There's a proposal for five units measuring between 486 and 496 square feet that will
be constructed within the new addition.
And then on the second floor, the existing structure will be a series of other residential
units measuring from 939 square feet. And then another
measuring from 939 square feet and then another inclusion of
eight additional units, I'm sorry, 11 additional units ranging from 515 to 494.
And then the third floor plan
includes again the open courtyard there's going to be no addition to the front historic structure
at the third floor level with the addition of these five units at the new addition
and then finally
the fourth floor this is where the prior proposal had five units measuring approximately 500 square
feet at the request of the neighborhood we consolidate those five units into two these
are measuring 871 square feet and these are these are both going to be two bedroom units
in addition to reducing the number of units and reducing the height
the neighborhood asked for us to increase the number of two bedroom units which we were
happy to do with this change to the plan. Moving to the second sheet in Exhibit 17.
Here we have just depictions that show the visibility of the new addition. And as you can
see from the perspective of someone standing on 6th Street, the new addition won't be visible at
From the perspective of someone across the street, there will be the top area, the addition
of approximately 20 feet will be visible.
And on the roof deck, the original proposal was to have an open roof deck area that one
the changes requested of the neighbors was that we reduced the availability of roof deck to just
a certain number of units. So a change was made to reduce the accessibility roof deck to just
the fourth floor units, those two fourth floor units. And we've also added some greenery that's
going to help soften the impact of the new addition on the Randolph Street neighbors,
which would be the neighbors whose backyards are abutting to this property and those properties
are right to the immediate east of this proposal. So to see how this proposal interacts with
the neighbors to the east I want to go back to the rendering.
so randolph street and actually let me go to exhibit 13 for some of the aerials
so randolph street is right where my cursor is here it's right to the west so the existing
structure of my client's property is right here where my cursor is and the rear yards of the
Randolph Street properties, a butt to my client's property.
And these original neighbors at the first hearing
did voice some concerns about the impact
of our proposal on their rear yards,
which as we went back, reduced the height,
and update our renderings,
we think we're able to come to a good, happy medium
that addressed the vast majority of concerns.
So for an individual walking down Randolph Street
and in the bottom left-hand corner of exhibit two,
where my cursor is right now, is a depiction of Randolph Street. The new addition is going to be
virtually unnoticeable to any individual walking down Randolph Street. Just the very tip of the
roof here with the green elements will be visible. And again, this is the upper left-hand corner is
a rendering on 6th Street showing that what is visible from 6th Street is only the top of the
roof tower. Now the structure has been reduced. And this is from a little further north on
6th Street, where you can see the access stair tower here, which will be visible. And then
from the rear yards of the Randolph Street property, they asked that we include as much
softening as possible. Originally, the proposal had been just for a solid surface wall. What
has been done is a number of things first of all we've added glass blocks to mimic windows here
these glass blocks are all fire rated they're not going to be something that can be open so they're
going to maintain the zoning code compliance without having windows on properties that are
windows on properties that are budding to additional properties, but they're going to
budding to additional properties.
