that's on here that's shaded
would make this a non-conforming lot.
So previously this was a non-conforming lot.
And then you could see all the properties
on West North Street.
None of them really have significant open area, so they would all be not a good form.
So our refusal about open or occupied area should be approved by this variance request to be approved by the board for that reason alone.
And then photographs of the property, as you can see, these are two vacant lots.
They have been vacant lots for some time.
Hearing notice posters, one on each lot, 3220, 3222.
And then West Norwich Street to the right of the property.
As you can see, the property, these properties or this block is a porch neighborhood.
And as you can see from the architecture of these surrounding properties, we really did try to mimic that in our design.
And this is what's going to sell out to the property.
And then here's our plans and drawings.
Again, what did we do?
We looked at the property to the left and right of us.
We managed to match the height, put a cornice, like a brick cornice there, did lintels with windows you would expect of the traditional Philadelphia homes.
Our roof lines match completely for the porches.
We have porches here.
No window wells in the front because that's something that's been asked about time and time again.
And we have respected the community's wishes in that regard from an aesthetics point of view.
but from a safety point of view we think it's imperative to have at least one window well in
the rear we don't want a situation where we're where someone gets significantly hurt or dies
because they're they're stuck in a basement whether it's finished or unfinished it would
just be very irresponsible and we don't have any roof decks because that's what strawberry mansion
has asked of city council and they pass an ordinance in that respect and we don't even
think about putting roof decks there because that's been asked and uh you know of us many
times to remove them so whenever i have a client if they have a roof deck it's not even presented
to the community we do revise plans immediately and then this is again our rear yards we have a
significant our rear yards mimic the rear yards tell left and right of us and then you can see
here too from the site plan how far how deep these um these building structures go we mimic the one
to the left of us and the one to the right of us we're less deep and then just these are four
plans again very simple we have you come up the covered porch there's a vestibule area we make a
right this is unit number one it's a first floor and lower level one of the reasons why we had an
extra community meeting they wanted a larger bedroom in the front we accommodated that we
agreed to do that um we then um you know we met with them again i i thought that we were fine i
no vote was taken we haven't heard from them um and you know i think one of the reasons why they're
opposed to it has nothing to do with this variance we're not doing rooming house you go to the upper
level upper units that's a three bedroom two bath that's why we didn't want a three unit we wanted
to have diversity of housing within our property.
This is basically a starter unit for someone who wants
This is basically a starter unit for someone who wants to move into the neighborhood or someone who wants to stay in the neighborhood and potentially downsize.
But the three-bedroom on the upper-level unit is for a family, to keep families in Shorebury Mansion area.
Because we've heard time and time again, many of these multifamily structures that are being proposed are mostly one and two bedrooms.
but what about families and that's why we wanted two units because we have a three-bedroom apartment
in the upper unit again we had a community meeting i misstated it was june 22nd because i was going
to be based on the letter the original meeting was met in may the the secondary meeting was june
22nd 149 addresses were notified list of the addresses proof of mailing to those addresses
Same thing for the other property at 3222.
Separate notices, separate mailings.
Same thing, separate applications, project information forms.
And then the deed is actually the same.
And then certificates of tax clearance.
So with that being said, I would ask...
Alan, before you call him,
could you tell me what the block looks like?
Is it a lot of single homes, single family?
It does have a composition of single family homes, but I believe there is some vacancies there as well. These properties, which we can't afford, we can't, this is the harsh truth. We cannot afford to build these homes other than as a duplex.
It was asked about to make it a triplex, but we can't honestly build this if it's going to be a single-family home.
And again, I thought we had support.
I don't know why a vote wasn't taken, but the answer is many of the homes on that block are single-family, but there are variances in multifamily on the connecting blocks.
Right. Okay.
Bring your client on.
Yes. Mr. Matheson, can you virtually raise your hands?
I don't see anyone with that name with their hand up.
Was he for both of them?
He was. He's his same client.
Okay. All right. You're an officer of the court. We'll accept your testimony.
Questions from the board.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have a Reverend Tyrone Williams, and he's been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
My name is Reverend Tyrone Williams, first name, T-Y-R-O-N-E.
