2005 market street it uh excuse me 16th floor good morning good afternoon do you swear for him
to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy yes i do have a quick comment on it but yes okay do you um have
you emailed the exhibit pack with proof of ownership tax compliance refusal referral
photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the
rco and do you have a letter uh yes on everything uh except the tax clearance uh issue had to be
resolved after the submission of my exhibit. Okay. But it has been. I'll go through that.
Okay. You also have a letter of support from Fairmount Civic and Bill Greenlee, 15th Ward
Democratic Leader, letter of support. Yes. Full support from everyone. No opposition that I'm
aware of. Okay. So the only comment on the refusal, Madam Chair, I'll share my screen
I'm going to show you the refusal.
I just want to mention that we actually are adjacent to the RM1.
We are in the CMX1 district.
We are legalizing more than one residential unit above a professional office space.
I also want to mention that Sharon might want to comment.
Sharon and I spoke on this application earlier.
I did submit a revised plan proviso form because the original plan that was submitted with the application mislabeled the first floor commercial use as a grocery store, which it is not.
It is a professional office for a tutor service.
So we can do that via proviso, though.
And as Sharon can explain, I'm fine with that.
That was Sharon's suggestion.
we agree wholeheartedly to do it with the proviso that the first floor commercial use is professional
office for a tutor okay and my only comment on the refusal madam chair is that we are actually
adjacent to rm1 and i'll show you that in a moment on the zoning map so while i think the refusal is
correct i do want to mention you can see right here this is our property we are in a long line
of RM1. So really the use of having the additional a second residential unit is really consistent
with the rest of the block. And we have trash storage for all units, access to the rear.
On the tax clearance, and I'll ask Tanya to promote Rosalie Gasofsky, she has paid all of
the taxes within the last five days, including the real estate taxes. There were some outstanding
items, but they have all been paid. I'm hoping that your screens will show a zero balance.
I'll show you some of those receipts. This is one of the receipts. Rosalie was online
working on this for the last few days. She has paid, we believe, everything. There should
be a zero balance. And this is a longstanding use. This has been two residential units with
first floor storefront for many decades. The hardship would be clearly to convert the property
to one unit would require all sorts of destruction of bearing walls and it has been two units and a
commercial storefront for the length of time of the ownership of the owner. So I'll just
ask Rosalie to accept my testimony. These can be promoted.
is available rosalie are you with us yet
he's available rosalie are you with us yet
she can unmute herself unmute yourself rosalie okay i'm unmuted now i don't think i have video
though great did you hear everything i said and do you adopt it as your testimony and as true and
accurate yes all right you paid everything all of your taxes in the last since we've preparing
for this hearing you've paid every taxes that you're aware of right correct before to be all
the receipts which i in turn forward to the dining world right correct all right madam chair that's
all i have uh with that proviso um we would ask you to approve and we have full support from the
rco met with them and councilman greenley who's the one uh there are taxes owed on this case
okay the real estate taxes
yes it's rosalie did pay those i'm sorry madam chair quickly yes i could mention something this
is tanya sunkett um and i have reviewed the real estate um email i'm sorry website where it appears
to have a five thousand dollar and more balance old if that was actually paid we would need some
kind of information for that all right i showing i you should be able to thank you time you should
be able to see on my screen rosalie forwarded the payment receipt uh it does show i'm circling
with my course or it does show payment verification with the city's web system
of the five thousand six hundred and sixty eight dollars which was the real estate taxes right here
uh so it was paid recently so it would make sense that the computer system has not yet
updated it was paid on one day rosalie is that correct
yes rich that's correct excuse me i'm sorry it's the reporter she has not been sworn
right sorry do you swear from to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth rosalie
Name and address, please.
Rosalie Gozovsky, G-U-Z-O-F-S-K-Y, 1400 Church Road, Wincote, Pennsylvania, 19095.
Thank you.
Rosalie, do you see on your screen the courser, my courser I'm circling?
Is that your receipt that you forwarded to me that I forwarded to the board?
Correct.
Has this money been paid?
It has.
Ma'am, Jeremy, I hope that's enough for you.
let me know what else you need. But we did pay this amount. I'm sorry. This is Tanya. Again,
thank you very kindly. That does satisfy the real estate taxes. Thank you. Okay, great.
Planning Commission. Good afternoon, Chair. Peter Bernard for the Planning Commission.
This property is indicated for commercial mixed use in the comprehensive plan.
We feel the applicant has demonstrated sufficient hardship and that the proposal is consistent with the adjacent properties.
Accordingly, we have no objection to the granting of the variance.
Thank you very much. Is there anyone in the virtual audience who would like to speak on this case?
Madam Chair, we have Ms. Holmberg. She's been unmuted. Please unmute yourself and wait for Madam Chair.
Hello?
Ms. Holmberg?
Holberg.
Can you put your name and address on the record, please?
Teresa Holberg, H-O-B as in boy, E-R-G as in girl.
And your address?
Uh, 2416 Peratt Street.
Thank you. And that's in Philadelphia?
Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. Okay, you may proceed. Yeah, we're in full support of this. I would only like to add
that we have the proviso. Who is we? Are you representing? I represent the, I am a zoning
co-chair. Okay. For the Fairmount Civic Association. Okay, great. And we did put a
proviso on our support letter that if they have not already done this, that they restore access
us to the alleyway to the adorning property owner. We did do that. We actually, Rosalie,
I can ask Rosalie to just state, did she remove, and I'm trying to find the RCO wire, sorry.
