And in this lower corner, you can see we have extensive lighting going up and down.
The other thing that we worked with the RCO on is we have three current street trees going in for sure along Christian, two more along South 11th, and we are just waiting to confirm with the city being able to put in additional street trees based on whatever the underground infrastructure is.
We're not allowed to determine that for ourselves.
So, we have an extensive list of refusals, but essentially they all result from the change of use from commercial to residential.
So the very first one is that you have to have 30 feet depth of commercial use. The community agreed and noted that commercial use of this property is not really supportable or appropriate. We're actually only three blocks off of Broad Street and two blocks north of Washington here.
So there's extensive commercial corridors in two of the directions immediately away from this property.
And there's, you know, whatever commercial has been in this immediate area has been failing and flagging of late.
So our first refusal is to basically not provide any commercial.
The next three refusals all deal with parking requirements when you have a commercial use next to a residential use.
Obviously, these refusals are appropriate, but they're only triggered because we're not putting in the commercial use.
it would not be appropriate to put in any of the commercially required screening or landscape buffering or additional requirements where we're going to have, you know, standard residential layouts with first floor parking in row homes.
In order to add the first floor parking and not have that go underground and be able to really activate the street frontage, that's where we generate the one height refusal.
that's where we generate the one height refusal. The maximum occupied area and the minimum rear
yard depth, those are both triggered because, again, if we subdivided these lots
instead of making them into one PUD, we would meet the requirements because we would have rear
yards. But the way the zoning code looks at a PUD, planned unit development with 10 homes
on it, we are not providing a rear yard because that would basically be where the existing
building is now.
And then finally, I would note, we did submit a very slightly revised plan.
We're incorporating everything the RCO wanted and obviously had full support of the RCO
after three meetings.
We did add a second parking space.
We were able to get that into one of the homes that only had one, which the neighborhood
wanted and we reduce the height from 45 feet down to 44 feet and we have a new zoning plan
revised plan one page so with that unless the board has any questions I will call Ori Feibush
Mr. Feibush could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter
Good afternoon, Ori Feibush, O-R-I, last name F as in Frank, E-I-B-U-S-H.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Mr. Feibush, you're here on behalf of the equitable owner, correct?
And did you hear all of the testimony that I provided in this case already?
I did.
And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your information, knowledge, and belief?
And would you adopt it as your own?
I would.
All right.
Is there anything further?
Questions from the board?
All right.
And I believe, finally, Scott Woodruff, the architect for the project, is on to adopt my testimony.
Scott, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Scott Woodruff.
S-C-O-T-T-W-O-O-D-R-U-F-F.
You swear, affirm, tell truth, hold truth, nothing but the truth.
Receive counsel.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Woodruff, you're the project architect, correct?
And did you hear all of the testimony that was already presented in this case?
Yes. And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
I do. And would you adopt it as your own? I would. Thank you very much.
Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience? Mr. Chair, I have Ms. Kiana Thompson with her hand raised. I have allowed her to speak.
Sure. Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, Kiana Thompson, K-I-A-N-A, Thompson, T-H-O-M, P-S-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am the principal of the Academy at Palumbo High School, which is next.
Oh, okay, sure. Proceed.
Thank you. I was not able to attend the community meeting, but I'm just wondering
how my students traveling to and from school especially during the construction phase would
be impacted and also during evacuation drills where that area is one of our evacuation points
we have 1200 students in grades 9 through 12 so we use all four sides of the building to
evacuate, and if that is a construction zone, we have to do monthly evacuation drills, and once
it's residents, I'm wondering how we would be impacted. Boyle, do you want to comment to that?
Certainly, I can address that, and then I'll let Mr. Feibus or Mr. Woodruff jump in
as necessary. The construction period will be about 18 months, you know, start to finish once
once shovels hit the dirt. So this will be a relatively short-term thing, but obviously we
want to make sure everybody's safe. We will keep Webster Street clear. One of the benefits of this
property is that with its size, we are able to stage without closing off the immediate streets
and build out from the rear coming forward towards South 20th. So we can keep Webster Street
completely clear for the students. There's also this is a very wide sidewalk built.
Um, there's also, this is a very wide sidewalk built here. I can, um, so I don't see the dimension on here, but it's a very wide, uh, we're, we're making basically a very wide sidewalk here.
And like I said, I already walked through the delineations to make sure that that would also be a place appropriate for students to be able to walk out and, and safely be off the street.
um however i will say that you know we would uh certainly welcome to meet with miss thompson
and uh maybe dr thompson i i apologize if i messed that up and you know get her input on our safety
plan and be able to work with her uh going forward to make sure that you know we're not blocking off
any kind of exit or egress for any emergency situation. Thank you. And also, you mentioned
the parking. Parking is a major struggle for my staff. And you said this would open up on-street
parking. Do you have any idea if it's only for the residents to be able to park there all day?
Because right now I have teachers who have to run out every two hours. The only reason I get a spot
is because my engineer who gets here at six in the morning puts a comb out for me um so will it
make more of a headache or less for us uh so that was one of the biggest issues with the community
it will make less of a headache for you uh all of the on-street parking will be open to uh anyone
you know anyone in the public trying to park uh the only parking that will be limited to the
individual townhome owners will be the individual parking garages that they have in their rear that
are accessed off this drive aisle that you can see. And that actually, that will take all of
the townhome cars off of the street so that they're not parking on the street. And then it
will open up all of the on-street parking for any of the public who are going to use it.
the community we've already agreed to support the community they're they're hoping to have a
a redesign of this block along south 20th right now to allow for additional street on street
parking you know that that obviously is something that has to play out but you know the entirety of
christian street here will add on street parking spaces and that will not be for individual town
home use at all so council excuse me this is commissioner shaheed if i'm not mistaken the
school is a part of the fabric of the community have they not been met with prior to this um
hearing uh we we did reach out to the school and we served the school as we were were required um
as you heard miss thompson was not able and uh i did not hear any represent representatives from
the school at the multiple meetings but we did have three public meetings and we are certainly
interested and willing to meet with um miss thompson going forward to make sure that the
school is is accepting of the uh the evacuation plans and and sort of safety features that we've
added i don't know what the process is but there was a letter taped to the door one morning um but
I never got a personal request for a meeting.
