construction involved. So I'm accompanied by Mr. Goodman. If you would promote him to the panel to
be sworn in, Glenn, if you could raise your hand. Ms. Lacey, before we do that, do you have the
floor plans? I don't, but it was indicated that floor plans or interior photos were required.
okay hillary is that okay yes that that's fine mr chair with a with a change in use like this ellen i
Yes, that's fine, Mr. Chair. With a change in use like this, L&I is not going to require floor plans, so the applicant does not always have them, but we needed at least interior photos.
Thank you.
Mr. Goodman, right?
Mr. Goodman, please unmute yourself.
I just did.
Hi, Mr. Goodman, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Yes, Glenn Goodman, G-L-E-N-N, G-O-O-D-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Great, Glenn, did you hear the testimony that I provided to the board this morning?
Or afternoon?
Do you affirm that my presentation was accurate?
Completely accurate.
And do you adopt the testimony as your own?
Thank you.
All right, questions from the board?
no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare planning commission
good afternoon chair members of the board uh greg walden planning commission staff
the copper has a plan recommends no change to the existing residential multi-family zoning at
this location. While the existing zoning permits four units by right, there are six existing units
that have been legalized. The seventh residential unit appears to be a legalization, a request for
legalization of an existing condition in a commercial unit. Eliminating the commercial
component is consistent with the RM1 requirement. The City Planning Commission recommends that the
zoning board grant the variance. Thank you, Glenn. MI 2022-002-131-1738 Pine Street, I vote yes.
Carol Tennery, my vote is yes. Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Counsel. Thank you.
Number three, MI-2022, 002-163-1809 Master Street.
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
Councilman Clark's office acted as the coordinating RCO.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Yes, my name is Brandon Saverin, B-R-A-N-D-O-N, S as in Sam, A, B as in Victor, R-A-N, and I'll be filling in for Rachel as I attended the community meeting on behalf of our firm.
Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is GSD3 LLC, who is the owner of the property.
Thank you. And our Vice Chair, Carol Tenere, has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Saverin. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do, Madam Vice Chair.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter?
Yes, and the one thing I'll add to that is the council president's office effectively served as the RCO, and I provided a meeting summary of the meeting they convened today, so it just came in.
Okay, great. You may proceed and share your screen.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, members of the board. Thank you for your time today.
We are here on a variance appeal concerning 1809 Master Street, which is a vacant lot in North Philadelphia.
This is the refusal that we received when we applied to L&I for the new construction of an attached building for use as three dwelling units.
And that is because the property is zoned RSA 5.
Here is the property.phila.gov map of the property, which really pulled this up to highlight the lot area, which is just shy of 1,200 square feet.
This is the zoning map on Atlas.
What you'll see is that in this part of North Philadelphia, west of Broad Street, it's a wide variety of zoning designations.
We are on a block, zoom in a little here, that's zoned RSA-3, that's the yellow, in sort of what I'll call a splotch of that RSA-5 in what is otherwise, maybe you could say,
of that RSA-5 in what is otherwise maybe you could say generally an RM-1 area. That's the
orange surrounding our block in various directions. As I mentioned, the council president's office
convened a community meeting to discuss this project. It was well received with his honors
office reporting uh 16 uh meeting attendees in support of the project and two in opposition
the council president's office uh requested uh two provisos which uh my client would be agreeable
to enter into the first uh down at the bottom here that first floor the first floor unit of
the three units, that that unit's trash is stored in the rear, and then a second proviso that
prohibits a roof deck. And I'll address each of those issues. I actually provided the board
attorney this proviso change form, which I signed at the bottom, which attests that we have removed
the roof deck from the original zoning plan. So I will ask you to approve the project today if you
are so inclined, if I would be so lucky, with one page stamped revised plans. This is the revised
plan. The clouds here, here, here, and here show the removal of the roof deck access structure and
the roof deck itself. The zoning sheet is simple. It is just a site plan on the right-hand side
and front and rear elevations on the bottom and a side elevation on the top. It gives you a sense of
what the building would look like, but we did make floor plans as supplemental materials,
which I'll show you in a moment. I offered a memo of law to the board in our exhibit packet.
I want to highlight one page of my memo of law on the topic of the hardship, that conformity to the RSA 5 designation, what that hardship is here.
Conforming to the RSA 5 designation's prohibition on multifamily use is difficult because on our side of this block, there are no single family homes, according to the Zoning Archive.
I believe there are a handful on the other side of the block, but this right here is a complete inventory of the current zoning permitting of our side of this 1800 block of Master Street.
And what you'll see is that every building is zoned, is permitted rather, for at least two unit use with about half of the buildings permitted for three unit use or higher.
We are proposing three-unit use because we believe it fits appropriately in the building, as we'll show you in a moment.
And further, in consultation with the community, we really are committing to offering a workforce housing product.
And because of that, in the first few years of this project's completion, all units in the building are going to be offered an affordable rent for those making 80% of area median income.
So because of that, it's really imperative for us to be able to construct three dwelling units to make the economics work, to make essentially those restricted rents able to cover the cost of construction in a reasonable amount of time.
But more to the point, a single family home in terms of the zoning hardship really just doesn't fit with the character of this block.
