community meetings, which required me to do three separate mailings.
But we also had a pre-development meeting back in October of 2021, even before the plans
were presented to the community, just to get a feel for what the community was thinking.
And it's really been a collaborative process from October of 2021 to this date.
We also had to meet the developer outing at a local meeting place in the neighborhood.
And also in August of this year, we actually met up at the site and were able to walk the site and the neighborhood to show what other,
what, excuse me, to find out what other details that the community wanted to see in the facade
of this building. And when Mr. Oler testifies, we'll get into those specific details.
So the community support that we have is North Central Philadelphia Susquehanna CDC,
which really was the leading RCO on this. And again, I have to give kudos to Ms. Russell for
her patience and for her ability to bring all parties together for what we all hope will be
a real asset to the community. At this point, Mr. Chairman, as I'm walking through the plans,
I think it'd be better to hear from the architect, Mr. Oler, if he could raise his hand
and explain to the board some of the changes that we've made.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, Rustin Ohler, R-U-S-T-I-N, last name Ohler, O-H-L-E-R, Harmon Deutsch Ohler Architecture.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Good morning, Mr. Ohler. Is your firm the architect of record for this project?
And you have been involved in this project from the inception until today?
Okay. I'm going to walk through. I'll be the cursor here and I'll walk through the plans and you can just discuss that as we move forward. One of the things I wanted to at least start with, Mr. Chairman, was one of the issues on the refusal concerns are front yard area. And as you can see, we tried to match the building to the north of it. Yes, it's a little bit.
And as you can see, we tried to match the building to the north of it.
Yes, it's a little bit out further than the residential properties to the north,
but we tried to match the context of the building to the north.
Mr. Oehler, is there any comments you want to make about this particular plan?
No, that's correct.
Correct. So on this plan, we're showing, I believe, is this the first floor, Mr. Allward?
Do you want to explain just the parking? Yep. This is a first floor cut through our building
and showing the proximity to adjacent structures on the site and working with the RCO and some of
requests. We were able to increase the number of parking on site from 33 to 43 stalls. We also
increased the landscaping and on-site trees in the rear. And we were able to increase our open area
on the site from 41% to 43% as well. As you had mentioned, we are keeping in line with a similar
type buildings to the south of us on both sides, which are abutting the street face. We do have a
buffer on both sides of our building to any adjacent properties as well. We're using one
curb cut to access all the parking on the site. And Mr. Roll, were you also able to design a
trash refuge room internal to the building? Yes, there's an interior trash storage room
on site, which can be taken out either to the front or rear of the property to the drive aisle
through that loading zone. That's just the same plan colored.
This is the front elevation of the property. It was redesigned several times in coordination with
the RCOs. We originally designed it as a larger warehouse, all brick building. The RCOs, it asked
us to revise this to break it up into modules. We added a mansard and kept it more in keeping with
some row home typology. So from the street level standpoint, there's direct entry unit entry doors
to the first floor units, as well as the facades broken up with different colored brick
and pattern so that it'll look like several row homes from the streetscape.
And then, Mr. O, in terms of the height of the building, can you explain the context of that?
Sure. Our building height is 42 feet, slightly taller than the allowed 38 feet in the district.
That's primarily to accommodate the first floor parking and structural deck needed to accommodate the building above
as part of increasing our parking requirement.
So while we're slightly taller than the 38 feet,
our cornice line is still in keeping with a by right building,
which would be 38 plus the 42 inch parapet.
So our building is 42 feet tall,
and it is smaller than both of the buildings to the south of us,
the adjacent apartment buildings.
And these are the views looking to the right on the south elevation facing the, was it St. Joe's
building? Yeah, so the community asked us that we provide all brick facade on that building.
The other side at the moment is siding. There's an infill residential lot there, which we expect
to be filled in and built up somebody would build up against us in the near future we also provide
additional site lighting because the adjacent parking lot doesn't have any lighting so we will
be providing lighting on our building for safety and we're adding security cameras on the entire
building which i believe is in the cba and that'll be tied in or registered with the police department
and also the community group it asked for some decorative fencing and you've added that to the
plans, do I say? Yeah, we were originally proposing a solid wood fence that has been
modified to an estate fencing. And then can you just explain to the board why some of the details
that you've incorporated into the design mimic what is going on in the neighborhood? Yeah,
so basically this slide just shows something that we worked through with the community group. There's
a collection of different residential typology buildings throughout the neighborhood.
collection of different residential typology buildings throughout the neighborhood,
which have been some historical, some newer, which have been constructed over time.
Our building was meant to blend and be a match of those. And again, you know, as I mentioned
previously, designed to look like separate, other than the drive aisle portion,
designed to look like separate row homes from the outside.
And I understand that also with the request of the community, you conducted a shade study?
Yeah, we did a sun and shadow study to see the impact on the adjacent properties,
which there was none. I can go into further detail if you want. And it's far less impactful
than the previous building that was on site because we're occupying a lot less than the
prior buildings on site. And these are just our revised zoning drawings. There's some
bubbled areas in there, which I believe Hank went through. Includes a reduction of dwelling units
from 48 to 43. We increased the open area. We decreased the GFA for the project. We increased
our parking stalls by 10 from 33 to 43. So that's basically it. And the rest has to do with like the
facade improvements and stuff the community requested. Increased landscaping.
Thank you, Mr. Or is there anything else that you think I forgot to ask you?
Not that I can think of at the moment, but I'm happy to stay on and answer any questions.
Yeah, if you could just stay on. Mr. Chairman, I just want to go through some of the zoning
records briefly. The other documents I'm showing are the pro forma documents that you would normally
we see in a zoning presentation, the deed, notices to the community.
And so the zoning records, briefly, I'll go through just to show the board that, in fact,
there are 87 units, the Allegheny Apartments, and there are 27 units approved across the street.
And the new church does have a consolidation plan already approved. So this is the Allegheny
apartments, indicating 87 units. This is a new permit that just was issued for the building
across the street in December of 2021. 27 dwelling units, and not to disparage another project, but
they only have 11 parking spaces, and it was very, very concerning to the community groups that we
have in our project a one-for-one parking allocation, and we were able to accommodate
that. And this is the zoning permit. And this is the church. As I said, there were seven lots that
were already consolidated into one. And the church basically owns the existing lot where the church
is. These are all vacant lots. These are now all vacant lots. So this whole area here is consolidated
as one lot. And the understanding is that a church is going to be built somewhere in this area with
the parking lot facing directly across the street from our parcel. And then also down here, there's
going to be another parking lot that is also owned by the church. Thank you. The only other thing,
Mr. Chairman, I didn't point out, and there's quite a few things that we could in terms of
details of the project, are that in this building, we're also going to have a community room
that is not only for the residents of the complex,
but also for the community.
And it's going to be a real community room
where folks and community groups can have a meeting,
birthday parties, whatever is necessary
as long as proper notice is given.
So I think it's been a real collaborative effort.
I just wanted to wrap up if I could, Mr. Chairman,
and just say that we have a unique situation here
where I understand what the comprehensive plan says
and what the zoning is.
But as we know, we have to look block by block.
This block is not a residential block,
has never been a residential block in full
and will not be as additional projects come online.
So the reality is in the photographs that I showed you,
we're not really altering the essential character
of the neighborhood.
It was once used as an institutional building, a large building.
Our building's footprint, as Mr. Orr actually said, is actually less than what that building was.
We are not going to impair the development of any adjacent buildings.
We have a sun and shade study to show that we're not affecting the light and air of any adjacent buildings.
You can see there's ample space between the buildings right now.
We are basically in harmony with what the neighborhood is requesting.
what the community would like, we're generally in harmony with the code. We are not going to
uh we're generally in harmony with the code uh we are not going to affect or adversely affect
any public facilities uh and with that mr chairman i i conclude my presentation
uh do you have your own are you going to adopt your testimony yes i do mr ball can you raise
your hand please do we see a hand mr balk i know his hand up thank you thank you could you state
your name please and spell for the court reporter yes my name is roslon balk b-a-l-k all right do
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do mr chair proceed
counsel uh good morning mr bulk have you heard my testimony throughout this presentation and
the testimony of the architect of record rushton or yes if you had the opportunity to testify would
you adopt both of our testimonies as your own and as true and correct yes thank you mr bulk
hi questions from the board no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see four hands up chair okay pick pick one um the first one is charles richardson
okay allow him to speak you please
hi mr richardson you've already been sworn
Here we are.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
That woman has no opposition to granting the variance.
Thank you very much.
Who else do we have in the audience?
We have Tina Marie Russell.
Bring, please, Ms. Russell on.
Good morning.
Good morning.
And could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Tina Marie Russell, T-I-N-A-M-A-R-I-E, R-U-S-S-E-L-L, North Central, Philadelphia, CDC.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Correct.
Proceed.
Hi, this is Tina Marie Russell, and I'm the RCO for one of the affected RCOs for this
particular site.
As indicated, there were many meetings held for the site.
The owner and the architect heard the voices from the community when we said we have an historical environment that we want to keep intact.
And so we had many divisions on this drawing to get it to where it's at today.
The community approved the final outcome.
I just didn't hear, so I might be incorrect with this, but if I am, I stand corrected.
I didn't hear the provisos being listed.
And my question is, do I need to list them, or how does that go into record?
I want to check.
I think most of the provisos are in the revised plans other than...
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
We'll check with Hillary before we do it.
Yeah, I was going to say, Mr. Chair, there are some provisos listed in the community benefits agreement, but we also received, which the community benefits agreement is not enforceable by the zoning board, but a number of those, we received a separate list of provisos from Swampoodle Neighborhood Parcel Association, which reflected what was in the community benefits agreement.
And I can just read out what's enforceable if you would like, just to clarify for everyone.
before you start if you can we didn't put our provisos with our cbs our provisos are separate
from our cba so i don't know how that got confused but i'll i'll arrest them okay we yeah i didn't
say we didn't see a separate list i saw a cba with with two exhibits attached to it that's all
i received no separate list of provisos um but the ones that um swan poodle said that um that
are enforceable are a maximum of 43 units, interior storage of trash and recycling, roof
access for maintenance only, and all bicycle parking structures must be located within the
deeded property lines. Okay, so just so I can say again, I don't know why that happened, but
we definitely separated our provisos for my CBA, and they had more entrances in it. I'm not sure
which is enforceable, but we definitely had a separation.
Ms. Russell, this is Henry. I think I can address that.
So Ms. Emerson, on the community benefits agreement, you're right.
There's two exhibits, Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
And Exhibit B is the provisos that we have agreed to.
And Exhibit B is the provisos that we have agreed to, my client has agreed to with the community.
And that's Exhibit B as part of the Community Benefits Agreement.
I don't agree with that. I don't know how that, that we, our provisos are different than we
wanted to make sure they're separated. I don't, can we go back and how can it, how can that happen?
Ms. Russell, the document that we exchanged, I took the provisos that you provided, and they're part of the Community Benefits Agreement as Exhibit B.
And the top says final provisos for 3221 to 49 North 16th Street.
And you talk about the affordable housing, insurance, construction, back alley revitalization, extermination,
written trash procedures
within leases, security
cameras, lighting,
driveway security,
gates, computer
access room,