Yes, okay.
So just here, I'm recommending that we hold this
until they meet with the school
because of the fire emergencies.
Well, let's finish up.
Well, Mr. Shahid jumped there.
I was going to suggest that given the process, zoning, even assuming we get the zoning approval
today, the process does not go into the ground on Monday.
There's an extensive period of getting the building permits and whatnot in which we would
be able to meet with Ms. Thompson.
However, I would be more than happy to have the board close the record and hold for two
weeks so that we could meet with Ms. Thompson. We certainly, we think we designed a great project
with, you know, extensive community support. And we'd like to make sure that Ms. Thompson
feels a part of that and that the school is certainly part of that. And so we'd be happy to
have the board hold its vote so that we could meet with Ms. Thompson in the next couple of weeks.
Okay. I hear that. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, I do not see any further hands.
By Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman and members of the board.
Thank you, Chair Bergman and members of the board, David Fecto, with the City Planning Commission.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in the commercial mixed-use zoning at this location.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance in this lot to prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
The applicant has not shown that the proposed use and dimensional variances are needed to enable them to derive value from this land.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the use and dimensional variances.
So the record's going to be closed. We will vote on this in two weeks, and the principal and Sean and Mr. Finebush could get together in this next two weeks, and the only thing we're going to take testimony on is the result of the meeting, okay?
Certainly. Chairman Bergman, do you mind if I do a quick response to the Planning Commission?
Well, sure.
you know i think obviously but i i wholeheartedly disagree with the planning commission's position
on this point i went through the unnecessary hardship there was a significant change in
this neighborhood which was identified by the community i mean not even just us they were the
ones who really pointed out that all the commercial has gone from these blocks and that no commercial
use is appropriate. They did not want to see first floor commercial with 20 plus apartments
above, which is what the CMX2 commercial development would be. The community did not
want to see that. They were not interested in empty storefronts, which is what they're already
faced with. And as I already set forth, this is a single family residential neighborhood.
And again, as the community noted, the CMX2 designation for this property individually is sort of a silo, and there are a few of them for decade-long existing businesses.
so we believe that with you know the unnecessary hardship there's no detriment to the public health
safety or welfare and it's certainly the least minimum variance in getting away from you know
the 20 plus apartments over what would be vacant commercial space that the community
did not want and they were very happy when we were coming to them with townhomes
so thank you very much i want to hear you and hillary you you're comfortable with this hillary
i just wanted to um clarify mr chair are you asking for a resumption hearing or
are we just holding the record i think i think i would want to close the record
the only thing we would have is uh a report back from the the meeting between the school and the
the developer okay so maybe what we should do then is close the record except for
a letter from mr whalen and and from miss thompson verifying that the meeting was held
and then we can vote that's fine yep all right and just before just before we jump off um miss
thompson so that you don't have to do so on a public record uh my phone number is 215-622-7402
that's my direct line so you can reach out to me and we can set up that meeting at your convenience
in the next week or so thank you thank you everyone excuse me chair i'm sorry to interrupt
but uh mr eric stern has his hand raised okay sure
could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
my name is eric stern e-r-i-c-s-t-e-r-n right do you swear for him tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do sir proceed uh i live at the property on webster
street that is uh directly adjacent to this proposed project the one that's probably most
impacted by by it um and i wanted to echo what mr whalen said about the community um and their
their uh thoughts on this project i'm in agreement with this project because the developers generously
agreed to do work on my house necessary to provide me with adequate protections, comfort to me and
my property, so I won't suffer any negative consequences. So I'm in agreement with the
project. Thank you for calling in. We appreciate your comments. Sure. Okay. Sean, we're all good?
We are all good. We will meet and send in the board a letter. All right. Thank you.
um no okay wait a minute here
i'll be with you in one minute let's see here
1323 okay oh okay and mr well is back here am i unfortunately for you you're stuck
Oh, okay. Mr. Whalen's back here.
I think unfortunately for you, you're stuck with me.
005078, 1940 Wharton Street.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
Letter of support from the Point Breeze Community Development Coalition.
Mr. Whalen, could you identify your client, your relationship to the property?
Of course.
Sean Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N.
I'm here as the attorney for the owner of the property, which is 1940 Wharton Street, LLC.
Mr. Shahid has a few questions.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed all the required documents to proceed with this case five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you very much.
So you were going to get a one-case break from me, but you continued that one, so you're stuck with me.
Here for 1940 Wharton Street, you can see it.
It's got the blue dot on it right here.
It's a long, vacant lot right at the corner of – this is Wharton Street and 20th Street.
We are three short blocks or one long block on the north side off of Point Breeze Avenue, kind of the major commercial thoroughfare through the neighborhood.
And this project may seem familiar to everyone because we originally brought, I guess about a year ago, a request for a single family home.
the community did not want the single family home that we had proposed there and I'll get
into those reasons why so in working with the community we resubmitted a new application for