required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance
of this hearing yes mr shahid we have thank you council please proceed and share your screen
but mr fineman could mr fineman come identify himself please yeah s david fineman um 100
north 18th street philadelphia pa with law firm arroyer cooper cohen and braunfeld
We represent a series of Protestants, including the Krefeld School, which is located within 15 feet.
including the Krefeld School, which is located within 15 feet of the property.
Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, Mr. Leiber.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
As stated, Blank Room represents the owner of the subject property.
It's managing member Lavi Schenkman, L-A-V-I Schenkman, S-H-E-N-K-M-A-N.
is with us virtually today as well. Levy and his Philadelphia-based boutique real estate company
Rhombus Properties have appeared before this board several times over the years.
I'd like to screen share for a moment. On the screen before you is the Corn Exchange National
bank building, which is not the subject of this hearing, but it is one of Levy's properties
located at the corner of Second and Chestnut Streets. It's the headquarters of Rhombus
properties. And the stewardship of this historical gem is but one testament to the ownership's
commitment to successful adaptive reuse of Philadelphia's historic treasures.
In addition to Levy, the owner, Matthew Millan of Millan Architects joins us virtually as well.
The proposal before the board, Mr. Chairman and members, while relatively modest in terms of the variance relief requested, has sparked strong emotions throughout the Chestnut Hill community in which the subject property is located.
On the screen, you can see an archival image of the Greylock Estate, the property in question.
It is an approximately 18,000-square-foot, 22-room mansion.
It was built in 1901 for Henry Laughlin, a steel magnet.
Here you can see some photographs as the property exists today.
The original main entrance to the Grand Estate was via a driveway from Creffield Street, which passed through a gate lodge at 8838 Creffield Street, which is now part of the neighboring Creffield School, one of Mr. Feynman's clients.
The Greylock facade, which is seen from Chestnut Hill Avenue, is actually the mansion's original rear facade.
So you would come into this Grand Estate from a different entrance.
Here, you can see an aerial image outlined in red of the existing conditions.
Where my cursor is located is the Grand Mansion.
I'll refer to this property as the mansion, as most of the neighbors do.
And over here on the side is the carriage house, originally an accessory structure.
And then you have the Creffield School Beyond, a bit of which was part of the original estate.
So the only public right-of-way today is Chestnut Hill Avenue, this wide thoroughfare here.
That's quite significant, and it will be quite relevant as we move forward with the review.
I've honed in a touch more with that aerial so you can get a sense of the grand expanse at the front of the property.
Both the mansion and the carriage house existing structures are set back approximately 485 feet from Chestnut Hill Avenue.
No new structures are proposed within this incredibly deep expanse, which is slated for a landscaped meadow.
And this entire property itself is approximately six and a half acres.
Outlined in blue or purple, if you will, is the subject property that we were just looking at through the aerial image.
It is located within an RSD1 residential single-family detached zoning district, which is the same as all of the beige zoning that surrounds the property.
Although it's zoned RSD-1, promoting single family, this wonderful grand estate has not been used as a private residence since the Second World War.
The Greylock Estate was actually once even larger, originally comprising a portion of the next-door property that's now the LEET Prefield School,
which is a non-conforming private college preparatory school located next door,
located next door, also in the RSD1 single-family residential zoning district.
also in the RST1 single-family residential.
Krefeld School opposes our request for variance relief,
although the school itself, as public records will attest, has pursued and obtained several
zoning board of adjustment variances over the years right next door. Since its last residential
use some 75 years ago at Greylock, a series of different owners and different institutional
and commercial uses have been present at the property. And it's taken a toll on these historic
structures. Levy, the current owner, acquired the estate in late 2022. The Chestnut Hill community
in which Greylock is located is arguably among the most exclusive, privileged, beautiful areas
in the city of Philadelphia, replete with grand private estates, family lineages that date back
to the 1700s and the 1800s. Among some, however, change of any type is not welcome,
nor are differing opinions, unfortunately. The proposed adaptive reuse and redevelopment of
the site has elicited passionate opinions throughout the community. And over the past
five months or so of dialogue and discussion, it has become evident that it's impossible to satisfy
every voice, every individual sometimes competing wish lists. I'd like to briefly review, Mr.
Chairman and members of the board, the significant community engagement process that has taken place
in this matter. The coordinating RCO, Chestnut Hill Community Association, CHCA, has devoted
countless volunteer hours to creating a forum for all voices to be heard. As the board knows,
CHCA's zoning review is among the most detail-oriented throughout the city, to their
credit. The zoning application that is before you was filed nine months ago in May of 2023.