Did you remove the fence from the rear to restore access to the easement? The door and gate was
removed and now there was total access to the back of the property. Okay. And we also repaired
okay and we also repaired um the neighbor's bricks
the neighbor's bricks.
with her permission thank you does the board have any additional questions no no
calendar number 1240 2928 poplar street my vote is yes with the ground floor use limited to
professional office. Yes, Reproviso. Yes, Reproviso. Yes, Reproviso.
Thank you. Okay, confessor.
Okay, calendar number MI 2021 001272 4744-46 Market Street.
We have Tony Forte that's been promoted to panelists.
Hello, good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Good afternoon. Are you the attorney representing this matter?
Yes, I am.
Can you please identify yourself for the record, name and address for the record, spell your first and last name?
Yes, my name is Tony Fort, F-O-R-T-E.
Excuse me, I'm sorry.
Tony Fort, F-O-R-T-E, with the law firm of Saul Ewing, located at 1500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19102.
And I'm the attorney for the Community College of Philadelphia.
And you swear our firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Okay. Do you agree to waive the reading of his refusal and stipulate to the tag person?
Yes, I do.
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal, or referral photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Yes, I did. All of that was sent last week.
Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes, we did, and that was included in our submission package.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Okay, let me see if I can share my screen here.
There, can you see my screen?
Okay, great.
So this application involves signage for the Community College of Philadelphia's new Career and Advanced Technology Center, or CATC for short, which is located at 48th and Market Street in Philadelphia.
That project is already fully approved and is currently under construction.
Before I provide an overview of the variance request, however, I'd just like to quickly go through the materials that we submitted previously.
So if you look here, this is just the index of all of the documents that we submitted last week.
and I would ask that all of these documents be added to the record for this case.
So this is, as I said, a property at 48th and Market Streets, and you can see here an aerial
photo of the location in West Philadelphia. The CATC's mission is to provide workforce education
and community engagement for the city of Philadelphia. Students will be taught
automotive technologies, workforce, and economic innovation. There's also going to be CCP's
pre-college STEM academy, which draws students from nearby public schools. And then the center
will also have meeting facilities for local community and non-profit organizations.
Just to give you a little overview, this is again the site plan for the building and if at the top
is what you see in red there are the locations of the three signs in question. At the top is
Market Street where the L also runs down the street. On the left there you'll see 48th Street
side has a sign and then at the bottom is Ludlow Street and that's another sign there
another sign there and that's the main entrance for the building.
and that's the main entrance for the building.
Just to go over the refusal real briefly you'll see that bottom line the signs that are being
proposed are larger in square footage than the code would allow and they are higher
than the second floor windowsill which has led to the refusals. I want to explain though that
you know, the zoning code provisions regarding these signs are generally aimed toward commercial
signs. But what is being done here is for a public institution. And the signs are not your typical
signs. They're really incorporated into the architecture of the building and are intended
to be an integral part of the design of the building. And there are some good precedents
for this. These are some photos of art museums and public libraries and other nonprofit institutions
around the world where the sign itself, the name of the institution, is incorporated into the design
of the architecture. And that is what we have here for the CATC project.
um and another reason for the large sign here is that this is uh meant to be a real community
landmark um it's our college it's the community college of philadelphia and we want this building
to become a landmark an institution that all philadelphians can take pride in so the design
the building really is a beacon for education and learning. Finally I would add there's another
reason for the large graphic nature of the signs and that is that the site's in a bit of a difficult
location. The one side this is showing the Market Street side is right up against the L
and that large sign is intended to be visible to people who as soon as they exit the L stop about
block away. Along 48th Street side you can also see the sign on that side of the building in this
image and there you have busy traffic going in both directions and people may be needing to find
this for the first time and not be familiar with where it is and so the large sign really helps
people to see it quickly and understand that they have reached the location and then finally
this is the Ludlow Street side and you can see here that that's the main entrance of the building
and there's another architectural sign on that side as well and again it helps people find where
the entrance to the building is it's a little bit of a different difficult corner that people have
to turn there so the sign will help with that. A final point I would make is that often when
you're dealing with sign concerns in neighborhoods. The issues raised have to do with illumination and
brightness and potential glare on people's homes. I'd like to point out that none of these signs are
internally illuminated. On the two sides, if you look here on Market Street and 48th Street,
those signs are actually decal letters that are placed on the inside of the glass.
And so there's no lighting to them at all other than the light that comes through the windows
from the inside of the building. And then on the Ludlow Street sign, those are metal panels,
metal letters that are attached to a screen mesh. And again, those letters are not internally
illuminated themselves. So these signs don't produce any brightness that would impact the
neighbors at all. We did present this sign package to the neighbors, the RCO at the Walnut Hill Civic
Association. They were extremely supportive and then very complimentary of the design. I think
it's really going to be a beautiful addition to the neighborhood. And with that, I'll just
conclude the presentation, but we do have a team of people here from both CCP and also from the
architecture firm that can answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. Yep, we did
receive that letter from the community group. Does the board have any questions? No. Okay.
Is there anyone else here in this matter that would like to speak in regards to this?
from the public
i see no handshare okay planning commission
good afternoon board peter bernard for the planning commission
thank you this property is indicated for commercial mixed use in the comprehensive plan
This property is indicated for commercial mixed use in the Comprehensive Plan.
we have no objections
We have no objections to the granting of the variance.
Thank you.
Calendar number MI 2021-001-272-4744-46 Market Street.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Good luck.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
So next one up, it's MI 2021-001-269-5141 Walnut Street.