prefer to have it done as revised plans or simply as a proviso saying maximum
height 38 feet? I do believe we submitted the revised plans. You did and those are
fine I just I'm asking if you have a preference one way or the other. I don't
i'm asking if you have a preference one way or the other i don't have a preference whatever's
have a preference, whatever's easier.
easier for you guys if it's easier to do it as a proviso that would be fine and we would plan
to submit updated plans to l and i anyways whatever's easier on your end is fine okay
thank you yep um additionally as you can see some of the materials that we are using and sort of
as you can see the architect uh nicely incorporated a uh sort of a fence barrier
so that there was a little bit more safety and privacy and so that there was a little bit of a
nicer aesthetic separating the rear yards of these properties from sort of the back single
family homes. As you may be familiar with this site, there is an atlas. We sort of don't have
an illegally open street to um bring in sort of any traffic or egress or um any other means besides
east thompson street for parking considerations wilt street um isn't a legally open street um
and so we can't utilize that as street frontage so everything was sort of designed having east
thompson street um be the frontage of this property um agada do you want to go into more
detail on the floor plans um and then i can kind of go into the
the community considerations and take any questions from the board
what god are you there yes i'm yes can you hear me yeah i'm going to stop
sharing my screen so that you can share yours for the floor plans
it's what we're getting she's getting ready the the height of the carriage
house that would be maximum 38 feet as well correct the community didn't have an issue with
the carriage house that was actually their favorite part of this project was the carriage
house i think it kind of kept in character with the uniqueness of the neighborhood but um it was
mostly the the rear homes that presented more of the concern because of density because of the
lumped in with some of the concerns that they had with the Montgomery 5 now
that that project's under construction. So although, you know, we tried to
explain that we already, you know, initially we went in with six homes in
the back which had been reduced before we even got to the community in order to
try and provide a less dense site. However, any reduction from this point
with the rear homes would just result in larger homes that would be even more out of character
on this lot so five was kind of the middle ground um and it was kind of it's kind of hard to uh be
have an issue with density on the rear which is single family when you're okay with a duplex in
the front so we were just trying to to balance that out and height was one of the the other
more easily adjustable um you know features of the sites that that was sort of that in addition
to the fence, sort of the gate in the front, as well as issues with trash, which we plan
to have private commercial trash for this site.
What are the, what's the square footage of the rear five houses?
Agata, do you have that?
Yes, they, not including the cellar and the garage, they're about 2,300 square foot homes
with cellar and garage, they're about 3,100.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Rachel, should I go through the floor plan?
Yep, please, you do.
A couple items that I would like to emphasize on the homes at rear since the carriage house,
I will just briefly scan through since that was not so much of a board's concern,
is that the fourth floor is set back and also the pilot houses were eliminated from the proposal
as well as the parapet walls were also removed to diminish the impact on the adjacent homes.
Proposing the common driveway right in the middle pushed the buildings away from the homes that
they're directly facing Thompson Street to allow as much light and air and obstruct their view as
much as as little as possible. The homes they are backing into Will Street which as you can see
they're only they're not affecting anybody's light and air since these are
party walls on both of these properties right now this is an open area but shall
of these properties. Right now this is an open area but shall anybody erect a garage or
anybody erect
subdivide a lot if Will Street ever becomes a legally open street, we again will not be taking
away any light and air from that particular phase so we felt that that proposal was very responsible.
Layouts of single-family homes starting on the first floor, one-car garage with
den in the rear. This is access to Wilts Street, also ingress and egress. Shall anybody be
approaching it from that portion? Cellar, we're only proposing den, small bathroom. There's
also egress that leads directly into the public right away from the cellar. Second floor,
open floor plan with access to small deck. Third floor, two bedrooms, laundry room, small
office area, fourth floor, generous master suite with access to a roof deck that is not enclosed
with pilot house. This exhibit presents... Can you just zoom in a little bit?
It might be a little hard for the board to see. The exhibit that presents the condo building,
And again, our client would like for these units to be condos.
