So this is the property. It's a corner property. Sorry about that. Some photos of the interior.
It is gutted. He's going to have to do some work to bring it up to speed, obviously, but
that will be subject to the approval. This is Porter Street looking east. St. Monica's School
is on the right side across the street. There are other multifamily properties. This is a property
photo is 1629. It's other multifamily and businesses on the street. This is looking
directly across the street. This is looking west on Porter Street, residential and some commercial.
Another building, which is at a quarter block away, Bancroft Street, which is actually right
across where my client currently operates, which is the photo to the right. That's his current
business, now a little smaller building. We did meet with the RCO. There was no opposition
that we were aware of. They sent in the votes of support. There was some non-opposition as well.
And like we are proposing, my client just wants to have the same business,
move it down the street into a larger unit so he can hire some more workers. His hours are
office hours they're um nine to five um there's going to be no traffic coming in as far as foot
traffic and businesses i'm sorry customers coming into the business and that is essentially what
he's looking to do is just move and expand his business and uh the community was in support of
that. I believe my client is on the call, and if I can call him to certify my testimony.
Did you have your client please raise their hand?
Yes, Mr. Vile, can you please raise your hand on the Zoom call, please?
I'm sure you're an officer. You're an officer of the court. We can take your testimony.
Yes. Okay. Thank you. He would adopt mine. He wasn't. He wasn't a call. I was texting back.
I think I just unmuted me if you can hear me. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter, please? Sure. Brian, B-R-I-A-N, last name Vile, V-I-L-E.
Right. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. Proceed. Okay so Mr. Vile did you hear the testimony that I presented to the board this
afternoon? I did yes. Okay and is it true and correct? It is. And you wish to adopt it as your
own? I do. Okay thank you. I have nothing further. Questions from the board? No Mr. Chairman. No Mr. Chairman.
No Mr. Chairman. No. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no handshare planning commission this is uh ron bednar city planning first name ron r-o-n
last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do proceed sir while this property is currently indicated for residential on the city
plan given the physical conditions of the site recommend the request for advantage be granted
Thank you. MI 2022-002-619-1629-Porter Street, I vote yes.
Carol Tineri, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
MI 2022-
Thank you.
Thank you.
1733 to 37
North Front Street
Devin Beverly is the attorney
letter of support from Fishtown
Kensington Business Association
letter of support from Fishtown Neighbors
Association
Jason Business is also
submitted letters
Devin Beverly
hi mr chairman can you hear me yes could you state your name and spell please for the court
reporter hi devon beverly d-e-v-o-n beverly b-e-b-e-r-l-y do you swear for him to tell the truth
Beverly. B-E-B-E-R-L-Y. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth? Yes. Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property? Yes. My client
is Callahan Ward Companies. They are a partner of the property owner entity. We have Mr. Pritcher
Fellow here on behalf of my client. Our vice chair, Carol Tenere, has a few questions.
Hi, Devin. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Hi, yes.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Okay, you may proceed and begin with sharing your screen.
Great, thank you.
Thank you.
can everyone see the screen yes great all right so as i stated my name is devin beverly i am here
on behalf of my client as the attorney we also have a full team here today so we have my client
mr future fellow on behalf of callahan war companies we have mr kevin o'neill on behalf
of KJ architecture, and we have Mr. Dave Horner, a traffic engineer with Horner and Cantor Associates.
As you mentioned, we received letters of support from the coordinating RCO, the Fishtown Neighbors
Association. We also received a letter of support from the Fishtown and Kensington area business
improvement district. Both of these letters of support cited how this proposed project would
make this section of North Front Street more pedestrian friendly, more walkable, more attractive,
and bring in light and air to this area and increase foot traffic.
We also received a letter of support from LMNO, who is the adjacent property owner right here.
And so I will dive more into this presentation.
So here's some context for you all.
So this is the site right here where this blue arrow is.
Here's this blue site.
It is a CMX3 zoning district.
It is close to a number of public transportation hubs.
