The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
I'm going to vote on both. We'll vote on both of these.
Number six, MI 2022-003-196-232 West Penn Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Revised plans, one page, stamped by ZBA, April 19, 2023.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes to both with provisos.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with provisos.
So number 16, MI 2022, 003195 230 West Penn Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Revised plans, one page, stamp by ZBA, April 19, 2023.
Thomas Holliman, James Snell, my vote is yes with provisos.
James Snell, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Thank you for your time, everyone.
Have a good day.
Number eight, MI 2021-005-282-3257 North 16th Street.
Darlene Threat is the attorney.
letter of support from the Nicetown
Tioga improvement team
with Provisos
it's sweet to be rejoining as a panelist sir
Good morning, Ms. Threatt.
Good morning.
Good morning, Commission.
I can't hear you.
Sure, I can't now.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Darlene Threatt, D-A-R-L-E-N-E, Threatt, T as in Thomas, H-R-E-A-T-T as in
Thomas. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Could you identify your client in the relationship to this property?
The client in this matter is Ms. Wendy Ray, and I believe Ms. Ray is on the line.
Okay, and our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy. Yes, I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits needed to proceed
with this case five days in advance of this hearing? Commissioner, I had a conversation
with Ms. Emerson. My client entered into a tax agreement with the city of Philadelphia, but we
haven't received a copy. I was advised we could make the presentation and you will hold the vote
awaiting the tax agreement.
Thank you.
May I proceed?
Good morning, commissioners.
I presented a presentation package
to you today,
which contains nine exhibits. We have the refusal, the appeal, property information form, the deed,
plans, pictures, community letter support, proof of mailing, and a letter of support.
I'll start out with showing you the refusal. This property is our RSA 5 and we were refused for
multi-families are not allowed in this district. Commissioners, this property was purchased in
2018 it was already fitted out into a multi-family but it wasn't legal my client sought in 2021 to
legalize this property so she could renovate it i'm just going to flip down to some of the
more relevant exhibits here commissioners i just wanted to show you the deed whereby
It indicates that my client did purchase this property in 2018.
And then I'd like to jump to the plans.
Commissioners, we like to develop this property consistent with the other properties in the neighborhood.
Basically, we would like to develop this property into a three-family plan.
we would like to have no basement use and then we would have one a two-bedroom apartment on
the first floor uh there's a bedroom in the front kitchen living area and a bedroom in the back
give me one second please
I apologize. My dog was going crazy in it. On the second floor, it's the same layout and I could make it a little bigger if you like so you can see the plan a little better.
It's also a two-bedroom apartment. We have a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom area
and a bedroom. And on the third floor is the same exact identical layout with the two bedrooms and
two back rooms and two back we have a rendering for you which will show you
to that.
maybe what the finished product would look like just reduce that a little for you
basically we're going to clean up the brick in the front we did agree with the civic association
that we would remove this structure here
since there isn't adjacent structure currently
on the side of this property to connect that to.
I took various pictures of the properties in the community.
Just to watch that a little bit for you.
Speak up just a little bit.
You're kind of low.
Okay, I'll speak up a little bit.
Let me enlarge this photo for you.
See if I could bring it down a little bit.
Here we go.
So this is the property currently as it looks and as it sits on the block.
Basically, today, there are only three structures on this block.
There's a vacant lot to the left of this property.
There's a vacant house to the right.
That's where I'm sitting, of this property.
And this property is occupied.
Commissioners, further down the block here at the address 321 to 3247, the board just approved a 33-unit building apartment complex that will go up shortly.
You can also see the posting on the property that we did.
Here's just another close-up look of the property so you can actually see what it looks like.
I have various perches. This is the side of the property. You can see it's a very, very large structure, consistent with most of the structures in this neighborhood. And I will tell you that this is a changing, transitioning neighborhood. I just took another picture of the end of the block. So this is the second house from our house. And right here is where the big apartment complex, which was approved by the board and is scheduled to begin construction soon.
i gave you a picture of across the street and looking north this is a multi-family this is a
multi-family and this is also a multi-family this is a very changing neighborhood they're very very
large structures and most of the development or the conversions have been to multi-families
i just want to give you a picture of the block across the street back down here used to be a
big church and now you have another apartment building scheduled slated to be constructed
in this area this is almost directly across the street down the block just going to flip
down a few more houses for you give you another picture this is diagonally across the street
also multi-family currently
this was the old existing church down the street that has been knocked down already and this is
where a new apartment building structure is scheduled to come up
just other various pictures of the neighborhood it is transitioning it is changing to just give
you a look at what this neighborhood looks like.
Commissioners, we did meet with the Tioga Association.
We actually met with them on two occasions.
