I wanted to make myself available if there was anybody that had questions or concerns about our role and how we've communicated with the neighbors in this.
I think the primary concern that we've heard about is about the displacement of the neighbors that are in essentially our backyard.
That place is mostly vacated and has become quite a dangerous spot.
Well, it's really been that way for a bunch of years.
One of the reasons that we have supported the project is because, unfortunately, with some of the gang stuff that's happened in the neighborhood,
that area has become a crouching spot for some of the young men from other neighborhoods to come
and have ambushed and even murdered folks as recently as a year ago from our area. We don't
feel safe with our children who live across the street in the PHA housing development between
7th and 8th Street walk right through that area there. And we do not let those children or women
walk by themselves in that area. So that alone has been something that piqued our interest with
the new development coming up. We've been very comfortable with the communication that we've had
with uh with the group it is going to be a major disruption for us but the communication and the
benefits have far outweighed um what we've seen so far so our concern has been for our displaced
residents they've addressed that adequately we haven't had complaints and i've reached out to
all the folks that live there um for the school they can speak for themselves for our children
across the street and in the pha housing and i think with the with the traffic stuff and with
the safety patrols and the speed bumps that'll actually help our children out and then just for
the general safety of the property so that it won't be an area where young men can lurk around
and work through the ambushes. So we do stand in support of it. We're comfortable with it. And we
just make ourselves available if there are any questions or concerns from the community or from
anybody here today. I received a letter from Adam today that I've forwarded to Tanya and Sharon,
which I received today, just so for the record. They made part of the record. Thank you. Anyone
else? We have Jihad Ali. Please unmute yourself. Hello, good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mr. Ali.
Please spell your first and last name for the record. I'll swear you in. J-I-H-A-D is my first
name. A-L-I is my last name. We're firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
I'm firm. Thank you. Please proceed. Hello, I'm with West Giraffe Progress Attorney Grigos. He's
at the civic design review board i just want to preserve for the record that we are a rco in the
neighborhood unfortunately sometimes when uh people focus on the coordinating rco they think
that's the only rco just for the record and i know at the time of the civic design review uh
attorney grigos had uh indicated this was going to zone and i wasn't aware it was going to dad
would have sent that proper notification but uh we had some follow-up with attorney grigos and i
just wanted to put that on the record that we are a RCO and that we wanted to talk to him about the
CBA. You know, I have a long history in working with inclusion and diversity, so I just want to
make sure we're part of that. Thank you. And we have great respect for WestJarard Progress and
Mr. Ali, and we're happy to continue that discussion. But we do have inclusion and local
hiring, minority hiring in our CBA, but we're happy to continue that discussion with us,
Thank you, Booth. Anyone else? Something new and different?
anyone else something new and different chair we have mary jones good afternoon miss jones
Chair, we have Mary Jones.
please identify yourself for the record i'll swear you in good afternoon mary jones representing
council president daryl clark city hall room 494 you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed yes um yes well the while the
council president does recognize uh the work that the applicants have put in with the community
and the reduction of the footprint of the project he does have some concerns still about the size
and scale of this project um coming within a primarily low-rise residential community
thank you so um are you asking for a continuation of this discussion or
is the council president taking a position
he more so wanted to he wanted his that he's is not in full support of the project
to be on the record mary i'm sorry you're breaking mary sorry there's always opportunity
oh yes hear me now yes hello now we can okay okay um so like i was saying he said he has made it he's
not um in full support of the project as it is um as it is at the moment um that is to say that you
know he would be I'm not not closing the door on further conversations uh but it it's just the
density of the project we're not sure we're going to be able to come to an agreement on it okay so
that's fair we still have some issues to work out anyone else
Mr. Grigos you care to comment on that by anywhere I mean you know we we we have worked really hard
um and i think you know you have um the letter from the 14th ward in front of your neighbor
and we found out at um i think 155 today that the um councilman's office um didn't feel that
they could support the project and i um i asked if there was something we could do and i think it's
um i i appreciate their concerns and maybe it's just a um you know a a general um i don't know
opposition to this type of development but I think that in terms of density you know and we're always
willing to talk we have great respect for the council president in terms of density as I said
I think we are below what the density of an RM1 would permit which is really what we're surrounded
by I think that in terms of you know breaking up the multifamily and putting it on a 70 foot wide
street at sixth street was praised with the commercial was praised by um the civic design
review and i think the um letter from the rco and from our direct neighbor the helping hands mission
who is you know we're really proud to to work with them who's committed to the neighborhood
i think that speaks for itself okay thank you anyone else we have diane monroe chair
You may unmute yourself Ms. Monroe. Good afternoon Ms. Monroe.
Please identify yourself for the record and I will swear you in.
Ms. Monroe do you have two devices on again?
Chair, we can move along.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
And her letter's in the record.
Thank you.
You hit unmute in the left-hand corner.
Chair, we can go along.
We can't wait for people with technical problems.
Okay, Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Board.
Peter Bernard for the Planning Commission.
This property is indicated for multifamily residential
in the comprehensive plan.
However, the applicant has worked closely with city staff
in developing the proposal.
Project was presented to the Civic Design Review Committee
on December 10th, 2020,
where it was favorably received.
Accordingly, we have no objection
to the grantee of the variance.
Thank you. I do have a concern that the council president hasn't yet signed off on this.
Thank you. I do have a concern that the council president hasn't yet signed all
Tony, when would be the earliest date if we continue, if we could decide to continue this,
when would be our earliest date?
Hello.
February to 3rd.
All right.
And Mr. Chairman, you know, we have great respect for the council president.
And, you know, I asked Mary in our conversation when she told me that they could not support it, was the statement that I heard.
I said, is there something that we could do?
