Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Perry Shaw, P-E-R-R-Y, last name S-H-A-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Shaw.
Have you been present during the entirety of this afternoon's virtual presentation before the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment?
Yes, I have.
Thank you. And would you adopt and affirm the testimony that I've offered as your own?
Yes, it is.
Thank you, sir.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no heads at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon.
David Fechta with the City Planning Commission,
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at this location.
The appellant has shown that the proposed takeout restaurant will have no detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what might be expected.
The city planning commission recommends the board grant the special exception for the proposed takeout restaurant.
Thank you. MI 2023-005-892-1204 Chesson Street. I vote yes. Proviso. Per referral dated 1-2-24.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso. Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Have a good afternoon.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number eight, MI 2023-005-755-1201 Lindley Avenue.
Christopher Dean is the attorney.
Recognition of support from the Logan Civic Association.
Christopher Dean is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Dean. I think if I remember correctly, I swore you early this morning. Am I
right? You did, Mr. Chair. Could you just state your name for the record? Christopher Dean.
Okay. And could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Laventure Real Estate Group. They are the owners of the property. Rob Laventure is present today,
as well as Ben Estepani, who is the design professional who can go over the drawings.
Okay, our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have, and I did email with Hillary earlier.
The tax clearance is the only issue.
My client purchased this property in August.
The city cashed in, deposited the check August 31st, but for whatever reason, the taxes are
still showing as due.
And additionally, the title company just cleared the commercial trash fees that were owed.
So we're hoping within the next 30 days, both of those are cleared from the system.
Okay, Aaron, please proceed and share your screen.
so i have the pleasure of presenting 1201 lindley avenue it's at the corner of corner
property of lindley and north 12th street uh we're seeking a four-unit multi-family household
in an rsa3 single-family residential zoning district the my client's property is unique
in size it's a 6800 over 6800 square feet lot with a near 4 000 square foot improvement on the lot
my client's property is highlighted right here
we have rm1 right here at the corner of north camac street
That is 5101 North Camac and then right here on at 5101 North 12th Street, also apartment living.
01 North 12th Street, also apartment living. The uniqueness of my client's plan is while the
The uniqueness.
apartment living that he's sandwiched between is a lot of studios and one bedroom, my client is
proposing two to three bedrooms so we can have four separate families live in this massive structure.
Behind this right here, the area I'm highlighting now is actually a side lot owned by the PHDC and
my clients, if we're successful, have intent of acquiring the lot from the land bank in order to
create parking. So I'll go to the current structure and what we propose to do with it.
So here's the corner lot. As you can see, there's the apartment complex that one of the
they had mentioned. It's quite a unique structure. As I mentioned, it's 4,000 square feet.
Here's the other apartment, the apartment building directly across the street.
We are proposing additionally, by right, a second-story rear addition to go on top of
the two-story structure that would help build the four units. We received unanimous support
with the Logan Civic Association.
The vote was 26-0.
The neighborhood was excited.
They thought it would be improvement.
The improvement to the property would attract families
and approve the neighborhood.
So here are the 3D renditions of what we are proposing.
Obviously, it's a massive lot.
um we it's really we think it's going to be a bright spot on the community on the neighborhood
uh it will garnish attention with the with the beautiful landscape it does have and the size of
the structure uh historically this was a there was a triplex um revealed in the zoning archives as
well which would be consistent with um both the residential the rm1 on both sides of my client's
property and the size of his of the property as you see here is where we will build this is where
we'd be building the addition to go over the i'll briefly go over the the 3d plan and then i'll have
um i'll have design fresh and i'll go over the actual drawings so you'll have four units three
of them will be a three bedroom and one of them will be a two bedroom we are proposing a
there'll be one unit one of the bedrooms will be in the um in the third floor and then we will have
two units in let me zoom this in two units in the um in the basement that but they are there
are two egress wells proposed
here's a copy of the zoning notice posted 21 days prior
and there's another copy of it as well and here's a close-up
as i mentioned we did meet with the logan civic association and here is the letter of support
indicating 26 to 0 in support.
