Tell me when to stop.
Just at the bottom
where the floor plan is
at the bottom. Right here?
Page two. No, keep going. Right there.
That's fine right there.
An 1,840 square... Back up one.
Right there.
That's fine.
We're showing an 1,840 square foot
commercial space on the ground floor. To the west is a residential entrance. There is interior
garbage, so trash is fully inside the building on the ground floor, accessed through the rear yard.
There are two stairs and an elevator. The elevator is only for residential, not for any
commercial tenants to go to the top floor, so it's solely for residential use. In the basement,
there are utilities. There is some more interior commercial space, including a walk-in area.
And then on the west side, there is residential storage for the tenants and bike storage, or Class 1A bike parking, I should say.
In the commercial space along Front Street and along South Street, there is a five-foot bump-out, which the existing bump-out on Downey's is six feet.
We were coming in five feet, and the existing bump-out on Downey's goes farther on both sides.
We were reducing that, and then we were rounding them off first, sort of filleting them on the ends.
And then the commercial entrance is on South Street on the corner, which you could see in the floor plan.
Go to the next page.
There are nine roughly 700 square foot one bedrooms on floors two, three, and four, and
that's what you're seeing there.
So there's a front unit that looks out to the river or to front street.
There is a unit that's solely on south street, and then there's a unit that looks west, and
those units have decks on them on the back side.
There would be interior decks, as you can see in the second floor plan on the front
street unit, but those decks do not protrude out beyond the street line.
One more, one more Vern, one more right there. There are four roughly 1100 square
foot two bedrooms right here that Vern is showing.
All the units have interior HVAC, hot water heaters, and washers and dryers.
That's the roof deck, it is set back five feet on three sides, and the HVAC condenser
that's the roof deck
units and mechanicals are set to the northern side.
These are some studies that we did that show it at the summer solstice and the winter solstice.
In the summer, you know, there is slightly more shade than is there now, the existing
Downey's building is 45 feet tall, and the 45 feet of the building occupies the eastern
half. It is about 38 to 40 feet to the western side. But that existing Downey's building
does cover 100% of the site. And then in the winter, we do cast more shadows because we
are taller than what's there now. Keep going. Just keep going down, Mer. These are the building
elevations. Let's go to the next page with the brick just shown which will be
a couple more pages. Right there. The one yeah up, back up, back up to the page
showing the brick burn. Right there. We're using a like a dark deep red brick
from Glengarry. It's actually used a lot in town. It is very reminiscent of the St. Stanislaus
school, former school at Third and Fitzwater, which is the inset photo just under the bricks.
And then we are using what's called shadow. It's a cast stone, and that would be the horizontal
lines between the windows on the building. Then there would be a bent metal cornice that wraps
the top of the building, and then there is a pent on the front street side and a pent on the west
side and within the pent it would say the surveyor's building which pays a small amount
of homage to the fact that the corner of south and front is where the mason dixon survey began
so the server the mason dixon line starts there which a lot of people don't know even though there
is a historical marker we have agreed in the last meeting to uh put as much brick as we can on the
northern side of the building which is shown in the lower right as gray uh cement board we would
do more brick there um and uh if you go to the next uh yeah go to the next page we also put it
here too as well right uh rick uh that yes yes that's what i was getting to uh that's the western
elevation um it was priorly in the earlier renditions it was cement board but we did extend
the brick all the way over and then shrunk that elevation by adding decks on the northern side
but then we did keep the pent uh as you see it on the west side on the south street side we have a
residential entry with an arched uh fillet opening at the top uh you're almost there burn uh yeah
yeah yeah you don't necessarily need to zoom in but i can't get right there uh i'm a little behind
on you uh so that's the residential entry it would be uh there would be no doorman but it would be
digital doorman with a buzz in system. And then if you go back, back two more pages, I guess.
Right there. Right there's fine. This shows it in, you know, we're using a nice red brick. We're
using, we're putting muttons in the windows. We're actually making a really nice
uh uh sort of square detail of the windows at the base in the commercial space
um and uh there it's actually the the metal cornice at the top uh is in in sort of keeping
with the way saint stanislaus is um with its pen roofs um and then some plantings on the roof as
well. I'm going to show you the existing conditions, if you don't mind.
