8-18-23. Does that sound right?
Alan? I don't have the date in front of me
of the revised plan. I saw the one page you said. It said 8-18.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Vote, guys.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Yep. Thank you.
My vote is yes with proviso.
You have your three votes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Have a great day.
Okay, thank you.
Number 12.
MI 2023-001-980-400 North Front Street.
Brandon Saverin is the attorney.
Letter of support, Northern Liberties Neighbors Association with...
unenforceable provisos, and letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squill.
Brandon Saverin is coming back in as a panelist.
Mr. Saverin, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Brandon Saverin. It's B-R-A-N-D-O-N, and then S as in Sam, A-V as in Victor, R-A-N as in Nancy.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client, a relationship to this property?
Yes. So my client is 400N, as in North Front Street, LLC. And Chris Parker is the representative
here today.
All right. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and step you date
to its accuracy yes i do mr vice chairman have you emailed in all the required documents and
exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes i did
thank you please proceed counsel thank you
okay um so i i can see that my entire monitor is being shared i'm gonna if this is too small
all you'll just let me know but can you see the aerial yeah we we see it we see okay okay great
so um the property we're here about today is 400 north front street um i'm currently in exhibit
five in our exhibit binder this is an aerial photograph from atlas.phila.gov showing you
the property between the red arrows the property is on the northwest corner of front street and
Callow Hill Street. This is sort of a funny little residential neighborhood you might be
familiar with. It sits between I-95 and Columbus Boulevard along Callow Hill. So some of these
properties are older, like my clients, which we believe is over 100 years old. And there's also
some newer multifamily buildings in the area. But basically, this is a part of the old city area
that was spared the I-95 wrecking ball.
I'm going to go to exhibit seven
to show you a couple of photos
of the exterior of the building.
So this is the exterior of the building
taken in 2020.
And the reason I'm going back a few years
is actually to show you in the window here,
this sort of sign announcing
that the tenant of that space has left
Because that's the space I'm here to speak about today.
So what has been in this building since my client purchased it in 2019, and this is the
building, it's a pretty long building, it's got all these windows you see here, are four
apartments, I believe most of which have their own doors directly to the exterior, and a
space that's permitted as an office space, which also has its own door, where my cursor
and this was captured in that 2020 photo from Atlas. You can see this sign that the last tenant
put in the window announcing that they left. So it says Eastern Scaffolding has moved to a new
location in South Philadelphia. So Eastern Scaffolding had a yard where they stored their
materials around the corner from this and this space was used as an office and by office what
I really mean is a storage space for their paper files. But they left right around when my client
bought the building. And my client has worked to put somebody in there. You know, he waited to come
before you today for years after failing to get an office tenant, but wasn't able to do so. So
but wasn't able to do so. So because of that, we'd like to convert this space to a residential
So because of that, we'd like to convert this
unit, which we believe it used to be many years ago. And as such, we need a variance for five
dwelling units over the four that are currently on the property. So this on Exhibit 2 is our
notice of refusal, and we have just one use refusal. We are in the RM1 zoning district,
So this is a multifamily zoning district.
It's just that our lot isn't quite big enough to allow for five dwelling units by right.
So the examiner wrote that 1920 square feet of surface area is required for five units.
We have 1376 square feet.
um i wrote a memo of law to the board at exhibit one that discusses the bat the sort of the
background facts of the case in the first section which i basically just gave you so i'm not going
to read through that it then uh goes through the law on you know what an applicant must do
to qualify for a use variance. And then I give my argument. In the argument, I walk through
that my client satisfies all of the requirements for a use variance. I won't read through all that.
I'll just give you a very brief overview of what maybe is the most important requirement,
and that's that we have a hardship. So as I mentioned, my client has failed to get an office
tenant in that space in the four years that it's owned the property. Why is that? Well,
part of the reason may be that to our knowledge, there are no other non-residential uses on
Calla Hill Street between I-95 and Columbus Boulevard. So we're looking for somebody right
now under the current zoning permit that wants an office space in a purely residential block
with no dedicated parking. That's a really hard sell. Further, if they do something with that
space that isn't strictly office, as it's defined in the code, as I believe professional office,
if it's, say, retail or a commercial use that's slightly different, that would require a variance
too. Here's why that matters. There's a couple reasons. One, I'm going to take the position
before you today that we are requesting the minimum necessary relief because we need a
variance to do anything here other than continued office, which has proven to be impossible.
So going after a variance for a fifth unit is at least in line with the residential zoning of this
property, as opposed to going for a variance for some other use entirely, which is not at all
related to the property zoning. And as I mentioned, there's other facts in this memo.
