My client made these changes that the RCO ended up drafting
into their letter of support here.
um so so scott woodruff the architect will walk through these changes and we have a revised plan
and a proviso change form uh but uh we ended up with unanimous support um after that second
meeting so this was just a really great collaborative process um and i'm proud of
that um i think with that let me um stop my screen share scott if you're out there would
you introduce yourself and share the revised plan? Yes, so I need to put my name on the record.
Name and address, please. Scott Woodruff, 4001 Main Street, Suite 203, Philadelphia, PA, 19127.
And do you swear for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. You may proceed.
thank you this is a proposed rendering of the exterior of the building we're proposing a
four-story building with first level accessory parking of 11 spaces and 27 dwelling units
this is the zoning site plan as you can see and brandon mentioned we are building to the front
lot line would have a 22 foot 10 inch rear yard we also have some interior courtyards as well to
allow lights in for the unit just to know the existing property is vacant to our left side
and then there's an existing church that is located to our right side which you can kind of see the
outline of here. Looking at the ground level, you can kind of see the proposed
11 parking spaces. This building will be serviced by an elevator to all the
levels and fully accessible. Some of the comments that we received from the RCO
was that they were concerned with some of the security of the building as well
as traffic, ingress and egress, to the parking spaces.
So we had put a keycard gate on the front of the parking for security purposes, as well
as we will be adding audio-visual controls when that gate is operational and cars are
coming in and out to let pedestrians know of such.
Also they had wanted us to add in parking mirrors as well as an internal speed bump
to make sure that some of that was controlled as far as speed goes.
We also have an enclosed trash room that's kind of located at the front here that will
also be serviced by a trash chute, which is kind of in here.
It's probably better seen on some of these other plants.
So we have an internal trash chute that goes directly down into the enclosed trash room.
the trash room itself will be ventilated and then private trash hauler will obviously come and get
that. The units are mostly one-bedroom units ranging from 550 up to around 7, 720 and then
there's one two-bedroom on the floor so a total of three two-bedrooms and then 24 one-bedrooms.
uh no roof deck uh proposed on this as we are under the 38 feet uh threshold for height
the other thing i just wanted to briefly mention was that the site does dramatically kind of slope
up towards the back um so even though the parking is at the first level uh the majority of the
parking especially as you get to the rear of the site is kind of subterranean um and kind of won't
be seen one of the other things that uh we agreed and agreed to add was additional lighting kind of
in these courtyard areas um and kind of at the front of the building uh again for safety concerns
um within the neighborhood uh brandon anything else that you can think of that i've missed
Brandon, anything else that you can think of that I've missed?
um no actually scott
No, actually, Scott, I'm going to ask you to stop your screen share.
I just want to go back to Atlas here on my end.
So I did want to go to Atlas just to sort of discuss, you know, what is the hardship here?
So this is an interesting block.
this property is just shy of 10 000 square feet of land area and it's um sort of a block where
see if i can get satellite view here nope that's not what i wanted there you go um you have a lot
of land vacancy and in fact in a moment i'm gonna um bring on a neighbor in support who owns one of
those vacant parcels um but we have a lot of vacancy this on the the northeast corner of 16th
and allegheny is the saint joseph's retirement home so that is a sort of a multi-family senior
use with an attached chapel um there is a vacant lot directly next to us and then sort of beyond
that is an apartment building known as the allegheny um at 1605 west allegheny which i
believe is an 87-unit apartment building. This is a church which I think does not have much active
use of the building at the moment and is sort of not in great physical shape. So it's sort of
a context that is institutional and multifamily. And that's why, you know, sort of building the
large single-family home that RSA 3 calls for really isn't appropriate here. We envision this
is something where, you know, folks would walk on Allegheny or two blocks away here to broaden
Allegheny and make use of everything in the neighborhood and SEPTA's services there.
We also, in terms of building to the lot lines, that decision was made in coordination with
Tioga United. They really did not want to see like fenced in yards in the front and sides of
the property in the end um i think out of concern for um trash i think the block has a has a
considerable dumping problem and the idea was to have um open spaces that are that are controlled
and not like exposed to the street so we are going to have a rear yard and that rear yard is going to
be fenced in at the rco's request and will be available to the residents um but um that i just
wanted to walk through why we thought multifamily and having a rear yard as opposed to front and
side yards was appropriate here. Matan Shmuel should be out there. And if he is, I just wanted
to allow him to testify as to his thoughts as a neighboring landowner on the block.
Excuse me, this is Sharon. I have a question. You mentioned building to the lot line.
that that was what the RCO preferred is that something that you changed in your revised plans
or was that yeah they should have been sent to you Sharon yes I understand but you understand
that that is too significant a change to do by that was that was not changed Sharon I'm sorry
for any confusion there that that was a feature in the original plan okay thank you
If we can summarize, that would be helpful.
I really just wanted to bring on Mr. Shmuel and then my client to adopt my testimony,
and I think that's all we have.
Thank you.
There you go.
