there are 23 signatures but you know multiple people from each home uh on that petition okay
thank you um planning commission so ron bednar city planning properties indicated for residential
use on the city plan or district plan recommends no change to existing zoning at that location
Therefore, we recommend requests for grants to offer granted.
Hillary, we're holding this for questions to be answered, and then we'll take it to executive.
We're holding it for one week to see if a corrected or amended refusal needs to be issued.
And then we'll take it to the board in an executive session and figure out what to do.
You can vote on it at 2 p.m. next week to 12.
Thank you both, and I'm sorry you've been here so long.
Thank you very much, Hillary.
number two mi 2024 006 331 498 498 midvale avenue henry clinton is the attorney
mr chair can we go to number five quickly first that'll be a short a short case and
number two may take a little bit longer sure but all right mi 2024 006 475 917 south 9th street
stephen henchek is the owner applicant
letter of non-opposition from council member squill a letter of non-opposition
support with a proviso from bella vista neighbors
thank you very much okay thank you hope you get home tonight oh soon yeah
all right um stephen henshack
he's there hi mr henshack could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Mr. Henshack, Mr. Henshack, Mr. Henshack, can you speak?
Mr. Hinchik.
Mr. Henshack, we're having a hard time hearing you.
Mr. Henshack.
Should you go out and come back in?
Oh, no, the voice is bad.
This is a problem.
All right, we'll go to the next one.
I'll come back to you, sir.
MI 2024-006-331-498 Midville Avenue.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
So a letter of opposition
from the 12th Ward Democratic Committee.
Henry?
Good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Henry, I'm sorry we had to keep you waiting this long.
Just for the record, could you please state your name?
Henry Clinton, H-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is Anat, A-N-A-T, Madar, M-A-D-A-R.
You agree to waive the reading of the refusal and you agree with its accuracy?
Okay. Why don't you start your presentation?
Sure. Just at the outset, I'd like to make a mention of the letter.
The letter may be termed an opposition letter, but the vote was five to four in favor.
So I find that curious, but we can address that.
Okay, thank you.
All right, is that visible, Mr. Chairman?
It is. Thank you.
All right, so good evening, everyone.
Appreciate you taking the time to hear us tonight.
I'm here on behalf of Anat Medar, the owner of Owner Advanced LLC, concerning 498 Midvale Avenue.
So just by way of background, this is a vacant, narrow parcel of land, was previously used as a thoroughfare or access road to the railroad, which sits behind the properties in this neighborhood on Midvale and Coulter Street.
It's never been built on, no structure whatsoever, and it's surrounded by multifamily houses of two and four units, but it's actually in an RSA-5 zoning district.
So that's the brief overview, table of contents, A1 through A10, as well as the addresses of the other multifamily within either side of the subject property.
Refusal, RSA 5 zoning district, as I indicated at the outset, and we're proposing two-family household living.
Again, the RCO letter, I mean, I was at the meeting, it was a Zoom meeting, five in support.
for or oppose why the RCO took a position of opposition when the community voted in favor
is beyond me. This is their letter of opposition. I just want to walk through a couple things.
Again, one of the long-time residents did indicate that he's lived there for 60 years
and the lot has always been vacant. And it was an excavation for the railroad that runs
an excavation area for the railroad that runs directly behind the properties.
There was reference here that they're against a roof deck.
The property doesn't have a roof deck and it doesn't have a basement.
It's rather a unique application of a two-family dwelling.
Instead of having top and bottom, we have back-to-back, as I'll show you with the plans.
So again, the vote was 5-4 to support the project, but the 12th Ward opposed the building.
So here are photographs. So this is Midvale Avenue where my cursor is. This is a row of nice homes with nice elevations. And this is the vacant lot, which, again, served as an app.
And this is the vacant lot, which, again, served as an access area to get to the railroad in the rear.
There are multifamily on both sides of the subject property.
Directly across the street is a garden.
The homes down here, which I'll show you the elevation, are brick facades.
This is leading Coulter Street.
It turns a little bit and becomes Midvale.
Our project is right here on the other side of the weight fence.
We're getting closer to where the lot is.
It's right here.
And this is where there's actually a community garden there now, where my cursor is.
Again, this is the area where the lot will be, just trying to give you a contextual view.
This is looking down Midvale South.
If you're going the opposite direction and you'd make a turn right here onto Coulter.
The lot is here, a home next door is multifamily.
The home to the left is multifamily.
This is not our driveway area.
This belongs to someone else.
And I'll show you when I get to the plans.
It's kind of a pie-shaped lot next to us.
So these are the homes that are to the right of our vacant lot.
These are very nice elevations, very stylish.
I'll bring the architect on to explain why we can't replicate this or can't duplicate this.
So the way these homes are constructed is you walk into the front door and there's two units on the left, two units on the right.
And the architect explained to the RCO, we could not duplicate this design because the second floor porches are not permitted by the code, and we can't have one entrance for serving two individual apartment buildings.
And you have the same situation here and the same situation here.
These are just indication that our notices were posted.
And the property, again, the lot is here under the tree, and these are the single-family brick homes that are down the street, which we've tried to duplicate because we cannot duplicate the Doric columns that you see here.
The lot, first of all, is not wide enough, and zoning and building-wise, we're just not permitted to do that.
