medium industrial to rm1 multi-family residential and again from 2020 in 2021 from rm1 to rsa5
in a community requested map change the proposed open area variance would be required regardless
of the if regardless of if the proposal were single or multi-family that variance is minor
and in keeping with the purpose and spirit of the zoning code however there is no unique physical
condition or circumstance of this property that were prevented from being used in conformance
with the use provisions in the RSA 5 zoning district so the city planning commission recommends
that the board grant the proposed dimensional variance but deny the proposed use variance for
dwelling units uh mr chair you go ahead just i appreciate mr effecta's input of course um
the property has been now rm1 longer than rsa5 uh and again if we were to build a single family
uh even at a modest 1500 square foot home we're we're touching 450 000 in cost thank you all right
My vote, yes, with proviso. Maximum 2 units.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ty Wynn, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
All right, number 15, MI 2026-002-485-1505, West Gerard Avenue.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
They're being promoted to panelists.
good morning good morning council could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
yes my name is zenjin z-h-e-n j-i-n here on behalf of the applicant do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do do you identify your client
the relationship to the property yes uh my client is 1505 west gerrard avenue lc they're the property
owners uh mr barry hoffman is here on behalf of the company all right i see there's a letter of
support from the rco united neighbors alliance our our board secretary has a few questions
uh good afternoon council have you submitted your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this
hearing yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do uh just to note the uh community letter might have just came to the board
that was not available 14 days ago okay okay um so you can uh share your screen and begin your
presentation thank you thank you i'm going to share with the board what was previously submitted
can the board see my exhibit before on their screen thank you so this is an application
for a property at 1505 west gerard avenue this is actually an rem4 zoned property one of the
key items that we're here before the board is the waiver of two parking spaces that are required due
to the number of residential units being proposed in this rm4 district to give the board a better
understanding of why we're seeking this this property was originally put forward with the
zoning and building department with a by right uh two off street parking design however we found out
my clients found out that the gerard avenue corridor is under the jurisdiction of the state
and dot refused to permit any curb cuts to be added at the location of our building as a result
we simply could not get those two spaces approved as originally proposed so instead my client had
to go back redesign and come back before the board to seek a variance for the two off-street spaces
to better understand the situation i think the photo of the area would be beneficial
we are located right here between existing buildings this is our posting as you can see
these are multi-family mostly multi-family structures on gerrard avenue that does not
have off-street parking on this side of the block there is a parking lot uh private parking lot
across the street but again when the curb cuts were applied for they were refused and therefore
we cannot get curb cuts for the garage that was originally proposed although the original garages
would have been approvable i believe the process started before the code started requiring that
the garages be accessed from the rear nonetheless at this point we're unable to put those two spaces
in and we alternatively my client proposes simply to have a building that does not have those two
front loaded parking spaces as a result of re using the space as something else we the proposal
was to simply make it into a unit which is still within the permitted unit count based on the lot
size. The layout of the building will be two units per floor, except for the upper floors
and the first floor and basement are bi-levels. So first floor would have a front and back unit,
which are bi-levels. That's unit one and two. There's a single entrance with an access hallway
that leads to stairways that will allow the residents to go to the higher level units using
the centralized stairway as you can see there's then two units front and back on the second floor
there will be third floor two units front and back and then fourth and fifth floor have
uh additional two units uh they are however laid out as uh bi-level units with the bedrooms on the
fifth floor uh and living space and kitchen uh on the uh the the kitchen and living space would be
The kitchen and living space would be on the lower floor on fourth floor.
on the lower floor.
So the total unit in the building will be eight units with only the top two units having access to the roof decks.
That would be part of the roof structure.
We met with the RCO and worked out conditions which we entered into a community benefits agreement directly with the RCO for.
The RCO does support our variance, primarily because they understand that those curb cuts will not be permitted.
They have asked for various items as part of the community benefits agreement,
which we separately entered into an agreement with these conditions already contractually with the RCO.
that is not attached with our exhibits here. But essentially, the RCO wants certain conditions
during construction to make sure that it doesn't negatively impact the area, or at least minimize
the impact of the construction, as well as work site, construction hours, roof deck limiting to
the top two floors, which is in our design, and agreeing to provide two of the units as
the 60% area median income units, which we will work with the community to provide, and
additionally, providing some contribution to the youth projects on the block.