Is it a nip and tuck?
because it and it was more I don't know that that was um you know um the you know she said look we're
always willing to talk and you know we're always willing to talk but I don't know um that that
there is um something out there that is and I don't know if it's um you know um something specific
that it was a concern because it wasn't raised other than um you know the density of the project
which i think we talked about and you know i think i mentioned it fifth and spring garden
which is you know a block away we have a high rise project coming with the amazon market um so if
if there was something that you know we could work on i i i'm always happy to i just don't know that
there's a um you know something specific and and maybe just a fundamental difference yeah i hear
you in all due respect i won't know that unless you have the conversation my concern is if the
council person is not being supportive of it i don't i don't mean this in a in a derogatory way
you have the chance that he might file decide to file an appeal which is going to
drag this thing out even further so i think it's in everyone's best interest that you get this
continued and can and and continue with the conversation uh i believe at some point i think
the council council president uh is going to be reasonable i just don't want to see this get
approved and down the line it gets appealed because conversation basically did not continue
so having said that with all due respect everyone mi2020-002-410-650 fearmount avenue
this hearing will be resumed on you have a date tanya
this hearing will resume on February 3rd at 2 p.m at which time the board will consider
any feedback related to the RCO and the council president's office thank you thank you
calendar number 2209 649 union street
Mr. Mulvihill, you're unmuted.
I have to promote him.
You've been promoted to panelists also.
All right, now I can talk.
Good evening, everyone, or afternoon, I guess.
I'm Mr. Mulvihill.
Name and address for the record, and please spell your last name.
Yes. Leo, L-E-O, last name Mulvihill, M-U-L, V as in Victor, I-H-I-L-L. Address is 2424 East York Street, Suite 111, Philadelphia, 19125.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you also agree to waive and stip?
And have you also mailed in the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal, referral, photos, plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
and have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter yes to all of those things thank you you
may proceed thank you members of the board Leo Mulvihill on behalf of PSK B as in Bravo H
Development LLC I apologize for the low lighting I'm on my couch with my dog so they don't start
barking during this presentation so members of the board we're here today because we are requesting
a multi-family dwelling for two units in a single-family district.
I'm going to show my screen, pardon me, main screen in a moment.
For the purpose of the record, incorporating everything that's listed here, including the
refusal, area zoning maps, deed, activity license, commercial activity, I'm sorry, clearance
information, notification letter, this letter of support from Mantra Civic, photos of the property
and plans. Showing now page one of my packet. This is the refusal. We're in an RSA 5 and we're asking
for two units. Going to page seven for the record members of the board. This is
units. Going to page seven for the record members of the board, this is the area zoning
map. As you can see, the parcel is indicated in dark blue in the city's atlas plan in the
RSA5 district that is intermingled with RM1 in orange and CMX2 in red. I'm going to proceed
to the photos so the board has a better sense as to what this parcel looks like. Again,
going to fix the orientation of these photos which somehow got shifted. So currently this
is a vacant lot members of the board. The adjacent owner at 651 union is overjoyed that something's
going in next to them. They've been keeping some trash cans and recycling bins in the lot.
For purpose of the record, I'm now referring to page 21 of my zoning package.
I'm just going to review those photos, page 22, this is a widescreen.
And I'm going to do a 360, first going southbound and then proceeding around.
So we have a general sense of what we're looking at in the neighborhood.
Now we're looking southbound on Union.
It's at page 30, we're directly across the street.
You can see three-story homes, side yard.
Pardon me, northbound on Union,
there's a large building that's located to the right here
that's in somewhat disrepair.
There's been a variance granted by this board
for multi-family in that building.
There's another multi-family up the street
for which this board granted a variance,
I believe earlier this year or late last year.
The property immediately next door, as I indicated,
is occupied by a homeowner
and she is very happy to be having a new neighbor coming in.
Parking itself wasn't an issue at the community meeting, which was great for me to hear, and my personal experience in the neighborhood with several projects I have there now is that parking is not an issue.
Going quickly to the letter dated December 2nd from Mantua Civic, they held a public meeting, we presented everything to them, and overall they supported the project.
what plans i'm going to show now this is page whoa sideways
one moment please there we go uh nope
i can't do anything to not make this page show up sideways for some reason members of the board
so i'm sorry about that just turn your heads like 90 degrees to the left and you should be okay
we're doing it all right so i'm just going to zoom in overall on the site plan this is what
we're going for we have a front yard that matches the adjacent house we have the required open space
we have a roof deck proposed i'll show you the floor plans next this is the page 36
which is inexplicably the correct direction uh so in the basement we have mechanics and storage
with rec space that's open half bath closet and a den or home office space in the basement
for unit number one. Unit number one goes in the basement and in the first floor. So let's talk
about the first floor. An eight-foot setback for the front yard. You'd come in through the front
door entranceway, which is common, into the living dining area. Kitchen's in the middle.
Behind the kitchen, you have a bathroom. Bedroom in the back. Rear yard, 10 foot 5. In excess of
what's required under code. Next two stories, second and third. This is unit number two. So
Unit two has bedroom in the front, bedroom in the back on the second floor, and it has bathrooms in the interior.
Next story up, you have your kitchen to the rear of the property, living in dining space in the middle with some nice closet storage for interior trash.
Bedroom in the front, bathroom in a large, not quite walk-in closet, but still pretty sizable.
Members of the board, that's really all we have going here.
Oh, I'm sorry, this fourth floor as well, my apologies.
Again, bedroom, bedroom, and we got space here for the bathrooms, closets, et cetera.
That's really what we have here, members of the board.
I'll show you again the proposed rendering.
Again, please tilt your head 90 degrees to the left.
I apologize.
My computer will not show this the correct way.
Purpose of the record, page 35.