You don't drive up Palmer Street. You make a right and it forces you to park at the property and then continue down to Iyer Street and then to either Girard or to reaccess I-95.
In addition, you know, I do want to say that we've heard a lot of resistance from the community about wanting to engage in who lives there, resistant to rental properties, you know, and some irrational fear around just having non-home ownership at that place.
I've been doing this for many, many years.
I actively manage a lot of apartment buildings.
And, you know, I find that people want to live in Fishtown.
They want to be part of the community.
They want to be an active part of the community, but they're not in a position to have home ownership.
And I just feel like these people, you know, I just want to address that, that it's a misconception to think that these people that we rent to won't be active supporters, engaged, you know, dynamic community members.
So I did want to make that call. And, you know, I, you know, they are 10 smaller units, one-to-one parking. The density would be comparable to three single-family homes. But I think given the situation, the proximity, the lighting, it's just, it's not viable to do that. And so thank you. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Questions from the board?
Excuse me, Chair.
yes oh i'm sorry go ahead i'm sorry uh questions no questions chair questions or comments from our
attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair we have someone with the last name in in quinn okay
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
hi yes my name is concetta quinn c-o-n-c-e-t-t-a last name q-u-i-n-n right you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor i am yes
immediate neighbor please proceed okay um i just wanted to go over some of the things um that i
just heard so the first thing i wanted to go over was that uh the building that they are referencing
as an r1 that is in current existence is an old school building that was built in the early 1900s
that was then changed to apartments so that's why it was zoned that way um the second thing is that
they're talking about having a thriving commercial corridor in our area we already have gerard avenue
and frankfurt avenue so not we don't need one in palmer street okay number three the hardship um
they bought that lot three years ago and the lot the shape of the lot has not changed in those three
years um number four they stated that they've been um trying to um
um make uh you know come down reasonably with their plans yes and um i would like to say that
first their plan started at eight then it went to 19 then it was down to 10 um and we do have
those plans where they started advertising when they were trying to sell um okay number five um
The lot never caused problems before when the old tenant lived there.
It has just recently been causing problems since they've been the owners.
Number six, we are not against renters.
We have renters on our block, but they live in single-family homes.
And I think that's pretty much all I wanted to say.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
we have four hands up the next is christopher fletcher okay mr fletcher could you state your
name please and spell for the court stenographer c-h-r-i-s-t-o-p-h-e-r f-l-e-t-c-h-e-r
christopher fletcher good do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do are you a neighbor i am are you in support of the property i'm opposed to the
Are you a neighbor?
Are you in support of the property?
I'm opposed to the project or against?
I'm opposed to this project.
Could you, other than what you've already heard, could you give us a reason why?
I would also like to indicate that this is a large building.
And if you look on Irish Street, most of them are two-story houses with small backyards.
This building would be built to the southeast, would literally take their sunshine.
thank you for taking the time to call us mr fletcher we appreciate it is give me the next
hand please lynn last name ending in k hi lynn could you state your name and spell please for
the court stenographer sure my name is lynn l-y-n-n my last name is kazmierski k-a-z-m-i-e-r-s-k-i
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do are you a neighbor i am an immediate neighbor are you in favor of the project or
against i am opposed to the project okay the things you've heard can you offer anything
different than what we've heard uh yes i can um there was originally three homes on those prior
lots years ago um so there's no reason why three homes cannot be put in place of that
the lighting that they're referencing on their 95 is actually to help us prevent crime so our
car windows are not broken into because of all the traffic that is turning off of Delaware Avenue
north into Palmer Street okay that is the first street that actually can turn into the Fishtown
area off of 95 so we actually are dealing with issues with that with the city as well trying to
get speed bumps in place so with their project they're referencing salmon street and air street
uh what they want to do is pretty much direct all traffic on two little streets
salmon street is a little street to where cars can't even fit down there as is so for them to
even put the parking underneath i don't know how and no one else seems to know how they're actually
going to be able to do that and they want to take the project to 100 of the curb along with curb
cuts, which is preventing pedestrian walkways. Now, if you have to cross the street, 95's beams
are so low that you can't even walk on that side as well. That is a big issue. It's a big safety
concern. And then also their trash pickup, they said that they were going to put that onto Airstreet.
The trash men currently cannot even turn on Airstreet to pick up Airstreet's trash.
um every single thing that we have brought to their attention and ask questions i mean
they bought this project knowing that 95 was still there uh the lot like the neighbor said
has always been the same size um and that's pretty much all i have to say as well but i'm
opposed to this okay thank you i appreciate you taking the time to calls is there's give me the
next hand please sure benjamin katz turkey do you state your name please spell for the court
stenographer good afternoon chairman benjamin katz b-e-n-j-a-m-i-n-k-a-t-z do you swear a firm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do uh are you a neighbor i am a
neighbor i live on shackle maxon street and i are you in favor or uh against the project
I support the project. I am familiar with the immediate corner. Some of the challenges just based on 95, the limited space, the lighting issue, and the size of the lot. I'm also familiar with a lot of the work that this group has done around the neighborhood.
I think they've only positively influenced the neighborhood. And this is land that does need to get developed to eliminate crime, eliminate some of the issues that I've known to be there previously.
