Okay, so Brendan, just real fast.
You're a civil engineer.
You prepared the plans here.
Is that right, Brendan?
That is correct.
Okay, thanks.
So what I have on screen, I believe, is a cross-section of three different points on the site.
I'm going to real quickly show you, this is sort of the summary of all three.
And then on the following slides, there are individual breakdowns.
So you heard Mr. Holloman's question.
He would like you to describe, you know, how the sort of fill is going to work there.
Can you just walk through this a little bit?
I'm going to put the ball on your court, if that's okay.
sure that uh that's fine as you as you can see in the cross sections um from from the top of the
sidewalk down to the back of the site um we the maximum slope across the the entire site without
looking at localized areas is uh 15 which is lower than the threshold um you can see that the the
localized man-made steep slopes were put in there when obviously when they they tried to put in the
swimming pool um so they had to have a large level of area so they put walls and slopes into that
um a level area for a pool and a parking area so if you can see those those sections
um we'll actually be uh improving improving it and and taking away some of these man-made steep
slopes which will uh prevent sedimentation and and polluting the watershed
thank you okay thank you does anyone else from the board have a question
no mr chairman no mr chairman okay so both of you we've heard both of you we'll get together
with hillary in the next couple weeks and we'll vote on this i think it's the 14th right hillary
that is correct mr chair at 2 p.m okay and by the way thank both of you
thank you thank you all right uh may be excused yes you can sir
thank you number 16 mi 2022 003 388 2112 ridge avenue jeffrey young is the attorney
there's support from the rco and also support from the councilman um clark's office
mr young is coming back in as a panelist
hi good afternoon members of the board
all right jeffrey could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Yes, Jeffrey Young.
I am the attorney for the applicant.
My name is spelled J-E-F-F-E-R-Y, last name Young, Y-O-U-N-G.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And the applicant is the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Jeffrey?
Yes, that's the property owner, yes.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
This is Hillary.
I just wanted to interject briefly.
The board member, Shahid, is recusing himself from this matter.
That's right.
Thank you.
Do you agree to leave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under a plan for the property, five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, we did email an exhibit packet with some documents in it. There is an issue with a tax clearance that I will explain further in the presentation, given that my client is a nonprofit tax entity, there seems to be an issue once certain properties were purchased. So I would explain that in the presentation.
it. Okay, you may proceed and start sharing your screen. Thank you. Thank you.
thank you thank you
again good afternoon members of the board my name is jeffrey young i'm here on behalf of the
project developer benchmark construction group and the owner of the property philadelphia housing
authority for the properties essentially the address would be 2112 ridge avenue
We're here, I guess, when I go over the presentation, it's a table of contents.
Prior to the submission of my packet, we did not have the RCO letter, but this is an email
from the RCO stating what the results of the meeting was, but subsequently we have obtained
a letter. I believe the board has that letter as well.
um here is a tax clearance for for one of the properties uh 2112 ridge avenue um again that
the these properties are owned by the philadelphia housing authority so there are about there are 10
properties uh that consist of this particular um project um and as we were trying to obtain
some tax clearances some properties we were able to obtain tax clearances for this particular
clearance as you see it didn't give us an address when we put the address in or the OPA number in
so I believe that because of the condemnation that occurred which is how PHA acquired most
to these properties, it kind of screwed up OPA system and created some issues when generating
tax clearances. Again, this is another one for a property that's included in the Project 2126
Ridge Avenue. Here's another one for this one was for 1537 Beachwood, which is included
in the site, but again, the address didn't show up once we entered the OPA address.
For 1529 Beachwood, again, same thing. We put the address in, we put the OPA number in,
and this is the clearance that showed up for us.
2118 ridge avenue we were able to obtain a tax clearance but again for for beachwood
1529 beachwood just shows that there's a zero tax balance for 2116 ridge avenue we were not
able to obtain a tax clearance but this shows a zero tax balance and again members of the board
We put in the Philadelphia property website, we typed in the addresses for 2120 Ridge Avenue, 2122, and 2124, and that told us that those properties did not exist.
So there, again, given how PHA acquired most of these properties through condemnation and consolidation, I believe that it kind of screwed up OPA system.
So again, what we're proposing is to build a four-story building with 36 residential units
and four parking spaces. We have six refusals in total stemming from the number of units,
the height of the property, as well as some dimensional variances, a parking variance and
a variance for a fence, which I will address each variance throughout the project. We're also
refused for not having 100% of commercial, 100%, excuse me, not having 30 feet of commercial space
on the first floor for one of our commercial spaces which i'll get to as well again these
are the additional varices for the height our proposed height is 45 feet where 30 is allowed
we have a fence six foot high proposed fence where four feet is allowed and a certain part of our
fence is 100 opaque which i will get to and address in further presentation here just to give the
board a sense of the zoning for the area where this arrow is that is all zoned cmx2 and across
the street is deep red is all cmx3 we're located in the shardswood neighborhood of north philadelphia
this particular property is included in the in the philadelphia housing authority
um this particular property um is included in the in the philadelphia housing authority's
um shardswood bloomberg redevelopment plan
and again this is just a map uh to show that we are on the ridge avenue commercial corridor um
directly across the street from us is a new supermarket uh the grocery outlet uh market
as well as other uh mixed-use developments along ridge avenue we're about a block and a half north
of the Philadelphia Housing Authority's headquarters.
