Number 11, MI 2022, 003-159-3401 North 19th Street.
Number 13, MI 2022, 003-508-3345 North 19th Street.
Number 14, MI 2022, 002-176-3413 North 19th Street.
Number 15, MI 2022, 002-276-3415 North 19th Street.
Number 16, MI 2022, 002-819-3349 North 19th Street.
Number 18, MI 2022, 003-507-3351 North 19th Street.
And number 20, MI 2022-002-902-3347 North 19th Street.
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
She will be handling all nine cases.
There are letter of support from Upper North Neighbors Association and also Tioga United.
Thank you, Chairman. Rachel, R-A-C-H-A-E-L, Pritzker, P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R, 1521 Locust Street, Suite 605, Philadelphia, PA, 19102.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify the client and the relationship to the property?
Could you identify the client?
Yes, the client is Ramfilla Community 4 LLC, which is the owner of the property.
And Ishmael Sheed, our board secretary, has a few questions.
Good afternoon, Council.
Yes, you're breaking up a little bit, but I can hear what you're saying.
Okay, let me see if this is a little better.
Did you email all the exhibits and documents required, such as the proof of ownership, tax clearance, copy of refusal or referral, pictures or drawings of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
Did you meet with the RCO and do you have a letter?
yes to all thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you um so i'm going to try to
do this the best i can chairman it is uh nine lots as you mentioned so i'm going to try to do it
without confusing anyone right um i'm going to start with uh just going through the project as
a whole um and then we'll go through the individual lots and i'll have the architect go through so
So, as you mentioned, this is nine lots. They are somewhat contiguous. For the most part, they are directly adjacent with some staggered infill development sites as well, which I will go through.
There are nine lots for a total of 57 dwelling units with six parking spaces.
The project was originally proposed at 59 units with 10 parking spaces, but through conversations with the community to address some of the concerns, we have reduced it to 57 with six parking spaces.
The reduction in parking spaces actually helps eliminate a number of refusals that we obtained on the property, but also what it allowed for is a better mixture of one and two bedroom units on the site.
So I'm going to start with the corner, which is 3351 North 19th.
I'm just going to pull up documents.
This is 3351.
I'm going to share my screen.
can you see my screen yep we're good great
so i'm going to start with uh 3351 north 19th street uh we are proposing the site is zoned cmx2
It is kind of an island of as a commercial site by itself on a pretty thin lot.
The proposition for this lot is six dwelling units with no parking.
Originally, a parking space was provided, but we submitted revised plans that remove that given community feedback.
This proposal also does not include any ground space commercial, which is one of the refusals that we obtained for 3351 North 19th Street.
I'm going to bring up individually the refusal for this project.
share it on the screen
okay you're able to see that we can great so um as i mentioned one of the part one of the refusals
we obtained was for parking however that is now moot as we have removed that via revised plans
And the only refusal that we have is for, in CMX2, you have to have a ground floor commercial on 100% of the ground floor within the first 30 feet of the property.
As you can see from the aerial that we provided, this area is mainly vacant, a lot of vacant and blighted properties.
In addition to the fact that this is kind of a commercial island by itself, no other of the corners in any of the relative blocks require commercial.
And so we don't believe that a commercial space is viable here.
In fact, given there's no commercial on any directly adjacent corners, and this is not
a commercial corridor being on the corner of 19th and Ontario, it seems that the use
of the site as commercial mixed use is out of character given the rest of the neighborhood.
Literal enforcement of CMX2 would create an unnecessary hardship because there's really
no market for commercial at this location, having no active commercial uses located on any of the
four blocks that meet at the subject corners near the property. It is also substantially
It is also substantially invalid under constitutional jurisprudence because the parcel is the only parcel on this corner and within a full block radius that carries a commercial zoning designation.
invalid under constitutional jurisprudence because the
It is a zoning island evidenced by lack of connection between the designation and also was not going to interrupt the viable use of the property.
Being residential in a residential area will not affect the safety, well-being, welfare, health and safety of the community.
In addition, I think it's only 16 feet wide, if that. Once you put walls in, having any kind of commercial on this site would be quite limited as well, in addition to probably being vacant for a long time.
Again, this lot has also been vacant for, I think, at least since 1996, showing that there really should not have and will not be a viable commercial use at the site.
The rest of the site proposes multifamily, which is permitted by right under CMX2.
And again, once we remove the one parking space in accordance with the agreements with the community, we basically have a project by right all but for the random requirement of ground floor commercial in this mostly residential and vacant lot.
Counsel, out of curiosity, do you have a map that shows all nine together?
Yeah, we do.
I mean, it might be worthwhile to have that map up and just go from one to the other.
Why don't I do this?
I think that's a great suggestion, Chairman.
And why don't I do this?
Can Scott Woodruff, who's our architect, be called on as a panelist?
He can then assist me with maneuvering that as I go through the description.
Right.
That way I think everybody can see where the nine fit in.
Mr. Woodruff is coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
Do I need to be sworn in?
Yes, please.
State your name and spell for the court reporter.
Scott Woodruff, W-O-O-D-R-U-F-F.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
i do all right scott can you scott can you pull up the um full package maybe it's the cdr package
or the just the full package that we put together showing all the units i think it just
as the chairman suggests be easier to kind of show it that way and then i can go through each
one individually that's it that's it okay awesome
So, Rachel, you were talking about this property here.
Yeah. So, as you can see from the aerial, we have the corner at 51 through 45, so the four that go in right there on the corner of 19th and Ontario.
Then we have 34.01 to 05, which is the three on the other corner. We then have two 34.13 through 15.
And essentially, as I go through it, we're all proposing six and seven units on each site in separate buildings, but basically the same plan in order to sort of mimic the existing conditions of the block and try to do some infill development on the sites.
um back to the uh 3300 block um so besides that one corner being cmx2 the rest of the lots are
zone um rsa5 so if i go through 33 45 uh 47 and 49 um they basically are the same we're proposing
six units with zero parking spaces. And the refusals for those are now moot as they were
removed as an agreement with the community, again, to provide more two-bedroom units as well.
Basically, all these properties, for the most part on the 3,300 block, have been vacant since
1996. There are no records as to what they were before, but directly adjacent on the 3,400 block,
almost all of those properties were six-unit buildings, so the idea was to put back what was
there prior. These buildings have, this land has sat vacant for many decades, and we're again
putting back something that we believe is in line with the prior history, in addition to many of the
other adjacent properties are all multifamily properties. Given the size, shape, location,
and condition, and also market conditions, we're not required to show that the land is valueless,
However, we do, we can show and are prepared to explain that putting single family homes on blighted vacant lots that have been vacant for 40 years is not feasible in this market and hasn't obviously been feasible for the last couple of decades.
is not feasible in this market and hasn't obviously been feasible for the last couple of
decades. As a result, again, we're putting back something that was already there, six and seven
unit buildings. Again, the only refusals that we generate in the 33, 45, 47, 49 relate to
multifamily use and also some relate to the setbacks. Scott will go into why some of the
buildings are set back differently than the others, but those are typically a function of
what's directly adjacent to them, and also keeping them in line so that there is a contiguous flush
front for all these properties for lighting, security, and landscaping purposes. Happy to
go into the other side of the block, 3401 to 05. This side of the block is randomly zoned RSA 3,
although I don't know that there's anything substantially different between the two sides
the block just the zoning uh goes from down from four uh from five to three um and again yep
there we are that's a great that's a great area so as you can see this block is basically vacant
and what we're putting back is what's uh most in character with what's directly adjacent which is
basically six unit buildings um i just want to quickly mention um some of the additional uses
that are in line with what we are providing.
And then Scott, if you'll go through the different setbacks
and some of the dimensional refusals
that we generated as a result.
On the 3,400 block of the property,
34, 13, 34, 11, 09, 07, 03, and 01
were all six unit and five unit buildings.
since 1983, some earlier than that. As you can see, they've been demolished and nothing has
taken its place, but they do have a prior history of multifamily use. Additionally,
some of the existing buildings on the site, on the 3400 block, 15, 17, 19, 21,
and goes up to 34, 33, are all multifamily buildings since the early 40s and 30s,
And even a variance of property was granted three units in 2019, 3431 North 19th Street.
So there really is not a precedent of single family.
And we believe that part of the hardship is the economics of the area, in addition to
the prohibitive cost of building large single family homes in a neighborhood like this that
cannot necessarily support that use.
Again, trying to put back what was already there.
