Could you tell Angelina, please,
that we need our documents put up?
Hi, I'm sorry.
I was having a little issue with the cell phone.
I'm actually using the cell phone.
I do apologize.
Can you put the documents up?
Give me one second.
And again, I do apologize.
No problem.
This is Ian Hegarty, executive director.
Angelina, there should be a pop-up coming up on your screen asking you to join as a panelist.
You have to accept that in order to be able to share your screen.
Did you see that pop-up?
Yeah, I just accepted it.
Fantastic.
Thank you.
I'm just trying to figure out, and I do apologize.
How do I upload these on the screen?
Okay, so here's what we're going to do.
We're going to, an interpreter, I'm sorry to tell you this, but we're going to bring this back.
You know, I'm going to wait a half hour.
you know i'm going to wait a half hour please get your documents together we'll call this case in
Please get your documents together.
one half hour and we'll be back okay okay thank you perfect then i'll move it to a computer and
i do apologize could we make sure to interpret that uh please tell them that este nosotros
vamos a mover el caso para entre 30 minutos así que en 30 minutos regresamos para que tengan
Thank you very much, Interpreter.
We'll call this shortly.
Great.
Number eight, MI 2024-005-585-4022 North Reef Street.
Lydia Paulino is the owner applicant.
There's a letter of non-opposition from Esperanzo Housing.
Lidia will be joining in as a panelist good morning good morning could you please state
your name and spell for the stenographer uh my name is Angela Sanchez A-N-G-E-L-A-S-A-N-C-H-E-Z
i'm here with lydia paulino lydia has to do the testifying my name is lydia paulino
is there a language problem yes that's why i'm here to interpret with her
well you can't you can't interpret this case ma'am we have to have an interpreter
all right all right um let's see if we can get an interpreter off for you okay
steven
steven could you come back one please
She probably walked away for a half hour.
Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to come back in a half hour.
We'll call your case, okay?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2024-002-617-3230 Belgrade Street.
David Orphanides, the attorney.
Good morning, Mr. Orphanides.
Could you please state your name
and spell it for the stenographer?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
could you identify your client relationship to the property certainly uh my client is excuse me
i'm sorry this is a court reporter i cannot hear can you hear me is it just pulled a little closer
to the whole thing there you go better yep okay thank you um yes i represent best choice ventures
llc which is the owner of the subject property do you waive the reading of the refusal do you agree
with its accuracy um i the current refusal that we have yes but we're in the process of amending
that as hillary is aware of uh and i understand we're going to hold this vote on this if i'm not
right yes okay we're kind of sucking some administrative things as we work through the
amendment um could you identify your client again please certainly again my client is best choice
ventures llc all right please proceed and start your presentation all right everybody can see my
screen you can see it here in person for the first time um again this project involves 3230 belgrade
Street. This property was once part of a larger campus for the Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary Roman
Catholic Church that fronts on East Allegheny. The property was known as 3200 Belgrade, extended
to East Madison Street, was bounded on the east by Belgrade Street, and bounded on the west by
Miller Street. That property was subdivided in 2023, and I have up in front of you.
there you go um the survey plan the subdivision survey plan that the city of philadelphia approved
you can see to the left uh this is the church property uh in the middle um right here you can
see is 3230 and then to the right um there are a number of smaller lots that were created
my client purchased this was overall over an acre in size my client purchased the middle portion
My client purchased the middle portion that runs from Belgrade to Miller Street.
that runs from Belgrade to Miller Street.
I'm not sure why my mouse is lagging on your screen because it's not lagging on mine.
But so this where my mouse is right now is 3230.
That is the property that we're talking about today.
That property has on it the convent for the church and a two-story or one-story garage.
And this project is to adaptively reuse the convent for a 12-unit multifamily dwelling.
and above the garage or in the place of the garage to erect a four-story duplex maintaining two-car
parking below. The refusals that we had originally were for the property is owned RSA 5. So it's
obviously to start with was an extremely large RSA 5 at over an acre. 3230, the property in the
middle that runs from Belgrade to Miller Street, is still a very large lot at over 10,000 square
feet. It's 10,884.90 square feet. The smaller lots that we created prior to the closing to the right
of the screen, that front on East Madison Street are developed by my client as a process of being
developed right now as by right single family dwellings with an access easement that runs
across the rear of the properties from Miller to Belgrade Street. That easement, the access easement,
it butts the property line of 3230 and that's going to be important because you're going to
hear about that in a couple minutes um so the application is to reutilize the the convent which
you'll see a picture of pop up in a second there you go um that exists at fronts on belgrade street
there is going to be minor modification to this building uh you'll see in the photographs there's
a portion to the rear towards Miller Street that's only at the second and third floor we're going to
be enclosing the lower portion the ground floor portion and then there is a stair tower that
we're going to be enclosing um extending from the second floor to the stair tower and the third floor
to a stair tower at the rear those are the only modifications to the convent then you have the
garage, which you'll see in the picture right here. Because my computer is turning is on a
different screen, but it's lagging. But in any event, so there again, there's an existing one
story there, you can see it existing one story garage on Miller Street. And then there's always
going to be a demolition of that. And then we're going to build a four story building in its
place which um we have a rendering of and you can see in this picture you can see the stair tower to
the left that we're going to be bridging over to the right to the second and third floor
we have our serious legs i am on my on this other screen
there you go um and that's the that's the duplex that's going to be constructed on miller
street and that's the fourth story with the roof deck utilizing the existing two uh car parking
uh we have we have with the original application we had two refusals and two refusals only
um that was a refusal for utilizing the rsa5 property as multi-family um 14 units in total
12 in the convent and two in the above the garage structure you can see here and the other was the
garage structure would be at a total height of 42 feet where an RSA 5 only 38 feet is permitted.
