one of the uh board members from the community had brought up that he found that it was slightly
odd that we're getting it done tomorrow we have our meeting today but there was nothing nefarious
in that we acted in best interest and best scope uh i only really accommodate that sir
no disrespect to anybody i only raised the issue about a structural engineer because the
the developer went ahead and did something beyond the scope of what the
permit is. And we don't know if that,
if that third floor edition was done,
it was built according to code. We don't know that. It's possible.
It won't have to be demolished. Right.
It's possible a structural engineer engineer will say it meets the code.
Yeah. We're flying blind. We don't know.
so does that work um albert petra and um you know kurt and um peter is that would would you be
comfortable if i asked the board to hold it for two weeks so that we could get the engineer's
report and then that way we can disseminate it to both the board and the community group and
that way we can all feel kind of more confident on how to move forward this is peter yeah i think
that's a good idea that way hopefully we'll have the engineer report ready okay i'm in agreeance
at least that that'll close the loop on whether it's built safely or not okay and absolutely okay
we don't have the availability for two weeks we've already put other cases on what's the earliest
30 days well we could um we have a special on the 17th if you want to just list that along with the
special. All right, we can do that. Thank you. I appreciate that, Tanya. Thank you guys very much.
Thank you guys very much.
Thank you, Chairman. Okay, everyone, in this case, Calendon.
Thank you, Chairman.
Okay, everyone, in this case, calendar number 38991, 1836 Wilder Street is being continued to September 17th, 930 a.m.?
10 a.m.
10 a.m.
10 a.m.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you.
Thank you, Rachel.
Thank you, Mr. DiCicco.
Thank you.
Have a good day, sir.
Calendar number.
Sorry.
I'm sorry we had had hands up for continuances still so we continued it no disrespect to those
folks I mean no for uh oh I'm sorry we had asked for continuances so we still have a hand up
um Badita you can speak to the continuance request
you can put your name on record
ma'am please spell your name for the record give us your address
do you have two devices
can you you have two devices you can't have both on at the same time okay now can you hear me now
yes okay Bericha Cadillo B-E-D-I-T-Z-A Cadillo C-A-T-I-L-L-O 3675 Frankfurt Avenue Philadelphia
PA 19134 um I'm going to interrupt one minute this is Sharon Saleta the um applicant will have
to speak for themselves uh one of the applicants is online which is the applicant for 812 East
chile street then they will have to speak um perfect uh
decade was already continued yes and let me explain that the exhibits for this were submitted
i believe on monday afternoon by which point the continuance list had already gone out
Okay, perfect. No problem. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Hey, that's all I had here. Go forward.
Thank you.
Calendar number 39643, 53 North 52nd Street.
good afternoon members of the board
good afternoon sir you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
uh yes i do and uh i think you was already sworn in is that correct
uh on the two o'clock list i believe okay you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
hold true for nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Thank you. Good afternoon again, Mr. Chairman
and members of the board. My name is Steve Bertil from Claire, B-E-R-T-I-L, from Claire,
Harrison, Harvey, and Brandsburg. I'm here on behalf of the applicant owners and project leads
for 53 to 59 north 52nd street um what you're still under mr batel you're still under oath
i'm sorry you're still under oath from this from earlier okay great thank you um i i'm here on as
i was saying i was here i'm here on behalf of the applicants uh owners and project leads for 53 to
59 north 52nd street um kayib smith guy lauren i also have with me here just in case um there's
any questions regarding design our architects from sky design studio yao chang wang uh
and ying yuan chen um i believe there's also we also have some members of community that want to
testify on to why they support this project. Before I get into, if the board will allow
me, before I get into the specific variance request, I believe that there may have been
some letter requests submitted for continuance, which we are opposed to, and I would like
and I would like the opportunity just to provide a procedural timeline of this matter to outline
the opportunity just to provide a procedural timeline of this matter.
why we would want to ensure that we're going forward today and that we can hopefully obtain
the decision on this matter today. Just a sense of procedural background and context, this matter
is pursuant to a notice of refusal that was issued by L&I back in December of 2019.
We submitted an appeal for accelerated review in January of 2020.
I believe it was January 13th.
At that time, a hearing was scheduled on March 18th, 2020 to appear before the board.
upon receiving the day of the hearing, we were in correspondence with the coordinating RCO.
Unfortunately, we could not reach a time to have a community meeting before that,
so we submitted a request for continuance. At that time, the request was for hopefully 30 to 60 days.
