okay he said he was but i'll i will do it again
mr richardson
okay now you can hear me yeah state your name please and spell for the court reporter
Yes, Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall.
Right.
Do you swear to affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, sir.
Yes, I just forwarded, there was a letter that was produced by Allegheny West in support of the project back in September, sometime in early September.
I just forwarded that to Hillary, Tanya, and to the board.
Thank you, Mr. Richardson.
No problem.
Also, you're included on that also, Vern.
And the councilwoman has no opposition to granting the variance.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else in the virtual audience have a comment?
Planning commission.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
This is Jason and I have them back.
I thought there was a hand raised from a number ending in three, five.
Okay, sure.
no hands all right thank you uh mr chair ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning
commission that's spelled h-e-g-a-r-t-y right you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes sir i do appreciate thank you good morning board members uh the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing industrial zoning at this site however
the proposed use conforms to the documented existing configuration of the structure as shown in the
photos city planning commission recommends that the board grant this variance thank you mi 2021
004464 2035 west toronto street i vote yes thomas tallman my vote is yes
ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you council thank you all right number five mi 2021
221-002-632, 1444 South 52nd Street. Steve Masters is the attorney. Letter of support from
the 51st Ward, Democrats, RCO. Mr. Chair, Mr. Steve Masters has been promoted to panelists, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Masters. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
good morning mr chair members of the board my name is steve masters s-t-e-v-e m-a-s-t-e-r-s with
the law firm of just laws right do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth i do could you identify your client and relationship to the property um sure we
represent the property owner michael um negoro thank you our uh our board secretary has a few
questions okay good morning mr masters how are you good morning you agree to weigh the reading
of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy um i do did you email all the exhibits and documents
as required such as the proof of ownership tax clearance copy of refusal or referral pictures or
drawings of the property five days in advance of this hearing yes did you meet with the rto
do you have a letter yes we did submit all of our exhibits um in a timely way and we had
a a productive meeting with the rco and a letter of support from them okay thank you uh please
proceed and share your screen yes uh mr chair can you see my screen at this point it's fine yep okay
wonderful all right so uh this property is currently a vacant lot on the 1400 block of
south 52nd street it's surrounded by many triplex and duplex apartment buildings on that block in
fact as we'll show you shortly there are nine properties on this block all but two of them
are multi-family or mixed use we are proposing to construct a three-story residential building
with three apartments and one roof deck on the lot and the only refusal that we received is
a use refusal because this is a single-family zoned RSA-5 and we are proposing a triplex.
When we met with the RCO, we received a letter of support from them. They reported that
all of the members of attendance were in support of this project and
all of the RCOs that were present were also in support. We also have petitions signed by 20,
I believe it's 25 near residents in support of the project. The plans, here we go,
So, this is the site plan here.
So, we have the street here, South 52nd Street, and we are taking up most of the lot, but we do
have um the required rear yard and side yards um that that the code requires
and these are our floor plans
second floor plan we have two bedrooms living room kitchen and bath and the
third floor we have two bedrooms similar to the second floor and then the roof
deck and a pilothouse to top it off. This is our elevations.
this is the front elevation and to the right is the saw as the rear elevation
and then we have photos this is the lot itself
The structure to the left here is a triplex and the only two single families are located
right to the right there.
Those are legacy single families from constructed quite a long time ago.
our zoning poster photos this chart is we prepared a chart that basically compares
whoops the status of all of the of the buildings on this block in yellow are the triplexes in blue
is the duplex. So the first property and the last property are the corner lots, and those are
zone CMX2. All of the other lots in between are zone single-family RSA5, but you'll see that
in 2020, 1436 South 52nd was approved for a triplex. In 1950, 1438 was approved for a duplex.
These two in 1440 and 1442 are originally and remain single family.
This is our property, 1444, as the proposed triplex.
And then next to it are two triplexes.
One was granted by this board in 2021 and one was granted in 2022.
And then finally at the end, the other corner, there's another mixed use of a takeout restaurant and an apartment on the first floor.
we also included in our exhibit binder the proof of all of these multi-family
permits that were granted by the zoning board over the years
this is our tax clearance
And the application for the appeal, project information form, and our RCO letter, proof of mailing, and the addresses that we sent the mailing to.
So at this point, I'm happy to answer any questions.
Do you want to have your testimony adopted?
Can we have my client be – our client is an LLC, Pearl Holdings, LLC.
So, Michael, can you raise your hand so you can be acknowledged?
Mr. Garano has been allowed to speak.
Thank you.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
My name is Michael Garano, M-I-C-H-A-E-L.
Last name is N-G-O-R-O-R-A-N-O.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Michael, you've heard my testimony before the board today.
Do you agree with it, and do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, I do.
Questions from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Masters, I'm not sure if you went out, but is there a basement in this apartment?
Yes, there is a basement.
I'll come back up to the plans.
