Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Council?
thank you uh dennis you are authorized to speak on behalf of uh 23 1511 llc correct yes
Thank you.
Dennis, you are authorized to speak on behalf of .
and can you just in a sentence or two explain to the board the actual aesthetic inspiration that
came into this building yeah so the the building was part of the garden um the founding of the
garden. We have spoken on numerous occasions with the members and the leadership of the garden.
As you guys saw, when looking at the existing structure, there was a components of red in the
fence and in the building itself. This was one of the things that we kind of wanted to carry over
as well. There was a sentiment from the garden that they wanted to retain some of that color
because originally I think the garden was actually founded and some of the organization early in its early days was held in this building.
So having that color meant something to the garden across the street.
And then just very briefly, can you just explain to the board how you intend to manage the property,
including, importantly, how trash would be removed from this building?
Yes, so as I'm speaking right now, my office, my business office is located two blocks away
from the property. I'm currently speaking walking distance from the property. We do have
several buildings in the area. I do personally manage
the property. So we do have some staff that is responsible for cleaning up the sidewalk of this
building. I know that also the folks from the garden have also reached out about engaging in
terms of maintenance and of the building once it's constructed. So that's something we would
want to explore. But as far as the trash, Meredith, I don't know if you can pull up the plans. We do
have a dedicated trash room and we would be hiring a commercial trash removing company to ensure
that that that trash is removed uh by them and dennis have have you heard all of the additional
testimony and evidence that i presented in front of the board today i have and do you agree that
testimony was true and accurate and would you adopt it as if you had provided it to the board yourself
is that a yes we didn't hear you yes yes yes sorry yeah i would yes happy to answer any questions
questions from the board what's the units unit mix
uh the unit mix it's all one bedrooms and then there are a couple one bedrooms with
dens so they are uh essentially uh just a variety of different layouts uh for one bedroom units
and are there uh trash chutes on upper on the upper floors because i don't see access
is to the trash room from that from there's no there's no current trash
shoots we've been exploring so I don't know Meredith it's I apologize I don't
know if you have all the floors with you so the the impact of the trash
shoots would diminish the dens on the upper floors so it is something we're
open to consider and it's something we've been having a conversation about
so it's definitely being explored yeah because i mean the way you have it laid out now there's
if folks are taking their trash they have to come out the building out the front or out the back
and walk around the corner and go into the trash room because there's only access from the for the
to the trash room from the outside yeah it is it is something that um if if the board would like i
could bring on the architects that is something that uh we had actually discussed in advance of
this hearing i know they are looking into exploring the options including potentially a trash chute
uh or allowing for access within the building itself uh so i mean again the building itself
has this is a very large trash room in comparison to many others so there is ample space here to
accommodate a more efficient way to have tenants deliver the trash into the trash room and the
trash chute is one of those options that they're exploring all the questions what about uh what
what about uh storage for the units is there additional storage for the units in the basement
or is this just what they have in terms of closets in the units just the bike storage
yeah we proposed it as a bike storage but we could we could definitely consider this as a
as an alternative for additional storage yeah i think just based on the amount of space that's
available it's likely dennis can you confirm this is probably more space than you would need
uh dedicated to the utilities and that there would likely be more than sufficient space to
dedicated to the utilities and there would likely be more than sufficient space
also accommodate tenant storage down here that is correct so the company that i run in the area is
a plumbing company i think that looking at that water utility and electrical room um there's
definitely room for us to maneuver and add additional storage everything but the pico
vault in the elevator uh is is up for uh additional review questions do we have washers and dryers in
these units each each come with a washer and dryer yes yes okay all right a real quick question just
about the uh the density i know that there's um a bonus for the affordable housing yep but just
justifying the particular hardship whatever for the density of the up to 20 yeah so again i mean
there's there's a couple of things so so first of all um as as this board has seen there there is a
precedent in this area for supporting additional density uh and just in comparison to some of the
other requests the the one that i included in the exhibits is two doors down but there have been
other similar requests in front of this board so we were we were able to compare the density
that's proposed here to the density that was approved for some other similar projects
and on a per uh on a lot square footage per unit this falls right in the middle um but just just
you know logistically speaking here um you know again this this is a a large building the elevator
is you know again it's a significant investment that is triggered by additional density but it's
also something that provides a real benefit particularly in an area where most projects
are smaller and don't have the need for that kind of an investment so again it's really just a
combination of the building itself supports the number of units it is as you can see here
on the second through fourth floors here it's five units per floor and it is a corner property here
with windows on all sides so there's really a combination of you know just general context
density in the area really trying to bring some additional density back to this area
the building layout itself and then of course you know again trying to provide some of that
additional type B accessibility, which was something that the RCO was really, really happy
to see. Other questions? Questions from our attorney? Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions
or comments from the audience? Come on up. We're going to testify one at a time?
all right who wants to go first sure take a seat please and if you would get close to the
microphone so everybody can hear you I'm going to open my phone so I have some notes pulled up
could you turn on the mic please yes this is better could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer sure my name is elizabeth o'caro e-l-i-z-a-b-e-t-h last name
o'caro o-k-e-r-o do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do are you a neighbor um i am a neighbor not adjacent to this community but i do um live a few
blocks from where this property will be and i'm also the executive director of the non-profit
organization directly across the farm that was referred to as a community garden so why don't
you start your test yes thank you so much um all for hearing us today and i just want to say i'm
joined by two of our neighbors on dakota street which is the street that this will be cornering
on on 11th street um since this property was first acquired it has sat vacant for a very long time
it's caused a lot of issues for the homeowners on that street from things over growing growing into
their yards difficulty communicating with the property owners i do know dennis i've been in
communication with him um he bought this property from the family of someone who helped found the
farm so i wouldn't necessarily say it was like a a good thing when it happened it happened very
quickly it sold um kind of under the feet of the previous person who was living there
although it was owned by his family so i just like want to state that for the record and
And also that some of the largest concerns that we have, for me, number one, is that
there are five generations of families.
