And how long have you owned it?
I owned it now for anywhere from two and a half to three years.
And can you tell the board why did you acquire the property?
We acquired the property.
We are the owners of CNR Building Supplies across the street from this location.
And we acquired this property basically to expand parking for our employees and for basically storage of every day.
materials. That's one of the reasons why we acquired this property.
And have you been able to use it for those purposes?
Recently, when we acquired this project two to three years ago,
the actually housing went down.
The interest rates went through the roof and we had more parking necessary at
our location than I thought we were going to have.
And one of the other issues became is that trying to load storage into Washington Avenue, this site, at the site that we have now, we have setbacks in our parking area to unload any type of vehicles, these big tractor trailers.
And at this site here, it takes up the whole footprint of the land using Washington Avenue to put a forklift across and bringing it to store.
It is not working out too well.
So we basically used a small portion of this property, but it didn't work out the way I thought it would work out with the interest rates, the economy, and housing at the time also.
And have you marketed the property for other tenants?
We tried marketing the property the best we possibly could as what it is and not having much success with rent.
And some of the tenants we have there are just a bare minimum rent, just to have some sort of income coming in.
When we try to put it as a triple net lease with the taxes the way they are in the UNO, it doesn't work for anyone.
So we swallow that cost just to have income coming in and lease it out the way it is at this time.
And, Michael, could you describe the surrounding area on Washington Avenue?
Washington Avenue, the surrounding area.
I've been on Washington Avenue, my brother and I, with a building supply for the last 30 to 35 years.
And Washington Avenue basically went through a lot of changes.
I remember the train tracks running up and down Washington Avenue as we were kids working here.
And it's changing to the positive.
An industrial site, even our building supply we have now, it's changing so fast for large vehicles to load and unload.
It's getting very difficult.
And we have in our 16th and Washington, we have a big setback in our parking lot to some of the trucks to get unloaded.
But what I see is happening is that what we're trying to do now is change it from what I see is a lot of retail and a lot of apartment spaces over top.
And I see that flow moving forward. And that's what I see on Washington Avenue as being here for the last 30 to 35 years.
Thank you. I have no further questions.
Questions from, did he adopt your testimony?
I can ask him. Michael?
Michael?
So in addition to everything that you've testified to today, did you hear what I stated earlier?
And is it true and accurate?
And do you adopt it as though it were your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Yeah, could you clarify for me?
So does this parcel or this building goes from 15 to 16 street back up?
Or is there like the little street?
Not all the way.
You have to create the street.
Agata, could you show the?
just one second it runs from washington avenue through to altar street it does not run from
16th all the way to 15th so so is there um is there any obstruction on altar street right now
that would that you would have to that the building uh takes a a portion of or is it the
altar street is just straight right now altar street is straight okay all right okay 15th and
So, the traffic would come from possibly, well, if you were entering the building to park, you will enter on Alter Street and then go out at 15th Street?
Is that the flow of traffic?
The flow of traffic is for the cellar parking, the underground parking, you would enter it off of 16th Street.
Can you show the other plant that shows the dry vial?
Can you show the other plan that shows the drive aisle?
Just one second.
Alter Street, plan south.
This is the driveway, and this is Washington Avenue.
This blue ramp, this is access to the cellar parking. The green ramp, this is access to the second floor parking. For basically an ingress to second floor, you will be coming off of Alter Street, but egressing onto Washington Avenue and be forced to make a right.
There would be no left turn from this parcel onto, and that was a requirement of the Planning Commission and a suggestion of the Planning Commission.
This would be a one-way driveway with the two loading zones right along.
That's why there's a little kink in the curb.
I'm glad you showed this diagram.
So that landscape strip right there abuts the building next to it, right?
That is correct.
We are not attaching ourselves to the building.
there is a 34 foot gap between the two buildings all right thank you you're welcome other questions
from the board yes uh you're going to have 15 of affordable units is that what was agreed to yes
so that's eight units out of the 55 correct it comes to just above eight percent above eight
units okay all right thank you other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hilly emerson
just a quick question the i know the affordable units was something requested by the rco and
that's something that that the um the zoning board cannot add as the proviso is that being
done via a cba or deed restriction or how my client agreed to that with the rcos and it's
not via a deed restriction and they did not ask to enter into a cba okay my client agreed to it
and we'll provide that okay that's fine i just wanted to be to be clear for anyone here that
we can't we that is not something the cba can enforce so because i know the rco did request
that thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience yes sir i have a hand up by
the name of Madeleine Shacumba that had been allowed to speak. May I just ask one question
of Ms. Emerson? You mentioned that you received a letter and petition. I haven't received any of
that. Would you be able to send that to my attention? Yes. Yes. Thank you.
Why, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Madeline Chacumba.
M-A-D-E-L-I-N-E Chacumba.
