one bedroom
and that is 728
And then we have the renderings showing how they would look once fitted out, you know, a breakfast bar, you know, a kitchen and then the bedroom.
And I imagine, you know, based upon the photographs, you know, I'm presuming this window would face Kensington Avenue, but but it's a rendering, not an actual photo.
So that would be the elevated there, right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. The L, the L would be, you know, outside that window, not the beautiful skyline.
Uh, but, uh, you know, again, we presented it to, uh, uh, both Harrogate and, uh, Juniata Civic at a joint meeting and, uh, they voted 14 to nothing, uh, in support of the adaptive reuse of this otherwise vacant warehouse that has no, uh, intended industrial purpose, uh, in Harrogate or Juniata anymore.
Do you want to bring your client on?
Uh, yeah, I believe that George Groves is in the audience.
If George can raise his hand and be permitted to speak.
George Groves has been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
George Groves.
George, G-E-O-R-G-R-O-P-E-S.
We're a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Chair.
George, you're here on behalf of Ludlum Properties, LLC today, correct?
Yes, sir.
You've heard my representations to the board?
Are they true and correct, to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
Yes, sir.
And would you adopt them as your own testimony?
Unless the board has any questions, that's all I have to present today,
and I would ask that the requested relief be granted.
Questions from the board.
I have a question.
What's planned for the first floor?
I defer to George on that, George.
So one section of the building is going to be running out to a home health care.
The second part of it is designed for a, I think it's part of the home health care stuff, but it's like a day program.
thank george that would be the step that that might be the subject of an additional application
because it's not included in this one correct it's all it's all the stuff that they want to do
is under it's under the use uh john higgins looked it all up before we even talked to the
client so so yes anything they're doing is first floor so so is there like a lobby area for the
for the residents on the second and third floor?
Yes, there has to be a lobby residence
because there has to be an elevator
to go to the second and third floor.
And how large is that
as opposed to the other space
that you're going to rent out
for other commercial use?
Do you know?
How large is what?
I don't follow.
The lobby area for the residents
to come with the elevator.
That would be a minimum space.
That's not really a large space
that's required to do that you want to go back to the can you go back to the floor plans then you
can you know yeah michael hold hold on one second let me uh let me reshare
all right we back up yeah okay i see stairs he just has a second and third
floor plan i didn't see a first floor plan i think because the first floor plan is not in
right right yep that's why that's why i just asked i didn't see the plan so i'm just curious
as to how they would access their their units yeah i didn't know they said we're putting an elevator
that's the cost yeah yeah uh on this plan that i'm showing right now there's an elevator would
be right here you know yeah you have a lobby entrance here with stairs but if you wanted to
take the elevator it will be I guess I guess to to a board member Graham's point there's no first
point there's no first floor so we can't really tell how you get into the building what the first
floor so we can't really tell how you get into the building with the first floor
floor looks like to get to that elevator to get to the upper floors that's right right now right
now i would submit the first floor looks like that vacant warehouse space uh at the second
and third floor there's there's nothing there right now uh so council is that another is that
another elevator towards the back um well you're going to have an entry here with a stairwell or
Actually, you have two elevator shafts, but there's only one elevator on the actual diagram.
Right.
There's an old freight elevator in the back.
That's this one right here.
All right.
So that's not going to be a part of the actual new structure of use?
No, sir.
Fair enough.
One elevator is expensive enough.
