Yes, good morning.
Good morning. My name is David, D-A-V-I-D. I'm Eric Conner, A-M-E-R-I-K-A-N-E-R.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, Chair Bergen.
Could you put your video on, please?
Let me see if I can.
I just promoted him, Chair. He should be able to now.
Okay, thank you. I appreciate it.
You're welcome.
good morning sir good morning chairman okay so i'm going to have mr knox to present his case
Good morning, sir. Good morning, Jeremy. Okay.
and then we'll get to you after that okay okay um mr knoxen um a few questions from our vice chair
please good morning council have you emailed excuse me do you agree to weigh the reading
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits, five fees and events of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
So I'm here to present 2000 South Street. This is a property at the corner of 20th and South.
South and our property abuts properties on Cater Street.
During our presentation, we're going to review first a notice of refusal.
Then we did receive a letter of support from the coordinating RCO, South of South Neighborhood Association, better known as ASNA.
And we have other letters that we received both from community members as well as other RCOs.
Then we'll review the revised plans that we proposed so that if this board feels so inclined to grant our pending zoning appeal, they would do it by way of proviso.
We'll review maps of the area, photographs of the property and the surrounding area.
Our plans and drawings, which have been prepared by Nome architects and in the virtual audience is Gabriel Deck, one of the architects for Nome, who can answer any technical questions the board may have.
after that our rco meeting notice so we had two meetings with the community
the second meeting they took a vote and again in support of this project our application for
appeal that we filed on behalf of lh south llc the owner of the property and again in the virtual
audience is leonard hill its member and at the conclusion of my presentation i would ask that
Mr. Hill, virtually raise his hand. I'll have a few questions for him. And, you know, if he feels
so inclined to answer anything that the board may ask of him specifically, I would ask that he do
so. We have our deed to the property showing that LH South LLC is the owner of the property and our
certificate of tax clearance showing that LH South LLC is in good standing with respect to real
estate taxes. So our notice refusal is this. This is a CMX2 property. It's a rather large lot of
1,740 square feet. And what we're looking to do is demolish an existing building structure that's
completely shot. It's a three-story structure, commercial on the ground floor, residential
above. And what we're going to do is mimic almost the, well, what we proposed initially is to mimic
the building structure that's there by way of adding a new building structure,
creating a commercial space, which would be facing essentially the corner, well, not essentially,
but be facing the corner of 20th and South with an OB on South Street to help support that
commercial order, and to have residential units above, where the actual one to the side of us
on 20th Street were to be one residential unit, and then four above on the second and third
floors. So initially, we had a project where we had four refusals. We have eliminated two
and diminished another one. So the first refusal is, this is a CMX2 property, which allows for
multifamily use. Because of our lot size, we'll only allow three when we're asking for five.
We're proposing to have five one-bedroom apartments. So that's the focus, is the amount of
bedrooms. In actuality, if we had three units, we could have nine bedrooms. But we didn't think
it was appropriate. There's a need in the community for more diversity of housing to have
four residential units have more one-bedroom units, and that's where that need we're trying
to meet. In addition, as the board knows, we're close to the three to go from three to four,
but because of how the Philadelphia Zoning Code works, they always round down, not up.
So that's why we're short of the five-unit requirement. Originally, we were asking for
45 feet high. It was going to be a more interesting design in that the fourth floor would have had a
mezzanine level that was set back in all areas. The community did not appreciate that, including
the adjacent property owner behind us on Cater Street where, you know, she was concerned about
like her view of the city. So as a combination, we reduced
her view of the city. So as a combination, we reduced the height by 38 feet to a maximum of
38 feet. And we'll go over her letter that we received yesterday, where we've made additional
accommodations. And I have a statement that I was asked to read by her and her attorney,
who's present in the audience as well. The third refusal has to do with the maximum occupier area.
Because we're a corner property, we're allowed to have a maximum occupied area of 80%.
We're asking for 92.8%.
Again, because of accommodations we made with Mr. Emma Kanner's client yesterday, we've
reduced this variance by increasing the size of the rear yard setback to nine feet.