We met with them on February 21st, 2023,
and we met with them again in April of 2023.
We were able to, here is the actual mailing,
and down here, we actually have a lot of support
uh from the uh tayoga rco uh with some provisals um in it we did indicate that we would help
maintain the lot next to us we did not indicate that we would be totally really responsible for
keeping it clean we also indicated that the buildings would be code compliant in regard
to a sprinkler system i mean with that um commissioners i'm willing to answer any questions
that you may have of me or my client want to bring your client on and adopt your testimony
miss ray are you on the line
miss wendy ray this ray has been allowed to speak ma'am i'm here hi good morning hi good morning
could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter wendy ray w-e-n-d-y last name
ray r e y do you swear or affirm tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth i do
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Ms. Ray, are you the owner of 3257 North 16th Street?
Ms. Ray, have you heard my testimony today?
Yes, yes.
Ms. Ray, if you were to testify, would you be able to adopt my testimony?
And Ms. Ray, did you, in fact, just enter into a tax agreement with the city of Philadelphia?
I did, yes.
And you will provide that to the board?
that's all i have commissioner questions from the board
questions or comments from the virtual audience
mr charles richardson has his hand raised i have allowed him to speak at this time
mr richardson just for the record state your name please certainly charles richardson r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n
office of councilwoman cindy bass from 508 city hall the councilwoman has no opposition to
granting the variance. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, sir. I have a hand raised from a number ending in 3552. I will allow them to speak.
Okay. Could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, this is Adrienne Fernandez. My last name is spelled F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z for affected RCO
Swampoodle Neighborhood Process Association, RCL?
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes. Proceed.
Okay. I would just like to request one proviso that the trash be stored indoors in the building
because of the extensive littering and trash problems that we have in the community.
Thank you for your suggestion. We appreciate that.
You're welcome.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no further hand at this time, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, Sarah Bond, Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning.
However, the proposed use is consistent with documented prior use of this property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance.
Thank you.
We're going to hold the vote on this until we receive the tax agreement.
Hillary, we'll set that date once we receive it.
Thank you very much, Commissioner.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
We will put it on an add-on list once we receive it.
And the record is otherwise closed except for the tax agreement.
Thank you.
Number nine, MI 2022-003-311-1023-27, West Susquehanna Avenue.
Brandon Saverin is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the 37th Ward.
and we also have the applicant has also produced a letter from a real estate firm
good morning mr chair morning good morning mr savering could you state your name please and
spell it for the court reporter for the record yes my name is brandon savering that's spelled
B-R-A-N-D-O-N and then S as in Sam, A, V as in Victor, R-A-N. Right. Do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Could you identify your
client, the relationship to this property? Yes, my client is the property owner of record. All
right. Just curious, could you tell us? The entity name is Temple space I-I space LLC.
see all right our vice chair has a few questions for you uh yes mr vice chair have you emailed
all the required documents and exhibits to proceed with this case five days in advance
of this year yes i did please proceed introduce me thank you
okay um good morning members of the board so um i am going to show you the refusal in one moment
i thought it would be useful to just show you an aerial uh image of the property first um so this
is 1023-27 west susquehanna avenue um what you're seeing here is susquehanna uh towards the bottom
of the screen below that is the temple university football training and practice complex um which is
a lighted outdoor facility um and then uh like a dull butter knife um the
And then, like a dull butter knife, the SEPTA mainline train traps are on an elevated embankment to the right, which go south of here to Center City, north of here to Wayne Junction, and then Cheltenham Township and beyond.
So the proposal is, as the refusal will say, to develop a 20-unit apartment building with ground floor space that will be occupied by a permitted use in this zoning district.
So that that's typically going to be commercial or like light industrial.
The fact that this property is zoned I-2 meant that the dwelling units are not permitted.
No dwelling units are permitted at any number in this district.
There's also a requirement for bicycle parking, covered bicycle parking, which we did meet.
That's why you see that up here in the scope text, but not in the refusals.
We did not meet a requirement for off-street automobile parking on a two-to-one ratio.
So just to give you a quick image of our zoning plan and the elevations.
I'm sorry.
Hold on one second.
Oh, this is the zoning plan.
I'm just zoomed in way too far.
Pardon me.
So this is the zoning plan.
On this, Susquehanna would be on the right side. So, you know, the goal is basically to fill out this triangular parcel, leaving an appropriate buffer, I believe that says six feet between the train track and that side of the building.
And that side of the building will be built with sort of exceptional materials that will provide extra insulation from noise and vibration from passing trains.
I'll also show you a couple of elevations real quickly of the proposed building.
This is the side that I believe is the western side, which is interior to the block.