yeah yeah and my other question is what type of remediation are you are you planning on doing to
the exterior of the building the facade well george most of the stuff we do is uh restore back to what
it originally looked like from from the beginning and then we added the all the new windows and
whatever decor that we kind of think it's going to fit in you know we own a lot of stuff up there
and we retrofit a lot of stuff and it all becomes well lit like a baseball stadium
and usually most of the people up there kind of like what we got but you but you for the most
part maintain the original facade uh just with uh refreshing it and bringing it up to date correct
update yes yeah okay thank you
and george that would include the facade facade up lighting and things of that nature to
to brighten it up and yes all the way around yeah and these units are rented individually
they're not rented by a group that comes in and takes like 10 12 units no mr chairman individually
for me oh all individual okay um other questions from the board yes um what's behind there is that
the highway is that 95 is that a the l over here that's kent that's kensington avenue and the l
ah okay sorry all right thank you
questions or comments from our attorney
yes mr chair i i just wanted to to be clear um for mr groves this application is only for the
second and third floor and it's only for the multi-family household living um if there is
something that was emitted from the refusal um by accident or you would like to add then
the refusal needs to be corrected or amended but at what's before the board right now is only the
proposed 64 dwelling units that's it yes yeah that yeah that's correct hillary thank you okay
thank you as i indicated if the first floor use requires any kind of relief that would be the
subject of another application but uh george has indicated that uh john higgins um our uh expediter
and codes consultant uh has reviewed uh whatever proposed uses are suggested for the first floor
and at this time he doesn't believe any relief is required so how are residents uh disposed
of their trash i guess are there trash rooms on each floor or is there
there's gonna be a dumpster in the yard
in the rear yard yes can you show that on that uh diagram there with the rear yard
Well, I'm showing the Google angle photo, which has Kensington Avenue on the left.
It would be to the west, Sean.
It would be to the west.
The west of that yard.
So it's an enclosed yard, I'm assuming, right?
So the tenants have to take their trash to the dumpster?
there's no
trash room on each floor
or trash room
you leave trash on each floor you got rats
I'd prefer to have it outside
that's a lot of traveling
with your trash
with an elevator
I would say
that I don't want to trash in the building
and I think the fire department
would completely agree with me since they're right next door
yeah so you know there's there's there's plenty of outdoor space for
you know uh well this year this year you've got you've got tenants that's got to drag their trash
Well, the issue is you've got tenants that have got to drag their trash down three stories, either down the steps or on the elevator with people, to go to a dumpster in the back of the place.
down three
Well, Michael, as opposed to having with a facility this large, there's usually a trash room and a trash compactor and such.
So I think that was what we're trying to say.
Well, I fully understand that
but I think that's beyond
the zoning code
Just raise the issue
Just raise the issue
Yeah, but like I was going to say
if it were me
every day or every other day
when I'm leaving, I grab that trash bag
out of the kitchen trash can
and take it downstairs with me on the way out
and throw it in a can
off to work I go
or school or whatever
whatever they're doing, but
But there's plenty of plenty of outside area, you know, for, you know, trash containers.
It'll it'll obviously be commercial trash pickup.
No, no municipal trash service for this building.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands at this time, too.
Chair, I have one more question.
Sure, you can.
Do we have ADA access ability in there, Sean?
Yeah, yeah.
We have an elevator.
Can I answer that?
Go ahead.
So every building that we redo, we zone off two units for that,
and we offer those units to intellectual disability services, okay,
which means fully 100% A, handicap accessible,
and two of you are well aware of the handicap accessibility problems
in philadelphia then you know that the intellectual disabilities group is lacking wheelchair
accessibility units that's what two of those units are designed for i understand that so my only
question um was leading up to that was so if you're gonna if there's a possibility you have
a resident there that's in a wheelchair they have to roll all the way out to that trash dumpster
just to put trash out?
Well, it depends on where...
To the board members John's comments?
Well, it depends on where we depend
to put the trash dumpster out.
As we move forward and figure out
how the layout's going to go
and how it's going to work,
that's where the dumpster company
will get, you know,
they'll come out and say,
hey, can we get this in here
because we don't want to go in too far.
And that's usually how we work it out
based upon what the dumpster company.
But we don't have any other problems
anywhere else where we got...
in that area okay anyone in the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time too planning commission it's uh ryan bednar city planning
the property is uh currently indicated for medium industrial use on the city plan in 2017 it was
formerly down zone from a heavier industrial use. The proposed multifamily residential adaptive
reuse is consistent with current development patterns in the neighborhood. Therefore,
we recommend the request of variance be ready. Sean, I'm going to hold this till next Wednesday
at 2 p.m. I'm going to spend some time talking in the executive session. There was a lot of
questions. I just want to make sure everyone's comfortable where we are. Okay. So we'll vote
on this next week at 2 p.m.
Yeah, and if there's any suggested
provisos that we should consider
in advance, we'd be happy to hear.
I would do a better trash plan.
Thanks, Tanetta.
Thank you.