i can't remember the name of it right now rocksborough reserve yeah isn't that correct correct
Thank you.
Do we have any other questions from the board?
Question from the audience?
Any questions from the virtual audience?
Mr. H, who was A? Mr. A, are you available?
There, now I'm available. Can you hear me?
There you go, yes.
I input video.
Lou Egger, that's who it is.
Please state your name and spell it for the court reporter.
My name is Louis Ager, L-O-U-I-S-A-G-R-E.
I am the head of the 21st Ward Democrats RCO and also a neighborhood resident.
I have I had a couple issues.
The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed.
A couple of things.
One is when we had the first meeting, I asked the attorney for the developer.
to tell me who was going to be doing the work because there's a lot of runoff there and people's
houses have been getting flooded with dirt and other things and I want to make sure that the
people doing the work are responsible and responsive to the community and not going to just
make get 20 calls from people whose basements are filling up with dirt as has happened on
other developments in that area on Ridge and Henry Avenue because it's on a slope. Number two is that
But the way the the plans are now, it's going to be very dangerous when trucks are in there and they have to turn around because there's no place for them to turn around.
They're going to be backing into Ridge Avenue. And if you ever been on Ridge Avenue with all the new construction, traffic is very, very bad and it's very unsafe.
So we the 21st Ward RCO is is of the position that there should be some either make it a cul-de-sac or something else so that trucks can exit, you know, safely and also that the work is going to be done.
And so the neighbors below that are not flooded or are not covered with runoff, as has happened in numerous developments in that area.
Thank you, Mr. Egger. Anything else you want to add?
No, thank you very much, members of the board.
Thank you. Anyone else in a virtual audience?
so my name is valerie hallman i'm a resident of uh the dirley park area
for the court reporter please sure it's v-a-l-e-r-i-e and the last name is hallman
h-a-l-l-m-a-n i reside the whole you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth yes i do please proceed okay um i've attended two of these prior zba meetings i've
looked over the plans several times my biggest concern actually i have two concerns but my first
concern in terms of detail is the width between the houses that is supposed to provide ingress
and egress to both the residents and to whatever emergency vehicles and to delivery vehicles
and the like.
I tried to do some research, and I do not claim to be an expert.
And I do not claim to be an expert, but it's my understanding that if you were to try and pull a 24-foot truck in there, which is probably the average length of a regular delivery truck, delivering appliances or moving truck,
because we're talking about a wheelbase of about 20 feet but a length of about 24 you would need
way more width on that egress to enable that truck to get out safely now what's been proposed
by the developer is that they if the truck can't turn around or do a three-point turn and somehow
get out front-wise, they're going to back into Ridge Avenue. Now, if you ask me, that is
foolhardy and very dangerous. It's not only dangerous to me as a neighbor, it's dangerous
to the residents of this complex, which is why the solution would be to create some sort of
turnaround cul-de-sac, which may mean they have to reduce the number of houses that they plan
to build here. I can tell you based on when you go on the web and you research what in the
trucking world is called a K-turn, that there is definitely not enough width. Is there enough width
for a passenger car, I thoroughly agree. There's enough width for a passenger car. Is there enough
width for a van? Well, it depends on how long the van is and what kind of turning radius it is
capable of. But I will say that with the 19 or 20 foot clearance, maybe a van can get in and out
without having to back off back into the ridge. But that will not be true of a garbage truck.
It will not be true of an emergency vehicle. It will not be true of a moving van. It will not be
true of anything that you can conceive that is larger. Now, that area of Ridge, highly traveled.
As a consequence, you're going to back up traffic from Domino Lane to Weigard Avenue as any large
truck tries to get in and out of that egress. At the same time, you're going to be endangering
pedestrians. And not just pedestrians on the side of the street where this development is planned,
but right across the street is the Ridge's YMCA. And you're going to have kids who go to school.
