I said, and they can be a real issue for the city because the vacant lots can be a source
of drug use and other crimes. So this partnership allows homeownership to be within reach for
many Philadelphians. The average homeowner can pay approximately $1,300 a month for one of these
houses, which are three bedrooms. The average rent in the city right now is $1,800. So that's a
huge difference. This enables a lot of Philadelphians to create generational wealth
through that home ownership. There are also many city employees who have been able to benefit from
the Turn to Key program. And in fact, on September 27th of this year, just a few weeks ago, it was
my honor to attend a ribbon cutting with my clients for their new development at Bucknell
Square in Girard Commons. These are two workforce housing communities totaling 73 affordable homes
in the Sharswood neighborhood that my clients were also integral in developing. My clients did meet
um integral in developing um my clients did meet with the affected rco for this property the 14th
with the affected argument.
community organization rco on september 5th they did receive rco support for this project
a copy of that letter of support was provided at page six of the exhibit package i just want to
note um that the rco in providing their letter of support did commend my clients for um the
the the answers that they provided to the neighborhood um questions um the vote was
unanimously in favor of my client's application and i also wanted to just note that the um rco
noted in their letter the community expressed support for this application because of the use
of land would be for affordable single-family homes under the turn to keep program and it is
keeping in keeping with continuity of the neighborhood um and as mr terry noted um
And yesterday, Councilman Young's office did also provide a letter of non-opposition, which I'm sharing on my screen.
And with that being said, I would ask my clients, Max and Zach Frankel, to come forward to make themselves available for.
Could you show us the, do you have drawings of the properties?
Why don't you just show the properties?
So I have a copy of the plan.
It's at page 29 in my exhibit package.
I don't have renderings.
we have the elevation but i don't have a rendering
zachary frankel has been allowed to speak
hi this is zachary frankel the owner of the parcel could you state your name and spell it
for the court scenario that's zachary frankel z-a-c-h-a-r-y last name is frankel f-r-a-n-k-e-l
from tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed council
morning zach uh mr frankel did you have an opportunity to hear my testimony this morning
i did was everything that i said true and accurate it was was there anything that you would like to
add there's not okay um and would you like to adopt my testimony as your own i would thank you
um mr chair my client and i are available for any questions the board may have
I'll take questions from the board, but it's kind of difficult not to even see any rendering at all.
And I would think the board may be a little, at least want to have a view of it before we would vote on it.
But I'll take questions from the board now, questions about it.
Well, we may have to have a resumptive hearing on this to take a look at it.
All right.
Oh, Zach, actually raising his hand.
Mr. Chair, I'm happy to walk through the elevations that we provided, if that would suffice for the board.
Why don't you walk through the elevation, and then I'll take questions on the board, and we'll decide where we're going to be.
Sure thing. The elevations detail materials and are true to form to what will be built.
so i think the elevations will actually do a better job than renderings
please proceed
one second
let me just get the elevation up my screen here uh mr chair
Excuse me, Chair.
This is Bettina.
I wasn't sure if I wasn't hearing correctly, but was he sworn in?
Mr. Franco was sworn in.
thank you so much apologies for my audio
no no no not at all not at all
counsel
i'm just sorry i'm just trying to pull up on my screen
chair may i ask if these elevations were shown to the community without without a renderings
they they were shown to the community
they were part of the presentation package to the rco
but you didn't
But you didn't show renderings to the RCO at the RCO meeting?
No, we have not done renderings of the project. Again, when you see the elevations,
I think that this will add a lot more context.
Thank you.
trying to
just having some technical issues here. I'll get them up as soon as I can.
Zach, if you have them at your fingertips, are you able to
share them on your screen or I'm just trying to pull them up?
Are you able to locate them, Guthy?
I have them.
It's just not letting me, for whatever reason, share them.
I should be able to do that.
Unless, Zach, do you have them at your fingertips to bring them up on your screen?
I am working off of my phone right now.
Let me see if I can send them to you.
