apart there. In addition to needing, doing things by, you know, by the rules and doing it the right
way, the, every license, every inspection, as you would imagine with a commercial trucks
operation, there are multiple health code and building code and L&I inspections regarding to
just the maintaining of the license to be able to do this kind of, do this kind of work. All of that
as active. There's no violations. There's no issues there. In addition to that, the installation
of something like this, which again will be inside, not outside in the parking lot,
all of that is heavily regulated by both state and local agencies. And seeing as how apparently
there's a councilman's office across the street and the FOP is paying attention to that, I have
no doubt in my mind that if there was any issues regarding the installation and operation
of this, that complaints would be filed or, you know, people would be paying attention.
Again, I had an open channel of communication with the Phoenix Corporation's representative
who attended the meeting regarding any continuing issues, and none was brought to my attention
until five minutes ago. And so I'm obviously happy to continue to have the conversation
to see how we can sort of reach some sort of agreement. But the fact of the matter is
And most of what I've heard today, most of what the board has heard, has been sort of abstract. I'm not sure why the FOP is against it. I'm not sure why the councilman's office is against it, because no one has said they were against it until just now. This is the first that I'm hearing of it.
most of what I've heard today, most of what the board has heard has been sort of abstract.
And so outside of what would happen at the meeting and the correspondence pursuant to that meeting, I would ask the board to allow us to have an opportunity to maybe address or communicate the issues that were brought up, because this is the first time I'm hearing them.
yeah and i i kind of agree on that point uh when miss uh alice if you're still there um you mentioned
that 54 signatures were attached to a petition did i hear that correctly
is miss vudevich still there
i don't want to speak i apologize i am still here
No, it was just the RCO sent over a meeting summary that indicated that there were 18 opposed and 25 in support, but it was done as a Facebook vote.
So I don't think it should be taken into consideration because it was done for neighbors that really aren't impacted by this and don't see this location at all.
Anyone else like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
I see no further hands at this time, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Planning Commission.
Ron Bednar, City Planning.
Property is indicated for light industrial use
on the city plan the applicant has not demonstrated a necessary hardship regarding the requirements
of the code the application is inappropriate not conforming use not consistent with our
adopted district plan recommended request of variance not be granted thank you mi 2020-003
Caroline Road
my vote is no
my vote is no
my vote is no
my vote is no
calendar number
1233 North Front Street
the attorney is Leo Mulvihill
on the oath from earlier
and i think sharon may weigh in on this
okay question about amending the application which we may not have to amend it based on
some recent uh event or conversations excuse me this is sharon i think maybe leo should present
the case first and his and explain his latest conversations with the rcs okay trying to get my
video started. Sorry, guys. Good. Okay. Hi, Leo. Good to see everyone again. Leo, can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name? Of course. Leo Mulvihill, M-U-L-V as in Victor, I-H-I-L-L. Address is, get it right this time, 1441 East Oxford Street, Philadelphia, 19125. You're still under oath. Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, refusal or
referral photos and or plans the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met
with the rco and do you have a letter yes to all thank you you may proceed okay so members of the
board um this letter mentioned at the outset and i will share my screen assuming i can get this to
work so members of the board this was actually a previous application my client had put in oh
that's the wrong screen that's my insurance let's put that away
one moment you know sometimes zoom works great and other times it doesn't work so great at all
i know stop to share try again let's pretend that i did this right the first time so i'm
not embarrassed since this is being recorded all right so members of the board leo mulvihill here
today on behalf of b as in bravo hb as in bravo r development llc for 12 33 to 37 north front um
we actually submitted an application for this uh i don't know does 2020 even count as a year
at least a year and a half ago um initially asking for commercial ground floor
and four stories above all residential with rear access parking um we withdrew that application
based on circumstances in the neighborhood and then resubmitted.
circumstances in the neighborhood and then resubmitted so here we are again today
So here we are again today.
initially this was submitted as all residential um this is cmx3 what we decided to do after
speaking with the community group fishtown neighbors association um and i had extensive
communication with ian wilson their chair of zoning um was to put the commercial back in
so it's a four-story commercial building in cmx3 uh i'll go through our packet briefly for the
forward. So we have the refusal appeal and project information form at page one, area zoning maps at
page eight, deed and agreement of sale at page nine, tax clearance at 27, notification letters
and proof at 28, letter of support from F&A at 30, that's the previous letter of support based on
our commercial proposal for the ground floor. Photos at 31, plans at 46. I separately have an
exhibit which I'd like to mark as petitioner's exhibit one, which is my client's commercial
Activity License. I only received that today. It's not part of this packet, but today we have it.
So members of the board forgive my neon pink numbering this time versus the orange I usually
use. Adobe Acrobat was not cooperative so I had to renumber everything with neon pink.
So we received this refusal initially 11-24-2020. CMX3 property located directly north of the
Front Street and Girard Avenue intersection. It's currently a one-story garage. They do auto repair
and other things next to it. Directly north of us is the old baths in the neighborhood back before
everybody had playing. I believe it's now play arts which is a daycare more or less. We received
several refusals for purposes of the record. One for accessory parking. We had parking in the rear
So we received a refusal for that.
Excuse me.
We received a refusal for landscaping.
And we received a refusal for permitted maximum occupied space.
We're looking for 83% versus 75% permitted by code.
What I'll do is I'll go to now page 8 of our packet.
So we see the overhead view of both the screenshot from Philadelphia Atlas
and the overhead shot from Atlas.
As I noted, you can't see it here, but ladies and gentlemen of the board,
Girard Avenue is directly to the south here.
