Okay, Chair, we have six, excuse me, 17 attendees.
You can proceed as you wish.
Okay. Good morning. My name is Ishmael Shaheed, and I will be chairing this morning's ZBA board meeting. With me is board member Cheryl Gaskin.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board member Tanetta Grant.
Chairman.
Board member Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And board member Taiya Nguyen.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also, here is our attorney, Hillary Emerson, and deputy director of planning and zoning, Kathleen Grady.
Here is our virtual format. The proceeding is being recorded.
With your participation, you agree to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting the ZBA executive director at zbaexecutivedirectoratphilly.gov.
For our court stenographer, we ask that attorney and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone, please press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, please call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and the address of the property in question.
Finally, the question box on the screen is not for testimony, testimonials.
All questions should be directed to our executive director, Kathleen Grady.
We're going to move right into our, we have no add-ons today.
We're going to move right into the regular list.
Number one, MI-2022-007283, 500-510 South Broad Street, Michael Mattione.
We're going to call also number two, MI-2022-003-284-500-510-South Broad Street, as well, same attorney, Michael Maglione.
Good morning, this is Jasmine, I will be the co-host for today.
Michael Maglione has been allowed to speak.
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Can you please identify your name, spell it, or the court reporter, please?
Certainly. Michael Mattioni, M-A-T-T-I-O-N-I.
You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Can you identify your client?
Certainly. It's a Symphony House condominium.
Do you agree to swear? Excuse me.
That's all right.
This is the fifth listing, so we are going to continue this for the last and final time.
It must be heard on the next hearing.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
MI-2022-003283 and MI-2022-007284 is being continued.
Thank you.
number five
MI-2023-006-201
2940 East
Tioga Street
this case is being
continued attorney moving party
and now we're going to go to
number six
MI-2024
4-003-295, 229 West Roosevelt Boulevard, Abdullah Ali or Ahmed Jani, we have no exhibits.
Ahmed Jani has been allowed to speak.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Yes, how are you, sir?
I'm here. Hello?
Hello?
Hello?
I don't...
Now I see.
Now I see.
Take your name and spell it for the court reporter, please.
My name is Ahmed Johnny.
A-H-M-E-D
J-O-N-N-Y.
You're ready to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed.
All right. I'm here trying to legalize
an existing single-family house
to be zoned for a duplex.
Mr. Johnny, this case is going to have to be continued, but we have not received any exhibits.
This is the first listen. Just want to let you know we're going to continue this case,
but we definitely need all of the information that is needed to proceed with this case.
We have the letter of support from the RCO.
Yeah, but we haven't received all of the information in our offices as of yet. So we
need to make sure that information is received in before we can proceed with this case.
so it's going to be rescheduled yes it's going to be continued uh you will get a letter in the mail
from this day board uh on the next date schedule okay and mr johnny um this is hillary board
council um please reach out to the zoning board office we'll put the number in the chat they can
provide you with more information about the documents you need to have ready in order to
proceed at your next hearing date. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. MI-2024-003295
cases being continued. First listing. All right, going back to number three.
mi-2023-005620708 samson street meredith ferlinger uh is the attorney
miss ferlinger meredith ferlinger
Good morning, Council. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. How are you? I'm fine, thank you.
Let's meet your name and spell it for the court reporter. Sure. Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I sure do. Do you identify your client?
Sure. My client is J.R. Sanson Partners, LLC, which is the owner of this property.
This is for the erection of an attached high-rise structure with skyplanes, options with a roof, decks, and balcony.
Counselor, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
Please proceed, Counselor.
thank you just give me one moment to get organized i'm recusing myself from this uh
yeah so mr johns will be uh recusing himself from this case thank you
okay mr vice chairman members of the board uh this morning we've submitted to you a detailed
exhibit packet that contains 19 exhibits, which we, of course, would request that they be moved
into evidence at the conclusion of our presentation today. These exhibits reflect the project as
originally designed, as well as reflect changes that have been made since the board was originally
scheduled to hear this case back in June. Since that time, you'll be pleased to know that the
development team can report that the original letter of non-opposition from Washington Square
West Civic Association has now also been joined with a letter of no objection from Society Hill
Civic Association. Given this positive development, we will try and keep the presentation as brief as
possible, while still also respecting the scale of this proposed development does still require
quite an extensive presentation. The packet includes standard information, including
updated evidence of tax clearance at Exhibit 2, as well as the owner's deed to the property
at Exhibit 3. That deed shows that J.R. Sansom, which I'll refer to generally today as Pearl
Properties, acquired the property from Toll Washington Square LP on January 9, 2023.
As mentioned, Exhibit 17 shows a ladder of non-opposition from both RCOs that have boundaries covering this project.
This first one is for Washington Square West, and the second.