This is where we have been for far too many years.
Not only I and many of the folks who are here today know this.
I'm sure the chairman knows this as well.
This is where we are.
More existing block.
So there's a streetscape.
There's a proof of posting.
Vern, could you go back to that, pardon to interrupt,
could you go back to that first photo
that's showing the front view on Front Street?
Right, I think right there.
Thank you.
um i want to that's it right there uh mr villa two questions did i hear you say that the existing
height of the at its highest point of the the building in question is 48 feet no no downies
is but the existing building is the existing building down is 45 feet to the p actually has
a sort of a low pier middle roof it's 44 feet to the edge of the cornice on downies would you
happen to know what the height of the building is two over from the downy project that one right to
the north i don't know what the height of the of the ridge of that roof is but um uh i have in my
notes that the neighboring cornice uh on four and on 528 or sorry 524 which is the building next to us
is 33 feet to the dentals in the cornice so well that's here but over here that's not the
neighboring building yeah i'm saying i i there's really no way for me to get that height all right
just curious all right mr chairman mr chairman mr chairman a good guess would be 30 a good guess
would be 38 feet probably probably a little bit taller a little bit taller i would think
based on the one in the middle yeah this seems this seems to be more 38 feet with a dormer
uh i think this might be closer to but all right we don't know we don't know okay
and at ceiling heights of the the residential units mr villa uh they are just under nine feet
yeah and the ceiling height of the restaurant it is uh just under 12 feet
and we're taller in the previous scheme we brought them down to minimum heights
so and mr chairman as you know and i'm sure the board knows any viable commercial space
if it's under 12 feet tall it's going to be really difficult to get some i understand i i just want
clarification that's all right and residential uh you know typically as you know i think the board
knows nine feet is like a minimum usually yeah and these are all under nine feet tall understood
thank you thank i appreciate that thank you before i go any further anyone any board members have any
questions for the architect while we're going through this no no all right um i want to bring
my uh client on if if uh if that's okay that's fine thank you mr wiener
if you could please raise your hand mr weiner please spell your full name and i'll swear you
in max weiner m-a-x-w-e-i-n-e-r do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do thank you mr anastasio thank you mr chairman uh mr weiner did you hear my
presentation today by the board uh to the board yes i did it was it true and accurate to the best
your knowledge yes it was and will you adopt it as your own testimony yes i will i want to object
to the i want to object to the incorporation by reference i don't stipulate to that i believe that
the zoning code says you can only do that with stipulation and i am not stipulating for that
what was the uh objection i i don't even know what he's talking about at this point
Mr. Bonny, I didn't hear what you said.
I believe under the zoning code, attorneys are not allowed to present the case and then just have the client adopt it all by reference, unless all parties agree and stipulate to that.
I'm totally confused. Every case I've heard in the last four and a half years, the attorney asked the client, did they adopt their testimony?
Excuse me, this is Sharon, and you accept it because I have researched this issue, and the court has held that a client may adopt the attorney's representations.
Even if not everyone else agrees?
Well, I think our zoning code says differently.
I think that if it were simply the attorney without his client adopting it, that would be a different matter.
so if i have questions if i have cross-examination questions who do i cross-examine the attorney or
the whip or the client you can of course the the client is here he is here to adopt
the testimony you can cross-examine him if you'd like have questions thank you then you can sure
sure thank you thank you all right miss i'm sorry for mr anastasio did we come i know we swore him
thank you thank you all right miss i'm sorry for mr anastasio did we
completely
in mr wiener in and he adopted your testimony anything else i'll be real quick mr chair i just
want to um you've uh adopted my testimony you you heard it to be true and correct and i just want
to bring up this exhibit uh of your pro forma uh max can you tell me why you believe that this
This proposal that we are proposing currently is the minimum relief that we need to make this project viable.