Last name, Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do, sir.
Please proceed.
Are you a neighbor, by the way?
Are you a neighbor?
No, I'm actually, I am the program manager for the Strawberry Matching Community Development Corporation.
I'm also the chair.
I'm also the chair of our monthly RCO meeting held every fourth Thursday of the month.
We met with Mr. Knuckleson around these two properties, May the 25th, I believe, and we met him again in the 4th Thursday in June.
At that time, there was a presentation for the second time on these properties from Mr. Knuckleson, but I want to clear up something about the first meeting.
We weren't really in agreement in the first meeting.
This is why there was a second meeting.
The community, from talking with the neighbors and the vote that was taken, was that they were sick of being invaded.
That was the word used, because it is two-rooming homes, nothing to do with Mr. Nakasim and his client, but two-rooming homes have sprouted up in their block without them knowing, going home and a room, and they are sick of not being informed,
or having a voice as to what goes on in their block.
Now, in that meeting, they were on the line,
and Mr. Knucklesom, as I explained to him earlier,
Mr. Chair, we do not allow the presenter
or the developer to be in or on the line during voting.
That is community business.
Vote was taken.
It was 15 to 2.
Mr. Knucklesom said to me earlier,
that he some people wanted it yes there were two people on the line said why not some people
wouldn't mind have an apartment versus a single family home that was a conversation but that
wasn't the consensus of that block that block feel as though they under invasion
of that block that block feel as though they under invasion from not being respected and so
this is the way that they had their voice they voted no to the project we at the cdc support
the community as well i want to remind everyone of the overlay which it was mentioned and and
it was refused by zoning for those reasons that it was all five and they wanted to do something
else so um we uh at the cdc stick with what the community want and and we oppose the project um
thank you uh excuse me chair before he go um may we swear him in i don't think he was sworn in oh
i i did sure oh yeah no i swore him in okay thank you yeah sure uh reverend thank you for calling
in we do alan do you have a question yeah yeah so my my understanding and i think mr uh excuse me
Reverend Williams spoke to my associate Alex Goldberg our understanding is we're not expecting
a vote to be taken in front of us some groups do I don't think it's right because people feel
pressured but my understanding is that no vote was taken that day and then they canvassed the
neighborhood after the meeting where they got 15 people not in support of this project and two
against and again again this language of being an invasion and I think that's the issue is when you
don't have a forum where you can have a discussion back and forth, and then people vote based
on that. I think we're not trying to do boarding houses. We're not trying to invade. These are
formerly multifamily structures, and we're trying to actually lessen the density because they were
previously triplexes that were trying to make them duplexes. Thank you. And thank you, Reverend.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Chair, we have someone by the name of Calvin
Williams they have been unmuted and they can speak now. Hi Mr. Mr. Williams could you state
your name and spell please for the court stenographer. The name is Calvin Williams
C-A-L-V-I-N-W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S. You swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth. Yes I do chair. Mr. Williams are you a neighbor? Yes I am a near
neighbor please proceed yes uh i just wanted to first say that i i wish our uh rco organization
had the same opportunity to have lawyers and people to be able to check facts and check all
the needed information to us to present ourselves we're just a poor little lonely uh community
people trying to survive i think the reverend did fine and i think you're doing fine so
Okay. I just question the notion that the housing in our neighborhood has been granted
multi-home status. Our history in Strawberry Mansion dates back further than 10, 15,
20 years ago, period. It has always been a single family neighborhood. And that's all we try to do
here to preserve what we've gotten used to when we bought into this community as single family
units. Now, we do feel like a type of invasion has come upon us with the housing, multi-faceted
housing that's going on. And we're getting squeezed out of our traditional parking. We're
and treat traditional, all the things in our neighborly things. And I also don't think that
if you build it, they will come. And my person, my small block, people, single families has been
coming in and moving in when home's been going up for sale. I say that if you build it, there come
some of the price tags that's been on some of the properties in our neighborhood in the range from
200 to $300,000. I will say to you, if you build a single family unit on those blocks,
you will get a buyer, you will make a profit. In order to put all these multi things in here
to bring all the density into our neighborhood, it's something that we're not looking forward to
at all. And I know we'll be coming before you in the future too, on some of our other blocks that
are totally been single family for almost five generations of family living there. And to get
this invasion has been a very hard thing for us to swallow. I'll cut it short here and say that
we are not opposed to development and all. But there's nothing in my mind that's telling me
that you cannot build a single family unit there and someone will come and buy it and the LLC
will make a profit. An LLC is not a homeowner. They don't come out and put out trash. They don't do
It's not a homeowner. They don't come out and put out trash. They don't do, they don't keep up those things. Anytime you get more than one family and it becomes a problem. I'm gonna cut it short because I'm getting a little bit emotional. And thank you.
