variance that would afford relief and will represent the least modification possible of
the regulations at issue specifically to accommodate uh the minimal but necessary height
variance and occupied area variance quite minor to safely and reasonably provide community desired
parking and desired commercial space the grant of variance relief will not adversely affect
transportation or unduly burden water sewer school park or other public facilities nor will such
grants substantially increase congestion in the public streets we believe it will relieve it we
believe that the proposed family residences along the number two line will further transportation
desires. This will not increase the danger of fire or otherwise endanger the public health
safety or general welfare. Rather, the community will benefit from this shared vision of what has
been proposed. Mr. Kroma, you may sit down for now. Thank you. Vitaly, would you please come to the
front. Is this a witness of yours? To adopt and affirm. Okay. Vitaly Polyachenko is a principal
of the development team. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Vitaly Polyachenko. V is a Victor. I, T is a Tom. A, L is a Larry. I, Y. Last name
He is a Peter O, L is a Larry, Y, A, C is a Charlie, H, E, and is a Nancy, K, O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Counsel?
Mr. Polachenko, you have been present in the physical hearing room this morning to hear all of the testimony that's been offered in this matter, correct?
Correct.
And would you adopt and affirm the testimony, all of it as your own?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman and members of the board, we know that the coordinating RCO is here.
We know that there is the next-door neighbor in the hearing room.
We also know of at least three supporters virtually.
Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to start with the people here, and then we'll go to the phone.
And just so everybody knows, when we have multiple people want to testify, we go to a two-minute limit.
So, if you would use two minutes to, and I see our executive vice president, our executive director there, and he always gives me a look. So, Mr. Littlepage, you've already been sworn. Just for the record, state your name.
Testing, testing. My name is Albert Littlepage.
Right. Please start your presentation.
And so, as has already been stated, we hosted a meeting, and you saw the results of the meeting.
And so I was actually surprised to know who to vote. I didn't even know who voted because my assistant calculates the votes.
But we did hear from the community, and we know that the next door neighbor was opposed, as well as was a young lady who had some concerns with parking, which I live at 17, 1801 South 17th Street.
So parking in South Philadelphia is just complicated, let's just say that at the least.
And we heard the concerns. And, you know, one of the things that as we do these properties is that a lot of our residents want to see some new housing as well as commercial added to it.
What we thought was good about this particular project was that it actually included parking because out of 19 units, there were 10 parking spaces. There were bikes there. And what brought to my mind is I've been living in South Philadelphia for over 25 years.
the house to the left used to be a numbers house and right around the corner a man was murdered
right on the street there so one of the things that kept bringing to my mind was seeing this
empty lot all the time and I ride by there and I went by and I saw the gentleman who lives there
that doesn't want the project built and I can kind of understand he's kind of has a standalone
property I see he has little items outside his daughter writes with the little crowns on the wall
i see he has little items outside his daughter writes with the little crowns on the wall
and so he's he has his family there but walkability will increase the safety in that area is what we
we originally saw as well we were excited about that part we were excited that it would you know
just change some of that the um the the negativity in the area like you said some of the bodegas and
things of that nature but that's not all our community is really about um and so we see a
change in our community. The one other thing is that I said is these guys were very open about
affordability, so we appreciated that, and they were flexible. When we asked about the height of
the building, they compromised and brought the height down on the property, and when we talked
about units, I believe they reduced some of the units, and they didn't just try to oversell it.
They didn't know who they were going to bring into the commercial property, but they said that they
would work with us because I think the neighbor was concerned about cooking, so they eliminated
someone cooking or using anything in that area, so they compromised on that. I'm not sure about
the other outreaches they did with the gentleman, but they have compromised on some issues, and we
appreciate that because as we work with some developers, they're not flexible at all. So
that's really just all I have to say. Thank you for allowing me. Thank you for taking the time.
Next person in the audience, Ms. Oroff.
Good morning, everybody.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Claudia S. Sherrod.
C-L-A-U-D-I-A-S-S-H-E-R-R-O-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please start your testimony.
Yes, I do.
My name is just a little bit closer, if you could get that mic.
Can you hear me now?
I can now.
I'm very committed to this project because this gentleman has been doing nice work in point threes.
I'm a resident of 65 years, and I'm seeing the change from what it was to what it is now.
I really feel the impact of what this particular developer does is being concerned about the people as well as making money.
Everyone else is worried about making money.
