street uh and again this also shows the timely posted zoning posters the second image here is
looking a little bit further uh down on north phillip street the property is basically to the
right of the photo and you can see here basically half of the block on north phillips street a
little bit further way down is uh residential and then the other half facing american street
is dominantly industrial commercial this is a view of the property from diamond street where
again you'll see that auto repair and window tint business that is directly next to this property
and i believe was recently renovated looking in the opposite direction of the property there are
a few mixed residential commercial structures as well as a new multi-family just off of north
second street just off of diamond and then again this next image is looking east on diamond street
where again you can see the fairly clear lack of dominant single-family character in this particular
area. And then looking west on Diamond Street, this is directly next to the property, where again
you can see the large commercial child care center next door, and then across the street is where
that office building is, I believe, under construction. And then this is the zoning
posters that were posted on Diamond Street. So the zoning plans are shown at Exhibit 9, which again
is identical to that which was approved and permitted in 2020. The proposal itself calls
for the erection of a four-story structure to be used as a multifamily dwelling with eight dwelling
units. The structure itself meets all of the dimensional requirements of the code.
And if I zoom in on the zoning plans, although a nine-foot rear yard is required, you can see here
that the structure itself will actually be set back 12 feet from the next adjacent
lot on north phillips street which happens to be a vacant city-owned lot
the floor plans are included at exhibit 10. overall there are eight units each over a thousand
square feet the cellar level includes bike storage trash storage mechanical and tenant storage
The two first floor units also have a small flexible living space on that lower level as well.
All of the units themselves have ample living space in unit laundry and in unit trash closets in addition to that trash storage area in the cellar level as well.
Commercial trash pickup will be required for this building.
as i mentioned logan dry is here and he can explain the floor plans in any additional detail
that the board requires but the units themselves you can see are all fairly uniform in size and
layout we did also include a rendering of the building at exhibit 11. now as i mentioned in
In 2020, the project itself was reviewed and granted relief based on two refusals at the
This time, under current restrictions, the application only received one refusal for
the proposed multifamily use.
You can see in 2020, the refusals were for density and lack of commercial, and now the
and lack of commercial and now the refusal is just for the proposed multi-family
refusal is just for the proposed
we submit that the board can consider several hardships granting authorizing grant of relief
of this request first just basically starting with the history of the property any remaining
structures on this particular lot were seemingly demolished sometime back in the 60s and it has
remained entirely vacant since then furthermore as i've shown at exhibit 12 and i'll bring up the
zoning plan here this exact project was reviewed and approved by the board and granted variances
based on the refusal that i showed a few minutes ago that request was pursued by a prior owner of
the property my client now is the new owner of the property who is just looking to re-entitle
this identical project unfortunately not only did the zoning of the property itself change
but it became even more restrictive and entirely out of character with the context of this
particular section of diamond street the property itself suffered unique hardships in terms of
density back in 2020 and although the commercial use itself is no longer required the hardships
preventing development of single-family dwellings remain.
As you can see on Exhibit 6, let me zoom back out on this.
The uses of surrounding properties here would foreclose the development of unsubsidized single-family homes on this particular lot,
which was actually consolidated under former ownership.
most of the surrounding uses of properties facing diamond street are either industrial
automotive or are substantially sized commercial developments on parcels like the one across the
street that are significantly larger furthermore there are multitude of existing and multi-family
developments just even in this view alone development supporting 13 units 18 units
And if I happen to zoom out more, there would be even more orange dots up and down North Phillip Street and North 2nd Street, indicating the presence of multifamily dwellings.