create the appearance of windows. And it creates the appearance of just some more texture to the
property. And when we combine that with the green elements that we've installed to the roof areas
that will grow down along the corrugated metal exterior facade, it's all going to help to soften
the impact on the Randall Street properties. One of the questions the neighbors had at the meeting
on Monday night was how these green elements would be maintained. My client's going to hold
and maintain ownership of this property. These green elements are all accessible from the roof
deck. So my client and their maintenance crew will have full ability to keep and maintain the roof
deck and as well as the green elements of this property. And an additional effort to help just
soften the wall itself the corrugated metal exterior is going to be differentiated in color
just to to change the patterns as we move up this was also something that was well received by the
neighbors when we made our presentation on monday and it's a change that my clients were certainly
happy to make. Moving to Exhibit 10, the document history of these properties is fairly extensive
and we've included the prior approvals for the plumbing and the private clubs, the retail
furniture sales, the check cashing, the dance hall, the hot dog concession, and the plumbing
supply, all included within Exhibit 10. The intent in putting a proposal together that would gain
broad community support was really return this property to its grandeur, get rid of the undesirable
uses that have been existing for a number of years, and create a large commercial space that
have a good quality tenant along with some garden style loft style apartments that would be comfortable
living and also would be complementary to the historic structure itself the historical commission
and approving this certainly was grateful that we were able to take what is a very distinctive
property at the corner of six and gerrard street and return it to a historically appropriate
condition and we believe when you review the letter from the south kensington community
you're going to see that the fairly broad support and that would be of the total number of
individuals who came to the meeting 36 of 44 expressed for full support the community expresses
full support and we believe that's the right position to take for this property
so with that we do have our architect judy robinson available and i also before the end
presentation would like to have my clients adopt my testimony, but we're
available to answer any questions that the community or that the zoning board may have
on this project. So I think you've done a good job at explaining
the structure, and I don't think we need the architect. Why don't you adopt your
testimony with the owner? Is Mr. Samola available? If you could raise your hand.
Yeah, my hand's raised. Can you hear me? Yes.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please? Sure.
Matthew Samola, M-A-T-T-H-E-W, Samola, S-E-M-O-L-A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Good. Counsel?
Mr. Samola, you're a principal with 527 West Girard, LLC, correct?
Correct.
And have you been before the board during the entirety of my presentation this morning?
Yes, I have.
Did you hear my factual presentation to the board, my explanation of the plans and the various documents
included within our zoning packet yes and do you adopt my testimony as your own yes and do you agree
with all the statements i made to the board today yes all right thank you mr small questions from
the questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions from the virtual audience.
Chair, we have Oscar Bersert.
Mr. Bersert, you can mute yourself and wait for the chair.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for our court reporter?
Oscar Bersert, O-S-C-A-R, last name Bersert,
b as in boy e-i-s-e-r-t um i'm an architectural historian and um uh with the women okay do you
swear for them to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes okay proceed sir
I was just calling in to state my support for this project. It's an incredible balance of preservation and new development. The owner, the property owner, is taking a building that while rather, you know, had not been maintained really well over the years and sort of had seen, you know, maybe its worst, you know, treatment and taking it and turning it into the landmark that it should be as a former market house.
i was just uh calling in to state my support for this project it's an
Thank you so much.
Thank you for calling in, sir.
Any other comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have a Jessica Rodriguez.
Ms. Rodriguez, unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, I'm unmuted.
Just let me know when I can speak.
Yes, could you state your name and spell for the court's reporter?
Hi, my name is Jessica.
Oh, so Jessica, J-E-S-S-I-C-A.
and last name rodriguez r-o-d-r-i-g-u-e-z um do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth yes proceed thank you i'm the democratic committee person for
board 18 division 9 which represents this area there are several neighbors um we're opposed to
this there's several neighbors neighbors who are opposed to this who are near neighbors there are
concerns about the impact of parking and also the visibility of light onto the randolph street
neighbors um while we do appreciate the developers efforts to to actually um restore this this
marketplace this community has used this building for you know up until recently as a check cash in
place and and we would just like the community that exists to be included with especially with
the impact of parking and um visibility of light to neighbor to near neighbor's yards we have
several folks who have retained attorneys so we'll see what happens if you vote to proceed with this
so i just wanted to to comment on that thank you all right thank you very much for calling in
Any other comments from the virtual audience?
If I could just respond to Ms. Rodriguez's comments quickly.
In terms of parking, this certainly was something that one individual raised at the hearing on Monday evening.
And there are two important things to keep in mind.
This is an historic structure.
The entirety of the exterior is historically designated.
Any sort of parking would require us to destroy the exterior, at least in a limited way for parking, which is something that the Historical Commission would not support.
And it's something that would certainly endanger the historic fabric of this building itself.
Second, this property is located literally on the Girard Street trolley line.
This is a perfect example of a transit-oriented development with immediate access to public transportation that will take all the residents right into Center City.