So that is the agreement we entered into with the community as well.
So I would still state, though, that we do have a hardship here that was not created by the owners.
The inability to get the curb cut to do a two parking spaces off street and move forward with a by right plan that was not created by my clients.
This was just a circumstance of the location.
So, given that situation, we would ask for the board's favorable review of the two parking space variances that is being sought under this application.
I believe my client should be here to verify my testimony, and I'm happy to answer your question.
What's your client's name?
Mr. Hoffman, Barry Hoffman.
They're being promoted to panelists.
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Hoffman, Barry, can you unmute and turn on your camera if possible?
do we see mr hoffman i i see him he's still muted okay mr hoffman could you unmute please
zan could you uh you're an officer of the court could you try to answer the questions that the
board has i will thank you i'm going to put the exhibit back up yes um i think my primary question
is why you didn't consider doing the curb cutoff style street like every other property on that
block and accommodate the parking on the style street rear hello is this working the rest of
the properties on the block wait a minute here he is mr hoffman could you please state and spell
your name barry hoffman b-a-r-r-y-h-o-f-f-m-a-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes i do counsel do you want to have your testimony adopted
yes um mr hoffman did you uh see my presentation and hear my representation before the zoning board
yes um could you verify what i have represented to be true and correct and adopted as your own
testimony yes thank you uh there was a question that was just asked about access through style
Street for the parking spaces? Sorry, Flora Street. Oh, Flora Street. Was that discussed
with your architect as an option to potentially put parking? So we don't have any access to that
street. Our property is only fronted on Girard Avenue. Behind us is a totally different property,
different ownership. So your property does not run all the way to Flora Street? Correct.
And then I just then want to understand the eight units.
the eight units just it seems like for this to not run the full depth of the street this feels
It just, it seems like for this, they're not.
like a very dense property the units are really small um what's the justification for the eight
units yeah you whip through you work through the plans kind of quickly so we can just pull them up
so we can see yeah i i did put them back up uh let me go ahead and go back down to the
this is this is the building facade layout and this is the uh first floor basement plan I'm
going to zoom in so so uh Barry the when when this was originally proposed that was uh already uh
seven units plus the two parking spaces correct correct and was the layout simply changed because
the parking spaces are now revised to a single unit so we our original proposal was by right
meaning you were allowed to put the seven units that we put there um when we had the parking as
part of the proposal um it was taking up that whole front space and we weren't excavating the
basement at all. So by adding this unit, we're actually not adding any more space to what we're
allowed to do by right. We're just taking out those two parking spots and putting in another
unit. So one of the questions from the board was the unit themselves seems to be relatively small.
Did you guys do some investigation into what the area needs were before you decided on these
layouts for the units yes we did we spoke to the the rco and they made it clear that there are
seniors in the neighborhood that would like um you know would like these units and we figured
that having the smaller you know mostly one mostly two bed units versus three or four bed units
would greatly benefit the neighborhood um and again we we went with what we're allowed to do
by right. Ideally, we would have liked to save all the time, you know, not have to go in front
of the ZBA by being allowed to build those seven units by right with the two parking spots.
Unfortunately, because of PennDOT, we were not able to get that curb cut approved.
So understanding that this is now your intention is that this is going to be a senior building.
this is a lot of stairs for a senior building units that have stairs within the unit
there's stairs to get to the unit this is no no let me let me correct my my previous statement
not that the whole building is going to be for seniors but we did speak to the rco and they
did mention that they would like seniors put in there and we came to an agreement with them and
said yes we're going to work with them first to first try to find some seniors possibly for the
first unit, for the second unit, the ground floor units, and then the rest of the building,
obviously, you know, be rented out to market or, you know, whatever, whatever comes up.
