building would look like in context. We're using high quality.
We're using high quality materials, red brick to be consistent with some of the housing stock that's around us and bay windows to give natural light and a little bit of extra space.
A side view. And I'll point out that we do have a secured trash enclosure, which we're going to utilize.
Every member of the building will have access to that.
And as a building with more than three units, we'll have commercial trash pickup to minimize the disturbance to anybody to the maximum extent we can.
We did have a petition of support that we shared, and I'll share it with the board.
These are neighbors from the immediate area who have all signed in support of the application.
um there is and i i had a back and forth with miss miss emerson um prior to the hearing i
wanted to show the board the property as i mentioned is under agreement of sale uh and it
is zoning contingent um so i i mentioned that only because the existing owner does have a
fifty four hundred dollar real estate tax balance that will be cured at closing uh if the board is
inclined to grant the variance. These taxes will be paid and we would be happy with a proviso that
a permit can't be issued absent proof of payment of taxes. We met with the brewery town Sharswood
Civic Association. They initially sent us an email of non-opposition. That's on your screen here.
And then it was followed up more recently with their formal correspondence.
So with that, I would like to ask my client, Mike Randolph, if you're here, can you raise your virtual hand, please?
Mr. Randolph has been allowed to speak.
Mr. Randolph could you state your name and spell please for the court reporter
yes Mike Randolph m-i-k-e-r-a-n-d-o-l-p-h do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes Mike Mike did you have a chance to hear my
presentation this afternoon yes I did and do you adopt my statements as true correct and
your own as though you've been given a chance to more fully testify? Yes, I do. Great. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, we're happy to answer any questions the board may have. Mr. Klein, what's next door?
What's the property next door? Is that a multiple? I believe it is a triplex located immediately next
door. Okay. And just out of curiosity, how did you get the four? Is that the minimum number you need?
It was not the minimum number. We believe that four worked well because of the bi-level unit configuration. So with the size and to meet the height limit without going over that, four units worked to be able to do two bi-level units and provide equal space for all those units.
Questions from the board?
Yes, Mr. Chairman. I like to recommend that we hold the vote until we get a tax clearance. And second, I'd like some provision for no sleeping space. Thank you.
whoops i'm sorry could you repeat your votes
tom wants to hold it we're gonna tom wants us to hold the vote
i agree mr mr chair can i can i briefly respond to to that excuse me just with regard to to
holding the vote. So this property is scheduled to close on May 5th. And that is contingent,
the closing is contingent on a decision from the zoning board. We won't be able to get a tax
clearance until the property closes. My client doesn't own it. It's owned by a current person
who is delinquent. We're going to cure that when we close, but we can't close without some sort of
vote from the zoning board so okay so what what what we'll do is if i remember correctly
next next wednesday is the third i believe that's correct yes okay we will vote on this
next wednesday okay at 2 p.m okay very good okay very good thank you very much i appreciate your
time uh mr chair did you want to have the planning commission uh weigh in so we can oh i'm sorry
you're right planning commission want to make sure the record i'm sorry let's go to the virtual
audience anyone in the virtual audience no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman
No hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
David Fechtow with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
The homes on this block face on the south side of Oxford Street from Myrtlewood Street to 30th Street are all triplexes.
These homes all have legally non-conforming rear yards and occupied area.
The conditions of the proposed triplex, or I'm sorry, proposed fourplex match these conditions.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the use and dimensional variances with a maximum of three dwelling units.
Okay, so we're going to hold this vote until next week, okay?
Okay, understood. Thank you.
And thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number eight, MI 2022-007361-764-South 18th Street.
David Orfanides is the attorney.
letter of support from South of South
Neighborhood Association.
Mr. Orphanidis has been promoted, Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, sir.
Could you state your name, please,
and spell for the court reporter?
Certainly.
My name is David Orphanidis,
O-R-P-H.
A-N-I-D-E-S.
Right.
Could you identify,
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client
and the relationship to this property?
My client is Arden Cass.
Mr. Hallman has a few questions for you.
You seem to be freezing up, David.
Yeah, I had to change.
If you can hear me,
I had to change from my monitor to my laptop.
So hopefully we hear you, but we've got a frozen photo of you, but that's, that's okay.
