Bob, you've been retained to represent the project
3900 Gerrard, correct?
I have and I was the architect
for the original building at 1900 as well.
So I've had a pleasure with working with Gerard, the old brand.
Yeah, the one the one he was showing the major edition expanded years back.
Yeah. Yeah. So let's just get right to it.
Can you just briefly describe the site? Yeah, I'm going to keep this succinct.
I know you're on the time limit here. The site's about three quarters of an acre.
It's got frontage on three streets. It has frontage in Gerard.
And my numbers say it's 100 feet. It has 195 feet of frontage on 39th Street to the east.
And it has 300 feet of frontage on Cambridge to the south.
uh cambridge is a row of a row homes immediately behind cambridge so we were very sensitive in our
Cambridge is a row of a row homes immediately behind Cambridge, so we were very sensitive.
development if you look at the plans you'll notice that we took the building and located it
completely up on the uh the front corner of the property um we didn't want to get greedy and
spread it out and we have our parking field and as you can see by the exhibit a fairly substantial
landscape buffer of both street trees and plantings on the rear uh the property has for the
first time in its history stormwater management um when he says he had a lot of junk on the site
He wasn't exaggerating. It was a backhoe and a trailer were abandoned there, so it was really pretty substantial.
It was a typical urban blank type of site for the last 20-plus years.
The entrance, we were very sensitive.
Again, if you look at the plan, we put the parking field entrance over on 39th Street, not back on the rear,
because that would have impacted the neighborhood.
It's a one-way street going from your illustration from your right to your left.
so we didn't want to have parking vehicles having to exit the parking lot up on the rear
and impact the residential.
As you pointed out, we had the meeting directly, and I swear there must have been camel.
That was a brutal, brutal, dusty day.
Did you shut it off in the other hand?
There you go.
Thank you.
A brutal, dusty day under a tent.
The neighborhood was gracious, cooking food.
There was such support.
It was really a pleasure to be up there.
um that was the uh i believe that was may of this year correct of course you've been through all the
land bank process and the rco process uh you've covered all that um the building itself is um
quickly is uh four stories you saw it it has a footprint of 8 440 square feet total building
area of about 33 000 square feet again i talked about location uh we're only required to have 31
parking spaces we have over 50 and the beauty in that is i'm not creating the typical philadelphia
site with no parking we've got a surplus above the ordinance we also have a surplus of a street
trees above the ordinance okay um can i do it again keep turning it off we talked about the
zoning a little bit um yeah can you just briefly just you know we're here because of it well we're
because of a combination of cmx1 and the uh and the rsa5 um the sign variants as you can see the
illustration on your screens the sign variances are for the uh the address of 3900 and the logo
that's the only signage we have so they're fairly innocuous i believe um again our height is a
product of you need good floor-to-floor height a good interstitial space you're teaching programs
where you're standing up a 10-foot stud you need some ceiling height um again we consolidate it on
the corner uh we have some nice uh ramps on the front so you can enter the building from the rear
or the front great and uh you reviewed our four-page memorandum of zoning hardship prepared
by our office correct it's probably one of the best write-ups on hardship i've seen seriously
in a long time you actually understood the concept um you know what what what are the
parameters what's zoning trying to do zoning's trying to cover hsw health safety and welfare
aesthetics, you know, air quality, utilities, police protection, and doesn't want to impact
any of those. So I could sit here in my extra 20 minutes, go through each one in detail,
but yes. I would hope you would. I would hope I wouldn't as well. I think we understand where
you guys are. Yeah. So you agree with the conclusion? I think the hardship is very easy
to discuss in the code. I mean, you got 143038E and you got 1, 2, and 3 with the different
criteria great i think both use and the dimensional hardship are very easy to work on this site right
and you talked about our engagement with the community through this through the land bank
process you actually started before we were involved for extra yeah okay um so finally in
you know your 50 years of experience in the fields of architecture zoning land development do you have
a summary conclusion first of all i conclude it makes me feel old thanks um uh you know this is
very much a project that should be community oriented the community put their heart out and
said it was. It's a good use. I had the pleasure of working with him now twice. He really puts his
money where his mouth is. Great city support, great legislative support, great community support.
