Yeah, my name is Paul
Crager.
That's P-A-U-L
Last name is Crager
C-R-A-G-E-R
Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth
told truth nothing about the truth i do east passion was unanimous support and there's a
letter of non-opposition from council member squilla uh our vice chair has just a few questions for
you sir good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing yes and and the chair just wait read your uh refusal um do you uh wait further
Read another refusal and stipulate to us accuracy. Yes. Okay. Well, we have amended slightly. Some of the things that were refused.
Okay, there. Yeah. All right. So you can show your screen and see what the keys.
Okay, just a moment.
Hey, okay. You should be able to see that. Correct.
not up yet not up yet oh i see here it comes again sorry yeah i see it's coming up oh got it
okay uh yeah good morning everyone uh as i said my name is paul crager my wife danielle who's the
co-owner of this property is also on the call uh we've lived here at 1121 watkins street since 2013
we're seeking a variance for a third story addition to our home uh thanks for your time
Let's move on here. So you can see the existing photos of the home. This is us on the top
left. Behind us, you can see this is the view directly from our backyard, 1120 Morris Street,
which is four stories at the rear, three in the front with a mansard roof.
This is the back of our property. Center is us. Left and right side, you can see
there's uh bump outs on the back of those homes uh which is what we're looking to do
we only see one picture that's the first picture
it's okay i'm sorry i missed what you said there would you repeat that
no we we we should it's it's it's it's a little issue on our part but we're okay okay okay good
Okay, sounds good. Okay. Here are our refusals. Just noting here that we previously requested a larger bump out than we're currently requesting. It's been reduced from three feet to two feet.
you can see that the difference highlighted here so the occupied back area would have been six
foot six now it's going to be seven foot six from 84 occupied to 82 occupied no changes to
the ground floor this is only on the upper floor all right here you can see highlighted the the
changes from the original submission and the plans, this clouded area down here highlights
where we've modified the plans.
Okay, the site plan here, you can see our house in the middle of Watkins Street, behind
on Morris Street there's two other houses that are four floors, three floors, these
on 12th Street are three floors, also three floors on Watkins Street here and here, and
and a few more around the neighborhood.
and a few more around the neighborhood.
The floor plan, you can see the two existing floors on the right-hand side.
On here, the third floor plan, you can see that it goes all the way to the front.
It's planning to add a primary bedroom and then another smaller bedroom in the back.
All the way to the left is the roof deck plan.
There's a five-foot setback from the front property line.
Pilot house is here. That's also setback.
Next diagram shows elevations.
This, again, is our house with the proposed changes.
We're proposing a standing seam metal on a mansion roof
with an open steel railing along the front wall of the roof deck.
In the rear, we'll use the same vinyl siding to match the existing two floors below.
You can also see an outline of 1120 Morris Street, 1114 Morris Street behind us, again
four floors and three floors.
This rendering shows what the project would look like completed.
This is the same thing just highlighting just our house here in the middle and existing
houses around the neighborhood that are already three floors, 19 of 20 row homes in the area
area that are three floors or above have a flush façade.
There's the rear yard again, showing the neighbor's overhangs.
We are planning to build out to the same point that the neighbors immediately to our left
and right have built out to.
this is a rendering of sight lines you can see that sight lines from the street level you can't
see the pilot house same thing from the second story because we're on the north side of the
street there's going to be no daylight changes to Watkins Street there would be daylight changes to
to the rear of the house that will basically just affect our backyard and our neighbor
at 1120.
These are more proposed photo renderings from the street level.
This is, we presented to the RCO in February.
We had unanimous support from both the RCO and community members.
We've also been in close contact with our neighbors on the block and everyone's in support.
And that is all we had prepared for the presentations.
Yeah, thank you for your time.
Let us know if you have any questions.
I noticed what you did with the RCO, but how about the neighbors on either side?
How are they?
Yeah, correct.
So, the neighbor to our right side are the owners we've spoken with and they're in support.
Right now, they're renting their house to a renter who, you know, has asked some questions,
has not opposed anything. The neighbors to the other side are in support.
Okay. Thank you. Questions from the Board?
Not a question, but a comment.
