of the market that's going on in this neighborhood and because of the price that we're paying for
this land or this building it's just not feasible to do single family homes they would be much more
expensive um and we would probably attract a small group of buyers in this neighborhood
we're trying to make it more affordable for young couples and young families to move into this
neighborhood with a lower price point and we've done that very successfully in this neighborhood
i've done that very successfully in this neighborhood in the past and we'd like to
continue doing that in the future um i do a lot of fundraising and in the neighborhood and i've
going around and spoke to a lot of neighbors um to make sure everyone was okay with the proposal
before we'd move forward with anything and we had a lot of community support and i'm very happy
with uh what's what's going on now and you've met personally with the immediate neighbors uh that
abut uh the property and you've had you've had conversations with them and you've offered
yourself uh available to them for questions and concerns right yes i have on multiple occasions
And the corner lot at the corner of Moore and Moyamensing will be developed with their input, correct, in the future?
Yes, it will.
And as a realtor, the units that will not have parking, first of all, you're prohibited from, you would need additional variances to put parking along Moyamensing, correct?
Correct.
And it's a very walkable street along Moyamensing.
We didn't want to go for parking on that avenue because it's such a nice avenue where it's walkable.
You have a farmer's market and a park a block away.
We just wanted to keep it very walkable for the community where you don't have a driveway on a major street like that.
Right. And you're putting back some on-street parking because there's an existing curb hut there presently, correct?
Yes, we are.
Right. And this is the most credible development proposal that you've had since the property's been vacant. Would you agree?
That's correct, yes.
Okay. I have no other questions, Mr. Chairman, and that's our proposal.
Unless you have any questions of my witnesses, I would say that, oh, we do have the Penn Support letter.
Yeah, and a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Squillip.
There you go.
okay any any questions from the board any questions from no no what else would like
to testify in this case if so please raise your hand and i'll swear you in chair i have ryan
boland ryan you can omit yourself and wait to be sworn good afternoon mr boland please
identify yourselves by your name and provide us with your address
ryan you have to unmute yourself
he may be on my other case
oh he's with you well he's a he's an attorney for the 2000 spring garden matter all right
we'll move on uh anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
here i have samantha drake samantha you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn
good afternoon ma'am please identify yourself spell your name and provide us with your address
good afternoon chairman my name is samantha drake i just recently um your last name please
D-R-A-K-E.
And your address?
1822 East Moya Mensing Avenue.
Thank you.
Swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
I am very new to this issue.
I just recently purchased the property at 1822, which is immediately adjacent to the
eModa building and I wanted to request an opportunity to review the site plan
and the exhibits and materials that have been provided today. I haven't had any contact
with the owner or the buyer or the architect and
I'm sort of especially interested because we share a wall with the eModa building.
uh rich would you yeah i would say as follows uh i do want to inform the board that this
particular developer has been delayed uh due to the covet crisis he has revised his plan he is
asking for a vote today it would be yeah we're going to do that well i would appreciate we're
happy to work with miss drake provide she could let me let me get there okay asking you to provide
miss drake with all the necessary materials she needs we can move forward with the vote if there's
a concern she can always ask for a rehearing that's not to suggest it would be granted but
there is another mechanism should there be any issues so please provide her with all the
information that she requests all she has to do is email me or call me i'll email her everything or
Brian. Let her know how to contact you. We'd appreciate it. All right. Okay. Anyone else
testify in this case? Here I have a Patrick Fitzmaurice. You're going to mute yourself and
wait to be sworn in. Good afternoon, Patrick. Please identify yourself with a record. Spell
your last name. Good afternoon. This is Pat Fitzmaurice. I'm the president of the Penn
support civic association my last name is spelled f-i-t-z-m-a-u-r-i-c-e you swearing for him to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed uh good afternoon uh i apologize
for getting our letter uh out on friday morning um you know any delay was my fault not due to
anything on the part of the applicant so i hope you'll excuse the the small delay no worries no
I appreciate that. And again, in the interest of full disclosure, you know, as Mr. Neuswanger noted, he is the chairman of the Civic Association Zoning Board.
He played no role in the consideration or voting on this or in drafting our letter.
I meant to say that.
I just want to put that out there. And that's in our letter as well.
The immediate neighbor who owned the property prior to this was heavily involved in this process.
You know, I appreciate her concerns. And barring her request and exception, I would just like to add the following.
You know, as far as the dimensional variances that are requested, in our opinion, they're reasonable, and our letter more fully explains.
We don't ordinarily oppose reasonable requests.
As far as the multifamily use, again, our letter more fully explains, but our RCO remains concerned about density generally.
Our letter more fully explains, but our RCO remains concerned about density generally, particularly related to parking and quality of life.
We have opposed multifamily requests in the past when these concerns exist or are otherwise raised by the neighbors.
However, in this instance, we feel that the applicant has reasonably addressed these concerns.
While there are a number of units that will add to density and parking, because of the on-site parking provided,
our understanding based on the representations made at the meeting is that this project should put as many cars on the street
as building the same number of single-family structures would.
Furthermore, these are owner-occupied units which can address some potential quality-of-life issues.
Unlike prior applications which we have opposed, this is not a current in-use single-family structure
in which the applicant seeks to double occupancy,
contributing to the issues I just mentioned with no demonstrable benefit to the community.