You have kids who go to school at Shawmont who walk down Ridge to get home. That's an elementary
school you have kids uh in the other direction it's going to be a mess without a cul-de-sac
um now if you want to test me on this please go to google where they talk about trucking and
trucking radiuses and passenger vehicle radiuses etc but it's my understanding that the rule of
thumb is you take the size of the truck, not just wheelbase to wheelbase, but the actual length of
the truck, and you multiply it by 2.5. Ms. Hellman, so are you in favor of the project or not in favor
of the project? No, I'm not in favor of the project unless they're willing to do a call this
out. And we need to move on, so thank you so much. Well, you do understand the concern. The second
point I would say is why are we poking holes into the established zoning plan which was voted on
by our representatives it seems that we try to find exception after exception and then once we
find an exception for one developer we lever that to find an exception for another developer
so that by the end of the day you have a zoning plan that has swiss cheese in the plan for your
comments, we have to move on. And we will mark that for the record that you are in opposition
of this project. Thank you. Moving on to the next one is going to be M. Oh, this, we're
going to. Oh, yeah, one more hand. Dorothy French, they have been allowed to speak, Mr.
Chair. Please state your name and spell it for the record. My name is Dorothy French,
F-R-E-N-C-H
Ms. French, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Yeah, I want to raise my objections to this plan as proposed.
raise my objections to this plan as proposed. It is too dense. The houses are too close together
and do not have the 25-foot separation that the code calls for. And, furthermore, the central
aisle, which does not have a cul-de-sac, is going to be a danger to pedestrians and traffic on Ridge
Avenue and to the general area. If there was a turnaround, like there is in Epiphany Place,
there's a nearby development at the rear of the ShopRite supermarket, that allows circulation to
turn around in a logical and safe way. And other developments nearby also have
cul-de-sacs. This is a fairly normal build for many developments. In fact, Roxburgh Reserve,
right behind this development, has two turnaround cul-de-sacs, which allows traffic to
safely turn around and then exit facing forward onto Ridge Avenue. So I submit that this is going
to be a problem as proposed. My community, I am in fact the president of the RCO, Darnley Park
Civic Association. I'm also the next door neighbor to this, and people are opposed to this. We have
voted in opposition to this project. We submit that it is too dense, and the traffic proposal
will not work. Thank you so much, Ms. French. Thank you. We're going to move on to the next
person we have. The next person is Teresa Kemmerer. They have been allowed to speak.
Kemmerer, please state your name and spell it for the court reporter.
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. They all put their hand down. You can proceed.
Do we have anyone else in the virtual audience? No further answer, Mr. Chair.
i understand she may be still there um yeah she's i am i am here are you asking for theresa
kayler yes can you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter yes this is
theresa kayler t-h-e-r-e-s-a last name kayler k-e-h-l-e-r miss kayler do you swear to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed uh so i just wanted
to speak on this in the fact that we are the neighboring RCO to the Durnley Park Civic.
I wanted to let everyone know officially on the record that we had voted to be in non-opposition
of this project after several meetings with the developer in which they had addressed many of our
concerns. And we had agreed to, at this point, not oppose the... We take one of two stances. We
We had voted as a board not to oppose going forward once certain changes were made to address our concerns.
Full disclosure, we are not the RCO that governs this area, but at the time that the development plans were being submitted, there was no active RCO governing this area.
So myself as the president of the abutting CRTO and the abutting RCO president from the other end of this area had met with the developer many, many times, had addressed the concerns.
He had addressed many of our concerns and he had to reduce the density of the project.
So I just wanted to go on record for him as saying that our RCO, the Upper Roxborough Civic Association, voted to not oppose.
And we do appreciate the multiple meetings that he showed up to both in person on the site and via Zoom for both civic associations to be a part of.
I do recognize that Durnley Park Civic has been resurrected since that time, and we do, of course, you know, respect their opinion as the civic association that is governing that area now.
We just wanted to stand to say that the developer had been very receptive to the other two RCOs that were the only ones in play at the time that this started.