I will have Ben, if you could raise your hand
just to go over some specifics over the drawings.
What is your client's name, Mr. Dean?
So my client is Rob Leventure and Ben Estepani
is the architect involved.
Robinson Leventure has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
You see the architect?
He's not.
Let's see if we can get the architect first, if he's there.
What's the architect's name, Mr. Dean?
Benjamin Esteban.
Mr. Esteban, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
I think I'm muted already.
There's no other hands up besides your client.
I hear Ben. He's here.
can you hear me yes this is ben this is ben he's with the owner
i'm the architect uh are you with the owner right now i am not currently with the owner no
oh i ben did you put it i think you put in uh rob's name i'm guessing when you
signed in okay all right all right sorry do me in favor state your name please and spell for
court stenographer it's ben estepani b-e-n last name e-s-t-e-p-a-n-i do you swear for him to tell
the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth that's correct yes i do please proceed counsel
please proceed counsel and then let me know i'm going to um you can direct me on what
ben let me know i'm going to um
drawings you'd like to go over but um for now if you want to start on this page
yeah i think you covered the floor plans pretty well chris um this um site plan on the right is
showing the existing conditions um the proposed addition is the hatched area um on the left-hand
site plan um we're just essentially extending the rear one story portion up to the second level
uh to include some additional bedrooms at the second floor um and then chris you just want to
scroll to the to the plans
i'll show this um the floor plans wait
you know
the 3D images
I can run through them very quickly
since you've already covered them
scroll to the bottom
as Christopher was saying
we are looking to
provide units for
family use so unit one and unit two which are located on the first floor are bi-level units
um they're each three bedroom two bath and above a thousand square feet um and then uh at that
basement level uh sorry the first floor there's kitchen living with a rear bedroom and then in
order to access the remainder of the unit you would go into the basement where there's two
bedrooms and a bathroom um and then also in the basement are the shared utilities for the building
the supply room laundry room and mechanical spaces are all dedicated towards that um towards the
building and are shared by everybody through a central staircase that connects the basement
all over to the third floor or to the second floor um and then if you can scroll up to the second
floor plan, Chris. The second floor is our two-bedroom units at the bottom half of the
plan. Unit three, which is on the top half of the plan, has access to the third floor
level, which creates the three-bedroom, two-bath unit for the property. But I think that pretty
which covers the floor plan, for sure.
I have nothing further of that.
Could you have your client?
Rob LaVenture, if you're in the crowd,
please raise your hand.
Mr. LaVenture has been allowed to speak.
Could you state your name, please,
and spell for the court stenographer?
Hello.
My name is Rob LaVenture.
last name
L-A-V-E-N-T-U-R-E
Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
Rob, did you hear
the testimony that
both Ben and I went over
on your project at 1201 Lindley?
Yes, sir.
And was that testimony truth and accurate?
Absolutely.
And do you wish to adopt the testimony as if it were your own?
Yes, sir.
Okay. And do you have anything additional you want to provide to the board or to the members of the public?
I think everything was stated at the moment. Community was excited as Chris stated.
Okay. I have nothing further of Mr. Lavender.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Just briefly, Mr. Chair, Mr. Dean, I just wanted to confirm there is currently no parking on this property or proposed to this property.
That is correct. That's correct. Our parking will be contingent on potentially acquiring it from the PHDC.
OK, thank you. I just I just want to note for the record because the property is zoned RSA three, which requires one parking space per one dwelling unit.
and that refusal was not noted on the refusal.
So I just want to note that for the record
and clarify that there isn't parking
on the actual property.
Thank you.
Correct.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Alyssa, Alicia El Camo.
Hi, could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer?
Sorry, I hit my hand by accident.
Hi, could you state your name?
Oh, okay. All right. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no other hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon. David Vecta with the City Planning Commission.