And, you know, part of the reason why we're asking for, you know, relief here is, you know, given the, you know, the amount of work that we're going to need to do to it, plus given, you know, what is around in the neighborhood and what has been approved previously, we believe it makes sense to have it as three condominium units.
So you'll see pictures to the left of the property, to the right of the property, and then you'll see our plans, right?
You see the site plan. You'll see the elevations. You'll see that we're redoing the facade of this building. You'll see the floor plans. A couple things to note. No roof deck. I believe 1317 South 15th Street had a roof deck, while this one doesn't.
The other thing that I would note is that there's no bedrooms in the basement. Each, you know, each floor will have its own unit. And each floor will be two bedrooms, one bath, approximately 950 square feet.
Now, we did meet with the South Broad Street Neighbors Association.
You know, they are in opposition to this matter.
I have a copy of that letter in here.
You know, we can go over it.
But, you know, basically they believe it's an overuse of the property.
You know, we beg to differ in the sense of, again, if, you know, when we presented this to the coordinating RCO,
we indicated that this is a mix between single-family and multi-family they stated otherwise
that this is a single-family neighborhood I did bring up just like I'm bringing up today
all of the evidence of a multi-family you know environment including what this board heard last
year and approved you know they if you look at item three you know again this is a five-bedroom
structure right now what we're doing is putting six bedrooms we're just dividing it into two
uh two bedroom units right they're they're if you look at their letter you know they're stating
that if we have six bedrooms you know we're going to have six plus cars which i don't believe is the
case you know arc you know and again dennis conwell if he was on the line he's the realtor
he you know one of the reasons why we chose this spot was because we're near the broad street line
one of the reasons why we're looking to do condominiums were you know the people that we
would be selling the property to are either single individuals or young couples um especially given
what's going on with you know COVID-19 we see that people are going to like use bikes walk you know
and you know hopefully when things open back up you know they would uh also use the broad street
line. So we disagreed that if you have six bedrooms, you would have six-plus cars, just like
if you have a single family with five bedrooms, you're not going to have five cars. And I know
there's apples to oranges comparison. Now, this is a proof of what we sent the notice to the
surrounding neighbors. I will note one thing, and unfortunately, because of COVID-19,
we don't have the benefit of walking around the neighborhood and doing a petition,
Because typically when we do have some opposition from people in the community who attended the community meeting, we would, you know, see what's going on, you know, see if there's a reasonable solution here or if that was just an outlier.
So when we had 1317 South 15th Street, we actually did a petition.
Again, we're four doors down, and we had a petition circulated, and as you can see, we had a lot of signatures.
Now, this is a different zoning matter.
I just wanted to show because I was unable and my client was unable to circulate a petition.
i just wanted to show because i was unable and my client was unable to circulate a petition
but as you can see there is support in this neighborhood for multi-family use and you know
even though it's a separate property it's the same bones three unit commercial three unit
residential condominium two blocks away from broad street so that's my presentation i understand that
there are people in the neighborhood who are also present so i will defer to them and and ask to
come back for more uh presentation uh counselor counselor yes what is the size of the smallest
bedroom well they're all of equal size so if so right now what is that equals what square feet
so uh it's approximately 950 square feet a bedroom oh the bedrooms the bedrooms um
i believe they're all two bedrooms uh so i i again i don't unfortunately have the architect
here but we do have the floor plans let me go back up there i know they're a little blurry but
i don't have the best eyesight nowadays so um but here they are um it looks like they're uh
they're around 150 square feet some of them like i can't see it it's like 140 like it
they look like they're uh yeah like 140 square feet or so okay thank you you're welcome
question that permit the uh petition you showed on the previous the 1317
15th do we have any way of identifying whether these are homeowners or these are renters um
um i can i no i i don't like we just we take we take petitions based on the occupants but if we
can look at the opa yeah the other thing i just was curious you said we we approved 1317 for three
family dwelling last year that's right that's right and actually my understanding uh is that