This first one is for Washington Square West, and the second one is the letter from Society Hill
Civic showing no objection. Prior to coming before this board, the project has completed
its required reviews by both the Philadelphia Historical Commission as well as the City
Planning Commission Civic Design Review Committee, in addition to several informal and formal meetings
with Washington Square West Civic Association and Society Hill Civic Association.
Those completion letters are also included in the packet at Exhibits 18 and 15, respectively.
By way of some background, the property before the board today is located at 708 Sansom Street
along the city's famous Jewelers Row. The board may recall that the property is current vacant land
and was previously the subject of a high-rise apartment building development for which Toll
Brothers obtained full zoning, historic, and building approval, but was tabled due to capital
market conditions. After nearly 10 years since the project first started and four years since
the lot became vacant and unused, Pearl Property's newly envisioned project follows extensive
of discussions, including various informal discussions and public meetings with neighborhood
stakeholders, and reflects Pearl's commitment to respect and enliven the Jewelers Row Corridor
while blending with the surrounding neighborhood comprised of buildings of mixed character and mass
in and around Washington Square. The basis for relief before the board today is actually fairly
minor given the scale of this project. As the refusal and referral at Exhibit 1 show,
one referral was issued for the proposed above-ground accessory parking garage.
Two refusals were issued, one for exceeding maximum gross floor area due to the above-ground
accessory parking garage, calculated as floor area ratio, and one for insufficient dry vial
inside the garage. We did submit a set of revised plans and a revised plan proviso form to the board
today of three total pages. I'll walk the board through some basic context. As you can see from
the zoning map at Exhibit 6, the property and the surrounding neighborhood are largely zoned CMX 5
or Commercial Mixed Use 5, which you know is the densest zoning classification available under the
zoning code. The board may note that the single zoning lot for this property is constituted as
a master condominium, which includes the land at 708 Sansom Street. This master condominium is
between Pearl Properties and the adjacent building, commonly known as 714 Sansom Street.
Referring to the general overhead aerial views at Exhibit 6, the board will note that this is a
vacant lot with dual frontage on Sansom Street and there's a little sliver here that's a little
hard to see from the aerial on 7th Street as well. The property is just west of the Curtis Center
which you can see in this image. On this next southern view the board will recognize the
Jewelers Roadblock. We have also included a view from the west facing the Curtis Center where you'll
see the edge of Washington Square, which is to the southeast of this property.
These next views are slightly more illustrative in terms of showing the context of the site
in relation to its surrounding neighborhood. The high rise to the southwest is the St. James,
and you can see that here in this image and also here in this image.
Excuse me, Ms. Furliger, I believe one of our board members has a question at this time.
Board member Wynne.
Sorry, Hillary. I accidentally hit that button.
Okay. All right. Never mind.
If anybody does have a question while I'm talking, please feel free to stop me. This is obviously a very large project.
All right. Please continue.
you. No problem. From an overhead view here, the board will discern that this is an irregularly
shaped lot with a wide L shape that includes the small portion I mentioned along South 7th Street.
Finally, we did also include a general neighborhood context map,
just to give you a sense of where this project sits in relation to the surrounding area.
Looking more closely, we have also included site photographs at Exhibit 19.
The first view here is from the Sansom Street frontage.
The first view here is from the Sansom Street frontage.
This small historic structure at the corner is not included in this proposed development.
This next image here, which is a sheet from the Civic Design Review presentation, provides
several additional views of the property, both from Sansom Street and the 7th Street
intersection, as well as additional views from Sansom Street and north and south along 7th
Street. So this is really, this first one is right at the corner. This is looking north on 7th Street,
right in front of Curtis Center. This is looking northwest on south 7th Street towards that
historic building on the corner. And then this one is looking east on Sansom Street.
This section of South 7th Street is one-way heading towards Sansom Street.
You can see that with the cars here heading up towards Sansom Street.
Sansom Street also further follows a one-way traffic pattern heading west.
We've included some additional views on the next page here.
And again, these are just some additional views on Sansom Street, looking west.
And then this is directly in front of the portion of the property that fronts on South 7th Street.
So you can see it's a fairly small piece that creates that L onto South 7th Street.
The zoning posters were timely posted and updated on September 2nd, 2024.
And we've included images in the exhibits for reference.
At this point, I would like to ask our architecture representatives from DAS to join me so that they can actually walk you through this proposal.
So if the administrator could look for Dave Schultz.
David Schultz has been allowed to speak.
Hello.
Can you hear me?
we can hear you if you can get a little bit closer to the microphone okay
is that better yes sir please state your name and spell it for the court reporter please
my name is david a schultz spell it for the court reporter please uh schultz is s-c-h-u-l-t-z
you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel
Thank you. David, could you just identify your profession, generally speaking?
Sure. I'm a registered architect in Pennsylvania. I've been practicing in Pennsylvania for 41 years. I'm also NCARB certified.
And you've been practicing in Philadelphia for a significant amount of time?
I have.
We started our business 41 years ago.
I'm a partner in DAS Architects.
We're actually based in Philadelphia.