Frankel Enterprises has a history of doing affordable and workforce housing projects in the city.
an idea is to increase the supply of workforce housing as an objective of the city's 2018
housing action plan. And so the idea for the workforce housing program in Philadelphia
was created to help maintain affordability for Philadelphians in a particular income range,
such as teachers, firefighters, and others who work every day and live in neighborhoods that are
becoming increasingly unaffordable for their budgets. And so this project is part of that
initiative. So we're here today to request a variance relief for the erection of a D-TAC
structure that houses 36 workforce housing dwelling units with one-to-one accessory parking.
The property in question, as you can see, is on this RM2. It's on 2323 Jefferson Street,
between 24th and 22nd street. It's a zoning map. The property is currently, there's an aerial here
for your reference. The property is currently a, excuse me, the property is currently a vacant lot.
It's about 62,000 square feet. The refusals that we have, as you can see here by the notice of
refusal is due to two-dimensional refusals, which is the rear yard depth and the gross
area, floor area of the proposed structures. And then also two refusals for the amount
of bike parking and the electric vehicle parking. And so under the current zoning designation,
We required 12 bicycle spaces. We're not proposing any. And then we're also required two electric vehicle sort of plug-in spaces, and we're not proposing any as well.
The proposed project, let me go to plans here. The proposed project is, as I stated, 36 housing units. All the units are three stories, two and a half baths.
Generally, most of the units, about 30 of them are about 1400, a little over 14 and a half hundred square feet.
And there are six units that are the corner units that are a little bit bigger, about 1500 square feet.
What you're looking at on the screen is an elevation on the Jefferson Street.
There's some more elevation so you get a sense of the exterior of the project.
There's an additional rendering. As you can see, the exterior is mostly brick broken up
by some siding. And here's the area, so you can see sort of the placement of the project
on the lot. As you can see, there's an abundant amount of green space, a walking path, and
and the accessory parking that you can see here as well.
the accessory parking that you can see here as well.
We did meet with the community.
We met with Brewers Town Charlesworth
Community Civic Association, as you can see here.
Please report that received a letter of support
from that community group.
Here is a copy of their meeting summary report
showing that we had no votes in opposition.
we had 15 votes in support and no opposition and two abstainees. And as such, because we believe
that this project is vital to establishing the workforce housing within the city and that the
variances are de minimis in nature and sort of necessary for the placement and get the amount
of density we want for the unit counts on the parcel, we believe the variance is appropriate
here and ask for the board to grant that. With me, I have Max Frankel, who, if he could raise
his hand, to be recognized from Frankel Enterprises, who can adopt and affirm my testimony.
Hey, Steve, how are you?
Hey, Max. How are you doing?
Doing well.
If he could be sworn in.
Sir, you, sorry.
Please tell your full name.
Yeah, sir, please spell your full name.
I'll swear you will.
Excuse me, sir, you're muted.
Sorry.
Max Frankel, M-A-X-F-R-A-N-K-E-L.
We're affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Thank you, Mr. Bertil.
Max, did you hear the testimony and what I've provided to the board this morning?
I did.
Do you affirm the truth of my testimony and adopt it as their own?
Do you have anything you'd like to add?
Unless the board has any questions.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Q.
Anyone else like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
i see no hands at this time chair you planning commission thank you chairman to chico ian hegarty
for the philadelphia city planning commission members of the board the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the existing rm2 multi-family zoning at this location with
regard to the dimensional variances the proposed buildings are generally consistent with the
character of the surrounding neighborhood, and the variances do not conflict with the purpose
and spirit of the zoning code. However, with regard to the use variance for bicycle parking,
we don't think the applicant has met the burden of proof to demonstrate that there's a hardship
for not being able to provide that. There hasn't really been any presentation of evidence linking
the omission of bicycle parking to a unique physical condition of the site, and so we
therefore recommend that the board um deny the variance for bicycle parking while granting all
the other variances so could you address that for you um sure let me just bring it back up
are you seeing my my aerial
Got it now. Okay. So the inclusion of bicycle parking. Well, first, in terms of the actual
site, we wanted to maximize the site for green space and the parking to keep one-to-one parking
as much as possible. As you can see, all of the units are street facing here. And so the rear
opens up into just the green space for most of the, well, not most, all of the lots. And then
the circulation that we need for the parking is what's utilizing for anything that's not green
space so basically every exterior space here is either for circulation to the parking for one-to-one
or for green space for the units because as we know particularly in this area green space
is hard to come by and so we just prioritized that and we thought that in terms of the target
let's say demographics of the workforce housing program we wanted to prioritize providing those
spaces over bicycle parking excuse me council could you use one of the parking spaces for bikes
uh we a unit would lose right now we have one-to-one parking
A unit would lose. Right now we have one-to-one parking and a unit would lose.
But that was a goal one-to-one. That's not a necessity.
Sure. It's definitely not a necessity, but we believe in terms of amenity for the workforce
housing projects, if this was a market rate sort of project.
But it's not market. You're only using one parking space for bikes.
Right. My point was that what I was trying to get to was that I don't believe that because
this is workforce housing that they should be, that the type of amenities that they would
obtain, if it was market rate, should be reduced because it's workforce housing. I think they
should get the same type of amenities. And if this was market rate, it would essentially,
you know, that would be the goal. And so I don't believe that workforce housing should have,
should be, those type of amenities should be mitigated just because it's workforce housing.
Sure. Steve, can I chime in here for one second?
Sure. Sure. So as Steve mentioned, this is, yes, this is Mr. Frankel.
um as steve mentioned previously this is workforce housing this is deed restricted income restricted
housing that is being sold at 250 000 the reason that this is not subdivided into single family
units is given that the common space is here but for all intents and purposes these are single
family homes and single family units the idea for the lack of communal bicycle parking comes from
the idea steve is mentioning that there is ample green space and privatized green space associated
with each unit that allows for each tenant to be able to park their bicycle or any other vehicle
that they might have within the confines and gates of their own home rather than having a community
parking for bicycles. Thank you for that explanation. Thank you. Any more questions?
No, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Anyone else to testify in this case? Please raise your hand.
no hands chair thank you again like we already asked the planning commission correct
that's correct mr chair thank you thank you for that explanation mr frankel
MI 2021-003064, 2323 Jefferson Street.
My vote is yes.
Confessor Plaza, yes.
Thomas Harman, yes.
Case number five, MI 2021-003089, 2456 Frankfurt Avenue.
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney of record.
east kensington neighbors association sent a letter of support and councilman mark swillis
sent a letter of non-opposition and i believe there may be revised plans should the board decide
to approve this here we have um brandon coming in as a panelist now
Mr. Saveron, there you go. Please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. Brandon Saveron, B-R-A-N-D-O-N-S as in Sam, A-V as in Victor, R-A-N with Pritzker Law Group.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Mr. Pluz has some questions for you.
Yes, sir. Do you agree to waive the region of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And 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?
Yes, we did.
And have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes. The RCO is ECNA. We have a letter of support.
We also have a letter of support from a secondary RCO, which was the Fishtown-Kensington Business District.
I'll make sure I got the name correct there, but answer is yes.
May I proceed?
Thank you. Yes, you may.
Thank you.
So let me actually, I'll get back to that secondary RCO letter in one moment.
I'm going to share my screen.
okay um so good morning uh mr chairman members of the board um the property uh we are speaking
about today is a proposed consolidation of what is currently six lots um these lots are located
on the 2400 block of frankfort avenue um the proposed consolidation would join two lots
on Frankfurt with four lots on Martha Street and basically would create a through lot.
What we're proposing is a 16-unit mixed-use development with one commercial space fronting
Frankfurt Avenue. Let me just scroll through the exhibit packet briefly. And before I do that,
I will just confirm that we did submit one page of revised plans to the board last week.
So here's the location on the zoning map of the proposed consolidated parcel. The four lots on Martha Street are very small. They are each about 650 square feet.
The two Frankfurt Avenue lots, I think, are a shade under 1,200 square feet each.
And I'll get to the refusal in a moment, but when we set out to
sort of choose what to do with this site and to show you they are all vacant, this is the aerial
view. Here is the view from Frankfurt Avenue. If we did not consolidate the lots, we could have
two, you know, fairly narrow commercial spaces on Frankfurt Avenue, since this is zoned CMX,
and four very small homes on Martha Street. But instead, we really, one goal here was to get
like a modern sized commercial space on Frankfurt that would be wider. In order to do that,
We started thinking about consolidation. And the sort of problem with consolidation, and I'll get to the refusal here to discuss this. Consolidating puts the entire site, if you take all six lots that we're proposing, RSA 5 would govern the consolidated site rather than CMX 2 under the code's new multiple district site.
rules. So that sort of triggered a lot of different variances because RSA 5 is a strict
zoning designation. And then we began to think through what we could design to sort of reduce
some of these refusals. So the revised plans will knock off some of these refusals, and I'm going to
go through them one by one in a second, and I'll tell you which of them remain relevant to the
current plan. Just to go back to my packet for one moment, more photos along Frankfurt Avenue.
Bear with me, I just want to get to the letters. So here is the meeting summary from ECNA,
who was the coordinating RCO. Strong support from the community here. If you look at the vote tally,
which was 21 in support, two in opposition, six in non-opposition. Here is their letter that was
attached to the voting summary. And here is a letter of non-opposition from Councilman
Squilla's office. The secondary RCO I mentioned is the Fishtown Kensington Area Business Improvement
District, who also offered a letter of support. We also have some near-neighbor letters of
support, but I'll save you from that presentation. So back to the refusal here briefly. We are
going to have a refusal for multifamily given that we're proposing 16 units. That sticks even
with the revised plan. We're going to have a refusal for offering commercial space along
Frankfurt Avenue because the entire site is governed by RSA 5 now that we're consolidating,
although I would pose to you that commercial use along Frankfurt Avenue is entirely appropriate
here. This block of Frankfurt Avenue Avenue has many commercial uses, and I can go through them
if you'd like, but otherwise you can take my word. Yeah, I think we're familiar with that.
Okay. Yes, Mr. Chair. And then the other three refusals down here, the height refusal is going
to stay. I think we dropped the height in the revised plan slightly. It's still over 40 feet.
The two refusals for minimum roof deck setback and the solar collector will no longer apply as we brought those two issues into conformity with.
will no longer apply as we brought those two issues into conformity with the code in the
revised plan that the architect will walk through in a moment. And I think that we sort of attested
to that in our proviso plans change form if the board needs further detail in writing on the
changes. But again, the remaining refusals, excuse me, are multifamily, commercial use,
and the height. So with that, I'm going to allow Amanda Bonelli to share her screen and I'll stop
sharing mine and she'll show you the plan. Thank you. Good morning, ma'am. Please spell your full
name and I'll swear you in. She's coming back in as a panelist now, chair. Thank you.
please spell your first and last name and i'll square you in
excuse me you need to unmute
there you go
hello miss bonelli
can you hear me
barely you have to speak up or turn your volume up
Just speak loudly. It's faint.
Good morning.
Spell your first and last name.
Amanda Benelli.
A-M-A-N-T-A.
B as in boy.
O-N-T-L-L-I.
I swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.