swear you in yes it is mark lakursi m-a-r-k-l-i-c-u-r-s-e you swear or firm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do thank you mr clinton uh mr lakursi you were
on the call when you heard my testimony yes and uh if you had the opportunity to testify would you
adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct. Yes. Thank you, Mr. O'Coursey.
Questions from the board. No, Mr. Chairman. No. No. Would anyone else like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand. I see no further answer this time, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Planning
Commission. Thank you, Chair DiCicco. Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Members of the Board, this proposed dimensional variance is minimal, does not conflict with the
purpose and spirit of the zoning code. City Planning Commission recommends that the Board
grant the variance. Thank you very much. MI 2021-003382. 2520 Grays Ferry Avenue.
my vote is yes with proviso revised plan one page approved today carol tenere my vote is yes with
proviso confessor plaza yes with proviso thomas halliman yes with proviso you um where are we
with mr klein's cases we have gotten the technical issues resolved yet yes chair mr klein is coming
back in as a panelist and he'll be under the name lindsey no so hi hi tanya can you can you hear me
now yes so if you if you're able to add uh miss lindsey sampsy as a panelist she can share her
screen while i narrate yes she's already promoted okay and can the board see that and hear me
yes okay thank you we've we've gotten ourselves a creative workaround um so uh once again uh i'm
here on behalf of penrose an affordable housing developer with a collection of parcels that is
part of an affordable housing master plan in the shoreswood area of the city uh this is actually
the second phase uh phase one was completed and the board granted several variances earlier this
year and this is now the second phase of the development and all of these parcels are located
in the same general geographic area and are all going to be used for affordable housing with a
variety of housing styles as I'll get into as we move through the presentation. Lindsay you want
to go to page two? So this is a summary. We attached all of the individual refusals for the
board in our packet. We'll prepare this summary just to give the board a sense of what the
proposed use is and what the refusals are on each of the parcels. As you'll see, the majority of
these are proposed to be multifamily dwellings, ranging from 3 up to 16. And the refusals that
we received were primarily use refusals for having multifamily in RSA 5 zone lots. Some
dimensional refusals due to the rear yard and occupied area and one of them includes parking
spaces which also required a use refusal. All of these parcels as I mentioned are located in the
same area of the city which is an underserved and underdeveloped area and many of the surrounding
properties are either vacant or with structures that are in severe disrepair and would be in need
major rehabilitation to use in their current state and the nature of the surrounding area
combined with the affordable housing nature of the project creates the hardship
both for the use and for the dimensional variances that we're asking for to build perfectly compliant structures on the size of the lots that we have would not render them viable for affordable housing purposes.
both for the use and for the dimensional variances that we're asking for to build.
Lindsay, can you go to scroll through all the refusals if you could? And there's some maps.
I'll be as efficient as I can about this board. I appreciate you indulging my technical difficulties.
properties. So this is an aerial view of the area in which the properties sit. They're
located sort of in a square and it's in the middle of your screen. There is in two pages
a map that actually has dots on the affected properties that make it a little bit easier
to see. That's the zoning map and this map shows you where the dots are indicated the
location of each of the nine parcels that are here for your review. As you can see they're
sort of all within uh two or three blocks of each other in that square area there lindsey can you
scroll through to the photos of the sites this is just to give the board some context as to what
what is existing in each lot uh this one is a vacant parcel and i've labeled all these for
the board's review 2401 master is again a vacant parcel
2401 to 29 harlan again a collection of vacant parcels uh this is uh 2401 to 55 stewart
again vacant lots this block of harlan street uh is made up of either uh vacant lots or pre-war
uh townhomes that would be in need of substantial rehabilitation if they could continue to exist at
at all. Again, this is another shot of the 2400 block of Harlan showing the condition of some of
the existing structures and the rationale for our need to demo them. Again, Stewart Street
is being used for trash disposal purposes. And again, we think we can make this lot a little
bit nicer. And this is again, 2433 Harlan Street. Lindsay, can you then scroll down through to get
to there you go photos of posting of each of each property and then lindsey if you just can scroll
through slowly each of these floor site plan sheets so what we've done is given the board
a site plan for each of the nine properties showing what is intended to be constructed on
each again these range from triplex properties uh through to a 16 family uh multi-family building on
one of the larger consolidated lots the intention from a design standpoint is to make these look
similar to the existing housing stock in in the area and we're going to as you can see on that
one landscape and add other street trees and lighting to provide a quality finished product
and as Lindsay keeps going you'll see that we did include a sample rendering at the end of
of the site plans to give the board a sense
of what the final product might look like.