All right.
this is the basement plan over to the left okay and there will be a rear exit right yes you can
see um there are um there's an egress in the in the rear of that bedroom and there's also an
an egress in the front correct so i guess my only question is because the property will not be
buttoned up against the property to the right um will you have a uh at least walkway between
properties. I believe I do have an architect here that can answer that question. Michael,
who is here for us as a architect today? Yeah, actually, I believe the architect had to go and
he went out of the country, had an emergency. Oh, but yeah, I'd sent an email, but I can answer
questions in reference to there are actually two egresses in the back if you notice near the the
other bedroom there's another egress so there's a window well and then that where the steps are is
Proof of ownership and tax clearance, copy of refusal or referral, pictures of or drones of the property five days in advance of this hearing.
And did you meet with the RCO? Do you have a letter?
Thank you so much. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Can we maybe promote my paralegal, please? Christine Schlosser. She should be on here.
you're going to work the screens for you yes okay sure
mr chair she's been promoted all right thank you and counsel you'll be the one testifying
from the screens right yes okay thank you yes please thank you uh okay uh can you uh share the
screen, please, Christine. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm not that good with this. But anyway, the property
is 4331 Lancaster Avenue, and it's parcel C because the properties were, there were two
properties, 4331 and 4333, and they were consolidated into one property. The properties
were used for commercial use many years ago. They've been vacant for at least 10 years.
And the proposal that my client has, can we move forward a little bit here? And I'll just
go through the documents quickly.
We do have the deed of consolidation
that we have given you.
There's the notice of refusal, which
is the application for appeal and project information
form, the tax clearance certificates,
And then we have the site and floor plans with the elevation.
So initially you'll see the site plan for the properties and then the floor plans for the residential spaces within the building.
The first two floors, not the first two floors, the basement floor and the first floor will be for commercial use.
And then there will be a total of five two-bedroom units, nine one-bedroom units, and between floors two through six.
and the there will be a roof deck and that will be accessed by two roof deck access structures
there'll be an elevator for the commercial use on the basement and first floors
and currently the spaces the commercial spaces are vacant and we left it to the community of
course, to decide what kind of commercial uses that they may want and what may be, but we have
enough space to offer to commercial, possible commercial tenants in a, what is a commercial
corridor here. We did meet with the community group. We had two meetings, actually. We had
one on June the 6th. We had one on July the 18th. And in the end, there was a vote of
non-opposition for our proposal. The plan is to help to rebuild this particular corridor
as well as providing some needed residential spaces within this corridor, which is a rather
large one. There was a request about the trash. We have proposed a trash enclosure in the rear
for a dumpster. And we are also going to provide bicycle spaces within the building
so that we can meet some of the needs for people to be able to
traverse the area without necessarily having to have cars.
traverse the area without necessarily having to have cars.
So with that, I think we'll ask for any questions.
You want to have your testimony adopted first?
Can we bring my client, who is Meharry Bailey?
Meharry Bailey has been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Meharry Bailey, M-A-H-A-R-I, last name Bailey, B as in boy, A-I-L-E-Y, owner of the property.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
And Meharry, do you adopt my testimony as your own?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, I'm good, Mr. Chairman.
Counsel, one question.
How did you get to six floors?
I'm sorry?
How did you get to six floors?
What was the decision-making in going six floors?
well we are uh providing um basically two floors of the commercial space so the six floors will
add in the other um space for we're we're going to have 14 units within this um in the property
And that gets us to them. So per floor, it's three units on the second floor, three on the third floor, three on the fourth floor, three on the fifth floor.
And then on the sixth floor, there's only two units. They're larger size units, but that's how we've done it.
All right. Thank you. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX2 commercial corridor zoning at this location.
with regard to the dimensional refusals for lot coverage and roof deck setback we believe the
proposed lot coverage is consistent with other trapezoidal lots on this block and that the
setback is related to the irregular shape of the lot and the commission has no objection
however with regard to the dimensional variance for height we believe the proposed height is much
greater than the minimum variance necessary to overcome any hardship related to the development
of this site and finally with regards to the use variance to allow additional dwelling units
this is particularly concerning to the commission we believe that the proposed dwelling unit count
sidesteps the mixed income housing bonus which is available for development in the cmx2 district
the appellant's asking the board to grant additional dwelling unit density without
requiring the appellant to provide the required public benefit of deed restricted affordable
housing. City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the variance for lot coverage and
roof debt setback but deny the variances for dwelling unit count and for height. Thank you.
And can I can I? You can. Sure. We had this discussion with the RCO. And again, the there is now a provision, I think an overlay that went into effect.
But at the time that we did this application, there was no such thing.
And we had a discussion about the fact that my client has several projects, including one right across the street, which is also six stories.
So which was granted by the board and that we my client provides affordable unit.
i.e. the units that he provides are the rentals are lower than what would ordinarily be considered
affordable in this particular area and so the height is to make up for again providing