All right, thank you.
Rachel?
she's coming back in as a panelist now chair
good afternoon chairman members of the board hi could you state your name please and spell
for the court reporter sure it's rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l princeker
P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R, 1521 Locust Street, Suite 605, Philadelphia, PA, 19102.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
So my client is BBG Property Group, LLC.
One of the principals, Justin Beese, is here today, and they are the equitable owners of 2055 and 57 Rush Street, which we are in the process of acquiring from the Philadelphia Land Bank.
Thank you. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Thank you. Our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Hi, Rachel. Do you swear for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth you were just born in?
Hi, Rachel.
Well, I wanted to do it again.
Yeah, I don't know why.
That's fine.
That's fine.
Just to be sure, yes.
Yeah, just to be sure.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this meeting, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Okay, you may proceed, and please share your screen.
Great.
Sorry about that double swearing in.
That's okay. I'll go with it.
you see my screen yes yes okay uh so this is 2055 and 2057 east rush street we're going to do them
together they propose exactly the same thing um these properties um are in the process of being
fully acquired by the philadelphia from the philadelphia land bank this process started back
in April of 2021. As the board may know, in order to acquire through a non-competitive
bid with the Philadelphia Land Bank, the applicant is required to provide 51% of the units as
affordable and 49% market rate to help mitigate the city's affordable housing crisis. Both
of these properties are zoned RSA 5. However, as you can see on my screen, they are quite
large lots. They're also in the middle of the block, and more importantly, as part of our
application to meet the city's requirements of the 51% affordability. We are using both of these
lots as instead of market rate single-family homes, they are market rate duplexes that will
be provided for homeownership. This is something that is important to help subsidize the affordable
portion. These projects are not just by themselves in a vacuum. They are in a package of 26 parcels
in the Port Richmond area of the city. And this is something that has been supported by both the
land bank through the process and awarding these properties to us through the submission process
and also with support from the council office, which is Councilman Mark Squilla. In order to,
again, meet the city's requirements for the 51% affordable, we had to provide market rate housing
to help subsidize that in order to kind of help provide additional market rate housing and home
ownership. It was decided that these two properties, given the market conditions in this neighborhood
and the need for more affordability, even around the market rate product, that these two properties
would be selected to work through that process. The only variance that we are requesting in order to
comply with the requirements of the 51%, 49% affordability components are just for
multifamily household living. Again, each lot will have two condo units as opposed to just
one single family home on each lot. They're identical in that way. Again, these are part
of sort of a larger 26 parcel package to support the goals and requirements from the land bank
and just want to move through the processes in order to make that happen.
The rest of the projects, the 26 other properties, are all compliant with the code
and are not requesting any variances.
However, support various levels of affordability and homeownership.
On the screen, you'll see the letter that is from the Philadelphia Land Bank
from their executive director, Angel Rodriguez, stating our ability to work through the process,
giving us sort of equitable ownership, and I believe additional documentation earlier today
was provided to the Zoning Board of Adjustments attorney, Hillary Emerson, if the board has a chance
to review that. Additionally, as you can see, the whole block, all these blocks are zoned single
family, given market conditions and ground up new construction. We wanted to make sure that even
though we're providing market rate to help subsidize the larger package that we're trying
to include as much affordability even within the market rate as humanly possible, as to
why we're providing two condos on each site. These have been longstanding vacant lots,
and there is some new construction adjacent to it, but would not help provide the level
of affordability to help subsidize the 51 units that is required through this program.
These are the zoning posters that we posted on the property. You can see from this photos
You can see from this photo is the new construction adjacent to us.
then new construction adjacent to us and again
And again, the only variances we're requesting are just for use for duplexes.
The lots are large enough to be able to support duplexes by right if they were zoned RM1,
so it is not an overuse of the property.
The dimensions are such that if it was zoned for RM1, we would be in compliance with the code.
No dimensional variances are being requested.
We met with the community, which was the Somerset Neighbors for a Better Living back in May of 2022. Although they did provide a letter not to supporting our project, they did not state the reasons behind it, and they did not provide a meeting summary to show what the results of the vote was.
We were kicked out of that portion of the meeting, so I'm not even sure what the vote was.
And we have tried many times to re-meet with them.
There's a text chain from one of the owners where we were actually going to be allowed to present again.
We had spoken with the council office and let them know that most of the concerns at the meeting were related to just them not understanding the land bank process and the larger scope that these two properties fall within.
the council office even offered the councilman himself even offered to go to that meeting just
to provide any information to share about the land bank process but the community group although
saying they would meet with us again they eventually declined meeting with us again
and again all we have is just a letter saying they don't support it with not much more detail than
that I will say despite not being able to meet with them again we did make revisions to the
project mostly around aesthetics which is what they were um focused on wanting brick facades
certain color brick facade more traditional windows and things of that nature which we
decided to incorporate into the project either way um it's worth noting again that uh the
councilman um is aware of this project uh specifically in his letter he writes that
these are being uh purchased as part of a broader development um for 51 affordable and 49 market
rate throughout port richmond and south philly we met with the community and coordinating rcos
and even though they have a letter of non-support uh the councilman did mention that this development
will bring 20 affordable units to the city out of the 27 lots being purchased which is more than
obviously the 51 that were required total project has been the works for almost two years has been
changed by the developers to include more home ownership and affordability than required is
because of this that the councilman is going to leave the respectfully leave the vote to
chairman and members of the board. We have all the mailing requirements for the letters and I'm happy
to pull up the plans. I'm hoping our architect is on the call but I'm happy to try and pull the
plans up and go through them if the board would like. Other than that I just would like to see
if Justin Veazey is available to adopt my testimony and then happy to answer any questions
that you may have.
