We saw this in May, all four of those buildings.
In one month, we're out of our minds trying to keep up.
But this is starting. So our reasonable compromise is to let's talk about a project, a building that looks like that.
You already did two in these pictures and there's more. So this is not something new to CubeSmart.
And we hope that you understand our point here, that this building on a super important corner of this neighborhood now starting to develop would really kind of kill it.
And there's no hardship.
Somebody who's going to come in and build a building there that looks like any of these other buildings that are proposed is very popular.
Things are really starting to kick down there.
And we really want to see something there that fits into the character.
We don't oppose on design.
Everybody knows that.
But we feel that's a really reasonable compromise.
And we hope you understand where we're coming from on this.
um and if you have any questions for me i'd be i'd be glad to answer
thank you i'm just curious did uh did this go in front of cdr it did not okay okay if i could
just respond briefly and we do appreciate a lot of what larry's saying and we did that's why we
were so open to working with their design committee to try to reach some kind of compromise here a
couple things just to point out that every property is individual and unique, especially one
that already has a long-standing operation on it. It's not like we're looking at a ground-up
construction and proposing self-storage on a site that hasn't been self-storage for the last 25
years. A lot of the projects that are coming that Larry's speaking of in that CMX3 realm are up on
Spring Garden Street. That's a different pedestrian experience than Callow Hill at the base of 676.
So while we appreciate that Northern Liberty South is changing and growing, a lot of that is
only increasing the need for us to expand our existing footprint there because so many more
people are coming to that area with a need for self-storage. And because we're property owner,
we're not planning to up and leave the location, but we do want to give them a building that fits
in the context. Are existing buildings there? So what we're proposing is complementary to what we
have on site. And we did go ahead, and I'll bring up the view again, if I may, to show you the
changes we did make based on those comments, because we did go pretty far from our standard
white box, as Larry was describing. We've got the additional banding. We've got brick. We've
got a panel system to mimic the look of windows. We've added more glass. We put a retail frontage
all along Sixth and Callow Hill there at that corner to mimic what we have on our existing
building. So while we do appreciate their, you know, vision for the future of the neighborhood,
Spring Garden Street is not four lanes of traffic at Callow Hill next to 676. So I think we have to
be a little bit cognizant of the existing condition and the fact that this is an existing
property owner that's been operating in this neighborhood for a long-standing period,
despite the remapping that happened well after we purchased the property.
Can you still hear me?
Yes, Mr. Friedman.
Yes, Mr. Friedman.
All right, thank you.
All right. Thank you. Look, I showed you four pictures.
Look, I showed you four pictures.
Two of them were on Callahill. I'll go back and we'll go look back and look at those pictures.
One's at second in Callahill and one's at fourth in Callahill.
We weren't copied on your letter, so I haven't seen any of the photos that you've shared.
But I will say that some of the CubeSmart locations you shared are in other markets like Seattle and other places where they're ground up construction.
I don't know what the labor costs there are or materials costs.
They're probably very different than Philadelphia and they're not an expansion of an existing location.
I'm sorry, but the building that looking at this picture right here, the existing building has windows.
Looks like, you know, a typical factory building that could be converted into into a residential like, you know, is done every day in the city.
the building you're proposing back there is ground up that's not an addition that's ground up if the
uses it is is an extension but it's ground up you're building from scratch down over there
you're in a parking lot build a building that that has the character of course every building's
unique but when we create a vision whenever anybody creates a vision and we spend a lot of
time on this stuff with the planning commission you try to like at least get into the ballpark
This is not in the ballpark. You're coming down 6th Street there. It looks like a giant fortress. It doesn't fit. The use allows for a windowless building. That's the point I'm making. You came back. We assigned two people to this project to work with Claire Harrison.
What I'm hearing here is just throwing this into left field here.
Yes, sir.
Yes, I can hear you.
Mr. Chair, I think you may be frozen.
Mr. Now you'll have to go out and come back in.
