And I'll quote it. As I stated in my introductory remarks, we do not take a vote from the community. The committee makes its decisions based on judgment and experience.
And when I asked for a vote tally of the neighbors, QV&A said none was given, but that it was unanimous.
Well, the unanimous vote was from the actual board members, not from the neighbors.
When asked for the addresses of those board members, nothing was for coming.
We electronically captured all the comments made in the QVA and Zoom chat, and an overwhelming majority of these comments, all from immediate neighbors, indicating tremendous support for the project.
And I'm going to get to that in a minute.
The owner agreed to commercial trash pickup stored in the rear, soundproofing, exterior lighting, a local project manager team, and hiring locally.
To not take advantage of the unique river view of this particular property would, in fact, be developmental malpractice.
And I then want to go to, excuse me while I get there, I saw the project summary, excuse
Excuse me for one moment.
So in addition to having, so here we are, this is what we're talking about.
here's head house uh that new development that happened right there that just you know recently
was built here's our property right here on the right overlooking i-95 in the river
to the right we have 90 uh 67 foot tall uh building in society hill uh which is far into
you know the neighborhood than we are and one block over 65 tall 65 foot tall abbott square
uh just west of our block so we believe these corners need to be um uh gateways and something
that folks can actually see when they come up over that iconic walkway of South Street.
They see something that means something.
And that's where we are with that.
Mr. Sean, correct me if I'm wrong, along Front Street going from South to Lombard, doesn't
Doesn't the Toll Brothers, didn't they have recently built a condo project there in the last 10 years or so?
Oh, yeah. I'm sorry.
You're pointing to one further north.
The one that affronts the condo development that affronts Front Street.
the one that affronts the condo development that affronts front street between south and lombard
i believe is that accurate or no that's correct and it's over 60 feet that's that's that's what
it was the height of that do you happen to know the height it's in excess of 60 feet okay in
exit and i think rich and the and the architect is going to go through the pro you know the
I have some questions for the architect.
Mr. Bonner, are you about to say something?
I was just going to say, I think it's between Pine and Lombard, not between Lombard and South.
Okay, you're probably right.
I'm sorry.
That's okay.
There were some concerns about parking, even though that's not even an issue with the refusal.
So we went ahead and engaged with parking folks at Abbott Square, and they have committed the 13 spaces monthly for parking that we will build in for Target Park.
Certainly build in to the leases.
If they need a parking spot, here it is.
They've got their 13 parking spots.
Again, not a part of the refusal.
But my client, Max Wiener, has been willing to do this and going above and beyond.
And we have a letter here, just a random letter from someone who is at 115 South Street in complete support of the actual application.
Again, I did say that here's our letters that we sent out. We went to actually three separate RCOs. We went to two at the coordinating where they supported us fully, one at the tertiary RCO, which was QV&A.
the board sent a letter to you without any vote tally saying they opposed and they did not
take the vote of the folks who actually attended by the way we mailed 144 letters to near neighbors
in queen village they're my neighbors they're the architect's neighbors they're max's neighbors
We asked them to attend and weigh in. But QVNA sent you a letter of opposition. But here's the deal. 80% of the folks who commented support the project. Here you go. Immediate neighbor comments from the QVNA RCO meeting.
I was able to, with the help of Rich, who's the architect, capture every comment that came in from the meeting.
Here's Deborah, front and south.
It's a handsome design.
We'll add value to our neighborhood and the local economy.
Here's William Knapp.
Near neighbor, lives on Naudane.
I think the project adds shoppers, workers to the neighborhood.
It's great.
I'm a real estate investor.
He loves it.
Robert Schaefer.
I would also like to express support.
William Knapp.
I add that we make Mike Harris' job easier by reducing the amount of vacant retail.
Mike Hazard is, for the record, I know who he is, but you just identified.
is the south street head house district uh coordinator chair or uh executive director
mr chair i want to object to mr anastasio reading the comments for a zoom meeting
by people who not all of whom we know where they live and i just think this is not
But I would ask that we move on to more germane matters.
