thank you uh parla you uh saw my presentation to the board and heard my testimony um can you
verify that what i've said and presented is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony
yes everything is correct and i do thank you thank you any questions from the board no mr chairman
what else to testify in this case please raise your hand
No further hands, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chairman DiCicco, Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission
staff.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the zoning districts indicated on the
new proposed lot.
However, there will be no changes to the existing buildings and the proposed uses are consistent
with the intended use of the existing buildings.
city planning commission recommends that the board grant the variances thank you mi 2021-002
163 2900-02 north 5th street my vote is yes carol tenere my vote is yes professor plaza yes
James Snell, yes. Thomas Holloman, yes. Before the next case gets called up,
Carol, you mentioned something about a request for a reconsideration.
Carol? Chair, you were not there for the original vote, so you...
Yeah, I know. I was just going to get that on the record, so if they want to call Carol.
Thank you. I'm sorry. A bit of an error happened.
i'm sorry jason no i was saying that i don't see that um okay she's back
had a bit of an error on my end please forgive carol mr you have you'll be the one that raised
that issue because i was not present at that time that's correct this is a request for reconsideration
calendar number mi-2021-001972 913 west dakota street my vote is no
confessor plaza my vote is no james snell my vote is no thomas holliman my vote is no
okay uh so carol i i was asked to recuse myself uh for the case you're going to be calling up for
1451 north broad i agreed at the time although i want the record to reflect
the reason I was asked is because they thought there was a conflict with a client of mine
my client at that time had no business dealings anywhere close to 1451 North Broad having said
that I still will respect the request of council on behalf of the applicant to recuse myself
thank you thank you chair calendar number mi-2021-002671 1451 north broad street
attorneys carl from mavera
i need to interrupt this if i can again on the time issue uh tanya i believe miss sunkett said
that we got a hard one o'clock i don't know how we're going to get there but um we'll wait to
We'll wait to hear what Mr. Primavera says.
hear what Mr. Primavera says. Okay. Thank you. Great.
Okay, thank you.
Great.
Yes, Madam Chair, can you hear me?
Carl Primavera?
Yes, I can.
Yes, do you swear?
Put your name and address on the record, please.
Yes, Carl Primavera.
I'm the attorney for the applicant 1835 Market, Philadelphia, PA.
Just to recap.
That's a different thing.
can we swear in first but uh miss uh sunk it we're on 1451 north broad street right we swore
him in already we didn't yet but he's uh saying he's the attorney for a different address on
market street no 1451 north broad okay i'm sorry i made miss boo okay do you swear for him to tell
the whole truth and nothing about the truth i do thank you uh so this go ahead this is just by way
of background and i have a letter which is in the record i'm not going to repeat it because
uh your time is valuable today but uh we originally had been to the board
the vote was opposed to the variance there was a timing lag with a revised uh recommendation
from the Planning Commission, which didn't get into the record. So I filed an appeal to court.
The court remanded so that the record could be reopened for that memo from the Planning Commission,
which in light of a revised plan, which happened after CDR, we were able to get their support.
So there was a vote at the board, three to one, with members Tenere, Plaza, and Snell in favor and Holloman against.
And I thought that was the end of it.
But then as the transcript will reveal, Len Reuter said, oh, there should have been reference to the revised plan as a proviso.
I go on to state vociferously that it was embedded in the case on the remand and it was clear, but because Len was afraid that Ellen and I would be confused, the vote was then vacated so that the revised plan could be re-stamped and the vote could be done as per proviso.
So that's where I thought we were with no further testimony and no further discussion.
It was strictly a technical matter or what we would call a ministerial matter.
And that's our legal and factual position.
But I do know that Ms. Jones from Councilman Clark's office sent a letter expecting some comment from her clients.
And I think there was a letter from the board, Ms. Teneri, saying that some comments regarding the Planning Commission change in position would be allowed.
So I have nothing to add.
I think the record is closed.
I think the vote has been taken.