Thank you, Ms. Keller, for your testimony. Do we have anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair, Marlene Schleifer has been allowed to speak.
Ms. Schleifer, can you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
My name is Marlene Schleifer. It's M-A-R-L-E-N-E. My last name is S-C-H-L-E-I-F as in Frank, E-R.
and i am the president of rich park civic association and also it's rco representative
the whole truth and nothing but the truth absolutely yes so we did we did receive your
Absolutely, yes.
So we did receive your RCO letter, and we understand where your position is. Is there anything else you would like to just add so we can get everyone's testimony on the record?
No, I think the letter is self-explanatory. We worked extensively with the developers who listened to everything we had to say,
and they came down from a significantly larger project to this one and we feel that we felt
that it was reasonable and at the time Durnley Park Civic was inactive so we were asked by the
councilman's office to get involved which we did um so we support this and uh we hope that you will
too thank you very much um thank you for your testimony as well um do we have anyone else in
virtual audience? Yes, Jacob Bash. He has been about to speak.
Hi, my name is Jacob Bosch.
Bosch, can you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Jacob Bosch, J-A-C-O-B-B-A-S-C-H.
You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes. Are you in favor of this project? I am.
thank you anyone else in the virtual audience all right we're moving on to planning
thank you again chair michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends a change to the zoning at this location from rsd3 residential
single family detached to rsd1 the property sits on a block that has been heavily altered in recent
years in filling and abutting rsd zoned property with 30 detached single-family homes the appellant
has not demonstrated that the proposed multi-family development would not have detrimental impacts but
beyond what might be expected therefore the city planning commission recommends the board grant
the requested variances for multiple principal uses of and buildings and maximum occupied lot area
and grant the requested variance for multi-family household use but with a proviso recommended of
maximum 10 units thank you uh we're going to close the record can we just respond to that briefly
sure just given the nature of the resumption hearing i just want to sorry just give the
nature of the resumption hearing i just want to remind everyone that the whole premise of reducing
to the 12 units was to be consistent with the rsd3 designation this is a 60 000 square foot lot so
5 000 per lot is required there's 12 homes at 60 000 square feet 12 is the appropriate density
And we did present expert testimony from traffic, a traffic engineer specifying how our traffic plan worked.
And we were responsive to several community concerns about that.
So we just wanted to make sure the board was mindful of all the prior testimony that has occurred.
As we know, this has been an ongoing process.
It's fitting we resume today.
It's two years to the date when our clients first presented this.
So it's been a long process.
We thank you so much.
We thank you for your patience and all the time you put into this project.
Appreciate it.
thank you and we will we will hold the vote until um next week at 2 p.m um we need some members
because we've had a multi-part hearing and we've had different forums hearing it we will need
members to review different parts of the video so that they can all be prepared to vote but the
record is otherwise closed great thank you thank you thank you so yeah we'll be closing this and
We'll vote on it next week at 2 p.m.
May I be permitted to say something in conclusion?
It's already closed at this point.
I got it.
Counsel?
Unfortunately, we've already closed the record on that.
Sorry about that.
Is Mr. Goodman available as of yet?
Is he ready?
All right. Can we please promote Mr. Goodman?
All right. He will be coming back in as a panelist shortly, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Hello?
Good afternoon.
afternoon uh can you please state your name again and dispel it for the court reporter we just want
to get it on the record before you uh go into your presentation yeah it's William Goodman
thank you do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yep all right um please proceed and you've already got your testimony on file
please share your screen
Share the screen.
Share the screen.
Where are we at here with sharing?
There you go.
I think so.
Can they see the screen?
Can you see the screen?
Not as of yet.
All right, hold on.
it would be that green button at the bottom of your screen
green button let's make it yep and just make sure you have the documents already
oh there it is and then you want to click on the documents that you would like to share
this one that one yeah yeah look at it
there you go now can they see it now you can see it now right
yes thank you
let me see what I'm here
where's my cursor