So we have the market Frankfurt line here.
We have Burke Street Station right here.
It's about 900 feet away from our property.
It is about like a four minute walk maximum.
And then you also have a zip car drop off right here.
You have numerous bus stops along Frankfurt Avenue.
This service is like Route 5, Route 25, Route 3, also along North Front Street.
We also have another L-stop a little further south right down there.
I do note that there is recent proposed legislation to add Burke Street Station, Burke Station, to the TOD overlay.
So if our property was slightly closer to the station, about 400 feet, no parking would be required for this site.
We also note that the TOD is intended to encourage, to grow the urban, to encourage urban growth, reduce reliance on cars and like create a safe pedestrian environment, which we believe our client is doing here today at this site.
Here is the existing structure. It is a vacant building in poor condition. Here is LMNO, the restaurant right here. Here is Evil Genius. It is a brewery. It's also, both businesses are pretty heavily trafficked, and it's a growing area.
our client is proposing to construct a six-story building with 25 dwelling units nine bicycle
spaces ground floor retail space and commercial trash pickup given that this isn't a cmx three
zoning district eight off street parking spaces are required for the site however providing that
would be a hardship here, given the fact that it's an extremely tight site, one. Two, we have
the unfortunate location of an L pole directly in front of our site. And as we're providing these
residential units, you need back-of-house space and just general residential spaces on the ground
floor, which includes an elevator, stairwells for entry and exit. You also need a mail room.
You need a trash room. You need just a residential lobby space, along with other accessory spaces.
So fitting all of that on this site, including the unfortunate location of this L-Pol, makes providing ground floor parking extremely difficult.
In its place, we have proposed to provide ground floor commercial retail space to make this area more engaging,
to connect these two commercial businesses along the street and to create a safe pedestrian
thoroughfare. We're also eliminating the need for any curb cuts to avoid any
We're also eliminating the need for any curb cuts to avoid any conflicts between pedestrians and moving vehicles between this heavily trafficked area.
If the board is amenable, I would like to call Mr. O'Neill to briefly discuss the building, the design of the building, and the efforts they've thought about the pedestrian experience and the resident experience and safety.
Mr. O'Neill, can you understand?
i'm here mr neal could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter please
kevin j o'neal uh o-post free n-e-i-l-l all right do you swear for him to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes all right ken do you have a screen that you can
go off of or are you going to work it for i can uh i can share my screen sure go ahead
So here you go, Mr. O'Neill. I'll defer to you.
Thanks, Devin. So just briefly, I'll give you a quick run through of what our design thought was with this project.
The objective was really to prioritize the importance of the streetscape at eye level on this very busy commercial corridor.
As Devin mentioned, we did a couple of things to accommodate that.
So the footprint of the building was rotated and recessed away from the property line to effectively add additional space to the public right of way.
So because of that unfortunate SEPTA L column placement right in front of our building, we actually carved a way into the property a little bit and set that commercial ground floor wall back a little bit.
So effectively, the pedestrian experience there still gets that full right of way that they would have had if that if that column wasn't in the way.
So in addition to doing that, it also allows for additional clearance to get around that column,
and then we're also providing well-lit and secure entry points for both the residential portion
and the commercial space. This view that we're showing here, this is actually our interior
residential entry on the south side, which is sort of tucked away back from the front street side.
and then briefly we'll show you this is our ground floor here so the red indicates the
commercial space that we're proposing and again as uh as devon mentioned we think this is a better
use of this of this ground floor um rather than having a potentially dangerous and cumbersome
curb cut which doesn't really have a natural place where it could go um we we thought that
would be a better use of that ground floor space thank you so much mr honio thank you
members of the board. I would also like to note that in our exhibit packet as exhibit 13, we included a report prepared by Mr. Horner.
It's a parking study, and it essentially asserts that there is adequate parking capacity and public transit capacity in the neighborhood to support this development.
I would like to introduce Mr. Horner as the author of that report and as an expert in traffic engineering, if you would allow.
