think that it should when we have this RCO process here, but I'm happy to say that it did.
So very quickly, here is the property, 800 South Darien Street. Many of you may know this.
This is actually a former Rite Aid site right at 9th and Catherine and going over to
uh darien just north of christian christian is actually on the uh the top side of the block here
uh here's the street frontage and um i hope i won't have to walk through this with you again this is
kind of inclusive for both this project and the next project and i'll just reference it so i don't
feel like you're wasting your time uh here's the frontage as if you're standing right on catherine
Street, looking at the existing Rite Aid. That Rite Aid has been closed down and vacant for some
time. This whole surface parking lot basically is just, you know, a shark feeding frenzy for
free parking at the moment in the neighborhood. And then as you start looking around, you can see
this is a heavily mixed use area. But then once you turn on to South Darien here, where we're
turning right, you can see South Darien is entirely residential. Basically, this property
that we're talking about is the brick on the right-hand side. Everything else on South Darien
on this block is residential. So what we are proposing is nine townhomes. What we've done
already is subdivide this property, this very large property, it's about 22,000 square feet,
into two properties, essentially west fronting on South 9th Street, or west fronting on South
Darien Street, and the eastern portion fronting on South 9th Street. The eastern portion are,
we're proposing nine townhomes on a 9,600 square foot lot, which are meant to complement the
existing townhouses that are all across the street and up and down the street. The board
has seen this approach numerous times, and it's worked very well for a lot of developments
through here in South Philly to kind of buffer a commercial zone, which is admittedly South
9th Street is a commercial corridor.
So here you can see this is CMX, the entire property is CMX2 commercial zoning.
uh the purple is this 9600 square foot lot that you see on the west that's south darien
on the left hand side that we'll go to in a minute that is 801 south 9th street
and that'll be a separate application um so again you wouldn't think from proposing nine townhomes
that are going to be single family homes that you would get this many refusals but essentially how
this is going to play out is um all based
is going to play out is um all based on here i think i can show it better sorry just
there you go so you can see south darien is on the right hand side here catherine is at the top
south 9th street is on the left we're proposing nine townhomes there will be a single curb cut
for both properties there'll be a shared driveway and each of the nine townhomes will have two car
parking below grade so because there's you know a crushing need for parking in this area we have
agreed to put the parking below grade and kind of get rid of that kind of awful surface parking lot
that nobody likes and what that does is it pushes up the properties just slightly so we are at 43
feet for the townhomes. And what we've done, as I'll walk you through that, we're actually only
at 35 feet at the street frontage along Darien, which is actually below the average height of
all the townhomes existing on the opposite side of Darien. And what we've done is pushed the
back, pushed the height back. And so we actually have a balcony coming forward. We've removed a
parapet we've reduced the pilot house or removed the pilot houses sorry and a number of these
things all came out of the RCO meeting so that way as you're looking at Darien it looks like
it's 35 feet and only if you went on to the back of our property would you actually see
the 43 feet again which is all generated from the extra height needed to put underground parking in
the rear um we also have we did receive additional refusals um the primary one being for no commercial
use right this is a cmx2 commercial property um so we would have to provide 30 feet of commercial
use along the entire frontage uh here and what we found with the neighbors and going door to door
south darien has a very different character than south 9th street south 9th street is a commercial
corridor leading down into Christian. South Darien is a very quiet single-family house
residential neighborhood block. And so that's why we're proposing on this side just the nine
townhomes with two-car parking to get all the cars, any cars that they could possibly have
off the street, and again, matching what's there. Now, what we're doing, and you can see the drive
aisle right in the rear of the proposed townhomes um that is essentially generating why we have
