the residents group, the Joy Smith, who leads the leader of the CDC. And it ceases his attorney,
which I'm really not sure why his attorney didn't tell him not to do this.
I'm going to read it to you.
It says, hi, everyone.
I hope this email finds you well.
I am writing to you in regard to the historical twin at 4208 to 06 Parkside Avenue.
As you know, we placed an application in for a variance for an eight unit building in each
parcel.
That would be a total of 16 units.
This is the big letters minimum we need to make this project work.
If the variance is denied or even approved at six units each, we will not proceed with the project. We will board up the property and wait until the rents catch up to a point where it would make sense to rehab this property.
We're eager to rehab the property and bring it back into use and would be able to do it. And we would be able to, without a variance, if it was zoned RM1, as many identical homes are.
but the project does not make financial sense at six units that was the last use there was a zba
hearing so basically this is a form of extortion that
So, basically, this is a form of extortion that this developer uses over and over again in this neighborhood. He basically tells the community, this is what I want. If you don't give me what I want, I'm going to do Sam Rappaport all over your neighborhood. I'm going to hold these buildings. I'm going to make them blighted. I'm going to destroy the character of your neighborhood. And then you're going to give in and you're going to give me what I want.
that is that's the fight here members of the board we're we're trying to preserve and protect
a beautiful neighborhood that that that does really well on its own but doesn't do well when
predatory developers come in and try to break basically break the block and and break their
will and and just do what do what they want uh so that's that's my opening okay um i'd like to call
Jeanne Allen.
Ms. Allen, could you come in and sit here?
Hi, good afternoon, Ms. Allen.
Hi, could you get the mic on?
Mic on, the green light on?
Yes, it is.
Hi, could you please state your name
and spell for the son of a...
My name is Jeanne Allen,
J-E-A-N-A-L-L-E.
E-N. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And Ms. Allen, you live on the block, am I correct? Yes, sir. Please start with your
presentation. Ms. Allen, what's your address? My address is 4244 Viola Street. And how close
is that to the properties that we're talking about today? I live probably midsection of the street,
so it would be, you know, a little further down than 4283. How many houses about are you down?
Maybe 15. Oh, I don't know. My math isn't that great. Okay. Can you tell the board how you were
raised on the block and what that was like? I'm glad to. I'm living in my family home
as have six generations before me. At present, in fact, the seventh generation lives there.
My three-year-old great-grandson, his mother, my granddaughter, presently live with me in the home.
The home was purchased in the 1950s. I'm a member of the Viola Street Resident Association,
a volunteer with the Centennial Parkside CDC, a board member with Rebuilding Together Philadelphia,
a member of the Greening Committee where we take on the task of planting trees to beautify our
neighborhood. I'm a 33-year member, active member of the Beulah Baptist Church in West Philadelphia
where I am involved in several ministries. I say all this not to boast but to demonstrate that I
just don't live on a block, but my life is deeply rooted and deeply invested in this community.
Viola Street isn't just a place where people exist. It's where families walk, where children
ride their bikes, and where neighbors gather. Mrs. Annie Wright, my 103-year-old neighbor who
lifts seven doors from me, has known me nearly all of my life, as does Mrs. Mildred Johnson,
my 94-year-old neighbor. You'll hear testimony from Lorraine Gomez, who I went to kindergarten
with, junior high, and high school with. I was in her wedding, and our sons, now 50 years old,
were born two weeks apart and were both raised on Viola Street. Our community has always been
made up of single-family homes with loving neighbors who know one another and look out
for one another. This massive, highly-density development project does not fit with the
character of our street. Squeezing 16 units onto a lot originally intended for single-family use
will drastically alter the feel of our community and set a dangerous precedent for future development.
Let me be clear. I'm not against development in our community, but I am vehemently opposed to the proposed construction at 4283 Viola Street.
For the record, will you please consider that 4249 Viola, a three-story house on the historic
side of the block and directly across from my house, was abandoned for years.
In fact, the back of the house had totally fallen off.
It was purchased, rehabilitated, and sold.
It was purchased, rehabilitated, and sold.
Ms. Cindy and her husband, Mr. D, now live there with their family, and we're so happy to have them.
4238 Biola was neglected for decades and a total shamble.
It was purchased and rehabbed, and I'm now looking forward to getting to know the new family that moved in just a year ago.
4-2-50 was also rehabbed, and now the family lives there as well.
My point is that this may not be new construction, but the development was within the confines of the current zoning.
Let me tell you what had been happening when absent landlords failed to properly vet their tenants or monitor what is going on in their property.
Two years ago, a drug house was established at a rental property, 4259, and while the
activity took place over a span of time, careful monitoring and reporting by neighbors resulted
in a major drug bust and incarcerations that caught the attention of the media.
An added nuisance on the block is the constant accumulation of trash and debris in front
of rental properties. You can, sorry to say, readily identify rental properties on our block
by the number of trash bins that are placed outside of it. A 16-unit rental property at 4283
will no doubt have similar issues. I host Bible clubs on our street in the summer for children
on our block and in our neighborhood. I'm concerned with child safety. Will my grandchildren
and now my great-grandson be able to play in the streets
with an additional 10 to 20 more cars coming down the street?
Will seniors be able to safely navigate cars
which presently park totally on the sidewalk?
They can barely make it through now.
Mr. German has repeatedly asked you to consider his costs.
He's stated over and over that he must profit from his development.
I understand entrepreneurship. I asked you, though, what about our costs? What about our
mental health? What about our right to live safely in our environment and enjoy our homes?
If any of you on the board live in Philadelphia on a narrow street with row homes, I would ask you,
how would you feel if they built a large development project like the one that is
proposed. I must respectfully ask this board to deny this proposal and put people over profit.
I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to share my story or think. No, please.
Counselor, do you have any questions? I do not. Meredith, the other council, Mr. Chairman, just
just a couple um miss allen i just want to make sure i heard you correctly you've lived in the
neighborhood you said since the 1950s 1960s yes that's correct okay um and i i understand that
you've obviously testified to the use of existing structures uh but to your knowledge in the
decades that you've been in this neighborhood uh are you familiar if there have been any
uh new single family homes built in the in the east park side community not renovated built
it's beyond the course of direct i'm objecting um i i agree about the whole area if you want to
ask her if there was anything new in her block it's fine but i sure sure uh miss allen are you
where? Have there been any new single family homes built on your block? As far as brand new
construction from the ground up, I am not familiar with that. And are you familiar with any new
construction on your block that was either duplex or triplex? Are you talking about new construction
from the ground up? Correct. From an empty lot? No, but I've already stated many examples of
rehabilitations of existing problem of properties.
And on one of those properties, 4249 Viola Street, are you
familiar that public records show that that particular
renovation was given a grant from the Pennsylvania Housing
Finance Agency to support the costs of that development?
No, I was not aware of that.
okay um that that's all for this witness michelle thank you um steve who do you have next
That's all for this witness.
okay next and michelle thank you thank you thank you so much um is um is neva neva white
in the virtual audience it would it would be neva white if she's available do we see miss white
yeah i think um chair i don't seem to see anyone by that name
yes room here you want to use sure sean solomon
come come on sean
oh he's on the mic oh he's on that he's virtual also all right okay sean can you raise your hand
you should be coming back in as a panel shortly
so steve you're about 20 minutes in okay right um and i and this is my conversation
about it. I think Ms. Allen laid a picture
out of what the block looks
like and how it's laid out.
What I think you can do now is when people testify
have them testify to why they don't
want the project.
Right, but they actually have different testimonies.
I understand, but yeah,
I'm going to try to get to as many people
as I can.
Mr. Solomon
has been from Bordish.
Could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Sean
Solomon, and it is
s-e-a-n-s-o-l-o-m-o-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth mr solomon yes i do please proceed steve um good afternoon mr solomon um will you
tell the board um with the role that you played around creating the historical district and the
historical nature of your block so that they can understand the full impact of of what this block
means to you and to the other neighbors yes i i have been living on the block since 1998
and um one of the things that attracted me to the block was the scale of the block is sort of an
intimate scale two-story row homes on one side and then three-story on the other and i was also
attracted to the architecture and at the time many of the buildings were very blighted however the
architecture shone through the blight and i was able to purchase my house for five thousand dollars
it was abandoned uh and the city was going to tear it down and i was able to get a building
permit and save the house and i have been restoring it ever since and uh over the years i've had
worked really hard to save many of the buildings in the neighborhood that were slated for demolition
I worked with at the time, Councilwoman Jenny Blackwell's office. I worked with licensing inspections. We had meetings and we were able to save whole blocks of buildings. And a lot of those buildings are now renovated. Some of them are even renovated as single family homes, which they were originally.
so over the years we worked really hard to get the local historic designation the neighborhood
is already a national historic district but the local designation would give us more
more ability for preservation so we lobbied we we went to the zoning commission the philadelphia
historical commission and we had signatures the whole block we worked really hard together
to get the first locally historic district in west philadelphia and this was around i think it was
2009 when we did that so um and ever since then i have uh worked as a consultant um to guide people
on how to preserve their homes, saving the original windows and the copper, to preserve
the bricks, to encourage homeowners to practice preservation rather than just taking the beautiful
old stuff or covering it with siding, things like that.
And I think I've been fairly successful to get some to get real compliance from the community, the homeowners and even some of the landlords as well to to to do that.
We also have a huge project with Habitat for Humanity.
So, Mr. Salman, thank you very much.
Steve, can you start focusing him towards this particular case?
Can you start?
Focusing him towards this particular question.
And I appreciate everything he said.
I just think we want to look at this particular case and what neighbors think about this.
So, Mr. Solomon, you heard Attorney Furliger talk about new construction.
Does new construction have any role in historic preservation?
Absolutely.
In fact, the developer in question did new construction, not on our block, but in the historic district, just a block and a half away.
There was infill housing.
There was a vacant lot between the two historic buildings.
And it was kind of like a row without with a tooth missing, you know.
And he was he built a brand new building.
He gave me a tour of it in between the two houses.
and he did an amazing job he matched the cornice he matched the the height the window size he even
matched the color of the bricks and he even put a porch on it and i give tours for the preservation
alliance of the neighborhood and i was giving a tour of that block and all the people in my tour
did not know that there was a brand new house they were staring at a brand new house because
that blended in with the other houses so well so let me now turn to the property the the project
that we're talking about here does the look and feel of the proposed um multi-family house at um
4283 viola does that match the look and feel of the historic houses next to it from the plans that
were shown no not at all in fact i would say the most egregious aspect of it is there's no front
door there's no porch it was just dumpsters basically it was it's like the back end of a
building it's almost like treating viola street as if it was a back alley the the truck would come
in and grab the dumpsters there was there's a building without a front door or even a porch
the scale i couldn't tell from the the rendering if the scale was of the same roof height so i
can't speak to that but the the styling of the the um rendering that was shown did not show any
sensitivity to the the the style of the rest of the block it didn't blend in with the the row home
feel um it didn't blend in with any of the architecture there was no reference uh it was
like uh and it was it was out as if it was it was not harmonious with the with the uh rest of the
block so i would encourage the um developer to do that and i know that he did he did a great job um
other buildings that he has done um in in the neighborhood he's done a wonderful job with very
okay so mr solomon i'm i'm showing now i don't know if you can see on your screen so does this
This is the facade that is proposed for 4283 Viola, correct?
Okay, so on the left side, that is a two-story row home that is a different style than the
other houses on the north side of the street, which is where the historic district is.
And so I don't think that the architect realized that this building to the right is actually
a three-story building that is actually taller than the one on the left.
so i can't really speak to i can't say that drawing is is misleading or anything like that
it's just it's not showing the other buildings um so it's hard to show the context but but um the
height of this building it appears that it would be higher than the three-story roof line of the
other buildings that would be stand next to if from the picture i'm looking at it just doesn't
it doesn't look like it will number one it doesn't even have a front door how could a