thought everything did seem a little uh functional so to speak but i i do understand where where you
where you would see where it would cause some uh um inconvenience to to get through the
the kitchen area on the second floor to go to to the bathroom here right
And on the first floor, just following up on what Board Member John said, either for the first or second bedroom, you got to leave your bedroom and go to this bathroom, which is in the kitchen area, down the hallway into the kitchen area, basically, to go to the bathroom.
I mean, it's not the most, as a setup for living, it's not the most optimal, shall I say.
Yeah, what I do have is, for sanitary purposes, some exhaust fans inside of the bathroom on the third floor and the second floor.
and i don't i can't remember if there was one on the i do no there's a no there is an exhaust fan
on the first floor bathroom as well you know because it is it is close to the living area
where the kitchen is so in the event somebody does you know use the bathroom there is some type of
ventilation in the bathroom to uh you know relieve any type of heat and humidity or any
odors from in the bathroom to not enter out into the living area, the kitchen area as well?
Well, on the first floor unit, you don't even list a living room. It just says kitchen dining.
it just says kitchen dining so there's absolutely no living space right no living room no yeah this
So there's absolutely no living space, right? No living room.
yeah the kitchen area is is more so here where the cabinets extend to about here and then there's uh
in this area roughly would be enough room for a a seating table with chairs what about a living
room no no no uh no living room kitchen that's not an apartment that's right that's not an
that's not a two-bed that's not a real two-bedroom apartment also the living room has to be 120
square feet i mean just throwing that out there any any any other questions i do have a question
on the second floor do you know if the kitchen has the three feet required walkway how it's
unclear from the plan but i'm not sure that meets code minimums my concern is that you have a lot
of things that are very tight and barely making code minimums and that if there's like any margin
of error during construction that you're not going to meet code and i do agree with all the comments
for the first floor unit this is it's not very well laid out at all and i do think that it would
work better as a one bedroom and for the density that's trying to be put in this unit um that's
supposed to be single family home i think that these could have been better laid out questions
from our attorney hillary emberson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the
virtual audience or the audience here i do not see any hands raised for the matter mr chair
Planning Commission.
Morning, Chair, Jonathan Goins, Planning Commission staff.
Jonathan, spell your name for the court stenographer.
Yeah, first name is Jonathan J-O-N-A.
I'm sorry, T-H-A-N, last name Goins, G-O-I-N-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
uh the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this
location however there is a documented and permitted history of multi-family use
the appellant has demonstrated that there is a unique physical condition and circumstance
at this property that would prevent it from being reasonably used in conformance with the zoning
code therefore a city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed use
variance for multifamily residential. Thank you. MI 2024, 004-775-3645 North 19th Street, I vote no.
Johns, my vote is no. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no. Ty Owen, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheem, my vote is no. Thank you, sir.
Number 12, MI 2024-007-327-714 North 43rd Street.
Meredith Verlager is the attorney.
Yeah, they'll be coming back in as a panel shortly.
Good morning.
Good morning, counsel. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Would you identify your client, their relationship to this property?
Certainly. My client is 716 North 43rd Street, LLC, which is the owner of the property and is represented by Simon Shane today.
Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to weigh the written of the refusal or stipulate towards accuracy?
I do, yes.
Have you emailed them all the required documents and exhibits that's needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I did, yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Please proceed and share your screen.
If the administrator could also, at this time, promote Jimmy Hare to panelists just for efficiency's sake.
okay they will be promoted to panelists shortly thank you
Thank you.
do you want to start one of your presentation yeah no problem we'll get her to adopt your
testimony. So Jimmy is actually our architect, and I am going to have him testify today, but
I can get started while he's joining as a panelist. The request before the board today
concerns two properties in West Belmont located at 714 through 716 North 43rd Street. This proposal
received overwhelming support from West Belmont Civic Association, evidenced by the letter of
support that is in your exhibit packet at tab 14. As I mentioned, we do have our architect from
Design Blends here to discuss the design with you in a few moments. The deed and the tax clearance
for both of these properties are included at Exhibits 2 and 3. Let me first orient you to
the location of this property. As you can see on the zoning map up on your screen at Exhibit 8,
the properties sit on North 43rd Street between Aspen Street to the north and Fairmount Avenue
to the south. The properties are zoned RSA 5, and you can glean that they are each larger than most
of the properties in this immediate area, but are also extremely narrow in relation to their overall
length. Prior to 2023, just for context, the opposite side of this street, as well as everything
essentially surrounding this property, were zoned RM1, which is relevant as the board learns more
about the context of this particular block. I've also included aerial views at Exhibit 9, which are
up on the screen now. I'll point out a few things. First, you'll notice that this block only has a
few structures of no particular dominant character, with the rest of this side of the block sitting
virtually entirely vacant. The subject properties are shown with an arrow, which are two
dilapidated structures sitting roughly in the middle of these lots. Immediately next door,
the lots have been converted to a garden use by the church that is right here at the corner of
Aspen Street, and you'll see that garden a little bit better in some photographs.
