whether it's guests, whether it's deliveries, or more importantly, whether it's police and fire
onto the property to know where on the campus they need to go. So the overall campus is identified
at the top of the sign, which would be visible.
There is parking on one side of the street.
We'll show you in some photographs.
But even on the side of the street where there is parking, and you can see here, it's on
the side of 163, the top will still be visible.
And then as you draw nearer, you have the lower numbers, the lower signage, which has
numbers and directions into the campus on either side of Connerow Street.
um here is an overall image of what the project will look like when it's fully developed as you
can see it's a very fairly large campus here is 163 and here is 176 the church in the rectory
again developed for multi-family uh apartments and then you have the townhomes on carston street
townhomes on connor row on either side of connor row this is a site walking uh and driving
circulation plan. Again, here is 176, here is 163. Our signs are located, one is right in this area
for 176, and then the sign for 163 is right here. So again, it directs people back into this side,
the 163 side of the campus, when they're on Connerow Street, and then back into the campus
between located, a portion of the campus located between Connero and Carson coming in off of
Carson, coming in off of Connero Street, as you can see here. These signs are extremely important.
Again, not just for deliveries and for guests, but really for emergency personnel, police and
fire and ambulances to know, all right, this is the side that goes into 176. This is the side that
goes in 163. This is where the homes are and things of that nature to provide better direction.
Again, this is the rendering for 163. You can see one of the things we've added for both
projects, both signs, as a result of the community group meeting initially, there was no
landscaping around the sign. We've added landscaping around both signs. This is 170.
That's 163.
Here is 176.
And you can see here the planting.
This is similar to the sign that shows in the evening, illuminated.
You can see here.
So we added planting again, moved the fence back in a straight line to create all this kind of open, wider space for the public.
It's a fairly narrow street with narrow footways.
But you can see between the building, church building to the right, and the proposed single-family homes, not proposed, they've already been permitted, and other permits have been pulled, it kind of blends in and is tucked in.
And you can see that in the evening as well with the other lighting of the landscaping and lighting of the building around there.
The same thing holds true for 176.
It doesn't come out onto the footway by moving the fencing back.
We've created more open area in this area, an area of refuge, so to speak, as people walk up and down.
It's pretty steep, this portion of Connerow Street, leading down towards Main Street.
So it gives an area where people could stop if they needed to stop and not have all the other buildings that are located up and down on either side of Connerow Street.
We did check our block of Connor Road Street just to get an idea of home ownership.
We found that a lot of the properties, at least half of the properties, have owners with addresses other than the subject property or have rental licenses.
163 backs up to Gay Street.
We pulled the same information for Gay Street.
And although neither of these properties front on Carson Street, we'll pull the same information for Carson.
But you can see there are a lot of non-owner occupants that appears on the 100 block of Conroe Street, and that's at tab 10 of my exhibit book.
Here are some exterior photos.
Again, you can see 163 here.
And presently under construction, you see the fencing that's located in front of there.
So here is basically, here's the curbing, and here's where the existing fence was located.
And what we're looking to do now is you can see they've now moved the fence back to where it's going to be located, and we have a gentleman here standing with a board that's cut out three foot wide by seven feet tall and showing in the location, in a general location where it will be, the sign would be placed and erected if approved.
And what we're looking to do now is you can see they've now moved the fence back.
the variances are granted by the zoning board. And then you can see this for 176 on the other side,
the same thing. You know, the existing fence line right here, and then here's where it's going to
be. And then you can see right here that I highlighted, that's where the fence is going
to be pulled back where this boarding is located. So again, creating a lot more open space in this
area and the vicinity sign a signage based upon the comments that we received from the community
at the community group meeting uh i mentioned about the notices of refusal uh that i don't
necessarily agree um with what they have stated in the refusal they're basically stating that zero
square feet is permitted for freestanding signs in rmx2 now if you recall i've been in front of
this board recently with a number of other signed applications in RM2 zoning districts
where the same issue came up. And if you take a look at the, let's see, where is it?
there's any clear provisions here we go so it's interesting in 149041 for rmx2 it states that
for home occupations it's prohibited for non-residential uses it indicates 15 square
feet. But LNI has taken a position, just like it took with the RM2 signage projects that I brought
to this board, which the board approved, that it's not permitted in RMX2. Well, it indicates that
home occupations, it indicates what's prohibited. And this is a resident, this is not a home
occupation. This is a residential use. And the zoning code is silent. And the case law is clear
There are no such circumstances in matters of interpretation.