they don't
Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to call and thank you for your insight.
Jeremy Bergman, can I make a response, a short one?
So how about, could we do this? Can we see if there's anyone else in the audience, please? Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
chair we have strawberry mansion community they've been unmuted and allowed to speak
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter good afternoon chairman
my name is bonita cum can you hear me just just try to go a little louder bonita please can you
hear me now i can i can't yeah my name is bonita cummings i am the director of strawberry mansion
community concern and rvco i was in attendance at hold on hold on one minute do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do and could you spell your name
please for the court reporter it's b as in boy o-n-i-t-a cummings c-u-m-m-i-n-g-s please proceed
I was in attendance at both meetings for 3220 and 3222 West Norris Street, and there was an expressed opposition even before the attorneys left the call of what was felt from the residents or near neighbors of that particular block.
We also don't want the window wells front or back because what we're experiencing is we have to micromanage that they then become apartment units out of the basement that was never cleared through the zoning board.
So we don't have the manpower in our communities to micromanage these processes of these window wells.
So we ask them to remove, to have no window wells.
There is a market for single family homes. We are not being allowed to keep that market in our communities by feeling forced to just allow these totally multifamilies and creating such transient communities.
So we're asking this body to support the opposition of the community at this time, because we do feel that we have a RSA-5 community.
We would like to preserve that. And so this was opposed at those meetings.
Thank you very much for taking the time, and we appreciate your insight. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no hands at this time.
Hi, Planning Commission.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Alan, proceed.
Two seconds.
With Mr. Williams, I agree with him.
You shouldn't increase density for RSA-5 properties if it has a history of being RSA-5.
So when you have four or five generations of single-family use, that's appropriate to be against that.
But when you have a history of multifamily use for a property, whereas three units and we're going down to two units,
That's a little bit different. That's what we're asking for. And then in terms of, yeah, units, you know, single family homes and survey management sell between $200,000 to $300,000. It's not feasible to build a single family home for $200,000 to $300,000. That's the issue. And so, you know, we have to responsibly build in Philadelphia for properties like that.
As far as Ms. Cummings, two things. First of all, she's the one who stated during the community meeting, why can't we do a triplex? I'm not saying she was in support of the triplex, but when I indicated we have a triplex history, she's the one that stated in the community meeting, well, then why can't you build a triplex?
And I indicated that we want to have a three-bedroom unit for a family.
And in terms of the window wells and about the illegality of creating another unit in the basement, first of all, we're not trying to do anything illegal here.
But if we wanted to add a third unit, we would have to come back in front of the zoning board.
This is a client of mine who is going through the variance process.
If he wanted to do it illegally, he would not be part of this process.
Thank you.
Thank you. Planning Commission, please.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. David Vecta with the City Planning Commission.
Mr. Chairman and board members, I'm going to read the same testimony for both properties.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
In April 2021, the city issued a zoning permit for a single-family home on each lot.
Nothing about either property has changed since then.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance of either property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
that would prevent it from being used from inconformance with the zoning code the city
planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed use variants for two dwelling units
on each lot thank you um i appreciate that i'm sorry can i just respond to um the comments you
you can yeah so yes was there zoning permit issued as to both properties for single family
use in 2020 yes mr matheson was looking at a single family home because this is a very
difficult process. No one in their right mind wanted to participate in because of the length