So in actuality, we're getting closer in conformance to the Philadelphia zoning code. And again, we are mimicking for all intents and purposes, the building footprint that's there in a lot of respects. Our rear yard setback on our current building structure is six feet.
That's why we had that last refusal of six feet. But because of Mr. Amick Hanner's client's concerns about the building structure to accommodate her, yesterday, we increased the rear yard setback to nine feet for all levels.
So if this board feels so inclined, I have a lot of provisos. And we discussed the mechanics of that with Ms. Emerson last night, just to make sure that we understand exactly how we should propose this project to the board. And if the board feels so inclined, we have provisos that are set out.
So, we've worked diligently not only with the community, but with nearby neighbors to make this a responsible project for the community. So, we do have a letter of support from SOSNA. And in there, they state that we work with them and the community in terms of modifying this project.
So it's a responsible project for the community and will be a valued asset to the community as well.
So, again, one of the things I want to make sure the board understands what you're seeing in terms of the revised plans is what the community saw with some minor modifications that we reviewed with Mr.
at McCanner beforehand, because I want to point out if there was any deviations from our drawings.
And because of those of our presentation from the community and our modifications, the community
supports this project as a whole, at least according to RCO. And we'd have additional
provisos in addition to the revised plans. And they are as follows. Trash stored in the residential
units, trash stored in the commercial unit, and the final one is commercial trash pickup.
So again, if this board feels so inclined to grant this project, it would be for revised plans,
which we're providing you today, trash stored in the residential unit, trash stored in the
commercial unit, commercial trash pickup. And then I have a few more provisos that, again,
And we negotiated with Mr. Amit Kanner's client last night.
And I just want to make sure that those additional improvisos are there.
And I'll discuss that a little later in my presentation after showing her a letter.
And then, you know, we also received a letter from North of Washington Coalition.
They gave conditional support.
Their concerns were as follows.
They were concerned about the affordability of this project, of the units as a whole.
That's not zoning related.
Again, what we're trying to do is meet the need within the community of having one-bedroom apartments here.
You know, having additional apartments, you know, conversely, would hopefully make them more affordable.
But, you know, we are not meeting the affordable housing guidelines of, you know, for PHFA.
but, you know, we are not disinclined to provide affordable units under PHA. And so my client has
thought of doing that. He has not made a decision whether or not he is going to do it, but he's not
going to prohibit that, you know, type of thought process during the construction phase of this
project. The second concern of North of Washington Coalition was, you know, they wanted us to work
collaboratively with the community we always work my clients always work collaboratively with the
community and we welcome the opportunity to you know sit down with the members of north of washington
and we welcome the opportunity to you know sit down with the members of north of washington
coalition and see how that can happen mr hill the member of of the of the property the corporate
property owner lives in the neighborhood so he's you know he's he's not like an outsider to this
community and finally their third concern was about local hiring uh in for this project you
know, Mr. Hill will hire anyone who's doing licensed, insured, and experienced. And, you know,
again, he would welcome the opportunity to know of contractors and professionals who can help
him along in this neighborhood with this endeavor to build his five-unit mixed-use building.
And then this is the letter that we received yesterday from Mr. Emmett Canter's client,
where she stated her, in spite of the community support,
she stated her opposition to the project generally.
And we did diligently work with her and her attorney.
And I was asked to read a statement
which shows how we have progressed this project
even more at her request.
We understand that the board received a letter of opposition
to the project variances on Monday of this week.
Signed by a number of neighbors of the property,
the applicant has worked in good faith
with members of the community
to respond to their concerns
and is today asking that two new provisos
be added to the proposed project
to respond to some of those concerns,
particularly concerns over the bulk
of the proposed building.
And these are the two provisos.
In your revised plans,
you will see that we propose to have
a height of 36 feet, eight inches to the roof line. Now we're asking for maximum 38 feet.
That was one of the concessions because what we're doing is our revised plans had a rear yard
setback of six feet on the first floor. And it was 10 feet rear yard setback on the second and
third force. Based on the compromise, we are agreeing to have a rear yard setback on all
levels of nine feet. So it would be rear yard setback of nine feet on all levels. And I'm
going to continue the statement. We believe that the revised plans with provisos is responsive
to at least some of the concerns raised by the neighbors.
and it's not out of character to have like again this rear yard setback issue and coverage issues
behind us on 2001 cater street this board granted similar variances regarding roof decks
or excuse me rear yard decks for this property so these type of things are not out of character
plus our building footprint is actually mimicking for this project what's there.