And this is strictly a ministerial act of confirming, as per Len Reuter, that it's as per the proviso.
proviso. And I have provided Ms. Saletta your counsel with the form of proviso if that helps.
So thank you. And Madam Chair, this is Sharon. Ms. Jones was planning to be here, but something
came up unexpectedly. She emailed me this morning. I believe she understood that there would be
members of the community here to testify. And I think you previously agreed that you would take
limited testimony yes we did so do we start with the first witness in the virtual audience
is there anyone here on 1451 north broad
we have a miss stacy dukes with her hand raised i will allow her to speak at this time
Thank you.
Ms. Aleta, I'm sorry, Ms. Vice Chair, this is Tanya, the ZBA administrator.
Would you mind if I was to poll how many individuals in our virtual audience are here for this
Not at all.
Raise your hand.
I would appreciate that.
So that we can have an idea.
Thank you.
And currently, no one other than Ms. Dukes is available, just for your information.
Thank you.
Ms. Dukes, can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Name an address on the record and spell your last name, please.
Yes, Stacy Dukes, D-U-K-E-S.
My address is 1236.
Patrick Henry, please, Philadelphia PA, 19122.
Thank you.
Do you swear for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Okay, you may proceed.
Okay, good afternoon, everyone. I just have a few questions. First, the RCO letter that he has, was that from the Yorktown RCO? Because I really don't think it was.
we were supposed to meet with him and his client as a Yorktown community, but every time we reached
out, we never were able to get in contact with him or his client. Number two, we still
have a problem with the height of his development. It's just too high.
um okay where is the where is excuse me where is the Yorktown community today
that's a good question I don't know um I'm actually here at work like right across the
street from you um I I don't know we sent the emails out so I don't know what the situation
is I know that um the CDC president she had a meeting with um one of the representative
representative Kenyatta and the Yorktown arms representative she had an emergency
in Yorktown arms so I do know why they're not here so okay well we'd be very happy to hear
what you have to say okay um as I was saying the the height of the apartment building that's just
too high. And that's going to bring along a lot of other automobiles where that's going to create
a parking situation. I know the developer and his lawyer were saying, oh, they can park in
Progless Plaza, but you cannot do that. I know you cannot do that. I spoke with the CEO, Anthony,
Anthony last night, and he was saying, no, if you're not shopping in the plaza, you cannot
park in the plaza, you will be towed and fined. So I don't know where the developer or his lawyer
got that information from. I know that is false. So I really would like to have
him and his client come and meet with us because we've never done that as of yet.
Mr. Primavera.
So because this goes back so long, even though it seems like just yesterday, the RCO that
was designated at the time of our appeal to the Zoning Board was Community Land Trust.
And in your record and in the transcript is a very robust support from Vivian Van Story,
who for years chaired that RCO. Also, there's a reverend who's in the record, I want to say
LUSD, but I don't think it was, Nash, who had another RCO. So the registered RCOs were very
much in support. What happened, interestingly enough, we had large-scale meetings, and the
Yorktown people, who were not the RCO, wanted more information. So we did have a variety of
meetings all over, both before the hearing, after the hearing, other groups. And we did hear
everybody and we gave everybody whatever time and respect that we could. The project is on
North Broad Street next to what used to be Reverend Leon Sullivan. So we're really not,
in my opinion, in the Newarktown neighborhood, although they say they claim jurisdiction,
we're on Broad Street. So we followed all the rules. We got the support of the RCO.
The letters are in the record. They testified at the hearing. So I really don't believe there's
anything more. And the board voted to approve this, but there was some reluctance by the city
because they thought that the revised plan
was not going to be referred to
and that L&I would approve the original plan.
The original plan was the plan
that the Planning Commission did not endorse.
So Len was very clear that he said,
I want to make sure that what the Zoning Board approves
and what L&I issues the permit on
is the plan that the Planning Commission supports,
which had to do with the revisions that we made.