Unfortunately, as we all know, on this call, the pandemic and the city shut down,
and obviously the board shut down made that not to be able uh not possible um as such the next
hearing was scheduled on this matter for july 15th 2020 prior to that we held a rco meeting
on june 10th 2020 with the coordinating rco which uh is achievability for this property
these properties. At that hearing, there were 33 participants. At that time, the highest amount
to date for virtual RCO meetings for me. There were 21 votes counted. 62% of those votes voted
yes in support of this project. 24% voted yes for changes, and 14% voted no. Subsequent to that July,
I'm sorry, subsequent to that June 10th RCO meeting, we were contacted by Councilwoman Gaultier's office in the coordinating RCO, stating that community members were reaching out, stating that they weren't aware of the meeting that was held on June 10th.
At that time, we agreed, I mean, one, to show we're engaging in good faith, but also to make sure that we satisfy all the notice requirements because we understood it was like early in the time of virtual Zoom meetings for RCO meetings.
So at that time, we submitted another request to the ZBA to continue the scheduled July 15th hearing
so that we can hold a second community meeting to make sure the people that felt that they weren't aware
or who weren't aware, not felt, but who weren't aware could attend that meeting.
We submitted a request for a 30-day continuance.
That wasn't able to happen because of the backlog of the cases, obviously, and so therefore the next hearing that was able to be scheduled was today, September 1st.
Before this hearing, we had a second RCO meeting. At this meeting, there were 55 participants surpassing the prior meeting and 37 votes counted.
Of those 37 votes counted, 41% voted yes in support of this project, 27% voted yes with changes, and 27% voted no.
Between the two meetings combined, there were a total of 58 votes counted, 48% of those votes voted yes to this project, 26% voted yes with changes, and 26% voted no.
Subsequent to the second RCO meeting, we were contacted by Councilwoman Garcia's office in the
coordinating RCO stating that they wanted to discuss additional concerns or questions that
they had about the project that was presented. We held a meeting with the RCO leadership that was
organized by the councilwoman's office. At that meeting, the leadership and the attendees of that
meeting requested a community benefits agreement. And at the conclusion of that meeting,
it was agreed that the RCOs would send us proposed items that they want in a community
benefits agreement that we review and let them know if that's something we can or can't do,
depending on items um we receive them uh on august 20th we reviewed them and then we
On August 20th, we reviewed them, and then we responded with our responses of what we can do, what we can agree to, and what we can't agree to.
And then it's my understanding that yesterday afternoon there was letters sent by the RCOs
and possibly maybe someone will be making a comment after my presentation that they
want to continue this matter further to discuss one of the items that we did not agree to.
um i can either at the board's discretion go into um what i think is at issue in terms of why they
want their why some people want to continue with pursuant to the letters um or i can go through
with my normal presentation and then address that at the end if those comments come up
would you uh you can move forward with that move forward with the presentation or do you
Okay. So as I stated, we're here for, and I'm going to share my screen now. Are you
able to see my screen? Okay. As I stated, I'm here on behalf of the owners and project
leads for 53 to 59 North 52nd Street. We are here to request a variance approval for the
relocation of lot lines to create one lot from four existing parcels and for the new
construction of an attached five-story structure for use as a commercial space on the first floor
and cellar and use as a business and professional offices to be utilized as an entrepreneurship hub
on the first to fifth floor. So I'm going to just scroll to give you a sense of the current
condition the property this is the property that i'm speaking speak referring to if you can see
my mouse um it sits on 52nd street between uh arch street to the north and market street to
the south it is currently zoned a cmx2 um commercial mixed use uh and it is currently
for vacant lots. The property is sandwiched in between a vacant structure on the right
of it if you're facing the frontage and a neighborhood corner store or small market
on the corner of Arch and Market Street. Here are just some photos of the existing properties
showing that there are that's currently vacant another photo looking down from
Art Street that's a photo looking up from art I'm sorry looking up from market or
with your back to market I should say this is just a photograph of the
notifications posted on the property for the ZBA hearing for both scheduled ZBA hearings for this
for the hearing we're having today and the previous one that was originally scheduled for July 15.
And now I'll go into the proposed project.
So as I stated, let's zoom out here so you can see that better. As I stated, we're seeking the consolidation of four parcels into one lot to accommodate the proposed structure, but that's actually not why we're before the board. We'll get into the refusals in a second.
The proposed structure, as I said, is a five-story structure with a courtyard for use as commercial space on the first floor in the cellar, and the business and office spaces for use as a co-working entrepreneurship hub on the first through first floor.