Council Member Bass designated CHCA as coordinating RCO.
And accordingly, we engaged with CHCA in the greater community in several meetings since that time.
But in addition to meetings with CHCA leadership and six public meetings with CHCA over the course of several months, there have been other meetings, particularly near neighbors.
LaVie has made himself completely available to those who are willing and interested in engaging.
LaVie agreed to continue the previously scheduled December 2023 ZBA hearing in this matter
to allow additional discussions to go forth, not to mention site tours. Many people in the
community have been welcomed onto the site to look at it, to better understand it.
During the course of this very intense involved process, development plans were refined, several
refusals were eliminated, I'll go into that specifically, and that led to the coordinating
RCO support which you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, at the start of this year.
In advancing this current proposal, Greylock Development Partners submits that there is
absolute historical value, community value, to this significant estate that's worth preserving.
That the proposed adaptive reuse and redevelopment respects the surrounding area and meets the spirit
and intent of the zoning code in the plans presented. And that the record shows that over
the decades there have been many proposals for the site, all of which have failed to come to
fruition, this plan is viable. This plan is believed in by the coordinating RCO and by,
as you'll hear, the most directly impacted near residential neighbor.
Turning to the specifics of the proposal before you, Chestnut Hill local Matt Millan, the
architect of record, has designed a plan that would preserve the existing mansion and carriage
house while providing much needed additional residential housing in chestnut hill as well as
lush landscaping throughout the extensive open grounds via acclaimed viridian landscape studio
part of the design team and you see their name on the plans as well
on the screen before you is the existing site plan existing conditions which will look familiar
from the aerials that I showed.
You see the Chestnut Hill Avenue to the right.
You see the Chestnut Hill Avenue to the right.
You see the
You see the expansive front lawn, which is nothing to look at right now, but the plans are incredible for it.
You can see the mansion, the original mansion in the center, and the carriage house, the driveway, etc.
The mansion is three stories.
The carriage house is two stories.
The site itself is protected by conservation easements, which have caused arguably the greatest amount of consternation among certain neighbors.
However, we recognize that these agreements are private and require appropriate review through private means, through judicial review, not through the zoning board.
For purposes of zoning, what is relevant is that conservation easements, by their very nature,
restrict potential developability of the site. I'd like to move to the proposed development,
and on the screen before you is a plan that has been shared in public meetings with the community.
It is the plan that was reviewed by CHCA's board most recently, resulting in a position of support.
It is a plan that also has gone through PCPC review very recently, thanks to Matt Millan for making that happen, and has the prerequisite PCPC stamps on them.
What you see in this plan is that the proposed total residential density is 15 homes.
You will see, and I'll go into greater detail, that the plan calls for restoration of the grand public-facing lawn, a 435-foot-deep meadow, that the mansion structure is proposed upon revision to be adaptively reused for six residential dwelling units,
that the carriage house structure is proposed to be rehabilitated into two residential dwelling
units. All proposed new construction beyond the restoration of these two structures
is at the far rear of the property. You can see it in the dark structures at the back
calling for two sets of twins each two stories where my cursor is showing
A1 and A2 for a total of four residential dwelling units, a triplex here in the corner
being three residential units, and the combination of accessory surface and tucked in garage
parking being the smaller structures for a total of 40 spaces.
I'm moving now to elevations. For purposes of full transparency and comparison,
we have here mansion elevations. However, there are no changes to those structures in terms of
height bulk area. But for context, the height of the mansion is 44 feet 2 inches,
and it will remain the focal point for the entire property.
Similarly, with the carriage house, no change is proposed to that smaller structure.
The proposed triplexes, new construction, are shown before you.
In keeping with their lesser role on the estate, in keeping with respect for the historic structures and the nature of the estate,
they are proposed at two stories plus an attic showing at 33 feet 4 inches tall
with the proposed twins and you'll recall there are two sets of twins those are proposed at two
stories plus an attic 30 feet tall there are no height issues at all none have been raised
by L&I or others. On this screen, you can see that the site plan calls for an in-ground swimming
pool, and we wanted to show that it's been carefully designed to recede into the landscape.
Earlier iterations of the plan called for a pool house structure, and following discussions with
community members uh local architects who are community members and others that has been removed
to be as uh as invisible as possible to blend into the landscape uh to not be seen in any
discernible way from the public right-of-way i'd like to move to the proposed floor plans
I'd like to move to the proposed floor plans.
This shows the mansion floor plan.
This shows the mansion floor plans and the adaptive reuse of the grand mansion, calling for six gracious residences within the mansion itself.
