the coordinating RCO on September 29th, 2021 due to the fact that again, once again, ZBA approval
is required, special exception relief for restaurant users. The property is zone CA2
and it is the Delaware district that provides the restaurant controls.
And here are some photos of the subject property and surrounding area. So the proposed restaurant
is located within a fairly large shopping center near the intersection of Aramingo Avenue and East
Cumberland Street. And it's in the pad building that's closest to Aramingo Avenue. I'm hovering
over it right now if you can see. So that unit is currently vacant at this time and Wingstop
would be the first tenant since the shopping center underwent an extensive remodeling and
rebranding back in 2019. Here is an aerial.
Here is an aerial, and here you can see a construction photo from 2020, and this is an image of the pad site.
Here I've identified the unit that will be occupied, and it is located next to a proposed nifty-fifty.
So, before I proceed with the posting of the zoning notice, I'll also mention that, you know, the name of the shopping center is Port Richmond, previously, and it was renamed to Fishtown Crossing in 2019.
So, here's a photo of our compliance with the posting of the zoning notice 21 days before the hearing, and I have some floor plans.
um so the restaurant will have approximately 12 tables um hours of operation will be from 11 a.m
to midnight and i'll also mention that alcohol will not be served on site and the restaurant
will be uh using a shared dumpster for the pad building which is already in place and trash
collection has been arranged by the landlord so with these arrangements we would respectfully
argued that granting the application will not cause any negative impacts. Lastly, I will go
through, here is a copy of the lease agreement, tax compliance certificate,
application for special exception, project information form, and RCO notification and
proof of mailing. So that summarizes my testimony. And I'm accompanied, once again, I mentioned
Hansaraj Agrawal, managing member of GSRH WINS PA LLC, the applicant and tenant who will be sworn
in. Hansaraj, can you please raise your hand so that you can be promoted to the panel?
He may
immute
himself.
Could you
state your
name and
spell it
for the
reporter
please?
Hansraj
Agrawal,
H-A-N-S-R-A-J-A-G-R-A-W-A-L.
Right.
Do you
swear or
affirm to
tell the
truth,
the whole
truth,
nothing but
the truth?
thank you uh did you hear my testimony that i provided to the board this morning yes and do
you affirm that my presentation was accurate yes do you adopt my testimony as your own yes great
thank you thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments
from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, Ian Hegarty
for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the Board,
the proposed special exception
will not cause detrimental impacts
to the neighborhood beyond
what would normally be expected for the use.
The City Planning Commission recommends
that the Board grant this special exception.
MI 2021-004969,
2401 Aramingo Avenue. I vote yes. Thomas Holloman. My vote is yes. James Snell. My vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid. My vote is yes. Thank you, Counselor. Thank you.
MI 2021 05-227-3201-07 West Oxford Avenue. We have a letter from the RCO of Support,
strawberry mansion community development corporation eileen quigley is the attorney
ms quigley is coming back in as a panelist
yes good morning uh chair could you could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
please yes my name is eileen quigley e-i-l-e-e-n quigley q-u-i-g-l-e-y do you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do before we start to i could you identify
your client and the relationship to the property yes good morning i'm here with my colleague
jordan meyer from ballard spar on behalf of habitat for humanity philadelphia habitat for
humanity is developing the property okay hold on one minute hold hold on one minute mr hollman has
a few more questions for you mr hollman uh good morning counselor do you agree to waive the reading
of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy i do and did you submit a rco letter
i do and did you submit a rco letter we did not but the rco uh it's my understanding that the rco
submitted it to the uh zoning board we got a copy from we have we have a copy of the letter we have
okay from the rco the other day thank you please proceed thank you so as i say good morning everyone
my name is eileen quigley i'm here with my colleague jordan meyer on behalf of habitat
for Humanity Philadelphia. With me are Ed McCauley, who is representing Habitat for Humanity
Philadelphia today, and our design team from ISA, Alex Gauza, Chris Mulford, and Brian Phillips.
Oh, let me share my screen, if I may.
So, as I said, these properties are being developed by, redeveloped by Habitat for Humanity
Philadelphia. The owner currently is the RDA, but there will be a conveyance of the property
to Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia this year. As you noted, we submitted all of our
exhibits to the board. We attended an RCO meeting on February 24th. We sent out notice
letters as required and posted the property as required. So we're here today seeking a
variance for minimum lot size for the redevelopment of lots located at 3201-07 West Oxford Street.
The property lies in the RSA 5 Zoning District and is subject to the 5th District and the
Neighborhood Conservation District Strawberry Mansion overlays. Here's our certificate of tax
clearance, the posted property.
Finally, we did submit revised zoning plans to the board, which we are seeking the board
to approve today.
The revised plans for which we are seeking approval were shown to the community at the
February 24 RCO meeting.
The zoning application was submitted for the relocation of lot lines to create five lots
from four lots.
These lots are vacant and have been vacant for quite some time.
the required lot area for the rsa 5 district is 1440 square feet however under the overlay
the proposed lots well also under the overlay they should be 1440 square feet however
with the relocation of lot lines creating the five lots the proposed lots are 1048 square feet
so we are seeking a reasonable adjustment from the minimum lot area regulations and we believe
the request for variance meets the spirit intent of the code and at this time i would like to ask
um alex gaza to raise her hand and go through the site plan for the zoning board excuse me this is
sharon if i can interrupt for one minute miss quigley did you submit the the um completed
proviso plans form and the revised plans i did i submitted that last week okay thank you you're
welcome. Under a separate email as well, Ms. Salata. So it was a separate PDF from our zoning
exhibits. Thank you. I'll check for that now. I can resend if you need me to.
