i mean jen wanting to answer that question about the students and the conversation you had with
the group sure we the community group also uh based on the review of the plans had concerns that
we would be renting these out specifically to students particularly with the way the upper
rooms are larger my client actually agreed to specifically put in writing with the group that
it would not be rented to students they with the language barrier as well they actually don't
prefer to have turnovers that quickly with the with the tenants so they've been trying to get
mostly tenants that are willing to lease stay for a year or two uh if not longer on on the leases
so that they don't have to do turnovers i think the general issue here is that like i don't see
how this is viably rentable it's four bedrooms you can't have more than four bedrooms go to someone
that's not a family now you have to find a family that can like absorb these two sort of large
anti-rooms it's going to make the rent higher i just i think we're all struggling with the like
mechanics of this you also cannot restrict rentals to no students like that violates fair housing
rights laws so i think like we're having a hard time understanding how this is going to be viable
and meet sort of the the demands or the provisions set out by the rco even though your client agreed
to it. Yeah, I understand that. I mean, for Airbnb, that's pretty easy to regulate. So I
don't think that's the problem. I do understand the board's concern with regard to finding
particular renters for the area. My client's using representatives from realtors, essentially,
to try to find tenants. They are, again, they do have some contacts with other people in the
community, Asian community that may be interested in renting. So as far as I know, based on my
conversation with my client, they've been renting the properties for a while. So they're pretty
comfortable with finding someone for the space because they've managed to do it in the past.
Okay, other questions?
not question but the same issue i i it looks more like um these are like like students like suites
if you will not uh a forbid room uh duplex arrangement um well i i do understand that i i
also um want to point out again i think this my client kind of inherited these plans um and the
layout uh they they didn't do any renovations they bought the property so the prior the the again the
the reo that did the purchase from the sheriff department then did the renovations may have
very well had originally planned to just simply have this as student housing um my client purchased
the property and then they they have been just renting it you know in the ways that they can
based on what they have available with the single rental license so again they they asked for a
duplex because quite honestly they do not um have the finances or the desire to do further renovation
to make a triplex out of the property uh so that's they were hoping to keep the existing conditions
and just legalize the use
so they can get the proper rental license
and rent it out, both units.
All right.
Questions from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions from the virtual audience?
No hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning.
David Vecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members,
the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the rsa5 residential single family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood
in 2017 in accord with recommendations in the comprehensive plan this property appears to have
been converted to a duplex without the benefit of permits through no fault of the current owners
the proposed use matches the character of the other homes on this block face the city planning
commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variance for two dwelling units
Thank you.
Zen, I'm going to take this to next week.
On Wednesday, I'm going to really sit in the executive session and try to figure out where we are with this.
all right thank you all right thank you very much for your presentation
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
all right number 14
All right.
mi 2025 007 102 1838 north van pelt street alan knockamson is the attorney
good morning good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer alan knockamson a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
and the relationship to the property yeah my client is the owner of the property van pelt
properties LLC in the virtual audience is its member Covey Kennedy as well as
his architect Justin Coleman and we have a letter of non-opposition from
strawberry mansion community concern our vice-chair has a few questions good
morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in
advance of this hearing yes we have and do you waive that we know the refusals
to stipulate to their accuracy? I do. Okay, I think you can proceed with your case.
All right, so I'm here to present 1838 North Bend Pelt Street.
You know, I have 12 exhibits here. As I stated, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Coleman are in the virtual
audience and i'll have mr kennedy uh you know introduce himself be sworn in and i have a few
questions for him uh we have a notice of refusal here for an rsa 5 property originally we're
seeking four dwelling units which would be out of character for this part of the neighborhood
really every property here is three dwelling units so you know after further conversation
with my client i indicated to him it would be in his best interest to follow like what the rest of
neighborhood has in terms of three dwelling units so we have revised plans which reduce the amount
of uh dwelling units to three we have two other variances one for occupied area and one for rear
yard setback as the chairman stated the community has no issue with those two variances plus they
appreciated the fact that we went down from four units to three units out of our own like volition
We did that prior to the community meeting, but we made additional changes as well.
