Thank you. Mr. Mancini, would you like to add to the testimony and presentation this afternoon?
Yes, briefly.
Thank you for allowing me the moment to state my professional opinion on this application.
As an architectural firm, I've worked in Philadelphia for many, many years,
and it has exposed me to many applications regarding Wall Street parking.
Unfortunately, when we have an application for all street parking, many times it seems that there's simply a reaction and there's not a consistent review or respectful review of what the application is and how it could benefit the neighborhood or the opposite.
In this particular case, I would like to state for the record as a professional that all the characteristics of this application is appropriate, well-planned, well-conceived, and also it's beneficial to the Kimball Street side.
it does add additional relief to the you know the ongoing parking problem and
in addition to what Adverna stated I wanted to add that the rear yard of this property
constitutes 42 percent of the property so there's 42 percent of open area this is not a confined
space. This is not a space that actually would be encumbering to the Kimball Street.
The requirement for spaces for open air is 25% in this district and this one has 42%.
And when I say it engages with the Kimball Street, there were comments at the Neighborhood
Association which were counter to what the result of the vote was. Some of the neighbors on Kimball
Street had mentioned that they want to engage and they want the property to have homes and
so that there's an engagement with the neighbor of the street onto the Kimball Street. This
actually does. By having the rear access to the property on Carpenter Street, it actually allows
the Carpenter Street neighbor to almost connect to the Kimball Street neighbor.
almost connect to the Kimball Street neighbors. So because it not only will provide an access for
So because it not only will provide...
the rear vehicle, which is ample space, but it will also allow the owner of the Carpenter Street
property to exit and enter, you know, by way of walking into their property and almost create
a rear entrance that engages Kimball Street. So that's exactly what I heard that the neighbors
wanted to do. In that respect, I think this application accomplishes a lot, and I say that
with my professional background, and I hope that this application is approved. Thank you.
Thank you. Who's your next one? I have one follow-up question for you.
In your opinion, is there a parking crisis in this particular pocket of this neighborhood?
absolutely thank you who's your next witness then my next witness is a dina shaheen expert
witness as a realtor she is uh joining us virtually she'll be coming back in as a panelist chair okay
dina good morning hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
diana shaheen d-e-a-n-n-a-h-s-h-a-h-e-e-n do you swear for him to tell the truth
told truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Counsel. Thank you. Deanna, could you please tell the
board what you do for a living and your credentials? I work for Compass. It's a
center city rural estate brokerage, and I've been a full-time realtor for seven years.
Thank you. And have you done any work in the Bella Vista area specifically around this
particular spot? Yes. Okay. And were you not a resident of this particular area just a little
more than a year ago? Yes. Thank you. In your professional opinion, will adding this parking
space be a net positive for the community as far as adjoining property valuation?
Yes. I mean, not only the subject property, but obviously the neighborhood as well,
specifically the neighbors on that street. Yes. So in your professional opinion,
the properties adjoining our particular property at 1012 will all enjoy an increase in valuation
as a result of this amenity. Is that right? Absolutely. I think it'll also attract for
families to be interested in that neighborhood as well. Is that a big deal to have the off-street
parking in the rear for families? Definitely. Okay. And you've taken a look at the plot plan
and the property itself in depth. Is this property, are there any unique physical conditions or
features to this property as it relates to the other properties on the block?
Yeah, you can see in the plot, it's only one of three that runs street by street to street,
but offers no parking or no structure for parking
or no, even the homes that were built behind it.
Understood. Thank you very much. I have nothing further.
Questions from the board. I have a question. Is there any
place on the street that has a sign that says no parking?
I don't know. We're saying that parking
is illegal, but is there any street markings
whatever it says no parking allowed in the street right there's there's two walkways and there's
that uh i showed you the video there's just that that 15 foot uh path for the for a car moving
forward that's it yeah but i don't think there's any no because the legality of the parking was
addressed i'm just wondering if the city is saying that the street is officially a street with no
parking that's correct the streets department has not sanctioned parking uh this particular
property is not zoned for parking there is no evidence of a use permit a variance or anything
else this is on cmx 2.5 and it was specifically leased for gardening not a de facto parking lot
what what does the street card say for the for the cart width the cart width and the in the
walkway width what what does it say what does what say i'm trying to understand if that's not a
defined um is it a defined pavement is it a defined where the folks where people are parking
so what is this what is the you know the street cart i could have mr mancini come back on since
he's he's the uh the member of the team that worked with the streets department it is part
of the walkway um but if you want to have mr mancini come back on you're happy to do that
But if you want to have Mr. Mancini come back on, you're going to do that.