And I'm going to put the performer up, which I will insert for evidence, so that the board understands that in order to make what has been empty forever, what's been vacant forever on a very dead street,
what you can do to make this viable, and is this the minimum amount of relief you need to make it
viable? Please explain. So with the help and direction of Michael Harris, who I met probably
five or six years ago, he approached me. We talked and said, you know, what do you want to do with
this corner? And I said, well, what do you think we should do here? And having input from him and
from the neighborhood they wanted to build something that was not just an ordinary four
story seven unit building but they wanted something that was going to activate the corner
and make it better and make something that could support a restaurant below
not something like downies but something nice high end so this is what we came up with you know
building that's an expensive land it's good land it's expensive to build right now if we build
seven units um the money just doesn't seem to work um but it's not that it's more about building
something on that corner that makes it special that brings the neighborhood back to life that
that corner's been dead for a long long time none of us want to see it stay like that um so i'd like
to build something up and if is it your uh understanding that to to build anything less
with respect to the number of units they would be lower rents more transient and a detriment to the
community is that right that's correct okay and i'm going to uh mr chairman i'm going to uh insert
this as well as all my exhibits in my packet into evidence with the testimony this evening so thank
you thank you and just uh again for the uh the board's clarification when mr weiner referenced
uh mike uh harris he was referring to the executive director of the south street head
house district that's right who's already come out uh in full support yeah we got that earlier
i just wanted to remind the board of who was thank you okay uh does the board have any questions for
mr anastasio mr villa or mr wiener no mr chair i have no so you're saying that if you lower the
height it'll attract transient people no no my client's saying if we lower the height
we have to lower the number of units and if we lower the number of units they are no longer
going to be a viable project to make sure that this building completely with the commercial space
viable. And by the way, the fact of the matter is that this property is uniquely situated on the
corner of front and south with the view of the Delaware River. To not provide a product that
allows folks who live there to enjoy that view is akin to developmental malpractice because
this is a wonderful spot for folks to enjoy the vista of the Delaware River and he believes that
that's based on everything that we've seen this is where people would like to live but stay we
could make a shorter building with smaller units that are more transient and actually take away
from the value of the immediate community what we're looking for is larger units most of the
many of them are two bedroom um where folks stay long term so they so that they can actually enjoy
living on the waterfront for the most part so that's that's his position excuse me this is
sharon again um i just wanted to be sure since mr bonnie asked the question about cross-examination
has if has he been able to cross-examine
Has he been able to cross-examine Mr. Anastasia's client
and would he like to?
Thank you.
We haven't moved on to that yet, but we will ask.
I apologize.
No problem.
Mr. Anastasia, if you're finished,
we'll move on to Mr. Bonny.
I am definitely finished with my client.
Thank you.
Mr. Bonny.
Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Before I proceed, I want to really urge you,
Mr. Chairman, to elevate Mr. Piven to the panel. He is the zoning chair for Queen Village,
and it is in their footprint. Mr. Boddy, I thought I explained myself earlier,
he will be elevated. We're going to ask if anyone has anything, anyone would like to
have any questions regarding this case, and he will be recognized.
okay i just feel it's a little unbalanced that way then that's how we always do it
we always do all right all right i had i want uh let's i'll move forward as instructed thank you
um mr wiener is it is that right that's correct thank you um have you ever uh developed new
construction you know from the of this sort of you know entire entirely new building i object
there's no relevance to that he's not he's not a builder he he's a property owner that's right
okay that's what i was trying to establish um thank you um uh could i see um verne the
page 70 which is on your letterhead yes sir thank you okay can you just hold for a moment
i just want to look at this to maybe ask a question or two sure okay um uh mr weiner the um
about seven bullets down it says letter of support from the coordinating rco
And it says that Councilman Squilla believes the headhouse district should be the leading voice on zoning projects in this location.
Is that your understanding, that Councilman Squilla thinks that the district should be the leading voice on zoning projects at this location?
I object. My client doesn't know how this works. I do.
If a district council person acknowledges one organization to be the coordinating RCO, they, in fact, are the keeper of the community as respect to that.
My client doesn't understand politics.
Which is standard practice, Mr. Bonney.
Yeah. So my understanding of the code and the process in this city of Philadelphia is that the council person can designate the coordinating RCO and that that coordinating RCO has the obligation to arrange for and host the meeting with the community.