So as you can see from here, this is frontage on 52nd Street. Up here would be Arch, and Market would be to the south.
You get a sense of the elevation the property the build the proposed height of the building is
is 55 feet the proposed lot area after the consolidation the lot area will be 7,232 square
55 feet the
proposed lot area
feet and the building footprint would be 5,216 square feet even the courtyard of 1,920 square
feet um excuse me the due to the court we meet the open air requirement for this property but
there are additional um refusals that are related to that that i would get into in a second um just
to give you a sense of the floor plan up here is what the first floor looked like as i said this
is facing 52nd street and the entrance would be this is the commercial space and then this
entrance over here would be to the co-working entrepreneurship hub that we have planned for
this project the the floors from three to five are identical as you can see there's meeting spaces
office spaces, individual cubicles, things of that nature that make collaborative meetings
and collaborative endeavors possible and the spaces to reflect that.
So you get a sense of the rendering.
Let's zoom in again.
Here's a rendering of what's envisioned for the property looking down from Arch Street.
um as you can see it's uh from from 52nd street we are feeling the entire lot um as you know from
the aerial of the building that we do have a considerable amount of open space um that will
be utilized as a courtyard looking up from market street this is just another view of it within the
context of the street. And here's just a view of like a frontage of it on its own.
So in terms of the refusal and the required relief, let me just scroll back up to the notice of
refusal. So the maximum height on the zoning district is 38 feet. We're proposing a 55
foot structure after we consolidate all the lots. I will have the project lead get in
specifics of why this is why this is something that's important for the project in our sort of
vision for the for the project i'll just say now that in terms of a co-working or collaborative
space needs to be big enough to attract users occupants and entrepreneurs to create an energy
needed to thrive we're also envisioning support groups participating and they need that space as
well. The building, in our eyes, needs to be bold and iconic in design, so it shows confidence and
pride into going into the future. We believe that the building size is essential to what we're
trying to accomplish here with this entrepreneurship hub. In addition to the height, we have a refusal
regarding the rear yard. Under the zoning designation, a rear yard of 11 feet, 11.3 feet
is required um technically there's zero square feet or proposed yard we actually have more um
than the required open space for the lot we just wanted to we wanted to design it in uh in the more
of a courtyard for the building that is more amenable to inside outside programming than just
a backyard so as i showed you before a little bit earlier
There's a considerable amount of room space here.
We just elected not to move it back to the property line behind the building, which would just be, I guess, a rectangle building with a backyard.
We wanted to make it a courtyard area that's accessible on multiple points of the building and, as I said, is more amenable inside-outside programming and an amenity for potential entrepreneurs or businesses utilizing this space.
In terms of additional support, we have letters of support from business owners, community members, local nonprofits, and local property neighbors.
In fact, I believe some of those individuals are here to testify and support today.
Per the 2035 plan, the top planning, one of the top, or some of the top planning issues,
Per the 2035 plan, the top planning, one of the top, or some of the top planning issues for the West District is the high vacancy rate of parcels and how that contributes to crime or other problems.
Additionally, they list in the 2035 plan for the West District that commercial corridors are generally underperforming in comparison to the rest of the city.
and essentially this means that residents have to travel further to get anything that they need
or obtain services or quality projects.
Some of the key initiatives in the 2035 plan is encouraging development around transit
and concentrating on strengthening the commercial corridor.
It is our belief that this project hits both of those markers as the 52nd Street Terminal
and train stop on the market uh frankfurt line is literally literally at the top of this block
and also it's we are currently re using the space that's currently vacant and not being utilized for
any uh to the property um so before i go on i would like to call i'm going to have um
Both Guy Lahren and Tyeeb Smith, I'm going to ask them to raise their hand.
First, I'm going to ask Guy Lahren to raise his hand so he can adopt and affirm my testimony
as the principal of the ownership group.
But then I would also, after that, I would like to call Tyeeb Smith as the project lead
and the main driver to discuss the vision for the project.
Yes, this is Guy Lahren.
I please identify yourselves by your name for the record Guy Lahren l-a-r-e-n
I swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
I do please proceed thank you Mr. Chair uh Mr. Lahren have you heard
my testimony and the statements I made uh this afternoon in this entirety
yes do you affirm and i affirm what you said great and do you adopt it as your own
yes i do thank you and at this time before i move on to uh mr smith is there anything that
you would like to add or state to the board uh i just that we're we're very proud of this project
We think it hits most of the requests of the community in terms of black-owned partnership on 52nd Street, an entrepreneurial hub that should help the young people find employment.