Brandywine Street
MI-2020-000458, 1010 Brandywine Street, MI-2020-000185, 1609 South 8th Street.
If anyone disagrees with any of those cases that have been read off as being continued, please raise your hand.
Excuse me, Chair, this is Sharon Saleta.
If I could just note that 2774 Kensington Avenue is being continued attorney moving party.
Let me get that.
So noted.
uh let me get this one so mi-20 mi-2020-000955-2774 kensington avenue continued attorney
moving party does anyone object to any of the cases that have been read into the record as
being continued. If so, please raise your hand. Okay, Mr. Chair, we have a Mr. Benjamin
Cochero. He has his hand raised. I will promote him to panelists right now so he may make his
statement. Sir, would you please identify yourself by spelling your first and last name and provide
us with your address. Hello, my name is Dr. Ben Cochiaro. I'm actually a professor. I was recently
promoted. Congratulations. Thank you. I live at 1918 Oakdale, East Oakdale Street,
19125. Professor, would you please spell your full name for the record?
Oh, my apologies. My full name is spelled Benjamin, B-E-N-J-A-M-I-N, last name Cochiaro, C-O-C-C-H-I-A-R-O.
And you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
So help me God.
Thank you.
please proceed um i'm a physician a family physician uh who works uh both at prevention
point philadelphia as well as project home i practice family and addiction medicine
and i would like to speak on behalf of and in support of um the kensington storefront community
Hub? Pardon the interruption, Professor, but that case is being continued. I'm sorry. I'm not a
lawyer and unfamiliar with the term. That's okay. No, that case will be continued to another date.
You can speak to Mr. Jason Hand, and he'll give you the date of that continuance.
Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you for participating. Thank you. Anyone else have
any objection to any cases that have been read into the record as being continued?
Mr. Chair, Mr. Sean Whelan has his hand raised. I will promote him to panelists immediately, sir.
Mr. Whelan, you are now a panelist.
Sir, please provide us with your name. Spell your first and last name. Provide us with your address.
Sean, we can't hear you. We can't hear you, Sean.
We can't hear you, Sean.
Sean, you might want to log out and log back in.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, we can.
Please spell your first and last name.
Of course.
Sorry about that.
Sean, S-E-A-N, last name Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N, Vintage Law.
I'm here as the attorney for 332 West Wildey Street.
This is M-I-2020-000673.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I certainly do.
Please proceed.
i am uncertain uh who requested the continuance uh but i know there's no basis for a continuance
in this matter i don't think i've read that one off sharon no this is sharon saleta no that is
listed first to be heard on the two o'clock list yeah we didn't read that off to be continued
okay i just want to make sure i could have sworn i heard you say it on the continuance list i
apologize i did i apologize i think you know what you may be right i think now that i'm going back
i did sorry about that all right well then i'll wait my turn yep you'll be number one all right
anyone else out there who objects or has any comments regarding the continuance request
sharon are we ready yeah we're ready i don't see any further hands
sharon do i need to make any other announcements regarding third party
no um did you when you called them out if it was a third party request did we verify that the
attorney wasn't here. I didn't say it in those words, but I'm asking if there's anyone who has
any concerns regarding the request. I'm sorry. I'm in LURB hearings as well. So, but no, the,
you asked, and if no one objected, then I think you can go forward. The only objection was the
one I made the mistake on, which was Mr. Whelan. Okay. Other than that, I believe we have three
cases to go forward with so mr whalen yes forefront um three at two o'clock and one at four
at 3 30 right there's only three on the two o'clock list correct correct thank you uh
mr whalen you've already been sworn in confessor yes calendar number mi 2020-000 673
332 Wobbly Street
Sean, you
swear on the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth
for nothing but the truth? Yes, I do
And do you agree to waive the reading of
its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do
Also, 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, I did
Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
yes i do thanks you may proceed before you begin mr will and i just mr hand jason
is that lip is that lip reader still on because i just realized confessor was not
uh he's only verbally on or he's only on audio not visual i'm gonna uh let me uh find out real
quick over right back sir what was that frank there's a lip reader who was on earlier and
Jason asked that I make sure they can see my lips moving.
You're only on audio.
You're not on audio.
I don't know if she's still on or he or she's still on.
Let's wait and see.
In the meantime, excuse me, Chair.
We have Ms. Dorothy Hamill, Attorney Dorothy Hamill in the waiting room.
and she has said that she did not request a continuance
on 3114 Frankfurt Avenue.
If we could call that again,
it is MI 2020-000037-3114-Frankfurt Avenue.
I have it.
Sorry, Mr. Whalen.
We're just waiting to see if the person who's the lip reader is still on.
No worries.
We want to make sure everyone has access.
It's like you're trying to freeze the kicker
It's like you're trying to freeze the kicker in the big game.
in the big game.
Mr. Chair, I don't believe Ms. Draper,
Ms. Pamela Draper is available anymore.
Okay, okay, thank you.
All right, please proceed, Mr. Whelan.
All right, thank you very much,
Chairman and members of the board.
So as I was stating before,
I'm the attorney for 332 West Wildey Street.
This, I will share my screen.
and hopefully now i can't see what you guys see so just to make sure you see a rendering right now
yeah we see it okay so uh this project is to propose uh the erection of two new
attached houses at the corner of west wilde street which is here and north oriana street
As you can see, and as we'll get into more with the architect, you know, this is meant to be two very stately homes, you know, vying for the front cover of Architectural Digest, not your standard slapdash homes.