The only difference is like the side area, and we'll point that out as well.
And then these are our revised plans, the proviso form.
These are the things that are different from the original proposal.
Mezzanine level removed, so instead of 45 feet high, now we're going to be 38 feet.
Now, it does say building height reduced from 45 feet to 36 feet, 8 inches, because that's what the revised plan says. But I spoke to Ms. Emerson. We can agree, if the board agrees to grant this variance, that there could be language of 38 feet maximum height, and we'll deal with updating the revised plans after this hearing.
There will be a trash enclosure which is going to be removed in the rear yard because originally we were going to store trash in the rear yard.
And again, by way of proviso, we're agreeing to store garbage in the residential units and store garbage in the commercial unit itself.
And then proposed building entrance stairs reconfigured at 20th Street at the right of way.
Again, at the request of the community, we reoriented the staircase in the front.
While we're on the side, and then to, and I don't know if this is, you know, this is what we're going to do and it's on our site plan. I don't know how enforceable this is, but we have to propose street trees now included subject to street and parks and rec approval.
And then, finally, the 2 pilot houses have been altered because of this change in the mezzanine level as well.
And then this is all reflected on the revised site plan.
And then I just want to highlight this. This is our elevation as part of our zoning plan. You'll see right here, this is a.
get to that. This is our elevation of the new building. What Nomar Architecture did was
really helpful for me to understand and hopefully the ZBA to understand. There's these dots here
which shows what the elevation of the current building structure is. And as you can see here,
we really just mimicked what's currently there. So whatever issues with light and air,
are similar to what is for this proposed project
or similar to what currently exists for this property.
We did not try to impact anyone's light in there differently.
All right.
This is our zoning map of the area.
This is a CMX2 property.
Again, we're at the corner of 20th and South Street to cater one block south of us.
This is a commercial corridor.
The neighborhood appreciated the fact that we're going to have a prominent commercial unit here to add value to this commercial corridor.
And then this is our Google Maps perspective as well, which shows that this is a commercial corridor there.
And then photographs of the property.
this is the side of the property as you can see here there is an indentation on 20th street
we're filling out this indentation that's the really essentially the only difference
from the original proposal less than mezzanine level so we're filling in this in here
so again that's the only difference
And then this is South Street to the right of the property
South Street to the left of the property
South 20th Street to the right of the property
South 20th Street to the left of the property
And then these are our orange nose posters
Photographs showing that we have properly posted the property
On both sides of the street, both streets
and then these are our architectural plans and drawings our presentation that gnome architecture
put together and then you can see here of how we wanted to you know meet the the massing of
what's nearby so you can see that again we're trying to mimic the roof lines uh and we squared
off the build uh the commercial space the opening would be here it goes it goes back as far as here
And then you'll see from the floor plans, there's two residential entrances, one direct entrance for the first floor unit.
And then the second and third floor units have their separate entrance.
And then this is from the 20th Street side, as you can see.
And these are the two residential entrances.
This is for the first floor unit.
This is for every unit on the second and third floor.
And this is from a rear perspective of the building as well, that directory.
And it's just an aerial view. Again, we wanted to show you like this purposefully, my client set back those pilot houses so you couldn't even see them from the street.
And then this is just the type of materials we're going to use. One of the things that the community asked for, the architectural design committee for SOSNA, was a more profiled cornice line, which we did.
We have black standing seam metal for the bay windows.
We have brown-toned Norman brick throughout the exterior of the property otherwise.
And there's lighting, landscaping as well.
And then this is just a different rendering from what you can see South Street.
And then this is part of the presentation a lot that already we covered.
And then these are just the floor plans, pretty basic.
But this is the commercial space here that you enter on South Street.
That commercial space is approximately 1,500 square feet.
And then we have residential units, all one bedrooms here.
The first one is on the first floor at the rear of the property.
And then you have each, the second and third floors, each also have two residential units with a common staircase in the middle.