The call goes in favor of the applicant, the property owner, so to speak.
So it's our position that the signage is permitted by the language of the zoning code,
that they're really, unfortunately, because of the way they drafted it, there is no limitation
in the maximum area.
But just so you know, we're at 21 square feet per side.
It's three times seven.
I mean, not all of it is illuminated.
Like you would have if you had an externally illuminated sign, which is something that the community group, which I'll get to in a minute, had suggested we do at the community group meeting.
It's just in those particular areas where there's lettering or logos.
And again, the height of our sign is seven feet.
So we comply with that.
Again, you can see here.
Again, the community had suggested or requested some people in attendance.
I think they may be wrong. I've not seen the meeting summary form from MNC. Did have some emails from them where they expressed their position in this matter, which I'm sure they'll voice when I'm finished. But one of the things that some people had mentioned was to have an external illumination shining on the sign. We feel this is less disruptive and more effective than that type of lighting.
The other thing that had been suggested during the meeting was that we, instead of freestanding signs, which some people thought didn't fit into this, spoke up and said didn't fit into this street, which, again, we disagree.
We think that this is tucked in, tastefully done.
It's not overwhelming.
Very well serves the purpose of providing identification.
And for anybody coming to the property, particularly emergency personnel, to find this is the row.
they know it's here these you know it's wherever they need to be is in the row and then you have
signage that directs you to the individual units wherever they may be 176 163 whatever the case may
be um but we did do some renderings as i start i think i started to show you that now these are
taken from the opposite side of the street somebody walking down so it's a little more
of a sharper angle than it would be if somebody were driving but here you have you know the
difference between what we're proposing, even with the car parked right there, versus the signage. If
that car were still parked where it was originally shown in this rendering, you wouldn't be able to
see that flat wall sign. The church, again, is an old building. It's historical. It's not designated
It is historic, but the building on the opposite side, 176, is.
But the building on the opposite side, 176, is.
And here we did renderings as well.
Now, this is obviously taken from down the block.
It is a one-way from uphill, downhill.
But you can see it's extremely difficult to make out, to see the sign, let alone read it, discern what's in the signage.
And you can see here as well.
It's a little more difficult.
And the direction that the arrows are pointing, it's a little clearer. The sign, when it's placed perpendicular to the properties, is pointing into the campus on either the complex on either side.
When it's flat on the building, it becomes, you know, you've got those kind of crooked arrows that are bent in interesting ways up and down to kind of give the sense of the direction that's leading away from the sign,
which can be confusing and cause a delay in emergency personnel getting to where they need to be on site.
In that respect, we did contact the, you know, the mounting of a flat wall sign on the buildings.
And in the exhibit package at tab one, sub tab D, you'll see a letter dated January 26, 2024 from the Historical Commission.
um definitely not being in favor of mounting uh signage directly onto the face of um building
uh we do have in while we are on the subject of position letters you can see here at tab 1a
we have a letter of support from councilman jones dated february 2nd 2024 as you can see
their taste the signage is tasteful appropriate aesthetically pleasing and necessary to find a
new development. All the reasons why my client and the architect, who is extremely experienced
here in Philadelphia, I mean, I've known him for decades, and very experienced with historical
structures, he and his firm, and of doing high-quality, tasteful work. So this signage
was vetted and very thoroughly before it was submitted to LNI as part of this tasteful
restoration of these existing structures and the overall development of the properties.
And then Northlight, which I mentioned is the community center, wrote a letter of support
that you can see there, tab 1B.
And then I don't have, again, a letter from MNC regarding their position and their meeting
summary form.
