and the photos of the posting for the for today's hearing
there are two there were two um facades that were posted
uh germantown avenue and i believe it is pelham
we have a tax clearance we have a deed showing that cajun properties is the owner of the parcel
our appeal our application for appeal speaks to the unique circumstances for hardship here
As you'll see in a moment, the Planning Commission in the 2035 plan called for the complete
elimination of CA1 throughout Northwest Philly, and specifically called for having more multifamily
residential dwellings along Germantown Avenue.
So we were basically in the priority areas for what is the future for this area.
And we also, I'll show you in a moment,
we have a, well, these are the letters
that were sent to the neighbors.
We also gave them renderings
and photos of the entire project
and quite a bit of information that we shared with them.
and then at our proof of mailing to 73 households.
So these are excerpts from the planning commissions on 2035 plan.
And in terms of zoning to advance the plan in section H,
they are calling for CMX to CMX 2.5 and IRMX in the area that we're talking
about here. H is this area here along Germantown Avenue.
H is this area here along Germantown Avenue, the corridor.
And there are priority recommendations
from the Planning Commission that specifically called
for directing multifamily housing development
to commercial streets and train stations
to increase the number of people using public transit
and shopping at local businesses.
Finally, in Exhibit L, even though I lost this case,
this was Cindy Bass and a community group in Eastmont area.
The court in that case was dealing
with a similar CA-1 zoning project.
And in that case, there was a proposal
for residential dwellings in place
of the intensity of a CA-1.
And the court said, notably,
the permitted CA1 uses such as a restaurant doctor's office and 7-11 type uses have much
more traffic and much more of an impact on the neighborhood than with the developer's proposed
project which was going to be a large number of residential buildings so we have and this
and this case is from 2024 it's very recent saying that the courts have recognized that the CA1
zoning is not just antiquated and obsolete but it's actually harmful to the to the surrounding
area into the commercial corridor because there would be cars going in and out quite a bit more
times during the day than than typically a residential dwelling where you leave and come
back uh maybe once um so uh and i'm going to uh pause call for um mr weinstein to to join us
they're weinstein
they're being promoted to panelists okay
yes hi uh can everyone hear me sir could you please state your name and spell for the stocks
Yeah, Ken Weinstein, K-E-N-W-E-I-N-S-T-E-I-N.
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Ken, before we go into your presentation, I just have a couple questions to ask you.
Were you listening to my testimony a short while ago?
I was.
Do you agree that it was true and accurate, and do you adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
So let's go to the schematics and the renderings so that you can kind of walk the zoning board
through what the design features are and why you chose certain design features.
Great. Well, first of all, yeah, my name is Ken Weinstein. I'm the president of Philly
office retail. I've been a real estate developer for 38 years now. Also, I am co-founder and chair
of the Mount Airy Business Improvement District and have renovated and restored dozens of
properties along Germantown Avenue over the last couple decades. And do you have a specific focus,
Mr. Weinstein, on preserving historic buildings and historic areas? Yeah, my company does mostly
adaptive reuse of buildings, many of them historic, just like the Santander Bank building.
In this case, we're doing ground-up construction, which is not our norm, but I believe strongly in
infilling properties in order to increase density along commercial corridors.
All right. Are you able to see the photo that is being displayed right now?
Okay. Let's have you walk us through these photos so you can indicate what are the important features that you want to bring to the board's attention.
Sure. Yeah, as you already said, Steve, we're proposing new ground-up construction of a three-story building on a currently unused parking lot next to the historic Santander Bank building.
After completion, it will be 10 residential condos, including two one-bedroom, four two-bedroom, and four three-bedroom units, and these will all be for sale in roughly $200,000 to $450,000 range, depending on market conditions.
There will also be a 900 square foot commercial space along Germantown Avenue in order to increase the vitality of Germantown Avenue.
of Germantown Avenue. That looks like in the pink area here, right? That is correct,
That looks like in the pink area here, right?
That is correct.
about around 900 square feet. In the rear we will have seven parking spots,
including the handicap spot as you can see. There will be elevators to the second and third floor
and we will not have a roof deck. There will also be a small basement for storage and utilities.