Go ahead, sir.
Mr. Horner, can you unmute yourself?
Yes, I believe I am. Can you hear me?
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is David Horner, H-O-R-N-E-R.
All right, do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Horner, could you give us a brief overview of your findings?
Yes, I can.
So when we looked at the fact that this area is served well by public transportation, I think that's the most notable aspect of the parking needs for this site or reducing the parking needs.
As you know, there's a, the Burke station of the market, Frankfort L is about less than two tenths of a mile north of the site, down Front Street.
There's also bus service as close as about 0.1 miles from the site over on Frankfort Avenue.
So that's number one. Number two, we did look at the parking availability in the area. And even though there is parking demand that goes on currently,
We did note that during the daytime, there's about nine available on-street parking spaces in about the two-block area proximal to the site.
And in the evening, there's about five we identified in the evening.
So in our opinion, this site, from a parking perspective, is served by the public transportation well.
There is some available on-site park, on-street parking, I should say.
and it is consistent with the other
and it is consistent with the other parking provisions in the area.
Thank you, Michelle.
Thank you.
So in wrapping this up, the denial of this variance would result in an unnecessary hardship for a client.
This variance represents the least modification possible to provide relief under the zoning code.
This variance would not increase congestion in the public streets or endanger the public by not providing a drive aisle across in the middle of a block between two heavily trafficked commercial spaces.
We're avoiding those conflicts.
We're also, this variance will also not harm neighbors and impair their light and air.
As Mr. O'Neill described, we're setting it back to increase light and air on this area and make a more lively pedestrian thoroughfare.
And lastly, this variance is in accordance with the comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan notes that this site should be for commercial mixed use. It also notes that along the market Frankfurt Line corridor, there is a need for like setbacks and more light and air in the area.
At the end of the day, our client believes that this would be a benefit to the community because it's revitalizing a vacant building, it's enhancing the pedestrian experience, and it's supporting the development of this commercial corridor.
It is clear from the letters of support that we received that the neighbors and the immediate neighbors, in fact, are in support with this as well.
So I leave this for questions, if you have any.
Is your client here?
Do you want to have your testimony adopted by your client?
Yes, please.
Mr. Kutrafele, can you unmute yourself?
Did you have your client raise their virtual hand, please?
Hi, can you hear me?
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
sure antonio cutrefello last name is c-u-t-r-u-f as in frank e-l-o-o right do you swear for him to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do proceed hi mr cutrefello um did
you hear my testimony i did do you um say that is accurate and confirmed i do thank you questions
from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
chair we have flown folks
mr folks state your name and spell for the court reporter please good afternoon chairman bergman
members of the zba board my name is sloan folks s-l-o-a-n-e f as in fire o-l-k-s
office of council member maria quinones sanchez 7th district room 508 city hall
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
I do so, sir.
Proceed. Proceed.
Prior to first, the councilman has sent a written copy of her statement to the ZBA, their solicitor, as well as the applicants for the variance.
Prior to me reading her statement on the record, she wanted me to say that not only is the 7th district, you know, the area, this is the area in the 7th district which she represents, this is also the community in which she lives and raised her family.
The applicant has met with the RCO and has garnered a letter of support.
This office has worked for the past two years with six RCOs in this community to address, correct, and update zoning and non-zoning related issues.
We are seeing a trend of developers that are requesting changes that violate the spirits of this planning.
We have requested mandatory affordability in specific OZ and American Street Zones and have obtained voluntary 10% affordability with almost all new housing developments.
Here again, this project did not include and refused to include affordability.
After reaching out to the development team, they did not try to accommodate our request for affordable residential spaces for residents.
Our office will officially oppose this various requests as we try to maintain a consistent policy that affordability is needed.
Diverse mixed income neighborhoods are created with intentional policies, not a project by project development.
Our office has worked for 14 years with residents and will continue to advocate on their behalf as we navigate this public process.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Anyone else in the virtual?
I see no hands, Chair.