five generations of family so miss teresa who will speak after me she is a fifth generation of the
So Ms. Teresa, who will speak after me, she is a fifth generation.
jordan family who's been living on dakota street and they're all homeowners and that's a really
important thing when we think about our community members our our black homeowners in philadelphia
in north philadelphia i think it's important when we're thinking about making community
connections if we're building new properties to be reaching out to those folks five generations
is a long time to be living in on one block of Dakota Street and not be
communicated once by this developer despite the RCO meeting happening there
needs to be connections made with the people's whose houses this is going to
be abutting this structure will be towering over their homes Dakota Street
is all two level homes other than I believe two new developments that have
happened on either side just to give you perspective of you know like this will
be completely blocking the sunlight this will have a significant um physical appearance and
and take up space uh i didn't realize i was timed i'm so sorry i just have a few more points that
are really important and i can make it quick okay but i mean the point is you're not for the project
i'm not for the project but i just want to say these last few points that are very important
that was more of a personal thing because i think us as humans it's important to also identify how
how this is gonna affect elderly homeowners on the block.
20 apartments is a lot.
The trash is not sufficient.
This small trash room that they're saying
is sufficient enough to hold trash
for a 20 apartment building,
which I'm assuming will not be all
be singular occupied apartments.
It will not do it.
We have seen dumping at an exorbitant rate
in this community and the people who are taking care of it
are the people at the garden that they're talking about.
The people across the street are folks
who are from the community, community organizers
and beautification members
of our community who take care of that area.
Before there was nobody else taking care of it, we were.
They say that they're taking care of the property
that you saw photos of.
We've been taking care of the outside
to make sure that our neighbors on Dakota Street
aren't just looking at trash, accumulate,
and the dumping that you know is prevalent in our city.
It's a real problem.
Next, I just want to say that the parking is a huge issue.
If the aerial footage could be pulled up again,
you can see that where the farm is,
we have our own parking lot.
that parking lot is part of our property we allow the church across the street which is an active
church to park in that parking lot that is it we've had stolen vehicles come and be dumped there
we've dealt with that a lot a lot of police presence because we've had to deal with the fact
that people are dumping cars they're thinking that it's an unused parking lot when really we're an
urban farm functioning and we allow the church use that space we need to have some way to know that
there's going to be parking enforced parking laws enforced or what will be
done about you know 20 units of people if they have cars where are they going
to park the first place that they will see is the parking lot across the street
we have a food pantry that as we speak right now is about to open that runs
every Wednesday from 4 to 6 right at the end of that parking lot we need that
area to be free so people can walk up to the food pantry we're serving our
community there um you know when we talk about the the density that's the word that is continuously
being used right now and um the neighborhood's seen a lot of change i don't know that this
building is a positive change and um i want to you know honor that you gave me an extension
of time and just make sure that our neighbors can speak thank you thank you so much thank you so
much do you have any questions um just just just one um were were you present during the recent
hearing for 2307 north 11th street just a few doors down no i was not so you didn't object to
that that particular proposal which also had identical requests albeit a lesser density but
same same type of variance and let's be specific when you say lesser density what's the difference
it it's just a yes or no question where you density matters 20 apartments in a three-story
building is a lot different i just asked if you were present or objected to that i wasn't
wasn't it didn't affect the neighbors that i've known for all the years i've been there thank you
next person please
how are you could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer sure my name is theresa
marie jordan t-h-e-r-e-s-a-m-a-r-i-e-j-o-r-d-a-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth and you're what the timeline is when we we always try to give the
first person more time so she can lay out the issues um you have two minutes and if you would
start off by saying whether you're for it or against it i'm against it okay and then give
us a few minutes of the reason i'm against it is because of as was stated earlier the parking
as was stated earlier the parking okay and then there's also limited parking on 11th street
okay and then there's also limited parking only
because of the street signs that are there currently now on the same property that's
being spoken of it's 11 it's the 2315 and 2317 which is the corner and it's only you're only
speaking of 15 those are two different addresses that's how big that property is and it goes on
down to the next end now for the next part of it is that there's a driveway on that same property
that could be used for parking for those residents who's going to be in this building if it's approved
but also if it's going to stay at a three-story building what was the original plan it should be
still in that parking area because that was actually a driveway where the cars used to go
through when it was repair work being done there all right my family has been there over 40 some
years so we've seen stuff come and go and this just for this to have changed from what it was
originally was to what it is now and the question she asked was whether anybody received did she go
to the meeting for the 2307 our residents did not receive any information pertaining to 2307
for us to even have a discussion about right all right thank you very much ma'am thank you for
spending the time here sir how are you sir you got a smile on your face i'll tell you that
could you could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer andre mitchell
a-n-d-r-a-m-i-t-c mr mitchell do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth so mr mitchell are you for this or against it i am against and you're a neighbor yes
i'm a neighbor i've lived on it is there anything you can add that you haven't already heard no
nothing but it's just 20 units is all right thank you very much mr mitchell we appreciate it um
any other persons in the virtual audience yes chair i have a hand up from tina love
i have a lot of hands do you have just that one mr chair okay thank you
Tina Love, please unmute and wait to be sworn in.
Tina Love, are you there?
I'm here.
I'm here.
Hello.
Hi, Tina.