a triplex which was resoundingly supported certainly there were some questions I don't
want to suggest that there weren't but supported by the immediate neighbors and here's the the page
from Mr. Albert Littlepage as the president.
So here's where we are.
This is an RSA 5 project or a property rather.
You can see there's some RSA 5 here,
a lot going down this way.
You can see there's a lot of RM1 all around it.
And all of this ICMX has actually been fully built out
as residential as well.
One thing to note up front is, again, just going through the public zoning records and rental licenses of this neighborhood, of this block, the Wharton Street blocks over to Point Breeze, south one block, and then going over to south 19th, evidence is about a 50-50 split between single family and multifamily uses.
And those multifamily uses are actually significantly higher than, or generally higher than even three units. And I'll show some photos there. So the community was really very comfortable with this. They felt that the triplex really fit in with the fabric of the neighborhood, given what the existing makeup is of these blocks.
um so the first project that we we thought we would do which would be the least minimum variance
was you know a single family house here uh there was going to be a one car parking off the off of
south 20th there's actually significant bus traffic that goes north on south 20th and right here at
the corner, which I'll get to in a couple of my next slides, is the current bus stop. So the
community really pushed back to anything, the single family house and any kind of parking or
additional change to, the house, the single family house was also going to front on, it was going to
be built width wise and front on South 20th. So in working with the community, you know, as closely
as we tried to. We've actually fully redesigned the building to now have the frontage on Wharton
Street. That also we all or I should say we also supported there's now going to be a full bus
shelter built at this intersection right here on this corner adjacent to our property. The
neighborhood had a bus stop there and they really wanted a full shelter. So that has not been
constructed yet, but it is in the works with the city. So here you can see that this is the lot
right here, and this is actually the bus stop right here. So this is where the shelter is going.
And this is actually the bus stop right here. So this is where the shelter is going to be.
Here's a rendering of the building that we're going to build.
This is dimensionally by right. So we have one refusal, which is to build a triplex instead of a single family house.
and what you can see is these are all actually this block right here immediately is largely
multi-family again there's sort of a 50 50 split of triplexes and higher and limited lodging
and you know single family as evidenced by the the public records
um so then if you look uh this is looking north on uh 20th you have the corner store here
this here you can see even right at the corner there's another triplex there's another triplex
right here you you've got the multiple electrical evidence there this is just going down the other
direction. And again, here's the frontage. Now, one more thing that leads to a difficulty here
and a hardship and as to one of the further factors that needed to be considered, this lot
is actually 18 and a half, 19 feet wide. In order to build a single building, you're actually beyond
what standard dimensional lumber allows. So you'd have to go to specially engineered lumber.
I know that it is not solely indicative of or substantiating of a variance. However,
the economic impact that this board, I'm sure, is aware of what lumber prices and construction
prices have done in the last year and a half. When you go from standard lumber to fully engineered
lumber uh you know those those get even more exponentially increased so there's a there's a
severe financial detriment in trying to build a single span here um
so again this is duplicative here are you can see
this is immediately across the street you have a multifamily
single family multifamily multifamily multifamily uh going down the block
um here is i'm happy to get into it in more depth but here's the zoning plan of what will be built
again it's uh dimensionally there's a full rear yard um there's only one thought i was going to
it already only one refusal here which is to use the property as multi-family household living
three units instead of the RCA5. Again, this is a situation in which the neighborhood,
not only did they not want the single family, which would upset that intersection. Let's see
if I can go back to it too. So upset this intersection of the pedestrian walkway there.
One of the major concerns in this neighborhood is affordability and diversity of housing. So even a single-family house at this location with no parking is north of $600,000 new construction at this time in the market. With parking is even significantly more.
So the neighbors, not only did they ask us to not build a single family house and interrupt that North 20th Street side, they really wanted a diversity of housing.
And so we are building two two bedrooms and one one bedroom.
These are going to be built as condos, not as not as apartments.
And the sale prices are going to be they're going to range based on the unit from the two hundred thousands to the three hundred thousands.
um so this was something that was very important and very exciting to the rco was that we were
going to be offering this this diversity of of for home for sale ownership as opposed to
even just more units which they were fine with the triplex but but we're very much excited by
the condos you know so there there was a full redesign here as i've already walked through
And I don't need to belabor the there's a significant change in this neighborhood from single family RSA five development, which the community did not want and showing the hardship of building that.
And as I already described of building a single family house there, the public health, safety and welfare is satisfied because it.
The public health, safety, and welfare is satisfied because it fits in with the community, which is, you know, as evidenced by their support.
It specifically is building of a bus shelter. It's protecting the public transit bus stop that they have.
And, you know, as to a least minimum variance, this again comes into play with community support and in working with the community for the past year.
the original plan was rejected by the community. So they wanted ground up construction of a vacant
lot with affordable units. And if you only put in, they actually liked a triplex instead of a duplex,
a duplex would lead to much more expensive units and would lead to very large three bedrooms or
standard four bedroom units which would be much more expensive and not give the community that
diversity of affordable housing that they were hoping for and so again with a two bedroom or two
two bedrooms and one one bedroom the community was very happy that that would keep all of the
prices in the twos and three hundred thousand dollar range for the condos so with that i'm
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Otherwise, I would-
You don't have your testimony adopted?
I'm sorry, Mr. Berger?
Is your client here?
Oh yes, Tim Lilley should be on.
Okay, Mr. Chair-
Hi, could you state your name
and spell please for a court reporter?
Mr. Chair, I have a call-in user with their hand raised.
To allow them to speak.
