so you said they have access the first floor has access
that's shared by the neighbor next door or is that or is the or is the property line three feet
who should answer the question myself for the attorney you can answer it alex if you know for
sure okay so that is a fire alley uh it's uh accessible to uh all the buildings from 1710
all the way to 1724 north bovier i believe and plus 1708 north bovier that is a three
feet uh white alley that goes alongside the building and there is a three feet fire alley
in the back that goes along parallel to the north bovier street okay so when you say you're going
to have a gate on that alley how are you going it's it's a it's a it's a special gate with a quick uh
quick set release basically in case the people have to evacuate in emergency there is no lock
there or padlock all they have to do is just press on the push bar and the gate opens up okay and
this is you so all the other buildings still have access to this alley uh yes okay now the gate that
is there it was not installed by me uh i don't know who installed it but it's been there forever
as far as i remember is that that three foot looks like a three foot gate yeah it's almost
like a fence yes yeah but yeah that's that's no real security other questions
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions from the virtual
audience do not see any hands mr chair planning commission amy board with the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change the current r1 residential multi-family zoning
the appellant has not shown that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances
of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code
the planning commission recommends that the board deny the requested variance for rear yard depth
three yard area and occupied area mi 2025 007 178 17 10 north bouvier street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
my vote is yes thank you council thank you thank you very much um thank you um sherman toppin please
I'll be coming back in shortly Mr. Chair thank you I appreciate it
good afternoon member of the board how are we making out okay I I think we are but we have
a backup plan my client who is Thomas Pender he is a cat he is uh he is okay so I think if I
remember correctly you stated your name and I already swore you in did you talk to our
vice chair too right i i did i did i didn't talk about share i was at the share screen point but
i would ask that thomas pender be advanced co-panelists to share his okay sure why don't
you send him on and i'll talk through the exhibits as he scrolls yep
using my dad's computer so there's something not quite right about it
mr top and who did you want promoted uh mr thomas pender thank you
mr pender is now promoted to panelists and can share
hey good afternoon members of the board once again sorry for the technical difficulties and
inconvenience there but i'm pleased to be representing mr thomas pender who is a member
of 4860 lancaster llc which is the owner of the structure that's in front of you that you see
pictorially here and if you can scroll down on one page mr pender will begin our presentation
so our typical exhibit package contains quite a few things although you see there where it says
applicant white horse white horse tavern at the time of the the architect filed it they put that
there but we have a deed showing that the property has been transferred to 3860 lc as exhibit number
two we waived the reading of the refusal but we want to mention that in our agreement with the
rco there's two if you can scroll down once mr pendle to the refusal this particular case had
This particular case had involved two refusals, one further down, just to see the refusal language.
involved two refusals.
Yes, the property was refused for two reasons.
One, section 14-6045, which is concerning roof decks, and the second was table 14-7013, which was dimensional.
In our agreement with the community, we have agreed to drop and redesign the building as we have in the plans to remove the roof deck request, making this a dimensional only application for height.
So as a matter of right, the building can be 38 feet in height as permitted by the zoning code.
And we are proposing a fourth floor, which would raise the building to 45 feet in height.
