smaller than this lot. All the other street to street properties on this block, some of which
are multifamily, but none of which are this wide. And again, a little bit too, not wide enough to
be able to be subdivided properly. Otherwise, you'd have a quite large single family home
on this block. And again, also a lot of vacancy, as you can see from the aerial photos on this block
as well. So even the smaller lots that could provide for single family don't provide for
single family on this block. Here's a photo of the properties. You can see how far back it goes
and how wide it is. The zoning posters on the property.
better view of how wide this lot is from the street
and again the only variance that we're seeking is for multi-family again a reduction from eight
units to six units and a reduction from three accessory off three parking spaces to two
we met with map holistic cdc and the 47th uh friends of the 47th ward um with ward leader
miss louise bundy uh twice for this project actually i think it was three times for this
project um and we do have the first meeting was in march 17th we had another meeting on july 21st
and we do have uh letters of support from um louise bundy the ward leader of the 47th ward and
and the head of friends of 47th ward along with map cdc in support of the project uh basically
their letter references the reduction from six units to eight units and uh sort of our
participation in multiple meetings and adding things to the project such as trash ada unit
and landscaping and fencing concerns we also have a letter from miss vivian van story of community
land trust corporation rco who was an affected rco who was also at these meetings as well
emphasizing the same things certificate of mailing for both meetings um and uh the last
thing i would like to have gabe deck who is our architect from gnome architecture to come on and
go through our revised plans um and then have the owners on as well if there's any questions for them
mr deck you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair
he's coming back in as a panelist
good morning sir please spell your full name and i'll swear you in good morning gabriel deck
g-a-b-r-i-e-l-d-e-c-k you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do thank you mr pritzker uh gabe are you able to share your screen and go through the
revised plans sure
okay um so the project as rachel mentioned was reduced from a proposed eight unit building
down to uh six units um in doing that we lowered the the building height as well as removed the
proposed cellar so this plan right here is the first floor plan both of the
units at this level were revised to be accessible so at this level you have the
main building entrance off of Thompson Street with an accessible ramp a one
bedroom unit in the front and green a two-bedroom unit at the rear of the
building as well as a common courtyard where we have trash storage for the
building moving upstairs we have two two-bedroom two-bath units one in the
front one in the back third floor similar thing two two-bedroom units one
in the front one in the back and they each have private roof deck access as
as Rachel mentioned one of the other changes was reduction in parking from
from three proposed spaces to two and that's mostly because we now need to accommodate
an accessible parking space which has an adjacent loading zone which takes away the space for
one of the parking spots.
These are the proposed elevations.
We also reduced the proposed height of the building to be a little bit closer to the
adjacent structures as far as the the heights of those cornices so we're
So we're proposing a simple red brick facade with metal accent paneling.
proposing a simple red brick facade with with metal accent
You can see we have the accessible ramp coming up to the front door here.
We also added street trees to the front of the parcel.
This is the rear of the building where we have the two parking spaces.
and the zoning plan as we went through most of the changes reduction of the parking in the back
is shown here the new ramp is shown reconfiguring of the pilot houses to make them less conspicuous
uh i think i went through everything rachel was there anything else
no that's it okay thank you any questions from the board
no mr and let the record reflect that mr james snell or a board member is uh is present for this
hearing um rachel do you need anyone else to uh yeah just um marco or jordan cats
they could raise their hand they're the owners
jordan are you there you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair hi there can you hear me
yes yes please spell your full name j-o-r-d-a-n-k-a-t-z you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yeah thank you miss pritzker um jordan have you heard my
testimony today um in front of the board yes do you believe it to be true and accurate to the best
to your knowledge and do you adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
Rachel, two pages?
Gabe, is that correct?
I believe two pages.
Two pages, yes.
Thank you.
Anyone else would like to testify in this case?
Please raise your hand.
Chair, we have someone with the telephone number
ending at six eight nine four please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
good morning good morning please identify yourself spell your full name
louise bundy war leader but i'm friends the 47th ward
Ms. Bundy, please spell your last name.
B-U-N-D-Y.
These were affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
I just feel as though that they deserve to be able to have this, do what they're doing, because they have tried hard to have it done.
Now they're going to broke down quite a few things, and they really want to help the neighborhood.
and I went around and looked at a few things myself you know I'm coming from the outside
and um I spoke to them and um I just feel as though they deserve a chance this time
thank you thank you for calling in thank you anyone else to testify in this case
yes uh Reverend Nash is here good morning Reverend please spell your full name and I'll
Where are you, Wayne?
Lewis, L-A-W-I-S, Nash, N-A-S-H-S-R.
You swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
I concur with Rachel's explanation and also the architect and also the meetings.
And I concur with what Ms. Bundy said.
I am in unicy with her and we hope that you guys will give them this opportunity thank you so much
thank you Reverend thank you anyone else
there are no other hands at this time chair thank you planning commission
morning chair Peter Bernard for the planning commission
i'm sorry please spell your last name he is in boy he is an apple ours and roger and as a nancy
he is an apple ours and roger d as in dog these were affirmed to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do chair thank you please proceed this property is indicated for single
family use in the comprehensive plan and was remapped for that use in 2017 we feel that the
six units represents an overuse of the property having large lot is not a
having large lot is not a hardship and there is no hardship for regularly shaped vacant land
hardship and there is no hardship for regularly shaped vacant land
the applicant has failed to demonstrate sufficient hardship for the proposed use
accordingly the planning commission recommends that the board deny the requested variance
thank you MI 2021-0003721625 west thompson street my vote is yes with the
I'm sorry, but the revised plans, two pages, approved today.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you.
