Thank you.
And so Elisa, if you can tell the board a little bit about the existing staircase
and how safe you believe that it is. Sure. So if you go on the next slide,
please. Thank you. Okay. So this is the condition of the existing staircase that is currently,
as you can see in this presentation board, at the upper left side of the board, we have an
existing condition and the red hatched area is showing where the existing stair is located.
As you can see, it's a semi-spiral stair. During the survey of this building, we had a little bit
to climb up from one floor to the other. And so when we add a four-story, as Frank
mentioned by right to this building. We will have to provide a new compliance stair. But then we
look into can we improve the condition of this property by providing this new stair, new compliance
stair all the way down from the basement to the upper floor that we are adding. And we look at
the impact of that change and that alteration. And that alteration is not only improving the
condition of this house because it's safer, but also the use because as you can see in this
staircase, it's difficult to bring furniture up and down and it's not very easy to move
up and down on different floors.
So we look into the impact of having this there
inside the existing building footprint.
And as you can see, it's kind of taking a third
of the entire floor space, limiting considerably the use.
So if we need to locate a bathroom at one level,
there will be not much space to have a proper bedroom. Also because the current shape of this
building is almost square. So by adding this there, we restrict very much the usable space
in one direction. So we looked into moving these stairs on the just on the
side of the existing building in the current open space and as you can see
As you can see from the existing condition, the existing open area right now is 18% is the area shown in green, and there is an existing one-story structure that is not in very good shape.
from the existing condition,
We are looking to demolish that one-story structure.
Thank you.
Yes, please, the next slide.
Okay, do you want to go to the next slide? Yes, please.
Yes, perfect. So what we are proposing here is to move the stairs on the side of the existing
building to be able to provide a new code-compliant stairs from the basement to the upper floor
and keep an open space of 12% whatever is left in green shown here. As you can see,
if you compare this property, this lot to other properties in this area with the same zoning,
this property is quite compact. The lot depth is more or less 20 feet, so we cannot meet the
setback required from the back property line because the back property line is currently
just matching the rear wall of our building or is the depth overall is 20 feet and the
stair more or less will occupy 14 of those feet. So we have presented this to the RCO
and we described this idea, and they seem not to have concerns, except that from the
rendered image that you see in this presentation here, we have changed the façade, and in
the latest documentation that you should have, you should have the façade with the brick
um to comply with the rco request um to make this building blend a little bit more
with the the nature and the character of the neighborhood
um mr turner do you have any your client uh to adopt your testimony if not that's fine
yes i believe that um i believe that uh uh tyrone des reyes is or dos reyes is is here
uh a little hard a little difficult to hear you the um uh the owner of cross wildly properties
i believe that he's um well if he's on we can get him a swear i'm in to adopt your testimony
um yes uh tyrone are you are you present you may not be what is his name his name is uh tyrone
dos reyes um t-a-i-t-a-i-r-o-n-e if he's not on as an officer the court will will stipulate that
your client would have adopted your testimony yes any questions from the board no no no
would anyone else like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
Mr. Chair, I believe Mr. Ray
Tyrone Ray is available but didn't raise his hand or whatever for
not reason.
Well, I think we already agreed to adopt his testimonies.
Anyone else?
Wait, I'm sorry. Mr. Ray's
hand is raised. I'm allowing him to speak right now.
hello yes good morning sir please identify yourselves by your full name
good morning everyone my name is tayroni those race i'm the owner of 207 wildly street
you spell your full name please t-a-i-r-o-n-e last name is those race d-o-s space r-e-i-s
do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes sir i swear thank you mr turner um thank you uh mr dot race
you um do you agree with the uh testimony of um of the architect eliza lanzuti yes i do
Yes, I do.
um thank you um i have nothing for
Thank you.
I have nothing further.
All right.
Anyone else to testify in this case?
Please raise your hand.
No further hands at this time, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Chico and Ian Hegarty
for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
This lot has a clear physical hardship because it's unusually shallow and the proposed dimensional variances are the least variance necessary to enable use of the property.
So the Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2020-003130. 207 West Weldy Street. My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
No. My vote is yes.
Calendar number 1293-2154 North Randolph Street.
The attorney is Zen Jin.
Zen Jin has been promoted to panelist.
Thank you.
There's a letter from our opposition from Mars Square.
Good morning.
Can you please put your name and address on the record and spell your last name, please?
Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N-K-I-N, last name, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1838,
Feldelfi P.A. 19103, here on behalf of the applicant.
Thank you.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you also 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, copy of the refusal referral, photos and plans, five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all questions.
Thank you. You may proceed. And good morning.
Good morning. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and share with the board the information relating to this case.
what i have up before the board is the refusal however we submitted the entire package to the
board which includes refusal letter from the rco and other information that relates to this case
so what the proposal is for this property is to have a two smaller parcels to be combined into a
single larger parcel, and then to build what is essentially a triplex multifamily dwelling.