All right, Mr. Anastasia, we have all this on record.
So just...
And I would also ask Mr. Anastasia, were these comments that you're looking at, as well as the sheet that had your letterhead on it?
So, Bonnie, do you want him to answer that?
Because then you're recognizing these documents that you're asking us not to have them read?
I wanted to ask him if all these documents were submitted to the board five days prior because
the board sent me a copy of his exhibits and I don't these were not in them this looks like to
be. Excuse me if I can explain this is Sharon. Mr. Bonney requested the exhibits that had been
submitted. I sent them to him as I do to anyone who requests exhibits. If I thought that I had
And if I thought that I had sent him everything that I had, if I'm mistaken, maybe Mr. Anastasio can clarify that these were or were not submitted.
sent him everything that I had, if I'm mistaken.
I will check my...
They originally submitted, Vern?
They were only...
Were they submitted in time?
They were only procured after the fact. But they were procured and they were submitted, but not necessarily five days before, only because the letter from QVNA only came after that.
But one of them a few pages back was purported to be sort of like a fact sheet on your letterhead, which I objected.
I'm talking about immediate neighborhood comments that came in after I got the QVNA letter, which was subsequent to the deadline.
I asked.
Excuse me, this is Sharon.
Mr. Bonney, I think if there's fault here, it is mine.
I may have just sent you what I originally received.
I get sometimes hundreds of emails with exhibits attached in the days before the hearing.
So I apologize for that.
I think that this was not Mr. Anastasio's fault, but mine.
No worries.
And again, Mr. Chair, as these letters come in, QV&A says that they oppose.
i then proffer that could you please let me know who actually voted and they say well we don't
actually take into account the the residents we're going to get and then when we get mr rip yeah so
then i have to be able to present the residents and and that's all i mean that's all about that
excuse me if i can just add one more thing um applicants often submit
letters, whatever documents that come in from the RCOs after the five-day deadline. And because
they have no control over when they obtain those documents, we do accept them.
Thank you. And the initial application did, in fact, include all required documents. If there
are supporting documents afterwards, I submit them right away. These, of course, were done
at the last minute because QVNA decided to send a letter of opposition that's apparently based on
no actual tally of the folks who actually attended the meeting, which is why it had to
send supporting documents, if that makes sense. I hope it does.
It does not. And this rent roll, was that submitted five days before? Because I didn't
see that either no uh no we're actually gonna it's not a rent roll uh but it is a pro forma
to show that this is the least uh uh you know in uh minimum
variance that my client can you know perform and by the way and yes or no was that submitted five
days before yes or no no because it wasn't prepared mr chairman mr chairman i know mr
bonnie represents a tertiary rco in this whole thing not a primary not even secondary
uh but you know a uh an outlander outliner uh rco and that's fine i respect his input and his uh
you know his you know his his you know his stuff however Mr. Mr. Bonney represents
Society Hill Civic Association which this property does not sit in the you know in the area of
society hill civic association however if he is about to oppose this on the record i must say
he represents the one society hill resident who lives the closest to this property right
and that one society hill resident who lives closest to this property happens to live adjacent
just north of the subject property on front street i don't understand what you're saying
okay there's a there's a uh a property owner adjacent to our let me let me let me let me do
the let's let me pardon the interruption again mr bobby are you representing the side hill civic
or an individual who resides in society hill within the boundaries of ideal civic the former
I'm not representing any individual. I'm representing the organization. I don't know
I'm representing the organization. I don't know what Vern is talking about.
what Vern is talking about. Well, I'm asking the question. So
Well, I'm asking the question, so we can move on from there.
Thank you, and I'll move on.
The proposal for this property from a Society Hill resident prior to this one was a 120-foot tower hotel on the very same corner.
More than twice the height and size of what we're proposing.
