the last time still stand i think you know as we're talking about operating a senior building
having this many stairs is not something that's really conducive to assisted living is the is the
operator on the line today because i know last time they had planned to get on and then there
was no representative from that company no the operator is not on the call okay um yeah i mean i
think like most of my questions and comments are really around how this is going to operate
as an assisted living senior building when that's not really how the place is set up I mean it looks
like student housing it was clearly built and intended to be student housing and students and
seniors are very different populations and this one I think you're right there were students in
there from what we understand from the inception until my clients had the cease and desist they
had students in there there was one senior i met uh in there but was mainly students that's why you
uh in there but was mainly students that's why you know they they moved to to try to have an
all senior complex uh again i i don't want to you know rehash it but they're they're going to be
ambulatory they don't take anyone with wheelchairs or walkers who cannot negotiate steps
um so i think the the basement the first floor and the second floor is certainly doable i understand
your comment about going up to the third floor uh and certainly that would be on the master tenant
uh to make sure that the individuals they would place if the board looks kindly upon this
application or any portion of it will be on that tenant to make sure that they're able to
have individuals in here who can cope properly i guess um is the so the plan is to to rent these
as is with no additional work correct to them correct
and then i think similar to last time these don't have trash closets so um
no they did last time they had trash closets and this time yeah right here here
and then also the part of the lease was includes that the master tenant is going to collect the
trash and get rid of the trash as well as bring in you know foot doctor or occasional aid to
to to clean that's what the lease was said it said in the individual units or just the common
stairwell the individual units too they're going to usually I have some experience with usually if
an aid would come in like PCA aid or somebody like that they would change the sheets do the laundry
occasionally and I don't I didn't see it in this lease where they would bathe the individuals where
possible or where one is needed but if they're ambulatory and get around on their own I don't
know that that's possible, but cleaning the sheets, doing the wash, and laying housekeeping,
I've seen that. And then I guess the laundry is going to be shared every other floor?
They also take the laundry away and do the laundry.
Even though there's laundry on each floor? Yes. Well, excuse me. I mean, take it away
out of the building i mean take it away and do the laundry in the building so i mean i because
i feel like before we talked about them being ambulatory sleep staff ambulatory seniors and
it not being assisted living but this does feel like a high this is like a it's an interesting
hybrid because it does sound like they are getting assisted um are they doing their own cooking yes
but then they're not doing their own cleaning and they're not doing their own laundry
well bringing doctors to them what about groceries it's like they're going to have a
shuttle that would come and pick people up and bring the shopping I mean right now there's so
many people aging in their homes and you know and this is written into the master lease this is a
model of me with my 15 years of affordable housing that I feel like is unfamiliar I know of senior
buildings i know of nursing homes i know of like facilities where they're like all of these things
are baked in there's a person on site there's a management office i think this being something
that looks like a row house that has separate rentals and sort of having management is new
and i think it's really hard to like understand how this building is going to function
without the operator um i guess your client is here today he wasn't here last time either
like is he more familiar because he's entered into this like master agreement with them but
yeah he was here last time but he'll can answer any questions because he was the one that actually
found this organization because you're right it's it's a kind of a unique thing and side you can
talk to it about that they may see this as if this happens they may end up trying to do this
throughout the city but you can speak to it not me go ahead sad yeah so i mean you know when we
purchased these properties we you know initially we thought you know it's zoned properly and now
that i know that it's zoned incorrectly and you know and then when we have season this
cease and desist operations we had to make sure we've done it right uh yes it never been done
before and then you know this is our plan is and then hopefully the board looks into it
and if there's any you know I mean I do not have yeah go ahead what I want you to do is just just
I do not have. Yeah, go ahead. What I want you to do is just just talk, explain to Ms. Wynn how you came about finding this company. Well, what we did is. Hold it, hold it. What this company does and where they do it now.