So we do have a correspondence from Strawberry Mansion Community Concern.
One of the requests was a non-zoning request to change the color of the siding on the side of the property that matches the red brick.
They did have concerns about having the kitchen in the basement.
we are more than happy to switch it so that the kitchen is in this on the for the first floor
unit and the lower level is one unit to have the kitchen on the on the first floor um unfortunately
given the short time frame to have you know from the time we had the community meeting oh it says
i'm muted uh from there oh okay use the microphone yeah okay i was like i've never seen that come up
so i apologize for that yeah that's okay all right um but yeah given the short time frame we
didn't have chance to change the floor plans but we have no objection to obviously switch the floor
plans it makes more sense too um and my client acknowledges that um the only other issue the
only other so they wanted to switch the basement uh use uh we'll have kitchen on the first floor
living room uh a bedroom and then the lower level you know we just wanted to open floor plan
You know, again, this day and age from experience, a lot of people like work from home and that extra lower level area is good for, you know, an office area, maybe like a little secondary living area of some sort.
So we would like to keep that.
The only other request by the Strawberry Mansion Community Concern Organization was the exterior will be constructed in accordance with the revised improved design, not the original side siding concept.
AND THAT WE JUST CHANGED THE COLOR OF DECIDING. SO WE HAVE NO OBJECTION TO KEEPING THAT THAT WAY,
TOO. SO THERE WERE THREE PEOPLE ON THE BOARD OF THE SHORBURY MANCHIN COMMUNITY CONCERN THAT
VOTED IN NON-OPPOSITION. I DO WANT TO SAY THAT THERE WAS ONE COMMUNITY MEMBER THERE WHO ALSO
VOTED, I BELIEVE, EITHER IN SUPPORT OR IN NON-OPPOSITION FOR WHATEVER REASON THEIR VOTE
WAS NOT ACKNOWLEDGED HERE. I'M NOT SURE WHY. HERE ARE REVISED PLANS WHICH, AGAIN,
speak to the reduced unit count and also to clean up the site plan in some respects.
And then, you know, I want to give you examples of three family dwellings on that block, 1812, 1843, 1816. There's others on other blocks, but I also have in my notes that there are eight other instances of triplexes on that block.
And then, you know, I want to give you examples of three family dwellings.
there are actually 36 vacant lots on that block as well so again i think to have this development
would enhance the block and be consistent with the character of the block as well here's our
aerial view which shows where we are on the block but also shows a lot of the
vacant properties on that 1800 block of north van pelt street
So, while we are RSA 5 property, there are many RSA 5 properties on that block, which are multifamily in nature. In addition, you can see there is some mixed zoning as you go to left here with RM1, so not out of character.
photographs of the property so this is a vacant lot this is a hearing notice poster showing proof
of posting for today's hearing this property has been a vacant lot for some time we went
to google street view and it shows as far back as august of 2011 this is northbound pell street to
the right of property and a particular note you can see there's this is a neighborhood that has
three-story structures, flat brick facades, lentils, pronounced cornice lines, and having
some type of pronounced stone structure added to the brick as well in the front. You'll see that
we mimic that architecture in our design as well. North Van Pell Street to the left of the property,
so similarly pronounced cornice line, lentils, flat brick facades. The window structure is very
similar to the window structure you would expect from a traditional philadelphia row home
and again a pronounced lower level this is where we intend to store the meters under the staircase
and you know just a rendering from a different angle is oh this is just to show that we did
change deciding to mimic the color of the brick that we intend to have as a front facade so and
And you can see how we seamlessly are within the architectural detail and feel of that
block as well.
And then you can just see in terms of our, let's see.
We are four and a half feet out of the ground from the first floor.
and we are four feet out of the ground
and we're five and a half feet downward.
So that's nine and a half feet.
So if you count a little bit of ceiling,
we'll probably have eight, eight and a half foot ceilings
in the lower level.
And then these are our floor plans.
