So with that being said, I'm sorry.
This is Sharon Saleta.
Mr. Nalkamson, all of the changes
that you described from the original refusal
they were reviewed by L&I and are reflected in the amended refusal, is that correct?
That is correct. There's two refusals dated June 19, 2021, and they were given to your office as well, ZBA's office as well.
If they don't have it, well, it's in our packet of materials that we presented.
We do have it, but I would ask that the board, if they vote to approve this, that a proviso be added, stating that it is, as per refusal, dated 6-19-2021, so there is no confusion.
6-19, Sharon?
Yes, 6-19-2021.
I'm sorry, Sharon. This is Tanya. Can I respectfully request that we add the new number as well?
um yes let me check that thank you
the new number are you speaking at the new calendar number um the uh refusal number
and that way ellen and i will not be confused at all they request that we do that
okay i will do that the the reason that it that's what i've done in the past um there in a couple
of recent refusals there has not been a different number so i will check on this to be there
there is a different number i'm looking at it right now so do you want me to just read out
the number to you yes if you could do that please perfect thank you 715 north 42nd street the new
application number is ZP-2021-006799. 006799? Yes. And then the one for 1717 North 42nd Street
is dash 006798. Okay. What a morning this is. Did I ask if the board had any questions?
No, you did. No. You did ask and we have no questions. Thank you. Planning Commission.
good afternoon and litwin planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommended the
change to single family residential zoning for this property this change was made in 2014 as
part of a comprehensive neighborhood wide remapping effort the proposal for six units is an overuse
of the parcel considering it would not meet the dimensional standards for multi-family lot
we support the community's goals of increasing home ownership opportunities but feel this is not
the minimum variance required
and recommend against granting the variances.
Calendar number ZP-2021-006799.
The address is 1715 North 42nd Street
and calendar number
ZP-2021-006798
the address is
1717 North 42nd Street
my vote is yes on both cases
my vote is yes on both cases confessor plaza excuse me madam chair
Professor Plaza my vote is yes
excuse me Madam
i think you have to read those individually with the proviso adding the um updated
the zp numbers that mr knockin can read out so you want me to read these individually with the
zp numbers and then add after each one as per refusal date 619. no if you are reading the
number it isn't necessary then to put the refusal date on it will just be the case and as per zp
number for each one okay i will do that again the address is 1715 north 42nd street
calendar number zp as per calendar number zp 2021-006799 my vote is yes
uh confessor plaza my vote is yes with proviso
james snell my vote is yes with proviso thomas holliman my vote is yes with proviso
Next, 1717 North 42nd Street, as per calendar number, ZP-2021-006798, my vote is yes.
Confessor Plaza, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We are now on number eight.
Calendar number 1010-2608 West Dolphin Street.
The attorney is Jeffrey Young.
And with this case, there is no RCO letter from Strawberry Mansion CDC.
Madam Chair, Jeffrey Young doesn't have his hand raised.
Okay, do you know what I'll do?
If it's okay with Ms. Sunken, Ms. Saleta, I'll move on to number nine.
Excuse me, Madam Chair, that would be good.
I think this one may take some time.
um chairman chico um may be signing on now or within the next few minutes could we check to
see if he is here he is here ah okay thank you okay uh mr chair do you want me to call the case
out again? Yeah, if you don't mind, please. I'm sorry for the lateness ahead. Calendar number
MI-2020-001010, 2608 West Dolphin Street. The attorney is Jeffrey Young, and we have no RCO
letter but the exhibits were submitted. Mr. Young appears not to be here could we um
could you maybe move this one back and I will try to contact him. Sure um Mr. Chair do you want
to go to number nine or do you want me to? If you don't mind Carol would you continue and not at all
Calendar number 0336-4401 Ridge Avenue.
The attorneys are Sean Whalen and Paul Bonney.
Mr. Whalen is coming back in as a panelist.
Hi, Mr. Whalen.
Can you put your name and address on the record, please, and spell your last name?
Certainly. Good morning, Madam Chair.
Sean Whalen, S-E-A-N-W-H-A-L-E-N, 6 Coulter Avenue, Suite 1000, Ardmore, PA, 19003.
Is Mr. Bonney here? Yes, there you are.
Hi, Mr. Bonney, can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name?
good morning good morning my name is paul bonnie b-o-n-i my address is 325 chestnut street suite
1109-19106 do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing about the truth
yes i do do do i do this together do both of you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy or do i have to do this individually miss uh no this would only be
Or do I have to do this individually, Ms. Saleta?
No, this would only be Mr. Whalen who would have to agree to waive the reading.
Okay. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do, and I will. However, I believe you need to swear me in as well.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing about the truth?
I do, and what I just stated was the truth, and I do waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy.
Wait, this is some warning, I'll tell you.
Have you emailed?
But it was pretty spectacular the way you asked if Chairman DiCicco was on and he appeared,
and you asked if Mr. Bonney was on and he appeared.
So you've got something going for you.
We have magical powers.