Mr. Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to wait for the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Did you make it with the RCO when you had a letter?
um as the chairman uh indicated we have the letter of support from the coordinating rco after
and we did meet with them uh we did provide all the required documents save for the tax clearance
which i believe we provided to hillary on monday and that's included um with my exhibits uh the
position letters uh received on sunday and i do have a letter of support from councilman johnson
which just came in a couple minutes ago that i've included with what i'm presenting today and i will
provide to council for the zoning board with an updated exhibit book um but um france emailed it
i think just when we were starting uh today's proceedings so hillary may have it
thank you please proceed
you see my screen yes okay fantastic so again my name is david orphanetes uh i'm an attorney with
Orphanides and Turner here in Philadelphia. My client is Arden Kass. Again, first name is spelled
A-R-D-E-N, last name is spelled K-A-S-S, and she is the owner of the property that we're here for
this afternoon, 764 South 18th Street. As you'll see, 764 South 18th Street is one of four
properties on the 700 block of South 18th Street that extend through to the 700 block
of South Cleveland Street, from the west side of South 18th to the east side of South Cleveland.
In my exhibit package, you'll see at Exhibit 1 is at 1A, is the letter of support that we received
from SOSNA, the South of South Neighborhood Association, which the Planning Commission
designated as the coordinating RCO for this property and this matter. As you can see, they
They address what the application is, which in this case is in the area of the property, the rear yard functionally.
But according to the zoning code, the front yard, because it abuts Cleveland Street, we have proposed a one car off street surface parking space with a gate, a six foot gate at the sidewalk, which you'll see, which is what our refusals are for.
The letter goes into describing some of the aspects of the project.
This is part of an overall renovation of this project, which is being undertaken by Miss Cass to eventually market this property as a single family dwelling and some of the other.
But the aspects of the proposed parking as well as the building itself were addressed in the.
The proposed parking, as well as the building itself, were addressed in the letter from SOSNA.
As you can see, the SOSNA zoning committee voted five in favor, one in opposition with no abstentions.
And the community at large, there were 17 people that voted in support, including eight near neighbors, and only one near neighbor voted in opposition.
It was a packed house.
There were a number of other matters that were heard by SOSNA.
a review by Sassana that evening including ours and as I mentioned just this afternoon I received
a letter this letter from Councilman Johnson's office dated today and this is at tab 1b that
indicates based upon Sassana's position of support that the Councilman is writing submitting his
support for this for the granting of the variances in this matter tab 2 you'll see the zoning
drawings that were submitted to L&I. You'll see in the bottom left-hand corner, those zoning
drawings were reviewed and stamped off by the streets department as part of one of the prerequisite
approvals. You can see here to the right, South 18th Street and the existing building. It's a
three-story building, as you'll see in the photographs that I'll go through. Throughout
the building, full width at the front, narrows in the back, very typical center city row home design.
And then there's a very large, extremely large rear yard area that extends from the back of the existing building all the way to South Cleveland Street.
So it's about 46 and a half feet deep.
And in that area, we propose the single parking space with the new curb cut and bifold gate that folds interior to the property, not onto the footway.
And that would be six feet high.
Here is a rendering that was provided to the community group. I have with me also, you can see that my client dropped it off. Here is a prototype or a mock-up of what the ornate decorative gate is going to look like, the bifolding gate.
one of the refusals that we have is under the zoning code again because this property fronts
on two streets both frontages both at south 18th and at south cleveland are deemed a front
and under the zoning code fences that are located between the building and the front property line
and we have two by definition here can be no more than four feet tall and no more than 50 percent
opaque. So we have a refusal, as you'll see in a minute, both for parking accessed from this rear
street. In other words, it's not accessed from a shared driveway or an alley. And the fact that
the fence is over four feet and over 50% opaque. You can see in this crawling right here, which
is also a tab three, that we've calculated the amount of open area openness, non-opacity for
this fence and we're about 34 percent. You can see back in the rendering that there is a solid
six-foot fence, board-on-board fence, directly abutting us to the north. And obviously, as you
can see in the rendering, we're going to be letting a lot of light in. As you can see in the rendering
here, by the post, on the post, there will be low illumination lights that will help to light the
sidewalk. And those are only also reflected here in the drawings that are also here at tab three.
And then here's just a photograph, an image for the exhibits of what I just showed you, held up to you on the Zoom screen, which is the prototype of what the fencing is going to be looking like.