I've looked at this and I've thought they're gracious by today's standards.
They're not gracious by gilded age standards.
And that's because times and lifestyles have changed and needs have changed.
That's part of the problem, right, with the 22,000 square foot structure, which just has sat vacant for all these years or hasn't been able to work in the residential context.
So in this instance, Matt has designed a very gracious by 2024 standards.
The carriage house, also an existing structure, calls for two units.
And you can see the proposed plans as well in these instances, which respect the property
and allow it to carry forward in the 21st century.
and the twins similarly each of them with two car garages at the back of the property
as shown previously
the triplex is the last new structure showing floor plans as well and please recall and I'll
show it to you again that there is far in excess of one-to-one parking there is
ample parking throughout the entire estate proposed. I'd like to move into some conceptual
renderings, which I think are very much the heart of the sensitivity with which Milan Architects has
approached this site. In these first two conceptual renderings, the viewer is positioned along
chestnut hill avenue at the public right of way at the driveway into the estate and matt has
looked at this with full plantings and without plantings due to seasonal variations because we
understand that uh weather will and season will change views so this gives you planted and
unplanted looking preserving the view of that grand mansion which is so important within the
community. Here you can see some additional renderings as well from the public right away
from moving into the driveway with and without the plantings just acknowledging that winter weather
will look different than spring, for example.
At the rear of the property is a walking trail
known as the Lavender Trail, part of the Wissahickon.
And these photographs are taken from that trail
looking towards the site, looking towards Greylock.
It's not a public right-of-way.
That would be on the city plan.
That would be under streets department authority, but the development team, the design team has been very sensitive and aware of community interests from within the Lavender Trail, even though the trail itself is set back at considerable distance from the subject property.
But this gives you a few instances of photographs looking in.
In this particular property, you can see a touch of the structure of the existing subject property there at the very back.
And these conceptual renderings give the viewer a sense of the proposed new construction, the proposed existing construction, and what views might look like from the trail if plantings varied, etc.
et cetera. I'd like to go through a series of additional views from other vantage points
from the trail and conceptual renderings, and I'll go through them relatively quickly
to give the board a sense of vantage points. Matt Milan has worked very hard always to
preserve a sense looking into the estate, which is really a community treasure, even though it's
private property. And then we're looking from within the driveway just to get a sense of the
the driveway, just to get a sense of the proposed new construction and how it respects the materials and the grandeur of the existing structures.
Moving to landscaping, which is a very important part of the proposed reuse, if you will,
of the Greylock Estate.
On the screen before you, you can see existing conditions.
It's overgrown.
it's in need of some TLC if you will. A proposed landscape plan has been
prepared by award-winning Viridian Landscape Studio under the direction of
Tavis Dockweiler and it takes into consideration all aspects of the site
and in particular the appropriate plantings for for this area what will
live and thrive best on these grounds.
So the images of plantings are the inspiration for the meadows and plantings that Tavis has suggested
and what we have submitted to the Philadelphia City Planning Commission for this proposal.
Ending with some notes that are important regarding controlling invasive species, removing
the trees that are no longer alive, limiting disturbance, et cetera.
I had touched upon earlier traffic impact, and I'd like to speak to the proposed density of 15 residential units here and the traffic and vehicular circulation plan into the estate.
From that driveway that we've referred to several times is the one entrance into the estate that can take all vehicles in around the circular driveway into garage spaces, into surface parking spaces.
Levy commissioned traffic planning and design, and this was shared with the community as well, to prepare an assessment study.
And this is nothing new to those who have been following the proposal through the months.
Traffic planning and design performed a full assessment study and as shown in table five on the screen before you,
the proposed development traffic is anticipated to contribute less than 1.5 percent.
You can see this in the far right column of the total traffic volume along West Chestnut Hill, resulting, as stated in this report, which we've submitted, no discernible, quote, no discernible difference in traffic operations to the public.
So, the development proposal before you has been redesigned to balance the residential
intention of the RSD1 Zoning District while balancing the challenges of the historic estate.
There are changes in topography, the impact of the conservation easements, and the public
benefit of preserving treasured historic structures all comes into play.
I'd like to address the refusals specifically for the board and note, as community members
will recall, that a corrected notice of refusal that predated the public community meetings
was issued by L&I on November 3, 2023, and that's the one that's been posted at the site
and discussed all through these presentations and engagement with community.
As I've shared and revised proviso plans have been presented to the board, as shared at the last community meeting, the overall plans have been updated.
No new refusals have been created.
Actually, there is a reduction in refusals.
The first and last refusals are related, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.