I'm sorry.
i'm sorry we're i got i think i got muted there i was going off excuse me sir um the chair just
needs to go out and come back in because his video froze oh okay
hello can you guys hear me yes i don't know what happened everything just froze up i had to uh
I had to leave and go back on. I apologize for that. I have no idea what happened. So
last I heard, Mr. Friedman was stating his opposition. So I'm going to ask, is there
anyone else in the audience that would like to comment on this case?
Any other hands raised? No hands at this time.
yeah catherine is there is there any way you think possibly uh maybe another meeting with
the rco might might help uh help northern liberties uh you know become more friendlier
to your project we had hoped so that's why we've um requested two continuances of this hearing in
the past to accommodate future meetings um based on our last correspondence we supplied you know
what you're looking at today and we were our design committee meeting was canceled and told
that we hadn't done enough to accommodate you know their requests and frankly you know we've
we've gone above and beyond for really non-zoning issues these are design requests and we've made
you know several changes to the storefront that we think really respond to what's going on here
and frankly you know as a property owner with seeing this type of demand for our business
we really want to be able to utilize our existing property otherwise it again it remains a vacant
parking lot with with no improvements and that's not you know serving anybody including the
neighborhood okay is the uh does the board have any questions no no okay what are we talking about
here is it is it is it what's the mr friedman what's what's what's the real uh the issue at
the issue at heart here is it windows yeah it's windows you know all these curlicues and all that
part here is it windows yeah it's
stuff i don't know what yeah it's like you know we really put a lot of time in this we assigned
two people to work with them we we gave them pictures we offered those buildings that they
had already done i don't know what's going on in seattle that's so different than philadelphia
everybody likes a nice looking building everybody if it's cmx3 you're looking at it you know what's
this it's the reason you pick cmx3 is because most most of the projects are going to be like
the four projects i showed you and that's what we offered so i could tell you this that the last
correspondence they gave to us was hey do you guys want to uh mark this up like help design it
We're like, we're volunteers. You guys have architects. You know, we gave you everything we can. We gave you, you know, like, you know, one of the people I assigned is an architect. We gave a kind of directions. You know, we're not going to design the building. And we're very open. We do this stuff all the time. We always compromise. We always figure out a way to get both sides to be sort of happy at the end.
And I think that, yes, I would appreciate if you said to them, work with us and come up with a project that fits into the character of what we're designing here in this neighborhood.
We're not talking about a use.
We are talking about a use.
It's not allowed.
There's no hardship.
where you're looking at this building in this parking lot somebody was going to if we saw four
in may were you going to see something come up you know that's going to look really really handsome
and fit in and you know these are by right these people are coming in by right we just see the cdr
we just really appreciate that if if if you would you know just say hey let's get together
and give us something that would make sense.
We appreciate that.
In the spirit of my friend, Frank DiCicco,
who's always trying to provide compromise
amongst the parties.
I mean, I guess I'll ask one more time
and is there any chance of a compromise here, Catherine?
If not, we're going to take a vote.
Appreciate it.
I can let Ryan speak to it
if there's any room for further compromise
on CubeSmart's end.
But again, we're not talking a vacant ground up construction like Larry speaking to the other projects in the neighborhood.
This is not a separate property. This is an existing developed property that we own outright.
Ryan, do you want to comment on whether there's opportunity for further change to design?
I don't know that there is from a corporate perspective, given all the changes we've made, but I'm, you know, happy to let you weigh in here.
Sure. Thanks, Kate. Based on what Kate has gone over, we feel as though this is a compromise, what we've put together. Those white vision panels in between the brick that we added, the brick piers going up in gray, have the ability to convert to windows in the future if it were ever converted.