The last one I'll highlight is that we believe there's over 4,400 square feet of interior space
in this building. So if you sort of average out, that would mean that with five dwelling units,
there would be an average of over 800 square feet of interior space per apartment. So the
building can handle five units. And as I'll show you in the past, we believe that it used to have
five units. Just to drive the point home that there is other multifamily in this area, this is
the front street, the narrower side of our building, and you'll see on the right at 402 North Front,
this is a nine-unit building that was recently constructed right next door to us. I then,
rather than just giving you photos of construction, pulled some permits at Exhibit 12. So this is a
permit further up our block 412-38 North Front Street, that property per this permit contains
32 condominium residential units. Also on our own block at 408 North Front Street,
that building contains 10 dwelling units per its active zoning permit. And then here is the
permit for that photo I showed you, our next door neighbor at 402 North Front Street. That
building contains nine dwelling units. Flipping through my notes here. I only need probably a
couple more minutes and then I'll wrap up. Just want to show you our RCO letter at Exhibit 10.
So here is the notice that my law firm created to announce the RCO meeting. It was hybrid,
so it was an in-person meeting that was broadcast virtually as well. Chris and I both attended that
Chris and I both attended that meeting ourselves. Here's our proof of mailing. Here's the RCO letter. The first page is really short. It's signed by the coordinating RCO's chairman, Larry.
meeting ourselves. Here's our, you know,
The second page is where Larry actually gives his justification for the RCO supporting our proposal.
um essentially what it says is that larry's group the northern liberties neighbors association
conferred as did we directly with the river's edge community um that is like a subgroup that's
not an official rco that it's sort of like a neighbor's association for this tiny little
neighborhood so nlna wanted to make sure that recca river's edge was comfortable with us
converting that office space to a fifth unit. And they were. So that's something Larry highlights
in this letter. And then Larry discusses that the vote at the RCO meeting beyond RECA was five in
favor to an opposition and one who abstained or wasn't opposed. Larry did request that we added
street trees. And I thank you for clarifying, Mr. Chairman, that that may not be an enforceable
proviso. Nonetheless, there are already tree pits on our block. So we just went ahead and put trees
in them. Anyway, just to demonstrate here that we are not trying to skirt what the RCO wants.
We're trying to be good neighbors. I also have a letter of non-opposition from Councilman
Squilla's office, which isn't in my packet because I just received it last night, but it's on your
screen right now. And then I'll quickly show you. Come on. There we go. Oh, sorry. Okay. Back in
business. Back in my exhibit packet, I have our own properties, historic zoning permits, the one
that sort of predates our current permit. And the only one I'm going to highlight for you right now
is this permit from 1985 that addresses that the prior owner at that point applied for there to be
five apartments in this building. And then after that was approved at later points in time,
you can see that it appears that that space is declared to be vacant. Then that space is
declared to be a garage. Then that space is declared to be a beauty salon on these different
permits. So that space has had sort of a bit of a Frankenstein existence, but we really feel like
given what the neighborhood is now with all of these apartments around us, it's time to
put that back into service as an apartment unit, a fifth apartment unit. And the last thing I'll do
here, because the solicitor requested that I do so, was to show you some interior photos of the
building, since I don't have a floor plan for the whole building. This is the office space here at
Exhibit 13. You can see that the tenants sort of trashed it when they left, but it does have this
big window. It's a nice size space. It has a staircase down to a portion of the basement,
which it's sort of privately connected to. And this is the door out to Callahill Street.
the basement is like bonus space it's not that you know we necessarily need anyone to sleep down
here that's not the intent but we are going to put in at least our plan is right now an egress well
to bring some natural light into this space and it can serve as bonus space because it's it's
you know nice size and then last last thing just to show you some photos of the other four units
that are already in this building, Chris maintains them very nicely. Here's the kitchen for one of
them, bedroom in that unit, other bedroom. So that's a two bedroom. Here's another unit with
its sort of living room and kitchen. Here's that apartment's bedroom. Here's a third unit's kitchen
and its first bedroom and its second bedroom. And here's a fourth unit's kitchen and its bedroom.
So just to say, again, all of these units are a nice size. This one will be as well. We're not trying to, like, shoehorn, you know, five units in a building that shouldn't accommodate them.
Bring the money and bring your client on.
Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Chris Parker, could you raise your hand?
Chris Parker, you've been allowed to speak.
Hi, Mr. Parker, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court stenographer?
Chris Parker, C-H-R-I-S-P-A-R-K-E-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, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Chris, first order of business, are you authorized to speak on behalf of 400 and Front Street, LLC?
Okay. Did you hear my testimony in this zoning case today?
And was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
And would you therefore adopt it as if it had been your own testimony?
Yes, I would.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
As you know, he is Chair.
Cleaning Commission.
It's Ron Bednar City Planning.
The property is indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted.
District plan recommends no change to existing zoning at this location.
The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of any physical circumstances or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used and conforming with the code.
The density requirements of the code in particular are asserted in not compliance.
Therefore, we recommend the request for Vance to not be written.
Thank you. MI 2023-001-980-400 North Front Street. I vote yes.
James Snell, I vote yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Brandon, you have your votes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, everybody.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience who were on the two o'clock list and their case has not been called?
I see no hands, Chair.
We're going to take a five-minute break and we'll come back and we'll knock out the 3.30 list.
Let's get our court reporter straight, and then we'll be back in five minutes, everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Kelly, are you back?