He has put his heart and soul into trying to see what he can do to bring fruitful projects that will not only enhance the community, but enhance the neighbors working within the community.
This project, I'm really excited about it because to have parking inside of it, 19 apartments and 10 parking spaces and bike racks as well.
And I was told a lot of the young people or people who would be renting have probably no cars at all.
So that enhances the problem that we have within our community with no parking.
We have, developers have just put buildings that are two and three hundreds of people in apartments. And if you say apartments of 200, you better look at maybe a thousand people. Where are they going to park?
So I'm 100% in support of this project. I am presently a consultant to the Point Beach Community Network Plus. I'm the former president of Point Beach Community Development Coalition, and I have worked and I've seen the growth, and I'm just really happy to have the opportunity to speak on behalf of the project owners and
the projects that's yet to come all right thank you so much for coming down and we appreciate
the time you spend we have two people left to testify in the audience would you come up please
good morning my name is john robinson again mr b is oh you didn't even give me a chance to say it
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
All right. So let me start off by saying all the board members have your letter.
So could you give us an outline of where you stand?
Yeah, I'm still opposed to this project. I've heard many of the arguments here about affordability.
I have not heard a compelling argument towards affordability in terms of how they're going to actually make this affordable for people who maybe can't buy a house,
but also can't rent a unit that's $2,000 a month.
thousand dollars a month but it's not affordable i've heard the arguments for parking and well
That's not affordable.
I've heard the arguments for parking, and, well, nine.
nine ten spaces is good there are nine other units that are unaccounted for and while it's nice to
think that people won't move in with cars i don't think anybody can really know that many people
move in with vehicles i still have issues with the trash door which is literally next to my door this
represents a major inconvenience for me vented or not sprayed or not i have never seen an apartment
building with clean trash anywhere it just doesn't exist a lot of the issues are still in my letter
and i think they're still valid you know i've heard council say some nice things and i saw the
argument about zoning but the balance of zoning it's currently balanced if you look at that chart
you see some mixed use you see some rsa5 shifting one whole side to just be that offsets the balance
and if you were to zoom out even just a little bit and look at the neighborhood a block down
It is also RSA 5, I believe, and it is single family home. I don't find the argument compelling that there is this unwavering need to activate a lot by building a giant commercial mixed use building on it. I don't think that's true. I think you can build housing there. You could make it affordable if you wanted to within the zoning variances.
there's just not a strong desire to do so and the commercial corridors are actually very accessible
there's point breeze that has a lot of commercial there's washington avenue and there's broad street
and they are not far it's about three or four blocks in either direction um uh thank you very
much we appreciate your test money we appreciate the time you spent writing this letter sent to us
okay council do you have any questions just a couple questions uh good afternoon thank you for
being here um sir your uh residence was a custom built uh new construction home correct
uh i bought it from a developer who made it i didn't have any input into the actual construction
thank you and to your knowledge uh is that home uh in compliance with uh the zoning code
and the requirements of the department of licenses and inspections to the best of my knowledge
for example to the best of your knowledge are you aware actually that your accessory parking
is not permitted i yes i know that it's not permitted to put a door there but i was told
at the time by the developer and the real estate agent that vehicles could be parked on the property
as long as there's no vehicle or obstruction hindering it as long as parking is not permitted
on that side so where we would not be able to do so unfortunately mr chairman and members of the
board what we have here is an example right next door where just like my client is seeking some
relief unbeknownst to this homeowner and i'm sure that because he didn't build the home it's not
permitted for for the parking which probably makes sense uh also the way that the developer built
the deck on top of this gentleman's home is not in compliance with the permit again he didn't do it
he's not to blame I bring this to the board's attention and also to the neighbor's attention
just that as we are seeking variances from the code and looking to properly document it's not
uncommon in fact it's more common than not thank you thank you sir I appreciate it may I add a
additional comment i i would like to say it's very short we're trying to get everybody in yes i
understand and i good okay i i find that a little farcical that this is a discussion here when the
variances that they're proposing will cause significant inconveniences but the variances
that he cited that i may now need to go and inquire have not inconvenienced the neighborhood
in any capacity and have not caused major disruptions thank you very much for your
Is there anyone else in this audience? Are you testifying, sir? Question or comments from the virtual audience? How many hands? I just see one hand. Thank you.
Maxwell Feinberg. Okay. Has been promoted.
