Thank you. MI 2020-001576, 1730 Wharton Street. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes.
Thank you everybody. You're welcome. MI 2020-001580-1705-41, North America.
you're talking about my next journey Richie's yeah she
Hercules are you there
uh chair i'm promoting hercules griegos thank you good afternoon mr griegos please identify
yourself for the record spell your first and last name and then i'll swear you in
good afternoon hercules griegos 1835 market street
but off your PA.
Thank you. Swear and affirm to tell the truth?
The whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I'm sorry, I just wanted to ask for Hercules
to spell his name.
That's
H-E-R-C-U-L-E-S
last name
G-R-I-G-O-S
Thank you, Tony.
Do you agree to wake the reading of his refusal
and stipulate to his accuracy?
I do. We do have a plan change that will reduce one of the refusals, but we'll get to that
in our presentation quickly. Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required
documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal, photos and
plans five days prior to this hearing? We have. Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
We do. Please proceed. Thank you. Thank you very much.
as i said i'm here today representing oz alpha llc equitable owner of the property located at
1705 north american we're here today with an application for construction of mixed-use
multi-family building with ground ground floor retail and accessory parking i have with me
today michael scanapico owner developer as well as shimmy zakin the project architect
property is approximately 38 000 square feet located in the middle of north american street
which goes through to phillips street just north cecil b more if i may i will share my screen
and i will look for the
everyone see that
um so um just quickly uh properties site zoned icmx um let's see if i can
through this. We designed toward a standard of IRMX. The site is the former Drexel food site,
as well as a large portion of vacant land. Design teams sought to put together a design which
incorporated a large public plaza, open to the sky, generous ground floor retail, almost 10,000
square feet, as well as pedestrian connections through the site to Phillips Street. Appropriate
parking based on proximity to transit um and new construction of 179 multi-family units 42
accessory parking spaces um access from a curb cut on north american onto phillips street just to
orient everybody with the site 1705 north american it's actually uh one property off
of the corner of Cecil B. Moore. In terms of process, we began meeting with South Kensington
community partners to discuss design back in January. We were inevitably delayed because of
the shutdown. However, we persisted and met with them on two more occasions in, I believe, October
and August. The project received positive feedback from Civic Design Review and we're proud of the
community engagement which resulted in a letter of support as part of the
community process we removed a story from the building from seven to six we
reduced our floor floor heights and our overall building height we set back to
sixth floor I'll just go through some more of the aerials
I'll just go through some more of the aerials.
Here's the site zoning.
Here's the existing conditions.
This is the surveys you can see.
The large North America Street with the bioswale
backs up the Phillips Street
and we're slightly off of Cecil B. Moore.
These are some of the important things
that were from the design team.
here's the sort of massing of the site again maximum height 73 feet reduced from 77 feet
that's the top of roof with an additional pilot house above that to 83 feet in total height to
the top of pilot house ICMX has a one to two parking ratio we designed it to an IRMX
parking ratio with the parking reductions for share car share and bike parking here is your
ground floor commercial space on either side large open plaza commercial cafe entrance off
of north american to a parking back out off to phillips street
this is a section and you'll note um the height 73 feet along north american our commercial and
back off of philip street we have a setback 62 feet and then the sixth floor is recessed
and again here's our ground floor plan unit mix etc landscape plan lighting plan
um so as i said we as part of the process we removed um a story um we added planners along
phillip street to screen the parking we added electric car parking and car share spaces we
added three uh five three bedroom units um to the unit mix um and we are including uh 10
percent affordable residential and approximately 4 000 plus square feet of the commercial will be
set aside as reduced rent affordable for local businesses
in terms of variances we have three use icmx does not allow residential although as you are aware
north american street is changing with similar scale multi-family buildings
ground floor commercial parking as you know icmx requires a one to two parking
ratio for residential while irmx is three to ten we're in the spirit of irmx
with the appropriate reductions for car share with 42 spaces again height
originally it was to top of pilot house at 91 feet we've reduced that to top of
pilothouse at 83 feet top of roof is 73 feet and as you know the width of North
American Street at I believe it's 120 feet allows for massing of the size with
that this is the minimum requested variance will not alter the essential
character of the neighborhood as you know large mixed-use projects are the
future of North American Street and in character of what has been built will
not impair appropriate user development or adequate light and air, will not substantially
increase congestion, and the branding variance is relatively small based on the cost of bringing
the industrial site up to code. So we believe that this is appropriate, and I'll just show you
some other renderings of the building. As I said, we have a letter of support from South Kensington
We worked really hard to meet with them and respond to their concerns.
And I think CDR praised the project as well.
We were in one meeting and I'll just scroll to the final conclusion of the letter.
And I don't know if Michael Scanapico is on, but I would ask him to adopt my testimony.
Thank you. Mr. Scannapico, when you get on would you please identify yourself with the
records by your last name and I'll swear you in. And with that, as we wait to find
Mr. Scannapico, if the board has any questions, I'm happy to answer any questions. Did you say
you have revised plans? And we do have revised plans which were sent to two pages, I believe.
it is two pages yes okay thank you can you guys hear me yes mr scanapico please identify yourself
Yes, Mr. Scannapico. Please identify yourself. Spell your last name for the record, please.
spell your last name for the record please
Sure. Yeah. My name is Michael Scannapico. Last name is S-C-A-N-N-A-P-I-E-C-O.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Mr. Grigos.
Michael, have you heard my testimony and do you adopt it as your own?
