and then a similar floor plan on the rear building uh we we did do a um a mansard
roof design to the front so it kind of brings the height and scale down more in line with uh
with the street neighborhood and then we have an additional one bedroom unit on the third floor of
the historic structure so all in we have 15 units proposed for this building which is in line with
the with like an RM1 type of zoning are there any questions for Chris before I ask the managing
partner of the owner to adopt my testimony. Is the board have any questions? No, Madam Chairman.
I don't. Sitting to my right is Steve Oszewski, who is the managing member of 6830-32 Ridge
Partners LLC and the owner of this parcel. Steve, would you give your name, spell your last name?
Sure, it's Steve.
Last name is O-L-S-Z-E-W-S-K-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Okay, you may proceed, Bill.
Steve, did you hear my testimony?
I did, yes.
Was it accurate and truthful?
And you adopted as your own?
Is there anything you wanted to add?
i would ask that the board accept all the documents that were submitted by email five
days before the hearing including the elevation plans we can go through those but i don't know
that it's going to be contribute anymore um who is the rco the rco is the ridge park civic
association um their letter of support uh is on pages three and four um and they support it uh
strongly is there anyone in the uh the virtual audience who would like to testify
i see no hands madam chair um actually madam chair i have a question mr o'brien the plans
that you referred to those are not revised plans is that correct that is correct thank you
no plans are stamped today sharon
no no plans to stamp calendar number 1795 no strike that calendar number 27196832 ridge avenue
my name is carol tanarian my vote is yes
thomas holliman my vote is yes
there are other board members bill
mr snow
oh i'm sorry i was muted i'm very sorry about that uh jane snow my vote is yes
thank you kindly thank you is confessor here no no chair just the three of you okay great
okay so you have three votes thank you sure may i be excused sure thank you having a great day
You too. Calendar number MI-2021-000-336. The address is 4401 Ridge Avenue.
The attorneys are Sean Malin and Paul Bonney.
there's Sean good evening madam chair hi how are you oh doing well it's been a nice long day for
everybody right sure has hi Mr. Bonnie hello madam chair nice to see you and everyone else also
thank you so one by one I'll ask you to put your name and address on the record spell your last
name uh sharon do i have to swear them in because this is a different day yes we do okay uh we'll
start with you sean certainly sean whalen w-h-a-l-e-n address is 6 coulter avenue suite 1000 ardmore pa
Address is 6 Coulter Avenue, Suite 1000, Ardmore, PA, 19003.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Okay, and Mr. Boni?
Yes, my name is Paul Boni, B-O-N-I.
My address is 325 Chestnut Street, Suite 1109, 19106.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
excuse me this is sharon before we get started at the end of the um last hearing i believe there was
a question as to raised by the planning commission representative as to whether the revisions made to
the plans would trigger the requirement for additional cdr review i believe that we got
a response on that saying that they would not is that correct to you
西偉大人, I think I can address that. Yes. We got a response from the Planning Commission
that there would be no further CDR meeting required. And therefore, in line with kind
of trying to continue to work with this RCO and all of the community members and the other
RCOs we've met with, we will be proceeding with the most recent revised plans that incorporate
all of the community input that we've received and we will not be proceeding with the the prior
iteration of plans that we discussed at last meeting. Thank you. Could you circulate those
materials by email? I don't know if it's too much to ask to do it now so that we can look at them.
i think we only saw them on the screen last time mr bonnie are you asking for the exhibits that
mr wellin submitted or the um specifically the plans or the planning commission feedback
because i guess i'm i guess i'm just no no not not the planning commission if you i my my
understanding is that there is a some some revisions that um the applicant is is uh is
proposing and we appreciate that i'm just saying i don't think we have a copy of it i think i will
try to find those in my email and forward a copy to you now okay thank you
madam vice chair i understand the hour is late so i can just quickly
bring us up to speed and keep us moving
i didn't know who was going to start no reason to belabor anything um this
I'll just share my screen very quickly. Like I said, I can.
And just to be clear, for Mr. Bonnie's sake, we are proceeding with the revised plans that were created following the last community meeting at the end of June.
and we are going to those were already presented and all exhibits were presented before the
the August 17th hearing that we had and that was the first hearing in this matter
so I hope you can see it again this is I'll be very quick so if the board has any questions
just please interrupt me I don't mean to be short but just succinct if I can so this is an image of
the project. This is 4401 Ridge Avenue. This is Ridge Avenue. Here's Merrick Road. As you're
going up Ridge this way, you're just about to hit where you can see that 76 on-ramp and the
on-ramp sign, just to give everyone an idea of context, just so you can see what we're talking
about. Here was an image of the first presentation of the building. As you can tell, there's been a
significant amount of work between the participants. There are upwards of a dozen, I think, 11
meetings, public meetings, discussions, and significantly more communications than that.
So we've gone to there, and I will just very quickly show you. Here was, this is a long ridge,
kind of just a different angle. You can see what the original looked like, and this new project
incorporates many design elements and and whatnot that was requested by the community
all of which were testified to at the last meeting so I won't go into those unless the
the board has any questions again the project we're presenting has two refusals
may I ask a question just to clarify to understand is the is the height the same as
um the height is the same and has not changed okay and the unit count is the same correct
okay thank you so yes so the the project itself is 185
Yes, so the project itself is 185 units with one-to-one parking and first-floor commercial at the corner of Ridge and Merrick.
The property is about 18,000 square feet.
It is, since Mr. Bonney went there, I'll jump forward.
Here's Ridge Avenue.
Here's the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center.
