hardship on several grounds she did not create these circumstances herself as demonstrated by
the redfin listings that we already showed a little while ago it in no way alters the character
of the block as the property is still being used for residential living um it's been the same
condition for a number of years and then lastly forcing the seals to convert you know this fully
active dual unit configuration into a single family home would create an undue hardship
by imposing an enormous expense to conform to a single time layout the seals would have to
can incur significant demolition and reconstruction costs to remove the existing layout and then of
course legalizing the existing use also represents the minimum variance that will afford relief
this is my current as my client's current rental license for the single unit
and this is the lead certifications for both unit that were uploaded to the city's lead and healthy
homes website. I'll turn to our community outreach efforts. We met with the community
on May 11th. However, we weren't present during the community vote, and we have not been given
a courtesy copy of the RCO's meeting summary or the results from the vote itself. We tried
calling and reaching out several times, but at this point, we're just unsure of where
the community stands on this project. That's what I submitted a little earlier this week,
the emails that we sent to the RCO, asking for some kind of clarity and for the letter,
but we never got any responses.
But remember, Seals did speak with nearby neighbors and customers.
but seals did speak uh with nearby neighbors and customers I'm sorry uh before that meeting
uh and gathered 27 signatures of support
Gabriel the next door neighbors on either side for it
40. I see
maybe we'll see that when you bring your client on
that's one yeah absolutely this is the package showing uh the seals taking possession in january 25
here's our application for appeal and project information form
statement of real estate tax compliance and update pictures showing zba posters
at the property and then lastly these are our certificates of mailing for the rco
letter that we sent out in anticipation of that rco meeting in may right why don't you
bring your client on her name is latasha seal she should be in the virtual audience okay
Good morning.
I don't see any hands, Cher.
I don't see any hands, Cher.
All right, Gabriel, you're an officer of the court.
Questions from the board?
questions or comments from our attorney no questions at this time questions or comments
from the virtual audience or the audience here no hands at this time chair planning planning
commission madison matera planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
existing rsa 5 residential signal family zoning at this location this property has a documented
history of two-family use dating back to the 1957. therefore the city planning commission recommends
the board grant the requested variance for two family household living thank you mi2026
001 018 148 west spencer street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes brian mcadams my vote is yes taiwan my vote is yes
okay thank you uh thank you thank you all we're moving to number six mi2025
0-0-6-9-7-5-20-15
Frankfurt Avenue. Rachel Pritzker is the attorney. Also, Jordan Rand
is also an attorney for the Protestants.
Morning. Good morning. Mr. Rand, just for the record,
could please state and spell your name for the stenographer? Name is Jordan
J-O-R-D-A-N Rand R-A-N-D. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth i do rachel do i need to no what you have to do is state your name for
the record rachel pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r so this is a resumptive hearing and my records show that
um jordan ran will finish his uh examination of witnesses and then we'll move to the board and
Council, public testimony, and then planning commission.
Chairman, if I could, Mr. Rand was really questioning a lot about hardship, and so
we took the opportunity to engage with David Plant, who is a known zoning and engineering
expert, to provide a report which we submitted, and we also have him available today.
I think it might help clear up some of the questions that Mr. Rand may have, and it might be a better resource for him to ask some of his questions than the developer or our architect or myself.
I don't believe Mr. Rand is providing any expert testimony or report or plans to call his client, but I did want to acknowledge some of his questions.
Mr. Rand, are you okay with that?