So this would be for Mr. chair board member when is having some connectivity issues we
just need to make sure that she is able to to get back on before we proceed.
I think I'm here, Hillary. Can you guys hear me?
Oh, you're back? Okay, great.
It's spotty, though. I don't know what's going on.
I got an unstable internet connection sign. I'm trying to reset.
Kelsey, I just emailed your typical elevations.
i just want to confirm uh mr chair this is the brush case i'm recusing from yes okay all right
thank you and you have the next one too
how about if we come back to this
they should be at the top of your email
I just sent them
cancel
you're muted too
Apologies. Okay, this should work. Let me see if I can pull them up.
Are you able to see that? Yes. Okay, so these are three-story homes. They have a second-story roof
deck, and Zach, did you want to take the board? Yeah, if I could walk you through our typical
elevation um and it'll make a lot more sense so these are designed to be contextual within the
neighborhood of west poplar i think that's why the rco applauded us for them um so these are
again three-story rick facades um it's there there will be some mixed materials in terms of
metal siding um and um cladding throughout but they are three stories so there'll be a large
living area on the ground floor the second floor will have two bedrooms and a full bathroom
and the third floor will really be a master suite that has a large bedroom uh of a full bath
laundry and storage as well as a roof deck in the rear um but from the the street level
these will be um three stories you'll have anywhere from three to potentially five
depending on the elevation steps up into the house um metal railings um so obviously the
The materials are meant to be a mix of red brick and differing metal material that is contextual within the West Poplar neighborhood.
It is mostly a three-story red brick.
It is mostly a three-story red brick facade.
Is it built on a slab?
Yes, they are built on a slab.
Questions from the board.
I have one other quick question.
So are the stairs, I can't really tell because the elevations are small right here.
So are they closed in or is it an open area under the stairs like for trash storage?
they they are closed in okay all right i see okay i see it better thank you yeah
the question is from the board
is cheryl on
just confirming none of the units are accessible or visitable
I'm on. I'm on, Mr. Chair. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yes, I'm tired. I've got noise issues
going on out here. All right. All right. Ty, please proceed again. Yeah, I was just asking.
I just want to confirm there's 17 units and none are accessible or visible. There's 22
units. Did you say they're they're not visible? I'm asking are any of them accessible or
visitable, which means
they would have a zero grade step entry either at the front or the rear.
No, there's no requirement for ADA accessible
units here. So we are not
providing them in this instance.
Okay. And then for
the lot refusals, you said 17 of the lots are under the 1440.
what's the right square footage of the lots that are under
say that one more time for the lots that are for the 17 lots that are under 1440 square feet
what is the range and square footage of those lots the total square footage
the range in those lots this is uh let me see between just pulling it up onto the screen
the range is between 1200 it looks like the smallest is 1215 but again the gfa of the
the homes themselves are between 1600s per feet and then my last question is i know you said that
the rco praised you for contextuality but isn't the richard allen homes across the street not
those two-story homes with a-line roofs of most of our the majority of the lot um faces towards
melon street actually and melon street and 11th street um and around 10th street so is some of the
houses do face the richard allen homes which are two stories um but even on that block of fairmount
avenue there are three-story structures um this isn't our first project in the west popular
neighborhood it was made very clear to us by the neighborhood that they want three-story structures
just in the richard allen homes have you know large front yards and front yard setbacks so
having three-story homes are on this block um are not going to hover over those homes by any means
Okay, thank you.
Any other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
When this matter is voted, it should be noted that it is per refusal dated 10-9-24.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have a hand up by the name of Conlon Crosley. They have been allowed to speak.
Good morning, Chair.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenography?
Yes, sir. It is Conlon C-O-N-L-A-N Crosley C-R-O-F-L-E-Y.
we're a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth you're from the council
office my car yes sir all right please proceed sir um i just wanted to uh sorry mr chair he
he didn't answer okay could you answer please i'm sorry yes i do thank you very much please proceed
um i just wanted to uh reiterate i was at the community meeting where it had unanimous support
and that the council office has a position of non-opposition for this project.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?