pieces for the city as well as the whole eastern seaboard and into the midwest and they were a
large manufacturer of a truly american piece of architectural history they built these houses as
their own residences and then also sort of a showcase of some of their products and their
capabilities at their factory so all these ornate window details and banding and cornice lines and
all of that were manufactured by their company for their houses to sort of show their potential
clients what they were capable of. And yeah, I mean, they lived here for a while, and then it
went through a different, you know, round of ownership, like Alan said, multifamily use, etc.
Until finally, it was abandoned for a long time, and our clients picked it up and are trying to
restore it. For the rear addition, we decided that trying to match all of these ornate features of
the front building is not a tenable solution. So we tried to, you know, take context from the rear
street, Estelle Street, as well as some of the more modest neighboring buildings to, you know,
inspire our new design. So in this presentation, you'll see a handful of other projects we took
photos of um that are of the same period of the conkling armchair house but are not as ornate
so it's a little more feasible for us to construct yeah so matthew i actually have like uh let's
let's go through the uh site plan as well as the side elevations uh so first i want to point the
board's direction uh to the rear parking as you can see uh we use a pre-existing curb cut of 24
inches and we have three parking spaces on each property and to allow for proper traffic flow we
have an easement that's been created between the two properties we also have trash in the back
um but why don't you i i objected to the refusal as to the heights in the rear um just to confirm
uh this is the the actual height to to the roof line right matthew 36 feet 11 inches
that's correct all right is there anything else on this drawing that we can point the board's direction to
Is there anything else on this drawing that we can point the board's direction to?
So as you can see on the left side, that sort of diagonal hatch is our addition, and then the solid gray hatch is the existing building.
So you can see there is sort of a mezzanine or a short fourth floor attic space on the right side, and that is where that non-compliant height comes from.
and we are more or less matching the height of the third story on the rear portion of the existing
building for our new portion. And we have compliance with the side yard setbacks of
eight feet for both buildings. That's correct. Each of these houses are being developed as
independent homes or, you know, residences. So we kept an eight foot side yard in order to
provide tenant access to the building where we have the entrance to the building actually coming
in off of the side yard and this is for a few reasons one it works better for the stair layout
but then it also puts living space on the first floor along a stow street across the parking lot
so instead of having the main sort of non-inhabited residential entrance on the first floor front we
decided to put living rooms on the front instead yeah and then we have two entrances one on either
side for the rear portion for the addition and then we are maintaining the two front entrances
off of tioga for the entrance for the tenants that live on the existing building side yeah and
by continuing with the side yard everyone has access from front to back of the property including
the trash areas right correct yeah and then to go back to you know trash maintenance and storage
while we go into the actual floor plans there are ventilated trash areas within those units
themselves yes all right uh let's see is there anything different on this well this is the same
one uh anything on this drawing that would be of relevance to the board uh we are just showing uh
where the building would be visible from this is more for the historic commission but these three
photographs are from tioga 23rd street and astao street showing where these the the addition would
be visible from yeah and you did make the presentation uh by way of the historic
commission approval process what were their thoughts about the project correct yeah they
were in full support um they saw the significance of the existing structure and the dilapidated
nature of it and are supportive of any effort to try to maintain it restore it all right well let's
just go through the floor plans here so you were mentioning the front of these properties um i i
would almost equate it to almost like two buildings in one right yeah absolutely almost four buildings
and two if you think of it that way because we do have the property line down the center there is a
shared party wall running you know front or top to bottom of the page here so um just to orient
everybody. Tioga Street would be on the bottom of the page. Stow Street on the top of the page.
The first plan on the left is the basement plan. The only basement that we have is the existing
portion. There's no basement. There's only a crawl space on the addition. So the front entrances would
be the second plan in from the left. And they are sort of highlighted or not in white. So as Alan is
scrolling over them. You can see we have one on the left side, one on the right side,
and they both enter into a shared hallway and then to a staircase.
Yeah. There are. Go ahead. Sorry. I was going to say, so you have unit number 101 on both
in the front, unit 102 a little further in the existing building structure, right?
Correct. Yes. So those are the two on the first floor that are accessed from Tioga.
and then from the rear we have 103 and 104 and they are accessed off of a stow street
and you can see again those white hallways and staircases in the center of the building
those are all shared go all the way up to the third floor and the rear six units two four six
eight units sorry access up there so yeah we broke down the units by color so you can kind
orient yourselves and see you know where one unit starts and one unit stops and then the white also
shows you where those units are accessed from um the only again the only space we have in the
basement is in the existing building where there is a current basement and you know 101 and 102
on either side have access to that basement yeah and for each building uh structure there's 12 units
eight one bedrooms and four two bedrooms that's correct uh yes i believe so all right and then
you know the only other floor that has a bi-level or not bi-level but more of a loft
The only other floor that has a bi-level or not bi-level, but more of a loft is the third floor in the front.
