As you may know, Rhodes operates industrial manufacturing facilities at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Rhodes services U.S. naval contracts, manufacturing submarines and submarine components.
This application is part of the massive shipbuilding infrastructure that you've been reading about in the Inquirer down at the Navy Yard. The proposed project is bounded by 26th Street to the page left, Basin Bridge Road, top of the page, and Constitution Avenue within the Navy Yard right by the boat basin.
We're proposing new construction of an industrial manufacturing building, which will allow roads to further expand their footprint in the Navy Yard and meet the manufacturing demands of their defense contracts to increase shipbuilding and job creation at the Navy Yard.
Specifically, this site will house the fabrication of smaller mechanical components to support the shipbuilding and submarine fabrication happening down the street at 1900 Kitty Hawk Rhodes' main facility.
So proximity to Rhodes' facility as well as the Navy and the Navy Yards imperative.
roads anticipates that this new building will employ approximately 80 workers per shift
and the coordinating rco from the 26th ward has issued a letter of support which is in your packet
i've also spoken with council president johnson and he's in support of the project
here's the plan it's a
a warehouse occupying the property or a warehouse manufacturing building.
We're here today seeking a technical variance due to the shortfall of on-site parking.
The site is owned I-2.
The use and the building have all been designed to meet the code.
The new building consists of 109,000 square feet.
In the I-2 district, industrial manufacturing use requires one off-street parking for every
800 square feet.
As a result, the new building generates a requirement for 138 parking spaces.
As I've said to this board before, manufacturing has changed and gone to more automated uses.
The code parking requirement dates back to the times of assembly lines and have not adapted to modern evolution of manufacturing.
Given the location of the Navy Yard, the site borders the U.S. Navy property along the Schuylkill River at the 26th Street Bridge.
The constraints of the site and surrounding areas significantly limit the ability to provide on-site parking and a building large enough to house the machinery and components necessary to support Rhodes' operations down the road.
The constraints of the site and surrounding areas significantly limit the ability to provide on-site park.
Rhodes obtained a parking license agreement to provide 445 parking spaces in the Navy Yard from PIDC.
I'm just going to scroll. Here's here's the plan of the proposed building, but I'm going to scroll down just so you can see.
So this is over here.
The yellow on the screen is the proposed building at the property, and over here at lot S, we have an agreement to use 440 for 445 offsite parking spaces.
roads will operate a shuttle to bring employees to and from the lot additionally roads provides
benefits to employees who take public transportation which many do so given the number of employees
exceeds I'm sorry the number of employees expected to service the new building and the parking
agreement provides well in excess of the anticipated need the code required on-site parking should not
to prevent this job creating defense industry sustaining project. The code contemplates off-site
parking in other sections of the code, but does not extend this option to industrial zoning
districts. For areas like the Navy Yard, where the sites are constrained by water and large
industrial machinery infrastructure, off-site parking is both a necessity and a challenge,
but we believe we have a practical resolution here by providing the parking in in lot s here
so with that i'll just scroll through here's our refusal for number of
parking spaces i said 138 spaces here's a rendering of the building we'll be going
through the navy yards process for design review but we think this is a practical solution
to address the parking needs and the issues in the code the requested variance is the minimum
relief necessary it will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood as the use is
permitted and is consistent with the heavy shipbuilding operations of this portion of the
navy yard will not impair appropriate uses or development or adequate light and air of adjacent
property it will not substantially increase congestion a centralized parking for industrial
uses within the navy yard streamlines traffic and avoids congestion it will not be detrimental to
the neighborhood as evidenced by our letter of support from the coordinating rco um and i'm
sure you'll go from the council president's office um i have ryan cahill with me to ask someone to
adopt your test yes sure um ryan can you state or does he need to be sworn first still for you
can you please state your name and spell for the sonographer hi my name is ryan cahill r-y-a-n-c-a-h-i-l-l
do you swear or affirm to take tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do counsel
great thank you thank you mr chairman uh ryan you heard my testimony today yes uh do you agree to it
and adopt it as your own yes great thank you any questions for the short questions from the board
is is the shuttle the business's personal shuttle right now that's the intention that we we have
the shuttle and we'll fund the shuttle okay but is there a separate shuttle from the in the broad
street line to the navy yard uh i believe yes the navy yard loop uh does go to the broad street line