So what we try to do is mimic something that would accommodate the lot that we have, which is narrow and deep.
so here are the brick facades that are right down the street if you go down here you can see where
it turns where that white car is our lot is on the other side of that so here's the plans the
subject lot is right here on midfield avenue and what i said that the client has taken kind of a
unique approach to have two family dwelling instead of having top and bottom maybe first and second
floor, one unit, third or fourth floor, another unit. She decided to do units back to back,
which give you a feel of a single family home because you have two separate entrances.
You both have access to a rear yard because there's a nice walkway along the side of the
property with trash enclosures on the backside. It's not an overwhelmingly high building. It's
not four stories. There's no basement. There's no rooftop deck. And again, we have brick facades
to mimic what's down the block.
Here is the floor plan
for both the front and the back.
Again, no basement.
First floor, you would enter in the front living room,
the kitchen, you would go to the second floor
with one bedroom, excuse me, second floor is here,
two bedrooms, and the third floor
would be your third bedroom.
So it's a modest home, 1,800 square feet,
three stories, no roof deck, no foundation. And then the property back to back would be the same
layout, just reversed from what is on the front. Living room, kitchen, two bedrooms on the second
floor and a bedroom on the third floor. Again, this is the brick look that we've tried to mimic
the homes down the block. It's going to be brick on the side, brick in the front, nice double hung
windows kind of a classic look with the row lock brick above each window and a decent cornice area
on the front to be at the top this is the rear elevation again it's really just a duplicate
of what we're doing on the front so i just want to go back again and just try to emphasize what
we're doing so you'd have a yard you would come off midville avenue your entrance to the the first
home it's actually mimicking a single family home would be in the front and i gave you the
would be in the front, and I gave you the layout of the property, first, second, and third floor.
layout of the property for a second and third floor
The other tenant would walk to the back and then enter unit B from the rear of the property,
but again in the front, and the same floor plan replays over again with unit B.
so this is our application for appeal our tax clearance zoning map again this is an historical
map but try to pull something from 1996 showing 498 midvale you can see how long and narrow the
lot is again instead of bunching a two-family dwelling with three or four stories with a
basement. We just thought it would be a novel approach to have a front and back. We don't
have any issues with height, rear yard, or open space. And it does, as I say, mimic a single
family look. And I grant you, it doesn't match the elevations of the home to the right, which
are beautiful Doric columns, but we just don't have the width to do that. And so we look close
by, we saw the brick homes right here, further south on Midvale, and that's why we came up with
the brick design. Just showing you the zoning map. Again, it is all RSA 5, but as I'll indicate at
the end with the zoning historical records, there's multifamily on both sides of the property.
And the other thing is, it's never been built upon, and I think there's a reason for that,
The single-family home, as my client will testify, is just not going to work based on the values of the brick homes that are further down the block.
It's going to cost almost double the construction cost to do a single-family home than the sale price, because the sale prices of the homes in this neighborhood are under $275,000.
cost to build is probably gonna be around 425 to 450.
So I know economics is not necessarily a reason
for granting a variance,
but there's a reason that nothing has been built.
And my client is actually taking a risk
to come into the neighborhood
and try to build a duplex back to back.
This is a deed indicating ownership.
notice letter to everyone and these are all the properties on either side so our our
property is 498 500 midvale is two family 502 504 508 510 and then when you go the other way
on culture street 424 422 420 and 418 i can go through each of the records if if you want mr
chairman, but they're certainly there for review. Do you want me to go through each one?
No, that would be fine.
Okay. So we're looking for more housing units in Philadelphia. I think this is something that
taking a long, vacant, narrow lot, never been built on, I think that'd be supported by members
of the community and putting two modest apartments front and back. We're not affecting anyone's
lighter air or the development of any adjacent property. We are generally in harmony with the
code because it is a residential area. The square footage is adequate for a family.
And I think, you know, again, my client looked at what could be done here. And again, rather than
going to a fourth floor and having probably less construction costs rather than, you know,
two houses side by side, we came up with this proposal. It was supported by the people that
attended the meeting so again i was a little bit flabbergasted i don't use the word flabbergasted
but taken aback that you know the rco then went against the whatever the community had to say
so with that i would like to conclude my testimony ask my client to unmute herself
ask her questions and then have her got my testimony what's your client's name
Ms. Madar, can you unmute yourself?
Okay, thank you.
Annette, can you unmute yourself?
Good evening.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, sir.
My name is Annette Madar, A-N-A-T, Madar, M-A-D-A-R.
M-A-D-A-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth?
Yes, sir, I am.
I see you, counsel.
Ms. Medora, were you on the call when I presented your project?
Okay, and you heard me mention the single-family brick homes that are down the block.
Do you have an understanding of what the general market assets values are for those homes?
Yes, I did search it on OPA and search it on Zillow.
And they were selling around the $250,000 to approximately $270,000, not more than that.
And if on this slide, someone elected to build a single-family home, in your experience, what would the typical construction cost come to?
Roughly to build on this size of lot single-family will cost around the $440,000.
And if you had the opportunity to testify after hearing what I said about the project, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
Yes, I am.
Thank you, Ms. Madara.
Mr. Chairman, the architect is on the call.
I just want to bring him on to explain why we can't duplicate what is here, if you would find that helpful.
I think we understand that.
I think you spent a great time designing that.
But once we get some questions from the board, if they want to bring the architect, we'll bring them one question.
Yes. Could you tell me how I mean, tell me the width of the walkway going to the that you would have going to the back unit, your very unit.
Like what's the width of that walkway? Sure. Let me see if I can blow that up.