I just took over because you're not.
No, I know.
The host caught me.
Tanya said it's happened before.
It does.
It happens a lot.
Okay, have a good afternoon.
And you're not going to be here, too?
I will not.
okay thanks thank you so much right
um okay recording started we're ready for you chair okay good afternoon my name is bill bergman
i'll be chairing this
good afternoon my name is bill bergen and i'll be chairing the meetings this afternoon
Our board members with us, Thomas Holliman.
Present. James Snell. Present.
And we believe Confessor Plaza will be on shortly.
So before, and we also have with us our zoning board administrator, Tanya Sunkit,
and board attorney, Sharon Saleta. Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
be advised this proceeding is being recorded by participation you acknowledge your agreement to be
recorded a video of the hearing will be available and you can contact tanya sunkett at phila.gov
second for the benefit of our court stenographers we ask attorneys and witnesses to id themselves
prior to speaking or testifying third if you are participating by phone if you wish to testify
raise your hand by hitting star nine then star six
raise your hand by hitting star nine, then star six to unmute.
To add an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548
and leave your email address and the address of the property in question.
And fourth, please note the question and answer box is not for comments.
Any comments you have, please send them to the board administrator.
I'm going to look at our contingency continuances for the 2 p.m. hearing.
I have four. Number two, MI 2020, 003288, 1225 North 3rd. Number three, MI 2020, 003355,
1231 North 3rd. Number 6, MI 2021-003661, 3140 Clifford Street. And lastly, MI 2021-001900-5154
west rod avenue does anyone have concerns or questions about these continuances
i see no hands chair are there any other continuances or withdrawals requested
i see no hands chair okay we will start mi 2020 000364
1140 South 54th Street, Nix, Realty, LLC, and Ronald Tolbert.
We have no exhibits, and there's been no RCO meeting.
If you're present, please state your name and spell it for the court reporter.
I see no handshare.
This is the second time this was listed.
I recommend we dismiss this case.
This Thomas Thomas Holloman dismiss. That was James Snell dismiss. Thank you. Number four, 2021
003711 1600 Point Breeze Avenue.
we have no rc let me see here we have
point breeze community development corporation support with provisos the only
enforceable proviso with this is the commercial and not only enforceable provisos commercial trash
pickup and revised plans mr knockamson uh yes good afternoon mr chair members of the board my name
is alan knockamson a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n address one two three south
broad street suite 1600 philadelphia pa 19109 you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth i do okay may i proceed you can so we have you we have your information
May I share my screen?
Thank you.
Hi, I'm here to present 1600 Point Breeze Avenue.
Let me just make this a little bigger so everyone can see it.
This is a property in the heart of Point Breeze on their commercial corridor at 1600 Point Breeze Avenue.
Again, my name is Alan Occamson, and I'm here to present this proposed project,
which will include a commercial on the ground floor, as well as six residential units.
In my presentation packet, you will see as Exhibit 1, the Notice of Refusal.
Second is a letter of support from the Point Breeze Community Development Coalition.
I'm glad to say that we met several times with both the RCO as a whole and the community as a whole,
but also with the nearby neighbors.
so our revised plans which is uh exhibit three reflect uh the opinion not only as a community
the rco but really the nearby neighbors and we'll go into that uh fourth exhibit is the zoning map
showing where we are in the neighborhood fifth exhibit will be the photographs of the property
in this around the area six sixth exhibit is the plans and drawings and we'll go quick you know
over the floor plans uh seventh exhibit is proof that we met with the rco uh eighth exhibit is the
Eighth exhibit is the application for appeal that we filed with the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
our application for appeal that we filed with the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
The ninth exhibit is our deed to the property.
And our tenth exhibit is showing that we're tax compliant, showing no taxes or real estate taxes are due with respect to this property.
With me, I also have Beckham Daku and Scott Murphy, who are potential witnesses if the board sees fit to ask them questions as well.
First things first, our notice of refusal.
Again, this is a CMX one property. We're looking to build six residential units with a ground floor commercial. We're at the corner of Tasker and Point Breeze Avenue.
We have two refusals, one of which is for the use of the property. We are allowed to have four units. It's actually rounded down. We're close to five.
And we're proposing to have six. As I would say to that is that we are looking to put six one-bedroom units and one two-bedroom units. So we're only looking to put seven bedrooms in the property. While legally, we're allowed to build, you know, three bedrooms essentially for each unit.
So we're trying to have a responsible project by having more people who are looking to move into the neighborhood by having a lesser bedroom count for each one.
The second refusal, we're required to have a height of 38 feet to the roof line.
Because of where our pilot houses were situated on the roof, it was 52 and a half feet.
One of the concessions we made, especially to nearby neighbors, is they didn't want pilot houses because they didn't want roof decks, because there was been concern in the neighborhood about conduct, not on our project, but in general with roof decks and pilot houses.
So we have a revised plan showing elimination of the roof deck.
So if this board sees fit to grant this zoning appeal, we would ask they would grant it with proviso, accepting our revised plans, which I emailed to Ms. Saleta prior to the hearing as well, just for her review.