So, oh, sorry.
What is going on?
let's see all right these are our floor plans uh this one making that too big so just thinking
about it um we again the unit number one we're going to have to change up a little bit given
the fact that we had our bedroom uh bedrooms upstairs we intend to change it a little bit
more so to make sure that we have a kitchen, a dining room, and a one-bedroom upstairs.
But this is a common vestibule area where, you know, we'll have, like, again...
So the two bedrooms go?
Probably two bedrooms would have to go.
That's right.
That's right.
So what you would probably have here is that these would be replaced by a kitchen area,
a dining room area, and a living room area.
And then this is the lower level.
obviously we would take out all of this and just have it as an open floor plan our washer and dryer
is down here and we would like to keep like a half bath down there just for people who you know
don't want to have to go up and down the steps when you know say their their office is down there
or it turns into like a flex space with a living room maybe a little guest room with a fold-out
couch or something like that unit number two you go up a flight of steps and you can see there is
a living room and then a kitchen and they have two bedrooms up here with one bathroom
and then the same thing mimicked on the third floor one of the things we did not put in here
was a roof deck again respecting the character of strawberry mansion and and and their preference
not to have roof decks as well um overlay is there an overlay there too right i'm not a hundred no
not that far i i don't think so so but we we you know we present in front of all the strawberry
i i don't think so so but we we you know we present in front of all the strawberry mansion
Manchu groups and we
groups and we understand what their wants and needs are so we try to anticipate you know that
there's also uh trash closets in both of the units here here's just an example for unit three and
then the trash is stored in the rear for unit number one um again we met with the community
on i think march 30th uh and again not very well attended meeting but you know we had you know
notified 133 addresses i think one of the reasons why it wasn't well attended is because all these
vacant lots nearby so but we did have one community representatives there and three members of the
coordinating rco and proof of mailing of that notice or application for appeal that we followed
on behalf of van pelt properties llc excuse me as well as a notice refusal the project information
form the deed to the property showing that van pelt properties llc is the owner of the property
and then finally the certificate of tax clearance i would ask that um
mr kennedy virtually raise his hand and be sworn in
he's being promoted to panelists thank you
hello this is colby kennedy hi good morning could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer yes this is colby kennedy c-o-l-b-y last name kennedy k-e-n-n-e-d-y
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but truth yes counsel uh yes uh
colby you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning matter yes is it true and
correct yes and do you adopt this your own testimony yes specifically with regards to the
revised plans you agreed to reduce the unit count to three units yes I do all
right thank you questions from the board so just to be clear only the first
floor unit is going to have access to the basement and the backyard that is
correct so this so this first floor unit goes from a three-bedroom apartment to
a one-bedroom luxury apartment is that what i'm understanding yeah i mean it's how i see it is
there's you know just because of the how the the property is designed and where the staircase is
you can't put a second uh bedroom on that first floor and then as far as the lower level you know
we just want an ability for someone to use the lower well the washer and dryer is down there
But we also want someone to use that lower level as a flex space.
Yeah, I'm trying to understand, I guess, because we always hear hardship, financial hardship.
So I'm trying to understand how one bedroom with a full finished basement is becomes profitable in that on that block right now.
I'm just I don't see how that's financially feasible.
But that that's, you know, Kobe is a licensed realtor who's very well experienced in the field of real estate management, as well as financing.
You know, he feels that even limiting the unit count to three, having two two bedrooms and one rather large one bedroom makes financial sense.
And again, it's not out of character, too, because I have been in front of this board quite recently.
within the past year we had two instances under similar circumstances on the 1800 block of north
van pelt street where we have three you know triplexes under similar circumstances yeah i
understand the triplex i just can't understand how it makes financial sense to have this luxury
one bedroom unit and what's that rent going to be for that unit and if you can actually market it
So I think it's not quite viable from a from a business standpoint, but that's my only concern.
I think another question I have is I didn't see a washer and dryer in any of the upper units. So initially, I assumed everybody had access to the basement. So where are the unit 2 and 3?