Rather, this is an out-of-use warehouse that's had vacant for many, many years.
I believe that some neighbors may favor single-family use,
but we are aware that over the years a number of potential owners have been unable to find a
suitable use for this parcel accordingly the proposed project may contribute to benefiting
the community by finding some use for this parcel therefore increasing the quality of life
accordingly we are not opposed to this this application thank you thank you for your
testimony if you wouldn't mind maybe you can reach out to miss drake as well introduce yourself to her
and make you familiar with the pensport civic uh having said that any other any other individuals
would like to testify in this case no chair you can proceed thank you planning commission
good afternoon board peter bernard for the planning commission
these properties are designated for single family residential use in the comprehensive plan
we feel the proposal represents an overuse of the site and recommend the number of units be reduced
additionally we would note that the price of land is not a hardship accordingly we object
to the granting of the variance.
Understood. Thank you.
MI 2020-0015851800
East Des Moines and Metzing Avenue.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Professor, what I'm going to do is number six.
Since it's going to be their third hearing,
I'm going to move that to the back as well
because that usually takes a lot of time.
So we'll move on to number seven is continued.
We'll move on to number eight, MI 2020,
that's 001565211 South Christopher Columbus Boulevard.
Excuse me, this is Sharon Soletti,
Michael Marrione
Yes, I was just going to say
if you could check your
text messages, there is another add-on
for 3818 Aspen
This is just a
follow-up report hearing from
Mr. Mulvihill to report on the
further communications with the
community. Yeah, all I saw when
you sent me was 909
North 26
and 7519
9 Ridge Avenue. Okay, I'll resend this. Okay, thank you. Okay, Mr. Mattione. Good afternoon,
Mr. Chairman. Please identify yourself. Sure, Michael Mattione, M-A-T-T-I-O-N-I, Federal Reserve
Bank Building, 100 North Independence Mall, Suite 5A Northwest, Philadelphia, 19106.
We're in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
I do. I have with me today Alfred Hornick, who is the principal.
Mr. Marioni, you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to attack her?
It is a referral, and yes.
Yes. Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents,
proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the referral,
photos, and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes, we do.
So please proceed.
Thank you.
Excuse me.
This is Sharon interrupting you again.
I apologize.
But we also have a letter from a non-opposition from Councilman Squilla with certain provisos.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sharon.
Yes, we received the letter from the RCO yesterday and also the letter from Councilmember Squilla yesterday.
Councilmember Squilla's conditions are the same ones that the RCO asked us that we agreed to work with.
I also have Avram Hornick today with me. He's the Principal of the Tenant, who's my client,
and Michael Flynn, who is the Executive Director of the Independent Seaport Museum.
They are the landlord, and he is also on today.
They are the landlord, and he is also on today.
And I also believe that Paul Bonney
And I also believe that Paul Bonney is on.
He is from the RCO, but they are in support.
Mr. Hornick, I'm going to share my screen.
Excuse me.
Are we up?
Yes, sir, we are.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I just want to make sure.
Okay, and there is the application and referral.
This involves the Independent Seaport Museum, a longstanding museum.
First here is our letter of support from the Society Health Civic Association.
We met with them on the 26th of October, and they support the application as long as we agreed to the eight provisos, and the provisos were mainly dealing with types of use, specific types of use, noise, light, kitchen odors, et cetera, and we agreed to all of their conditions.
And that was, again, followed up by the letter from Councilmember Sculler in non-opposition based upon our meeting with the Society Hill Civic.
Now, the Independent Seaport Museum, the museum itself is staying.
What we were talking about is Avram Hornet coming in.
He is a successful operator of restaurants and entertainment venues in Philadelphia, including Morgan's Pier, Kraft Hole, Rizzo Taco, Parks on Tap, and many others.
and we provided again all the required exhibits and he's got a signed agreement to operate
the restaurant concessions at the independent seaport museum with indoors and outdoors this
is a cmx4 zone property so the restaurant use itself is a permitted use by right what is not
permitted or permitted as a special exception is an outdoor use of the decks at the museum.
So Mr. Hornick is going to place a restaurant. This used to be the theater. He's going to place
a restaurant in the theater at the ground floor and also on the second floor, and that will be
indoors and also on the roof of that. You will also have on the second floor that I'm pointing
out. This is an outdoor area, and he's going to have dining here. He will have dining on
the roof, and then I have to go down to the next plan, which is also at the ground floor
You will have seating outside, this is a patio area, and this is the seating at the second floor level, and also seating on the roof of the restaurant at the second floor level, and there is also seating on the third floor level as well.
There's a further deck up here and that is used by private catering that is not used by Mr. Hornick,
but these areas are all what he's talking about, having the outdoor dining,
lectures, boat building, educational performances, and live music on these outdoor areas.
And if I show you a couple photos, it will help make it a little bit easier to understand as well.
Here's looking at the museum from the south, and you can see this area here, and this area
you can't see at all on the second floor level, and then this area, the U-shaped area here
the third floor level and there's another photo that shows as well okay
again this shows the outdoor area right here and right over here that are also going to
be part of the seating so you have seating area here all the way around seating area on top here
they're going to take down this parapet wall so you're going to have great views of the river