Good morning, sir.
good morning good morning could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer
my name is maxwell feinberg m-a-x-w-e-l-l-f-s and frank e-i-n-b-e-r-g do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes um are you a neighbor yes
please proceed i live a a handful doors down and i live at 12 30 south 17th street apartment 3
South 17th Street, apartment three. So very close to the property. And this project
is absolutely beneficial to the neighborhood, in my opinion.
You know, right now it's an empty lot. It's ugly. I mean, it's, you know, we don't need more
single family houses. We need more apartments and commercial spaces. I live in an apartment
and it's expensive to rent. There's not enough apartments out there. It's unaffordable to live
in the city anymore, especially this area. Increasing the supply of apartments, just like
i rent would reduce the cost for everybody um i think the i think the project looks beautiful
um from a perspective of you know it's well designed and it has all those parking spaces
um i think that's a really big benefit to the community where parking is limited
right um i think the height variance is minimal and nobody would ever be able to recognize any
um any difference in height looking from the street um from walking by and it's just this
is what the community needs we don't need to just walk to broad and walk to washington
and walk to point breeze we need these little pockets of commercial space that we can go
and have services you know we don't want to be living in a desert I mean I find that this area
can be a desert where you have to walk 10 minutes in each direction so so sir you're in favor of
this project yes I am all right thank you very much questions from the board yes I have a question
um the first question I have is the trash room is enclosed right it's inside the property is not
outside correct it's it's fully enclosed uh ms graham it is secure uh and to be accessed
only by licensed uh commercial trash pickup providers and we are even happy to coordinate
with the community if there's a particular preference on timing because not everyone
always agrees but try to trying to get consensus but yes that's shown here on the screen right now
Okay, and the next question I had is the reduction in height, would that make the solar panels from the neighbor's property, would that positively impact the production of the solar panels?
Yes, our design team has listened and looked and revised so that the solar panels will not be negatively impacted in any way by the proposed new construction and be able to operate efficiently.
And lastly, besides cooking, I know like the block is like primarily residential and there may be commercial pockets that are close to it. Just any idea of what commercial business that could survive there?
I know that they mentioned something with no cooking, but is there any idea of what a commercial tenant could look like?
perhaps something creative from from from some someone uh from the community who has an arts
background and wants to have a relatively i'll use the word relatively right because i don't
want to try to suggest otherwise but a relatively affordable way to to have a business perhaps an
experiential business even that uh allows the creative outlet ceramics or or textiles and i
ask that because oftentimes we see folks come back and say we can't find a commercial tenant we need
to make this residential so does the effort you know that's being put forth to keeping it to making
this commercial like you know just making sure it's really viable it's really important and we
to stress that so much and engaged in above board discussion we think we may have an upper hand
actually uh on this because we are working with those who know the neighborhood best
and what would be fantastic would be to hear from ms charrod mr littlepage our next door neighbor
even maybe hopefully we we come together and and somebody comes to us and says this is going to
happen and maybe this is a space for the idea i heard about thank you all the questions i'll ask
the question i generally always ask which is what's the depth of those uh basement units i
see you've got some basement units what's the depth of the slab below great sure and the
and the opportunity to have walk out um directly walk out from those um basement units so two
opportunity to have walkout um
questions of course mr johns and i'd like to call rustin oler uh of harman george oler who's with us
virtually and is now unmuted mr chairman to respond hi uh roston oler r-u-s-t-i-n-o-h-l-e-r
right do you swear or affirm the tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
So because of the commercial space and accessibility, the first floor is set at grade.
So the basement for both the commercial and residential portion, which are bi-level, are about nine feet below grade.
We have no issue with the proviso that we have stairs and access out to the yard so that it would be a walkout.
Can you pull up the plans again?
currently we show egress wells in the rear but we can accommodate a full staircase
and you go to the basement so these basement units are a nine foot below grade yeah so the
first floor submerged below grade well it's not an all basement unit so the first floor is
completely above grade the basement is completely below grade we have the unit has a private rear
yard and patio and we have room to put a full staircase so it could be walk out if that's
something the board wishes or would like to include as a proviso so so this is the this is
the grade plan yeah this is the first floor and then where is the basement plan adam can you pull
that up there's two bedrooms um and two bathrooms down there i was uh just trying to zoom in right
there don't mean to make anybody emotion secure one moment in the basement we have our utilities
we have um the other half of the commercial space and then the other half of the bi-level residential