Not necessary. Thank you. You're welcome.
i mean is it okay if i this is sure we have to square you in okay could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter please my name is alex gaza interface studio architects
spelled a l e x g a u z z a right you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth i do proceed may i just ask you some questions miss gaza to establish you as an expert
yes thank you so miss gaza can you state your occupation i'm an architect and how long have
been an architect 10 years and can you give us just a brief summary of your educational background
um i have a bachelor's degree bachelor of arts and architecture and a master's degree in
architecture okay and can you identify the as your resume at exhibit o
yes okay exhibit o is miss gauze's resume all right miss gauze i'm on the site i'm on the
revised site plan right now if that's uh somewhere else i would just like you to get
okay i would just like you to go through the redevelopment of these vacant lots for the
zoning board? Sure. Can you just scroll down a little bit? Sure.
sure um can you just scroll down a little bit sure okay um okay the site plan that you're seeing
kind of in the upper left hand corner is the proposed uh subdivision of one large parcel into
five lots um you can see that we are looking to have these lots face 32nd street these houses
will be two-story single-family homes the house on the corner of oxford and 32nd street is designed
slightly differently from the floor plans of the other four homes to be able to accommodate
a potential owner who is wheelchair bound. That is the reason for the difference in the
footprint of the building. It allows for a bedroom on the first and bathroom on the first floor of
the home. We have a alley that's adjacent to the existing property proposed for egress from the
rear yards and the corner lot also has a ramped at an entrance point on Oxford Street. Ms. Gauza,
Can you just explain briefly why the properties are going to be oriented to 32nd Street?
Sure. As part of Habitat for Humanity's mission to create for sale affordable housing in the city of Philadelphia, we have looked to right size these units to make them affordable for people to buy.
And therefore, two-story homes were more desirable than three-story homes. Oxford Street, the fabric along Oxford Street is primarily three-story homes.
Thus, we chose to turn the houses and have a break between the existing fabric along Oxford Street and have these houses face 32nd Street, to which if you continue down along 32nd Street, the scale of the homes along 32nd Street is also two-story.
So we're trying to kind of respect the existing pattern of the scale of homes on both of those edges.
And Ms. Gauza, as you know, we're here today for a variance for minimum lot area, but if we were to maintain the original four lots, would we still need a variance for lot area?
Yes, we would.
So in your opinion, would this request for variance for minimum lot area be the minimum variance required to use these lots for single family affordable dwellings?
Yes, it would.
And in your opinion, will the proposed homes fit in the character of the neighborhood?
Yes, they will. We've followed all of the requirements for the overlay to with for the materiality of the exterior of the homes.
we have also had multiple meetings with the community to come up with an agreed upon strategy
for material distribution that includes brick which is the desire of the community and we
which is shown in this rendering here and we are still this is one of the two images that was shown
at a previous community meeting and we're still working through the color of the siding product
with the community all right thank you miss gaza but finally in your opinion would the grant of
variance endanger the public health safety or general general welfare in any way no it would
not thank you miss gaza thank you mr bergman all right do you want the owner's rep to adopt
your testimony yes could you do that please have him mr mccauley can you please raise your hand
mr mccauley please unmute yourself and wait for the chair good morning could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter yeah my name is edward mccauley e-d-w-a-r-d mccauley m-c-c-o-l-l-y
right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do proceed mr mccauley you heard me give the presentation a beginning with regard to this
project if you were able to testify would you adopt my testimony as accurate and in keeping with what
you would have testified to yes thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman yes
no mr chairman no mr chairman yes mr chairman um so for the for the actual property now when
mr chairman
when it comes to the side lay of one along 32nd street um what exactly are going to be the
designated areas for the trash
i'm sorry this is tanya i just want to state for the record
that that is ishmael shaheed asking one of our board members
miss gauze do you have a response to that where the trash is going to be stored
are you talking about the lot a the oxford and 32nd yes
i think it is our intention that trash will be stored in the the rear yards and taken out for
pickup through the alley all right okay no further we just thank you we just want to note that even
with the revised plans the only variance that is still required is for the minimum lot area
the the project in every other way we're we're okay we're okay complies with the zoning code
One more thing. I would like to enter my exhibits into evidence.
Okay. And if I could mention, this is Sharon. I've reviewed the revised plans and form. Those changes are fine. It's one page.
Okay, thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Sharon.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
members of the board in 2014 the zoning map was amended from rm1 to rsa5 in this area
in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan the project's been refused
because in the fifth city council district the minimum lot size for rsa5 is 1440 square feet
these proposed lots are substantially smaller than this required minimum and the average lot
size on this and adjoining blocks we don't believe that applicant has demonstrated a hardship as it's
strictly defined in the zoning code however given the intent of the project to provide
rent restricted housing sorry it's housing in accord with comprehensive plan recommendations
with affordable housing the city planning commission does not object to the granting of
variance. Thank you, sir. MI 2021-005-227-3201-207 West Oxford Street. I vote yes with revised plan
one page. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, yes with proviso. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes my business. May I
please be excused? Absolutely, yes. MI 2021-005-093-3500 Civic Center Boulevard,
letter of support from the 27th Ward RCO, Jared Klein.
Excuse me, Chair, if I can also mention that we did receive four letters in opposition
from neighbors oh i'm i'm i apologize no i guess i apologize we're we're still on eight
good morning mr chair members of the board state your name and spell for the court reporter please
sure it's jared j-a-r-e-d last name is klein k-l-e-i-n from blank rome 130 30 north 18th
street in philadelphia do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the