This is Merrick Road.
this is our property right here as you can see all of this basically has been already approved
and is in development for other large-scale projects that you also heard about at the last
meeting so again our project our property is only this right here we are about the closest point is
75 feet and then it goes up to significantly more well over 100 feet from our property to
property there's this weird uh kind of jagged l-shape behind us
cms3 so heavy commercial use excuse me was an rm2 hang on
sorry i didn't hear what he said i had to unmute myself i don't know if you're moving something in
front of your speaker or uh in front of your mic just be mindful of that because it's blocking
what you're saying. Thank you. And if I could, this is Tanya, ask that everyone mute themselves
so we don't keep having that problem. Sure. And Ms. Doyle, if you have any problems hearing,
just let me know. I'm happy to be interrupted. I didn't actually move at all. So I'm not sure
if you want me to restart from wherever you left off. You're okay. Thank you. Okay. So again,
we are CMX3. This was rezoned in 2016 by Philadelphia City Council in line with the
2035 plan from the Planning Commission to increase this from a solely residential zone
to a high-density commercial mixed use. The project we have, again, 185 apartments,
one-to-one parking. We originally received two refusals. The off-street loading refusal is
actually cured by the revised plans that were submitted. We added, all it required was the
adding of a second space, loading space, which we did. So the only issue we have is steep slope,
which we are, here's an image. Again, we went through this at length with the engineer.
This is all steep slope, as is this whole section here, which prevents the development of any CMX3 commensurate project without the disturbance of the steep slope.
As the Planning Commission confirmed last time, the disturbance of the steep slope is not just the final building, but any disturbance throughout the entire construction process as well.
um we have uh full support from east falls forward one of the two rcos in the area excuse me sean
excuse me sean i just before we move on um first of all i want to um reiterate the objection that
i made last time which is that you know i'm not stipulating that attorneys may testify um and
And secondly, you just said something about the Planning Commission agreeing to something last session, and I'm not sure I understand what you're – I don't remember them agreeing to anything.
And could you just restate me?
Certainly.
ian litwin uh confirmed for the board when a question came up as to whether or not steep slope
area disturbance what triggered a variance only when there was building on the steep slope or
whether it was any time there was construction across that or any kind of vehicular access across
that steep slope that was a testimony of our engineer uh thank you paul i'll continue though
Well, please, Sean, I just want to say, Sean, you can't talk over me.
And then confirmed by the committee.
Wait, you know what?
We're not going to do this.
Sean was speaking.
You interrupted.
And then it continued.
So I'm going to let Sean continue.
And I am, again, I apologize for going backwards.
I just wanted to bring us up to speed where we were.
I'm just about done.
So we have full support from East Falls Forward.
86% vote actually was 30 to 5, I think, were the final numbers.
That's one of the two RCOs.
We also have full support from the EFDC East Falls Development Corporation. You have both of those letters. And that is it as far as I'm concerned.
We also have full support from the EFDC, East Falls Development.
And Mr. Bonnie obviously represents East Falls Community Council, EFCC, the other RCO in the area.
Like I said, we had over 10 public meetings and major meetings with them, all of which were gone into at the first hearing.
And I can go into those if the board would like.
But we made significant changes and they are still in opposition.
So the final piece I would add is that at the first hearing, you heard from a representative of my client.
You heard from my architect and my engineer.
We were concluded with all of them.
So I only have one final witness, and that is my traffic engineer.
So and then I will be able to be done with my case and move this forward.
And obviously, Mr. Bonney will have whoever he has to present.
Thank you.
and your two RCOs were East Falls Forward and East Falls Forward EFF and East Falls Community
Council EFCC the latter EFCC is the one that Mr. Bonney represents okay
may I Mr. Nery sure okay but I think Mr. Whelan don't you have someone else
Yes, I have one more witness to present.
Well, I want to touch on something that Mr. Whelan said.
Okay, briefly. Yes, you may.
Okay, thank you very much.
It's not my personal recollection that the Planning Commission said last time what Mr. Whelan just represented, but the transcript will say what the transcript will say.
I would say that the zoning code prohibition on steep slopes says that for these steep slopes, no site clearing or earth moving activity is permitted.
That's the prohibition.
So I think Mr. Williams said something different.
We can argue about it later, but I just wanted to put that on the record.
And I also would say that I believe last time I was in the middle of cross-examining Mr. Spitson. I hardly have, I don't have a lot to finish. I only have a short, I can finish with him very briefly, but I think that's where we're at.
um with with uh with respect to mr bonnie my understanding is we finished with mr spitson
uh that was what we were trying to race to uh chairman de chico was chairing that meeting
and you know obviously we were trying to get done uh the whole process before you know we got
delayed to the second hearing uh my understanding is we were done with mr spitson there was
no further relevant conversation going on. It actually kind of devolved into
legal argument between myself and Mr. Bonney. I think it was pretty clear
that we were not, that we were midstream.
Is he available today? Well, I'm going
to put it to Madam Chair about whether or not. Is he
available, Ms. Saleta?
Madam Chair, he's available. Would you like for me to
for him to speak? I want to speak to Ms. Saleta first. Yes, though I did recently review the
tape, I honestly don't remember what point the question was at. So, Mr. Bono, you had just a
few more questions to ask him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, he's here then. Sure then, he's here, why not?
Really just two or three questions, so I think it should be very quick.
And his name?
His name is Mr. Dan Spitson.
He's here on behalf.
He's the corporate representative of Atapco Properties, which is the equitable owner of the parcel.
May I also ask the chair or the administrator, what is the ending time today so that we can do our best to meet it?
In 20 minutes.
Well, okay.
Well, I smiled.
I smiled.
well but it's it's not going to be too long we're not going to be here until seven o'clock