Additionally, again, we do have, we are generating some refusals for parking.
but in order to provide some parking spaces for the project in addition with collaboration with
the community that was something that we were okay with most of them which have been removed
from the revised plans. Other than that again it's really just kind of nine duplicates some
have parking some don't all to have exterior finishes that meet the neighborhood quality
and characteristics. In addition to the support that you have from the community groups, we also
have a community benefits agreement that we negotiated with the directly adjacent near
neighbors who I believe will speak on this call in order to accomplish some things that will
better the infrastructure for the neighborhood. So new sidewalks, lighting, bollards, so that
people are not parking on the curbs. There are some underpasses, as you can see from the, as you
have any lighting or security features and so we've worked with the neighbors and we'll continue to
to kind of just better the area around the site in hopes that some of the vacant lots and blighted
properties won't remain that way. I know the board is well aware of the challenges that we're facing
as a city related to security and public safety so it was important for us to incorporate some
of those benefits into this project as well. I'm kind of just going to pause there and allow Scott
to go through from an architectural perspective. And if you can highlight, Scott, any of the
dimensional considerations that we have for the site and then any of the changes that were made
from the inception of the project. Sure, not a problem at all. So again, based on our
our conversation here 19th street is here i can't hear you scott oh sorry is that any better
yes great um one of the big things that realizing the site uh is there is quite a big slope uh
that's kind of up on both these corners so that was one of the things that we dealt with in the
design um in that we're kind of coming down the hill through 19th street uh so there's a large
grading challenge here. Am I the only one that's not able to hear him? Yes. I can hear him.
Yes. I can hear. The court reporter can hear him.
Go ahead, Scott. Is that any better? You're low now.
Scott. Yep, I'm here. Okay, go ahead.
Looking through the site, these are some existing photographs, as Rachel mentioned, fairly vacant street frontage.
Here, we're looking down 19th Street.
Again, you can kind of see this large slope here as we're looking up.
On this one, we're looking at Ontario Street.
Again, looking through at this larger slope.
This is looking at that four-unit development along 19th Street, and this is really the face that we're starting to meet from a setback perspective, which we'll look at in the plans.
And again, this is on Ontario, looking towards the rear of the properties.
As we go down the block, a lot of inspiration was drawn from some of the architecture that you see here.
three-story stone buildings with mansard roofs and dormers.
Most of the block was this style of architecture.
So it was important that the development team
also said to incorporate that in the new design,
again, to kind of hold the character of the existing block,
the buildings that were on the existing block.
Again, that's that overpass that Rachel had mentioned previously.
And then again, you can kind of see this is a detached version, but kind of a three-story stone building with a man-side roof and dormers.
This is just a building massing, looking at all the different structures along the street.
They're all within the 38-feet height threshold that's permitted against all of the zoning districts.
And then there's also kind of the footprint that we're building within, which is in line characterily with the rest of the structures, as well as the zoning requirements.
And again, this is kind of the master plan, just looking at all the buildings.
And we'll look at each pack of these buildings kind of individually that they're doing.
So these four on the southern side of 19th Street, we had revised the plans.
We originally had parking kind of coming to rear on Ontario Street with one car parking in the rear of each one of these lots.
Through conversation with the RCO, we made changes to add some more two bedroom units to the development, which essentially had us take out some of the parking that was on each lot.
but now we have two large eight two-bedroom units on the ground floor and the second floor
and then we have two units on the third and fourth level really the second or third this
is kind of a walkout basement going through these next two and really these next three are very
similar we have two car parking kind of in the rear and then we have a flat unit proposed trash
with access through to the parking, lobby, mail area, and then two units for each floor.
Again, very similar. These are just small tweaks, as Rachel mentioned,
just depending on the orientations of the buildings themselves, but again, very similar in design.
these two down here again in a opportunity to change and add some more two-bedroom units
we added two two-bedroom flat units to each one of these to add those counts up so we ended up
with a total of over the whole development, over 20% two bedrooms, 54% one beds, and 24% studios
as a whole. This is just a site section looking at kind of the elevation changes
and some of the buildings stepping a little bit through the site.
proposed materials on the elevations proposing again this like kind of limestone look which is
fairly prevalent on the block kind of decorative bays and cornices that transition up to a man's
side roof and hardy plank siding that'll kind of be on the front of these and each one of these has
a little bit of a different flavor but also similar as you can see in aesthetics of the