Mr. Veazey?
Mr. Veazey?
Mr. Veazey, you can unmute yourself or wait for the chair, please.
Hi, Mr. Veazey. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Justin Veazey. J-U-S-T-I-N-V-E-A-S-E-Y.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Hello?
Okay, thank you. Proceed, counsel.
Justin, have you heard the testimony I gave today in front of the board? Do you adopt
it as your own and do you believe it to be true and accurate?
Yes, I do. Thank you. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman. No. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
chair we have a mr jihad ali mr ali you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair please
mr ali just state your name i swore you in once today
hello mr jihad ali uh thank you mr chairman members of the board uh as the count i'm very
familiar with this project as the council knows i've attended the land bank meeting on two occasions
because it actually had to come up twice.
But I do want to agree with her.
There's ample opportunity for the community to come in and voice their concern.
I was one of the ones that voiced my concern.
The developer met with us.
He worked out all the issues that we had.
We had some concerns about one of the units was labeled as a den.
uh one of the units was labeled as a den he worked through that he worked through all the mvewe stuff
He worked through that.
He worked through all the MBEs.
so i support the practice thank you very much for calling in any other comments from the virtual
audience chair we have anthony fullard mr fullard you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair
please hi anthony state your name please hi anthony state your name and spell for the court reporter
please yes uh my name is anthony fullard um a-n-t-h-o-n-y f-u-l-l-a-r-d and just want to
uh be on the record wait anthony wait wait anthony wait one minute do you swear for him to tell the
truth the whole truth not but the truth yes i do thank you anthony proceed yes i just wanted uh
Just to be on the record, as it relates to Justin Veasley as a developer that my development firm has been working with, West Powhatan Development.
We are in support of his project and also his development, especially because of the income mix that they proposed,
meaning that they propose to do market rate and also affordable housing in this project with the city solely needs.
And also that means that he's bringing stakeholders that will be a part of this community for a long period of time to the tune of 20 to 30 years.
So we are in support of that type of development around the city that he brings to this project as well.
Thank you. Thank you, Anthony. Anyone else in the virtual audience? Here we have Mr. Deans.
Mr. Deans, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair, please.
Mr. Deans, please state your name and spell for the court reporter.
My name is Khayyam Odeans, C-H-A-I-M Odeans, O-D-E-E-N-S.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Who's he?
I am just a neighbor of this property development, and I would just like to have it on the record that I am in favor, and my vote would be yes for this,
as I've been a longstanding resident of the neighborhood and believe the residential density that this project would bring in would be a great opportunity to mitigate some of the negative activity
that occurs on a daily basis in this area.
And I think this project should move forward.
Thank you very much for calling in.
We appreciate your call.
Anyone else?
Chair, we have Ms. Farrell.
Ms. Farrell, you can unmute yourself
and wait for the chair, please.
Hi, could you state your name
and spell for the court reporter?
Hello?
hello chair her name has disappeared for some reason is there any other hands up
there's no other hands at this time chair thank you planning commission thank you mr chairman
uh chair bergman members of the board david effecto city planning commission
So for 2055 East Rush and 2057 East Rush, the Comprehensive Plan recommends no change
to the residential single-family zoning at this location. These lots are both less than 1,000
square feet, which matches the lot sizes in the rest of the block. There is no unique physical
condition of either lot which would require them to be used as anything other than single-family.
However, the Commission is aware that these properties are part of a mixed-income request
for proposals released by the philadelphia land bank those agreements are conditioned on obtaining
approval from the zoning board the planning commission staff is willing to work with the
rcos council office and applicant to strategically rezone blocks in this neighborhood to multi-family
if duplexes are desired without a rezoning and citing lack of hardship the city planning
commission recommends that the board deny the use variance for both properties thank you mi
2022 001 817 25 55 east rush street and mi 2022 001 818 2057 east rush street i vote yes to both
my uh carol tenere my vote is no to both
james snell my vote is yes to both
my vote is yes to both thank you very much thank you number eight
my vote is yes to both
mi 2022 001 976 2452 cedar street alan knockinson is the attorney
letter of support from the old richmond civic association
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Nockamson, I've already sworn you in.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
His name is Michael Jordan, and he's the owner of the property.
Thank you very much.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Mr. Nockamson, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal or
referral photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met
with the rco and do you have a letter yes thank you you may proceed i was trying to think of
something smart to say but i'm tired i know i was thinking you should actually come in you're here
so much with flashcards and you know just hold it up and i don't know they're looking for a lawyer
for the board i heard all right i'm gonna this one's gonna be easier less less uh presentation
here hopefully um i'm here to present uh 2452 cedar uh street and um let me just put it full
screen modes um and again this is a corner property uh in the uh old richmond section