As Steve already said, there will be a total of six balconies, four in the rear and two in the front.
And we purposely did not put balconies on either side of the building in order to decrease the impact on neighbors.
We will be using the existing driveway and curb cuts along Germantown Avenue to enter the site, and then cars will exit the site on Pelham Road, again, where there's existing curb cuts.
so there will not be any additional curb cuts. Where the parking lot currently enters, we will
be removing that curb cut and therefore adding approximately two more parking spaces to the
street. In terms of landscaping, we'll be hiring a professional landscaper to design and implement
attractive low maintenance landscaping. We will be particularly focusing on the north side of the
building where there's a five foot setback between the building and the first house to the north
in order to create as much of a buffer as we can. We'll also be planting at least four new trees
and adding several planters to the site. In terms of security and lighting,
the property will include appropriate exterior lighting designed to enhance safety and
attractiveness while minimizing light spillover into neighboring properties. And in terms of the
trash and recycling that'll be stored in the rear of the property and picked up from a fully
enclosed area out of public view towards like I said towards the rear of the property.
Thank you. Can you comment on the on the facades and and the design that features that that are
meant to be compatible with the historic building next door?
Yeah, knowing that this sits between brick residential buildings and
limestone bank building, we purposely use decorative CMU to replicate the limestone
from the building and fiber cement board and also brick again to take in the
houses that exist to the north. The building we're designed is 34 feet high
which is less than 38 feet allowed and I believe CA1 or CMX2 which is what we
believe it should be. There will be some vinyl siding in the rear not visible from Germantown Avenue.
Can you comment on some of the concerns that were raised in the RCO meeting by some of the
near neighbors who were concerned about having something erected very close to their homes?
Yeah. We will certainly work with neighbors, and I've been in touch with them via email
to talk about it and talk about how to work together during construction,
and we will be as sensitive as possible during that. There was certainly concerns about parking,
But like I said, we're providing seven spots.
There is a zoning overlay along Germantown Avenue that requires three spaces per 10 units.
So we're actually supplying more than double of what's required by the zoning overlay.
And we also believe that some residents will be using public transit.
we there's two septa train stations within walking distance this site is 0.4 miles to
the carpenter lane train station and 0.7 miles to the stenton train station and then of course
and 0.7 miles to the Stenton train station and then of course it sits on the 23 bus line being
Germantown Avenue. There will also be two EV charging stations among the seven parking spaces.
If you didn't decide to build these condos and you decided to construct something that was
CA1 compatible, would the footprint and the dimensions be any different? Because there
were a few neighbors who were close by neighbors who thought that it seemed like any construction
of any building would be detrimental to them. Would there be any difference between a CA1
compatible building and the design that you're doing today? No, we're doing the five-foot
setbacks required on the sides of the property, as would be required in CA1. In addition, we're
actually have allowed for 17-foot setback in the rear, where there will be some open parking area.
So if anything, we're allowing for more setbacks than is required, is my understanding.
and just to confirm you're building this building lower than you could be entitled to build it
correct uh to be honest i don't know that for a fact but i know that there's been a lot of five
and six story buildings uh proposed and built along germantown avenue we purposely kept it at
three stories because i think that's uh much more fair to uh area residents
thank you i have no further questions um is that your case yes okay um unless the the board wants
to talk to our architects yeah well questions from the board and your architect will be available if
we need to talk okay questions from the board questions or comments from our attorney
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have a hand up from Laura. How many hands are up? I have one hand from
Laura Starachekis. Okay, why don't you bring her on? All right, they're allowed to speak.