I'm just sitting here saying the same thing to myself.
So, this is, and I don't think the refusal is incorrect. It lists only 332 West Wildey Street.
However, this is part and parcel of two, actually three parcels. Hopefully now you can see it. This
is 332 west willie street that's the address that the appeal ended up getting listed at
this is 948 north oriana street and this is 950 north oriana street this proposal first and
foremost will consolidate all three lots into one lot and then subdivide it into two separate
basically square lots, as you can see here. Currently, the three lots are vacant side
and or rear yard properties, and they have been sold off by that adjacent neighbor
specifically for development and development of this kind of architectural notoriety.
we have three refusals which i will get into in more depth later one for front loading parking
which is not allowed in northern liberties one for rear yard depth where none is proposed and
seven feet is required and one for max building height where the original proposal was for 43
feet three and three quarters inches and the 38 foot is the maximum
to begin we met with an lna we had numerous meetings and phone calls with them
it was very productive and positive and you'll hear going forward how this this process really
improved the project and we made some significant concessions to to get the approval there was
no opposition stated at the public meeting. Everyone is resoundingly in favor of it. And
then we received an eight to one vote at the NLNA board meeting. So what you'll see here and
what we'll talk about again more with the architect, and I do, sorry to belabor this
little bit more than i might usually but i understand there may be an individual neighbor
who is may or may not be represented in opposition today so i'm gonna go through a little bit more
didactically all right so here is the the three consolidated parcels right here you can see this
is North Oriana Street, right off North 3rd Street, and here's West Wildey. So we would have
one house at the corner and one house at this edge, both of them fronting onto West Wildey.
This entire area is designated RSA 5, attached single family. We are presenting
to attach single-family homes. So there is no question as to appropriateness of what we're
putting there. And in fact, as you can see here, the three parcels laid out,
I would posit that if we actually proceeded to develop the three parcels, each individually,
as they are currently designated, we would end up with more refusals than we have now.
uh designated we would end up with more refusals than we have now with just the three uh before you
today um so what we agreed to do with well let me give you some context first uh this is the parcel
right here um you can see there's a huge street tree there uh it goes back this way this is west
Wildey Street, and this is North Oriana Street. So this is immediately to the right of where
the photograph is taken is the property. This is a condo development right here,
and this is looking south along North Oriana Street.
all right so here is the condo development you can see what was originally just multiple row
houses in a row fronting along north oriana street this is 944 north oriana street they
have reoriented these row homes into a courtyard condo this is significant because this rear wall
now is what would be the traditional side party wall of a front-facing row home along with our
row home. So this wall is on the party line. There are no windows on that line. And so the
seven-foot rear setback would actually go right there and would not benefit their light and air,
which is you know as as this board understands the the primary benefit and reason behind a rear
yard setback is to protect the light and air of your rear neighbors so there's really no negativity
or negative impact rather with regard to our not proposing a rear yard setback
this is the project right across the street on north oriana street just showing additional
front loading parking both without a garage and with a garage this is a common condition
throughout the neighborhood here is again the shows kind of the length of our property
going down and the vacant nature of it.
This is a brand new construction, maybe three or four years old, along with multiple houses.
This is looking northeast across the intersection with our property right behind.
And again, here's looking north along North Oriana.
our property is just to the left here just a couple more to give context again
more front-loading parking here a double park car parking
and here is West Wildey Street again here's our property and this is all new construction here
that was built with a variance including front-loading parking immediately across from our
site. And again, just a closer up shot of that front-loaded parking.
No parking on your site, correct?
Terrific question. We are proposing front-loading parking.
I meant there's no on-street parking on that site, correct?
Correct. There is actually, there is in fact, I apologize for missing that.
There is no parking along the south side of Wildey right here, and there's also no street parking, no street parking, that is, and there's also no street parking along the western side of Oriana.
So as I'll walk through with the architect, there's going to be a curb cut here proposed and a curb cut here proposed for the two houses, and that will be a reduction of zero on-street parking spaces because there's no parking on either side of those streets.
and one thing we did was we were proposing approximately 17 and a half foot wide
curb cuts for double wide parking access in working with nlna we agreed to reduce that down
to a 12 foot curb cut so that it impacts positively the the pedestrian walkability
and bikeability of the area because you have less curb cut impacting
The other changes we made, which we'll work with, we reduced the overall height by more than two feet, down to 41 feet in connection with the NLNA.
And we also set back the roof decks eight feet from both the West Wilde street frontage and
uh eight feet from both the west wilde street frontage and the north oriana street frontage
in order to um you know limit any impact there so let me this ought to be the plans um
so again here's the current condition and here's what we're proposing uh that's the center property
line, you would have one house here, which would be fronting along West Wildey, and one house here
fronting along West Wildey. The curb cut, you can see here, limited to 12 feet right in there for
this parking, and limited to 12 feet off of North Oriana as well.
I kind of messed up the Zoom here.
At this point in time,
in order to walk through the project plans,
I'd like to introduce my architect.
Adam Montalbano should be available.
Chair, I'm promoting Mr. Montalbano
to panelists at this time.
Mr. Montalbano, you have been promoted to a panelist.
You may unmute your microphone
and give your testimony, please.
sir please identify yourself with the record spell your first and last name
and i'll swear you in uh yes hi my name is adam montalbano my uh spelling is a-d-a-m last name
m-o-n-t-a-l-b-a-n-o thank you so we're in the firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing