for senior citizens is in fact an amenity that this neighborhood sorely lacks and is in desperate
need of. So we're meeting a need that the neighbors have wanted. As you can see, the other
old industrial uses that have been since abandoned and some
old industrial uses that have been since abandoned
and some structures that have even been torn down.
We'll see you next time.
There it is again.
So you can see the other industrial corners
and the site behind it.
None of it being used.
We have rendering of the courtyard.
And I think it probably would make good sense for us to get to the architect who can go into a little bit more detail about not only the courtyard and the landscaping.
We have the landscape architect here as well, but also the roof deck issues.
But I do want to submit that we have not only exterior photos, but interior photos as well.
of the long abandoned factory.
We have proof of posting
on all sides
only because it was brought to our attention earlier.
I wanna show you proof of mailing once,
proof of mailing twice
a letter from the leading RCO, Allegheny West Civic,
which stands in support of this variance
and encourages you to support the wishes of the community
and the RCO process by granting the variance.
With that, Michael Weidman, who is the project architect,
if you'd raise his hand,
And I'd like him to be recognized, made a panelist so that he can walk you through some of the other details of his design.
There, Mr. Weidman is coming back in as a panelist now.
Mr. Weidman, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Mr. Wiseman
Sorry, I was
Okay, just
State your name, please, and spell it for the
Court Reporter
Mark Weidman
W-I-E-D-M-A-N-N
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
The whole truth and nothing but the truth
Proceed, counsel
Mark, would you like me to stop sharing so you can share your materials?
Very good.
Green button on the bottom.
Am I not sharing yet?
We see you, sir.
We're looking for your materials.
I thought I had now screen two.
Here you go.
You're coming up.
now you gotta open up a document right can you see that uh it's the document's not open we see
there's a okay it's on my other screen
council would it be easier if you we do not we do now we do now okay
mark if you could just walk the board through your design uh and the roof and
um add anything that you'd like to add with respect over uh mr anastasia went through uh
pretty well it's it's a fairly simple composed project of residential units supporting parking
and adult daycare uh area and uh some administrative offices for the credence
company. This is a built-on existing three-story brick and concrete industrial.
A brick and concrete industrial building. We have added a couple floors to it. It generally conforms to most of the I2 bulk requirements, except that for the height variance, we're exceeding it by one story, about 12 feet.
and the use variants of course. So that's the picture looking up Westmoreland and down 19th Street.
This is the architectural site plan. It shows the existing building here, the addition here.
first floor has the underground parking there's a combination of eight and a half
and ten foot spaces as we could get them in there uh adult daycare and working with the
uh civic design review we have the front like recessed entry with the entrance to the
residential tower on Westmoreland Street for better view and more prominent access not being
under the train trestle. As you go up, the deeper units are the residential units, the deeper units
in the existing building because of its dimensions with larger one bedrooms. Then we have the regular
one bedrooms and studios along the back with most of stairways and some support space against
the train tracks where they cross over the property to shield the residents from that.
Again, you just keep going up. The site is sloped front to back. These are the units which
which Mr. Anastasia went through. I'll skip by. This is the existing building here.
These are the elevations that we worked with the CDR's comments, trying to keep some of
the industrial nature of the existing building with the brick and concrete and enhancing it with
some roof gardens above the existing stair towers at the front and stepping the building back you
know to try to create a little interest on on the street then as you and that's the westmoreland
Avenue. As you go down 19th Street, this is the trellis blocking the lower level. We put a brick
base there and again worked with some stronger materials like fiber cement panels and cast
concrete for the building and standard nice windows into each unit. Again, this is looking
down Westmoreland Street East. This is the existing building here. We've added three floors here,
and because the site slopes up, we were able to stick the garage underground and get one
additional story because the heights are a little lower. So it's six stories in the back residential
and five stories of residential in the front. Again, this is just another section showing how
the building steps back at the roof decks and gardens and where the train bridge is.
And these were the just the surrounding views, which Stranistagia already went through existing building.
And that's pretty much it from the for the architectural. This was a 3D view.
this is our building here in context with the other buildings against and set into the site okay
council do you have anyone else i'd like to uh ask cj from uh credence uh home
to raise his hand to adopt our testimony please
dj please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
Good morning. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Kajetan Onoha. My first name is spelled C-A-J-E-T-A-N. And my last name is Onoha, O-N-U-O-H-A.
Yes, my name is Kajetan Onoha.
Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. C.J., did you hear my presentation and that and that of the architect this morning?
Yes. All right. Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes. Do you adopt it as your own? Yes.
Thank you. Mr. Chair, I do have available the civil engineer and the landscape architect, architecture architect.
However, for the sake of time.
No, I think your explanation and the architects really gave us a picture of what's there.
I understand.
I want to have questions from the board.
My first question, Vern, would be how many community meetings did you have?
We had two, at least two community meetings.
We had an initial RCO, which was subsequently removed from the process for reasons that
are between them and the council office.
And then we met with Allegheny West.
And that's, of course, a prerequisite to even getting to the CDR review.
C.J. also personally met with RCO leadership in an event entitled Meet the Developer where he met with them and they discussed employment opportunities for folks in the community.
All right. Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
I just had a quick question for Mr. Anastasio.
In your revised packet, you indicated that there are revised plans,
but I was unable to determine how many pages.
Can you tell me how many pages, if the board were to grant, would need to be approved?
Yeah, Mr. Weedman could probably tell you how many pages are different than the initial
submission.
Mark, are you able to tell us that?
Can you hear me?
I can tell you how many were in the final package that we turned into the CDR.
There were 26 sheets, including architectural, landscape, and a site plan.
How many of those, so there was a proviso plans form in the packet.
How many pages show the changes that were in the proviso, listed on the proviso plans form?
of the 26 mark
is typically we try to just um maybe do elevations and site plans to stamp not floor
plans because we recognize that those could change um through the building permit process
So that would be just of the plans.
I essentially need to know based on the proviso plans form, how many pages of plans would need to be stamped if the board approves that show those changes?
Mr. Reedman, if you just want to take a minute to review that, maybe we can move to public
testimony and commission recommendation.
That's fine.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Tina Marie Russell.
Ms. Russell, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Good morning, Ms. Russell.
Ms. Russell?
Ms. Russell?
Good morning.
Good morning. This is Tina Marie Russell.
Hi. Could you spell your name for the court reporter, please, Tina?
Sure. T-I-N-A-M-A-R-I-E-R-U-S-S-E-L-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Okay. So we are North Central Philadelphia CDC. We are the RCO in the area as well.
So we opposed this plan for several reasons.
One, we wanted to start off by saying for the record
that all RCOs are equal.
There was no one over the other one
and all RCOs are to be considered as one.
So the second thing is that any delays
that was toward this applicant
had to do with the applicant.
One of the delays that we kept
as one of the beginning RCO coordinators was the fact that we could never get the applicant to
provide proof of senior-only housing. And why that's important from HUD. And why that's important
is because once a person, you have to have a proof because you want to separate the housing
for a particular type of person or housing situation. So you have to have proof from HUD
that this has been approved before you can say, I'm just going to make it for seniors,
because if they changed their mind later on,
you could take that same property
and use it for anything else,
even though you might have all the well intentions
to make it for seniors only.
So we also did not receive any notification
about any meeting.
There was never a meeting for the community held by us
for RCO purpose.
Meet the developer was just simply
about meeting the developers.
And it was developers there from all over
of not just North Philadelphia,
but also from other parts of the city.
So it was just meet the developer and all the other RCOs were not at that particular event.
So we never had a meeting for this particular activity because when we were going to host one, the owner had went to his trip to Africa.
And after that, we were changed to another.
We had more cases that we could hold.
So we had removed ourselves from this particular case.
We also got no documentation of mailings after the CDR was performed. We had no documentation of the divisions. We have not had any communication at all about this particular project since it's been removed from one RCO to another RCO. There's been no communication.
The most we got was from the CDR and that came from the CDR. So we are opposed and we think we would like to have the board view our request and to, before you make a decision on this particular application.
Mr. Chair, if I might, I'm not going to cross-examine Ms. Russell. I do want to, for the record, note that as we explained then and we continue to explain, we cannot be approved for the senior independent living unless or until a use permit is secured.
And we will be working with the council office, if you're kind enough to grant the variance, to move forward in filling the building with area senior citizens that desperately need a place to live in that area.
Secondly, it was the council office that intentionally removed North Central from the entire process for various reasons that I don't believe would benefit them if I got into.
But we leave that up to the council office and the coordinating RCO.
But our procedure was crystal clear.
We made it known the property was posted.
the mailings went out twice and everybody was notified of those meetings and this hearing
but north central was intentionally removed for whatever reason I'm sure Mr. Richardson is here
to echo the council's office's support for the RCO that they then selected in light of
what had transpired prior. Thank you. Thank you, counsel, and thank you, Ms. Russell.