Yours would be the first third-story addition on your block, correct?
uh no there's another third story edition uh forgive me i can go back to uh you can see it
here it's actually being built um in this image this this one is third story also mid block
the end of the block is also third story here and here this is on your side of the street
is this the first third story on our side that's correct it will be the first yeah
Out of how many houses it looks like? I mean, there's nothing.
Uh, I'd have to count, but you know, somewhere around a dozen.
Okay. And then, uh, you said there was something on the other side being built.
Uh, yeah, so this is completed now at the time that this overhead photo was taken. Yes, this,
this is a completed, uh, third story on, on Watkins Street, just across the street.
okay thank you questions yeah i guess it's a question because the other house on watkin street
has a rear setback so it's actually there there's nothing above the second floor at the front of
your property i do appreciate that you all attempted to do a mansard roof for that third
floor and then you set back the fourth floor but you would still be the first third story that's
visit like that's at facade line on that street and um i guess i'm wondering a little bit more
I'm wondering a little bit more as like, what's the justification I need for the.
is like what's the the justification i need
Expansion yeah, yeah, I mean, the answer is basically the way the layout of our house works without a setback the front bedroom due to the location of our stairs and also this. Let's see if I can find it.
uh essentially cut out uh where the yeah here so you can see in the existing second story
um there this area right here does not fully cover the first floor of the house
um so basically uh adding a third story with a setback due to the stairs and that cut out
means the remaining area for a primary bedroom is pretty small so the variance
required to build all the way to the front of the property line makes the
third-floor primary bedroom viable okay and then is it planned that you all are
gonna live here continue to live here as yourself yeah absolutely yeah as I said
we've been here since since 2013 plan to continue uh for the foreseeable future okay so there so
there's no change to the second floor that's correct so so you'll have this sort of overhang
over the breezeway in the back with this third story you didn't show up i don't think i saw
rear elevation for the new rear elevation I know you showed the front but you didn't show what
happens I didn't see what happened yeah you can see that here a bit yeah okay so on the left here
that's the wait a minute let's get it here so on the left right is the bottom left is the rear
correct yes and so you've got this strange sort of overhang of that third floor which is
which is a little odd um and then on the front and go get back to the front rendering that you did
uh let's see were you looking for the rendering that you did oh the i just want to see it the
rendering in context with the rest of the block with the rest of the houses next to it
No, the front, not the rear, this is the front that I'm showing the front. Okay. Right. That's what I want to see.
Yeah, okay. So with the man start. Okay.
All right, that was it.
Thanks. Smart attorney. Not at this time, Mr. chair questions or comments from the virtual audience.
no hands at this time. Planning Commission. Michael Gall with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA 5 residential single family attached zoning at this location. The building's existing condition is that of increased occupied area with a small rear yard and that condition dates to the neighborhood's construction. The block is consistently residential in nature exclusively two and three story attached homes with narrow right of way and neighboring residential properties close by in the rear and
across the street potentially impacting neighboring properties rights to light and air therefore the
city planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variances for maximum
occupied area and rear yard depth but recommends that the board deny the requested variance for
upper floor setback okay mi2025 006 771 1121 watkin street i vote yes with proviso revised plan
and one page stamped by ZBA on May 6, 2026.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
My name McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Diane Wynn, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you.
All right, here we go with M.
now we're going to do both together okay so MI 2020 MI 2025 002 821 22 26 West Tioga
and mi 2025 002 824 2224 west iowa street mr knockamson could you please state your name
Mr. Nockamson, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
and spell for the stenographer alan knockamson
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, 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?
Mr. Nockamson, could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yeah, my client is, or client for both properties are Wise Holding Group LLC,
and in the virtual audience is Brian Wise, as well as Alex Lipkin, the members of the group.
I also have Matt Master Pasqua of Mass Architecture Studio who's going to go with me along with the drawings.
We have a letter of support from Allegheny West and also a letter from the Philadelphia Historical Commission.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
And do you waive the read and other refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
I actually object to two of the refusals. The height refusal, I don't believe is correct. It's saying that we're proposing to have 42 feet and three and three quarters inches of height. That's the existing building structure. The new portion of the building structure is 36 feet, 11 inches, which would fall within the code requirements. And then the second refusal that we have an objection to is the amount of parking spots that are required.
