Yes, proceed.
Certainly.
Sorry, Mr. Chair.
I keep cutting you off.
I'm sorry.
Just trying to get this done for you guys.
Mr. Beinenfeld,
did you hear the statements I made
to the zoning board this afternoon
regarding these two applications and appeals?
I did. Are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
Yes. And would you adopt them as your own? Yes, I would.
And is there anything you would like to add for the board's edification real quickly?
No, I just want to thank the board for their consideration and their time, and hopefully they understand the importance of these signs to the development.
No, I just want to thank the board for their consideration and their time.
Thank you, Jack.
Questions from the board?
No, no, no, Vice Chair.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
uh mr orphanetes i just wanted to verify there's um you provided one page of revised plans for each
of these appeals correct for today correct okay thank you let me just make sure jim that is correct
correct that's what i believe i received jim's still there i'm not sure but yes it's one sheet
Thank you.
Questions from the virtual audience?
Vice Chair, we have Conlon Crosley.
They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
Please state your name and spell it for the court reporter.
Patty Crosley, please unmute yourself.
It seems they're having technical issues, Vice Chair.
Anyone else out there in the virtual audience?
We have John Hunter.
They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Mr. Hunter?
Good afternoon.
I hope you can hear me.
My name is...
Yes, we can.
My name is Port Reporter.
My name is John Hunter, H-U-N-T-E-R.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Thank you.
I'm the zoning chair for Maniank Neighborhood Council.
I should immediately apologize because our letter to you summarizing the meeting and the vote was only sent just before the hearing started today by mistake.
But the vote was to oppose the signs.
And I'm sure members of the board, you're wondering why would you oppose two signs on the street?
I think Mr. Orfanides very clearly and comprehensively explained the history of this scheme.
But the view of the local community was that we took lots of efforts and lots of discussions to try and integrate this development,
which is relatively large, into the existing context of the very center of Manioc.
It's one of the narrowest streets in Manioc.
And the sort of urgent desire was to integrate the houses so that they are similar context
and similar scale to the existing houses and appear as part of the existing fabric,
with the exception of the church and the school.
And I think the opposition to the science is that, you know, David Orphanidis, and I'm sure on behalf of his client, has referred to this as a campus.
And what we've been trying to do from the very beginning is to disassociate the scale and the size of this development so that it more comfortably fits into the context.
When we look to the signs, we consider them to be very sort of corporate, contemporary signs, and really they're only indicating the immediate direction to the church and to the school.
And yet the signs don't have the number of the church or the school on the sign.
They refer to the row, which I've never heard of before, and I'd be totally confused of what the row was.
Is the row the church or is the row the school?
and it has other extraneous pieces of information which the public wouldn't need to know but maybe
residents would such as the co-working space and the rental office so our response at the meeting
and which we conveyed to the the applicant was that these signs are inappropriate if you want to
sign each of the buildings and sign them with each individual building with a number and remove all
the extraneous pieces of this project sorry i said so you are in opposition of the project
uh yes all right there's no does anyone else out in the virtual audience
there are no additional hands at this time vice chair planning commission thank you vice chair
and good afternoon david effecto with the city planning commission vice chairman and board
members, the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from residential
mixed use 2 to residential single family. Zoning maps were changed to RMX 2 at this location.
The zoning maps were changed to RMX2 at this location as part of the St. Mary's Master Plan, and that was after the district plan was adopted.
The appellant seeks one freestanding sign, or I'm sorry, two freestanding signs that do not comply with the area requirements in the code and a non-compliant fence.
The proposed freestanding signs would assist in wayfinding for the office and residential uses permitted in the master plan, and the impact of the fence variance has been mitigated by the plan's revisions.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed signed variances for 176 Conroe Street and 163 Conroe Street, and the proposed variance for a non-compliant fence.
Thank you.
I'm going to call these together.
Number two, MI-2023-006509-176 Conroe Street, and 163, so MI-2023-006945-163 Conroe Street.
My vote is yes, with proviso, revised plans, one-page stamp by ZBA, February 28th, 2024.
Mr. Vice Chair, I just want to clarify that is yes to both appeals?
Yes. Yes to both.
Thank you.
And the revised plan is one sheet for both.
And the revised plan is one sheet for each address.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes to both.
Reprovised.
james snell my vote is yes to both and provisos to both thank you uh number three m i
yes thank you council number three dash um number three m i dash twenty twenty three
that's 004373
to 2250
North 9th Street
Byrne Anastasio
Byrne Anastasio is coming back in as a panelist now
Vice Chair
Thank you
Good afternoon again Mr. Vice Chair
Good afternoon
afternoon uh we've already uh sworn in um do you need your name for the record sir vern anastasio
a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o uh representing mr isaac badouche the owner applicant for the property
in question thank you um uh board member mr holliman has a few questions for you thank you
good afternoon counsel do you agree to reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy
I do. Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
I have. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. Sharing my refusal right now for 2242-50 North 9th Street.
The application is for consolidating several lots, four lots to be consolidated.
we've got one property that zoned i2 which is medium industrial we have the remaining
loss that are zoned rm1 we are going to be treating the property and the project in question
like residential multifamily use the total lot area of this site is 23,776 square feet
We have two overlays, the 5th District Overlay and the North Central, and I want to go over some of the refusals.
You're going to see here refusals for lack of side yard.
You're going to see for a multifamily household living.
You're going to see some for parking.