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of proof of
ownership, tax compliance, refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days
in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes to everything except for the RCO letter. We met with, there are multiple RCOs here. We do have
an RCO letter from East Falls Forward, and although not an RCO, a community group,
East Falls Development Corporation. We also met multiple times with East Falls Community Council,
EFCC, which is whom the party that Paul Bonney represents, they, to my knowledge, have not
presented a letter, but the voting meeting was held back in February. Okay, and we do have the
first two that you mentioned, East Falls Forward and East Falls CDC. You may proceed. Can I just
mention, just to make sure we're on the same page, I thought that East Falls Community Council
submitted a letter uh maybe in in the past couple of days um
if they did this letter would have it okay uh could this could mr letter or or the others
see if they have it if not i can uh i will check right now mr bunny okay okay it's a short letter
sean um but uh i assume it says uh you oppose yes it does it does and i also want to mention
that i don't agree with the representation that there was some court of some sort of voting
meeting um official voting meeting back in february but maybe we'll get into that later
um we do have a letter that was submitted on monday afternoon from east falls community council
So I will forward that to the board
or perhaps you could pull it up on the screen
when you make your presentation, Mr. Bonney.
Okay, I'll do my best.
I'm not sure I have it,
but I apologize for it not being in Sean's hand,
but I'll multitask as we move forward.
I will email it to you too then.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Saleta.
all right madam chair would you like me to proceed yes i would okay thank you very much
sean whalen here from vintage law i am representing a tapco properties inc the equitable owner with
regard to 4401 ridge avenue and we'll start sharing my screen
no unfortunately i can't tell what you're seeing so uh can you just confirm for me that you're
seeing a rendering of what I will represent as our new proposed building. A very, very large
building. Yes. So this is the ultimate rendering. We began this process back in January, submitting
an original set of plans back to the RCO, EFCC at that time. You can see this is actually the
original rendering that was provided um our architect from umbra architects michael brawler
will go into the extent and numerous uh divisions that we've had to the project but but this is where
we're at as far as our latest meeting with the community um i have upwards of 10 to 12 meetings
with numerous other i would say dozens and dozens of calls and emails with the community so
So this, again, is a project that has resulted in significant benefit from extensive relations with the community and in working out, you know, details that they wanted.
And we'll get to that quickly.
We have, here's a copy of the refusal.
We have two refusals that you can see.
We have two refusals that you can see.
One is the steep slopes.
One is the steep slopes.
There are slopes.
They are man-made.
They were man-made, in fact, by PHA.
PHA is still the record owner of this property.
As I stated, Atapco Properties, Inc.
The applicant is the equitable owner.
And PHA tiered this site when it was developing three towers that have long since been demolished now.
So, our engineer will go through this deep slope issue.
We have a second refusal, which is for off-street loading.
That refusal has been cured in the revised plans that were submitted to the board.
We were required, because this is a CMX3 zoning district, we were required to have two loading
spaces and originally only showed one, so we added a second loading space and have cured
that refusal.
So again, just for everyone's understanding, today we have one refusal before the board, which is that we are disturbing slopes.
Although they were man-made, they still constitute slopes greater than 25% grade that have to be addressed in the development process.
So here's kind of an overview of the property.
You can see it highlighted here.
It is a CMX3 property.
This is Ridge Avenue, right at Merrick, just past Calumet and the Falls River Bridge.
To give you some understanding of the property location, right about here, where my cursor is, is the on-ramp sign to 76 that everyone I'm sure is familiar with.
So this is the very large vacant lot parcel on the right.
again this kind of gives you a better understanding right after you go on Kelly
Drive or Ridge right after you go under route one and you cross over past the bridge you get to
our property this gives you a good aerial view what you can see here is sort of outlined
this is all heavily wooded this is that property that kind of serpentine property behind us
Again, our property is just this trapezoidal shape right here.
It's about 82,000 square feet.
And it is the site of three former PHA towers, which have been long since demolished.
And we're looking to redevelop now.
and again you can see this is this this section right here is uh is us where we're closest um
what you'll hear from the owner and you'll see in other exhibits is that there are very large
developments taking place right here there's already a um an apartment building right across
the street. This is Merrick Road. This is Ridge Avenue. There's already Falls Ridge in existence
right across the street from us this way and another apartment building right across the
street this way. There's also basically all the vacant land that you see in between Kelly and
Ridge is already scheduled for and approved for significant development, which was supported by
all the RCOs in this process. So here are some general conditions. Obviously, this project has
been going on a long time. So my photos are from, you know, late winter. Again, you can see here,
this is along Ridge Avenue, you can see the 76 on-ramp. This is the property right to the right,
kind of a large vacant dead zone. Again, here it is on the left, just looking exactly down the
other direction from ridge um most of uh what's here is uh along the property is kind of weed
trees and early growth uh trees but just kind of general brush um so you kind of get the
understanding here's i'd like to make an objection uh mr whalen that i don't mind you showing photos
and going over the generalities but when it comes to you know what we think might be relevant facts
let's say the the contents of the property i i'd rather your witnesses uh speak to that um rather
than you as the lawyer uh that they will um he can bring them in we not concluded from doing so
in my introduction thank you very much mr bonnie well i'm just not gonna here's the falls bridge
Well, I'm just not going to.
Here's the Falls Bridge lofts right across the street that I was talking about in a newer apartment building.
lofts right across the street.
You can see just down Ridge Avenue there.
You can.
I'd like to interrupt, Mr. Pony, your objection is noted.
Go ahead, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
This is Falls Ridge, the existing apartment building across the street on the same side of Ridge, but across Merrick Road from us.
Sorry, I went the wrong way.
More general site conditions.
This is, right to the right here is the parking lot