You will also notice the swath of newer development that is diagonal to the rear
along Fairmount Avenue.
From the next aerial, you'll see that the opposing side of the street is predominantly
occupied with existing structures. So this side, the subject side of the street exists
quite differently than the opposing side. Although there is an existing structure immediately next
door at 712 North 43rd Street, which you can see in this aerial, the structure is likely incapable
of preservation just based on the photographs that I will show in a moment. I've also included,
oh and you can see that a little bit better here in this photograph as well.
I've also included another view of Fairmount Avenue, showing several newer developments that have recently been constructed.
Finally, although I will touch on this later, I have included a final aerial, showing that although these are two separate tax parcels that are proposed to be consolidated,
L&I has historically treated the structures that sit on these lots as one, as you can see here from the highlighted map.
And this is based on L&I's system where they would show building certifications or things like that.
So they do identify what they deem to be the structure.
And you can see here that they have treated this as one structure.
Turning to the photographs at exhibit 15, again you'll see the frontage of the two existing
rundown structures which have no evidence of any use since at least 2007.
You can see a better view of the garden next door in this image
as well which again is maintained by the church at the corner.
not only are the existing structures in a deteriorated condition you can also see that
they are situated in a rather unusual condition being set back nearly 40 feet from the front
property line i've included another image of that adjacent structure at 712 north
I've included another image of that adjacent structure at 712 North 43rd Street, which was historically used as a shelter, educational facility, YMCA office, and even, it seems later, as a dance hall.
It is unclear from public sources whether there are any plans to revitalize or demolish this structure.
despite the non-uniform condition of of this side of north 43rd street where the properties sit
the opposing side of the street contains predominantly brick three-story structures
with front setbacks and front porches the view looking towards fairmont avenue
is fairly consistent in that same brick character. Looking north towards Aspen Street,
the only intrusion into the three-story brick character is a stone church that sits right at
the corner. Finally, I have included photographs of the timely posting which was made on April 9th.
at this point i would like to uh have jimmy hair come on and walk you through the uh the proposal
so is is jimmy available ah i see i'm here excellent hi could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer my name is james harrah h-a-r-r-e right do you swear or firm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel thank you uh
Jimmy, could you just identify who you work for and your involvement with this particular project?
Yeah, I work for Design Blends Architecture in Manioc and I am the project coordinator on this
one seeing, you know, through the design and day-to-day activities of it. Thank you. All
right, so before we get to Jimmy, first and I guess most importantly, just in terms of lot context
here. As you can see here at Exhibit 5, these lots are proposed to be formally consolidated,
and we did include that consolidation plan for reference, which is on your screen at Exhibit 5.
The original lots are 3,600 square feet and will be combined to create a lot of 7,200 square feet.
The combination will help to mitigate the effects of having lots that are extremely long and narrow,
which currently exists at 180 feet long while only 20 feet wide to create a substantially less
uniquely shaped set of lots. Jimmy, I'm going to turn to the zoning plans that were filed with
L&I here, which are also at Exhibit 5. Can you just describe to the board, just generally speaking,
the structure that is proposed and its orientation on this lot yeah so the structure is a four-story
multi-family building contains 20 units we have one pilot house currently uh well correct term
roof deck access structure uh but it's being used for mechanical access only um which is triggering
part of our uh refusals here um rsa5 does not have an exception such as commercial districts do that
accepts the pilot house from the building height for mercantile access so again that's why our
building height is reading as i believe 40 47 feet instead of 38 feet which the primary building
is topping out at so um and can you talk a little bit about the the front setback landscaping
Yeah, so the front setback is set back to match the primary building face of 712 North 43rd Street. Meredith, if you zoom up a little bit, you can kind of see the existing site photos on the site plan for me, and that just kind of explains.
