The Saravos also clean the sidewalks all the time.
Whenever there are storms, they make sure that not only is the lot cleared and cleaned,
but the sidewalks are also cleared and cleaned so that they are able to, you know, continue with the maintenance that they have shown.
Here's again from Cater Street.
This shows the sidewalk as maintained by the Soravos and the shrubbery that surrounds the property completely.
um it's it's a use that is absolutely critically necessary in the community um based on the number
of properties that have been built over the last number of years and that the uh the waiting list
for others to try to use this is significant uh my clients have agreed to those two conditions
And I would like to see if you could elevate them, Mr. Sarravo, so that he could affirm my summary of the request.
Counsel, before you bring them on, just let me clarify.
The temporary variance was up 11-1-22?
No, sir. It's up 11-23. And that's on the recusal.
Okay, thank you.
can you elevate uh sure siravo
do we see his hand if not i would represent as an officer of the court yes he's been promoted
okay he's promoted thank you sir could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
sir oh there hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
peter saravo s-i-r-a-v-o right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. Yes, I do. Thank you, Chair Bergen. Mr. Sravo, you and one of your
sons was present during the summary of the application that I presented to the board
today. Is that correct? Yes. And were the facts that I presented true and correct to the best of
your knowledge? Yes. And would you adopt my summary as if it were your own? Yes. Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have James Kahn.
Sir, please unmute yourself and wait for the Chair.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
James Kahn, J-A-M-E-S-K-A-H-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Yes, I'm here on behalf of the 10 immediate houses, immediately adjacent.
And first of all, just I have to clarify something that was said about the property maintained.
Often it's maintained, but there's been many times when we've had to go ourselves and pick up trash that's been there for weeks or even months.
around the perimeter of the property.
I think the situation's improved lately,
but I can't agree that the property
has been maintained immaculately.
We've had to do this,
but we hope it will be in the future.
But the reason I'm speaking,
and I appreciate the chance to speak,
is that the hurricane wire fence that's there
is a temporary fence,
and it's not compatible
with what's turning out to be a permanent use,
which we don't oppose, a parking lot,
of permanent use in this community. These are new houses. It's a nice neighborhood. It's nicely
appointed. And, you know, we don't protest the parking lot or using a fence for the parking lot,
but to replace it with a nice, you know, metal fence, looks like wrought iron kind of thing,
would really be appropriate for the neighborhood rather than this temporary looking kind of shabby
wire fence. It's around a parking lot that has nice plantings and such. But still, that fence
is just not compatible with the neighborhood. And probably replacing the fence itself using
the existing framework would cost less than the motorized gates that are being used for,
I guess, will help the people who park there, certainly. It's neutral in terms of the
for the neighborhood, but putting up an iron fence, you could buy at Lowe's, wouldn't cost
that much, less than putting in the motorized gates in. It's something that us as neighbors
who are adjacent to the property and one of the, in fact, the walls of our buildings are used as a
barrier for the property where they don't need a fence, we would appreciate if a fence would
be put in. If that can be put in as a proviso, we will respectfully request that. Thank you.
for your comments. Mr. McElhant, let me wait. Let's see if there's anyone else in the audience
first. Is there anyone else in the audience? Chair, I see no hands. Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Chair, the RCO process is for a reason, and that is that the applicant can find out what the
issues are. This issue was not raised at the RCO meeting. There were a lot of people there.
It is certainly something that I know that Mr. Savravo has heard today. And if there is an
opportunity or if the fence needs repair or replacement, I'm sure he will take that into
consideration. The people who were at the RCO meeting, many of them were adjacent neighbors,
and they were effusive in the maintenance of the property. If Mr. Khan has an issue with it,
He can certainly make sure he has my contact information and Mr.
Saralba has other properties, even across the street,
and he's down there almost daily.
So I certainly would implore him to open up a line of communication with the
owner so that if there is a trash issue that can be addressed quickly.
Thank you very much.
Planning commission.
Thank you, chair Bergman and board members,
David Fecto with the city planning commission.
The Comprehensive Plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed-use zoning at this location.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance that would prevent this property from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
The City Planning Commission recommends the Board deny the use variants for non-accessory parking lot.
MI 2022-007-221-617-29 South 15th Street.
I vote yes for temporary variance.
Expires 11-1-28.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
I don't complete my business.
May I be excused, Mr. Chair?
Yes, sir.
Thank you, sir.
All right, number 12, MI 2023-000465-447-49 Queen Lane.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Letter of support from the 12th Ward.
Coordinating RCO.
Letter of non-opposition from Solo Germantown.
With provisos.
Mr. Nockamson.
Mr. Nackamson is coming back in as a panel.
Mr. Nakamura is coming back in as a panelist.
Mr. Nackamson?
Mr. Nockleson, should we be joining as a panelist?
Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure.
Thank you, Jason.
No problem.
Sorry that having technical difficulties with my computer yet again.
Just for the record, state your name, please.
Alan Nockleson.
And you've already been sworn.
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Yeah, it's Microcosm LLC and its member, Pete Shryer's, in the virtual audience.
Okay, and our Vice Chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, Counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case?