I did have an email from them, which did give the results of the meeting and what their
their position of non-support for what we were proposing with some suggestions, some of which
we implemented, as I mentioned, and some of which we felt like the flat wall sign and the external
illumination not only weren't as desirable, but wouldn't be as effective in the situation or in
the circumstances of life safety emergency personnel would be detrimental to achieving
the goals of the signage that we're putting here. Some housekeeping matters. We do have a copy of
our appeal at tab 16, 14303s that went out separately for each of the two properties at
17A and 17B for the meeting we had at the beginning of January with MNC, along with the
certificates of mailing of each one, as you can see. Tab 18, we have the deeds for my client
acquiring the property in June of 2018, the deed of consolidation, which had to do with the
consolidation and relocation of the existing 16 lots into the lots that presently exist,
and then the deed of correction. We do have the tax compliance at tab 19 A and B for each of the
parcels uh the notices for today's hearing for both 163 and 176 at tab 20a and 20b and then the
posting photos are at tab 21 and you can see um there's an example of for 163 on the gay frontage
i mean on the conroe street frontage uh on the gay street frontage and then for connor 176 conroe
again, the posting that we had there. So, again, we feel that some of the refusals that were
issued, it was interesting because we got slightly different refusals from the different examiners,
although they were the same type of proposal, which often happens. The fencing, there is a
refusal. We're replacing the existing fencing, but it is actually further away from the curb line
than what's presently there.
So we feel that there is a warrants granting the variance in this case.
And then again, the refusal for regarding the freestanding sign itself,
whether or not the zoning code even applies in this type of,
for this property, for this type of proposed use,
I think is highly in question.
And then saying that you can have zero square footage
And then saying that you can have zero square footage if you're going to have it, I mean, obviously makes no sense at all.
if you're going to have it.
So in terms of those refusals, I think I've made the case regarding their inapplicability.
But in the event that this board does feel that they still should apply for the reasons we've stated and reasons that are stated in my appeals that I submitted to the zoning board,
we feel that it's warranted to grant the variance, that there is a hardship given the size of this
property, the proposed uses of the property, that it will not have an adverse impact on traffic or
cause congestion in the streets. In fact, it should help. There'll be less people stopping
and slowing and figuring out where to go, what to do. We feel that it's the minimum variance
necessary in both cases, both in terms of the size of the signage and where we've located.
the same thing for the fencing and as such we um again respectfully request that the zoning board
grant the requested variances um i would be the architect who could adopt my statements if the
once the questions are finished and i also have um jack bean and feld who's with uh again american
living concepts of manioc llc who could also adopt my statements and make any additional
comments that i may have missed in my presentation all right let's get your client on the line or
you want to do the architect first yeah let's do jim james campbell i'm campbell thomas
james campbell has been unmuted and allowed to speak mr campbell can you please state your name
spell it for the court reporter yes uh james campbell uh j-a-m-e-s-c-a-m-p-b-e-l-l
campbell thomas and company all right you swear to the truth and nothing but the truth i do
please proceed thank you sir uh jim did you hear the statements that i made to the board
this afternoon regarding these two uh applications and uh appeals to the zoning board i did and are
Were they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
To the best of my knowledge, absolutely.
And would you adopt them as your own?
I would.
And is there anything real quickly, because I know I went on, I don't want to abuse this opportunity,
but is there anything that I missed or that you'd like to add to support their requested variances?
Just one thing.
the sign that's being proposed here really sits between the existing historic buildings
and the new construction, and we felt it appropriate to do a sign in between these
two properties rather than try to attach signage to one or the other. So that's why
a sign between these two properties seems most appropriate architecturally to us.
And they both are situated at like kind of the entry points from Connerow with walkways leading back into away from Connerow into the campus or complex of properties to either side.
So they're they're situated at this exact location on either side of the street for a reason and for an effective and a reason.
That is correct.
OK. And then, Jim, anything else?
No, I think that's really it.
Okay. And then Jack Beinenfeld, if he could quickly be, if he could raise his hand and quickly be sworn in.
Mr. Beinenfeld.
And again, we appreciate you taking this matter first because he's out of town.
Mr. Beinenfeld, if you're in a virtual audience, please raise your hand.
I see no one by that name, Chair.
okay um we'll take we'll take your testimony uh david uh you're uh
chair mr bidenfield just put his hand up okay sure let's hear from him
he's been up muted and allowed to speak vice chair
mr bingo please state your name and spell it for the court reporter please
jack we can't hear you
Jack, J-A-C-K,
Beinenfeld, B as in boy,
I-E-N-E-N-F-E-L-D.
Do you swear to tell the truth,
the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth?