Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
it's not a gram my vote is just proviso and i second that the green is you like the green too
with proviso and i i will continue the third so noted
okay thank you thank you all have a good evening thank you all have a good day
mr o'brien i am here oh okay i think it sounds a little bit better good i've got another
Good. I've got another one. Our vice sheriff has spoken to you. Why don't you start?
Our vice chair has spoken to you. Why don't you start?
Thank you. So I represent Gotta Pay to Play LLC, the owner of 1745 Tillman Street.
Its managing member, Jonathan Massaro, is in the audience. Jonathan has lived two doors away from
here. He also owns and is a resident at 1741 Tillman Street. So he's familiar with many of
his neighbors, many of whom have expressed written support for this project and those
expressions are in behind tab number 11. Let me share my screen and move to the refusal.
There are four refusals. One is for rear yard depth. Eight feet is proposed. Nine is required.
Roof decks have to be set back five feet. The ICMX district does not allow residential use.
And in the ICMX district, three parking spaces would be required, and we're only calling for one.
My presentation will describe the project and also explain why each of these refusals should,
variants should be granted because there's a hardship in each case.
Let me move to the RCO letter and summary.
The RCO is opposed.
um there were six uh members who met and and the initial their car the correspondence with the
neighbors uh is behind or is that tab um 14 beginning on page 53 of the materials i'm not
going to go through each email but i just wanted that those in the record so that uh the attribute
if the representations I make about the correspondence with the RCO is in the record.
The initial position of the RCO is that they supported it with a proviso,
and the proviso is that the height of the structure be reduced.
As I mentioned, height is not included in the four refusals.
Furthermore, when we met with the RCO, height was never raised as an issue,
was never discussed uh after the presentation of the project we were asked to leave they then met
in executive session and then discussed height and we couldn't we didn't have the opportunity
the floor so to speak to explain why it's this high uh and i will address that briefly in in
my materials as i prove as i move forward um let me go to the uh map and place this
in or maybe I just have to move this. Okay, so here is the property. It's the blue
outline structure in the bottom middle right. It has RM1 to its left. That is not the residential
district that creates the first refusal for rear yard depth. Rather, it's the area behind it,
the RSA 5 area, that is a developed planned unit development. And as you can see,
the area behind my client's property is a driveway. So the fact that it's a foot short
doesn't present any issue for any resident. I think that driveway is 22 feet wide.
So there's plenty of distance between the end of the building, eight feet, and then another 22 feet.
Let me move to some photographs. So this is the existing building. I have to move this. There we go. Okay. So it is a one story masonry structure that consumes a lot. It's 20 feet wide and 100 feet deep.
This is a view of Tillman Street looking south.
Sorry, it's a laptop and it's a little less functional.
I get thick fingers.
Okay, so this is the view looking south on Tillman Street.
And this is the subject property right there.
This is a view of the property with the door to the location closed.
And that is...
Moody Bat. Moody Bat was installed in 2020 by Kristen Scholes. She's a noted Philadelphia
artist and muralist. In fact, with the support of Commissioner Slauson, Councilman Driscoll,
earlier this year the Art Commission approved Ms. Scholes's mural at Campbell Square. So the
project is proposed to keep that mural in place for the neighborhood as you can see from this
rendering oh this is uh this is the mural that was uh approved for Campbell Square it's going to be
installed it may already be installed I'm not sure I haven't driven by this is a rendering of the
proposed project. So its total height on the right side the south side is 58 feet 10 inches
on the left side is 54 10 inches. The reason for the height is that Mr. Massaro wants to
make some extraordinary living spaces. I spoke to the project architect this afternoon to ask his
opinion how many units could be put into this building considering its height and size. He
said comfortably eight. What is proposed are five one-bedroom apartments. They're all bi-level
and they are truly extraordinary living spaces. Each one, as you can see in the front here, this
is the roof deck, which is one of the refusals. It's not a roof on the roof. It's a roof on the
first floor, existing portion of the building. We're going to retain that line of the first
floor. And so it's not as though something's going to fall 58 feet from a roof deck, which
doesn't have a setback. This is 20 feet from the ground. This is the building from the rear.
This is that driveway that I mentioned serving the PUD. And here is the rear of the first floor
has a patio and the top two floors have balconies. So each of the five apartments
is going to have an outdoor space. Materials have been sourced
to be durable and responsible.
And so this is the elevation front and back.
Let me do the side view, the cross section.
So the first floor and second floor,
or the first floor and the first floor mezzanine
will be the owner's space.
It is a one bedroom unit.
There's the one car garage in the front of the building
on the left side. Then the second and third floors, and this is unit number two, unit number
three, unit number four, and unit number five. Each unit is by level, has the second floor and
then the second floor mezzanine, third floor and third floor mezzanine. Here is the floor plan of
the ground floor, the garage, the pedestrian entrance. This is the entrance to unit number
one. You come through, you pass through to the back of the first floor, kitchen, living,
powder room, mechanicals, washer, dryer, closet. Here are the internal staircases to get up to the
mezzanine. The trash can, let me mention the trash. So the trash, there's a trash closet here
for the upper four units and a trash enclosure in the garage for the first floor unit. The closet
has been designed to accommodate two 95 gallon trash cans which we've been advised is plenty,
large enough for four apartments. This is the second floor so this is the mezzanine for that
first floor coming up to an office with a storage area and a bathroom and then from the rear
floor, rear first floor, you come up to a mezzanine for the bathroom, closet, and
bathroom. The third floor, so this is unit two and three, first level, living, so this is the deck
that's above the garage, and this is where it doesn't have a setback. If there's a setback,
it's just going to make it, you know, not very livable, but as I said, it's only roughly 22 feet
from the ground. So I don't think pedestrians are at risk from having a flower pot inadvertently
fall 58 feet. And then it's the same mirror image on the unit three. It has a deck facing
the rear, living area, kitchen, washer, dryer, mechanical.
Uh, living area, kitchen, uh, washer, dryer, mechanicals, closet, half bath, and then the mezzanine, uh, staircase up for unit two to the bedroom, bathroom, closet, and then unit three, uh, same, uh, arrangement.
I'm not going to go through units four and five.
They're identical, uh, to units two and three.
So, addressing the issue of height that was raised unexpectedly by the neighborhood RCO,
this is a map of the area. The blue building is 1745. All the properties in yellow have
expressed written support for the project expressly indicating that height is not an
issue. And each of those letters is at item number 11 beginning at page 24 and continuing
to page 40. I'm not going to belabor that but they're all there and they are supportive
and most of them know Jonathan as being a neighbor and they know him well and are looking
forward to this project. Let me skip now to compatible structures. We looked at
some neighboring structures in this block face and if you go back to Tilman Street is
an angled street so it's got a five-way intersection so there's many buildings in its immediate vicinity.
Going from right to left, it's not very readable because of its size, but I'm going to go through
each one briefly. Going from right to left, 1801 North 2nd Street is 63 feet, 6 inches.
1733 North 2nd is 50 feet. 1712 North 2nd is 63 feet, 6 inches. 1731 Tillman Street is 63 feet,
6 inches. 1747 Tillman Street is 41 feet 6 inches. And two doors away from this, 1751 Tillman is now
under construction. Its legal height is 52 feet. But the distance from sidewalk to the top of the
structure is 67 feet due to the pilot house and the elevator overhead overflow um we've also
looked at uh area buildings in the immediate area um that uh are that have been converted
from icmx to residential and similarly there's many um i haven't picked them all i picked some
of the closest. And at pages 45 through 52 are all the zoning documents to support what
I'm now going to put in the record. 7101 North 2nd was converted from ICMX. It has 193 units.
1712 North 2nd was converted. It has 40 units. 1731 Tillman Street was converted to 28 units.
1741 Tillman Street was converted to 12 units. 1801 North 2nd was converted to 20.
And 1801 North American was converted to 110 units. I forgot to mention the building
two doors away that's under construction, 1751 Tillman Street. That is going to have nine units.
That's the sum of my presentation. I think I've addressed each of the four refusals
and why strict enforcement of the code presents a hardship. Many buildings have been converted
to residential in the immediate neighborhood. The property is landlocked. It's only 20 feet
wide. It has no rear access. So providing additional parking is not possible. The roof
deck, again, is not on the top of the building. It's not 58 feet from the sidewalk. And the rear
yard depth is a footnote. The proposed eight feet is code compliant for ICMX. But when it abuts a
residential district, there's a footnote that says it has to be the depth of the residential district.
But as I said, the abutting district is a completed project, and what's behind it is a driveway, not a buildable lot.
I'd be happy to answer questions.
Why don't you bring your client on, Bill, and adopt the testimony first?
uh mr massaro would you raise your hand please your virtual hand
Mr. Messara, would you raise your hand, please? Your virtual hand?
jonathan has been promoted to panelist
mr massaro
make sure your mic's on hello all sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
I'm Jonathan Massaro, J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N, last name Massaro, M-A-S-S-A-R-O, like Oscar.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel.
Mr. Massaro, were you in the office during my presentation?
I was.
Did you hear my testimony?
I did.
Was I truthful?
Yes, sir.
And do you adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
questions from the board
yeah i think mine is less of a question there were a couple properties uh bill that were
jonathan jonathan jonathan no no no let the board ask questions please go ahead time i so it's less
of a question more of a comment i just noticed like while this neighborhood is really dense and
And you've done a lot to try to give people outdoor space.
There's not a lot of space, it seems, for like trash and things that, you know, come
with having this many people living in the same building.
So one, what is the plan or the thoughts around how that's going to be managed on site?
so um the first floor plan
includes so here's the pedestrian entrance from the sidewalk okay and this is a trash closet
okay two you two two receptacles that will serve the four upper floor upper upper apartments and
And the closet has been measured to accommodate two 95-gallon rollers.
Yeah, I mean, I saw those.
One, my comment is that for four units, that doesn't seem sufficient.
I mean, like, I live by myself, and I fill up one of these a week, typically.
So I question also with recycling and trash separated in Philadelphia,
that those two is going to be enough for the whole building.
I also noticed that, like, the doors open up blocking the hallway, which, I mean, I know you're going to have to go through L&I, but I don't think that is allowable with an accessible path.
So I think, one, was not really feeling that that was going to be sufficient, but two, was thinking just in, like, the reality of people living in this building, what was going to happen,
because there's really no other place for it to go other than those decks
or in front of the building.
Well, the project architect, unfortunately, couldn't be here,
but he did his homework.
I mean, I have four trash cans.
Now, I usually don't fill them all.
When my kids were living here, we had more trash.
But the ones that you see, the normal trash can is 33 gallons.
This is a 95-gallon container. It's three times as large as your standard trash can. And two of them, almost 200 gallons, the architect assured us that that's enough for four units.
If we find that it's not, an interior alteration could occur.
There is space here in the garage where this could be extended to accommodate an additional trash can.
Jonathan's going to live here.
And he's going to be dealing with his tenants every day.
And if it's inadequate, he's going to want to redress it.
And he will.
And then I think by – go ahead, Mike.
No, no, I was just kind of agreeing with him that, you know, I think you've got enough room and if you needed more, you've got the closet right there that you could widen.
So I think, you know, you could make it work.
And then I think the second question I had was more about things like mail, bikes, like because of the way this has been laid out, it seems that everything would just be in people's units.
But that corridor is, what, four feet wide, three feet wide at some points.
So I think it's going to be a difficult place if you've got a bunch of packages filing up.
Is there another plan somewhere that everyone has access to?
somewhere that everyone has access to yeah the uh carter's four feet wide
Yeah, the card.
i don't know what the plan is for mailboxes i assume it would go on the front uh to the left
of the garage i usually put the mailboxes in right when you enter the pedestrian doorway right on the
right hand side i usually hear mailboxes that are adhered to the wall and each resident will have
a key for their own mailbox and USPS generally comes into the building I mean
all my walk-ups I have like this the mail service has a key they come in they
drop the mail generally with this type of situation Amazon doesn't really drop
off inside of these buildings per se so usually it's just left outside and then
and the stuff makes it up to the residence unit as it arrives.
And in many neighborhoods,
I mean, I've got a 7-Eleven down the block
that has an Amazon locker out front.