So, how I found this company is we called the community groups, we called all the different
companies who are more doing home care services or senior care services in the city, and then
that's how we found it. Upon conversation with them, they do have the similar scenario in one of
the senior complexes that we shared the pictures of in previous presentation and that building
that's a senior yeah i'm sorry this is the reporter i'm having difficulty hearing
oh can you make sure that you get as close to the microphone oh i'm sorry i was having
difficulty hearing miss win oh i'm sorry i was saying yes in the it was a senior building that
an elevator the example yeah so that's uh that's how we found get to know about our tenant potential
tenant have they expressed any concerns about this walk-up building and how they're going to operate
in the building uh they have not i mean there were more concerned about okay this is now zone prop
uh incorrectly and when our priority was to get this correctly and have everything in line
before we rent it out
okay uh and i'm going to just reiterate my concern about the density
i think that the size of these units are entirely too small compared to
what is uh the minimum required and um i just think it's too dense um can i address that
you can yeah just just a comment a minimum efficiency or otherwise known
as an efficiency living unit the minimum is 220 square feet
just just for the record not that i want to disagree with you but for the record
okay um are there any further comments from the board
do we have any comments from our council miss emerson not at this time madam chair
uh thank you uh are there any comments from the virtual audience or the audience um in front of
loss no hands at this time okay thank you planning commission madison matera planning commission staff
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rm1 residential multi-family zoning
at this location this property was originally built as a two-family dwelling and was later
converted to eight units without the benefit of permits the planning commission recommends the
board deny the requested variance for eight dwelling units and are we gonna hold this Hillary um if the
board wishes we can hold this for discussion as well yes I think we should because they're both
um the prior uh request and this are so similar okay that we probably need time to discuss okay
sounds good so we can vote in next week at two o'clock thank you thank you um thank you counsel
So thank you. I appreciate you hearing us out very much. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
number nine
mi 2026 000234 321 31 fairmount avenue
andrea andrea solomon is the attorney
Andrew, could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
Good afternoon, Andrea Solomon, A-N-D-R-E-A-S-A-L-O-M-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is JFR Investments LLC.
With me today is Fran Popak, one of the principals.
also here Evan Lipvin the project architect and my colleague
uh also here evan litvin the project architect and my colleague michael phillips okay i i
understand you have a letter of non-opposition council member young right our um council member
okay i guess i guess you're you're probably right yeah that we we we we we
Okay. Yeah. Oh, that's right. You're right. Yeah. Okay. All right. Our board secretary has a few questions.
Good afternoon, Council. Did you submit your exhibits and documents five days in advance of this hearing?
We did. We submitted the exhibits five days in advance. We also submitted revised plans two days ago with a proviso form.
okay and uh do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do
then you can share your screen and begin your presentation thank you thank you i'm just rejoining
as panelists
i'll just note for the record we did receive a letter from councilmember young but this property
using council member school as district well see i don't we don't usually make mistakes like that
so i just want you to know well we'll take councilman for young support too
i have not seen one no we were in communication with his office and expected a letter of support
or non-opposition but uh we didn't receive the actual letter yet yeah there's i i i don't know
was this year or last year but there were some recent changes to the council boundaries that
did cause some confusion about which council district some properties were in so that's
probably what happened here that might have been it um we do also have support from the
coordinating rco the northern liberties neighbors association
so uh this application is for the adaptive reuse of a long vacant property it's
a deep uh but quite narrow lot that has two long vacant structures on it um it's zoned rsa5 but
the block is uh zoned with other mixed uses uh directly adjacent to it is st michael's
and it's sandwiched on the other side with the community center
we are proposing the partial demolition of the two structures and an addition to combine the two for
the proposed use of seven dwelling units uh here the photos of the property as existing
and the uh the street along fairmount avenue this is the rear of the property
the front of the property and this is the rear second structure in the back
as you can see it's seen better days
so the the proposed project received two refusals uh one is for the proposed use because it is
zoned rsa 5 despite its lot size and adjacent uses and um the second is for the the height uh
the front of the property is remaining with the same height as existing but we are proposing a
fourth floor addition in the rear so that's the total height of 46 feet um and that's what the
the for the second refusal. These are the revised plans that we submitted. The change is that the original plan submitted to L and I included a roof deck in the rear of the property above the fourth floor.