If you were heading westbound, Girard, you made a right, go right up.
This property I'm indicating with my cursor, this is the old Jumbo Theater,
which is now a Deals dollar store, I believe, a vacant lot, new construction building.
And then this here, where the blue is indicated, that's our structure,
directly adjacent with this white roof.
That's the bathhouse I was discussing earlier.
Looking to the bottom map, all that red, that's all CMX3.
So everything we're proposing is by right for use.
This is our initial deed at page 9.
I have my client's agreement of sale at page, for the record, 15.
Here we go.
Scrolling, scrolling.
Page 27 for the record.
again as i noted earlier this morning the city's tax clearance system is a little wonky and not
working so we have proof that no taxes are owed through 2021 zero balance
page 28 this is a letter that was sent up by landmark architectural design
for the property with respect to the meeting
proof of mailing and uh here we have a letter from july 20th 2020 and this is when we initially
proposed this structure as having commercial on the ground floor and residential above.
You'll see this is a letter of support. The reason this was referenced here in this application
is because the only difference between our application today and the prior application
is that we took a floor off. It was still proposing commercial on the ground floor,
proposing residential above in terms with the CMX3 guidelines. That's it. So they were in support.
the vote was overall
within 500 feet
pardon me I got to look a little closer
my glasses aren't as good as they used to be
might have to start getting bifocals
to 0 no
community overall 14 yes to 0 no
total vote was 23 yes to 7 no
in support
neighbors were generally in support of the use
landscaping construction
there was no opposition at that meeting
and I was present for that meeting
back in 2020
back on February 4. Going to page 31 of my packet numbers of the board, we can now see
the actual area itself. Looking to the north, this is Front Street right underneath the L.
To the left, you can see new construction. You see my car right here parked behind the
Deals, which is the old Jumbo Theater at the corner of Girard and Front Street. This is
This is looking southbound.
looking southbound.
This is looking now northbound on the same street.
No, I'm sorry.
This is still southbound.
Pardon me.
My picture's got a little out of order.
This is directly across the street.
This is looking slightly northwesterly.
This is new construction apartments with commercial ground floor.
This is looking northbound.
Front Street Cafe is here.
This is that logo that I'm circling.
the bathhouse that I indicated is here. This two-story structure with a stucco front, that's
not our structure. This one-story structure here with the roll-up doors, which is an auto repair
shop now and radio store, that's our building we're talking about.
We construction directly to the south of us. That's our structure. Play Arts building,
as I indicated, still says public baths on top. It's actually really cool. It's right here.
This is from our property looking directly across the street.
These are the photos that are taken by our architect, Landmark Architectural, incorporating
for the record page 46.
We can see to the bottom left of the presentation SC, that's Charlie, S as in Sam, C as in
Charlie Electronics, which is an auto repair and technology store.
really putting sound systems in more or less this is our proposed four-story structure the
plans will be submitted this is at page 47 for purposes of the record the property goes through
from front street all the way through to lee all the parking is off of lee street lee is a very
narrow street that runs directly behind the property if you ever were to come up get off
the gerard l stop walk up the front street uh to thompson hang a right right past front street
cafe and you hang another right it's a very very tiny street there's no legal on-street parking
so proposing frankly uh provides additional parking to the neighborhood the plan is to use
that parking either for residents or for the tenants in the commercial space
so these are the most recent plans we have um only because we we initially have proposed this
for all residential. Our new proposal is including the commercial as required in CMX3 for this
district. I'm happy to get revised plans to the board that reflects all of that, but essentially
I'll show everybody here. This is our basement space. We have the Pico vault here to allow for
all the meters. I'm going to try to zoom in without going too far ahead. So this is our commercial
space up front see we have a lobby office area and the board can see this i don't have to go
through everything bike storage space and then to the rear of the property along lee that's where
we start to have our residential units one two three four five all street parking spaces off of
lee street accessed by two curb cuts these are planned to be landscape so they look very nice
lee street's a pretty quiet street as is only because it's very small it kind of goes southbound
and then dog legs behind the 7-Eleven that used to be either a Long John Silver's or a KFC, I can't recall.
For the record now, we're on page 49.
This is looking at the second through fourth floors.
And here are our units.
We have balconies potentially in the front.
Bedroom, living, kitchen areas.
So we have a mix of units with one, two, three bedrooms.
And then the roof deck, common roof deck setback from the street right up against the L, we have the two pilot houses for access.
At page 50, here we have the proposed rendering showing the massing of the structure.
Oh, there we go. Hold on.
Now, if you look at the bright yellow part, again, for the record, page 50, this is our building.
Along North Front Street, he's here. This is the L.
this is a building that currently exists it's gray plastic siding on the outside there's some
pink highlights um you all may remember this building it's a building that got blown over
a little bit ago before they rebuilt it uh that's that's this one here uh we're proposing here in
the yellow these are again more massings that are shown uh important to show you here is the
parking along lee street as i stated before lee is very narrow um it's narrower than the street
upon which I live, which at least has parking on one side. There's no legal on-street parking
on Lee. We're adding five spaces to the neighborhood by doing this. It's the view under the L,
view among Lee, and then again another view among Front Street. Going now to page 51,
which is the final rendering that we have. It's a pretty traditional-looking structure,
It's a pretty traditional-looking structure, all things considered, a little bit industrial, lots of windows, red brick,
all things considered, a little bit industrial, lots of windows.
some cast stone at the bottom, perhaps some siding along the sides, but nothing too crazy.
We're proposing exterior lighting, since we are under the L, although frankly, since they put the new LEDs under the L,