Correct. Yes. So the third floor front, so 301 on either side, there is that fourth floor attic space.
We were trying to figure out how to best utilize that.
And according to some building code regulations, we were limited on how big of a space we could put up there without having to add additional staircases.
So we are using this as a mezzanine. So I'm imagining more of an office use on that space, but it would be come down to the tenant.
But that would be open to below. So there's sort of a double height or one and a half height space in those 301 units.
And then there's no roof deck access structures as part of this project, right?
Correct. Yeah, the stairs don't even go up to the roof deck. The maintenance access would be via ladder.
You can see we placed six condensing units on either side right above the staircase as to not disturb the people below.
And it'd make it easier for the board to see the drawings, too.
We kind of gave like four examples of different types of units out there in the buildings.
Right. So we're not exhaustive with our unit plans.
We just wanted to show sort of a snapshot of what we were offering in the market of rental apartments in the area.
So you can see we have a lot of one bedrooms, the like heavy gray walls.
Those are existing walls and kind of orient which ones are new, which ones are existing that way.
So the first two on the left here, those are within the existing building.
So we were kind of having to work with the existing window layouts and such like that in order to provide the amenities and what everybody expects out of an apartment these days on the right side.
these are two sorry god no i was gonna say i was gonna highlight the fact that you try to leverage
you know the the fact that you have side yards so you have a lot of light and air in the units
with a lot of windows in each of the rooms of course yeah yeah we did what we could to utilize
those windows as best as possible yeah you know um dealing with the fact in the older building you
have you know you have to deal with the historic commission of course right right so we do have um
You know, when we go for final approval with the Historic Commission right now, we just have the in-concept approval, but we will, you know, dimension out and have details for all of these windows to be replaced in the existing structure.
On the two on the right side, those are new units.
So these are mostly within the new portion of the building.
You can see the 1-3R, this actually covers part of the rear of the existing building and then the back portion of the new addition.
So it's a pretty sizable one bedroom unit, you know, dining room, living room, walk in closet, separate laundry room, all that.
And then next to that, we have the yellow unit. That is an example of our two bedroom unit.
It's two bed, two bath. Again, a laundry room, nice kitchen, an area for a dining room, as well as a pretty significant living room as well.
So this is, again, sort of just a snapshot of the units that we are offering in the building.
all right is there anything else you want to share before I go through the rest of my presentation
from an architect uh no now it's time like great all right well let's just go back to give you a
little bit more context in terms of just the neighborhood in general and the condition of
the property so let me just go backwards a little bit all right here are the photos
so this is the current condition of the property as you can see it's been fenced up the property's
been stabilized i'll have brian wise about my testimony as his own but i'll have him specify
how much how much money they have spent just to keep this property afloat because the city has
tried to demo it and they've spent a lot of money just to hopefully get this approval
this is the property in 2008 a little better before you know my clients bought it but still
not functional and then this is the rear of the property from s dog street again you can see here
i should have put another photo but if you go on google street view you'll see like in the past
there were garages back here um which leveraged the the um the curb cut
and then this is our uh proof of posting for both properties
a little rough there uh you know tayoga street to the right of the property
uh to the left of the properties and then from s dog right as well as left
alan what's on either side um i can you mean in terms of i mean are the existing properties
people yeah they're existing properties again the person on s dog to the left of us uh was at the
community meeting and they were very complimentary of of this project i see you know yeah there's not
much going on s dog that's the other thing they're like please activate that street for us because
that street for us because you know when you have like not much going on bad things sometimes
you know when you have like not much going on bad things sometimes
happen right let me uh go through the rest of this go through that
let's see oh this is and again i didn't go with this math but this is basically the house
and and the significant amount of work they're gonna have to do it's like shaded where they're
to have to restore it um and again that goes to you know the price of almost two
months probably over two million dollars to restore this property
and then this is just for a proof of mailing for the community meeting that took place
for both properties our applications for appeal for both properties
the the deeds to both properties owned by wise holding group LLC
and then our certificate of tax clearances uh I will ask that Mr. Wise uh virtually raise his hand
By Mr. Wise, please.
