space and we're not really using utilizing the basement is a very tight
conditions I think that being said you guys did a lot of work in the proposed
renovations to try to reduce the density I think by reducing the number of
bedrooms per unit I think a question that I have is which two units are you
anticipating designating as affordable that's a very good question I don't know
that we have actually made that determination yet that will be done when
they submit for the building permit in conjunction with the planning commission um austin i don't
know you you were uh you happened to stay at the rco meeting a little bit longer than i did was
there any discussion about which of these units would be the designated affordable we hadn't made
a i'm i'm sorry can you see me i'm not sure how to turn this camera on um
we hadn't made an official uh choice as to which one uh which two i'm sorry uh we're going to be
designated as the um you know as the the special housing um it would probably be
one that's you know going to be special housing let's call it affordability because you do have
a type b unit so let's be really clear what we're talking about here because there's two type b units
and two affordable units here my assumption would be that at at the very least one of the type b
units would be the affordable yeah i mean there i i don't think there's any question that that the
planning commission would request that as well so if if i mean if that if that's ultimately the
question i think that that is a a very very fair and reasonable assumption that that would be at
least one of the units okay so i mean i think two things one i hate when i see developers ask for
relief for affordable units and they make all the studios affordable because
they're the cheapest ones to build I do just want to state on the record that if
that if we're going to have two affordable units i would want to make sure that at least one of them
we're gonna have two affordable units I would want to make sure that at least
one of them is one of the single bedrooms
is one of the single bedrooms yeah absolutely yes yes and that that that is absolutely something
that the planning commission also looks at so they look at it but they don't always require
it which is why i'm stating that that is absolutely fair but i do think that given the physical layout
here uh that they would likely reject it being one of the studios so i think uh i think that's
an absolutely fair request. And then the second question I just have for your client is, have
they had any experience managing type B units? Austin? Managing them directly, to be honest
with you, no, but I know that, you know, when it comes to the renovation, we could, you
know, meet all the requirements, but having direct management experience with type B specifically,
No, not directly. But we do have a handful of other properties around the city. We have several years experience managing properties in general. So when it comes to type B directly, no, but it's nothing that we don't think we could take on.
I'm less worried about the ability to construct it.
I think, one, looking at these type B units,
having worked with PHA for many years
and had type B units all the time,
these could use some work.
I think also it's not super easy for them
to get currently to the laundry,
and neither of those units currently look like
they were the ones that had the included laundry.
They do.
These are actually the only two that have the included laundry.
Yeah, so if you look, try and zoom in a little bit.
oh yeah it's in that corner yeah these two do have it uh within their units so i would just
do i would make sure you do some research um because i think getting uh tenants for type
b units is the hardest part of managing the type b units and making sure you have a reliable
pipeline of where to source tenants from um and then my last question is was a market study done
at all uh before determining uh the layouts of the six units market study in what sense well
one typically type b units are better rented when they're two bedrooms so we reduced two
bedroom units while it did allow them to become type b to a studio into one bedroom which means
you're looking for tenants that are both in a wheelchair but also need zero assistance and live
alone um on and there could have been a pathway to combine those or do something in that space
that allowed for a larger unit so i can bring logan on if you would like but i know in having
extensive conversations with logan that the goal here was to take what the prior owner had done
and really try and improve it in in the best way possible and that you know that was ultimately
where a lot of this came from you know seeing the opportunity to take what was not previously type b
and incorporate that in um and you know really just try and take the physical envelope that existed
and you know improve them and modernize them i mean that that was ultimately the goal so was a
market study done no i don't think there was a market study done but um you know i know that i
know that logan and austin and adam's goal here was you know to to take what was here and to you
know do everything that they could to make this a much much much more uh you know livable and
modern uh and then we don't need to bring the architect back but i think the last thing is
just that currently all the utilities are in the basement with two type b units they're not going
to have access easy access to the basement so just thinking from a management plan how are you going
to support the management of those units of all of the meters and all of the hot water heaters are
going to be in the basement understood other questions um yes my question is um
are there any other six unit buildings in the area yes there's there's many in the area there's
there's many that are significantly more more dense so as you can see here um you know emeralds
this this property has more has dominant frontage on emerald street and you can see that there are
many many many dense apartment buildings right on emerald street six units 40 180 114 108 this uh
The red star is four, so there's a blue star that's nine.
So there's no others that are six, but there are quite a few that are significantly more dense than that.
But in this area, no other six?
On this block, on this block of Cumberland Street, no.
Okay. And what's the maximum number of units on this?
okay and what's the maximum number of units on this block uh there is one across the street
that i believe is either a duplex or a triplex it's a duplex is that an atlas yeah
and uh so um that's my concern my concern is that this was too dense to start with and
you're just shuffling it around and it's just as dense and four units is
what is called for and four units there's no there's no hardship here to support six units
so can can i have logan come on sure we're gonna have to move it i mean logan can't
go into a hole i have i have one particular question for logan to respond
okay can you guys hear me
sure logan dry l-o-g-a-n-d-r-y right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth i do counsel so logan the the zoning code here would allow for four units
But I think that when we think about that in a practical sense, what would that actually mean based on the current physical layout of this property?
