him to take just a couple minutes. Do we see his hand? Do you see him? Yes, he's available.
All right, thank you. Sir, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, hi. Can you guys see me and hear me?
We see your name, but we don't see you personally, but we hear you.
Maybe if I stop here. Let me see if I stop my share.
I don't think I'm sharing right now, actually.
We see you now, sir.
Thank you.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Roland Cassis, 818 North 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19123.
Could you spell your name, please, for the court reporter?
R-O-L-A-N-D, Roland, last name's Cassis, K-A-S-S-I-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Russell. Roland, as you know, we had a hearing originally scheduled on this reconsideration in
March, but we requested a continuance. Could you let us know, let the board know why we requested
a continuance and what interactions you had with the community following this rescheduling and
continuance of that proceeding? Yes, absolutely. So I just want to introduce myself to the board
real quick. And I want to thank you for hearing this case for the third time. I'm a real estate
developer. I develop most of the corridors on Frankfurt and Front Street and Fishtown.
uh frankfurt hall la colombe soraya badia pizza talia two robbers there are a lot of apartments
Frankfurt Hall, La Colombe, Soraya, Bedilla, Pizza, Talia.
a lot of homes started developing homes in 2000 uh sold a lot of houses uh most of the houses we
sold the last cycle was not even listed that our buyers come to us to buy them without any listing
knowing what our product is and knowing our reputation so that's who i am as a developer
I decided to do this project on Burke Street with Zeros Construction that I met through the House of Hope, through the Earth's Foundation.
They were building this church and cafe for free.
I met them and I decided to invest money with them and build this project together.
And I was at every hearing, listening to all the communities and listening to all the meetings.
and the last meeting and the last letter that came back you know everybody was going down on
Zato's construction because they said they built this project on Montgomery Avenue that
backs up to Will Street so and that was the whole meeting these guys had a bad
a bad taste in their mouth from that project what I found out from Zato's afterward that actually
they took the project over when it was already on the roof they just finished it because another
contractor so the damage was done from someone else but regardless i asked councilman clark's
office and the neighborhood to allow me to go back to the neighbors and introduce myself
and really go over the letter of the letter that they sent to the board about all their concerns
And one of their concerns in the letter is Winga Safran's article about how these guys do their build out.
So I met last Friday at the community center.
And what I found out was that these poor people have been going through some horrifying times because of not because of the Montgomery at Zaid with this, but because of also his project called Rack Flats.
I believe David said it was the ice house.
Not the ice house.
I'm sorry.
I missed it.
It was the rag glass.
There's another project across the street.
It was by an NFL player that had these machines that were shaking the grounds.
So there's a lot of damages that were done.
And people went through nightmares there.
And I get it because I said to them from day one, you know, I'm the kind of developer that comes to the neighborhood and always get their approval.
I literally got the Fishtown's FNA's approval for every project I did on Frankfurt Avenue
because back then, all these projects were ICMX.
So I work with the neighbors.
I work with the neighborhood.
They know me very well.
So I said, guys, I am the one going to be building this project now.
I am a reputable developer.
You don't have to worry about it.
I gave them my cell phone number.
I understood their concern.
And really also one of their concern is our adjacent neighbor, Michelle, sweetheart.
She's great.
But she didn't want anything built right next to her property line.
That's why we flipped the house for the first time to go from her property line to allow her to have as much sun as possible.
So we flipped it that way.
And nobody wants to go on Will Street because they don't want construction to be on Will Street because that's their access.
If we dig the street up, it's not a street.
If we dig it up, then people can't have access to it.
So we came up with this concept and also the fire department.
Everybody said, where is this a fire?
you know said you know how can people how can we you know how can we fix this we went to the
fire department the fire department told us actually by us making this alleyway there what
it is it allows them access with hoses to go if there's any fire in the back so if we go step by
step I literally eliminated every time that something came up it was a concern and I we fixed
it from uh if we look at the letter it said the construction now i'm doing the construction
that is gone there's nothing to worry about because of my reputation how i build things
two they're asking how much the price of the houses was the house is going to sell between
million two a million four the other developer afraid to tell them because they're worried about
taxes and stuff taxes i told the neighbor i said your taxes already got you know there's houses
selling over a million dollars in the neighborhood so the evaluation of the homes already there
nothing's going to change the other thing they were concerned about is the uh david can you
please remind me there are too concerned the fna had in that letter um yeah let me let me pull that
i'm just going to put the cars there was too many cars yes they were worried about people driving i
said these are people and i sold a lot of homes in this category i'm like these are professionals
with wife and husband and having a kid they're not having a party going in and out of there i
I mean, it's not, you know, they're not 12 cars going in and out.
going in and out. We made it a three-car parking because neighbors were concerned somebody visits
We made it a three-car parking because neighbors were concerned.
