Thank you.
We're waiting for Jim.
You can hear me, right?
We're waiting for Confessor and Tom.
Tom can you hear us? Tom? You can hear me Frank? I can hear you. You've got to get
closer to the mic. Can you hear me Frank? Yes, obviously Tom can't hear me. Can you
you hear me Frank? No. Sign language. Tom, we all hear you. I can hear you. I hear you now. Tom,
could you hear me? Tom, do you hear me? Oh, he's messing with you. I think so. Can you hear me
now, Frank? I hear you. Tom, make sure your volume is turned up, please. Tom is showing very poor
connectivity whenever his image comes up, so that may be part of the problem. Yeah, but he's usually very loud. He's very low.
The pressure's not on yet, correct?
Did we lose Tom?
Yeah, we lost him.
We don't have confessor either.
Thank you.
Tom can you hear me Tom can't hear me
can you hear me Frank
yes can you hear me Frank I can
Thank you.
I'm calling Tom on his phone and I'll try to reach confessors connecting
mm-hmm confessor you hear me loud and clear okay hold on I hear you too Frank okay hold on Tom
you're not hearing me on the zoom correct we hear you but we can't you're not hearing and
You're not hearing me.
Confessor, see if you can talk to Tom.
See if he hears you.
Tom, can you hear me, buddy?
No, I don't hear him.
No, Tom's not hearing anyone.
No, Tom, I'll text him the number.
He can try calling in through his cell phone.
Tom is going to text you a phone number for you to call in, Tom.
Okay. Thank you. Okay, no problem. All right. Okay.
Thank you.
Okay, no problem.
All right.
Alan, you hear us?
Mr. Knuckamson, do you hear us? I do. I'm sorry. I had my headset off. Okay, no problem. We just
want to check to make sure that you hear us and the stenographer. Can the stenographer hear us?
we're waiting to get her back
would be glad to have Tom call on my phone and put him on speaker but if the mailman comes it's
going to be very disruptive I think Tanya was doing it court reporter you can hear us
yes thank you
I thought it was me earlier and no one else, but apparently it's the system itself.
Something wrong with the system.
well while we're getting tom since we do have a quorum myself
james snell and confessor plaza why don't we uh continue where we left off alan
um excuse me the only thing is you announced that it would be starting at 3 35 so if anyone
signed off thinking they would sign back on then no problem i'm sorry i didn't look at the time my
fault 335.
Sharon
yes Tonya i'm sorry i'm going to text you the phone number
can you send it to Tom?
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Can you put the ZBA staff on as co-hosts, please?
No, they came in.
Tom is calling in now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It is 3.35. Do we still need to wait for anyone?
It looks like us everyone. Just waiting for time, but us everyone.
Court reporter, sound check. Everything sounds good?
Yes, Tanya. Thank you.
All right.
Ron from the planning commission joined us yeah Ron will be doing the 330s I think I
Shay is going to finish out the twos of what we have left yep I'm here okay
just making sure everybody's all connected
okay cheer we have ready and our time has elapsed so we're ready okay thank you mr notkinson uh
yes uh which one are we handling what we uh did we finish popular street we did yes we are on him
Then it's Mr. Clinton, I'm sorry
I'm going to go ahead and call it again
Calendar number
521-531
West Susquehanna Avenue
2209-15
Trader Street
Mr. Clinton
Thank you Mr. Plaza
Good afternoon Mr. Chairman
Good afternoon
And do you swore or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And can you agree to waive the reading of his refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you.
Please identify yourself for the record.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Plaza.
Henry Clinton, Queen Memorial Building, 1313 South 33rd Street, put off UPA 19146.
and with me is my client, Neti, N-E-T-I, Levy, L-E-V-I,
who will testify at the end after I lay out the case.
Appreciate the opportunity to present this case.
It has a long and tortuous history.
The refusal was issued back in 2019.
We've had an initial meeting with APM, a community group,
back in November of 2019.
so I'm glad that we're being heard today and I appreciate your time. This project is an existing
vacant lot and Ms. Sunkit, if I should share my screen, I can walk through the presentation.
Yes, you have the authority. Thank you.
Has it come up for everyone to see? Not yet. Not as of yet. Did you hit the share button?
here we go how about now yes okay uh so the owner is susquehanna commons and the principal is a is
i as i said my client neti levy uh we originally had a hearing a january 8th was scheduled for
january 8th and then i'll explain why it was postponed from that time until today
I have my exhibit package, A1 through A8, or A11, and I'll go through each one briefly.
Appearance statement.
This is the deed to the property, indicating that the property is currently owned by my client.
it. This is the most recent letter. We had a Zoom meeting on August 25th,
which I will address later. Here is the contents of that notice indicated.
which I will address later.
Here is the contents of that notice
indicating that we were going to have a Zoom meeting on August 25th
and also noting that there would be a hearing today at 2 o'clock.
So what I want to do is start at the very end
and give you a perspective of the project.
So this is the current project right here.
My client removed all the vehicles that were on this lot.
