The refusal prohibits multifamily household living in a lot not adjacent to residential districts.
um this property is a strip of pine street you can see the first level of all of these buildings
are storefronts salons and the like my client is this chelsea frame shop here which has
been in existence in the spot for 20 plus years and um looking at the uh archive you can see
from 1981 was the it looks like most recent but uh approval for a vacant store and
it looks like most recent, but approval for a vacant store and five apartments. So the
property's always had a vacant store on the first floor and apartments above it. It actually was
approved for an antique store at that point. But the point is, it's always been five apartments
and a store on the first floor. Looking at the other properties on the block, we have
1112, which is also five units and a retail unit. We have 1114, which is five units and a retail
unit. We have 1116, which is six units and a retail unit. And that goes up and down the block.
So every single property is three units or more. The ones surrounding it are five units. There's
given a six unit with a storefront. And these are all the same size properties. So my clients
seek to reestablish the use that the previous owner did not keep up. And therefore, after they
purchased it to get their licenses, they had to come back in front of the board and seek the
variance. I'll walk you through the rest of my packet. We have a letter of non-opposition from
From the Washington Square West Civic Association, as was mentioned, the only issue that came up was there is a gate out back that has some kind of a crumbling rear wall, and the RCO asked that my clients on the record, which I'll have them do, attest that they are going to fix that rear wall.
And they're having plans designed to do that and to make it look nice.
There's our proof of mailers, and here's photos and plans of the place just showing that it's definitely set up for the five units with the commercial space, it's old panels.
There's the frame shop.
and all mailers. And the plans, actually, that's the plans for the wall that they're going to be
fixing per the RCO's request in the back. We have our deed showing they purchased it last June,
property certificate, and the tax clearance certificate at the end.
So, with that, short and sweet, I will call either Tim or Anthony to raise their hand and adopt my testimony.
Chair, we have Tim Stover. Mr. Stover, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Mr. Stover, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Tim Stover, T-I-M-S-T-O-V-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Good afternoon, Tim.
Did you hear my testimony just now regarding your property at 1110 Pine Street?
Yes, I did.
Do you agree with what I said, and do you adopt it as your own?
Yes, I do.
Could you, for the RCO's sake, just put on the record your intent to rehabilitate the wall?
yep so we got the plans done and we will be rebuilding it shortly okay thank you tim
nothing further questions from the board on the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i've seen no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the
Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Board members, the comprehensive plan recommended
no change to the existing CMX1 zoning at this location. However, the proposed use is consistent
with the documented prior use on this property. So the City Planning Commission recommends that
the board grant the variance. Thank you. MI 2022-007520-1110 Pine Street. I vote yes.
Jane Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, board.
Number seven, MI 2022-007061-315 North Preston Street.
Alan Notkinson is the attorney. Letter of Opposition from West Palton Saunders Park RCO
Saunders Park RCO, and Council Member Gauthier also has taken a position of opposition.
and Council Member Gauthier.
Applicant provided a petition and support signed by Four Neighbors.
Mr. Knacklebson is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Thank you.
and mr knockamson for the record just state your name you've already been sworn
alan knockamson could you identify your client and their relationship to the property yes my
client is the property owner preston berkeley llc and in the virtual audience is its member
uh sanjeev nadu okay uh our vice chair has a few questions
good afternoon council do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his
accuracy i do have emailed in all the required documents and exhibits needed to proceed with
this case five days in advance of this hearing yes we have you're on the road today mr notkinson
Well, we'll see.
The more important thing is, will the Sixers win tonight?
Hopefully, yes.
All right.
All right.
So I'm here to present 1315-17 North Preston Street.
As you'll see, what we're proposing is not out of character for this section in the neighborhood.
I know that this is an RSA-5 property, but this used to be an RM1 property, and then everything that's surrounding us is RSA, excuse me, is multifamily.
So it would be out of character and stick out like a sore thumb if we're required to put a single-family structure here on this rather large lot of 40, almost 4,400 square feet.
So during our presentation, we're going to review the notice of refusal, the correspondence
from the West Paladin Saunders Park RCO, our petition, nearby properties with a multifamily
history, maps of the area, photographs of the property, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting
notice, our application for appeal that we filed with the ZBA, our detailed property
showing the Preston Berkeley LLCs and owner of the property, and our Certificate of Tax
clearance. At the conclusion of the presentation, I'll ask that Mr. Nadeau virtually raise his hand,
be sworn in, and adopt my testimony as his own. So our notice of refusal. So we have two RSA
properties we're looking to consolidate and make an eight-unit apartment building. Again, what we're
recommending or proposing is not out of character for this part of Philadelphia. So our
correspondents from the community, they are in opposition to this, more so just because of the
general nature of this part of the city. They're not against the project. They would like a single
family structure, but it would be out of character and impossible to sell because as you'll see from
the map, every property on our side of the street is multifamily with the same type of proportions
in terms of dwelling structures.
And what we do offer is this in terms of form of a proviso.
We would like, we originally had,
and I think there was a mistake in here.
They said we had 25 bedrooms for eight units.
That's not correct.
We have 23 bedrooms for eight units.
We would agree to having two bedrooms per unit
for a total of 16 bedrooms.
We would also agree to commercial trash pickup.
as well, and no living in the basement, as you'll see, because we don't have to live in the
basement. Again, this is a responsible use of the property. And you can see from the presentation,
we did have neighbors on Preston Street who are in support of this project.
And then nearby properties. Again, if this was a vacant-like block, I would say, well,
this is RSA 5, you know, so be it. Every single house on our side of North Preston Street is
multifamily in nature. Almost every single property across the street is multifamily in nature.