Are these in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you. Please proceed to share your screen.
all right so i'm here to present 447-49 west queen lane um you know this is one of these projects
you know you know once a while we do these projects they're they're very impactful for
the community and something that you know we are going to look back in a few years and say wow that
was a great thing that happened here um the architects for this project is new architecture
They're well-known in Philadelphia and award-winning in terms of their architecture.
And I believe they did an awesome job for this irregular shape blocks.
During this presentation, we'll first review the notice of refusal.
This is a lot that's over 15,000 square feet.
It's regular shape.
It's near mass transportation.
And, you know, we worked with the community.
And you saw that through those letters that were very descriptive, both the 12th Ward Democratic Committee, as well as SOLO, two RCOs that are very sophisticated and caring about the community.
Through their efforts and our efforts collaboratively, we were able to make a very beautiful, impactful, and socially responsible project.
And we'll review those letters as well as the project as a whole.
So during our discussions, and this is not zoning related, it was very important for the community to have this project as both rentals as well as to be for people in the community to purchase it.
So we just, you know, we showed this to the community and we're showing this to the zoning board, but there's a program called Home Ready, which provides low interest loans to this community, as well as grants to this community for closing costs.
Then we'll review maps of the area, photographs of the property, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice for the last community meeting we had that was well attended, our application for appeal that we filed, our agreement of sale.
This is subject to the agreement of sale and our certificate of tax clearance.
At the conclusion of my presentation, I will ask Mr. Schreier to virtually raise his hand, be sworn in, and to adopt my testimony as his own.
I will ask the boards to hold this matter, though, because we're waiting for an amended refusal.
So we're, you know, after the hearing, once we receive that amended refusal, we'll ask the board to vote on this matter.
But the board should hold this matter because we're waiting for an amended refusal because of changes the community asked of us, which we would need a new refusal for.
So the notice of refusal that we have today, this is an RSA by property.
Again, the lots over 15,000 square feet.
Initially, and it's four lots into one.
Initially, we were putting 19 units with 11 parking spots over the course of three building
structures.
You'll see through the presentation that there was a building structure facing Queen
Lane that was a triplex with parking on the ground floor.
There was a long driveway that went, you know, from Queen Lane through the development and then making a left on Lauren's.
There was parking there in the middle of development.
And there were two building structures.
There were eight duplexes.
At the request of the community, we decreased the volume from 19 to 15.
from 19 to 15 so instead of eight duplexes we now have six duplexes and one triplex
So instead of eight duplexes.
we increase the amount of parking from 11 to 15 so we now have a one-to-one ratio
we have three refusals for this project one is whereas no more than one principal building is
allowed in rsa5 zoning district and you'll see from the lot configuration this is a very regular
shape line um you know again this is an undue hardship in the truest sense uh and we try to
have you know the least modification possible under the philadelphia zoning code uh the second
refusal has to do about the common driveway uh having a common driveway is not inappropriate
for these circumstances but for the fact that we have one owner so we were if this was multiple
owners, this refusal would disappear. But because we have one owner, it's not considered a common
driveway or a shared driveway, and we have that refusal. But we're using one curb cut off a clean
lane, which is existing, which we're actually decreasing in size. And we're using another
curb cut on Lawrence such that we have 15 units, but also 15 off-street parking spaces.
And then the third refusal has to go with the multifamily nature of this property. Again, 19 units was originally proposed. We reduced that to 15 units, which is almost in line with the amount of units that would be allowed, you know, based on the 15,000 square foot lot.
We're a little bit above what would be allowed, you know, based on the 1,440 square foot requirements, but not that much off.
Then we have two letters.
First one is from the 12th Ward Democratic Committee.
As you can see, no one was opposed to this project.
We either have support of eight or non-opposition of two.
So, again, everyone in this community that attended this meeting, which was well-attended, were either in support or non-opposition of this project.
And the reason why is their letter of explanation.
First, we went from 19 units to 15 units, and we also went, you know, that's a zoning matter.
The non-zoning matter is we elected to sell the duplexes in the rear of the property and keep the three unit as a rental.
But it was really important for a sense of homeownership with this project.
The second reason why this community supported it is the fact that we lowered the height, the effective height of these buildings.
And contextually, the community felt more supportive of the fact that the boot lines match the context of this community.
And then, you know, the fact that we increased the amount of parking spaces from 11 to 15.
So those are the main reasons for the 12th Democratic wards.
Then we also received a letter from Solo Germantown Civic Association.
they internally voted and as you can see uh they either voted in support or in non-opposition to
this project not one party who stated a vote was in opposition to this project and you know they
kind of went back to what you know what the 12th democratic board stated was that we worked well
with the community um and they appreciated that um they did have provisos being stored inside so
So as you'll see, we do have trash stored with each of the duplexes individually.
And then there's a common trash room as well for the triplex.
They mentioned about the mailboxes being stored inside the building as well.
And then this is just about the program that we talked about, the Home Ready program.
But this will give the ability of many members of the community to purchase our units with a lower interest rate, but also the ability to get a grant to pay up to $8,000 to pay for closing costs.
And again, as you can see, this property falls well within the borders of this program's availability.
And then just, you know, you can see the irregular shapes of this lot.
This is Queen Lane.
This is Lauren.
This is our property.