Mr. Kerr is coming back in as a panelist.
All right.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
How are you, sir?
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, it's William Kerr, K-E-R-R.
And I'm an attorney with High Schwartz representing the property owner,
philadelphia preservation group right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do so again could you ask a few questions please excuse me sure
sir you agree to wait the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do
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 we've submitted our exhibit packet have you met with the rco and have a letter uh yes we have
thank you please proceed okay good afternoon again william kerr on behalf of philadelphia
preservation group uh property 201 west johnson i have actually three um potential witnesses on
today. So I just wanted to alert to that. The first is Mr. Rick Sudol. You should see him on
the list. He is a principal with Philadelphia Preservation Group. It's an affiliate of Nolan
Properties. I also have Sarah Ann Logan. She is our architect. And then Mr. Josiah Diggs, who is
with our project engineer. So I may be calling him periodically. So I'd like to share my screen
at this point so let me uh sure yep
actually i'm not sure i did there right let me try that one more time
okay are you seeing my uh my screen now we do okay
This is the cover sheet of what you should have, the exhibit packet, and these are all the documents we've submitted, including refusals, our appeal application, the information form, and our deed.
I'm going to skip right to the photos and get into the plans so that we can just get right to the gist of this, so bear with me for a second here.
technology is not my strength so okay so here we go um the initial set of photos are um
the posting photos and as i'm going through this i'm going to give you a little bit background
this is actually um phase three of a project that commenced back in 2006 um it's a large property
which contains two historic structures one known as the presser building the other known as the
Nugent Building. These were historic structures that had fallen into significant disrepair as of
2006. And my clients, Nolan Properties and Philadelphia Preservation Group, acquired the
property and has since renovated and restored both the Presser Building and the Nugent Building
into apartment buildings, senior apartment buildings, and they're also affordable senior
apartment buildings that were constructed and renovated under the federal low-income housing
tax credit program. The presser building and I'm sorry I'm getting these emails I'm not sure if
you're seeing this. So the presser building essentially is this white building or if you're
seeing my cursor this off-white building here to the right. The Nugent building is the building off
to the left. This is the Nugent building. This is a more close-up of the presser building.
This photograph in the middle here is the area that were proposed to develop, essentially this area back in here.
What you're seeing here is the driveways and some of the parking that was installed as part of the first two phases.
Excuse me. So this is a photograph from the corner of Johnson and Cherokee.
that's the presser building Nugent in the distant that's the presser building looking back towards
Cherokee that's on Johnson Street that's the Nugent building looking from the presser building
and that's the presser building looking from the Nugent building and in this area
here where you see this temporary retention pond these trees and some of this
Here, where you see this temporary retention pond, these trees, and some of this grass area, this is where we're proposing what we're here for today, which is phase three.
script
Again, some additional site photos.
That's from the street, getting closer up of the Nugent building.
This is our zoning map.
This is Johnson Street, so the property is right here.
Nugent building approximately there, Presser building approximately there.
You see that we're split zone RM3 and RSA1.
uh this is a an aerial photo um so this is the project this is what i wanted to get to um this
is uh a view from basically across the street we've essentially removed the structures that exist on
this is mccallum street so there are residences here on mccallum but we've removed those so you
can see the the full scope of the project uh again presser to the right nugent to the left
this building here to the center is what we're proposing uh as phase three of this project this
will be um a market rate apartment building and while these were affordable this will be a market
rate um apartment we have committed with the community to um lease a number of the buildings
a number of the apartments to seniors uh in this in this phase three but but it will be uh
um a market rate building
so what i want to do is just go back over a little bit history we actually came um
Nugent was completed in about, Earth City Presser was completed in about 2011, Nugent was completed
in about 2014. In 2014, we came to the zoning board and received approval for this phase three
building. At that point, it was actually split into two. This was going to be another affordable
housing piece on the right, and the balance was going to be market rate units. In the interim,
After 2014, we discovered that PHFA, which is the Administrating Agency for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, was not in support of having three affordable projects on the same property.