And I just don't think that there is a better option or a better group out there to do the project, 10 units, 10 parking spaces, it all seems, it all seems feasible. And it would be really nice if both, you know, the development group and the neighbors can work together and get this accomplished.
All right. Thank you for taking the time to call us. Next hand, how many hands do you have now?
We have three hands and the next is Bill Weber.
Mr. Weber, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, sir.
My name is Will Weber, spelled W-I-L-L-W-E-B-E-R.
I'm a resident on Air Street.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
We've heard a lot.
Could you tell me if you're in favor or against the project?
Absolutely.
I am opposed.
Is there anything, and we've heard a lot of reasons, is there anything else you can add?
Yeah, yeah, I'll be I'll be brief. I generally don't believe that a 10 unit apartment building being added south of Girard into an area that's going to see an influx of about 20,000 apartment units over the coming years on Columbus Avenue.
Yeah, I'll be brief.
Um, I generally don't believe that, uh,
I don't imagine that's going to really provide any sort of commercial jolt into this this corner of the neighborhood just to refute one of the points.
All right. Thank you for taking time to close. Next hand, please.
Next, we have Michael Quinn.
Hi, Mr. Quinn.
Could you state your name for the court stenographer, please, and spell it?
My name is Michael Quinn, M-I-C-H-A-E-L-Q-U-I-N-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I live across the street.
Are you in favor or against the project?
I'm against the project.
We've had a lot of people give us comments.
Is there anything different you can tell us?
Well, I'd like to just start out.
I wrote a letter to Tanya Sunke expressing a lot of my concerns, but I'll just keep it short.
I'll keep it short to the one.
You know, this group keeps talking about how they compromised, came down from 18 units.
It's all a lot.
They started with eight units.
They tried selling the property as eight units.
uh that gentleman who spoke before me benjamin cats he's their actually he was their realtor
so i don't think his favor should have any weight in this being the realtor um but yeah they started
with eight units scrapped that went to 18 and then came down to 13 mr quinn you live on palmer
street right i do i live across the street we we have your letter sir thank you tanya gave us
and we all have your letter. Thank you. We appreciate it. Any more hands?
Just two more, Chair. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Michael
Casey? Mr. Casey, state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer.
Mr. Casey, please unmute.
Okay. Next we have is Robert Everett, Chair.
Sir, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
good afternoon first name is robert last name everett e-v-e-r-e-double-t right do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor
i live in the neighborhood i'm not an immediate neighbor but i am on the zoning committee for fna
right all right say so uh you know we've had a lot of comments could you tell us whether you're for
the project or against it i'm personally opposed and i'm just here to represent the community or
in support of the neighbors okay is there anything different that you can tell us that anything
different than what you've already heard i think the the people who spoke who all but one are
immediate neighbors within 250 feet got their point across okay mr ever thank you for taking
the time anyone else michael casey casey has his hand back up mr casey
mr casey please unmute mr casey so you can be heard
okay planning commission
thank you chair bergman sarah bond of the philadelphia city planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning
the appellant has not shown that the property cannot possibly be used in strict conformity
with the zoning code and that a variance is therefore necessary to enable economic
use of the property. The City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board
deny all use and dimensional variances. Mr. Nockamson, we've had a great deal of testimony
and different viewpoints. I really want to take some time with the board. We will meet next week
in the executive session on Wednesday, and we will vote on this at 2 p.m. Thank you so much for your
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nockmson.
Okay, number 13, MI 2023-005-979-2134 South 10th Street.
Matthew Corcoran is the attorney.
Recommendation of support from the Lower Moy Mencing Civic Association
and a letter of non-oppositions from Council Member Squilla.
he's returned as a panelist chair great
there we go good afternoon mr chair could you state your name please and spell for the court
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
sonographer yes sir matthew corcoran
Yes, sir.
Matthew Corcoran, C-O-R-C-O-R-A-N, Anastasio Law, 2016 Spruce Street, 19103.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is BATP Real Estate Holdings,
one of the principals of which Joseph Cotilli is here in the virtual audience with me today.
And our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, we do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, with two notable exceptions.
the rco um letter of support which was seven to zero with two abstentions came in yesterday
uh as did councilman squilla's letter in non-opposition all right thank you please proceed
thank you so as you know we are here on a single refusal which is for office space above the first
floor uh this is a cmx one property which has a long history as a bakery um
The owners of the property are a health care services company, which is based in the neighborhood, which has outgrown their space at the old St. Agnes Medical Center, the Constitution Health Plaza, and would like to keep themselves and their employees in one location.
So what they'd like to do is expand the use above the first floor.
There are no services.
They're a counseling company, but they counsel in public schools and rec centers and homes throughout the city.
None of those services will be provided on site.
This is solely admin, solely billing, 9 to 5, Monday to Friday.
The majority of their clients walk or ride a bike or take a bus to work.
uh the two or three who don't have paid parking so there's very little burden if any on the
neighborhood um there will be security cameras installed um there'll be a lighting on a timer
and there will be a professional uh real estate management company to deal with the sidewalks
and exterior of the building and i think there's very little burden from this extended use
and if I could share my screen
I can take you through
some of the details here
the green button on the bottom