one of the people who are going who's going to be speaking today diane mitchell actually supported
this project 1314 South 15th Street so but yes
hello yes okay hold on ma'am any more questions for Alan from the board at
this moment no okay any individuals who wish to speak on it please raise your
hand so we can identify you okay diane mitchell you can speak
miss mitchell i know you were on earlier please identify yourself for the record name and address
the name is diane hamilton mitchell my address is 13 14 south 15 street
I've been living in this block for the past 55 years 56 coming up this Friday because I will be
65 um thank you so much I'm looking forward to this I need to make this very um straight to the
point um we had a petition signed the petition that Alice showed was a petition that was two
I think about two years ago pertaining to the family that lived and I still live at 1317
that house was never mentioned or brought up as turning into or transferring into a condominium
it was always a family unit a family it was never a multi-family it was just one family unit
mother father and a son when it's coming to the property at 1325 we oppose this behind the fact
that for several reasons the the family that lived there are deceased and they've been there
for a long time because um miss evelyn at that particular time was my piano teacher
one thing we opposed to one of the other things we opposed to is that this is going to be a tax
abatement, which Alan did not mention. These units are on the market for $250,000. We have
six families in our neighborhood that's been in this block, two of them have been in this block
over 50 years. And we are on a fixed income. I mean, fixed income that our taxes are going up
if we're under homestead or the loo we cannot afford this tax increase if hoping hoping that
this property does not transfer it into a condominium what they're doing they're going
transferred into a condominium what they're doing they're going to take down the building
to take down the bill
restructure it and we had a problem in our neighborhood of a family that restructures
their house and the walls on both sides of the property 1320 and I think 1322 the walls are
damaged from contractors doing work that they did not have a permit for and never returned
i asked you to just to uh then your testimony related to the request for this property
we are opposing the request for this property to do have a question
we don't we just vote for we just don't want our chairman
outcome of what will happen of no parking increase
Ms. Mitchell, the attorney who represented the applicant shows us a petition that was circulated.
I don't have the date, but it was circulated regarding 1317 South 15th Street.
But our conversation...
Did you sign a letter of support at that time?
according to the petition you supported that that application
if you did that's okay i'm just trying to i want to verify that you signed the petition in support
for the conversion of 1317 from a single family to multi-family
uh chair she was muted um because of over talking you but she can unmute herself and speak now
miss mitchell
yes did you hear my statement my question repeat that again sir i'm sorry
council for the applicant submitted a copy of a petition that was circulated according to council
in support of the property at 1317 South 15th Street.
And that support was to convert a single family to multifamily.
The name of Diane Mitchell, 1314 South 15th Street,
appears on that petition as being in support of that application.
My question is that at that time, did you support that application?
We support it if it was a family dwelling.
This was, we were told that it was a family unit, not a month.
It's a three-family dwelling is what you support.
Three-family dwelling?
No, sir.
We were not told it was a three-family dwelling.
We were told, we were informed by the owners that they wanted to take the first and second
floor they would live on, and their son was just, who was in college right now, would
have the third floor, which is a young adult.
it was not it was not multifamily and I have the petition indicates that it was
all right all right I don't I don't want to belabor the point I just want to
I'm trying to figure out what what why the change of change of heart is right
now okay can I read can I respond to that on chairman 30 seconds please yes
there is no change of heart if that was the case that was misleading the
residents but our main concern was that the 1325 that we do not want we oppose for that being a
condominium and we had no idea if this what we were signing which we were now you're making it
seem like we must we were misled we were not i'm not suggesting that i'm not suggesting that though
sir thank you thank you ma'am thank you okay anyone else to testify
We have a L-T-P-Y-A-T-T.
You're allowed to speak.
You can unmute yourself and present testimony.
Hello?
Good afternoon, ma'am.
Please identify yourself with a record name and address and spell your name for the stenographer.
My name is Latonya.
That's L-A-T-O-N-Y-A.