Yes. Good morning.
Mr. Wise, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Brian Wise, B-R-I-A-N-W-I-S-E.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
counsel uh yes brian you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning matter
yes i did is it true and correct yes it is do you adopt this your own testimony
yes i do specifically um i mentioned the figure i want to be accurate um i stated that you spend
around seven hundred thousand dollars just to stabilize this property through today's hearing
is that correct uh that's still correct you a little lower than that i'm looking here at
in our spreadsheet. So we bought the property. The 19th of this month will come up on our fifth
year owning the property. So since then, since purchasing the property, obviously interest
payments, then doing the make safe and then maintain the property with landscaping, snow
removal, fencing, scaffolding. I mean, we're at today 928,000 just to maintain the property.
And this is even before any approvals or any permitting to do the construction work and obviously the historic work that's going to be needed for the facade.
How much would that work entail, like going forward to restore the property to meet historic commission guidelines?
I mean, in my mind, I would like it to be 100 grand, but it's probably going to be more, like you said, a couple of million dollars to do it.
so it's a very ambitious project for us um as we usually do you know affordable housing new
construction regular rehabilitation but obviously this is um something different something special
um so we look forward to you know maintaining and keeping this property alive yeah and you grew up
in the tayoga area right yes all right and and your your your business is affordable housing
Yes. 90% of it, I'll say, is affordable housing. I'll be lying if I said 100%, but it's definitely 90%. That's what we do.
Can you tell the board some of the programs that you're a part of or that your property is a part of?
Yeah. So obviously, we work with PHA. We also work with a program called Babachi. And we just started back with a program for Youth Valley, which actually helps youth occupants when they're coming back.
a lot of them come from like foster care and that program helps them you know re-enter into society
by helping them go through school college and also helping them get a job and then living you
know on their own to help them re-acclimate and to be able to live in society and learn how to do
that from an early age so we just got back with doing that program all right well thank you for
your time all right questions are you welcome thank you yeah i have a question um just could
you pull up the site plan again alan i'm just trying to understand like the addition is now
going to be the entire extent of the to the property line on the style no no no there is
some rear yard oh yeah so i'm sorry this is a 20 uh foot rear yard setback that's where the parking
is okay that's where the parking is so is there any like outdoor space for these tenants no
probably not there is no landscaping in the in the rear but there is no outside parking
And Brian, you can speak to this, because I was at the community meeting, and you know your neighborhood better. It's a tough neighborhood, right?
and brian you can speak to this because i was at the community meeting and you know your neighborhood
There is outside space in the front. We do have a porch area, and there is space in the back for two benches that people can sit outside.
so the porch because originally i feel like in the presentation it was explained that only the
what is it the don't quote me but i want to say like the 9 to 15 units that are in the front half
of the building are going to access through that porch so for the the inhabitants that are going to
access the building through a stow street like it's going to be unlikely that they're going to
spend a ton of time on this porch so i'm just trying to get a sense of like this is a this
is dense like we're in the middle of a block 24 households could be up to 75 people and we've got
no outdoor space this is not the most transit accessible area there's only one bus line here
to get people to center city and we've only got three parking spaces well so not out of character
You know, 2230 West Tioga Street has 10 units, and it's 12 units in total that we're seeking.
Well, for each property, so it's 24 total.
Yeah, but, yeah, you mentioned something about 15.
I just wanted to make sure.
I said there's 15 properties, like, there's 15 units that would access the building through the front porch.
No, it's six and six.
Six and, okay.
Yeah, it's literally five and a half.
But, like, I was saying between nine and 15.
I was just, the numbers weren't in front of me.
No, no, no. I just want to make sure of that because that's when I heard six and nine, like I was thinking you were thinking was 15. It's six and six. There is outdoor space in the front.
Sentiment still stands. We've got 12 units. Half the units are accessing the building through the front porch. Half are going to be coming through that rear access point on Estelle Street. So you've really only got half of the building that's going to really be on that porch.
We also have a narrow there is space there if you pull up the other plane
There is space in the back and then as far as the transportation there's actually I think three bus lines
Which the the depot was right around the corner for 30 the 33 I think
Um for when I remember I used to catch the bus the 33 runs in Center City and also I think it's the
37 minutes to get from there to Center City.
So I think to assume that you're gonna have
almost 70 people that are only gonna use in service
that one bus line seems unlikely.
So I just wanna know like what is the plan,
especially if we're talking about a population
that is sort of reliant on public transportation
and if we're talking about low income individuals