That's like in Sam, H-I-K-O-M-D-A.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am an RCO.
I'm not a better next to the, of course, the street from the proposed.
All right, please proceed.
I am representing the North of Washington Avenue Coalition.
We are co-coordinating RCO with SOSNA, which is the other RCO, okay?
We're not surprised that SOSNA has supported this project because their board currently has a developer on it
and several of his members who are employed by him.
And he has a number of properties in our area that are residential.
We are opposed to this being a residential because we want jobs, okay?
Residential don't bring in jobs.
And we have enough residential on Washington Avenue already.
We have the one that's 1100 Washington Avenue, which Dawn talked about, 1100 people.
We have already built on Washington Avenue at 21st, 22nd, and 23rd additional residential reading.
and they seem like they want to turn
all of Washington Avenue into nothing but
residential. We,
as I said, need help jobs.
We are struggling now
and we don't want to see Washington Avenue
turned into nothing but rich
residential housing.
It would cause a chasm because it would be between the rich and the poor.
It would cause a chasm
because it would be between the rich and the poor.
Many of our people are seniorly and they are moderate income people.
We cannot afford a rise in our taxes because they're inviting these rich folks to come in here
and buy these houses that they are building.
We are not supportive of the IRNX suggestion of B's only Washington Avenue to be nothing but residential,
with Trump Park commercial, usually low-income paying commercial.
We lack jobs in our areas, and our history is based on that being an industrial background,
not a residential background.
We are the second poorest city in the country.
We need creation of affordable housing, not expensive residential housing.
And we do not want you to have our zoning re-zoned so that they can bring in this expensive housing.
None of the upcoming proposal for housing or every upcoming proposal we have is all for expensive housing.
This has had detrimental effects upon the existing residents who are middle class and senior lead residents.
The increased real estate taxes are sure to have a negative impact.
We saw no attempt by the developer of this property to seek industrial uses,
and we would like to see what exists in the past return to Washington Avenue.
We are struggling very hard to do this, okay?
The loss of industries hurt not just our area, but the economic base of the city.
We must all work together to create this base.
Our population is already drilling.
We once were the third largest country and the third largest city in this country,
and now we are close to being the 10th, 8th, or the 9th, or somewhere in a way.
We need to attract businesses for our survival, and we need to have an area where they can develop.
we continue to invest in housing and not in job creation and we continue to do
this we will all do we economic investment in the area that can't
extract investment the current developers are only looking to have the
money in their pocketbooks we ask that you do not approve this and that we
allow Washington Avenue to develop as it has been they are now impacting
Washington Avenue is next to a residential area
and these tall buildings are
impacting negatively on our residential
area because they're building them tall
blocking the sunlight and everything
else. We had one at 1600
coming up now
with a developer who wishes to put
a tall building there impacting
on a small street
and he
he's getting away with it because he
went and developed
Let's concentrate on this building. Let's concentrate
on this. I'm sorry. Okay.
Are you, you're, obviously you're, listen to me, obviously you're against this project.
Yes, I am.
And I appreciate your call and your comments.
Thank you very much.
I do have one question.
Ms. Chacombo, could you please place your address on the record?
My group address, they were in my organization today, 22, 2234 Bancho Street.
we are a non-profit organization and we've been in the area for almost 40 years
thank you thank you other questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a hand up by the name of richard gillenick they have been allowed to speak
how many hands do you have up i have a total of four more hands up after this
Thank you. Could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
Sure. My name is Richard Gliniak. It's G-L-I-N-I-A-K.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
I am on the South of South Neighborhood Association board and also on the zoning committee.
And I'm also I'm also a neighbor and also a committee person in a 10th division, which is two blocks from this project.
Thank you. Are you in favor of this project, sir?
I am strongly in favor of this project, as the zoning committee unanimously was strongly in favor of this project.
And thank you. So go ahead.
I just want to, and I can go, I mean, it's the applicant's attorney did specify all the details, but this particular project meets a very high standard that we often require of any development on Washington Avenue.
In fact, you know, it has steel construction, affordability units, plenty of parking that won't impact adjacent homeowners or residents, a green roof.
And what's really special about this, it has a large percentage of two and three bedroom.
It has a large percentage of two and three bedroom apartments, which is ideal for families.
And it would be our hope that families would move in there with children.
And those children would actually go to Stanton Elementary School, which is a few blocks away.
And Stanton has and is suffering from low enrollment.
And any additional families moving in would be a really great thing.
I also want to speak, you know, we have a national, well, first, we have a housing shortage in South Philadelphia, Graduate Hospital, Center City, excuse me, Southwest Center City, and nationally.
And so we need to be building more housing.
And if that was the case, then prices would go down.
So, you know, it's a high standard.
It's a beautiful architect that the zoning committee has worked with before.