That's all I can say about that. And when you take a look at what we had in removing the, I'll call it
the attractive nuisance of traditional urban blight, it's a real pleasure to be able to do
something on this corner. Thank you very much. Thank you. So with that, I would, if the board has
any other any questions for questions from the board yes i have a question so does the do the
parcels of uh are they i see them some homes right there on gerard avenue is there a space between
the parcels and the homes and is that your parcels there's a pair of remaining row homes
immediately to our side so from my back to gerard looking at our project to the right uh the next uh
They can have some vacant lots and there's a brand new apartment building was just erected is actually under construction now. Mid block, I'll call it. And then there's a the remaining homes are flanking.
uh mid block i'll call it and then there's a uh the remaining homes are flanking on the left hand
side they back into our parking field but they're not actually on gerard so there's very little left
out there that is still residential and is there any outdoor space designed like for the students
break time or whatever hangout time there's study time yeah there's a little space first there's a
little plaza terrace out front it's narrow but it's effective and into the rear of the site
towards the parking lot you see the little tan area um that's a little um plaza entrance uh
to the building that lets you gather there on the back side okay and my last question is um there's
mention of a cafeteria um or sit down restaurant is that that's not for the public that's just for
the students correct the student body it's currently for the students because a lot of
these students come as sherman points out to me uh without even lunch money and in fact he provides
transit passes for a lot of them um just to get on there and he says having a good meal is a good
thing they're also talking about maybe starting a culinary program where they could do some training
in the culinary and surprisingly when the community was there the community said we want to come eat
there so we're keeping our minds open towards the possibilities of having the community further
engaged so it's kind of a a little bit ambiguous but it's definitely oriented for the students in
the school with other possibilities as we move forward yeah i would just add we were trying to
capture as much of these different classifications and options so we don't have to come back to the
zoning board so that's why she used to work on the seri and sit down restaurant it's it's a typical
school cafeteria if you will hopefully with an upgraded culinary program other questions from
the board how many students what do you sure what do you see at this campus uh in a year it would
accommodate between 800 and 900 students in a year okay and what kind of hours are we talking
uh the hours would be from eight to three and then one to ten okay and then you're expecting
these students to come on public transportation for the most part yes ma'am that's that's primarily
one that's the other reason for the uh the location because it's flush with highway uh
also for public transportation the l and the bus and it's really close to everything in the city
including your other campus, too, downtown.
That's right.
So then the parking spaces are for the teachers and, or instructors, and students also, but
most of the students, they catch public transportation.
So we just have the parking lot primarily for instructors, faculty, and also students
that would drive.
and then um for this commissary and for the different materials that you need to help
teach the students and what have you we have some way that these materials are delivered
good question right through the uh 39th street up and through the lot and then into the building
not through the front ah okay yeah start 39th to make the right in and then you can load from
the back there we do have an elevator in the building it'll accommodate freight size loads
you know if you're going to bring in a two by four stud and rank i'll put in the passenger elevator
so we did it we did a fairly large elevator and again sherman's referring to this little
location you can see it over the computer screen that's your entrance in the back
and bring in materials so we kept it off the gerard okay and you said how many floors i'm
sorry i didn't total four four four four floors four floors yeah okay all right thank you just
Just to give a sense, how many employees do you have now, and how many will you have once you start this?
So we have 90 employees on site, on drive, and we're going to have 45 on the cell for $3,900.
Thank you very much.
Yes, ma'am.
Any other questions?
Questions from our attorney?
No questions at this time.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience or the current audience here?
we have one hand up chair
jihad ali you are able to speak just unmute yourself
hello good afternoon can you hear me jihad i can could you please state your name and spell for the
sonographer yes my name is jihad ali j-i-h-a-d-a-l-i do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
told you nothing but the truth yes i do all right so yeah so jihad we have your letter
and what we don't we don't have the letter well we have a letter right am i correct and
we don't want you to read the whole letter if you could just give us a little summary of what you
want to what do you want to say well i appreciate that we made by the way we've made your record
part of the the case well thank you uh commissioner and members of the uh body um i did
well thank you uh commissioner and members of the uh body um i did send a letter to the
executive director and you said you have my letter so i just want to make clear that oh
okay thank you before my statement i would like to respond briefly to the council's character
characterization about community support i support the support council describes as contractual
deliverable their own addendum makes the zba letter and hearing testimony express consideration
and voids the entire agreement if the variance is denied.