They are not apartments, so they're high-quality units.
Common Drive, they upgrade generous lobby entrance with stairway leading to the upstairs.
This unit will provide space for one car.
Upper floors, they're exactly the same.
layouts, generous kitchen, dining area, living area, three bedrooms. Each have
access to their own bathroom. Again, laundry room, very generous. They're high
quality units. This is our client we've been working together for many years and
his product is of superior quality.
Massing models, just zoom in a little bit. I'm sorry? Zoom in a little bit. I just
want to make sure it's, yeah. Thompson Street, Wilts Street, they are
rotated for multiple views, so I'll walk you through each view, but you can see
how far these five units are set back and and we really try to be respectful to what we are
proposing in the context that we are proposing it within. Thompson Street view from the other side,
this is the common driveway. This view shows Wilts Street and the rear of our buildings
with the access to roof decks. It's also the same view and here you can see where
how the building tapers back to allow more light and air and also I wanted to
point out that we are located to north of these properties so we are truly not
taking any of their light during today. We're basically north of them.
um i'm not sure if you would like us to go through the materials that they're selected
they're high quality materials bricks i don't think i don't think that'll be necessary yeah
um and also there is an alleyway um that is wrapping around the existing homes on thompson
street um our client will be proposing nice decorative fence with additional lighting to
make the alley a little bit more secure and more attractive and also defensing with living wall
elements will provide security from any of the headlights that might be affecting the
residents of the homes on Thompson Street. Do me a favor would you go back to the previous
exhibit the one that shows in yellow? Yes. Yeah all right right here as an example
uh looking at uh upper right the five houses uh going left to right of the going left to right
of the five houses there's a looks like a large building right here yeah what is that um so right
now this is a one story for most part with two story section in the back it's a warehouse that
most likely you will be seeing soon or you might have already seen they are
also looking for a variance to propose an office complex and I believe there is
actually proposed a further addition on this entire space with parking in the
front that is something that is going through variance at this time but that
but that is not for me to be disclosing their properties okay but you will be seeing that
is not for me to be disclosing their properties but you will be seeing that building
building it it appears to be a warehouse that's why i asked yes yes it is and if you would like
i have um actually an exhibit with photographs they'll give you a little bit more insight
No worries it's okay it's I can pull it up on the street view
you know what actually this one is right here
here's the building right here and the proposal was to um extend it okay thank you you're welcome
are there any questions uh mr chair as far as the floor plans are concerned and i would like
to just go into sort of the rco um meeting and letter i can bring up so that we can kind of
talk through the way that we've made adjustments sorry let me uh is any members of the board have
any questions at this time no okay i'm gonna please continue i got if you could um unshare
your screen so that i can share mine thank you you're welcome okay so i just want to bring up
the rco letter we met with the fishtown neighbors association we had two meetings with them a
preliminary meeting and then the full community meeting. Here's sort of their
concerns that were listed. The number of units being proposed in the RSA 5 lot,
they understood that the shape and size of the lot was a hardship. They did
mention that if we were able to subdivide it that we'd only be able to
get five units. However, that would just leave just the five homes in the back
with nothing in the front meeting the street level. A lot of their concerns
were around safety. So not having eyes on the street or something that directly is adjacent
to the existing structures, I don't believe would provide a more safe environment. So that's why we
kind of provided the carriage house in addition to the five homes. Again, we did look at reducing
the density, but we had already cut it down from six homes in the back to five. So again, given the
size of those homes already at 3,100 square feet with the basement included, we would have really
large sort of unsizable homes for that neighborhood um again if we were to do this completely by right
we would have one giant home on an 8 000 square foot lot again the other concern was the additional
height again as you can see we've reduced the height to 38 feet so that should eliminate that
concern um again the there was a concern about uh parking and the common driveway again there's an
existing curb cut that's been there it's been a there's been a drive aisle a lot of times you get
concerns about parking and so we were trying to provide a way to have parking and also have some
safety features with the gate in front which was something that we actually added on after the
first RCO meeting and we've discussed with them that we would be happy to you know have additional
conversations to make sure that it's a safe and secure environment the developer has no intention
of providing homes that are unsafe to anybody. Again, we don't have a refusal for parking,
but we are maximizing parking. I believe we have six spots. Is that right, Agata, six spots?