and that is the only so if you can scroll down mr pender to really exhibit five exhibit two is the
deed which i mentioned that you still you'll see the deed there um our client is the owner of the
record we have the project information sheet number five just kind of gives you a sense from
the at this elevation you can see the block is zoned uh cmx2 and our our in the pink in the red
square there you see the subject property opposite our property is um icmx um imcmx there and it's a
like a dollar store and every on all the properties fronting on lancaster in this very in this
commercial area are one to three story structures that are all commercial on the first floor or
commercial in generally so the property what we're using the property if you can scroll down once
more uh we want to there's an image there just how the property and the block is being utilized
there at lancaster avenue you can see on the top there all the residential uses are behind
the property there's uh several vacant lots for them thompson street and style street
and uh west yard you see that that's where the residential homes are but fronting on lancaster
avenue on both sides of the subject property are all commercial uses and uh and and every structure
is different. And if you can scroll down further, Mr. Fender, you can kind of see this. This is
again a Google shot giving you a sense of subject property in relationship to its surrounding
rooftops. There's just a few properties to the left and two to the right. On either side of the
subject property, the red box there, are churches. And we have support. One, the church that's the
larger rooftop is closed and it doesn't have they're not meeting but on the other side we have
full support of that ministry and the numbers and further down the block is all commercial
uses that have no objections or particular use as a restaurant and scroll down further
so this is the view of the property looking to the left and the right see the subject property there
uh white house the white horse bar is present there with the big white horse can't miss it
coming down lancaster so we're going to be updating significantly the appearance of this
struck of this front facade and the side facade as you can see it's got windows on the third on
the third floor and it has it just has a dated and really a appearance that's going to be transformed
by my client's proposed restaurant um and as you can scroll further down you can see what i was
telling you earlier that every almost every house or every structure alone has a different appearance
so there's not a single consistent appearance to match to even as you move further down the block
you see that there's a gas station and there's no there's almost no two structures alike on this
side of the street um and so scroll down further mr fender so let's look at so so some of these
pictures and mr fender you can scroll through these as i talk these are images of as you enter
the structure and as you move in these are exterior front pictures there's about 30 of these you can
scroll down quickly so that this is the first floor when you open the front door you see this
is the initial image of the existing bar that was there um serving clients and you can go through
the reverse image of the same shot as this is the uh this is a prep area also on the first floor on
the other side that bar wall and as you go down there'll be more pictures of the bar you can scroll
down through so this again this is a wider shot of that the bathroom on the first floor all of
this will be updated and renewed as you will see in the plans uh lower down this is again the first
back of the first floor is this here and that back door goes through the street in the rear
climbing the steps you get to the second floor and this is that stairway going up and this is what
you see on the second floor from the landing um from this as you can see this image will be
transform two um into a very elegant restaurant space continue on and you can kind of ease it
restaurant space continue on and these are just more pictures of the existing
interior as it currently is building the bar has been out of use for some time
and as you go to the fourth third floor you have this the third third floor is
relatively is completely really not finished they may have started to do
some things years and years back and they're finished as you look out third
floor through the window you see a space between the adjacent church and and the
further grassy area are the homes in the rear and it's just more pictures looking down from the
third floor going downstairs now this is again that prep area behind the first floor bar you get
to the mechanical and the rear from the basement and it's just unfinished mechanical space all of
this will be bathrooms and finished space in the new plan further on you can kind of go down so
yeah that's what you've got one redeeming thing is back to electrical updating and this is the
rare visual of the building this will also be transported this is two stories it will go four
stories up and be completely renewed looking from the back and with security lights and now going
into our exhibits let's uh let's begin there now mr fender you may have to make your you can scroll
down mr fender on number seven i think we're going into the plans uh we'd like to make those smaller
so we look forward to see what we're looking at so as you scroll down from this page
you will see that this is the existing conditions of the building except for the picture that's
that's the new elevation i will i will make one notation here um from a standpoint of what we
planned um this elevation this 3d view that you see to the left is going to be it almost seems
that there's a second a second floor was an open two-story with an open two-story on ceiling root
clear this will this will possibly be to a maximum but supposed to be two solid floors so there'll be
a floor of the floor will run to the rear of the building so each floor will be the extent of the
footprint of the building I'm not as pictorial as not as shown here I think this was an old pitch
they didn't swap out but so the existing pitch of this otherwise shows the existing conditions of it
let's move down to what would be and what is proposed as you scroll down from here mr bender
all right um so this gives you as let's just start from the basement up so from the basement up um
you can see that there's just a rare unfinished closed space but you'll have bathrooms down
where we go this is an area where there'll be bathrooms and just storage in the elevator
there'll be an elevator added to this building so there's mostly mechanical storage and just
bathrooms in the basement as you go into the first floor it will have a similar presence as
the current first floor when you walk in there's the going to be you know the barn and a bar with