So I don't believe there's anything
more that can be done or should be done other than to vote the case with reference to the
the proviso, which is a revised plan from Cecil Baker, dated June 18th, 2019. And that would be
proviso, which is a revised plan from Cecil Baker.
consistent with the record on January 21st, 2020, when there was a three to one vote in our favor,
but it was vacated, in my opinion, and on the record, solely for the purpose that you could
vote the proviso on the revised plan, so Elle and I would issue the right permit and make the
planning commission happy so that's all i have to say uh with regard to that okay well you said
the rco was um miss miss vivian green and you've had meetings with her rcos in that neighborhood
which is on the other side of broad street and you also said um when you were the last time you
and i spoke that she didn't even know yorktown existed however your client said he's he's been
working in the community for over 20 years, so I'm sure he knew Yorktown existed. You and your
client were also instructed to meet with the Yorktown community at our last meeting here
at this board, and we never got that. Well, Ms. Van Story and her RCO was what we call the
organizing RCO. Yorktown was not an RCO at the time. It hadn't been formed. But the reason that
there were additional meetings was so that Yorktown, which was intending to create for itself
an RCO, would be able to participate. And we all remember people from Yorktown showed up.
There was a bit of a discussion about creation of the new RCO. But I believe that everybody who had
and interest was heard. And it's been since, I guess, January 21st of 2020, that the matter
was going to be re-voted. And nobody reached out to me. And as far as I'm concerned, we're
back where we were, which is we had a favorable vote, but they wanted to make sure for the
benefit of everybody that Ellen and I referenced the right plan, the plan that had been revised
after CDR. Well, Mr. Primavera, I've tried to reach out to you so you and your client can come
into the Yorktown community and let them know what was going on. And I do remember the meeting
that you're talking about. That was a mess. And you know that. No one was being heard. I mean,
it was just a mess. So again, you were tasked to meet with the Yorktown community, and that never
took place. The only reason why some of the community members were at the meeting, it was
from word of mouth. We didn't even know about it. Some of the meetings that your very, your first
maybe two or three meetings the yorktown community did not know about it we were not informed
no one told us the last the last two meetings that you had um it was just from hearsay
and and i can tell you it was about maybe seven people at that meeting and and mr nash was there
pastor Nash or I don't I don't know him Miss Green was there um the pastor from Mount Olive
was there your client was there and you were there so I I'm like I don't know what you're
talking about really because and where was that meeting that meeting was held at the owl's nest
the one that's standing now see I remember I remember about 40 people including Jeffrey Young
Yes, it was 40 people, but it was about 10 people from Yorktown, I know, because I counted.
All right. In addition to how many other people were there, 40, 50?
Well, those people did not live in Yorktown. Those people lived on the other side of Broad Street.
In the designated RCO area.
Okay, but you were still tasked, when we came in front of the board the last time, you were in person.
you were still tasked to meet with the yorktown community and you did not do that and nobody else
i personally reached out to you and your client i'm sorry i'm sorry ma'am yes ma'am can you
please let him respond too because he needs to speak as well so i get paid by the hour so i go
everywhere anywhere all the time that's what i do um so i return every phone call which again is
billable. I go to every meeting. And Mary Jones, who speaks for the council president,
She certainly knows how to write letters to me and the board when she wants to. So I've been around. I would have met. I don't think there's anything more to talk about. But I think after the vote, we're more than happy to meet and talk about anything with regard to the project.
she certainly knows how to write letters to me and the board when she wants to. So I've been
But I think it would be an insult to the RCO that was designated and who had multiple meetings that were well attended, including, as you say, at least 10 people.
I think it was more from Yorktown.
And I think we followed the process.
But we're always willing to meet and we want to talk about whatever we're going to be doing.
But this is a technical hearing.
The case was voted last time, but there was a problem with the revised plan.
And I thought the whole issue on the remand from court was that we wanted to have the positive recommendation from the Planning Commission based on the revised plan.
So I don't believe that the question is at issue, but we do want to be good neighbors and I do want to meet anywhere, anytime, anyplace.