We do have an RCO letter of support from SASNA.
You can see that we made changes incorporating a mansert roof.
We've reduced the height of the structure and then maintained consistency with the existing basement level of the adjoining properties, which is really important.
Therefore, we don't have to underpin either basement on either side.
And then we decreased the floor-to-floor heights as requested.
And you'll see when I get to my proviso form, we actually made more changes than that.
And NOAC did raise concern about the basement, and we've changed that designation in the basement.
and you'll see when I get to the plan on that.
So the vote was seven to three in support of the project.
Photos, just to give you perspective,
this is the 1900 block of Cater Street.
This is 1935 here.
Three doors down, you can see a similar structure
was designed and built with a mansert roof
and a dormer on the third floor.
Our third floor is a little bit different,
but generally in similarity with it.
An overhead view, Cater Street, we are not going to come out any further than one of the homes on one side of the building, and I'll show you that with the site plan.
This is looking down the street, again, showing you some of the two-story homes on the block.
Our postings of the notices, and these are all the changes we've made.
I already alluded to the height of the building.
We enlarged the second floor cornice and detailed it more to give it some more character.
We changed the front window styles.
The front facade of the elevations was specified as red brick.
We changed the front entry steps from concrete to brick, again, to give it a richer flavor and a more colonial look.
The front windows were also changed.
And we do have one page Z, 001 to stamp if the board looks kindly upon this application.
These are the elevation.
All the clouds are, as the board knows, these are the changes that we made.
You can see the rich cornice line on the second floor, the dormer look on the mansion roof,
the roof with a railing to keep sight lines open, pilot house for access to the rooftop deck.
Then on to the right-hand side where my cursor is, you can see the depth of our building
is actually less than the depth of the property to the right, which is 1933, a little bit
deeper than 1937, but we've kind of split the difference between those two properties.
Again, brick on the front, some metal on the top, and here's the rear elevation.
The other thing that's noted is we do have a breezeway or a baker's alley in between
You know, our property, the adjacent property, which gives you access to the rear yard to bring your trash out and to access your rear yard in any way.
to bring your trash out and to, you know, access your rear yard in any way.
Floor plan, here's the change we made into the basement.
We removed the closet, and this is an office area in the basement.
First floor, kitchen, living area.
Two bedrooms on the third floor, excuse me, on the second floor.
On the third floor, one large bedroom, master bath, with rooftop access to a deck.
again just showing the front elevation and perspective to the homes on either side with
the baker's alley in between we decrease the mass of the steps add a brick again the cornice line
and on the left hand side where my cursor is you can see that the roof line and rather than going
straight up is can it to the back with a dormer projecting to give to try to take away from that
that tunnel look that you would get with a straight three-story house on some of these
smaller streets in the city. Application for appeal, tax clearance, zoning map indicating
RSA 5, deed indicating ownership. This is our notice of mailing where we mailed out 173 pieces
of mail to the adjacent neighbors. So in conclusion, we're basically going to renovate a lot by
demolishing an existing building, building a brand new building without underpinning on either side,
making the house a little bit larger, more accommodating for a family. We're keeping in
with the style of the block with other mansert roof on the block. We're keeping in conformity
with what Sazen likes to see.
If you're going to put a third floor,
we're not impacting any light or air on either side.
We're not impacting development
of any adjacent properties.
We're not as deep as the adjacent property
on the one side.
And we're basically in harmony with the code
and in harmony with the community's wishes.
With that, I would conclude
and would ask my client
if he could adopt my testimony.
If you want to swear him in, Mr. Chairman.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
It's Philip Conway, P-H-I-L-I-P-C-O-N-W-A-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Conway, you were sitting here when I presented your project, correct?
Correct.
If you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as your own correct?
Yes, I would.
Thank you, Mr. Conway.
questions from the board no mr chairman no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary
emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience yes chair we
have one hand canned up jim nolan and they have been allowed to speak hi could you please state
your name and spell for the court's demographer
jim nolan please unmute yourself apologies that was a misclick on my part
hi mr nolan could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer
yes sorry that was a misclick on my part apologies hi could you state your name and
spell for the court stenographer sure james nolan j-a-m-e-s n-o-l-a-n right do you swear
a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth sure are you and are you neighbor
sir uh i'm not familiar with this project i apologize this was a misclick on my part within
okay oh thank you thank you sir sorry about that um anyone else in the virtual audience
no hands planning commission
thank you chair bergman sarah bond with the philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change the existing residential single-family zoning
the relatively shallow dimension of the property creates a hardship for the appellant the city
planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance thank you mi 2024 000
0 4 3 0 1935 cater street i vote yes with proviso revised plan one page stamped by zba april 10th
2024 thomas hollowan my vote is yes with proviso james snell my vote is yes with proviso thank you
counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Thank you. No, right. Number 14, MI 2024,
zero, zero, zero, four, nine, eight, 15, 16, 18 Walnut Street. Ronald Patterson is the attorney.
There's a letter of non-opposition from the Center City Residence Association, which
There's a letter of non-opposition from the Center City Residence Association, Wits Proviso.
Mr. Patterson, you've already been sworn.
Just state your name for the record, please.
Ronald Patterson, P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N.
Right.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Good afternoon.
Disregards 1518 Walnut Street, but known as the actual address is 151618.
I'm here today.
We have my client, which is Levain, L-E-V-A-I-N, bakery.