All the properties on Powhatan are multifamily in nature. This is a multifamily section of
Philadelphia. If we try to put a single family house here, it would not succeed. No one wants
to have a single family house on an island. Again, if we were on a block where there was a mix.
Again, if we were, you know, on a block where there was a mix, I can see, but we're not.
And it would just, it would be, you know, difficult for my clients to actually build something here that someone would want to purchase.
And again, given the size of the lot too, we're talking about almost a 4,400 square foot lot.
Again, yes, we are RSA 5 now, but all of those addresses that were on this side and most of the ones on this side are multifamily.
And then, you know, again, we're in the heart of University City where you would see multifamily.
We're not trying to take a part of town which is non-student housing.
so to speak um you know we're embracing that and i don't think someone who who was going to someone's
going to buy a single family house on that block especially given a lot it's not going to be
economically peaceful to even build it and then photographs of the property as you can see this
is new construction that's multi-family uh that was built uh i believe a few years ago
and then these are this is proof of the orange notice posters being posted for today's hearing
and then this is North
Preston to the right of the property
again almost every single
property of that block is multi-family
North Preston to the left
property as well and then our plans
and drawings again we try
to keep the traditional brick facade
we have a responsible
floor plan here where there's no basement
living we have a trash room in the
front that's accessible to all units
we can also agree to that as a proviso
Yeah, so it's, you know, we try to really make a pretty building here. That's architecturally interesting. So if you look here, so first of all, in the basement is just building storage, a water room, electric. There's no living in the basement. We would agree to provide some in that respect.
As far as the, as far as like where the trash room is located, it is right here in the front.
So we made it responsibly that every single occupant has access to this trash room, is located in the front.
We'll have commercial trash pickup where it's going to be as least disruptive as possible to the neighborhood.
And then we also have a lobby in the mailroom.
every floor of this four-story structure has a front bedroom and a back bedroom we've changed
our floor plans where originally we had 23 bedrooms here where now we're lowering it to 16
bedrooms each so this is each two-bedroom apartments
so rco meeting notice uh we met on april 13th at 7 p.m 115 addresses were notified of that meeting
uh the addresses that were notified who were mailing to his addresses or application for
appeal showing the preston berkeley llc is the owner of the property they're the ones that filed
the appeal, our notice of refusal, our project information form, our deeds of property showing
that Preston Berkeley LLC is the owner of the property, or both properties, excuse me,
and their certificate of tax clearance. So with that being said, I'm going to share my screen.
I'm going to ask that Mr. Nadeau virtually raise his hands. Mr. Nadeau, before we get to that,
just for the record how did you get to eight to eight units how how do i get how did you get to
eight units what you mean like how it's number wise what what drove eight units why not four
why not six why not five oh well it's it's it's it's over 4 000 square foot lot not that this
matters but i did the calculation i think that you know this was rm1 it would be 9.98 units going
to nine units. And then next door to us, I believe, is a quadplex as well. So we're not overusing the
property. These aren't just multifamily. All right. I just want to get to see that on the record.
That's all. All right. Please bring your client on. Yeah. Yes, Mr. Nadeau. Mr. Nadeau, please
unmute yourself or wait for the chair. Sir, could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter. Yes, Sanjeev Naidoo, S-A-N-J-I-V, last name is Naidoo, N-A-I-D-U. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed. Oh, yes, Mr. Naidoo,
you heard everything I had to state about your zoning matter today. Yes. And is it true and
correct? Yes. And do you adopt it as your own testimony? Yes. Questions from the board?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Pamela Andrews.
Ms. Andrews, please unmute yourself or wait for the Chair.
Hi, Ms. Andrews, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
Good afternoon.
My name is Pamela Andrews, P-A-M-E-L-A, Andrews, A-N-D-R-E-W-S.
You swear or firm or tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am the chair of West Patti's Congress Park RCO.
Good. Proceed.
Thank you.
First, I'd like to thank you for having me this afternoon.
Our issues as the RCO, first of all, there were 31 people who attended the meeting. Out of that 31 people, 12 of them were near neighbors.
All right. And I know Mr. Knockison spoke that he had a signed petition from four neighbors.
I had seen that information and I don't know who they are.
They're not anyone who's active in our organization.
So I just wanted to say that for the record.
Our issue is primarily with this development.
This developer wants to take two lots and combine them.
And we really feel as an RCO that it is just an overuse of the property in terms of density in that area.
It's apparent because there are multifamily units around us that we have allowed variances for multifamily units in this neighborhood.
But we feel strongly that this is just too much density.
Just a half a block away, right on the corner of Bering and Preston, on that block, there is a 44-unit apartment building.
Our community members are constantly dealing with noise, trash, congestion, and therefore, we just do not want to support this development.
The owner, when we had our meetings, there was no opportunity to engage conversations about possibly another type of design that would allow for a lesser density.
And then in closing, I want to say, yes, we have been working diligently in our neighborhood to increase single-family ownership.
We fought hard to change the zoning, support the zoning for the Market Street corridor in order to accommodate these types of large usages.
So because of this and the fact that we really feel strongly this and the overuse of the property, we wanted the RSA 5 zoning honored and kept in place.
Mr. Chairman, I always believe there's always there's an opportunity to try to see if there is some type of compromise.
i hear that there may be um there may not be but like i always say try um i would love the
opportunity with miss andrews again seeing about if if there's a way to decrease density that makes
sense for both parties the one thing i will say is the reason why we combine these properties
is that we understand that when you have we could have done two parplexes but we wanted to not have
any basement use and when you combine properties it becomes more efficient and we want to put a
trash room and those by combining those properties gave us the opportunity to do that it sounds less
scary two quadplexes but we thought the eight units as one building was more efficient but i