Last name is Pyatt.
p as in peter y a t t the address is 1326 south 15th street you swear and affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes thank you please proceed my name is latonya
and my family has lived across the street from 1325 for over 50 something years um we submitted
a letter with about 15 residents on this block who are opposing 1325.
residents on this block who are opposing 1325. As you guys mentioned earlier with Diane Mitchell
there were several of us who signed the petition for 1317 and each of us were we were all approached
by the owners of that property. They informed us that they would be living in the property.
same thing that Ms. Mitchell just said. We were not ever given plans. We were not told
that it was going to be turned into a multifamily dwelling. We were told, same thing that Ms. Mitchell
just said, that the owners would become a part of this community. They would live on the first
and second floors, and they would have another unit for their son. They also informed us that
the building had already been multifamily. It was turned into single family, and they were
turning it back into two apartments, one for them, one for their son. That is the reason why many of
the residents on this block signed that petition, not because we were aware that it was going to be
three condos that is being mentioned today. We are opposed to that. Three condos in 1317. We would
be opposed to condos in 1325. The majority of the homes on this block are still single family.
So we are concerned about the congestion. We are concerned about the parking. And although
the counselor said that he doesn't believe that there would be multiple cars, that of course is
definitely not the case. If you live here and you're not able to park and you have to walk
five blocks to get to your house at midnight, then you would understand why we would be opposed to
this. Thank you. Thank you very much. There are other people who are wanting to talk. I know
there's a Mr. Dunlop who is on the phone. They'll need to raise their hand and Tanya will...
Can someone give him instruction on how to do that? Because he is audio only. He is not on the
tanya tanya miss sunken will give him the information thank you
so if you are a caller as an attendee by telephone then you would have to press star
nine to raise your hand to be recognized to testify going forward chair we have a pamela strowman
Pamela you are allowed to speak you can unmute please identify yourself for the record name
and address and spell your name for the stenographer hi my name is Pamela Stroman
p-a-m-e-l-a-s-t-r-o-m-a-n I am a long-term resident of the Point Breeze community I'm
also the committee person for the 36th Ward 36th division I act as a liaison for the
neighbors on the block of the 1300 block of south 15th street as well as one of the
founding members of our 15th street garden association yes 1325 south 15th in your
political division yes it is thank you you're swearing for him to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes yes i do please proceed uh several things i'm not going
of belabor the point of what was already said in terms of the opposition, but I myself personally
spoke to, I know them as Jeanette and Andy of 1317 South 15th Street. I was waiting to see plans. At
the time, I had a medical emergency, so I could not attend the zoning meeting. It was, and this
is what was said directly to me that they purchased the house i believe in 2004 um and they
ingratiated themselves into the neighborhood several ways they changed their church membership
to a local church they attended block activities and all intense purposes for many many years they
were single family dwelling and it was only a petition that was going up for their son i had
ask for plans I never received them I did not sign that petition because I didn't have all the
information in front of me and it's my understanding and I could attest to the conversation that they
had with some people they were under the impression that this was just a petition going up for their
son not that it was they were trying to change the entire building and it was going to be rented
out or anything like that but more importantly i think um the opposition is for uh just just
the parking absolutely but there's no hardship for this property um going up as well as you know
they're not doing with the least modifications possible to uh provide relief this is just
regurgitating what SBS and A has stated in their letter.
um have stated in their letter this is a single family dwelling when you look at the persons who
were who are on the petition now as opposed to two or three years ago this as Mr. Allen said
this is apples and oranges because the conversation and the what was put forth in 1317
is very different than what's being put forth now.
We have a developer coming in wanting to, I think,
redo the entire structure, maybe demolish it, I don't know,
and come up with a new structure and make it into condominiums.
Condominiums was never the language of 1317.
Never the language of 1317.
And maybe that's our misunderstanding of the zoning language, multifamily versus condos versus apartments versus single family.
But moving forward, when there was more information presented on 1325 South 15th Street, we opposed it.
We had left less information presented under 1317 South 15th Street.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your patience and your testimony.
Anyone else?
Something new and different?
James Simmons, you've been allowed to speak.
You can unmute yourself and give testimony.
Please identify yourself, name and address.
Spell your name for the stenographer.
okay moving forward chair we have arnetta ready arnetta you've been allowed to speak you can
unmute yourself and give testimony miss retta please identify yourself name and address
spell your name for the stenographer. Arnetta Reddy, A-R-N-E-T-T-A, R-E-D-D-Y,
address 1316 South 15th Street, Philadelphia, PA. Thank you. Do you swear and affirm to tell