I represent 2121 Dickinson Street, calendar number M120.
Yep, it's number five on our list. Are you ready to go with that?
we are ready to go we requested a continuance on friday but we prepared we we uh remedied the
tax clearance issue okay sure we will we will call your case in hopefully 15 minutes 20 minutes
thank you okay sure any other continuances
i see no other hats mr chair okay thank you i'm going to start with an add-on
MI 2021-003-765-5319. Chester, this is a request for reconsideration. I vote no to the
reconsideration. Carol Tenere, my vote is no to the reconsideration. Thomas Holloman,
my vote is no to the reconsideration. James Snell, my vote is no to reconsideration.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no to reconsideration.
my vote is no to reconsideration okay thank you
Okay, thank you.
Case number one, MI 2021-002-648-1001 South Chadwick Street.
Lisa Cohen and Jason Cohen.
Mr. Chair, Mr. Allen Alckmson has his hand raised.
I'm going to speak.
Yes, Jason.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Mr. Nockleson.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, Alan, A-L-A-N, last name Nockleson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N,
123 South
Lodge Street, Suite 1600,
Philadelphia PA,
19109.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth? I do.
You're taking
this case, Mr. Nocklinson? Yes,
I represent the police.
Could you... Okay, I'm sorry,
Chair. May we pause
one minute to allow him to
come in as a panelist? Okay.
just promoted
i'll ask the questions after you won't just one more quick thing
and you'll i'll give it to you carol thank you
morning could could you identify your client and their relationship to the property
Yes, Jason and Lisa Cohen.
They're the owners of the property.
I have Jason Cohen online.
And at the conclusion of my presentation, they will adopt my testimony.
Okay, thank you.
Our Vice Chair of Apparel has a few questions for you.
Good morning, Mr. Notcomson.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet consisting of proof of ownership tax compliance,
a copy of the refusal or referral photos under plans of the property five days in advance of
this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes in all respects and we
have a letter of support from the coordinating rco south south association thank you you may
proceed and share your screen thank you uh wow all right can everyone see my screen yes all right
so 2001 uh south chadwick street uh i remember and this is a property on the corner of carpenter
and chadwick and graduate hospital area of philadelphia this is currently a single-family
home and all we're looking to do is put a ruby back with the pilot house on top of the property
and i represent individuals who have lived there for some time uh with me you know in my table of
contents is my notice of my current notice of refusal um at the request of the neighborhood
group uh we we sought authorization to reapply uh for a new notice of refusal given the changes
that were requested we're still waiting for that notice refusal it should be delivered to us no
later than we were told uh friday we would ask that i would be able to present this matter and
hold it under advisement for the board to hold it under advisement waiting for that new notice
of refusal uh which would be the subject of a notice decision with the proviso the uh new zoning
permit. We have a letter of support from SOSTA. We have maps of the area, photographs of the
property that surround the area, our plans and drawings, our meeting notice, our application
for appeal, our deeds of property, showing that the Cohens own the property, and with me I have
Jason Cohen, one of the owners, and a certificate of tax credits. Our refusal, which would not be
much different than what you're going to see after the hearing, we're looking to just put a roof
deck on there with a pilot house. And because of the configuration of the stairs, because the
stairs go straight in the middle, our pilot house is configured in a way where we are having a
refusal for the setback of, instead of 10 feet, we have a five-foot setback. What we did to alter
our drawings is we put fencing around the perimeter of our roof deck, and we just want to make sure
that there's no additional refusals as a result of that, but we did add to the HESA neighborhood.
Here's a letter of support. As you can see, it was unanimous support from SOSNA, and then there's
another RCO called North of Washington Avenue Coalition, and they also voted in support of
and they also voted in support of this project for the addition of the roof deck for the pilot house
this project for the addition of the roof deck for the Island House.
maps of the area as as i indicated we're at the corner of chadwood carpenter which is a single
family home not out of character to have uh to have roof decks of this type uh again just a map
from a google perspective photographs of the property existing building structure very handsome
we're just looking to put a roof deck to add a little more flavor we did hire my clients did
hire a contractor to initiate the process. They understood that they were going to get permits
as part of that process. We discovered that they did not get permits, and that's why we're here to
essentially continue that process legally. So you'll see some pictures with a pilot house,
which again, unbeknownst to us, did not have permits, and that's why we're here today.
Chadwick property from Chadwick Street, then South Chadwick Street to the right of the property,
As you can see, across the street are houses with roof decks and pilot houses.
South Chadwick Street to the left of the property, as you can see, there are roof decks and pilot houses as well.
Carpenter Street to the right of the property, as you can see, some of the construction with pilot houses and roof decks.
Carpenter Street to the left of the property.
And then our plans and drawings.
I think this one is the simplest one.
You can see through this illustration of what we're planning to do.
You know, our setback is here.
the five foot but as you can see we and you know and of course we want to we have you know our
clients um have children and you know they live there they have children they wanted this to be
a you know a safe experience for them you know responsibly to enjoy their roof deck so obviously
they agreed to put fencing around there which was not included in the original submission to lni
so as a precautionary matter uh we decided to make a resubmission just to make sure there's
no additional refusals but we put fencing around the perimeter for safety purposes but that's where
a five-foot setback is it's right here beginning with the front entrance of the roof deck but you
can see this is our third floor we really can't change the third floor layout like our staircases
are in the middle and how it's laid out there's no other way for how we configure the pilot
else meeting notice we met with the community um and uh we gave notice of that community meeting
131 addresses are within the affected area these are the addresses proof of mailing
our application for appeal that we coincidentally started the process without counsel because of you
know the torturous nature sometimes of this process they felt it was better you know to
have counsel, you know, complete this process in front of the CPA. So that's why there's
their project information form, their deeds of property. They've lived in the neighborhood
for going on almost five years, so they just want to add some outdoor living for them and their
family. And certificate of tax clearance showing that they're in good standard. I'm going to stop
sharing my screen, I would
ask that Mr. Cohen virtually raise
his hand so he can be
sworn in and adopt more testimony.
