This is really
just a diagrammatic elevation from the south. These are the broad facade. The brownish color
is the existing building. The dashed elements are obviously windows that would be added to
provide light and air to the tenants' bases at all seven floors. The white portion is the proposed
seven-story addition. So again, obviously very similar in scale, composition. There is an existing
elevator and stair that serves the existing building with a bulkhead that's shown here on
the left. Similarly, there would be a new stair and elevator to provide the required number of
exits, meaning egress stairs, to all tenants at all floors. This diagram is to indicate
the proposed so the pink really is just conceptually the stairs and elevators
You can see there that at the diagram below, if we were to meet the letter of the zoning code, coming in below the 60-foot allowable height, that the top two floors in the existing building, which are currently non-code compliant, would remain non-code compliant.
you can see there that at the diagram below if we were to meet the
there would only be one egress stair and the solution to that was to match the heights and
again have two means of egress for all tenants at all floors which are shown in the plan diagrams on
the next page so on the left is the existing ground floor and there again the pink is the
stair that serves all floors. There's only one stair. There's a large freight elevator. Both of
those would remain. The dashed lines are the warehouse and the single story to be demolished.
On the left, sorry, on the right at the top is the proposed floor plan. So again, a new stair
and elevator core in the proposed addition. This would allow for the top two floors, level six and
seven to have two means of egress if you were not to have it um if the building addition were
to be five stories the top two floors of the existing building would be not non-code non-code
compliant as shown in the plan on the bottom with only one stair
thank you clementa these are sun shading studies uh and these are done in the software that output
accurate shadows given the sizes of the buildings you'll see that the figure of the property line
outlined in black and this is showing three times of day at three times of year really four times
of year so the vernal and autumnal equinox the summer solstice and the winter solstice this is
just to track the extreme cases of shadows on the left is if the addition were to be five stories
on the right showing if it were to be seven stories so nine images for the five stories
nine images for the seven stories we'll zoom in in a bit the takeaway as you sort of look as you're
looking at all of these as clementia mentioned previously um the majority of the shadow at
almost all times of day at all times of year is cast across the um parking lot of the property
itself obviously the in the winter as we all know longer shadows are cast um you'll see down there
actually i guess so you can go to the next slide clementa zooms zooms in on just the the winter
scenario the five stories version is at the top the seven stories version at the bottom uh there
is some shadows being cast on the post office across germantown ave and the nazarene baptist
church which are in support of the project um in really winter early morning um really winter
early morning uh and as you can see really there's not much difference between the five story and
seven story in terms of shadows cast uh really the place it's most evident is midday uh the noon
you can sort of see the outline of the you know the building steps down but again it's impacting
only the the parking area of the property itself um of note um the residential properties along
kerbaugh street which are to the south of the building are not impacted at all by shadow and
light since they're south of the building um and uh the what was zoned is rsa5 to the east of nice
street you see at 3 p.m whether five or seven stories that shadow is being cast into the parking
lot zoned residential but owned by the church and used as a parking lot thank you harris and
if you could also just highlight the matter of the code requirement for the seven stories and
which portion of the code requires for us to have multiple means of egress and thus why the variance
is necessary. Thank you, Clementa. Yes, that's required by section 1006.3.3, table 1006.3.32,
which requires more than one exit for buildings of three stories or more. Thank you, Erin.
So we did provide notice of the meeting, as you will see here. Our office sends out this letter
on december 27th well in advance of the meeting that was held on january 11th and was well
attended again the refuges that we have are in relation to the roof set which we believe is
necessary as a amenity for tenants in order for us to revitalize the germantown commercial corridor
amenity for tenants in order for us to revitalize the Germantown Commercial Corridor and compete
and compete with
with similar properties that offer tenant space. We also have the signage, which is framed by
the arches. We want to have minimal impact on the existing structure. We really want to honor
the building as is. We have a refusal for the height. As Harris mentioned, we would not be
able to move forward to bring the property up to code without this particular variance being
granted as there are issues with the property currently with multiple means of egress. So in
order for us to be code compliant, we do need to match the height. And we have our refusal for
off-street loading, which is a byproduct of the fact that one, the property is zoned IRMX of use
that we are proposing here although it is permitted in irmx and the refusal for the off-street loading
we do not need four off-street loading spaces we do have longages in the rear along 9th street and
instead of providing three additional off-street loading spaces we decided to prioritize tenant
parking which is why we are well above what's required i believe around 50 are required on
Friday well over 100 parking spaces a list of the properties that weren't that notified of the
community meeting our certificate mailing showing that we sent notice out to all of the affected
properties the application for appeal our project information forms and the deed showing that my
client does in fact own the property so with that i believe my client is present if i could have
ken included as a panel so he may have got my testimony
ken weinstein yeah he's been allowed to speak eric could you please state your name and spell
for the court stenographer ken weinstein k-e-n-w-e-i-n-s-t-e-i-n of philly office retail
sure do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do please proceed counsel right um thank you very much oh go ahead
of course did you hear my presentation for that yes was it true and correct it was
And if you could just elaborate on the reason that you guys acquired the property and the proposed use.
Yes, we acquired the property a couple of years ago and have been using it, continued use of the commercial tenants that were in there.
But we would like the seven-story addition in order to do this legally by building code and offer 110 studio spaces in the building that will range in size from 156 square feet to 1,045 square feet.
Thank you.
and with that i'd be happy to answer any questions that the board may have questions from the board
no chairman questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
just briefly mr chair um we did not receive the letters of support from the church or from
tayoga united so if miss amazon could please forward those at her earliest convenience that
would be great. Thank you. Absolutely. We received them after submitting our material, so I will
submit them to Ms. Emerson. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Carmela Vassar-Johnson. Okay.
