i do ma'am you're still a little bit muffled i don't know if you're too far away or maybe
can you turn up your volume can you hear me now a little bit better
try again please
Amanda if we're not able to hear you I will um sort of narrate but could you at least share
the plans on your screen are you able to do that and I can do it if not just let us know
okay we can see them thank you
do you want to present yeah sure so um i'll just walk through the plans briefly um so the um
sort of uh site plan is in the the bottom center there that shows the consolidation of the lot
there's a building uh section on the bottom left um that sort of shows you where the commercial
would be located on the first floor on the frankfurt avenue side um there is um really
sort of a kink in the building um if you kind of remember the zoning map i showed you the
that sort of shape of the building accommodates the shape of the lots and we sort of build a notch
into the middle section to create a really nice size courtyard that will allow more light into
the units um and also uh an outdoor space uh for the residents there is bicycle parking by the way
um with this proposal we did not get a refusal for that um amanda can you um just show a rendering or
two so amanda you you sort of uh i think what we're looking at here is uh is this the frankfort
avenue side of the building yes it is so um mr chair on the left side of what would be the
storefronts of display windows is like a gateway into a open corridor that goes into that courtyard
thanks amanda yep you can keep going if you have another rendering
this is the Martha Street side of the project so um uh no commercial space here um that that's sort
of a the back end of that same channel that goes into the courtyard um and what you sort of have
there is an architecturally interesting um entry stoop um under the curvature of the rest of the
building with some doorways into it. Those on the upper left are private decks for some of the
units. And then there will be a common roof deck with a solar canopy at the top.
at the top and we adjusted that roof deck so we no longer have any dimensional refusals for it
And we adjusted that roof deck. So we
by putting in the proper offset from the street um since we're having some technical difficulties
i'll i'll rest there and uh the board has any questions yeah do you need to have your client
adopt your chance of the money yeah that would be great so the representative for the client is um
Donnie or Danielle Assarelli.
Ms. Assarelli, you can unmute yourself and speak now.
Yes, I believe I have.
Can you hear me?
Yes, please spell your first and last name.
First name is Daniela, D-A-N-I-E-L-A.
The last name is Ascarelli. A-S-C-A-R-E-L-L-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you, Mr. Sadler.
Hi, Donnie. Were you able to hear my testimony this morning?
I was.
Was it true and accurate?
Yes, it was.
And would you therefore adopt it as your own?
I would.
Thank you.
Thank you.
any questions from the board no mr chairman anyone else would like to testify in this case
please raise your hand chair we have someone with the last four digits of their phone number five
zero five six you can unmute yourself and speak now
caller on five zero five six please unmute yourself if you would like to speak regarding this case
excuse me anyone else you need to press six to unmute yourself
Star six. Chair, the hand has disappeared. Thank you. Anyone else to testify in this case?
I see no other hands at this time, Chair. Thank you, Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair DeChico. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the Board, in 2016, the zoning map was amended from RM1 to CMX2 and RSA5 at this
location and this was done in accordance with uh recommendations from the comprehensive plan
the intent of the remapping was to encourage commercial and residential mixed use on frankfort
avenue while supporting the single family row homes on martha street the proposed configuration
meets the spirit of the comprehensive plan and recommended and adopted zoning in terms of use
and overall massing the overall unit density is slightly higher than would be allowed in either
zoning district applying to the lot but we feel that reflects the hardship presented by the lots
irregular shape so we would therefore recommend that the board grant all the variances in this case
chair you're muted
mr savran uh is it one page of revised plan yes it is mr chair okay thank you mi
MI 2021-0030892456 Frankfort Avenue.
My vote is yes with the proviso.
Revised plan one page approved today.
Confessor Plaza, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you. Case number six, MI 2021-003-058-307 Lombard Street. Jared Klein is the attorney of
record, Society Hill Civic Association. I'm not aware of a letter that we've received as of yet,
but Mr. Klein, I'm sure you'll clear that up for us. Please identify yourself.