It would certainly be the one and only single-family home that's at all new on the block, and a single dwelling unit would be, by far and away, the most expensive housing product on the block.
So we don't really think it's feasible to construct a single-family home here, and I believe that that's borne out in the community vote on the project.
Interestingly, this is Google Maps or Google Earth.
Our lot is sort of the one that is blurred out here for some tech reason, but this gives you a sense of the fabric of the block.
We'll be at this similar height as the surrounding buildings.
And now let me show you some renderings of floor plans going in reverse order in this presentation packet.
um here is sort of a contextual um fabric uh of our our proposed property and its adjacent neighbors
um elevations you already saw on the zoning sheet but here they are again
this is the top uh dwelling unit which takes the entirety of the third
This is the top dwelling unit, which takes the entirety of the proposed third floor.
It would have two bedrooms.
It would have a closet specifically for trash.
It was going to have a roof deck access, but we have removed that in favor of a skylight,
which we think would be a nice feature there.
This is the second floor unit.
and this is sort of a similar layout to what you just saw on the third floor minus the skylight
this is the lowest unit which occupies both the basement and the ground floor
there will be egress wells with windows for both the front and back in the basement
that's on the zoning sheet, and this we would imagine as probably a two-bedroom unit
with a little more living space than the upper units.
Here is another type of rendering showing the placement of our finished project in the context
of the block. I think that's really all I've got for you today. I am happy to take
questions i do have the project architect here but won't have him speak unless uh there's something
you'd specifically like to know from him and uh i do have our clients here to adopt my testimony
their names would be um mayor that's m-e-i-r and or roy that's r-o-i
Mr. Shemesh, you can unmute yourself.
Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Roy Shemesh, A-O-I, last name Shemesh, S-H-E-M-E-S-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
hey roy uh were you able to hear the full extent of my testimony today yes i did and was it true
and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes and would you adopt that testimony as if it were your
own yes okay thank you very much questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
here we have raheem stewart okay
yes hey how are you guys could you state your name could you state your name and spell for the
court reporter please yes brahim stewart he is a boy ours and roger y h he is an elephant m as a
mother steward s-t-e-w-a-r-t right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth yes i affirm the term please proceed yeah i just want to say that i fully support this
project here i've been a resident in that area for over 30 years now and i just love the things
that you know these guys are presenting to you know uh restructure the community so i just want
to support this uh project here and i want to say thank you guys thank you very much for your call
any other comments from the virtual audience i see no hands chair planning commission
good afternoon chair members of the board this is greg waldman from planning commission staff
in 2017 the zoning map was amended from commercial mixed use to residential single
family at this location in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan
the applicant's hardship claim is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances
or conditions of the property which is currently a 1213 square foot vacant lot
worth furthermore the applicant's claim of affordable units is not enforceable without
being noted in the deed which the applicant has not presented as evidence the city planning
commission recommends recommends that the zoning board deny the variance thank you mr chair could
i i'm so sorry i just you know i just wanted to sort of state that um there there is a community
benefits agreement um that uh the councilman's office could speak to which addresses the
affordability um and i would simply ask that the community's desire for the number of affordable
units be taken into concern thank you mr chair mr chairman do we have the do we have the councilman
Do we have the councilman's letter?
letter
Hillary, what did we receive for the council office?
We received the meeting summary form indicating the community support with the provisos and it referenced the community benefits agreement.
But we did not receive a letter, a position letter from Council President Clark.
I see Mary Jones does have her hand raised.
uh yes good afternoon mary you've already been sworn um proceed okay uh yes this is mary jones
from council president daryl clark's office um yes i just wanted to um more or less confirm
what was said here our office um had uh convened the meeting just uh in league with the community
before an official RCO had been established and so everything you see the meeting summary is
based on feedback from the community at the meeting which I was in attendance and yes there
is a community benefits agreement which we are in the middle of final finalizing that the community
is agreed to which um it does it does include language um that this should be uh that requesting
that i guess that this uh that the agreement be recorded uh with the deed to serve as notice for
any subsequent owners should the land change hand just stating what uh these owners had agreed to
which has included the affordable unit.
So that's just.
Thank you very much, Mary.
You're welcome.
Any other comments from the virtual audience?
I see no handshare.
MI 2022-002-163-1809 Master Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Revised plan, one page,
stamped by ZBA on July 20th, 2022.
and first floor unit trash stored in rear.
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thomas Holland, my vote is yes with provisos.
James Snell, yes with provisos.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number four, MI-2022-002-117-1829 West George Street. Henry Clinton is the attorney.
Recognition of support from United Francisville Association. No explanation.
Henry. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Could you state your name, please, Henry, and spell for the court reporter?
You are Henry Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Could you, do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Sure. The client is Valpap, V-I-P-A-L-P Properties, LLC, and the principal of that LLC, Kana Patel, K-A-N-A-Y Patel, P-A-T-E-L, is on the call.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Clinton. Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of the above.
Great. You may proceed.
Thank you.
And begin to share your screen.
Is that large enough, Mr. Chairman?
It is fine.
All right, thank you.
So good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
I'm here on behalf of Vipal Properties, LLC.
This is my presentation package, which contains exhibits AA through A11, which I ask to be admitted into evidence, my appearance statement, and a refusal.