With respect to Section 14803-1, the parking requirements here and the refusal is pretty de minimis. We're extremely close to compliance with that one.
off-street loading requirement is really inconsistent with the residential use. It's
more aligned with the industrial underlying designation, which we are not pursuing
because industrial use at this site in this community is sort of a relic use, and it's just
not going to be something that's sustainable or viable section 1403 oh to 14802-3
oh to 14802-3 as i said is is the minimus and and the side yards are not consistent with what we
consider to be uh ostensibly row home development and you'll see in a moment uh what i mean by that
this is what we are proposing a row of several buildings with shared parking in the rear of
the development and here we are on this site itself just off Germantown Avenue
and Susquehanna and we've got some landmarks surrounding the property
itself. Here's some site photos to give you an idea of sort of the site itself. It's been
disinvested with some, a few exceptions for quite some time. And what we want to do here,
what my client wants to do here is literally invigorate this block with 54 units that will
increase foot traffic safety uh and give more vitality to the area than it has seen in decades
here we go again site
we are proposing green roofs and permeable surfaces which our engineer will talk about as well
Here are some of the breakdowns of the interior, and we did provide, and of course, here's
the parking column.
We did provide a change of plan, so we do have proviso plan documentation that went
out to the staff with two separate documents being changed that will need to be stamped
if approved. This is what we call, you know, in the planning business, as you know, transit
development. We have, for instance, the Broad Street line is merely six blocks away from
the site we have the temple station which is two blocks away and we have three main bus lines the
uh the 47 the 39 and the 23. 39 goes to kensington and port richmond as well as strawberry mansion
47 goes to penceport only and fernrock 23 goes down to chinatown and center city
and northwest of here of course is chestnut hill and mount airy
uh the buildings themselves are uh completely compliant 36 feet six inches except for the
parapet wall we have a hundred and uh 1054 square foot pilot houses uh and uh we have a 12 foot
curb cut on the north side of 9th street and north uh north 9th and north delhi with a 14 foot
driveway clearance. We did make some changes per our CDR review with 17 standard parking spots,
two ADA parking spots, one electrical vehicle parking. We have 47 exterior bike spaces
and 27 type IA bike spaces.
Our green roof is 11,109 square feet.
We've got about 68.5% of the total roof surface.
We are agreeing to plant at least nine total trees.
We've got permeable pavers in excess of 6,000 square feet.
And in total, 15 separate buildings for this new neighborhood, six triplexes, which equals 18 units, nine quads at 36, 54 units total.
We got eight three bedrooms, 14 one bedrooms on the first floor basement.
Second floor is two three bedrooms, 13 two bedrooms, and two one bedrooms, which equals 24 units plus 17.
And then the third floor has another 15 units.
So the the total is we've got about 10 three bedroom units, 28 units that are two bedroom and 16 units that are one bedroom, which is exactly the kind of housing diversity.
and 16 units that are one bedroom, which is exactly the kind of housing diversity
that the neighbors have asked for. We did, in fact, make some additional changes to the size
of the parking spaces so that a significant amount of them now are approved by Streets
Department for compact-sized cars in addition to the original traditional sizes. We have 180
EDA lift in the rear of the property that was added as a result of not only our RCO negotiations, but the CDR.
We have a four-foot clear path was added for pedestrian access to the unit in the rear, the drive aisle.
And parking numbers 11 through 19 were converted from standard parking spots to more compact cars to accommodate the four-foot path.
We did meet with the neighbors in question.
Excuse me for a second while I get there.
I'm going to show you some additional rendering so you can see some of what the exterior will look like.
Treating the facade respectfully to the surrounding neighborhood with the brick.
There's an old factory across the street that is fully brick as well.
we sort of want to pay homage to the brick facade treatments of neighboring
neighboring spots here is the the parking corridor
with the ample space for getting in and out
there's the project data much of it which i've already explained to you
so we won't necessarily go over that
and hold on for one second while i get my cursor to there it is we have additional paperwork as
well we have proof of posting as you can see the street has is uh in long need of some amenities
and some development you're going to hear not only from uh the rco today uh through their letter
here's the letter that was mailed uh to everyone who lives within 350 feet of the property
and of course this was sent to the zoning staff a little earlier
we've got the rco coming in with their official let's see if i can get there
Trying to scroll down so I could get that. There it is. 19 members of the community
were in full support. And streets department gave their approval as well. As you can see.
115 individual households were mailed. We have, of course, proof of tax clearance.
All the deeds were forwarded to the zoning board under separate cover.
I'm moving all of this into evidence.
This is going to fully transform this block.
And we hope increased foot traffic, increased activity, and then, of course, that comes with a whole lot of quality of life issues,
like reducing the opportunity for short dumping, litter, trash, and crime.
which is something this neighborhood has communicated to us they so desperately are looking for.
And it's a real investment that we worked hand-in-hand with the CDR and the RCO
to make sure that this development is, in fact, respectful of the community,
not super high, completely compliant with almost all of the dimensional requirements,
but also keeps in mind the fact that such a number of units could, in fact,
caused some parking issues, which is why we're providing all of the off-street parking.
Mr. Barr Levy, who is the design guru behind this beautiful development,
is available for any questions that the board might have for him
in regards to the design of the property itself.
Otherwise, if Chris Smitelli is available to talk briefly about the environmental issues
and the green roof and the permeable materials, I would ask that he raise his virtual hand
to be sworn in to just briefly discuss those plans and how they manifest themselves.
of those plans and how they manifest themselves.
Chris Vitelli, if you're the virtual audience, please raise your hand.