So in addition to being right on a public transportation line intended for use by these residences, the extent of bike parking was included, including e-bike facilities to allow for non-car transportation uses at this property.
All these issues were at issue before the RCO, and I think the fact that they're supporting us today speaks volumes.
Thank you. Any other comments or statements from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have a Brett Cohen. Mr. Cohen, you unmute yourself on the way for the chair.
Thank you for recognizing me.
Could you do me a favor? Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Yes, my name is Brett Cohen, B-R-E-T-T-C-O-H-E-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Thank you.
Well, I just wanted to start.
In my opinion, there are a number of omissions and errors in what we heard from the attorney.
For example, he described this as a transit-oriented development because of the trolley.
This is absolutely not transit-oriented.
The trolley runs barely every 20 minutes.
He might be thinking of the L or the Broad Street Line.
And being within approximately two blocks of that. But this is nothing remotely close to being a transit oriented development. So just just so quickly. But in terms of my prepared question, you know, the some of the claims made about parking are not true.
parking certainly could be added to a project like this either this project or similar to this
we've seen similar ones in the neighborhood that involve lot consolidation to allow you know
We've seen similar ones in the neighborhood that involve lot consolidation to allow, you know, the purchase and consolidation of groaning properties.
In the example here, there's the rear of the project, which they're using to add additional units.
And units are the key thing here.
They are adding 40 units approximately.
I believe they said 38 or 37, but it's approximately 40 units.
Some of them will be two bedroom.
Currently, you can see there in depicted, there's parking for maybe eight or 10 or 12 spots.
They're also proposing a commercial use for the first floor.
So those 12 spots have to service that first floor, as well as the 40 residents, some of which are two bedrooms.
We know in our neighborhood about 50% of people have cars.
So, you know, there's going to be 30 to 40 cars additional if we just go by existing numbers.
So I just want to, you know, I appreciate the attention in terms of the historic aspect.
But, you know, the notion that this is all or nothing, that this is the only way this project could be done and that there could never be any parking, I think is simply not accurate.
Right. But the last point I wanted to make, and perhaps the most important point, is that this project falls on an RCO boundary.
So I live at Fifth and Girard. I'm a near neighbor. I'm basically at Fifth and Girard, a few houses down, but at Fifth and Girard.
And the RCO, of course, we heard from the South Kensington RCO, but really they only represent 50 percent of the neighbors.
The neighbors to the south in Northern Liberties may not have heard about this project.
When I posted about this earlier this morning at about 8.30 or 9 o'clock, we already had 10 comments from Northern Liberties neighbors.
The majority of them opposed to the project.
So what I would ask, and this is a key area where the zoning board of adjustment is so important and you have such an important role to play.
um you know you're here to help facilitate and coordinate cases where projects are falling along
boundaries therefore i would ask for a continuance um if i have the standing to do so or
certainly um if you have the power to do that but i would ask that there be a continuance
to allow the uh southern neighbors who a majority that i've spoken to are opposed and perhaps
strongly opposed to organize. I suspect that our political representatives would be sympathetic
and we would want to have the time to engage them. I did not receive a letter personally. I don't
know if I was supposed to, but I did not receive a letter about this project. I know sometimes the
mail is not so good, but especially for those of us to the South, we are not hearing direct
communication because many of us may not be on the South Kensington community partners mailing
list their email list so this you know essentially this may be news to everyone and then it might be
too late for us to weigh in so I know the zoning board of adjustment values community input and to
allow the community input for the half of the people impacted by this project just south of
Drard Avenue, I would humbly ask to allow for a continuance so that we can allow our neighbors
to organize and to weigh in properly. Thank you. Mr. Cohen, thank you. Thank you very much for
your comment, but we're going to continue with the case. Thank you very much. Is there any other
comments or statements from the virtual audience? Chair, we have Amanda Rosario. Ms. Rosario,
you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Yes. Can you hear me?
Yes. Could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Yes, sir. My name is Amanda Rosario, A-M-A-N-D-A, last name Rosario, R-O-S-A-R-I-O.