You'll see in the revised drawings that I will show you, which came about following our meeting
with the Registered Community Organization, PROPAC, that 42 feet is measured to the height of the top
of the parapet and actually is about the same size height as the parapet would be in a by right
building which would be 41 feet 6 inches so it's at the minimum increase in height and the main
reason for that is having the parking at the ground floor there's not much that can be done
about the multifamily but again this is a very large lot and we're trying to adaptively reuse
this existing structure rather than tearing it down and building a couple probably four single
family dwellings maintaining this beautiful building that we have here when we met with
community group uh back on july 1st of 2024 the concern was and by the neighbors was where's
everybody going to park so as a result of that community group meeting what they asked us to do
and you can see this in the revised plan we added 12 surface parking spaces and you can see it to
the right of the screen here between the oops between the existing building and not sure why
There we go. Between the existing building and the East Madison Street properties.
Give me one minute.
you can see right here the strip we'll be using the the existing easement that runs across the
rear of the east madison street properties again conveniently my client owns those properties
right now at the present time so that's easy enough to be done um that that parking configuration
has been reviewed by the streets department and they've approved it. We are in the process of
going through a landscaping review by the planning commission. We have provided buffers both at
Miller Street and at Belgrade Street that we believe comply with the requirements.
We have provided interior landscaping, which we believe complies with the requirements of
zoning code there is a requirement between parking and residential properties to put screening and
that's going to be an impossibility because we're re we're usually utilizing the easement so we're
going to be requesting a waiver for that um when that ultimately is finished being processed by
the planning commission that was really the only concern that the community group has was the
parking as a result uh they issued a letter last fall um supporting this project and i did confirm
that their position has not changed i spoke with ken paul pro back on the telephone this week
and they're still in support of that i did reach out to council member driscoll's office
spoke to stan sinowiski and um i'm not sure if he's on um i did not receive a letter from him
before today's proceeding a couple of housekeeping matters um you know just one little extra thing
i did a project um for my client different entity but my client he is here bob huttenlock
on susquehanna street and it was also um modification of of a convent interestingly
enough you can see a picture here and i just wanted to give you the idea an idea of the type
of work that you can expect within the convent um this is this is one of the units pretty nice right
um and this this is the type of work that he does when he rehabilitates these structures
and this is the type of work that i think the community can expect to be done not only in
the convent in the duplex and also in the single family dwellings uh i've included with the exhibits
i submitted a copy of the deed that uh where my client purchased the property in november 2023
from the catholic church copy of our tax compliance certificate which is good to this through this
day a copy of the hearing notice our posting photographs both at belgrade street and at
miller street and again we met with the community group twice once was on july 1st and i have a copy
of our 14 303 notice and a certificate of mailing of that and then they wanted us to come back with
the plan. They didn't necessarily want to take our word that we were going to provide the parking
and present that. And I don't blame them. We came back and presented them with a plan that showed
the 12 surface parking spaces. The idea was to provide one-to-one parking. RSA 5 does not have
that requirement, but they thought that was important. And luckily we had the space and
where we were able to do that, particularly having that easement on the East Madison Street
properties running right along the side of the property where we could put, we could actually
locate those whole parking spaces. It couldn't have worked out any better. One of those spaces
is an ADA band space as is required by the zoning code. And then here is a copy of the other notice
for the October 7th meeting. And with that, I think it's not very complicated.
Can you show us how you broke the building up?
Yeah, sure. So I'll provide you with some floor plans. Sure. And I do have Brendan March from
NoMarketTexture. She should be on the line. She can answer any number of questions as well.
Um, but here we have the, the floor plans.
Um, so this is the cellar.
So these are, these are by levels.
Um, so you have three by levels, um, and you can see them here.
So there's, there's a mixture of, there's two studios in the convent, two studios,
four, one bedroom, one baths, and six, two bedroom, two baths.
The two bedroom, two baths, uh, range inside from 1020 to 1360.
So they're nice size units. So what's that? Oh yeah. Make it bigger. Sure.
So there you go. You know, there's some unique configurations,
but I think that, you know, you have some arched areas, arched surfaces,
obviously in an older building like this, there's a lot of little nooks and crannies.
It's not a straight box. And again, Bob Huntlock, my client, has experience in doing this type of work.
Bob Huntlock, my client, has experience in doing this type of work, and you've seen the pictures that show evidence that he can handle it.
But here you see, here at the lower level, here is the ground floor.
There is required bicycle parking, which is being required.
This is the entrance off of Belgrade Street that you saw in the photos, and then this is the rear.
So I can show you, let me see if I can show you that photo where we are enclosing.
So this is the area at the back of the convent at the ground floor that we're enclosing at the ground floor level.
You can see it right here.
And again, here's the stair tower that we're bridging across.
Going back to the floor plans.
Zoom back in again for you.
So ground floor, and this is, again, this is the area that we're enclosing, not adding any occupied area.
I mean, we're only at 54% occupied area, 46% open area.
So we're way below the permissible occupied area.
So with what we're doing, we're in the same footprint of both existing structures.
And then here we go.
Here's the bridge that you can see.
Let me see if I can make this a little hour here.
so that we're enclosing to between the stair tower and the main building
and then the same thing at the third floor
and in terms of the duplex
and there's just a roof so here's the duplex you have the two-car garage and then there are two
bi-level units. The lower unit is a two-bedroom, two-bath, and then the upper unit is a three-bedroom,