I did include a full list of nearby multifamily and their densities in the memo of law at Exhibit 13.
we do submit this as the least minimum variance as no dimensional variances are necessary and
is completely identical to the development that was previously approved on this lot
just by way of comparison if this lot was zoned rm1 the eight proposed units would actually be
permitted by right here so it is perfectly comparable to the rm1 densities that surround
the property the layout itself also supports the finding with eight well appointed units that are
that are quite large we also submit this will not increase congestion given the character of this
area and the transit oriented nature of this particular development it will not impair light
and air or negatively impact surrounding properties nor will it place any undue burden on facilities
utilities or cause any environmental damage pollution or erosion we submit that the
the variance complies in full with section 14303 of the code and again is further detailed in the
memo of law just one final note when the board heard this case in 2020 it received a letter of
opposition from the community this time around the developer was able to work with the community to
execute a cba of mutually acceptable terms and we're very happy to say that the community was
supportive of the project this time around uh so i'm happy to bring my client on adopt my testimony
and answer any questions who's your client dan hirsch out okay
Good morning, Mr. Chair. This is Jason Hand. I'm stepping in temporarily. Dan Herschel has
been promoted. They'll be coming back in shortly. Dan, could you please state your
name and spell for the stenographer? Let's be back in shortly. Sure.
hey hello everyone thank you meredith please please state your name and spell it for the
stenographer surely yeah dan hershout d-a-n last name h-i-r-s-h-o-u-t
Sure, Leah. Dan Hirschhout, D-A-N, last name H-I-R-S-H-O-U-T.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told the truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Dan, can you confirm you have authority to speak on behalf of SAV Investments, LLC?
And you've been present and heard all the testimony and evidence that I offered in front of the board today?
Do you agree that testimony was true and accurate, and would you adopt it as if you had provided it to the board yourself?
yes happy to answer questions from the board yeah question how's how are you dealing with mail and
deliveries dan are you able to address that question well there's going to be a um obviously
there'll be an interior uh mailbox but maybe i would defer to our architect to give you a more
exact uh location of the mailboxes in the process and and how yeah so and of course folks are getting
a lot of uh amazon deliveries so box areas for boxes and how does it work and if you can show
that on the plan how do you do are we dealing with that where's the architect yeah logan dry please
i don't i don't see on anything on this first floor that shows
a mail room or we're somewhere to place boxes or
or anything there is a long corridor yeah while we're waiting for logan i mean i think
i think just even logan in the audience do you do you see him if logan drives in the audience
to come back in as a panelist now ah there he is logan could you please state your name is
spelled for the stenographer sure logan dry l-o-g-a-n-d-r-y you swear affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel okay logan you heard uh board members
question concerning uh mail on the first floor can you confirm that just given the size uh of
these units and the first floor layout that there would be ample space to add a uh a designated mail
area yeah i mean you know right now that staircase off of um phillips street has a has a corridor
that's separated from the staircase but um if we needed to uh do like a separate designated
area we could always bump a small space either off of that corridor to enlarge it where they
could possibly fit you know something more suited for packages or in unit two we could bump into
that space as well to make a dedicated package space there's plenty of room on the first floor
to add that if that was yeah because right now right now your hallway appears to be probably
four feet maybe four and a half feet so you know yeah we could we could we could get another two
feet or so and then easily get you know a more dedicated like package or mailbox counter um the
back corridor that goes into the yard is a little bit tighter but i would probably do it off of
phillips street just because um it's probably the most realistic place that we're going to meet the
usps standards for packages and mailboxes that sort of thing when it's inside but
and the trash you have commercial trash pickup and everybody has access to the trash room and
the basement right yep other questions is the thought that the tenants are going to walk down
the four flights of stairs for those that are living on the fourth floor to dispose of their
trash in the basement or is the management company planning to manage trash at each
for for the building logan or dan are you able to address that question
well yeah i was going to say physically yes they go down the stairs unless you know dan has
a management company that comes around and collects it from each unit um i'm not sure on
that arrangement but yeah physically you'd have to go down the stairs whether it's the tenants or
um you know management but maybe dan can speak a little bit more to how he manages the properties
and trash and stuff like that when it's commercial pickup yeah absolutely i mean we're going to plan
to be through there basically and even on a daily basis to keep the premises clean so we can arrange
something you know that's uh that'll be you know win-win for everybody involved most importantly
not to put someone out of uh you know the physicality of going up and down before eight
eight flights of steps so that certainly can be worked into the property management agreements
and we already do this at a number of other properties where we even have like a valet service
how many of your other properties are fourth floor walk-ups uh there's two others two others okay so
you do have experience with this yeah and are they a similar number of units in the building
in the building basically you know nice roomy uh you know layouts okay other questions questions
Basically, you know, nice roomy, you know, layouts.