so we are matching the face of the second and third floor of that building not the front one
story build out there that's what's considered the primary face so that's what we're meeting
it's about 19 and a half feet set back from the sidewalk right of way and then the rear yard is
I believe we're at 10 just over 10 feet 10 feet 6 inches we have landscaping in the rear
for yard trees, two trees at one tree per 1600 square feet per the zoning code, as well as two
street trees for the subdivided lot that's greater than 35 feet. And then we also have a side yard
that is facing 712 North 43rd Street. We oriented this way since that is an existing building
and is a little bit worse for wear. Providing the side yard there allows us to kind of mitigate
and touching that building as much as possible while also providing um egress for all of the units
And just to confirm the data that is on your plans, this proposal represents an occupied area of only 73.45 percent, correct?
and and just to confirm the data that is on your plans this
Correct.
And other than the height, which we'll talk about again in a minute, all other dimensional aspects of this application are compliant with the code?
Correct.
Great.
All right. So if we scroll then to the elevations, you touched on this briefly, but just now that the board has the plans up in front of them, if you could, again, just explain the height of the building itself and the height of the pilot house that is ultimately triggering this refusal.
all? Sure. So, four-story building, the top of the primary roof is at 38 feet. So, that does meet the
compliant dimensional standards for an RSA 5 lot. In this case, we are providing a pilot house
to provide easier access for all of the mechanical systems that will eventually end up on the roof.
Now, as I stated, the zoning code does provide some dimensional relief for pilot houses. Normally,
in the roof deck, they would be exempt. Or in commercial districts, you have an exemption for
pilot houses that are used for mechanical access only. That exception doesn't extend to the
residential districts. So in this case, since we are only providing one pilot house and not an
actual roof deck, that's where the variance is being triggered or the refusal is being triggered
for the building height. So it's your understanding that if this owner and applicant decided to
actually make the roof deck occupiable by the future tenants, this refusal would have been
eliminated? Yes. Okay. Before we turn to the floor plans, I want to turn to the renderings that I
have up on the screen at Exhibit 7. If you could just talk a little bit about the aesthetic
characteristics of the building and ultimately how you landed on this particular design.
Yeah, so I think the building next door is kind of the primary inspiration for materiality.
The city of Philadelphia is a big brick city, so of course we're going to utilize that as our base.
And then utilizing the mansard, which is also pretty common around this area of the city,
to kind of help visually reduce some of the additional height where this building will be standing over 712 North 43rd Street.
We also utilize the porch, again, another common feature in this part of the city.
The one thing I will say, this rendering is slightly outdated.
The porch as it currently designed only runs from the entry door on the right to where the balconies are.
And the left was left open so that we could provide adequate maintenance service to a PicoVolt that will be in the basement for the building.
And that is shown on the colorized renderings and design plans.
Is that is that correct? So this is representative. It is correct on the zoning plans.
Got it. And then can you just briefly talk and we'll touch on this when we get to the floor plans.
But if you can just briefly touch on the balconies as well.
Yeah. So ideally, obviously, when you have a multifamily building, we're not providing a full roof deck.
We try to provide as many outdoor spaces for as many units as possible.
So they do have some of their own personal outdoor space.
so these front bedroom units that you're seeing here are two bedroom units so we provided a small
deck in there I can get you the dimension it is I would say I think it's about eight by eight
and then we also have a similar balcony condition for the two bedrooms in the rear which we'll see
as we move through the floor plans as well. So it's seven by six and a half is the front balcony
and the rear balcony is nine by three and a half. Okay so let's talk let's flip to the floor plans
now at exhibit six. If you can talk about the overall unit count and then if you can move and
describe the first floor and the basement of this proposed structure? So overall unit count is 20
units. It's a mix of 13 one-bedroom and seven two-bedroom units. When we enter the building
on the first floor there on the right-hand side, you do have one entry or one one-bedroom unit
there at the beginning. We'll preface this, the building does include an elevator, so at base value
All units are developed to a type B accessibility level, including this one.
We kept this unit at the front to try and keep some type of residential presence at the front of the building and push trash and mail further into the building.
further into the building, but since we still had access to the side yard to pull all that out to
But since we still had access to the side yard to pull that out.
the street. So again, as you move in, you have the mail and trash rooms, and then you have your
stair and elevator tower. The stairs and elevator will take you down to the basement, which is all
utility and storage, as well as the bike room for the property. I believe we are providing at least