And this is an aerial view of the property.
We are bounded by Ridge Avenue to the east,
Beechwood to the west, to the south is Bolton,
and there to the north is Oxford Street
with a few properties in between ours and Oxford Street.
And again, just give the board a sense of what the area surrounding the property looks like from all corners of our property.
I'm going to get to the zoning plan here.
Again, we're proposing a four-story commercial mixed-use multifamily building with 36 units.
By right, we're allowed to do 31 units.
However, when this plan was designed, it actually was designed for a by right project as far as the number of units go.
However, this particular area, we were able to obtain the affordable housing bonus necessary to have the additional height of 45 feet and the additional five units.
However, this particular area was taken out of the legislation, and so this did not conform to the current code.
Again, we're proposing 36 units, a height of 45 feet.
The total square footage of the building is 33,370 square feet.
the first floor consists of vacant commercial spaces and the commercial spaces which we are
refused for is this little small area here which will be used as some kind of store or of the like
possibly for for the tenants and I'll get to a floor plan later on in the in the presentation
but we're proposing to add street trees along ridge avenue and the front of the property as
well as in the rear along beechwood there is there will be an existing there will be open area
in the back for the residents to utilize again there are four parking spaces
one on beach two parking spaces on beechwood excuse me and then two parking spaces to the
south on Bolton. And to address the fence issue, so surrounding the property will be a six foot
high fence. It's a traditional black iron gate fence. However, around the trash area here is
where it's 100% opaque where you won't be able to see in the property, which I think is a benefit
to the community so they they're not seeing the uh the trash storage um in in the property
um again this is just our roof plan uh designating uh what the the roof would look like here are the
stairs and this is the elevation to showing four stories um indicating uh that we are at uh 45 feet
and again this is just more elevations for the property.
The design of the property is a mix of red brick and gray brick with some blue and white
metal paneling. It is consistent with the development style that is being developed
along the ridge avenue corridor as you can see there are interests for the retail locations
along the ridge avenue front and a separate interest here for the residents
this is just the the Bolton street elevation you can see the south view of the property
This is the rear, as I mentioned, the open area grass space, the black iron fence around the property.
um the the black iron fence around the property
and again this is the view from the the ridge avenue and bolton street corner
and again from the beechwood and bolton street uh intersection
and give the board a sense of all the views all the way around the property
here the site plan and i want to get into the first floor of the property
here in the first floor there will be a multi-purpose room for the residents
a kitchenette area for for packages office space storage and again the retail spaces
and small commercial space here so we we do not have any residential uses on the first floor
again all uses are are ancillary i guess for the the residents um and again the refusal
regarding the commercial space is because this small commercial space does not meet the 30 feet
requirement again this is the site plan of the first floor again
here's the second floor each floor will consist of 12 units the majority of the
units are one-bedroom units and there are accessible units on each floor so you can
see on the second floor there will be a handicap accessible unit.
This is the third floor with a handicap accessible unit as well as a unit for hearing and vision
impaired residents. And the third floor again consisting of 12 units and each floor also
has two two-bedroom units as well to give this the board a stint of the
elevations again for the property again we are here we are 45 feet across the
street from us is a new development being constructed now by mosaic which is
of similar use it is a commercial mixed-use with commercial on the
ground floor with three floors of residential above. Again, we are proposing to be 45 feet
in height. Again, across, so we are a little bit lower than a by right project that is in the CMX
three zoning classification of 52 feet. And again, we're about a block north of PHA's existing
headquarters, which is a total of 72 feet in height. So we are consistent and in line with
the new development and development styles in the area, as I will present here. This is the
mosaic project that I just mentioned being built directly across the street from us. Again, they
have red brick with paneling, similar style to what we are proposing to give the board to get
sense of what this new development style on Ridge Avenue consists of. Again similar pictures from
the Mosaic project in the rear. Here is a picture of our zoning notice. This is from the Beechwood
side of the property and here's another picture of the zoning notice from the Ridge Avenue side
of the property. Here's a copy of our notification that was sent to the community. This is our proof
of mailings. And we also have a petition in support from local residents regarding our
project. And with that, you know, I'll be able to answer any questions that the Board
may have.
Jeffrey, do you have anybody from PHA that you want to have your testimony adopted?
Yes, I believe it's if Nicholas Dima is on or Greg Hampson.
Yeah, whatever one.
There's no one by that name with their hand.
Oh, hold on.
We have Gregory Hampson.
Gregory, okay.
Mr. Hampson, could you state your name and your position at Fluffy Housing Authority?
Gregory Hampson, I'm the Executive Vice President of Construction and Capital Project for the Philadelphia Housing Authority.
Could you do me a favor? Could you spell your name for the court reporter?
H-A-M-P-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Thank you. Mr. Hampson, have you heard my testimony this afternoon?
yes and uh do you believe my testimony to be true and accurate
And do you believe my testimony could be true and accurate?
And do you adopt my testimony as if it were your own?
Thank you.
Jeffrey, is that your case?
Yes, yes, sir.
Is there questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
question uh planning commission please good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing cmx2 commercial mixed use
at this location the proposal conforms with the recommendations of the lower north district plan
regarding the redevelopment of the shardswood bloomberg high res accordingly the planning
commission recommends the board grant the variances thank you hillary do we want to hold the vote till
we straighten out the uh the taxes the ownership um yes mr chair um let's just hold close the