You're going to see a portion of it is concrete sidewalk and another older portion is cobblestone.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. See that. But but there's also like a curb cut.
To answer your question, the cartway is seven foot five inches.
The sidewalk on our side of the street is six foot nine.
the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street at least adjacent directly across the street from
our property is one foot six okay there seems to be yes there's a very limited amount of a cartway
not cartway a limited amount of a sidewalk on directly across the street so it's one foot six
seven foot five for the cartway six foot nine for the sidewalk and the turning radius is 25 feet
24 plus or minus. Okay. And that's what the cut card says from the street.
That's right from the cartway into the property without jumping the adjacent curve or anything.
All right. And no parking is allowed on that block. Is that right, Mr. Mancini?
Well, it's only a cartway. So if someone decides to stop, they would essentially block the street.
Other questions from the board?
yeah given that so many of the neighbors seem to be concerned that this is now the only curb cut
on that side of the street what's going to be the plan with the fencing and the new curb cut
to sort of make sure that there's still accessibility and accessible path well we are
not uh encroaching on the sidewalk at all there's going to be some landscaping some lighting there's
also have asked mr mancini's shop to also put in some safety mirrors uh so there'll be absolutely
unlike the other side of the street there will be zero obstruction okay well let there will be
zero obstruction yeah to anybody walking on that sidewalk with the with the new fencing that opens
because it's like the bifold bifold is it folding into the property that's correct okay yep i think
one of the visuals had that but yeah it folds in it's not out it will nothing will encroach on the
phone and then for the turning radius i saw the turn in because it's a one-way street going in
one direction to get out of the parking space is it the same radius to back out
mr mancini raised his hand he'd like to answer that
yes we give that a little bit of thought this property can be entered front and back out with
the same radius or it could be entered uh like many of the parallel or or perpendicular parking
scenarios on the street of philadelphia where they actually back into the space
which seems to be safe for the safer option and then forward out of the space um
at both of the same turn turning radius to answer your question okay and i'm assuming that the
mirrors and the lighting are there to make sure that say they're trying to get in or out and it's
after dark and there's a person, say, exiting the gate from the garden, that they'd be able to see
a pedestrian on the other. Absolutely. And if I may, I would also like to add that this is not
a restrictive garage door when you have a restrictive entranceway. Vince, why don't you
wait until the lawyer asks you a question instead of just blurting out, okay? No, that's okay.
I was just going to say that we have had discussions also. There are these audible
sorts of warnings that you can also install on gates so that people who may be passing on the
sidewalk will hear them prior to the gate opening and while the car is going out. We've also talked
about putting that in there. We have no problem doing that as well. With that said, Mr. Mancini,
if you had something to add, please do. The only thing I wanted to add was regarding the visibility
of entrance and exit the entire 16 feet of the property is essentially open so
the the the line of sight extends out from you know the car 16 feet the you
know which is is is a lot better than having a garage door where the door is
maybe eight foot wide and you have a limited cone of vision questions from
our attorney not at this time mr chair okay how many people in the audience want to testify
okay so why don't we do this why don't we start coming up okay and each person has two minutes
and i and i see you have an awful lot of stuff in your hands
yep well why don't you give it to our attorney i haven't seen anything okay
could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
could you please state your name and spell for
good afternoon my name is ashley de caro um a-s-h-l-e-y-d-i-c-a-r-o right um do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do now ashley we have
your letter here each person here has your letter so why don't you um start your testimony sure i
I think I would like to start by going back to the intent of why we're here in the first place in terms of the overlay and what it's trying to prevent.
Our street is a very charming, very small, narrow street.
It only has one sidewalk. You heard testimony from the lawyer.
And it has zero curb cuts on that side of the street.
So there's one access point, and what we're trying to preserve here is the walkability and the charming nature of this street, and to prevent it from becoming an alley, one like Hall Street, which the attorney pointed out on the other side of the block.
So there's not a single curb cut on this side of Kimball Street, on this side of 11th Street, and the south side of Carpenter Street.
Zero curb cuts today.
um i wanted to share this drawing today because it really illustrates the context of this
particular proposed parking space um it is steps down from the bartasino park entrance
across the street from the belle arbor garden entrance and there's only sidewalk on the north
side so really this is impeding the only pedestrian access to both of those community assets
my husband is the commissioner of the local bocce league there my neighbors are all gardeners there
I am on the waiting list, but hopefully I will be there soon.
And during the summertime, more active months, there's constantly folks walking from the garden to the park, down our street, walking their dogs to very active, pedestrian, small, narrow, charming street.