And we're happy to take any questions from the board.
Thank you. Any questions from the board?
Anyone else like to testify in this case? If so, please raise your hand.
Chair, I have Sloan Foulkes.
Okay, Mr. Foulkes, you're still under oath from earlier. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good afternoon, ZBA Chair and ZBA. My name is Sloan Foulkes, S-L-O-A-N-E, Foulkes, F-O-L-K-S, Office of Councilman Maria Quinones Sanchez, Room 508 City Hall.
uh the applicants having met with uh the coordinating rco and received received a
letter of support the councilman offers her support for this various request thank you
thank you very much planning commission i'm sorry anyone else beside the mr folks
no hands chair thank you planning commission good afternoon board peter bernard for the
planning commission. This property is indicated for industrial commercial residential mixed use
in the comprehensive plan. The applicant worked closely with staff of the planning commission
through the civic design and review process in development of the project. We feel the new
this new project will have substantial benefits to the neighborhood. Additionally an overlay
district that allows for multi-family residential along American Boulevard was approved by council
in 2020. Accordingly, we support the granting of the variance. Thank you. MI 2020-001580
1705-41 North American Street. My vote is yes with the proviso revised plan. Two pages approved
today. Yes for proviso. Yes for proviso. Yes for proviso. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
and my 2020-001-460-1419 West Grange Avenue.
Mr. Nockinson, good afternoon.
Please identify yourself with a record.
You're still under oath.
Yes, Alan Nockinson, Nockinson P.C.,
123 South Grodd Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19109.
Mr. Nakasom, you agree to wait the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you. Also, 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?
I have.
Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
I have not met with the RCO. I'm asking for the board to hold this under advisement and have a
supplemental hearing. My understanding is that they're capable of making a decision within the
next two weeks. This is Sharon Saleta. Can I say that Councilwoman Bass requested that this be
CONTINUED? I WOULD JUST ASK THAT WE HAVE HELP TO HAVE A HEARING, HAVE A SUPPLEMENTAL HEARING JUST
FOR COMMUNITY INPUT. WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SOME TIME FOR THE COORDINATING RCO, WHICH IS THE ONLY
RCO FOR THIS PROPERTY, TO GET BACK TO US. WE FINALLY HAVE COMMUNICATION WITH THEM AND I JUST WANT TO
HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR PURPOSES OF THIS PROCESS. I BELIEVE THAT IF WE HAVE A SUPPLEMENTAL HEARING,
it will keep the deadlines intact. I feel like if we ask for a continuance, it's going to ask for
another continuance and another continuance. So this is actually, even though this is a large
project, it's a pretty straightforward project given what's allowed as of right and given the
previous use of the property. So I would request to just present this and ask for a supplemental
hearing and and we have made extreme efforts to to reach out we'll go forward all right thank you
uh i'm gonna share my screen
um never mind
tanya uh no i'm sorry i thought we discussed this and we were no longer doing this
because i could do a short continuance or i thought we can uh hold oh okay yeah he hasn't
you're right we decided to discuss this yeah yeah I apologize Mr. Monarkinson I apologize
So we can do a short continuance. If they're going to meet, we can do a tourney moving party. Mr. Nockinson can immediately contact me and I can squeeze it in somewhere.
so we can do a short continuance um if there
I think based on what Mr. Nockinson said, I think a tourney moving party might be the better, quicker one.
Well, so the only thing, I would just like a date CERN because I feel like that will hold the RCO accountable.
so they asked us they said that they can come to a decision within the next you know two weeks
um i didn't know if okay so let's do this then let's do the end of the month
so we can't we can't do the end of the month we're not going to be here
um december 2nd we can do it at 2 p.m okay must be heard yeah it'll give you three weeks right
or a little bit more maybe because you got the you got the thanksgiving holiday in between
all right so we'll do december this december what december 2nd at 2 p.m chair 2 p.m thank you
must be heard mr chair must be heard thank you mi 2020-001460 1419 west grange avenue
is continued to december the 2nd at 2 p.m must be heard and mr notkinson are you there yes i am
i'm sorry i lost would make every effort if you haven't already done so to contact the council
woman's office uh she may not be aware of the difficulty you've been having to get this meeting
set up all right thank you mr chair uh do i need to repost her yes it's a continuance okay so we'll
at that as well okay thank you yes jace jason will send it out to you quite soon okay all right
thank you have a great day thank you okay uh confessor did i lose everybody can anyone hear
me no chair we still here we hear you no i lose my screen goes blank every so often and i don't
I don't know if anybody knows them around yet.
Okay, confessor, Columbia Avenue.
We may have lost confessor.
So MI 2020-001515, 1421 East Columbia Avenue.
Here I'm promoting attorney Ron Patterson
for you to swear in.
Good afternoon, Mr. Patterson. Please identify yourself with a record, spell your name, and I'll swear you in.
Oh, sorry about that.
Okay, Mr. Patterson.
Good afternoon, again.
My name is Ron Patterson with Claire Harrison Law Firm, 1835 Market Street,
filled out to PA 19103 on behalf of the owner, developer, applicant.
And do you swear in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
And have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, including proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, and photos of the property
of photos and or plans of the property
five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
And have you met with the RCO?
And if you have, do you have a letter?
We met with the RCO.
I haven't seen a letter yet.
Do we have a letter?
And do you agree to waive and stip?
I agree to waive the reading.
uh there's a minor correction on the refusal which i'll get to uh during the presentation