As Lindsey goes through,
I'll just reiterate what I said earlier
in that we have had a number of productive meetings
with the Civic Association,
particularly the executive committee
of the brewery town Shardswood Civic.
They've indicated a lot of support
in terms of their view of the overall project.
And we're meeting with them, as I said, on November 18th.
um and you know we'll be having a resumption hearing so they can share their thoughts but
this is a uh affordable housing plan that's had a lot of community involvement uh and these all
all the lots are subject to a master development agreement with the Philadelphia Housing Authority
um so although it's a private developer the land's coming from PHA and it really is a
sizable investment into the Shardswood neighborhood uh the remainder of the packet includes the tax
clearances um equitable ownership interest uh and other items that i don't think the board needs to
see at this time though we can certainly show it if the board would like to see it all of the
properties are tax compliant uh and we did send out a mailing uh to 500 and some addresses uh and
just so the board is aware the mailing that we sent out specifically noted our intention to have
this sort of resumption hearing and advised all neighbors both of this zoning hearing
and the upcoming meeting on the 18th. My client, Lindsey Sampse, who's sharing the screen.
Lindsey, do you have audio also? I do. You do. Did you have the opportunity to hear
the presentation I just made? Hold on, Jared, Jared. Sorry, just need to be sworn in. Sorry.
Lindsey, please spell your first and last name and I'll swear you in.
sure thank you chairman lindsey samsi l-i-n-d-s-e-y s-a-m-s-i
s-a-m-s-i you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but
i do thank you mr klein uh lindsay thank you i know you had the opportunity to hear me as you
were sharing your screen um so do you adopt my statements as true correct in your own if you'd
had the opportunity to testify yourself i do thank you um board we do have the architect on the line
also if the board has any questions about the design uh and lindsay is here as the project
developer to answer questions as well um with with unless the board has any any questions for
us we would rest our presentation with the ask that we schedule a resumption hearing for community
feedback as we talked about earlier thank you any questions from the board no mr chairman
anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
mr chair miss mary jones has her hand raised i will allow her to speak at this time
good morning ms jones please identify yourself and i'll swear you in
good morning mary jones on behalf of council president daryl clark city hall room 494
each swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do thank you please proceed um yes members of the board i um am calling in to express the
council president's support for this um for these all of these zoning projects
thank you and you heard i could you hear earlier we're going to have a resumption hearing
i did hear that limited to testimony from the rco i did hear that i just wanted to go ahead and get
okay thank you thank you very much thank you mary anyone else to testify in this case
no further hands at this time sir thank you planning commission thank you chairman de chico
ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission um this uh scattered site redevelopment
proposed here is, as Mr. Klein has described, in conformance with PHA's plan for redeveloping
affordable housing, public housing in the Sharswood, these sites have conformed to the
comprehensive plan goals of providing a broad range of housing. And so the City Planning Commission
recommends that the board grant variances for each of the appeals noted at the beginning of this
very much um so rather than read through the nine cases uh as recorded earlier uh the nine
cases that have been read into the record by uh by myself and testified to by mr klein
and correct me tanya and or sharon if i'm wrong this hearing will be resumed on do we have a
specific date december 8th at 9 30 a.m december the 8th at 9 30 a.m at which time the board will
consider any feedback from the rco and testimony will be limited to 10 minutes yes okay thank you
very much mr chair and thank you for indulging my technical difficulties thank you no worries
Take care. So it's 6789. We go to case number 15, I believe. MI 2021-003396. 31-33 North 43rd Street. Rachel Pritzker is the attorney of record. West Poulton Saunders Park RCO. My notes indicate that we've not yet received a letter from that RCO.
Ms. Pritzker, please identify yourself.
I'll swear you in.
Good morning, Chairman, members of the board.
Rachel, R-A-C-H-A-E-L, Pritzker, P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R,
1635 Market Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA 19103.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Ms. Canary has some questions for you.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance,
refusal referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing,
and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, and we have a letter of support. It was sent late last night,
so I believe the board should have it in their updated packet.