Hi. Hi. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Carmella, C-A-R-M-E-L-L-A, last name Vassor Johnson, V as in Victor, A-S-S-O-R hyphen Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am in an organization that lives in this neighborhood.
Please proceed.
Okay, I am a founding member of Jumpstart Tioga. We provide education and support for new and smaller developers with the focus on removing blight in the neighborhood and to improve our neighborhood and surrounding areas.
We're in support of this project because of where this property is currently located. Right now, there are a lot of automotive type businesses.
Right now, there are a lot of automotive-type businesses.
This project would provide opportunity for startup businesses, for people to move their businesses out of their home into another facility, and also for business to expand in their own neighborhood without having to find a location elsewhere.
The fact that there's so much parking provided, I think, is a huge bonus to the tenants as well as the neighborhood.
And the rooftop deck, in my opinion, offers a place to refresh as you're working through the day, which often is found in other neighborhoods.
And there's no reason, in my opinion, that we should have to go outside of our neighborhoods to find that amenity, as well as a place of potential content and other tenants in which they can network and expand their business.
So we wrap our arms wholeheartedly around this opportunity for this project.
Thank you for taking the time to call, sir. We appreciate your input. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
yes chair we have a calling user phone number ending at 4608 okay
calling user ending at 4608 please unmute
yes um i believe i'm unmuted now okay sir could you state your name and spell please for the
court stenographer?
Charles Carn.
C-A-R-N.
Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
We're all firm.
Do you live in, are you
a neighbor?
I am the 13th Ward
chairperson, and I live in the community
for over 45 years.
Please proceed, sir.
Good day.
Good day, board. Couldn't be on
the laptop, but I'm here. I want to commend the owner for purchasing the property. When we did
have the meeting, we wanted to try to stay focused on the refusals rather than the program itself.
So the petitions that were shown to us were from people who were not directly affected
or within the 13 Ford area around that property on Germantown Avenue.
So to get to a couple of points that we discussed,
and it was a lengthy meeting and well attended by the directly affected 13 Ford,
Nice Town, CDC, and the block captains of Nice Town.
Sir Wright, if you looked at the, I know we had the exhibit of the pictures of the lot that Nazarene's on.
No one from Nazarene logged on at the meeting time.
No one from, so we were looking at the parking lot for one.
Parking lot behind that is RSA 5.
If they sell the parking lot, it goes away.
Carball Street and Knight Street are the streets directly behind the property itself.
They are RSA 5 and occupied.
But we also looked at the existing property that was on Germantown Avenue, the seven stories.
And the shadows, and I don't know where that study came from.
It was not at the presentation at all.
It's the existing building casting a shadow towards Ninth Street, which is behind it.
We thought as though if you put another seven-story building behind there, it's going to cast a longer shadow.
So we did not see that.
directly affected were there.
The petition folks, we talked about it.
That came out of the one nine one four zero.
So they were all over the place like the person who called in just a minute ago.
What we were trying to do as the 13th Ward is maintain those two blocks,
the nice, nice street and cabal as RSA five districts.
And a reason for the refusal.
um this is a existing building and they're proposing to add on another seven-story building
the refusal says up to 60 feet we support the project and to the limitation of 60 feet and um
i guess we got pushback um on that so the um that was one of the issues and
degress the building we felt as though that they're building a unit so it should no way
be out of compliance with any type of building and they can still have their um as many um units
in the building itself um the hardship um it was never voiced that it was a hardship to go down to
voiced that it was a hardship to go down to 60 feet. It's just that they wanted a certain amount
60 feet. It's just that they wanted a certain amount.
of units in the building itself. The parking itself is, as they said, is contained within
the gate. It's always been there inside the fence area. The roofing was an issue
from the meeting. It was voiced that it becomes a gathering place rather than
whatever they were looking for there so we felt as though we could um because it's a reason for
the refusal to stay within the guidelines this building 30 39 35 to 61 is the only seven-story
building in the area this is not 1901 11th street wherever that's located but this is right within
nice town area there so the um coordinating and affected rco nice town they were online
the block captains of nice town were online and only two of the directly affected were
online there and that's why we sent it in we support it we support in the program the jump
start um that was most of the folks who did not live in the area but we do support the project
itself with proviso for the second the second building that's proposed to stay at 60 feet
and to eliminate the roof decks
i can answer any questions you want sir
if the board doesn't have any questions may i respond what's that again if the board doesn't
have any questions for mr karen may i respond yes sure well why don't why don't we do this
why don't we wait to see if there's anyone else in the vertical in the audience okay
is there anyone else in the virtual audience
yes chair we have someone williams to shine first name begin with a d okay
hi could you state your name please sir hi this is uh dashonda dr dashonda williams d-e-s-h-a-w-n-d-a
Last name Williams
W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
The whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes sir
Are you a neighbor
I have an organization
My church actually
One of the pastors of the church in
Nice Town
Sure please proceed
I came on today
As a support for this project
Just wanted to
shared the highlights in reference to what it can bring to our community, not just to our community,
but to those who live in the community. I understand that there's things that need to
be discussed in reference to building and hiding, et cetera, et cetera. I just know that hoping that
we can come together to see that whatever needs to be done can be done because this is really
needed for our community there's a lot of individuals that look forward to advancing
and have an opportunity to you know have residence there in terms of entrepreneurship work we're
working to empower and encourage people at our fellowship to seek out endeavors like this and
to have something like this in our community is really really great and it's awesome and so
i'm just here to show support on today thank you thank you for taking the time we appreciate your
call is there anyone else in the virtual audience yes we have ariel rivera how many more hands do
you have three hands after this person okay hi could you state your name please it's spelled
for the court stenographer yes can you hear me okay i can yeah okay my name is ariel rivera