Do I speak now?
Could you state your name, Mr. Cohen, and
spell for the court reporter?
Yes, Your Honor. Jason Cohen,
J-A-S-O-N-C-O-H-E-N.
Right. Do you swear
for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth? Yes, sir.
proceed uh yes sorry go ahead yeah mr cohen you heard everything i stated today
yes sir is it true and correct absolutely do you adopt as your own testimony yes sir yes your honor
counsel yes thank you uh mr chair members of the board again we're waiting for the updated refusal
just as a precautionary matter we did it at the request of the community the coordinating rco
we would ask that the board hold this matter under advisement waiting for us to deliver that
updated refusal and then if the board is inclined to grant um our zoning request uh that they grant
it with a proviso uh indicating the zoning permit uh number of the zoning permit application number
for this new refusal okay we're going to hold that um sherman do we need to planning commission
to take a position before we hold it uh yes if we're going to do all we're going to take testimony
we should have planning at the same time all right uh questions from the board no no mr chairman
mr chairman questions from the virtual audience i see no hands mr chair planning commission
Planning Commission. Good morning, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning
good morning chair bergman ian hegarty for the philadelphia city
Commission. That's spelled H-E-G-A-R-T-Y. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Proceed. Thank you. Good morning,
members of the board. Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5
single-family zoning at this location. As we've seen in the drawings, the stairwell of this
structure precludes locating the roof deck access structure um elsewhere according to zoning
requirements city planning commission recommends that the board grant the variance um assuming that
no other refusals are to be issued by lni under the um amended uh plans thank you mr knoxon we
will hold the vote on this thank you very much have a great day all right thank you
am i i'm sorry i'm sorry chair this is tanya yep could we be specific um as far as the vote
we're going to hold the vote once we hear from the l and i permit issues
that mr knockison raised that there's no additional issues okay and do you want to
give it 30 days i would think i would say two weeks all righty thank you kindly chair
MI-2021-004-462-1564 Burke Street.
Mr. Laver.
Excuse me.
Mr. Laver has been promoted to Panama, sir.
Mr. Laver, you've always been sworn.
Good morning, again, Mr. Chairman and members of the board, Adam Laver.
You've already been sworn.
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Absolutely.
Blank Rome represents 150 West Burke Street, LLC,
which is the equitable owner under an agreement of sale to purchase the property at 150-64 and 166-80 West Burke Street.
150 West Burke Street LLC is an entity associated with Urban Conversions LLC.
Okay. Our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good morning, Mr. Laver. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Good morning, Madam Vice Chair. Yes, I do.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, a copy of the
refusal, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met
with the RCO and do you have a letter? Yes the full required information was submitted to the
Zoning Board of Adjustments this past Friday. We met with the coordinating RCO as selected by
council member quinones sanchez and the coordinating rco submitted a letter of unqualified support
this morning to the zoning board thank you so much you may proceed and begin to share your screen
thank you
mr chairman members of the board i i beg your indulgence at the outset
that this hearing will probably be a bit longer due to the issue that was raised at the start
of hearings concerning the council members' concerns, I feel it appropriate and necessary
to establish a full record.
In front of you, and if you need me to enlarge, please just let me know, is a proposed rendering
of the project that I'll describe shortly.
I'd like to note at the outset that Andrew Zakroff,
Z-A-K-R-O-F-F, Andrew Zakroff of Urban Conversions
is with us today, as is Eric Leighton,
L-E-I-G-H-T-O-N of Cecil Baker and Partners Architects.
Urban Conversions has appeared before this board several times.
Some of their past projects are up on the screen before you.
And as the name implies, Urban Conversions prides itself on adaptive creative reuse often of historic properties throughout the city.
However, this case is a little bit different.
In front of you on the screen is a recent photograph of the subject property, and you'll see that it's a vacant parcel, and it's a vacant parcel with a troubled history in the community, just running you through a few photographs to orient.
history in the community just running you through a few photographs to orient you
this last one is off of berg street beyond being a troubled site the proposed redevelopment of the
site has elicited passionate opinions throughout the community which is understandable when one
considers that we're talking about the potential impact the potential transformation of what's
nearly a full city block, an entire city block that's been blighted. Unfortunately, also over the
course of the past eight months of dialogue and discussion, it's become quite evident that it's
impossible to satisfy every individual's oftentimes competing wish lists. Therefore,
Therefore, I think that it's worth pausing before beginning with the specifics of the development proposal to touch upon the very significant community engagement process that has taken place.
The zoning application, Mr. Chairman and members of the board, was filed eight months ago in August of 2021.
Prior to the submission of the formal zoning application, I had reached out to Sloan Foulkes of Councilmember Quinonez Sanchez's office on April 7, 2020, just about two years ago.
And over the course of the past years, I was very appreciative to have periodic communications with Mr. Polk by both email and telephone, so as to keep the council member's office apprised regarding what is a significant development within the 7th Councilmanic District.
And this past summer, pursuant to section 14303.12 B2D of the zoning code, Councilmember Quinones-Sanchez selected South Kensington Community Partners that are known as SKCP as the coordinating RCO.
And pursuant to the council member's designation of SKCP as the coordinating RCO, we engaged with SKCP and the greater community in several meetings.
Five meetings with SKCP took place between September of last year and just last month.