up by the stadiums there all right thank you other questions how many employees are you
anticipating having at the facility um it's 80 approximately 83 per shift so um max and the shift
change is 166 if i can do the math right only two shifts a day uh two shifts a day typically that's
what we run now yes then i think i saw in the application that the plan is to include bike
parking or are you getting rid of the bike parking we've met the code for bike parking
but right i understand even the code but i'm saying now that we're reducing parking is the
assumption that all employees are going to rely on the shuttle to get to the site or only 12 people
are going to ride a bike we have 12 bike spaces on site right but with 168 employees that'll be
needing to get here a day i'm just trying to understand in terms of commute um and what's
mean do people bike to the current facilities do people bike to the current facilities some people
do and we've we've added bike racks as people have needed them so i think we could but so we can
absolutely accommodate that. Okay. Any other questions? Questions from Art Sherry? None at this time. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
uh none at this time questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have one hand up by the name of brianna wakefield i'm going to allow them to speak
good afternoon everyone hi could you please uh state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes brianna wakefield b-r-i-o-n-n-a last name wakefield w-a-k-e-f-i-e-l-d
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told the truth, nothing but the truth?
You have comments about this?
I am a staff attorney for Council President Kenyatta Johnson.
He is in support of this.
Thank you very much for taking time to calls.
Anyone else in the audience?
No, Chair.
There are no more hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Nina Salomonic at the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the current I-2 industrial zoning.
The appellant has shown that the parking variance will not have a detrimental impact to the surrounding area because of the parking lot adjacent to the site to be leased by the appellant.
The Planning Commission recommends the Board grant the requested variance for required parking.
MI 2026-003-295-4703 Basin Bridge Road. I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
hi i win my vote is yes
okay thank you very much for your time sure appreciate it
okay so everybody knows we're now going to go to the two cases we have uh two of our people
are removing themselves from this case um canada graham and also uh michael johns they will not
vote on the case um and give a little idea of how we want to structure this what we're going to do
is we'll hear um 2012 first right is it 2012 am i right yeah 2001 first and then we'll hear the
second one right and what we're going to do is we'll hear them both together but then we'll hear
them separately but then when we get through we'll take it to the audience as as one project
all right so you're going to you'll hear the first one and then you'll hear the second one
and then we'll take it to the audience for comments mr chairman the first one is 24
so two four zero one two four zero thank you uh miss pritzker
yes could you um please come on and just state your name yes rachel pritzker
spritzker could you identify your client and the relationship with the property yeah so the client
is pha philadelphia housing authority they own the property right and you have all your documents in
and things of that nature right correct yes all right so you're going to present 2401 first
okay right and then we'll come back for the other one okay okay please proceed
can you see my screen i can okay so as mentioned we're going to start with 2401 to 71 north over
it also includes 2400 and 2470 north new kirk street just going to share the refusal
this project seeks approval to relocate lot lines to create two lots parcel 8.1
which is over 33 000 square feet which accommodates the multi-family building we'll discuss
and on-site parking and improvements in parcel 8.2 approximately 67 000 square feet of lawn and open
area one deeded lot comprising of 72 opa counts at 2401-41 north dover and 2400-2470 north newkirk
currently owned by the philadelphia housing authority under a single deed of condemnation
which is included in the packet this project proposes an attached multi-family building
containing 36 dwelling units and 15 accessory off-street parking spaces on the surface parking
lot 12 bicycle parking spaces and landscape screening and this implements a pha approved
redevelopment plan issued through a competitive hud rental assistance demonstration which is
called rad request for proposals rfp consistent with the philadelphia 2023 comprehensive plan
for the North District. It also includes the widening of Dover and Newkirk streets,
which will happen during the construction to provide additional off-street parking
for residents. The two refusals on the screen, one is for the parking for the attached multifamily
use. It cannot be obtained without a variance as it has to be accessed via shared driveway,
alleyway or rear street with no abutting entry parking for section 148031c1 we're providing 15
We're providing 15 spaces on the surface lot assigned on the plans, which we'll go through.
uh spaces uh off a surface lot aside during the plan
And this also requires a use variance, the property zone RSA 5, which doesn't permit
multifamily.