Okay, great. You may proceed.
great thank you okay can you all see that on my screen yes yes okay so this is 31-33
Yes. Okay, so this is 31-33 North 43rd Street. This is a proposal for a triplex on an existing RSA5
lot that has been vacant for a very long time. It's a very oddly shaped parcel, so
as you'll see in a few minutes, that's what basically triggered a lot of our dimensional
refusals we're taking up a bit more lock coverage we're only allowed 80 we're taking up 97.1
we're not providing a rear yard and the building height is slightly higher 39 feet six inches
as opposed to the 38 feet let's see just going to show the site first
so that you can get an idea of the odd shape of the site and then I will have
our architect go through the plan so as the board can see on my screen it's this corner property
that sort of fronts on 43rd and Powleton there's this tiny triangular shaped at the actual corner
that is we believe city owned it doesn't really have any ownership but we're kind of stuck in
between that and the adjacent property so our property doesn't really have a great even street
frontage it kind of has this angled triangular street frontage and then has a very short side
width and then it's very it's not very long it's longer on the on the Palton Street side
So a lot of our hardship for providing a single-family home is given the odd nature of the lot and then having it sort of be located on this busy corner adjacent to mostly CMX3 properties.
A lot of the properties on Powhatan Street are zoned RSA5, but they contain both legal and illegal multifamily.
And then further down the block on Powhatan, it's almost all RM1.
So what we're proposing here is not out of character with the adjacent block, as you can see from this larger aerial, there's multifamily and high density commercial mixed use, both directly adjacent and across the street from our site.
Again, as you can see, really oddly shaped small lot on this kind of corner with no real great street frontage.
So we are proposing a triplex.
We felt like the multifamily homeownership units would be better use of the site, add
additional eyes on the street and would make more sense for a apartment building than a
single family home with no real true street frontage and kind of odd to be on this corner
is probably why it's been vacant for many, many, many, many years.
I'm going to have Zamir from, this is a photo, a front photo of the lot, as you can see.
So I'm going to have Zamir from Morrissey Design share our plans. And then before I do that,
I'll just go through the community part. We met with the community a number of times starting
back in October. We met with the directly affected near neighbors and the community as a whole.
And as you can see from my screen, their position is of support.
There was six in support from the board, seven in support from all attendees, and then five
directly affected neighbors that supported the project.
So we got a letter of support from the West Paladin Saunders Park RCO.
And they provided a little bit more color to some of the additional reasons they supported the project, if the board wanted to read that in the letter that was sent over and I did for that earlier this morning with a revised hearing packet.
I'm going to stop my screen I see that Zamir has been promoted so Zamir if you can just wait for the chairman and then you'll be able to share your plans.
here please spell your first and last name and i'll swear you in
zamir uh z-a-m-i-r garcia g-a-r-c-i-a you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do thank you rachel samir can you share the plans and just go through them
for the board and specifically any changes that we made as well sure so the plans are
this is the zoning plan which as Rachel Rachel shared earlier the lot is
quite narrow on one end and so we're really kind of squished in there the the building
We're really kind of squished in there.
The building itself, so we've been able to utilize the site and take advantage of that
narrow lot to put in sort of a garden at the end, a stair entry to the upper units
at the smaller corner, and then as the building widens, it opens up to a larger, not too large,
about a 16 foot wide um apartment sorry condo that's by level and then you enter from off of
43rd street and then as you go it goes down to the lower level and then um as you go up to the
second floor there's a flat that's one bedroom unit and then just again the stairs here with a
garden up on the higher end off of that stair and then at the top floor another bi-level unit
which is more like a loft unit and you enter at the third floor and it's open on the fourth floor
as a mezzanine space. So the building at the the roof is a big skylight at the corner and then
the building facade is primarily brick to tie into the neighboring buildings red brick
to relate back to the neighborhood and then with some accents of black metal windows and black
metal bands and then black railing where we have areas that open up since there is no yard per se
on the site because of the narrowness of the site we do have large opening windows that are like
juliet balconies which allow the units to have kind of an inside outside space and then they do
there is a garden here which is not accessible but um it's sort of will be planted there kind
of look like that um and then at the ground floor we would plant that as well this is a
view of the building
if there are any questions um we can thank you thank you rachel anyone else no just um if
If Tyler Small or Andrew Yeager could be promoted so that they could adopt my testimony.
Mr. Small has been allowed to speak.
Morning, sir. Please spell your name and I'll swear you in.
Tyler Small, T-Y-L-E-R-S-M-A-L-L.