I asked the board to weigh it as what it is.
Now my testimony.
Good afternoon.
I'm Jahad Ali, East Parkside resident, 4276 Parkside.
I've submitted written testimony through the portal and to the executive director.
I support workforce development in East Parkside, and I am not asking the board to deny this application.
I know that the plans presented to place the building mass on Gerard Avenue, which is the right location for it.
What the Cambridge Street frontage receives, per the plan presented, is a 56-space parking lot screened by a tree line and a privacy fence.
That screening is the only buffer the residents of Cambridge Street get, and council estate of the school will serve 1,500 students per year.
I ask that any grant carry the conditions in my letter, the preconditioned survey of the Cambridge Street row houses with vibration monitoring, the parking and loading management plan given 1,500 students in 56 spaces, hours and trash controls on the restaurant uses, signage conformance, completion of the land-baked conveyance, and the community benefits made durable in a recordable form.
And I respectfully ask the board to grant with a proviso incorporating these conditions to make any grant per the plans of record.
So the screening and the project presented today are screening and the project built.
If the board has questions, I'm available. Thank you.
Thank you for calling it. Do you have any questions with him?
You know, I haven't seen the letter. I will tell you, we had a, I think the plans that you see are the plans that we're going to be doing here.
We had a tremendously transparent process, including the meeting itself, as we discussed, was actually on the property.
We had meals, a meal for all the residents.
We passed out all the notices.
You'll see the letter.
I think the RCL, if I can read it, presented the proposed project and provided an overview.
The discussions reflected strong community interest and support for the project.
many attendees expressed that they're looking forward uh to the proposed campus and to the
opportunities they bring to parks especially with respect to workforce development job training
youth engagement uh local participation and long-term um neighborhood investment so we are
we are committed uh to this this agreement thank you mr chairman before you go i just respond to
council he's he is right about what he did say but the problem is is when he said it because there
There was a meeting and there was an event, not a community meeting, but he eventually
did say that they did agree to some things about childcare, they agreed to about jobs,
they agreed all that, but then they issued an addendum that was revised three times where
they took all that back away.
So if the council can address that, but everything that they gave the community, they took back.
So at the end of the day, we're back to the community actually receiving a community benefit
agreement that absolutely nothing.
But I'm not here for that.
i just wanted to put on the record what i just have to clarify there is a executed community
benefits agreement with uh the leadership of centennial part side okay all right there were
three revisions all right all right planning condition michael gall with the philadelphia
city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommended no change to the previous rsa5
residential single-family attached zoning at this location however in 2017 part of this property
assemblage was remapped to cmx1 neighborhood commercial mixed use in a community requested
council supported action the location is transit rich with other educational institutional uses
on the same block at a similar scale the appellant has demonstrated that the proposed use would not
cause undue detriment beyond what might otherwise be expected this location therefore the city
planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variances for signage parking
and educational facilities takeout restaurant sit down restaurant and commissaries and catering
services used and mr chairman if i may i just want to make sure that mr sherman um incorporates
my testimony and adopts my testimony sure yeah yeah uh sherman you heard my you you heard my
testimony correct uh and is it true and accurate that's right and you adopt it as your own yes i
do okay and again uh for the board uh we passed up exhibits one through 17 which also includes a
hardship memorandum okay so all right all right mi 2026 001 549 3900 gerrard avenue i vote yes
I recuse because of uh yeah I can't eat that my microphone was on I'm sorry uh
i recuse because of uh
Cheryl Gaston my vote is yes Tanetta Graham my vote is yes Ryan McAdams my vote is yes
I am when my vote is yes Layla Beebe my vote is yes thank you great thank you so much for your
time you feel excited no thank you steve steve that's really that's really nice it's really nice
steve steve yeah
all right um
Steve, I'm sure you've heard my speech about time and things like that. We're going to give you a half hour if you have to. And I'm not telling you to cut your client short. If you have to, we'll give you a resumptive hearing.