The proposal for this application is 36 proposed dwelling units.
I'm just going to go through the application on the screen.
Project information form, the tax clearance, which we sent through with the receipts from
the condemnation to the ZBS attorney and staff.
it's many parcels
um this is a copy of the deed
which i'm going to skip through
as it is i think 100 plus pages
why don't we go to the plans and the photos yep
trying to scroll down to that okay so this is the zoning map of the property
for this application it's this block here that's zoned RSA 5 just go for an aerial as you can see
mostly a vacant block with some sites, zoning posters as posted on the property,
kind of a street view of the property. Again, another street view of the site.
just to go to the hardship and then we'll have our architect come on with the plans
um under the philadelphia code as the board knows board must grant a variance for a little
enforcement when imposed an unnecessary hardship the property spans an entire city block between
west york street and west cumberland street and consists of long narrow parcels without alleyway
access or rear street on which on-street parking is prohibited aerial imagery shows that these
sites remain vacant even as recently as july of 2025 with no existing development that has been
adapted to conform to the code the applicant did not create the lock configuration the rsa5 use
classification or the 36 multi-family plan which are all based on pha guidelines competitively
procured RAD applications and RFP redevelopment plans, which include mandated unit count
accessibility requirements and on-site parking. Again, all tied into HUD requirements as well.
The relief that we're requesting for the multifamily use and the parking is needed
to meet those requirements and to provide for affordable housing on this site that meets
the standards for low income housing tax credit deals and are in compliance with those rules.
Again, the mandated on-site parking, including accessible spaces, and the multifamily housing
is needed for this.
Just high level, as we know, Philadelphia faces a shortfall of more than 64,500 rental
units, affordable housing, and especially for low-income households.
So about 16% of homeowners spend more than half their income on housing.
So this not only ties with sort of national needs, local needs, and also the mayor's $2 billion home plan, also important for North Philadelphia and Strawberry Mansion, which face a disproportionate longstanding housing shortage, even as block-long sites have sat vacant for years.
This ties in with the comprehensive plan as well and allows the affordable housing on
this longstanding vacant lot, which we believe deserves a variance and meets the requirements
without providing for the parking and providing for the multifamily.
It's not a feasible affordable housing development project for this block in particular.
We believe that's the least minimum variance to meet the code and also to be eligible and
meet with a competitive 9% credits.
As mentioned earlier, we met with the community on April 29, 2026, where we discussed the project.
And at the time, the concerns did not relate to this project in particular.
PHA has a longstanding record of developing affordable housing, managing the housing, and is open to working with the community on any of those related concerns.
Here's the mailers that we sent for this project and then letters of support from some state representative.
letters of support from some state representative um state rep
sharif street state senator sharif street as well
um the laborers uh international union of north america
representative harris who spoke before and also was the president of the 20th war democratic
committee and this was just some of the back and forth that we kind of already discussed
related to the continuance that was requested and our willingness to continue to work with
the community if we could bring on our architect edwards he should be in the audience so that he
can go through the plans and then we're happy to bring on our pha representatives to swear
in the testimony and answer any questions that the board may have can the architect please raise his
virtual hand should be darren edwards
darren edwards has been promoted to panelists thank you
Darren.
Oh, sorry.
I didn't realize I was on mute.
Darren, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Darren Edwards, D-A-R-Y-M-E-D-W-A-R-D-S, and I'm a principal at Cicada Architecture and Planning.
Do you swear or affirm the tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Thanks, Darren.
Can you go through the plans that I have on the screen?
So this is just an aerial of the plots that we're looking at.
This actually shows both of them.
The one we're looking at is on the right-hand side.
This is just a map of the area showing a number of the amenities that are within a quarter and a half mile of the site.
And then, so this is an aerial, the kind of purple rectangle to the right is where the multifamily building will be built.
And so the purple building down to the left is the multi-family building.