tables for seating um as you move back there's going to be a bathroom then elevator then of
course, and then there's the commercial kitchen, which will serve as the food preparation for the
building here in the rear of the first floor. So scrolling down a little further to the second and
third, scroll down a bit, Mr. Fender. Okay, yes, just to give a third and fourth view. So as you
walk up the stairs and take the elevator, you'd be able to see that there's going to be bathrooms
closed, a lounge area, table seating, more table seating style on the third floor. And the fourth
floor is more being it's conceived as the event space area where there's more there's i guess the
way it's going to be configured there'll be group settings where people will have private group
settings and served in that and these these are square clusters here and the additional seating
proposed in the rear of the building in fourth floor the roof is going to be pretty fascinating
in this particular building because it's going to be an entire glass ceiling um just locked i think
there'll be a lot of a picture maybe two feet going from front to back but it'll be it'll
ultimately look up out at the so it's a complete glass ceiling proposed here and from the second
and third floor there will be uh if you go to you scroll down further mr fender you can see that the
entire second and third floor there's perceived to be glass windows in which you can see a direct
view unstructured straight to the philadelphia skyline from this map which is why they conceived
it this way and these are the existing second floor windows will remain and um to move down
the elevations are all they'll are all pretty much in keeping with what we just said from the
front there's going to be a bump out um that it's from and that it's sort of a triangular bump out
and that goes out to four feet and down to one and that would kind of give that would give a
view looking towards the center city direction that would bump out and this will be the presence
that people will sleep in the front and from the rear again complete glass a glass
and from the rare again complete glass glass or almost a glass walls for the second third floor
giving unobstructed views over those two-story structures that are behind the house to the
photograph skyline moving down to number eight you can make it bigger and dependable so we did
have a meeting with the we've had two actually meetings with the rco and we've come to an
agreement with them regarding this particular plan um there they were they had a hiccup was
the roof deck and the noise that could potentially be there uh towards the back rear homes which we
went in an agreement with the community removed and instead made those solid
sorry solid floors that don't have any roof or exposure to the outside and because of that we
were able to seek the agreement of pretty much the uniform agreement on the of the 51 folks there
the 24 affected there's only one opposition and 24 in support why we have a letter of support
and just to finish our presentation here if you scroll down this defender we've got we have um
you can scroll down further and send it to the next exhibit yes we these are you can scroll
really quickly through these this has just been the addresses that we served um you can keep
scrolling down this pendant um that and then these are the certificates of mailing for each
of these addresses about 150 125 i think it was all together keep scrolling you keep just scrolling
down through all of these and i think we have if you and here are posting the zba notice of
close images and also twice over two existing front entrances we also posted on the rare
as well you can see that there's postings on the rare and then finally we have our um we
have our tax search for the owner of the property which is 4860 lancaster avenue and and we have
our letter we also get a petition between rco meetings relating to it we have additional
signatures of support from members of the community around this property and this will
go on for several pages I think we have about 20 or 20 signatures from different
members of the community and that community immediately right behind the
property and those who go to the church next to it and this was the this last
exhibit here is the meeting somewhere through ZVA so with that and since Mr.
Pender is scrolling for us the exhibits I'd like to ask Mr. Pender a few
questions relating to my testimony on behalf of his llc um and mr fender have you been listening
to all that i said on your behalf uh during this last few minutes hold on hold on is she one again
the owner you're bringing the owner on right uh yes and mr mr pender's the owner he's
sure i just want to swear him in when he gets on oh i'm sorry i'm sorry
yes i heard everything hi sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
thomas pender t-h-o-m-a-s pender p-e-n-d-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth yes counsel oh yes mr pender have you been um on the call here
and listening to my testimony on your behalf these last several minutes yes and from what i've said
do you agree that the testimony i've said has been accurate and complete yes and is there anything
you'd like to add to something that i have not mentioned no okay and would you accept this
testimony as your own yes any questions we'd love to questions from the board
okay what are we doing about uh the venting for uh this space
um i believe you said that um venting venting venting as as uh hvac venting
no you've got a commercial kitchen for the cooking for the kitchen oh i i see i see yes
if you can go to miss miss bender if you can scroll up to that i think we can perhaps we
can figure this part out to when we get the commercial kitchen area but i just saw it
Okay, so here's the commercial, if you could make that just bigger, Mr. Fender, so we can focus in on the kitchen portion of it.
okay here so this again this is a pictorial layout of what is proposed here but what i'm
and i can only say what i i'm assuming will will be taking place here is that
they will be these will be dented to the outside through their rear exact exterior brick wall
these will be dented to the outside through their rare exterior brick wall.
Not through the roof?
I would not imagine that they would take, well, whatever the code permits,
like again, that gets it out of a little bit of where I'm,
but if it has to go through the roof, there's ways it can get there
because it was already a commercial kitchen in this exact same space.
um so and i don't think they're so where it's the venting now is that on here okay so if you
go to the original pictures the original pictures mr pender further up doors i want to see where
you want to go through this okay further up right further down further down okay yeah you you should
know you should know better than me yeah just the first floor here first floor okay this is the space