Yeah, okay. So again, a lot of the other concerns were about how was a traffic,
how was a fire truck going to get in Wilt Street?
that wasn't really anything that at the time we could address we just understood that as it exists
now there's no been no issues with any of the properties that are on will street having access
to or having fire trucks have access to them and again providing sort of this drive aisle
will make it so that the homes in the rear even more accessible than they would be without a drive
aisle as you can see they were concerned about some emergency scenarios again the front building
was really appreciated by the community and I feel like we have done a pretty
good job of addressing any of the other concerns although they did issue us a
letter in opposition I do believe that this is a project that makes sense given
the other projects that have been approved again the Montgomery 5 on the
back smaller lot smaller flagship and and sort of ours provides a little bit
more um density however um again it's me it's mainly because of the size and the shape of the
lot so um that's sort of our presentation happy to take any questions that the board has and i'm sure
there's um there may be other comments as well want to answer your client if they adopt your
Want to ask your client if they adopt your testimony?
testimony yep thank you um robert and ali
Yep, thank you.
Robert and Allie, have you heard my testimony, and do you adopt it as your own?
You just have to unmute.
You must unmute yourself.
Yes, we do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
anyone who wishes to testify in this case please raise your hand
here we have venice whitaker venice you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
hello ms whittaker hello good afternoon good morning good morning and please spell your name
first and last name for the record sure it is spelled v as in victor e n i s e last name
Whitaker, W-H-I-T-A-K-E-R. Your address? 1468 East Wilt Street, W-I-L-T Street, 19125.
Thank you. You swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Thank you, ma'am. Please proceed.
okay so um the community had came out for this zoom meeting um there was a lot of them and
everyone opposed this project because of it's too dense for the size of this lot we understand it's
a flag lot you can only build one house but the community asked for just one house on this lot
they voted no in addition there's a similar lot that is located in at 303 south 51st street in
West Philly that just had a denial of a permit for fire apparatus access. That lot is the same
as this lot that's being proposed in front of you all, this flag lot in Fishtown. There was a fire
last week on Little Welch Street, which is referred as the pig alley in Fishtown, that's
behind this project. The firefighters were unable to access that car fighter. They had to go through
people's alleyways to be able to and use a jump hose to put out the fire luckily that fire did
not spread to the new construction that's happening on the other flag lot the new construction on the
other flag lot was also appealed by the community twice in 2018 but eventually it was approved by
you all at the zba and the construction on that flag lot has been a menace to the neighbors
the construction vehicles have been unable to access it whatsoever so i am asking the zba
today to stand with the fishtown neighborhood association and vote absolutely no for this
request no exceptions thank you very much no exceptions meaning nothing more than one single
family home exactly that's what the neighborhood wants what else wish to testify in this case
here we have carrie carrie you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
hello carrie gallagher please spell your name first and last name and give us your address
my name is carrie gallagher c-a-r-e-y g-a-l-l-a-g-h-e-r i live at 623 east thompson
street which is directly next to this property we're in the firm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed um thank you um thank you for letting me
speak um i just want to second some of venice's comments we had a neighborhood um zoning committee
meeting that attracted over 80 people all of whom were aligned in opposition of this project
I live in the house directly next to the alley that's adjacent to 627.
There is no 625 on our block with my husband and two-year-old son, and I'm gravely concerned
regarding putting in a driveway for seven cars four feet away from our home that bisects
sidewalk where droves of kids of all ages walk to the Adair School which is
on Thompson just a block and a half away. We are also as you know across the
street from a middle school and high school Penn Treaty. The block is well