good morning chairman good morning miss pritzker please identify yourself with the record and i'll
swear you in and then mr plaza will take over sure rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r
1635 market street suite 1600 philadelphia pa 19103 do you swear and affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes thank you rachel you agree to waive the reading of
its refusal and stipulate to attack IRC? Yes. Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with
the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral
photos and plans five days prior to this hearing? Yes. Also, have you met with the RCO and have a
letter? Yes. Thank you. Please proceed. Thank you. So I'm going to share the screen.
This is 419 North 33rd Street. Just as the board can see, this is the refusal for the property.
This is an existing structure in the Powhatan Village neighborhood of Philadelphia.
It's a very large structure and has a history from 1933 to 1977 as being a three and four
unit building, as you will be able to see in two seconds from the zoning archives.
If I can pull them up correctly, sorry, a lot of documents, nope, here we go.
um three family was changed to a single family and after 77 but before that it was a three family
and four family building um four families um it's currently zoned rsa3 um the only uh variance that
we were requesting is for uh use back to a three family dwelling um as the board will be able to
see from the photos I'm about to bring up. The property is not in great shape currently. It's
owned by the property owner who's looking to keep this property and their family and convert it to
three units and do a significant restoration of this property. It's this structure right here,
as the board can see. Here are just some additional exterior photos of the property and then I will
show you the interior photos of the site. So it's kind of got a pretty interesting internal
structure. It's really in not great shape as you can see from the ceiling. It's kind of a little
bit odd in the way that it was laid out. Here's parts of the lower level of the structure which
has like kind of an old kitchen um sort of as you can see the range here and some of this
older furniture as well as you can see the stair is not in great shape um i think some of this was
from the prior use um when it was converted to a single family but it obviously still had some
remnants of the the three family four family the fact that there was a kitchen um in the basement
and as you can see just really in kind of rough shape. I just want to as we move up higher up in
the building as you can see there's some water damage that's been done, there's issues with the
walls. The goal of the restoration would be to keep as much as sort of the historic nature of
the building as possible with some of the wood framing, some of the stairways are in good shape,
things like that as we move up higher up there's some beautiful brick that I believe the goal is
to restore as you can see the stairways are in good shape and there's some this sort of atrium
area is in decent shape but this is a pretty large structure for being zoned RSA 3. It would
require you know a very well-to-do single-family owner to come in to be able to not only restore
well-to-do single-family owner to come in to be able to not only restore this, but
to be able to afford, you know, a building of this size in this neighborhood for a single-family home.
Just want to point out some of the historic details like this fireplace. As you can see,
the walls and the brick are in really bad shape, but, you know, the goal would be to really restore
this and do that in a more affordable perspective with trying to do three units, keep it in the
family of the current owner who grew up in the neighborhood and grew up at this house.
And obviously you see it's really not in great shape. So a single family home is just not really
feasible in addition to the amount of restoration that this building requires and in consideration
of trying to keep some of the historic qualities of the interior. I think the board gets the idea
of the shape of it. I will have the architect go through what we were proposing, but just as far
as sort of the context of the surrounding area, I think it's worth mentioning that, you know,
although this property is zoned RSA 3, there are examples on the same block that diverge from sort
of this single family use. Specifically, 431 North 33rd Street received a zoning permit for
continued use as both a church and a two dwelling units on March 3rd, 2020. 429 North 33rd was
granted a variance for two dwelling units on December 21, 2010. 423 North 33 contained four
units in 2007. And according to the zoning application and the zoning history, it likely
remained as such until at least July of 2019 when five electric meters were photographed, which we
could see on Google Street View. So it's not out of character for this property to be multifamily
on this specific block, although it has an RSA-3 designation. I also think, as you'll see
from the near neighbors, we were able to get support from the coordinating, not the coordinating
RCO, Palatins Village. They, you know, wanted to see single family. They really have a push
towards single family. They did say that, you know, they would support two family. So I do
think that they do have an appreciation that, you know, single family is not necessarily viable
here, especially given the amount of work needed to revitalize this and some of the additional
character of that block. We also did get support from many folks who actually live on the block,
including the block captain. I provided this information to the council office as well.