It's going to be powder-coated metal fencing.
As part of our project, although it's not a requirement of the zoning code, we do show interior landscaping that we're going to be either maintaining or providing.
and some other aspects of the project that I'm going to get into in a minute,
which are, while not zoning-related, I think add to the benefit of this project,
both to the neighborhood and to the Philadelphia community as a whole.
You can see here indicated on this landscaping plan the intention to use pervious pavers
where the parking area is, rock garden, and as you'll see, there's some other aspects of the design.
There are and there is an existing fencing on either fencing or fence wall on either side of the property that we're also looking to legalize.
It's six feet high.
The notice of refusal that we appeal to the zoning board, which is dated November 14th, calls out two things.
One is the height of that fence being more than four feet tall.
And obviously, as we indicated, being near 50 percent opaque, but not quite, but obviously much more open.
being near 50 percent opaque but not quite but obviously much more open uh less opaque than the
fence that's next to us and then the other refusal is um and you can see your note is for parking
from a rear street as opposed to a an alley or shared drive and at tab six i've included the
applicable provisions from the zoning code typically in rsa5 you can park from a rear
This property is owned RSA 5, as we'll see in a minute, and as you can also see here at tab 4 on the notice of refusal at the top, when the building structure is attached or semi-detached, you can have parking.
Parking is allowed from a rear street upon which there is no parking on the side of the street abutting the property, which is a condition that exists here.
There is no on-street parking on our side of South Cleveland Street.
There is on-street parking on the opposite side.
However, because of the property is located in the Center City Overlay District, the overlay applies.
And in this overlay, it excludes, it takes out of that exception, the parking from the rear street.
So the only way that you can have parking by right in Center City in an RSA 5 zone property,
if it's accessed from a shared driveway or rear alley when the building is attached or semi-detached.
Some aspects of the project that I had mentioned are at tab 7. I'm not going to get into all the details. It's going to be a passive house, as you can see at 7B.
The rock garden that we talked about in the side part is shown at 7C. The type of permeable papers we're going to be looking to utilize for the parking area set forth at 7D.
well leading up to the parking area that is the actual parking area is going to be these types
of pavers where grass again permeable is permitted to grow up through the grid system that supports
the weight of the car and at tab 7f we have interior photographs of the property
I've walked through it it's really it's really wonderful project that Arden is undertaking here
There's a tremendous number of eco aspects here regarding the heating and cooling system, the insulation of the building, the windows, which, again, don't relate to zoning here, but I think speak to what the intentions are regarding this building and the development of it.
In terms of the refusals themselves, and I'd be happy to go back through those, or, you know, we can talk about the eco aspects, but if we had more time, or if you have any specific questions.
In the Sanborn maps, Mr. Holloman will see that back in 1946 or 1951, it shows that this property actually had garages, structures, which for automobile parking.
Now, as you can see in the photographs, those structures no longer exist.
But this property does have a history of off-street parking for cars.
You can see that here again, 46 and 51.
As indicated, the property is owned RSA 5.
I think what's interesting to see is that we are one of only four properties remaining on the block that goes through from South 18th to South Cleveland Street.
There was one at 760 South 18th Street that was subdivided with variances from the zoning board just recently.
I've included the copies of those records at tab 13 that used to go through but were granted variances for a subdivision in more in keeping with the other properties on the block between South 18th and South Cleveland.
um one is the property right next to us um the two properties to the south of us that go through
from street to street already have off-street parking um at their at their properties and
you'll see those in the photographs we are located and you can see this in the aerial
we're located across from marion anderson the rec center and park here's our property over here to
the left that goes through from south cleveland from south 18th to south cleveland you can see
here um the two properties to the south of us 768 and 770 um that have uh the off street existing
off street surface parking similar to what we're proposing although they're just the paved concrete
pad and we're talking about a lot of eco aspects to what we're looking to propose here adjacent to
north of us is the existing property that runs through street to street that has this six foot
high fence surrounding its rear slash front yard. So these aerial images, the zoning map was at tab
So these aerial images, the zoning map was at tab 9, the sand boards were at tab 8, and the aerials were at tab 10.
nine, the sandboards.
And again, here you can see photographs, three-dimensional photographs of our property, different angles, north, south, east, and west.
Let me just fix this view.
There we go.
So here's our property.