As far as I can tell from the zoning records, it's been used as kind of a used car lot for many, many moons, many, many years.
Right now, it's vacant, and it's just a vacant plot of ground.
What's unique about this, and I'll go back to the zoning map, is that this project is a blend of residential and commercial.
And that is what has resulted in many of the refusals.
so the project basically is a combination of rm1 and rsa5 and the code provides that
if more than 20 percent of a piece of property or parcel is residential and that's the most
restrictive use and it's adjacent or combined with an RM1, then the RSA5 zoning category
basically prevails. So in this situation, we have a 60% is RM1 and 40% is RSA5.
Our proposal is to do a mixed-use project here of commercial and residential.
we understood that susquehanna street is in need of commercial at least that's what my client
understood from the neighborhood and so he proposed on the first floor on susquehanna to have
commercial units and then above he would have 33 apartments summer studios the majority are
one bedrooms, and there are occasional two bedrooms. The layout or site plan of the project
indicates the commercial is on the first floor, front England, Susquehanna. There's parking for
12 vehicles. There's also bike storage, and there's also area for the residents in the building to
bring their trash down, and it will be commercial trash pickup on a regular basis. We certainly
wouldn't be using the city of philadelphia to pick up our trash this is a look it's an l-shaped
building this is the look of the apartments there's 11 apartments on each floor as i say
the bulk of them are one bedroom eight typically eight on the floor are one bedroom uh there are
two two bedrooms and then a studio or two on each floor and so as i said the first floor is commercial
because the first floor is commercial the height of that first floor is about 10 feet and then we
have floors two three and four uh composing the rest of the building and this is the typical floor
plan for each of the floors just showing you another plan the outline of the of the plot of
ground and then here's an elevation from susquehanna and this is an elevation from fair hill street
I want to go into the history a little bit about meeting with the community group.
So when we first proposed this project, we ended up meeting with APM in November of 2019.
And at that meeting, there was support from the community.
This is their letter of January 7th, 2019, that we were supposed to have a hearing on January 8th, and this organization, Zulu Nation RCO, sent in a letter of opposition saying that they didn't get a chance to be heard at the APM meeting.
That letter was then followed by, that same day, a letter from Councilwoman Kenona Sanchez's office, saying that in light of what was going on here between the two community groups, and I'm paraphrasing, she said, there's no, without clear indication that immediate neighborhoods support this appeal, I'm submitting this letter of opposition.
Since that time, we've gone in front of another RCO, which is Norris Square.
And my client and I presented one public meeting with individuals.
And my client and I presented one public meeting with individuals in attendance prior to COVID.
And then we had another meeting August 25th, just last week, via Zoom.
And we've had two independent meetings with NARA Square.
We've attempted to get a letter from NARA Square.
And what they've said to us is that they don't want to take a position.
And that was in an email.
And I believe Mr. Fulks, a representative from Councilwoman Sanchez's office, is on the line, and we'll speak to that.
But we come before the board advising them that we've had numerous meetings with NARA Square.
We've indicated that we are willing and able to commit at least four units to affordable housing.
We are trying to acquire additional properties, two of them, from the land bank on Fairhill Street
so that we can then commit those two parcels to open and green space,
not only for use by the residents of this proposed project, but also residents in the neighborhood.
We also have explained to the RCO, NARA Square, that we will accept bids from licensed qualified contractors
and suppliers and vendors for any materials and for work on this particular project and that we
would go to community members first for any of the four units that are defined as affordable
per the PHDC guidelines. So I stand before the board today with letters that are stale.
One is in support from November of 2019.
One from Zulu Nation.
I don't know if they're on this call today or not.
They certainly were invited to the Zoom meeting on August 25th.
Apparently, in candor to the tribunal,
apparently, the Zulu Nation said that they had technical difficulties.
I then reached out to Zulu Nation, Mr. Bo McCann,
by email or Friday and said, look, I understand you have problems.
What's the issue?
Can we talk?
And I have not received any response from him.
So hopefully he is on this call and he can address any issues he may have.
So, Mr. Levy, have you heard my testimony?
Tanya, can you unmute Mr. Levy, L-E-V-I?
And Henry, I'll swear him in when it gets on.
good afternoon chairman good afternoon board good afternoon sir please identify yourself for the
record my name is netanel n-e-t-a-n-e-l last name levy l-e-v-i 1319 north 6th street unit 2r
philadelphia pa 19122 you're swearing the firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing
about the truth? I do. Thank you. Please proceed, Mr. Clinton. Mr. Levy, have you been listening
to my testimony throughout this meeting? Yes. And in particular, have you listened to my outline
of how we approached the community meetings and who participated and what the results were? Yes.
And if you had the opportunity to testify yourself, would you adopt my testimony as true and correct
and as your own? I would with two minor changes. My full name that you mentioned is Netanel Levy.
The second thing, the lots that we wanted to acquire with the recommendation of the neighborhood
just to use as open space are 517 and 519 West Susquehanna. And you mentioned North Fairhill.
So the correct lots are 517, 519 West Susquehanna. Otherwise, your testimony was