However, this property, or excuse me, this plant did go to the zoning board and highlighted in yellow here, you can see July, I think it says 18th, 2014, this was approved by the zoning board.
It was not constructed, however, because we ran into the difficulty with PHFA.
So last year in 2020, we came in with a slightly revised version of this plan, which basically took those two pieces, merged them and proposed to construct the building as a single building with 178 units.
The unit count actually that was approved back in 2014 was 186.
In the two buildings, we then downsized that to 178 units as part of our initial submission in 2020.
We then met with the RTO, encountered some concerns with certain things, the number of units.
And based on the concerns that were expressed, we revised the plan.
And so I would close the revised plan, but also the plan proviso form, which indicates some of the changes.
One of the things that was flagged was there were some steep slopes that were pointed out by the planning commission.
So we added those. We indicated the reduction in square footage from the earlier plan we submitted in 2020.
Again, we reduced the unit counts to 176 from 186, which is the current plan.
Again, 176.
You did the recalculation of the parking.
Reconfigured the wings a little bit, which you'll see in a minute.
Reconfigured the parking.
And then we added some internal landscape trees.
So those are the changes from the initial plan submitted to L&I as compared to the plan that we're showing you here today.
And this is the new plan.
Each of those areas that are highlighted on the plan proviso sheet are circled in red.
This is the additional landscape area. These are the redesigned wings instead of being, you know, a full connection.
It's basically just a hallway connection with some openings between the two.
But this is our current plan. Again, this is last dated September 22nd of 2021.
And what we're proposing here, again, is 165 units.
It's a five-story building.
there is a some of the parking is underground in this area of the building also
Some of the parking is underground in this area of the building.
We're also proposing to add this parking.
There's some additional parking that will be provided to the rear.
The parking count remains the same as what was approved back in 2014, which was 171 parking spaces.
So we still have 171 parking spaces.
But again, we've reduced the unit count now down to 165 total apartment units.
excuse me mr care this is sharon um if the board were to approve this is it
one page that needs to be stamped this would be the page that needs to be stamped correct
thank you okay thank you uh this is the plan part of our plan which basically shows those steep
float barriers which were which were flagged by the planning commission and basically those are
in the in the pinkish color and those surround that retention basin you saw in one of the earlier
photos and then some of the areas surrounding this is the parking area the parking so these
are all essentially man-made um slope areas in that constitute the steep slope so we don't
believe that there's any any issue with those so what i'd like to do now is i'd like to call our
architect sarah ann logan sarah if you could raise your hand and have her admitted as a participant
Ms. Logan you've been unmuted. Thank you. Could you state your name and spell it for the court
reporter please? Yes my name is Sarah Ann Logan S-A-R-A-N-N space L-O-G-A-N. Do you swear a firm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed Sarah. Good afternoon
miss logan um are you the architect on this project i am and who are you employed by uh vbc
studio and how long have you been an architect 17 years okay i would ask the uh the the board
to recognize miss logan as a an expert in architecture that's fine okay could you proceed
sarah i have the uh the controls on your your plan set if you could just proceed and talk to
And explain to the board what we're doing here with this new building.
Yep, I can do that.
Specifically here, I think we jumped into the elevation, so I can talk about elevations and what we're doing.
And then I think it goes into overall perspectives, I believe, is the next part of the set.
So what you're seeing here is a blow up on the bottom left of the entry sequence of the building.
What we were trying to do is really make a bridge between the presser and the Nugent buildings and try to make a five story rather kind of long or wide building break that break up that mass a bit.
So at the entry, you'll see that there's a prominent entry that has the roof parapet increased.
All of the materials are very high quality.
It fit in with the neighborhood.
It's mostly brick building.
And then that top floor is treated as a mansard roof.
So it's recessed a bit to try to step back from the front facade.