Case number four, MI 2021-000868, 212 Mannheim Street.
Mr. Clinton is the attorney of record.
Solo Germantown Civic sent a letter of opposition.
Non-coordinating, I believe, RCO.
Mr. Clinton, I don't know if I swore you in earlier.
If I didn't, I apologize.
So please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
To our Henry Clinton CLINTON, Queen Memorial Building, 1313 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia PA, 191.
If you swear or firm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Before you proceed, just to let the record reflect
that our board secretary, Mr. Confessor Plaza
is on this meeting, thank you.
Carol Tenere, Mr. Tenere has some questions for you,
Mr. Clinton.
Certainly.
Good morning.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy?
have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance refusal referral
photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the
rco and do you have a letter yes i have a letter of support from the coordinating rco and yes to
all the above questions thank you you may proceed i share my screen sure
uh is that visible yes it is uh yes you got a lot of stuff in the background though
um your schedule and other documents
all right let me go back to the drawing board if i can on this
how about now can you see that yeah what we see is it looks like i guess your schedule
it's not the face sheet from my proposal
it's that on top of something else so now that now it's nothing
let me let me clear everything else up my apologies
all right i'll start from the beginning share screen
how about now the uh octopus or something there whatever that is a jellyfish
now we have we have that but it's overlapping the your screensaver the jellyfish or whatever
all right you can go through that i guess it'll work and can you see my uh cover sheet mr chairman
yes it's fine um if you could just maximize your screen for your documents there we go thank you
Thank you, Mr. Sanka. Appreciate that. So we're here today on 212 Mannheim Street. And this is my presentation package containing Table of Contents AA through A10. I'll walk through each of the documents. My appearance statement, refusal. Refusal is because we are requesting a multifamily in an RSA 5 zone.
This is a long vacant lot. The aerial photographs of my research indicate
that this lot has been vacant since about 1996. It's a corner lot with some frontage on the east
side which provides light and air into the proposed development. We also had an issue
with the roof deck setbacks which we have cured. So we have met with the community group, the RCO,
the RCO coordinating community group on three occasions, both in April, June, and September.
coordinating community group on three occasions.
And we received a letter on Friday from Faith Community Development Corporation indicating
non-opposition with the project. And one of the requests that they had, which we will include in
the leases, that the applicant not rent the third floor to any small children, because it was
concern about the rooftop deck and children being on the roof. And we will include that
as part of our presentation. There's also an explanation from the coordinating RCO
as to why there is no non-opposition to the project. There's also a letter, as the chairman
mentioned, from the non-designated RCO indicating apparently opposition. But if you look at the
count. They did not include the coordinating RCO in their count. They didn't even ask what their
opinion was. The meeting took place, the third meeting took place in September and their letter
is from June. So they didn't participate in the third meeting and I guess didn't weigh in on the
changes. Plus, if you look at the letter, apparently there's only one near neighbor who
oppose it, and there are four other neighbors who attend it, but were unopposed. So we ask that this
letter be disregarded because they are not the coordinating RCO and did not participate in the
final meeting when the plans were changed. Again, moving through the presentation, this is a corner
lot, good-sized corner lot. There's actually two vacant lots from this aerial photograph.
We do not own this other vacant lot. We just own the, my client owns the corner vacant lot.
Again, another perspective indicating the corner lot at 212 Mannheim Street.
These are just notices or photographs of the various notices that we posted for the three community meetings.
We do have a change proviso sheet that the architect has completed,
indicating that in response to the community group, we have removed the pilot house from the roof
and installed rather an open stairwell.
We've also reduced the height from 37 feet to under 35 feet.
And then we've also added a four-foot-high fence, an opaque fence at the front.
We've also added the cornice around the building and the bay and reduced the entry steps and the landing size.
And this is the attached plan that goes along with that proviso sheet.
I'll walk through the plans for the chairman and members of the panel.
This is the corner property at 212 Mannheim.
The proposal is for three dwelling units.
You can see that on Wayne Avenue, there are additional commercial as well as residential,
five dwelling unit, four dwelling unit, one dwelling unit, commercial units, and then directly
across the street on Tacoma, there is a commercial space and one dwelling unit. And even on the same
block, just down the street is some group living. So we think this use is consistent with the other
properties in the neighborhood. This is the site plan indicating that we have a separate trash
storage for the units in the rear. The trash can be brought out to the curb. There's also a rear
wrenching to access the units on the upper floors. I can walk through the floor plans if the chairman
so desires, but basically... Summarize, that would be helpful. Basically, it's a three-unit building,
one bedroom, one bath on the first unit, one bedroom, one bath on the second unit, and one
bedroom, one bath on the third unit with access to the rooftop
deck. This is the elevation indicating we tried to stay with
the context of the neighborhood. Nice brick front corners coming
all the way around and also onto the bay on the Tacoma Street