yeah the additional refusals is what we're doing is we're putting decks out off the back of the
house at the first level essentially to create a faux uh backyard right that that's what we're
doing to give everybody an outdoor space that's going to be completely decked over so nobody will
be if you were to look at this once it's fully completed nobody would be seeing the drive aisle
you would be going down and then underneath the the drive aisle would be underneath all these decks
and so what that leads to is according to lni which is correct i'm not suggesting otherwise
we have no rear yard that we're proposing and we have which we would if we got rid of those decks
and just allowed it to be in the rear and the rear deck is not allowed over the drive aisle
and is not allowed to be within three feet of our rear property line and what we're proposing
is to go all the way up to the very edge of the property line again we want to maximize the outdoor
space for all of these homes and what you'll hear next is uh the other side of that drive aisle
from the condo building is going to have their decks come up and meet these decks so again it'll
be like an entire boardwalk going over this so that no neighbors will be looking and seeing this
there's no big drop-off from the street you can see at the top here at Catherine Street there
will be a wall there but then all they'll see is it'll be like a fence of anyone's rear yard they
won't see you know a big drop-off or a safety issue going down into the drive
line so you know I've kind of jumped around a lot but here we believe that
the hardship is caused by two factors first and foremost South Darien has no
commercial uses there would be no viable commercial uses that was resoundingly
agreed to by the community and uh accepted by you know even the rco and then with the crushing need
for parking in this area for us to put the parking you know nobody wants to see front loaded parking
You know, nobody wants to see front loaded parking rear loaded parking actually causes difficulties to the property because it creates an unusable first floor, which then creates a dead space in the, you know, along a public townhouse single family street.
rear loaded parking actually
so this allows by putting the parking underground it allows for the parking but it also activates
that first floor and allows the first floor to have that big walkout deck essentially mirroring
what would otherwise be a rear yard um yeah this is the least minimum variance because these you
know any fewer townhomes you'd be creating extraordinarily oversized townhomes these
townhomes are only 19 and a half feet wide by 40 feet 44 feet deep I'm not
going to suggest that that's not a good sized townhome but you know if you start
removing one down from that then you're creating you know significantly large
townhomes and if you're adding more to make it narrower we felt that was not
the least minimum variance and then finally you know I think it was just
openly accepted that there's no issue with the health, safety, or welfare here of the public.
This is actually creating a much safer condition. Something I glazed over with the photos is,
you know, that Rite Aid, rather, has almost nothing but curb cuts all along, and it creates
a horrible pedestrian and bike path. And what we're doing is getting rid of all of the curb
cuts. These are, you know, extra-wide curb cuts. We're removing the use of, you know,
Large tractor trailers that would sit there and deliver goods, and everything goes off of this one curb cut that you can see along South Darien.
So with that, I'm happy to have – answer any questions.
Just out of curiosity, how many RCO meetings?
We had two formal RCO meetings, one in early October, one in early November, and I'll let my –
Okay. Why don't you bring your –
Meetings, Ed.
You have to swear me in.
Yeah, I'm going to swear you in. Is the light on?
Could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Ori Fibush, first name O-R-I, last name F as in Frank, E-I-B-U-S-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Yes, thank you. Mr. Fibush, you're here on behalf of the developer and the owner, correct?
Did you hear all the testimony I already presented in this case?
I did.
And do you believe it to be true and correct, to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
I do, with two small modifications.
The homes directly across the street are 45 feet, not 35.
So we are actually shorter at our peak height.
And, of course, at the street level, we're a full 10 feet shorter.
But I just wanted that small clarification.
And then, of course, all of this effort was done to reactivate dairy and to have eyes on the street to create a really, really good pedestrian experience.
