In my recollection, the majority of the letters that we received were very early in the process.
thank you and had not yet uh the the committees had not had a chance to really review the project
and the developer had not had a chance to respond and and several of these letters had already
issued their opinion and in fact significant uh refinements to the proposal were made through this
very uh detailed uh intensive process correct that is correct uh earlier you may have heard
Earlier, you may have heard Mr. Feynman cast doubt on the support position of the coordinating RCO. He asked some questions concerning the votes of the committee's Chestnut Hill Civic Association has a very in-depth process, as we all know, in the practice.
Mr. Feynman cast
Ms. McNiff was asked some questions about that.
I believe that you may keep the records of the coordinating RCO.
Are you able to share so that there's no doubt with the chairman and members of the zoning board,
the votes of the individual committees, which led to the full board vote in support?
If you give me a few minutes, I can do that.
my recollection is that the tie vote was broken by the chair the one time there was a tie vote
and that led to a six to five vote correct uh led to a support yes
thank you uh no need to check further thank you very much for making the time to be here
thank you for coming again can i just can i just clear up one thing the you you you received letters
early on, Mr. Laver has kind of indicated that was before there was a change in the development
plan. That's what Mr. Laver indicated to you. And you said you did receive those letters early on,
correct? Correct. You don't know that those people changed their mind, do you?
How would I know that? You don't know that.
All I know is that they had made up their mind before they had it. Right. And you don't know
if they changed their mind after there were a change in the plans isn't that correct you just
don't know i do not know thank you thank you however one last one last question i'm sorry mr
chairman however ms hardester what you do know is that the plans have changed and been refined
since those early letters were received right yes and more than once thank you
uh jason how many more hands do you have chair we have two more heads up okay next hand please
we have a tyler britain tyler britain please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
hi i could you please state your could you please state your name and spell for the court
stenographer. My name is Tyler Britton, T-Y-L-E-R-B-R-I-T-T-E-N. Do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Are you a neighbor? I'm on the other
side of Chestnut Hill, so I'm a Chestnut Hill resident, but not a near neighbor. Are you in
favor of this project or against? In favor. Okay. Can you add anything to what you've already heard?
uh nope i was just going to keep that brief and just say um i've also sent a letter in support
as well um and a number of uh nearby neighbors to me have uh have have voiced similar opinions
thank you very much mr britton either lawyer do you have any comments or questions thank you
no i i have no comments personally some distance away next hand please
Chair, we have Kimberly Dukes.
Kimberly Dukes, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Ms. Dukes, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Can you hear me?
I most certainly can.
D-U-K-E-S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
All right.
Are you for or against the project?
against okay would you give us your reason why i am one of the near neighbors that abut the park
my husband and i own five acres it is a tremendous responsibility to keep up this
piece of chestnut hill that's a national historic district um i don't know if i can articulate
all the things that i need to i have been involved in this for a year just trying to
alert neighbors to what's going on okay i think lots of things going on in philadelphia that
you know are being fought against this is a very very rural area that has been neglected
significantly abashedly by Lavi and his team if you anyone wants to drive by they can see how
neglected it is and it just honestly Mr. Bergman
And it just, honestly, Mr. Bergman, it is not something that it should just be popically brushed.
I mean, it's been, this has been continued three times.
This is a serious issue.
Whether or not people come forward, I understand that that's important.
But this is an ugly development against easements that protect it from development.
And it's an assault to people like me who abut the park and have been spending, you know, unbelievable amounts of money, time, energy, just preserving this part of Chestnut Hill.
And I'm not doing it out of spite.
I'm doing it because I love this area.
And I just don't think it's the right thing to do. Not at this time, not this project. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Either attorney.
Yes, I have a couple of questions, please, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Dukes, thank you for joining us today. I think I missed your address. Could you please state your address for the record?
Ms. Dukes, can you raise your virtual hand?
Mr. Chair, the only hand is. Okay. They've been allowed to speak, sir.
Hello?
Ms. Dukes?
Mr. Laver has a few questions.
I heard. So my address is 9002-9004 Krefeld Street. It is a five-acre property with a 25,000-square-foot home and carriage house.
The Greylock property is actually, I look out my window and I can see it from my kitchen window, and it is actually smaller than my property.
Mr. Chairman, may I please screen share for a moment?
You can.
Thank you.
Up on the screen is a map from the city system that shows the subject property where my cursor is and through the lavender trail woods, Ms. Duke's property.
At the closest distance, Mr. Chairman and members of the board, it is six hundred seventy seven feet away.
We just like that to be taken into consideration for the record.
No further questions. And I'd like to be considered that the other Tyler Britton and the first woman who spoke are certainly further than that.
This is out of order. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Feynman, do you have any questions, Mr. Feynman?
I'm just curious, you know, 677 feet. You can see the property, can't you? You can see the
Greylock property from your property, can't you? You can see it, can't you, Ms. Duke?
Ms. Duke, please unmute yourself. I can see it from my kitchen window. There is nothing but
woods in between. There is no buildings in between. And one of the things, I mean, I'm going
to show some pictures later to the board but one of the one of the things is that why don't you tell
us what how the property is being kept at this point in time we've heard testimony from the
developer about how he's keeping the property up is the property being kept up
absolutely not i mean not according to the rest of the neighbors who abut the park
all of us certainly take better care of our property than graylock is being taken care of
i could say that for sure i have no other questions thank you next hand jason
here we have david dannenberg david dannenberg please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
mr chairman um mr dannenberg has given me a statement that it might be easier if i read
in his statement rather than him doing it and I have I'm prepared to do that if that's okay with
the board then he can accept that that that's that's okay but I would give Mr. Labor a chance
to ask a question to sure okay okay a question Mr. Chairman I thought from Mr. Feynman's uh
emails that Mr. Donenberg is one of Mr. Feynman's two witnesses to complete his case is this going
to be it can either be one of the things i can either do it now or i can do it later that's all
i can either do it now or i can do it later that's all why why don't we do why don't we do
why don't we do
when you get a chance to do your case we'll bring them on let me see who else is in the audience
okay okay that's fine whatever you want else i understand mr jones kimberly jones please
unmute yourself and wait for the chair she's the closest neighbor since the closest neighbor
with physical address
or the closest neighbor.