I also wanted to share the other drawing that I created, which is really illustrating the character of that block.
All of us really love that garden environment.
It's why we moved into a block that has a community of garden across the street.
we all maintain small garden boxes and beds and it's a really lovely block and so adding a parking
space here is not about anything that he had mentioned it's really a detriment and the
walkability and the beautification of our block um lastly i'll just point out and i wrote this
in my letter that this is a terrible precedent to set as the lawyer stated each property on either
side of this particular parcel has the same parcel configuration so if you were allowed to
you are to allow a parking space on this particular parcel you're essentially allowing it for three
and that would really create the atmosphere that this is an alley and not the street that it is
today and I know that I am short on time but um I did want to address this kind of new argument
about the parking on the south side of the street there is no any funny business there um the the
garden parking has been there for decades it has never been legalized we did not know that
it is shared community parking. There is no assigned spots. It is just parallel parking on
our block. It is much safer than a perpendicular spot because you're backing into that particular
space. You're not turning into anything. So to argue that it's either dangerous or that we're
trying to preserve that parking is frankly ridiculous. We as neighbors are prepared to
legalize that parking. We did not know it was illegal. We learned of the lawsuit that they
slapped on the neighborhood gardens trust this morning um it's frankly upsetting and um we're
happy to come back before you as in support of legalizing that parking but really it's just
shared parking by the neighborhood nothing else all right thank you you have any questions or
i do ma'am are you a traffic engineer um i know i know you're a planner but are you a traffic
engineer you just said that the the tip-to-tail parking uh all the illegal parking on the south
side of the street is perfectly safe for kids and people who walk from the pocket park to the
garden. Are you a traffic engineer? I have degrees in landscape architecture and sustainable design.
I am a practicing city planner and urban designer at a private firm that does transportation
planning. So the answer is no. Okay. By the way, you said that there's lots of folks who activate
the pocket park and the garden and go back to and fro. How do they navigate? Let's take a look
at the photo that i have posted how do they navigate it with all those cars and i don't know
that she can see that right well here you go how do they navigate it with all those cars blocking
the entrance this literally blocked that car there is literally blocking the entrance to the garden
so that is actually my car oh there you go um it is parked there is a post there so it actually
does not block the gate it is parked next to the gate we saw a video that showed it blocking the
gate actually earlier today pull up other photos i'm happy to share where the garden gate my question
pull up other photos. I'm happy to share where the garden gate entry is. My question was,
was it actually if my client
if my client's safe, secure, completely within her own property line, one auto looking. Are you
done questioning her or you're just talking about it? Just asking how they navigate it. How do
little children navigate? One, the garden entrance is exactly where the dot is on the map that I
provided. You'll see cars parked right next to that. So that entrance is always left open for
the community. Folks walk on the sidewalk to get to either of those places. So he's pointing out
that the parcel line on the south side has cobblestone blocks. That's actually not a public
right-of-way. I think someone mentioned that the street measurement is one foot six inches.
If this were legalized in some way, I printed this. There's a parcel line that shows where
the parcel and for the gardeners. Okay. It could never be pedestrian access way anyway. Okay. So
you agree that the parking back there that you all enjoy is illegal, right? It's been there for
decades. I asked you, you agree that it's not zoned for parking. It's not a legal parking spot
a lot, is it? Well, I'm not an attorney that can speak to that. Okay. Well, she testified already
that they would get it. Well, I think she just testified. It's always been there. She,
yes yes okay all right next person please
hi good afternoon
could you please state your name and spell it for this stenographer oh sure my name is
allison mcmenneman it's a-l-i-s-o-n and mcmenneman is m-c-m-e-n-a-m-i-n right do
you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. I do. I see the
letter from you and your group. Why don't you start your testimony? Sure. So I, you know, agree
to keep it brief. Each of the neighbors were going to talk about one of those points that we
covered in our letter, but I'm going to focus on the idea of the kind of walkability and pedestrian
safety here. So Kimball Street, as we've gone over, is a very narrow street. It from curb to curb
measures seven foot two inches. It's the kind of street that people, often relatives, don't really
want to drive their car down. It's rather narrow, right? And, you know, there's only a sidewalk on
the north side of the street there. I worry about the proposed parking site being able to safely
make that turn. There are small children that live by, and as others have said, we have
Barnaschino Park and the Belle Arbor Garden right there. So it's a high traffic area used by the
community, and this is incongruous with that use. And just to speak to me personally, I'm worried
about my own property value with this, treating Kimball Street like an alley. It's a beautiful