Okay. And so to be clear, the basement and the first floor are both bi-level units. And then
the second, third and fourth floor each have two single floor units above. So second and third
floor each has two single units and fourth and fifth floor is bi-level as well. So those units
up by level on the fourth and fifth floor the fifth floor so there's four floors in a basement
i thought there's no it's five floors it's five floors got it yeah i'm sorry uh here's plan for
fourth and actually there's then the plan for fifth and roof yeah you keep going so quickly
past the please zoom through and zoom out so we can see them yeah let me let me uh let me do that
my apologies um trying to get the right zoom here without and then do you know
where the height of your building lines up with the buildings on either side
i don't know offhand i do know that we we kept it within the height limitations that we were allowed
um we did not i understand that you were building what was by right but there's still existing
context on that street so i just i'm just trying to understand where your building falls
compared to the four-story building and the three-story building on either side of you
so the building to our right um is a very tall i would say i would call it four-story but it's
a basin plus three stories um that goes up very high and the rest of the the block as well if you
look um what i did not let you know is that i lived at 1509 to 1511 for five years in the
building so i actually know this site very very very well which is part of why i'm asking
part of why I'm asking because when 1509 to 11 which is the highest and the
because when 1509 to 11 which is the highest
densest block on building on the block was built it was built very specifically
not to be higher and tower over the other buildings on that block it also
did not have an accessible roof deck and so here this building is now coming with
five stories and two pilot houses I think it's going to end up now being
likely the highest building on this block. And I'm wondering if you guys have done any analysis
with the architect to understand where it falls in line with the rest of the facade frontage of
the street. Yeah. So the floors that we're building are not terribly tall floors. They're,
I would say nine foot ceilings or 10 foot ceilings max. It's not going to be, you know,
too high as compared to the rest of the buildings in addition the the the roof deck we discussed
with the rco they did bring up the the roof deck and we made it clear to them that it's not going
to be a communal roof deck it's just for the top two tenants they have private entrances to those
roof decks and it will not it will not disturb the neighborhood okay and then then can you what is
the height of the i'm trying to zoom into that section now um let me get the elevation
it's looking like it's 59 56 actually it's 56 too
um to the rooftop is 51 and then if you add in the pilot house i believe it's 56.
it's 59 59 1 4 plus 8 4 which is 59 8 which is almost 60 for you okay other questions well just
i think i think it's you know it's just sort of going back to the context um you've got these
beautiful buildings right next to this this new property going in and there doesn't seem to be
any many characteristics that relate to those sort of beautiful victorian um you know tall
some brownstones brick brownstone buildings and it's just it's a it's a missed opportunity
we definitely can keep it within the character i mean if you look at the building two to the left
um it's it's brown with the black um acp cladding we can definitely keep it to that character
um and i think would fit in the neighborhood beautifully well i don't know i don't know
about the one next to the one next to the one next to you yeah meaning the only the only sort
of modern out of place building on the block as opposed to the sort of victorian era uh brick and
brownstone buildings ornate no i don't think so and it's why it was recessed because that is the
building out of it so that's so it was recessed for that reason in in addition we can again the
the facade is not set in stone we can definitely cater to the you know the brownstone the the old
style um we're definitely okay with that we've done buildings like that in the past um and we're
and it's beautiful so we're yeah we're very much okay doing that yeah just considering exactly
where you are between two right next to you and one right next to you i think that's the that's
that's your where you should be looking for your inspiration for the most part not the
the the other building that sort of looks like a school house that was you know understood 70s
understood i think the other question i have is what's your plan for your egress wells i see that
you know there's usage in the basement they weren't necessarily notated on the plan but is
is it to just do the like semicircle access in the front sidewalk it's it's regularly the standard
egress wells what's you know the um it can be it really depends how high we're coming up but yeah
it's it's a square or a circle no i the on the on the bottom yeah i mean we should know it's on
this plan how high you're coming up out of the ground um so it looks like it's a gonna be a
three by three um with a flash those are gonna be very dark right this is a long skinny building um
um but okay i have no further there's also um if you see the shape of the building how it's
has an l on each side that also gives opportunity for for light to come in through there as well
so you're talking about these two spaces here that's correct from the top correct
questions from our attorney no questions at this time mr. chairman comments from the virtual audience
no questions at this time mr chairman comments from the virtual audience no hands at this time
no hand
chair thank you chairman and good afternoon david vector with the city planning commission
chairman of board members the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location
from rm4 to rm1 residential multi-family the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2017 in a community
requested map change the appellant requests relief from the parking requirements in the zoning code