I don't have a copy of the report, so I couldn't say.
um okay so um we're why don't we do this why don't we let her bring her client on sure um let
her do that and then we'll come back to you is that okay that sounds good all right um
rachel why don't you proceed with your expert witness yep sure um david plant should be on
should be on they're being promoted to panelists
good morning good morning sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
david plant p-l-a-n-t-e
start again david plant and last name plant p-l-a-n-t-e do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do rachel okay uh thank you so uh mr plant
is the director of engineering at Ruggiero Plant Land Design. He's a civil engineer for more than
30 years of experience, a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and four other states,
and a registered professional planner. He's testified for this board many times over the
last 25 years and has worked on hundreds of land development projects. We did attach his CV
with our submission. I'm happy to have him go through it, or I don't know if we could stipulate
that Mr. Plant is an expert in civil engineering site planning and zoning. Or if you want me to go
through. I'll stipulate. Okay. He agrees to stipulate. Why don't we move forward?
Yep. So just, David, I'm going to just share my screen and bring up the report that you prepared.
Mr. Chairman, can I request that a copy of this report be emailed to me?
yes it's being could we do that yes it's being emailed to you as we speak i already asked my
team to do that i apologize can you see my screen we can okay um so without re-going through the
entire project um again um we wanted to have mr plant uh analyze the site um look at the
the architectural drawings, the zoning, the context,
and if you could just kind of go through your report,
walk the board through your report and the findings,
and also then share your opinion
to a reasonable group professional certainty
as to whether the application meets the code requirements
for the special exception, the use variances
and dimensional variances and hardship,
which is what we asked you to separately analyze.
analyze certainly i'll paraphrase this in the interest of time really we looked at this
location the the particular block in this area of fishtown we note that frankfort avenue is
classified as a walkable commercial corridor by the philadelphia streets department and it's
designated as a neighborhood commercial corridor in the river wards plan and i'm sure everyone's
aware of the improvements that have been taking place in that area that the uh there's been quite
a bit of new construction and improvements and investment all along the frankfort avenue corridor
are here um 2000 block of frankfurt avenue particularly is um close to transportation
shopping uh and and many commercial services we found that there are 31 properties on this block
that front on frankfurt avenue and they are overwhelmingly mixed use commercial and residential
properties. There are two vacant lots, a few blighted buildings, but really the block is
well kept and there's quite a bit of new construction on the block.
2000 block of Setviva Street, and that's on the east side of this site. We front on the west side
of survival that's designated as a local street by the streets department right now there's mixed
uses on the west side of the block there's a variety of uses there's some commercial a few
industrial buildings garages and a little bit of vacant land and that's part of the application
in front of you today so and there are also a couple of two and three story row houses
uh two at the southerly end of the block and the rest are at the northerly end of the block
the opposite side of the street on Sepp Viva, the east side of Sepp Viva.
the opposite side of the street on sep viva the east side of sep viva is a mixture of
two and three story row houses so that's kind of the context for um for the the project in front
of you today um i won't go through all of the details but the the entire site is eight thousand
four hundred square feet it's currently comprised of seven different parcels we're consolidating
those and creating two rectangular parcels that extend through uh from frankfurt avenue to
supply the street that's a pretty narrow block it's 120 feet from one street to the other street
and each of those parcels will have 70 feet of frontage on uh on frankfurt avenue and on step
five so the lots are almost identical the proposed use just as a reminder we are proposing approximately
two-thirds of the ground floor as commercial space in each building parcel H which is the
southerly parcel that will have a group dental practice dental office and the northerly parcel
will have an as-yet unspecified commercial use that's consistent, that's conforming with
the CMX2 zone, as well as the overlay districts that affect it.
And I believe that the owner may have testified at the last hearing, and he's hoping to retain
the yoga studio that's currently on the site in the future in that space.
the rest of the of the building is it's four store each of the buildings are four stories
and there will be nine residences in each building so a total of 18 residences in two
commercial spaces we'll have some amenity decks on the roof for the residents
and all of the just as a reminder all the parking has been removed
and significantly the fourth floor has been set back 30 feet from Sep Viva Street to really make
that imperceptible from ground level so that the building will read really as a two-story building
from most vantage points on step five of the street.
The third story is set back 10 feet.
And then, as I said, 30 feet for the fourth floor.
So that we've also removed the projecting balconies.