So there's about, I think, nine letters. This was submitted in our hearing packet
for support specifically, you know, to keep this in this family's, to keep this property in the
family, to convert it to three units. And these are the folks who actually live on that block.
Most of the folks who are actually at the RCO meeting were members of Palton Village's
organization and weren't necessarily folks who live within 250 feet of the property. So the
owner went around and got support from those who actually live on this block. So there's nine
letters in support. In addition, we did get a letter of support from two affected RCOs as well,
both DAPA, which is the Drexel Area Property Association, and Mount Vernon's Civic Association.
so I'm just going to bring up those letters as well. I think I have them.
Give me one second.
That's our hearing packet.
Sorry, give me one second.
I'm going to just stop share while I find these so that I don't have to.
Okay, so here's the one from Mount Vernon Manor.
Their location is 3311 Wallace Street.
They were in support to put three affordable units in this structure.
I believe we also submitted this letter, I'm not sure if the board received it from the
community group as well.
and then as I mentioned there was one from DAPA that I did provide to the council office that
I'm just going to share briefly. While I'm looking for that would it be okay to bring on our architect
Ken to just go through the plans for the board just so that we could show the three different
units as we're considering them and then happy to take any additional questions. Thank you please
proceed. Thank you. Do you see Ken raising his hand? Yes, he's available to speak. You just have
Yes, he's available to speak. You just have to unmute. So thank you very much.
to unmute himself. Thank you very much.
Place name? Kenneth Johnson, 3401 Grace Ferry Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.
Thank you. Kenneth, you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes. Rachel, please proceed. Thank you, Ken. So if you could just provide,
oh, here's the, let me just show this letter really quick and then Ken, you'll do your thing.
share. Sorry about that. Here's the letter from the Drexel Area Property Association in support
of the project as proposed, which is the three units. So I just wanted to add that as well.
Ken, if you can just share your screen and go through the plans for the board
as we're proposing it, in addition to kind of sharing some color on the
um kind of current status of the building and size of it since you've actually been in it in
order to do the drawings um that would be much appreciated trying to figure out how to share
this that was look for a link to share no see at the bottom where there's a green uh give me one
second and i can um okay promote him to panelists okay and you should be all set
Yep. Now I can see it. Okay. Everybody can see the screen?
Yep. Okay. So let's go. If you could just zoom in just a little bit. It's just kind of a little
bit difficult to see. Thanks so much. All right. So this is the first floor. You can see my cursor,
I hope. And you come in the first floor. We kept the vestibule. We got a new entry and the stairs
we're going to keep and the first unit is right off the vegetable that bedroom in the front um
you've got the existing bathroom back here we added two bedrooms on the side and we kept that
brown uh stair to the to the basement which is the kitchen area we kept that um and as you go down
to the basement you have double doors to the rear yard and keeping or restoring the kitchen
in the same area that it's at and we're closing off the back of the building and just putting
the utilities back there there's a separate room for laundry and we want to place a small powder
room in the basement so you come up when you come up the stairs to the second floor we just
want to close off the existing hallway that's there keep the existing stairs come into unit
Unit number two, you got a big living and dining room area.
The utility for this unit is up here.
We've got the kitchen on the side, a fairly large bathroom, you got the laundry, and you
got two bedrooms facing the front of the building.
Come back and you walk up the steps to the third floor, you got unit number three, then
you walk in, you got a big living and dining room area, the kitchen off to the side.
utility for this unit and then you have the bathroom on on the side you have your own laundry
and you have two bedrooms um facing the front of the building
and josh would you go back to the basement in the first floor again yes
okay so you walk the first floor has three bedrooms one two three yes
all on the first floor
and then the kitchen
the kitchen and the dining room
the lower room but you got
this door right here is a full door
I mean when you walk down here
this is like you own grade
into the yard
so it's not like you don't
go down to the basement
it's not the low grade
right okay um i'm sorry rachel did i interrupt no no that's that's a fair question um ken is
were you done your presentation or did you have one more florida no no that's it the only thing
else is that each each unit number one is 790 square feet um that's not including the lower
level which is 390 that's being used the rest of is being closed off for utilities um the second
unit is 790 and the third unit is 811 square feet thank you thank you um the last thing i wanted to
unshare right unshare yeah please thanks ken share um the last thing i just wanted to share
The last thing I just wanted to share with the board is just the zoning map, just so that you can see sort of the neighboring properties are mostly multifamily.
with the board is just the zoning map, just so that you can
It's not a block where most of the blocks are all RSA 3.
There's pretty, it's just, it's actually the minority of what's provided here.
So just to add some additional color to sort of the existing uses in the area to kind of help show that the three units is not out of character.
um i believe that um miss laletta has been in touch with the council office um i don't know
yeah we got a deferring to the discretion of the zba yeah um i like i said i did share with them
um the letters of support that we received from the individuals who live on the block
in addition to the two um affected rcos as well um you know again the whole goal would be to be
able to really restore this in a manner that keeps in context with the the historical nature
of the property and to be able to provide some what I think is decently sized more affordable
units and to keep this property in the current owner's family so I would like him to Malik
Carter is the owner if he could just put his name and address on the record and then you know happy
to again take any questions the board has and and move on from there. Good morning Mr. Carter
please identify yourself for the record spell your first and last name. Good morning Malik
Carter, M-A-L-I-K-C-A-R-T-E-R. You swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth. I do. Thank you, Ms. Pritzker. Malik, have you heard the testimony
that I've given today in front of the board? Yes. Do you believe that it's accurate and do
you adopt it as your own? I do. Is there anything that you would like to add outside of what I've
provided, maybe speak to the support that you've obtained and any additional information that you
feel you'd like to share at this point? Okay, yeah, definitely. Thanks a lot, you know, guys,
for having me today. So, you know, like I said, but, you know, as, you know, being raised in this
property pretty much all my life, my parents bought it the year I was born and I actually
inherited it four years ago. My father passed away and the condition of the property is reflective
in that I didn't have the, I emotionally really couldn't attend to it for the first year.
When I finally did go in, I found out that the house was actually broken into a vandalized
and also there was some pipes were damaged.
So that's where a lot of that water damage came from, right?
So it's really, you know, definitely want to do my best, you know, to keep the property
and my family.
You know, I don't want to really be forced to sell it outside of my family.
And so, like, realistically, the way to really keep it is to make it for, you know, the three units.
I do appreciate, you know, Powland Village for willing to work with me in a way and make it, you know, to bring it to two units.
But I do believe that, you know, even that two units, you know, including the basement floor still, you know, about, you know, 2,000 square foot apartments, which make the apartments, you know, very huge.
And, you know, my goal is not really to provide essentially more student housing.
You know, my life is honestly 100% different because I was raised on that side of Spring
Garden Street.
And so I really want to provide, you know, housing opportunities for other people that
may want to actually stay in the area. And by providing larger units, then there's no way that
people in the area that live in the area will be able to afford them at that size. So, you know,
that's my reasoning. I'll be glad to take any more questions. Thank you. Thank you. Questions from the
board? No. No. Anyone else like to testify in this case? If so, please raise your hand.
Yes, Chair, I have Deborah. Deborah, you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
Deborah McCarty? Yes. Please identify yourself with a record, first and last name, spell your
last name and give us your address, please. Good morning. My name is Debra McCarty, MCC-ARTY.
I live at 3608 Hamilton Street, and I'm here on behalf of the Pound Village Civic Association,
co-chair of the zoning committee. Thank you. Swear and affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth. I do. Thank you, Debra.
um can i proceed yes please okay sorry um so we did hold a rcme
Yes, please.
Okay, sorry.
So we did hold a RCO meeting and the consensus was to oppose, but we really, you know, are sympathetic to Mr. Carter's desires and we wanted to work with him and work toward a compromise.
But despite a few entreaties to Ms. Pritzer, we finally heard back that that was not going to be viable, as you've heard.
You know, homeownership or owner-occupied properties in this neighborhood are dwindling and we're struggling with, you know, keeping owner-occupied properties in our neighborhood.
And, you know, dividing this into three units really precludes, you know, any future of an owner-occupant in our opinion.
And I should note that the nine folks who signed the letters that were subsequently provided, only two of those people are homeowners.
Everyone else is in a rental property.
The homeowners reside at 3300 Hamilton Street, 416 North 33rd Street.
But none of those folks attended the RCO meeting.
Not clear why.