hi there i'm not sure if you can see me or not hopefully i can't see you but we sure can hear
you could you try to put your as your video on um i don't actually have an option to
all right so why don't you do this why don't you state your name and spell for the stenographer
she left oh chair she's joining you as a panel oh hi how are you here i am hi hi there hi could
you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer sure it's laura l-a-u-r-a
starcheski s-t-a-r-e-c-h-e-s-k-i do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the tooth i do and laura are you a neighbor yes i'm a near neighbor please proceed
thank you so much um i really appreciate the opportunity to speak um and i appreciated the
presentation um i'm one of the near neighbors that uh helped to gather signatures for a petition
opposing this plan okay um what what were we collected 18 signatures and what we're asking
for is for the zoning board to continue with their denial or at least grant a continuance
so that the developer has some time to work with the near neighbors to address our concerns
i just noted as mr masters was scrolling through the materials that it looked like it was noted
that the immediately adjacent neighbors were in support of this project but we spoke to them and
they've signed our petition and they're not in support of the project so I just wanted to note
that um I also Laura let me ask you this so um you're you're saying you want time or you're
against the project you're not you're not against the project you just wants more time
what we are asking uh we're against the project we upload we oppose it as the plan is currently
Sorry if I'm not using the exact proper language.
No, no, no. That's fine. Thank you very much.
Okay. Does that help?
Yeah, that's fine. Yep.
Okay, great.
So I can just review what's in our petition that we submitted.
petition that we submitted um our concerns are well laura laura we have the petition
Our concerns are...
Well, Laura, we have...
oh great yeah so everyone yeah we have the petition okay great so our basic concerns are
you know we would like affordable units as part of this plan okay um parking is a major concern
i heard mr masters refer to an empty parking lot but if the bank building is going to become
a commercial space there's going to be another commercial space um a storefront space and we're
talking about uh 22 bedrooms i don't believe that seven parking lots is enough although i hear that
technically this is um this is meeting the requirement for parking uh parking's already an
issue and there are two daycares across the street on germantown there's no crosswalk it's just going
be a lot more traffic and everyone uh we spoke with who signed our petition was really concerned
about parking um another concern is just the is the concern is the concern in your letter
um this one isn't i don't think it's spelled out in the exact i don't think it's spelled out exactly
in this letter but um a couple of the near neighbors that we spoke to were really concerned
that this is this this proposed building is the only one on the block that would go right to the
sidewalk everything else is set back all the homes um all the way up uh to the in intersection i
believe with mount with mount pleasant um uh sorry with pleasant in germantown um so that's a that's
another concern is just that the design isn't actually in keeping with what's immediately
adjacent all right yeah all right all right um so thank you for taking all the time we appreciate
it um thank thank you i just have sorry i just have two other two other quick quick notes do
me a favor we we only usually give you a few minutes when you call in like this so why don't
you just go over it really quick for us is that okay i can i can definitely be quick i just want
a note that that everyone who signed this petition is a near neighbor so within 250 feet um and uh
of the the near neighbors that um mr masters and mr weinstein cited as signing who voted in favor
at the rco meeting nine of 12 of those are actually business tenants of mr weinstein and we are you
know people who actually live right adjacent to this property so we appreciate the attention to
the historic building and appreciate the need for housing we just are requesting some changes
to the plan thank you very much thank you so much right is there anyone else in the audience
no hands at the time planning commission amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive
plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the current ca1 commercial auto
oriented to cmx2 commercial mixed use the proposal would be allowed by right under the proposed
zoning as in character with the surrounding neighborhood the planning commission recommends
that the board grant their requested variances for multi-family household living in occupied area
okay um steve what we're going to do is we're going to vote this next wednesday at two o'clock
okay we're just going to talk about a little bit we heard a lot and you know we just want to digest
what we heard and we will vote for this tuesday wednesday at 2 p.m can i just have my um my client
respond to what the what the issues were and how steve how long do you not not sure no yeah yeah
um mr weinstein can you um can you comment on um some of the the issues that were raised by um
Ms. Stachewskies, I think that's how you pronounce her name.
Yeah, I heard parking and affordability, which are two issues we did discuss at length at the RCO.
Again, in terms of parking, we are providing double what's required in the zoning overlay for the district.
And then in terms of affordability, the economics of this project just doesn't work in terms of what it costs today to do new construction per square foot.
And I'm certainly in favor of more deeply affordable housing.
I am hoping to provide that in other communities in Philadelphia.
But at this location, the economics just doesn't work for deeply affordable housing.