All right, so our letter support to the Point Breeze CDC, they do support the project.
there was community input there was over 47 people there 18 people within the affected area
14 people voted in support of this project just to go back and I think I missed that
the entire executive board of the community group coordinating RCO voted in support of this project
so they voted unanimously their executive board and the community voted overwhelmingly in favor
this project again we met with the community and or the coordinating rco a total of three times
this was a heavily negotiated project especially in terms of the roof deck elimination as the
chairman stated there are provisos i believe the only enforceable proviso in terms of a zoning
permit would be commercial trash pickup four times a week with inclusion of obviously this provides
plans. We had three changes to our plans. We included Juliet balconies where the bay windows
were projected. We eliminated the pilot houses and common roof deck. Now we did keep a roof hatch
just for mechanical use only in the roof. So in case, you know, for the HVAC unit, things like
that, but there will be no, you know, usage by consumers of the roof deck. And the third thing
is we reduced the height to the roof line to 39 and a half feet.
So again this is not zoning related but one of the other things that was really important to
the group was that the brick color would match your traditional Philadelphia red brick so we
did change that as well. And you can see that in terms of our elevation and rendering.
And again, these are our revised plans. You'll see wherever the changes were made are bubbled and red.
So our map of the area, just showing where we are. We're in the commercial corridor.
One of the important things was to make sure that we had a high ceiling for the commercial space, 11-foot ceilings.
That's why we're requesting to have a height of 39.5 feet.
Also, how the building is situated, and given its uniqueness in terms of its corner and angular shape,
we do need that extra foot and a half as well.
Photographs of the property.
This is the front of the property, which is a vacant lot.
Again, on the corner of Point Breeze and Tasker.
Here's the side of the property from Tasker.
point breeze to the right of the property point breeze to the left of the property again one of
Point Breeze to the right of the property.
Point Breeze to the left.
the things that we wanted to do especially with the unit count is to have the six units again
only seven bedrooms not trying to overuse the property but to to increase the density in this
part of town will help support the commercial corridor which is obviously important to most
neighborhoods here's tasker street to the right of the property tester tasker street to left of
the property and then just our plans and drawings and again it's it's the same thing that's in our
revised plans uh but you know we highlighted wherever changes were made uh so the board can
see that uh and this is we hope that they will be in agreement in terms of proviso and you know we
have to stamp drawings and we hope that the zba would be uh willing to stamp them as well
And then just our floor plans. Again, we have a decent size commercial corridor property. We're hoping that this will be either a coffee shop or something similar to that to encourage congregation of members within the community.
again it's a nice corner property uh the first floor unit is directly accessed on tasker street
as of here there's two sets of staircases obviously as of code uh the residents can go
and for either set of staircases oops what's really important and i'm trying to just get up
there and i can't do it for some reason i'm just gonna make this slightly even smaller and i
apologize, but you'll see right here, given it's a corner property, one of the benefits of having
corner properties have responsible trash storage and removal. Not only are we removing the trash
four times a week by commercial pickup and not putting a burden on the city, we're also obviously
doing it four times a week not to put a burden on the community, but we also have the storage in the
rear where each of the units will have access to that rear garbage. We also put it as close
to the building structure as possible. And more importantly, most away from the residents on Tasker
Street. But again, if you look at this, the first floor plan is again, unit A. And then these are
the floor plans for units B, C, D, and E. The second and third floors are identical. They're
all one bedroom one bath the only one that's a two bedroom one bath is the fourth floor unit which
has the whole fourth floor again we met with the community the last time we met with the community
was december 6th uh this monday we sent notice to 162 addresses these are the addresses that we sent
notice to proof of mailing and then our application for appeal to the zba
our d to property
and finally our certificate of tax clearance showing that we paid our taxes
with that being said i'll stop sharing my screen obviously if the board has any questions for me or
my client or his architect will you know venture back to the drawings uh but with that being said
um my understanding uh is that um let me see there was a family emergency so my client's
representative let me just make sure this is um here uh so is sam daku in the audience if he is
can he virtually raise his hand?
Yes, I'm here.
Sam, could you state your name
and spell it for the court reporter, please?
My name is S-A-J-M-I-R
and my last name is D-A-K-U.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Thank you.
Mr. Daku, you heard everything I stated today.
Is that correct?
Is it true and correct?
I'm sorry, can you repeat that again?
Is everything I stated true and correct?
Yes, sir.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
I'm having trouble hearing you, so what was it again?
Do you adopt what I stated as true and correct and as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Beckham Deku.
So, sir, Beckham is not here today.
So, could you do me a favor? Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
So, my name is S-A-J-M-I-R, and my last name is Daku, D-A-K-U.
okay i'm sorry chair if i can ask i'm getting a little confused
yeah is this the person who just testified and adopted testimony or no that is correct
because we have two back who's here we do have a becca we have a back we have another hand up
yes hello yes could you state your name and spell yeah hi my name
yeah my name is back from dacu uh as i thought i just landed in europe so i was able to log in
right now so okay yeah my first first name back from bk last name doctor d-a-k-u okay
do you swear to or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do
uh mr daku um and i apologize mr chair um yeah sure mr mr daku had a family emergency he actually
had to travel overseas i did not anticipate he would be available for the hearing but i can also
you know have him adopt a testimony um i don't think it's necessary but if if the board i i
we're we're fine we're fine okay thank you you don't have to do it
questions from the audience the virtual audience i see no the handshare planning commission
good afternoon my name is greg waldman planning commission staff that's spelled um g-r-e-g-o-r-y
Gregory Waldman, W-A-L-D-M-A-N. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Proceed. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Board. The
comprehensive plan recommends this property for commercial mixed use. The applicant has failed
to demonstrate hardship for exceeding code requirements for height and number of dwelling
units furthermore the applicant could obtain a buy right permit for the six units that are being
proposed in a slightly shorter structure 45 feet for the mixed income housing bonus by providing
an on-site unit for low-income residents or paying in lieu to the housing trust fund accordingly we