Yes. Can you hear me?
Yeah. Hi, could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer?
Kimberly Jones.
K-I-M-B-E-R-L-Y
J-O-N-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Ms. Jones, are you a neighbor?
Please proceed.
Are you for this project or against?
My husband and I are generally for this project. Yes, sir.
You're for the project.
Is there anything different you can offer than what we've already heard from the prior testimony?
Yes, sir. I think so.
Please tell us.
I live at 203 West Chesterville Avenue.
I am directly next to the property.
Only the property that's closer than me directly would be the school behind us.
um and we are directly affected on a regular basis by everything that happens
at Greylock um the disarray and otherwise um we have been hesitant to comment we've recused
ourselves from most of the community things because the tension is so great um but I just
wanted to speak out because I don't um want it to seem like we don't care because we haven't
been public it's just it's stressful to be honest with you um the backlash and it just it's
uncomfortable and often feels unnecessary but um we've everything about the project isn't perfect
but generally speaking we think that it would be good for our neighborhood and as people who
I literally look out my bedroom window and every other window on that side of my house at the
property um and the land and we've lived here for 17 years and it's it's only gotten worse um
i don't approve of the condition that has been kept over the years um but i don't want to stop
the work that they're trying to do there because i think that it's good it's not perfect but um
i think it would be good for us um and i know there's lots of people who don't agree but
but thank you very much for your testimony either attorney you have a question yes i do
miss jones thank you thank you very much for for coming here and one of the things that you said
was that the project probably is not perfect no project is perfect but would you be more in favor
or less in favor of the project if it had less density in other words if there were less less
buildings rather than more buildings or less buildings than there are today would
you be more in favor of it then um that's a little bit tricky to me um because I've
heard all the arguments about that um I don't I don't have an opinion on that okay fine
thank you mr laver thank you miss jones for uh being here under difficult circumstances no
questions thank you miss jones anyone else in the audience chair if i may g craig shelter
please unmute yourself and wait who's adam did you say something then mr chairman uh i certainly
would like mr shelter to be able to proceed i just wanted to let the board know that uh richard
Snowden is trying to raise his hand as well. Thank you. Okay. Sir, please go on. State your
name and spell for the court stenographer. My name is Craig Shelter. My last name is spelled S-C-H-E-L-T-E-R.
You swear a friend to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I do. Are you a neighbor, sir?
uh not any longer i was originally i owned the house which was recently purchased by
the kreefeld school uh it was the gatehouse to the original um locker mansion uh i lived there
okay hold on so let me let me let me tell you my question um we've had a lot of testimony are you
in favor of this project or against the project i'm in favor of this project is there anything
you can offer that hasn't already been said?
I could offer a few things. One is, there was a question about whether anybody has changed
their mind during the process. I, for one, know that
I, for one, know that dear friends of mine who live right across the street from this project at 203 Chestnut Hill Avenue have no objection to this project.
dear friends of mine who live
They were originally not in favor of it, but after seeing the changes in the plan and the quality of the design that went into it, they changed their opinion of that project.
That's number one.
Number two, I would make a point that the real questions here come with regard to what the city's role would be in the zoning code versus a private easement that exists on the property.
And I say this in the context of my experience in Philadelphia.
I spent 15 years at the City Planning Commission, including three years as director.
During which time, the Historic Preservation Ordinance created the Philadelphia Historic Preservation Corporation, which subsequently became the Preservation Alliance.
And I was the first chair of that corporation of the easement committee.
And one of the things about the easement committee was the easements were always more restrictive than what the zoning would allow.
And there were also easements that were given in good faith by both parties where conditions changed that required them to be changed.
And I think that's the fundamental issue here.
But there's nothing in the Philadelphia Code that the developer hasn't met from a zoning point of view, density, traffic, access, aesthetics, landscaping,
that in any way would be anathema to something that would be considered within the zoning code.
And the process with easements can move on at a later stage, but I think it's critical here, given the need for housing and the need to get the site developed, that the zoning variances could be granted so this can move ahead.
Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Is there any, either attorney have a question?
Mr. Shelter, yes, I do. I have a few questions. Mr. Shelter, we've known each other for many, many years. Is that correct?
yes i'm looking at miss gaston all of us have practiced when you were in the uh when you were
on the planning commission and had to deal with you in all kinds of ways during that period of
time and we thank you for your service to the city of philadelphia when you talked about the easements
those easements we've made an entirely different argument to the board that the board is going to
have to consider and i'm not going to go through that again at this time but those events at some
point in time are going to have to be negotiated by and between the party that granted the
easements to the property isn't that correct and the developer objection this is irrelevant the
board already reviewed this matter i've heard him talk about these easements you know let's let's
just put it on the record i mean he came before you almost as an expert witness tried to make
himself an expert that's not so stop what stop representing my clients said that
i'm just asking a question yeah well nobody told you to stop representing your client
Well, no, no, I thought that Mr. Labor made a comment.
No, I think he said that's not so is what I think he said.
Right. Well, I'm just asking that at some point in time later, there's going to have to be a negotiation between the party that granted the easements and the developer.
Isn't that correct?
Isn't that correct, Mr. Shelter?
I think that is correct.
OK, that's all I have.