where they're going to park. So we made it as a three-car parking. The other concern, and I've
never had any buyers having more than two cars of all the 20-some years that I've been developing
homes and selling homes, you know, in Northern Liberty and Fishtown. And all our buyers are
professionals, doctors, you know, they are architects. They come in the morning and they
go to home at work sometimes they don't they don't have cars they'd rather be in the neighborhoods
some people work from home but to alleviate that we can make it a two-car parking I told them
and one of the other concerns showing hardship we just gave them the we show the uh the appraisal
that we just showed as far as the hardship but beside this concern you know I beside the concern
they had in the letter I mean I alleviated and I told them this all the concern the letters that
you had you know i addressed them we've addressed every single time the neighborhood needed something
we addressed it so if there's ever any hardship in any project that i've seen is this project
i mean we have to dig a 300 street feet alleyway it's not even a street for us to build on this
lot in the back so i thought it was a great solution for us to work with the neighbors
to allow her to have the sun for her pool and, you know, and not to do any damage to her yard
whatsoever. I actually, somebody at the last meeting, they've asked if I can put some trees
along the, her yard. I said, absolutely. And I could, we could do that. And Michelle was worried
that what if I disappear? I said, we can get a contract from a landscaper because that's going
going to cost money to fix it. I said, we can get a contract from a landscaper for 10 years and I
can pay that landscaper for 10 years up front. That way they can take care of trees. They don't
have to worry about the maintenance of the trees. So for me, I've been working with this neighborhood
for a long time. I live in the neighborhoods. I sleep in the neighborhood. People all have my
number. I'm a neighborhood guy and a developer from the neighborhood. So I wanted to, the reason
why I asked for that meeting to take place is to be able to meet with all the neighbors around
there. And we knew that they're not going to change the outcome of the letter or the outcome
of Constantine Clark's letter. But I wanted to meet them face to face and change the narratives
and let them know how we're proceeding. So, you know, these are homes that I've built for the
past 20 years in Northern Liberty and Fishtown, having a courtyard, a driveway like that.
everywhere in the neighborhood you see that it's a common thing you know to have so i am not asking
we are not asking for anything that is unreasonable haven't been done before we have we're building
homes that improve the area we you know we are helping with the fire we are not allowing we're
not going to be using that alleyway in the back to dig it and and bother anybody in their lifestyle
we're not putting basements either that's another thing we're not going to do we said no basement
so that way we're not digging basement to bother anybody and have big machinery reason they're
digging and moving things and moving dirt so that way we are also being you know uh aware of
the construction that happened before of what we're doing here not to let that happen and by
not doing the basement we did the house is bigger it's a big chance that we're taking but i feel
like the last meeting we had with the neighbors it was a great meeting uh you know they i felt
that they trusted me as a person and they understand where i'm coming from and they you
know and i said to them i said you better have someone like me to build next to you then a lot
of you know developers that don't care and that is true that just put their gc out there and just
let let them build and they hide behind them i'm not that guy so that was the reason for the
continuance and you know i'm hoping that today we can get this to put this to bed and allow me to go
build these houses and make these neighbors happy roland the one other thing roland thank you very
much the one other thing i think that was in their letter was about the um the entrance for the the
corner building the building located at the corner that was the only other thing they noticed so the
original design had the building um the building right at burke street and had the entry all the
entrances are on the shared drive. And then so you made this change to bring the entrance so that
there was, you know, more traffic coming in and off directly off of Eastbrook Street. So I just,
that was the only other thing in the letter. But other than that, you addressed everything else.
That is correct. Thank you.
Questions from the board?
David do you have any other witnesses no that's that's it that's in terms of
okay thank you um questions or comments from the virtual audience
Okay. Thank you. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
There's two hands up. A Mr. Martin and Kernan.
Okay. Whichever one.
Hello.
Hi. Good afternoon. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes. It's Michelle Martin. M-I-C-H-E-L-E. Last name is Martin. M-A-R-T-I-N.
Do you swear to work firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
And you are the neighbor, right?
Correct.
All right, proceed.
Good morning, everybody.
Just a little, I just want to backtrack real quick.
Historically, there were buildings in the rear.
They were slaughterhouses.
All the houses that built up to Burke Street, people got their mail from the people in the front of Burke Street.
That was part of our, it was part of our community.
I own that. I own 1334, 1332. I own the back. I own 15 feet into the peak alley as well as the people on Burke Street. But they were slaughterhouses. They weren't homes that actual people lived in.
And if there was any mail or anything, they couldn't be given to them from Wilts Street because it's not a street, not recognized by Philadelphia as a street.
We have to walk the mail back to them.
That's one thing I wanted to consider.
Second thing I wanted to consider, I thought about it the other day.
If we get 12 inches of snow up the side, that's 48 inches of snow in front of four units.
Where is 48 inches of snow going to go at the end of that?
But I also think this is going to be a deprimental, it's just going to be horrible for my property.
I have a beautiful front yard, hedges, rose bushes that are over 100 years old.
I have a pond with koi.
I have kids that stop and ask if we can take pictures in my yard for prom and other things.
Kids in the neighborhood.
I have a school a half a block away.
Penn Treaty.
I have another school the other side.
St. Laurentius.
These kids come by my property every day.
To have a driveway now slapped in the middle of a residential street again,
now that we have rag flats on two doors away from me,
now you're going to put this directly beside me.
I will have absolutely no privacy.
You have four houses with four rooftop decks.
You have four balconies.
Everybody's looking into my yard.
everybody every every single person will be looking into my property building a six-foot
fence is not going to solve the problem putting trees up like Rowan said I already deal with the
trees from rag flats they don't maintain their my husband is the guy that's out there with the pan
and the bucket sweeping the street every week cleaning up no other neighbors come out but we
do because we we were born and raised there for 56 years that's how we are we are very respectful
to our neighbors i am very respectful to everybody but this project is going to affect my yard affect
my beautiful garden affect my pool affect my pond they act like it's a big great thing to have
children playing in a driveway i was born and raised in fish town i hung i was born and raised
at the Fishtown Recreation Center, at the Swimmo, at the Parks, at Newt's, at Hetzel's, or in my own
backyard. I never at a point in time did my mom and dad allow me to play in a driveway. And I put
that to Rowan's attention too. Like, why do you think it's better to have a driveway than give
somebody a backyard? Do I want somebody building up against my property line and have my property
collapse like they did down the street? Absolutely not. But I certainly don't want four up the side
on a residential row home block that really doesn't conform with the block at all.
And it's just going to cause me a lot of hardship and the neighbors that surround it with the light, the air.