So said in other words, how difficult would it be to convert this from the six that exist into four?
um i mean i think you'd be looking at uh pretty significant structural alterations and and to sort
of tie into your question and two points that i think uh brought up you know problem
logan you're breaking up can you turn your camera off hopefully that'll improve
is that any better yeah um yeah so so the thing that sort of bisects this building in the middle
is that switchback staircase that exists um so why that's problematic just in terms of you know
annexing or combining these units on either side of that to make that possible is sort of twofold so
for example on the first floor um indicative of when this probably had a commercial space
and at some point that first floor unit in the front that floor level is actually dropped down
about two feet compared to the back half of the building and so that switchback staircase creates
the division between the floor levels so one of the problems with trying to annex for instance that
front half of the unit with the back half is that now we're integrating a set of stairs
inside that unit so we wouldn't be able to meet a type b requirement for that one
um similar issue then when you get you know further up in the rest of the building the
problem is even if we were to reconfigure that staircase you know structurally to have to reframe
all of that flooring there still wouldn't be enough there there wouldn't be enough space
physically to get the staircase plus the landing plus then a three foot wide hallway to connect
for example the front half of the building with the back half to annex each plate into being one
floor so i think the idea was that given the fact that pretty much all the existing structure is in
place including that staircase and working with that split level of of uh floor plan on the first
floor you know that that's sort of you know where we arrived at you know okay it's already cut into
six units how do we get the best out of this in terms of you know making them livable but then
And also, you know, we thought a benefit was getting two of the type Bs on the ground floor, again, because of the ramp that existed.
But that was really sort of the hardship that drove this whole design and approach that we took, you know, whether it be that staircase bisecting the middle or, again, on the ground floor, the difference in floor height.
so you know we worked with kind of what was there and just improved upon essentially the
footprints that you know were really defined by that pre-existing staircase
any other questions
questions from our attorney not at this time mr chair comments from the virtual audience or this
current audience here i see no hands chair planning commission
good afternoon chairman david fechta with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx one
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx1 commercial mixed
use zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2016 in accord with recommendations
in the comprehensive plan the appellant has stated the proposed six dwelling units is a pre-existing
condition and considering the enforceable affordable dwelling unit the city planning
commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variants um i hear what planning said but i
would like to just talk to the board members next Wednesday at 2 p.m understood okay and and um you
have one more case but there's someone ahead no worries right right he's been chomping at the bit
back there and I don't even want to say what Alan's thinking back there good afternoon bread
Please state your name. It's spelled for the stenographer.
Yes. Good afternoon.
Brett Feldman, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes. I represent Switchback Ridge, the Propco Group, which is the owner of the property,
AS WELL AS OSSV, WHICH IS A COMPANY THAT MANAGES AND RUNS TACO BELL FRANCHISE LOCATIONS HERE IN THE GREATER PHILADELPHIA AREA.
WE DO HAVE SOME LETTERS TO SUPPORT IT.
AND OUR VICE CHAIR HAS A FEW QUESTIONS FOR HIM.
GOOD AFTERNOON.
HAVE YOU SUBMITTED YOUR DOCUMENTS AND EXHIBITS FIVE DAYS IN ADVANCE OF THIS HEARING?
YES, WE HAVE.
AND THIS IS A REFERRAL.
DO YOU WAIT THE REFERRALS TO PLAY TO ITS ACCURACY?
Yes, I do.
Okay, all right.
Thank you.
You can see your screen and proceed with the case.
Looking for my name to come up here.
I don't think I've been invited yet.
Is Brett invited?
You say you weren't invited?
I don't think I've been invited yet.
There we go.
There you go.
There we go.
Let me get it.
Here my screen.
Yeah, I do, I do, I do, I do.
Yeah, that should be better now. Okay. Let's start again. Here we go. Um, good afternoon.
Brett Feldman, 1835 Market. I represent, as I said, Switchback Ridge, Provco Group.
When he could get that closure.
Provco Group. This is a special exception case. I'm with me today on behalf of Provco
and Switchback Ridge is Kent Silvers. Also with me today is Deepak Patel and Om Patel,
who are on behalf of OSSV Management, the Taco Bell proposed tenant for this location.
I'm just going to go through this. This is a special exception case at 6020 Fort Ridge
Avenue. We have exhibits 1 through 12, I could ask to be incorporated into the record. Includes
number one, a letter of support from the Central Rocks Pro Civic Association with days and
hours of operation that we do agree to, and the board sees fit to include that as a proviso.
So let me just get right to this here.
Probably a lot of the board members will recognize this location.
This is on Ridge Avenue between Lyceum and Martin.
It's a CMX 2.5 property, a strip shopping center right up against Ridge.
There is a Starbucks in there.
There is a Greek restaurant.
There's a painting store.
I think we've been here in front of the board over and over because CMX 2.5 requires a special exception for food uses.
there's also a pizza store there here's our special exception we received for this and
here is here's the location itself on an aerial
right here again that's our that's our center which is
Right here. Again, that's our center, which is a little bit unique because when we got this approved many years ago, we actually brought it right up to the front, which was very well received.
And we have a large parking field in the rear, which is important for our tenants here to have that type of parking capabilities.
Here's another view from the side, from the kind of Martin view.
here is what it looks like from ridge avenue we're next to us to the left with martin is a starbucks
and then our tenant space we were a t-mobile location we're not changing the size of the
of the tenant space it remains the same and then pictures of the rear the parking in the rear
here's interior spaces again keeping the space as is and we'll be proposing to retrofit this for a
for a taco bell um here is uh our floor plan uh we have uh access uh two accesses from the ridge
avenue um and there's on street parking there and also from the rear from the parking from the large
parking area you can come into the the restaurant from both locations uh we have 34 seats and then
standing table for five um kiosks for ordering um we shared this with the community um they're happy
to have this tenant space in his face full um the elevations we would uh in kind the tenant
the sign that used to be there uh t-mobile we're proposing it's not on this application but it'll
be the same the same sign there are some sign controls there and we were careful about making
sure that we we're also going to follow the sign controls when working with the community
there is um taco bell doesn't have a lot of that much venting but there is some kind of exhaust and
some hot air that goes through the roof that we shared with the community. We'll be utilizing
there's a well-worked parking and trash plan that has been developed in the shopping center,
and we'll continue to use that trash area in the rear that's enclosed. I just wanted to show that