So you wouldn't have to demolish the entire building if it were to be converted to a different use. But that's all I have to add. I believe that we had many conversations. It's documented in the information that Kate provided. And we feel as though this is the compromise.
um so that's my statement i'll just pull up you know the original proposal started here
so this look has really changed quite a bit since day one um if you can see you know below
this is all new so all of these things have been added based on our you know almost two-year
process with the community at this point again we started meeting with the community in september
of 2019 we've continued our hearing twice to allow for additional meetings and it's now you know
july of 2021 so typically yes we we would welcome the opportunity for further compromise i just
don't know that you know there's again room in this particular case given the unique circumstances
um especially since you know it's an existing existing use on an existing site because it was
remapped after we've already owned it and operated, you know, that doesn't change our
longstanding history here. All right. If there's no other hands raised, no one else wants to talk
about this property. Is there anyone else out there? No, Chair. Okay.
is there anyone else out there no chair okay no uh questions from the board no okay uh we're
going to go to planning commission go ahead ron this is ron bednar city planning this property
is indicated for a community commercial mixed use on the city plan and our adopted district
plan recommends no changes to the existing cmx zoning at this location we believe the
applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of the unique physical
circumstances or conditions at the site therefore we recommend the request of
variance not prepared. Okay. Calendar number MI-2020-003521-400-418
north 5th street my vote is no my vote is no no thank you okay thank you all right we're going
to go back to uh number seven uh mr lambert is is on the uh is on the call now hopefully
uh case calendar number mi-2021-000426-3639 north 19th street
mr michael lambert there i see you okay hi good morning i'm sorry i'm uh that's all right
that's all right let me give you the 30 second version good morning everybody i
So please state your name and address for the record.
Michael Lambert, ID number 88422.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Absolutely.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Absolutely, sir.
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, and plans and photos five days prior
to this hearing? I had to be quite frank with you. I'm not sure because we're asking for a
continuance. Unfortunately, I went down the 1600 arch believing that it was in person through
back here, and I'm now coming before. Sorry for an inconvenience not being in the beginning,
but i was uh unfortunately believing i should be downtown doing a live uh hearing and now i'm back
so i apologize for mission the earlier request to ask for continuance and i'm requesting that
at this particular moment okay simply asking for continuance okay all right um we'll grant
you that continuous thank you so much calendar number mi-2021-000426-3639 north 19th street
uh we'll continue this case i'll be expecting the date in the mail for an email thank you so much
maybe excuse yes you may have a great day
to everyone on board. Bye-bye now.
All righty.
It looks as though that's the last case for the 9.30 session.
I'm going to ask, did I miss anything?
Is there anyone out in the audience that needs to bring up a case,
or does anyone have anything, any comments they'd like to say?
Any hands raised?
yes one chair um mr earnest okay mr earnest you can unmute yourself
hello good morning sir
to find out in reference to 2210 Bryn Mawr avenue where can we get a date for that property
because the owner doesn't have that listed.
Sir, the only address that was on the calendar today was 2212 for M.R. Adams.
No, no, no. Right. I understand.
But there's another sheet for 2210, but it's on private property.
So I'm just trying to find out where could I get that information.
It's right next door. It's the same owner.
Again, sir, I spoke to you in the Q&A, and I spoke to you on here.
You have to email the ZBA office for that information.
You can continue, Mr. Snow.
Any other, anyone else in the audience need to bring any issues?
anyone else in the audience need to uh uh bring any issues up or any comments no no hands
no okay all right guys and gals uh i guess that'll close at the 9 30 uh session
and uh we'll see everybody back at two o'clock okay great job
Good afternoon. My name is James Snell, and I'll be the acting chair for this afternoon's
zoning hearings. Board members Thomas Holliman and John Monleck from the Department of Planning
and Development will also be participating. Board Administrator Lakeisha Dandy and Board
Attorney Sharon Saleta are also in attendance. Before we begin, I'd like to note the following
changes to the virtual format. First, please be advised that this proceeding is being recorded
and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded. Second, for the benefit
of anyone participating by phone, we ask the attorneys and witnesses identify themselves
prior to speaking or testifying. Third, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify,
You must raise your hand by hitting star nine, then star six to unmute yourself.
That's star nine to raise your hand, star six to unmute yourself.
Fourth, we ask that you not attempt to testify in the chat room.
You should instead wait until your case is called and raise your hand only when the board asks for witnesses to come forward.
uh before calling the first case we would like to announce the following cases that have been
continued all right we've got a couple of them okay the following are our cases to be continued
Uh, uh, number one, calendar number MI-2021-000459-1502 West Erie Avenue.