from our attorney not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission give me that michael gall with
the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the previous cmx2 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location in 2021 in a council
support its community remapping this property was remapped to rsa 5 residential single family
attached under the previous cmx2 base zoning six residential units would be allowed here by right
therefore the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed variants for
multi-family use but at a recommended proviso with a maximum of six residential units
and by 2025 0 0 7 0 1 0 1 5 203 to 09 diamond street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
sarah gaston my vote is yes it's another graham my vote is yes i went my vote is yes
thank you thanks guys thank you all right thank you okay yeah so next one is mi 2025
95-007-019-432, East Gerrard Avenue.
Michael Agnell is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from Fishtown Neighbors,
unanimous support from Fishtown Kensington Business,
and no opposition from Council Member Squillin.
Sir, could you please, by the way, we're sorry you're the last one.
Oh, I'm glad you fit.
You know, I mean, you know, could you please state your name and spell for this stenographer?
Yeah. Hi, my name is Michael Eggnall, M-I-C-H-A-E-L, last name E-G-N-A-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Right. My clients are the owners of the LLC that owns the property. I'm going to make sure that they're here.
But Nestor and Edison should be okay in there, and also Michelle Kashuk from parallel architecture is also planning to join us.
Okay, so why don't we, why don't the or vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
We have, and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
We do. Okay, thank you. You can see your screen and proceed.
Thank you.
so 432 and 434 east gerard avenue are two adjacent masonry structures at the corner of
east gerard avenue and earl street that you see there they're currently two separate tax parcels
and part of this application is combining the two into a single property and that that generated the
refusals in addition to i'm coming to the side here filling in the second and third stories with
additions within the existing footprint also generated the refusals we received a referral
for a special exception because the restaurant use requires a special exception within the nca overlay
I didn't want to switch so that's the existing condition to give you a sense of the streetscape we're directly adjacent to another restaurant, which is our only neighbor.
I want to show you that there.
here. So the full screen. Can you see this? Okay. So the, I'm showing you, you saw the existing
condition the rendering is the we're maintaining the existing structure and we're planning to
let's see
there we go the plan is to fill in an addition within the existing footprint at the second and
third stories, and that would be residential use. The two buildings will be combined across the
first floor, and that will be a restaurant. The owners of the building already own and operate
a restaurant in Philadelphia, and they're similarly going to bring the same use here
that they already are successful with elsewhere. The community and the business improvement district
were supportive of this because these are seasoned operators. They're restoring an existing building.
seasoned operators, they're restoring an existing building, they're bringing back retail activity at
They're bringing back retail activity.
the ground level, and they've given consideration for handicap access, trash management, and they're
planning to operate a family-friendly business that won't have late business hours, and yeah,
that resonated with the community. So at that point, I'd like to invite Michelle Keshek, if she's
here to um speak to the the design itself okay why don't we why don't we um yep
they are coming back in as a panelist right now
hello hi could you please state your name as bellford's photographer
Yes, Michelle Kleshek, M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E, Kleshek, K-L-E-S-C-H-I-C-K.
Thank you.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Michelle, why don't you take us through the layout and, you know, speak to the life safety things and, you know, just to the layout of the restaurant in general?
Okay. Yeah, so you did a pretty good job of explaining the, you know, the overall concept of the building.
We do have the openings in the first floor allow flow between the two sides.
We've raised the floor in a portion of the building because the two buildings are a different level on the first floor.
So we wanted to make sure that we had seating that was accessible since we were going to take the time to put the ramp in there.
um so we raised the floor and a portion of the fourth floor so you can come in and then
you know navigate throughout the public space of the building on the first floor
um in the back of the house we have the trash area and the storage area and then um access