Understood.
hi uh tiffany green concerned citizens appoint breeze hi hi tiffany could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter please uh so so chairman just just as i know i'll i'll i'll get
to that let her let her testify go ahead certainly sorry miss green okay all right um my testimony
is he's correct could you state your name for the record and spell it oh sure no problem
T-I-F-F-A-N-Y
G-R-E-E-N
Right. Do you swear, affirm,
tell truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Does she?
Yes, he did come back in June of
2022 with a
single-family home and garage. And at
the time, we just didn't want the garage. We thought
the single-family home was fine.
They made it very clear
that they could build by rights
regarding the three-story
rooftop deck, which they were correct.
We can't we can't oppose that. But we didn't want to go to the garage here because 20th and Wharton, the 17 bus, as you know, go into the city and go down Market Street.
So it's well used. OK, so at that particular point, they withdrew.
Now they come back with when they found out that the community was not supporting that.
They come back with the three condominium triplexes, which at this point feel that this is a self-imposed hardship.
there's no unique anything physically unique why he cannot build the code as they made it very clear
they could build by right a single family home would be in line because if you get 2010 wharton
street that's that was new development all single family homes across the street um and so and and
with the three um if you're going to talk about in terms of prices and lumber and everything well
let's talk about when you're changing uh the zoning classification from a rsa to a triplex
with three condominiums, we're talking about when he's saying price point of possibly over
$800,000. Well, when you go down to the BRT, I know that he's
bringing up about the lumber. BRT, the first thing the city used is recent market sales
to reassess people's houses. So if we're going to talk about
economic impact, changing this variance from a single family home, which might be a
$400,000 or $500,000 home, to three condominiums is
quite. We asked him over and over, would you do an affordable unit? He refused.
we went into some other thing about some low-income, low-cost condominiums.
We're asking the board at this point, you know,
we want to maintain the stability of our community,
and as many single-family homes we can maintain is good,
because also three condominiums may not be, everyone would not have a car,
but at least two out of the three might have more cars,
and as you can see, that area is already packed, you know, packed full,
and right where the bus stop is.
So we're asking the board to just maintain-
Ms. Green, let me ask you a question.
Were you at the RCO meeting?
Yes, I was.
And we have not had-
Everybody was asking him about these condominiums.
They refused to budge on having an affordable unit.
They're saying their price point was in affordable units.
I know, but let me ask this.
Did the community group, did the Point Breeze Community Development Corporation vote in favor?
I don't have access to the vote.
I don't have access to the vote.
We've been going forth at this point back.
We've been going forth at this point back and forth.
I'm not having access to the vote.
We've asked.
So we're not even sure.
The vote came out six to three.
So we're not even sure if they were nearby neighbors or not or whatever.
So we're discussing this from, is there a requirement for a variance at this particular point?
I don't know.
Three condominiums is quite a bit.
We like to see single-family homes maintain the, you know.
Thank you very much for calling in as you. I appreciate it.
I appreciate that. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. What's the name of your.
It's Tim Lilly. And if Tim Lilly can't be called, Ori Feibush can also jump on who's ever available.
Chairman Bergman, if I if I could, I would.
I'll share it with the screen just because it was called into question.
um this is the vote sheet from point breeze cdc uh there were 11 attendees miss green was one of
them she raised her concerns at that time uh there were nine people who voted on the project
the meeting was run by mr little page um who's the long longstanding i thought he was the president
you know he's listed as the director of this meeting um he determines who votes and who doesn't
vote the uh there is a support um you know the position for support is listed and uh you know
taxes uh are not relevant to the zoning determination um you know i i'm happy i do
represent clients with regard to taxes so i can get into that if the board has any questions
and the tax is not the issue however the uh the last issue that i would raise about affordability
um the all of the units as currently priced are are well below 80 percent ami um we did state
that you know all of the units will be uh you know i will say lowercase affordable housing
these not not officially defined uh you know pha affordable housing um and you know look we don't
know what the what the market is doing at the moment they're all going to be listed well below
80 percent ami based on what they are now uh and could be as low as 60 percent of ami based on how
the market works a lot of that comes into account with regard to uh interest rates and and things of
that nature and what the lending market works um because everything is based on how much of
the person's monthly salary you can you know have the payment be um so let's see if i have
your testimony adopted by someone. Yep. I think Tim Lilly is there. It's me, Sean, Ori Feibush.
Mr. Feibush, you've already been sworn. Just state your name for the record.
Of course. Ori Feibush, F as in Frank, E-I-B-U-S-H. Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Feibush, you're here on behalf of the owner of the property and developer of the property?
Yes, sir. And did you hear all the testimony that was already presented in this case?
I did.
Do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
And would you adopt it as your own?
I would, yes.
And is there any other point that you believe needs to be made for the board that's not
duplicative?
I would just share that this has been a new slot for the neighborhood for a long time,
and this will fill in the block in a way that has really been sought after by many, many
neighbors here.
uh i i've lived in the point breeze neighborhood uh for the better part of uh i guess 15 16 years
and it certainly has been a vacant lot that predates that so uh i think everyone myself
included is excited to hopefully see some type of development occur on this point thank you
questions from the board yes mr chairman proceed there's a uh how many curb cuts are you requesting
Mr. Holloman, we are requesting zero curb cuts. There will be no impact to the curb
cut whatsoever. That was part of the large request by the neighbors that they did not
want any curb cuts. They didn't want that single family house with the parking coming
off 20th. And that was part of the agreement was to maintain the public pedestrian right
of way without any curb cuts whatsoever and what my second question is what's why do you have the