This is an RSA 3 property, so it's a one-to-one ratio, except we're a historic property where within the building office.
Look at our accounts.
You're staring at Hillary the whole time.
Now, what are you trying to do?
I'm just telling you something.
So we have six units within the existing building structure, but it's a historic property, so we're exempt under 14-801-2F.
And then for the new portion of the building structure, there are six units, but because it's an extension of the historic use, it's a 50% ratio.
And so six units, 50% is three parking spaces. So we do meet for both properties that requirement as well. So, let me share my screen.
so this is one of these projects that you know i present a lot and but you know this is one of
these projects that you know you'll you'll remember over the course of your career i really do believe
so this is a historic property it's in really bad shape and my client has spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars to keep this property up the city has wanted to demolish this property time and
time again. And they've probably, I think they've spent $700,000 just to keep this property up.
To completely rehabilitate this property is going to take a couple million dollars. This property
has been profiled in multiple publications in the Inquirer and such, and it has a really cool
and interesting history, and we're trying to rehabilitate it and keep a part of that history
in in this neighborhood and i even we even got a letter from swan poodle in support of this project
like literally just came across my screen so um you know that was i was pleasantly surprised
about the you know our community meeting how you know how people really knew about this property
and its history and um and our attempt to keep it alive and it's you know you know you know to
Look at that. It's beautiful. We went through the Historic Commission. I have Matt, Master Pascoe. Why don't we just have him join as a panelist and swear him in? Because he'll tell the history of it.
Sure. Well, we'll get him on as soon as you're. Yeah. But, you know, we have 12 exhibits here. And like I said, Brian and Alex are on and Brian will tell you that he's from the Tioga area. This is an affordable housing project because that's all he does. And, and that, you know, he's really proud of this growing up in this area as well.
So the notice of refusals, there's two properties. Each are going to propose to have 12 dwelling units in there. There's a history, a long history of significant multifamily use. I think this is an 18 unit boarding house at one point that allowed for 50 people in one of the properties. There's significant multifamily use nearby, and we're leveraging the fact that we're street to street to provide the parking as necessary.
Now, we do have one refusal in terms of parking that we can't comply with. As you see on your screen, we're required to provide one handicapped parking space. If we did that, it would be too big for that lot where we would have less parking spaces and we couldn't comply with the three parking space requirement.
requirement um so we talked to the community about that they rather have more parking spaces
than have a handicapped parking space there uh and the only other refusal
the only other refusal um well i would also argue that the you know the refusal regarding surface
parking spaces are prohibited in the required front yards we don't have any parking there
if you consider tioga the the front of the property our parking is in the rear uh uh the
rear uh public uh street uh not the front parking street and then the really the one refusal we have
is the multi-family use which is again not out of character for the for the history of these
properties nearby and such and you know really the only and again this is a rather large lot
the lot size for each of them is 6750 square feet not that we are on one but if we were
that would allow 15 units as of right and the only way to make this project really work and and keep
historic structures in here is to have these amount of units also allows for the affordability
aspect of this project as well so we have a letter of support um not too descriptive other than you
know this is the the cockling armstrong house and matt um you know will definitely describe what
that is and the history behind it um but you know the nearby neighbor in the rear on the secondary
street like love this project they're like oh my god thank you so much because you'll see pictures
of the property it's in really bad shape obviously we fenced it in we've stabilized it um but they
they want you know it finished and so do we and then again we went through the historic commission
we have their you know their you know their review uh process and and their you know approval to move
forward if the board feels so inclined to grant these variances and then the property history
well when we then you know kind of bring matt on he can kind of go sure why don't you bring him on
what's his name matt master pasqua sure hello matthew master pasqua hi i mean okay you could
just spell it please yeah m-a-t-t-h-e-w master pasqua m-a-s-t-e-r-p-a-s-q-u-a you swear we're
referring to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel all right matthew uh
why don't you tell the board a little bit about the history of this property and its historic
significance yeah thank you alan um so yeah this is known as the conkling armstrong house it was
built in the late 19th century by conkling and armstrong who were manufacturers of terracotta
facade materials their main factory was on wissahickon it produced a lot of terracotta