So all I'm suggesting is if Society Hill Civic Association is going to get involved in this particular matter,
then they need to make sure they understand that a Society Hill resident who owns this property right here on my cursor
does not live here but owns the property and would be a member of society hill civic association
was in fact proposing a hotel that was twice the size of what my client mr wiener was proposing
so mr chairman you can't be tolerating this nonsense um he is telling are you i mean
And because somebody in our neighborhood proposed something, that somehow our neighborhood association does not have the wherewithal to participate in this hearing on our own two feet?
i think what he's saying is that the near neighbor uh may not be uh happy with this
proposal because whoever that near neighbor is had a uh a business plan in place that may not
have gone the way he would have liked and how is that and how is that relevant well i he's just
pointing it out that maybe that's the only reason he's opposed to it well first maybe i don't know
we'll see if that if that if that individual is it calls in we'll we'll have those questions for
that individual so if we can move on uh with the presentation mr anastasia because i'd like to get
to the architect if we could uh great idea thank you mr chair i just i mean this was just for the
record that if Society Hill Civic Association, which is, you know, kind of a far from the
actual development, is going to weigh in on this, that they need to make sure that they understand,
and I know they've seen this before, and you understand that a Society Hill neighbor who's
actually the adjacent property owner was proposing a proposal that was twice the size
of what we're proposing that's all it was over 110 okay i think you made that point
mr chair for the record i first saw this when miss zuletta sent me mr anastasia's exhibits
i've never seen this i don't think he's suggesting that you saw it i think he's making a point that
the next door neighbor uh may have it may have a axe to grind who knows i'm not going to get into
the cat fight we're not going to get into a cat fight we're just going to with that i'm going to
ask you have a proposal in front of us and we're going to go through that and then mr bonnie you'll
have an opportunity and i appreciate that and with that i'm going to ask mr villa to weigh in if he
can be uh uh promoted as a panelist he can walk you through the proposal which you know again we
believe the RCO who's in charge of, you know, the coordinating RCO believes, and a large majority
of the QVNA residents believe, is really good for this spot. Mr. Miller is coming in now.
I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, this is the court reporter. Would it be appropriate for me to ask
for just a short break? Yep, we'll be back at 4.30. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Kelly return yes I have chair thank you very much okay you're ready to go right okay
All right. I think, Vern, the last thing I mentioned was, could we move along and get to your architect?
All right. I think Vern, last thing I mentioned was, could we move along?
Do you have anything to add before you get your architect on?
Vern, you're muted.
You're still muted.
mr bonnie mr anastasio you could both unmute yourself i've muted you so that nothing would
be on the record during the break my apologies for being muted i'm i'm fine uh with that uh
right now i'd just like to be able to share my screen so that the architect can go through the
project again i've already shown you the uh rco support i think you i think you see that yes we've
seen that yes okay and i'm gonna stop i'm gonna actually what i'd like to do is just go to the
plans so our architect can get to uh do what he needs to do and he's available chair you can swear
him in hey rich uh please identify yourself spell your full name and i'll swear you in
Richard Villa, V-I-L-L-A, Ambit Architecture, 412 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147.
And do you swear for them to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you, Mr. Anastasio.
Thank you.
Rich, you understand that we've gone from 18 units to 13 units, is that correct?
That is correct.
Reduced some of the open air and rear yard depth to the best that we could?
Yes, it was from 95% to 91.5%.
Very good.
And maximum height has gone down as well.
Is that right?
From 65 feet 9 inches to 60 feet 9 inches.
Awesome.
So I'm going to scroll just because it's easier, I think, unless you decide otherwise.
i'll scroll through the through the plans and then you could let us know uh what our client's
vision is for an anchor and you know an iconic building at front and south go ahead sure uh the
proposal again is for a 13 unit 60 foot nine inch tall building with uh around an 1800 square foot
commercial space. Actually, Vern, if you go to the next page.