And then the two small facades on the elevations E and F are the wings that come out into the front
of the building. Next slide please. This is the wings again, but in front you're essentially
seeing the wings from the side. And then the top elevation is the rear, rear facade. So brick runs
all the way around and then on the rear facade it's a mixture of vertical hardy panel siding
still with that mansard roof.
And it's a combination of sliding doors
with exterior kind of steel trim Juliet balconies
and recessed larger accessible balconies as well.
Next slide, please.
And Sarah, before you go on,
could you confirm that the exterior parenting
and approach that you've taken
has been vetted both by the Civic Design Review Committee
and by the Historical Commission, is that correct?
Correct. That is correct.
And you did make significant changes based on input from both of those entities, correct?
Yes. We had quite a few meetings with both boards, and I believe that we had up to four exterior revisions, and they were pleased with the results.
Okay. Next slide.
And this is the floor plan of the building. As Mr. Kerr mentioned, the building is, as proposed, 165 units.
Um, the building is mostly one bedroom units, um, and, and about 32 bedroom units.
Um, the, they vary in size from the smallest one bedroom unit.
um the they vary in size from the smallest one bedroom unit is right behind the stairs actually
I think that one's about 600 square feet all of the rest of the one bedrooms are about 720 square
feet um and uh the two bedrooms are just under 1100 square feet so very much um the going market size
for for um non kind of city or non-infill units they're they're quite nice sized units which is
makes them applicable for senior housing rentals as well. Next slide, please. And this, we originally
had as part through conversation with the neighbors, we took those out and we made those
the small one bedrooms in style. It said, as you see on the previous plan, I don't think that's
incorporated into this package. So there is no unit at 390 square feet. And then the only difference
between this plan and the next plan um is showing for the units with the balconies those square
footages get a little bit smaller because you have the included balcony space um so it's two
options for those um next slide please and then this goes to the two bedroom options and it has
the two bedroom option with the balcony and then also with the um kind of smaller juliet balcony
next slide please i think that is it
okay thank you sarah um i don't have any further questions for uh for ms logan at this point
does the board have any other witnesses um well let me just just finish up and then we'll uh
um i just want to have my client um adopt my my statements here today later on okay sure yep
All right. So there has been a significant, a number of significant efforts that were made to get this latest phase of this project through.
We had meetings with, again, both the Historical Commission, with the Civic Design Review Committee, the Planning Commission, and also with the RCO, the West Mountain Area Naval.
So I've included in here our packet of the latest to notice letters for those RCO meetings.
And as a result of those meetings, we did obtain a letter of support from Westbound Area Neighbors.
Now, I believe that was sent directly to the chair.
Mr. Chair, have you seen that letter?
The letter of support from Westbound Area Neighbors?
So we do have that. And let me just scroll down and we'll get to the letters from the Civic Design Review and the Historical Commission.
okay that's the last letter okay this is the civic design review letter this is dated September 15th
and you can hear here in the highlighted yellow um the civic design review committee completed
the required review um at 201 West Johnson Street they had a number of comments which we intend to
comply with. And let me just, I'm not sure why that's happening.
But the last page indicates the specific design review process was completed. And then we have
a tab 12, our, excuse me, our letter from the Historic Commission just indicating that in
November they reviewed the application and that they voted to approve the application
with the revisions, including a lighter brick color.
So that's the extent, I think, of my formal presentation.
I would like to have Mr. Rick Sudol.
Rick, could you raise your hand so we can have you admitted to the program here?
Mr. Sudol, please unmute yourself.
I am unmuted. This is Rick Sudol.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Sure. It's Richard Sudol, S-U-D-A-L-L.
I am the managing director of the Fiddle for Preservation Group.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Good afternoon, Mr. Sudol.
Have you been on this Zoom for the entire presentation here this afternoon?
Yes, I have.
And you've heard all my statements?
Yes, I have.
And do they all accurately describe the history of the project and the current proposal that we have before the zoning board?
Yes, you're very accurate, Mr. Kerr.
Okay, and do you adopt my statements as your own testimony?