And with the removal of the parking, the accessory parking,
There won't be any garage doors, so that facade has been redesigned to be much more compatible with the two and three story row houses on set by the street.
So that will be really much more entirely residential appearance on that facade.
the uh and and just as a as a note the access for all of the commercially used will be strictly
from from uh frankfurt avenue so uh all of the commercially useful will be fronting frankfurt
and removed from interacting with set by the street
um so although this building has really been designed to be consistent with the pattern of
development and the other mixed-use buildings that have been constructed over the past 10 and
maybe 15 years in this area we do still require relief from for
both the uses and the dimensions.
So let's talk about the special exception right now.
Parcel H is split.
It's about 82% CMX2 and 18% RSA5.
So the CMX2 zone governs the uses and dimensional requirements.
The dentist office is specifically, it requires a special exception for the group practice.
A single practitioner would be permitted by right.
So we took a look at other similar uses in this area just to get a feel for what other similar businesses might.
a feel for what else is what other similar businesses might be located right in this area
the dentist office is considered an office use although we felt it might be more
akin to a personal service use like a hair salon or a realtor's office so we looked at both of those
and we found there are at least five other business offices in or on this
block or within one block on Frankfurt Avenue we found at least nine other
personal services again on this block or in the next block so this use is very
similar to other things that are going on right in this area so we felt that
this would meet the requirements for the special exception. There are no specific use or use
specific standards for the dental office. We felt that this would have no detrimental
impact on the neighborhood. It's a, the dentist's office is very light use. There's not that
much coming and going uh people don't arrive at the same time so there's no adverse impact on
traffic or congestion or transportation systems the proposed building is consistent with the
pattern of development in this area and it's been set back as we said on the rear street so
So there's no adverse impact on light and air available to the other properties, adjoining
properties and properties in proximity.
Dentist's office has no extraordinary demands on utilities or public facilities.
As I said, it's pretty light and very, very quiet use, won't have any adverse impacts
on the adjoining properties because of the uh the quiet use the limited uh amount of patrons
and employees that would be coming and going and of course we would expect that to operate
in normal business hours nine to five so we wouldn't have any any activity late at night
certainly won't endanger public health or safety uh and we believe that the active
ground floor use and the ability to provide services to the local population be very desirable
and that will be in conformance with the comprehensive plan. I think that I've heard
certainly that there are no other dentist's office really right in this area and people
are in need of this service so in this particular area we then looked at the use variance that's
required uh parcel this is on parcel i the northerly parcel again it's approximately the
same size it's a little bit smaller than than h it's 4080 square feet and it runs through from
again from Frankfort Avenue to set by the street this is split zone which is
really the heart of the problem for us that CMX 2 and RSA 5 are both cover
approximately 50% of the site and although again that the building and
these are designed to be consistent with the pattern of development and the
other uses on the block and and nearby uh we will require the use variance because the rsa
5 zone residential single family uh does govern the both the the use and
the dimensional requirements because it is uh 50 of the site
so that split zoning really creates an unnecessary hardship for us in combination with the shallow
block as I mentioned before the block's only 120 feet deep from street to street so that really
makes it extremely difficult to develop two separate buildings in one in the RSA 5 zone
and one in the CMX too, they would be really very shallow.
And that would significantly compromise
the commercial space by having a building that ultimately
that ultimately would be only a max maximum of 51 feet deep so we feel like that would really
would be only a maximum of 51 feet deep.
limit our ability to develop a neighborhood commercial corridor scale commercial use in this
building uh the trying to develop these uh sites in strict conformance with the zoning requirements
would result in a nine-foot rear yard for both the commercial building and the residential building
so again that's going to really create an undesirable effect the core quality rear yard
surrounded by two three and four-story buildings there's four-story buildings already
uh in in place that would join uh at least one of these yards so we
believe that would be a really undesirable condition
we think that uh is that it rachel