Back in as a panelist now, Chair.
I'll swear your full name and I'll swear you in.
Absolutely.
It's Jared Klein, K-L-E-I-N, from Blank, Rome, 130 North 18th Street, Philadelphia, 19103.
Do you want to tell the truth, all truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Mr. Plaza has some questions for you.
Does Mr. Klein, you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I can waive the reading.
We do have a question about the accuracy of the height refusal, but we're not making this an appeal against LNI.
So we will proceed with the refusal as is, but we're not stipulating to accuracy.
Okay, and have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required document, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
Okay, and have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required document?
And have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes, we have. And I was joining as a panelist. I heard the chair ask whether we do have a letter. Yes, we do have a letter from Society Hill Civic. And I believe that Paul Bonney is on the Zoom also and will articulate the civics position.
Thank you. Please proceed. Thank you. I'm going to share my screen and make sure everybody can
see that. Is that appearing for everybody? Yes. Great. So I have the pleasure of representing
St. Peter's Church this morning, and this application is to expand the church campus
to allow them to offer a wider variety of services to the surrounding community.
St. Peter's Church has been at 3rd and Lombard for a very, very long time and has become an integral member of the surrounding community.
And this application is to use one of the locks that is contained within the campus to build a new structure that would serve as a parish hall, meeting house, and offer other uses that are accessory to the church next door.
The reason that we received the refusals are because each of the lots that make up the St. Peter's
campus is its own OPA lot. We can't have uses that are accessory to another address. And so
the zoning code requires us to go through the variance process to use this separate OPA lot
in conjunction with the lots next door. We also received a refusal for some fencing,
which you will see as I go through the presentation.
With regard to the refusal that I raised a question about,
we believe that the height refusal is really indicative of a misinterpretation
of the mechanicals that are on top of the proposed roof.
The height of all of the structures will not exceed 38 feet.
There is a portion that goes higher, but again, that's for mechanical use,
and we're not sure that the examiner got it right.
But as I'll explain, given the context of the community support,
we don't believe that there's an issue with that. Just to orient the board to the location,
this is the St. Peter's campus here. The proposed location of the building is this lot here.
And so in terms of a hardship, what we have is a lot that is surrounded by a
active church use here and the St. Peter's religious school use here. And so that sort
of unique context of the site creates a hardship for the use of this lot if it wasn't to be used for
a religious purpose. Zoning map, the entire thing is zoned RM1 with a variety of other uses that's
surrounded. To orient the board to the site, these are some photos of the site as it exists today.
And these are photos taken of the surrounding corners and nearby structures.
and photos of posting of the zoning notices on both sides of the property. Now, we do have
revised plans that are going to be three pages, and I'll share those now. This is the overall
site plan. You can see that this is the area of the new structure here. We're going to have the
main ingress and egress um coming uh off of the side street not on lombard street a number of
the near neighbors had some concern with people queuing on the sidewalk uh if there were events
taking place and so we've assured them that the doors to lombard street are going to be egress
only and will not be an access point um to give the board a better sense of what this might look
like. Here are some elevations. This is the mechanical area that I was speaking about here
but the height to the roof does not exceed 38 feet at any point. This is a conceptual rendering
of what the building will look like when it's completed and some additional renderings of
exterior views just to give the board a sense of the context of how this will fit within the
neighborhood. As I mentioned we did have a meeting with the Society Hill Civic. It was a very good
conversation. Their letter of support with Proviso is on the screen in front of you.
And I can share that this was a Proviso that was mutually developed between my client and
the RCO, something that we feel is appropriate given the uses that we're applying for.