We met with the North Squared Community Alliance RCO, and while I understand that their
ultimate vote came out in opposition, it was a divided vote for the most part with
with the support coming from some more of the meeting attendees, but more opposition
coming from the committee board. Their rationale is that the design itself is difficult for
the community to accept because it looks different than what is on the block. I will get to the
pictures in a minute to show the board how the block looks. And a little bit of it might
of centered around a particular resident saying they had a negative experience with my client
which is a subcontractor of my client not my client himself. In response to that we discussed
that we are happy to work with the community organization during the subcontracting process
to make sure that the community will be satisfied during construction.
with regard to the actual block Randolph Street is a smaller block however it also contains very
small lots but with various developments in the area and these are not all consistently the same
development in fact as you can see part of the block across is completely vacant I'm going to
ahead and expand this a little bit so it's easier to see. You can see that there are some developments
in the area already. Across the block is partially vacant. The block itself is inconsistent in design
in nature currently. That was actually part of the complaint that the block is inconsistent
and this design doesn't increase the consistency. However, the issue here is that this design would
not necessarily change the inconsistency that already exists here on the block.
We also have what looks like a commercial lot on the one end, and a series of various
and a series of various size developments on the block itself. The reason my client is seeking to
sized developments on the block itself.
put two lots together partly is because the lots themselves are rather narrow. You are looking at
the individual lot size once combined. I'm going to zoom in further so it's a little
bit easier to see the measurements here. There are 14 foot width lots initially. So even combined
is a 28 foot width lot. By doing the combining and because we are near the corner of the one
in where other vacant lots are actually facing Susquehanna Avenue rather than our property.
by combining the two and having existing alleyway access which are in the deed my client can build
a structure which allows full access by all units to the rear yard this makes trash management
a lot easier if we were to build two single family houses they would be small narrow homes
but very tall much like what is already on the block which actually the community neighbors were
somewhat had negative reactions to as well. By expanding this space, what we can do is actually
allow for a much nicer layout of individual apartment units, a combined layout which allows
full access to the rear for trash management, and a roof deck that is completely recessed on
all sides for the most part so that it's not really noticeable from the front or the rear
of the property. Each apartment is essentially set up as a the first floor basement is a bi-level
the second unit is on the third floor I'm sorry I think we're missing a floor here on the second
floor the second floor is one unit and then the third floor is one unit single access stairway
that leads up to all three internal trash room is made available because of the extra space
along with the exterior capability to have full access to the rear yard so in many ways there
are benefits to this layout which even as a duplex or triplex allows much easier management because
of the combined size of 28 feet width, even though the lot itself is not super deep, we do come up
with very decent sized apartments as a result. So part of the reason why my client's asking for three
is in the sense from bedroom count size, he's trying to keep them basically as no more than
two bedrooms per unit with this way with the density under control. Even at single family
houses, for example, it would be probably three bedroom units per unit. And this way we have
actually a total combined of about five bedrooms versus six with two single family houses. So from
a pure density standpoint, we're not really increasing the overall impact. The parking,
which the community complained about unfortunately it is not something we can provide because even
trying to put a garage in on a street like this would actually trigger further variances
and make layouts and designs more difficult it's not something that we're not aware of but
from my client's standpoint with the limitations that he's already put on the design
design, he feels that, of course, this ultimately is a better design than two additional single
family homes designed with more bedrooms and narrower, unnarrower lots, which will require
additional height as well.
That is the primary reason we proposed the way this building is laid out.
As you can see, the height proposed is 34.6.
He is trying to keep the height down by expanding the overall size of the building and this
allows it to not stand like a tower because most of the ones on the block that are actually
shown in those photographs are utilizing the full height that they are permitted because
they are narrower buildings and therefore they have to go for more height.
So in many ways, what we're trying to do is actually design a slightly lower building that is taking up two lots, use it as a triplex, and keep the density basically the same or similar to what would be two tall single-family houses.
I do want to point out that even though the vote at the community was divided...
I do want to point out that even though the vote at the community was divided, my client did talk
to some neighbors that live on the block, two neighbors on the block and also one on Fair
Hill Street who also supported the idea. So it's really a very divided ultimate decision from the
community. So we would ask the board's favorable review in this case. We think that this is a good
project and would not provide a negative impact to the community. The block again is under development
and this is actually essentially two corner on the one end of the street properties that
so the other lots are actually facing the Susquehanna not Randolph so this is being placed
on the one end it's almost like an end cap of the block type situation so we would ask the board to
give consideration to our request.
I'm open to any
questions from the board.
Any questions
from the board? No.
Zin, can you have a client to
Yes, I believe my
client is here.
Let me pull up
the information real quick.
My apologies.
His name is a little difficult to pronounce.
His spell is for us.
Yes, I'm pulling it up now.
It's G-E-N-N-A-D-I-Y
Kapkanov
K-A-P-K-A-N-O-V
If you're here, can you please virtually raise your hand
so the board can...
Yes, Mr. Jin, he's been allowed to speak.