uh i've had the opportunity to knock on every door on darien to meet the neighbors they've
taken me to their home i've stood on their roof deck we've really worked on this uh through real
consensus and you'll hear from some of the neighbors on darien shortly um but we really
designed this to create a neighborhood and to fill in a neighborhood they've been appropriately
frustrated by the experience of having right aid and what we wanted to do is create not just
residential, but put a lot of thought into that development so that they would be able to engage
and interact with their neighbors in a way that obviously they can't do now across the street. And
so I guess the short answer is yes, I adopt the balance of your testimony, but just wanted to call
out how collaborative this effort has really been. Anything else? All right. No, actually,
the only thing I would also add is, and I forgot to show this rendering, this rendering is if
you're standing on the northwest corner of catherine and south darien looking diagonally
toward the proposed townhomes and what you can see that we also did with the neighbors
is the townhome that would have its side against uh catherine street we also agreed not only is
that height set back it is also set back from catherine so instead of being originally flush
the way it normally would be we've also set it back there in an effort to
negotiate with the neighbors and try to assuage their concerns okay questions
from the board a few questions one for the drive aisle that you now enter on
Darien is that gonna be the same drive aisle for the cars or any vehicles to
access the apartment building as well as it is shared the condo building yes it
is one common yes okay and then my second question is do you have a elevation of the of the house
because it was hard to see or do you can you tell me what's the depth of the what do we call the deck
Or can you tell me what's the depth of the deck, the rear yard deck?
How much outdoor space does each townhouse unit have?
From memory, it is 12 feet by 20 feet.
It is the entirety of basically half of that drive.
And it might not have been obvious, but that deck is actually at grade.
So it really will mimic a backyard of any traditional home.
the the wall that sean's referencing is just a 42 inch you know curb or parapet along catherine so
you know that it'll clearly delineate the separation but you'll easily be able to see
into that back area there and is it paved or is that no it'll be probably some type of trex
material like a green like a green roof to the it's not necessarily gonna be green i would expect
some type of like trex decking or some type of what we have to do is the stormwater management
is going to be below that.
I don't much understand that.
So that's why it can't be paved.
But you can see – sorry, I'm clumsy today.
Well, you could have porous pavement.
You could also have a pipe.
There's waste.
That's what I was asking.
It's 22 feet wide.
22 feet wide.
No, no, no.
So it's 9.2 feet of what would be a rear yard for the townhomes.
And then the additional 12.4 will be –
Yeah, that's the drive-out.
And then what is the square footage of their roof deck?
just trying to like understand how much outdoors the roof tech of each home yeah so there's a few
outdoor areas there's the one that we just touched on directly to the rear of the home
uh where we've set back the fourth floor there's an additional uh deck there i don't have the exact
uh square footage but i think we're in the magnitude of about 150 160 square feet and then
there is a top deck on top there which uh very quick math probably about 600 square feet more
okay so they're all right there's a lot of outdoor space for sure and then understanding
that you have subdivided this now into two parcels i'm assuming the nine townhomes are
going to be condoed or is it it's a part of a planned community and the uh the condo building
will also be a part of that planned community and the common element will be the drive that we
that we touched on there okay all right and so question your question question for you too i'm
just trying to understand how the parking works can you go to the parking plan underneath because
you said the decks are going to be at grade level but it looked from the rendering that your first
floor is raised above the so i grade so i'm trying to understand how this how the how the lower level
parking is is working sure the we ramp down along the entire drive uh and you should see this ramp
right now on uh on your screen could you show the yeah i see where i see where the home
yeah like either section or elevation would be i didn't know the right word i couldn't think of it
i'm sorry yeah
and how many parking spaces are there per uh townhome a two-car parking for each townhome
So 18 spaces for the nine homes.
There we go.
And in the garage, are those delineated?
Like, do they have a separation between the two or is it just?
It's not open.
Each effectively townhome has a true traditional garage.
That's correct.
There's a concrete wall separating each one.
Gotcha.
So you're coming down to the garage level at the driveway from the street.
And then you're at the grade level.
and then you've got so the 22 feet wide so your share it's a shared driveway with the property
that's going to be built next to it correct correct okay i guess i mean i understand that
houses in philadelphia do this but it does look like there is no pedestrian walkway through that
drive aisle which i can understand why with the cars but is the thought that people that in the
townhomes are going to keep their trash in their rear yard and bring it through the house and put