As you can see, the RCO notes that they're generally supportive of the church and its
operations. The concern was that if the church were to sell this to a third party, a more general
variance approval might allow a future user to use the event space in a way that wasn't consistent
with the religious use. You know, we anticipate the space being used for Paris.
with the religious use um you know we anticipate the space being used for parish events uh you know
weddings funeral receptions um those other sorts of events that go along with what a church would
use its meeting hall for and there's parish halls throughout the city that have a similar concept
we understand the civic association's concern with the future user they've suggested the proviso
that you see on the screen that would note that all uses authorized by the variants shall
be related to the operations of St. Peter's Church located at 313 Pine and all major events
occurring pursuant to such uses shall be conducted with the church's approval. That's language
that we are comfortable with and if the board has no objection we would allow that to be
included as a proviso to whatever conclusion the board might reach today. As I mentioned
Paul Bonney from Society Hill is also on. He can further articulate that. But as you can see,
the vote of the meeting was largely in support of the application. I could spend a lot of time
on the architecture and I have them on the line, but I don't think the board needs that level of
detail. What I would ask is for the Reverend Sarah Hedges-Kleagerman to virtually raise her hand,
so she might adopt my testimony.
Ms. Kligerman, you can unmute yourself and speak now.
Good morning, Reverend. Please spell your full name and I'll swear you in.
Sure. Sarah Hedges Kligerman, S-A-R-A-H-H-E-D-G-I-S hyphen K-L-I-G-E-R-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Mr. Klein?
Thank you. Good morning, Reverend.
did you have an opportunity to listen to my presentation? I did. And would you adopt my
testimony as true, correct, and your own? I would. Thank you. Was there anything else that you wanted
to share with the board about the context of this application? Yes, thank you. As I said,
I'm the Reverend Sarah Hedges-Kligerman, and I'm the sabbatical rector at St. Peter's at Third and
Pine. And I wanted to take a second to say thank you to the board for considering our application
and to give just a brief context around the why of this project. So since our establishment in 1761,
St. Peter's has been a vibrant and active faith community, and we're blessed that this continues
today. We're a church that gathers more than just on Sundays. We have a food cupboard that
distributes food to those among us without enough to eat. We offer world-class musical training to
children and youth through our Chorister Academy, and we are seeking all the time to be better
stewards of creation through our eco-ministry initiatives. Even during the pandemic, we've
welcomed 20 new members to St. Peter's, and we're grateful that we seem to be meeting a larger need
in the community. And as one of the clergy of St. Peter's, I can tell you that the greatest
obstacle to our continued vibrancy is the lack of space. I wanted to say that we see this building
as an expansion of our ministry, that instead of giving out groceries only, we could host community
meals. We would have space for children to not only come and sing as choristers, but to study
and do their homework before and after. And as you'll see on the architecture plans, neighbors
who already enjoy taking walks with their friends and pets through our churchyard would be able to
stroll through the additional gardens and green space this project would bring. I believe that
wherever two or three are gathered, God is present. And after COVID, I think we can all agree
that humans have a way of finding out how we can connect to each other, even in the most
unusual circumstances. But I could only imagine how much more St. Peter's could do if we had the
space to be in community, hence our presence here today. Having grounded us in the why of this
project, I'll say thank you again. Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, I don't have anything further
other than to remind you that we have three pages of revised plans if the board is inclined to
proceed. Right, and I'm going to ask you at some point to pull up that letter again. I have some
language that Ms. Saleta gave me this morning about the variance relation related to the
operations but i'll use your exact language because i have an address of 317 pine i suppose
i suspect it should be 313 pine uh my screen should hopefully be shared again you can see
that you got it right there so when i'm ready when we're ready to vote on it i'll
i'll refer to that uh anyone else to testify in this case
here we have mr bonnie with his hand up
bonnie good morning you can unmute yourself and speak now
good morning mr bonnie please spell your name and i swear you
Good morning, Mr. Bonney. Please spell your name, and I swear you won't.
Good morning. My name is Paul Bonney. My last name is spelled B-O-N-I.
You're a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Thank you. I'm the chair of the Zoning and Historic Preservation Committee of Society of Civic. I'm also an attorney.
and um i think um our position was accurately conveyed i just want to make a couple comments
um for the for the board's benefit um you know this is a big project in our neighborhood um i
think there are some pros and cons but we come out um net uh as as supportive of this generally