Okay, and Mr. Holloman has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Are you able to view my screen?
Okay, great. Thank you.
So, as I mentioned in this regards, we'll call it 1518 Walnut Street.
It's actually on the corner of Walnut and Sindenham Street.
Beautiful old building, last used for the sale of suits.
And I think before that, it might have been the Allen Rothenberg legal office.
office. Here's a view of the side, Sindenham Street, then a view looking at Walnut Street,
our posters. So as I mentioned, it's Levain Bakery, Levain Cookies. They are making a foray
into Philadelphia. They have at least 15 other locations, nine in New York City, one in DC,
in Maryland, Boston, two in Chicago, and in LA. As you'll see, it's unlike any other
cookie bakery you probably have ever seen. There's a beautiful renovation of the facades
of the building. And as we'll go through the interior renderings, you'll see that it's
It's a counter service with minimal amount of seats, seven seats, with cooking on premises and venting through a controlled ventilation onto Sindenham Street.
It'll be interior storage of trash, which I'll show you where in a minute, this location here, and then taking out for by commercial trash hauler on Sindenham Street.
uh this is properties located in the cmx 5 commercial zoning district subject to the center
city control overlays and on walnut street this has classified whether it's a takeout restaurant
or prepared foods and we filed as a takeout restaurant will require a special exception grant
by the zoning board we believe that this use will have no adverse impact on the public health safety
Welfare and Traffic. We met with the Center City Residence Association, which after a public meeting
voted not to oppose, and we agreed to their standard provisos for takeout restaurant. And so
we believe that that would justify the special exception, that it would not create any adverse
impacts or detrimental impacts over what would be expected from a permitted use. With that said,
if we could promote Stephanie Menke, M-E-N-K-E, my first witness.
Stephanie Menke has been allowed to speak. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer? Hi, my name is Stephanie Menke, S-T-E-P-H-A-N-I-E, last name Menke, M-E-N-K-E.
Swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. I do. Please proceed,
Council. Thank you. Stephanie, you've heard my presentation. Would you agree that it is true and
accurate? I do. Would you adopt it as if it were your own? I do. Could you briefly tell the board
what Levain is and what you want to do? Sure. I'll give a brief overview of the brand. Levain
Bakery is a New York City-based bakery that was founded by two women on the Upper East,
up on West Side in New York City. It's a local bakery that started with making breads and
eventually evolved into making cookies. The brand grew extremely slowly over the course of the
subsequent 29 years. And as Ron mentioned, we have over a dozen locations, mostly up the
Northeast Corridor with two locations in Chicago and one location in Los Angeles.
Expansion has been very slow and intentional as we have never closed a location before. So we have
only ever opened and stayed open in our locations. And that's a reflection of a very thoughtful real
a very thoughtful real estate expansion selection strategy. One of the key selection criteria is
estate expansion selection strategy. One of the key.
identifying neighborhoods that we feel that the bakery could really invest in and become a core
piece of the fabric of the neighborhood. And that's what we have identified within Philadelphia
and specifically within this location in Walnut Street in Rittenhouse. We sell principally baked
goods all day with a small selection of beverages such as teas and coffees. You can see here in this
display case uh examples of the the products that we would sell which are primarily cookies are
what we're most known for um we also sell you know uh other products such as breads muffins
throughout the day uh it's a really fun job and a really fun place to to be a cornerstone for the
neighborhood and we love what we do we're really proud of the products we make um it's hard to work
here and not eat cookies all day uh we think it'll be a great addition and stephanie uh number
seats or seven seats proposed if someone wants to have a cookie while they're there correct
that's correct and the days of hours of operation you propose seven days a week that is correct
and hours uh roughly uh eight to ten potentially longer
and um since we're always interested in trash um this is your floor plan the red dot is your
trash room that is correct and then we picked up by a commercial trash hauler as i mentioned
previously correct that is correct and given the nature of the business there's pretty minimal
trash okay and event thing you'd be cooking on site uh what kind of what kind of cooking will
be happening inside it'll be primarily the baking of goods which will take place in our ovens
okay convection ovens uh uh yes okay um i know for other questions mr chairman
thank you um do you have any other witnesses uh no i don't think so i don't think okay thank you
questions from the board no mr chairman no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary
emerson just a couple quick clarifications mr patterson are you representing both the owner
and the tenant in this matter no just the tenant okay because we we didn't get a copy of the lease
we only got a copy of the deed so we were under the impression you were representing the owner
well i always thought it was either or so that's what i'm saying but i'm happy to submit the lease
okay yes if you could if you could supplement that would be great um and and there's no signage
proposed as part of this application. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah, that was just for
informational purposes, yeah. Okay, that's what I thought. Thank you.
Washington comments from the virtual audience.
We have Wade Albert with your hand up, and they have been allowed to speak.
Mr. Albert, just state your name for the record, please, and spell for the stenographer.
Sure. Wade Albert, W-A-D-E, last name A-L-B-E-R-T.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
yes i do mr chair please proceed sir thank you i'm counsel for the center city
residents association the coordinating rco for this this project um uh i uh i echo what mr
patterson said that uh ccra does not oppose this project um and in our decision letter as and as
also referenced in the supplemental letter that we submitted yesterday we just ask that if the zba
is inclined to grant this request
that the provisos be included in the permit,
specifically the trash provisos.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the Berks audience?