Is Shmo, is Shmo, is it Shumo?
Yes, sir.
please identify yourself spell your first and last name matan m-a-t-a-n shmuel s-h-m-u-e-l
do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do your affiliation with this project i'm a near neighbor thank you please proceed
uh i just uh i've been on a few of these zoning board hearings uh i'm in support of
anything anyone wants to do
to improve a vacant
lot in the neighborhood.
Thank you.
And Saddam Hassan
or he might go by Dom Hassan
is the principal of the owning
LLC if he's there.
Saddam Hassan, please
just spell your last name for the record.
H-A-S-S-E-N.
We're not firm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
yes and your first name is dom d-o-m yeah uh mr uh sovereign thank you mr chair dom um can you
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Dom, can you affirm that my testimony today was true and accurate?
affirm that my testimony today was true
And do you adopt it as your own?
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Any questions from the board?
Anyone else would like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
Yes, Chair.
I have a Tina Marie Russell.
South Philly to North Philly. Hi, how are you?
Hey, I've been here all day since work, right?
So I'm going to defer to Swan Poodle first, if she's out there.
Say that again.
I would like to defer to Swan Poodle first.
Hold on before you do that. Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And you're representing?
North Central Philadelphia CDC.
So Tioga United, Tioga, correct me if I'm wrong, Tioga United is the coordinating RCO.
That's correct, Mr. Chair.
We're one of the affected RCOs.
I know that.
I'm asking Tioga United.
Is there anyone from Tioga United on this call?
I don't think so, Mr. Chair, as their letter was sent as sort of their testimony in this
matter.
Right.
Yes, we do have a letter of support.
Yeah, I saw that, I just wanna know
if anybody was here to speak to that issue.
All right, okay, Ms. Russell.
Okay, so is Swampoodle online?
Cause I said he's gonna refer to her Swampoodle first
and then we will go after Swampoodle.
That would probably be Adrienne Fernandez.
Is she the call-in?
hello hello yes adrian please identify yourself for the record first and last name
this is adrian fernandez and uh we are one of the one one of the affected rcos
the whole truth and nothing about the truth yes i do i just want to read my entire name
to record our rco is swampoodle neighborhood parcels association rco please proceed okay
we sent a letter of testimony in overall there are a number of um maybe about four or five
affected rcos on this address and all the rcos are equal the coordinator just coordinates the meeting
overall we are opposed to this project um it's it's an overuse of the variance
address on the record mr chair yeah yeah i usually ask but okay your address uh adrian
uh for safety reasons i'm not going to put my address on the record well let me ask everybody
let me ask you this what are the boundaries of uh swamp poodle uh i don't have them there we're
this is in our boundary we all of us cross boundaries they're in our neighborhood we're
in their neighborhood so um planning sends us our seal notification when the appeal
is in our boundary so planning figures that out before we uh come to testify we do not testify
on addresses that are not in our boundaries.
The terms of the rules,
the reason I'm asking is just
for just affected neighbor reasons
and we have, you know,
those who live on the block speaking in support.
So that just was my question.
That's all.
Well, it's kind of where I was going about
Tiota United is coordinating RCO.
Yes, but many RCOs do testify
and I'm sure Tana, we can answer to that.
There's a problem where
there's a perception being given that the RCO coordinator has
a weight that is greater than other RCOs that are affected. Whenever
there's an RCO notification emailed out, all RCOs are
equal. The RCO coordinator is chosen. The RCO
coordinator, the only difference is that the RCO coordinator
convenes the meeting. The Philadelphia zoning code specifies
that. We understand. You don't need to educate. We're just trying to get a
sense of where you are. Okay, you're asking me, so I'm explaining. So in other words,
we do not testify where we are not affected.
So there's times when in our neighborhood, Tioga is testifying.
Understood. Understood.
Understood. Please continue forward with your testimony.
Please continue with your testimony.
Carla, you can unmute yourself.
Hello.
hello hello yes okay i was muted by the uh host that's what the phone told me
Hello.
yeah okay because i kept asking you to continue with your testimony you just kept
all right please go forward with your testimony yeah i was muted that's why you didn't hear can
you please go on with your testimony yes i can thank you we sent we sent in a letter as i was
saying that we are opposed to this project because this
is an entire RSA 3 block
in that area of our wider community.
The larger multifamily buildings
that are usually about three or four stories are on
Allegheny Avenue, and this is around the corner, which is a single
family district. That's typical in that part of our community where the
Multifamily buildings are on the avenue, which is Allegheny Avenue, and on the side streets are the residential districts.
That property, the address being on 3216 North 16th Street, that property is currently, from what the record said, it currently has a variance for four units.
The proposal is for 27, which is an increase of 625%, which is a lot.
There's no hardship to show that we need to spread the low-rise apartment buildings onto our single-family districts that are on the number streets around Allegheny.
um one concern or a first concern is we recently learned that i believe it's next door at 3220
north 16th street is going to be demolished i believe that's the church that was being referred