We've since removed that roof deck and roof access structure.
No other changes to the what was submitted, and the refusals remain the same.
you'll see we'll have the renderings later on that show the pilot house and roof access
structure but we're proposing without that there is a roof deck on the third floor of
the structure that is still maintained so the partial demolition of the rear of the
uh the partial demolition of the rear of the two properties this will actually result in an
two properties this will
increased open area in the rear and an increased setback uh of the two structures and allows us
to come combine them nicely here's a rendering of the plans of the proposed project the proposed
additions really nice open area again sub there will be a larger rear setback
we're proposing the seven units they're really generous footprints one on each
floor of the two existing structures with the addition that connects them in the center
this shows what's the new additions and what proposes existing
I'll just flip through the floor plans but we're happy to return to them and Evan
is here as I mentioned and can answer questions on the floor plans but essentially one unit in
the front and one unit in the rear on each floor with the fourth floor addition in the rear
suction
and the elevations
again we have the refusal for the height this white space is what will be
the fourth floor addition that is giving us the height refusal it's adjacent to this to the church
which has a height of 76 feet the other properties on the block are very varied in height um in the
rear we have the 42 feet uh properties that are just in the rear uh but again we'll be setting
it back this is the part that's proposed for the demolition
and the fourth floor addition will nicely match the cornice line of the of the existing church
the second refusal is for the number of units uh the block is largely zoned rsa 5 this is zoned
are say five but just north of here on fourth street there are some triplexes and we're actually
contextually less dense than that because of our lot size um further south on third street there's
a similarly south lot that has uh nine units um this prop this pro parcel was previously before
the board for an application for 10 units we've seen since reduced that was with the prior owner
we're proposing a more moderate seven units but that is the minimum required
variance for this adaptive reuse to to work
and again you see the that there's uh here's where those triplexes are they're also zoned rsa5
a lot of varied uses on the block there's cmx2 the special purpose for the rec center cmx1
and really an area with very varied underlying zoning so we think that this proposed mixed
family use on this uh deep narrow site is is really well suited for the adaptive reuse
and some nice renderings again the the rear where the additional height is proposed is minimally
visible from the street frontage.
What was that to the right of the front?
The rec center.
Rec center?
And is that Churchill and Fairmount on 3rd?
On Fairmount.
So 4th Street is over here where my cursor is on 3rd Street is by the rec center.
The zoning map, zoning archives. It was previously single-family warehouses. They stored wire frames for lampshades and our application and project information form, the notice to the community,
our zoning posting, hearing notice postings,
And the proof of ownership.
And the proof of ownership and with that, uh, I, the, we're asked for the relief and any other relief required and I'll ask that Fran be sworn in so you can adopt my please.
And with that,
Please come forward a little bit and get in front of the bike.
Could you please state your name is bell for the stenographer?
Yes, good afternoon.
Is it pressure? Is your mic on?
Okay, state your name and spell for the stenographer.
Brian Popeck, F as in Frank, R as in Robert, A as in Apple, N as in Nancy, last name, Popeck, P as in Paul, O as in Oscar, P as in Paul, E as in Edward, K as in Kevin.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Brian, you saw my presentation in its entirety. Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
um and you have an architect available yeah right questions from the board
i was kind of confused when i looked at this the site plan and the is this all one within one
property line because it looked like there were two parcels if you go back to your plan that shows
the the property lines sure let me just uh get back to it but it is one single parcel
okay so this is one single parcel with two existing so i guess that was my question too
because you've got windows that are literally on the property line then and i'm trying to figure